Page:History of the Literature of Ancient Greece (Müller) 2ed.djvu/529

507 LITERATURE OF ANCIENT GREECE. 507 ^Eschines, had placed Athens in a disagreeable predicament, he exhorts the Macedonian to come forward as mediator between the dissident states of Greece — the wolf as mediator in the quarrels of the sheep — and then to march along with their united forces against the Persians — the very thing which Philip wished to do, but then he desired to do so in the only possible way by which it could be brought about, namely, as their leader, and, under this name, as the ruler of the free states of Greece. How strange, then, must have been the feelings of Isocrates, when news was brought to him of the downfal of Athenian power and Greek independence at Cheeronea ! His benevolent hopes must have been so rudely dashed to the ground by this one stroke, that probably it was disappointment, no less than patriotic grief for the loss of freedom, that induced him to put an end to his life. § 3. The manner in which he speaks of them himself makes it evident that his heart was but little affected by the subjects treated of in these speeches. In his Philip he mentions that he had treated on the same theme — the exhortation to the Greeks to unite themselves against the barbarians — in his Panegyricus also, and dwells on the difficulty of discussing the same subject in two different orations ; " especially since," to use his own words, " the first published is so accurately composed that even our detractors imitate it, and tacitly admire it more than those who praise it most extravagantly." * In the Panathcnaicus, an eulogium on Athens, written by Isocrates when far advanced in age, he says, that he had given up all earlier kinds of rhetoric, and had devoted himself to the composition of speeches which concerned the welfare of the city and of Greece in general ; and, consequently, had composed discourses " full of thoughts, and decked out with not a few antitheses and parisoscs, and those other figures which shine forth in the schools of rhetoric and com- pel the hearers to signify their applause by shouting and clapping ;" at the present time, however, being 94 years old, he did not think it be- coming in him to use this style, but would speak as every one thought himself capable of speaking if he chose, though no one would be able to do so who had not bestowed upon his style the necessary attention and labour. f It is clear, that, while Isocrates pretends to be casting his glance over all Europe and Asia, and to have his soul filled with anxiety for his native land, the object which he really has in his eye is the approbation of the school and the triumph of his art over all rivals. So that, after all, these great panegyrical orations belong to the class of school-rhetoric, no less than the Praise of Helen and the Busiris, which Isocrates composed immediately after the pattern of the Sophists, who frequently selected mythical subjects for their encomiastic or vituperative f Isocrat. Panaihen., j 2.
 * Isocrat. Philipp., ( } 11. See the similar assertion in the Panegyricus itself $4.