6
The speech of the statesman, however, must not be juvenile and theatrical, as if he were making a speech for show and weaving a garland of delicate and flowery words; on the other hand it must not, as Pytheas said of the speech of Demosthenes, smell of the lamp and elaborate literary labour, with sharp arguments and with periods precisely measured by rule and compass. No, just as musicians demand that the touch upon the strings exhibit feeling, not mere technique, so the speech of the statesman, counsellor, and ruler must not exhibit shrewdness or subtlety, and it must not be to his credit to speak fluently or artistically or distributively,These seem to be somewhat technical words employed by the rhetoricians. but his speech must be full of unaffected character, true high-mindedness, a father’s frankness, foresight, and thoughtful concern for others. His speech must also have, in a good cause, a charm that pleases and a winning persuasiveness; in addition to nobility of purpose it must possess grace arising from stately diction and appropriate and persuasive thoughts. And political oratory, much more than that used in a court of law, admits maxims, historical and mythical tales, and metaphors, by means of which those who employ them sparingly and at the proper moment move their audiences exceedingly; as did he who said Do not make Hellas one-eyed, cf. Aristotle, Rhetoric, iii. 1017, p. 1411 a; said by the Athenian orator Leptines, in opposing the destruction of Sparta, one of the eyes of Greece. and Demades when he said he was governing the wreck of the State, Cf. Life of Phocion, chap. i. and Archilochus saying Nor let the stone of Tantalus Hang o’er the head of this our isle,Bergk, Poet. Lyr. Graec. ii. p. 396. and Pericles when he bade the Athenians to remove the eyesore of the Peiraeus, Cf. Life of Pericles, chap. viii. The references is to Aegina, whose thriving commerce threatened the prosperity of the Peiraeus. and Phocion when he said with reference to the victory of Leosthenes that the furlong race of the war was good, but he was fearful about the long-distance race. Cf. Life of Phocion, chap. xxiii. And, in general, loftiness and grandeur of style are more fitting for political speech; examples are the Philippics and among the speeches in Thucydides that of the ephor Sthenelaïdas, that of King Archidamns at Plataea, and that of Pericles after the pestilence.Thucydides, i. 86; ii. 72; ii. 60. But as for the rhetorical efforts and grand periods of Ephorus, Theopompus, and Anaximenes, which they deliver after they have armed and drawn up the armies, it can be said of them, None talks so foolishly when near the steel.Nauck, Trag. Graec. Frag. p. 441, l. 22; from the Autolycus of Euripides.
