No More Learning

L
OUIS We are alone now.
-
Francis What do you wish of me?
Louis [who has knelt down]—At your knees see me trem-
bling with hope and fear.
VIII-284


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4530
JEAN FRANÇOIS CASIMIR DELAVIGNE
Francis - What can I do for you?
Louis Everything, Father; you can do everything: you can
call the dead to life again.
Francis-I!
Louis-To the dead you say, "Leave your graves! " and they
leave them.
―――
Francis-Who?
I?
Louis - You bid our ailments to be cured.
-
Francis-I, my son?
Louis-And they are cured. When you command the skies
clear, the wind suddenly blows or likewise abates; the falling
thunderbolt at your command moves back to the clouds. Oh, I
implore you, who in the air can keep up the beneficent dew or
let it pour its welcome freshness on the withering plant, impart
fresh vigor to my old limbs. See me; I am dying; revive my
drooping energy; stretch ye out your arms to me, touch ye those
livid features of mine, and the spell of your hands will cause my
wrinkles to vanish.
Francis - What do you ask of me? You surprise me, my son.
Am I equal to God? From your lips I first learn that I go
abroad rendering oracles, and with my hands working miracles.
Louis-At least ten years, father! grant me ten more years
to live, and upon you I shall lavish honors and presents.
I shall found shrines to your name, in gold and jasper shall have
your relics set; but! -twenty years more life are too little a
reward for so much wealth and incense. I beseech you, work
a whole miracle! Do not cut so short the thread of my life.
A whole miracle! give me new life and prolong my days!
Francis-To do God's work is not in his creature's power.
What! when everything dies, you alone should last! King, such
is not God's will. I his feeble creature cannot alter for you
the course of nature. All that which grows must vanish, all
that which is born must perish, man himself and his works, the
tree and its fruit alike. All that produces does so only for a
time; 'tis the law here below, for eternity death alone shall fruc-
tify.
·
Louis-You wear out my patience. Do your duty, monk!
Work in my favor your marvelous power; for if you refuse, I
shall compel you. Do you forget that I am a king? The holy
oil anointed my forehead. Oh, pardon me! but it is your duty
to do more for kings, for crowned heads, than for those obscure


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JEAN FRANÇOIS CASIMIR DELAVIGNE
4531
and unfortunate wretches whom, but for your prayers, God in
heaven would never have remembered.
Francis Kings and their subjects are equal in the eyes of
the Lord; he owes you his aid as to the rest of his children; be
more just to yourself, and claim for your soul that help for
which you beg.
Louis [eagerly]-No, not so much at a time: let us now mind
the body; I shall think of the soul by-and-by.
Francis-It is your remorse, O King, 'tis that smarting wound
inflicted by your crimes, which slowly drags your body to final
ruin.
Louis- The priests absolved me.
Francis-Vain hope! The weight of your present alarms is
made up of thirty years of iniquitous life. Confess your shame,
disclose your sins, and let sincere repentance wash away your
defiled soul.
Louis-Should I get cured?
all.
―
Francis- Perhaps.
Louis-Say yes, promise that I shall. I am going to confess
Francis-To me?
Louis-Such is my will. Listen.
Francis [seating himself whilst the King stands up with clasped
hands] - Speak then, sinner, who summon me to perform this
holy ministry.
Louis [after having recited mentally the Confiteor]-I cannot
and dare not refuse.
Francis-What are your sins?
Louis-Through fear of the Dauphin, the late King died of
starvation.
Francis-A son shortened his own father's old age!
Louis I was that Dauphin.
Francis-You were!
-
Louis-My father's weakness was ruining France. A favorite
ruled. France must have perished had not the King done so.
State interests are higher than-
Francis Confess thy sins, thou wicked son; do not excuse
thy wrong-doings.
Louis-I had a brother.
Francis-What of him?
Louis-Who died
____
-
poisoned.


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4532
JEAN FRANÇOIS CASIMIR DELAVIGNE
Francis-Were you instrumental in his death?
Louis-They suspected me.
Francis-God Almighty!
Louis-If those who said so fell in my power!
Francis-Is it true?
Louis-His ghost rising from the grave can alone with impu-
nity accuse me of his death.
Francis-So you were guilty of it?
Louis-The traitor deserved it!
Francis [rising]-You would escape your just punishment!
Tremble! I was your brother, I am now your judge. Crushed
under your sin, bend low your head. Return to nothingness,
empty Majesty! I no longer see the King, I hear the criminal:
to your knees, fratricide!
Louis [falling on his knees]-I shudder.
Francis-Repent!
Louis [crawling to the monk and catching hold of his gar-
ments]-I own my fault, have pity on me! I beat my breast
and repent another crime. I do not excuse it.
Francis [resuming his seat]-Is this not all?
Louis-Nemours!
He was a conspirator. But his
death . . His crime was proved. But under his scaffold
his children's tears
Thrice against his lord he had
His life-blood spattered them. Yet his death
taken up arms.
was but just.
•
.
Francis-Cruel, cruel King!
Louis-Just, but severe; I confess it: I punished
but
no, I have committed crimes. In mid-air the fatal knot has
strangled my victims; in murderous pits they have been stabbed
with steel; the waters have put an end to them, the earth has
acted as their jailer. Prisoners buried beneath these towers groan
forgotten in their depths.
Francis-Oh! since there are wrongs which you
repair, come!
Louis-Where to?
Francis-Let us set free those prisoners.
Louis-Statecraft forbids.
·
can still
Francis [kneeling before the King]-Charity orders: come, and
save your soul.
Louis-And risk my crown! As a king, I cannot.
Francis-As a Christian, you must.


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JEAN FRANÇOIS CASIMIR DELAVIGNE
4533
for.
Louis I have repented. Let that suffice.
Francis [rising]-That avails nothing.
Louis Have I not confessed my sins?
Francis- They are not condoned while you persist in them.
Louis-The Church has indulgences which a king can pay
—
you.
Francis-God's pardon is not to be bought: we must de-
serve it.
Louis [in despair]-I claim it by right of my anguish!
O Father, if you knew my sufferings, you would shed tears of
pity! The intolerable bodily pain I endure constitutes but half
my troubles and my least suffering. I desire the places where I
cannot be. Everywhere remorse pursues me; I avoid the living;
I live among the dead. I spend dreadful days and nights more
terrible. The darkness assumes visible shapes; silence disturbs
me, and when I pray to my Savior I hear his voice say: "What
would you with me, accursed? " When asleep, a demon sits on
my chest: I drive him away, and a naked sword stabs me furi-
ously; I rise aghast; human blood inundates my couch, and my
hand, seized by a hand cold as death, is plunged in that blood
and feels hideous moving débris.
Francis-Ah, wretched man!
Louis-You shudder. Such are my days and nights; my
sleep, my life. Yet, dying, I agonize to live, and fear to drink
the last drop of that bitter cup.
Francis Come then. Forgive the wrongs others have done
you, and thus abate your own tortures. A deed of mercy will
buy you rest, and when you awake, some voice at least will
bless your name. Come. Do not tarry.
Wait!
-
Louis-Wait!
Francis-Will the Lord wait?
Louis-To-morrow!
Francis-But, to-morrow, to-night, now, perhaps, death awaits
crimes.
-
Louis I am well protected.
Francis-The unloved are ill protected. [Tries to drag the
King along. ] Come! Come!
Louis [pushing him aside]-Give me time, time to make up
my mind.
Francis-I leave you, murderer. I cannot forgive your


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4534
JEAN FRANÇOIS CASIMIR DELAVIGNE
Louis [terrified]-What! do you condemn me?
Francis-God may forgive all! When he still hesitates, how
could I condemn? Take advantage of the delay he grants you;
weep, pray, obtain from his mercy the softening of your heart
towards those unfortunates. Forgive, and let the light of day
shine for them once more. When you seized the attribute of
Divine vengeance they denounced your name from the depth of
their jails in their bitter anguish, and their shrieks and moans
drowned your prayers. Now end those sufferings, and God
shall hear your prayers.
Translated for 'A Library of the World's Best Literature. '


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DEMOSTHENES
45


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A
7!
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3


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4535
DEMOSTHENES
(384-322 B. C. )
BY ROBERT SHARP
HE lot of Demosthenes, the great Athenian orator, was cast
in evil times. The glorious days of his country's brilliant
political pre-eminence among Grecian States, and of her
still more brilliant pre-eminence as a leader and torch-bearer to the
world in its progress towards enlightenment and freedom, were well-
nigh over. In arms she had been crushed by the brute force of
Sparta. But this was not her deepest humiliation; she had indeed
risen again to great power, under the leadership of generals and
statesmen in whom something of the old-time Athenian spirit still
persisted; but the duration of that power had been brief. The deep-
est humiliation of a State is not in the loss of military prestige or
of material resources, but in the degeneracy of its citizens, in the
overthrow and scorn of high ideals; and so it was in Athens at the
time of Demosthenes's political activity.
The Athenians had become a pampered, ease-loving people. They
still cherished a cheap admiration for the great achievements of their
fathers. Stirring appeals to the glories of Marathon and Salamis
would arouse them to-pass patriotic resolutions. Any suggestion of
self-sacrifice, of service on the fleet or in the field, was dangerous.
A law made it a capital offense to propose to use, even in meeting
any great emergency, the fund set aside to supply the folk with
amusements. They preferred to hire mercenaries to undergo their
hardships and to fight their battles; but they were not willing to pay
their hirelings. The commander had to find pay for his soldiers in
the booty taken from their enemies; or failing that, by plundering
their friends. It must be admitted, however, that the patriots at
home were always ready and most willing to try, to convict, and to
punish the commanders upon any charge of misdemeanor in office.
There were not wanting men of integrity and true patriotism, and
of great ability, as Isocrates and Phocion, who accepted as inevitable
the decline of the power of Athens, and advocated a policy of passive
non-interference in foreign affairs, unless it were to take part in a
united effort against Persia. But the mass of the people, instead of
offering their own means and their bodies to the service of their
country, deemed it rather the part of the State to supply their needs


## p. 4536 (#318) ###########################################

4536
DEMOSTHENES
and their amusements. They considered that they had performed, to
the full, their duty as citizens when they had taken part in the noisy
debates of the Assembly, or had sat as paid jurymen in the never-
ending succession of court procedures of this most litigious of peo-
ples. Among men even in their better days not callous to the
allurements of bribes judiciously administered, it was a logical
sequence that corruption should now pervade all classes and condi-
tions.
Literature and art, too, shared the general decadence, as it ever
must be, since they always respond to the dominant ideals of a time
and a people. To this general statement the exception must be
noted that philosophy, as represented by Plato and Aristotle, and
oratory, as represented by a long succession of Attic orators, had
developed into higher and better forms. The history of human
experience has shown that philosophy often becomes more subtle and
more profound in times when men fall away from their ancient high
standards, and become shaken in their old beliefs. So oratory attains
its perfect flower in periods of the greatest stress and danger, whether
from foreign foes or from internal discord. Both these forms of
utterance of the active human intellect show, in their highest attain-
ment, the realization of imminent emergency and the effort to point
out a way of betterment and safety.
Not only the condition of affairs at home was full of portent of
coming disaster. The course of events in other parts of Greece and
in the barbarian kingdom of Macedon seemed all to be converging to
one inevitable result, the extinction of Hellenic freedom. When a
nation or a race becomes unfit to possess longer the most precious of
heritages, a free and honorable place among nations, then the time
and the occasion and the man will not be long wanting to co-operate
with the internal subversive force in consummating the final catas-
trophe. "If Philip should die," said Demosthenes, "the Athenians
would quickly make themselves another Philip. "
Throughout Greece, mutual jealousy and hatred among the States,
each too weak to cope with a strong foreign foe, prevented such
united action as might have made the country secure from any bar-
barian power; and that at a time when it was threatened by an
enemy far more formidable than had been Xerxes with all his mill-
ions.
ans.
The Greeks at first entirely underrated the danger from Philip and
the Macedonians. They had, up to this time, despised these barbari-
Demosthenes, in the third Philippic, reproaches his countrymen
with enduring insult and outrage from a vile barbarian out of Mace-
don, whence formerly not even a respectable slave could be obtained.
It is indeed doubtful whether the world has ever seen a man, placed


## p. 4537 (#319) ###########################################

DEMOSTHENES
4537
in a position of great power, more capable of seizing every oppor-
tunity and of using every agency, fair or foul, for accomplishing his
ambitious purposes, than was Philip of Macedon. The Greeks were
most unfortunate in their enemy.
Philip understood the Greek people thoroughly. He had received
his early training among them while a hostage at Thebes. He found
in their petty feuds, in their indolence and corruptibility, his oppor-
tunity to carry into effect his matured plans of conquest. His energy
never slept; his influence was ever present. When he was far away,
extending his boundaries among the barbarians, his money was still
active in Athens and elsewhere. His agents, often among the ablest
men in a community, were busy using every cunning means at the
command of the wonderful Greek ingenuity to conceal the danger or
to reconcile the fickle people to a change that promised fine rewards
for the sale of their liberty. Then he began to trim off one by one
the outlying colonies and dependencies of the Greek States. His next
step was to be the obtaining of a foothold in Greece proper.
The chief obstacle to Philip's progress was Athens, degenerate as
she was, and his chief opponent in Athens was Demosthenes. This
Philip understood very well; but he treated both the city and the
great statesman always with a remarkable leniency. More than once
Athens, inflamed by Demosthenes, flashed into her old-time energy
and activity, and stayed the Macedonian's course; as when, in his
first bold march towards the heart of Greece, he found himself con-
fronted at Thermopyla by Athenian troops; and again when prompt
succor from Athens saved Byzantium for the time. But the emer-
gency once past, the ardor of the Athenians died down as quickly as
it had flamed up.
The Social War (357-355 B. C. ) left Athens stripped almost bare
of allies, and was practically a victory for Philip. The Sacred War
(357-346 B. C. ) between Thebes and Phocis, turning upon an affront
offered to the Delphian god, gave Philip the eagerly sought-for
opportunity of interfering in the internal affairs of Greece. He
became the successful champion of the god, and received as his
reward a place in the great Amphictyonic Council. He thus secured
recognition of his claims to being a Greek, since none but Greeks
might sit in this council. He had, moreover, in crushing the Phocians,
destroyed a formidable power of resistance to his plans.
Such were the times and such the conditions in which Demos-
thenes entered upon his strenuous public life. He was born most
probably in 384 B. C. , though some authorities give preference to 382
B. C. as the year of his birth. He was the son of Demosthenes and
Cleobule. His father was a respectable and wealthy Athenian citizen,
a manufacturer of cutlery and upholstering. His mother was the


## p. 4538 (#320) ###########################################

4538
DEMOSTHENES
daughter of Gylon, an Athenian citizen resident in the region of the
Crimea.
Misfortune fell early upon him. At the age of seven he was left
fatherless. His large patrimony fell into the hands of unprincipled
guardians. Nature seems almost maliciously to have concentrated in
him a number of blemishes, any one of which might have checked
effectually the ambition of any ordinary man to excel in the pro-
fession Demosthenes chose for himself. He was not strong of body,
his features were sinister, and his manner was ungraceful,- a griev-
ous drawback among a people with whom physical beauty might
cover a multitude of sins, and physical imperfections were a reproach.
He seems to have enjoyed the best facilities in his youth for
training his mind, though he complains that his teachers were not
paid by his guardians; and he is reported to have developed a fond-
ness for oratory at an early age. In his maturing years, he was
taught by the great lawyer, Isæus; and must often have listened to
the orator and rhetorician Isocrates, if he was not indeed actually
instructed by him. When once he had determined to make himself
an orator, he set himself to work with immense energy to overcome
the natural disadvantages that stood in the way of his success. By
hard training he strengthened his weak voice and lungs; it is related
that he cured himself of a painful habit of stammering; and he sub-
jected himself to the most vigorous course of study preparatory to his
profession, cutting himself off from all social enjoyments.
His success as an orator, however, was not immediate. He tasted
all the bitterness of failure on more than one occasion; but after
temporary discouragement he redoubled his efforts to correct the
faults that were made so distressingly plain to him by the unsparing
but salutary criticism of his audience. Without doubt, these conflicts
and rebuffs of his earlier years served to strengthen and deepen the
moral character of Demosthenes, as well as to improve his art. They
contributed to form a man capable of spending his whole life in un-
flagging devotion to a high purpose, and that in the face of the
greatest difficulties and dangers. The dominant purpose of his life
was the preservation of the freedom of the Greek States from the
control of any foreign power, and the maintenance of the pre-eminent
position of Athens among these States. In this combination of a
splendid intellect, an indomitable will, and a great purpose, we find
the true basis of Demosthenes's greatness.
-
When at the age of eighteen he came into the wreck of his patri-
mony, he at once began suit against Aphobos, one of his unfaithful
guardians. He conducted his case himself. So well did he plead his
cause that he received a verdict for a large amount. He seems, how-
ever, owing to the trickery of his opponent, never to have recovered


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DEMOSTHENES
4539
the money.
He became now a professional writer of speeches for
clients in private suits of every kind, sometimes appearing in court
himself as advocate.
In 355-354 B. C. he entered upon his career as public orator and
statesman. He had now found his field of action, and till the end of
his eventful life he was a most prominent figure in the great issues
that concerned the welfare of Athens and of Greece. He was long
unquestionably the leading man among the Athenians. By splendid
ability as orator and statesman he was repeatedly able to thwart the
plans of the traitors in the pay of Philip, even though they were led
by the adept and eloquent Eschines. His influence was powerful in
the Peloponnesus, and he succeeded, in 338 B. C. , in even uniting the
bitter hereditary enemies Thebes and Athens for one final, desperate,
but unsuccessful struggle against the Macedonian power.
Demosthenes soon awoke to the danger threatening his coun-
try from the barbarian kingdom in the north, though not even he
understood at first how grave was the danger. The series of great
speeches relating to Philip-the First Philippic; the three Olynthiacs,
'On the Peace,' 'On the Embassy,' 'On the Chersonese'; the Second
and Third Philippics-show an increasing intensity and fire as the
danger became more and more imminent. These orations were deliv-
ered in the period 351-341 B. C.
When the cause of Greek freedom had been overwhelmed at Chæ-
ronea, in the defeat of the allied Thebans and Athenians, Demos-
thenes, who had organized the unsuccessful resistance to Philip, still
retained the favor of his countrymen, fickle as they were. With the
exception of a short period of disfavor, he practically regulated the
policy of Athens till his death in 322 B. C.
In 336 B. C. , on motion of Ctesiphon, a golden crown was voted
to Demosthenes by the Senate, in recognition of certain eminent
services and generous contributions from his own means to the needs
of the State. The decree was not confirmed by the Assembly, owing
to the opposition of Eschines, who gave notice that he would bring
suit against Ctesiphon for proposing an illegal measure. The case did
not come up for trial, however, till 330 B. C. , six years later. (The
reason for this delay has never been clearly revealed. )
When Ctesiphon was summoned to appear, it was well understood
that it was not he but Demosthenes who was in reality to be tried,
and that the public and private record of the latter would be sub-
jected to the most rigorous scrutiny. On that memorable occasion,
people gathered from all over Greece to witness the oratorical duel
of the two champions- for Demosthenes was to reply to Eschines.
The speech of Eschines was a brilliant and bitter arraignment of
Demosthenes; but so triumphant was the reply of the latter, that his


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DEMOSTHENES
4540
opponent, in mortification, went into voluntary exile. The speech of
Demosthenes 'On the Crown' has been generally accepted by ancients
and moderns as the supreme attainment in the oratory of antiquity.
It is evident that a man the never-swerving champion of a cause
which demanded the greatest sacrifice from a people devoted to self-
indulgence, the never-sleeping opponent of the hirelings of a foreign
enemy, and a persistent obstacle to men of honest conviction who
advocated a policy different from that which seemed best to him,
would of necessity bring upon himself bitter hostility and accusations
of the most serious character. And such was the case. Demosthenes
has been accused of many crimes and immoralities, some of them
so different in character as to be almost mutually exclusive. The
most serious charge is that of receiving a bribe from Harpalus, the
absconding treasurer of Alexander. He was tried upon this charge,
convicted, fined fifty talents, and thrown into prison. Thence he
escaped to go into a miserable exile.
How far and how seriously the character of Demosthenes is com-
promised by this and other attacks, it is not possible to decide to
the satisfaction of all. The results of the contest in regard to the
crown and the trial in the Harpalus matter were very different; but
the verdict of neither trial, even if they were not conflicting, could
be accepted as decisive. To me, the evidence,-weighed as we weigh
other evidence, with a just appreciation of the source of the charges,
the powerful testimony of the man's public life viewed as a whole,
and the lofty position maintained in the face of all odds among a
petulant people whom he would not flatter, but openly reproved for
their vices, the evidence, I say, read in this light justifies the con-
clusion that the orator was a man of high moral character, and that
in the Harpalus affair he was the victim of the Macedonian faction
and of the misled patriotic party, co-operating for the time being.
When the tidings of the death of Alexander startled the world,
Demosthenes at once, though in exile, became intensely active in
arousing the patriots to strike one more blow for liberty. He was
recalled to Athens, restored to his high place, and became again the
chief influence in preparing for the last desperate resistance to the
Macedonians. When the cause of Greek freedom was finally lost,
Demosthenes went into exile; a price was set upon his head; and
when the Macedonian soldiers, led by a Greek traitor, were about to
lay hands upon him in the temple of Poseidon at Calauria, he sucked
the poison which he always carried ready in his pen, and died
rather than yield himself to the hated enemies of his country.
It remains only to say that the general consensus of ancient and
modern opinion is, that Demosthenes was the supreme figure in the
brilliant line of orators of antiquity. The chief general characteristics


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DEMOSTHENES
4541
in all Demosthenes's public oratory are a sustained intensity and
a merciless directness. Swift as waves before a gale, every word
bears straight toward the final goal of his purpose. We are hardly
conscious even of the artistic taste which fits each phrase, and sen-
tence, and episode, to the larger occasion as well as to each other.
Indeed, we lose the rhetorician altogether in the devoted pleader,
the patriot, the self-forgetful chief of a noble but losing cause. His
careful study of the great orators who had preceded him undoubt-
edly taught him much; yet it was his own original and creative
power, lodged in a far-sighted, generous, and fearless nature, that
enabled him to leave to mankind a series of forensic masterpieces
hardly rivaled in any age or country.
Robert Shank
THE THIRD PHILIPPIC
THE ARGUMENT
This speech was delivered about three months after the second Philippic,
while Philip was advancing into Thrace, and threatening both the Chersonese
and the Propontine coast. No new event had happened which called for any
special consultation; but Demosthenes, alarmed by the formidable character of
Philip's enterprises and vast military preparations, felt the necessity of rous-
ing the Athenians to exertion.
M*
ANY speeches, men of Athens, are made in almost every
Assembly about the hostilities of Philip, hostilities which
ever since the treaty of peace he has been committing as
well against you as against the rest of the Greeks; and all, I
am sure, are ready to avow, though they forbear to do so, that
our counsels and our measures should be directed to his humili-
ation and chastisement: nevertheless, so low have our affairs
been brought by inattention and negligence, I fear it is harsh
truth to say, that if all the orators had sought to suggest and
you to pass resolutions for the utter ruining of the common-
wealth, we could not methinks be worse off than we are. A
variety of circumstances may have brought us to this state; our
affairs have not declined from one or two causes only: but if
you rightly examine, you will find it chiefly owing to the orators,
who study to please you rather than advise for the best. Some
of whom, Athenians, seeking to maintain the basis of their own


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4542
DEMOSTHENES
power and repute, have no forethought for the future, and
therefore think you also ought to have none; others, accusing
and calumniating practical statesmen, labor only to make Athens
punish Athens, and in such occupation to engage her that Philip
may have liberty to say and do what he pleases. Politics of this
kind are common here, but are the causes of your failures and
embarrassment. I beg, Athenians, that you will not resent my
plain speaking of the truth. Only consider. You hold liberty of
speech in other matters to be the general right of all residents
in Athens, insomuch that you allow a measure of it even to
foreigners and slaves, and many servants may be seen among
you speaking their thoughts more freely than citizens in some
other States; and yet you have altogether banished it from your
councils. The result has been, that in the Assembly you give
yourselves airs and are flattered at hearing nothing but compli-
ments; in your measures and proceedings you are brought to the
utmost peril. If such be your disposition now, I must be silent:
if you will listen to good advice without flattery, I am ready to
speak. For though our affairs are in a deplorable condition,
though many sacrifices have been made, still if you will choose
to perform your duty it is possible to repair it all. A paradox,
and yet a truth, am I about to state. That which is the most
lamentable in the past is best for the future. How is this?
Because you performed no part of your duty, great or small, and
therefore you fared ill: had you done all that became you, and
your situation were the same, there would be no hope of amend-
Philip has indeed prevailed over your sloth and negli.
gence, but not over the country; you have not been worsted;
you have not even bestirred yourselves.
ment.
If now we were all agreed that Philip is at war with Athens
and infringing the peace, nothing would a speaker need to urge
or advise but the safest and easiest way of resisting him. But
since, at the very time when Philip is capturing cities and re-
taining divers of our dominions and assailing all people, there
are men so unreasonable as to listen to repeated declarations in
the Assembly that some of us are kindling war, one must be
cautious and set this matter right: for whoever moves or advises
a measure of defense is in danger of being accused afterwards
as author of the war.
I will first then examine and determine this point, whether it
be in our power to deliberate on peace or war.
If the country


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DEMOSTHENES
4543
may be at peace, if it depends on us (to begin with this), I say
we ought to maintain peace; and I call upon the affirmant to
move a resolution, to take some measure, and not to palter with
us. But if another, having arms in his hand and a large force
around him, amuses you with the name of peace while he car-
ries on the operations of war, what is left but to defend your-
selves? You may profess to be at peace if you like, as he does;
I quarrel not with that. But if any man supposes this to be a
peace, which will enable Philip to master all else and attack
you last, he is a madman, or he talks of a peace observed
towards him by you, not towards you by him. This it is that
Philip purchases by all his expenditure-the privilege of assail-
ing you without being assailed in turn.
If we really wait until he avows that he is at war with us,
we are the simplest of mortals: for he would not declare that,
though he marched even against Attica and Piræus; at least if
we may judge from his conduct to others. For example, to the
Olynthians he declared when he was forty furlongs from their
city, that there was no alternative, but either they must quit
Olynthus or he Macedonia; though before that time, whenever
he was accused of such an intent, he took it ill and sent ambas-
sadors to justify himself. Again, he marched toward the Pho-
cians as if they were allies, and there were Phocian envoys who
accompanied his march, and many among you contended that his
advance would not benefit the Thebans. And he came into Thes-
saly of late as a friend and ally, yet he has taken possession of
Pheræ; and lastly he told these wretched people of Oreus that
he had sent his soldiers out of good-will to visit them, as he
heard they were in trouble and dissension, and it was the part
of allies and true friends to lend assistance on such occasions.
People who would never have harmed him, though they might
have adopted measures of defense, he chose to deceive rather
than warn them of his attack; and think ye he would declare
war against you before he began it, and that while you are will-
ing to be deceived? Impossible. He would be the silliest of
mankind, if whilst you the injured parties make no complaint
against him, but are accusing your own countrymen, he should
terminate your intestine strife and jealousies, warn you to turn
against him, and remove the pretexts of his hirelings for assert-
ing, to amuse you, that he makes no war upon Athens. O
heavens! would any rational being judge by words rather than


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4544
DEMOSTHENES
by actions, who is at peace with him and who at war? Surely
none. Well then, tell me now: when he sends mercenaries into
Chersonesus, which the king and all the Greeks have acknowl-
edged to be yours, when he avows himself an auxiliary and
writes us word so, what are such proceedings? He says he is
not at war; I cannot however admit such conduct to be an
observance of the peace; far otherwise: I say, by his attempt on
Megara, by his setting up despotism in Euboea, by his present
advance into Thrace, by his intrigues in Peloponnesus, by the
whole course of operations with his army, he has been breaking
the peace and making war upon you; unless indeed you will say
that those who establish batteries are not at war until they
apply them to the walls. But that you will not say: for whoever
contrives and prepares the means for my conquest, is at war
with me before he darts or draws the bow. What, if anything
should happen, is the risk you run? The alienation of the Hel-
lespont, the subjection of Megara and Eubœa to your enemy, the
siding of the Peloponnesians 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
the Phocians I date his commencement of hostilities. Defend
yourselves instantly, and I say you will be wise: delay it, and
you may wish in vain to do so hereafter. So much do I dissent
from your other counselors, men of Athens, that I deem any
discussion about Chersonesus or Byzantium out of place. Succor
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
utmost peril. I must tell you why I am so alarmed at the state
of our affairs, that if my reasonings are correct, you may share
them, and make some provision at least for yourselves, however
disinclined to do so for others; but if in your judgment I talk
nonsense and absurdity, you may treat me as crazed, and not
listen to me either now or in future.
-
That Philip from a mean and humble origin has grown
mighty, that the Greeks are jealous and quarreling among them-
selves, that it was far more wonderful for him to rise from that
insignificance than it would now be, after so many acquisitions,
to conquer what is left: these, and similar matters which I might
dwell upon, I pass over. But I observe that all people, begin-
ning with you, have conceded to him a right which in former


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DEMOSTHENES
4545
times has been the subject of contest in every Grecian war.
And what is this? The right of doing what he pleases, openly
fleecing and pillaging the Greeks, one after another, attacking
and enslaving their cities. You were at the head of the Greeks
for seventy-three years, the Lacedæmonians for twenty-nine; and
the Thebans had some power in these latter times after the
battle of Leuctra. Yet neither you my countrymen, nor The-
bans, nor Lacedæmonians, were ever licensed by the Greeks to
act as you pleased; far otherwise. When you, or rather the
Athenians of that time, appeared to be dealing harshly with cer-
tain 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 Lacedæmonians became masters and
succeeded 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 where-
fore mention other people? We ourselves and the Lacedæmo-
nians, 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 neighbors. Yet all the faults committed by the
Spartans in those thirty years, and by our ancestors in the
seventy, are less, men of Athens, than the wrongs which in
thirteen incomplete years that Philip has been uppermost he has
inflicted on the Greeks: nay, they are scarcely a fraction of these,
as may easily be shown in a few words. 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 hardly tell if they were ever inhabited; and of the Pho-
cians, 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 established tetrarchies, to parcel
her out, not only by cities, but also by provinces, for subjection ?
Are not the Euboean States governed now by despots, and that
in an island near to Thebes and Athens? Does he not expressly
write in his epistles, "I am at peace with those who are willing
to obey me? " Nor does he write so and not act accordingly.
He is gone to the Hellespont; he marched formerly against
Ambracia; Elis, such an important city in Peloponnesus, he
possesses; he plotted lately to get Megara: neither Hellenic nor
barbaric land contains the man's ambition.
VIII-285


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DEMOSTHENES
And we the Greek community, seeing and hearing this, instead
of sending embassies to one another about it and expressing
indignation, are in such a miserable state, so intrenched in our
separate towns, that to this day we can attempt nothing that
interest or necessity requires; we cannot combine, or form any
association for succor and alliance; we look unconcernedly on
the man's growing power, each resolving, methinks, to enjoy the
interval that another is destroyed in, not caring or striving for
the salvation of Greece: for none can be ignorant that Philip,
like some course or attack of fever or other disease, is coming
even on those that yet seem very far removed. And you must
be sensible that whatever wrong the Greeks sustained from
Lacedæmonians or from us was at least inflicted by genuine
people of Greece; and 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 con-
sider him open to censure and reproach, yet it could not be said
that he was an alien, and not heir to the property which he so
dealt with. But if a slave or a spurious child wasted and spoiled
what he had no interest in - Heavens! how much more heinous
and hateful would all have pronounced it! And yet in regard to
Philip and his conduct they feel not this, although he is not
only no Greek and no way akin to Greeks, but not even a bar-
barian of a place honorable to mention; in fact, a vile fellow of
Macedon, from which a respectable slave could not be purchased
formerly.
What is wanting to make his insolence complete? Besides
his destruction of Grecian cities, does he not hold the Pythian
games, the common festival of Greece, and if he comes not
himself, send his vassals to preside? Is he not master of Ther-
mopyla and the passes into Greece, and holds he not those
places by garrisons and mercenaries? Has he not thrust aside
Thessalians, ourselves, Dorians, the whole Amphictyonic body,
and got pre-audience of the oracle, to which even the Greeks
do not all pretend? Yet the Greeks endure to see all this;
methinks they view it as they would a hailstorm, each praying
that it may not fall on himself, none trying to prevent it. And
not only are the outrages which he does to Greece submitted to,
but even the private wrongs of every people: nothing can go
beyond this! Still under these indignities we are all slack and


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DEMOSTHENES
4547
disheartened, and look towards our neighbors, distrusting one
another instead of the common enemy. And how think
ye a
man who behaves so insolently to all, how will he act when he
gets each separately under his control?
But what has caused the mischief? There must be some
cause, some good reason why the Greeks were so eager for
liberty then, and now are eager for servitude. There was some-
thing, men of Athens, something in the hearts of the multitude.
then which there is not now, which overcame the wealth of
Persia and maintained the freedom of Greece, and quailed not
under any battle by land or sea; the loss whereof has ruined all,
and thrown the affairs of Greece into confusion. What was this?
Nothing subtle or clever: simply that whoever took money from
the aspirants for power or the corrupters of Greece were uni-
versally detested; it was dreadful to be convicted of bribery;
the severest punishment was inflicted on the guilty, and there
was no intercession or pardon. The favorable moments for
enterprise which fortune frequently offers to the careless against
the vigilant, to them that will do nothing against those that
discharge all their duty, could not be bought from orators or
generals; no more could mutual concord, nor distrust of tyrants.
and barbarians, nor anything of the kind. But now all such
principles have been sold as in open market, and those imported
in exchange, by which Greece is ruined and diseased. What are
they? Envy where a man gets a bribe; laughter if he confesses
it; mercy to the convicted; hatred of those that denounce the
crime; all the usual attendants upon corruption.