his kind. For I have heard that it is right to die with good omens.
Be quiet, therefore, and bear up."

When we heard this we were ashamed, and restrained our tears. But he,
having walked about, when he said that his legs were growing heavy,
laid down on his back; for the man so directed him. And at the same
time he who gave him the poison, taking hold of him, after a short
interval examined his feet and legs; and then having pressed his foot
hard, he asked if he felt it; he said that he did not. And after this
he pressed his thighs; and thus going higher, he showed us that he was
growing cold and stiff. Then Socrates touched himself, and said that
when the poison reached his heart he should then depart. But now the
parts around the lower belly were almost cold; when, uncovering
himself, for he had been covered over, he said, and they were his last
words, "Crito, we owe a cock to AEsculapius; pay it, therefore, and do
not neglect it."

"It shall be done," said Crito, "but consider whether you have any
thing else to say."

To this question he gave no reply, but shortly after he gave a
convulsive movement, and the man covered him, and his eyes were fixed,
and Crito, perceiving it, closed his mouth and eyes.

This, Echecrates, was the end of our friend, a man, as we may say, the
best of all of his time that we have known, and, moreover, the most
wise and just.

DEMOSTHENES.

Demosthenes was born 382 B.C. and died 322 B.C., at the age of sixty.
His father died when he was but seven years old and left his son a
large estate, which was squandered by his guardians.

Demosthenes, most happily, was forced to depend upon the resources of
his own intellect, and determined to devote his life to oratory. He
chose Isaeus for his master, and though having a weakly constitution,
and an impediment in his speech, yet by steady, persevering effort,
and daily practice, he brought himself to address without
embarrassment, and with complete success, the assembled multitudes of
the Athenian people. His first attempts at oratory were made to
vindicate his own claims, and recover the property which his guardians
had appropriated to themselves. In this he proved entirely successful.
After this, he displayed his ability as an orator on several public
occasions, and succeeded by the power of his eloquence in preventing
the Athenians from engaging in a war with Persia.

[Illustration: KING PHILIP (_of Macedon_).]

But most of the