sense.

hearers, even deferential to them, as when he says: "Indeed, I find that the speaker's power depends for the most part on the hearers; for according to your reception and favor it is that the wisdom of a speaker is esteemed." It is the same manner as that used by Cicero in his plea for Milo, and by Paul before Agrippa. It led him to breathe the popular breath, and made him keenly alert in regard to all the popular instincts and intuitions. He thus took the side not only of a common cause, but also of common It has been well remarked that he won his case against Æschines by an appeal to sheer comLearned material, profound philosophical matters, and nice technicalities would not fall within the range of common sense, at least they were not suited to the mass of his hearers; hence these things were rigorously ruled out. He had neither trivial nor recondite theories to propound; but matters of common hearsay, such as had been discussed in every household, these he fully recounted and thundered them from the bema, and they were quickly responded to in the thunders of popular applause.

mon sense.

The style of Demosthenes, including his diction, idiom, sentence-building, and general construction, also shows that, instinctively or intentionally, he welded together, in the language used, his own and the people's hearts. His speech was such as could be easily and perfectly understood by any one who could speak his language.6 He was certainly a master of Greek diction. In the speech before us

he employs at one moment the most elegant words, then the most forcible, then words commonest to the common ear, but in each instance words perfectly well understood.

In the structure of his sentences there is an almost endless variety, changes constant and captivating, like those of diversified landscapes, sentences soft as words can make them, and others harsh as the grating of a rusty hinge; phrasing, one moment sweet as music to the ear of the innocent, anon, like the knell of doom. There are sentences as abrupt as a clap of thunder; and others, gradually accumulating, rounding up to a head, then, when his auditors were breathless and paralyzed, bursting upon them with the rush and roar of a cataract. But in each instance a child could follow the sentence and understand it.

It was also this popular instinct that led him to lean in speech to the clear and strong rather than to the refined and beautiful. There were appeals made strong by their abruptness and informality; antitheses that were startling because quickly framed, each member of the sentence flooding the others with a blaze of light.

In this oration there can be discovered no overwrought ornamentation, no extended figures of rhetoric, and nothing for display. We pass page after page before even a metaphor or simile appears; and when at length oratorical warmth demands something of the kind, he wraps up figures and paints pictures in single words. Indeed his oration

is entirely free from the fine, the flighty, and the grandiloquent. He even descended a little at times. in order to use words that were familiar on the street and in the market-place. For he well knew, as Professor Shepard says, "that the words which are oftenest in the people's mouths go quickest and deepest into the people's ears and hearts." But these descents were always found in good rhetorical and oratorical company, and are employed to make the good company appear all the better. He descended and then quickly arose to a luminous grandeur and magnificence of style.

Third, he sought to appear unselfish and modest. Though his entire oration was a personal and selfdefensive one, still, matters were so presented that he seemed all the while to plead not for himself but for others. With masterly skill he so identified himself with the safety and glory of Athens, and so lifted Athenian history into view, that all personal interests and ambitions disappeared from sight. As one of his reviewers has remarked: "Where he lauded his own acts most strongly, he identified them with the glories of his country. Whatever good results might have accrued from his measures, he ascribed the merit less to himself than to the fortune of Athens, or to the gods, of whom he was but the humble instrument in a righteous cause."

Unselfishness and modesty in bearing and expression, whether natural or the result of art, have never shown to better advantage. Apparently Demosthenes would not let the world know that he had

ever lived, nor let his right hand know what his left had been doing; and if this is art, then art in this oration is carried to the pitch of perfection.

He began his speech by regretting that he was compelled to submit to the unpleasant task of speaking of himself and his actions. He timidly shrank from the charge of egotism, to which his defence of his public measures exposed him. But with the next breath he turned this embarrassment to the discomfiture of his antagonist. Indeed, he cast the full blame of being compelled to speak of himself upon the man who, by the terms of the impeachment, had forced him to adopt this exceedingly unpleasant course.

The fourth and last point in our enumeration of the principles underlying the construction of this oration, is this: Demosthenes sought so to manage all the facts involved that they would place in the worst possible light his antagonist. There were certain facts involved in this case which, unless presented in a favorable light, would greatly damage the reputation of Demosthenes. Eschines had forcibly employed them in support of the prosecution. Against these facts Demosthenes presented no objections. He acknowledged them, restated and emphasized them.

For instance, he acknowledged, and even strongly impressed upon his hearers, the ill-luck of Athens; but subsequently showed that misfortunes often come to the best of people. He argued that men are finite; that the gods are infinite, that they have

ordered events, and that he (Demosthenes), as a man, should not, for what the gods have determined, be held responsible.

He then showed that no Athenian, at the time of those misfortunes, proposed any other course; and, further, that since that time no one had been able to propose any other course, except submission to Philip, and that would be treason. He then reached his conclusion: since nobody did propose any other course, and since nobody can now propose any other course, the man who in the present hour comes forward to find fault is "a miserable croaker." This point, and others like it, were so well made, the representations were so cogent, palpable, and self-evident, that the common sense of the auditors responded and fully exonerated Demosthenes in all he had done.

For the purpose of illustrating more fully the method and style of this oration, we invite the student's attention to several quotations. The following instances are illustrations of rhythm and music in sentence-building:

"While the statesmen of Greece were all corrupted by Philip, over me, neither opportunity, nor fair speeches, nor lavish promises, nor hopes, nor fears, nor fame, nor any other earthly consideration, ever prevailed, seducing or driving me to betray, in any one particular, what I deemed the rights and interests of my country." 7

Here is a similar instance:

"7

"This and more to the like effect I spoke, and left the platform. It was approved by all; not a word was said