( 139 ) 
tural flammer, an impediment in his fpeech 5 
they tell us, that, in order to cure himfelf 
of this defect, he pradtifed fpeaking with 
pebbles in his mouth, probably on the fame 
principle that a man walks in boots the 
day before he intends to run a race. 
Be this anecdote true or fabulous, we 
may, I think, rationally conclude, that De- 
mofthenes, finding in himfelf every requi- 
fite to become a diftinguimed orator, ex- 
cept difrincl: articulation} animated by that 
noble enthufiafm which is the foundation 
of great diftinctions in fociety, refolutely 
determined, by unremitting affiduity, to at- 
tain, by art, that which nature had not be- 
flowed. He knew the ineflimable value of 
perfuafive elocution in a government like 
that of Athens: he knew the power of aa 
orator, who, as Virgil elegantly fays regit 
diffiis animos et peffora mulcet 
Ovid, too, though perfectly fenfible of the 
power of beauty, afcribes the paflion of the 
Marine deities for the hero of the Odyfley, 
entirely to his elocution. 
Nonformofus erat^federatfacundus 
Et tamen tequoreas torftt amore Deas. 
Paving thus wandered into claflical re- 
collections, 
