No More Learning

Strong as Philip was before, he was now immensely
strengthened, and fresh chances were open to him for
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? 100 DEMOSTHENES.
interfering actively in Greek politics. Membership of
the Amphictyonic Council was, in fact, equivalent to
naturalisation. Philip was now, in theory at least, a
Greek, and no longer a barbarian. The Athenian
Isocrates could, with a show of reason, address a letter
to him, inviting him to reconcile under his leadership
the great states of Greece, and invade Asia with a view
to the overthrow of the Persian empire and the libera-
tion of the Asiatic Greeks. But the Athenians gene-
rally felt deep anger and vexation at the issue of events,
and could hardly make up their minds to sit still
under the disgrace of the surrender of Thermopylae
and the intrusion of a foreign prince into the heart of
Greece.
Demosthenes, as has been said, had no sympathy
with the ideas of Isocrates. He still clung to the belief
in a general independent Greek world, of which his
own state ought to be the most perfect representative.
Yet on this occasion he spoke in favour of the in-
glorious peace just concluded. Miserable as it was, he
argued that to break it would be to give Philip a pre-
text for uniting other Greek states in war against them.
The tone of his speech is confident and decided. The
peace was bad and dishonourable, no doubt, but to
repudiate it would be simply madness. It would be
putting themselves gratuitously in the wrong. "The
shadow at Delphi," as he calls the subject of the Sacred
war which had been waged between Thebes and Pho-
cis, was not worth fighting for, more especially when
they would have to fight a Greek confederacy. It
could not have been altogether pleasant to Demosthenes
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? COUNSEL OF DEMOSTHENES. 101
to advise acquiescence in a peace which he and his
countrymen generally felt to be humiliating. But as
they had drifted into it, all they could now do was to
make the best of it, and guard themselves from new
aggressions.
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? CHAPTER X.
DEMOSTHENES CONTINUES HIS SPEECHES AGAINST
PHILIP-
FROM the peace of 346 no. we may date a revolution
in the Greek world. Philip had acquired a new posi-
tion, and it was acknowledged that he had henceforth
a right to take a part in Greek politics. Even Demos-
thenes had to recognise the fact of a change of sen-
timent towards him. Isocrates could argue more
plausibly than ever that everything pointed to him as
the true head and champion of Greece, and, eonse--
quently, as the predestined conqueror of Asia, the old
antagonist of Greece. ' '
The peace just concluded was soon seen to be a
thoroughly hollow one. Philip, it was evident, had no
intention of being really bound by it, any longer than
it answered his purpose. This the Athenians could
hardly fail to understand, however much they might
try to deceive themselves; and their feeling towards
him was made up of fear and anger. We might have
thought that he could have at once organised a Greek
confederacy against Persia with almost a certainty of
' success, but he seems to have been too cautious and
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? sPEEOHEs AGAINST PHILIP. 103
astute to expose himself to any serious risks. His policy
was to secure a yet firmer footing in the Greek world.
Athens, he knew, was his only formidable enemy.
There was still a possibility that she might rouse Greece
against him, and overpower him by a coalition of which
she would be the head. He must therefore endeavour
to isolate her by political intrigues, and, by driving her
out of the Chersonese, strike a fatal blow at the com-
merce on which her prosperity largely depended.
With these views he began to meddle with the politics
of the Peloponnese. There circumstances favoured his
designs. He had the opportunity of playing the part
of champion and deliverer to the oppressed. Sparta was
the great object of dread to the people of Argos, of
Megalopolis, and of Messene. They could not imagine
that they had any other enemy to fear. Thebes
had hitherto been their protector, but Thebes was no
longer in a condition to command their confidence.
It was to Philip that they now not unnaturally looked.
It was hardly to be expected that they would abstain
from invoking his aid against a pressing and imme-
diate danger, because it may have been suggested
to them that they were thereby imperilling the best
interests of Greece. What they wanted was help
against Sparta, and this Philip promised them. He
would, he said, soon be with them in person; and
meanwhile he sent them some troops, and bade Sparta
refrain from any attempt on Messeno.
This was a clever movement on Philip's part, and
Athens could not very well protest against it or seek to
thwart it. All that could be said was that, judging
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? 104 DEMOSTHENES.
from the past, it was an interference which ultimately
meant mischief. Demosthenes succeeded in bringing
the Athenians to this point of view. He induced them
to send an embassy, himself being at the head of it,
into the Peloponnese, the express object of which was
to defeat Philip's diplomacy. _He visited several of
the cities, and addressed warnings to them based on
the bad faith of Philip generally, and on his treatment
of Olynthus particularly. He told them plainly that
in their fear and hatred of Sparta they were allowing
themselves to become his accomplices in enslaving
and ruining Greece. It seems that one of the chief
arguments on which he insisted was the utter impossi-
bility of a sincere and hearty union betwegriree states
and a despot. This 'wonldrbe sure to impress the
democratic"party--always a powerful element in a
Greek state. He was heard--so he tells us himself in
one of his subsequent speeches--with approbation and
applause, but he failed to convince. There were, as he
says in another speech, those in every state who were
willing to be controlled by a foreign power, if only they
could get the upper hand of their fellow-citizens. The
old love of freedom and of legal government, which
had been the great glory of Greece, seemed to be on
the wane. Still Demosthenes accomplished something.
Philip thought it necessary to send envoys to Athens
with some sort of apology for himself and his general
policy; and an embassy also came, perhaps at his sug-
gestion, from some of the states of the Peloponnese.
Athens was in a perplexing position. Philip could
plausibly say that the Athenians were unreasonably
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? SPEECHES AGAINST PHILIP. \ 105
suspicious towards him, and even, in fact, disregarding
the spirit of the peace recently concluded. The envoys
from Argos and Messene might fairly complain of the
seeming connection between Athens and Sparta, and
argue that it was a menace to the liberties of the
Peloponnese. It was a great and critical occasion, and
called for able statesmanship. It was an opportunity
to raise yet higher the character of Demosthenes as a
public adviser, and he availed himself of it. In the
speech which he delivered in B. 0. 344, known as the
second Philippic, he spoke out in the plainest lan-
guage both against Philip's insinuations and against
the ill-timed complaints of the Peloponnesian envoys.
He vindicated at the same time his own policy, and
denounced the Philippising faction, in which his rival
Ziischines was now a conspicuous figure.
Philip, he declares, was the great aggressor of the
age ; he was a plotter against the Whole of Greece. He
repeats what he had said as ambassador to the people
of Messene by way of warning from the past :-
" Ye men of Messene, how do you think the Olyn-
thians would have looked to hear anything against Philip
at those times when he surrendered to them Anthemus,
which all former kings of Macedonia claimed, when he
cast out the Athenian colonists and gave them Potidaea,
thereby incurring your enmity, and giving them the
land to enjoy'! Think you that they expected such
treatment as they got, or would they have believed it
if they had been told'! Nevertheless, after enjoying
for a brief space the possessions of others, they are for
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? IOG DEMOSTHENES.
a long period deprived by Philip of their own, shame-
fully expelled--not only vanquished, but betrayed by
one another and sold. In truth, these too close con-
nections with despots are not safe for free states.
There are manifold contrivances for the guarding and
defending of cities--as ramparts, walls, trenches, and
the like; these are all made with hands and demand
an outlay. But there is one common safeguard inthe
nature of wise men which is a good security for all,
but especially for democracies against despots. What
do I mean! Mistrust. Keep this; hold to this ; pre-
serve this only, and you can never be injured. 'What
do ye desire! Freedom. Then do you not see that
with this Philip's very titles are at variance' ! Every
king and despot is a foe to freedom, an antagonist to
laws. Will ye not beware, lest in seeking to be de-
livered from war you find a master'! "
Yet in a speech delivered three years afterwards,
which we shall shortly notice, Demosthenes suggests
that they might entertain the thought of seeking aid
even from Persia. The suggestion, perhaps, was only
made in desperation, and must not be taken as repre-
senting anything like a change of political sentiments.
To the last Demosthenes was a believer in free and
popular governments as opposed to tyrannies and des-
potisms. Still, as he has to admit, such governments
are liable to be out-manoeuvred by cunning diplomacy.
So it had been with themselves, as he reminds them
in the present speech. They had been persuaded to
believe that Philip, if he became master of Thermo-
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? SPEECHES AGAINST PHILIP. 'I07
pylae, would humble their old enemy Thebes, and give
them Oropus and Euboea in exchange for Amphipolis.
"All these declarations on the hustings," he says,
with the Philippising party in his eye, " I am sure you
remember, though you are not famous for remembering
injuries. While the mischief is only coming and pre-
paring, whilst we hear one another speak, I wish
every man, though he know it well, to be reminded
who it was persuaded you to abandon Phocis and
Thermopylae, by the possession of which Philip com-
mands the road to Attica and Peloponnese, and has
' brought it to this, that you have now to deliberate, not
about claims and interests abroad, but about the de-
fence of your home and a war in Attica, which will be
a grievous shock to every citizen when it comes; and
indeed it commenced from that day of your infatuation.
Had you not been then deceived, there would be noth-
ing now to distress the State. "
One point insisted on in this speech is, that the
struggle in the Greek states was no longer, as it had
hitherto been, one between aristocracy and democracy,
but between Philip's party and its opponents.
The following year witnessed a memorable contest
between Demosthenes and ZEschines. It arose out of
the embassies to Philip and the various negotiations
with_ him, which ended, as we have seen, so unfortu-
nately for Athens and Greece. Zlischines, it will be
remembered, was an adherent of the peace party of
Eubulus ; and Demosthenes now made a great effort
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? 108 DEMOSTHENES.
to discredit him, as being, in fact, corruptly responsible
for Philip's occupation of Thermopylae, the destruction
of Phocis, and the new and powerful position which
he had been able to assume in Greece. The pleadings
of both the orators in this great cause have come down
to us, and they are specially valuable as supplying us
with materials for the history of an intricate period.
Demosthenes presses his attack with great vehemenoe,
and resorts, as he well knew how, to the most savage
invective. To our minds it is, as a work of art, one
of the least pleasing and satisfactory of his speeches.
There is a coarseness and vulgarity about the vitupera-
tion-and that, too, under circumstances in which very
strong condemnation of his rival must have been felt
to have been a mistake. He taunts Ziischines with
having been all along the conscious tool of Philip's
cunning policy, when it was perfectly well known that
he had himself, from want of clear foresight perhaps,
not steadily opposed that policy at more than one criti-
cal point. He was not successful ; but the Victory won
by his rival was a very poor one. ]Eschines was ac-
quitted only by thirty votes. This implies that, on
the whole, public opinion was against him, though it
may have been felt that distinct and positive evidence
was wanting. We may infer that Demosthenes' polit-
ical influence was very great. He failed probably be-
cause, as Dr Thirlwall remarks, he had an extremely
intricate case, and could not attack rEschines effec-
tively without having from time to time to defend
himself and explain certain ambiguities in his own
share in the negotiations.
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? SPEECHES AGAINST PHILIP. 109
Athens, as has been said, was now particularly vul-
nerable in the Thracian Chersonese and the north of
the Zligean. To these points the restless Philip directed
his attention in 342-341 13. 0. It could not be doubted
that he was meditating the annexation of this important
district, and the conquest of the Greek cities on the
northern shores of the Propontis--Periuthus, Selymbria,
and above all Byzantium. If he could achieve this,
Athens would be completely paralysed. Her maritime
supremacy would be at an end, and her supplies of
corn would be cut off. She would cease to exist as
a commercial power. Philip's designs on Athens in
Thrace were not unlike those of Napoleon I. on Eng-
land in his attacks on Egypt and Spain. It was argued
in Parliament at the time, that in carrying on war
with France in these countries, we were practically
standing on our own defence. Demosthenes took the
same line of argument against Philip. A force had
been sent out from Athens to the Chersonese as an
army of observation on Philip's movements.
The
general, Diopeithes, was an able, energetic man ; and it
is interesting to us to know that he was the father of the
poet Menander. There were some disputes between
the Athenian colonists and the Cardians to the north
of the Chersonese. Philip seemed disposed to favour
the latter, upon which Diopeithes at once retaliated by
invading Macedonian territory. He gained some suc-
cesses, and for a while even deprived Philip of some
of his recent conquests. Considering that the peace of
346 B. 0. was still in force, Athens may be said to have
been put in the wrong by her over-zealous general, and
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? 110 DEMOS rrwrvns
Philip sent the people a despatch in which he formally
complained of these encroachments. All his political
adherents at Athens clamoured for the instant recall of
Diopeithes. Like other Athenian generals, Diopeithes,
who commanded some mercenaries, was almost com-
pelled to provide for them by expeditions which could
not be strictly justified. Still, it might be truly argued
in his favour that he was really repelling a dangerous
aggressor. And on this ground Demosthenes pleaded his
cause, and argued that he should be continued in his
command. The speech he delivered on this occasion
--" On behalf of the Chersonese," as it has been
entitled--contains the clear and powerful reasonings of
a sagacious statesman. >
The people, he maintains, ought to deal with their
enemies before they call their own servants to account.
It was very well for Philip to complain of an infringe-
ment of the peace in this particular instance ; but was
it not notorious that he had himself deprived Athens
of her own possessions! It was a mere blind to say,
as_some said, that they must make up their minds to
have either war or peace. " If it appears that from
the very first Philip has robbed us of our territories,
and has been all along incessantly gathering the spoil
of other nations, Greek and barbarian, for the materials
of an attack upon you, what do they mean by saying
we must have war or peace' ! " \
"Consider what is actually going on. Philip is
staying with a large army in Thrace, and sending for
reinforcements, as eye-witnesses report, from Macedonia
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? SPEECHES AGAINST PHILIP. 111
and Thessaly. Now, should he wait for the trade-
winds, and then march to the siege of Byzantium, think
ye that the Byzantines would persist in their present
folly, and would not invite and implore your aid'! I
do not believe it. N 0; they will receive any people,
even those they distrust more than us, sooner than
surrender their city to Philip--unless, indeed, he is
beforehand with them and captures it. If, then, we are
unable to sail northward, and there be no help at
hand, nothing can prevent their destruction. Well;
let us say the Byzantines are infatuated and besotted.
Very likely; yet they must be rescued, because it is
good for Athens. Nor is it clear that he will not
attack the Cher_go_rg_se; nay, if we may judge from the
"etter he sent/us, he says he will chastise the people in
Ihe Chersonese. If the present army be kept on foot,
it will be able to defend that country, and attack some
of Philip's dominions. But if it become disbanded,
what shall we do if he march against the Chersonesei
With such facts and arguments before you, so far from
disbanding this army which Diopeithes is endeavouring
to organise for Athens, you ought yourselves to provide
an additional one, to support him with funds, and with
other friendly co--operation. " "
In the following passage he inveighs against his
political opponents, and the extreme licence of speech
allowed to them in practically advocating the interests of
Philip :-- _
"This, you must be convinced, is a struggle for
existence. You cannot overcome your enemies abroad
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? 112 DEMOSTHENES.
till you have punished your enemies, his ministers, at
home. They will be the stumbling-blocks which pre-
vent you reaching the others. Why, do you suppose,
Philip now insults you'! To other people he at least
renders services though he deceives them, while he is
already threatening you. Look, for instance, at the
Thessalians. It was by many benefits conferred on
them that he seduced them into their present bondage.
And then the Olynthians, again,--how he cheated them,
first giving them Potidaea and several other places,
is really beyond description. Now he is enticing the
Thebans by giving up to them Boeotia, and delivering
them from a toilsome and vexatious war. Each of
these peoples did get a certain advantage ; but some of
them have suffered what all the world knows; others
will suffer whatever may hereafter befall them. As
for you, I recount not all that has been taken from
you, but how shamefully have you been treated and
despoiled! Why is it that Philip deals so differently
with you and with others! Because yours is the only
state in Greece in which the privilege is allowed of
speaking for the enemy, and a citizen taking a bribe
may safely address the Assembly, though you have
been robbed of your dominions. It was not safe at
Olynthus to be Philip's advocate unless the Olynthian
commonalty had shared the advantage by possession
of Potidaea. It was not safe in Thessaly to be Philip's
advocate unless the people of Thessaly had secured the
advantage by Philip's expelling their tyrants and re-
storing the synod at Pylae. It was not safe in Thebes,
until he gave up Bceotia to them and destroyed the
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? SPEECHES AGAINST PHILIP. 113
Phocians. Yet at Athens, though Philip has deprived
you of Amphipolis and the territory round Cardia--
nay, is making Euboea a fortress as a check upon us,
and is advancing to attack Byzantium--it is safe to
speak in Philip's behalf. " ' ' '
He thus concludes the speech :-
' " I will sum up my advice and sit down. You must
contribute money, and maintain the existing troops,
rectifying any abuse you may discover, but not, on any
accusation which somebody may bring, disbanding the
force. Send out ambassadors everywhere to instruct, to
warn, to accomplish what they can for Athens. Further,
I say, punish your corrupt statesmen, execrate them at
all times and places, and thereby prove that men of
virtue and honourable conduct have consulted wisely
both for others and for themselves. "
It is satisfactory to' learn that this speech was success-
ful, and that Diopeithes, who certainly deserved well of
his country, was continued in his command, and the
Chersonese saved for Athens.
Demosthenes was now the leading Athenian states-
man. He had shaken the influence of the peace party,
and he seems to have still further strengthened his
political position by a speech delivered about three
months after that which we have just been considering.
The speech in question has always been regarded as one
of singular power. As far as we know, nothing new
had occurred ; but Philip was still in Thrace, threaten-
ing the Chersonese and the northern shores of the
A. O. S. S. vol. iv. H
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? 114 . ' >DEMOSTHENES. '
Propontis, and clearly had designs on Perinthus and
Byzantium. Demosthenes repeats in substance the
arguments he had recently urged. Greece, he says, is
in the utmost peril from its miserable divisions and
apathy, and from the unique position which it has
allowed Philip to attain. As for Athens, "her affairs
have been brought so low by carelessness and negli-
gence, I fear it is a hard truth to say that if all the ora--
tors had sought to suggest, and you to pass, resolutions
for the utter ruining of the commonwealth, we could
not, methinks, be worse off than we are. " It had been
said at Athens in the speeches of some of the orators,
"Wait till Philip declares war, and then it will be
time to discuss how we shall resist him. " Demosthenes'
reply is,----
" If we wait till Philip avows that he is at war with
us, we are the simplest of mortals; for he would not
declare war, though he marched even against Athens
and Piraeus--at least, if we may judge from his conduct
to others. When he sends his mercenaries into the
Chersonese, which the king of Persia and all the Greeks
acknowledge to be yours, what can be the meaning of
such proceedings! He says he is not at war. But I
cannot admit such conduct to be an observance of the
peace. Far otherwise. I say that by his present ad
vance into Thrace, by his intrigues in the Peloponnese,
by the whole course of his operations with his army, he
has been breaking the peace and making war upon you,
---nnless, indeed, you will say that those who establish
military engines are not at war until they apply them
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? SPEECHES A GAINST PHILIP. I 15
to the walls. But that you will not say; for whoever
prepares and contrives the means for my conquest, is
at war with me before he hurls the dart or draws the
bow. Should anything happen, what is the risk you
run' ! The alienation of the Hellespont, the subjection
of Megara and Euboea to your enemy, the siding of
the Peloponnese with him. Then, can I allow that
one who sets such an engine at work against Athens
is at peace with her' ! Quite the contrary. From the
day that he destroyed Phocis I date his commence-
ment of hostilities. So widely do I differ from your
other advisers that I deem any discussion about the
Chers>one'se or Byzantium out of place. Succour them
--I advise that; watch that no harm befalls them; send
all necessary supplies to your troops in that quarter:
but let your deliberations be for the safety of all
Greece, as being in the most extreme jeopardy. "
The Greeks, he declares, must have utterly forgotten
themselves in allowing a foreigner and a barbarian a
licence in dealing with their affairs which they had
never thought of according to such states as Athens
or Sparta. This was monstrous, and implied a fatal
degeneracy.
"I observe," says the orator, "that all people be-
ginning from yourselves have conceded to Philip a
right which in former days was the subject of contest
in every Greek war. What is this'! The right of
doing what he pleases, openlyfieecing and pillaging
the Greeks one after another, attacking and enslaving
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? 116 DEMOSTHENES.
their cities. You were at the head of the Greeks for
seventy-three years, the Lacedaemonians for twenty-
nine, and the Thebans had some power in these latter
days after the battle of Leuctra. Yet neither you nor
Lacedaemonians nor Thebans were ever licensed to act
as you pleased. Far otherwise. When you, or rather
the Athenians of that time, appeared to be dealing
harshly with certain people, all the rest, even such as
had no complaint against Athens, thought proper to
side with the injured parties in a war against her. So,
when the Lacedaemonians became masters and suc-
ceeded to your empire, on their attempting to encroach
and make oppressive innovations, a general war was
declared against them even by such as had no cause
of complaint. But why mention other people'! We
ourselves and the Lacedaemonians, although at the
outset we could not allege' any mutual injuries, thought
proper to make war for the injustice that we saw done
to our neighbours. Yet all the faults committed by
the Spartans in those thirty years, and by our ancestors
in the seventy, are less than the wrongs which in
thirteen incomplete years, while Philip has been upper-
most, he has inflicted on the Greeks. Nay, they are
scarcely a fraction of them, as I may easily and briefly
show. Olynthus and Methone, and Apollonia and
thirty-two cities on the borders of Thrace, I pass over
---all which he has so cruelly destroyed that a visitor
could scarcely tell if they were ever inhabited. And
of Phocis, so considerable a people exterminated, I say
nothing. But what is 'the condition of Thessaly! Has
he not taken away her constitutions and her cities, and
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? SPEECHES AGAINST PHILIP. 117
established tetrarchies, to parcel her out, not only by
cities, but by provinces, for subjection! Are not the
states of Eubma now governed by despots, and Euboea
is an island near to Thebes and to Athens! Does he
not expressly write in his epistles, " I am at peace with
those who are willing to obey me"' ! Neither Greek nor
barbaric land contains the man's ambition. And we,
the Greek community, seeing and hearing this, instead
of sending embassies to one another about it and ex-
pressing our indignation, are in such a miserable state,
so entrenched in our separate towns, that to this day
we can attempt nothing that interest or necessity re-
quires ; we cannot combine for succour and alliance;
we look unconcernedly on the man's growing power,
each resolving to enjoy the interval in which another
is destroyed, not caring nor striving for the salvation
of Greece. 'Whatever wrong the Greeks sustained
from Lacedaemonians or from us, was at least inflicted
by a genuine Greek people. It might be felt in the
same manner as if a lawful son, born to a large fortune,
committed some fault or error in the management of
it. On that ground, one would consider him open to
censure and to reproach; yet it could not be said he
was an alien and not an heir to the property which
he so dealt with. But if a slave or a spurious child
wasted and spoilt that in which he had no interest,
how much more heinous and hateful would all have
oronounced it! "
On the decay of patriotism and the venality of public
men throughout Greece, he speaks thus :-
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? 118 DEMOSTHENES.
" There must be some cause, some good reason, why
the Greeks were so eager for liberty then, and now are so
eager for servitude. There was something in the hearts
of the multitude then which there is not now, which
overcame the wealth of Persia, and maintained the free-
dom of Greece, and quailed not under any battle by sea
or land, the loss whereof has ruined all and thrown the
Greek world into confusion. What was this! No
subtlety or cleverness ; simply this, that whoever took
a bribe from the aspirants to power or the corrupters of
Greece was universally abhorred. It was a fearful thing
to be convicted of bribery; the severest punishment was
inflicted on the guilty, and there was no intercession
or pardon. The favourable moments for enterprise
which fortune frequently offers to the careless against
the vigilant, to them that will do nothing against those
that discharge their entire duty, could not be bought
from orators or generals; no more could mutual con-
cord, nor distrust of tyrants and barbarians, nor any-
thing of the But now all such principles have
been sold as in open market, and principles imported
in exchange by which Greece is ruined and diseased.
What are they'! Envy, when a man gets a bribe;
laughter, if he confesses it; mercy to the convicted ;'-
hatred of those who denounce the crime,--all the usual
accompaniments of corruption. For as to ships and
men, and revenues and abundance of other material-
all, in fact, that may be reckoned as constituting national
strength, assuredly the Greeks of our day are more
fully and perfectly supplied with such advantages than
Greeks of the olden times. But they are all rendered
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?