strength, swiftness, and eloquence; his character is sufficiently distinguished by the noblest qualities, endowments, and events.

"Exalted from an humble shepherd to a mighty monarch, without the least tincture of pride, disdain, or envy: quite otherwise; remarkably humble in exaltation; or rather, humbled by it. Exalted, unenvied! Exalted himself, and equally exalting the state he ruled; raising it from contempt, poverty, and oppression, to wealth, dignity, and sway. A man experienced in every vicissitude of fortune and life, and equal to them all. Thoroughly tried in adversity, and tempted by success: yet still superior! Cruelly and unjustly per. secuted; yet not to be provoked even to just revenge. In the saddest and suddenest reverse of fortune, depressed by nothing but the remembrance of guilt; and in consequence of that, unhumbled to any thing but God.

"To sum up all; a true believer, and zealous adorer, of God; teacher of his law and worship, and inspirer of his praise. A glorious example, a perpetual and inexhaustible fountain, of true piety. A consummate and unequalled hero, a skilful and a fortunate captain. A steady patriot, a wise ruler, a faithful, a generous, and a magnanimous friend and, what is yet rarer, a no less generous and magnanimous enemy! A true penitent, a divine musician, a sublime poet, and an inspired prophet. By birth a peasant, by merit a prince, In youth, a hero; in manhood, a monarch; in age, a saint!

"This is David. What his revilers are, their own revilings tell."

DAVID (St.), a native of Wales, and the tutelar saint of that country. He was descended from the royal family of the Britons, being uncle to king Arthur, and was son of Xantus, prince of Cereticu, now Cardiganshire. He was brought up in the service of God, and being ordained priest, retired into the Isle of Wight, and embraced an ascetic life. He studied a long time to prepare himself for the functions of the holy ministry; at length, coming out of his solitude, like the Baptist out of the Desert, he preached the word of eternal life to the Britons. He founded twelve monasteries, the principal of which was in the vale of Ross, near Menevia, where he formed many great pastors, and eminent servants of God. By his rule he obliged all his monks to assiduous manual labour, and allowed them the use of no cattle in tilling the ground. They returned late in the day to the monastery; and these labours were never interrupted but by prayers and reading the Holy Scriptures, short repose, and moderate refreshment. Pelagianism springing up a second time in Britain, the bishops, in order to suppress it, held a synod at Brevy, in Cardiganshire. St. David, being in vited to it, went thither, and in that venerable assembly confuted and silenced the doctrine, by his eloquence and learning. At the close of the synod, the archbishop of Caerleon resigned his see to St. David, whose tears and opposition were only to be overcome by the

absolute command of the synod. He had,'' however, liberty to transfer his see from Caerleon, then a populous city, to Menevia, now called St. David's. Gyraldus adds, that St. David was the great ornament and pattern of his age. He spoke with great force and energy; but his example was more powerful than his eloquence, and he has in all succeeding ages been the glory of the British church. He continued in his last see many years, and died towards the latter end of the 6th century, in a very advanced age. He was buried in his church of St. Andrew, which hath since taken his name, with the town and whole diocese. His day (March 1), is kept as a festival through the whole principality, as well as by the natives of Wales who reside in London (Audley's Companion to the Almanack, pa. 13).

DAVID'S (St.) an episcopal town of Pembrokeshire, in South Wales. It was formerly an archiepiscopal see, and the metropolitan of the British church. The see was removed by David from Caerleon to St. David's, in 577; and lost its archiepiscopal power about 1115, when it became a suffragan to the see of Canterbury. Its annual value was estimated at 4267. 28. Id. in the time of Henry VIII. This place is the most western of the main land in Wales. Lat. 51. 56 N. Lơn. 5. 15 W.

DAVIE/SIA, in botany, a genus of the class decandria, order monogynia. Calyx angular, simple, five-cleft; corol papilionaceous; stigma simple, acute; legume compressed, oneseeded. One species only; a native of Australasia: a rigid shrub with simple pungent

leaves.

DAVIS (John), a famous navigator in the sixteenth century, was born at Sandridge, near Dartmouth in Devonshire; and distinguished himself by making three voyages to the most northern parts of America, in order to discover a north-west passage to the East Indies; in which he discovered the straits which bear his name. He afterwards performed five voyages to the East Indies; in the last of which he was slain in a desperate fight with some Japanese, near the coast of Malacca, on the 27th of December, 1605. He wrote an account of his second voyage for the discovery of the northwest passage; a voyage to the East Indies; and other tracts.

DAVIS'S STRAITS, an arm of the sea between Greenland and N. America, discovered by captain Davis in 1585, when he attempted to find a N.W. passage to China.

DAVIT, in a ship, that short piece of timber, with a notch at one end, wherein, by a strap hangs the fish-block. The use of this block is to help up the flake of the anchor, and to fasten it at the ship's bow, or loof. The davit is shiftable from one side of the ship to the other, as there is occasion. There is also a small davit in the ship's boat, that is set over her head with a shiver, in which is brought the buoy rope, wherewith to weigh the anchor.

To DAUNT. v. a. (domter, Fr.) To discourage; to fright; to intimidate (Granville.)

DAUNTLESS. a. (from daunt.) Fearless; not dejected (Pope).

DAUNTLESSNESS. 8. Fearlessness.
DAUPHIN, DOLPHIN.
See DELPHINUS.

In astronomy.

DAUPHIN, a title given, during the exist ence of royalty in France, to the eldest son and presumptive heir of the crown. For the reason of which title, see DAUPHINY.

DAUPHINY, a province of France, bounded on the W. by the river Rhone, on the N. by the Rhone and Savoy, on the S. by Provence, and on the E. by the Alps. Some part of this country is fertile, producing corn, wine, olives, wood, copperas, silk, crystal, iron, and copper: but the greatest part of it is barren. It was formerly governed by its own princes: the last of whom, Dauphin Humbert, about the year 1313, made his territory over to the king of France, upon condition that the king's eldest son should enjoy it; and it was on this account that the heir to the crown of France was styled Dauphin. This province forms the present departments of Drome, Isere, and U Upper Alps.

DAURAT (John), a French poet, born in 1507. He made so great a progress in his studies at Paris, that he was appointed one of the Greek professors in that university. Charles IX. made him poet-laureat, and took great pleasure in his conversation. At the age of eighty he married a young girl, who brought His poems in Greek, Latin, and French, are exceedingly numerous. He died at Paris in 1588.

him a son.

DAW. In ornithology. See CORVUS

MONEDULA.

DAW (Surinam).

MENSIS.

See CORVUS SURINA

Daw (Black and yellow). See ORIOLUS PERSICUS.

DAWK. s. A hollow or incision in stuff (Moxon).

To DÁwк, v. a. To mark with an incision. To DAWN. v n. 1. To grow laminous; to begin to grow light (Pope). 2. To glimmer obscurely (Locke). 3. To begin, yet faintly; to give some promises of lustre or eminence (Pope).

DAWN. 8. (from the verb.) 1. The time between the first appearance of light and the sun's rise (Dryden). 2. Beginning; first rise (Pope).

DAY, a division of time arising from the appearance and disappearance of the sun.

DAY is either natural or artificial.

DAY (Artificial), is that which is primarily meant by the word day, and is the time of its being light, or the time while the sun is above the horizon. Though sometimes the twilight is included in the term day-light; in opposition to night or darkness, being the time from the end of twilight to the beginning of day-light. DAY (Natural), is the portion of time in which the sun performs one revolution round the earth; or rather, the time in which the earth makes a rotation on its axis. And this is either astronomical or civil.

DAY (Civil), is the time allotted for day in civil purposes, and begins differentlyin different nations, but still including one whole rotation of the earth on its axis; beginning either at sunrise, sun-set, noon, or midnight. 1st. At sunrising, among the ancient Babylonians, Persiaus, Syrians, and most other eastern nations, with the present inhabitants of the Balearic islands, the Greeks, &c. 2dly, At sun-setting, among the ancient Athenians and Jews, with the Austrians, Bohemians, Marcomanni, Silesians, modern Italians, and Chinese. 3dly, At noon, with astronomers, and the ancient Umbri and Arabians. And 4thly, at midnight, among the ancient Egyptians and Romans, with the modern English, French, Dutch, Germans, Spaniards, and Portuguese.

The day is divided into hours; and a certain number of days makes a week, a month, or a year. The old Latin names for the days in the week are still retained in the journals of parliament and of medical men: they are as follow: dies Solis, dies Lunæ, dies Martis, dies Mercurii, dies Jovis, dies Veneris, and dies

Saturni.

:

The northern nations, however, have substituted for the Roman divinities, such of their own as most nearly resembled them in their peculiar attributes. Thus, the third day of the week, consecrated by the Romans to Mars, was named from the Scandinavian deity Tyr. In the Danish and Swedish language it is Tyrsdag, from whence our Tuesday. Tyr was an inferior deity, but presided over battles and Tacitus renders the name Tyr by that of Mars, and makes him inferior to Odin, whom he describes under the name of Mercury. From this Odin or Wodin, we derive Wednesday, answering to dies Mercurii. Thursday is the day of the great god Thor, the most formidable of the northern deities, The goddess Freya, from whose name we derive our Friday, bears a still greater resemblance to Venus: nay, so striking is the analogy, that some authors have considered it as more than probable that the mythology of the barbarous nations of the north had a common origin with that of the Greeks and Romans.

DAY (Astronomical), begins at noon, or when the sun's centre is on the meridian, and is counted twenty-four hours to the following noon.

The astronomical day, or the interval of time between two successive transits of the sun's centre over the same meridian, is called, likewise, a solar day. And the interval between two successive returns of the same fixed star to the same meridian, is called a sidereal day.

Mr. Flamstead has shown, that one day, when the sun is in the equinoctial, is shorter than when he is in the tropics, by forty seconds; and that fourteen tropical days are longer than so many equinoctial ones, by ten minutes. This inequality of the solar days arises from a combination of two causes: the obliquity of the ecliptic, and the eccentricity of the earth's orbit; while the equation of time

Mr. Euler (in Phil. Trans. vol. xlvi. p. 358), says he has some reasons, deduced from Jupiter's action on the earth, to think, that the earth's revolution upon its axis becomes continually more and more rapid. But M. Laplace (Mecanique Celeste, tom. iii.) proves both from theory, and from a computation of eclipses that took place more than 2000 years ago, that the mean length of the day has undergone no change; thus establishing the invariability of the most essential measure in all astronomical observations.

For the variety in the lengths of days and nights in different climates and seasons, see CLIMATES and SEASONS.

From DAY to DAY; without certainty or continuance (Bacon).

To-DAY. On this day (Fenton). DA'YBED. 3. (day and bed.) A bed used for idleness or luxury (Shakspeare).

DA'YBOOK. 8. (from day and book.) A tradesman's journal.

DA'YBREAK. 8. (day and break.) The dawn: the first appearance of light (Dryden). DAY-FLY. In entomology. See EPHE

MERA.

DAYLA'BOUR. 8. (day and labour.) La bour by the day (Milton).

DAYLA'BOURER. s. (from daylabour.) One that works by the day (Milton).

DAYLIGHT. 8. (day and light.) The light of the day, as opposed to that of the moon, or a taper (Knolles. Newton).

DAY-LILY. In botany. See HEMERO

TALLIS.

DAY-NET, a net generally used for taking such small birds as play in the air, and will stoop either to prey, gig, or the like; as larks, linnets, buntings, &c. The season of the year for using this net, is from August to November; and the best time is very early in the morning and the milder the air, and the brighter the sun, the better will be the sport, and the longer its continuance. The place where this net should be laid, ought to be plain champaign, either on short stubbles, green lays, or flat meadows, near corn fields, and somewhat remote from towns and villages: the net must lie close to the ground, that the birds creep not out and make their escape.

This net is made of fine packthread, with a small mesh, not exceeding half an inch square: it must be three fathoms long, and one broad; its shape is like the crow-net, and it must be verged about after the same manner, with a small but strong cord, and the two ends extended upon two small, long poles, adapted to the breadth of the net, with four stakes, tailstrings, and drawing-lines.

The net is double, each side being exactly alike; and laid opposite to each other, so even and close, that when they are drawn and pulled over, they must meet and touch.

Fix the net down with strong stakes, very stiff on their lines, so that you may with a nimble twitch cast them backwards and for

wards at pleasure; then fasten your drawingcords, or hard-lines (of which there must be a dozen at least, each two yards long), to the upper end of the foremost staves; and so extend them of such a straightness, that with a little strength they may raise up the nets, and cast them over.

Your net being thus laid, place your gigs, or playing wantons, about twenty or thirty paces beyond, and as much on this side your nets: the gigs must be fastened to the tops of long poles, and turned into the wind, so as to play and make a noise in it. These gigs are a sort of toys made of long goose-feathers, like shuttle-cocks, with little small tunnels of wood, running in broad and flat swan-quills, made round, like a small hoop; whence with longer strings fastened to the pole, they will, with any small wind or air, so move, that birds will come, in great flocks, to play about them.

When you have placed your gigs, next place your decoy; which is a small stake of wood, to prick down in the earth, having in it a morticehole, in which a small, long, and slender piece of wood, about two feet long, is fastened, so that it may move up and down at pleasure: and fasten to this longer stick a small line, which running through a hole in the stick, and so coming up to the place where you are to sit, you may, by drawing the line up and down with your right hand, raise up the longer stick from the ground, as you see occasion.

Fasten a live lark, or some similar bird, to this longer stick, with which the line making it to stir up and down by your pulling, will entice the birds to come to your net.

There is another enticement, to attract these birds, called a looking-glass; which is a round stake of wood, as big as a man's arm, made very sharp at the end, to be thrust into the ground. Artists make it very hollow in the upper part, about five fingers deep; into which hollow they place a three-square piece of wood, about a foot long, and each two inches broad, lying upon the top of the stake, and going with a foot into the hollowness; which foot must have a great knob at the top, and another at the bottom, with a deep slenderness between, to which slenderness you are to fasten a small packthread, which running through a hole in the side of the stake, must come up to the place where you sit. The three-square piece of wood which lies on the top of the stake, must be of such a true poise and evenness, and the foot in the socket so smooth and globular, that it may whirl and turn round upon the least touch, winding the packthread so many times about it, which being suddenly drawn and as suddenly relinquished, will keep the engine in a constant rotation: then fasten with glue, upon the uppermost flat squares of the three-square piece, about twenty small pieces of looking-glass, and paint all the square wood between them of a light and lively red; which in the continual motion will give such a reflection, that the birds will play about to admiration till they are taken.

Both this and the other decoy are to be

placed in the midst between the two nets, at about two or three feet distance from each other; so that in the falling of the nets, the cords may not touch or annoy them: neither must they stand one before or after another, the glass being kept in a continual motion, and the bird very often fluttering. Having placed your net in this manner, as also your gigs and lures, go to the further end of your long drawingfines and enticing lines, and having fixed your self, lay the main drawing-line across your thigh, and with your left hand pull the decoy. line to shew the birds; and when you perceive them play near and about your nets and lures, pull the net over with both hands with a quick, but not too hasty, motion; otherwise your sport will be spoiled.

Remember to lay behind you, where you sit, all the spare instruments and implements to be used; as stakes, poles, line, packthread, knitting-pin, and needle, your decoy-bag, a mallet to knock in the stakes upon occasion: and, lastly, let the first half dozen of birds yon take be kept alive for lures, for you must not be unprovided with these upon any account.

In Plate XCII. fig. 1. A shews the bodies of the main net, and how they ought to be laid. B the tail, or hinder lines, staked to the ground. C the fore lines, staked also to the ground. D the knitting-needle. E the bird-lure. F the looking-glass lure. G the line which draws the bird-lure. H the line that draws the glasslure. I the drawing double lines of the net which pulls them over. K the stakes which stake down the four nether points of the net, and the two tail-lines. L the stakes that stake down the fore-lines. M the single line, with the wooden button to pull the net over with. N the stake that staketh down the single line, and where the sportsman should sit. O the wooden mallet. P the hatchet: and Q the gig.

DAYS IN BANK, are days set down by statute or order of the court, when writs shall be returned, or when the party shall appear on the writ served. They say also, if a person is dismissed without day, he is finally discharged. DAYS OF GRACE, are those granted by the court at the prayer of defendant or plaintiff. In commerce, days of grace are the three days allowed for the payment of a bill of exchange, &c. after the same has become due. It is the custom to give ten days in France and Dantzic; eight at Naples; six at Venice, &c.

DAYS-MAN, in the common translation of the Bible, an arbitrator, or one who decides between disputing parties. The word is now used in this sense in some parts of the north of England.

DAYS INTERCALARY. See BISSEXTILE and INTERCALARY.

DA'YSPRING. 8. (day and spring.) The rise of the day; the dawn (Milton). DAYSTAR. 8. (day and star.) The morning star (Ben Jonson).

DAY'SWORK, among seamen, the account of a ship's course during twenty-four hours. DAYTIME. 8. (day and time.) The time

in which there is light: opposed to night (Bacon).

DA'YWORK, 8, (day and work.) Work imposed by the day; daylabour (Fairfax). To DAZE. v. a. (opos, Saxon.) To overpower with light (Fairfax. Dryden). DA'ZIED. a. Besprinkled with daisies (Shakspeare).

To DAZZLE. v. a. To overpower with light (Davies).

To DAZZLE. v. n. To be overpowered with light; to lose the power of sight (Bacon).

DEACON, DIACONUS, an officer in the Christian church. The word is formed from the Latin diaconus: of the Greek dioxovos, minister, servant.

The institution of deacons may be traced to the Acts of the Apostles, ch. vi. v. 1—6 : whence it appears that their business is to take care of the poor, and serve tables; that is, to see that the table of the Lord, the table of the poor, and the table of the pastor or minister, be supplied. Deacons should be chaste, sincere, and blameless, 1 Tim. iii. 8-12. Grotius apprehends that the order of deacons in the Christian church corresponded to that of eleemosynaries in the Jewish synagogue. Their office was, to serve in the agape, and to distri bute the bread and wine to the communicants, and dispense the alms. Tertullian informs us, that the deacons preached, and, in the absence of the bishop and presbyters, conferred the sacrament of baptism. De Bapt. p. 602.

At Rome, under pope Sylvester, they had only one deacon; then seven were appointed; then fourteen; and, at last, eighteen; who were called cardinal deacons, to distinguish them from those of other churches.

Their office was to take care of the temporalities of the church, to look to the rents and charities, and provide for the necessities of the ecclesiastics, and even of the pope. The col lecting of the rents, alms, &c. belonged to the subdeacons; the deacons were the depositaries and distributers. Having thus the management of the revenues of the church in their hands, their authority grew apace, as the riches of the church increased. Those of Rome, as being ministers of the first church, preceded all others, and even at length took place of the priests themselves. Doubtless, it was the avarice of the priests that made them give place to the deacons, who had the disposal of the

money.

The office of a deacon, in the church of England, according to the form of ordination, is to baptize, preach, and assist in the administration of the Lord's supper; and, in short, to perform all the other offices in the liturgy, which a priest can do, except that of consecrating the elements of the Lord's supper, and pronouncing the absolution. No person can be ordained a deacon under the age of twenty-three years, unless by a faculty or dispensation obtained from the archbishop of Canterbury; and in order to this, he must be provided with a title to a cure, or be a fellow or chaplain in some college in Cambridge or Oxford, or a master of arts of five