310 HISTORICAL TALES,

ing of long sentences while walking rapidly up-hill.
That he might be able to make himself heard above
the noise of the assembly, he would stand in stormy
weather on the sea-shore at Phalerum, and declaim
against the roar of the waves. For two or three
months together he practised writing and speaking,
day and night, in an underground chamber; and
that he might not be tempted to go abroad and
neglect his studies he shaved the hair from one side
of his head. Dread of ridicule kept him in till his
hair had grown again. To gaina graceful action, he
would practise for hours before a tall mirror, watch-
ing all his movements, and constantly seeking to
improve them.

Several years passed away in this hard and per-
sistent labor. He tried public speaking again and
again, each time discouraged, but each time improv-
ing,—and finally gained complete success. His voice
became strong and clear, his manner graceful, his
delivery emphatic and decisive, the language of his
orations full of clear logic, strong statement, cutting
irony, and vigorous declamation, fluent, earnest, and
convincing. In brief, it may be said that he made
himself the greatest orator of Greece, which is equal
to saying the greatest orator of the world.

It was not only in delivery that he was great.
His speeches were as convincing when read as when
spoken. Fortunately, the great orators of those
days prepared their speeches very carefully before
delivery, and so it is that some of the best of the
speeches of Demosthenes have come down to us and
can be read by ourselves. The voice of the whole