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DemosthenesDemosthenes, Part I.
Demosthenes, Part I.
Whoever it was, Sosius, that wrote the poem in honor of Alcibiades, upon
his winning the chariot - race at the Olympian Games, whether it were
Euripides, as is most commonly thought, or some other person, he tells us,
that to a man`s being happy it is in the first place requisite he should be
born in "some famous city." But for him that would attain to true happiness,
which for the most part is placed in the qualities and disposition of the
mind, it is, in my opinion, of no other disadvantage to be of a mean, obscure
country, than to be born of a small or plainlooking woman. For it were
ridiculous to think that Iulis, a little part of Ceos, which itself is no
great island, and Aegina, which an Athenian once said ought to be removed,
like a small eye - sore, from the port of Piraeus, should breed good actors
and poets,^1 and yet should never be able to produce a just, temperate, wise,
and high - minded man. Other arts, whose end it is to acquire riches or honor,
are likely enough to wither and decay in poor and undistinguished towns; but
virtue, like a strong and durable plant, may take root and thrive in any place
where it can lay hold of an ingenuous nature, and a mind that is industrious.
I, for my part, shall desire that for any deficiency of mine in right judgment
or action, I myself may be, as in fairness, held accountable, and shall not
attribute it to the obscurity of my birthplace.
[Footnote 1: Simonides, the lyric poet, was born at Iulis in Ceos; and Polus,
the celebrated actor, who is mentioned in the account, further on, of
Demosthenes` death, was a native of Aegina.]
But if any man undertake to write a history, that has to be collected
from materials gathered by observation and the reading of works not easy to be
got in all places, nor written always in his own language, but many of them
foreign and dispersed in other hands, for him, undoubtedly, it is in the first
place and above all things most necessary, to reside in some city of good
note, addicted to liberal arts, and populous; where he may have plenty of all
sorts of books, and upon inquiry may hear and inform himself of such
particulars as, having escaped the pens of writers, are more faithfully
preserved in the memories of men, lest his work be deficient in many things,
even those which it can least dispense with.
But for me, I live in a little town, where I am willing to continue, lest
it should grow less; and having had no leisure, while I was in Rome and other
parts of Italy, to exercise myself in the Roman language, on account of public
business and of those who came to be instructed by me in philosophy, it was
very late, and in the decline of my age, before I applied myself to the
reading of Latin authors. Upon which that which happened to me, may seem
strange, though it be true; for it was not so much by the knowledge of words,
that I came to the understanding of things, as by my experience of things I
was enabled to follow the meaning of words. But to appreciate the graceful and
ready pronunciation of the Roman tongue, to understand the various figures and
connection of words, and such other ornaments, in which the beauty of speaking
consists, is, I doubt not, an admirable and delightful accomplishment; but it
requires a degree of practice and study which is not easy, and will better
suit those who have more leisure, and time enough yet before them for the
occupation.
And so in this fifth book of my Parallel Lives, in giving an account of
Demosthenes and Cicero, my comparison of their natural dispositions and their
characters will be formed upon their actions and their lives as statesmen, and
I shall not pretend to criticize their orations one against the other, to show
which of the two was the more charming or the more powerful speaker. For
there, as Ion says,
"We are but like a fish upon dry land;"
a proverb which Caecilius perhaps forgot, when he employed his always
adventurous talents in so ambitious an attempt as a comparison of Demosthenes
and Cicero: and, possibly, if it were a thing obvious and easy for every man
to know himself, the precept had not passed for an oracle.
The divine power seems originally to have designed Demosthenes and Cicero
upon the same plan, giving them many similarities in their natural characters,
as their passion for distinction and their love of liberty in civil life, and
their want of courage in dangers and war, and at the same time also to have
added many accidental resemblances. I think there can hardly be found two
other orators, who, from small and obscure beginnings, became so great and
mighty; who both contested with kings and tyrants; both lost their daughters,
were driven out of their country, and returned with honor; who, flying from
thence again, were both seized upon by their enemies, and at last ended their
lives with the liberty of their countrymen. So that if we were to suppose
there had been a trial of skill between nature and fortune, as there is
sometimes between artists, it would be hard to judge, whether that succeeded
best in making them alike in their dispositions and manners, or this, in the
coincidences of their lives. We will speak of the eldest first.
Demosthenes, the father of Demosthenes, was a citizen of good rank and
quality, as Theopompus informs us, surnamed the Swordmaker, because he had a
large work - house, and kept servants skilful in that art at work. But of that
which Aeschines, the orator, said of his mother, that she was descended of one
Gylon, who fled his country upon an accusation of treason, and of a barbarian
woman, I can affirm nothing, whether he spoke true, or slandered and maligned
her. This is certain, that Demosthenes, being as yet but seven years old, was
left by his father in affluent circumstances, the whole value of his estate
being little short of fifteen talents, and that he was wronged by his
guardians, part of his fortune being embezzled by them, and the rest
neglected; insomuch that even his teachers were defrauded of their salaries.
This was the reason that he did not obtain the liberal education that he
should have had; besides that on account of weakness and delicate health, his
mother would not let him exert himself, and his teachers forbore to urge him.
He was meagre and sickly from the first, and hence had his nickname of
Batalus, given him, it is said, by the boys, in derision of his appearance;
Batalus being, as some tell us, a certain enervated flute - player, in
ridicule of whom Antiphanes wrote a play. Others speak of Batalus as a writer
of wanton verses and drinking songs. And it would seem that some part of the
body, not decent to be named, was at that time called batalus by the
Athenians. But the name of Argas, which also they say was a nickname of
Demosthenes, was given him for his behavior, as being savage and spiteful,
argas being one of the poetical words for a snake; or for his disagreeable way
of speaking, Argas being the name of a poet, who composed very harshly and
disagreeably. So much, as Plato says, for such matters.
The first occasion of his eager inclination to oratory, they say, was
this. Callistratus, the orator, being to plead in open court for Oropus, the
expectation of the issue of that cause was very great, as well for the ability
of the orator, who was then at the height of his reputation, as also for the
fame of the action itself. Therefore, Demosthenes, having heard the tutors and
schoolmasters agreeing among themselves to be present at this trial, with much
importunity persuades his tutor to take him along with him to the hearing;
who, having some acquaintance with the door - keepers, procured a place where
the boy might sit unseen, and hear what was said. Callistratus having got the
day, and being much admired, the boy began to look upon his glory with a kind
of emulation, observing how he was courted on all hands, and attended on his
way by the multitude; but his wonder was more than all excited by the power of
his eloquence, which seemed able to subdue and win over any thing. From this
time, therefore, bidding farewell to other sorts of learning and study, he now
began to exercise himself, and to take pains in declaiming, as one that meant
to be himself also an orator. He made use of Isaeus as his guide to the art of
speaking, though Isocrates at that time was giving lessons; whether, as some
say, because he was an orphan, and was not able to pay Isocrates his appointed
fee of ten minae, or because he preferred Isaeus` speaking, as being more
business - like and effective in actual use. Hermippus says, that he met with
certain memoirs without any author`s name, in which it was written that
Demosthenes was a scholar to Plato, and learnt much of his eloquence from him;
and he also mentions Ctesibius, as reporting from Callias of Syracuse and some
others, that Demosthenes secretly obtained a knowledge of the systems of
Isocrates and Alcidamas, and mastered them thoroughly.
As soon, therefore, as he was grown up to man`s estate, he began to go to
law with his guardians, and to write orations against them; who, in the mean
time, had recourse to various subterfuges and pleas for new trials, and
Demosthenes, though he was thus, as Thucydides says, taught his business in
dangers, and by his own exertions was successful in his suit, was yet unable
for all this to recover so much as a small fraction of his patrimony. He only
attained some degree of confidence in speaking, and some competent experience
in it. And having got a taste of the honor and power which are acquired by
pleadings, he now ventured to come forth, and to undertake public business.
And, as it is said of Laomedon, the Orchomenian, that by advice of his
physician, he used to run long distances to keep off some disease of his
spleen, and by that means having, through labor and exercise, framed the habit
of his body, he betook himself to the great garland games,^2 and became one of
the best runners at the long race; so it happened to Demosthenes, who, first
venturing upon oratory for the recovery of his own private property, by this
acquired ability in speaking, and at length, in public business, as it were in
the great games, came to have the preeminence of all competitors in the
assembly. But when he first addressed himself to the people, he met with great
discouragements, and was derided for his strange and uncouth style, which was
cumbered with long sentences and tortured with formal arguments to a most
harsh and disagreeable excess. Besides, he had, it seems, a weakness in his
voice, a perplexed and indistinct utterance and a shortness of breath, which,
by breaking and disjointing his sentences, much obscured the sense and meaning
of what he spoke. So that in the end, being quite disheartened, he forsook the
assembly; and as he was walking carelessly and sauntering about the Piraeus,
Eunomus, the Thriasian, then a very old man, seeing him, upbraided him, saying
that his diction was very much like that of Pericles, and that he was wanting
to himself through cowardice and meanness of spirit, neither bearing up with
courage against popular outcry, nor fitting his body for action, but suffering
it to languish through mere sloth and negligence.
[Footnote 2: The Olympic, Pythian, Isthmian and Nemean Games, where the
victors were crowned with garlands.]
Another time, when the assembly had refused to hear him, and he was going
home with his head muffled up, taking it very heavily, they relate that
Satyrus, the actor, followed him, and being his familiar acquaintance, entered
into conversation with him. To whom, when Demosthenes bemoaned himself, that
having been the most industrious of all the pleaders, and having almost spent
the whole strength and vigor of his body in that employment, he could not yet
find any acceptance with the people, that drunken sots, mariners, and
illiterate fellows were heard, and had the hustings for their own, while he
himself was despised. "You say true, Demosthenes," replies Satyrus, "but I
quickly remedy the cause of all this, if you will repeat to me some passage
out of Euripides or Sophocles." Which when Demosthenes had pronounced, Satyrus
presently taking it up after him, gave the same passage, in his rendering of
it, such a new form, by accompanying it with the proper mien and gesture, that
to Demosthenes it seemed quite another thing. By this being convinced how much
grace and ornament language acquires from action, he began to esteem it a
small matter, and as good as nothing for a man to exercise himself in
declaiming, if he neglected enunciation and delivery. Hereupon he built
himself a place to study in under ground, (which was still remaining in our
time), and hither he would come constantly every day to form his action, and
to exercise his voice; and here he would continue, oftentimes without
intermission, two or three months together, shaving one half of his head, that
so for shame he might not go abroad, though he desired it ever so much.
Nor was this all, but he also made his conversation with people abroad,
his common speech, and his business, subservient to his studies, taking from
hence occasions and arguments as matter to work upon. For as soon as he was
parted from his company, down he would go at once into his study, and run over
every thing in order that had passed, and the reasons that might be alleged
for and against it. Any speeches also, that he was present at, he would go
over again with himself, and reduce into periods; and whatever others spoke to
him, or he to them, he would correct, transform, and vary several ways. Hence
it was, that he was looked upon as a person of no great natural genius, but
one who owed all the power and ability he had in speaking to labor and
industry. Of the truth of which it was thought to be no small sign, that he
was very rarely heard to speak upon the occasion, but though he were by name
frequently called upon by the people, as he sat in the assembly, yet he would
not rise unless he had previously considered the subject, and came prepared
for it. So that many of the popular pleaders used to make it a jest against
him; and Pytheas once, scoffing at him, said that his arguments smelt of the
lamp. To which Demosthenes gave the sharp answer, "It is true, indeed,
Pytheas, that your lamp and mine are not conscious of the same things." To
others, however, he would not much deny it, but would admit frankly enough,
that he neither entirely wrote his speeches beforehand, nor yet spoke wholly
extempore. And he would affirm, that it was the more truly popular act to use
premeditation, such preparation being a kind of respect to the people;
whereas, to slight and take no care how what is said is likely to be received
by the audience, shows something of an oligarchical temper, and is the course
of one that intends force rather than persuasion. Of his want of courage and
assurance to speak offhand, they make it also another argument, that when he
was at a loss, and discomposed, Demades would often rise up on the sudden to
support him, but he was never observed to do the same for Demades.
Whence then, may some say, was it, that Aeschines speaks of him as a
person so much to be wondered at for his boldness in speaking? Or, how could
it be, when Python, the Byzantine, "with so much confidence and such a torrent
of words inveighed against"^3 the Athenians, that Demosthenes alone stood up
to oppose him? Or, when Lamachus, the Myrinaean, had written a panegyric upon
king Philip and Alexander, in which he uttered many things in reproach of the
Thebans and Olynthians, and at the Olympic Games recited it publicly, how was
it, that he, rising up, and recounting historically and demonstratively what
benefits and advantages all Greece had received from the Thebans and
Chalcidians, and on the contrary, what mischiefs the flatterers of the
Macedonians had brought upon it, so turned the minds of all that were present
that the sophist, in alarm at the outcry against him, secretly made his way
out of the assembly? But Demosthenes, it should seem, regarded other points in
the character of Pericles to be unsuited to him; but his reserve and his
sustained manner, and his forbearing to speak on the sudden, or upon every
occasion, as being the things to which principally he owed his greatness,
these he followed, and endeavored to imitate, neither wholly neglecting the
glory which present occasion offered, nor yet willing too often to expose his
faculty to the mercy of chance. For, in fact, the orations which were spoken
by him had much more of boldness and confidence in them than those that he
wrote, if we may believe Eratosthenes, Demetrius the Phalerian, and the
Comedians. Eratosthenes says that often in his speaking he would be
transported into a kind of ecstasy, and Demetrius, that he uttered the famous
metrical adjuration to the people,
[Footnote 3: These are his own words, quoted from the Oration on the Crown.]
"By the earth, the springs, the rivers, and the streams,"
as a man inspired, and beside himself. One of the comedians calls him a
rhopoperperethras,^4 and another scoffs at him for his use of antithesis: -
[Footnote 4: A loud declaimer about petty matters; from rhopos, small wares,
and perperos, a loud talker.]
"And what he took, took back; a phrase to please
The very fancy of Demosthenes."
Unless, indeed, this also is meant by Antiphanes for a jest upon the speech on
Halonesus, which Demosthenes advised the Athenians not to take at Philip`s
hands, but to take back.^5
[Footnote 5: Halonesus had belonged to Athens, but had been seized by pirates,
from whom Philip took it. He was willing to make a present of it to the
Athenians, but Demosthenes warned them not on any account to take it, unless
it were expressly understood that they took it back; Philip had no right to
give what it was his duty to give back. The distinction thus put was
apparently the subject of a great deal of pleasantry. Athenaeus quotes five
other passages from the comic writers, playing upon it in the same way.]
All, however, used to consider Demades, in the mere use of his natural
gifts, an orator impossible to surpass, and that in what he spoke on the
sudden, he excelled all the study and preparation of Demosthenes. And Ariston,
the Chian, has recorded a judgment which Theophrastus passed upon the orators;
for being asked what kind of orator he accounted Demosthenes, he answered,
"Worthy of the city of Athens;" and then, what he thought of Demades, he
answered, "Above it." And the same philosopher reports, that Polyeuctus, the
Sphettian, one of the Athenian politicians about that time, was wont to say,
that Demosthenes was the greatest orator, but Phocion the ablest, as he
expressed the most sense in the fewest words. And, indeed, it is related, that
Demosthenes himself, as often as Phocion stood up to plead against him, would
say to his acquaintance, "Here comes the knife to my speech." Yet it does not
appear whether he had this feeling for his powers of speaking, or for his life
and character, and meant to say that one word or nod from a man who was really
trusted, would go further than a thousand lengthy periods from others.
Demetrius, the Phalerian, tells us, that he was informed by Demosthenes
himself, now grown old, that the ways he made use of to remedy his natural
bodily infirmities and defects were such as these; his inarticulate and
stammering pronunciation he overcame and rendered more distinct by speaking
with pebbles in his mouth; his voice he disciplined by declaiming and reciting
speeches or verses when he was out of breath, while running or going up steep
places; and that in his house he had a large looking - glass, before which he
would stand and go through his exercises. It is told that some one once came
to request his assistance as a pleader, and related how he had been assaulted
and beaten. "Certainly," said Demosthenes, "nothing of the kind can have
happened to you." Upon which the other, raising his voice, exclaimed loudly,
"What, Demosthenes, nothing has been done to me?" "Ah," replied Demosthenes,
"now I hear the voice of one that has been injured and beaten." Of so great
consequence towards the gaining of belief did he esteem the tone and action of
the speaker. The action which he used himself was wonderfully pleasing to the
common people; but by well - educated people, as, for example, by Demetrius,
the Phalerian, it was looked upon as mean, humiliating, and unmanly. And
Hermippus says of Aesion, that, being asked his opinion concerning the ancient
orators and those of his own time, he answered that it was admirable to see
with what composure and in what high style they addressed themselves to the
people; but that the orations of Demosthenes, when they are read, certainly
appear to be superior in point of construction, and more effective.^6 His
written speeches, beyond all question, are characterized by austere tone and
by their severity. In his extempore retorts and rejoinders, he allowed himself
the use of jest and mockery. When Demades said, "Demosthenes teach me! So
might the sow teach Minerva!" he replied, "Was it this Minerva, that was
lately found playing the harlot in Collytus?"^7 When a thief, who had the
nickname of the Brazen, was attempting to upbraid him for sitting up late, and
writing by candlelight, "I know very well," said he, "that you had rather have
all lights out; and wonder not, O ye men of Athens, at the many robberies
which are committed, since we have thieves of brass and walls of clay." But on
these points, though we have much more to mention, we will add nothing at
present. We will proceed to take an estimate of his character from his actions
and his life as a statesman.
[Footnote 6: Aesion was a fellow scholar with Demosthenes. The comparison in
his remarks gives the superiority in manner to the old speakers, whom he
remembered in his youth, but in construction, to Demosthenes, his
contemporary.]
[Footnote 7: "Sus Minervam," the proverb. Collytus, together with Melite,
formed the southwest, and, apparently, the more agreeable part of Athens.
Plutarch, consoling a friend who was banished from his native city, tells him
people cannot all live where they like best; it is not every Athenian can live
in Collytus, nor does a man consider himself a miserable exile, who has to
leave a house in Melite and take one in Diomea.]
His first entering into public business was much about the time of the
Phocian war, as himself affirms, and may be collected from his Philippic
orations. For of these, some were made after that action was over, and the
earliest of them refer to its concluding events. It is certain that he engaged
in the accusation of Midias when he was but two and thirty years old, having
as yet no interest or reputation as a politician. And this it was, I consider,
that induced him to withdraw the action, and accept a sum of money as a
compromise. For of himself
"He was no easy or good - natured man,"
but of a determined disposition, and resolute to see himself righted; however,
finding it a hard matter and above his strength to deal with Midias, a man so
well secured on all sides with money, eloquence, and friends, he yielded to
the entreaties of those who interceded for him. But had he seen any hopes or
possibility of prevailing, I cannot believe that three thousand drachmas could
have taken off the edge of his revenge. The object which he chose for himself
in the commonwealth was noble and just, the defence of the Grecians against
Philip; and in this he behaved himself so worthily that he soon grew famous,
and excited attention everywhere for his eloquence and courage in speaking. He
was admired through all Greece, the king of Persia courted him, and by Philip
himself he was more esteemed than all the other orators. His very enemies were
forced to confess that they had to do with a man of mark; for such a character
even Aeschines and Hyperides give him, where they accuse and speak against
him.
So that I cannot imagine what ground Theopompus had to say, that
Demosthenes was of a fickle, unsettled disposition, and could not long
continue firm either to the same men or the same affairs; whereas the contrary
is most apparent, for the same party and post in politics which he held from
the beginning, to these he kept constant to the end; and was so far from
leaving them while he lived, that he chose rather to forsake his life than his
purpose. He was never heard to apologize for shifting sides like Demades, who
would say, he often spoke against himself, but never against the city; nor as
Melanopus, who, being generally against Callistratus, but being often bribed
off with money, was wont to tell the people, "The man indeed is my enemy, but
we must submit for the good of our country;" nor again as Nicodemus, the
Messenian, who having first appeared on Cassander`s side and afterwards taken
part with Demetrius, said the two things were not in themselves contrary, it
being always most advisable to obey the conqueror. We have nothing of this
kind to say against Demosthenes, as one who would turn aside or prevaricate,
either in word or deed. There could not have been less variation in his public
acts if they had all been played, so to say, from first to last, from the same
score. Panaetius, the philosopher, said, that most of his orations are so
written, as if they were to prove this one conclusion, that what is honest and
virtuous is for itself only to be chosen; as that of the Crown, that against
Aristocrates, that for the Immunities, and the Philippics; in all which he
persuades his fellow - citizens to pursue not that which seems most pleasant,
easy, or profitable; burt declares over and over again, that they ought in the
first place to prefer that which is just and honorable, before their own
safety and preservation. So that if he had kept his hands clean, if his
courage for the wars had been answerable to the generosity of his principles,
and the dignity of his orations, he might deservedly have his name placed, not
in the number of such orators as Moerocles, Polyeuctus, and Hyperides, but in
the highest rank with Cimon, Thucydides, and Pericles.
Certainly amongst those who were contemporary with him, Phocion, though
he appeared on the less commendable side in the commonwealth, and was counted
as one of the Macedonian party, nevertheless, by his courage and his honesty,
procured himself a name not inferior to those of Ephialtes, Aristides, and
Cimon. But Demosthenes, being neither fit to be relied on for courage in arms,
as Demetrius says, nor on all sides inaccessible to bribery (for how
invincible soever he was against the gifts of Philip and the Macedonians, yet
elsewhere he lay open to assault, and was overpowered by the gold which came
down from Susa and Ecbatana), was therefore esteemed better able to recommend
than to imitate the virtues of past times. And yet (excepting only Phocion),
even in his life and manners, he far surpassed the other orators of his time.
None of them addressed the people so boldly; he attacked the faults, and
opposed himself to the unreasonable desires of the multitude, as may be seen
in his orations. Theopompus writes, that the Athenians having by name selected
Demosthenes, and called upon him to accuse a certain person, he refused to do
it; upon which the assembly being all in an uproar, he rose up and said, "Your
counsellor, whether you will or no, O ye men of Athens, you shall always have
me; but a sycophant or false accuser, though you would have me, I shall never
be." And his conduct in the case of Antiphon was perfectly aristocratical;
whom, after he had been acquitted in the assembly, he took and brought before
the court of Areopagus, and, setting at naught the displeasure of the people,
convicted him there of having promised Philip to burn the arsenal; whereupon
the man was condemned by that court, and suffered for it. He accused, also,
Theoris, the priestess, amongst other misdemeanors, of having instructed and
taught the slaves to deceive and cheat their masters, for which the sentence
of death passed upon her, and she was executed.
The oration which Apollodorus made use of, and by it carried the cause
against Timotheus, the general, in an action of debt, it is said was written
for him by Demosthenes; as also those against Phormion and Stephanus, in which
latter case he was thought to have acted dishonorably, for the speech which
Phormion used against Apollodorus was also of his making; he, as it were,
having simply furnished two adversaries out of the same shop with weapons to
wound one another. Of his orations addressed to the public assemblies, that
against Androtion, and those against Timocrates and Aristocrates, were written
for others, before he had come forward himself as a politician. They were
composed, it seems, when he was but seven or eight and twenty years old. That
against Aristogiton, and that for the Immunities, he spoke himself, at the
request, as he says, of Ctesippus, the son of Chabrias, but, as some say, out
of courtship to the young man`s mother. Though, in fact, he did not marry her,
for his wife was a woman of Samos, as Demetrius, the Magnesian, writes, in his
book on Persons of the same Name. It is not certain whether his oration
against Aeschines, for Misconduct as Ambassador, was ever spoken; although
Idomeneus says that Aeschines wanted only thirty voices to condemn him. But
this seems not to be correct, at least so far as may be conjectured from both
their orations concerning the Crown; for in these, neither of them speaks
clearly or directly of it, as a cause that ever came to trial. But let others
decide this controversy.
It was evident, even in time of peace, what course Demosthenes would
steer in the commonwealth; for whatever was done by the Macedonian, he
criticized and found fault with, and upon all occasions was stirring up the
people of Athens, and inflaming them against him. Therefore, in the court of
Philip, no man was so much talked of, or of so great account as he; and when
he came thither, one of the ten ambassadors who were sent into Macedonia,
though all had audience given them, yet his speech was answered with most care
and exactness. But in other respects, Philip entertained him not so honorably
as the rest, neither did he show him the same kindness and civility with which
he applied himself to the party of Aeschines and Philocrates. So that, when
the others commended Philip for his able speaking, his beautiful person, nay,
and also for his good companionship in drinking, Demosthenes could not refrain
from cavilling at these praises; the first, he said, was a quality which might
well enough become a rhetorician, the second a woman, and the last was only
the property of a sponge; no one of them was the proper commendation of a
prince.
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