ear
your prayers.

Translated for 'A Library of the World's Best Literature.'

DEMOSTHENES

(384-322 B.C.)

BY ROBERT SHARP

[Illustration: DEMOSTHENES]

The lot of Demosthenes, the great Athenian orator, was cast in evil
times. The glorious days of his country's brilliant political
pre-eminence among Grecian States, and of her still more brilliant
pre-eminence as a leader and torch-bearer to the world in its progress
towards enlightenment and freedom, were well-nigh over. In arms she had
been crushed by the brute force of Sparta. But this was not her deepest
humiliation; she had indeed risen again to great power, under the
leadership of generals and statesmen in whom something of the old-time
Athenian spirit still persisted; but the duration of that power had been
brief. The deepest humiliation of a State is not in the loss of military
prestige or of material resources, but in the degeneracy of its
citizens, in the overthrow and scorn of high ideals; and so it was in
Athens at the time of Demosthenes's political activity.

The Athenians had become a pampered, ease-loving people. They still
cherished a cheap admiration for the great achievements of their
fathers. Stirring appeals to the glories of Marathon and Salamis would
arouse them to--pass patriotic resolutions. Any suggestion of
self-sacrifice, of service on the fleet or in the field, was dangerous.
A law made it a capital offense to propose to use, even in meeting any
great emergency, the fund set aside to supply the folk with amusements.
They preferred to hire mercenaries to undergo their hardships and to
fight their battles; but they were not willing to pay their hirelings.
The commander had to find pay for his soldiers in the booty taken from
their enemies; or failing that, by plundering their friends. It must be
admitted, however, that the patriots at home were always ready and most
willing to try, to convict, and to punish the commanders upon any charge
of misdemeanor in office.

There were not wanting men of integrity and true patriotism, and of
great ability, as Isocrates and Phocion, who accepted as inevitable the
decline of the power of Athens, and advocated a policy of passive
non-interference in foreign affairs, unless it were to take part in a
united effort against Persia. But the mass of the people, instead of
offering their own means and their bodies to the service of their
country, deemed it rather the part of the State to s