THE WORLD'S GREATEST
ORATOR.

Durine the days of the decline of Athens, the
centre of thought to Greece, there roamed about
the streets of that city a delicate, sickly lad, so
feeble in frame that, at his mother’s wish, he kept
away from the gymnasium, lest the severe exer-
cises there required should do him more harm than
good. His delicate clothing and effeminate habits
were derided by his playmates, who nicknamed him
Batalus, after, we are told, a spindle-shanked fiute-
player. We do not know, however, just what Ba-
talus means.

As the boy was not fit for vigorous exercise, and
never likely to make a hardy soldier or sailor, it be-
came a question for what he was best fitted. If the
body could not be exercised, the mind might be. At
that time Athens had its famous schools of philoso-
phy and rhetoric, and the art of oratory was dili-
gently cultivated. It is interesting to know that
outside of Athens Greece produced no orators, if we
except Hpaminondas of Thebes. The Boeotians, who
dwelt north of Attica, were looked upon as dull-
brained and thick-witted. The Spartans prided
themselves on their few words and hard blows.

I.—u 26* 305