634 



DEMON DEMOSTHENES. 



of the Asiatic monarchies, but all evidently modifin 

 according to the place when-, and the circumstance 

 of the time at which, the lawgiver and founder o 

 religion appeared, /oroaster carried his genera 

 idea of the division between the kingdoms of gout 

 and evil into detail. All rational and irrational, liv 

 ing and dead beings, he classed under one or the 

 other of these kingdoms; the pure men, animals, and 

 plants belonged to Ormuzd's, the impure (poison 

 ous, pernicious), to Ahriman's kingdom. In this. 

 manner demonology, in the Parsee system, had at 

 tained an extent, and a systematical connexion, sucl: 

 as it had not cUewhere. 



The opinion of Horn (Biblische Gnosis), that the 

 Egyptians borrowed their notion of demons from the 

 Parsees, deserves a closer investigation. We find, in- 

 deed, with the Egyptians, the moon, water, earth, and 

 air, filled with demons, superintending the elements 

 and bodies. Stones, metals, and plants, are under 

 their influence, and human souls in their power 

 surely a very extensive kingdom of demons, but not 

 presenting the striking dualism and parallelism of the 

 system ofZoroaster. But supposing that the Egyp- 

 tian and Persico-Chaldee demonologies are not de- 

 rived from the same source; they afterwards combined 

 to form together a new one. Though the doctrine ol 

 demons came in different ways through Western Asia 

 into Greece, yet Egypt was the chief source of the 

 higherdemonology of the Greeks, among whom it was 

 spread by the Orphic hymns and the mysteries, and was 

 cultivated by the philosophers until the birth of Christ. 



The rationalists, as they are called, who explain 

 everything in the Sacred Scriptures in a historical 

 or natural way, say that, while it came in this way 

 to the Greeks, the Hebrews received it in two other 

 ways. At the time of the Babylonish captivity, they 

 derived it from the source of the Chaldaic-Persian 

 magic ; and, even supposing that they were pre- 

 viously acquainted with the Elohim, or angels (it is 

 remarkable that the latter are first mentioned in the 

 history of the Chaldee Abraham, and that the earlier 

 prophets do not speak at all of them, while Daniel, 

 on the contrary, mentions them frequently, yet the 

 doctrine of these was first systematically developed 

 during and after the Babylonish captivity. The same 

 dualism, which we find in the system of Zoroaster, is 

 here, also, perceived : there are good and bad de- 

 mons: they are classified, and receive proper names. 

 There are also seven good demons, composing the 

 council of Jehovah, and standing continually before 

 his throne. Job xii. 15. 



As for the second source of the demonology of the 

 Hebrews, this nation had, during the reigns of the 

 Seleucides and Ptolemies, a more active intercourse 

 with Egypt and the Greeks, chiefly in Alexandria ; 

 and to the notions adopted from the system of the 

 magi, or the Parsees, they united Egyptico-Greek 

 ones ; which connexion is chiefly perceivable in the 

 New Testament. It was impossible to prevent the 

 intermingling of Greek speculations. The voice of 

 the prophets was already silent under Ezra and 

 Nehemiah. Study and inquiries commenced ; the 

 popular belief and philosophy separated, and even 

 the philosophers divided themselves into several 

 sects. Opposed to the ancient Pharisees we perceive 

 the Sadducees and Essens, and no high priest nor 

 sanhedrim could prevent the nation (which was al- 

 ready opposed by the Samaritans) from dividing it- 

 self into parties. This was the state of things when 

 Christ appeared. Pythagorean and Platonic notions, 

 intermingled with Oriental doctrines, had already 

 unfolded the germ which produced the Hellenistic 

 philosophy of the Jews, and a cabalism existed (cher- 

 ished by the finest minds of the nation), in addition 

 to the philosophy of the rabbins. 



It may be observed, in reference to the doctrine of 

 spirits, that the expressions of demon and demoniacal 

 are more especially used to indicate bad, tormenting 

 spirits. This is the origin of those ideas of demons 

 as spirits which enter into the bodies of wicket! men, 

 and torment them, and of the means to be used'against 

 them, for instance, miraculous herbs, by means of 

 which we are able to expel the demons. Thus the 

 demons appear as inferior spirits of a (Persian) Satan, 

 a passionate, malicious, tormenting spirit. The 

 Christian authors made this bad meaning of demons 

 the ruling one, so that the demons were opposite to 

 the angels. By this opposition, the doctrine of spirits 

 was transformed into angelology, that is, the doctrine 

 of good angels, and demonology, the doctrine of bad 

 angels; and the Jewish and Greek notions on ilu- 

 subject have been often blended together in Chris- 

 tianity. As Plato's mythology was an inexhaustible 

 source of doctrines for the new Platonist, so drm<H 

 nology became an endless source of ingenious specula- 

 tion among many of the early sects.* See Sweden- 

 borg, Angel, Genii, and Gabalis. 



DEMONA, VAL DI ; a province of Sicily, oc- 

 cupying the N. E. part of the country, extending from 

 the straits of Messina to Catania ; about 112 miles 

 long, and from sixty to seventy broad in its widest 

 part; population, as lately stated, 521,000. The 

 Liparian islands are considered to belong to this part 

 of the country. Silk is one of the chief productions 

 of this valley, which yields, likewise, hemp, flax, 

 olives, lemons, oranges, figs, currants, and pistachio 

 nuts. Sulphur is found in considerable quantity to- 

 \vards mount JEtaa. Messina, the capital of Sicily, is 

 situated in this province. The other principal towns 

 on the coast are Melazzo, Cefalu and Taoraina. 



DEMONSTRATION, in military language ; a 

 movement towards any place for the purpose of de- 

 ceiving the enemy, and concealing the true design. 



DEMOSTHENES, the most famous orator of 

 antiquity, was the son of a sword-cutler at Athens, 

 where he was born in 381 (according to some, in 

 375) B. C. His father left him a considerable for- 

 tune, of which his guardians attempted to defraud 

 him. Demosthenes, at the age of seventeen years, 

 conducted a suit against them himself, and gained 

 his cause. He studied rhetoric and philosophy in 

 the schools of Callistratus, Isasus, Isocrates, and Plato. 

 But nature had placed great obstacles in his way, 

 and his first attempts to speak hi public were-attend- 

 ed with derision. He not only had very weak lungs 

 and a shrill voice, but was unable to pronounce the 

 letter r. These natural defects he endeavoured to 

 remedy by the greatest exertions. He succeeded by 

 the advice of the actor Satyrus, who advised him to 

 recite with pebbles in his mouth, on the roughest and 

 steepest places. To strengthen his voice, he exer- 

 cised himself hi speaking aloud on the sea-shore, 

 amidst the noise of the waves. At other times, he 

 shut himself up for months in a subterranean room, 

 with his head half shaved, that he might not be 

 tempted to go out, and endeavoured to acquire dignity 

 of manner by practising before a mirror, and tran- 

 scribed the history of Thucydides eight times, for 

 the purpose of forming his style. 



After such a laborious preparation, he composed 

 and delivered his masterly speeches, of which his 

 enemies said tliat they smelt of the lamp, but to 

 which posterity has assigned the first rank among 

 the models of eloquence speeches in which he openly 

 opposed the foolish wishes of the multitude, cen- 

 sured their faults, and inflamed their courage, their 



* A book of much interest, as showing the firm belief in 

 lemons at a comparatively recent period, is doctor Cotton 

 Mather's Magnolia Christi Americana (London, 1702). 

 Doctor Mather was a minister of Boston, Massachusetts. 



