he acquired a proper assurance and some experience; and having tasted
the honour and power that go in the train of eloquence, he attempted to
speak in the public debates, and take a share in the administration.
As it is said of Laomedon the Orchomenian, that, by the advice of his
physicians, in some disorder of the spleen, he applied himself to
running, and continued it constantly a great length of way, till he had
gained such excellent health and breath that he tried for the crown at
the public games, and distinguished himself in the long course; so it
happened to Demosthenes, that he first appeared at the bar for the
recovery of his own fortune, which had been so much embezzled; and
having acquired in that cause a persuasive and powerful manner of
speaking, he contested the crown, as I may call it, with the other
orators before the general assembly.

In his first address to the people he was laughed at and interrupted by
their clamours, for the violence of his manner threw him into a
confusion of periods and a distortion of his argument; besides he had a
weakness and a stammering in his voice, and a want of breath, which
caused such a distraction in his discourse that it was difficult for
the audience to understand him. At last, upon his quitting the
assembly, Eunomous the Thriasian, a man now extremely old, found him
wandering in a dejected condition in the Piraeus, and took upon him to
set him right. "You," said he, "have a manner of speaking very like
that of Pericles, and yet you lose yourself out of mere timidity and
cowardice. You neither bear up against the tumults of a popular
assembly nor prepare your body by exercise for the labour of the
rostrum, but suffer your parts to wither away in negligence and
indolence."

Another time, we are told, when his speeches had been ill-received, and