eaching of Isaeus; ... and also profited largely by
the discourse of Plato, of Isokrates, and others. As an ardent
aspirant, he would seek instruction from most of the best sources,
theoretical as well as practical--writers as well as lecturers. But,
besides living teachers, there was one of the last generation who
contributed largely to his improvement. He studied Thucydides with
indefatigable labor and attention; according to one account, he copied
the whole history eight times over with his own hand; according to
another, he learnt it all by heart, so as to be able to rewrite it from
memory, when the manuscript was accidentally destroyed. Without minutely
criticizing these details, we ascertain, at least, that Thucydides was
the peculiar object of his study and imitation. How much the composition
of Demosthenes was fashioned by the reading of Thucydides, reproducing
the daring, majestic, and impressive phraseology, yet without the
overstrained brevity and involutions of that great historian,--and
contriving to blend with it a perspicuity and grace not inferior to
Lysias,--may be seen illustrated in the elaborate criticism of the
rhetor Dionysius.

"While thus striking out for himself a bold and original style,
Demosthenes had still greater difficulties to overcome in regard to the
external requisites of an orator. He was not endowed by nature, like
AEschines, with a magnificent voice; nor, like Demades, with a ready flow
of vehement improvisation. His thoughts required to be put together by
careful preparation; his voice was bad, and even lisping; his breath
short; his gesticulation ungraceful; moreover, he was overawed and
embarrassed by the manifestations of the multitude.... The energy and
success with which Demosthenes overcame his defects, in such manner as
to satisfy a critical assembly like the Athenians, is one of the most
memorable circumstances in the general history of self-education.
Repeated humiliation and repulse only spurred him on to fresh solitary
efforts for improvement. He corrected his defective elocution by
speaking with pebbles in his mouth; he prepared himself to overcome the
noise of the assembly by declaiming in stormy weather on the sea-shore
of Phalerum; he opened his lungs by running, and extended his powers of
holding breath by pronouncing sentences in marching up-hill; he
sometimes passed two or three months without interruption in a
subterranean chamber, practising night and day either