The fame of Democritus has sustained a singular fortune. He is
represented by Pliny as one of the most superstitious of mortals. This
character is founded on certain books which appeared in his name. In
these books he is made to say, that, if the blood of certain birds be
mingled together, the combination will produce a serpent, of which
whoever eats will become endowed with the gift of understanding the
language of birds. [96] He attributes a multitude of virtues to the
limbs of a dead camelion: among others that, if the left foot of this
animal be grilled, and there be added certain herbs, and a particular
unctuous preparation, it will have the quality to render the person
who carries it about him invisible. [97] But all this is wholly
irreconcileable with the known character of Democritus, who
distinguished himself by the hypothesis that the world was framed from
the fortuitous concourse of atoms, and that the soul died with the
body. And accordingly Lucian, [98] a more judicious author than Pliny,
expressly cites Democritus as the strenuous opposer of all the
pretenders to miracles. "Such juggling tricks," he says, "call for a
Democritus, an Epicurus, a Metrodorus, or some one of that temper, who
should endeavour to detect the illusion, and would hold it for certain,
even if he could not fully lay open the deceit, that the whole was a
lying pretence, and had not a spark of reality in it."
Democritus was in reality one of the most disinterested characters on
record in the pursuit of truth. He has been styled the father of
experimental philosophy. When his father died, and the estate came to
be divided between him and two brothers, he chose the part which was
in money, though the smallest, that he might indulge him [Errata:
_read_ himself] in travelling in pursuit of knowledge. He visited
Egypt and Persia, and turned aside into Ethiopia and India. He is
reported to have said, that he had rather be the possessor of one of
the cardinal secrets of nature, than of the diadem of Persia.