nervous fluid, we shall immediately see the origin of the different dances among different nations. One kind of vibration, for instance, raises the passions of anger, pride, &c. which are indispensably necessary in warlike nations. The sounds, for such there are, capable of exciting a similar vibration, would naturally constitute the martial music among such nations, and dances conformable to it would be instituted. This appears to be the case particularly among barbarous nations. Other vibrations of the nerves awaken the passions of joy, love, &c.; and sounds capable of exciting these particular vibrations will immediately be formed into music for dancers of another kind.

Among the Jews, dancing seems to have made a part of the religious worship on some occasions, as we learn from passages in the Psalins; though we do not find either that or singing positively enjoined as a divine precept. The dancing of king David before the ark gave occasion to some complaints from his wife Michal, the haughty daughter of the haughty Saul; it also called forth the sneers of Mr. Bayle, in his dictionary: but it has been examined and vindicated with great learning and ingenuity, and complete success, by Dr. Delany, in his Life of David, King of Israel, vol. i. pp. 389, 428. We persuade our selves, that most of our readers will be entertained with the dissertation on dancing there referred to. In the Christian churches mentioned in the New Testament there is no account of dancing being introduced as an act of worship, though it is certain that it was used as such in after ages. Mr. Gallini tells us, that "at Limoges, not long ago, the people used to dance the round in the choir of the church which is under the invocation of their patron saint; and at the end of each psalm, instead of the Gloria Patria, they sung as fol lows: St. Maroel, pray for us, and we will dance in honour of you."" Though dancing would now be looked upon as the highest degree of profanation in a religious assembly, yet it is certain, that considered as an expression of joy, it is no more a profanation than singing, or than simple speaking; nor can it be thought much more absurd, that a Christian should dance for joy that Jesus Christ is risen from the dead, than that David danced before the ark when it was returned to him after a long absence.

Plato reduces the dances of the ancients to three classes. 1. The military dances, which tended to make the body robust, active, and well-disposed for all the exercises of war. 2. The domestic dances, which had for their object an agreeable and innocent relaxation and amusement. 3. The mediatorial dances, which were in use in expiations and sacrifices.

In most cases, dances are indications of joy: but there are people in South America who dance to show their sorrow; and among the ancients, dancing made a part of the funeral solemnities.

Among the moderns, there are various kinds of dances, as country dances, cotillons, horn

pipes, minuets, &c.; for directions to perform these with accuracy, taste, and elegance, we refer to those who professedly teach this art.

In the heavy days of autumn and winter, when the atmosphere is loaded with humid particles, when a sedentary life disposes the human body to bypochondriacal affections, dancing is an admirable amusement. Independently of the beneficial effects which music and a cheerful company display on a susceptible mind, moderate dances possess every advantage of gentle exercise. But those maniacal turnings and gesticulations, which have lately become fashionable in this country, under the appellation of German Vaults, (or rather Walzen, i. e. performing a circular motion, like that of a man on the eve of intoxication), are attended with very different effects. It would be superfluons to enumerate the pernicious consequences resulting from that frantic inclination to distort the human frame: we may confidently assert, that Walzen is at present almost universally exploded in the cultivated circles of society among the Germans, who consider it as a dangerous and vulgar dance.

Violent dancing, especially in the heated atmosphere of a crowded assembly, produces a temporary fever, even in the by-standers, who inspire an air exceedingly vitiated by the breath of persons apparently in a semi-delirious trance, and by the suffocating vapour of candles. The blood is unnaturally propelled to the breast and head; hence arise frequent colds, coughs, and periodical headachs; perspiration is wantonly checked; the lungs are forcibly expanded, and the foundation is too often laid for that direful disease, consumption.

DANCER. 8. (from dance.) One that practises the art of dancing (Donne).

DANCER (Rope), scœnobates, a person who walks, leaps, dances, and performs several other feats, upon a small rope or wire. The ancients had their rope dancers as well as we. These had four several ways of exercising their art: the first vaulted, or turned round the rope like a wheel round its axis, and there hung by the heels or neck. The second flew or slid from above, resting on the stomach, with their arms and legs extended. The third ran along a rope stretched in a right line, or up and down. Lastly, the fourth not only walked on the rope, but made surprising leaps and turns thereon.

DANCERS, in ecclesiastical history, a sect that sprung up at Aix-la-Chapelle in 1373, and spread through Flanders. Persons of both sexes were suddenly seized with dancing fits, and continued thein with extreme violence, till they were quite exhausted; and at these times they pretended to receive wonderful visions. The French prophets, or convalsionists, in later times, and some wild mechodists in our own country, resembled these more ancient religious dancers.

DANCETTE', in heraldry, is when the outline of any bordure, or ordinary, is indented very largely; the largeness of the indentures

being the only thing that distinguishes it from indented.

There is also a bearing of a bend, called deable dancetté; thus, he beareth azure, a bend double dancetté argent.

DANCING-MASTER. 8. (dance and agster.) One who teaches the art of dancing (Locke).

DANCING-SCHOOL. 8. The school where the art of dancing is taught (L'Estrange). DANDELION. 8. (dent de lion, French.) The name of a plant. See TARAXACUM. DANDINI (Jerome), an Italian jesuit, born at Celena in 1554. He became a celebrated professor of philosophy, and was rector of several colleges. Clement VIII. sent him as his nuncio to the Maronites of Libanus. Of this journey he wrote an account, which was translated into French, and printed in 1675. He died at Forli in 1634. He wrote a Commentary on Aristotle's three books de Anima. (Waikins).

DANDINI (Pietro), a painter of Florence, born in 1646, and died in 1712. He was in the service of the grand-duke almost constantly, so that few of his pictures are to be found out of his own country. He was very successful in imitating great masters. (Watkins).

DANDINI (Cæsare), an historical painter, of Florence. He was uncle to the preceding. There are several noble pictures of his painting in the churches of Florence. (Watkins).

DANDINI (Hercule François), an Italian count and professor of law at Padua; born in 1691, and died in 1747. He wrote, 1. De Forensi scribendi ratione. 2. De servitutibus prædiorum interpretationes per epistolas, &c. DAʼNDIPRAT. 8. (dandin, French.) A Ettle fellow; an urchin.

To DA'NDLE. v. a. (dandelen, Dutch.) 1. To shake a child on the knee (Temple). 2. To fondle; to treat like a child (Addison). 3. To delay; to procrastinate (Shakspeare). DANDLER. 8. He that dandles or fondles children.

DANDRUFF. 8. (tan, the itch, and nok, sordid.) Scabs in the head. See PITIRIA

DANEBERG, a town of Lower Saxony, in Germany, belonging to the elector of Hanuver. Lat. 53. 4 N. Lon. 11. 29 E.

DANEGELT, an annual tax laid on the Anglo Saxons, first of 18. and afterwards of 28. for every hide of land through the realm, for maintaining such a number of forces as were thought sufficient to clear the British seas of Danish pirates, which heretofore greatly annoyed our coasts. Danegelt was first imposed as a standing yearly tax on the whole nation, under king Ethelred, A. D. 991.

DANE-WORT, in botany. See EBULUS. DANGEAU (Lewis Courcillon de), a French abbot, who died at Paris in 1723, aged 20. He invented several games for teaching young persons geography, history, and gram. mar. He also wrote Dialogues on the Immortality of the Soul.

DANGEAU (Philip de Courcillon, marquis de), brother of the above, born in 1638,

and died at Paris full of honours in 1720. He wrote Memoirs in MS. from which Voltaire and other authors have gleaned many curious particulars.

DANGER. 8. (danger, French.) Risk; hazard; peril (Acts). To DANGER. v. a. endanger (Shakspeare).

To put in hazard; to

DANGER (Isles of), three islands in the S. Pacific ocean, seen by Commodore Byron in 1765; but were so surrounded by rocks and breakers that it was unsafe to attempt to land. Lat. 10. 15 S. Lon. 169. 28 W.

DA'NGERLESS. a. (from danger.) Without hazard; without risk (Sidney). DANGEROUS. a. (from danger.) Hazardous; perilous; full of danger (Dryden). DANGEROUSLY. ad. Hazardously; perilously; with danger (Hammond). DANGEROUSNESS. 8. (from dangerous.) Danger; hazard; peril (Boyle).

To DANGLE. v. n. (from hang.) 1. To hang loose and quivering (Smith). 2. To hang upon any one; to be a humble follower (Swift).

DANGLER. s. (from dangle.) A man that hangs about women (Ralph).

DANICAN (Andre), better known by the name of Philidor; a celebrated writer on chess. He was born at Paris, and resided for several years in England, where he published his Analysis du Jeu des Echecs, in 1749. He also composed music with good success. He died in 1795.

DANIEL (judgment of God) the prophet, was descended from the royal family of David, and carried captive to Babylon when very young, A. M. 3398. In the captivity, Daniel eminently distinguished himself in the expla nation of Nebuchadnezzar's dreams, and the handwriting against Belshazzar, and in his own escape from the lion's den. Here, likewise, he was favoured with many remarkable visions concerning future events. His prophecies concerning the Messiah, and other great events of aftertimes, are so clear and explicit, that Porphyry objected, that they must have been written after the facts had happened. The Jews do not reckon Daniel among the prophets, because he lived the life of a courtier rather than of a prophet; and because his revelations were not in the prophetic way, but by dream and vision in the night, which they consider as the lowest degree of revelation. But our Saviour, by acknowledging Daniel a prophet, Matt. xxiv. 15, puts his prophetic character beyond dispute. Among the prophets, says Sir Isaac Newton, Daniel is most distinct in order of time, and easiest to be understood: and therefore, in things that relate to the last times, he must be made a key to the rest. All his prophecies relate one to another, as if they were but several parts of the same prophecy: the first is the easiest to be understood, and every following prophecy adds something new to the former. It is generally believed, that Daniel died in Chaldea, and that he did not avail himself of the permission granted by Cyrus to the Jews, of returning to

their own country. Daniel's name is not prefixed to his book; yet, as Prideaux observes, the many passages, in which he speaks of himself in the first person, are sufficient proof that he was the author of it. The book of Daniel contains a history of many things done in the Babylonian and Persian empires; as well as a prophecy of things to be done, and many calamities to be executed, with a final deliverance to the glory of God's people. The style in which Daniel wrote is neither so lofty nor so figurative as that of the other prophets: it is, however, clear and concise, and his descriptions simple and natural; in short, his language is more like that of a historian than of a prophet. Part of the book of Daniel was originally written in the Chaldee language, viz. from chap. ii. 4, to the end of the vii. chap. it is supposed to be so written, on account of the Chaldean or Babylonish affairs which are treated of in that part. The rest of the book is in Hebrew.

DANIEL (Samuel), an English poet and historian. He was born in Somersetshire, 1562, and educated at Magdalen college, Oxford; on leaving which, he became groom of the privy chamber to the queen of James I. At the close of his life he retired to his native county, where he died in 1619. His poems were collected, and printed in 2 vols. 12mo. 1718. He wrote the History of England to the end of the reign of Edward III. which, according to some authors, is the crown of all his works.

DANIEL (Gabriel), a French historian. He was born at Roan in 1646, and entered among the Jesuits at the age of 18. One of his first productions was a Voyage to the World of Cartesius, a work of great wit, and which has been translated into several languages. His greatest performance, however, is, the History of France, published at Paris in 3 vols. folio, 1713; but afterwards enlarged to 7 vols. 4to, 1722. He also wrote several miscellaneous and theological treatises. He died at Paris in 1728.

DANK, a Persian silver coin, weighing the 16th of a dram.

DANK. a. (from tuncken, German.) Damp; humid; moist; wet (Milton).

DA'NKISH. a. Somewhat dank (Shak.). DANMONII, an ancient British nation, supposed to have inhabited that tract of country which is now called Cornwall and Devonshire, bounded on the south by the British ocean, on the west by St. George's channel, on the north by the Severn sea, and on the east by the country of the Durotriges. Some other British tribes were also seated within these limits; as the Cossini and Ostidamnii, who were probably particular clans of the Danmonii; and, according to Mr. Baxter, they were the keepers of their flocks and herds. As the several tribes of the Danionii submitted without much resistance to the Romans, and never joined in any revolt against them, that people were under no necessity of building many forts, or keeping many garrisons in their country. This is the reason why so few Roman

antiquities have been found there, and so little mention is made of it and its ancient inhabitants by Roman writers.

DANNENBERG, or DANNEBERG, a town of Germany, in the circle of Lower Saxony, and capital of a county of the same name, in the principality of Luneberg, on the Jetze. Beer is the principle article of commerce. The number of inhabitants about 1000.

DANTE, a famous Italian poet, born at Florence in 1265. Dante was of an ambitious turn, and joined one of the factions which then disturbed Florence: but the party to which he belonged proving the weakest, he was banished. He then prevailed on the prince of Verona to make war on the Florentines, which did not answer his expectations; neither could he get himself recalled. He died at Ravenna in 1321. He wrote in his exile a triple poem called Divina Commedia, on Paradise, Purgatory, and Hell, which shows a wonderful imagination; but the satirical spirit which he breathes is very bitter. He attacks the city of Florence, the French king, and the pope, in it, with great virulence, as the authors of his misfortunes; whereas, they proceeded from his own turbulent disposition. His works were printed at Venice in 1564, in folio: but the Commedia is the work to which he owes his celebrity. Mr. Boyd's translation of the Inferno, Purgatorio, and Paradiso, has been much admired.

DANTE (Peter Vincent), a native of Perouse, who imitated the style of the preceding poet with so much success, that his performances have frequently gone under his name. He was also a good mathematician, and died in 1522.

DANTZIC, the metropolis of the palatinate of Pomerania, in Poland. It is the see of a bishop, and the seat of a university. It is one of the greatest granaries in the world; for upwards of 700,000 tons of corn are annually exported from this place alone. It contains about 200,000 inhabitants, who are for the most part Lutherans. Dantzic was a kind of republic, and its jurisdiction extended about 50 miles round it; the inhabitants maintained a strong garrison at their own expence; but, alas! so anxious are some princes to get pos. session of the territories of their neighbours, that the king of Prussia, partly by intrigue, and partly by force, annexed to his own dominions Dantzic with its territory in the spring of 1793. It is 160 miles W. by N. of Warsaw. Lat. 54. 22 N. Lon. 18. 37 ̊ E.

DANUBE, the largest river in Europe, rising at Doneschingen, in the Black Forest, in the circle of Suabia, in Germany; and running N E. through Suabia, by Ulm, the capital of that country; and then E. through Bavaria and Austria, passes by Ratisbon, Passau, Ens, and Vienna. It then enters Hungary, and runs S. E. from Presburg to Buda, and so on to Belgrade; after which it divides Bulgaria from Morlachia and Moldavia, discharging itself by several channels into the Black sea, in the province of Bessarabia. It was called the Ister by the ancients. It begins

to be navigable for boats at Ulm, and receives several large rivers as it passes along. It is so deep between Buda and Belgrade, that the Turks and Germans have had men of war upon it; and yet it is not navigable to the Black sea, on account of the cataracts.

DANVILLE, a town of United America, in the state of Kentucky; thirty-three miles S.S.E. of Frankfort.

DANVOU, a town of France, in the department of the Calvados, and chief place of a canton, in the district of Vire: six leagues S. Bayeux.

To DAP. v. n. (corrupted from dip.) To let fali gently into the water (Walton). DAPATICAL. a. (from dapaticus, Lat.) Sumptuous in cheer (Bailey).

DAPHNE, in fabulous history, the dangh ter of the river Pencus, who being beloved by Apollo, and flying from him to preserve her chastity, was, on her entreaties, changed into a laurel, whose leaves Apollo immediately consecrated to bind his teinples, and made that tree the reward of poetry.

DAPHNE. Spurge laurel. In botany, a genus of the class octandria, order monogynia. Calyx four-cleft, resembling a corol, wither ing but permanent, enclosing the stamens; corolless; berry one-seeded. Thirty species, chiefly European, many Asiatic: some of which have lateral and some terminal flowers. The following are those chiefly worth notieing.

1. D. mezereon. Common mezereon or spurge-olive; a low deciduous shrub, found in the woods of Germany, and of our own country; with sessile flowers in threes on the stem, leaves lanceolate. Its seeds are denominated in the dispensatories coccognidia: grana enidia: Cocci CNIDII, which see. There are four varieties of this elegant plant; all of which are common to our flower and shrub gardens, and have the multiform boast of offering an exquisite perfume along with a beau tiful flower, and both so early in the year, as to anticipate almost every other flower; the enrol appearing generally in February, and often in January. Independently of which, the berries which succeed the flowers are in themselves of captivating hue and lustre, and continue through the whole of the summer.

2. D. thymelæa. Milk-wort-leaved daphne, a native of Spain, with sessile axillary flowers; leaves lanceolate; branches quite simple: a deciduous shrub, about a yard in height; the flowers appear in March, of a greenish hue; and are succeeded by yellow berries.

3. D. laureola. Common spurge-laurel, or ever-green daphne. Found in our own woods, as also in those of Germany and Switzerland; bearing axillary, five-flowered racemes, with glabrous lanceolate leaves. The flowers appear in January, and continue till April, and are accompanied with a pleasant perfume.

4. D. cnidium or gwidium. The thymelea of Gerard. Flax-leaved daphne: with terminal panicled racemes; leaves linear, lanceolate, cuspidate, with a point. A low deciduous shrub of Italy and Spain, sometimes rising to

a yard in height. In our own country the flowers do not appear till June, and are rarely followed by seeds.

5. D. eneorum. Spear-leaved daphne; a deciduous shrub of the south of Europe, rising about a foot and a half high: with fascicled, terminal, sessile flowers, red or white; leaves lanceolate, naked, mucronate.

6. D. alpina. Alpine daphne or chamelœa. A native of Italy and the Alps, rising to about a yard in height, with sessile, aggregate, lateral Howers, appearing in March, fragrant in odour; succeeded by red berries that ripen in September.

7. D. odora. Odorous daphne; so named from the exquisite perfume of its flower, which exceeds all the rest of the tribe. It is a native of China and Japan, with a many-flowered, terminal, nearly sessile head of flowers, and scattered, oblong-lanceolate, glabrous leaves. In this country it must be cultivated as a green-house plant.

For the medical virtues of the root of the daphne mezereum, see MEZEREUM, under which name it is most known officinally. These plants should be differently raised, according to the different kinds: the mezereon and its varieties are best propagated by sowing the seeds or berries as soon as they become perfectly ripe, which is about August, on beds of light sandy earth. In these beds the young plants may remain till the beginning of the second autumn; when they should be removed, and set out in nursery-rows, at the distance of a foot and a half, and ten or twelve inches in the rows. After having been two years in this situation they are in a proper condition for being planted out where they are to remain.

Most of the other species may be increased both by seeds and layers of the young shoots, or by cuttings. The layers or cuttings should be laid down or planted out in the beginning of the autumn. The last sort can only be propagated by seeds, obtained from its native situation, sown on a gentle hot-bed in the spring or autumn; the young plants being afterwards placed in a green-house.

DAPHNEPHORIA, a festival in honour of Apollo, celebrated every ninth year by the Boeotians. It was then usual to adorn an olive bough with garlands of laurel and other flowers, and place on the top a brazen globe, on which were suspended smaller ones. In the middle were placed a number of crowns, and a globe of inferior size, and the bottom was adorned with a saffron-coloured garment. The globe on the top represented the sun or Apollo. That in the middle was an emblem of the moon, and the other of the stars. The crowns, which were 365 in number, represented the sun's annual revolution. This bough was carried in solemn procession by a beautiful youth of an illustrious family, and whose parents were both living. The youth was dressed in rich garments which reached to the ground, his hair hung loose and dishevelled, his head was covered with a golden crown, and he wore on his feet shoes called Iphicra

tidæ, from Iphicrates an Athenian, who first invented them. He was called Apropos, laurel-bearer; and at the time he executed the office of priest of Apollo. He was preceded by one of his nearest relations, bearing a rod adorned with garlands, and behind him followed a train of virgins with branches in their hands. In this order the procession advanced as far as the temple of Apollo, surnamed Is menius, where supplicatory hymns were sung to the god.

DAPIFER, the dignity or office of grandmaster of a prince's household. The word literally signifies a dish-carrier. At the coronation of the emperor of Germany, the archdapifer carries the first dish of meat to table on horseback.

DA'PPER. a. (dapper, Dutch.) Little and active; lively without bulk (Milton).

DA'PPEKLING. 8. A dwarf (Ainsworth). DAPPLE. Horses are so called which have partial variegated hues in the coat, of different sizes, constituting small circles, both lighter and darker than the general colour of the horse. Hence we have dapple bays, dapple greys, and sometimes dapple blacks.

To DA'PPLE. v. n. To streak; to vary (Bacon).

DAR. 8. A fish; being the dace. DARAH, or DRAS, a river of Africa, which rises in the greater Atlas, not far from Tefza, and runs into the Atlantic, near Cape Non.

DARAH, or DRAS, a country of Africa, bounded on the north by Morocco, Gezala, and Tafilet, on the east and the south by Zahara, and on the west by Sus, and takes its name from the river Darah, or Dras, which passes through it; the principal produce is in. digo and dates: the inhabitants are Arabians and Mahometans.

DARCY (Count), an ingenious philosopher and mathematician, was born in Ireland in the year 1725; but his friends being, like many other great and good families at that period, attached to the house of Stuart, he was at 14 years of age sent to France, where he spent the rest of his life. Giving early indications of a genius for science, he was put under the care of the celebrated Clairant, under whose tuition he improved so rapidly in the mathematics, that at 17 years of age he gave a new solution of the problem concerning the curve of equal pressure in a resisting medium. This was followed the year after by a determination of the curve described by a heavy body, sliding by its own weight along a moveable plane, at the same time that the pressure of the body causes a horizontal motion in the plane.

Though Darcy served in the war of 1741, he found leisure, during the bustle of a military life, to send two memoirs to the academy: the first of these contained a general principle in mechanics, that of the preservation of the rotatory motion; a principle which he again brought forward in 1750, by the name of the principle of the preservation of action. He was taken prisoner in this war by the English;

and such was either the respect paid to science, or the mercy of the cabinet of St. James's, that he was treated, not as an Irish rebel, but as a French subject fighting for his king and his country.

In 1760, Darcy published an Essay on Artillery, containing some curious experiments on the charges of gunpowder, &c. &c. and improvements on those of the ingenious Robins; a kind of experiments which our author carried on occasionally to the end of his life. In 1765, he gave to the public the most ingenious of all his works, his Memoir on the Dnration of the Sensation of Sight; in which he endeavours to prove, and indeed completely proves, that a body may sometimes pass by our eyes without producing a sensation attended with consciousness of marking its presence, otherwise than by weakening the brightness of the object which it may chance to cover in its passage. If, in this work, he shall be thought to have taken hints from Dr. Hartley, it is not perhaps too much to say, that some of our most celebrated writers on vision have since been beholden to Darcy. No man, indeed, has cause to be ashamed of being indebted to him; for all his works display, in an eminent degree, the union of genius and philosophy; but as he measured every thing upon the largest scale, and required extreme accuracy in experiment, neither his time, fortune, nor avocations, allowed him to execute more than a very small part of what he projected.

In his disposition, Darcy was amiable, spirited, lively, and a lover of independence; a passion to which he nobly sacrificed, even in the midst of literary society. He died of a cholera morbus in 1779, at 54 years of age. He was admitted of the French academy in 1749, and was made pensioner-geometrician in 1770. His essays, printed in the Memoirs of the Academy of Seiences, are various and very ingenious, and are contained in the volumes for the years 1742, 1747, 1749, 1750, 1751, 1752, 1753, 1754, 1758, 1759, 1760, 1765, and in tom. 1. of the Savans Etrangers.

DARAPTI, among logicians, one of the modes of syllogisms of the third figure, whose premises are universal affirmatives, and the conclusion is a particular affirmative: thus, DAR- Every body is divisible;