632 



DEMBEA DEMOCRITUS. 



trality was established, which removed the theatre of 

 war from northern Germany. Also in the armistice 

 of Pleswite (1813), such an artificial limit was fixed 

 between the French and the allied troops of Russia 

 uiul Prussia. 



DEMBEA ; a large lake of Abyssinia, in a pro- 

 vince of the same name, in the west part of that 

 country. It is supposed to be 450 miles in circum- 

 tcmice, and contains many islands, one of which is a 

 place of confinement for state prisoners. The Bahr- 

 el-Anrek, the Abyssinian Nile, flows tlirough it. 



I >KMER ARY, or 1)EM ARARA ; a river of South 

 America, in I '.iiirlish Guiana, which, after a course of 

 about SJOO miles, flows into the Atlantic, Ion. 58 25' 

 W., lat. 6 4ff N. It is two miles wide at its mouth, 

 and is navigable for ships of considerable burden 

 nearly 100 miles. It affords an excellent harbour, 

 but the bar will not admit vessels drawing more 

 than eighteen feet. See Demarara. 



DEMESNE. See Domain. 



DEMETER; the Greek name of the goddess 

 called by the Romans Ceres, (q. v.) 



DEMETRIUS; the name of several kings of Ma- 

 cedonia and Syria. Demetrius I., surnamed Polior- 

 cetes (the conqueror of cities), king of Macedonia, 

 son of Antigonus, waged several wars, in particular 

 with Ptolemy Lagus. He appeared before Athens 

 with a fleet, expelled Demetrius Phalereus, who had 

 been appointed governor of the place by Cassander, 

 and restored to the people their ancient form of go- 

 vernment. Having lost the battle of Ipsus, against 

 Seleucus, Cassander, and Lysimachus (301 B. C.), 

 he fled to Ephesus, and thence to Athens, where he 

 was not permitted to enter. Passing over to Corinth, 

 he embarked on an expedition against the Thracian 

 dominions of Lysimachus. He then went to Asia, 

 to bestow his daughter, Stratonice, in marriage on 

 Seleucus, and on his way took possession of Cilicia, 

 by which his friendship with Seleucus was broken off. 

 He conquered Macedonia (294 B. C.), and reigned 

 seven years, but lost this country by his arbitrary con- 

 duct. Deserted by his soldiers, he surrendered him- 

 self, at length, to his son-in-law, who exiled him to 

 Pella, hi Syria, where he died (284 B. C.) at the age 

 of 54 years. The above mentioned Demetrius Pha- 

 lereus, a celebrated Greek orator, disciple of Theo- 

 phrastus, devoted lu's first years to rhetoric and phi- 

 losophy, but, towards the end of the reign of Alex- 

 ander the Great, entered into the career of politics. 

 He was made Macedonian governor of Athens, and 

 archon (309 B. C.), and embellished the city by mag- 

 nificent edifices. The gratitude of the Athenians, 

 over whom he ruled, erected him as many statues as 

 there are days hi the year. But the envy of his ene- 

 mies produced an excitement against him, and he was 

 condemned to death, and his statues destroyed. He 

 fled to Egypt, to the court of the Ptolemies, where he 

 is said to have promoted the establishment of the 

 library, and of the museum, the superintendence of 

 which Ptolemy Lasrus intrusted to him. Under the 

 following king, Ptolemy Philadelphus, he fell into dis- 

 grace, and was banished to a remote fortress, where 

 he died from the bite of an asp. Demetrius was among 

 the most learned of the Peripatetics, and wrote on 

 several subjects of philosophical and political science. 

 But the work on rhetoric, which lias come to us un- 

 der his name, belongs to a later age. 



DEMIGODS. See Heroes. 



DEMME, HERMANN CHRISTOPH GOTTFRIED, was 

 born at MuehJhausen, in 1760, and died at Altenburg, 

 in Saxony, in 1822. He was one of the most practi- 

 cal German theologians, and his sermons are much 

 esteemed. He also wrote many other works, of a 

 practical moral tendency. 



DEMOCRACY: See Government, Ferns of. 



DEMOCRITUS, a phiiosopher of the new EJeatic 

 school, a native of Abdera, flourished in the 72(J 

 olympiad, and was born about 494 B.C. Somt. 

 Magi and Chaldeans, whom Xerxes left on liis return 

 from his Grecian expedition, are said to liave excited 

 in Democritus the first inclination for philosophy. 

 After the death of Ms father, he travelled to Egypt, 

 win-re he studied geometry, and probably visited 

 oilier countries, to extend liis knowledge of nature. 

 Among the Greek philosophers, he enjoyed the in- 

 struction of Leucippus. He afterward! returned t 

 his native city, where he was placed at the head < \ 

 public affairs. Indignant at the follies of the Abderiu^ , 

 he resigned his office, and retired to solitude, to dr- 

 vote himself exclusively to piiilosopliical studies. 



We pass over the tables which have bt-en related 

 of Democritus, such as Uiat he laughed continue 

 the follies of mankind (in contrast to u < 

 Heraclitus), and give a short summary of his ]>!., 

 pineal opinions. In his system, he develops, i 

 further the mechanical or atomical theory of his 

 ter, Leucippus. Thus he explained the origin of tin 

 world by the eternal motion of an infinite umber of 

 invisible and indivisible bodies, atoms, which 

 from one another in form, position, and arrangement, 

 and are alternately separated and combined by their 

 motions hi infinite space. In tliis way the universe 

 was formed, fortuitously, without the interposition of 

 a First Cause. The eternal existence of atoms (of 

 matter hi general) he inferred from the consideration, 

 that tune could be conceived only as eternal, and 

 without beginning. Their indivisibility he attempted 

 to prove hi the following manner : If bodies are infi- 

 nitely divisible, it must oe allowed that their division 

 must be perceptible. After the division has bft-n 

 made, there remains either sometlung extended, or 

 points without any extent, or nothing. In the first 

 case, division would not be finished ; hi the second 

 case, the combination of points without extension 

 could never produce sometliing extended, and if there 

 remained nothing, the material world would also be 

 nothing ; consequently, there must exist simple, indi- 

 visible bodies (atoms). From his position of the eter- 

 nal change of the separating and combining atoms, 

 follows also the other, that there are numberless 

 worlds continually arising and perishing. In the 

 atoms he distinguished figure, size, gravity, and im- 

 penetrability. All things have the same elementary 

 parts, and their difference depends only on the diffe- 

 rent figure, order, and situation of the atoms, of which 

 everything is composed. This difference of the atoms 

 is infinite, like their number ; hence the variety of 

 things is infinitely great. Fire consists, according to 

 huii, of active globules, and spreads, like a light en- 

 velope, round the earth. The ah- is moved by the 

 continual rising of the atoms from the lower regions, 

 and becomes a rapid stream, which carries along with 

 it the stars formed hi its bosom. 



The following doctrines of his, concerning the soul, 

 deserve to be mentioned : The soul consists, hi as tar 

 as it is a moving power, of igneous atoms ; but, since 

 it is acquainted with the other elements, and any- 

 thing can be known only by its equal, it must be com- 

 posed hi part, also, from the other elements. The 

 sense of feeling is the fundamental sense, and the 

 least deceitful of all ; for that alone can be true ami 

 real hi the objects, which belongs to the atoms them- 

 selves, and this we learn with the greatest certainty 

 by our feeling. The other senses show more the ac- 

 cidental qualities of things, and are consequently less 

 to be relied upon. The impressions produced on the 

 five senses are effected, partly by the different com- 

 position of the atoms hi the organs of sense, partly by 

 the different influence exerted by external bodies, 

 which varies with the arrangement of the atoms of 



