travel books: embrace Republicanism'. Conceive this to be correct in its historical detail and to employ the arguments and the language proper to its supposed date. Suppose it to be exquisitely phrased and delivered with such fire as to carry the audience away, as great oratory and great acting can do-then we shall have a close analogy to the lectures which brought fame and money to these sophists in the second century of our era. The following is a picture of one of these lectures. Every detail in it is taken from ancient sources, with one modernization. The scene is the harbour of a great city. A ship has just arrived and the passengers are landing. There is a crowd on the quay to meet them, and the eyes of all are fixed on a man with the pale, thin face of a student, but aristocratic in manner and richly dressed. A carriage with silver trappings on the horses is waiting. He enters it and drives to the Town Hall. Here is gathered so dense a crowd that as he mounts the platform only heads are to be seen. He rises and commences with a short speech in praise of the city, in praise of everything about it from its situation to its water-supply, from its statues to the fish in its river. He then asks his audience to suggest a subject to him. They demand an imaginary speech by King William before the Battle of the Boyne. The sophist remains a few minutes seated in thought, then commences with a bright look on his face. At first he remains seated and speaks gently. Then rising to his feet he is carried away by his eloquence. He speaks without faltering or pausing for a word, yet this improvisation recalls the most finished efforts of the most famous orators. He smiles with conscious skill as he piles phrase on phrase and builds up his sentences. Sometimes as his passion grows he strikes his thigh, sometimes at a pathetic passage he breaks into tears. Meanwhile, the audience are as moved as if a nation's fate hung in the balance : they applaud, shout assent, weep with him, scream with delight at his skill, and even, foreseeing the ends of his sentences, finish them before he can utter them himself. After the speech is ended, he follows with ` An address by King James to his troops on the same occasion ', and finally is escorted away in triumph by his hearers. What fascination in these lectures enslaved the GraecoRoman world to the sophists ? Partly it was the patriotic books

Books > Old Books > The Mission Of Greece (1928)

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THE SOPHISTS : POLEMON AND HERODES ATTICUS

embrace Republicanism'. Conceive this to be correct in its historical detail and to employ the arguments and the language proper to its supposed date. Suppose it to be exquisitely phrased and delivered with such fire as to carry the audience away, as great oratory and great acting can do-then we shall have a close analogy to the lectures which brought fame and money to these sophists in the second century of our era.
The following is a picture of one of these lectures. Every detail in it is taken from ancient sources, with one modernization. The scene is the harbour of a great city. A ship has just arrived and the passengers are landing. There is a crowd on the quay to meet them, and the eyes of all are fixed on a man with the pale, thin face of a student, but aristocratic in manner and richly dressed. A carriage with silver trappings on the horses is waiting. He enters it and drives to the Town Hall. Here is gathered so dense a crowd that as he mounts the platform only heads are to be seen. He rises and commences with a short speech in praise of the city, in praise of everything about it from its situation to its water-supply, from its statues to the fish in its river. He then asks his audience to suggest a subject to him. They demand an imaginary speech by King William before the Battle of the Boyne. The sophist remains a few minutes seated in thought, then commences with a bright look on his face. At first he remains seated and speaks gently. Then rising to his feet he is carried away by his eloquence. He speaks without faltering or pausing for a word, yet this improvisation recalls the most finished efforts of the most famous orators. He smiles with conscious skill as he piles phrase on phrase and builds up his sentences. Sometimes as his passion grows he strikes his thigh, sometimes at a pathetic passage he breaks into tears. Meanwhile, the audience are as moved as if a nation's fate hung in the balance : they applaud, shout assent, weep with him, scream with delight at his skill, and even, foreseeing the ends of his sentences, finish them before he can utter them himself. After the speech is ended, he follows with ` An address by King James to his troops on the same occasion ', and finally is escorted away in triumph by his hearers.
What fascination in these lectures enslaved the GraecoRoman world to the sophists ? Partly it was the patriotic