GREAT MEN'S BODIES
the Greeks; to uniting the force of Demosthenes; the copiousness of Plato; the charm of Isocrates; and not only has he made what is best in each of these great men his own; but, with the happy fertility of an immortal genius, has developed from himself most, or rather all excellences."
In his own view of Demosthenes, he tells us of himself: "He attains much, while I attempt much. He has the power, I the will, to speak as every occasion requires. He is great, for great orators preceded him, and were his contemporaries. I, too, might have done something great, if I had been able to attain the goal of my efforts, in a city in which, as Antonius says, 'No real orator had ever been heard before.'"
But Jerome put it in this way: "Demosthenes has wrested from you, Cicero, the honor of being the first orator; you from him that of being the only one." Really great orators seem to have been as rare then as now. The New York World, speaking of the Socialist Deputy Jaures' famous speech, said: "Yesterday's despatches, telling of the impression created by a single able speech of Deputy Jaures show that eloquence has lost none of its power over the human mind. Although the last decade has been marked by the almost total disappearance of the orator; during the past thirteen years France has had no great orator, and consequently no great speech. We are fully as badly off in this country."
"The period of his birth was one of marked national prosperity. He was well born, but not of noble ancestors. The great peculiarity of his youth was his precocity. He was an intellectual prodigy, like Pitt, Macaulay, and Mill.
"Like them he had a wonderful memory. He early mastered the Greek language. He wrote poetry; studied under eminent professors; frequented the forum; listened to the speeches of different orators; watched the posture and gesture of actors; and plunged into the mazes of literature and philosophy. He was conscious of his marvellous gifts; and was, of course, ambitious of distinction. There were only three ways at Rome in which a man could rise to eminence and power. One was by making money, like army-contractors and merchants; such as the Equites, to whose ranks he belonged; the second was by military service; and the third by the law—an honorable profession. Like Cæsar, a few years younger than he, Cicero selected the law. But he was a new man, not a Patrician as Cæsar was,—and had few powerful263
