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STATESMEN AND ORATORS. 185This was the case in Greece, and especially in Athens,during the age of Philipfor it was Philipwho called forth;a Demosthenes. Evety thing which was needed to producesuch an orator, had already been prepared. The form ofgovernment had long since made public speaking customary, and had opened a place for its influence. Eloquencewas no longer regarded as merely a gift of nature, but asthe fruit of study and the orator ;spoke to a people, whichwas sufficiently well informed, to understand and estimate hismerits. To this were added those external causes, the difficult relations of the times. Where could there have beena better field for great public speakers? Where wouldtheir appearance have been more easily accounted for?Where was it more natural, that the practical statesmanshould more and more apply himself to the studyofeloquence, and thus the third period distinguished by us beintroduced, in which the mere orator, without the talents ofa military commander, could direct the affairs of the state.But when we investigate the history of practical eloquencein Greece, (for we speak of that, and not of the theory,) weare soon led to remark, what deserves to be carefully con*sidered ;that in this last period of time, political eloquenceand that of the bar became much more closely connected thanbefore. The men who in the earlier times had stood at thehead of the state, Pericles, Alcibiades, and the rest, did notmake their way to eminence through the business of advocates.Though in individual cases, as Pericles in that ofCimon, 1 they appeared as accusers in public trials, theynever made a profession of pleading in the courts of justice,as did the orators of the age of Demosthenes. This givesrise to an important question in the history of practicalpolitics no less than of oratory.When did the advocates inGreece become statesmen; and by what means did theybecome so ?If I do not err, it is not difficult to prove, that during,and by means of the Peloponnesian war, the labours of theadvocate and the statesman first came to be united. Thestate trials, as is apparent from our remarks in a precedingchapter respecting the judicial institutions, produced this1Plutarch. Op. 1. p. 610. And even then, as the writer remarks, he wasrather apparently than really an accuser.