SP5191 you CSC: Co AN the cafe, then there is nothing but flavery for you. For there is no other medium, if we neglect on the "one hand to repel violence; and, on the other, the Сс enemy will not grant us a truce. Our danger too differs very much from that of the other Greeks; <c for Philip will not be barely fatisfied with enflaving "Athens, he will deftroy it; for he knows very well you will never fubmit to flavery; and that, though ICC you would do this, you never could, for command and authority are habitual to you; and befides, you "will be capable of giving him more trouble and oppofition than all the reft of the Greeks united, "whenever you fhall think fit to lay hold of any oc CC icc ec cafion to throw off the yoke. It must then be laid "down as a certain maxim, that our whole fortune is at stake, and that you cannot too much abhor the "mercenaries who have fold themselves to this man; "for it is not poffible, no it is not, to vanquish your "foreign enemies, till you have chaftifed your domef"tic foes, who are his penfioners; fo that, whilft you "will bulge against thofe as against fo many rocks, you will never attempt to act against the others, till "it be too late. « FROM THE THIRD PHILIPPIC. "Make this reflection, I beseech you: you think "the privilege of faying any thing is fo inherent in « every man who breathes the air of Athens, that you "fuffer foreigners and flaves to deliver their thoughts « on every fubject; infomuch that fervants are here "indulged a greater liberty in that particular than ci"tizens in fome other commonwealths. 'Tis from "the Roftra only, that the freedom of fpeech is de«nied. Hence it is that you are grown fo unac"countably haughty in your affemblies, and fo diffi"cult to be pleafed. You would always be flattered "in them, and hear nothing but what fooths you: ❝and 'tis this pride and delicacy have brought you 1 "to the brink of deftruction. If then you remain eftill in the fame difpofition, I have nothing to do << but to be filent. But if you can prevail with your"selves to listen to what is for your advantage with❝out flattery, I am ready to fpeak. For notwith66 ftanding the deplorable condition of our affairs, "and the feveral loffes we have sustained through our "neglect, they yet may be retrieved, provided you determine to act as you ought in duty. "You know, that whatever the Greeks fuffered "from the Lacedæmonians or from us, they fuffered by those who were Greeks as well as themfelves; "fo that we may compare our faults to thofe of a "fon, who being born in a rich family, fhould err "against fome maxim of good œconomy. Such a "fon would juftly deferve the reproachful name of a " fquanderer; but it could not be juftly afferted, that " he had feized upon another man's right, or that he "was not the lawful heir. But if a flave, or a fuppo"fititious child would feize an eftate he had no man<< ner of title to, juft heavens! would not fuch an " enormity raise the whole world against him? and "would not they cry out with one voice, that it de"served exemplary punishment? But we do not con"fider Philip and his prefent conduct in that light. "Philip, who, befides his not being a Greek, is no cc ways allied to the Greeks by any kind of relation, " and is not distinguished even amongst the Barbarians "by any thing but his being denominated from the " contemptible place whence he comes; and being a "wretched Macedonian by his birth, came into the "world in a corner whence we never buy even a good "flave. Notwithstanding this, does he not treat you "with the utmoft indignity? Is it not arrived at it's С، highest pitch? Not content, &c." The Extracts which follow, being taken from the orations of Æfchines and Demoithenes de Corona, it will be neceffary to give the reader fome idea of the fubject. This Cicero informs us of in his preamble to those two orations, when he tranflated them; and this is the only fragment now remaining of that excellent work. Demofthenes was entrusted with the care of repairing the walls of Athens, which he accomplished with great honour and reputation, having contributed a great deal of his own fortune towards it. Ctefiphon decreed a crown of gold to him on that account; propofed it fhould be presented in the open theatre in a general affembly of the people; and that the herald fhould proclaim it was to reward the zeal and probity of that orator.. Æfchines accufed Ctefiphon, as having violated the laws by that decree " So ex"traordinary a conteft raised the curiofity of all "Greece: people ran from all parts, and with rea"fon too. What finer fight than to fee two ora"tors contending, each excelling in his own way ; "formed by nature, made perfect by art, and be"fides animated with a perfonal enmity to each other. EXTRACTS OF ESCHINES'S HARANGUE. Æfchines, after having represented in the beginning of the exordium, the irregularities introduced in the commonwealth, and their pernicious tendency, proceeds thus. "In fuch a fituation of affairs, and in fuch dif"orders, of which you yourselves are fenfible; the only "method of faving the wrecks of the government, " is, if I mistake not, to allow full liberty to accufe "thofe who have invaded your laws. But if you shut "them up, or fuffer others to do this, I prophefy "that you will fall infenfibly, and that very foon, un"der a tyrannical power. For you know, gentlemen, that government is divided into three kinds; 66 Ad hoc judicium concurfus dicitur è tota Gracia factus effe. Quid enim aut tam vifendum, aut tam audiendum fuit, quàm fum morum oratorum in graviffima cau- "Monarchy, 66. 66 66 66 "Monarchy, Oligarchy and Democracy. As to the two former, they are governed at the will and plea"fure of those who reign in either; whereas efta"blished laws, only, reign in a popular state. That 66 none of you therefore may be ignorant, but, on the ❝contrary, that every one may be entirely affured "that the day he afcends the feat of juftice, to ex"amine an accufation upon the invafion of the laws, "that very day he goes to give judgment upon his own independence. And indeed, the legiflator who "is convinced, that a free ftate can fupport itself no longer than the laws govern, takes particular care to prescribe this form of an oath to judges, I will judge according to the laws. The remembrance "therefore of this, being deeply implanted in your minds, must inspire you with a just abhorrence of any perfons whatsoever who dare tranfgrefs them by "rafh decrees; and that far from ever looking upon a "tranfgreffion of this kind, as a small fault, you always confider it as an enormous and capital crime. "Do not fuffer then, any one to make you depart from fo wife a principle. . . . But as, in the army, 66 every one of you would be afhamed to quit the poft "affigned him by the general; fo let every one of you "be this day afhamed to abandon the poft, which the "laws have given you in the commonwealth. What poft? that of protectors of the government. 66 66 66 This comparison, which is very beautiful and noble in itself, has a peculiar grace in this place, presenting, as it were, two faces to us; for at the fame time that it affects the judges, it reflects ftrongly on Demofthenes's cowardice, against whom it points a fatyrical ftroke, which is the more delicate and malicious, the more remote it seems to be from all affectation. It is well known that he had abandoned his poft and fled at the battle of Cheronea. This judicious obfervation was made by M. Tourreil. 66 66 66 "Muft we, in your perfon (addreffing him felf to "Demofthenes) crown the author of the publick ca 61 lamities, 13 "lamities, or muft we deftroy him? And indeed, "what unexpected revolutions, what unthought of "catastrophes have we not feen in our days? The "King of Perfia, that King who opened a paffage "through mount Athos; who bound the Hellefpont in chains, who was fo imperious as to command the "Greeks to acknowledge him fovereign both of fea "and land; who in his letters and dispatches prefumed 66 to ftile himself the fovereign of the world from the "rifing to the setting of the fun'; and who fights now, « not to rule over the reft of mankind, but to fave his " own life. Do not we see those very men, who fig*nalized their zeal in the relief of Delphos, invefted "both with the glory, for which that powerful King was once fo confpicuous, and with the title of chief ❝of the Greeks against him? As to Thebes, which "borders upon Attica, have we not seen it disappear "in one day from the midst of Greece? .... And "with regard to the unhappy Lacedæmonians, what << calamities have not befallen them only for taking "but a small part of the fpoils of the temple; they who ❝ formerly affumed a fuperiority over Greece,are they «not now going to fend ambaffadors to Alexander's "C 66 ec court, to bear the name of hoftages in his train, to ❝become a fpectacle of mifery; to bow the knee be"fore the Monarch, fubmit themselves and their country to his mercy; and receive fuch laws as a conqueror, a conqueror they attacked firft, fhall think "fit to prescribe them? Athens itself, the common "refuge of the Greeks; Athens formerly peopled with "ambaffadors, who flocked to claim its almighty pro«tection, is not this city now obliged to fight, not to "obtain a fuperiority over the Greeks, but to preferve "itself from deftruction? Such are the misfortunes which Demofthenes has brought upon us, fince his intermeddling with the adminiftration. "But you, who of all men are the moft unfit to fig«nalize yourselves by great and memorable actions, "and at the fame time the fittest to diftinguish your ba ❝ felves |
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