January 1812.
r Krehmer
sent me some English Newspapers with which I wasted a long hour after
dinner— In the Evening I finished reading the Oration of Demosthenes for the Crown— I am not
worthy to admire it, as it deserves— His methodical arrangement is not
so obvious as that of Cicero, and
he does not so well observe the rule of Unity—
But Aristotle had not then given his
laws, and I am not sure that the architecture of discourse had been
taught upon the same principles in the prior schools— Auger says there
is a latent concatenation in the various parts of
the harangues of Demosthenes— I shall endeavour to find it out— As to
the merits of the Cause, on the first and third points of the accusation
against Ctesiphon, the defence
appears to me complete: but on the second, the place of proclamation;
though he produces a law, authorizing it in express terms, Eschines I think has proved that this law
did not apply to the case. But the point itself was not proper to be
made—it was a captious law-trap of a special pleader.— Who could endure
the thought that such a Cause, should have been decided on a question
whether the crown should have been proclaimed at the Pnyx, or upon the
Theatre? Auger says that
Demosthenes was not strong upon this Article— I
think the letter of the law was against him— But on the great issue of
the Cause, the merits of his administration, he comes out gloriously
triumphant. It is impossible now, reading him in a translation and in
cold blood, not to be carried away with the exalted sublimity of his
sentiments, and to kindle with the fire of his patriotism— On the whole
in comparing the two Orations, there appears to me less superiority of
talent, than of character in Demosthenes over his rival.— The palm of
genius it might perhaps be difficult to assign— But the soul of
Demosthenes was higher toned. The personal ribaldry that each of them
pours forth against the other is extremely disgusting— Our very
newspapers at present are not so bad. Eschines repeats at least twenty
times the reproach that Demosthenes had fled, at the battle of Cheronea—
Demosthenes takes no direct notice of the charge, and only in one
passage, asks if he was to have been able by himself alone to overpower
the whole army of Philip?
The passage where he undertakes to prove that even if the disastrous
issue of his policy could have been foreseen with certainty, it would
still have been the duty of Athens to have pursued it, is a model of
reasoning as well as of sentiment— Demosthenes was lavish of figures—
Eschines ridicules several of his expressions, which are harsh but full
of meaning; such as that the Priestess at Delphi Philippized—and that Eschines and others like him had tippled away the liberties of Greece at Philip’s
table— The figures of Demosthenes are short, obvious, and taken from
objects not of profound Science, but of common observation— It is not
necessary to suppose him to have been a man of any considerable
learning.— I had just finished the Oration for the Crown when I was
called in to Dr
Galloway— The German and French newspapers were brought in
about eleven at Night, and I sat reading them untill between twelve and
one.— Part of the President’s
Message at the opening of the Session of Congress was in the Hamburg
Correspondent.