FOR his bodily deficiencies he adopted the exercises which I shall describe, as Demetrius the Phalerian tells us, who says he heard about them from Demosthenes himself, now grown old. The indistinctness and lisping* in his speech he used to correct and drive away by taking pebbles in his mouth and then reciting speeches. His voice he used to exercise by discoursing while running or going up steep places, and by reciting speeches or verses at a single breath. Moreover, he had in his house a large looking-glass, and in front of this he used to stand and go through his exercises in declamation.
A story is told of a man coming to him and begging his services as advocate, and telling at great length how he had been assaulted and beaten by someone. “But certainly,” said Demosthenes, “you got none of the hurts which you describe.” Then the man raised his voice and shouted: “I, Demosthenes, no hurts?”
“Now, indeed,” said Demosthenes, “I hear the voice of one who is wronged and hurt.”
So important in winning credence did he consider the tone and action of the speaker.
abridged
* “Strictly,” American translator Bernadotte Perrin (1847-1920) tells us, “an inability to pronounce the letter ‘r,’ giving instead the sound of ‘l’.”