DEMI-BASTION 



DEMOCRACY 



745 



Demi-bastion. 



l><'llti-l>HStioi). in l-Wtiiieati.m, dillei- from a 

 I > -tion (q.v.) in li;.\in- only one 

 Hank instead uf two and no cur- 

 tain. 



DeillldoflT, a UN i;in family 

 distinguished for wealth ami 

 hem-licence, is descended from 

 Nikita Demidntr, originally a 

 blacksmith at Tula, wno in tlje 

 time of Peter the Great liecanio 

 famous as a manufacturer of arms, 

 jind ;uii.-i--f.l an immense fortune. 

 Of the numerous princes of the line, perhaps 

 the most famous is Prince Anatol (1813-70), born 

 at Moscow, Imt educated in France. He was 

 always remarkable for his enthusiasm in letters 

 and in the sciences; his principal work being his 

 Travels in South-east Europe (4 vols. Paris, 1839- 

 49). It contains very valuable scientific observa- 

 tions, ami is magnificently illustrated. 



Demi-lion, DKMI-HOSK, DEMI-FLEUR DE LIS, 

 &c., in Heraldry, means, when an animal is spoken 

 of, the upper half ; and with an inanimate object, 

 the dexter half parted per pale. 



Demi-llllie, in Fortification, is the name 

 formerly given to the work now called a Ravelin 

 (q.v.). See FORTIFICATION. 



Deilli-llloiMie (Fr. demi, 'half,' and monde, 

 ' world,' or 'society '), a term that came into vogue 

 from the title of a play by the younger Dumas 

 ( 1855 ), as applied to a class of women in large 

 towns, and especially Paris, whose disregard for the 

 proprieties prevents their bein^ more than half 

 recognised by society. The word covers women of 

 all degrees of disrespectability, provided only they 

 respect the elegancies of life. Demi-rep is a similar 

 18th-century word, compounded clumsily enough, 

 for a woman of more than doubtful reputation. 



Deillir-llissar ('iron-castle'), a town of 

 European Turkey, on a tributary of the Struma, 

 4f> miles NE. of Saloniki. Pop. 8000. 



Demise* See LEASE. 



Demisemiquaver, half a semiquaver, or the 

 3'21 part of a semibreve. See MUSIC. 



Demiurge (from Gr. demos, 'people,' and 

 ergon, 'a work;' hence a 'handicraftsman') was 

 the name given in the cosmogony of the Gnostics to 

 the creator or former of the world of sense. He was 

 conceived as the archon or chief of tin- lowest order 

 of the spirits or a-ons of the pleroma ; mingling with 

 chaos, he formed in it a corporeal animated world. 

 He created man, but could impart to him only his 

 own weak principle, the psyche or sensuous soul ; 

 therefore the highest, the really good (iod, added 

 the divine rational soul, or pneunut. But the power 

 of evil in the material body, and the hostile influ- 

 ence of the merely sensuous demiurge, prevented 

 the development of that higher element. The 

 demiurge holding himself to be the highest God, 

 could not bring his creatures to the knowledge of 

 the true Godhead ; as the Jehovah of the Jews. he 

 gave them the imperfect law of Mo^e-. which pro- 

 mised merely a sensuous happiue--. and even that 

 not attainable ; and against the spirits of the /ii//t~, 

 or world of matter, he sent only a psychical, and 

 therefore powerless Messiah, the man Jesus. See 

 GNOSTICISM. 



Deilimin, an ancient town of Prussia, on the 

 Peene, which is navigable for small vessels to this 

 point, 29 miles S. of Stralsund by rail. It has 

 manufactures of machinery, liells, ironwares, sugar, 

 lime, and bricks, and a trade in grain, wool, coal, 

 andiron. Pop. (1885) 10,546; (1SIHI) In 



Democracy ('rule of the people,' from Gr. 

 demos, ' the people,' and krateo, ' I rule ' ) is a form of 

 government in which power rests with the body of 



tin- eiti/en-. It i- i.ppoMtl to monarchy, the rule 

 nt -me,; to aristocrat , tin- rule uf the ' l*-t ' or 

 nobles ; and tooUgMtnj, the rub- of the few. It in 



go\ eminent of the people by the JM-op|e, lllid for 



the people, as opposed to government by a single 

 cliiet or a dominant claw*. 



I >emocracy wan a great force in the anrient 

 world, but as then prevalent it had certain charac- 

 teristics, which very clearly distinguish it from it* 

 modern forms. In antiquitv the democracy was 

 associated with the citv. Tnere wan no system of 

 representation by which the people spread over 

 extensive territories could enu deputies to hjx-ak 

 and act for them in a common parliament. In the 

 ancient democracies, the people were, in the original 

 sense of the word, citizens, wh< jK-rHonally a|i|x-an-d 

 ami spoke and voted in the assemblies. Another 

 great feature in the ancient world was the -\i-t 

 ence of a great numler of slaves who had no 

 political and few civil rights i.e. a very large 

 and important part of the population were not 

 reckoned among the citizens at all. Hence it "ill 

 be seen that the ' people ' in the ancient democracy 

 was limited in number, consisting of a city ]x>pulu- 

 tion, and excluding the labouring class or slave*. 

 Thus constituted, the ancient democracy had a most 

 interesting history. It attained to its highest and 

 finest development in the Athens of Pericles lefore 

 the outbreak of the Peloponnesian war. Besides 

 l>eing a conflict for the headship of Greece between 

 Athens and Sparta, that war was a struggle for 

 supremacy in tne Hellenic world between the demo- 

 cratic and aristocratic principles, of which these 

 cities were respectively the representatives and 

 champions. It resulted in the overthrow of the 

 Athenian democracy, but the struggle of the people 

 against the rich and privileged classes continued 

 in the Greek cities as long as they retained their 

 independence. At Rome, too, the history of the 

 city is to a large degree the record of popular 

 struggle against the privileged and wealthy classes. 

 Quiescent for about two hundred years after the 

 reforms of the 4th century B.C., it broke out 

 afresh at the time of the Gracchi, and ended with 

 the triumph of a great chief of the democracy, 

 Julius Casar. But this triumph meant the end of 

 the republic, and the permanent rule of a single 

 head, as consolidated under Augustus. 



Among the Germanic tribes which overthrew the 

 Roman empire, as among most peonies at a similar 

 stage of development, the general imdy of freemen 

 had considerable power. But the term democracy 

 properly refers to communities in a coiiiparati\cly 

 advanced state of political evolution, and it would 

 be an anachronism to apply the theories and 

 problems connected with the word to nations still 

 in the tribal stage. 



With the growth of the republics of medieval 

 Italy, and of the cities of Flanders and Germany, 

 began a d. niocratie movement similar in some re- 

 spe.-ts to that of ancient times. It was similar, 

 inasmuch as it was a-^'iated with city life, but it 

 di tie red from the ancient democracy, in so far as 

 slavery ceased to lie an important factor, and the 

 development of the medieval cities was controlled 

 or atl'ected by the great feudal state** which had 

 now risen. '.\s the great modem states have 

 become consolidated, the cities which played w> im- 

 jHirtant a part in medieval life have been absorbed 

 in them. The process has been a nlow one, for 

 Venire was an independent republic till the close 

 of the ISth century. Hamburg was fully incor- 

 porated in the German empire only in 1888. In 

 t In- city life which thus came to a close, the struggle 

 between rich and |x>or, U'tween privileged classes 

 and the jteople, was more or le*w present. 



The modern democracy differs essentially from 

 the ancient and medieval forms. The people no 



