done wrong. I swear it by the men who faced
the foe at Marathon!"[1] He employs the figure of adjuration, to which I
will here give the name of Apostrophe. And what does he gain by it? He
exalts the Athenian ancestors to the rank of divinities, showing that we
ought to invoke those who have fallen for their country as gods; he
fills the hearts of his judges with the heroic pride of the old warriors
of Hellas; forsaking the beaten path of argument he rises to the
loftiest altitude of grandeur and passion, and commands assent by the
startling novelty of his appeal; he applies the healing charm of
eloquence, and thus "ministers to the mind diseased" of his countrymen,
until lifted by his brave words above their misfortunes they begin to
feel that the disaster of Chaeronea is no less glorious than the
victories of Marathon and Salamis. All this he effects by the use of one
figure, and so carries his hearers away with him.

[Footnote 1: _De Cor._ 208.]

3
It is said that the germ of this adjuration is found in Eupolis--

"By mine own fight, by Marathon, I say,
Who makes my heart to ache shall rue the day!"[2]

But there is nothing grand in the mere employment of an oath. Its
grandeur will depend on its being employed in the right place and the
right manner, on the right occasion, and with the right motive. In
Eupolis the oath is nothing beyond an oath; and the Athenians to whom it
is addressed are still prosperous, and in need of no consolation.
Moreover, the poet does not, like Demosthenes, swear by the departed
heroes as deities, so as to engender in his audience a just conception
of their valour, but diverges from the champions to the battle--a mere
lifeless thing. But Demosthenes has so skilfully managed the oath that
in addressing his countrymen after the defeat of Chaeronea he takes out
of their minds all sense of disaster; and at the same time, while
proving that no mistake has been made, he holds up an example, confirms
his arguments by an oath, and makes his praise of the dead an incentive
to the living.

[Footnote 2: In his (lost) "Demis."]

4
And to rebut a possible objection which occurred to him--"Can you,
Demosthenes, whose policy ended in defeat, swear by a victory?"--the
orator proceeds to measure his language, choosing his very words so as
to give no handle to opponents, thus showing us that even in our most
inspired moments reason ought to hold the reins.[3] Let us mark his
words: "Thos