Among savage nations [a]
language
is never copious.
Tacitus
It is with our
minds as with our bodies: the latter, as soon as they have attained
their full growth, and seem to flourish in the vigour of health,
begin, from that moment, to feel the gradual approaches of decay. Our
intellectual powers proceed in the same manner; they gain strength by
degrees, they arrive at maturity, and, when they can no longer
improve, they languish, droop, and fade away. This is the law of
nature, to which every age, and every nation, of which we have any
historical records, have been obliged to submit. There is besides
another general law, hard perhaps, but wonderfully ordained, and it is
this: nature, whose operations are always simple and uniform, never
suffers in any age or country, more than one great example of
perfection in the kind [a]. This was the case in Greece, that prolific
parent of genius and of science. She had but one Homer, one Plato, one
Demosthenes. The same has happened at Rome: Virgil stands at the head
of his art, and Cicero is still unrivalled. During a space of seven
hundred years our ancestors were struggling to reach the summit of
perfection: Cicero at length arose; he thundered forth his immortal
energy, and nature was satisfied with the wonder she had made. The
force of genius could go no further. A new road to fame was to be
found. We aimed at wit, and gay conceit, and glittering sentences. The
change, indeed, was great; but it naturally followed the new form of
government. Genius died with public liberty.
13. We find that the discourse of men always conforms to the temper of
the times.
Among savage nations [a] language is never copious. A few
words serve the purpose of barbarians, and those are always uncouth
and harsh, without the artifice of connection; short, abrupt, and
nervous. In a state of polished society, where a single ruler sways
the sceptre, the powers of the mind take a softer tone, and language
grows more refined. But affectation follows, and precision gives way
to delicacy. The just and natural expression is no longer the fashion.
Living in ease and luxury, men look for elegance, and hope by novelty
to give a grace to adulation. In other nations, where the first
principles of the civil union are maintained in vigour; where the
people live under the government of laws, and not the will of man;
where the spirit of liberty pervades all ranks and orders of the
state; where every individual holds himself bound, at the hazard of
his life, to defend the constitution framed by his ancestors; where,
without being guilty of an impious crime, no man dares to violate the
rights of the whole community; in such a state, the national eloquence
will be prompt, bold, and animated. Should internal dissensions shake
the public peace, or foreign enemies threaten to invade the land,
Eloquence comes forth arrayed in terror; she wields her thunder, and
commands all hearts. It is true, that upon those occasions men of
ambition endeavour, for their own purposes, to spread the flame of
sedition; while the good and virtuous combine their force to quell the
turbulent, and repel the menaces of a foreign enemy. Liberty gains new
strength by the conflict, and the true patriot has the glory of
serving his country, distinguished by his valour in the field, and in
debate no less terrible by his eloquence.
14. Hence it is that in free governments we see a constellation of
orators. Hence Demosthenes displayed the powers of his amazing genius,
and acquired immortal honour. He saw a quick and lively people,
dissolved in luxury, open to the seductions of wealth, and ready to
submit to a master; he saw a great and warlike monarch threatening
destruction to the liberties of his country; he saw that prince at the
head of powerful armies, renowned for victory, possessed of an opulent
treasury, formidable in battle, and, by his secret arts, still more so
in the cabinet; he saw that king, inflamed by ambition and the lust of
dominion, determined to destroy the liberties of Greece. It was that
alarming crisis that called forth the powers of Demosthenes. Armed
with eloquence, and with eloquence only, he stood as a bulwark against
a combination of enemies foreign and domestic.
minds as with our bodies: the latter, as soon as they have attained
their full growth, and seem to flourish in the vigour of health,
begin, from that moment, to feel the gradual approaches of decay. Our
intellectual powers proceed in the same manner; they gain strength by
degrees, they arrive at maturity, and, when they can no longer
improve, they languish, droop, and fade away. This is the law of
nature, to which every age, and every nation, of which we have any
historical records, have been obliged to submit. There is besides
another general law, hard perhaps, but wonderfully ordained, and it is
this: nature, whose operations are always simple and uniform, never
suffers in any age or country, more than one great example of
perfection in the kind [a]. This was the case in Greece, that prolific
parent of genius and of science. She had but one Homer, one Plato, one
Demosthenes. The same has happened at Rome: Virgil stands at the head
of his art, and Cicero is still unrivalled. During a space of seven
hundred years our ancestors were struggling to reach the summit of
perfection: Cicero at length arose; he thundered forth his immortal
energy, and nature was satisfied with the wonder she had made. The
force of genius could go no further. A new road to fame was to be
found. We aimed at wit, and gay conceit, and glittering sentences. The
change, indeed, was great; but it naturally followed the new form of
government. Genius died with public liberty.
13. We find that the discourse of men always conforms to the temper of
the times.
Among savage nations [a] language is never copious. A few
words serve the purpose of barbarians, and those are always uncouth
and harsh, without the artifice of connection; short, abrupt, and
nervous. In a state of polished society, where a single ruler sways
the sceptre, the powers of the mind take a softer tone, and language
grows more refined. But affectation follows, and precision gives way
to delicacy. The just and natural expression is no longer the fashion.
Living in ease and luxury, men look for elegance, and hope by novelty
to give a grace to adulation. In other nations, where the first
principles of the civil union are maintained in vigour; where the
people live under the government of laws, and not the will of man;
where the spirit of liberty pervades all ranks and orders of the
state; where every individual holds himself bound, at the hazard of
his life, to defend the constitution framed by his ancestors; where,
without being guilty of an impious crime, no man dares to violate the
rights of the whole community; in such a state, the national eloquence
will be prompt, bold, and animated. Should internal dissensions shake
the public peace, or foreign enemies threaten to invade the land,
Eloquence comes forth arrayed in terror; she wields her thunder, and
commands all hearts. It is true, that upon those occasions men of
ambition endeavour, for their own purposes, to spread the flame of
sedition; while the good and virtuous combine their force to quell the
turbulent, and repel the menaces of a foreign enemy. Liberty gains new
strength by the conflict, and the true patriot has the glory of
serving his country, distinguished by his valour in the field, and in
debate no less terrible by his eloquence.
14. Hence it is that in free governments we see a constellation of
orators. Hence Demosthenes displayed the powers of his amazing genius,
and acquired immortal honour. He saw a quick and lively people,
dissolved in luxury, open to the seductions of wealth, and ready to
submit to a master; he saw a great and warlike monarch threatening
destruction to the liberties of his country; he saw that prince at the
head of powerful armies, renowned for victory, possessed of an opulent
treasury, formidable in battle, and, by his secret arts, still more so
in the cabinet; he saw that king, inflamed by ambition and the lust of
dominion, determined to destroy the liberties of Greece. It was that
alarming crisis that called forth the powers of Demosthenes. Armed
with eloquence, and with eloquence only, he stood as a bulwark against
a combination of enemies foreign and domestic.
