PKMOSTHKXKS 



DEMULCENTS 



751 



crown as an occa.-ion fur In- political destruction. 

 The trial was at length held in '.I'M, when in tin* 

 fatuous speech <hi tin < 'rmrti Demosthenes gloriously 

 vindicated himself against .Kschines. In :;.l ll;u 

 pal us, the treasurer of Alexander the (irmt ( who 

 iiad succeeded IMiilip), absconded to Atlirns with 

 an enormous sum of money. Thia money waa 

 placei! in the state treasury, under the care of 

 IteiiioHthenes and others, and when Alexander 

 demanded it, half was missing. Demosthenes waa 

 accused, condemned, and escaped from prison into 

 exile. The evidence does not seem to have war- 

 ranted the verdict, which was probably given on 

 political grounds, Demosthenes having offended 

 both the Macedonian party and the extreme 

 patriots. In 323 Alexander died, and Demosthenes 

 \\.is recalled from exile to head a fruitless attempt 

 to throw oft' the Macedonian yoke. The battle of 

 Crannon ended the revolt. Demosthenes fled to 

 Calaureia, and being there captured by Macedonian 

 troops, poisoned himself, 322 B.C. 



I icmosthenea began life with a nervous, timid 

 nature, and, unfortunately, as a boy was allowed 

 by his mother to shirk the physical exercises and 

 gymnastic training which formed part of the ordi- 

 nary education or the young Athenian. He grew 

 up with a tendency to effeminacy, which showed 

 itself in an affection for luxurious clothing, and still 

 more in his conduct as a citizen soldier; for 

 although at Ch:eronea he may have displayed no 

 more cowardice than did the other Athenians who 

 ran away, he was far from exhibiting the heroic 

 bearing which distinguished Socrates at Delium. 

 His timidity made him unsocial, and his water- 

 drinking habits cut him off still more effectually 

 from society. His luxury may have reached the 

 point of extravagance : he was certainly lavishly 

 generous in the discharge of all claims on him, 

 public and private. Whether his effeminacy 

 amounted to immorality, as was charged against 

 him, is a question which cannot be answered off- 

 hand in the negative. The natural defects which 

 were to be seen in his private life may be traced in 

 his public career ; but here it is their conquest by 

 force of will and determined adherence to a lofty 

 purpose which has rightly given him his great 

 name. His nervousness and timidity disqualified 

 him for political life and public speaking ; these 

 defects he combated till he conquered them. His 

 natural incapacity for amiability rendered him un- 

 s\ in pathetic to the pleasure-loving Athenians ; he 

 compelled their respect by his intellectual power 

 and the purity of his patriotism. The want of 

 sympathy, however, he never overcame, and so he 

 never obtained the hold over the Athenians which 

 it would have been good for them that lie should 

 possess. In all democracies every politician who 

 has led the masses at his own gooa-will has known 

 on occasion how, if not to flatter, at least to say 

 the thing that is pleasant ; but Demosthenes' 

 nature diu not permit him to say pleasant things. 

 Even this serious practical deficiency could not 

 prevent his contemporaries from eventually recog- 

 nising his force of character and steadiness of 

 noble purpose. Still lesa has it weighed with 

 posterity. 



In the oratory of Demosthenes it is not difficult 

 to trace the character of the man reflected. His 

 resolute hard work and his infinite capacity for 

 taking pains are seen in the high finish which dis- 

 tinguished his speeches above those of every orator. 

 His moroseness is mirrored in the abuse of which 

 he was too great a master; his want of amiability 

 in the absence of humour. H is nervousness l>etrays 

 itself in his over-anxiety to argue, in his lack of 

 ease and flow. But as in his life so in his speeches, 

 all faults are blotted out by his unaffected earnest- 

 ness, his entire devotion to his country, his intel- 



lectual loftineftft, and hi* high political morality. 

 Theoe great qualities are tin- soim-- <.f tin- dignity, 

 tin- pailio-, tin- might, majesty, and dominion of 

 his political oration*. Kven these qualitii-o, how- 

 ever, would not have rained him to the UfhMl 

 pinnacle in the fane of eloquence had he not 

 sewed the ear and the mind of the art i-t in wi.nl-, 

 the former of which gave to hia speeches the mar- 

 vellous melody they pottae**, the latter the variety 

 of vocabulary, which is one of Demontli 

 characteristics. Nor inuat it be forgotten that the 

 way for Demosthenes had leen paved by great pre- 

 decessors. The summit on which he stands rests 

 on the labours of Lysias, Ihocratea, and other*. 

 Finally, oratory, to be great, must have great 

 themes, and it is not in every age that they are 

 forthcoming. Demosthenes had the lot, tragic but 

 triumphant, of saving, though all elae waa lot, the 

 honour of his country. 



For the life of Demosthenes, A. Schafer's Demoithenet 

 iind seine Zeit (2d ed. 1882) eclipses all other work*, 

 food as are the hand-books of Brodrbb ( 1877 ) and 

 Butcher ( 1881 ). The most exhaustive literary criticism 

 is contained in Blass's Attache Berednamkeit ( 

 The best text is that of Bekker (1854). Kennedy's 

 English translation (5 vols. 1852-63) it a monument of 

 scholarship. 



Demotion, a town of European Turkey, on a 

 tributary of the Maritza, 31 miles S. of Adnanople 

 by rail. It is the seat of a (Jreek bishop, and has 

 manufactures of silks and pottery. Pop. 8000. 

 Charles XII. of Sweden resided nere from Feb- 

 ruary 1713 to October 1714. 



Demotic Alphabet* See HIEROGLYPHICS. 



Dempster* THOMAS, a professor famous for his 

 learning, and a miscellaneous and voluminous 

 writer, was the son of Thomas, laird of Muiresk, 

 Aberdeenshire, and was born about 1579. He waa 

 educated at Turriff, Al>erdeen, Cambridge, Paris, 

 Louvain, Rome, and Douay. A zealous Catholic, 

 he was elected to several provincial professorships, 

 and at Paris he was for seven years piofewor in 

 the Colleges ties (Jrassina, de Li&ieux, and de 

 Plessy. But a brawl resulted, it is said, in 

 Dempster's having to retreat to England. He 

 soon returned to the Continent, bringing with him 

 a beautiful wife, and at Pisa in Hi Hi obtained a 

 professorship ; but hia wife's infidelities marring 

 his peace, he removed to Bologna, where he became 

 professor of Humanities, and where hia wife com- 

 pleted her shame by eloping. Pnisuing the fugi- 

 tives, he was stricken with sickness, and died at 

 Bologna, 6th Septemlx.T 1G2.~>. Dempster'!* not 

 too veracious autobiography forms part of his 

 Historia Ecdcsiastica Ucntm Scotunnn ( Bologna, 

 1627) an erudite work in which, however, hia 

 desire to magnify the merits of hi* country often 

 induced him to forge the names of persons and 

 books that never existed, and to unscrupulously 

 claim as Scotchmen writers whose birthplace was 

 doubtful. It was edited by David Irving for the 

 Bannatyne Club in 1829, and the manuscript is still 

 preserved in the Bibliotheque Nationale, Part*. 

 There is a selection from his Latin ioetry in 

 Johnston's Delitiee Poctarum Sfotoruin. 



Demulcents (Lat. tfemulceo, ' I soften '), bland 

 and lubricating liquid sul>stances, taken by the 

 mouth, for tin- purpose of soothing irritation of the 

 mucous membranes, and promoting the dilution 

 of the blood, and the increase of the -met ions. 

 Demulcents are oUctyWMpOMd of Starch ( 

 or Gnm (q.v. ), or of substances containing these, 

 dissolved in water ; sometimes also of oily matters, 

 or the white of eggs, and other albuminous or 

 gelatinous substance- largely diluted. The de- 

 coction of altli.-va, or marsh mallow, is a favourite 

 form of demulcent. 



