Furthermore, leaving the comparison aside of the difference of their
eloquence in their orations: methinks I may say thus much of them.
That Demosthenes did wholly employ all his wit and learning (natural
or artificial) unto the art of rhetoric, and that in force, and vertue
of eloquence, he did excel all the orators in his time: and for
gravity and magnificent style, all those also that only write for shew
or ostentation: and for sharpness and art, all the sophisters and
masters of rhetoric. And that Cicero was a man generally learned in
all sciences, and that had studied divers books, as appeareth plainly
by the sundry books of philosophy of his own making, written after the
manner of the Academic philosophers. Furthermore, they may see in his
orations he wrote in certain causes to serve him when he pleaded: that
he sought occasions in his by-talk to shew men that he was excellently
well learned. Furthermore, by their phrases a man may discern some
spark of their manners and conditions. For Demosthenes' phrase hath no
manner of fineness, jests, nor grace in it, but is altogether grave
and harsh, and not only smelleth of the lamp, as Pytheas said when he
mocked him, but sheweth a great drinker of water, extreme pains, and
therewith also a sharp and sour nature.
But Cicero oftentimes fell from pleasant taunts, unto plain
scurrility: and turning all his pleadings of matters of importance, to
sport and laughter, having a grace in it, many times he did forget the
comeliness that became a man of his calling. As in his oration for
Cælius, where he saith, It is no marvel if in so great abundance of
wealth and fineness he give himself a little to take his pleasure:
and that it was a folly not to use pleasures lawful and tolerable,
sith the famousest philosophers that ever were, did place the chief
felicity of man, to be in pleasure. And it is reported also that
Marcus Cato having accused Murena, Cicero being Consul, defended his
cause, and in his oration pleasantly girded all the sect of the Stoic
philosophers for Cato's sake, for the strange opinions they hold,
which they call paradoxes: insomuch as he made all the people and
judges also fall a-laughing a good. And Cato himself also smiling a
little, said unto them that sat by him: What a laughing and mocking
Consul have we, my lords? but letting that pass, it seemeth that
Cicero was of a pleasant and merry nature: for his face shewed ever
great life and mirth in it. Whereas in Demosthenes' countenance on the
other side, they might discern a marvellous diligence and care, and a
pensive man, never weary with pain: insomuch that his enemies, (as he
reporteth himself) called him a perverse and froward man.
Furthermore, in their writings is discerned, that the one speaketh
modestly in his own praise, so as no man can justly be offended with
him: and yet not always, but when necessity enforceth him for some
matter of great importance, but otherwise very discreet and modest to
speak of himself. Cicero in contrary manner, using too often
repetition of one self thing in all his orations, shewed an extreme
ambition of glory, when incessantly he cried out:
Let spear and shield give place to gown,
And give the tongue the laurel crown.
Yea furthermore, he did not only praise his own acts and deeds, but
the orations also which he had written or pleaded, as if he should
have contended against Isocrates, or Anaximenes, a master that taught
rhetoric, and not to go about to reform the people of Rome.
Which were both fierce and stout in arms,
And fit to work their enemies harms.
For, as it is requisite for a governor of a commonwealth to seek
authority by his eloquence: so, to cover the praise of his own
glorious tongue, or as it were to beg it, that sheweth a base mind.
And therefore in this point we must confess that Demosthenes is far
graver, and of a nobler mind: who declared himself, That all his
eloquence came only but by practice, the which also required the
favour of his auditory: and further, he thought them fools and madmen
(as indeed they be no less) that therefore would make any boast of
themselves. In this they were both alike, that both of them had great
credit and authority in their orations to the people, and for
obtaining that they would propound: insomuch as captains, and they
that had armies in their hands, stood in need of their eloquence. As
Chares, Diopithes, and Leosthenes, they all were holpen of
Demosthenes: and Pompey, and Octavius Cæsar the young man, of Cicero:
as Cæsar himself confesseth in his commentaries he wrote unto Agrippa,
and Mæcenas. But nothing sheweth a man's nature and condition more,
(as it is reported, and so is it true) that when one is in authority:
for that bewrayeth his humour, and the affections of his mind, and
layeth open all his secret vices in him.
Demosthenes could never deliver any such proof of himself, because he
never bare any office, nor was called forward. For he was not general
of the army, which he himself had prepared against King Philip. Cicero
on the other side being sent Treasurer into Sicily, and Pro-consul
into Cilicia and Cappadocia,[94] in such a time as covetousness
reigned most: (insomuch that the captains and governors whom they sent
to govern their provinces, thinking it villainy and dastardliness to
rob, did violently take things by force, at what time also to take
bribes was reckoned no shame, but to handle it discreetly, he was the
better thought of, and beloved for it) he shewed plainly that he
regarded not money, and gave forth many proofs of his courtesy and
goodness. Furthermore, Cicero being created Consul by name, but
Dictator in deed, having absolute power and authority over all things
to suppress the rebellion and conspirators of Catiline: he proved
Plato's prophecy true, which was: That the cities are safe from
danger, when the chief magistrates and governors (by some good divine
fortune) do govern with wisdom and justice. Demosthenes was reproved
for his corruption, and selling of his eloquence: because secretly he
wrote one oration for Phormio, and another in the self same manner for
Apollodorus, they being both adversaries. Further, he was defamed also
for receiving money of the king of Persia, and therewithal condemned
for the money which he had taken of Harpalus. And though some
peradventure would object, that the reports thereof (which are many)
do lie: yet they cannot possibly deny this, that Demosthenes had no
power to refrain from looking on the presents which divers kings did
offer him, praying him to accept them in good part for their sakes:
neither was that the part of a man that did take usury by traffick on
the sea, the extremest yet of all other.
In contrary manner (as we have said before) it is certain that Cicero
being Treasurer, refused the gifts which the Sicilians offered him,
there: and the presents also which the king of the Cappadocians
offered him whilst he was Pro-consul in Cilicia, and those especially
which his friends pressed upon him to take of them, being a great sum
of money, when he went as a banished man out of Rome. Furthermore, the
banishment of the one was infamous to him, because by judgement he was
banished as a thief. The banishment of the other was for as honourable
an act as ever he did, being banished for ridding his country of
wicked men. And therefore of Demosthenes, there was no speech after he
was gone: but for Cicero, all the Senate changed their apparel into
black, and determined that they would pass no decree by their
authority, before Cicero's banishment was revoked by the people.
Indeed Cicero idly passed his time of banishment, and did nothing all
the while he was in Macedon: and one of the chiefest acts that
Demosthenes did, in all the time that he dealt in the affairs of the
commonwealth, was in his banishment. For he went into every city, and
did assist the ambassadors of the Grecians, and refused the
ambassadors of the Macedonians. In the which he showed himself a
better citizen, than either Themistocles, or Alcibiades, in their like
fortune and exile. So when he was called home, and returned, he fell
again to his old trade which he practiced before, and was ever against
Antipater,[95] and the Macedonians. Where Lælius in open Senate
sharply took up Cicero, for that he sat still and said nothing, when
that Octavius Cæsar the young man made petition against the law, that
he might sue for the Consulship, and being so young, that he had never
a hair on his face. And Brutus self also doth reprove Cicero in his
letters, for that he had maintained and nourished a more grievous and
greater tyranny, than that which they had put down. And last of all,
me thinketh the death of Cicero most pitiful, to see an old man
carried up and down, (with tender love of his servants) seeking all
the ways that might be to fly death, which did not long prevent his
natural course: and in the end, old as he was, to see his head so
pitifully cut off. Whereas Demosthenes, though he yielded a little,
entreating him that came to take him: yet for that he had prepared the
poison long before, that he had kept it long, and also used it as he
did, he cannot but be marvellously commended for it. For sith the god
Neptune denied him the benefit of his sanctuary, he betook him to a
greater, and that was death: whereby he saved himself out of the
soldiers' hands of the tyrant, and also scorned the bloody cruelty of
Antipater.