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Neptune at Celaura; but, inwardly convinced that no place could afford him a sanctuary from such vengeance as pursued him, he drank of poison, and died.

ISOCRATES.

The character of Isocrates presents the rare combination of a man, who, devoid of fear, is recorded to have passed through a long life, without having made an enemy of a single individual, by the boldness of his eloquence. When Theramenes, proscribed by the thirty tyrants, took refuge at the altar, Isocrates generously volunteered to plead in his defence at the hazard of his own life; and after the death of Socrates, when all his disciples, struck with dismay, fled into distant parts, Isocrates alone had the courage to appear in mourning in the public streets of Athens.

PERICLES.

The eloquence of Pericles, which his countrymen were wont to designate by the attribute of "thunder and lightning," must have mingled a wondrous share of the persuasive in its power over the passions. When Thucydides, the Milesian, one of his great opponents in state matters, was asked by Archidamus, King of Sparta, which was the better wrestler, Pericles or himself? "It is in vain," replied Thucydides, "to wrestle with that man. As often as I have cast him to the ground, he has as stoutly denied it; and when I would maintain that he had got the fall, he would as obstinately maintain the reverse; and so efficaciously withal, that he has made all who heard him, nay, the very spectators, believe him."

EXTEMPORANEOUS ORATORY.

Gorgias of Leontium is the first orator we read of who possessed the gift so much prized in modern times, and so distinctly characteristic of modern eloquence--the gift of extemporaneous speaking. He made it his boast, that in a public assembly, he could on the instant declaim as fluently on any subject which might be proposed to him, as persons who had pondered over the subject ever so long, in gloomy caves, or by the wild sea-shore. This faculty of the Leontine orator exposed him, however, to a great disadvantage in the race of immortality with his contemporaries ; a disadvantage from which the more recent of his successors in the same path have been happily exempted. There were no reporters in those days; and of the first of extempore speeches, not one is now extant.

That the world has lost something by their passing into oblivion, we may fairly conclude from the effects which some of them are recorded to have produced. In the war between his native city, Leontium, and Syracuse, the citizens of the former sent Gorgias and Tesias as ambassadors to the Athenians, to supplicate their assistance. On their arrival at Athens, about the year 427, B. C., Gorgias made such an artful address to the passions of the Athenian people, on the grievances which he made them suppose they had suffered from the Syracusans, and on the advantages which they might reap from an alliance with his countrymen, that he prevailed on them to rush headlong into a war, that proved in the end more fatal to them, than any war in which they had ever engaged.

PLATO.

The eloquence of Plato is said by Tully to have been thus beautifully prefigured in his youth. When yet an infant, his father, Aristo, went to Hymettus with his wife and child to sacrifice to the muses; and while they were busied in the divine rites, a swarm of bees came and distilled their honey on his lips.

Apuleius relates, that Socrates, the night before Plato was recommended to him, dreamed that a young swan fled from Cupid's altar to the academy, and settled in his lap; thence soared to heaven, and delighted the gods with its music; and when Aristo the next day presented Plato to him, "Friends," said Socrates, "this the swan of Cupid's academy."

PUBLIC CRIERS OF GREECE.

The Greeks were so nice in point of eloquence, and so offended with a vicious pronunciation, that they would not suffer even the public crier to proclaim their laws, unless he was accompanied by a musician, who, in case of a vicious tone, might be ready to give him the proper pitch and expression. It would seem that the town criers of classic story could boast of a degree of oratorical propriety, from which their modern successors must have sadly degenerated; since to speak as a town crier, is now become a bye-word of shame among the people.

"I'd as lieve the town crier spoke the lines." We find from Quintilian, that even Gracchus, one of the greatest orators of his time, thought it necessary

to have a flutenist to stand by while he was speaking, in order to give him the proper pitch to regulate his elevation and cadences, and to assist him with a proper tone in case he made a false inflexion of the voice.

Cicero, however, thought it beneath an orator (as it certainly is) to have occasion for such an assistance. Leave," says he, "the pipe at home, but carry the custom with you."

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PROLIXITY MADE PENAL.

It appears from several of the ancient Royal Ordinances of France, and particularly from one of Charles VII. of France, that lawyers in that country (would to heaven it were so in all countries!) were subjected to heavy penalties, when guilty of prolixity in their pleadings. The Roman advocates used to make a sort of agreement with the court, how long they might have liberty to speak in defence of their client. Martial alludes to this practice in the following epigram:

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Septem clepsydras magnâ tibi voce petenti
Arbiter invitus, Cæciliane, dedit ;

At tu multa diu dicis, vitreisque tepentem
Ampullis, potas semisupinus aquam.

Ut tandem saties vocemque sitimque rogamus
Jam de clepsydra, Cæciliane bibas."

"Seven glasses, Cæcilian, thou loudly didst crave; Seven glasses the judge full reluctantly gave;

Still thou bawl'st and bawl'st on, and as ne'er to bawl off, Tepid water in bumpers, supine thou dost quaff.

That thy voice and thy thirst at a time thou may'st slake,

We entreat from the glass of old Chronus thou'dst take."

MARK ANTONY, THE CONSUL.

It was owing to Mark Antony, according to the testimony of Cicero, that Rome could boast of being a rival to Greece in the art of eloquence.

One of the most remarkable of his pleadings was that in favour of Marcus Aquilius. He moved the judges in so sensible a manner by the tears he shed, and the scars he shewed on the breast of his client, that he procured his acquittal.

He would never publish any of his speeches, that he might not, as he said, be proved to say in one cause, what might be contrary to what he should advance in another.

He was unfortunately killed during those bloody commotions which arose out of the contentions of Marius and Cinna. He was discovered in a secret hiding place to which he had fled, and soldiers were sent to despatch him; but he supplicated their forbearance in so eloquent a manner, that the only man who had the cruelty to kill him, was one who had not heard his discourse.

CICERO.

A law made by Otho for the assignment of separate seats in the theatres to the equestrian order, gave great offence to the Roman people. Otho, on coming into the theatre one night, was received by the popu

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