7
‘It has often struck me about Demosthenes—for I will tell the whole truth out—that that looser of the bonds of speech rebukes Athenian slackness with a dignity that is lacking in the “ Greekesses” used by Homer of the Greeks; and again he maintains the tragic intensity proper to the great Hellenic drama moreconsistently than the poet who inserts speeches at the very crisis of battle and allows energy to evaporate in words.
8
‘As often as I read Demosthenes, the balanced clauses, the rhythmic movement and cadence, make me forget that this is not my beloved poetry; for Homer too abounds in contrast and parallel, in figures startling or simple. It is a provision of nature, I suppose, that each faculty should have its proper equipment attached to it. How should I scorn your Muse? I know her powers too well.
