Sidebilder
PDF
ePub

137. EXTRACT FROM DEMOSTHENES' ORATION ON THE CROWN.

1. But since Eschines hath insisted so much upon the event, I shall hazard a bold assertion. But, in the name of heaven, let it not be deemed extravagant; let it be weighed with candor. I say, then, that had we all known what fortune was to attend our efforts; had we all foreseen the final issue; had you foretold it, Æschines, you whose voice was never heard, yet even in such a case, must this city have pursued the very same conduct, if she had retained a thought of glory, of her ancestors, or of future times. For thus, she could only have been deemed unfortunate in her attempts; and misfortunes are the lot of all men, whenever it may please heaven to inflict them.

2. But if that state, which once claimed the first rank in Greece, had resigned this rank, in time of danger, she had incurred the censure of betraying the whole nation to the enemy. If we had indeed given up those points without one blow, for which our fathers encountered every peril, who would not have spurned you with scorn? You, the author of such conduct, not the state or me? In the name of heaven, say with what face could we have met those foreigners who sometimes visit us, if such scandalous supineness on our part had brought affairs to their present situation?

3. If Philip had been chosen general of the Grecian army, and some other state had drawn the sword against this insidious nomination, and fought the battle, unassisted by the Athenians, that people, who, in ancient times, never preferred inglorious security to honorable danger? What part of Greece, what part of the barbarian world, has not heard, that the Thebans, in their period of success; that the Lacedemonians, whose power was older and more extensive; that the king of Persia, would have cheerfully and joyfully consented, that this state should enjoy her own dominions, together with an accession of territory ample as her wishes, upon this condition, that she should receive law, and suffer another state to preside in Greece?

4. But, to Athenians, this was a condition unbecoming their descent, intolerable to their spirit, repugnant to their nature. Athens was never once known to live in a slavish, though a secure obedience to unjust and arbitrary power.

No! our whole history is one series of noble contests for preeminence; the whole period of our existence hath been spent in braving dangers, for the sake of glory and renown. And so highly do you esteem such conduct, so consonant to the Athenian character, that those of your ancestors, who were most distinguished in the pursuit of it, are ever the most favorite objects of your praise.

5. And with reason. For who can reflect without astonishment upon the magnanimity of those men, who resigned their lands, gave up their city, and embarked in their ships, to avoid the odious state of subjection? Who chose Themis tocles, the adviser of this conduct, to command their forces; and when Crysilus proposed that they should yield to the terms prescribed, stoned him to death? Nay, the public indignation was not yet allayed. Your very wives inflicted the same vengeance on his wife.

6. For the Athenians of that day looked out for no speaker, no general to procure them a state of prosperous 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, is prepared to meet his fate freely, rather than behold that country reduced to vassalage; and thinks those insults and disgraces, which he must meet, in a state enslaved, much more terrible than death.

7. Should I then 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 shew, 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 you of the applause of all posterity.

8. For if you now pronounce, that as my public 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 cannot be! No! my countrymen! it cannot be that you have acted wrong in encountering danger bravely, for the liberty and safety of all Greece.

9. No, by those generous souls of ancient times, who were exposed at Marathon! By those who stood arrayed at Platæa! By those who encountered the Persian fleet, at Salamis, who fought at Artemisium! By all those illustrious sons of Athens, whose remains lie deposited in the public monuments! all of whom received the same honorable interment from their country; 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 success was such as the Supreme Director of the world dispensed to each.

The

The oration of Demosthenes on the crown, from which the above extract is taken, is a master piece of Grecian eloquence. Eschines accused Demosthenes of being the cause of all the evils which befel Athens extract contains the orator's answer. It is a fine specimen of manly, argumentative, and impassioned eloquence. The position which he labors to establish, is, that success is not always the result even of well directed efforts, but the gift of heaven. And who does not admire the consummate skill with which he argues the point? May we not imagine that his elocution on that occasion, somewhat resembled Homer's description of lightning

[ocr errors]

By turns one flash succeeds, as one expires,
And heaven flames thick with momentary fires."

The most glorious era in the history of eloquence is marked by the name of Demosthenes. He wrote sixty-one orations. That monotony which prevails so generally among modern speakers, might be in some measure remedied, by studying and declaiming them.

138. EXTRACT FROM CICERO'S SPEECH FOR CLUENTIUS.

1. You, T. Attius, I know, had every where given it out, that I was to defend my client, not from facts, not upon the footing of innocence, but by taking advantage merely of the law in his behalf. Have I done so? I appeal to yourself. Have I sought to cover him behind a legal defence only? On the contrary, have I not pleaded his cause as if he had

been a senator, liable, by the Cornelian law, to be capitally convicted; and shown that neither proof nor probable presumption lies against his innocence.

2. In doing so, I must acquaint you, that I have complied with the desire of Cluentius himself. For when he first consulted me in this cause, and when I informed him that it was clear, no action could be brought against him from the Cornelian law, he instantly besought and obtested me, that I would not rest his defence upon that ground; saying, with tears in his eyes, that his reputation was as dear to him as his life; and that what he sought, as an innocent man, was not only to be absolved from any penalty, but to be acquitted in the opinion of all his fellow-citizens.

3. Hitherto, then, I have pleaded this cause upon his plan. But my client must forgive me, if now I shall plead it upon my own. For I should be wanting to myself, and to that regard which my character and station require me to bear to the laws of the state, if I should allow any person to be judged of by a law which does not bind him.

4. You, Attius, indeed, have told us, that it was a scandal and reproach, that a Roman knight should be exempted from those penalties to which a senator, for corrupting judges, is liable. But I must tell you, that it would be a much greater reproach in a state that is regulated by law, to depart from the law. What safety have any of us in our persons; what security for our rights, if the law shall be set aside?

5. By what title do you, Q. Naso, sit in that chair, and preside in this judgment? By what right, T. Attius, do you accuse, or do I defend? Whence all the solemnity and pomp of judges, and clerks, and officers, of which this house is full? Does not all proceed from the law, which regulates the whole departments of the state; which, as a common bond, holds its members together; and, like the soul within the body, actuates and directs all the public functions?

6. On what ground, then, dare you speak lightly of the law, or move that, in a criminal trial, judges should advance one step beyond what it permits them to go? The wisdom of our ancestors has found, that as senators and magistrates enjoy higher dignities, and greater advantages than other members of the state, the law should also, with regard to them, be more strict; and the purity and uncorruptedness of their morals, be guarded by more severe sanctions. But if it be

your pleasure that this institution should be altered; if you wish to have the Cornelian law concerning bribery, extended to all ranks, then let us join, not in violating the law, but in proposing to have this alteration made by a new law.

7. My client, Cluentius, will be foremost in this measure, who now, while the old law subsists, rejected its defence, and required his cause to be pleaded, as if he had been bound by it. But though he would not avail himself of the law, you are bound in justice, not to stretch it beyond its proper limits.

In the ancient republics, especially in Rome, during the days of Cicero, "the laws ruled men, and not men the laws." It ought to be so in modern republics. Obedience to the laws of the land, is the first, second, and last quality of a good citizen. Patriotism consists chiefly in upholding and sustaining at all times, and under all circumstances, "the supremacy of the laws." If we trample them in the dust, we strike away all the pledges of our common safety. Cicero's speech inculcates sound doctrine in favor of obeying laws. It requires considerable energy in its elocution.

Greece and Rome produced each of them but one accomplished orator. It has been eloquently and truly said: "Demosthenes snatched from Cicero the glory of being the first,-Cicero from Demosthenes that of being the only orator."

THE END.

« ForrigeFortsett »