th of Attica, were looked upon
as dull-brained and thick-witted. The Spartans prided themselves on
their few words and hard blows.

The Athenians, on the contrary, were enthusiastically fond of oratory,
and ardently cultivated fluency of speech. It was by this art that
Themistocles kept the fleet together for the great battle of Salamis. It
was by this art that Pericles so long held control of Athens. The
sophists, the philosophers, the leaders of the assembly, were all adepts
in the art of convincing by eloquence and argument, and oratory
progressed until, in the later days of Grecian freedom, Athens possessed
a group of public speakers who have never been surpassed, if equalled,
in the history of the world.

It was the orators who particularly attracted the weakly lad, whose mind
was as active as his body was feeble. He studied grammar and rhetoric,
as did the sons of wealthy Athenians in general. And while still a mere
boy he begged his tutors to take him to hear Callistratus, an able
public speaker, who was to deliver an oration on some weighty political
subject. The speech, delivered with all the eloquence of manner and
logic of thought which marked the leading orators of that day, deeply
impressed the susceptible mind of the eager lad, who went away doubtless
determining in his own mind that he would one day, too, move the world
with eloquent and convincing speech.

As he grew older there arose a special reason why he should become able
to speak for himself. His father, who was also named Demosthenes, had
been a rich man. He was a manufacturer of swords or knives, in which he
employed thirty-two slaves; and also had a couch or bed factory,
employing twenty more. His mother was the daughter of a rich
corn-dealer of the Bosphorus.

The father died when his son was seven years old, leaving his estate in
the care of three guardians. These were rich men, and relatives and
friends, whom he thought he could safely trust; the more so as he left
them legacies in his will. Yet they proved rogues, and when Demosthenes
became sixteen years of age--which made him a man under the civil law of
Athens--he found that the guardians had made way with nearly the whole
of his estate. Of fourteen talents bequeathed him there were less than
two left. The boy complained and remonstrated in vain. The guardians
declared that the will was lost; their accounts were plainly fraudulent;
they evidently proposed to rob their ward of his patr