There was, however, another power behind this one of order which made it
invulnerable, irresistible. Philip of Macedon, the father of Alexander
the Great, testified of this power in these words: “The eloquence of
Demosthenes did me more harm than all the armies and fleets of the
Athenians. His harangues are like machines of war, and batteries raised
at a long distance, by which all my projects and enterprises are ruined.
Had I been present and heard that vehement orator declaim, I should have
been the first to conclude that it was necessary to declare war against
me. Nor could I reach him with gold, for in this respect, by which I had
gained so many cities, I found him invulnerable.” Antipater also said of
the same power: “I value not the galleys nor armies of the Athenians.
Demosthenes alone I fear. Without him the Athenians are no better than
the meanest Greeks. It is he who rouses them from their lethargy and
puts arms into their hands almost against their wills. Incessantly
representing the battles of Marathon and Salamis, he transforms them
into new men. Nothing escapes his penetrating eye, nor his consummate
prudence. He foresees all our designs; he countermines all our projects
and disconcerts us in everything. Did the Athenians confide in him and
follow his advice we should be irredeemably undone.”
’Tis true that this was in the days of the declining Grecian glory; but
it is none the less true that it was the same power in others previously
that lifted a whole people to sublime achievements and into grand and
noble character. It was here, also, that patriotism had birth; here that
men devoted their lives to their country for the country’s sake rather
than for private gain or glory. In this respect the character of Grecian
generals and statesmen has never been approached by any other nation. It
was this character that gave the Greeks as a nation, and to the world as
an example, the first code of laws; gave a Constitution as a
conservatory of the people’s rights, and made a Lycurgus possible, the
principles of whose Spartan code are only now beginning to be
appreciated. It is to this code that we must look as the prime source of
political economy, and it has been the inspiration of all the
modifications of laws ever made in the interests of the people. In this
respect, Lycurgus will be known in the future ages as the Spartan
law-giver of the world.