The fame of Democritus in modern times rests on his extraordi- 

 nary prevision of the Atomic, or modern physical theory of the Uni- 

 verse. Rising above the confined idea of the Ionian school, that all 

 things are modifications of one element or principle, he broached the 

 conception that bodies are made up of ultimate atoms, and that in the 

 character of these atoms must be sought the explanation of the quali- 

 ties of what we call body. He went off at once from all barren lago- 

 machies about the Plenum, and, indeed, more than any other thinker 

 of antiquity, achieved the privilege of laying down the ground of 

 just speculation in physics. His doctrines prevailed widely, and 

 were afterwards enshrined in noble verse by Lucretius. Democritus 

 was certainly a materialist: the mind, he thought, like fire, consisted 

 of finer atoms. He had no notion of life apart from the body; and the 

 gods he deemed delusion. He had grand views of the universe. In 

 the milky way, first of all, he saw the light of innumerable worlds; 

 but he had a correspondingly mean opinion of the nature and destiny 

 of Man. Nay, he treated Man, his evanescent works, and feeble 

 struggles, so lightly, that we find his effigies always with a jeer on 

 the lip, and himself with the appellation of the laughing philosopher. 

 Democritus is not the only thinker who, in the intensity of his con- 

 templation of material nature, has overlooked a Force infinitely more 

 enduring and grand. 



The loss of his writings is that, perhaps, among all calamities to 

 ancient monuments, which we ought most to deplore. The titles of 

 his works relate to Logic, Ethics, Physics, Mathematics, Astronomy, 

 Medicine, Poetry, Music, Grammar, and even Strategy. Cicero tells 

 us, that in style Democritus might be the rival of Plato he wrote so 

 clearly, and so adorned what he wrote. During his youth and man- 

 hood he traveled through India, Ethiopia, Chaldsea, and Persia; 

 spent several years in Egypt, and seems to have visited the schools 

 of Pythagoras and Zeno. It is said also that he heard Socrates, and 

 communed with Anaxagoras concerning the phenomena of Astronomy 

 and the physical structure of Nature. 



J. P. N. 



Cyc. of Biog. 



609 



