22 HISTORY OF GBEECE. ular insurgents, put down the government by force, and made himself the master both of those whom he deposed and of those by whose aid he deposed them ; while the latter was a speaker, possessed of all the talents necessary for moving an audience, but neither inclined to, nor qualified for, armed attack, accomplish- ing all his purposes by pacific and constitutional methods. This valuable change, substituting discussion and the vote of an assembly in place of an appeal to arms, and procuring for the pronounced decision of the assembly such an influence over men's minds as to render it final and respected even by dissentients, arose from the continued practical working of democratical insti- tutions. I shall have occasion, at a later period of this history, tc estimate the value of that unmeasured obloquy which has been heaped on the Athenian demagogues of the Peloponnesian war, Kleon and Hyperbolus ; but, assuming the whole to be well- founded, it will not be the less true that these men were a material improvement on the earlier demagogues, such as Kyp- selus and Peisistratus, who employed the armed agency of the people for the purpose of subverting the established government and acquiring despotic authority for themselves. The demagogue was essentially a leader of opposition, who gained his influence by denouncing the men in real ascendency, and in actual execu- tive functions. Now, under the early oligarchies, his opposition could be shown only by armed insurrection, and it conducted him either to personal sovereignty or to destruction ; but the growth of democratical institutions insured both to him and to his political opponents full liberty of speech, and a paramount assembly to determine between them ; whilst it both limited the range of his ambition, and set aside the appeal to armed force. The railing demagogue of Athens, at the time of the Peloponnesian war (even if we accept literally the representations of his worst enemies), was thus a far less mischievous and dangerous person than the fighting demagogue of the earlier centuries ; and the " growth of habits of public speaking," l to use Aristotle's expression, was 1 Aristot. Polit. v, 4, 4 ; 7, 3. 'E7r2 <5e TUV upxaiuv, ore JEVOLTO 6 avruf 6ii/iayuybf Kal arpaTTjybf, elf Tvpavvida fj.STef3ahA.ov a^edov yap ol TT^ELOTOI TUV apxaiav rvpuvvuv EK 6jjfj,ayuyC>v yeyovacn. Alrinv <5e TOV TOTE fiev ye- vca&ai, vvv 6e fiij, OTL TOTE fj.lv, ol fir)[iayuyol qcav IK TUV oi> yap TTCJ dfivol rjadv htyetv vvv (5f , Ti/g prjToplKqr i}v^ri/ievt)c, 01
