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DE MORGAN 



DEMOSTHENES 



English preference for burial on the south side of a 

 church. No stories are more common than those oi 

 compacts with the devil, sometimes written in blood, 

 by which a man gave away his soul for wisdom, 

 wealth, power, or other gratifications to be enjoyed 

 for a certain number of years. The classical story 

 in this kind is that of Faust, which the genius of 

 Goethe has made an imperishable part of the intel- 

 lectual birthright of Europe. 



Raising the devil or his inferior demons was a 

 feat within the power of the medieval sorcerers and 

 masters of the black art, and elaborate formulas for 

 the purpose are gravely given in the books of magic. 

 This unholy art was made punishable by death by 

 James I., and his law remained upon the statute- 

 book of England till the reign of George II. The 

 worship of the devil was a usual feature of the 

 witches' sabbath, and the name is often applied 

 still to the strange dances and other religious rites 

 by which many tribes in India and elsewhere avert 

 the anger of malignant deities. It must be under- 

 stood that there is no conscious homage to the 

 principle of evil as opposed to good, as the objects 

 of worship are merely deities powerful for harm as 

 well as for help, considered almost as entirely out- 

 side any moral considerations, like the demons of 

 unmixed primitive religion everywhere. 



See the articles ANGEL, ANIMISM, DEVIL, EVIL, 

 EXORCISM, HELL, SERPENT-WORSHIP, WEREWOLF, 

 WITCHCRAFT, ZOROASTER; also Horst, Dcemonomagie 

 (2 rols. 1818), and Zauberbihliothek (6 vols. 1821-26); 

 Ukert, Ueber Damonen, Heroen, und Genien (1850); 

 Bastian, Der Mensch in der Geschichte ( 3 vols. 1860 ) ; 

 Tylor's Primitive Culture ( 2 vols. 1871) ; Roskoffs admir- 

 ably learned Geschichte des Teufels ( 2 vols. 1869 ) ; and for 

 its tacts, Moncure D. Con way's Demonology and Devil-lore 

 (2 vols. 1879); also some of the older books, as Bodin, 

 De Magorum Demononiania (1581), and the like. 



De Morgan, AUGUSTUS, son of Colonel De 

 Morgan of the Indian army, was born in 1806, in 

 Madura, Madras Presidency. Educated at several 

 private schools, he 'read algebra like a novel' 

 (novels themselves he devoured insatiably); but 

 after four years at Trinity College, Cambridge, 

 he graduated as only fourth wrangler (1827). As 

 a result of his revolt from his early evangelical 

 training, he did not take orders. He was appointed 

 first professor of Mathematics in University College, 

 London, after its foundation in 1828. In 1831 he 

 resigned this office, but was reappointed in 1836, 

 and continued in that capacity till 1866. An 

 energetic worker, he was secretary of the Astrono- 

 mical Society (1831-38 and 1848-54), and held 

 other offices therein. His writings are very numer- 

 ous. Besides being a mathematician of the first 

 order, he was extensively and minutely versed in 

 the history of the mathematical and physical 

 sciences. He also devoted himself to the develop- 

 ment of the Aristotelian or ' Formal ' Logic, to 

 which he has given so symbolical a shape as to 

 make it seem like a branch of Algebra, and Avrote 

 on the calculation of Insurances and on the Decimal 

 Coinage. His works include Elements of Arith- 

 metic ( 1831 ) ; Algebra (1835); Numbers and Magni- 

 tude (1836); Trigonometry and Trigonometrical 

 Analysis (1837) ; Essay on Probabilities (1838); 

 Formal Logic (1847); Arithmetical Books (1847); 

 Book of Almanacs (1850); Budget of Paradoxes 

 ( 1872), reprinted from the Athenaeum. De Morgan 

 also wrote treatises on the Differential and Integral 

 Calculus ; and contributed largely to the Penny 

 Cyclopcedia (850 articles). He died 18th March 

 1871. His library of about 3000 volumes was 

 purchased by Lord Overstone, and given to London 

 University. See the Life by his wife (1882), whose 

 reminiscences were published in 1895. 



Demosthenes, an a We Athenian general, who 

 in 425 B.C. assisted Cleon to reduce Sphacteria, 



and who in 413, being sent to Sicily to the relief 

 of Nicias, fell, fighting bravely, into the hands of 

 the Syracusans, and was put to death. 



Demosthenes, the greatest orator of Athens 

 and of Greece, was born about 383 B.C. He lost 

 his father at an early age. The considerable 

 inheritance bequeathed to him was reduced by the 

 neglect or the fraud of his guardians, and Avhen he 

 came of age he proceeded to prosecute them. The 

 litigation was long and complicated, and though he 

 gained verdicts in his favour, most of his inheritance 

 was irretrievably lost. The importance of this 

 litigation was that it compelled Demosthenes to the 

 study of the law, gave the first exercise to that 

 doggedness and strength of will which was to mark 

 him through life, and by reducing him to poverty, 

 drove him to the pursuit of law as a means of living. 

 At Athens the parties to a suit were compelled to 

 plead their cause themselves, but they could not be 

 prevented from getting their speeches composed for 

 them by a professional ' speech -writer ' or ' logo- 

 grapher.' Demosthenes became a logographer, and 

 soon acquired a lucrative practice. Up to the age 

 of thirty Demosthenes confined himself to ' speech- 

 writing,' and gained considerable reputation as a 

 constitutional lawyer. His most famous constitu- 

 tional law speech is one which he delivered per- 

 sonally in support of Ctesippus against Leptines 

 (354 B.C.). He seems to have lacked by nature 

 all the physical qualifications of a great orator, 

 and to have acquired them solely by indefatigable 

 self-discipline and training. At about the age 

 of thirty he made his first appearance as a 

 politician ; he continued to practise as a logographer 

 until he was about forty, by which time he had 

 made a fortune sufficient to enable him to devote 

 himself exclusively to political life until he died, at 

 the age of about sixty-one. 



At the beginning of his political career danger 

 threatened Greece from the north, from Macedonia, 

 a country which though at that time considered 

 by the Greeks as semi-barbarous, and of no 

 account in Greek politics, was destined within 

 the lifetime of Demosthenes to destroy the 

 liberties and the political existence of Greece. 

 Demosthenes' claim to fame as a statesman rests 

 on the fact that he foresaw the danger threatened 

 by Philip of Macedon from the beginning, and 

 that he from the outset advocated a policy 

 which might have saved Athens and Greece. The 

 three cardinal features of his policy were that the 

 rich should submit to direct taxation for the 

 purposes of the war ; that the poor should submit, 

 for the same purposes, to a diminution of the public 

 expenditure on national festivals ; and that rich and 

 poor alike should render personal military service 

 instead of employing mercenaries. Intelligent as 

 was the Athenian democracy, it was not intelligent 

 enough to see that Demosthenes' forecast was right, 

 and his opponents' wrong ; and, consequently, it 

 was only when events justified Demosthenes, that 

 is to say, when it was too late, that his policy was 

 adopted. Philip's attack on the state of Olyntlms 

 gave occasion to the Olynthiacs, which, with the 

 orations against Philip, the Philippics, are the 

 greatest speeches made by Demosthenes. Athens 

 made war with Philip on behalf of Olyntlms, but 

 having failed to save the city, found peace expedi- 

 ent. During the next few years (346-340) Demos- 

 thenes was engaged in forming an anti-Macedonian 

 party, and in indicting ^Eschines for betraying 

 Athens in the negotiations for the peace just con- 

 cluded with Philip. War again broke out in 340, 

 nding in the fatal battle of Chreronea ( 338 ). But 

 Athens, having learned to trust Demosthenes, did 

 not withdraw her confidence. The philo-Macedon- 

 ian party, however, were encouraged to seize on 

 a proposal to present Demosthenes with a public 



