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STATESMEN AND ORATORS. 187becoming the eulogist of that master in his art, whom theunited voice of so many centuries has declared to be thefirst ;and whose worth the only rival whom antiquity placedby his side, has described in a manner at once exact, and1equally honourable to both. We would not here speak ofDemosthenes the orator, but of Demosthenes the statesman;and of him only as far as the man, the orator, and the statesman were most intimately connected in him. His politicalprinciples came from the depths of his soul ; he remainedtrue to his feelings and his convictions, amidst all changesof circumstances and all threatening dangers. Hence hewas the most powerful of orators ; because with him there wasno surrender of his convictions, no partial compromise, ina word, no trace of weakness. This is the real essence ofhis art ;every thing else was but secondary. And in thishow much does he rise above Cicero ! And yet who eversuffered more severely than he for his greatness? Of allpolitical characters, Demosthenes is the most sublime andpurest 2 tragic character, with which history is acquainted.When, still trembling with the vehement force of his language, we read his life in Plutarch when we; transfer ourselves into his times and his situation ;we are carried awayby a deeper interest, than can be excited by any hero of the .epic muse or of tragedy. From his first appearancemoment when he swallows poison in the temple, we see himcontending against destiny, which seems to mock him withmalignant cruelty. It throws him to the ground, but neversubdues him. What a flood of emotions must have pouredtill thethrough his manly breast amidst this interchange of revivingand expiring hopes. How natural was it, that the lines ofmelancholy 3 and of indignation, such as we behold in hisbust, 4 should have been imprinted on his severe countenance!Hardly had he passed the years of youth, when he appeared1Cicero in Brato, c. 9.2He was naturally calumniated "beyond any other. And yet they couldbring no charge against him but his silence in the affair of Harpalus, (see below,) and that he was in Persian pay ;which was the common charge againstall who did not side with Philip. Could they have proved it, is itthat probablethey would have kept back their proofs ?3 Hk adversary, when he insultingly said that Demosthenes "could weepmore easily than other men could laugh," JSschin. in Ctesipk Op. in", p. 597.Reisk., uttered a deeper truth than he himself was aware of.4"^^nti, Ieofiograph!ey Pi