DEM 
DEM 697 
with water ? in what manner they could ufe fire for the 
drefling of .their victuals ? &c. But as every anfwer to 
thefe mutt be founded wholly upon conjecture, and none 
can pretend that there was a natural impoflibility of ef¬ 
fecting any of thefe things, we forbear to infift farther 
upon them. The cafe, however, is very different with 
refpeCt to the air necelfary for fuftaining animal life; for 
here there is a plain impolfibility in a natural way ; nay, 
w'e may even doubt whether the general mafs of atmo- 
fphere, after being deprived of its eleCtric matter, or 
otherwife, altered in fuch a manner as to let fall fuch a 
quantity of the water it contained, was fit for the fupport 
of animal life ; To that a miracle would have been necef- 
fary at any rate. To this indeed it may be replied, that 
on fuch a fuppofition, men and other animals would 
have been deltroyed, not by the flood, but by the vitia¬ 
ted air they breathed. But, as has been already hinted, 
it is improbable that any living creature could refitt the 
violent rain which took place, and which would foon 
drive the birds front their (belter, as the waters begin¬ 
ning to overflow the ground would foon expel the hitman 
race from their houles; and it would not be till the end 
of the forty days and forty nights that the air could be 
at its word (late, long before which time all animal life 
would be extinCf. 
After all the various quotations and opinions which 
we have here given, and which the ingenuity of mankind 
will perhaps multiply for ages, under various (hapes and 
forms; it muft appear, that unlefs the omnipotent hand of 
the Deity Le acknowledged to have effected the purpofe, 
from wile and good motives (perhaps not to be reconciled 
to any natural caufes, through human imperfections), that 
the vague and uncertain conjecture of man will never 
be able to give an account of the caufes or fources of 
the deluge, at all fatisfaCtory or conclufive to an en¬ 
lightened mind. 
To DE'LUGE, v. a. To drown; to lay totally under 
water: 
The reltlefs flood the land would overflow. 
By which the delug'd earth would ufelefs grow. Blackmon. 
Still the battering waves rufli in 
Implacable, till delug'd by the foam. 
The (hip finks, found’ring in the vail abyfs. Philips. 
To overwhelm; to caufe to fink under the weight of 
any calamity : 
At length corruption, like a general flood. 
Shall deluge all. Pope. 
DEL'VIN, a town of European Turkey, in the pro¬ 
vince of Albania : thirty-fix miles fputh-wefi of Delfino. 
DELUMB A'TION, J. [from the Lat. de, from, and 
lumbus, the.loins.] The aCt of beating or breaking of the 
loins.' Scott. 
DELUGION, f. [dehtfio, Lat.] The aCt of deluding; 
a cheat; guile; deceit; treachery; fraud; collufion; 
falfehood. The ftate of one deluded. A falfe reprefen- 
tation ; iilufion ; error ; a chimerical thought: 
I, waking, view’d with grief the rifing fun. 
And fondly mourn’d the dear dclufion gone. Prior. 
DELU'SIVE, adj. [from delufus, Lat.] Apt to de¬ 
ceive ; beguiling; impofing on.—Phtenomena fo delufivc, 
that it is very hard to efcape impolition and mifhike. 
Woodward. 
When, fir’d with palTion, we attack the fair, 
Delujive fighs and brittle vows we bear. Prior. 
DELU'SORY, adj. [from delufus, Lat.] Apt to de¬ 
ceive.—This confidence is founded on no better founda¬ 
tion than a delufory prejudice. Glanville. 
DE'MA, a river of Ruffia, which runs into the Bielaia, 
at Upha. 
DEM'ADES, an Athenian orator, originally a mari¬ 
ner. He is (aid by Cicero to have had the reputation of 
pollening more of the Attic fait than any other fpeaker, 
Vo l, V. No. 307. 
He was ready at extempore addreffes, and fometimes flip- 
ported Demolthenes when that great orator was thrown 
into confufion by popular tumult. Though radically a 
mean and venal character, he knew what belonged to 
true greatnefs of mind. He checked king Philip in his 
immoderate exultation, after the battle of Cheronea 
and, when that prince behaved in an infulting manner 
to his prifoners, Demades ventured to remind him, that 
when fortune had given him the opportunity of adding 
the part of Agamemnon, he feemed rather to choofe that 
of Therfites. Philip took the rebuke in good part, made- 
Demades his friend, and loaded him with favours. The 
venal orator was fully brought over to the Macedonian 
party, which he fupported with all his influence at 
Athens againfi Demofthenes and the other patriots. 
When charged with making fpeeches and motions inju¬ 
rious to the honour and independence of his country, he 
excufed himfelf by faying, “ that he came to the helm 
when the commonwealth was no more than a wreck 
but, fays Plutarch, “ he was the man who wrecked his 
country.” When Alexander had inflated his dreadful 
chaflifement upon Thebes, and demanded of the terrified 
Athenians the delivery of the orators and leading men 
who were his oppofers, Demades diverted his wrath by 
obtaining a decree that the Athenians themfelves lliould 
punifh the guilty by their own laws ; and he went at the 
head of an embaffy to Alexander, who received him with 
great affability, and admitted the Athenians to favour. A 
fpecimen of his ftrong manner of fpeaking is recorded upon 
the arrival of the news of Alexander’s death. Demades 
refilled to credit the report; “ for, (laid he,) if Alexan¬ 
der were dead, the whole world would fmell tire carcafe.” 
He afterwards compared the tumultuous movements of 
the Macedonian army, deprived of their king, to thole of 
the Cyclops when blinded. On the temporary triumph 
of the oppofite party, he was fined feven times for pro- 
pofing edicts contrary to law, and was declared infa¬ 
mous, and incapable of fpeaking in the public alfembly; 
but, when Antipater’s fuccefs changed the (late of affairs, 
lie recovered his authority, and propofed treating with 
that chief. He carried a decree by which Demolthenes 
was condemned to death ; and he, with Phocion, went 
as deputies to Antipater, but was unable to obtain any 
other terms from him than fubmitting at diferetion. 
Such was his mercenary difpolition, that Antipater was 
ufed to fay, that, of his two Athenian friends, he could 
get Phocion to accept of nothing, and could never fa- 
tisfy Demades. He was as profufe in (pending his for¬ 
tune, as he had been rapacious in acquiring it. He is 
faid to have paid voluntarily a fine of one thoufand 
drachmas a-piece for one hundred chorus performers in 
one of his exhibitions, who, contrary to law, were fo¬ 
reigners. At the marriage of his (on Demea, he faid to 
him, “ When I married your mother, our next neigh¬ 
bours fcarcely knew of it; but kings and princes contri¬ 
bute to the expence of your nuptials.” This man at 
lafc paid the penalty of his interefled policy. Becoming 
dilfatisfied vvith.Antipater, he wrote to his enemy Per- 
diccas, inftigating him to invade Macedonia and Greece., 
and take the government to himfelf; adding this expref- 
fion, “ That they now leaned only on an old rotten (faff.” 
'His letters happened to be intercepted,'and their contents 
fo provoked Callander the fon of Antipater, that h.e 
caufed his fon to be killed before his eyes, and then put 
Demades himfelf to death, before Chrilt 322. 
DE'MAGOGUE, J. 05, Gr.] A ringleader 
of the rabble ; a popular and factious orator.—A plau- 
fible, infignificant word, in the mouth of an expert dema~ 
gogue , is a dangerous and dreadful weapon. South.- —De¬ 
molthenes and Cicero, though each of them a leader, or, 
as the Greeks called it, a demagogue, in a popular date, 
yet feem to diifer in their practice. Swift. 
DEMA'IE, a town of Egypt: fix miles north-wed 
of Manfora. 
■DEMA'IN. f. See Demeine. 
8 P T* 
