Page:A History of Ancient Greek Literature.djvu/392

 368 LITERATURE OF ANCIENT GREECE very similar in Italy before and after 1848. People whose patriotism was heroic went about accusing one another of treason. The men of 404, 338, and even 262, will not easily find their superiors in devotion and self-sacrifice. Another unpleasant result of this suspicion and hatred is the virulence of abuse with which the speakers of the time attack their enemies. Not, indeed, in public speeches. In those of Demosthenes no opponent is even mentioned. But in the law-courts, which some- times gave the coup de grace to a political campaign, the attacks on character are savage. The modern analogue is the raking up of more or less irrelevant scandals against both witnesses and principals in cases at law, which custom allows to barristers of the highest character. The attack on .^schines in the De Corona is exceptional. Demosthenes had a real and natural hatred for the man. But he would never have dragged in his father and mother and his education, if ^schines had not always prided himself on these particular things — he was distinctly the social superior of Demosthenes, and a man of high culture — and treated Demosthenes as the vulgar demagogue. Even thus, probably Demos- thenes repented of his witticisms about the old lady's private initiations and 'revivals.' It is to be wished that scholars would repent of their habit of reading unsavoury meanings into words which do not possess them. Demosthenes can never be judged apart from his circumstances. He is no saint and no correct medio- crity. He is a man of genius and something of a hero; a fanatic, too, no doubt, and always a politician. He represents his country in that combination of intellectual subtlety and practical driving power with fervid idealism,