another may not be assumed, in the vast and boundless regions of absolute space.

6

To Dionysius of Halicarnassus, we refer the more willingly; because, though inferior to none in powers of composition himself, or of forming a judgment on others, he is, for some reason or other, less known and admired than he deserves. This distinguished Critic, as many of our readers are aware, commences his Treatise on The Oratorical Power of Demosthenes,' with a general definition of Style, of which he (as does Cicero) makes three kinds which are usually called, the Austere, the Florid, and the Middle. Having discussed the general subject, he proceeds to examine, with much acuteness and sagacity, the respective properties and merits of Lysias, Thucydides, Isocrates, and Plato. He then comes to Demosthenes, on whose account, he observes, the preliminary observations and criticisms had been introduced, and begins his notice of him by the following (to us, at least, we know not what M. Planche may think) untranslateable passage.

Τοιάυτην δη καταλαβὼν την πολιτικὴν λέξιν ὁ Δημοσθένης, &c.

'Demosthenes, then, finding the art of public speaking in this 'state, so skilfully improved, and coming, as he did, after men of 'such excellence, did not condescend to become an imitator of 'any one style or person, conceiving them all to be half-artists, ' and incomplete; but, selecting from all, whatever was the best, ' and the most useful in each, he combined, and, out of the many, 'made up a species of composition, sublime, yet simple, redundant, 'yet concise; refined, yet idiomatic; declamatory, yet natural; 'austere, yet lively; nervous, yet flowing; soft, yet pungent; temperate, yet passionate; differing in no respect, from Proteus, ce'lebrated by the poets of old, for being able to assume, without 'effort, every kind of shape; whether he was some God or Dæmon 'who deceived the vision of mankind, or, as one would rather guess, some gifted person, accomplished in the power of speech, by which he imposed upon the senses of every hearer. Some 'such notion have I, of the oratory of Demosthenes; and this de'scription I give of it, that it is composed of every species.'

In another part, he selects a passage (and a very beautiful one) from the Funeral Oration of Plato, and then one from that part of the Oration for the Crown, which includes the celebrated Apostrophe, and places them side by side. He then proceeds thus,

There is surely no one, who has even a moderate skill in com'position, and is not determined to wrangle and dispute, who must 'not readily admit, that the latter specimen as much exceeds the 'former, as the arms of warfare are superior to those which are ' used in Shows and Spectacles, as real figures to shadows, or, as

a Dion. Hal. Vol. 2. p. 273. Oxford Edition. Fol.

the bodies of men trained up in air and exercise, are to those 'which have been rocked and dandled in confinement and luxury.'a The preference here given, our readers will observe, is over no less a writer than the one, of whom it has been said, that if the Gods spoke Greek, which, if we had any faith in the Polytheism of antiquity, we should believe they did,-without doubt Jupiter would adopt his style. Again, (and it shall be our last extract,) after saying, that when he reads Isocrates he feels himself in a composed and tranquil state, not unlike that which is induced by soft music, he goes on thus.

Ὅταν δὲ Δημοσθένες τινὰ λάβω λόγων, &c. • But when I take up one ' of the orations of Demosthenes, I am wrought up to a pitch of enthusiasm, and am hurried backwards and forwards, and assume one passion after another,―distrusting,-labouring,—fearing,— 'despising,-hating,-now moved with compassion, now with 'good will,-sometimes with anger, and sometimes with envy,taking up, in succession, every passion that sways the human 'breast.'

We cannot go farther. Our readers will, at once, recognise in the description which this admirable writer, who is worthy of being a Commentator on Demosthenes, gives of his own hurried and varied emotions, the very effects which Cicero, in his glowing panegyric upon Eloquence, ascribes to the power of speech. Dionysius concludes by asking, if, at such a distance of time from the transactions themselves, when all interest has long ago subsided, such marvellous impressions are made by the bare perusal,-What must have been the effect upon the contemporary Athenians and strangers who flocked to hear the Orator defend his own and his country's cause, and that, too, with a force and energy of action which is admitted to have been foremost, if possible, amidst his numerous and transcendent qualifications ?What,' said Eschines to the Rhodians, applauding the recital of the speech which caused his banishment,What if you had heard the monster himself?' Τί δὲ, εἰ αυτῇ τῇ θηρία ακηκόειτε !

After perusing these testimonials, to which addition might be made at pleasure, from persons of the highest authority,-themselves at once judges and masters of composition, if such ever existed, the first question which suggests itself is,-where are discoverable these astonishing properties, these dispensations of the Divinity? In what part of the Speech does the thunderbolt reside? By what peculiar arrangement-by what laborious and a Dion. Hal. Vol. II. p. 298. Oxford Edition. Fol.

b Ibid. 288.

c Demosthenem ferunt ei, qui quæsivisset quid primum esset in dicendo,actionem, quid secundum, idem,-et idem tertium respondisse. Cic. de Cl. Orat.

artificial structure-by what display of ornament, has the Orator contrived to attract such unbounded and passionate commendation?-To which our classical readers are aware that we must answer, that these praises have been bestowed upon compositions remarkable for simplicity, in the whole of which, we will venture to say, not one single ornament (for its own sake) is to be found; in which there are no splendid patches; where a vulgar appetite for tropes, figures and metaphors (no matter how introduced) must remain unsatisfied;-where, though the composition is so highly wrought, that one of the critics, to whom we have referred, bestows a whole page upon a sentence of a dozen words, to show the delicacy of its structure, and the disorder which would ensue upon the slightest alteration or transposition of any of its parts, yet would no one suppose that to the mind of Demosthenes was ever present more than one idea,—his subject, and nothing but his subject. Not that we would be supposed as flying in the face of such a body of criticism: We perfectly agree with it, and are aware that, when apparently unadorned, he is adorned the most; but we notice this general abstemiousness observable in the manner of Demosthenes, not merely as peculiar to his character, but, in some degree, as illustrative of his powers. The less imposing and attractive he is upon a superficial observation, the more of substance must there be to justify such commendations from such judges. The truth is, that this vigour,-this tension,-this sublimity, of which we read so much, is not discoverable in detached parts,-in striking and brilliant passages, but in the effect of the whole. The Spirit and Power and Rapidity, which are so justly celebrated, and which, in the perusal of his Orations, we assuredly perceive and feel, are the Soul, which dwells in no particular part, but which pervades and vivifies the whole mass.

Æn. 6.

Spiritus intus alit, totamque infusa per artus Mens agitat molem, et magno se corpore miscet. To judge fairly, we must take the whole piece. The 'ex pede Herculem'-if ever an admissible rule of criticism in the case to which it is applied, which we much doubt, assuredly furnishes no means of judging of the merits of Demosthenes. An attempt to give the effect of any oration by a selection, or the merit of the whole by splendid passages, would be as hopeless as to produce an adequate idea of the bounding elasticity,—the matchless symmetry and etherial attitude of the entire Apollo, by the production of a finger or an ear.

Some of the smaller Orations of Demosthenes,-and those too, which have contributed not a little to his reputation, (the Philippics we mean,) might be selected, in which not one ornament (in the ordinary sense of the word) or figure of speech is discoverable. A certain studied temperance and downright homeliness of manner, VOL. I.

8

and a choice of matter illustrating and enforcing his view of the subject, and never above it, pervade the whole, mixed up, indeed, with an earnestness, zeal, force and passion, which account for their celebrity. Even in the Oration for the Crown,-the most perfect, undoubtedly, and comprehending in it the excellencies of the rest, though every species of weapon in the oratorical armoury is employed,-poetical description,-indignant exaggeration,-inflammatory declamation, and bold apostrophe, yet is there not an instance, we will venture to say, (and we appeal to those of our readers the most confidently who have studied him best,) in which they appear to be ostentatiously introduced, or in which they are not sustained by the surrounding passages of the Speech. They, indeed, more nearly resemble an occasional and accidental inflammation of the fervid and electric torrent which the orator is pouring on his hearers, than foreign and adventitious lights brought forward for mere purposes of shining and display. The sublime appeal to the manes of the heroes of Marathon and Platea, to which we shall not be suspected of referring, in order to bestow, for the thousandth time, unnecessary commendation, or to compare it, as we have seen Dionysius did, with any effort of human composition, we notice for a different object. It is, perhaps, one of the boldest and most excessive, and, from the constant reference to it, we must suppose, one of the most successful of his Figures. Those, however, who will take up the speech at that part where Demosthenes describes the jealousy and distrust which rankled between the Athenians and Thebans before the battle of Cheronæa, the removal of which formed one of the most successful feats of his policy and eloquence, and will pursue his lofty appeals to national honour, and the deeds of their ancestors, which called upon the Athenians, if necessary, rather to fall in a struggle for liberty and glory, than to pursue inglorious security in obedience to Philip;-those, we say, who follow up the preceding passages with any thing of an adequate spirit, will feel themselves, from the tone of excitement and elevation which surround it, upon a level with the sublimity of this most celebrated apostrophe. Let this passage, then, have its reputation: We shall not attempt to add to it; but we call upon our readers, when they feel, by actual experiment, how little this part stands out from the rest, to reflect what must be the tone of the surrounding parts to sustain what, if taken by itself, must be deemed such extravagance and excess.

In adverting to the apparently natural growth of ornament in the Orations of Demosthenes, and pointing it out as a proof of their excellence, we must not omit to notice how different is the conduct of his antagonists and rivals in this particular. Eschines, whose general good taste is undoubted, in the concluding paragraph of his Oration, after having dwelt upon the laws, the breach of which

by Ctesiphon formed the strength of his case, (and nothing could be stronger,) in the treatment of which subject he had been, of course, plain and simple and didactic, by design, without any previous excitement to justify it, breaks out, all at once, into this exclamation. I then (I call you to witness-ye Earth, and Sun, and Virtue, and Intellect, and Education, by which we distinguish what is honourable) have spoken and given my help ;—if adequately, and in a manner worthy of the violation of the laws,—as I wished;-if imperfectly, then only as I have been able.’—Eyù μév ν, ὦ Γη, καὶ Ηλιέ, και Αρετή, καὶ Συνέσις, καὶ Παιδεία, η διαγινώσκομεν τα καλα, &c. Who does not perceive, that this sudden appeal to bodies and qualities, which had nothing to do with his particular subject, and hardly with any other, is a mere oratorical flourish? Accordingly, we find that Demosthenes, in his reply upon him, ridicules this matured and misplaced apostrophe, and charges Eschines with considering the controversy between them as an affair of the lungs, and, under that idea, bawling and mouthing & F, &c. &c. like a tragedy hero. The same observations apply, perhaps with more justice, certainly more frequently, to Cicero's style,—or, rather to passages which, though the admiration of schoolboys, are unquestionably the most faulty, and from which, if he had not redeemed himself by the great body of his Orations, he would never have commanded the extraordinary admiration of more severe judges, In his Oration for Marcellus, in returning thanks to Cæsar for sparing him, and restoring him to his honours, he breaks out,'By heavens, the very walls of this Senate-house are impatient to express their gratitude to you, Caius Cæsar,' &c. In one of his Orations against Verres, we have the following animated, and tolerably sustained, but, nevertheless rhetorical and professional passage Should I paint the horrors of this scene,-not to Roman citizens, not to the allies of our State,-not to those who have ever heard of the Roman name,—not even to men, but to brutecreatures; or, to go further, should I lift up my voice in the most desolate solitude, to the rocks and mountains, yet should I surely see those mute and inanimate parts of nature moved with terror and indignation, at the recital of so enormous an action.' Hume's Transl. We are aware, that there is all that composition can do to carry this off; and there is excitement also-but the artist shows himself too strongly. But who would have expected from the second orator in the world, in the full possession of his powers, in a passage of no irritation, a mere literary subject,-in praise of the poets, and his client one of the number, the following puerile declamation?-Rocks and deserts answer to their voice; savage monsters are arrested by their song, and stand still;-Shall we,-formed as we are by the best instruction, refuse to be moved by the power of song?'-From these, and innumerable other instances