DEMOSTHENES DEMPSTER. 



635 



sense of honour, and their patriotism. He thundered 

 against Philip of Macedon, and instilled into his fel- 

 low citizens the hatred which animated his own 

 bosom. The first of those orations, so famous under 

 the name of Philippics, was delivered when Philip 

 took possession of the pass of Thermopyke. The 

 orator insisted on the necessity of immediately pre- 

 paring a fleet and an army ; urging the Athenians to 

 begin the war themselves ; to make Macedonia the 

 theatre, and to terminate it only by an advantageous 

 treaty or a decisive battle. They admired and ap- 

 proved his plans, but did not execute them. The 

 celebrated Phocion, who knew the weakness of 

 Athens, unceasingly advised peace. Demosthenes 

 went twice to the court of Philip to negotiate, but 

 without success. On his return, he recommended 

 war, and endeavoured to arm not only Athens, but 

 all Greece. When Philip had finally penetrated into 

 Phocis, through the pass of Thermopylae, and had 

 taken possession of the city of Elatea, to the terror of 

 Athens, Demosthenes obtained a decree of the 

 people for fitting out a fleet of 200 vessels, marching 

 an army to Eleusis, and sending ambassadors to all 

 the cities of Greece, for the purpose of forming an 

 universal confederacy against Philip. He was him- 

 self among the ambassadors, and prevailed on the 

 Thebans to receive an Athenian army within their 

 walls. He also exerted himself actively throughout 

 Boeotia, and, by his efforts, a numerous army was 

 collected to act against Philip. A battle was fought 

 near Cheronea, and the Greeks were vanquished. 

 Demosthenes was among the first who fled. Never- 

 theless, he was desirous of delivering a funeral oration 

 over those who had fallen in battle. ^Eschines, his 

 rival, did not fail to attack him on this account. 

 The hostility between the two orators was the occa- 

 sion of the speech pro corona (for the crown), which 

 resulted in the triumph of Demosthenes and the exile 

 of his adversary. Philip having been, soon after, 

 assassinated, Demosthenes thought that Athens would 

 be better able to maintain its liberty ; but Alexan- 

 der's dreadful chastisement of Thebes filled the 

 Athenians with such terror that they sued for mercy. 

 It was with difficulty that Alexander could be per- 

 suaded to desist from his demand of the surrender of 

 Demosthenes and some other orators ; for the Mace- 

 donians feared Demosthenes more than they did the 

 armies of Athens. He was afterward fined fifty ta- 

 lents for bribery, and, neglecting the payment of it, 

 was thrown into prison, from which he escaped, and 

 fled to .iEgina, where he remained till the death of 

 Alexander. Then followed the war with Antipater. 

 Demosthenes again appeared in public, and endea- 

 voured to persuade the small Grecian states to unite 

 against Macedonia. The Athenians received him 

 with honour ; but the war was unsuccessful, and 

 Antipater insisted upon his being surrendered to him. 

 Demosthenes fled to the temple of Neptune, in the 

 island of Calauria, on the coast of Argolis, but find- 

 ing himself not secure, he took poison, which he al- 

 ways carried about with him. He died 319 B.C. 

 (according to some, 322 B.C.), at the age of sixty 

 or sixty-two years. 



The character of Demosthenes was not entirely 

 free from vanity, ambition, and avarice. Cicero 

 pronounces him to be the most perfect of all orators. 

 He always spoke as circumstances required, and was, 

 by turns, calm, vehement, or elevated. He carried 

 the Greek language to a degree of perfection which 

 it never before had reached. In energy and power 

 of persuasion, in penetration and power of reasoning, 

 in the adaptation of the parts to the whole, in beauty 

 and vigour of expression, in strong and melodious 

 language, he surpassed all his predecessors. Every- 

 thing in his speeches is natural, vigorous, concise, 



symmetrical. This alone can explain his great influ- 

 ence over his contemporaries. We have under his 

 name sixty-one orations, sixty-five exordiums, and 

 six letters, some of which are not genuine. Among 

 the oldest editions of the orations, the best is that of 

 Paris, 1 570, in folio, with the commentaries of Ul- 

 pian. The first edition of his complete works, Greek 

 and Latin, was edited by Hieronymus Wolf, (Basil, 

 1549 ; reprinted 1572 ; and Frankfort, 1604, in folio). 

 His orations are also contained in Reiske's edition of 

 the Greek orators. 



DEMOTIC or ENCHORIAL ALPHABET, from 

 Ivpos (the people), is the name given by antiquarians 

 to that alphabet which is used by the people, in con- 

 tradistinction to an alphabet used by a certain class 

 or caste ; as, for instance, among the Egyptians. 

 Thus we find on the famous Rosetta stone, which 

 seems to have become, by the exertions of Young, 

 Ackerblad, Zoega, De Sacy, and Champollion, the 

 key to all the hieroglyphical documents handed down 

 to us by the Egyptian inscriptions, one of which is 

 written in the hieroglyphical, the other in the demo- 

 tic alphabet. 



DEMOUSTIER, CHARLES ALBERT, a French poet, 

 was born at Villers-Cotterets, in 1760. He at first 

 practised as a lawyer, and afterwards wrote comedies, 

 operas, and poems. They are full of affected wit and 

 false brilliancy. .His Letters to Emilie on mythology 

 have made him known in Europe. It may be justly 

 objected to them, that they are superficial, affected, 

 and written in what the French call style de madrigal ; 

 yet they are, at the same time, distinguished for 

 spirit, delicacy, and ease. Of his plays, La Conci- 

 liateur, Les Femmes, and Le Tolerant, have maintained 

 a place on the stage. He died March 2, 1801. 



DEMPSTER, THOMAS, a learned Scotsman, author 

 of numerous works on history, law, and archaeology 

 was born at Brechin, in the shire of Angus, 1579, 

 and studied at Aberdeen and Cambridge. In France, 

 whither he went at an early period of his life, he re- 

 presented himself as a man of family (assuming the 

 title of baron of Muresk), and possessed of a good 

 estate, which he had abandoned for his religion, the 

 Roman catholic. He was promoted to a professor's 

 chair at Paris, in the college of Beauvais. Bayle 

 says, that, though his business was only to teach a 

 school, he was as ready to draw his sword as his pen, 

 and as quarrelsome as if he had been a duellist by 

 profession ; scarcely a day passed, he adds, in which 

 he did not fight either with his sword or atfisty-cufis, 

 so that he was the terror of all the schoolmasters. 

 He at last involved himself in a dispute, which 

 obliged him to fly to England. How long he re- 

 mained, or in what manner he was employed there, is 

 uncertain ; but he married a woman of uncommon 

 beauty, with whom he returned to the continent. 

 Crossing the Alps, he obtained a professor's chair in 

 the university of Pisa, with a handsome salary at- 

 tached to it. Here his comfort, and perhaps his 

 usefulness, was marred by the conduct of his beauti 

 ful wife, who at length eloped with one of his scho- 

 lars. Previously to this, we suppose, for the time 

 is by no means clearly stated, he had been professor 

 in the university of Nimes, which he obtained by an 

 honourable competition in a public dispute upon a 

 passage of Virgil. Driven from Pisa by the infide- 

 lity of his wife, he obtained a professorship at Bo- 

 logna, which he held till his death, in the year 1625. 



Dempster's works are very numerous, and they 

 exhibit proofs of great erudition. Among them, his 

 Historia Ecclesiastica Gentis Scotorum, is the most 

 remarkable ; though, instead of being, as its title 

 would indicate, an ecclesiastical history of Scotland, 

 it is merely a list of Scottish authors and Scottish 

 saints. The work was composed in Italy, where, it 



