D (continued 2)

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.

Dorine, a petulant domestic in Molière's "Tartuffe."

Doris, a small mountainous country of ancient Greece, S. of Thessaly, and embracing the valley of the Pindus.

Doris, the wife of Nereus, and mother of the Nereids.

Dorislaus, Isaac, a lawyer, born at Alkmaar, in Holland; came to England, and was appointed Judge-Advocate; acted as such at King Charles's trial, and was for that latter offence assassinated at the Hague one evening by certain high-flying Royalist cut-throats, Scotch several of them; "his portrait represents him as a man of heavy, deep-wrinkled, elephantine countenance, pressed down by the labours of life and law" (1595-1649).

Dorking (7), a market-town picturesquely situated in the heart of Surrey, 24 m. SW. of London; gives name to a breed of fowls; contains a number of fashionable villas.

Dorn, a distinguished German orientalist; wrote a History of the Afghans, and on their language (1805-1881).

Dorner, Isaak August, a German theologian, born at Würtemberg; studied at Tübingen; became professor of Theology in Berlin, after having held a similar post in several other German universities; his principal works were the "History of the Development of the Doctrine of the Person of Christ," and the "History of Protestant Theology" (1809-1884).

Dornoch, the county town of Sutherland, a small place, but a royal burgh; has a good golf course.

Doros, a son of Helen and grandson of Deucalion, the father of the Dorians, as his brother Æolis was of the Æolians.

Dorothea, St., a virgin of Alexandria, suffered martyrdom by being beheaded in 311. Festival, Feb. 6.

Dorpat (38), a town on the Embach, in Livonia, Russia, 150 m. NE. of Riga, with a celebrated university founded by Gustavus Adolphus in 1632; it has a well-equipped staff, and is well attended; the majority of the population is German.

D'Orsay, Count, a man of fashion, born in Paris; entered the French army; forsook it for the society of Lord and Lady Blessington; married Lady B.'s daughter by a former marriage; came to England with her ladyship on her husband's death; started a joint establishment in London, which became a rendezvous for all the literary people and artists about town; was "Phoebus Apollo of Dandyism"; paid homage to Carlyle at Chelsea one day in 1839; "came whirling hither in a chariot that struck all Chelsea into mute amazement with splendour," says Carlyle, who thus describes him, "a tall fellow of six feet three, built like a tower, with floods of dark auburn hair, with a beauty, with an adornment unsurpassable on this planet: withal a rather substantial fellow at bottom, by no means without insight, without fun, and a sort of rough sarcasm, rather striking out of such a porcelain figure"; having shown kindness to Louis Napoleon when in London, the Prince did not forget him, and after the coup d'état appointed him to a well-salaried post, but he did not live to enjoy it (1798-1852).

Dorset (194), maritime county in the S. of England, with a deeply indented coast; it consists of a plain between two eastward and westward reaching belts of downs; is mainly a pastoral county; rears sheep and cattle, and produces butter and cheese.

Dort, or Dordrecht (34), a town on an island in the Maas, in the province of South Holland, 12 m. SE. of Rotterdam; admirably situated for trade, connected as it is with the Rhine as well, on which rafts of wood are sent floating down to it; is famous for a Synod held here in 1618-19, at which the tenets of Arminius were condemned, and the doctrines of Calvin approved of and endorsed as the doctrines of the Reformed Church.

Dortmund (89), a town in Westphalia; a great mineral and railway centre, with large iron and steel forges, and a number of breweries.

Dory, John, the hero of an old ballad.

Do-the-Boys'-Hall, a scholastic establishment in "Nicholas Nickleby."

Douay (31), a town on the Scarpe, in the dep. of Nord, France, 20 m. S. of Lille, and one of the chief military towns of the country; has a college founded in 1568 for the education of Catholic priests intended for England, and is where a version of the Bible in English for the use of Catholics was issued.

Doubs, a tributary of the Saône, which it falls into below Dôle; gives name to the dep. (303), which it traverses.

Doubting Castle, a castle belonging to Giant Despair in the "Pilgrim's Progress," which only one key could open, the key Promise.

Douce, Francis, a learned antiquary, born in London; for a time keeper of MSS. in the British Museum; author of "Illustrations of Shakespeare," and an illustrated volume, "The Dance of Death"; left in the Museum a chest of books and MSS. not to be opened till 1900; was a man of independent means, and a devoted archæologist (1757-1834).

Douglas (19), the largest town and capital as well as chief port of the Isle of Man, 74 m. from Liverpool; much frequented as a bathing-place; contains an old residence of the Dukes of Atholl, entitled Castle Mona, now a hotel. See Man, Isle of.

Douglas-1, the name of an old Scotch family, believed to be of Celtic origin, and that played a conspicuous part at one time in the internal and external struggles of the country; they figure in Scottish history in two branches, the elder called the Black and the later the Red Douglases or the Angus branch, now represented by the houses of Hamilton and Home. The eldest of the Douglases, William, was a kinsman of the house of Murray, and appears to have lived about the end of the 12th century. One of the most illustrious of the family was the Good Sir James, distinguished specially as the "Black" Douglas, the pink of knighthood and the associate of Bruce, who carried the Bruce's heart in a casket to bury it in Palestine, but died fighting in Spain, 1330.

Douglas, Gawin or Gavin, a Scottish poet and bishop of Dunkeld, third son of Archibald, Earl of Angus, surnamed "Bell-the-Cat"; political troubles obliged him to leave the country and take refuge at the Court of Henry VII., where he was held in high regard; died here of the plague, and was buried by his own wish in the Savoy; besides Ovid's "Art of Love," now lost, he translated (1512-1513) the "Æneid" of Virgil into English verse, to each book of which he prefixed a prologue, in certain of which there are descriptions that evince a poet's love of nature combined with his love as a Scotchman for the scenery of his native land; besides this translation, which is his chief work, he indited two allegorical poems, entitled the "Palace of Honour," addressed to James IV., and "King Hart" (1474-1522).

Douglas, Sir Howard, an English general and writer on military subjects, born at Gosport; saw service in the Peninsula; was Governor of New Brunswick and Lord High Commissioner of the Ionian Islands (1776-1861).

Douglas, John, bishop of Salisbury, born at Pittenweem, Fife; wrote "The Criterion of, or a Discourse on, Miracles" against Hume; was a friend of Samuel Johnson's (1721-1807).

Douglas, Stephen Arnold, an American statesman, born in Brandon, Vermont; a lawyer by profession, and a judge; a member of Congress and the Senate; was a Democrat; stood for the Presidency when Lincoln was elected; was a leader in the Western States; a splendid monument is erected to his memory in Chicago (1813-1861).

Douglass, Frederick, American orator, born a slave in Maryland; wrought as a slave in a Baltimore shipbuilder's yard; escaped at the age of 21 to New York; attended an anti-slavery meeting, where he spoke so eloquently that he was appointed by the Anti-Slavery Society to lecture in its behalf, which he did with success and much appreciation in England as well as America; published an Autobiography, which gives a thrilling account of his life (1817-1895).

Doulton, Sir Henry, the reviver of art pottery, born in Lambeth; knighted in the Jubilee year for his eminence in that department; b. 1820.

Douro, a river, and the largest, of the Spanish Peninsula, which rises in the Cantabrian Mountains; forms for 40 m. the northern boundary of Portugal, and after a course of 500 m. falls into the Atlantic at Oporto; is navigable only where it traverses Portugal.

Douster-swivel, a German swindling schemer in the "Antiquary."

Dove, in Christian art the symbol of the Holy Ghost, or of a pure, or a purified soul, and with an olive branch, the symbol of peace and the gospel of peace.

Dove, Heinrich Wilhelm, a German physicist, born at Liegnitz, Silesia; professor of Natural Philosophy in Berlin; was eminent chiefly in the departments of meteorology and optics; he discovered how by the stereoscope to detect forged bank-notes (1803-1879).

Dover (33), a seaport on the E. coast of Kent, and the nearest in England to the coast of France, 60 m. SE. of London, and with a mail service to Calais and Ostend; is strongly fortified, and the chief station in the SE. military district of England; was the chief of the Cinque Ports.

Dover, Strait of, divides France from England and connects the English Channel with the North Sea, and at the narrowest 20 m. across; forms a busy sea highway; is called by the French Pas de Calais.

Dovrefeld, a range of mountains in Norway, stretching NE. and extending between 62° and 63° N. lat., average height 3000 ft.

Dow or Douw, Gerard, a distinguished Dutch genre-painter, born at Leyden; a pupil of Rembrandt; his works, which are very numerous, are the fruit of a devoted study of nature, and are remarkable for their delicacy and perfection of finish; examples of his works are found in all the great galleries of Europe (1613-1675).

Dowden, Edward, literary critic, professor of English Literature in Dublin University, born in Cork; is distinguished specially as a Shakesperian; is author of "Shakespeare: a Study of his Mind and Art," "Introduction to Shakespeare," and "Shakesperian Sonnets, with Notes"; has written "Studies in Literature," and a "Life of Shelley"; is well read in German as well as English literature; has written with no less ability on Goethe than on Shakespeare; b. 1843.

Down (266), a maritime county in the SE. of the province of Ulster, Ireland, with a mostly level and fairly fertile soil, and manufactures of linen.

Downs, The, a safe place of anchorage, 8 m. long by 6 m. broad, for ships between Goodwin Sands and the coast of Kent.

Downs, The North and South, two parallel ranges of low broad hills covered with a light soil and with a valley between, called the Weald, that extend eastward from Hampshire to the sea-coast, the North terminating in Dover cliffs, Kent, and the South in Beachy Head, Sussex; the South famous for the breed of sheep that pastures on them.

Doyle, Dr. Conan, novelist, nephew of Richard and grandson of John, born in Edinburgh; studied and practised medicine, but gave it up after a time for literature, in which he had already achieved no small success; several of his productions have attracted universal attention, especially his "Adventures" and his "Memoir of Sherlock Holmes"; wrote a short play "A Story of Waterloo," produced with success by Sir Henry Irving; b. 1859.

Doyle, Sir Francis Hastings, an English poet, born near Tadcaster; bred to the bar, but devoted to poetry and horse-racing; became professor of Poetry at Oxford; author of "Miscellaneous Verses," "Two Destinies," "Retreat of the Guards," "The Thread of Honour," and "The Private of the Buffs" (1810-1858).

Doyle, John, an eminent caricaturist, of Irish origin, under the initials H. B. (1797-1868).

Doyle, Richard, eminent caricaturist, born in London, son of the preceding; contributed to Punch, of which he designed the cover, but left the staff, in 1850 owing to the criticisms in the journal adverse to the Catholic Church; devoted himself after that chiefly to book illustration and water-colour painting (1824-1883).

Dozy, Reinhart, an Orientalist and linguist, born at Leyden, where he became professor of History; devoted himself to the study of the history of the Arabs or Moors in North-Western Africa and Spain, his chief work being "The History of the Mussulmans of Spain"; wrote also a "Detailed Dictionary of the Names of the Dress of the Arabs" (1820-1883).

Drachenfels (Dragon's Rock), one of the Siebengebirge, 8 m. SE. of Bonn, 1056 ft. above the Rhine, and crowned by a castle with a commanding view; the legendary abode of the dragon killed by Siegfried in the "Lay of the Nibelungen."

Draco, a celebrated Athenian law-giver, who first gave stability to the State by committing the laws to writing, and establishing the Ephetæ, or court of appeal, 621 B.C.; only he punished every transgressor of his laws with death, so that his code became unbearable, and was superseded ere long by a milder, instituted by Solon, who affixed the penalty of death to murder alone; he is said to have justified the severity of his code by maintaining that the smallest crime deserved death, and he knew no severer punishment for greater; it is said he was smothered to death in the theatre by the hats and cloaks showered on him as a popular mark of honour; he was archon of Athens.

Dragon, a fabulous monster, being a hideous impersonation of some form of deadly evil, which only preternatural heroic strength and courage can subdue, and on the subdual and slaying of which depends the achievement of some conquest of vital moment to the human race or some members of it; is represented in mediæval art as a large, lizard-like animal, with the claws of a lion, the wings of an eagle, and the tail of a serpent, with open jaws ready and eager to devour, which some knight high-mounted thrusts at to pierce to death with a spear; in the Greek mythology it is represented with eyes ever on the watch, in symbol of the evil that waylays us to kill us if we don't kill it, as in guarding the "Apples of the Hesperides" and the "Golden Fleece," because these are prizes that fall only to those who are as watchful of him as he is of them; and it is consecrated to Minerva to signify that true wisdom, as sensible of the ever-wakeful dragon, never goes to sleep, but is equally ever on the watch.

Dragonnades, the name given to the persecution at the instance of Louis XIV. to force the Huguenots of France back into the bosom of the Catholic Church by employment of dragoons.

Dragon's Teeth, the teeth of the dragon that Cadmus slew, and which when sown by him sprang up as a host of armed men, who killed each other all to the five who became the ancestors of the Thebans, hence the phrase to "sow dragon's teeth," to breed and foster strife.

Drake, Sir Francis, a great English seaman of the reign of Queen Elizabeth, born near Tavistock, in Devon; served in the Royal Navy under his relative, Sir John Hawkins, and distinguished himself with signal success by his valour and daring against the pride of Spain, towards which, as the great Catholic persecuting power, he had been taught to cherish an invincible hatred; came swoop down like a hawk on its ports across seas, and bore himself out of them laden with spoil; in 1577 sailed for America with five ships, passed through the Strait of Magellan, the first Englishman to do it; plundered the W. coast as far as Peru; lost all his ships save one; crossed the Pacific, and came home by way of the Cape—the first to sail round the world—with spoil to the value of £300,000, his successes contributing much to embolden his countrymen against the arrogance of the Catholic king; and he was vice-admiral in the fleet that drove back the Armada from our shores (1540-1596).

Drake, Friedrich, a German sculptor, born at Pyrmont; studied under Rauch; executed numerous statues and busts, among others busts of Oken and Ranke, Bismarck and Moltke; his chief works are the "Eight Provinces of Prussia," represented by large allegorical figures, and the "Warrior crowned by Victory" (1805-1882).

Drake, Nathan, a physician, born at York; author of "Shakespeare and his Times" (1766-1836).

Drakenberg Mountains, a range of mountains in S. Africa, 6500 ft. high, between Natal and the Orange Free State.

Dramatic unities, three rules of dramatic construction prescribed by Aristotle, observed by the French dramatists, but ignored by Shakespeare, that (1) a play should represent what takes place within eight hours, (2) there must be no change of locality, and (3) there must be no minor plot.

Drammen (20), a Norwegian seaport on a river which falls into Christiania Bay, 30 m. SW. of Christiania; trade chiefly in timber.

Draper, John William, a chemist, scientist, and man of letters, born at Liverpool; settled in the United States; wrote on chemistry, physiology, and physics generally, as well as works of a historical character, such as the "History of the Intellectual Development of Europe" and the "History of the Conflict between Science and Religion," an able book (1811-1882).

Drapier, a pseudonym adopted by Swift in his letters to the people of Ireland anent Wood's pence, and which led to the cancelling of the patent.

Drave, a river from the Eastern Alps which flows eastward, and after a course of 380 miles falls into the Danube 10 m. below Essek.

Dravidians, races of people who occupied India before the arrival of Aryans, and being driven S. by them came to settle chiefly in the S. of the Dekkan; they are divided into numerous tribes, each with a language of its own, but of a common type or group, some of them literary and some of them not, the chief the Tamil; the tribes together number over 20 millions.

Drawcansir, a blustering, bullying boaster in Buckingham's play the "Rehearsal"; he kills every one of the combatants, "sparing neither friend nor foe."

Drayton, Michael, an English poet, born In Warwickshire, like Shakespeare; was one of the three chief patriotic poets, Warner and Daniel being the other two, which arose in England after her humiliation of the pride of Spain, although he was no less distinguished as a love poet; his great work is his "Polyolbion," in glorification of England, consisting of 30 books and 100,000 lines; it gives in Alexandrines "the tracts, mountains, forests, and other parts of this renowned isle of Britain, with intermixture of the most remarkable stories, antiquities, wonders, pleasures, and commodities of the same digested in a poem"; this was preceded by other works, and succeeded by a poem entitled "The Ballad of Agincourt," pronounced one of the most spirited martial lyrics in the language (1563-1631).

Drelincourt, a French Protestant divine, born at Sedan; author of "Consolations against the Fear of Death" (1595-1669).

Drenthe (137), a province of Holland lying between Hanover and the Zuyder Zee; the soil is poor, and the population sparse.

Dresden (250), the capital of Saxony, on the Elbe, 116 m. SE. of Berlin; a fine city, with a museum rich in all kinds of works of art, and called in consequence the "Florence of Germany"; here the Allies were defeated by Napoleon in 1813, when he entered the city, leaving behind him 30,000 men, who were besieged by the Russians and compelled to surrender as prisoners of war the same year.

Dreyfus, l'Affaire. On 23rd December 1894, Alfred Dreyfus, an Alsatian Jew, captain of French Artillery; was by court-martial found guilty of revealing to a foreign power secrets of national defence, and sentenced to degradation and perpetual imprisonment; he constantly maintained his innocence, and, in time, the belief that he had been unjustly condemned became prevalent, and a revision of the trial being at length ordered, principally through the exertions of Colonel Picquart and Zola, the well-known author, Dreyfus was brought back from Cayenne, where he had been kept a close prisoner and cruelly treated, and a fresh trial at Rennes began on 6th August 1899, and lasted till 9th September; the proceedings, marked by scandalous "scenes," and by an attempt to assassinate one of prisoner's counsel—disclosed an alarmingly corrupt condition of affairs in some lines of French public life under the Republic of the time, and terminated in a majority verdict of "guilty"; M. Dreyfus was set at liberty on 20th September, the sentence of ten years' imprisonment being remitted; b. 1860.

Dreyse, Nicholaus von, inventor of the needle-gun, born at Sömmerda, near Erfurt, the son of a locksmith, and bred to his father's craft; established a large factory at Sömmerda for a manufactory of firearms; was ennobled 1864 (1787-1867).

Drogheda (11), a seaport in co. Louth, near the mouth of the Boyne, 32 m. N. of Dublin, with manufactures and a considerable export trade; was stormed by Cromwell in 1649 "after a stout resistance," and the garrison put to the sword; surrendered to William III. after the battle of the Boyne in 1690.

Dromore, a cathedral town in co. Down, Ireland, 17 m. SW. of Belfast, of which Jeremy Taylor was bishop.

Droogs, steep rocks which dot the surface of Mysore, in India, and resemble hay-ricks, some of these 1500 ft. high, some with springs on the top, and scalable only by steps cut in them.

Droste-Hülshoff, Fraulein von, a German poetess, born near Münster; was of delicate constitution; wrote tales as well as lyrics in record of deep and tender experiences (1797-1848).

Drouet, Jean Baptiste, notable king-taker, a violent Jacobin and member of the Council of the Five Hundred; had been a dragoon soldier; was postmaster at St. Menehould when Louis XVI., attempting flight, passed through the place, and by whisper of surmise had the progress of Louis and his party arrested at Varennes, June 21, 1791, for which service he received honourable mention and due reward in money; was taken captive by the Austrians at last; perched on a rock 100 ft. high, descended one night by means of a paper kite he had constructed, but was found at the foot helpless with leg broken (1763-1824).

Drouet, Jean Baptiste, Comte d'Erlon, marshal of France, born at Rheims; distinguished in the wars of the Republic and the Empire; on Napoleon's return from Elba seized on the citadel of Lille, and held it for the emperor; commanded the first corps d'armée at Waterloo; left France at the Restoration; returned after the July Revolution; became governor of Algiers, and was created marshal (1765-1844).

Drouot, a French general, son of a baker at Nancy; Napoleon, whom, as commander of artillery, he accompanied over all his battlefields in Europe and to Elba, used to call him the Sage of the Grande Armée (1774-1847).

Drouyn de Lhuys, French statesman and diplomatist, born in Paris; was ambassador at the Hague and Madrid; distinguished himself by his opposition to Guizot; served as Minister of Foreign Affairs under Louis Napoleon; withdrew into private life after the collapse at Sedan (1805-1881).

Droysen, a German historian, born in Pomerania; professor in Berlin; author of the "History of Prussian Policy," "History of Alexander the Great," and "History of Hellenism" (1808-1884).

Droz, the name of a Swiss family of mechanicians, one of them, Jean Pierre, an engraver of medals (1746-1833); also of a French moralist and historian, author of "History of Louis XVI." (1773-1850).

Droz, Gustav, a highly popular and brilliant novelist, born in Paris; author of "Monsieur, Madam, et Bébé," "Entre Nous," and "Cahier bleu de Mlle. Cibot" (1832-1895).

Druids, a sacred order of learned men under a chief called the Archdruid, among the ancient Celtic nations, particularly of Gaul and Britain, who, from their knowledge of the arts and sciences of the day, were the ministers of religion and justice, as well as the teachers of youth to the whole community, and exercised an absolute control over the unlearned people whom they governed; they worshipped in oak groves, and the oak tree and the mistletoe were sacred to them; the heavenly bodies appear to have been also objects of their worship, and they appear to have believed in the immortality and transmigration of the soul; but they committed nothing to writing, and for our knowledge of them we have to depend on the reports of outsiders.

Drumclog Moss, a flat wilderness of broken bog and quagmire in Lanarkshire, where the Covenanters defeated Claverhouse's dragoons in 1679.

Drummond, Henry, popular scientist and Christian teacher, born in Stirling; was educated at Edinburgh and Tübingen; studied for the Free Church; lectured on natural science; became famous by the publication of "Natural Law in the Spiritual World," a book which took with the Christian public at once, and had an enormous sale, which was succeeded by "Tropical Africa," a charmingly-written book of travel, and by a series of booklets, commencing with "The Greatest Thing in the World," intended to expound and commend the first principles of the Christian faith; his last work except one, published posthumously, entitled the "Ideal Life," was the "Ascent of Man," in which he posits an altruistic element in the process of evolution, and makes the goal of it a higher and higher life (1851-1897).

Drummond, Captain Thomas, civil engineer, born in Edinburgh; inventor of the Drummond Light; was employed in the trigonometrical survey of Great Britain and Ireland; became Under-Secretary for Ireland, and was held in high favour by the Irish (1797-1840).

Drummond, William, of Hawthornden, a Scottish poet, named the "Petrarch of Scotland," born in Hawthornden; studied civil law at Bourges, but poetry had more attractions for him than law, and on the death of his father he returned to his paternal estate, and devoted himself to the study of it and the indulgence of his poetic tastes. "His work was done," as Stopford Brooke remarks, "in the reign of James I., but is the result of the Elizabethan influence extending to Scotland. Drummond's sonnets and madrigals have some of the grace of Sidney, and he rose at intervals into grave and noble verse, as in his sonnet on John the Baptist." He was a devoted Royalist; his first poem was "Tears" on the death of James I.'s eldest son Henry, and the fate of Charles I. is said to have cut short his days; the visit of Ben Jonson to him at Hawthornden is well known (1585-1649).

Drummond Light, an intensely-brilliant and pure white light produced by the play of an oxyhydrogen flame upon a ball of lime, so called from the inventor, Captain Thomas Drummond.

Drury, Dru, a naturalist, born in London; bred a silversmith; took to entomology; published "Illustrations of Natural History"; his principal work "Illustrations of Exotic Entomology" (1725-1803).

Drury Lane, a celebrated London theatre founded in 1663, in what was a fashionable quarter of the city then; has since that time been thrice burnt down; was the scene of Garrick's triumphs, and of those of many of his illustrious successors, though it is now given up chiefly to pantomimes and spectacular exhibitions.

Druses, a peculiar people, numbering some 80,000, inhabiting the S. of Lebanon and Anti-lebanon, with the Maronites on the N., whose origin is very uncertain, only it is evident, though they speak the Arab language, they belong to the Aryan race; their religion, a mixture of Christian, Jewish, and Mohammedan beliefs, is grounded on faith in the unity and the incarnation of God; their form of government is half hierarchical and half feudalistic; in early times they were under emirs of their own, but in consequence of the sanguinary, deadly, and mutually exterminating strife between them and the Christian Maronites in 1860, they were put under a Christian governor appointed by the Porte.

Drusus, M. Livius, a tribune of the people at Rome in 122 B.C., but a stanch supporter of the aristocracy; after passing a veto on a popular measure proposed by Gracchus his democratic colleague, proposed the same measure himself in order to show and prove to the people that the patricians were their best friends; the success of this policy gained him the name of "patron of the senate."