Page:History of Greece Vol XI.djvu/297

 ACTION OF DEMOSTHENES. 271 So great was the importance assigned by Demosthenes himself to rtiese external means of effect, that he is said to have pronounced " Ac- tion" to be the first, second, and third requisite for an orator. If vt grant this estimate to be correct, with reference to actual hearers, we must recollect that his speeches are, (not less truly than the his- tory of Tlmcydides), "an everlasting possession rather than a dis- play for momentary effect." Even among his contemporaries, the effect of the speeches, when read apart from the speaker, was very powerful. There were some who thought that their full excel- lence could only be thus appreciated ; l while to the after-world, who know them only by reading, they have been and still are the objects of an admiration reaching its highest pitch in the enthusi- astic sentiment of the fastidious rhetor Dionysius. 3 The action of Demosthenes, consummate as it doubtless was, and highly as he may himself have prized an accomplishment so laboriously rbv kv rotf l.oyoif iro^^axov y eyov EV at irapaflaK%ov,6de pd)f TOV lfip,ETpov EKELVOV opuov opoaai TTOTE Trpdf rbv drjfiov u a TT c p iv- Qovaiuvra. Again, c. 11. Toif [lev oiiv Tro/vAoif vTTOKpiv6fj.evof fipeaxe dav- fiaoTuf, oi (5e xapuvTee rait tiv bv fjyovvTO Kal ay evv e f av T ov rd TfTidafia Kal ft'pfantbv, uv KOI A^^rptof 6 3>a%.r)pei>f iariv. This sentence is illustrated by a passage in Quinctilian, i. 8. 2. " Sit autem in primis lectio virilis, et cum suavitate quadam gravis : et non quidem prosae simifis quia carmen est, et se poetae canere testantur non tamen m canticum dissoluta, nee plasmate (ut nunc a plerisque fit) effeminate. The meaning of plasma, in the technical language of rhetoricians contem- poraiy with Quinctilian, seems different from that which it bears in Dionysi- us, p. 1 060-1 06 1 . But whether Plutarch has exactly rendered to us what De- metrius Phalereus said of Demosthenes whether Demetrius spoke of the modulation of Demosthenes as being low and vulyar I cannot but doubt. ^Eschines urges very different reproaches against him overmuch labor and affectation, but combined with bitterness and malignity (adv. Ktesiph. p. 78-86). He denounces the character of Demosthenes as low and vulgar but not his oratorical delivery. The expression uairep iv^ovaiuv^ which Plutarch cites from Demetrius Phalereus, hardly suits well with raircivbv nut uyevvEf. 1 Plutarch, Demosth. c. 11. Alaiuva 6e ^rjatv "Epfinrrroc, Ipurij&ev-a Trepl TUV iraXai, pr]Topuv KOI ruv Ka#' avrdv, s'nrelv, uf UKOVUV fisv av rif Mat. fiaaev eKtivovf evKoa/nuf (cat jueyaAoTipeTrwf rw <5^^i diaheyofievovf, a vayt' vu ff 16 ftf v o i 6e ol &i) fioati e v ov ( hoyoi TTOAV ry KaraaKtvy nal passage.
 * Dionys. Hal De Adm. Vi Dicend. Demosth. p. 1022, a very remarkable