2. Yet it would be most unreasonable of all, if,
while we refuse to regard it as a righteous thing to defraud, insult,
accuse, or treat unjustly in any way, great or small, those who are our
kindred, and consider wrong done to those nearest to us the worst of
all; we were yet to imagine that it would be an act of justice to
deprive them of such an oration as is due most of all to the good, and
spend more words upon those who are evil, and beg for indulgent treatment, than on those who are
excellent and merely claim their due. For if we are not
prevented, as would be far more just, from praising men who have lived
outside our own circle, because we do not know and cannot personally
testify to their merits, shall we be prevented from praising those whom
we do know, because of our friendship, or the envy of the multitude,
and especially those who have departed hence, whom it is too late to
ingratiate ourselves with, since they have escaped, amongst all other
things, from the reach of praise or blame.