displeased with his insolence, and banished him ; but the Cynic derided the punishment, and bitterly inveighed against the emperor. He lived to an advanced age ; and Seneca observes that nature had brought him forth to show mankind how an exalted genius may live uncorrupted by the vbes of the world.
DEMETRIUS, or Dmitri. See Russia.
DEMIDOFF, a Russian family honourably distinguished
in various ways in the history of their country.
I. DEMIDOFF, NIKITA, the founder of the family, originally a blacksmith serf, was born about 1665. His skill in the manufacture of arms won him notoriety and fortune ; and an iron foundry which he established for the Government became another source of wealth to him. Peter the Great, with whom he was a favourite, ennobled him in 1720.
II. Demidoff, Akinfij, son of the former, greatly increased the wealth he had inherited by the discovery (along with his son) of gold, silver, and copper mines, which they worked with permission of the Government for their own profit. He died about 1740.
III. DEMIDOFF, PAUL GRIGORJEVICH, nephew of the preceding (born in 1738, died in 1821), was a great traveller, and devoted himself to scientific studies, the prosecution of which among his countrymen he encouraged by the estab lishment of professorships, lyceums, and museums. He founded the annual prize of 5000 roubles, adjudged by the Academy of Sciences to the author of the most valu able contribution to Russian literature.
IV. Demidoff, Nikolay Nikitich, nephew of the preceding, was born in 1774, and died at Florence in 1828. During the invasion of Napoleon he commanded a regiment equipped at his own expense. He also greatly increased his resources as a capitalist by successful mining operations, and like his uncle used his wealth to multiply facilities for the scientific culture of the inhabitants of Moscow. The erection of four bridges at St Petersburg was mainly due to his liberality. In 1830 a collection of his pam phlets, Opuscules d Economic Politique et Privee, was pub lished at Paris.
V. DEMIDOFF, ANATOLI, son of Paul, was born at Florence in 1812, and died at Paris in 1870. Educated in France, his life was chiefly spent in that country and in Italy. After his marriage with the daughter of Jerome Bonaparte, he lost for a time the favour of the Emperor Nicholas on account of provision having been made in the contract for the education of his children as Roman Catholics. During the Crimean war he was a member of the Russian diplomatic staff at Vienna. Like other mem bers of his house, he expended large sums to promote education and to ameliorate the physical condition of his fellows. His munificence as a patron of art gave him European celebrity. The superb work, Voyage dans la Russie meridionals et la Crimee, par la Hongrie, la Valachie, et la Moldavie> was conjointly written and illustrated by him and the French scholars and artists who accompanied him. It has been translated into several European lan guages ; the English version was published in 1853.
DEMISE. See Lease.
DEMMIN, a town of Prussia, at the head of a circle in
the government of Stettin, is situated on the Peene, which
in the immediate neighbourhood receives the Trebel and
the Tollense, 72 miles W.N.W. of Stettin. It has manu
factures of woollen cloths, linens, hats, and hosiery, besides
breweries, distilleries, and tanneries, and an active trade in
corn and timber. Demmin is a town of Slavonian origin
and of considerable antiquity, and was a place of importance
in the time of Charlemagne. It was besieged by a German
army in 1148, and captured by Henry the Lion in 1164.
In the Thirty Years War it was the object of frequent
conflicts, and even after the Peace of Westphalia was taken
and retaken in the contest between the electoral prince
and the Swedes. It passed to Prussia in 1720, and its
fortifications were destroyed in 1759. In 1807 several
engagements took place in the vicinity between the French
and Russians. Population in 1875, 9856.
DEMOCRITUS, one of the founders of the Atomic
philosophy, was born at Abdera, a Thracian colony, the
inhabitants of which were notorious for their stupidity.
Nearly all the information that we possess concerning his
life consists of traditions of very doubtful authenticity.
He was a contemporary of Socrates ; but the date of his
birth has been fixed variously from 494 to 460 B.C. His
father (who is called by no less than three names) was a
man of such wealth as to be able to entertain Xerxes and
his army on their return home after the battle of Salamis.
On coming into his inheritance, Democritus, there is good
reason to believe, devoted several years to travel. He
visited the East, and is supposed with great probability to
have spent a considerable time in Egypt. The intensity of
his thinking was figured by the ancients in the story that
he put out his eyes in order that he might not be diverted
from his meditations. But of the way in which he obtained
the vast learning for which he was famed, and of his inter
course with other philosophers, even with Leucippus, we
have no certain information. According to one very
doubtful tradition, he was so honoured in his native city
that, his patrimony being all spent, the incredible sum of
500 talents was voted him by his fellow-citizens, together
with the honour of a public funeral ; but, according to
another tradition, his countrymen regarded him as a
lunatic and sent for Hippocrates to cure him. All are
agreed that he lived to a great age ; Diodorus Siculus
states that he was ninety at his death, and others assert
that he was nearly twenty years older. He left, according
to Diogenes Laertius, no less that 72 works, treating of
almost every subject studied in his time, and written in
Ionic Greek, in a style which for poetic beauty Cicero
deemed worthy of comparison with that of Plato. But of
all these works nothing has come down to us beyond small
fragments.
The cosmical theory propounded by Democritus which
in part at least was adopted from the doctrines of Leucippus
is of all the materialistic explanations of the universe
put forth by the Greeks the one which has held the most
permanent place in philosophical thought. All that exists
is vacuum and atoms. The atoms are the ultimate material
of all things, including spirit. They are uncaused, and
have existed from eternity. They are invisible, but
extended, heavy, and impenetrable. They vary in shape ;
though whether Democritus held that they vary also in
density is debated. And, lastly, these atoms are in motion.
This motion, like the atoms themselves, Democritus held to
be eternal. According to some, he explained it as caused
by the downward fall of the heavier atoms through the
lighter, by which means a lateral whirling motion was pro
duced ; but whether this explanation was given by
Democritus is extremely doubtful. Another principle also
is said by some to have been used by Democritus to explain
the concurrence of the atoms in certain ways, viz., that
there is an innate necessity by which similar atoms come
together. However this may be, he did declare that by
the motion of the atoms the world was produced with all
that it contains.
Soul and fire are of one nature ; the atoms of which they
consist are small, smooth, and round ; and it is by inhaling
and exhaling such atoms that life is " maintained. It
follows that the soul perishes with, and in the same sense
as, the body. There is, in fact, no distinction made be
tween the principle of life and the higher mental faculties.
The Atomic theory of perception was as follows. From
