d Pytheas, in particular,
told him, "That all his arguments smelled of the lamp." Demosthenes
retorted sharply upon him, "Yes, indeed, but your lamp and mine, my
friend, are not conscious to the same labours." To others he did not
pretend to deny his previous application, but told them, "He either
wrote the whole of his orations, or spoke not without first committing
part to writing." He further affirmed, "That this shewed him a good
member of a democratic state; for the coming prepared to the rostrum
was a mark of respect for the people. Whereas, to be regardless of
what the people might think of a man's address shewed his inclination
for oligarchy, and that he had rather gain his point by force than by
persuasion." Another proof they gave us of his want of confidence on
any sudden occasion is, that when he happened to be put into disorder
by the tumultuary behaviour of the people, Demades often rose up to
support him in an extempore address, but he never did the same for
Demades. . . .

Upon the whole it appears that Demosthenes did not take Pericles
entirely for his model. He only adopted his action and delivery, and
his prudent resolutions not to make a practice of speaking from a
sudden impulse, or on any occasion that might present itself; being
persuaded that it was to that conduct he owed his greatness. Yet,
while he chose not often to trust the success of his powers to fortune,
he did not absolutely neglect the reputation which may be acquired by
speaking on a sudden occasion; and if we believe Eratosthenes,
Demetrius the Phalerean, and the comic poets, there was a greater
spirit and boldness in his unpremeditated orations than in those he had
committed to writing. Eratosthenes says that in his extemporaneous
harangues he often spoke as from a supernatural impulse; and Demetrius
tells us that in an address to the people, like a man inspired, he once
uttered this oath in verse:

By earth, by all her fountains, streams, and floods! . . .

As for his personal defects, Demetrius the Phalerean gives us an
account of the remedies he applied to them; and he says he had it from
Demosthenes in his old age. The hesitation and stammering of his
tongue he corrected by practising to speak with pebbles in his mouth;
and he strengthened his voice by running or walking uphill, and
pronouncing some passage in an oration or a poem during the difficulty
of breath which that caused. He had, moreover, a looking-glass