Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 1.djvu/993

Rh DEMOCRITUS. cause," as Dingonos says, " he l»ad foretold them Boinc things which the event proved to he time." This had probably reference to his knowledge of natural phaenomena. His fellow-citizens honoured him with presents in money and bronze statues. Kven the scoffer Timon, who in his silli spared no one, speaks of Democritus only in terms of praise. He died at an advanced age (some say that he was 109 yciirs old), and even the manner in which he died is characteristic of his medical knowledge, which, combined as it was with his knowledge of nature, caused a report, which was believed by some persons, that he was a sorcerer and a magician. (Plin. //. iV. xxiv. 17, XXX. 1.) His death is placed in 01. 105. 4, or B. c. 357, in which year Hippocrates also is said to have died. (Clinton, F. 11. ad ann. 357.) We cannot leave unnoticed the tradition that Democritus deprived himself of his sight, in order to be less disturbed in his pur- suits. (Cic. dc Fin. v. 29 ; Gellius, x. 17 ; Diog. Laert. ix. 36 ; Cic. Tusc. v. 39 ; Menage, ad Dioy. La'tirt. ix. 43.) But this tradition is one of the inventions of a later age, which was fond of piquant anecdotes. It is more probable that he may have lost his sight by too severe application to study. (Brandis, /. c. p. 298.) This loss, however, did not disturb the cheerful disposition of his mind and his views of human life, which prompted him everywhere to look at the cheerful and comical side of things, which later writers took to mean, that he always laughed at the follies of men. (Senec. de Ira, ii. 10; Aelian, V. H. iv. 20.) Of the extent of his knowledge, which embraced not only natural sciences, mathematics, mechanics (Brandis, in the R/iein. Mas. iii. p. 1 34, &c.), gram- mar, music, and philosophy, but various other use- ful arts, we may form some notion from the list of his numerous works which is given by Diogenes Laertius (ix. 46—49), and which, as Diogenes expressly states, contains only his genuine works. The grammarian Thrasyllus, a contemporary of the emperor Tiberius, arranged them, like the works of Plato, into tetralogies. The importance which was attached to the researches of Democritus is evident from the fact, that Aristotle is reported to have written a work in two books on the problems of Democritus. (Diog. Laert. v. 26.) His works were composed in the Ionic dialect, though not without some admixture of the local peculiarities of Abdera. (Philopon. in Aristot. de gener. et cor- rupt, fol. 7, a.; Simplic. ad Aristot. de Coelo, fol. 150, a. ; Suid. s. v. pva-fxas.) They are neverthe- less much praised by Cicero on account of the poetical beauties and the liveliness of their style, and are in this respect compared even with the works of Plato. (Groen van Prinsterer, I. c. ; Cic. de Div. ii. 64, de Oral. i. 11, Orat. 20 ; Dionys. de Compos, verb. 24 ; Plut. St/mpos. v. 7, p. 683.) Pyrrhon is said to have imitated his style (Euseb. Pniep. Evang. xiv. 6), and even Timon praises it, and calls it Trep{<ppova Kal dix<pivoov XiffXHv. (Diog. Laert. ix. 40.) Unfortunately, not one of his works has come dovn to us, and the treatise which we possess under his name is considered spurious. Callimachus wrote glosses upon his works and made a list of them (Suid. s. v.) ; but they must have been lost at an early time, since even Simplicius does not appear to have read them (Papencordt, de Atomicorum dodritia, p. 22), and since compara- tively few fragments have come down to us, and DEMOCRITUS. 975 these fragments refer more to ethics than to physi- cal matters. There is a very good collection of these fragments by F. G. A. Mullach, " Democriti Abderitae operum fragmenta," Berlin, 1843, 8vo. Besides this work, which contains also elaborate dissertations on the life and writings of Democritus, the student may consult — 1. Burchardt, Comment, crit. de Democriti de sensibus phUosophia^ in two pro- grams, Minden, 1 830 and 1 839, 4to. 2. Burchardt, Fragmente der Moral des Demokrit, Minden, 1834, 4to. 3. Heimsiith, Democriti de anima dodrina^ Bonn, 1835, 8vo. 4. H. Stephanns, Pocsis Philos. p. 156, &c. 5. Orelli, Opiisc. Graec. Sent. i. p. 91, &c. Concerning the spurious works and letters of Democritus, see Fabric. Bibl. Gr. i. p. 683, &c., ii. pp. 641, 639, iv. p. 333, &c. The philosophy of Democritus has, in modem times been the subject of much investigation. He- gel {Vorlesung. iib. Gesch. d. PhUof. i. p. 379, &c.) treats it very briefly, and does not attach much importance to it. The most minute investigations concerning it are those of Ritter {Gesch. d. Philos. i. p. 559), Brandis (Rhein. Mus. iii. p. 133, &c., and Gesch. der Griech. u. Rom. Philos. i. p. 294, &c.), Petersen {Histor, Philog. Studien. i. p. 22, &:c.), Va.'^encordii {Atomicorum doctrina), and Mul- lach (Z. c. pp. 373— 419). It was Democritus who, in his numerous writ- ings, carried out Leucippus's theory of atoms, and especially in his observations on nature. These atomists undertook the task of proving that the quantitative relations of matter were its original characteristics, and that its qualitative relations were something secondary and derivative, and of thus doing away with the distinction between matter and mind or power. (Brandis, I. c. p. 294.) In order to avoid the difficulties connected Avith the supposition of primitive matter with definite qualities, without admitting the coming into exist- ence and annihilation as realities, and without giving up, as the Eleatic philosophers did, the reality of variety and its changes, the atomists derived all definiteness of phaenomena, both phy- sical and mental, from elementary particles, the infinite number of which were homogeneous in quality, but heterogeneous in form. This made it necessary for them to establish the reality of a vacuum or space, and cf motion. (Brandis, /. c. p. 303, &c.) Motion, they said, is the eternal and necessary consequence of the original variety of atoms in the vacuum or space. All phaenomena arise from the infinite variety of the form, order, and position of the atoms in forming combinations. It is impossible, they add, to derive this supposition from any higher principle, for a beginning of the infinite is inconceivable. (Aristot. de General. Anim. ii. 6, p. 742, b. 20, ed. Bekker; Brandis, /. c. p. 309, Sic.) The atoms are impenetrable, and therefore offer resistimce to one another. This creates a swinging, world-producing, and whirling motion. (This reminds us of the joke in the Clouds of Aristophanes about the god Aivos I ) Now as similars attract one another, there arise in that motion real things and beings, that is, combinations of distinct atoms, which still continue to be sepa- rated from one another by the vacuum. The first cause of all existence is necessity/, that is, the neces- sary predestination and necessary succession of cause and effect. This they cidled c/unuv, in oppo- sition to the vuvs of Anaxagoras. But it does the highest honour to the mind of Democritus, that he