This page has been validated.

GREAT MEN'S BODIES

chariot. Naturally disposed to sleep but little, he increased his watchfulness by habit. In an iron body dwelt both an intellect clear beyond compare; and a heart full of generous impulses. He was ambitious, but from high motives. His desire to conquer the world was coupled with a purpose of furthering Hellenic civilization. His instincts were keen, his perception remarkable; his judgment all but infallible. As an organizer of an army he was unapproachable; as a leader unapproachable. 'That the soul of this king was fashioned on a superhuman pattern,' says Polybius, 'all men agree.'"

Dodge says: "His bodily strength and activity were matched only by his extraordinary courage."

Aristotle had done his work well, and with good material.

Lamar, Henry Ward Beecher the Second, DeSaulles in the pinch and crisis of a great football-fight each did brilliant work, and won fame. But which one of them was as good a man as this little Macedonian? Teach him the game—and he would have grasped it at once—and who of his size—or of any other size—in America or England to-day would be his peer?


DEMOSTHENES (385–322 B.C.)


Demosthenes, the son of a sword-cutter, had a large fortune from his father, who died when the boy was only seven years old. He was greatly wronged by his guardians, who converted part of his inheritance to their own use, and suffered part to lie neglected. So that they did not even pay his tutor. This was the chief reason why his education was neglected. His mother did not allow him to be put to hard and laborious exercises, on account of the weakness and delicacy of his frame. Indeed from the first he was of a slender and sickly habit. Hearing the orator Callistratus plead an important case, he applied himself with great assiduity to declaiming, and bade adieu

257