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Title: Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 7, Slice 10 - "David, St" to "Demidov"
Author: Various
Language: English
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*** Start of this LibraryBlog Digital Book "Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 7, Slice 10 - "David, St" to "Demidov"" ***
Transcriber's notes:
(1) Numbers following letters (without space) like C2 were originally
printed in subscript. Letter subscripts are preceded by an
underscore, like C_n.
(2) Characters following a carat (^) were printed in superscript.
(3) Side-notes were relocated to function as titles of their respective
paragraphs.
(4) Macrons and breves above letters and dots below letters were not
inserted.
(5) [root] stands for the root symbol; [alpha], [beta], etc. for greek
letters.
(6) The following typographical errors have been corrected:
ARTICLE DAVIS, HENRY WINTER: "The War of Ormuzd and Ahriman in the
Nineteenth Century (1853), in which he combated the Southern
contention that slavery was a divine institution." 'Nineteenth'
amended from 'Ninteenth'.
ARTICLE DEAD SEA: "Among these may be mentioned 880 (1) the
explanation of a remarkable line of white foam that extends along
the axis of the lake almost every morning--supposed by Blanckenhorn
..." 'almost' amended from 'amost'.
ARTICLE DECEMVIRI: "... the name applied by the Romans to any
official commission of ten." 'commission' amended from 'commision'.
ARTICLE DÉJAZET, PAULINE VIRGINIE: "French actress, born in Paris
on the 30th of August 1798, made her first appearance on the stage
at the age of five." 'August' amended from 'Ausust'.
ARTICLE DEKKER, EDWARD DOUWES: "He was ardent, provocative, perhaps
a little hysterical, but he made himself heard all over Europe."
'himself' amended from 'himelf'.
ARTICLE DEKKER, JEREMIAS DE: "(Klaagliederen van Jeremias), which
was followed by translations and imitations of Horace, Juvenal and
other Latin poets." 'Klaagliederen' amended from 'Klaagliedern'.
ARTICLE DELABORDE, HENRI FRANÇOIS: "Against Sir Arthur Wellesley's
English army he fought the skillful brilliant rear-guard action of
Rolica." 'skillful' amended from 'skilful'.
ARTICLE DEMETRIUS DONSKOI: "In 1371 he won over the khan by a
personal visit to the Horde, and in 1372 he defeated the
Lithuanians at Lyubutsk." 'and' amended from 'add'.
ENCYCLOPAEDIA BRITANNICA
A DICTIONARY OF ARTS, SCIENCES, LITERATURE
AND GENERAL INFORMATION
ELEVENTH EDITION
VOLUME VII, SLICE X
David, St to Demidov
ARTICLES IN THIS SLICE:
DAVID, ST DEERFIELD
DAVID I. DEER PARK
DAVID II. DEFAMATION
DAVID (Welsh princes) DEFAULT
DAVID, FÉLICIEN DEFEASANCE
DAVID, GERARD DEFENCE
DAVID, JACQUES LOUIS DEFENDANT
DAVID, PIERRE JEAN DEFENDER OF THE FAITH
DAVIDISTS DEFERENT
DAVIDSON, ANDREW BRUCE DEFFAND, MARIE ANNE DE VICHY-CHAMROND
DAVIDSON, JOHN DEFIANCE
DAVIDSON, RANDALL THOMAS DEFILE
DAVIDSON, SAMUEL DEFINITION
DAVIDSON, THOMAS DEFOE, DANIEL
DAVIES, DAVID CHARLES DEGAS, HILAIRE GERMAIN EDGARD
DAVIES, SIR JOHN DE GEER, LOUIS GERHARD
DAVIES, JOHN DEGGENDORF
DAVIES, SIR LOUIS HENRY DE HAAS, MAURITZ FREDERICK HENDRICK
DAVIES, RICHARD DEHRA
DAVILA, ENRICO CATERINO DEHRA DUN
DAVIS, ANDREW JACKSON DEIOCES
DAVIS, CHARLES HOWARD DEÏOTARUS
DAVIS, CUSHMAN KELLOGG DEIR
DAVIS, HENRY WILLIAM BANKS DEIRA
DAVIS, HENRY WINTER DEISM
DAVIS, JEFFERSON DEISTER
DAVIS, JOHN DÉJAZET, PAULINE VIRGINIE
DAVIS, THOMAS OSBORNE DE KALB
DAVISON, WILLIAM DE KEYSER, THOMAS
DAVIS STRAIT DEKKER, EDWARD DOUWES
DAVITT, MICHAEL DEKKER, JEREMIAS DE
DAVOS DEKKER, THOMAS
DAVOUT, LOUIS NICOLAS DE LA BECHE, SIR HENRY THOMAS
DAVY, SIR HUMPHRY DELABORDE, HENRI FRANÇOIS
DAWARI DELACROIX, FERDINAND VICTOR EUGÈNE
DAWES, HENRY LAURENS DE LA GARDIE, MAGNUS GABRIEL
DAWES, RICHARD DELAGOA BAY
DAWISON, BOGUMIL DELAMBRE, JEAN BAPTISTE JOSEPH
DAWKINS, WILLIAM BOYD DELAMERE, GEORGE BOOTH
DAWLISH DE LAND
DAWN DELANE, JOHN THADEUS
DAWSON, GEORGE DELANY, MARY GRANVILLE
DAWSON, SIR JOHN WILLIAM DE LA REY, JACOBUS HERCULES
DAWSON CITY DE LA RIVE, AUGUSTE ARTHUR
DAX DELAROCHE, HIPPOLYTE
DAY, JOHN DELARUE, GERVAIS
DAY, THOMAS DE LA RUE, WARREN
DAY DELATOR
DAYLESFORD DELAUNAY, ELIE
DAYTON (Kentucky, U.S.A.) DELAUNAY, LOUIS ARSÈNE
DAYTON (Ohio, U.S.A.) DELAVIGNE, JEAN FRANÇOIS CASIMIR
DEACON DELAWARE (state of the U.S.)
DEACONESS DELAWARE (city)
DEAD SEA DELAWARE INDIANS
DEADWOOD DELAWARE RIVER
DEAF AND DUMB DELAWARE WATER-GAP
DEÁK, FRANCIS DE LA WARR
DEAL (municipal borough) DELBRÜCK, HANS
DEAL (part or portion) DELBRÜCK, MARTIN FRIEDRICH RUDOLF VON
DEAN DELCASSÉ, THÉOPHILE
DEAN, FOREST OF DEL CREDERE
DEANE, RICHARD DELESCLUZE, LOUIS CHARLES
DEANE, SILAS DELESSE, ACHILLE ERNEST OSCAR JOSEPH
DEATH DELESSERT, JULES PAUL BENJAMIN
DEATH-WARNING DELFICO, MELCHIORRE
DEATH-WATCH DELFT
DE BARY, HEINRICH ANTON DELHI
DEBENTURES and DEBENTURE STOCK DELIA
DEBORAH DELIAN LEAGUE
DEBRECZEN DELIBES, CLÉMENT PHILIBERT LÉO
DEBT DELILAH
DEBUSSY, CLAUDE ACHILLE DELILLE, JACQUES
DECADE DELIRIUM
DECAEN, CHARLES MATHIEU ISIDORE DELISLE, JOSEPH NICOLAS
DECALOGUE DELISLE, LÉOPOLD VICTOR
DE CAMP, JOSEPH DELITZSCH, FRANZ
DECAMPS, ALEXANDRE GABRIEL DELITZSCH
DECAPOLIS DELIUS, NIKOLAUS
DECASTYLE DELLA BELLA, STEFANO
DECATUR, STEPHEN DELLA CASA, GIOVANNI
DECATUR DELLA COLLE, RAFFAELLINO
DECAZES, ÉLIE DELLA GHERARDESCA, UGOLINO
DECAZEVILLE DELLA PORTA, GIOVANNI BATTISTA
DECCAN DELLA QUERCIA, JACOPO
DECELEA DELLA ROBBIA
DECEMBER DELMEDIGO
DECEMVIRI DELMENHORST
DECHEN, ERNST HEINRICH KARL VON DELOLME, JEAN LOUIS
DECIDUOUS DELONEY, THOMAS
DECIMAL COINAGE DE LONG, GEORGE WASHINGTON
DECIUS, GAIUS MESSIUS TRAJANUS DELORME, MARION
DECIZE DE L'ORME, PHILIBERT
DECKER, SIR MATTHEW DELOS
DECKER, PIERRE DE DE LOUTHERBOURG, PHILIP JAMES
DECLARATION DELPHI
DECLARATION OF PARIS DELPHINIA
DECLARATOR DELPHINUS
DECLINATION DELTA
DECOLOURIZING DELUC, JEAN ANDRÉ
DECORATED PERIOD DELUGE, THE
DE COSTA, BENJAMIN FRANKLIN DELYANNI, THEODOROS
DE COSTER, CHARLES HENRI DEMADES
DECOY DEMAGOGUE
DECREE DEMANTOID
DECRETALS DEMARATUS
DECURIO DEMERARA
DÉDÉAGATCH DEMESNE
DEDHAM DEMETER
DEDICATION DEMETRIA
DE DONIS CONDITIONALIBUS DEMETRIUS (king of Bactria)
DEDUCTION DEMETRIUS (kings of Macedonia)
DEE, JOHN DEMETRIUS (kings of Syria)
DEE (river of Wales) DEMETRIUS (Greek sculptor)
DEE (river of Scotland) DEMETRIUS (Cynic philosopher)
DEED DEMETRIUS DONSKOI
DEEMS, CHARLES (ALEXANDER) FORCE DEMETRIUS PHALEREUS
DEER DEMETRIUS, PSEUDO-
DEMIDOV
DAVID, ST (_Dewi, Sant_), the national and tutelar saint of Wales, whose
annual festival, known as "St David's Day," falls on the 1st of March.
Few historical facts are known regarding the saint's life and actions,
and the dates both of his birth and death are purely conjectural,
although there is reason to suppose he was born about the year 500 and
died at a great age towards the close of the 6th century. According to
his various biographers he was the son of Sandde, a prince of the line
of Cunedda, his mother being Non, who ranks as a Cymric saint. He seems
to have taken a prominent part in the celebrated synod of
Llanddewi-Brefi (see CARDIGANSHIRE), and to have presided at the
so-called "Synod of Victory," held some years later at Caerleon-on-Usk.
At some date unknown, St David, as _penescoli_ or primate of South
Wales, moved the seat of ecclesiastical government from Caerleon to the
remote headland of Mynyw, or Menevia, which has ever since, under the
name of St David's (_Ty-Dewi_), remained the cathedral city of the
western see. St David founded numerous churches throughout all parts of
South Wales, of which fifty-three still recall his name, but apparently
he never penetrated farther north than the region of Powys, although he
seems to have visited Cornwall. With the passing of time the saint's
fame increased, and his shrine at St David's became a notable place of
pilgrimage, so that by the time of the Norman conquest his importance
and sanctity were fully recognized, and at Henry I.'s request he was
formally canonized by Pope Calixtus II. about 1120.
Of the many biographies of St David, the earliest known is that of
Rhyddmarch, or Ricemarchus (c. 1090), one of the last British bishops
of St David's, from whose work Giraldus Cambrensis (q.v.) chiefly
compiled his extravagant life of the saint.
DAVID I. (1084-1153), king of Scotland, the youngest son of Malcolm
Canmore and (Saint) Margaret, sister of Edgar Ætheling, was born in
1084. He married in 1113 Matilda, daughter and heiress of Waltheof, earl
of Northumbria, and thus became possessed of the earldom of Huntingdon.
On the death of Edgar, king of Scotland, in 1107, the territories of the
Scottish crown were divided in accordance with the terms of his will
between his two brothers, Alexander and David. Alexander, together with
the crown, received Scotland north of the Forth and Clyde, David the
southern district with the title of earl of Cumbria. The death of
Alexander I. in 1124 gave David possession of the whole. In 1127, in the
character of an English baron, he swore fealty to Matilda as heiress to
her father Henry I., and when the usurper Stephen ousted her in 1135
David vindicated her cause in arms and invaded England. But Stephen
marched north with a great army, whereupon David made peace. The peace,
however, was not kept. After threatening an invasion in 1137, David
marched into England in 1138, but sustained a crushing defeat on Cutton
Moor in the engagement known as the battle of the Standard. He returned
to Carlisle, and soon afterwards concluded peace. In 1141 he joined
Matilda in London and accompanied her to Winchester, but after a narrow
escape from capture he returned to Scotland. Henceforth he remained in
his own kingdom and devoted himself to its political and ecclesiastical
reorganization. A devoted son of the church, he founded five bishoprics
and many monasteries. In secular politics he energetically forwarded the
process of feudalization which had been initiated by his immediate
predecessors. He died at Carlisle on the 24th of May 1153.
DAVID II. (1324-1371), king of Scotland, son of King Robert the Bruce by
his second wife, Elizabeth de Burgh (d. 1327), was born at Dunfermline
on the 5th of March 1324. In accordance with the terms of the treaty of
Northampton he was married in July 1328 to Joanna (d. 1362), daughter of
the English king, Edward II., and became king of Scotland on his
father's death in June 1329, being crowned at Scone in November 1331.
Owing to the victory of Edward III. of England and his protégé, Edward
Baliol, at Halidon Hill in July 1333, David and his queen were sent for
safety into France, reaching Boulogne in May 1334, and being received
very graciously by the French king, Philip VI. Little is known about the
life of the Scottish king in France, except that Château Gaillard was
given to him for a residence, and that he was present at the bloodless
meeting of the English and French armies at Vironfosse in October 1339.
Meanwhile his representatives had obtained the upper hand in Scotland,
and David was thus enabled to return to his kingdom in June 1341, when
he took the reins of government into his own hands. In 1346 he invaded
England in the interests of France, but was defeated and taken prisoner
at the battle of Neville's Cross in October of this year, and remained
in England for eleven years, living principally in London and at Odiham
in Hampshire. His imprisonment was not a rigorous one, and negotiations
for his release were soon begun. Eventually, in October 1357, after
several interruptions, a treaty was signed at Berwick by which the
Scottish estates undertook to pay 100,000 marks as a ransom for their
king. David, who had probably recognized Edward III. as his feudal
superior, returned at once to Scotland; but owing to the poverty of the
kingdom it was found impossible to raise the ransom. A few instalments
were paid, but the king sought to get rid of the liability by offering
to make Edward III., or one of his sons, his successor in Scotland. In
1364 the Scottish parliament indignantly rejected a proposal to make
Lionel, duke of Clarence, the next king; but David treated secretly with
Edward III. over this matter, after he had suppressed a rising of some
of his unruly nobles. The king died in Edinburgh Castle on the 22nd of
February 1371. His second wife was Margaret, widow of Sir John Logie,
whom he divorced in 1369; but he left no children, and was succeeded by
his nephew, Robert II. David was a weak and incapable ruler, without a
spark of his father's patriotic spirit.
See Andrew of Wyntoun, _The orygynale cronykil of Scotland_, edited by
D. Laing (Edinburgh, 1872-1879); John of Fordun, _Chronica gentis
Scotorum_, edited by W. F. Skene (Edinburgh, 1871-1872); J. H. Burton,
_History of Scotland_, vol. ii. (Edinburgh, 1905); and A. Lang,
_History of Scotland_, vol. i. (Edinburgh, 1900).
DAVID, the name of three Welsh princes.
DAVID I. (d. 1203), a son of Prince Owen Gwynedd (d. 1169), came into
prominence as a leader of the Welsh during the expedition of Henry II.
in 1157. In 1170 he became lord of Gwynedd (i.e. the district around
Snowdon), but some regarded him as a bastard, and Gwynedd was also
claimed by other members of his family. After fighting with varying
fortunes he sought an ally in the English king, whom he supported during
the baronial rising in 1173; then after this event he married Henry's
half-sister Emma. But his enemies increased in power, and about 1194 he
was driven from Wales by the partisans of his half-brother Llewelyn ab
Iorwerth. The chronicler Benedictus Abbas calls David _rex_, and
Rhuddlan castle was probably the centre of his vague authority.
DAVID II. (c. 1208-1246) was a son of the great Welsh prince, Llewelyn
ab Iorwerth, and through his mother Joanna was a grandson of King John.
He married an English lady, Isabella de Braose, and, having been
recognized as his father's heir both by Henry III. and by the Welsh
lords, he had to face the hostility of his half-brother Gruffydd, whom
he seized and imprisoned in 1239. When Llewelyn died in April 1240,
David, who had already taken some part in the duties of government, was
acknowledged as a prince of North Wales, doing homage to Henry III. at
Gloucester. However, he was soon at variance with the English king, who
appears to have espoused the cause of the captive Gruffydd. Henry's
Welsh campaign in 1241 was bloodless but decisive. Gruffydd was
surrendered to him; David went to London and made a full submission, but
two or three years later he was warring against some English barons on
the borders. To check the English king he opened negotiations with
Innocent IV., doubtless hoping that the pope would recognize Wales as an
independent state, but here, as on the field of battle, Henry III. was
too strong for him. Just after Henry's second campaign in Wales the
prince died in March 1246.
DAVID III. (d. 1283) was a son of Gruffydd and thus a nephew of David
II. His life was mainly spent in fighting against his brother, the
reigning prince, Llewelyn ab Gruffydd. His first revolt took place in
1254 or 1255, and after a second about eight years later he took refuge
in England, returning to Wales when Henry III. made peace with Llewelyn
in 1267. Then about 1274 the same process was repeated. David attended
Edward I. during the Welsh expedition of 1277, receiving from the
English king lands in North Wales; but in 1282 he made peace with
Llewelyn and suddenly attacked the English garrisons, a proceeding which
led to Edward's final conquest of Wales. After Llewelyn's death in
December 1282 David maintained the last struggle of the Welsh for
independence. All his efforts, however, were vain; in June 1283 he was
betrayed to Edward, was tried by a special court and sentenced to death,
and was executed with great barbarity at Shrewsbury in October 1283. As
the last native prince of Wales, David's praises have been sung by the
Welsh bards, but his character was not attractive, and a Welsh historian
says "his life was the bane of Wales."
DAVID, FÉLICIEN (1810-1876), French composer, was born on the 13th of
April 1810 at Cadenet, in the department of Vaucluse. As a child he
showed unusual musical precocity, and being early left an orphan he was
admitted into the choir of Saint Sauveur at Aix. He was for a time
employed in an attorney's office, but quitted his service to become
_chef d'orchestre_ in the theatre at Aix, and chapel-master at Saint
Sauveur. Then he went to Paris, being provided with £100 a year by a
rich uncle. After having studied for a while at the Paris Conservatoire,
he joined the sect of Saint Simonians, and in 1833 travelled in the East
in order to preach the new doctrine. After three years' absence, during
which Constantinople and Smyrna were visited and some time was spent in
Egypt, he returned to France and published a collection of _Oriental
Melodies_. For several years he worked in retirement, and wrote two
symphonies, some chamber music and songs. On the 8th of December 1844 he
suddenly leapt into fame through the extraordinary success obtained by
his symphonic ode _Le Désert_, which was produced at the Conservatoire.
In this work David had struck out a new line. He had attempted in simple
strains to evoke the majestic stillness of the desert. Notwithstanding
its title of "symphonic ode," _Le Désert_ has little in common with the
symphonic style. What distinguishes it is a certain naïveté of
expression and an effective oriental colouring. In this last respect
David may be looked upon as the precursor of a whole army of composers.
His succeeding works, _Moïse au Sinai_ (1846), _Christophe Colomb_
(1847), _L'Éden_ (1848), scarcely bore out the promise shown in _Le
Désert_, although the second of these compositions was successful at the
time of its production. David now turned his attention to the theatre,
and produced the following operas in succession: _La Perle du Brésil_
(1851), _Herculanum_ (1859), _Lalla-Roukh_ (1862), _Le Saphir_ (1865).
Of these, _Lalla-Roukh_ is the one which has obtained the greatest
success. In 1868 he gained the award of the French Institute for the
biennial prize given by the emperor; and in 1869 he was made librarian
at the Conservatoire instead of Berlioz, whom subsequently he succeeded
as a member of the Institute. He died at Saint-Germain-en-Laye on the
29th of August 1876. If David can scarcely be placed in the first rank
of French composers, he nevertheless deserves the consideration due to a
sincere artist, who was undoubtedly inspired by lofty ideals. At a time
when the works of Berlioz were still unappreciated by the majority of
people, David succeeded in making the public take interest in music of a
picturesque and descriptive kind. Thus he may be considered as one of
the pioneers of modern French musical art.
DAVID, GERARD [GHEERAERT DAVIT], (?-1523), Netherlands painter, born at
Oudewater in Holland between 1450 and 1460, was the last great master of
the Bruges school. He was only rescued from complete oblivion in
1860-1863 by Mr W. J. H. Weale, whose researches in the archives of
Bruges brought to the light the main facts of the master's life. We have
now documentary evidence that David came to Bruges in 1483, presumably
from Haarlem, where he had formed his early style under the tuition of
Ouwater; that he joined the gild of St Luke at Bruges in 1484 and became
dean of the gild in 1501; that he married in 1496 Cornelia Cnoop,
daughter of the dean of the Goldsmiths' gild; became one of the leading
citizens of the town; died on the 13th of August 1523; and was buried in
the Church of Our Lady at Bruges. In his early work he had followed the
Haarlem tradition as represented by Dirck Bouts, Ouwater and Geertgen of
Haarlem, but already gave evidence of his superior power as colourist.
To this early period belong the "St John" of the Kaufmann collection in
Berlin, and Mr Salting's "St Jerome." In Bruges he applied himself to
the study and the copying of the masterpieces by the Van Eycks, Van der
Weyden, and Van der Goes, and came under the direct influence of the
master whom he followed most closely, Hans Memlinc. From him he acquired
the soulful intensity of expression, the increased realism in the
rendering of the human form and the orderly architectonic arrangement of
the figures. Yet another master was to influence him later in life when,
in 1515, he visited Antwerp and became impressed with the life and
movement of Quentin Matsys, who had introduced a more intimate and more
human conception of sacred themes. David's "Pietà" in the National
Gallery, and the "Descent from the Cross," in the Cavallo collection,
Paris (Guildhall, 1906), were painted under this influence and are
remarkable for their dramatic movement. But the works on which David's
fame will ever rest most securely are the great altar-pieces executed by
him before his visit to Antwerp--the "Marriage of St Catherine," at the
National Gallery; the triptych of the "Madonna Enthroned and Saints" of
the Brignole-Sale collection in Genoa; the "Annunciation" of the
Sigmaringen collection; and, above all, the "Madonna with Angels and
Saints" which he painted gratuitously for the Carmelite Nuns of Sion at
Bruges, and which is now in the Rouen museum. Only a few of his works
have remained in Bruges--"The Judgment of Cambyses," "The Flaying of
Sisamnes" and the "Baptism of Christ" in the Town museum, and the
"Transfiguration" in the Church of Our Lady. The rest were scattered all
over the world, and to this may be due the oblivion into which his very
name had fallen--partly to this, and partly to the fact that with all
the beauty and soulfulness of his work he had no new page to add to the
history of the progressive development of art, and even in his best work
only gave new variations of the tunes sung by his great precursors and
contemporaries. That he is worthy to rank among the masters was only
revealed to the world when a considerable number of his paintings were
assembled at Bruges on the occasion of the exhibition of early Flemish
masters in 1902. At the time of his death the glory of Bruges, and also
of the Bruges school, was on the wane, and Antwerp had taken the
leadership in art as in political and commercial importance. Of David's
pupils in Bruges, only Isenbrandt, A. Cornelis and Ambrosius Benson
achieved importance. Among other Flemish painters Joachim Patinir and
Mabuse were to some degree influenced by him.
Eberhard Freiherr von Bodenhausen published in 1905 a very
comprehensive monograph on _Gerard David and his School_ (Munich, F.
Bruckmann), together with a _catalogue raisonné_ of his works, which,
after careful sifting, are reduced to the number of forty-three.
(P. G. K.)
DAVID, JACQUES LOUIS (1748-1825), French painter, was born in Paris on
the 30th of April 1748. His father was killed in a duel, when the boy
was but nine years old. His education was begun at the Collège des
Quatre Nations, where he obtained a smattering of the classics; but, his
artistic talent being already obvious, he was soon placed by his
guardian in the studio of François Boucher. Boucher speedily realized
that his own erotic style did not suit the lad's genius, and recommended
him to J. M. Vien, the pioneer of the classical reaction in painting.
Under him David studied for some years, and, after several attempts to
win the _prix de Rome_, at last succeeded in 1775, with his "Loves of
Antiochus and Stratonice." Vien, who had just been appointed director of
the French Academy at Rome, carried the youth with him to that city. The
classical reaction was now in full tide; Winckelmann was writing,
Raphael Mengs painting; and the treasures of the Vatican galleries
helped to confirm David in a taste already moulded by so many kindred
influences. This severely classical spirit inspired his first important
painting, "_Date obolum Belisario_," exhibited at Paris in 1780. The
picture exactly suited the temper of the times, and was an immense
success. It was followed by others, painted on the same principles, but
with greater perfection of art: "The Grief of Andromache" (1783), "The
Oath of the Horatii" (Salon, 1785), "The Death of Socrates," "Love of
Paris and Helen" (1788), "Brutus" (1789). In the French drama an
unimaginative imitation of ancient models had long prevailed; even in
art Poussin and Le Sueur were successful by expressing a bias in the
same direction; and in the first years of the revolutionary movement the
fashion of imitating the ancients even in dress and manners went to the
most extravagant length. At this very time David returned to Paris; he
was now painter to the king, Louis XVI., who had been the purchaser of
his principal works, and his popularity was soon immense. At the
outbreak of the Revolution in 1789, David was carried away by the flood
of enthusiasm that made all the intellect of France believe in a new era
of equality and emancipation from all the ills of life.
The success of his sketch for the picture of the "Oath of the Tennis
Court," and his pronounced republicanism, secured David's election to
the Convention in September 1792, by the _Section du Muséum_, and he
quickly distinguished himself by the defence of two French artists in
Rome who had fallen into the merciless hands of the Inquisition. As, in
this matter, the behaviour of the authorities of the French Academy in
Rome had been dictated by the tradition of subservience to authority, he
used his influence to get it suppressed. In the January following his
election into the Convention his vote was given for the king's death.
Thus the man who was so greatly indebted to the Roman academy and to
Louis XVI. assisted in the destruction of both, no doubt in obedience to
a principle, like the act of Brutus in condemning his sons--a subject he
painted with all his powers. Cato and stoicism were the order of the
day. Hitherto the actor had walked the stage in modern dress. Brutus had
been applauded in red-heeled shoes and _culottes jarretées_; but Talma,
advised by David, appeared in toga and sandals before an enthusiastic
audience. At this period of his life Mademoiselle de Noailles persuaded
him to paint a sacred subject, with Christ as the hero. When the picture
was done, the Saviour was found to be another Cato. "I told you so," he
replied to the expostulations of the lady, "there is no inspiration in
Christianity now!" David's revolutionary ideas, which led to his
election to the presidency of the Convention and to the committee of
general security, inspired his pictures "Last Moments of Lepelletier de
Saint-Fargeau" and "Marat Assassinated." He also arranged the programme
of the principal republican festivals. When Napoleon rose to power David
became his enthusiastic admirer. His picture of Napoleon on horseback
pointing the way to Italy is now in Berlin. During this period he also
painted the "Rape of the Sabines" and "Leonidas at Thermopylae."
Appointed painter to the emperor, David produced the two notable
pictures "The Coronation" (of Josephine) and the "Distribution of the
Eagles."
On the return of the Bourbons the painter was exiled with the other
remaining regicides, and retired to Brussels, where he again returned to
classical subjects: "Amor quitting Psyche," "Mars disarmed by Venus,"
&c. He rejected the offer, made through Baron Humboldt, of the office of
minister of fine arts at Berlin, and remained at Brussels till his death
on the 29th of December 1825. His end was true to his whole career and
to his nationality. While dying, a print of the Leonidas, one of his
favourite subjects, was submitted to him. After vaguely looking at it a
long time, "_Il n'y a que moi qui pouvais concevoir la tête de
Léonidas_," he whispered, and died. His friends and his party thought to
carry the body back to his beloved Paris for burial, but the government
of the day arrested the procession at the frontier, an act which caused
some scandal, and furnished the occasion of a terrible song of
Béranger's.
It is difficult for a generation which has witnessed another complete
revolution in the standards of artistic taste to realize the secret of
David's immense popularity in his own day. His style is severely
academic, his colour lacking in richness and warmth, his execution hard
and uninteresting in its very perfection. Subjects and treatment alike
are inspired by the passing fashion of an age which had deceived itself
into believing that it was living and moving in the spirit of classical
antiquity. The inevitable reaction of the romantic movement made the
masterpieces, which had filled the men of the Revolution with
enthusiasm, seem cold and lifeless to those who had been taught to
expect in art that atmosphere of mystery which in nature is everywhere
present. Yet David was a great artist, and exercised in his day and
generation a great influence. His pictures are magnificent in their
composition and their draughtsmanship; and his keen observation and
insight into character are evident, especially in his portraits, notably
of Madame Récamier, of the Conventional Gérard and of Boissy d'Anglas.
See E. J. Delécluze, _Louis David, son école et son temps_ (Paris,
1855), and _Le Peintre Louis David. Souvenirs et documents inédits_,
by J. L. Jules David, the painter's grandson (Paris, 1880).
DAVID, PIERRE JEAN (1789-1856), usually called David d'Angers, French
sculptor, was born at Angers on the 12th of March 1789. His father was a
sculptor, or rather a carver, but he had thrown aside the mallet and
taken the musket, fighting against the Chouans of La Vendée. He returned
to his trade at the end of the civil war, to find his customers gone, so
that young David was born into poverty. As the boy grew up his father
wished to force him into some more lucrative and certain way of life. At
last he succeeded in surmounting the opposition to his becoming a
sculptor, and in his eighteenth year left for Paris to study the art
upon a capital of eleven francs. After struggling against want for a
year and a half, he succeeded in taking the prize at the École des
Beaux-Arts. An annuity of 600 francs (£24) was granted by the
municipality of his native town in 1809, and in 1811 David's
"Epaminondas" gained the _prix de Rome_. He spent five years in Rome,
during which his enthusiasm for the works of Canova was often excessive.
Returning from Rome about the time of the restoration of the Bourbons,
he would not remain in the neighbourhood of the Tuileries, which swarmed
with foreign conquerors and returned royalists, and accordingly went to
London. Here Flaxman and others visited upon him the sins of David the
painter, to whom he was erroneously supposed to be related. With great
difficulty he made his way to Paris again, where a comparatively
prosperous career opened upon him. His medallions and busts were in much
request, and orders for monumental works also came to him. One of the
best of these was that of Gutenberg at Strassburg; but those he himself
valued most were the statue of Barra, a drummer boy who continued to
beat his drum till the moment of death in the war in La Vendée, and the
monument to the Greek liberator Bozzaris, consisting in a young female
figure called "Reviving Greece," of which Victor Hugo said: "It is
difficult to see anything more beautiful in the world; this statue joins
the grandeur of Pheidias to the expressive manner of Puget." David's
busts and medallions were very numerous, and among his sitters may be
found not only the illustrious men and women of France, but many others
both of England and Germany--countries which he visited professionally
in 1827 and 1829. His medallions, it is affirmed, number 500. He died on
the 4th of January 1856. David's fame rests firmly on his pediment of
the Panthéon, his monument to General Gobert in Père Lachaise and his
marble "Philopoemen" in the Louvre. In the Musée David at Angers is an
almost complete collection of his works either in the form of copies or
in the original moulds. As an example of his benevolence of character
may be mentioned his rushing off to the sickbed of Rouget de Lisle, the
author of the "Marseillaise Hymn," modelling and carving him in marble
without delay, making a lottery of the work, and sending to the poet in
the extremity of need the seventy-two pounds which resulted from the
sale.
See H. Jouin, _David d'Angers et ses relations littéraires_ (1890);
_Lettres de P. J. David d'Angers à Louis Dupré_ (Paris, 1891);
_Collection de portraits des contemporains d'après les médaillons de
P. J. David_ (Paris, 1838).
DAVIDISTS, a fancy name rather than a recognized designation for three
religious sects. It has been applied (1) to the followers (if he had
any) of David of Dinant, in Belgium, the teacher or pupil of Amalric
(Amaury) of Bena, both of whom taught apparently a species of pantheism.
David's _Quaterni_, or _Quaternuli_, condemned and burnt at Paris
(1209), is a lost book, known only by references in Albertus Magnus and
Thomas Aquinas. Its author would have been burnt had he not fled. The
name has been given (2) to the followers of David George or Joris
(q.v.), and (3) to the followers of Francis Dávid (1510-1579), the
apostle of Transylvanian unitarianism. (See SOCINUS, UNITARIANISM.)
DAVIDSON, ANDREW BRUCE (1831-1902), Scottish divine, was born in 1831 at
Kirkhill in Aberdeenshire, where his father Andrew Davidson had a farm.
The Davidsons belonged to the congregation of James Robertson
(1803-1860) of Ellon, one of the ministers of Strathbogie Presbytery,
which in the controversy which led to the disruption, resisted the
"dangerous claims of the established church to self-government." When
the disruption came the principles at stake were keenly canvassed in
Ellon, and eventually Andrew Davidson, senior, went with the Free
Church. In 1845 the boy, who had been a "herd" on the farm, went for six
months to the grammar school at Aberdeen and was there prepared for a
university bursary, which was sufficient to pay his fees, but no more.
During his four years at the university his mother supplied him
fortnightly with provisions from the farm; sometimes she walked the
whole twenty miles from Kirkhill and handed the coach fee to her son. He
graduated in 1849. At the university he had acquired a distrust of
philosophy, and found it difficult to choose between mathematical and
linguistic studies. A Free Church school having been opened in Ellon, he
became master there for three years. Here he developed special aptitude
for linguistic and philological studies. Besides Hebrew he taught
himself French, German, Dutch, Italian and Spanish. In November 1852 he
entered New College, Edinburgh. There he took the four years'
theological course, and was licensed in 1856. For two years he preached
occasionally and took vacancies. In 1858 the New College authorities
appointed him assistant to the professor of Hebrew. He taught during the
winter, and in the long vacation continued his preparation for his life
work. One year he worked in Germany under Ewald, another year he went to
Syria to study Arabic. In 1862 he published the first part of a
commentary on Job. It was never finished and deals only with one-third
of the book, but it is recognized as the first really scientific
commentary on the Old Testament in the English language. In 1863 he was
appointed by the general assembly professor of oriental languages at New
College. He was junior colleague of Dr John Duncan (Rabbi Duncan) till
1870, and then for thirty years sole professor. He was a member of the
Old Testament revision committee, and his work was recognized by several
honorary distinctions, LL.D. (Aberdeen), D.D. (Edinburgh), Litt.D.
(Cambridge). Among his students were Professors Elmslie, Skinner, Harper
of Melbourne, Walker of Belfast, George Adam Smith of Glasgow and W.
Robertson Smith. He understood it to be the first duty of an exegete to
ascertain the meaning of the writer, and he showed that this could be
done by the use of grammar and history and the historical imagination.
He supplied guidance when it was much needed as to the methods and
results of the higher criticism. Being a master of its methods, but very
cautious in accepting assertions about its results, he secured attention
early in the Free Church for scientific criticism, and yet threw the
whole weight of his learning and his caustic wit into the argument
against critical extravagance. He had thought himself into the ideas and
points of view of the Hebrews, and his work in Old Testament theology is
unrivalled. He excels as an expositor of the governing Hebrew ideas such
as holiness, righteousness, Spirit of God, Messianism. In 1897 he was
chosen moderator of the general assembly, but his health prevented his
accepting the post. He died, unmarried, on the 26th of January 1902.
Besides the commentary on Job he published a book on the _Hebrew
Accents_, the only Scottish performance of the kind since the days of
Thomas Boston. His _Introductory Hebrew Grammar_ has been widely
adopted as a class-book in theological colleges. His _Hebrew Syntax_
has the same admirable clearness, precision and teaching quality. His
_Commentary on the Epistle to the Hebrews_ is one of a series of
handbooks for Bible classes. These were followed by commentaries on
Job, Ezekiel, Nahum, Habakkuk and Zephaniah, in the Cambridge series;
and a Bible-class primer on _The Exile and Restoration_. His lectures
on _Old Testament Prophecy_ were published after his death by
Professor J. A. Paterson. The _Theology of the Old Testament_ in the
"International Theological Library" is a posthumous volume edited by
Professor Salmond. "Isaiah" in the _Temple Bible_ was finished, but
not revised, when he died; and he also had in hand the volume on
Isaiah for the _International Critical Commentary_; to which must be
added a mass of articles contributed to _The Imperial Bible
Dictionary_, _The Encyclopaedia Britannica_, and the chief religious
reviews. Various articles in Dr Hastings' _Bible Dictionary_ were by
Davidson, especially the article "God." Two volumes of sermons, _The
Called of God_, and _Waiting upon God_, were published from MS. after
Davidson's death.
DAVIDSON, JOHN (1857-1909), British poet, playwright and novelist, son
of the Rev. Alexander Davidson, a minister of the Evangelical Union, was
born at Barrhead, Renfrewshire, Scotland, on the 11th of April 1857.
After a schooling at the Highlanders' Academy, Greenock, at the age of
thirteen he was set to work in that town, by helping in a sugar factory
laboratory and then in the town analyst's office; and at fifteen he went
back to his old school as a pupil-teacher. In 1876 he studied for a
session at Edinburgh University, and then went as a master to various
Scotch schools till 1890, varying his experiences in 1884 by being a
clerk in a Glasgow thread firm. He had married in 1885, and meanwhile
his literary inclinations had shown themselves, without attracting any
public success, in the publication of his poetical and fantastic plays,
_Bruce_ (1886), _Smith; a tragic farce_ (1888) and _Scaramouch in Naxos_
(1889). Determining at all costs to follow his literary vocation, he
went to London in 1890, but at first had a hard struggle. There his
prose-romance _Perfervid_ (1890) was published, one of the most original
and fascinating stories of "young blood" and child adventure ever
written, but for some reason it did not catch the public; and a sort of
sequel in _The Great Men_ (1891) met no better fate. He contributed,
however, to newspapers and became known among literary journalists, and
his volume of verse _In a Music-Hall_ (1891) prepared the way for the
genuine success two years later of his _Fleet Street Eclogues_ (1893),
which sounded a new and vigorous note and at once established his
position among the younger generation of poets. He subsequently produced
several more books in prose, romantic stories like _Baptist Lake_ (1894)
and _Earl Lavender_ (1895), and an admirable piece of descriptive
landscape writing in _A Random Itinerary_ (1894); but his acceptance as
a poet gave a more emphatic impulse to his work in verse, and most
attention was given to the increasing proof of his powers shown in his
_Ballads and Songs_ (1894), _Second Series of Fleet Street Eclogues_
(1895), _New Ballads_ (1896), _The Last Ballad, &c._ (1898), all full of
remarkably fresh and unconventional beauty. In spite of the strangely
neglected genius of this early _Perfervid_, it is accordingly as a
writer of verse rather than of prose-fiction that he occupies a leading
place, with a decided character of his own, in recent English
literature, his revival of a modernized ballad form being a considerable
achievement in itself, and his poems being packed with fine thought,
robust and masterful in expression and imagery. Meanwhile in 1896 he
produced an English verse adaptation, in _For the Crown_ (acted by
Forbes Robertson and Mrs Patrick Campbell), of François Coppée's drama
_Pour la couronne_, which had considerable success and was revived in
1905; and he wrote several other literary plays, remarkable none the
less for dramatic qualities,--_Godfrida_ (1898), _Self's the Man_
(1901), _The Knight of the Maypole_ (1902) and _The Theatrocrat_ (1905),
in the last of which a tendency to be extraordinary is rather too
manifest. This tendency was not absent from his volume of _Holiday and
Other Poems_ (1906), containing many fine things, together with an
"essay on blank verse" illustrated from his own compositions, the
outspoken criticisms of a writer of admitted originality and insight,
but not devoid of eccentric volubility. But if the identification of
"eccentricity" and "greatness" by Cosmo Mortimer in Mr Davidson's own
_Perfervid_ sometimes obtrudes itself on the memory in considering his
more peculiarly "robust" and somewhat volcanic deliverances, no such
objection can detract from the genuine inspiration of his best work, in
which the true poetic afflatus is unmistakable. This is to be found in
his poems published from 1893 to 1898, five years during which his
reputation steadily and deservedly grew,--the _Fleet Street Eclogues_,
with their passionate modern criticism of life combined with their
breath of rural beauty, and such intense ballads as those "Of a Nun,"
and "Of Heaven and Hell." In his ethical and didactic utterances, _The
Testament of a Vivisector_ and _The Testament of a Man Forbid_ (1901),
_The Testament of an Empire Builder_ (1902), _Mammon and his Message_
(1908), &c., the fine quality of the verse is wedded with a certain
fervid satirical journalism of subject, less admirable than the
detachment of thought in the earlier volumes. In later years he lived at
Penzance, provided with a small Civil List pension, but otherwise badly
off, for his writings brought in very little money. On March 23rd, 1909,
he disappeared, in circumstances pointing to suicide, and six months
later his body was found in the sea.
See an article by Filson Young on "The New Poetry," in the
_Fortnightly Review_, January 1909.
DAVIDSON, RANDALL THOMAS (1848- ), archbishop of Canterbury, son of
Henry Davidson, of Muirhouse, Edinburgh, was born in Edinburgh and
educated at Harrow and Trinity College, Oxford. He took orders in 1874
and held a curacy at Dartford, in Kent, till 1877, when he became
resident chaplain and private secretary to Dr Tait, archbishop of
Canterbury, a position which he occupied till Dr Tait's death, and
retained for a short time (1882-1883) under his successor Dr Benson. He
married in 1878 Edith, the second daughter of Archbishop Tait, whose
_Life_ he eventually wrote (1891). In 1882 he became honorary chaplain
and sub-almoner to Queen Victoria, and in the following year was
appointed dean of Windsor, and domestic chaplain to the queen. His
advice upon state matters was constantly sought by the queen and greatly
valued. From 1891 to 1903 he was clerk of the closet, first to Queen
Victoria and afterwards to King Edward VII. He was made bishop of
Rochester in 1891, and was translated to Winchester in 1895. In 1903 he
succeeded Temple as archbishop of Canterbury. The new archbishop,
without being one of the English divines who have made notable
contributions to theological learning, already had a great reputation
for ecclesiastical statesmanship; and in subsequent years his diplomatic
abilities found ample scope in dealing not only with the difficulties
caused in the church by doctrinal questions, but pre-eminently with the
education crisis, and with the new problems arising in the enlarged
Anglican Communion. As the chief representative of the Church of England
in the House of Lords, his firmness, combined with broadmindedness, in
regard to the attitude of the nonconformists towards denominational
education, made his influence widely felt. In 1904 he visited Canada and
the United States, and was present at the triennial general convention
of the Protestant Episcopal Church of the United States and Canada. In
1908 he presided at the Pan-Anglican congress held in London, and at the
Lambeth conference which followed. He had edited in 1889 _The Lambeth
Conferences_, an historical account of the conferences of 1867, 1878 and
1888, giving the official reports and resolutions, and the sermons
preached on these occasions.
DAVIDSON, SAMUEL (1807-1898), Irish biblical scholar, was born near
Ballymena in Ireland. He was educated at the Royal College of Belfast,
entered the Presbyterian ministry in 1835, and was appointed professor
of biblical criticism at his own college. Becoming a Congregationalist,
he accepted in 1842 the chair of biblical criticism, literature and
oriental languages at the Lancashire Independent College at Manchester;
but he was obliged to resign in 1857, being brought into collision with
the college authorities by the publication of an introduction to the Old
Testament entitled _The Text of the Old Testament, and the
Interpretation of the Bible_, written for a new edition of Horne's
_Introduction to the Sacred Scripture_. Its liberal tendencies caused
him to be accused of unsound views, and a most exhaustive report
prepared by the Lancashire College committee was followed by numerous
pamphlets for and against. After his resignation a fund of £3000 was
subscribed as a testimonial by his friends. In 1862 he removed to London
to become scripture examiner in London University, and he spent the rest
of his life in literary work. He died on the 1st of April 1898. Davidson
was a member of the Old Testament Revision Committee. Among his
principal works are:--_Sacred Hermeneutics Developed and Applied_
(1843), rewritten and republished as _A Treatise on Biblical Criticism_
(1852), _Lectures on Ecclesiastical Polity_ (1848), _An Introduction to
the New Testament_ (1848-1851), _The Hebrew Text of the Old Testament
Revised_ (1855), _Introduction to the Old Testament_ (1862), _On a Fresh
Revision of the Old Testament_ (1873), _The Canon of the Bible_ (1877),
_The Doctrine of Last Things in the New Testament_ (1883), besides
translations of the New Testament from Von Tischendorf's text,
Gieseler's _Ecclesiastical History_ (1846) and Fürst's _Hebrew and
Chaldee Lexicon_.
DAVIDSON, THOMAS (1817-1885), British palaeontologist, was born in
Edinburgh on the 17th of May 1817. His parents possessed considerable
landed property in Midlothian. Educated partly in the university at
Edinburgh and partly in France, Italy and Switzerland, and early
acquiring an interest in natural history, he benefited greatly by
acquaintance with foreign languages and literature, and with men of
science in different countries. He was induced in 1837, through the
influence of Leopold von Buch, to devote his special attention to the
brachiopoda, and in course of time he became the highest authority on
this group. The great task of his life was the _Monograph of British
Fossil Brachiopoda_, published by the Palaeontographical Society
(1850-1886). This work, with supplements, comprises six quarto volumes
with more than 200 plates drawn on stone by the author. He also prepared
an exhaustive memoir on "Recent Brachiopoda," published by the Linnean
Society. He was elected F.R.S. in 1857. He was awarded in 1865 the
Wollaston medal by the Geological Society of London, and in 1870 a Royal
medal by the Royal Society; and in 1882 the degree of LL.D. was
conferred upon him by the university of St Andrews. He died at Brighton
on the 14th of October 1885, bequeathing his fine collection of recent
and fossil brachiopoda to the British Museum.
See biography with portrait and list of papers in _Geol. Mag._ for
1871, p. 145.
DAVIES, DAVID CHARLES (1826-1891), Welsh nonconformist divine, was born
at Aberystwyth on the 11th of May 1826, his father being a merchant and
a pioneer of Welsh Methodism, his mother a niece of Thomas Charles
(q.v.) of Bala. He was educated in his native town by a noted
schoolmaster, John Evans, at Bala College, and at University College,
London, where he graduated B.A. in 1847 and M.A. (in mathematics) in
1849. He had already begun to preach, and after an evangelistic tour in
South Wales supplied the pulpit of the English presbyterian church at
Newtown for six months, and settled as pastor of the bilingual church at
Builth in 1851. He returned to this charge after a pastorate at
Liverpool (1853-1856), left it again in 1858 for Newtown, and went in
May 1859 to the Welsh church at Jewin Crescent, London. Here he remained
until 1876, and from that date till 1882, although living at Bangor for
reasons of health, had the chief oversight of the church. In 1888 he
accepted the principalship of the Calvinistic Methodist College at
Trevecca in Brecknockshire. His work here was successful, but short; he
died at Bangor on the 26th of September 1891, and was buried at
Aberystwyth.
Though Davies stood somewhat apart from the main currents of thought
both without and within his church, and was largely unknown to English
audiences or readers, he exercised a strong influence on Welsh life and
thought in the 19th century. He was a serious student, especially of
anti-theistic positions, a good speaker, and a frequent contributor to
Welsh theological journals. Several of his articles have been collected
and published, the most noteworthy being expositions on _The First
Epistle of John_ (1889), _Ephesians_ (2 vols., 1896, 1901), _Psalms_
(1897), _Romans_ (1902); and _The Atonement and Intercession of Christ_
(1899, English trans. by D. E. Jenkins, 1901).
DAVIES, SIR JOHN (1569-1626), English philosophical poet, was baptized
on the 16th of April 1569, at Tisbury, Wiltshire, where his parents
lived at the manor-house of Chicksgrove. He was educated at Winchester
College, and became a commoner of Queen's College, Oxford, in 1585. In
1588 he entered the Middle Temple, and was called to the bar in 1595. In
his general onslaught on literature in 1599 the archbishop of Canterbury
ordered to be burnt the notorious and now excessively rare volume, _All
Ovid's Elegies, 3 Bookes, by C. M. Epigrams by J. D._ (Middleburgh,
1598?), which contained posthumous work by Marlowe. The epigrams by
Davies, although not devoid of wit, were coarse enough to deserve their
fate. It is probable that they were earlier in date of composition than
the charming fragment entitled _Orchestra_ (1596), written in praise of
dancing. The poet, in the person of Antinoüs, tries to induce Penelope
to dance by arguing that all harmonious natural processes partake of the
nature of a conscious and well-ordered dance. He closes his argument by
foreshadowing in a magic mirror the revels of the court of Cynthia
(Elizabeth). _Orchestra_ was dedicated to the author's "very friend,
Master Richard Martin," but in the next year the friends quarrelled, and
Davies was expelled from the society for having struck Martin with a
cudgel in the hall of the Middle Temple. He spent the year after his
expulsion at Oxford in the composition of his philosophical poem on the
nature of the soul and its immortality--_Nosce teipsum_ (1599). The
style of the work was entirely novel; and the stanza in which it was
written--the decasyllabic quatrain with alternate rhymes--had never been
so effectively handled. Its force, eloquence and ingenuity, the orderly
and lucid arrangement of its matter, place it among the finest of
English didactic poems. In 1599 he also published a volume of twenty-six
graceful acrostics on the words _Elisabetha Regina_, entitled _Hymns to
Astraea_. He produced no more poetry except his contributions to Francis
Davison's _Poetical Rhapsody_ (1608). These were two dialogues which had
been written as entertainments for the queen, and "Yet other Twelve
Wonders of the World," satirical epigrams on the courtier, the divine,
the maid, &c., and "A Hymn in praise of Music." Ten sonnets to Philomel
are signed J. D., and are assigned to Davies (_Poetical Rhapsody_, ed.
A. H. Bullen, 1890). In 1601 Davies was restored to his position at the
bar, after making his apologies to Martin, and in the same year he sat
for Corfe Castle in parliament. James I. received the author of _Nosce
teipsum_ with great favour, and sent him (1603) to Ireland as
solicitor-general, conferring the honour of knighthood upon him in the
same year. In 1606 he was promoted to be attorney-general for Ireland,
and created serjeant-at-arms. Of the difficulties in the way of the
prosecution of his work, and his untiring industry in overcoming them,
there is abundant evidence in his letters to Cecil preserved in the
_State Papers on Ireland_. One of his chief aims was to establish the
Protestant religion firmly in Ireland, and he took strict measures to
enforce the law for attendance at church. With the same end in view he
took an active part in the "plantation" of Ulster. In 1612 he published
his prose _Discoverie of the true causes why Ireland was never entirely
subdued untill the beginning of his Majestie's happie raigne_.[1] In the
same year he entered the Irish parliament as member for Fermanagh, and
was elected speaker after a scene of disorder in which the Catholic
nominee, Sir John Everard, who had been installed, was forcibly ejected.
In the capacity of speaker he delivered an excellent address reviewing
previous Irish parliaments. He resigned his Irish offices in 1619, and
sat in the English parliament of 1621 for Newcastle-under-Lyme. With Sir
Robert Cotton he was one of the founders of the Society of Antiquaries.
He was appointed lord chief justice in 1626, but died suddenly (December
8th) before he could enter on the office. He had married (1609) Eleanor
Touchet, daughter of George, Baron Audley. She developed eccentricity,
verging on madness, and wrote several fanatical books on prophecy.
In 1615 Davies published at Dublin _Le Primer Discours des Cases et
Matters in Ley resolues et adjudges en les Courts del Roy en cest
Realme_ (reprinted 1628). He issued an edition of his poems in 1622.
His prose publications were mainly posthumous. _The Question
concerning Impositions, Tonnage, Poundage ..._ was printed in 1656,
and four of the tracts relating to Ireland, with an account of Davies
and his services to that country, were edited by G. Chalmers in 1786.
His works were edited by Dr A. B. Grosart (3 vols. 1869-1876), with a
full biography, for the Fuller Worthies Library.
He is not to be confounded with another poet, JOHN DAVIES of Hereford
(1565?-1618), among whose numerous volumes of verse may be mentioned
_Mirum in modum_ (1602), _Microcosmus_ (1603), _The Holy Roode_
(1609), _Wittes Pilgrimage_ (c. 1610), _The Scourge of Folly_ (c.
1611), _The Muses Sacrifice_ (1612) and _Wittes Bedlam_ (1607); his
_Scourge of Folly_ contains verses addressed to many of his
contemporaries, to Shakespeare among others; he also wrote _A Select
Second Husband for Sir Thomas Overbury's Wife_ (1616), and _The
Writing Schoolmaster_ (earliest known edition, 1633); his works were
collected by Dr A. B. Grosart (2 vols., 1873) for the Chertsey
Worthies Library.
FOOTNOTE:
[1] Edited by Henry Morley in his _Ireland under Elizabeth and James
I._ (1890).
DAVIES (DAVISIUS), JOHN (1679-1732), English classical scholar and
critic, was born in London on the 22nd of April 1679. He was educated at
Charterhouse and Queens' College, Cambridge, of which society he was
elected fellow (July 7th, 1701). He subsequently became rector of Fen
Ditton, prebendary of Ely, and president of his college. He died on the
7th of March 1731-1732, and was buried in the college chapel. Davies was
considered one of the best commentators on Cicero, his attention being
chiefly devoted to the philosophical works of that author. Amongst these
he edited the _Tusculanae disputationes_ (1709), _De natura deorum_
(1718), _De divinatione_ and _De fato_ (1725), _Academica_ (1725), _De
legibus_ (1727), _De finibus_ (1728). His nearly finished notes on the
_De officiis_ he bequeathed to Dr Richard Mead, with a view to their
publication. Mead, finding himself unable to carry out the undertaking,
transferred the notes to Thomas Bentley (nephew of the famous Richard
Bentley), by whose carelessness they were burnt. Davies's editions,
which were intended to supplement those of Graevius, show great learning
and an extensive knowledge of the history and systems of philosophy, but
he allows himself too much licence in the matter of emendation. He also
edited Maximus of Tyre's _Dissertationes_ (1703); the works of Caesar
(1706); the _Octavius_ of Minucius Felix (1707); the _Epitome divinarum
institutionum_ of Lactantius (1718). Although on intimate terms with
Richard Bentley, he found himself unable to agree with the great scholar
in regard to his dispute with Trinity College.
DAVIES, SIR LOUIS HENRY (1845- ), Canadian politician and jurist, was
born in Prince Edward Island in 1845, of Huguenot descent. From 1869 to
1879 he took part in local politics, and was premier from 1876-1879; in
1882 he entered the Canadian parliament as a Liberal, and from 1896 to
1901 was minister of marine and fisheries. In the latter year he became
one of the judges of the supreme court of Canada. In 1877 he was counsel
for Great Britain before the Anglo-American fisheries arbitration at
Halifax; in 1897 he was a joint delegate to Washington with Sir Wilfrid
Laurier on the Bering Sea seal question; and in 1898-1899 a member of
the Anglo-American joint high commission at Quebec.
DAVIES, RICHARD (c. 1505-1581), Welsh bishop and scholar, was born in
North Wales, and was educated at New Inn Hall, Oxford, becoming vicar of
Burnham, Buckinghamshire, in 1550. Being a reformer he took refuge at
Geneva during the reign of Mary, returning to England and to parochial
work after the accession of Elizabeth in 1558. His connexion with Wales
was renewed almost at once; for, after serving on a commission which
visited the Welsh dioceses, he was, in January 1560, consecrated bishop
of St Asaph, whence he was translated, early in 1561, to the bishopric
of St Davids. As a bishop Davies was an earnest reformer, very
industrious, active and liberal, but not very scrupulous with regard to
the property of the church. He was a member of the council of Wales, was
very friendly with Matthew Parker, archbishop of Canterbury, and was
regarded both by Parker and by William Cecil, Lord Burghley, as a
trustworthy adviser on Welsh concerns. Another of the bishop's friends
was Walter Devereux, first earl of Essex. Assisting William Salisbury,
Davies took part in translating the New Testament into Welsh, and also
did some work on the Welsh translation of the Book of Common Prayer. He
helped to revise the "Bishops' Bible" of 1568, being himself responsible
for the book of Deuteronomy, and the second book of Samuel. He died on
the 7th of November 1581, and was buried in Abergwili church.
DAVILA, ENRICO CATERINO (1576-1631), Italian historian, was descended
from a Spanish noble family. His immediate ancestors had been constables
of the kingdom of Cyprus for the Venetian republic since 1464. But in
1570 the island was taken by the Turks; and Antonio Davila, the father
of the historian, had to leave it, despoiled of all he possessed. He
travelled into Spain and France, and finally returned to Padua, and at
Sacco on the 30th of October 1576 his youngest son, Enrico Caterino, was
born. About 1583 Antonio took this son to France, where he became a page
in the service of Catherine de' Medici, wife of King Henry II. In due
time he entered the military service, and fought through the civil wars
until the peace in 1598. He then returned to Padua, where, and
subsequently at Parma, he led a studious life until, when war broke out,
he entered the service of the republic of Venice and served with
distinction in the field. But during the whole of this active life, many
details of which are very interesting as illustrative of the life and
manners of the time, he never lost sight of a design which he had formed
at a very early period, of writing the history of those civil wars in
France in which he had borne a part, and during which he had had so many
opportunities of closely observing the leading personages and events.
This work was completed about 1630, and was offered in vain by the
author to all the publishers in Venice. At last one Tommaso Baglíoni,
who had no work for his presses, undertook to print the manuscript, on
condition that he should be free to leave off if more promising work
offered itself. The printing of the _Istoria delle guerre civili di
Francia_ was, however, completed, and the success and sale of the work
were immediate and enormous. Over two hundred editions followed, of
which perhaps the best is the one published in Paris in 1644. Davila was
murdered, while on his way to take possession of the government of
Cremona for Venice in July 1631, by a ruffian, with whom some dispute
seems to have arisen concerning the furnishing of the relays of horses
ordered for his use by the Venetian government.
The _Istoria_ was translated into French by G. Baudouin (Paris, 1642);
into Spanish by Varen de Soto (Madrid, 1651, and Antwerp, 1686); into
English by W. Aylesbury (London, 1647), and by Charles Cotterel
(London, 1666), and into Latin by Pietro Francesco Cornazzano (Rome,
1745). The best account of the life of Davila is that by Apostolo
Zeno, prefixed to an edition of the history printed at Venice in 2
vols. in 1733. Peter Bayle is severe on certain historical
inaccuracies of Davila, and it is true that Davila must be read with
due remembrance of the fact that he was not only a Catholic but the
especial protégé of Catherine de' Medici, but it is not to be
forgotten that Bayle was as strongly Protestant.
DAVIS, ANDREW JACKSON (1826-1910), American spiritualist, was born at
Blooming Grove, Orange county, New York, on the 11th of August 1826. He
had little education, though probably much more than he and his friends
pretended. In 1843 he heard lectures in Poughkeepsie on "animal
magnetism," as the phenomena of hypnotism was then termed, and found
that he had remarkable clairvoyant powers; and in the following year he
had, he said, spiritual messages telling him of his life work. For the
next three years (1844-1847) he practised magnetic healing with much
success; and in 1847 he published _The Principles of Nature_, _Her
Divine Revelations_, and a _Voice to Mankind_, which in 1845 he had
dictated while in a trance to his "scribe," William Fishbough. He
lectured with little success and returned to writing (or "dictating")
books, publishing about thirty in all, including _The Great Harmonia_
(1850-1861), an "encyclopaedia" in six volumes; _The Philosophy of
Special Providences_ (1850), which with its evident rehash of old
arguments against special providences and miracles would seem to show
that Davis's inspiration was literary; _The Magic Staff: an
Autobiography_ (1857), which was supplemented by _Arabula: or the Divine
Guest, Containing a New Collection of New Gospels_ (1867), the gospels
being those "according to" St Confucius, St John (G. Whittier), St
Gabriel (Derzhavin), St Octavius (Frothingham), St Gerrit (Smith), St
Emma (Hardinge), St Ralph (W. Emerson), St Seiden (J. Finney), St
Theodore (Parker), &c.; and _A Stellar Key to the Summer Land_ (1868)
and _Views of Our Heavenly Home_ (1878), each with illustrative
diagrams. Davis was much influenced by Swedenborg and by the Shakers,
who reprinted his panegyric of Ann Lee in an official _Sketch of Shakers
and Shakerism_ (1884).
DAVIS, CHARLES HOWARD (1857- ), American landscape painter, was born at
East Cambridge, Massachusetts, on the 2nd of February 1857. A pupil of
the schools of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, he was sent to Paris in
1880. Having studied at the Academy Julian under Lefebvre and Boulanger,
he went to Barbizon and painted much in the forest of Fontainebleau
under the traditions of the "men of thirty." He became a full member of
the National Academy of Design in 1906, and received many awards,
including a silver medal at the Paris Exhibition of 1889. He is
represented by important works in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New
York; the Corcoran Art Gallery, Washington; the Pennsylvania Academy,
Philadelphia, and the Boston Museum of Fine Arts.
DAVIS, CUSHMAN KELLOGG (1838-1900), American political leader and
lawyer, was born in Henderson, New York, on the 16th of June 1838. He
was taken by his parents to Wisconsin Territory in the year of his
birth, and was educated at Carroll College, Waukesha, Wisconsin, and at
the university of Michigan, from which he graduated in 1857. After
studying law in the office of Alexander W. Randall, he was admitted to
the bar in 1860. During the Civil War, as a first lieutenant of Federal
volunteers, he served in the western campaigns of 1862 and 1863, and in
1864 was an aide to General Willis A. Gorman (1814-1876). Resigning his
commission (1864) on account of ill-health, he soon settled in St Paul,
Minnesota, where he practised law in partnership with General Gorman,
and soon became prominent both at the bar and, as a Republican, in
politics. He served in the state House of Representatives in 1867,
1868-1873 was United States district attorney for Minnesota. In
1874-1876 he was governor of the state, and from 1887 until his death
was a member of the United States Senate. In the Senate he was one of
the acknowledged leaders of his party, an able and frequent speaker and
a committee worker of great industry. In March 1897 he became chairman
of the committee on foreign relations at a time when its work was
peculiarly influential in shaping American foreign policy. His extensive
knowledge of international law, and his tact and diplomacy, enabled him
to render services of the utmost importance in connexion with the
Spanish-American War, and he was one of the peace commissioners who
negotiated and signed the treaty of Paris by which the war was
terminated. He died at St Paul on the 27th of November 1900. Few public
men in the United States since the Civil War have combined skill in
diplomacy, constructive statesmanship, talent for political
organization, oratorical ability and broad culture to such a degree as
Senator Davis. In addition to various speeches and public addresses, he
published an essay entitled _The Law of Shakespeare_ (1899).
DAVIS, HENRY WILLIAM BANKS (1833- ), English painter, received his art
training in the Royal Academy schools, where he was awarded two silver
medals. He was elected an associate of the Academy in 1873, and
academician in 1877. He made a considerable reputation as an
accomplished painter of quiet pastoral subjects and carefully elaborated
landscapes with cattle. His pictures, "Returning to the Fold" (1880),
and "Approaching Night" (1899), bought for the Chantrey Fund Collection,
are now in the National Gallery of British Art (Tate Gallery).
DAVIS, HENRY WINTER (1817-1865), American political leader, was born at
Annapolis, Maryland, on the 16th of August 1817. His father, Rev Henry
Lyon Davis (1775-1836), was a prominent Protestant Episcopal clergyman
of Maryland, and for some years president of St John's College at
Annapolis. The son graduated at Kenyon College, Gambier, Ohio, in 1837,
and from the law department of the university of Virginia in 1841, and
began the practice of law in Alexandria, Virginia, but in 1850 removed
to Baltimore, Maryland, where he won a high position at the bar. Early
becoming imbued with strong anti-slavery views, though by inheritance he
was himself a slave holder, he began political life as a Whig, but when
the Whig party disintegrated, he became an "American" or "Know-Nothing,"
and as such served in the national House of Representatives from 1855 to
1861. By his independent course in Congress he won the respect and
esteem of all political groups. In the contest over the speakership at
the opening of the Thirty-Sixth Congress (1859) he voted with the
Republicans, thereby incurring a vote of censure from the Maryland
legislature, which called upon him to resign. In 1860, not being quite
ready to ally himself wholly with the Republican party, he declined to
be a candidate for the Republican nomination for the vice-presidency,
and supported the Bell and Everett ticket. He was himself defeated in
this year for re-election to Congress. In the winter of 1860-1861 he was
active on behalf of compromise measures. Finally, after President
Lincoln's election, he became a Republican, and as such was re-elected
in 1862 to the national House of Representatives, in which he at once
became one of the most radical and aggressive members, his views
commanding especial attention owing to his being one of the few
representatives from a slave state. From December 1863 to March 1865 he
was chairman of the committee on foreign affairs; as such, in 1864, he
was unwilling to leave the delicate questions concerning the French
occupation of Mexico entirely in the hands of the president and his
secretary of state, and brought in a report very hostile to France,
which was adopted in the House, but fortunately, as it proved later, was
not adopted by the Senate. With other radical Republicans Davis was a
bitter opponent of Lincoln's plan for the reconstruction of the Southern
States, and on the 15th of February 1864 he reported from committee a
bill placing the process of reconstruction under the control of
Congress, and stipulating that the Confederate States, before resuming
their former status in the Union, must disfranchise all important civil
and military officers of the Confederacy, abolish slavery, and repudiate
all debts incurred by or with the sanction of the Confederate
government. In his speech supporting this measure Davis declared that
until Congress should "recognize a government established under its
auspices, there is no government in the rebel states save the authority
of Congress." The bill--the first formal expression by Congress with
regard to Reconstruction--did not pass both Houses until the closing
hours of the session, and failed to receive the approval of the
president, who on the 8th of July issued a proclamation defining his
position. Soon afterwards, on the 5th of August 1864, Davis joined
Benjamin F. Wade of Ohio, who had piloted the bill through the Senate,
in issuing the so-called "Wade-Davis Manifesto," which violently
denounced President Lincoln for encroaching on the domain of Congress
and insinuated that the presidential policy would leave slavery
unimpaired in the reconstructed states. In a debate in Congress some
months later he declared, "When I came into Congress ten years ago this
was a government of law. I have lived to see it a government of personal
will." He was one of the radical leaders who preferred Frémont to
Lincoln in 1864, but subsequently withdrew his opposition and supported
the President for re-election. He early favoured the enlistment of
negroes, and in July 1865 publicly advocated the extension of the
suffrage to them. He was not a candidate for re-election to Congress in
1864, and died in Baltimore, Maryland, on the 30th of December 1865.
Davis was a man of scholarly tastes, an orator of unusual ability and
great eloquence, tireless and fearless in fighting political battles,
but impulsive to the verge of rashness, impractical, tactless and
autocratic. He wrote an elaborate political work entitled _The War of
Ormuzd and Ahriman in the Nineteenth Century_ (1853), in which he
combated the Southern contention that slavery was a divine institution.
See _The Speeches of Henry Winter Davis_ (New York, 1867), to which is
prefixed an oration on his life and character delivered in the House
of Representatives by Senator J. A. J. Creswell of Maryland.
DAVIS, JEFFERSON (1808-1889), American soldier and statesman, president
of the Confederate states in the American Civil War, was born on the 3rd
of June 1808 at what is now the village of Fairview, in that part of
Christian county, Kentucky, which was later organized as Todd county.
His father, Samuel Davis (1756-1824), who served in the War of
Independence, was of Welsh, and his mother, Jane Cook, of Scotch-Irish
descent; during his infancy the family moved to Wilkinson county,
Mississippi. Jefferson Davis was educated at Transylvania University
(Lexington, Kentucky) and at the United States Military Academy at West
Point. From the latter he graduated in July 1828, and became by brevet a
second lieutenant of infantry. He was assigned for duty to Jefferson
Barracks at St Louis, and on reaching this post was ordered to Fort
Crawford, near Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin. In 1833 he took part in the
closing scenes of the Black Hawk War, was present at the capture of
Black Hawk, and was sent to Dixon, Illinois, to muster into service some
volunteers from that state. Their captain was Abraham Lincoln, and
Lieutenant Davis is said to have administered to him his first oath of
allegiance. In June 1835 he resigned from the army, married Miss Knox
Taylor, daughter of Colonel (later General) Zachary Taylor, and became a
cotton planter in Warren county, Miss. In September of the same year,
while visiting in Louisiana to escape the fever, his wife died of it and
Davis himself was dangerously ill. For the next few months he travelled
to regain his health; and in the spring of 1836 returned to his cotton
plantation, where for several years he devoted his time largely to
reading political philosophy, political economy, public law and the
English classics, and by careful management of his estate he acquired
considerable wealth. In 1843 Davis entered the field of politics as a
Democrat, and exhibited great power as a public speaker. In 1844 he was
chosen as a presidential elector on the Polk and Dallas ticket; in
February 1845 he married Miss Varina Howell (1826-1906) of Mississippi
(a granddaughter of Governor Richard Howell of New Jersey), and in the
same year became a Democratic representative in Congress. From the
beginning of his political career he advocated a strict construction of
the Federal constitution. He was an ardent admirer of John C. Calhoun,
and eventually became his successor as the leader of the South. In his
rare speeches in the House of Representatives he clearly defined his
position in regard to states rights, which he consistently held ever
afterwards. During his first session, war with Mexico was declared, and
he resigned his seat in June 1846 to take command of the first regiment
raised in his state--the Mississippi Rifles. He served in the Northern
Campaign under his father-in-law, General Taylor, and was greatly
distinguished for gallantry and soldierly conduct at Monterey and
particularly at Buena Vista, where he was severely wounded early in the
engagement, but continued in command of his regiment until victory
crowned the American arms. While still in the field he was appointed
(May 1847) by President Polk to be brigadier-general of volunteers; but
this appointment Davis declined, on the ground, as he afterwards said,
"that volunteers are militia and the Constitution reserves to the state
the appointment of all militia officers." Afterwards, Davis himself, as
president of the Confederate States, was to appoint many volunteer
officers.
Upon his return to his home late in 1847 he was appointed to fill a
vacancy in the United States Senate, and in 1850 he was elected for a
full term of six years. He resigned in 1851, but was again elected in
1857, and continued as a member from that year until the secession of
his State in 1861. As a senator he stood in the front rank in a body
distinguished for ability; his purity of character and courteous manner,
together with his intellectual gifts, won him the esteem of all parties;
and he became more and more the leader of the Southern Democrats. He
was, however, possessed of a logical rather than an intuitive mind. In
his famous speech in the Senate on the 12th of July 1848, on the
question of establishing a government for Oregon Territory, he held that
a slave should be treated by the Federal government on the same basis as
any other property, and therefore that it was the duty of Congress to
protect the owner's right to his slave in whatever state or territory of
the Union that slave might be. In the debates on the Compromise Measures
of 1850 he took an active part, strongly opposing these measures, while
Henry Stuart Foote (1800-1880), the other Mississippi senator, was one
of their leading advocates. But although still holding to the theory
expounded in his July speech of 1848, he was now ready with the proposal
that slavery might be prohibited north of latitude 36° 30´ N. provided
it should not be interfered with in any territory south of that line. He
resigned from the Senate in 1851 to become a candidate of the Democratic
States-Rights party for the governorship of his state against Foote, the
candidate of the Union Democrats. In the campaign he held, in opposition
to the wishes of the more radical members of his party, that although
secession might be resorted to as a last alternative the circumstances
were not yet such as to justify it. A temporary loss of eyesight
interfered with his canvass, and he was defeated by a small majority
(1009), the campaign having been watched with the greatest interest
throughout the country. In 1853 he accepted the position of secretary of
war in the cabinet of President Pierce, and for four years performed the
duties of the office with great distinction and with lasting benefit to
the nation. He organized the engineer companies which explored and
reported on the several proposed routes for a railway connecting the
Mississippi valley with the Pacific Ocean; he effected the enlargement
of the army, and made material changes in its equipment of arms and
ammunition, utilizing the latest improvements; he made his appointments
of subordinates on their merits, regardless of party considerations; he
revised the system of tactics, perfected the signal corps service, and
enlarged the coast and frontier defences of the country. During all this
time he was on terms of intimate friendship with the president, over
whom he undoubtedly exerted a powerful, but probably not, as is often
said, a dominating influence; for instance he is generally supposed to
have won the president's support for the Kansas-Nebraska Bill of 1854.
After the passage of this bill, Davis, who as secretary of war had
control of the United States troops in Kansas, sympathized strongly with
the pro-slavery party there. At the end of his service in the cabinet,
he was returned to the Senate. To his insistence in 1860 that the
Democratic party should support his claim to the protection of slavery
in the territories by the Federal government, the disruption of that
party was in large measure due. At the same time he practically told the
Senate that the South would secede in the event of the election of a
radical Republican to the presidency; and on the 10th of January 1861,
not long after the election of Lincoln, he argued before that body the
constitutional right of secession and declared that the treatment of the
South had become such that it could no longer remain in the Union
without being degraded. When his state had passed the ordinance of
secession he resigned his seat, and his speech on the 21st of January
was a clear and able statement of the position taken by his state, and a
most pathetic farewell to his associates.
On the 25th of January 1861 Davis was commissioned major-general of the
forces Mississippi was raising in view of the threatened conflict. On
the 9th of February he received the unanimous vote of the Provisional
Congress of the seceded states as president of the "Confederate States
of America." He was inaugurated on the 18th of February, was
subsequently, after the adoption of the permanent constitution,
regularly elected by popular vote, for a term of six years, and on the
22nd of February 1862 was again inaugurated. He had not sought the
office, preferring service in the field. His brilliant career, both as a
civilian and as a soldier, drew all eyes to him as best fitted to guide
the fortunes of the new Confederacy, and with a deep sense of the
responsibility he obeyed the call. He heartily approved of the peace
conference, which attempted to draw up a plan of reconciliation between
the two sections, but whose failure made war inevitable. Montgomery, in
Alabama, was the first Confederate capital, but after Virginia joined
her sister states, the seat of government was removed to Richmond, on
the 29th of May 1861. How Davis--of whom W. E. Gladstone, in the early
days of English sympathy with the South, said that he had "made a
nation"--bore himself in his most responsible position during the
gigantic conflict which ensued, cannot here be related in detail. (See
CONFEDERATE STATES; and AMERICAN CIVIL WAR.) In the shortest time he
organized and put into the field one of the finest bodies of soldiers of
which history has record. Factories sprang up in the South in a few
months, supplying the army with arms and munitions of war, and the
energy of the president was everywhere apparent. That he committed
serious errors, his warmest admirers will hardly deny. Unfortunately his
firmness developed into obstinacy, and exhibited itself in continued
confidence in officers who had proved to be failures, and in dislike of
some of his ablest generals. He committed the great mistake, too, of
directing the movements of distant armies from the seat of government,
though those armies were under able generals. This naturally caused
great dissatisfaction, and more than once resulted in irreparable
disaster. Moreover, he was not, like Lincoln, a great manager of men; he
often acted without tact; he was charged with being domineering and
autocratic, and at various times he was seriously hampered by the
meddling of the Confederate Congress and the opposition of such men as
the vice-president, A. H. Stephens, Governor Joseph E. Brown of Georgia,
and Governor Zebulon Vance of North Carolina.
During the winter of 1864-1865 the resources of the government showed
such exhaustion that it was apparent that the end would come with the
opening of the spring campaign. This was clearly stated in the reports
of the heads of departments and of General Lee. President Davis,
however, acted as if he was assured of ultimate success. He sent Duncan
F. Kenner as special commissioner to the courts of England and France to
obtain recognition of the Confederacy on condition of the abolition of
slavery. When a conference was held in Hampton Roads on the 3rd of
February 1865 between President Lincoln and Secretary Seward on the one
side, and A. H. Stephens, R. M. T. Hunter, and Judge James A. Campbell,
representing President Davis, on the other, he instructed his
representatives to insist on the recognition of the Confederacy as a
condition to any arrangement for the termination of the war. This
defeated the object of the conference, and deprived the South of terms
which would have been more beneficial than those imposed by the
conqueror when the end came a few weeks later. The last days of the
Confederate Congress were spent in recriminations between that body and
President Davis, and the popularity with which he commenced his
administration had almost entirely vanished. In January 1865 the
Congress proposed to supersede the president and make General Lee
dictator,--a suggestion, however, to which the Confederate commander
refused to listen.
After the surrender of the armies of Lee and Johnston in April 1865,
President Davis attempted to make his way, through Georgia, across the
Mississippi, in the vain hope of continuing the war with the forces of
Generals Smith and Magruder. He was taken prisoner on the 10th of May by
Federal troops near Irwinville, Irwin county, Georgia, and was brought
back to Old Point, Virginia, in order to be confined in prison at
Fortress Monroe. In prison he was chained and treated with great
severity. He was indicted for treason by a Virginia grand jury,
persistent efforts were made to connect him with the assassination of
President Lincoln, he was unjustly charged with having deliberately and
wilfully caused the sufferings and deaths of Union prisoners at
Andersonville and for two years he was denied trial or bail. Such
treatment aroused the sympathy of the Southern people, who regarded him
as a martyr to their cause, and in a great measure restored him to that
place in their esteem which by the close of the war he had lost. It also
aroused a general feeling in the North, and when finally he was admitted
to bail (in May 1867), Horace Greeley, Gerrit Smith, and others in that
section who had been his political opponents, became his sureties.
Charles O'Conor, a leader of the New York bar, volunteered to act as his
counsel. With him was associated Robert Ould of Richmond, a lawyer of
great ability. They moved to quash the indictment on which he was
brought to trial. Chief Justice Chase and Judge John C. Underwood
constituted the United States circuit court sitting for Virginia before
which the case was brought in December 1868; the court was divided, the
chief justice voting to sustain the motion and Underwood to overrule it.
The matter was thereupon certified to the Supreme Court of the United
States, but as the general amnesty of the 25th of December 1868 included
Davis, an order of _nolle prosequi_ was entered in February 1869, and
Davis and his bondsmen were thereupon released. After his release he
visited Europe, and spent the last years of his life in retirement,
during which he wrote his _Rise and Fall of the Confederate Government_
(2 vols., 1881). In these volumes he attempted to vindicate his
administration, and in so doing he attacked the records of those
generals he disliked. He also wrote a _Short History of the Confederate
States of America_ (1890). He died on the 6th of December 1889, at New
Orleans, leaving a widow and two daughters--Margaret, who married J. A.
Hayes in 1877, and Varina Anne (1864-1898), better known as "Winnie"
Davis, the "daughter of the Confederacy," who was the author of several
books, including _A Sketch of the Life of Robert Emmet_ (1888), a novel,
_The Veiled Doctor_ (1895), and _A Romance of Summer Seas_ (1898). A
monument to her, designed by George J. Zolnay, and erected by the
Daughters of the Confederacy, was unveiled in Hollywood cemetery,
Richmond, Va., on the 9th of November 1899. Mrs Davis, who exerted a
marked influence over her husband, survived him many years, passed the
last years of her life in New York City, and died there on the 16th of
October 1906.
AUTHORITIES.--Several biographies and memoirs of Davis have been
published, of which the best are: _Jefferson Davis, Ex-President of
the Confederate States_ (2 vols., New York, 1890), by his widow; F. H.
Alfriend's _Life of Jefferson Davis_ (Cincinnati, 1868), which
defended him from the charges of incompetence and despotism brought
against him; E. A. Pollard's _Life of Jefferson Davis, with a Secret
History of the Southern Confederacy_ (Philadelphia, 1869), a somewhat
partisan arraignment by a prominent Southern journalist; and W. E.
Dodd's _Jefferson Davis_ (Philadelphia, 1907), which embodies the
results of recent historical research. _The Prison Life of Jefferson
Davis_ (New York, 1866) by John J. Craven (d. 1893), a Federal army
surgeon who was Davis's physician at Fortress Monroe, was long
popular; it gives a vivid and sympathetic picture of Mr Davis as a
prisoner, but its authenticity and accuracy have been questioned.
(W. W. H.*; N. D. M.)
DAVIS (or DAVYS), JOHN (1550?-1605), one of the chief English navigators
and explorers under Elizabeth, especially in Polar regions, was born at
Sandridge near Dartmouth about 1550. From a boy he was a sailor, and
early made several voyages with Adrian Gilbert; both the Gilbert and
Raleigh families were Devonians of his own neighbourhood, and through
life he seems to have profited by their friendship. In January 1583 he
appears to have broached his design of a north-west passage to
Walsingham and John Dee; various consultations followed; and in 1585 he
started on his first north-western expedition. On this he began by
striking the ice-bound east shore of Greenland, which he followed south
to Cape Farewell; thence he turned north once more and coasted the west
Greenland littoral some way, till, finding the sea free from ice, he
shaped a "course for China" by the north-west. In 66° N., however, he
fell in with Baffin Land, and though he pushed some way up Cumberland
Sound, and professed to recognize in this the "hoped strait," he now
turned back (end of August). He tried again in 1586 and 1587; in the
last voyage he pushed through the straits still named after him into
Baffin's Bay, coasting west Greenland to 73° N., almost to Upernavik,
and thence making a last effort to find a passage westward along the
north of America. Many points in Arctic latitudes (Cumberland Sound,
Cape Walsingham, Exeter Sound, &c.) retain names given them by Davis,
who ranks with Baffin and Hudson as the greatest of early Arctic
explorers and, like Frobisher, narrowly missed the discovery of Hudson's
Bay via Hudson's Straits (the "Furious Overfall" of Davis). In 1588 he
seems to have commanded the "Black Dog" against the Spanish Armada; in
1589 he joined the earl of Cumberland off the Azores; and in 1591 he
accompanied Thomas Cavendish on his last voyage, with the special
purpose, as he tells us, of searching "that north-west discovery upon
the back parts of America." After the rest of Cavendish's expedition
returned unsuccessful, he continued to attempt on his own account the
passage of the Strait of Magellan; though defeated here by foul weather,
he discovered the Falkland Islands. The passage home was extremely
disastrous, and he brought back only fourteen of his seventy-six men.
After his return in 1593 he published a valuable treatise on practical
navigation in _The Seaman's Secrets_ (1594), and a more theoretical work
in _The World's Hydrographical Description_ (1595). His invention of
back-staff and double quadrant (called a "Davis Quadrant" after him)
held the field among English seamen till long after Hadley's reflecting
quadrant had been introduced. In 1596-1597 Davis seems to have sailed
with Raleigh (as master of Sir Walter's own ship) to Cadiz and the
Azores; and in 1598-1600 he accompanied a Dutch expedition to the East
Indies as pilot, sailing from Flushing, returning to Middleburg, and
narrowly escaping destruction from treachery at Achin in Sumatra. In
1601-1603 he accompanied Sir James Lancaster as first pilot on his
voyage in the service of the East India Company; and in December 1604 he
sailed again for the same destination as pilot to Sir Edward Michelborne
(or Michelbourn). On this journey he was killed by Japanese pirates off
Bintang near Sumatra.
_A Traverse Book made by John Davis in 1587_, an _Account of his
Second Voyage in 1586_, and a _Report of Master John Davis of his
three voyages made for the Discovery of the North West Passage_ were
printed in Hakluyt's collection. Davis himself published _The Seaman's
Secrets, divided into two Parts_ (London, 1594), _The World's
Hydrographical Description ... whereby appears that there is a short
and speedy Passage into the South Seas, to China, Molucca, Philippina,
and India, by Northerly Navigation_ (London, 1595). Various references
to Davis are in the _Calendars of State Papers, Domestic_ (1591-1594),
and _East Indies_ (1513-1616). See also _Voyages and Works of John
Davis_, edited by A. H. Markham (London, Hakluyt Society, 1880), and
the article "John Davys" by Sir J. K. Laughton in the _Dictionary of
National Biography_. (C. R. B.)
DAVIS, THOMAS OSBORNE (1814-1845), Irish poet and journalist, was born
at Mallow, Co. Cork, on the 14th of October 1814. His father, James
Thomas Davis, a surgeon in the royal artillery, who died in the month of
his son's birth, belonged to an English family of Welsh extraction, and
his mother, Mary Atkins, belonged to a Protestant Anglo-Irish family.
Davis graduated B.A. at Trinity College, Dublin, in 1836, and was called
to the bar two years later. Brought up in an English and Tory circle, he
was led to adopt nationalist views by the study of Irish history, a
complicated subject in which text-books and the ordinary guides to
knowledge were then lacking. In 1840 he made a speech appealing to Irish
sentiment before the college historical society, which had been
reorganized in 1839. With a view to indoctrinating the Irish people with
the idea of nationality he joined John Blake Dillon in editing the
_Dublin Morning Register_. The proprietor very soon dismissed him, and
Davis saw that his propaganda would be ineffective if he continued to
stand outside the national organization. He therefore announced himself
a follower of Daniel O'Connell, and became an energetic worker (1841) on
the committee of the repeal association. He helped Dillon and Charles
Gavan Duffy to found the weekly newspaper, _The Nation_, the first
number of which appeared on the 15th of October 1842. The paper was
chiefly written by these three promoters, and its concentrated purpose
and vigorous writing soon attracted attention. Davis, who had never
written verse, was induced to attempt it for the new undertaking. The
"Lament of Owen Roe O'Neill" was printed in the sixth number, and was
followed by a series of lyrics that take a high place in Irish national
poetry--"The Battle of Fontenoy," "The Geraldines," "Máire Bhán a Stoír"
and many others. Davis contemplated a history of Ireland, an edition of
the speeches of Irish orators, one volume of which appeared, and a life
of Wolfe Tone. These projects remained incomplete, but Davis's
determination and continuous zeal made their mark on his party.
Differences arose between O'Connell and the young writers of _The
Nation_, and as time went on became more pronounced. Davis was accused
of being anti-Catholic, and was systematically attacked by O'Connell's
followers. But he differed, said Sir Charles Gavan Duffy, from earlier
and later Irish tribunes, "by a perfectly genuine desire to remain
unknown, and reap neither recognition nor reward for his work." His
early death from scarlet fever (September 15th, 1845) deprived "Young
Ireland" of its most striking personality.
His _Poems_ and his _Literary and Historical Essays_ were collected in
1846. There is an edition of his prose writings (1889) in the _Camelot
Classics_. See the monograph on _Thomas Davis_ by Sir Charles Gavan
Duffy (1890, abridged ed. 1896), and the same writer's _Young Ireland_
(revised edition, 1896).
DAVISON, WILLIAM (c. 1541-1608), secretary to Queen Elizabeth, was of
Scottish descent, and in 1566 acted as secretary to Henry Killigrew (d.
1603), when he was sent into Scotland by Elizabeth on a mission to Mary,
queen of Scots. Remaining in that country for about ten years, Davison
then went twice to the Netherlands on diplomatic business, returning to
England in 1586 to defend the hasty conduct of his friend, Robert
Dudley, earl of Leicester. In the same year he became member of
parliament for Knaresborough, a privy councillor, and assistant to
Elizabeth's secretary, Thomas Walsingham; but he soon appears to have
acted rather as the colleague than the subordinate of Walsingham. He was
a member of the commission appointed to try Mary, queen of Scots,
although he took no part in its proceedings. When sentence was passed
upon Mary the warrant for her execution was entrusted to Davison, who,
after some delay, obtained the queen's signature. On this occasion, and
also in subsequent interviews with her secretary, Elizabeth suggested
that Mary should be executed in some more secret fashion, and her
conversation afforded ample proof that she disliked to take upon herself
any responsibility for the death of her rival. Meanwhile, the privy
council having been summoned by Lord Burghley, it was decided to carry
out the sentence at once, and Mary was beheaded on the 8th of February
1587. When the news of the execution reached Elizabeth she was extremely
indignant, and her wrath was chiefly directed against Davison, who, she
asserted, had disobeyed her instructions not to part with the warrant.
The secretary was arrested and thrown into prison, but, although he
defended himself vigorously, he did not say anything about the queen's
wish to get rid of Mary by assassination. Charged before the Star
Chamber with misprision and contempt, he was acquitted of evil
intention, but was sentenced to pay a fine of 10,000 marks, and to
imprisonment during the queen's pleasure; but owing to the exertions of
several influential men he was released in 1589. The queen, however,
refused to employ him again in her service, and he retired to Stepney,
where he died in December 1608. Davison appears to have been an
industrious and outspoken man, and was undoubtedly made the scapegoat
for the queen's pusillanimous conduct. By his wife, Catherine Spelman,
he had a family of four sons and two daughters. Two of his sons, Francis
and Walter, obtained some celebrity as poets.
Many state papers written by him, and many of his letters, are extant
in various collections of manuscripts. See Sir N. H. Nicolas, _Life of
W. Davison_ (London, 1823); J. A. Froude, _History of England_
(London, 1881 fol.); _Calendar of State Papers 1580-1609_; and
_Correspondence of Leicester during his Government of the Low
Countries_, edited by J. Bruce (London, 1844).
DAVIS STRAIT, the broad strait which separates Greenland from North
America, and connects Baffin Bay with the open Atlantic. At its
narrowest point, which occurs just where the Arctic Circle crosses it,
it is nearly 200 m. wide. This part is also the shallowest, a sounding
of 112 fathoms being found in the centre, whereas the depth increases
rapidly both to north and to south. Along the western shore (Baffin
Land) a cold current passes southward; but along the east there is a
warm northward stream, and there are a few Danish settlements on the
Greenland coast. The strait takes its name from the explorer John Davis.
DAVITT, MICHAEL (1846-1906), Irish Nationalist politician, son of a
peasant farmer in Co. Mayo, was born on the 25th of March 1846. His
father was evicted for non-payment of rent in 1851, and migrated to
Lancashire, where at the age of ten the boy began work in a cotton mill
at Haslingden. In 1857 he lost his right arm by a machinery accident,
and he had to get employment as a newsboy and printer's "devil." He
drifted into the ranks of the Fenian brotherhood in 1865, and in 1870 he
was arrested for treason-felony in arranging for sending fire-arms into
Ireland, and was sentenced to fifteen years' penal servitude. After
seven years he was released on ticket of leave. He at once rejoined the
"Irish Republican Brotherhood," and went to the United States, where his
mother, herself of American birth, had settled with the rest of the
family, in order to concert plans with the Fenian leaders there.
Returning to Ireland he helped C. S. Parnell to start the Land League in
1879, and his violent speeches resulted in his re-arrest and consignment
to Portland by Sir William Harcourt, then home secretary. He was
released in 1882, but was again prosecuted for seditious speeches in
1883, and suffered three months' imprisonment. He had been elected to
parliament for Meath as a Nationalist in 1882, but being a convict was
disqualified to sit. He was included as one of the respondents before
the Parnell Commission (1888-1890) and spoke for five days in his own
defence, but his prominent association with the revolutionary Irish
schemes was fully established. (See PARNELL.) He took the
anti-Parnellite side in 1890, and in 1892 was elected to parliament for
North Meath, but was unseated on petition. He was then returned for
North-East Cork, but had to vacate his seat through bankruptcy, caused
by the costs in the North Meath petition. In 1895 he was elected for
West Mayo, but retired before the dissolution in 1900. He died on the
31st of May 1906, in Dublin. A sincere but embittered Nationalist,
anti-English to the backbone, anti-clerical, and sceptical as to the
value of the purely parliamentary agitation for Home Rule, Davitt was a
notable representative of the survival of the Irish "physical force"
party, and a strong link with the extremists in America. In later years
his Socialistic Radicalism connected him closely with the Labour party.
He wrote constantly in American and colonial journals, and published
some books, always with the strongest bias against English methods; but
his force of character earned him at least the respect of those who
could make calm allowance for an open enemy of the established order,
and a higher meed of admiration from those who sympathized with his
objects or were not in a position to be threatened by them.
DAVOS (Romonsch _Tavau_, a name variously explained as meaning a sheep
pasture or simply "behind"), a mountain valley in the Swiss canton of
the Grisons, lying east of Coire (whence it is 40 m. distant by rail),
and north-west of the Lower Engadine (accessible at Süs in 18 m. by
road). It contains two main villages, 2 m. from each other, Dörfli and
Platz (the chief hamlet), which are 5015 ft. above the sea-level, and
had a population in 1900 of 8089, a figure exceeded in the Grisons only
by the capital Coire. Of the population 5391 were Protestants, 2564
Romanists, and 81 Jews; while 6048 were German-speaking and 486
Romonsch-speaking. In 1860 the population was only 1705, rising to 2002
in 1870, to 2865 in 1880, to 3891 in 1888, and to 8089 in 1890. This
steady increase is due to the fact that the valley is now much
frequented in winter by consumptive patients, as its position, sheltered
from cold winds and exposed to brilliant sunshine in the daytime, has a
most beneficial effect on invalids in the first stages of that terrible
disease. A local doctor, by name Spengler, first noticed this fact about
1865, and the valley soon became famous. It is now provided with
excellent hotels, sanatoria, &c., but as lately as 1860 there was only
one inn there, housed in the 16th-century _Rathhaus_ (town hall), which
is still adorned by the heads of wolves shot in the neighbourhood. At
the north end of the valley is the fine lake of Davos, used for skating
in the winter, while from Platz the splendidly engineered
_Landwasserstrasse_ leads (20 m.) down to the Alvaneubad station on the
Albula railway from Coire to the Engadine.
We first hear of Tavaus or Tavauns in 1160 and 1213, as a mountain
pasture or "alp." It was then in the hands of a Romonsch-speaking
population, as is shown by many surviving field names. But, some time
between 1260 and 1282, a colony of German-speaking persons from the
Upper Valais (first mentioned in 1289) was planted there by its lord,
Walter von Vaz, so that it has long been a Teutonic island in the midst
of a Romonsch-speaking population. Historically it is associated with
the Prättigau or Landquart valley to the north, as it was the most
important village of the region, and in 1436 became the capital of the
League of the Ten Jurisdictions. (See GRISONS.) It formerly contained
many iron mines, and belonged from 1477 to 1649 to the Austrian
Habsburgs. In 1779 Davos was visited and described by Archdeacon W.
Coxe. (W. A. B. C.)
DAVOUT, LOUIS NICOLAS, duke of Auerstädt and prince of Eckmühl
(1770-1823), marshal of France, was born at Annoux (Yonne) on the 10th
of May 1770. His name is also, less correctly, spelt Davoût and Davoust.
He entered the French army as a sub-lieutenant in 1788, and on the
outbreak of the Revolution he embraced its principles. He was _chef de
bataillon_ in a volunteer corps in the campaign of 1792, and
distinguished himself at Neerwinden in the following spring. He had just
been promoted general of brigade when he was removed from the active
list as being of noble birth. He served, however, in the campaigns of
1794-1797 on the Rhine, and accompanied Desaix in the Egyptian
expedition of Bonaparte. On his return he took part in the campaign of
Marengo under Napoleon, who placed the greatest confidence in his
abilities, made him a general of division soon after Marengo, and in
1801 gave him a command in the consular guard. At the accession of
Napoleon as emperor, Davout was one of the generals who were created
marshals of France. As commander of the III. corps of the _Grande Armée_
Davout rendered the greatest services. At Austerlitz, after a forced
march of forty-eight hours, the III. corps bore the brunt of the allies'
attack. In the Jena campaign Davout with a single corps fought and won
the brilliant victory of Auerstädt against the main Prussian army. (See
NAPOLEONIC CAMPAIGNS.) He took part, and added to his renown, in the
campaign of Eylau and Friedland. Napoleon left him as governor-general
in the grand-duchy of Warsaw when the treaty of Tilsit put an end to the
war (1807), and in 1808 created him duke of Auerstädt. In the war of
1809 Davout took a brilliant part in the actions which culminated in the
victory of Eckmühl, and had an important share in the battle of Wagram
(q.v.). He was created prince of Eckmühl about this time. It was Davout
who was entrusted by Napoleon with the task of organizing the "corps of
observation of the Elbe," which was in reality the gigantic army with
which the emperor invaded Russia in 1812. In this Davout commanded the
I. corps, over 70,000 strong, and defeated the Russians at Mohilev
before he joined the main army, with which he continued throughout the
campaign and the retreat from Moscow. In 1813 he commanded the Hamburg
military district, and defended Hamburg, a city ill fortified and
provisioned, and full of disaffection, through a long siege, only
surrendering the place on the direct order of Louis XVIII. after the
fall of Napoleon in 1814.
Davout's military character was on this, as on many other occasions,
interpreted as cruel and rapacious, and he had to defend himself against
many attacks upon his conduct at Hamburg. He was a stern disciplinarian,
almost the only one of the marshals who exacted rigid and precise
obedience from his troops, and consequently his corps was more
trustworthy and exact in the performance of its duty than any other.
Thus, in the earlier days of the _Grande Armée_, it was always the III.
corps which was entrusted with the most difficult part of the work in
hand. The same criterion is to be applied to his conduct of civil
affairs. His rapacity was in reality Napoleon's, for he gave the same
undeviating obedience to superior orders which he enforced in his own
subordinates. As for his military talents, he was admitted by his
contemporaries and by later judgment to be one of the ablest, perhaps
the ablest, of all Napoleon's marshals. On the first restoration he
retired into private life, openly displaying his hostility to the
Bourbons, and when Napoleon returned from Elba; Davout at once joined
him. Appointed minister of war, he reorganized the French army as far as
the limited time available permitted, and he was so far indispensable to
the war department that Napoleon kept him at Paris during the Waterloo
campaign. To what degree his skill and bravery would have altered the
fortunes of the campaign of 1815 can only be surmised, but it has been
made a ground of criticism against Napoleon that he did not avail
himself in the field of the services of the best general he then
possessed. Davout directed the gallant, but hopeless, defence of Paris
after Waterloo, and was deprived of his marshalate and his titles at the
second restoration. When some of his subordinate generals were
proscribed, he demanded to be held responsible for their acts, as
executed under his orders, and he endeavoured to prevent the
condemnation of Ney. After a time the hostility of the Bourbons towards
Davout died away, and he was reconciled to the monarchy. In 1817 his
rank and titles were restored, and in 1819 he became a member of the
chamber of peers. He died at Paris on the 1st of June 1823.
See the marquise de Blocqueville, _Le Maréchal Davout raconté par les
siens et lui-même_ (Paris, 1870-1880, 1887); Chenier, _Davout, duc
d'Auerstädt_ (Paris, 1866).
DAVY, SIR HUMPHRY, Bart. (1778-1829), English chemist, was born on the
17th of December 1778 at or near Penzance in Cornwall. During his school
days at the grammar schools of Penzance and Truro he showed few signs of
a taste for scientific pursuits or indeed of any special zeal for
knowledge or of ability beyond a certain skill in making verse
translations from the classics and in story-telling. But when in 1794
his father, Robert Davy, died, leaving a widow and five children in
embarrassed circumstances, he awoke to his responsibilities as the
eldest son, and becoming apprentice to a surgeon-apothecary at Penzance
set to work on a systematic and remarkably wide course of
self-instruction which he mapped out for himself in preparation for a
career in medicine. Beginning with metaphysics and ethics and passing on
to mathematics, he turned to chemistry at the end of 1797, and within a
few months of reading Nicholson's and Lavoisier's treatises on that
science had produced a new theory of light and heat. About the same time
he made the acquaintance of two men of scientific attainments--Gregory
Watt (1777-1804), a son of James Watt, and Davies Giddy, afterwards
Gilbert (1767-1839), who was president of the Royal Society from 1827 to
1831. By the latter he was recommended to Dr Thomas Beddoes, who was in
1798 establishing his Medical Pneumatic Institution at Bristol for
investigating the medicinal properties of various gases. Here Davy,
released from his indentures, was installed as superintendent towards
the end of 1798. Early next year two papers from his pen were published
in Beddoes' _West Country Contributions_--one "On Heat, Light and the
Combinations of Light, with a new Theory of Respiration and Observations
on the Chemistry of Life," and the other "On the Generation of
Phosoxygen (Oxygen gas) and the Causes of the Colours of Organic
Beings." These contain an account of the well-known experiment in which
he sought to establish the immateriality of heat by showing its
generation through the friction of two pieces of ice in an exhausted
vessel, and further attempt to prove that light is "matter of a peculiar
kind," and that oxygen gas, being a compound of this matter with a
simple substance, would more properly be termed phosoxygen. Founded on
faulty experiments and reasoning, the views he expressed were either
ignored or ridiculed; and it was long before he bitterly regretted the
temerity with which he had published his hasty generalizations.
One of his first discoveries at the Pneumatic Institution on the 9th of
April 1799 was that pure nitrous oxide (laughing gas) is perfectly
respirable, and he narrates that on the next day he became "absolutely
intoxicated" through breathing sixteen quarts of it for "near seven
minutes." This discovery brought both him and the Pneumatic Institution
into prominence. The gas itself was inhaled by Southey and Coleridge
among other distinguished people, and promised to become fashionable,
while further research yielded Davy material for his _Researches,
Chemical and Philosophical, chiefly concerning Nitrous Oxide_, published
in 1800, which secured his reputation as a chemist. Soon afterwards,
Count Rumford, requiring a lecturer on chemistry for the recently
established Royal Institution in London, opened negotiations with him,
and on the 16th of February 1801 he was engaged as assistant lecturer in
chemistry and director of the laboratory. Ten weeks later, having "given
satisfactory proofs of his talents" in a course of lectures on
galvanism, he was appointed lecturer, and his promotion to be professor
followed on the 31st of May 1802. One of the first tasks imposed on him
by the managers was the delivery of a course of lectures on the chemical
principles of tanning, and he was given leave of absence for July,
August and September 1801 in order to acquaint himself practically with
the subject. The main facts he discovered from his experiments in this
connexion were described before the Royal Society in 1803. In 1802 the
board of agriculture requested him to direct his attention to
agricultural subjects; and in 1803, with the acquiescence of the Royal
Institution, he gave his first course of lectures on agricultural
chemistry and continued them for ten successive years, ultimately
publishing their substance as _Elements of Agricultural Chemistry_ in
1813. But his chief interest at the Royal Institution was with
electro-chemistry. Galvanic phenomena had already engaged his attention
before he left Bristol, but in London he had at his disposal a large
battery which gave him much greater opportunities. His first
communication to the Royal Society, read in June 1801, related to
galvanic combinations formed with single metallic plates and fluids, and
showed that an electric cell might be constructed with a single metal
and two fluids, provided one of the fluids was capable of oxidizing one
surface of the metal; previous piles had consisted of two different
metals, or of one plate of metal and the other of charcoal, with an
interposed fluid. Five years later he delivered before the Royal Society
his first Bakerian lecture, "On some Chemical Agencies of Electricity,"
which J. J. Berzelius described as one of the most remarkable memoirs in
the history of chemical theory. He summed up his results in the general
statement that "hydrogen, the alkaline substances, the metals and
certain metallic oxides are attracted by negatively electrified metallic
surfaces, and repelled by positively electrified metallic surfaces; and
contrariwise, that oxygen and acid substances are attracted by
positively electrified metallic surfaces and repelled by negatively
electrified metallic surfaces; and these attractive and repulsive forces
are sufficiently energetic to destroy or suspend the usual operation of
elective affinity." He also sketched a theory of chemical affinity on
the facts he had discovered, and concluded by suggesting that the
electric decomposition of neutral salts might in some cases admit of
economical applications and lead to the isolation of the true elements
of bodies. A year after this paper, which gained him from the French
Institute the medal offered by Napoleon for the best experiment made
each year on galvanism, he described in his second Bakerian lecture the
electrolytic preparation of potassium and sodium, effected in October
1807 by the aid of his battery. According to his cousin, Edmund Davy,[1]
then his laboratory assistant, he was so delighted with this achievement
that he danced about the room in ecstasy. Four days after reading his
lecture his health broke down, and severe illness kept him from his
professional duties until March 1808. As soon as he was able to work
again he attempted to obtain the metals of the alkaline earths by the
same methods as he had used for those of the fixed alkalis, but they
eluded his efforts and he only succeeded in preparing them as amalgams
with mercury, by a process due to Berzelius. His attempts to decompose
"alumine, silica, zircone and glucine" were still less fortunate. At the
end of 1808 he read his third Bakerian lecture, one of the longest of
his papers but not one of the best. In it he disproved the idea advanced
by Gay Lussac that potassium was a compound of hydrogen, not an element;
but on the other hand he cast doubts on the elementary character of
phosphorus, sulphur and carbon, though on this point he afterwards
corrected himself. He also described the preparation of boron, for which
at first he proposed the name boracium, on the impression that it was a
metal. About this time a voluntary subscription among the members of the
Royal Institution put him in possession of a new galvanic battery of
2000 double plates, with a surface equal to 128,000 sq. in., to replace
the old one, which had become unserviceable. His fourth Bakerian
lecture, in November 1809, gave further proofs of the elementary nature
of potassium, and described the properties of telluretted hydrogen. Next
year, in a paper read in July and in his fifth Bakerian lecture in
November, he argued that oxymuriatic acid, contrary to his previous
belief, was a simple body, and proposed for it the name "chlorine."
Davy's reputation was now at its zenith. As a lecturer he could command
an audience of little less than 1000 in the theatre of the Royal
Institution, and his fame had spread far outside London. In 1810, at the
invitation of the Dublin Society, he gave a course of lectures on
electro-chemical science, and in the following year he again lectured in
Dublin, on chemistry and geology, receiving large fees at both visits.
During his second visit Trinity College conferred upon him the honorary
degree of LL.D., the only university distinction he ever received. On
the 8th of April 1812 he was knighted by the prince regent; on the 9th
he gave his farewell lecture as professor of chemistry at the Royal
Institution; and on the 11th he was married to Mrs Apreece, daughter and
heiress of Charles Kerr of Kelso, and a distant connexion of Sir Walter
Scott. A few months after his marriage he published the first and only
volume of his _Elements of Chemical Philosophy_, with a dedication to
his wife, and was also re-elected professor of chemistry at the Royal
Institution, though he would not pledge himself to deliver lectures,
explaining that he wished to be free from the routine of lecturing in
order to have more time for original work. Towards the end of the year
he began to investigate chloride of nitrogen, which had just been
discovered by P. L. Dulong, but was obliged to suspend his inquiries
during the winter on account of injury to his eye caused by an explosion
of that substance. In the spring of 1813 he was engaged on the chemistry
of fluorine, and though he failed to isolate the element, he reached
accurate conclusions regarding its nature and properties. In October he
started with his wife for a continental tour, and with them, as
"assistant in experiments and writing," went Michael Faraday, who in the
previous March had been engaged as assistant in the Royal Institution
laboratory. Having obtained permission from the French emperor to travel
in France, he went first to Paris, where during his two months' stay
every honour was accorded him, including election as a corresponding
member of the first class of the Institute. He does not, however, seem
to have reciprocated the courtesy of his French hosts, but gave offence
by the brusqueness of his manner, though his supercilious bearing,
according to his biographer, Dr Paris, was to be ascribed less to any
conscious superiority than to an "ungraceful timidity which he could
never conquer." Nor was his action in regard to iodine calculated to
conciliate. That substance, recently discovered in Paris, was attracting
the attention of French chemists when he stepped in and, after a short
examination with his portable chemical laboratory, detected its
resemblance to chlorine and pronounced it an "undecompounded body."
Towards the end of December he left for Italy. At Genoa he investigated
the electricity of the torpedo-fish, and at Florence, by the aid of the
great burning-glass in the Accademia del Cimento, he effected the
combustion of the diamond in oxygen and decided that, beyond containing
a little hydrogen, it consisted of pure carbon. Then he went to Rome and
Naples and visited Vesuvius and Pompeii, called on Volta at Milan, spent
the summer in Geneva, and returning to Rome occupied the winter with an
inquiry into the composition of ancient colours.
A few months after his return, through Germany, to London in 1815, he
was induced to take up the question of constructing a miner's safety
lamp. Experiments with samples of fire-damp sent from Newcastle soon
taught him that "explosive mixtures of mine-damp will not pass through
small apertures or tubes"; and in a paper read before the Royal Society
on the 9th of November he showed that metallic tubes, being better
conductors of heat, were superior to glass ones, and explained that the
heat lost by contact with a large cooling surface brought the
temperature of the first portions of gas exploded below that required
for the firing of the other portions. Two further papers read in January
1816 explained the employment of wire gauze instead of narrow tubes, and
later in the year the safety lamps were brought into use in the mines. A
large collection of the different models made by Davy in the course of
his inquiries is in the possession of the Royal Institution. He took out
no patent for his invention, and in recognition of his disinterestedness
the Newcastle coal-owners in September 1817 presented him with a
dinner-service of silver plate.[2]
In 1818, when he was created a baronet, he was commissioned by the
British government to examine the papyri of Herculaneum in the
Neapolitan museum, and he did not arrive back in England till June 1820.
In November of that year the Royal Society, of which he had become a
fellow in 1803, and acted as secretary from 1807 to 1812, chose him as
their president, but his personal qualities were not such as to make him
very successful in that office, especially in comparison with the tact
and firmness of his predecessor, Sir Joseph Banks. In 1821 he was busy
with electrical experiments and in 1822 with investigations of the
fluids contained in the cavities of crystals in rocks. In 1823, when
Faraday liquefied chlorine, he read a paper which suggested the
application of liquids formed by the condensation of gases as mechanical
agents. In the same year the admiralty consulted the Royal Society as to
a means of preserving the copper sheathing of ships from corrosion and
keeping it smooth, and he suggested that the copper would be preserved
if it were rendered negatively electrical, as would be done by fixing
"protectors" of zinc to the sheeting. This method was tried on several
ships, but it was found that the bottoms became extremely foul from
accumulations of seaweed and shellfish. For this reason the admiralty
decided against the plan, much to the inventor's annoyance, especially
as orders to remove the protectors already fitted were issued in June
1825, immediately after he had announced to the Royal Society the full
success of his remedy.
In 1826 Davy's health, which showed signs of failure in 1823, had so
declined that he could with difficulty indulge in his favourite sports
of fishing and shooting, and early in 1827, after a slight attack of
paralysis, he was ordered abroad. After a short stay at Ravenna he
removed to Salzburg, whence, his illness continuing, he sent in his
resignation as president of the Royal Society. In the autumn he returned
to England and spent his time in writing his _Salmonia or Days of
Flyfishing_, an imitation of _The Compleat Angler_. In the spring of
1828 he again left England for Illyria, and in the winter fixed his
residence at Rome, whence he sent to the Royal Society his "Remarks on
the Electricity of the Torpedo," written at Trieste in October. This,
with the exception of a posthumous work, _Consolations in Travel, or the
Last Days of a Philosopher_ (1830), was the final production of his pen.
On the 20th of February 1829 he suffered a second attack of paralysis
which rendered his right side quite powerless, but under the care of his
brother, Dr John Davy (1791-1868), he rallied sufficiently to be removed
to Geneva, where he died on the 29th of May.
Of a sanguine, somewhat irritable temperament, Davy displayed
characteristic enthusiasm and energy in all his pursuits. As is shown by
his verses and sometimes by his prose, his mind was highly imaginative;
the poet Coleridge declared that if he "had not been the first chemist,
he would have been the first poet of his age," and Southey said that "he
had all the elements of a poet; he only wanted the art." In spite of his
ungainly exterior and peculiar manner, his happy gifts of exposition and
illustration won him extraordinary popularity as a lecturer, his
experiments were ingenious and rapidly performed, and Coleridge went to
hear him "to increase his stock of metaphors." The dominating ambition
of his life was to achieve fame, but though that sometimes betrayed him
into petty jealousy, it did not leave him insensible to the claims on
his knowledge of the "cause of humanity," to use a phrase often employed
by him in connexion with his invention of the miners' lamp. Of the
smaller observances of etiquette he was careless, and his frankness of
disposition sometimes exposed him to annoyances which he might have
avoided by the exercise of ordinary tact.
See Dr J. A. Paris, _The Life of Sir Humphry Davy_ (1831), vol. ii. of
which on pp. 450-456 gives a list of his publications. Dr John Davy,
_Memoirs of Sir Humphry Davy_ (1836); Collected Works (with shorter
memoir, 1839); _Fragmentary Remains, Literary and Scientific_ (1858).
T. E. Thorpe, _Humphry Davy, Poet and Philosopher_ (1896).
FOOTNOTES:
[1] Edmund Davy (1785-1857) became professor of chemistry at Cork
Institution in 1813, and at the Royal Dublin Society in 1826. His
son, Edmund William Davy (born in 1826), was appointed professor of
medicine in the Royal College, Dublin, in 1870.
[2] Davy's will directed that this service, after Lady Davy's death,
should pass to his brother, Dr John Davy, on whose decease, if he had
no heirs who could make use of it, it was to be melted and sold, the
proceeds going to the Royal Society "to found a medal to be given
annually for the most important discovery in chemistry anywhere made
in Europe or Anglo-America." The silver produced £736, and the
interest on that sum is expended on the Davy medal, which was awarded
for the first time in 1877, to Bunsen and Kirchhoff for their
discovery of spectrum analysis.
DAWARI, or DAURI, a Pathan tribe on the Waziri border of the North-West
Frontier Province of India. The Dawaris inhabit the Tochi Valley (q.v.),
otherwise known as Dawar or Daur, and are a homogeneous tribe of
considerable size, numbering 5200 fighting men. Though surrounded on all
four sides by a Waziri population they bear little resemblance to
Waziris. They are an agricultural and the Waziris a pastoral race, and
they are much richer than their neighbours. They thrive on a rich
sedimentary soil copiously irrigated in the midst of a country where
cultivable land of any kind is scarce and water in general hardly to be
obtained. But they pay a heavy tax in health and well-being for the
possession of their fertile acres. Fevers and other ravaging diseases
are bred in the wet sodden lands of the Tochi Valley, lying at the
bottom of a deep depression exposed to the burning rays of the sun; and
the effects of these ailments may be clearly traced in the drawn or
bloated features and the shrunken or swollen limbs of nearly every
Dawari that has passed middle life. They have an evil name for
indolence, drug-eating and unnatural vices, and are morally the lowest
of the Afghan races; but in spite of these defects, and of the contempt
with which they are regarded by the other Afghan tribes, they have held
their own for centuries against the warlike and hardy Waziris. The
secret of this is that the Dawaris stand together, and the Waziris do
not, while the weaker race is gifted with infinite patience and tenacity
of purpose. With the advent of British government, however, the Dawaris
are now secured in the possession of their ancestral lands.
See J. G. Lorimer, _Grammar and Vocabulary of Waziri Pushtu_ (1902).
DAWES, HENRY LAURENS (1816-1903), American lawyer, was born at
Cummington, Massachusetts, on the 30th of October 1816. After graduating
at Yale in 1839, he taught for a time at Greenfield, Mass., and also
edited _The Greenfield Gazette_. In 1842 he was admitted to the bar and
began the practice of law at North Adams, where for a time he conducted
_The Transcript_. He served in the Massachusetts House of
Representatives in 1848-1849 and in 1852, in the state Senate in 1850,
and in the Massachusetts constitutional convention in 1853. From 1853 to
1857 he was United States district attorney for the western district of
Massachusetts; and from 1857-1875 he was a Republican member of the
national House of Representatives. In 1875 he succeeded Charles Sumner
as senator from Massachusetts, serving until 1893. During this long
period of legislative activity he served in the House on the committees
on elections, ways and means, and appropriations, took a prominent part
in the anti-slavery and reconstruction measures during and after the
Civil War, in tariff legislation, and in the establishment of a fish
commission and the inauguration of daily weather reports. In the Senate
he was chairman of the committee on Indian affairs, and gave much
attention to the enactment of laws for the benefit of the Indians. On
leaving the Senate, in 1893, he became chairman of the Commission to the
Five Civilized Tribes (sometimes called the Dawes Indian Commission),
and served in this capacity for ten years, negotiating with the tribes
for the extinction of the communal title to their land and for the
dissolution of the tribal governments, with the object of making the
tribes a constituent part of the United States.[1] Dawes died at
Pittsfield, Mass., on the 5th of February 1903.
FOOTNOTE:
[1] The commission completed its labours on the 1st of July 1905,
after having allotted 20,000,000 acres of land among 90,000 Indians
and absorbed the five Indian governments into the national system.
The "five tribes" were the Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Creek and
Seminole Indians.
DAWES, RICHARD (1708-1766), English classical scholar, was born in or
near Market Bosworth. He was educated at the town grammar school under
Anthony Blackwall, and at Emmanuel College, Cambridge, of which society
he was elected fellow in 1731. His peculiar habits and outspoken
language made him unpopular. His health broke down in consequence of his
sedentary life, and it is said that he took to bell-ringing at Great St
Mary's as a restorative. He was a bitter enemy of Bentley, who he
declared knew nothing of Greek except from indexes. In 1738 Dawes was
appointed to the mastership of the grammar school, Newcastle-on-Tyne,
combined with that of St Mary's hospital. From all accounts his mind
appears to have become unhinged; his eccentricities of conduct and
continual disputes with his governing body ruined the school, and
finally, in 1749, he resigned his post and retired to Heworth, where he
chiefly amused himself with boating. He died on the 21st of March 1766.
Dawes was not a prolific writer. The book on which his fame rests is his
_Miscellanea critica_ (1745), which gained the commendation of such
distinguished continental scholars as L. C. Valckenaer and J. J. Reiske.
The _Miscellanea_, which was re-edited by T. Burgess (1781), G. C.
Harles (1800) and T. Kidd (1817), for many years enjoyed a high
reputation, and although some of the "canons" have been proved untenable
and few can be accepted universally, it will always remain an honourable
and enduring monument of English scholarship.
See J. Hodgson, _An Account of the Life and Writings of Richard Dawes_
(1828); H. R. Luard in _Dict. of Nat. Biog._; J. E. Sandys, _Hist. of
Classical Scholarship_, ii. 415.
DAWISON, BOGUMIL (1818-1872), German actor, was born at Warsaw, of
Jewish parents, and at the age of nineteen went on the stage. In 1839 he
received an appointment to the theatre at Lemberg in Galicia. In 1847 he
played at Hamburg with marked success, was from 1849 to 1854 a member of
the Burg theatre in Vienna, and then became connected with the Dresden
court theatre. In 1864 he was given a life engagement, but resigned his
appointment, and after starring through Germany visited the United
States in 1866. He died in Dresden on the 1st of February 1872. Dawison
was considered in Germany an actor of a new type; a leading critic wrote
that he and Marie Seebach "swept like fresh gales over dusty tradition,
and brushing aside the monotony of declamation gave to their rôles more
character and vivacity than had hitherto been known on the German
stage." His chief parts were Mephistopheles, Franz Moor, Mark Antony,
Hamlet, Charles V., Richard III. and King Lear.
DAWKINS, WILLIAM BOYD (1838- ), English geologist and archaeologist,
was born at Buttington vicarage near Welshpool, Montgomeryshire, on the
26th of December 1838. Educated at Rossall School and Oxford, he joined
the Geological Survey in 1862, and in 1869 became curator of the
Manchester museum, a post which he retained till 1890. He was appointed
professor of geology and palaeontology in Owens College, Manchester, in
1874. He paid special attention to the question of the existence of coal
in Kent, and in 1882 was selected by the Channel tunnel committee to
make a special survey of the French and English coasts. He was also
employed in the scheme of a tunnel beneath the Humber. His chief
distinctions, however, were won in the realms of anthropology by his
researches into the lives of the cave-dwellers of prehistoric times,
labours which have borne fruit in his books _Cave-hunting_ (1874);
_Early Man in Britain_ (1880); _British Pleistocene Mammalia_
(1866-1887). He became a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1867, and acted
as president of the anthropological section of the British Association
in 1882 and of the geological section in 1888.
DAWLISH, a watering-place in the Ashburton parliamentary division of
Devonshire, England, on the English Channel, near the outflow of the
Exe, 12 m. S. of Exeter by the Great Western railway. Pop. of urban
district (1901) 4003. It lies on a cove sheltered by two projecting
headlands. A small stream which flows through the town is lined on both
sides by pleasure-grounds. Dawlish owes its prosperity to the visitors
attracted, in spring and early summer, by the warm climate and excellent
bathing. An annual pleasure fair is held on Easter Monday, and a regatta
in August or September. Until its sale in the 19th century, the site of
Dawlish belonged to Exeter cathedral, having been given to the chapter
by Leofric, bishop of Exeter, in 1050.
DAWN (the 16th-century form of the earlier "dawing" or "dawning," from
an old verb "daw," O. Eng. _dagian_, to become day; cf. Dutch _dagen_,
and Ger. _tagen_), the time when light appears (daws) in the sky in the
morning. The dawn colours appear in the reverse order of the sunset
colours and are due to the same cause. When the sun is lowest in both
cases the colour is deep red; this gradually changes through orange to
gold and brilliant yellow as the sun approaches the horizon. These
colours follow each other in order of refrangibility, reproducing all
the colours of the spectrum in order except the blue rays which are
scattered in the sky. The colours of the dawn are purer and colder than
the sunset colours since there is less dust and moisture in the
atmosphere and less consequent sifting of light rays.
DAWSON, GEORGE (1821-1876), English nonconformist divine, was born in
London on the 24th of February 1821, and was educated at Marischal
College, Aberdeen, and at the university of Glasgow. In 1843 he accepted
the pastorate of the Baptist church at Rickmansworth, and in 1844 a
similar charge at Mount Zion, Birmingham, where he attracted large
congregations by his eloquence and his unconventional views. Desiring
freedom from any definite creed, he left the Baptist church and became
minister of the "Church of the Saviour," a building erected for him by
his supporters. Here he exercised a stimulating and varied ministry for
nearly thirty years, gathering round him a congregation of all types and
especially of such as found the dogmas of the age distasteful. He had
much sympathy with the Unitarian position, but was not himself a
Unitarian. Indeed he had no fixed standpoint, and discussed truths and
principles from various aspects. His sermons, though not particularly
speculative, were unconventional and quickening. He was the friend of
Carlyle and Emerson, and did much to popularize their teachings, his
influence being conspicuous, especially in his demand for a high ethical
standard in everyday life and his insistence on the Christianization of
citizenship. He was warmly supported by Dr R. W. Dale, and by J. T.
Bunce, editor of _The Birmingham Daily Post_. Both Dawson and Dale were
disqualified as ministers from seats on the town council, but both
served on the Birmingham school board. Dawson also lectured on English
literature at the Midland Institute and helped to found the Shakespeare
Memorial library in Birmingham. He died suddenly at King's Norton on the
30th of November 1876. Four volumes of _Sermons_, two of _Prayers_ and
two of _Biographical Lectures_ were published after his death.
See _Life_ by H. W. Crosskey (1876) and an article by R. W. Dale in
_The Nineteenth Century_ (August 1877).
DAWSON, SIR JOHN WILLIAM (1820-1899), Canadian geologist, was bom at
Pictou, Nova Scotia, on the 30th of October 1820. Of Scottish descent,
he went to Edinburgh to complete his education, and graduated at the
university in 1842, having gained a knowledge of geology and natural
history from Robert Jameson. On his return to Nova Scotia in 1842 he
accompanied Sir Charles Lyell on his first visit to that territory.
Subsequently he was appointed to the post of superintendent of education
(1850-1853); at the same time he entered zealously into the geology of
the country, making a special study of the fossil forests of the
coal-measures. From these strata, in company with Lyell (during his
second visit) in 1852, he obtained the first remains of an
"air-breathing reptile" named _Dendrerpeton_. He also described the
fossil plants of the Silurian, Devonian and Carboniferous rocks of
Canada for the Geological Survey of that country (1871-1873). From 1855
to 1893 he was professor of geology and principal of M'Gill University,
Montreal, an institution which under his influence attained a high
reputation. He was elected F.R.S. in 1862. When the Royal Society of
Canada was constituted he was the first to occupy the presidential
chair, and he also acted as president of the British Association at its
meeting at Birmingham in 1886, and of the American Association for the
Advancement of Science. Sir William Dawson's name is especially
associated with the _Eozoon canadense_, which in 1864 he described as an
organism having the structure of a foraminifer. It was found in the
Laurentian rocks, regarded as the oldest known geological system. His
views on the subject were contested at the time, and have since been
disproved, the so-called organism being now regarded as a mineral
structure. He was created C.M.G. in 1881, and was knighted in 1884. In
his books on geological subjects he maintained a distinctly theological
attitude, declining to admit the descent or evolution of man from brute
ancestors, and holding that the human species only made its appearance
on this earth within quite recent times. Besides many memoirs in the
Transactions of learned societies, he published _Acadian Geology: The
geological structure, organic remains and mineral resources of Nova
Scotia, New Brunswick, and Prince Edward Island_ (1855; ed. 3, 1878);
_Air-breathers of the Coal Period_ (1863); _The Story of the Earth and
Man_ (1873; ed. 6, 1880); _The Dawn of Life_ (1875); _Fossil Men and
their Modern Representatives_ (1880); _Geological History of Plants_
(1888); _The Canadian Ice Age_ (1894). He died on the 20th of November
1899.
His son, GEORGE MERCER DAWSON (1849-1901), was born at Pictou on the 1st
of August 1849, and received his education at M'Gill University and the
Royal School of Mines, London, where he had a brilliant career. In 1873
he was appointed geologist and naturalist to the North American boundary
commission, and two years later he joined the staff of the geological
survey of Canada, of which he became assistant director in 1883, and
director in 1895. He was in charge of the Canadian government's Yukon
expedition in 1887, and his name is permanently written in Dawson City,
of gold-bearing fame. As one of the Bering Sea Commissioners he spent
the summer of 1891 investigating the facts of the seal fisheries on the
northern coasts of Asia and America. For his services there, and at the
subsequent arbitration in Paris, he was made a C.M.G. He was elected
F.R.S. in 1891, and in the same year was awarded the Bigsby medal by the
Geological Society of London. He was president of the Royal Society of
Canada in 1893. He died on the 2nd of March 1901. He was the author of
many scientific papers and reports, especially on the surface geology
and glacial phenomena of the northern and western parts of Canada.
DAWSON CITY, or DAWSON, the capital of the Yukon territory, Canada, on
the right bank of the Yukon river, and in the middle of the Klondyke
gold region, of which it is the distributing centre. It is situated in
beautiful mountainous country, 1400 ft. above the sea, and 1500 m. from
the mouth of the Yukon river. It is reached by a fleet of river
steamers, and has telegraphic communication. Founded in 1896, its
population soon reached over 20,000 at the height of the gold rush; in
1901 it was officially returned as 9142, and is now not more than 5000.
The temperature varies from 90° F. in summer to 50° below zero in
winter. It possesses three opera-houses and numerous hotels, and is a
typical mining town, though even at first there was much less
lawlessness than is usually the case in such cities.
DAX, a town of south-western France, capital of an arrondissement in the
department of Landes, 92 m. S.S.W, of Bordeaux, on the Southern railway
between that city and Bayonne. Pop. (1906) 8585. The town lies on the
left bank of the Adour, a stone bridge uniting it to its suburb of Le
Sablar on the right bank. It has remains of ancient Gallo-Roman
fortifications, now converted into a promenade. The most remarkable
building in the town is the church of Notre-Dame, once a cathedral; it
was rebuilt from 1656 to 1719, but still preserves a sacristy, a porch
and a fine sculptured doorway of the 13th century. The church of St
Vincent, to the south-west of the town, derives its name from the first
bishop, whose tomb it contains. The church of St Paul-lès-Dax, a suburb
on the right bank of the Adour, belongs mainly to the 15th century, and
has a Romanesque apse adorned with curious bas-reliefs. On a hill to the
west of Dax stands a tower built in memory of the sailor and scientist
Jean Charles Borda, born there in 1733; a statue was erected to him in
the town in 1891. Dax, which is well known as a winter resort, owes much
of its importance to its thermal waters and mud-baths (the deposit of
the Adour), which are efficacious in cases of rheumatism, neuralgia and
other disorders. The best-known spring is the Fontaine Chaude, which
issues into a basin 160 ft. wide in the centre of the town. The
principal of numerous bathing establishments are the Grands Thermes, the
Bains Salés, adjoining a casino, and the Baignots, which fringe the
Adour and are surrounded by gardens. Dax has a sub-prefecture, tribunals
of first instance and of commerce, a communal college, a training
college and a library. It has salt workings, tanneries, saw-mills,
manufactures of soap and corks; commerce is chiefly in the pine wood,
resin and cork of the Landes, in mules, cattle, horses and poultry.
Dax (_Aquae Tarbellicae_, _Aquae Augustae_, later _D'Acqs_) was the
capital of the Tarbelli under the Roman domination, when its waters were
already famous. Later it was the seat of a viscounty, which in the 11th
century passed to the viscounts of Béarn, and in 1177 was annexed by
Richard Coeur de Lion to Gascony. The bishopric, founded in the 3rd
century, was in 1801 attached to that of Aire.
DAY, JOHN (1574-1640?), English dramatist, was born at Cawston, Norfolk,
in 1574, and educated at Ely. He became a sizar of Caius College,
Cambridge, in 1592, but was expelled in the next year for stealing a
book. He became one of Henslowe's playwrights, collaborating with Henry
Chettle, William Haughton, Thomas Dekker, Richard Hathway and Wentworth
Smith, but his almost incessant activity seems to have left him poor
enough, to judge by the small loans, of five shillings and even two
shillings, that he obtained from Henslowe. The first play in which Day
appears as part-author is _The Conquest of Brute, with the finding of
the Bath_ (1598), which, with most of his journeyman's work, is lost. A
drama dealing with the early years of the reign of Henry VI., _The Blind
Beggar of Bednal Green_ (acted 1600, printed 1659), written in
collaboration with Chettle, is his earliest extant work. It bore the
sub-title of _The Merry Humor of Tom Strowd, the Norfolk Yeoman_, and
was so popular that second and third parts, by Day and Haughton, were
produced in the next year. _The Ile of Guls_ (printed 1606), a prose
comedy founded upon Sir Philip Sidney's _Arcadia_, contains in its light
dialogue much satire to which the key is now lost, but Mr Swinburne
notes in Manasses's burlesque of a Puritan sermon a curious anticipation
of the eloquence of Mr Chadband in _Bleak House_. In 1607 Day produced,
in conjunction with William Rowley and George Wilkins, _The Travailes of
the Three English Brothers_, which detailed the adventures of Sir
Thomas, Sir Anthony and Robert Shirley.
_The Parliament of Bees_ is the work on which Day's reputation chiefly
rests. This exquisite and unique drama, or rather masque, is entirely
occupied with "the doings, the births, the wars, the wooings" of bees,
expressed in a style at once most singular and most charming. The bees
hold a parliament under Prorex, the Master Bee, and various complaints
are preferred against the humble-bee, the wasp, the drone and other
offenders. This satirical allegory of affairs ends with a royal progress
of Oberon, who distributes justice to all. The piece contains much for
which parallel passages are found in Dekker's _Wonder of a Kingdom_
(1636) and Samuel Rowley's (or Dekker's) _Noble Soldier_ (printed 1634).
There is no earlier known edition of _The Parliament of Bees_ than that
in 1641, but a persistent tradition has assigned the piece to 1607. In
1608 Day published two comedies, _Law Trickes, or Who Would have Thought
it?_ and _Humour out of Breath_. The date of his death is unknown, but
an elegy on him by John Tatham, the city poet, was published in 1640.
The six dramas by John Day which we possess show a delicate fancy and
dainty inventiveness all his own. He preserved, in a great measure, the
dramatic tradition of John Lyly, and affected a kind of subdued
euphuism. _The Maydes Metamorphosis_ (1600), once supposed to be a
posthumous work of Lyly's, may be an early work of Day's. It possesses,
at all events, many of his marked characteristics. His prose
_Peregrinatic Scholastica or Learninges Pilgrimage_, dating from his
later years, was printed by Mr A. H. Bullen from a MS. of Day's.
Considerations partly based on this work have suggested that he had a
share in the anonymous _Pilgrimage to Parnassus_ and the _Return from
Parnassus_. The beauty and ingenuity of _The Parliament of Bees_ were
noted and warmly extolled by Charles Lamb; and Day's work has since
found many admirers.
His works, edited by A. H. Bullen, were printed at the Chiswick Press
in 1881. The same editor included _The Maydes Metamorphosis_ in vol.
i. of his _Collection of Old Plays_. _The Parliament of Bees_ and
_Humour out of Breath_ were printed in _Nero and other Plays_ (Mermaid
Series, 1888), with an introduction by Arthur Symons. An appreciation
by Mr A. C. Swinburne appeared in _The Nineteenth Century_ (October
1897).
DAY, THOMAS (1748-1789), British author, was born in London on the 22nd
of June 1748. He is famous as the writer of _Sandford and Merton_
(1783-1789), a book for the young, which, though quaintly didactic and
often ridiculous, has had considerable educational value as inculcating
manliness and independence. Day was educated at the Charterhouse and at
Corpus Christi College, Oxford, and became a great admirer of J. J.
Rousseau and his doctrine of the ideal state of nature. Having
independent means he devoted himself to a life of study and
philanthropy. His views on marriage were typical of the man. He brought
up two foundlings, one of whom he hoped eventually to marry. They were
educated on the severest principles, but neither acquired the high
quality of stoicism which he had looked for. After several proposals of
marriage to other ladies had been rejected, he married an heiress who
agreed with his ascetic programme of life. He finally settled at
Ottershaw in Surrey and took to farming on philanthropic principles. He
had many curious and impracticable theories, among them one that all
animals could be managed by kindness, and while riding an unbroken colt
he was thrown near Wargrave and killed on the 28th of September 1789.
His poem _The Dying Negro_, published in 1773, struck the keynote of the
anti-slavery movement. It is also obvious from his other works, such as
_The Devoted Legions_ (1776) and _The Desolation of America_ (1777),
that he strongly sympathized with the Americans during their War of
Independence.
DAY (O. Eng. _dæg_, Ger. _Tag_; according to the _New English
Dictionary_, "in no way related to the Lat. _dies_"), in astronomy, the
interval of time in which a revolution of the earth on its axis is
performed. Days are distinguished as solar, sidereal or lunar, according
as the revolution is taken relatively to the sun, the stars or the moon.
The solar day is the fundamental unit of time, not only in daily life
but in astronomical practice. In the latter case, being determined by
observations of the sun, it is taken to begin with the passage of the
mean sun over the meridian of the place, or at mean noon, while the
civil day begins at midnight. A vigorous effort was made during the last
fifteen years of the 19th century to bring the two uses into harmony by
beginning the astronomical day at midnight. In some isolated cases this
has been done; but the general consensus of astronomers has been against
it, the day as used in astronomy being only a measure of time, and
having no relation to the period of daily repose. The time when the day
shall begin is purely a matter of convenience. The present practice
being the dominant one from the time of Ptolemy until the present, it
was felt that the confusion in the combination of past and present
astronomical observations, and the doubts and difficulties in using the
astronomical ephemerides, formed a decisive argument against any change.
The question of a possible variability in the length of the day is one
of fundamental importance. One necessary effect of the tidal retardation
of the earth's rotation is gradually to increase this length. It is
remarkable that the discussion of ancient eclipses of the moon, and
their comparison with modern observations, show only a small and rather
doubtful change, amounting perhaps to less than one-hundredth of a
second per century. As this amount seems to be markedly less than that
which would be expected from the cause in question, it is probable that
some other cause tends to accelerate the earth's rotation and so to
shorten the day. The moon's apparent mean motion in longitude seems also
to indicate slow periodic changes in the earth's rotation; but these are
not confirmed by transits of Mercury, which ought also to indicate them.
(See MOON and TIDES.) (S. N.)
_Legal Aspects._--In law, a day may be either a _dies naturalis_ or
natural day, or a _dies artificialis_ or artificial day. A natural day
includes all the twenty-four hours from midnight to midnight. Fractions
of the day are disregarded to avoid dispute, though sometimes the law
will consider fractions, as where it is necessary to show the first of
two acts. In cases where action must be taken for preserving or
asserting a right, a day would mean the natural day of twenty-four
hours, but on the other hand, as in cases of survivorship, for
testamentary or other purposes, it would suffice if a person survived
for even the smallest portion of the last day necessary.
When a statute directs any act to be done within so many days, these
words mean _clear days_, i.e. a number of perfect intervening days, not
counting the terminal days: if the statute says nothing about Sunday,
the days mentioned mean consecutive days and include Sundays. Under some
statutes (e.g. the Parliamentary Elections Act 1868, the Corrupt and
Illegal Practices Prevention Act 1883) Sundays and holidays are excluded
in reckoning days, and consequently all the Sundays, &c., of a
prescribed sequence of days would be eliminated. So also, by custom, the
word "day" may be understood in some special sense. In bills of lading
and charter parties, when "days" or "running days" are spoken of without
qualification, they usually mean consecutive days, and Sundays and
holidays are counted, but when there is some qualification, as where a
charter party required a cargo "to be discharged in fourteen days,"
"days" will mean _working days_. Working days, again, vary in different
ports, and the custom of the port will decide in each case what are
working days. In English charter parties, unless the contrary is
expressed, Christmas day and other recognized holidays are included as
working days. A _weather working day_, a term sometimes used in charter
parties, means a day when work is not prevented by the weather, and
unless so provided for, a day on which work was rendered impossible by
bad weather would still be counted as a working day. _Lay days_, which
are days given to the charterer in a charter party either to load or
unload without paying for the use of the ship, are days of the week, not
periods of twenty-four hours.
_Days of Grace._--When a bill of exchange is not payable at sight or on
demand, certain days (called days of grace, from being originally a
gratuitous favour) are added to the time of payment as fixed by the
bill, and the bill is then due and payable on the last day of grace. In
the United Kingdom, by the Bills of Exchange Act 1882, three days are
allowed as days of grace, but when the last day of grace falls on
Sunday, Christmas day, Good Friday or a day appointed by royal
proclamation as a public fast or thanksgiving day, the bill is due and
payable on the preceding business day. If the last day of grace is a
bank holiday (other than Christmas day or Good Friday), or when the last
day of grace is a Sunday, and the second day of grace is a bank holiday,
the bill is due and payable on the succeeding business day. Days of
grace (_dies non_) are in existence practically among English-speaking
peoples only. They were abolished by the French Code (Code de Commerce,
Liv. i. tit. 8, art. 135), and by most, if not all, of the European
codes since framed.
_Civil Days._--An artificial or civil day is, to a certain extent,
difficult to define; it "may be regarded as a convenient term to signify
all the various kinds of 'day' known in legal proceedings other than the
natural day." (_Ency. English Law_, tit. "Day"). The Jews, Chaldeans and
Babylonians began the day at the rising of the sun; the Athenians at the
fall; the Umbri in Italy began at midday; the Egyptians and Romans at
midnight; and in England, the United States and most of the countries of
Europe the Roman civil day still prevails, the day usually commencing as
soon as the clock begins to strike 12 P.M. of the preceding day.
In England the period of the civil day may also vary under different
statutes. In criminal law the day formerly commenced at sunrise and
extended to sunset, but by the Larceny Act 1861 the day is that period
between six in the morning and nine in the evening. The same period of
time comprises a day under the Housing of the Working Classes Act 1885
and the Public Health (London) Act 1891, but under the Public Health
(Scotland) Act 1897 "day" is the period between 9 A.M. and 6 P.M. By an
act of 1845, regulating the labour of children in print-works, "day" is
defined as from 6 A.M. to 10 P.M. Daytime, within which distress for
rent must be made, is from sunrise to sunset (_Tulton_ v. _Darke_, 1860,
2 L.T. 361). An obligation to pay money on a certain day is
theoretically discharged if the money is paid before midnight of the day
on which it falls due, but custom has so far modified this that the law
requires reasonable hours to be observed. If, for instance, payment has
to be made at a bank or place of business, it must be within business
hours.
When an act of parliament is expressed to come into operation on a
certain day, it is to be construed as coming into operation on the
expiration of the previous day (Interpretation Act 1889, § 36; Statutes
[Definition of Time] Act 1880).
Under the orders of the supreme court the word "day" has two meanings.
For purposes of personal service of writs, it means any time of the day
or night on week-days, but excludes the time from twelve midnight on
Saturday till twelve midnight on Sunday. For purposes of service not
required to be personal, it means before six o'clock on any week-day
except Saturday, and before 2 P.M. on Saturday.
_Closed Days_, i.e. Sunday, Christmas day and Good Friday, are excluded
from all fixtures of time less than six days: otherwise they are
included, unless the last day of the time fixed falls on one of those
days (R.S.C., O. lxiv.).
_American Practice._--In the United States a day is the space of time
between midnight and midnight. The law pays no regard to fractions of a
day except to prevent injustice. A "day's work" is by statute in New
York fixed at eight hours for all employees except farm and domestic
servants, and for employees on railroads at ten hours (Laws 1897, ch.
415). In the recording acts relating to real property, fractions of a
day are of the utmost importance, and all deeds, mortgages and other
instruments affecting the property, take precedence in the order in
which they were filed for record. Days of grace are abolished in many of
the seventeen states in which the Negotiable Instruments law has been
enacted. Sundays and public holidays are usually excluded in computing
time if they are the last day within which the act was to be done.
General public holidays throughout the United States are Christmas,
Thanksgiving (last Thursday in November) and Independence (July 4th)
days and Washington's birthday (February 22nd). The several states have
also certain local public holidays. (See also MONTH; TIME.)
(T. A. I.)
DAYLESFORD, a town of Talbot county, Victoria, Australia, 74 m. by rail
N.W. of Melbourne. Pop. (1901) 3384. It lies on the flank of the Great
Dividing Range, at an elevation of 2030 ft. On Wombat Hill are beautiful
public gardens commanding extensive views, and a fine convent of the
Presentation Order. Much wheat is grown in the district, and
gold-mining, both quartz and alluvial, is carried on. Daylesford has an
important mining school. Near the town are the Hepburn mineral springs
and a number of beautiful waterfalls, and 6 m. from it is Mount
Franklin, an extinct volcano.
DAYTON, a city of Campbell county, Kentucky, U.S.A., on the S. bank of
the Ohio river, opposite Cincinnati, and adjoining Bellevue and Newport,
Ky. Pop. (1890) 4264; (1900) 6104 including 655 foreign-born and 63
negroes; (1910) 6979. It is served by the Chesapeake & Ohio railway at
Newport, of which it is a suburb, largely residential. It has
manufactories of watch-cases and pianos, and whisky distilleries. In
the city is the Speers Memorial hospital. Dayton was settled and
incorporated in 1849.
DAYTON, a city and the county-seat of Montgomery county, Ohio, U.S.A.,
at the confluence of Wolf Creek, Stillwater river and Mad river with the
Great Miami, 57 m. N.N.E. of Cincinnati and about 70 m. W.S.W. of
Columbus. Pop. (1890) 61,220; (1900) 85,333; (1910) 116,577. In 1900
there were 10,053 foreign-born and 3387 negroes; of the foreign-born
6820 were Germans and 1253 Irish. Dayton is served by the Erie, the
Cleveland, Cincinnati, Chicago & St Louis, the Pittsburg, Cincinnati,
Chicago & St Louis, the Cincinnati, Hamilton & Dayton, and the Dayton &
Union railways, by ten interurban electric railways, centring here, and
by the Miami & Erie Canal. The city extends more than 5 m. from E. to
W., and 3½ m. from N. to S., lies for the most part on level ground at
an elevation of about 740 ft. above sea-level, and numerous good, hard
gravel roads radiate from it in all directions through the surrounding
country, a fertile farming region which abounds in limestone, used in
the construction of public and private buildings. Among the more
prominent buildings are the court-house--the portion first erected being
designed after the Parthenon--the Steele high school, St Mary's college,
Notre Dame academy, the Memorial Building, the Arcade Building, Reibold
Building, the Algonquin Hotel, the post office, the public library
(containing about 75,000 volumes), the Young Men's Christian Association
building and several churches. At Dayton are the Union Biblical
seminary, a theological school of the United Brethren in Christ, and the
publishing house of the same denomination. By an agreement made in 1907
the school of theology of Ursinus College (Collegeville, Pennsylvania;
the theological school since 1898 had been in Philadelphia) and the
Heidelberg Theological seminary (Tiffin, Ohio) united to form the
Central Theological seminary of the German Reformed Church, which was
established in Dayton in 1908. The boulevard and park along the river
add attractiveness to the city. Among the charitable institutions are
the Dayton state hospital (for the insane), the Miami Valley and the St
Elizabeth hospitals, the Christian Deaconess, the Widows' and the
Children's homes, and the Door of Hope (for homeless girls); and 1 m. W.
of the city is the central branch of the National Home for disabled
volunteer soldiers, with its beautifully ornamented grounds, about 1 sq.
m. in extent. The Mad river is made to furnish good water-power by means
of a hydraulic canal which takes its water through the city, and
Dayton's manufactures are extensive and varied, the establishments of
the National Cash Register Company employing in 1907 about 4000
wage-earners. This company is widely known for its "welfare work" on
behalf of its operatives. Baths, lunch-rooms, rest-rooms, clubs,
lectures, schools and kindergartens have been supplied, and the company
has also cultivated domestic pride by offering prizes for the best-kept
gardens, &c. From April to July 1901 there was a strike in the already
thoroughly unionized factories; complaint was made of the hectoring of
union men by a certain foreman, the use in toilet-rooms of towels
laundered in non-union shops (the company replied by allowing the men to
supply towels themselves), the use on doors of springs not union-made
(these were removed by the company), and especially the discharge of
four men whom the company refused to reinstate. The company was
victorious in the strike, and the factory became an "open shop." In
addition to cash registers, the city's manufactured products include
agricultural implements, clay-working machinery, cotton-seed and linseed
oil machinery, filters, turbines, railway cars (the large Barney-Smith
car works employed 1800 men in 1905), carriages and wagons,
sewing-machines (the Davis Sewing Machine Co.), automobiles, clothing,
flour, malt liquors, paper, furniture, tobacco and soap. The total value
of the manufactured product, under the "factory system," was $31,015,293
in 1900 and $39,596,773 in 1905. Dayton's site was purchased in 1795
from John Cleves Symmes by a party of Revolutionary soldiers, and it was
laid out as a town in 1796 by Israel Ludlow (one of the owners), by whom
it was named in honour of Jonathan Dayton (1760-1824), a soldier in the
War of Independence, a member of Congress from New Jersey in 1791-1799,
and a United States senator in 1799-1805. It was made the county-seat in
1803, was incorporated as a town in 1805, grew rapidly after the opening
of the canal in 1828, and in 1841 was chartered as a city.
DEACON (Gr. [Greek: diakonos], minister, servant), the name given to a
particular minister or officer of the Christian Church. The status and
functions of the office have varied in different ages and in different
branches of Christendom.
(a) _The Ancient Church._--The office of deacon is almost as old as
Christianity itself, though it is impossible to fix the moment at which
it came into existence. Tradition connects its origin with the
appointment of "the Seven" recorded in Acts vi. This connexion, however,
is questioned by a large and increasing number of modern scholars, on
the ground that "the Seven" are not called deacons in the New Testament
and do not seem to have been identified with them till the time of
Irenaeus (A.D. 180). The first definite reference to the diaconate
occurs in St Paul's Epistle to the Philippians (i. 1), where the
officers of the Church are described as "bishops and deacons"--though it
is not unlikely that earlier allusions are to be found in 1 Cor. xii. 28
and Romans xii. 7. In the pastoral epistles the office seems to have
become a permanent institution of the Church, and special qualifications
are laid down for those who hold it (1 Tim. iii. 8). By the time of
Ignatius (A.D. 110) the "three orders" of the ministry were definitely
established, the deacon being the lowest of the three and subordinate to
the bishop and the presbyters. The inclusion of deacons in the "three
orders" which were regarded as essential to the existence of a true
Church sharply distinguished them from the lower ranks of the ministry,
and gave them a status and position of importance in the ancient Church.
The functions attaching to the office varied at different times. In the
apostolic age the duties of deacons were naturally vague and undefined.
They were "helpers" or "servants" of the Church in a general way and
served in any capacity that was required of them. With the growth of the
episcopate, however, the deacons became the immediate ministers of the
bishop. Their duties included the supervision of Church property, the
management of Church finances, the visitation of the sick, the
distribution of alms and the care of widows and orphans. They were also
required to watch over the souls of the flock and report to the bishop
the cases of those who had sinned or were in need of spiritual help.
"You deacons," says the Apostolical Constitutions (4th century), "ought
to keep watch over all who need watching or are in distress, and let the
bishop know." With the growth of hospitals and other charitable
institutions, however, the functions of deacons became considerably
curtailed. The social work of the Church was transferred to others, and
little by little the deacons sank in importance until at last they came
to be regarded merely as subordinate officers of public worship, a
position which they hold in the Roman Church to-day, where their duties
are confined to such acts as the following:--censing the officiating
priest and the choir, laying the corporal on the altar, handing the
paten or cup to the priest, receiving from him the pyx and giving it to
the subdeacon, putting the mitre on the archbishop's head (when he is
present) and laying his pall upon the altar.
(b) _The Church of England._--The traditionary position of the diaconate
as one of the "three orders" is here maintained. Deacons may conduct any
of the ordinary services in the church, but are not permitted to
pronounce the absolution or consecrate the elements for the Eucharist.
In practice the office has become a stepping-stone to the priesthood,
the deacon corresponding to the licentiate in the Presbyterian Church.
Candidates for the office must have attained the age of twenty-three and
must satisfy the bishop with regard to their intellectual, moral and
spiritual fitness. The functions of the office are defined in the
Ordinal--"to assist the priest in divine service and specially when he
ministereth the Holy Communion, to read Holy Scriptures and Homilies in
the church, to instruct the youth in the catechism, to baptize in the
absence of the priest, to preach if he be admitted thereto by the
bishop, and furthermore to search for the sick, poor and impotent
people and intimate their estates and names to the curate."
(c) _Churches of the Congregational Order._--In these (which of course
include Baptists) the diaconate is a body of laymen appointed by the
members of the church to act as a management committee and to assist the
minister in the work of the church. There is no general rule as to the
number of deacons, though the traditionary number of seven is often
kept, nor as to the frequency of election, each church making its own
arrangements in this respect. The deacons superintend the financial
affairs of the church, co-operate with the minister in the various
branches of his work, assist in the visitation of the sick, attend to
the church property and generally supervise the activities of the
church.
See Thomassinus, _Vetus ac nova disciplina_, pars i. lib. i. c. 51 f.
and lib. ii. c. 29 f. (Lugdunum, 1706); J. N. Seidl, _Der Diakonat in
der katholischen Kirche_ (Regensburg, 1884); R. Sohm, _Kirchenrecht_,
i. 121-137 (Leipzig, 1892); F. J. A. Hort, _The Christian Ecclesia_
(London, 1897).
DEACONESS ([Greek: hê diakonos] or [Greek: diakonissa], servant,
minister), the name given to a woman set apart for special service in
the Christian Church. The origin and early history of the office are
veiled in obscurity. It is quite certain that from the 3rd century
onward there existed in the Eastern Church an order of women, known as
deaconesses, who filled a position analogous to that of deacons. They
are quite distinct from the somewhat similar orders of "virgins" and
"widows," who belonged to a lower plane in the ecclesiastical system.
The order is recognized in the canons of the councils of Nicaea (325)
and Chalcedon (451), and is frequently mentioned in the writings of
Chrysostom (some of whose letters are addressed to deaconesses at
Constantinople), Epiphanius, Basil, and indeed most of the more
important Fathers of the 4th and 5th centuries. Deaconesses, upon
entering their office, were ordained much in the same way as deacons,
but the ordination conveyed no sacerdotal powers or authority.
Epiphanius says quite distinctly that they were woman-elders and not
priestesses in any sense of the term, and that their mission was not to
interfere with the functions allotted to priests but simply to perform
certain offices in connexion with the care of women. Several specimens
of the ordination service for deaconesses have been preserved (see
Cecilia Robinson, _The Ministry of Deaconesses_, London, 1878, appendix
B, p. 197). The functions of the deaconess were as follows: (1) To
assist at the baptism of women, especially in connexion with the
anointing of the body which in the ancient Church always preceded
immersion; (2) to visit the women of the Church in their homes and to
minister to the needs of the sick and afflicted; (3) according to the
Apostolical Constitutions they acted as door-keepers in the church,
received women as they entered and conducted them to their allotted
seats. In the Western Church, on the other hand, we hear nothing of the
order till the 4th century, when an attempt seems to have been made to
introduce it into Gaul. Much opposition, however, was encountered, and
the movement was condemned by the council of Orange in 441 and the
council of Epaone in 517. In spite of the prohibition the institution
made some headway, and traces of it are found later in Italy, but it
never became as popular in the West as it was in the East. In the middle
ages the order fell into abeyance in both divisions of the Church, the
abbess taking the place of the deaconess. Whether deaconesses, in the
later sense of the term, existed before 250 is a disputed point. The
evidence is scanty and by no means decisive. There are only three
passages which bear upon the question at all. (i) Romans xvi. 1: Phoebe
is called [Greek: hê diakonos], but it is quite uncertain whether the
word is used in its technical sense. (ii) 1 Tim. iii. 11: after stating
the qualifications necessary for deacons the writer adds, "Women in like
manner must be grave--not slanderers," &c.; the Authorized Version took
the passage as referring to deacons' wives, but many scholars think that
by "women" deaconesses are meant. (iii) In Pliny's famous letter to
Trajan respecting the Christians of Bithynia mention is made of two
Christian maidservants "_quae ministrae dicebantur_"; whether
_ministrae_ is equivalent to [Greek: diakonoi], as is often supposed, is
dubious. On the whole the evidence does not seem sufficient to prove
the contention that an order of deaconesses--in the ecclesiastical sense
of the term--existed from the apostolic age.
In modern times several attempts have been made to revive the order of
deaconesses. In 1833 Pastor Fleidner founded "an order of deaconesses
for the Rhenish provinces of Westphalia" at Kaiserswerth. The original
aim of the institution was to train nurses for hospital work, but its
scope was afterwards extended and it trained its members for teaching
and parish work as well. Kaiserswerth became the parent of many similar
institutions in different parts of the continent. A few years later, in
1847, Miss Sellon formed for the first time a sisterhood at Devonport in
connexion with the Church of England. Her example was gradually followed
in other parts of the country, and in 1898 there were over two thousand
women living together in different sisterhoods. The members of these
institutions do not represent the ecclesiastical deaconesses, however,
since they are not ministers set apart by the Church; and the
sisterhoods are merely voluntary associations of women banded together
for spiritual fellowship and common service. In 1861 Bishop Tait set
apart Miss Elizabeth Ferard as a deaconess by the laying on of hands,
and she became the first president of the London Deaconess Institution.
Other dioceses gradually adopted the innovation. It has received the
sanction of Convocation, and the Lambeth Conference in 1897 declared
that it "recognized with thankfulness the revival of the office of
deaconess," though at the same time it protested against the
indiscriminate use of the title and laid it down emphatically that the
name must be restricted to those who had been definitely set apart by
the bishop for the position and were working under the direct
supervision and control of the ecclesiastical authority in the parish.
In addition to Miss Robinson's book cited above, see _Church Quarterly
Review_, xlvii. 302 ff., art. "On the Early History and Modern Revival
of Deaconesses" (London, 1899), and the works there referred to; D.
Latas, [Greek: Christianikê Archaiologia], i. 163-171 (Athens, 1883);
_Testamentum Domini_, ed. Rahmani (Mainz, 1899); L. Zscharnack, _Der
Dienst der Frau in den ersten Jahrhunderten der chr. Kirche_ (1902).
DEAD SEA, a lake in Palestine occupying the deepest part of the valley
running along the line of a great "fault" that has been traced from the
Gulf of Akaba (at the head of the Red Sea) to Hermon. This fracture was
caused after the end of the Eocene period by the earth-movement which
resulted in the raising of the whole region out of the sea. Level for
level, the more ancient rocks are on the eastward side of the lake: the
cretaceous limestones that surmount the older volcanic substrata come
down on the western side to the water's edge, while on the eastern side
they are raised between 3000 and 4000 feet above it. In the Pleistocene
period the whole of this depression was filled with water forming a lake
about 200 m. long north to south, whose waters were about the same level
as that of the Mediterranean Sea. With the diminishing rainfall and
increased temperature that followed that period the effects of
evaporation gradually surpassed the precipitation, and the waters of the
lake slowly diminished to about the extent which they still display.
The length of the sea is 47 m., and its maximum breadth is about 9½ m.;
its area is about 340 sq. m. It lies nearly north and south. Its surface
being 1289-1300 ft. below the level of the Mediterranean Sea, it has of
course no outlet. It is bounded on the north by the broad valley of the
Jordan; on the east by the rapidly rising terraces which culminate in
the Moabite plateau, 3100 ft. above the level of the lake; on the south
by the desert of the Arabah, which rises to the watershed between the
Dead and the Red Sea--65½ m. from the former, 46½ from the latter;
height 660 ft.--and on the west by the Judean mountains which attain a
height of 3300 ft. On the east side a peninsula, El-Lisan ("the
tongue"), of white calcareous marl with beds of salt and gypsum, divides
the sea into two unequal parts: this peninsula is about 50 ft. high, and
is connected by a narrow strip of marshland with the shore. Its northern
and southern extremities have been named Cape Costigan and Cape
Molyneux, in memory of two explorers who were among the first in modern
times to navigate the sea and succumbed to the consequent fever and
exhaustion. North of the peninsula the lake has a maximum depth of 1278
ft.; south of it the water is nowhere more than 12 ft., and in some
places only 3 ft. The surface level of the lake varies with the season,
and recent observations taken on behalf of the Palestine Exploration
Fund seem to show that there are probably cyclical variations also
(ultimately dependent on the rainfall), the nature and periodicity of
which there are as yet no sufficient data to determine. In 1858 there
was a small island near the north end rising 10 or 12 ft. above the
surface and connected with the shore by a causeway; this has been
submerged since 1892; and owing to the gradual rise of level within
these years the fords south of the Lisan, and the pathway which formerly
rounded the Ras Feshkhah, are now no longer passable.
The slopes on each side of the sea are furrowed with watercourses, some
of them perennial, others winter torrents only. The chief affluents of
the sea are as follows:--on the north, Jordan and 'Ain es-Suweimeh; on
the east Wadis Ghuweir, Zerka Ma'in (Callirrhoë), Mojib (Arnon),
Ed-Dera'a, and el-Hesi; on the west, Wadis Muhawat and Seyal, 'Ain Jidi
(En-Gedi), Wadi el Merabbah, 'Ain Ghuweir, Wadi el-Nar, 'Ain Feshkhah.
The quantity of water poured daily into the sea is not less than
6,000,000 tons, all of which has to be carried off by evaporation. The
consequence of the ancient evaporation, by which the great Pleistocene
lake was reduced to its present modest dimensions, and of the ceaseless
modern daily evaporation, is the impregnation of the waters of the lake
with salts and other mineral substances to a remarkable degree. Ocean
water contains on an average 4-6% of salts: Dead Sea water contains 25%.
The following analysis, by Dr Bernays, gives the contents of the water
more accurately:--
Specific gravity 1.1528 at 15.5° C.
Calcium carbonate 70.00 grains
Calcium sulphate 163.39
Magnesium nitrate 175.01
Potassium chloride 1089.06
Sodium chloride 5106.00
Calcium chloride 594.46
Magnesium chloride 7388.21
Magnesium bromide 345.80
Iron and aluminium oxides 10.50
Organic matter, water of crystallization, loss 317.57
--------
Total residue per gallon 15260.00
The density of the water averages 1.166. It increases from north to
south, and with the depth. The increase is at first rapid, then, after
reaching a certain point, becomes more uniform. At 300 metres its
density is 1.253. The boiling point is 221° F. To the quantity of solid
matter suspended in its water the Dead Sea owes, beside its saltness,
its buoyancy and its poisonous properties. The human body floats on the
surface without exertion. Owing principally to the large proportion of
chloride and bromide of magnesia no animal life can exist in its water.
Fish, which abound in the Jordan and in the brackish spring-fed lagoons
that exist in one or two places around its shores (such as 'Ain
Feshkhah), die in a very short time if introduced into the main waters
of the lake. The only animal life reported from the lake has been some
tetanus and other bacilli said to have been found in its mud; but this
discovery has not been confirmed. To the chloride of calcium is due the
smooth and oily feeling of the water, and to the chloride of magnesia
its disagreeable taste. In Roman times curative properties were ascribed
to the waters: Mukaddasi (A.D. 985) asserts that people assembled to
drink it on a feast day in August. The salt of the Dead Sea is collected
and sold in Jerusalem; smuggling of salt (which in Turkey is a
government monopoly) is a regular occupation of the Bedouin. The bitumen
which floats to shore is also collected. The origin of this bitumen is
disputed: it was supposed to be derived from subaqueous strata of
bituminous marl and rose to the surface when loosened by earthquakes. It
is, however, now more generally believed that it exists in the breccia
of some of the valleys on the west side of the lake, which is washed
into the sea and submerged, till the small stones by which it is sunk
are loosened and fall out, when the bitumen rises to the surface.
_History._--The earliest references to the sea or its basin are in the
patriarchal narratives of Lot and Abraham, the most striking being the
destruction of the neighbouring cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. (See
SODOM.) The biblical name is the Salt Sea, the Sea of the Arabah (the
south end of the Jordan valley), or the East Sea. The name in Josephus
is _Asphaltites_, referring to the bituminous deposits above alluded to.
The modern name is Bahr Lut or "Sea of Lot"--a name hardly to be
explained as a survival of a vague tradition of the patriarch, but more
probably due to the literary influences of the Hebrew Scriptures and the
Koran filtering through to the modern inhabitants or their ancestors.
The name Dead Sea first appears in late Greek writers, as Pausanias and
Galen. At En-Gedi on its western bank David for a while took refuge.
South of it is the stronghold of Masada, built by Jonathan Maccabaeus
and fortified by Herod in 42 B.C., where the last stand of the Jews was
made against the Romans after the fall of Jerusalem, and where the
garrison, when the defences were breached, slew themselves rather than
fall into Roman hands.
The sea has been but little navigated. Tacitus and Josephus mention
boats on the lake, and boats are shown upon it in the Madeba mosaic. The
navigation dues formed part of the revenue of the lords of Kerak under
the crusaders. In modern times navigation is practically _nil_. The
lake, with the whole Jericho plain, is claimed as the personal property
of the sultan.
The medieval travellers brought home many strange legends of the sea and
its peculiarities--some absurd, others with a basis of fact. The absence
of sea-birds, due to the absence of fish, probably accounts for the
story that no birds could fly over it. The absence of vegetation on its
shores, due to the scanty rainfall and general want of fresh
water--except in the neighbourhood of springs like 'Ain Feshkhah and
'Ain Jidi, where a luxuriant subtropical vegetation is found--accounts
for the story that no plant could live in the poisonous air which broods
over the sea. The mists, due to the great heat and excessive
evaporation, and the noxious miasmata, especially of the southern
region, were exaggerated into the noisome vapours that the "black and
stinking" waters ever exhaled. The judgment on Sodom and Gomorrah (which
of course they believed to be _under_ the waters of the lake, in
accordance with the absurd theory first found in Josephus and still
often repeated) blinded these good pilgrims to the ever-fresh beauty of
this most lovely lake, whose blue and sparkling waters lie deep between
rocks and precipices of unsurpassable grandeur. The play of brilliant
colours and of ever-changing contrasts of light and shade on those
rugged mountain-sides and on the surface of the sea itself might have
been expected to appeal to the most prosaic. The surface of the sea is
generally smooth (seldom, however, absolutely inert as the pilgrims
represented it), but is frequently raised by the north winds into waves,
which, owing to the weight and density of the water, are often of great
force.
The first to navigate the sea in modern times was an Irish traveller,
Costigan by name, in August and September 1835. Owing largely to the
folly of his Greek servant, who, without his master's knowledge, threw
overboard the drinking-water to lighten the boat, the explorer after
circumnavigating the sea reached Jericho in an exhausted condition, and
was there attacked by a severe fever. The greatest difficulty was
experienced in obtaining assistance for him, but he was ultimately
conveyed on camel-back to Jerusalem, where he died; his grave is in the
Franciscan cemetery there. His fate was shared by his successor, a
British naval officer, Lieutenant Molyneux (1847), whose party was
attacked and robbed by Bedouins. W. F. Lynch, an American explorer
(1848), equipped by the United States government, was more successful,
and he may claim to be the first who examined its shores and sounded its
depths. Since his time the duc de Luynes, Lartet, Wilson, Hull,
Blanckenhorn, Gautier, Libbey, Masterman and Schmidt, to name but a few,
have made contributions to our knowledge of this lake; but still many
problems present themselves for solution. Among these may be mentioned
(1) the explanation of a remarkable line of white foam that extends
along the axis of the lake almost every morning--supposed by
Blanckenhorn to mark the line of a fissure, thermal and asphaltic, under
the bed of the lake, but otherwise explained as a consequence of the
current of the Jordan, which is not completely expended till it reaches
the Lisan, or as a result of the mingling of the salt water with the
brackish spring water especially along the western shore; (2) a
northward current that has been observed along the east coast; (3)
various disturbances of level, due possibly to differences of barometric
pressure; (4) some apparently electrical phenomena that have been
observed in the valley. Before we can be said to know all that we might
regarding this most interesting of lakes further extensive scientific
observations are necessary; but these are extremely difficult owing to
the impossibility of maintaining self-registering instruments in a
region practically closed to Europeans for nearly half the year by the
stifling heat, and inhabited only by Bedouins, who are the worst kind of
ignorant, thievish and mischievous savages. (R. A. S. M.)
DEADWOOD, a city and the county-seat of Lawrence county, South Dakota,
U.S.A., about 180 m. W. of Pierre. Pop. (1890) 2366; (1900) 3498, of
whom 707 were foreign-born; (1905) 4364; (1910) 3653. It is served by
the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy and the Chicago & North-Western
railways. It lies on hilly ground in the canyon of Whitewood Creek at an
elevation of about 4530 ft. Deadwood is the commercial centre of the
Black Hills. About it are several gold mines (including the well-known
Home-stake mine), characterized by the low grade of their ores (which
range from $2 to $8 per ton), by their vast quantity, and by the ease of
mining and of extracting the metal. The ore contains free gold, which is
extracted by the simple process of stamping and amalgamation, and
refractory values, extracted by the cyaniding process. Several hundred
tons of ore are treated thus in Deadwood and its environs daily, and its
stamp mills are exceeded in size only by those of the Treadwell mine in
S.E. Alaska, and by those on the Rand in South Africa. The discovery of
gold here was made known in June 1875, and in February 1877 the United
States government, after having purchased the land from the Sioux
Indians, opened the place for legal settlement.
DEAF AND DUMB.[1] The term "deaf" is frequently applied to those who are
deficient in hearing power in any degree, however slight, as well as to
people who are unable to detect the loudest sounds by means of the
auditory organs. It is impossible to draw a hard and fast line between
the deaf and the hearing at any particular point. For the purposes of
this article, however, that denotation which is generally accepted by
educators of the deaf may be given to the term. This makes it refer to
those who are so far handicapped as to be incapable of instruction by
the ordinary means of the ear in a class of those possessing normal
hearing. Paradoxical though it may seem, it is yet true to say that
"dumbness" in our sense of the word does not, strictly speaking, exist,
though the term "dumb" may, for all practical purposes, fairly be
applied to many of the deaf even after they are supposed to have learnt
how to speak. Oral teachers now confess that it is not worth while to
try to teach more than a large percentage of the deaf to speak at all.
We are not concerned with aphasia, stammering or such inability to
articulate as may be due to malformation of the vocal organs. In the
case of the deaf and dumb, as these words are generally understood,
dumbness is merely the result of ignorance in the use of the voice, this
ignorance being due to the deafness. The vocal organs are perfect. The
deaf man can laugh, shout, and in fact utter any and every sound that
the normal person can. But he does not speak English (if that happens to
be his nationality) for the same reason that a French child does not,
which is that he has never heard it. There is in fact no more a priori
reason why an English baby, born in England, should talk English than
that it should talk any other language. English may be correctly
described as its "mother tongue," but not its _natural_ language; the
only reason why one person speaks English and another Russian is that
each imitated that particular language which he heard in infancy. This
imitation depends upon the ability to hear. Hence if one has never
heard, or has lost hearing in early childhood, he has never been able to
imitate that language which his parents and others used, and the
condition of so-called dumbness is added to his deafness. From this it
follows that if the sense of hearing be not lost till the child has
learnt to speak fluently, the ability to speak is unaffected by the
calamity of deafness, except that after many years the voice is likely
to become high-pitched, or too guttural, or peculiar in some other
respect, owing to the absence of the control usually exercised by the
ear. It also follows that, to a certain extent, the art of speech can be
taught the deaf person even though he were born deaf. Theoretically, he
is capable of talking just as well as his hearing brother, for the
organs of speech are as perfect in one as in the other, except that they
suffer from lack of exercise in the case of the deaf man. Practically,
he can never speak perfectly, for even if he were made to attempt
articulation as soon as he is discovered to be deaf, the fact that the
ear, the natural guide of the voice, is useless, lays upon him a
handicap which can never be wiped out. He can never hear the tone of his
teacher's voice nor of his own; he can only see small and, in many
instances, scarcely discernible movements of the lips, tongue, nose,
cheeks and throat in those who are endeavouring to teach him to speak,
and he can never hope to succeed in speech through the instrumentality
of such unsatisfactory appeals to his eye as perfectly as the hearing
child can with the ideal adaptation of the voice to the ear. Sound
appeals to the ear, not the eye, and those who have to rely upon the
latter to imitate speech must suffer by comparison.
Deafness then, in our sense, means the incapacity to be instructed by
means of the ear in the normal way, and dumbness means only that
ignorance of how to speak one's mother tongue which is the effect of the
deafness.
Of such deaf people many can hear sound to some extent. Dr Kerr Love
quotes several authorities (_Deaf Mutism_, pp. 58 ff.) to show that 50
or 60% are absolutely deaf, while 25% can detect loud sounds such as
shouting close to the ear, and the rest can distinguish vowels or even
words. He himself thinks that not more than 15 or 20% are totally
deaf--sometimes only 7 or 8%; that ability to hear speech exists in
about one in four, while ten or fifteen in each hundred are only
semi-deaf. He rightly warns against the use of tuning forks or other
instruments held on the bones of the head as tests of hearing, because
the vibration which is felt, not heard, may very often be mistaken for
sound.
Dr Edward M. Gallaudet, president of the Columbia Institution for the
Deaf in Washington, D.C., suggests the following terms for use in
dividing the whole class of the deaf into its main sections, though it
is obviously impossible to split them up into perfectly defined
subdivisions, where, as a matter of fact, you have each degree of
deafness and dumbness shading into the next:--the _speaking deaf_, _the
semi-speaking deaf_, the _mute deaf_ (or _deaf-mute_), the _speaking
semi-deaf_, the _mute semi-deaf_, the _hearing mute_ and the _hearing
semi-mute_. He points out that the last two classes are usually persons
of feeble mental power. We should exclude these altogether from the
list, since their hearing is, presumably, perfect, and should add the
_semi-speaking semi-deaf_ before the mute semi-deaf. This would give two
main divisions--those who cannot hear at all, and those who have partial
hearing--with three subsections in each main division--those who speak,
those who have partial speech and those who do not speak at all. Where
the hearing is perfect it is paradoxical to class a person with the
deaf, and the dumbness in such a case is due (where there is no
malformation of the vocal organs) to inability of the mind to pay
attention to, and imitate, what the ear really hears. In such cases this
mental weakness is generally shown in other ways besides that of not
hearing sounds. Probably no sign will be given of recognizing persons or
objects around; there will be in fact, a general incapacity of the
whole body and senses. It is incorrect to designate such persons as deaf
and feeble-minded or deaf and idiotic, because in many cases their
organs of hearing are as perfect as are other organs of their body, and
they are no more deaf than blind, though they may pay no attention to
what they hear any more than to what they see. They are simply weak in
intellect, and this is shown by the disuse of any and all of their
senses; hence it is incorrect to classify them according to one, and one
only, of the evidences of this mental weakness.
_Extent of Deafness._--The following table shows the number of deaf
and dumb persons in the United Kingdom at successive censuses:--
+------+-----------------------------------------+
| | NUMBER OF DEAF AND DUMB PERSONS. |
| YEAR.+---------+---------+----------+----------+
| | United | England | Scotland.| Ireland. |
| |Kingdom. |& Wales. | | |
+------+---------+---------+----------+----------+
| 1851 | 17,649 | 10,314 | 2155 | 5180 |
| 1861 | 20,224 | 12,236 | 2335 | 5653 |
| 1871 | 19,159 | 11,518 | 2087 | 5554 |
| 1881 | 20,573 | 13,295 | 2142 | 5136 |
| 1891 | 20,781 | 14,192 | 2125 | 4464 |
| 1901 | 21,855 | 15,246 | 2638 | 3971 |
+------+---------+---------+----------+----------+
From this we find that the proportion of deaf and dumb to the
population has been as follows:--
+------+-----------------------------------------------+
| | PROPORTION OF DEAF AND DUMB TO THE POPULATION.|
| YEAR.+-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+
| | United | England | Scotland. | Ireland. |
| | Kingdom. | & Wales. | | |
+------+-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+
| 1851 | 1 in 1550 | 1 in 1739 | 1 in 1340 | 1 in 1264 |
| 1861 | 1 in 1430 | 1 in 1639 | 1 in 1310 | 1 in 1025 |
| 1871 | 1 in 1642 | 1 in 1972 | 1 in 1610 | 1 in 974 |
| 1881 | 1 in 1694 | 1 in 1953 | 1 in 1745 | 1 in 1008 |
| 1891 | 1 in 1814 | 1 in 2040 | 1 in 1893 | 1 in 1053 |
| 1901 | 1 in 1897 | 1 in 2132 | 1 in 1694 | 1 in 1122 |
+------+-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+
There has, therefore, been on the whole a steady decrease of those
described as "deaf and dumb" in proportion to the population in Great
Britain and Ireland. But in the census for 1901, in addition to the
15,246 returned as "deaf and dumb" in England and Wales, 18,507 were
entered as being "deaf," 2433 of whom were described as having been
"deaf from childhood."
Mr B. H. Payne, the principal of the Royal Cambrian Institution,
Swansea, makes the following remarks upon these figures:--
"The natural conclusion, of course, is that there has been a large
increase, relative as well as absolute, of the class in which we are
interested, which we call the deaf, and which includes the deaf and
dumb. Indeed, the number, large as it is, cannot be considered as
complete, for the schedules did not require persons who were only deaf
to state their infirmity, and, though many did so, it may be presumed
that more did not.
"On the other hand, circumstances exist which may reasonably be held
to modify the conclusion that there has been a large relative increase
of the deaf. The spread of education, the development of local
government, and an improved system of registration, may have had the
effect of procuring fuller enumeration and more appropriate
classification than heretofore, while 1368 persons described simply as
dumb, and who therefore probably belong, not to the deaf, but to the
feeble-minded and aphasic classes, are included in the 'deaf and dumb'
total. It is also to be noted that some of those who described
themselves as 'deaf' though not born so may have been educated in the
ordinary way before they lost their hearing, and are therefore outside
the sphere of the operation of schools for the deaf.
"In connexion with the census of 1891, it has been remarked in the
report of the institution that no provision was made in the schedules
for distinguishing the congenital from the non-congenital deaf, and
that it was desirable to draw such a distinction. To ascertain the
relative increase or decrease of one or the other section of the class
would contribute to our knowledge of the incidence of known causes of
deafness or to the confirmation or discovery of other causes, and so
far indicate the appropriate measures of prevention, while such an
inquiry as that recommended has, besides, a certain bearing upon
educational views.
"The exact number of 'deaf and dumb' and 'deaf' children who are of
school age cannot be ascertained from the census tables, which give
the numbers in quinquennial age-groups, while the school age is seven
to sixteen. It is a pity that in this respect the functions of the
census department are not co-ordinated with those of the Board of
Education."
John Hitz, the superintendent of the Volta Bureau for the Increase of
Knowledge Relating to the Deaf, Washington, D.C., U.S.A., gives the
number of schools for deaf children, and pupils, in different
countries in 1900 as follows:--
AFRICA.
+---------------+---------+----------+---------+
| Country. | Schools.| Teachers.| Pupils. |
+---------------+---------+----------+---------+
| Algeria | 1 | 3 | 37 |
| Egypt | 1 | 2 | 6 |
| Cape Colony | 4 | 9* | 77 |
| Natal | 1 | 2 | 7 |
| +---------+----------+---------+
| | 7 | 16* | 127 |
+---------------+---------+----------+---------+
* Incomplete.
ASIA.
+---------------+---------+----------+---------+
| Country. | Schools.| Teachers.| Pupils. |
+---------------+---------+----------+---------+
| China | 3 | 10 | 43 |
| India | 3 | 13 | 73 |
| Japan | 3 | 24 | 337 |
| +---------+----------+---------+
| | 9 | 47 | 453 |
+---------------+---------+----------+---------+
AUSTRALASIA.
+---------------+---------+----------+---------+
| Country. | Schools.| Teachers.| Pupils. |
+---------------+---------+----------+---------+
| Australia | 6 | 41 | 282 |
| New Zealand | 1 | 5 | 50 |
| +---------+----------+---------+
| | 7 | 46 | 332 |
+---------------+---------+----------+---------+
EUROPE.
+------------------+---------+----------+---------+
| Country. | Schools.| Teachers.| Pupils. |
+------------------+---------+----------+---------+
| Austria-Hungary | 38 | 291 | 2440 |
| Belgium | 12 | 181 | 1265 |
| Denmark | 5 | 57 | 348 |
| France | 71 | 598 | 4098 |
| Germany | 99 | 798 | 6497 |
| Great Britain | 95 | 462 | 4222 |
| Italy | 47 | 234 | 2519 |
| Luxemburg | 1 | 3 | 22 |
| Netherlands | 3 | 74 | 473 |
| Norway | 5 | 54 | 309 |
| Portugal | 2 | 9 | 64 |
| Rumania | 1 | 3 | 46 |
| Russia, Finland, | | | |
| Livonia | 34 | 118 | 1719 |
| Servia | 2 | 2* | 26* |
| Spain | 11 | 60 | 462 |
| Sweden | 9 | 124 | 726 |
| Switzerland | 14 | 84 | 650 |
| Turkey | 1 | | |
| +---------+----------+---------|
| | 450 | 3152 |25,886 |
+------------------+---------+----------+---------+
* Incomplete.
NORTH AMERICA.
+---------------+---------+----------+---------+
| Country. | Schools.| Teachers.| Pupils. |
+---------------+---------+----------+---------+
| Canada | 7 | 130 | 768 |
| United States | 126 | 1347 | 10,946 |
| Mexico | 1 | 13 | 46 |
| Cuba | 1 | | |
| +---------+----------+---------+
| | 135 | 1490 | 11,760 |
+---------------+---------+----------+---------+
SOUTH AMERICA.
+---------------+---------+----------+---------+
| Country. | Schools.| Teachers.| Pupils. |
+---------------+---------+----------+---------+
| Argentine | 4 | 18 | 133 |
| Brazil | 1 | 9 | 35 |
| Chile | 1 | 7 | 61 |
| Uruguay | 1 | | |
| +---------+----------+---------+
| | 7 | 34 | 229 |
+---------------+---------+----------+---------+
SUMMARY.
+---------------+---------+----------+---------+
| Country. | Schools.| Teachers.| Pupils. |
+---------------+---------+----------+---------+
|Africa | 7 | 16 | 127 |
|Asia | 9 | 47 | 453 |
|Australia | 7 | 46 | 332 |
|Europe | 450 | 3152 | 25,886 |
|North America | 135 | 1490 | 11,760 |
|South America | 7 | 34 | 229 |
| +---------+----------+---------+
| | 615 | 4785 | 38,787 |
+---------------+---------+----------+---------+
These figures refer only to deaf children who are actually under
instruction, not to the whole deaf population.
While it is gratifying to find that so much is being done in the way
of educating this class of the community, the number of schools in
most parts of the world is still lamentably inadequate. For instance,
taking the school age as from seven to sixteen, which is now made
compulsory by Act of Parliament in Great Britain, and assuming that
20% of the deaf population are of that age, as they are in England,
there should be 40,000 deaf pupils under instruction in India alone,
whereas there are but seventy-three. There are 200,000 deaf of all
ages in India. And what an enormous total should be in schools in
China instead of forty-three! The whole of the rest of Asia, with the
exception of Japan, has apparently not a single school. There must be
many thousands of thousands of deaf (hundreds of thousands, if not
thousands of thousands of whom are of school age) in that continent,
unless indeed they are destroyed, which is not impossible. What are we
to say of Africa, where only 100 pupils are being taught; of South
America, with its paltry 200, and Australia's 300? To come to Europe
itself, Russia should have many times more pupils than her 1700. Even
in Great Britain the education of the deaf was not made compulsory
till 1893, and there are many still evading the law and growing up
uneducated. Mr Payne of Swansea estimated (_Institution Report_,
1903-1904) from the 1901 census, that there must be approximately 204
deaf of school age in South Wales and Monmouthshire, while only 144
were accounted for in all the schools in that district according to Dr
Hitz's statistics.
Dr Kerr Love (_Deaf Mutism_, p. 217) gives the following table, which
shows the number of deaf people in proportion to the population in the
countries named:--
Switzerland 1 in 408
Austria " 765
Hungary " 792
Sweden " 977
Prussia " 981
Finland " 981
Canada " 1003
Norway " 1052
Germany (exclusive of Prussia) " 1074
Portugal " 1333
Ireland " 1398*
India " 1459
United States " 1514
Denmark " 1538
Greece " 1548
France " 1600
Italy " 1862
Scotland " 1885*
Cape Colony " 1904
England " 2043*
Spain " 2178
Belgium " 2247
Australasia " 2692
Holland " 2985
Ceylon " 4328
* The figures for England, Scotland and Ireland, according to the
1901 census, are different and have been given above.
According to a tabular statement of British and Colonial schools, June
1899, the proportion of those born deaf to those who lost hearing
after birth was, at that time and in those countries, 2126 to 1251, as
far as returns had been made. Several schools had, however, failed to
give statistics. These figures show a proportion of nearly 59%
congenitally deaf persons to over 41% whose deafness is acquired.
Professor Fay, whose monumental work, _Marriages of the Deaf in
America_, deserves particular attention, mentions (p. 38) that of
23,931 persons who attended American schools for the deaf up to the
year 1890, 9842, or 41%, were reported as congenitally deaf, and
14,089, or 59%, as adventitiously deaf,--figures which exactly reverse
those just quoted. The classification of deafness acquired in infancy
with congenital deafness by some other authorities (giving rise to the
rather absurd term "toto-congenital" to describe the latter) is
unscientific. There is reason for the opinion that the non-congenital,
even when hearing has been lost in early infancy, acquire language
better, and it is a mistake from any point of view to include them in
the born deaf.
Other statistics vary very much as to the proportion of born deaf,
some being as low as a quarter, and some as high as three-quarters, of
the whole class. We can only say, speaking of both sides of the
Atlantic, and counterbalancing one period with another, that the
general average appears to be about 50% for each. Probably the
percentage varies in different places for definite reasons, which we
shall now briefly consider.
_Causes of Deafness._--These may be considered in two divisions,
pre-natal and post-natal.
1. _Pre-Natal._--A small percentage of these is due, it seems, to
malformation of some portion of the auditory apparatus. Another
percentage is known to represent the children of the intermarriage of
blood relations. Dr Kerr Love (_Deaf Mutism_, p. 117) gives statistics
from thirteen British institutions which show that on a general average
at least 8% of the congenitally deaf are the offspring of such
marriages. Besides this, little is known. Beyond all doubt a much larger
percentage of deaf children are the offspring of marriages in which one
or both partners were born deaf than of ordinary marriages. But
inquiries into such phenomena have generally been directed towards
tracing deafness and not consanguinity, or at least the inquirer has
rarely troubled to make sure whether the grandparents or
great-grandparents on either side were relations or not. Such
investigations rarely go beyond ascertaining if the parents were related
to each other, though we have proof that a certain tendency towards any
particular abnormality may not exhibit itself in every generation of the
family in question. To give an illustration, suppose that G is a deaf
man. Several inquirers may trace back to the preceding generation F, and
to the grandparents E, and even to the great-grandparents D, in search
of an ancestor who is deaf, and such they may discover in the third
generation D. But probably not one of these several inquirers will ask G
if any of his grandparents or great-grandparents married a cousin, for
instance, though they may ask if his father did. To continue this
hypothetical case, the investigators will again trace back along the
family tree to generations C, B and A in search of an original _deaf_
ancestor, on whose shoulders they seek to lay the blame of both D's and
G's deafness. Not finding any such, they will again content themselves
with asking if D's parents (generation C) were blood relations or not,
and, receiving an answer in the negative, desist from further inquiry in
this direction, assuming that D's deafness is the original cause of G's
deafness. They do not, we fear, inquire if any grandparents or
great-grandparents (hearing people) were related, with the same
persistency as they ask if any were deaf. The search for deafness is
pushed through several generations, the search for consanguinity is only
extended to one generation. Perhaps if it were carried further, it would
be discovered that A married his niece, and there lay the secret of the
deafness in both D and G. In other words, the deafness in D is not the
cause of that in G, but the deafness in both D and G are effects of the
consanguineous marriage in A. All this is, however, merely by way of
suggestion. We submit that if deafness in one generation may be followed
by deafness two or even three generations later, while the tendency to
deafness exists, but does not appear, in the intermediate generations,
it is only logical to inquire if deafness in the first discoverable
instance in a family may not be caused by consanguinity, the effect of
which is not seen for two or three generations in a similar manner.
Moreover it is probable that consanguinity in parents or grandparents
may often be denied. An exhaustive investigation along these lines is
desirable, for we believe that congenital deafness would be proved to be
due to consanguinity in hearing people, if the search were pushed far
enough back and the truth were told, in a far greater percentage of
cases than is now suspected. This is not disproved by quoting numbers of
cases where no deafness follows consanguinity in any generation, for
resulting weakness may be shown (where it exists) in many other ways
than by deafness.
This theory receives support from the statistics quoted by Dr Kerr Love
(_Deaf Mutism_, p. 132), where the percentage of defective children
resulting from the consanguineous marriages of hearing people increases
in almost exact proportion to the nearness of affinity of the parents.
It is further borne out by statistics of the duchy of Nassau, and of
Berlin, both quoted by Dr Kerr Love (pp. 119, 120). These show 1 deaf
person in 1397 Roman Catholics, 1101 Evangelicals and 508 Jews in the
former case, and 1 in 3000 Roman Catholics, 2000 Protestants and 400
Jews in the latter. When we are told that "Roman Catholics prohibit
marriages between persons who are near blood relations, Protestants view
such marriages as permissible, and Jews encourage intermarriage with
blood relations," these figures become suggestive. We find the same
greater tendency to deafness in thinly-populated and out-of-the-way
districts and countries where, owing to the circle of acquaintances
being limited, people are more likely to marry relations.
With regard to the question of marriages of the deaf, Professor Edward
Allen Fay's work is so complete that the results of his six years'
labour are particularly worthy of notice, for, as the introduction
states, the book is a "collection of records of marriages of the deaf
far larger than all previous collections put together," and it deals
in detail with 4471 such marriages. The summary of statistics is as
follows (_Marriages of the Deaf in America_, p. 134):--
+----------------------+-----------------+------------+--------------------+
| | NUMBER OF | NUMBER OF | PERCENTAGE. |
| | MARRIAGES. | CHILDREN. | |
| MARRIAGES +------+----------+------+-----+----------+---------+
| OF THE DEAF. | |Resulting | | |Marriages | |
| |Total.| in deaf |Total.|Deaf.|resulting | Deaf |
| | |offspring.| | | in deaf |children.|
| | | | | |offspring.| |
+----------------------+------+----------+------+-----+----------+---------+
| One or both partners | | | | | | |
| deaf | 3078 | 300 | 6782 | 588 | 9.7 | 8.6 |
| Both partners deaf | 2377 | 220 | 5072 | 429 | 9.2 | 8.4 |
| One partner deaf, | | | | | | |
| the other hearing | 599 | 75 | 1532 | 151 | 12.5 | 9.8 |
| One or both partners | | | | | | |
| congenitally deaf, | 1477 | 194 | 3401 | 413 | 13.1 | 12.1 |
| One or both partners | | | | | | |
| adventitiously deaf | 2212 | 124 | 4701 | 199 | 5.6 | 4.2 |
| Both partners | | | | | | |
| congenitally deaf | 335 | 83 | 779 | 202 | 24.7 | 25.9 |
| One partner | | | | | | |
| congenitally deaf, | | | | | | |
| the other | | | | | | |
| adventitiously deaf | 814 | 66 | 1820 | 119 | 8.1 | 6.5 |
| Both partners | | | | | | |
| adventitiously deaf | 845 | 30 | 1720 | 40 | 3.5 | 2.3 |
| One partner | | | | | | |
| congenitally deaf, | | | | | | |
| the other hearing | 191 | 28 | 528 | 63 | 14.6 | 11.9 |
| One partner | | | | | | |
| adventitiously deaf,| | | | | | |
| the other hearing | 310 | 10 | 713 | 16 | 3.2 | 2.2 |
| Both partners had | | | | | | |
| deaf relatives | 437 | 103 | 1060 | 222 | 23.5 | 20.9 |
| One partner had deaf | | | | | | |
| relatives, the other| | | | | | |
| had not | 541 | 36 | 1210 | 78 | 6.6 | 6.4 |
| Neither partner had | | | | | | |
| deaf relatives | 471 | 11 | 1044 | 13 | 2.3 | 1.2 |
| Both partners | | | | | | |
| congenitally deaf; | | | | | | |
| both had deaf | | | | | | |
| relatives | 172 | 49 | 429 | 130 | 28.4 | 30.3 |
| Both partners | | | | | | |
| congenitally deaf; | | | | | | |
| one had deaf | | | | | | |
| relatives, the other| | | | | | |
| had not | 49 | 8 | 105 | 21 | 16.3 | 20.0 |
| Both partners | | | | | | |
| congenitally deaf; | | | | | | |
| neither had deaf | | | | | | |
| relatives | 14 | 1 | 24 | 1 | 7.1 | 4.1 |
| Both partners | | | | | | |
| adventitiously deaf;| | | | | | |
| both had deaf | | | | | | |
| relatives. | 57 | 10 | 114 | 11 | 17.5 | 9.6 |
| Both partners | | | | | | |
| adventitiously deaf;| | | | | | |
| one had deaf | | | | | | |
| relatives, the other| | | | | | |
| had not | 167 | 7 | 357 | 10 | 4.1 | 2.8 |
| Both partners | | | | | | |
| adventitiously deaf;| | | | | | |
| neither had deaf | | | | | | |
| relatives | 284 | 2 | 550 | 2 | 0.7 | 0.3 |
| Partners | | | | | | |
| consanguineous | 31 | 14 | 100 | 30 | 45.1 | 30.0 |
+----------------------+------+----------+------+-----+----------+---------+
One point deserves special attention in the above list. It is that
where there are no deaf relatives (i.e. where there has not been a
history of deafness in the family) only one child out of twenty-four
is deaf, even when the parents were both born deaf themselves. Where
there were deaf relatives already in the family on both sides, and the
parents were born deaf, the percentage of deaf children is seven and a
half times as great. This seems to show that there are causes of
congenital deafness which are, comparatively speaking, unlikely to be
transmitted to future generations, while other causes of congenital
deafness are so liable to be perpetuated that one child in every three
is deaf. We conjecture that one original cause of congenital deafness
which reappears in a family is consanguinity--for instance, the
intermarriage of first or second cousins (hearing people) in some
previous generation. Out of the 2245 deaf persons who were born deaf,
269 had parents who were blood relations, according to Fay. And
perhaps many more refrained from acknowledging the fact. Eleven had
grandparents who were cousins. This theory calls for investigation,
and while the marriage of deaf people is not encouraged, it is fair to
ask those who so strenuously oppose such unions whether they may not
be spending their energies on trying to check an effect instead of a
cause, and if that cause may not really be consanguinity,--witness the
percentage of deaf people among Roman Catholics, Protestants and Jews
before noticed. On the principle that prevention is better than cure
it is the intermarriage of cousins and other relations which should be
discouraged. The marriage of deaf people is inadvisable where there
has been deafness in the family in former generations, but the same
warning applies to all the other members of that family, for the
hearing members are as likely to transmit the defect of which deafness
is a symptom as the deaf members are. We are more concerned to
discover the primary cause of the defect, and take steps to prevent
the latter from occurring at all. Those who have no dissuasions for
hearing people, who might perhaps cause the misery, and only give
counsel to those among the transmitters of it who happen to be deaf,
are acting in a manner which is hardly logical.
2. _Post-Natal._--We have collected and grouped the stated causes of
deafness in those partners of the marriages in America noticed by Fay.
About a hundred and thirty did not mention how they lost hearing. Any
errors in this calculation must be less than 1% at most, and can make no
material difference. In some cases two or more diseases are given as the
cause of deafness. In such cases where one is a very common cause of
deafness, and the other is unusual, the former is credited with being
the reason for the defect. Where both are common, we have divided the
cases between them in a rough proportion.
Scarlet fever 973; scarlatina 3; scarlet rash 2 978
Spotted fever 260; meningitis 92; spinal meningitis 76;
cerebro-spinal meningitis 70; spinal fever 28; spinal
disease 8; congestion of spine 2 536
Brain fever 309; inflammation of brain 62; congestion of
brain 30; disease in brain 3 404
Typhoid 127; "fever" (unspecified) 117; typhus 17;
intermittent fever 14; bilious fever 11; other fevers 14 300
Gatherings, inflammations, in head; ulcers, disease, sores,
risings, &c., all but 22 being explicitly stated to be in
head or ears 276
"Sickness" 167; "illness" 49; "disease" 8; no definite
specification 12 236
Measles 191
Colds 101; colds in head, &c. 35; catarrh 19; catarrhal
fevers 10; chills, &c. 17 182
Whooping cough 77; diphtheria 34; lung fever, and various
diseases of lungs and throat 60 171
Falls 143
Fits and convulsions 58; spasms 18; teething 16 92
Scrofula 35; mumps 25; swellings on neck 2 62
Many various and unusual causes 60
Smallpox 8; chickenpox 6, cholera, &c. 7; canker, &c. 11;
erysipelas 13 45
Paralysis, &c. 12; nerve diseases 12; fright 8; palsy 3 35
Hydrocephalus 14; dropsy on brain or in head 17; dropsy 2 33
Various accidents, blows, kicks, &c. 31
Quinine 22; other medicines 7 29
----
Total 3804
----
We have counted a hundred and thirty of those who were returned as
having lost hearing who were also stated to be the offspring of
consanguineous marriages.
Dr Kerr Love (_Deaf Mutism_, p. 150) gives the following list compiled
from the registers of British institutions:--
Scarlet fever 331
Miscellaneous causes 175
Teething, convulsions, &c. 171
Meningitis, brain fever, &c. 166
Measles 138
Falls and accidents 122
Enteric and other fevers 119
Disease, illness, &c. 37
Whooping cough 33
Suppurative ear diseases 18
Syphilis 2
----
1312
Unknown causes 98
The same writer quotes Hartmann's table, compiled in 1880 from
continental statistics, as follows:--
Cerebral affections, inflammations,
convulsions 644
Cerebro-spinal meningitis 295
Typhus 260
Scarlatina 205
Measles 84
Ear disease, proper 77
Lesions of the head 70
Other diseases 354
----
1989
There appears to be no cure for deafness that is other than partial; but
with the advance of science preventive treatment is expected to be
efficacious in scarlet fever, measles, &c.
_Condition of the Deaf._
1. _In Childhood._--It is difficult to impress people with two facts in
connexion with teaching language to the average child who was born deaf,
or lost hearing in early infancy. One is the necessity of the
undertaking, and the other is that this necessity is not due to mental
deficiency in the pupil. To the born deaf-mute in an English-speaking
country English is a foreign language. His inability to speak is due to
his never having heard that tongue which his mother uses. The same
reason holds good for his entire ignorance of that language. The hearing
child does not know a word of English when he is born, and never would
learn it if taken away from where it is spoken. He learns English
unconsciously by imitating what he hears. The deaf child never hears
English, and so he never learns it till he goes to school. Here he has
to start learning English--or whatever is the language of his native
land--in the same way as a hearing boy learns a foreign language.
But another reason exists which renders his task much more difficult
than that of a normal English schoolboy learning, say, German. The
latter has two channels of information, the eye and the ear; the deaf
boy has only one, the eye. The hearing boy learns German by what he
hears of it in class as well as by reading it; the deaf boy can only
learn by what he sees. It is as if you tried to fill two cisterns of the
same capacity with two inlets to one and only one inlet to the other;
supposing the inlets to be the same size, the former will fill twice as
fast. So it is in the case of the hearing boy as compared with his deaf
brother. The cerebral capacity and quality are the same, but in one case
one of the avenues to the brain is closed, and consequently the
development is less rapid. Moreover, the thoughts are precisely those
which would be expected in people who form them only from what they see.
We were often asked by our deaf playmates in our childhood such
questions (in signs) as "What does the cat say?"--"The dog talks, does
he not?"--"Is the rainbow very hot on the roof of that house?" They have
often told us such things as that they used to think someone went to the
end of the earth and climbed up the sky to light the stars, and to pour
down rain through a sieve.
But there is yet a third disadvantage for the already handicapped deaf
boy. He has no other language to build upon, while the other has his
mother tongue with which to compare the foreign language he is learning.
The latter already has a general idea of sentences and clauses, of tense
and mood, of gender, number and case, of substantives, verbs and
prepositions; and he knows that one language must form some sort of
parallel to another. He is already prepared to find a subject, predicate
and object, in the sentence of a foreign language, even when he knows
not a word of any but his own mother tongue. If he is told that a
certain word in German is an adjective, he understands what its function
is, even when he has yet to learn the meaning of the word. All this goes
for nothing in the case of the deaf pupil. The very elementary fact that
certain words denote certain objects--that there is such a class of word
as substantives--comes as a revelation to most deaf children. They have
to begin at seven laboriously and artificially to learn what an ordinary
baby has unconsciously and naturally discovered at the age of two.
English, spoken, written, printed or finger-spelled, is no more natural,
comprehensible or easy of acquirement to the deaf than is Chinese. The
manual alphabet is simply one way of expressing the vernacular on the
fingers; it is no more the deaf-mute's "natural" language than speech or
writing, and if he cannot express himself by the latter modes of
communicating, he cannot by spelling on the fingers. The last is simply
a case of _vicaria linguae manus_. None of these are languages in
themselves; whether you use pen or type, hand or voice, you are but
adopting one or other method of expressing one and the same
tongue--English or whatever it may be, that of a "people of a strange
speech and of a hard language, whose words they cannot understand." The
deaf child's natural mode of communication--more natural to him than any
verbal language is to hearing people--is the world-wide, natural
language of signs.
2. _Natural Language of the Deaf._--We have just called signs a natural
language. While a purist might properly object to this adjective being
applied to all signs, yet it is not an unfair term to use as regards
this method of conversing as a whole, even in the United States, where
signs, being to a great extent the French signs invented by de l'Epée,
are more artificial than in England. The old story, by the way, of the
pupil of de l'Epée failing to write more than "hand, breast," as
describing what an incredulous investigator did when he laid his hand on
his breast, proves nothing. In all probability he had no idea that he
was expected to describe an action, and thought that he was being asked
the names of certain parts of the body. The hand was held out to him and
he wrote "hand." Then the breast was indicated by placing the hand on
it, and he wrote "breast." Moreover, the artificial element is much less
pronounced than is supposed by most of those who are loudest in their
condemnation of signs, there being almost invariably an obvious
connexion between the sign and idea. These critics are generally people
whose acquaintance with the subject is rather limited, and the
thermometer of whose zeal in waging war against gestures generally falls
in proportion as the photometer of their knowledge about them shows an
increasing light. We may go still further and point out that to object
to any sign on the ground of artificiality _per se_, is to strain at the
gnat and to swallow the camel, for English itself is one of the most
artificial languages in existence, and certainly is more open to such an
objection than signs. If we apply the same test to English that is
applied to signs by those who would rule out any which they suppose
cannot come under the head of natural gesture or pantomime, what
fraction of our so-called natural language should we have left? For a
spoken word to be "natural" in this sense it must be onomatopoetic, and
what infinitesimal percentage of English words are such? A foreigner,
unacquainted with the language, could not glean the drift of a
conversation in English, except perhaps a trifle from the tone of the
voices and more from the natural signs used--the smiles and frowns, the
expressions of the faces, the play of eyes, lips, hands and whole body.
The only words he could possibly understand without such aids are some
such onomatopoetic words as the cries of animals--"mew," "chirrup," &c.,
and a few more like "bang" or "swish."
The reason why we insist emphatically upon the importance of teaching
English in schools for the deaf in English-speaking countries, is,
firstly, because that is the language which the pupil will be called
upon to use in his intercourse with his fellow-men after he leaves
school, and secondly, because, if his grasp of that tongue only be
sufficient and his interest in books be properly aroused, he can go on
educating himself in after-life by means of reading. Time tables are
overcrowded with kindergarten, clay modelling, wood-carving, carpentry,
and other things which are excellent in themselves. But there is not
time for everything, and these are not as important in the case of the
deaf pupil as language. Putting aside the question of religion and moral
training, we consider the flooding of their minds with general
knowledge, and the teaching of English to enable them to express their
thoughts to their neighbours, to be of paramount importance, so
paramount that all other branches of education in their turn pale into
insignificance by comparison with these, while the question of methods
of instruction should be subservient to these main ends. Too many make
speech in itself an end. This is a mistake. Speech is not in itself
English; it is only one way of expressing that language. And we are
little concerned to inquire by what means the deaf pupil expresses
himself in English so long as he does so express himself, whether by
speech or writing, or as he does so express himself, whether by speech
or writing or finger-spelling--for if he can finger-spell he can write.
It is not the mere fact that he can make certain sounds or write certain
letters or form the alphabet on his hands that should signify. It is the
actual language that he uses, whatever be the means, and the thoughts
that are enshrined in the language, that should be our criterion when
judging of his education.
The importance of English is insisted upon because to place the deaf
child in touch with his English-speaking fellow-men we must teach him
their language, and also because he can thereby educate himself by means
of books if, and when, he has a sufficient command of that language. The
reason is not because the vernacular is actually superior to signs as a
means of conversation. The sign language is quite equal to the
vernacular as a means of expression. The former is as much our mother
tongue, if we may say so, as the latter; we used one language as soon as
the other, in our earliest infancy; and, after a lifelong experience of
both, we affirm that signs are a more beautiful language than English,
and provide possibilities of a wealth of expression which English does
not possess, and which probably no other language possesses.
That others whose knowledge of signs is lifelong hold similar opinions
is shown by the following extract from _The Deaf and their
Possibilities_, by Dr Gallaudet:--
"Thinking that the question may arise in the minds of some, 'Does the
sign language give the deaf, when used in public addresses, all that
speech affords to the hearing?' I will say that my experience and
observation lead me to answer with a decided affirmative. On occasions
almost without number it has been my privilege to interpret, through
signs to the deaf, addresses given in speech; I have addressed
hundreds of assemblages of deaf persons in the college, in schools I
have visited, and elsewhere, using signs for the original expression
of thought; I have seen many more lectures and public debates given
originally in signs; I have seen conventions of deaf-mutes in which no
word was spoken, and yet all the forms of parliamentary proceedings
were observed, and the most earnest, and even excited, discussions
were carried on. I have seen the ordinances of religion administered,
and the full service of the Church rendered in signs; and all this
with the assurance growing out of my complete understanding of the
language--a knowledge which dates from my earliest childhood--that for
all the purposes enumerated gestural expression is in no respect
inferior, and is in many respects superior, to oral, verbal utterance
as a means of communicating ideas."
The following is an analysis of the sign language given by Mr Payne of
the Swansea Institution, together with his explanatory notes:--
"_Analysis of the Sign Language._
I. Facial expression.
/1. Sympathetic \
II. Gesture < 2. Representative (= Natural signs | Conventional
\3. Systematic (a) Arbitrary signs > especially in
(b) Grammatical signs / shortened form.
III. Mimic action.
IV. Pantomime.
"_Observations._--People speak of 'manual signs.' Of course there are
signs which are made with the hands only, as there are others which
are labial, &c. But the sign language is comprehensive, and at times
the whole frame is engaged in its use. A late American teacher could
and did 'sign' a story to his pupils with his hands behind him. Facial
expression plays an important part in the language. Sympathetic
gestures are individualistic and spontaneous, and are sometimes
unconsciously made. The speaker, feeling that words are inadequate,
reinforces them with gesture. Arbitrary signs are, e.g., drumming with
three separated fingers on the chin for 'uncle.' Grammatical signs are
those which are used for inflections, parts of speech, or letters as
in the manual alphabet, and some numerical signs, though other
numerals may be classed as natural; also signs for sounds, and even
labial signs. Signs, whether natural or arbitrary, which gain
acceptance, especially if they are shortened, are 'conventional.'
'Mimic action' refers, e.g., to the sign for sawing, the side of one
hand being passed to and fro over the side or back of the
other.'Pantomime' means, e.g., when the signer pretends to hang up his
hat and coat, roll up his sleeves, kneel on his board, guide the saw
with his thumb, saw through, wipe his forehead, &c."
Illustrations of one style of numerical signs are given below.
[Illustration: FIG. 1.]
Units are signified with the palm turned inwards; tens with the palm
turned outwards; hundreds with the fingers downwards; thousands with the
left hand to the right shoulder; millions with the hand near the
forehead. For 12, sign 10 outwards and 2 inwards, and so on up to 19. 21
= 2 outwards, 1 inwards, and so on up to 30. 146 = 1 downwards, 4
outwards, 6 inwards. 207,837 = 2 downwards, 7 inwards (both at
shoulder), 8 downwards, 3 outwards, 7 inwards. 599,126,345 = 5
downwards, 9 outwards, 9 inwards (all near forehead); 1 downwards, 2
outwards, 6 inwards (all at shoulder); 3 downwards, 4 outwards, 5
inwards (in front of chest).
Only the third, and a few of the second, subdivision of the second
section of the above classes of signs can be excluded when talking of
signs as being the deaf-mute's natural language. In fact we hesitate to
call representative gesture--e.g. the horns and action of milking for
"cow," the smelling at something grasped in the hand for "flower,"
&c.--conventional at all, except when shortened as the usual sign for
"cat" is, for instance, from the sign for whiskers _plus_ stroking the
fur on back and tail _plus_ the action of a cat licking its paw and
washing its face, to the sign for whiskers only.
The deaf child expresses himself in the sign language of his own accord.
The supposition that in manual or combined schools generally they "teach
them signs" is incorrect, except that perhaps occasionally a few pupils
may be drilled and their signs polished for a dramatic rendering of a
poem at a prize distribution or public meeting, which is no more
"teaching them signs" than training hearing children to recite the same
poem orally and polishing their rendering of it is teaching them
English. If the deaf boy meets with some one who will use gesture to
him, a new sign will be invented as occasion requires by one or other to
express a new idea, and if it be a good one is tacitly adopted to
express that idea, and so an entire language is built up. It follows
that in different localities signs will differ to a great extent, but
one who is accustomed to signing can readily see the connexion and
understand what is meant even when the signs are partly novel to him. We
are sometimes asked if we can make a deaf child understand abstract
ideas by this language. Our answer is that we can, if a hearing child of
no greater age and intelligence can understand the same ideas in
English. Signs are particularly the best means of conveying religious
truths to the deaf. If you wish to appeal to him, to impress him, to
reach his heart and his sympathies (and, incidentally, to offer the best
possible substitute for music), use his own eloquent language of signs.
We have conversed by signs with deaf people from all parts of the
British Isles, from France, Norway and Sweden, Poland, Finland, Italy,
Russia, Turkey, the United States, and found that they are indeed a
world-wide means of communication, even when we wandered on to most
unusual and abstract subjects. Deaf people in America converse with Red
Indians with ease thereby, which shows how natural the generality of
even de l'Epée signs are. The sign language is everybody's natural
language, not only the deaf-mute's.
Addison (_Deaf Mutism_, p. 283) quotes John Bulwer as follows:--"What
though you (the deaf and dumb) cannot express your minds in those
verbal contrivances of man's invention: yet you want not speech who
have your whole body for a tongue, having a language which is more
natural and significant, which is common to you with us, to wit,
gesture, the general and universal language of human nature." The same
writer says further on (p. 297): "The same process of growth goes on
alike with the signs of the deaf and dumb as with the spoken words of
the hearing. Arnold, than whom no stronger advocate of the oral method
exists, recognizes this in his comment on this principle of the German
school, for he writes: 'It is much to be regretted that teachers
should indulge in unqualified assertions of the impossibility of
deaf-mutes attaining to clear conceptions and abstract thinking by
signs or mimic gestures. Facts are against them.' Again, Graham Bell,
who is generally considered an opponent of the sign system, says: 'I
think that if we have the mental condition of the child alone in view
without reference to language, no language will reach the mind like
the language of signs; it is the method of reaching the mind of the
deaf child.'"
The opinions of the deaf themselves, from all parts of the world, are
practically unanimous on this question. In the words of Dr Smith,
president of the World's Congress of the Deaf held at St Louis,
Missouri, in 1904, under the auspices of the National Association of
the Deaf, U.S.A., "the educated deaf have a right to be heard in these
matters, and they must and shall be heard." A portion may be quoted of
the resolutions passed at that congress of 570 of the best-informed
deaf the world has ever seen, at least scores, if not hundreds, of
them holding degrees, and being as well educated as the vast majority
of teachers of the deaf in England: "Resolved, that the oral method,
which withholds from the congenitally and quasi-congenitally deaf the
use of the language of signs outside the schoolroom, robs the children
of their birthright; that those champions of the oral method, who have
been carrying on a warfare, both overt and covert, against the use of
the language of signs by the adult deaf, are not friends of the deaf;
and that, in our opinion, it is the duty of every teacher of the deaf,
no matter what method he or she uses, to have a working command of the
sign language."
It is often urged as an objection to the use of signs that those who use
them think in them, and that their English (or other vernacular
language) suffers in consequence. There is, however, no more objection
to thinking in signs than to thinking in any other language, and as to
the second objection, facts are against such a statement. The
best-educated deaf in the world, as a class, are in America, and the
American deaf sign almost to a man. It is true that at first a beginner
in school may, when at a loss how to express himself in words, render
his thoughts in sign-English, if we may use the expression, just as a
schoolboy will sometimes put Latin words in the English order. That is,
the deaf pupil puts the word in the natural order of the signs, which is
really the logical order, and is much nearer the Latin sequence of words
than the English. But, firstly, if he had always been forbidden to use
signs he would not express himself in English any better in that
particular instance; he would simply not attempt to express himself at
all,--so he loses nothing, at least; and secondly, it is perfectly easy
to teach him in a very short time that each language has its own idiom
and that the thought is expressed in a different order in each.
Of the deaf child's moral condition nothing more need be said than that
it is at first exactly that of his hearing brother, and his development
therein depends entirely upon whether he is trained to the same degree.
The need of this is great. He is quite as capable of religious and moral
instruction, and benefits as much by what he receives of it. Happiness
is a noticeable feature of the character of the deaf when they are
allowed to mix with each other. The charge of bad temper can usually be
sustained only when the fault is on the side of those with whom they
live. For instance, the latter often talk in the presence of the deaf
person without saying a word to him, and if he then shows irritation,
which is not often in any case, it is no more to be wondered at than if
a hearing person resents whispering or other secret communication in his
presence.
3. _Social Status, &c._--From the 1901 census "Summary Tables" we gather
the following facts concerning the occupations of the deaf, aged ten and
upwards, in England and Wales. About half of the total number, taking
males and females together (13,450), are engaged in occupations--6665.
The rest--6785--are retired or unoccupied. Of the former, the following
table given below shows the distribution:--
In general or local government work (clerks, messengers, &c.) 11
In professional occupations and subordinate services 87
In domestic offices or services 788
In commercial occupations 12
In work connected with conveyance of men, goods or messages 144
In agriculture 568
In fishing 3
In and about mines and quarries, &c. 151
In work connected with metals, machines, implements, &c. 503
In work connected with precious metals, jewels, games, &c. 46
In building and works of construction 485
In work connected with wood, furniture, fittings and decorations 470
In work connected with brick, cement, pottery and glass 153
In work connected with chemicals, oil, soap, &c. 46
In work connected with skins, hair and feathers 137
In work connected with paper, prints, books, &c. 238
In work connected with textile fabrics 407
In work connected with dress 1829
In work connected with food, tobacco, drink and lodging 194
In work connected with gas, water and electric supply, and
sanitary service 22
Other general and undefined workers and dealers 371
----
Total 6665
Among those in professional occupations are a clergyman, five law
clerks, ten schoolmasters, teachers, &c., thirty-seven painters,
engravers and sculptors, and seven photographers. Of those not engaged
in occupations, 235 have retired from business, and 245 are living on
their own means. Probably a very large number of the remainder were
out of work or engaged in odd jobs at the time of the census; it would
certainly be incorrect to take the words "Without specified
occupations or unoccupied" to mean that those classified as such were
permanently unable to support themselves.
The commonest occupations of men are bootmaking (555), tailoring
(429), farm-labouring (287), general labouring (257), carpentry (195),
cabinet-making (142), painting, decorating and glazing (95),
French-polishing (88), harness-making, &c. (80).
The commonest occupations of women are dressmaking (484), domestic
service (367), laundry and washing service (230), tailoring (170),
shirtmaking, &c. (81), charing (79).
In Munich there are about sixty deaf artists, especially painters and
sculptors. In Germany and Austria generally, deaf lithographers,
xylographers and photographers are well employed, as are bookbinders
in Leipzig in particular, and labourers in the provinces.
In France there are several deaf writers, journalists, &c., two
principals of schools, an architect, a score or so of painters,
several of whom are ladies, nine sculptors, and a few engravers,
photographers, proof-readers, &c.
Italy boasts deaf wood-carvers, sculptors, painters, and architects
graduating from the universities and academies of fine arts with
prizes and medals; also type-setters, pressmen, carvers of coral,
ivory and precious stones.
Two gentlemen in the office of the Norwegian government are deaf, as
are four in the engraving department of the land survey; one is a
master-lithographer, another a master-printer, a third a civil
engineer, and the rest are engaged in the usual trades, as are those
in Sweden.
The deaf form societies of their own to guard their interests, for
social intercourse and other purposes. In England there is the British
Deaf and Dumb Association; in America the National Association of the
Deaf and many lesser societies; Germany has no fewer than 150 such
associations, some of which are athletic clubs, benefit societies,
dramatic clubs, and so forth. The central Federation is the largest
German association. France has the National Union of Deaf-Mutes and
others, many being benefit clubs. Italy has some societies; Sweden has
eight.
In the United States there are no fewer than fifty-three publications
devoted to the interests of the deaf, most of them being school
magazines published in the institutions themselves. Great Britain and
Ireland have six, four of them being school magazines. France, Germany,
Sweden, Hungary have several, and Finland, Russia, Norway, Denmark and
Austria are represented. Canada has three.
There are many Church and other missions to the deaf in England and
abroad, which are much needed owing to the difficulty the average deaf
person has in understanding the archaic language of both Bible and
Prayer-book. Until they have this explained to them it is useless to
place these books in their hands, and even where they are well-educated
and can follow the services, they fail to get the sermon. Chaplains and
missioners engage in all branches of pastoral work among them, and also
try to find them employment, interpret for them where necessary, and
interview people on their behalf.
The difficulty of obtaining employment for the deaf has been increased
in Great Britain by the Employers' Liability and Workmen's Compensation
Acts, for masters are afraid--needlessly, as facts show--to employ them,
under the impression that they are more liable to accidents owing to
their affliction.
The new After-Care Committees of the London County Council are a late
confession of a need which other bodies have long endeavoured to supply.
Education should be a development of the whole nature of the child. The
board of education in England provides for intellectual, industrial and
physical training, but does not take cognizance of those parts of
education which are far more important--the social, moral and spiritual.
Some teachers, both oral and manual, do an incalculable amount of good
at the cost of great self-sacrifice and in face of much discouragement.
They deserve the highest praise for so doing, and such work needs to be
carried on after their pupils leave school.
_Education._
_History._[2]--"Who hath made man's mouth? or who maketh a man dumb, or
deaf, or seeing, or blind? Is it not I the Lord?" (Ex. iv. 11). Such is
the first known reference to the deaf. But the significance of this
statement was not realized by the ancients, who mercilessly destroyed
all the defective, the deaf among the rest. Greek and Roman custom
demanded their death, and they were thrown into the river, or otherwise
killed, without causing any comment but that so many encumbrances had
been removed. They were regarded as being on a mental level with idiots
and utterly incapable of helping themselves. In later times Roman law
forbade those who were deaf and dumb from birth to make a will or
bequest, placing them under the care of guardians who were responsible
for them to the state; though if a deaf person had lost hearing after
having been educated, and could either speak or write, he retained his
rights. Herodotus refers to a deaf son of Croesus, whom he declares to
have suddenly recovered his speech upon seeing his father about to be
killed. Gellius makes a similar statement with reference to a certain
athlete. Hippocrates was in advance of Aristotle when he realized that
deaf-mutes did not speak simply because they did not know how to; for
the last-named seems to have considered that some defect of the
intellect was the cause of their inability to utter articulate sounds.
Pliny the elder and Messalla Corvinus mention deaf-mutes who could
paint.
The true mental condition of the deaf was realized, however, by few, if
any, before the time of Christ. He, as He opened the ears of the deaf
man and loosened his tongue, talked to him in his own language, the
language of signs.
St Augustine erred amazingly when he declared that the deaf could have
no faith, since "faith comes by hearing only." The Talmud, on the other
hand, recognized that they could be taught, and were therefore not
idiotic.
It is, however, with those who attempted to educate the deaf that we are
here chiefly concerned. The first to call for notice is St John of
Beverley. The Venerable Bede tells how this bishop made a mute speak and
was credited with having performed a miracle in so doing. Probably it
was nothing more than the first attempt to teach by the oral method, and
the greatest credit is due to him for being so far in advance of his
times as to try to instruct his pupil at all. Bede himself invented a
system of counting on the hands; and also a "manual speech," as he
called it,--using his numerals to indicate the number of the letter of
the alphabet; thus, the sign for "seven" would also signify the letter
"g," and so forth. But we do not know that he intended this alphabet for
the use of the deaf.
It is not until the 16th century that we hear much of anybody else who
was interested in the deaf, but at this date we find Girolamo Cardan
stating that they can be instructed by writing, after they have been
shown the signification of words, since their mental power is unaffected
by their inability to hear.
Pedro Ponce de Leon (c. 1520-1584), a Spanish Benedictine monk, is more
worthy of notice, as he, to use his own words, taught the deaf "to
speak, read, write, reckon, pray, serve at the altar, know Christian
doctrine, and confess with a loud voice." Some he taught languages and
science. That he was successful was proved by other witness than his
own, for Panduro, Valles and de Morales all give details of his work,
the last-named giving an account by one of Ponce's pupils of his
education. De Morales says further that Ponce de Leon addressed his
scholars either by signs or writing, and that the reply came by speech.
It appears that this master committed his methods to writing. Though
this work is lost it is probable that his system was put into practice
by Juan Pablo Bonet. This Spaniard successfully instructed a brother of
his master the constable of Castile, who had lost hearing at the age of
two. His method corresponded in a great measure to that which is now
called the combined system, for, in the work which he wrote, he shows
how the deaf can be taught to speak by reducing the letters to their
phonetic value, and also urges that finger-spelling and writing should
be used. The connexion between all three, he goes on to say, should be
shown the pupils, but the manual alphabet should be mastered first.
Nouns he taught by pointing to the objects they represented; verbs he
expressed by pantomime; while the value of prepositions, adverbs and
interjections, as well as the tenses of verbs, he believed could be
learnt by repeated use. The pupil should be educated by interrogation,
conversation, and carefully graduated reading. The success of Bonet's
endeavours are borne witness to by Sir Kenelm Digby, who met the teacher
at Madrid.
Bonifacio's work on signs, in which he uses every part of the body for
conversational purposes, may be mentioned before passing to John Bulwer,
the first Englishman to treat of teaching the deaf. In his three works,
_Philocophus_, _Chirologia_ and _Chironomia_, he enlarges upon Sir
Kenelm Digby's account, and argues about the possibility of teaching the
deaf by speech. But he seems to have had no practical experience of the
art.
Dr John Wallis is more important, though it has been disputed whether he
was not indebted to his predecessors for some ideas. He taught by
writing and articulation. He took the trouble to classify to a certain
extent the various sounds, dividing both vowels and "open" consonants
into gutturals, palatals and labials. The "closed" consonants he
subdivided into mutes, semi-mutes and semi-vowels. Language, Wallis
maintained, should be taught when the pupil had first learned to write,
and the written characters should be associated with some sort of manual
alphabet. Names of things should be given first, and then the parts of
those things, e.g. "body" first, and then, under that, "head," "arm,"
"foot," &c. Then the singular and plural should be given, then
possessives and possessive pronouns, followed by particles, other
pronouns and adjectives. These should be followed by the copulative
verb; after which should come the intransitive verb and its nominative
in the different tenses, and the transitive with its object in the same
way. Lastly, prepositions and conjunctions should be taught. All this,
Wallis held, ought to be done by writing as well as signing, for he did
not lose sight of the fact that "we must learn the pupil's language in
order to teach him ours."
Dr William Holder, who read an essay before the Royal Society in
1668-1669 on the "Elements of Speech," added an appendix concerning the
deaf and dumb. He describes the organs of speech and their positions in
articulation, suggesting teaching the pupil the sounds in order of
simplicity, though he held that he must learn to write first. Afterwards
the pupil must associate the letters with a manual alphabet. Holder
notices that dumbness is due to the want of hearing, and therefore
speech can be acquired through watching the lips, though he admits the
task is a laborious one. He also urges the teacher to be patient and to
make the work as interesting to the pupil as possible. Command of
language, he maintains, will enable the deaf person to read a sentence
from the lips if he gets most of the words; for he will be able to
supply those he did not see, from his knowledge of English.
Johan Baptist van Helmont treated of the work of the vocal organs. Amman
says that Van Helmont had discovered a manual alphabet and used it to
instruct the deaf, but had not attained very good results.
George Sibscota published a work in 1670 called the _Deaf and Dumb Man's
Discourse_, in which he contradicts Aristotle's opinion that people are
dumb because of defects in the vocal organs; for they are, he believed,
dumb because never taught to speak. They can gain knowledge by sight, he
maintained; can write, converse by signs, speak and lip-read. Ramirez de
Carrion also taught the deaf to speak and write, as did P. Lana Terzi.
About George Dalgarno more is known. He wrote, in 1680, his
_Didascalocophus_, or _Deaf-Mute's Preceptor_, in which he makes the
mistake of saying that the deaf have the advantage over the blind in
opportunities for learning language. The deaf can, in his opinion, be
taught to speak, and also to read the lips if the letters are very
distinct. They ought to read, write and spell on the fingers constantly,
but use no signs. Substantives are to be taught by associating them with
the things they represent; then adjectives should be joined to them.
Verbs should be taught by suiting the action to the words, and
associating the pronouns with them. Other parts of speech should be
given as opportunities of explaining them present themselves. Dalgarno
invented an alphabet, the letters being on the joints of the fingers and
palm of the left hand.
John Conrad Amman published his _Dissertatio de Loquela_ in 1700. In the
first chapter he treats, among other things, of the nature of the breath
and voice and the organs of speech. In the second chapter he classifies
sounds into vowels, semi-vowels and consonants, and a detailed
description of each sound is given. The third chapter is devoted to
showing how to produce and control the voice, to utter each sound from
writing or from the lips, and to combine them into syllables and words.
It was only after the pupil had attained to considerable success in
articulation and lip-reading that Amman taught the meaning of words and
language; but the name of this teacher will long stand as that of one of
the most successful the world has known.
Passing over Camerarius, Schott, Kerger (who began teaching language
sooner than Amman did, and depended more on writing and signs), Raphel
(who instructed three deaf daughters), Lasius, Arnoldi, Lucas, Vanin, de
Fay (himself deaf) and many others, we come to Giacobbo Rodriguez
Pereira, the pioneer of deaf-mute education in France, if we except de
Fay. Beginning his experience by instructing his deaf sister, he soon
attained to considerable success with two other pupils; his chief aim
being, as he said, to make them comprehend the meaning of, and express
their thoughts in, language. A commission of the French Academy of
Sciences, before whom he appeared, testified to the genuineness of his
achievements, noticing that he wrote and signed to his pupils, and
stating that he hoped to proceed to the instruction of lip-reading.
Pereira soon after came under the notice of the duc de Chaulnes, whose
deaf godson, Saboureaux de Fontenay, became his pupil; and in five years
this boy was well able to speak and read the lips. Pereira had several
other pupils. Probably kindness and affection were two of the secrets of
his success, for the love his scholars showed for him was unbounded. His
method is only partly known, but he used a manual alphabet which
indicated the pronunciation of the letters and some combinations. He
used reading and writing; but signs were only called to his aid when
absolutely necessary. Language he taught by founding it on action where
possible, abstract ideas being gradually developed in later stages of
the education.
We now come to the abbé de l'Epée (q.v.). The all-important features in
this teacher's character and method were his intense devotion to his
scholars and their class, and the fact that he lived among them and
talked to them as one of themselves. Meeting with two girls who were
deaf, he started upon the task of instructing them, and soon had a
school of sixty pupils, supported entirely by himself. He spared himself
no expense and no trouble in doing his utmost to benefit the deaf,
learning Spanish for the sole purpose of reading Bonet's work, and
making this book and Amman's _Dissertatio de Loquela_ his guiding
lights. But de l'Epée was the first to attach great importance to signs;
and he used them, along with writing, until the pupil had some knowledge
of language before he passed on to articulation and lip-reading. To the
latter method, however, he never paid as much attention as he did to
instructing by signs and writing, and finally he abandoned it altogether
through lack of time and means. He laboured long on a dictionary of
signs, but never completed it. He was attacked by Pereira, who condemned
his method as being detrimental, and this was the beginning of the
disputes as to the merits of the different methods which have lasted to
the present day; but whatever opinions we may hold as to the best means
of instructing the deaf we cannot but admire the devoted teacher who
spent his life and his all in benefiting this class of the community.
Samuel Heinicke first began his work in 1754 at Dresden, but in 1778 he
removed to Leipzig and started on the instruction of nine pupils. His
methods he kept secret; but we know that he taught orally, using signs
only when he considered them helpful, and spelling only to combine
ideas. He wrote two books and several articles on the subject of
educating the deaf, but it is from Walther and Fornari that we learn
most about his system. At first Heinicke laid stress on written
language, starting with the concrete and going on to the abstract; and
he only passed to oral instruction when the pupils could express
themselves in fairly correct language. Subsequently, however, he
expressed the opinion that speech should be the sole method of
instruction, and, strange to say, that by speech alone could thoughts be
fully expressed.
Henry Baker became tutor to a deaf girl in 1720, and his success led to
the establishment of a private school in London. He also kept his system
a secret, but recently his work on lessons for the deaf was discovered,
from which we gather that he adopted writing, drawing, speech and
lip-reading as his course of instruction. The point to notice is that
after the primary stages Baker turned events of every-day life to use in
his teaching. His pupils went about with him, and he taught by
conversation upon what they saw in the streets,--an excellent method;
but it is a pity that such a good teacher had not the philanthropy to
make his methods known and to give the poorer deaf the benefit of them,
as de l'Epée did.
A school was established in Edinburgh in 1760 by Thomas Braidwood, who
taught by the oral method. He taught the sounds first, then syllables,
and finally words, teaching their meaning. In 1783 Braidwood came to
Hackney, whence he moved to Old Kent Road, and in 1809 there were
seventy pupils in what was lately the Old Kent Road Institution.
Braidwood's method was practically a development of Wallis's. We must
regard him as the founder of the first public school for the deaf in
England.
It was only at the beginning of the 19th century that a brighter day
dawned on the deaf as a class. With the sole exception of de l'Epée no
teacher had yet undertaken the instruction of a deaf child who could not
pay for it. Now things began to be different. Institutions were founded,
and their doors were opened to nearly all.
Dr Watson, the first principal of the Old Kent Road "Asylum," taught by
articulation and lip-reading, reading and writing, explaining by signs
to some extent, but using pictures much more, according to Addison, and
composing a book of these for the use of his pupils. From Addison (_Deaf
Mutism_, pp. 248 ff.) we learn what developments followed. In Vienna,
Prague and Berlin, schools had been founded in rapid succession before
the 19th century dawned, and in 1810 the Edinburgh institution opened
its doors. Nine years later the Glasgow school was established and,
under the able guidance of Mr Duncan Anderson (after several other
headmasters had been tried) from 1831, taught pupils whose grasp of
English was equal to that of the very best educated deaf in England
to-day, as has been proved by conversation with the survivors. Mr
Anderson's great aim was to teach his pupils language, and we might look
almost in vain for a teacher in England to succeed as well with a whole
class in the beginning of the 20th century as he did in the middle of
the 19th. He wrote a dictionary, used pictures and signs to explain
English, and apparently paid little or no attention to most of the
numerous subjects attempted to-day in schools for the deaf, which, while
excellent in themselves, generally exclude what is far more important
from the curriculum.
Addison further mentions Mr Baker of Doncaster, a contemporary of
Anderson, as having compiled many lesson books for deaf children which
came to be used in ordinary schools also, and Mr Scott of Exeter as
having, together with Baker, "exercised a profound influence on the
course of deaf-mute education in this country." "Written language,"
explained by signs where necessary, was the watchword of these teachers.
Moritz Hill is credited with being principally responsible for having
evolved the German, or "pure," oral method out of the experimental stage
to that at which it has arrived at the present day. Arnold of Riehen is
also honourably mentioned.
The great "oral revival" now swept all before it. The German method was
enthusiastically welcomed in all parts of Europe, and at the Milan
conference in 1880 was almost unanimously adopted by teachers from all
countries. Those in high places countenanced it; educational authorities
awoke to the fact that the deaf needed special teaching, and came to the
conclusion that the "pure" oral method was the panacea that would
restore all the deaf to a complete equality with the hearing in any
conversation upon any subject that might be broached; many governments
suddenly took the deaf under the shelter of their own ample wings, and
the "bottomless pocket of the ratepayer," instead of the purse of the
charitable, became in many cases the fount of supply for what has been a
costly and by no means entirely satisfactory experiment in the history
of their education. The "pure" oral method has had a long and unique
trial in England in circumstances which other methods have never
enjoyed.
Meanwhile in the United States Dr Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet was elected
in 1815 to go to Europe to inquire into the methods of educating the
deaf in vogue there. This was at a meeting held in the house of a
physician named Cogswell, in Hartford, Connecticut, and was the result
of the latter's discovery that eighty-four persons in the state besides
his own little girl were deaf. Henry Winter Syle, himself deaf, tells
how "four months were spent in learning that the doors of the British
schools were 'barred with gold, and opened but to golden keys,'" and
how, disappointed in England, Gallaudet met with a ready response to his
inquiries in Paris. With Laurent Clerc, a deaf teacher, he returned to
the United States in 1816, and the "Connecticut Asylum" was founded a
year after with seven pupils. The name was changed to "The American
Asylum" later, when it was enlarged. This was followed by the
Pennsylvania, New York and Kentucky institutions, with the second of
which the Peet family were connected. Dr Gallaudet married one of his
deaf pupils, Sophia Fowler, and, after a very happy married life, Mrs
Gallaudet accompanied her youngest son, Edward Miner Gallaudet, to the
Columbia institution for the Deaf and Dumb, Washington, D.C., founded in
1857 by Congress and largely supported by Amos Kendall, and to the
National Deaf Mute College, which was founded in 1864, was renamed the
Gallaudet College, in honour of Dr T. H. Gallaudet, in 1893, and with
the Kendall School (secondary), now forms the Columbia Institution. This
college is supported by Congress.
The following account of the work done at the National Deaf-Mute
College at Washington is worth attention, as the results are unique,
and are often strangely ignored.
Here is a statement of the course for the B.A. degree:--
First year: Algebra, grammar, punctuation, history of England,
composition, Latin grammar, Caesar.
Second year: Algebra (from quadratics), geometry, composition, Caesar
(Gallic War), Cicero (Orations), Allen and Greenough's _Latin
Grammar_, Myer's _General History_, Goodwin's _Greek Grammar_
(optional), Xenophon's _Anabasis_ (optional).
Third year: Olney's or Loomis's _Plane and Spherical Trigonometry_,
Loomis's _Analytical Geometry_ (optional), Orton's _Zoology_, Gray's
_Botany_, Remsen's _Chemistry_, laboratory practice, Virgil's
_Aeneid_, Homer's _Iliad_ (optional), Meiklejohn's _History of English
Literature and Language_ (two books), Maertz's _English Literature_,
Hadley's _History_, original composition.
Fourth year: Loomis's _Calculus_ (optional), Dana's _Mechanics_,
Gage's _Natural Philosophy_, Young's _Astronomy_, laboratory practice,
qualitative analysis, Steel's Hygienic _Physiology_, Edgren's _French
Grammar_, Super's _French Reader, Demosthenes on the Crown_
(optional), Hart's _Composition and Rhetoric_, original composition,
Hill's-Jevon's _Elementary Logic_.
Fifth year: Arnold's _Manual of English Literature_, Maertz's _English
Literature_, original composition, Guizot's _History of Civilization_,
Sheldon's _German Grammar_, Joynes's _German Reader_, LeConte's
_Geology_, Guyot's _Earth and Man_, Hill's _Elements of Psychology_,
Haven's _Moral Philosophy_, Butler's _Analogy_, Bascom's _Elements of
Beauty_, Perry's _Political Economy_, Gallaudet's _International Law_.
Even in 1893 we were told that of the graduates of the college
"fifty-seven have been engaged in teaching, four have entered the
ministry; three have become editors and publishers of newspapers;
three others have taken positions connected with journalism; fifteen
have entered the civil service of the government,--one of these, who
had risen rapidly to a high and responsible position, resigned to
enter upon the practice of law in patent cases, in Cincinnati and
Chicago, and has been admitted to practise in the Supreme Court of the
United States; one is the official botanist of a state, who has
correspondents in several countries of Europe who have repeatedly
purchased his collections, and he has written papers upon seed tests
and related subjects which have been published and circulated by the
agricultural department; one, while filling a position as instructor
in a western institution, has rendered important service to the coast
survey as a microscopist, and one is engaged as an engraver in the
chief office of the survey; of three who became draughtsmen in
architects' offices, one is in successful practice as an architect on
his own account, which is also true of another, who completed his
preparation by a course of study in Europe; one has been repeatedly
elected recorder of deeds in a southern city, and two others are
recorders' clerks in the west; one was elected and still sits as a
city councilman; another has been elected city treasurer and is at
present cashier of a national bank; one has become eminent as a
practical chemist and assayer; two are members of the faculty of the
college, and two others are rendering valuable service as instructors
therein; some have gone into mercantile and other offices; some have
undertaken business on their own account; while not a few have chosen
agricultural and mechanical pursuits, in which the advantages of
thorough mental training will give them a superiority over those not
so well educated. Of those alluded to as having engaged in teaching,
one has been the principal of a flourishing institution in
Pennsylvania; one is now in his second year as principal of the Ohio
institution; one has been at the head of a day school in Cincinnati,
and later of the Colorado institution; a third has had charge of the
Oregon institution; a fourth is at the head of a day school in St
Louis; three others have respectively founded and are now at the head
of schools in New Mexico, North Dakota, and Evansville, Indiana, and
others have done pioneer work in establishing schools in Florida and
in Utah."
Later years would unfold a similar tale of subsequent students; in
1907 there were 134 in the college and 59 in the Kendall School.
There is a normal department attached to the college, to which are
admitted six hearing young men and women for one year who are
recommended as being anxious to study methods of teaching the deaf and
likely to profit thereby. Their course of study for 1898-1899 included
careful training in the oral method, instruction in Bell's _Visible
Speech_, instruction in the anatomy of the vocal organs, lectures on
sound, observation of methods, oral and manual, in Kendall School,
lectures on various subjects connected with the deaf and their
education, lectures on pedagogy, lessons in the language of signs,
practical work with classes in Kendall School under the direction of
the teachers, correction of essays of the introductory class, &c. But
the greatest advantage of the year's course is that the half-dozen
hearing students live in the college, have their meals with the
hundred deaf, and mix with them all day long--if they wish it--in
social intercourse and recreation. We are very far indeed from saying
that one such year is sufficient to make a hearing man a qualified
teacher of the deaf, but the arrangement is based on the right
principle, and it sets his feet on the right path to learn how to
teach--so far as this art can be learned. The recent regulation of the
board of education in England, prohibiting hearing pupil teachers in
schools for the deaf, is deplorable, retrograde and inimical to the
best interests of the deaf. It shows a complete ignorance of their
needs. The younger a teacher begins to mix with that class the better
he will teach them.
In 1886 a royal commission investigated the condition and education of
the deaf in Great Britain, and in 1889 issued its report. Some of the
recommendations most worthy of notice were that deaf children from seven
to sixteen years of age should be compelled to attend a day school or
institution, part, or the whole, of the expense being borne by the local
school authority; that technical instruction should be given, and that
all the children should be taught to speak and lip-read on the "pure"
oral method unless physically or mentally disqualified, those who had
partial hearing or remains of speech being entirely educated by that
method. To the last mentioned recommendation--concerning the method to
be adopted--two of the commissioners took exception, and another stated
his recognition of some advantage in the manual method.
As a result of the report of the royal commission a bill was passed in
1893 making it compulsory for all deaf children to be educated. This was
to be done by the local education authority, either by providing day
classes or an institution for them, or by sending them to an already
existing institution, parents having the choice, within reasonable
limits, of the school to which the child should go. School-board classes
came into existence in almost every large town where there was no
institution, and sometimes where one existed. Those who uphold the
day-school system advance the arguments that the pupils are not, under
it, cut off from the influence of home life as they are in institutions;
that such influences are of great advantage; that this system permits
the deaf to mix freely with their hearing brethren, &c. The objections,
however, to this arrangement outweigh its possible advantages. The
latter, indeed, amount to little; for home influences in many cases,
especially in the poorer parts of the large cities, are not the best,
and communication with the hearing children who attend some of the day
schools may not be an unmixed blessing, nor is freedom to run wild on
the streets between school hours. But it may be urged further that it is
difficult, except in very large towns, to obtain a sufficient number of
deaf children attending a day school to classify them according to their
status, while it is more than one teacher can do to give sufficient
attention to several children, each at a different stage of instruction
from any other. Moreover, the deaf need more than mere school work; they
need training in morals and manners, and receive much less of it from
their parents than their hearing brothers and sisters. This can only be
given in an institution wherein they board and lodge as well as attend
classes. The existing institutions were from 1893 placed, by the act of
that date, either partly or wholly under the control of the school
board. They were put under the inspection of the government, and as long
as they fulfilled the requirements of the inspectors as regards
education, manual and physical training, outdoor recreation and suitable
class-room and dormitory accommodation, they might remain in the hands
of a committee who collected, or otherwise provided, one-third of the
total expenditure, and received two-thirds from public sources. Or else,
the institution might be surrendered entirely to the management of the
public school authority, and then the whole of the expenditure was to be
borne by that body. Extra government grants of five guineas per pupil
are now given for class work and manual or technical training. Such is
the state of things at the present day, except, of course, that the
school board has given place to the county council as local authority.
Some teachers have asked for the children to be sent to school at the
age of five instead of seven. This savours of another confession that
the "pure" oral method had not done what was expected of it at first.
First, the demand was for the method itself; then came requests for
more teachers, so that, the classes being smaller, each pupil should
receive more attention; this meant more money, and so this was asked
for; then day schools would remedy the failure by giving the pupils
opportunities of talking with the public in general; then we were told
the teachers were unskilful; finally, more time is needed. And yet the
_language_ of the pupils is no better to-day than it was in 1881, even
though they were at school only four or five years then as opposed to
nine or ten now.
Foreign schools.
To Addison's _Report on a Visit to some Continental Schools for the
Deaf_ (1904-1905) we are indebted for the following information. The
new school at Frankfort-on-Maine, accommodating forty or fifty
children at a cost of £40 to £50 per head, is modelled on the plan of
a family home. The main objects are to obtain good speech and
lip-reading and to use these colloquially; the work is very thorough
and the teaching very skilful. At Munich those of the hundred pupils
who have some hearing are separated from the others and taught by ear
as well as eye. At Vienna (Royal Institution) a small proportion of
the pupils are day scholars, as they are at Munich, and the teaching
is, of course, carried on by the oral method, as it is all over
Germany. Here, however, the teachers "think it impossible to educate
fully all deaf-mutes by the oral method only." In the Jews' Home at
Vienna the semi-deaf are taught by the acoustic method, and are not
allowed to see the teacher's lips at all. At Dresden, a large school
of 240 pupils, the director favours smaller institutions than his own,
considers the oral method possible for all but the "weak-minded deaf,"
and divides his pupils into A, B and C divisions, according to
intellect. In the first division good speech is obtained. Saxony
boasts a home for deaf homeless women, grants premiums for deaf
apprentices, and trains its teachers of the deaf in the institution
itself--a good record and plan. In the royal institution at Berlin
Addison saw good lip-reading and thorough work, though the deaf in the
city--as in most of the schools--signed. The men in Berlin "like the
adult deaf generally, were all in favour of a combination of methods,
and condemned the pure oral theory as impracticable." At Hamburg,
again, "hand signs" were used at least for Sunday service. Schleswig
has two schools. Pupils are admitted first to the residential
institution, where they are instructed for a year, and are then
divided into A, B and C classes, "according to intellect." The lowest
class (C) remain at this institution for the rest of the eight years,
and a "certain amount of signing" is allowed in their instruction. A
and B classes are boarded out in the town and attend classes at a day
school specially built for them, being taught orally exclusively.
In Denmark Addison saw what impressed him most. All the children of
school age go to Fredericia and remain for a year in the boarding
institution. They are then examined and the semi-deaf--29% of the
whole--are sent to Nyborg. The rest--all the totally deaf--remain
another year at Fredericia and are then divided into the A, B and C
divisions before mentioned, and on the same criterion--intellect.
Those in C--the lowest class, 28% of the totally deaf--are sent to
Copenhagen, where they are taught by the manual method, no oral work
being attempted. Those in B class, numbering 19% of the deaf, remain
in the residential institution in Fredericia and are taught orally,
while the best pupils--A class--are boarded out in the town and attend
a special day school. These form 26% of the deaf, and those with whom
they live encourage them to speak when out of as well as when in
school. The buildings and equipment generally are excellent. "Hand
signs" are used at Nyborg, indicating the position of the vocal organs
when speaking, and, as might be expected, the "lip"-reading is 90%
more correct when these symbols--infinitely more visible than most of
the movements of the vocal organs and face when speaking--are used at
the same time. The idea of these hand signs, by the way, corresponds
to that of Graham Bell's _Visible Speech_, in which a written symbol
is used to indicate the position of the vocal organs when uttering
each sound; it is a kind of phonetic writing which is to a slight
extent illustrative at the same time. We find natural signs of the
utmost value when teaching articulation, to describe the position of
the vocal organs. We give these details from Mr Addison's notes
because it is to Germany that so many look for guidance to-day, and it
is the home of the so-called "pure" oral method; while the system of
classification in Denmark into the four schools which are controlled
by one authority, struck him very favourably and so is given rather
fully.
In France most of the schools are supported by charity, and the only
three government institutions are those at Paris for boys, with 263
pupils lately, at Bordeaux for girls, having 225 inmates, and at
Chambéry with 86 boys and 38 girls. In the great majority the method
of instruction is professedly pure oral. "But," said Henri Gaillard
(_Report, World's Congress of the Deaf_, Missouri, 1904), "this is
only in appearance. In reality all of the schools use the combined
method; only they are not willing to admit it, because the oral method
is the official method, imposed by the inspectors of the minister of
the interior."
In Italy, again, we are told that the teachers sign in most of the
schools, which are professedly pure oral.
In Sweden, schools for the deaf have ceased to depend, as they did up
to 1891, upon private benevolence. The system is generally the
combined, and in schools where the oral method is adopted the pupils
are divided into A, B and C divisions, as in Denmark and Dresden, in
the two latter divisions of which signs are allowed. In Norway the
method is the oral.
_Methods of Teaching._--There have always been two principal methods of
teaching the deaf, and all education at the present time is carried on
by means of one or other or both of these. Where there is sufficient
hearing to be utilized, instruction is sometimes given thereby as well,
though this auricular method does not seem to make much headway, and
experience is not in favour of believing that the sense of hearing,
where a little exists, can be "cultivated" to any marked degree. It is
really impossible to draw hard and fast lines between these means of
instruction. One merges into another, and this other into the next; and
no two teachers will, or can, adopt exactly the same lines. It is not
desirable that they should, for much must be left to individuality.
Orders, rules, methods, should not be absolute laws. Observe them
generally, but dispense with them as circumstances, the pupil and
opportunity may require. Strong individuality, sympathy, enthusiasm,
long intercourse with the deaf, are needed in the teacher, and it is
surely obvious that every teacher should have a full command of all the
primary means of instruction to begin with, and not of one only.
[Illustration: FIG. 2.--The Manual Alphabet. (One-handed.)
The Manual Alphabet. (Two-handed.)]
Where deafness is absolute, or practically so, we have to seek for means
that will appeal to the eye instead of the ear. Of these, we have the
sign language, writing and printing, pictures, manual alphabets and
lip-reading. We have to choose which of these is to be used, if not all,
and which must be rejected, if any. Moreover, we have to decide how much
or how little one or another is to be adopted if we employ more than
one. Hence it is obvious that there may be many different systems and
subdivisions of systems. But the two main methods are the _manual_,
which generally depends upon all the above-mentioned means of appealing
to the eye except lip-reading, and the _oral_, which adopts what the
manual method rejects, uses writing and printing and perhaps pictures,
but excludes finger-spelling and (theoretically) signs. To these two we
must add a third means of instruction--the _combined system_--which
rejects no means of teaching, but uses all in most cases. The dual
method need hardly be called a separate method or system, for it implies
simply the use of the manual method for some pupils and of the oral for
others. Nor need we call the mother's (= intuitive or natural) a
separate method in the sense in which we are using the word here, for it
is rather a mode of procedure which can be applied manually or orally
indifferently. The same may be said of the grammatical "method"; also of
the "word method," which is really the "mother's." The "eclectic method"
is practically the combined system, or something between that and the
dual method, and hardly needs separate classification.
Let us notice the manual method, the oral method, and the combined
system, considering with the last the "dual method."
Manual.
The chief elements of the manual method are finger-spelling, reading and
writing and signing. These are used, that is to say, as means of
teaching English and imparting ideas. Signs are used to awaken the
child's thoughts, finger-spelling and writing are used to express these
thoughts in the vernacular. The latter are used to express English, the
former to explain English.
We give two manual alphabets, the one-handed being used in America, on
the continent of Europe with some variations and additions, in Ireland,
and also to some extent in England; the two-handed in Great Britain,
Ireland and Australia. A speed of 130 words a minute can be attained
when spelling on the fingers. Words are quite readable at this speed.
Although reading and writing are common to both methods, the manual and
oral, as a matter of fact they seem to be used considerably more in the
former than in the latter.
Oral.
In the oral method articulation and lip-reading are chiefly relied upon;
reading and writing are also adopted. The phonetic values of the letters
are taught, not the names of the letters; for instance, the _sound_ of
the letter a in "hat" is taught instead of the _name_ of the letter
(long A), though of course the latter is taught where such is the proper
pronunciation, as in "hate."
Here is a chart which was lately in use:
_Articulation Sheets._
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| ANALYSIS OF THE VOWEL SOUNDS. |
+-------------------+-------------------+-------------------+-------------------+
| Long. | Middle. | Short. | Broad. |
+-------------------+-------------------+-------------------+-------------------+
|Diacritic Phonetic |Diacritic Phonetic |Diacritic Phonetic |Diacritic Phonetic |
| mark. spelling.| mark. spelling.| mark. spelling.| mark. spelling.|
+-------------------+-------------------+-------------------+-------------------+
| fat(e) = feit | fär = far | f)at = fat | fãll = /fawl |
| | | | \fol |
| me = /mee | | | |
| \mi | | m)et = met | |
| pin(e) = pain | | p)in = pin | |
| no = nou | möve = muv | n)ot = not | |
| tub(e) = tiub | büll = bul | t)ub = tub | |
+-------------------+-------------------+-------------------+-------------------+
Order in which the Vowel Sounds are to be taught.
/Diacritic / ã
| Mark < wall
| | ||
2 < \ aw, o
|Phonetic \ wol
\ Spelling /
/Diacritic / ä )o ü )e e o i a u öë
| Mark | path hot blu(e) set see ton(e) pi(e) lat(e) mul(e) boy
| < || || || || || || || || || ||
1 < | a o u e i ou ai ei iu oi
| \ ee
|Phonetic \ path hot blu set si toun pai leit miul boi
\ Spelling /
/Diacritic / )a )u i
| Mark < hat hut hit
3 < | || || ||
| \ a u i
|Phonetic \ hat hut hit
\ Spelling /
The consonants are as follows, though the order of teaching them
varies:--
p; f; s; h; sh; v = _f_; th (thin; moth); _th_ (then; smooth); l; r; t;
k; b; d; g (go; egg); z = _s_; m; n; ch = tsh; j = dzh = g; ph = f; kc =
k; cs = s; q = kw; x = ks; ng; w = oo; wh = hw; y = e.
The following mode of writing the sounds is now preferred by some as it
renders the diacritic marks unnecessary:--
_Middle, Broad and Long Vowel Sounds._
ar or oo ee er oa igh ai ew oi ou
aw ea ir o-e i-e a-e u-e oy ow
au ur ay
a--
_Short Vowel Sounds._
a o oo e i u
_Consonants._
h p /ph\ t s th sh ch /k \ l r m n ng w
\f / \ck/
b v d z _th_ zh / j \ g
\dzh/
These charts are given as examples of those used, but they vary in
different schools, as does the order of teaching the vowel and consonant
sounds and the combinations. The exact order is not important. Words are
made up by combining vowels and consonants as soon as the pupil can say
each sound separately.
Here are extracts from the directions on articulation written by a
principal to the teacher of the lowest class, which show the method of
procedure:--
"(1) Produce the sound of a letter. Each pupil to reproduce, and write
it on the tablet.
(2) Point to the letter on the tablet, and make each pupil say it.
(3) The same with combinations of vowels and consonants.
(4) Instead of tablet, each pupil to use rough exercise-book.
(5) Write on tablet and make each pupil articulate from teacher's
writing.
(6) When a combination is made of which a word may be made make all
write it in their books, thus:--'te--tea,' 'sho--show,' 'ov--of,'
'nalz--nails,' &c.
(7) When one pupil produces a combination correctly make the others
lip-read it from him. In this way make them exercise each other.
(8) When they have a good many sounds and combinations written in
their books make them sit down and say them off their books as hearing
children do.
(9) Make them say the sounds off the cards, and form combinations on
the cards for them to say.
(10) Take each vowel separately and make each pupil use it before and
after each consonant.
(11) Take each consonant and put it before and after each vowel.
"The above will suggest other exercises to the teacher.
"Give breathing exercises. Incite emulation as to deep breathing and
slow expiration. Never force the voice. Make the pupil speak out, but
do not let him strain either the voice or vocal organs. Do not force
the tongue, lips, or any organ into position more than you can help.
Do all as gently as possible. Register their progress. 'Ä' (as in
'path'; 'father'). As 'Ä' is the basis of all the vowels, being most
like all, it is taken first. It is an open vowel. Do not make
grimaces, or exaggerate. If false sound be produced do not let the
pupil speak loudly; make him speak quietly. If nasal sound be produced
do not pinch the nose, but first take the back of the child's hand,
warmly breathe on it, or get a piece of glass, and let the child
breathe on it, or press the back of the tongue down. Show the child
that when you are saying 'a' your tongue lies flat or nearly so, and
you do not raise the back of the tongue. Prefix 'h' to 'a' and make
the pupil say 'ha' first, then 'a' alone.
"'P.' If the child does not imitate at the first the teacher should
take the back of the hand and let the child feel the puff of air as
'p' is formed on the lips.
"'P' is produced by the volume of air brought into the cavity of the
mouth being, checked by the perfect closure of the lips, which are
then opened, and the accumulated air is propelled. The outburst of
this propelled air creates the sound of 'p.' Take the pupil to see
porridge boiling. Pretend to smoke. 'P' is taken first because it has
no vibration and is the most simple. The consonants should first be
joined to each vowel separately, and to prevent the pupils making an
after-sound the letters should be said with a pause between, _viz._ 'A
. . p,' and as they become more familiar with them, lessen the pause
until it is pronounced properly:--'ap.'"
These directions, which are only brief examples of those given for one
particular subject in one particular class, will give an idea of the
mode of beginning to teach articulation and lip-reading.
Combined method.
The combined system, as before mentioned, makes use of both the manual
and oral method, as well as the auricular, without any hard and fast
rule as regards the amount of instruction to be given by means of each,
but using more of one and less of another, or _vice versa_, according to
the aptitude of the child. It thus follows the sensible, obvious plan
of fitting the method to the child and not the unnatural one of forcing
the child to try to fit the method.
The following is the way the same principal would teach language to
beginners by the combined system:--
"The letters p, q, b and d of the Roman text are to be taught first.
The pupils are to do them 9 in. long on the blackboard or tablet
first; then trace them on the frames; then on slips of paper with pen
and ink, or in rough exercise-book with pen and ink.
"The whole of the Roman text is then to be taught in the same manner,
also the small and capital script.
"When the English alphabet has been mastered in the above four forms
the pupil may proceed to the printing and writing of his own name.
Then his teacher's and class-mates' names. Then the names of other
persons and the places, things and actions with which he has to do in
his daily life. Every direction the teacher has to give in school and
out of school should be expressed in speech, writing or
finger-spelling, or by any two or all three means. Repetition of such
directions by the pupil enables him to learn words before he has
finished the alphabet.
"All words to be spelled on one hand first; then two. When a few words
have been memorized, they should be written on slips of paper, then in
the exercise-books and dated. After this there should be further
repetition and exercising. The same course should be taken with
phrases and short sentences. Names of persons should be written on
cards and slips of paper and pinned to the chest. Names of things to
be affixed to them, or written on them. Names of apartments on cards
laid in the rooms. Where the object is not available use a picture, or
draw the outline and make pupil do the same. Never nod, or point, or
jerk the finger, or use any other gesture, without previously giving
the word, and when the latter is understood drop the gesture
altogether.
"Never allow a single mistake to pass uncorrected, and make pupils
always learn the corrections.
"Language should be a translation of life. It should proceed all day
long, out of school as well as in it. If spoken so much the better,
but finger-spelling is not a hindrance but a valuable help to its
acquisition.
"In most language lessons, especially those exemplifying a particular
form of sentence, the pupils should:
"(1) Correct each other's mistakes. Correct 'mistakes' designedly made
by the teacher.
"(2) Teacher rubs out a word here and there on the blackboard or
tablet; pupils to supply them.
"(3) Pupils to answer questions, giving the subject, predicate and
object of the sentence as required, e.g. 'A farmer ploughs the
ground.' 'Who ploughs the ground?' 'What does a farmer do?' 'What does
he plough?' Also additional and illustrative questions; e.g. 'Does the
ground plough the farmer?' 'Does a farmer plough the sea?' 'Does he
eat the ground?' &c.
"The pupils should learn meanings or synonyms of unfamiliar words
before such words are signed.
"(4) Teacher gives a word, and requires pupils to exemplify it in a
sentence, e.g. 'sows,' 'He sows the seed.'
"(5) Let them give as many sentences as they can think of in the same
form.
"Occurrences, incidents, objects, pictures, reading-books, newspaper
cuttings and correspondence should all be used."
The best system.
The "pure" oral method, as before noticed, came with a bound into
popularity in the early seventies. Since then it has had everything in
its favour, but the results have been by no means entirely satisfactory,
and there is a marked tendency among advocates of this method to
withdraw from the extreme position formerly held. Opinion has gradually
veered round till they have come to seek for some sort of _via media_
that shall embrace the good points of both methods. Some now suggest the
"dual method"--that those pupils who show no aptitude for oral training
shall be taught exclusively by the manual method and the rest by the
oral only. While this is a concession which is positively amazing when
compared with the title of the booklet containing utterances of the Abbé
Tarra, president of the Milan conference in 1880--"The _Pure_ Oral
Method the _Best_ for _All_ Deaf Children"!--yet we believe that in no
case should the instruction be given by the oral method alone, and that
the best system is the "combined." That the combined system is
detrimental to lip-reading has not much more than a fraction of truth in
it, for if the command of language is better the pupils can supply the
lacunae in their lip-reading from their better knowledge of English. It
is found that they have constantly to guess words and letters from the
context. Teach all by and through finger-spelling, reading, writing and
signing where necessary to explain the English, and teach those in whose
case it is worth it by articulation and lip-reading as well. Signs
should be used less and less in class work, and English more and more
exclusively as the pupil progresses--English in any and every form. A
proportion of teachers should be themselves deaf, as in America. They
are in perfect understanding and sympathy with their pupils, which is
not always the case with hearing teachers. Statistics which we collected
in London showed the following results of the education of 403 deaf
pupils after they had left school:--
Manual. Combined. Oral.
Quite satisfactory result 65% 51% 20%
Moderate success 29% 41% 35%
Unsatisfactory result 5% 7% 44%
That the combined system should show to slightly less advantage than the
exclusively manual method is what we might perhaps expect, for the time
given to oral instruction means time taken from teaching language
speedily, the manual method being, we believe, the best of all for this.
But it may be worth while to lose a little in command of language for
the sake of gaining another means of expressing that language. Hence we
advocate the combined system, regarding speech as merely a means of
expressing English, as writing and finger-spelling are, and a good
sentence written or finger-spelled as being preferable to a poorer one
which is spoken, no matter how distinct the speech may be. It is no
answer to point to a few isolated cases where the oral method is
considered to have succeeded, for one success does not counterbalance a
failure if by another method you would have had two successes; and,
moreover, these oral successes would have been still greater
successes--we are taking language in any form as our criterion--had the
teacher fully known and judiciously used the manual method as well as
the oral.
The _exclusive_ use of the oral method leads, generally speaking, to
comparative failure, for the following, among other, reasons:--(1) It
is a slow way of teaching English, the learning to speak the elements
of sound taking months at least, and seldom being fully mastered for
years. The "word method," by the way, starts at once with words
without taking their component phonetic elements separately; but it
has yet to be proved that any quicker progress is made by this means
of teaching speech than by the other. (2) Lip-reading is, to the deaf,
sign-reading with the disadvantage of being both microscopic and
partially hidden. The deaf hear nothing, they only partly _see_ tiny
movements of the vocal organs. Finger-spelling, writing, signing, are
incomparably more visible, while 130 words a minute can be attained by
finger-spelling, and read at that speed. (3) The signs--as they are to
the deaf--made by the vocal organs are entirely arbitrary, and have
not even a fraction of the redeeming feature of naturalness which
oralists demand in ordinary gestures. (4) Circumstances, such as
light, position of the speaker, &c., must be favourable for the
lip-reading to approach certainty. (5) Styles of speech vary, and it
is a constant experience that even pupils who comparatively easily
read their teacher's lips, to whose style of utterance they are
accustomed, fail to read other people's lips. (6) There is a great
similarity between certain sounds as seen on the lips, e.g. between
_t_ and _d_, _f_ and _v_, _p_ and _b_, _s_ and _z_, _k_ and _g_. Which
is meant has usually to be guessed from the context, and this requires
a certain amount of knowledge of language, which is the very thing
that is needed to be imparted. (7) The deliberate avoidance by the
teacher of the pupil's own language--signs--as an aid to teaching him
English. If a hearing boy does not understand the meaning of a French
word he looks it up in the dictionary and finds its English
equivalent. If the deaf boy does not understand a word in English, the
simplest, quickest, best way to explain it is, in most cases, to sign
it. (8) The distaste of the pupil for the method. This is common. (9)
The mechanical nature of the method. There is nothing to rouse his
interest nor to appeal to his imagination in it. (10) The temptation
to the teacher to use very simple phrases, owing to the difficulty the
pupil has in reading others from his lips. Consequently the pupil
comparatively seldom learns advanced language.
Other means of educating the deaf in addition to the oral should have
a fair trial in modern conditions for the same length of time that the
oral method has been in operation. To consider pupils taught manually
in oral schools fair criteria of what can be done by the manual method
or combined system, when those pupils have confessedly been relegated
to the manual class because of "dulness" (as in the case of the C
divisions in Denmark and Dresden), is obviously unfair. This division,
moreover, assumes that the "pure" oral method is the best for the
brightest pupils. The comparing of oral pupils privately taught by a
tutor to themselves with manual pupils from an institution crippled
and hampered by need of funds, where they had to take their chance in
a class of twelve, and the comparison of oral pupils of twelve years'
standing with combined system pupils of four years', are also
obviously unfair. Reference may be made on this subject to Heidsiek's
remarkable articles on the question of education, which appeared in
the _American Annals of the Deaf_ from April 1899 to January 1900.
The opinions of the deaf themselves as to the relative merits of the
methods of teaching also demand particular attention. The ignoring of
their expressed sentiments by those in authority is remarkable. In the
case of school children it might fairly be argued that they are too
young to know what is good for them, but with the adult deaf who have
had to learn the value of their education by bitter experience in the
battle of life it is otherwise. In Germany, the home of the "pure"
oral method, 800 deaf petitioned the emperor against that method. In
1903 no fewer than 2671 of the adult deaf of Great Britain and Ireland
who had passed through the schools signed a petition in favour of the
combined system. The figures are remarkable, for children under
sixteen were excluded, those who had not been educated in schools for
the deaf were excluded, and the education of the deaf has only lately
been made compulsory, while many thousands who live scattered about
the country in isolation probably never even heard of the petition,
and so could not sign it. In America an overwhelming majority favour
the combined system, and it is in America that by far the best results
of education are to be seen. At the World's Congress of the Deaf at St
Louis in 1904 the combined system was upheld, as it was at Liége. From
France, Germany, Norway and Sweden, Finland, Italy, Russia, everywhere
in fact where they are educated, the deaf crowd upon us with
expressions of their emphatic conviction, repeated again and again,
that the combined system is what meets their needs best and brings
most happiness into their lives. The majority of deaf in every known
country which is in favour of this means of education is so great that
we venture to say that in no other section of the community could
there be shown such an overwhelming preponderance of opinion on one
side of any question which affects its well-being. In the case of the
rare exceptions, the pupil has almost always been brought up in the
strictest ignorance of the manual method, which he has been sedulously
taught to regard as clumsy and objectionable.
_The Blind Deaf._
In the summary tables (p. 283) of the 1901 British census the following
numbers are given of those suffering from other afflictions besides
deafness:--
1. Blind and deaf and dumb 58
2. Blind and deaf 389
3. Blind, deaf and dumb and lunatic 5
4. Blind, deaf and lunatic 5
5. Deaf and dumb and lunatic 136
6. Deaf and lunatic 51
7. Blind, deaf and dumb and feeble-minded 5
8. Blind, deaf and feeble-minded 8
9. Deaf and dumb and feeble-minded 221
10. Deaf and feeble-minded 100
In addition to these, 2 are said to be blind, dumb and lunatic; 20 dumb
and lunatic; 3 blind, dumb and feeble-minded, and 222 dumb and
feeble-minded. These are certainly outside our province, which is the
deaf. The "dumbness" in these four classes is aphasia, due to some brain
defect.
Of those in the list, classes 7, 8, 9 and 10 are (we are strongly of
opinion) incorrectly described, being, as we think, composed of those
who are simply feeble-minded as well as, in classes 7 and 8, blind.
Their so-called "deafness" is merely inability of the brain to notice
what the ear does actually hear and to govern the vocal organs to
produce articulate sound. Many of classes 9 and 10, however, may not be
"feeble-minded" at all, but only rather dull pupils whom their teachers
have failed to educate.
It is safe to say that in some instances in classes 3, 4, 5 and 6 the
persons were only assumed to be deaf. Again, cases of deaf people who to
all appearance could not fairly be called insane but who may have had
violent temper or some slight eccentricity being relegated to an asylum
have come to our notice. A good teacher might accomplish much with some
of these described as lunatic in classes 5 and 6. Finally, classes 3 and
4 may have become lunatic owing to the loneliness and brooding
inseparable to a great extent from such terrible afflictions as
blindness and deafness combined. Probably the isolation became
intolerable, and if only they had had some one who understood them to
educate them their reason might have been saved.
We are most concerned with the first two classes, and in considering
them have to take individual cases separately, as there is no regular
institution for them in Great Britain.
Mr W. H. Illingworth, head master of the Blind School at Old Trafford,
Manchester, tells how David Maclean, a blind and deaf boy, was taught,
in the 1903 report of the conference of teachers of the deaf. The boy
lost both sight and hearing, but not before six years of age, which was
an advantage, and could still speak or whisper to some extent when
admitted to school. His teacher began with kindergarten and attempts at
proper voice-production. He gave the sound of "ah" and made David feel
his larynx. Then he tickled the boy under his arms, and when he laughed
made him feel his own larynx, so that the boy should notice the
similarity of the vibration. Then, acting on the theory that brain-waves
are to some extent transmittable, Mr Illingworth procured a hearing boy
as companion, and, ordering him to keep his mind fixed on the work and
to place one hand on David's shoulder, made him repeat what was
articulated. The blind-deaf boy's right hand was placed on Mr
Illingworth's larynx and the left on the companion's lips. Thus the
pupil felt the sound and the companion's imitation of it, and soon
reproduced it himself. From this syllables and words were formed by
degrees. The pupil knew the forms of some letters of the alphabet in the
Roman type before he lost sight and hearing, and the connexion between
them and the Braille characters and manual alphabet was the next step
achieved. This, and all the steps, were aided to a great extent by the
hearing and seeing boy companion's sympathetic influence and
concentration of mind, in Mr Illingworth's opinion. After this stage his
progress was comparatively quick and easy; he read from easy books in
Braille, and people spelled to him in the ordinary way by forming the
letters with their right hand on his left.
From Mr B. H. Payne of Swansea comes the following account of how four
blind-deaf pupils were taught:--
"We have received four pupils who were deaf-mute and blind, one of
them being also without the sense of smell. One was born deaf, the
others having lost hearing in childhood. There was no essential
difference between the methods employed in their education and those
of 'sighted' deaf children. Free-arm writing of ordinary script was
taught on the blackboard, the teacher guiding the pupil's hand, or
another pupil guiding it over the teacher's pencilling. The script
alphabet was cut on a slate, and the pupil's pencil made to run in the
grooves. The one-hand alphabet, used with the left hand, was employed
to distinguish the letters so written. The script alphabet was also
formed in wire for him. The object was to enable the pupil when he had
gained language to write to friends and others who were unacquainted
with Braille, but the latter notation was taught to enable the pupil
to profit by the literature provided for the blind. Both one- and
two-hand alphabets were taught, the teacher forming the letters with
one of his own hands upon the pupil's hand. The name of the object
presented to the pupil was spelled and written repeatedly until he had
memorized it. Qualities were taught by comparison, and actions by
performance. The words 'Come with me' were spelled before he was
guided to any place, and other sentences were spelled as they would be
spoken to a 'hearing' child in appropriate associations. The blind
pupil followed with his hands the signs made by junior pupils who were
unacquainted with language, and in this way readily learned to sign
himself, the art being of advantage in stimulating and in forming the
mind, and explaining language to him. One of the pupils was confirmed,
and in preparation for the rite over 800 questions were put to him by
finger-spelling. His education was continued in Braille. The deaf-born
boy developed a fair voice, and could imitate sounds by placing his
hand on a speaker's mouth. Two of them had a keen sense of humour, and
would slyly move the finger to the muscles of their companion's face
to feel the smile with which a bit of pleasantry was responded to. In
connexion with the pupil who was confirmed, the vicar who examined him
declared that none of his questions had been answered better even by
candidates possessed of all their faculties than they were by this
blind-deaf boy."
Mr W. M. Stone, principal of the Royal Blind School at West Craigmillar,
Edinburgh, gives this very interesting information:
"We have five blind-deaf children at this institution, and all are
wonderfully clever and intelligent. In all cases the children
possessed hearing for a time and had some knowledge--very slight in
some cases--of language. The method of teaching is, first to teach
them the names of common objects on their fingers. A well-known object
is put in the child's hand and then the word is spelled on the
hand,--the child's hand of course. The child learns to associate these
signs--he does not know they are letters--with the object, and so he
learns a name. Other names are then given and similar names are
associated together, and by noticing the difference in the names the
child gradually grasps the idea of an alphabet. For instance, if he
learns the words cat, bat and mat, he will quickly distinguish that
the words are alike except in their initial letters. When in this way
language has been acquired he is taught the Braille system of reading
for the blind and his progress is now very rapid. This method may
appear very complicated and difficult, but in reality it is not so.
There are no institutions in Great Britain specially for the
blind-deaf, nor are there any in America. I do not know of any on the
continent. Our own blind children here are receiving the same
education as our other children, and in some ways are more advanced
than seeing and hearing children of their own ages. They not only
read, write and do arithmetic, but they do typewriting and much manual
work."
Mr Addison mentions two deaf and blind pupils who were taught by the
late Mr Paterson of Manchester, and a third in the same school later on.
Another was taught in the asylum for the blind in Glasgow, though she
only lost hearing and became deaf at ten.
Mr William Wade has written a monograph on the blind-deaf of America, in
the preface to which he points out, rightly, that the education of the
blind-deaf is not such a stupendous task as people imagine it to be.
"It may not be amiss," he says, "to state the methods of teaching the
first steps to a deaf-blind pupil, that the public may see how
exceedingly simple the fundamental principles are, and it should be
remembered that those principles are exactly the same in the cases of
the deaf and of the deaf-blind, the only difference being in the
application--the deaf _see_, the deaf-blind _feel_. Some familiar,
tangible object--a doll, a cup, or what not--is given to the pupil,
and at the same time the name of the object is spelled into its hand
by the manual alphabet." (The one-hand alphabet is in vogue in
America.) "By patient persistence, the pupil comes to recognize the
manual spelling as a _name_ for a familiar object, when the next step
is taken--associating familiar acts with the corresponding manual
spelling. A continuation of this simple process gradually leads the
pupils to the comprehension of language as a means for communication
of thoughts." Mr Wade is right. Given a sympathetic, resourceful
teacher with strong individuality, common-sense, patience, and the
necessary amount of time, anything and everything in the way of
teaching them is not only possible but certain to be achieved.
Language,--give the deaf and the blind-deaf a working command of that
and everything else is easy.
In the New York Institution for the Deaf ten blind-deaf pupils were
educated, up to the year 1901. Nearly all of these lost one or both
senses after they had been able to acquire some knowledge with their
aid. In the Perkins Institution for the Blind, Boston, five were taught.
It was here that Laura Bridgman was educated by Dr Samuel G. Howe
(q.v.); all honour is due to him for being the pioneer in attempting to
teach this class of the community, for she was the first blind-deaf
person to be taught. Many other schools for the deaf or blind have
admitted one or two pupils suffering from both afflictions. In all,
seventy cases are mentioned by Mr Wade of those who are quite blind and
deaf, and others of people who are partially so. The most interesting,
of course, of all these is Helen Keller, if we except Laura Bridgman, in
whose case the initial attempt to teach the blind-deaf was made. Helen
Keller was taught primarily by finger-spelling into her hand, and
signing (which she, of course, felt with her hands) where necessary. Her
first teacher was Miss Sullivan. The pupil "acquired language by
practice and habit rather than by study of rules and definitions."
Finger-spelling and books were the two great means of educating her at
all times. After her grasp of language had been brought to a high
standard, Miss Fuller gave her her first lessons in speech, and Miss
Sullivan continued them, the method being that of making the pupil feel
the vocal organs of the teacher. She learnt to speak well, and to tell
(with some assistance from finger-spelling) what some people say by
feeling their mouth. Her literary style became excellent; her studies
included French, German, Latin, Greek, arithmetic, algebra, geometry,
history, ancient and modern, and poetry and literature of every
description. Of course she had many tutors, but Miss Sullivan was "eyes
and ears" at all times, by acting as interpreter, and this patient
teacher had the satisfaction of seeing her pupil pass the entrance
examination of Harvard University. To all time the success attained in
educating Helen Keller will be a monument of what can be accomplished in
the most favourable conditions. (A. H. P.)
FOOTNOTES:
[1] The two words are common to Teutonic languages, cf. Ger. _taub_
and _dumm_ (only in the sense of "stupid"), Dutch _doof_ and _dom_;
the original meaning seems to have been dull of perception, stupid,
obtuse, and the words may be ultimately related. The Gr. [Greek:
typhlos] blind, and [Greek: typhos], smoke, mist, probably show the
same base.
[2] For our résumé of the history we are indebted solely to Arnold
(_Education of Deaf Mutes, Teachers' Manual_) as far as the date of
the founding of the Old Kent Road Institution.
DEÁK, FRANCIS (FERENCZ), (1803-1876), Hungarian statesman, was born at
Söjtör in the county of Zala, on the 17th of October 1803. He came of an
ancient and distinguished noble family, and was educated for the law at
Nagy-Kanizsá, Pápá, Raab and Pest, and practised first as an advocate
and ultimately as a notary. His first case was the defence of a
notorious robber and murderer. His reputation in his own county was
quickly established, and when in 1833 his elder brother Antal, also a
man of extraordinary force of character, was obliged by ill-health to
relinquish his seat in the Hungarian parliament, the electors chose
Ferencz in his stead. He took an active part in the proceedings of the
diet at Pressburg and made the acquaintance of Ödon Beöthy and the other
Liberal leaders. No man owed less to external advantages. He was to all
appearance a simple country squire. His true greatness was never
exhibited in debate. It was in friendly talk, generally with a pipe in
his mouth and an anecdote on the tip of his tongue, that he exercised
his extraordinary influence over his fellows. Convinced from the first
of his disinterestedness and sincerity, and impressed by his penetrating
shrewdness and his instinctive faculty of always seizing the main point
and sticking to it, his hearers soon felt an absolute confidence in the
deputy from Zala county. Perhaps there is not another instance in
history in which a man who was neither a soldier, nor a diplomatist, nor
a writer, who appealed to no passion but patriotism, and who avoided
power with almost oriental indolence instead of seeking it, became, in
the course of a long life, the leader of a great party by sheer force of
intellect and moral superiority.
During the diet of 1839-1840 Deák succeeded in bringing about an
understanding between a reactionary government, sadly in want of money,
and a Liberal opposition determined that the nation should have its
political privileges respected. "Let us put all jealousy on one side and
allow him the pre-eminence," wrote Széchenyi of Deák (April 30th, 1840).
Deák would not go to the diet of 1843-1844, though he had received a
mandate, because his election was the occasion of bloodshed in the
struggle between the Clericals who would have ousted him and the
Liberals who brought him in. In 1848, however, he accepted the post of
minister of justice offered to him by Louis Batthyány. He never ceased
to urge moderation in those stormy days, holding rather with Eötvös and
Batthyány than with Kossuth, and he went more than once to Vienna to
endeavour to effect a compromise between the Radicals and the court. But
when the ill-will of the Vienna government became patent, and the
sentiments of the king doubtful, he resigned together with Batthyány,
but without ceasing to be a member of the diet. He it was who drew up
the resolution of the Lower House in reply to the rescript of the
Austrian ministry demanding the repeal of the Hungarian constitution. It
was he who urged the Hungarian cabinet not to depart a hair's-breadth
from their legitimate position. He was one of the parliamentary
deputation which waited in vain upon Prince Windischgrätz in his camp.
(See HUNGARY: _History_.) He then retired to his estate at Kehida. After
the war of independence he was tried by court-martial, but acquitted.
During the years of repression he lived in complete retirement. He
rejected Schmerling's proposal that he should take part in the project
of judicial reform, but on the other hand he held completely aloof from
the widespread, secret revolutionary movements. After 1854 he spent the
greater part of his time at Pest, and his little room at the "Queen of
England" inn became the meeting-place for those patriots who in those
dark days looked to the wisdom of Deák for guidance. He used every
opportunity of stimulating the moral strength of the nation and keeping
its hopes alive. He invited the nation to contribute to the support of
the orphans of Vörösmarty when that great poet died. He drew up the
petition of the academy to the government, in which he defended the
maintenance of this asylum of the national language against Austrian
intervention. He trusted that, as had so often happened in the course of
Hungarian history, the weakness and blindness of the court would help
Hungary back to her constitutional rights. Armed resistance he
considered dangerous, but he was an immutable defender of the continuity
of the Hungarian constitution on the basis of the reforms of 1848. His
principles alienated him from the Kossuth faction, which looked for
salvation to a second war with Austria, engineered from abroad; but he
was equally opposed to the attitude of resignation taken up by the
followers of Széchenyi, who, according to Deák, always regarded the
world from a purely provincial point of view.
The war of 1859 convinced the Austrian government, at last, of the
necessity of a reconciliation with Hungary; but the ensuing negotiations
were conducted not through Deák, but through the Magyar Conservatives.
In 1860 Deák rejected the October diploma (see HUNGARY: _History_),
which was simply a cast-back to the Maria Theresa system of 1747; but,
at the request of the government, he went to Vienna to set forth the
national demands. On this occasion he insisted on the re-establishment
of the constitution in its integrity as a _sine qua non_. Meanwhile, it
became more and more evident that the Conservative party had no standing
in the country. The majority of the deputies returned to the diet of
1861 were in favour of asserting their rights by a resolution of the
House, instead of petitioning for them by an address to the crown; hence
arose the two parties of the Addressers and the Resolutioners. The
_Patent_ of the 20th of February 1861 increased the uneasiness and
suspicion of the nation; but Deák, now one of the deputies for Pest, was
in favour of an address rather than of a resolution, and his great
speech on the subject (May 13th, 1861) converted the majority hostile to
an address into a majority for it. The object of the Addressers was to
make the responsibility for a rupture rest on the Austrian government.
Nevertheless, the court found the address so voted inadmissible;
whereupon, on Deák's motion, the Hungarian diet drew up a second address
vigorously defending the rights of the nation, and solemnly protesting
against the usurpations of the Austrian government. The speech which
Deák made on this occasion was his finest effort. Henceforth all Europe
identified his name with the cause of Hungary. The Magyar Conservatives
hereupon entered into negotiations with Deák, and the Austrian
government, more than ever convinced of the necessity of a
reconciliation, was ready to take the first step, if Hungary would take
the second and third. Deák now proposed that the sovereign himself
should break away from counsellors who had sought to oppress Hungary,
and should restore the constitution as a personal act. The worthy
response to this loyal invitation was the dismissal of the Schmerling
administration, the suspension of the February constitution and the
summoning of the coronation diet. Of that diet Deák was the
indispensable leader. Under his direction the Addressers and the
Resolutioners coalesced, and he was entrusted with the difficult and
delicate negotiations with the crown, which aimed at effecting a
compromise between the Pragmatic Sanction of 1719, which established the
indivisibility of the Habsburg monarchy, and the March decrees of 1848.
The committee of which he was president had completed its work, when the
war of 1866 broke out and all again became uncertain.
After Königgrätz the extreme parties in Hungary hoped to extort still
more favourable terms from the emperor; but Deák remained true to
himself and to the constitutional principle. On the 18th of July he went
to Vienna, to urge the necessity of forming a responsible Magyar
ministry without delay. He offered the post of premier to Count Julius
Andrássy, but would not himself take any part in the administration. The
diet was resummoned on the 17th of November 1866 and, chiefly through
the efforts of Deák, the responsible ministry was formed (February 17th,
1867). There was still one fierce parliamentary struggle, in which Deák
defended the Composition (Ausgleich) of 1867, both against the
Kossuthites and against the Left-centre, which had detached itself from
his own party under the leadership of Kálmán Tisza (q.v.). He, a simple
citizen, from pure patriotism, thus mediated between the crown and the
people, as the Hungarian palatines were wont to do in years gone by, and
it was the wish of the diet that Deák should exercise the functions of a
palatine at the solemn ceremony of the coronation. This honour he
refused, as he had refused every other reward and distinction. "It was
beyond the king's power to give him anything but a clasp of the hand."
His real recompense was the assurance of the prosperity and the
tranquillity of his country in the future, and the reconciliation of the
nation and its sovereign. The consciousness of these great services even
reconciled him to the loss of much of his popularity; for there can be
no doubt that a large part of the Hungarian nation regarded the
Composition of 1867 as a sort of surrender and blamed Deák as the author
of it. The Composition was the culminating point of Deák's political
activity; but as a party-leader he still exercised considerable
influence. He died at midnight of the 28th-29th of July 1876, after long
and painful sufferings. His funeral was celebrated with royal pomp on
the 3rd of February, and representatives from every part of Hungary
followed the "Sage" to the grave. A mausoleum was erected by national
subscription, and in 1887 a statue, overlooking the Danube, was erected
to his memory.
See _Speeches_ (Hung.) ed. by Manó Kónyi (Budapest, 1882); Z.
Ferenczi, _Life of Deák_ (Hung., Budapest, 1894); _Memorials of
Ferencz Deák_ (Hung., Budapest, 1889-1890); Ferencz Pulszky,
_Charakterskizze_ (Leipzig, 1876). (R. N. B.)
DEAL, a market town, seaport and municipal borough in the St Augustine's
parliamentary division of Kent, England, 8 m. N.E. by N. of Dover on the
South-Eastern & Chatham railway. Pop. (1901) 10,581. It consists of
three divisions--Lower Deal, on the coast; Middle Deal; and, about a
mile inland, though formerly on the coast, Upper Deal, which is the
oldest part. Though frequented as a seaside resort, the town derives its
importance mainly from its vicinity to the Downs, a fine anchorage,
between the shore and the Goodwin Sands, about 8 m. long and 6 m. wide,
in which large fleets of windbound vessels may lie in safety. The trade
consequently consists largely in the supply of provisions and naval
stores, which are conveyed to the ships in need of them by "hovellers,"
as the boatmen are called all along the Kentish coast; the name is
probably a corruption of _hobeler_, anciently applied to light-horsemen
from the hobby or small horse which they rode. The Deal hovellers and
pilots are famous for their skill. Boat-building and a few other
industries are carried on. Among buildings the most remarkable are St
Leonard's church in Upper Deal, which dates from the Norman period; the
Baptist chapel in Lower Deal, founded by Captain Taverner, governor of
Deal Castle, in 1663; the military and naval hospital; and the barracks,
founded in 1795. The site of the old navy yard is occupied by villas;
and the esplanade, nearly four miles long, is provided with a promenade
pier. The golf-links is well known. At the south end of the town is Deal
Castle, erected by Henry VIII. in 1539, together with the castles of
Sandown, Walmer and Sandgate. They were built alike, and consisted of a
central keep surrounded by four lunettes. Sandown Castle, which stood
about a mile to the east of Deal Castle, was of interest as the prison
in which Colonel Hutchinson, the Puritan soldier, was confined, and is
said to have died, September 1664. It was removed on becoming endangered
by encroachments of the sea. The "captain" of Deal Castle is appointed
by the lord warden of the Cinque Ports. The town is governed by a mayor,
6 aldermen and 18 councillors. Area, 1111 acres.
Deal is one of the possible sites of the landing-place of Julius Caesar
in Britain. Later in the period of Roman occupation the site was
inhabited, but apparently was not a port. In the Domesday Survey, Deal
(_Dola_, _Dale_, _Dele_) is mentioned among the possessions of the
canons of St Martin, Dover, as part of the hundreds of Bewsborough and
Cornilo; it seems, however, from early times to have been within the
liberty of the Cinque Ports as a member of Sandwich, but was not
continuously reckoned as a member until Henry VI., on the occasion of a
dispute as to its assessment, finally annexed it to their jurisdiction.
In the time of Henry VIII. Deal was merely a fishing village standing
half-a-mile from the sea, but the growth of the English navy and the
increase of trade brought men-of-war and merchant ships in increased
numbers to the Downs. Deal began to grow in importance, and Lower or New
Deal was built along the shore. The prosperity of the town has ever
since depended almost entirely on its shipping trade. In 1699 the
inhabitants petitioned for incorporation, since previously the town had
been under the jurisdiction of Sandwich and governed by a deputy
appointed by the mayor of that town; William III. by his charter
incorporated the town under the title of mayor, jurats and commonalty of
Deal, and he also granted a market to be held on Tuesday and Saturday,
and fairs on the 25th and 26th of March, and on the 30th of September
and 1st of October, with a court of Pie Powder. The Cinque Ports were
first represented in the parliament of 1265; the two members returned by
Sandwich represented Sandwich, Deal and Walmer, until they were
disenfranchized by the act of 1885.
DEAL. (1) (A common Teutonic word for a part or portion, cf. Ger.
_Teil_, and the Eng. variant "dole"), a division or part, obsolete
except in such phrases as "a great deal" or "a good deal," where it
equals quantity or lot. From the verb "to deal," meaning primarily to
divide into parts, come such uses as for the giving out of cards to the
players in a game, or for a business transaction. (2) (Also a Teutonic
word, meaning a plank or board, cf. Ger. _Diele_, Dutch _deel_),
strictly a term in carpentry and joinery for a sawn plank, usually of
pine or fir, 9 in. wide and 2 to 4½ in. thick. (See JOINERY.) The word
is also used more loosely of the timber from which such deals are cut,
thus "white deal" is used of the wood of the Norway spruce, and "red
deal" of the Scotch pine.
DEAN (Lat. _decanus_, derived from the Gr. [Greek: deka], ten), the
style of a certain functionary, primarily ecclesiastical. Whether the
term was first used among the secular clergy to signify the priest who
had a charge of inspection and superintendence over two parishes, or
among the regular clergy to signify the monk who in a monastery had
authority over ten other monks, appears doubtful. "Decurius" may be
found in early writers used to signify the same thing as "decanus,"
which shows that the word and the idea signified by it were originally
borrowed from the old Roman military system.
The earliest mention which occurs of an "archipresbyter" seems to be in
the fourth epistle of St Jerome to Rusticus, in which he says that a
cathedral church should possess one bishop, one archipresbyter and one
archdeacon. Liberatus also (_Breviar._ c. xiv.) speaks of the office of
archipresbyter in a manner which, as J. Bingham says, enables one to
understand what the nature of his duties and position was. And he thinks
that those are right who hold that the archipresbyters were the same as
the deans of English cathedral churches. E. Stillingfleet (_Irenic._
part ii. c. 7) says of the archipresbyters that "the memory of them is
preserved still in cathedral churches, in the chapters there, where the
dean was nothing else but the archipresbyter; and both dean and
prebendaries were to be assistant to the bishop in the regulating the
church affairs belonging to the city, while the churches were contained
therein." Bingham, however, following Liberatus, describes the office of
the archipresbyter to have been next to that of the bishop, the head of
the presbyteral college, and the functions to have consisted in
administering all matters pertaining to the church in the absence of the
bishop. But this does not describe accurately the office of dean in an
English cathedral church. The dean is indeed second to the bishop in
rank and dignity, and he is the head of the presbyteral college or
chapter; but his functions in no wise consist in administering any
affairs in the absence of the bishop. There may be some matters
connected with the ordering of the internal arrangements of cathedral
churches, respecting which it may be considered a doubtful point whether
the authority of the bishop or that of the dean is supreme. But the
consideration of any such question leads at once to the due theoretical
distinction between the two. With regard to matters spiritual, properly
and strictly so called, the bishop is supreme in the cathedral as far
as--and no further than--he is supreme in his diocese generally. With
regard to matters material and temporal, as concerning the fabric of the
cathedral, the arrangement and conduct of the services, and the
management of the property of the chapter, &c., the dean (not excluding
the due authority of the other members of the chapter, but speaking with
reference to the bishop) is supreme. And the cases in which a doubt
might arise are those in which the material arrangements of the fabric
or of the services may be thought to involve doctrinal considerations.
The Roman Catholic writers on the subject say that there are two sorts
of deans in the church--the deans of cathedral churches, and the rural
deans--as has continued to be the case in the English Church. And the
probability would seem to be that the former were the successors and
representatives of the monastic decurions, the latter of the inspectors
of "ten" parishes in the primitive secular church. It is thought by some
that the rural dean is the lineal successor of the _chorepiscopus_, who
in the early church was the assistant of the bishop, discharging most,
if not all, episcopal functions in the rural districts of the diocese.
But upon the whole the probability is otherwise. W. Beveridge, W. Cave,
Bingham and Basnage all hold that the _chorepiscopi_ were true bishops,
though Romanist theologians for the most part have maintained that they
were simple priests. But if the _chorepiscopus_ has any representative
in the church of the present day, it seems more likely that the
archdeacon is such rather than the dean.
The ordinary use of the term dean, as regards secular bodies of persons,
would lead to the belief that the oldest member of a chapter had, as a
matter of right, or at least of usage, become the dean thereof. But
Bingham (lib. ii. chap. 18) very conclusively shows that such was at no
time the case; as is also further indicated by the maxim to the effect
that the dean must be selected from the body of the chapter--"_Unus de
gremio tantum potest eligi et promoveri ad decanatus dignitatem_." The
duties of the dean in a Roman Catholic cathedral are to preside over the
chapter, to declare the decisions to which the chapter may have in its
debates arrived by plurality of voices, to exercise inspection over the
choir, over the conduct of the capitular body, and over the discipline
and regulations of the church; and to celebrate divine service on
occasion of the greater festivals of the church in the absence or
inability of the bishop. With the exception of the last clause the same
statement may be made as to the duties and functions of the deans of
Church of England cathedral churches.
Deans had also a place in the judicial system of the Lombard kings in
the 8th, 9th and 10th centuries. But the office indicated by that term,
so used, seems to have been a very subordinate one; and the name was in
all probability adopted with immediate reference to the etymological
meaning of the word,--a person having authority over ten (in this case
apparently) families. L. A. Muratori, in his _Italian Antiquities_,
speaks of the resemblance between the _saltarii_ or _sylvani_ and the
_decani_, and shows that the former had authority in the rural
districts, and the latter in towns, or at least in places where the
population was sufficiently close for them to have authority over ten
families. Nevertheless, a document cited by Muratori from the archives
of the canons of Modena, and dated in the year 813, recites the names of
several "deaneries" (_decania_), and thus shows that the authority of
the dean extended over a certain circumscription of territory.
In the case of the "dean of the sacred college," the connexion between
the application of the term and the etymology of it is not so evident as
in the foregoing instances of its use; nor is it by any means clear how
and when the idea of seniority was first attached to the word. This
office is held by the oldest cardinal--i.e. he who has been longest in
the enjoyment of the purple, not he who is oldest in years,--who is
usually, but not necessarily or always, the bishop of Ostia and
Velletri. Perhaps the use of the word "dean," as signifying simply the
eldest member of any corporation or body of men, may have been first
adopted from its application to that high dignitary. The dean of the
sacred college is in the ecclesiastical hierarchy second to the pope
alone. His privileges and special functions are very many; a compendious
account of the principal of them may be found in the work of G. Moroni,
vol. xix. p. 168.
There are four sorts of deans of whom the law of England takes notice.
(1) The dean and chapter are a council subordinate to the bishop,
assistant to him in matters spiritual relating to religion, and in
matters temporal relating to the temporalities of the bishopric. The
dean and chapter are a corporation, and the dean himself is a
corporation sole. Deans are said to be either of the old or of the new
foundation--the latter being those created and regulated after the
dissolution of the monasteries by Henry VIII. The deans of the old
foundation before the Ecclesiastical Commissioners Act 1841 were elected
by the chapter on the king's _congé d'élire_; and the deans of the new
foundation (and, since the act, of the old foundation also) are
appointed by the king's letters patent. It was at one time held that a
layman might be dean; but since 1662 priest's orders are a necessary
qualification. Deaneries are sinecures in the old sense, i.e. they are
without cure of souls. The chapter formerly consisted of canons and
prebendaries, the dean being the head and an integral part of the
corporation. By the Ecclesiastical Commissioners Act 1841, it is enacted
that "all the members of the chapter except the dean, in every
collegiate and cathedral church in England, and in the cathedral
churches of St David and Llandaff, shall be styled canons." By the same
act the dean is required to be in residence eight months, and the canons
three months, in every year. The bishop is visitor of the dean and
chapter. (2) A dean of peculiars is the chief of certain peculiar
churches or chapels. He "hath no chapter, yet is presentative, and hath
cure of souls; he hath a _peculiar_, and is not subject to the
visitation of the bishop of the diocese." The only instances of such
deaneries are Battle (Sussex), Bocking (Essex) and Stamford (Rutland).
The deans of Jersey and Guernsey have similar status. (3) The third dean
"hath no cure of souls, but hath a court and a _peculiar_, in which he
holdeth plea and jurisdiction of all such ecclesiastical matters as come
within his peculiar. Such is the dean of the arches, who is the judge of
the court of the arches, the chief court and consistory of the
archbishop of Canterbury, so called of Bow Church, where this court was
ever wont to be held." (See ARCHES, COURT OF.) The parish of Bow and
twelve others were within the peculiar jurisdiction of the archbishop in
spiritual causes, and exempted out of the bishop of London's
jurisdiction. They were in 1845 made part of the diocese of London. (4)
Rural deans are clergymen whose duty is described as being "to execute
the bishop's processes and to inspect the lives and manners of the
clergy and people within their jurisdiction." (See Phillimore's
_Ecclesiastical Law_.)
In the colleges of the English universities one of the fellows usually
holds the office of "dean," and is specially charged with the
discipline, as distinguished from the teaching functions of the tutors.
In some universities the head of a faculty is called "dean," and in each
of these cases the word is used in a non-ecclesiastical and purely
titular sense.
DEAN, FOREST OF, a district in the west of Gloucestershire, England,
between the Severn and the Wye. It extends northward in an oval form
from the junction of these rivers, for a distance of 20 m., with an
extreme breadth of 10 m., and still retains its true forest character.
The surface is agreeably undulating, its elevation ranging from 120 to
nearly 1000 ft., and its sandy peat soil renders it most suitable for
the growth of timber, which is the cause of its having been a royal
forest from time immemorial. It is recorded that the commanders of the
Armada had orders not to leave in it a tree standing. In the reign of
Charles I. the forest contained 105,537 trees, and, straitened for
money, the king granted it to Sir John Wyntour for £10,000, and a fee
farm rent of £2000. The grant was cancelled by Cromwell; but at the
Restoration only 30,000 trees were left, and Wyntour, the Royalist
commander, having got another grant, destroyed all but 200 trees fit for
navy timber. In 1680 an act was passed to enclose 11,000 acres and plant
with oak and beech for supply of the dockyards; and the present forest,
though not containing very many gigantic oaks, has six "walks" covered
with timber in various stages of growth.
The forest is locally governed by two crown-appointed deputy gavellers
to superintend the woods and mines, and four verderers elected by the
freeholders, whose office, since the extermination of the deer in 1850,
is almost purely honorary. From time immemorial all persons born in the
hundred of St Briavel's, who have worked a year and a day in a coal
mine, become "free miners," and may work coal in any part of the forest
not previously occupied. The forest laws were administered at the
Speech-House, a building of the 17th century in the heart of the forest,
where the verderers' court is still held. The district contains coal and
iron mines, and quarries of building-stone, which fortunately hardly
minimize its natural beauty. Near Coleford and Westbury pit workings of
the Roman period have been discovered, and the Romans drew large
supplies of iron from this district. The scenery is especially fine in
the high ground bordering the Wye (q.v.), opposite to Symond's Yat above
Monmouth, and Tintern above Chepstow. St Briavel's Castle, above
Tintern, was the headquarters of the forest officials from an early date
and was frequented by King John. It is a moated castle, of which the
north-west front remains, standing in a magnificent position high above
the Wye.
See H. G. Nicholls, _Forest of Dean_ (London, 1858).
DEANE, RICHARD (1610-1653), British general-at-sea, major-general and
regicide, was a younger son of Edward Deane of Temple Guiting or Guyting
in Gloucestershire, where he was born, his baptism taking place on the
8th of July 1610. His family seems to have been strongly Puritan and was
related to many of those Buckinghamshire families who were prominent in
the parliamentary party. His uncle or great-uncle was Sir Richard Deane,
lord mayor of London, 1628-1629. Of Deane's early life nothing is
accurately known, but he seems to have had some sea training, possibly
on a ship-of-war. At the outbreak of the Civil War he joined the
parliamentary army as a volunteer in the artillery, a branch of the
service with which he was constantly and honourably associated. In 1644
he held a command in the artillery under Essex in Cornwall and took part
in the surrender after Lostwithiel. Essex (_Letter to Sir Philip
Stapleton_, Rushworth Collection) calls him "an honest, judicious and
stout man," an estimate of Deane borne out by Clarendon's "bold and
excellent officer" (book xiv. cap. 27), and he was one of the few
officers concerned in the surrender who were retained at the remodelling
of the army. Appointed comptroller of the ordnance, he commanded the
artillery at Naseby and during Fairfax's campaign in the west of England
in 1645. In 1647 he was promoted colonel and given a regiment. In May of
that year Cromwell was made lord-general of the forces in Ireland by the
parliament, and Deane, as a supporter of Cromwell who had to be reckoned
with, was appointed his lieutenant of artillery. Cromwell refused to be
thus put out of the way, and Deane followed his example. When the war
broke out afresh in 1648 Deane went with Cromwell to Wales. As
brigadier-general his leading of the right wing at Preston contributed
greatly to the victory. On the entry of the army into London in 1648,
Deane superintended the seizure of treasure at the Guildhall and
Weavers' Hall the day after Pride "purged" the House of Commons, and
accompanied Cromwell to the consultations as to the "settlement of the
Kingdom" with Lenthall and Sir Thomas Widdrington, the keeper of the
great seal. He is rightly called by Sir J. K. Laughton (in the _Dict. of
Nat. Biog._) Cromwell's "trusted partisan," a character which he
maintained in the active and responsible part taken by him in the events
which led up to the trial and execution of the king. He was one of the
commissioners for the trial, and a member of the committee which
examined the witnesses. He signed the death warrant.
Deane's capacities and activities were now required for the navy. In
1649 the office of lord high admiral was put into commission. The first
commissioners were Edward Popham, Robert Blake and Deane, with the title
of generals-at-sea. His command at sea was interrupted in 1651, when as
major-general he was brought back to the army and took part in the
battle of Worcester. Later he was made president of the commission for
the settlement of Scotland, with supreme command of the military and
naval forces. At the end of 1652 Deane returned to his command as
general-at-sea, where Monck had succeeded Popham, who had died in 1651.
In 1653 Deane was with Blake in command at the battle off Portland and
later took the most prominent and active part in the refitting of the
fleet on the reorganization of the naval service. At the outset of the
three days' battle off the North Foreland, the 1st, 2nd and 3rd of June
1653, Deane was killed. His body lay in state at Greenwich and after a
public funeral was buried in Henry VII.'s chapel at Westminster Abbey,
to be disinterred at the Restoration.
See J. Bathurst Deane, _The Life of Richard Deane_ (1870).
DEANE, SILAS (1737-1789), American diplomat, was born in Groton,
Connecticut, on the 24th of December 1737. He graduated at Yale in 1758
and in 1761 was admitted to the bar, but instead of practising became a
merchant at Wethersfield, Conn. He took an active part in the movements
in Connecticut preceding the War of Independence, and from 1774 to 1776
was a delegate from Connecticut to the Continental Congress. Early in
1776 he was sent to France by Congress, in a semi-official capacity, as
a secret agent to induce the French government to lend its financial aid
to the colonies. Subsequently he became, with Benjamin Franklin and
Arthur Lee, one of the regularly accredited commissioners to France from
Congress. On arriving in Paris, Deane at once opened negotiations with
Vergennes and Beaumarchais, securing through the latter the shipment of
many vessel loads of arms and munitions of war to America. He also
enlisted the services of a number of Continental soldiers of fortune,
among whom were Lafayette, Baron Johann De Kalb and Thomas Conway. His
carelessness in keeping account of his receipts and expenditures, and
the differences between himself and Arthur Lee regarding the contracts
with Beaumarchais, eventually led, in November 1777, to his recall to
face charges, of which Lee's complaints formed the basis. Before
returning to America, however, he signed on the 6th of February 1778 the
treaties of amity and commerce and of alliance which he and the other
commissioners had successfully negotiated. In America he was defended by
John Jay and John Adams, and after stating his case to Congress was
allowed to return to Paris (1781) to settle his affairs. Differences
with various French officials led to his retirement to Holland, where he
remained until after the treaty of peace had been signed, when he
settled in England. The publication of some "intercepted" letters in
Rivington's _Royal Gazette_ in New York (1781), in which Deane declared
his belief that the struggle for independence was hopeless and
counselled a return to British allegiance, aroused such animosity
against him in America that for some years he remained in England. He
died on shipboard in Deal harbour, England, on the 23rd of September
1789 after having embarked for America on a Boston packet. No evidence
of his dishonesty was ever discovered, and Congress recognized the
validity of his claims by voting $37,000 to his heirs in 1842. He
published his defence in _An Address to the Free and Independent
Citizens of the United States of North America_ (Hartford, Conn., and
London, 1784).
_The Correspondence of Silas Deane_ was published in the Connecticut
Historical Society's Collections, vol. ii.; and _The Deane Papers_, in
5 vols., in the New York Historical Society's _Collections_
(1887-1890). See also Winsor's _Narrative and Critical History_, vol.
vii. chap, i., and Wharton's _Revolutionary Diplomatic Correspondence
of the United States_ (6 vols., Washington, 1889).
DEATH, the permanent cessation of the vital functions in the bodies of
animals and plants, the end of life or act of dying. The word is the
English representative of the substantive common to Teutonic languages,
as "dead" is of the adjective, and "die" of the verb; the ultimate
origin is the pre-Teutonic verbal stem _dau_-; cf. Ger _Tod_, Dutch
_dood_, Swed. and Dan. _död_.
For the scientific aspects of the processes involved in life and its
cessation see BIOLOGY, PHYSIOLOGY, PATHOLOGY, and allied articles; and
for the consideration of the prolongation of life see LONGEVITY. Here it
is only necessary to deal with the more primitive views of death and
with certain legal aspects.
_Ethnology._--To the savage, death from natural causes is inexplicable.
At all times and in all lands, if he reflects upon death at all, he
fails to understand it as a natural phenomenon; nor in its presence is
he awed or curious. Man in a primitive state has for his dead an almost
animal indifference. The researches of archaeologists prove that
Quaternary Man cared little what became of his fellow-creature's body.
And this lack of interest is found to-day as a general characteristic
of savages. The Goajiros of Venezuela bury their dead, they confess,
simply to get rid of them. The Galibis of Guiana, when asked the meaning
of their curious funeral ceremony, which consists in dancing on the
grave, replied that they did it to stamp down the earth. Fuegians,
Bushmen, Veddahs, show the same lack of concern and interest in the
memory of the dead. Even the Eskimos, conspicuous as they are for their
intelligence and sociability, save themselves the trouble of caring for
their sick and old by walling them up and leaving them to die in a
lonely hut; the Chukches stone or strangle them to death; some Indian
tribes give them over to tigers, and the Battas of Sumatra eat them.
This indifference is not dictated by any realization that death means
annihilation of the personality. The savage conception of a future state
is one that involves no real break in the continuity of life as he leads
it. If a man dies without being wounded he is considered to be the
victim of the sorcerers and the evil spirits with which they consort.
Throughout Africa the death of anyone is ascribed to the magicians of
some hostile tribe or to the malicious act of a neighbour. A culprit is
easily discovered either by an appeal to a local diviner or in torturing
some one into confession. In Australia it is the same. Mr Andrew Lang
says that "whenever a native dies, no matter how evident it may be that
death has been the result of natural causes, it is at once set down that
the defunct was bewitched." The Bechuanas and all Kaffir tribes believe
that death, even at an advanced age, if not from hunger or violence, is
due to witchcraft, and blood is required to expiate or avenge it.
Similar beliefs are found among the Papuans, and among the Indians of
both Americas. The history of witchcraft in Europe and its attendant
horrors, so vividly painted in Lecky's _Rise of Rationalism_, are but
echoes of this universal refusal of savage man to accept death as the
natural end of life. Even to-day the ignorant peasantry of many European
countries, Russia, Galicia and elsewhere, believe that all disease is
the work of demons, and that medicinal herbs owe their curative
properties to their being the materialized forms of benevolent spirits.
This animistic tendency is a marked characteristic of primitive Man in
every land. The savage explains the processes of inanimate nature by
assuming that living beings or spirits, possessed of capacities similar
to his own, are within the inanimate object. The growth of a tree, the
spark struck from a flint, the devastating floods of a river, mean to
him the natural actions of beings within the tree, stone or water. And
thus too he explains to himself the phenomena of human life, believing
that each man has within him a mannikin or animal which dictates his
actions in life. This miniature man is the savage's conception of the
soul; sleep and trance being regarded as the temporary, death as the
permanent, absence of the soul. Each individual is thus deemed to have a
dual existence. This "subliminal" self (in modern terminology) has many
forms. The Hurons thought that it possessed head, body, arms and legs,
in fact that it was an exact miniature of a man. The Nootkas of British
Columbia regard it as a tiny man, living in the crown of the head. So
long as it stands erect, its possessor is well, but if it falls from its
position the misfortunes of ill-health and madness at once assail him.
The ancient Egyptian believed in the soul or "double." The inhabitants
of Nias, an island to the west of Sumatra, have the strange belief that
to everyone before birth is given the choice of a long and heavy or
short and light soul (a parallel belief may be found in early Greek
philosophy), and his choice determines the length of life. Sometimes the
soul is conceived as a bird. The Bororos of Brazil fancy that in that
shape the soul of a sleeper passes out of the body during night-time,
returning to him at his awakening. The Bella Coola Indians say the soul
is a bird enclosed in an egg and lives in the nape of the neck. If the
shell bursts and the soul flies away, the man must die. If however the
bird flies away, egg and all, then he faints or loses his reason. A
popular superstition in Bohemia assumes that the soul in the shape of a
white bird leaves the body by way of the mouth. Among the Battas of
Sumatra rice or grain is sprinkled on the head of a man who returns from
a dangerous enterprise, and in the latter case the grains are called
_padiruma tondi_, "means to make the soul (_tondi_) stay at home." In
Java the new-born babe is placed in a hen-coop, and the mother makes a
clucking noise, as if she were a hen, to attract the child's soul. It is
regarded by many savage peoples as highly dangerous to arouse a sleeper
suddenly, as his soul may not have time to return. Still more dangerous
is it to move a sleeper, for the soul on its return might not be able to
find the body. Flies and butterflies are forms which the souls are
believed by some races to take, and the Esthonians of the island of
Oesel think that the gusts of wind which whirl tornado-like through the
roads are the souls of old women seeking what they can find.
But more widespread perhaps than any belief, from its simplicity
doubtless, is the idea that the body's shadow or reflexion is the soul.
The Basutos think that crocodiles can devour the shadow of a man cast on
the surface of water. In many parts of the world sorcerers are credited
with supernatural powers over a man by an attack on his shadow. The sick
man is considered to have lost his shadow or a part of it. Dante refers
to the shadowless spectre of Virgil, and the folklore of many European
countries affords examples of the prevalence of the superstition that a
man must be as careful of his shadow as of his body. In the same way the
reflexion-soul is thought to be subject to a malice of enemies or
attacks of beasts and has been the cause of superstitions which in one
form or another exist to-day. From the Fijian and Andaman islander who
exhibits abject terror at seeing himself in a glass or in water, to the
English or European peasant who covers up the mirrors or turns them to
the wall, upon a death occurring, lest an inmate of the house should see
his own face and have his own speedy demise thus prognosticated, the
idea holds its ground. It was probably the origin of the story of
Narcissus, and there is scarcely a race which is free from the haunting
dread. Lastly the soul is pictured as being a man's breath (_anima_),
and this again has come down to us in literature, evidenced by the fact
that the word "breath" has become a synonym for life itself. The "last
breath" has meant more than a mere metaphor. It expresses the savage
belief that there departs from the dying in the final expiration a
something tangible, capable of separate existence--the soul. Among the
Romans custom imposed a sacred duty on the nearest relative, usually the
heir, to inhale the "last breath" of the dying. Moreover the classics
bear evidence to the sanctity with which sentiment surrounded the last
kiss; Cicero, in his speech against Verres, saying "_Matres ab extremo
complexu liberum exclusae: quae nihil aliud orabant nisi ut filiorum
extremum spiritum ore excipere sibi liceret_." Virgil, too, refers in
the _Aeneid_, iv. 684, to the custom, which survives to-day as a
ceremonial practice among many savage and semi-civilized people.
From the inability of the savage in all ages and in all lands to
comprehend death as a natural phenomenon, there results a tendency to
personify death, and myths are invented to account for its origin.
Sometimes it is a "taboo" which has been broken and gives Death power
over man. In New Zealand Maui, the divine hero of Polynesia, was not
properly baptized. In Australia a woman was told not to go near a tree
where a bat lived: she infringed the prohibition, the bat fluttered out,
and death resulted. The Ningphoos were dismissed from Paradise and
became mortal because one of them bathed in water which had been
"tabooed" (Dalton, p. 13). Other versions of the Death-myth in Polynesia
relate that Maui stole a march on Night as she slept, and would have
passed right through her to destroy her, but a little bird which sings
at sunset woke her, she destroyed Maui, and men lost immortality. In
India Yama, the god of Death, is assumed, like Maui, to have been the
first to "spy out the path to the other world." In the Solomon Islands
(_Jour. Anth. Inst._, February 1881) "Koevari was the author of death,
by resuming her cast-off skin." The same story is told in the Banks
Islands. The Greek myth (Hesiód, _Works and Days_, 90) alleged that
mortals lived "without ill diseases that give death to men" till the
cover was lifted from the box of Pandora. This personification of Death
has had as a consequence the introduction into the folklore of many
lands of stories, often humorous, of the tricks played on the Enemy of
Mankind. Thus Sisyphus fettered Death, keeping him prisoner till rescued
by Ares; in Venetian folklore Beppo ties him up in a bag for eighteen
months; while in Sicily an innkeeper corks him up in a bottle, and a
monk keeps him in his pouch for forty years. The German parallel is
Gambling Hansel, who kept Death up a tree for seven years. Such examples
might be multiplied unendingly, but enough has been said to show that
the attitude of civilized man towards the sphinx-riddle of his end has
been in part dictated and is even still influenced by the savage belief
that to die is unnatural.
_Law--Registration._--The registration of burials in England goes back
to the time of Thomas Cromwell, who in 1538 instituted the keeping of
parish registers. Statutory measures were taken from time to time to
ensure the preservation of registers of burials, but it was not until
1836 (the Births and Deaths Registration Act) that the registration of
deaths became a national concern. Other acts dealing with death
registration were subsequently passed, and the whole law for England
consolidated by the Births and Deaths Registration Act 1874. By that
act, the registration of every death and the cause of the death is
compulsory. When a person dies in a house information of the death and
the particulars required to be registered must be given within five days
of the death to the registrar to the best of the person's knowledge and
belief by one of the following persons:--(1) The nearest relative of the
deceased present at the death, or in attendance during the last illness
of the deceased. If they fail, then (2) some other relative of the
deceased in the same sub-district (registrar's) as the deceased. In
default of relatives, (3) some person present at the death, or the
occupier of the house in which, to his knowledge, the death took place.
If all the above fail, (4) some inmate of the house, or the person
causing the body of the deceased to be buried. The person giving the
information must sign the register. Similarly, also, information must be
given concerning death where the deceased dies not in a house.
Where written notice of the death, accompanied by a medical certificate
of the cause of death, is sent to the registrar, information must
nevertheless be given and the register signed within fourteen days after
the death by the person giving the notice or some other person as
required by the act. Failure to give information of death, or to comply
with the registrar's requisitions, entails a penalty not exceeding forty
shillings, and making false statements or certificates, or forging or
falsifying them, is punishable either summarily within six months, or on
indictment within three years of the offence. Before burial takes place
the clergyman or other person conducting the funeral or religious
service must have the registrar's certificate that the death of the
deceased person has been duly registered, or else a coroner's order or
warrant. Failing the certificate, the clergyman cannot refuse to bury,
but he must forthwith give notice in writing to the registrar. Failure
to do so within seven days involves a penalty not exceeding ten pounds.
Children must not be registered as still-born without a medical
certificate or a signed declaration from some one who would have been
required, if the child had been born alive, to give information
concerning the birth, that the child was still-born and that no medical
man was present at the birth, or a coroner's order. The registration of
deaths at sea is regulated by the act of 1874 together with the Merchant
Shipping Act 1894. See further BIRTH and BURIAL AND BURIAL ACTS.
Registers of death are, in law, evidence of the fact of death, and the
entry, or a certified copy of it, will be sufficient evidence without a
certificate of burial, although it is desirable that it should also be
produced.
_Presumption of Death._--The fact of death may, in English law, be
proved not only by direct but by presumptive evidence. When a person
disappears, so that no direct proof of his whereabouts or death is
obtainable, death may be presumed at the expiration of seven years from
the period when the person was last heard of. It is always, however, a
matter of fact for the jury, and the onus of proving the death lies on
the party who asserts it. In Scotland, by the Presumption of Life
(Scotland) Act 1891, the presumption is statutory. In those cases where
people disappear under circumstances which create a strong probability
of death, the court may, for the purpose of probate or administration,
presume the death before the lapse of seven years. The question of
survivorship, where two or more persons are shown to have perished by
the same catastrophe, as in cases of shipwreck, has been much discussed.
It was at one time thought that there might be a presumption of
survivorship in favour of the younger as against the older, of the male
as against the female, &c. But it is now clear that there is no such
presumption (_In re Alston_, 1892, P. 142). This is also the rule in
most states of the American Union. The doctrine of survivorship
originated in the Roman Law, which had recourse to certain artificial
presumptions, where the particular circumstances connected with deaths
were unknown. Some of the systems founded on the civil law, as the
French code, have adopted certain rules of survivorship.
_Civil Death_ is an expression used, in law, in contradistinction to
natural death. Formerly, a man was said to be dead in law (1) when he
entered a monastery and became professed in religion; (2) when he
abjured the realm; (3) when he was attainted of treason or felony. Since
the suppression of the monasteries there has been no legal establishment
for professed persons in England, and the first distinction has
therefore disappeared, though for long after the original reason had
ceased to make it necessary grants of life estates were usually made for
the terms of a man's _natural_ life. The act abolishing sanctuaries
(1623) did away with civil death by abjuration; and the Forfeiture Act
1870, that on attainder for treason or felony.
For the tax levied on the estate of deceased persons, and sometimes
called "death duty," see SUCCESSION DUTY.
For the statistics of the death-rate of the United Kingdom as compared
with that of the various European countries see UNITED KINGDOM. See
also the articles ANNUITY; CAPITAL PUNISHMENT; CREMATION; INSURANCE;
MEDICAL JURISPRUDENCE, &c.
DEATH-WARNING, a term used in psychical research for an intimation of
the death of another person received by other than the ordinary sensory
channels, i.e. by (1) a sensory hallucination or (2) a massive
sensation, both being of telepathic origin. (See TELEPATHY.) Both among
civilized and uncivilized peoples there is a widespread belief that the
apparition of a living person is an omen of death; but until the Society
of Psychical Research undertook the statistical examination of the
question, there were no data for estimating the value of the belief. In
1885 a collection of spontaneous cases and a discussion of the evidence
was published under the title _Phantasms of the Living_, and though the
standard of evidence was lower than at the present time, a substantial
body of testimony, including many striking cases, was there put forward.
In 1889 a further inquiry was undertaken, known as the "Census of
Hallucinations," which provided information as to the percentage of
individuals in the general population who, at some period of their
lives, while they were in a normal state of health, had had "a vivid
impression of seeing or being touched by a living being or inanimate
object, or of hearing a voice; which impression, so far as they could
discover, was not due to any external cause." To the census question
about 17,000 answers were received, and after making all deductions it
appeared that death coincidences numbered about 30 in 1300 cases of
recognized apparitions; or about 1 in 43, whereas if chance alone
operated the coincidences would have been in the proportion of 1 to
19,000. As a result of the inquiry the committee held it to be proved
that "between deaths and apparitions of the dying person a connexion
exists which is not due to chance alone." From an evidential point of
view the apparition is the most valuable class of death-warning,
inasmuch as recognition is more difficult in the case of an auditory
hallucination, even where it takes the form of spoken words; moreover,
auditory hallucinations coinciding with deaths may be mere knocks,
ringing of bells, &c.; tactile hallucinations are still more difficult
of recognition; and the hallucinations of smell which are sometimes
found as death-warnings rarely have anything to associate them specially
with the dead person. Occasionally the death-warning is in the form of
an apparition of some other person; it may also take the form of a
temporary feeling of intense depression or other massive sensation.
BIBLIOGRAPHY.--Podmore, Gurney and Myers, _Phantasms of the Living_
(1885); for the Census Report see _Proceedings of the Society for
Psychical Research_, part xxvi.; see also F. Podmore, _Apparitions and
Thought Transference_. For a criticism of the results of the Census
see E. Parish, _Hallucinations and Illusions_ and _Zur Kritik des
telepathischen Beweismaterials_, and Mrs Sidgwick's refutation in
_Proc. S.P.R._ part xxxiii. 589-601. The _Journal of the S.P.R._
contains the most striking spontaneous cases received from time to
time by the society. (N. W. T.)
DEATH-WATCH, a popular name applied to insects of two distinct families,
which burrow and live in old furniture and produce the mysterious
"ticking" vulgarly supposed to foretell the death of some inmate of the
house. The best known, because the largest, is a small beetle, _Anobium
striattum_, belonging to the family _Ptinidae_. The "ticking," in
reality a sexual call, like the chirp of a grasshopper, is produced by
the beetle rapidly striking its head against the hard and dry woodwork.
In the case of the smaller death-watches, some of the so-called
book-lice of the family _Psocidae_, the exact way in which the sound is
caused has not been satisfactorily explained. Indeed the ability of such
small and soft insects to give rise to audible sounds has been seriously
doubted; but it is impossible to ignore the positive evidence on the
point. The names _Atropos divinatoria_ and _Clothilla pulsatoria_, given
to two of the commoner forms, bear witness both to a belief in a causal
connexion between these insects and the ticking, and to the superstition
regarding the fateful significance of the sound.
DE BARY, HEINRICH ANTON (1831-1888), German botanist, was of Belgian
extraction, though his family had long been settled in Germany, and was
born on the 26th of January 1831, at Frankfort-on-Main. From 1849 to
1853 he studied medicine at Heidelberg, Marburg and Berlin. In 1853 he
settled at Frankfort as a surgeon. In 1854 he became privat-docent for
botany in Tübingen, and professor of botany at Freiburg in 1855. In 1867
he migrated to Halle, and in 1872 to Strassburg, where he was the first
rector of the newly constituted university, and where he died on the
19th of January 1888.
Although one of his largest and most important works was on the
_Comparative Anatomy of Ferns and Phanerogams_ (1877), and
notwithstanding his admirable acquaintance with systematic and field
botany generally, de Bary will always be remembered as the founder of
modern mycology. This branch of botany he completely revolutionized in
1866 by the publication of his celebrated _Morphologie und Physiologie
d. Pilze_, &c., a classic which he rewrote in 1884, and which has had a
world-wide influence on biology. His clear appreciation of the real
significance of symbiosis and the dual nature of lichens is one of his
most striking achievements, and in many ways he showed powers of
generalizing in regard to the evolution of organisms, which alone would
have made him a distinguished man. It was as an investigator of the then
mysterious Fungi, however, that de Bary stands out first and foremost
among the biologists of the 19th century. He not only laid bare the
complex facts of the life-history of many forms,--e.g. the Ustilagineae,
Peronosporeae, Uredineae and many Ascomycetes,--treating them from the
developmental point of view, in opposition to the then prevailing
anatomical method, but he insisted on the necessity of tracing the
evolution of each organism from spore to spore, and by his methods of
culture and accurate observation brought to light numerous facts
previously undreamt of. These his keen perception and insight
continually employed as the basis for hypotheses, which in turn he
tested with an experimental skill and critical faculty rarely equalled
and probably never surpassed. One of his most fruitful discoveries was
the true meaning of infection as a morphological and physiological
process. He traced this step by step in _Phytophthora_, _Cystopus_,
_Puccinia_, and other Fungi, and so placed before the world in a clear
light the significance of parasitism. He then showed by numerous
examples wherein lay the essential differences between a parasite and a
saprophyte; these were by no means clear in 1860-1870, though he himself
had recognized them as early as 1853, as is shown by his work, _Die
Brandpilze_.
These researches led to the explanation of epidemic diseases, and de
Bary's contributions to this subject were fundamental, as witness his
classical work on the potato disease in 1861. They also led to his
striking discovery of _heteroecism_ (or _metoecism_) in the Uredineae,
the truth of which he demonstrated in wheat rust experimentally, and so
clearly that his classical example (1863) has always been confirmed by
subsequent observers, though much more has been discovered as to
details. It is difficult to estimate the relative importance of de
Bary's astoundingly accurate work on the sexuality of the Fungi. He not
only described the phenomena of sexuality in Peronosporeae and
Ascomycetes--_Eurotium_, _Erysiphe_, _Peziza_, &c.--but also established
the existence of parthenogenesis and apogamy on so firm a basis that it
is doubtful if all the combined workers who have succeeded him, and who
have brought forward contending hypotheses in opposition to his views,
have succeeded in shaking the doctrine he established before modern
cytological methods existed. In one case, at least (_Pyronema
confluens_), the most skilful investigations, with every modern
appliance, have shown that de Bary described the sexual organs and
process accurately.
It is impossible here to mention all the discoveries made by de Bary. He
did much work on the Chytridieae, Ustilagineae, Exoasceae and
Phalloideae, as well as on that remarkable group the Myxomycetes, or, as
he himself termed them, _Mycetozoa_, almost every step of which was of
permanent value, and started lines of investigation which have proved
fruitful in the hands of his pupils. Nor must we overlook the important
contributions to algology contained in his earlier monograph on the
Conjugatae (1858), and investigations on Nostocaceae (1863), _Chara_
(1871), _Acetabularia_ (1869), &c. De Bary seems to have held aloof from
the Bacteria for many years, but it was characteristic of the man that,
after working at them in order to include an account of the group in the
second edition of his book in 1884, he found opportunity to bring the
whole subject of bacteriology under the influence of his genius, the
outcome being his brilliant _Lectures on Bacteria_ in 1885. De Bary's
personal influence was immense. Every one of his numerous pupils was
enthusiastic in admiration of his kind nature and genial criticism, his
humorous sarcasm, and his profound insight, knowledge and originality.
Memoirs of de Bary's life will be found in _Bot. Centralbl._ (1888),
xxxiv. 93, by Wilhelm; _Ber. d. d. bot. Ges._ vol. vi. (1888) p.
viii., by Reess, each with a list of his works; _Bot. Zeitung_ (1889),
vol. xlvii. No. 3, by Graf zu Soems-Laubach. (H. M. W.)
DEBENTURES and DEBENTURE STOCK. One of the many advantages incident to
incorporation under the English Companies Acts is found in the
facilities which such incorporation affords a trading concern for
borrowing on debentures or debenture stock. More than five hundred
millions of money are now invested in these forms of security. Borrowing
was not specifically dealt with by the Companies Acts prior to the act
of 1900, but that it was contemplated by the legislature is evident from
the provision in § 43 of the act of 1862 for a company keeping a
register of mortgages and charges. The policy of the legislature in
this, as in other matters connected with trading companies, was
apparently to leave the company to determine whether borrowing should or
should not form one of its objects.
The first principle to be borne in mind is that a company cannot borrow
unless it is expressly or impliedly authorized to do so by its
memorandum of association. In the case of a _trading_ company borrowing
is impliedly authorized as a necessary incident of carrying on the
company's business. Thus a company established for the conveyance of
passengers and luggage by omnibuses, a company formed to buy and run
vessels between England and Australia, and a company whose objects
included discounting approved commercial bills, have all been held to be
trading companies with an incidental power of borrowing as such to a
reasonable amount. A building society, on the other hand, has no
inherent power of borrowing (though a limited statutory power was
conferred on such societies by the Building Societies Act 1874); nor has
a society formed not for gain but to promote art, science, religion,
charity or any other useful object. Public companies formed to carry out
some undertaking of public utility, such as docks, water works, or gas
works, and governed by the Companies Clauses Acts, have only limited
powers of borrowing.
An implied power of borrowing, even when it attaches, is too
inconvenient to be relied on in practice, and an express power is always
now inserted in a joint stock company's memorandum of association. This
power is in the most general terms. It is left to the articles to define
the amount to be borrowed, the nature of the security, and the
conditions, if any,--such as the sanction of a general meeting of
shareholders,--on which the power is to be exercised. Under the
Companies Act 1908, § 87, a company cannot exercise any borrowing power
until it has fulfilled the conditions prescribed by the act entitling it
to commence business: one of which is that the company must have
obtained its "minimum subscription." A person who is proposing to lend
money to a company must be careful to acquaint himself with any
statutory regulations of this kind, and also to see (1) that the
memorandum and articles of association authorize borrowing, and (2) that
the borrowing limit is not being exceeded, for if it should turn out
that the borrowing was in excess of the company's powers and _ultra
vires_, the company cannot be bound, and the borrower's only remedy is
against the directors for breach of warranty of authority, or to be
surrogated to the rights of any creditors who may have been paid out of
the borrowed moneys.
A company proposing to borrow usually issues a prospectus, similar to
the ordinary share prospectus, stating the amount of the issue, the
dates for payment, the particulars of the property to be comprised in
the security, the terms as to redemption, and so on, and inviting the
public to subscribe. Underwriting is also resorted to, as in the case of
shares, to ensure that the issue is taken up. There is no objection to a
company issuing debentures or debenture stock at a discount, as there is
to its issuing its shares at a discount. It must borrow on the best
terms its credit will enable it to obtain. A prospectus inviting
subscriptions for debentures or debenture stock comes within the terms
of the Directors' Liability Act 1890 (re-enacted in Companies Act 1908,
§ 84), and persons who are parties to it have the onus cast upon them,
should the prospectus contain any misstatements, of showing that, at the
time when they issued the prospectus, they had reasonable grounds to
believe, and did in fact believe, that the statements in question were
true; otherwise they will be liable to pay compensation to any person
injured by the misstatements. A debenture prospectus is also within the
terms of the Companies Act 1908. It must be filed with the registrar of
joint stock companies (§ 80) and must contain all the particulars
specified in § 81 of the act. (See COMPANY.)
The usual mode of borrowing by a company is either on debentures or
debenture stock. Etymologically, debenture is merely the Latin word
_debentur_,--The first word in a document in common use by the crown in
early times admitting indebtedness to its servants or soldiers. This was
the germ of a security which has now, with the expansion of joint stock
company enterprise, grown into an instrument of considerable complexity.
Debentures may be classified in various ways. From the point of view of
the security they are either (1) debentures (simply); (2) mortgage
debentures; (3) debenture bonds. In the debenture the security is a
floating charge. In the mortgage debenture there is also a floating
charge, but the property forming the principal part of the security is
conveyed by the company to trustees under a trust deed for the benefit
of the debenture-holders. In the debenture bond there is no security
proper: only the covenant for payment by the company. For purposes of
title and transfer, debentures are either "registered" or "to bearer."
For purposes of payment they are either "terminable" or "perpetual" (see
Companies Act 1908, § 103).
_The Floating Debenture._--The form of debenture chiefly in use at the
present day is that secured by a floating charge. By it the company
covenants to pay to the holder thereof the sum secured by the debenture
on a specified day (usually ten or fifteen years after the date of
issue), or at such earlier date as the principal moneys become due under
the provisions of the security, and in the meantime the company
covenants to pay interest on the principal moneys until payment, or
until the security becomes enforceable under the conditions; and the
company further charges its undertaking and all its property, including
its uncalled capital, with the payment of the amount secured by the
debentures. Uncalled capital if included must be expressly mentioned,
because the word "property" by itself will not cover uncalled capital
which is only property potentially, i.e. when called up. This is the
body of the instrument; on its back is endorsed a series of conditions,
constituting the terms on which the debenture is issued. Thus the
debenture-holders are to rank _pari passu_ with one another against the
security; the debenture is to be transferable free from equities between
the company and the original holder; the charge is to be a floating
charge, and the debenture-holders' moneys are to become immediately
repayable and the charges enforceable in certain events: for instance,
if the interest is in arrear for (say) two or three months, or if a
winding-up order is made against the company, or a resolution for
winding-up is passed. Other events indicative of insolvency are
sometimes added in which payment is to be accelerated. The conditions
also provide for the mode and form of transfer of the debentures, the
death or bankruptcy of the holder, the place of payment, &c. The most
characteristic feature of the security--the floating charge--grew
naturally out of a charge on a company's undertaking as a going concern.
Such a charge could only be made practicable by leaving the company free
to deal with and dispose of its property in the ordinary course of its
business--to sell, mortgage, lease, and exchange it as if no charge
existed: and this is how the security works. The debenture-holders give
the directors an implied licence to deal with and dispose of the
property comprised in the security until the happening of any of the
events upon which the debenture-holders' money becomes under the
debenture conditions immediately repayable. Pending this the charge is
dormant. The licence extends, however, only to dealings in _the ordinary
course of business_. Payment by a company of its just debts is always in
the ordinary course of business, but satisfaction by execution levied
_in invitum_ is not. This floating form of security is found very
convenient both to the borrowing company and to the lender. The company
is not embarrassed by the charge, while the lender has a security
covering the whole assets for the time being, and can intervene at any
moment by obtaining a receiver if his security is imperilled, even
though none of the events in which the principal moneys are made payable
have happened. If any of them has happened, for instance default in
payment of interest, or a resolution by the company to wind up, the
payment of the principal moneys is accelerated, and a debenture-holder
can at once commence an action to obtain payment and to realize his
security. At times a proviso is inserted in the conditions endorsed on
the debenture, that the company is not to create any mortgage or charge
ranking in priority to or _pari passu_ with that contained in the
debentures. Very nice questions of priority have arisen under such a
clause. A floating charge created by a company within three months of
its being wound up will now be invalid under § 12 of the Companies Act
1908 unless the company is shown to have been solvent at the time, but
there is a saving clause for cash paid under the security and interest
at 5%.
_Trust Deeds._--When the amount borrowed by a company is large, the
company commonly executes a trust deed by way of further security. The
object of such a trust deed is twofold: (1) it conveys specific property
to the trustees of the deed by way of legal mortgage (the charge
contained in the debentures is only an equitable security), and it
further charges all the remaining assets in favour of the
debenture-holders, with appropriate provisions for enabling them, in
certain events similar to those expressed in the debenture conditions,
to enforce the security, and for that purpose to enter into possession
and carry on the business, or to sell it and distribute the proceeds;
(2) it organizes the debenture-holders and constitutes in the trustees
of the deed a body of experienced business men who can watch over the
interests of the debenture-holders and take steps for their protection
if necessary. In particular it provides machinery for the calling of
meetings of debenture-holders by the trustees, and empowers a majority
of (say) two-thirds or three-fourths in number and value at such meeting
to bind the rest to any compromise or arrangement with the company which
such majorities may deem beneficial. This is found a very useful power,
and may save recourse to a scheme or arrangement first sanctioned under
the machinery of the Joint Stock Companies Arrangement Act 1870
(Companies Act 1908, § 120).
_Registration of Mortgages and Charges._--A company is bound, under the
Companies Act 1862, to keep a register of mortgages and charges, but the
register is only open for the inspection of persons who have actually
become creditors of the company, not of persons who may be thinking of
giving it credit, and the legislature recognizing its inadequacy
provided in the Companies Act 1900 (§ 4 of act of 1908) for a public
register at Somerset House of all mortgages and charges of certain
specified classes by a company. If not registered within twenty-one days
from their creation such mortgages and charges are made void--so far as
they are securities--against the liquidator and any creditor of the
company, but the debenture-holders retain the rights of unsecured
creditors. An extension of the time for registering may be granted by
the court, but it will only be without prejudice to the rights of third
persons acquired before actual registration. These provisions for
registration as amended are contained in the Companies Act 1908 (§ 93).
_Debentures Registered and to Bearer._--Debentures are, for purposes of
title and transfer, of two kinds--(1) registered debentures, and (2)
debentures to bearer. Registered debentures are transferable only in the
books of the company. Debentures to bearer are negotiable instruments
and pass by delivery. Coupons for interest are attached. Sometimes
debentures to bearer are made exchangeable for registered debentures and
vice versa.
_Redemption._--A company generally reserves to itself a right of
redeeming the security before the date fixed by the debenture for
repayment; and accordingly a power for that purpose is commonly inserted
in the conditions. But as debenture-holders, who have got a satisfactory
security, do not wish to be paid off, the right of redemption is often
qualified so as not to arise till (say) five years after issue, and a
premium of 5% is made payable by way of bonus to the redeemed
debenture-holder. Sometimes the number of debentures to be redeemed each
year is limited. The selection is made by drawings held in the presence
of the directors. A sinking fund is a convenient means frequently
resorted to for redemption of a debenture debt, and is especially
suitable where the security is of a wasting character, leaseholds,
mining property or a patent. Such a fund is formed by the company
setting apart a certain sum each year out of the profits of the company
after payment of interest on the debentures. Redeemed debentures may in
certain cases be reissued; see Companies Act 1908 (§ 104).
_Debenture Stock._--Debenture stock bears the same relation to
debentures that stock does to shares. "Debenture stock," as Lord Lindley
states (_Companies_, 5th ed., 195), "is merely borrowed capital
consolidated into one mass for the sake of convenience. Instead of each
lender having a separate bond or mortgage, he has a certificate
entitling him to a certain sum, being a portion of one large loan." This
sum is not uniform, as in the case of debentures, but variable. One
debenture-stockholder, for instance, may hold £20 of the debenture
stock, another £20,000. Debenture stock is usually issued in multiples
of £10 or sometimes of £1, and is made transferable in sums of any
amount not involving a fraction of £1. It is this divisibility of stock,
whether debenture or ordinary stock, into quantities of any amount,
which constitutes in fact its chief characteristic, and its convenience
from a business point of view. It facilitates dealing with the stock,
and also enables investors with only a small amount to invest to become
stockholders. The property comprised in this security is generally the
same as in the case of debentures. Debenture stock created by trading
companies differs in various particulars from debenture stock created by
public companies governed by the Companies Clauses Act. The debenture
stock of trading companies is created by a contract made between the
company and trustees for the debenture-stockholders. This contract is
known as a debenture-stockholders' trust deed, and is analogous in its
provisions to the trust deed above described as used to secure
debentures. By such a deed the company acknowledges its indebtedness to
the trustees, as representing the debenture-stockholders, to the amount
of the sum advanced, covenants to pay it, and conveys the property by
way of security to the trustees with all the requisite powers and
provisions for enabling them to enforce the security on default in
payment of interest by the company or on the happening of certain
specified events evidencing insolvency. The company further, in
pursuance of the contract, enters the names of the subsisting
stockholders in a register, and issues certificates for the amount of
their respective holdings. These certificates have, like debentures, the
conditions of the security indorsed on their back. Debenture stock is
also issued to bearer. A deed securing debenture stock requires an _ad
valorem_ stamp.
_Debenture Scrip._--Debentures and debenture stock are usually made
payable in instalments, for example 10% on application, 10% on allotment
and the remainder at intervals of a few months. Until these payments are
complete the securities are not issued, but to enable the subscriber to
deal with his security pending completion the company issues to him an
interim scrip certificate acknowledging his title and exchangeable on
payment of the remaining instalments for debentures or debenture stock
certificates. If a subscriber for debentures made default in payment the
company could not compel him specifically to perform his contract, the
theory of law being that the company could get the loan elsewhere, but
this inconvenience is now removed (see § 105 of the Companies Act 1908).
_Remedies._--When debenture-holders' security becomes enforceable there
are a variety of remedies open to them. These fall into two classes--(1)
remedies available without the aid of the court; (2) remedies available
only with the aid of the court.
1. If there is a trust deed, the trustees may appoint a receiver of the
property comprised in the security, and they may also sell under the
powers contained in the deed, or under § 25 of the Conveyancing Act
1881. Sometimes, where there is no trust deed, similar powers--to
appoint a receiver and to sell--are inserted in the conditions indorsed
on the debentures.
2. The remedies with the aid of the court are--(a) an action by one or
more debenture-holders on behalf of all for a receiver and to realize
the security; (b) an originating summons for sale or other relief, under
Rules of Supreme Court, 1883, O. lv. r. 5A; (c) an action for
foreclosure where the security is deficient (all the debenture-holders
must be parties to this proceeding); (d) a winding-up petition. Of these
modes of proceeding, the first is by far the most common and most
convenient. Immediately on the issue of the writ in the action the
plaintiff applies for the appointment of a receiver to protect the
security, or if the security comprises a going business, a receiver _and
manager_. In due course the action comes on for judgment, usually on
agreed minutes, when the court directs accounts and inquiries as to who
are the holders of the debentures, what is due to them, what property is
comprised in the security, and gives leave to any of the parties to
apply in chambers for a sale. If the company has gone into liquidation,
leave must be obtained to commence or continue the action, but such
leave in the case of debenture-holders is _ex debito justitiae_. A
debenture-holder action when the company is in winding up is always now
transferred to the judge having the control of the winding-up
proceedings. The administration of a company's assets in such actions by
debenture-holders (debenture-holders' liquidations, as they are called)
has of late encroached very much on the ordinary administration of
winding up, and it cannot be denied that great hardship is often
inflicted by the floating security on the company's unsecured creditors,
who find that everything belonging to the company, uncalled capital
included, has been pledged to the debenture-holders. The conventional
answer is that such creditors might and ought to have inspected the
company's register of mortgages and charges. The matter was fully
considered by the departmental board of trade committee which reported
in July 1906, but the committee, looking at the business convenience of
the floating charge, saw no reason for recommending an alteration in the
law.
_Reconstruction._--When a company reconstructs, as it often does in
these days, the rights of debenture-holders have to be provided for.
Reconstructions are mainly of two kinds--(1) by arrangement, under the
Joint Stock Companies Arrangement Act 1870, amended in 1900 and 1907,
incorporated in act of 1908 (§ 120), and (2) by sale and transfer of
assets, either under § 192 of the act of 1908, or under a power in the
company's memorandum of association. By the procedure provided under (1)
a petition for the sanction of the court to a scheme is presented, and
the court thereupon directs meetings of creditors, including
debenture-holders, to be held. A three-fourths majority in value of
debenture-holders present at the meeting in person or by proxy binds the
rest. Debenture-holders claiming to vote must produce their debentures
at or before the meeting. Under the other mode of reconstruction--sale
and transfer of assets--there is usually a novation, and the
debenture-holders accept the security of the new company in the shape of
debentures of equivalent value or--occasionally--of fully paid
preference shares.
A point in this connexion, which involves some hardship to
debenture-holders, may here be adverted to. It is a not uncommon
practice for a solvent company to pass a resolution to wind up
voluntarily for the purpose of reconstructing. The effect of this is to
accelerate payment of the security, and the debenture-holders have to
accept their principal and interest only, parting with a good security
and perhaps a premium which would have accrued to them in a year or two.
The company is thus enabled by its own act to redeem the reluctant
debenture-holder on terms most advantageous to itself. To obviate this
hardship, it is now a usual thing in a debenture-holders' trust deed to
provide--the committee of the London Stock Exchange indeed require
it--that a premium shall be paid to the debenture-holders in the event
of the security becoming enforceable by a voluntary winding up with a
view to reconstruction.
_Public Companies._--Public companies, i.e. companies incorporated by
special act of parliament for carrying on undertakings of public utility,
form a class distinct from trading companies. The borrowing powers of
these companies, the form of their debenture or debenture stock, and the
rights of the debenture-holders or debenture-stockholders, depend on the
conjoint operation of the companies' own special act and the Companies
Clauses Acts 1845, 1863 and 1869. The provisions of these acts as to
borrowing, being express, exclude any implicit power of borrowing. The
first two of the above acts relate to mortgages and bonds, the last to
debenture stock. The policy of the legislature in all these acts is the
same, namely, to give the greatest facilities for borrowing, and at the
same time to take care that undertakings of public utility which have
received legislative sanction shall not be broken up or destroyed, as
they would be if the mortgagees or debenture-holders were allowed the
ordinary rights of mortgagees for realizing their security by seizure and
sale. Hence the legislature has given them only "the fruit of the tree,"
as Lord Cairns expressed it. The debenture-holders or the
debenture-stockholders may take the earnings of the company's undertaking
by obtaining the appointment of a receiver, but that is all they can do.
They cannot sell the undertaking or disorganize it by levying execution,
so long as the company is a going concern; but this protecting principle
of public policy will not be a bar to a debenture-holder, in his
character of creditor, presenting a petition to wind up the company, if
it is no longer able to fulfil its statutory objects. Railway companies
have further special legislation, which will be found in the Railway
Companies Powers Act 1864, the Railways Construction Facilities Act 1864
and the Railway Securities Act 1866.
_Municipal Corporations and County Councils._--These bodies are
authorized to borrow for their proper purposes on debentures and
debenture stock with the sanction of the Local Government Board. See the
Municipal Corporations Act 1882, the Local Authorities' Loans Act 1875,
and the Local Government (England and Wales) Act 1888.
_United States._--In the United States there are two meanings of
debenture--(1) a bond not secured by mortgage; (2) a certificate that
the United States is indebted to a certain person or his assigns in a
certain sum on an audited account, or that it will refund a certain sum
paid for duties on imported goods, in case they are subsequently
exported.
AUTHORITIES.--E. Manson, _Debentures and Debenture Stock_ (London, 2nd
ed., 1908); Simonson, _Debentures and Debenture Stock_ (London, 2nd
ed., 1902); Palmer, _Company Precedents (Debentures)_ (3rd ed.,
London, 1907). (E. Ma.)
DEBORAH (Heb. for "bee"), the Israelite heroine in the Bible through
whose encouragement the Hebrews defeated the Canaanites under Sisera.
The account is preserved in Judges iv.-v., and the ode of victory (chap.
v.), known as the "Song of Deborah," is held to be one of the oldest
surviving specimens of Hebrew literature. Although the text of this _Te
Deum_ has suffered (especially in vv. 8-15) its value is without an
equal for its historical contents. It is not certain that the poem was
actually composed by Deborah (v. 1); ver. 7, which can be rendered
"until _thou_ didst arise, O Deborah," is indecisive. The poem consists
of a series of rapidly shifting scenes; the words are often obscure, but
the general drift of the whole can be easily followed. After the
exordium, the writer describes the approach of Yahweh from his seats in
Seir and Edom in the south to the help of his people--the language is
reminiscent of Ps. lxviii. 7 sqq., Hab. iii. 3 seq. 12 seq. In the days
of Shamgar the son of Anath the land had been insecure, the people were
disarmed, and neither shield nor spear was to be seen among their forty
thousand (cf. 1 Sam. xiii. 19-22, and for the number Josh. iv. 13). Then
follows, apparently, a summons to magnify Yahweh. After an apostrophe to
Deborah and Barak, the son of Abinoam, the meeting of the clans is
vividly portrayed. Ephraim, with Benjamin behind him (for the wording,
cf. Hos. v. 8), Machir (here the tribe of Manasseh) and Zebulun,
Issachar and Naphtali, pour down into the valley of the Kishon. Not all
the tribes were represented. Reuben was wavering, Gilead (i.e. Gad)
remained beyond the Jordan, and Dan's interests were apparently with the
sea-going Phoenicians (see DAN); their conduct is contrasted with the
reckless bravery of Zebulun and Naphtali. Judah is nowhere mentioned; it
lay outside the confederation. The Canaanite kings unite at Taanach by
Megiddo, an ancient battlefield probably to be identified with Lejjun.
The heavens joined the fight against Sisera (cf. the appeal in Josh. x.
12 seq.), a storm rages, and the enemy are swept away in the flood.
Meroz, presumably on the line of flight, is bitterly cursed for its
inaction: "they came not to the help of Yahweh." In vivid contrast to
this is the conduct of one of the Kenites: "blessed of all women is
Jael, of all the nomad women is she blessed." The poem recounts how the
fleeing king craves water, she gives him milk, and (as he drinks) she
fells him (perhaps with a tent-peg); "at her feet he sank down, he fell,
he lay, where he sank he lay overcome." The last scene paints the mother
of Sisera impatiently awaiting the king. Her attendants confidently
picture him dividing the booty--a maiden or two for each man, and richly
embroidered cloth for himself. With inimitable strength the poet
suddenly drops the curtain--"so perish thine enemies, all of them,
Yahweh! But let them that love him be as the sun when it rises in its
might."
The historical background of this great event is unknown. The Israelite
confederation consists of central Palestine with the (east-Jordanic)
Machir, and the northern tribes with the exception of Dan and Asher.
This has suggested to some an invasion from the coast, or from the north
by way of the coast, since had Dan and Asher fallen into the hands of
the enemy, this would probably have been referred to in some way. Sisera
is scarcely a Semitic name; a "Hittite" origin has been suggested.[1]
Shamgar son of Anath seems equally foreign; the latter is the name of a
Syrian goddess and the former recalls Sangara, a Hittite chief of
Carchemish in the 9th century. The context suggests that Shamgar is a
foreign oppressor (ver. 6), but he appears to have been converted
subsequently into one of the "judges" of Israel (iii. 31), perhaps with
the idea of bringing their total up to twelve.
The prose version (iv.) contains new and conflicting details. Deborah,
whose home is placed under "Deborah's palm" between Ramah and Bethel,
summons Barak from Kadesh-Naphtali to collect Naphtali and Zebulun,
10,000 strong, and to meet Sisera (who is here the general of a certain
Jabin, king of Hazor) at Mt. Tabor. But Sisera marches south to Kishon,
and after his defeat flees north through Israelite territory, past Hazor
to the neighbourhood of Kadesh. His death, moreover, is differently
described (iv. 21, v. 25-27), and Jael "who with inhospitable guile
smote Sisera sleeping" (Milton) is guilty of an act which has possibly
originated from a misunderstanding of the poem. In the prose narrative
Jabin has nothing to do with the fight, whereas in Josh. xi. he is at
the head of an alliance of north Canaanite kings who were defeated by
Joshua at the waters of Merom. It would seem that certain elements which
are inconsistent with the representation in Judg. v. belonged originally
to the other battle. Kadesh, for example, might be a natural
meeting-place for an attack upon Hazor, and the designation "Jabin's
general," applied to Sisera, is probably due to the attempt to harmonize
the two distinct stories. Moreover, Deborah, who is associated with the
tribe of Issachar (v. 15), appears to have been confused with Rebekah's
nurse, whose tomb lay near Bethel (Gen. xxxv. 5). Some more northerly
place seems to be required, and it has been pointed out that the name
corresponds with Daberath (modern Daburiyeh) at the foot of Tabor, on
the border of Zebulun and Issachar. At all events, to represent her as a
prophetess, judging the people of Israel (iv. 4 seq.), ill accords with
both the older account (v.) and the general situation reflected in the
earlier narratives in the book of Judges.
For fuller details see G. A. Cooke, _History and Song of Deborah_
(1892), the commentaries on Judges and the histories of Israel.
Cheyne, _Critica Biblica_, pp. 446-464, offers many new textual
emendations. Paton (_Syria and Palestine_, p. 158 sqq.) suggests that
the battle was against the Hittites (Sisera, a successor of Shamgar).
See also L. W. Batten, J_ourn. Bibl. Lit._ (1905) pp. 31-40 (who
regards Judg. v. and Josh. xi. as duplicates); Winckler, _Gesch.
Israels_, ii. 125-155; _Keilinschr. u. d. Alte Test._(³) p. 218; and
Ed. Meyer, _Israeliten_, pp. 272 sqq., 487 sqq. (S. A. C.)
FOOTNOTE:
[1] The term "Hittite" is here used as a loose but convenient
designation for closely related groups of N. Syria; see HITTITES.
DEBRECZEN, a town of Hungary, capital of the county of Hajdu, 138 m. E.
of Budapest by rail. Pop. (1900) 72,351. It is the principal Protestant
centre in Hungary, and bears the name of "Calvinistic Rome." Debreczen
is one of the largest towns of Hungary, and is situated in the midst of
a sandy but fertile plain. It consists of the inner old town, and
several suburbs, which stretch out irregularly into the plain. The walls
of the old town have given place to a broad boulevard and several open
commons, beautifully laid out. The most prominent of its public
buildings is the principal Protestant church, built at the beginning of
the 19th century, which ranks as the largest in the country, but has no
great architectural pretensions. In its immediate neighbourhood is the
Protestant Collegium, for theology and law, which is one of the most
frequented institutions of its kind in Hungary, being attended by over
two thousand students. This college was founded in 1531, and possesses a
rich library and other scientific collections. The town hall, the
Franciscan church, the Piarist monastery and college, and the theatre
are also worthy of mention. Amongst its educational establishments it
includes an agricultural academy. The industries of the town are
various, but none is of importance enough to give it the character of a
manufacturing centre. Its tobacco-pipes, sausages and soap are widely
known. It carries on an active trade in cattle, horses, corn and honey,
while four well-attended fairs are held annually. The municipality of
Debreczen owns between three hundred and four hundred square miles of
the adjoining country, which possesses all the characteristics of the
Hungarian _puszta_, and on which roam large herds of cattle.
The town is of considerable antiquity, but owes its development to the
refugees who flocked from the villages plundered by the Turks in the
15th century. In 1552 it adopted the Protestant faith, and it had to
suffer in consequence, especially when it was captured in 1686 by the
imperial forces. In 1693 it was made a royal free city. In 1848-1849 it
formed a refuge for the national government and legislature when
Budapest fell into the hands of the Austrians; and it was in the great
Calvinist church that, on Kossuth's motion (April 14th, 1849) the
resolution was passed declaring the house of Habsburg to have forfeited
the crown of St Stephen. On the 3rd of July the town was captured by the
Russians.
DEBT (Lat. _debitum_, a thing owed), a definite sum due by one person to
another. It may be created by contract, by statute or by judgment.
Putting aside those created by statute, recoverable by civil process,
debts may be divided into three classes, (1) judgment debts, (2)
specialty debts, and (3) simple contract debts. As to judgment debts, it
is sufficient to say that, when by the judgment of a court of competent
jurisdiction an order is made that a sum of money be paid by one of two
parties to another, such a debt is not only enforceable by process of
court, but it can be sued upon as if it were an ordinary debt. A
specialty debt is created by deed or instrument under seal. Until 1869
specialty debts had preference under English law over simple contract
debts in the event of the bankruptcy or death of the debtor, but this
was abolished by the Administration of Estates Act of that year. The
main difference now is that a specialty debt may, in general, be created
without consideration, as for example by a bond (a gratuitous promise
under seal), and that a right of action arising out of a specialty debt
is not barred if exercised any time within twenty years, whereas a right
of action arising out of a simple contract debt is barred unless
exercised within six years. (See LIMITATION, STATUTES OF.) Any other
debt than a judgment or specialty debt, whether evidenced by writing or
not, is a simple contract debt. There are also certain liabilities or
debts which, for the convenience of the remedy, have been made to appear
as though they sprang from contract, and are sometimes termed
quasi-contracts. Such would be an admission by one who is in account
with another that there is a balance due from him. Such an admission
implies a promise to pay when requested and creates an actionable
liability _ex contractu_. Or, when one person is compelled by law to
discharge the legal liabilities of another, he becomes the creditor of
the person for the money so paid. Again, where a person has received
money under circumstances which disentitle him to retain it, such as
receiving payment of an account twice over, it can generally be
recovered as a debt.
At English common law debts and other choses in action were not
assignable (see CHOSE), but by the Judicature Act 1873 any absolute
assignment of any debt or other legal chose in action, of which express
notice in writing is given to the debtor, trustee or other person from
whom the assignor would have been entitled to receive or claim such
debt, is effectual in law. Debts do not, as a general rule, carry
interest, but such an obligation may arise either by agreement or by
mercantile usage or by statute. The discharge of a debt may take place
either by payment of the amount due, by accord and satisfaction, i.e.
acceptance of something else in discharge of the liability, by set-off
(q.v.), by release or under the law of bankruptcy (q.v.). It is the duty
of a debtor to pay a debt without waiting for any demand, and, unless
there is a place fixed on either by custom or agreement, he must seek
out his creditor for the purpose of paying him unless he is "beyond the
seas." Payment by a third person to the creditor is no discharge of a
debt, as a general rule, unless the debtor subsequently ratifies the
payment. When a debtor tenders the amount due to his creditor and the
creditor refuses to accept, the debt is not discharged, but if the
debtor is subsequently sued for the debt and continues willing and ready
to pay, and pays the amount tendered into court, he can recover his
costs in the action. A creditor is not bound to give change to the
debtor, whose duty it is to make tender in lawful money the whole amount
due, or more, without asking for change. (See PAYMENT.) A debtor takes
the risk if he makes payment through the post, unless the creditor has
requested or authorized that mode of payment. The payment of a debt is
sometimes secured by one person, called a surety, who makes himself
collaterally liable for the debt of the principal. (See GUARANTEE.) The
ordinary method of enforcing a debt is by action. Where the debt does
not exceed £100 the simplest procedure for its recovery is that of the
county court, but if the debt exceeds £100 the creditor must proceed in
the high court, unless the cause of action has arisen within the
jurisdiction of certain inferior courts, such as the mayor's court of
London, the Liverpool court of passage, &c. When judgment has been
obtained it may be enforced either by process (under certain conditions)
against the person of the debtor, by an execution against the debtor's
property, or, with the assistance of the court, by attaching any debt
owed to the debtor by a third person. Where a debtor has committed any
act of bankruptcy a creditor or creditors whose aggregate claims are not
less than £50 may proceed against him in bankruptcy (q.v.). Where the
debtor is a company or corporation registered under the companies acts,
the creditor may petition to have it wound up. (See COMPANY.)
Imprisonment for debt, the evils of which have been so graphically
described by Dickens, was abolished in England by the Debtors Act 1869,
except in cases of default of payment of penalties, default by trustees
or solicitors and certain other cases. But in cases where a debt or
instalment is in arrear and it is proved to the satisfaction of the
court that the person making default either has or has had since the
date of the order or judgment the means to pay the sum in respect of
which he has made default and has refused or neglected to pay, he may be
committed to prison at the discretion of the judge for a period of not
more than forty-two days. In practice, a period of twenty-one days is
usually the maximum period ordered. Such an imprisonment does not
operate as a satisfaction or extinguishment of the debt, and no second
order of commitment can be made against him for the same debt, although
where the court has made an order or judgment for the payment of the
debt by instalments a power of committal arises on default of payment of
each instalment. In Ireland imprisonment for debt was abolished by the
Debtors Act (Ireland) 1872, and in Scotland by the Debtors (Scotland)
Act 1880. In France it was abolished in 1867, in Belgium in 1871, in
Switzerland and Norway in 1874, and in Italy in 1877. In the United
States imprisonment for debt was universal under the common law, but it
has been abolished in every state, except in certain cases, as where
there is any suspicion of fraud or where the debtor has an intention of
removing out of the state to avoid his debts. (See also CONTRACT;
BANKRUPTCY.)
DEBUSSY, CLAUDE ACHILLE (1862- ), French composer, was born at St
Germain-en-Laye on the 22nd of August 1862, and educated at the Paris
Conservatoire under Marmontel, Lavignac, Massenet and Guiraud. There
between 1874 and 1884 he gained many prizes for solfège, pianoforte
playing, accompanying, counterpoint and fugue, and, in the last-named
year, the coveted Grand Prix de Rome by means of his cantata _L'Enfant
prodigue_. In this composition already were thought to be noticeable the
germs of unusual and "new" talent, though in the light of later
developments it is not very easy to discern them, for then Debussy had
not come under the influence which ultimately turned his mind to the
system he afterwards used, not only with peculiar distinction but also
with particular individual and complete success. Nevertheless, the mind
had clearly been prepared by nature for the reception of this influence
when it should arise; for, in order to fulfil that condition of the Prix
de Rome which entails the submitting periodically of compositions to the
judges, Debussy sent to them his symphonic suite _Printemps_, to which
the judges took exception on the ground of its formlessness. Following
in the wake of _Printemps_ came _La damoiselle élue_ for solo, female
voice and orchestra--a setting of a French version of Rossetti's "The
Blessed Damosel"--which in the eyes of the judges was even more
unorthodox than its predecessor, though, be it said, fault was found as
much with the libretto as with the music. Both works were denied the
customary public performance.
The Rome period over, Debussy returned to Paris, whence shortly he went
to Russia, where he came directly under the influence referred to above.
In Russia he absorbed the native music, especially that of Moussorgsky,
who, recently dead, had left behind him the reputation of a "musical
nihilist," and on his return to Paris Debussy devoted himself to
composition, the stream of his muse being even in 1908 as fluent as
twenty years before. To him public recognition was slow in coming, but
in 1893 the Société Nationale de Musique performed his _Damoiselle
élue_, in 1894 the Ysaye Quartet introduced the string quartet, while in
the same year the _Prélude à l'après-midi d'un Faune_ was heard, and
brought Debussy's name into some prominence. As time passed the
prominence grew, until the climax of Debussy's creative career was
reached by the production at the Opéra Comique on the 30th of April 1902
of his masterpiece _Pelléas et Mélisande_. Herein lay the whole strength
of Debussy's system, the perfection of his appeal to the mind and
imagination as well as to the emotions and senses. Since its production
the world has been enriched by _La Mer_, and by the _Ariettes oubliées_,
but the lyric drama remains on its own lofty pedestal, a monument of
elusive and subtle beauty, of emphatic originality and of charm. In an
Apologia Debussy has declared that in composing _Pelléas_ he "wanted to
dispense with parasitic musical phrases. Melody is, if I may say so,
almost anti-lyric, and powerless to express the constant change of
emotion or life. Melody is suitable only for the chanson, which confirms
a fixed sentiment. I have never been willing that my music should
hinder, through technical exigencies, the change of sentiment and
passion felt by my characters. It is effaced as soon as it is necessary
that these should have perfect liberty in their gestures or in their
cries, in their joy, or in their sorrow."
The list of Debussy's works is a lengthy one. Several of them have been
referred to already. Among the others, of which the complete list is too
long to print here, are the dances for chromatic harp or pianoforte;
_Images_; incidental music to _King Lear_; the _Petite Suite_; _Trois
Nocturnes_; innumerable songs, as _Proses Lyriques_ (text by Debussy);
two series of Verlaine's _Fêtes galantes_; _Cinq Poèmes de Baudelaire_;
many pianoforte pieces.
In 1891 Debussy was appointed critic of the _Revue Blanche_. In his
first notice he expressed his faith thus: "I shall endeavour to trace in
a musical work the many different emotions which have helped to give it
birth, also to demonstrate its inner life. This, surely, will be
accounted of greater interest than the game which consists in dissecting
it as if it were a curious timepiece."
As to the theories, so much debated, of this remarkable
musician--probably in the whole range of musical history there has not
appeared a more difficult theorist to "place." Unquestionably Debussy
has introduced a new system of colour into music, which has begun
already to exert widespread influence. Roughly, Debussy's system may be
summarized thus:
His scale basis is of six whole tones (enharmonic), as (1) middle C, D,
E, G[flat], A[flat], B[flat], which are of excellent sound when
superimposed in the form of two augmented unrelated triads.
/ B[flat] / A[sharp]
< G[flat]or enharmonically < F[sharp]
\ D \ D
/ A[flat] / G[sharp]
< E < E
\ C \ C
used frequently incomplete (i.e. by the omission of one note) by
Debussy.
E \
C |
A >
F[sharp] |
D /
Now, upon the basis of an augmented triad a tune may be played above it
provided that it be based upon the six-tone scale, and a fugue may be
written, the re-entry of the subject of which may be made upon any note
of the scale, and the harmony will be complete. To associate this scale
with the ordinary diatonic scale let a major 9th be taken, e.g.: one may
conventionally flatten or sharpen the fifth of this (A becoming [sharp]
or [flat] as desired): if _both_ the flattened and sharpened fifths be
taken in the one chord this chord is arrived at:
E
C
B[flat]
A[flat] (A[sharp] enharmonically altered to B[flat])
F[sharp]
D
which is composed of the notes of the aforesaid scale (1), and Debussy
thereby proves his case to belong to the "primitifs." It will be noticed
that chords of the 9th in sequence and in all forms occur in Debussy's
music as well as the augmented triad harmonics, where the melodic line
is based on the tonal scale. This, in all likelihood, is the outcome of
Debussy's instinctive feeling for the association of his so-called
discovery with the ordinary scale. The "secret," it may be added, comes
not from Annamese music as has been frequently stated, but probably from
Russia, where certainly it was used before Debussy's rise. (R. H. L.)
DECADE (from Gr. [Greek: deka], ten), a group or series containing ten
members, particularly a period of ten years. In the new calendar made at
the time of the French Revolution in 1793, a decade of ten days took the
place of the week. The word is also used of the divisions containing ten
books or parts into which the history of Livy was divided.
DECAEN, CHARLES MATHIEU ISIDORE, COUNT (1769-1832), French soldier, was
born at Caen on the 13th of April 1769. He was educated for the bar, but
soon showed a strong preference for the military career, in which he
quickly made his way during the wars of the French Revolution under
Kléber, Marceau and Jourdan, in the Rhenish campaigns. In 1799 he became
general of division, and contributed to the success of the famous attack
by General Richepanse on the Austrian flank and rear at Hohenlinden
(December 1800). Becoming known for his Anglophobe tendencies, he was
selected by Napoleon early in the year 1802 for the command of the
French possessions in the East Indies. The secret instructions issued to
him bade him prepare the way, so that in due course (September 1804 was
hinted at as the suitable time) everything might be ready for an attack
on the British power in India. Napoleon held out to him the hope of
acquiring lasting glory in that enterprise. Decaen set sail with Admiral
Linois early in March 1803 with a small expeditionary force, touched at
the Cape of Good Hope (then in Dutch hands), and noted the condition of
the fortifications there. On arriving at Pondicherry he found matters in
a very critical condition. Though the outbreak of war in Europe had not
yet been heard of, the hostile preparations adopted by the Marquis
Wellesley caused Decaen to withdraw promptly to the Isle of France
(Mauritius), where, during eight years, he sought to harass British
trade and prepare for plans of alliance with the Mahratta princes of
India. They all came to naught. Linois was captured by a British
squadron, and ultimately, in 1811, Mauritius itself fell to the Union
Jack. Returning to France on honourable terms, Decaen received the
command of the French troops in Catalonia. The rest of his career calls
for no special mention. He died of the cholera in 1832.
See M. L. E. Gautier, _Biographie du général Decaen_ (Caen, 1850).
(J. Hl. R.)
DECALOGUE (in patristic Gr. [Greek: hê dekalogos], sc. [Greek: biblos]
or [Greek: nomothesia]), another name for the biblical _Ten
Commandments_, in Hebrew the _Ten Words_ (Deut. iv. 13, x. 4; Ex. xxxiv.
28), written by God on the two tables of stone (Ex. xxiv. 12, xxxii.
16), the so-called _Tables of the Revelation_ (E.V. "tables of
testimony," Ex. xxxiv. 29), or _Tables of the Covenant_ (Deut. ix. 9,
11, 15). These tables were broken by Moses (Ex. xxxii. 19), and two new
ones were hewn (xxxiv. 1), and upon them were written the words of the
covenant by Moses (xxxiv. 27 sqq.) or, according to another view, by God
himself (Deut. iv. 13, ix. 10). They were deposited in the Ark (Ex. xxv.
21; 1 Kings viii. 9). In Deuteronomy the inscription on these tables,
which is briefly called the covenant (iv. 13), is expressly identified
with the words spoken by Jehovah (Yahweh) out of the midst of the fire
at Mt. Sinai or Horeb (according to the Deuteronomic tradition), in the
ears of the whole people on the "day of the assembly," and rehearsed in
v. 6-21. In the narrative of Exodus the relation of the "ten words" of
xxxiv. to the words spoken from Sinai, xx. 2-17, is not so clearly
indicated, and it is generally agreed that the Pentateuch presents
divergent and irreconcilable views of the Sinaitic covenant.
As regards the Decalogue, as usually understood, and embodied in the
parallel passages in Ex. xx. and Deut. v., certain preliminary points of
detail have to be noticed. The variations in the parallel texts are
partly verbal, partly stylistic (e.g. "Remember the Sabbath day," Ex.;
but "observe," &c., Deut.), and partly consist of amplifications or
divergent explanations. Thus the reason assigned for the institution of
the Sabbath in Exodus is drawn from the creation, and agrees with Gen.
ii. 3. In Deuteronomy the command is based on the duty of humanity to
servants and the memory of Egyptian bondage. Again, in the tenth
commandment, as given in Exodus, "house" means house and household,
including the wife and all the particulars which are enumerated in ver.
17. In Deuteronomy, "Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's wife," comes
first, and "house" following in association with field is to be taken in
the literal restricted sense, and another verb ("thou shalt not desire")
is used.
The construction of the second commandment in the Hebrew text is
disputed, but the most natural sense seems to be, "Thou shalt not make
unto thee a graven image; (and) to no visible shape in heaven, &c.,
shalt thou bow down, &c." The third commandment might be rendered, "Thou
shalt not utter the name of the Lord thy God vainly," but it is possible
that the meaning is that Yahweh's name is not to be used for purposes of
sorcery.
The order of the commandments relating to murder, adultery and
stealing varies in the Vatican text of the Septuagint, viz. adultery,
stealing, murder, in Ex.; adultery, murder, stealing, in Deut. The
latter is supported by several passages in the New Testament (Rom.
xiii. 9; Mark x. 19, A.V.; Luke xviii. 20; contrast Matt. xix. 18),
and by the "Nash Papyrus."[1] It may be added that the double system
of accentuation of the Decalogue in the Hebrew Bible seems to preserve
traces of the ancient uncertainty concerning the numeration.
_Divisions of the Decalogue._--The division current in England and
Scotland, and generally among the Reformed (Calvinistic) churches and in
the Orthodox Eastern Church, is known as the Philonic division (Philo,
_de Decalogo_, §12). It is sometimes called by the name of Origen, who
adopts it in his _Homilies on Exodus_. On this scheme the preface, Ex.
xx. 2, has been usually taken as part of the first commandment. The
Church of Rome and the Lutherans adopt the Augustinian division (Aug.,
_Quaest. super Exod._, lxxi.), combining into one the first and second
commandments of Philo, and splitting his tenth commandment into two. To
gain a clear distinction between the ninth and tenth commandments on
this scheme it has usually been felt to be necessary to follow the
Deuteronomic text, and make the ninth commandment, Thou shalt not covet
thy neighbour's wife.[2] As few scholars will now claim priority for the
text of Deuteronomy, this division may be viewed as exploded. But there
is a third scheme (the Talmudic) still current among the Jews, and not
unknown to early Christian writers, which is still a rival of the
Philonic view, though less satisfactory. Here the preface, Ex. xx. 2, is
taken as the first "word," and the second embraces verses 3-6.
See further Nestle, _Expository Times_ (1897), p. 427. The decision
between Philo and the Talmud must turn on two questions. Can we take
the preface as a separate "word"? And can we regard the prohibition of
polytheism and the prohibition of idolatry as one commandment? Now,
though the Hebrew certainly speaks of ten "words," not of ten
"precepts," it is most unlikely that the first word can be different
in character from those that follow. But the statement "I am the Lord
thy God" is either no precept at all, or only enjoins by implication
what is expressly commanded in the words "Thou shalt have no other
gods before me." Thus to take the preface as a distinct word is not
reasonable unless there are cogent grounds for uniting the
commandments against polytheism and idolatry. But that is far from
being the case. The first precept of the Philonic scheme enjoins
monolatry, the second expresses God's spiritual and transcendental
nature. Accordingly Kuenen does not deny that the prohibition of
images contains an element additional to the precept of monolatry,
but, following De Goeje, regards the words from "thou shalt not make
unto thyself" down to "the waters under the earth" as a later
insertion in the original Decalogue. Unless this can be made out, the
Philonic scheme is clearly best, and as such it is now accepted by
most scholars.
How were the ten words disposed on the two tables? The natural
arrangement (which is assumed by Philo and Josephus) would be five and
five. And this, as Philo recognized, is a division appropriate to the
sense of the precepts; for antiquity did not look on piety towards
parents as a mere precept of probity, part of one's duty towards one's
neighbour. The authority of parents and rulers is viewed in the Old
Testament as a delegated divine authority, and the violation of it is
akin to blasphemy (cf. Ex. xxi. 17 and Lev. xx. 9 with Lev. xxiv. 15,
16, and note the formula of treason, 1 Kings xxi. 13).
We have thus five precepts of piety on the first table, and five of
probity, in negative form, on the second, an arrangement which is
accepted by the best recent writers. But the current view of the Western
Church since Augustine has been that the precept to honour parents heads
the second table. The only argument of weight in favour of this view is
that it makes the amount of writing on the two tables less unequal,
while we know that the second table as well as the first was written on
both sides (Ex. xxxii. 15). But we shall presently see that there may be
another way out of this difficulty.
_Date._--It is much disputed what the original compass of the Decalogue
was. Did the whole text of Ex. xx. 2-17 stand on the tables of stone?
The answer to this question must start from the reason annexed to the
fourth commandment, which is different in Deuteronomy. But the express
words "and he added no more," in Deut. v. 22, show that there is no
conscious omission by the Deuteronomic speaker of part of the original
Decalogue, which cannot therefore have included the reason annexed in
Exodus. On the other hand the reason annexed in Deuteronomy is rather a
parenetic addition than an original element dropped in Exodus. Thus the
original fourth commandment was simply "Remember the Sabbath day to keep
it holy."[3] When this is granted it must appear not improbable that the
elucidations of other commandments may not have stood on the tables, and
that Nos. 6-9 have survived in their original form. Thus in the second
commandment, "Thou shalt not bow down to any visible form," &c., is a
sort of explanatory addition to the precept "Thou shalt not make unto
thee a graven image." And so the promise attached to the fifth
commandment was probably not on the tables, and the tenth commandment
may have simply been, "Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's house,"
which includes all that is expressed in the following clauses. Such a
view gets over the difficulty arising from the unequal length of the two
halves of the Decalogue.
It is quite another question whether there is any idea in the Decalogue
which can be as old as Moses. It is urged by many critics that Moses
cannot have prohibited the worship of Yahweh by images; for the
subsequent history shows us a descendant of Moses as priest in the
idolatrous sanctuary of Dan. There were teraphim in David's house, and
the worship of Yahweh under the image of a calf was the state religion
of the kingdom of Ephraim. Even Moses himself is said to have made a
brazen serpent which, down to Hezekiah's time, continued to be
worshipped at Jerusalem. It is argued from these facts that
image-worship went on unchallenged, and that this would not have been
possible had Moses forbidden it. The argument is supported by others of
great cogency. Although the literary problems of the chapters which
narrate the law-giving on Mt. Sinai are extremely intricate, it is
generally agreed that Ex. xx. cannot be ascribed to the oldest source,
and if, in accordance with many critics, this chapter is ascribed to the
Elohist or Ephraimite school, its incorporation can scarcely be older
than the middle of the 8th century, and is probably later. With this,
the condemnation of adultery in Gen. xx. 1-17 (contrast xii. 10-20,
xxvi. 6-11) is in harmony, and the prohibition of the worship of the
heavenly bodies is aimed at a form of idolatry which is frequently
alluded to in the times of the later kings. The lofty ethics (e.g. tenth
commandment) is in itself no _sound_ criterion, whilst the external form
of the laws, though characteristic of later codes, need not be taken as
evidence of importance. But the general result of a study of the
Decalogue as a whole, in connexion with Israelite political history and
religion, strongly supports, in fact demands, a post-Mosaic origin, and
modern criticism is chiefly divided only as to the approximate date to
which it is to be ascribed. The time of Manasseh (cf. especially its
contact with Micah vi. 6-8) has found many adherents, but an earlier
period, about 750 B.C. (time of Amos and Hosea), is often held to
satisfy the main conditions; the former, however, is probably nearer the
mark.
_The Decalogue of Exodus xxxiv._--In the book of Exodus the words
written on the tables of stone are nowhere expressly identified with the
ten commandments of chap. xx. In xxv. 16, xxxi. 18, xxxii. 15, we simply
read of "the testimony" inscribed on the tables, and it seems to be
assumed that its contents must be already known to the reader. The
expression "ten words" first occurs in xxxiv. 28, in a passage which
relates the restoration of the tables after they had been broken. But
these "ten words" are called "the words of the covenant," and so can
hardly be different from the words mentioned in the preceding verse as
those in accordance wherewith the covenant was made with Israel. And
again, the words of ver. 27 are necessarily the commandments which
immediately precede in vv. 12-26. Accordingly many recent critics have
sought to show that Ex. xxxiv. 12-26 contains just ten precepts forming
a second decalogue.[4]
These consist not of precepts of social morality, but of several laws of
religious observance closely corresponding to the religious and ritual
precepts of Ex. xxi.-xxiii. The number ten is not clearly made out, and
the individual precepts are somewhat variously assigned. They prohibit
(1) the worship of other gods, (2) the making of molten images; they
ordain (3) the observance of the feast of unleavened bread, (4) the
feast of weeks, (5) the feast of ingathering at the end of the year, and
(6) the seventh-day rest; to Yahweh belong (7) the firstlings, and (8)
the first-fruits of the land; they forbid also (9) the offering of the
blood of sacrifice with leaven, (10) the leaving-over of the fat of a
feast until the morning, and (11) the seething of a kid in its mother's
milk. This scheme ignores the command to appear thrice in the year
before Yahweh which recapitulates Nos. 3-5, and the decade is obtained
by omitting No. 6, which some hold to be out of place. Others include
"none shall appear before me empty-handed" (xxxiv. 20), and unite Nos.
4-5, 9 and 10. C. F. Kent (_Beginnings of Heb. Hist._ pp. 183 sqq.)
obtains a decalogue from scattered precepts in Ex. xx.-xxiii., which
corresponds with Nos. 2, 7, 6, 3 and 5 (in one), 9 and 10 (in one), 11
above, and adds (a) the building of an altar of earth (xx. 24), (b)
offering from the harvest and wine-press (xxii. 29), (c) firstlings of
animals (xxii. 29 sqq.; cf. No. 7, and xxxiv. 19); (d) prohibition
against eating torn flesh (xxii. 31).[5] The so-called Yahwist Decalogue
in xxxiv. presupposes a rather more primitive stage in society, partly
nomadic and partly agricultural; No. 6 is suitable only for
agriculturists and cannot have originated among nomads. The whole may be
summed up in a sentence:--"Worship Yahweh and Yahweh alone, without
images, let the worship be simple and in accord with the old usage;
forbear to introduce the practices of your Canaanitish neighbours"
(Harper). It would seem to represent more precisely a Judaean standpoint
(cf. the simpler customs of the Rechabites, q.v.).
If such a system of precepts was ever viewed as the basis of the
covenant with Israel, it must belong to a far earlier stage of religious
development than that of Ex. xx. This is recognized by Wellhausen, who
says that our decalogue stands to that of Ex. xxxiv. as Amos stood to
his contemporaries, whose whole religion lay in the observance of sacred
feasts. To those accustomed to look on the Ten Words written on the
tables of stone as the very foundation of the Mosaic law, it is hard to
realize that in ancient Israel there were two opinions as to what these
"Words" were. The hypothesis that Ex. xxxiv. 10-26 originally stood in a
different connexion, and was misplaced at some stage in the redaction of
the Hexateuch, does not help us, since it would still have to be
admitted that the editor to whom we owed the present form of the chapter
identified this little code of religious observances with the Ten Words.
Were this the case the editor, to quote Wellhausen, "introduced the most
serious internal contradiction found in the Old Testament."[6]
_The Decalogue in Christian Theology._--Following the New Testament, in
which the "commandments" summed up in the law of love are identified
with the precepts of the Decalogue (Mark x. 19; Rom. xiii. 9; cf. Mark
xii. 28 ff.), the ancient Church emphasized the permanent obligation of
the ten commandments as a summary of _natural_ in contradistinction to
_ceremonial_ precepts, though the observance of the Sabbath was to be
taken in a spiritual sense (Augustine, _De spiritu et litera_, xiv.;
Jerome, _De celebratione Paschae_). The medieval theologians followed in
the same line, recognizing all the precepts of the Decalogue as moral
precepts _de lege naturae_, though the law of the Sabbath is not of the
law of nature, in so far as it prescribes a determinate day of rest
(Thomas, _summa_, I^ma II^dae, qu. c. art. 3; Duns, _Super sententias_,
lib. iii. dist. 37). The most important medieval exposition of the
Decalogue is that of Nicolaus de Lyra; and the 15th century, in which
the Decalogue acquired special importance in the confessional, was
prolific in treatises on the subject (Antoninus of Florence, Gerson,
&c.).
Important theological controversies on the Decalogue begin with the
Reformation. The question between the Lutheran (Augustinian) and
Reformed (Philonic) division of the ten commandments was mixed up with
controversy as to the legitimacy of sacred images not designed to be
worshipped. The Reformed theologians took the stricter view. The
identity of the Decalogue with the eternal law of nature was maintained
in both churches, but it was an open question whether the Decalogue, as
such (that is, as a law given by Moses to the Israelites), is of
perpetual obligation. The Socinians, on the other hand, regarded the
Decalogue as abrogated by the more perfect law of Christ; and this view,
especially in the shape that the Decalogue is a civil and not a moral
law (J. D. Michaelis), was the current one in the period of 18th-century
rationalism. The distinction of a permanent and a transitory element in
the law of the Sabbath is found, not only in Luther and Melanchthon, but
in Calvin and other theologians of the Reformed church. The main
controversy which arose on the basis of this distinction was whether the
prescription of one day in seven is of permanent obligation. It was
admitted that such obligation must be not natural but positive; but it
was argued by the stricter Calvinistic divines that the proportion of
one in seven is agreeable to nature, based on the order of creation in
six days, and in no way specially connected with anything Jewish. Hence
it was regarded as a _universal positive_ law of God. But those who
maintained the opposite view were not excluded from the number of the
orthodox. The laxer conception found a place in the Cocceian school.
LITERATURE.--Geffcken, _Über die verschiedenen Eintheilungen des
Dekalogs und den Einfluss derselben auf den Cultus_; W. Robertson
Smith, _Old Test. Jew. Church_, pp. 331-345, where his earlier views
(1877) in the _Ency. Brit._ are largely modified (cf. also _Eng. Hist.
Rev._ (1888) p. 352); Montefiore, _Hibbert Lectures_ (1892), Appendix
I; W. R. Harper, _Internat. Crit. Comm. on Amos and Hosea_, pp. 58-64
(on the position of the Decalogue in early pre-prophetic religion of
Israel); C. A. Briggs, _Higher Criticism of Hexat_.^2 pp. 189-210; see
also the references under EXODUS. (W. R. S.; S. A. C.)
FOOTNOTES:
[1] A Hebrew fragment probably of the 2nd century A.D., in the
University Library, Cambridge, containing the Decalogue with several
variant readings; see S. A. Cook, _Proceed. Soc. Bibl. Archaeology_
(1903), pp. 34-56; F. C. Burkitt, _Jewish Quarterly Review_ (1903),
pp. 392-408; N. Peters, _D. älteste Abschrift d. zehn Gebote_ (1905).
[2] So, for example, Augustine, l.c., Thomas, _Summa_ (_Prima
Secundae_, qu. c. art. 4), and recently Sonntag and Kurtz. Purely
arbitrary is the idea of Lutheran writers (Gerhard, Loc. xiii. § 46)
that the ninth commandment forbids _concupiscentia actualis_, the
tenth _conc. originalis_.
[3] It is generally assumed that the addition in Exodus is from a
hand akin to Gen. ii. 2 sqq.; Ex. xxxi. 17 (P.).
[4] So Hitzig (_Ostern und Pfingsten im zweiten Dekalog_, Heidelberg,
1838), independently of a previous suggestion of Goethe in 1783, who
in turn appears to have been anticipated by an early Greek writer
(Nestle, _Zeit. für alt-test. Wissenschaft_ (1904), pp. 134 sqq.).
[5] See also W. E. Barnes, _Journ. Theol. Stud._ (1905), pp. 557-563.
[6] The last three sentences of this paragraph are taken almost
bodily from Robertson Smith's later views (_Old Testament in the
Jewish Church²_, pp. 335 seq.).
DE CAMP, JOSEPH (1858- ), American portrait and figure painter, was
born in Cincinnati, Ohio, in 1858. He was a pupil of Frank Duveneck and
of the Royal Academy of Munich; became a member of the society of Ten
American Painters, and a teacher in the schools of the Pennsylvania
Academy of Fine Arts, Philadelphia, and the Boston Museum of Fine Arts;
and painted important mural decorations in the Philadelphia city hall.
DECAMPS, ALEXANDRE GABRIEL (1803-1860), French painter, was born in
Paris on the 3rd of March 1803. In his youth he travelled in the East,
and reproduced Oriental life and scenery with a bold fidelity to nature
that made his works the puzzle of conventional critics. His powers,
however, soon came to be recognized, and he was ranked along with
Delacroix and Vernet as one of the leaders of the French school. At the
Paris Exhibition of 1855 he received the grand or council medal. Most of
his life was passed in the neighbourhood of Paris. He was passionately
fond of animals, especially dogs, and indulged in all kinds of field
sports. He died on the 22nd of August 1860 in consequence of being
thrown from a vicious horse while hunting at Fontainebleau. The style of
Decamps was characteristically and intensely French. It was marked by
vivid dramatic conception, by a manipulation bold and rapid, sometimes
even to roughness, and especially by original and startling use of
decided contrasts of colour and of light and shade. His subjects
embraced an unusually wide range. He availed himself of his travels in
the East in dealing with scenes from Scripture history, which he was
probably the first of European painters to represent with their true and
natural local background. Of this class were his "Joseph sold by his
Brethren," "Moses taken from the Nile," and his scenes from the life of
Samson, nine vigorous sketches in charcoal and white. Perhaps the most
impressive of his historical pictures is his "Defeat of the Cimbri,"
representing with wonderful skill the conflict between a horde of
barbarians and a disciplined army. Decamps produced a number of genre
pictures, chiefly of scenes from French and Algerine domestic life, the
most marked feature of which is humour. The same characteristic attaches
to most of his numerous animal paintings. He painted dogs, horses, &c.,
with great fidelity and sympathy; but his favourite subject was monkeys,
which he depicted in various studies and sketches with a grotesque
humour that could scarcely be surpassed. Probably the best known of all
his works is "The Monkey Connoisseurs," a clever satire of the jury of
the French Academy of Painting, which had rejected several of his
earlier works on account of their divergence from any known standard.
The pictures and sketches of Decamps were first made familiar to the
English public through the lithographs of Eugène le Roux.
See Moreau's _Decamps et son oeuvre_ (Paris, 1869).
DECAPOLIS, a league of ten cities ([Greek: deka poleis]) with their
surrounding district, situated with one exception on the eastern side of
the upper Jordan and the Sea of Tiberias. Being essentially a
confederation of _cities_ it is impossible precisely to fix Decapolis as
a _region_ with definite boundaries. The names of the original ten
cities are given by Pliny; these are as follows: Damascus, Philadelphia,
Raphana, Scythopolis (= Beth-Shan, now _Beisan_, west of Jordan),
Gadara, Hippos, Dion, Pella, Gerasa and Kanatha. Of these Damascus alone
retains its importance. Scythopolis (as represented by the village of
Beisan) is still inhabited; the ruins of Pella, Gerasa and Kanatha
survive, but the other sites are unknown or disputed. Scythopolis, being
in command of the communications with the sea and the Greek cities on
the coast, was the most important member of the league. The league
subsequently received additions and some of the original ten dropped
out. In Ptolemy's enumeration Raphana has no place, and nine, such as
Kapitolias, Edrei, Bosra, &c., are added. The purpose of the league was
no doubt mutual defence against the marauding Bedouin tribes that
surrounded them. These were hardly if at all checked by the Semitic
kinglings to whom the Romans delegated the government of eastern
Palestine.
It was probably soon after Pompey's campaign in 64-63 B.C. that the
Decapolis league took shape. The cities comprising it were united by
the main roads on which they lay, their respective spheres of influence
touching, if not overlapping, one another. A constant communication was
maintained with the Mediterranean ports and with Greece, and there was a
vigorous municipal life which found expression in literature, in
athletic contests, and in a thriving commerce, thus carrying a truly
Hellenic influence into Perea and Galilee. From Josephus we learn that
the cities were severally subject to the governor of Syria and taxed for
imperial purposes; some of them afterwards came under Herod's
jurisdiction, but reserved the substantial rights granted them by
Pompey.
The best account is in G. A. Smith's _Historical Geography of the Holy
Land_, chap. xxviii. (R. A. S. M.)
DECASTYLE (Gr. [Greek: deka], ten, and [Greek: stylos], column), the
architectural term given to a temple where the front portico has ten
columns; as in the temple of Apollo Didymaeus at Miletus, and the
portico of University College, London. (See TEMPLE.)
DECATUR, STEPHEN (1779-1820), American naval commander, was born at
Sinnepuxent, Maryland, on the 5th of January 1779, and entered the
United States navy as a midshipman in 1798. He was promoted lieutenant a
year later, and in that rank saw some service in the short war with
France. In 1803 he was in command of the "Enterprise," which formed part
of Commodore Preble's squadron in the Mediterranean, and in February
1804 led a daring expedition into the harbour of Tripoli for the purpose
of burning the U.S. frigate "Philadelphia" which had fallen into
Tripolitan hands. He succeeded in his purpose and made his escape under
the fire of the batteries with a loss of only one man wounded. This
brilliant exploit earned him his captain's commission and a sword of
honour from Congress. Decatur was subsequently engaged in all the
attacks on Tripoli between 1804 and 1805. In the War of 1812 his ship
the "United States" captured H.M.S. "Macedonian" after a desperate
fight, and in 1813 he was appointed commodore to command a squadron in
New York harbour, which was soon blockaded by the British. In an attempt
to break out in February 1815 Decatur's flagship the "President" was cut
off and after a spirited fight forced to surrender to a superior force.
Subsequently he commanded in the Mediterranean against the corsairs of
Algiers, Tunis and Tripoli with great success. On his return he was made
a navy commissioner (November 1815), an office which he held until his
death, which took place in a duel with Commodore James Barron at
Bladensburg, Md., on the 22nd of March 1820.
See Mackenzie, _Life of Decatur_ (Boston, 1846).
DECATUR, a city and the county-seat of Macon county, Illinois, U.S.A.,
in the central part of the state, near the Sangamon river, about 39 m.
E. of Springfield. Pop. (1890) 16,841; (1900) 20,754, of whom 1939 were
foreign-born; (1910 census) 31,140. Decatur is served by the Cincinnati,
Hamilton & Dayton, the Illinois Central, the Wabash (which maintains car
shops here), and the Vandalia railways, and is connected with Danville,
Saint Louis, Springfield, Peoria, Bloomington and Champaign by the
Illinois Traction System (electric). Decatur has three large parks and a
public library; and S.E. of Fairview Park, with a campus of 35 acres, is
the James Millikin University (co-educational; Cumberland Presbyterian),
founded in 1901 by James Millikin, and opened in 1903. The university
comprises schools of liberal arts, engineering (mechanical, electrical,
and civil), domestic economy, fine and applied arts, commerce and
finance, library science, pedagogy, music, and a preparatory school; in
1907-1908 it had 936 students, 440 being in the school of music. Among
the city's manufactures are iron, brass castings, agricultural
implements, flour, Indian corn products, soda fountains, plumbers'
supplies, coffins and caskets, bar and store fixtures, gas and electric
light fixtures, street cars, and car trucks. The value of the city's
factory products increased from $5,133,677 in 1900 to $8,667,302 in
1905, or 68.8%. The city is also an important shipping point for
agricultural products (especially grain), and for coal taken from the
two mines in the city and from mines in the surrounding country. The
first settlement in Decatur was made in 1829, and the place was
incorporated in 1836. On the 22nd of February 1856 a convention of
Illinois editors met at Decatur to determine upon a policy of opposition
to the Kansas-Nebraska Bill. They called a state convention, which met
at Bloomington, and which is considered to have taken the first step
toward founding the Republican party in Illinois.
DECAZES, ÉLIE, DUC (1780-1860), French statesman, was born at Saint
Martin de Laye in the Gironde. He studied law, became a judge in the
tribunal of the Seine in 1806, was attached to the cabinet of Louis
Bonaparte in 1807, and was counsel to the court of appeal at Paris in
1811. Immediately upon the fall of the empire he declared himself a
Royalist, and remained faithful to the Bourbons through the Hundred
Days. He made the personal acquaintance of Louis XVIII. during that
period through Baron Louis, and the king rewarded his energy and tact by
appointing him prefect of police at Paris on the 7th of July 1815. His
marked success in that difficult position won for him the ministry of
police, in succession to Fouché, on the 24th of September. In the
interval he had been elected deputy for the Seine (August 1815) and both
as deputy and as minister he led the moderate Royalists. His formula was
"to royalize France and to nationalize the monarchy." The Moderates were
in a minority in the chamber of 1815, but Decazes persuaded Louis XVIII.
to dissolve the house, and the elections of October 1816 gave them a
majority. During the next four years Decazes was called upon to play the
leading rôle in the government. At first, as minister of police he had
to suppress the insurrections provoked by the ultra-Royalists (the White
Terror); then, after the resignation of the duc de Richelieu, he took
the actual direction of the ministry, although the nominal president was
General J. J. P. A. Dessolle (1767-1828). He held at the same time the
portfolio of the interior. The cabinet, in which Baron Louis was
minister of finance, and Marshal Gouvion Saint Cyr remained minister of
war, was entirely Liberal; and its first act was to suppress the
ministry of police, as Decazes held that it was incompatible with the
régime of liberty. His reforms met with the strong hostility of the
Chamber of Peers, where the ultra-Royalists were in a majority, and to
overcome it he got the king to create sixty new Liberal peers. He then
passed the laws on the press, suppressing the censorship. By
reorganization of the finances, the protection of industry and the
carrying out of great public works, France regained its economic
prosperity, and the ministry became popular. But the powers of the Grand
Alliance had been watching the growth of Liberalism in France with
increasing anxiety. Metternich especially ascribed this mainly to the
"weakness" of the ministry, and when in 1819 the political elections
still further illustrated this trend, notably by the election of the
celebrated Abbé Grégoire, it began to be debated whether the time had
not come to put in force the terms of the secret treaty of
Aix-la-Chapelle. It was this threat of foreign intervention, rather than
the clamour of the "Ultras," that forced Louis XVIII. to urge a change
in the electoral law that should render such a "scandal" as Grégoire's
election impossible for the future. Dessolle and Louis, refusing to
embark on this policy, now resigned; and Decazes became head of the new
ministry, as president of the council (November 1819). But the exclusion
of Grégoire from the chamber and the changes in the franchise embittered
the Radicals without conciliating the "Ultras." The news of the
revolution in Spain in January 1820 added fuel to their fury; it was the
foolish and criminal policy of the royal favourite that had once more
unchained the demon of revolution. Decazes was denounced as the new
Sejanus, the modern Catiline; and when, on the 13th of February, the
duke of Berry was murdered, clamorous tongues loudly accused him of
being an accomplice in the crime. Decazes, indeed, foreseeing the storm,
at once placed his resignation in the king's hands. Louis at first
refused. "They will attack," he exclaimed, "not your system, my dear
son, but mine." But in the end he was forced to yield to the importunity
of his family (February 17th); and Decazes, raised to the rank of duke,
passed into honourable exile as ambassador to Great Britain.
This ended Decazes's meteoric career of greatness. In December 1821 he
returned to sit in the House of Peers, when he continued to maintain
his Liberal opinions. After 1830 he adhered to the monarchy of July, but
after 1848 he remained in retirement. He had organized in 1826 a society
to develop the coal and iron of the Aveyron, and the name of Decazeville
was given in 1829 to the principal centre of the industry. He died on
the 24th of October 1860.
His son, LOUIS CHARLES ÉLIE DECAZES, duc de Glücksberg (1819-1886), was
born at Paris, and entered the diplomatic career. He became minister
plenipotentiary at Madrid and at Lisbon, but the revolution of 1848
caused him to withdraw into private life, from which he did not emerge
until in 1871 he was elected deputy to the National Assembly by the
Gironde. There he sat in the right centre among the Orleanists, and was
chosen by the duc de Broglie as minister of foreign affairs in November
1873. He voted with the Orleanists the "Constitutional Laws" of 1875,
and approved of MacMahon's parliamentary _coup d'état_ on the 16th of
May 1877. He was re-elected deputy in October 1877 by the arrondissement
of Puget-Théniers, but his election was annulled by the chamber, and he
was not re-elected. He died on the 16th of September 1886.
On the Duc Decazes see E. Daudet, _Louis XVIII. et le duc Decazes_
(1899), and his "L'ambassade du duc Decazes" in the _Revue des deux
mondes_ for 1899.
DECAZEVILLE, a town of south-central France, in the department of
Aveyron, 34 m. N.W. of Rodez by the Orleans railway. Pop. (1906) 9749.
It possesses iron mines and is the centre of the coal-fields of the
Aveyron, which supply the ironworks established by the Duc Decazes,
minister of Louis XVIII. A statue commemorates the founder.
DECCAN (Sans. _Dakshina_, "the South"), a name applied, according to
Hindu geographers, to the whole of the territories in India situated to
the south of the river Nerbudda. In its more modern acceptation,
however, it is sometimes understood as comprising only the country lying
between that river and the Kistna, the latter having for a long period
formed the southern boundary of the Mahommedan empire of Delhi.
Assigning it the more extended of these limits, it comprehends the whole
of the Indian peninsula, and in this view the mountainous system,
consisting of the Eastern and Western Ghats, constitutes the most
striking feature of the Deccan. These two mountain ranges unite at their
northern extremities with the Vindhya chain of mountains, and thus is
formed a vast triangle supporting at a considerable elevation the
expanse of table-land which stretches from Cape Comorin to the valley of
the Nerbudda. The surface of this table-land slopes from west to east,
as indicated by the direction of the drainage of the country,--the great
rivers, the Cauvery, Godavari, Kistna and Pennar, though deriving their
sources from the base of the Western Ghats, all finding their way into
the Bay of Bengal through fissures in the Eastern Ghats.
_History._--The detailed and authentic history of the Deccan only begins
with the 13th century A.D. Of the early history the main facts
established are the Aryan invasion (c. 700 B.C.), the growth of the
Maurya empire (250 B.C.) and the invasion (A.D. 100) of the Scythic
tribes known as the Sakas, Pahlavas and Yavanas, which led to the
establishment of the power of the Kshaharata satraps in western India.
In addition to this, modern study of monuments and inscriptions has
recovered the names, and to a certain extent the records, of a
succession of dynasties ruling in the Deccan; of these the most
conspicuous are the Cholas, the Andhras or Satavahanas, the Chalukyas,
the Rashtrakutas and the Yadavas of Devagiri (Deogiri). (See INDIA:
_History_; BOMBAY; PRESIDENCY: _History_; INSCRIPTIONS: _Indian_.) In
1294 Ala-ud-Din Khilji, emperor of Delhi, invaded the Deccan, stormed
Devagiri, and reduced the Yadava rajas of Maharashtra to the position of
tributary princes (see DAULATABAD), then proceeding southward overran
Telingana and Carnata (1294-1300). With this event the continuous
history of the Deccan begins. In 1307, owing to non-payment of tribute,
a fresh series of Mussulman incursions began, under Malik Kafur, issuing
in the final ruin of the Yadava power; and in 1338 the reduction of the
Deccan was completed by Mahommed ben Tughlak. The imperial sway was,
however, of brief duration. Telingana and Carnata speedily reverted to
their former masters; and this defection on the part of the Hindu states
was followed by a general revolt of the Mussulman governors, resulting
in the establishment in 1347 of the independent Mahommedan dynasty of
Bahmani, and the consequent withdrawal of the power of Delhi from the
territory south of the Nerbudda. In the struggles which ensued, the
Hindu kingdom of Telingana fell bit by bit to the Bahmani dynasty, who
advanced their frontier to Golconda in 1373, to Warangal in 1421, and to
the Bay of Bengal in 1472. On the dissolution of the Bahmani empire
(1482), its dominions were distributed into the five Mahommedan states
of Golconda, Bijapur, Ahmednagar, Bidar and Berar. To the south of these
the great Hindu state of Carnata or Vijayanagar still survived; but
this, too, was destroyed, at the battle of Talikota (1565), by a league
of the Mahommedan powers. These latter in their turn soon disappeared.
Berar had already been annexed by Ahmednagar in 1572, and Bidar was
absorbed by Bijapur in 1609. The victories of the Delhi emperors, Akbar,
Shah Jahan and Aurangzeb, crushed the rest. Ahmednagar was incorporated
in the Mogul empire in 1598, Bijapur in 1686, and Golconda in 1688. The
rule of the Delhi emperors in the Deccan did not, however, long survive.
In 1706 the Mahrattas acquired the right of levying tribute in southern
India, and their principal chief, the Peshwa of Poona, became a
practically independent sovereign. A few years later the emperor's
viceroy in Ahmednagar, the nizam-al-mulk, threw off his allegiance and
established the seat of an independent government at Hyderabad (1724).
The remainder of the imperial possessions in the peninsula were held by
chieftains acknowledging the supremacy of one or other of these two
potentates. In the sequel, Mysore became the prize of the Mahommedan
usurper Hyder Ali. During the contests for power which ensued about the
middle of the 18th century between the native chiefs, the French and the
English took opposite sides. After a brief course of triumph, the
interests of France declined, and a new empire in India was established
by the British. Mysore formed one of their earliest conquests in the
Deccan. Tanjore and the Carnatic were shortly after annexed to their
dominions. In 1818 the forfeited possessions of the Peshwa added to
their extent; and these acquisitions, with others which have more
recently fallen to the paramount power by cession, conquest or failure
of heirs, form a continuous territory stretching from the Nerbudda to
Cape Comorin. Its length is upwards of 1000 m., and its extreme breadth
exceeds 800. This vast tract comprehends the chief provinces now
distributed between the presidencies of Madras and Bombay, together with
the native states of Hyderabad and Mysore, and those of Kolhapur,
Sawantwari, Travancore, Cochin and the petty possessions of France and
Portugal.
See J. D. B. Gribble, _History of the Deccan_ (1896); Prof.
Bhandarkar, "Early History of the Dekkan" (_Bombay Gazetteer_);
Vincent A. Smith, _Early History of India_ (2nd ed., Oxford, 1908),
chap. xv. "The Kingdoms of the Deccan."
DECELEA (Gr. [Greek: Dekeleia]), an Attic deme, on the pass which led
over the east end of Mt. Parnes towards Oropus and Chalcis. From its
position it has a commanding view over the Athenian plain. Its eponymous
hero, Decelus, was said to have indicated to the Tyndaridae, Castor and
Pollux, the place where Theseus had hidden their sister Helen at
Aphidnae; and hence there was a traditional friendship between the
Deceleans and the Spartans (Herodotus ix. 73). This tradition, together
with the advice of Alcibiades, led the Spartans to fortify Decelea as a
basis for permanent occupation in Attica during the later years of the
Peloponnesian War, from 413-404 B.C. Its position enabled them to harass
the Athenians constantly, and to form a centre for fugitive slaves and
other deserters. The royal palace of Tatoi has been built on the site.
See PELOPONNESIAN WAR; also Judeich in Pauly-Wissowa,
_Realencyclopädie_.
DECEMBER (Lat. _decem_, ten), the last month of the year. In the Roman
calendar, traditionally ascribed to Romulus, the year was divided into
ten months, the last of which was called December, or the _tenth_ month,
and this name, though etymologically incorrect, was retained for the
last or twelfth month of the year as now divided. In the Romulian
calendar December had thirty days; Numa reduced the number to
twenty-nine; Julius Caesar added two days to this, giving the month its
present length. The _Saturnalia_ occurred in December, which is
therefore styled "acceptus geniis" by Ovid (_Fasti_, iii. 58); and this
also explains the phrase of Horace "libertate Decembri utere" (_Sat._
ii. 7). Martial applies to the month the epithet _canus_ (hoary), and
Ovid styles it _gelidus_ (frosty) and _fumosus_ (smoky). In the reign of
Commodus it was temporarily styled _Amazonius_, in honour of the
emperor's mistress, whom he had had painted as an Amazon. The Saxons
called it _winter-monath_, winter month, and _heligh-monath_, holy
month, from the fact that Christmas fell within it. Thus the modern
Germans call it _Christmonat_. The 22nd of December is the date of the
winter solstice, when the sun reaches the tropic of Capricorn.
DECEMVIRI ("the ten men"), the name applied by the Romans to any
official commission of ten. The title was often followed by a statement
of the purpose for which the commission was appointed, e.g. _Xviri
legibus scribundis, stlitibus judicandis, sacris faciundis_.
I. Apart from such qualification, it signified chiefly the temporary
commission which superseded all the ordinary magistrates of the Republic
from 451 to 449 B.C., for the purpose of drawing up a code of laws. In
462 B.C. a tribune proposed that the appointment of a commission to draw
up a code expressing the legal principles of the administration was
necessary to secure for the _plebs_ a hold over magisterial caprice.
Continued agitation to this effect resulted in an agreement in 452 B.C.
between patricians and plebeians that decemvirs should be appointed to
draw up a code, that during their tenure of office all other
magistracies should be in abeyance, that they should not be subject to
appeal, but that they should be bound to maintain the laws which
guaranteed by religious sanctions the rights of the plebs. The first
board of decemvirs (apparently consisting wholly of patricians) was
appointed to hold office during 451 B.C.; and the chief man among them
was Appius Claudius. Livy (iii. 32) says that only patricians were
eligible. Mommsen, however, held that plebeians were legally eligible,
though none were actually appointed for 451. The decemvirs ruled with
singular moderation, and submitted to the _Comitia Centuriata_ a code of
laws in ten headings, which was passed. So popular were the decemvirs
that another board of ten was appointed for the following year, some of
whom, if the extant list of names is correct, were certainly plebeians.
These added two more to the ten laws of their predecessors, thus
completing the Laws of the Twelve Tables (see ROMAN LAW). But their rule
then became violent and tyrannical, and they fell before the fury of the
_plebs_, though for some reason, not easily understood, they continued
to have the support of the patricians. They were forced to abdicate (449
B.C.), and the ordinary magistrates were restored.
II. The judicial board of decemvirs (_stlitibus judicandis_) formed a
civil court of ancient origin concerned mainly with questions bearing on
the status of individuals. They were originally a body of jurors which
gave a verdict under the presidency of the praetor (q.v.), but
eventually became annual minor magistrates of the Republic, elected by
the _Comitia Tributa_.
III. The priestly board of decemvirs (_sacris faciundis_) was an outcome
of the claim of the _plebs_ to a share in the administration of the
state religion. Five of the decemvirs were patricians, and five
plebeians. They were first appointed in 367 B.C. instead of the
patrician _duumviri_ who had hitherto performed these duties. The board
was increased to fifteen in the last century of the Republic. Its chief
function was the care of the Sibylline books, and the celebration of the
games of Apollo (Livy x. 8) and the Secular Games (Tac. _Ann._ xi. 11).
IV. Decemvirs were also appointed from time to time to control the
distribution of the public land (_agris dandis adsignandis_; see
AGRARIAN LAWS).
BIBLIOGRAPHY.--B. G. Niebuhr, _History of Rome_ (Eng. trans.), ii. 309
et seq. (Cambridge, 1832); Th. Mommsen, _History of Rome_, bk. ii. c.
2, vol. i. pp. 361 et seq. (Eng. trans., new ed., 1894); _Römisches
Staatsrecht_, ii. 605 et seq., 714 (Leipzig, 1887); A. H. J.
Greenidge, _Legal Procedure of Cicero's Time_, p. 40 et seq., 263
(Oxford, 1901); J. Muirhead, _Private Law of Rome_, p. 73 et seq.
(London, 1899); Pauly-Wissowa, _Realencyclopädie_, iv. 2256 et seq.
(Kübler). (A. M. Cl.)
DECHEN, ERNST HEINRICH KARL VON (1800-1889), German geologist, was born
in Berlin on the 25th of March 1800, and was educated in the university
in that city. He subsequently studied mining in Bochum and Essen, and
was in 1820 placed in the mining department of the Prussian state,
serving on the staff until 1864, and becoming director in 1841 when he
was stationed at Bonn. In early years he made journeys to study the
mining systems of other countries, and with this object he visited
England and Scotland in company with Karl von Oeynhausen (1797-1865). In
the course of his work he paid special attention to the coal-formation
of Westphalia and northern Europe generally, and he greatly furthered
the progress made in mining and metallurgical works in Rhenish Prussia.
He made numerous contributions to geological literature; notably the
following:--_Geognostische Umrisse der Rheinländer zwischen Basel und
Mainz mit besonderer Rücksicht auf das Vorkommen des Steinsalzes_ (with
von Oeynhausen and La Roche), 2 vols. (Berlin, 1825); _Geognostische
Führer in das Siebengebirge am Rhein_ (Bonn, 1861); _Die nutzbaren
Mineralien und Gebirgsarten im deutschen Reiche_ (1873). But his main
work was a geological map of Rhenish Prussia and Westphalia in 35 sheets
on the scale of 1 : 80,000, issued with two volumes of explanatory text
(1855-1882). He published also a small geological map of Germany (1869).
He died at Bonn on the 15th of February 1889. (H. B. W.)
DECIDUOUS (from Lat. _decidere_, to fall down), a botanical and
zoological term for "falling in season," as of petals after flowering,
leaves in autumn, the teeth or horns of animals, or the wings of
insects.
DECIMAL COINAGE.[1] Any currency in which the various denominations of
coin are arranged in multiples or submultiples of ten (Lat. _decem_),
with reference to a standard unit, is a decimal system. Thus if the
standard unit be 1 the higher coins will be 10, 100, 1000, &c., the
lower .1, .01, .001, &c. In a perfect system there would be no breaks or
interpolations, but the actual currencies described as "decimal" do not
show this rigid symmetry. In France the standard unit--the franc--has
the 10 franc and the 100 franc pieces above it; the 10 centime below it;
there are also, however, 50 franc, 20 franc, 5 franc, 2 franc pieces as
well as 50 and 20 centime ones. Similar irregularities occur in the
German and United States coinages, and indeed in all countries in which
a decimal system has been established. Popular convenience has compelled
this departure from the strict decimal form.
Subject to these practical modifications the leading countries of the
world (Great Britain and India are the chief exceptions) have adopted
decimal coinage. The United States led the way (1786 and 1792) with the
dollar as the unit, and France soon followed (1799 and 1803), her system
being extended to the countries of the Latin Union (1865). The German
empire (1873), the Scandinavian States (1875), Austria-Hungary (1870,
developed in 1892) and Russia (1839 and 1897) are further adherents to
the decimal system. The Latin-American countries and Japan (1871) have
also adopted it.
In England proposals for decimalizing the coinage have long been under
discussion at intervals. Besides the inconvenience of altering the
established currency, the difficulty of choosing between the different
schemes propounded has been a considerable obstacle. One plan took the
farthing as a base: then 10 farthings = 1 doit (2½d.), 10 doits = 1
florin (2s. 1d.), 10 florins = 1 pound (20s. 10d.). The advantages
claimed for this scheme were (1) the preservation of the smaller coins
(the penny = 4 farthings); and (2) the avoidance of interference with
the smaller retail prices. Its great disadvantage was the destruction of
the existing unit of value--the pound--and the consequent disturbance of
all accounts. A second proposal would retain the pound as unit and the
florin, but would subdivide the latter into 100 "units" (or farthings
reduced 4%) and introduce a new coin = 10 units (2.4d.). By it the unit
of account would remain as at present, and the shilling (as 50 units)
would continue in use. The alteration of the bronze and several silver
coins, and the need of readjusting all values and prices expressed in
pence, formed the principal difficulties. A third scheme, which was
connected with the assimilation of English to French and American money,
proposed the establishment of an 8s. gold coin as unit, with the
tenpenny or franc and the penny (reduced by 4%) as subdivisions. The new
coin would be equivalent to 10 francs or (by an anticipated reduction of
the dollar) 2 dollars. None of these plans has gained any great amount
of popular support.
For the general question of monetary scales see MONEY, and for the
decimal system in reference to weights and measures see METRIC SYSTEM
and WEIGHTS AND MEASURES. (C. F. B.)
FOOTNOTE:
[1] For "decimal" in general see ARITHMETIC.
DECIUS, GAIUS MESSIUS QUINTUS TRAJANUS (201-251), Roman emperor, the
first of the long succession of distinguished men from the Illyrian
provinces, was born at Budalia near Sirmium in lower Pannonia in A.D.
201. About 245 the emperor Philip the Arabian entrusted him with an
important command on the Danube, and in 249 (or end of 248), having been
sent to put down a revolt of the troops in Moesia and Pannonia, he was
forced to assume the imperial dignity. He still protested his loyalty to
Philip, but the latter advanced against him and was slain near Verona.
During his brief reign Decius was engaged in important operations
against the Goths, who crossed the Danube and overran the districts of
Moesia and Thrace. The details are obscure, and there is considerable
doubt as to the part taken in the campaign by Decius and his son (of the
same name) respectively. The Goths were surprised by the emperor while
besieging Nicopolis on the Danube; at his approach they crossed the
Balkans, and attacked Philippopolis. Decius followed them, but a severe
defeat near Beroë made it impossible to save Philippopolis, which fell
into the hands of the Goths, who treated the conquered with frightful
cruelty. Its commander, Priscus, declared himself emperor under Gothic
protection. The siege of Philippopolis had so exhausted the numbers and
resources of the Goths, that they offered to surrender their booty and
prisoners on condition of being allowed to retire unmolested. But
Decius, who had succeeded in surrounding them and hoped to cut off their
retreat, refused to entertain their proposals. The final engagement, in
which the Goths fought with the courage of despair, took place on swampy
ground in the Dobrudja near Abritum (Abrittus) or Forum Trebonii and
ended in the defeat and death of Decius and his son. Decius was an
excellent soldier, a man of amiable disposition, and a capable
administrator, worthy of being classed with the best Romans of the
ancient type. The chief blot on his reign was the systematic and
authorized persecution of the Christians, which had for its object the
restoration of the religion and institutions of ancient Rome. Either as
a concession to the senate, or perhaps with the idea of improving public
morality, Decius endeavoured to revive the separate office and authority
of the censor. The choice was left to the senate, who unanimously
selected Valerian (afterwards emperor). But Valerian, well aware of the
dangers and difficulties attaching to the office at such a time,
declined the responsibility. The invasion of the Goths and the death of
Decius put an end to the abortive attempt.
See Aurelius Victor, _De Caesaribus_, 29, _Epit._ 29; Jordanes, _De
rebus Geticis_, 18; fragments of Dexippus, in C. W. Müller, _Frag.
Hist. Graec._ iii. (1849); Gibbon, _Decline and Fall_, chap. 10; H.
Schiller, _Geschichte der römischen Kaiserzeit_, i. (pt. 2), 1883.
DECIZE, a town of central France, in the department of Nièvre, on an
island in the Loire, 24 m. S.E. of Nevers by the Paris-Lyon railway.
Pop. (1906) 3813. The most important of its buildings is the church of
Saint Aré, which dates in part from the 11th and 12th centuries; there
are also ruins of a castle of the counts of Nevers. The town has a
statue of Guy Coquille, the lawyer and historian, who was born there in
1523. Decize is situated at the starting-point of the Nivernais canal.
The coal mine of La Machine, which belongs to the Schneider Company of
Le Creusot, lies four miles to the north. The industries of Decize and
its suburbs on both banks of the Loire include the working of gypsum
and lime, and the manufacture of ceramic products and glass. Trade is
in horses from the Morvan, cattle, coal, iron, wood and stone.
Under the name of _Decetia_ the place is mentioned by Julius Caesar as a
stronghold of the Aedui, and in 52 B.C. was the scene of a meeting of
the senate held by him to settle the leadership of the tribe and to
reply to his demand for aid against Vercingetorix. In later times it
belonged to the counts of Nevers, from whom it obtained a charter of
franchise in 1226.
DECKER, SIR MATTHEW, Bart. (1679-1749), English merchant and writer on
trade, was born in Amsterdam in 1679. He came to London in 1702 and
established himself there as a merchant. He was remarkably successful in
his business life, gaining great wealth and having many honours
conferred upon him. He was a director of the East India Company, sat in
parliament for four years as member for Bishops Castle, and was high
sheriff of Surrey in 1729. He was created a baronet by George I. in
1716. Decker's fame as a writer on trade rests on two tracts. The first,
_Serious considerations on the several high duties which the Nation in
general, as well as Trade in particular, labours under, with a proposal
for preventing the removal of goods, discharging the trader from any
search, and raising all the Publick Supplies by one single Tax_ (1743;
name affixed to 7th edition, 1756), proposed to do away with customs
duties and substitute a tax upon houses. He also suggested taking the
duty off tea and putting instead a licence duty on households wishing to
consume it. The second, an _Essay on the Causes of the Decline of the
Foreign Trade, consequently of the value of the lands in Britain, and on
the means to restore both_ (1744), has been attributed to W. Richardson,
but internal evidence is strongly in favour of Decker's authorship. He
advocates the licence plan in an extended form; urges the repeal of
import duties and the abolition of bounties, and, in general, shows
himself such a strong supporter of the doctrine of free trade as to rank
as one of the most important forerunners of Adam Smith. Decker died on
the 18th of March 1749.
DECKER, PIERRE DE (1812-1891), Belgian statesman and author, was
educated at a Jesuit school, studied law at Paris, and became a
journalist on the staff of the _Revue de Bruxelles_. In 1839 he was
elected to the Belgian lower chamber, where he gained a great reputation
for oratory. In 1855 he became minister of the interior and prime
minister, and attempted, by a combination of the moderate elements of
the Catholic and Liberal parties, the impossible task of effecting a
settlement of the educational and other questions by which Belgium was
distracted. In 1866 he retired from politics and went into business,
with disastrous results. He became involved in financial speculations
which lost him his good name as well as the greater part of his fortune;
and, though he was never proved to have been more than the victim of
clever operators, when in 1871 he was appointed by the Catholic cabinet
governor of Limburg, the outcry was so great that he resigned the
appointment and retired definitively into private life. He died on the
4th of January 1891. Decker, who was a member of the Belgian academy,
wrote several historical and other works of value, of which the most
notable are _Études historiques et critiques sur les monts-de-piété en
Belgique_ (Brussels, 1844); _De l'influence du libre arbitre de l'homme
sur les faits sociaux_ (1848); _L'Esprit de parti et l'esprit national_
(1852); _Étude politique sur le vicomte Ch. Vilain XIIII_ (1879);
_Épisodes de l'hist. de l'art en Belgique_ (1883); _Biographie de H.
Conscience_ (1885).
DECLARATION (from Lat. _declarare_, to make fully clear, _clarus_),
formerly, in an action at English law, the first step in pleading--the
precise statement of the matter in respect of which the plaintiff sued.
It was divided into counts, in each of which a specific cause of action
was alleged, in wide and general terms, and the same acts or omissions
might be stated in several counts as different causes of actions. Under
the system of pleading established by the Judicature Act 1875, the
declaration has been superseded by a statement of claim setting forth
the facts on which the plaintiff relies. Declarations are now in use
only in the mayor's court of London and certain local courts of record,
and in those of the United States and the British colonies in which the
Common Law system of pleading survives. In the United States a
declaration is termed a "complaint," which is the first pleading in an
action. It is divided into parts,--the _title_ of the court and term;
the _venue_ or county in which the facts are alleged to have occurred;
the _commencement_, which contains a statement of the names of the
parties and the character in which they appear; the _statement_ of the
cause of action; and the _conclusion_ or claim for relief. (See
PLEADING.)
The term is also used in other English legal connexions; e.g. the
Declaration of Insolvency which, when filed in the Bankruptcy Court by
any person unable to pay his debts, amounts to an act of bankruptcy (see
BANKRUPTCY); the Declaration of Title, for which, when a person
apprehends an invasion of his title to land, he may, by the Declaration
of Title Act 1862, petition the Court of Chancery (see LAND
REGISTRATION); or the Declaration of Trust, whereby a person
acknowledges that property, the title of which he holds, belongs to
another, for whose use he holds it; by the Statute of Frauds,
declarations of trust of land must be evidenced in writing and signed by
the party declaring the trust. (See TRUSTS.) By the Statutory
Declarations Act 1835 (which was an act to make provision for the
abolition of unnecessary oaths, and to repeal a previous act of the same
session on the same subject), various cases were specified in which a
solemn declaration was, or might be, substituted for an affidavit. In
nearly all civilized countries an affirmation is now permitted to those
who object to take an oath or upon whose conscience an oath is not
binding. (See AFFIDAVIT; OATH.)
An exceptional position in law is accorded to a Dying or Deathbed
Declaration. As a general rule, hearsay evidence is excluded on a
criminal charge, but where the charge is one of homicide it is the
practice to admit dying declarations of the deceased with respect to the
cause of his death. But before such declarations can be admitted in
evidence against a prisoner, it must be proved that the deceased when
making the declaration had given up all hope of recovery. Unsworn
declarations as to family matters, e.g. as to pedigree, may also be
admitted as evidence, as well as declarations made by deceased persons
in the course of their duty. (See EVIDENCE.)
DECLARATION OF PARIS, a statement of principles of international law
adopted at the conclusion (16th of April 1856) of the negotiations for
the treaty of Paris at the suggestion of Count Walewski, the French
plenipotentiary. The declaration set out that maritime law in time of
war had long been the subject of deplorable disputes, that the
uncertainty of the rights and duties in respect of it gave rise to
differences of opinion between neutrals and belligerents which might
occasion serious difficulties and even conflicts, and that it was
consequently desirable to agree upon some fixed uniform rules. The
plenipotentiaries therefore adopted the four following principles:--
1. Privateering is and remains abolished; 2. The neutral flag covers
enemy's goods, with the exception of contraband of war; 3. Neutral
goods, with the exception of contraband of war, are not liable to
capture under the enemy's flag; 4. Blockades, in order to be binding,
must be effective, that is to say, maintained by a force sufficient
really to prevent access to the coast of the enemy.
They also undertook to bring the declaration to the knowledge of the
states which had not taken part in the congress of Paris and to invite
them to accede to it. The text of the declaration concluded as
follows:--"Convinced that the maxims which they now proclaim cannot but
be received with gratitude by the whole world, the undersigned
plenipotentiaries doubt not that the efforts of their governments to
obtain the general adoption thereof will be crowned with full success."
The declaration is of course binding only on the powers which adopted it
or have acceded to it. The majority which adopted it consisted of Great
Britain, Austria, France, Prussia, Russia, Sardinia and Turkey. The
United States government declined to sign the declaration on the ground
that, not possessing a great navy, they would be obliged in time of war
to rely largely upon merchant ships commissioned as war vessels, and
that therefore the abolition of privateering would be entirely in favour
of European powers, whose large navies rendered them practically
independent of such aid. All other maritime states acceded to the
declaration except Spain, Mexico[1] and Venezuela.
Although the United States and Spain were not parties to the
declaration, both, during the Spanish-American War, observed its
principles. The Spanish government, however, expressly gave notice that
it reserved its right to issue letters of marque. At the same time both
belligerents organized services of auxiliary cruisers composed of
merchant ships under the command of naval officers. In how far this
might operate as a veiled revival of the forbidden practice has now
ceased to be a matter of much importance, the Hague Conference having
adopted a series of rules on the subject which may be said to interpret
the first of the four principles of the declaration with such precision
as to take its place.
The New Convention on the subject (October 18th, 1907) sets out that, in
view of the incorporation in time of war of merchant vessels in
combatant fleets, it is desirable to define the conditions under which
this can be effected, that, nevertheless, the contracting powers, not
having been able to come to an understanding on the question whether the
transformation of a merchant ship into a war vessel may take place on
the high sea,[2] are agreed that the question of the place of
transformation is in no way affected by the rules adopted, which are as
follows:--
Art. i. No merchant ship transformed into a war vessel can have the
rights and obligations attaching to this condition unless it is placed
under the direct authority, the immediate control and the
responsibility of the power whose flag it carries.
Art. ii. Merchant ships transformed into war vessels must bear the
distinctive external signs of war vessels of their nationality.
Art. iii. The officer commanding must be in the service of the state,
and properly commissioned by the competent authorities. His name must
appear in the list of officers of the combatant fleet.
Art. iv. The crew must be subject to the rules of military discipline.
Art. v. Every merchant ship transformed into a war vessel is bound to
conform, in its operation, to the laws and customs of war.
Art. vi. The belligerent who transforms a merchant ship into a war
vessel must, as soon as possible, mention this transformation on the
list of vessels belonging to its combatant fleet.
Art. vii. The provisions of the present convention are only applicable
as among the contracting powers and provided the belligerents are all
parties to the convention.
See T. Gibson Bowles, _Declaration of Paris_ (London, 1900); Sir T.
Barclay, _Problems of International Practice and Diplomacy_ (London,
1907), chap. xv.². (T. Ba.)
FOOTNOTES:
[1] At the 7th plenary sitting of the second Hague Conference
(September 7th, 1907) the chiefs of the Spanish and Mexican
delegations, M. de Villa Urratia and M. de la Barra, announced the
determination of their respective governments to accede to the
Declaration of Paris.
[2] This relates to the incident in the Russo-Japanese War of the
transformation of Russian vessels which had passed through the
Dardanelles unarmed.
DECLARATOR, in Scots law, a form of action by which some right of
property, or of servitude, or of status, or some inferior right or
interest, is sought to be judicially declared.
DECLINATION (from Lat. _declinare_, to decline), in magnetism the angle
between true north and magnetic north, i.e. the variation between the
true meridian and the magnetic meridian. In 1596 at London the angle of
declination was 11° E. of N., in 1652 magnetic north was true north, in
1815 the magnetic needle pointed 24½° W. of N., in 1891 18° W., in 1896
17° 56´ W. and in 1906 17° 45´. The angle is gradually diminishing and
the declination will in time again be 0°, when it will slowly increase
in an easterly direction, the north magnetic pole oscillating slowly
around the North Pole. Regular daily changes of declination also occur.
Magnetic storms cause irregular variations sometimes of one or two
degrees. (See MAGNETISM, TERRESTRIAL.)
In astronomy the declination is the angular distance, as seen from the
earth, of a heavenly body from the celestial equator, thus corresponding
with terrestrial latitude.
DECOLOURIZING, in practical chemistry and chemical technology, the
removal of coloured impurities from a substance. The agent most
frequently used is charcoal, preferably prepared from blood, which when
shaken with a coloured solution frequently precipitates the coloured
substances leaving the solution clear. Thus the red colour of wines may
be removed by filtering the wine through charcoal; the removal of the
dark-coloured impurities which arise in the manufacture of sugar may be
similarly effected. Other "decolourizers" are sulphurous acid,
permanganates and manganates, all of which have received application in
the sugar industry.
DECORATED PERIOD, in architecture, the term given by Richman to the
second pointed or Gothic style, 1307-1377. It is characterized by its
window tracery, geometrical at first and flowing in the later period,
owing to the omission of the circles in the tracery of windows, which
led to the juxtaposition of the foliations and their pronounced curves
of contre-flexure. This flowing or flamboyant tracery was introduced in
the first quarter of the century and lasted about fifty years. The
arches are generally equilateral, and the mouldings bolder than in the
Early English, with less depth in the hollows and with the fillet
largely used. The ball flower and a four-leaved flower take the place of
the dog-tooth, and the foliage in the capitals is less conventional than
in Early English and more flowing, and the diaper patterns in walls are
more varied. The principal examples are those of the east end of Lincoln
and Carlisle cathedral; the west fronts of York and Lichfield; the
crossing of Ely cathedral, including the lantern and three west bays of
choir and the Lady Chapel; and Melrose Abbey. (R. P. S.)
DE COSTA, BENJAMIN FRANKLIN (1831-1904), American clergyman and
historical writer, was born in Charlestown, Massachusetts, on the 10th
of July 1831. He graduated in 1856 at the Biblical Institute at Concord,
New Hampshire (now a part of Boston University), became a minister in
the Episcopal Church in 1857, and during the next three years was a
rector first at North Adams, and then at Newton Lower Falls, Mass. After
serving as chaplain in two Massachusetts regiments during the first two
years of the Civil War, he became editor (1863) of _The Christian Times_
in New York, and subsequently edited _The Episcopalian_ and _The
Magazine of American History_. He was rector of the church of St John
the Evangelist in New York city from 1881 to 1899, when he resigned in
consequence of being converted to Roman Catholicism. He was one of the
organizers and long the secretary of the Church Temperance Society, and
founded and was the first president (1884-1899) of the American branch
of the White Cross Society. He became a high authority on early American
cartography and the history of the period of exploration. He died in New
York city on the 4th of November 1904. In addition to numerous
monographs and valuable contributions to Winsor's _Narrative and
Critical History of America_, he published _The Pre-Columbian Discovery
of America by the Northmen_ (1868); _The Northmen in Maine_ (1870); _The
Moabite Stone_ (1871); _The Rector of Roxburgh_ (1871), a novel under
the _nom de plume_ of "William Hickling"; and _Verrazano the Explorer;
being a Vindication of his Letter and Voyage_ (1880).
DE COSTER, CHARLES THÉODORE HENRI (1827-1879), Belgian writer, was born
at Munich on the 20th of August 1827. His father, Augustin de Coster,
was a native of Liége, who was attached to the household of the papal
nuncio at Munich, but soon returned to Belgium. Charles was placed in a
Brussels bank, but in 1850 he entered the university of Brussels, where
he completed his studies in 1855. He was one of the founders of the
_Société des Joyeux_, a small literary club, more than one member of
which was to achieve literary distinction. De Coster made his début as a
poet in the _Revue trimestrielle_, founded in 1854, and his first
efforts in prose were contributed to a periodical entitled
_Uylenspiegel_ (founded 1856). A correspondence covering the years
1850-1858, his _Lettres à Élisa_, were edited by Ch. Potvin in 1894. He
was a keen student of Rabelais and Montaigne, and familiarized himself
with 16th-century French. He said that Flemish manners and speech could
not be rendered faithfully in modern French, and accordingly wrote his
best works in the old tongue. The success of his _Légendes flamandes_
(1857) was increased by the illustrations of Félicien Rops and other
friends. In 1861 he published his _Contes brabançons_, in modern French.
His masterpiece is his _Légende de Thyl Uylenspiegel et de Lamme
Goedzak_ (1867), a 16th-century romance, in which Belgian patriotism
found its fullest expression. In the preparation for this prose epic of
the _gueux_ he spent some ten years. Uylenspiegel (Eulenspiegel) has
been compared to Don Quixote, and even to Panurge. He is the type of the
16th-century Fleming, and the history of his resurrection from the grave
itself was accepted as an allegory of the destiny of the race. The
exploits of himself and his friend form the thread of a semi-historical
narrative, full of racy humour, in spite of the barbarities that find a
place in it. This book also was illustrated by Rops and others. In 1870
De Coster became professor of general history and of French literature
at the military school. His works however were not financially
profitable; in spite of his government employment he was always in
difficulties; and he died in much discouragement on the 7th of May 1879
at Ixelles, Brussels. The expensive form in which _Uylenspiegel_ was
produced made it open only to a limited class of readers, and when a new
and cheap edition in modern French appeared in 1893 it was received
practically as a new book in France and Belgium.
DECOY, a contrivance for the capture or enticing of duck and other wild
fowl within range of a gun, hence any trap or enticement into a place or
situation of danger. Decoys are usually made on the following plan: long
tunnels leading from the sea, channel or estuary into a pool or pond are
covered with an arched net, which gradually narrows in width; the ducks
are enticed into this by a tame trained bird, also known as a "decoy" or
"decoy-duck." In America the "decoy" is an artificial bird, placed in
the water as if it were feeding, which attracts the wild fowl within
range of the concealed sportsman. The word "decoy" has, etymologically,
a complicated history. It appears in English first in the 17th century
in these senses as "coy" and "coy-duck," from the Dutch _kooi_, a word
which is ultimately connected with Latin _cavea_, hollow place,
"cage."[1] The _de_-, with which the word begins, is either a corruption
of "duck-coy," the Dutch article _de_, or a corruption of the Dutch
_eende-kooi_, _eende_, duck. The _New English Dictionary_ points out
that the word "decoy" is found in the particular sense of a sharper or
swindler as a slang term slightly earlier than "coy" or "decoy" in the
ordinary sense, and, as the name of a game of cards, as early as 1550,
apparently with no connexion in meaning. It is suggested that "coy" may
have been adapted to this word.
FOOTNOTE:
[1] Distinguish "coy," affectedly shy or modest, from O. Fr. _coi_,
Lat. _quietus_, quiet.
DECREE (from the past participle, _decretus_, of Lat. _decernere_), in
earlier form _Decreet_, an authoritative decision having the force of
law; the judgment of a court of justice. In Roman law, a decree
(_decretum_) was the decision of the emperor, as the supreme judicial
officer, settling a case which had been referred to him. In
ecclesiastical law the term was given to a decision of an ecclesiastical
council settling a doubtful point of doctrine or discipline (cf. also
DECRETALS). In English law decree was more particularly the judgment of
a court of equity, but since the Judicature Acts the expression
"judgment" (q.v.) is employed in reference to the decisions of all the
divisions of the supreme court. A "decree _nisi_" is the conditional
order for a dissolution of marriage made by the divorce court, and it is
made "absolute" after six months (which period may, however, be
shortened) in the absence of sufficient cause shown to the contrary.
(See DIVORCE.) _Decreet arbitral_ is a Scottish phrase for the award of
an arbitrator.
DECRETALS (_Epistolae decretales_), the name (see DECREE above), which
is given in Canon Law to those letters of the pope which formulate
decisions in ecclesiastical law; they are generally given in answer to
consultations, but are sometimes due to the initiative of the popes.
These furnish, with the canons of the councils, the chief source of the
legislation of the church, and form the greater part of the _Corpus
Juris_. In this connexion they are dealt with in the article on Canon
Law (q.v.).
_The False Decretals._ A special interest, however, attaches to the
celebrated collection known by this name. This collection, indeed,
comprises at least as many canons of councils as decretals, and the
decretals contained in it are not all forgeries. It is an amplification
and interpolation, by means of spurious decretals, of the canonical
collection in use in the Church of Spain in the 8th century, all the
documents in which are perfectly authentic. With these amplifications,
the collection dates from the middle of the 9th century. We shall give a
brief account of its contents, its history and its influence on canon
law.
The author assumes the name of Isidore, evidently the archbishop of
Seville, who was credited with a preponderating part in the compilation
of the _Hispana_; he takes in addition the surname of Mercator, perhaps
because he has made use of two passages of Marius Mercator. Hence the
custom of alluding to the author of the collection under the name of the
pseudo-Isidore.
The collection itself is divided into three parts. The first, which is
entirely spurious, contains, after the preface and various introductory
sections, seventy letters attributed to the popes of the first three
centuries, up to the council of Nicaea, i.e. up to but not including St
Silvester; all these letters are a fabrication of the pseudo-Isidore,
except two spurious letters of Clement, which were already known. The
second part is the collection of councils, classified according to their
regions, as it figures in the _Hispana_; the few spurious pieces which
are added, and notably the famous Donation of Constantine, were already
in existence. In the third part the author continues the series of
decretals which he had interrupted at the council of Nicaea. But as the
collection of authentic decretals does not begin till Siricius (385),
the pseudo-Isidore first forges thirty letters, which he attributes to
the popes from Silvester to Damasus; after this he includes the
authentic decretals, with the intermixture of thirty-five apocryphal
ones, generally given under the name of those popes who were not
represented in the authentic collection, but sometimes also under the
names of the others, for example, Damasus, St Leo, Vigilius and St
Gregory; with one or two exceptions he does not interpolate genuine
decretals. The series stops at St Gregory the Great (d. 604), except for
one letter of Gregory II. (715-731). The forged letters are not, for the
most part, entirely composed of fresh material; the author draws his
inspiration from the notices on each of the popes given in the _Liber
Pontificalis_; he inserts whole passages from ecclesiastical writers;
and he antedates the evidences of a discipline which actually existed;
so it is by no means all invented.
Thus the authentic elements were calculated to serve as a passport for
the forgeries, which were, moreover, quite skilfully composed. In fact,
the collection thus blended was passed from hand to hand without meeting
with any opposition. At most all that was asked was whether those
decretals which did not appear in the _Liber canonum_ (the collection of
Dionysius Exiguus, accepted in France) had the force of law, but Pope
Nicholas having answered that all the pontifical letters had the same
authority (see _Decr. Gra._ Dist. xix. c. 1), they were henceforward
accepted, and passed in turn into the later canonical collections. No
doubts found an expression until the 15th century, when Cardinal
Nicholas of Cusa (d. 1464) and Juan Torquemada (d. 1468) freely
expressed their suspicions. More than one scholar of the 16th century,
George Cassander, Erasmus, and the two editors of the _Decretum_ of
Gratian, Dumoulin (d. 1568) and Le Conte (d. 1577), decisively rejected
the False Decretals. This contention was again upheld, in the form of a
violent polemic against the papacy, by the Centuriators of Magdeburg
(_Ecclesiastica historia_, Basel, 1559-1574); the attempt at refutation
by the Jesuit Torres (_Adversus Centur. Magdeburg. libri quinque_,
Florence, 1572) provoked a violent rejoinder from the Protestant
minister David Blondel (_Pseudo-Isidorus et Turrianus rapulantes_,
Geneva, 1620). Since then, the conclusion has been accepted, and all
researches have been of an almost exclusively historical character. One
by one the details are being precisely determined, and the question may
now almost be said to be settled.
Date.
In the first place, an exact determination of the date of the collection
has been arrived at. On the one hand, it cannot go back further than
847, the date of the False Capitularies, with which the author of the
False Decretals was acquainted.[1] On the other hand, in a letter of
Lupus, abbot of Ferrières, written in 858, and in the synodical letter
of the council of Quierzy in 857 are to be found quotations which are
certainly from these false decretals; and further, an undoubted allusion
in the statutes given by Hincmar to his diocese on the 1st of November
852. The composition of the collection must then be dated approximately
at 850.
Aim of the author.
The object which the forger had in view is clearly stated in his
preface; the reform of the canon law, or rather its better application.
But, again, in what particular respects he wishes it to be reformed can
be best deduced from certain preponderant ideas which make themselves
felt in the apocryphal documents. He constantly harps upon accusations
brought against bishops and the way they were judged; his wish is to
prevent them from being unjustly accused, deposed or deprived of their
sees; to this end he multiplies the safeguards of procedure, and secures
the right of appeal to the pope and the possibility of restoring bishops
to their sees. His object, too, was to protect the property, as well as
the persons, of the clergy against the encroachments of the temporal
power. In the second place, Isidore wishes to increase the strength and
cohesion of the churches; he tries to give absolute stability to the
diocese and the ecclesiastical province; he reinforces the rights of the
bishop and his comprovincials, while he initiates a determined campaign
against the _chorepiscopi_; finally, as the keystone of the arch he
places the papacy. These aims are most laudable, and in no way
subversive; but the author must have had some particular reasons for
emphasizing these questions rather than others; and the examination of
these reasons may help us to determine the nationality of this
collection.
Nationality of the collection.
The name of Isidore usurped by the author at first led to the
supposition that the False Decretals originated in Spain; this opinion
no longer meets with any support; it is enough to point out that there
is no Spanish manuscript of the collection, at least until the 13th
century. In the 16th century the Protestants, who wished to represent
the forgeries in the light of an attempt in favour of the papacy,
ascribed the origin of the False Decretals to Rome, but neither the
manuscript tradition nor the facts confirm this view, which is nowadays
entirely abandoned. Everybody is agreed in placing the origin of the
False Decretals within the Frankish empire. Within these limits, three
different theories have successively arisen: "At first it was thought
that Isidore's domicile could be fixed in the province of Mainz, it is
now about fifty years ago that the balance of opinion was turned in
favour of the province of Reims; and now, after the lapse of about
twenty years, several authors have suggested the province of Tours" (P.
Fournier, _Étude sur les Fausses Décrétales_). In favour of Mainz,
especial stress was laid on the fact that it was the country of
Benedictus Levita, the compiler of the False Capitularies, to which the
False Decretals are closely related. But Benedict, the deacon of Otgar
of Mainz, is as much of a hypothetical personage as Isidorus Mercator;
moreover, in the middle of the 9th century the condition of the province
of Mainz was not disturbed, nor were the _chorepiscopi_ menaced. In
favour of Reims, it has been pointed out that it was there that the
first judicial use of the False Decretals is recorded, in the trials of
Rothad, bishop of Soissons (d. 869), and of Hincmar the younger, bishop
of Laon (d. c. 882); and an application of the axiom has been attempted:
_Is fecit cui prodest_. But both these trials took place later than 852,
at which date the existence of the collection is an established fact;
the texts of it were used, but they were in existence before. Between
847 and 852, the province of Reims was disturbed by another affair, that
of the clergy ordained by Ebbo at the time of his short restoration to
the see of Reims, in 840-841; these clerics, Vulfadus (afterwards
archbishop of Bourges), and a few others, had been suspended by Hincmar
on his election in 845. But the affair of Ebbo's clergy did not become
critical till the council of Soissons in 853; up till then these clergy
had, so far as we know, produced no documents, and the citations from
the False Decretals made in their later writings do not prove that they
had forged them. Moreover, Hincmar would not have cited the forged
letters of the popes in 852; above all, this theory would not explain
the chief preoccupation of the forger, which is to protect bishops
against unjust judgments and depositions. We must, then, look for
conditions in which the bishops were concerned. It is precisely this
which has suggested the province of Tours. Brittany, which was dependent
on the province of Tours, had just for a time recovered its
independence, thanks to its duke Nominoé. The struggle between the two
nationalities, the Celt and the Frank, found a reflexion in the sphere
of religion. The Breton bishops were for the most part abbots of
monasteries, who had but little consideration for the territorial limits
of the civitates; and many of the religious usages of the Bretons
differed profoundly from those of the Franks. Charlemagne had divided up
the Breton dioceses and established in them Frankish bishops. Nominoé
hastened to depose the four Frankish bishops, after wringing from them
by force confessions of simony; he then established a metropolitan see
at Dol. Hence arose incessant complaints on the part of the dispossessed
bishops, of the metropolitan of Tours, and his suffragans, notably those
of Angers and Le Mans, which were more exposed than the others to the
incursions of the Bretons; and this gave rise to numerous papal letters,
and all this throughout a period of thirty years. There were requests
that the bishops should be judged according to the rules, protests
against the interlopers, demands for the restoration of the bishops to
their sees. These circumstances fall in perfectly with the questions
about which, as we have pointed out, the pseudo-Isidore was mainly
concerned: the judgment of bishops, and the stability of the
ecclesiastical organizations.
In the province of Tours, attempts have been made to define more clearly
the centre of the forgeries, and the most recent authorities fix upon Le
Mans. The sole argument, though a very weighty one, is found in the
undeniable relation, revealed in an astonishing similarity both in
expressions and composition, which exists between these forgeries and
some other documents certainly fabricated at Le Mans, under the
episcopate of Aldric (832-856), notably the _Actus Pontificum Cenomanis
in urbe degentium_, in which there is no lack of forged documents. These
certainly bear the mark of the same hand.
Canonical influence.
Though we cannot admit that the False Decretals were composed in order
to enforce the rights of the papacy, we may at least consider whether
the popes did not make use of the False Decretals to support their
rights. It is certain that in 864 Rothad of Soissons took with him to
Rome, if not the collection, at least important extracts from the
pseudo-Isidore; M. Fournier has pointed out in the letters of the pope
of that time, "a literary influence, which is shown in the choice of
expressions and metaphors," notably in those passages relating to the
_restitutio spolii_; but he concludes by affirming that the ideas and
acts of Nicholas were not modified by the new collection: even before
864 he acted in affairs concerning bishops, e.g. in the case of the
Breton bishops or the adversaries of Photius, patriarch of
Constantinople, exactly as he acted later; all that can be said is that
the False Decretals, though not expressly cited by the pope, "led him to
accentuate still further the arguments which he drew from the decrees of
his predecessors," notably with regard to the _exceptio spolii_. In the
papal letters of the end of the 9th and the whole of the 10th century,
only two or three insignificant citations of the pseudo-Isidore have
been pointed out; the use of the pseudo-Isidorian forged documents did
not become prevalent at Rome till about the middle of the 11th century,
in consequence of the circulation of the canonical collections in which
they figured; but nobody then thought of casting any doubts on the
authenticity of those documents. One thing only is established, and this
may be said to have been the real effect of the False Decretals, namely,
the powerful impulse which they gave in the Frankish territories to the
movement towards centralization round the see of Rome, and the legal
obstacles which they opposed to unjust proceedings against the bishops.
BIBLIOGRAPHY.--The best edition is that of P. Hinschius, _Decretales
pseudo-Isidorianae et capitula Angilramni_ (Leipzig, 1863). In it the
authentic texts are printed in two columns, the forgeries across the
whole width of the page; an important preface of ccxxviii. pages
contains, besides the classification of the MSS., a profound study of
the sources and other questions bearing on the collection. After the
works cited above, the following dissertations should be noted.
Placing the origin of the False Decretals at Rome is: A. Theiner, _De
pseudo-Isidoriana canonum collectione_ (Breslau, 1827); at Mainz, the
brothers Ballerini, _De antiquis collectionibus et collectoribus
canonum_, iii. (_S. Leonis opera_, t. iii.; Migne, _Patrologia Lat._
t. 56); Blascus, _De coll. canonum Isidori Mercatoris_ (Naples, 1760);
Wasserschleben, _Beiträge zur Geschichte der falschen Dekretalen_
(Breslau, 1844); in the province of Reims: Weizsäcker, "Die
pseudoisidorianische Frage," in the _Histor. Zeitschrift_ of Sybel
(1860); Hinschius, Preface, p. ccviii.; A. Tardif, _Histoire des
sources du droit canonique_ (Paris, 1887); Schneider, _Die Lehre der
Kirchenrechtsquellen_ (Regensburg, 1892). An excellent résumé of the
question; seems more favourable to Le Mans in the article of the
_Kirchenlexicon_ of Wetzer and Welte (2nd ed.); F. Lot, _Études sur le
règne de Hugues Capet_ (Paris, 1903); Lesne, _La Hiérarchie episcopale
en Gaule et Germanie_ (Paris, 1905); for the province of Tours and Le
Mans: B. Simson, _Die Entstehung der pseudoisidor. Fälschungen in Le
Mans_ (Leipzig, 1886. It is he who pointed out the connexion with the
forgeries of Le Mans); especially Paul Fournier, "La Question des
fausses décrétales," in the _Nouvelle Revue historique de droit
français et étranger_ (1887, 1888); in the _Congrès internat. des
savants cathol._ t. ii.; "Étude sur les fausses décrétales," in _Revue
d'histoire ecclésiastique de Louvain_ (1906, 1907), to which the above
article is greatly indebted. (A. Bo.*)
FOOTNOTE:
[1] The False Capitularies are for civil legislation what the False
Decretals are for ecclesiastical legislation: three books of
Capitularies of the Frankish kings, more of which are spurious than
authentic. The author gives himself out as a certain Benedict, a
deacon of the church of Mainz; hence the name by which he is usually
known, Benedictus Levita. The two false collections are closely akin,
and are doubtless the fabrication of the same hands.
DECURIO, a Roman official title, used in three connexions. (1) A member
of the senatorial order in the Italian towns under the administration of
Rome, and later in provincial towns organized on the Italian model (see
CURIA 4). The number of _decuriones_ varied in different towns, but was
usually 100. The qualifications for the office were fixed in each town
by a special law for that community (_lex municipalis_). Cicero (_in
Verr._ 2. 49, 120) alludes to an age limit (originally thirty years,
until lowered by Augustus to twenty-five), to a property qualification
(cf. Pliny, _Ep._ i. 19. 2), and to certain conditions of rank. The
method of appointment varied in different towns and at different
periods. In the early municipal constitution ex-magistrates passed
automatically into the senate of their town; but at a later date this
order was reversed, and membership of the senate became a qualification
for the magistracy. Cicero (_l.c._) speaks of the senate in the Sicilian
towns as appointed by a vote of the township. But in most towns it was
the duty of the chief magistrate to draw up a list (_album_) of the
senators every five years. The _decuriones_ held office for life. They
were convened by the magistrate, who presided as in the Roman senate.
Their powers were extensive. In all matters the magistrates were obliged
to act according to their direction, and in some towns they heard cases
of appeal against judicial sentences passed by the magistrate. By the
time of the municipal law of Julius Caesar (45 B.C.) special privileges
were conferred on the _decuriones_, including the right to appeal to
Rome for trial in criminal cases. Under the principate their status
underwent a marked decline. The office was no longer coveted, and
documents of the 3rd and 4th centuries show that means were devised to
compel members of the towns to undertake it. By the time of the jurists
it had become hereditary and compulsory. This change was largely due to
the heavy financial burdens which the Roman government laid on the
municipal senates. (2) The president of a _decuria_, a subdivision of
the _curia_ (q.v.). (3) An officer in the Roman cavalry, commanding a
troop of ten men (_decuria_).
BIBLIOGRAPHY.--C. G. Bruns, _Fontes juris Romani_, c. 3, No. 18, c. 4,
Nos. 27, 29, 30 (_leges municipales_); J. C. Orelli, _Inscr. Latinae_,
No. 3721 (Album of Canusium); Godefroy, _Paratitl. ad cod.
Theodosianam_, xii. 1 (vol. iv. pp. 352 et seq., ed. Ritter); J.
Marquardt, _Römische Staatsverwaltung_, i. pp. 183 et seq. (Leipzig,
1881); P. Willems, _Droit public romain_, pp. 535 et seq. (Paris,
1884); Pauly-Wissowa, _Realencyclopädie_, IV. ii. pp. 2319 foll.
(Stuttgart, 1901); W. Liebenam, _Städteverwaltung im römischen
Kaiserreiche_ (Leipzig, 1900). (A. M. Cl.)
DÉDÉAGATCH, a seaport of European Turkey, in the vilayet of Adrianople,
10 m. N.W. of the Maritza estuary, on the Gulf of Enos, an inlet of the
Aegean Sea. Pop. (1905) about 3000, mostly Greeks. Until 1871 Dédéagatch
was a mere cluster of fishermen's huts. A new town then began to spring
up, settlers being attracted by the prospect of opening up a trade in the
products of a vast forest of valonia oaks which grew near. In 1873 it was
made the chief town of a _Kaza_, to which it gave its name, and a
_Kaimakam_ was appointed to it. In 1884 it was raised in administrative
rank from a _Kaza_ to a _Sanjak_, and the governor became a _Mutessarif_.
In 1889 the Greek archbishopric of Enos was transferred to Dédéagatch. On
the opening, early in 1896, of the Constantinople-Salonica railway, which
has a station here, a large proportion of the extensive transit trade
which Enos, situated at the mouth of the Maritza, had acquired, was
immediately diverted to Dédéagatch, and an era of unprecedented
prosperity began; but when the railway connecting Burgas on the Black Sea
with the interior was opened, in 1898, Dédéagatch lost all it had won
from Enos. Owing to the lack of shelter in its open roadstead, the port
has not become the great commercial centre which its position otherwise
qualifies it to be. It is, however, one of the chief outlets for the
grain trade of the Adrianople, Demotica and Xanthi districts. The valonia
trade has also steadily developed, and is supplemented by the export of
timber, tobacco and almonds. In 1871, while digging out the foundations
of their houses, the settlers found many ancient tombs. Probably these
are relics, not of the necropolis of the ancient _Zonê_, but of a
monastic community of Dervishes, of the Dédé sect, which was established
here in the 15th century, shortly after the Turkish conquest, and gave to
the place its name.
DEDHAM, a township and the county seat of Norfolk county, Massachusetts,
U.S.A., with an area of 23 sq. m. of comparatively level country. Pop.
(1890) 7123; (1900) 7457, of whom 2186 were foreign-born; (1910 U.S.
census) 9284. The township is traversed by the New York, New Haven &
Hartford railway, and by interurban electric lines. It contains three
villages, Dedham, East Dedham and Oakdale. Dedham has a public library
(1854; incorporated 1871). The Dedham historical society was organized
in 1859 and was incorporated in 1862. The Fairbanks house was erected in
part as early as 1654. Carpets, handkerchiefs and woollen goods are
manufactured, and a pottery here is reputed to make the only true
crackleware outside the East. Dedham was "planted" in 1635 and was
incorporated in 1636. It was one of the first two inland settlements of
the colony, being coeval with Concord. The original plantation, about 20
m. long and 10 m. wide, extended from Roxbury and Dorchester to the
present state line of Rhode Island: from this territory several
townships were created, including Westwood (pop. in 1910, 1266), in
1897. A free public school, one of the first in America to be supported
by direct taxation, was established in Dedham in 1645. In the Woodward
tavern, the birthplace of Fisher Ames, a convention met in September
1774 and adjourned to Milton (q.v.), where it passed the Suffolk
Resolves.
DEDICATION (Lat. _dedicatio_, from _dedicare_, to proclaim, to
announce), properly the setting apart of anything by solemn
proclamation. It is thus in Latin the term particularly applied to the
consecration of altars, temples and other sacred buildings, and also to
the inscription prefixed to a book, &c., and addressed to some
particular person. This latter practice, which formerly had the purpose
of gaining the patronage and support of the person so addressed, is now
only a mark of affection or regard. In law, the word is used of the
setting apart by a private owner of a road to public use. (See HIGHWAY.)
_The Feast of Dedication_ ([Hebrew: hanuka]; [Greek: ta egkainia]) was a
Jewish festival observed for eight days from the 25th of Kislev (i.e.
about December 12) in commemoration of the reconsecration (165 B.C.) of
the temple and especially of the altar of burnt offering, after they had
been desecrated in the persecution under Antiochus Epiphanes (168 B.C.).
The distinguishing features of the festival were the illumination of
houses and synagogues, a custom probably taken over from the feast of
tabernacles, and the recitation of Psalm xxx. The biblical references
are 1 Macc. i. 41-64, iv. 36-39; 2 Macc. vi. 1-11; John x. 22. See also
2 Macc. i. 9, 18; ii. 16; and Josephus, _Antiq._ xii. v. 4. J.
Wellhausen suggests that the feast was originally connected with the
winter solstice, and only afterwards with the events narrated in
Maccabees.
_Dedication of Churches._--The custom of solemnly dedicating or
consecrating buildings as churches or chapels set apart for Christian
worship must be almost as old as Christianity itself. If we find no
reference to it in the New Testament or in the very earliest apostolic
or post-apostolic writings, it is merely due to the fact that Christian
churches had not as yet begun to be built. Throughout the ante-Nicene
period, until the reign of Constantine, Christian churches were few in
number, and any public dedication of them would have been attended with
danger in those days of heathen persecution. This is why we are ignorant
as to what liturgical forms and what consecration ritual were employed
in those primitive times. But when we come to the earlier part of the
4th century allusions to and descriptions of the consecration of
churches become plentiful.
Like so much else in the worship and ritual of the Christian church this
service is probably of Jewish origin. The hallowing of the tabernacle
and of its furniture and ornaments (Exodus xl.); the dedication of
Solomon's temple (1 Kings viii.) and of the second temple by Zerubbabel
(Ezra vi.), and its rededication by Judas Maccabaeus (see above), and
the dedication of the temple of Herod the Great (Josephus, _Antiq. of
the Jews_, bk. xv. c. xi. § 6), and our Lord's recognition of the Feast
of Dedication (St John xi. 22, 23)--all these point to the probability
of the Christians deriving their custom from a Jewish origin, quite
apart from the intrinsic appropriateness of such a custom in itself.
Eusebius (_Hist. Eccles._ lib. x. cap. 3) speaks of the dedication of
churches rebuilt after the Diocletian persecution, including the church
at Tyre in A.D. 314. The consecrations of the church of the Holy
Sepulchre at Jerusalem in A.D. 335, which had been built by Constantine,
and of other churches after his time, are described both by Eusebius and
by other ecclesiastical historians. From them we gather that every
consecration was accompanied by a celebration of the Holy Eucharist and
a sermon, and special prayers of a dedicatory character, but there is no
trace of the elaborate ritual, to be described presently, of the
medieval pontificals dating from the 8th century onwards.
The separate consecration of altars is provided for by canon 14 of the
council of Agde in 506, and by canon 26 of the council of Epaone in 517,
the latter containing the first known reference to the usage of
anointing the altar with chrism. The use of both holy water and of
unction is attributed to St Columbanus, who died in 615 (Walafrid
Strabo, _Vita S. Galli_, cap. 6).
There was an annual commemoration of the original dedication of the
church, a feast with its octave extending over eight days, during which
Gregory the Great encouraged the erection of booths and general feasting
on the part of the populace, to compensate them for, and in some way to
take the place of, abolished heathen festivities (Sozomen, _Hist.
Eccles._ lib. ii. cap. 26; Bede, _Hist. Eccles._ lib. i. cap. 30).
At an early date the right to consecrate churches was reserved to
bishops, as by canon 37 of the first council of Bracara in 563, and by
the 23rd of the Irish collections of canons, once attributed to St
Patrick, but hardly to be put earlier than the 8th century (Haddon and
Stubbs, _Councils, &c._, vol. ii. pt. 2, p. 329).
When we come to examine the MS. and printed service-books of the
medieval church, we find a lengthy and elaborate service provided for
the consecration of churches. It is contained in the pontifical. The
earliest pontifical which has come down to us is that of Egbert,
archbishop of York (732-766), which, however, only survives in a
10th-century MS. copy. Later pontificals are numerous; we cannot
describe all their variations. A good idea, however, of the general
character of the service will be obtained from a skeleton of it as
performed in this country before the Reformation according to the use of
Sarum. The service in question is taken from an early 15th-century
pontifical in the Cambridge University Library as printed by W. Makell
in _Monumenta ritualia ecclesiae Anglicanae_, and ed., vol. i. pp.
195-239.
There is a preliminary office for laying a foundation-stone. On the day
of consecration the bishop is to vest in a tent outside the church,
thence to proceed to the door of the church on the outside, a single
deacon being inside the church, and there to bless holy water, twelve
lighted candles being placed outside, and twelve inside the church. He
is then to sprinkle the walls all round outside, and to knock at the
door; then to sprinkle the walls all round outside a second time and to
knock at the door again; then to sprinkle the walls all round outside a
third time, and a third time to knock at the door, by which he will then
enter, all laity being excluded. The bishop is then to fix a cross in
the centre of the church, after which the litany is said, including a
special clause for the consecration of the church and altar. Next the
bishop inscribes the alphabet in Greek letters on one of the limbs of St
Andrew's cross from the left east corner to the right west corner on the
pavement cindered for the purpose, and the alphabet in Latin on the
other limb from the right east corner to the left west corner. Then he
is to genuflect before the altar or cross. Then he blesses water,
mingled with salt, ashes and wine, and sprinkles therewith all the walls
of the church inside thrice, beginning at the altar; then he sprinkles
the centre of the church longwise and crosswise on the pavement, and
then goes round the outside of the church sprinkling it thrice. Next
reentering the church and taking up a central position he sprinkles holy
water to the four points of the compass, and toward the roof. Next he
anoints with chrism the twelve internal and twelve external
wall-crosses, afterwards perambulating the church thrice inside and
outside, censing it.
Then there follows the consecration of the altar. First, holy water is
blessed and mixed with chrism, and with the mixture the bishop makes a
cross in the middle of the altar, then on the right and the left, then
on the four horns of the altar. Then the altar is sprinkled seven times
or three times with water not mixed with chrism, and the altar-table is
washed therewith and censed and wiped with a linen cloth. The centre of
the altar is next anointed with the oil of the catechumens in the form
of a cross; and the altar-stone is next anointed with chrism; and then
the whole altar is rubbed over with oil of the catechumens and with
chrism. Incense is next blessed, and the altar censed, five grains of
incense being placed crosswise in the centre and at the four corners,
and upon the grains five slender candle crosses, which are to be lit.
Afterwards the altar is scraped and cleansed; then the altar-cloths and
ornaments having been sprinkled with holy water are placed upon the
altar, which is then to be censed.
All this is subsidiary to the celebration of mass, with which the whole
service is concluded. The transcription and description of the various
collects, psalms, anthems, benedictions, &c., which make up the order of
dedication have been omitted for the sake of brevity.
The Sarum order of dedication described above is substantially identical
with the Roman order, but it would be superfluous to tabulate and
describe the lesser variations of language or ritual. There is, however,
one very important and significant piece of ritual, not found in the
above-described English church order, but always found in the Roman
service, and not infrequently found in the earlier and later English
uses, in connexion with the presence and use of relics at the
consecration of an altar. According to the Roman ritual, after the
priest has sprinkled the walls of the church inside thrice all round and
then sprinkled the pavement from the altar to the porch, and sideways
from wall to wall, and then to the four quarters of the compass, he
prepares some cement at the altar. He then goes to the place where the
relics are kept, and starts a solemn procession with the relics round
the outside of the church. There a sermon is preached, and two decrees
of the council of Trent are read, and the founder's deed of gift or
endowment. Then the bishop, anointing the door with chrism, enters the
church with the relics and deposits them in the cavity or confession in
the altar. Having been enclosed they are censed and covered in, and the
cover is anointed. Then follows the censing and wiping of the altar as
in the Sarum order.
This use of relics is very ancient and can be traced back to the time
of St Ambrose. There was also a custom, now obsolete, of enclosing a
portion of the consecrated Eucharist if relics were not obtainable. This
was ordered by cap. 2 of the council of Celchyth (Chelsea) in 816. But
though ancient the custom of enclosing relics was not universal, and
where found in English church orders, as it frequently is found from the
pontifical of Egbert onwards, it is called the "Mos Romanus" as
distinguished from the "Mos Anglicanus" (_Archaeologia_, liv. 416). It
is absent from the description of the early Irish form of consecration
preserved in the _Leabhar Breac_, translated and annotated by Rev. T.
Olden in the _Transactions of the St Paul's Ecclesiolog. Soc._ vol. iv.
pt. ii. p. 98.
The curious ritual act, technically known as the _abecedarium_, i.e. the
tracing of the alphabet, sometimes in Latin characters, sometimes in
Latin and Greek, sometimes, according to Menard, in Latin, Greek and
Hebrew, along the limbs of St Andrew's cross on the floor of the church,
can be traced back to the 8th century and may be earlier. Its origin and
meaning are unknown. Of all explanations we like best the recent one
suggested by Rossi and adopted by the bishop of Salisbury. This
interprets the St Andrew's cross as the initial Greek letter of
Christus, and the whole act as significant of taking possession of the
site to be consecrated in the name of Christ, who is the Alpha and
Omega, the word of God, combining in himself all letters that lie
between them, every element of human speech. The three languages may
then have been suggested by the Latin, Greek and Hebrew, in which his
title was written on the cross.
The disentangling the Gallican from the Roman elements in the early
Western forms of service is a delicate and difficult task, undertaken by
Monsignor Louis Duchesne, who shows how the former partook of a funerary
and the latter of a baptismal character (_Christian Worship_ (London,
1904), cap. xii.).
The dedication service of the Greek Church is likewise long and
elaborate. Relics are to be prepared and guarded on the day previous in
some neighbouring sacred building. On the morning following, all
ornaments and requisites having been got ready, the laity being
excluded, the bishop and clergy vested proceed to fix in its place and
consecrate the altar, a long prayer of dedication being said, followed
by a litany. The altar is then sprinkled with warm water, then with
wine, then anointed with chrism in the form of a cross. The altar, the
book of the gospels, and all cloths are then censed, every pillar is
crossed with chrism, while various collects are said and psalms recited.
One lamp is then filled with oil and lit, and placed on the altar, while
clergy bring in other lamps and other ornaments of the church. On the
next day--if the service cannot be concluded in one day--the bishop and
clergy go to the building where the relics have been kept and guarded. A
procession is formed and advances thence with the relics, which are
borne by a priest in a holy vessel (_discus_) on his head; the church
having been entered, the relics are placed by him with much ceremonial
in the "confession," the recess prepared in or about the altar for their
reception, which is then anointed and sealed up. After this the liturgy
is celebrated both on the feast of dedication and on seven days
afterwards.
There is no authorized form for the dedication of a church in the
reformed Church of England. A form was drawn up and approved by both
houses of the convocation of Canterbury under Archbishop Tenison in
1712, and an almost identical form was submitted to convocation in 1715,
but its consideration was not completed by the Lower House, and neither
form ever received royal sanction. The consequence has been that
Anglican bishops have fallen back on their undefined _jus liturgicum_,
and have drawn up and promulgated forms for use in their various
dioceses, some of them being content to borrow from other dioceses for
this purpose. There is a general similarity, with a certain amount of
difference in detail, in these various forms. In the diocese of London
the bishop, attended by clergy and churchwardens, receives at the west
door, outside, a petition for consecration; the procession then moves
round the whole church outside, while certain psalms are chanted. On
again reaching the west door the bishop knocks thrice for admission, and
the door being opened the procession advances to the east end of the
church. He there lays the keys on the table "which is to be hallowed."
The _Veni Creator_ is then sung kneeling, followed by the litany with
special suffrages. The bishop then proceeds to various parts of the
church and blesses the font, the chancel, with special references to
confirmation and holy matrimony, the lectern, the pulpit, the clergy
stalls, the choir seats, the holy table. The deed of consecration is
then read and signed, and the celebration of Holy Communion follows with
special collects, epistle and gospel.
The Church of Ireland and the episcopal Church of Scotland are likewise
without any completely authorized form of dedication, and their
archbishops or bishops have at various times issued forms of service on
their own authority. (F. E. W.)
DE DONIS CONDITIONALIBUS, a chapter of the statute of Westminster the
Second (1285) which originated the law of entail. Strictly speaking, a
form of entail was known before the Norman feudal law had been
domesticated in England. The common form was a grant "to the feoffee and
the heirs of his body," by which limitation it was sought to prevent
alienation from the lineage of the first purchaser. These grants were
also known as _feuda conditionata_, because if the donee had no heirs of
his body the estate reverted to the donor. This right of reversion was
evaded by the interpretation that such a gift was a conditional fee,
which enabled the donee, if he had an heir of the body born alive, to
alienate the land, and consequently disinherit the issue and defeat the
right of the donor. To remedy this the statute _De Donis
Conditionalibus_ was passed, which enacted that, in grants to a man and
the heirs of his body, the will of the donor according to the form in
the deed of gift manifestly expressed, should be from thenceforth
observed; so that they to whom the land was given under such condition,
should have no power to alienate the land so given, but that it should
remain unto the issue of those to whom it was given after their death,
or unto the giver or his heirs, if issue fail. Since the passing of the
statute an estate given to a man and the heirs of his body has been
known as an estate tail, or an estate in fee tail (_feudum talliatum_),
the word tail being derived from the French _tailler_, to cut, the
inheritance being by the statute cut down and confined to the heirs of
the body. The operation of the statute soon produced innumerable evils:
"children, it is said, grew disobedient when they knew they could not be
set aside; farmers were deprived of their leases; creditors were
defrauded of their debts; innumerable latent entails were produced to
deprive purchasers of the land they had fairly bought; treasons also
were encouraged, as estates tail were not liable to forfeiture longer
than for the tenant's life" (Williams, _Real Property_). Accordingly,
the power of alienation was reintroduced by the judges in Taltarum's
case (_Year Book_, 12 Edward IV., 1472) by means of a fictitious suit or
recovery which had originally been devised by the regular clergy for
evading the statutes of mortmain. This was abolished by an act passed in
1833. (See FINE.)
DEDUCTION (from Lat. _deducere_, to take or lead from or out of,
derive), a term used in common parlance for the process of taking away
from, or subtracting (as in mathematics), and specially for the
argumentative process of arriving at a conclusion from evidence, i.e.
for any kind of inference.[1] In this sense it includes both arguments
from particular facts and those from general laws to particular cases.
In logic it is generally used in contradiction to "induction" for a kind
of mediate inference, in which a conclusion (often itself called the
deduction) is regarded as following necessarily under certain fixed laws
from premises. This, the most common, form of deduction is the syllogism
(q.v.; see also LOGIC), which consists in taking a general principle and
deriving from it facts which are necessarily involved in it. This use of
deduction is of comparatively modern origin; it was originally used as
the equivalent of Aristotle's [Greek: apagôgê] (see _Prior Analytics_, B
xxv.). The modern use of deduction is practically identical with the
Aristotelian [Greek: syllogismos].
FOOTNOTE:
[1] Two forms of the verb are used, "deduce" and "deduct"; originally
synonymous, they are now distinguished, "deduce" being confined to
arguments, "deduct" to quantities.
DEE, JOHN (1527-1608), English mathematician and astrologer, was born on
the 13th of July 1527, in London, where his father was, according to
Wood, a wealthy vintner. In 1542 he was sent to St John's College,
Cambridge. After five years spent in mathematical and astronomical
studies, he went to Holland, in order to visit several eminent
continental mathematicians. Having remained abroad nearly a year, he
returned to Cambridge, and was elected a fellow of Trinity College, then
first erected by King Henry VIII. In 1548 he took the degree of master
of arts; but in the same year he found it necessary to leave England on
account of the suspicions entertained of his being a conjurer; these
were first excited by a piece of machinery, which, in the _Pax_ of
Aristophanes, he exhibited to the university, representing the
scarabaeus flying up to Jupiter, with a man and a basket of victuals on
its back. He went first to the university of Louvain, where he resided
about two years, and then to the college of Rheims, where he had
extraordinary success in his public lectures on Euclid's _Elements_. On
his return to England in 1551 King Edward assigned him a pension of 100
crowns, which he afterwards exchanged for the rectory of
Upton-upon-Severn, Worcestershire. Soon after the accession of Mary he
was accused of using enchantments against the queen's life; but after a
tedious confinement he obtained his liberty in 1555, by an order of
council.
When Elizabeth ascended the throne, Dee was asked by Lord Dudley to name
a propitious day for the coronation. On this occasion he was introduced
to the queen, who took lessons in the mystical interpretation of his
writings, and made him great promises, which, however, were never
fulfilled. In 1564 he again visited the continent, in order to present
his _Monas hieroglyphica_ to the emperor Maximilian, to whom he had
dedicated it. He returned to England in the same year; but in 1571 he
was in Lorraine, whither two physicians were sent by the queen to his
relief in a dangerous illness. Returning to his home at Mortlake, in
Surrey, he continued his studies, and made a collection of curious books
and manuscripts, and a variety of instruments. In 1578 Dee was sent
abroad to consult with German physicians and astrologers in regard to
the illness of the queen. On his return to England, he was employed in
investigating the title of the crown to the countries recently
discovered by British subjects, and in furnishing geographical
descriptions. Two large rolls containing the desired information, which
he presented to the queen, are still preserved in the Cottonian Library.
A learned treatise on the reformation of the calendar, written by him
about the same time, is also preserved in the Ashmolean Library at
Oxford.
From this period the philosophical researches of Dee were concerned
entirely with necromancy. In 1581 he became acquainted with Edward
Kelly, an apothecary, who had been convicted of forgery and had lost
both ears in the pillory at Lancaster. He professed to have discovered
the philosopher's stone, and by his assistance Dee performed various
incantations, and maintained a frequent imaginary intercourse with
spirits. Shortly afterwards Kelly and Dee were introduced by the earl of
Leicester to a Polish nobleman, Albert Laski, palatine of Siradz,
devoted to the same pursuits, who persuaded them to accompany him to his
native country. They embarked for Holland in September 1583, and arrived
at Laski's residence in February following. Upon Dee's departure the
mob, believing him a wizard, broke into his house, and destroyed a
quantity of furniture and books and his chemical apparatus. Dee and
Kelly lived for some years in Poland and Bohemia in alternate wealth and
poverty, according to the credulity or scepticism of those before whom
they exhibited. They professed to raise spirits by incantation; and
Kelly dictated the utterances to Dee, who wrote them down and
interpreted them.
Dee at length quarrelled with his companion, and returned to England in
1589. He was helped over his financial difficulties by the queen and his
friends. In May of 1595 he became warden of Manchester College. In
November 1604 he returned to Mortlake, where he died in December 1608,
at the age of eighty-one, in the greatest poverty. Aubrey describes him
as "of a very fair, clear sanguine complexion, with a long beard as
white as milk--a very handsome man--tall and slender. He wore a goune
like an artist's goune with hanging sleeves." Dee's _Speculum_ or
mirror, a piece of solid pink-tinted glass about the size of an orange,
is preserved in the British Museum.
His principal works are--_Propaedeumata aphoristica_ (London, 1558);
_Monas hieroglyphica_ (Antwerp, 1564); _Epistola ad Fredericum
Commandinum_ (Pesaro, 1570); _Preface Mathematical to the English
Euclid_ (1570); _Divers Annotations and Inventions added after the
tenth book of English Euclid_ (1570); _Epistola praefixa Ephemeridibus
Joannis Feldi, a. 1557; Parallaticae commentationis praxeosque nucleus
quidam_ (London, 1573). The catalogue of his printed and published
works is to be found in his _Compendious Rehearsal_, as well as in his
letter to Archbishop Whitgift. A manuscript of Dee's, relating what
passed for many years between him and some spirits, was edited by
Meric Casaubon and published in 1659. _The Private Diary of Dr John
Dee, and the Catalogue of his Library of Manuscripts_, edited by J. O.
Halliwell, was published by the Camden Society in 1842. There is a
life of Dee in Thomas Smith's _Vitae illustrium virorum_ (1707);
English translation by W. A. Ayton, the _Life of John Dee_ (1909).
DEE (Welsh, _Dyfrdwy_; Lat., and in Milton, _Deva_), a river of Wales
and England. It rises in Bala Lake, Merionethshire, which is fed by a
number of small streams. Leaving the lake near the town of Bala it
follows a north-easterly course to Corwen, turns thence E. by S. past
Llangollen to a point near Overton, and then bends nearly north to
Chester, and thereafter north-west through a great estuary opening into
the Irish Sea. In the Llangollen district the Dee crosses Denbighshire,
and thereafter forms the boundary of that county with Shropshire, a
detached part of Flint, and Cheshire. From Bala nearly down to Overton,
a distance of 35 m., during which the river falls about 330 ft., its
course lies through a narrow and beautiful valley, enclosed on the south
by the steep lower slopes of the Berwyn Mountains and on the north by a
succession of lesser ranges. The portion known as the Vale of Llangollen
is especially famous. Here an aqueduct carrying the Pontcysyllte branch
of the Shropshire Union canal bestrides the valley; it is a remarkable
engineering work completed by Thomas Telford in 1805. The Dee has a
total length of about 70 m. and a fall of 530 ft. Below Overton it
debouches upon its plain track. Below Chester it follows a straight
artificial channel to the estuary, and this is the only navigable
portion. The estuary, which is 14 m. long, and 5¼ m. wide at its mouth,
between Hilbre Point on the English and Point of Air on the Welsh side,
is not a commercial highway like the neighbouring mouth of the Mersey,
for though in appearance a fine natural harbour at high tide, it becomes
at low tide a vast expanse of sand, through which the river meanders in
a narrow channel. The navigation, however, is capable of improvement,
and schemes have been set on foot to this end. The tide rushes in with
great speed over the sands, and their danger is illustrated in the
well-known ballad "The Sands of Dee" by Charles Kingsley. The Dee drains
an area of 813 sq. m.
DEE, a river in the south of Aberdeenshire, Scotland, pursuing a
generally easterly direction from its source in the extreme west of the
county till it reaches the North Sea at the city of Aberdeen. It rises
in the Wells of Dee, a spring on Ben Braeriach, one of the Cairngorms,
at a height of 4061 ft. above the sea. It descends rapidly from this
altitude, and by the time that it receives the Geusachan, on its right
bank, about 6 m. from its source, it has fallen 2421 ft. From the
mountains flanking its upper reaches it is fed by numerous burns named
and unnamed. With its tributaries the river drains an area of 1000 sq.
m. Rapid and turbulent during the first half of its course of 90 m., it
broadens appreciably below Aboyne and the rate of flow is diminished.
The channel towards its mouth was artificially altered in order to
provide increased dock accommodation at Aberdeen, but, above, the stream
is navigable for only barges and small craft for a few miles. It runs
through scenery of transcendent beauty, especially in Braemar. About two
miles above Inverey it enters a narrow rocky gorge, 300 yds. long and
only a few feet wide at one part, and forms the rapids and cascades of
the famous Linn of Dee. One of the finest of Scottish salmon streams, it
retains its purity almost to the very end of its run. The principal
places on the Dee, apart from private residences, are Castleton of
Braemar, Ballater, Aboyne, Kincardine O'Neil, Banchory, Culter and
Cults.
DEED (in O. Eng. _deâd_, from the stem of the verb "to do"), that which
is done, an act, doing; particularly, in law, a contract in writing,
sealed and delivered by the party bound to the party intended to
benefit. Contracts or obligations under seal are called in English law
_specialties_, and down to 1869 they took precedence in payment over
_simple_ contracts, whether written or not. Writing, sealing and
delivery are all essential to a deed. The signature of the party charged
is not material, and the deed is not void for want of a date. Delivery,
it is held, may be complete without the actual handing over of the deed;
it is sufficient if the act of sealing were accompanied by words or acts
signifying that the deed was intended to be presently binding; and
delivery to a third person for the use of the party benefited will be
sufficient. On the other hand, the deed may be handed over to a third
person as an _escrow_,[1] in which case it will not take effect as a
deed until certain conditions are performed. Such conditional delivery
may be inferred from the circumstances attending the transaction,
although the conditions be not expressed in words. A deed indented, or
indenture (so called because written in counterparts on the same sheet
of parchment, separated by cutting a wavy line between them so as to be
identified by fitting the parts together), is between two or more
parties who contract mutually. The actual indentation is not now
necessary to an indenture. The _deed-poll_ (with a polled or smooth-cut
edge, not indented) is a deed in which one party binds himself without
reference to any corresponding obligations undertaken by another party.
See CONTRACT.
FOOTNOTE:
[1] An Anglo-French law term meaning a "scroll" or strip of
parchment, cognate with the English "shred." The modern French
_écroue_ is used for the entry of a name on a prison register.
DEEMS, CHARLES (ALEXANDER) FORCE (1820-1893), American clergyman, was
born in Baltimore, Maryland, on the 4th of December 1820. He was a
precocious child and delivered lectures on temperance and on Sunday
schools before he was fourteen years old. He graduated at Dickinson
College in 1839, taught and preached in New York city for a few months,
in 1840 took charge of the Methodist Episcopal church at Asbury, New
Jersey, and removed in the next year to North Carolina, where he was
general agent for the American Bible Society. He was professor of logic
and rhetoric at the University of North Carolina in 1842-1847, and
professor of natural sciences at Randolph-Macon College (then at
Boydton, Virginia) in 1847-1848, and after two years of preaching at
Newbern, N.C., he held for four years (1850-1854) the presidency of
Greensboro (N.C.) Female College. He continued as a Methodist Episcopal
clergyman at various pastorates in North Carolina from 1854 to 1865, for
the last seven years being a presiding elder and in 1859 to 1863 being
the proprietor of St Austin's Institute, Wilson. In 1865 he settled in
New York City, where in 1866 he began preaching in the chapel of New
York University, and in 1868 he established and became the pastor of the
undenominational Church of the Strangers, which in 1870 occupied the
former Mercer Street Presbyterian church, purchased and given to Dr
Deems by Cornelius Vanderbilt; there he remained until his death in New
York city on the 18th of November 1893. He was one of the founders
(1881) and president of the American Institute of Christian Philosophy
and for ten years was editor of its organ, _Christian Thought_. Dr Deems
was an earnest temperance advocate, as early as 1852 worked
(unsuccessfully) for a general prohibition law in North Carolina, and in
his later years allied himself with the Prohibition party. He was
influential in securing from Cornelius Vanderbilt the endowment of
Vanderbilt University, in Nashville, Tennessee. He was a man of rare
personal and literary charm; he edited _The Southern Methodist Episcopal
Pulpit_ (1846-1852) and _The Annals of Southern Methodism_ (1855-1857);
he compiled _Devotional Melodies_ (1842), and, with the assistance of
Phoebe Cary, one of his parishioners, _Hymns for all Christians_ (1869;
revised, 1881); and he published many books, among which were: _The Life
of Dr Adam Clarke_ (1840); _The Triumph of Peace and other Poems_
(1840); _The Home Altar_ (1850); _Jesus_ (1872), which ran through many
editions and several revisions, the title being changed in 1880 to _The
Light of the Nations_; _Sermons_ (1885); _The Gospel of Common Sense_
(1888); _The Gospel of Spiritual Insight_ (1891) and _My Septuagint_
(1892). The Charles F. Deems Lectureship in Philosophy was founded in
his honour in 1895 at New York University by the American Institute of
Christian Philosophy.
His _Autobiography_ (New York, 1897) is autobiographical only to 1847,
the memoir being completed by his two sons.
DEER (O. E. _déor_, _díor_, a common Teutonic word, meaning a wild animal,
cf. Ger. _Tier_, Du. _dier_, &c., probably from a root _dhus_-, to
breathe), originally the name of one of two British species, the red-deer
or the fallow-deer, but now extended to all the members of the family
_Cervidae_, in the section Pecora of the suborder Artiodactyla of the
order Ungulata. (See PECORA; ARTIODACTYLA and UNGULATA.) Briefly, deer may
be defined as Pecora presenting the following characteristics:--either
antlers present in the male, or when these are absent, the upper canines
large and sabre-like, and the lateral metacarpal bones represented only by
their lower extremities. This definition will include the living and also
most of the extinct forms, although in some of the latter the lateral
metacarpal bones not only retain their lower ends, but are complete in
their entire length.
The leading characters of antlers are described under PECORA, but these
structures may be defined somewhat more fully in the following passage
from the present writer's _Deer of all Lands_:--
"Antlers are supported on a pair of solid bony processes, or pedicles,
arising from the frontal bones of the skull, of which they form an
inseparable portion; and if in a fully adult deer these pedicles be
sawn through, they will generally be found to consist of solid,
ivory-like bone, devoid of perceptible channels for the passage of
blood-vessels. The pedicles are always covered with skin well supplied
with blood-vessels; and in young deer, or those in which the antlers
have been comparatively recently shed, the covering of skin extends
over their summits, when they appear as longer or shorter projections
on the forehead, according to the species. When the first or a new
antler is about to be formed, the summits of these pedicles become
tender, and bear small velvet-like knobs, which have a high
temperature, and are supplied by an extra quantity of blood, which
commences to deposit bony matter. This deposition of bony matter
progresses very rapidly, and although in young deer and the adults of
some species the resulting antler merely forms a simple spike, or a
single fork, in full-grown individuals of the majority it assumes a
more or less complexly branched structure. All this time the growing
antler is invested with a skin clothed with exceedingly fine short
hairs, and is most liberally supplied with blood-vessels; this
sensitive skin being called the velvet. Towards the completion of its
growth a more or less prominent ring of bone, termed the burr or
coronet, is deposited at its base just above the junction with the
pedicle; this ring tending to constrict the blood-vessels, and thus
cut off the supply of blood from the antlers....
"When the antlers are freed from the velvet--a process usually
assisted by the animal rubbing them against tree stems or boughs--they
have a more or less rugose surface, owing to the grooves formed in
them by the nutrient blood-vessels. Although a few living species have
the antlers in the form of simple spikes in the adult male, in the
great majority of species they are more or less branched; while in
some, like the elk and fallow-deer, they expand into broad palmated
plates, with tines, or snags, on one or both margins. In the antlers
of the red-deer group, which form the type of the whole series, the
following names have been applied to their different component parts
and branches. The main shaft is termed the beam; the first or lowest
tine the brow-tine; the second the bez-tine; the third the trez-tine,
or royal; and the branched portion forming the summit the crown, or
surroyals. But the antlers of all deer by no means conform to this
type; and in certain groups other names have to be adopted for the
branches.
"The antlers of young deer are in the form of simple spikes; and this
form is retained in the South American brockets, although the simple
antlers of these deer appear due to degeneration, and are not
primitive types. Indeed, no living deer shows such primitive
spike-like antlers in the adult, and it is doubtful whether such a
type is displayed by any known extinct form, although many have a
simple fork. In the deer of the sambar group, where the antlers never
advance beyond a three-tined type, the shedding is frequently, if not
invariably, very irregular; but in the majority at least of the
species with complex antlers the replacement is annual, the new
appendages attaining their full development immediately before the
pairing-season. In such species there is a more or less regular annual
increase in the complexity of the antlers up to a certain period of
life, after which they begin to degenerate."
The _Cervidae_ are distributed all over Europe, Asia, Northern Africa
and America, but are unknown in Africa south of the Sahara. They are
undoubtedly a group of European or Asiatic origin, and obtained an
entrance into America at a time when that continent was connected with
Asia by way of Bering Strait.
The existing members of the family are classified in the writer's _Deer
of all Lands_ as follows:--
A. Subfamily CERVINAE.--Antlers, with one exception, present in the
male; liver without a gall-bladder; a face-gland, and a gland-pit in
the skull.
I. Reindeer, Genus _Rangifer_.--Lateral metacarpal bones represented
only by their lower extremities; antlers present in both sexes,
complex. Northern part of both hemispheres.
II. Elk, Genus _Alces_.--Lateral metacarpals as in preceding; antlers
(as in the following genera) present only in the male, arising at
right angles to the median longitudinal line of the skull, and
extending at first in the plane of the forehead, after which, when in
their fullest development, they expand into a broad palmation margined
with snags. Northern portion of both hemispheres.
III. True Deer, Genus _Cervus_.--Lateral metacarpals represented only
by their upper ends. Antlers arising at acute angles to the median
line of the skull (as in the following genera), at first projecting
from the plane of the forehead, and then continued upwards nearly in
that plane, supported on short pedicles, and furnished with a
brow-tine, never regularly forked at first division, but generally of
large size, and with not less than three tines; the skull without
ridges on the frontals forming the bases of the pedicles of the
antlers. Upper canine teeth small, or wanting. Europe, Asia and N.
America.
1. Red-deer Group, Subgenus _Cervus_.--Antlers rounded, usually with
five or more tines, generally including a bez (second), and always a
trez (third); coat of adult generally unspotted, with a large
light-coloured disk surrounding the tail; young, spotted. Europe,
Northern and Central Asia and North America.
2. Sika Deer, Subgenus _Pseudaxis_.--Antlers smaller and simpler,
four-tined, with a trez (third), but no bez (second); coat of adult
spotted, at least in summer, with a white area bordered by black in
the region of the tail, which is also black and white. North-Eastern
Asia.
3. Fallow-deer, Subgenus _Dama_.--Antlers without a bez, but with a
trez-tine, above which the beam is more or less palmated, and
generally furnished with numerous snags; coat of adult spotted in
summer, uniform in winter, with black and white markings in the region
of the tail similar to those of _Pseudaxis_; young, spotted.
Mediterranean region, but more widely spread in Europe during the
Pleistocene epoch, and also introduced into many European countries.
4. Sambar Group, Subgenus _Rusa_.--Antlers rounded, three-tined, with
the bez- and trez-tines wanting, and the beam simply forked at the
summit; coat either uniform or spotted at all seasons. Indo-Malay
countries and part of China.
5. Barasingha Group, Subgenus _Rucervus_.--Antlers flattened or
rounded, without bez- or trez-tine, the beam dichotomously forking,
and one or both branches again forked, so that the number of tines is
at least four; brow-tine forming a right angle or a continuous curve
with the beam; coat of adult generally more or less uniform, of young
spotted. Indo-Malay countries.
IV. Muntjacs, Genus _Cervulus_.--Lateral metacarpals as in _Cervus_;
antlers small, with a brow-tine and an unbranched beam, supported on
long bony pedicles, continued downwards as convergent ridges on the
forehead; upper canines of male large and tusk-like. Indo-Malay
countries and China.
V. Tufted Muntjacs, Genus _Elaphodus_.--Nearly related to the last,
but the antlers still smaller, with shorter pedicles and divergent
frontal ridges; upper canines of male not everted at the tips. Tibet
and China.
VI. Water-deer, Genus _Hydrelaphus_.--Lateral metacarpals as in
_Rangifer_; antlers wanting; upper canines of males tusk-like and
growing from semi-persistent pulps; cheek-teeth tall-crowned
(hypsodont); tail moderate. China.
VII. Roe-deer, Genus _Capreolus_.--Lateral metacarpals as in
_Rangifer_; antlers rather small, without a brow-tine or sub-basal
snag, dichotomously forked, with the upper or posterior prong again
forking; tail rudimentary; vomer not dividing posterior nasal aperture
of skull. Europe and Northern Asia.
VIII. Père David's Deer, Genus _Elaphurus_.--Lateral metacarpals as in
_Cervus_; antlers large, without a brow-tine or sub-basal snag,
dichotomously forked, with the upper prong of the fork curving
forwards and dividing, and the lower prong long, simple, and projected
backwards, the beam making a very marked angle with the plane of the
face; tail very long; vomer as in _Capreolus_. North-East Asia.
IX. American Deer, Genus _Mazama_.--Lateral metacarpals as in
_Rangifer_; antlers very variable in size, forming a marked angle with
the plane of the face, without a brow-tine; when consisting of more
than a simple prong, dichotomously forked, frequently with a sub-basal
snag, and always with the lower prong of the fork projected from the
front edge of the beam, in some cases the lower, in others the upper,
and in others both prongs again dividing; tail long; tarsal gland
generally present; metatarsal gland very variable, both as regards
presence and position; vomer dividing the inner aperture of the
nostrils in the skull into two distinct chambers. America.
1. White-tailed Group, Subgenus _Dorcelaphus_ or
_Odocoileus_.--Antlers large and complex, with a sub-basal snag, and
the lower prong more or less developed at the expense of the upper
one; metatarsal gland usually present; tail long or moderate, and
hairy below; face very long and narrow; the face-gland small, and the
gland-pit in the skull of moderate extent; no upper canines; size
generally large. North America to Northern South America.
2. Marsh-deer Group, Subgenus _Blastoceros_.--Antlers large and
complex, without a sub-basal snag, and the upper prong more developed
than the lower one; metatarsal gland absent; tail short; face
moderately long; face-gland and gland-pit well developed; upper
canines usually present in male. Size large or rather small. South
America.
3. Guemals, Subgenus _Xenelaphus_.--Antlers small and simple, forming
a single dichotomous fork; metatarsal gland absent; tail short; face
moderately long; face-gland and gland-pit well developed; upper
canines present in both sexes. Size medium. South America.
4. Brockets, Subgenus _Mazama_.--Antlers in the form of simple
unbranched spikes; metatarsal, and in one case also the tarsal gland
absent; tail very short; face elongated; face-gland small and
gland-pit deep and triangular; hair of face radiating from two whorls:
upper canines sometimes present in old males. Size small. Central and
South America.
X. Genus _Pudua_.--Skull and metacarpals generally as in _Mazama_;
size very small; hair coarse and brittle; antlers in the form of
short, simple spikes; cannon-bones very short; tail very short or
wanting; no whorls in the hair of the face; face-gland moderately
large, and gland-pit deep and oval; tarsal and metatarsal glands
wanting; ectocuneiform bone of tarsus united with the naviculocuboid.
South America.
B. Subfamily MOSCHINAE.--Antlers wanting in both sexes; liver
furnished with a gall-bladder; no face-gland or gland-pit.
XI. Musk-deer, Genus _Moschus_.--Hair coarse and brittle; upper
canines of male very long; no tarsal or metatarsal glands or tufts;
lateral metacarpals represented by their lower extremities; lateral
hoofs very large; tail very short; naked portion of muzzle extensive;
male with a large abdominal gland. Central Asia.
Of the above, Reindeer and Elk are dealt with in separate articles
(qq.v.).
The first or typical group of the genus _Cervus_ includes the red-deer
(_Cervus elaphus_) of Europe and western Asia, of which there are
several local races, such as the large _C. elaphus maral_ of eastern
Europe and Persia, which is often partially spotted above and
dark-coloured below, the smaller _C. e. barbarus_ of Tunisia and
Morocco, and the still smaller _C. e. corsicanus_ of Corsica. The
Scandinavian red-deer is the typical form of the species. In all
red-deer the antlers are rounded, and show a more or less marked
tendency to form a cup at the summit. Wapiti, on the other hand, show a
marked tendency to the flattening of the antlers, with a great
development of the fourth tine, which is larger than all the others, and
the whole of the tines above this in the same plane, or nearly so, this
plane being the same as the long axis of the animal. Normally no cup is
developed at the summit of the antler. The tail, too, is shorter than in
the red-deer; while in winter the under parts become very dark, and the
upper surface often bleaches almost white. The cry of the stags in the
breeding season is also different. The typical representative of the
group is the North American wapiti _C. canadensis_, but there are
several closely allied races in Central Asia, such as _C. canadensis
songaricus_ and _C. c. bactrianus_, while in Manchuria the subgroup is
represented by _C. c. xanthopygus_, in which the summer coat is reddish
instead of grey. The hangul (_C. cashmirianus_) of Kashmir is a distinct
dark-coloured species, in which the antlers tend to turn in at the
summit; while _C. yarcandensis_, of the Tarim Valley, Turkestan, is a
redder animal, with a wholly rufous tail, and antlers usually
terminating in a simple fork placed in a transverse plane. Another
Asiatic species is the great shou (_C. affinis_) of the Chumbi Valley,
in which the antlers curve forwards in a remarkable manner. Lastly _C.
albirostris_, of Tibet, is easily recognized by its white muzzle, and
smooth, whitish, flattened antlers, which have fewer tines than those of
the other members of the group, all placed in one plane.
The second group of the genus _Cervus_, forming the subgenus
_Pseudaxis_, is typified by the handsome little Japanese deer, or sika,
_C. (P.) sika_, in which the antlers are four-tined, and covered with
red "velvet" when first grown, while the coat is fully spotted in
summer, but more or less uniformly brown in winter. The most distinctive
feature of the deer of this group is, however, the patch of long
erectile white hairs on the buttocks, which, although inconspicuous when
the animals are quiescent, is expanded into a large chrysanthemum-like
bunch when they start to run or are otherwise excited. The patch then
forms a guiding signal for the members of the herd when in flight. On
the mainland of Manchuria both the typical sika, and a larger race (_C.
sika manchuricus_), occur. A still larger and finer animal is the Pekin
sika (_C. hortulorum_), of northern Manchuria, which is as large as a
small red-deer; it is represented in the Yang-tse valley by a local
race, _C. h. kopschi_. Formosa possesses a species of its own (_C.
taëvanus_), which, in correlation with the perpetual verdure of that
island, is spotted at all seasons.
For the fallow-deer, _Cervus [Dama] dama_, see FALLOW-DEER.
The rusine or sambar group of _Cervus_, of which the characteristics are
given above, comprises a considerable number of long-tailed species with
three-tined antlers from the Indo-Malay countries and some parts of
China. The largest and handsomest is the sambar of India (_Cervus [Rusa]
unicolor_), characterized by its massive and rugged antlers. It is
represented by a number of local races, mostly of smaller size, such as
the Burmese and Malay _C. u. equinus_, the Formosan _C. u. swinhoei_,
and the Philippine _C. u. philippinus_ and _C. u. nigricans_, of which
the latter is not larger than a roe-buck, while the sambar itself is as
large as a red-deer. Whether these local phases of a single variable
type are best denominated races or species, must be largely a matter of
individual opinion. The rusa, or Javan sambar, _C. (R.) hippelaphus_, is
a lighter-coloured and smaller deer than the Indian sambar, with longer,
slenderer and less rugged antlers. Typically from Java, this deer is
also represented in the Moluccas and Timor, and has thus the most
easterly range of the whole tribe. A black coat with white spots
distinguishes the Philippine spotted deer, _C. alfredi_, which is about
the size of a roe-buck; while other members of this group are the
Calamianes deer of the Philippines (_C. culionensis_), the Bavian deer
(_C. kuhli_) from a small island near Java, and the well-known Indian
hog-deer or para (_C. porcinus_), all these three last being small, more
or less uniformly coloured, and closely allied species. On the other
hand, the larger and handsomer chital, or spotted deer (_C. axis_),
stands apart by its white-spotted fawn-red coat and differently formed
antlers.
Nearly allied to the preceding is the barasingha or rucervine group
(subgenus _Rucervus_), in which the antlers are of a different and
generally more complex character. The typical species is the Indian
barasingha or swamp-deer, _Cervus (Rucervus) duvauceli_, a uniformly red
animal, widely distributed in the forest districts of India. In Siam it
is replaced by _C. (R.) schomburgki_, in which the antlers are of a
still more complex type. Finally, we have the thamin, or Eld's deer, _C.
(R.) eldi_, ranging from Burma to Siam, and characterized by the
continuous curve formed by the beam and the brow-tine of the antlers.
For the small eastern deer, respectively known as muntjacs (_Cervulus_)
and tufted muntjacs or tufted deer (_Elaphodus_), see MUNTJAC; while
under WATER-DEER will be found a notice of the Chinese representative of
the genus _Hydrelaphus_ (or _Hydropotes_). The roe-deer, or roe-buck
(_Capreolus_), likewise form the subject of a separate article (see
ROE-BUCK), as is also the case with Père David's deer, the sole
representative of the genus _Elaphurus_.
The American deer include such New World species as are generically
distinct from Old World types. All these differ from the members of the
genus _Cervus_ in having no brow-tine to the antlers, which, in common
with those of the roe-deer, belong to what is called the forked type.
Including all these deer except one in the genus _Mazama_ (of which the
typical representatives are the South American brockets), the North
American species constitute the subgenus _Dorcelaphus_ (also known as
_Cariacus_ and _Odocoileus_). One of the best known of these is the
white-tailed deer _Mazama (Dorcelaphus) americana_, often known as the
Virginian deer. It is typically an animal of the size of a fallow-deer,
reddish in summer and greyish in winter, with a long tail, which is
coloured like the back above but white below, and is carried elevated
when the animal is running, so as to form with the white of the inner
sides of the buttocks a conspicuous "blaze." A white fetlock-gland with
a black centre is also distinctive of this species. The antlers are
large and curve forwards, giving off an upright snag near the base, and
several vertical tines from the upper surface of the horizontal portion.
As we proceed southwards from the northern United States, deer of the
white-tailed type decrease steadily in size, till in Central America,
Peru and Guiana they are represented by animals not larger that a
roe-buck. The most convenient plan appears to be to regard all these
degenerate forms as local races of the white-tail, although here again
there is room for difference of opinion, and many naturalists prefer to
call them species. The large ears, brown-and-white face, short,
black-tipped tail, and antlers without large basal snag serve to
distinguish the mule-deer _M. (D.) hemionus_, of western North America;
while the black tail, _M. (D.) columbiana_, ranging from British
Columbia to California, is a smaller animal, recognizable by the larger
and longer tail, which is black above and white below.
South America is the home of the marsh-deer or guazu, _M. (Blastoceros)
dichotoma_, representing a subgenus in which the complex antlers lack a
basal snag, while the hair of the back is reversed. This species is
about the size of a red-deer, with a foxy red coat with black legs. The
pampas-deer, _M. (B.) bezoartica_, of the Argentine pampas is a much
smaller animal, of paler colour, with three-tined antlers. The Chilean
and Peruvian Andes and Patagonia are the homes of two peculiar deer
locally known as guemals (huemals), and constituting the subgenus
_Xenelaphus_, or _Hippocamelus_. They are about the size of fallow-deer,
and have simply forked antlers. The Chilian species is _M. (B.) bisulca_
and the Peruvian _M. (B.) antisiensis_. Brockets, of which there are
numerous species, such as _M. rufa_ and _M. nemorivaga_, are Central and
South American deer of the size of roe-bucks or smaller, with simple
spike-like antlers, tufted heads and the hair of the face radiating from
two whorls on the forehead so that on the nose the direction is
downwards. The smallest of all deer is the Chilian pudu (_Pudua pudu_),
a creature not much larger than a hare, with almost rudimentary antlers.
The musk-deer forms the subject of a separate article.
For deer in general, see R. Lydekker, _The Deer of all Lands_ (London,
1898, 1908). (R. L.*)
DEERFIELD, a township of Franklin county, Massachusetts, U.S.A., on the
Connecticut and Deerfield rivers, about 33 m. N. of Springfield. Pop.
(1900) 1969; (1910 U.S. census) 2209. Deerfield is served by the Boston
& Maine and the New York, New Haven & Hartford railways. The natural
beauty and the historic interest of Deerfield attract many visitors.
There are several villages and hamlets in the township, the oldest and
most interesting of which is that known as "The Street" or "Old Street."
This extends along one wide thoroughfare over a hill and across a
plateau or valley that is hemmed in on the E. by a range of highlands
known as East Mountain and on the W. by the foothills of Hoosac
Mountain. Many of the houses in this village are very old. In Memorial
Hall, a building erected in 1797-1798 for the Deerfield academy, the
Pocumtuck Valley memorial association (incorporated in 1870) has
gathered an interesting collection of colonial and Indian relics.
Deerfield was one of the first places in the United States to enter into
the modern "arts and crafts movement"; in 1896 many of the old household
industries were revived and placed upon a business basis. Most of the
work is done by women in the homes. The products, including needlework
and embroidery, textiles, rag rugs, netting, wrought iron, furniture,
and metal-work in gold and silver embellished with precious and
semi-precious stones, are annually exhibited in an old-fashioned house
built in 1710, and a large portion of them are sold to tourists. There
is an arts and crafts society, but the profits from the sales go
entirely to the workers.
The territory which originally constituted the township of Deerfield
(known as Pocumtuck until 1674) was a tract of 8000 acres granted in
1654 to the town of Dedham in lieu of 2000 acres previously taken from
that town and granted to Rev. John Eliot to further his mission among
the Natick Indians. The rights of the Pocumtuck Indians to the Deerfield
tract were purchased at about fourpence per acre, settlement was begun
upon it in 1669, and the township was incorporated in 1673. For many
years, Deerfield was the N.W. frontier settlement of New England. It was
slightly fortified at the beginning of King Philip's War, and after an
attack by the Indians on the 1st of September 1675 it was garrisoned by
a small force under Captain Samuel Appleton. A second attack was made on
the 12th of September, and six days later, as Captain Thomas Lothrop and
his company were guarding teams that were hauling wheat from Deerfield
to the English headquarters at Hadley, they were surprised by Indians in
ambush at what has since been known as Bloody Brook (in the village of
South Deerfield), and Lothrop and more than sixty of his men were slain.
From this time until the end of the war Deerfield was abandoned. In the
spring of 1677 a few of the old settlers returned, but on the 19th of
September some were killed and the others were captured by a party of
Indians from Canada. Resettlement was undertaken again in 1682. On the
15th of September 1694 Deerfield narrowly escaped capture by a force of
French and Indians from Canada. In the early morning of the 29th of
February 1703-1704, Deerfield was surprised by a force of French and
Indians (under Hertel de Rouville), who murdered 49 men, women and
children, captured 111, burned the town, and on the way back to Canada
murdered 20 of the captured. Among the captives was the Rev. John
Williams (1664-1729), the first minister of Deerfield, who (with the
other captives) was redeemed in 1706 and continued as pastor here until
his death; in 1707 he published an account of his experiences as a
prisoner, _The Redeemed Captive Returning to Zion_, which has frequently
been reprinted. From the original township of Deerfield the territory of
the following townships has been taken: Greenfield (1753 and 1896),
Conway (1767, 1791 and 1811), Shelburne (1768) and a part of Whately
(1810).
See George Sheldon, _A History of Deerfield_ (Deerfield, 1895); the
_History and Proceedings of the Pocumtuck Valley Memorial Association_
(Deerfield, 1890 et seq.); and Pauline C. Bouvé, "The Deerfield
Renaissance," in _The New England Magazine_ for October 1905.
DEER PARK, an enclosure of rough wooded pastureland for the
accommodation of red- or fallow-deer. The distinction between a deer
"park" and a deer "forest" is that the former is always enclosed either
by a wall or fence, and is relatively small, whereas the forest covers a
much larger area, and is not only open but sometimes contains
practically no trees at all. Originally, the possession of a deer park
in England was a royal prerogative, and no subject could enclose one
without a direct grant from the crown--a licence to impark, like a
licence to embattle a house, was always necessary. When Domesday Book
was compiled, there were already thirty-one deer parks in England, some
of which may have existed in Saxon times; about one-fourth of them
belonged to the king. After the Conquest they increased rapidly in
number, but from about the middle of the 11th century this tendency was
reversed. In the middle of the 16th century it was conjectured that
one-twentieth of England and Wales was given up to deer and rabbits.
Upon Saxton's maps, which were made between 1575 and 1580, over 700
parks are marked, and it is not improbable that the number was
understated. Mr Evelyn Philip Shirley enumerated only 334 in his book on
_English Deer Parks_ published in 1867. To these Mr Joseph Whitaker, in
_A Descriptive List of the Deer Parks of England_ (1892), has added
another fifty, and the total is believed to be now about 400. It is a
curious circumstance that despite the rather minute detail of Domesday
none of the parks there enumerated can now be identified. There is,
however, a plausible case for Eridge Park in Sussex as the Reredfelle of
Domesday. The state and consequence of the great barons of the middle
ages depended in some measure upon the number of deer parks which they
possessed. Most bishops and abbots had one or two, and at one time more
than twenty were attached to the archbishopric of Canterbury. When the
power of the barons was finally broken and a more settled period began
with the accession of the house of Tudor, the deer park began to fall
into decay. By Queen Elizabeth's time a considerable proportion of the
ancestral acres of the great houses had passed into the possession of
rich merchants and wealthy wool-staplers, and it had become more
profitable to breed bullocks than to find pasture for deer, and even
where the new men retained, and even in some cases created, deer parks,
they reduced their area in order that more land might be available for
grazing or for corn. Thus began that decadence of the deer park which
has continued down to the present time. More than anything, however, the
strife between Charles I. and parliament contributed to reduce both the
number and size of English parks containing deer. By the Restoration the
majority of the parks in England had for the time being been destroyed,
the palings pulled down, the trees felled, and the deer stolen. Of the
duke of Newcastle's eight parks seven were ruined, that at Welbeck alone
remaining intact. Not a tree was left in Clipston Park, although the
timber had been valued at £20,000. One of the results of the Restoration
was to empty the parks of the Roundhead squires to replenish those of
the Royalists, but this measure helped little, and great numbers of deer
had to be brought from Germany to replenish the depleted stocks. A
gentleman of the Isle of Ely was indeed given a baronetcy in return for
a large present of deer which he made to Charles II. The largest
existing deer park in England is that at Savernake (4000 acres), next
comes Windsor, which contains about 2600 acres in addition to the 1450
acres of Windsor Forest. Lord Egerton of Tatton's park at Tatton in
Cheshire, and Lord Abergavenny's at Eridge, each contain about 2500
acres. Other parks which are much about the same size are those of
Blenheim, Richmond, Eastwell, Duncombe, Grimsthorpe, Thoresby and
Knowsley. All these parks are famous either for their size, their
beauty, or the number and long descent of the deer which inhabit them.
The size of English parks devoted to deer varies from that of these
historic examples down to a very few acres. A small proportion of the
older enclosures contains red- as well as fallow-deer. In some of the
larger ones many hundreds of head browse, whereas those of the smallest
size may have only a dozen or two. Although many enclosures were
disparked in very recent times, the 19th century saw the making of a
considerable number of new ones, usually of small dimensions. The
tendency, however, is still towards diminution both in number and
extent, cattle taking the place of deer.
DEFAMATION (from the classical Lat. _diffamare_, to spread abroad an
evil report--the English form in _de_ is taken from the Late Lat.
_defamare_), the saying or writing something of another, calculated to
injure his reputation or expose him to public hatred, contempt and
ridicule. (See LIBEL AND SLANDER.)
DEFAULT (Fr. _défaut_, from _défailler_, to fail, Lat. _fallere_), in
English law, a failure to do some act required by law either as a
regular step in procedure or as being a duty imposed. Parties in an
action may be in default as to procedure by failure to appear to the
writ, or to take some other step, within the prescribed time. In such
cases the opposing party gains some advantage by being allowed to sign
judgment or otherwise. But as a rule, unless the party is much in
default and is under a peremptory order to proceed, the penalty for
default is by order to pay the costs occasioned. When there is default
in complying with the terms of a judgment the remedy is by executing it
by one of the processes admitted by the law. (See EXECUTION.) In the
case of judgments in criminal or quasi-criminal cases, where a fine is
imposed, it is in most cases legal and usual to order imprisonment if
the fine is not paid or if the property of the defendant is insufficient
to realize its amount. Default in compliance with a statute renders the
defaulter liable to action by the person aggrieved or to indictment if
the matter of command is of public concern, subject in either case to
the qualification that the statute may limit the remedy for the default
to some particular proceeding specifically indicated; and in some
instances, e.g. in the case of local authorities, default in the
execution of their public duties is dealt with administratively by a
department of the government, and only in the last resort, if at all, by
recourse to judicial tribunals.
DEFEASANCE, or DEFEAZANCE (Fr. _défaire_, to undo), in law, an
instrument which defeats the force or operation of some other deed or
estate; as distinguished from _condition_, that which in the same deed
is called a condition is a defeasance in another deed. A defeasance
should recite the deed to be defeated and its date, and it must be made
between the same parties as are interested in the deed to which it is
collateral. It must be of a thing defeasible, and all the conditions
must be strictly carried out before the defeasance can be consummated.
Defeasance in a bill of sale is the putting an end to the security by
realizing the goods for the benefit of the mortgagee. It is not strictly
a defeasance, because the stipulation is in the same deed; it is really
a condition in the nature of a defeasance.
DEFENCE (Lat. _defendere_, to defend), in general, a keeping off or
defending, a justification, protection or guard. Physical defence of
self is the right of every man, even to the employment of force, in
warding off an attack. A person attacked may use such force as he
believes to be necessary for the warding off an attack, even to the
extent of killing an assailant. The same right of reciprocal defence
extends not only to defence of one's own person, but also to the defence
of a husband or wife, parent or child, master or servant. (See ASSAULT;
HOMICIDE.) As a legal term in English pleading, "defence" means the
denial by the party proceeded against of the validity of a charge, or
the steps taken by an accused person or his legal advisers for defending
himself. In civil actions, a statement of defence is the second step in
proceedings, being the answer of the defendant to the plaintiff's
statement of claim. In the statement of defence must be set out every
material fact upon which the defendant intends to rely at the trial.
Every fact alleged in the statement of claim must be dealt with, and
either admitted or denied; further facts may be pleaded in answer to
those admitted; the whole pleading of the plaintiff may be objected to
as insufficient in law, or a set-off or counter-claim may be advanced. A
statement of defence must be delivered within ten days from the delivery
of the statement of claim, or appearance if no statement of claim be
delivered.
By the Poor Prisoners' Defence Act 1903, where it appears, having regard
to the nature of the defence set up by any poor prisoner, as disclosed
in the evidence given or statement made by him before the committing
justices, that it is desirable in the interests of justice that he
should have legal aid in the preparation and conduct of his defence, and
that his means are insufficient to enable him to obtain such aid, it may
be ordered either (1) on committal for trial by the committing justices,
or (2) after reading the depositions by the judge or quarter sessions
chairman. The defence includes the services of solicitor and counsel and
the expenses of witnesses, the cost being payable in the same manner as
the expenses of a prosecution for felony. Briefly, the object of the act
is, not to give a prisoner legal assistance to find out if he has got a
defence, but in order that a prisoner who has a defence may have every
inducement to tell the truth about it at the earliest opportunity. Legal
assistance under the act is only given where both (1) the nature of the
defence as disclosed is such that in the interests of justice the
prisoner should have legal aid to make his defence clear, and (2) where
also his means are insufficient for that end (Lord Alverstone, C. J., at
Warwick Summer Assizes, _The Times_, July 26, 1904).
DEFENDANT, in law, a person against whom proceedings are instituted or
directed; one who is called upon to answer in any suit. At one time the
term "defendant" had a narrower meaning, that of a person sued in a
personal action only, the corresponding term in a real action being
"tenant," but the distinction is now practically disregarded, except in
a few states of the United States.
DEFENDER OF THE FAITH (_Fidei Defensor_), a title belonging to the
sovereign of England in the same way as _Christianissimus_ belonged to
the king of France, and _Catholicus_ belongs to the ruler of Spain. It
seems to have been suggested in 1516, and although certain charters have
been appealed to in proof of an earlier use of the title, it was first
conferred by Pope Leo X. on Henry VIII. The Bull granting the title is
dated the 11th of October 1521, and was a reward for the king's
treatise, _Assertio, septem sacramentorum_, against Luther. When Henry
broke with the papacy, Pope Paul III. deprived him of this designation,
but in 1544 the title of "Defender of the Faith" was confirmed to Henry
by parliament, and has since been used by all his successors on the
English throne.
DEFERENT (Lat. _deferens_, bearing down), in ancient astronomy, the mean
orbit of a planet, which carried the epicycle in which the planet
revolved. It is now known to correspond to the actual orbit of the
planet round the sun.
DEFFAND, MARIE ANNE DE VICHY-CHAMROND, MARQUISE DU (1697-1780), a
celebrated Frenchwoman, was born at the chateau of Chamrond near
Charolles (department of Saône-et-Loire) of a noble family in 1697.
Educated at a convent in Paris, she showed, along with great
intelligence, a sceptical and cynical turn of mind. The abbess, alarmed
at the freedom of her views, arranged that Massillon should visit and
reason with her, but he accomplished nothing. Her parents married her at
twenty-one years of age to her kinsman, Jean Baptiste de la Lande,
marquis du Deffand, without consulting her inclination. The union proved
an unhappy one, and resulted in a separation as early as 1722. Madame du
Deffand, young and beautiful, is said by Horace Walpole to have been for
a short time the mistress of the regent, the duke of Orleans (Walpole to
Gray, January 25, 1766). She appeared in her earlier days to be
incapable of any strong attachment, but her intelligence, her cynicism
and her _esprit_ made her the centre of attraction of a brilliant
circle. In 1721 began her friendship with Voltaire, but their regular
correspondence dates only from 1736. She spent much time at Sceaux, at
the court of the duchesse du Maine, where she contracted a close
friendship with the president Hénault. In Paris she was in a sense the
rival of Madame Geoffrin, but the members of her salon were drawn from
aristocratic society more than from literary cliques. There were,
however, exceptions. Voltaire, Montesquieu, Fontenelle and Madame de
Staal-Delaunay were among the habitués. When Hénault introduced
D'Alembert, Madame du Deffand was at once captivated by him. With the
encyclopaedists she was never in sympathy, and appears to have tolerated
them only for his sake. In 1752 she retired from Paris, intending to
spend the rest of her days in the country, but she was persuaded by her
friends to return. She had taken up her abode in 1747 in apartments in
the convent of St Joseph in the rue St Dominique, which had a separate
entrance from the street. When she lost her sight in 1754 she engaged
Mademoiselle de Lespinasse to help her in entertaining. This lady's wit
made some of the guests, D'Alembert among others, prefer her society to
that of Madame du Deffand, and she arranged to receive her friends for
an hour before the appearance of her patron. When this state of things
was discovered Mademoiselle de Lespinasse was dismissed (1764), but the
salon was broken up, for she took with her D'Alembert, Turgot and the
literary clique generally. From this time Madame du Deffand very rarely
received any literary men. The principal friendships of her later years
were with the duchesse de Choiseul and with Horace Walpole. Her
affection for the latter, which dated from 1765, was the strongest and
most durable of all her attachments. Under the stress of this tardy
passion she developed qualities of style and eloquence of which her
earlier writings had given little promise. In the opinion of
Sainte-Beuve the prose of her letters ranks with that of Voltaire as the
best of that classical epoch without excepting any even of the great
writers. Walpole refused at first to acknowledge the closeness of their
intimacy from an exaggerated fear of the ridicule attaching to her age,
but he paid several visits to Paris expressly for the purpose of
enjoying her society, and maintained a close and most interesting
correspondence with her for fifteen years. She died on the 23rd of
September 1780, leaving her dog Tonton to the care of Walpole, who was
also entrusted with her papers. Of her innumerable witty sayings the
best known is her remark on the cardinal de Polignac's account of St
Denis's miraculous walk of two miles with his head in his hands,--_Il
n'y a que le premier pas qui coûte_.
The _Correspondance inédite_ of Madame du Deffand with D'Alembert,
Hénault, Montesquieu, and others was published in Paris (2 vols.) in
1809. _Letters of the marquise du Deffand to the Hon. Horace Walpole,
afterwards earl of Orford, from the year 1766 to the year 1780_ (4
vols.), edited, with a biographical sketch, by Miss Mary Berry, were
published in London from the originals at Strawberry Hill in 1810.
The standard edition of her letters is the _Correspondance complète de
la marquise du Deffand ..._ by M. de Lescure (1865); the
_Correspondance inédite_ with M. and Mme de Choiseul and others was
edited in 1859 and again in 1866 by the marquis de Ste-Aulaire. Other
papers of Madame du Deffand obtained at the breaking up of Walpole's
collection are in private hands. Madame du Deffand returned many of
Walpole's letters at his request, and subsequently destroyed those
which she received from him. Those in his possession appear to have
been destroyed after his death by Miss Berry, who printed fragments
from them as footnotes to the edition of 1810. The correspondence
between Walpole and Madame du Deffand thus remains one-sided, but
seven of Walpole's letters to her are printed for the first time in
the edition (1903) of his correspondence by Mrs Paget Toynbee, who
discovered a quantity of her unedited letters. See Sainte-Beuve,
_Causeries du lundi_, vols. i. and xiv.; and the notice by M. de
Lescure in his edition of the correspondence.
DEFIANCE, a city and the county seat of Defiance county, Ohio, U.S.A.,
at the confluence of the Auglaize and Tiffin rivers with the Maumee,
about 50 m. S.W. of Toledo. Pop. (1890) 7694; (1900) 7579 (960
foreign-born); (1910) 7327. It is served by the Baltimore & Ohio and the
Wabash railways, and by the Ohio Electric railway to Lima (42 m.). The
city commands a fine view of the rivers and the surrounding country,
which is well adapted to agriculture; and has large machine shops and
several flour mills, besides manufactories of agricultural implements,
waggons, sashes and blinds, and wood-working machinery for the
manufacture of artillery wheels. Here, too, is Defiance College, an
institution of the Christian Denomination, opened in 1885. Defiance was
long the site of an Indian village. In 1794 General Anthony Wayne built
a fort here and named it Defiance. In 1822 Defiance was laid out as a
town; in 1845 it was made the county seat of the newly erected county;
and in 1881 it became a city of the second class.
DEFILE, a military expression for a passage, to march through which
troops are compelled to "defile," or narrow their front (from the Fr.
_défiler_, to march in a line, or by "files"). The word is usually
applied to a ravine or gorge in a range of hills, but a causeway over a
river, a bridge and even a village may equally be called a defile. The
term is also used to express, without any special reference to military
operations, a gorge in mountains. The verb "to defile" is used of troops
marching on a narrow front, or narrowing their front, under all
circumstances, and in this sense is the contrary of "deploy."
"Defile," in the sense of "pollute," is another form of "defoul"; though
spelt alike, the two words are pronounced differently, the accent being
on the first syllable for the former and on the second for the latter.
DEFINITION (Lat. _definitio_, from _de-finire_, to set limits to,
describe), a logical term used popularly for the process of explaining,
or giving the meaning of, a word, and also in the concrete for the
proposition or statement in which that explanation is expressed. In
logic, definition consists in determining the qualities which belong to
given concepts or universals; it is not concerned with individuals,
which are marked by an infinity of peculiarities, any one or all of
which might be predicated of another individual. Individuals can be
defined only in so far as they belong to a single kind. According to
Aristotle, definition is the statement of the essence of a concept
([Greek: horismos men gar tou ti esti kai ousias], _Posterior
Analytics_, B iii. 90 b 30); that is, it consists of the genus and the
differentia. In other words, "man" is defined as "animal _plus_
rationality," or "rational animal,"[1] i.e. the concept is (1) referred
to the next higher genus, and (2) distinguished from other modes in
which that genus exists, i.e. from other species. It is sometimes argued
that, there being no definition of individuals as such, definition is of
names (see J. S. Mill, _Logic_, i. viii. 5), not of things; it is
generally, however, maintained that definition is _of things, regarded
as, or in so far as they are, of a kind_. Definition of words can be
nothing more than the explanation of terms such as is given in a
dictionary.
The following rules are generally given as governing accurate
definition. (1) _The definition must be equivalent or commensurate with
that which is defined_; it must be applicable to all the individuals
included in the concept and to nothing else. Every man, and nothing
else, is a rational animal. "Man is mortal" is not a definition, for
mortality is predicable of irrational animals. (2) _The definition must
state the essential attributes_; a concept cannot be defined by its
accidental attributes; those attributes must be given which are
essential and primary. (3) _The definition must be per genus et
differentiam_ (or _differentias_), as we have already seen. These are
the important rules. Three minor rules are: (4) _The definition must not
contain the name of the concept to be defined_; if it does, no
information is given. Such a proposition as "an archdeacon is one who
performs archidiaconal functions" is not a definition. Concepts cannot
be defined by their correlatives. Such a definition is known as a
_circulus in definiendo_. (5) _Obscure and figurative language must be
avoided_, and (6) _Definitions must not be in the negative when they can
be in the affirmative_.
FOOTNOTE:
[1] "Rational animal" is thus the predicate of the statement
constituting the definition. Sometimes the word "definition" is used
to signify merely the predicate.
DEFOE, DANIEL (c. 1659-1731), English author, was born in the parish of
St Giles, Cripplegate, London, in the latter part of 1659 or early in
1660, of a nonconformist family. His grandfather, Daniel Foe, lived at
Etton, Northamptonshire, apparently in comfortable circumstances, for he
is said to have kept a pack of hounds. As to the variation of name,
Defoe or Foe, its owner signed either indifferently till late in life,
and where his initials occur they are sometimes D. F. and sometimes D.
D. F. Three autograph letters of his are extant, all addressed in 1705
to the same person, and signed respectively D. Foe, de Foe and Daniel
Defoe. His father, James Foe, was a butcher and a citizen of London.
Daniel was well educated at a famous dissenting academy, Mr Charles
Morton's of Stoke Newington, where many of the best-known nonconformists
of the time were his schoolfellows. With few exceptions all the known
events of Defoe's life are connected with authorship. In the older
catalogues of his works two pamphlets, _Speculum Crapegownorum_, a
satire on the clergy, and _A Treatise against the Turks_, are attributed
to him before the accession of James II., but there seems to be no
publication of his which is certainly genuine before _The Character of
Dr Annesley_ (1697). He had, however, before this, taken up arms in
Monmouth's expedition, and is supposed to have owed his lucky escape
from the clutches of the king's troops and the law, to his being a
Londoner, and therefore a stranger in the west country. On the 26th of
January 1688 he was admitted a liveryman of the city of London, having
claimed his freedom by birth. Before his western escapade he had taken
up the business of hosiery factor. At the entry of William and Mary into
London he is said to have served as a volunteer trooper "gallantly
mounted and richly accoutred." In these days he lived at Tooting, and
was instrumental in forming a dissenting congregation there. His
business operations at this period appear to have been extensive and
various. He seems to have been a sort of commission merchant, especially
in Spanish and Portuguese goods, and at some time to have visited Spain
on business. In 1692 he failed for £17,000. His misfortunes made him
write both feelingly and forcibly on the bankruptcy laws; and although
his creditors accepted a composition, he afterwards honourably paid them
in full, a fact attested by independent and not very friendly witnesses.
Subsequently, he undertook first the secretaryship and then the
management and chief ownership of some tile-works at Tilbury, but here
also he was unfortunate, and his imprisonment in 1703 brought the works
to a standstill, and he lost £3000. From this time forward we hear of no
settled business in which he engaged.
The course of Defoe's life was determined about the middle of the reign
of William III. by his introduction to that monarch and other
influential persons. He frequently boasts of his personal intimacy with
the "glorious and immortal" king, and in 1695 he was appointed
accountant to the commissioners of the glass duty, an office which he
held for four years. During this time he produced his _Essay on
Projects_ (1698), containing suggestions on banks, road-management,
friendly and insurance societies of various kinds, idiot asylums,
bankruptcy, academies, military colleges, high schools for women, &c. It
displays Defoe's lively and lucid style in full vigour, and abounds with
ingenious thoughts and apt illustrations, though it illustrates also the
unsystematic character of his mind. In the same year Defoe wrote the
first of a long series of pamphlets on the then burning question of
occasional conformity. In this, for the first time, he showed the
unlucky independence which, in so many other instances, united all
parties against him. While he pointed out to the dissenters the
scandalous inconsistency of their playing fast and loose with sacred
things, yet he denounced the impropriety of requiring tests at all. In
support of the government he published, in 1698, _An Argument for a
Standing Army_, followed in 1700 by a defence of William's war policy
called _The Two Great Questions considered_, and a set of pamphlets on
the Partition Treaty. Thus in political matters he had the same fate as
in ecclesiastical; for the Whigs were no more prepared than the Tories
to support William through thick and thin. He also dealt with the
questions of stock-jobbing and of electioneering corruption. But his
most remarkable publication at this time was _The True-Born Englishman_
(1701), a satire in rough but extremely vigorous verse on the national
objection to William as a foreigner, and on the claim of purity of blood
for a nation which Defoe chooses to represent as crossed and dashed with
all the strains and races in Europe. He also took a prominent part in
the proceedings which followed the Kentish petition, and was the author,
some say the presenter, of the _Legion Memorial_, which asserted in the
strongest terms the supremacy of the electors over the elected, and of
which even an irate House of Commons did not dare to take much notice.
The theory of the indefeasible supremacy of the freeholders of England,
whose delegates merely, according to this theory, the Commons were, was
one of Defoe's favourite political tenets, and he returned to it in a
powerfully written tract entitled _The Original Power of the Collective
Body of the People of England examined and asserted_ (1701).
At the same time he was occupied in a controversy on the conformity
question with John How (or Howe) on the practice of "occasional
conformity." Defoe maintained that the dissenters who attended the
services of the English Church on particular occasions to qualify
themselves for office were guilty of inconsistency. At the same time he
did not argue for the complete abolition of the tests, but desired that
they should be so framed as to make it possible for most Protestants
conscientiously to subscribe to them. Here again his moderation pleased
neither party.
The death of William was a great misfortune to Defoe, and he soon felt
the power of his adversaries. After publishing _The Mock Mourners_,
intended to satirize and rebuke the outbreak of Jacobite joy at the
king's death, he turned his attention once more to ecclesiastical
subjects, and, in an evil hour for himself, wrote the anonymous
_Shortest Way with the Dissenters_ (1702), a statement in the most
forcible terms of the extreme "high-flying" position, which some high
churchmen were unwary enough to endorse, without any suspicion of the
writer's ironical intention. The author was soon discovered; and, as he
absconded, an advertisement was issued offering a reward for his
apprehension, and giving the only personal description we possess of
him, as "a middle-sized spare man about forty years old, of a brown
complexion and dark brown-coloured hair, but wears a wig; a hooked nose,
a sharp chin, grey eyes, and a large mole near his mouth." In this
conjuncture Defoe had really no friends, for the dissenters were as much
alarmed at his book as the high-flyers were irritated. He surrendered,
and his defence appears to have been injudiciously conducted; at any
rate he was fined 200 marks, and condemned to be pilloried three times,
to be imprisoned indefinitely, and to find sureties for his good
behaviour during seven years. It was in reference to this incident that
Pope, whose Catholic rearing made him detest the abettor of the
Revolution and the champion of William of Orange, wrote in the
_Dunciad_--
"Earless on high stands unabash'd Defoe"
--though he knew that the sentence to the pillory had long ceased to
entail the loss of ears. Defoe's exposure in the pillory (July 29, 30,
31) was, however, rather a triumph than a punishment, for the populace
took his side; and his _Hymn to the Pillory_, which he soon after
published, is one of the best of his poetical works. Unluckily for him
his condemnation had the indirect effect of destroying his business at
Tilbury.
He remained in prison until August 1704, and then owed his release to
the intercession of Robert Harley, who represented his case to the
queen, and obtained for him not only liberty but pecuniary relief and
employment, which, of one kind or another, lasted until the termination
of Anne's reign. Defoe was uniformly grateful to the minister, and his
language respecting him is in curious variance with that generally used.
There is no doubt that Harley, who understood the influence wielded by
Defoe, made some conditions. Defoe says he received no pension, but his
subsequent fidelity was at all events indirectly rewarded; moreover,
Harley's moderation in a time of the extremest party-insanity was no
little recommendation to Defoe. During his imprisonment he was by no
means idle. A spurious edition of his works having been issued, he
himself produced a collection of twenty-two treatises, to which some
time afterwards he added a second group of eighteen more. He also wrote
in prison many short pamphlets, chiefly controversial, published a
curious work on the famous storm of the 26th of November 1703, and
started in February 1704 perhaps the most remarkable of all his
projects, _The Review_. This was a paper which was issued during the
greater part of its life three times a week. It was entirely written by
Defoe, and extends to eight complete volumes and some few score numbers
of a second issue. He did not confine himself to news, but wrote
something very like finished essays on questions of policy, trade and
domestic concerns; he also introduced a "Scandal Club," in which minor
questions of manners and morals were treated in a way which undoubtedly
suggested the _Tatlers_ and _Spectators_ which followed. Only one
complete copy of the work is known to exist, and that is in the British
Museum. It is probable that if bulk, rapidity of production, variety of
matter, originality of design, and excellence of style be taken
together, hardly any author can show a work of equal magnitude. After
his release Defoe went to Bury St Edmunds, though he did not interrupt
either his _Review_ or his occasional pamphlets. One of these, _Giving
Alms no Charity, and Employing the Poor a Grievance to the Nation_
(1704), is extraordinarily far-sighted. It denounces both indiscriminate
alms-giving and the national work-shops proposed by Sir Humphrey
Mackworth.
In 1705 appeared _The Consolidator, or Memoirs of Sundry Transactions
from the World in the Moon_, a political satire which is supposed to
have given some hints for Swift's _Gulliver's Travels_; and at the end
of the year Defoe performed a secret mission, the first of several of
the kind, for Harley. In 1706 appeared the _True Relation of the
Apparition of one Mrs Veal_, long supposed to have been written for a
bookseller to help off an unsaleable translation of Drelincourt, _On
Death_, but considerable doubt has been cast upon this by William Lee.
Defoe's next work was _Jure divino_, a long poetical argument in (bad)
verse; and soon afterwards (1706) he began to be much employed in
promoting the union with Scotland. Not only did he write pamphlets as
usual on the project, and vigorously recommend it in _The Review_, but
in October 1706 he was sent on a political mission to Scotland by Sidney
Godolphin, to whom Harley had recommended him. He resided in Edinburgh
for nearly sixteen months, and his services to the government were
repaid by a regular salary. He seems to have devoted himself to
commercial and literary as well as to political matters, and prepared at
this time his elaborate _History of the Union_, which appeared in 1709.
In this year Henry Sacheverell delivered his famous sermons, and Defoe
wrote several tracts about them and attacked the preacher in his
_Review_.
In 1710 Harley returned to power, and Defoe was placed in a somewhat
awkward position. To Harley himself he was bound by gratitude and by a
substantial agreement in principle, but with the rest of the Tory
ministry he had no sympathy. He seems, in fact, to have agreed with the
foreign policy of the Tories and with the home policy of the Whigs, and
naturally incurred the reproach of time-serving and the hearty abuse of
both parties. At the end of 1710 he again visited Scotland. In the
negotiations concerning the Peace of Utrecht, Defoe strongly supported
the ministerial side, to the intense wrath of the Whigs, displayed in an
attempted prosecution against some pamphlets of his on the all-important
question of the succession. Again the influence of Harley saved him. He
continued, however, to take the side of the dissenters in the questions
affecting religious liberty, which played such a prominent part towards
the close of Anne's reign. He naturally shared Harley's downfall; and,
though the loss of his salary might seem a poor reward for his constant
support of the Hanoverian claim, it was little more than his ambiguous,
not to say trimming, position must have led him to expect.
Defoe declared that Lord Annesley was preparing the army in Ireland to
join a Jacobite rebellion, and was indicted for libel; and prior to his
trial (1715) he published an apologia entitled _An Appeal to Honour and
Justice_, in which he defended his political conduct. Having been
convicted of the libel he was liberated later in the year under
circumstances that only became clear in 1864, when six letters were
discovered in the Record Office from Defoe to a Government official,
Charles Delafaye, which, according to William Lee, established the fact
that in 1718 at least Defoe was doing not only political work, but that
it was of a somewhat equivocal kind--that he was, in fact, sub-editing
the Jacobite _Mist's Journal_, under a secret agreement with the
government that he should tone down the sentiments and omit
objectionable items. He had, in fact, been released on condition of
becoming a government agent. He seems to have performed the same not
very honourable office in the case of two other journals--_Dormer's
Letter_ and the _Mercurius Politicus_; and to have written in these and
other papers until nearly the end of his life. Before these letters were
discovered it was supposed that Defoe's political work had ended in
1715.
Up to that time Defoe had written nothing but occasional literature,
and, except the _History of the Union_ and _Jure Divino_, nothing of any
great length. In 1715 appeared the first volume of _The Family
Instructor_, which was very popular during the 18th century. The first
volume of his most famous work, the immortal story--partly adventure,
partly moralizing--of _The Life and Strange Surprizing Adventures of
Robinson Crusoe_, was published on the 25th of April 1719. It ran
through four editions in as many months, and then in August appeared the
second volume. Twelve months afterwards the sequel _Serious
Reflections_, now hardly ever reprinted, appeared. Its connexion with
the two former parts is little more than nominal, Crusoe being simply
made the mouth-piece of Defoe's sentiments on various points of morals
and religion. Meanwhile the first two parts were reprinted as a
_feuilleton_ in _Heathcote's Intelligencer_, perhaps the earliest
instance of the appearance of such a work in such a form. The story was
founded on Dempier's _Voyage round the World_ (1697), and still more on
Alexander Selkirk's adventures, as communicated by Selkirk himself at a
meeting with Defoe at the house of Mrs Damaris Daniel at Bristol.
Selkirk afterwards told Mrs Daniel that he had handed over his papers to
Defoe. _Robinson Crusoe_ was immediately popular, and a wild story was
set afloat of its having been written by Lord Oxford in the Tower. A
curious idea, at one time revived by Henry Kingsley, is that the
adventures of Robinson are allegorical and relate to Defoe's own life.
This idea was certainly entertained to some extent at the time, and
derives some colour of justification from words of Defoe's, but there
seems to be no serious foundation for it. _Robinson Crusoe_ (especially
the story part, with the philosophical and religious moralizings largely
cut out) is one of the world's classics in fiction. Crusoe's shipwreck
and adventures, his finding the footprint in the sand, his man
"Friday,"--the whole atmosphere of romance which surrounds the position
of the civilized man fending for himself on a desert island--these have
made Defoe's great work an imperishable part of English literature.
Contemporaneously appeared _The Dumb Philosopher_, or _Dickory Cronke_,
who gains the power of speech at the end of his life and uses it to
predict the course of European affairs.
In 1720 came _The Life and Adventures of Mr Duncan Campbell_. This was
not entirely a work of imagination, its hero, the fortune-teller, being
a real person. There are amusing passages in the story, but it is too
desultory to rank with Defoe's best. In the same year appeared two
wholly or partially fictitious histories, each of which might have made
a reputation for any man. The first was the _Memoirs of a Cavalier_,
which Lord Chatham believed to be true history, and which William Lee
considers the embodiment at least of authentic private memoirs. The
Cavalier was declared at the time to be Andrew Newport, made Lord
Newport in 1642. His elder brother was born in 1620 and the Cavalier
gives 1608 as the date of his birth, so that the facts do not fit the
dates. It is probable that Defoe, with his extensive acquaintance with
English history, and his astonishing power of working up details, was
fully equal to the task of inventing it. As a model of historical work
of a certain kind it is hardly surpassable, and many separate
passages--accounts of battles and skirmishes--have never been equalled
except by Carlyle. _Captain Singleton_, the last work of the year, has
been unjustly depreciated by most of the commentators. The record of the
journey across Africa, with its surprising anticipations of subsequent
discoveries, yields in interest to no work of the kind known to us; and
the semi-piratical Quaker who accompanies Singleton in his buccaneering
expeditions is a most life-like character. There is also a Quaker who
plays a very creditable part in _Roxana_ (1724), and Defoe seems to have
been well affected to the Friends. In estimating this wonderful
productiveness on the part of a man sixty years old, it should be
remembered that it was a habit of Defoe's to keep his work in manuscript
sometimes for long periods.
In 1721 nothing of importance was produced, but in the next twelvemonth
three capital works appeared. These were _The Fortunes and Misfortunes
of Moll Flanders_, _The Journal of the Plague Year_, and _The History of
Colonel Jack_. _Moll Flanders_ and _The Fortunate Mistress_ (Roxana),
which followed in 1724, have subjects of a rather more than questionable
character, but both display the remarkable art with which Defoe handles
such subjects. It is not true, as is sometimes said, that the difference
between the two is that between gross and polished vice. The real
difference is much more one of morals than of manners. Moll is by no
means of the lowest class. Notwithstanding the greater degradation into
which she falls, and her originally dependent position, she has been
well educated, and has consorted with persons of gentle birth. She
displays throughout much greater real refinement of feeling than the
more high-flying Roxana, and is at any rate flesh and blood, if the
flesh be somewhat frail and the blood somewhat hot. Neither of the
heroines has any but the rudiments of a moral sense; but Roxana, both in
her original transgression and in her subsequent conduct, is actuated
merely by avarice and selfishness--vices which are peculiarly offensive
in connexion with her other failing, and which make her thoroughly
repulsive. The art of both stories is great, and that of the episode of
the daughter Susannah in _Roxana_ is consummate; but the transitions of
the later plot are less natural than those in _Moll Flanders_. It is
only fair to notice that while the latter, according to Defoe's more
usual practice, is allowed to repent and end happily, Roxana is brought
to complete misery; Defoe's morality, therefore, required more
repulsiveness in one case than in the other.
In the _Journal of the Plague Year_, more usually called, from the title
of the second edition, _A History of the Plague_, the accuracy and
apparent veracity of the details is so great that many persons have
taken it for an authentic record, while others have contended for the
existence of such a record as its basis. But here too the genius of Mrs
Veal's creator must, in the absence of all evidence to the contrary, be
allowed sufficient for the task. _The History of Colonel Jack_ is an
unequal book. There is hardly in _Robinson Crusoe_ a scene equal, and
there is consequently not in English literature a scene superior, to
that where the youthful pickpocket first exercises his trade, and then
for a time loses his ill-gotten gains. But a great part of the book,
especially the latter portion, is dull; and in fact it may be generally
remarked of Defoe that the conclusions of his tales are not equal to the
beginning, perhaps from the restless indefatigability with which he
undertook one work almost before finishing another.
To this period belong his stories of famous criminals, of Jack Sheppard
(1724), of Jonathan Wild (1725), of the Highland Rogue i.e. Rob Roy
(1723). The pamphlet on the first of these Defoe maintained to be a
transcript of a paper which he persuaded Sheppard to give to a friend at
his execution.
In 1724 appeared also the first volume of _A Tour through the whole
Island of Great Britain_, which was completed in the two following
years. Much of the information in this was derived from personal
experience, for Defoe claims to have made many more tours and visits
about England than those of which we have record; but the major part
must necessarily have been dexterous compilation. In 1725 appeared _A
New Voyage round the World_, apparently entirely due to the author's own
fertile imagination and extensive reading. It is full of his peculiar
verisimilitude and has all the interest of Anson's or Dampier's voyages,
with a charm of style superior even to that of the latter.
In 1726 Defoe published a curious and amusing little pamphlet entitled
_Everybody's Business is Nobody's Business, or Private Abuses Public
Grievances, exemplified in the Pride, Insolence, and Exorbitant Wages of
our Women-Servants, Footmen, &c._ This subject was a favourite one with
him, and in the pamphlet he showed the immaturity of his political views
by advocating legislative interference in these matters. Towards the end
of this same year _The Complete English Tradesman_, which may be
supposed to sum up the experience of his business life, appeared, and
its second volume followed two years afterwards. This book has been
variously judged. It is generally and traditionally praised, but those
who have read it will be more disposed to agree with Charles Lamb, who
considers it "of a vile and debasing tendency," and thinks it "almost
impossible to suppose the author in earnest." The intolerable meanness
advocated for the sake of the paltriest gains, the entire ignoring of
any pursuit in life except money-getting, and the representation of the
whole duty of man as consisting first in the attainment of a competent
fortune, and next, when that fortune has been attained, in spending not
more than half of it, are certainly repulsive enough. But there are no
reasons for thinking the performance ironical or insincere, and it
cannot be doubted that Defoe would have been honestly unable even to
understand Lamb's indignation. To 1726 also belongs _The Political
History of the Devil_. This is a curious book, partly explanatory of
Defoe's ideas on morality, and partly belonging to a series of
demonological works which he wrote, and of which the chief others are _A
System of Magic_ (1726), and _An Essay on the History of Apparitions_
(1728), issued the year before under another title. In all these works
his treatment is on the whole rational and sensible; but in _The History
of the Devil_ he is somewhat hampered by an insufficiently worked-out
theory as to the nature and personal existence of his hero, and the
manner in which he handles the subject is an odd and not altogether
satisfactory mixture of irony and earnestness. _A Plan of English
Commerce_, containing very enlightened views on export trade, appeared
in 1728.
During the years from 1715 to 1728 Defoe had issued pamphlets and minor
works too numerous to mention. The only one of them perhaps which
requires notice is _Religious Courtship_ (1722), a curious series of
dialogues displaying Defoe's unaffected religiosity, and at the same
time the rather meddling intrusiveness with which he applied his
religious notions. This was more flagrantly illustrated in one of his
latest works, _The Treatise Concerning the Use and Abuse of the Marriage
Bed_ (1727), which was originally issued with a much more offensive
name, and has been called "an excellent book with an improper title."
The _Memoirs of Captain Carleton_ (1728) were long attributed to Defoe,
but the internal evidence is strongly against his authorship. They have
been also attributed to Swift, with greater probability as far as style
is concerned. _The Life of Mother Ross_, reprinted in Bohn's edition,
has no claim whatever to be considered Defoe's.
There is little to be said of Defoe's private life during this period.
He must in some way or other have obtained a considerable income. In
1724 he had built himself a large house at Stoke Newington, which had
stables and grounds of considerable size. From the negotiations for the
marriage of his daughter Sophia it appears that he had landed property
in more than one place, and he had obtained on lease in 1722 a
considerable estate from the corporation of Colchester, which was
settled on his unmarried daughter at his death. Other property was
similarly allotted to his widow and remaining children, though some
difficulty seems to have arisen from the misconduct of his son, to whom,
for some purpose, the property was assigned during his father's
lifetime, and who refused to pay what was due. There is a good deal of
mystery about the end of Defoe's life; it used to be said that he died
insolvent, and that he had been in jail shortly before his death. As a
matter of fact, after great suffering from gout and stone, he died in
Ropemaker's Alley, Moorfields, on Monday the 26th of April 1731, and was
buried in Bunhill Fields. He left no will, all his property having been
previously assigned, and letters of administration were taken out by a
creditor. How his affairs fell into this condition, why he did not die
in his own house, and why in the previous summer he had been in hiding,
as we know he was from a letter still extant, are points not clearly
explained. He was, however, attacked by Mist, whom he wounded, in prison
in 1724. It is most likely that Mist had found out that Defoe was a
government agent and quite probable that he communicated his knowledge
to other editors, for Defoe's journalistic employment almost ceased
about this time, and he began to write anonymously, or as "Andrew
Moreton." It is possible that he had to go into hiding to avoid the
danger of being accused as a real Jacobite, when those with whom he had
contracted to assume the character were dead and could no longer justify
his attitude.
Defoe married, on New Year's Day, 1684, Mary Tuffley, who survived until
December 1732. They had seven children. His second son, Bernard or
Benjamin Norton, has, like his father, a scandalous niche in the
_Dunciad_. In April 1877 public attention was called to the distress of
three maiden ladies, directly descended from Defoe, and bearing his
name; and a crown pension of £75 a year was bestowed on each of them.
His youngest daughter, Sophia, who married Henry Baker, left a
considerable correspondence, now in the hands of her descendants. There
are several portraits of Defoe, the principal one being engraved by
Vandergucht.
In his lifetime, Defoe, as not belonging to either of the great parties
at a time of the bitterest party strife, was subjected to obloquy on
both sides. The great Whig writers leave him unnoticed. Swift and Gay
speak slightingly of him,--the former, it is true, at a time when he was
only known as a party pamphleteer. Pope, with less excuse, put him in
the _Dunciad_ towards the end of his life, but he confessed to Spence in
private that Defoe had written many things and none bad. At a later
period he was unjustly described as "a scurrilous party writer," which
he certainly was not; but, on the other hand, Johnson spoke of his
writing "so variously and so well," and put _Robinson Crusoe_ among the
only three books that readers wish longer. From Sir Walter Scott
downwards the tendency to judge literary work on its own merits to a
great extent restored Defoe to his proper place, or, to speak more
correctly, set him there for the first time. Lord Macaulay's description
of _Roxana_, _Moll Flanders_ and _Colonel Jack_ as "utterly nauseous and
wretched" must be set aside as a freak of criticism.
Scott justly observed that Defoe's style "is the last which should be
attempted by a writer of inferior genius; for though it be possible to
disguise mediocrity by fine writing, it appears in all its naked inanity
when it assumes the garb of simplicity." The methods by which Defoe
attains his result are not difficult to disengage. They are the
presentment of all his ideas and scenes in the plainest and most direct
language, the frequent employment of colloquial forms of speech, the
constant insertion of little material details and illustrations, often
of a more or less digressive form, and, in his historico-fictitious
works, as well as in his novels, the most rigid attention to vivacity
and consistency of character. Plot he disregards, and he is fond of
throwing his dialogues into regular dramatic form, with by-play
prescribed and stage directions interspersed. A particular trick of his
is also to divide his arguments after the manner of the preachers of his
day into heads and subheads, with actual numerical signs affixed to
them. These mannerisms undoubtedly help and emphasize the extraordinary
faithfulness to nature of his fictions, but it would be a great mistake
to suppose that they fully explain their charm. Defoe possessed genius,
and his secret is at the last as impalpable as the secret of genius
always is.
The character of Defoe, both mental and moral, is very clearly indicated
in his works. He, the satirist of the true-born Englishman, was himself
a model, with some notable variations and improvements, of the
Englishman of his period. He saw a great many things, and what he did
see he saw clearly. But there were also a great many things which he did
not see, and there was often no logical connexion whatever between his
vision and his blindness. The most curious example of this
inconsistency, or rather of this indifference to general principle,
occurs in his _Essay on Projects_. He there speaks very briefly and
slightingly of life insurance, probably because it was then regarded as
impious by religionists of his complexion. But on either side of this
refusal are to be found elaborate projects of friendly societies and
widows' funds, which practically cover, in a clumsy and roundabout
manner, the whole ground of life insurance. In morals it is evident that
he was, according to his lights, a strictly honest and honourable man.
But sentiment of any "high-flying" description--to use the cant word of
his time--was quite incomprehensible to him, or rather never presented
itself as a thing to be comprehended. He tells us with honest and simple
pride that when his patron Harley fell out, and Godolphin came in, he
for three years held no communication with the former, and seems quite
incapable of comprehending the delicacy which would have obliged him to
follow Harley's fallen fortunes. His very anomalous position in regard
to Mist is also indicative of a rather blunt moral perception. One of
the most affecting things in his novels is the heroic constancy and
fidelity of the maid Amy to her exemplary mistress Roxana. But Amy,
scarcely by her own fault, is drawn into certain breaches of definite
moral laws which Defoe did understand, and she is therefore condemned,
with hardly a word of pity, to a miserable end. Nothing heroic or
romantic was within Defoe's view; he could not understand passionate
love, ideal loyalty, aesthetic admiration or anything of the kind; and
it is probable that many of the little sordid touches which delight us
by their apparent satire were, as designed, not satire at all, but
merely a faithful representation of the feelings and ideas of the
classes of which he himself was a unit.
His political and economical pamphlets are almost unmatched as clear
presentations of the views of their writer. For driving the nail home no
one but Swift excels him, and Swift perhaps only in _The Drapier's
Letters_. There is often a great deal to be said against the view
presented in those pamphlets, but Defoe sees nothing of it. He was
perfectly fair but perfectly one-sided, being generally happily ignorant
of everything which told against his own view.
The same characteristics are curiously illustrated in his moral works.
The morality of these is almost amusing in its downright positive
character. With all the Puritan eagerness to push a clear,
uncompromising, Scripture-based distinction of right and wrong into the
affairs of every-day life, he has a thoroughly English horror of
casuistry, and his clumsy canons consequently make wild work with the
infinite intricacies of human nature. He is, in fact, an instance of the
tendency, which has so often been remarked by other nations in the
English, to drag in moral distinctions at every turn, and to confound
everything which is novel to the experience, unpleasant to the taste,
and incomprehensible to the understanding, under the general epithets of
wrong, wicked and shocking. His works of this class therefore are now
the least valuable, though not the least curious, of his books.
The earliest regular life and estimate of Defoe is that of Dr Towers
in the _Biographia Britannica_. George Chalmers's _Life_, however
(1786), added very considerable information. In 1830 Walter Wilson
wrote the standard _Life_ (3 vols.); it is coloured by political
prejudice, but is a model of painstaking care, and by its abundant
citations from works both of Defoe and of others, which are
practically inaccessible to the general reader, is invaluable. In 1859
appeared a life of Defoe by William Chadwick, an extraordinary
rhapsody in a style which is half Cobbett and half Carlyle, but
amusing, and by no means devoid of acuteness. In 1864 the discovery of
the six letters stirred up William Lee to a new investigation, and the
results of this were published (London, 1869) in three large volumes.
The first of these (well illustrated) contains a new life and
particulars of the author's discoveries. The second and third contain
fugitive writings assigned by Lee to Defoe for the first time. For
most of these, however, we have no authority but Lee's own impressions
of style, &c.; and consequently, though the best qualified judges will
in most cases agree that Defoe may very likely have written them, it
cannot positively be stated that he did. There is also a _Life_ by
Thomas Wright (1894). The _Earlier Life and Chief Earlier Works_ of
Defoe (1890) was included by Henry Morley in the "Carisbrooke
Library." Charles Lamb's criticisms were made in three short pieces,
two of which were written for Wilson's book, and the third for _The
Reflector_. The volume on _Defoe_ (1879) in the "English Men of
Letters" series is by W. Minto.
There is considerable uncertainty about many of Defoe's writings; and
even if all contested works be excluded, the number is still enormous.
Besides the list in Bohn's _Lowndes_, which is somewhat of an _omnium
gatherum_, three lists drawn with more or less care were compiled in
the 19th century. Wilson's contains 210 distinct works, three or four
only of which are marked as doubtful; Hazlitt's enumerates 183
"genuine" and 52 "attributed" pieces, with notes on most of them;
Lee's extends to 254, of which 64 claim to be new additions. The
reprint (3 vols.) edited for the "Pulteney Library" by Hazlitt in
1840-1843 contains a good and full life mainly derived from Wilson,
the whole of the novels (including the _Serious Reflections_ now
hardly ever published with _Robinson Crusoe_), _Jure Divino_, _The Use
and Abuse of Marriage_, and many of the more important tracts and
smaller works. There is also an edition, often called Scott's, but
really edited by Sir G. C. Lewis, in twenty volumes (London,
1840-1841). This contains the _Complete Tradesman_, _Religious
Courtship_, _The Consolidator_ and other works not comprised in
Hazlitt's. Scott had previously in 1809 edited for Ballantyne some of
the novels, in twelve volumes. Bohn's "British Classics" includes the
novels (except the third part of _Robinson Crusoe_), _The History of
the Devil_, _The Storm_, and a few political pamphlets, also the
undoubtedly spurious _Mother Ross_. In 1870 Nimmo of Edinburgh
published in one volume an admirable selection from Defoe. It contains
Chalmers's _Life_, annotated and completed from Wilson and Lee,
_Robinson Crusoe_, pts. i. and ii., _Colonel Jack_, _The Cavalier_,
_Duncan Campbell_, _The Plague_, _Everybody's Business_, _Mrs Veal_,
_The Shortest Way with Dissenters_, _Giving Alms no Charity_, _The
True-Born Englishman_, _Hymn to the Pillory_, and very copious
extracts from _The Complete English Tradesman_. An edition of Defoe's
_Romances and Narratives_ in sixteen volumes by G. A. Aitken came out
in 1895.
If we turn to separate works, the bibliography of Defoe is practically
confined (except as far as original editions are concerned) to
_Robinson Crusoe_. _Mrs Veal_ has been to some extent popularized by
the work which it helped to sell; _Religious Courtship_ and _The
Family Instructor_ had a vogue among the middle class until well into
the 19th century, and _The History of the Union_ was republished in
1786. But the reprints and editions of _Crusoe_ have been innumerable;
it has been often translated; and the eulogy pronounced on it by
Rousseau gave it special currency in France, where imitations (or
rather adaptations) have also been common.
In addition to the principal authorities already mentioned see John
Forster, _Historical and Biographical Essays_ (1858); G. Saintsbury,
"Introduction" to Defoe's _Minor Novels_; and valuable notes by G. A.
Aitken in _The Contemporary Review_ (February 1890), and _The
Athenaeum_ (April 30, 1889; August 31, 1890). A facsimile reprint
(1883) of _Robinson Crusoe_ has an introduction by Mr Austin Dobson.
Dr Karl T. Bülbring edited two unpublished works of Defoe, _The
Compleat English Gentleman_ (London, 1890) and _Of Royall Educacion_
(London, 1905), from British Museum Add. MS. 32,555. Further light was
thrown on Defoe's work as a political agent by the discovery (1906) of
an unpublished paper of his in the British Museum by G. F. Warner.
This was printed in the _English Historical Review_, and afterwards
separately.
DEGAS, HILAIRE GERMAIN EDGARD (1834- ), French painter, was born in
Paris on the 19th of July 1834. Entering in 1855 the École des Beaux
Arts, he early developed independence of artistic outlook, studying
under Lamothe. He first exhibited in the Salon of 1865, contributing a
"War in the middle ages," a work executed in pastel. To this medium he
was ever faithful, using it for some of his best work. In 1866 his
"Steeplechase" revealed him as a painter of the racecourse and of all
the most modern aspects of life and of Parisian society, treated in an
extremely original manner. He subsequently exhibited in 1867 "Family
Portraits," and in 1868 a portrait of a dancer in the "Ballet of _La
Source_." In 1869 and 1870 he restricted himself to portraits; but
thenceforward he abandoned the Salons and attached himself to the
Impressionists. With Manet and Monet he took the lead of the new school
at its first exhibition in 1874, and repeatedly contributed to these
exhibitions (in 1876, 1878, 1879 and 1880). In 1868 he had shown his
first study of a dancer, and in numerous pastels he proclaimed himself
the painter of the ballet, representing its figurantes in every attitude
with more constant aim at truth than grace. Several of his works may be
seen at the Luxembourg Gallery, to which they were bequeathed, among a
collection of impressionist pictures, by M. Caillebotte. In 1880 Degas
showed his powers of observation in a set of "Portraits of Criminals,"
and he attempted modelling in a "Dancer," in wax. He afterwards returned
to his studies of the sporting world, exhibiting in December 1884 at the
Petit Gallery two views of "Races" which had a great success, proving
the increasing vogue of the artist among collectors. He is ranked with
Manet as the leader of the "impressionist school." At the eighth
Impressionist Exhibition, in 1886, Degas continued his realistic studies
of modern life, showing drawings of the nude, of workwomen, and of
jockeys. Besides his pastels and his paintings of genre and
portraits--among these, several likenesses of Manet--Degas also handled
his favourite subjects in etching and in aquatint; and executed several
lithographs of "Singers at Cafés-concert," of "Ballet-girls," and indeed
of every possible subject of night-life and incidents behind the scenes.
His work is to be seen not only at the Luxembourg but in many of the
great private collections in Paris, in England and America. In the
Centenary Exhibition of 1900 he exhibited "The Interior of a
Cotton-Broker's Office at New Orleans" (belonging to the Museum at Pau)
and "The Rehearsal."
See also G. Moore, "Degas, the Painter of Modern Life," _Magazine of
Art_ (1890); J. K. Huysmans, _Certains_ (Paris, 1889); G. Geffroy, _La
Vie Artistique_ (3^e Série, Paris, 1894).
DE GEER, LOUIS GERHARD, BARON (1818-1896), Swedish statesman and writer,
was born on the 18th of July 1818 at Finspång castle. He adopted the
legal profession, and in 1855 became president of the Göta Hofret, or
lord justice of one of the Swedish supreme courts. From the 7th of April
1858 to the 3rd of June 1870 he was minister of justice. As a member of
the Upper House he took part in all the Swedish _Riksdags_ from 1851
onwards, though he seldom spoke. From 1867 to 1878 he was the member for
Stockholm in the first chamber, and introduced and passed many useful
reformatory statutes; but his greatest achievement, as a statesman, was
the reform of the Swedish representative system, whereby he substituted
a bi-cameral elective parliament, on modern lines, for the existing
cumbersome representation by estates, a survival from the later middle
ages. This great measure was accepted by the Riksdag in December 1865,
and received the royal sanction on the 22nd of June 1866. For some time
after this De Geer was the most popular man in Sweden. He retired from
the ministry in 1870, but took office again, as minister of justice, in
1875. In 1876 he became minister of state, which position he retained
till April 1880, when the failure of his repeated efforts to settle the
armaments' question again induced him to resign. From 1881 to 1888 he
was chancellor of the universities of Upsala and Lund. Besides several
novels and aesthetic essays, De Geer has written a few political memoirs
of supreme merit both as to style and matter, the most notable of which
are: _Minnesteckning öfver A. J. v. Höpken_ (Stockholm, 1881);
_Minnesteckning öfver Hans Järta_ (Stockholm, 1874); _Minnesteckning
öfver B. B. von Platen_ (Stockholm, 1886); and his own _Minnen_
(Stockholm, 1892), an autobiography, invaluable as a historical
document, in which the political experience and the matured judgments of
a lifetime are recorded with singular clearness, sobriety and charm.
See _Sveriges historia_ (Stockholm, 1881, &c.), vi,; Carl Gustaf
Malmström, _Historiska Studier_ (Stockholm, 1897). (R. N. B.)
DEGGENDORF, or DECKENDORF, a town of Germany, in the kingdom of Bavaria,
25 m. N.W. of Passau, on the left bank of the Danube, which is there
crossed by two iron bridges. Pop. (1905) 7154. It is situated at the
lower end of the beautiful valley of the Perlbach, and in itself it is a
well-built and attractive town. It possesses an old town hall dating
from 1566, a hospital, a lunatic asylum, an orphanage, and a large
parish church rebuilt in 1756; but the chief interest centres in the
church of the Holy Sepulchre, built in 1337, which attracts thousands of
pilgrims to its _Porta Caeli_ or _Gnadenpforte_ (Gate of Mercy) opened
annually on Michaelmas eve and closed again on the 4th of October. In
1837, on the celebration of the 500th anniversary of this solemnity, the
number of pilgrims was reckoned at nearly 100,000. Such importance as
the town possesses is now rather commercial than religious,--it being a
depôt for the timber trade of the Bavarian forest, a station for the
Danube steamboat company, and the seat of several mills, breweries,
potteries and other industrial establishments. On the bank of the Danube
outside the town are the remains of the castle of Findelstein; and on
the Geiersberg (1243 ft.), in the immediate vicinity, stands another old
pilgrimage church. About 6 m. to the north is the village of Metten,
with a Benedictine monastery founded by Charlemagne in 801, restored as
an abbey in 1840 by Louis I. of Bavaria, and well known as an
educational institution. The first mention of Deggendorf occurs in 868,
and it appears as a town in 1212. Henry (d. 1290) of the Landshut branch
of the ruling family of Bavaria made it the seat of a custom-house; and
in 1331 it became the residence of Henry III. of Natternberg (d. 1333),
so called from a castle in the neighbourhood. In 1337 a wholesale
massacre of the Jews, who were accused of having thrown the sacred host
of the church of the Holy Sepulchre into a well, took place in the town;
and it is probably from about this date that the pilgrimage above
mentioned came into vogue. The town was captured by the Swedish forces
in 1633, and in the war of the Austrian Succession it was more than once
laid in ashes.
See Grüber and Müller, _Der bayerische Wald_ (Regensburg, 1851);
Mittermüller, _Die heil. Hostien und die Jüden in Deggendorf_
(Landshut, 1866); and _Das Kloster Metten_ (Straubing, 1857).
DE HAAS, MAURITZ FREDERICK HENDRICK (1832-1895), American marine
painter, was born on the 12th of December 1832 in Rotterdam, Holland. He
studied art in the Rotterdam Academy and at The Hague, under Bosboom and
Louis Meyer, and in 1851-1852 in London, following the English
water-colourists of the day. In 1857 he received an artist's commission
in the Dutch navy, but in 1859, under the patronage of August Belmont,
who had recently been minister of the United States at The Hague, he
resigned and removed to New York city. He became an associate of the
National Academy in 1863 and an academician in 1867, and exhibited
annually in the academy, and in 1866 he was one of the founders of the
American Society of Painters in Water Colors. He died on the 23rd of
November 1895. His "Farragut Passing the Forts at the Battle of New
Orleans" and "The Rapids above Niagara," which were exhibited at the
Paris Exposition of 1878, were his best known but not his most typical
works, for his favourite subjects were storm and wreck, wind and heavy
surf, and less often moonlight on the coasts of Holland, of Jersey, of
New England, and of Long Island, and on the English Channel.
His brother, WILLIAM FREDERICK DE HAAS (1830-1880), who emigrated to New
York in 1854, was also a marine painter.
DEHRA, a town of British India, headquarters of the Dehra Dun district
in the United Provinces. Pop. (1901) 28,095. It lies at an elevation of
2300 ft. Here the Hardwar-Dehra railway terminates. Dehra is the
headquarters of the Trigonometrical Survey and of the Forest Department,
besides being a cantonment for a Gurkha force. The Forest School, which
trains subordinate forest officials for all parts of India, is a fine
building. Attached to it is an institution for the scientific study of
sylvi-culture and the exploitation and administration of forests. The
town of Dehra grew up round the temple built in 1699 by the heretical
Sikh Guru, Ram Rai, the founder of the Udasi sect of Ascetics. This
temple is a remarkable building in Mahommedan style. The central block,
in imitation of the emperor Jahangir's tomb, contains the bed on which
the Guru, after dying at will and coming back to life several times,
ultimately died outright; it is an object of great veneration. At the
corners of the central block are smaller monuments commemorating the
Guru's wives.
DEHRA DUN, a district of British India, in the Meerut division of the
United Provinces. Its area is 1209 sq. m. The district is bounded on the
N. by the native state of Tehri or Garhwal, on the E. by British
Garhwal, on the S. by the Siwálik hills, which separate it from
Saharanpur district, and on the W. by the hill states of Sirmur, Jubbal
and Taroch. The valley (the Dun) has an area of about 673 sq. m., and
forms a parallelogram 45 m. from N.W. to S.E. and 15 m. broad. It is
well wooded, undulating and intersected by streams. On the N.E. the
horizon is bounded by the Mussoorie or lower range of the Himalayas, and
on the S. by the Siwálik hills. The Himalayas in the north of the
district attain a height between 7000 and 8000 ft., one peak reaching an
elevation of 8565 ft.; the highest point of the Siwálik range is 3041
ft. above sea-level. The principal passes through the Siwálik hills are
the Timli pass, leading to the military station of Chakráta, and the
Mohand pass leading to the sanatoriums of Mussoorie and Landaur. The
Ganges bounds the Dehra valley on the E.; the Jumna bounds it on the W.
From a point about midway between the two rivers, and near the town of
Dehra, runs a ridge which forms the watershed of the valley. To the west
of this ridge the water collects to form the Asan, a tributary of the
Jumna; whilst to the east the Suswa receives the drainage and flows into
the Ganges. To the east the valley is characterized by swamps and
forests, but to the west the natural depressions freely carry off the
surface drainage. Along the central ridge, the water-level lies at a
great depth from the surface (228 ft.), but it rises gradually as the
country declines towards the great rivers. In 1901 the population was
178,195, showing an increase of 6% in the decade. A railway to Dehra
from Hardwar, on the Oudh and Rohilkhand line (32 m.), was completed in
1900. The district is served by the Dun canals. Tea gardens cover a
considerable area, and the valley contains a colony of European tea
planters.
_History._--Dehra Dun only emerges from the mists of legend into
authentic history in the 17th century A.D., when it formed part of the
Garhwal kingdom. Towards the end of the century the heretical Sikh Guru,
Ram Rai, expelled from the Punjab, sought refuge in the Dun and gathered
round him a crowd of devotees. Fateh Sah, raja of Garhwal, endowed the
temple which he built, round which grew up the town of Gurudwara or
Dehra (q.v.). In the 18th century the fertility of the valley attracted
the attention of Najib-ud-daula, governor of Saharanpur, who invaded it
with an army of Rohillas in 1757 and annexed it to his dominion. His
rule, which lasted till 1770, brought great prosperity to the Dun; but
on his death it became a prey to the surrounding tribes, its desolation
being completed after its conquest by the Gurkhas in 1803. In 1814 it
was taken possession of by the British, and in the following year was
annexed to Saharanpur. Under British administration the Dun rapidly
recovered its prosperity.
DEIOCES ([Greek: Dêiokês]), according to Herodotus (i. 96 ff.) the first
king of the Medes. He narrates that, when the Medes had rebelled against
the Assyrians and gained their independence about 710 B.C., according to
his chronology (cf. Diodor. ii. 32), they lived in villages without any
political organization, and therefore the whole country was in a state
of anarchy. Then Deioces, son of Phraortes, an illustrious man of
upright character, was chosen judge in his village, and the justness of
his decisions induced the inhabitants of the other villages to throng to
him. At last the Medes resolved to make an end of the intolerable state
of their country by erecting a kingdom, and chose Deioces king. He now
caused them to build a great capital, Ecbatana, with a royal palace, and
introduced the ceremonial of oriental courts; he surrounded himself
with a guard and no longer showed himself to the people, but gave his
judgments in writing and controlled the people by officials and spies.
He united all the Median tribes, and ruled fifty-three years (c. 699-647
B.C.), though perhaps, as G. Rawlinson supposed, the fifty-three years
of his reign are exchanged by mistake with the twenty-two years of his
son Phraortes, under whom the Median conquests began.
The narration of Herodotus is only a popular tradition which derives the
origin of kingship from its judicial functions, considered as its
principal and most beneficent aspect. We know from the Assyrian
inscriptions that just at the time which Herodotus assigns to Deioces
the Medes were divided into numerous small principalities and subjected
to the great Assyrian conquerors. Among these petty chieftains, Sargon
in 715 mentions Dayukku, "lieutenant of Man" (he probably was,
therefore, a vassal of the neighbouring king of Man in the mountains of
south-eastern Armenia), who joined the Urartians and other enemies of
Assyria, but was by Sargon transported to Hamath in Syria "with his
clan." His district is called "bit-Dayaukki," "house of Deioces," also
in 713, when Sargon invaded these regions again. So it seems that the
dynasty, which more than half a century later succeeded in throwing off
the Assyrian yoke and founded the Median empire, was derived from this
Dayukku, and that his name was thus introduced into the Median
traditions, which contrary to history considered him as founder of the
kingdom. (Ed. M.)
DEÏOTARUS, a tetrarch of Galatia (Gallo-Graecia) in Asia Minor, and a
faithful ally of the Romans. He is first heard of at the beginning of
the third Mithradatic war, when he drove out the troops of Mithradates
under Eumachus from Phrygia. His most influential friend was Pompey,
who, when settling the affairs of Asia (63 or 62 B.C.), rewarded him
with the title of king and an increase of territory (Lesser Armenia). On
the outbreak of the civil war, Deïotarus naturally sided with his old
patron Pompey, and after the battle of Pharsalus escaped with him to
Asia. In the meantime Pharnaces, the son of Mithradates, had seized
Lesser Armenia, and defeated Deïotarus near Nicopolis. Fortunately for
Deïotarus, Caesar at that time (47) arrived in Asia from Egypt, and was
met by the tetrarch in the dress of a suppliant. Caesar pardoned him for
having sided with Pompey, ordered him to resume his royal attire, and
hastened against Pharnaces, whom he defeated at Zela. In consequence of
the complaints of certain Galatian princes, Deïotarus was deprived of
part of his dominions, but allowed to retain the title of king. On the
death of Mithradates of Pergamum, tetrarch of the Trocmi, Deïotarus was
a candidate for the vacancy. Other tetrarchs also pressed their claims;
and, further, Deïotarus was accused by his grandson Castor of having
attempted to assassinate Caesar when the latter was his guest in
Galatia. Cicero, who entertained a high opinion of Deïotarus, whose
acquaintance he had made when governor of Cilicia, undertook his
defence, the case being heard in Caesar's own house at Rome. The matter
was allowed to drop for a time, and the assassination of Caesar
prevented any final decision being pronounced. In his speech Cicero
briefly dismisses the charge of assassination, the main question being
the distribution of the provinces, which was the real cause of the
quarrels between Deïotarus and his relatives. After Caesar's death, Mark
Antony, for a large monetary consideration, publicly announced that, in
accordance with instructions left by Caesar, Deïotarus was to resume
possession of all the territory of which he had been deprived. When
civil war again broke out, Deïotarus was persuaded to support Brutus and
Cassius, but after the battle of Philippi went over to the triumvirs. He
remained in possession of his kingdom till his death at a very advanced
age.
See Cicero, _Philippica_, ii. 37; _Ad fam._ viii. 10, ix. 12, xv. 1,
2, 4; _Ad Att._ xiv. 1; _De divin._ i. 15, ii. 36, 37; _De harusp.
resp._ 13, and above all _Pro rege Deiotaro_; Appian, _Bell. Mithrid._
75, 114; _Bellum Alexandrinum_, 34-41, 65-77; Dio Cassius xli. 63,
xlii. 45, xlvii. 24, 48, xlviii. 33.
DEIR, or DEIR EZ-ZOR, a town of Asiatic Turkey, on the right bank of the
Euphrates, 27½ m. above its junction with the Khabor, lat. 35° 20´ N.,
long. 40° 12´ E. Pop. 8000 and upward, about one-tenth Christians;
except in the official classes, there are no Turks. It is the capital
and the only considerable town of the Zor sanjak, formed in 1857, which
includes Ras el-'Ain on the north and Palmyra on the south, with a total
area of 32,820 sq. m., chiefly desert, and an estimated population of
100,000, mostly Arab nomads. Deir itself is a thrifty and rising town,
having considerable traffic; it is singularly European in appearance,
with macadamized streets and a public garden. The name Deir means
monastery, but there is no other trace or tradition of the occupation of
the site before the 14th century, and until it became the capital of the
sanjak it was an insignificant village. It is an important centre for
the control of the Bedouin Arabs, and has a garrison of about 1000
troops, including a special corps of mule-riders. It is also a road
centre, the roads from the Mediterranean to Bagdad by way of Aleppo and
Damascus respectively meeting here. A road also leads northward, by
Sinjar, to Mosul, crossing the river on a stone bridge, built in 1897,
the only permanent bridge over the Euphrates south of Asia Minor.
(J. P. Pe.)
DEIRA, the southern of the two English kingdoms afterwards united as
Northumbria. According to Simeon of Durham it extended from the Humber
to the Tyne, but the land was waste north of the Tees. York was the
capital of its kings. The date of its first settlement is quite unknown,
but the first king of whom we have any record is Ella or Ælle, the
father of Edwin, who is said to have been reigning about 585. After his
death Deira was subject to Æthelfrith, king of Northumbria, until the
accession of Edwin, in 616 or 617, who ruled both kingdoms (see Edwin)
till 633. Osric the nephew of Edwin ruled Deira (633-634), but his son
Oswine was put to death by Oswio in 651. For a few years subsequently
Deira was governed by Æthelwald son of Oswald.
See Bede, _Historia ecclesiastica_, ii. 14, iii. 1, 6, 14 (ed. C.
Plummer, Oxford, 1896); Nennius, _Historia Brittonum_, § 64 (ed. Th.
Mommsen, Berlin, 1898); Simeon of Durham, _Opera_, i. 339 (ed. T.
Arnold, London, 1882-1885). (F. G. M. B.)
DEISM (Lat. _deus_, god), strictly the belief in one supreme God. It is
however the received name for a current of rationalistic theological
thought which, though not confined to one country, or to any
well-defined period, was most conspicuous in England in the last years
of the 17th and the first half of the 18th century. The deists,
differing widely in important matters of belief, were yet agreed in
seeking above all to establish the certainty and sufficiency of natural
religion in opposition to the positive religions, and in tacitly or
expressly denying the unique significance of the supernatural revelation
in the Old and New Testaments. They either ignored the Scriptures,
endeavoured to prove them in the main by a helpful republication of the
_Evangelium aeternum_, or directly impugned their divine character,
their infallibility, and the validity of their evidences as a complete
manifestation of the will of God. The term "deism" not only is used to
signify the main body of the deists' teaching, or the tendency they
represent, but has come into use as a technical term for one specific
metaphysical doctrine as to the relation of God to the universe, assumed
to have been characteristic of the deists, and to have distinguished
them from atheists, pantheists and theists,--the belief, namely, that
the first cause of the universe is a personal God, who is, however, not
only distinct from the world but apart from it and its concerns.
The words "deism" and "deist" appear first about the middle of the 16th
century in France (cf. Bayle's _Dictionnaire, s.v._ "Viret," note D),
though the deistic standpoint had already been foreshadowed to some
extent by Averroists, by Italian authors like Boccaccio and Petrarch, in
More's _Utopia_ (1515), and by French writers like Montaigne, Charron
and Bodin. The first specific attack on deism in English was Bishop
Stillingfleet's _Letter to a Deist_ (1677). By the majority of those
historically known as the English deists, from Blount onwards, the name
was owned and honoured. They were also occasionally called
"rationalists." "Free-thinker" (in Germany, _Freidenker_) was generally
taken to be synonymous with "deist," though obviously capable of a
wider signification, and as coincident with _esprit fort_ and with
_libertin_ in the original and theological sense of the word.[1]
"Naturalists" was a name frequently used of such as recognized no god
but nature, of so-called Spinozists, atheists; but both in England and
Germany, in the 18th century, this word was more commonly and aptly in
use for those who founded their religion on the _lumen naturae_ alone.
It was evidently in common use in the latter half of the 16th century as
it is used by De Mornay in _De la vérité de la religion chrétienne_
(1581) and by Montaigne. The same men were not seldom assaulted under
the name of "theists"; the later distinction between "theist" and
"deist," which stamped the latter word as excluding the belief in
providence or in the immanence of God, was apparently formulated in the
end of the 18th century by those rationalists who were aggrieved at
being identified with the naturalists. (See also THEISM.)
The chief names amongst the deists are those of Lord Herbert of Cherbury
(1583-1648), Charles Blount (1654-1693), Matthew Tindal (1657-1733),
William Wollaston (1659-1724), Thomas Woolston (1669-1733), Junius Janus
(commonly known as John) Toland (1670-1722), the 3rd earl of Shaftesbury
(1671-1713), Viscount Bolingbroke (1678-1751), Anthony Collins
(1676-1729), Thomas Morgan (?-1743), and Thomas Chubb (1679-1747).[2]
Peter Annet (1693-1769), and Henry Dodwell (the younger; d. 1784), who
made his contribution to the controversy in 1742, are of less
importance. Of the eleven first named, ten appear to have been born
within twenty-five years of one another; and it is noteworthy that by
far the greater part of the literary activity of the deists, as well as
of their voluminous opponents, falls within the same half century.
The impulses that promoted a vein of thought cognate to deism were
active both before and after the time of its greatest notoriety. But
there are many reasons to show why, in the 17th century, men should have
set themselves with a new zeal, in politics, law and theology, to follow
the light of nature alone, and to cast aside the fetters of tradition
and prescriptive right, of positive codes, and scholastic systems, and
why in England especially there should, amongst numerous free-thinkers,
have been not a few free writers. The significance of the Copernican
system, as the total overthrow of the traditional conception of the
universe, dawned on all educated men. In physics, Descartes had prepared
the way for the final triumph of the mechanical explanation of the world
in Newton's system. In England the new philosophy had broken with
time-honoured beliefs more completely than it had done even in France;
Hobbes was more startling than Bacon. Locke's philosophy, as well as his
theology, served as a school for the deists. Men had become weary of
Protestant scholasticism; religious wars had made peaceful thinkers seek
to take the edge off dogmatical rancour; and the multiplicity of
religious sects, coupled with the complete failure of various attempts
at any substantial reconciliation, provoked distrust of the common basis
on which all were founded. There was a school of distinctively
latitudinarian thought in the Church of England; others not unnaturally
thought it better to extend the realm of the _adiaphora_ beyond the
sphere of Protestant ritual or the details of systematic divinity.
Arminianism had revived the rational side of theological method.
Semi-Arians and Unitarians, though sufficiently distinguished from the
free-thinkers by reverence for the letter of Scripture, might be held to
encourage departure from the ancient landmarks. The scholarly labours of
P. D. Huet, R. Simon, L. E. Dupin, and Jean Le Clerc (Clericus), of the
orientalists John Lightfoot, John Spencer and Humphrey Prideaux, of John
Mill, the collator of New Testament readings, and John Fell, furnished
new materials for controversy; and the scope of Spinoza's _Tractatus
theologico-politicus_ had naturally been much more fully apprehended
than ever his _Ethica_ could be. The success of the English revolution
permitted men to turn from the active side of political and theological
controversy to speculation and theory; and curiosity was more powerful
than faith. Much new ferment was working. The toleration and the free
press of England gave it scope. Deism was one of the results, and is an
important link in the chain of thought from the Reformation to our own
day.
Long before England was ripe to welcome deistic thought Lord Herbert of
Cherbury earned the name "Father of Deism" by laying down the main line
of that religious philosophy which in various forms continued ever after
to be the backbone of deistic systems. He based his theology on a
comprehensive, if insufficient, survey of the nature, foundation, limits
and tests of human knowledge. And amongst the divinely implanted,
original, indefeasible _notitiae communes_ of the human mind, he found
as foremost his five articles:--that there is one supreme God, that he
is to be worshipped, that worship consists chiefly of virtue and piety,
that we must repent of our sins and cease from them, and that there are
rewards and punishments here and hereafter. Thus Herbert sought to do
for the religion of nature what his friend Grotius was doing for natural
law,--making a new application of the standard of Vincent of Lerins,
_Quod semper, quod ubique, quod ab omnibus_. It is important to notice
that Herbert, as English ambassador at Paris, united in himself the
currents of French and English thought, and also that his De Veritate,
published in Latin and translated into French, did not appear in an
English version.
Herbert had hardly attempted a systematic criticism of the Christian
revelation either as a whole or in its details. Blount, a man of a very
different spirit, did both, and in so doing may be regarded as having
inaugurated the second main line of deistic procedure, that of
historico-critical examination of the Old and New Testaments. Blount
adopted and expanded Hobbes's arguments against the Mosaic authorship of
the Pentateuch; and, mainly in the words of Burnet's _Archeologiae
philosophicae_, he asserts the total inconsistency of the Mosaic
Hexaemeron with the Copernican theory of the heavens, dwelling with
emphasis on the impossibility of admitting the view developed in
Genesis, that the earth is the most important part of the universe. He
assumes that the narrative was meant _ethically_, not _physically_, in
order to eliminate false and polytheistic notions; and he draws
attention to that double narrative in Genesis which was elsewhere to be
so fruitfully handled. The examination of the miracles of Apollonius of
Tyana, professedly founded on papers of Lord Herbert's, is meant to
suggest similar considerations with regard to the miracles of Christ.
Naturalistic explanations of some of these are proposed, and a mythical
theory is distinctly foreshadowed when Blount dwells on the inevitable
tendency of men, especially long after the event, to discover miracles
attendant on the birth and death of their heroes. Blount assaults the
doctrine of a mediator as irreligious. He dwells much more pronouncedly
than Herbert on the view, afterwards regarded as a special
characteristic of all deists, that much or most error in religion has
been invented or knowingly maintained by sagacious men for the easier
maintenance of good government, or in the interests of themselves and
their class. And when he heaps suspicion, not on Christian dogmas, but
on beliefs of which the resemblance to Christian tenets is sufficiently
patent, the real aim is so transparent that his method seems to partake
rather of the nature of literary eccentricity than of polemical
artifice; yet by this disingenuous indirectness he gave his argument
that savour of duplicity which ever after clung to the popular
conception of deism.
Shaftesbury, dealing with matters for the most part different from those
usually handled by the deists, stands almost wholly out of their ranks.
But he showed how loosely he held the views he did not go out of his way
to attack, and made it plain how little weight the letter of Scripture
had for himself; and, writing with much greater power than any of the
deists, he was held to have done more than any one of them to forward
the cause for which they wrought. Founding ethics on the native and
cultivable capacity in men to appreciate worth in men and actions, and,
like the ancient Greek thinkers whom he followed, associating the
apprehension of morality with the apprehension of beauty, he makes
morality wholly independent of scriptural enactment, and still more, of
theological forecasting of future bliss or agony. He yet insisted on
religion as the crown of virtue; and, arguing that religion is
inseparable from a high and holy enthusiasm for the divine plan of the
universe, he sought the root of religion in feeling, not in accurate
beliefs or meritorious good works. He set little store on the theology
of those who in a system of dry and barren notions "pay handsome
compliments to the Deity," "remove providence," "explode devotion," and
leave but "little of zeal, affection, or warmth in what they call
rational religion." In the protest against the scheme of "judging truth
by counting noses," Shaftesbury recognized the danger of the standard
which seemed to satisfy many deists; and in almost every respect he has
more in common with those who afterwards, in Germany, annihilated the
pretensions of complacent rationalism than with the rationalists
themselves.
Toland, writing at first professedly without hostility to any of the
received elements of the Christian faith, insisted that Christianity was
not mysterious, and that the value of religion could not lie in any
unintelligible or self-contradictory elements; though we cannot know the
real essence of God or of any of his creatures, yet our beliefs about
God must be thoroughly consistent with reason. Afterwards, Toland
discussed, with considerable real learning and much show of candour, the
comparative evidence for the canonical and apocryphal Scriptures, and
demanded a careful and complete historical examination of the grounds on
which our acceptance of the New Testament canon rests. He contributed
little to the solution of the problem, but forced the investigation of
the canon alike on theologians and the reading public. Again, he
sketched a view of early church history, further worked out by Johann
Salomo Semler (1725-1791), and surprisingly like that which was later
elaborated by the Tübingen school. He tried to show, both from Scripture
and extra-canonical literature, that the primitive church, so far from
being an incorporate body of believers with the same creed and customs,
really consisted of two schools, each possessing its "own gospel"--a
school of Ebionites or Judaizing Christians, and the more liberal school
of Paul. These parties, consciously but amicably differing in their
whole relation to the Jewish law and the outside world, were
subsequently forced into a non-natural uniformity. The cogency of
Toland's arguments was weakened by his manifest love of paradox.
Wollaston upheld the "intellectual" theory of morality, and all his
reasoning is independent of any authority or evidence derived from
revelation. His system was simplicity itself, all sin being reduced to
the one form of lying. He favoured the idea of a future life as being
necessary to set right the mistakes and inequalities of the present.
Collins, who had created much excitement by his _Discourse of
Free-thinking_, insisting on the value and necessity of unprejudiced
inquiry, published at a later stage of the deistic controversy the
famous argument on the evidences of Christianity. Christianity is
founded on Judaism; its main prop is the argument from the fulfilment of
prophecy. Yet no interpretation or rearrangement of the text of Old
Testament prophecies will secure a fair and non-allegorical
correspondence between these and their alleged fulfilment in the New
Testament. The inference is not expressly drawn, though it becomes
perfectly clear from his refutation of William Whiston's curious counter
theory that there were in the original Hebrew scriptures prophecies
which were literally fulfilled in the New Testament, but had been
expunged at an early date by Jewish scribes. Collins indicates the
possible extent to which the Jews may have been indebted to Chaldeans
and Egyptians for their theological views, especially as great part of
the Old Testament would appear to have been remodelled by Ezra; and,
after dwelling on the points in which the prophecies attributed to
Daniel differ from all other Old Testament predictions, he states the
greater number of the arguments still used to show that the book of
Daniel deals with events past and contemporaneous, and is from the pen
of a writer of the Maccabean period, a view now generally accepted.
Collins resembles Blount in "attacking specific Christian positions
rather than seeking for a foundation on which to build the edifice of
Natural Religion." Amongst those who replied to him were Richard
Bentley, Edward Chandler, bishop of Lichfield, and Thomas Sherlock,
afterwards bishop of London, who also attacked Woolston. They refuted
him easily on many specific points, but carefully abstained from
discussing the real question at issue, namely the propriety of free
inquiry.
Woolston, at first to all appearance working earnestly in behalf of an
allegorical but believing interpretation of the New Testament miracles,
ended by assaulting, with a yet unknown violence of speech, the
absurdity of accepting them as actual historical events, and did his
best to overthrow the credibility of Christ's principal miracles. The
bitterness of his outspoken invective against the clergy, against all
priestcraft and priesthood, was a new feature in deistic literature, and
injured the author more than it furthered his cause.
Tindal's aim seems to have been a sober statement of the whole case in
favour of natural religion, with copious but moderately worded criticism
of such beliefs and usages in the Christian and other religions as he
conceived to be either non-religious or directly immoral and
unwholesome. The work in which he endeavoured to prove that true
Christianity is as old as the creation, and is really but the
republication of the gospel of nature, soon gained the name of the
"Deist's Bible." It was against Tindal that the most important of the
orthodox replies were directed, e.g. John Conybeare's _Defence of
Revealed Religion_, William Law's _Case of Reason_ and, to a large
extent, Butler's _Analogy_.
Morgan criticized with great freedom the moral character of the persons
and events of Old Testament history, developing the theory of conscious
"accommodation" on the part of the leaders of the Jewish church. This
accommodation of truth, by altering the form and substance of it to meet
the views and secure the favour of ignorant and bigoted contemporaries,
Morgan attributes also to the apostles and to Jesus. He likewise expands
at great length a theory of the origin of the Catholic Church much like
that sketched by Toland, but assumes that Paul and his party, latterly
at least, were distinctly hostile to the Judaical party of their
fellow-believers in Jesus as the Messias, while the college of the
original twelve apostles and their adherents viewed Paul and his
followers with suspicion and disfavour. Persecution from without Morgan
regards as the influence which mainly forced the antagonistic parties
into the oneness of the catholic and orthodox church. Morgan "seems to
have discerned the dawning of a truer and better method" than the
others. "He saw dimly that things require to be accounted for as well as
affirmed or denied," and he was "one of the pioneers of modern
historical science as applied to biblical criticism."
Annet made it his special work to invalidate belief in the resurrection
of Christ, and to discredit the work of Paul.
Chubb, the least learnedly educated of the deists, did more than any of
them, save Herbert, to round his system into a logical whole. From the
New Testament he sought to show that the teaching of Christ
substantially coincides with natural religion as he understood it. But
his main contention is that Christianity is not a doctrine but a life,
not the reception of a system of truths or facts, but a pious effort to
live in accordance with God's will here, in the hope of joining him
hereafter. Chubb dwells with special emphasis on the fact that Christ
preached the gospel to the poor, and argues, as Tindal had done, that
the gospel must therefore be accessible to all men without any need for
learned study of evidences for miracles, and intelligible to the meanest
capacity. He sought to show that even in the New Testament there are
essential contradictions, and instances the unconditional forgiveness
preached by Christ in the gospels as compared with Paul's doctrine of
forgiveness by the mediation of Christ. Externally Chubb is interesting
as representing the deism of the people contrasted with that of Tindal
the theologian.
Dodwell's ingenious thesis, that Christianity is not founded on
argument, was certainly not meant as an aid to faith; and, though its
starting-point is different from all other deistical works, it may
safely be reckoned amongst their number.
Though himself contemporary with the earlier deists, Bolingbroke's
principal works were posthumously published after interest in the
controversy had declined. His whole strain, in sharp contrast to that of
most of his predecessors, is cynical and satirical, and suggests that
most of the matters discussed were of small personal concern to himself.
He gives fullest scope to the ungenerous view that a vast proportion of
professedly revealed truth was ingeniously palmed off by the more
cunning on the more ignorant for the convenience of keeping the latter
under. But he writes with keenness and wit, and knows well how to use
the materials already often taken advantage of by earlier deists.
Before passing on to a summary of the deistic position, it is necessary
to say something of the views of Conyers Middleton (q.v.), who, though
he never actually severed himself from orthodoxy, yet advanced theories
closely analogous to those of the deists. His most important theological
work was that devoted to an exposure of patristic miracles. His attack
was based largely on arguments which could be turned with equal force
against the miracles of the New Testament, and he even went further than
previous rationalists in impugning the credibility of statements as to
alleged miracles emanating from martyrs and the fathers of the early
church. That Middleton was prepared to carry this type of argument into
the apostolic period is shown by certain posthumous essays
(_Miscellaneous Works_; ii. pp. 255 ff.), in which he charges the New
Testament writers with inconsistency and the apostles with suppressing
their cherished beliefs on occasions of difficulty.
In the substance of what they received as natural religion, the deists
were for the most part agreed; Herbert's articles continued to contain
the fundamentals of their theology. Religion, though not identified with
morality, had its most important outcome in a faithful following of the
eternal laws of morality, regarded as the will of God. With the virtuous
life was further to be conjoined a humble disposition to adore the
Creator, avoiding all factitious forms of worship as worse than useless.
The small value they attributed to all outward and special forms of
service, and the want of any sympathetic craving for the communion of
saints, saved the deists from attempting to found a free-thinking
church. They seem generally to have inclined to a quietistic
accommodation to established forms of faith, till better times came.
They steadfastly sought to eliminate the miraculous from theological
belief, and to expel from the system of religious truth all debatable,
difficult or mysterious articles. They aimed at a rational and
intelligible faith, professedly in order to make religion, in all its
width and depth, the heritage of every man. They regarded with as much
suspicion the notion of a "peculiar people" of God, as of a unique
revelation, and insisted on the possibility of salvation for the
heathen. They rejected the doctrine of the Trinity, and protested
against mediatorship, atonement and the imputed righteousness of Christ,
always laying more stress on the teaching of Christ than on the teaching
of the church about him; but they repeatedly laid claim to the name of
Christians or of Christian deists. Against superstition, fanaticism and
priestcraft they protested unceasingly. They all recognized the soul of
man--not regarded as intellectual alone--as the ultimate court of
appeal. But they varied much in their attitude towards the Bible. Some
were content to argue their own ideas into Scripture, and those they
disliked out of it; to one or two it seemed a satisfaction to discover
difficulties in Scripture, to point to historical inaccuracies and moral
defects. Probably Chubb's position on this head is most fairly
characteristic of deism. He holds that the narrative, especially of the
New Testament, is in the main accurate, but, as written after the events
narrated, has left room for misunderstandings and mistakes. The apostles
were good men, to whom, after Christ, we are most indebted; but they
were fairly entitled to their own private opinions, and naturally
introduced these into their writings. The epistles, according to Chubb,
contain errors of fact, false interpretations of the Old Testament, and
sometimes disfigurement of religious truth.
The general tendency of the deistical writings is sufficiently
self-consistent to justify a common name. But deism is not a compact
system nor is it the outcome of any one line of philosophical thought.
Of matters generally regarded as pertaining to natural religion, that on
which they were least agreed was the certainty, philosophical
demonstrability and moral significance of the immortality of the soul,
so that the deists have sometimes been grouped into "mortal" and
"immortal" deists. For some the belief in future rewards and punishments
was an essential of religion; some seem to have questioned the doctrine
as a whole; and, while others made it a basis of morality, Shaftesbury
protested against the ordinary theological form of the belief as
immoral. No two thinkers could well be more opposed than Shaftesbury and
Hobbes; yet sometimes ideas from both were combined by the same writer.
Collins was a pronounced necessitarian; Morgan regarded the denial of
free will as tantamount to atheism. And nothing can be more misleading
than to assume that the belief in a Creator, existent wholly apart from
the work of his hands, was characteristic of the deists as a body. In
none of them is any theory on the subject specially prominent, except
that in their denial of miracles, of supernatural revelation, and a
special redemptive interposition of God in history, they seem to have
thought of providence much as the mass of their opponents did. Herbert
starts his chief theological work with the design of vindicating God's
providence. Shaftesbury vigorously protests against the notion of a
wholly transcendent God. Morgan more than once expresses a theory that
would now be pronounced one of immanence. Toland, the inventor of the
name of pantheism, was notoriously, for a great part of his life, in
some sort a pantheist. And while as thinkers they diverged in their
opinions, so too they differed radically in character, in reverence for
their subject and in religious earnestness and moral worth.
The deists were not powerful writers; none of them was distinguished by
wide and accurate scholarship; hardly any was either a deep or
comprehensive thinker. But though they generally had the best
scholarship of England against them, they were bold, acute,
well-informed men; they appreciated more fully than their contemporaries
not a few truths now all but universally accepted; and they seemed
therefore entitled to leave their mark on subsequent theological
thought. Yet while the seed they sowed was taking deep root in France
and in Germany, the English deists, the most notable men of their time,
were soon forgotten, or at least ceased to be a prominent factor in the
intellectual life of the century. The controversies they had provoked
collapsed, and deism became a by-word even amongst those who were in no
degree anxious to appear as champions of orthodoxy.
The fault was not wholly in the subjectivism of the movement. But the
subjectivism that founded its theology on the "common sense" of the
individual was accompanied by a fatal pseudo-universalism which, cutting
away all that was peculiar, individual and most intense in all
religions, left in any one of them but a lifeless form. A theology
consisting of a few vague generalities was sufficient to sustain the
piety of the best of the deists; but it had not the concreteness or
intensity necessary to take a firm hold on those whom it emancipated
from the old beliefs. The negative side of deism came to the front, and,
communicated with fatal facility, seems ultimately to have constituted
the deism that was commonly professed at the clubs of the wits and the
tea-tables of polite society. But the intenser religious life before
which deism fell was also a revolt against the abstract and
argumentative orthodoxy of the time.
That the deists appreciated fully the scope of difficulties in Christian
theology and the sacred books is not their most noteworthy feature; but
that they made a stand, sometimes cautiously, often with outspoken
fearlessness, against the presupposition that the Bible is the religion
of Protestants. They themselves gave way to another presupposition
equally fatal to true historical research, though in great measure
common to them and their opponents. It was assumed by deists in
debating against the orthodox, that the flood of error in the hostile
camp was due to the benevolent cunning or deliberate self-seeking of
unscrupulous men, supported by the ignorant with the obstinacy of
prejudice.
Yet deism deserves to be remembered as a strenuous protest against
bibliolatry in every degree and against all traditionalism in theology.
It sought to look not a few facts full in the face, from a new point of
view and with a thoroughly modern though unhistorical spirit. It was not
a religious movement; and though, as a defiance of the accepted
theology, its character was mainly theological, the deistical crusade
belongs, not to the history of the church, or of dogma, but to the
history of general culture. It was an attitude of mind, not a body of
doctrine; its nearest parallel is probably to be found in the eclectic
strivings of the Renaissance philosophy and the modernizing tendencies
of cisalpine humanism. The controversy was assumed to be against
prejudice, ignorance, obscurantism; what monks were to Erasmus the
clergy as such were to Woolston. Yet English deism was in many ways
characteristically English. The deists were, as usually happens with the
leaders of English thought, no class of professional men, but
represented every rank in the community. They made their appeal in the
mother tongue to all men who could read and think, and sought to reduce
the controversy to its most direct practical issue. And, with but one or
two exceptions, they avoided wildness in their language as much as in
the general scheme of theology they proposed. If at times they had
recourse to ambiguity of speech and veiled polemic, this might be partly
excused when we remember the hanging of Thomas Aikenhead in 1697 for
ridiculing the Bible, and Woolston's imprisonment in 1729.
French deism, the direct progeny of the English movement, was equally
short-lived. Voltaire during his three years' residence in England
(1726-1729) absorbed an enthusiasm for freedom of thought, and provided
himself with the arguments necessary to support the deism which he had
learned in his youth; he was to the end a deist of the school of
Bolingbroke. Rousseau, though not an active assailant of Christianity,
could have claimed kindred with the nobler deists. Diderot was for a
time heartily in sympathy with deistic thought; and the _Encyclopédie_
was in its earlier portion an organ of deism. Even in the Roman Catholic
Church a large number of the leading divines were frankly deistic, nor
were they for that reason regarded as irreligious. But as Locke's
philosophy became in France sensationalism, and as Locke's pregnant
question, reiterated by Collins, how we know that the divine power might
not confer thought on matter, led the way to dogmatic materialism, so
deism soon gave way to forms of thought more directly and completely
subversive of the traditional theology. None the less it is
unquestionable that in the period preceding the Revolution the bulk of
French thinkers were ultimately deists in various degrees, and that
deism was a most potent factor not only in speculative but also in
social and political development. Many of the leaders of the
revolutionary movement were deists, though it is quite false to say that
the extreme methods of the movement were the result of widespread
rationalism.
In Germany there was a native free-thinking theology nearly contemporary
with that of England, whence it was greatly developed and supplemented.
Among the earliest names are those of Georg Schade (1712-1795), J. B.
Basedow (1723-1790), the educationist, Johann August Eberhard (q.v.);
and K. F. Bahrdt, who regarded Christ as merely a noble teacher like
Moses, Confucius and Luther. The compact rational philosophy of Wolff
nourished a theological rationalism which in H. S. Reimarus was wholly
undistinguishable from dogmatic deism, and was undoubtedly to a great
extent adopted by Lessing; while, in the case of the historico-critical
school to which J. S. Sender belonged, the distinction is not always
easily drawn--although these rationalists professedly recognized in
Scripture a real divine revelation, mingled with local and temporary
elements. It deserves to be noted here that the former, the theology of
the _Aufklärung_, was, like that of the deists, destined to a
short-lived notoriety; whereas the solid, accurate and scholarly
researches of the rationalist critics of Germany, undertaken with no
merely polemical spirit, not only form an epoch in the history of
theology, but have taken a permanent place in the body of theological
science. Ere _rationalismus vulgaris_ fell before the combined assault
of Schleiermacher's subjective theology and the deeper historical
insight of the Hegelians, it had found a refuge successively in the
Kantian postulates of the practical reason, and in the vague but earnest
faith-philosophy of Jacobi.
Outside France, Germany and England, there were no great schools of
thought distinctively deistic, though in most countries there is to be
found a rationalistic anti-clerical movement which partakes of the
character of deism. It seems probable, for example, that in Portugal the
marquis de Pombal was in reality a deist, and both in Italy and in Spain
there were signs of the same rationalistic revolt. More certain, and
also more striking, is the fact that the leading statesmen in the
American War of Independence were emphatically deists; Benjamin Franklin
(who attributes his position to the study of Shaftesbury and Collins),
Thomas Paine, Washington and Jefferson, although they all had the
greatest admiration for the New Testament story, denied that it was
based on any supernatural revelation. For various reasons the movement
in America did not appear on the surface to any great extent, and after
the comparative failure of Elihu Palmer's _Principles of Nature_ it
expressed itself chiefly in the spread of Unitarianism.
In England, though the deists were forgotten, their spirit was not
wholly dead. For men like Hume and Gibbon the standpoint of deism was
long left behind; yet Gibbon's famous two chapters might well have been
written by a deist. Even now many undoubtedly cling to a theology nearly
allied to deism. Rejecting miracles and denying the infallibility of
Scripture, protesting against Calvinistic views of sovereign grace and
having no interest in evangelical Arminianism, the faith of such
inquirers seems fairly to coincide with that of the deists. Even some
cultured theologians, the historical representatives of
latitudinarianism, seem to accept the great body of what was contended
for by the deists. Moreover, the influence of the deistic writers had an
incalculable influence in the gradual progress towards tolerance, and in
the spread of a broader attitude towards intellectual problems, and this
too, though, as we have seen, the original deists devoted themselves
mainly to a crusade against the doctrine of revelation.
The original deists displayed a singular incapacity to understand the
true conditions of history; yet amongst them there were some who pointed
the way to the truer, more generous interpretation of the past. When
Shaftesbury wrote that "religion is still a discipline, and progress of
the soul towards perfection," he gave birth to the same thought that was
afterwards hailed in Lessing's _Erziehung des Menschengeschlechtes_ as
the dawn of a fuller and a purer light on the history of religion and on
the development of the spiritual life of mankind.
AUTHORITIES.--See John Leland, _A View of the Principal Deistical
Writers_ (2 vols., 1754-1756; ed. 1837); G. V. Lechler, _Geschichte
des englischen Deismus_ (2 vols., 1841); L. Noack, _Die Freidenker in
der Religion_ (Bern, 1853-1855); John Hunt, _Religious Thought in
England_ (3 vols., 1870-1872); Leslie Stephen, _History of English
Thought in the 18th Century_ (2 vols., 1876); A. S. Farrar, _A
Critical History of Free Thought_ (1862, Bampton Lectures); J. H.
Overton and F. Relton, _The English Church from the Accession of
George I. to the end of the 18th Century_ (1906; especially chap. iv.,
"The Answer to Deism"); A. W. Benn, _History of English Rationalism in
the 19th Century_ (1906); i. 111 ff.; J. M. Robertson, _Short History
of Free Thought_ (1906); G. Ch. B. Pünjer, _Geschichte der
christlichen Religionsphilosophie seit der Reformation_ (Brunswick,
1880); M. W. Wiseman, _Dynamics of Religion_ (London, 1897), pt. ii.;
article "Deismus" in Herzog-Hauck, _Realencyklopädie_ (vol. iv.,
1898).
FOOTNOTES:
[1] The right of the orthodox party to use this name was asserted by
the publication in 1715 of a journal called _The Freethinker_,
conducted by anti-deistic clergymen. The term _libertin_ appears to
have been used first as a hostile epithet of the Brethren of the Free
Spirit, a 13th-century sect which was accused not only of
free-thought but also of licentious living.
[2] See the separate biographies of these writers. The three most
significant names after Lord Herbert are those of Toland, Wollaston
and Tindal.
DEISTER, a chain of hills in Germany, in the Prussian province of
Hanover, about 15 m. S.W. of the city of Hanover. It runs in a
north-westerly direction from Springe in the S. to Rodenberg in the N.
It has a total length of 14 m., and rises in the Höfeler to a height of
1250 ft. The chain is well-wooded and abounds in game. There are some
coal mines and sandstone quarries.
DÉJAZET, PAULINE VIRGINIE (1798-1875), French actress, born in Paris on
the 30th of August 1798, made her first appearance on the stage at the
age of five. It was not until 1820, when she began her seven years'
connexion with the recently founded Gymnase, that she won her triumphs
in soubrette and "breeches" parts, which came to be known as
"_Dêjazets_." From 1828 she played at the Nouveautés for three years,
then at the Variétés, and finally became manager, with her son, of the
Folies, which was renamed the Théâtre Déjazet. Here, even at the age of
sixty-five, she had marvellous success in youthful parts, especially in
a number of Sardou's earlier plays, previously unacted. She retired in
1868, and died on the 1st of December 1875, leaving a great name in the
annals of the French stage.
See Duval's _Virginie Déjazet_ (1876).
DE KALB, a city of De Kalb county, Illinois, U.S.A., in the N. part of
the state, about 58 m. W. of Chicago. Pop. (1890) 2579; (1900) 5904
(1520 foreign-born); (1910) 8102. De Kalb is served by the Chicago Great
Western, the Chicago & North-Western, and the Illinois, Iowa & Minnesota
railways, and by interurban electric lines. It is the seat of the
Northern Illinois state normal school (opened in 1899). The principal
manufactures of De Kalb are woven and barbed wire, waggons and
agricultural implements, pianos, shoes, gloves, and creamery packages.
The city has important dairy interests also. De Kalb was first settled
in 1832, was known as Buena Vista until 1840, was incorporated as a
village in 1861, and in 1877 was organized under the general state law
as a city.
DE KEYSER, THOMAS (1596 or 1597-1667), Dutch painter, was born at
Amsterdam, the son of the architect and sculptor Hendrik de Keyser. We
have no definite knowledge of his training, and but scant information as
to the course of his life, though it is known that he owned a basalt
business between 1640 and 1654. Aert Pietersz, Cornelis vanider Voort,
Werner van Valckert and Nicolas Elias are accredited by different
authorities with having developed his talent; and M. Karl Woermann, who
has pronounced in favour of Nicolas Elias is supported by the fact that
almost all that master's pictures were formerly attributed to De Keyser,
who, in like fashion, exercised some influence upon Rembrandt when he
first went to Amsterdam in 1631. De Keyser chiefly excelled as a
portrait painter, though he also executed some historical and
mythological pictures, such as the "Theseus" and "Ariadne" in the
Amsterdam town hall. His portraiture is full of character and masterly
in handling, and often, as in the "Old Woman" of the Budapest gallery,
is distinguished by a rich golden glow of colour and Rembrandtesque
chiaroscuro. Some of his portraits are life-size, but the artist
generally preferred to keep them on a considerably smaller scale, like
the famous "Group of Amsterdam Burgomasters" assembled to receive Marie
de' Medici in 1638, now at the Hague museum. The sketch for this
important painting, together with three other drawings, was sold at the
Gallitzin sale in 1783 for the sum of threepence. The German emperor
owns an "Equestrian Portrait of a young Dutchman," by De Keyser, a late
work which in general disposition and in the soft manner of painting
recalled the work of Cuyp. Similar pictures are in the Dresden and
Frankfort museums, in the Heyl collection at Worms, and the
Liechtenstein Gallery in Vienna. The National Gallery, London, owns a
characteristic portrait group of a "Merchant with his Clerk"; the Hague
museum, besides the group already referred to, a magnificent "Portrait
of a Savant," and the Haarlem museum a fine portrait of "Claes
Fabricius." At the Ryks Museum in Amsterdam there are no fewer than
twelve works from his brush, and other important examples are to be
found in Brussels, Munich, Copenhagen and St Petersburg.
DEKKER, EDWARD DOUWES (1820-1887), Dutch writer, commonly known as
MULTATULI, was born at Amsterdam on the 2nd of March 1820. His father, a
ship's captain, intended his son for trade, but this humdrum prospect
disgusted him, and in 1838 he went out to Java, and obtained a post in
the Inland Revenue. He rose from one position to another, until, in
1851, he found himself assistant-resident at Amboyna, in the Moluccas.
In 1857 he was transferred to Lebak, in the Bantam residency of Java.
By this time, however, all the secrets of Dutch administration were
known to him, and he had begun to protest against the abuses of the
colonial system. In consequence he was threatened with dismissal from
his office for his openness of speech, and, throwing up his appointment,
he returned to Holland in a state of fierce indignation. He determined
to expose in detail the scandals he had witnessed, and he began to do so
in newspaper articles and pamphlets. Little notice, however, was taken
of his protestations until, in 1860, he published, under the pseudonym
of "Multatuli," his romance entitled _Max Havelaar_. An attempt was made
to ignore this brilliant and irregular book, but in vain; it was read
all over Europe. The exposure of the abuse of free labour in the Dutch
Indies was complete, although there were not wanting apologists who
accused Dekker's terrible picture of being over-coloured. He was now
fairly launched on literature, and he lost no time in publishing _Love
Letters_ (1861), which, in spite of their mild title, proved to be
mordant satires of the most rancorous and unsparing kind. The literary
merit of Multatuli's work was much contested; he received an unexpected
and most valuable ally in Vosmaer. He continued to write much, and to
faggot his miscellanies in uniform volumes called _Ideas_, of which
seven appeared between 1862 and 1877. Douwes quitted Holland, snaking
off her dust from his feet, and went to live at Wiesbaden. He now made
several attempts to gain the stage, and one of his pieces, _The School
for Princes_, 1875 (published in the fourth volume of _Ideas_), pleased
himself so highly that he is said to have styled it the greatest drama
ever written. It is a fine poem, written in blank verse, like an English
tragedy, and not in Dutch Alexandrines; but it is undramatic, and has
not held the boards. Douwes Dekker moved his residence to Nieder
Ingelheim, on the Rhine, and there he died on the 19th of February 1887.
Towards the end of his career he was the centre of a crowd of disciples
and imitators, who did his reputation no service; he is now, again, in
danger of being read too little. To understand his fame, it is necessary
to remember the sensational way in which he broke into the dulness of
Dutch literature fifty years ago, like a flame out of the Far East. He
was ardent, provocative, perhaps a little hysterical, but he made
himself heard all over Europe. He brought an exceedingly severe
indictment against the egotism and brutality of the administrators of
Dutch India, and he framed it in a literary form which was brilliantly
original. Not satisfied with this, he attacked, in a fury that was
sometimes blind, everything that seemed to him falsely conventional in
Dutch religion, government, society and morals. He respected nothing, he
left no institution untouched. Now that it is possible to look back upon
Multatuli without passion, we see in him, not what Dutch enthusiasm
saw,--"the second writer of Europe in the nineteenth century" (Victor
Hugo being presumably the first),--but a great man who was a powerful
and glowing author, yet hardly an artist, a reckless enthusiast, who was
inspired by indignation and a burning sense of justice, who cared little
for his means if only he could produce his effect. He is seen to his
best and worst in _Max Havelaar_; his _Ideas_, hard, fantastic and
sardonic, seldom offer any solid satisfaction to the foreign reader. But
Multatuli deserves remembrance, if only on account of the unequalled
effect his writing had in rousing Holland from the intellectual and
moral lethargy in which she lay half a century ago. (E. G.)
DEKKER, JEREMIAS DE (1610-1666), Dutch poet, was born at Dort in 1610.
His father was a native of Antwerp, who, having embraced the reformed
religion, had been compelled to take refuge in Holland. Entering his
father's business at an early age, he found leisure to cultivate his
taste for literature and especially for poetry, and to acquire without
assistance a competent knowledge of English, French, Latin and Italian.
His first poem was a paraphrase of the Lamentations of Jeremiah
(_Klaagliederen van Jeremias_), which was followed by translations and
imitations of Horace, Juvenal and other Latin poets. The most important
of his original poems were a collection of epigrams (_Puntdichten_) and
a satire in praise of avarice (_Lof der Geldzucht_). The latter is his
best-known work. Written in a vein of light and yet effective irony, it
is usually ranked by critics along with Erasmus's _Praise of Folly_.
Dekker died at Amsterdam in November 1666.
A complete collection of his poems, edited by Brouerius van Nideck,
was published at Amsterdam in 1726 under the title _Exercices
poétiques_ (2 vols. 4to.). Selections from his poems are included in
Siegenbeck's _Proeven van nederduitsche Dichtkunde_ (1823), and from
his epigrams in Geijsbeek's _Epigrammatische Anthologie_ (1827).
DEKKER (or DECKER), THOMAS (c. 1570-1641), English dramatist, was born
in London. His name occurs frequently in Henslowe's _Diary_ during the
last three years of the 16th century; he is mentioned there as receiving
loans and payments for writing plays in conjunction with Ben Jonson,
Drayton, Chettle, Haughton, Wilson, Day and others, and he would appear
to have been then in the most active employment as a playwright. The
titles of the plays on which he was engaged from April 1599 to March
1599/1600 are _Troilus and Cressida_, _Orestes Fures_, _Agamemnon_, _The
Gentle Craft_, _The Stepmother's Tragedy_, _Bear a Brain_, _Pagge of
Plymouth_, _Robert the Second_, _The Whole History of Fortunatus_,
_Patient Grissel_, _Truth's Supplication to Candlelight_, _The Spanish
Moor's Tragedy_, _The Seven Wise Masters_. At that date it is evident
that Dekker's services were in great request for the stage. He is first
mentioned in the Diary under date 8th of January 1597/1598, as having
sold a book, i.e. the manuscript of a play; the payments in 1599 are
generally made in advance, "in earnest" of work to be done. In the case
of three of the above plays, _Orestes Fures_, _Truth's Supplication_ and
_The Gentle Craft_, Dekker is paid as the sole author. Only _The Gentle
Craft_ has been preserved; it was published anonymously in 1600 under
the title of _The Shoemaker's Holiday_. It would be unsafe to argue from
the classical subjects of some of these plays that Dekker was then a
young man from the university, who had come up like so many others to
make a living by writing for the stage. Classical knowledge was then in
the air; playwrights in want of a subject were content with
translations, if they did not know the originals. However educated,
Dekker was then a young man just out of his teens, if he spoke with any
accuracy when he said that he was threescore in 1637. And it was not in
scholarly themes that he was destined to find his true vein. The call
for the publication of _The Gentle Craft_, which deals with the life of
the city, showed him where his strength lay.
To give a general idea of the substance of Dekker's plays, there is no
better way than to call him the Dickens of the Elizabethan period. The
two men were as unlike as possible in their habits of work, Dekker
having apparently all the thriftlessness and impecunious shamelessness
of Micawber himself. Henslowe's _Diary_ contains two notes of payments
made in 1597/1598 and 1598/1599 to release Dekker from prison, and he is
supposed to have spent the years between 1613 and 1616 in the King's
Bench. Dekker's Bohemianism appears in the slightness and hurry of his
work, a strong contrast to the thoroughness and rich completeness of
every labour to which Dickens applied himself; perhaps also in the
exquisite freshness and sweetness of his songs, and the natural charm of
stray touches of expression and description in his plays. But he was
like Dickens in the bent of his genius towards the representation of the
life around him in London, as well as in the humorous kindliness of his
way of looking at that life, his vein of sentiment, and his eye for odd
characters, though the random pickings of Dekker, hopping here and there
in search of a subject, give less complete results than the more
systematic labours of Dickens. Dekker's Simon Eyre, the good-hearted,
mad shoemaker, and his Orlando Friscobaldo, are touched with a kindly
humour in which Dickens would have delighted; his Infelices, Fiamettas,
Tormiellas, even his Bellafront, have a certain likeness in type to the
heroines of Dickens; and his roaring blades and their gulls are
prototypes of Sir Mulberry Hawk and Lord Frederick Verisopht. Only there
is this great difference in the spirit of the two writers, that Dekker
wrote without the smallest apparent wish to reform the life that he saw,
desiring only to exhibit it; and that on the whole, apart from his
dramatist's necessity of finding interesting matter, he cast his eye
about rather with a liking for the discovery of good under unpromising
appearances than with any determination to detect and expose vice. The
observation must also be made that Dekker's personages have much more
individual character, more of that mixture of good and evil which we
find in real human beings. Hack-writer though Dekker was, and writing
often under sore pressure, there is no dramatist whose personages have
more of the breath of life in them; drawing with easy, unconstrained
hand, he was a master of those touches by which an imaginary figure is
brought home to us as a creature with human interests. A very large part
of the motive power in his plays consists in the temporary yielding to
an evil passion. The kindly philosophy that the best of natures may be
for a time perverted by passionate desires is the chief animating
principle of his comedy. He delights in showing women listening to
temptation, and apparently yielding, but still retaining sufficient
control over themselves to be capable of drawing back when on the verge
of the precipice. The wives of the citizens were his heroines, pursued
by the unlawful addresses of the gay young courtiers; and on the whole
Dekker, from inclination apparently as well as policy, though himself,
if Ben Jonson's satire had any point, a bit of a dandy in his youth,
took the part of morality and the city, and either struck the rakes with
remorse or made the objects of their machinations clever enough to
outwit them. From Dekker's plays we get a very lively impression of all
that was picturesque and theatrically interesting in the city life of
the time, the interiors of the shops and the houses, the tastes of the
citizens and their wives, the tavern and tobacco-shop manners of the
youthful aristocracy and their satellites. The social student cannot
afford to overlook Dekker; there is no other dramatist of that age,
except Thomas Middleton, from whom we can get such a vivid picture of
contemporary manners in London. He drew direct from life; in so far as
he idealized, he did so not in obedience to scholarly precepts or
dogmatic theories, but in the immediate interests of good-natured farce
and tender-hearted sentiment.
In all the serious parts of Dekker's plays there is a charming delicacy
of touch, and his smallest scraps of song are bewitching; but his plays,
as plays, owe much more to the interest of the characters and the
incidents than to any excellence of construction. We see what use could
be made of his materials by a stronger intellect in _Westward Ho!_ which
he wrote in conjunction with John Webster. The play, somehow, though the
parts are more firmly knit together, and it has more unity of purpose,
is not so interesting as Dekker's unaided work. Middleton formed a more
successful combination with Dekker than Webster; there is some evidence
that in _The Honest Whore_, or _The Converted Courtesan_, which is
generally regarded as the best that bears Dekker's name, he had the
assistance of Middleton, although the assistance was so immaterial as
not to be worth acknowledging in the title-page. Still that Middleton, a
man of little genius but of much practical talent and robust humour, was
serviceable to Dekker in determining the form of the play may well be
believed. The two wrote another play in concert, _The Roaring Girl_, for
which Middleton probably contributed a good deal of the matter, as well
as a more symmetrical form than Dekker seems to have been capable of
devising. In _The Witch of Edmonton_, except in a few scenes, it is
difficult to trace the hand of Dekker with any certainty; his
collaborators were John Ford and William Rowley; to Ford probably
belongs the intense brooding and murderous wrath of the old hag, which
are too direct and hard in their energy for Dekker, while Rowley may be
supposed to be responsible for the delineation of country life. _The
Virgin Martyr_, one of the best constructed of his plays, was written in
conjunction with Massinger, to whom the form is no doubt due. Dekker's
plays contain a few songs which show him to have been possessed of very
great lyrical skill, but of this he seems to have made sadly little use.
His poem of _Canaans Calamitie_--if indeed it be his, which is hard to
believe--is exceedingly poor stuff, and the verse portion of his
_Dreame_, though containing some good lines, is, as a whole, not much
better.
When Gerard Langbaine wrote his _Account of the English Dramatic Poets_
in 1691, he spoke of Dekker as being "more famous for the contention he
had with Ben Jonson for the bays, than for any great reputation he had
gained by his own writings." This is an opinion that could not be
professed now, when Dekker's work is read. In the contention with Ben
Jonson, one of the most celebrated quarrels of authors, the origin of
which is matter of dispute, Dekker seems to have had very much the best
of it. We can imagine that Jonson's attack was stinging at the time,
because it seems to be full of sarcastic personalities, but it is dull
enough now when nobody knows what Dekker was like, nor what was the
character of his mother. There is nothing in the _Poetaster_ that has
any point as applied to Dekker's powers as a dramatist, while, on the
contrary, _Satiromastix, or the Untrussing of the Humorous Poet_ is full
of pungent ridicule of Jonson's style, and of retorts and insults
conceived in the happiest spirit of good-natured mockery. Dekker has
been accused of poverty of invention in adopting the character of the
_Poetaster_, but it is of the very pith of the jest that Dekker should
have set on Jonson's own foul-mouthed Captain Tucca to abuse Horace
himself.
WORKS.--_The Pleasant Comedie of Old Fortunatus_ (1600); _The
Shomakers Holiday. Or The gentle Craft. With the humorous life of
Simon Eyre, shoomaker, and Lord Maior of London_ (1600);
_Satiromastix. Or The untrussing of the Humorous Poet_ (1602); _The
Pleasant Comodie of Patient Grissill_ (1603), with Chettle and
Haughton; _The Honest Whore. With The Humours of the Patient Man, and
the Longing Wife_ (1604); _North-Ward Hoe_ (1607), with John Webster;
_West-Ward Hoe_ (1607), with John Webster; _The Whore of Babylon_
(1607); _The Famous History of Sir Thomas Wyat. With the Coronation of
Queen Mary, and the coming in of King Philip_ (1607), with John
Webster; _The Roaring Girle. Or Moll Cut-Purse_ (1611), with Thomas
Middleton; _The Virgin Martir_ (1622), with Massinger; _If It Be Not
Good, the Divel is in it_ (1612); _The Second Part of the Honest
Whore. With the Humors of the Patient Man, the Impatient Wife; the
Honest Whore, perswaded by strong Arguments to turne Curtizan againe;
her brave refuting those Arguments. And lastly, the Comicall Passages
of an Italian Bridewell, where the Scaene ends_ (1630); _A
Tragi-Comedy: Called, Match mee in London_ (1631); _The Wonder of a
Kingdome_ (1636); _The Witch of Edmonton. A known true Story. Composed
into a Tragi-Comedy_ (1658), with William Rowley and John Ford. _The
Sun's Darling_ (1656) was possibly written by Ford and Dekker, or may
be perhaps more correctly regarded as a recast by Ford of a masque by
Dekker, perhaps his lost play of _Phaëton_. The pageants for the Lord
Mayor's shows of 1612 and 1629 were written by Dekker, and both are
preserved. His tracts are invaluable for the light which they throw on
the London of his time, especially in their descriptions of the
circumstances of the theatre. Their titles, many of which are
necessarily abbreviated, are: _Canaans Calamitie, Jerusalems Miserie,
and Englands Mirror_ (1598), in verse; _The Wonderfull Yeare 1603.
Wherein is shewed the picture of London lying sicke of the Plague_
(1603); _The Batchelars Banquet_ (1603); a brilliant adaptation of
_Les Quinze Joyes de mariage_; the _Seven Deadly Sinnes of London_
(1606); _Newes from Hell, Brought by the Divells Carrier_ (1606),
reprinted in the next year with some interesting additions as _A
Knights Conjuring; Jests to make you Merie_ (1607), with George
Wilkins; _The Belman of London: Bringing to Light the most notorious
villanies that are now practised in the Kingdome_ (1608); followed by
a second part and enlarged editions under other titles; _The Dead
Tearme_ (1608); _The Ravens Almanacke, foretelling of a Plague, Famine
and Civill Warre_ (1609), ridiculing the almanac makers; _The Guls
Horne-booke_ (1609), the most famous of all his tracts, providing a
code of manners for the Elizabethan gallant, in the aisle of St
Paul's, at the ordinary, at the playhouse, and other resorts; _Worke
for Armorours, or the Peace is Broken_ (1609); _Foure Birds of Noahs
Ark_ (1609); _A Strange Horse-Race_ (1613); _Dekker his Dreame ..._
(1620), in verse and prose, illustrated with a woodcut of the dreamer;
and _A Rod for Run-awayes_ (1625). This long list does not exhaust
Dekker's work, much of which is lost.
AUTHORITIES.--An edition of the collected dramatic works of Dekker by
R. H. Shepherd appeared in 1873; his prose tracts and poems were
included in Dr A. B. Grosart's _Huth Library_ (1884-1886): both these
contain memoirs of him, but by far the most complete account of his
life and writings is to be found in the article by A. H. Bullen in the
_Dictionary of National Biography_. See also the elaborate discussion
of his plays in Mr Fleay's _Biographical Chronicle_ (1891), i. 115,
&c., and, for his quarrel with Ben Jonson, Prof. J. H. Penniman's _War
of the Theatres_ (Boston, 1897) and Mr R. A. Small's _Stage Quarrel
between Ben Jonson and the so-called Poetasters_ (Breslau, 1899). A
selection from his plays was edited for the Mermaid Series (1887; new
series, 1904) by Ernest Rhys. An essay on Dekker by A. C. Swinburne
appeared in _The Nineteenth Century_ for January 1887.
(W. M.; R. B. McK.)
DE LA BECHE, SIR HENRY THOMAS (1796-1855), English geologist, was born
in the year 1796. His father, an officer in the army, possessed landed
property in Jamaica, but died while his son was still young. The boy
accordingly spent his youth with his mother at Lyme Regis among the
interesting and picturesque coast cliffs of the south-west of England,
where he imbibed a love for geological pursuits and cultivated a marked
artistic faculty. When fourteen years of age, being destined, like his
friend Murchison, for the military profession, he entered the college at
Great Marlow, where he distinguished himself by the rapidity and skill
with which he executed sketches showing the salient features of a
district. The peace of 1815, however, changed his career and he devoted
himself with ever-increasing assiduity to the pursuit of geology. When
only twenty-one years of age he joined the Geological Society of London,
continuing throughout life to be one of its most active, useful and
honoured members. He was president in 1848-1849. Possessing a fortune
sufficient for the gratification of his tastes, he visited many
localities of geological interest, not only in Britain, but also on the
continent, in France and Switzerland. His journeys seldom failed to bear
fruit in suggestive papers accompanied by sketches. Early attachment to
the south-west of England led him back to that region, where, with
enlarged experience, he began the detailed investigation of the rocks of
Cornwall and Devon. Thrown much into contact with the mining community
of that part of the country, he conceived the idea that the nation ought
to compile a geological map of the United Kingdom, and collect and
preserve specimens to illustrate, and aid in further developing, its
mineral industries. He showed his skilful management of affairs by
inducing the government of the day to recognize his work and give him an
appointment in connexion with the Ordnance Survey. This formed the
starting point of the present Geological Survey of Great Britain, which
was officially recognized in 1835, when De la Beche was appointed
director. Year by year increasing stores of valuable specimens were
transmitted to London; and the building at Craig's Court, where the
young Museum of Economic Geology was placed, became too small. But De la
Beche, having seen how fruitful his first idea had become, appealed to
the authorities not merely to provide a larger structure, but to widen
the whole scope of the scientific establishment of which he was the
head, so as to impart to it the character of a great educational
institution where practical as well as theoretical instruction should be
given in every branch of science necessary for the conduct of mining
work. In this endeavour he was again successful. Parliament sanctioned
the erection of a museum in Jermyn Street, London, and the organization
Of a staff of professors with laboratories and other appliances. The
establishment, in which were combined the offices of the Geological
Survey, the Museum of Practical Geology, The Royal School of Mines and
the Mining Record Office, was opened in 1851. Many foreign countries
have since formed geological surveys avowedly based upon the
organization and experience of that of the United Kingdom. The British
colonies, also, have in many instances established similar surveys for
the development of their mineral resources, and have had recourse to the
parent survey for advice and for officers to conduct the operations.
De la Beche published numerous memoirs on English geology in the
_Transactions of the Geological Society of London_, as well as in the
_Memoirs of the Geological Survey_, notably the _Report on the Geology
of Cornwall, Devon and West Somerset_ (1839). He likewise wrote _A
Geological Manual_ (1831; 3rd ed., 1833); and a work of singular breadth
and clearness--_Researches in Theoretical Geology_ (1834)--in which he
enunciated a philosophical treatment of geological questions much in
advance of his time. An early volume, _How to Observe Geology_ (1835 and
1836), was rewritten and enlarged by him late in life, and published
under the title of _The Geological Observer_ (1851; 2nd ed., 1853). It
was marked by wide practical experience, multifarious knowledge,
philosophical insight and a genius for artistic delineation of
geological phenomena. He was elected F.R.S. in 1819. He received the
honour of knighthood in 1848, and near the close of his life was awarded
the Wollaston medal--the highest honour in the gift of the Geological
Society of London. After a life of constant activity he began to suffer
from partial paralysis, but, though becoming gradually worse, continued
able to transact his official business until a few days before his
death, which took place on the 13th of April 1855.
See Sir A. Geikie's _Memoir of Sir A. C. Ramsay_ (1895), which
contains a sketch of the history of the Geological Survey, and of the
life of De la Beche (with portrait); also _Summary of Progress of the
Geological Survey for 1897_ (1898).
DELABORDE, HENRI FRANÇOIS, COUNT (1764-1833), French soldier, was the
son of a baker of Dijon. At the outbreak of the French Revolution he
joined the "Volunteers of the Côte-d'Or," and passing rapidly through
all the junior grades, was made general of brigade after the combat of
Rhein-Zabern (1793). As chief of the staff he was present at the siege
of Toulon in the same year, and, promoted general of division, he was
for a time governor of Corsica. In 1794 Delaborde served on the Spanish
frontier, distinguishing himself at the Bidassoa (July 25) and Misquiriz
(October 16). His next command was on the Rhine. At the head of a
division he took part in the celebrated campaigns of 1795-97, and in
1796 covered Moreau's right when that general invaded Bavaria. Delaborde
was in constant military employment during the Consulate and the early
Empire. Made commander of the Legion of Honour in 1804, he received the
dignity of count in 1808. In that year he was serving in Portugal under
Junot. Against Sir Arthur Wellesley's English army he fought the
skillful brilliant rear-guard action of Rolica. In 1812 he was one of
Mortier's divisional leaders in the Russian War, and in the following
year was grand cross and governor of the castle of Compiègne. Joining
Napoleon in the Hundred Days, he was marked for punishment by the
returning Bourbons, sent before a court-martial, and only escaped
condemnation through a technical flaw in the wording of the charge. The
rest of his life was spent in retirement.
DELACROIX, FERDINAND VICTOR EUGÈNE (1798-1863), French historical painter,
leader of the Romantic movement, was born at Charenton-St-Maurice, near
Paris, on the 26th of April 1798. His father Charles Delacroix (1741-1805)
was a partisan of the most violent faction during the time of the
Revolution, and was foreign minister under the Directory. The family
affairs seem to have been conducted in the wildest manner, and the
accidents that befell the child, well authenticated as they are said to
be, make it almost a miracle that he survived. He was first nearly burned
to death in the cradle by a nurse falling asleep over a novel and the
candle dropping on the coverlet; this left permanent marks on his arms and
face. He was next dropped into the sea by another _bonne_, who was
climbing up a ship's side to see her lover. He was nearly poisoned, and
nearly choked, and, to crown all, he tried to hang himself, without any
thought of suicide, in imitation of a print exhibiting a man in that
position of final ignominy. The prediction of a charlatan founded on his
horoscope has been preserved: "Cet enfant deviendra un homme célèbre, mais
sa vie sera des plus laborieuses, des plus tourmentées, et toujours livrée
à la contradiction."
Delacroix the elder (also known as Delacroix de Contaut) died at
Bordeaux when Eugène was seven years of age, and his mother returned to
Paris and placed him in the Lycée Napoléon. Afterwards, on his
determining to be a painter, he entered the _atelier_ of Baron Guérin,
who affected to treat him as an amateur. His fellow-pupil was Ary
Scheffer, who was alike by temperament and antecedents the opposite of
the _bizarre_ Delacroix, and the two remained antagonistic to the end of
life. Delacroix's acknowledged power and yet want of success with
artists and critics--Thiers being his only advocate--perhaps mainly
resulted from his bravura and rude dash in the use of the brush, at a
time when smooth roundness of surface was general. His first important
picture, "Dante and Virgil," was painted in his own studio; and when
Guérin went to see it he flew into a passion, and told him his picture
was absurd, detestable, exaggerated. "Why ask me to come and see this?
You knew what I must say." Yet his work was received at the Salon, and
produced an enthusiasm of debate (1822). Some said Géricault had worked
on it, but all treated it with respect. Still in private his position,
even after the larger tragic picture, the "Massacre of Chios," had been
deposited in the Luxembourg by the government (1824), became that of an
Ishmaelite. The war for the freedom of Greece then going on moved him
deeply, and his next two pictures--"Marino Faliero Decapitated on the
Giant's Staircase of the Ducal Palace" (which has always remained a
European success), and "Greece Lamenting on the Ruins of
Missolonghi"--with many smaller works, were exhibited for the benefit of
the patriots in 1826. This exhibition was much visited by the public,
and next year he produced another of his important works,
"Sardanapalus," from Byron's drama. After this, he says, "I became the
abomination of painting, I was refused water and salt,"--but, he adds
with singularly happy naïveté, "J'étais enchanté de moi-même!" The
patrimony he inherited, or perhaps it should be said, what remained of
it, was 10,000 _livres de rente_, and with economy he lived on this, and
continued the expensive process of painting large historical pictures.
In 1831 he reappeared in the Salon with six works, and immediately after
left for Morocco, where he found much congenial matter. Delacroix never
went to Italy; he refused to go on principle, lest the old masters,
either in spirit or manner, should impair his originality and
self-dependence. His greatest admiration in literature was the poetry of
Byron; Shakespeare also attracted him for tragic inspirations; and of
course classic subjects had their turn of his easel.
He continued his work indefatigably, having his pictures very seldom
favourably received at the Salon. These were sometimes very large, full
of incidents, with many figures. "Drawing of Lots in the Boat at Sea,"
from Byron's _Don Juan_, and the "Taking of Constantinople by the
Christians" were of that character, and the former was one of his
noblest creations. In 1845 he was employed to decorate the library of
the Luxembourg, that of the chamber of deputies in 1847, the ceiling of
the gallery of Apollo in the Louvre in 1849 and that of the Salon de la
Paix in the hôtel de ville in 1853. He died on the 13th of August 1863,
and in August 1864 an exhibition of his works was opened on the
Boulevard des Italiens. It contained 174 pictures, many of them of large
dimensions, and 303 drawings, showing immense perseverance as well as
energy and versatility. As a colourist, and a romantic painter, he now
ranks among the greatest of French artists.
See also A. Robaut, _Delacroix_ (1885); E. Dargenty, _Delacroix par
lui-même_ (1885); G. Moreau, _Delacroix et son oeuvre_ (1893); Dorothy
Bussy, _Eugène Delacroix_ (1907).
DE LA GARDIE, MAGNUS GABRIEL, COUNT (1622-1686), Swedish statesman, the
best-known member of an ancient family of French origin (the
D'Escouperies of Languedoc) which had been settled in Sweden since the
14th century. After a careful education, completed by the usual grand
tour, Magnus learned the art of war under Gustavus Horn, and during the
reign of Christina (1644-1654), whose prime favourite he became, though
the liaison was innocent enough, he was raised to the highest offices in
the state and loaded with distinctions. In 1646 he was sent at the head
of an extraordinary mission to France, and on his return married the
queen's cousin Marie Euphrosyne of Zweibrücken, who, being but a poor
princess, benefited greatly by her wedding with the richest of the
Swedish magnates. Immediately afterwards, De la Gardie was made a
senator, governor-general of Saxony during the last stages of the Thirty
Years' War, and, in 1652, lord high treasurer. In 1653 he fell into
disgrace and had to withdraw from court. During the reign of Charles X.
(1654-1660) he was employed in the Baltic provinces both as a civilian
and a soldier, although in the latter capacity he gave the martial king
but little satisfaction. Charles X. nevertheless, in his last will,
appointed De la Gardie grand-chancellor and a member of the council of
regency which ruled Sweden during the minority of Charles XI.
(1660-1672). During this period De la Gardie was the ruling spirit of
the government and represented the party of warlike adventure as opposed
to the party of peace and economy led by Counts Bonde and Brahe (qq.v.).
After a severe struggle De la Gardie's party finally prevailed, and its
triumph was marked by that general decline of personal and political
morality which has given to this regency its unenviable reputation. It
was De la Gardie who first made Sweden the obsequious hireling of the
foreign power which had the longest purse. The beginning of this
shameful "subsidy policy" was the treaty of Fontainebleau, 1661, by a
secret paragraph of which Sweden, in exchange for a considerable sum of
money, undertook to support the French candidate on the first vacancy of
the Polish throne. It was not, however, till the 14th of April 1672 that
Sweden, by the treaty of Stockholm, became a regular "mercenarius
Galliae," pledging herself, in return for 400,000 _écus_ per annum in
peace and 600,000 in war time, to attack with 16,000 men those German
princes who might be disposed to assist Holland. The early disasters of
the unlucky war of 1675-1679 were rightly attributed to the
carelessness, extravagance, procrastination and general incompetence of
De la Gardie and his high aristocratic colleagues. In 1675 a special
commission was appointed to inquire into their conduct, and on the 27th
of May 1682 it decided that the regents and the senate were solely
responsible for dilapidations of the realm, the compensation due by them
to the crown being assessed at 4,000,000 _daler_ or £500,000. De la
Gardie was treated with relative leniency, but he "received permission
to retire to his estates for the rest of his life" and died there in
comparative poverty, a mere shadow of his former magnificent self. The
best sides of his character were his brilliant social gifts and his
intense devotion to literature and art.
See Martin Veibull, _Sveriges Storhetstid_ (Stockholm, 1881); _Sv.
Hist._ iv.; Robert Nisbet Bain, _Scandinavia_ (Cambridge, 1905).
(R. N. B.)
DELAGOA BAY (Port. for the bay "of the lagoon"), an inlet of the Indian
Ocean on the east coast of South Africa, between 25° 40´ and 26° 20´ S.,
with a length from north to south of over 70 m. and a breadth of about
20 m. The bay is the northern termination of the series of lagoons which
line the coast from Saint Lucia Bay. The opening is toward the N.E. The
southern part of the bay is formed by a peninsula, called the Inyak
peninsula, which on its inner or western side affords safe anchorage. At
its N.W. point is Port Melville. North of the peninsula is Inyak Island,
and beyond it a smaller island known as Elephant's Island.
In spite of a bar at the entrance and a number of shallows within,
Delagoa Bay forms a valuable harbour, accessible to large vessels at all
seasons of the year. The surrounding country is low and very unhealthy,
but the island of Inyak has a height of 240 ft., and is used as a
sanatorium. A river 12 to 18 ft. deep, known as the Manhissa or Komati,
enters the bay at its northern end; several smaller streams, the
Matolla, the Umbelozi, and the Tembi, from the Lebombo Mountains, meet
towards the middle of the bay in the estuary called by the Portuguese
the Espirito Santo, but generally known as the English river; and the
Maputa, which has its headwaters in the Drakensberg, enters in the
south, as also does the Umfusi river. These rivers are the haunts of the
hippopotamus and the crocodile.
The bay was discovered by the Portuguese navigator Antonio de Campo, one
of Vasco da Gama's companions, in 1502, and the Portuguese post of
Lourenço Marques was established not long after on the north side of the
English river. In 1720 the Dutch East India Company built a fort and
"factory" on the spot where Lourenço Marques now stands; but in 1730 the
settlement was abandoned. Thereafter the Portuguese
had--intermittently--trading stations in the Espirito Santo. These
stations were protected by small forts, usually incapable, however, of
withstanding attacks by the natives. In 1823 Captain (afterwards
Vice-Admiral) W. F. W. Owen, of the British navy, finding that the
Portuguese exercised no jurisdiction south of the settlement of Lourenço
Marques, concluded treaties of cession with native chiefs, hoisted the
British flag, and appropriated the country from the English river
southwards; but when he visited the bay again in 1824 he found that the
Portuguese, disregarding the British treaties, had concluded others with
the natives, and had endeavoured (unsuccessfully) to take military
possession of the country. Captain Owen rehoisted the British flag, but
the sovereignty of either power was left undecided till the claims of
the Transvaal Republic rendered a solution of the question urgent. In
the meantime Great Britain had taken no steps to exercise authority on
the spot, while the ravages of Zulu hordes confined Portuguese authority
to the limits of their fort. In 1835 Boers, under a leader named Orich,
had attempted to form a settlement on the bay, which is the natural
outlet for the Transvaal; and in 1868 the Transvaal president, Marthinus
Pretorius, claimed the country on each side of the Maputa down to the
sea. In the following year, however, the Transvaal acknowledged
Portugal's sovereignty over the bay. In 1861 Captain Bickford, R.N., had
declared Inyak and Elephant islands British territory; an act protested
against by the Lisbon authorities. In 1872 the dispute between Great
Britain and Portugal was submitted to the arbitration of M. Thiers, the
French president; and on the 19th of April 1875 his successor, Marshal
MacMahon, declared in favour of the Portuguese. It had been previously
agreed by Great Britain and Portugal that the right of pre-emption in
case of sale or cession should be given to the unsuccessful claimant to
the bay. Portuguese authority over the interior was not established
until some time after the MacMahon award; nominally the country south of
the Manhissa river was ceded to them by the Matshangana chief Umzila in
1861. In 1889 another dispute arose between Portugal and Great Britain
in consequence of the seizure by the Portuguese of the railway running
from the bay to the Transvaal. This dispute was referred to arbitration,
and in 1900 Portugal was condemned to pay nearly £1,000,000 in
compensation to the shareholders in the railway company. (See LOURENÇO
MARQUES and GAZALAND.)
For an account of the Delagoa Bay arbitration proceedings see Sir E.
Hertslet, _The Map of Africa by Treaty_, iii. 991-998 (London, 1909).
Consult also the British blue-book, _Delagoa Bay, Correspondence
respecting the Claims of Her Majesty's Government_ (London, 1875); L.
van Deventer, _La Hollande et la Baie Delagoa_ (The Hague, 1883); G.
McC. Theal, _The Portuguese in South Africa_ (London, 1896), and
_History of South Africa since September 1795_, vol. v. (London,
1908). _The Narrative of Voyages to explore the shores of Africa ...
performed ... under direction of Captain W. F. W. Owen, R.N._ (London,
1833) contains much interesting information concerning the district in
the early part of the 19th century.
DELAMBRE, JEAN BAPTISTE JOSEPH (1749-1822), French astronomer, was born
at Amiens on the 19th of September 1749. His college course, begun at
Amiens under the abbé Jacques Delille, was finished in Paris, where he
took a scholarship at the college of Plessis. Despite extreme penury, he
then continued to study indefatigably ancient and modern languages,
history and literature, finally turning his attention to mathematics and
astronomy. In 1771 he became tutor to the son of M. d'Assy,
receiver-general of finances; and while acting in this capacity,
attended the lectures of J. J. Lalande, who, struck with his remarkable
acquirements, induced M. d'Assy in 1788 to install an observatory for
his benefit at his own residence. Here Delambre observed and computed
almost uninterruptedly, and in 1790 obtained for his Tables of Uranus
the prize offered by the academy of sciences, of which body he was
elected a member two years later. He was admitted to the Institute on
its organization in 1795, and became, in 1803, perpetual secretary to
its mathematical section. He, moreover, belonged from 1795 to the bureau
of longitudes. From 1792 to 1799 he was occupied with the measurement of
the arc of the meridian extending from Dunkirk to Barcelona, and
published a detailed account of the operations in _Base du système
métrique_ (3 vols., 1806, 1807, 1810), for which he was awarded in 1810
the decennial prize of the Institute. The first consul nominated him
inspector-general of studies; he succeeded Lalande in 1807 as professor
of astronomy at the Collège de France, and filled the office of
treasurer to the imperial university from 1808 until its suppression in
1815. Delambre died at Paris on the 19th of August 1822. His last years
were devoted to researches into the history of science, resulting in the
successive publication of: _Histoire de l'astronomie ancienne_ (2 vols.,
1817); _Histoire de l'astronomie au moyen âge_ (1819); _Histoire de
l'astronomie moderne_ (2 vols., 1821); and _Histoire de l'astronomie au
XVIII^e siècle_, issued in 1827 under the care of C. L. Mathieu. These
books show marvellous erudition; but some of the judgments expressed in
them are warped by prejudice; they are diffuse in style and overloaded
with computations. He wrote besides: _Tables écliptiques des satellites
de Jupiter_, inserted in the third edition of J. J. Lalande's
_Astronomie_ (1792), and republished in an improved form by the bureau
of longitudes in 1817; _Méthodes analytiques pour la détermination d'un
arc du méridien_ (1799); _Tables du soleil (publiées par le bureau des
longitudes)_ (1806); _Rapport historique sur les progrès des sciences
mathématiques depuis l'an 1789_ (1810); _Abrégé d'astronomie_ (1813);
_Astronomie théorique et pratique_ (1814); &c.
See J. B. J. Fourier's "Éloge" in _Mémoires de l'acad. des sciences_,
t. iv.; Ch. Dupin, _Revue encyclopédique_, t. xvi. (1822); _Biog.
universelle_, t. lxii. (C. L. Mathieu); Max. Marie, _Hist. des
sciences_, x. 31; R. Grant, _Hist. of Physical Astr._ pp. 96, 142,
165; R. Wolf, _Geschichte der Astronomie_, p. 779, &c. (A. M. C.)
DELAMERE (or DE LA MER), GEORGE BOOTH, 1st BARON (1622-1684), son of
William Booth, a member of an ancient family settled at Dunham Massey in
Cheshire, and of Vere, daughter and co-heir of Sir Thomas Egerton, was
born in August 1622. He took an active part in the Civil War with his
grandfather, Sir George Booth, on the parliamentary side. He was
returned for Cheshire to the Long Parliament in 1645 and to Cromwell's
parliaments of 1654 and 1656. In 1655 he was appointed military
commissioner for Cheshire and treasurer at war. He was one of the
excluded members who tried and failed to regain their seats after the
fall of Richard Cromwell in 1659. He had for some time been regarded by
the royalists as a well-wisher to their cause, and was described to the
king in May 1659 as "very considerable in his country, a presbyterian in
opinion, yet so moral a man.... I think your Majesty may safely [rely]
on him and his promises which are considerable and hearty."[1] He now
became one of the chief leaders of the new "royalists" who at this time
united with the cavaliers to effect the restoration. A rising was
arranged for the 5th of August in several districts, and Booth took
charge of operations in Cheshire, Lancashire and North Wales. He got
possession of Chester on the 19th, issued a proclamation declaring that
arms had been taken up "in vindication of the freedom of parliament, of
the known laws, liberty and property," and marched towards York. The
plot, however, was known to Thurloe. It had entirely failed in other
parts of the country, and Lambert advancing with his forces defeated
Booth's men at Nantwich Bridge. Booth himself escaped disguised as a
woman, but was discovered at Newport Pagnell on the 23rd in the act of
shaving, and was imprisoned in the Tower. He was, however, soon
liberated, took his seat in the parliament of 1659-1660, and was one of
the twelve members deputed to carry the message of the Commons to
Charles II. at the Hague. In July 1660 he received a grant of £10,000,
having refused the larger sum of £20,000 at first offered to him, and on
the 20th of April 1661, on the occasion of the coronation, he was
created Baron Delamere, with a licence to create six new knights. The
same year he was appointed _custos rotulorum_ of Cheshire. In later
years he showed himself strongly antagonistic to the reactionary policy
of the government. He died on the 8th of August 1684, and was buried at
Bowdon. He married (1) Lady Catherine Clinton, daughter and co-heir of
Theophilus, 4th earl of Lincoln, by whom he had one daughter; and (2)
Lady Elizabeth Grey, daughter of Henry, 1st earl of Stamford, by whom,
besides five daughters, he had seven sons, the second of whom, Henry,
succeeded him in the title and estates and was created earl of
Warrington. The earldom became extinct on the death of the latter's son,
the 2nd earl, without male issue, in 1758, and the barony of Delamere
terminated in the person of the 4th baron in 1770; the title was revived
in 1821 in the Cholmondeley family.
FOOTNOTE:
[1] Clarendon, _State Papers_, iii. 472.
DE LAND, a town and the county-seat of Volusia county, Florida, U.S.A.,
111 m. by rail S. of Jacksonville, 20 m. from the Atlantic coast and 4
m. from the St John's river. Pop. (1900) 1449; (1910) 2812. De Land is
served by the Atlantic Coast Line and by steamboats on the St John's
river. It has a fine winter climate, with an average temperature of 60°
F., has sulphur springs, and is a health and winter resort. There is a
starch factory here; and the surrounding country is devoted to
fruit-growing. De Land is the seat of the John B. Stetson University
(co-educational), an undenominational institution under Baptist control,
founded in 1884, as an academy, by Henry A. De Land, a manufacturer of
Fairport, New York, and in 1887 incorporated under the name of De Land
University, which was changed in 1889 to the present name, in honour of
John Batterson Stetson (1830-1906), a Philadelphia manufacturer of hats,
who during his life gave nearly $500,000 to the institution. The
university includes a college of liberal arts, a department of law, a
school of technology, an academy, a normal school, a model school, a
business college and a school of music. De Land was founded in 1876 by
H. A. De Land, above mentioned, who built a public school here in 1877
and a high school in 1883.
DELANE, JOHN THADEUS (1817-1879), editor of _The Times_ (London), was
born on the 11th of October 1817 in London. He was the second son of Mr
W. F. A. Delane, a barrister, of an old Irish family, who about 1832 was
appointed by Mr Walter financial manager of _The Times_. While still a
boy he attracted Mr Walter's attention, and it was always intended that
he should find work on the paper. He received a good general education
at private schools and King's College, London, and also at Magdalen
Hall, Oxford; after taking his degree in 1840 he at once began work on
the paper, though later he read for the bar, being called in 1847. In
1841 he succeeded Thomas Barnes as editor, a post which he occupied for
thirty-six years. He from the first obtained the best introductions into
society and the chief political circles, and had a position there such
as no journalist had previously enjoyed, using his opportunities with a
sure intuition for the way in which events would move. His staff
included some of the most brilliant men of the day, who worked together
with a common ideal. The result to the paper, which in those days had
hardly any real competitor in English journalism, was an excellence of
information which gave it great power. (See NEWSPAPERS.) Delane was a
man of many interests and great judgment; capable of long application
and concentrated attention, with power to seize always on the main point
at issue, and rapidly master the essential facts in the most complicated
affair. His general policy was to keep the paper a national organ of
opinion above party, but with a tendency to sympathize with the Liberal
movements of the day. He admired Palmerston and respected Lord Aberdeen,
and was of considerable use to both; and it was Lord Aberdeen himself
who, in 1845, told him of the impending repeal of the Corn Laws, an
incident round which many incorrect stories have gathered. The history,
however, of the events during the thirteen administrations, between 1841
and 1877, in which _The Times_, and therefore Delane, played an
important part cannot here be recapitulated. In 1877 his health gave
way, and he retired from the editorship; and on the 22nd of November
1879 he died at Ascot.
A biography by his nephew, Arthur Irwin Dasent, was published in 1908.
DELANY, MARY GRANVILLE (1700-1788), an Englishwoman of literary tastes,
was born at Coulston, Wilts, on the 14th of May 1700. She was a niece of
the 1st Lord Lansdowne. In 1717 or 1718 she was unhappily married to
Alexander Pendarves, a rich old Cornish landowner, who died in 1724.
During a visit to Ireland she met Dean Swift and his intimate friend,
the Irish divine, Patrick Delany, whose second wife she became in 1743.
After his death in 1768 she passed all her summers with her bosom friend
the dowager duchess of Portland--Prior's "Peggy"--and when the latter
died George III. and Queen Charlotte, whose affection for their "dearest
Mrs Delany" seems to have been most genuine, gave her a small house at
Windsor and a pension of £300 a year. Fanny Burney (Madame D'Arblay) was
introduced to her in 1783, and frequently visited her at her London home
and at Windsor, and owed to her friendship her court appointment. At
this time Mrs Delany was a charming and sweet old lady, with a
reputation for cutting out and making the ingenious "paper mosaiks" now
in the British Museum; she had known every one worth knowing in her day,
had corresponded with Swift and Young, and left an interesting picture
of the polite but commonplace English society of the 18th century in her
six volumes of _Autobiography and Letters_. Burke calls her "a real fine
lady"--"the model of an accomplished woman of former times." She died on
the 15th of April 1788.
DE LA REY, JACOBUS HERCULES (1847- ), Boer soldier, was born in the
Lichtenburg district, and in his youth and early manhood saw much
service in savage warfare. In 1893 he entered the Volksraad of the South
African Republic, and was an active supporter of the policy of General
Joubert. At the outbreak of the war with Great Britain in 1899 De La Rey
was made a general, and he was engaged in the western campaign against
Lord Methuen and Lord Roberts. He won his first great success at
Nitral's Nek on the 11th of July 1900, where he compelled the surrender
of a strong English detachment. In the second or guerrilla stage of the
war De La Rey became one of the most conspicuously successful of the
Boer leaders. He was assistant to General Louis Botha and a member of
the government, with charge of operations in the western Transvaal. The
principal actions in which he was successful (see also TRANSVAAL:
_History_) were Nooitgedacht, Vlakfontein and the defeat and capture of
Lord Methuen at Klerksdorp (March 7, 1902). The British general was
severely wounded in the action, and De La Rey released him at once,
being unable to afford him proper medical assistance. This humanity and
courtesy marked De La Rey's conduct throughout the war, and even more
than his military skill and daring earned for him the esteem of his
enemies. After the conclusion of peace De La Rey, who had borne a
prominent part in the negotiations, visited Europe with the other
generals, with the intention of raising funds to enable the Boers to
resettle their country. In December 1903 he went on a mission to India,
and induced the whole of the Boer prisoners of war detained at
Ahmednagar to accept the new order of things and to take the oath of
allegiance. In February 1907 General De La Rey was returned unopposed as
member for Ventersdorp in the legislative assembly of the first
Transvaal parliament under self-government.
DE LA RIVE, AUGUSTE ARTHUR (1801-1873), Swiss physicist, was born at
Geneva on the 9th of October 1801. He was the son of Charles Gaspard de
la Rive (1770-1834), who studied medicine at Edinburgh, and after
practising for a few years in London, became professor of pharmaceutical
chemistry at the academy of Geneva in 1802 and rector in 1823. After a
brilliant career as a student, he was appointed at the age of twenty-two
to the chair of natural philosophy in the academy of Geneva. For some
years after his appointment he devoted himself specially, with François
Marcet (1803-1883), to the investigation of the specific heat of gases,
and to observations for determining the temperature of the earth's
crust. Electrical studies, however, engaged most of his attention,
especially in connexion with the theory of the voltaic cell and the
electric discharge in rarefied gases. His researches on the
last-mentioned subject led him to form a new theory of the aurora
borealis. In 1840 he described a process for the electro-gilding of
silver and brass, for which in the following year he received a prize of
3000 francs from the French Academy of Sciences. Between 1854 and 1858
he published a _Traité de l'électricité théorique et appliquée_, which
was translated into several languages. De la Rive's birth and fortune
gave him considerable social and political influence. He was
distinguished for his hospitality to literary and scientific men, and
for his interest in the welfare and independence of his native country.
In 1860, when the annexation of Savoy and Nice had led the Genevese to
fear French aggression, de la Rive was sent by his fellow-citizens on a
special embassy to England, and succeeded in securing a declaration from
the English government, which was communicated privately to that of
France, that any attack upon Geneva would be regarded as a _casus
belli_. On the occasion of this visit the university of Oxford conferred
upon de la Rive the honorary degree of D.C.L. When on his way to pass
the winter at Cannes he died suddenly at Marseilles on the 27th of
November 1873.
His son, LUCIEN DE LA RIVE, born at Geneva on the 3rd of April 1834,
published papers on various mathematical and physical subjects, and with
Édouard Sarasin carried out investigations on the propagation of
electric waves.
DELAROCHE, HIPPOLYTE, commonly known as PAUL (1797-1856), French
painter, was born in Paris on the 17th of July 1797. His father was an
expert who had made a fortune, to some extent, by negotiating and
cataloguing, buying and selling. He was proud of his son's talent, and
able to forward his artistic education. The master selected was Gros,
then painting life-size histories, and surrounded by many pupils. In no
haste to make an appearance in the Salon, his first exhibited picture
was a large one, "Josabeth saving Joas" (1822). This picture led to his
acquaintance with Géricault and Delacroix, with whom he remained on the
most friendly terms, the three forming the central group of a numerous
body of historical painters, such as perhaps never before lived in one
locality and at one time.
From 1822 the record of his life is to be found in the successive works
coming from his hand. He visited Italy in 1838 and 1843, when his
father-in-law, Horace Vernet, was director of the French Academy. His
studio in Paris was in the rue Mazarine, where he never spent a day
without some good result, his hand being sure and his knowledge great.
His subjects, definitely expressed and popular in their manner of
treatment, illustrating certain views of history dear to partisans, yet
romantic in their general interest, were painted with a firm, solid,
smooth surface, which gave an appearance of the highest finish. This
solidity, found also on the canvas of Vernet, Scheffer, Leopold Robert
and Ingres, was the manner of the day. It repudiates the technical charm
of texture and variety of handling which the English school inherited as
a tradition from the time of Reynolds; but it is more easily understood
by the world at large, since a picture so executed depends for its
interest rather on the history, scene in nature or object depicted, than
on the executive skill, which may or may not be critically appreciated.
We may add that his point of view of the historical characters which he
treated is not always just. "Cromwell lifting the Coffin-lid and looking
at the Body of Charles" is an incident only to be excused by an
improbable tradition; but "The King in the Guard-Room," with villainous
roundhead soldiers blowing tobacco smoke in his patient face, is a libel
on the Puritans; and "Queen Elizabeth dying on the Ground," like a
she-dragon no one dares to touch, is sensational; while the "Execution
of Lady Jane Grey" is represented as taking place in a dungeon. Nothing
can be more incorrect than this last as a reading of English history,
yet we forget the inaccuracy in admiration of the treatment which
represents Lady Jane, with bandaged sight, feeling for the block, her
maids covering their faces, and none with their eyes visible among the
many figures. On the other hand, "Strafford led to Execution," when Laud
stretches his lawn-covered arms out of the small high window of his cell
to give him a blessing as he passes along the corridor, is perfect; and
the splendid scene of Richelieu in his gorgeous barge, preceding the
boat containing Cinq-Mars and De Thou carried to execution by their
guards, is perhaps the most dramatic semi-historical work ever done.
"The Princes in the Tower" must also be mentioned as a very complete
creation; and the "Young female Martyr floating dead on the Tiber" is so
pathetic that criticism feels hard-hearted and ashamed before it. As a
realization of a page of authentic history, again, no picture can
surpass the "Assassination of the duc de Guise at Blois." The expression
of the murdered man stretched out by the side of the bed, the
conspirators all massed together towards the door and far from the body,
show exact study as well as insight into human nature. This work was
exhibited in his meridian time, 1835; and in the same year he exhibited
the "Head of an Angel," a study from Horace Vernet's young daughter
Louise, his love for whom was the absorbing passion of his life, and
from the shock of whose death, in 1845, it is said he never quite
recovered. By far his finest productions after her death are of the most
serious character, a sequence of small elaborate pictures of incidents
in the Passion. Two of these, the Virgin and the other Maries, with the
apostles Peter and John, within a nearly dark apartment, hearing the
crowd as it passes haling Christ to Calvary, and St John conducting the
Virgin home again after all is over, are beyond all praise as exhibiting
the divine story from a simply human point of view. They are pure and
elevated, and also dramatic and painful. Delaroche was not troubled by
ideals, and had no affectation of them. His sound but hard execution
allowed no mystery to intervene between him and his _motif_, which was
always intelligible to the million, so that he escaped all the waste of
energy that painters who try to be poets on canvas suffer. Thus it is
that essentially the same treatment was applied by him to the characters
of distant historical times, the founders of the Christian religion, and
the real people of his own day, such as "Napoleon at Fontainebleau," or
"Napoleon at St Helena," or "Marie Antoinette leaving the Convention"
after her sentence.
In 1837 Delaroche received the commission for the great picture, 27
mètres long, in the hemicycle of the lecture theatre of the École des
Beaux Arts. This represents the great artists of the modern ages
assembled in groups on either hand of a central elevation of white
marble steps, on the topmost of which are three thrones filled by the
architects and sculptors of the Parthenon. To supply the female element
in this vast composition he introduced the genii or muses, who symbolize
or reign over the arts, leaning against the balustrade of the steps,
beautiful and queenly figures with a certain antique perfection of form,
but not informed by any wonderful or profound expression. The portrait
figures are nearly all unexceptionable and admirable. This great and
successful work is on the wall itself, an inner wall however, and is
executed in oil. It was finished in 1841, and considerably injured by a
fire which occurred in 1855, which injury he immediately set himself to
remedy (finished by Robert-Fleury); but he died before he had well
begun, on the 4th of November 1856.
Personally Delaroche exercised even a greater influence than by his
works. Though short and not powerfully made, he impressed every one as
rather tall than otherwise; his physiognomy was accentuated and firm,
and his fine forehead gave him the air of a minister of state.
See Rees, _Delaroche_ (London, 1880). (W. B. Sc.)
DELARUE, GERVAIS (1751-1835), French historical investigator, formerly
regarded as one of the chief authorities on Norman and Anglo-Norman
literature, was a native of Caen. He received his education at the
university of that town, and was ultimately raised to the rank of
professor. His first historical enterprise was interrupted by the French
Revolution, which forced him to take refuge in England, where he took
the opportunity of examining a vast mass of original documents in the
Tower and elsewhere, and received much encouragement, from Sir Walter
Scott among others. From England he passed over to Holland, still in
prosecution of his favourite task; and there he remained till in 1798 he
returned to France. The rest of his life was spent in his native town,
where he was chosen principal of his university. While in England he had
been elected a member of the Royal Society of Antiquaries; and in his
own country he was made a corresponding member of the Institute, and was
enrolled in the Legion of Honour. Besides numerous articles in the
_Memoirs of the Royal Society of London_, the _Mémoires de l'Institut_,
the _Mémoires de la Société d'Agriculture de Caen_, and in other
periodical collections, he published separately _Essais historiques sur
les Bardes, les Jongleurs, et les Trouvères normands et anglo-normands_
(3 vols., 1834), and _Recherches historiques sur la Prairie de Caen_
(1837); and after his death appeared _Mémoires historiques sur le
palinod de Caen_ (1841), _Recherches sur la tapisserie de Bayeux_
(1841), and _Nouveaux Essais historiques sur la ville de Caen_ (1842).
In all his writings he displays a strong partiality for everything
Norman, and rates the Norman influence on French and English literature
as of the very highest moment.
DE LA RUE, WARREN (1815-1889), British astronomer and chemist, son of
Thomas De la Rue, the founder of the large firm of stationers of that
name in London, was born in Guernsey on the 18th of January 1815. Having
completed his education in Paris, he entered his father's business, but
devoted his leisure hours to chemical and electrical researches, and
between 1836 and 1848 published several papers on these subjects.
Attracted to astronomy by the influence of James Nasmyth, he constructed
in 1850 a 13-in. reflecting telescope, mounted first at Canonbury, later
at Cranford, Middlesex, and with its aid executed many drawings of the
celestial bodies of singular beauty and fidelity. His chief title to
fame, however, is his pioneering work in the application of the art of
photography to astronomical research. In 1851 his attention was drawn to
a daguerreotype of the moon by G. P. Bond, shown at the great exhibition
of that year. Excited to emulation and employing the more rapid
wet-collodion process, he succeeded before long in obtaining exquisitely
defined lunar pictures, which remained unsurpassed until the appearance
of the Rutherfurd photographs in 1865. In 1854 he turned his attention
to solar physics, and for the purpose of obtaining a daily photographic
representation of the state of the solar surface he devised the
photo-heliograph, described in his report to the British Association,
"On Celestial Photography in England" (1859), and in his Bakerian
Lecture (_Phil. Trans._ vol. clii. pp. 333-416). Regular work with this
instrument, inaugurated at Kew by De la Rue in 1858, was carried on
there for fourteen years; and was continued at the Royal Observatory,
Greenwich, from 1873 to 1882. The results obtained in the years
1862-1866 were discussed in two memoirs, entitled "Researches on Solar
Physics," published by De la Rue, in conjunction with Professor Balfour
Stewart and Mr B. Loewy, in the _Phil. Trans._ (vol. clix. pp. 1-110,
and vol. clx. pp. 389-496). In 1860 De la Rue took the photo-heliograph
to Spain for the purpose of photographing the total solar eclipse which
occurred on the 18th of July of that year. This expedition formed the
subject of the Bakerian Lecture already referred to. The photographs
obtained on that occasion proved beyond doubt the solar character of the
prominences or red flames, seen around the limb of the moon during a
solar eclipse. In 1873 De la Rue gave up active work in astronomy, and
presented most of his astronomical instruments to the university
observatory, Oxford. Subsequently, in the year 1887, he provided the
same observatory with a 13-in. refractor to enable it to take part in
the International Photographic Survey of the Heavens. With Dr Hugo
Müller as his collaborator he published several papers of a chemical
character between the years 1856 and 1862, and investigated, 1868-1883,
the discharge of electricity through gases by means of a battery of
14,600 chloride of silver cells. He was twice president of the Chemical
Society, and also of the Royal Astronomical Society (1864-1866). In 1862
he received the gold medal of the latter society, and in 1864 a Royal
medal from the Royal Society, for his observations on the total eclipse
of the sun in 1860, and for his improvements in astronomical
photography. He died in London on the 19th of April 1889.
See _Monthly Notices Roy. Astr. Soc._ l. 155; _Journ. Chem. Soc._
lvii. 441; _Nature_, xl. 26; _The Times_ (April 22, 1889); Royal
Society, _Catalogue of Scientific Papers_.
DELATOR, in Roman history, properly one who gave notice (_deferre_) to
the treasury officials of moneys that had become due to the imperial
fisc. This special meaning was extended to those who lodged information
as to punishable offences, and further, to those who brought a public
accusation (whether true or not) against any person (especially with the
object of getting money). Although the word _delator_ itself, for
"common informer," is confined to imperial times, the right of public
accusation had long been in existence. When exercised from patriotic and
disinterested motives, its effects were beneficial; but the moment the
principle of reward was introduced, this was no longer the case.
Sometimes the accuser was rewarded with the rights of citizenship, a
place in the senate, or a share of the property of the accused. At the
end of the republican period, Cicero (_De Officiis_, ii. 14) expresses
his opinion that such accusations should be undertaken only in the
interests of the state or for other urgent reasons. Under the empire the
system degenerated into an abuse, which reached its height during the
reign of Tiberius, although the delators continued to exercise their
activity till the reign of Theodosius. They were drawn from all classes
of society,--patricians, knights, freedmen, slaves, philosophers,
literary men, and, above all, lawyers. The objects of their attacks were
the wealthy, all possible rivals of the emperor, and those whose conduct
implied a reproach against the imperial mode of life. Special
opportunities were afforded by the law of majestas, which (originally
directed against attacks on the ruler by word or deed) came to include
all kinds of accusations with which it really had nothing to do; indeed,
according to Tacitus, a charge of treason was regularly added to all
criminal charges. The chief motive for these accusations was no doubt
the desire of amassing wealth,[1] since by the law of majestas
one-fourth of the goods of the accused, even if he committed suicide in
order to avoid confiscation (which was always carried out in the case of
those condemned to capital punishment), was assured to the accuser (who
was hence called _quadruplator_). Pliny and Martial mention instances of
enormous fortunes amassed by those who carried on this hateful calling.
But it was not without its dangers. If the delator lost his case or
refused to carry it through, he was liable to the same penalties as the
accused; he was exposed to the risk of vengeance at the hands of the
proscribed in the event of their return, or of their relatives; while
emperors like Tiberius would have no scruples about banishing or putting
out of the way those of his creatures for whom he had no further use,
and who might have proved dangerous to himself. Under the better
emperors a reaction set in, and the severest penalties were inflicted
upon the delators. Titus drove into exile or reduced to slavery those
who had served Nero, after they had first been flogged in the
amphitheatre. The abuse naturally reappeared under a man like Domitian;
the delators, with whom Vespasian had not interfered, although he had
abolished trials for majestas, were again banished by Trajan, and
threatened with capital punishment in an edict of Constantine; but, as
has been said, the evil, which was an almost necessary accompaniment of
autocracy, lasted till the end of the 4th century.
See Mayor's note on Juvenal iv. 48 for ancient authorities; C.
Merivale, _Hist. of the Romans under the Empire_, chap. 44; W. Rein,
_Criminalrecht der Römer_ (1842); T. Mommsen, _Römisches Strafrecht_
(1899); Kleinfeller in Pauly-Wissowa's _Realencyclopädie_.
FOOTNOTE:
[1] "Delatores, genus hominum publico exitio repertum ... per praemia
eliciebantur" (Tacitus, _Annals_, iv. 30).
DELAUNAY, ELIE (1828-1891), French painter, was born at Nantes and
studied under Flandrin and at the École des Beaux Arts. He worked in the
classicist manner of Ingres until, after winning the Prix de Rome, he
went to Italy in 1856, and abandoned the ideal of Raphaelesque
perfection for the sincerity and severity of the quattrocentists. As a
pure and firm draughtsman he stands second only to Ingres. After his
return from Rome he was entrusted with many important commissions for
decorative paintings, such as the frescoes in the church of St Nicholas
at Nantes; the three panels of "Apollo," "Orpheus" and "Amphion" at the
Paris opera-house; and twelve paintings for the great hall of the
council of state in the Palais Royal. His "Scenes from the Life of St
Geneviève," which he designed for the Pantheon, remained unfinished at
his death. The Luxembourg Museum has his famous "Plague in Rome" and a
nude figure of "Diana"; and the Nantes Museum, the "Lesson on the
Flute." In the last decade of his life he achieved great popularity as a
portrait painter.
DELAUNAY, LOUIS ARSÈNE (1826-1903), French actor, was born in Paris, the
son of a wine-seller. He studied at the Conservatoire, and made his
first formal appearance on the stage in 1845, in _Tartuffe_ at the
Odéon. After three years at this house he made his début at the Comédie
Française as Dorante in Corneille's _Le Menteur_, and began a long and
brilliant career in young lover parts. He continued to act as _jeune
premier_ until he was sixty, his grace, marvellous diction and passion
enchanting his audiences. It was especially in the plays of Alfred de
Musset that his gifts found their happiest expression. In the
thirty-seven years during which he was a member of the Comédie
Française, Delaunay took or created nearly two hundred parts. He retired
in 1887, having been made a chevalier of the Legion of Honour in 1883.
DELAVIGNE, JEAN FRANÇOIS CASIMIR (1793-1843), French poet and dramatist,
was born on the 4th of April 1793 at Havre. His father sent him at an
early age to Paris, there to be educated at the Lycée Napoléon.
Constitutionally of an ardent and sympathetic temperament, he enlarged
his outlook by extensive miscellaneous reading. On the 20th of March
1811 the empress Marie Louise gave birth to a son, named in his very
cradle king of Rome. This event was celebrated by Delavigne in a
_Dithyrambe sur la naissance du roi de Rome_, which secured for him a
sinecure in the revenue office.
About this time he competed twice for an academy prize, but without
success. Delavigne, inspired by the catastrophe of 1815, wrote two
impassioned poems, the first entitled Waterloo, the second, _Dévastation
du musée_, both written in the heat of patriotic enthusiasm, and teeming
with popular political allusions. A third, but of inferior merit, _Sur
le besoin de s'unir après le départ des étrangers_, was afterwards
added. These stirring pieces, termed by him _Messéniennes_, sounded a
keynote which found an echo in the hearts of all. Twenty-five thousand
copies were sold; Delavigne was famous. He was appointed to an honorary
librarianship, with no duties to discharge. In 1819 his play _Les vêpres
Siciliennes_ was performed at the Odéon, then just rebuilt; it had
previously been refused for the Théâtre Français. On the night of the
first representation, which was warmly received, Picard, the manager,
threw himself into the arms of his elated friend, exclaiming, "You have
saved us! You are the founder of the second French Theatre." This
success was followed up by the production of the _Comédiens_ (1820), a
poor play, with little plot, and the _Paria_ (1821), with still less,
but containing some well-written choruses. The latter piece obtained a
longer lease of life than its intrinsic literary merits warranted, on
account of the popularity of the political opinions freely expressed in
it--so freely expressed, indeed, that the displeasure of the king was
incurred, and Delavigne lost his post. But Louis Philippe, duke of
Orleans, willing to gain the people's good wishes by complimenting their
favourite, wrote to him as follows: "The thunder has descended on your
house; I offer you an apartment in mine." Accordingly Delavigne became
librarian at the Palais Royal, a position retained during the remainder
of his life. It was here that he wrote the _École des vieillards_
(1823), his best comedy, which gained his election to the Academy in
1825. To this period also belong _La Princesse Aurélie_ (1828), and
_Marino Faliero_ (1829), a drama in the romantic style.
For his success as a writer Delavigne was in no small measure indebted
to the stirring nature of the times in which he lived. The
_Messéniennes_, which first introduced him to universal notice, had
their origin in the excitement consequent on the occupation of France by
the allies in 1815. Another crisis in his life and in the history of his
country, the revolution of 1830, stimulated him to the production of a
second masterpiece, _La Parisienne_. This song, set to music by Auber,
was on the lips of every Frenchman, and rivalled in popularity the
_Marseillaise_. A companion piece, _La Varsovienne_, was written for the
Poles, by whom it was sung on the march to battle. Other works of
Delavigne followed each other in rapid succession--_Louis XI_ (1832),
_Les Enfants d'Édouard_ (1833), _Don Juan d'Autriche_ (1835), _Une
Famille au temps du Luther_ (1836), _La Popularité_ (1838), _La Fille du
Cid_ (1839), _Le Conseiller rapporteur_ (1840), and _Charles VI_ (1843),
an opera partly written by his brother. In 1843 he quitted Paris to seek
in Italy the health his labours had cost him. At Lyons his strength
altogether gave way, and he died on the 11th of December.
By many of his own time Delavigne was looked upon as unsurpassed and
unsurpassable. Every one bought and read his works. But the applause of
the moment was gained at the sacrifice of lasting fame. As a writer he
had many excellences. He expressed himself in a terse and vigorous
style. The poet of reason rather than of imagination, he recognized his
own province, and was rarely tempted to flights of fancy beyond his
powers. He wrote always as he would have spoken, from sincere
conviction. In private life he was in every way estimable,--upright,
amiable, devoid of all jealousy, and generous to a fault.
His _Poésies_ and his _Théâtre_ were published in 1863. His _Oeuvres
complètes_ (new edition, 1855) contains a biographical notice by his
brother, Germain Delavigne, who is best known as a librettist in
opera. See also Sainte-Beuve, _Portraits littéraires_, vol. v.; A.
Favrot, _Étude sur Casimir Delavigne_ (1894); and F. Vuacheux,
_Casimir Delavigne_ (1893).
DELAWARE, a South Atlantic state of the United States of America, one of
the thirteen original states, situated between 38° 27´ and 39° 50´ N.
lat. and between 75° 2´ and 75° 47´ W. long. (For map see MARYLAND.) It
is bounded N. and N.W. by Pennsylvania, E. by the Delaware river and
Delaware Bay, which separate it from New Jersey, and by the Atlantic
Ocean; S. and W. by Maryland. With the exception of Rhode Island it is
the smallest state in the Union, its area being 2370 sq. m., of which
405 sq. m. are water surface.
_Physical Features._--Delaware lies on the Atlantic coastal plain, and
is for the most part level and relatively low, its average elevation
above the sea being about 50 ft. It is situated in the eastern part of
the peninsula formed by Chesapeake Bay and the estuary of the Delaware
river. In the extreme N. the country is rolling, with moderately high
hills, moderately deep valleys and rapid streams. West of Wilmington
there rises a ridge which crosses the state in a north-westerly
direction and forms a watershed between Christiana and Brandywine
creeks, its highest elevation above sea-level being 280 ft. South of the
Christiana there begins another elevation, sandy and marshy, which
extends almost the entire length of the state from N.W. to S.E., and
forms a second water-parting. The streams that drain the state are small
and insignificant. Those of the N. flow into Brandywine and Christiana
creeks, whose estuary into Delaware river forms Wilmington harbour;
those of the S.W. have a common outlet in the Nanticoke river of
Maryland; those of the E. empty into Delaware Bay and the Atlantic
Ocean. The principal harbours are those of Wilmington, New Castle and
Lewes. The shore of the bay is marshy, that of the Atlantic is sandy. In
Kent county there are more than 60,000 acres of tidal marshland, some of
which has been reclaimed by means of dykes; Cypress Swamp in the extreme
S. has an area of 50,000 acres. The soils of the N. are clays, sometimes
mixed with loam; those of the central part are mainly loams; while those
of the S. are sands.
Minerals are found only in the N. part of the state. Those of economic
value are kaolin, mined chiefly in the vicinity of Hockessin, New Castle
county, the static kaolin product being exceeded in 1903 only by that of
Pennsylvania among the states of the United States; granite, used for
road-making and rough construction work, found near Wilmington; and
brick and tile clays; but the value of their total product in 1902 was
less than $500,000. In 1906 the total mineral product was valued at
$814,126, of which $237,768 represented clay products and $146,346
stone. In 1902 only 2.2% of the wage-earners were engaged in mining.
The forests, which once afforded excellent timber, including white oak
for shipbuilding, have been greatly reduced by constant cutting; in 1900
it was estimated that 700 sq. m. were wooded, but practically none of
this stand was of commercial importance. The fisheries, chiefly oyster,
sturgeon and shad, yield an annual product valued at about $250,000.
The proximity of the Delaware and Chesapeake bays help to give Delaware
a mild and temperate climate. The mean annual temperature is
approximately 55° F., ranging from 52° in the S. to 56° in the N., and
the extremes of heat and cold are 103° in the summer and -17° in the
winter. The annual rainfall, greater on the coast than inland, ranges
from 40 to 45 in.
_Industry and Trade._--Delaware is pre-eminently an agricultural state.
In 1900 85% of its total land surface was enclosed in farms--a slight
decline since 1880. Seven-tenths of this was improved land, and the
expenditure per farm for fertilizers, greater in 1890 than the average
of the Atlantic states, approximated $55 per farm in 1900. In 1899
Delaware spent more per acre for fertilizers than any of the other
states except New Jersey, Rhode Island and Maryland. The average size of
farms, as in the other states, has declined, falling from 124.6 acres in
1880 to 110.1 acres in 1900. A large proportion of farms (49.7%) were
operated by the owners, and the prevailing form of tenantry was the
share system by which 42.5% of the farms were cultivated, while 8.24% of
the farms were operated by negroes; these represented less than 4% of
the total value of farm property, the average value of farms operated by
negroes being $17 per acre, that of farms operated by whites, $23 per
acre. The total value of farm products in 1900 was $9,190,777, an
increase of 30% over that of 1890, while the cultivation of cereals
suffered on account of the competition of the western states. Indian
corn and wheat form the two largest crops, their product in 1900 being
respectively 24% and 52% greater than in 1890; but these crops when
compared with those of other states are relatively unimportant. In 1906
the acreage of Indian corn was 196,472 acres with a yield of 5,894,160
bushels valued at $2,475,547, and the acreage of wheat was 121,745 acres
with a yield of 1,947,920 bushels valued at $1,383,023. The value of the
fruit crop, for which Delaware has long been noted, also increased
during the same decade, but disease and frost caused a marked decline in
the production of peaches, a loss balanced by an increased production of
apples, pears and other orchard fruits. Large quantities of small
fruits, particularly of strawberries, raspberries and blackberries, are
produced, the southern portion of Sussex county being particularly
favourable for strawberry culture. The vicissitudes of fruit raising
have also caused increasing attention to be paid to market gardening,
dairying and stock raising, particularly to market gardening, an
industry which is favoured by the proximity of large cities. The same
influence also explains, partly at least, the decrease (of 13%) in the
value of farm property between 1890 and 1900.
The development of manufacturing in Delaware has not been so extensive
as its favourable situation relative to the other states, the facilities
for water and railway transportation, and the proximity of the coal and
iron fields of Pennsylvania, would seem to warrant. In 1905 the
wage-earners engaged in manufacturing (under the factory system)
numbered 18,475, and the total capital invested in manufacturing was
$50,925,630; the gross value of products was $41,160,276; the net value
(deducting the value of material purchased in partly manufactured form)
was $16,276,470. The principal industry was the manufacture of iron and
steel products, which, including steel and rolling mills, car, foundry
and machine shops, and shipyards, represented more than 30% of the total
capital, and approximately 25% of the total gross product of the
manufactures in the state. The tanning, currying and finishing of
leather ranks second in importance, with a gross product ($10,250,842)
9% greater than that of 1900, and constituting about one-fourth of the
gross factory product of the state in 1905; and the manufacture of food
products ranked third, the value of the products of the fruit canning
and preserving industry having more than doubled in the decade
1890-1900, but falling off a little more than 7% in 1900-1905. The
manufacture of paper and wood pulp showed an increased product in 1905
19.1% greater than in 1900; and flour and grist mill products were
valued in 1905 43.6% higher than in 1900. In the grand total of
manufactured products, however, the state showed in 1905 a decrease of
4% from 1900. The great manufacturing centre is Wilmington, where in
1905 almost two-thirds of the capital was invested, and nearly
three-fourths of the product was turned out. There is much manufacturing
also at New Castle.
Delaware has good facilities for transportation. Its railway mileage in
January 1907 was 333.6 m; the Philadelphia, Baltimore & Washington
(Pennsylvania system), the Baltimore & Philadelphia (Baltimore & Ohio
system), and the Wilmington & Northern (Philadelphia & Reading system)
cross the northern part of the state, while the Delaware railway (leased
by the Philadelphia, Baltimore & Washington) runs the length of the
state below Wilmington, and another line, the Maryland, Delaware &
Virginia (controlled by the Baltimore, Chesapeake & Atlantic railway,
which is related to the Pennsylvania system), connects Lewes, Del., with
Love Point, Md., on the Chesapeake Bay. There is no state railway
commission, and the farmers of southern Delaware have suffered from
excessive freight rates. The Delaware & Chesapeake Canal (13½ m. long,
66 ft. wide and 10 ft. deep) crosses the N. part of the state,
connecting Delaware river and Chesapeake Bay, and thus affords
transportation by water from Baltimore to Philadelphia. The canal was
completed in 1829; in 1907 a commission appointed by the president to
report on a route for a waterway between Chesapeake and Delaware bays
selected the route of this canal. The states of Maryland and Delaware
aided in its construction, and in 1828 the national government also made
an appropriation. Wilmington is a customs district in which New Castle
and Lewes are included; but its trade is largely coastwise. Rehoboth and
Indian River bays are navigable for vessels of less than 6 ft. draft.
Opposite Lewes is the Delaware Breakwater (begun in 1818 and completed
in 1869, at a cost of more than $2,000,000), which forms a harbour 16
ft. deep. In 1897-1901 the United States government constructed a
harbour of refuge, formed by a second breakwater 2¼ m. N. of the
existing one; its protected anchorage is 552 acres and the cost was more
than $2,090,000. The harbour is about equidistant from New York,
Philadelphia, and the capes of Chesapeake Bay, and is used chiefly by
vessels awaiting orders to ports for discharge or landing. The national
government also made appropriations for opening an inland waterway from
Lewes to Chincoteague Bay, Virginia, for improving Wilmington harbour,
and for making navigable several of the larger streams of the state.
_Population._--The population in 1880 was 146,608; in 1890, 168,493, an
increase of 14.9%; in 1900, 184,735, a further increase of 9.6%; in
1910, 202,322. The rate of increase before 1850 was considerably smaller
than the rate after that date. Of the population in 1900, 92.5% was
native born and 7.5% was foreign-born. The negro population was 30,697,
or 16.6% of the total. In Indian River Hundred, Sussex county, there
formerly lived a community of people,--many of whom are of the fair
Caucasian type,--called "Indians" or "Moors"; they are now quite
generally dispersed throughout the state, especially in Kent and Sussex
counties. Their origin is unknown, but according to local tradition they
are the descendants of some Moorish sailors who were cast ashore many
years ago in a shipwreck; their own tradition is that they are descended
from the children of an Irish mother and a negro father, these children
having intermarried with Indians of the Nanticoke tribe. They have,
where practicable, separate churches and schools, the latter receiving
state aid. The urban population of Delaware (i.e. of Wilmington, the
only city having more than 5000 inhabitants) was, in 1900, 41.4% of the
state's population. There were thirty-five incorporated cities and
towns. The largest of these was the city of Wilmington, with 76,508
inhabitants. The city next in size, New Castle, had a population of
3380, while the largest town, Dover, the capital of the state, had 3329.
The total number of communicants of all denominations in 1906 was
71,251,--32,402 Methodists, 24,228 Roman Catholics, 5200 Presbyterians,
3796 Protestant Episcopalians, and 2921 Baptists.
_Government._--The constitution by which Delaware is governed was
adopted in 1897. Like the previous constitutions of 1776, 1792 and 1831,
it was promulgated by a constitutional convention without submission to
the people for ratification, and amendments may be adopted by a
two-thirds vote of each house in two consecutive legislatures. Its
character is distinctly democratic. The property qualification of state
senators and the restriction of suffrage to those who have paid county
or poll taxes are abolished; but suffrage is limited to male adults who
can read the state constitution in English, and can write their names,
unless physically disqualified, and who have registered. In 1907 an
amendment to the constitution was adopted, which struck out from the
instrument the clause requiring the payment of a registration fee of one
dollar by each elector. Important innovations in the constitution of
1897 are the office of lieutenant-governor, and the veto power of the
governor which may extend to parts and clauses of appropriation bills,
but a bill may be passed over his veto by a three-fifths vote of each
house of the legislature, and a bill becomes a law if not returned to
the legislature within ten days after its reception by the governor,
unless the session of the legislature shall have expired in the
meantime. The governor's regular term in office is four years, and he is
ineligible for a third term. All his appointments to offices where the
salary is more than $500 must be confirmed by the senate; all pardons
must be approved by a board of pardons. Representation in the
legislature is according to districts, members of the lower house being
chosen for two, and members of the upper house for four years. Members
of the lower house must be at least twenty-four years of age, members of
the senate at least twenty-seven; members of both houses must at the
time of their election have been citizens of the state for at least
three years. In November 1906 the people of the state voted (17,248 for;
2162 against) in favour of the provision of a system of advisory
initiative and advisory referendum; and in March 1907 the general
assembly passed an act providing initiative and referendum in the
municipal affairs in the city of Wilmington. The organization of the
judiciary is similar to that under the old English system. Six judges--a
chancellor, a chief justice, and four associate justices--of whom there
shall be at least one resident in each of the three counties, and not
more than three shall belong to the same political party, are appointed
by the governor, with the consent of the senate, for a term of twelve
years. A certain number of them hold courts of chancery, general
sessions, oyer and terminer, and an orphans' court; the six together
constitute the supreme court, but the judge from whose decision appeal
is made may not hear the appealed case unless the appeal is made at his
own instance. Bribery may be punished by fine, imprisonment and
disfranchisement for ten years. Corporations cannot be created by a
special act of the legislature, and no corporation may issue stock
except for an equivalent value of money, labour or property. In order to
attract capital to the state, the legislature has reduced the taxes on
corporations, has forbidden the repeal of charters, and has given
permission for the organization of corporations with both the power and
name of trust companies. Legislative divorces are forbidden by the
constitution, and a statute of 1901 subjects wife-beaters to corporal
punishment. Although punishment by whipping and by standing in the
pillory was prohibited by an act of Congress in 1839, in so far as the
Federal government had jurisdiction, both these forms of punishment were
retained in Delaware, and standing in the pillory was prescribed by
statute as a punishment for a number of offences, including various
kinds of larceny and forgery, highway robbery, and even pretending "to
exercise the art of witchcraft, fortune-telling or dealing with
spirits," at least until 1893. In 1905, by a law approved on the 20th of
March, the pillory was abolished. The whipping-post was in 1908 still
maintained in Delaware, and whipping continued to be prescribed as a
punishment for a variety of offences, although in 1889 a law was passed
which prescribed that "hereafter no female convicted of any crime in
this state shall be whipped or made to stand in the pillory," and a law
passed in 1883 prescribed that "in case of conviction of larceny, when
the prisoner is of tender years, or is charged for the first time (being
shown to have before had a good character), the court may in its
discretion omit from the sentence the infliction of lashes." An old law
still on the statute-books when the edition of the revised statutes was
issued in 1893, prescribes that "the punishment of whipping shall be
inflicted publicly by strokes on the bare back, well laid on."
The unit of local government is the "hundred," which corresponds to the
township of Pennsylvania. The employment of children under fourteen
years of age in factories is forbidden by statute. Divorces are granted
for adultery, desertion for three years, habitual drunkenness, impotence
at the time of marriage, fraud, lack of marriageable age (eighteen for
males, sixteen for females), and failure of husband to provide for his
wife during three consecutive years. The marriages of whites with
negroes and of insane persons are null; but the children of the married
insane are legitimate.
In 1908 the state debt was $816,785, and the assets in bonds, railway
mortgages and bank stocks exceeded the liabilities by $717,779. Besides
the income from interest and dividends on investments, the state
revenues are derived from taxes on licences, on commissions to public
officers, on railway, telegraph and telephone, express, and banking
companies, and to a slight extent from taxes on collateral inheritance.
_Education._--The charitable and penal administration of Delaware is not
well developed. There is a state hospital for the insane at Farnhurst.
Other dependent citizens are cared for in the institutions of other
states at public expense. In 1899 a county workhouse was established in
New Castle county, in which persons under sentence must labour eight
hours a day, pay being allowed for extra hours, and a diminution of
sentence for good behaviour. At Wilmington is the Ferris industrial
school for boys, a private reformatory institution to which New Castle
county gives $146 for each boy; and the Delaware industrial school for
girls, also at Wilmington, receives financial support from both county
and state.
The educational system of the state has been considerably improved
within recent years. The maintenance of a system of public schools is
rendered compulsory by the state constitution, and a new compulsory
school law came into effect in 1907. The first public school law, passed
in 1829, was based largely on the principle of "local option," each
school district being left free to determine the character of its own
school or even to decide, if it wished, against having any school at
all. The system thus established proved to be very unsatisfactory, and a
new school law in 1875 brought about a greater degree of uniformity and
centralization through its provisions for the appointment of a state
superintendent of free schools and a state board of education. In 1888,
however, the state superintendency was abolished, and county
superintendencies were created instead, the legislature thus returning,
in a measure, to the old system of local control. Centralization was
again secured, in 1898, by the passage of a law reorganizing and
increasing the powers of the state board of education. The state school
fund, ranging from about $150,000 to $160,000 a year, is apportioned
among the school districts, according to the number of teachers
employed, and is used exclusively for teachers' salaries and the
supplying of free text-books. This fund is supplemented by local
taxation. No discrimination is allowed on account of race or colour; but
separate schools are provided for white and coloured children. Delaware
College (non-sectarian) at Newark, founded in 1833 as Newark College and
rechartered, after suspension from 1859 to 1870, under the present name,
as a state institution, derives most of its financial support from the
United States Land Grant of 1862 and the supplementary appropriation of
1890, and is the seat of an agricultural experiment station, established
in 1888 under the so-called "Hatch Bill" of 1887. In 1906-1907 Delaware
College had 20 instructors and 130 students. The college is a part of
the free school system of Delaware, and tuition is free to all students
from the state. There is an agricultural college for negroes at Dover;
this college receives one-fifth of the appropriation made by the
so-called "new Morrill Bill" of 1890.
_History._--Delaware river and bay were first explored on behalf of the
Dutch by Henry Hudson in 1609, and more thoroughly in 1615-1616 by
Cornelius Hendrikson, whose reports did much to cause the incorporation
of the Dutch West India Company. The first settlement on Delaware soil
was made under the auspices of members of this company in 1631 near the
site of the present Lewes. The leaders, one of whom was Captain David P.
de Vries, wished "to plant a colony for the cultivation of grain and
tobacco as well as to carry on the whale fishery in that region." The
settlement, however, was soon completely destroyed by the Indians. (See
LEWES.) A more successful effort at colonization was made under the
auspices of the South Company of Sweden, a corporation organized in 1624
as the "Australian Company," by William Usselinx, who had also been the
chief organizer of the Dutch West India Company, and now secured a
charter or _manifest_ from Gustavus Adolphus. The privileges of the
company were extended to Germans in 1633, and about 1640 the Dutch
members were bought out. In 1638 Peter Minuit on behalf of this company
established a settlement at what is now Wilmington, naming it, in
honour of the infant queen Christina, Christinaham, and naming the
entire territory, bought by Minuit from the Minquas Indians and
extending indefinitely westward from the Delaware river between Bombay
Hook and the mouth of the Schuylkill river, "New Sweden." This territory
was subsequently considerably enlarged. In 1642 mature plans for
colonization were adopted. A new company, officially known as the West
India, American, or New Sweden Company, but like its predecessor
popularly known as the South Company, was chartered, and a governor,
Johan Printz (c. 1600-1663) was sent out by the crown. He arrived early
in 1643 and subsequently established settlements on the island of
Tinicum, near the present Chester, Pennsylvania, at the mouth of Salem
Creek, New Jersey, and near the mouth of the Schuylkill river. Friction
had soon arisen with New Netherland, although, owing to their common
dislike of the English, the Swedes and the Dutch had maintained a formal
friendship. In 1651, however, Peter Stuyvesant, governor of New
Netherland, and more aggressive than his predecessors, built Fort
Casimir, near what is now New Castle. In 1654 Printz's successor, Johan
Claudius Rising, who had arrived from Sweden with a large number of
colonists, expelled the Dutch from Fort Casimir. In retaliation,
Stuyvesant, in 1655, with seven vessels and as many hundred men,
recaptured the fort and also captured Fort Christina (Wilmington). New
Sweden thus passed into the control of the Dutch, and became a
dependency of New Netherland. In 1656, however, the Dutch West India
Company sold part of what had been New Sweden to the city of Amsterdam,
which in the following year established a settlement called "New Amstel"
at Fort Casimir (New Castle). This settlement was badly administered and
made little progress.
In 1663 the whole of the Delaware country came under the jurisdiction of
the city of Amsterdam, but in the following year this territory, with
New Netherland, was seized by the English. For a brief interval, in
1673-1674, the Dutch were again in control, but in the latter year, by
the treaty of Westminster, the "three counties on the Delaware" again
became part of the English possessions in America held by the duke of
York, later James II. His formal grant from Charles II. was not received
until March 1683. In order that no other settlements should encroach
upon his centre of government, New Castle, the northern boundary was
determined by drawing an arc of a circle, 12 m. in radius, and with New
Castle as the centre. This accounts for the present curved boundary line
between Delaware and Pennsylvania. Previously, however, in August 1680,
the duke of York had leased this territory for 10,000 years to William
Penn, to whom he conveyed it by a deed of feoffment in August 1682; but
differences in race and religion, economic rivalry between New Castle
and the Pennsylvania towns, and petty political quarrels over
representation and office holding, similar to those in the other
American colonies, were so intense that Penn in 1691 appointed a special
deputy governor for the "lower counties." Although reunited with the
"province" of Pennsylvania in 1693, the so-called "territories" or
"lower counties" secured a separate legislature in 1704, and a separate
executive council in 1710; the governor of Pennsylvania, however, was
the chief executive until 1776. A protracted boundary dispute with
Maryland, which colony at first claimed the whole of Delaware under Lord
Baltimore's charter, was not settled until 1767, when the present line
separating Delaware and Maryland was adopted. In the War of Independence
Delaware furnished only one regiment to the American army, but that was
one of the best in the service. One of its companies carried a number of
gamecocks said to have been the brood of a blue hen; hence the soldiers,
and later the people of the state, have been popularly known as the
"Blue Hen's Chickens."
In 1776 a state government was organized, representative of the Delaware
state, the term "State of Delaware" being first adopted in the
constitution of 1792. One of the peculiarities of the government was
that in addition to the regular executive, legislative and judicial
departments there was a privy council without whose approval the
governor's power was little more than nominal. In 1786 Delaware was one
of the five states whose delegates attended the Annapolis Convention
(see ANNAPOLIS, Maryland), and it was the first (on the 7th of December
1787) to ratify the Federal constitution. From then until 1850 it was
controlled by the Federalist or Whig parties. In 1850 the Democrats, who
had before then elected a few governors and United States senators,
secured control of the entire administration--a control unarrested,
except in 1863, until the last decade of the 19th century. Although it
was a slave state, the majority of the people of Delaware opposed
secession in 1861, and the legislature promptly answered President
Lincoln's call to arms; yet, while 14,000 of the 40,000 males between
the ages of fourteen and sixty served in the Union army, there were many
sympathizers with the Confederacy in the southern part of the state.
In 1866, 1867 and 1869, respectively, the legislature refused to ratify
the thirteenth, fourteenth and fifteenth amendments to the Federal
constitution. The provision of the state constitution that restricted
suffrage to those who had paid county or poll taxes and made the tax
lists the basis for the lists of qualified voters, opened the way for
the disfranchisement of many negroes by fraudulent means. Consequently
the levy court of New Castle county was indicted in the United States
circuit court in 1872, and one of its members was convicted. Again in
1880 the circuit court, by virtue of the Federal statute of 1872 on
elections, appointed supervisors of elections in Delaware. The negro
vote has steadily increased in importance, and in 1900 was approximately
one-fifth of the total vote of the state. In 1901 the legislature
ratified the three amendments rejected in former years. Another
political problem has been that of representation. According to the
constitution of 1831 the unit of representation in the legislature was
the county; inasmuch as the population of New Castle county has exceeded
after 1870 that of both Kent and Sussex, the inequality became a cause
of discontent. This is partly eradicated by the new constitution of
1897, which reapportioned representation according to electoral
districts, so that New Castle has seven senators and fifteen
representatives, while each of the other counties has seven senators and
ten representatives.
In 1889 the Republicans for the first time since the Civil War secured a
majority in the legislature, and elected Anthony J. Higgins to the
United States Senate. In that year a capitalist and promoter, J. Edward
Addicks (b. 1841, in Pennsylvania), became a citizen of the state, and
after securing for himself the control of the Wilmington gas supply,
systematically set about building up a personal "machine" that would
secure his election to the national Senate as a Republican. His purpose
was thwarted in 1893, when a Democratic majority chose, for a second
term, George Gray (b. 1840), who from 1879 to 1885 had been the
attorney-general of the state and subsequently was a member of the
Spanish-American Peace Commission at Paris in 1898 and became a judge of
the United States circuit court, third judicial circuit, in 1899. Mr
Addicks was an avowed candidate in 1895, but the opposition of the
Regular Republicans, who accused him of corruption and who held the
balance of power, prevented an election. In 1897, the legislature being
again Democratic, Richard R. Kenney (b. 1856) was chosen to fill the
vacancy for the remainder of the unexpired term. Meanwhile the two
Republican factions continued to oppose one another, and both sent
delegates to the national party convention in 1896, the "regular"
delegation being seated. The expiration of Senator Gray's term in 1899
left a vacancy, but although the Republicans again had a clear majority
the resolution of the Regulars prevented the Union Republicans, as the
supporters of Addicks called themselves, from seating their patron. Both
the Regular and Union factions sent delegations to the national party
convention in 1900, where the refusal of the Regulars to compromise led
to the recognition of the Union delegates. Despite this apparent
abandonment of their cause by the national organization, the Regulars
continued their opposition, the state being wholly without
representation in the Senate from the expiration of Senator Kenney's
term in 1901 until 1903, when a compromise was effected whereby two
Republicans, one of each faction, were chosen, one condition being that
Addicks should not be the candidate of the Union Republicans. Both
factions were recognized by the national convention of 1904, but the
legislature of 1905 adjourned without being able to fill a vacancy in
the Senate which had again occurred. The deadlock, however, was broken
at the special session of the legislature called in 1906, and in June of
that year Henry A. Du Pont was elected senator.
GOVERNORS OF DELAWARE
I. _Swedish._
Peter Minuit 1638-1640
Peter Hollander 1640-1643
Johan Printz 1643-1653
Johan Papegoga (acting) 1653-1654
Johan Claudius Rising 1654-1655
II. _Dutch._
(Same as for New York.)
III. _English._
(Same as New York until 1682.)
(Same as Pennsylvania 1682-1776.)
PRESIDENTS OF DELAWARE
John McKinley 1776-1778
Caesar Rodney 1778-1781
John Dickinson 1781-1783
Nicholas Van Dyke 1783-1786
Thomas Collins 1786-1789
GOVERNORS
Joshua Clayton 1789-1796 Federalist
Gunning Bedford 1796-1797 "
Daniel Rogers[1] 1797-1799 "
Richard Bassett 1799-1801 "
James Sykes[2] 1801-1802 "
David Hall 1802-1805 Federalist
Nathaniel Mitchell 1805-1808 "
George Truett 1808-1811 "
Joseph Haslett 1811-1814 "
Daniel Rodney 1814-1817 "
John Clarke 1817-1820 "
Henry Malleston[3] 1820 "
Jacob Stout[4] 1820-1821 "
John Collins 1821-1822 Democratic-Republican
Caleb Rodney[5] 1822 "
Joseph Haslett 1822-1823 Democratic-Republican
Charles Thomas[6] 1823-1824 "
Samuel Paynter 1824-1827 Federalist
Charles Polk 1827-1830 "
David Hazzard 1830-1833 American-Republican
Caleb P. Bennett 1833-1836 Democrat
Charles Polk[7] 1836-1837 "
Cornelius P. Comegys 1837-1841 Whig
William B. Cooper 1841-1845 "
Thomas Stockton 1845-1846 "
Joseph Maul[8] 1846 "
William Temple[9] 1846-1847 "
William Tharp 1847-1851 Democrat
William H. Ross 1851-1855 "
Peter F. Causey 1855-1859 Whig-Know-Nothing
William Burton 1859-1863 Democrat
William Cannon 1863-1865 Republican
Gove Saulsbury[10] 1865-1871 Democrat
James Ponder 1871-1875 "
John P. Cockran 1875-1879 "
John W. Hall 1879-1883 "
Charles C. Stockley 1883-1887 "
Benjamin T. Biggs 1887-1891 "
Robert J. Reynolds 1891-1895 "
Joshua H. Marvil 1895 Republican
William T. Watson[11] 1895-1897 Democrat
Ebe W. Tunnell 1897-1901 "
John Hunn 1901-1905 Republican
Preston Lea 1905-1909 "
Simeon S. Pennewill 1909 "
BIBLIOGRAPHY.--Information about manufactures, mining and agriculture
may be found in the reports of the _Twelfth Census of the United
States_, especially _Bulletins 69_ and _100_. The Agricultural
Experiment Station, at Newark, publishes in its _Annual Report_ a
record of temperature and rainfall. For law and administration see
_Constitution of Delaware_ (Dover, 1899) and the _Revised Code_ of
1852, amended 1893 (Wilmington, 1893). For education see L. B. Powell,
_History of Education in Delaware_ (Washington, 1893), and a sketch in
the _Annual Report_ for 1902 of the United States Commissioner of
Education. The most elaborate history is that of John Thomas Scharf,
_History of the State of Delaware_ (2 vols., Philadelphia, 1888); the
second volume is entirely biographical. Claes T. Odhner's brief
sketch, _Kolonien Nya Sveriges Grundläggning, 1637-1642_ (Stockholm,
1876; English translation in the _Pennsylvania Magazine of History and
Biography_, vol. iii.), and Carl K. S. Sprinchorn's _Kolonien Nya
Sveriges Historia_ (1878; English translation in the _Pennsylvania
Magazine of History and Biography_, vols. vii. and viii.) are based,
in part, on documents in the Swedish Royal Archives and at the
universities of Upsala and Lund, which were unknown to Benjamin Ferris
(_History of the Original Settlements of the Delaware_, Wilmington,
1846) and Francis Vincent (_History of the State of Delaware_,
Philadelphia, 1870), which ends with the English occupation in 1664.
In vol. iv. of Justin Winsor's _Narrative and Critical History of
America_ (Boston, 1884) there is an excellent chapter by Gregory B.
Keen on "New Sweden, or the Swedes on the Delaware," to which a
bibliographical chapter is appended. The _Papers_ of the Historical
Society of Delaware (1879 seq.) contain valuable material. In part ii.
of the _Report of the Superintendent of the U.S. Coast and Geodetic
Survey_ for 1893 (Washington, 1905) there is "A Historical Account of
the Boundary Line between the States of Pennsylvania and Delaware, by
W. C. Hodgkins." The colonial records are preserved with those of New
York and Pennsylvania; only one volume of the State Records has been
published, and _Minutes of the Council of Delaware State, 1776-1792_
(Dover, 1886). For political conditions since the Civil War see vol.
141 of the _North American Review_, vol. 32 of the _Forum_, and vol.
73 of the _Outlook_--all published in New York.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] Speaker of the senate. Filled unexpired term of Gunning Bedford
(d. 1797).
[2] Speaker of senate. Filled unexpired term of Richard Bassett, who
resigned 1801.
[3] Died before he was inaugurated.
[4] Speaker of the senate.
[5] Speaker of the senate, John Collins dying in 1822.
[6] Speaker of senate, Haslett dying in 1823.
[7] Speaker of senate.
[8] Speaker of senate, Stockton dying in 1846.
[9] Speaker of senate, Maul dying in 1846.
[10] As speaker of the senate filled the unexpired term of Cannon (d.
1865), and then became governor in 1867.
[11] President of senate, Marvil dying in 1895.
DELAWARE, a city and the county-seat of Delaware county, Ohio, U.S.A.,
on the Olentangy (or Whetstone) river, near the centre of the state.
Pop. (1890) 8224; (1900) 7940 (572 being foreign-born and 432 negroes);
(1910) 9076. Delaware is served by the Pennsylvania, the Cleveland,
Cincinnati, Chicago & St Louis (New York Central system), and the
Hocking Valley railways, and by two interurban lines. The city is built
on rolling ground about 900 ft. above sea-level. There are many sulphur
and iron springs in the vicinity. Delaware is the seat of the Ohio
Wesleyan University (co-educational), founded by the Ohio Conference of
the Methodist Episcopal Church in 1841, and opened as a college in 1844;
it includes a college of liberal arts (1844), an academic department
(1841), a school of music (1877), a school of fine arts (1877), a school
of oratory (1894), a business school (1895), and a college of medicine
(the Cleveland College of Physicians and Surgeons, at Cleveland, Ohio;
founded as the Charity Hospital Medical College in 1863, and the medical
department of the university of Wooster until 1896, when, under its
present name, it became a part of Ohio Wesleyan University). In 1877 the
Ohio Wesleyan female college, established at Delaware in 1853, was
incorporated in the university. In 1907-1908 the university had 122
instructors, 1178 students and a library of 55,395 volumes. At Delaware,
also, are the state industrial school for girls, a Carnegie library, the
Edwards Young Men's Christian Association building and a city hospital.
The city has railway shops and foundries, and manufactures furniture,
carriages, tile, cigars and gas engines. Delaware was laid out in 1808
and was first incorporated in 1815. It was the birthplace of Rutherford
B. Hayes, president of the United States from 1877 to 1881.
DELAWARE INDIANS, the English name for the Leni Lenape, a tribe of North
American Indians of Algonquian stock. When first discovered by the
whites the tribe was settled on the banks of the Delaware river. The
French called them Loups (wolves) from their chief totemic division.
Early in the 17th century the Dutch began trading with them.
Subsequently William Penn bought large tracts of land from them, and war
followed, the Delawares alleging they had been defrauded; but, with the
assistance of the Six Nations, the whites forced them back west of the
Alleghenies. In 1789 they were placed on a reservation in Ohio and
subsequently in 1818 were moved to Missouri. Various removals followed,
until in 1866 they accepted lands in the Indian territory (Oklahoma)
and gave up the tribal relation. They have remained there and now number
some 1700.
DELAWARE RIVER, a stream of the Atlantic slope of the United States,
meeting tide-water at Trenton, New Jersey, 130 m. above its mouth. Its
total length, from the head of the longest branch to the capes, is 410
m., and above the head of the bay its length is 360 m. It constitutes in
part the boundary between Pennsylvania and New York, the boundary
between New Jersey and Pennsylvania, and, for a few miles, the boundary
between Delaware and New Jersey. The main, west or Mohawk branch rises
in Schoharie county, N.Y., about 1886 ft. above the sea, and flows
tortuously through the plateau in a deep trough until it emerges from
the Catskills. Other branches rise in Greene and Delaware counties. In
the upper portion of its course the varied scenery of its hilly and
wooded banks is exquisitely beautiful. After leaving the mountains and
plateau, the river flows down broad Appalachian valleys, skirts the
Kittatinny range, which it crosses at Delaware Water-Gap, between nearly
vertical walls of sandstone, and passes through a quiet and charming
country of farm and forest, diversified with plateaus and escarpments,
until it crosses the Appalachian plain and enters the hills again at
Easton, Pa. From this point it is flanked at intervals by fine hills,
and in places by cliffs, of which the finest are the Hockamixon Rocks, 3
m. long and above 200 ft. high. At Trenton there is a fall of 8 ft.
Below Trenton the river becomes a broad, sluggish inlet of the sea, with
many marshes along its side, widening steadily into its great estuary,
Delaware Bay. Its main tributaries in New York are Mongaup and Neversink
rivers and Callicoon Creek; from Pennsylvania, Lackawaxen, Lehigh and
Schuylkill rivers; and from New Jersey, Rancocas Creek and Musconetcong
and Maurice rivers. Commerce was once important on the upper river, but
only before the beginning of railway competition (1857). The Delaware
division of the Pennsylvania Canal, running parallel with the river from
Easton to Bristol, was opened in 1830. A canal from Trenton to New
Brunswick unites the waters of the Delaware and Raritan rivers; the
Morris and the Delaware and Hudson canals connect the Delaware and
Hudson rivers; and the Delaware and Chesapeake canal joins the waters of
the Delaware with those of the Chesapeake Bay. The mean tides below
Philadelphia are about 6 ft. The magnitude of the commerce of
Philadelphia has made the improvements of the river below that port of
great importance. Small improvements were attempted by Pennsylvania as
early as 1771, but apparently never by New Jersey. The ice floods at
Easton are normally 10 to 20 ft., and in 1841 attained a height of 35
ft. These floods constitute a serious difficulty in the improvement of
the lower river. In the "project of 1885" the United States government
undertook systematically the formation of a 26-ft. channel 600 ft. wide
from Philadelphia to deep water in Delaware Bay; $1,532,688.81 was
expended--about $200,000 of that amount for maintenance--before the 1885
project was superseded by a paragraph of the River and Harbor Act of the
3rd of March 1899, which provided for a 30-ft. channel 600 ft. wide from
Philadelphia to the deep water of the bay. In 1899 the project of 1885
had been completed except for three shoal stretches, whose total length,
measured on the range lines, was 4(3/8) m. The project of 1899,
estimated to cost $5,810,000, was not completed at the close of the
fiscal year (June 30) 1907, when $4,936,550.63 had been expended by the
Federal government on the work; in 1905 the state of Pennsylvania
appropriated $750,000 for improvement of the river in Pennsylvania,
south of Philadelphia.
DELAWARE WATER-GAP, a borough and summer resort of Monroe county,
Pennsylvania, U.S.A., on the Delaware river, about 108 m. N. of
Philadelphia and about 88 m. W. by N. of New York. Pop. (1890) 467;
(1900) 469. It is served directly by the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western,
and by the Belvidere division of the Pennsylvania railways; along the
river on the opposite side (in New Jersey) runs the New York,
Susquehanna & Western railway, and the borough is connected with
Stroudsburg, Pa. (about 3 m. W. by N.) by an electric line. The borough
was named from the neighbouring gorge, which is noted for the
picturesqueness of its scenery, especially in winter, when the ice piles
up in the river, sometimes to a height of 20 ft. Here the river cuts
through the Kittatinny (Blue) Ridge to its base. On the New Jersey side
is Mt. Tammany (about 1600 ft.); on the Pennsylvania side, Mt. Minsi
(about 1500 ft.); the elevation of the river here is about 300 ft. The
gap (about 2 m. long) through the mountain is the result of erosion by
the waters of a great river which flowed northwards acting along a line
of faulting at right angles to the strike of the tilted rock formations.
The scenery and the delightful climate have made the place a popular
summer resort. The borough was incorporated in 1889.
See L. W. Brodhead, _The Delaware Water-Gap_ (Philadelphia, 2nd ed.,
1870).
DE LA WARR, or DELAWARE, an English barony, the holders of which are
descended from Roger de la Warr of Isfield, Sussex, who was summoned to
parliament as a baron in 1299 and the following years. He died about
1320; his great-grandson Roger, to whom the French king John surrendered
at the battle of Poitiers, died in 1370; and the male line of the family
became extinct on the death of Thomas, 5th baron, in 1426.
The 5th baron's half-sister Joan married Thomas West, 1st Lord West (d.
1405), and in 1415 her second son Reginald (1394-1451) succeeded his
brother Thomas as 3rd Lord West. After the death of his uncle Thomas,
5th Baron De La Warr, whose estates he inherited, Reginald was summoned
to parliament as Baron La Warr, and he is thus the second founder of the
family. His grandson was Thomas, 3rd (or 8th) baron (d. 1525), a
courtier during the reigns of Henry VII. and Henry VIII.; and the
latter's son was Thomas, 4th (or 9th) baron (c. 1472-1554). The younger
Thomas was a very prominent person during the reigns of Henry VIII. and
Edward VI. After serving with the English army in France in 1513 and
being present at the Field of the Cloth of Gold, he rebuilt the house at
Halnaker in Sussex, which he had obtained by marriage, and here in 1526
he entertained Henry VIII. "with great cheer." He disliked the
ecclesiastical changes introduced by the king, and he was one of the
peers who tried Anne Boleyn; later he showed some eagerness to stand
well with Thomas Cromwell, but this did not prevent his arrest in 1538.
He is said to have denounced "the plucking down of abbeys," and he
certainly consorted with many suspected persons. But he was soon
released and pardoned, although he was obliged to hand over Halnaker to
Henry VIII., receiving instead the estate of Wherwell in Hampshire. He
died without children in September 1554, when his baronies of De La Warr
and West fell into abeyance. His monument may still be seen in the
church at Broadwater, Sussex.
He had settled his estates on his nephew William West (c. 1519-1595),
who then tried to bring about his uncle's death by poison; for this
reason he was disabled by act of parliament (1549) from succeeding to
his honours. However, in 1563 he was restored, and in 1570 was created
by patent Baron De La Warr. This was obviously a new creation, but in
1596 his son Thomas (c. 1556-1602) claimed precedency in the baronage as
the holder of the ancient barony of De La Warr. His claim was admitted,
and accordingly his son and successor, next mentioned, is called the 3rd
or the 12th baron.
THOMAS WEST, 3rd or 12th Baron De La Warr (1577-1618), British soldier
and colonial governor in America, was born on the 9th of July 1577,
probably at Wherwell, Hampshire, where he was baptized. He was educated
at Queen's College, Oxford, where he did not complete his course, but
subsequently (1605) received the degree of M.A. In 1597 he was elected
member of parliament for Lymington, and subsequently fought in Holland
and in Ireland under the earl of Essex, being knighted for bravery in
battle in 1599. He was imprisoned for complicity in Essex's revolt
(1600-1601), but was soon released and exonerated. In 1602 he succeeded
to his father's title and estates and became a privy councillor.
Becoming interested in schemes for the colonization of America, he was
chosen a member of the council of the Virginia Company in 1609, and in
the same year was appointed governor and captain-general of Virginia for
life. Sailing in March 1610 with three ships, 150 settlers and
supplies, he himself bearing the greater part of the expense of the
expedition, he arrived at Jamestown on the 10th of June, in time to
intercept the colonists who had embarked for England and were abandoning
the enterprise. Lord De La Warr's rule was strict but just; he
constructed two forts near the mouth of the James river, rebuilt
Jamestown, and in general brought order out of chaos. In March 1611 he
returned to London, where he published at the request of the company's
council, his _Relation_ of the condition of affairs in Virginia
(reprinted 1859 and 1868). He remained in England until 1618, when the
news of the tyrannical rule of the deputy, Samuel Argall, led him to
start again for Virginia. He embarked in April, but died en route on the
7th of June 1618, and was buried at sea. The Delaware river and the
state of Delaware were named in his honour.
A younger brother, Francis (1586-c. 1634), was prominent in the affairs
of Virginia, and in 1627-1628 was president of the council, and
acting-governor of the colony.
In 1761 the 3rd or 12th baron's descendant, John, 7th or 16th Baron De
La Warr (1693-1766), was created Viscount Cantelupe and 1st Earl De La
Warr. He was a prominent figure in the House of Lords, at first as a
supporter of Sir Robert Walpole. He also served in the British army and
fought at Dettingen, and was made governor of Guernsey in 1752.
George John West, 5th earl (1791-1869), married Elizabeth, sister and
heiress of George John Frederick Sackville, 4th duke of Dorset, who was
created Baroness Buckhurst in 1864; consequently in 1843 he and his sons
took the name of Sackville-West. The earl was twice lord chamberlain to
Queen Victoria, and he is celebrated as "Fair Euryalus" in the _Childish
Recollections_ of his schoolfellow, Lord Byron. His son Charles Richard
(1815-1873), 6th earl, served in the first Sikh war and in the Crimea;
and being unmarried was succeeded by his brother Reginald (1817-1896) as
7th Earl De La Warr. Having inherited his mother's barony of Buckhurst
on her death in 1870, he retained this title along with the barony and
earldom of De La Warr, although the patent had contained a proviso that
it should be kept separate from these dignities. In 1896 the 7th earl's
son, Gilbert George Reginald Sackville-West (b. 1869), became 8th earl
De La Warr.
See G. E. C(okayne), _Complete Peerage_ (1887-1898).
DELBRÜCK, HANS (1848- ), German historian, was born at Bergen on the
island of Rügen on the 11th of November 1848, and studied at the
universities of Heidelberg and Bonn. As a soldier he fought in the
Franco-German War, after which he was for some years tutor to one of the
princes of the German imperial family. In 1885 he became professor of
modern history in the university of Berlin, and he was a member of the
German Reichstag from 1884 to 1890. Delbrück's writings are chiefly
concerned with the history of the art of war, his most ambitious work
being his _Geschichte der Kriegskunst im Rahmen der politischen
Geschichte_ (first section, _Das Altertum_, 1900; second, _Römer und
Germanen_, 1902; third, _Das Mittelalter_, 1907). Among his other works
are: _Die Perserkriege und die Burgunderkriege_ (Berlin, 1887);
_Historische und politische Aufsätze_ (1886); _Erinnerungen, Aufsätze
und Reden_ (1902); _Die Strategie des Perikles erläutert durch die
Strategie Friedrichs des Grossen_ (1890); _Die Polenfrage_ (1894); and
_Das Leben des Feldmarschalls Grafen Neithardt von Gneisenau_ (1882 and
1894). Delbrück began in 1883 to edit the _Preussische Jahrbücher_, in
which he has written many articles, including one on "General Wolseley
über Napoleon, Wellington und Gneisenau," and he has contributed to the
_Europäischer Geschichtskalender_ of H. Schulthess.
DELBRÜCK, MARTIN FRIEDRICH RUDOLF VON, Prussian statesman (1817-1903),
was born at Berlin on the 16th of April 1817. On completing his legal
studies he entered the service of the state in 1837; and after holding a
series of minor posts was transferred in 1848 to the ministry of
commerce, which was to be the sphere of his real life's work. Both
Germany and Austria had realized the influence of commercial upon
political union. Delbrück in 1851 induced Hanover, Oldenburg and
Schaumburg-Lippe to join the Zollverein; and the southern states, which
had agreed to admit Austria to the union, found themselves forced in
1853 to renew the old union, from which Austria was excluded. Delbrück
now began, with the support of Bismarck, to apply the principles of free
trade to Prussian fiscal policy. In 1862 he concluded an important
commercial treaty with France. In 1867 he became the first president of
the chancery of the North German Confederation, and represented Bismarck
on the federal tariff council (_Zollbundesrath_), a position of
political as well as fiscal importance owing to the presence in the
council of representatives of the southern states. In 1868 he became a
Prussian minister without portfolio. In October 1870, when the union of
Germany under Prussian headship became a practical question, Delbrück
was chosen to go on a mission to the South German states, and
contributed greatly to the agreements concluded at Versailles in
November. In 1871 he became president of the newly constituted
_Reichskanzleramt_. Delbrück, however, began to feel himself uneasy
under Bismarck's leanings towards protection and state control. On the
introduction of Bismarck's plan for the acquisition of the railways by
the state, Delbrück resigned office, nominally on the ground of
ill-health (June 1, 1876). In 1879 he opposed in the _Reichstag_ the new
protectionist tariff, and on the failure of his efforts retired
definitely from public life. In 1896 he received from the emperor the
order of the Black Eagle. He died at Berlin on the 1st of February 1903.
DELCASSÉ, THÉOPHILE (1852- ), French statesman, was born at Pamiers, in
the department of Ariège, on the 1st of March 1852. He wrote articles on
foreign affairs for the _République française_ and _Paris_, and in 1888
was elected _conseiller général_ of his native department, standing as
"un disciple fidèle de Gambetta." In the following year he entered the
chamber as deputy for Foix. He was appointed under-secretary for the
colonies in the second Ribot cabinet (January to April 1893), and
retained his post in the Dupuy cabinet till its fall in December 1893.
It was largely owing to his efforts that the French colonial office was
made a separate department with a minister at its head, and to this
office he was appointed in the second Dupuy cabinet (May 1894 to January
1895). He gave a great impetus to French colonial enterprise, especially
in West Africa, where he organized the newly acquired colony of Dahomey,
and despatched the Liotard mission to the Upper Ubangi. While in
opposition he devoted special attention to naval affairs, and in
speeches that attracted much notice declared that the function of the
French navy was to secure and develop colonial enterprise, deprecated
all attempts to rival the British fleet, and advocated the construction
of commerce destroyers as France's best reply to England. On the
formation of the second Brisson cabinet in June 1898 he succeeded M.
Hanotaux at the foreign office, and retained that post under the
subsequent premierships of MM. Dupuy, Waldeck-Rousseau, Combes and
Rouvier. In 1898 he had to deal with the delicate situation caused by
Captain Marchand's occupation of Fashoda, for which, as he admitted in a
speech in the chamber on the 23rd of January 1899, he accepted full
responsibility, since it arose directly out of the Liotard expedition,
which he had himself organized while minister for the colonies; and in
March 1899 he concluded an agreement with Great Britain by which the
difficulty was finally adjusted, and France consolidated her vast
colonial empire in North-West Africa. In the same year he acted as
mediator between the United States and Spain, and brought the peace
negotiations to a successful conclusion. He introduced greater
cordiality into the relations of France with Italy: at the same time he
adhered firmly to the alliance with Russia, and in August 1899 made a
visit to St Petersburg, which he repeated in April 1901. In June 1900 he
made an arrangement with Spain, fixing the long-disputed boundaries of
the French and Spanish possessions in West Africa. Finally he concluded
with England the important Agreements of 1904 covering colonial and
other questions which had long been a matter of dispute, especially
concerning Egypt, Newfoundland and Morocco. Suspicion of the growing
_entente_ between France and England soon arose on the part of Germany,
and in 1905 German assertiveness was shown in a crisis which was forced
on in the matter of the French activity in Morocco (q.v.), in which the
handling of French policy by M. Delcassé personally was a sore point
with Germany. The situation became acute in April, and was only relieved
by M. Delcassé's resignation of office. He retired into private life,
but in 1908 was warmly welcomed on a visit to England, where the closest
relations now existed with France.
DEL CREDERE (Ital. "of belief" or "trust"). A "del credere agent," in
English law, is one who, selling goods for his principal on credit,
undertakes for an additional commission to sell only to persons who are
absolutely solvent. His position is thus that of a surety who is liable
to his principal should the vendee make default. The agreement between
him and his principal need not be reduced to or evidenced by writing,
for his undertaking is not a guarantee within the Statute of Frauds. See
also BROKER; GUARANTEE.
DELESCLUZE, LOUIS CHARLES (1809-1871), French journalist, was born at
Dreux on the 2nd of October 1809. Having studied law in Paris, he early
developed a strong democratic bent, and played a part in the July
revolution of 1830. He became a member of various republican societies,
and in 1836 was forced to take refuge in Belgium, where he devoted
himself to republican journalism. Returning in 1840 he settled in
Valenciennes, and after the revolution of 1848 removed to Paris, where
he started a newspaper called _La Révolution démocratique et sociale_.
His zeal so far outran his discretion that he was twice imprisoned and
fined, his paper was suppressed and he himself fled to England, where he
continued his journalistic work. He was arrested in Paris in 1853, and
deported to French Guiana. Released under the amnesty of 1859, he
returned to France with health shattered but energies unimpaired. His
next venture was the publication of the _Réveil_, a radical organ
upholding the principles of the _Association internationale des
travailleurs_, known as the "_Internationale_." This journal, which
brought him three condemnations, fine and imprisonment in one year,
shared the fate of his Paris sheet, and its founder again fled to
Belgium. In 1871 he was elected to the National Assembly, becoming
afterwards a member of the Paris commune. At the siege of Paris he
fought with reckless courage, and met his death on the last of the
barricades (May 1871). He wrote an account of his imprisonment in
Guiana, _De Paris à Cayenne, Journal d'un transporté_ (Paris, 1869).
DELESSE, ACHILLE ERNEST OSCAR JOSEPH (1817-1881), French geologist and
mineralogist, was born at Metz on the 3rd of February 1817. At the age
of twenty he entered the École Polytechnique, and subsequently passed
through the École des Mines. In 1845 he was appointed to the chair of
mineralogy and geology at Besançon; in 1850 to the chair of geology at
the Sorbonne in Paris; and in 1864 professor of agriculture at the École
des Mines. In 1878 he became inspector-general of mines. In early years
as _ingénieur des mines_ he investigated and described various new
minerals; he proceeded afterwards to the study of rocks, devising new
methods for their determination, and giving particular descriptions of
melaphyre, arkose, porphyry, syenite, &c. The igneous rocks of the
Vosges, and those of the Alps, Corsica, &c., and the subject of
metamorphism occupied his attention. He also prepared in 1858 geological
and hydrological maps of Paris--with reference to the underground water,
similar maps of the departments of the Seine and Seine-et-Marne, and an
agronomic map of the Seine-et-Marne (1880), in which he showed the
relation which exists between the physical and chemical characters of
the soil and the geological structure. His annual _Revue des progrès de
géologie_, undertaken with the assistance (1860-1865) of Auguste Laugel
and afterwards (1865-1878) of Albert de Lapparent, was carried on from
1860 to 1880. His observations on the lithology of the deposits
accumulated beneath the sea were of special interest and importance. His
separate publications were: _Recherches sur l'origine des roches_
(Paris, 1865); _Étude sur le métamorphisme des roches_ (1869);
_Lithologie des mers de France et des mers principales du globe_ (2
vols. and atlas, 1871). He died at Paris on the 24th of March 1881.
DELESSERT, JULES PAUL BENJAMIN (1773-1847), French banker, was born at
Lyons on the 14th of February 1773, the son of Étienne Delessert
(1735-1816), the founder of the first fire insurance company and the
first discount bank in France. Young Delessert was travelling in England
when the Revolution broke out in France, but he hastened back to join
the Paris National Guard in 1790, becoming an officer of artillery in
1793. His father bought him out of the army, however, in 1795 in order
to entrust him with the management of his bank. Gifted with remarkable
energy, he started many commercial enterprises, founding the first
cotton factory at Passy in 1801, and a sugar factory in 1802, for which
he was created a baron of the empire. He sat in the chamber of deputies
for many years, and was a strong advocate for many humane measures,
notably the suppression of the "Tours" or revolving box at the foundling
hospital, the suppression of the death penalty, and the improvement of
the penitentiary system. He was made regent of the Bank of France in
1802, and was also member of, and, indeed, founder of many, learned and
philanthropic societies. He founded the first savings bank in France,
and maintained a keen interest in it until his death in 1847. He was
also an ardent botanist and conchologist; his botanical library embraced
30,000 volumes, of which he published a catalogue--_Musée botanique de
M. Delessert_ (1845). He also wrote _Des avantages de la caisse
d'épargne et de prévoyance_ (1835), _Mémoire sur un projet de
bibliothéque royale_ (1836), _Le Guide de bonheur_ (1839), and _Recueil
de coquilles décrites par Lamarck_ (1841-1842).
DELFICO, MELCHIORRE (1744-1835), Italian economist, was born at Teramo
in the Abruzzi on the 1st of August 1744, and was educated at Naples. He
devoted himself specially to the study of jurisprudence and political
economy, and his numerous publications exercised great practical
influence in the correction and extinction of many abuses. Under Joseph
Bonaparte Delfico was made a councillor of state, an office which he
held until the restoration of Ferdinand IV., when he was appointed
president of the commission of archives, from which he retired in 1825.
He died at Teramo on the 21st of June 1835. His more important works
were: _Saggio filosofico sul matrimonio_ (1774); _Memoria sul Tribunale
della Grascia e sulle leggi economiche nelle provincie confinanti del
regno_ (1785), which led to the abolition in Naples of the most
vexatious and absurd restrictions on the sale and exportation of
agricultural produce; _Riflessioni su la vendita dei feudi_ (1790) and
_Lettera a Sua Ecc. il sig. Duca di Cantalupo_ (1795), which brought
about the abolition of feudal rights over landed property and their
sale; _Ricerche sul vero carattere della giurisprudenza Romana e dei
suoi cultori_ (1791); _Pensieri su la storia e su l' incertezza ed
inutilità della medesima_ (1806), both on the early history of Rome.
See F. Mozzetti, _Degli studii, delle opere e delle virtù di
Melchiorre Delfico_; Tipaldo's _Biographia degli Italiani illustri_
(vol. ii.).
DELFT, a town of Holland in the province of South Holland, on the Schie,
5 m. by rail S.E. by S. of the Hague, with which it is also connected by
steam-tramway. Pop. (1900) 31,582. It is a quiet, typically Dutch town,
with its old brick houses and tree-bordered canals. The Prinsenhof,
previously a monastery, was converted into a residence for the counts of
Orange in 1575; it was here that William the Silent was assassinated. It
is now used as a William of Orange Museum. The New Church, formerly the
church of St Ursula (14th century), is the burial place of the princes
of Orange. It is remarkable for its fine tower and chime of bells, and
contains the splendid allegorical monument of William the Silent,
executed by Hendrik de Keyser and his son Pieter about 1621, and the
tomb of Hugo Grotius, born in Delft in 1583, whose statue, erected in
1886, stands in the market-place outside the church. The Old Church,
founded in the 11th century, but in its present form dating from 1476,
contains the monuments of two famous admirals of the 17th century,
Martin van Tromp and Piet Hein, as well as the tomb of the naturalist
Leeuwenhoek, born at Delft in 1632. In the town hall (1618) are some
corporation pictures, portraits of the counts of Orange and Nassau,
including several by Michiel van Mierevelt (1567-1641), one of the
earliest Dutch portrait painters, and with his son Pieter (1595-1623), a
native of Delft. There are also a Roman Catholic church (1882) and a
synagogue. Two important educational establishments are the Indian
Institute for the education of civil service students for the colonies,
to which is attached an ethnographical museum; and the Royal Polytechnic
school, which almost ranks as a university, and teaches, among other
sciences, that of diking. A fine collection of mechanical models is
connected with the polytechnic school. Among other buildings are the
modern "Phoenix" club-house of the students; the hospital, containing
some anatomical pictures, including one by the two Mierevelts (1617); a
lunatic asylum; the Van Renswoude orphanage, the theatre, a school of
design, the powder magazine and the state arsenal, originally a
warehouse of the East India Company, and now used as a manufactory of
artillery stores.
The name of Delft is most intimately associated with the manufacture of
the beautiful faience pottery for which it was once famous. (See
CERAMICS.) This industry was imported from Haarlem towards the end of
the 16th century, and achieved an unrivalled position in the second half
of the following century; but it did not survive the French occupation
at the end of the 18th century. It has, however, been revived in modern
times under the name of "New Delft." Other branches of industry are
carpet-weaving, distilling, oil and oil-cake manufacture, dyeing,
cooperage and the manufacture of arms and bullets. There is also an
important butter and cheese market.
Delft was founded in 1075 by Godfrey III., duke of Lower Lorraine, after
his conquest of Holland, and came subsequently into the hands of the
counts of Holland. In 1246 it received a charter from Count William II.
(see C. Hegel, _Städte und Gilden_, ii. 251). In 1536 it was almost
totally destroyed by fire, and in 1654 largely ruined by the explosion
of a powder magazine.
DELHI, DEHLI or DILLI, the ancient capital of the Mogul empire in India,
and a modern city which gives its name to a district and division of
British India. The city of Delhi is situated in 28° 38´ N., 77° 13´ E.,
very nearly due north of Cape Comorin, and practically in a latitudinal
line with the more ancient cities of Cairo and Canton. It lies in the
south-east corner of the province of the Punjab, to which it was added
in 1858, and abuts on the right bank of the river Jumna. Though Lahore,
the more ancient city, remains the official capital of the Punjab, Delhi
is historically more famous, and is now more important as a commercial
and railway centre.
Though the remains of earlier cities are scattered round Delhi over an
area estimated to cover some 45 sq. m., modern Delhi dates only from the
middle of the 17th century, when Shah Jahan rebuilt the city on its
present site, adding the title Shah-jahanabad from his own name. It
extends for nearly 2¼ m. along the right bank of the Jumna from the
Water bastion to the Wellesley bastion in the south-east corner, nearly
one-third of the frontage being occupied by the river wall of the
palace. The northern wall, famous in the siege of Delhi in 1857, extends
three-quarters of a mile from the Water bastion to the Shah, commonly
known as the Mori, bastion; the length of the west wall from this
bastion to the Ajmere gate is 1¼ m. and of the south wall to the
Wellesley bastion again almost exactly the same distance, the whole land
circuit being thus 3¼ m. The complete circuit of Delhi is 5½ m. In the
north wall is situated the famous Kashmir gate, while the Mori or Drain
gate, which was built by a Mahratta governor, has now been removed. In
the west wall are the Farash Khana and Ajmere gates, while the Kabul and
Lahore gates have been removed. In the south wall are the Turkman and
Delhi gates. The gates on the river side of the city included the
Khairati and Rajghat, the Calcutta and Nigambod--both removed; the Kela
gate, and the Badar Rao gate, now closed. The great wall of Delhi, which
was constructed by Shah Jahan, was strengthened by the English by the
addition of a ditch and glacis, after Delhi was captured by Lord Lake in
1803; and its strength was turned against the British at the time of the
Mutiny. The imperial palace (1638-1648), now known as the "Fort," is
situated on the east of the city, and abuts directly on the river. It
consists at present of bare and ugly British barracks, among which are
scattered exquisite gems of oriental architecture. The two most famous
among its buildings are the Diwan-i-Am or Hall of Public Audience, and
the Diwan-i-Khas or Hall of Private Audience. The Diwan-i-Am is a
splendid building measuring 100 ft. by 60 ft., and was formerly
plastered with chunam and overlaid with gold. The most striking effect
now lies in its engrailed arches. It was in the recess in the back wall
of this hall that the famous Peacock Throne used to stand, "so called
from its having the figures of two peacocks standing behind it, their
tails being expanded and the whole so inlaid with sapphires, rubies,
emeralds, pearls and other precious stones of appropriate colours as to
represent life." Tavernier, the French jeweller, who saw Delhi in 1665,
describes the throne as of the shape of a bed, 6 ft. by 4 ft., supported
by four golden feet, 20 to 25 in. high, from the bars above which rose
twelve columns to support the canopy; the bars were decorated with
crosses of rubies and emeralds, and also with diamonds and pearls. In
all there were 108 large rubies on the throne, and 116 emeralds, but
many of the latter had flaws. The twelve columns supporting the canopy
were decorated with rows of splendid pearls, and Tavernier considered
these to be the most valuable part of the throne. The whole was valued
at £6,000,000. This throne was carried off by the Persian invader Nadir
Shah in 1739, and has been rumoured to exist still in the Treasure House
of the Shah of Persia; but Lord Curzon, who examined the thrones there,
says that nothing now exists of it, except perhaps some portions worked
up in a modern Persian throne. The Diwan-i-Khas is smaller than the
Diwan-i-Am, and consists of a pavilion of white marble, in the interior
of which the art of the Moguls reached the perfection of its jewel-like
decoration. On a marble platform rises a marble pavilion, the flat-coned
roof of which is supported on a double row of marble pillars. The inner
face of the arches, with the spandrils and the pilasters which support
them, are covered with flowers and foliage of delicate design and dainty
execution, crusted in green serpentine, blue _lapis lazuli_ and red and
purple porphyry. During the lapse of years many of these stones were
picked from their setting, and the silver ceiling of flowered patterns
was pillaged by the Mahrattas; but the inlaid work was restored as far
as possible by Lord Curzon. It is in this hall that the famous
inscription "If a paradise be on the face of the earth, it is this, it
is this, it is this," still exists. It is given in Persian characters
twice in the panels over the narrow arches at the ends of the middle
hall, beginning from the east on the north side, and from the west at
the south side. At the time of the Delhi Durbar held in January 1903 to
celebrate the proclamation of Edward VII. as emperor of India these two
halls were used as a dancing-room and supper-room, and their full beauty
was brought out by the electric light shining through their marble
grille-work.
The native city of Delhi is like most other cities in India, a huddle of
mean houses in mean streets, diversified with splendid mosques. The
Chandni Chauk ("silver street"), the principal street of Delhi, which
was once supposed to be the richest street in the world, has fallen from
its high estate, though it is still a broad and imposing avenue with a
double row of trees running down the centre. During the course of its
history it was four times sacked, by Nadir Shah, Timur, Ahmad Shah and
the Mahrattas, and its roadway has many times run with blood. Now it is
the abode of the jewellers and ivory-workers of Delhi, but the jewels
are seldom valuable and the carving has lost much of its old delicacy. A
short distance south of the Chandni Chauk the Jama Masjid, or Great
Mosque, rises boldly from a small rocky eminence. It was erected in
1648-1650, two years after the royal palace, by Shah Jahan. Its front
court, 450 ft. square, and surrounded by a cloister open on both sides,
is paved with granite inlaid with marble, and commands a fine view of
the city. The mosque itself, a splendid structure forming an oblong 261
ft. in length, is approached by a magnificent flight of stone steps.
Three domes of white marble rise from its roof, with two tall minarets
at the front corners. The interior of the mosque is paved throughout,
and the walls and roof are lined, with white marble. Two other mosques
in Delhi itself deserve passing notice, the Kala Masjid or Black Mosque,
which was built about 1380 in the reign of Feroz Shah, and the Moti
Masjid or Pearl Mosque, a tiny building added to the palace by
Aurangzeb, as the emperor's private place of prayer. It is only 60 ft.
square, and the domes alone are seen above the red sandstone walls until
the opening of two small fine brass gates.
To the west and north-west of Delhi considerable suburbs cluster beyond
the walls. Here are the tombs of the imperial family. That of Humayun,
the second of the Mogul dynasty, is a noble building of rose-coloured
sandstone inlaid with white marble. It lies about 3 m. from the city, in
a terraced garden, the whole surrounded by an embattled wall, with
towers and four gateways. In the centre stands a platform about 20 ft.
high by 200 ft. square, supported by arches and ascended by four flights
of steps. Above, rises the mausoleum, also a square, with a great dome
of white marble in the centre. About a mile to the west is another
burying-ground, or collection of tombs and small mosques, some of them
very beautiful. The most remarkable is perhaps the little chapel in
honour of a celebrated Mussulman saint, Nizam-ud-din, near whose shrine
the members of the imperial family, up to the time of the Mutiny, lie
buried, each in a small enclosure surrounded by lattice-work of white
marble.
Still farther away, some 10 m. south of the modern city, amid the ruins
of old Delhi, stands the Kutb Minar, which is supposed to be the most
perfect tower in the world, and one of the seven architectural wonders
of India. The Minar was begun by Kutb-ud-din Aibak about A.D. 1200. The
two top storeys were rebuilt by Feroz Shah. It consists of five storeys
of red sandstone and white marble. The purplish red of the sandstone at
the base is finely modulated, through a pale pink in the second storey,
to a dark orange at the summit, which harmonizes with the blue of an
Indian sky. Dark bands of Arabic writing round the three lower storeys
contrast with the red sandstone. The height of the column is 238 ft. The
plinth is a polygon of twenty sides. The basement storey has the same
number of faces formed into convex flutes which are alternately angular
and semicircular. The next has semicircular flutes, and in the third
they are all angular. Then rises a plain storey, and above it soars a
partially fluted storey, the shaft of which is adorned with bands of
marble and red sandstone. A bold projecting balcony, richly ornamented,
runs round each storey. After six centuries the column is almost as
fresh as on the day it was finished. It stands in the south-east corner
of the outer court of the mosque erected by Kutb-ud-din immediately
after his capture of Delhi in 1193. The design of this mosque is
Mahommedan, but the wonderfully delicate ornamentation of its western
façade and other remaining parts is Hindu. In the inner courtyard of the
mosque stands the Iron Pillar, which is probably the most ancient
monument in the neighbourhood of Delhi, dating from about A.D. 400. It
consists of a solid shaft of wrought iron some 16 in. in diameter and 23
ft. 8 in. in height, with an inscription eulogizing Chandragupta
Vikramaditya. It was brought, probably from Muttra, by Anang Pal, a
Rajput chief of the Tomaras, who erected it here in 1052.[1]
Among the modern buildings of Delhi may be mentioned the Residency, now
occupied by a government high school, and the Protestant church of St
James, built at a coast of £10,000 by Colonel Skinner, an officer well
known in the history of the East India Company. About half-way down the
Chandni Chauk is a high clock-tower. Near it is the town hall, with
museum and library. Behind the Chandni Chauk, to the north, lie the
Queen's Gardens; beyond them the "city lines" stretch away as far as the
well-known rocky ridge, about a mile outside the town. From the summit
of this ridge the view of the station and city is very picturesque. The
principal local institution until 1877 was the Delhi College, founded in
1792. It was at first exclusively an oriental school, supported by the
voluntary contributions of Mahommedan gentlemen, and managed by a
committee of the subscribers. In 1829 an English department was added to
it; and in 1855 the institution was placed under the control of the
Educational Department. In the Mutiny of 1857 the old college was
plundered of a very valuable oriental library, and the building
completely destroyed. A new college was founded in 1858, and was
affiliated to the university of Calcutta in 1864. The old college
attained to great celebrity as an educational institution, and produced
many excellent scholars, but it was abolished in 1877, in order to
concentrate the grant available for higher-class education upon the
Punjab University at Lahore.
The Ridge, famous as the British base during the siege of Delhi during
the Mutiny, in 1857, is a last outcrop of the Aravalli Hills which rises
in a steep escarpment some 60 ft. above the city. At its nearest point
on the right of the British position, where the Mutiny Memorial now
stands, the Ridge is only 1200 yds. from the walls of Delhi; at the
Flagstaff Tower in the centre of the position it is a mile and a half
away; and at the left near the river nearly two miles and a half. It was
behind the Ridge at this point that the main portion of the British camp
was pitched. The Mutiny Memorial, which was erected by the army before
Delhi, is a rather poor specimen of a Gothic spire in red sandstone,
while the memorial tablets are of inferior marble. Next to the Ridge the
point of most interest to every English visitor to Delhi is Nicholson's
grave, which lies surrounded by an iron railing in the Kashmir gate
cemetery. The Kashmir gate itself bears a slab recording the gallant
deed of the party under Lieutenants D. C. Home and P. Salkeld, who blew
in the gate in broad daylight on the day that Delhi was taken by
assault.
The population of Delhi according to the census of 1901 was 208,575, of
whom 88,460 were Mahommedans and 114,417 were Hindus. The city is served
by five different railways, the East Indian, the Oudh & Rohilkhand, the
Rajputana-Malwa & Bombay-Baroda, the Southern Punjab, and the
North-Western, and occupies a central position, being 940 m. from
Karachi, 950 from Calcutta, and 960 from Bombay. Owing to the advantages
it enjoys as a trade centre, Delhi is recovering much of the prominence
which it lost at the time of the Mutiny. It has spinning-mills and other
mills worked by steam. The principal manufactures are gold and silver
filigree work and embroidery, jewelry, muslins, shawls, glazed pottery
and wood-carving.
The DISTRICT OF DELHI has an area of 1290 sq. m. It consists of a strip
of territory on the right or west bank of the Jumna river, 75 m. in
length, and varying from 15 to 233 m. in breadth. Most of the district
consists of hard and stony soil, depending upon irrigation, which is
supplied by the Western Jumna canal, the Ali Mardan canal and the Agra
canal. The principal crops are wheat, barley, sugar-cane and cotton.
When Lord Lake broke the Mahratta power in 1803, and the emperor was
taken under the protection of the East India Company, the present
districts of Delhi and Hissar were assigned for the maintenance of the
royal family, and were administered by a British resident. In 1832 the
office of resident was abolished, and the tract was annexed to the
North-Western Provinces. After the Mutiny in 1858 it was separated from
the North-Western Provinces and annexed to the Punjab. The population in
1901 was 689,039.
The DIVISION OF DELHI stretches from Simla to Rajputana, and is much
broken up by native states. It comprises the seven districts of Hissar,
Rohtak, Gurgaon, Delhi, Karnal, Umballa and Simla. Its total area is
15,393 sq. m., and in 1901 the population was 4,587,092.
_History._--According to legends, which may or may not have a
substantial basis, Delhi or its immediate neighbourhood has from time
immemorial been the site of a capital city. The neighbouring village of
Indarpat preserves the name of Indraprashta, the semi-mythical city
founded, according to the Sanscrit epic _Mahabharata_, by Yudisthira and
his brothers, the five Pandavas. Whatever its dim predecessors may have
been, however, the actual history of Delhi dates no further back than
the 11th century A.D., when Anangapala (Anang Pal), a chief of the
Tomara clan, built the Red Fort, in which the Kutb Minar now stands; in
1052 the same chief removed the famous Iron Pillar from its original
position, probably at Muttra, and set it up among a group of temples of
which the materials were afterwards used by the Mussulmans for the
construction of the great Kutb Mosque. About the middle of the 12th
century the Tomara dynasty was overthrown by Vigraha-raja (Visala-deva,
Bisal Deo), the Chauhan king of Ajmere, who from inscribed records
discovered of late years appears to have been a man of considerable
culture (see V. A. Smith, _Early Hist. of India_, ed. 1908, p. 356). His
nephew and successor was Prithwi-raja (Prithiraj, or Rai Pithora), lord
of Sambhar, Delhi and Ajmere, whose fame as lover and warrior still
lives in popular story. He was the last Hindu ruler of Delhi. In 1191
came the invasion of Mahommed of Ghor. Defeated on this occasion,
Mahommed returned two years later, overthrew the Hindus, and captured
and put to death Prithwi-raja. Delhi became henceforth the capital of
the Mahommedan Indian empire, Kutb-ud-din (the general and slave of
Mahommed of Ghor) being left in command. His dynasty is known as that of
the slave kings, and it is to them that old Delhi owes its grandest
remains, among them Kutb Mosque and the Kutb Minar. The slave dynasty
retained the throne till 1290, when it was subverted by Jalal-ud-din
Khilji. The most remarkable monarch of this dynasty was Ala-ud-din,
during whose reign Delhi was twice exposed to attack from invading
hordes of Moguls. On the first occasion Ala-ud-din defeated them under
the walls of his capital; on the second, after encamping for two months
in the neighbourhood of the city, they retired without a battle. The
house of Khilji came to an end in 1321, and was followed by that of
Tughlak. Hitherto the Pathan kings had been content with the ancient
Hindu capital, altered and adorned to suit their tastes. But one of the
first acts of the founder of the new dynasty, Ghias-ud-din Tughlak, was
to erect a new capital about 4 m. farther to the east, which he called
Tughlakabad. The ruins of his fort remain, and the eye can still trace
the streets and lanes of the long deserted city. Ghias-ud-din was
succeeded by his son Mahommed b. Tughlak, who reigned from 1325 to 1351,
and is described by Elphinstone as "one of the most accomplished princes
and most furious tyrants that ever adorned or disgraced human nature."
Under this monarch the Delhi of the Tughlak dynasty attained its utmost
growth. His successor Feroz Shah Tughlak transferred the capital to a
new town which he founded some miles off, on the north of the Kutb, and
to which he gave his own name, Ferozabad. In 1398, during the reign of
Mahmud Tughlak, occurred the Tatar invasion of Timurlane. The king fled
to Gujarat, his army was defeated under the walls of Delhi, and the city
surrendered. The town, notwithstanding a promise of protection, was
plundered and burned; the citizens were massacred. The invaders at last
retired, leaving Delhi without a government, and almost without
inhabitants. At length Mahmud Tughlak regained a fragment of his former
kingdom, but on his death in 1412 the family became extinct. He was
succeeded by the Sayyid dynasty, which held Delhi and a few miles of
surrounding territory till 1444, when it gave way to the house of Lodi,
during whose rule the capital was removed to Agra. In 1526 Baber, sixth
in descent from Timurlane, invaded India, defeated and killed Ibrahim
Lodi at the battle of Panipat, entered Delhi, was proclaimed emperor,
and finally put an end to the Afghan empire. Baber's capital was at
Agra, but his son and successor, Humayun, removed it to Delhi. In 1540
Humayun was defeated and expelled by Sher Shah, who entirely rebuilt the
city, enclosing and fortifying it with a new wall. In his time Delhi
extended from where Humayun's tomb now is to near the southern gate of
the modern city. In 1555 Humayun, with the assistance of Persia,
regained the throne; but he died within six months, and was succeeded by
his son, the illustrious Akbar.
During Akbar's reign and that of his son Jahangir, the capital was
either at Agra or at Lahore, and Delhi once more fell into decay.
Between 1638 and 1658, however, Shah Jahan rebuilt it almost in its
present form; and his city remains substantially the Delhi of the
present time. The imperial palace, the Jama Masjid or Great Mosque, and
the restoration of what is now the western Jumna canal, are the work of
Shah Jahan. The Mogul empire rapidly expanded during the reigns of Akbar
and his successors down to Aurungzeb, when it attained its climax. After
the death of the latter monarch, in 1707, came the decline.
Insurrections and civil wars on the part of the Hindu tributary chiefs,
Sikhs and Mahrattas, broke out. Aurungzeb's successors became the
helpless instruments of conflicting chiefs. His grandson, Jahandar Shah,
was, in 1713, deposed and strangled after a reign of one year; and
Farrakhsiyyar, the next in succession, met with the same fate in 1719.
He was succeeded by Mahommed Shah, in whose reign the Mahratta forces
first made their appearance before the gates of Delhi, in 1736. Three
years later the Persian monarch, Nadir Shah, after defeating the Mogul
army at Karnal, entered Delhi in triumph. While engaged in levying a
heavy contribution, the Persian troops were attacked by the populace,
and many of them were killed. Nadir Shah, after vainly attempting to
stay the tumult, at last gave orders for a general massacre of the
inhabitants. For fifty-eight days Nadir Shah remained in Delhi, and when
he left he carried with him a treasure in money amounting, at the lowest
computation, to eight or nine millions sterling, besides jewels of
inestimable value, and other property to the amount of several millions
more.
From this time (1740) the decline of the empire proceeded unchecked and
with increased rapidity. In 1771 Shah Alam, the son of Alamgir II., was
nominally raised to the throne by the Mahrattas, the real sovereignty
resting with the Mahratta chief, Sindhia. An attempt of the puppet
emperor to shake himself clear of the Mahrattas, in which he was
defeated in 1788, led to a permanent Mahratta garrison being stationed
at Delhi. From this date, the king remained a cipher in the hands of
Sindhia, who treated him with studied neglect, until the 8th of
September 1803, when Lord Lake overthrew the Mahrattas under the walls
of Delhi, entered the city, and took the king under the protection of
the British. Delhi, once more attacked by a Mahratta army under the
Mahratta chief Holkar in 1804, was gallantly defended by Colonel
Ochterlony, the British resident, who held out against overwhelming odds
for eight days, until relieved by Lord Lake. From this date a new era in
the history of Delhi began. A pension of £120,000 per annum was allowed
to the king, with exclusive jurisdiction over the palace, and the
titular sovereignty as before; but the city, together with the Delhi
territory, passed under British administration.
Fifty-three years of quiet prosperity for Delhi were brought to a close
by the Mutiny of 1857. Its capture by the mutineers, its siege, and its
subsequent recapture by the British have been often told, and nothing
beyond a short notice is called for here. The outbreak at Meerut
occurred on the night of the 10th of May 1857. Immediately after the
murder of their officers, the rebel soldiery set out for Delhi, about 35
m. distant, and on the following morning entered the city, where they
were joined by the city mob. Mr Fraser, the commissioner, Mr Hutchinson,
the collector, Captain Douglas, the commandant of the palace guards, and
the Rev. Mr Jennings, the residency chaplain, were at once murdered, as
were also most of the civil and non-official residents whose houses were
situated within the city walls. The British troops in cantonments
consisted of three regiments of native infantry and a battery of
artillery. These cast in their lot with the mutineers, and commenced by
killing their officers. The Delhi magazine, then the largest in the
north-west of India, was in the charge of Lieutenant Willoughby, with
whom were two other officers and six non-commissioned officers. The
magazine was attacked by the mutineers, but the little band defended to
the last the enormous accumulation of munitions of war stored there,
and, when further defence was hopeless, fired the magazine. Five of the
nine were killed by the explosion, and Lieutenant Willoughby
subsequently died of his injuries; the remaining three succeeded in
making their escape. The occupation of Delhi by the rebels was the
signal for risings in almost every military station in North-Western
India. The revolted soldiery with one accord thronged towards Delhi, and
in a short time the city was garrisoned by a rebel army variously
estimated at from 50,000 to 70,000 disciplined men. The pensioned king,
Bahadur Shah, was proclaimed emperor; his sons were appointed to various
military commands. About fifty Europeans and Eurasians, nearly all
females, who had been captured in trying to escape from the town on the
day of the outbreak, were confined in a stifling chamber of the palace
for fifteen days; they were then brought out and massacred in the
court-yard.
The siege which followed forms one of the memorable incidents of the
British history of India. On the 8th June, four weeks after the
outbreak, Sir H. Barnard, who had succeeded as commander-in-chief on the
death of General Anson, routed the mutineers with a handful of Europeans
and Sikhs, after a severe action at Badliki-Serai, and encamped upon the
Ridge that overlooks the city. The force was too weak to capture the
city, and he had no siege train or heavy guns. All that could be done
was to hold the position till the arrival of reinforcements and of a
siege train. During the next three months the little British force on
the Ridge were rather the besieged than the besiegers. Almost daily
sallies, which often turned into pitched battles, were made by the
rebels upon the over-worked handful of Europeans, Sikhs and Gurkhas. A
great struggle took place on the centenary of the battle of Plassey
(June 23), and another on the 25th of August; but on both occasions the
mutineers were repulsed with heavy loss. General Barnard died of cholera
in July, and was succeeded by General Archdale Wilson. Meanwhile
reinforcements and siege artillery gradually arrived, and early in
September it was resolved to make the assault. The first of the heavy
batteries opened fire on the 8th of September, and on the 13th a
practicable breach was reported.
On the morning of the 14th Sept. the assault was delivered, the points
of attack being the Kashmir bastion, the Water bastion, the Kashmir
gate, and the Lahore gate. The assault was thoroughly successful,
although the column which was to enter the city by the Lahore gate
sustained a temporary check. The whole eastern part of the city was
retaken, but at a cost of 66 officers and 1104 men killed and wounded,
out of the total strength of 9866. Fighting continued more or less
during the next six days, and it was not till the 20th of September that
the entire city and palace were occupied, and the reconquest of Delhi
was complete. During the siege, the British force sustained a loss of
1012 officers and men killed, and 3837 wounded. Among the killed was
General John Nicholson, the leader of one of the storming parties, who
was shot through the body in the act of leading his men, in the first
day's fighting. He lived, however, to learn that the whole city had been
recaptured, and died on the 23rd of September. On the flight of the
mutineers, the king and several members of the royal family took refuge
at Humayun's tomb. On receiving a promise that his life would be spared,
the last of the house of Timur surrendered to Major Hodson; he was
afterwards banished to Rangoon. Delhi, thus reconquered, remained for
some months under military authority. Owing to the murder of several
European soldiers who strayed from the lines, the native population was
expelled the city. Hindus were soon afterwards readmitted, but for some
time Mahommedans were rigorously excluded. Delhi was made over to the
civil authorities in January 1858, but it was not till 1861 that the
civil courts were regularly reopened. The shattered walls of the Kashmir
gateway, and the bastions of the northern face of the city, still bear
the marks of the cannonade of September 1857. Since that date Delhi has
settled down into a prosperous commercial town, and a great railway
centre. The lines which start from it to the north, south, east and west
bring into its bazaars the trade of many districts. But the romance of
antiquity still lingers around it, and Delhi was selected for the scene
of the Imperial Proclamation on the 1st of January 1877, and for the
great Durbar held in January 1903 for the proclamation of King Edward
VII. as emperor of India.
AUTHORITIES.--The best modern account of the city is _Delhi, Past and
Present_ (1901), by H. C. Fanshawe, a former commissioner of Delhi.
Other authoritative works are _Cities of India_ (1903) and _The Mutiny
Papers_ (1893), both by G. W. Forrest, and _Forty-one Years in India_
(1897), by Lord Roberts; while some impressionistic sketches will be
found in _Enchanted India_ (1899), by Prince Bojidar Karageorgevitch.
See also the chapter on Delhi in H. G. Keene, _Hist. of Hindustan ...
to the fall of the Mughol Empire_ (1885). For the Delhi Durbar of 1903
see Stephen Wheeler, _Hist. of the Delhi Coronation Durbar_, compiled
from official papers by order of the viceroy of India (London, 1904),
which contains numerous portraits and other illustrations.
FOOTNOTE:
[1] See the paper by V. A. Smith in the _Journal of the Royal Asiatic
Soc._ (1897), p. 13.
DELIA, a festival of Apollo held every five years at the great panegyris
in Delos (Homeric _Hymn to Apollo_, 147). It included athletic and
musical contests, at which the prize was a branch of the sacred palm.
This festival was said to have been established by Theseus on his way
back from Crete. Its celebration gradually fell into abeyance and was
not revived till 426 B.C., when the Athenians purified the island and
took so prominent a part in the maintenance of the Delia that it came to
be regarded almost as an Athenian festival (Thucydides iii. 104).
Ceremonial embassies ([Greek: theôriai]) from all the Greek cities were
present.
See G. Gilbert, _Deliaca_ (1869); J. A. Lebègue, _Recherches sur
Délos_ (1876); A. Mommsen, _Feste der Stadt Athen_ (1898); E. Pfuhl,
_De Atheniensium pompis sacris_ (1900); G. F. Schömann, _Griechische
Altertümer_ (4th ed., 1897-1902); P. Stengel, _Die griechischen
Kultusaltertümer_ (1898); T. Homolle in Daremberg and Saglio's
_Dictionnaire des antiquités_.
DELIAN LEAGUE, or CONFEDERACY OF DELOS, the name given to a
confederation of Greek states under the leadership of Athens, with its
headquarters at Delos, founded in 478 B.C. shortly after the final
repulse of the expedition of the Persians under Xerxes I. This
confederacy, which after many modifications and vicissitudes was finally
broken up by the capture of Athens by Sparta in 404, was revived in
378-7 (the "Second Athenian Confederacy") as a protection against
Spartan aggression, and lasted, at least formally, until the victory of
Philip II. of Macedon at Chaeronea. These two confederations have an
interest quite out of proportion to the significance of the detailed
events which form their history. (See GREECE: _Ancient History_.) They
are the first two examples of which we have detailed knowledge of a
serious attempt at united action on the part of a large number of
self-governing states at a relatively high level of conscious political
development. The first league, moreover, in its later period affords the
first example in recorded history of self-conscious imperialism in which
the subordinate units enjoyed a specified local autonomy with an
organized system, financial, military and judicial. The second league is
further interesting as the precursor of the Achaean and Aetolian
Leagues.
_History._--Several causes contributed to the formation of the first
Confederacy of Delos. During the 6th century B.C. Sparta had come to be
regarded as the chief power, not only in the Peloponnese, but also in
Greece as a whole, including the islands of the Aegean. The Persian
invasions of Darius and Xerxes, with the consequent importance of
maritime strength and the capacity for distant enterprise, as compared
with that of purely military superiority in the Greek peninsula, caused
a considerable loss of prestige which Sparta was unwilling to recognize.
Moreover, it chanced that at the time the Spartan leaders were not men
of strong character or general ability. Pausanias, the victor of
Plataea, soon showed himself destitute of the high qualities which the
situation demanded. Personal cupidity, discourtesy to the allies, and a
tendency to adopt the style and manners of oriental princes, combined to
alienate from him the sympathies of the Ionian allies, who realized
that, had it not been for the Athenians, the battle of Salamis would
never have been even fought, and Greece would probably have become a
Persian satrapy. The Athenian contingent which was sent to aid Pausanias
in the task of driving the Persians finally out of the Thraceward towns
was under the command of the Athenians, Aristides and Cimon, men of tact
and probity. It is not, therefore, surprising that when Pausanias was
recalled to Sparta on the charge of treasonable overtures to the
Persians, the Ionian allies appealed to the Athenians on the grounds of
kinship and urgent necessity, and that when Sparta sent out Dorcis to
supersede Pausanias he found Aristides in unquestioned command of the
allied fleet. To some extent the Spartans were undoubtedly relieved, in
that it no longer fell to them to organize distant expeditions to Asia
Minor, and this feeling was strengthened about the same time by the
treacherous conduct of their king Leotychides (q.v.) in Thessaly. In any
case the inelastic quality of the Spartan system was unable to adapt
itself to the spirit of the new age. To Aristides was mainly due the
organization of the new league and the adjustment of the contributions
of the various allies in ships or in money. His assessment, of the
details of which we know nothing, was so fair that it remained popular
long after the league of autonomous allies had become an Athenian
empire. The general affairs of the league were managed by a synod which
met periodically in the temple of Apollo and Artemis at Delos, the
ancient centre sanctified by the common worship of the Ionians. In this
synod the allies met on an equality under the presidency of Athens.
Among its first subjects of deliberation must have been the ratification
of Aristides' assessment. Thucydides lays emphasis on the fact that in
these meetings Athens as head of the league had no more than
presidential authority, and the other members were called [Greek:
summachoi] (allies), a word, however, of ambiguous meaning and capable
of including both free and subject allies. The only other fact preserved
by Thucydides is that Athens appointed a board called the Hellenotamiae
([Greek: tamias], steward) to watch over and administer the treasury of
the league, which for some twenty years was kept at Delos, and to
receive the contributions ([Greek: phoros]) of the allies who paid in
money.
The league was, therefore, specifically a free confederation of
autonomous Ionian cities founded as a protection against the common
danger which threatened the Aegean basin, and led by Athens in virtue of
her predominant naval power as exhibited in the war against Xerxes. Its
organization, adopted by the common synod, was the product of the new
democratic ideal embodied in the Cleisthenic reforms, as interpreted by
a just and moderate exponent. It is one of the few examples of free
corporate action on the part of the ancient Greek cities, whose
centrifugal yearning for independence so often proved fatal to the
Hellenic world. It is, therefore, a profound mistake to regard the
history of the league during the first twenty years of its existence as
that of an Athenian empire. Thucydides expressly describes the
predominance of Athens as [Greek: hêgemonia] (leadership, headship), not
as [Greek: archê] (empire), and the attempts made by Athenian orators
during the second period of the Peloponnesian War to prove that the
attitude of Athens had not altered since the time of Aristides are
manifestly unsuccessful.
Of the first ten years of the league's history we know practically
nothing, save that it was a period of steady, successful activity
against the few remaining Persian strongholds in Thrace and the Aegean
(Herod, i. 106-107, see ATHENS, CIMON). In these years the Athenian
sailors reached a high pitch of training, and by their successes
strengthened that corporate pride which had been born at Salamis. On the
other hand, it naturally came to pass that certain of the allies became
weary of incessant warfare and looked for a period of commercial
prosperity. Athens, as the chosen leader, and supported no doubt by the
synod, enforced the contributions of ships and money according to the
assessment. Gradually the allies began to weary of personal service and
persuaded the synod to accept a money commutation. The Ionians were
naturally averse from prolonged warfare, and in the prosperity which
must have followed the final rout of the Persians and the freeing of the
Aegean from the pirates (a very important feature in the league's
policy) a money contribution was only a trifling burden. The result was,
however, extremely bad for the allies, whose status in the league
necessarily became lower in relation to that of Athens, while at the
same time their military and naval resources correspondingly diminished.
Athens became more and more powerful, and could afford to disregard the
authority of the synod. Another new feature appeared in the employment
of coercion against cities which desired to secede. Athens might fairly
insist that the protection of the Aegean would become impossible if some
of the chief islands were liable to be used as piratical strongholds,
and further that it was only right that all should contribute in some
way to the security which all enjoyed. The result was that, in the cases
of Naxos and Thasos, for instance, the league's resources were employed
not against the Persians but against recalcitrant Greek islands, and
that the Greek ideal of separate autonomy was outraged. Shortly after
the capture of Naxos (c. 467 B.C.) Cimon proceeded with a fleet of 300
ships (only 100 from the allies) to the south-western and southern
coasts of Asia Minor. Having driven the Persians out of Greek towns in
Lycia and Caria, he met and routed the Persians on land and sea at the
mouth of the Eurymedon in Pamphylía. In 463 after a siege of more than
two years the Athenians captured Thasos, with which they had quarrelled
over mining rights in the Strymon valley. It is said (Thuc. i. 101) that
Thasos had appealed for aid to Sparta, and that the latter was prevented
from responding only by earthquake and the Helot revolt. But this is
both unproved and improbable. Sparta had so far no quarrel with Athens.
Athens thus became mistress of the Aegean, while the synod at Delos had
become practically, if not theoretically, powerless. It was at this time
that Cimon (q.v.), who had striven to maintain a balance between Sparta,
the chief military, and Athens, the chief naval power, was successfully
attacked by Ephialtes and Pericles. During the ensuing years, apart from
a brief return to the Cimonian policy, the resources of the league, or,
as it has now become, the Athenian empire, were directed not so much
against Persia as against Sparta, Corinth, Aegina and Boeotia. (See
ATHENS; SPARTA, &c.) A few points only need be dealt with here. The
first years of the land war brought the Athenian empire to its zenith.
Apart from Thessaly, it included all Greece outside the Peloponnese. At
the same time, however, the Athenian expedition against the Persians in
Egypt ended in a disastrous defeat, and for a time the Athenians
returned to a philo-Laconian policy, perhaps under the direction of
Cimon (see CIMON and PERICLES). Peace was made with Sparta, and, if we
are to believe 4th-century orators, a treaty, the Peace of Callias or of
Cimon, was concluded between the Great King and Athens in 449 after the
death of Cimon before the walls of Citium in Cyprus. The meaning of this
so-called Peace of Callias is doubtful. Owing to the silence of
Thucydides and other reasons, many scholars regard it as merely a
cessation of hostilities (see CIMON and CALLIAS, where authorities are
quoted). At all events, it is significant of the success of the main
object of the Delian League, the Athenians resigning Cyprus and Egypt,
while Persia recognized the freedom of the maritime Greeks of Asia
Minor.
During this period the power of Athens over her allies had increased,
though we do not know anything of the process by which this was brought
about. Chios, Lesbos and Samos alone furnished ships; all the rest had
commuted for a money payment. This meant that the synod was quite
powerless. Moreover in 454 (probably) the changed relations were
crystallized by the transference (proposed by the Samians) of the
treasury to Athens (_Corp. Inscr. Attic._ i. 260). Thus in 448 B.C.
Athens was not only mistress of a maritime empire, but ruled over
Megara, Boeotia, Phocis, Locris, Achaea and Troezen, i.e. over so-called
allies who were strangers to the old pan-Ionian assembly and to the
policy of the league, and was practically equal to Sparta on land. An
important event must be referred probably to the year 451,--the law of
Pericles, by which citizenship (including the right to vote in the
Ecclesia and to sit on paid juries) was restricted to those who could
prove themselves the children of an Athenian father and mother ([Greek:
ex amphoin astoin]). This measure must have had a detrimental effect on
the allies, who thus saw themselves excluded still further from
recognition as equal partners in a league (see PERICLES). The natural
result of all these causes was that a feeling of antipathy rose against
Athens in the minds of those to whom autonomy was the breath of life,
and the fundamental tendency of the Greeks to disruption was soon to
prove more powerful than the forces at the disposal of Athens. The first
to secede were the land powers of Greece proper, whose subordination
Athens had endeavoured to guarantee by supporting the democratic parties
in the various states. Gradually the exiled oligarchs combined; with the
defeat of Tolmides at Coroneia, Boeotia was finally lost to the empire,
and the loss of Phocis, Locris and Megara was the immediate sequel.
Against these losses the retention of Euboea, Nisaea and Pegae was no
compensation; the land empire was irretrievably lost.
The next important event is the revolt of Samos, which had quarrelled
with Miletus over the city of Priene. The Samians refused the
arbitration of Athens. The island was conquered with great difficulty
by the whole force of the league, and from the fact that the tribute of
the Thracian cities and those in Hellespontine district was increased
between 439 and 436 we must probably infer that Athens had to deal with
a widespread feeling of discontent about this period. It is, however,
equally noticeable on the one hand that the main body of the allies was
not affected, and on the other that the Peloponnesian League on the
advice of Corinth officially recognized the right of Athens to deal with
her rebellious subject allies, and refused to give help to the Samians.
The succeeding events which led to the Peloponnesian War and the final
disruption of the league are discussed in other articles. (See ATHENS:
_History_, and PELOPONNESIAN War.) Two important events alone call for
special notice. The first is the raising of the allies' tribute in 425
B.C. by a certain Thudippus, presumably a henchman of Cleon. The fact,
though not mentioned by Thucydides, was inferred from Aristophanes
(_Wasps_, 660), Andocides (_de Pace_, § 9), Plutarch (_Aristides_, c.
24), and pseudo-Andocides (_Alcibiad._ 11); it was proved by the
discovery of the assessment list of 425-4 (Hicks and Hill, _Inscrip._
64). The second event belongs to 411, after the failure of the Sicilian
expedition. In that year the tribute of the allies was commuted for a 5%
tax on all imports and exports by sea. This tax, which must have tended
to equalize the Athenian merchants with those of the allied cities,
probably came into force gradually, for beside the new collectors called
[Greek: poristai] we still find Hellenotamiae (_C.I.A._ iv. [i.] p. 34).
_The Tribute._--Only a few problems can be discussed of the many which
are raised by the insufficient and conflicting evidence at our disposal.
In the first place there is the question of the tribute. Thucydides is
almost certainly wrong in saying that the amount of the original tribute
was 460 talents (about £106,000); this figure cannot have been reached
for at least twelve, probably twenty years, when new members had been
enrolled (Lycia, Caria, Eion, Lampsacus). Similarly he is probably
wrong, or at all events includes items of which the tribute lists take
no account, when he says that it amounted to 600 talents at the
beginning of the Peloponnesian War. The moderation of the assessment is
shown not only by the fact that it was paid so long without objection,
but also by the individual items. Even in 425 Naxos and Andros paid only
15 talents, while Athens had just raised an _eisphora_ (income tax) from
her own citizens of 200 talents. Moreover it would seem that a tribute
which yielded less than the 5% tax of 411 could not have been
unreasonable.
The number of tributaries is given by Aristophanes as 1000, but this is
greatly in excess of those named in the tribute lists. Some authorities
give 200; others put it as high as 290. The difficulty is increased by
the fact that in some cases several towns were grouped together in one
payment ([Greek: synteleis]). These were grouped into five main
geographical divisions (from 443 to 436; afterwards four, Caria being
merged in Ionia). Each division was represented by two elective
assessment commissioners ([Greek: taktai]), who assisted the Boule at
Athens in the quadrennial division of the tribute. Each city sent in its
own assessment before the [Greek: taktai], who presented it to the
Boule. If there was any difference of opinion the matter was referred to
the Ecclesia for settlement. In the Ecclesia a private citizen might
propose another assessment, or the case might be referred to the law
courts. The records of the tribute are preserved in the so-called quota
lists, which give the names of the cities and the proportion,
one-sixtieth, of their several tributes, which was paid to Athens. No
tribute was paid by members of a _cleruchy_ (q.v.), as we find from the
fact that the tribute of a city always decreased when a cleruchy was
planted in it. This highly organized financial system must have been
gradually evolved, and no doubt reached its perfection only after the
treasury was transferred to Athens.
_Government and Jurisdiction._--There is much difference of opinion
among scholars regarding the attitude of imperial Athens towards her
allies. Grote maintained that on the whole the allies had little ground
for complaint; but in so doing he rather seems to leave out of account
the Greek's dislike of external discipline. The very fact that the
hegemony had become an empire was enough to make the new system highly
offensive to the allies. No very strong argument can be based on the
paucity of actual revolts. The indolent Ionians had seen the result of
secession at Naxos and rebellion at Thasos; the Athenian fleet was
perpetually on guard in the Aegean. On the other hand among the mainland
cities revolt was frequent; they were ready to rebel [Greek: kai para
dynamin]. Therefore, even though Athenian domination may have been
highly salutary in its effects, there can be no doubt that the allies
did not regard it with affection.
To judge only by the negative evidence of the decree of Aristoteles
which records the terms of alliance of the second confederacy (below),
we gather that in the later period at least of the first league's
history the Athenians had interfered with the local autonomy of the
allies in various ways--an inference which is confirmed by the terms of
"alliance" which Athens imposed on Erythrae, Chalcis and Miletus. Though
it appears that Athens made individual agreements with various states,
and therefore that we cannot regard as general rules the terms laid down
in those which we possess, it is undeniable that the Athenians planted
garrisons under permanent Athenian officers ([Greek: phrourarchoi]) in
some cities. Moreover the practice among Athenian settlers of acquiring
land in the allied districts must have been vexatious to the allies, the
more so as all important cases between Athenians and citizens of allied
cities were brought to Athens. Even on the assumption that the Athenian
dicasteries were scrupulously fair in their awards, it must have been
peculiarly galling to the self-respect of the allies and inconvenient to
individuals to be compelled to carry cases to Athens and Athenian
juries. Furthermore we gather from the Aristoteles inscription and from
the 4th-century orators that Athens imposed democratic constitutions on
her allies; indeed Isocrates (_Paneg._, 106) takes credit for Athens on
this ground, and the charter of Erythrae confirms the view (cf. Arist.
_Polit._, viii., vi. 9 1307 b 20; Thuc. viii. 21, 48, 64, 65). Even
though we admit that Chios, Lesbos and Samos (up to 440) retained their
oligarchic governments and that Selymbria, at a time (409 B.C.) when the
empire was _in extremis_, was permitted to choose its own constitution,
there can be no doubt that, from whatever motive and with whatever
result, Athens did exercise over many of her allies an authority which
extended to the most intimate concerns of local administration.
Thus the great attempt on the part of Athens to lead a harmonious league
of free Greek states for the good of Hellas degenerated into an empire
which proved intolerable to the autonomous states of Greece. Her failure
was due partly to the commercial jealousy of Corinth working on the dull
antipathy of Sparta, partly to the hatred of compromise and discipline
which was fatally characteristic of Greece and especially of Ionian
Greece, and partly also to the lack of tact and restraint shown by
Athens and her representatives in her relations with the allies.
_The Second League._--The conditions which led to the second Athenian or
Delian Confederacy were fundamentally different, not only in virtue of
the fact that the allies had learned from experience the dangers to
which such a league was liable, but because the enemy was no longer an
oriental power of whose future action there could be no certain
anticipation, but Sparta, whose ambitious projects since the fall of
Athens had shown that there could be no safety for the smaller states
save in combination.
There can be no reasonable doubt that as soon as the Athenians began to
recover from the paralysing effect of the victory of Lysander and the
internal troubles in which they were involved by the government of the
Thirty, their thoughts turned to the possibility of recovering their
lost empire. The first step in the direction was the recovery of their
sea-power, which was effected by the victory of Conon at Cnidus (August
394 B.C.). Gradually individual cities which had formed part of the
Athenian empire returned to their alliance with Athens, until the
Spartans had lost Rhodes, Cos, Nisyrus, Teos, Chios, Mytilene, Ephesus,
Erythrae, Lemnos, Imbros, Scyros, Eretria, Melos, Cythera, Carpathus
and Delos. Sparta had only Sestos and Abydos of all that she had won by
the battle of Aegospotami. At the same time no systematic constructive
attempt at a renewal of empire can as yet be detected. Athenian
relations were with individual states only, and the terms of alliance
were various. Moreover, whereas Persia had been for several years aiding
Athens against Sparta, the revolt of the Athenian ally Evagoras (q.v.)
of Cyprus set them at enmity, and with the secession of Ephesus, Cnidus
and Samos in 391 and the civil war in Rhodes, the star of Sparta seemed
again to be in the ascendant. But the whole position was changed by the
successes of Thrasybulus, who brought over the Odrysian king Medocus and
Seuthes of the Propontis to the Athenian alliance, set up a democracy in
Byzantium and reimposed the old 10% duty on goods from the Black Sea.
Many of the island towns subsequently came over, and from inscriptions
at Clazomenae (_C.I.A._ ii. 14_b_) and Thasos (_C.I.A._ iv. 11_b_) we
learn that Thrasybulus evidently was deliberately aiming at a renewal of
the empire, though the circumstances leading to his death at Aspendus
when seeking to raise money suggest that he had no general backing in
Athens.
The peace of Antalcidas or the King's Peace (see ANTALCIDAS; SPARTA) in
386 was a blow to Athens in the interests of Persia and Sparta.
Antalcidas compelled the Athenians to give their assent to it only by
making himself master of the Hellespont by stratagem with the aid of
Dionysius the Elder of Syracuse. By this peace all the Greek cities on
the mainland of Asia with the islands of Cyprus and Clazomenae were
recognized as Persian, all other cities except Imbros, Lemnos and Scyros
as autonomous. Directly, this arrangement prevented an Athenian empire;
indirectly, it caused the sacrificed cities and their kinsmen on the
islands to look upon Athens as their protector. The gross selfishness of
the Spartans, herein exemplified, was emphasized by their capture of the
Theban citadel, and, after their expulsion, by the raid upon Attica in
time of peace by the Spartan Sphodrias, and his immunity from punishment
at Sparta (summer of 378 B.C.). The Athenians at once invited their
allies to a conference, and the Second Athenian Confederacy was formed
in the archonship of Nausinicus on the basis of the famous decree of
Aristoteles. Those who attended the conference were probably Athens,
Chios, Mytilene, Methymna, Rhodes, Byzantium, Thebes, the latter of
which joined Athens soon after the Sphodrias raid. In the spring of 377
invitations were sent out to the maritime cities. Some time in that year
Tenedos, Chios, Chalcis in Euboea, and probably the Euboean cities
Eretria, Carystus and Arethusa gave in their adherence, followed by
Perinthus, Peparethus, Sciathus and other maritime cities.
At this point Sparta was roused to a sense of the significance of the
new confederacy, and the Athenian corn supply was threatened by a
Spartan fleet of sixty triremes. The Athenians immediately fitted out a
fleet under Chabrias, who gained a decisive victory over the Spartans
between Naxos and Paros (battle of Naxos 376 B.C.), both of which were
added to the league. Proceeding northwards in 375 Chabrias brought over
a large number of the Thraceward towns, including Abdera, Thasos and
Samothrace. It is interesting to notice that a garrison was placed in
Abdera in direct contravention of the terms of the new confederacy
(Meyer, _Gesch. d. Alt._, v. 394). About the same time the successes of
Timotheus in the west resulted in the addition to the league of Corcyra
and the cities of Cephallenia, and his moderation induced the
Acarnanians and Alcetas, the Molossian king, to follow their example.
Once again Sparta sent out a fleet, but Timotheus in spite of financial
embarrassment held his ground. By this time, however, the alliance
between Thebes and Athens was growing weaker, and Athens, being short of
money, concluded a peace with Sparta (probably in July 374), by which
the peace of Antalcidas was confirmed and the two states recognized each
other as mistress of sea and land respectively. Trouble, however, soon
arose over Zacynthus, and the Spartans not only sent help to the
Zacynthian oligarchs but even besieged Corcyra (373). Timotheus was sent
to relieve the island, but shortness of money compelled him to search
for new allies, and he spent the summer of 373 in persuading Jason of
Pherae (if he had not already joined), and certain towns in Thrace, the
Chersonese, the Propontis and the Aegean to enrol themselves. This delay
in sending help to Corcyra was rightly or wrongly condemned by the
Athenians, who dismissed Timotheus in favour of Iphicrates. The
expedition which followed produced negative successes, but the absence
of any positive success and the pressure of financial difficulty,
coupled with the defection of Jason (probably before 371), and the
high-handed action of Thebes in destroying Plataea (373), induced Athens
to renew the peace with Sparta which Timotheus had broken. With the
support of Persia an agreement was made by a congress at Sparta on the
basis of the autonomy of the cities, Amphipolis and the Chersonese being
granted to Athens. The Thebans at first accepted the terms, but on the
day after, realizing that they were thus balked of their pan-Boeotian
ambition, withdrew and finally severed themselves from the league.
The peace of 371 may be regarded as the conclusion of the first distinct
period in the league's existence. The original purpose of the
league--the protection of the allies from the ambitions of Sparta--was
achieved. Athens was recognized as mistress of the sea; Sparta as the
chief land power. The inherent weakness of the coalition had, however,
become apparent. The enthusiasm of the allies (numbering about seventy)
waned rapidly before the financial exigencies of successive campaigns,
and it is abundantly clear that Thebes had no interest save the
extension of her power in Boeotia. Though her secession, therefore,
meant very little loss of strength, there were not wanting signs that
the league was not destined to remain a power in the land.
The remaining history may be broken up into two periods, the first from
371 to 357, the second from 357 to 338. Throughout these two periods,
which saw the decline and final dissolution of the alliance, there is
very little specific evidence for its existence. The events seem to
belong to the histories of the several cities, and examples of corporate
action are few and uncertain. None the less the known facts justify a
large number of inferences as to the significance of events which are on
the surface merely a part of the individual foreign policy of Athens.
_Period 371-357._--The first event in this period was the battle of
Leuctra (July 371), in which, no doubt to the surprise of Athens, Thebes
temporarily asserted itself as the chief land power in Greece. To
counterbalance the new power Athens very rashly plunged into
Peloponnesian politics with the ulterior object of inducing the states
which had formerly recognized the hegemony of Sparta to transfer their
allegiance to the Delian League. It seems that all the states adopted
this policy with the exception of Sparta (probably) and Elis. The policy
of Athens was mistaken for two reasons: (1) Sparta was not entirely
humiliated, and (2) alliance with the land powers of Peloponnese was
incalculably dangerous, inasmuch as it involved Athens in enterprises
which could not awake the enthusiasm of her maritime allies. This new
coalition naturally alarmed Sparta, which at once made overtures to
Athens on the ground of their common danger from Thebes. The alliance
was concluded in 369. About the same time Iphicrates was sent to take
possession of Amphipolis according to the treaty of 371. Some success in
Macedonia roused the hostility of Thebes, and the subsequent attempts on
Amphipolis caused the Chalcidians to declare against the league. It
would appear that the old suspicion of the allies was now thoroughly
awakened, and we find Athens making great efforts to conciliate Mytilene
by honorific decrees (Hicks and Hill, 109). This suspicion, which was
due primarily, no doubt, to the agreement with Sparta, would find
confirmation in the subsequent exchange of compliments with Dionysius I.
of Syracuse, Sparta's ally, who with his sons received the Athenian
citizenship. It is not clear that the allies officially approved this
new friendship; it is certain that it was actually distasteful to them.
The same dislike would be roused by the Athenian alliance with Alexander
of Pherae (368-367). The maritime allies naturally had no desire to be
involved in the quarrels of Sicily, Thessaly and the Peloponnese.
In 367 Athens and Thebes sent rival ambassadors to Persia, with the
result that Athens was actually ordered to abandon her claim to
Amphipolis, and to remove her navy from the high seas. The claim to
Amphipolis was subsequently affirmed, but the Greek states declined to
obey the order of Persia. In 366 Athens lost Oropus, a blow which she
endeavoured to repair by forming an alliance with Arcadia and by an
attack on Corinth. At the same time certain of the Peloponnesian states
made peace with Thebes, and some hold that Athens joined this peace
(Meyer, _Gesch. d. Alt._ v. 449). Timotheus was sent in 366-365 to make
a demonstration against Persia. Finding Samos in the hands of
Cyprothemis, a servant of the satrap Tigranes, he laid siege to it,
captured it after a ten months' siege and established a cleruchy. Though
Samos was not apparently one of the allies, this latter action could not
but remind the allies of the very dangers which the second confederacy
had set out to avoid.
The next important event was the serious attempt on the part of
Epaminondas to challenge the Athenian naval supremacy. Though Timotheus
held his ground the confederacy was undoubtedly weakened. In 362 Athens
joined in the opposition to the Theban expedition which ended in the
battle of Mantineia (July). In the next year the Athenian generals
failed in the north in their attempt to control the Hellespont. In
Thessaly Alexander of Pherae became hostile and after several successes
even attacked the Peiraeus. Chares was ordered to make reprisals, but
instead sailed to Corcyra, where he made the mistake of siding with the
oligarchs. The last event of the period was a success, the recovery of
Euboea (357), which was once more added to the league.
During these fourteen years the policy of Athens towards her maritime
allies was, as we have seen, shortsighted and inconsistent. Alliances
with various land powers, and an inability to understand the true
relations which alone could unite the league, combined to alienate the
allies, who could discover no reason for the expenditure of their
contributions on protecting Sparta or Corinth against Thebes. The
[Greek: Synedrion] of the league is found taking action in several
instances, but there is evidence (cf. the expedition of Epaminondas in
363) that there was ground for suspecting disloyalty in many quarters.
On the other hand, though the Athenian fleet became stronger and several
cities were captured, the league itself did not gain any important
voluntary adherents. The generals were compelled to support their forces
by plunder or out of their private resources, and, frequently failing,
diverted their efforts from the pressing needs of the allies to purely
Athenian objects.
_Period 357-338._--The latent discontent of the allies was soon fanned
into hostility by the intrigues of Mausolus, prince of Cardia, who was
anxious to extend his kingdom. Chios, Rhodes, Cos, Byzantium, Erythrae
and probably other cities were in revolt by the spring of 356, and their
attacks on loyal members of the confederacy compelled Athens to take the
offensive. Chabrias had already been killed in an attack on Chios in the
previous autumn, and the fleet was under the command of Timotheus,
Iphicrates and Chares, who sailed against Byzantium. The enemy sailed
north from Samos and in a battle off Embata (between Erythrae and Chios)
defeated Chares, who, without the consent of his colleagues, had
ventured to engage them in a storm. The more cautious generals were
accused of corruption in not supporting Chares. Iphicrates was acquitted
and Timotheus condemned. Chares sought to replenish his resources by
aiding the Phrygian satrap Artabazus against Artaxerxes Ochus, but a
threat from the Persian court caused the Athenians to recall him, and
peace was made by which Athens recognized the independence of the
revolted towns. The league was further weakened by the secession of
Corcyra, and by 355 was reduced to Athens, Euboea and a few islands. By
this time, moreover, Philip II. of Macedon had begun his career of
conquest, and had shattered an embryonic alliance between the league and
certain princes of Thrace (Cetriporis), Paeonia (Lyppeius) and Illyria
(Grabus). In 355 his advance temporarily ceased, but, as we learn from
Isocrates and Xenophon, the financial exhaustion of the league was such
that its destruction was only a matter of time. Resuming operations in
354, Philip, in spite of temporary checks at the hands of Chares, and
the spasmodic opposition of a few barbarian chiefs, took from the
league all its Thracian and Macedonian cities (Abdera, Maronea,
Neapolis, Methone.) In 352-351 Philip actually received help from former
members of the confederacy. In 351 Charidemus, Chares and Phocion were
sent to oppose him, and we find that the contributions of the Lesbian
cities were assigned to them for supplies, but no successes were gained.
In 349 Euboea and Olynthus were lost to the league, of which indeed
nothing remained but an empty form, in spite of the facts that the
expelled Olynthians appealed to it in 348 and that Mytilene rejoined in
347. In 346 the peace of Philocrates was made between the league and
Philip on terms which were accepted by the Athenian Boule. It is very
remarkable that, in spite of the powerlessness of the confederacy, the
last recorded event in its history is the steady loyalty of Tenedos,
which gave money to Athens about 340 (Hicks and Hill, 146). The victory
of Philip at Chaeronea in 338 finally destroyed the league.
In spite of the precautions taken by the allies to prevent the
domination of Athens at their expense, the policy of the league was
almost throughout directed rather in the interests of Athens. Founded
with the specific object of thwarting the ambitious designs of Sparta,
it was plunged by Athens into enterprises of an entirely different
character which exhausted the resources of the allies without benefiting
them in any respect. There is no doubt that, with very few exceptions,
the cities were held to their allegiance solely by the superior force of
the Athenian navy. The few instances of its action show that the [Greek:
Synedrion] was practically only a tool in the hands of Athens.
AUTHORITIES.--_The First League._--The general histories of Greece,
especially those of A. Holm (Eng. trans., London, 1894), G. Busolt
(2nd ed., Gotha, 1893), J. Beloch (Strassburg, 1893 foll.), and G.
Grote (the one-vol. ed. of 1907 has some further notes on later
evidence). E. Meyer's _Gesch. des Altertums_ (Stuttgart, 1892 foll.)
and _Forschungen_ (Halle, 1892 foll.) are of the greatest value. For
inscriptions, G. F. Hill, _Sources of Greek History_, 478-431 (2nd
ed., 1907); E. L. Hicks and G. F. Hill, _Greek Hist. Inscr._ (Oxford,
1901). On the tribute see also U. Köhler in _Abhandlungen d. Berliner
Akademie_ (1869) and U. Pedroli, "I Tributi degli alleati d' Atene" in
Beloch's _Studi di storia antica_. See also articles ARISTIDES;
THEMISTOCLES; PERICLES; CIMON, &c., and GREECE: _History_, with works
quoted. For the last years of the league see also PELOPONNESIAN WAR.
_The Second League._--The chief modern works are G. Busolt, "Der
zweite athenische Bund" in _Neue Jahrbücher für classische Philologie_
(supp. vol. vii., 1873-1875, pp. 641-866), and F. H. Marshall, _The
Second Athenian Confederacy_ (1905), one of the Cambridge Historical
Essays (No. xiii.). The latter is based on Busolt's monograph and
includes subsequent epigraphic evidence, with a full list of
authorities. For inscriptions see Hicks and Hill, op. cit., and the
_Inscriptiones Atticae_, vol. ii. pt. 5. The meagre data given by
ancient writers are collected by Busolt and Marshall. (J. M. M.)
DELIBES, CLÉMENT PHILIBERT LÉO (1836-1891), French composer, was born at
Saint Germain du Val on the 21st of February 1836. He studied at the
Paris Conservatoire under Adolphe Charles Adam, through whose influence
he became accompanist at the Théâtre Lyrique. His first essay in
dramatic composition was his _Deux sous de charbon_ (1853), and during
several years he produced a number of operettas. His cantata _Alger_ was
heard at the Paris opera in 1865. Having become second chorus master at
the Grand Opéra, he wrote the music of a ballet entitled _La Source_ for
this theatre, in collaboration with Minkous, a Polish composer. La
Source was produced with great success in 1866. The composer returned to
the operetta style with _Malbrouk s'en va-t-en guerre_,--written in
collaboration with Georges Bizet, Émile Jonas and Legouix, and given at
the Théâtre de l'Athénée in 1867. Two years later came _L'Écossais de
Chatou_, a one-act piece, and _La Cour du roi Pétaud_, a three-act
opera-bouffe. The ballet _Coppélia_ was produced at the Grand Opéra on
the 25th of May 1870 with enormous success.
Delibes gave up his post as second chorus master at the Grand Opéra in
1872 when he married the daughter of Mademoiselle Denain, formerly an
actress at the Comédie Française. In this year he published a collection
of graceful melodies including _Myrto_, _Les Filles de Cadiz_,
_Bonjour_, _Suzon_ and others. His first important dramatic work was _Le
Roi l'a dit_, a charming comic opera, produced on the 24th of May 1873
at the Opéra Comique. Three years later, on the 14th of June 1876,
_Sylvia_, a ballet in three acts, one of the composer's most delightful
works, was produced at the Grand Opéra. This was followed by _La Mort
d'Orphée_, a grand scena produced at the Trocadéro concerts in 1878; by
_Jean de Nivelle_, a three-act opera brought out at the Opéra Comique on
the 8th of March 1880; and by _Lakmé_, an opera in three acts produced
at the same theatre on the 14th of April 1883. Lakmé has remained his
most popular opera. The composer died in Paris on the 16th of January
1891, leaving _Kassya_, a four-act opera, in an unfinished state. This
work was completed by E. Guiraud, and produced at the Opéra Comique on
the 21st of March 1893. In 1877 Delibes became a chevalier of the Legion
of Honour; in 1881 he became a professor of advanced composition at the
Conservatoire; in 1884 he took the place of Victor Massé at the Institut
de France.
Leo Delibes was a typically French composer. His music is light,
graceful and refined. He excelled in ballet music, and _Sylvia_ may well
be considered a masterpiece. His operas are constructed on a
conventional pattern. The harmonic texture, however, is modern, and the
melodic invention abundant, while the orchestral treatment is invariably
excellent.
DELILAH, in the Bible, the heroine of Samson's last love-story and the
cause of his downfall (Judg. xvi.). She was a Philistine of Sorek (mod.
Surik), west of Zorah, and when her countrymen offered her an enormous
bribe to betray him, she set to work to find out the source of his
strength. Thrice Samson scoffingly told her how he might be bound, and
thrice he readily broke the bonds with which she had fettered him in his
sleep; seven green bow-strings, new ropes, and even the braiding of his
hair into the frame of the loom failed to secure him. At length he
disclosed the secret of his power. Delilah put him to sleep upon her
lap, called in a man to shave off his seven locks, and this time he was
easily captured. See SAMSON.
DELILLE, JACQUES (1738-1813), French poet, was born on the 22nd of June
1738 at Aigue-Perse in Auvergne. He was an illegitimate child, and was
descended by his mother from the chancellor De l'Hôpital. He was
educated at the college of Lisieux in Paris and became an elementary
teacher. He gradually acquired a reputation as a poet by his epistles,
in which things are not called by their ordinary names but are hinted at
by elaborate periphrases. Sugar becomes "le miel américain que du suc
des roseaux exprima l'Africain." The publication (1769) of his
translation of the _Georgics_ of Virgil made him famous. Voltaire
recommended the poet for the next vacant place in the Academy. He was at
once elected a member, but was not admitted until 1774 owing to the
opposition of the king, who alleged that he was too young. In his
_Jardins, ou l'art d'embellir les paysages_ (1782) he made good his
pretensions as an original poet. In 1786 he made a journey to
Constantinople in the train of the ambassador M. de Choiseul-Gouffier.
Delille had become professor of Latin poetry at the Collège da France,
and abbot of Saint-Sévérin, when the outbreak of the Revolution reduced
him to poverty. He purchased his personal safety by professing his
adherence to revolutionary doctrine, but eventually quitted Paris, and
retired to St Dié, where he completed his translation of the _Aeneid_.
He emigrated first to Basel and then to Glairesse in Switzerland. Here
he finished his _Homme des champs_, and his poem on the _Trois règnes de
la nature_. His next place of refuge was in Germany, where he composed
his _La Pitié_; and finally, he passed some time in London, chiefly
employed in translating _Paradise Lost_. In 1802 he was able to return
to Paris, where, although nearly blind, he resumed his professorship and
his chair at the Academy, but lived in retirement. He fortunately did
not outlive the vogue of the descriptive poems which were his special
province, and died on the 1st of May 1813.
Delille left behind him little prose. His preface to the translation of
the _Georgics_ is an able essay, and contains many excellent hints on
the art and difficulties of translation. He wrote the article "La
Bruyère" in the _Biographie universelle_. The following is the list of
his poetical works:--_Les Géorgiques de Virgile, traduites en vers
français_ (Paris, 1769, 1782, 1785, 1809); _Les Jardins_, en quatre
chants (1780; new edition, Paris, 1801); _L'Homme des champs, ou les
Géorgiques françaises_ (Strassburg, 1802); _Poésies fugitives_ (1802);
_Dithyrambe sur l'immortalité de l'âme, suivi du passage du Saint
Gothard_, poëme traduit de l'Anglais de Madame la duchesse de Devonshire
(1802); _La Pitié_, poëme en quatre chants (Paris, 1802); _L'Énéide de
Virgile, traduite en vers français_ (4 vols., 1804); _Le Paradis perdu_
(3 vols., 1804); _L'Imagination_, poëme en huit chants (2 vols., 1806);
_Les trois règnes de la nature_ (2 vols., 1808); _La Conversation_
(1812). A collection given under the title of _Poésies diverses_ (1801)
was disavowed by Delille.
His _Oeuvres_ (16 vols.) were published in 1824. See Sainte-Beuve,
_Portraits littéraires_, vol. ii.
DELIRIUM (a Latin medical term for madness, from _delirare_, to be mad,
literally to wander from the _lira_, or furrow), a temporary form of
brain disorder, generally occurring in connexion with some special form
of bodily disease. It may vary in intensity from slight and occasional
wandering of the mind and incoherence of expression, to fixed delusions
and violent maniacal excitement, and again it may be associated with
more or less of coma or insensibility. (See INSANITY, and
NEUROPATHOLOGY.) Delirium is apt to occur in most diseases of an acute
nature, such as fevers or inflammatory affections, in injuries affecting
the brain, in blood diseases, in conditions of exhaustion, and as the
result of the action of certain specific poisons, such as opium, Indian
hemp, belladonna, chloroform and alcohol.
Delirium tremens is one of a train of symptoms of what is termed in
medical nomenclature acute alcoholism, or excessive indulgence in
alcohol. It must, however, be observed that this disorder, although
arising in this manner, rarely comes on as the result of a single
debauch in a person unaccustomed to the abuse of stimulants, but
generally occurs in cases where the nervous system has been already
subjected for a length of time to the poisonous action of alcohol, so
that the complaint might be more properly regarded as acute supervening
on chronic alcoholism. It is equally to be borne in mind that many
habitual drunkards never suffer from delirium tremens.
It was long supposed, and is indeed still believed by some, that
delirium tremens only comes on when the supply of alcohol has been
suddenly cut off; but this view is now generally rejected, and there is
abundant evidence to show that the attack comes on while the patient is
still continuing to drink. Even in those cases where several days have
elapsed between the cessation from drinking and the seizure, it will be
found that in the interval the premonitory symptoms of delirium tremens
have shown themselves, one of which is aversion to drink as well as
food--the attack being in most instances preceded by marked derangement
of the digestive functions. Occasionally the attack is precipitated in
persons predisposed to it by the occurrence of some acute disease, such
as pneumonia, by accidents, such as burns, also by severe mental strain,
and by the deprivation of food, even where the supply of alcohol is less
than would have been likely to produce it otherwise. Where, on the other
hand, the quantity of alcohol taken has been very large, the attack is
sometimes ushered in by fits of an epileptiform character.
One of the earliest indications of the approaching attack of delirium
tremens is sleeplessness, any rest the patient may obtain being troubled
by unpleasant or terrifying dreams. During the day there is observed a
certain restlessness and irritability of manner, with trembling of the
hands and a thick or tremulous articulation. The skin is perspiring, the
countenance oppressed-looking and flushed, the pulse rapid and feeble,
and there is evidence of considerable bodily prostration. These symptoms
increase each day and night for a few days, and then the characteristic
delirium is superadded. The patient is in a state of mental confusion,
talks incessantly and incoherently, has a distressed and agitated or
perplexed appearance, and a vague notion that he is pursued by some one
seeking to injure him. His delusions are usually of transient character,
but he is constantly troubled with visual hallucinations in the form of
disagreeable animals or insects which he imagines he sees all about him.
He looks suspiciously around him, turns over his pillows, and ransacks
his bedclothes for some fancied object he supposes to be concealed
there. There is constant restlessness, a common form of delusion being
that he is not in his own house, but imprisoned in some apartment from
which he is anxious to escape to return home. In these circumstances he
is ever wishing to get out of bed and out of doors, and, although in
general he may be persuaded to return to bed, he is soon desiring to get
up again. The trembling of the muscles from which the name of the
disease is derived is a prominent but not invariable symptom. It is most
marked in the muscles of the hands and arms and in the tongue. The
character of the delirium is seldom wild or noisy, but is much more
commonly a combination of busy restlessness and indefinite fear. When
spoken to, the patient can answer correctly enough, but immediately
thereafter relapses into his former condition of incoherence.
Occasionally maniacal symptoms develop themselves, the patient becoming
dangerously violent, and the case thus assuming a much graver aspect
than one of simple delirium tremens.
In most cases the symptoms undergo abatement in from three to six days,
the cessation of the attack being marked by the occurrence of sound
sleep, from which the patient awakes in his right mind, although in a
state of great physical prostration, and in great measure if not
entirely oblivious of his condition during his illness.
Although generally the termination of an attack of delirium tremens is
in recovery, it occasionally proves fatal by the supervention of coma
and convulsions, or acute mania, or by exhaustion, more especially when
any acute bodily disease is associated with the attack. In certain
instances delirium tremens is but the beginning of serious and permanent
impairment of intellect, as is not infrequently observed in confirmed
drunkards who have suffered from frequent attacks of this disease. The
theory once widely accepted, that delirium tremens was the result of the
too sudden breaking off from indulgence in alcohol, led to its treatment
by regular and often large doses of stimulants, a practice fraught with
mischievous results, since however much the delirium appeared to be thus
calmed for the time, the continuous supply of the poison which was the
original source of the disease inflicted serious damage upon the brain,
and led in many instances to the subsequent development of insanity. The
former system of prescribing large doses of opium, with the view of
procuring sleep at all hazards, was no less pernicious. In addition to
these methods of treatment, mechanical restraint of the patient was the
common practice.
The views of the disease which now prevail, recognizing the delirium as
the effect at once of the poisonous action of alcohol upon the brain and
of the want of food, encourage reliance to be placed for its cure upon
the entire withdrawal, in most instances, of stimulants, and the liberal
administration of light nutriment, in addition to quietness and gentle
but firm control, without mechanical restraint. In mild attacks this is
frequently all that is required. In more severe cases, where there is
great restlessness, sedatives have to be resorted to, and many
substances have been recommended for the purpose. Opiates administered
in small quantity, and preferably by hypodermic injection, are
undoubtedly of value; and chloral, either alone or in conjunction with
bromide of potassium, often answers even better. Such remedies, however,
should be administered with great caution, and only under medical
supervision.
Stimulants may be called for where the delirium assumes the low or
adynamic form, and the patient tends to sink from exhaustion, or when
the attack is complicated with some other disease. Such cases are,
however, in the highest degree exceptional, and do not affect the
general principle of treatment already referred to, which inculcates the
entire withdrawal of stimulants in the treatment of ordinary attacks of
delirium tremens.
DELISLE, JOSEPH NICOLAS (1688-1768), French astronomer, was born at
Paris on the 4th of April 1688. Attracted to astronomy by the solar
eclipse of the 12th of May 1706, he obtained permission in 1710 to lodge
in the dome of the Luxembourg, procured some instruments, and there
observed the total eclipse of the 22nd of May 1724. He proposed in 1715
the "diffraction-theory" of the sun's corona, visited England and was
received into the Royal Society in 1724, and left Paris for St
Petersburg on a summons from the empress Catherine, towards the end of
1725. Having founded an observatory there, he returned to Paris in 1747,
was appointed geographical astronomer to the naval department with a
salary of 3000 livres, and installed an observatory in the Hôtel Cluny.
Charles Messier and J. J. Lalande were among his pupils. He died of
apoplexy at Paris on the 12th of September 1768. Delisle is chiefly
remembered as the author of a method for observing the transits of Venus
and Mercury by instants of contacts. First proposed by him in a letter
to J. Cassini in 1743, it was afterwards perfected, and has been
extensively employed. As a preliminary to the transit of Mercury in
1743, which he personally observed, he issued a map of the world showing
the varied circumstances of its occurrence. Besides many papers
communicated to the academy of sciences, of which he became a member in
1714, he published _Mémoires pour servir à l'histoire et au progrès de
l'astronomie_ (St Petersburg, 1738), in which he gave the first method
for determining the heliocentric co-ordinates of sun-spots; _Mémoire sur
les nouvelles découvertes au nord de la mer du sud_ (Paris, 1752), &c.
See _Mémoires de l'acad. des sciences_ (Paris, 1768), _Histoire_, p.
167 (G. de Fouchy); J. B. J. Delambre, _Hist. de l'astronomie au
XVIII^e siècle_, pp. 319, 533; Max. Marie, _Hist. des sciences_, vii.
254; Lalande, Bibl. astr. p. 385; and _Le Nécrologe des hommes
célèbres de France_ (1770). The records of Delisle's observations at
St Petersburg are preserved in manuscript at the Pulkowa observatory.
A report upon them was presented to the St Petersburg academy of
sciences by O. Struve in 1848, and those relating to occultations of
the Pleiades were discussed by Carl Linsser in 1864. See also S.
Newcomb, _Washington Observations_ for 1875, app. ii. pp. 176-189.
(A. M. C.)
DELISLE, LÉOPOLD VICTOR (1826- ), French bibliophile and historian, was
born at Valognes (Manche) on the 24th of October 1826. At the École des
Chartes, where his career was remarkably brilliant, his valedictory
thesis was an _Essai sur les revenus publics en Normandie au XII^e
siècle_ (1849), and it was to the history of his native province that he
devoted his early works. Of these the _Études sur la condition de la
classe agricole et l'état de l'agriculture en Normandie au moyen âge_
(1851), condensing an enormous mass of facts drawn from the local
archives, was reprinted in 1905 without change, and remains
authoritative. In November 1852 he entered the manuscript department of
the Bibliothèque Impériale (Nationale), of which in 1874 he became the
official head in succession to Jules Taschereau. He was already known as
the compiler of several invaluable inventories of its manuscripts. When
the French government decided on printing a general catalogue of the
printed books in the Bibliothèque, Delisle became responsible for this
great undertaking and took an active part in the work; in the preface to
the first volume (1897) he gave a detailed history of the library and
its management. Under his administration the library was enriched with
numerous gifts, legacies and acquisitions, notably by the purchase of a
part of the Ashburnham MSS. Delisle proved that the bulk of the MSS. of
French origin which Lord Ashburnham had bought in France, particularly
those bought from the bookseller Barrois, had been purloined by Count
Libri, inspector-general of libraries under King Louis Philippe, and he
procured the repurchase of the MSS. for the library, afterwards
preparing a catalogue of them entitled _Catalogue des MSS. des fonds
Libri et Barrois_ (1888), the preface of which gives the history of the
whole transaction. He was elected member of the Académie des
Inscriptions et Belles Lettres in 1859, and became a member of the staff
of the _Recueil des historiens de la France_, collaborating in vols.
xxii. (1865) and xxiii. (1876) and editing vol. xxiv. (1904), which is
valuable for the social history of France in the 13th century. The
jubilee of his fifty years' association with the Bibliothèque Nationale
was celebrated on the 8th of March 1903. After his retirement (February
21, 1905) he brought out in two volumes a catalogue and description of
the printed books and MSS. in the Musée Condé at Chantilly, left by the
due d'Aumale to the French Institute. He produced many valuable official
reports and catalogues and a great number of memoirs and monographs on
points connected with palaeography and the study of history and
archaeology (see his _Mélanges de paléographie et de bibliographie_
(1880) with atlas; and his articles in the _Album paléographique_
(1887). Of his purely historical works special mention must be made of
his _Mémoire sur les actes d'Innocent III_ (1857), and his _Mémoire sur
les opérations financières des Templiers_ (1889), a collection of
documents of the highest value for economic history. The thirty-second
volume of the _Histoire littéraire de la France_, which was partly his
work, is of great importance for the study of 13th and 14th century
Latin chronicles. Delisle was undoubtedly the most learned man in Europe
with regard to the middle ages; and his knowledge of diplomatics,
palaeography and printing was profound. His output of work, in
catalogues, &c., was enormous, and his services to the Bibliothèque
Nationale in this respect cannot be overestimated. His wife, a daughter
of Eugène Burnouf, was for many years his collaborator.
The _Bibliographie des travaux de L. Delisle_ (1902), by Paul Lacombe,
may be consulted for a full list of his numerous works.
DELITZSCH, FRANZ (1813-1890), German Lutheran theologian and
orientalist, of Jewish descent, was born at Leipzig on the 23rd of
February 1813. He studied theology and oriental languages in the
university of his native town, and in 1850 was appointed professor
ordinarius of theology at Erlangen, where the school of theologians
became almost as famous as that of Tübingen. In 1867 he accepted a call
to Leipzig, where he died on the 4th of March 1890. Delitzsch was a
strict Lutheran. "By the banner of our Lutheran confession let us
stand," he said in 1888; "folding ourselves in it, let us die" (T. K.
Cheyne, _Founders_, p. 160). Greatly interested in the Jews, he longed
ardently for their conversion to Christianity; and with a view to this
he edited the periodical _Saat auf Hoffnung_ from 1863, revived the
"Institutum Judaicum" in 1880, founded a Jewish missionary college for
the training of theologians, and translated the _New Testament_ into
Hebrew. He acquired such a mastery of post-biblical, rabbinic and
talmudic literature that he has been called the "Christian Talmudist."
Though never an advanced critic, his article on Daniel in the second
edition of Herzog's _Realencyklopädie_, his _New Commentary on Genesis_
and the fourth edition of his _Isaiah_ show that as years went on his
sympathy with higher criticism increased--so much so indeed that Prof.
Cheyne has included him among its founders.
He wrote a number of very valuable commentaries on _Habakkuk_ (1843),
_Genesis_ (1852, 4th ed. 1872), _Neuer Kommentar über die Genesis_
(1887, Eng. trans. 1888, &c.), _Psalms_ (4th ed. 1883, Eng. trans. 1886,
&c.), _Job_ (2nd ed., 1876), _Isaiah_ (4th ed. 1889, Eng. trans. 1890,
&c.), _Proverbs_ (1873), _Epistle to the Hebrews_ (1857, Eng. trans.
1865, &c.), _Song of Songs and Ecclesiastes_ (4th ed., 1875). Other
works are _Geschichte der jüd. Poesie_ (1836); _Jesus und Hillel_ (1867,
3rd ed. 1879); _Handwerkerleben zur Zeit Jesu_ (1868, 3rd ed. 1878, Eng.
trans. in the "Unit Library," 1902); _Ein Tag in Kapernaum_ (1871, 3rd
ed. 1886); _Poesieen aus vormuhammedanischer Zeit_ (1874); _Iris,
Farbenstudien und Blumenstücke_ (1888, Eng. trans. 1889); _Messianische
Weissagungen in geschichtlicher Folge_ (1890, 2nd ed. 1898). His Hebrew
_New Testament_ reached its eleventh edition in 1891, and his popular
devotional work _Das Sakrament des wahren Leibes und Blutes Jesu
Christi_ its seventh edition in 1886.
His son, FRIEDRICH DELITZSCH (b. 1850), became well known as professor
of Assyriology in Berlin, and the author of many books of great research
and learning, especially on oriental philology. Among other works of
importance he wrote _Wo lag das Paradies?_ (1881), and _Babel und Bibel_
(1902, 1903, Eng. trans. 1903).
DELITZSCH, a town of Germany, in the Prussian province of Saxony, on the
Lober, an affluent of the Mulde, 12 m. north of Leipzig at the junction
of the railways, Bitterfeld-Leipzig and Halle-Cottbus. Pop. (1905)
10,479. Its public buildings comprise an old castle of the 14th century
now used as a female penitentiary, a Roman Catholic and three Protestant
churches, a normal college (_Schullehrerseminar_) established in 1873
and several other educational institutions. Besides _Kuhschwanz_, a
peculiar kind of beer, it manufactures tobacco, cigars, shoes and
hosiery; and coal-mining is carried on in the neighbourhood, It was the
birthplace of the naturalist Christian Gottfried Ehrenberg (1795-1876),
and the political economist Hermann Schulze-Delitzsch (1808-1883), to
the latter of whom a statue has been erected. Originally a settlement of
the Sorbian Wends, and in the 12th century part of the possessions of
the bishops of Merseburg, Delitzsch ultimately passed to the
Saxe-Merseburg family, and, on their extinction in 1738, was
incorporated with Electoral Saxony.
DELIUS, NIKOLAUS (1813-1888), German philologist and Shakespearean
scholar, was born at Bremen on the 19th of September 1813. He was
educated at Bonn and Berlin, and took the degree of doctor in philosophy
in 1838. After travelling for some time in England, France and Germany,
he returned to Bonn in 1846, where in 1855 he was appointed professor of
Sanskrit, Provençal and English literature, a post he held until his
death, which took place at Bonn on the 18th of November 1888. His
greatest literary achievement was his scholarly edition of Shakespeare
(1854-1861). He also edited Wace's _St Nicholas_ (1850), a volume of
Provençal songs (1853), and published a _Shakspere-Lexikon_ (1852). His
original works include: _Über das englische Theaterwesen zu Shaksperes
Zeit_ (1853), _Gedichte_ (1853), _Der sardinische Dialekt des
dreizehnten Jahrhunderts_ (1868), and _Abhandlungen zu Shakspere_ (two
series, 1878 and 1888). As a critic of Shakespeare's text he stands in
the first rank.
See the biographical notice by J. Schipper in _Englische Studien_,
vol. 14.
DELLA BELLA, STEFANO (1610-1664), Italian engraver, was born at
Florence. He was apprenticed to a goldsmith; but some prints of Callot
having fallen into his hands, he began to turn his attention entirely
towards engraving, and studied the art under Canta Gallina, who had also
been the instructor of Callot. By the liberality of Lorenzo de' Medici
he was enabled to spend three years in study at Rome. In 1642 he went to
Paris, where Cardinal Richelieu engaged him to go to Arras and make
drawings of the siege and taking of that town by the royal army. After
residing a considerable time at Paris he returned to Florence, where he
obtained a pension from the grand duke, whose son, Cosmo, he instructed
in drawing. His productions were very numerous, amounting to over 1400
separate pieces.
DELLA CASA, GIOVANNI (1503-1556), Italian poet, was born at Mugillo, in
Tuscany, in 1503. He studied at Bologna, Florence and Rome, and by his
learning attracted the patronage of Alexander Farnese, who, as Pope Paul
III., made him nuncio to Florence, where he received the honour of being
elected a member of the celebrated academy, and then to Naples, where
his oratorical ability brought him considerable success. His reward was
the archbishopric of Benevento, and it was believed that it was only his
openly licentious poem, _Capitoli del forno_, and the fact that the
French court seemed to desire his elevation, which prevented him from
being raised to a still higher dignity. He died in 1556. Casa is chiefly
remarkable as the leader of a reaction in lyric poetry against the
universal imitation of Petrarch, and as the originator of a style,
which, if less soft and elegant, was more nervous and majestic than that
which it replaced. His prose writings gained great reputation in their
own day, and long afterwards, but are disfigured by apparent straining
after effect, and by frequent puerility and circumlocution. The
principal are--in Italian, the famous _Il Galateo_ (1558), a treatise of
manners, which has been translated into several languages, and in Latin,
_De officiis_, and translations from Thucydides, Plato and Aristotle.
A complete edition of his works was published at Florence in 1707, to
which is prefixed a life by Casotti. The best edition is that of
Venice, 1752.
DELLA COLLE, RAFFAELLINO, Italian painter, was born at Colle, near Borgo
San Sepolcro, in Tuscany, about 1490. A pupil of Raphael, whom he is
held to have assisted in the Farnesina and the Vatican, Della Colle,
after his master's death, was the assistant of his chief scholar, Giulio
Romano, at Rome and afterwards at Mantua. In 1536, on the occasion of
the entry of Charles V. into Florence, he took service in that city
under Vasari. In his later years Della Colle resided at Borgo San
Sepolcro, where he kept a school of design; among his many pupils of
note may be mentioned Gherardi and Vecchi. His works, which are to be
found at Urbino, at Perugia, at Pesaro and at Gubbio, are fine examples
of the Roman school of Raphael. The best are a painting of the Almighty
supported by angels, a Resurrection and an Assumption, all preserved in
churches at Borgo San Sepolcro.
DELLA GHERARDESCA, UGOLINO (c. 1220-1289), count of Donoratico, was the
head of the powerful family of Gherardesca, the chief Ghibelline house
of Pisa. His alliance with the Visconti, the leaders of the Guelph
faction, through the marriage of his sister with Giovanni Visconti,
judge of Gallura, aroused the suspicions of his party, and the
Ghibellines being then predominant in Pisa, the disorders in the city
caused by Ugolino and Visconti in 1271-1274 led to the arrest of the
former and the banishment of the latter. Visconti died soon afterwards,
and Ugolino, no longer regarded as dangerous, was liberated and
banished. But he immediately began to intrigue with the Guelph towns
opposed to Pisa, and with the help of Charles I. of Anjou (q.v.)
attacked his native city and forced it to make peace on humiliating
terms, pardoning him and all the other Guelph exiles. He lived quietly
in Pisa for some years, although working all the time to extend his
influence. War having broken out between Pisa and Genoa in 1284, Count
Ugolino was given the command of a division of the Pisan fleet. It was
by his flight--usually attributed to treachery--that the fortunes of the
day were decided and the Pisans totally defeated at La Meloria (October
1284). But the political ability which he afterwards displayed led to
his being appointed _podestà_ for a year and _capitano del popolo_ for
ten years. Florence and Lucca took advantage of the Pisan defeat to
attack the republic, but Ugolino succeeded in pacifying them by ceding
certain castles. He was however less anxious to make peace with Genoa,
for the return of the Pisan prisoners, including most of the leading
Ghibellines, would have diminished his power. He was now the most
influential man in Pisa, and was preparing to establish his absolute
sovereignty, when for some reason not clearly understood he was forced
to share his power with his nephew Nino Visconti, son of Giovanni. The
duumvirate did not last, and the count and Nino soon quarrelled. Then
Ugolino tried to consolidate his position by entering into negotiations
with the archbishop, Ruggieri degli Ubaldini, the leader of the
Ghibellines. But that party having revived once more, the archbishop
obliged both Nino and Ugolino to leave the city, and had himself elected
_podestà_ and _capitano del popolo_. However, he allowed Ugolino to
return soon afterwards, and was even ready to divide the government of
the city with him, although he refused to admit his armed followers. The
count, determined to be sole master, attempted to get his followers into
the city by way of the Arno, and Ruggieri, realizing the danger, aroused
the citizens, accusing Ugolino of treachery for having ceded the
castles, and after a day's street fighting (July 1, 1288), Gherardesca
was captured and immured together with his sons Gaddo and Uguccione, and
his grandsons Nino (surnamed _il Brigata_) and Anselmuccio, in the Muda,
a tower belonging to the Gualandi family; here they were detained for
nine months, and then starved to death.
The historic details of the episode are still involved in some
obscurity, and although mentioned by Villani and other writers, it owes
its fame entirely to Dante, who placed Ugolino and Ruggieri in the
second ring (_Antenora_) of the lowest circle of the _Inferno_ (canto
xxxii. 124-140 and xxxiii. 1-90). This terrible but magnificent passage,
which includes "thirty lines unequalled by any other thirty lines in the
whole dominion of poetry" (Landor), has been paraphrased by Chaucer in
the "Monk's Tale" and more recently by Shelley. But the reason why Dante
placed Ugolino among the traitors is not by any means clear, as the
flight from La Meloria was not regarded as treachery by any writer
earlier than the 16th century, although G. del Noce, in _Il Conte U.
della Gherardesca_ (Città di Castello, 1894), states that that was the
only motive; Bartoli, in vol. vi. of his _Storia della Letteratura
italiana_, suggests Ugolino's alliance with the Ghibellines as the
motive. The cession of the castles was not treachery but an act of
necessity, owing to the desperate conditions of Pisa.
BIBLIOGRAPHY.--Besides the above-quoted works see P. Tronci, _Annali
Pisani_ (2 vols., Pisa, 1868-1871); S. de Sismondi, _Histoire des
républiques italiennes_ (Brussels, 1838); also the various annotated
editions of Dante, especially W. W. Vernon's _Readings from the
Inferno_, vol. ii. (2nd ed., London, 1905). (L. V.*)
DELLA PORTA, GIOVANNI BATTISTA (c. 1538-1615), Italian natural
philosopher, was born of a noble and ancient family at Naples about the
year 1538. He travelled extensively not only in Italy but also in France
and Spain, and he was still a youth when he published _Magia naturalis,
sive de miraculis rerum naturalium lib. IV._ (1558), the first draft of
his _Magia naturalis_, in twenty books, published in 1589. He founded in
Naples the Academia Secretorum Naturae, otherwise known as the Accademia
dei Oziosi; and in 1610 he became a member of the Accademia dei Lincei
at Rome. He died at Naples on the 4th of February 1615.
The following is a list of his principal writings:--_De miraculis rerum
naturalium_, in four books (1558); _De furtivis litterarum notis_, in
five books (1563, and frequently afterwards, entitling him to high rank
among the early writers on cryptography); _Phytognomonica_ (1583, a
bulky treatise on the physiology of plants as then understood); _Magia
naturalis_ (1589, and often reprinted); _De humana physiognomonia_, in
six books (1591); _Villa_, in twelve books (1592, an interesting
practical treatise on farming, gardening and arboriculture, based upon
his own observations at his country-seat near Naples); _De refractione,
optices parte_, in nine books (1593); _Pneumatica_, in three books
(1601); _De coelesti physiognomonia_, in six books (1601); _Elementa
curvilinea_ (1601); _De distillatione_, in nine books (1604); _De
munitione_, in three books (1608); and _De aëris transmutationibus_, in
four books (1609). He also wrote several Italian comedies _Olimpia_
(1589); _La Fantesca_ (1592); _La Trappolaria_ (1597); _I' Due Fratelli
rivali_ (1601); _La Sorella_ (1607); _La Chiappinaria_ (1609); _La
Carbonaria_ (1628); _La Cintia_ (1628). Among all the above-mentioned
works the chief interest attaches to the _Magia naturalis_, in which a
strange medley of subjects is discussed, including the reproduction of
animals, the transmutation of metals, pyrotechny, domestic economy,
statics, hunting, the preparation of perfumes. In book xvii. he
describes a number of optical experiments, including a description of
the camera obscura (q.v.).
DELLA QUERCIA, or DELLA FONTE, JACOPO (1374-1438), Italian sculptor, was
born at Siena. He was the son of a goldsmith of repute, Pietro d'Agnolo,
to whom he doubtless owed much of his training. There are no records of
his early life until the year 1394, when he made an equestrian statue of
Gian Tedesco. He is next heard of at Florence in 1402, when he was one
of six artists who submitted designs for the great gates of the
baptistery, in which competition Ghiberti was the victor. From Florence
he seems to have gone to Lucca, where in 1406 he executed one of his
finest works, the monument of Ilaria del Caretto, wife of Paolo Guinigi.
It is uncertain if he visited Ferrara in 1408; but at the end of that
year he was engaged in negotiations which resulted in his acceptance of
the commission for the famous Fonte Gaia, at Siena, early in 1409. This
work was not seriously begun by him until 1414, and was only finished in
1419. In 1858 the remains of the fountain were removed to the Opera del
Duomo, where they are now preserved; a copy of the original by Sarrocchi
being erected on the site. After another visit to Lucca in 1422, he
returned to Siena, and in March 1425 undertook the contract for the
doors of S. Petronio, Bologna. He is known, in following years, to have
been to Milan, Verona, Ferrara and Venice; but the rest of his life was
chiefly divided between his native city and Bologna. In 1430 he finished
the great font of S. Giovanni at Siena, which he had begun in 1417,
contributing himself only one of the bas-reliefs, "Zacharias in the
Temple," the others being by Ghiberti, Donatello and other sculptors.
Among the work known to have been done by Jacopo, may be mentioned also
the reliefs of the _predella_ of the altar of S. Frediano at Lucca
(1422); and the Bentivoglio monument which was unfinished at the time
of his death on the 20th of October 1438. Jacopo della Quercia's work
exercised a powerful influence on that of the artists of the later
Italian Renaissance. He himself reflects not a little of the Gothic
spirit, admirably intermixed with some of the best qualities of
neo-classicism. He was an artist whose powers have hardly yet received
the recognition they undoubtedly deserve.
See C. Cornelius, _Jacopo della Quercia: eine Kunsthistorische Studie_
(1896), and works relating generally to the arts in Siena.
(E. F. S.)
DELLA ROBBIA, the name of a family of great distinction in the annals of
Florentine art. Its members are enumerated in chronological order
below.[1]
I. LUCA DELLA ROBBIA (1399 or 1400[2]-1482) was the son of a Florentine
named Simone di Marco della Robbia. According to Vasari, whose account
of Luca's early life is little to be trusted, he was apprenticed to the
silversmith Leonardo di Ser Giovanni, who from 1355 to 1371 was working
on the grand silver altar frontal for the cathedral at Pistoia (q.v.);
this, however, appears doubtful from the great age which it would give
to Leonardo, and it is more probable that Luca was the pupil of
Ghiberti. During the early part of his life Luca executed many important
and exceedingly beautiful pieces of sculpture in marble and bronze. In
technical skill he was quite the equal of Ghiberti, and, while
possessing all Donatello's vigour, dramatic power and originality, he
very frequently excelled him in grace of attitude and soft beauty of
expression. No sculptured work of the great 15th century ever surpassed
the singing gallery which Luca made for the cathedral at Florence
between 1431 and 1440, with its ten magnificent panels of singing angels
and dancing boys, far exceeding in beauty those which Donatello in 1433
sculptured for the opposite gallery in the same choir. This splendid
work is now to be found in the Museo del Duomo. The general effect of
the whole can also be seen at the Victoria and Albert Museum, where a
complete cast is fixed to the wall. The same museum possesses a study in
_gesso duro_ for one of the panels, which appears to be the original
sketch by Luca's own hand.
In May 1437 Luca received a commission from the signoria of Florence to
execute five reliefs for the north side of the campanile, to complete
the series begun by Giotto and Andrea Pisano. These panels are so much
in the earlier style of Giotto that we must conclude that he had left
drawings from which Luca worked. They have representative figures chosen
to typify grammar, logic, philosophy, music, and science,--the last
represented by Euclid and Ptolemy.[3] In 1438 Luca in association with
Donatello received an order for two marble altars for chapels in the
cathedral. The reliefs from one of them--St Peter's Deliverance from
Prison and his Crucifixion--are now in the Bargello. It is probable that
these altars were never finished. A tabernacle for the host, made by
Luca in 1442, is now at Peretola, near Florence, in the church of S.
Maria. A document in the archives of S. Maria Nuova at Florence shows
that he received for this 700 florins 1 lira 16 soldi (about £1400 of
modern money). In 1437 Donatello received a commission to cast a bronze
door for one of the sacristies of the cathedral; but, as he delayed to
execute this order, the work was handed over to Luca on the 28th of
February 1446, with Michelozzo and Maso di Bartolomeo as his assistants.
Part of this wonderful door was cast in 1448, and the last two panels
were finished by Luca in 1467, with bronze which was supplied to him by
Verrocchio.[4] The door is divided into ten square panels, with small
heads in the style of Ghiberti projecting from the framing. The two top
subjects are the Madonna and Child and the Baptist, next come the four
Evangelists, and below are the four Latin Doctors, each subject with
attendant angels. The whole is modelled with perfect grace and dignified
simplicity; the heads throughout are full of life, and the treatment of
the drapery in broad simple folds is worthy of a Greek sculptor of the
best period of Hellenic art. These exquisite reliefs are perfect models
of plastic art, and are quite free from the over-elaboration and too
pictorial style of Ghiberti. Fig. 1 shows one of the panels.
[Illustration: FIG. 1.--Bronze Relief of one of the Latin Doctors, from
the sacristy door in the cathedral of Florence, by Luca.]
The most important existing work in marble by Luca (executed in
1454-1456) is the tomb of Benozzo Federighi, bishop of Fiesole,
originally placed in the church of S. Pancrazio at Florence, but removed
to S. Francesco di Paola on the Bellosguardo road outside the city in
1783. In 1898 it was again removed to the church of SS. Trinita in
Florence. A very beautiful effigy of the bishop in a restful pose lies
on a sarcophagus sculptured with graceful reliefs of angels holding a
wreath which contains the inscription. Above are three-quarter length
figures of Christ between St John and the Virgin, of conventional type.
The whole is surrounded by a rectangular frame formed of painted tiles
of exquisite beauty, but out of keeping with the memorial. On each tile
is painted, with enamel pigments, a bunch of flowers and fruit in
brilliant realistic colours, the loveliness of which is very hard to
describe. Though the bunch of flowers on each is painted on one slab,
the ground of each tile is formed of separate pieces, fitted together
like a kind of mosaic, probably because the pigment of the ground
required a different degree of heat in firing from that needed for the
enamel painting of the centre. The few other works of this class which
exist do not approach the beauty of this early essay in tile painting,
on which Luca evidently put forth his utmost skill and patience.
In the latter part of his life Luca was mainly occupied with the
production of terra-cotta reliefs covered with enamel, a process which
he improved upon, but did not invent, as Vasari asserts. The _rationale_
of this process was to cover the clay relief with an enamel formed of
the ordinary ingredients of glass (_marzacotto_), made white and opaque
by oxide of tin. (See CERAMICS: _Italian Majolica_.) Though Luca was not
the inventor of the process, yet he extended its application to fine
sculptured work in terra-cotta, so that it is not unnaturally known now
as Della Robbia ware; it must, however, be remembered that by far the
majority of these reliefs which in Italy and elsewhere are ascribed to
Luca are really the work of some of the younger members of the family or
of the _atelier_ which they founded. Comparatively few exist which can
with certainty be ascribed to Luca himself. Among the earliest of these
are medallions of the four Evangelists in the vault of Brunelleschi's
Pazzi chapel in S. Croce. These fine reliefs are coloured with various
metallic oxides in different shades of blue, green, purple, yellow and
black. It has often been asserted that the very polychromatic reliefs
belong to Andrea or his sons, and that Luca's were all in pure white, or
in white and blue; this, however, is not the case; colours were used as
freely by Luca as by his successors. A relief in the Victoria and Albert
Museum furnishes a striking example of this and is of especial value
from its great size, and also because its date is known. This is an
enormous medallion containing the arms of René of Anjou and other
heraldic devices; it is surrounded by a splendidly modelled wreath of
fruit and flowers, especially apples, lemons, oranges and fir cones, all
of which are brilliantly coloured. This medallion was set up on the
façade of the Pazzi Palace to commemorate René's visit to Florence in
1442. Other reliefs by Luca, also in glazed terra-cotta, are those of
the Ascension and Resurrection in the tympani of the doors of the
sacristies in the cathedral, executed in 1443 and 1446. Other existing
works of Luca in Florence are the tympanum reliefs of the Madonna
between two Angels in the Via dell' Agnolo, a work of exquisite beauty,
and another formerly over the door of S. Pierino del Mercato Vecchio,
but now removed to the Bargello (No. 29). The only existing statues by
Luca are two lovely enamelled figures of kneeling angels holding
candlesticks, now in the canons' sacristy.[5] A very fine work by Luca,
executed between 1449 and 1452, is the tympanum relief of the Madonna
and four Monastic Saints over the door of S. Domenico at Urbino.[6] Luca
also made the four coloured medallions of the Virtues set in the vault
over the tomb of the young cardinal-prince of Portugal in a side chapel
of S. Miniato in Florence (see ROSSELLINO). By Luca also are various
polychromatic medallions outside Or San Michele.[7] One of his chief
decorative works which no longer exists was a small library or study for
Piero de' Medici, wholly lined with enamelled plaques and reliefs.[8]
The Victoria and Albert Museum possesses twelve circular plaques of
majolica ware painted in blue and white with the Occupations of the
Months; these have been attributed to Luca, under the idea that they
formed part of the decoration of this room, but their real origin is
doubtful.
In 1471 Luca was elected president of the Florentine Gild of Sculptors,
but he refused this great honour on account of his age and infirmity. It
shows, however, the very high estimation in which he was held by his
contemporaries. He died on the 20th of February 1482, leaving his
property to his nephews Andrea and Simone.[9] His chief pupil was his
nephew Andrea, and Agostino di Duccio, who executed many pieces of
sculpture at Rimini, and the graceful but mannered marble reliefs of
angels on the façade of S. Bernardino at Perugia, may have been one of
his assistants.[10] Vasari calls this Agostino Luca's brother, but he
was not related to him at all.
II. ANDREA DELLA ROBBIA (1435-1525), the nephew and pupil of Luca,
carried on the production of the enamelled reliefs on a much larger
scale than his uncle had ever done; he also extended its application to
various architectural uses, such as friezes and to the making of lavabos
(lavatories), fountains and large retables. The result of this was that,
though the finest reliefs from the workshop of Andrea were but little if
at all inferior to those from the hand of Luca, yet some of them, turned
out by pupils and assistants, reached only a lower standard of merit.
Only one work in marble by Andrea is known, namely, an altar in S. Maria
delle Grazie near Arezzo, mentioned by Vasari (ed. Milanesi, ii. p.
179), and still well preserved.
[Illustration: FIG. 2.--Enamelled Clay Relief of Virgin and Child, by
Andrea.]
One variety of method was introduced by Andrea in his enamelled work;
sometimes he omitted the enamel on the face and hands (nude parts) of
his figures, especially in those cases where he had treated the heads in
a realistic manner; as, for example, in the noble tympanum relief of the
meeting of St Domenic and St Francis in the loggia of the Florentine
hospital of S. Paolo,--a design suggested by a fresco of Fra Angelico's
in the cloister of St Mark's. One of the most remarkable works by Andrea
is the series of medallions with reliefs of Infants in white on a blue
ground set on the front of the foundling hospital at Florence. These
lovely child-figures are modelled with wonderful skill and variety, no
two being alike. Andrea produced, for gilds and private persons, a large
number of reliefs of the Madonna and Child varied with much invention,
and all of extreme beauty of pose and sweetness of expression. These are
frequently framed with realistic yet decorative garlands of fruit and
flowers painted with coloured enamels, while the main relief is left
white. Fig. 2 shows a good example of these smaller works. The hospital
of S. Paolo, near S. Maria Novella, has also a number of fine medallions
with reliefs of saints, two of Christ Healing the Sick, and two fine
portraits, under which are white plaques inscribed--"DALL ANNO 1451 ALL
ANNO 1495"[11]; the first of these dates is the year when the hospital
was rebuilt owing to a papal brief sent to the archbishop of Florence.
Arezzo possesses a number of fine enamelled works by Andrea and his
sons--a retable in the cathedral with God holding the Crucified Christ,
surrounded by angels, and below, kneeling figures of S. Donato and S.
Bernardino; also in the chapel of the Campo Santo is a fine relief of
the Madonna and Child with four saints at the sides. In S. Maria in
Grado is a very noble retable with angels holding a crown over a
standing figure of the Madonna; a number of small figures of worshippers
take refuge in the folds of the Virgin's mantle, a favourite motive for
sculpture dedicated by gilds or other corporate bodies. Perhaps the
finest collection of works of this class is at La Verna, not far from
Arezzo (see Vasari, ed. Milanesi, ii. p. 179). The best of these, three
large retables with representations of the Annunciation, the
Crucifixion, and the Madonna giving her Girdle to St Thomas, are
probably the work of Andrea himself, the others being by his sons. In
1489 Andrea made a beautiful relief of the Virgin and two Angels, now
over the archive-room door in the Florentine Opera del Duomo; for this
he was paid twenty gold florins (see Cavallucci, _S. Maria del Fiore_).
In the same year he modelled the fine tympanum relief over a door of
Prato cathedral, with a half-length figure of the Madonna between St
Stephen and St Lawrence, surrounded by a frame of angels' heads.
In 1491 he was still working at Prato, where many of his best reliefs
still exist. A fine bust of S. Lino exists over the side door of the
cathedral at Volterra, which is attributed to Andrea. Other late works
of known date are a magnificent bust of the Protonotary Almadiano, made
in 1510 for the church of S. Giovanni de' Fiorentini at Viterbo, now
preserved in the Palazzo Communale there, and a medallion of the Virgin
in Glory, surrounded by angels, made in 1505 for Pistoia cathedral.[12]
The latest work attributed to Andrea, though apparently only a workshop
production of 1515, is a relief representing the Adoration of the Magi,
made for a little church, St Maria, in Pian di Mugnone, near
Florence.[13] Portions of this work are still in the church, but some
fragments of it are at Oxford.
III., IV. Five of Andrea's seven sons worked with their father, and
after his death carried on the Robbia fabrique; the dates of their birth
are shown in the table on p. 838 _ante_. Early in life two of them came
under the influence of Savonarola, and took monastic orders at his
Dominican convent; these were MARCO, who adopted the name of Fra Luca,
and PAOLO, called Fra Ambrogio. One relief by the latter, a Nativity
with four life-sized figures of rather poor work, is in the Cappella
degli Spagnuoli in the Sienese convent of S. Spirito; a MS. in the
convent archives records that it was made in 1504.
V. The chief existing work known to be by the second LUCA[14] is the
very rich and beautiful tile pavement in the uppermost story of
Raphael's loggie at the Vatican, finely designed and painted in
harmonious majolica colours. This was made by Luca at Raphael's request
and under his supervision in 1518.[15] It is still in very fine
preservation.
VI. GIOVANNI DELLA ROBBIA (1460-1529?) during a great part of his life
worked as assistant to his father, Andrea, and in many cases the
enamelled sculpture of the two cannot be distinguished. Some of
Giovanni's independent works are of great merit, especially the earlier
ones; during the latter part of his life his reliefs deteriorated in
style, owing mainly to the universal decadence of the time. A very large
number of pieces of Robbia ware which are attributed to Andrea, and even
to the elder Luca, were really by the hand of Giovanni. One of his
finest works is a large retable at Volterra in the church of S.
Girolamo, dated 1501; it represents the Last Judgment, and is remarkable
for the fine modelling of the figures, especially that of the archangel
Michael, and a nude kneeling figure of a youth who has just risen from
his tomb. Quite equal in beauty to anything of his father's, from whom
the design of the figures was probably taken, is the washing-fountain in
the sacristy of S. Maria Novella at Florence, made in 1497.[16] It is a
large arched recess with a view of the seashore, not very decorative in
style, painted on majolica tiles at the back. There are also two very
beautiful painted majolica panels of fruit-trees let into the lower
part. In the tympanum of the arch is a very lovely white relief of the
Madonna between two Adoring Angels (see fig. 3). Long coloured garlands
of fruit and flowers are held by nude boys reclining on the top of the
arch and others standing on the cornice. All this part is of enamelled
clay, but the basin of the fountain is of white marble. Neither Luca nor
Andrea was in the habit of signing his work, but Giovanni often did so,
usually adding the date, probably because other potters had begun to
imitate the Robbia ware.[17]
[Illustration: FIG. 3.--Relief of Madonna and Angels in the tympanum of
the lavabo (S. Maria Novella, Florence), by Giovanni.]
Giovanni lacked the original talent of Luca and Andrea, and so he not
only copied their work but even reproduced in clay the marble sculpture
of Pollaiuolo, Da Settignano, Verrocchio and others. A relief by him,
evidently taken from Mino da Fiesole, exists in the Palazzo Castracane
Staccoli. Among the very numerous other works of Giovanni are a relief
in the wall of a suppressed convent in the Via Nazionale at Florence,
and two reliefs in the Bargello dated 1521 and 1522. That dated 1521 is
a many-coloured relief of the Nativity, and was taken from the church of
S. Girolamo in Florence; it is a too pictorial work, marred by the use
of many different planes. Its predella has a small relief of the
Adoration of the Magi, and is inscribed "Hoc opus fecit Ioaes Andee de
Robia, ac a posuit hoc in tempore die ultima lulli ANO. DNI. M.D. XXI."
At Pisa in the Campo Santo is a relief in Giovanni's later and poorer
manner dated 1520; it is a Madonna surrounded by angels, with saints
below--the whole overcrowded with figures and ornaments. Giovanni's
largest and perhaps finest work is the polychromatic frieze on the
outside of the Del Ceppo hospital at Pistoia, for which he received
various sums of money between 1525 and 1529, as is recorded in documents
which still exist among the archives of the hospital.[18] The subjects
of this frieze are the Seven Works of Mercy, forming a continuous band
of sculpture in high relief, well modelled and designed in a very broad
sculpturesque way, but disfigured by the crudeness of some of its
colouring. Six of these reliefs are by Giovanni, namely, Clothing the
Naked, Washing the Feet of Pilgrims, Visiting the Sick, Visiting
Prisoners, Burying the Dead, and Feeding the Hungry. The seventh, Giving
drink to the Thirsty, was made by Filippo Paladini of Pistoia in 1585;
this last is simply made of painted stucco. The large figures of the
virtues placed between the scenes, and the medallions between the
pillars, are the work of assistants or imitators.
A large octagonal font of enamelled clay, with pilasters at the angles
and panels between them with scenes from the life of the Baptist, in the
church of S. Leonardo at Cerreto Guidi, is a work of the school of
Giovanni; the reliefs are pictorial in style and coarse in execution.
Giovanni's chief pupil was a man named Benedetto Buglioni (1461-1521),
and a pupil of his, one Santi Buglioni (b. 1494), entered the Robbia
workshops in 1521, and assisted in the later works of Giovanni.
VII. GIROLAMO DELLA ROBBIA (1488-1566), another of Andrea's sons, was an
architect and a sculptor in marble and bronze as well as in enamelled
clay. During the first part of his life he, like his brothers, worked
with his father, but in 1528 he went to France and spent nearly forty
years in the service of the French Royal family. Francis I. employed him
to build a palace in the Bois de Boulogne called the Château de Madrid.
This was a large well-designed building, four storeys high, two of them
having open loggie in the Italian fashion. Girolamo decorated it richly
with terra-cotta medallions, friezes and other architectural
features.[19] For this purpose he set up kilns at Suresnes. Though the
palace itself has been destroyed, drawings of it exist.[20]
The best collections of Robbia ware are in the Florentine Bargello,
Accademia and Museo del Duomo; the Victoria and Albert Museum (the
finest out of Italy); the Louvre, the Cluny and the Berlin Museums;
while fine examples are to be found in New York, Boston, St Petersburg
and Vienna. Many fine specimens exist in private collections in England,
France, Germany and the United States. The greater part of the Robbia
work still remains in the churches and other buildings of Italy,
especially in Florence, Fiesole, Arezzo, La Verna, Volterra, Barga,
Montepulciano, Lucca, Pistoia, Prato and Siena.
LITERATURE.--H. Barbet de Jouy, _Les della Robbia_ (Paris, 1855); W.
Bode, _Die Künstlerfamilie della Robbia_ (Leipzig, 1878); "Luca della
Robbia ed i suoi precursori in Firenze," _Arch. stor. dell' arte_
(1899); "Über Luca della Robbia," _Sitzungsbericht von der Berliner
kunstgeschichtlichen Gesellschaft_ (1896); _Florentiner Bildhauer der
Renaissance_ (Berlin, 1902); G. Carocci, _I Dintorni de Firenze_
(Florence, 1881); "Il Monumento di Benozzo Federighi," _Arte e Storia_
(1894); "Opere Robbiane poco noti," _Arte e storia_ (1898, 1899);
Cavallucci et Molinier, _Les della Robbia_ (Paris, 1884); Maud
Crutwell, _Luca and Andrea della Robbia and their Successors_ (London,
1902); A. du Cerceau, _Les plus excellents bastiments de France_
(Paris, 1586); G. Milanesi, _Le Vite scritte da Vasari_ (Florence,
1878); M. Reymond, _Les della Robbia_ (Florence, 1897); _La Sculpture
Florentine_ (Florence, 1898); I. B. Supino, _Catalogo del R. Museo di
Firenze_ (Rome 1898); Vasari (see Milanesi's edition).
(J. H. M.; W. B.*)
FOOTNOTES:
[1] Genealogical tree of Della Robbia sculptors:--
Simone di Marco.
|
+----------------+------------------+
| |
Marco. Luca
| (1400-1482).
Andrea
(1435-1525).
|
+------+-------+------------+-------------+------------+
| | | | |
Girolamo Luca Paolo Giovanni Marco
(1488-1566), (1475-1550?), (1470-?), (1469-1529?), (1468-?),
worked mostly worked in Dominican worked Dominican
in France. Florence monk. mainly in monk.
and Rome. Florence.
[2] Not 1388, as Vasari says. See a document printed by Gaye,
_Carteggio inedito_, i. pp. 182-186.
[3] Vasari is not quite right in his account of these reliefs: he
speaks of Euclid and Ptolemy as being in different panels.
[4] See Cavallucci, _S. Maria del Fiore_, pt. ii. p. 137.
[5] The Victoria and Albert Museum possesses what seem to be fine
replicas of these statues.
[6] The document in which the order for this and the price paid for
it are recorded is published by Yriarte, _Gaz. d. beaux arts_, xxiv.
p. 143.
[7] One of these medallions, that of the Physicians, is now removed
to the inside of the church.
[8] It is fully described by Filarete in his _Trattato dell'
architectura_, written in 1464, and therefore was finished before
that date; see also Vasari, ed. Milanesi (Florence, 1880), ii. p.
174.
[9] His will, dated 19th February 1471, is published by Gaye, _Cart.
ined._ i. p. 185.
[10] In the works of Perkins and others on Italian sculpture these
Perugian reliefs are wrongly stated to be of enamelled clay.
[11] Professor Marquand has discovered, beneath 1451, the inscription
Prete Benino, and, under 1495, De Benini; probably the names of the
governors of the hospital at these dates.
[12] See Gualandi, _Memorie risguardanti le belle arti_ (Bologna,
1845), vi. pp. 33-35, where original documents are printed recording
the dates and prices paid for these and other works of Andrea.
[13] See a document printed by Milanesi in his Vasari, ii. p. 180.
[14] It appears certain that this Luca was a layman and not the Fra
Luca referred to above.
[15] It is illustrated by Gruner, _Fresco Decorations of Italy_
(London, 1854), pl. iv.; see also Müntz, _Raphaël, sa vie_, &c.
(Paris, 1881), p. 452, note i., and Vasari, ed. Milanesi, ii. p. 182.
[16] See a document printed by Milanesi in his Vasari, ii. 193.
[17] Examples of these imitations are a retable in S. Lucchese near
Poggibonsi dated 1514, another of the Madonna and Saints at Monte San
Savino of 1525, and a third in the Capuchin church of Arceria near
Sinigaglia; they are all inferior to the best works of the Robbia
family, though some of them may have been made by assistants trained
in the Robbia workshops.
[18] The hospital itself was begun in 1514.
[19] The Sèvres Museum possesses some fragments of these decorations.
[20] See Laborde, _Château de Madrid_ (Paris, 1853), and _Comptes des
bâtiments du roi_ (Paris, 1877-1880), in which a full account is
given of Girolamo's work in connexion with this palace.
DELMEDIGO, a Cretan Jewish family, of whom the following are the most
important:
ELIJAH DELMEDIGO (1460-1497), philosopher, taught in several Italian
centres of learning. He translated some of Averroes' commentaries into
Latin at the instigation of Pico di Mirandola. In the sphere of
religion, Delmedigo represents the tendency to depart from the
scholastic attitude in which religion and philosophy were identified.
His most important work was devoted to this end; it was entitled
_Behinath ha-Dath_ (Investigation of Religion).
JOSEPH SOLOMON DELMEDIGO (1591-1655), pupil of Galileo, wrote many books
on science and philosophy, and bore a considerable part in initiating
the critical movement in Judaism. He belonged to the sceptical school,
and though his positive contributions to literature were not of lasting
worth, Graetz includes him among the important formative influences
within the synagogue of the 17th century. (I. A.)
DELMENHORST, a town of Germany, grand duchy of Oldenburg, on the Delme,
8 m. by rail W. from Bremen, at the junction of a line to Vechta. Pop.
(1905) 20,147. It has a Protestant and a Roman Catholic church, and is
the seat of considerable industries; notably wool-combing, weaving,
jute-spinning and the manufacture of linoleum. Delmenhorst was founded
in 1230, and from 1247 to 1679, when it was destroyed by the French, was
protected by a strong castle.
DELOLME, JEAN LOUIS (1740-1806), Swiss jurist and constitutional writer,
was born at Geneva in 1740. He studied for the bar, and had begun to
practise when he was obliged to emigrate on account of a pamphlet
entitled _Examen de trois parts de droit_, which gave offence to the
authorities of the town. He took refuge in England, where he lived for
several years on the meagre and precarious income derived from
occasional contributions to various journals. In 1775 he found himself
compelled to accept aid from a charitable society to enable him to
return home. He died at Sewen, a village in the canton of Schwyz, on the
16th of July 1806.
During his protracted exile in England Delolme made a careful study of
the English constitution, the results of which he published in his
_Constitution de l'Angleterre_ (Amsterdam, 1771), of which an enlarged
and improved edition in English appeared in 1772, and was several times
reprinted. The work excited much interest as containing many acute
observations on the causes of the excellence of the English constitution
as compared with that of other countries. It is, however, wanting in
breadth of view, being written before the period when constitutional
questions were treated in a scientific manner. Along with a translation
of Hume's _History of England_ it supplied the _philosophes_ with most
of their ideas about the English constitution. It thus was used somewhat
as a political pamphlet. Several editions were published after the
author's death. Delolme also wrote in English _Parallel between the
English Government and the former Government of Sweden_ (1772); A
_History of the Flagellants_ (1782), based upon a work of Boileau's; _An
Essay on the Union of Scotland with England_ (1787), and one or two
smaller works.
DELONEY (or DELONE), THOMAS, English ballad-writer and pamphleteer,
produced his earliest indisputable work in 1586, and died about 1600. In
1596 Thomas Nashe, in his _Have with you to Saffron Walden_, wrote:
"Thomas Deloney, the ballating silk-weaver, hath rime enough for all
myracles, and wit to make a Garland of Good Will more than the premisses
... and this deare yeare, together with the silencing of his looms,
scarce that, he being constrained to betake himself to carded ale;
whence it proceedeth that since Candlemas, or his jigge, John for the
king, not one merrie dittie will come from him, but, the Thunderbolt
against Swearers,--Repent, England, Repent--and, the strange Judgements
of God." In 1588 the coming of the Armada inspired him for three
broadsides, which were reprinted (1860) by J. O. Halliwell-Phillipps.
They are entitled "The Queenes visiting of the Campe at Tilsburie with
her entertainment there," "A Joyful new Ballad, declaring the happie
obtaining of the great Galleazzo ...," and "A new Ballet of the straunge
and Most cruell Whippes which the Spaniards had prepared." A collection
of _Strange Histories_ (1607) consists of historical ballads by Deloney,
with some poems from other hands. This collection, known in later and
enlarged editions as _The Royal Garland of Love and Delight_ and _The
Garland of Delight_, contains the ballad of Fair Rosamond. J. H. Dixon
in his preface to _The Garland of Good Will_ (Percy Society, 1851)
ascribes to Deloney _The Blind Beggar of Bednall Green_, and _The
Pleasant and sweet History of Patient Grissel_, in prose, with the whole
of the _Garland of Good Will_, including some poems such as "The Spanish
Lady's Love" generally supposed to be by other hands. His other works
include _The Gentle Craft_ (1597) in praise of shoemakers, _The Pleasant
Historie of John Winchecombe_ (8th ed., 1619), and _Thomas of Reading or
the Sixe Worthie Yeomen of the West_ (earliest extant edition, 1612).
Kempe, the actor, jeers at these histories in his _Nine Daies Wonder_,
but they were very popular, being reprinted as penny chap-books.
DE LONG, GEORGE WASHINGTON (1844-1881), American explorer, was born in
New York city on the 22nd of August 1844. He graduated at the U.S. Naval
Academy in 1865, and spent the next fourteen years in naval service in
various parts of the world, attaining the rank of lieutenant in 1869,
and lieutenant-commander in 1879. In 1873 he took part in the voyage of
the "Juniata," sent to search for and relieve the American Arctic
expedition under Hall in the "Polaris," commanding a steam launch which
was sent out from Upernivik, Greenland, to make a thorough search of
Melville Bay. On his return to New York the same year he proposed to
James Gordon Bennett, of _The New York Herald_, that the latter should
fit out a Polar expedition. It was not until 1879 that the final
arrangements were made, the "Pandora," a yacht which had already made
two Arctic voyages under Sir Allen Young, being purchased and
rechristened the "Jeannette" for this voyage. The story of this
expedition (see POLAR REGIONS) is chiefly remarkable on account of the
long and helpless drifting of the "Jeannette" with the polar ice-pack in
which she was caught (September 5, 1879) and by which she was finally
crushed and sunk on the 13th of June 1881. The members of the expedition
set out in three boats, one of which was lost in a gale, while another
boat-load under De Long died from starvation after reaching the mouth of
the Lena river. He was the last survivor of his party. His journal, in
which he made regular entries up to the day on which he died (October
30, 1881) was edited by his wife and published in 1883 under the title
_Voyage of the "Jeannette"_; and an account of the search which was made
for him and his comrades by his heroic companion George W. Melville, who
was chief engineer of the expedition and commanded the third of the
retreating parties, was published a year later under the title of _In
the Lena Delta_. The fate of the "Jeannette" was still more remarkable
in its sequel. Three years after she had sunk several articles belonging
to her crew were found on an ice-floe near Julianshaab on the south-west
coast of Greenland; thus adding fresh evidence to the theory of a
continuous ocean current passing across the unknown Polar regions, which
was to be finally demonstrated by Nansen's voyage in the "Fram." By
direction of the United States government, the remains of De Long and
his companions were brought home and interred with honour in his native
city.
DELORME, MARION (c. 1613-1650), French courtesan, was the daughter of
Jean de Lou, sieur de l'Orme, president of the treasurers of France in
Champagne, and of Marie Chastelain. She was born at her father's château
near Champaubert. Initiated into the philosophy of pleasure by the
epicurean and atheist Jacques Vallée, sieur Desbarreaux, she soon left
him for Cinq Mars, at that time at the height of his popularity, and
succeeded, it is said, in marrying him in secret. From this time Marion
Delorme's salon became one of the most brilliant centres of elegant
Parisian society. After the execution of Cinq Mars she is said to have
numbered among her lovers Charles de St Evremond (1610-1703) the wit and
littérateur, Buckingham (Villiers), the great Condé, and even Cardinal
Richelieu. Under the Fronde her salon became a meeting place for the
disaffected, and Mazarin is said to have sent to arrest her when she
suddenly died. Her last years have been adorned with considerable legend
(cf. Merecourt, _Confessions de Marie Delorme_, Paris, 1856). It seems
established that she died in 1650. But she was believed to have lived
until 1706 or even 1741, after having had the most fantastic adventures,
including marriage with an English lord, and an old age spent in poverty
in Paris. Her name has been popularized by various authors, especially
by Alfred de Vigny in his novel _Cinq Mars_, by Victor Hugo in the drama
_Marion Delorme_, and by G. Bottesini in an opera of the same title.
See P. J. Jacob, _Marion Delorme et Ninon Lenclos_ (Paris, 1859); J.
Peladan, _Histoire et légende de Marion de Lorme_ (Paris, 1882).
DE L'ORME, PHILIBERT (c. 1510-1570), French architect, one of the great
masters of the Renaissance, was born at Lyons, the son of Jehan de
L'Orme, who practised the same art and brought his son up to it. At an
early age Philibert was sent to Italy to study (1533-1536) and was
employed there by Pope Paul III. Returning to France he was patronized
by Cardinal du Bellay at Lyons, and was sent by him about 1540 to
Paris, where he began the Château de St Maur, and enjoyed royal favour;
in 1545 he was made architect to Francis I. and given the charge of
works in Brittany. In 1548 Henry II. gave him the supervision of
Fontainebleau, Saint-Germain and the other royal buildings; but on his
death (1559) Philibert fell into disgrace. Under Charles IX., however,
he returned to favour, and was employed to construct the Tuileries, in
collaboration with Jean Brillant. He died in Paris on the 8th of January
1570. Much of his work has disappeared, but his fame remains. An ardent
humanist and student of the antique, he yet vindicated resolutely the
French tradition in opposition to Italian tendencies; he was a man of
independent mind and a vigorous originality. His masterpiece was the
Château d'Anet (1552-1559), built for Diane de Poitiers, the plans of
which are preserved in Du Cerceau's _Plus excellens bastimens de
France_, though part of the building alone remains; and his designs for
the Tuileries (also given by Du Cerceau), begun by Catherine de' Medici
in 1565, were magnificent. His work is also seen at Chenonceaux and
other famous châteaux; and his tomb of Francis I. at St Denis remains a
perfect specimen of his art. He wrote two books on architecture (1561
and 1567).
See Marius Vachon, _Philibert de L'Orme_ (1887); Chevalier, _Lettres
et devis relatifs à la construction de Chenonceaux_ (1864); Pfror,
_Monographie du château d'Anet_ (1867); Herbet, _Travaux de P. de
L'Orme à Fontainebleau_ (1890).
DELOS (mod. _Mikra Dili_, or Little Delos, to distinguish it from Megali
Dili, or Great Delos), an island in the Aegean, the smallest but most
famous of the Cyclades, and, according to the ancient belief, the spot
round which the group arranged itself in a nearly circular form. It is a
rugged mass of granite, about 3 m. long and 1 m. to ½ m. broad, about ½
m. E. of Megali Dili or Rheneia, and 2 m. W. of Myconus. Towards the
centre it rises to its greatest height of 350 ft. in the steep and rocky
peak of Mount Cynthus, which, though overtopped by several eminences in
the neighbouring islands, is very conspicuous from the surrounding sea.
It is now completely destitute of trees, but it abounds with brushwood
of lentisk and cistus, and here and there affords a patch of corn-land
to the occasional sower from Myconus.
I. _Archaeology._--Excavations have been made by the French School at
Athens upon the island of Delos since 1877, chiefly by Th. Homolle. They
have proceeded slowly but systematically, and the method adopted, though
scientific and economical, left the site in some apparent confusion, but
the débris have more recently been cleared away to a considerable
extent. The complete plan of the sacred precinct of Apollo has been
recovered, as well as those of a considerable portion of the commercial
quarter of Hellenistic and Roman times, of the theatre, of the temples
of the foreign gods, of the temples on the top of Mount Cynthus, and of
several very interesting private houses. Numerous works of sculpture of
all periods have been found, and also a very extensive series of
inscriptions, some of them throwing much light upon the subject of
temple administration in Greece.
[Illustration: DELOS PRECINCT OF APOLLO.]
The most convenient place for landing is protected by an ancient mole;
it faces the channel between Delos and Rheneia, and is about opposite
the most northerly of the two little islands now called [Greek:
Rheumatiari]. From this side the sacred precinct of Apollo is approached
by an avenue flanked by porticoes, that upon the seaside bearing the
name of Philip V. of Macedon, who dedicated it about 200 B.C. This
avenue must have formed the usual approach for sacred embassies and
processions; but it is probable that the space to the south was not
convenient for marshalling them, since Nicias, on the occasion of his
famous embassy, built a bridge from the island of Hecate (the Greater
Rhevmatiari) to Delos, in order that the imposing Athenian procession
might not miss its full effect. Facing the avenue were the propylaea
that formed the chief entrance of the precinct of Apollo. They consisted
of a gate faced on the outside with a projecting portico of four
columns, on the inside with two columns _in antis_. Through this one
entered a large open space, filled with votive offerings and containing
a large exedra. The sacred road continued its course to the north-east
corner of this open space, with the precinct of Artemis on its west
side, and, on its east side, a terrace on which stood three temples. The
southernmost of these was the temple of Apollo, but only its back was
visible from this side. Though there is no evidence to show to whom the
other two were dedicated, the fact that they faced west seems to imply
that they were either dedicated to heroes or minor deities, or that they
were treasuries. Beyond them a road branches to the right, sweeping
round in a broad curve to the space in front of the temple of Apollo.
The outer side of this curve is bounded by a row of treasuries, similar
to those found at Delphi and Olympia, and serving to house the more
costly offerings of various islands or cities. The space to the east and
south of the temple of Apollo could also be approached directly from the
propylaea of entrance, by turning to the right through a passage-like
building with a porch at either end. Just to the north of this may be
seen the basis of the colossal statue of Apollo dedicated by the
Naxians, with its well-known archaic inscription; two large fragments of
the statue itself may still be seen a little farther to the north.
The temple of Apollo forms the centre of the whole precinct, which it
dominates by the height of its steps as well as of the terrace already
mentioned; its position must have been more commanding in ancient times
than it is now that heaps of earth and débris cover so much of the
level. The temple was of Doric style, with six columns at the front and
back and thirteen at the sides; it was built early in the 4th century
B.C.; little if any traces have been found of the earlier building which
it superseded. Its sculptural decoration appears to have been but
scanty; the metopes were plain. The groups which ornamented, as
acroteria, the two gables of the temple have been in part recovered, and
may now be seen in the national museum at Athens; at the one end was
Boreas carrying off Oreithyia, at the other Eos and Cephalus, the centre
in each case being occupied by the winged figure that stood out against
the sky--a variation on the winged Victories that often occupy the same
position on temples.
To the east of the space in front of the temple was an oblong building
of two chambers, with a colonnade on each side but not in front; this
may have been the Prytaneum or some other official building; beyond it
is the most interesting and characteristic of all the monuments of
Delphi. This is a long narrow hall, running from north to south, and
entered by a portico at its south end. At the north end was the famous
altar, built out of the horns of the victims, which was sometimes
reckoned among the seven wonders of the world. The rest of the room is
taken up by a paved space, surrounded by a narrow gangway; and on this
it is supposed that the [Greek: geranos] or stork-dance took place. The
most remarkable architectural feature of the building is the partition
that separated the altar from this long gallery; it consists of two
columns between _antae_, with capitals of a very peculiar form,
consisting of the fore parts of bulls set back to back; from these the
whole building is sometimes called the sanctuary of the bulls. Beyond
it, on the east, was a sacred wood filling the space up to the wall of
the precinct; and at the south end of this was a small open space with
the altar of Zeus Polieus.
At the north of the precinct was a broad road, flanked with votive
offerings and exedrae, and along the boundary were porticoes and
chambers intended for the reception of the [Greek: theôriai] or sacred
embassies; there are two entrances on this side, each of them through
extensive propylaea.
At the north-west corner of the precinct is a building of limestone, the
[Greek: pôrinos oikos] often mentioned in the inventories of the
treasures of the Delian shrine. South of it is the precinct of Artemis,
containing within it the old temple of the goddess; her more recent
temple was to the south of her precinct, opening not into it but into
the open space entered through the southern propylaea of the precinct of
Apollo. The older temple is mentioned in some of the inventories as "the
temple in which were the seven statues"; and close beside it was found a
series of archaic draped female statues, which was the most important of
its kind until the discovery of the finer and better preserved set from
the Athenian Acropolis.
Within the precinct there were found many statues and other works of
art, and a very large number of inscriptions, some of them giving
inventories of the votive offerings and accounts of the administration
of the temple and its property. The latter are of considerable interest,
and give full information as to the sources of the revenue and its
financial administration.
Outside the precinct of Apollo, on the south, was an open place; between
this and the precinct was a house for the priests, and within it, in a
kind of court, a set of small structures that may perhaps be identified
as the tombs of the Hyperborean maidens. Just to the east was the temple
of Dionysus, which is of peculiar plan, and faces the open place; on the
other side of it is a large rectangular court, surrounded by colonnades
and chambers which served as offices, the whole forming a sort of
commercial exchange; in the middle of it was a temple dedicated to
Aphrodite and Hermes.
To the north of the precinct of Apollo, between it and the sacred lake,
there are very extensive ruins of the commercial town of Delos; these
have been only partially cleared, but have yielded a good many
inscriptions and other antiquities. The most extensive building is a
very large court surrounded by chambers, a sort of club or exchange.
Beyond this, on the way to the east coast, are the remains of the new
and the old palaestra, also partially excavated.
The shore of the channel facing Rheneia is lined with docks and
warehouses, and behind them, as well as elsewhere in the island, there
have been found several private houses of the 2nd or 3rd century B.C.
Each of these consists of a single court surrounded by columns and often
paved with mosaic; various chambers open out of the court, including
usually one of large proportions, the [Greek: andrôn] or dining-room for
guests.
The theatre, which is set in the lower slope of Mount Cynthus, has the
wings of the auditorium supported by massive substructures. The most
interesting feature is the _scena_, which is unique in plan; it
consisted of an oblong building of two storeys, surrounded on all sides
by a low portico or terrace reaching to the level of the first floor.
This was supported by pillars, set closer together along the front than
at the sides and back. An inscription found in the theatre showed that
this portico, or at least the front portion of it, was called the
proscenium or logeum, two terms of which the identity was previously
disputed.
On the summit of Mount Cynthus, above the primitive cave-temple which
has always been visible, there have been found the remains of a small
precinct dedicated to Zeus Cynthius and Athena Cynthia. Some way down
the slope of the hill, between the cave-temple and the ravine of the
Inopus, is a terrace with the temples of the foreign gods, Isis and
Serapis, and a small odeum.
II. _History._--Many alternative names for Delos are given by tradition;
one of these, Ortygia, is elsewhere also assigned to an island sacred to
Artemis. Of the various traditions that were current among the ancient
Greeks regarding the origin of Delos, the most popular describes it as
drifting through the Aegean till moored by Zeus as a refuge for the
wandering Leto. It supplied a birthplace to Apollo and Artemis, who were
born beneath a palm tree beside its sacred lake, and became for ever
sacred to these twin deities. The island first appears in history as the
seat of a great Ionic festival to which the various Ionic states,
including Athens, were accustomed annually to despatch a sacred embassy,
or Theoria, at the anniversary of the birth of the god on the 7th of
Thargelion (about May). In the 6th century B.C. the influence of the
Delian Apollo was at its height; Polycrates of Samos dedicated the
neighbouring island of Rheneia to his service and Peisistratus of Athens
caused all the area within sight of the temple to be cleared of the
tombs by which its sanctity was impaired. After the Persian wars, the
predominance of Athens led to the transformation of the Delian
amphictyony into the Athenian empire. (See DELIAN LEAGUE.) In 426 B.C.,
in connexion with a reorganization of the festival, which henceforth was
celebrated in the third year of every Olympiad, the Athenians instituted
a more elaborate lustration, caused every tomb to be removed from the
island, and established a law that ever after any one who was about to
die or to give birth to a child should be at once conveyed from its
shores. And even this was not accounted sufficient, for in 422 they
expelled all its secular inhabitants, who were, however, permitted to
return in the following year. At the close of the Peloponnesian War the
Spartans gave to the people of Delos the management of their own
affairs; but the Athenian predominance was soon after restored, and
survived an appeal to the amphictyony of Delphi in 345 B.C. During
Macedonian times, from 322 to 166 B.C., Delos again became independent;
during this period the shrine was enriched by offerings from all
quarters, and the temple and its possessions were administered by
officials called [Greek: hieropoioi]. After 166 B.C. the Romans restored
the control of Delian worship to Athens, but granted to the island
various commercial privileges which brought it great prosperity. In 87
B.C. Menophanes, the general of Mithradates VI. of Pontus, sacked the
island, which had remained faithful to Rome. From this blow it never
recovered; the Athenian control was resumed in 42 B.C., but Pausanias
(viii. 33. 2) mentions Delos as deserted but for a few Athenian
officials; and several epigrams of the 1st or 2nd century A.D. attest
the same fact, though the temple and worship were probably kept up until
the official extinction of the ancient religion. A museum has now been
built to contain the antiquities found in the excavations; otherwise
Delos is now uninhabited, though during the summer months a few
shepherds cross over with their flocks from Myconus or Rheneia. As a
religious centre it is replaced by Tenos and as a commercial centre by
the flourishing port of Syra.
See Lebègue, _Recherches sur Délos_ (Paris, 1876). Numerous articles
in the _Bulletin de correspondance hellénique_ record the various
discoveries at Delos as they were made. See also Th. Homolle, _Les
Archives de l'intendance sacrée à Délos_ (with plan). The best
consecutive account is given in the _Guide Joanne, Grèce_, ii.
443-464. For history, see Sir R. C. Jebb, _Journal of Hellenic
Studies_, i. (1889), pp. 7-62. For works of art found at Delos see
GREEK ART. (E. Gr.)
DE LOUTHERBOURG, PHILIP JAMES (1740-1812), English artist, was born at
Strassburg on the 31st of October 1740, where his father, the
representative of a Polish family, practised miniature painting; but he
spent the greater part of his life in London, where he was naturalized,
and exerted a considerable influence on the scenery of the English
stage, as well as on the artists of the following generation. De
Loutherbourg was intended for the Lutheran ministry, and was educated at
the university of Strassburg. As the calling, however, was foreign to
his nature, he insisted on being a painter, and placed himself under
Vanloo in Paris. The result was an immediate and precocious development
of his powers, and he became a figure in the fashionable society of that
day. In 1767 he was elected into the French Academy below the age
required by the law of the institution, and painted landscapes, sea
storms, battles, all of which had a celebrity above those of the
specialists then working in Paris. His début was made by the exhibition
of twelve pictures, including "Storm at Sunset," "Night," "Morning after
Rain." He is next found travelling in Switzerland, Germany and Italy,
distinguishing himself as much by mechanical inventions as by painting.
One of these, showing quite new effects produced in a model theatre, was
the wonder of the day. The exhibition of lights behind canvas
representing the moon and stars, the illusory appearance of running
water produced by clear blue sheets of metal and gauze, with loose
threads of silver, and so on, were his devices. In 1771 he came to
London, and was employed by Garrick, who offered him £500 a year to
apply his inventions to Drury Lane, and to superintend the
scene-painting, which he did with complete success, making a new era in
the adjuncts of the stage. Garrick's own piece, the _Christmas Tale_,
and the pantomime, 1781-1782, introduced the novelties to the public,
and the delight not only of the masses, but of Reynolds and the artists,
was unbounded. The green trees gradually became russet, the moon rose
and lit the edges of passing clouds, and all the world was captivated by
effects we now take little notice of. A still greater triumph awaited
him on his opening an entertainment called the "Eidophusicon," which
showed the rise, progress and result of a storm at sea--that which
destroyed the great Indiaman, the "Halsewell,"--and the Fallen Angels
raising the Palace of Pandemonium. De Loutherbourg has been called the
inventor of the panorama, but this honour does not belong to him,
although it first appeared about the same time as the eidophusicon. The
first panorama was painted and exhibited by Robert Barker.
All this mechanism did not prevent De Loutherbourg from painting. "Lord
Howe's Victory off Ushant" (1794), and other large naval pictures were
commissioned for Greenwich Hospital Gallery, where they still remain.
His finest work was the "Destruction of the Armada." He painted also the
Great Fire of London, and several historical works, one of these being
the "Attack of the Combined Armies on Valenciennes" (1793). He was made
R.A., in addition to other distinctions, in 1781, shortly after which
date we find an entirely new mental impulse taking possession of him. He
joined Balsamo, comte de Cagliostro, and travelled about with this
extraordinary person--leaving him, however, before his condemnation to
death. We do not hear that Mesmer had attracted De Loutherbourg, nor do
we find an exact record of his connexion with Cagliostro. A pamphlet
published in 1789, _A List of a few Cures performed by Mr and Mrs De
Loutherbourg without Medicine_, shows that he had taken up
faith-healing, and there is a story that a successful projection of the
philosopher's stone was only spoiled by the breaking of the crucible by
a relative. He died on the 11th of March 1812. His publications are
few--some sets of etchings, and _English Scenery_ (1805).
DELPHI (the Pytho of Homer and Herodotus; in Boeotian inscriptions
[Greek: Belphoi], on coins [Greek: Dalphoi]), a place in ancient Greece
in the territory of Phocis, famous as the seat of the most important
temple and oracle of Apollo. It was situated about 6 m. inland from the
shores of the Corinthian Gulf, in a rugged and romantic glen, closed on
the N. by the steep wall-like under-cliffs of Mount Parnassus known as
the Phaedriades or Shining Rocks, on the E. and W. by two minor ridges
or spurs, and on the S. by the irregular heights of Mount Cirphis.
Between the two mountains the Pleistus flowed from east to west, and
opposite the town received the brooklet of the Castalian fountain, which
rose in a deep gorge in the centre of the Parnassian cliff. About 7 m.
to the north, on the side of Mount Parnassus, was the famous Corycian
cave, a large grotto in the limestone rock, which afforded the people of
Delphi a refuge during the Persian invasion. It is now called in the
district the Sarant' Aulai or Forty Courts, and is said to be capable of
holding 3000 people.
I. _The Site._--The site of Delphi was occupied by the modern village of
Castri until it was bought by the French government in 1891, and the
peasant proprietors expropriated and transferred to the new village of
Castri, a little farther to the west. Excavations had been made
previously in some parts of the precinct; for example, the portico of
the Athenians was laid bare in 1860. The systematic clearing of the site
began in the spring of 1892, and it was rapidly cleared of earth by
means of a light railway. The plan of the precinct is now easily traced,
and with the help of Pausanias many of the buildings have been
identified.
The ancient wall running east and west, commonly known as the Hellenico,
has been found extant in its whole length, and the two boundary walls
running up the hill at each end of it, traced. In the eastern of these
was the main entrance by which Pausanias went in along the Sacred Way.
This paved road is easily recognized as it zigzags up the hill, with
treasuries and the bases of various offerings facing it on both sides.
It mounts first westwards to an open space, then turns eastwards till it
reaches the eastern end of the terrace wall that supports the temple,
and then turns again and curves up north and then west towards the
temple. Above this, approached by a stair, are the Lesche and the
theatre, occupying respectively the north-east and north-west corner of
the precinct. On a higher level still, a little to the west, is the
stadium. There are several narrow paths and stairs that cut off the
zigzags of the Sacred Way.
In describing the monuments discovered by the French excavators, the
simplest plan is to follow the route of Pausanias. Outside the entrance
is a large paved court of Roman date, flanked by a colonnade. On the
north side of the Sacred Way, close to the main entrance, stood the
offering dedicated by the Lacedaemonians after the battle of
Aegospotami. It was a large quadrangular building of conglomerate, with
a back wall faced with stucco, and stood open to the road. On a stepped
pedestal facing the open stood the statues of the gods and the admirals,
perhaps in rows above one another.
The statues of the Epigoni stood on a semicircular basis on the south
side of the way. Opposite them stood another semicircular basis which
carried the statues of the Argive kings, whose names are cut on the
pedestal in archaic characters, reading from right to left. Farther west
was the Sicyonian treasury on the south of the way. It was in the form
of a small Doric temple _in antis_, and had its entrance on the east.
The present foundations are built of architectural fragments, probably
from an earlier building of circular form on the same site. The
sculptures from this treasury are in the museum, as are the other
sculptures found on the site. These sculptures, which are in rough
limestone, most likely belong to the earlier building, as their surface
is in a better state of preservation than could be possible if they had
been long exposed to the air. The earlier treasury was probably
destroyed either by earthquake or by the percolation of water through
the terracing.
[ILLUSTRATION: PRECINCT OF APOLLO AT DELPHI.]
The Cnidian treasury stands on the south side of the way farther west.
This building was originally surmised by the excavators to be the
treasury of Siphnos, but further evidence led them to change their
opinion. The treasury was raised on a quadrangular structure, supported
on its south side by the Hellenico, and built of tufa. The lower courses
are left rough and were most likely hidden. A small Ionic temple of
marble with two caryatids between antae stood on this substructure. The
sculpture from this treasury, which ornamented its frieze and pediment,
is of great interest in the history of the development of the art, and
the fragments of architectural mouldings are of great delicacy and
beauty. The whole work is perhaps the most perfect example we possess of
the transitional style of the early 5th century. Standing back somewhat
from the path just as it bends round up the hill is the Theban treasury.
Farther north, where the path turns again, is the Athenian treasury.
This structure, which was in the form of a small Doric temple _in
antis_, appears to have suffered from the building above it having been
shaken down by an earthquake. It has now been rebuilt with the original
blocks. There can be no doubt about the identity of the building, for
the basis on which it stands bears the remains of the dedicatory
inscription, stating that it was erected from the spoils of Marathon.
Almost all the sculptured metopes are in the museum, and are of the
highest interest to the student of archaic art. The famous inscriptions
with hymns to Apollo accompanied by musical notation were found on
stones belonging to this treasury.
Above the Athenian treasury is an open space, in which is a rock which
has been identified as the Sybil's rock. It has steps hewn in it, and
has a cleft. The ground round it has been left rough like the space on
the Acropolis at Athens identified as the ancient altar of Athena. Here
too was placed the curious column, with many flutes and an Ionic
capital, on which stood the colossal sphinx, dedicated by the Naxians,
that has been pieced together and placed in the museum.
A little farther on, but below the Sacred Way, is another open space, of
circular form, which is perhaps the [Greek: halôs] or sacred
threshing-floor on which the drama of the slaying of the Python by
Apollo was periodically performed. Opposite this space, and backed
against the beautifully jointed polygonal wall which has for some time
been known, and which supports the terrace on which the temple stands,
is the colonnade of the Athenians. A dedicatory inscription runs along
the face of the top step, and has been the subject of much dispute. Both
the forms of the letters and the style of the architecture show that the
colonnade cannot date, as Pausanias says, from the time of the
Peloponnesian War; Th. Homolle now assigns it to the end of the 6th
century. The polygonal terrace wall at the back, on being cleared,
proves to be covered with inscriptions, most of them concerning the
manumission of slaves.
After rounding the east end of the terrace wall, the Sacred Way turns
northward, leaving the Great Altar, dedicated by the Chians, on the
left. After passing the altar, it turns to the left again at right
angles, and so enters the space in front of the temple. Remains of
offerings found in this region include those dedicated by the Cyrenians
and by the Corinthians. The site of the temple itself carries the
remains of successive structures. Of that built by the Alcmaeonids in
the 6th century B.C. considerable remains have been found, some in the
foundations of the later temple and some lying where they were thrown by
the earthquake. The sculptures found have been assigned to this
building, probably to the gables, as they are archaic in character, and
show a remarkable resemblance to the sculptures from the pediment of the
early temple of Athena at Athens. The existing foundations are these of
the temple built in the 4th century. They give no certain information as
to the sacred cleft and other matters relating to the oracle. Though
there are great hollow spaces in the structure of the foundations, these
appear merely to have been intended to save material, and not to have
been put to any religious or other use. Up in the north-eastern corner
of the precinct, standing at the foot of the cliffs, are the remains of
the interesting Cnidian Lesche or Clubhouse. It was a long narrow
building accessible only from the south, and the famous paintings were
probably disposed around the walls so as to meet in the middle of the
north side. Some scanty fragments of the lower part of the frescoed
walls have survived; but they are not enough to give any information as
to the work of Polygnotus.
At the north-western corner of the precinct is the theatre, one of the
best preserved in Greece. The foundations of the stage are extant, as
well as the orchestra, and the walls and seats of the auditorium. There
are thirty-three tiers of seats in seven sets, and a paved diazoma. The
sculptures from the stage front, now in the museum, have the labours of
Heracles as their subject. The date of the theatre is probably early 2nd
century B.C.
The stadium lies, as Pausanias says, in the highest part of the city to
the north-west. It stands on a narrow plateau of ground supported on the
south-east by a terrace wall. The seats have been cleared, and are in a
state of extraordinary preservation. A few of those at the east end are
hewn in the rock. No trace of the marble seats mentioned by Pausanias
has been found, but they have probably been carried off for lime or
building, as they could easily be removed. An immense number of
inscriptions have been found in the excavations, and many works of art,
including a bronze charioteer, which is one of the most admirable
statues preserved from ancient times.
II. _History._--Our information as to the oracle at Delphi and the
manner in which it was consulted is somewhat confused; there probably
was considerable variation at different periods. The tale of a hole from
which intoxicating "mephitic" vapour arose has no early authority, nor
is it scientifically probable (see A. P. Oppé in _Journal of Hellenic
Studies_, xxiv. 214). The questions had to be given in writing, and the
responses were uttered by the Pythian priestess, in early times a
maiden, later a woman over fifty attired as a maiden. After chewing the
sacred bay and drinking of the spring Cassotis, which was conducted into
the temple by artificial channels, she took her seat on the sacred
tripod in the inner shrine. Her utterances were reduced to verse and
edited by the prophets and the "holy men" ([Greek: hosioi]). For the
influence and history of the oracle see ORACLE.
Delphi also contained the "Omphalos," a sacred stone bound with fillets,
supposed to mark the centre of the earth. It was said Zeus had started
two eagles from the opposite extremities and they met there. Other tales
said the stone was the one given by Rhea to Cronus as a substitute for
Zeus.
For the history of the Delphic Amphictyony see under AMPHICTYONY. The
oracle at Delphi was asserted by tradition to have existed before the
introduction of the Apolline worship and to have belonged to the goddess
Earth (Ge or Gaia). The Homeric Hymn to Apollo evidently combines two
different versions, one of the approach of Apollo from the north by
land, and the other of the introduction of his votaries from Crete. The
earliest stone temple was said to have been built by Trophonius and
Agamedes. This was destroyed by fire in 548 B.C., and the contract for
rebuilding was undertaken by the exiled Alcmaeonidae from Athens, who
generously substituted marble on the eastern front for the poros
specified (see CLEISTHENES, _ad init._). Portions of the pediments of
this temple have been found in the excavations; but no sign has been
found of the pediments mentioned by Pausanias, representing on the east
Apollo and the Muses, and on the west Dionysus and the Thyiades
(Bacchantes), and designed by Praxias, the pupil of Calanias. The temple
which was seen by Pausanias, and of which the foundations were found by
the excavators, was the one of which the building is recorded in
inscriptions of the 4th century. A raid on Delphi attempted by the
Persians in 480 B.C. was said to have been frustrated by the god
himself, by means of a storm or earthquake which hurled rocks down on
the invaders; a similar tale is told of the raid of the Gauls in 279
B.C. But the sacrilege thus escaped at the hands of foreign invaders was
inflicted by the Phocian defenders of Delphi during the Sacred War,
356-346 B.C., when many of the precious votive offerings were melted
down. The Phocians were condemned to replace their value to the amount
of 10,000 talents, which they paid in instalments. In 86 B.C. the
sanctuary and its treasures were put under contribution by L. Cornelius
Sulla for the payment of his soldiers; Nero removed no fewer than 500
bronze statues from the sacred precincts; Constantine the Great enriched
his new city by the sacred tripod and its support of intertwined snakes
dedicated by the Greek cities after the battle of Plataea. This still
exists, with its inscription, in the Hippodrome at Constantinople.
Julian afterwards sent Oribasius to restore the temple; but the oracle
responded to the emperor's enthusiasm with nothing but a wail over the
glory that had departed.
Provisional accounts of the excavations have appeared during the
excavations in the _Bulletin de correspondance hellénique_. A summary
is given in J. G. Frazer, _Pausanias_, vol. v. The official account is
entitled _Fouilles de Delphes_. For history see Hiller von Gärtringen
in Pauly-Wissowa, _Realencyclopädie, s.v._ "Delphi." For cult see L.
R. Farnell, _Cults of the Creek States_, iv. 179-218. For the works of
art discovered see GREEK ART. (E. Gr.)
DELPHINIA, a festival of Apollo Delphinius held annually on the 6th (or
7th) of the month Munychion (April) at Athens. All that is known of the
ceremonies is that a number of girls proceeded to his temple
(Delphinium) carrying suppliants' branches and seeking to propitiate
Apollo, probably as a god having influence on the sea. It was at this
time of year that navigation began again after the storms of winter.
According to the story in Plutarch (_Theseus_, 18), Theseus, before
setting out to Crete to slay the Minotaur, repaired to the Delphinium
and deposited, on his own behalf and that of his companions on whom the
lot had fallen, an offering to Apollo, consisting of a branch of
consecrated olive, bound about with white wool; after which he prayed to
the god and set sail. The sending of the maidens to propitiate the god
during the Delphinia commemorates this event in the life of Theseus.
See A. Mommsen, _Festeder Stadt Athen_ (1898); L. Preller,
_Griechische Mythologie_ (4th ed., 1887); P. Stengel, _Die griechische
Kultusaltertümer_ (1898); Daremberg and Saglio, _Dictionnaire des
antiquités_; G. F. Schömann, _Griechische Altertümer_ (4th ed.,
1897-1902).
DELPHINUS ("THE DOLPHIN"), in astronomy, a constellation of the northern
hemisphere, mentioned by Eudoxus (4th century B.C.) and Aratus (3rd
century B.C.); and catalogued by Ptolemy (10 stars), Tycho Brahe (10
stars), and Hevelius (14 stars), [Gamma] _Delphini_ is a double star: a
yellowish of magnitude 4, and a bluish of magnitude 5.
DELTA (from the shape of the Gr. letter [Delta], delta, originally used
of the mouth of the Nile), a tract of land enclosed by the diverging
branches of a river's mouth and the seacoast, and traversed by other
branches of the stream. This triangular tract is formed from the fine
silt brought down in suspension by a muddy river and deposited when the
river reaches the sea. When tidal currents are feeble, the delta
frequently advances some distance seawards, forming a local prolongation
of the coast.
DELUC, JEAN ANDRÉ (1727-1817), Swiss geologist and meteorologist, born
at Geneva on the 8th of February 1727, was descended from a family which
had emigrated from Lucca and settled at Geneva in the 15th century. His
father, François Deluc, was the author of some publications in
refutation of Mandeville and other rationalistic writers, which are best
known through Rousseau's humorous account of his ennui in reading them;
and he gave his son an excellent education, chiefly in mathematics and
natural science. On completing it he engaged in commerce, which
principally occupied the first forty-six years of his life, without any
other interruption than that which was occasioned by some journeys of
business into the neighbouring countries, and a few scientific
excursions among the Alps. During these, however, he collected by
degrees, in conjunction with his brother Guillaume Antoine, a splendid
museum of mineralogy and of natural history in general, which was
afterwards increased by his nephew J. André Deluc (1763-1847), who was
also a writer on geology. He at the same time took a prominent part in
politics. In 1768 he was sent to Paris on an embassy to the duc de
Choiseul, whose friendship he succeeded in gaining. In 1770 he was
nominated one of the Council of Two Hundred. Three years later
unexpected reverses in business made it advisable for him to quit his
native town, which he only revisited once for a few days. The change was
welcome in so far as it set him entirely free for scientific pursuits,
and it was with little regret that he removed to England in 1773. He was
made a fellow of the Royal Society in the same year, and received the
appointment of reader to Queen Charlotte, which he continued to hold
for forty-four years, and which afforded him both leisure and a
competent income. In the latter part of his life he obtained leave to
make several tours in Switzerland, France, Holland and Germany. In
Germany he passed the six years from 1798 to 1804; and after his return
he undertook a geological tour through England. When he was at
Göttingen, in the beginning of his German tour, he received the
compliment of being appointed honorary professor of philosophy and
geology in that university; but he never entered upon the active duties
of a professorship. He was also a correspondent of the Academy of
Sciences at Paris, and a member of several other scientific
associations. He died at Windsor on the 7th of November 1817.
His favourite studies were geology and meteorology. The situation of his
native country had naturally led him to contemplate the peculiarities of
the earth's structure, and the properties of the atmosphere, as
particularly displayed in mountainous countries, and as subservient to
the measurement of heights. According to Cuvier, he ranked among the
first geologists of his age. His principal geological work, _Lettres
physiques et morales sur les montagnes el sur l'histoire de la terre et
de l'homme_, first published in 1778, and in a more complete form in
1779, was dedicated to Queen Charlotte. It dealt with the appearance of
mountains and the antiquity of the human race, explained the six days of
the Mosaic creation as so many epochs preceding the actual state of the
globe, and attributed the deluge to the filling up of cavities supposed
to have been left void in the interior of the earth. He published later
an important series of volumes on geological travels in the north of
Europe (1810), in England (1811), and in France, Switzerland and Germany
(1813). These were translated into English.
Deluc's original experiments relating to meteorology were valuable to
the natural philosopher; and he discovered many facts of considerable
importance relating to heat and moisture. He noticed the disappearance
of heat in the thawing of ice about the same time that J. Black founded
on it his ingenious hypothesis of latent heat. He ascertained that water
was more dense about 40° F. (4° C.) than at the temperature of freezing,
expanding equally on each side of the maximum; and he was the originator
of the theory, afterward readvanced by John Dalton, that the quantity of
aqueous vapour contained in any space is independent of the presence or
density of the air, or of any other elastic fluid.
His _Recherches sur les modifications de l'atmosphère_ (2 vols. 4to,
Geneva, 1772; 2nd ed., 4 vols. 8vo, Paris, 1784) contains many accurate
and ingenious experiments upon moisture, evaporation and the indications
of hygrometers and thermometers, applied to the barometer employed in
determining heights. In the _Phil. Trans._, 1773, appeared his account
of a new hygrometer, which resembled a mercurial thermometer, with an
ivory bulb, which expanded by moisture, and caused the mercury to
descend. The first correct rules ever published for measuring heights by
the barometer were those he gave in the _Phil. Trans._, 1771, p. 158.
His _Lettres sur l'histoire physique de la terre_ (8vo, Paris, 1798),
addressed to Professor Blumenbach, contains an essay on the existence of
a General Principle of Morality. It also gives an interesting account of
some conversations of the author with Voltaire and Rousseau. Deluc was
an ardent admirer of Bacon, on whose writings he published two
works--_Bacon tel qu'il est_ (8vo, Berlin, 1800), showing the bad faith
of the French translator, who had omitted many passages favourable to
revealed religion, and _Précis de la philosophie de Bacon_ (2 vols. 8vo,
Paris, 1802), giving an interesting view of the progress of natural
science. _Lettres sur le Christianisme_ (Berlin and Hanover, 1801, 1803)
was a controversial correspondence with Dr Teller of Berlin in regard to
the Mosaic cosmogony. His _Traité élémentaire de géologie_ (8vo, Paris,
1809, also in English, by de la Fite, the same year) was principally
intended as a refutation of the Vulcanian system of Hutton and Playfair,
who deduced the changes of the earth's structure from the operation of
fire, and attributed a higher antiquity to the present state of the
continents than is required in the Neptunian system adopted by Deluc
after D. Dolomieu. He sent to the Royal Society, in 1809, a long paper
on separating the chemical from the electrical effect of the pile, with
a description of the electric column and aerial electroscope, in which
he advanced opinions so little in unison with the latest discoveries of
the day, that the council deemed it inexpedient to admit them into the
_Transactions_. The paper was afterwards published in Nicholson's
_Journal_ (xxvi.), and the dry column described in it was constructed by
various experimental philosophers. This dry pile or electric column has
been regarded as his chief discovery.
Many other of his papers on subjects kindred to those already
mentioned are to be found in the _Transactions_ and in the
_Philosophical Magazine_. See _Philosophical Magazine_ (November
1817).
DELUGE, THE (through the Fr. from Lat. _diluvium_, flood, _diluere_, to
wash away), a great flood or submersion of the earth (so far as the
earth was known to the narrators), or of heaven and earth, or simply of
heaven, by which, according to primitive and semi-primitive races, chaos
was restored. It is, of course, not meant that all the current flood
stories, as they stand, answer to this description. There are flood
stories which, at first sight, may plausibly be held to be only
exaggerated accounts of some ancient historical occurrences. The
probability of such traditions being handed down is, however, extremely
slight. If some flood stories are apparently local, and almost or quite
without mythical colouring, it may be because the original myth-makers
had a very narrow conception of the earth, and because in the lapse of
time the original mythic elements had dwindled or even disappeared. The
relics of the traditional story may then have been adapted by scribes
and priests to a new theory. Many deluge stories may in this way have
degenerated. It is at any rate undeniable that flood stories of the type
described above, and even with similar minor details, are fairly common.
A conspectus of illustrative flood stories from different parts of the
world would throw great light on the problems before us; see the article
COSMOGONY, especially for the North American tales, which show clearly
enough that the deluge is properly a second creation, and that the
serpent is as truly connected with the second chaos as with the first.
One of them, too, gives a striking parallel to the Babylonian name
Hasis-andra (the Very Wise), whence comes the corrupt form Xisuthrus;
the deluge hero of the Hare Indians is called Kunyan, "the intelligent."
Polynesia also gives us most welcome assistance, for its flood stories
still present clear traces of the primitive imagination that the sky was
a great blue sea, on which the sun, moon and stars (or constellations)
were voyagers. Greece too supplies some stimulus to thought, nor are
Iran and Egypt as unproductive as some have supposed. But the only
pauses that we can allow ourselves are in Hindustan, Babylonia and
Canaan. The peoples of these three countries, which are religiously so
prominent in antiquity, have naturally connected their name equally with
thoughts about earth production and earth destruction.
Indian Tradition.
The Indian tradition exists in several forms.[1] The earliest is
preserved in the Satapatha Brahmana. It is there related that Manu, the
first man, the son of the sun-god Vivasvat, found, in bathing, a small
fish, which asked to be tended, and in reward promised to save him in
the coming flood. The fish grew, and at last had to be carried to the
sea, where it revealed to Manu the time of the flood, and bade him
construct a ship for his deliverance. When the time came, Manu,
unaccompanied, went on board; the grateful fish towed the ship through
the water to the summit of the northern mountain, where it bade Manu
bind the vessel to a tree. Gradually, as the waters fell, Manu descended
the mountain; he then sacrificed and prayed. In a year's time his prayer
was granted. A woman appeared, who called herself his daughter Ida
(goddess of fertility). It is neither stated, nor even hinted, that sin
was the cause of the flood.
Another version occurs in the great epic, the Mahabharata. The lacunae
of the earlier story are here supplied. Manu, for instance, embarks with
the seven "rishis" or wise men, and takes with him all kinds of seed.
The fish announces himself as the God Brahman, and enables Manu to
create both gods and men. A third account is given in the Bhagavata
Purana. It contains the details of the announcement of the flood seven
days beforehand (cf. Gen. vii. 4) and of the taking of pairs of all
kinds of animals (cf. Gen. vi. 19), besides the seeds of plants (as the
epic; cf. Gen. vi. 21). This story, however, is a late composition, not
earlier than the 12th century A.D. A first glance at these stories is
somewhat bewildering. We shall return, however, to this problem later
with a good hope of mastering it.
Israelite and Babylonian.
The Israelite (Biblical) and the Babylonian deluge-stories remain to be
considered. Neither need be described here in detail; for the former see
Gen. vi. 5-ix. 17, and for the latter GILGAMESH. As most students are
aware, the Biblical deluge-story is composite, being made up of two
narratives, the few lacunae in which are due to the ancient redactor who
worked them together.[2] The narrators are conventionally known as J. (=
the Yahwist, from the divine name Yahweh) and P. (= the Priestly Writer)
respectively. It is important to notice that P., though chronologically
later than J., reproduces certain elements which must be archaic. For
instance, while J. speaks only of a rain-storm, P. states that "all the
fountains of the great ocean were broken up, and the windows of heaven
opened" (Gen. vii. 11), i.e. the lower and the upper waters met together
and produced the deluge. It is also P. who tells the story of the
appointment of the rainbow (Gen ix. 12-17), which is evidently ancient,
though only paralleled in a Lithuanian flood-story, and near it we find
the divine declaration (Gen. ix. 2-6) that the golden age of universal
peace (cf. Gen. i. 29, 30), already sadly tarnished, is over.[3] Surely
this too has a touch of the archaic; nor can we err in connecting it
with the tradition of man's first home in Paradise, where no enemy could
come, because, in the original form of the tradition, Paradise was the
abode of God. (See PARADISE.)
Berossus: four points.
The Babylonian tradition exists in two main forms,[4] nor can we affirm
that the shorter form, due to Berossus, is superseded by the larger one
in the Gilgamesh epic, for it communicates four important points: (1)
Xisuthrus, the hero of the deluge, was also the tenth Babylonian king;
cf. Noah, in P., the tenth patriarch as well as the survivor from the
deluge; (2) the destination of Xisuthrus is said to be "to the gods," a
statement which virtually records his divine character. In accordance
with this, the final reward of the hero is declared to be "living with
the gods." This suggests that Noah (?) may originally have been
represented as a supernatural man, a demigod. True, Gen. ix. 20, 21 is
not consistent with this, but it is very possible that Noah was
substituted by a scribe's error for Enoch,[5] who, like Xisuthrus,
"walked with God (learning the heavenly wisdom) and disappeared, for God
had taken him" (Gen. v. 22, 24); (3) the birds, when sent out by
Xisuthrus the second time, return with mud on their feet. This detail
reminds us of points in some archaic North American myths which probably
supply the key to its meaning;[6] (4) in the time of Berossus the
mountain on which the ark grounded was considered to be in Armenia.
Details on relation of Israelite story to Babylonian.
We pass on to the relation of J. and P. to the Babylonian story. (1) The
polytheistic colouring of the latter contrasts strongly with the far
simpler religious views of J. and P. Note the capricious character of
the god Bel who sends the deluge, while at the end of the story the
catastrophe is represented as a judgment upon human sins. It is the
latter view which is adopted by J. and P. We cannot, however, infer from
this that the narratives which doubtless underlie J. and P. were
directly taken from some such story as that in the Gilgamesh epic. The
theory of an indirect and unconscious borrowing on the part of the
Israelitish compilers will satisfy all the conditions of the case. (2)
In the general scheme the three accounts very nearly agree, for J. must
originally have contained directions as to the building of the vessel,
and a notice that the ark grounded on a certain mountain. P.'s omission
of the sacrifice at the close seems to be arbitrary. His theory of
religious history forbade a reference to an altar so early, but his
document must have contained it. J. expressly mentions it (Gen. viii.
20, 21), though not in such an original way as the cuneiform text. (3)
As to the directions for building the ship (epic) or chest (J. and P.).
Here the Babylonian story and P. have a strong general resemblance;
note, e.g., the mention of bitumen in both. Whether the Hebrew reference
to a chest (_tebah_) is, or is not, more archaic than the Babylonian
reference to a ship (_elippu_) is a question which admits of different
answers. (4) As to the material cause of the deluge. According to P.
(see above) the water came both from above and from below; J. only
speaks of continuous rain. The Gilgamesh epic, however, mentions besides
thunder, lightning and rain, a hurricane which drove the sea upon the
land. We can hardly regard this as more original than P.'s
representation. (5) As to the extent of the flood. From the opening of
the story in the epic we should naturally infer that only a single S.
Babylonian city was affected. The sequel, however, implies that the
flood extended all over Babylonia and the region of Nisir. More than
this can hardly be claimed. Similarly the earlier story which underlies
J. and P. need only have referred to the region of the myth-framers,
i.e. either Canaan or N. Arabia. (6) As to the duration of the flood the
traditions differ. P. reckons it at 365 days, i.e. a solar year, which
is parallel to the 365 years of the life of Enoch (who, as we have seen,
may have been the original hero of the flood). It is probable (see
below) that P.'s ultimate authority, far back in the centuries,
represented the deluge as a celestial occurrence. The origin of J.'s
story is not quite so clear, owing to the lacunae in the narrative. If
the text may be followed, this narrator made the flood last forty days
and nights, after which two periods of seven days elapse, and then the
patriarch leaves the ark. The epic shortens the duration of the flood to
seven days, after which the ship remains another seven days (more
strictly six full days) on the mountain of the land of Nisir (P., the
mountains of Ararat; J., unrecorded). (7) As to the despatch of the
birds. J. begins, the epic closes, with the raven. Clearly the epic is
more original. Besides, one of the two missions of the dove is evidently
superfluous. Dove, swallow, raven, as in the epic, must be more
primitive than raven, dove, dove.
That the Hebrew deluge-story in both its forms has been at least
indirectly influenced by the Babylonian is obvious. We cannot indeed
reconstruct the form either of the Canaanitish (or N. Arabian) story,
which was recast partly at least under the influence of a recast
Babylonian myth, nor can we conjecture where the sanctuary was, the
priests of which, yielding to a popular impulse, adopted and modified
the fascinating story. But the fact of the ultimate Babylonian origin of
the Israelitish narratives cannot seriously be questioned. The
Canaanites or the N. Arabians handed on at least a portion of their
myths to the Israelites, and the creation and deluge stories were among
these. That the Israelitish priests gradually recast them is an easy and
altogether satisfactory conjecture.
History and significance of deluge-myths.
It remains to ask, What is the history and significance of the
deluge-myth? The question carries us into far-off times. We have no
version of the Babylonian myth which goes back to about 2100 B.C., while
its text was apparently derived from a still older tablet. But even this
is not primitive; behind it there must have been a much shorter and
simpler myth. The recast represented by the existing versions of the
myth must have been produced partly by the insertion, partly by the
omission or modification, of mythic details, and by the application to
the story thus produced of a particular mythic theory respecting the
celestial world. The shorter myth referred to may--if we take hints from
the very primitive myths of N. America--have run somewhat thus,
omitting minor details: "The earth (a small enough earth, doubtless)
and its inhabitants proved so imperfect that the beneficent superhuman
Being, who had created it, or perhaps another such Being, determined to
remake it. He, therefore, summoned the serpent or dragon who controlled
the cosmic ocean, and had been subjugated at creation, to overwhelm the
earth, after which the creator remade it better,[7] and the survivor and
his family became the ancestors of a new human race."
This, however, is only one possible representation. It may have been
said that the serpent of his own accord, not having been killed by the
creator, maliciously flooded the earth (cf. the Algonquian myth), but
was again overcome in battle, or that the serpent, after filling the
earth with violence and wrong, was at length slain by the Good Being,
and that his blood, streaming, out, produced a deluge.[8] In any case it
is unnatural to hold that the first flood (that which preceded creation)
had a dragon, but not the second. An old cuneiform text, recopied late,
however, appears to call the year of the deluge (i.e. of what we here
call the second flood) "the year of the raging (or red-shining)
serpent,"[9] and certainly the N. American myths distinctly connect
serpents with the deluges.
Among the probable minor details (omitted above) of the presumed shorter
and older myth we may include: (1) the warning of "Very-Wise,"[10]
either by friendly animals or by a dream; (2) the construction of a
chest to contain "Very-Wise," his wife and his sons, together with
animals;[11] (3) the despatch of three birds with a special object (see
below); (4) the landing of the survivors on a mountain. As to (1),
Berossus suggests that the notice came to Xisuthrus in a dream; in the
Indian myth it is the sacred fish which warns Manu. In the archaic N.
American myths, however, it is some animal which gives the notice--an
eagle or a coyote (a kind of wolf). As to (2), nothing is more common
than the story of a divine child cast into the sea in a box.[12] The
ship-motive is also found,[13] but it is not too rash to assume that the
box-motive is the earlier, and, in accordance with the parallels, that
the hero of the deluge was originally a god or a demigod. The
translation of the hero to be with the gods is a transparent
modification of the original tradition. As to (3), the original object
of sending out the birds was probably not to find out where dry land
was, but to use them as helpers in the work of re-creation. Take the
story of the Tlatlasik Indians, where the diving-bird (one of three sent
out) comes back with a branch of a fir-tree, out of which O'meatl made
mountains, earth and heaven;[14] so, too, the Caingangs relate[15] that
those who escaped from the flood, as they tarried on a mountain, heard
the song of the _saracura_ birds, who came carrying earth in baskets,
and threw it into the waters, which slowly subsided. As to (4), the
mountain would naturally be thought of as a place of refuge even in the
old, simple flood-story. But when Babylonian mythology effected an
entrance, the mountain would receive a new and much grander
significance. It would then come to represent the summit of that great
and most holy mountain, which, save by the special favour of the gods,
no human eye has seen.
That a didactic element entered the deluge-tradition but slowly, may be
surmised, not only from the genuinely old N. American stories, but from
the inconsistent statements, to which Jastrow has already referred, in
the Babylonian story. We may imagine that between the creation and the
deluge some great and wise Being had initiated the early men, not only
in the necessary arts of life, but in the "ways" that were pleasing to
the heavenly powers. The Babylonians apparently think of neglected
sacrifices, the Australians of a desecrated mystery as the cause of the
flood. Some such violation of a sacred rule is the origin that naturally
occurs to an adapter or expander of primitive myths.
Celestial myth theory.
And now as to the application of the celestial mythic theory to the
early deluge-story. In the agricultural stage it was natural that men
should take a deeper interest than before in the appearance of the sky,
and especially of the sun and moon, and of the constellations, even
though an astrological science or quasi-science would very slowly, if at
all, grow up. That the Polynesian myths (which show no vestige of
science) originally referred to the supposed celestial ocean, seems to
be plain. Schirren[16] regarded the New Zealand cosmogonies as myths of
sunrise, and the deluge-stories as myths of sunset. We may at any rate
plausibly hold, with the article "Deluge" (by Cheyne) in the ninth
edition of this work[17] (1877), that the deluge-stories of Polynesia
and early Babylonia (we may now probably add India) were accommodated to
an imaginative conception of the sun and moon as voyagers on the
celestial ocean. "When this story had been told and retold a long time,
rationalism suggested that the sea was not in heaven but on earth, and
observation of the damage wrought in winter by excessive rains and the
inundations of great rivers suggested the introduction of corresponding
details into the new earthly deluge-myth." "This accounts for the
strongly mythological character of Par-napishti (Ut-napishti) in
Babylonia and Maui in New Zealand, who are in fact solar personages.
Enoch, too, must be classed in this category, his perfect righteousness
and superhuman wisdom now first become intelligible. Moreover, we now
comprehend how the goddess Sabitu (the guardian of the entrance to the
sea) can say to Gilgamesh (himself a solar personage), 'Shamash the
mighty (i.e. the sun-god) has crossed the sea; besides (?) Shamash, who
can cross it?' For though the sea in the epic is no doubt the
earth-circling ocean, it was hardly this in the myth from which the
words were taken."[18] And, what is still more important, we can
understand better how, in the Gilgamesh epic (lines 115-116), the gods,
after cowering like dogs, go up to the "heaven of Ana." They, too, fear
the deluge, and only in the highest heaven can they feel themselves
secure.
Such an explanation seems indispensable if the wide influence of the
Babylonian form of the deluge-myth is to be accounted for. As Gunkel
well remarks,[19] neither the tenacity and self-propagating character of
this myth, nor the solemn utterance of Yahweh (who corresponds to the
Babylonian Marduk) in Gen. viii. 21_b_ (J.) and ix. 8-17 (P.) can be
understood, if the deluge-story is nothing more than an exaggerated
account of a historical, earthly occurrence. We, therefore, venture to
hold that it is an insufficient account to give of the story in the
Gilgamesh epic that it is a combination of a local tradition of the
destruction of a single city with a myth of the destruction of
mankind--a myth exaggerated in its present form, but based on accurate
knowledge of the yearly recurring phenomenon of the overflow of the
Euphrates.[20] There are no doubt points in the story as it now stands
which indicate a composite origin, but it is probable that even the
tradition which apparently limits the destruction to a single city,
equally with many other local flood-stories, has a basis in what we may
fairly call a celestial myth.
Indian myth reconsidered.
We can now return with some confidence to the Indian deluge-story. It is
unlikely that so richly gifted a race as the Aryans of India should not
have produced their own flood-story out of the same primeval germs which
grew up into the earliest Babylonian flood-story,[21] and almost
inconceivable that in its second form the Indian story should not have
become adapted to what may be called the celestial mythic theory. The
phrase "the northern mountain" for the place where the ship grounded may
quite well be the name of an earthly substitute (the epic has "the
highest summit of the Himalaya") for the mythic mountain of heaven. Nor
is it unimportant that Manu is the son of the sun-god, and that the
phrase "the seven rishis" in classical Sanskrit is a designation of the
seven stars of the Great Bear. For such problems all that we can hope
for is a probable solution. The opposite view[22] that the deluge is a
historical occurrence implies a self-propagating power in early
tradition which is not justified by critical research, and leaves out of
sight many important facts revealed by comparative study.
For a conspectus of deluge-stories see Andree, _Die Flutsagen,
ethnographisch betrachtet_ (1891), by a competent anthropologist; E.
Suess, _Face of the Earth_, i. 17 (1904); also Elwood Worcester,
_Genesis in the Light of Modern Knowledge_ (New York, 1901), Appendix
ii., in tabular form, from Schwarz's _Sintfluth und
Völkerwanderungen_. Dr Worcester's work is popular, but based on
well-chosen authorities. The article "Flood" in Hastings' D. B. is
comprehensive; it represents the difficult view that flood-stories,
&c., are generally highly-coloured traditions of genuine facts.
(T. K. C.)
FOOTNOTES:
[1] See Muir, _Sanscrit Texts_, i. 182, 206 ff.
[2] Cf. Carpenter and Harford-Battersby, _The Hexateuch_, ii. 9,
where the documents are printed separately in a tabular form.
[3] Isa. xi. 6-8 prophesies that one day this idyllic state shall be
restored.
[4] For a discussion of the Babylonian version of the Deluge Legend,
recently discovered among the tablets from Nippur, see NIPPUR.
[5] The genealogy in Gen. v. is hardly in its original form. Enoch is
probably misplaced, and Noah inserted in error.
[6] Cf. COSMOGONY, and Cheyne's _Traditions and Beliefs of Ancient
Israel_ (on deluge-story).
[7] Cf. the myths of the Pawnees and the Quichés of Guatemala.
[8] See the cuneiform text described in _KAT_³, pp. 498-499.
[9] Zimmern, _KAT_³, p. 554.
[10] i.e. Atrahasis (Xisuthrus).
[11] To have omitted the animals would have been an offence against
primitive views of kinship.
[12] Usener, _Die Sintflutsagen_, pp. 80-108, 115-127.
[13] Ib. p. 254.
[14] Stucken, _Astralmythen_, pp. 233-234.
[15] _Amer. Journ. of Folklore_, xviii. 223 ff.
[16] Schirren, _Wandersagen der Neuseeländer_ (1856), p. 193.
[17] Referring for Polynesia to Gerland in Waitz-Gerland,
_Anthropologie der Naturvölker_, vi. 270-273 (1872). After a long
interval, this theory has been taken up by Zimmern, _KAT_³, p. 355,
and by Jensen, _Das Gilgamesch-Epos_ (1906), p. 120; Winckler (_AOF_,
3rd series, i. 96) also speaks of the deluge as a "celestial
occurrence." For other forms of this view see Jeremias, _ATAO_, pp.
134-136; Usener, p. 239.
[18] Cheyne, _Ency. Bib._ cols. 1063-1064.
[19] _Genesis_, p. 67.
[20] Jastrow, _Religion of Babylonia and Assyria_ (1898), pp. 502,
506.
[21] The view here adopted is that of Lindner and Usener. On the
opposite side are Zimmern, Tiele, Jensen, Oldenberg, Nöldeke,
Stucken, Lenormant.
[22] Held by Franz Delitzsch, Dillmann and Lenormant.
DELYANNI, THEODOROS (1826-1905), Greek statesman, was born at Kalavryta,
Peloponnesus, in 1826. He studied law at Athens, and in 1843 entered the
ministry of the interior, of which department he became permanent
secretary in 1859. In 1862, on the deposition of King Otho, he became
minister for foreign affairs in the provisional government. In 1867 he
was minister at Paris. On his return to Athens he became a member of
successive cabinets in various capacities, and rapidly collected a party
around him consisting of those who opposed his great rival, Tricoupi. In
the so-called "Oecumenical Ministry" of 1877 he voted for war with
Turkey, and on its fall he entered the cabinet of Koumoundoros as
minister for foreign affairs. He was a representative of Greece at the
Berlin Congress in 1878. From this time forward, and particularly after
1882, when Tricoupi again came into power at the head of a strong party,
the duel between these two statesmen was the leading feature of Greek
politics. (See GREECE: _History_.) Delyanni first formed a cabinet in
1885; but his warlike policy, the aim of which was, by threatening
Turkey, to force the powers to make concessions in order to avoid the
risk of a European war, ended in failure. For the powers, in order to
stop his excessive armaments, eventually blockaded the Peiraeus and
other ports, and this brought about his downfall. He returned to power
in 1890, with a radical programme, but his failure to deal with the
financial crisis produced a conflict between him and the king, and his
disrespectful attitude resulted in his summary dismissal in 1892.
Delyanni, by his demagogic behaviour, evidently expected the public to
side with him; but at the elections he was badly beaten. In 1895,
however, he again became prime minister, and was at the head of affairs
during the Cretan crisis and the opening of the war with Turkey in 1897.
The humiliating defeat which ensued--though Delyanni himself had been
led into the disastrous war policy to some extent against his
will--caused his fall in April 1897, the king again dismissing him from
office when he declined to resign. Delyanni kept his own seat at the
election of 1899, but his following dwindled to small dimensions. He
quickly recovered his influence, however, and he was again president of
the council and minister of the interior when, on the 13th of June 1905,
he was murdered in revenge for the rigorous measures taken by him
against gambling houses.
The main fault of Delyanni as a statesman was that he was unable to
grasp the truth that the prosperity of a state depends on its adapting
its ambitions to its means. Yet, in his vast projects, which the powers
were never likely to endorse, and without their endorsement were vain,
he represented the real wishes and aspirations of his countrymen, and
his death was the occasion for an extraordinary demonstration of popular
grief. He died in extreme poverty, and a pension was voted to the two
nieces who lived with him.
DEMADES (c. 380-318 B.C.), Athenian orator and demagogue. He was
originally of humble position, and was employed at one time as a common
sailor, but he rose partly by his eloquence and partly by his
unscrupulous character to a prominent position at Athens. He espoused
the cause of Philip in the war against Olynthus, and was thus brought
into bitter and life-long enmity with Demosthenes, whom he at first
supported. He fought against the Macedonians in the battle of
Chaeroneia, and was taken prisoner. Having made a favourable impression
upon Philip, he was released together with his fellow-captives, and was
instrumental in bringing about a treaty of peace between Macedonia and
Athens. He continued to be a favourite of Alexander, and, prompted by a
bribe, saved Demosthenes and the other obnoxious Athenian orators from
his vengeance. It was also chiefly owing to him that Alexander, after
the destruction of Thebes, treated Athens so leniently. His conduct in
supporting the Macedonian cause, yet receiving any bribes that were
offered by the opposite party, caused him to be heavily fined more than
once; and he was finally deprived of his civil rights. He was reinstated
(322) on the approach of Antipater, to whom he was sent as ambassador.
Before setting out he persuaded the citizens to pass sentence of death
upon Demosthenes and his followers, who had fled from Athens. The result
of his embassy was the conclusion of a peace greatly to the disadvantage
of the Athenians. In 318 (or earlier), having been detected in an
intrigue with Perdiccas, Antipater's opponent, he was put to death by
Antipater at Pella, when entrusted with another mission by the
Athenians. Demades was avaricious and unscrupulous; but he was a highly
gifted and practised orator.
A fragment of a speech ([Greek: Peri dôdekaetias]), bearing his name,
in which he defends his conduct, is to be found in C. Müller's
_Oratores Attici_, ii. 438, but its genuineness is exceedingly
doubtful.
DEMAGOGUE (Gr. [Greek: dêmagôgos], from [Greek: agein], to lead, and
[Greek: dêmos], the people), a leader of the popular as opposed to any
other party. Being particularly used with an invidious sense of a mob
leader or orator, one who for his own political ends panders to the
passions and prejudices of the people, the word has come to mean an
unprincipled agitator.
DEMANTOID, the name given by Nils Gustaf Nordenskiöld to a green garnet,
found in the Urals and used as a gem stone. As it possesses high
refractive and dispersive power, it presents when properly cut great
brilliancy and "fire," and the name has reference to its diamond-like
appearance. It is sometimes known as "Uralian emerald," a rather
unfortunate name inasmuch as true emerald is found in the Urals, whilst
it not infrequently passes in trade as olivine. Demantoid is regarded as
a lime-iron garnet, coloured probably by a small proportion of chromium.
The colour varies in different specimens from a vivid green to a dull
yellowish-green, or even to a brown. The specific gravity of an
emerald-green demantoid was found to be 3.849, and that of a
greenish-yellow specimen 3.854 (A. H. Church). The hardness is only 6.5,
or lower even than that of quartz--a character rather adverse to the use
of demantoid as a gem. This mineral was originally discovered as pebbles
in the gold-washings at Nizhne Tagilsk in the Ural Mountains, and was
afterwards found in the stream called Bobrovka, in the Sysertsk district
on the western slope of the Urals. It occurs not only as pebbles but in
the form of granular nodules in a serpentine rock, and occasionally,
though very rarely, shows traces of crystal faces. (F. W. R.*)
DEMARATUS (Doric [Greek: Damaratos], Ionic [Greek: Dêmarêtos]), king of
Sparta of the Eurypontid line, successor of his father Ariston. He is
known chiefly for his opposition to his colleague Cleomenes I. (q.v.) in
his attempts to make Isagoras tyrant in Athens and afterwards to punish
Aegina for medizing. He did his utmost to bring Cleomenes into disfavour
at home. Thereupon Cleomenes urged Leotychides, a relative and personal
enemy of Demaratus, to claim the throne on the ground that the latter
was not really the son of Ariston but of Agetus, his mother's first
husband. The Delphic oracle, under the influence of Cleomenes' bribes,
pronounced in favour of Leotychides, who became king (491 B.C.). Soon
afterwards Demaratus fled to Darius, who gave him the cities of
Pergamum, Teuthrania and Halisarna, where his descendants were still
ruling at the beginning of the 4th century (Xen. _Anabasis_, ii. 1. 3,
vii. 8. 17; _Hellenica_, iii. 1. 6); to these Gambreum should perhaps
be added (Athenaeus i. 29 f). He accompanied Xerxes on his expedition to
Greece, but the stories told of the warning and advice which on several
occasions he addressed to the king are scarcely historical.
See Herodotus v. 75, vi. 50-70, vii.; later writers either reproduce
or embellish his narrative (Pausanias iii. 4, 3-5, 7, 7-8; Diodorus
xi. 6; Polyaenus ii. 20; Seneca, _De beneficiis_, vi. 31, 4-12). The
story that he took part in the attack on Argos which was repulsed by
Telesilla, the poetess, and the Argive women, can hardly be true
(Plutarch, _Mul. virt._ 4; Polyaenus, _Strat._ viii. 33; G. Busolt,
_Griechische Geschichte_, ii.^2 563, note 4). (M. N. T.)
DEMERARA, one of the three settlements of British Guiana, taking its
name from the river Demerara. See GUIANA.
DEMESNE (DEMEINE, DEMAIN, DOMAIN, &c.),[1] that portion of the lands of
a manor not granted out in freehold tenancy, but (a) retained by the
lord of the manor for his own use and occupation or (b) let out as
tenemental land to his retainers or "villani." This demesne land,
originally held at the will of the lord, in course of time came to
acquire fixity of tenure, and developed into the modern copyhold (see
MANOR). It is from demesne as used in sense (a) that the modern
restricted use of the word comes, i.e. land immediately surrounding the
mansion or dwelling-house, the park or chase. _Demesne of the crown_, or
royal demesne, was that part of the crown lands not granted out to
feudal tenants, but which remained under the management of stewards
appointed by the crown. These crown lands, since the accession of George
III., have been appropriated by parliament, the sovereign receiving in
return a fixed annual sum (see CIVIL LIST). _Ancient demesne_ signified
lands or manors vested in the king at the time of the Norman Conquest.
There were special privileges surrounding tenancies of these lands, such
as freedom from tolls and duties, exemption from danegeld and
amercement, from sitting on juries, &c. Hence, the phrase "ancient
demesne" came to be applied to the tenure by which the lands were held.
Land held in ancient demesne is sometimes also called customary
freehold. (See COPYHOLD.)
FOOTNOTE:
[1] The form "demesne" is an Anglo-French spelling of the Old Fr.
_demeine_ or _demaine_, belonging to a lord, from Med. Lat.
_dominicus_, _dominus_, lord; _dominicum_ in Med. Lat. meant
_proprietas_ (see Du Cange). From the later Fr. _domaine_, which
approaches more nearly the original Lat., comes the other Eng. form
"domain," which is chiefly used in a non-legal sense of any tract of
country or district under the rule of any specific sovereign state,
&c. "Domain" is, however, the form kept in the legal phrase "Eminent
Domain" (q.v.).
DEMETER, in Greek mythology, daughter of Cronus and Rhea and sister of
Zeus, goddess of agriculture and civilized life. Her name has been
explained as (1) "grain-mother," from [Greek: dêai], the Cretan form of
[Greek: xeiai], "barley," or (2) "earth-mother," or rather "mother
earth," [Greek: dâ] being regarded as the Doric form of [Greek: lê]. She
is rarely mentioned in Homer, nor is she included amongst the Olympian
gods.
The central fact of her cult was the story of her daughter Persephone
(Proserpine), a favourite subject in classical poetry. According to the
Homeric _Hymn to Demeter_, Persephone, while gathering flowers on the
Nysian plain (probably here a purely mythical locality), was carried off
by Hades (Pluto), the god of the lower world, with the connivance of
Zeus (see also PROSERPINE). The incident has been assigned to various
other localities--Crete, Eleusis, and Enna in Sicily, the last being
most generally adopted. This rape is supposed to point to an original
[Greek: ieros lamos], an annual holy marriage of a god and goddess of
vegetation. Wandering over the earth in search of her daughter, Demeter
learns from Helios the truth about her disappearance. In the form of an
old woman named Deo (= the "seeker," or simply a diminutive form), she
comes to the house of Celeus at Eleusis, where she is hospitably
received. Having revealed herself to the Eleusinians, she departs, in
her wrath having visited the earth with a great dearth. At last Zeus
appeases her by allowing her daughter to spend two-thirds of the year
with her in the upper world. Demeter then returns to Olympus, but before
her final departure from earth, in token of her gratitude, she instructs
the rulers of Eleusis in the art of agriculture and in the solemnities
and rites whereby she desires in future to be honoured.
Those who were initiated into the mysteries of Eleusis found a deep
meaning in the myth, which was held to teach the principle of a future
life, founded on the return of Persephone to the upper world, or rather
on the process of nature by which seed sown in the ground must first die
and rot before it can yield new life (see MYSTERY). At Eleusis, Demeter
was venerated as the introducer of all the blessings which agriculture
brings in its train--fixed dwelling-places, civil order, marriage and a
peaceful life; hence her name _Thesmophoros_, "the bringer of law and
order," and the festival _Thesmophoria_ (q.v.). J. G. Frazer takes the
epithet to mean "bearer of the sacred objects deposited on the altar";
L. R. Farnell (_Cults of the Greek States_, iii. 106) suggests "the
bringer of treasure or riches," as appropriate to the goddess of corn
and of the lower world; others refer the name to "the law of wedlock"
([Greek: thesmos lektroio], Odyssey, xxiii. 296, where, however, D. B.
Monro translates "place, situation"). At Eleusis also, Triptolemus
(q.v.), the son of Celeus, who was said to have invented the plough and
to have been sent by Demeter round the world to diffuse the knowledge of
agriculture, had a temple and threshing-floor.
In the agrarian legends of Iasion and Erysichthon, Demeter also plays an
important part. Iasion (or Iasius), a beautiful youth, inspired her with
love for him in a thrice-ploughed field in Crete, the fruit of their
union being Plutus (wealth). According to Homer (_Odyssey_, v. 128) he
was slain by Zeus with a thunderbolt. The story is compared by Frazer
(_Golden Bough_, 2nd ed., ii. 217) with the west Prussian custom of the
mock birth of a child on the harvest-field, the object being to ensure a
plentiful crop for the coming year. It seems to point to the
supersession of a primitive local Cretan divinity by Demeter, and the
adoption of agriculture by the inhabitants, bringing wealth in its train
in the form of the fruits of the earth, both vegetable and mineral. Some
scholars, identifying Iasion with Jason (q.v.), regard Thessaly as the
original home of the legend, and the union with Demeter as the [Greek:
ieros gamos] of mother earth with a health god. Erysichthon ("tearer up
of the earth"), son of Triopas or Myrmidon, having cut down the trees in
a grove sacred to the goddess, was punished by her with terrible hunger
(Callimachus, _Hymn to Demeter_; Ovid, _Metam._ viii. 738-878). Perhaps
Erysichthon may be explained as the personification of the labourer, who
by the systematic cultivation and tilling of the soil endeavours to
force the crops, instead of allowing them to mature unmolested as in the
good old times. Tearing up the soil with the plough is regarded as an
invasion of the domain of the earth-mother, punished by the
all-devouring hunger for wealth, that increases with increasing produce.
According to another view, Erysichthon is the destroyer of trees, who
wastes away as the plant itself loses its vigour. It is possible that
the story may originally have been connected with tree-worship. Here
again, as in the case of Iasion, a conflict between an older and a
younger cult seems to be alluded to (for the numerous interpretations
see O. Crusius _s.v._ in Roscher's _Lexikon_).
It is as a corn-goddess that Demeter appears in Homer and Hesiod, and
numerous epithets from various sources (see Bruchmann, _Epitheta
Deorum_, supplement to Roscher's _Lexikon_, i. 2) attest her character
as such. The name [Greek: Ioulô] (? at Delos), from [Greek: ioulos],
"corn-sheaf," has been regarded as identifying the goddess with the
sheaf, and as proving that the cult of Demeter originated in the worship
of the corn-mother or corn-spirit, the last sheaf having a more or less
divine character for the primitive husbandman. According to this view,
the prototypes of Demeter and Persephone are the corn-mother and harvest
maiden of northern Europe, the corn-fetishes of the field (Frazer,
_Golden Bough_, 2nd ed., ii. 217, 222; but see Farnell, _Cults_, iii.
35). The influence of Demeter, however, was not limited to corn, but
extended to vegetation generally and all the fruits of the earth, with
the curious exception of the bean, the use of which was forbidden at
Eleusis, and for the protection of which a special patron was invented.
In this wider sense Demeter is akin to Ge, with whom she has several
epithets in common, and is sometimes identified with Rhea-Cybele; thus
Pindar speaks of Demeter [Greek: chalkokrotos] ("brass-rattling"), an
epithet obviously more suitable to the Asiatic than to the Greek
earth-goddess. Although the goddess of agriculture is naturally inclined
to peace and averse from war, the memory of the time when her land was
won and kept by the sword still lingers in the epithets [Greek:
chrysaoros] and [Greek: xiphêphoros] and in the name Triptolemus, which
probably means "thrice fighter" rather than "thrice plougher."
Another important aspect of Demeter was that of a divinity of the
under-world; as such she is [Greek: chthonia] at Sparta and especially
at Hermione in Argolis, where she had a celebrated temple, said to have
been founded by Clymenus (one of the names of Hades-Pluto) and his
sister Chthonia, the children of Phoroneus, an Argive hero. Here there
was said to be a descent into the lower world, and local tradition made
it the scene of the rape of Persephone. At the festival Chthonia, a cow
(representing, according to Mannhardt, the spirit of vegetation), which
voluntarily presented itself, was sacrificed by three old women. Those
joining in the procession wore garlands of hyacinth, which seems to
attribute a chthonian character to the ceremony, although it may also
have been connected with agriculture (see S. Wide, _De Sacris
Troezeniorum, Hermionensium, Epidauriorum_, Upsala, 1888). The striking
use of the term [Greek: dêmêtreioi] in the sense of "the dead" may be
noted in this connexion.
The remarkable epithets, [Greek: Erinys] and [Greek: Melaina], as
applied to Demeter, were both localized in Arcadia, the first at
Thelpusa (or rather Onkeion close by), the second at Phigalia (see W.
Immerwahr, _Die Kulte und Mythen Arkadiens_, i. 1891). According to the
Thelpusan story, Demeter, during her wanderings in search of Persephone,
changed herself into a mare to avoid the persecution of Poseidon. The
god, however, assumed the form of a stallion, and the fruit of the union
was a daughter of mystic name and the horse Areion (or Erion). Demeter,
at first enraged, afterwards calmed down, and washed herself in the
river Ladon by way of purification. Demeter "the angry" ([Greek:
erinys]) became Demeter "the bather" ([Greek: lousia]). An almost
identical story was current in the neighbourhood of Tilphossa, a
Boeotian spring. In the Phigalian legend, no mention is made of the
horse Areion, but only of the daughter, who is called Despoina
(mistress), a title common to all divinities connected with the
under-world. Demeter, clad in black (hence [Greek: melaina]) in token of
mourning for her daughter and wrath with Poseidon, retired into a cave.
During that time the earth bore no fruit, and the inhabitants of the
world were threatened with starvation. At last Pan, the old god of
Arcadia, discovered her hiding-place, and informed Zeus, who sent the
Moirae (Fates) to fetch her out. The cave, still called Mavrospelya
("black cave"), was ever afterwards regarded as sacred to Demeter, and
in it, according to information given to Pausanias, there had been set
up an image of the goddess, a female form seated on a rock, but with a
horse's head and mane, to which were attached snakes and other wild
animals. It was clothed in a black garment reaching to the feet, and
held in one hand a dolphin, in the other a dove. The image was destroyed
by fire, replaced by the sculptor Onatas from inspiration in a dream,
but disappeared again before the time of Pausanias.
Both [Greek: melaina] and [Greek: erinus], according to Farnell, are
epithets of Demeter as an earth-goddess of the under-world. The first
has been explained as referring to the gloom of her abode, or the
blackness of the withered corn. The second, according to Max Müller and
A. Kuhn, is the etymological equivalent of the Sanskrit Saranyu, who,
having turned herself into a mare, is pursued by Vivasvat, and becomes
the mother of the two Asvins, the Indian Dioscuri, the Indian and Greek
myths being regarded as identical. According to Farnell, the meaning of
the epithet is to be looked for in the original conception of Erinys,
which was that of an earth-goddess akin to Ge, thus naturally associated
with Demeter, rather than that of a wrathful avenging deity.
Various interpretations have been given of the horse-headed form of the
Black Demeter: (1) that the horse was one of the forms of the
corn-spirit in ancient Greece; (2) that it was an animal "devoted" to
the chthonian goddess; (3) that it is totemistic; (4) that the form was
adopted from Poseidon Hippios, who is frequently associated with the
earth-goddess and is said to have received the name Hippios first at
Thelpusa, in order that Demeter might figure as the mother of Areion
(for a discussion of the whole subject see Farnell, _Cults_, iii. pp.
50-62). The union of Poseidon and Demeter is thus explained by
Mannhardt. As the waves of the sea are fancifully compared to horses, so
a field of corn, waving in the breeze, may be said to represent the
wedding of the sea-god and the corn-goddess. In any case the association
of Poseidon, representing the fertilizing element of moisture, with
Demeter, who causes the plants and seeds to grow, is quite natural, and
seems to have been widespread.
Demeter also appears as a goddess of health, of birth and of marriage;
and a certain number of political and ethnic titles is assigned to her.
Of the latter the most noteworthy are: [Greek: Panachaia] at Aegium in
Achaea, pointing to some connexion with the Achaean league; [Greek:
Achaia],[1] "the Achaean goddess," unless it refers to the "sorrow" of
the goddess for the loss of her daughter (cf. [Greek: Achea] in
Boeotia); and, most important of all, [Greek: Amphiktyonis], at Anthela
near Thermopylae, as patron-goddess of the Amphictyonic league,
subsequently so well known in connexion with the temple at Delphi.
The Eleusinia and Thesmophoria are discussed elsewhere, but brief
mention may here be made of certain agrarian festivals held in honour of
Demeter.
1. _Haloa_, obviously connected with [Greek: halôs] ("threshing-floor"),
begun at Athens and finished at Eleusis, where there was a
threshing-floor of Triptolemus, in the month Poseideon (December). This
date, which is confirmed by historical and epigraphical evidence, seems
inappropriate, and it is suggested (A. Mommsen, _Feste der Stadt Athen_,
p. 365 foll.) that the festival, originally held in autumn, was
subsequently placed later, so as to synchronize with the winter
Dionysia. Dionysus, as the god of vines, and (in a special procession)
Poseidon [Greek: phytalmios] ("god of vegetation") were associated with
Demeter. In addition to being a harvest festival, marked by the ordinary
popular rejoicings, the Haloa had a religious character. The [Greek:
aparchai] ("first fruits") were conveyed to Eleusis, where sacrifice was
offered by a priestess, men being prohibited from undertaking the duty.
A [Greek: teletê] ("initiatory ceremony") of women by a woman also took
place at Eleusis, characterized by obscene jests and the use of phallic
emblems. The sacramental meal on this occasion consisted of the produce
of land and sea, certain things (pomegranates, honey, eggs) being
forbidden for mystical reasons. Although the offerings at the festival
were bloodless, the ceremony of the presentation of the [Greek:
aparchai] was probably accompanied by animal sacrifice (Farnell,
Foucart); Mommsen, however, considers the offerings to have been pastry
imitations. Certain games ([Greek: patrios agôn]), of which nothing is
known, terminated the proceedings. In Roman imperial times the ephebi
had to deliver a speech at the Haloa.
2. _Chloeia_ or _Chloia_, the festival of the corn beginning to sprout,
held at Eleusis in the early spring (Anthesterion) in honour of Demeter
Chloë, "the green," the goddess of growing vegetation. This is to be
distinguished from the later sacrifice of a ram to the same goddess on
the 6th of the month Thargelion, probably intended as an act of
propitiation. It has been identified with the _Procharisteria_
(sometimes called _Proschaireteria_), another spring festival, but this
is doubtful. The scholiast on Pindar (Ol. ix. 150) mentions an Athenian
harvest festival _Eucharisteria_.
3. _Proërosia_, at which prayers were offered for an abundant harvest,
before the land was ploughed for sowing. It was also called
_Proarcturia_, an indication that it was held before the rising of
Arcturus. According to the traditional account, when Greece was
threatened with famine, the Delphic oracle ordered first-fruits to be
brought to Athens from all parts of the country, which were to be
offered by the Athenians to the goddess Deo on behalf of all the
contributors. The most important part of the festival was the three
sacred ploughings--the Athenian [Greek: hypo polin], the Eleusinian on
the Rharian plain, the Scirian (a compromise between Athens and
Eleusis). The festival itself took place, probably some time in
September, at Eleusis. In later times the ephebi also took part in the
Proërosia.
4. _Thalysia_, a thanksgiving festival, held in autumn after the harvest
in the island of Cos (see Theocritus vii.).
5. The name of Demeter is also associated with the _Scirophoria_ (see
ATHENA). It is considered probable that the festival was originally held
in honour of Athena, but that the growing importance of the Eleusinia
caused it to be attached to Demeter and Kore.
The attributes of Demeter are chiefly connected with her character as
goddess of agriculture and vegetation--ears of corn, the poppy, the
mystic basket (_calathus_) filled with flowers, corn and fruit of all
kinds, the pomegranate being especially common. Of animals, the cow and
the pig are her favourites, the latter owing to its productivity and the
cathartic properties of its blood. The crane is associated with her as
an indicator of the weather. As a chthonian divinity she is accompanied
by a snake; the myrtle, asphodel and narcissus (which Persephone was
gathering when carried off by Hades) also are sacred to her.
In Greek art, Demeter is made to resemble Hera, only more matronly and
of milder expression; her form is broader and fuller. She is sometimes
riding in a chariot drawn by horses or dragons, sometimes walking,
sometimes seated upon a throne, alone or with her daughter. The Demeter
of Cnidus in the British Museum, of the school of Praxiteles, apparently
shows her mourning for the loss of her daughter. The article GREEK ART,
fig. 67 (pl. iv.), gives a probable representation of Demeter (or her
priestess) from the stone of a vault in a Crimean grave.
The Romans identified Demeter with their own Ceres (q.v.).
See L. Preller, _Demeter und Persephone_ (1837); P. R. Förster, _Der
Raub und die Rückkehr der Persephone_ (1874), in which considerable
space is devoted to the representations of the myth in art; W.
Mannhardt, _Mythologische Forschungen_ (1884); J. E. Harrison,
_Prolegomena to the Study of Greek Religion_ (1903); L. Dyer, _The
Gods in Greece_ (1891); J. G. Frazer, _The Golden Bough_ (2nd ed.),
ii. 168-222; L. Preller, _Griechische Mythologie_ (4th ed., by C.
Robert); O. Kern in Pauly-Wissowa's _Realencyclopädie_, iv. pt. 2
(1901); L. Bloch in Roscher's _Lexikon der Mythologie_; O. Gruppe,
_Griechische Mythologie und Religionsgeschichte_, ii. (1907); L. R.
Farnell, _Cults of the Greek States_, iii. (1907); article "Ceres" by
F. Lenormant in Daremberg and Saglio's _Dictionnaire des antiquités_.
(J. H. F.)
FOOTNOTE:
[1] O. Gruppe (_Griechische Mythologie_, ii. 1177, note 1) considers
it "certain" that [Greek: Achaia = Achelôia], although he is unable
to explain the form.
DEMETRIA, a Greek festival in honour of Demeter, held at seed-time, and
lasting ten days. Nothing is known of it beyond the fact that the men
who took part in it lashed one another with whips of bark ([Greek:
morotton]), while the women made obscene jests. It is even doubtful
whether it was a particular festival at all or only another name for the
Eleusinia or Thesmophoria. The Dionysia also were called Demetria in
honour of Demetrius Poliorcetes, upon whom divine honours were conferred
by the Athenians.
Hesychius, s.v. [Greek: morotton]; Pollux i. 37; Diod. Sic. v. 4;
Plutarch, _Demetrius_, 12; Daremberg and Saglio, _Dictionnaire des
antiquités_.
DEMETRIUS, king of Bactria, was the son of the Graeco-Bactrian king
Euthydemus, for whom he negotiated a peace with Antiochus the Great in
206 (Polyb. xi. 34). Soon afterwards he crossed the Hindu Kush and began
the invasion of India (Strabo xi. 516); he conquered the Punjab and the
valley of the Indus down to the sea and to Gujerat. The town Sangala, a
town of the Kathaeans in the Punjab (Arrian v. 22, 2 ff.), he named
after his father Euthydemia (Ptol. vii. 1, 46). That his power extended
into Arachosia (Afghanistan) is proved by the name of a town Demetrias
near Kandahar (Isidor. Charac. 19, cf. Strabo xi. 516). On his coins he
wears an elephant's skin with trunk and teeth on his head; on bronze
coins, which have also an Indian legend in Kharoshti letters (see
BACTRIA), he calls himself the unvanquished king ([Greek: Basileôs
anikêtou Dêmêtriou]). One of his coins has already the square form used
in India instead of the circular. Eventually he was defeated by the
usurper Eucratides (q.v.), who meanwhile had risen to great power in
Bactria. About his death we know nothing; his young son Euthydemus II.
(known only from coins) can have ruled only a short time. (Ed. M.)
DEMETRIUS, the name of two kings of Macedonia.
1. DEMETRIUS I. (337-283 B.C.), surnamed _Poliorcetes_ ("Besieger"), son
of Antigonus Cyclops and Stratonice. At the age of twenty-two he was
left by his father to defend Syria against Ptolemy the son of Lagus; he
was totally defeated near Gaza (312), but soon partially repaired his
loss by a victory in the neighbourhood of Myus. After an unsuccessful
expedition against Babylon, and several campaigns against Ptolemy on the
coasts of Cilicia and Cyprus, Demetrius sailed with a fleet of 250 ships
to Athens. He freed the city from the power of Cassander and Ptolemy,
expelled the garrison which had been stationed there under Demetrius of
Phalerum, and besieged and took Munychia (307). After these victories he
was worshipped by the Athenians as a tutelary deity under the title of
_Soter_ ("Preserver"). In the campaign of 306 against Ptolemy he
defeated Menelaus (the brother of Ptolemy) in Cyprus, and completely
destroyed the naval power of Egypt. In 305 he endeavoured to punish the
Rhodians for having deserted his cause; and his ingenuity in devising
new instruments of siege, in his unsuccessful attempt to reduce the
capital, gained him the appellation of Poliorcetes. He returned a second
time to Greece as liberator. But his licentiousness and extravagance
made the Athenians regret the government of Cassander. He soon, however,
roused the jealousy of the successors of Alexander; and Seleucus,
Cassander and Lysimachus united to destroy Antigonus and his son. The
hostile armies met at Ipsus in Phrygia (301). Antigonus was killed in
the battle, and Demetrius, after sustaining a severe loss, retired to
Ephesus. This reverse of fortune raised up many enemies against him; and
the Athenians refused even to admit him into their city. But he soon
afterwards ravaged the territory of Lysimachus, and effected a
reconciliation with Seleucus, to whom he gave his daughter Stratonice in
marriage. Athens was at this time oppressed by the tyranny of Lachares;
but Demetrius, after a protracted blockade, gained possession of the
city (294) and pardoned the inhabitants their former misconduct. In the
same year he established himself on the throne of Macedonia by the
murder of Alexander, the son of Cassander. But here he was continually
threatened by Pyrrhus, who took advantage of his occasional absence to
ravage the defenceless part of his kingdom (Plutarch, _Pyrrhus_, 7 ff.);
and at length the combined forces of Pyrrhus, Ptolemy and Lysimachus,
assisted by the disaffected among his own subjects, obliged him to leave
Macedonia after he had sat on the throne for six years (294-288). He
passed into Asia, and attacked some of the provinces of Lysimachus with
varying success; but famine and pestilence destroyed the greater part of
his army, and he solicited Seleucus for support and assistance. But
before he reached Syria hostilities broke out; and after he had gained
some advantages over his son-in-law, Demetrius was totally forsaken by
his troops on the field of battle, and surrendered his person to
Seleucus. His son Antigonus offered all his possessions, and even his
person, in order to procure his father's liberty; but all proved
unavailing, and Demetrius died in the fifty-fourth year of his age,
after a confinement of three years (283). His remains were given to
Antigonus, honoured with a splendid funeral at Corinth, and thence
conveyed to Demetrias. His posterity remained in possession of the
Macedonian throne till the time of Perseus, who was conquered by the
Romans.
See _Life_ by Plutarch; Diod. Sic. xix. xx.; Wilamowitz-Moellendorff,
_Antigonos von Karystos_; De Sanctis, _Contributi alla storia
Ateniese_ in Beloch's _Studi di storia antica_ (1893); Fergusson in
Lehmann's _Beiträge z. alt. Gesch._ (_Klio_) vol. v. (1905); also
authorities under MACEDONIAN EMPIRE.
2. DEMETRIUS II., son of Antigonus Gonatas, reigned from 239 to 229 B.C.
He had already during his father's lifetime distinguished himself by
defeating Alexander of Epirus at Derdia and so saving Macedonia (about
260?). On his accession he had to face a coalition which the two great
leagues, usually rivals, the Aetolian and Achaean, formed against the
Macedonian power. He succeeded in dealing this coalition severe blows,
wresting Boeotia from their alliance. The revolution in Epirus, which
substituted a republican league for the monarchy, gravely weakened his
position. Demetrius had also to defend Macedonia against the wild
peoples of the north. A battle with the Dardanians turned out
disastrously, and he died shortly afterwards, leaving Philip, his son
by Chryseïs, still a child. Former wives of Demetrius were Stratonice,
the daughter of the Seleucid king Antiochus I., Phthia the daughter of
Alexander of Epirus, and Nicaea, the widow of his cousin Alexander. The
chronology of these marriages is a matter of dispute.
See Thirlwall, _History of Greece_, vol. viii. (1847); Ad. Holm,
_Griech. Gesch._ vol. iv. (1894); B. Niese, _Gesch. d. griech. u.
maked. Staaten_, vol. ii. (1899); J. Beloch, _Griech. Gesch._ vol.
iii. (1904). (E. R. B.)
DEMETRIUS, the name of three kings of Syria.
DEMETRIUS I. (d. 150 B.C.), surnamed _Soter_, was sent to Rome as a
hostage during the reign of his father, Seleucus IV. Philopator, but
after his father's death in 175 B.C. he escaped from confinement, and
established himself on the Syrian throne (162 B.C.) after overthrowing
and murdering King Antiochus V. Eupator. He acquired his surname of
_Soter_, or _Saviour_, from the Babylonians, whom he delivered from the
tyranny of the Median satrap, Timarchus, and is famous in Jewish history
for his contests with the Maccabees. Hated for his vices, Demetrius fell
in battle against the usurper, Alexander Balas, in 150 B.C.
DEMETRIUS II. (d. 125 B.C.), surnamed _Nicator_, son of Demetrius I.,
fled to Crete after the death of his father, but about 147 B.C. he
returned to Syria, and with the help of Ptolemy VII. Philometor, king of
Egypt, regained his father's throne. In 140 B.C. he marched against
Mithradates, king of Parthia, but was taken prisoner by treachery, and
remained in captivity for ten years, regaining his throne about 129 B.C.
on the death of his brother, Antiochus VII., who had usurped it. His
cruelties and vices, however, caused him to be greatly detested, and
during another civil war he was defeated in a battle at Damascus, and
killed near Tyre, possibly at the instigation of his wife, a daughter of
Ptolemy VII., who was indignant at his subsequent marriage with a
daughter of the Parthian king, Mithradates. His successor was his son,
Antiochus VIII. Grypus.
DEMETRIUS III. (d. 88 B.C.), called _Euergetes_ and _Philometor_, was
the son of Antiochus VIII. Grypus. By the assistance of Ptolemy X.
Lathyrus, king of Egypt, he recovered part of his Syrian dominions from
Antiochus X. Eusebes, and held his court at Damascus. In attempting to
dethrone his brother, Philip Epiphanes, he was defeated by the Arabs and
Parthians, was taken prisoner, and kept in confinement in Parthia by
King Mithradates until his death in 88 B.C.
DEMETRIUS, a Greek sculptor of the early part of the 4th century B.C.,
who is said by ancient critics to have been notable for the life-like
realism of his statues. His portrait of Pellichus, a Corinthian general,
"with fat paunch and bald head, wearing a cloak which leaves him half
exposed, with some of the hairs of his head flowing in the wind, and
prominent veins," was admired by Lucian. He was contrasted with Cresilas
(q.v.), an idealizing sculptor of the generation before. Since however
the peculiarities mentioned by Lucian do not appear in Greek portraits
before the 3rd century B.C., and since the Greek art of the 4th century
consistently idealizes, there would seem to be a difficulty to explain.
The date of Demetrius above given is confirmed by inscriptions found on
the Athenian Acropolis. (P. G.)
DEMETRIUS, a Cynic philosopher, born at Sunium, who lived partly at
Corinth and later in Rome during the reigns of Caligula, Nero and
Vespasian. He was an intimate friend of Thrasea Paetus and Seneca, and
was held in the highest estimation for his consistent disregard of
creature comfort in the pursuit of virtue. His contempt for worldly
prosperity is shown by his reply to Caligula who, wishing to gain his
friendship, sent him a large present. He replied, "If Caligula had
intended to bribe me, he should have offered me his crown." Vespasian
banished him, but Demetrius laughed at the punishment and mocked the
emperor's anger. He reached the logical conclusion of Cynicism in
attaching no real importance to scientific data.
DEMETRIUS DONSKOI[1] (1350-1389), grand duke of Vladimir and Moscow, son
of the grand duke Ivan Ivanovich by his second consort Aleksandra, was
placed on the grand-ducal throne of Vladimir by the Tatar khan in 1362,
and married the princess Eudoxia of Nizhniy Novgorod in 1364. It was now
that Moscow was first fortified by a strong wall, or _kreml_ (citadel),
and the grand duke began "to bring all the other princes under his
will." Michael, prince of Tver, appealed however for help to Olgierd,
grand duke of Lithuania, who appeared before Moscow with his army and
compelled Demetrius to make restitution to the prince of Tver (1369).
The war between Tver and Vladimir continued intermittently for some
years, and both the Tatars and the Lithuanians took an active part in
it. Demetrius was generally successful in what was really a contention
for the supremacy. In 1371 he won over the khan by a personal visit to
the Horde, and in 1372 he defeated the Lithuanians at Lyubutsk.
Demetrius then formed a league of all the Russian princes against the
Tatars and in 1380 encountered them on the plain of Kulikovo, between
the rivers Nepryadvaya and Don, where he completely routed them, the
grand khan Mamai perishing in his flight from the field. But now
Toktamish, the deputy of Tamerlane, suddenly appeared in the Horde and
organized a punitive expedition against Demetrius. Moscow was taken by
treachery, and the Russian lands were again subdued by the Tatars
(1381). Nevertheless, while compelled to submit to the Horde, Demetrius
maintained his hegemony over Tver, Novgorod and the other recalcitrant
Russian principalities, and even held his own against the Lithuanian
grand dukes, so that by his last testament he was able to leave not only
his ancestral possessions but his grand-dukedom also to his son Basil.
Demetrius was one of the greatest of the north Russian grand dukes. He
was not merely a cautious and tactful statesman, but also a valiant and
capable captain, in striking contrast to most of the princes of his
house.
See Sergyei Solovev, _History of Russia_ (Rus.), vols, i.-ii. (St
Petersburg, 1857), &c.; Nikolai Savelev, _Demetrius Ivanovich Donskoi_
(Rus.), (Moscow, 1837). (R. N. B.)
FOOTNOTE:
[1] Of the Don.
DEMETRIUS PHALEREUS (c. 345-283 B.C.), Attic orator, statesman and
philosopher, born at Phalerum, was a pupil of Theophrastus and an
adherent of the Peripatetic school. He governed the city of Athens as
representative of Cassander (q.v.) for ten years from 317. It is said
that he so won the hearts of the people that 360 statues were erected in
his honour; but opinions are divided as to the character of his rule. On
the restoration of the old democracy by Demetrius Poliorcetes, he was
condemned to death by the fickle Athenians and obliged to leave the
city. He escaped to Egypt, where he was protected by Ptolemy Lagus, to
whom he is said to have suggested the foundation of the Alexandrian
library. Having incurred the displeasure of Lagus's successor
Philadelphus, Demetrius was banished to Upper Egypt, where he died
(according to some, voluntarily) from the bite of an asp. Demetrius
composed a large number of works on poetry, history, politics, rhetoric
and accounts of embassies, all of which are lost.
The treatise [Greek: Peri Hermêneias] (on rhetorical expression),
which is often ascribed to him, is probably the work of a later
Alexandrian (1st century A.D.) of the same name; it has been edited by
L. Radermacher (1901) and W. Rhys Roberts (1902), the last-named
providing English translation, introduction, notes, glossary and
complete bibliography. Fragments in C. Müller, _Frag. Hist. Graec._
ii. p. 362. See A. Holm, _History of Greece_ (Eng. trans.), iv. 60.
DEMETRIUS, PSEUDO- (or FALSE), the name by which three Muscovite princes
and pretenders, who claimed to be Demetrius, son of Ivan the Terrible,
are known in history. The real Demetrius had been murdered, while still
a child, in 1591, at Uglich, his widowed mother's appanage.
1. In the reign of Tsar Boris Godunov (1598-1605), the first of these
pretenders, whose origin is still obscure, emigrated to Lithuania and
persuaded many of the magnates there of his tsarish birth, and
consequently of his right to the Muscovite throne. His real name seems
to have been Yury or Gregory, and he was the grandson of Bogdan Otrepev,
a Galician boyar, and a tool in the hands of Tsar Boris Godunov's
enemies. He first appears in history _circa_ 1600, when his learning and
assurance seem to have greatly impressed the Muscovite patriarch Job.
Tsar Boris, however, ordered him to be seized and examined, whereupon he
fled to Prince Constantine Ostrogsky at Ostrog, and subsequently entered
the service of another Lithuanian, Prince Wisniwiecki, who accepted him
for what he pretended to be and tried to enlist the sympathy of the
Polish king, Sigismund III., in his favour. The king refused to support
him officially, but his cause was taken up, as a speculation, by the
Polish magnate Yury Mniszek, whose daughter Marina he afterwards wedded
and crowned as his tsaritsa. The Jesuits also seem to have believed in
the man, who was evidently an unconscious impostor brought up from his
youth to believe that he was the real Demetrius; numerous fugitives from
Moscow also acknowledged him, and finally he set out, at the head of an
army of Polish and Lithuanian volunteers, Cossacks and Muscovite
fugitives, to drive out the Godunovs, after being received into the
Church of Rome. At the beginning of 1604 he was invited to Cracow, where
Sigismund presented him to the papal nuncio Rangoni. His public
conversion took place on the 17th of April. In October the false
Demetrius crossed the Russian frontier, and shortly afterwards routed a
large Muscovite army beneath the walls of Novgorod-Syeversk. The sudden
death of Tsar Boris (April 13, 1605) removed the last barrier to the
further progress of the pretender. The principal Russian army, under P.
F. Basmanov, at once went over to him (May 7); on the 20th of June he
made his triumphal entry into Moscow, and on the 21st of July he was
crowned tsar by a new patriarch of his own choosing, the Greek Isidore.
He at once proceeded to introduce a whole series of political and
economical reforms. From all accounts, he must have been a man of
original genius and extraordinary resource. He did his best to relieve
the burdens of the peasantry; he formed the project of a grand alliance
between the emperor, the pope, Venice, Poland and Muscovy against the
Turk; he displayed an amazing toleration in religious matters which made
people suspect that he was a crypto-Arian; and far from being, as was
expected, the tool of Poland and the pope, he maintained from the first
a dignified and independent attitude. But his extravagant opinion of his
own authority (he lost no time in styling himself emperor), and his
predilection for Western civilization, alarmed the ultra-conservative
boyars (the people were always on his side), and a conspiracy was formed
against him, headed by Basil Shuisky, whose life he had saved a few
months previously. A favourable opportunity for the conspirators
presented itself on the 8th of May 1606, when Demetrius was married to
Marina Mniszek. Taking advantage of the hostility of the Muscovites
towards the Polish regiments which had escorted Marina to Moscow and
there committed some excesses, the boyars urged the citizens to rise
against the Poles, while they themselves attacked and slew Demetrius in
the Kreml on the night of the 17th of May.
See Sergyei Solovev, _History of Russia_ (Rus.), vol. viii. (St
Petersburg, 1857, &c.); Nikolai Kostomarov, _Historical Monographs_
(Rus.) vols, iv.-vi. (St Petersburg, 1863, &c.); Orest Levitsky, _The
First False Demetrius as the Propagandist of Catholicism in Russia_
(Rus.) (St Petersburg, 1886); Paul Pierling, _Rome et Demetrius_
(Paris, 1878); R. N. Bain, _Poland and Russia_, cap. 10 (Cambridge,
1907).
2. The second pretender, called "the thief of Tushino," first appeared
on the scene _circa_ 1607 at Starodub. He is supposed to have been
either a priest's son or a converted Jew, and was highly educated,
relatively to the times he lived in, knowing as he did the Russian and
Polish languages and being somewhat of an expert in liturgical matters.
He pretended at first to be the Muscovite boyarin Nagi; but confessed,
under torture, that he was Demetrius Ivanovich, whereupon he was taken
at his word and joined by thousands of Cossacks, Poles and Muscovites.
He speedily captured Karachev, Bryansk and other towns; was reinforced
by the Poles; and in the spring of 1608 advanced upon Moscow, routing
the army of Tsar Basil Shuisky, at Bolkhov, on his way. Liberal promises
of the wholesale confiscation of the estates of the boyars drew the
common people to him, and he entrenched himself at the village of
Tushino, twelve versts from the capital, which he converted into an
armed camp, collecting therein 7000 Polish soldiers, 10,000 Cossacks and
10,000 of the rabble. In the course of the year he captured Marina
Mniszek, who acknowledged him to be her husband (subsequently quieting
her conscience by privately marrying this impostor, who in no way
resembled her first husband), and brought him the support of the
Lithuanian magnates Mniszek and Sapieha so that his forces soon exceeded
100,000 men. He raised to the rank of patriarch another illustrious
captive, Philaret Romanov, and won over the towns of Yaroslavl,
Kostroma, Vologda, Kashin and other places to his allegiance. But a
series of subsequent disasters, and the arrival of King Sigismund III.
at Sinolensk, induced him to fly his camp disguised as a peasant and go
to Kostroma, where Marina joined him and he lived once more in regal
state. He also made another but unsuccessful attack on Moscow, and,
supported by the Don Cossacks, recovered a hold over all south-eastern
Russia. He was killed, while half drunk, on the 11th of December 1610,
by a Tatar whom he had flogged.
See Sergyei Solovev, _History of Russia_ (Rus.) vol. viii. (St
Petersburg, 1657, &c.).
3. The third, a still more enigmatical person than his predecessors,
supposed to have been a deacon called Siderka, appeared suddenly, "from,
behind the river Yanza," in the Ingrian town of Ivangorod (Narva),
proclaiming himself the tsarevich Demetrius Ivanovich, on the 28th of
March 1611. The Cossacks, ravaging the environs of Moscow, acknowledged
him as tsar on the 2nd of March 1612, and under threat of vengeance in
case of non-compliance, the gentry of Pskov also kissed the cross to
"the thief of Pskov," as he was usually nicknamed. On the 18th of May
1612 he fled from Pskov, was seized and delivered up to the authorities
at Moscow, and there executed.
See Sergyei Solovev, _History of Russia_ (Rus.), vol. viii. (St
Petersburg, 1857, &c.). (R. N. B.)
DEMIDOV, the name of a famous Russian family, founded by Nikita Demidov
(b. c. 1665), who was originally a blacksmith serf. He made his fortune
by his skill in the manufacture of weapons, and established an iron
foundry for the government. Peter the Great, with whom he was a
favourite, ennobled him in 1720. His son, Akinfiy Demidov (d. c. 1740),
increased his inherited wealth by the discovery and working of gold,
silver and copper mines. The latter's nephew, Paul Grigoryevich Demidov
(1738-1821), was a great traveller who was a benefactor of Russian
scientific education; he founded an annual prize for Russian literature,
awarded by the Academy of Sciences. Paul's nephew, Nikolay Nikitich
Demidov (1774-1828), raised and commanded a regiment to oppose
Napoleon's invasion, and carried on the accumulation of the family
wealth from mining; he contributed liberally to the erection of four
bridges in St Petersburg, and to the propagation of scientific culture
in Moscow. Paul's son, Anatoli Demidov (1812-1870), was a well-known
traveller and patron of art; he married Princess Mathilde, daughter of
Jerome Bonaparte.
*** End of this LibraryBlog Digital Book "Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 7, Slice 10 - "David, St" to "Demidov"" ***
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