one of the greatest philosophers of antiquity, was born at Abdera, a town of Thrace, about the 86th Olympiad, that is, about 460 years before Christ. His father, says Valerius Maximus, was able to entertain the whole army of Xerxes; and Diogenes Laertius adds, upon the testimony of Herodotus, that the king, in requisition, presented him with some Magi and Chaldeans. From these Magi and Chaldeans Democritus received the rudiments of his education; and from them also, whilst yet a boy, he learned theology and astronomy. He next applied to Leucippus, and acquired from him a knowledge of the system of atoms and a vacuum. When his father died, the three sons, for there were so many of them, divided the estate. Democritus made choice of that part which consisted in money, as being, though the least share, the most convenient for travelling; and it is said that his portion amounted to above a thousand talents, or about £30,000 sterling. His extraordinary inclination for the sciences and for knowledge induced him to travel into all parts of the world where he hoped to find learned men. He went to visit the priests of Egypt, from whom he learned geometry; he consulted the Chaldean and the Persian philosophers; and it is said that he penetrated even into India and Ethiopia, to confer with the gymnosophists. In these travels he wasted his substance, after which, at his return, he was obliged to be maintained by his brother; and if he had not given proofs of the greatest understanding, and thereby procured for himself the highest honours, and the strongest interest of his country, he would have incurred the penalty of that law which denied interment in the family sepulchre to those who had wasted their patrimony. After his return from his travels, he lived at Abdera, and governed there in a most