honors which the many pursue, I shall sincerely endeavor, by contemplating the truth, to live the best life, and, when I die, to die the best death. And I exhort all other men, as far as I am able, and especially do I in turn' exhort you, to adopt this mode of life, and this contest, which I say is preferable to all the contests of the world. And I utter it as a reproach against you, that, when you shall meet the judgment and condemnation of which I just now spoke, you will not be able to help yourself; but coming into the presence of the judge, the son of Egina, when he takes hold of you and leads you forward, you will stammer and grow confused there, no less than I here, and perhaps some one will give you a disgraceful blow on the side of the head, and treat you with every species of indignity. Perhaps these things sound to you like an old woman's story, and you despise them. And it would not be wrong to despise them, if we had any means of finding something better and more true. But you now see that you three together, who are the wisest of the Greeks-you, and Polus, and Gorgias-have not the means of showing how we can better live any other life here than that which appears expedient there. But after so much discussion, other things having been refuted, this position remains unshaken-that we ought to shun doing injury more than the receiving of an injury, and that a man should make it his supreme care not to seem to be good, but to be good, both in private and in public. If, however, one becomes bad in anything, he should be punished, and the next good thing to being just is to become just by means of the punishment. flattery, too, both of one's self and of others, and whether of few or many, is to be avoided. And the rhetorical art, and every other practice, we ought to make use of always for the right. All Be influenced by me, therefore, and follow on in that path in which you will be happy both living and dying, as the discussion shows. Suffer any one to despise you as stupid, and to abuse you, if he pleases. Nay, by Jove, do you cheerfully be struck with this disgraceful blow, for you will suffer nothing dreadful, if you are truly honorable and good, and practise Callicles had exhorted Socrates to quit philosophy and attend to rhetoric and politics. That is, acus. The point of this will be felt by considering that Callicles had used this same language to describe Socrates' condition before a human tribunal, under some unjust accusation, against which he would not know how to defend himself. virtue. After having thus practised it together, then, indeed, if it seem best, we will devote ourselves to political matters, or whatever else may suit us. Then will we act as counsellors, being better able to give counsel than we are now. For it is highly discreditable to us, with no more than our present attainments, immediately to begin dogmatizing as though we were something, when the same things appear to us to be always changing their aspects, and these things too of the greatest moment to such a pitch of ignorance are we come! Let us, therefore, use the conclusion now clearly established as a guide; for it shows us that the best way of life is this-to live and die in the practice of justice and of every other virtue. This, therefore, let us pursue, and exhort others to pursue it, rather than that which you believe, and to which you exhort me. For that, Callicles, is of no account. LYSIAS. 458-375 B. C. LYSIAS, the first in chronological order of those Greek orators whose writings have been handed down to us, was born in Athens B. C. 458. At an early period of his life he went, in company with Herodotus, with a colony to Thurium (in Magna Grecia, the southern part of Italy), and there remained till 411 B. C., and studied rhetoric under Tisias and Nicius. When the disastrous defeat of the Athenians occurred in Sicily, he, with other colonists, was exiled from Thurium, and returned to Athens, but suffered much from the tyranny of the "thirty tyrants," being imprisoned and exiled to Megara. When, however, Thrasybulus' and his noble compeers succeeded in overthrowing the hateful oligarchy, Lysias returned to his native city, and lived there till his death, which took place at the advanced age of eighty-three years. Spirit of Freedom, when on Phyle's brow Dims the green beauties of thine Attic plain? Not thirty tyrants now enforce the chain, But every carle can lord it o'er thy land; Nor rise thy sons, but idly rail in vain, Trembling beneath the scourge of Turkish hand, From birth till death enslaved; in word, in deed unmanned! Childe Harold, Canto 2d, Verse LXXIV., written in 1812, when Greece was enslaved by the Turks. Lysias sacrificed all his remaining fortune to aid the patriots. B. c. 458-375.] LYSIAS. Of the two hundred and thirty orations attributed to Lysias, but thirty-five are extant, and even among these some are incomplete, and a few are thought to be spurious. All his orations were written for his clients, with the exception of that against Eratosthenes (one of the thirty tyrants), which he himself delivered, and most of these are of His style is a model of a private rather than a political nature. purity, and may be considered as the best specimen of the Attic idiom: his language is natural and simple, and at the same time noble and dignified, and his delineations of character are always striking and true to life. No orator has commanded greater admiration from the ancients, who have in turn attributed to him all the principal qualifications of an accomplished writer. Dionysius praises him for his grace, Cicero for subtlety, and Quintilian for truthfulness; and the study of his speeches will show that, for elegance, precision, and purity, he has been unequalled by any orator except Isocrates.1 THE BATTLE OF SALAMIS. What did Having transported their wives, children, and aged parents into Salamis, the Athenians there collected the ships of their allies, and patiently waited the arrival of the Persian fleet. Soon after appeared these formidable squadrons, in number so immense, that who would not have trembled at their approach? Yet these our ancestors opposed for the general safety! What were the feelings of those who saw them embark? they themselves feel when they considered the prizes laid up in the isle of Salamis? Their destruction, from the infinite superiority of the enemy's numbers, appeared inevitable: but the fate of their wives, and children, and parents, was an object of the cruelest anxiety: for what humiliating insults might not these expect to suffer from triumphant Barbarians? Surely, in their present situation the Athenians often embraced, and joined right hands; they probably lamented their condition, when they compared the strength of the Barbarians with their own; and when no one circumstance could afford them relief. Among the best editions of Lysias are those of J. Taylor, with a full critical apparatus and emendations by Markland; and of J. Franz, Munich, 1831. Consult also "Orations of Lysias and Isocrates, translated, &c., by John Gillies, LL. D.," a work of great learning. Read also an admirable article in the 29th vol. of the Quarterly Review (London), entitled "Legal Oratory of Greece." From the Funeral Oration in praise of the Athenian citizens who fell in battle. Their city was deserted, their temples burnt or demolished, their country laid waste, and every new form of calamity and disgrace awaited their kindred and themselves. But when they heard the mingled pæans of Greeks and Persians, the exhortations on both sides, the cries of the dying, and saw the sea teeming with the dead, many ships on both sides shattered or sunk, the battle long doubtful, now thinking they were victorious and now that they were overcome, torn between hope and fear, their imaginations presenting many objects they did not see, their minds terrified with sounds they did not hear-how many were their prayers to the gods? How often did they mention their sacrifices? How great was the pity for their children, the anxiety for their wives, their compassion for their parents? How dreadful were the presages of their future calamities? What god so cruel as not to commiserate them! What mortal so insensible as not to lament them! What heart so base as not to admire their virtue! For surely, by the vigor both of their councils and actions they distinguished themselves above the weakness of humanity; abandoning their city, embarking in their galleys, exposing their persons, few in number, against the millions of Asia. Their victory is the fairest monument of liberty, and proves that an handful of freemen contending for their rights, is more powerful than an host of slaves, laboring with infamy to infringe them. THE ADMINISTRATION OF THE THIRTY TYRANTS.1 It is an easy matter, O Athenians! to begin this accusation; but to end it without doing injustice to the cause, will be attended with no small difficulty. For the crimes of Eratosthenes are not only too atrocious to describe, but too many to enumerate. No exaggeration can exceed, and within the time assigned for this discourse, it is impossible fully to represent them. This trial, too, is attended with another singularity. In other causes, it is usual to ask the accusers, "What is your resentment against the defendants ?" But here you must ask the defendants, "What was your resentment against your country? What malice did you bear your fellow-citizens? Why did you rage with unbridled fury against the State it self?" 1 From his oration on "An Indictment against Eratosthenes," that one of the Thirty who had been the means of murdering the orator's own brother. By this cause the attention of mankind has been excited; the citizens and strangers now present are big with expectation; and the fate of Eratosthenes alone must discover your sentiments of the whole cabal. Now is the time to teach your citizens, that their crimes will either meet with immediate punishment, or, though this should for a short time be deferred, and their ambition be crowned with success by the acquisition of sovereign power, that justice will still pursue and overtake them, deprive them of their usurped pre-eminence, and confound them with the meanest criminals. Now is the time to justify before strangers, the expulsion of your tyrants; for, if they perceive that, after getting them into your power, you still allow them to escape unpunished, they will have reason to deem their own activity in promoting your deliverance, equally officious and vain. * * The time is now indeed come, Athenians, when, insensible to pity and tenderness, you must be armed with just severity against Eratosthenes and his associates. What avails it to have conquered them in the field, if you be overcome by them in your councils? Do not show them more favor for what they boast they will perform, than resentment for what they have already committed; nor, after being at so much pains to become master of their persons, allow them to escape without suffering that punishment which you once sought to inflict, but prove yourselves worthy of that good fortune which has given you power over your enemies. The contest is very unequal between Eratosthenes and you: formerly, he was both judge and accuser; but we, even while we accuse, must at the same time make our defence. Those who were innocent, he put to death without trial; to them who are guilty, we allow the benefit of law, even though no adequate punishment can ever be inflicted. For should we sacrifice them and their children, would this compensate for the murder of your fathers, your sons, and your brothers? Should we deprive them of their property, could this indemnify the individuals whom they have beggared, or the State which they have plundered? Though they cannot suffer a punishment adequate to their demerit, they ought not surely on this account to escape. Yet, how matchless is the effrontery of Eratosthenes, who, being now judged by the very persons whom he formerly injured, still ventures to make his defence before the witnesses of his crimes? What can show more evidently the contempt in which he holds you, or the confidence which he reposes in others. * * Let me now conclude with laying before you the miseries to |