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in your minds, must inspire you with a just abhorrence of any persons whatsoever who dare transgress them by rash decrees; and that far from ever looking upon a transgression of this kind as a small fault, you will always consider it as an enormous and capital crime. Do not suffer, then, any one to make you depart from so wise a principle. But as, in the army, every one of you would be ashamed to quit the post assigned him by the general, so let every one of you be this day ashamed to abandon the post which the laws have given you in the commonwealth. What post?—that of protectors of the Government.

Must we, in your person, crown the author of the public calamities, or must we destroy him? And, indeed, what unexpected revolutions, what unthought-of catastrophes, have we not seen in our days?—The king of Persia, that king who opened a passage through Mount Athos; who bound the Hellespont in chains; who was so imperious as to command the Greeks to acknowledge him sovereign both of sea and land; who, in his letters and despatches, presumed to style himself the sovereign of the world, from the rising to the setting of the sun; and who fights now, not to rule over the rest of mankind, but to save his own life; -do not we see those very men who signalized their zeal in the relief of Delphos, invested both with the glory, for which that powerful king was once so conspicuous, and with the title of the chief of the Greeks against him? As to Thebes, which borders upon Attica, have we not seen it disappear in one day from the midst of Greece ?—And with regard to the unhappy Lacedemonians, what calamities have not befallen them, only for taking but a small part of the spoils of the temple! They who formerly assumed a superiority over Greece, are they not now going to send ambassadors to Alexander's court; to bear the name of

hostages in his train; to become a spectacle of misery; to bow the knee before the monarch; submit themselves and their country to his mercy; and receive such laws as a conqueror, a conqueror they attacked first, shall think fit to prescribe them? Athens itself, the common refuge of the Greeks; Athens formerly peopled with ambassadors, who flocked to claim its almighty protection; is not this city now obliged to fight, not to obtain a superiority over the Greeks, but to preserve itself from destruction ? Such are the misfortunes which Demosthenes has brought upon us, since his intermeddling with the administration.

Imagine then, Athenians, when he shall invite the confidants and accomplices of his abject perfidy to range themselves around him, towards the close of his harangue; imagine then, Athenians, on your side, that you see the ancient benefactors of this commonwealth, drawn up in battle array, round this rostrum, where I am now speaking, in order to repulse that audacious band. Imagine you hear Solon, who strengthened the popular government by such excellent laws; that philosopher, that incomparable legislator, conjuring you with a gentleness and modesty becoming his character, not to set a higher value upon Demosthenes's oratorical flourishes than upon your oaths and your laws. Imagine you hear Aristides, who made so exact and just a division of the contributions imposed upon the Greeks for the common cause; that sage dispenser, who left no other inheritance to his daughters but the public gratitude, which was their portion; imagine, I say, you hear him bitterly bewailing the outrageous manner in which we trample upon justice, and speaking to you in these words: What! because Arthmius of Zelia, that Asiatic, who passed through Athens, where he even enjoyed the rights of hospitality, had brought gold from the Medes

into Greece; your ancestors were going to send him to the place of execution, and banished him, not only from their city, but from all the countries dependent on them; and will not you blush to decree Demosthenes, who has not indeed brought gold from the Medes, but has received such sums of money from all parts to betray you, and now enjoys the fruit of his treasures; will not you, I say, blush to decree a crown of gold to Demosthenes? Do you think that Themistocles, and the heroes who were killed in the battles of Marathon and Platea-do you think the very tombs of your ancestors will not send forth groans, if you crown a man who, by his own confession, has been for ever conspiring with barbarians to ruin Greece?

As to myself, O earth! O sun! O virtue ! and you who are the springs of true discernment, lights both natural and acquired, by which we distinguish good from evil, I call you to witness, that I have used all my endeavours to relieve the state, and to plead her cause. I could have wished my speech had been equal to the greatness and importance of the subject; at least, I can flatter myself with having discharged my duty according to my abilities, if I have not done it according to my wishes. Do you, Athenians, from the reasons you have heard, and those which your wisdom will suggest; do you pronounce such a judgment as is conformable to strict justice, and the common good demands from you. ESCHINES.

THE REPLY.

IN the first place, ye men of Athens, I make my prayer to all the powers of Heaven, that such affection as I have

ever invariably discovered to this state, and all its citizens, you, now, may entertain for me, upon this present trial. And (what concerns you nearly, what essentially concerns your religion and your honour)-that the gods may so dispose your minds, as to permit me to proceed in my defence, not as directed by my adversary (that would be severe indeed!) but by the laws, and by your oath; in which, to all the other equitable clauses, we find this expressly added -"Each party shall have equal audience."-This imports not merely that you shall not prejudge, not merely that the same impartiality shall be shown to both; but still further, that the contending parties shall each be left at full liberty to arrange, and to conduct his pleading, as his choice or judgment may determine.

In many instances hath Æschines the entire advantage in this cause. Two there are of more especial moment. First, as to our interests in the contest, we are on terms utterly unequal; for they are by no means points of equal import, for me to be deprived of your affections, and for him to be defeated in his prosecution. As to me-but, when I am entering on my defence, let me suppress everything invidious, sensible as I must be of this the advantage of my adversary. In the next place, such is the natural disposition of mankind, that invective and accusation are heard with pleasure; while they who speak their own praises are received with impatience. His, then, is the part which commands a favourable acceptance; that which must prove offensive to every single hearer is reserved for me. If, to guard against this disadvantage, I should decline all mention of my own actions, I know not by what means I could refute the charge, or establish my pretensions to this honour. If, on the other hand, I enter into a detail of my whole conduct, private and political,

I must be obliged to speak perpetually of myself. Here then I shall endeavour to preserve all possible moderation: and what the circumstances of the case necessarily extort from me, must, in justice, be imputed to him who first moved a prosecution so extraordinary.

But since he hath insisted so much upon the event, I shall hazard a bold assertion. But I beseech you, Athenians, let it not be deemed extravagant: let it be weighed with candour. 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, Eschines; had you bellowed out your terrible denunciations (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. 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. What part of Greece, what part of the barbarian world, has not heard, that the Thebans in their periods 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? 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.

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