Diagoras, Greek poet, philosopher, and orator, known as "the Atheist," b. Melos. A pupil of Democritus, who is said to have freed him from slavery. A doubtful tradition reports that he became an Atheist after being the victim of an unpunished perjury. He was accused (B.C. 411) of impiety, and had to fly from Athens to Corinth, where he died. A price was put upon the Atheist's head. His works are not extant, but several anecdotes are related of him, as that he threw a wooden statue of Hercules into the fire to cook a dish of lentils, saying the god had a thirteenth task to perform; and that, being on his flight by sea overtaken by a storm, hearing his fellow-passengers say it was because an Atheist was on board, he pointed to other vessels struggling in the same storm without being laden with a Diagoras. Di Cagno Politi (Niccola Annibale), Italian Positivist, b. Bari, 1857. Studied at Naples under Angiulli, has written on modern culture and on experimental philosophy in Italy, and contributed articles on Positivism to the Rivista Europea. Diderot (Denis), French philosopher, b. Langres, 6 Oct. 1713. His father, a cutler, intended him for the Church. Educated by Jesuits, at the age of twelve he received the tonsure. He had a passion for books, but, instead of becoming a Jesuit, went to Paris, where he supported himself by teaching and translating. In 1746 he published Philosophic Thoughts, which was condemned to be burnt. It did much to advance freedom of opinion. Three years later his Letters on the Blind occasioned his imprisonment at Vincennes for its materialistic Atheism. Rousseau, who called him "a transcendent genius," visited Diderot in prison, where he remained three years. Diderot projected the famous Encyclopédie, which he edited with Alembert, and he contributed some of the most important articles. With very inadequate recompense, and amidst difficulties that would have appalled an ordinary editor, Diderot superintended the undertaking for many years (1751-65). He also contributed to other important works, such as Raynal's Philosophic History, L'Esprit, by Helvetius, and The System of Nature and other works of his friend D'Holbach. Diderot's fertile mind also produced dramas, essays, sketches, and novels. Died 30 July, 1784. Comte calls Diderot "the greatest thinker of the eighteenth century." Diercks (Gustav), German author of able works on the History of the Development of Human Spirit (Berlin, 1881-2) and on Arabian Culture in Spain, 1887. Is a member of the German Freethinkers' Union. Dilke (Ashton Wentworth), b. 1850. Educated at Cambridge, travelled in Russia and Central Asia, and published a translation of Turgenev's Virgin Soil. He purchased and edited the Weekly Dispatch; was returned as M.P. for Newcastle in 1880, but, owing to ill health, resigned in favor of John Morley, and died at Algiers 12 March, 1883.