DEM 
our ae on the continual feries of farprifing elec- 
tions made b e Athenians and Romans; which no one 
eles furely See to hazar s moft citizens, thoug 
ey have a capacity of chufing, are not, howev > anal 
qualifed to be chofen ; fo the common people, thoug 
pable of calling others to an account for their sdiniailization, 
are incapable of the adminiftration themfelves. e public 
bufinefs mutt, hoeeen be carried on, with a certain motion 
ed in c 
this di ion great legiflators have 
and on this th Vo Garavon and profpe- 
fiznalized themfelves ; 
e divifion of 
el - seen have a 
zen to entertain reafonable hopes of fering his country s but 
as this method is naturally defeCtive, it has been the glorious 
endeavour of the moft eminent legiflators to regulate and 
amend it. The law which determines the manner of giving 
the fuffrages is likewife fundamental in a democracy. * 
pcople’s fuffrages ought, without doubt, fays Montefquieu, 
3 fhould be 
y the gravity of certain perfonages. en 
rendering the fuffrages fecret in the Roman republic all was 
d it is often proper to w before 
is ee blifhed. In this refpe& the pay erence of ee 
and At . ens were extremely wife. The decrees of the fenate 
had the force of laws for the {pace of a year, and did tot 
abr ee till they were ratified by the confent of the 
“The principle of democracy is virtue. When Sylla 
wanted to reftore Rome to its liberty, this unhappy city was 
incapable of receiving it. She had only fome feeble remains 
of virtue, and as this was every day diminifhing, inftead o 
being roufed out ay her oe by Cefar, Tiberius, Caius, 
i mitian, the every day rivetted her chains 5 
two exceffes to avoid ; ‘the fpitit a ores ae which | 
to ariftocracy or monarchy; and the fpirit of extreme 
Vou 
DEM 
equality, which leads to defpotic power, as the latter is com- 
pleated by conqueft. As diftant as heaven is from earth, 
fo is the true fpirit of equality from that of eee equality. 
The former does not confift in managing ; fo that every body 
fhould command, or that no one fhould be commanded ; 
but in obeying and commanding our equals. It endeavours 
not to be without a mafter, but that its mafters fhould be 
n the ftate of nature, indeed, all men 
virtue is near = as 3 but it is not 
nearer to extreme i libeag ae to fer 
The moft flourifing democracies in eminent times were 
thofe of Rome and Athens, aad in latter days, the republic 
of Geneva in Switzeriand: the modern republics, as Venice, 
and the United, Provinces, were rather ariltocracies than de- 
mocracies. 
Ina democracy, where the right of making laws refides in 
the people at large, public virtue, or goo nefa of i intention, 
is more likely to be found than either of ae other qualities 
of government; and therefore it ufually poffcfles a contider- 
able degree of patriotifm and public fpirit. Democracies 
are ufua.ly the belt calculated to dire&t the end of a law; 
ariftocracies to invent the means by which that end fhall be 
obtained ; ous — to carry thofe means into execu- 
tion. SeeR 
DEMOCRA Ty i in 1 Geography, a town of Egypt; 20 
miles N. of A 
DEMOCRIT ‘US, in Biography, a celebrated philofopher 
of the Eleatic feA@, was born at cra, a town of Th 
in the firft year of the 8oth Olympiad, B,C. 460 
with haat Anaxagoras, Ce ae Pare 
His father was a per- 
fai 
3 
ct 
oc 
Me, 
ew 
a 
m 
liberally towards the entertainm TXE3, 
on his return to Afia, in ape of which fervice the 
Perfian king made the Abderites rich prefents, and left 
among them feveral Chaidzan magi, thefe magi De- 
mocritus was inftru€icd in altronomy and Gedogy. Upon 
bee father’s death, he received the portion of 100 talents be- 
athed him, and thus amply provided with money, he 
ppallegs into diftant countries in purfuit of knowledge ; firft 
vifiting Egypt for the purpofe of learning geometry of the 
Egy ptian priefts ; then diretting his courfe to Ethiopia, in 
order to vos with the gymnofophitts of that country 5 
and from thence he paffed over into Afia, where he refided 
for fom 
faid, ie hice led him into India. a 
os d in the doétrines of the Pythagorean Iehool, and ce 
came a difciple of Leucippus. His refources were com- 
ee ebeuled in his travels, and Sea dettitute to 
his native place, he was amply fupplied by his brother 
amafi 8 it was a law at eile that any pers 
fon, aie wafted his patrimony, be deprived 
f the rites of fepulture, Democritus, ‘reading this dif- 
ed himfelf by the 
people, out 2 one of t 
> fuflering cee asa foendthrift. 
quired great ia and excited much a 
ignorant Abderites. Of his knowledge of 
he artfully cet himfeif for predifling unexpected changes 
in the weather, fo that his fellow-citizens conceived that he 
3E pofleffed 
