DEMOSTHENES. 15 generosity of his principles, and the dignity of his ora- tions, he might deservedly have his name placed, not in the number of such orators as Moerocles, Polyeuctus, and Ilyperides, but in the highest rank with Cimon, Thucyd- ides, and Pericles. Certainly amongst those who were contemporary with him, Phocion, though he appeared on the less commend- able side in the commonwealth, and was counted as one of the Macedonian party, nevertheless, by his courage and hia honesty, procured himself a name not inferior to those of Ephialtes, Aristides, and Cimon. But Demosthenes, being neither fit to be relied on for courage in arms, as Deme- trius says, nor on all sides inaccessible to bribery (I'or how invincible soever he was against the gifts of Philip and the Macedonians, yet elsewhere he lay open to assault, and was overpowered by the gold which came down from Susa and Ecbatana), was therefore esteemed better able to recommend than to imitate the vhtues of past times. And yet (excepting only Phocion), even in his life and manners, he far surpassed the other orators of his time. None of them addressed the people so boldly; he attacked the faults, and opposed himself to the un- reasonable deshes of the multitude, as may be seen in his orations. Theopompus writes, that the Athenians having by name selected Demosthenes, and called upon him to accuse a certain person, he refused to do it ; upon which the assembly being all in an uproar, he rose up and said, " Your counsellor, whether you will or no, ye men of Athens, you shall always have me ; but a sycophant or false accuser, though you would have me, I shall never be." And his conduct in the case of Antiphon was per- fectly aristocratical ; whom, after he had been acquitted in the assembly, he took and brought before the court of Areopagus, and, setting at naught the displeasure of the people, convicted him there of having promised Philip to
