DEMOSTHENES N EARLY twenty-three centuries ago, about 384 в. с., three men were born who, each in his own way, had a large share in affecting the history of the worldAristotle, Philip, and Demosthenes. These were lovers of conquest. Aristotle, the philosopher, gave himself to the conquest of science; Philip, the soldier, to the conquest of empire; Demosthenes, the orator, to the conquest of eloquence, the power of persuasion, in behalf of liberty, in dependence, for all the Greeks, with his beloved Athens in the van. Aristotle kept on with his intellectual pursuits, paying no attention to his two illustrious contemporaries, ending his life in 322 B. c., the same year in which Demosthenes closed his wonderful career. But between the other two there was open and prolonged war. soldier and the orator fought to the end-the soldier for empire, the orator for freedom. The soldier was too strong, and in 338 B. c., on the fatal field of Chæronea, Grecian liberty expired. The The parents of Demosthenes were Demosthenes and Cleobule. The father was a wealthy, respectable citizen of Athens, proprietor of two factories, for cutlery and for cabinet-making, in which about fifty slaves were employed. He also had a valuable house and money at interest. The mother was an heiress of some wealth, and rejoiced in the possession of jewelry. Thus the son was born in affluence, lived in respectable society, and had a very enjoyable outlook. However, when the son was about seven years old the father died, leaving considerable property in the hands of three of his friends-two of whom were his nephewsas trustees, till the son should reach his majority. The early loss of his father was the first blow of adversity. Another was to come. At the end of his minority, requiring of his guardians an account, he discovered that a very large part of his handsome patrimony had disappeared. And, burning under a sense of wrong, outraged at the shameful injustice and robbery of his guardians, overwhelmed by the prospect of financial ruin, with characteristic energy and promptness he brought suit for recovery, conducted the case himself, and gained a verdict. After all, he recovered very little of his property, and entered upon his young manhood poor instead of rich, having learned from bitter experience what he never forgets the sharp and lasting distinction between right and wrong, honour and dishonour. Perhaps he finds a little consolation. He has attracted attention along the line he has chosen for his life work. He has entered the oratorical arena made glorious by Lysias, Isocrates, and Isæus. The first problem before Demosthenes at this juncture was daily support. There was in Athens a very lucrative business-that of writing speeches for clients to deliver in private suits. He became a speech-writer and made money, and this income he supplemented by appearing in the courts himself as an advocate. He was now a promising young lawyer. But he was confronted by a more serious problem. Even in his boyhood he had felt the stirrings of his soul to be among the orators, and this was his ruling passion, his inspiring ambition. The time has come to force the issue, and at the very outset he realizes the difficulties in his way. His personal appearance is not attractive, his gestures are ungainly, his constitution is feeble, his lungs are weak, his tongue stammers. All this he knows no one knows it better-but he begins. Although his first efforts before the assembled people were utter failures, he did not lose heart. It is said that he declaimed by the shore of the loud-sounding sea, with pebbles in his mouth; ran uphill, expanding his lungs; practised before a mirror, with a sword hanging over the refractory shoulder; retired, with his head half shaved, to a cave where he read and re-read, copied and recopied the history of Thucydides, and studied the orators; and lay on a hard bed that he might be up early. Such are the stories, invented or true, current among the people who observed his invincible will and his superhuman labours to accomplish the one object that he kept ever in view. His personal defects; his bitter disappointment in finding himself a pauper; his first failures, followed by the ridicule of the critical Athenians; his unpopularity, due to his severity of speech in dealing with his treacherous guardians, for they had friends; his wretched experience with Midias, a wealthy and powerful enemy; his reproach in the popular mind for not being of pure Athenian blood, his grandmother on the mother's side being, as was said, a wealthy Scythian-all these things look like ill fortune enough to crush any man, crowding on him like "lions from the swellings of Jordan" at the very threshold of manhood. But were not these manifold tribulations blessings in disguise? Were they not the hammer and the chisel of the unseen artist cutting away till his character and his genius appeared clear to his delighted eyes, revealing to him the necessity, the blessing, and the dignity of labour, self-reliance, and self-reverence, and at the same time a consciousness of power-power to overcome his harassing environment, power to make good fortune take the place of ill fortune? Did not the "dura necessitas" that made Horace write verses help the soul of Demosthenes to "spurn delights and live laborious days," that he might win honour and distinction, and become an orator and statesman worthy of Athens and for the good of Athens? It is said that in his boyhood, while he was still drawing on his guardians for funds, he was extravagant and fond of luxury. If this is true, and if he had not lost his fortune, and if he had had the fine physique, splendid presence, strong voice, ready tongue, and facile conscience of his great enemy and rival, Æschines, it is safe to doubt that Greece and the world would have had the great orator and statesman to be so proud of. Along with the burning desire of Demosthenes to be an orator was soon discovered a soul-felt purpose to benefit his countrymen, to be a patriot. In striving to be an orator he did not forget that he had a moral responsibility, that he must live for the good of his country. So he very easily, and with determination, but with a different method, followed the footsteps of his illustrious predecessor, Socrates, the reformer. Socrates reformed the people one by one in his daily conversations. Demosthenes mounted the bema, working on the masses. Socrates talked; Demosthenes was an orator. Both laboured to make of the Athenians better citizens and better men. The spirit of the reformer appears in a series of public prosecutions of such men as Androtion, Aristocrates, and Leptines, who had proposed illegal measures, and measures tending to demoralize the community and destroy its good name. Of these speeches the most interesting is that against Leptines, author of a law that struck at one of the time-honoured institutions of Athens, allowing certain immunities from public burdens to the families of those who had done signal and valuable service, in order to encourage and foster patriotic and self-sacrificing devotion to the state. Demosthenes shows the weakness, folly, futility, and ruinous consequences of the law in a speech that is quiet but |