founded in 1846.
DESMOULINS, CAMILLE, one of the most striking figures in the French
Revolution, born at Guise, in Picardy; studied for the bar in the same
college with Robespierre, but never practised, owing to a stutter in his
speech; was early seized with the revolutionary fever, and was the first
to excite the same fever in the Parisian mob, by his famous call "To
arms, and, for some rallying sign, cockades--green ones--the colour of
Hope, when," as we read in Carlyle, "as with the flight of locusts, the
green tree-leaves, green ribbons from the neighbouring shops, all green
things, were snatched to make cockades of"; was one of the ablest
advocates of the levelling principles of the Revolution; associated
himself first with Mirabeau and then with Danton in carrying them out,
and even supported Robespierre in the extreme course he took; but his
heart was moved to relent when he thought of the misery the guillotine
was working among the innocent families, the wives and the children, of
its victims, would, along with Danton, fain have brought the Reign of
Terror to a close; for this he was treated as a renegade, put under
arrest at the instance of Robespierre, subjected to trial, sentenced to
death, and led off to the place of execution; while his young wife, for
interfering in his behalf, was arraigned and condemned, and sent to the
guillotine a fortnight after him (1762-1794).
DE SOTO, a Spanish voyager, was sent to conquer Florida, penetrated
as far as the Mississippi; worn out with fatigue in quest of gold, died
of fever, and was buried in the river (1496-1542).
DES PERIERS, BONAVENTURE, a French humanist and story-teller, born
at Autun, in Burgundy; valet-de-chamber of Margaret of Valois; wrote
"Cymbalum Mundi," a satirical production, in which, as a disciple of
Lucian, he holds up to ridicule the religious beliefs of his day; also
"Novelles Recréations et Joyeux Devis," a collection of some 129 short
stories admirably told; was one of the first prose-writers of the
century, and is presumed to be the author of the "Heptameron," ascribed
to Margaret of Valois; _d_. 1544.
DESPRE`AUX. See BOILEAU.
DESSALINES, JEAN JACQUES, emperor of Hayti, born in Guinea, W.
Africa, a negro imported into Hayti as a slave; on the emancipation of
the slaves there he acquired great influence among the insurgents, and by
his cruelties compelled the French to quit the island, upon which he was
raised to the governorship, and by-and-by was able to declare himself
emperor, but his tyranny provoked a revolt, in which he perished
(1760-1806).
DESSAU (34), a North German town, the capital of the Duchy of
Anhalt, on the Mulde, affluent of the Elbe, some 70 m. SW. of Berlin; it
is at once manufacturing and trading.
DESSAUER, THE OLD. See LEOPOLD OF DESSAU.
DESTOUCHES, a French dramatist, born at Tours; his plays were
comedies, and he wrote 17, all excellent (1680-1754); also a French
painter (1790-1884).
DETMOLD (9), capital of Lippe, 47 m. SW. of Hanover, with a bronze
colossal statue of ARMINIUS (q. v.) near by.
DETROIT (285), the largest city in Michigan, U.S., a great
manufacturing and commercial centre, situated on a river of the same
name, which connects Lake St. Clair with Lake Erie; is one of the oldest
places in the States, and dates from 1670, at which time it came into the
possession of the French; is a well-built city, with varied manufactures
and a large trade, particularly in grain and other natural products.
DETTINGEN, a village in Bavaria, where an army of English,
Hanoverians, and Austrians under George II., in 1743 defeated the French
under Duc de Noailles.
DEUCALION, son of Prometheus, who, with his wife Pyrrha, by means of
an ark which he built, was saved from a flood which for nine days
overwhelmed the land of Hellas. On the subsidence of the flood they
consulted the oracle at Delphi as to re-peopling the land with
inhabitants, when they were told by Themis, the Pythia at the time, to
throw the bones of their mother over their heads behind them. For a time
the meaning of the oracle was a puzzle, but the readier wit of the wife
found it out; upon which they took stones and threw them over their
heads, when the stones he threw were changed into men and those she threw
were changed into women.
DEUS EX MACHINA, the introduction in high matters of a merely
external, material, or mechanical explanation instead of an internal,
rational, or spiritual one, which is all a theologian does when he simply
names God, and all a scientist does when he simply says EVOLUTION
(q. v.).
DEUTERONOMY (i. e. the Second Law), the fifth book of the
Pentateuch, and so called as the re-statement and re-enforcement, as it
were, by Moses of the Divine law proclaimed in the wilderness. The Mosaic
authorship of this book is now called in question, though it is allowed
to be instinct with the spirit of the religion instituted by Moses, and
it is considered to have been conceived at a time when that religion with
its ritual was established in Jerusalem, in order to confirm faith in the
Divine origin and sanction of observances there.
DEUTSCH, EMANUEL, a distinguished Hebrew scholar, born at Neisse, in
Silesia, of Jewish descent; was trained from his boyhood to familiarity
with the Hebrew and Chaldea languages; studied under Boeckh at the
university of Berlin; came to England, and in 1855 obtained a post in the
library of the British Museum; had made a special study of the "Talmud,"
on which he wrote a brilliant article for the _Quarterly Review_, to the
great interest of many; his ambition was to write an exhaustive treatise
on the subject, but he did not live to accomplish it; died at Alexandria,
whither he had gone in the hope of prolonging his days (1829-1873).
DEUTZ (17), a Prussian town on the right bank of the Rhine, opposite
Cologne.
DEUX PONTS, French name for ZWEIBRÜCKEN (q. v.).
DEVA, the original Hindu name for the deity, meaning the shining
one, whence _deus_, god, in Latin.
DEVANAG`ARI, the character in which Sanskrit works are printed.
DEVELOPMENT, the biological doctrine which ascribes an innate
expansive power to the organised universe, and affirms the deviation of
the most complex forms through intermediate links from the simplest,
without the intervention of special acts of creation. See
EVOLUTION.
DEV`ENTER (25), a town in Holland, in the province of Overyssel, 55
m. SE. of Amsterdam; has carpet manufactures; is celebrated for its
gingerbread; was the locality of the Brotherhood of Common Life, with
which the life and work of Thomas à Kempis are associated.
DE VERE, THOMAS AUBREY, poet and prose writer, born in co. Limerick,
Ireland; educated at Trinity College, Dublin; wrote poetical dramas of
"Alexander the Great" and "St. Thomas of Canterbury"; his first poem "The
Waldenses"; also critical essays; _b_. 1814.
DEVIL, THE, a being regarded in Scripture as having a personal
existence, and, so far as this world is concerned, a universal spiritual
presence, as everywhere thwarting the purposes of God and marring the
destiny of man; only since the introduction of Christianity, which
derives all evil as well as good from within, he has come to be regarded
less as an external than an internal reality, and is identified with the
ascendency in the human heart of passions native to it, which when
subject ennoble it, but when supreme debase it. He is properly the spirit
that deceives man, and decoys him to his eternal ruin from truth and
righteousness.
DEVIL, THE, IS AN ASS, a farce by Ben Jonson, full of vigour, but
very coarse.
DEVIL-WORSHIP, a homage paid by primitive tribes to the devil or
spirit of evil in the simple-hearted belief that he could be bribed from
doing them evil.
DEVONPORT (70), a town in Devonshire, adjoining Plymouth to the W.,
and the seat of the military and naval government of the three towns,
originally called Plymouth Dock, and established as a naval arsenal by
William III.
DEVONSHIRE, a county in the S. of England, with Exmoor in the N. and
Dartmoor in the S.; is fertile in the low country, and enjoys a climate
favourable to vegetation; it has rich pasture-grounds, and abounds in
orchards.
DEVONSHIRE, DUKE OF. See CAVENDISH.
DEVRIENT, LUDWIG, a popular German actor, born in Berlin, of
exceptional dramatic ability, the ablest of a family with similar gifts
(1784-1832).
D'EWES, SIR SIMONDS, antiquary, born in Dorsetshire; bred for the
bar; was a member of the Long Parliament; left notes on its transactions;
took the Puritan side in the Civil War; his "Journal of all the
Parliaments of Elizabeth" is of value; left an "Autobiography and
Correspondence" (1602-1656).
DE WETTE, WILHELM MARTIN LEBERECHT, a German theologian, born near
Weimar; studied at Jena, professor of Theology ultimately at Basel; was
held in high repute as a biblical critic and exegete; contributed largely
to theological literature; counted a rationalist by the orthodox, and a
mystic by the rationalists; his chief works "A Critical Introduction to
the Bible" and a "Manual to the New Testament" (1780-1849).
DE WITT, JAN, a Dutch statesman, born at Dort; elected grand
pensionary in 1652; like his father, Jacob de Witt, before him, was a
declared enemy of the House of Orange, and opposed the Stadtholdership,
and for a time he carried the country along with him, but during a war
with England his influence declined, the Orange party prevailed, and
elected the young Prince of Orange, our William III., Stadtholder. He and
his brother Cornelius were murdered at last by the populace (1625-1672).
DEWSBURY (73), a town in the West Riding of Yorkshire, 8 m. SW. of
Leeds; engaged in the manufacture of woollens, blankets, carpets, and
yarns.
DEXTRINE, a soluble matter into which the interior substance of
starch globules is converted by acids or diastase, so called because when
viewed by polarised light it has the property of turning the plane of
polarisation to the right.
DEYSTER, LOUIS DE, a Flemish painter, born at Bruges; was of a
deeply religious temper, and his character was reflected in his choice of
subjects, such as the "Death of the Virgin," "The Resurrection of
Christ," &c.; he was a recluse (1656-1711).
DEZOBRY, CHARLES, a French writer, born at St. Denis; author of
"Rome in the Time of Augustus" (1798-1871).
DHAGOBA, a mound with a dome-shaped top, found to contain Buddhist
relics.
DHARMA, the name given to the law of Buddha, as distinct from the
Sangha, which is the Church.
DHARWAR (32), a town in the S. of the Bombay Presidency, a place of
considerable trade in a district noted for its cotton growing.
DHWALAGIRI, one of the peaks of the Himalayas, the third highest,
26,826 ft. high.
DIABETES, a disease characterised by an excessive discharge of
urine, and accompanied with great thirst; there are two forms of this
disease.
DIAB`LERETS, a mountain of the Bernese Alps, between the Cantons de
Vaud and de Valois.
DIAFOIRUS, THOMAS, the name of two pedantic doctors, father and son,
who figure in Molière's "Malade Imaginaire."
DIAGORAS, a Greek philosopher, born in Melos, one of the Cyclades,
5th century B.C., surnamed the Atheist, on account of the scorn with
which he treated the gods of the popular faith, from the rage of whose
devotees he was obliged to seek safety by flight; died in Corinth.
DIALECTIC, in the Hegelian philosophy the logic of thought, and, if
of thought, the logic of being, of essential being.
DIALOGUES OF PLATO, philosophical dialogues, in which Socrates
figures as the principal interlocutor, although the doctrine expounded is
rather Plato's than his master's; they discuss theology, psychology,
ethics, æsthetics, politics, physics, and related subjects.
DIALYSIS, the process of separating the crystalloid or poisonous
ingredients in a substance from the colloid or harmless ingredients.
DIAMANTE, a Spanish dramatic poet, who plagiarised Corneille's "Cid"
and passed it off as original; _b_. 1826.
DIAMANTINA (13), a district in Brazil, in the province of Minas
Geraes, rich in diamonds.
DIAMOND, the name of Newton's favourite dog that, by upsetting a
lamp, set fire to MSS. containing notes of experiments made over a course
of years, an irreparable loss.
DIAMOND NECKLACE, a necklace consisting of 500 diamonds, and worth
£80,000, which one Madame de la Motte induced the jeweller who "made" it
to part with for Marie Antoinette, on security of Cardinal de Rohan, and
which madame made away with, taking it to pieces and disposing of the
jewels in London; the swindle was first discovered when the jeweller
presented his bill to the queen, who denied all knowledge of the matter;
this led to a trial which extended over nine months, gave rise to great
scandal, and ended in the punishment of the swindler and her husband, and
the disgrace of the unhappy, and it is believed innocent, queen. See
CARLYLE'S "MISCELLANIES."
DIAMOND NET, a name given in the Hegelian philosophy to "the
_connective tissue_, so to speak, that not only supports, but even in a
measure constitutes, the various organs" of the universe. See
HEGELIANISM.
DIAMOND STATE, Delaware, U.S., from its small size and great
wealth.
DIANA, originally an Italian deity, dispenser of light, identified
at length with the Greek goddess Artemis, and from the first with the
moon; she was a virgin goddess, and spent her time in the chase, attended
by her maidens; her temple at Ephesus was one of the seven wonders of the
world. See ARTEMIS.
DIANA DE POITIERS, the mistress of Henry II. of France, for whom he
built the magnificent Château d'Anet, in Eure-et-Loir; she had a great
influence over him, and the cruel persecutions of the Huguenots in his
reign were due to her instigation (1490-1566).
DIANA OF FRANCE, the Duchess of Angoulême, the natural daughter of
Henry II. and the Duchess de Castro (1538-1619).
DIARBEKIR (42), the largest town in the Kurdistan Highlands, on the
Tigris, 194 m. NE. of Aleppo, and on the highway between Bagdad and
Constantinople, with a large and busy bazaar.
DIASTASE, a nitrogenous substance developed during the germination
of grain, and having the property of converting starch first into
dextrine and then into sugar.
DIAVOLO, FRA (lit. Brother Devil), Michele Porsa, a Calabrian,
originally a monk, who left his monastery and joined a set of bandits,
who lent themselves to and conducted insurrectionary movements in Italy;
taken prisoner, was hanged at Naples; Auber's opera, "Fra Diavolo," has
no connection with him except the name (1760-1806).
DIAZ, BARTHÉLEMY, a Portuguese navigator, sent on a voyage of
discovery by John II., in the command of two ships; sailed down the W.
coast of Africa and doubled the Cape of Good Hope, which, from the storm
that drove him past it, he called the Cape of Storms; returning to Lisbon
he was superseded by Vasco da Gama, or rather subordinated to him;
subsequently accompanied Cabral on his voyage to Brazil, and was lost in
a storm in 1500.
DIAZ MIGUEL, governor of Porto Rico, born in Aragon; friend and
companion of Columbus; suffered from the usual Jealousies in enterprises
of the kind, but prevailed in the end; _d_. 1514.
DIAZ DE LA PEÑA, a French painter, born at Bordeaux, of Spanish
descent; a landscapist of the Romantic school, eminent as a colourist
(1809-1876).
DIAZ DEL CASTELLO, historian; accompanied Cortes to Mexico; took
part in the conquest, and left a graphic, trustworthy account of it; died
in Mexico, 1560.
DIBDIN, CHARLES, musician, dramatist, and song-writer, born in
Southampton; began life as an actor; invented a dramatic entertainment
consisting of music, songs, and recitations, in which he was the sole
performer, and of which he was for the most part the author; wrote some
30 dramatic pieces, and it is said 1400 songs; his celebrity is wholly
due to his sea songs, which proved of the most inspiring quality, and did
much to man the navy during the war with France; was the author of "Tom
Bowling"; left an account of his "Professional Life" (1745-1814).
DIBDIN, THOMAS, dramatic author and song-writer, son of the
preceding; was an actor as well as an author, and a most versatile one;
performed in all kinds of characters, and wrote all kinds of plays, as
well as numerous songs (1771-1841).
DIBDIN, THOMAS FROGNALL, bibliographer, nephew of Charles Dibdin,
born in Calcutta; took orders in the Church of England; held several
preferments; wrote several works all more or less of a bibliographical
character, which give proof of extensive research, but are lacking often
in accuracy and critical judgment; was one of the founders of the
Roxburghe Club (1775-1847).
DICÆARCHUS, an ancient geographer, born at Messina, 4th century
B.C.; a disciple of Aristotle.
DICK, JAMES, a West Indian and London merchant, born in Forres;
bequeathed £113,787 to encourage learning and efficient teaching among
the parish schoolmasters of Elgin, Banff, and Aberdeen shires; it is
known as the Dick Bequest, and the property is vested in a governing body
of thirteen duly elected (1743-1828).
DICKENS, CHARLES, celebrated English novelist, born at Landport,
Portsmouth; son of a navy clerk, latterly in great straits; was brought
up amid hardships; was sent to a solicitor's office as a clerk, learned
shorthand, and became a reporter, a post in which he learned much of what
afterwards served him as an author; wrote sketches for the _Monthly
Magazine_ under the name of "Boz" in 1834, and the "Pickwick Papers" in
1836-37, which established his popularity; these were succeeded by
"Oliver Twist" in 1838, "Nicholas Nickleby" in 1839, and others which it
is needless to enumerate, as they are all known wherever the English
language is spoken; they were all written with an aim, and as Ruskin
witnesses, "he was entirely right in his main drift and purpose in every
book he has written," though he thinks we are apt "to lose sight of his
wit and insight, because he chooses to speak in a circle of stage
fire.... Allowing for his manner of telling them, the things he tells us
are always true"; being a born actor, and fain in his youth to become
one, he latterly gave public readings from his works, which were
immensely popular; "acted better," says Carlyle, who witnessed one of
these performances, "than any Macready in the world; a whole tragic,
comic, heroic _theatre_ visible, performing under one _hat_, and keeping
us laughing--in a sorry way some of us thought--the whole night"; the
strain proved too much for him; he was seized with a fit at his
residence, Gad's Hill, near Rochester, on June 8, 1870, and died the
following morning; he was a little man, with clear blue intelligent eyes,
a face of most extreme mobility, and a quiet shrewdness of expression
(1812-1870).
DICTATOR, a magistrate invested with absolute authority in ancient
republican Rome in times of exigence and danger; the constitution obliged
him to resign his authority at the end of six months, till which time he
was free without challenge afterwards to do whatever the interest of the
commonwealth seemed to him to require; the most famous dictators were
Cincinnatus, Camillus, Sulla, and Cæsar, who was the last to be invested
with this power; the office ceased with the fall of the republic, or
rather, was merged in the perpetual dictatorship of the emperor.
DICTATOR OF LETTERS, Voltaire.
DICTYS CRETENSIS (i. e. of Crete), the reputed author of a
narrative of the Trojan war from the birth of Paris to the death of
Ulysses, extant only in a Latin translation; the importance attached to
this narrative and others ascribed to the same author is, that they are
the source of many of the Greek legends we find inwoven from time to time
in the mediæval literature that has come down to us.
DIDDLER, JEREMY, a needy, artful swindler in Kenny's farce of
"Raising the Wind."
DIDEROT, DENIS, a French philosopher, born at Langres, the son of a
cutler there; a zealous propagator of the philosophic ideas of the 18th
century, and the projector of the famous "Encyclopédie," which he edited
along with D'Alembert, and which made a great noise in its day, but did
not enrich its founder, who was in the end driven to offer his library
for sale to get out of the pecuniary difficulties it involved him in, and
he would have been ruined had not Catharine of Russia bought it, which
she not only did, but left it with him, and paid him a salary as
librarian. Diderot fought hard to obtain a hearing for his philosophical
opinions; his first book was burnt by order of the parlement of Paris,
while for his second he was clapped in jail; and all along he had to
front the most formidable opposition, so formidable that all his
fellow-workers were ready to yield, and were only held to their task by
his indomitable resolution and unquenchable ardour. "A deist in his
earlier writings," says SCHWEGLER, "the drift of his subsequent
writings amounts to the belief that all is God. At first a believer in
the immateriality and immortality of the soul, he peremptorily declares
at last that only the race endures, that individuals pass, and that
immortality is nothing but life in the remembrance of posterity; he was
kept back, however, from the materialism his doctrines issued in by his
moral earnestness"; that Diderot was at heart no sceptic is evident, as
Dr. Stirling suggests, from his "indignation at the _darkness_, the
miserable _ignorance_ of those around him, and his resolution to dispel
it" (1713-1784).
DIDIUS, JULIANUS, a Roman emperor who in 193 purchased the imperial
purple from the prætorian guards, and was after two months murdered by
the soldiers when Severus was approaching the city.
DIDO, the daughter of Belus, king of Tyre, and the sister of
Pygmalion, who, having succeeded to the throne on the death of his
father, put Sichæus, her husband, to death for the sake of his wealth,
whereupon she secretly took ship, sailed away from the city with the
treasure, accompanied by a body of disaffected citizens, and founded
Carthage, having picked up by the way 80 virgins from Cyprus to make
wives for her male attendants; a neighbouring chief made suit for her
hand, encouraged by her subjects, upon which, being bound by an oath of
eternal fidelity to Sichæus, she erected a funeral pile and stabbed
herself in presence of her subjects; Virgil makes her ascend the funeral
pile out of grief for the departure of Æneas, of whom she was
passionately in love.
DIDOT, the name of a French family of paper-makers, printers, and
publishers, of which the most celebrated is Ambroise Firmin, born in
Paris, a learned Hellenist (1790-1876).
DIDYMUS (twin), a surname of St. Thomas; also the name of a
grammarian of Alexandria, a contemporary of Cicero, and who wrote
commentaries on Homer.
DIEBITSCH, COUNT, a Russian general, born in Silesia;
commander-in-chief in 1829 of the Russian army against Turkey, over the
forces of which he gained a victory in the Balkans; commissioned to
suppress a Polish insurrection, he was baffled in his efforts, and fell a
victim to cholera in 1831.
DIEFFENBACH, JOHANN FRIEDRICH, an eminent German surgeon, born at
Königsberg; studied for the Church; took part in the war of liberation,
and began the study of medicine after the fall of Napoleon; was appointed
to the chair of Surgery in Berlin; his fame rests on his skill as an
operator (1792-1847).
DIEFFENBACH, LORENZ, a distinguished philologist and ethnologist,
born at Ostheim, in the grand-duchy of Hesse; was for 11 years a pastor;
in the end, until his death, librarian at Frankfort-on-the-Main; his
literary works were numerous and varied; his chief were on philological
and ethnological subjects, and are monuments of learning (1806-1883).
DIEGO SUAREZ, BAY OF, is situated on the NE. of Madagascar, and has
been ceded to France.
DIEMEN, ANTONY VAN, governor of the Dutch possessions in India, born
in Holland; was a zealous coloniser; at his instance Abel Tasman was sent
to explore the South Seas, when he discovered the island which he named
after him Van Diemen's Land, now Tasmania after the discoverer
(1593-1645).
DIEPENBECK, ABRAHAM VAN, a Flemish painter and engraver (1599-1675).
DIEPPE (22), a French seaport on the English Channel, at the mouth
of the river Arques, 93 m. NW. of Paris; a watering and bathing place,
with fisheries and a good foreign trade.
DIES IRAE (lit. the Day of Wrath), a Latin hymn on the Last
Judgment, so called from first words, and based on Zeph. i. 14-18; it is
ascribed to a monk of the name of Thomas de Celano, who died in 1255, and
there are several translations of it in English, besides a paraphrastic
rendering in the "Lay of the Last Minstrel" by Scott, and it is also the
subject of a number of musical compositions.
DIET, a convention of the princes, dignitaries, and delegates of the
German empire, for legislative or administrative purposes, of which the
most important in a historical point of view are diets held at Augsburg
in 1518, at Worms in 1521, at Nüremberg in 1523, 1524, at Spires in 1526,
1529, at Augsburg in 1530, at Cologne in 1530, at Worms in 1536, at
Frankfort in 1539, at Ratisbon in 1541, at Spires in 1544, at Augsburg in
1547, 1548, 1550, and at Ratisbon in 1622.
DIETRICH, mayor of Strasburg, at whose request Rouget de Lisle
composed the "Marseillaise"; was guillotined (1748-1793).
DIETRICH OF BERN, a favourite hero of German legend, who in the
"Nibelungen" avenges the death of Siegfried, and in the "Heldenbuch"
figures as a knight-errant of invulnerable prowess, from whose challenge
even Siegfried shrinks, hiding himself behind Chriemhilda's veil; has
been identified with Theodoric the Great, king of the Ostrogoths.
DIEZ, FRIEDRICH CHRISTIAN, a German philologist, born at Giessen;
after service as a volunteer against Napoleon, and a tutorship at
Utrecht, went to Bonn, where, advised by Goethe, he commenced the study
of the Romance languages, and in 1830 became professor of them, the
philology of which he is the founder; he left two great works bearing on
the grammar and etymology of these languages (1794-1876).
DIEZ, JUAN MARTIN, a Spanish brigadier-general of cavalry, born at
Valladolid, the son of a peasant; had, as head of guerilla bands, done
good service to his country during the Peninsular war and been promoted;
offending the ruling powers, was charged with conspiracy, tried, and
executed (1775-1825).
DIGBY, a seaport on the Bay of Fundy, Nova Scotia; noted for the
curing of pilchards, called from it digbies.
DIGBY, SIR EVERARD, member of a Roman Catholic family; concerned in
the Gunpowder Plot, and executed (1581-1606).
DIGBY, SIR KENELM, a son of the preceding; was knighted by James I.;
served under Charles I.; as a privateer defeated a squadron of Venetians,
and fought against the Algerines; was imprisoned for a time as a
Royalist; paid court afterwards to the Protector; was well received at
the Restoration; was one of the first members of the Royal Society, and a
man of some learning; wrote treatises on the Nature of Bodies and Man's
Soul, on the corpuscular theory (1603-1665).
DIHONG, the name given to the Brahmaputra as it traverses Assam; in
the rainy season it overflows its channel and floods the whole lowlands
of the country.
DIJON (61), the ancient capital of Burgundy, and the principal town
in the dep. of Côte d'Or, 195 m. SE. of Paris, on the canal of Bourgogne;
one of the finest towns in France, at once for its buildings,
particularly its churches, and its situation; is a centre of manufacture
and trade, and a seat of learning; the birthplace of many illustrious
men.
DIKË (i. e. Justice), a Greek goddess, the daughter of Zeus and
Themis; the guardian of justice and judgment, the foe of deceit and
violence, and the accuser before Zeus of the unjust judge.
DIKTYS, the fisherman of Seriphus; saved Perseus and his mother from
the perils of the deep.
DILETTANTE SOCIETY, THE, a society of noblemen and gentlemen founded
in England in 1734, and which contributed to correct and purify the
public taste of the country; their labours were devoted chiefly to the
study of the relics of ancient Greek art, and resulted in the production
of works in illustration.
DILETTANTISM, an idle, often affected, almost always barren
admiration and study of the fine arts, "in earnest about nothing."
DILKE, CHARLES WENTWORTH, English critic and journalist; served for
20 years in the Navy Pay-Office; contributed to the _Westminister_ and
other reviews; was proprietor and editor of the _Athenæum_; started the
_Daily News_; left literary Papers, edited by his grandson (1789-1864).
DILKE, SIR CHARLES WENTWORTH, English publicist and politician,
grandson of the preceding, born at Chelsea; called to the bar; travelled
in America and the English colonies, and wrote a record of his travels in
his "Greater Britain"; entered Parliament as an extreme Liberal; held
office under Mr. Gladstone; from exposures in a divorce case had to
retire from public life, but returned after a time; _b_. 1843.
DILLMANN, a great German Orientalist, born at Illingen, a village of
Würtemberg; studied under Ewald at Tübingen; became professor at Kiel, at
Giessen, and finally at Berlin; as professor of Old Testament exegesis
made a special study of the Ethiopic languages, and is the great
authority in their regard; wrote a grammar and a lexicon of these, as
well as works on theology; _b_. 1823.
DILLON, a general in the service of France, born in Dublin; was
butchered by his troops near Lille (1745-1792).
DILLON, JOHN, an Irish patriot, born in New York; entered Parliament
in 1880 as a Parnellite; was once suspended, and four times imprisoned,
for his over-zeal; sat at first for Tipperary, and since for East Mayo;
in 1891 threw in his lot with the M'Carthyites; _b_. 1851.
DIMANCHE, M. (Mr. Sunday), a character in Molière's "Don Juan," the
type of an honest merchant, whom, on presenting his bill, his creditor
appeases by his politeness.
DIME, a U.S. silver coin, worth the tenth part of a dollar, or
about fivepence.
DINAN (10), an old town in the dep. of Côtes du Nord, France, 14 m.
S. of St. Malo; most picturesquely situated on the top of a steep hill,
amid romantic scenery, of great archæological interest; the birthplace of
Duclos.
DINANT, an old town on the Meuse, 14 m. S. of Namur, Belgium; noted
for its gingerbread, and formerly for its copper wares, called
Dinanderie.
DINAPUR (44), a town and military station on the right bank of the
Ganges, 12 m. NW. of Patna.
DINARCHUS, an orator of the Phocion party in Athens, born at
Corinth.
DINARIC ALPS, a range of the Eastern Alps in Austria, runs SE. and
parallel with the Adriatic, connecting the Julian Alps with the Balkans.
DINDORF, WILHELM, a German philologist, born at Leipzig; devoted his
life to the study of the ancient Greek classics, particularly the
dramatists, and edited the chief of them, as well as the "Iliad" and
"Odyssey" of Homer, with notes; was joint-editor with his brothers Ludwig
and Hase of the "Thesaurus Græcæ Linguæ" of Stephanus (1802-1883).
DINGELSTEDT, a German poet, novelist, and essayist, born near
Marburg; was the Duke of Würtemberg's librarian at Stuttgart, and theatre
superintendent at Münich, Weimar, and Vienna successively; his poems show
delicacy of sentiment and graphic power (1814-1881).
DINGWALL, the county town of Ross-shire, at the head of the Cromarty
Firth.
DINKAS, an African pastoral people occupying a flat country
traversed by the White Nile; of good stature, clean habits; of
semi-civilised manners, and ferocious in war.
DINMONT, DANDIE, a jovial, honest-hearted store-farmer in Scott's
"Guy Mannering."
DINOCRATES, a Macedonian architect, who, in the time of Alexander
the Great, rebuilt the Temple of Ephesus destroyed by the torch of
Erostratus; was employed by Alexander in the building of Alexandria.
DIOCLETIAN, Roman emperor from 284 to 308, born at Salona, in
Dalmatia, of obscure parentage; having entered the Roman army, served
with distinction, rose rapidly to the highest rank, and was at Chalcedon,
after the death of Numerianus, invested by the troops with the imperial
purple; in 286 he associated Maximianus with himself as joint-emperor,
with the title of Augustus, and in 292 resigned the Empire of the West to
Constantius Chlorus and Galerius, so that the Roman world was divided
between two emperors in the E. and two in the W.; in 303, at the instance
of Galerius, he commenced and carried on a fierce persecution of the
Christians, the tenth and fiercest; but in 305, weary of ruling, he
abdicated and retired to Salona, where he spent his remaining eight years
in rustic simplicity of life, cultivating his garden; bating his
persecution of the Christians, he ruled the Roman world wisely and well
(245-313).
DIODATI, a Calvinistic theologian, born at Lucca; was taken while a
child with his family to Geneva; distinguished himself there in the
course of the Reformation as a pastor, a preacher, professor of Hebrew,
and a professor of Theology; translated the Bible into Italian and into
French; a nephew of his was a school-fellow and friend of Milton, who
wrote an elegy on his untimely death (1576-1614).
DIODORUS SICULUS, historian, born in Sicily, of the age of Augustus;
conceived the idea of writing a universal history; spent 30 years at the
work; produced what he called "The Historical Library," which embraced
the period from the earliest ages to the end of Cæsar's Gallic war, and
was divided into 40 books, of which only a few survive entire, and some
fragments of the rest.
DIOGENES LAËRTIUS, a Greek historian, born at Laerte, in Cilicia;
flourished in the 2nd century A.D.; author of "Lives of the
Philosophers," a work written in 10 books; is full of interesting
information regarding the men, but is destitute of critical insight into
their systems.
DIOGENES OF APOLLONIA, a Greek philosopher of the Ionic school, and
an adherent of ANAXIMENES (q. v.), if of any one, being more of
an eclectic than anything else; took more to physics than philosophy;
contributed nothing to the philosophic movement of the time.
DIOGENES THE CYNIC, born in Sinope, in Pontus, came to Athens, was
attracted to ANTISTHENES (q. v.) and became a disciple, and a
sansculotte of the first water; dressed himself in the coarsest, lived on
the plainest, slept in the porches of the temples, and finally took up
his dwelling in a tub; stood on his naked manhood; would not have
anything to do with what did not contribute to its enhancement; despised
every one who sought satisfaction in anything else; went through the
highways and byways of the city at noontide with a lit lantern in quest
of a man; a man himself not to be laughed at or despised; visiting
Corinth, he was accosted by Alexander the Great: "I am Alexander," said
the king, and "I am Diogenes" was the prompt reply; "Can I do anything to
serve you?" continued the king; "Yes, stand out of the sunlight,"
rejoined the cynic; upon which Alexander turned away saying, "If I were
not Alexander, I would be Diogenes." D'Alembert declared Diogenes the
greatest man of antiquity, only that he wanted decency. "Great truly,"
says Carlyle, but adds with a much more serious drawback than that
(412-323 B.C.). See "SARTOR RESARTUS," BK. III. CHAP. 1.
DIOGENES THE STOIC, born in Seleucia; a successor of Zeno, and head
of the school at Athens, 2nd century B.C.
DIOMEDES, king of Argos, called Tydides, from his father; was, next
to Achilles, the bravest of the Greeks at the Trojan war; fought under
the protection of Athene against both Hector and Æneas, and even wounded
both Aphrodité and Ares; dared along with Ulysses to carry off the
Palladium from Troy; was first in the chariot race in honour of
Patroclus, and overcame Ajax with the spear.
DIOMEDES, king of Thrace; fed his horses with human flesh, and was
killed by Hercules for his inhumanity.
DION CASSIUS, a Greek historian, born at Nicæa, in Bithynia, about
A.D. 155; went to Rome, and served under a succession of emperors; wrote
a "History of Rome" from Æneas to Alexander Severus in 80 books, of which
only 18 survive entire; took years to prepare for and compose it; it is
of great value, and often referred to.
DION CHRYSOSTOMUS (Dion with the golden, or eloquent, mouth), a
celebrated Greek rhetorician, born at Prusa, in Bithynia, about the
middle of the 1st century; inclined to the Platonic and Stoic
philosophies; came to Rome, and was received with honour by Nerva and
Trajan; is famous as an orator and as a writer of pure Attic Greek.
DION OF SYRACUSE, a pupil of Plato, and an austere man; was from his
austerity obnoxious to his pleasure-loving nephew, Dionysius the Younger;
subjected to banishment; went to Athens; learned his estates had been
confiscated, and his wife given to another; took up arms, drove his
nephew from the throne, usurped his place, and was assassinated in 353
B.C., the citizens finding that in getting rid of one tyrant they had but
saddled themselves with another, and greater.
DIONE, a Greek goddess of the earlier mythology; figures as the wife
of the Dodonian Zeus; drops into subordinate place after his nuptials
with Hera.
DIONYSIUS THE ELDER, tyrant of Syracuse from 406 to 367 B.C.; at
first a private citizen; early took interest in public affairs, and
played a part in them; entered the army, and rose to be head of the
State; subdued the other cities of Sicily, and declared war against
Carthage; was attacked by the Carthaginians, and defeated them three
times over; concluded a treaty of peace with them, and spent the rest of
his reign, some 20 years, in maintaining and extending his territory; was
distinguished, it is said, as he might well be, both as a poet and a
philosopher; tradition represents him as in perpetual terror of his life,
and taking every precaution to guard it from attack.
DIONYSIUS THE YOUNGER, tyrant of Syracuse, son of the preceding,
succeeded him in 367 B.C. at the age of thirty; had never taken part in
public affairs; was given over to vicious indulgences, and proved
incapable of amendment, though DION (q. v.) tried hard to reform
him; was unpopular with the citizens, who with the help of Dion, whom he
had banished, drove him from the throne; returning after 10 years, was
once more expelled by Timoleon; betook himself to Corinth, where he
associated himself with low people, and supported himself by keeping a
school.
DIONYSIUS OF ALEXANDRIA, patriarch from 348, a disciple of Origen,
and his most illustrious pupil; a firm but judicious defender of the
faith against the heretics of the time, in particular the Sabellians and
the Chiliasts; _d_. 264.
DIONYSIUS, ST., THE AREOPAGITE (i. e. judge of the Areopagus),
according to Acts xvii. 34, a convert of St. Paul's; became bishop of
Athens, and died a martyr in 95; was long regarded as the father of
mysticism in the Christian Church, on the false assumption that he was
the author of writings of a much later date imbued with a pantheistic
idea of God and the universe.
DIONYSIUS OF HALICARNASSUS, a Greek historian and rhetorician of the
age of Augustus; came to Italy in 29 B.C., and spent 27 years in Rome,
where he died; devoted himself to the study of the Roman republic, its
history and its people, and recorded the result in his "Archæologia,"
written in Greek, which brings down the narrative to 264 B.C.; it
consisted of 20 books, of which only 9 have come down to us entire; he is
the author of works in criticism of the orators, poets, and historians of
Greece.
DIONYSIUS PERIEGETES, a Greek geographer who lived about the 4th
century, and wrote a description of the whole earth in hexameters and in
a terse and elegant style.
DIONYSUS, the god of the vine or wine; the son of ZEUS AND
SEMELE (q. v.), the "twice born," as plucked first from the womb of
his dead mother and afterwards brought forth from the thigh of Zeus,
which served to him as his "incubator." See BACCHUS.
DIOPHANTUS, a Greek mathematician, born in Alexandria; lived
presumably about the 4th century; left works in which algebraic methods
are employed, and is therefore credited with being the inventor of
algebra.
DIOSCOR`IDES, a Greek physician, born in Cilicia, lived in the 1st
century; left a treatise in 5 books on materia medica, a work of great
research, and long the standard authority on the subject.
DIOSCURI, twin sons of Zeus, Castor and Pollux, a stalwart pair of
youths, of the Doric stock, great the former as a horse-breaker and the
latter as a boxer; were worshipped at Sparta as guardians of the State,
and pre-eminently as patrons of gymnastics; protected the hearth, led the
army in war, and were the convoy of the traveller by land and the voyager
by sea, which as constellations they are still held to be.
DIPHILUS, a Greek comic poet, born at Sinope; contemporary of
Menander; was the forerunner of Terence and Plautus, the Roman poets.
DIPHTHERIA, a contagious disease characterised by the formation of a
false membrane on the back of the throat.
DIPPEL, JOHANN KONRAD, a celebrated German alchemist; professed to
have discovered the philosopher's stone; did discover Prussian blue, and
an animal oil that bears his name (1672-1734).
DIPPEL'S OIL, an oil obtained from the distinctive distillation of
horn bones.
DIRCÆAN SWAN, Pindar, so called from the fountain Dirce, near
Thebes, his birthplace.
DIRCE, the wife of Lycus, king of Thebes, who for her cruelty to
Antiope, her divorced predecessor, was, by Antiope's two sons, Zethos and
Amphion, tied to a wild bull and dragged to death, after which her
carcass was flung by them into a well; the subject is represented in a
famous antique group by Apollonius and Tauriscus.
DIRECTORY, THE, the name given to the government of France,
consisting of a legislative body of two chambers, the Council of the
Ancients and the Council of Five Hundred, which succeeded the fall of the
Convention, and ruled France from October 27, 1795, till its overthrow by
Bonaparte on the 18th Brumaire (November 9, 1799). The Directors proper
were five in number, and were elected by the latter council from a list
presented by the former, and the chief members of it were Barras and
Carnot.
DIRSCHAU (11), a Prussian town on the Vistula, 21 m. SE. of Danzig,
with iron-works and a timber trade.
DIS, a name given to Pluto and the nether world over which he rules.
DISCIPLINE, THE TWO BOOKS OF, books of dates 1561 and 1581,
regulative of ecclesiastical order in the Presbyterian churches of
Scotland, of which the ground-plan was drawn up by Knox on the Geneva
model.
DISCOBOLUS, THE, an antique statue representing the thrower of the
discus, in the Louvre, and executed by the sculptor Myron.
DISCORD, APPLE OF. See _infra_.
DISCORD, THE GODDESS OF, a mischief-making divinity, daughter of
Night and sister of Mars, who on the occasion of the wedding of Thetis
with Peleus, threw into the hall where all the gods and goddesses were
assembled a golden apple inscribed "To the most Beautiful," and which
gave rise to dissensions that both disturbed the peace of Olympus and the
impartial administration of justice on earth. See PARIS.
DISMAL SCIENCE, Carlyle's name for the political economy that with
self-complacency leaves everything to settle itself by the law of supply
and demand, as if that were all the law and the prophets. The name is
applied to every science that affects to dispense with the spiritual as a
ruling factor in human affairs.
DISMAS, ST., the good thief to whom Christ promised Paradise as he
hung on the cross beside Him.
DISRAELI, BENJAMIN. See BEACONSFIELD.
D'ISRAELI, ISAAC, a man of letters, born at Enfield, Middlesex; only
son of a Spanish Jew settled in England, who left him a fortune, which
enabled him to cultivate his taste for literature; was the author of
several works, but is best known by his "Curiosities of Literature," a
work published in six vols., full of anecdotes on the quarrels and
calamities of authors; was never a strict Jew; finally cut the
connection, and had his children baptized as Christians (1766-1848).
DITHYRAMB, a hymn in a lofty and vehement style, originally in
honour of Bacchus, in celebration of his sorrows and joys, and
accompanied with flute music.
DITMARSH (77), a low-lying fertile district in West Holstein,
between the estuaries of the Elbe and the Eider; defended by dykes; it
had a legal code of its own known as the "Ditmarisches Landbuch."
DITTON, HUMPHRY, author of a book on fluxions (1675-1715).
DIU (12), a small Portuguese island, with a port of the same name,
in the Gulf of Cambay, S. of the peninsula of Gujarat, India; was a
flourishing place once, and contained a famous Hindu temple; inhabited
now chiefly by fishermen.
DIVAN, THE, a collection of poems by Häfiz, containing nearly 600
odes; also a collection of lyrics in imitation of Goethe, entitled
"Westöstlicher Divan."
DIVES, the name given, originally in the Vulgate, to the rich man in
the parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus.
DIVIDING RANGE, a range of mountains running E. from Melbourne, and
then N., dividing the basin of the Murray from the plain extending to the
coast.
DIVINE COMEDY, THE, the great poem of Dante, consisting of three
compartments, "Inferno," "Purgatorio," and "Paradiso"; "three
kingdoms ... Dante's World of Souls...; all three making up the true
Unseen World, as it figured in the Christianity of the Middle Ages; a
thing for ever memorable, for ever true in the essence of it, to all
men ... but delineated in no human soul with such depth of veracity as
in this of Dante's ... to the earnest soul of Dante it is all one visible
fact--Hell, Purgatory, Paradise, with him not mere emblems, but
indubitable awful realities." See DANTE, and CARLYLE'S "HEROES
AND HERO-WORSHIP."
DIVINE DOCTOR, Jean de Ruysbroek, the mystic (1294-1381).
DIVINE PAGAN, HYPATIA (q. v.).
DIVINE RIGHT, a claim on the part of kings, now all but extinct,
though matter of keen debate at one time, that they derive their
authority to rule direct from the Almighty, and are responsible to no
inferior power, a right claimed especially on the part of and in behalf
of the Bourbons in France and the Stuart dynasty in England, and the
denial of which was regarded by them and their partisans as an outrage
against the ordinance of very Heaven.
DIXIE LAND, nigger land in U.S.
DIXON, W. HEPWORTH, an English writer and journalist, born in
Manchester; called to the bar, but devoted himself to literary work;
wrote Lives of Howard, Penn, Robert Blake, and Lord Bacon, "New America,"
"Spiritual Wives," &c.; was editor of the _Athenoeum_ from 1853 to 1869;
died suddenly (1821-1879).
DIZIER, ST. (13), a flourishing French town, 30 m. from
Châlons-sur-Marne.
DIZZY, a nickname given to Benjamin Disraeli.
DJEZZAR (i. e. Butcher), the surname of Achmed Pasha, pacha of
Acre; was born at Bosnia; sold as a slave, and raised himself by his
servility to his master to the length of executing his cruellest wishes;
in 1799 withstood a long siege of Acre by Bonaparte, and obliged him to
retire (1735-1804).
DJINNESTAN, the region of the Jinns.
DNIEPER, a river of Russia, anciently called the Borysthenes, the
third largest for volume of water in Europe, surpassed only by the Danube
and the Volga; rises in the province of Smolensk, and flowing in a
generally southerly direction, falls into the Black Sea below Kherson
after a course of 1330 m.; it traverses some of the finest provinces of
the empire, and is navigable nearly its entire length.
DNIESTER, a river which takes its rise in Austria, in the
Carpathians, enters Russia, flows generally in a SE. direction past
Bender, and after a rapid course of 650 m. falls into the Black Sea at
Akjerman.
DOAB, THE, a richly fertile, densely peopled territory in the
Punjab, between the Jumna and Ganges, and extending 500 m. N., that is,
as far as the Himalayas; it is the granary of Upper India.
DOBELL, SIDNEY, poet, born at Cranbrook, in Kent; wrote, under the
pseudonym of Sidney Yendys, the "Roman," a drama, "Balder," and, along
with Alexander Smith, sonnets on the war (the Crimean); suffered much
from weak health (1824-1874).
DÖBEREINER, a German chemist, professor at Jena; inventor of a lamp
called after him; Goethe was much interested in his discoveries
(1780-1849).
DÖBEREINER'S LAMP, a light caused by a jet of hydrogen passing over
spongy platinum.
DOBROVSKI, JOSEPH, a philologist, born in Gyarmet, in Hungary;
devoted his life to the study of the Bohemian language and literature;
wrote a history of them, the fruit of immense labour, under which his
brain gave way more than once; was trained among the Jesuits (1753-1829).
DOBRENTER, Hungarian archæologist; devoted 30 years of his life to
the study of the Magyar language; author of "Ancient Monuments of the
Magyar Language" (1786-1851).
DOBRUDJA (196), the part of Roumania between the Danube and the
Black Sea, a barren, unwholesome district; rears herds of cattle.
DOBSON, AUSTIN, poet and prose writer, born at Plymouth, is in a
department of the Civil Service; wrote "Vignettes in Rhyme," "Proverbs in
Porcelain," "Old World Idylls," in verse, and in prose Lives of Fielding,
Hogarth, Steele, and Goldsmith; contributed extensively to the magazines;
_b_. 1840.
DOBSON, WILLIAM, portrait-painter, born in London; succeeded Vandyck
as king's serjeant-painter to Charles I.; painted the king and members of
his family and court; supreme in his art prior to Sir Joshua Reynolds;
died in poverty (1610-1646).
DOCETÆ, a sect of heretics in the early Church who held that the
humanity of Christ was only seeming, not real, on the Gnostic or
Manichæan theory of the essential impurity and defiling nature of matter
or the flesh.
DOCTOR (lit. teacher), a title implying that the possessor of it
is such a master of his art that he can teach it as well as practise it.
DOCTOR MIRABILIS, Roger Bacon.
DOCTOR MY-BOOK, John Abernethy, from his saying to his patients,
"Read my book."
DOCTOR OF THE INCARNATION, Cyril of Alexandria, from his controversy
with the Nestorians.
DOCTOR SLOP, a doctor in "Tristram Shandy," fanatical about a
forceps he invented.
DOCTOR SQUINTUM, George Whitfield.
DOCTOR SYNTAX. See COMBE, WILLIAM.
DOCTORS' COMMONS, a college of doctors of the civil law in London,
where they used to eat in common, and where eventually a number of the
courts of law were held.
DOCTRINAIRES, mere theorisers, particularly on social and political
questions; applied originally to a political party that arose in France
in 1815, headed by Roger-Collard and represented by Guizot, which stood
up for a constitutional government that should steer clear of
acknowledging the divine right of kinghood on the one hand and the divine
right of democracy on the other.
DODABETTA, the highest peak, 8700 ft., in the Nilgherries.
DODD, DR. WILLIAM, an English divine, born at Bourne, Lincolnshire;
was one of the royal chaplains; attracted fashionable audiences as a
preacher in London, but lived extravagantly, and fell hopelessly into
debt, and into disgrace for the nefarious devices he adopted to get out
of it; forged a bond for £4500 on the Earl of Chesterfield, who had been
a pupil of his; was arrested, tried, convicted, and sentenced to death, a
sentence which was carried out notwithstanding the great exertions made
to procure a pardon; wrote a "Commentary on the Bible," and compiled "The
Beauties of Shakespeare" (1729-1777).
DODDRIDGE, PHILIP, a Nonconformist divine, born in London; was
minister at Kebworth, Market Harborough, and Northampton successively,
and much esteemed both as a man and a teacher; suffered from pulmonary
complaint; went to Lisbon for a change, and died there; was the author of
"The Family Expositor," but is best known by his "Rise and Progress of
Religion in the Soul," and perhaps also by his "Life of Colonel Gardiner"
(1702-1751).
DÖDERLEIN, LUDWIG, a German philologist, born at Jena; became
professor of Philology at Erlangen; edited Tacitus, Horace, and other
classic authors, but his principal works were on the etymology of the
Latin language (1791-1863).
DODGER, THE ARTFUL, a young expert in theft and other villanies in
Dickens's "Oliver Twist."
DODGSON, CHARLES LUTWIDGE, English writer and man of genius, with
the _nom de plume_ of Lewis Carroll; distinguished himself at Oxford in
mathematics; author of "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland," with its
sequel, "Through the Looking-Glass," besides other works, mathematical,
poetic, and humorous; mingled humour and science together (1833-1898).
DODINGTON, GEORGE BUBB, an English politician, notorious for his
fickleness, siding now with this party, now with that; worked for and won
a peerage before he died; with all his pretensions, and they were many, a
mere flunkey at bottom (1691-1762).
DODO, an ungainly bird larger than a turkey, with short scaly legs,
a big head and bill, short wings and tail, and a greyish down plumage,
now extinct, though it is known to have existed in the Mauritius some 200
years ago.
DODO`NA, an ancient oracle of Zeus, in Epirus, close by a grove of
oak trees, from the agitation of the branches of which the mind of the
god was construed, the interpreters being at length three old women; it
was more or less a local oracle, and was ere long superseded by the more
widely known oracle of DELPHI (q. v.).
DODS, MEG, an old landlady of consistently inconsistent qualities in
"St. Ronan's Well"; also the pseudonym of the authoress of a book on
cookery.
DODSLEY, ROBERT, an English poet, dramatist, and publisher; wrote a
drama called "The Toyshop," which, through Pope's influence, was acted in
Drury Lane with such success as to enable the author to commence business
as a bookseller in Pall Mall; projected and published the _Miscellany_,
and continued to write plays, the most popular "Cleone"; is best known in
connection with his "Collection of Old Plays"; he was a patron of
Johnson, and much esteemed by him (1703-1764).
DOEG, a herdsman of Saul (1 Sam. xxi. 7); a name applied by Dryden
to Elkanah Settle in "Absalom and Achitophel."
DOGBERRY, a self-satisfied night constable in "Much Ado about
Nothing."
DOG-DAYS, 20 days before and 20 after the rising of the dog-star
Sirius, at present from 3rd July to 11th August.
DOGE, the name of the chief magistrate of Venice and Genoa, elected
at first annually and then for life in Venice, with, in course of time,
powers more and more limited, and at length little more than a
figure-head; the office ceased with the fall of the republic in 1797, as
it did in Genoa in 1804.
DOGGER BANK, a sandbank in the North Sea; a great fishing-field,
extending between Jutland in Denmark and Yorkshire in England, though
distant from both shores, 170 m. long, over 60 m. broad, and from 8 to 10
fathoms deep.
DOGS, ISLE OF, a low-lying projection of a square mile in extent
from the left bank of the Thames, opposite Greenwich, and 3½ m. E. of St.
Paul's.
DOG-STAR, SIRIUS (q. v.).
DOLABELLA, son-in-law of Cicero, a profligate man, joined Cæsar, and
was raised by him to the consulship; joined Cæsar's murderers after his
death; was declared from his profligacy a public enemy; driven to bay by
a force sent against him, ordered one of his soldiers to kill him.
DOLCI, CARLO, a Florentine painter, came of a race of artists;
produced many fine works, the subjects of them chiefly madonnas, saints.
&c. (1616-1686).
DOLCINO, a heresiarch and martyr of the 14th century, of the
Apostolic Brethren, a sect which rose in Piedmont who made themselves
obnoxious to the Church; was driven to bay by his persecutors, and at
last caught and tortured and burnt to death; a similar fate overtook
others of the sect, to its extermination.
DOLDRUMS, a zone of the tropics where calms, squalls, and baffling
winds prevail.
DÔLE (12), a town in the dep. of Jura, on the Doubs, and the Rhône
and Rhine Canal, 28 m. SE. of Dijon, with iron-works, and a trade in
wine, grain, &c.
DOLET, ÉTIENNE, a learned French humanist, born at Orleans, became,
by the study of the classics, one of the lights of the Renaissance, and
one of its most zealous propagandists; suffered persecution after
persecution at the hands of the Church, and was burned in the Place
Maubert, Paris, a martyr to his philosophic zeal and opinions
(1509-1546).
DOLGELLY, capital of Merioneth, Wales, with manufactures of flannel.
DOLGOROUKI, the name of a noble and illustrious Russian family.
DOLLART ZEE, a gulf in Holland into which the Ems flows, 8 m. long
by 7 broad, and formed by inundation of the North Sea.
DÖLLINGER, a Catholic theologian, born in Bamberg, Bavaria,
professor of Church History in the University of Münich; head of the old
Catholic party in Germany; was at first a zealous Ultramontanist, but
changed his opinions and became quite as zealous in opposing, first, the
temporal sovereignty, and then the infallibility of the Pope, to his
excommunication from the Church; he was a polemic, and as such wrote
extensively on theological and ecclesiastical topics; lived to a great
age, and was much honoured to the last (1799-1890).
DOLLOND, JOHN, a mathematical instrument-maker, born in
Spitalfields, London, of Dutch descent; began life as a silk-weaver; made
good use of his leisure hours in studies bearing mainly on physics; went
into partnership with his son, who was an optician; made a study of the
telescope, suggested improvements which commended themselves to the Royal
Society, and in especial how, by means of a combination of lenses, to get
rid of the coloured fringe in the image (1706-1761).
DOLMEN, a rude structure of prehistoric date, consisting of upright
unhewn stones supporting one or more heavy slabs; long regarded as altars
of sacrifice, but now believed to be sepulchral monuments; found in great
numbers in Bretagne especially.
DOLOMITE ALPS, a limestone mountain range forming the S. of the
Eastern Alps, in the Tyrol and N. Italy, famous for the remarkable and
fantastic shapes they assume; named after Dolomieu, a French
mineralogist, who studied the geology of them.
DOMAT, JEAN, a learned French jurist and friend of Pascal, regarded
laws and customs as the reflex of political history (1625-1696).
DOMBASLE, an eminent French agriculturist, born at Nancy
(1771-1818).
DOM-BOKE (i. e. Doom-book), a code of laws compiled by King Alfred
from two prior Saxon codes, to which he prefixed the Ten Commandments of
Moses, and rules of life from the Christian code of ethics.
DOMBROWSKI, JOHN HENRY, a Polish general, served in the Polish
campaigns against Russia and Prussia in 1792-1794; organised a Polish
legion which did good service in the wars of Napoleon; covered the
retreat of the French at the Beresina in 1812 (1755-1818).
DOMDANIEL, a hall under the ocean where the evil spirits and
magicians hold council under their chief and pay him homage.
DOMENICHI`NO, a celebrated Italian painter, born at Bologna; studied
under Calvaert and Caracci; was of the Bolognese school, and reckoned one
of the first of them; his principal works are his "Communion of St.
Jerome," now in the Vatican, and the "Martyrdom of St. Agnes," at
Bologna, the former being regarded as his masterpiece; he was the victim
of persecution at the hands of rivals; died at Naples, not without
suspicion of having been poisoned (1581-1641).
DOMESDAY BOOK, the record, in 2 vols., of the survey of all the
lands of England made in 1081-1086 at the instance of William the
Conqueror for purposes of taxation; the survey included the whole of
England, except the four northern counties and part of Lancashire, and
was made by commissioners appointed by the king, and sent to the
different districts of the country, where they held courts, and
registered everything on evidence; it is a valuable document.
DOMINIC DE GUZMAN, ST., saint of the Catholic Church, born in Old
Castile; distinguished for his zeal in the conversion of the heretic;
essayed the task by simple preaching of the Word; sanctioned persecution
when persuasion was of no avail; countenanced the crusade of Simon de
Montfort against the Albigenses for their obstinate unbelief, and thus
established a precedent which was all too relentlessly followed by the
agents of the Spanish Inquisition, the chiefs of which were of the
Dominican order, so that he is ignominiously remembered as the "burner
and slayer of heretics" (1170-1221). Festival, Aug. 4.
DOMINICA, or DOMINIQUE (26), the largest and most southerly of
the Leeward Islands, and belongs to Britain; one-half of the island is
forest, and parts of it have never been explored; was discovered by
Columbus on Sunday, November 3, 1493, whence its name.
DOMINICAL LETTER, one of seven letters, A, B, C, D, E, F, G, used to
mark the Sundays throughout the year, so that if A denote the first
Sunday, it will denote all the rest, and so on with B, C, &c., till at
the end of seven years A becomes the dominical letter again.
DOMINICAN REPUBLIC, or ST. DOMINGO (610), a republic forming
the E. part of the island of Haiti, and consisting of two-thirds of it;
it belonged alternately to France and Spain till 1865, when, on revolt,
the Spaniards were expelled, and a republic established; the capital is
St. Domingo (15), and the chief port Puerto Plata.
DOMINICANS, a religious order of preaching friars, founded at
Toulouse in 1215 by St. Dominic, to aid in the conversion of the heretic
Albigenses to the faith, and finally established as the order whose
special charge it was to guard the orthodoxy of the Church. The order was
known by the name Black Friars in England, from their dress; and Jacobins
in France, from the street of Paris in which they had their
head-quarters.
DOMINIE, SAMPSON, a schoolmaster in "Guy Mannering," "a poor,
modest, humble scholar, who had won his way through the classics, but
fallen to the leeward in the voyage of life."
DOMINIS, MARCO ANTONIO DE, a vacillating ecclesiastic, born in
Dalmatia; was educated by the Jesuits; taught mathematics in Padua; wrote
a treatise in which an explanation was for the first time given of the
phenomenon of the rainbow; became archbishop of Spalatro; falling under
suspicion he passed over to England, professed Protestantism, and was
made dean of Windsor; reconciled to the Papacy, returned to the Church of
Rome, and left the country; his sincerity being distrusted, was cast into
prison, where he died, his body being afterwards disinterred and burned
(1566-1624).
DOMITIAN, Roman emperor, son of Vespasian, brother of Titus, whom he
succeeded in 81, the last of the twelve Cæsars; exceeded the expectations
of every one in the beginning of his reign, as he had given proof of a
licentious and sanguinary character beforehand, but soon his conduct
changed, and fulfilled the worst fears of his subjects; his vanity was
wounded by the non-success of his arms, and his vengeful spirit showed
itself in a wholesale murder of the citizens; many conspiracies were
formed against his life, and he was at length murdered by an assassin,
who had been hired by his courtiers and abetted by his wife Domitia, in
96.
DOMRÉMY, a small village on the Meuse, in the dep. of Vosges; the
birthplace of Joan of Arc.
DON, a Russian river, the ancient Tanaïs; flows southward from its
source in the province of Tula, and after a course of 1153 m. falls into
the Sea of Azov; also the name of a river in Aberdeenshire, and another
in Yorkshire.
DON JUAN, the member of a distinguished family of Seville, who
seduces the daughter of a noble, and when confronted by her father stabs
him to death in a duel; he afterwards prepares a feast and invites the
stone statue of his victim to partake of it; the stone statue turns up at
the least, compels Don Juan to follow him, and delivers him over to the
abyss of hell, the depths of which he had qualified himself for by his
utter and absolute depravity.
DON QUIXOTE, the title of a world-famous book written by Miguel
Cervantes, in satire of the romances of chivalry with which his
countrymen were so fascinated; the chief character of which gives title
to it, a worthy gentleman of La Mancha, whose head is so turned by
reading tales of knight-errantry, that he fancies he is a knight-errant
himself, sallies forth in quest of adventures, and encounters them in the
most commonplace incidents, one of his most ridiculous extravagancies
being his tilting with the windmills, and the overweening regard he has
for his Dulcinea del Tobosa.
DONALDSON, JOHN WILLIAM, a philologist, born in London; Fellow of
Cambridge and tutor of Trinity College; author of "New Cratylus; or
Contributions towards a more Accurate Knowledge of the Greek Language," a
work of great erudition and of value to scholars; contributed also to the
philological study of Latin, and wrote a grammar of both languages; he
failed when he intruded into the field of biblical criticism (1811-1861).
DONATELLO, a great Italian sculptor, born at Florence, where he was
apprenticed to a goldsmith; tried his hand at carving in leisure hours;
went to Rome and studied the monuments of ancient art; returned to
Florence and executed an "Annunciation," still preserved in a chapel in
Santa Croce, which was followed by marble statues of St. Peter, St. Mark,
and St. George, before one of which, that of St. Mark, Michael Angelo
exclaimed, "Why do you not speak to me?"; he executed tombs and figures,
or groups in bronze as well as marble; his schoolmasters were the
sculptors of Greece, and the real was his ultimate model (1383-1460).
DONATI, an Italian astronomer, born at Pisa; discoverer of the comet
of 1858, called Donati's comet (1826-1873).
DONATISTS, a sect in N. Africa, founded by Donatus, bishop of
Carthage, in the 4th century, that separated from the rest of the Church
and formed itself into an exclusive community, with bishops and
congregations of its own, on the ground that no one was entitled to be a
member of Christ's body, or an overseer of Christ's flock, who was not of
divine election, and that in the face of an attempt, backed by the
Emperor Constantine, to thrust a bishop on the Church at Carthage,
consecrated by an authority that had betrayed and sold the Church to the
world; the members of it were subject to cruel persecutions in which they
gloried, and were annihilated by the Saracens in the 7th century.
DONATUS, a Latin grammarian and rhetorician of the 4th century, the
teacher of St. Jerome; the author of treatises in grammar known as
Donats, and, along with the sacred Scriptures, the earliest examples of
printing by means of letters cut on wooden blocks, and so appreciated as
elementary treatises that they gave name to treatises of the kind on any
subject; he wrote also _scholia_ to the plays of Terence.
DONAU, the German name for the Danube.
DONCASTER (26), a market and manufacturing town in the West Riding
of Yorkshire, well built, in a pleasant country, on the right bank of the
Don, 33 m. S. of York; famous for its races, the St. Leger in particular,
called after Colonel St. Leger, who instituted them in 1776.
DONDRA HEAD, the southern extremity of Ceylon, once the site of the
capital.
DONEGAL (185), a county in the NW. of Ireland, in the province of
Ulster, the most mountainous in the country; is mossy and boggy, and is
indented along the coast with bays, and fringed with islands.
DONETZ, a tributary of the Russian Don, the basin of which forms one
large coal-field, reckoned to be as large as all Yorkshire, and is
reckoned one of the largest of any in the world.
DONGOLA, NEW, a town in Nubia, on the left bank of the Nile, above
the third cataract, 20° N. and over 700 m. from Cairo; was founded by the
Mamelukes.
DONIZETTI, a celebrated Italian composer, born at Bergamo, Lombardy,
and studied at Bologna; devoted himself to dramatic music; produced over
60 operas, among the number "Lucia di Lammermoor," the "Daughter of the
Regiment," "Lucrezia Borgia," and "La Favorita," all well known, and all
possessing a melodious quality of the first order (1797-1848).
DONNE, JOHN, English poet and divine, born in London; a man of good
degree; brought up in the Catholic faith; after weighing the claims of
the Romish and Anglican communions, joined the latter; married a young
lady of sixteen without consent of her father, which involved him in
trouble for a time; was induced to take holy orders by King James; was
made his chaplain, and finally became Dean of St. Paul's; wrote sermons,
some 200 letters and essays, as well as poems, the latter, amid many
defects, revealing a soul instinct with true poetic fire (1573-1631). See
"Professor Saintsbury on Donne."
DONNYBROOK, a village now included in Dublin, long celebrated for
its fairs and the fights it was the scene of on such occasions.
DONON, the highest peak of the Vosges Mountains.
DOO, GEORGE THOMAS, a celebrated English line-engraver, and one of
the best in his day (1800-1886).
DOON, a river rendered classic by the muse of Burns, which after a
course of 30 m. joins the Clyde 2 m. S. of Ayr.
DORA, the child-wife of "David Copperfield," Dickens's novel.
DORA D'ISTRIA, the pseudonym of Helena Ghika, born in Wallachia, of
noble birth; distinguished for her beauty and accomplishments; was
eminent as a linguist; translated the "Iliad" into German; wrote works,
the fruits of travels (1829-1888).
DORAN, JOHN, an English man of letters, born In London, of Irish
descent; wrote on miscellaneous subjects; became editor of the _Athenæum_
and _Notes and Queries_ (1807-1878).
DORAT, JEAN, a French poet, born at Limoges; a Greek scholar;
contributed much to the revival of classical literature in France, and
was one of the FRENCH PLÉIADE (q. v.); _d_. 1588.
DORCAS SOCIETY, a society for making clothing for the poor. See Acts
ix. 39.
DORCHESTER (7), the county town of Dorset, on the Frome; was a Roman
town, and contains the ruins of a Roman amphitheatre.
DORDOGNE, a river in the S. of France, which, after a course of 300
m., falls into the estuary of Garonne; also a dep. (478) through which it
flows.
DORÉ, GUSTAVE, a French painter and designer, born in Strasburg;
evinced great power and fertility of invention, having, it is alleged,
produced more than 50,000 designs; had a wonderful faculty for seizing
likenesses, and would draw from memory groups of faces he had seen only
once; among the books he illustrated are the "Contes Drolatiques" of
Balzac, the works of Rabelais and Montaigne, Dante's "Inferno," also his
"Purgatorio" and "Paradiso," "Don Quixote," Tennyson's "Idylls," Milton's
works, and Coleridge's "Ancient Mariner"; among his paintings were
"Christ Leaving the Prætorium," and "Christ's Entry into Jerusalem"; he
has left behind him works of sculpture as well as drawings and pictures;
his art has been severely handled by the critics, and most of all by
Ruskin, who treats it with unmitigated scorn (1832-1883).
DORIA, ANDREA, a naval commander, born in Genoa, of noble descent,
though his parents were poor; a man of patriotic instincts; adopted the
profession of arms at the age of 19; became commander of the fleet in
1513; attacked with signal success the Turkish corsairs that infested the
Mediterranean; served under Francis I. to free his country from a faction
that threatened its independence, and, by his help, succeeded in
expelling it; next, in fear of the French supremacy, served, under
Charles V., and entering Genoa, was hailed as its liberator, and received
the title of "Father and Defender of his country"; the rest of his life,
and it was a long one, was one incessant wrestle with his great rival
Barbarossa, the chief of the corsairs, and which ended in his defeat
(1466-1560).
DORIANS, one of the four divisions of the Hellenic race, the other
three being the Achæans, the Æolians, and the Ionians; at an early period
overran the whole Peloponnesus; they were a hardy people, of staid habits
and earnest character.
DORIC, the oldest, strongest, and simplest of the four Grecian
orders of architecture.