Page:Plutarch's Lives (Clough, v.5, 1865).djvu/37

 DEMOSTHENES. 29 thou takest delight in three such fierce untractable beasts, the owl, the snake, and the people ? " The young men that came to visit and converse with him, he deterred from meddling with state affairs, telling them, that if' at first two ways had been proposed to him, the one leading to the speaker's stand and the assembly, the other going direct to destruction, and he could have foreseen the many evils which attend those who deal in public business, such as fears, envies, calumnies, and contentions, he would certainly have taken that which led straight on to his death. But now happened the death of Alexander, while De- mosthenes was in this banishment which we have been speaking of And the Grecians were once again up in arms, encouraged by the brave attemjsts of Leosthenes, who was then drawing a circumvallation about Antipater, whom he held close besieged in Lamia. Pytheas, there- fore, the orator, and Callimedon, called the Crab, fled from Athens, and taking sides with Antipater, went about with his friends and ambassadors to keep the Grecians from revolting and taking part with the Athenians. But, on the other side, Demosthenes, associatmg himself with the ambassadors that came from Athens, used his utmost en- deavors and gave them his best assistance in persuading the cities to fall unanimously upon the Macedonians, and to drive them out of Greece. Phylarchus says that in Ai'cadia there happened a rencounter between Pytheas and Demosthenes, which came at last to downright rail- mg, while the one pleaded for the Macedonians, and the other for the Grecians. Pytheas said, that as we always suppose there is some disease in the family to which they bring asses' milk, so wherever there comes an embassy from Athens, that city must needs be indisposed. And Demosthenes answered him, retorting the comparison : " Asses' milk is brought to restore health, and the Athe-