[75]
Not only is he
lost to shame when money is in question, but he is so dull-witted that he cannot
see that crowns are a symbol of merit, but saucers and the like only of wealth;
that every crown, how ever small, implies the same regard for honor as if it
were large. that drinking-cups and censers, if very numerous, attach to their
owners a sort of reputation for wealth, but that, if a man takes pride in
trifles, instead of winning some honor by them, he is disdained as a man of
vulgar tastes. This man, then, has destroyed the possessions of honor, and made
the possessions of wealth mean and unworthy of your dignity.
Demosthenes. Demosthenes with an English translation by A. T. Murray, Ph.D., LL.D. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1939.
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