, 1896-11-14

and lntermingled with the thread o
the DISCOURSE, until he seems to be al
ry4ns on many separate processes O
reasoning and imparoing his convic.
tons On each point to his audience. i
that style is best which secures tn,
greatest economy of attention, ther
Demos,henes had reached perfection.
His ant5.heSeS are rhost effective ana
his form of expression seems to be a
favorite with him. Each limb of The
dntithesS illumines the other. Very
early in the speech he develops a telling
antl.hesis with which he buffets
Aeschines with sounding blows: You
say that | am silent when | get my
bride. clamorous when | have spent it,
iouG' case is different: you are clamor-
1IS when you receive your bribe: and
your clamors never cease"
In fact, much OF the Grafton is an
antithesis between Demosthenes and
Aesch.nes. In one passage the antago-
nist.c parallelism is avowed and long
NSiti Na'h 'IduSt ttlllILS llht Il
KNIFE: Then take the whole of your
course of life. Aeschines, and of mine:
compare them without heat or acri-
mCny. You attended on your scholars:
| was myself a scholar. You served in
the limitations; ! was initiated. You
were a performer in our public enter
tainments; | was the director. You
took notes of speeches; | was aspeaker.
You were a third-rate actor: | was a
spectator. You failed in your part; |
Kissed you" And so Demosthenes con-
tinues with a shower, ever a tornado of
antithesis. That incisive figure gets a
th~ousand-fold its iormer sharpness
from its use by De~mosthenes.
Many of the strongest arguments are
in he form OF a dilemma, flashed for a
moment On the audience and then
withdrawn. so thai their binding glare
may burn into the memory. The di-
lemma is certainly the most economical
argument for popular oratory. See how
he impales Aeschines on the horns of
these alternatives: If you. Aeschines.
were the OILY man among us who fore
saw chat Philip would be victorious il
battle), it was your duty to have fore
told II to your countrymen: if you did
not foresee it, YOU are as accountable
Tor your ignorance as any other citizen.
What better right. then, have you to
urge this as a crime against me than
! to accuse you OF the same OCCASION
He is accomplished in every turn of
expression of which language is p
Bile and often resorts to climax of
words and ideas. AT one point he eN-
claims: And thus the
| concerted. the conduct pursued,
not only saved the. Chersonesus
and Byzantium, not only foiled the
Macedonian in his schemes of COM
manding the Hellespont, o only gain
ed these public honors to the state, but
displayed to all the world the generous
sentiments of Athens and the base per-
tidiousness of Philip
To give an adequate idea of the rhe-
torical and d~ialectic skill Of this great
orator would require a quotation of al
most the whole grafton. 1T would, how
ever, be quite remisS not to call atten-
ion to the beauty of his narrative and
description, or to omit some reference
to the welding of narrative and argu-
ment, SO that the nearer passes and re-
passes, unconscious of the change, from
recital of facts to their inevitable con-
clusion and from conclusion to facts
again. The o famous narrative pas
sage is as charming as anything in
Lysias and far beyond Lysias in bril-
liancy and vividness. It is the story
Of what occurred when the courier ar
rived, reporting the occupation of
Elatea. IL begins: 1T was evening.
A courier arrived. and repairing to the
presidents of the senate informed them
that Elatea was taken. In a moment.
some started from supper, ran to the
markdt-place. drove the traders from
their stations. and set fire to their
booths: some sent around TO call the
generals: others clamored for the
~trumpeter. Thus was the city one scene
of tumult. The neXt morning. by dawn
Of day, the presidents summoned the
senate. The people were instantly col
lected; and before any regular author
.y could owen their assembly, the
whole body Of citizens had taken their
places ON the Assembly HILL" Thus
the description runs on increasing in
interest until he reaches the important
words Of craftsmanship that Demos
themes uttered on hat occasion.
In the examination of this most fin
ished specimen eff ancient eloquence,
where no disposition of the parts Is left
to chance. a most remarkable revela-
Ton is the fact hat the climax is not
left to the close of the speech. That was
an arrangement to which the Romans
inclined and is evidence of defective
Judgment and imperfect taste. But we
have followed the Romans. and today
the political orator closes his address
with frantic shoutings at the end, as if
he were an American aboriginal taking
a scalp. In the Grafton On the Crown,
on The other hand, the elimination is
about two-thirds of the way toward the
termination. The interest increases
constantly up to the famous oath, when,