came to elect a person to make the funeral oration over the slain, immediately after the battle, they would not elect you, although you were proposed, although you are so eminent in speaking; they would not elect Demades, who had just concluded the peace, nor Hegemon, no, nor any other of your faction. They elected me. And, when you and Pythocles rose up, (let Heaven bear witness, with what cruelty, with what abandoned impudence!) when you charged me with the same crimes as now, when you pursued me with the same virulence and scurrility; all this served but to confirm the people in their resolution of electing me. You know too well the reason of this preference; yet hear it from me.-They were perfectly convinced, both of that faithful zeal and alacrity with which I had conducted their affairs, and of that iniquity which you and your party had discovered, by publicly avowing, at a time when your country was unfortunate, what you had denied with solemn oaths while her interests flourished. And, it was a natural conclusion, that the men whom our public calamities emboldened to disclose their sentiments, had ever been our enemies, and now were our declared enemies. Besides, they rightly judged that he who was to speak in praise of the deceased, to grace their noble actions, could not, in decency, be the man who had lived and conversed in strict connection with those who had fought against them: that they who, at Macedon, had shared in the feast, and joined in the triumph over the misfortunes of Greece, with those by whose hands the slaughter had been committed, should not receive a mark of honour on their return to Athens. Nor did our fellow-citizens look for men who could act the part of mourners, but for one deeply and sincerely affected. And such sincerity they found in themselves and me; not the least degree of it in you. I was then appointed: you and your associates were rejected. Nor was this the determination of the people only; those parents also, and brethren of the deceased, who were appointed to attend the funeral rites, expressed the same sentiments. For, as they were to give the banquet, which, agreeably to ancient usage, was to be held at his house who had been most strictly connected with the deceased, they gave it at my house; and with reason: for, in point of kindred, each

had his connections with some among the slain, much nearer than mine; but with the whole body none was more intimately connected; for he, who was most concerned in their safety and success, must surely feel the deepest sorrow at their unhappy and unmerited misfortune.-Read the epitaph inscribed upon their monument by public authority. In this, Eschines, you will find a proof of your absurdity, your malice, your abandoned baseness.-Read!

The Epitaph.

These, for their country's sacred cause, array'd
In arms, tremendous, sought the fatal plain:
Brav'd the proud foe with courage undismay'd,
And greatly scorn'd dishonour's abject stain.
Fair virtue led them to the arduous strife;
Avenging terror menac'd in their eyes.
For freedom nobly prodigal of life,

Death they propos'd their common glorious prize.

For never to tyrannic vile domain

Could they their generous necks ignobly bend,
Nor see Greece drag the odious servile chain,
And mourn her ancient glories at an end.

In the kind bosom of their parent-land,

Ceas'd are their toils, and peaceful is their grave:
So Jove decreed: (and Jove's supreme command
Acts unresisted, to destroy, or save.)

Chance to despise, and fortune to controul,

Doth to the immortal gods alone pertain:
Their joys, unchang'd, in endless currents roll;

But mortals combat with their fate in vain.

Eschines! hearest thou this! It pertains only to the gods. to control fortune, and to command success. Here, the power of assuring victory is ascribed not to the minister, but to Heaven. Why then, accursed wretch! hast thou so licentiously reproached me upon this head? Why hast thou denounced against me, what I intreat the just gods to discharge on thee and thy vile associates!

Of all the various instances of falsehood, in this his prose

cution, one there is which most surprises me. In recalling the misfortunes of that fatal period to our minds, he hath felt no part of that sensibility, which bespeaks a zealous or an honest citizen. He never dropped one tear: never discovered the least tender emotion. No! his voice was elevated, he exulted, he strained and swelled, with all the triumph of a man who had convicted me of some notorious offence. But, in this, he hath given evidence against himself, that he is not affected by our public calamities in the same manner with his fellowcitizens. And, surely the man, who, like Eschines, affects an attachment to the laws and constitution, should approve his sincerity, if by no other means, at least by this, by feeling joy and sorrow, on the same occasions, with his countrymen; —not take part with their enemies, in his public conduct. And this part you have most evidently taken; you, who point at me as the cause of all; me, as the author of all our present difficulties. But was it my administration, were they my instances which first taught my country to rise in defence of Greece? If you grant me this, if you make me the author of our vigorous opposition to that power which threatened the liberties of our nation, you do me greater honour than ever was conferred upon an Athenian. But it is an honour I cannot claim: I should injure my country: it is an honour, I well know, ye would not resign. And surely, if he had the least regard to justice, his private enmity to me never could have driven him to this base attempt to disgrace, to deny you, the most illustrious part of your character.

But why should I dwell on this, when there are so many more enormous instances of his baseness and falsehood?He who accuses me of favouring Philip!-Heavens and earth! what would not this man assert?-But let us, in the name of all the gods, attend to truth, to fact; let us lay aside all private animosity;—and who are really the men on whom we can fairly and justly lay the guilt of all misfortunes? The men who, in their several states, pursued his course, (it is easy to point them out) not those who acted like me: The men, who, while the power of Philip was yet in its weak and infant state, when we frequently warned them, when we alarmed them with the danger, when we pointed out their best and

safest course; yet sacrificed the interest of their country to their own infamous gain, deceived and corrupted the leading citizens in each state, until they had enslaved them all. Thus were the Thessalians treated by Daochus, Cineas, and Thrasydæas; the Arcadians, by Cercidas, Hieronymus, Eucalpidas; the Argians, by Myrtes, Telademus, Mnaseas; Elis, by Euxitheus, Cleotimus, Aristæchmus; Messene, by the sons of Philiades, that abomination of the gods; by Neon and Thrasylochus ; Sicyon, by Aristratus and Epichares; Corinth, by Dinarchus, Demaratus; Megara, by Elixus, Ptedorus, Perilaus; Thebes, by Timolaüs, Theogiton, Anemætas; Eubœa, by Hipparchus, Clitarchus, Sosicrates.-The whole day would be too short for the names only of the traitors. And these were the men who, in their several states, adopted the same measures which this man pursued at Athens. Wretches! flatterers! miscreants! tearing the vitals of their country, and tendering its liberties with a wanton indifference, first to Philip, now to Alexander! confined to the objects of a sordid and infamous sensuality, as their only blessings! subverters of that freedom and independence which the Greeks of old regarded as the test and standard of true happiness!-Amidst all this shamefully avowed corruption, this confederacy, or (shall I call it by its true name?) this traitorous conspiracy against the liberty of Greece, my conduct preserved the reputation of this state unimpeached by the world; while my character (Athenians!) stood equally unimpeached by you. Do you ask me, then, on what merits I claim this honour? Hear my answer. When all the popular leaders through Greece had been taught by your example, and accepted the wages of corruption, from Philip first, and now from Alexander; no favourable moment was found to conquer my integrity; no insinuation of address, no magnificence of promises, no hopes, no fears, no favour, nothing could prevail upon me to resign the least part of what I deemed the just rights and interests of my country: nor, when my counsels were demanded, was I ever known, like you and your associates, to lean to that side, where a bribe had been, as it were, cast into the scale. No: my whole conduct was influenced by a spirit of rectitude, a spirit ot justice and integrity and, engaged as I was, in affairs of greater

moment than any statesman of my time, I administered them all with a most exact and uncorrupted faith.-These are the merits on which I claim this honour.

As to those public works so much the object of your ridicule, they undoubtedly demand a due share of honour and applause but I rate them far beneath the great merits of my administration: It is not with stones nor bricks that I have fortified the city. It is not from works like these that I derive my reputation. Would you know my methods of fortifying? Examine, and you will find them, in the arms, the towns, the territories, the harbours I have secured, the navies, the troops, the armies I have raised. These are the works by which I defended Attica, as far as human foresight could defend it; these are the fortifications I drew round our whole territory, and not the circuit of our harbour, or of our city only. In these acts of policy, in these provisions for a war, I never yielded to Philip. No; it was our generals and our confederate forces who yielded to fortune. Would you know the proofs of this? They are plain and evident. Consider: what was the part of a faithful citizen? Of a prudent, an active, and an honest minister? Was he not to secure Eubœa, as our defence against all attacks by sea? Was he not to make Boeotia our barrier on the mid-land side? The cities bordering on Peloponnesus our bulwark, on that quarter? Was he not to attend with due precaution to the importation of corn, that this trade might be protected, through all its progress, up to our own harbour? Was he not to cover those districts which we commanded by seasonable detachments, as the Proconesus, the Chersonesus, and Tenedos? To exert himself in the assembly for this purpose? While with equal zeal he laboured to gain others to our interest and alliance, as Byzantium, Abydus, and Euboea? Was he not to cut off the best and most important resources of our enemies, and to supply those in which our country was defective?—And all this you gained by my counsels, and my administration. Such counsels and such an administration, as must appear upon a fair and equitable view, the result of strict integrity; such as left no favourable juncture unimproved, through ignorance or treachery; such as ever had their due effect, as far