The Nuttall Encyclopaedia
by
Edited by Rev. James Wood
Part 16 out of 53
was threatening to overrun Europe (1423-1503).
DAUDET, ALPHONSE, a noted French novelist of great versatility, born
at Nimes, of poor parents; early selected literature as his career in
life; wrote poems and plays, and contributed to the _Figaro_ and other
journals; worked up into his novels characters and situations that had
come under his own observation, often in too satirical a vein to become
universally popular; has been likened to Dickens in his choice of
subjects and style of treatment; died suddenly (1840-1897).
D'AULNOY, THE COUNTESS, authoress of charmingly-written "Contes des
Fees" (Fairy Tales), and on which her reputation rests (1650-1705).
DAUMIER, HENRI, a French caricaturist of great fertility and
playfulness of genius, born at Marseilles; became blind in his old age
(1808-1879).
DAUN, KARL, German theologian, born at Cassel, professor at
Heidelberg, sought to ground theology on a philosophic basis, and found
what he sought in the philosophy of Hegel (1765-1836).
DAUN, LEOPOLD, GRAF VON, an able Austrian general, born at Vienna;
distinguished himself by his prudence and valour in the Seven Years' War,
gained a victory over Frederick the Great at Kolin in 1757, and another
at Hochkirch in 1758; could prevail little or not at all against
Frederick afterwards as soon as Frederick saw through his tactics, which
he was not long in doing (1705-1766).
DAUPHIN, a name originally given to the _Seigneurs_ of the province
of Dauphine, in allusion to the dolphin which several members of the
family wore as a badge, but in 1349 given to the heir-presumptive to the
crown of France, when Humbert II., dauphin of Vienne, ceded Dauphine to
Philippe of Valois, on condition that the eldest son of the king of
France should assume the title, a title which was abolished after the
Revolution of 1830. The word signifies dolphin in French.
DAUPHINE, a SW. province of France, of which the capital was
Grenoble; annexed to the French crown under Philippe II. in 1349.
DAURAT, JEAN, French scholar, a member of the Pleiade (q. v.), and
who figures as one of the leading spirits in the fraternity (1507-1588).
DAVENANT, SIR WILLIAM, an English playwright, born at Oxford, who
succeeded Ben Jonson as poet-laureate, and was for a time manager of
Drury Lane; was knighted by Charles I. for his zeal in the Royalist
cause; his theatrical enterprise had small success during the
Commonwealth, but interest in it revived with the Restoration, at which
time "the drama broke loose from the prison of Puritanism to indulge in a
shameless license" (1606-1668).
DAVID, FELICIEN, a French composer, born at Vaucluse; author, among
other compositions, of the "Desert," a production which achieved an
instant and complete triumph; was in his youth an ardent disciple of St.
Simon (1810-1876).
DAVID, GERHARD, a Flemish painter; painted religious subjects,
several from the life of Christ (1450-1525).
DAVID, KING OF ISRAEL, 11th century B.C., born in Bethlehem; tended
the flocks of his father; slew Goliath with a stone and a sling; was
anointed by Samuel, succeeded Saul as king; conquered the Philistines;
set up his throne in Jerusalem, and reigned thirty-three years; suffered
much from his sons, and was succeeded by Solomon; the book of Psalms was
till recently accepted as wholly his by the Church, but that hypothesis
no longer stands the test of criticism.
DAVID, LOUIS, a French historical painter, born in Paris; studied in
Rome and settled in Paris; was carried away with the Revolution; joined
the Jacobin Club, swore eternal friendship with Robespierre; designed "a
statue of Nature with two _mammelles_ spouting out water" for the deputes
to drink to, and another of the sovereign people, "high as Salisbury
steeple"; was sentenced to the guillotine, but escaped out of regard for
his merit as an artist; appointed first painter by Napoleon, but on the
Restoration was banished and went to Brussels, where he died; among his
paintings are "The Oath of the Horatii," "The Rape of the Sabines," "The
Death of Socrates," and "The Coronation of Napoleon" (1748-1825).
DAVID D'ANGERS, a French sculptor, born at Angers; came to Paris and
became a pupil of the preceding, afterwards proceeded to Rome and
associated with Canova; executed in Paris a statue of the Great Conde,
and thereafter the pediment of the Pantheon, his greatest work, as well
as numerous medallions of great men; on a visit to Weimar he modelled a
bust of Goethe (1788-1856).
DAVID I., king of Scotland, youngest son of Malcolm Canmore and
Queen Margaret; was brought up at the English court; was prince of
Cumbria under the reign of his brother Alexander, on whose decease he
succeeded to the throne in 1124; on making a raid in England to avenge an
insult offered to his son Henry, was defeated at Northallerton in the
Battle of the Standard; addressed himself after this to the unification
of the country and civilisation of his subjects; founded and endowed
bishoprics and abbeys at the expense of the crown, on account of which he
was called St. David, and characterised by James VI., a successor of his,
as a "sair saunt to the croon"; the death of his son Henry was a great
grief to him, and shortened his days (1084-1153).
DAVID II., king of Scotland, son of King Robert the Bruce, born at
Dunfermline; succeeded his father when a boy of four; spent from 1334 to
1341 in France; was taken prisoner by the English at the battle of
Neville's Cross, and was afterwards, till his death, dependent on England
(1326-1371).
DAVID, ST., or DEWI, the patron saint of Wales, lived about the
5th century; archbishop of Caerleon; transferred his see to St. David's;
founded churches, opposed Pelagianism, and influenced many by the odour
of his good name.
DAVIDS, RHYS, professor of Pali and Buddhist literature, born in
Colchester; author of "Buddhism: a Sketch of the Life and Teachings of
Gautama, the Buddha," and of other works in that department of
literature; _b_. 1843.
DAVIDSON, ANDREW BRUCE, Hebrew scholar and professor, born in
Aberdeenshire; a most faithful, clear, and effective interpreter of the
spirit of Hebrew literature, and influential for good as few men of the
time have been in matters of biblical criticism; _b_. 1831.
DAVIDSON, JOHN, poet and journalist, born at Barrhead, Renfrewshire;
has written novels and plays as well as poems; _b_. 1859.
DAVIDSON, SAMUEL, biblical scholar and exegete, born near Ballymena;
wrote Introductions to the Old and the New Testaments; was pioneer in the
higher criticism (1807-1898).
DAVIES, BEN, a popular tenor vocalist, born near Swansea in 1858.
DAVIES, SIR JOHN, poet and statesman, born in Wiltshire; wrote two
philosophic poems, "The Orchestra," a poem in which the world is
exhibited as a dance, and "Nosce Teipsum" (Know Thyself), a poem on human
learning and the immortality of the soul; became a favourite with James
I., and was sent Attorney-General to Ireland (1569-1626).
DAVILA, a celebrated historian, born near Padua, brought up in
France; served in the French army under Henry IV.; did military and other
service in Venice; was assassinated; his great work "The History of the
Civil War in France" (1576-1631).
DAVIS, JEFFERSON, President of the Confederate States, born in
Kentucky; entered the army; fought against the Indians; turned
cotton-planter; entered Congress as a Democrat; distinguished himself in
the Mexican war; defended slave-holding and the interests of
slave-holding States; was chosen President of the Confederate States;
headed the conflict with the North; fled on defeat, which he was the last
to admit; was arrested and imprisoned; released after two years; retired
into private life, and wrote a "History of the Rise and Fall of the
Confederate Government" (1808-1889).
DAVIS, JOHN, an English navigator, born near Dartmouth; took early
to the sea; conducted (1585-1587) three expeditions to the Arctic Seas in
quest of a NW. passage to India and China, as far N. as 73 deg.; discovered
the strait which bears his name; sailed as pilot in two South Sea
expeditions, and was killed by Japanese pirates near Malacca; wrote the
"Seaman's Secret" (1550-1605).
DAVIS, THOMAS, an Irish patriot, born at Mallow; educated at Trinity
College, Dublin, and called to the Irish bar; took to journalism in the
interest of Irish nationality; founded the _Nation_ newspaper, and by his
contributions to it did much to wake up the intelligence of the country
to national interests; died young; was the author of "Songs of Ireland"
and "Essays on Irish Songs" (1814-1845).
DAVIS STRAIT, strait connecting Baffin's Bay with the Atlantic,
discovered by JOHN DAVIS (q. v.).
DAVITT, MICHAEL, a noted Irish patriot, born in co. Mayo, son of a
peasant, who, being evicted, settled in Lancashire; joined the Fenian
movement, and was sentenced to 15 years' penal servitude; released on
ticket-of-leave after seven years; founded the Land League; was for over
a year imprisoned again for breaking his ticket-of-leave; published in
1885 "Leaves from a Prison Diary"; entered Parliament in 1895 for co.
Mayo; _b_. 1846.
DAVOS-PLATZ, a village 5105 ft. above the sea-level, in a valley of
the East Grisons; a place frequented in winter by invalids suffering from
chest disease, the dry air and sunshine that prevail being favourable for
patients of that class.
DAVOUT, Duke of Auerstaedt, Prince of Eckmuehl, marshal of France,
born at Annoux, in Burgundy; was fellow-student with Napoleon at the
military school in Brienne; entered the army in 1788, served in the
Revolutionary wars under Dumouriez and Desaix, and became general; served
under Bonaparte in Egypt; distinguished himself at Austerlitz, Auerstaedt,
Eckmuehl, and Wagram; was made governor of Hamburg; accompanied Napoleon
to Moscow; returned to Hamburg, and defended it during a siege; was made
Minister of War in 1815, and assisted Napoleon in his preparations for
the final struggle at Waterloo; commanded the remains of the French army
which capitulated under the walls of Paris; adhered to the Bourbon
dynasty on its return, and was made a peer; was famous before all the
generals of Napoleon for his rigour in discipline (1770-1823).
DAVY, SIR HUMPHRY, a great English chemist, born at Penzance;
conceived early in life a passion for the science in which he made so
many discoveries; made experiments on gases and the respiration of them,
particularly nitrous oxide and carbonic acid; discovered the function of
plants in decomposing the latter in the atmosphere, and the metallic
bases of alkalies and earths; proved chlorine to be a simple substance
and its affinity with iodine, which he discovered; invented the
safety-lamp, his best-known achievement; he held appointments and
lectured in connection with all these discoveries and their applications,
and received knighthood and numerous other honours for his services; died
at Geneva (1778-1829).
DAVY JONES'S LOCKER, the sailors' familiar name for the sea as a
place of safe-keeping, though why called of Davy Jones is uncertain.
DAVY-LAMP, a lamp encased in gauze wire which, while it admits
oxygen to feed the flame, prevents communication between the flame and
any combustible or explosive gas outside.
DAWKINS, WILLIAM BOYD, geologist and palaeontologist, born in
Montgomeryshire; has written "Cave Hunting," "Early Man in Britain," &c.;
_b_. 1838.
DAWSON, GEORGE, a popular lecturer, born in London; educated in
Aberdeen and Glasgow; bred for the ministry by the Baptist body, and
pastor of a Baptist church in Birmingham, but resigned the post for
ministry in a freer atmosphere; took to lecturing on a purely secular
platform, and was for thirty years the most popular lecturer of the day;
no course of lectures in any institute was deemed complete if his name
was not in the programme; did much to popularise the views of Carlyle and
Emerson (1821-1876).
DAWSON, SIR JOHN WILLIAM, geologist and naturalist, born in Pictou,
Nova Scotia; studied in Edinburgh; distinguished himself as a
palaeontologist; published in 1872, "Story of the Earth and Man"; in 1877,
"Origin of the World"; and recently, "Geology and History"; called in
question the Darwinian theory as to the origin of species; _b_. 1820.
DAY, JOHN, an English dramatist, contemporary of Ben Jonson; author
of the "Parliament of Bees," a comedy in which all the characters are
bees.
DAY, THOMAS, an eccentric philanthropist, born in London; author of
"Sandford and Merton"; he was a disciple of Rousseau; had many a
ludicrous adventure in quest of a model wife, and happily fell in with
one to his mind at last; was a slave-abolitionist and a parliamentary
reformer (1748-1789).
DAYAKS. See DYAKS.
DAYTON (85), a prosperous town in Ohio, U.S.; a great railway
centre, with a court-house of marble, after the Parthenon in Athens.
D'AZARA, a Spanish naturalist, born in Aragon; spent 20 years in
South America; wrote a "Natural History of the Quadrupeds in Paraguay"
(1781-1811).
DEAD SEA, called also the Salt Sea and 'the Asphalt Lake, a sea in
Palestine, formed by the waters of the Jordan, 46 m. long, 10 m. broad,
and in some parts 1300 ft. deep, while its surface is 1312 ft. below the
level of the Mediterranean, just as much as Jerusalem is above it; has no
outlet; its waters, owing to the great heat, evaporate rapidly, and are
intensely salt; it is enclosed E. and W. by steep mountains, which often
rise to a height of 6000 ft.
DEAK, FRANCIS, an eminent Hungarian statesman, born at Kehida, of an
ancient noble Magyar family; his aim for Hungary was the same as that of
CAVOUR (q. v.) for Italy, the establishment of constitutional
government, and he succeeded; standing all along as he did from Hungarian
republicanism on the one hand, and Austrian tyranny on the other, he
urged on the Emperor of Austria the demand of the Diet, of which he had
become leader, at first without effect, but after the humiliation of
Austria in 1866, all that he asked for was conceded, and the Austrian
Emperor received the Hungarian crown (1803-1876).
DEAL (9), a town, one of the old Cinque ports, oil the E. of Kent,
opposite the Goodwin Sands, 89 m. from London, with a fine sea-beach;
much resorted to for sea-bathing quarters.
DEAN, FOREST OF, a forest of 22,000 acres in the W. of
Gloucestershire, between the Severn and the Wye; the property of the
Crown for the most part; the inhabitants are chiefly miners, who at one
time enjoyed special privileges.
DEAN OF GUILD, a burgh magistrate in Scotland who has the care of
buildings, originally the head of the Guild brethren of the town.
DEAN OF ST. PATRICK'S, Jonathan Swift, who held that post from 1713
till his death.
DEANS, DAVIE, EFFIE, AND JEANIE, characters in the "Heart of
Midlothian."
DEBATS, JOURNAL DES, a daily paper, established in 1789; it defends
at present the Conservative Republican policy, and publishes often
remarkable literary articles.
DEBENTURE, a deed acknowledging a debt on a specified security.
DEBO`RAH, a Hebrew prophetess; reckoned one of the judges of Israel
by her enthusiasm to free her people from the yoke of the Canaanites;
celebrated for her song of exultation over their defeat, instinct at once
with pious devotion and with revengeful feeling; Coleridge calls her
"this Hebrew Boadicea."
DEBRECZEN (56), a Hungarian town, 130 m. E. of Buda-Pesth; is the
head-quarters of Protestantism in the country, and has an amply equipped
and a largely attended Protestant College; is a seat of manufactures and
a large trade.
DECAMERON, a collection of a hundred tales, conceived of as
rehearsed in ten days at a country-house during the plague at Florence;
are of a licentious character, but exquisitely told; were written by
Boccaccio; published in 1352; the name comes from _deka_, ten, and
_hemera_, a day.
DECAMPS, ALEXANDRA GABRIEL, a distinguished French painter, born in
Paris; brought up as a boy among the peasants of Picardy; represented
nature as he in his own way saw it himself, and visited Switzerland and
the East, where he found materials for original and powerful pictures;
his pictures since his death have brought great prices (1803-1860).
DE CANDOLLE, AUGUSTIN PYRAME, an eminent botanist, born at Geneva,
of Huguenot descent; studied in Paris; attracted the attention of Cuvier
and Lamarck, whom he assisted in their researches; published his "Flore
Francaise," in six vols.; became professor at Montpellier, and then at
Geneva; is the historical successor of Jussieu; his great contribution to
botanical science is connected with the classification of plants
(1778-1841).
DECA`TUR, STEPHEN, an American naval commodore; distinguished for
his feats of valour displayed in the war with Tripoli and with England
(1779-1820).
DECCAN, a triangular plateau of from 2000 to 3000 ft. of elevation
in the Indian peninsula, extending S. of the Vindhya Mountains; is
densely peopled, and contains some of the richest soil in the globe.
DECEMBER, the twelfth month of the year, so called, i. e. tenth,
by the Romans, as their year began with March.
DEC`EMVIRS, the patricians of Rome, with Consular powers, appointed
in 450 B.C. to prepare a code of laws for the Republic, which, after
being agreed upon, were committed first to ten, then to twelve tables,
and set up in the Forum that all might read and know the law they lived
under.
DECIUS, Roman emperor from 249 to 251; was a cruel persecutor of the
Christians; perished in a morass fighting with the Goths, who were a
constant thorn in his side all through his reign.
DECIUS MUS, the name of three Romans, father, son, and grandson, who
on separate critical emergencies (340, 295, 279 B.C.) devoted themselves
in sacrifice to the infernal gods in order to secure victory to the Roman
arms; the name is mostly employed ironically.
DECLINE AND FALL OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE, the immortal work of Gibbon,
of which the first volume was published in 1776.
DECRETALS, THE, a collection of laws added to the canon law of the
Church of Rome, being judicial replies of the Popes to cases submitted to
them from time to time for adjudication.
DEE, JOHN, an alchemist, born in London; a man of curious learning;
earned the reputation of being a sorcerer; was imprisoned at one time,
and mobbed at another, under this imputation; died in poverty; left 79
works, the majority of which were never printed, though still extant in
MS. in the British Museum and other places of safe-keeping (1527-1608).
DEFAUCONPRET, French litterateur; translator of the novels of Sir
Walter Scott and Fenimore Cooper (1767-1843).
DEFENDER OF THE FAITH, a title conferred by Pope Leo X. in 1521 upon
Henry VIII. for his defence of the Catholic faith in a treatise against
Luther, and retained ever since by the sovereigns of England, though
revoked by Pope Paul III. in 1535 in consequence of Henry's apostasy.
DEFFAND, MARIE, MARQUISE DU, a woman of society, famed for her wit
and gallantry; corresponded with the eminent philosophes of the time, in
particular Voltaire, as well as with Horace Walpole; her letters are
specially brilliant, and display great shrewdness; she is characterised
by Prof. Saintsbury as "the typical French lady of the eighteenth
century"; she became blind in 1753, but retained her relish for society,
though at length she entered a monastery, where she died (1697-1780).
DEFOE, DANIEL, author of "Robinson Crusoe," born in London; bred for
the Dissenting ministry; turned to business, but took chiefly to
politics; was a zealous supporter of William III.; his ironical treatise,
"The Shortest Way with Dissenters" (1703), which, treated seriously, was
burned by order of the House of Commons, led to his imprisonment and
exposed him for three days to the pillory, amidst the cheers, however,
not the jeers, of the mob; in prison wrote a "Hymn to the Pillory," and
started his _Review_; on his release he was employed on political
missions, and wrote a "History of the Union," which he contributed to
promote. The closing years of his life were occupied mainly with literary
work, and it was then, in 1719, he produced his world-famous "Robinson
Crusoe"; has been described as "master of the art of forging a story and
imposing it on the world for truth." "His circumstantial invention," as
Stopford Brooke remarks, "combined with a style which exactly fits it by
its simplicity, is the root of the charm of his great story" (1661-1731).
DEGE`RANDO, BARON, a French philanthropist and philosopher, born at
Lyons, of Italian descent; wrote "History of Philosophy," long in repute
as the best French work on the subject (1772-1842).
DEIANEIRA, the wife of Hercules, whose death she had been the
unwitting cause of by giving him the poisoned robe which NESSUS
(q. v.) had sent her as potent to preserve her husband's love; on
hearing the fatal result she killed herself in remorse and despair.
DEIPHOBUS, a son of Priam and Hecuba, second in bravery to Hector;
married Helen after the death of Paris, and was betrayed by her to the
Greeks.
DEIR-AL-KAMAR, a town in Syria, once the capital of the Druses, on a
terrace in the heart of the Lebanon Mountains.
DEISM, belief on purely rational grounds in the existence of God,
and distinguished from theism as denying His providence.
DEISTS, a set of free-thinkers of various shades, who in England, in
the 17th and 18th centuries, discarded revelation and the supernatural
generally, and sought to found religion on a purely rational basis.
DEJAZET, VIRGINIE, a celebrated French actress, born in Paris; made
her _debut_ at five years of age (1797-1875).
DEKKER, THOMAS, a dramatist, born in London; was contemporary of Ben
Jonson, between whom and him, though they formerly worked together, a
bitter animosity arose; wrote lyrics as well as dramas, which are light
comedies, and prose as well as poetry; the most famous among his prose
works, "The Gull's Hornbook," a pamphlet, in which he depicts the life of
a young gallant; his pamphlets are valuable (1570-1641).
DE LA BECHE, SIR HENRY THOMAS, geologist, born in London; wrote the
"Depth and Temperature of the Lake of Geneva," and published a "Manual of
Geology" and the "Geological Observer"; was appointed head of the
Geological Survey in England (1796-1855).
DELACROIX, EUGENE, a French painter, born at Charenton, dep. of
Seine; one of the greatest French painters of the 19th century; was the
head of the French Romantic school, a brilliant colourist and a daring
innovator; his very first success, "Dante crossing Acheron in Charon's
Boat," forms an epoch in the history of contemporary art; besides his
pictures, which were numerous, he executed decorations and produced
lithographic illustrations of "Hamlet," "Macbeth," and Goethe's "Faust"
(1799-1863).
DELAGOA BAY, an inlet in the SE. of Africa, E. of the Transvaal,
subject to Portugal; stretches from 25 deg. 30' to 26 deg. 20' S.; extends 52 m.
inland, where the Transvaal frontier begins, and between which and it a
railway of 52 m., constructed by an English company, extends.
DELAISTRE, a French statuary, born in Paris (1836-1891).
DELAMBRE, JEAN JOSEPH, an eminent French astronomer, born at Amiens,
a pupil of Lalande; measured with Mechain the arc of the meridian between
Dunkirk and Barcelona towards the establishment of the metric system;
produced numerous works of great value, among others "Theoretical and
Practical Astronomy" and the "History of Astronomy" (1749-1822).
DELANE, JOHN THADEUS, editor of the _Times_, born in London; studied
at Oxford; after some experience as a reporter was put on the staff of
the _Times_, and in 1841 became editor, a post he continued to hold for
36 years; was the inspiring and guiding spirit of the paper, but wrote
none of the articles (1817-1879).
DELAROCHE, PAUL, a French historical painter and one of the
greatest, born in Paris; was the head of the modern Eclectic school, so
called as holding a middle place between the Classical and Romantic
schools of art; among his early works were "St. Vincent de Paul preaching
before Louis XIII." and "Joan of Arc before Cardinal Beaufort"; the
subjects of his latest pictures are from history, English and French,
such as "The Princes in the Tower" and "Cromwell contemplating the corpse
of Charles I.," a great work; but the grandest monument of his art is the
group of paintings with which he adorned the wall of the semicircle of
the Palais des Beaux Arts in Paris, which he completed in 1841
(1797-1856).
DELAUNAY, LE VICOMTE, the _nom de plume_ of Mme. Delphine, under
which she published her "Parisian Letters."
DELAUNAY, LOUIS ARSENE, a great French actor, born in Paris; made
his _debut_ in 1846, retired 1887.
DELAVIGNE, CASIMIR, a popular French lyric poet and dramatist, born
at Havre; his verse was conventional and without originality (1793-1843).
DELAWARE (168), one of the Atlantic and original States of the
American Union, as well as the smallest of them; the soil is rather poor,
but porcelain clay abounds.
DELCASSE, THEOPHILE, French Minister of Foreign Affairs, born at
Pamiers; began life as a journalist; was elected to the Chamber in 1889;
became Colonial Minister; advocated colonial expansion; dealt skilfully
with the Fashoda affair as Foreign Minister; _b_. 1852.
DELECTABLE MOUNTAINS, mountains covered with sheep in the "Pilgrim's
Progress," from which the pilgrim obtains a view of the Celestial City.
DELESCLUZE, a French Communist, born at Dreux; was imprisoned and
transported for his extreme opinions; started a journal, the _Reveil_, in
1868, to advocate the doctrines of the International; was mainly
answerable for the atrocities of the Paris Commune; was killed in the
barricades (1809-1871).
DELFT (27), a Dutch town, S m. NW. of Rotterdam, once famous for its
pottery; is intersected by canals; has an important polytechnic school.
DELGADO, a cape of E. Africa, on the border between Zanzibar and
Mozambique.
DELHI (192), on the right bank of the Jumna, once the capital of the
Mogul empire and the centre of the Mohammedan power in India; it is a
great centre of trade, and is situated in the heart of India; it contains
the famous palace of Shah Jahan, and the Jama Masjid, which occupies the
heart of the city, and is the largest and finest mosque in India, which
owes its origin to Shah Jahan; it is walled, is 51 m. in circumference,
and divided into Hindu, Mohammedan, and European quarters; it was
captured by Lord Lake in 1803, and during the Mutiny by the Sepoys, but
after a siege of seven days retaken in 1857.
DELIGHT OF MANKIND, the Roman Emperor Trajan.
DELILAH, the Philistine woman who beguiled and betrayed Samson.
DELILLE, JACQUES, a French poet, born at Aigues Perse, in Auvergne;
translator of the "Georgics" of Virgil into verse, afterwards the "AEneid"
and "Paradise Lost," besides producing also certain didactic and
descriptive works; was a good versifier, but properly no poet, and much
overrated; died blind (1738-1813).
DELITZSCH, FRANZ, a learned biblical scholar and exegete, born at
Leipzig; his commentaries, which are numerous, were of a conservative
tendency; he wrote on Jewish antiquities, biblical psychology, and
Christian apologetics; was professor at Erlangen and Leipzig
successively, where his influence on the students was distinctly marked
(1813-1899).
DELIUS, NICOLAUS, a German philologist, born at Bremen;
distinguished especially as a student of Shakespeare and for his edition
of Shakespeare's works, which is of transcendent merit (1813-1888).
DELIA CRUSCANS, a set of English sentimental poetasters, the leaders
of them hailing from Florence, that appeared in England towards the close
of the 18th century, and that for a time imposed on many by their
extravagant panegyrics of one another, the founder of the set being one
Robert Merry, who signed himself _Della Crusca_; he first announced
himself by a sonnet to Love, in praise of which Anne Matilda wrote an
incomparable piece of nonsense; "this epidemic spread for a term from
fool to fool," but was soon exposed and laughed out of existence.
DELLYS (3), a seaport in Algeria, 49 m. E. of Algiers.
DELOLME, JOHN LOUIS, a writer on State polity, born at Geneva, bred
to the legal profession; spent some six years in England as a refugee;
wrote a book on the "Constitution of England," and in praise of it, which
was received for a time with high favour in the country, but is now no
longer regarded as an authority; wrote a "History of the Flagellants,"
and on "The Union of Scotland with England" (1740-1806).
DELORME, a French architect, born at Lyons; studied in Rome; was
patronised by Catherine de Medici; built the palace of the Tuileries, and
contributed to the art of building (1518-1577).
DELORME, MARION, a Frenchwoman celebrated for her wit and
fascination, born at Chalons-sur-Marne; came to Paris in the reign of
Louis XIII., where her drawing-room became the rendezvous of all the
celebrities of the time, many of whom were bewitched by her charms; she
gave harbour to the chiefs of the Fronde, and was about to be arrested
when she died; the story that her death was a feint, and that she had
subsequent adventures, is distrusted; she is the subject of a drama by
Victor Hugo (1612-1650).
DELOS, the smallest and central island of the Cyclades, the
birthplace of Apollo and Artemis, and where the former had a famous
oracle; it was, according to the Greek mythology, a floating island, and
was first fixed to the spot by Zeus to provide Leda with a place, denied
her elsewhere by Hera, in which to bring forth her twin offspring; it was
at one time a centre of Apollo worship, but is now uninhabited, and only
frequented at times by shepherds with their flocks.
DELPHI, a town of ancient Greece in Phocis, at the foot of
Parnassus, where Apollo had a temple, and whence he was wont to issue his
oracles by the mouth of his priestess the Pythia, who when receiving the
oracle used to sit on a tripod over an opening in the ground through
which an intoxicating vapour exhaled, deemed the breath of the god, and
that proved the vehicle of her inspiration; the Pythian games were
celebrated here.
DELPHIN CLASSICS, an edition of the Greek and Roman classics, edited
by Bossuet and Huet, assisted by thirty-nine scholars, for the use of the
dauphin of Louis XIV.; of little use now.
DELPHINE, a novel by Mme. de Stael; presumed to be an idealised
picture of herself.
DELTA, the signature of D. Macbeth Moir in _Blackwood's Magazine_.
DELUC, JEAN ANDRE, geologist, born in Geneva; lived in England; was
reader to Queen Charlotte, and author of several works (1727-1817).
DELUGE, name given to the tradition, common to several races, of a
flood of such universality as to sweep the land, if not the earth, of all
its inhabitants, except the pair by whom the land of the earth was
repeopled.
DEM`ADES, an Athenian orator, a bitter enemy of Demosthenes, in the
interest of Philip of Macedon; put to death for treason by Antipater, 318
B.C.; was a man of no principle, but a great orator.
DEMARA`TUS, king of Sparta from 510 to 491 B.C.; dispossessed of
his crown, fled to Persia and accompanied Xerxes into Greece.
DEMAVEND, MOUNT, an extinct volcano, the highest peak (18,600 ft.)
of the Elburz chain, in Persia.
DEMBEA, a lake, the largest in Abyssinia, being 60 m. long and 6000
ft. above the sea-level, from which the Blue Nile issues.
DEMBINSKI, HENRY, a Polish general, born near Cracow; served under
Napoleon against Russia, under Kossuth against Austria; fled to Turkey on
the resignation of Kossuth; died in Paris (1791-1864).
DEMERARA, a division of British Guiana; takes its name from the
river, which is 200 m. long, and falls into the Atlantic at Georgetown.
DEMETER (lit. Earth-mother), the great Greek goddess of the earth,
daughter of Kronos and Rhea and sister of Zeus, and ranks with him as one
of the twelve great gods of Olympus; is specially the goddess of
agriculture, and the giver of all the earth's fruits; the Latins call her
Ceres.
DEMETRIUS, the name of two kings of Macedonia who ruled over the
country, the first from 290 to 289 B.C., and the second from 240 to 229
B.C.
DEMETRIUS, or DIMITRI, the name of several sovereigns of
Russia, and of four adventurers called the four false Dimitri.
DEMETRIUS I., Soter (i. e. saviour), king of Syria from 162 to 150
B.C.; was grandson of Antiochus the Great. D. II., Nicator (i. e.
conqueror), king of Syria from 143 to 125 B.C. D. III., Eucaeros
(i. e. the happy), king of Syria in 95, died in 84 B.C.
DEMETRIUS PHALEREUS, an eminent Athenian orator, statesman, and
historian, born at Phalerus, a seaport of Athens; was held in high honour
in Athens for a time as its political head, but fell into dishonour,
after which he lived retired and gave himself up to literary pursuits;
died from the bite of an asp; left a number of works (345-283 B.C.).
DEMIDOFF, a Russian family distinguished for their wealth, descended
from a serf of Peter the Great, and who amassed a large fortune by
manufacturing firearms for him, and were raised by him to the rank of
nobility; they were distinguished in the arts, in arms, and even
literature; ANATOL in particular, who travelled over the SE. of
Europe, and wrote an account of his travels, a work magnificently
illustrated.
DEMIGOD, a hero elevated in the imagination to the rank of a
divinity in consequence of the display of virtues and the achievement of
feats superior to those of ordinary men.
DEMI-MONDE, a class in Parisian society dressing in a fashionable
style, but of questionable morals.
DEMIURGUS, a name employed by Plato to denote the world-soul, the
medium by which the idea is made real, the spiritual made material, the
many made one, and it was adopted by the Gnostics to denote the
world-maker as a being derived from God, but estranged from God, being
environed in matter, which they regarded as evil, and so incapable as
such of redeeming the soul from matter, from evil, such as the God of the
Jews, and the Son of that God, conceived of as manifest in flesh.
DEMOCRACY has been defined to be government of the people by the
people and for the people, or as a State in which the government rests
directly with the majority of the citizens, but this under the protest of
some that it is not an end but a means "to the attainment of a truer and
truer aristocracy, or government again by the Best."
DEMOCRATS, a political party in the United States that contends for
the rights of the several States to self-government as against undue
centralisation.
DEMOCRITUS, a Greek philosopher, born in Abdera, Thrace, of wealthy
parents; spent his patrimony in travel, gathered knowledge from far and
near, and gave the fruits of it in a series of writings to his
contemporary compatriots, only fragments of which remain, though they
must have come down comparatively entire to Cicero's time, who compares
them for splendour and music of eloquence to Plato's; his philosophy was
called the _Atomic_, as he traced the universe to its ultimate roots in
combinations of atoms, in quality the same but in quantity different, and
referred all life and sensation to movements in them, while he regarded
quiescence as the _summum bonum_; he has been called the Laughing
Philosopher from, it is alleged, his habit of laughing at the follies of
mankind; _b_. 460 B.C.
DEMOCRITUS JUNIOR, a pseudonym under which Burton published his
"Anatomy of Melancholy."
DEMOGEOT, French litterateur, born at Paris; wrote a history of
literature, chiefly French (1808-1894).
DEMOGORGON, a terrible deity, the tyrant of the elves and fairies,
who must all appear before him once every five years to give an account
of their doings.
DEMOIVRE, ABRAHAM, a mathematician, born in Champagne; lived most of
his life in England to escape, as a Protestant, from persecution in
France; became a friend of Newton, and a Fellow of the Royal Society, and
was of such eminence as a mathematician that he was asked to arbitrate
between the claims of Newton and Leibnitz to the invention of fluxions
(1667-1754).
DEMON, or DAIMON, a name which Socrates gave to an inner divine
instinct which corresponds to one's destiny, and guides him in the way he
should go to fulfil it, and is more or less potent in a man according to
his purity of soul.
DE MORGAN, AUGUSTUS, an eminent mathematician, born in Madura, S.
India; was professor of Mathematics in London University from 1828 till
his death, though he resigned the appointment for a time in consequence
of the rejection of a candidate, James Martineau, for the chair of logic,
on account of his religious opinions; wrote treatises on almost every
department of mathematics, on arithmetic, algebra, trigonometry,
differential and integral calculus, the last pronounced to be "the most
complete treatise on the subject ever produced in England"; wrote also
"Formal Logic" (1806-1871).
DEMOSTHENES, the great Athenian orator, born in Athens; had many
impediments to overcome to succeed in the profession, but by ingenious
methods and indomitable perseverance he subdued them all, and became the
first orator not of Greece only, but of all antiquity; a stammer in his
speech he overcame by practising with pebbles in his mouth, and a natural
diffidence by declaiming on the sea-beach amid the noise of the waves;
while he acquired a perfect mastery of the Greek language by binding
himself down to copy five times over in succession Thucydides' "History
of the Peloponnesian War"; he employed 15 years of his life in
denunciation of Philip of Macedon, who was bent on subjugating his
country; pronounced against him his immortal "Philippics" and
"Olynthiacs"; took part in the battle of Cheronea, and continued the
struggle even after Philip's death; on the death of Alexander he gave his
services as an orator to the confederated Greeks, and in the end made
away with himself by poison so as not to fall into the hands of Autipater
(385-322 B.C.). See CTESIPHON.
DEMPSTER, THOMAS, a learned Scotchman, born in Aberdeenshire; held
several professorships on the Continent; was the author of "Historia
Ecclesiastica Gentis Scotorum," a work of great learning, but of
questionable veracity; has been reprinted by the Bannatyne Club; his last
days were embittered by the infidelity of his wife (1579-1625).
DENARIUS, a silver coin among the Romans, first coined in 269 B.C.,
and worth 81/2 d.
DENBIGH (6), the county town of Denbighshire, in the Vale of the
Clwyd, 30 m. W. of Chester; manufactures shoes and leather.
DENBIGHSHIRE (117), a county in North Wales, of rugged hills and
fertile vales, 40 m. long and 17 m. on an average broad, with a
coal-field in the NE., and with mines of iron, lead, and slate.
DENDERA, a village in Upper Egypt, on the left bank of the Nile, 28
m. N. of Thebes, on the site of ancient Tentyra, with the ruins of a
temple in almost perfect preservation; on the ceiling of a portico of
which there was found a zodiac, now in the museum of the Louvre in Paris,
and dates from the period of Cleopatra and the early Roman emperors, and
has sculptured portraits of that queen and her son Caesarion.
DENGUE, a disease peculiar to the tropics, occurs in hot weather,
and attacks one suddenly with high fever and violent pains, and after a
relapse returns in a milder form and leaves the patient very weak.
DENHAM, DIXON, an English traveller, companion of Clapperton;
visited Bornu and Lake Tchad (1785-1828).
DENHAM, SIR JOHN, an English poet, born at Dublin, the son of an
Irish judge; took to gambling and squandered his patrimony; was unhappy
in his marriage, and his mind gave way; is best known as the author of
"Cooper's Hill," a descriptive poem, interspersed with reflections, and
written in smooth flowing verse (1615-1669).
DENINA, CARLO, an Italian historian, born in Piedmont; banished from
Italy for a cynical remark injurious to the monks; paid court to
Frederick the Great in Berlin, where he lived a good while, and became
eventually imperial librarian in Paris under Napoleon (1731-1813).
DENIS, a king of Portugal from 1279 to 1325; the founder of the
University of Coimbra and the Order of Christ.
DENIS, ST., the apostle of the Gauls, the first bishop of Paris, and
the patron saint of France; suffered martyrdom in 270.
DENIS, ST., a town 6 m. N. of Paris, within the line of the
fortifications, with an abbey which contains the remains of St. Denis,
and became the mausoleum of the kings of France.
DENISON, EDWARD, philanthropist; distinguished by his self-denying
benevolent labours in the East End of London (1840-1870).
DENISON, GEORGE ANTHONY, archdeacon of Taunton, born in Notts; was
charged with holding views on the eucharist inconsistent with the
teaching of the Church of England, first condemned and then acquitted on
appeal; a stanch High Churchman, and equally opposed to Broad Church and
Low; _b_. 1805.
DENISON, JOHN EVELYN, Speaker of the House of Commons from 1858 to
1872, brother of the above (1800-1873).
DENMAN, LORD, Lord Chief-Justice of England from 1832 to 1850, born
in London; was along with Brougham counsel for Queen Caroline
(1779-1854).
DENMARK (2,182), the smallest of the three Scandinavian kingdoms,
consisting of Jutland and an archipelago of islands in the Baltic Sea,
divided into 18 counties, and is less than half the size of Scotland; is
a low-lying country, no place in it more above the sea-level than 500
ft., and as a consequence has no river to speak of, only meres or lakes;
the land is laid out in cornfields and grazing pastures; there are as
good as no minerals, but abundance of clay for porcelain; while the
exports consist chiefly of horses, cattle, swine, hams, and butter; it
has 1407 m. of railway, and 8686 of telegraph wires; the government is
constitutional, and the established religion Lutheran.
DENNEWITZ, a village in Brandenburg, 40 m. SW. of Berlin, where
Marshal Ney with 70,000 was defeated by Marshal Buelow with 50,000.
DENNIS, JOHN, a would-be dramatist and critic, born in London, in
constant broils with the wits of his time; his productions were worth
little, and he is chiefly remembered for his attacks on Addison and Pope,
and for the ridicule these attacks brought down at their hands on his own
head, from Pope in "Narrative of the Frenzy of John Dennis," and
"damnation to everlasting fame" in "Dunciad"; he became blind, and was
sunk in poverty, when Pope wrote a prologue to a play produced for his
benefit (1657-1734).
DENS, PETER, a Catholic theologian, born at Boom near Antwerp;
author of a work entitled "Theologia Moralis et Dogmatica," a minute and
casuistic vindication in catechetical form of the tenets of the Catholic
Church, and in use as a text-book in Catholic colleges (1690-1775).
DENTATUS, M. CURIUS, a Roman of the old stamp; as consul gained two
victories over rival States and two triumphs in one year; drove Pyrrhus
out of Italy (275 B.C.), and brought to Rome immense booty, of which he
would take nothing to himself; in his retirement took to tilling a small
farm with his own hand.
DENVER (134), the capital of Colorado, U.S., on a plain 5196 ft.
above the sea-level; originally founded as a mining station in 1858, now
a large and flourishing and well-appointed town; is the centre of a great
trade, and a great mining district.
DEODAR (25), a small protected independent State in the NW. of
Gujarat, India.
DEODORAKI, a glacier in the Caucasus Mountains.
DEPARCIEUX, French mathematician, born at Cessoux, dep. of Gard;
known for the "Tables" which bear his name, containing a reckoning of the
chances of longevity for different ages (1703-1768).
DEPARTMENT, a territorial division in France instituted in 1790,
under which the old division into provinces was broken up; each
department, of which there are now 87, is broken up into arrondissements.
DEPPING, a learned French historian, born at Muenster; wrote a
"History of Normandy," and on "Trade of Europe with the Levant"
(1784-1853).
DEPTFORD (101), a town on the S. bank of the Thames, partly in Kent
and partly in Surrey, now forming part of London; once with an extensive
Government dockyard and arsenal, the site of it purchased by the
Corporation of London as a market for foreign cattle; is now the central
station for the Electric Light Company.
DE QUINCEY, THOMAS, a great English prose writer, born in
Manchester; son of a merchant called Quincey; his father dying, he was
under a guardian, who put him to school, from which in the end he ran
away, wandered about in Wales for a time, and by-and-by found his way to
London; in 1803 was sent to Oxford, which in 1807 he left in disgust; it
was here as an anodyne he took to opium, and acquired that habit which
was the bane of his life; on leaving Oxford he went to Bath beside his
mother, where he formed a connection by which he was introduced to
Wordsworth and Southey, and led to settle to literary work at Grasmere,
in the Lake District; here he wrote for the reviews and magazines,
particularly _Blackwood's_, till in 1821 he went up to London and
published his "Confessions" under the _nom de plume_ of "The English
Opium-Eater"; leaving Grasmere in 1828 he settled in Edinburgh, and at
Polton, near Lasswade, where he died; is characterised by Stopford Brooke
as "owing to the overlapping and involved melody of his style one of our
best, as he is one of our most various miscellaneous writers"; he was a
writer of very miscellaneous ability and acquirement (1785-1859).
DERBEND (14), capital of Russian Daghestan, on the W. of the Caspian
Sea, 140 m. NW. of Baku.
DERBY (94), county town of Derbyshire, on the Derwent, with
manufactures of silk, cotton hosiery, lace, porcelain, &c.; it is the
centre of a great railway system.
DERBY, CHARLOTTE COUNTESS OF, wife of the 7th Earl who was taken
prisoner at Worcester in 1651, and was beheaded at Bolton; famous for her
gallant defence of Lathom House against the Parliamentary forces, which
she was obliged to surrender; lived to see the Restoration; _d_. 1663.
DERBY, 14TH EARL OF, British statesman, born at Knowsley Hall,
Lancashire; entered Parliament in 1820 in the Whig interest, and was
hailed as an accession to their ranks by the Whigs; supported the cause
of reform; in 1830 became Chief Secretary for Ireland under Earl Grey's
administration; introduced a coercive measure against the Repeal
agitation of O'Connell; contributed to the passing of the Reform Bill in
1832; seceded from the Whigs in 1834, and became Colonial Secretary in
1845 under a Conservative administration, but when Sir Robert Peel
brought in a bill to repeal the Corn Laws, he retired from the Cabinet,
and in 1848 became the head of the Protectionist party as Earl of Derby,
to which title he succeeded in 1851; was after that Prime Minister three
times over, and it was with his sanction Disraeli carried his Reform Act
of 1867, though he spoke of it as "a leap in the dark"; he resigned his
Premiership in 1868, and the last speech he made was against the Irish
Disestablishment Bill; was distinguished for his scholarship as well as
his oratory, and gave proof of this by his scholarly translation of the
"Iliad" of Homer (1797-1869).
DERBY, 15TH EARL OF, eldest son of the preceding; entered Parliament
as Lord Stanley in 1848; was a member of the three Derby administrations,
in the first and third in connection with foreign affairs, and in the
second as Secretary for India, at the time when the government of India
passed from the Company to the Crown; became Earl in 1869; was Foreign
Secretary under Mr. Disraeli in 1874, but retired in 1878; in 1885 joined
the Liberal party, and held office under Mr. Gladstone, but declined to
follow him in the matter of Home Rule, and joined the Unionist ranks; was
a man of sound and cool judgment, and took a deep interest in economical
questions (1826-1893).
DERBY DAY, the last Wednesday in May, or, as may happen, the 1st of
June, being the second day of the Summer Meeting at Epsom, on which the
Derby Stakes for colts and fillies three years old are run for, so called
as having been started by the 12th Earl of Derby in 1780; the day is held
as a great London holiday, and the scene is one to which all London turns
out. The stakes run for are L6000, of which the winner gets L5000.
DERBYSHIRE (520), a northern midland county of England, hilly in the
N., undulating and pastoral in the S., and with coal-fields in the E.;
abounds in minerals, and is more a manufacturing and mining county than
an agricultural.
DERG, LOUGH, an expansion of the waters of the Shannon, Ireland, 24
m. long, from 2 to 6 broad; also a small lake in the S. of Donegal, with
small islands, one of which, Station Island, was, as the reputed entrance
to St. Patrick's Purgatory, a place of pilgrimage to thousands at one
time.
DERVISHES, a name given to members of certain mendicant orders
connected with the Mohammedan faith in the East. Of these there are
various classes, under different regulations, and wearing distinctive
costumes, with their special observances of devotion, and all presumed to
lead an austere life, some of whom live in monasteries, and others go
wandering about, some of them showing their religious fervour in excited
whirling dances, and others in howlings; all are religious fanatics in
their way, and held sacred by the Moslems.
DERWENTWATER, one of the most beautiful of the Cumberland lakes, in
the S. of the county; extends S. from Keswick; is over 3 m. long, and
over 1 m. broad; is dotted with wooded islands, and is overlooked by
Skiddaw; it abounds with perch.
DERWENTWATER, EARL OF, a Jacobite leader; was 3rd Earl and the last;
several warrants were issued for his apprehension in 1714; he joined the
Jacobite rising in 1715; was taken prisoner at Preston, and beheaded on
Tower Hill, London, next year, after trial in Westminster Hall,
confession of guilt, and pleadings on his behalf with the king.
DERZHAVEN, GABRIEL, a Russian lyric poet, born at Kasan; rose from
the ranks as a common soldier to the highest offices in the State under
the Empress Catharine II. and her successors; retired into private life,
and gave himself up to poetry; the ode by which he is best known is his
"Address to the Deity" (1743-1816).
DESAIX, LOUIS CHARLES ANTOINE, a distinguished French general, born
at the Chateau d'Ayat, Auvergne, of a noble family; entered the army at
15; commanded a division of the Army of the Rhine in 1796, and after the
retreat of Moreau defended Kehl against the Austrians for two months;
accompanied Bonaparte to the East, and in 1799 conquered Upper Egypt;
contributed effectively to the success at Marengo, and fell dead at the
moment of victory, shot by a musket-ball; he was an upright and a
chivalrous man, known in Egypt as "the just Sultan," and in Germany as
"the good general" (1768-1800).
DESAUGIERS, MARC, a celebrated French composer of songs and
vaudevilles; "stands second to Beranger as a light song-writer," and is
by some preferred to him (1772-1827).
DESAULT, a French surgeon, born in dep. of Haute-Saone; his works
contributed largely to the progress of surgery (1714-1795).
DESBARRES, JOSEPH FREDERICK, military engineer and hydrographer,
aide-de-camp of General Wolfe at Quebec; fortified Quebec; surveyed the
St. Lawrence; revised the maps of the American coast at the outbreak of
the American war; died at Halifax, Nova Scotia, aged 102 (1722-1824).
DESCAMPS, a French painter, born at Dunkirk; painted village scenes
(1714-1791).
DESCARTES, RENE, the father of modern philosophy, born at La Haye,
in Touraine; was educated at the Jesuit College of La Fleche, where he
made rapid progress in all that his masters could teach him, but soon
grew sceptical as to their methods of inquiry; "resolved, on the
completion of his studies, to bid adieu to all school and book learning,
and henceforth to gain knowledge only from himself, and from the great
book of the world, from nature and the observation of man"; in 1616 he
entered the army of the Prince of Orange, and after a service of five
years quitted it to visit various centres of interest on the Continent;
made a considerable stay in Paris; finally abandoned his native land in
1629, and betook himself to seclusion in Holland in order to live there,
unknown and undisturbed, wholly for philosophy and the prosecution of his
scientific projects; here, though not without vexatious opposition from
the theologians, he lived twenty years, till in 1649, at the invitation
of Christina of Sweden, he left for Stockholm, where, the severe climate
proving too much for him, he was carried off by pneumonia next year;
Descartes' philosophy starts with Doubt, and by one single step it
arrives at Certainty; "if I doubt, it is plain I exist," and from this
certainty, that is, the existence of the thinking subject, he deduces his
whole system; it all comes from the formula _Cogito, ergo sum_, "I think,
therefore I exist," that is, the thinking _ego_ exists; in which thinking
philosophy ere long sums the universe up, regarding it as a void, without
thought; Descartes' philosophy is all comprehended in two works, his
"Discourse on Method," and his "Meditations" (1596-1650).
DESCHAMPS, EMILE, a French poet, born at Bourges, one of the chiefs
of the Romantic school (1795-1871).
DESCHAMPS, EUSTACHE, a French poet, born at Vertus, in Champagne;
studied in Orleans University; travelled over Europe; had his estate
pillaged by the English, whom, in consequence, he is never weary of
abusing; his poems are numerous, and, except one, all short, consisting
of ballads, as many as 1175 of them, a form of composition which he is
said to have invented; he deals extensively in satire, and if he wields
the shafts of it against the plunderers of his country, he does no less
against the oppressors of the poor (1328-1415).
DESDEMONA, the wife of Othello the Moor, who, in Shakespeare's play
of that name, kills her on a groundless insinuation of infidelity, to his
bitter remorse.
DESEZE, a French advocate, had the courage, along with advocate
Tronchet, to defend Louis XVI. when dragged to judgment by the
Convention, and who, honourably fulfilling his perilous office, pled for
the space of three hours, an honourable pleading "composed almost
overnight; courageous, yet discreet; not without ingenuity, and soft
pathetic eloquence"; he was imprisoned for a time, but escaped the
scaffold; on the return of the Bourbons he was made a peer (1750-1828).
DESMOND, EARLDOM OF, an Irish title long extinct by the death of the
last earl in 1583; he had rebelled against Elizabeth's government, been
proclaimed, and had taken refuge in a peasant's cabin, and been betrayed.
DES MOINES (62), the largest city in Iowa, U.S., and the capital,
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 Recreations 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 ZWEIBRUeCKEN (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 a 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 Moliere'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, aesthetics, 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
L80,000, 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 Chateau 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 Angouleme, 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, BARTHELEMY, 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 PENA, 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).
DICAEARCHUS, 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 L113,787 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 Caesar, 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 mediaeval 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 "Encyclopedie," 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 praetorian 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 Sichaeus, 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 Sichaeus, 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 AEneas, 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
Koenigsberg; 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 Nueremberg 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 Cote 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.
DIKE (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 _Athenaeum_; 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
Wuertemberg; studied under Ewald at Tuebingen; 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 Moliere'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 Cotes du Nord, France, 14 m.
S. of St. Malo; most picturesquely situated on the top of a steep hill,
amid romantic scenery, of great archaeological 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 Graecae Linguae" of Stephanus (1802-1883).
DINGELSTEDT, a German poet, novelist, and essayist, born near
Marburg; was the Duke of Wuertemberg's librarian at Stuttgart, and theatre
superintendent at Muenich, 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
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