DEM 
Archias, mi emiffary of Antipater, who firfl attempted 
by perfuafion, and then by menaces, to draw him from 
his place of refuge. Demodhenes had provided himfelf 
with poifon agai n A fuch an emergency ; and pretending 
to wait till he had written fome lad inflruCtions to his fa¬ 
mily, he retired to the interior part of the temple, and 
fwallowed the dofe. He then came forth, and looking 
upon Archias, who had been a player, “Now,” laid he, 
“ you may perform the part of Creon as foon as you 
pleafe, and call out thiscarcafe unburied.” Then, turn¬ 
ing to the altar, “ O gracious Neptune,” he cried, “I 
depart alive from thy temple, without profaning it, 
which the Macedonians would have done by my murder.” 
Feeling himfelf dagger, he dcfired the bydanders to fup- 
port him ; but he fell by the altar, and with a groan ex¬ 
pired. He died at the age of fifty-nine, 322 years before 
Chrid. The Athenians not long after ereCted his datue 
in brafs, and decreed that the elded of his family Ihould 
be maintained at the public expence. 
The private character of this eminent perfon does not 
appear to have been amiable. He was vindictive, au- 
dere, and implacable. That he was fond of glory can 
fcarcely be reckoned a fault; and he might be allowed 
to feel a little of the pleafure of vanity, when he heard 
a market-woman fay to another, “That is the famous 
Demofthenes !” But his love of money was a more fe- 
rious fault, fince it could not but influence his conduct 
in his political and profeflional capacity. Yet that he 
was upon the whole fincerely attached to what he thought 
the bed intereds of his country, can fcarcely be doubted ; 
and it was truly to his honour, that he was looked upon 
by Philip himfelf as the greated obdacle to his ambitious 
defigns. In that great conted he feems to have been uni¬ 
formly confident; and though his conduct wanted dig¬ 
nity on fome occafions, and refolution on others, it was 
governed by deady principles. As an orator, his fame is 
fufiicie'ntly fecured by the concurrent voice of antiquity, 
which places, him at the very head of his profeflion. 
The judgment of Cicero alone, who calls him a perfett 
orator, and prefers him to all other fpeakers, Greek or 
Roman, may fuffice to damp his general reputation. Yet 
Cicero could only form an idea of him from his writings; 
and, like ourfelves, was a dranger to that attion which 
Demodhenes reckoned the firfl, the fecond, and the third 
part of oratory, and which was fuch an object of admi¬ 
ration to his rival iEfchines, when exercifed againfl 
himfelf. In confidering his oratorical character more 
particularly, the opinion of Quintilian may be quoted-, 
who fpeaks of him as excelling all others in what the 
Greeks called or that kind of diction which ag¬ 
gravates every circumdance proper to excite the dronged 
emotions. “ Such,” fays he, “ is the force, the concife- 
r.efs, the tone and vigour of his language, that you can 
find nothing either deficient or redundant.” He was a 
ferious fpeaker, and very rarely defeended to pleafantry ; 
when he did, it was with little felicity. When a modern 
reads his orations, he will perhaps feel a deficiency of 
what he has been accudomed to confider as denoting the 
fine or ornate writer, and will charge his Grecian fimpli- 
city with drynefs. His idea of Demodhenes will be ra¬ 
ther that of a firong and fenfible fpeaker to points of bu- 
finefs, than a model of rich and copious eloquence. But 
to a modern many of tire beauties of diclion are entirely 
lod; and we have fuch hifiorical proof of the efficacy 
of his oratory, that it is impoflible to doubt of its real 
excellence. He is (aid to have left fixty-five orations, a 
final 1 proportion of which are come down to our times. 
Among the bed editions of thefe are that of Frankfort, 
1604, folio, with W.olfius’s Latin verfion ; of.Taylor, 
unfinifned, three volumes, quarto, Cantabr. and of 
Reifke, ten volumes, octavo, Lipf. 1720. 
DEMO'TICA, or Dimotuc, a town of European 
Turkey, in the province of Romania, fituafed near the 
Maritfch, where a Greek archbidiop reddes, and the 
Ch.ridians have two churches. This town was the abode 
1. 
D E M 715 
of Charles XII. for fome years: twelve miles fouth of 
Adrianople. 
DEMP'STER (Thomas), a Scotch hidorical writer, 
born in 1579, and a gentleman by family, of the Roman- 
catholic perfuafion. He left his native country on ac¬ 
count of tire religious commotions, and Audicd at Pem- 
broke-hall, Cambridge. Thence he went to France, 
where he pretended that lie had left a great property in 
his own country through attachment to his religion; and 
he aflumed the title of baron of Mureflc, as belonging to 
his family. His finances, however, obliged him to teach 
the claflics in the college of Beauvais. Being of an ath¬ 
letic form, podeded of great perfonal courage, arid vio¬ 
lent in his temper, he got into quarrels, the event of 
which obliged him'for a time to take refuge in England. 
He brought back with him a very handfome wife, with 
whom he proceeded to Italy. He obtained tire chair of 
philology in the univerdty of Pifa, but had the misfor¬ 
tune to lofe his wife, who eloped from him with the af- 
fidance of fome of the dudents. He then removed to 
Bologna, where he taught with great reputation, and 
was much refpeCted by all the learned men ip Italy. He 
was a member of tire academy Della Notte, in Bologna, 
in which place lie died in 1625. Dempfler wrote a va¬ 
riety of works in law, antiquities, philology, colinogra- 
phy, poetry, &c. That by which he is mod known, is 
his eccledadical and literary hiflory of Scotland. His 
Menologium SanElorum Scotorum, was publilhed in 1619, pro¬ 
hibited in 1626 for its gfofs falfehoods, and republiihed 
in 1627, with the title Hijiorici Ecclrjiajlica Scotorum, lib. 
xix. He likewife wrot c Apparatus ad Hi/loriam Scotorum •, 
Martyrologiicm Scoticum ; and Nomenclatura Scriptorum Sco - 
ticorum. Another conliderable work of his, is Etruria 
Rega/is, 2 vols. folio, Florence, edited by Thomas Coke. 
This treats upon the hiflory of the ancient Etrufcans, 
their arts, inventions, &c. 
DEMUL'CENT, adj. \_demulcens, Lat.] Softening; 
mollifying ; aduafive.—Peafe, being deprived of any aro¬ 
matic parts, are mild and demulcent in the highefl degree ; 
but, being full of aerial particles, are flatulent, when 
diflblved by digedion. Arbuthnot. 
DEMUL'CENTS,yi [from demulceo, Lat. to foften.] 
Medicines which blunt and foften the acrimony of the 
humours and juices, lo as to render them mild. 
To DEMU'R, v. n. [demeurer, Fr. dimorare, Ital. demo, 
rari, Lat.] To delay a procefs in law by doubts and ob¬ 
jections. See Demurrer. —To this plea the plaintiff 
demurred. Walton. —To paufe in uncertainty ; to fufpend 
determination ; to helitate ; to delay the conclufion of-an 
affair.—He mud be of a very fluggidi or querulous hu¬ 
mour, that fhall demur upon fetting out, or demand higher 
encouragements than the hope of heaven. Decay oj Piety . 
News of my death from rumour he receiv’d, 
And what he wifh’d he ealily believ’d ; 
But long demur A d, tho’ from my hand he knew 
I liv’d, fo loth he was to think it true. Dryden . 
To doubt; to have fcruples or difficulties ; to delibe¬ 
rate.—There is fomething in our compofition that thinks 
and apprehends, and reflects and deliberates, determines 
and doubts, confents and denies; that vy ills and demurs, 
and relolves, and choofes, and rejeCts. Bentley. 
To DEMU'R, v. a. To doubt of: 
The latter I demur ; for in their looks 
Much reafon, and in their actions, oft appear 5 , Milton. 
DEMU'R, f. Doubt; hefitation ; fufpenfe of opinion. 
—Certainly the higlved and deared concerns of a tempo¬ 
ral life are infinitely lefs valuable than thofe of an eter¬ 
nal ; and confequently.ought, without any demur at all, 
to be facrificed to them. South. 
O progeny of Heav’ii, empyreal thrones ! 
With reafon hath deep filence and demur 
Seiz’d us, though undifmay’d. Milton. 
D^MU'RE, 
