forty years younger than Anaxagoras. His father, Hegesistratus,--or as others called him Damasippus or Athenocritus,--was possessed of so large a property, that he was able to receive and treat Xerxes on his march through Abdera.

Democritus spent the inheritance left to him by his father on travels to distant countries, which he undertook to satisfy his extraordinary thirst for knowledge. He travelled over a great part of Asia, and, as some state, he even reached India and Aethiopia. We know that he wrote