On the Olive Stump (11-15)

Witnesses

For in every case such acts are done, not for mere mischief, but for profit; and that is the proper direction for your inquiry, and the prosecution should make that the basis of their accusation, by showing what benefit accrued to the wrongdoers.

Yet this man is quite unable to show either that I was compelled by poverty to venture on such an act, or that the plot was declining in value to me while the stump existed, or that it was obstructing vines or close to a building, or that I was unapprised of the dangers awaiting me in your court.

And if I had attempted anything of the kind, I should be openly exposed as having incurred many severe penalties for in the first place, it was daylight when I uprooted the stump,—as though I had not to do it unseen by all, but must let all the Athenians know! If the act had been merely disgraceful, one might perhaps have disregarded the passers-by; but the case was one of my risking, not disgrace, but the severest penalty.