to have been preserved by the interposition of Milton. There is a corresponding tradition, that Davenant repaid the good offices of Milton, by protecting the republican poet after the restoration. After two years' imprisonment, sir William was set at liberty, when, with the connivance of those in power, he set on foot, in the metropolis, a species of dramatic entertainments. On the return of Charles II to England, the stage was reestablished with renewed splendor, and Davenant became patentee of a theatre in Lincoln'sInn-Fields. He continued to employ his pen and his talents as a theatrical writer and manager till his death, which took place April 17, 1668. Gondibert, the principal production of this writer, was never finished. It contains some truly poetical passages, but is, upon the whole, possessed of too little interest to require any particular notice.

DAVID, king of Israel, the youngest son of Jesse, an inhabitant of Bethlehem, of the tribe of Judah, distinguished himself by his prudence, courage and exploits, particularly by his combat with Goliath, the gigantic Philistine; so that Samuel, the high priest, anointed and consecrated him as king, during the life of Saul. At home, he tended his father's flocks, and was instructed in the knowledge of that period, and in music. Saul, who regarded him as his enemy, persecuted him; and thus arose a civil war, which continued till the death of Saul. David then ascended the throne of Judah, but the remaining tribes had chosen Saul's son Ishbosheth for their king, after whose death David came into possession of the whole kingdom, which he governed from 1055 till 1015 years B. C. His first expedition was against the Jebusites, who dwelt in the centre of Palestine. He conquered the citadel Zion, and made Jerusalem his residence, and the citadel the abode of the Most High. He then reduced the Philistines, Amalekites, Edomites, Moabites, Ammonites, and especially the Syrians. His kingdom now extended from the Euphrates to the Mediterranean, and from Phoenicia to the Arabian gulf, and contained more than 5,000,000 inhabitants. He promoted navigation and commerce, and endeavored to refine his people by the cultivation of the arts, especially that of architecture. He built at Jerusalem a palace for himself, and made the worship of God more splendid, by the appointment of sacred poets and singers. The magnificent temple which he had projected was completed by his son and successor. He himself carried lyric po

etry to the highest perfection, which it had ever reached among the Israelites, by his Psalms. (q. v.) He also improved the military, judicial and financial systems. The ardor of his temperament led him, however, to the commission of several cruelties, for which his repentance was not able to atone; and jealousy among his sons by different mothers, at length gave rise to rebellion in his own family. His son Absalom sought to dethrone him, and made war upon him with this design, but unsuccessfully. He left the flourishing kingdom of Israel to his son Solomon. The crimes of David the Scriptures do not extenuate, but they represent him as having endeavored to atone for them by repentance. His advice to his son, on his death-bed, seems to leave a dark stain upon his memory, though commentators have endeavored to put a favorable construction upon it.

DAVID, Jacques Louis, the founder and greatest painter of the modern French school, which he brought back to the study of nature. David was born at Paris in 1750, and went, in 1774, to Rome, where he devoted himself particularly to historical painting. His talents for this species of painting soon displayed themselves. He visited Rome a second time in 1784, and finished his masterpiece, the Oath of the Horatii, which Louis XVI had commissioned him to design from a scene in the Horaces of Corneille. Connoisseurs declared that this piece was unequalled, and breathed the spirit of a Raphael. In the same year, he painted his Belisarius; in 1787, the Death of Socrates; and, in 1788, Paris and Helen. His reputation was now very great in Paris; and, having begun to be distinguished as a portrait painter also, he might have enjoyed a tranquil and brilliant career, if he had not taken an active part in the revolution. Seized with an ardent zeal for liberty, he finished, in 1789, a large painting, representing Brutus condemning his sons to death. He also furnished the designs of the numerous monuments and republican festivals of that time. In 1792, he was chosen an elector in Paris; afterwards a deputy in the national convention; and, during the reign of terror, he was one of the most zealous Jacobins, and wholly devoted to Robespierre. He proposed to erect a colossal monument of the nation, on the Pont-Neuf, from the materials of the king's statue. At the trial of Louis XVI, he voted for his death. In January, 1794, he presided in the convention. After the

fall of Robespierre, he was in great danger, and his reputation as a painter alone preserved him from the guillotine. Among the scenes of the revolution which David strove to immortalize by his pencil, are the murders of Marat and Lepelletier, and particularly the oath in the tenniscourt, and the entrance of Louis into the national assembly, February 4, which, in 1790, he presented to the legislative assembly. In 1799, he executed the Rape of the Sabine Women (the masterpiece of his genius), from the exhibition of which he received, as it is said, 100,000 francs. In 1804, the emperor appointed him his first painter, and directed him to execute four pieces, among which the Coronation of Napoleon was particularly distinguished. Among his finest works of this period were many representations of the emperor; particularly that in which the first consul was represented on horseback, on mount Bernard, pointing out to his troops the path to glory. This piece is now in Berlin. In 1814, David painted Leonidas, his last painting in Paris. When Napoleon returned from Elba, he appointed David a commander of the legion of honor. After the second restoration of Louis XVIII, he was included in the decree which banished all regicides from France. He then established himself at Brussels; and, upon the new organization of the institute, he was excluded from this body, in April, 1816. In Brussels, he painted Cupid leaving the arms of Psyche. The latest of his productions-Venus, Cupid and the Graces disarming Mars-which he finished at Brussels in 1824, was much admired at Paris. David died in exile, at Brussels, Dec. 29, 1825. The opinions of the merits of this artist are various; but the praise of correct delineation and happy coloring is universally conceded to him. He found, in the history of his time, in the commotions of which he took an active part, the materials of his representations. The engraver Moreau has immortalized the best of his works, by his excellent engravings. The most celebrated of his paintings, as the Oath of the Horatii and the Rape of the Sabine Women, have been purchased by the French government, and placed in the gallery of the Luxembourg.

DAVIDSON, Lucretia Maria, a remarkable instance of early genius, was born at Plattsburg, on lake Champlain, Sept. 27, 1808. When she was only 4 years old, a number of her little books were found filled with rude drawings, and accompanied by a number of verses in explanation

131

of them, written in the characters of the printed alphabet. As her parents were in straitened circumstances, she was, from an early age, much employed in domestic services; but every moment of leisure was devoted to reading. A tender heart, a warm sensibility, an ardent and vivid imagination, an eager desire for knowledge, characterize her earlier effusions; the later are marked with the melancholy traces of a wasting frame, and a dejected spirit feeling the fatal approaches of death. We know of no instance of so early, so ardent, and so fatal a pursuit of intellectual advancement, except in the cases of Chatterton and Kirke White. In October, 1824, a gentleman, who was informed of her ardent desire for education, placed her at a female seminary, where her incessant application soon destroyed her constitution, already debilitated by previous disease. Her letters at this period exhibit, in a striking manner, the extremes of despondency and hope. Gradually sinking under her malady, she died August 27, 1825, before completing her 17th year. Her person was singularly beautiful; her prevailing expression, melancholy. Her poetical writings, which have been collected, amount to 278 pieces, some written at the age of nine years; besides which, she destroyed a great number of her pieces. (See Amir Khan and other Poems, with a Biographical Sketch, New York, 1829.)

a

DAVIE, William Richardson, who held high rank among the revolutionary worthies of South Carolina, was born in England, June 20, 1756. He was brought to America at the age of six years, received the rudiments of his education in North Carolina, and was graduated at the college of Nassau Hall, New Jersey, in the year 1776. He returned to North Carolina, and commenced the study of the law; but he soon yielded to the military spirit which was excited by the war of independence. He obtained the command of a company attached to count Pulaski's legion, quickly rose in rank, and greatly distinguished himself by his zeal, courage and talents as an officer. During the arduous and sanguinary war in the South, he was constantly useful and energetic, and a principal favorite of generals Sumpter and Greene. At the end of the revolutionary struggle, he devoted himself, with signal success, to the profession of the law. In 1787, he was chosen, by the legislature of South Carolina, to represent that state in the convention that met in Philadelphia to frame a federal constitu

uon. Sickness in his family required his presence at home before the work was completed, and, therefore, his name is not in the list of the signers. In the state convention in North Carolina, assembled to accept or reject the instrument, he was the ablest and most ardent of its advocates. The establishment of the university of North Carolina is ascribed to his enlightened zeal for learning. In the year 1799, he was elected governor of that state, and, soon after, appointed by president Adams envoy to France, along with chief-justice Ellsworth and Mr. Murray. On his return, he fixed his residence at Tivoli-a beautiful estate on the Catawba river, South Carolina. He died at Camden, in the year 1820. General Davie possessed a commanding figure, a noble, patriotic spirit, masculine, ready eloquence, and rendered a variety of valuable services to his country.

DAVIES, Samuel, president of Nassau hall, was born in Delaware, Nov. 3, 1724, and educated in Pennsylvania for the Presbyterian ministry. He labored for some years as a pastor in Virginia, where Episcopacy was the religion established and supported by law, and the "act of uniformity" was enforced with great rigor. The "act of toleration" had been passed in England especially for the relief of the Protestant dissenters; but it was disputed in Virginia, whether it was intended to extend to the colonies. Mr. Davies maintained that it did, in opposition to the king's attorney-general, Peyton Randolph, afterwards the president of the first continental congress, and in opposition to the general court of the colony. When he went to England, to solicit benefactions for Nassau hall, he obtained a declaration, under authority, that the provisions of the act of toleration did extend to the colony of Virginia. Mr. Davies is to be regarded as the founder of the first presbytery in Virginia. In 1759, he was appointed president of Nassau hall, but he died Feb. 4, 1762, in the 36th year of his age, after holding the office only 18 months. Doctor Green has written an account of his life. His 3 volumes of posthumous sermons have passed through many editions, both in Great Britain and the U. States.

DAVILA, Arrigo Caterino, an Italian statesman and historian, was born in 1576. He was the son of a Cypriot of distinguished family. His father, who fled to Venice after the conquest of Cyprus by the Turks, in 1571, introduced him to the French court, where he was made page; he afterwards entered the French service,

in which he highly distinguished himself. At the desire of his father, he returned to Italy, in 1599, entered the Venetian service, gradually rose to the post of governor of Dalmatia, Friuli, and the island of Candia, and was esteemed at Venice the first man in the republic after the doge. While travelling, in 1631, on public business, he was shot by a man from whom he demanded carriages to continue his journey. He is principally celebrated for his History of the Civil Wars of France, from 1559 to 1598 (Storia delle Guerre Civili di Francia, Venice, 1630). This has been translated into several languages, and deserves a place near the works of Guicciardini and Machiavelli.

DAVIS, John; an English navigator, born at Sandridge, in Devonshire. He went to sea when young, and, in 1585, was sent with two vessels to discover a

north-west passage. He was unable to land on the southerly cape of Greenland, on account of the ice, and, steering a north-west course, discovered a country surrounded with green islands, lat. 64° 15′, the inhabitants of which informed him that there was a great sea to the north and west. Under lat. 66° 40′, he reached a coast entirely free from ice, the most southerly point of which he called cape of God's Mercy. Sailing west, he entered a strait, from 20 to 30 leagues wide, where he expected to find the passage; but, the weather being unfavorable, and the wind contrary, after six days of unsuecessful effort, he set sail for England. The strait has since received and retained his name. Davis made two more voyages for the same purpose, but was prevented by the ice from attaining his object, in the prosecution of which Baffin afterwards distinguished himself. In 1605, Davis was killed by Japanese pirates in the Indian seas.

DAVIS'S STRAITS; a narrow sea which divides Greenland from New Britain, and unites Baffin's bay with the Atlantic ocean; lat. 63°-70° N. In the narrowest part, between cape Dyer and the island called White-Back, it is 80 leagues wide. (See Davis.)

DAVIT, in a ship; a long beam of timber, used as a crane, whereby to hoist the flukes of the anchor to the top of the bow, without injuring the sides of the vessel as it ascends-an operation which is called, by mariners, fishing the anchor.

DAVOUST, Louis Nicolas; duke of Auerstädt and prince of Eckmühl, marshal and peer of France; born in 1770, at Annoux, in the former province of Burgundy.

He was of a noble family, and studied at the same time with Bonaparte, in the military school at Brienne. He distinguished himself under Dumouriez, in the battles of Jemappe and Neerwinden. When Dumouriez, after the battle of Neerwinden, treated with Coburg, Davoust conceived the bold design of seizing the former in the midst of his army, and nearly succeeded in the attempt. In June, 1793, he was made general; but the decree, which removed the ex-nobles from the service, deprived him of his command. The 9th Thermidor restored him to the army. He was present at the siege of Luxembourg, and afterwards on the Rhine, under Pichegru. He was taken prisoner in Manheim, but was soon exchanged, and distinguished himself in 1797, at the passage of the Rhine, by his prudence and courage. In the Italian campaigns, under Bonaparte, he became zealously attached to that general. He accompanied him to Egypt, where he distinguished himself by his intrepidity. It was he who, after the battle of Aboukir, attacked and conquered the village. He embarked for France from Alexandria, with Desaix, after the convention of ElArish. They were captured by an English frigate, near the Hières. Bonaparte afterwards gave him the chief command of the cavalry in the army of Italy. After the battle of Marengo, he was made chief of the grenadiers of the consular guard, which, from this battle, was called the granite columns. When Napoleon ascended the throne (1804), he created Davoust marshal of the empire, grand cross of the legion of honor, and colonel-general of the imperial guard of grenadiers. In the campaign of 1805, he showed himself worthy of his appointment, particularly at the battle of Austerlitz, where he commanded the right wing of the army. In 1806, he marched at the head of his corps into Saxony, and, at Auerstädt, where he commanded the right wing, contributed so much to the success of the day, by his skilful manœuvres, that Napoleon created him duke of Auerstädt. After the peace of Tilsit, he was made commander-inchief of the army of the Rhine. In the war of 1809 against Austria, his marches through the Upper Palatinate, and the engagement at Ratisbon, were hazardous enterprises. He had an important share in the victory at Eckmühl. In the battle of Aspern, only one of his four divisions was engaged, the greatest part of which, with its general, St. Hilaire, perished on the left bank of the Danube. In the battle 12

VOL. IV.

133

of Wagram, Davoust commanded the right wing, to the manœuvres of which the retreat of the Austrians was mainly owing. After the peace, Napoleon created him prince of Eckmühl, and, in 1811, appointed him governor-general of the Hanseatic departments. In Russia (1812), his division was defeated on the retreat from Moscow. In 1813, he commanded 50,000 men, French and Danes, in Mecklenburg; but was soon besieged in Hamburg, which suffered, at that time, very severely. Davoust was in a critical situation, and could support his army only at the expense of the citizens. He lost, during the siege, as many as 11,000 men. In 1814, he published, at Paris, a defence of himself from the charge of cruelty towards Hamburg. On the return of Napoleon to Paris, in March, 1815, he was made minister of war. When the allies advanced to Paris, after the battle of Waterloo, Davoust, as commander-in-chief, concluded a military convention with Blücher and Wellington, in compliance with which he led the French army beyond the Loire. He submitted to Louis XVIII, exhorting the army to follow his example, and, in obedience to an order of the king, surrendered the command to marshal Macdonald. For this service, he was afterwards employed by the court. Davoust died June 1, 1823. Firmness of character, personal bravery, and a military rigor often approaching to cruelty, were his characteristics. Davoust left two daughters, and a son of 30 years of age, who inherited the rank of a peer.

DAVY, Sir Humphrey, bart., one of the most distinguished chemists of the age, was born at Penzance (Cornwall), Dec. 17, 1779. After having received the rudiments of a classical education, he was placed with a surgeon and apothecary, who pronounced him an "idle and incorrigible boy." He had, however, already distinguished himself at school, and a taste for chemistry, which he displayed in some experiments on the air contained in sea-weed, attracted the attention of Mr. Gilbert (now president of the royal society), and doctor Beddoes. The latter who had just established a pneumatical institution at Bristol, offered him the place of assistant in his laboratory. Here Davy discovered the respirability and exhilarating effect of the nitrous oxide. He published the results of his experiments, under the title of Chemical and Philosophical Re searches, &c. (London, 1800). This work immediately obtained him the place of professor of chemistry in the royal institu

tion, at the age of 22. In 1803, he was chosen a member of the royal society. His lectures at the royal institution were attended by crowded and brilliant audiences, attracted by the novelty and variety of his experiments, the eloquence of his manner, and the clearness of his exposition. His discoveries with the galvanic battery, his decomposition of the earths and alkalies, and ascertaining their metallic bases, his demonstration of the simple nature of the oxymuriatic acid (to which he gave the name of chlorine), &c., obtained him an extensive reputation; and, in 1810, he received the prize of the French institute. In 1814, he was elected a corresponding member of that body. Having been elected professor of chemistry to the board of agriculture, he delivered lectures on agricultural chemistry during 10 successive years, and, in 1813, published his valuable Elements of Agricultural Chemistry. His next discovery was of no less importance to humanity than his former researches had been valuable to science. The numerous accidents arising from fire-damp in mines led him to enter upon a series of experiments on the nature of the explosive gas, the result of which was the invention of his safety-lamp. (See Damps.) In 1818 and 1819, he visited Italy, and made some unsuccessful attempts to unrol the Herculanean manuscripts. In 1820, he succeeded sir J. Banks as president of the royal society. In 1824, he visited Norway for the purpose of making some scientific investigations. On this voyage, he proved the efficacy of his plan for preserving the copper of ships, by covering it in part with a certain quantity of iron. At the same time, the trigonometrical measurements of Denmark and Hanover were connected, under his direction, by chronometrical observations, with the measurements in England. This distinguished philosopher died May 29, 1829, at Geneva, whither he had gone for the benefit of his health. Besides the works already mentioned, the most important are Electro-Chemical Researches; Elements of Chemical Philosophy (vol. 1, 1802); Bakerian Lectures (1807-1811); Researches on the Oxymuriatic Acid (1810); On the Fire-Damp (1816). He also contributed some valuable papers to the Philosophical Transactions, and the journals of Nicholson and Tilloch.

DAY, properly speaking, is the time of a revolution of the earth round its axis (sidereal day, see Sidereal Time), or the time between two passages of the centre of the sun through the same meridian (solar day,

see Solar Time-a time a little differing from the one first mentioned. In common parlance, day is opposed to night, and signifies the time between sunrise and sunset, or the time during which the sun remains above the horizon. This is called the natural day. Thus we have three different days-the natural, the astronomical (reckoned from one culmination to another, or from one noon to another), and the civil day (which is reckoned from midnight to midnight). The 24 hours of the astronomical day are numbered in succession from 1 to 24, whilst the civil day, in most countries, is divided into two portions, of 12 hours each.* The first hour, therefore, after midnight, which is one o'clock A. M. of the civil day, makes the 13th hour of the astronomical day, and the first hour of the astronomical day is one o'clock, P. M. of the civil day. The abbreviations P. M. and A. M. (the first signifying post meridiem, Latin for afternoon; the latter, ante meridiem, forenoon) are requisite, in consequence of our division of the day into two periods of 12 hours each. In this respect, the mode of numbering the hours from 1 to 24 consecutively has an advantage. If we take a day according to the first definition given of it, its length, of course, is the same throughout the year. According to the second definition, however, the day, in consequence of the different rapidity of the earth in its orbit, is different at different times, and this difference is uniform throughout the earth; but the time of the natural day is different at the different points of the earth, according to their distance from the equator. The daily apparent revolution of the sun takes place in circles parallel to the equator. If the equator and ecliptic coincided, the circle bounding light and darkness would always divide, not merely the equator, but all its parallels, into two equal parts, and the days and nights would be equal in all the parallels through the year; but at the poles, there would be no night. Owing to the inclination of the earth's axis to the plane of its orbit (the ecliptic), the parallel of latitude in which the sun appears to move is continually changing; and, therefore, the equator alone (being a great circle) always remains bisected by the circle

* In Italy, the latter division is called the French mode, because the French introduced it into that country during the wars of the revolution; but the people in the south of Italy still adhere to the old division of the day into 24 hours, beginning always at sunset; so that one o'clock is

one hour after sunset, or, as the bells are tolled at sunset, to summon the people to prayer, one hour after Ave Maria. (q. v.)