resources of outrage against us? Without mentioning the Grecian cities which he has sacked, does he not take it upon himself to preside at the Pythian games, a celebration exclusively national? And, if absent himzelf, does he not delegate his slaves to award the crowns? Master of Thermopyla, and of all the passes of Greece, does he not hold these posts by his garrisons and foreign troops? Does he not place governors over Thessaly, at his pleasure? Has he not wrested Echinus from the Thebans? Is he not, at this moment, on his march against Byzantium-Byzantium, the ally of Athens! And if such is his audacity towards collective Greece, what will it be when he has mastered us all in detail? And now, why is all this? For, not without a cause could Greece, once so jealous of freedom, now be resigned to servitude. The cause is here. Once, O Athenians, in the hearts of all our People, a sentiment presided, which is paramount no more; a sentiment which triumphed over Persian gold, and maintained Greece free, and invincible by land and sea; but the loss of that sentiment has brought down ruin, and left the country in the dust. What was it this sentiment, so powerful? Was it the result of any subtle policy of State? No: it was a universal hatred for the bribed traitors, in the pay of those Powers, seeking to subdue or dishonor Greece! Venality was a capital offence, and punished with the extremest rigor. Pardon, palliation, were not thought of. And so, orators and generals could not with impunity barter those favorable conjunctures which Fortune oftentimes presents to negligence and inactivity, against vigilance and vigor. The public concord, the general hatred and distrust of Tyrants and Barbarians, all the guarantees of liberty, were inaccessible to the power of gold. But now all these are offered for sale in the open market! And, in exchange, we have an importation of morals which are desolating and destroying Greece. What do they exhibit? Envy, for the recipient of base bribes; derision, should he confess his crime; pardon, should he be convicted; and resentment towards his accuser!-in a word, all the laxities which engender corruption. In vessels, in troops, in revenues, in the various resources of war, in all that constitutes the strength of a State, we are richer than ever before; but all these advantages are paralyzed, crushed, by an infamous traffic. And all this you behold with your own eyes, and my testimony in regard to it is quite superfluous! 5 DEMOSTHENES DENOUNCED. · Eschines on the Crown. Original Translation. WHEN Demosthenes boasts to you, O Athenians, of his Democratic zcal, examine, not his harangues, but his life; not what he professes to be, but what he really is; redoubtable in words, impotent in deeds; plausible in speech, perfidious in action. As to his courage has he not himself, before the assembled People, confessed his poltroonery? By the laws of Athens, the man who refuses to bear arms, the coward, the deserter of his post in battle, is excluded from all share in the public deliberations-denied admission to our religious rites, and rendered incapable of receiving the honor of a crown. Yet now it is proposed to crown a man whom your laws expressly disqualify! Which, think you, was the more worthy citizen, Themistocles, who commanded your fleet when you vanquished the Persian at Salamis, or Demosthenes the deserter? Miltiades, who conquered the Barbarians at Marathon, or this hireling traitor? — Aristidés, surnamed the Just, or Demosthenes, who merits a far different surname? By all the Gods of Olympus, it is a profanation to mention in the same breath this monster and those great men! Let him cite, if he can, one among them all to whom a crown was decreed. And was Athens ungrateful? No! She was magnanimous; and those uncrowned citizens were worthy of Athens. They placed their glory, not in the letter of a decree, but in the remembrance of a country, of which they had mer ited well, in the living, imperishable remembrance! a And now a popular orator - the mainspring of our calamities. deserter from the field of battle, a deserter from the city-claims of us a crown, exacts the honor of a proclamation! Crown him? Proclaim his worth? My countrymen, this would not be to exalt Demosthenes, but to degrade yourselves, to dishonor those brave men who perished for you in battle. Crown him! Shall his recreancy win what was denied to their devotion? This would indeed be to insult the memory of the dead, and to paralyze the emulation of the living! When Demosthenes tells you that, as ambassador, he wrested Byzantium from Philip, that, as orator, he roused the Acarnanians, and subdued the Thebans, let not the braggart impose on you. He flatters himself that the Athenians are simpletons enough to believe him, as if in him they cherished the very genius of persuasion, instead of a vile calumniator. But, when, at the close of his defence, he shall summon to his aid his accomplices in corruption, imagine then, O Athenians, that you behold, at the foot of this tribune, from which I now address you, the great benefactors of the Republic arrayed against them. Solon, who environed our liberty with the noblest institutions, -Solon, the philosopher, the mighty legislator, with that benignity so characteristic, implores you not to pay more regard to the honeyed phrases of Demosthenes than to your own oaths, your own laws. Aristides, who fixed for Greece the apportionment of her contributions, and whose orphan daughters were dowered by the People, is moved to indignation at this prostitution of justice, and exclaims: "Think on your fathers! Arthmĭus of Zelia brought gold from Media into Greece, and, for the act, barely escaped death in banishment; and now Demosthenes, who has not merely brought gold, but who received it as the price of treachery, and still retains it, - Demosthenes it is unblush ingly proposed to invest with a golden crown!" From those who fell at Marathon and at Plataa - from Themistocles from the very sepulchres of your ancestors — issues the protesting groan of condem nation and rebuke! - 6. EXORDIUM. - Demosthenes on the Crown. Lord Brougham's Tensation. Bome authorities state that Eschines was born 397 years B. C.; and others, that he was born $39 B. C., and was only four years the senior of Demosthenes. During the war with Philip, Eschines became a strenuous advocate of compromise and peace-Demosthenes being as reso lutely in favor of active resistance. After the battle of Cheronæa, Demosthenes was intrusted with the repairing of the fortifications of the city. The cost of the work was thirteen talents, of which he paid three from his own purse. Ctesiphon proposed that a golden crown should be roted him. Eschines maintained that, under the circumstances, the proposal was illegal, and brought a suit nominally against Ctesiphon, but really to crush Demosthenes. From various Causes, the trial was delayed eight years. At last it came on. The accuser's speech was a But Demosthenes was irresistible. "The greatest oration of the greatest of cra trs," is the phrase which Lord Brougham applies to the Oration on the Crown. Ctesiphon was acquitted by a considerable majority. Eschines went into banishment at Rl odes, where he set up a school of rhetoric. He once read the oration of Demosthenes to his pupils. Upon their expressing their admiration of it, he said, "What would you have thought, had you heard the lion himself?" great effort. LET me begin, Men of Athens, by imploring, of all the Heavenly Powers, that the same kindly sentiments which I have, throughout my public life, cherished towards this country and each one of you, may now by you be shown towards me in the present contest! In two respects my adversary plainly has the advantage of me. First, we have not the same interests at stake: it is by no means the same thing for me to forfeit your esteem, and for Eschines, an unprovoked volunteer, to fail in his impeachment. My other disadvantage is, the natural proneness of men to lend a pleased attention to invective and accusation, but to give little heed to him whose theme is his own vindication. To my adversary, therefore, falls the part which ministers to your gratification, while to me there is only left that which, I may almost say, is distasteful to all. And yet, if I do not speak of myself and my own conduct, I shall appear defenceless against his charges, and without proof that my honors were well earned. This, therefore, I must do; but it shall be with moderation. And bear in mind that the blame of my dwelling on personal topics must justly rest upon him who has instituted this personal Impeachment. At least, my Judges, you will admit that this question concerns me as much as Ctesiphon, and justifies on my part an equal anxiety. To be stripped of any possession, and more especially by an enemy, is grievous to bear; but to be robbed of your confidence and esteem, of all possessions the most precious, is indeed intolerable. Such, then, being my stake in this cause, I conjure you all to give ear to my defence against these charges, with that impartiality which the laws enjoin, those laws first given by Solon, and which he fixed, not only by engraving them on brazen tables, but by the sanction of the oaths you take when sitting in judgment; because he perceived that, the accuser being armed with the advantage of speaking first, the accused can have no chance of resisting his charges, unless you, his Judges, keeping the oath sworn before Heaven, shall receive with faver the defence which comes last, and, lending an equal car to both parties, shall thus make up your minds upon the whole of the case. But, on this day, when I am about to render up an account, as it should seem, of my whole life, both public and private, I would again as in the outset, implore the Gods, and in your presence pour out to them my supplications, first, to grant me at your hands the same kind ness, in this conflict, which I have ever borne towards our country and all of you; and next, that they may incline you all to pronounce upon this Impeachment the decision which shall best consult the glory of the State, and the religious obligations of each individual Judge! 7. PUBLIC SPIRIT OF ATHENIANS.-Demosthenes on the Crown. THE Athenians never were known to live contented in a slavish though secure obedience to unjust and arbitrary power. No. Our whole history is a series of gallant contests for preeminence: the whole period of our national existence hath been spent in braving dangers, for the sake of glory and renown. And so highly do you esteem such conduct, as characteristic of the Athenian spirit, that those of your ancestors who were most eminent for it are ever the most favorite objects of your praise. And with reason: for, who can reflect, without astonishment, on the magnanimity of those men who resigned their lands, gave up their city, and embarked in their ships, rather than live at the bidding of a stranger? The Athenians of that day looked out for no speaker, no general, to procure them a state of easy slavery. They had the spirit to reject even life, unless they were allowed to enjoy that life in freedom. For it was a principle fixed deeply in every breast, that man was not born to his parents only, but to his country. And mark the distinction. He who regards himself as born only to his parents waits in passive submission for the hour of his natural dissolution. He who considers that he is the child of his country, also, volunteers to meet death rather than behold that country reduced to vassalage; and thinks those insults and disgraces which he must endure, in a state enslaved, much more terrible than death. Should I attempt to assert that it was I who inspired you with sentiments worthy of your ancestors, I should meet the just resentment of every hearer. No: it is my point to show that such sentiments are properly your own; that they were the sentiments of my country long before my days. I claim but my share of merit in having acted on such principles in every part of my administration. He, then, who condemns every part of my administration, he who directs you to treat me with severity, as one who hath involved the state in terrors and dangers, while he labors to deprive me of present honor, robs of the you applause of all posterity. For, if you now pronounce, that, as my publie conduct hath not been right, Ctesiphon must stand condemned, it must be thought that you yourselves have acted wrong, not that you owe your present state to the caprice of fortune. But it cannct be! No, my countrymen, it cannot be that you have acted wrong in encountering danger bravely for the liberty and safety of all Greece. No! I swear it by the spirits of our sires, who rushed upon destruc tion at Marathon!-by those who stood arrayed at Platea!-by those who fought the sea-fight at Salamis!-by the men of Artemisium!-by the others, so many and so brave, who now rest in our public sepulchres! - all of whom their country judged worthy of the same honor; all, I say, Æschines; not those only who prevailed, not those only who were victorious. And with reason. What was the part of gallant men, they all performed. Their saccess was such as the supreme Ruler of the world dispensed to each. 8. DEMOSTHENES NOT VANQUISHED BY PHILIP.-Demosthenes on the Crown Lord Brougham's Translation. A WICKED thing, Athenians, a wicked thing is a calumniator, ever; -querulous and industrious in seeking pretences of complaint. But this creature is despicable by nature, and incapable of any trace of generous and noble deeds; ape of a tragedian, third-rate actor, spurious orator! For what, Æschines, does your eloquence profit the country? You now descant upon what is past and gone; as if a physician, when called to patients in a sinking state, should give no advice, nor prescribe any course by which the disease might be cured; but, after one of them had died, and the last offices were performing to his remains, should follow him to the grave, and expound how the poor man never would have died had such and such things only been done. Moonstricken! is it now that at length you too speak out? As to the defeat, that incident in which you so exult (wretch! who should rather mourn for it), - look through my whole conduct, and you shall find nothing there that brought down this calamity on my country. Consider only, Athenians: Never, from any embassy upon which you sent me, did I come off worsted by Philip's ambassadors; not from Thessaly, not from Ambracia, not from Illyria, not from the Thracian kings, not from the Byzantians, nor from any other quarter whatever, -nor finally, of late, from Thebes. But wheresoever his negotiators were overcome in debate, thither Philip marched, and carried the day by his arms. Do you, then, exact this of me; and are you not ashamed, at the moment you are upbraiding me for weakness, to require that I should defy him single-handed, and by force of words alone? For what other weapons had I? Certainly not the lives of men, nor the fortune of warriors, nor the military operations of which you are so blundering as to demand an account at my hands. But, whatever a minister can be accountable for, make of that the strictest scrutiny, and I do not object. What, then, falls within this Jescription? To descry events in their first beginnings, to cast his look forward, and to warn others of their approach. All this I have donc. Then, to confine within the narrowest bounds all delays, and backwardness, and ignorance, and contentiousness, faults which are inherent and unavoidable in all States; and, on the other hand, to promote unanimity, and friendly dispositions, and zeal in the performance of public duty: - and all these things I likewise did, nor can any |