etween nature and fortune, as there
is sometimes between artists, it would be hard to judge, whether that
succeeded best in making them alike in their dispositions and manners,
or this, in the coincidences of their lives. We will speak of the eldest
first.

Demosthenes, the father of Demosthenes, was a citizen of good rank and
quality, as Theopompus informs us, surnamed the Sword-maker, because he
had a large workhouse, and kept servants skilful in that art at work.
Demosthenes, when only seven years old, was left by his father in
affluent circumstances, the whole value of his estate being little
short of fifteen talents, but was wronged by his guardians, part of his
fortune being embezzled by them, and the rest neglected; insomuch that
even his teachers were defrauded of their salaries. This was the reason
that he did not obtain the liberal education that he should have had;
besides that on account of weakness and delicate health, his mother
would not let him exert himself, and his teachers forebore to urge him.
He was meagre and sickly from the first, and hence had the nickname
of Batalus, given him, it is said, by the boys, in derision of his
appearance; Batalus being a certain enervated flute-player, in ridicule
of whom Antiphanes wrote a play.

The first occasion of his eager inclination to oratory, they say, was
this. Callistratus, the orator, was to plead in open court for Oropus,
and the expectation of the issue of that cause was very great, as
well for the ability of the orator, who was then at the height of
his reputation, as also for the fame of the action itself. Therefore,
Demosthenes, having heard the tutors and schoolmasters agreeing among
themselves to be present at this trial, with much importunity persuades
his tutor to take him along with him to the hearing; who, having some
acquaintance with the doorkeepers, procured a place where the boy might
sit unseen, and hear what was said. Callistratus having got the day, and
being much admired, the boy began to look upon his glory with emulation,
observing how he was courted on all hands, and attended on his way by
the multitude; but his wonder was more than all excited by the power of
his eloquence, which seemed able to subdue and win over any thing. From
this time, therefore, bidding farewell to other sorts of learning
and study, he now began to exercise himself, and to take pains in
declaiming, as one that meant to be himself also an orator. He made use