1pFFjZK

LONGINUS 125
above their misfortunes they begin to feel
that the disaster
of Cha?ronca is no less glorious than the victories of Marathon
and Salamis. All this he effects by the use of one
with him. It is said
figure, and so carries his hearers away
that the germ of this adjuration is found in Eupolis
" By mine own fight, by Marathon, I say,
Who makes my heart to ache shall rue the day ! " *
But there is
nothing grand in the mere employment of an
h. Its grandeur will depend on its being employed in the
right place and the right manner, on the right occasion, and
with the right motive. In Kupolis the oath is
nothing beyond
an oath; and the Athenians to whom it is addressed
are still prosperous, and in need of no consolation. Morethe
poet does not, like Demosthenes, swear by the departed
heroes as deities, so as to engender in his audience a
ju-t conception of their valor, but diverges from the champion
k> the battle a
s_
mere lifeless thing. But Demos-
Ihcncs has so skilfully managed
the oath that in addressing
his countrymen after the defeat of Chaeronea he takes out of
and at the same time, while
er;
proving that no mistake has been made, he holds up an
mple, confirms his arguments by an oath, and makes his
.id an incentive to the living.
And to rebut
a possible objection which occurred to him "Tan you,
nostlu-nes, whose policy ended in defeat, swear by a victor
-the orator proceeds to measure his language,
choo>ing his very words so as to give' no handle to opponents,
thus showing us that even in our most inspired moments
it to hold the reins. t Let us mark his word-:
"Those who faced the joe at Marathon; those who jouglil
*In .
ober."
-Mi."
uit even in the midst of the revels of Bacchus we ought to n