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 86 HISTORY OF GREECE. cratical training imparted. Even Brasidas and Gylipp>iB, indi- vidual Spartans of splendid merit, and equal or superior to Xeno- phon in military resource, would not have combined with it that political and rhetorical accomplishment which the position of the latter demanded. Obvious as the wisdom of his propositions ap- pears, each of them is left to him not only to imitate, but to en- force ; Cheirisophus and Kleanor, after a few words of introduc- tion, consign to him the duty of working up the minds of the army to the proper pitch. How well he performed this, may be seen by his speech to the army, which bears in its general tenor a remark- able resemblance to that of Perikles addressed to the Athenian public in the second year of the war, at the moment when the miseries of the epidemic, combined with those of invasion, had driven them almost to despair. It breathes a strain of exaggerat- ed confidence, and an undervaluing of real dangers, highly suita- ble for the occasion, but which neither Perikles nor Xenophon would have employed at any other moment. 1 Throughout the whole of his speech, and especially in regard to the accidental sneeze near at hand which interrupted the beginning of it, Xeno- phon displayed that skill and practice in dealing with a numerous audience and a given situation, which characterized more or less every educated Athenian. Other Greeks, Lacedaemonians or Arcadians, could act, with bravery and in concert ; but the Athe- nian Xenophon was among the few who could think, speak, and act, with equal efficiency. 2 It was this tripartite accomplishment 1 See the speech of Perikles (Thuc. ii, 60-64). He justifies the boastful tone of it, by the unwonted depression against which he had to contend on the part of his hearers AeAucxj 6e Kal rotJe 5 JJ.OL SOKUTE otir' aiirol TTWTTO- TE EvduitTj&TJvai inrdpxov vfj.lv fisye'&ovf irepl f TT/V apxqv oir' ky& fa rotj irplv ?.6yotf, o v d' av vvv ixprjadfiTjv KO [lira S ear epav E^OVTI TJ)V Trpoairoitjaiv, el pi) KaTaireirhij-ypevovf it/j-us irapa rb elicdf iupuv. This is also the proper explanation of Xenophon's tone. striking manner the combination of the Ae/cn/edf KOI trpaKTiKOf "Qcmsp Kal fiTav p,axe<r&ai c5q/, 6 irheiarovf %tipwju.itvos u^Kifiurarof doS-d&rai tlvai, ovru Kal orav Ttelaat Set), 6 Tr/leidrovf 6fj.oyv upovctf rjfuv noiTjaas oiirof SiKa'lUf U.V %E KT IKUTOTOf K al 7T p O K T I CW T O T f KptVOlTO UV tiVOl. Mi) fitVTOt (if Aoyov ^ fj.lv snideiS; 6fi evo i, oloi av eliro^re xaarov avr&v, "OVTO usTieTure dXA' u; rot)f
 * In a passage of the Cyropaedia (v. 5, 46), Xenophon sets forth in a