the summons came, Socrates with much composure and tranquillity of mind, drank the fatal cup, in the midst of his weeping friends. This dialogue may be read, as Nägelsbach says, with a good class of students. It is always advisable to read the Apology, then the Crito, and finally the last chapters of the Phaedo. Thus the students will get a clear picture of the whole life and the heroic death of the most remarkable man of antiquity.
Demosthenes. Rhetorical talent was a gift common to all Greeks. The splendid speeches in Homer's poems are not accidental fictions, but the expressions of old traditions, of national manners and peculiarities. The diplomatic Agamemnon, the subtle Odysseus, the passionate Achilles, the conciliatory Nestor are oratorical types which were renewed in the life of the Greeks from generation to generation.[1] Greek oratory reached its zenith in Demosthenes, the "prince of orators". The Ratio Studiorum assigns his masterly orations to the highest class of the literary curriculum, which is, indeed, the proper place for this author. One or other of the Olynthiacs or Philippics should be studied, as was done early in Jesuit colleges. It may be questioned whether it is possible to do justice to the oration On the Crown, except with a very good class of pupils. This speech is not only the masterpiece of Demosthenes, but is regarded as the most perfect specimen that eloquence has ever produced.
A word must here be said on the reading of the Greek New Testament. Professor Bristol says that the present ignorance of the Greek New Testament on
- ↑ See Father Baumgartner, vol. III, p. 257. – As a confirmation of this statement take the IX. book of the Iliad with its magnificent speeches.
