The Nuttall encyclopædia : being a concise and comprehensive dictionary of…
670. C. IV., king of ditto from 717 to 720.
62697 words | Chapter 23
CLOTHES, Carlyle's name in "Sartor Resartus" for the guises which
the spirit, especially of man, weaves for itself and wears, and by which
it both conceals itself in shame and reveals itself in grace.
CLOTHO, that one of the three Fates which spins the thread of human
destiny.
CLOTILDA, ST., the wife of Clovis I.; persuaded her husband to
profess Christianity; retired into a monastery at Tours when he died
(475-545). Festival, June 3.
CLOUD, ST., the patron saint of smiths.
CLOUD, ST., or CLODOALD, third son of Clodomir, who escaped the
fate of his brothers, and retired from the world to a spot on the left
bank of the Seine, 6 m. SW. of Paris, named St. Cloud after him.
CLOUDS, THE, the play in which Aristophanes exposes Socrates to
ridicule.
CLOUGH, ARTHUR HUGH, a lyric poet, born at Liverpool; son of a
cotton merchant; educated at Rugby under Dr. Arnold, whom he held in the
highest regard; was at Oxford, as a Fellow of Oriel, at the time of the
Tractarian movement, which he arrayed himself against, and at length
turned his back upon and tore himself away from by foreign travel; on his
return he was appointed examiner in the Education Office; falling ill
from overwork he went abroad again, and died at Florence; he was all
alive to the tendencies of the time, and his lyrics show his sense of
these, and how he fronted them; in the speculative scepticism of the time
his only refuge and safety-anchor was duty; Matthew Arnold has written in
his "Thyrsis" a tribute to his memory such as has been written over few;
his best-known poem is "The Bothie of Tober-na-Vuolich" (1819-1861).
CLOVIS I., king of the Franks, son of Childéric I.; conquered
the Romans at Soissons 486, which he made his centre; married
CLOTILDA (q. v.) 493; beat the Germans near Cologne 496, by
assistance, as he believed, of the God of Clotilda, after which he was
baptized by St. Remi at Rheims; and overthrew the Visigoths under Alaric
II. near Poitiers in 507, after which victories he made Paris his
capital. C. II., son of Dagobert; was king of Neustria and Burgundy
from 638 to 656. C. ILL, son of Thierry III., and king of ditto from
691 to 695, and had Pépin d'Héristal for mayor of the palace.
CLUNY (3), a town in the dep. of Saône-et-Loire, on an affluent of
the Saône; renowned in the Middle Ages for its Benedictine abbey, founded
in 910, and the most celebrated in Europe, having been the mother
establishment of 2000 others of the like elsewhere; in ecclesiastical
importance it stood second to Rome, and its abbey church second to none
prior to the erection of St. Peter's; a great normal school was
established here in 1865.
CLUSIUM, the ancient capital of Etruria and Porsenna's.
CLUTHA, the largest river in New Zealand, in Otago, very deep and
rapid, and 200 m. long.
CLUTTERBUCK, the imaginary author of the "Fortunes of Nigel," and
the patron to whom the "Abbot" is dedicated.
CLYDE, a river in the W. of Scotland which falls into a large inlet
or firth, as it is called, the commerce on which extends over the world,
and on the banks of which are shipbuilding yards second to none in any
other country; it is deepened as far as Glasgow for ships of a heavy
tonnage.
CLYDE, LORD. See CAMPBELL, COLIN.
CLYTEMNESTRA, the wife of Agamemnon, and the mother of Iphigenia,
Electra, and Orestes; killed her husband, and was killed by her son,
Orestes, seven years after.
CLYTIE, a nymph in love with Apollo, god of the sun, who did not
respond to her; but, with all the passion he durst show to her, turned
her into a sunflower.
COANZA, a W. African river, which rises in the Mossamba Mountains,
falling into the sea after a course of 600 m.; owing to falls is
navigable for only 140 m. from its mouth.
COAST RANGE, a range in the U.S., W. of the Sierra Nevada, parallel
to it, with the Sacramento Valley between.
COBBETT, WILLIAM, a political and miscellaneous writer, born at
Farnham, Sussex; commenced life as a farm labourer, and then as copying
clerk; enlisted, and saw seven years' service in Nova Scotia; being
discharged, travelled in France and America; on his return started the
_Weekly Register_, at first Tory, then Radical; published a libel against
the Government, for which he was imprisoned; on his release issued his
_Register_ at a low price, to the immense increase of its circulation;
vain attempts were made to crush him, against which he never ceased to
protest; after the passing of the Reform Bill he got into Parliament, but
made no mark; his writings were numerous, and include his "Grammar," his
"Cottage Economy," his "Rural Rides," and his "Advice to Young Men"; his
political opinions were extreme, but his English was admirable
(1762-1835).
COBBLER POET, HANS SACHS (q. v.).
COBDEN, RICHARD, a great political economist and the Apostle of Free
Trade, born near Midhurst, Sussex; became partner in a cotton-trading
firm in Manchester; made a tour on the Continent and America in the
interest of political economy; on the formation of the Corn-Law League in
1838, gave himself heart and soul to the abolition of the Corn Laws;
became Member of Parliament for Stockport in 1841; on the conversion of
Sir Robert Peel to Free-Trade principles saw these laws abolished in
1846; for his services in this cause he received the homage of his
country as well as of Continental nations, but refused all civic honours,
and finished his political career by negotiating a commercial treaty with
France (1804-1865).
COBENTZELL, COMTE DE, an Austrian diplomatist, born at Brussels;
negotiated the treaties of Campo Formio and Lunéville; founded the
Academy of Sciences at Brussels (1753-1808).
COBLENZ (32), a fortified city, manufacturing and trading town, in
Prussia, at the junction of the Rhine and the Moselle, so called as at
the confluence of the two; opposite it is Ehrenbreitstein.
COBURG (18), capital of the duchy of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, on the Itz,
the old castle on a height 500 ft. above the town; gave shelter to
Luther in 1530, and was besieged by Wallenstein.
COBURG, field-marshal of Austria; vanquished Dumouriez at
Neerwinden; was conquered by Moreau and Jourdan (1737-1815).
COCAINE, an alkaloid from the leaf of the coca plant, used as an
anæsthetic.
COCCEIUS, or KOCH, JOHANN, a Dutch divine, professor at Leyden;
held that the Old Testament was a type or foreshadow of the New, and was
the founder of the federal theology, or the doctrine that God entered
into a threefold compact with man, first prior to the law, second under
the law, and third under grace (1603-1669).
COCCEJI, HENRY, learned German jurist, born at Bremen; an authority
on civil law; was professor of law at Frankfurt (1644-1719).
COCCEJI, SAMUEL, son of the preceding; Minister of Justice and
Chancellor of Prussia under Frederick the Great; a prince of lawyers, and
"a very Hercules in cleansing law stables" as law-reformer (1679-1755).
COCHABAMBA (14), a high-lying city of Bolivia, capital of a
department of the name; has a trade in grain and fruits.
COCHIN (722), a native state in India N. of Travancore, cooped up
between W. Ghâts and the Arabian Sea, with a capital of the same name,
where Vasco da Gama died; the first Christian church in India was built
here, and there is here a colony of black Jews.
COCHIN-CHINA (2,034), the region E. of the Mekong, or Annam proper,
called HIGH COCHIN-CHINA (capital Hué), and LOW COCHIN-CHINA, a
State S. of Indo-China, and S. of Cambodia and Annam; belonging to
France, with an unhealthy climate; rice the chief crop; grows also teak,
cotton, &c.; capital Saigon.
COCHLÆUS, JOHANN, an able and bitter antagonist of Luther's; _d_.
1592.
COCHRANE, the name of several English naval officers of the
Dundonald family; SIR ALEXANDER FORRESTER INGLIS (1758-1832); SIR
THOMAS JOHN, his son (1798-1872); and THOMAS, LORD. See
DUNDONALD.
COCK LANE GHOST, a ghost which was reported in a lane of the name in
Smithfield, London, in 1762, to the excitement of the public, due to a
girl rapping on a board in bed.
COCKAIGNE, an imaginary land of idleness and luxury, from a
satirical poem of that name (_coquina_, a kitchen), where the monks live
in an abbey built of pasties, the rivers run with wine, and the geese fly
through the air ready roasted. The name has been applied to London and
Paris.
COCKATRICE, a monster with the wings of a fowl, the tail of a
dragon, and the head of a cock; alleged to have been hatched by a serpent
from a cock's egg; its breath and its fatal look are in mediæval art the
emblem of sin.
COCKBURN, SIR ALEXANDER, Lord Chief-Justice of England from 1859;
called to the bar in 1829; became Liberal member for Southampton in 1847,
and Solicitor-General in 1850; was prosecutor in the Palmer case, judge
in the Tichborne, and an arbitrator in the _Alabama_ (1802-1880).
COCKBURN, ALISON, author of "Flowers of the Forest"; in her day the
leader of Edinburgh society; was acquainted with Burns, and recognised in
his boyhood the genius of Scott (1713-1795).
COCKBURN, SIR GEORGE, an English admiral, born in London; rose by
rapid stages to be captain of a frigate; took an active part in the
expedition to the Scheldt, in the defence of Cadiz, and of the coast of
Spain; was second in command of the expedition against the United States;
returned to England in 1815, and was selected to convey Napoleon to St.
Helena (1771-1853).
COCKBURN, HENRY, LORD, an eminent Scotch judge, born in Edinburgh;
called to the bar in 1800; one of the first contributors to the
_Edinburgh Review_; was Solicitor-General for Scotland in 1830, and
appointed a judge four years after; was a friend and colleague of Lord
Jeffrey; wrote Jeffrey's Life, and left "Memorials of His Own Time" and
"Journals"; he was a man of refined tastes, shrewd common-sense, quiet
humour, and a great lover of his native city and its memories; described
by Carlyle as "a bright, cheery-voiced, hazel-eyed man; a Scotch dialect
with plenty of good logic in it, and of practical sagacity; a gentleman,
and perfectly in the Scotch type, perhaps the very last of that peculiar
species" (1779-1854).
COCKER, EDWARD, an arithmetician, and a schoolmaster by profession;
wrote an arithmetic, published after his death, long the text-book on the
subject, and a model of its kind; gave rise to the phrase "according to
Cocker" (1631-1672).
COCKNEY, a word of uncertain derivation, but meaning one born and
bred in London, and knowing little or nothing beyond it, and betraying
his limits by his ideas, manners, and accent.
COCKNEY SCHOOL, a literary school, so called by Lockhart, as
inspired with the idea that London is the centre of civilisation, and
including Leigh Hunt, Hazlitt, and others.
COCKPIT OF EUROPE, Belgium, as the scene of so many battles between
the Powers of Europe.
COCKTON, HENRY, a novelist, born in London, author of "Valentine
Vox" (1807-1853).
COCLES, HORATIUS, a Roman who defended a bridge against the army of
Porsenna till the bridge was cut down behind him, when he leapt into the
river and swam across scatheless amid the darts of the enemy.
COCOS ISLANDS, a group of 20 small coral islands about 700 m. SW. of
Sumatra.
COCYTUS, a dark river which environed Tartarus with bitter and muddy
waters.
CODRINGTON, SIR EDWARD, a British admiral; entered the navy at 13;
served under Howe at Brest, in the capacity of captain of the _Orion_ at
Trafalgar, in the Walcheren expedition, in North America, and at Navarino
in 1827, when the Turkish fleet was destroyed; served also in Parliament
from 1832 to 1839, when he was appointed Commander-in-Chief at Portsmouth
(1770-1851).
CODRINGTON, SIR WILLIAM JOHN, a British general; served in the
Crimean war, and Commander-in-Chief after the death of General Simpson
(1800-1884).
CODRUS, the last king of Athens; sacrificed his life to fulfil an
oracle, which promised victory to the side whose king fell in an
engagement between the Athenians and Dorians in 1132 B.C.
COEHOORN, BARON VAN, a Dutch military engineer; fortified Namur, and
defended it against Vauban; was successful in besieging many towns during
the war of the Spanish Succession; author of a treatise on fortification
(1641-1704).
COELEBS (a bachelor), the title of a novel by Hannah More.
COELE-SYRIA (the Howe of Syria), or EL BUKA'A, a valley between
the Lebanons, about 100 m. long by 10 m. broad.
COELIAN, one of the seven hills of Rome, S. of the Capitoline.
COELLO, the name of two Spanish painters in the 16th and 17th
centuries, whose works are in the Escurial.
COEUR, JACQUES, a rich merchant of Bourges, financier to Charles
VII., for whom he provided the sinews of war against the English, but who
banished him at the instigation of detractors; he was reinstated under
Louis XI. (1400-1456).
COEUR DE LION (lion-hearted), a surname on account of their courage
given to Richard I. of England (1151), Louis VIII. of France (1181), and
Boselas I. of Poland (960).
COGITO, ERGO SUM, "I think, therefore I am." Descartes' principle of
certainty, and on which, as on a stable basis, he reared his whole
philosophy. See DESCARTES. "Alas, poor cogitator," Carlyle
exclaims, "this takes us but a little way. Sure enough, I am; and lately
was not; but Whence? How? Whereto?"
COGNAC (17), a French town in the dep. of Charente, birthplace of
Francis I.; famous for its vines and the manufacture of brandy.
COGNIET, a French painter, author of "Tintoret painting his Dead
Daughter" (1794-1880).
COILA, a poetic name for Kyle, the central district of Ayrshire.
COIMBATORE (46), a town of strategic importance in the Madras
Presidency, 30 m. SW. of Madras, situated in a gorge of the Ghâts, 1437
ft. above the sea-level, in a district (2,004) of the same name.
COIMBRA (14), a rainy town in Portugal, of historical interest, 110
m. NNE. of Lisbon, with a celebrated university, in which George Buchanan
was a professor, where he was accused of heresy and thrown into prison,
and where he translated the Psalms into Latin.
COKE, coal with a residue of carbon and earthy matter after the
volatile constituents are driven off by heat in closed spaces.
COKE, SIR EDWARD, Lord Chief-Justice of England, born at Milcham,
Norfolk; being a learned lawyer, rose rapidly at the bar and in offices
connected therewith; became Lord Chief-Justice in 1613; was deposed in
1617 for opposing the king's wishes; sat in his first and third
Parliaments, and took a leading part in drawing up the Petition of
Rights; spent the last three years of his life in revising his works, his
"Institutes," known as "Coke upon Littleton," and his valuable "Reports"
(1549-1634).
COLBERT, JEAN BAPTISTE, a French statesman, of Scotch descent, born
in Rheims, the son of a clothier; introduced to Louis XIV. by Mazarin,
then first minister; he was appointed Controller-General of the Finances
after the fall of Fouquet, and by degrees made his influence felt in all
the departments of State affairs; he favoured, by protectionist
measures--free trade not yet being heard of--French industry and
commerce; was to the French marine what Louvois was to the army, and
encouraged both arts and letters; from 1671 his influence began to
decline; he was held responsible for increased taxation due to Louis
XIV.'s wars, while the jealousy of Louvois weakened his credit at Court;
he became so unpopular that on his death his body was buried at night,
but a grateful posterity has recognised his services, and done homage to
his memory as one of the greatest ministers France ever had (1619-1683).
COLBURN, ZERAH, an American youth, with an astonishing power of
calculation, born in Vermont, and exhibited as such, a faculty which he
lost when he grew up to manhood (1804-1840).
COLCHESTER (35), the largest town in Essex, 51 m. from London, on
the right bank of the Colne, of great antiquity, and with Roman remains;
has been long famous for its oyster fishery; has silk manufactures; is
the port of outlet of a large corn-growing district.
COLCHESTER, CHARLES ABBOT, LORD, English statesman; sometime Chief
Secretary of Ireland, and Speaker of the House of Commons; raised to the
peerage in response to an address of the House of Commons (1757-1829).
COLCHIS, a district on the E. of the Black Sea, and S. of Caucasus,
where the Argonauts, according to Greek tradition, found and conquered
the Golden Fleece; the natives had a reputation for witchcraft and
sorcery.
COLDSTREAM GUARDS, one of the three regiments of Foot Guards; was
raised by General Monk in Scotland in 1660, and marched under him from
Coldstream to place Charles II. on the throne; originally called Monk's
regiment.
COLE, HENRY an English ecclesiastical zealot, who held handsome
preferments under Henry VIII. and Mary, but was stripped of them under
Edward VI. and Elizabeth.
COLE, KING, a legendary jovial British king, celebrated in song.
COLEBROOKE, HENRY THOMAS, a celebrated Indianist, born in London;
served under the East India Company, and devoted his spare time to Indian
literature; studied the Sanskrit language, wrote on the Vedas, translated
the "Digest of Hindu Law" compiled by Sir William Jones, compiled a
Sanskrit Dictionary, and wrote various treatises on the law and
philosophy of the Hindus; he was one of the first scholars in Europe to
reveal the treasures that lay hid in the literature of the East
(1765-1837).
COLENSO, DR., an English clergyman and mathematician; was appointed
bishop of Natal in 1845; applied himself to the study of the Zulu
language, and translated parts of the Bible and Prayer-book into it;
calling in question the accuracy and Mosaic authorship of the Pentateuch,
was deposed by his metropolitan, which deposition was declared null and
void by the Privy Council; besides his theological work, produced
text-books on arithmetic and algebra; died at Durban, Natal; he favoured
the cause of the Zulus against the Boers, and did his utmost to avert the
Zulu war (1814-1883).
COLERIDGE, HARTLEY, an English man of letters, eldest son of Samuel
Taylor Coleridge, born at Clevedon, Somerset; lived with his father in
the Lake District, and grew up in the society of Wordsworth, De Quincey,
and others; gained a Fellowship at Oxford, but forfeited it through
intemperance; tried school-mastering at Ambleside, but failed, and took
to literature, in which he did some excellent work, both in prose and
poetry, though he led all along a very irregular life; had his father's
weaknesses, and not a little of his ability; his best memorials as a poet
are his sonnets, of which two have been especially admired, "The Soul of
Man is Larger than the Sky," and "When I Survey the Course I have Run"
(1796-1849).
COLERIDGE, HENRY NELSON, nephew of Samuel Taylor Coleridge, and a
great admirer; editor of many of his works, his "Table Talk" in especial
(1800-1843).
COLERIDGE, JOHN DUKE, LORD, an English lawyer, cousin of Hartley
Coleridge; after serving in inferior appointments, appointed Lord
Chief-Justice of England in 1880; when at the bar he was prominent in
connection with Tichborne case.
COLERIDGE, SIR JOHN TAYLOR, an English judge, nephew of Samuel
Taylor Coleridge; was editor of the _Quarterly_, edited "Blackstone,"
&c.; wrote a "Memoir of the Rev. John Keble" (1790-1876).
COLERIDGE, SAMUEL TAYLOR, poet, philosopher, and critic, born in
Devonshire; passionately devoted to classical and metaphysical studies;
educated at Christ's Hospital; had Charles Lamb for schoolmate; at
Cambridge devoted himself to classics; falling into debt enlisted as a
soldier, and was, after four months, bought off by his friends; gave
himself up to a literary life; married, and took up house near
Wordsworth, in Somersetshire, where he produced the "Ancient Mariner,"
"Christabel," and "Remorse"; preached occasionally in Unitarian pulpits;
visited Germany and other parts of the Continent; lectured in London in
1808; when there took to opium, broke off the habit in 1816, and went to
stay with the Gillmans at Highgate as their guest, under whose roof,
after four years' confinement to a sick-room, he died; among his works
were "The Friend," his "Biographia Literaria," "Aids to Reflection," &c.,
published in his lifetime, and "Confessions of an Inquiring Spirit,"
"Literary Remains," and "Table Talk" after his death; he was a man of
subtle and large intellect, and exercised a great influence on the
thinkers of his time, though in no case was the influence a decisive one,
as it had the most opposite effects on different minds; his philosophy
was hazy, and his life was without aim, "once more the tragic story of a
high endowment with an insufficient will" (1772-1834). See Carlyle's
estimate of him in the "Life of Sterling."
COLERIDGE, SARAH, poetess, only daughter of preceding; her sole
poem, "Phantasmion"; left "Letters" of interest (1803-1852).
COLES, COWPER PHIPPS, an English naval captain and architect;
entered the navy at 11; distinguished himself at Sebastopol; designer of
the turret-ship the _Captain_, which capsized off Finisterre, himself on
board, and drowned with a crew of 500 men (1819-1870).
COLET, JOHN, dean of St. Paul's, a patron of learning, a friend and
scholar of Erasmus, a liberal and much persecuted man; far in advance of
his time; founded and endowed St. Paul's School; wrote a number of works,
chiefly theological, and "Letters to Erasmus"' (1466-1519).
COLET, LOUISE, a French literary lady, born at Aix; wrote numerous
works for the young (1808-1876).
COLIGNY, GASPARD DE, French admiral, born at Châtillon; a leader of
the Huguenots; began his life and distinguished himself as a soldier;
when the Guises came into power he busied himself in procuring toleration
for the Huguenots, and succeeded in securing in their behalf what is
known as the Pacification of Amboise, but on St. Bartholomew's Eve he
fell the first victim to the conspiracy in his bed; was thrown out of the
window, and exposed to every manner of indignity in the streets, though
it is hard to believe that the Duke of Guise, as is said, demeaned
himself to kick the still living body (1517-1572).
COLIMA (25), capital of a State of the same name in Mexico.
COLIN CLOUT, the name Spenser assumes in the "Shepherd's Calendar."
COLIN TAMPON, the nickname of a Swiss, as John Bull of an
Englishman.
COLISE`UM, a magnificent amphitheatre in Rome, begun under Vespasian
and finished under Titus; it rose from the area by 80 tiers of seats, and
could contain 80,000 spectators; it was here the gladiators fought with
wild beasts, and also the early Christians.
COLLATINUS, the nephew of Tarquinius Priscus, the husband of
Lucretia, and with Brutus, her avenger, the first consul of Rome.
COLLECTIVISM, the Socialistic doctrine that industry should be
carried on by capital as the joint property of the community.
COLLÈGE DE FRANCE, an institution founded at Paris by Francis I. in
1530, where instruction is given to advanced students in several
departments of knowledge.
COLLIER, ARTHUR, an English metaphysician, born in Wilts; studied
Descartes and Malebranche, and who, anticipating Berkeley, published a
"Demonstration of the Non-Existence and the Impossibility of an External
World" (1680-1732). See BERKELEY.
COLLIER, JEREMY, an English non-juring divine, refused to take oath
at the Revolution; was imprisoned for advocating the rights of the
Stuarts; had to flee the country at length, and was outlawed; wrote with
effect against "The Profaneness and Immorality of the Stage," as well as
an "Ecclesiastical History of Great Britain," and a translation of the
"Meditations of Marcus Aurelius" (1650-1726).
COLLIER, JOHN PAYNE, a Shakespearian commentator and critic; wrote a
great deal on various subjects, but got into trouble by his emendations
of Shakespeare (1789-1883).
COLLINGWOOD, CUTHBERT, LORD, a celebrated English admiral, entered
the navy at 13; his career was intimately connected all along with that
of Nelson; succeeded in command when Nelson fell at Trafalgar, and when
he died himself, which happened at sea, his body was brought home and
buried beside Nelson's in St. Paul's Cathedral (1740-1810).
COLLINS, ANTHONY, an English deist, an intimate friend of Locke; his
principal works were "Discourse on Freethinking," "Philosophical Inquiry
into Liberty and Necessity," and "Grounds and Reasons of the Christian
Religion," which gave rise to much controversy; he was a necessitarian,
and argued against revelation (1676-1729).
COLLINS, MORTIMER, a versatile genius, born at Plymouth; wrote
poems, novels, and essays; was the author of "Who was the Heir?" and
"Sweet Anne Page"; was a tall, handsome man, fond of athletics, a
delightful companion, and dear to his friends (1827-1876).
COLLINS, WILKIE, English novelist, son of the succeeding, born in
London; tried business, then law, and finally settled to literature; his
novel "The Woman in White" was the first to take with the public, and was
preceded and succeeded by others which have ensured for him a high place
among the writers of fiction (1824-1889).
COLLINS, WILLIAM, a gifted and ill-fated English poet, born at
Chichester; settled in London; fell into dissipated habits and straitened
circumstances; had £2000 left him by an uncle, but both health and
spirits were broken, and he died in mental imbecility; his "Odes" have
not been surpassed, among which the most celebrated are the "Odes to the
Passions," to "Simplicity," and to "Evening" (1720-1756).
COLLINS, WILLIAM, R.A., a distinguished English painter, born in
London; he made his reputation by his treatment of coast and cottage
scenes, and though he tried his skill in other subjects, it was in the
subjects he started with that he achieved his greatest triumphs; among
his best-known works are "The Blackberry Gatherers," "As Happy as a
King," "The Fisherman's Daughter," and "The Bird-Catchers" (1788-1847).
COLLINSON, PETER, an English horticulturist, to whom we are indebted
for the introduction into the country of many ornamental shrubs
(1694-1768).
COLLOT D'HERBOIS, JEAN MARIE, a violent French Revolutionary,
originally a tragic actor, once hissed off the Lyons stage, "tearing a
passion to rags"; had his revenge by a wholesale butchery there; marched
209 men across the Rhône to be shot; by-and-by was banished beyond seas
to Cayenne, and soon died there (1750-1790).
COLLYER, JOSEPH, an eminent stipple engraver, born in London
(1768-1827).
COLMAN, GEORGE, an English dramatist, born at Florence; bred for and
called to the bar; author of a comedy entitled "The Jealous Wife," also
of "The Clandestine Marriage"; became manager of Drury Lane, then of the
Haymarket (1733-1794).
COLMAN, GEORGE, son of the preceding, and his successor in the
Haymarket; author of "The Iron Chest," "John Bull," "The Heir at Law,"
&c. (1762-1836).
COLMAR (30), the chief town of Upper Alsace, on the Lauch, on a
plain near the Vosges, 42 m. SW. of Strasburg; passed into the hands of
the French by treaty of Ryswick in 1697, was ceded to Germany in 1871.
COLOCETRONIS, a Greek patriot, born in Messina, distinguished
himself in the War of Independence, which he chiefly contributed to carry
through to a successful issue (1770-1843).
COLOGNE (282), in German KÖLN, capital of Rhenish Prussia, and
a fortress of first rank, on the left bank of the Rhine, 175 m. SE. of
Rotterdam; is a busy commercial city, and is engaged in eau-de-Cologne,
sugar, tobacco, and other manufactures. It has some fine old buildings,
and a picture gallery; but its glory is its great cathedral, founded in
the 9th century, burnt in 1248, since which time the rebuilding was
carried on at intervals, and only completed in 1880; it is one of the
masterpieces of Gothic architecture.
COLOGNE, THE THREE KINGS OF, the three Magi who paid homage to the
infant Christ, and whose bones were consigned to the archbishop in 1164;
they were called Gaspar, Melchior, and Balthazar.
COLOMBIA (4,000), a federal republic of nine States, occupying the
isthmus of Panama and the NW. corner of S. America, between Venezuela and
Ecuador. The country, nearly three times the size of France, though it
has only a ninth of the population, comprises in the W. three chains of
the Andes and the plateaus between them, in the E. plains well watered by
tributaries of the Orinoco. The upper valleys of the Magdalena and Cauca
are the centres of population, where the climate is delightful, and grain
grows. Every climate is found in Colombia, from the tropical heats of the
plains to the Arctic cold of the mountains. Natural productions are as
various: the exports include valuable timbers and dye-woods, cinchona
bark, coffee, cacao, cotton, and silver ore. Most of the trade is with
Britain and the United States. Manufactures are inconsiderable. The
mineral wealth is very great, but little wrought. The Panama Railway,
from Colon to Panama, connects the Atlantic and the Pacific Oceans, and
is a most important highway of commerce. The people are descendants of
Spaniards and Indians; education is meagre, but compulsory; the State
Church is Roman Catholic. The capital is Bogotá. Panama and Cartagena the
chief ports.
COLOMBO (126), the capital of Ceylon, and the chief port on the W.
coast; it is surrounded on three sides by the sea, and on the other by a
lake and moat; is supplied with water and gas; has many fine buildings;
has a very mixed population, and has belonged to Britain since 1796;
communicates with Kandy by railway.
COLON, a town at the Atlantic terminus of the Panama Railway. See
ASPINWALL.
COLONNA, an illustrious Italian family, to which belonged popes,
cardinals, and generals.
COLONNA, VICTORIA, a poetess, married to a member of the above
family, who consoled herself for his early death by cultivating her
poetic gift; one of her most devoted friends was Michael Angelo
(1490-1547).
COLONNE, EDOUARD, musical conductor, born at Bordeaux, conductor of
what are known as "Colonne Concerts"; _b_. 1838.
COLONUS, a demos of Attica, a mile NW. of Athens, the birthplace of
Sophocles.
COLOPHON, an Ionian city in Asia Minor, N. of Ephesus, is supposed
to give name to the device at the end of books, the cavalry of the place
being famous for giving the finishing stroke to a battle.
COLORA`DO (412), an inland State of the American Union, traversed by
the Rocky Mountains, and watered by the upper reaches of the S. Platte
and Arkansas Rivers, is twice as large as England. The mountains are the
highest in the States (13,000 to 14,000 ft.), are traversed by lofty
passes through which the railways run, have rich spacious valleys or
parks among them, and have great deposits of gold, silver, lead, and
iron. There are also extensive coal-beds; hence the leading industries
are mining and iron working. The eastern portion is a level, treeless
plain, adapted for grazing. Agriculture, carried on with irrigation,
suffers from insect plagues like the Colorado potato beetle. The climate
is dry and clear, and attracts invalids. Acquired partly from France in
1804, and the rest from Mexico in 1848; the territory was organised in
1861, and admitted to the Union in 1876. The capital is Denver (107).
There is a small Spanish-speaking population in the S.
COLOSSÆ, a city in the S. of Phrygia, in Asia Minor, and the site of
one of the earliest Christian churches.
COLOSSIANS, THE EPISTLE TO THE, by St. Paul, directed mainly against
two errors of that early date, that the fleshly nature of man is no
adequate vehicle for the reception and revelation of the divine nature,
and that for redemption recourse must be had to direct mortification of
the flesh.
COLOSSUS, any gigantic statue, specially one of Apollo in bronze,
120 ft. high, astride over the mouth of the harbour at Rhodes, reckoned
one of the seven wonders of the world, erected in 280 B.C., destroyed by
an earthquake 56 years after, and sold to a Jew centuries later for old
metal; besides this are celebrated the statue of Memnon at Thebes, the
Colossi of Athene in the Parthenon at Athens, and of Zeus at Olympia and
at Tarentum, as well as others of modern date; for instance, Germania,
112 ft. high, in the Niederwald, and Liberty enlightening the World, 160
ft. high, in New York harbour.
COLOT, the name of a family of French surgeons in the 16th and 17th
century, distinguished for their skill in operating in the case of stone.
COLOUR-BLINDNESS, inability, still unaccounted for, to distinguish
between colours, and especially between red and green, more common among
men than women; a serious disqualification for several occupations, such
as those connected with the study of signals.
COLOUR-SERGEANT, a sergeant whose duty is to guard the colours and
those who carry them.
COLQUHOUN, JOHN, a noted sportsman and writer on sport in Scotland,
born in Edinburgh (1805-1885).
COLSTON, EDWARD, an English philanthropist, founded and endowed a
school in Bristol for the education of 100 boys, as well as almshouses
elsewhere (1636-1721).
COLT, SAMUEL, the inventor of the revolver, born in Hartford,
Connecticut, U.S.; having difficulty in raising money to carry out his
invention it proved a commercial failure, but being adopted by the
Government in the Mexican war it proved a success, since which time it
has been everywhere in use (1814-1862).
COLUMBA, ST., the apostle of Christianity to the Scots, born in
Donegal; coming to Scotland about 563, in his forty-second year, founded
a monastery in Iona, and made it the centre of his evangelistic
operations, in which work he was occupied incessantly till 596, when his
health began to fail, and he breathed his last kneeling before the altar,
June 9, 597.
COLUMBAN, ST., an Irish missionary, who, with twelve companions,
settled in Gaul in 585; founded two monasteries, but was banished for the
offence of rebuking the king; went to Italy, founded a monastery at
Bobbio, where he died 616.
COLUMBIA, a district of 70 sq. m. in the State of Maryland, U.S.,
in which Washington, the capital of the Union, stands.
COLUMBIA, BRITISH (100), the most westerly province in Canada, lies
between the Rocky Mountains and the Pacific, the United States and
Alaska, and is four times the size of Great Britain. It is a mountainous
country, rugged and picturesque, containing the highest peaks on the
continent, Mount Hooker, 15,700 ft., and Mount Brown, 16,000 ft, with a
richly indented coast-line, off which lie Queen Charlotte Islands and
Vancouver. The chief river is the Frazer, which flows from the Lake
region southwards through the centre and then westward to the Gulf of
Georgia; the upper waters of the Columbia flow southward through the E.
of the State. The climate resembles that of northern England, but is in
some parts very rainy. The chief industries are lumbering--the forests
are among the finest in the world, fishing--the rivers abound in salmon
and sturgeon, and mining--rich deposits of gold, silver, iron, copper,
mercury, antimony, and many other valuable minerals are found; there are
great coal-fields in Vancouver. In Vancouver and in the river valleys of
the mainland are extensive tracts of arable and grazing land; but neither
agriculture nor manufactures are much developed. Made a Crown colony in
1858, it joined the Dominion as a province in 1871. The completion of the
Canadian Pacific Railway in 1885 joined it to the eastern provinces. The
capital is Victoria (17), in the S. of Vancouver.
COLUMBUS (125), capital of Ohio, U.S., a manufacturing town.
COLUMBUS, BARTHOLOMEW, cosmographer, brother of Christopher
Columbus; accompanied him to St. Domingo, and became governor; _d_. 1514.
COLUMBUS, CHRISTOPHER, discoverer of America, on Oct. 12, 1492,
after two months of great peril and, in the end, mutiny of his men, born
in Genoa; went to sea at 14; cherished, if he did not conceive, the idea
of reaching India by sailing westward; applied in many quarters for
furtherance; after seven years of waiting, was provided with three small
vessels and a crew of 120 men; first touched land at the Bahamas, visited
Cuba and Hayti, and returned home with spoils of the land; was hailed and
honoured as King of the Sea; he made three subsequent visits, and on the
third had the satisfaction of landing on the mainland, which Sebastian
Cabot and Amerigo Vespucci had reached before him; he became at last the
victim of jealousy, and charges were made against him, which so cut him
to the heart that he never rallied from the attack, and he died at
Valladolid, broken in body and in soul; Carlyle, in a famous passage,
salutes him across the centuries: "Brave sea-captain, Norse sea-king,
Columbus my hero, royalist sea-king of all" (1438-1506).
COLUMELLA, JUNIUS, a Latin writer of the 1st century, born at Cadiz;
author of "De Re Rustica," in 12 books, on the same theme as Virgil's
"Georgics," viz., agriculture and gardening; he wrote also "De
Arboribus," on trees.
COLU`THUS, a Greek epic poet of 6th century, born in Egypt; wrote
the "Rape of Helen."
COLVIN, SIDNEY, Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge, Slade
Professor of Art at Cambridge, born at Norwood; contributor to the
journals on art and literature; has written Lives of Keats and Landor;
friend of Robert Louis Stevenson, and his literary executor; _b_. 1845.
COMACCHIO (10), a walled town, 30 m. SE. of Ferrara; famous for
fish, specially eel-culture in a large lagoon adjoining, 90 in. in
circumference.
COMBE, ANDREW, M.D., a physician and physiologist, born in
Edinburgh; studied under Spurzheim in Edinburgh and Paris, but on his
return to his native city was seized with pulmonary consumption, which
rendered him a confirmed invalid, so that he had to spend his winters
abroad; was eminent as a physician; was a believer in phrenology;
produced three excellent popular works on Physiology, Digestion, and the
Management of Infancy (1797-1847).
COMBE, GEORGE, brother of the preceding, born in Edinburgh; trained
to the legal profession; like his brother, he became, under Spurzheim, a
stanch phrenologist and advocate of phrenology; but his ablest and
best-known work was "The Constitution of Man," to the advocacy of the
principles of which and their application, especially to education, he
devoted his life; he married a daughter of the celebrated Mrs. Siddons
(1788-1858).
COMBE, WILLIAM, born in Bristol; author of the "Three Tours of Dr.
Syntax"; inherited a small fortune, which he squandered by an irregular
life; wrote some 86 works (1741-1823).
COMBERMERE, VISCOUNT, a British field-marshal, born in Denbighshire;
served in Flanders, at the Cape of Good Hope, and in India; was present
at the siege of Seringapatam; was sent to Spain in 1808; distinguished
himself in the Peninsula, and particularly at Talavera; received a
peerage in 1827; was made commander-in-chief in India, and Constable of
the Tower in succession to Wellington in 1832 (1773-1865).
COMENIUS, JOHN AMOS, a Moravian educational reformer, particularly
as regards the acquisition of languages in their connection with the
things they denote; his two most famous books are his "Janua Linguarum"
and his "Orbis Sensualium Pictus"; his principle at bottom was, words
must answer to and be associated with things and ideas of things, a
principle still only very partially adopted in education, and that only
at the most elementary stages.
COMET, a member of the solar system under control of the sun,
consisting of a bright nucleus within a nebulous envelope, generally
extended into a tail on the rear of its orbit, which is extremely
eccentric, pursuing its course with a velocity which increases as it
approaches the sun, and which diminishes as it withdraws from it; these
bodies are very numerous, have their respective periods of revolution,
which have been in many cases determined by observation.
COMINES, a French town in the dep. of Nord, France, 15 m. SW. of
Courtrai.
COMINES, PHILIPPE DE, a French chronicler, born at Comines; was of
Flemish origin; served under Charles the Bold, then under Louis XI. and
Charles VIII.; author of "Memoires," in seven vols., of the reigns of
these two monarchs, which give a clear and faithful picture of the time
and the chief actors in it, but with the coolest indifference as to the
moral elements at work, with him the end justifying the means, and
success the measure of morality (1443-1509).
COMITIA, constitutional assemblies of the Roman citizens for
electing magistrates, putting some question to the vote of the people,
the declaration of war, &c.
COMITY OF NATIONS, the name given for the effect given in one
country to the laws and institutions of another in dealing with a native
of it.
COMMANDITE, SOCIÉTÉ EN, partnership in a business by a supply of
funds, but without a share in the management or incurring further
liability.
COMMELIN, ISAAC, Dutch historian; wrote the "Lives of the
Stadtholders William I. and Maurice" (1598-1676).
COMMENTARIES OF JULIUS CÆSAR, his memoirs of the Gallic and Civil
Wars, reckoned the most perfect model of narration that in such
circumstances was ever written, and a masterpiece.
COMMITTEE OF PUBLIC SAFETY, a committee of nine created by the
French Convention, April 6, 1793, to concentrate the power of the
executive, "the conscience of Marat, who could see salvation in one thing
only, in the fall of 260,000 aristocrats' heads"; notable, therefore, for
its excesses in that line; was not suppressed till Oct. 19, 1796, on the
advent of the Directory to power.
COM`MODUS, LUCIUS AURELIUS, Roman emperor, son and successor of
Marcus Aurelius; carefully trained, but on his father's death threw up
the reins and gave himself over to every form of licentiousness; poison
administered by his mistress Marcia being slow in operating, he was
strangled to death by a hired athlete in 162.
COMMON LAW is law established by usage and confirmed by judicial
decision.
COMMON-SENSE, PHILOSOPHY OF, the philosophy which rests on the
principle that the perceptions of the senses reflect things as they
actually are irrespectively of them.
COMMUNE, THE, a revolutionary power installed in Paris after the
"admonitory" insurrection of March 18, 1871, and overthrown in the end of
May.
COMMUNISM, community of property in a State.
COMNE`NUS, name of a dynasty of six emperors of Constantinople.
COMO, LAKE OF, one of the chief lakes of Lombardy and the third in
size, at the foot of the Pennine Alps, 80 m. long and 2½ at greatest
breadth; is traversed by the Adda, and is famed for the beauty and rich
variety of its scenery.
COMORIN, CAPE, a low sandy point, the most southerly of India, from
which the seaman is beckoned off by a peak 18 m. inland.
COMORO ISLES (63), an archipelago of four volcanic islands at the N.
of the channel of Mozambique; under the protectorate of France since
1886; the people are Mohammedans, and speak Arabic.
COMPARETTI, an Italian philologist; his writings are numerous; _b_.
1835.
COMPIÈGNE (14), a quiet old town in the dep. of Oise, 50 m. NE. of
Paris; has some fine old churches, but the chief edifice is the palace,
built by St. Louis and rebuilt by Louis XIV., where the marriage of
Napoleon to Maria Louisa was celebrated; here Joan of Arc was made
prisoner in 1430, and Louis Napoleon had hunting ground.
COMPTON, HENRY, bishop of London, son of the Earl of Northampton;
fought bravely for Charles I.; was colonel of dragoons at the
Restoration; left the army for the Church; was made bishop; crowned
William and Mary when the archbishop, Sancroft, refused; _d_. 1713.
COMRIE (8), a village in Perthshire, on the Earn, 20 m. W. of Perth,
in a beautiful district of country; subject to earthquakes from time to
time; birthplace of George Gilfillan.
COMTE, AUGUSTE, a French philosopher, born at Montpellier, the
founder of POSITIVISM (q. v.); enough to say here, it consisted
of a new arrangement of the sciences into Abstract and Concrete, and a
new law of historical evolution in science from a theological through a
metaphysical to a positive stage, which last is the ultimate and crowning
and alone legitimate method, that is, observation of phenomena and their
sequence; Comte was first a disciple of St. Simon, but he quarrelled with
him; commenced a "Cours de Philosophie Positive" of his own, in six
vols.; but finding it defective on the moral side, he instituted a
worship of humanity, and gave himself out as the chief priest of a new
religion, a very different thing from Carlyle's hero-worship (1795-1857).
COMUS, the Roman deity who presided over festive revelries; the
title of a poem by Milton, "the most exquisite of English or any masks."
COMYN, JOHN (the Black Comyn), Lord of Badenoch, a Scottish noble of
French descent, his ancestor, born at Comines, having come over with the
Conqueror and got lands given him; was one of the competitors for the
Scottish crown in 1291, and lost it.
COMYN, JOHN (the Red Comyn), son of the preceding; as one of the
three Wardens of Scotland defended it against the English, whom he
defeated at Roslin; but in 1304 submitted to Edward I., and falling under
suspicion of Bruce, was stabbed by him in a monastery at Dumfries in
1306.
CONCEPCION (24), a town in Chile, S. of Valparaiso, with its port,
Talcahuano, 7 m. off, one of the safest and most commodious in the
country, and ranks next to Valparaiso as a trading centre.
CONCEPTION OF OUR LADY, an order of nuns founded in Portugal in
1484; at first followed the rule of the Cistercians, but afterwards that
of St. Clare.
CONCIERGERIE, a prison in the Palais de Justice, Paris.
CONCLAVE, properly the room, generally in the Vatican, where the
cardinals are confined under lock and key while electing a Pope.
CONCORD, a town in U.S., 23 m. NW. of Boston; was the residence of
Emerson, Thoreau, and Hawthorne; here the first engagement took place in
the American war in 1775.
CONCORD (17), capital of New Hampshire, U.S., a thriving trading
place.
CONCORDAT, THE, a convention of July 15, 1801, between Bonaparte and
Pius V., regulative of the relations of France with the Holy See.
CONCORDE, PLACE DE LA, a celebrated public place, formed by Louis
XV. in 1748, adorned by a statue of him; at the Revolution it was called
Place de la Revolution; here Louis XVI. and his queen were guillotined.
CONCORDIA, the Roman goddess of peace, to whom Camillus the dictator
in 367 B.C. dedicated a temple on the conclusion of the strife between
the patricians and plebeians.
CONDÉ, HENRY I., PRINCE OF, fought in the ranks of the Huguenots,
but escaped the massacre of St. Bartholomew by an oath of abjuration
(1552-1588).
CONDÉ, HOUSE OF, a collateral branch of the house of Bourbon, the
members of which played all along a conspicuous rôle in the history of
France.
CONDÉ, LOUIS I., PRINCE OF, founder of the house of Condé, a brave,
gallant man, though deformed; distinguished himself in the wars between
Henry II. and Charles V., particularly in the defence of Metz; affronted
at court, and obnoxious to the Guises, he became a Protestant, and joined
his brother the king of Navarre; became the head of the party, and was
treacherously killed after the battle of Jarnac; he had been party,
however, to the conspiracy of Amboise, which aimed a death-blow at the
Guises (1530-1569).
CONDÉ, LOUIS II., PRINCE OF, named "the Great Condé," born at Paris;
was carefully educated; acquired a taste for literature, which stood him
in good stead at the end of his career; made his reputation by his
victory over the Spaniards at Recroi; distinguished himself at Fribourg,
Nordlingen, and Lens; the settlement of the troubles of the Fronde
alienated him, so that he entered the service of Spain, and served
against his country, but was by-and-by reconciled; led the French army to
success in Franche-Comté and Holland, and soon after retired to
Chantilly, where he enjoyed the society of such men as Molière, Boileau,
and La Bruyère, and when he died Bossuet pronounced a funeral oration
over his grave (1621-1686).
CONDÉ, LOUIS JOSEPH, PRINCE DE, born at Chantilly; served in the
Seven Years' War; attended in the antechamber in the palace when Louis
XV. lay dying; was one of the first to emigrate on the fall of the
Bastille; seized every opportunity to save the monarchy; was declared a
traitor to the country, and had his estates confiscated for threatening
to restore Louis XVI.; organised troops to aid in the Restoration;
settled at Malmesbury, in England, during the Empire; returned to France
with Louis XVIII. (1736-1818).
CONDILLAC, ÉTIENNE BONNOT, a French philosopher, born at Grenoble,
of good birth; commenced as a disciple of Locke, but went further, for
whereas Locke was content to deduce empirical knowledge from sensation
and reflection, he deduced reflection from sensation, and laid the
foundation of a sensationalism which, in the hands of his successors,
went further still, and swamped the internal in the external, and which
is now approaching the stage of self-cancelling zero; he lived as a
recluse, and had Rousseau and Diderot for intimate friends (1715-1780).
CONDITIONAL IMMORTALITY, the doctrine that only believers in Christ
have any future existence, a dogma founded on certain isolated passages
of Scripture.
CONDORCET, MARQUIS DE, a French mathematician and philosopher, born
near St. Quentin; contributed to the "Encyclopédie"; was of the
Encyclopedist school; took sides with the Revolutionary party in the
interest of progress; voted with the Girondists usually; suspected by the
extreme party; was not safe even under concealment; "skulked round Paris
in thickets and stone-quarries; entered a tavern one bleared May morning,
ragged, rough-bearded, hunger-stricken, and asked for breakfast; having a
Latin Horace about him was suspected and haled to prison, breakfast
unfinished; fainted by the way with exhaustion; was flung into a damp
cell, and found next morning lying dead on the floor"; his works are
voluminous, and the best known is his "Exquisse du Progrès de l'Esprit
Humain"; he was not an original thinker, but a clear expositor
(1743-1794).
CONDOTTIE`RI, leaders of Italian free-lances, who in the 14th and
15th centuries lived by plunder or hired themselves to others for a share
in the spoils.
CONFEDERATE STATES, 11 Southern States of the American Union, which
seceded in 1861 on the question of slavery, and which occasioned a civil
war that lasted till 1865.
CONFEDERATION OF THE RHINE, a confederation of 16 German States,
which in 1806 dissolved their connection with Germany and leagued with
France, and which lasted till disaster overtook Napoleon in Russia, and
then broke up; the Germanic Confederation, or union of all the States,
took its place, till it too was dissolved by the defeat of Austria in
1866, and which gave ascendency to Prussia and ensured the erection of
the German empire on its ruins.
CONFERENCE, a stated meeting of Wesleyan ministers for the
transaction of the business of their Church.
CONFESSIONS OF FAITH, are statements of doctrine very similar to
Creeds, but usually longer and polemical, as well as didactic; they are
in the main, though not exclusively, associated with Protestantism; the
16th century produced many, including the _Sixty-seven Articles_ of the
Swiss reformers, drawn up by Zwingli in 1523; the _Augsburg Confession_
of 1530, the work of Luther and Melanchthon, which marked the breach with
Rome; the _Tetrapolitan Confession_ of the German Reformed Church, 1530;
the _Gallican Confession_, 1559; and the _Belgic Confession_ of 1561. In
Britain the _Scots Confession_, drawn up by John Knox in 1560; the
_Thirty-nine Articles_ of the Church of England in 1562; the _Irish
Articles_ in 1615; and the _Westminster Confession of Faith_ in 1647;
this last, the work of the Westminster Assembly of Divines, has by its
force of language, logical statement, comprehensiveness, and dependence
on Scripture, commended itself to the Presbyterian Churches of all
English-speaking peoples, and is the most widely recognised Protestant
statement of doctrine; it has as yet been modified only by the United
Presbyterian Church of Scotland, which adopted a Declaratory Statement
regarding certain of its doctrines in 1879, and by the Free Church of
Scotland, which adopted a similar statement in 1890.
CONFESSIONS OF ROUSSEAU, memoirs published after his death in 1788,
in which that writer makes confession of much that was good in him and
much that was bad.
CONFESSIONS OF ST. AUGUSTINE, an account which that Father of the
Church gives of the errors of his youth and his subsequent conversion.
CONFUCIUS, the Latin form of the name of the great sage of China,
Kung Futsze, and the founder of a religion which is based on the worship
and practice of morality as exemplified in the lives and teachings of the
wise men who have gone before, and who, as he conceived, have made the
world what it is, and have left it to posterity to build upon the same
basis; while he lived he was held in greater and greater honour by
multitudes of disciples, till on his death he became an object of
worship, and even his descendants came to be regarded as a kind of sacred
caste; he flourished about 550 B.C.
CONGÉ D'ÉLIRE, a warrant granted by the Crown to the dean and
chapter of a cathedral to elect a particular bishop to a vacant see.
CONGO, the second in length and largest in volume of the African
rivers, rises NE. of the Muchinga Mountains in Rhodesia, flows SW.
through Lake Bangueola, then N. to the equator; curving in a great
semicircle it continues SW., passes in a series of rapids through the
coast range, and enters the S. Atlantic by an estuary 6 m. broad. It
brings down more water than the other African rivers put together. The
largest affluents are the Kassai on the left, and the Mobangi on the
right bank; 110 m. are navigable to ocean steamers, then the cataracts
intervene, and 250 m. of railway promote transit; the upper river is 2 to
4 m. broad, and navigable for small craft up to Stanley Falls, 1068 m.
The name most associated with its exploration is H. M. Stanley; during
its course of 3000 m. it bears several names.
CONGO, FRENCH (5,000), a continuous and connected territory
extending westward along the right bank of the Congo from Brazzaville to
the mouth of the Mobangi, and as far as 4° N. run N. behind the
Cameroons, and along the E. of Shari to Lake Tchad.
CONGO FREE STATE embraces most of the basin of the Congo, touching
British territory in Uganda and Rhodesia, with a very narrow outlet to
the Atlantic at the river mouth. It is under the sovereignty of Leopold
II. of Belgium, who, in 1890, made over his rights to Belgium with power
to annex the State in 1900. It is nine times the size of Great Britain,
and continual native unrest gives great trouble to its administrators.
Its waters are open to all nations, and traders exchange manufactured
goods for ivory, palm-oil, coffee and caoutchouc, bees-wax and fruits.
The climate is tropical, on the lower levels malarial. The population is
from 20 to 40 millions. The centre of administration is Boma, 80 m. from
the sea.
CONGREGATIONALISM, the ecclesiastical system which regards each
congregation of believers in Christ a church complete in itself, and free
from the control of the other Christian communities, and which extends to
each member equal privileges as a member of Christ's body. It took its
rise in England about 1571, and the most prominent name connected with
its establishment is that of ROBERT BROWN (q. v.), who seceded
from the Church of England and formed a church in Norwich in 1580. The
body was called Brownists after him, and Separatists, as well as
"Independents." The several congregations are now united in what is
called "The Congregational Union of England and Wales."
CONGRESS is a diplomatic conference at which the representatives of
sovereign States discuss matters of importance to their several
countries, the most celebrated of which are those of Münster and
Osnabrück, which issued in the treaty of Westphalia in 1648, at the end
of the Thirty Years' War; of Rastadt, at the end of Spanish Succession
War, in 1797; of Vienna, at the end of Napoleon's wars, in 1815; of
Paris, in 1856, at the end of Russian War; and of Berlin, in 1878, at the
end of Russo-Turkish war; but the name has come to be applied in federal
republics to the legislative assembly which directs national as distinct
from State concerns. In the United States, Congress consists of the
Senate, elected by the State legislatures and the House of
Representatives, elected directly by the people. It meets on the first
Monday in December, and receives the President's message for the year. It
imposes taxes, contracts loans, provides for national defence, declares
war, looks after the general welfare, establishes postal communication,
coins money, fixes weights and measures, &c. &c., but it is prohibited
from preferential treatment of the several States, establishing or
interfering with religion, curtailing freedom of speech, or pursuing
towards any citizen, even under legal forms, a course of conduct which is
unjust or even oppressive.
CONGRESS, the Belgian Constituent Assembly, 1830-1831.
CONGREVE, RICHARD, author of political tracts, was a pupil of Dr.
Arnold's, and a disciple of Comte in philosophy; _b_. 1818.
CONGREVE, WILLIAM, English comic dramatist, born near Leeds; entered
a student of the Middle Temple, but soon abandoned law for literature;
the "Old Bachelor" first brought him into repute, and a commissionership
of substantial value; the production of "Love for Love" and the "Mourning
Bride," a stilted tragedy, added immensely to his popularity, but his
comedy "The Way of the World" being coldly received, he gave up writing
plays, and only wrote a few verses afterwards; he was held in great
esteem by his contemporaries, among others Dryden, Pope, and Steele
(1670-1729).
CONGREVE, SIR WILLIAM, an English artillery officer, inventor of the
rocket which bears his name (1772-1828).
CONINGSBY, a novel by Disraeli.
CONINGTON, JOHN, classical scholar and professor of Latin at Oxford,
born at Boston, translator of the "Æneid" of Virgil, "Odes, Satires, and
Epistles" of Horace, and 12 books of the "Iliad" into verse, as well as
of other classics; his greatest work is his edition of "Virgil"
(1823-1869).
CONISBURGH CASTLE, an old round castle referred to in "Ivanhoe," 5
in. SW. of Doncaster.
CONISTON WATER, a lake 5 m. long and ½ m. broad, at the foot of
Coniston Fells, in Lancashire, with Brantwood on the E. side of it, the
residence of John Ruskin.
CONKLING, ROSCOE, an American politician, a leading man on the
Republican side; was a member of the House of Representatives, and also
of the Senate; retired from politics, and practised law at New York
(1828-1888).
CONNAUGHT (724), a western province of Ireland, 105 m. long and 92
m. broad, divided into five counties; is the smallest and most barren of
the provinces, but abounds in picturesque scenery; the people are pure
Celts.
CONNAUGHT, DUKE OF, the third son of Queen Victoria, bred for the
army, has held several military appointments; was promoted to the rank of
general in 1893, and made commander-in-chief at Aldershot; _b_. 1850.
CONNECTICUT (746), southernmost of the New England States, is washed
by Long Island Sound, has New York on the W., Rhode Island on the E., and
Massachusetts on the N. It is the third smallest State, rocky and uneven
in surface, unfertile except in the Connecticut River valley. Streams
abound, and supply motive-power for very extensive manufactures of
clocks, hardware, india-rubber goods, smallwares, textiles, and firearms.
There are iron-mines in the NW., stone-quarries, lead, copper, and cobalt
mines. Climate is healthy, changeable, and in winter severe. Education is
excellently provided for. Yale University, at New Haven, is thoroughly
equipped; there are several divinity schools, Trinity College at
Hartford, and the Wesleyan University at Middleton. The capital is
Hartford (53); New Haven (81) is the largest town and chief port. The
original colony was a democratic secession from Massachusetts in 1634.
The constitution of 1639 was the first written democratic constitution on
record. Its present constitution as a State dates from 1818.
CONNECTICUT, a river in the United States which rises on the
confines of Canada, and, after a course of 450 m., falls into the
Atlantic at Long Island.
CONNEMARA, a wild district with picturesque scenery in W. of co.
Galway, Ireland.
CONOLLY, JOHN, physician, born in Lincolnshire, studied at
Edinburgh, settled in London, distinguished for having introduced and
advocated a more rational and humane treatment of the insane (1794-1866).
CONRAD, CADET OF THE HOUSE OF HOHENZOLLERN, served under the
illustrious Barbarossa; proved a capable young fellow under him; married
the heiress of the Vohburgs; was appointed Burggraf of Nürnberg, 1170,
and prince of the empire; "he is the lineal ancestor of Frederick the
Great, twentieth in direct ascent, let him wait till nineteen
generations, valiantly like Conrad, have done their part, Conrad will
find he has come to this," that was realised in Frederick and his time.
CONRAD, MARQUIS OF TYRE, threw himself into Tyre when beset by
Saladin, and held it till Richard Coeur de Lion and Philip Augustus
arrived; was assassinated by emissaries of the Old Man of the Mountain in
1192.
CONRAD I., count of Franconia, elected on the extinction of the
Carlovingian line Emperor of the Germans, which he continued to be from
911 to 915; fell wounded in battle with the Huns, egged on by a rival.
CONRAD II., the Salic, of the same family as the preceding; elected
Emperor of Germany in 1024; reigned 15 years, extending the empire,
suppressing disorders, and effecting reforms.
CONRAD III., founder of the Hohenstaufen dynasty; elected Emperor of
Germany in 1138; had Henry the Proud, as head of the German Guelfs, for
rival; crushed him at Weinsberg; joined Louis VII. of France on a third
crusade, and returning, overthrew the Guelfs again, leaving Barbarossa as
his heir; _d_. 1152.
CONRAD OF THÜRINGIA, a proud, quick, fiery-tempered magnate, seized
the archbishop of Mainz once, swung him round, and threatened to cut him
in two; stormed, plundered, and set fire to an imperial free town for an
affront offered him; but admonished of his sins became penitent, and
reconciled himself by monastic vow to the Pope and mankind about 1234.
CONRADIN THE BOY, or CONRAD V., the last representative of the
Hohenstaufen dynasty of Romish Kaisers, had fallen into the Pope's
clutches, who was at mortal feud with the empire, and was put to death by
him on the scaffold at Naples, October 25, 1265, the "bright and brave"
lad, only 16, "throwing out his glove (in symbolic protest) amid the dark
mute Neapolitan multitudes" that idly looked on. See CARLYLE'S
"FREDERICK THE GREAT" FOR THE CONRADS.
CONSALVI, Italian cardinal and statesman, born at Rome, secretary of
Pius VII.; concluded the Concordat with Napoleon in 1801; represented the
Pope at the Congress of Vienna; was a liberal patron of literature,
science, and arts; continued minister of the Pope till his death
(1757-1824).
CONSCIENCE, HENDRIK, a brilliant Flemish novelist, born at Antwerp;
rose to popularity among his countrymen by his great national romance the
"Lion of Flanders," a popularity which soon extended all over Europe; his
writings display great descriptive power and perfect purity of sentiment
(1812-1883).
CONSCRIPT FATHERS, the collective name of members of the Roman
Senate, and addressed as such, fathers as seniors and conscripts as
enrolled.
CONSERVATION OF ENERGY, the doctrine that, however it may be
transformed or dissipated, no fraction of energy is ever lost, that the
amount of force, as of matter, in the universe, under all mutation
remains the same.
CONSERVATISM, indisposition to change established laws and customs
that have wrought beneficially in the past and contributed to the welfare
of the country; in practical politics often a very different thing, and
regarded by Carlyle in his time "a portentous enbodied sham; accursed of
God, and doomed to destruction, as all lies are."
CONSIDÉRANT, VICTOR PROSPER, a French Socialist and disciple of
Fourier; founded a colony in Texas on Fourier's principles, which proved
a failure; wrote much in advocacy of his principles, of which the most
important is "La Destinée Sociale"; _b_. 1808.
CONSOLS, the Consolidated Fund, loans to Government made at
different times and at different rates of interest, consolidated for
convenience into one common loan, bearing interest at 3 per cent.,
reduced in 1830 to 2¾, and in 1893 to 2½.
CONSTABLE, a high officer of State in the Roman empire, in France,
and in England, charged at one time with military, judicial, and
regulative functions.
CONSTABLE, ARCHIBALD, Edinburgh publisher, born in Carnbee, Fife;
started as a bookseller near the Cross in Edinburgh; published the _Scots
Magazine_, the _Edinburgh Review_, and the "Encyclopædia Britannica," and
from 1802 to 1826 the works of Sir Walter Scott, when the bankruptcy
connected with the publication of these so affected him that it ruined
his health, though he lived after the crash came to start the
"Miscellany" which bears his name (1774-1827).
CONSTABLE, HENRY, English poet, author of sonnets, 28 in number,
under the title of "Diana" (1560-1612).
CONSTABLE, JOHN, an eminent landscape-painter, born in Suffolk; his
works were more generously appreciated in France than in his own country,
as they well might be, where they had not, as in England, to stand
comparison with those of Turner; but he is now, despite the depreciation
of Ruskin, becoming recognised among us as one of our foremost
landscapists, and enormous prices have been given of late for his best
pictures; some of his best works adorn the walls of the National Gallery;
Ruskin allows his art is original, honest, free from affectation, and
manly (1776-1837).
CONSTABLE DE BOURBON, Charles, Duc de Bourbon, a brilliant military
leader, and a powerful enemy of Francis I.; killed when leading the
assault on Rome (1489-1527).
CONSTANCE (16), a city of the Grand-Duchy of Baden, on the S. bank
of the Rhine, at its exit from the lake; famous for the seat of the
council (1414-1418) which condemned John Huss and Jerome of Prague to
death; long famous for its linen manufacture.
CONSTANCE, LAKE, or BODENSEE, partly in Germany and partly in
Switzerland; is about 44 m. long and 9 m. broad at most; is traversed by
the Rhine from W. to E., is 1306 ft. above sea-level; is surrounded by
vineyards, cornfields, and wooded slopes; its waters are hardly ever
frozen, and often rise and fall suddenly.
CONSTANT, BENJAMIN, a highly popular French painter of the Realistic
school, born at Paris; his first picture was "Hamlet and the King";
afterwards he took chiefly to Oriental subjects, which afforded the best
scope for his talent; occupies a high place in the modern French school,
and has been promoted to the rank of Officer of the Legion of Honour;
_b_. 1845.
CONSTANT DE REBECQUE, HENRY BENJAMIN DE, a French politician, of
liberal constitutional principles, born at Lausanne, of Huguenot parents;
settled in Paris at the commencement of the Revolution, where he
distinguished himself by his political writings and speeches; was
expelled from France in 1802, along with Mme. de Staël, for denouncing
the military ascendency of Napoleon; lived for a time at Weimar in the
society of Goethe and Schiller; translated Schiller's "Wallenstein";
returned to France in 1814; declared for the Bourbons, and pled in favour
of constitutional liberty; he was a supporter of Louis Philippe, and a
rationalist in religion, and declared himself opposed to the supernatural
element in all religions (1760-1830).
CONSTANTIA, a wine district of Cape Colony under E. flank of Table
Mountain.
CONSTANTINE (50), inland city of Algeria, on a rocky height;
leather-working its staple industry.
CONSTANTINE, the name of 13 emperors who reigned at Rome or
Byzantium between 306 and 1453.
CONSTANTINE I., called the Great, born in Moesia, son of Constantius
Chlorus by Helena; on the death of his father at York, where he
accompanied him, was proclaimed Emperor by the troops; this title being
challenged by Maximian, his father-in-law, and Maxentius, his
brother-in-law, he took up arms against first the one and then the other,
and defeated them; when one day he saw a cross in the sky with the words
_By this Conquer_ in Greek, under this sign, known as the _labarum_,
which he adopted as his standard, he accordingly marched straight to
Rome, where he was acknowledged Emperor by the Senate in 312; and
thereafter an edict was issued named of Milan, granting toleration to the
Christians; he had still to extend his empire over the East, and having
done so by the removal of Lucinius, he transferred the seat of his empire
to Byzantium, which hence got the name of Constantinople, i. e.
Constantine's city; had himself baptized in 337 as a Christian, after
having three years before proclaimed Christianity the State religion
(274-337).
CONSTANTINE NICOLAIEVITCH, second son of the Czar Nicholas I.; was
appointed grand-admiral while but a boy; had command of the Baltic fleet
during the Crimean war; came under suspicion of sinister intriguing;
became insane, and died in seclusion (1827-1892).
CONSTANTINE PAULOVITCH, Grand-duke of Russia, son of Paul I.;
distinguished himself at Austerlitz; was commander-in-chief in Poland,
where he ruled as despot; waived his right to the throne in favour of his
brother Nicholas (1779-1831).
CONSTANTINE XIII., Palæologus, the last of the Greek emperors; had
to defend Constantinople against a besieging force of 300,000 under
Mahomet II., and though he defended it bravely, the city was taken by
storm, and the Eastern empire ended in 1543.
CONSTANTINOPLE (1,000), capital of the Turkish empire, on the
Bosphorus, situated on a peninsula washed by the Sea of Marmora on the S.
and by the Golden Horn on the N., on the opposite side of which creek lie
the quarters of Galata and Pera, one of the finest commercial sites in
the world; it became the capital of the Roman empire under Constantine
the Great, who gave name to it; was capital of the Eastern empire from
the days of Theodosius; was taken by the crusaders in 1204, and by
Mahomet II. in 1452, at which time the Greek and Latin scholars fled the
city, carrying the learning of Greece and Rome with them, an event which
led to the revival of learning in Europe, and the establishment of a new
era--the Modern--in European history.
CONSTANTIUS CHLORUS, or THE PALE, Roman emperor; after a
struggle of three years reunited Britain with the empire, which had been
torn from it by Allectus; was equally successful against the Alemanni,
defeating them with great loss; died at York, on an expedition against
the Picts; was succeeded by Constantine, his son (250-305).
CONSTITUENT ASSEMBLY, the legislative body which the National
Assembly of France resolved itself into in 1789, a name it assumed from
the task it imposed on itself, viz., of making a constitution, a task
which, from the nature of it proved impossible, as a constitution is an
entity which grows, and is not made, _nascitur, non fit_.
CONSUELO, the heroine of George Sand's novel of the name, her
masterpiece; the impersonation of the triumph of moral purity over
manifold temptations.
CONSUL, (1) one of the two magistrates of Rome elected annually
after the expulsion of the kings, and invested with regal power; (2) a
chief magistrate of the French Republic from 1799 to 1804; (3) one
commissioned to protect, especially the mercantile rights of the subjects
of a State in foreign country.
CONSULATE, name given to the French Government from the fall of the
Directory till the establishment of the Empire. At first there were three
provisional consuls, Bonaparte, Siéyès, and Roger Ducos; then three
consuls for ten years, Bonaparte, Cambacérès, and Lebrun, which was
dissolved with the establishment of the Empire on the 20th May 1804.
CONTARI`NI, an illustrious Venetian family, which furnished eight
Doges to the Republic, as well as an array of men eminent in the Church,
statecraft, generalship, art, and letters.
CONTE, NICOLAS JACQUES, a French painter; distinguished for his
mechanical genius, which was of great avail to the French army in Egypt
(1755-1805).
CONTI, an illustrious French family, a younger branch of the house
of Bourbon-Condé, all more or less distinguished as soldiers; FRANÇOIS
LOUIS especially, who was a man of supreme ability both in war and
science, and had the merit to be elected king of Poland (1664-1709).
CONTINENTAL SYSTEM, Napoleon's scheme for interdicting all commerce
between the Continent and Great Britain, carried out with various issues
till the fall of Napoleon. See BERLIN and MILAN DECREES.
CONTRAT, SOCIAL, Rousseau's theory of society that it is based on
mere contract, each individual member of it surrendering his will to the
will of all, under protection of all concerned, a theory which led to the
conclusion that the rule of kings is an usurpation of the rights of the
community, and which bore fruit as an explosive in the Revolution at the
end of the century.
CONVENTION, NATIONAL, a revolutionary convention in France which, on
September 20, 1792, succeeded the Legislative Assembly, proclaimed the
Republic, condemned the king to death, succeeded in crushing the
royalists of La Vendée and the south, in defeating all Europe leagued
against France, and in founding institutions of benefit to France to this
day; it was dissolved on October 26, 1795, to make way for the Directory.
CONVERSATIONS LEXICON, a popular German encyclopædia of 16 vols.,
started in 1796, and since 1808 published by Brockhaus, in Leipzig.
CONVERSION, "the grand epoch for a man," says Carlyle, "properly the
one epoch; the turning-point, which guides upwards, or guides downwards,
him and his activities for evermore."
CONVOCATION, an assemblage of the English clergy, with little or no
legislative power, summoned and prorogued by an archbishop under
authority of the Crown; one under the Archbishop of Canterbury, held at
Canterbury, and one under the Archbishop of York, held at York,
consisting each of two bodies, an Upper of bishops, and an Under of
lesser dignitaries and inferior clergy, in separate chambers, though they
originally met in one.
CONWAY, a port in Carnarvon, on the river Conway, with a massive
castle, one of those built by Edward I. to keep Wales in check; is a
favourite summer resort, and is amid beautiful scenery.
CONWAY, HUGH, the _nom de plume_ of Frederick Fargus, born in
Bristol; bred to the auctioneer business; author of "Called Back," a
highly sensational novel, and a success; gave up his business and settled
in London, where he devoted himself to literature, and the production of
similar works of much promise, but caught malarial fever at Monte Carlo
and died (1847-1885).
CONWAY, MONCURE, an American writer, born in Virginia; began life as
a Unitarian preacher; came to England as a lecturer on war; became leader
of the advanced school of thought, so called; was a great admirer of
Emerson, and wrote, among other works, "Emerson at Home and Abroad"; _b_.
1832.
CONYBEARE, WILLIAM DANIEL, an English clergyman, devoted to the
study of geology and palæontology, and a Bampton lecturer (1787-1857).
CONYBEARE, WILLIAM JOHN, son of the preceding; author, along with
Dean Howson, of the "Life and Epistles of St. Paul," and of an "Essay on
Church Parties" (1815-1857).
COOK, DUTTON, novelist, dramatic author, and critic; born in London,
and bred a solicitor; contributed to several periodicals, and the
"Dictionary of National Biography" (1822-1883).
COOK, EDWARD T., journalist, born at Brighton; educated at Oxford;
had been on the editorial staff of the _Pall Mall Gazette_ and the
_Westminster Gazette_, became, in 1893, editor of the _Daily News_; is an
enthusiastic disciple of Ruskin; wrote "Studies on Ruskin"; _b_. 1857.
COOK, ELIZA, a writer of tales, verses, and magazine articles; born
in Southwark; daughter of a merchant; conducted, from 1849 to 1854, a
journal called by her name, but gave it up from failing health; enjoyed a
pension of £100 on the Civil List till her death; was the authoress of
"The Old Arm-Chair" and "Home in the Heart," both of which were great
favourites with the public, and did something for literature and
philanthropy by her _Journal_ (1818-1889).
COOK, JAMES, the distinguished English navigator, born at Marton,
Yorkshire; was the son of a farm labourer; began sea-faring on board a
merchantman; entered the navy in 1755, and in four years became a master;
spent some nine years in survey of the St. Lawrence and the coasts of
Newfoundland; in 1768, in command of the _Endeavour_, was sent out with
an expedition to observe the transit of Venus, and in 1772 as commander
of two vessels on a voyage of discovery to the South Seas; on his return,
receiving further promotion, he set out on a third voyage of farther
exploration in the Pacific, making many discoveries as far N. as Behring
Strait; lost his life, on his way home, in a dispute with the natives, at
Owhyhee, in the Sandwich Islands, being savagely murdered, a fate which
befell him owing to a certain quickness of temper he had displayed,
otherwise he was a man of great kindness of heart, and his men were
warmly attached to him (1728-1779).
COOK, JOSEPH, a popular lecturer, born near New York; delivered
Monday Lectures at Boston in the discussion of social questions, and the
alleged discrepancy between science and religion or revelation; _b_.
1838.
COOK, MOUNT, the highest point, 12,350 ft., in the Southern Alps,
Canterbury Island, New Zealand.
COOK STRAIT, strait between the North and the South Island, New
Zealand.
COOKE, SIR ANTONY, an eminent scholar, tutor to Edward VI.; of his
daughters, one was married to Lord Burleigh and another to Sir Nicholas
Bacon, who became the mother of Lord Bacon (1506-1576).
COOKE, BENJAMIN, composer, born in London; organist in Westminster
Abbey; author of "How Sleep the Brave," "Hark! the Lark," and other
glees, as well as some excellent church music (1739-1793).
COOKE, GEORGE FREDERICK, an actor, famous for his representation of
Richard III.; stood in his day next to Kemble in spite of his intemperate
habits (1756-1811).
COOKE, T. P., an actor in melodrama; began life at sea; took to the
stage; his most popular representations were William in "Black-eyed
Susan" and Long Tom Coffin in the "Pilot" (1786-1864).
COOLGARDIE, a mining district and head-quarters of rich gold-fields
in W. Australia.
COOLIES, labourers from India and China, who now emigrate in large
numbers, especially from China, often to where they are not wanted, and
where they, as in the British Colonies and the United States, are much
disliked, as they bring down the wages of native labourers.
COOMASSIE, the capital of the negro kingdom of Ashanti, 130 m. NNW.
of Cape Coast Castle; once a large populous place; was much reduced after
its capture by Wolseley in 1874, though it is being rebuilt.
COOPER, ANTHONY ASHLEY. See SHAFTESBURY.
COOPER, SIR ASTLEY, English surgeon, born in Norfolk; was great in
anatomy and a skilful operator, stood high in the medical profession;
contributed much by his writings to raise surgery to the rank of a
science; was eminent as a lecturer as well as a practitioner (1768-1841).
COOPER, JAMES FENIMORE, an American novelist, born in Burlington,
New Jersey; having a passion for the sea, he entered the navy as a
midshipman in 1808, but in three years resigned his commission, married,
and settled to literature; his novels, which are well known, achieved
instant popularity, made him a great favourite with boys, in which he
showed himself an expert in the narration of events, the description of
scenes, as well as in the delineation of character; he came to
loggerheads with the newspaper press, had recourse to actions for libel,
conducted his own cases himself, and was always successful (1789-1851).
COOPER, THOMAS, a self-taught man, born in Leicester; bred a
shoemaker; became a schoolmaster, a Methodist preacher, and then a
journalist; converted to Chartism; was charged with sedition, and
committed to prison for two years; wrote here "Purgatory of Suicides";
after liberation went about lecturing on politics and preaching
scepticism; returning to his first faith, he lectured on the Christian
evidences, and wrote an autobiography (1805-1892).
COOPER, THOMAS SIDNEY, a distinguished animal-painter, born in
Canterbury; struggled with adversity in early life: rose to be supreme in
his own department of art; he has written an account of his career; _b_.
1803.
COOPERAGE, a system of barter which has for some time gone on in the
North Seas, consisting of exchange of spirits and tobacco for other goods
or money, a demoralising traffic, which endeavours are now being made to
suppress.
COOPER'S HILL, a hill of slight elevation near Runnymede, with a
Government civil engineering college, originally for the training for the
service in India, now for education in other departments of the
Government service, forestry especially.
COORG (173), an inland high-lying province, about the size of Kent,
on the eastern slope of the W. Ghâts, on the SW. border of Mysore, under
the Indian Government; it is covered with forests, infested with wild
animals; the natives, a fine race, are distinguished for their loyalty to
the British.
COOTE, SIR EYRE, a general, born in co. Limerick, Ireland;
distinguished himself at Plassey; gained victories over the French in
India; afterwards routed Hyder Ali at Porto Novo; died at Madras
(1726-1783).
COPE, CHARLES WEST, a painter, born at Leeds; his pictures have for
subjects historical or dramatic scenes, and were very numerous; executed
the frescoes that adorn the Peers' corridor at Westminster; was professor
of Painting to the Royal Academy (1811-1890).
COPE, SIR JOHN, a British general; was in command at Prestonpans,
and defeated by the Pretender there in 1745, in connection with which his
name is remembered in Scotland as not having been ready when the
Highlanders attacked him, by the song "Heigh! Johnnie Cowp, are ye wauken
yet?" _d_. 1760.
COPENHAGEN (380), the capital of Denmark, and the only large town in
it; lies low, and is built partly on the island of Seeland and partly on
the island of Amager, the channel between which forms a commodious
harbour; is a thriving place of manufacture and of trade, as its name
"Merchants' Haven" implies; has also a university, an arsenal, and
numerous public buildings.
COPERNICUS, NICOLAS, founder of modern astronomy, born at Thorn, in
Poland, and educated at Cracow and Bologna; became canon of Frauenburg,
on the Frisches Haff; studied medicine; was doctor to a wealthy uncle,
with whom he lived, and became his heir when he died; his chief interest
lay in the heavenly bodies, and his demonstrations regarding their
movements, which yet he deferred publishing till he was near his end; and
indeed it was only when he was unconscious and dying that the first
printed copy of the work was put into his hands; it was entitled "De
Orbium Revolutionibus," and was written in proof of the great first
principle of astronomy, that the sun is the centre of the solar system,
and that the earth and planets circle round it; the work was dedicated to
Pope Paul III., and was received with favour by the Catholic Church,
though, strange to say, it was denounced by Luther and Melanchthon as
contrary to the Scriptures of truth (1473-1543).
COPIAPÓ, a river, a village, a city, and a district in Chile.
COPLEY, JOHN SINGLETON, portrait and historical painter, born in
Boston, U.S.; painted Washington's portrait at the age of eighteen; came
to England in 1776, having previously sent over for exhibition sundry of
his works; painted portraits of the king and the queen; began the
historical works on which his fame chiefly rests, the most widely known
perhaps of which is the "Death of Chatham," now in the National Gallery
(1737-1815).
COPPÉE, FRANÇOIS, a poet, born in Paris; has produced several
volumes of poetry, excellent dramas in verse, and tales in prose; his
poetry is the poetry of humble life, and "has given poetic pleasure," as
Professor Saintsbury says, "to many who are not capable of receiving it
otherwise, while he has never sought to give that pleasure by unworthy
means"; _b_. 1842.
COPPER CAPTAIN, a Brummagem captain; the name given to Percy in
Beaumont and Fletcher's play, "Rule a Wife and Have a Wife."
COPPER NOSE, name given to Oliver Cromwell, from a brownish tinge on
his nose.
COPPERHEADS, secret foes in one's own camp, so called from a set of
serpents which conceal their purpose to attack.
COPPERMINE, a river in NW. Canada which falls into the Arctic Ocean
after a broken course of 250 m.
COPPET, a Swiss village in the Canton de Vaud, on the Lake of
Geneva; celebrated as the abode of Mme. de Staël, her burial-place and
that of Necker, her father.
COPTS, the Christian descendants of the ancient Egyptians, who are
Monophysites in belief, some regarding the Patriarch of Alexandria and
some the Pope as their head; they adhere to the ancient ritual, are
prelatic, sacramentarian, and exclusive; they speak Arabic, their
original Coptic being as good as dead, though the grammar is taught in
the schools.
COPYRIGHT, the sole right of an author or his heirs to publish a
work for a term of years fixed by statute, a book for 42 years, or the
author's lifetime and 7 years after, whichever is longer; copyright
covers literary, artistic, and musical property. By the Act an author
must present one copy of his work, if published, to the British Museum,
and one copy, if demanded, to the Bodleian Library, Oxford; the
University Library, Cambridge; the Advocates' Library, Edinburgh; and
Trinity College Library, Dublin.
COQUELIN, BENOIT CONSTANT, a noted French actor, born at Boulogne;
played in classical pieces and others, composed for himself in the
Théâtre Français from 1860 to 1886; since then in London, S. America, and
the United States; without a rival in the broader aspects of comedy; _b_.
1841.
COQUEREL, ATHANASE, a pastor of the French Reformed Church, born in
Paris, where he preached eloquently from 1830 till his death; was elected
in 1848 deputy for the Seine to the national Assembly, but retired from
political life after the _coup d'état_; wrote a reply to Strauss
(1795-1858).
COQUEREL, ATHANASE, a Protestant pastor, son of preceding, born at
Amsterdam; celebrated for his liberal and tolerant views, too much so for
M. Guizot; edited Voltaire's letters on toleration; his chief work, "Jean
Calas et sa Famille" (1820-1875).
COQUIMBO (14), capital of a mining province of Chile (176) of the
name; exports minerals and cattle.
CORAÏS, a distinguished Hellenist, born in Smyrna, of the mercantile
class; settled in Paris, where he devoted himself to awakening an
interest in Greek literature and the cause of the Greeks (1748-1833).
CORAM, THOMAS, English philanthropist, the founder of the Foundling
Hospital, born at Lyme Regis; a man of varied ventures by sea and land;
settled in London; was touched by the sufferings of the poor, where, with
warm support from Hogarth, he founded the said institution; his charity
so impoverished him that he ended his days as an object of charity
himself, being dependent on a small annuity raised by subscription
(1667-1751).
CORATO (30), a town in a fertile region in S. Italy, 25 m. W. of
Bari.
CORBLE-STEPS, or CROW-STEPS, steps ascending the gable of a
house, common in old Scotch gables as well as in the Netherlands and
elsewhere in old towns.
COR`BULO, a distinguished general under Claudius and Nero, who
conquered the Parthians; Nero, being jealous of him, invited him to
Corinth, where he found a death-warrant awaiting him, upon which he
plunged his sword into his breast and exclaimed, "Well deserved!" in 72
A.D.
CORCY`RA, an Ionian island, now CORFU (q. v.).
CORDAY, CHARLOTTE, a French heroine, born at St. Saturnin, of good
birth, granddaughter of Corneille; well read in Voltaire and Plutarch;
favoured the Revolution, but was shocked at the atrocities of the
Jacobins; started from Caen for Paris as an avenging angel; sought out
Marat, with difficulty got access to him, stabbed him to the heart as he
sat "stewing in slipper-bath," and "his life with a groan gushed out,
indignant, to the shades below"; when arrested, she "quietly
surrendered"; when questioned as to her motive, she answered, "I killed
one man to save a hundred thousand"; she was guillotined next day
(1763-1793).
CORDELIA, the youngest and favourite daughter of King Lear.
CORDELIERS, (1) the strictest branch of the Franciscan Order of
Monks, so called from wearing a girdle of knotted cord; (2) also a club
during the French Revolution, founded in 1789, its prominent members,
Danton, Camille Desmoulins, and Marat; was a secession from the Jacobin
Club, which was thought lukewarm, and met in what had been a convent of
the Cordeliers monks; it expired with Danton.
CORDERIUS, a grammarian, born in Normandy; being a Protestant
settled in Geneva and taught; author of Latin "Colloquies," once very
famous (1478-1567).
CORDILLERAS, the name of several chains of mountains in S. America.
CORDITE, a smokeless powder, invented by Sir F. A. Abel, being
composed principally of gun-cotton and glycerine.
CORDON BLUE, formerly the badge of the Order of the Holy Ghost, now
the badge of highest excellence in a cook.
CORDOUAN, a lighthouse at the mouth of the Gironde.
COR`DOVA (70), a city on the Paraná, in the Argentine; also a town
(48) in Andalusia, Spain, on the right bank of the Guadalquivir, in a
province of the name, 80 m. NE. of Seville; once a Moorish capital, and
famous for its manufacture of goat leather; has a cathedral, once a
magnificent mosque.
COREA (6,511), an Eastern Asiatic kingdom occupying the mountainous
peninsula between the Yellow and Japan Seas, in the latitude of Italy,
with Manchuria on its northern border, a country as large as Great
Britain. The people, an intelligent and industrious race, are Mongols,
followers of Confucius and Buddha. After being for 300 years tributary to
China, it passed under Japanese influence, and by the Chinese defeat in
the war with Japan, 1894-95, was left independent. The climate is
healthy, but subject to extremes; rivers are ice-bound for four months.
Wheat, rice, and beans are grown. There are gold, silver, iron, and coal
mines, and great mineral wealth. There are extensive manufactures of
paper, and some silk industry. Three ports are open to foreigners; but
most of the trade is with Japan; exports hides, beans, and paper; imports
cotton goods. The capital is Seoul (193).
CORELLI, ARCANGELO, an Italian musical composer, celebrated for his
skill on the violin; his compositions mark a new musical epoch; he has
been called the father of instrumental music (1653-1713).
CORELLI, MARIE, a novelist, a prolific authoress, and very popular;
her first work "The Romance of Two Worlds," one of her latest "The
Sorrows of Satan"; _b_. 1864.
CORFE CASTLE, a village in the Isle of Purbeck, Dorsetshire, round a
castle now in ruins, and the scene of martyrdoms and murders not a few in
its day.
CORFU (78), the most northerly of the Ionian Islands and the
largest, 40 m. long, from 4 to 18 broad; was under the protection of
Britain, 1815-64; has since belonged to Greece; has a capital (79) of the
same name.
CORIN`NA, a poetess of ancient Greece, born in Boeotia; friend and
rival of Pindar; only a few fragments of her poetry remain.
CORINNE, the heroine and title of a novel of Mme. de Staël's, her
principal novel, in which she celebrates the praises of the great men and
great masterpieces of Italy; her heroine is the type of a woman inspired
with poetic ideas and the most generous sentiments.
CORINTH, an ancient city of Greece, and one of the most flourishing,
on an isthmus of the name connecting the Peloponnesus with the mainland;
a great centre of trade and of material wealth, and as a centre of luxury
a centre of vice; the seat of the worship of Aphrodité, a very different
goddess from Athene, to whom Athens was dedicated.
CORINTHIANS, EPISTLES TO THE, two epistles of St. Paul to the Church
he had established in Corinth, the chief object of which was to cleanse
it of certain schisms and impurities that had arisen, and to protest
against the disposition of many in it to depart from simple gospel which
they had been taught.
CORIOLA`NUS, a celebrated Roman general of patrician rank, who
rallied his countrymen when, in besieging Corioli, they were being driven
back, so that he took the city, and was in consequence called Coriolanus;
having afterwards offended the plebs, he was banished from the city; took
refuge among the people he had formerly defeated; joined cause with them,
and threatened to destroy the city, regardless of every entreaty to spare
it, till his mother, his wife, and the matrons of Rome overcame him by
their tears, upon which he withdrew and led back his army to Corioli,
prepared to suffer any penalty his treachery to them might expose him.
CORIOLI, a town of ancient Latium, capital of the Volsci.
CORK (73), a fine city, capital of a county (436) of the same name
in Munster, Ireland, on the Lee, 11 m. from its mouth; with a magnificent
harbour, an extensive foreign trade, and manufactures of various kinds.
CORMENIN, a French statesman and jurist, born at Paris; had great
influence under Louis Philippe; his pamphlets, signed _Timon_, made no
small stir; left a work on administrative law in France (1788-1886).
CORMONTAIGNE, a celebrated French engineer, born at Strasburg;
successor of Vauban (1696-1752).
CORNARO, an illustrious patrician family in Venice, from which for
centuries several Doges sprung.
CORN-CRACKER, the nickname of a Kentucky man.
CORNEILLE, PIERRE, the father of French tragedy, born at Rouen, the
son of a government legal official; was bred for the bar, but he neither
took to the profession nor prospered in the practice of it, so gave it up
for literature; threw himself at once into the drama; began by
dramatising an incident in his own life, and became the creator of the
dramatic art in France; his first tragedies are "The Cid," which indeed
is his masterpiece, "Horace," "Cinna," "Polyeucte," "Rodogune," and "Le
Menteur"; in his verses, which are instinct with vigour of conception as
well as sublimity of feeling, he paints men as they should be, virtuous
in character, brave in spirit, and animated by the most exalted
sentiments. Goethe contrasts him with Racine: "Corneille," he says,
"delineated great men; Racine, men of eminent rank." "He rarely provokes
an interest," says Professor Saintsbury, "in the fortunes of his
characters; it is rather in the way that they bear their fortune, and
particularly in a kind of haughty disdain for fortune itself... He shows
an excellent comic faculty at times, and the strokes of irony in his
serious plays have more of true humour in them than appears in almost any
other French dramatist" (1606-1684).
CORNEILLE, THOMAS, younger brother of the preceding, a dramatist,
whose merits were superior, but outshone by those of his brother
(1625-1709).
CORNELIA, the daughter of Scipio Africanus and the mother of the
GRACCHI (q. v.), the Roman matron who, when challenged by a
rival lady to outshine her in wealth of gems, proudly led forth her sons
saying, "These are my jewels"; true to this sentiment, it was as the
mother of the Gracchi she wished to be remembered, and is remembered, in
the annals of Rome.
CORNELIUS, PETER VON, a distinguished German painter, born at
Düsseldorf; early gave proof of artistic genius, which was carefully
fostered by his father; spent much time as a youth in studying and
copying Raphael; before he was 20 he decorated a church at Neuss with
colossal figures in chiaroscuro; in 1810 executed designs for Goethe's
"Faust"; in the year after went to Rome, where, along with others, he
revived the old art of fresco painting, in which he excelled his rivals;
the subjects of these were drawn from Greek pagan as well as Christian
sources, his "Judgment" being the largest fresco in the world; the
thought which inspires his cartoons, critics say, surpasses his power of
execution; it should be added, he prepared a set of designs to illustrate
the "Nibelungen" (1787-1867).
CORNELL UNIVERSITY, a university in Ithaca, New York State, founded
in 1868 at a cost of £152,000, named after its founder, Ezra Cornell; it
supports a large staff of teachers, and gives instruction in all
departments of science, literature, and philosophy; it provides education
to sundry specified classes free of all fees, as well as means of earning
the benefits of the institution to any who may wish to enjoy them.
CORN-LAWS, laws in force in Great Britain regulating the import and
export of corn for the protection of the home-producer at the expense of
the home-consumer, and which after a long and bitter struggle between
these two classes were abolished in 1846.
CORN-LAW RHYMER, THE, EBENEZER ELLIOTT (q. v.) who, in a
volume of poems, denounced the corn-laws and contributed to their
abolition.
CORNO, MONTE, the highest peak of the Apennines, 9545 ft.
CORNWALL (322), a county in the SW. extremity of England, forming a
peninsula between the English and the Bristol Channels, with a rugged
surface and a rocky coast, indented all round with more or less deep bays
inclosed between high headlands; its wealth lies not in the soil, but
under it in its mines, and in the pilchard, mackerel, and other fisheries
along its stormy shores; the county town is Bodmin (5), the largest
Penzance (12), and the mining centre Truro (11).
CORNWALL, BARRY, the _nom de plume_ of B. W. PROCTER (q. v.).
CORNWALLIS, LORD, an English general and statesman; saw service in
the Seven Years' and the American Wars; besieged in the latter at York
Town, was obliged to capitulate; became Governor-General of India, and
forced Tippoo Sahib to submit to humiliating terms; as Lord-Lieutenant of
Ireland crushed the rebellion of '98; re-appointed Governor-General of
India; died there (1738-1805).
COROMANDEL COAST, E. coast of Hindustan, extending from the Krishna
to Cape Comorin.
CORONATION CHAIR, a chair inclosing a stone carried off by Edward I.
from Scone in 1296, on which the sovereigns of England are crowned.
COROT, JEAN BAPTISTE, a celebrated French landscape-painter, born at
Paris; was 26 years of age before he began to apply himself to art, which
he did by study in Italy and Rome, returning to Paris in 1827, where he
began to exhibit, and continued to exhibit for nearly 50 years; it was
long before his pieces revealed what was in him and the secret of his
art; he appeared also as a poet as well as a painter, giving free play to
his emotions and moving those of others (1796-1875).
CORPS LÉGISLATIF, the lower house of the French legislature,
consisting of deputies.
CORPUSCULAR PHILOSOPHY, the philosophy which accounts for physical
phenomena by the position and the motions of corpuscles.
CORR, ERIN, an eminent engraver, born in Brussels, of Irish descent;
spent 10 years in engraving on copper-plate Rubens's "Descent from the
Cross" (1793-1862).
CORRECTOR, ALEXANDER THE, Alexander Cruden, who believed he had a
divine mission to correct the manners of the world.
CORREGGIO, ANTONIO ALLEGRI DA, an illustrious Italian painter, born
at Correggio, in Modena; founder of the Lombard school, and distinguished
among his contemporaries for the grace of his figures and the harmony of
his colouring; he has been ranked next to Raphael, and it has been said
of him he perfected his art by adding elegance to truth and grandeur; he
is unrivalled in chiaroscuro, and he chose his subjects from pagan as
well as Christian legend (1494-1534).
CORRIB, LOUGH, an irregularly shaped lake in Galway and Mayo, 25 m.
long and from 1 to 6 m. broad, with stone circles near it.
CORRIENTES (300), a province of the Argentine Republic, between the
Paraná and the Uruguay; also its capital (18), surrounded by
orange-groves; so called from the currents that prevail in the river,
along which steamers ply between it and Buenos Ayres.
CORRUGATED IRON, in general, sheet-iron coated with zinc.
CORSAIR, THE, a poem of Byron's, in which the author paints himself
in heroic colours as an adventurer who drowns reflection in the
intoxication of battle.
CORSICA (288), an island belonging to France, in the Mediterranean,
ceded to her by Genoa in 1768, but by position, race, and language
belongs to Italy; has been subject by turns to the powers that in
succession dominated that inland sea; is 116 m. long and 52 broad; it
abounds in mountains, attaining 9000 ft.; covered with forests and
thickets, which often serve as shelter for brigands; it affords good
pasturage, and yields olive-oil and wine, as well as chesnuts, honey, and
wax.
CORSICA PAOLI, a native of Corsica, who vainly struggled to achieve
the independence of his country, and took refuge in England, where he
enjoyed the society of the Johnson circle, and was much esteemed. See
PAOLI.
CORSSEN, WILLIAM PAUL, a learned German philologist, born at Bremen;
made a special study of the Latin languages, and especially the Etruscan,
which he laboured to prove was cognate with that of the Romans and of the
races that spoke it (1820-1875).
CORT, an eminent Dutch engraver, went to Venice, lived with Titian;
engraved some of his pictures; went to Rome and engraved Raphael's
"Transfiguration"; executed over 150 plates, all displaying great
accuracy and refinement (1536-1578).
CORTES, the name given in Spain and Portugal to the National
Assembly, consisting of nobles and representatives of the nation.
CORTES, a Spanish soldier and conqueror of Mexico, born in
Estremadura; went with Velasquez to Cuba; commanded the expedition to
conquer Mexico, and by burning all his ships that conveyed his men, cut
off all possibility of retreat; having conquered the tribes that he met
on landing, he marched on to the capital, which, after a desperate
struggle, he reduced, and laid waste and then swept the country, by all
which he added to the wealth of Spain, but by his cruelty did dishonour
to the chivalry of which Spain was once so proud (1485-1547).
CORTONA, PIETRO DA, an Italian painter, born at Cortona, in Tuscany,
and eminent as an architect also; decorated many of the finest buildings
in Rome (1596-1669).
CORUÑA (34), a fortified town on NW. of Spain, with a commodious
harbour, where Sir John Moore fell in 1809 while defending the
embarkation of his army against Soult, and where his tomb is.
CORVÉE, obligation as at one time enforced in France to render
certain services to Seigneurs, such as repairing of roads, abolished by
the Contituent Assembly.
CORYAT, THOMAS, an English traveller and wit, who, in his
"Crudities," quaintly describes his travels through France and Italy
(1577-1617).
CORYBANTES, priests of CYBELE (q. v.), whose religious
rites were accompanied with wild dances and the clashing of cymbals.
CORYDON, a shepherd in Virgil, name for a lovesick swain.
CORYPHÆUS, originally the leader of the chorus in a Greek drama, now
a leader in any dramatic company, or indeed in any art.
COS (10), an island in the Ægean Sea, birthplace of Hippocrates and
Apelles.
COSENZA (18), a town in Calabria, in a deep valley, where Alaric
died.
COSIN, JOHN, a learned English prelate, Dean of Peterborough,
deposed by the Puritans for his ritualistic tendencies; exiled for 10
years in Paris; returned at the Restoration, and was made Bishop of
Durham, where he proved himself a Bishop indeed, and a devoted supporter
of the Church which he adorned by his piety (1594-1672).
COSMAS, ST., Arabian physician and patron of surgeons, brother of
St. Damian; suffered martyrdom in 303. Festival, Sept. 27.
COSMAS INDICOPLEUSTES (i. e. voyager to India), an Egyptian monk
of the 6th century, born in Alexandria, singular for his theory of the
system of the world, which, in opposition to the Ptolemaic system, he
viewed as in shape like that of the Jewish Tabernacle, with Eden outside,
and encircled by the ocean, a theory he advanced as in conformity with
Scripture.
COSMO I., Grand-duke of Tuscany, head of the Republic of Florence,
of which he made himself absolute master, a post he held in defiance of
all opposition, in order to secure the independence of the state he
governed, as well as its internal prosperity (1519-1574).
COSMOGRAPHY, any theory which attempts to trace the system of things
back to its first principle or primordial element or elements.
COSQUIN, EMMANUEL, a French folk-lorist, and author of "Popular
Tales of Lorraine," in the introduction to which he argues for the theory
that the development as well as the origin of such tales is historically
traceable to India; _b_. 1841.
COSSACKS, a military people of mixed origin, chiefly Tartar and
Slav, who fought on horseback, in their own interest as well as that of
Russia, defending its interests in particular for centuries past in many
a struggle, and forming an important division of the Russian army.
COSTA RICA (262), a small republic of Central America; it is mostly
tableland; contains many volcanoes; is chiefly agricultural, though rich
in minerals.
COSTARD, a clown in "Love's Labour Lost," who apes the affected
court-wits of the time in a misappropriate style.
COSTELLO, LOUISA STUART, an English authoress; her descriptive
powers were considerable, and her novels had a historical groundwork
(1799-1870).
COSTER, _alias_ LAURENS JANSZOON, born at Haarlem, to whom his
countrymen, as against the claims of Gutenberg, ascribe the invention of
printing (1370-1440).
COSWAY, RICHARD, a distinguished miniature portrait-painter, born at
Tiverton; Correggio his model (1740-1821).
CÔTE D'OR, a range of hills in the NE. of France, connecting the
Cévennes with the Vosges, which gives name to a department (376) famed
for its wines.
COTENTIN, a peninsula NW. of Normandy, France, jutting into the
English Channel, now forms the northern part of the dep. La Manche, the
fatherland of many of the Norman conquerors of England.
COTES, ROGER, an English mathematician of such promise, that Newton
said of him, "If he had lived, we should have known something"
(1682-1716).
CÔTES DU NORD (618), a dep. forming part of Brittany; the chief
manufacture is linen.
COTIN, THE ABBÉ, a French preacher, born in Paris; a butt of the
sarcasm of Molière and Boileau (1604-1682)
COTMAN, JOHN SELL, an English painter, born at Norwich; made
Turner's acquaintance; produced water-colour landscapes, growing in
repute; has been pronounced "the most gifted of the Norwich School"
(1782-1842).
COTOPAXI, a volcano of the Andes, in Ecuador, the highest and most
active in the world, nearly 20,000 ft., 35 m. SE. of Quito; it rises in a
perfect cone, 4400 ft. above the plateau of Quito.
COTSWOLD HILLS, in Gloucestershire, separating the Lower Severn from
the sources of the Thames; they are of limestone rock, 50 m. long, and
extend N. and S.
COTTA, CAIUS, a distinguished Roman orator, 1st century B.C.;
mentioned with honour by Cicero.
COTTA, German publisher, born at Stuttgart; established in Tübingen;
published the works of Goethe, Schiller, Jean Paul, Herder, and others of
note among their contemporaries (1764-1832).
COTTIAN ALPS, the range N. of the Maritime between France and Italy.
COTTIN, SOPHIE, a celebrated French authoress; wrote, among other
romances, the well-known and extensively translated "Elizabeth; or, the
Exiles of Siberia," a wildly romantic but irreproachably moral tale
(1773-1807).
COTTLE, JOSEPH, a publisher and author; started business in Bristol;
published the works of Coleridge and Southey on generous terms; wrote in
his "Early Recollections" an exposure of Coleridge that has been severely
criticised and generally condemned (1770-1853).
COTTON, BISHOP, born at Chester; eminent as a master at Rugby under
Dr. Arnold, and as head-master at Marlborough College; was appointed
Bishop of Calcutta, an office he fulfilled zealously; was drowned in the
Ganges; he figures as "the young master" in "Tom Brown's School-days"
(1813-1866).
COTTON, CHARLES, a poet, born in Staffordshire; his poetry was of
the burlesque order, and somewhat gross; chiefly famous for his
translation of "Montaigne's Essays"; was friend and admirer of Isaak
Walton, and wrote a supplement to his "Angler" (1630-1687).
COTTON, SIR ROBERT BRUCE, a distinguished antiquary, and founder of
the Cottonian Library, now in the British Museum, born at Denton; was a
friend of Camden, and assisted him in his great work; was a great
book-collector; was exposed to persecution for his presumed share in the
publication of an obnoxious book, of which the original was found in his
collection; had his books, in which he prided himself, taken from him, in
consequence of which he pined and died (1571-1631).
COUCY, an old noble family of Picardy, who had for device, "Roi ne
suis, ne duc, ne comte aussi; je suis le sire de Coucy." RAOUL, a
court-poet of the family in the 12th century, lost his life at the siege
of Acre in the third crusade.
COULOMB, a learned French physicist and engineer, born at Angoulême;
the inventor of the torsion balance, and to whose labours many
discoveries in electricity and magnetism are due; lived through the
French Revolution retired from the strife (1736-1806).
COUNCILS, CHURCH, assemblies of bishops to decide questions of
doctrine and ecclesiastical discipline. They are oecumenical, national,
or provincial, according as the bishops assembled represented the whole
Church, a merely national one, or a provincial section of it. Eastern:
Nice, 325 (at which Arius was condemned), 787; Constantinople, 381 (at
which Apollinaris was condemned), 553, 680, 869; Ephesus, 431 (at which
Nestorius was condemned); Chalcedon, 451 (at which Eutyches was
condemned). Western: Lateran, 1123, 1139, 1179, 1215, 1274; Synod of
Vienne, 1311; Constance, 1414; Basel, 1431-1443; Trent, 1545-1563;
Vatican, 1869.
COURAYES, a French Roman Catholic ecclesiastic who pled on behalf of
Anglican orders; was censured; fled to England, where he was welcomed,
and received academic honours (1681-1777).
COURBET, a French vice-admiral, born at Abbeville; distinguished
himself by his rapid movements and brilliant successes in the East
(1827-1885).
COURBET, GUSTAVE, French painter, born at Ornans; took to
landscape-painting; was head of the Realistic school; joined the Commune
in 1871; his property and pictures were sold to pay the damage done, and
especially to restore the Vendôme Column; died an exile in Switzerland
(1819-1877).
COURIER, PAUL LOUIS, a French writer, born at Paris; began life as a
soldier, but being wounded at Wagram, retired from the army, and gave
himself to letters; distinguished himself as the author of political
pamphlets, written with a scathing irony such as has hardly been
surpassed, which brought him into trouble; was assassinated on his estate
by his gamekeeper (1772-1825).
COURLAND (637), a partly wooded and partly marshy province of
Russia, S. of the Gulf of Riga; the population chiefly German, and
Protestants; agriculture their chief pursuit.
COURT DE GÉBELIN, a French writer, born at Nîmes, author of a work
entitled "The Primitive World analysed and compared with the Modern
World" (1725-1784).
COURTNEY, WILLIAM, archbishop of Canterbury, no match for Wickliffe
in debate, but had his revenge in persecuting his followers (1341-1396).
COURTOIS, JACQUES, a French painter of battle-pieces; became a
Jesuit, died a monk (1621-1676).
COURTRAIS (29), a Belgian town on the Lys.
COUSIN, VICTOR, a French philosopher, born in Paris; founder of an
eclectic school, which derived its doctrines partly from the Scottish
philosophy and partly from the German, and which Dr. Chalmers in his
class-room one day characterised jocularly as neither Scotch nor German,
but just half seas over; he was a lucid expounder, an attractive
lecturer, and exerted no small influence on public opinion in France; had
a considerable following; retired from public life in 1848, and died at
Cannes; he left a number of philosophic works behind him, the best known
among us "Discourses on the True, the Beautiful, and the Good"
(1792-1867).
COUSIN MICHAEL, a disparaging designation of our German kindred, as
slow, heavy, unpolished, and ungainly.
COUSIN-MONTAUBAN, a French general, commanded the Chinese expedition
of 1860, and, after a victory over the Chinese, took possession of Pekin
(1796-1878).
COUSINS, SAMUEL, a mezzotint engraver, born at Exeter; engraved
"Bolton Abbey," "Marie Antoinette in the Temple," and a number of plates
after eminent painters; left a fund to aid poor artists (1801-1880).
COUSTON, the name of three eminent French sculptors: NICOLAS
(1658-1733); GUILLAUME, father (1678-1746); and GUILLAUME, son
(1716-1777).
COUTHON, GEORGES, a violent revolutionary, one of a triumvirate with
Robespierre and St. Just, who would expel every one from the Jacobin Club
who could not give evidence of having done something to merit hanging,
should a counter-revolution arrive; was paralysed in his limbs from
having had to spend a night "sunk to the middle in a cold peat bog" to
escape detection as a seducer; trapped for the guillotine; tried to make
away with himself under a table, but could not (1756-1794).
COUTTS, THOMAS, a banker, born in Edinburgh, his father having been
Lord Provost of that city; joint-founder and eventually sole manager of
the London banking house, Coutts & Co.; left a fortune of £900,000
(1735-1822).
COUVADE, a custom among certain races of low culture in which a
father before and after childbirth takes upon himself the duties and
cares of the mother.
COUZA, PRINCE, born at Galatz, hereditary prince of Moldavia and
Wallachia; reigned from 1858 to 1860; died in exile, 1873.
COVENANT, SOLEMN LEAGUE AND, an engagement, with representatives
from Scotland, on the part of the English Parliament to secure to the
Scotch the terms of their National Covenant, and signed by honourable
members in St. Margaret's Church, Westminster, September 25, 1643, on the
condition of assistance from the Scotch in their great struggle with the
king.
COVENANT, THE NATIONAL, a solemn engagement on the part of the
Scottish nation subscribed to by all ranks of the community, the first
signature being appended to it in the Greyfriars' Churchyard, Edinburgh,
on February 28, 1638, to maintain the Presbyterian Church and to resist
all attempts on the part of Charles I. to foist Episcopacy upon it; it
was ratified by the Scottish Parliament in 1640, and subscribed by
Charles II. in 1650 and 1651.
COVENANTERS, a body of strict Presbyterians who held out against the
breach of the Solemn League and Covenant.
COVENT GARDEN, properly Convent Garden, as originally the garden of
Westminster Abbey, the great fruit, flower, and vegetable market of
London; is one of the sights of London early on a summer morning.
COVENTRY (55), a town in Warwickshire, 18½ m. SE. of Birmingham;
famous for the manufacture of ribbons and watches, and recently the chief
seat of the manufacture of bicycles and tricycles; in the old streets are
some quaint old houses; there are some very fine churches and a number of
charitable institutions.
COVENTRY, SIR JOHN, a member of the Long Parliament; when, as a
member of Parliament in Charles II.'s reign, he made reflections on the
profligate conduct of the king, he was set upon by bullies, who slit his
nose to the bone; a deed which led to the passing of the Coventry Act,
which makes cutting and maiming a capital offence (1640-1682).
COVERDALE, MILES, translator of the English Bible, born in
Yorkshire; his translation was the first issued under royal sanction,
being dedicated to Henry VIII.; done at the instance of Thomas Cromwell,
and brought out in 1535, and executed with a view to secure the favour of
the authorities in Church and State, displaying a timid hesitancy
unworthy of a manly faith in the truth; both he and his translation
nevertheless were subjected to persecution, 2500 copies of the latter,
printed in Paris, having been seized by the Inquisition and committed to
the flames (1487-1568).
COVERLEY, SIR ROGER DE, member of the club under whose auspices the
_Spectator_ is professedly edited; represents an English squire of Queen
Anne's reign.
COWELL, JOHN, an English lawyer, author of "Institutes of the Laws
of England" and of a law dictionary burnt by the common hangman for
matter in it derogatory to the royal authority; _d_. 1611.
COWEN, FREDERICK HYMEN, a popular English composer, born in
Kingston, Jamaica; his works consist of symphonies, cantatas, oratories,
as well as songs, duets, &c.; is conductor of the Manchester Subscription
Concerts in succession to Sir Charles Hallé; _b_. 1852.
COWES, a watering-place in the N. of the Isle of Wight, separated by
the estuary of Medina into E. and W.; engaged in yacht-building, and the
head-quarters of the Royal Yacht Club.
COWLEY, ABRAHAM, poet and essayist, born in London; a contemporary
of Milton, whom he at one time outshone, but has now fallen into neglect;
he was an ardent royalist, and catered to the taste of the court, which,
however, brought him no preferment at the Restoration; he was a master of
prose, and specially excelled in letter-writing; he does not seem to have
added much to the literature of England, except as an essayist, and in
this capacity has been placed at the head of those who cultivated that
clear, easy, and natural style which culminated in Addison (1618-1667).
COWLEY, HENRY WELLESLEY, EARL, an eminent diplomatist, brother of
the Duke of Wellington; served as a diplomatist in Vienna,
Constantinople, and Switzerland, and was ambassador to France from 1852
to 1867 (1804-1884).
COWPER, WILLIAM, a popular English poet, born at Great
Berkhampstead, Hertford, of noble lineage; lost his mother at six, and
cherished the memory of her all his days; of a timid, sensitive nature,
suffered acutely from harsh usage at school; read extensively in the
classics; trained for and called to the bar; was appointed at 32 a clerk
to the House of Lords; qualifying for the duties of the appointment
proved too much for him, and he became insane; when he recovered, he
retired from the world to Huntingdon beside a brother, where he formed an
intimacy with a family of the name of Unwin, a clergyman in the place; on
Mr. Unwin's death he removed with the family to Olney, in
Buckinghamshire, where he lived as a recluse and associated with the Rev.
John Newton and Mrs. Unwin; shortly after he fell insane again, and
continued so for two years; on his recovery he took to gardening and
composing poems, his first the "Olney Hymns," the melancholy being
charmed away by the conversation of a Lady Austin, who came to live in
the neighbourhood; it was she who suggested his greatest poem, the
"Task"; then followed other works, change of scene and associates, the
death of Mrs. Unwin, and the gathering of a darker and darker cloud, till
he passed away peacefully; it is interesting to note that it is to this
period his "Lines to Mary Unwin" and his "Mother's Picture" belong
(1731-1800).
COX, DAVID, an eminent landscape painter, rated by some next to
Turner, born at Birmingham; began his art as a scene-painter; painted as
a landscapist first in water-colour, then in oil; many of his best works
are scenes in N. Wales; his works have risen in esteem and value; an
ambition of his was to get £100 for a picture, and one he got only £20
for brought £3602 (1793-1830).
COX, SIR GEORGE, an English mythologist, specially distinguished for
resolving the several myths of Greece and the world into idealisations of
solar phenomena; he has written on other subjects, all of interest, and
is engaged with W. T. Brande on a "Dictionary of Science, Literature, and
Art"; _b_. 1827.
COXCIE, MICHAEL, a celebrated Flemish painter, born at Mechlin
(1497-1592).
COXE, HENRY OCTAVIUS, librarian, became assistant-librarian of the
Bodleian Library, Oxford, in 1838, and ultimately head-librarian in 1860;
under his direction the catalogue, consisting of 720 folio volumes, was
completed; held this post till his death; has edited several works of
value; is one of Dean Burgon's "Twelve Good Men" (1811-1881).
COXE, WILLIAM, a historical writer, heavy but painstaking, born in
London; wrote "History of the House of Austria" and the "Memoirs of
Marlborough," and on "Sir Robert Walpole and the Pelham Administrations"
(1747-1828).
COXWELL, a celebrated English aëronaut; bred a dentist; took to
ballooning; made 700 ascents; reached with Glaisher an elevation of 7 m.;
_b_. 1819.
COZENS, JOHN ROBERT, a landscape painter, a natural son of Peter the
Great; pronounced by Constable the greatest genius that ever touched
landscape, and from him Turner confessed he had learned more than from
any other landscapist; his mind gave way at last, and he died insane
(1752-1801).
CRABBE, GEORGE, an English poet, born at Aldborough, in Suffolk;
began life as apprentice to an apothecary with a view to the practice of
medicine, but having poetic tastes, he gave up medicine for literature,
and started for London with a capital of three pounds; his first
productions in this line not meeting with acceptance, he was plunged in
want; appealing in vain for assistance in his distress, he fell in with
Burke, who liberally helped him and procured him high patronage, under
which he took orders and obtained the living of Trowbridge, which he held
for life, and he was now in circumstances to pursue his bent; his
principal poems are "The Library," "The Village," "The Parish Register,"
"The Borough," and the "Tales of the Hall," all, particularly the earlier
ones, instinct with interest in the lives of the poor, "the sacrifices,
temptations, loves, and crimes of humble life," described with the most
"unrelenting" realism; the author in Byron's esteem, "though Nature's
sternest painter, yet the best" (1754-1832).
CRACOW (75), a city in Galicia, the old capital of Poland; where the
old Polish kings were buried, and the cathedral of which contains the
graves of the most illustrious of the heroes of the country and
Thorwaldsen's statue of Christ; a large proportion of the inhabitants are
Jews.
CRADLE MOUNTAIN, a mountain in the W. of Tasmania.
CRAIG, JOHN, a Scottish Reformer, educated at St. Andrews, and
originally a Dominican monk; had been converted to Protestantism by study
of Calvin's "Institutes," been doomed to the stake by the Inquisition,
but had escaped; the coadjutor in Edinburgh of Knox, and his successor in
his work, and left a confession and catechism (1512-1580).
CRAIG, SIR THOMAS, an eminent Scottish lawyer, author of a treatise
on the "Jus Feudale," which has often been reprinted, as well as three
others in Latin of less note; wrote in Latin verse a poem on Queen Mary's
marriage to Darnley (1538-1608).
CRAIGENPUTTOCK, a craig or whinstone hill of the puttocks (small
hawks), "a high moorland farm on the watershed between Dumfriesshire and
Galloway, 10 m. from Dumfries," the property for generations of a family
of Welshes, and eventually that of their heiress, Jane Welsh Carlyle,
"the loneliest spot in all the British dominions," which the Carlyles
made their dwelling-house in 1828, where they remained for seven years,
and where "Sartor" was written. "It is certain," Carlyle says of it long
after, "that for living and thinking in I have never since found in the
world a place so favourable.... How blessed," he exclaims, "might poor
mortals be in the straitest circumstances if their wisdom and fidelity to
heaven and to one another were adequately great!"
CRAIK, GEORGE LITTLE, an English author, born in Fife, educated at
St. Andrews; settled early in London as a littérateur; was associated
with Charles Knight in his popular literary undertakings; was author of
the "Pursuit of Knowledge under Difficulties," and the "History of
English Literature and Learning"; edited "Pictorial History of England,"
contributed to "Penny Cyclopædia," and became professor of English
Literature, Queen's College, Belfast (1799-1866).
CRAIK, MRS., _née_ MULOCK, born at Stoke-upon-Trent; authoress
of "John Halifax, Gentleman," her chief work, which has had, and
maintains, a wide popularity; married in 1865 a nephew and namesake of
the preceding, a partner of the publishing house of Macmillan & Co.;
wrote for the magazines, besides some 14 more novels (1826-1887).
CRAIL, a little old-fashioned town near the East Neuk of Fife, where
James Sharp was minister; a decayed fishing-place, now a summer resort.
CRAMER, JOHANN BAPTIST, a distinguished German composer and pianist
(1771-1858).
CRANACH, LUCAS, a celebrated German painter, born at Kronach, in the
bishopric of Bamberg; was patronised by Frederick the Wise, Elector of
Saxony, whom he accompanied in 1493 to the Holy Land; was engraver as
well as painter, skilled in portraiture as well as in historical scenes;
was intimately associated with the German reformers Luther and
Melanchthon, whose portraits he painted among others; the works of his
that remain are chiefly altar-pieces; his chief work is the "Crucifixion"
in Weimar, where he died (1472-1553).
CRANE, ICHABOD, a tall, lean, lank, Yankee schoolmaster in Irving's
"Legend of Sleepy Hollow."
CRANE, WALTER, poet and painter; has published various illustrated
books and poems illustrated by himself, and is an authority on decorative
art; _b_. 1845.
CRANMER, THOMAS, archbishop of Canterbury, born in Nottinghamshire;
educated at Jesus College, Cambridge; recommended himself to Henry VIII.
by favouring his divorce, writing in defence of it, and pleading for it
before the Pope, the latter in vain, as it proved; on his return was
elevated to the archbishopric, in which capacity he proved a zealous
promoter of the Reformation, by having the Bible translated and
circulated, and by the suppression of monasteries; pronounced sentence of
divorce of Catharine, and confirmed the king's marriage with Anne Boleyn;
by these and other compliances he kept the favour of Henry, but on the
accession of Mary he was committed to the Tower and persuaded to recant,
and even signed a recantation, but on being called to recant in public,
and refusing to do so, he was dragged to the stake, thrust his right hand
into the flames, and exclaimed, "Oh, this unworthy hand" (1489-1566).
CRANNOGE, a species of lake-dwelling and stronghold, of which
remains are found in Scotland and Ireland.
CRAPAUD, JEAN, a nickname of the Frenchmen.
CRASHAW, RICHARD, a minor poet, born in London; bred for the English
Church; went to Paris, where he became a Roman Catholic; fell into
pecuniary difficulties, but was befriended by Cowley and recommended to a
post; was an imitator of George Herbert, and his poems were of the same
class, but more fantastical; his principal poems were "Steps to the
Temple" and the "Delights of the Muses"; both Milton and Pope are
indebted to him (1616-1650).
CRASSUS, LUCIUS LICINIUS, the greatest Roman orator of his day,
became consul 55 B.C.; during his consulship a law was passed requiring
all but citizens to leave Rome, an edict which provoked the Social War
(140-91 B.C.).
CRASSUS, MARCUS LICINIUS, the triumvir with Pompey and Cæsar; was
avaricious, and amassed great wealth; appointed to the province of Syria,
provoked out of cupidity war with the Parthians, in which he was
treacherously slain; Orodes, the king, cut off his head, and poured
melted gold into his mouth, saying as he did so, "Now sate thyself with
the metal of which thou wert so greedy when alive" (115-53 B.C.).
CRATES, a Greek cynic philosopher, disciple of Diogenes; 4th century
B.C.
CRATINUS, a Greek comic poet, born at Athens; limited the actors in
a piece to three, and the first to introduce into the drama attacks on
public men, wrote also satires on vice (519-424 B.C.).
CRATIPPUS, a Peripatetic philosopher of Mytilene, contemporary of
Pompey and Cicero; soothed the sunken spirit of the former after the
defeat at Pharsalia with the consolations of philosophy.
CRATYLUS, a dialogue of Plato's on the connection between language
and thought.
CRAWFORD, MARION, a novelist, born in Tuscany, of American origin,
son of the succeeding; spent a good deal of his early years in India, and
now lives partly in New York and partly in Italy; his works, which are
numerous, are chiefly novels, his first "Mr. Isaacs" (1882), original and
striking; an able writer, and a scholarly; _b_. 1854.
CRAWFORD, THOMAS, an American sculptor, studied at Rome under
Thorwaldsen; his "Orpheus in Search of Eurydice" brought him into notice,
and was followed by an array of works of eminent merit; died in London
from a tumour on the brain, after being struck with blindness
(1814-1857).
CRAWFORD AND BALCARRES, EARL OF, better known as Lord Lindsay, and
as the author of "Letters from the Holy Land," "Progression by
Antagonism," and "Sketches of the History of Christian Art"; died at
Florence, and was entombed at Dunecht, whence his body was abstracted and
found again in a wood near by after a seven months' search (1812-1880).
CRAYER, CASPAR DE, a celebrated Flemish painter, born at Antwerp;
pictures and altar-pieces by him are to be seen in Brussels and Ghent
(1582-1669).
CREAKLE, MR., a bullying schoolmaster in "David Copperfield."
CREASY, SIR EDWARD, chief-justice of Ceylon, author of "The Fifteen
Decisive Battles of the World," "Rise and Progress of the British
Constitution," &c. (1812-1878).
CREATIN, a substance found in the muscles of vertebrate animals, but
never in invertebrate.
CRÉBILLON, a French dramatist, born at Dijon, bred to the law,
devoted to literature and the composition of tragedies, of which he
produced several, mostly on classical subjects, such as "Atreus and
Thyestes," "Electra," of unequal merit, though at times of great power;
he ranked next Voltaire among the dramatists of the time (1674-1762).
CRÉCY, a French village, 12 m. NE. of Abbeville, where Edward III.,
with 30,000, defeated the French with 68,000, and destroyed the flower of
the chivalry of France, Aug. 26, 1346.
CRÉDIT FONCIER, a system of credit originating in France on the
security of land, whereby the loan is repayable so that principal and
interest are extinguished at the same time.
CREECH, WILLIAM, an Edinburgh bookseller, for 40 years the chief
publisher in the city; published the first Edinburgh edition of Burns's
poems (1745-1815).
CREEKS, a tribe of American Indians settled in Indian territory.
CREIGHTON, MANDELL, bishop of London, born at Carlisle; previously
bishop of Peterborough; has written on Simon de Montfort, on Wolsey, and
on the Tudors and the Reformation, but his great work is the "History of
the Papacy from the Great Schism to the Sack of Rome," a work of great
value; _b_. 1843.
CRÉMIEUX, a French advocate and politician, born at Nîmes, of Jewish
birth; a member of the Provisional Government of 1848, and of the
National Defence in 1870; took a deep interest in the destiny of his race
(1796-1880).
CREMONA, old town on the Po, in Lombardy, 46 m. SE. of Milan;
interesting for its churches, with their paintings and frescoes; noted at
one time for the manufacture of violins.
CREMORNE (37), gardens in Chelsea; a popular place of amusement, now
closed.
CREOLE STATE, Louisiana, U.S.
CRESCENT CITY, New Orleans, U.S., as originally occupying a convex
bend of the Mississippi.
CRESCENTINI, a celebrated Italian soprano (1769-1846).
CRESCENTIUS, a patrician of Rome who, in the 10th century, sought to
destroy the imperial power and restore the republic; on this he was
defeated by Otho III., to whom he surrendered on promise of safety, but
who hanged and beheaded him; Stephano, his widow, avenged this treachery
by accepting Otho as her lover, and then poisoning him.
CRESPI, GIUSEPPE, an Italian painter; copied the works of Correggio,
Caracci, and other masters (1665-1747).
CRESWELL, SIR CRESWELL, judge, born in Newcastle; represented
Liverpool in Parliament; was raised to the bench by Peel, and, on the
establishment of the Divorce Court, was in 1858 named first judge
(1794-1863).
CRESWICK, THOMAS, an English landscape painter, born in Sheffield;
simple, pleasantly-suggestive, and faithfully-painted scenes from nature
were the subjects of his art; was employed a good deal in book
illustrations (1811-1869).
CRETE or CANDIA (295), a mountainous island in the
Mediterranean, 160 m. long and from 7 to 30 m. broad; in nominal
subjection to Turkey after 1669, it was in perpetual revolt. The rising
of 1895 led to the intervention of the great powers of Europe, and the
Turkish troops having been withdrawn in 1898 under pressure from Great
Britain, Russia, France, and Italy, Prince George of Greece was appointed
High Commissioner, ruling on behalf of these powers. Turkey still retains
the nominal suzerainty.
CRETINISM, a disease prevalent in valleys as those of the Alps,
characterised by mental imbecility, and associated with abnormal and
arrested physical development.
CREUSA, a wife of Æneas, fell behind her husband, lost her way in
escaping from Troy, and perished.
CREUSOT, LE (18), a town in the dep. Saône-et-Loire, near Autun,
which owes its importance to the large iron-works established there; is a
district rich in coal and iron.
CREUZER, a learned German philologist, born at Marburg; became
professor of Ancient History and Philology at Heidelberg; his chief work,
and one by which he is most widely known, "Symbolik und Mythologie der
Alten Völker, besonders der Griechen," "Symbolism and Mythology of
Ancient Peoples, especially the Greeks"; left an autobiography
(1771-1858).
CREWE (29), a town in Cheshire, 43 m. SE. of Liverpool, a great
railway junction, and where the London and North-Western Railway Company
have their works.
CRICHTON, JAMES, surnamed The Admirable, a Scotchman of gentle, even
noble birth, educated at St. Andrews, had George Buchanan for tutor;
early developed the most extraordinary gifts of both body and mind;
travelled to Paris, Rome, Venice, Milan, and Mantua; astonished every one
by his strength and skill as an athlete, and his dexterity and agility in
debate; at Mantua he became tutor to the son of the Duke, when one night
he was attacked in the streets by a band of masked men, whom he overcame
by his skill, recognised his pupil among them, and presented to him his
sword, upon which, it is said, the young man immediately ran him through
with it (1560-1585).
CRIEFF (5), a town in Perthshire, at the foot of the Grampians, 18
m. W. of Perth, amid exquisite scenery; has a climate favourable for
invalids.
CRILLON, a French military captain, born at Mars, in Provence;
distinguished himself through five reigns, those of Henry II., Francis
II., Charles IX., Henry III., and Henry IV., of the last of whom he
became companion in arms, who designated him _Le brave des braves_, and
who wrote to him this famous note after the victory of Arques: "Where
were you, brave Crillon? we have conquered, and you were not there."
(1541-1615).
CRIMEA (250), a peninsula in the S. of Russia, almost surrounded by
the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov, being connected with the mainland by
the narrow isthmus of Perekop; has a bold and precipitous coast 650 m. in
length; is barren in the N., but fertile and fruitful in the S.;
population chiefly Russians and Tartars.
CRIMEAN WAR, a war carried on chiefly in the Crimea, on the part of
Turkey aided by Britain and France, in which Sardinia eventually joined
them, against the encroachments of Russia in the E., and which was
proclaimed against Russia, March 24, 1854, and ended by the fall of
Sebastopol, September 8, 1855, the treaty of peace following having been
signed at Paris, March 1856.
CRINAN CANAL, a canal for vessels of light burden, 9 m. long, from
Loch Fyne, in Argyllshire, constructed to avoid sailing round the Mull of
Kintyre, thereby saving a distance of 115 m.
CRISPI, FRANCESCO, an Italian statesman, born in Sicily; co-operated
with Garibaldi in the Sicilian Revolution, and since active as a member
of the Government in the kingdom of Italy; _b_. 1819.
CRISPIN, the patron saint of shoemakers, of noble birth, who with
his brother had to flee from persecution in Rome to Gaul, where they
settled at Soissons; preached to the people and supported themselves by
shoemaking; they finally suffered martyrdom in 287. Festival, Oct. 25.
CRITIAS, a pupil of Socrates, who profited so little by his master's
teaching that he became the most conspicuous for his cruelty and rapacity
of all the thirty tyrants set up in Athens by the Spartans
(450-402 B.C.).
CRITON, a rich Athenian, friend and disciple of Socrates; supported
him by his fortune, but could not persuade him to leave the prison,
though he had procured the means of escape.
CROA`TIA AND SLAVONIA (2,201), a Hungarian crownland, lying between
the Drave and Save, tributaries of the Danube, and stretching westward to
the Adriatic. It is half as large as Ireland, wooded and mountainous,
with marshy districts along the river courses. The soil is fertile,
growing cereals, fibres, tobacco, and grapes; silkworms and bees are a
source of wealth; horses, cattle, and swine are raised in large numbers.
The province is poor in minerals, and lacks a harbour. The people are
Slavs, of Roman Catholic faith; backward in education, but showing signs
of progress.
CROCKETT, SAMUEL RUTHERFORD, novelist, born near New Galloway,
Kirkcudbright; bred for the Church, and for some time Free Church
minister at Penicuik, Midlothian, a charge he resigned in 1895, having
previously published a volume of sketches entitled "The Stickit
Minister," which was so received as to induce him to devote himself to
literature, as he has since done with more or less success; _b_. 1859.
CROESUS, the last of the kings of Lydia, in the 6th century B.C.;
celebrated for his wealth, so that his name became a synonym for a man
overwhelmed by the favours of fortune; being visited by Solon, he asked
him one day if he knew any one happier than he was, when the sage
answered, "No man can be counted happy till after death." Of the truth of
this Croesus had ere long experience; being condemned to death by Cyrus,
who had defeated him and condemned him to be burnt, and about to be led
to the burning pile, he called out thrice over the name of Solon; when
Cyrus, having learned the reason, moved with pity, ordered his release,
retained him among his counsellors, and commended him when dying to the
care of his son.
CROKER, JOHN WILSON, a politician and man of letters, born in
Galway, though of English descent; bred for the bar; wrote in advocacy of
Catholic emancipation; represented Downpatrick in Parliament; was in 1809
appointed Secretary to the Admiralty, a post he held for 20 years; was
one of the founders of the _Quarterly Review_, to which, it is said, he
contributed 200 articles; edited Boswell's "Life of Johnson" with Notes;
was an obstinate Tory, satirised by Disraeli and severely handled by
Macaulay; founded the Athenæum Club (1780-1857).
CROKER, T. CROFTON, Irish folk-lorist, born in Cork; held a
well-paid clerkship in the Admiralty; collected and published stories,
legends, and traditions of the S. of Ireland; he wrote with a humour
which was heartily Irish; his most original work being "The Adventures of
Barney Mahoney"; he was a zealous antiquary; he was a brilliant
conversationalist (1798-1854).
CROLL, JAMES, a geologist, born near Coupar-Angus; contributed
materially to geology by his study of the connection between alterations
of climate and geological changes (1821-1890).
CROLY, GEORGE, a versatile author; designed for the Church; took to
literature, and wrote in all kinds, poetry, biography, and romance; his
best romance "Salathiel"; died rector of St. Stephen's, Walbrook
(1780-1860).
CROMARTY, a county in the N. of Scotland, consisting of ten
fragments scattered up and down Ross-shire; the county town, the
birthplace of Hugh Miller, being on the N. side of Cromarty Firth, which
opens eastward into the Moray Firth, and forms a large harbour 1 m. long
and 7 broad, protected at the mouth by two beetling rocks called Sutors,
one on each side, 400 and 463 ft. high.
CROME, JOHN, usually called Old Crome, a landscape-painter, born in
Norwich, of poor parents; began as a house-painter and then a
drawing-master; one of the founders of the Norwich Society of Artists;
took his subjects from his native county, and treated them with fidelity
to nature; his pictures have risen in value since his death (1768-1821).
CROMPTON, SAMUEL, inventor of the spinning-mule, born near Bolton;
for five years he worked at his project, and after he got it into shape
was tormented by people prying about him and trying to find out his
secret; at last a sum was raised by subscription to buy it, and he got
some £60 for it, by which others became wealthy, while he had to spend,
and end, his days in comparative poverty, all he had to subsist on being
a life annuity of £63 which some friends bought him (1753-1827).
CROMWELL, OLIVER, Lord-Protector of the commonwealth of England,
born at Huntingdon, the son of Robert Cromwell, the younger son of Sir
Henry Cromwell, and of Elizabeth Steward, descended from the royal family
of Scotland, their third child and second boy; educated at Huntingdon and
afterwards at Cambridge; left college at his father's death, and occupied
himself in the management of his paternal property; entered Parliament in
1629, and represented Cambridge in 1640, where to oppose the king he, by
commission in 1642 from Essex, raised a troop of horse, famous afterwards
as his "Ironsides"; with these he distinguished himself, first at Marston
Moor in 1644, and next year at Naseby; crushed the Scots at Preston in
1648, who had invaded the country in favour of the king, now in the hands
of the Parliament, and took Berwick; sat at trial of the king and signed
his death-warrant, 1649; sent that same year to subdue rebellion in
Ireland, he sternly yet humanely stamped it out; recalled from Ireland,
he set out for Scotland, which had risen up in favour of Charles II., and
totally defeated the Scots at Dunbar, Sept. 3, 1650, after which Charles
invaded England and the Royalists were finally beaten at Worcester, Sept.
3, 1651, upon which his attention was drawn to affairs of government;
taking up his residence at Hampton Court, his first step was to dissolve
the Rump, which he did by military authority in 1653; a new Parliament
was summoned, which also he was obliged to dismiss, after being declared
Lord-Protector; from this time he ruled mainly alone, and wherever his
power was exercised, beyond seas even, it was respected; at last his
cares and anxieties proved too much for him and wore him out, he fell ill
and died, Sept. 3, 1658, the anniversary of his two great victories at
Dunbar and Worcester; they buried him in Westminster, but his body was
dug up at the Restoration, hanged at Tyburn, and buried under the
gallows; such treatment his body was subjected to after he was gone, and
for long after he was no less ignobly treated by several succeeding
generations as a hypocrite, a fanatic, or a tyrant; but now, thanks to
Carlyle, he is come to be regarded as one of the best and wisest rulers
that ever sat on the English throne (1599-1658). See "Cromwell's Letters
and Speeches," edited by Carlyle.
CROMWELL, RICHARD, son of the Protector; appointed to succeed him;
was unequal to the task, and compelled to abdicate, April 26, 1659;
retired into private life; went after the Restoration for a time abroad;
returned under a feigned name, and lived and died at Cheshunt
(1626-1712).
CROMWELL, THOMAS, minister of Henry VIII., and _malleus monachorum_,
the "mauler of the monks," born at Putney; the son of a blacksmith; led a
life of adventure for eight or nine years on the Continent; settled in
England about the beginning of Henry's reign; came under notice of
Wolsey, whose confidant he became, and subordinate agent in suppressing
the smaller monasteries; on his master's fall rose into favour with Henry
by suggesting he should discard the supremacy of the Pope, and assume the
supremacy of the Church himself; attained, in consequence, the highest
rank and authority in the State, for the proposal was adopted, with the
result that the Crown remains the head of ecclesiastical authority in
England to this day; the authority he thus acquired he employed in so
high-handed a fashion that he lost the favour of both king and people,
till on a sudden he was arrested on charges of treason, was condemned to
death, and beheaded on Tower Hill (1485-1540).
CRONSTADT (42), the port of St. Petersburg, at the mouth of the
Neva; a strongly fortified place, and the greatest naval station in the
country; it is absolutely impregnable.
CROOKES, WILLIAM, an eminent chemist and physicist, born in London;
distinguished for researches in both capacities; discovered the metal
thallium, and invented the radiometer; _b_. 1832.
CROSS, MRS., George Eliot's married name.
CROSS, SOUTHERN, a bright constellation in the southern hemisphere,
consisting of four stars.
CROSS, VICTORIA, a naval and military decoration instituted in 1854;
awarded for eminent personal valour in the face of the enemy.
CROSS FELL, one of the Pennine range of mountains in the N. of
England, 2892 ft., on the top of which five counties meet.
CROSSE, ANDREW, electrician, born at Somersetshire; made several
discoveries in the application of electricity; he was a zealous
scientist, and apt to be over-zealous (1784-1855).
CROSSRAGUEL, an abbey, now in ruins, 2 m. SW. of Maybole, Ayrshire,
where John Knox held disputation with the abbot, and of which in his
"History of the Reformation" he gives a humorous account (1562).
CROTCH, WILLIAM, musical composer of precocious gifts, and writer in
music, born in Norwich; became, in 1797, professor of Music in Oxford,
and in 1822 Principal of the Royal Academy; his anthems are well known
(1775-1847).
CROTONA, an ancient large and flourishing Greek city, Magna Græcia,
in Italy; the residence of the philosopher Pythagoras and the athlete
Milo.
CROWE, EYRE EVANS, historian and miscellaneous writer, born in
Hants; editor of the _Daily News_; author of the "History of France" and
"Lives of Eminent Foreign Statesmen" (1799-1868).
CROWE, SIR JAMES ARCHER, writer on art and a journalist, born in
London, son of the preceding; is associated with Cavalcaselle in several
works on art and famous artists; _b_. 1825.
CROWNE, JOHN, playwright, born in Nova Scotia, a contemporary and
rival of Dryden; supplied the stage with plays for nearly 30 years
(1640-1705).
CROWTHER, SAMUEL ADJAI, bishop of the Niger Territory; an African by
birth; was captured to be sold as a slave, but released by an English
cruiser; baptized a Christian in 1825; joined the first Niger Expedition
in 1841; sent out as a missionary in 1843; appointed bishop in 1864, the
duties of which he discharged faithfully, zealously, and well
(1810-1891).
CROYDON (103), the largest town in Surrey, on the Wandle, 10 m. SW.
of London Bridge, and practically now a suburb of London.
CRUDEN, ALEXANDER, author of a "Complete Concordance of the Holy
Scriptures," with which alone his name is now associated; born in
Aberdeen; intended for the Church, but from unsteadiness of intellect
not qualified to enter it; was placed frequently in restraint; appears to
have been a good deal employed as a press corrector; gave himself out as
"Alexander the Corrector," commissioned to correct moral abuses
(1701-1770).
CRUIKSHANK, GEORGE, a richly gifted English artist, born in London,
of Scotch descent; the first exhibition of his talent was in the
illustration of books for children, but it was in the line of humorous
satire he chiefly distinguished himself; and he first found scope for his
gifts in this direction in the political squibs of William Hone, a
faculty he exercised at length over a wide area; the works illustrated by
him include, among hundreds of others, "Grimm's Stories," "Peter
Schlemihl," Scott's "Demonology," Dickens's "Oliver Twist," and
Ainsworth's "Jack Shepherd"; like Hogarth, he was a moralist as well as
an artist, and as a total abstainer he consecrated his art at length to
dramatise the fearful downward career of the drunkard; his greatest work,
done in oil, is in the National Gallery, the "Worship of Bacchus," which
is a vigorous protestation against this vice (1792-1878).
CRUSADES, THE, military expeditions, organised from the 11th century
to the 13th, under the banner of the Cross for the recovery of the Holy
Land from the hands of the Saracens, to the number of eight. _The First_
(1096-1099), preached by Peter the Hermit, and sanctioned by the Council
of Clermont (1095), consisted of two divisions: one, broken into two
hordes, under Peter the Hermit and Walter the Penniless respectively,
arrived decimated in Syria, and was cut to pieces at Nicæa by the sultan;
while the other, better equipped and more efficiently organised, laid
siege to and captured in succession Nicæa, Antioch, and Jerusalem, where
Godfrey of Bouillon was proclaimed king. _The Second_ (1147-1149),
preached by St. Bernard, consisting of two armies under Conrad III. of
Germany and Louis VII. of France, laid siege in a shattered state to
Damascus, and was compelled to raise the siege and return a mere remnant
to Europe. _The Third_ (1189-1193), preached by William, archbishop of
Tyre, and provoked by Saladin's capture of Jerusalem, of which one
division was headed by Barbarossa, who, after taking Iconium, was drowned
while bathing in the Orontes, and the other, headed by Philippe Augustus
and Richard Coeur de Lion, who jointly captured Acre and made peace with
Saladin. _The Fourth_ (1202-1204), under sanction of Pope Innocent III.,
and undertaken by Baldwin, count of Flanders, having got the length of
Venice, was preparing to start for Asia, when it was called aside to
Constantinople to restore the emperor to his throne, when, upon his death
immediately afterwards, the Crusaders elected Baldwin in his place,
pillaged the city, and left, having added it to the domain of the Pope.
_The Fifth_ (1217-1221), on the part of John of Brienne, king of
Jerusalem, and Andrew II., king of Hungary, who made a raid upon Egypt
against the Saracens there, but without any result. _The Sixth_
(1228-1229), under conduct of Frederick II. of Germany, as heir through
John of Brienne to the throne of Jerusalem, who made a treaty with the
sultan of Egypt, whereby the holy city, with the exception of the Mosque
of Omar, was made over to him as king of Jerusalem. _The Seventh_
(1248-1254), conducted by St. Louis in the fulfilment of a vow, in which
Louis was defeated and taken prisoner, and only recovered his liberty by
payment of a heavy ransom. _The Eighth_ (1270), also undertaken by St.
Louis, who lay dying at Tunis as the towns of Palestine fell one after
another into the hands of the Saracens. The Crusades terminated with the
fall of Ptolemaïs in 1291.
CRUSOE, ROBINSON, the hero of Defoe's fiction of the name, a
shipwrecked sailor who spent years on an uninhabited island, and is
credited with no end of original devices in providing for his wants. See
SELKIRK.
CSOMA DE KÖRÖS, ALEXANDER, a Hungarian traveller and philologist,
born in Körös, Transylvania; in the hope of tracing the origin of the
Magyar race, set out for the East in 1820, and after much hardship by the
way arrived in Thibet, where, under great privations, though aided by the
English Government, he devoted himself to the study of the Thibetan
language; in 1831 settled in Calcutta, where he compiled his Thibetan
Grammar and Dictionary, and catalogued the Thibetan works in the library
of the Asiatic Society; died at Darjeeling just as he was setting out for
fresh discoveries (1784-1836).
CTESIAS, Greek physician and historian of Persia; was present with
Artaxerxes Mnemon at the battle of Cunaxa, 401 B.C., and stayed
afterwards at the Persian court, where he got the materials for his
history, of which only a few fragments are extant.
CTESIPHON, an Athenian who, having proposed that the city should
confer a crown of gold on Demosthenes, was accused by Æschines of
violating the law in so doing, but was acquitted after an eloquent
oration by Demosthenes in his defence.
CUBA (1,500), the largest of the West India Islands, 700 m. long and
from 27 m. to 290 m. in breadth; belonged to Spain, but is now under the
protection of the United States; is traversed from E. to W. by a range of
mountains wooded to the summit; abounds in forests--ebony, cedar,
mahogany, &c.; soil very fertile; exports sugar and tobacco; principal
town, Havana.
CUBBIT, SIR WILLIAM, an eminent English engineer, born in Norfolk;
more or less employed in most of the great engineering undertakings of
his time (1785-1861).
CUDWORTH, RALPH, an eminent English divine and philosopher, born in
Somerset; his chief work, a vast and discursive one, and to which he owes
his fame, "The True Intellectual System of the Universe," in which he
teaches a philosophy of the Platonic type, which ascribes more to the
abiding inner than the fugitive outer of things; he defends revealed
religion on grounds of reason against both the atheist and the
materialist; his candour and liberality exposed him to much
misconstruction, and on that account was deemed a latitudinarian. "He
stands high among our early philosophers for his style, which, if not
exactly elegant and never splendid, is solid and clear" (1617-1688).
CUENCA, a fine old city in Spain, 83 m. E. of Madrid; also a
high-lying city of Ecuador, over 100 m. S. of Quito, with a delightful
climate; both in provinces of the same name.
CUJAS, or CUJACIUS, a celebrated French jurist, born at
Toulouse; devoted to the study of Roman law in its historical
development, and the true founder of the Historical school in that
department (1522-1590).
CULDEES, fraternities of uncertain origin and character scattered up
and down Ireland, and especially Scotland, hardly at all in England, from
the 9th or 10th to the 14th century; instituted, as would appear, to keep
alive a religious spirit among themselves and disseminate it among their
neighbours, until on the establishment of monastic orders in the country
they ceased to have a separate existence and lost their individuality in
the new communities, as well as their original character; they appear to
have been originally, whatever they became at length, something like
those fraternities we find later on at Deventer, in Holland, with which
Thomas à Kempis was connected, only whereas the former sought to plant
Christianity, the latter sought to purify it. The name disappears after
1332, but traces of them are found at Dunkeld, St. Andrews, Brechin, and
elsewhere in Scotland; in Ireland they continued in Armagh to the
Reformation, and were resuscitated for a few years in the 17th century.
CULLEN, PAUL, Cardinal, Catholic primate of Ireland, born in
Kildare; was an extreme Ultramontanist; vigorously opposed all secret
societies in the country with revolutionary aims, as well as the system
of mixed education then in force (1803-1878).
CULLEN, WILLIAM, physician, born at Hamilton; studied in Glasgow;
held successively the chairs of Chemistry, the Institutes of Medicine,
and Medicine in Edinburgh University; author of several medical works;
did much to advance the science of medicine; the celebrated Dr. Black was
one of his pupils in chemistry (1710-1790).
CULLODEN, a moor, 5 m. NE. of Inverness, where the Duke of
Cumberland defeated Prince Charles in 1746, and finally wrecked the
Stuart cause in the country.
CULPEPER, NICHOLAS, a herbalist, born in London, who practised
medicine and associated therewith the art of the astrologer as well as
the faith of a Puritan; was a character and a phenomenon of his time
(1616-1654).
CULVERWEL, NATHANIEL, an English author, born in Middlesex; educated
at Cambridge, and one of the Platonist school there; wrote "Light of
Nature," "Spiritual Optics," "Worth of Souls," &c., works which evince
vigour of thinking as well as literary power (1633-1651).
CUMÆ, a considerable maritime city of Campania, now in ruins;
alleged to be the earliest Greek settlement in Italy; famous as the
residence of the SIBYL (q. v.), and a place of luxurious resort
for wealthy Romans.
CUMBERLAND (250), a county in N. of England, of mountain and dale,
with good agricultural and pasture land, and a rich coal-field on the
coast, as well as other minerals in the interior.
CUMBERLAND, DR. RICHARD, bishop of Peterborough, born in London,
educated at Cambridge, wrote several works, the chief "An Inquiry into
the Laws of Nature," in reply to Hobbes, in which he elevates the
tendency to produce happiness into something like a moral principle;
wrought hard, lived to a great age, and is credited with the saying,
"Better wear out than rust out" (1631-1718).
CUMBERLAND, RICHARD, dramatist, great-grandson of the preceding; was
a prolific writer for the stage; the play "The West Indian," which
established his reputation, was his best (1732-1811).
CUMBERLAND, WILLIAM AUGUSTUS, DUKE OF, second son of George II., was
defeated at Fontenoy by the French in 1745; defeated the Pretender next
year at Culloden; earned the title of "The Butcher" by his cruelties
afterwards; was beaten in all his battles except this one (1721-1765).
CUMBRIA, a country of the Northern Britons which, in the 6th
century, extended from the Clyde to the Dee, in Cheshire.
CUMMING, GORDON, the African lion-hunter, of Celtic origin; served
for a time in the army; wrote an account of his hunting exploits in his
"Five Years of a Hunter's Life" (1820-1866).
CUMMING, JOHN, a Scotch clergyman, popular in London, born at
Fintray, in Aberdeenshire; of a highly combative turn, and rather
foolhardy in his interpretations of prophecy (1807-1881).
CUNARD, SIR SAMUEL, founder of Cunard Line of Steamships, born in
Halifax, Nova Scotia (1787-1865).
CUNAXA, a town in Babylonia, on the Euphrates, 60 m. N. of Babylon.
CUNCTATOR, a name given to Fabius Maximus on account of the
tantalising tactics he adopted to wear out his adversary Hannibal.
CUNE`IFORM, an epithet applied to the wedge-shaped characters in
which the Assyrian and other ancient monumental inscriptions are written.
CUNNINGHAM, ALLAN, poet and man of letters, born in the parish of
Keir, Dumfriesshire; bred to the mason craft, but devoted his leisure
hours to study and the composition of Scottish ballads, which, when
published, gained him the notice of Sir Walter Scott; in 1810 he went to
London, where he wrote for periodicals, and obtained employment as
assistant to Chantrey the sculptor, in which post he found leisure to
cultivate his literary proclivities, collating and editing tales and
songs, editing Burns with a Life, and writing the Lives of famous
artists, and died in London; "a pliant, _Naturmensch_," Carlyle found him
to be, "with no principles or _creed_ that he could see, but excellent
old _habits_ of character" (1784-1842).
CUNNINGHAM, PETER, son of the preceding, author of the "Life of
Drummond of Hawthornden," "Handbook of London," &c. (1816-1867).
CUNNINGHAM, WILLIAM, a Scotch divine, born in Hamilton, well read in
the Reformation and Puritan theology, a vigorous defender of Scottish
orthodoxy, and a stanch upholder of the independence of the Church of
State control; was a powerful debater, and a host in any controversy in
which he embarked (1805-1861).
CUPID, or AMOR, the god of love, viewed as a chubby little boy,
armed with bow and arrows, and often with eyes bandaged.
CUPID AND PSYCHE, an allegorical representation of the trials of the
soul on its way to the perfection of bliss, being an episode in the
"Golden Ass" of Apuleius. See PSYCHE.
CURAÇA`O (26), one of Antilles, in the West Indies, belonging to the
Dutch, 36 m. long by about 8 broad; yields, along with other West Indian
products, an orange from the peel of which a liqueur is made in Holland.
CURÉ OF MEUDON, Rabelais.
CURE`TES, priests of Cybele, in Crete, whose rites were celebrated
with clashing of cymbals.
CURETON, WILLIAM, Syriac scholar, born in Shropshire,
assistant-keeper of MSS. at the British Museum; applied himself to the
study and collation of Syriac MSS., and discovered, among other relics, a
version of the Epistle of Ignatius; was appointed canon of Westminster
(1808-1864).
CURIATII, three Alban brothers who fought with the three Horatii
Roman brothers, and were beaten, to the subjection of Alba to Rome.
CURLE, EDMUND, a London bookseller, notorious for the issue of
libellous and of obscene publications, and for prosecutions he was
subjected to in consequence (1675-1747).
CURLING, a Scottish game played between rival clubs, belonging
generally to different districts, by means of cheese-shaped stones hurled
along smooth ice, the rules of which are pretty much the same as those in
bowling.
CURRAN, JOHN PHILPOT, an Irish orator and wit, born in co. Cork;
became member of Parliament in 1784; though a Protestant, employed all
his eloquence to oppose the policy of the Government towards Ireland,
together with the Union; retired on the death of Pitt; was Master of the
Rolls for a time; was Irish to the core (1750-1817).
CURRIE, JAMES, a Liverpool physician, born in Kirkpatrick-Fleming,
Dumfriesshire; was the earliest biographer and editor of Burns, in 4
vols., a work he undertook for behoof of his widow and family, and which
realised £1400, involved no small labour, was done _con amore_, and done
well (1756-1805).
CURRIE, SIR PHILIP, her Majesty's ambassador at Constantinople since
1893; has been connected with the Foreign Office since 1854; had been
attaché at St. Petersburg, and was secretary to Lord Salisbury; _b_.
1834.
CURTIS, GEORGE WILLIAM, an American writer, born in Rhode Island,
distinguished as contributor or editor in connection with several
American journals and magazines; _b_. 1824.
CURTIUS, a noble youth of Roman legend who leapt on horseback
full-armed into a chasm in the Forum, which the soothsayers declared
would not close unless at the sacrifice of what Rome held dearest, and
which he did, judging that the wealth of Rome lay in its citizens, and
tradition says the chasm thereupon immediately closed.
CURTIUS, ERNST, a German archæologist and philosopher, born at
Lübeck; travelled in Greece and Asia Minor; contributed much by his
researches to the history of Greece, and of its legends and works of art;
his jubilee as a professor was celebrated in 1891, when he received the
congratulations of the Emperor William II., to whose father he at one
time had acted as tutor; _b_. 1814.
CURTIUS, GEORG, German philologist, born at Lübeck, brother of the
preceding; held professorial appointments in Prague, Kiel, and Berlin;
one of the best Greek scholars in Germany, and contributed largely to the
etymology and grammar of the Greek language (1820-1885).
CURTIUS, QUINTUS RUFUS, a Roman historian of uncertain date; wrote a
history of Alexander the Great in ten books, two of which have been lost,
the rest surviving in a very fragmentary state.
CURTMANTLE, a surname of Henry II., from a robe he wore shorter than
that of his predecessors.
CURULE CHAIR, a kind of ivory camp-stool, mounted on a chariot, on
which a Roman magistrate, if consul, prætor, censor, or chief edile, sat
as he was conveyed in state to the senate-house or some public function.
CURWEN, JOHN, an Independent clergyman, born in Yorkshire; the
founder of the Tonic Sol-fa system in music; from 1864 gave himself up to
the advocacy and advancement of his system (1816-1880).
CURZON, GEORGE NATHANIEL, LORD, English statesman, son of a
clergyman, educated at Eton and Oxford; became Fellow of All Souls;
became Under-Secretary for India in 1891; travelled in the East, and
wrote on Eastern topics, on which he became an authority; was appointed
Viceroy of India in 1899; _b_. 1859.
CUSHING, an American jurist and diplomatist (1800-1879).
CUSHMAN, CHARLOTTE, an American actress, born in Boston;
represented, among other characters, Lady Macbeth, Rosalind, Meg
Merilees, and Romeo (1810-1876).
CUSTINE, COUNT DE, a French general, born at Metz; seized and
occupied Mayence, 1792; was forced out of it by the Prussians and obliged
to retreat; was called to account and sent to the guillotine;
"unsuccessfulness," his crime; "had fought in America; was a proud, brave
man, and his fortune led him _hither_" (1746-1793)
CÜSTRIN, a strong little town, 68 or 70 m. E. of Berlin, where young
Frederick the Great was kept in close confinement by his father.
CUTCH, a native State in the Bombay Presidency, in the country
called Gujarat.
CUTCH, RANN OF, a salt-water morass between Gujarat and Scinde,
which becomes a lake during the SW. monsoon.
CUTHBERT, a monk of Jarrow, a disciple of Bede; was with him when he
died, and wrote in a letter a graphic and touching account of his death.
CUTHBERT, ST., born in Northumbria; originally a shepherd; saw a
vision in the night-watches of the soul of St. Aidan ascending to heaven,
which determined his destiny, and he became a monk; entered the monastery
of Melrose, and eventually became prior, but devoted most of his time to
mission-work in the surrounding districts; left Melrose to be prior of
Lindisfarne, but longing for an austerer life, he retired to, and led the
life of a hermit on, an island by himself; being persuaded to come back,
he acted as bishop of Lindisfarne, and continued to act as such for two
years, but his previous longings for solitude returned, and he went back
to a hermit life, to spend a short season, as it happened, in prayer and
meditation; when he died; what he did, and the memory of what he did,
left an imperishable impression for good in the whole N. of England and
the Scottish borders; his remains were conveyed to Lindisfarne, and ere
long to Durham (635-687).
CUTTACK (47), capital of a district in S. of Bengal, at the apex of
the delta formed by the Mahanuddy; noted for its gold and silver filigree
work.
CUVIER, GEORGES, a celebrated naturalist, born at Montebéliard, of
Huguenot ancestry; the creator of comparative anatomy and palæontology;
was educated at Stuttgart, where he studied natural science; but the
observation of marine animals on the coast of Normandy, where he held a
tutorship, first led him to the systematic study of anatomy, and brought
him into correspondence with Geoffroy St. Hilaire and others, who invited
him to Paris, where he prosecuted his investigations, matured his views,
and became professor of Comparative Anatomy at the Jardin des Plantes, a
member of the French Institute, and Permanent Secretary of the Academy of
Sciences, and eventually a peer of France; his labours in the science to
which he devoted his life were immense, but he continued to the last a
determined opponent of the theory, then being broached and now in vogue,
of a common descent (1769-1832).
CUXHAVEN, a German watering-place at the mouth of the Elbe, on the
southern bank.
CUYP, ALBERT, a celebrated Dutch landscape-painter, son of Jacob
Cuyp, commonly called Old Cuyp, also a landscapist, born at Dort; painted
scenes from the banks of the Meuse and the Rhine; is now reckoned a rival
of Claude, though he was not so in his lifetime, his pictures selling now
for a high price; he has been praised for his sunlights, but these, along
with Claude's, have been pronounced depreciatively by Ruskin as
"colourless" (1605-1691).
CUZCO (20), a town in Peru, about 11,440 ft. above the sea-level,
the ancient capital of the Incas; still retains traces of its former
extent and greatness, the inhabitants reckoned as then numbering 200,000,
and the civilisation advanced.
CYBELE, a nature-goddess worshipped in Phrygia and W. Asia, whose
worship, like that of the nature divinities generally, was accompanied
with noisy, more or less licentious, revelry; identified by the Greeks
with RHEA (q. v.), their nature-goddess.
CYCLADES, islands belonging to Greece, on the East or the Ægean
Sea, so called as forming a circle round Delos, the most famous of the
group.
CYCLIC POETS, poets who after Homer's death caught the contagion of
his great poem and wrote continuations, additions, &c.
CYCLOPEAN WALLS, a name given to structures found in Greece, Asia
Minor, Italy, and Sicily, built of large masses of unhewn stone and
without cement, such as it is presumed a race of gigantic strength like
the Cyclops (3) must have reared.
CYCLOPS, a name given to three distinct classes of mythological
beings: (1) a set of one-eyed savage giants infesting the coasts of
Sicily and preying upon human flesh; (2) a set of Titans, also one-eyed,
belonging to the race of the gods, three in number, viz., Brontes,
Steropes, and Arges--three great elemental powers of nature, subjected by
and subject to Zeus; and (3) a people of Thrace, famed for their skill in
building.
CYMBELINE, a legendary British king, and the hero of Shakespeare's
romance play of the name.
CYNÆGIRUS, a brother of Æschylus; distinguished himself at Marathon;
is famed for his desperate attempt to seize a retreating ship.
CYNEWULF, a Saxon poet, flourished at the second half of the 8th
century; seems to have passed through two phases, first as a glad-hearted
child of nature, and then as a devout believer in Christ; at the former
stage wrote "Riddles" and "Ode to the West Wind," at the latter his
themes were the lives of Christ and certain Saints.
CYNICS, a sect of Greek philosophers, disciples of Antisthenes, who
was a disciple of Socrates, but carried away with him only part of
Socrates' teaching and enforced that as if it were the whole, dropped all
regard for humanity and the universal reason, and taught that "virtue lay
wholly in the avoidance of evil, and those desires and greeds that bind
us to enjoyments," so that his disciples were called the "Capuchins of
the Old World." These in time went further than their master, and
conceived a contempt for everything that was not self-derived; they
derived their name from the gymnasium in Athens, where their master
taught.
CYPRIAN, ST., one of the Fathers of the Church, born at Carthage,
about the year 200, converted to Christianity in 245; devoted himself
thereafter to the study of the Bible, with the help of Tertullian his
favourite author; became bishop of Carthage in 248; on the outbreak of
the Decian persecution had to flee for his life, ministering to his flock
the while by substitutes; on his return, after two years, he was involved
in the discussion about the reception of the lapsed; under the Valerian
persecution was banished; being recalled, he refused to sacrifice to the
gods, and suffered martyrdom in 258; he was a zealous bishop of the High
Church type, and the father of such, only on broader lines. Festival,
Sept. 16.
CYPRUS (21), a fertile, mountainous island in the Levant, capital
Nicosia (12); geographically connected with Asia, and the third largest
in the Mediterranean, being 140 m. long and 60 m. broad; government ceded
to Great Britain in 1878 by the Sultan, on condition of an annual
tribute; is a British colony under a colonial governor or High
Commissioner; is of considerable strategic importance to Britain; yields
cereals, wines, cotton, &c., and has 400 m. of good road, and a large
transit trade.
CYRENAICS, a sect of Greek philosophers, disciples of Aristippus,
who was a disciple of Socrates, but who broke away from his master by
divorcing virtue from happiness, and making "pleasure, moderated by
reason, the ultimate aim of life, and the supreme good."
CYRE`NE, a town and Greek colony in Africa, E. of Egypt, extensive
ruins of which still exist, and which was the capital of the State,
called Cyrenaica after it, and the birthland of several illustrious
Greeks.
CYRIL, ST., surnamed the PHILOSOPHER, along with his brother
Methodius, the "Apostle of the Slavs," born in Thessalonica; invented the
Slavonic alphabet, and, with his brother's help, translated the Bible
into the language of the Slavs; _d_. 868. Festival, March 9.
CYRIL OF ALEXANDRIA, ST., born at Alexandria, and bishop there; an
ecclesiastic of a violent, militant order; persecuted the Novatians,
expelled the Jews from Alexandria, quarrelled with the governor, excited
a fanaticism which led to the seizure and shameful murder of Hypatia; had
a lifelong controversy with Nestorius, and got him condemned by the
Council of Ephesus, while he himself was condemned by the Council at
Antioch (608), and both cast into prison; after release lived at peace
(376-444). Festival, Jan. 28.
CYRIL OF JERUSALEM, ST., patriarch of Jerusalem, elected 351, and a
Father of the Greek Church; in the Arian controversy then raging was a
Semi-Arian, and was persecuted by the strict Arians; joined the Nicene
party at the Council of Constantinople in 381; was an instructor in
church doctrine to the common people by his catechisms (315-386).
Festival, March 18.
CYROPÆDIA, a work by Xenophon, being an idealistic account of the
"education of Cyrus the Great."
CYRUS, surnamed the GREAT, or the ELDER, the founder of
the Persian empire; began his conquests by overthrowing his grandfather
Astyages, king of the Medes; subdued Croesus, king of Lydia; laid siege
to Babylon and took it, and finished by being master of all Western Asia;
was a prince of great energy and generosity, and left the nations he
subjected and rendered tributary free in the observances of their
religions and the maintenance of their institutions; this is the story of
the historians, but it has since been considerably modified by study of
the ancient monuments (560-529 B.C.).
CYRUS, surnamed the YOUNGER, second son of Darius II.;
conspired against his brother Artaxerxes Mnemon, was sentenced to death,
pardoned, and restored to his satrapy in Asia Minor; conspired anew,
raised a large army, including Greek mercenaries, marched against his
brother, and was slain at Cunaxa, of which last enterprise and its fate
an account is given in the "Anabasis" of Xenophon; _d_. 401 B.C.
CYTHERA, the ancient name of Cerigo; had a magnificent temple to
Venus, who was hence called Cytheræa.
CZARTORYSKI, a Polish prince, born at Warsaw; passed his early years
in England; studied at Edinburgh University; fought under Kosciusko
against the Russians, and was for some time a hostage in Russia; gained
favour at the Court there, and even a high post in the State; in 1830
threw himself into the revolutionary movement, and devoted all his
energies to the service of his country, becoming head of the government;
on the suppression of the revolution his estates were confiscated; he
escaped to Paris, and spent his old age there, dying at 90 (1770-1861).
CZECHS, a branch of the Slavonic family that in the later half of
the 6th century settled in Bohemia; have a language of their own, spoken
also in Moravia and part of Hungary.
CZERNO`WITZ (54), the capital of the Austrian province of Bukowina,
on the Pruth.
CZERNY, CHARLES, a musical composer and pianist, born at Vienna;
had Liszt and Thalberg for pupils (1791-1857).
CZERNY, GEORGE, leader of the Servians in their insurrection against
the Turks; assisted by Russia carried all before him; when that help was
withdrawn the Turks gained the advantage, and he had to flee; returning
after the independence of Servia was secured, he was murdered at the
instigation of Prince Milosch (1766-1817).
D
DACCA (82), a city 150 m. NE. of Calcutta, on a branch of the
Brahmaputra, once the capital of Bengal, and a centre of Mohammedanism;
famous at one time for its muslins; the remains of its former grandeur
are found scattered up and down the environs and half buried in the
jungle; it is also the name of a district (2,420), well watered, both for
cultivation and commerce.
DACIA, a Roman province, N. of the Danube and S. of the Carpathians.
DACIER, ANDRÉ, a French scholar and critic, born at Castres, in
Languedoc; assisted by his wife, executed translations of various
classics, and produced an edition of them known as the "Delphin Edition"
(1651-1722).
DACIER, MADAME, distinguished Hellenist and Latinist, wife of the
preceding, born in Saumur (1651-1720).
DACOITS, gangs of semi-savage Indian brigands and robbers, often 40
or 50 in a gang.
DA COSTA, ISAAC, a Dutch poet, born at Amsterdam, of Jewish parents;
turned Christian, and after the death of Bilderdijk was chief poet of
Holland (1798-1860).
DÆDALUS, an architect and mechanician in the Greek mythology;
inventor and constructor of the Labyrinth of Crete, in which the Minotaur
was confined, and in which he was also imprisoned himself by order of
Minos, a confinement from which he escaped by means of wings fastened on
with wax; was regarded as the inventor of the mechanic arts.
DAGHESTAN (529), a Russian province W. of the Caspian Sea, traversed
by spurs of the Caucasus Mountains; chief town Derbend.
DAGO, a marshy Russian island, N. of the Gulf of Riga, near the
entrance of the Gulf of Finland.
DAGOBERT I., king of the Franks, son of Clotaire II., reformed the
laws of the Franks; was the last of the Merovingian kings who knew how to
rule with a firm hand; the sovereign power as it passed from his hands
was seized by the mayor of the palace; _d_. 638.
DAGON, the national god of the Philistines, represented as half-man,
sometimes half-woman, and half-fish; appears to have been a symbol to his
worshippers of the fertilising power of nature, familiar to them in the
fruitfulness of the sea.
DAGUERREOTYPE, a process named after its inventor, Louis Daguerre, a
Frenchman, of producing pictures by means of the camera on a surface
sensitive to light and shade, and interesting as the first step in
photography.
DAHL, a Norwegian landscape-painter, born at Bergen; died professor
of Painting at Dresden (1788-1857).
DAHLGREN, JOHN ADOLPH, a U.S. naval officer and commander; invented
a small heavy gun named after him; commanded the blockading squadron at
Charleston (1809-1870).
DAHLMANN, FRIEDRICH CHRISTOPH, a German historian and politician,
born at Wismar; was in favour of constitutional government; wrote a
"History of Denmark," "Histories of the French Revolution and of the
English Revolution"; left an unfinished "History of Frederick the Great"
(1785-1860).
DAHN, FELIX, a German jurist, historian, novelist, and poet, born in
Hamburg; a man of versatile ability and extensive learning; became
professor of German jurisprudence at Königsberg; _b_. 1834.
DAHNA DESERT, the central division of the Arabian Desert.
DAHOMEY (150), a negro kingdom of undefined limits, and under French
protectorate, in W. Africa, N. of the Slave Coast; the religious rites of
the natives are sanguinary, they offer human victims in sacrifice; is an
agricultural country, yields palm-oil and gold dust, and once a great
centre of the slave-trade.
DAÏRI, the Mikado's palace or his court, and sometimes the Mikado
himself.
DAKO`TA, NORTH and SOUTH (400), three times as large as
England, forming two States of the American Union; consist of prairie
land, and extend N. from Nebraska as far as Canada, traversed by the
Missouri; yield cereals, especially wheat, and raise cattle.
DALAI-LAMA, chief priest of Lamaism, reverenced as a living
incarnation of deity, always present on earth in him. See LAMAISM.
DALAYRAC, celebrated French composer; author of a number of comic
operas (1753-1809).
DALBERG, BARON DE, an eminent member of a noble German family;
trained for the Church; was a prince-bishop; a highly cultured man, held
in high esteem in the Weimar Court circles, and a friend of Goethe and
Schiller; an ecclesiastic, as one might suppose, only in name
(1744-1817).
DALBERG, DUC DE, nephew of the preceding; contributed to political
changes in France in 1814, and accompanied Talleyrand to the Congress of
Vienna (1773-1833).
D'ALBRET, JEANNE, queen of Navarre, and mother of Henry IV. of
France; came to Paris to treat about the marriage of her son to Charles
IX.'s sister; died suddenly, not without suspicion of foul-play, after
signing the treaty; she was a Protestant (1528-1572).
D'ALEMBERT, a French philosopher, devoted to science, and especially
to mathematics; along with Diderot established the celebrated
"Encyclopédie," wrote the Preliminary Discourse, and contributed largely
to its columns, editing the mathematical portion of it; trained to quiet
and frugality, was indifferent to wealth and honour, and a very saint of
science; no earthly bribe could tear him away from his chosen path of
life (1717-1783).
DALGARNO, LORD, a heartless profligate in the "Fortunes of Nigel."
DALGETTY, DUGALD, a swaggering soldier of fortune in the "Legend of
Montrose," who let out his services to the highest bidder.
DALHOUSIE, JAMES ANDREW BROUN-RAMSAY, MARQUIS OF, Governor-General
of India, third son of the ninth Earl; as Lord Ramsay served in
Parliament as member for Haddingtonshire; on his father's death in 1838
entered the House of Lords; held office under Sir Robert Peel and Lord
Russell; went to India as Governor-General in 1848; ruled vigorously,
annexed territory, developed the resources of the country, projected and
carried out important measures for its welfare; his health, however, gave
way at the end of eight years, and he came home to receive the thanks of
the Parliament, elevation in the peerage, and other honours, but really
to end his days in pain and prostration; dying without male issue, he was
succeeded in the earldom by Fox Maule, Lord Panmure (1812-1860).
DALKEITH (7), a grain-market town in Midlothian, 6 m. SE. of
Edinburgh, with a palace adjoining, a seat of the Duke of Buccleuch.
DALLAS, GEORGE MIFFLIN, an American diplomatist, born in
Philadelphia; represented the United States as ambassador at St.
Petersburg and at London, and was from 1844 to 1849 Vice-President
(1792-1864).
DALMATIA (527), a crownland of Austria, lying along the NE. coast of
the Adriatic, and bounded on the land side by Croatia, Bosnia, and
Herzegovina; half the land is pasture, only one-ninth of it arable, which
yields cereals, wine, oil, honey, and fruit.
DALRI`ADS, a Celtic race who came over from Ireland to Argyllshire,
and established a kingdom in the SW. of Scotland, till King Kenneth
Macalpin succeeded in 843, who obtained rule both over it and the
northern kingdom of the Picts, and became the first king of Scotland.
DALRYMPLE, ALEXANDER, hydrographer to the Admiralty and the East
India Company, born at New Hailes, and brother of Lord Hailes; produced
many good maps (1737-1808).
DALTON, JOHN, chemist and physicist, born near Cockermouth, of a
Quaker family; took early an interest in meteorology, and kept through
life a record of meteorological observations; taught mathematics and
physics in Manchester; made his first appearance as an author in 1793 in
a volume of his observations and essays, and in 1808 published "A New
System of Chemical Philosophy," which he finished in 1810; famous for his
experiments on the elastic force of steam, for his researches on the
proportional weights of simple bodies, for his discovery of the atomic
theory, as also for his investigations on colour-blindness by
experimenting on himself and his brother, who along with himself was
colour-blind (1766-1844).
DALTONISM, COLOUR-BLINDNESS (q. v.). See DALTON, JOHN.
DALZIEL, THOMAS, general, born in Linlithgowshire; being hand-idle
at home, entered the Russian service against the Turks; returning at the
request of Charles II., was appointed commander-in-chief in Scotland;
suppressed a rising of the Covenanters at Pentland in 1666; never once
shaved his beard after the execution of Charles I. (1599-1685).
DAMAN, a Portuguese settlement with a port of the same name in
Gujarat, India, 100 m. N. of Bombay.
DAM`ARALAND, a territory on the W. coast of South Africa, N. of
Namaqualand; the chief industry is pastoral; the mountain districts,
which are rich in minerals, particularly copper, are inhabited by
Damaras, who are nomads and cattle-rearers; it is a German protectorate
since 1890.
DAMAS, COLONEL COMTE DE, a devoted adherent of Louis XVI., and one
of his convoys on his attempt at flight.
DAMASCUS (220), the capital of Syria, one of the oldest cities in
the world; stands 2260 ft. above the sea-level; is a great centre of the
caravan trade; is embosomed in the midst of gardens and orchards, hence
its appearance as the traveller approaches it is most striking; its
history goes as far back as the days of Abraham; it was the scene of two
great events in human destiny--the conversion of St. Paul, and, according
to Moslem tradition, a great decisive moment in the life of Mahomet, when
he resolutely turned his back once for all on the pleasures of the world.
DAMASUS, ST., Pope from 366 to 384, a Spaniard; a zealous opponent
of the Arians and a friend of St. Jerome, who, under his sanction,
executed his translation of the Bible into the Vulgate; there was a
Damasus II., Pope in 1048.
DAME AUX CAMÉLIAS, LA, a romance and a drama by Alexander Dumas
_fils_, one of his best creations.
DAMIEN, FATHER, a French priest, born at Louvain; devoted his life
to nurse and instruct the lepers in an island of the Hawaian group, and,
though after 12 years infected with the disease himself, continued to
minister to them till his death (1841-1889).
DAMIENS, ROBERT FRANÇOIS, the would-be assassin of Louis XV., born
near Arras; aimed at the king as he was entering his carriage at Trianon,
but failed to wound him mortally; was mercilessly tortured to death; was
known before as _Robert le Diable_; his motive for the act was never
known (1715-1757).
DAMIETTA (36), a town, the third largest, in Egypt, on an eastern
branch of the Nile, 8 m. from its mouth; has a trade in grain, rice,
hides, fish, &c.; was taken by St. Louis in 1249, and restored on payment
of his ransom from captivity.
DAMOCLES, a flatterer at the court of the elder Dionysius, tyrant of
Syracuse, whom, after one day extravagantly extolling the happiness of
kings, Dionysius set down to a magnificent banquet, but who, when seated
at it, looked up and saw a sword hanging over his head suspended by a
single hair; a lesson this which admonished him, and led him to change
his views of the happiness of kings.
DAMON AND PYTHIAS, two Pythagoreans of Syracuse of the days of
Dionysius I., celebrated for their friendship; upon the latter having
been condemned to death, and having got leave to go home to arrange his
affairs beforehand, the former pledged his life for his return, when just
as, according to his promise, he presented himself at the place of
execution, Pythias turned up and prepared to put his head on the block;
this behaviour struck the tyrant with such admiration, that he not only
extended pardon to the offender, but took them both into his friendship.
DAMPIER, WILLIAM, an English navigator and buccaneer; led a roving
and adventurous life, and parting company with his comrades, set off on a
cruise in the South Seas; came home and published a "Voyage Round the
World"; this led to his employment in further adventures, in one of which
Alexander Selkirk accompanied him, but was wrecked on Juan Fernandez; in
his last adventure, it is said, he rescued Selkirk and brought him home
(1652-1715).
DANA, CHARLES ANDERSON, American journalist, member of BROOK
FARM (q. v.), and became editor of the _New York Tribune_, the
_Sun_, and a cyclopædia: _b_. 1829.
DANA, JAMES DWIGHT, American mineralogist and geologist, born at
Utica, New York State; was associated as scientific observer with
Commodore Wilkes on his Arctic and Antarctic exploring expeditions, on
the results of which he reported; became geological professor in Yale
College; author of works on mineralogy and geology, as also on South Sea
volcanoes (1813-1895).
DANA, RICHARD HENRY, an American poet and critic; editor of the
_North American Review_, author of the "Dying Raven," the "Buccaneer,"
and other poems (1787-1879).
DANA, RICHARD HENRY, a son of the preceding, lawyer; author of "Two
Years before the Mast" (1815-1882).
DANAË, daughter of Acrisius, king of Argos, confined by her father
in an inaccessible tower of brass to prevent the fulfilment of an oracle
that she should be the mother of a son who would kill him, but Zeus found
access to her in the form of a shower of gold, and she became the mother
of Perseus, by whose hand Acrisius met his fate. See PERSEUS.
DANA`IDES, daughters of Danaüs, who, for murdering their husbands on
the night after marriage, were doomed in the nether world to the
impossible task of filling with water a vessel pierced with holes. See
DANAÜS.
DANAÜS, son of Belus, and twin-brother of Ægyptus, whom fearing, he
fled from with his fifty daughters to Argos, where he was chosen king;
by-and-by the fifty sons of Ægyptus, his brother, came to Argos to woo,
and were wedded to, their cousins, whom their father provided each with a
dagger to murder her husband, which they did, all except Hypermnestra,
whose husband, Lynceus, escaping, succeeded her father as king, to the
defeat of the old man's purpose in the crime.
DANBY, FRANCIS, painter, born near Wexford; settled for a time in
Bristol, then in Switzerland, and finally at Exmouth; his works are
mostly landscape, instinct with feeling, but some of them are historical,
the subjects being taken from Scripture, as the "Passage of the Red Sea,"
or from pagan sources, as "Marius among the Ruins of Carthage"
(1793-1861).
DANCE, GEORGE, English architect; was architect to the City of
London, and designed the Mansion House, his chief work (1700-1768).
GEORGE, his son, built Newgate Prison (1740-1825).
DANCE OF DEATH, an allegorical representation in a dramatic or
pictorial form of Death, figuring, originally as a skeleton, and
performing his part as a chief actor all through the drama of life, and
often amid the gayest scenes of it; a succession of woodcuts by Holbein
in representation of this dance is well known.
DANCING MANIA, an epidemic of frequent occurrence, especially in
German towns, during the Middle Ages, of the nature of hysteria, showing
itself in convulsive movements beyond the control of the will, and in
delirious acts, sometimes violently suicidal; the most signal occurrence
of the mania was at Aix-la-Chapelle in July 1374.
DANCOURT, FLORENT CARTON, French dramatist, a prolific author; a
favourite of Louis XIV.; wrote comedies, chiefly on the follies of the
middle classes of the time (1661-1725).
DANDIE DINMONT, a humorous, jovial store-farmer in "Guy Mannering."
DANDIN, GEORGE, one of Molière's comedies, illustrative of the folly
a man commits when he marries a woman of higher rank than his own, George
being his impersonation of a husband who has patiently to endure all the
extravagant whims and fancies of his dame of a wife.
DANDIN, PERRIN, a simple citizen in the "Pantagruel" of Rabelais,
who seats himself judge-wise on the first stump that offers, and passes
offhand a sentence in any matter of litigation; a character who figures
similarly in a comedy of Racine's, and in a fable of La Fontaine's.
DAN`DOLO, a Venetian family that furnished four Doges to the
Republic, ENRICO being the most illustrious; chosen Doge in his
eighty-fourth year, assisted the Crusaders of the Fourth Crusade with
ships; joined them, when blind and aged 90, in laying siege to
Constantinople; led the attack by sea, and was the first to leap ashore;
was offered the imperial crown, but declined it; died instead "despot" of
Roumania in 1205, at 97.
DANEGELT, originally a tax imposed on land to buy off the Danes from
the shores of England, and subsequently for other objects, such as the
defence of the coast; abolished by Henry II., though re-imposed
subsequently under other names.
DANELAGH, a district in the E. of England, N. of the Thames;
dominated at one time more or less by the Danes; of vague extent.
DANGEAU, MARQUIS, author of "Memoirs" affecting the court of Louis
XIV. and its manners (1638-1720).
D'ANGOULÊME, DUCHESSE, daughter of Louis XVI. and Marie Antoinette;
was released from restraint after the execution of her parents in
exchange for prisoners in the Royalist's hands; fled to Vienna, where she
was driven forth; married her cousin, to whom she was early betrothed;
could find no place of safe refuge but in England; returned to France on
Napoleon's exile to Elba, and headed a body of troops against him on his
return; after Waterloo, returned to France and stayed till July 1830, and
lived to see Louis Philippe, in 1848, driven from the throne; Napoleon
called her "the only man of her family"; left "Memoirs" (1778-1851).
DANGS, THE, a forest district in the N. of the Presidency of Bombay,
occupied by fifteen wild tribes, each under a chief.
DANIEL, a Hebrew of fine physique and rare endowment, who was, while
but a youth, carried captive to Babylon, and trained for office in the
court of the king; was found, after three years' discipline, to excel "in
wisdom and understanding" all the magicians and enchanters of the realm,
of which he gave such proof that he rose step by step to the highest
official positions, first in the Babylonian and then in the Persian
empire. He was a Hebrew prophet of a new type, for whereas the old
prophet had, for the most part, more regard to the immediate present and
its outlooks, his eye reached forth into the future and foresaw in
vision, as his book has foretold in symbol, the fulfilment of the hope
for which the fathers of his race had lived and died.
DANIEL, SAMUEL, English poet, born near Taunton; wrote dramas and
sonnets; his principal production a "History of the Civil Wars" of York
and Lancaster, a poem in seven books; is called the "Well-Englished
Daniel," and is much admired for his style; in prose he wrote a "History
of England," and a "Defence of Rhyme," which Swinburne pronounces to be
"one of the most perfect examples of sound sense, of pure style, and of
just judgment in the literature of criticism"; he is associated with
Warner and Drayton as having given birth to "a poetry which has devoted
itself to extol the glory of England" (1562-1619).
DANIELL, JOHN FREDERICK, a distinguished chemist, born in London;
professor of Chemistry in King's College, London; wrote "Meteorological
Essays," and "Introduction to Chemical Philosophy"; invented a hygrometer
and an electric battery (1790-1845).
DANIELL, WILLIAM, an eminent draughtsman; spent his early life in
India; author of "Oriental Scenery," in six folio vols. (1769-1837).
DANITES, or Destroying Angels, a band of Mormons organised to
prevent the entrance into Mormon territory of other than Mormon
immigrants, but whose leader, for a massacre they perpetrated, was in
1827 convicted and shot.
DANNECKER, JOHANN HEINRICH VON, a distinguished German sculptor,
born near Stuttgart, and educated by the Duke of Würtemberg, who had
become his patron; became professor of Sculpture in the Academy at
Stuttgart; his earlier subjects were from the Greek mythology, and his
later Christian, the principal of the latter being a colossal "Christ,"
which he took eight years to complete; he executed besides busts of
contemporaries, which are wonderful in expression, such as those of
Schiller, Lavater, and Glück; "Ariadne on the Panther" is regarded as his
masterpiece (1758-1841).
DANTE ALIGHIERI, the great poet of Italy, "the voice of ten silent
centuries," born in Florence; was of noble birth; showed early a great
passion for learning; learned all that the schools and universities of
the time could teach him "better than most"; fought as a soldier; did
service as a citizen; at thirty-five filled the office of chief
magistrate of Florence; had, while but a boy of ten, "met a certain
Beatrice Portinari, a beautiful girl of his own age and rank, and had
grown up in partial sight of her, in some distant intercourse with her,"
who became to him the ideal of all that was pure and noble and good;
"made a great figure in his poem and a great figure in his life"; she
died in 1290; he married another, "not happily, far from happily; in some
civic Guelf-Ghibelline strife he was expelled the city, and his property
confiscated; tried hard to recover it, even 'with arms in his hand,' but
could not, and was doomed, 'whenever caught, to be burned alive'; invited
to confess his guilt and return, he sternly answered: 'If I cannot return
without calling myself guilty, I will never return.'" From this moment he
was without home in this world; and "the great soul of Dante, homeless on
earth, made its home more and more in that awful other world ... over
which, this time-world, with its Florences and banishments, flutters as
an unreal shadow." Dante's heart, long filled with this, brooding over it
in speechless thought and awe, bursts forth at length into "mystic
unfathomable song," and this, his "DIVINE COMEDY" (q. v.), the
most remarkable of all modern Books, is the result. He died after
finishing it, not yet very old, at the age of 56. He lies buried in his
death-city Ravenna, "shutout from my native shores." The Florentines
begged back his body in a century after; the Ravenna people would not
give it (1265-1321). See CARLYLE'S "HEROES AND HERO-WORSHIP," and
Dean Plumptre's "LIFE OF DANTE."
DANTON, GEORGES JACQUES, "The Titan of the Forlorn Hope" of the
French Revolution, born at Arcis-sur-Aube, "of good farmer people ... a
huge, brawny, black-browed man, with a waste energy as of a Hercules"; an
advocate by profession, "esurient, but with nothing to do; found Paris
and his country in revolt, rose to the front of the strife; resolved to
do or die"; the cause threatened, he threw himself again and again into
the breach defiant, his motto "to dare, and to dare, and again to dare,"
so as to put and keep the enemy in fear; "Let my name be blighted," he
said, "what am I? The cause alone is great, and will live and not
perish"; but the "SEA-GREEN" (q. v.) viewed him with jealousy,
held him suspect, had him arrested, brought before the Revolutionary
Tribunal, the severity of whose proceedings under him he had condemned,
and sentenced to the guillotine; a reflection of his in prison has been
recorded: "Oh, it were better to be a poor fisherman than to meddle with
governing of men." "No weakness, Danton," he said to himself on the
scaffold, as his heart began to sink within him as he thought of his
wife. His last words were to Samson the headsman: "Thou wilt show my head
to the people, it is worth showing"; words worthy of the brother of
Mirabeau, who died saying, "I wish I could leave my head behind me,
France needs it just now"; a man fiery-real, as has been said, genuine to
the core, with many sins, yet lacking that greatest of sins, cant. "He
was," says Mr. Belloc, "the most French, the most national, the nearest
to the mother of all the Revolutionary group. He summed up France ...
when we study him, we see France" (1759-1794). See CARLYLE'S "FRENCH
REVOLUTION."
DANTZIG (116), the capital of W. Prussia, once a Hanse town, on the
Vistula, 4 m. from the mouth; one of the great ports and trading centres
of Germany and in the N. of Europe; it is traversed by canals, and many
of the houses are built on piles of wood; exports grain brought down the
river on timber rafts from the great grain country in the S.; it is one
of the chief stations of the German navy.
DANUBE, THE, the great south-eastward-flowing river of Europe, 1750
m. in length, rises in the Black Forest, and is divided into Upper,
Middle, and Lower; the Upper extends as far as Pressburg, begins to be
navigable to Ulm, flows NE. as far as Ratisbon, and then bends SE. past
Vienna; the Middle extends from Pressburg to the Iron Gate, enclosing
between its gorges a series of rapids, below Orsova; and the Lower
extends from the Iron Gate to the Black Sea. It receives numerous
tributary rivers, 60 of them navigable, in its course; forms with them
the great water highway of the SE. of Europe, and is of avail for traffic
to all the races and nations whose territories it traverses; the
navigation of the river is free indeed to all nations.
DANUBIAN PRINCIPALITIES, Moldavia and Wallachia.
DANVILLE, the name of several towns in the United States.
D'ANVILLE, geographer to the king of France; left numerous valuable
maps and geographical works (1697-1782).
DAPHNE (lit. a laurel), a nymph chased by Apollo, transformed into
a laurel as he attempts to seize her; henceforth sacred to the god.
DAPHNIS, a Sicilian shepherd, the mythical inventor of pastoral
poetry.
DAPSANG, the highest of the Karakorum Mountains.
D'ARBLAY, MADAME, a distinguished novelist, daughter of Dr. Burney,
the historian of music; authoress of "Evelina" and "Cecilia," the first
novels of the time, which brought her into connection with all her
literary contemporaries, Johnson in chief; left "Diary and Letters"
(1752-1840).
DARBOY, GEORGES, archbishop of Paris: was a defender of the Gallican
liberties of the Church; had been assiduous in offices of benevolence
during the siege of Paris; was arrested as a hostage by the Communists,
and shot (1813-1871).
DARBY AND JOAN, a married couple celebrated for their mutual
attachment.
DARBYITES, the PLYMOUTH BRETHREN (q. v.), from the name of
one of their founders, a man of scholarly ability and culture, and the
chief expounder of their views (1800-1852).
DARDANELLES, a strait extending between the Archipelago and the Sea
of Marmora, anciently called the Hellespont, 40 m. long, from 1 to 4
broad; commanded by Turkey, both sides of the strait being strongly
fortified.
DARDANUS, a son of Zeus and Electra, mythical ancestor of the
Trojans; originally a king in Greece.
DARFUR (500), a district in the Egyptian Soudan, in which vegetation
is for the most part dormant all the year round, except from June to
September, when it is rank and rich; was snatched from Egypt by the
Mahdi, but is now restored.
D'ARGENS, MARQUIS, born at Aix; disinherited owing to his
misconduct; turned author, and became a protégé of Frederick the Great,
but lost caste with him too, and was deprived of his all once more
(1704-1771).
D'ARGENSON, COMTE, an eminent French statesman, head of the police
in Paris; introduced _lettres de cachet_, and was a patron of the French
philosophes; had the "Encyclopédie" dedicated to him; fell out of favour
at Court, and had to leave Paris, but returned to die there (1696-1764).
DARIC, a gold coin current in ancient Persia, stamped with an archer
kneeling, and weighing little over a sovereign.
DARIEN, GULF OF, an inlet of the Caribbean Sea, NW. of S. America.
For isthmus of, see PANAMA.
DARIEN SCHEME, a project to plant a colony on the Atlantic side of
the Isthmus, which was so far carried out that some 1200 left Scotland in
1698 to establish it, but which ended in disaster, and created among the
Scotch, who were the chief sufferers, an animus against the English, whom
they blamed for the disaster, an animus which did not for long die out.
DARIUS I., eldest son of Hystaspes, king of the Persians; subdued
subject places that had revolted, reorganised the empire, carried his
conquests as far as India, subdued Thrace and Macedonia, declared war
against the Athenians; in 492 B.C. sent an expedition against Greece,
which was wrecked in a storm off Athos; sent a second, which succeeded in
crossing over, but was defeated in a famous battle at Marathon, 490 B.C.
DARIUS II., called OCHUS or NOTHUS, king of the Persians;
subject to his eunuchs and his wife Parysatis; his reign was a succession
of insurrections; he supported the Spartans against the Athenians, to the
ascendency of the former in the Peloponnesus; _d_. 405 B.C.
DARIUS III., surnamed CODOMANNUS, king of the Persians, a
handsome man and a virtuous; could not cope with Alexander of Macedon,
but was defeated by him in successive engagements at Granicus, Issus, and
Arbela; was assassinated on his flight by BESSUS (q. v.), one of
his satraps, in 330 B.C.; with him the Persian empire came to an end.
DARJEELING (14), a sanitary station and health resort in the Lower
Himalayas, and the administrative head-quarters of the district, 7167 ft.
above the level of the sea; it has greatly increased of late years.
DARLEY, GEORGE, poet and critic, born in Dublin; author of "Sylvia"
and "Nepenthe"; wrote some good songs, among them "I've been Roaming,"
once very popular; much belauded by Coleridge; contributed to the
_Athenæum_ (1795-1846).
DARLING, a tributary of the Murray River, in Australia, now
stagnant, now flooded.
DARLING, GRACE, a young maiden, daughter of the lighthouse keeper of
one of the Farne Islands, who with her father, amid great peril, saved
the lives of nine people from the wreck of the _Forfarshire_, on Sept. 7,
1838; died of consumption (1815-1842).
DARLINGTON (38), a town in S. of Durham, on the Tees, with large
iron and other works; a considerable number of the inhabitants belong to
the Society of Friends.
DARMESTETER, JAMES, Orientalist, born in Lorraine, of Jewish
descent; a distinguished Zend scholar and authority in Zend literature;
in the interpretation of the Zend and other ancient literatures was of
the modern critical school (1849-1894).
DARMSTADT (55), the capital of the grand-duchy of Hesse-Darmstadt,
on the Darm, an affluent of the Rhine, 15 m. S. of Frankfort; is divided
into an old and a new town; manufactures tobacco, paper, carpets,
chemicals, &c.
DARNLEY, HENRY STUART, LORD, eldest son of the Earl of Lennox and
grand-nephew of Henry VIII.; husband of Queen Mary; was murdered on Feb.
5, 1567, in Kirk-o'-Field, which stood on the site of the present
University of Edinburgh.
DARTMOOR, moor in Devonshire, a tableland of an average height of
1200 ft. above the sea-level, and of upwards of 120,000 acres in extent,
incapable of cultivation, but affording pasturage for sheep, of which it
breeds a small hardy race; it has rich veins of minerals; abounds in
British remains, and contains a large convict prison.
DARU, COMTE, a French administrator and littérateur, born at
Montpellier; translated Horace when in prison during the Reign of Terror;
served as administrator under Napoleon; on the return of the Bourbons
devoted himself to letters, and wrote the "History of the Republic of
Venice" (1767-1829).
DARWIN, CHARLES ROBERT, great English naturalist and biologist, born
at Shrewsbury, grandson of Erasmus Darwin on his father's side, and of
Josiah Wedgwood on his mother's; studied at Edinburgh and Cambridge; in
1831 accompanied as naturalist without salary the _Beagle_ in her voyage
of exploration in the Southern Seas, on the condition that he should have
the entire disposal of his collections, all of which he got, and which he
ultimately distributed among various public institutions; he was absent
from England for five years, and on his return published in 1836 his
"Naturalist's Voyage Round the World," in 1839-43 accounts of the fruits
of his researches and observations in the departments of geology and
natural history during that voyage, in 1842 his treatise on the
"Structure and Distribution of Coral Reefs," and in 1859 his work on the
"Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection," a work which has
proved epoch-making and gone far to revolutionise thought in the
scientific study of, especially, animated nature, and is being applied to
higher spheres of being; this work was followed by others more or less
confirmatory, finishing off with "The Descent of Man" in 1871, in which
he traces the human race to an extinct quadrumanous animal related to
that which produced the orang-outang, the chimpanzee, and the gorilla. He
may be said to have taken evolution out of the region of pure
imagination, and by giving it a basis of fact, to have set it up as a
reasonable working hypothesis. Prof. A. R. Wallace claims for Darwin
"that he is the Newton of natural history, and has ... by his discovery
of the law of natural selection and his demonstration of the great
principles of the preservation of useful variations in the struggle for
life, not only thrown a flood of light on the process of development of
the whole organic world, but also established a firm foundation for the
future study of nature." He was buried in Westminster Abbey (1809-1882).
DARWIN, ERASMUS, physician and natural philosopher, born in
Nottinghamshire; studied at Cambridge and Edinburgh; practised medicine
in Lichfield, and finally settled in Derby; occupied his mind with the
study of fanciful analogies in the different spheres of nature, and
committed his views, often not without genuine poetic sentiment and
melody of expression, to verse, while in the views themselves there have
been recognised occasional glimpses of true insight, and at times a
foreshadow of the doctrine developed on strict scientific lines by his
illustrious grandson. His chief poetic works were the "Botanic Garden"
and the "Zoonomia; or, The Laws of Organic Life," deemed, in the
philosophy of them, not unworthy of criticism by such sane thinkers as
Paley and Dugald Stewart (1731-1802).
DARWINIAN THEORY, the theory established by Darwin that the several
species of plants and animals now in existence were not created in their
present form, but have been evolved by natural law of descent, with
modifications of structure, from cruder forms. See DARWIN, C. R.
DASENT, SIR GEORGE WEBBE, Icelandic scholar, born at St. Vincent,
West Indies; studied at Oxford; from 1845 to 1870 was assistant-editor of
the _Times_; has translated "The Prose, or Younger, Edda" and Norse tales
and sagas; written also novels, and contributed to reviews and magazines;
_b_. 1817.
DASH, COUNTESS, the _nom de plume_ of the Viscountess de Saint-Mars,
a French novelist, born at Poitiers; in straits for a living, took
desperately to writing; treated of aristocratic life and its hollow
artificialities and immoralities (1804-1872).
DASHKOFF, a Russian princess of note; played a part in the
conspiracy which ended in the elevation of Catharine II. to the throne;
was a woman of culture; founded the Russian Academy; projected and
assisted in the compilation of a Russian dictionary; died at Moscow
(1744-1810).
DATES OF EPOCH-MAKING EVENTS, the Ascendency in Athens of Pericles
(445 B.C.); the Fall of the Persian Empire (330 B.C.); the Death of
Alexander the Great (323 B.C.); the Reduction of Greece to a Roman
province, and the Ruin of Carthage (146 B.C.); the Battle of Actium (31
B.C.); Birth of Christ, 14th year of Augustus; Commencement of the
Middle Ages (395); Ruin of the Roman Empire by the Barbarians (476);
Clovis, ruler of Gaul (509); the Flight of Mahomet (622); Charlemagne,
Emperor of the West (800); Treaty of Verdun (843); the Crusades
(1096-1291); Employment of Cannon at Crécy (1346); Invention of Printing
(1436); Taking of Constantinople by Mahomet II. (1453); Discovery of
America by Columbus (1492); Copernican System published (1500); Accession
of Leo X. as Pope (1513); the Reformation of Luther (1517); Publication
of Bacon's "Novum Organon" (1620); Publication of Descartes's "Discourse
on Method" (1637); the Peace of Westphalia (1648); Reign of Louis XIV. at
its Height, and Peace of Nimeguen (1678); Publication of Newton's Theory
of Gravitation (1682); Watt's Invention of the Steam-Engine (1769);
Independence of the United States (1776); _Coup d'état_ of 10th Brumaire
(1799); Waterloo, and Congress of Vienna (1815); Introduction of
Railroads into England (1830); First Attempt at Electric Telegraphy in
France (1837); Africa traversed by Livingstone (1852-1854); Publication
of Darwin's "Origin of Species" (1859); Opening of the Suez Canal (1869);
Proclamation of the German Empire (1871); Congress of Berlin (1878).
DAUBENTON, LOUIS JEAN MARIE, a French naturalist, born at Montbard;
associated with Buffon in the preparation of the first 15 vols. of his
"Histoire Naturelle," and helped him materially by the accuracy of his
knowledge, as well as his literary qualifications; contributed largely to
the "Encyclopédie," and was 50 years curator of the Cabinet of Natural
History at Paris (1716-1799).
DAUBENY, CHARLES, English chemist and botanist, author of "A
Description of Active and Extinct Volcanoes," an "Introduction to the
Atomic Theory," and other works, all like the latter more or less related
to chemistry (1795-1867).
D'AUBIGNÉ, MERLE, a popular Church historian, born near Geneva;
studied under Neander at Berlin; became pastor at Hamburg, court-preacher
at Brussels, and professor of Church History at Geneva; his reputation
rests chiefly on his "History of the Reformation in the Sixteenth
Century" (1794-1872).
D'AUBIGNÉ, THEODORE AGRIPPA, a historian, bred to the military
profession; held appointments under Henry IV., on whose assassination he
returned to Geneva, where he wrote his "Histoire Universelle," which had
the honour to be burned by the common hangman in Paris; was a satirical
writer; grandfather to Mme. de Maintenon (1550-1630).
DAUBIGNY, CHARLES FRANÇOIS, a French landscape painter and skilful
etcher, born in Paris, attained distinction as an artist late in life
(1817-1878).
D'AUBUSSON, PIERRE, grand-master of the order of St. John of
Jerusalem, of French origin; served under the Emperor Sigismund against
the Turks; went to Rhodes; became a knight of St. John, and was chosen
grand-master; defended Rhodes against 100,000 Turks, and thus stayed the
career of Mahomet II., who, after establishing himself in Constantinople,
was threatening to overrun Europe (1423-1503).
DAUDET, ALPHONSE, a noted French novelist of great versatility, born
at Nîmes, of poor parents; early selected literature as his career in
life; wrote poems and plays, and contributed to the _Figaro_ and other
journals; worked up into his novels characters and situations that had
come under his own observation, often in too satirical a vein to become
universally popular; has been likened to Dickens in his choice of
subjects and style of treatment; died suddenly (1840-1897).
D'AULNOY, THE COUNTESS, authoress of charmingly-written "Contes des
Fées" (Fairy Tales), and on which her reputation rests (1650-1705).
DAUMIER, HENRI, a French caricaturist of great fertility and
playfulness of genius, born at Marseilles; became blind in his old age
(1808-1879).
DAUN, KARL, German theologian, born at Cassel, professor at
Heidelberg, sought to ground theology on a philosophic basis, and found
what he sought in the philosophy of Hegel (1765-1836).
DAUN, LEOPOLD, GRAF VON, an able Austrian general, born at Vienna;
distinguished himself by his prudence and valour in the Seven Years' War,
gained a victory over Frederick the Great at Kolin in 1757, and another
at Hochkirch in 1758; could prevail little or not at all against
Frederick afterwards as soon as Frederick saw through his tactics, which
he was not long in doing (1705-1766).
DAUPHIN, a name originally given to the _Seigneurs_ of the province
of Dauphiné, in allusion to the dolphin which several members of the
family wore as a badge, but in 1349 given to the heir-presumptive to the
crown of France, when Humbert II., dauphin of Vienne, ceded Dauphiné to
Philippe of Valois, on condition that the eldest son of the king of
France should assume the title, a title which was abolished after the
Revolution of 1830. The word signifies dolphin in French.
DAUPHINÉ, a SW. province of France, of which the capital was
Grenoble; annexed to the French crown under Philippe II. in 1349.
DAURAT, JEAN, French scholar, a member of the Pléiade (q. v.), and
who figures as one of the leading spirits in the fraternity (1507-1588).
DAVENANT, SIR WILLIAM, an English playwright, born at Oxford, who
succeeded Ben Jonson as poet-laureate, and was for a time manager of
Drury Lane; was knighted by Charles I. for his zeal in the Royalist
cause; his theatrical enterprise had small success during the
Commonwealth, but interest in it revived with the Restoration, at which
time "the drama broke loose from the prison of Puritanism to indulge in a
shameless license" (1606-1668).
DAVID, FÉLICIEN, a French composer, born at Vaucluse; author, among
other compositions, of the "Desert," a production which achieved an
instant and complete triumph; was in his youth an ardent disciple of St.
Simon (1810-1876).
DAVID, GERHARD, a Flemish painter; painted religious subjects,
several from the life of Christ (1450-1525).
DAVID, KING OF ISRAEL, 11th century B.C., born in Bethlehem; tended
the flocks of his father; slew Goliath with a stone and a sling; was
anointed by Samuel, succeeded Saul as king; conquered the Philistines;
set up his throne in Jerusalem, and reigned thirty-three years; suffered
much from his sons, and was succeeded by Solomon; the book of Psalms was
till recently accepted as wholly his by the Church, but that hypothesis
no longer stands the test of criticism.
DAVID, LOUIS, a French historical painter, born in Paris; studied in
Rome and settled in Paris; was carried away with the Revolution; joined
the Jacobin Club, swore eternal friendship with Robespierre; designed "a
statue of Nature with two _mammelles_ spouting out water" for the deputes
to drink to, and another of the sovereign people, "high as Salisbury
steeple"; was sentenced to the guillotine, but escaped out of regard for
his merit as an artist; appointed first painter by Napoleon, but on the
Restoration was banished and went to Brussels, where he died; among his
paintings are "The Oath of the Horatii," "The Rape of the Sabines," "The
Death of Socrates," and "The Coronation of Napoleon" (1748-1825).
DAVID D'ANGERS, a French sculptor, born at Angers; came to Paris and
became a pupil of the preceding, afterwards proceeded to Rome and
associated with Canova; executed in Paris a statue of the Great Condé,
and thereafter the pediment of the Pantheon, his greatest work, as well
as numerous medallions of great men; on a visit to Weimar he modelled a
bust of Goethe (1788-1856).
DAVID I., king of Scotland, youngest son of Malcolm Canmore and
Queen Margaret; was brought up at the English court; was prince of
Cumbria under the reign of his brother Alexander, on whose decease he
succeeded to the throne in 1124; on making a raid in England to avenge an
insult offered to his son Henry, was defeated at Northallerton in the
Battle of the Standard; addressed himself after this to the unification
of the country and civilisation of his subjects; founded and endowed
bishoprics and abbeys at the expense of the crown, on account of which he
was called St. David, and characterised by James VI., a successor of his,
as a "sair saunt to the croon"; the death of his son Henry was a great
grief to him, and shortened his days (1084-1153).
DAVID II., king of Scotland, son of King Robert the Bruce, born at
Dunfermline; succeeded his father when a boy of four; spent from 1334 to
1341 in France; was taken prisoner by the English at the battle of
Neville's Cross, and was afterwards, till his death, dependent on England
(1326-1371).
DAVID, ST., or DEWI, the patron saint of Wales, lived about the
5th century; archbishop of Caerleon; transferred his see to St. David's;
founded churches, opposed Pelagianism, and influenced many by the odour
of his good name.
DAVIDS, RHYS, professor of Pâli and Buddhist literature, born in
Colchester; author of "Buddhism: a Sketch of the Life and Teachings of
Gautama, the Buddha," and of other works in that department of
literature; _b_. 1843.
DAVIDSON, ANDREW BRUCE, Hebrew scholar and professor, born in
Aberdeenshire; a most faithful, clear, and effective interpreter of the
spirit of Hebrew literature, and influential for good as few men of the
time have been in matters of biblical criticism; _b_. 1831.
DAVIDSON, JOHN, poet and journalist, born at Barrhead, Renfrewshire;
has written novels and plays as well as poems; _b_. 1859.
DAVIDSON, SAMUEL, biblical scholar and exegete, born near Ballymena;
wrote Introductions to the Old and the New Testaments; was pioneer in the
higher criticism (1807-1898).
DAVIES, BEN, a popular tenor vocalist, born near Swansea in 1858.
DAVIES, SIR JOHN, poet and statesman, born in Wiltshire; wrote two
philosophic poems, "The Orchestra," a poem in which the world is
exhibited as a dance, and "Nosce Teipsum" (Know Thyself), a poem on human
learning and the immortality of the soul; became a favourite with James
I., and was sent Attorney-General to Ireland (1569-1626).
DAVILA, a celebrated historian, born near Padua, brought up in
France; served in the French army under Henry IV.; did military and other
service in Venice; was assassinated; his great work "The History of the
Civil War in France" (1576-1631).
DAVIS, JEFFERSON, President of the Confederate States, born in
Kentucky; entered the army; fought against the Indians; turned
cotton-planter; entered Congress as a Democrat; distinguished himself in
the Mexican war; defended slave-holding and the interests of
slave-holding States; was chosen President of the Confederate States;
headed the conflict with the North; fled on defeat, which he was the last
to admit; was arrested and imprisoned; released after two years; retired
into private life, and wrote a "History of the Rise and Fall of the
Confederate Government" (1808-1889).
DAVIS, JOHN, an English navigator, born near Dartmouth; took early
to the sea; conducted (1585-1587) three expeditions to the Arctic Seas in
quest of a NW. passage to India and China, as far N. as 73°; discovered
the strait which bears his name; sailed as pilot in two South Sea
expeditions, and was killed by Japanese pirates near Malacca; wrote the
"Seaman's Secret" (1550-1605).
DAVIS, THOMAS, an Irish patriot, born at Mallow; educated at Trinity
College, Dublin, and called to the Irish bar; took to journalism in the
interest of Irish nationality; founded the _Nation_ newspaper, and by his
contributions to it did much to wake up the intelligence of the country
to national interests; died young; was the author of "Songs of Ireland"
and "Essays on Irish Songs" (1814-1845).
DAVIS STRAIT, strait connecting Baffin's Bay with the Atlantic,
discovered by JOHN DAVIS (q. v.).
DAVITT, MICHAEL, a noted Irish patriot, born in co. Mayo, son of a
peasant, who, being evicted, settled in Lancashire; joined the Fenian
movement, and was sentenced to 15 years' penal servitude; released on
ticket-of-leave after seven years; founded the Land League; was for over
a year imprisoned again for breaking his ticket-of-leave; published in
1885 "Leaves from a Prison Diary"; entered Parliament in 1895 for co.
Mayo; _b_. 1846.
DAVOS-PLATZ, a village 5105 ft. above the sea-level, in a valley of
the East Grisons; a place frequented in winter by invalids suffering from
chest disease, the dry air and sunshine that prevail being favourable for
patients of that class.
DAVOUT, Duke of Auerstädt, Prince of Eckmühl, marshal of France,
born at Annoux, in Burgundy; was fellow-student with Napoleon at the
military school in Brienne; entered the army in 1788, served in the
Revolutionary wars under Dumouriez and Desaix, and became general; served
under Bonaparte in Egypt; distinguished himself at Austerlitz, Auerstädt,
Eckmühl, and Wagram; was made governor of Hamburg; accompanied Napoleon
to Moscow; returned to Hamburg, and defended it during a siege; was made
Minister of War in 1815, and assisted Napoleon in his preparations for
the final struggle at Waterloo; commanded the remains of the French army
which capitulated under the walls of Paris; adhered to the Bourbon
dynasty on its return, and was made a peer; was famous before all the
generals of Napoleon for his rigour in discipline (1770-1823).
DAVY, SIR HUMPHRY, a great English chemist, born at Penzance;
conceived early in life a passion for the science in which he made so
many discoveries; made experiments on gases and the respiration of them,
particularly nitrous oxide and carbonic acid; discovered the function of
plants in decomposing the latter in the atmosphere, and the metallic
bases of alkalies and earths; proved chlorine to be a simple substance
and its affinity with iodine, which he discovered; invented the
safety-lamp, his best-known achievement; he held appointments and
lectured in connection with all these discoveries and their applications,
and received knighthood and numerous other honours for his services; died
at Geneva (1778-1829).
DAVY JONES'S LOCKER, the sailors' familiar name for the sea as a
place of safe-keeping, though why called of Davy Jones is uncertain.
DAVY-LAMP, a lamp encased in gauze wire which, while it admits
oxygen to feed the flame, prevents communication between the flame and
any combustible or explosive gas outside.
DAWKINS, WILLIAM BOYD, geologist and palæontologist, born in
Montgomeryshire; has written "Cave Hunting," "Early Man in Britain," &c.;
_b_. 1838.
DAWSON, GEORGE, a popular lecturer, born in London; educated in
Aberdeen and Glasgow; bred for the ministry by the Baptist body, and
pastor of a Baptist church in Birmingham, but resigned the post for
ministry in a freer atmosphere; took to lecturing on a purely secular
platform, and was for thirty years the most popular lecturer of the day;
no course of lectures in any institute was deemed complete if his name
was not in the programme; did much to popularise the views of Carlyle and
Emerson (1821-1876).
DAWSON, SIR JOHN WILLIAM, geologist and naturalist, born in Pictou,
Nova Scotia; studied in Edinburgh; distinguished himself as a
palæontologist; published in 1872, "Story of the Earth and Man"; in 1877,
"Origin of the World"; and recently, "Geology and History"; called in
question the Darwinian theory as to the origin of species; _b_. 1820.
DAY, JOHN, an English dramatist, contemporary of Ben Jonson; author
of the "Parliament of Bees," a comedy in which all the characters are
bees.
DAY, THOMAS, an eccentric philanthropist, born in London; author of
"Sandford and Merton"; he was a disciple of Rousseau; had many a
ludicrous adventure in quest of a model wife, and happily fell in with
one to his mind at last; was a slave-abolitionist and a parliamentary
reformer (1748-1789).
DAYAKS. See DYAKS.
DAYTON (85), a prosperous town in Ohio, U.S.; a great railway
centre, with a court-house of marble, after the Parthenon in Athens.
D'AZARA, a Spanish naturalist, born in Aragon; spent 20 years in
South America; wrote a "Natural History of the Quadrupeds in Paraguay"
(1781-1811).
DEAD SEA, called also the Salt Sea and 'the Asphalt Lake, a sea in
Palestine, formed by the waters of the Jordan, 46 m. long, 10 m. broad,
and in some parts 1300 ft. deep, while its surface is 1312 ft. below the
level of the Mediterranean, just as much as Jerusalem is above it; has no
outlet; its waters, owing to the great heat, evaporate rapidly, and are
intensely salt; it is enclosed E. and W. by steep mountains, which often
rise to a height of 6000 ft.
DEÁK, FRANCIS, an eminent Hungarian statesman, born at Kehida, of an
ancient noble Magyar family; his aim for Hungary was the same as that of
CAVOUR (q. v.) for Italy, the establishment of constitutional
government, and he succeeded; standing all along as he did from Hungarian
republicanism on the one hand, and Austrian tyranny on the other, he
urged on the Emperor of Austria the demand of the Diet, of which he had
become leader, at first without effect, but after the humiliation of
Austria in 1866, all that he asked for was conceded, and the Austrian
Emperor received the Hungarian crown (1803-1876).
DEAL (9), a town, one of the old Cinque ports, oil the E. of Kent,
opposite the Goodwin Sands, 89 m. from London, with a fine sea-beach;
much resorted to for sea-bathing quarters.
DEAN, FOREST OF, a forest of 22,000 acres in the W. of
Gloucestershire, between the Severn and the Wye; the property of the
Crown for the most part; the inhabitants are chiefly miners, who at one
time enjoyed special privileges.
DEAN OF GUILD, a burgh magistrate in Scotland who has the care of
buildings, originally the head of the Guild brethren of the town.
DEAN OF ST. PATRICK'S, Jonathan Swift, who held that post from 1713
till his death.
DEANS, DAVIE, EFFIE, AND JEANIE, characters in the "Heart of
Midlothian."
DÉBATS, JOURNAL DES, a daily paper, established in 1789; it defends
at present the Conservative Republican policy, and publishes often
remarkable literary articles.
DEBENTURE, a deed acknowledging a debt on a specified security.
DEBO`RAH, a Hebrew prophetess; reckoned one of the judges of Israel
by her enthusiasm to free her people from the yoke of the Canaanites;
celebrated for her song of exultation over their defeat, instinct at once
with pious devotion and with revengeful feeling; Coleridge calls her
"this Hebrew Boadicea."
DEBRECZEN (56), a Hungarian town, 130 m. E. of Buda-Pesth; is the
head-quarters of Protestantism in the country, and has an amply equipped
and a largely attended Protestant College; is a seat of manufactures and
a large trade.
DECAMERON, a collection of a hundred tales, conceived of as
rehearsed in ten days at a country-house during the plague at Florence;
are of a licentious character, but exquisitely told; were written by
Boccaccio; published in 1352; the name comes from _deka_, ten, and
_hemera_, a day.
DECAMPS, ALEXANDRA GABRIEL, a distinguished French painter, born in
Paris; brought up as a boy among the peasants of Picardy; represented
nature as he in his own way saw it himself, and visited Switzerland and
the East, where he found materials for original and powerful pictures;
his pictures since his death have brought great prices (1803-1860).
DE CANDOLLE, AUGUSTIN PYRAME, an eminent botanist, born at Geneva,
of Huguenot descent; studied in Paris; attracted the attention of Cuvier
and Lamarck, whom he assisted in their researches; published his "Flore
Française," in six vols.; became professor at Montpellier, and then at
Geneva; is the historical successor of Jussieu; his great contribution to
botanical science is connected with the classification of plants
(1778-1841).
DECA`TUR, STEPHEN, an American naval commodore; distinguished for
his feats of valour displayed in the war with Tripoli and with England
(1779-1820).
DECCAN, a triangular plateau of from 2000 to 3000 ft. of elevation
in the Indian peninsula, extending S. of the Vindhya Mountains; is
densely peopled, and contains some of the richest soil in the globe.
DECEMBER, the twelfth month of the year, so called, i. e. tenth,
by the Romans, as their year began with March.
DEC`EMVIRS, the patricians of Rome, with Consular powers, appointed
in 450 B.C. to prepare a code of laws for the Republic, which, after
being agreed upon, were committed first to ten, then to twelve tables,
and set up in the Forum that all might read and know the law they lived
under.
DECIUS, Roman emperor from 249 to 251; was a cruel persecutor of the
Christians; perished in a morass fighting with the Goths, who were a
constant thorn in his side all through his reign.
DECIUS MUS, the name of three Romans, father, son, and grandson, who
on separate critical emergencies (340, 295, 279 B.C.) devoted themselves
in sacrifice to the infernal gods in order to secure victory to the Roman
arms; the name is mostly employed ironically.
DECLINE AND FALL OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE, the immortal work of Gibbon,
of which the first volume was published in 1776.
DECRETALS, THE, a collection of laws added to the canon law of the
Church of Rome, being judicial replies of the Popes to cases submitted to
them from time to time for adjudication.
DEE, JOHN, an alchemist, born in London; a man of curious learning;
earned the reputation of being a sorcerer; was imprisoned at one time,
and mobbed at another, under this imputation; died in poverty; left 79
works, the majority of which were never printed, though still extant in
MS. in the British Museum and other places of safe-keeping (1527-1608).
DEFAUCONPRET, French littérateur; translator of the novels of Sir
Walter Scott and Fenimore Cooper (1767-1843).
DEFENDER OF THE FAITH, a title conferred by Pope Leo X. in 1521 upon
Henry VIII. for his defence of the Catholic faith in a treatise against
Luther, and retained ever since by the sovereigns of England, though
revoked by Pope Paul III. in 1535 in consequence of Henry's apostasy.
DEFFAND, MARIE, MARQUISE DU, a woman of society, famed for her wit
and gallantry; corresponded with the eminent philosophes of the time, in
particular Voltaire, as well as with Horace Walpole; her letters are
specially brilliant, and display great shrewdness; she is characterised
by Prof. Saintsbury as "the typical French lady of the eighteenth
century"; she became blind in 1753, but retained her relish for society,
though at length she entered a monastery, where she died (1697-1780).
DEFOE, DANIEL, author of "Robinson Crusoe," born in London; bred for
the Dissenting ministry; turned to business, but took chiefly to
politics; was a zealous supporter of William III.; his ironical treatise,
"The Shortest Way with Dissenters" (1703), which, treated seriously, was
burned by order of the House of Commons, led to his imprisonment and
exposed him for three days to the pillory, amidst the cheers, however,
not the jeers, of the mob; in prison wrote a "Hymn to the Pillory," and
started his _Review_; on his release he was employed on political
missions, and wrote a "History of the Union," which he contributed to
promote. The closing years of his life were occupied mainly with literary
work, and it was then, in 1719, he produced his world-famous "Robinson
Crusoe"; has been described as "master of the art of forging a story and
imposing it on the world for truth." "His circumstantial invention," as
Stopford Brooke remarks, "combined with a style which exactly fits it by
its simplicity, is the root of the charm of his great story" (1661-1731).
DEGE`RANDO, BARON, a French philanthropist and philosopher, born at
Lyons, of Italian descent; wrote "History of Philosophy," long in repute
as the best French work on the subject (1772-1842).
DEIANEIRA, the wife of Hercules, whose death she had been the
unwitting cause of by giving him the poisoned robe which NESSUS
(q. v.) had sent her as potent to preserve her husband's love; on
hearing the fatal result she killed herself in remorse and despair.
DEIPHOBUS, a son of Priam and Hecuba, second in bravery to Hector;
married Helen after the death of Paris, and was betrayed by her to the
Greeks.
DEIR-AL-KAMAR, a town in Syria, once the capital of the Druses, on a
terrace in the heart of the Lebanon Mountains.
DEISM, belief on purely rational grounds in the existence of God,
and distinguished from theism as denying His providence.
DEISTS, a set of free-thinkers of various shades, who in England, in
the 17th and 18th centuries, discarded revelation and the supernatural
generally, and sought to found religion on a purely rational basis.
DÉJAZET, VIRGINIE, a celebrated French actress, born in Paris; made
her _début_ at five years of age (1797-1875).
DEKKER, THOMAS, a dramatist, born in London; was contemporary of Ben
Jonson, between whom and him, though they formerly worked together, a
bitter animosity arose; wrote lyrics as well as dramas, which are light
comedies, and prose as well as poetry; the most famous among his prose
works, "The Gull's Hornbook," a pamphlet, in which he depicts the life of
a young gallant; his pamphlets are valuable (1570-1641).
DE LA BECHE, SIR HENRY THOMAS, geologist, born in London; wrote the
"Depth and Temperature of the Lake of Geneva," and published a "Manual of
Geology" and the "Geological Observer"; was appointed head of the
Geological Survey in England (1796-1855).
DELACROIX, EUGÈNE, a French painter, born at Charenton, dep. of
Seine; one of the greatest French painters of the 19th century; was the
head of the French Romantic school, a brilliant colourist and a daring
innovator; his very first success, "Dante crossing Acheron in Charon's
Boat," forms an epoch in the history of contemporary art; besides his
pictures, which were numerous, he executed decorations and produced
lithographic illustrations of "Hamlet," "Macbeth," and Goethe's "Faust"
(1799-1863).
DELAGOA BAY, an inlet in the SE. of Africa, E. of the Transvaal,
subject to Portugal; stretches from 25° 30' to 26° 20' S.; extends 52 m.
inland, where the Transvaal frontier begins, and between which and it a
railway of 52 m., constructed by an English company, extends.
DELAISTRE, a French statuary, born in Paris (1836-1891).
DELAMBRE, JEAN JOSEPH, an eminent French astronomer, born at Amiens,
a pupil of Lalande; measured with Méchain the arc of the meridian between
Dunkirk and Barcelona towards the establishment of the metric system;
produced numerous works of great value, among others "Theoretical and
Practical Astronomy" and the "History of Astronomy" (1749-1822).
DELANE, JOHN THADEUS, editor of the _Times_, born in London; studied
at Oxford; after some experience as a reporter was put on the staff of
the _Times_, and in 1841 became editor, a post he continued to hold for
36 years; was the inspiring and guiding spirit of the paper, but wrote
none of the articles (1817-1879).
DELAROCHE, PAUL, a French historical painter and one of the
greatest, born in Paris; was the head of the modern Eclectic school, so
called as holding a middle place between the Classical and Romantic
schools of art; among his early works were "St. Vincent de Paul preaching
before Louis XIII." and "Joan of Arc before Cardinal Beaufort"; the
subjects of his latest pictures are from history, English and French,
such as "The Princes in the Tower" and "Cromwell contemplating the corpse
of Charles I.," a great work; but the grandest monument of his art is the
group of paintings with which he adorned the wall of the semicircle of
the Palais des Beaux Arts in Paris, which he completed in 1841
(1797-1856).
DELAUNAY, LE VICOMTE, the _nom de plume_ of Mme. Delphine, under
which she published her "Parisian Letters."
DELAUNAY, LOUIS ARSÈNE, a great French actor, born in Paris; made
his _début_ in 1846, retired 1887.
DELAVIGNE, CASIMIR, a popular French lyric poet and dramatist, born
at Havre; his verse was conventional and without originality (1793-1843).
DELAWARE (168), one of the Atlantic and original States of the
American Union, as well as the smallest of them; the soil is rather poor,
but porcelain clay abounds.
DELCASSÉ, THÉOPHILE, French Minister of Foreign Affairs, born at
Pamiers; began life as a journalist; was elected to the Chamber in 1889;
became Colonial Minister; advocated colonial expansion; dealt skilfully
with the Fashoda affair as Foreign Minister; _b_. 1852.
DELECTABLE MOUNTAINS, mountains covered with sheep in the "Pilgrim's
Progress," from which the pilgrim obtains a view of the Celestial City.
DELESCLUZE, a French Communist, born at Dreux; was imprisoned and
transported for his extreme opinions; started a journal, the _Rèveil_, in
1868, to advocate the doctrines of the International; was mainly
answerable for the atrocities of the Paris Commune; was killed in the
barricades (1809-1871).
DELFT (27), a Dutch town, S m. NW. of Rotterdam, once famous for its
pottery; is intersected by canals; has an important polytechnic school.
DELGADO, a cape of E. Africa, on the border between Zanzibar and
Mozambique.
DELHI (192), on the right bank of the Jumna, once the capital of the
Mogul empire and the centre of the Mohammedan power in India; it is a
great centre of trade, and is situated in the heart of India; it contains
the famous palace of Shah Jahan, and the Jama Masjid, which occupies the
heart of the city, and is the largest and finest mosque in India, which
owes its origin to Shah Jahan; it is walled, is 51 m. in circumference,
and divided into Hindu, Mohammedan, and European quarters; it was
captured by Lord Lake in 1803, and during the Mutiny by the Sepoys, but
after a siege of seven days retaken in 1857.
DELIGHT OF MANKIND, the Roman Emperor Trajan.
DELILAH, the Philistine woman who beguiled and betrayed Samson.
DELILLE, JACQUES, a French poet, born at Aigues Perse, in Auvergne;
translator of the "Georgics" of Virgil into verse, afterwards the "Æneid"
and "Paradise Lost," besides producing also certain didactic and
descriptive works; was a good versifier, but properly no poet, and much
overrated; died blind (1738-1813).
DELITZSCH, FRANZ, a learned biblical scholar and exegete, born at
Leipzig; his commentaries, which are numerous, were of a conservative
tendency; he wrote on Jewish antiquities, biblical psychology, and
Christian apologetics; was professor at Erlangen and Leipzig
successively, where his influence on the students was distinctly marked
(1813-1899).
DELIUS, NICOLAUS, a German philologist, born at Bremen;
distinguished especially as a student of Shakespeare and for his edition
of Shakespeare's works, which is of transcendent merit (1813-1888).
DELIA CRUSCANS, a set of English sentimental poetasters, the leaders
of them hailing from Florence, that appeared in England towards the close
of the 18th century, and that for a time imposed on many by their
extravagant panegyrics of one another, the founder of the set being one
Robert Merry, who signed himself _Della Crusca_; he first announced
himself by a sonnet to Love, in praise of which Anne Matilda wrote an
incomparable piece of nonsense; "this epidemic spread for a term from
fool to fool," but was soon exposed and laughed out of existence.
DELLYS (3), a seaport in Algeria, 49 m. E. of Algiers.
DELOLME, JOHN LOUIS, a writer on State polity, born at Geneva, bred
to the legal profession; spent some six years in England as a refugee;
wrote a book on the "Constitution of England," and in praise of it, which
was received for a time with high favour in the country, but is now no
longer regarded as an authority; wrote a "History of the Flagellants,"
and on "The Union of Scotland with England" (1740-1806).
DELORME, a French architect, born at Lyons; studied in Rome; was
patronised by Catherine de Medici; built the palace of the Tuileries, and
contributed to the art of building (1518-1577).
DELORME, MARION, a Frenchwoman celebrated for her wit and
fascination, born at Châlons-sur-Marne; came to Paris in the reign of
Louis XIII., where her drawing-room became the rendezvous of all the
celebrities of the time, many of whom were bewitched by her charms; she
gave harbour to the chiefs of the Fronde, and was about to be arrested
when she died; the story that her death was a feint, and that she had
subsequent adventures, is distrusted; she is the subject of a drama by
Victor Hugo (1612-1650).
DELOS, the smallest and central island of the Cyclades, the
birthplace of Apollo and Artemis, and where the former had a famous
oracle; it was, according to the Greek mythology, a floating island, and
was first fixed to the spot by Zeus to provide Leda with a place, denied
her elsewhere by Hera, in which to bring forth her twin offspring; it was
at one time a centre of Apollo worship, but is now uninhabited, and only
frequented at times by shepherds with their flocks.
DELPHI, a town of ancient Greece in Phocis, at the foot of
Parnassus, where Apollo had a temple, and whence he was wont to issue his
oracles by the mouth of his priestess the Pythia, who when receiving the
oracle used to sit on a tripod over an opening in the ground through
which an intoxicating vapour exhaled, deemed the breath of the god, and
that proved the vehicle of her inspiration; the Pythian games were
celebrated here.
DELPHIN CLASSICS, an edition of the Greek and Roman classics, edited
by Bossuet and Huet, assisted by thirty-nine scholars, for the use of the
dauphin of Louis XIV.; of little use now.
DELPHINE, a novel by Mme. de Staël; presumed to be an idealised
picture of herself.
DELTA, the signature of D. Macbeth Moir in _Blackwood's Magazine_.
DELUC, JEAN ANDRÉ, geologist, born in Geneva; lived in England; was
reader to Queen Charlotte, and author of several works (1727-1817).
DELUGE, name given to the tradition, common to several races, of a
flood of such universality as to sweep the land, if not the earth, of all
its inhabitants, except the pair by whom the land of the earth was
repeopled.
DEM`ADES, an Athenian orator, a bitter enemy of Demosthenes, in the
interest of Philip of Macedon; put to death for treason by Antipater, 318
B.C.; was a man of no principle, but a great orator.
DEMARA`TUS, king of Sparta from 510 to 491 B.C.; dispossessed of
his crown, fled to Persia and accompanied Xerxes into Greece.
DEMAVEND, MOUNT, an extinct volcano, the highest peak (18,600 ft.)
of the Elburz chain, in Persia.
DEMBEA, a lake, the largest in Abyssinia, being 60 m. long and 6000
ft. above the sea-level, from which the Blue Nile issues.
DEMBINSKI, HENRY, a Polish general, born near Cracow; served under
Napoleon against Russia, under Kossuth against Austria; fled to Turkey on
the resignation of Kossuth; died in Paris (1791-1864).
DEMERARA, a division of British Guiana; takes its name from the
river, which is 200 m. long, and falls into the Atlantic at Georgetown.
DEMETER (lit. Earth-mother), the great Greek goddess of the earth,
daughter of Kronos and Rhea and sister of Zeus, and ranks with him as one
of the twelve great gods of Olympus; is specially the goddess of
agriculture, and the giver of all the earth's fruits; the Latins call her
Ceres.
DEMETRIUS, the name of two kings of Macedonia who ruled over the
country, the first from 290 to 289 B.C., and the second from 240 to 229
B.C.
DEMETRIUS, or DIMITRI, the name of several sovereigns of
Russia, and of four adventurers called the four false Dimitri.
DEMETRIUS I., Soter (i. e. saviour), king of Syria from 162 to 150
B.C.; was grandson of Antiochus the Great. D. II., Nicator (i. e.
conqueror), king of Syria from 143 to 125 B.C. D. III., Eucæros
(i. e. the happy), king of Syria in 95, died in 84 B.C.
DEMETRIUS PHALEREUS, an eminent Athenian orator, statesman, and
historian, born at Phalerus, a seaport of Athens; was held in high honour
in Athens for a time as its political head, but fell into dishonour,
after which he lived retired and gave himself up to literary pursuits;
died from the bite of an asp; left a number of works (345-283 B.C.).
DEMIDOFF, a Russian family distinguished for their wealth, descended
from a serf of Peter the Great, and who amassed a large fortune by
manufacturing firearms for him, and were raised by him to the rank of
nobility; they were distinguished in the arts, in arms, and even
literature; ANATOL in particular, who travelled over the SE. of
Europe, and wrote an account of his travels, a work magnificently
illustrated.
DEMIGOD, a hero elevated in the imagination to the rank of a
divinity in consequence of the display of virtues and the achievement of
feats superior to those of ordinary men.
DEMI-MONDE, a class in Parisian society dressing in a fashionable
style, but of questionable morals.
DEMIURGUS, a name employed by Plato to denote the world-soul, the
medium by which the idea is made real, the spiritual made material, the
many made one, and it was adopted by the Gnostics to denote the
world-maker as a being derived from God, but estranged from God, being
environed in matter, which they regarded as evil, and so incapable as
such of redeeming the soul from matter, from evil, such as the God of the
Jews, and the Son of that God, conceived of as manifest in flesh.
DEMOCRACY has been defined to be government of the people by the
people and for the people, or as a State in which the government rests
directly with the majority of the citizens, but this under the protest of
some that it is not an end but a means "to the attainment of a truer and
truer aristocracy, or government again by the Best."
DEMOCRATS, a political party in the United States that contends for
the rights of the several States to self-government as against undue
centralisation.
DEMOCRITUS, a Greek philosopher, born in Abdera, Thrace, of wealthy
parents; spent his patrimony in travel, gathered knowledge from far and
near, and gave the fruits of it in a series of writings to his
contemporary compatriots, only fragments of which remain, though they
must have come down comparatively entire to Cicero's time, who compares
them for splendour and music of eloquence to Plato's; his philosophy was
called the _Atomic_, as he traced the universe to its ultimate roots in
combinations of atoms, in quality the same but in quantity different, and
referred all life and sensation to movements in them, while he regarded
quiescence as the _summum bonum_; he has been called the Laughing
Philosopher from, it is alleged, his habit of laughing at the follies of
mankind; _b_. 460 B.C.
DEMOCRITUS JUNIOR, a pseudonym under which Burton published his
"Anatomy of Melancholy."
DEMOGEOT, French littérateur, born at Paris; wrote a history of
literature, chiefly French (1808-1894).
DEMOGORGON, a terrible deity, the tyrant of the elves and fairies,
who must all appear before him once every five years to give an account
of their doings.
DEMOIVRE, ABRAHAM, a mathematician, born in Champagne; lived most of
his life in England to escape, as a Protestant, from persecution in
France; became a friend of Newton, and a Fellow of the Royal Society, and
was of such eminence as a mathematician that he was asked to arbitrate
between the claims of Newton and Leibnitz to the invention of fluxions
(1667-1754).
DEMON, or DAIMON, a name which Socrates gave to an inner divine
instinct which corresponds to one's destiny, and guides him in the way he
should go to fulfil it, and is more or less potent in a man according to
his purity of soul.
DE MORGAN, AUGUSTUS, an eminent mathematician, born in Madura, S.
India; was professor of Mathematics in London University from 1828 till
his death, though he resigned the appointment for a time in consequence
of the rejection of a candidate, James Martineau, for the chair of logic,
on account of his religious opinions; wrote treatises on almost every
department of mathematics, on arithmetic, algebra, trigonometry,
differential and integral calculus, the last pronounced to be "the most
complete treatise on the subject ever produced in England"; wrote also
"Formal Logic" (1806-1871).
DEMOSTHENES, the great Athenian orator, born in Athens; had many
impediments to overcome to succeed in the profession, but by ingenious
methods and indomitable perseverance he subdued them all, and became the
first orator not of Greece only, but of all antiquity; a stammer in his
speech he overcame by practising with pebbles in his mouth, and a natural
diffidence by declaiming on the sea-beach amid the noise of the waves;
while he acquired a perfect mastery of the Greek language by binding
himself down to copy five times over in succession Thucydides' "History
of the Peloponnesian War"; he employed 15 years of his life in
denunciation of Philip of Macedon, who was bent on subjugating his
country; pronounced against him his immortal "Philippics" and
"Olynthiacs"; took part in the battle of Cheronea, and continued the
struggle even after Philip's death; on the death of Alexander he gave his
services as an orator to the confederated Greeks, and in the end made
away with himself by poison so as not to fall into the hands of Autipater
(385-322 B.C.). See CTESIPHON.
DEMPSTER, THOMAS, a learned Scotchman, born in Aberdeenshire; held
several professorships on the Continent; was the author of "Historia
Ecclesiastica Gentis Scotorum," a work of great learning, but of
questionable veracity; has been reprinted by the Bannatyne Club; his last
days were embittered by the infidelity of his wife (1579-1625).
DENARIUS, a silver coin among the Romans, first coined in 269 B.C.,
and worth 8½ d.
DENBIGH (6), the county town of Denbighshire, in the Vale of the
Clwyd, 30 m. W. of Chester; manufactures shoes and leather.
DENBIGHSHIRE (117), a county in North Wales, of rugged hills and
fertile vales, 40 m. long and 17 m. on an average broad, with a
coal-field in the NE., and with mines of iron, lead, and slate.
DENDERA, a village in Upper Egypt, on the left bank of the Nile, 28
m. N. of Thebes, on the site of ancient Tentyra, with the ruins of a
temple in almost perfect preservation; on the ceiling of a portico of
which there was found a zodiac, now in the museum of the Louvre in Paris,
and dates from the period of Cleopatra and the early Roman emperors, and
has sculptured portraits of that queen and her son Cæsarion.
DENGUE, a disease peculiar to the tropics, occurs in hot weather,
and attacks one suddenly with high fever and violent pains, and after a
relapse returns in a milder form and leaves the patient very weak.
DENHAM, DIXON, an English traveller, companion of Clapperton;
visited Bornu and Lake Tchad (1785-1828).
DENHAM, SIR JOHN, an English poet, born at Dublin, the son of an
Irish judge; took to gambling and squandered his patrimony; was unhappy
in his marriage, and his mind gave way; is best known as the author of
"Cooper's Hill," a descriptive poem, interspersed with reflections, and
written in smooth flowing verse (1615-1669).
DENINA, CARLO, an Italian historian, born in Piedmont; banished from
Italy for a cynical remark injurious to the monks; paid court to
Frederick the Great in Berlin, where he lived a good while, and became
eventually imperial librarian in Paris under Napoleon (1731-1813).
DENIS, a king of Portugal from 1279 to 1325; the founder of the
University of Coimbra and the Order of Christ.
DENIS, ST., the apostle of the Gauls, the first bishop of Paris, and
the patron saint of France; suffered martyrdom in 270.
DENIS, ST., a town 6 m. N. of Paris, within the line of the
fortifications, with an abbey which contains the remains of St. Denis,
and became the mausoleum of the kings of France.
DENISON, EDWARD, philanthropist; distinguished by his self-denying
benevolent labours in the East End of London (1840-1870).
DENISON, GEORGE ANTHONY, archdeacon of Taunton, born in Notts; was
charged with holding views on the eucharist inconsistent with the
teaching of the Church of England, first condemned and then acquitted on
appeal; a stanch High Churchman, and equally opposed to Broad Church and
Low; _b_. 1805.
DENISON, JOHN EVELYN, Speaker of the House of Commons from 1858 to
1872, brother of the above (1800-1873).
DENMAN, LORD, Lord Chief-Justice of England from 1832 to 1850, born
in London; was along with Brougham counsel for Queen Caroline
(1779-1854).
DENMARK (2,182), the smallest of the three Scandinavian kingdoms,
consisting of Jutland and an archipelago of islands in the Baltic Sea,
divided into 18 counties, and is less than half the size of Scotland; is
a low-lying country, no place in it more above the sea-level than 500
ft., and as a consequence has no river to speak of, only meres or lakes;
the land is laid out in cornfields and grazing pastures; there are as
good as no minerals, but abundance of clay for porcelain; while the
exports consist chiefly of horses, cattle, swine, hams, and butter; it
has 1407 m. of railway, and 8686 of telegraph wires; the government is
constitutional, and the established religion Lutheran.
DENNEWITZ, a village in Brandenburg, 40 m. SW. of Berlin, where
Marshal Ney with 70,000 was defeated by Marshal Bülow with 50,000.
DENNIS, JOHN, a would-be dramatist and critic, born in London, in
constant broils with the wits of his time; his productions were worth
little, and he is chiefly remembered for his attacks on Addison and Pope,
and for the ridicule these attacks brought down at their hands on his own
head, from Pope in "Narrative of the Frenzy of John Dennis," and
"damnation to everlasting fame" in "Dunciad"; he became blind, and was
sunk in poverty, when Pope wrote a prologue to a play produced for his
benefit (1657-1734).
DENS, PETER, a Catholic theologian, born at Boom near Antwerp;
author of a work entitled "Theologia Moralis et Dogmatica," a minute and
casuistic vindication in catechetical form of the tenets of the Catholic
Church, and in use as a text-book in Catholic colleges (1690-1775).
DENTATUS, M. CURIUS, a Roman of the old stamp; as consul gained two
victories over rival States and two triumphs in one year; drove Pyrrhus
out of Italy (275 B.C.), and brought to Rome immense booty, of which he
would take nothing to himself; in his retirement took to tilling a small
farm with his own hand.
DENVER (134), the capital of Colorado, U.S., on a plain 5196 ft.
above the sea-level; originally founded as a mining station in 1858, now
a large and flourishing and well-appointed town; is the centre of a great
trade, and a great mining district.
DEODAR (25), a small protected independent State in the NW. of
Gujarat, India.
DEODORAKI, a glacier in the Caucasus Mountains.
DEPARCIEUX, French mathematician, born at Cessoux, dep. of Gard;
known for the "Tables" which bear his name, containing a reckoning of the
chances of longevity for different ages (1703-1768).
DEPARTMENT, a territorial division in France instituted in 1790,
under which the old division into provinces was broken up; each
department, of which there are now 87, is broken up into arrondissements.
DEPPING, a learned French historian, born at Münster; wrote a
"History of Normandy," and on "Trade of Europe with the Levant"
(1784-1853).
DEPTFORD (101), a town on the S. bank of the Thames, partly in Kent
and partly in Surrey, now forming part of London; once with an extensive
Government dockyard and arsenal, the site of it purchased by the
Corporation of London as a market for foreign cattle; is now the central
station for the Electric Light Company.
DE QUINCEY, THOMAS, a great English prose writer, born in
Manchester; son of a merchant called Quincey; his father dying, he was
under a guardian, who put him to school, from which in the end he ran
away, wandered about in Wales for a time, and by-and-by found his way to
London; in 1803 was sent to Oxford, which in 1807 he left in disgust; it
was here as an anodyne he took to opium, and acquired that habit which
was the bane of his life; on leaving Oxford he went to Bath beside his
mother, where he formed a connection by which he was introduced to
Wordsworth and Southey, and led to settle to literary work at Grasmere,
in the Lake District; here he wrote for the reviews and magazines,
particularly _Blackwood's_, till in 1821 he went up to London and
published his "Confessions" under the _nom de plume_ of "The English
Opium-Eater"; leaving Grasmere in 1828 he settled in Edinburgh, and at
Polton, near Lasswade, where he died; is characterised by Stopford Brooke
as "owing to the overlapping and involved melody of his style one of our
best, as he is one of our most various miscellaneous writers"; he was a
writer of very miscellaneous ability and acquirement (1785-1859).
DERBEND (14), capital of Russian Daghestan, on the W. of the Caspian
Sea, 140 m. NW. of Baku.
DERBY (94), county town of Derbyshire, on the Derwent, with
manufactures of silk, cotton hosiery, lace, porcelain, &c.; it is the
centre of a great railway system.
DERBY, CHARLOTTE COUNTESS OF, wife of the 7th Earl who was taken
prisoner at Worcester in 1651, and was beheaded at Bolton; famous for her
gallant defence of Lathom House against the Parliamentary forces, which
she was obliged to surrender; lived to see the Restoration; _d_. 1663.
DERBY, 14TH EARL OF, British statesman, born at Knowsley Hall,
Lancashire; entered Parliament in 1820 in the Whig interest, and was
hailed as an accession to their ranks by the Whigs; supported the cause
of reform; in 1830 became Chief Secretary for Ireland under Earl Grey's
administration; introduced a coercive measure against the Repeal
agitation of O'Connell; contributed to the passing of the Reform Bill in
1832; seceded from the Whigs in 1834, and became Colonial Secretary in
1845 under a Conservative administration, but when Sir Robert Peel
brought in a bill to repeal the Corn Laws, he retired from the Cabinet,
and in 1848 became the head of the Protectionist party as Earl of Derby,
to which title he succeeded in 1851; was after that Prime Minister three
times over, and it was with his sanction Disraeli carried his Reform Act
of 1867, though he spoke of it as "a leap in the dark"; he resigned his
Premiership in 1868, and the last speech he made was against the Irish
Disestablishment Bill; was distinguished for his scholarship as well as
his oratory, and gave proof of this by his scholarly translation of the
"Iliad" of Homer (1797-1869).
DERBY, 15TH EARL OF, eldest son of the preceding; entered Parliament
as Lord Stanley in 1848; was a member of the three Derby administrations,
in the first and third in connection with foreign affairs, and in the
second as Secretary for India, at the time when the government of India
passed from the Company to the Crown; became Earl in 1869; was Foreign
Secretary under Mr. Disraeli in 1874, but retired in 1878; in 1885 joined
the Liberal party, and held office under Mr. Gladstone, but declined to
follow him in the matter of Home Rule, and joined the Unionist ranks; was
a man of sound and cool judgment, and took a deep interest in economical
questions (1826-1893).
DERBY DAY, the last Wednesday in May, or, as may happen, the 1st of
June, being the second day of the Summer Meeting at Epsom, on which the
Derby Stakes for colts and fillies three years old are run for, so called
as having been started by the 12th Earl of Derby in 1780; the day is held
as a great London holiday, and the scene is one to which all London turns
out. The stakes run for are £6000, of which the winner gets £5000.
DERBYSHIRE (520), a northern midland county of England, hilly in the
N., undulating and pastoral in the S., and with coal-fields in the E.;
abounds in minerals, and is more a manufacturing and mining county than
an agricultural.
DERG, LOUGH, an expansion of the waters of the Shannon, Ireland, 24
m. long, from 2 to 6 broad; also a small lake in the S. of Donegal, with
small islands, one of which, Station Island, was, as the reputed entrance
to St. Patrick's Purgatory, a place of pilgrimage to thousands at one
time.
DERVISHES, a name given to members of certain mendicant orders
connected with the Mohammedan faith in the East. Of these there are
various classes, under different regulations, and wearing distinctive
costumes, with their special observances of devotion, and all presumed to
lead an austere life, some of whom live in monasteries, and others go
wandering about, some of them showing their religious fervour in excited
whirling dances, and others in howlings; all are religious fanatics in
their way, and held sacred by the Moslems.
DERWENTWATER, one of the most beautiful of the Cumberland lakes, in
the S. of the county; extends S. from Keswick; is over 3 m. long, and
over 1 m. broad; is dotted with wooded islands, and is overlooked by
Skiddaw; it abounds with perch.
DERWENTWATER, EARL OF, a Jacobite leader; was 3rd Earl and the last;
several warrants were issued for his apprehension in 1714; he joined the
Jacobite rising in 1715; was taken prisoner at Preston, and beheaded on
Tower Hill, London, next year, after trial in Westminster Hall,
confession of guilt, and pleadings on his behalf with the king.
DERZHAVEN, GABRIEL, a Russian lyric poet, born at Kasan; rose from
the ranks as a common soldier to the highest offices in the State under
the Empress Catharine II. and her successors; retired into private life,
and gave himself up to poetry; the ode by which he is best known is his
"Address to the Deity" (1743-1816).
DESAIX, LOUIS CHARLES ANTOINE, a distinguished French general, born
at the Château d'Ayat, Auvergne, of a noble family; entered the army at
15; commanded a division of the Army of the Rhine in 1796, and after the
retreat of Moreau defended Kehl against the Austrians for two months;
accompanied Bonaparte to the East, and in 1799 conquered Upper Egypt;
contributed effectively to the success at Marengo, and fell dead at the
moment of victory, shot by a musket-ball; he was an upright and a
chivalrous man, known in Egypt as "the just Sultan," and in Germany as
"the good general" (1768-1800).
DESAUGIERS, MARC, a celebrated French composer of songs and
vaudevilles; "stands second to Béranger as a light song-writer," and is
by some preferred to him (1772-1827).
DESAULT, a French surgeon, born in dep. of Haute-Saône; his works
contributed largely to the progress of surgery (1714-1795).
DESBARRES, JOSEPH FREDERICK, military engineer and hydrographer,
aide-de-camp of General Wolfe at Quebec; fortified Quebec; surveyed the
St. Lawrence; revised the maps of the American coast at the outbreak of
the American war; died at Halifax, Nova Scotia, aged 102 (1722-1824).
DESCAMPS, a French painter, born at Dunkirk; painted village scenes
(1714-1791).
DESCARTES, RENÉ, the father of modern philosophy, born at La Haye,
in Touraine; was educated at the Jesuit College of La Flèche, where he
made rapid progress in all that his masters could teach him, but soon
grew sceptical as to their methods of inquiry; "resolved, on the
completion of his studies, to bid adieu to all school and book learning,
and henceforth to gain knowledge only from himself, and from the great
book of the world, from nature and the observation of man"; in 1616 he
entered the army of the Prince of Orange, and after a service of five
years quitted it to visit various centres of interest on the Continent;
made a considerable stay in Paris; finally abandoned his native land in
1629, and betook himself to seclusion in Holland in order to live there,
unknown and undisturbed, wholly for philosophy and the prosecution of his
scientific projects; here, though not without vexatious opposition from
the theologians, he lived twenty years, till in 1649, at the invitation
of Christina of Sweden, he left for Stockholm, where, the severe climate
proving too much for him, he was carried off by pneumonia next year;
Descartes' philosophy starts with Doubt, and by one single step it
arrives at Certainty; "if I doubt, it is plain I exist," and from this
certainty, that is, the existence of the thinking subject, he deduces his
whole system; it all comes from the formula _Cogito, ergo sum_, "I think,
therefore I exist," that is, the thinking _ego_ exists; in which thinking
philosophy ere long sums the universe up, regarding it as a void, without
thought; Descartes' philosophy is all comprehended in two works, his
"Discourse on Method," and his "Meditations" (1596-1650).
DESCHAMPS, ÉMILE, a French poet, born at Bourges, one of the chiefs
of the Romantic school (1795-1871).
DESCHAMPS, EUSTACHE, a French poet, born at Vertus, in Champagne;
studied in Orleans University; travelled over Europe; had his estate
pillaged by the English, whom, in consequence, he is never weary of
abusing; his poems are numerous, and, except one, all short, consisting
of ballads, as many as 1175 of them, a form of composition which he is
said to have invented; he deals extensively in satire, and if he wields
the shafts of it against the plunderers of his country, he does no less
against the oppressors of the poor (1328-1415).
DESDEMONA, the wife of Othello the Moor, who, in Shakespeare's play
of that name, kills her on a groundless insinuation of infidelity, to his
bitter remorse.
DESÈZE, a French advocate, had the courage, along with advocate
Tronchet, to defend Louis XVI. when dragged to judgment by the
Convention, and who, honourably fulfilling his perilous office, pled for
the space of three hours, an honourable pleading "composed almost
overnight; courageous, yet discreet; not without ingenuity, and soft
pathetic eloquence"; he was imprisoned for a time, but escaped the
scaffold; on the return of the Bourbons he was made a peer (1750-1828).
DESMOND, EARLDOM OF, an Irish title long extinct by the death of the
last earl in 1583; he had rebelled against Elizabeth's government, been
proclaimed, and had taken refuge in a peasant's cabin, and been betrayed.
DES MOINES (62), the largest city in Iowa, U.S., and the capital,
founded in 1846.
DESMOULINS, CAMILLE, one of the most striking figures in the French
Revolution, born at Guise, in Picardy; studied for the bar in the same
college with Robespierre, but never practised, owing to a stutter in his
speech; was early seized with the revolutionary fever, and was the first
to excite the same fever in the Parisian mob, by his famous call "To
arms, and, for some rallying sign, cockades--green ones--the colour of
Hope, when," as we read in Carlyle, "as with the flight of locusts, the
green tree-leaves, green ribbons from the neighbouring shops, all green
things, were snatched to make cockades of"; was one of the ablest
advocates of the levelling principles of the Revolution; associated
himself first with Mirabeau and then with Danton in carrying them out,
and even supported Robespierre in the extreme course he took; but his
heart was moved to relent when he thought of the misery the guillotine
was working among the innocent families, the wives and the children, of
its victims, would, along with Danton, fain have brought the Reign of
Terror to a close; for this he was treated as a renegade, put under
arrest at the instance of Robespierre, subjected to trial, sentenced to
death, and led off to the place of execution; while his young wife, for
interfering in his behalf, was arraigned and condemned, and sent to the
guillotine a fortnight after him (1762-1794).
DE SOTO, a Spanish voyager, was sent to conquer Florida, penetrated
as far as the Mississippi; worn out with fatigue in quest of gold, died
of fever, and was buried in the river (1496-1542).
DES PERIERS, BONAVENTURE, a French humanist and story-teller, born
at Autun, in Burgundy; valet-de-chamber of Margaret of Valois; wrote
"Cymbalum Mundi," a satirical production, in which, as a disciple of
Lucian, he holds up to ridicule the religious beliefs of his day; also
"Novelles Recréations et Joyeux Devis," a collection of some 129 short
stories admirably told; was one of the first prose-writers of the
century, and is presumed to be the author of the "Heptameron," ascribed
to Margaret of Valois; _d_. 1544.
DESPRE`AUX. See BOILEAU.
DESSALINES, JEAN JACQUES, emperor of Hayti, born in Guinea, W.
Africa, a negro imported into Hayti as a slave; on the emancipation of
the slaves there he acquired great influence among the insurgents, and by
his cruelties compelled the French to quit the island, upon which he was
raised to the governorship, and by-and-by was able to declare himself
emperor, but his tyranny provoked a revolt, in which he perished
(1760-1806).
DESSAU (34), a North German town, the capital of the Duchy of
Anhalt, on the Mulde, affluent of the Elbe, some 70 m. SW. of Berlin; it
is at once manufacturing and trading.
DESSAUER, THE OLD. See LEOPOLD OF DESSAU.
DESTOUCHES, a French dramatist, born at Tours; his plays were
comedies, and he wrote 17, all excellent (1680-1754); also a French
painter (1790-1884).
DETMOLD (9), capital of Lippe, 47 m. SW. of Hanover, with a bronze
colossal statue of ARMINIUS (q. v.) near by.
DETROIT (285), the largest city in Michigan, U.S., a great
manufacturing and commercial centre, situated on a river of the same
name, which connects Lake St. Clair with Lake Erie; is one of the oldest
places in the States, and dates from 1670, at which time it came into the
possession of the French; is a well-built city, with varied manufactures
and a large trade, particularly in grain and other natural products.
DETTINGEN, a village in Bavaria, where an army of English,
Hanoverians, and Austrians under George II., in 1743 defeated the French
under Duc de Noailles.
DEUCALION, son of Prometheus, who, with his wife Pyrrha, by means of
an ark which he built, was saved from a flood which for nine days
overwhelmed the land of Hellas. On the subsidence of the flood they
consulted the oracle at Delphi as to re-peopling the land with
inhabitants, when they were told by Themis, the Pythia at the time, to
throw the bones of their mother over their heads behind them. For a time
the meaning of the oracle was a puzzle, but the readier wit of the wife
found it out; upon which they took stones and threw them over their
heads, when the stones he threw were changed into men and those she threw
were changed into women.
DEUS EX MACHINA, the introduction in high matters of a merely
external, material, or mechanical explanation instead of an internal,
rational, or spiritual one, which is all a theologian does when he simply
names God, and all a scientist does when he simply says EVOLUTION
(q. v.).
DEUTERONOMY (i. e. the Second Law), the fifth book of the
Pentateuch, and so called as the re-statement and re-enforcement, as it
were, by Moses of the Divine law proclaimed in the wilderness. The Mosaic
authorship of this book is now called in question, though it is allowed
to be instinct with the spirit of the religion instituted by Moses, and
it is considered to have been conceived at a time when that religion with
its ritual was established in Jerusalem, in order to confirm faith in the
Divine origin and sanction of observances there.
DEUTSCH, EMANUEL, a distinguished Hebrew scholar, born at Neisse, in
Silesia, of Jewish descent; was trained from his boyhood to familiarity
with the Hebrew and Chaldea languages; studied under Boeckh at the
university of Berlin; came to England, and in 1855 obtained a post in the
library of the British Museum; had made a special study of the "Talmud,"
on which he wrote a brilliant article for the _Quarterly Review_, to the
great interest of many; his ambition was to write an exhaustive treatise
on the subject, but he did not live to accomplish it; died at Alexandria,
whither he had gone in the hope of prolonging his days (1829-1873).
DEUTZ (17), a Prussian town on the right bank of the Rhine, opposite
Cologne.
DEUX PONTS, French name for ZWEIBRÜCKEN (q. v.).
DEVA, the original Hindu name for the deity, meaning the shining
one, whence _deus_, god, in Latin.
DEVANAG`ARI, the character in which Sanskrit works are printed.
DEVELOPMENT, the biological doctrine which ascribes an innate
expansive power to the organised universe, and affirms the deviation of
the most complex forms through intermediate links from the simplest,
without the intervention of special acts of creation. See
EVOLUTION.
DEV`ENTER (25), a town in Holland, in the province of Overyssel, 55
m. SE. of Amsterdam; has carpet manufactures; is celebrated for its
gingerbread; was the locality of the Brotherhood of Common Life, with
which the life and work of Thomas à Kempis are associated.
DE VERE, THOMAS AUBREY, poet and prose writer, born in co. Limerick,
Ireland; educated at Trinity College, Dublin; wrote poetical dramas of
"Alexander the Great" and "St. Thomas of Canterbury"; his first poem "The
Waldenses"; also critical essays; _b_. 1814.
DEVIL, THE, a being regarded in Scripture as having a personal
existence, and, so far as this world is concerned, a universal spiritual
presence, as everywhere thwarting the purposes of God and marring the
destiny of man; only since the introduction of Christianity, which
derives all evil as well as good from within, he has come to be regarded
less as an external than an internal reality, and is identified with the
ascendency in the human heart of passions native to it, which when
subject ennoble it, but when supreme debase it. He is properly the spirit
that deceives man, and decoys him to his eternal ruin from truth and
righteousness.
DEVIL, THE, IS AN ASS, a farce by Ben Jonson, full of vigour, but
very coarse.
DEVIL-WORSHIP, a homage paid by primitive tribes to the devil or
spirit of evil in the simple-hearted belief that he could be bribed from
doing them evil.
DEVONPORT (70), a town in Devonshire, adjoining Plymouth to the W.,
and the seat of the military and naval government of the three towns,
originally called Plymouth Dock, and established as a naval arsenal by
William III.
DEVONSHIRE, a county in the S. of England, with Exmoor in the N. and
Dartmoor in the S.; is fertile in the low country, and enjoys a climate
favourable to vegetation; it has rich pasture-grounds, and abounds in
orchards.
DEVONSHIRE, DUKE OF. See CAVENDISH.
DEVRIENT, LUDWIG, a popular German actor, born in Berlin, of
exceptional dramatic ability, the ablest of a family with similar gifts
(1784-1832).
D'EWES, SIR SIMONDS, antiquary, born in Dorsetshire; bred for the
bar; was a member of the Long Parliament; left notes on its transactions;
took the Puritan side in the Civil War; his "Journal of all the
Parliaments of Elizabeth" is of value; left an "Autobiography and
Correspondence" (1602-1656).
DE WETTE, WILHELM MARTIN LEBERECHT, a German theologian, born near
Weimar; studied at Jena, professor of Theology ultimately at Basel; was
held in high repute as a biblical critic and exegete; contributed largely
to theological literature; counted a rationalist by the orthodox, and a
mystic by the rationalists; his chief works "A Critical Introduction to
the Bible" and a "Manual to the New Testament" (1780-1849).
DE WITT, JAN, a Dutch statesman, born at Dort; elected grand
pensionary in 1652; like his father, Jacob de Witt, before him, was a
declared enemy of the House of Orange, and opposed the Stadtholdership,
and for a time he carried the country along with him, but during a war
with England his influence declined, the Orange party prevailed, and
elected the young Prince of Orange, our William III., Stadtholder. He and
his brother Cornelius were murdered at last by the populace (1625-1672).
DEWSBURY (73), a town in the West Riding of Yorkshire, 8 m. SW. of
Leeds; engaged in the manufacture of woollens, blankets, carpets, and
yarns.
DEXTRINE, a soluble matter into which the interior substance of
starch globules is converted by acids or diastase, so called because when
viewed by polarised light it has the property of turning the plane of
polarisation to the right.
DEYSTER, LOUIS DE, a Flemish painter, born at Bruges; was of a
deeply religious temper, and his character was reflected in his choice of
subjects, such as the "Death of the Virgin," "The Resurrection of
Christ," &c.; he was a recluse (1656-1711).
DEZOBRY, CHARLES, a French writer, born at St. Denis; author of
"Rome in the Time of Augustus" (1798-1871).
DHAGOBA, a mound with a dome-shaped top, found to contain Buddhist
relics.
DHARMA, the name given to the law of Buddha, as distinct from the
Sangha, which is the Church.
DHARWAR (32), a town in the S. of the Bombay Presidency, a place of
considerable trade in a district noted for its cotton growing.
DHWALAGIRI, one of the peaks of the Himalayas, the third highest,
26,826 ft. high.
DIABETES, a disease characterised by an excessive discharge of
urine, and accompanied with great thirst; there are two forms of this
disease.
DIAB`LERETS, a mountain of the Bernese Alps, between the Cantons de
Vaud and de Valois.
DIAFOIRUS, THOMAS, the name of two pedantic doctors, father and son,
who figure in Molière's "Malade Imaginaire."
DIAGORAS, a Greek philosopher, born in Melos, one of the Cyclades,
5th century B.C., surnamed the Atheist, on account of the scorn with
which he treated the gods of the popular faith, from the rage of whose
devotees he was obliged to seek safety by flight; died in Corinth.
DIALECTIC, in the Hegelian philosophy the logic of thought, and, if
of thought, the logic of being, of essential being.
DIALOGUES OF PLATO, philosophical dialogues, in which Socrates
figures as the principal interlocutor, although the doctrine expounded is
rather Plato's than his master's; they discuss theology, psychology,
ethics, æsthetics, politics, physics, and related subjects.
DIALYSIS, the process of separating the crystalloid or poisonous
ingredients in a substance from the colloid or harmless ingredients.
DIAMANTE, a Spanish dramatic poet, who plagiarised Corneille's "Cid"
and passed it off as original; _b_. 1826.
DIAMANTINA (13), a district in Brazil, in the province of Minas
Geraes, rich in diamonds.
DIAMOND, the name of Newton's favourite dog that, by upsetting a
lamp, set fire to MSS. containing notes of experiments made over a course
of years, an irreparable loss.
DIAMOND NECKLACE, a necklace consisting of 500 diamonds, and worth
£80,000, which one Madame de la Motte induced the jeweller who "made" it
to part with for Marie Antoinette, on security of Cardinal de Rohan, and
which madame made away with, taking it to pieces and disposing of the
jewels in London; the swindle was first discovered when the jeweller
presented his bill to the queen, who denied all knowledge of the matter;
this led to a trial which extended over nine months, gave rise to great
scandal, and ended in the punishment of the swindler and her husband, and
the disgrace of the unhappy, and it is believed innocent, queen. See
CARLYLE'S "MISCELLANIES."
DIAMOND NET, a name given in the Hegelian philosophy to "the
_connective tissue_, so to speak, that not only supports, but even in a
measure constitutes, the various organs" of the universe. See
HEGELIANISM.
DIAMOND STATE, Delaware, U.S., from its small size and great
wealth.
DIANA, originally an Italian deity, dispenser of light, identified
at length with the Greek goddess Artemis, and from the first with the
moon; she was a virgin goddess, and spent her time in the chase, attended
by her maidens; her temple at Ephesus was one of the seven wonders of the
world. See ARTEMIS.
DIANA DE POITIERS, the mistress of Henry II. of France, for whom he
built the magnificent Château d'Anet, in Eure-et-Loir; she had a great
influence over him, and the cruel persecutions of the Huguenots in his
reign were due to her instigation (1490-1566).
DIANA OF FRANCE, the Duchess of Angoulême, the natural daughter of
Henry II. and the Duchess de Castro (1538-1619).
DIARBEKIR (42), the largest town in the Kurdistan Highlands, on the
Tigris, 194 m. NE. of Aleppo, and on the highway between Bagdad and
Constantinople, with a large and busy bazaar.
DIASTASE, a nitrogenous substance developed during the germination
of grain, and having the property of converting starch first into
dextrine and then into sugar.
DIAVOLO, FRA (lit. Brother Devil), Michele Porsa, a Calabrian,
originally a monk, who left his monastery and joined a set of bandits,
who lent themselves to and conducted insurrectionary movements in Italy;
taken prisoner, was hanged at Naples; Auber's opera, "Fra Diavolo," has
no connection with him except the name (1760-1806).
DIAZ, BARTHÉLEMY, a Portuguese navigator, sent on a voyage of
discovery by John II., in the command of two ships; sailed down the W.
coast of Africa and doubled the Cape of Good Hope, which, from the storm
that drove him past it, he called the Cape of Storms; returning to Lisbon
he was superseded by Vasco da Gama, or rather subordinated to him;
subsequently accompanied Cabral on his voyage to Brazil, and was lost in
a storm in 1500.
DIAZ MIGUEL, governor of Porto Rico, born in Aragon; friend and
companion of Columbus; suffered from the usual Jealousies in enterprises
of the kind, but prevailed in the end; _d_. 1514.
DIAZ DE LA PEÑA, a French painter, born at Bordeaux, of Spanish
descent; a landscapist of the Romantic school, eminent as a colourist
(1809-1876).
DIAZ DEL CASTELLO, historian; accompanied Cortes to Mexico; took
part in the conquest, and left a graphic, trustworthy account of it; died
in Mexico, 1560.
DIBDIN, CHARLES, musician, dramatist, and song-writer, born in
Southampton; began life as an actor; invented a dramatic entertainment
consisting of music, songs, and recitations, in which he was the sole
performer, and of which he was for the most part the author; wrote some
30 dramatic pieces, and it is said 1400 songs; his celebrity is wholly
due to his sea songs, which proved of the most inspiring quality, and did
much to man the navy during the war with France; was the author of "Tom
Bowling"; left an account of his "Professional Life" (1745-1814).
DIBDIN, THOMAS, dramatic author and song-writer, son of the
preceding; was an actor as well as an author, and a most versatile one;
performed in all kinds of characters, and wrote all kinds of plays, as
well as numerous songs (1771-1841).
DIBDIN, THOMAS FROGNALL, bibliographer, nephew of Charles Dibdin,
born in Calcutta; took orders in the Church of England; held several
preferments; wrote several works all more or less of a bibliographical
character, which give proof of extensive research, but are lacking often
in accuracy and critical judgment; was one of the founders of the
Roxburghe Club (1775-1847).
DICÆARCHUS, an ancient geographer, born at Messina, 4th century
B.C.; a disciple of Aristotle.
DICK, JAMES, a West Indian and London merchant, born in Forres;
bequeathed £113,787 to encourage learning and efficient teaching among
the parish schoolmasters of Elgin, Banff, and Aberdeen shires; it is
known as the Dick Bequest, and the property is vested in a governing body
of thirteen duly elected (1743-1828).
DICKENS, CHARLES, celebrated English novelist, born at Landport,
Portsmouth; son of a navy clerk, latterly in great straits; was brought
up amid hardships; was sent to a solicitor's office as a clerk, learned
shorthand, and became a reporter, a post in which he learned much of what
afterwards served him as an author; wrote sketches for the _Monthly
Magazine_ under the name of "Boz" in 1834, and the "Pickwick Papers" in
1836-37, which established his popularity; these were succeeded by
"Oliver Twist" in 1838, "Nicholas Nickleby" in 1839, and others which it
is needless to enumerate, as they are all known wherever the English
language is spoken; they were all written with an aim, and as Ruskin
witnesses, "he was entirely right in his main drift and purpose in every
book he has written," though he thinks we are apt "to lose sight of his
wit and insight, because he chooses to speak in a circle of stage
fire.... Allowing for his manner of telling them, the things he tells us
are always true"; being a born actor, and fain in his youth to become
one, he latterly gave public readings from his works, which were
immensely popular; "acted better," says Carlyle, who witnessed one of
these performances, "than any Macready in the world; a whole tragic,
comic, heroic _theatre_ visible, performing under one _hat_, and keeping
us laughing--in a sorry way some of us thought--the whole night"; the
strain proved too much for him; he was seized with a fit at his
residence, Gad's Hill, near Rochester, on June 8, 1870, and died the
following morning; he was a little man, with clear blue intelligent eyes,
a face of most extreme mobility, and a quiet shrewdness of expression
(1812-1870).
DICTATOR, a magistrate invested with absolute authority in ancient
republican Rome in times of exigence and danger; the constitution obliged
him to resign his authority at the end of six months, till which time he
was free without challenge afterwards to do whatever the interest of the
commonwealth seemed to him to require; the most famous dictators were
Cincinnatus, Camillus, Sulla, and Cæsar, who was the last to be invested
with this power; the office ceased with the fall of the republic, or
rather, was merged in the perpetual dictatorship of the emperor.
DICTATOR OF LETTERS, Voltaire.
DICTYS CRETENSIS (i. e. of Crete), the reputed author of a
narrative of the Trojan war from the birth of Paris to the death of
Ulysses, extant only in a Latin translation; the importance attached to
this narrative and others ascribed to the same author is, that they are
the source of many of the Greek legends we find inwoven from time to time
in the mediæval literature that has come down to us.
DIDDLER, JEREMY, a needy, artful swindler in Kenny's farce of
"Raising the Wind."
DIDEROT, DENIS, a French philosopher, born at Langres, the son of a
cutler there; a zealous propagator of the philosophic ideas of the 18th
century, and the projector of the famous "Encyclopédie," which he edited
along with D'Alembert, and which made a great noise in its day, but did
not enrich its founder, who was in the end driven to offer his library
for sale to get out of the pecuniary difficulties it involved him in, and
he would have been ruined had not Catharine of Russia bought it, which
she not only did, but left it with him, and paid him a salary as
librarian. Diderot fought hard to obtain a hearing for his philosophical
opinions; his first book was burnt by order of the parlement of Paris,
while for his second he was clapped in jail; and all along he had to
front the most formidable opposition, so formidable that all his
fellow-workers were ready to yield, and were only held to their task by
his indomitable resolution and unquenchable ardour. "A deist in his
earlier writings," says SCHWEGLER, "the drift of his subsequent
writings amounts to the belief that all is God. At first a believer in
the immateriality and immortality of the soul, he peremptorily declares
at last that only the race endures, that individuals pass, and that
immortality is nothing but life in the remembrance of posterity; he was
kept back, however, from the materialism his doctrines issued in by his
moral earnestness"; that Diderot was at heart no sceptic is evident, as
Dr. Stirling suggests, from his "indignation at the _darkness_, the
miserable _ignorance_ of those around him, and his resolution to dispel
it" (1713-1784).
DIDIUS, JULIANUS, a Roman emperor who in 193 purchased the imperial
purple from the prætorian guards, and was after two months murdered by
the soldiers when Severus was approaching the city.
DIDO, the daughter of Belus, king of Tyre, and the sister of
Pygmalion, who, having succeeded to the throne on the death of his
father, put Sichæus, her husband, to death for the sake of his wealth,
whereupon she secretly took ship, sailed away from the city with the
treasure, accompanied by a body of disaffected citizens, and founded
Carthage, having picked up by the way 80 virgins from Cyprus to make
wives for her male attendants; a neighbouring chief made suit for her
hand, encouraged by her subjects, upon which, being bound by an oath of
eternal fidelity to Sichæus, she erected a funeral pile and stabbed
herself in presence of her subjects; Virgil makes her ascend the funeral
pile out of grief for the departure of Æneas, of whom she was
passionately in love.
DIDOT, the name of a French family of paper-makers, printers, and
publishers, of which the most celebrated is Ambroise Firmin, born in
Paris, a learned Hellenist (1790-1876).
DIDYMUS (twin), a surname of St. Thomas; also the name of a
grammarian of Alexandria, a contemporary of Cicero, and who wrote
commentaries on Homer.
DIEBITSCH, COUNT, a Russian general, born in Silesia;
commander-in-chief in 1829 of the Russian army against Turkey, over the
forces of which he gained a victory in the Balkans; commissioned to
suppress a Polish insurrection, he was baffled in his efforts, and fell a
victim to cholera in 1831.
DIEFFENBACH, JOHANN FRIEDRICH, an eminent German surgeon, born at
Königsberg; studied for the Church; took part in the war of liberation,
and began the study of medicine after the fall of Napoleon; was appointed
to the chair of Surgery in Berlin; his fame rests on his skill as an
operator (1792-1847).
DIEFFENBACH, LORENZ, a distinguished philologist and ethnologist,
born at Ostheim, in the grand-duchy of Hesse; was for 11 years a pastor;
in the end, until his death, librarian at Frankfort-on-the-Main; his
literary works were numerous and varied; his chief were on philological
and ethnological subjects, and are monuments of learning (1806-1883).
DIEGO SUAREZ, BAY OF, is situated on the NE. of Madagascar, and has
been ceded to France.
DIEMEN, ANTONY VAN, governor of the Dutch possessions in India, born
in Holland; was a zealous coloniser; at his instance Abel Tasman was sent
to explore the South Seas, when he discovered the island which he named
after him Van Diemen's Land, now Tasmania after the discoverer
(1593-1645).
DIEPENBECK, ABRAHAM VAN, a Flemish painter and engraver (1599-1675).
DIEPPE (22), a French seaport on the English Channel, at the mouth
of the river Arques, 93 m. NW. of Paris; a watering and bathing place,
with fisheries and a good foreign trade.
DIES IRAE (lit. the Day of Wrath), a Latin hymn on the Last
Judgment, so called from first words, and based on Zeph. i. 14-18; it is
ascribed to a monk of the name of Thomas de Celano, who died in 1255, and
there are several translations of it in English, besides a paraphrastic
rendering in the "Lay of the Last Minstrel" by Scott, and it is also the
subject of a number of musical compositions.
DIET, a convention of the princes, dignitaries, and delegates of the
German empire, for legislative or administrative purposes, of which the
most important in a historical point of view are diets held at Augsburg
in 1518, at Worms in 1521, at Nüremberg in 1523, 1524, at Spires in 1526,
1529, at Augsburg in 1530, at Cologne in 1530, at Worms in 1536, at
Frankfort in 1539, at Ratisbon in 1541, at Spires in 1544, at Augsburg in
1547, 1548, 1550, and at Ratisbon in 1622.
DIETRICH, mayor of Strasburg, at whose request Rouget de Lisle
composed the "Marseillaise"; was guillotined (1748-1793).
DIETRICH OF BERN, a favourite hero of German legend, who in the
"Nibelungen" avenges the death of Siegfried, and in the "Heldenbuch"
figures as a knight-errant of invulnerable prowess, from whose challenge
even Siegfried shrinks, hiding himself behind Chriemhilda's veil; has
been identified with Theodoric the Great, king of the Ostrogoths.
DIEZ, FRIEDRICH CHRISTIAN, a German philologist, born at Giessen;
after service as a volunteer against Napoleon, and a tutorship at
Utrecht, went to Bonn, where, advised by Goethe, he commenced the study
of the Romance languages, and in 1830 became professor of them, the
philology of which he is the founder; he left two great works bearing on
the grammar and etymology of these languages (1794-1876).
DIEZ, JUAN MARTIN, a Spanish brigadier-general of cavalry, born at
Valladolid, the son of a peasant; had, as head of guerilla bands, done
good service to his country during the Peninsular war and been promoted;
offending the ruling powers, was charged with conspiracy, tried, and
executed (1775-1825).
DIGBY, a seaport on the Bay of Fundy, Nova Scotia; noted for the
curing of pilchards, called from it digbies.
DIGBY, SIR EVERARD, member of a Roman Catholic family; concerned in
the Gunpowder Plot, and executed (1581-1606).
DIGBY, SIR KENELM, a son of the preceding; was knighted by James I.;
served under Charles I.; as a privateer defeated a squadron of Venetians,
and fought against the Algerines; was imprisoned for a time as a
Royalist; paid court afterwards to the Protector; was well received at
the Restoration; was one of the first members of the Royal Society, and a
man of some learning; wrote treatises on the Nature of Bodies and Man's
Soul, on the corpuscular theory (1603-1665).
DIHONG, the name given to the Brahmaputra as it traverses Assam; in
the rainy season it overflows its channel and floods the whole lowlands
of the country.
DIJON (61), the ancient capital of Burgundy, and the principal town
in the dep. of Côte d'Or, 195 m. SE. of Paris, on the canal of Bourgogne;
one of the finest towns in France, at once for its buildings,
particularly its churches, and its situation; is a centre of manufacture
and trade, and a seat of learning; the birthplace of many illustrious
men.
DIKË (i. e. Justice), a Greek goddess, the daughter of Zeus and
Themis; the guardian of justice and judgment, the foe of deceit and
violence, and the accuser before Zeus of the unjust judge.
DIKTYS, the fisherman of Seriphus; saved Perseus and his mother from
the perils of the deep.
DILETTANTE SOCIETY, THE, a society of noblemen and gentlemen founded
in England in 1734, and which contributed to correct and purify the
public taste of the country; their labours were devoted chiefly to the
study of the relics of ancient Greek art, and resulted in the production
of works in illustration.
DILETTANTISM, an idle, often affected, almost always barren
admiration and study of the fine arts, "in earnest about nothing."
DILKE, CHARLES WENTWORTH, English critic and journalist; served for
20 years in the Navy Pay-Office; contributed to the _Westminister_ and
other reviews; was proprietor and editor of the _Athenæum_; started the
_Daily News_; left literary Papers, edited by his grandson (1789-1864).
DILKE, SIR CHARLES WENTWORTH, English publicist and politician,
grandson of the preceding, born at Chelsea; called to the bar; travelled
in America and the English colonies, and wrote a record of his travels in
his "Greater Britain"; entered Parliament as an extreme Liberal; held
office under Mr. Gladstone; from exposures in a divorce case had to
retire from public life, but returned after a time; _b_. 1843.
DILLMANN, a great German Orientalist, born at Illingen, a village of
Würtemberg; studied under Ewald at Tübingen; became professor at Kiel, at
Giessen, and finally at Berlin; as professor of Old Testament exegesis
made a special study of the Ethiopic languages, and is the great
authority in their regard; wrote a grammar and a lexicon of these, as
well as works on theology; _b_. 1823.
DILLON, a general in the service of France, born in Dublin; was
butchered by his troops near Lille (1745-1792).
DILLON, JOHN, an Irish patriot, born in New York; entered Parliament
in 1880 as a Parnellite; was once suspended, and four times imprisoned,
for his over-zeal; sat at first for Tipperary, and since for East Mayo;
in 1891 threw in his lot with the M'Carthyites; _b_. 1851.
DIMANCHE, M. (Mr. Sunday), a character in Molière's "Don Juan," the
type of an honest merchant, whom, on presenting his bill, his creditor
appeases by his politeness.
DIME, a U.S. silver coin, worth the tenth part of a dollar, or
about fivepence.
DINAN (10), an old town in the dep. of Côtes du Nord, France, 14 m.
S. of St. Malo; most picturesquely situated on the top of a steep hill,
amid romantic scenery, of great archæological interest; the birthplace of
Duclos.
DINANT, an old town on the Meuse, 14 m. S. of Namur, Belgium; noted
for its gingerbread, and formerly for its copper wares, called
Dinanderie.
DINAPUR (44), a town and military station on the right bank of the
Ganges, 12 m. NW. of Patna.
DINARCHUS, an orator of the Phocion party in Athens, born at
Corinth.
DINARIC ALPS, a range of the Eastern Alps in Austria, runs SE. and
parallel with the Adriatic, connecting the Julian Alps with the Balkans.
DINDORF, WILHELM, a German philologist, born at Leipzig; devoted his
life to the study of the ancient Greek classics, particularly the
dramatists, and edited the chief of them, as well as the "Iliad" and
"Odyssey" of Homer, with notes; was joint-editor with his brothers Ludwig
and Hase of the "Thesaurus Græcæ Linguæ" of Stephanus (1802-1883).
DINGELSTEDT, a German poet, novelist, and essayist, born near
Marburg; was the Duke of Würtemberg's librarian at Stuttgart, and theatre
superintendent at Münich, Weimar, and Vienna successively; his poems show
delicacy of sentiment and graphic power (1814-1881).
DINGWALL, the county town of Ross-shire, at the head of the Cromarty
Firth.
DINKAS, an African pastoral people occupying a flat country
traversed by the White Nile; of good stature, clean habits; of
semi-civilised manners, and ferocious in war.
DINMONT, DANDIE, a jovial, honest-hearted store-farmer in Scott's
"Guy Mannering."
DINOCRATES, a Macedonian architect, who, in the time of Alexander
the Great, rebuilt the Temple of Ephesus destroyed by the torch of
Erostratus; was employed by Alexander in the building of Alexandria.
DIOCLETIAN, Roman emperor from 284 to 308, born at Salona, in
Dalmatia, of obscure parentage; having entered the Roman army, served
with distinction, rose rapidly to the highest rank, and was at Chalcedon,
after the death of Numerianus, invested by the troops with the imperial
purple; in 286 he associated Maximianus with himself as joint-emperor,
with the title of Augustus, and in 292 resigned the Empire of the West to
Constantius Chlorus and Galerius, so that the Roman world was divided
between two emperors in the E. and two in the W.; in 303, at the instance
of Galerius, he commenced and carried on a fierce persecution of the
Christians, the tenth and fiercest; but in 305, weary of ruling, he
abdicated and retired to Salona, where he spent his remaining eight years
in rustic simplicity of life, cultivating his garden; bating his
persecution of the Christians, he ruled the Roman world wisely and well
(245-313).
DIODATI, a Calvinistic theologian, born at Lucca; was taken while a
child with his family to Geneva; distinguished himself there in the
course of the Reformation as a pastor, a preacher, professor of Hebrew,
and a professor of Theology; translated the Bible into Italian and into
French; a nephew of his was a school-fellow and friend of Milton, who
wrote an elegy on his untimely death (1576-1614).
DIODORUS SICULUS, historian, born in Sicily, of the age of Augustus;
conceived the idea of writing a universal history; spent 30 years at the
work; produced what he called "The Historical Library," which embraced
the period from the earliest ages to the end of Cæsar's Gallic war, and
was divided into 40 books, of which only a few survive entire, and some
fragments of the rest.
DIOGENES LAËRTIUS, a Greek historian, born at Laerte, in Cilicia;
flourished in the 2nd century A.D.; author of "Lives of the
Philosophers," a work written in 10 books; is full of interesting
information regarding the men, but is destitute of critical insight into
their systems.
DIOGENES OF APOLLONIA, a Greek philosopher of the Ionic school, and
an adherent of ANAXIMENES (q. v.), if of any one, being more of
an eclectic than anything else; took more to physics than philosophy;
contributed nothing to the philosophic movement of the time.
DIOGENES THE CYNIC, born in Sinope, in Pontus, came to Athens, was
attracted to ANTISTHENES (q. v.) and became a disciple, and a
sansculotte of the first water; dressed himself in the coarsest, lived on
the plainest, slept in the porches of the temples, and finally took up
his dwelling in a tub; stood on his naked manhood; would not have
anything to do with what did not contribute to its enhancement; despised
every one who sought satisfaction in anything else; went through the
highways and byways of the city at noontide with a lit lantern in quest
of a man; a man himself not to be laughed at or despised; visiting
Corinth, he was accosted by Alexander the Great: "I am Alexander," said
the king, and "I am Diogenes" was the prompt reply; "Can I do anything to
serve you?" continued the king; "Yes, stand out of the sunlight,"
rejoined the cynic; upon which Alexander turned away saying, "If I were
not Alexander, I would be Diogenes." D'Alembert declared Diogenes the
greatest man of antiquity, only that he wanted decency. "Great truly,"
says Carlyle, but adds with a much more serious drawback than that
(412-323 B.C.). See "SARTOR RESARTUS," BK. III. CHAP. 1.
DIOGENES THE STOIC, born in Seleucia; a successor of Zeno, and head
of the school at Athens, 2nd century B.C.
DIOMEDES, king of Argos, called Tydides, from his father; was, next
to Achilles, the bravest of the Greeks at the Trojan war; fought under
the protection of Athene against both Hector and Æneas, and even wounded
both Aphrodité and Ares; dared along with Ulysses to carry off the
Palladium from Troy; was first in the chariot race in honour of
Patroclus, and overcame Ajax with the spear.
DIOMEDES, king of Thrace; fed his horses with human flesh, and was
killed by Hercules for his inhumanity.
DION CASSIUS, a Greek historian, born at Nicæa, in Bithynia, about
A.D. 155; went to Rome, and served under a succession of emperors; wrote
a "History of Rome" from Æneas to Alexander Severus in 80 books, of which
only 18 survive entire; took years to prepare for and compose it; it is
of great value, and often referred to.
DION CHRYSOSTOMUS (Dion with the golden, or eloquent, mouth), a
celebrated Greek rhetorician, born at Prusa, in Bithynia, about the
middle of the 1st century; inclined to the Platonic and Stoic
philosophies; came to Rome, and was received with honour by Nerva and
Trajan; is famous as an orator and as a writer of pure Attic Greek.
DION OF SYRACUSE, a pupil of Plato, and an austere man; was from his
austerity obnoxious to his pleasure-loving nephew, Dionysius the Younger;
subjected to banishment; went to Athens; learned his estates had been
confiscated, and his wife given to another; took up arms, drove his
nephew from the throne, usurped his place, and was assassinated in 353
B.C., the citizens finding that in getting rid of one tyrant they had but
saddled themselves with another, and greater.
DIONE, a Greek goddess of the earlier mythology; figures as the wife
of the Dodonian Zeus; drops into subordinate place after his nuptials
with Hera.
DIONYSIUS THE ELDER, tyrant of Syracuse from 406 to 367 B.C.; at
first a private citizen; early took interest in public affairs, and
played a part in them; entered the army, and rose to be head of the
State; subdued the other cities of Sicily, and declared war against
Carthage; was attacked by the Carthaginians, and defeated them three
times over; concluded a treaty of peace with them, and spent the rest of
his reign, some 20 years, in maintaining and extending his territory; was
distinguished, it is said, as he might well be, both as a poet and a
philosopher; tradition represents him as in perpetual terror of his life,
and taking every precaution to guard it from attack.
DIONYSIUS THE YOUNGER, tyrant of Syracuse, son of the preceding,
succeeded him in 367 B.C. at the age of thirty; had never taken part in
public affairs; was given over to vicious indulgences, and proved
incapable of amendment, though DION (q. v.) tried hard to reform
him; was unpopular with the citizens, who with the help of Dion, whom he
had banished, drove him from the throne; returning after 10 years, was
once more expelled by Timoleon; betook himself to Corinth, where he
associated himself with low people, and supported himself by keeping a
school.
DIONYSIUS OF ALEXANDRIA, patriarch from 348, a disciple of Origen,
and his most illustrious pupil; a firm but judicious defender of the
faith against the heretics of the time, in particular the Sabellians and
the Chiliasts; _d_. 264.
DIONYSIUS, ST., THE AREOPAGITE (i. e. judge of the Areopagus),
according to Acts xvii. 34, a convert of St. Paul's; became bishop of
Athens, and died a martyr in 95; was long regarded as the father of
mysticism in the Christian Church, on the false assumption that he was
the author of writings of a much later date imbued with a pantheistic
idea of God and the universe.
DIONYSIUS OF HALICARNASSUS, a Greek historian and rhetorician of the
age of Augustus; came to Italy in 29 B.C., and spent 27 years in Rome,
where he died; devoted himself to the study of the Roman republic, its
history and its people, and recorded the result in his "Archæologia,"
written in Greek, which brings down the narrative to 264 B.C.; it
consisted of 20 books, of which only 9 have come down to us entire; he is
the author of works in criticism of the orators, poets, and historians of
Greece.
DIONYSIUS PERIEGETES, a Greek geographer who lived about the 4th
century, and wrote a description of the whole earth in hexameters and in
a terse and elegant style.
DIONYSUS, the god of the vine or wine; the son of ZEUS AND
SEMELE (q. v.), the "twice born," as plucked first from the womb of
his dead mother and afterwards brought forth from the thigh of Zeus,
which served to him as his "incubator." See BACCHUS.
DIOPHANTUS, a Greek mathematician, born in Alexandria; lived
presumably about the 4th century; left works in which algebraic methods
are employed, and is therefore credited with being the inventor of
algebra.
DIOSCOR`IDES, a Greek physician, born in Cilicia, lived in the 1st
century; left a treatise in 5 books on materia medica, a work of great
research, and long the standard authority on the subject.
DIOSCURI, twin sons of Zeus, Castor and Pollux, a stalwart pair of
youths, of the Doric stock, great the former as a horse-breaker and the
latter as a boxer; were worshipped at Sparta as guardians of the State,
and pre-eminently as patrons of gymnastics; protected the hearth, led the
army in war, and were the convoy of the traveller by land and the voyager
by sea, which as constellations they are still held to be.
DIPHILUS, a Greek comic poet, born at Sinope; contemporary of
Menander; was the forerunner of Terence and Plautus, the Roman poets.
DIPHTHERIA, a contagious disease characterised by the formation of a
false membrane on the back of the throat.
DIPPEL, JOHANN KONRAD, a celebrated German alchemist; professed to
have discovered the philosopher's stone; did discover Prussian blue, and
an animal oil that bears his name (1672-1734).
DIPPEL'S OIL, an oil obtained from the distinctive distillation of
horn bones.
DIRCÆAN SWAN, Pindar, so called from the fountain Dirce, near
Thebes, his birthplace.
DIRCE, the wife of Lycus, king of Thebes, who for her cruelty to
Antiope, her divorced predecessor, was, by Antiope's two sons, Zethos and
Amphion, tied to a wild bull and dragged to death, after which her
carcass was flung by them into a well; the subject is represented in a
famous antique group by Apollonius and Tauriscus.
DIRECTORY, THE, the name given to the government of France,
consisting of a legislative body of two chambers, the Council of the
Ancients and the Council of Five Hundred, which succeeded the fall of the
Convention, and ruled France from October 27, 1795, till its overthrow by
Bonaparte on the 18th Brumaire (November 9, 1799). The Directors proper
were five in number, and were elected by the latter council from a list
presented by the former, and the chief members of it were Barras and
Carnot.
DIRSCHAU (11), a Prussian town on the Vistula, 21 m. SE. of Danzig,
with iron-works and a timber trade.
DIS, a name given to Pluto and the nether world over which he rules.
DISCIPLINE, THE TWO BOOKS OF, books of dates 1561 and 1581,
regulative of ecclesiastical order in the Presbyterian churches of
Scotland, of which the ground-plan was drawn up by Knox on the Geneva
model.
DISCOBOLUS, THE, an antique statue representing the thrower of the
discus, in the Louvre, and executed by the sculptor Myron.
DISCORD, APPLE OF. See _infra_.
DISCORD, THE GODDESS OF, a mischief-making divinity, daughter of
Night and sister of Mars, who on the occasion of the wedding of Thetis
with Peleus, threw into the hall where all the gods and goddesses were
assembled a golden apple inscribed "To the most Beautiful," and which
gave rise to dissensions that both disturbed the peace of Olympus and the
impartial administration of justice on earth. See PARIS.
DISMAL SCIENCE, Carlyle's name for the political economy that with
self-complacency leaves everything to settle itself by the law of supply
and demand, as if that were all the law and the prophets. The name is
applied to every science that affects to dispense with the spiritual as a
ruling factor in human affairs.
DISMAS, ST., the good thief to whom Christ promised Paradise as he
hung on the cross beside Him.
DISRAELI, BENJAMIN. See BEACONSFIELD.
D'ISRAELI, ISAAC, a man of letters, born at Enfield, Middlesex; only
son of a Spanish Jew settled in England, who left him a fortune, which
enabled him to cultivate his taste for literature; was the author of
several works, but is best known by his "Curiosities of Literature," a
work published in six vols., full of anecdotes on the quarrels and
calamities of authors; was never a strict Jew; finally cut the
connection, and had his children baptized as Christians (1766-1848).
DITHYRAMB, a hymn in a lofty and vehement style, originally in
honour of Bacchus, in celebration of his sorrows and joys, and
accompanied with flute music.
DITMARSH (77), a low-lying fertile district in West Holstein,
between the estuaries of the Elbe and the Eider; defended by dykes; it
had a legal code of its own known as the "Ditmarisches Landbuch."
DITTON, HUMPHRY, author of a book on fluxions (1675-1715).
DIU (12), a small Portuguese island, with a port of the same name,
in the Gulf of Cambay, S. of the peninsula of Gujarat, India; was a
flourishing place once, and contained a famous Hindu temple; inhabited
now chiefly by fishermen.
DIVAN, THE, a collection of poems by Häfiz, containing nearly 600
odes; also a collection of lyrics in imitation of Goethe, entitled
"Westöstlicher Divan."
DIVES, the name given, originally in the Vulgate, to the rich man in
the parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus.
DIVIDING RANGE, a range of mountains running E. from Melbourne, and
then N., dividing the basin of the Murray from the plain extending to the
coast.
DIVINE COMEDY, THE, the great poem of Dante, consisting of three
compartments, "Inferno," "Purgatorio," and "Paradiso"; "three
kingdoms ... Dante's World of Souls...; all three making up the true
Unseen World, as it figured in the Christianity of the Middle Ages; a
thing for ever memorable, for ever true in the essence of it, to all
men ... but delineated in no human soul with such depth of veracity as
in this of Dante's ... to the earnest soul of Dante it is all one visible
fact--Hell, Purgatory, Paradise, with him not mere emblems, but
indubitable awful realities." See DANTE, and CARLYLE'S "HEROES
AND HERO-WORSHIP."
DIVINE DOCTOR, Jean de Ruysbroek, the mystic (1294-1381).
DIVINE PAGAN, HYPATIA (q. v.).
DIVINE RIGHT, a claim on the part of kings, now all but extinct,
though matter of keen debate at one time, that they derive their
authority to rule direct from the Almighty, and are responsible to no
inferior power, a right claimed especially on the part of and in behalf
of the Bourbons in France and the Stuart dynasty in England, and the
denial of which was regarded by them and their partisans as an outrage
against the ordinance of very Heaven.
DIXIE LAND, nigger land in U.S.
DIXON, W. HEPWORTH, an English writer and journalist, born in
Manchester; called to the bar, but devoted himself to literary work;
wrote Lives of Howard, Penn, Robert Blake, and Lord Bacon, "New America,"
"Spiritual Wives," &c.; was editor of the _Athenoeum_ from 1853 to 1869;
died suddenly (1821-1879).
DIZIER, ST. (13), a flourishing French town, 30 m. from
Châlons-sur-Marne.
DIZZY, a nickname given to Benjamin Disraeli.
DJEZZAR (i. e. Butcher), the surname of Achmed Pasha, pacha of
Acre; was born at Bosnia; sold as a slave, and raised himself by his
servility to his master to the length of executing his cruellest wishes;
in 1799 withstood a long siege of Acre by Bonaparte, and obliged him to
retire (1735-1804).
DJINNESTAN, the region of the Jinns.
DNIEPER, a river of Russia, anciently called the Borysthenes, the
third largest for volume of water in Europe, surpassed only by the Danube
and the Volga; rises in the province of Smolensk, and flowing in a
generally southerly direction, falls into the Black Sea below Kherson
after a course of 1330 m.; it traverses some of the finest provinces of
the empire, and is navigable nearly its entire length.
DNIESTER, a river which takes its rise in Austria, in the
Carpathians, enters Russia, flows generally in a SE. direction past
Bender, and after a rapid course of 650 m. falls into the Black Sea at
Akjerman.
DOAB, THE, a richly fertile, densely peopled territory in the
Punjab, between the Jumna and Ganges, and extending 500 m. N., that is,
as far as the Himalayas; it is the granary of Upper India.
DOBELL, SIDNEY, poet, born at Cranbrook, in Kent; wrote, under the
pseudonym of Sidney Yendys, the "Roman," a drama, "Balder," and, along
with Alexander Smith, sonnets on the war (the Crimean); suffered much
from weak health (1824-1874).
DÖBEREINER, a German chemist, professor at Jena; inventor of a lamp
called after him; Goethe was much interested in his discoveries
(1780-1849).
DÖBEREINER'S LAMP, a light caused by a jet of hydrogen passing over
spongy platinum.
DOBROVSKI, JOSEPH, a philologist, born in Gyarmet, in Hungary;
devoted his life to the study of the Bohemian language and literature;
wrote a history of them, the fruit of immense labour, under which his
brain gave way more than once; was trained among the Jesuits (1753-1829).
DOBRENTER, Hungarian archæologist; devoted 30 years of his life to
the study of the Magyar language; author of "Ancient Monuments of the
Magyar Language" (1786-1851).
DOBRUDJA (196), the part of Roumania between the Danube and the
Black Sea, a barren, unwholesome district; rears herds of cattle.
DOBSON, AUSTIN, poet and prose writer, born at Plymouth, is in a
department of the Civil Service; wrote "Vignettes in Rhyme," "Proverbs in
Porcelain," "Old World Idylls," in verse, and in prose Lives of Fielding,
Hogarth, Steele, and Goldsmith; contributed extensively to the magazines;
_b_. 1840.
DOBSON, WILLIAM, portrait-painter, born in London; succeeded Vandyck
as king's serjeant-painter to Charles I.; painted the king and members of
his family and court; supreme in his art prior to Sir Joshua Reynolds;
died in poverty (1610-1646).
DOCETÆ, a sect of heretics in the early Church who held that the
humanity of Christ was only seeming, not real, on the Gnostic or
Manichæan theory of the essential impurity and defiling nature of matter
or the flesh.
DOCTOR (lit. teacher), a title implying that the possessor of it
is such a master of his art that he can teach it as well as practise it.
DOCTOR MIRABILIS, Roger Bacon.
DOCTOR MY-BOOK, John Abernethy, from his saying to his patients,
"Read my book."
DOCTOR OF THE INCARNATION, Cyril of Alexandria, from his controversy
with the Nestorians.
DOCTOR SLOP, a doctor in "Tristram Shandy," fanatical about a
forceps he invented.
DOCTOR SQUINTUM, George Whitfield.
DOCTOR SYNTAX. See COMBE, WILLIAM.
DOCTORS' COMMONS, a college of doctors of the civil law in London,
where they used to eat in common, and where eventually a number of the
courts of law were held.
DOCTRINAIRES, mere theorisers, particularly on social and political
questions; applied originally to a political party that arose in France
in 1815, headed by Roger-Collard and represented by Guizot, which stood
up for a constitutional government that should steer clear of
acknowledging the divine right of kinghood on the one hand and the divine
right of democracy on the other.
DODABETTA, the highest peak, 8700 ft., in the Nilgherries.
DODD, DR. WILLIAM, an English divine, born at Bourne, Lincolnshire;
was one of the royal chaplains; attracted fashionable audiences as a
preacher in London, but lived extravagantly, and fell hopelessly into
debt, and into disgrace for the nefarious devices he adopted to get out
of it; forged a bond for £4500 on the Earl of Chesterfield, who had been
a pupil of his; was arrested, tried, convicted, and sentenced to death, a
sentence which was carried out notwithstanding the great exertions made
to procure a pardon; wrote a "Commentary on the Bible," and compiled "The
Beauties of Shakespeare" (1729-1777).
DODDRIDGE, PHILIP, a Nonconformist divine, born in London; was
minister at Kebworth, Market Harborough, and Northampton successively,
and much esteemed both as a man and a teacher; suffered from pulmonary
complaint; went to Lisbon for a change, and died there; was the author of
"The Family Expositor," but is best known by his "Rise and Progress of
Religion in the Soul," and perhaps also by his "Life of Colonel Gardiner"
(1702-1751).
DÖDERLEIN, LUDWIG, a German philologist, born at Jena; became
professor of Philology at Erlangen; edited Tacitus, Horace, and other
classic authors, but his principal works were on the etymology of the
Latin language (1791-1863).
DODGER, THE ARTFUL, a young expert in theft and other villanies in
Dickens's "Oliver Twist."
DODGSON, CHARLES LUTWIDGE, English writer and man of genius, with
the _nom de plume_ of Lewis Carroll; distinguished himself at Oxford in
mathematics; author of "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland," with its
sequel, "Through the Looking-Glass," besides other works, mathematical,
poetic, and humorous; mingled humour and science together (1833-1898).
DODINGTON, GEORGE BUBB, an English politician, notorious for his
fickleness, siding now with this party, now with that; worked for and won
a peerage before he died; with all his pretensions, and they were many, a
mere flunkey at bottom (1691-1762).
DODO, an ungainly bird larger than a turkey, with short scaly legs,
a big head and bill, short wings and tail, and a greyish down plumage,
now extinct, though it is known to have existed in the Mauritius some 200
years ago.
DODO`NA, an ancient oracle of Zeus, in Epirus, close by a grove of
oak trees, from the agitation of the branches of which the mind of the
god was construed, the interpreters being at length three old women; it
was more or less a local oracle, and was ere long superseded by the more
widely known oracle of DELPHI (q. v.).
DODS, MEG, an old landlady of consistently inconsistent qualities in
"St. Ronan's Well"; also the pseudonym of the authoress of a book on
cookery.
DODSLEY, ROBERT, an English poet, dramatist, and publisher; wrote a
drama called "The Toyshop," which, through Pope's influence, was acted in
Drury Lane with such success as to enable the author to commence business
as a bookseller in Pall Mall; projected and published the _Miscellany_,
and continued to write plays, the most popular "Cleone"; is best known in
connection with his "Collection of Old Plays"; he was a patron of
Johnson, and much esteemed by him (1703-1764).
DOEG, a herdsman of Saul (1 Sam. xxi. 7); a name applied by Dryden
to Elkanah Settle in "Absalom and Achitophel."
DOGBERRY, a self-satisfied night constable in "Much Ado about
Nothing."
DOG-DAYS, 20 days before and 20 after the rising of the dog-star
Sirius, at present from 3rd July to 11th August.
DOGE, the name of the chief magistrate of Venice and Genoa, elected
at first annually and then for life in Venice, with, in course of time,
powers more and more limited, and at length little more than a
figure-head; the office ceased with the fall of the republic in 1797, as
it did in Genoa in 1804.
DOGGER BANK, a sandbank in the North Sea; a great fishing-field,
extending between Jutland in Denmark and Yorkshire in England, though
distant from both shores, 170 m. long, over 60 m. broad, and from 8 to 10
fathoms deep.
DOGS, ISLE OF, a low-lying projection of a square mile in extent
from the left bank of the Thames, opposite Greenwich, and 3½ m. E. of St.
Paul's.
DOG-STAR, SIRIUS (q. v.).
DOLABELLA, son-in-law of Cicero, a profligate man, joined Cæsar, and
was raised by him to the consulship; joined Cæsar's murderers after his
death; was declared from his profligacy a public enemy; driven to bay by
a force sent against him, ordered one of his soldiers to kill him.
DOLCI, CARLO, a Florentine painter, came of a race of artists;
produced many fine works, the subjects of them chiefly madonnas, saints.
&c. (1616-1686).
DOLCINO, a heresiarch and martyr of the 14th century, of the
Apostolic Brethren, a sect which rose in Piedmont who made themselves
obnoxious to the Church; was driven to bay by his persecutors, and at
last caught and tortured and burnt to death; a similar fate overtook
others of the sect, to its extermination.
DOLDRUMS, a zone of the tropics where calms, squalls, and baffling
winds prevail.
DÔLE (12), a town in the dep. of Jura, on the Doubs, and the Rhône
and Rhine Canal, 28 m. SE. of Dijon, with iron-works, and a trade in
wine, grain, &c.
DOLET, ÉTIENNE, a learned French humanist, born at Orleans, became,
by the study of the classics, one of the lights of the Renaissance, and
one of its most zealous propagandists; suffered persecution after
persecution at the hands of the Church, and was burned in the Place
Maubert, Paris, a martyr to his philosophic zeal and opinions
(1509-1546).
DOLGELLY, capital of Merioneth, Wales, with manufactures of flannel.
DOLGOROUKI, the name of a noble and illustrious Russian family.
DOLLART ZEE, a gulf in Holland into which the Ems flows, 8 m. long
by 7 broad, and formed by inundation of the North Sea.
DÖLLINGER, a Catholic theologian, born in Bamberg, Bavaria,
professor of Church History in the University of Münich; head of the old
Catholic party in Germany; was at first a zealous Ultramontanist, but
changed his opinions and became quite as zealous in opposing, first, the
temporal sovereignty, and then the infallibility of the Pope, to his
excommunication from the Church; he was a polemic, and as such wrote
extensively on theological and ecclesiastical topics; lived to a great
age, and was much honoured to the last (1799-1890).
DOLLOND, JOHN, a mathematical instrument-maker, born in
Spitalfields, London, of Dutch descent; began life as a silk-weaver; made
good use of his leisure hours in studies bearing mainly on physics; went
into partnership with his son, who was an optician; made a study of the
telescope, suggested improvements which commended themselves to the Royal
Society, and in especial how, by means of a combination of lenses, to get
rid of the coloured fringe in the image (1706-1761).
DOLMEN, a rude structure of prehistoric date, consisting of upright
unhewn stones supporting one or more heavy slabs; long regarded as altars
of sacrifice, but now believed to be sepulchral monuments; found in great
numbers in Bretagne especially.
DOLOMITE ALPS, a limestone mountain range forming the S. of the
Eastern Alps, in the Tyrol and N. Italy, famous for the remarkable and
fantastic shapes they assume; named after Dolomieu, a French
mineralogist, who studied the geology of them.
DOMAT, JEAN, a learned French jurist and friend of Pascal, regarded
laws and customs as the reflex of political history (1625-1696).
DOMBASLE, an eminent French agriculturist, born at Nancy
(1771-1818).
DOM-BOKE (i. e. Doom-book), a code of laws compiled by King Alfred
from two prior Saxon codes, to which he prefixed the Ten Commandments of
Moses, and rules of life from the Christian code of ethics.
DOMBROWSKI, JOHN HENRY, a Polish general, served in the Polish
campaigns against Russia and Prussia in 1792-1794; organised a Polish
legion which did good service in the wars of Napoleon; covered the
retreat of the French at the Beresina in 1812 (1755-1818).
DOMDANIEL, a hall under the ocean where the evil spirits and
magicians hold council under their chief and pay him homage.
DOMENICHI`NO, a celebrated Italian painter, born at Bologna; studied
under Calvaert and Caracci; was of the Bolognese school, and reckoned one
of the first of them; his principal works are his "Communion of St.
Jerome," now in the Vatican, and the "Martyrdom of St. Agnes," at
Bologna, the former being regarded as his masterpiece; he was the victim
of persecution at the hands of rivals; died at Naples, not without
suspicion of having been poisoned (1581-1641).
DOMESDAY BOOK, the record, in 2 vols., of the survey of all the
lands of England made in 1081-1086 at the instance of William the
Conqueror for purposes of taxation; the survey included the whole of
England, except the four northern counties and part of Lancashire, and
was made by commissioners appointed by the king, and sent to the
different districts of the country, where they held courts, and
registered everything on evidence; it is a valuable document.
DOMINIC DE GUZMAN, ST., saint of the Catholic Church, born in Old
Castile; distinguished for his zeal in the conversion of the heretic;
essayed the task by simple preaching of the Word; sanctioned persecution
when persuasion was of no avail; countenanced the crusade of Simon de
Montfort against the Albigenses for their obstinate unbelief, and thus
established a precedent which was all too relentlessly followed by the
agents of the Spanish Inquisition, the chiefs of which were of the
Dominican order, so that he is ignominiously remembered as the "burner
and slayer of heretics" (1170-1221). Festival, Aug. 4.
DOMINICA, or DOMINIQUE (26), the largest and most southerly of
the Leeward Islands, and belongs to Britain; one-half of the island is
forest, and parts of it have never been explored; was discovered by
Columbus on Sunday, November 3, 1493, whence its name.
DOMINICAL LETTER, one of seven letters, A, B, C, D, E, F, G, used to
mark the Sundays throughout the year, so that if A denote the first
Sunday, it will denote all the rest, and so on with B, C, &c., till at
the end of seven years A becomes the dominical letter again.
DOMINICAN REPUBLIC, or ST. DOMINGO (610), a republic forming
the E. part of the island of Haiti, and consisting of two-thirds of it;
it belonged alternately to France and Spain till 1865, when, on revolt,
the Spaniards were expelled, and a republic established; the capital is
St. Domingo (15), and the chief port Puerto Plata.
DOMINICANS, a religious order of preaching friars, founded at
Toulouse in 1215 by St. Dominic, to aid in the conversion of the heretic
Albigenses to the faith, and finally established as the order whose
special charge it was to guard the orthodoxy of the Church. The order was
known by the name Black Friars in England, from their dress; and Jacobins
in France, from the street of Paris in which they had their
head-quarters.
DOMINIE, SAMPSON, a schoolmaster in "Guy Mannering," "a poor,
modest, humble scholar, who had won his way through the classics, but
fallen to the leeward in the voyage of life."
DOMINIS, MARCO ANTONIO DE, a vacillating ecclesiastic, born in
Dalmatia; was educated by the Jesuits; taught mathematics in Padua; wrote
a treatise in which an explanation was for the first time given of the
phenomenon of the rainbow; became archbishop of Spalatro; falling under
suspicion he passed over to England, professed Protestantism, and was
made dean of Windsor; reconciled to the Papacy, returned to the Church of
Rome, and left the country; his sincerity being distrusted, was cast into
prison, where he died, his body being afterwards disinterred and burned
(1566-1624).
DOMITIAN, Roman emperor, son of Vespasian, brother of Titus, whom he
succeeded in 81, the last of the twelve Cæsars; exceeded the expectations
of every one in the beginning of his reign, as he had given proof of a
licentious and sanguinary character beforehand, but soon his conduct
changed, and fulfilled the worst fears of his subjects; his vanity was
wounded by the non-success of his arms, and his vengeful spirit showed
itself in a wholesale murder of the citizens; many conspiracies were
formed against his life, and he was at length murdered by an assassin,
who had been hired by his courtiers and abetted by his wife Domitia, in
96.
DOMRÉMY, a small village on the Meuse, in the dep. of Vosges; the
birthplace of Joan of Arc.
DON, a Russian river, the ancient Tanaïs; flows southward from its
source in the province of Tula, and after a course of 1153 m. falls into
the Sea of Azov; also the name of a river in Aberdeenshire, and another
in Yorkshire.
DON JUAN, the member of a distinguished family of Seville, who
seduces the daughter of a noble, and when confronted by her father stabs
him to death in a duel; he afterwards prepares a feast and invites the
stone statue of his victim to partake of it; the stone statue turns up at
the least, compels Don Juan to follow him, and delivers him over to the
abyss of hell, the depths of which he had qualified himself for by his
utter and absolute depravity.
DON QUIXOTE, the title of a world-famous book written by Miguel
Cervantes, in satire of the romances of chivalry with which his
countrymen were so fascinated; the chief character of which gives title
to it, a worthy gentleman of La Mancha, whose head is so turned by
reading tales of knight-errantry, that he fancies he is a knight-errant
himself, sallies forth in quest of adventures, and encounters them in the
most commonplace incidents, one of his most ridiculous extravagancies
being his tilting with the windmills, and the overweening regard he has
for his Dulcinea del Tobosa.
DONALDSON, JOHN WILLIAM, a philologist, born in London; Fellow of
Cambridge and tutor of Trinity College; author of "New Cratylus; or
Contributions towards a more Accurate Knowledge of the Greek Language," a
work of great erudition and of value to scholars; contributed also to the
philological study of Latin, and wrote a grammar of both languages; he
failed when he intruded into the field of biblical criticism (1811-1861).
DONATELLO, a great Italian sculptor, born at Florence, where he was
apprenticed to a goldsmith; tried his hand at carving in leisure hours;
went to Rome and studied the monuments of ancient art; returned to
Florence and executed an "Annunciation," still preserved in a chapel in
Santa Croce, which was followed by marble statues of St. Peter, St. Mark,
and St. George, before one of which, that of St. Mark, Michael Angelo
exclaimed, "Why do you not speak to me?"; he executed tombs and figures,
or groups in bronze as well as marble; his schoolmasters were the
sculptors of Greece, and the real was his ultimate model (1383-1460).
DONATI, an Italian astronomer, born at Pisa; discoverer of the comet
of 1858, called Donati's comet (1826-1873).
DONATISTS, a sect in N. Africa, founded by Donatus, bishop of
Carthage, in the 4th century, that separated from the rest of the Church
and formed itself into an exclusive community, with bishops and
congregations of its own, on the ground that no one was entitled to be a
member of Christ's body, or an overseer of Christ's flock, who was not of
divine election, and that in the face of an attempt, backed by the
Emperor Constantine, to thrust a bishop on the Church at Carthage,
consecrated by an authority that had betrayed and sold the Church to the
world; the members of it were subject to cruel persecutions in which they
gloried, and were annihilated by the Saracens in the 7th century.
DONATUS, a Latin grammarian and rhetorician of the 4th century, the
teacher of St. Jerome; the author of treatises in grammar known as
Donats, and, along with the sacred Scriptures, the earliest examples of
printing by means of letters cut on wooden blocks, and so appreciated as
elementary treatises that they gave name to treatises of the kind on any
subject; he wrote also _scholia_ to the plays of Terence.
DONAU, the German name for the Danube.
DONCASTER (26), a market and manufacturing town in the West Riding
of Yorkshire, well built, in a pleasant country, on the right bank of the
Don, 33 m. S. of York; famous for its races, the St. Leger in particular,
called after Colonel St. Leger, who instituted them in 1776.
DONDRA HEAD, the southern extremity of Ceylon, once the site of the
capital.
DONEGAL (185), a county in the NW. of Ireland, in the province of
Ulster, the most mountainous in the country; is mossy and boggy, and is
indented along the coast with bays, and fringed with islands.
DONETZ, a tributary of the Russian Don, the basin of which forms one
large coal-field, reckoned to be as large as all Yorkshire, and is
reckoned one of the largest of any in the world.
DONGOLA, NEW, a town in Nubia, on the left bank of the Nile, above
the third cataract, 20° N. and over 700 m. from Cairo; was founded by the
Mamelukes.
DONIZETTI, a celebrated Italian composer, born at Bergamo, Lombardy,
and studied at Bologna; devoted himself to dramatic music; produced over
60 operas, among the number "Lucia di Lammermoor," the "Daughter of the
Regiment," "Lucrezia Borgia," and "La Favorita," all well known, and all
possessing a melodious quality of the first order (1797-1848).
DONNE, JOHN, English poet and divine, born in London; a man of good
degree; brought up in the Catholic faith; after weighing the claims of
the Romish and Anglican communions, joined the latter; married a young
lady of sixteen without consent of her father, which involved him in
trouble for a time; was induced to take holy orders by King James; was
made his chaplain, and finally became Dean of St. Paul's; wrote sermons,
some 200 letters and essays, as well as poems, the latter, amid many
defects, revealing a soul instinct with true poetic fire (1573-1631). See
"Professor Saintsbury on Donne."
DONNYBROOK, a village now included in Dublin, long celebrated for
its fairs and the fights it was the scene of on such occasions.
DONON, the highest peak of the Vosges Mountains.
DOO, GEORGE THOMAS, a celebrated English line-engraver, and one of
the best in his day (1800-1886).
DOON, a river rendered classic by the muse of Burns, which after a
course of 30 m. joins the Clyde 2 m. S. of Ayr.
DORA, the child-wife of "David Copperfield," Dickens's novel.
DORA D'ISTRIA, the pseudonym of Helena Ghika, born in Wallachia, of
noble birth; distinguished for her beauty and accomplishments; was
eminent as a linguist; translated the "Iliad" into German; wrote works,
the fruits of travels (1829-1888).
DORAN, JOHN, an English man of letters, born In London, of Irish
descent; wrote on miscellaneous subjects; became editor of the _Athenæum_
and _Notes and Queries_ (1807-1878).
DORAT, JEAN, a French poet, born at Limoges; a Greek scholar;
contributed much to the revival of classical literature in France, and
was one of the FRENCH PLÉIADE (q. v.); _d_. 1588.
DORCAS SOCIETY, a society for making clothing for the poor. See Acts
ix. 39.
DORCHESTER (7), the county town of Dorset, on the Frome; was a Roman
town, and contains the ruins of a Roman amphitheatre.
DORDOGNE, a river in the S. of France, which, after a course of 300
m., falls into the estuary of Garonne; also a dep. (478) through which it
flows.
DORÉ, GUSTAVE, a French painter and designer, born in Strasburg;
evinced great power and fertility of invention, having, it is alleged,
produced more than 50,000 designs; had a wonderful faculty for seizing
likenesses, and would draw from memory groups of faces he had seen only
once; among the books he illustrated are the "Contes Drolatiques" of
Balzac, the works of Rabelais and Montaigne, Dante's "Inferno," also his
"Purgatorio" and "Paradiso," "Don Quixote," Tennyson's "Idylls," Milton's
works, and Coleridge's "Ancient Mariner"; among his paintings were
"Christ Leaving the Prætorium," and "Christ's Entry into Jerusalem"; he
has left behind him works of sculpture as well as drawings and pictures;
his art has been severely handled by the critics, and most of all by
Ruskin, who treats it with unmitigated scorn (1832-1883).
DORIA, ANDREA, a naval commander, born in Genoa, of noble descent,
though his parents were poor; a man of patriotic instincts; adopted the
profession of arms at the age of 19; became commander of the fleet in
1513; attacked with signal success the Turkish corsairs that infested the
Mediterranean; served under Francis I. to free his country from a faction
that threatened its independence, and, by his help, succeeded in
expelling it; next, in fear of the French supremacy, served, under
Charles V., and entering Genoa, was hailed as its liberator, and received
the title of "Father and Defender of his country"; the rest of his life,
and it was a long one, was one incessant wrestle with his great rival
Barbarossa, the chief of the corsairs, and which ended in his defeat
(1466-1560).
DORIANS, one of the four divisions of the Hellenic race, the other
three being the Achæans, the Æolians, and the Ionians; at an early period
overran the whole Peloponnesus; they were a hardy people, of staid habits
and earnest character.
DORIC, the oldest, strongest, and simplest of the four Grecian
orders of architecture.
DORINE, a petulant domestic in Molière's "Tartuffe."
DORIS, a small mountainous country of ancient Greece, S. of
Thessaly, and embracing the valley of the Pindus.
DORIS, the wife of Nereus, and mother of the Nereids.
DORISLAUS, ISAAC, a lawyer, born at Alkmaar, in Holland; came to
England, and was appointed Judge-Advocate; acted as such at King
Charles's trial, and was for that latter offence assassinated at the
Hague one evening by certain high-flying Royalist cut-throats, Scotch
several of them; "his portrait represents him as a man of heavy,
deep-wrinkled, elephantine countenance, pressed down by the labours of
life and law" (1595-1649).
DORKING (7), a market-town picturesquely situated in the heart of
Surrey, 24 m. SW. of London; gives name to a breed of fowls; contains a
number of fashionable villas.
DORN, a distinguished German orientalist; wrote a History of the
Afghans, and on their language (1805-1881).
DORNER, ISAAK AUGUST, a German theologian, born at Würtemberg;
studied at Tübingen; became professor of Theology in Berlin, after having
held a similar post in several other German universities; his principal
works were the "History of the Development of the Doctrine of the Person
of Christ," and the "History of Protestant Theology" (1809-1884).
DORNOCH, the county town of Sutherland, a small place, but a royal
burgh; has a good golf course.
DOROS, a son of Helen and grandson of Deucalion, the father of the
Dorians, as his brother Æolis was of the Æolians.
DOROTHEA, ST., a virgin of Alexandria, suffered martyrdom by being
beheaded in 311. Festival, Feb. 6.
DORPAT (38), a town on the Embach, in Livonia, Russia, 150 m. NE. of
Riga, with a celebrated university founded by Gustavus Adolphus in 1632;
it has a well-equipped staff, and is well attended; the majority of the
population is German.
D'ORSAY, COUNT, a man of fashion, born in Paris; entered the French
army; forsook it for the society of Lord and Lady Blessington; married
Lady B.'s daughter by a former marriage; came to England with her
ladyship on her husband's death; started a joint establishment in London,
which became a rendezvous for all the literary people and artists about
town; was "Phoebus Apollo of Dandyism"; paid homage to Carlyle at Chelsea
one day in 1839; "came whirling hither in a chariot that struck all
Chelsea into mute amazement with splendour," says Carlyle, who thus
describes him, "a tall fellow of six feet three, built like a tower, with
floods of dark auburn hair, with a beauty, with an adornment
unsurpassable on this planet: withal a rather substantial fellow at
bottom, by no means without insight, without fun, and a sort of rough
sarcasm, rather striking out of such a porcelain figure"; having shown
kindness to Louis Napoleon when in London, the Prince did not forget him,
and after the _coup d'état_ appointed him to a well-salaried post, but he
did not live to enjoy it (1798-1852).
DORSET (194), maritime county in the S. of England, with a deeply
indented coast; it consists of a plain between two eastward and westward
reaching belts of downs; is mainly a pastoral county; rears sheep and
cattle, and produces butter and cheese.
DORT, or DORDRECHT (34), a town on an island in the Maas, in
the province of South Holland, 12 m. SE. of Rotterdam; admirably situated
for trade, connected as it is with the Rhine as well, on which rafts of
wood are sent floating down to it; is famous for a Synod held here in
1618-19, at which the tenets of Arminius were condemned, and the
doctrines of Calvin approved of and endorsed as the doctrines of the
Reformed Church.
DORTMUND (89), a town in Westphalia; a great mineral and railway
centre, with large iron and steel forges, and a number of breweries.
DORY, JOHN, the hero of an old ballad.
DO-THE-BOYS'-HALL, a scholastic establishment in "Nicholas
Nickleby."
DOUAY (31), a town on the Scarpe, in the dep. of Nord, France, 20 m.
S. of Lille, and one of the chief military towns of the country; has a
college founded in 1568 for the education of Catholic priests intended
for England, and is where a version of the Bible in English for the use
of Catholics was issued.
DOUBS, a tributary of the Saône, which it falls into below Dôle;
gives name to the dep. (303), which it traverses.
DOUBTING CASTLE, a castle belonging to Giant Despair in the
"Pilgrim's Progress," which only one key could open, the key Promise.
DOUCE, FRANCIS, a learned antiquary, born in London; for a time
keeper of MSS. in the British Museum; author of "Illustrations of
Shakespeare," and an illustrated volume, "The Dance of Death"; left in
the Museum a chest of books and MSS. not to be opened till 1900; was a
man of independent means, and a devoted archæologist (1757-1834).
DOUGLAS (19), the largest town and capital as well as chief port of
the Isle of Man, 74 m. from Liverpool; much frequented as a
bathing-place; contains an old residence of the Dukes of Atholl, entitled
Castle Mona, now a hotel. See MAN, ISLE OF.
DOUGLAS, the name of an old Scotch family, believed to be of Celtic
origin, and that played a conspicuous part at one time in the internal
and external struggles of the country; they figure in Scottish history in
two branches, the elder called the Black and the later the Red Douglases
or the Angus branch, now represented by the houses of Hamilton and Home.
The eldest of the Douglases, William, was a kinsman of the house of
Murray, and appears to have lived about the end of the 12th century. One
of the most illustrious of the family was the Good Sir James,
distinguished specially as the "Black" Douglas, the pink of knighthood
and the associate of Bruce, who carried the Bruce's heart in a casket to
bury it in Palestine, but died fighting in Spain, 1330.
DOUGLAS, GAWIN or GAVIN, a Scottish poet and bishop of Dunkeld,
third son of Archibald, Earl of Angus, surnamed "Bell-the-Cat"; political
troubles obliged him to leave the country and take refuge at the Court of
Henry VII., where he was held in high regard; died here of the plague,
and was buried by his own wish in the Savoy; besides Ovid's "Art of
Love," now lost, he translated (1512-1513) the "Æneid" of Virgil into
English verse, to each book of which he prefixed a prologue, in certain
of which there are descriptions that evince a poet's love of nature
combined with his love as a Scotchman for the scenery of his native land;
besides this translation, which is his chief work, he indited two
allegorical poems, entitled the "Palace of Honour," addressed to James
IV., and "King Hart" (1474-1522).
DOUGLAS, SIR HOWARD, an English general and writer on military
subjects, born at Gosport; saw service in the Peninsula; was Governor of
New Brunswick and Lord High Commissioner of the Ionian Islands
(1776-1861).
DOUGLAS, JOHN, bishop of Salisbury, born at Pittenweem, Fife; wrote
"The Criterion of, or a Discourse on, Miracles" against Hume; was a
friend of Samuel Johnson's (1721-1807).
DOUGLAS, STEPHEN ARNOLD, an American statesman, born in Brandon,
Vermont; a lawyer by profession, and a judge; a member of Congress and
the Senate; was a Democrat; stood for the Presidency when Lincoln was
elected; was a leader in the Western States; a splendid monument is
erected to his memory in Chicago (1813-1861).
DOUGLASS, FREDERICK, American orator, born a slave in Maryland;
wrought as a slave in a Baltimore shipbuilder's yard; escaped at the age
of 21 to New York; attended an anti-slavery meeting, where he spoke so
eloquently that he was appointed by the Anti-Slavery Society to lecture
in its behalf, which he did with success and much appreciation in England
as well as America; published an Autobiography, which gives a thrilling
account of his life (1817-1895).
DOULTON, SIR HENRY, the reviver of art pottery, born in Lambeth;
knighted in the Jubilee year for his eminence in that department; _b_.
1820.
DOURO, a river, and the largest, of the Spanish Peninsula, which
rises in the Cantabrian Mountains; forms for 40 m. the northern boundary
of Portugal, and after a course of 500 m. falls into the Atlantic at
Oporto; is navigable only where it traverses Portugal.
DOUSTER-SWIVEL, a German swindling schemer in the "Antiquary."
DOVE, in Christian art the symbol of the Holy Ghost, or of a pure,
or a purified soul, and with an olive branch, the symbol of peace and the
gospel of peace.
DOVE, HEINRICH WILHELM, a German physicist, born at Liegnitz,
Silesia; professor of Natural Philosophy in Berlin; was eminent chiefly
in the departments of meteorology and optics; he discovered how by the
stereoscope to detect forged bank-notes (1803-1879).
DOVER (33), a seaport on the E. coast of Kent, and the nearest in
England to the coast of France, 60 m. SE. of London, and with a mail
service to Calais and Ostend; is strongly fortified, and the chief
station in the SE. military district of England; was the chief of the
Cinque Ports.
DOVER, STRAIT OF, divides France from England and connects the
English Channel with the North Sea, and at the narrowest 20 m. across;
forms a busy sea highway; is called by the French _Pas de Calais_.
DOVREFELD, a range of mountains in Norway, stretching NE. and
extending between 62° and 63° N. lat., average height 3000 ft.
DOW or DOUW, GERARD, a distinguished Dutch genre-painter, born
at Leyden; a pupil of Rembrandt; his works, which are very numerous, are
the fruit of a devoted study of nature, and are remarkable for their
delicacy and perfection of finish; examples of his works are found in all
the great galleries of Europe (1613-1675).
DOWDEN, EDWARD, literary critic, professor of English Literature in
Dublin University, born in Cork; is distinguished specially as a
Shakesperian; is author of "Shakespeare: a Study of his Mind and Art,"
"Introduction to Shakespeare," and "Shakesperian Sonnets, with Notes";
has written "Studies in Literature," and a "Life of Shelley"; is well
read in German as well as English literature; has written with no less
ability on Goethe than on Shakespeare; _b_. 1843.
DOWN (266), a maritime county in the SE. of the province of Ulster,
Ireland, with a mostly level and fairly fertile soil, and manufactures of
linen.
DOWNS, THE, a safe place of anchorage, 8 m. long by 6 m. broad, for
ships between Goodwin Sands and the coast of Kent.
DOWNS, THE NORTH AND SOUTH, two parallel ranges of low broad hills
covered with a light soil and with a valley between, called the Weald,
that extend eastward from Hampshire to the sea-coast, the North
terminating in Dover cliffs, Kent, and the South in Beachy Head, Sussex;
the South famous for the breed of sheep that pastures on them.
DOYLE, DR. CONAN, novelist, nephew of Richard and grandson of John,
born in Edinburgh; studied and practised medicine, but gave it up after a
time for literature, in which he had already achieved no small success;
several of his productions have attracted universal attention, especially
his "Adventures" and his "Memoir of Sherlock Holmes"; wrote a short play
"A Story of Waterloo," produced with success by Sir Henry Irving; _b_.
1859.
DOYLE, SIR FRANCIS HASTINGS, an English poet, born near Tadcaster;
bred to the bar, but devoted to poetry and horse-racing; became professor
of Poetry at Oxford; author of "Miscellaneous Verses," "Two Destinies,"
"Retreat of the Guards," "The Thread of Honour," and "The Private of the
Buffs" (1810-1858).
DOYLE, JOHN, an eminent caricaturist, of Irish origin, under the
initials H. B. (1797-1868).
DOYLE, RICHARD, eminent caricaturist, born in London, son of the
preceding; contributed to _Punch_, of which he designed the cover, but
left the staff, in 1850 owing to the criticisms in the journal adverse to
the Catholic Church; devoted himself after that chiefly to book
illustration and water-colour painting (1824-1883).
DOZY, REINHART, an Orientalist and linguist, born at Leyden, where
he became professor of History; devoted himself to the study of the
history of the Arabs or Moors in North-Western Africa and Spain, his
chief work being "The History of the Mussulmans of Spain"; wrote also a
"Detailed Dictionary of the Names of the Dress of the Arabs" (1820-1883).
DRACHENFELS (Dragon's Rock), one of the Siebengebirge, 8 m. SE. of
Bonn, 1056 ft. above the Rhine, and crowned by a castle with a commanding
view; the legendary abode of the dragon killed by Siegfried in the "Lay
of the Nibelungen."
DRACO, a celebrated Athenian law-giver, who first gave stability to
the State by committing the laws to writing, and establishing the Ephetæ,
or court of appeal, 621 B.C.; only he punished every transgressor of his
laws with death, so that his code became unbearable, and was superseded
ere long by a milder, instituted by Solon, who affixed the penalty of
death to murder alone; he is said to have justified the severity of his
code by maintaining that the smallest crime deserved death, and he knew
no severer punishment for greater; it is said he was smothered to death
in the theatre by the hats and cloaks showered on him as a popular mark
of honour; he was archon of Athens.
DRAGON, a fabulous monster, being a hideous impersonation of some
form of deadly evil, which only preternatural heroic strength and courage
can subdue, and on the subdual and slaying of which depends the
achievement of some conquest of vital moment to the human race or some
members of it; is represented in mediæval art as a large, lizard-like
animal, with the claws of a lion, the wings of an eagle, and the tail of
a serpent, with open jaws ready and eager to devour, which some knight
high-mounted thrusts at to pierce to death with a spear; in the Greek
mythology it is represented with eyes ever on the watch, in symbol of the
evil that waylays us to kill us if we don't kill it, as in guarding the
"Apples of the Hesperides" and the "Golden Fleece," because these are
prizes that fall only to those who are as watchful of him as he is of
them; and it is consecrated to Minerva to signify that true wisdom, as
sensible of the ever-wakeful dragon, never goes to sleep, but is equally
ever on the watch.
DRAGONNADES, the name given to the persecution at the instance of
Louis XIV. to force the Huguenots of France back into the bosom of the
Catholic Church by employment of dragoons.
DRAGON'S TEETH, the teeth of the dragon that Cadmus slew, and which
when sown by him sprang up as a host of armed men, who killed each other
all to the five who became the ancestors of the Thebans, hence the phrase
to "sow dragon's teeth," to breed and foster strife.
DRAKE, SIR FRANCIS, a great English seaman of the reign of Queen
Elizabeth, born near Tavistock, in Devon; served in the Royal Navy under
his relative, Sir John Hawkins, and distinguished himself with signal
success by his valour and daring against the pride of Spain, towards
which, as the great Catholic persecuting power, he had been taught to
cherish an invincible hatred; came swoop down like a hawk on its ports
across seas, and bore himself out of them laden with spoil; in 1577
sailed for America with five ships, passed through the Strait of
Magellan, the first Englishman to do it; plundered the W. coast as far as
Peru; lost all his ships save one; crossed the Pacific, and came home by
way of the Cape--the first to sail round the world--with spoil to the
value of £300,000, his successes contributing much to embolden his
countrymen against the arrogance of the Catholic king; and he was
vice-admiral in the fleet that drove back the Armada from our shores
(1540-1596).
DRAKE, FRIEDRICH, a German sculptor, born at Pyrmont; studied under
Rauch; executed numerous statues and busts, among others busts of Oken
and Ranke, Bismarck and Moltke; his chief works are the "Eight Provinces
of Prussia," represented by large allegorical figures, and the "Warrior
crowned by Victory" (1805-1882).
DRAKE, NATHAN, a physician, born at York; author of "Shakespeare and
his Times" (1766-1836).
DRAKENBERG MOUNTAINS, a range of mountains in S. Africa, 6500 ft.
high, between Natal and the Orange Free State.
DRAMATIC UNITIES, three rules of dramatic construction prescribed by
Aristotle, observed by the French dramatists, but ignored by Shakespeare,
that (1) a play should represent what takes place within eight hours, (2)
there must be no change of locality, and (3) there must be no minor plot.
DRAMMEN (20), a Norwegian seaport on a river which falls into
Christiania Bay, 30 m. SW. of Christiania; trade chiefly in timber.
DRAPER, JOHN WILLIAM, a chemist, scientist, and man of letters, born
at Liverpool; settled in the United States; wrote on chemistry,
physiology, and physics generally, as well as works of a historical
character, such as the "History of the Intellectual Development of
Europe" and the "History of the Conflict between Science and Religion,"
an able book (1811-1882).
DRAPIER, a pseudonym adopted by Swift in his letters to the people
of Ireland anent Wood's pence, and which led to the cancelling of the
patent.
DRAVE, a river from the Eastern Alps which flows eastward, and after
a course of 380 miles falls into the Danube 10 m. below Essek.
DRAVIDIANS, races of people who occupied India before the arrival of
Aryans, and being driven S. by them came to settle chiefly in the S. of
the Dekkan; they are divided into numerous tribes, each with a language
of its own, but of a common type or group, some of them literary and
some of them not, the chief the Tamil; the tribes together number over
20 millions.
DRAWCANSIR, a blustering, bullying boaster in Buckingham's play the
"Rehearsal"; he kills every one of the combatants, "sparing neither
friend nor foe."
DRAYTON, MICHAEL, an English poet, born In Warwickshire, like
Shakespeare; was one of the three chief patriotic poets, Warner and
Daniel being the other two, which arose in England after her humiliation
of the pride of Spain, although he was no less distinguished as a love
poet; his great work is his "Polyolbion," in glorification of England,
consisting of 30 books and 100,000 lines; it gives in Alexandrines "the
tracts, mountains, forests, and other parts of this renowned isle of
Britain, with intermixture of the most remarkable stories, antiquities,
wonders, pleasures, and commodities of the same digested in a poem"; this
was preceded by other works, and succeeded by a poem entitled "The Ballad
of Agincourt," pronounced one of the most spirited martial lyrics in the
language (1563-1631).
DRELINCOURT, a French Protestant divine, born at Sedan; author of
"Consolations against the Fear of Death" (1595-1669).
DRENTHE (137), a province of Holland lying between Hanover and the
Zuyder Zee; the soil is poor, and the population sparse.
DRESDEN (250), the capital of Saxony, on the Elbe, 116 m. SE. of
Berlin; a fine city, with a museum rich in all kinds of works of art, and
called in consequence the "Florence of Germany"; here the Allies were
defeated by Napoleon in 1813, when he entered the city, leaving behind
him 30,000 men, who were besieged by the Russians and compelled to
surrender as prisoners of war the same year.
DREYFUS, L'AFFAIRE. On 23rd December 1894, Alfred Dreyfus, an
Alsatian Jew, captain of French Artillery; was by court-martial found
guilty of revealing to a foreign power secrets of national defence, and
sentenced to degradation and perpetual imprisonment; he constantly
maintained his innocence, and, in time, the belief that he had been
unjustly condemned became prevalent, and a revision of the trial being at
length ordered, principally through the exertions of Colonel Picquart and
Zola, the well-known author, Dreyfus was brought back from Cayenne, where
he had been kept a close prisoner and cruelly treated, and a fresh trial
at Rennes began on 6th August 1899, and lasted till 9th September; the
proceedings, marked by scandalous "scenes," and by an attempt to
assassinate one of prisoner's counsel--disclosed an alarmingly corrupt
condition of affairs in some lines of French public life under the
Republic of the time, and terminated in a majority verdict of "guilty";
M. Dreyfus was set at liberty on 20th September, the sentence of ten
years' imprisonment being remitted; _b_. 1860.
DREYSE, NICHOLAUS VON, inventor of the needle-gun, born at Sömmerda,
near Erfurt, the son of a locksmith, and bred to his father's craft;
established a large factory at Sömmerda for a manufactory of firearms;
was ennobled 1864 (1787-1867).
DROGHEDA (11), a seaport in co. Louth, near the mouth of the Boyne,
32 m. N. of Dublin, with manufactures and a considerable export trade;
was stormed by Cromwell in 1649 "after a stout resistance," and the
garrison put to the sword; surrendered to William III. after the battle
of the Boyne in 1690.
DROMORE, a cathedral town in co. Down, Ireland, 17 m. SW. of
Belfast, of which Jeremy Taylor was bishop.
DROOGS, steep rocks which dot the surface of Mysore, in India, and
resemble hay-ricks, some of these 1500 ft. high, some with springs on the
top, and scalable only by steps cut in them.
DROSTE-HÜLSHOFF, FRAULEIN VON, a German poetess, born near Münster;
was of delicate constitution; wrote tales as well as lyrics in record of
deep and tender experiences (1797-1848).
DROUET, JEAN BAPTISTE, notable king-taker, a violent Jacobin and
member of the Council of the Five Hundred; had been a dragoon soldier;
was postmaster at St. Menehould when Louis XVI., attempting flight,
passed through the place, and by whisper of surmise had the progress of
Louis and his party arrested at Varennes, June 21, 1791, for which
service he received honourable mention and due reward in money; was taken
captive by the Austrians at last; perched on a rock 100 ft. high,
descended one night by means of a paper kite he had constructed, but was
found at the foot helpless with leg broken (1763-1824).
DROUET, JEAN BAPTISTE, COMTE D'ERLON, marshal of France, born at
Rheims; distinguished in the wars of the Republic and the Empire; on
Napoleon's return from Elba seized on the citadel of Lille, and held it
for the emperor; commanded the first _corps d'armée_ at Waterloo; left
France at the Restoration; returned after the July Revolution; became
governor of Algiers, and was created marshal (1765-1844).
DROUOT, a French general, son of a baker at Nancy; Napoleon, whom,
as commander of artillery, he accompanied over all his battlefields in
Europe and to Elba, used to call him the _Sage of the Grande Armée_
(1774-1847).
DROUYN DE LHUYS, French statesman and diplomatist, born in Paris;
was ambassador at the Hague and Madrid; distinguished himself by his
opposition to Guizot; served as Minister of Foreign Affairs under Louis
Napoleon; withdrew into private life after the collapse at Sedan
(1805-1881).
DROYSEN, a German historian, born in Pomerania; professor in Berlin;
author of the "History of Prussian Policy," "History of Alexander the
Great," and "History of Hellenism" (1808-1884).
DROZ, the name of a Swiss family of mechanicians, one of them, Jean
Pierre, an engraver of medals (1746-1833); also of a French moralist and
historian, author of "History of Louis XVI." (1773-1850).
DROZ, GUSTAV, a highly popular and brilliant novelist, born in
Paris; author of "Monsieur, Madam, et Bébé," "Entre Nous," and "Cahier
bleu de Mlle. Cibot" (1832-1895).
DRUIDS, a sacred order of learned men under a chief called the
Archdruid, among the ancient Celtic nations, particularly of Gaul and
Britain, who, from their knowledge of the arts and sciences of the day,
were the ministers of religion and justice, as well as the teachers of
youth to the whole community, and exercised an absolute control over the
unlearned people whom they governed; they worshipped in oak groves, and
the oak tree and the mistletoe were sacred to them; the heavenly bodies
appear to have been also objects of their worship, and they appear to
have believed in the immortality and transmigration of the soul; but they
committed nothing to writing, and for our knowledge of them we have to
depend on the reports of outsiders.
DRUMCLOG MOSS, a flat wilderness of broken bog and quagmire in
Lanarkshire, where the Covenanters defeated Claverhouse's dragoons in
1679.
DRUMMOND, HENRY, popular scientist and Christian teacher, born in
Stirling; was educated at Edinburgh and Tübingen; studied for the Free
Church; lectured on natural science; became famous by the publication of
"Natural Law in the Spiritual World," a book which took with the
Christian public at once, and had an enormous sale, which was succeeded
by "Tropical Africa," a charmingly-written book of travel, and by a
series of booklets, commencing with "The Greatest Thing in the World,"
intended to expound and commend the first principles of the Christian
faith; his last work except one, published posthumously, entitled the
"Ideal Life," was the "Ascent of Man," in which he posits an altruistic
element in the process of evolution, and makes the goal of it a higher
and higher life (1851-1897).
DRUMMOND, CAPTAIN THOMAS, civil engineer, born in Edinburgh;
inventor of the Drummond Light; was employed in the trigonometrical
survey of Great Britain and Ireland; became Under-Secretary for Ireland,
and was held in high favour by the Irish (1797-1840).
DRUMMOND, WILLIAM, of Hawthornden, a Scottish poet, named the
"Petrarch of Scotland," born in Hawthornden; studied civil law at
Bourges, but poetry had more attractions for him than law, and on the
death of his father he returned to his paternal estate, and devoted
himself to the study of it and the indulgence of his poetic tastes. "His
work was done," as Stopford Brooke remarks, "in the reign of James I.,
but is the result of the Elizabethan influence extending to Scotland.
Drummond's sonnets and madrigals have some of the grace of Sidney, and he
rose at intervals into grave and noble verse, as in his sonnet on John
the Baptist." He was a devoted Royalist; his first poem was "Tears" on
the death of James I.'s eldest son Henry, and the fate of Charles I. is
said to have cut short his days; the visit of Ben Jonson to him at
Hawthornden is well known (1585-1649).
DRUMMOND LIGHT, an intensely-brilliant and pure white light produced
by the play of an oxyhydrogen flame upon a ball of lime, so called from
the inventor, Captain Thomas Drummond.
DRURY, DRU, a naturalist, born in London; bred a silversmith; took
to entomology; published "Illustrations of Natural History"; his
principal work "Illustrations of Exotic Entomology" (1725-1803).
DRURY LANE, a celebrated London theatre founded in 1663, in what was
a fashionable quarter of the city then; has since that time been thrice
burnt down; was the scene of Garrick's triumphs, and of those of many of
his illustrious successors, though it is now given up chiefly to
pantomimes and spectacular exhibitions.
DRUSES, a peculiar people, numbering some 80,000, inhabiting the S.
of Lebanon and Anti-lebanon, with the Maronites on the N., whose origin
is very uncertain, only it is evident, though they speak the Arab
language, they belong to the Aryan race; their religion, a mixture of
Christian, Jewish, and Mohammedan beliefs, is grounded on faith in the
unity and the incarnation of God; their form of government is half
hierarchical and half feudalistic; in early times they were under emirs
of their own, but in consequence of the sanguinary, deadly, and mutually
exterminating strife between them and the Christian Maronites in 1860,
they were put under a Christian governor appointed by the Porte.
DRUSUS, M. LIVIUS, a tribune of the people at Rome in 122 B.C., but
a stanch supporter of the aristocracy; after passing a veto on a popular
measure proposed by Gracchus his democratic colleague, proposed the same
measure himself in order to show and prove to the people that the
patricians were their best friends; the success of this policy gained him
the name of "patron of the senate."
DRUSUS, M. LIVIUS, tribune of the people, 91 B.C., son of the
preceding, and an aristocrat; pursued the same course as his father, but
was baffled in the execution of his purpose, which was to broaden the
constitution, in consequence of which he formed a conspiracy, and was
assassinated, an event which led to the SOCIAL WAR (q. v.).
DRUSUS, NERO CLAUDIUS, surnamed "Germanicus," younger brother of
Tiberius and son-in-law of Marc Antony; distinguished himself in four
successive campaigns against the tribes of Germany, but stopped short at
the Elbe, scared by the apparition of a woman of colossal stature who
defied him to cross, so that he had to "content himself with erecting
some triumphal pillars on his own safe side of the river and say that the
tribes across were conquered"; falling ill of a mortal malady, his
brother the emperor hastened across the Alps to close his eyes, and
brought home his body, which was burned and the ashes buried in the tomb
of Augustus.
DRYADS, nymphs of forest trees, which were conceived of as born with
the tree they were attached to and dying along with it; they had their
abode in wooded mountains away from men; held their revels among
themselves, but broke them off at the approach of a human footstep.
DRYAS, the father of Lycurgus, a Thracian king, and slain by him,
who, in a fit of frenzy against the Bacchus worshippers, mistook him for
a vine and cut him down. See LYCURGUS.
DRYASDUST, a name of Sir Walter Scott's invention, and employed by
him to denote an imaginary character who supplied him with dry
preliminary historical details, and since used to denote a writer who
treats a historical subject with all due diligence and research, but
without any appreciation of the human interest in it, still less the soul
of it.
DRYBURGH, an abbey, now a ruin, founded by David I., on the Tweed,
in Berwickshire, 3 m. SE. of Melrose; the burial-place of Sir Walter
Scott.
DRYDEN, JOHN, a celebrated English poet, "glorious John," born in
Northamptonshire, of a good family of Puritan principles; educated at
Westminster School and Cambridge; his first poetic production of any
merit was a set of "heroic stanzas" on the death of Cromwell; at the
Restoration he changed sides and wrote a poem which he called "Astræa
Redux" in praise of the event, which was ere long followed by his "Annus
Mirabilis," in commemoration of the year 1666, which revealed at once the
poet and the royalist, and gained him the appointment of poet-laureate,
prior to which and afterwards he produced a succession of plays for the
stage, which won him great popularity, after which he turned his mind to
political affairs and assumed the role of political satirist by
production of his "Absalom and Achitophel," intended to expose the
schemes of Shaftesbury, represented as Achitophel and Monmouth as
Absalom, to oust the Duke of York from the succession to the throne; on
the accession of James II. he became a Roman Catholic, and wrote "The
Hind and the Panther," characterised by Stopford Brooke as "a model of
melodious reasoning in behalf of the milk-white hind of the Church of
Rome," and really the most powerful thing of the kind in the language; at
the Revolution he was deprived of his posts, but it was after that event
he executed his translation of Virgil, and produced his celebrated odes
and "Fables" (1631-1700).
DUALISM, or MANICHÆISM, the doctrine that there are two
opposite and independently existing principles which go to constitute
every concrete thing throughout the universe, such as a principle of good
and a principle of evil, light and darkness, life and death, spirit and
matter, ideal and real, yea and nay, God and Devil, Christ and
Antichrist, Ormuzd and Ahriman.
DU BARRY, COUNTESS, mistress of Louis XV., born at Vaucouleurs,
daughter of a dressmaker; came to Paris, professing millinery; had
fascinating attractions, and was introduced to the king; governed France
to its ruin and the dismissal of all Louis' able and honourable advisers;
fled from Paris on the death of Louis, put on mourning for his death; was
arrested, brought before the Revolutionary tribunal, condemned for
wasting the finances of the State, and guillotined (1746-1793).
DU BELLAY, a French general, born at Montmirail; served under
Francis I. (1541-1590).
DUBLIN (360), the capital of Ireland, at the mouth of the Liffey,
which divides it in two, and is crossed by 12 bridges; the principal and
finest street is Sackville Street, which is about 700 yards long and 40
wide; it has a famous university and two cathedrals, besides a castle,
the residence of the Lord-Lieutenant; and a park, the Phoenix, one of the
finest in Europe; manufactures porter, whisky, and poplin.
DUBOIS, GUILLAUME, cardinal and prime minister of France; notorious
for his ambition and his debauchery; appointed tutor to the Duke of
Orleans; encouraged him in vice, and secured his attachment and patronage
in promotion, so that in the end he rose to the highest honours, and even
influence, in both Church and state; notwithstanding his debauchery he
was an able man and an able minister (1656-1723).
DUBOIS, REYMOND, a German physiologist, born in Berlin, of French
descent; professor of Physiology at Berlin; distinguished for his
researches in animal electricity; _b_. 1818.
DUBOIS DE CRANCÉ, a violent French revolutionary, born at
Charleville; besieged and captured Lyons, giving no quarter; was Minister
of War under the Directory; secured the adoption of the principle of
conscription in recruiting the army (1747-1814).
DUBOURG, a French magistrate, member of the parlement of Paris;
burnt as a heretic for recommending clemency in the treatment of the
Huguenots (1521-1559).
DUBUFE, a distinguished French portrait-painter (1820-1883).
DUBUQUE (36), a town in Iowa, U.S., on the Mississippi, with
lead-mines and a trade in grain, timber, &c.
DUCAMP, MAXIME, a French littérateur, born in Paris; has written
"Travels in the East"; is the author of "Paris," its civic life, as also
an account of its "Convulsions"; _b_. 1822.
DU CANGE, CHARLES, one of the most erudite of French scholars, born
at Amiens, and educated among the Jesuits; wrote on language, law,
archæology, and history; devoted himself much to the study of the Middle
Ages; contributed to the rediscovery of old French literature, and wrote
a history of the Latin empire; his greatest works are his Glossaries of
the Latin and Greek of the Middle Ages (1614-1688).
DUCAT, a coin, generally in gold, that circulated in Venice, and was
current in Germany at one time, of varied value.
DU CHAILLU, PAUL BELLONI, an African traveller, born in Louisiana;
his principal explorations confined to the equatorial region of West
Africa, and the result an extension of our knowledge of its geography,
ethnology, and zoology, and particularly of the character and habits of
the ape tribes, and above all the gorilla; _b_. 1837.
DU CHÂTELET, MARQUISE DE, a scientific lady and friend of
Voltaire's, born in Paris; "a too fascinating shrew," as he at length
found to his cost (1706-1749).
DUCHESNE, ANDRÉ, French historian and geographer, born in Touraine;
styled the "Father of French History"; famous for his researches in it
and in French antiquities, and for histories of England, Scotland, and
Ireland respectively; his industry was unwearied; he left more than 100
folios in MS. (1584-1640).
DUCHOBORTZI, a religious community in Russia of Quaker principles,
and of a creed that denied the doctrine of the Trinity and the divinity
of Christ; they became a cause of trouble to the empire by their
fanaticism, and were removed to a high plateau in Transcaucasia, where
they live by cattle-rearing.
DUCIS, JEAN, a French dramatist, born at Versailles; took
Shakespeare for his model; declined Napoleon's patronage, thinking it
better, as he said, to wear rags than wear chains (1733-1816).
DUCKING STOOL, a stool or chair in which a scolding woman was
confined, and set before her own door to be pelted at, or borne in a
tumbrel through the town to be jeered at, or placed at the end of a
see-saw and _ducked_ in a pool.
DUCLOS, CHARLES, a witty and satirical French writer, born at Dinan;
author of "Observations," and "A History of the Manners of the Eighteenth
Century," and "Mémoires of the Reigns of Louis XIV. and Louis XV."; he
mingled much in French society of the period, and took studious note of
its passing whims (1704-1772).
DUCORNET, a French historical-painter, born at Lille; being born
without arms, painted with his foot (1805-1856).
DUCOS, ROGER, French politician, born at Bordeaux, member of the
National Convention and of the Directory (1754-1816).
DUCROT, a French general, born at Nivers; served in Algeria, in the
Italian campaign of 1859, and as head of a division in the German War;
was imprisoned for refusing to sign the capitulation treaty of Sedan, but
escaped and took part in the defence of Paris when besieged by the
Germans (1817-1882).
DU DEFFAND, MARQUISE. See DEFFAND.
DUDLEY (90), the largest town in Worcestershire, 8½ m. NW. of
Birmingham, in the heart of the "Black Country," with coal-mines,
iron-works, and hardware manufactures.
DUDLEY, EDMUND, an English lawyer and privy-councillor; was
associated with Empson as an agent in carrying on the obnoxious policy of
Henry VII., and beheaded along with him at the instance of Henry VIII. on
a charge of high treason in 1510.
DUDLEY, JOHN, grand-marshal of England, son of the preceding,
father-in-law of Lady Jane Grey; beheaded in 1558 for his part in an
insurrection in her favour.
DUFF, ALEXANDER, an eminent Indian missionary, born at Moulin, near
Pitlochry, Perthshire; a man of Celtic blood, apostolic zeal, and fervid
eloquence; was the first missionary sent out to India by the Church of
Scotland; sailed in 1830, returned in 1840, in 1849, and finally in 1863,
stirring up each time the missionary spirit in the Church; he was the
originator of a new method of missionary operations in the East by the
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