DEM 
cero calls him * a perfet a ** and prefers him to is 
other fpeakers, Greck or Rom Yet Cicero could o 
judge of hin from his na w “whilf lft he was a ftranger 
“that atlion, which Demofthenes reckons the firft, the eer 
iY 
language, that you can find nothing either deficient or re- 
dundant. 
3 
«* The ftyle of Demofthenes” fays Dr.. Blair, (Lectures, 
vol. ii.) “is ftrong and concife, thouzh cae. it muft not 
ce diflembled, harfh and abrupt. His words are very expref- 
ae his ar sola is firm and manly : and.though far from 
ing t fzems difficult to find in him that ftudied 
bie ncealed oe and rhythmus, which fome of the an- 
cient critics are fond of attributing to him. Negligent of thefe 
leffer graces, one would rather conceive him to have aimec 
at that fublime which lies in fentiment. ion and 
ave been uncommonly v 
If any fault can be found with his admirable € nee eed it is 
that he fometimes borders on the hard and dr ah He may be 
thought to want {moothnefs and grace 3 wh h Dionyfius of 
Halicarnaflus anes tes to = imitating i clofely the 
8, s, who was his great model for ftyle, 
is faid to Sia written eight times 
But thefe defeéts are far more 
a cae enfated, by that admirable and malterly fo:ce of 
mafculine eloquence, which, as It Sa aa all who heard 
it, cannot, at this day, be read without emotion.’ owever, 
toa modern many of the cn in dition are lof, but we 
have fuch hiftorical proo acy of his oratory, ae 
it is impo: ible to doubt of is eal pecillence It was 
m 
quem mirabantur Athe 
Torrentem, et pleni ale eres freena theatr 
Juvenal. ed Xe 
He was the chief of thofe who, in Milton’s | 
«’ Wielded at will that fierce democr 
Shook th’ arfenal, and fulmin’d over “Cree 
To Macedon, and Artaxerxes’ throne. Parad. Reg. 
the fubje&t of comparing Cicero and awoke 
fa has been aid by critical writers. The ‘different man- 
ners of thefe two princes of el sa = the dittingudhing 
characters of each, are fo ftrong! y marked in their writings, 
ees obvious and ealy. 
t more fpirited a sad — the other more 
withal, loofer and w o Demolthenes 
times oroduecs obfcurity, the a in , which he writes 
is lefs familiar to moft o i 
acqueinted with the Greek antiquities than we are with the 
man. We read Cicero 
with greater pleafure : and it muft be allowed, that Cicero 
is in him({clf a more agreeable writer than the other. «© But,’ 
with more eafe, aud of courte , 
DEM 
s Dr. ‘ *¢ I am of opinion, that were the Rate in 
a. great national intereft ac ftake, which drew 
the ae Snare on of the public, an oration in the f{pirit 
and ftrain of Demofthenes, woul ore weight, and 
produce greater effed, 
Were Demofthenes’s Philippics fpoken in a Britith affembly, 
in a fimilar conjunQure of affairs, they would convince and 
perfuade at this day. The rapid le se a acu 
ing, the difdain, anger, bolduefs, fre 
petaally animate them, werkt render hee Gan infallible 
any m fT ucftion whether the fame can 
caufes of impor t 
ume concurs, in his  Effay upon Eloc 
as his opinion, that of all human produGtions, the cue 
of Dem ofthenes prefent to us the models which approach the 
neareft to perf: Akon. In comparing Demofthenes and Cicero, 
the French critics, however, are difpofed to give the pre- 
ference to the latter. One exception, how vever, Occurs, Fe- 
nelor, the oe archbifhop of Cambray, gives the paim to 
emotthen 
De olen is a i ced elie 2) lara . 
) 
jut 
‘Quin Taft pie Fit, Gen. Biog. 
lin’s Anc. Eht 
DEMOTICA, or enna in Geography, a town of: 
Eur ropeaa oS in the province of Romania, fituated 1 near 
the Marit{ch, w a Greck acunies ie and where 
ne 
the Chriltians ae two churches; 12 miles 5. of Adri-- 
anople. 
DEMOURS, Perer,.in Biography, dottor in medicine, 
f ho 
but more known as an oculft, wes the fon of Ant gn 
Demours, an apothecary at Marfeilles, under whom he 
ceived the ear y part of his education, which was co nenued 
where he refide . until he had taken the degree 
r 1728. He then removed to 
of natural hiftory, in the royal garden at Paris. 
made tke ftructure of the eye ina particular manner hi 
icut to the roya 
u 
which had not been before obferved. 
ne ee himfelf, almoft exclufively, in attending ae the dif-- 
eafes of the eye, and foon attracted fo much notice as to be 
appointed oculift to the king. In 1767, he publthed “ Lette 
M. Pe tit”? on the fubject of a difeafe 
curring ina Tae who had been sreedineed a the fall. 
pox. s he acquired a competent fe of the 
Englith ie ngage, he tranflated into French the Edinburgh 
sei eflays, w nae he ublifhed at Paris, in eleve 
lumes, 12mo. Baker’s Natural Hiltory of the Polypui. 
Hales account of a Vent tor. Ranby’s nae of ane 
fhot Wounds, and feveral volumes of effays medic 
and on acai hiftory, taken trom the Philofophical Tranke 
ations, which procured him to — el Bee one of the foreign 
members of the royal fociety. been ‘before afla- 
ciated with the royal ccademy ot ae Paris. ae 
urg 
