When he made visits, he

from an ordinary citizen. was attended only by a single footman; and on common occasions he was frequently seen in the streets without any servant at all. His office, for the first ten years, brought him in little more than 300l. and in the latter part of his life not above 700l. per annum. He refused a gift of 10,000l. from the States, because he thought it a bad precedent in the government. His fortune was much inferior to what, in our times, we see commonly raised by an underclerk in a high office. With great reason, therefore, sir William Temple, speaking of his death, observes, that he "deserved another fate, and a better return from his country, after eighteen years spent in their ministry, without any care of his entertainments or ease, and little of his fortune. A man of unwearied industry, inflexible constancy, sound, clear, and deep understanding, and untainted integrity; so that, whenever he was blinded, it was by the passion he had for that which he esteemed the good and interest of his state. This testimony is justly due to him from all that were well acquainted with him; and is the more willingly paid, since there can be as little interest to flatter, as honour to reproach the dead." Hume, with equal truth, describes him as "a minister equally eminent for greatness of mind, for capacity, and for integrity. Though moderate in his private deportment, he knew how to adopt in his public councils that magnanimity which suits the minister of a great state. It was ever his maxim, that no independent government should yield to another any evident point of reason or equity; and that all such concessions, so far from preventing war, served no other purpose than to provoke fresh claims and insults."

Besides the works already mentioned, he wrote a book containing those maxims of government, upon which he acted; which will be a never-fading monument to his immortal memory. It shews the true and genuine principles of policy, on which alone it is possible to erect an administration profitable at home, and which must command respect abroad. On the one hand are pointed out the mischiefs of tyranny, arbitrary power, authority derived from faction, monopolies, and every other species of corruption. On the other hand is explained the true method of acquiring and securing power, riches, peace, and of managing and extending trade; of supporting liberty without running into licentiousness, and of administering the com

monwealth in such a manner, as that the possessors of power shall not be either envied or feared. A translation of it from the original Dutch, entitled "The true interest and political maxims of the republic of Holland," has been printed in London; to the last edition of which, in 1746, are prefixed historical memoirs of the illustrious brothers Cornelius and John De Witt, by the late John Campbell, esq. from whom the original compilers of this work received the above particulars.1

DEZALLIER (D'ARGENVILLE, ANTONY-JOSEPH), a French naturalist and biographer, was born at Paris in the beginning of the last century. He was the son of a bookseller of Paris, and was educated in his native city, but a considerable time after this he spent in foreign countries, particularly in Italy, where he formed a taste for the fine arts. He became acquainted with men of science in various parts of Europe, and was elected in 1750 member of the royal society in London, and of the academy of sciences at Montpelier. He wrote some considerable articles, particularly those of gardening and hydrography, in the French Encyclopædia; and in 1747 he published, in quarto, "La Theorie et la Pratique du Jardinage;" and in 1757, "Conchyliologie, ou Traité sur la nature des Coquillages," 2 vols. 4to, reprinted 1757, and accounted his most valuable work. His arrangement is made from the external form of shells, according to which he classes them as univalve, bivalve, and multivalve; he then divides them again into shells of the sea, of fresh water, and of the lands. He also gave an account of the several genera of animals that inhabit shells. He published also "L'Orycthologie; ou Traité des pierres, des mineraux, des metaux et autres Fossiles," 1755, 4to. But the work by which he is best known and most valued by us, is what we have frequent occasion to quote, his "Abregé de la Vie de quelques Peintres celebres," 3 vols. 4to, and 4 vols. Svo, a work of great labour and taste, although not absolutely free from errors. He practised engraving sometimes himself. He died at Paris in 1766; and his son continued the biography began by the father by the addition of two volumes, containing the lives of architects and sculptors. 2

First edit, of this Dict. supplementary volume.-Universal Hist.-His tory of the United Provinces, &c.

Dict. Hist.

DIACONUS PAULUS. See PAUL the DEACON. DIAGORAS, a native of the island of Melos, surnamed the ATHEIST, lived in the ninety-first olympiad, or 412 B. C. and was a follower of Democritus. Having been sold as a captive in his youth, he was redeemed by Democritus for 10,000 drachmas, and instead of being made his servant, was trained up in the study of philosophy, for which he had probably showed a capacity. At the same time he cultivated polite learning, and distinguished himself in the art of lyric poetry, which was so successfully practised about that period by Pindar, Bacchylis, and others. His name has been transmitted to posterity as an avowed advocate for the rejection of all religious belief; and although Clemens Alexandrinus and others have taken pains to exculpate him, by pleading that his only intention was to ridicule heathen superstitions, the general voice of antiquity has so strongly asserted his atheistical principles, that we cannot refuse credit to the report without allowing too much indulgence to historical scepticism. It is easy to conceive, that one who had studied philosophy in the school of Democritus, who admitted no other principles in nature than atoms and a vacuum, would reject the whole doctrine of Deity as inconsistent with the system which he had embraced. And it is expressly asserted by ancient writers, that when, in a particular instance, he saw a perjured person escape punishment *, he publicly declared his disbelief of divine providence, and from that time not only spoke with ridicule of the gods, and of all religious ceremonies, but even attempted to lay open the sacred mysteries, and to dissuade the people from submitting to the rites of initiation. These public insults offered to religion brought upon him the general hatred of the Athenians; who, upon his refusing to obey a summons to appear in the courts of judicature, issued forth a decree, which was inscribed upon a brazen column, offering the reward of a talent to any one who should kill him, or two talents to any one who should bring him alive before the

The story is thus told: Diagoras delighted in making verses, and had composed a poem, which a certain poet had stolen from him. He sued the thief; who swore he was not guilty of the crime, and soon after he gained a great reputation by publishing that

work as his own. Diagoras, considering that he who had injured him had not only escaped unpunished for his theft and perjury, but also acquired glory thereby, concluded that there was no providence, nor any gods, and wrote some books to prove it.

judges. This happened in the ninety-first olympiad. From that time, Diagoras became a fugitive in Attica, and at last fled to Corinth, where he died. It is said, that being on board a ship during a storm, the terrified sailors began to accuse themselves for having received into their ship a man so infamous for his impiety; upon which Diagoras pointed out to them other vessels, which were near them on the sea in equal danger, and asked them, whether they thought that each of these ships also carried a Diagoras? and that afterwards, when a friend, in order to convince him that the gods are not indifferent to human affairs, desired him to observe how many consecrated tablets were hung up in the temples in grateful acknowledgment of the escapes from the dangers of the sea, he said, in reply, "True; but here are no tablets of those who have suffered shipwreck, and perished in the sea." But there is reason to suspect that these tales are mere inventions; for similar stories have been told of Diogenes the Cynic, and others. '

DIAZ (BARTHOLOMEW), a distinguished Portuguese navigator, is celebrated as the discoverer of the Cape of Good Hope. He was employed by king John II. of Portugal, on a voyage of discovery on the coast of Africa, and in 1486 he had traced nearly a thousand miles of new country, and after encountering violent tempests, and losing the company of the victualling vessel which attended him, he came in sight of the cape that terminates Africa; but the state of his ship, and the untoward disposition of his crew, obliged him to return without going round it. He named it, on account of the troubles which he had undergone in the voyage, "Cabo Tormentoso," or the "Stormy Cape." He returned to Lisbon in December 1487, and from his report the sovereign foresaw that the course to the Indies was now certainly pointed out, and he denominated the newly-discovered point "Cabo del Bueno Esperanza," or the "Cape of Good Hope."

DIAZ, or DIAZIUS (JOHN), one of the early martyrs to the protestant religion, was born at Cuenza, in Spain, in the beginning of the sixteenth century, and studied theology at Paris, where, from reading the books of Luther and his disciples, he soon embraced his doctrines. This circumstance rendering it necessary to quit Paris, he went

1 Gen. Dict.-Moreri.-Brucker.

Robertson's Hist. of America,

to Calvin at Geneva, with whom, and with Budeus and Crispinus, he studied for some time. He then went to Strasburgh, and became known to Bucer, who, perceiving his promising talents, obtained leave of the council of that town to take him with him to the conference at Ratisbon. Diaz was no sooner arrived there, than he found out Malvenda, whom he had known at Paris, who employed the strongest arguments he could muster to induce him to return into the bosom of the church; but Diaz persevered in his opinions. Soon after, having gone to Neuburg, to attend the correcting of a book of Bucer's which was then at press, he was surprised to see arrive at that place one of his brothers named Alfonsus, an advocate at the court of Rome, who, having heard of his apostacy, as he termed it, immediately set out in hopes to reclaim him, but was not more successful than Malvenda. Instead, however, of lamenting what he might term the obduracy of his brother, he laid a plan against his life; to execute which base purpose, he feigned to return home, and went as far as Augsburg; but the day following he returned, accompanied by a guide, and at break of day was again at Neuburg. His first business was to seek his brother; accordingly he went straight to his lodgings with his companion, who was disguised as a courier, and waited at the foot of the staircase, while the accomplice went up to the apartment of Diaz, for whom he pretended he had letters to deliver from his brother. Diaz being roused from sleep, the pretended messenger delivered him the letters, and while he read them, made a fatal stroke at his head with an axe which he had concealed under his cloak, and fled with his instigator Alfonsus. The report of this murder, which happened March 27, 1546, excited great indignation at Augsburg and elsewhere; the assassins were vigorously pursued, were taken, and imprisoned at Inspruck; but the emperor Charles V. put a stop to the proceedings under pretext that he would take cognizance himself of the affair at the approaching diet. This did not, however, appease the conscience of Alfonsus, the fratricide, who put an end to the torments of reflection by hanging himself. A particular history of the whole transaction was published in Latin under the name of Claude Senarciæus, 8vo, which is very scarce. It was addressed to Bucer,

under the title "Historia vera de morte J. Diazii." Diaz was the author of a "Summary of the Christian Religion,"