If the number and not the loftiness of an author's merits is to be our
standard of success, judged by this test we must admit that Hyperides is
a far superior orator to Demosthenes. For in Hyperides there is a richer
modulation, a greater variety of excellence. He is, we may say, in
everything second-best, like the champion of the _pentathlon_, who,
though in every contest he has to yield the prize to some other
combatant, is superior to the unpractised in all five.
2
Not only has he rivalled the success of Demosthenes in everything but
his manner of composition, but, as though that were not enough, he has
taken in all the excellences and graces of Lysias as well. He knows when
it is proper to speak with simplicity, and does not, like Demosthenes,
continue the same key throughout. His touches of character are racy and
sparkling, and full of a delicate flavour. Then how admirable is his
wit, how polished his raillery! How well-bred he is, how dexterous in
the use of irony! His jests are pointed, but without any of the
grossness and vulgarity of the old Attic comedy. He is skilled in making
light of an opponent's argument, full of a well-aimed satire which
amuses while it stings; and through all this there runs a pervading, may
we not say, a matchless charm. He is most apt in moving compassion; his
mythical digressions show a fluent ease, and he is perfect in bending
his course and finding a way out of them without violence or effort.
Thus when he tells the story of Leto he is really almost a poet; and his
funeral oration shows a declamatory magnificence to which I hardly know
a parallel.
3
Demosthenes, on the other hand, has no touches of character, none of the
versatility, fluency, or declamatory skill of Hyperides. He is, in fact,
almost entirely destitute of all those excellences which I have just
enumerated. When he makes violent efforts to be humorous and witty, the
only laughter he arouses is against himself; and the nearer he tries to
get to the winning grace of Hyperides, the farther he recedes from it.
Had he, for instance, attempted such a task as the little speech in
defence of Phryne or Athenagoras, he would only have added to the
reputation of his rival.
4
Nevertheless all the beauties of Hyperides, however numerous, cannot
make him sublime. He never exhibits strong feeling, has little energy,
rouses no emotion; certainly he never kindles terror in the breast of
his readers. But Demosthenes followed a great master,[1] and drew his
consummate excellences, his high-pitched eloquence, his living passion,
his copiousness, his sagacity, his speed--that mastery and power which
can never be approached--from the highest of sources. These mighty,
these heaven-sent gifts (I dare not call them human), he made his own
both one and all. Therefore, I say, by the noble qualities which he does
possess he remains supreme above all rivals, and throws a cloud over his
failings, silencing by his thunders and blinding by his lightnings the
orators of all ages. Yes, it would be easier to meet the
lightning-stroke with steady eye than to gaze unmoved when his
impassioned eloquence is sending out flash after flash.
[Footnote 1: _I.e._ Thucydides. See the passage of Dionysius quoted
in the Note.]