The book of the ancient Greeks: An introduction to the history and civilization of Greece from the coming of the Greeks to the conquest of Corinth by Rome in 146 B.C.
John Stuart Mill · en
It was known that Demosthenes worked very hard over his speeches, and
that he never spoke in the Assembly unless he had thought over the
subject and prepared what he intended to say. It became a matter of
joke in Athens that instead of depending on inspiration, his speeches
"smelt of the lamp." In his old age, Demosthenes told some {337} of
his friends how he had overcome his defects of speech:
His inarticulate and stammering pronunciation he overcame and
rendered more distinct by speaking with pebbles in his mouth; his
voice he disciplined by declaiming and reciting speeches or
verses when he was out of breath, while running or going up steep
places; and that in his house he had a large looking-glass,
before which he would stand and go through his exercises.[4]
To cure a habit he had of raising his left shoulder while speaking,
he suspended a naked sword over it whenever he practised, and he
would stand on the sea-shore during a storm to declaim, so that he
might accustom himself to the uproar in a public assembly.
Demosthenes has been called the greatest of orators. Opinions have
differed since, as to whether his policy was the wisest for Athens to
follow at that moment, but every word he uttered was inspired by a
passionate love for Athens, and he at all times entreated the
Athenians to be true to their own great spirit and their ancient
patriotism.
Never to this day, [he said on one occasion], has this People
been eager for the acquisition of money; but for honour it has
been eager as for nothing else in the world. It is a sign of
this that when Athens had money in greater abundance than any
other Hellenic people, she spent it all in the cause of honour;
her citizens contributed from their private resources, and she
never shrank from danger when glory was to be won. Therefore
{338} she has those eternal and abiding possessions, the memory
of her actions, and the beauty of the offerings dedicated in
honour of them, the Porticoes which you see, the Parthenon, the
Colonnades, the Dockyards.
The speeches of Demosthenes against the policy of making friends with
Philip are known as the _Philippics_, a word which has become part of
later language, and in the greatest of these, he shows the Athenians
how their lowered ideals have permitted political corruption and were
leading them to destruction.