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paired with him in foil and contrast somewhat as with Cicero was Hortensius, as with Webster, Hayne, flourished the orator Æschines. Very evenly matched in oratoric excellence seem the two great orations, pitted against each other still, in their now silent but never-to-be-pacified contention and rivalrythe two acknowledged masterpieces, we mean, respectively of Eschines and of Demosthenes. It is even easy to imagine the chance that should have inverted their actual relative rank in fame. Had but Æschines happened to get the majority of votes instead of Demosthenes, how know we that the literature of subsequent appreciation and criticism would not, with apparent success, have exerted itself to show good reason why such an issue of the trial was according to the respective merits of the men and the orators? It is the commander who wins the battle, it is the orator who carries the day-in short, it is success, rather than desert of successthat men in general have the habit of crowning.

But we agree that Demosthenes was in truth the greater orator. To clinch the conclusion, there is that fine story of Æschines which every body knows. Eschines, failing to receive in his suit one fifth part of the votes, felt obliged to leave Athens. He took up at Rhodes the occupation of a teacher of oratory. He there read to his pupils the oration against himself of his rival and conqueror. When his pupils applauded, Æschines exclaimed, "But you should have heard the rascal deliver it himself!" The generosity of this trait in Æschines wins on us irresistibly in behalf of the man that displayed it.

Still Æschines does show at disadvantage in contrast with Demosthenes. There is in Demosthenes more moral height, more genuineness-certainly not more artifice, but more art; for Demosthenes was an orator by art. Stormy we call him, and stormy he was, but he stormed by rule and not by caprice. His passion was deep enough and strong enough and earnest enough to submit to be regulated. It was not

heady. It did not indulge itself. It obeyed necessary lawit served its chosen end.

The greatest orator in the world forms a nearly ideal example of what self-culture can do against serious obstacles from nature. Demosthenes was no doubt a man of magnificent mental gifts, but no less was he a man of magnificent will.

As if to make the example thus supplied in Demosthenes complete by contrast, it happened that against Demosthenes was matched in rivalry a man in whom every natural qualification of the orator existed and was carried to its height. Eschines was born an orator. He had a voice like the voice of a herald. Grace and majesty modulated his gesture. Words came to him like affectionate lieges trooping to a king. Yet the orator made outdid the orator born. Demosthenes

was greater than Æschines.

But, mark, eloquence with Demosthenes was an art of getting his hearers' votes, not an art of getting his hearers' praise. You must not look for passages of "fine writing" in the speeches of Demosthenes. His speeches are practical, not poetical. There are no ambitious rhetorical climaxes in them which the audience could, by a round of applause, pay the orator for his trouble in building. You would as soon think of an American jury's applauding the lawyer that was addressing them as think of the Athenian assembly's applauding Demosthenes. The indignant orator would tell them, Spare your cheers while I am speaking, and give me your votes when I have done.

The speeches that remain of Demosthenes are of two sorts -private and public, or judicial and political; for Demosthenes was a lawyer as well as a statesman. As lawyer he wrote, for clients engaged in litigations, speeches which those clients were supposed to deliver for themselves before the court. These speeches he sought to make suit the condition, the circumstances, the character, of the men who were to use them. It would not be wise for us here to reproduce any

of the private orations of Demosthenes. Of Demothenes's public orations, those against Philip of Macedon-existing in two series, one called Olynthiacs and another Philippicsand in addition to these, the Oration on the Crown, so-called, are the most celebrated. The oration last mentioned is, at least by popular fame, the masterpiece of Demosthenes.

Let us begin with an extract, brief it must be-the whole oration is brief-from what Mr. Grote pronounces "one of the most splendid harangues ever uttered," namely, the third Olynthiac oration of Demosthenes.

This oration is so styled from its being about Olynthus, a city threatened by Philip, and seeking from the Athenians succor against him-succor that Demosthenes was anxious the Athenians should send. We condense from a point nearly midway of the oration:

Is there not a man among you, Athenians, who reflects by what steps Philip, from a beginning so inconsiderable, has mounted to this height of power? First, he took Am-phip'o-lis; then he became master of Pydna; then Pot-i-dæ'a fell; then Me-tho'ne; then came his inroad into Thessaly; after this, having disposed affairs at Phe'ræ, at Pag'a-sæ, at Magnesia, entirely as he pleased, he marched into Thrace. Here, while engaged in expelling some and establishing other princes, he fell sick. Again recovering, he never turned a moment from his course to ease and indulgence, but instantly attacked the Olynthians. His expeditions against the Illyrians, the Pæonians, against A-rym'bas, I pass all over. But I may be asked, Why this recital now? That you may know and see your own error, in ever neglecting some part of your affairs, as if beneath your regard, and that active spirit with which Philip pursues his designs; which ever fires him, and which never can permit him to rest satisfied with those things he has already accomplished. If, then, he determines firmly and invariably to pursue his conquests, and if we are obstinately resolved against every vigorous and effectual measure, think what consequences may we expect!

To censure, some one may tell me, is easy and in the power of every man; but the true counselor should point out that conduct which the present exigence demands. Sensible as I am, Athenians, that when your expectations have in any instance been disappointed, your resentment frequently falls not on those who merit it, but on him who has

spoken last; yet I cannot, from a regard to my own safety, suppress what I deem of moment to lay before you. I say, then, this occasion calls for a twofold armament. First, we are to defend the cities of the Olynthians, and for this purpose to detach a body of forces; in the next place, in order to infest his kingdom, we are to send out our navy manned with other levies. If you neglect either of these, I fear your expedition will be fruitless. For if you content yourselves with infesting his dominions, this he will endure, until he is master of Olynthus; and then he can, with ease, repel the invasion; or, if you only send succors to the Olynthians, where he sees his own kingdom free from danger, he will apply with constancy and vigilance to the war, and at length weary out the besieged to a submission. Your levies, therefore, must be considerable enough to serve both purposes. These are my sentiments with respect to our armament.

This, too, demands your attention,. Athenians! that you are now to determine whether it be most expedient to carry the war into his country, or to fight him here. If Olynthus be defended, Macedon will be the seat of war, you may harass his kingdom, and enjoy your own territories free from apprehensions. But should that nation be subdued by Philip, who will oppose his marching hither? Will the Thebans? Let it not be thought severe when I affirm that they will join readily in the invasion. Will the Phocians? a people scarcely able to defend their own country without your assistance. Will any others? But, sir, cries some one, he would make no such attempt. This would be the greatest of absurdities, not to execute those threats, when he has full power, which, now when they appear so idle and extravagant, he yet dares to utter. And I think you are not yet to learn how great would be the difference between our engaging him here, and there. Were we to be only thirty days abroad, and to draw all the necessaries of the camp from our own lands, even were there no enemy to ravage them, the damage would, in my opinion, amount to more than the whole expense of the late war. Add then the presence of an enemy, and how greatly must the calamity be increased? but farther, add the infamy, and to those who judge rightly, no distress can be more grievous than the scandal of misconduct.

The translation (Leland's) is fairly good, but no rendering in English could possibly do justice to the incomparable original. Every sentence in Demosthenes lives as if it were animated with an independent life of its own. The balance

of member against member, the epigrammatic point, the condensation as of liquid made solid under pressure-the nerve, the vigor, the movement, the inimitable art of arrangement, the carefully happy choice of words, the rhythm, the harmony, the growth, the culmination, the close-like the blow perhaps of a mace, or like the breaking of a breaker rolling in on the beach-all this is of Demosthenes, and Demosthenes is lost when you lose it, as lose it you must in translation.

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'Philippic" is a word in common English use to denote a piece of violent invective. Emphatically such was indeed the spirit of Cicero's speeches against Antony, called, in imitation of the Greek, Philippics. The different character of the Philippics of Demosthenes is very well seen in the foregoing specimen. There is in some of them more energy of personal abuse directed against Philip. But mere brute denunciation is by no means the staple of these remarkable speeches of Demosthenes. The one note on which all of them alike are keyed is, March against Philip! As to the particular measure of support, in this crisis, for Olynthus, Demosthenes was but moderately successful in persuading his countrymen. A few mercenary troops first were sent to the aid of the distressed city, and then at last—too late-a body of Athenian soldiers. Olynthus was destroyed, and there was no breakwater left between the rising Macedonian tide of conquest and Athens. Demosthenes still fought Philip, might and main. But that rising tide was too strong for him. It was helped by the stars in their courses. It swept over Athens, and Athens was free and great no more. The Oration on the Crown is named from its object. Its object was the vindicating for himself by Demosthenes of his just title by merit to receive a civic crown, proposed for him, from the hands of his Athenian fellow-citizens. The proposal was made in a decree moved by the orator's friend, Ctesiphon (Tess). Eschines stood forward and opposed the measure. But he did not attack Demosthenes directly. He

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