Page:History of Greece Vol XII.djvu/361

 PUBLIC CAREER OF DEMOSTHENES. 329 larily upon himself. At the periad when Demosthenes first ad dressed these eai-nest appeals to his countrymen, long before the fell of Olynthus, the power of Philip, though formidable, might have been kept perfectly well within the limits of Macedonia and Thrace ; and would probably have been so kept, had Demosthe- nes possessed in 351 b. c. as much public influence as he had acquired ten years afterwards, in 341 b. c. Throughout the whole career of Demosthenes as a public ad viser, down to the battle of Choeroneia, we trace the same com bination of earnest patriotism with wise and long-sighted policy During the three years' war which ended with the battle of ChjB roneia, the Athenians in the main followed his counsel ; and dis- astrous as were the ultimate military results of that war, for which Demosthenes could not be responsible — its earlier periods were creditable and successful, its general scheme was the best that the case admitted, and its diplomatic management univer- sally triumphant. But what invests the purposes and policy of Demosthenes with peculiar grandeur, is, that they were not sim- ply Athenian, but in an eminent degree Panhellenic also. It was not Athens only that he sought to defend against Philip, but the whole hellenic world. In this he towers above the greatest of his predecessors for half a century before his birth — Perikles, Archidamus, Agesilaus, Epaminondas ; whose policy was Athe- nian, Spartan, Theban, rather than hellenic. He carries us back to the time of the invasion of Xerxes and the generation imme- diately succeeding it, when the struggles and sufferings of the Athenians against Persia were consecrated by complete identity of interest with collective Greece, The sentiments to which De- mosthenes appeals throughout his numerous orations, are those of the noblest and largest patriotism ; trying to inflame the an- cient Grecian sentiment, of an autonomous hellenic world, as the indispensable condition of a dignified and desirable existence^ — but inculcating at the same time that these blessings could onl} be preserved by toil, self-sacrifice, devotion of fortune, and wil lingness to brave hard and steady personal service. 1 Demosthenes, De Corona, p. 324. ovroi — ti/v t7i£v&eplav kol to fti] 6tva EX^iv SecriTorTjv avTuv, a rolg npoTepotc "E7.1r]aLv bpoi tuv uya^Cjv f to Kal Kavoveg, avareTpacbuTec, etc. 28*