Page:A History of Ancient Greek Literature.djvu/393

 APPRECIATION OF DEMOSTHENES 369 that union of passion with art, and that invariable in- sistence on the moral side of actions, on the Just and the Noble, that characterises most of the great spirits of Greek literature. To say with Ouintilian that Demos- thenes was a ' bad man,' is like saying the same of Burke or even of Isaiah. It implies either that noble words and thoughts are not nobility, or else, what is hardly more plausible, that the greatest expressions of soul in litera- ture can be produced artificially by a dodge. Two sentences of Demosthenes ring in the ears of those who care for him, as typical of the man : " Never, never, A thenians, can injustice and oath - breaking and falsehood make a strong power. They hold out for once and for a little ; they blossom largely in hopes, belike ; but time finds them out and they wither where they stand. As a house and a ship must be strongest at the lowest parts, so must the bases and foundations of a policy be true and honest ; which they ai^e not in the diplomatic gains of Macedon." ^ ^^ It cannot be, Athenians, that you did wrong when you took upon you the battle for the freedom and safety of all. No, by our fathers who first met the Mede at Marathon, by the footmen of Platcea, by the sailors of Salamis and Arte- misium, by all the brave men lying in our national sepul- chres — whom the city has interred with honour, ^schines, all alike, not only the successful or the victorious ! " ^ 1 Olynth. 2. 10. 2 Crown, 208.