the Church

BOOKER T. WASHINGTON
The Boy Who Slept Under the Sidewalk

BEN. B. LINDSEY
The Man Who Fights the Beast

DEMOSTHENES

(384-322 B. C.)

THE ORATOR WHO STAMMERED

Modern critics are fond of discriminating between talent and genius.
The fire of _genius_, it seems, will flame resplendent even in spite of
an unworthy possessor's neglect. But the man with _talent_ which must
be carefully cherished and increased if he would attain distinction by
its help--that man is the true self-helper to whom our hearts go out in
sympathy. Every schoolboy knows that Demosthenes practised declamation
on the seashore, with his mouth full of pebbles. This description of
the unlovely old Athenian with the compelling tongue is Plutarch's
contribution to the literature of self-help.

From Plutarch's "Lives of Illustrious Men."

The orator Callistratus was to plead in the cause which the city of
Oropus had depending; and the expectation of the public was greatly
raised, both by the powers of the orator, which were then in the
highest repute, and by the importance of the trial. Demosthenes,
hearing the governors and tutors agree among themselves to attend the
trial, with much importunity prevailed on his master to take him to
hear the pleadings. The master, having some acquaintance with the
officers who opened the court, got his young pupil a seat where he
could hear the orators without being seen. Callistratus had great
success, and his abilities were extremely admired. Demosthenes was
fired with a spirit of emulation. When he saw with what distinction
the orator was conducted home, and complimented by the people, he was
struck still more with the power of that commanding eloquence which
could carry all before it. From this time, therefore, he bade adieu to
the other studies and exercises in which boys are engaged, and applied
himself with great assiduity to declaiming, in hopes of being one day
numbered among the orators. Isaeus was the man he made use of as his
preceptor in eloquence, though Isocrates then taught it; whether it was
that the loss of his father incapacitated him to pay the sum of ten
_minae_, which was that rhetorician's usual price, or whether he
preferred the keen and subtle manner of Isaeus as more fit for public
use.

Hermippus says he met with an account in certain anonymous memoirs that
Demosthenes likewise studied under Plato, and received great assistance
from him in prepari