Page:Plutarch's Lives (Clough, v.5, 1865).djvu/99

DEMOSTHENES AND CICERO. 91 evermore that arms should give place to the gown, and the soldier's laurel to the tongue.* And at last we find him extolling not only his deeds and actions, but his ora- tions also, as well those that were only spoken, as those that were published ; as if he were engaged in a boj'ish trial of skill, who should speak best, with the rhetoricians, Isocrates and Anaximenes, not as one who could claim the task to guide and instruct the Roman nation, the Soldier full-armed, terrific to the foe. It is necessary, indeed, for a political leader to be an able speaker; but it is an ignoble thing for any man to admire and relish the glory of his own eloquence. And, in this matter, Demosthenes had a more than ordinaiy gravity and magnificence of mind, accounting his talent in speaking nothing more than a mere accomplishment and matter of practice, the success of which must depend greatly on the good-will and candor of his hearei's, and regarding those who pride themselves on such accounts to be men of a low and petty disposition. The power of persuading and governing the people did, indeed, equally belong to both, so that those who had armies and camps at command stood in need of their assistance ; as Chares, Diopithes, and Leosthenes of De- mosthenes's, Pompey and young Ctesar of Cicero's, as the latter himself admits in his Memoirs addressed to Agrippa and Mcecenas. But what are thought and commonly said most to demonstrate and try the tempers of men, namely, authority and place, by moving every passion, and discovering every frailty, these are things which • Translating Cicero's famous verse upon himself — Cedant arma togae, concedat laurea linguse.