The epistles of Phalaris translated into English from the original Greek by S. Whately ... ; to which is added Sir W. Temple's Character of the epistles of Phalaris ; together with an appendix of some other epistles lately discovered in a French ms.

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Title: The epistles of Phalaris translated into English from the original Greek by S. Whately ... ; to which is added Sir W. Temple's Character of the epistles of Phalaris ; together with an appendix of some other epistles lately discovered in a French ms.
Author: Phalaris, Tyrant of Agrigentum, 6th cent. B.C.
Publication: London :: Printed by Fr. Leach ... for the author,; 1699.
Rights/Permissions: To the extent possible under law, the Text Creation Partnership has waived all copyright and related or neighboring rights to this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above, according to the terms of the CC0 1.0 Public Domain Dedication (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/). This waiver does not extend to any page images or other supplementary files associated with this work, which may be protected by copyright or other license restrictions. Please go to http://www.textcreationpartnership.org/ for more information.
Link to this Item: http://name.umdl.umich.edu/A54647.0001.001
Cite this Item: "The epistles of Phalaris translated into English from the original Greek by S. Whately ... ; to which is added Sir W. Temple's Character of the epistles of Phalaris ; together with an appendix of some other epistles lately discovered in a French ms." In the digital collection Early English Books Online. https://name.umdl.umich.edu/A54647.0001.001. University of Michigan Library Digital Collections. Accessed June 12, 2024.

Pages

Page 80

Ep. 81. To the Ennaeans.

Ep. 137, 148.

DO not think that I write this to you O ye Ennaeans, as if I repented of my having forgiven you the Moneys you owed me; but that by making you force Periander to give in his Accounts, you may enjoy the Benefit of my Grant. For that your City was not in* 1.1 Reality unable to pay her Debts, but only made use of that pretence to defraud her Cre∣ditors, I must take for granted, if what you gave out concerning Periander's ha∣ving Defrauded the Publick prove a false Accusation, and you are not able to make good your Charge against him For 'tis a thing Inconsistent that the same persons should appear one while like Bankrupts, with Petitions in their hands, craving Forbearance▪ and Pleading their Pover∣ty; and yet that at the same time, as if they had More Money than they knew what to do with, they should stand still, and see Cheats running away with the Publick Cash, without so much as offer∣ing to stop them. You ought either to be Rich to your Creditors, or Poor to your Devourers. But if you can afford

Page 81

to pay your Creditors their own, as if you had not wherewithal to do it: then in the First place (which an Honest man would in the first place consider) you are manifestly Unjust, and grossly im∣pose upon the Good nature of your Friends, who, though they may be wil∣ling to be Kind to you, yet cannot de∣sign to be Abused by you: and in the Next, 'tis much more Reasonable, that (since be it which way it will you are ne∣ver the better by it) you should pay your Just Debts, and let every one have his own again; than that Phalaris, in consideration of your Necessities, having freely forgiven your Debt, Periander should fairly come and Take up all that Phalaris Laid down. One of these two therefore you must Resolve upon; either to Recover your own Rights, and there∣by at the same time to Confirm to your selves my Grant: or if you are so Able to lose your Own Money, then you must Resolve to pay me Mine.

Notes

* 1.1

'Tis true the Lection of my Copy gives a just sense but I should rather read the Text thus; 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉.

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