Page:The World's Famous Orations Volume 1.djvu/31

INTRODUCTION ''in the discharge of duty. All this, too, I have performed. ''"

Statesmanship not only requires a knowledge of the principles that control human beings, but it also requires moral courage. Demosthenes understood the demands upon a statesman and satisfied his audience that he had been equal to these demands.

In the discussion of bribery Demosthenes presented a thought which may well be borne in mind: "But by refusing the price of corruption I have overcome Philip; for as the offerer of a bribe, if it be accepted, has vanquished the taker, so the person who refuses it and is not corrupted, has vanquished the person offering." No one has ever thrown a stronger light on the subject of bribery, or more accurately stated the relation between the man who gives and the man who accepts a bribe.

When I was a young man I bought a ten-volume set of orations in order to obtain one speech, and that speech was valuable to me because it contained one sentence. The speech referred to xix