702 DEM 
king of Perfia, Democedes, with all the family and pro¬ 
perty of his deceafed mailer, was conveyed to Sufa. He 
was kept in chains undiftinguifhed among the common 
haves, when Darius, having diflocated his foot by a fall 
from his horfe, was reduced to a (late of great buffering 
under the rough treatment of his Egyptian burgeons. 
Being informed of the (kill of Democedes, he caufed 
him to be brought into his prefence, loaded as he was 
with fetters, and clothed in rags. Democedes was un¬ 
willing to own his profeflion, fearing left it might pre¬ 
vent his return to his native country; at length, being- 
threatened with the torture, he confelfed that he had ob¬ 
tained a fmall acquaintance with the medical art. Da¬ 
rius put himfelf under his care ; and, by the ufe of warm 
fomentations, he boon gave the king eafe, arid reftored 
the ufe of his limb. As a reward for the cure, Darius 
prefented him with a pair of golden fetters; and every 
one of the queens gave him a vafe full of gold. He was 
now lodged in a magnificent houfe, admitted to the king’s 
table, and treated as one of his firft favourites. He made a 
generous ufe of his influence, by obtaining a pardon for 
his Egyptian brethren of the profeflion, who had been 
condemned to be impaled for their want of (kill, and by 
procuring the liberty of a foothfayer of Elis, who lay 
among the (laves of Polycrates. Not long after, he 
greatly augmented his credit, by curing an ulcer in the 
bread, with which the queen Atofla, daughter of Cyrus, 
was affedted. Still, the with neareft his heart was to re¬ 
turn to his own country ; he therefore employed the fa¬ 
vour of Atofla in a propofal that he might be fent, with 
fome Perfians of diftinftion, to aflift them in exploring 
all the maritime parts of Greece, for the purpofe of a 
future invafion of that country. He was accordingly 
embarked, with rich prefents to his father and brothers ; 
but on the arrival of the Perfians at Tarentum, they were 
leized as fpies, and in the mean time Democedes efcaped 
to Croton. The Perfians, on being liberated, followed 
him to his native town, and endeavoured to perfuade the 
Crotonians to furrender him, as the king’s fervant, but 
without effect. Democedes remained, and married the 
daughter of Milo the famous athlete ; and the refent- 
ment of Darius for his fraudulent defertion afforded one 
of the pretexts for his invafion of Greece. 
DE'MOCLES, a beautiful youth, paflionately loved 
by Demetrius Poliorcetes. He threw himfelf into a 
cauldron of boiling water, rather than fubmit to the un¬ 
natural lufts of the tyrant. Plutarch. 
DEMO'CR ACY, J. [democratic, Fr. democrazia, Ital. 
democracia, Sp. democratia, Lat. of S'npoygoctrux., of ovy.ot;, 
the people, and Gr. to exercile power over.] 
One of the three forms of government; that in which the 
fovereign power is neither lodged in one man, nor in the 
nobles, but in the collective body of the people.—While 
many of the fervants, by induftry and virtue, arrive at 
riches and efteem, then the nature of the government in¬ 
clines to a democracy. Temple .—.The majority, having the 
whole power of the community, may employ all that 
power in making laws, and executing thofe laws ; and 
there the form of the government is a perfect democracy. 
Locke. 
DE'MOCRAT, J. One who belongs to a democratical 
government; one who upholds a form of government 
veiled in the collective body of the people. 
DE'MOCRAT, a town of Egypt: twenty miles north 
of Afna. 
DEMOCRA'TIC, or Democratical, adj. Pertain¬ 
ing to a government veiled in the people ; popular.— 
England would have had the honour of leading up the 
death-dance of democratic revolution. Burke .—They are 
Hill w ithin the line of vulgarity, and are democratical ene¬ 
mies to truth. Brown .—As the government of England 
has a mixture of democratical in it, fo the right is partly 
in the people. Arbutknot. 
DEMOCRATICALLY, adv. In a democratical man- 
D E M 
ner,—This democratical embafly was democratically re¬ 
ceived. A. Sydney. 
DEMO'CRATIE, f. [coined by Milton for] Demo¬ 
cracy : 
Thence to the famous orators repair, 
Thole ancient, whofe reliftlefs eloquence 
Wielded at will that fierce democratic. Par. Regained. 
DEMO'CRITUS, one of the greateft philofophers of 
antiquity, of the eleatic fed, was born at Abdera in 
Thrace, in the firft year of the eightieth olympiad, or 
460 years before Chrift. ■ His father was a perfon in opu¬ 
lent circumftances, at whofe houfe Xerxes was enter¬ 
tained on his return to Afia from his difgraceful expedi¬ 
tion into Greece.. In requital for his hofpitality, that 
prince is faid to have left behind him fome of the Chal¬ 
dean magi, as preceptors to his Ion Democritus, under 
whofe initruCtions lie was early initiated in aftronomy and 
theology. Afterwards he became a difciple of Leucip¬ 
pus, from whom he learnt the fyftem ofatams, and a va¬ 
cuum. Upon his father’s death, and the divifion of his 
property among his children, he chofe the part confiding 
of ready money ; which, though leaft in value, was molt 
convenient for the plan of life that he had determined to 
follow. For fo predominant was his delire to improve 
in knowledge and wifdom, that he was refolved to travel 
into the remoteft countries, where he might expect to 
meet with perfons of diftinguiftied and extraordinary abi¬ 
lities. With a fortune amounting to more than an hun¬ 
dred talents, he was enabled to put his defign into exe¬ 
cution, and went firlt into Egypt, whence he proceeded 
to Chaldea and Perfia, and is even faid to have penetrated 
into India and Ethiopia, to be inftruCted in the philofo- 
phyof the Gymnofophifts. It is not certain that Athens 
was included among the plages which he vifited; or, if 
he was there at all, that he was introduced to any of the 
great fages in that feat of learning. After fpending many 
years in travelling, and acquiring (lores of knowledge and 
philofophy, during which his patrimony became ex- 
haufted, he returned to Abdera, where at firft he was 
obliged to one of his brothers for a maintenance. By 
one of the laws of his country it was enjoined, that thofe 
who fpent their patrimony Ihould not be buried among 
their anceftors. Democritus is faid to have been profe- 
cuted by fome perfons who envied his reputation, in or¬ 
der to be fubje&ed to the difgrace which that law was 
intended to attach to profligates and fpendthrifts. But 
he defended himfelf fo well, by (hewing that his ex- 
pences had not been unprofitably incurred, but in acquir¬ 
ing knowledge, which enabled him to communicate ufe- 
ful inftruCtion to the public, that he was acquitted by 
by his judges, loaded with valuable prefents, and foon 
honoured as a prodigy of wifdom and fagacity more than 
mortal. To fo high a pitch of fame and admiration did 
he rife among the Abderites, that they were defirous of 
entrufting him with the entire dire&ion of their public 
affairs. But he preferred a contemplative to an aCtive 
life, and palled the remainder of his days in folitude and 
lludy. He is reported, by regularity and temperance, to 
hrive lived to the advanced age of 109 years. He pof- 
felfed a fublime genius and penetrating judgment, and, 
by indefatigable lludy and obfervation, became emi¬ 
nently converfant in fpeculative and phyfical fcience, for 
the age in which he lived. He has been commonly 
known by the appellation of the laughing philofopher ; 
which appears to have originated in the ridicule and con¬ 
tempt with which he frequently treated the people 
among whom he lived, who were ftupid to a proverb. 
He wrote numerous works, in natural and moral philofo¬ 
phy, criticifm, and polite literature, of which there is a 
long catalogue in Diogenes Laertius; but none of them 
have reached our time. Many of his maxims, which are 
preferved in Diogenes Laertius and Stobaeus, are valu¬ 
able and excellent. 
DEMO'DOCUS, 
