in order to obtain certain knowledge. The first part of his work consists of a very clear investigation of the causes of error, with some logical deductions of first principles; to ascertain the value of which it would be necessary to state the several arguments and objections which have employed so many philosophers. He first establishes the certainty of our existence, from our consciousness; of the existence of a necessarily-existent and infinitely-perfect Being, from our ideas of such a Being; and he makes the certainty of self-evident truths or actions depend upon the mere will or determination of that Being. From the knowledge of the First Cause, thus deduced, he assumes (as the best method of philosophising) that we ought to derive an explanation of all his works. He rejected final causes from his philosophy. From the veracity of the Deity he infers, that external objects have a real existence. He places the essence of matter in extension; because he conceives it possible for matter to exist after the abstraction of hardness, weight, and its other qualities, but not if the extension be supposed to be done away. Hence he concludes, that there can be no vacuum or empty space in nature. Motion he considers to be the translation of a body from the vicinity of other bodies in contact with it; and, consequently, he makes no distinction between absolute and relative movements. From a metaphysical or moral inference from the constant and immutable actions of the Deity, he infers, that the same quantity of motion must be preserved for ever in the universe. The same property of the Deity is used to establish his three laws of nature:-the first, that a body will continue in its state of motion, figure, and other properties, till some external cause shall produce a change; the second, that motion is naturally in a right line; and the third, that a body, meeting with another possessed of more motion than itself, will not lose any of its own motion, but simply undergo a change of direction; and if it meet with another possessed of less motion than itself, it will lose no more than it communicates. Hardness he considers to be the mutual quiescence of parts; fluidity, their perpetual movement in all directions. He concludes his second book by affirming, that these principles are fully sufficient to account for every event in nature.

The application of his principles to the formation and support of the universe, upon mechanical principles, constitutes the subsequent part of his work. He supposes the particles of matter to have been angular, so as to replenish space without leaving any interval; that the

angular parts were broken off by perpetual agitations, and the particles becoming round, formed that which he calls matter of the second element. The angular parts being ground into the most subtile particles of all, became the matter of his first element, and served to fill all the pores of the other. But there being more of this first element than was necessary for this purpose, it became accumulated in the centres of the vortices, or rotating masses, of which he imagined the universe to consist, and formed there the bodies of the sun and stars. It is to be observed, as principles of conduct adopted by this philosopher, that he proceeds, in the first place, to assume certain parts of matter, and gives them peculiar motions; that these hypotheses should at first be considered, as gratuitous, doubtful, or even false; that they should be applied to solve the phenomena of nature; and that, in the event of their universal correspondence with those phenomena, that correspondence ought to be considered as an evidence of the truth of the original assumptions. The heavens were conceived to be filled with the matter of the second element, which is the medium of light. But the planets and comets consisted of a third element, grosser than the other two, the generation of which he traces through all its steps. He asserts, that the matter of the first element must have constantly flowed out through the interstices of the second, near what may be called the equatorial parts of the vortices, where the motion is greatest; and that the consequence of such a motion must have been, that it would return by the polar regions, where the motion is least. These portions of the first element, from their aptitude to cohere together, would at length produce the grosser particles of the third element, which, by adhering in considerable quantities, would give rise to spots on the surfaces of the sun or stars. Some being crusted over with such spots, became planets or comets; and the force of their rotation becoming. languid, their vortices were absorbed by some more potent neighbouring vortex. In this manner the solar system was formed, the vortices of the secondary planets having been absorbed by the vortex of the primary, and all of them by that of the sun. He maintains, that the parts of the solar vortex are more dense, and move slower to a certain distance, beyond which he supposes all the particles to be equal in magnitude, but to increase in swiftness of motion the more remote they are from the sun. In the upper regions of the vortex he places the comets, and in the lower parts the planets,

supposing those which are more rare to be nearer the sun, that they may correspond to the density of the vortex where they are carried round. The gravity of terrestrial bodies arises, as he imagines, from the centrifugal force of the matter of the second element revolving round the earth. And after having thus treated concerning knowledge in his first book, the principles of matter in his second, and the universal system in his third, he descends, in his fourth, to the earth, and applies his philosophy to the whole series of events which fall under our observation.

On this system it may perhaps be unnecessary to make any physical remarks at present. One very important moral observation may be suggested from the introduction and establishment of this visionary philosophy. It is, that the acutest geniuses, for near a whole century, were acquainted with the methods of investigating truth, the value of experiments, and the importance of mathematical deduction; and yet they could overlook them all when they be gan to reason concerning natural phenomena. Would it not become us to enquire, whether we do not tread in their steps, and whether a large part of our philosophical systems be not at present worthy to be classed with the world of Descartes ?

The history of the rise and decay of the Cartesian philosophy can scarcely be abridged, even if its importance could justify the attempt. The early difficulties it had to encounter may be found in the fifth volume of Du Hamel's Latin treatise on philosophy, and in various other works enumerated by Moreri, article Descartes, who has given an abridgement of the subject. The later events, which respect the gradual establishment of the Newtonian philosophy, are familiar to philosophical men. On this head, Voltaire's Elements of Newton, and the writings of Barrow, Keil, Maclaurin, and others, may be consulted.

The principal works of this eminent man are: 1. His Principia Philosophiæ; 2. Dissertatio de Methodo recte regendæ Rationis, &c.; 3. Dioptrics; 4. Meditations; 5. Treatise on the Passions; 6. Geometry; 7. Of Man; and, 8. A large Collection of Letters." The high value set upon his works has occasioned them to be printed at Amsterdam, London, Paris, and elsewhere, in various sizes, either singly or together. Baillet Vie de Descartes, and Perrault Hommes Illustres du XVII Siècle, referred to by Moreri. Eloge de R. Descartes, par M. The mas, which was crowned by the French Academy in 1765, and is quoted by the Editors of

the Nouv. Dict. Hist. 1786, and the authorities already pointed out.-W. N.

DESERICIUS, or DESERITZ, JOSEPH-INNOCENT, a learned Hungarian ecclesiastic of a noble family, was born at Nitra in 1702, and applied at an early age to the study of the sciences, so that in the course of a few years he was able to teach them not only in the school of the Piarists, but at the seminary of Raab. After discharging various offices in the department entrusted to him, he was invited to Rome, where he was elected a cardinal. Here he had an opportunity of collecting in different libraries, and particularly that of the Vatican, a variety of important materials for his work respecting the origin of the Hungarians. After this he was sent by pope Benedict XIV. on an embassy to the hospodar of Wallachia, Constantine Maurocordatus, in which Deseritz acquired more reputation by his zeal than by the success of his mission. On returning to his native country he made choice of Waizen as the place of his residence, where, notwithstanding the bad state of his health, he employed himself with diligence in preparing his works for the press, and in consequence of these he had a dispute with the Jesuit Pray respecting the ori gin of the Hunns and the Turks, which ended only with his death. He died of a lethargic complaint in 1765, in the sixty-third year of his age. The most important of his works are: "Pro cultu litterarum in Hungaria, ac speciatim civitate Dioecesique vindicatio," Roma, 1743, 4to.; "De Initiis ac majoribus Hunga-. rorum Commentaria," five vols. folio, from 1748 to 1760; "Historia Episcopatus Dioecesis et civitatis Vaciensis, una cum rebus synchronis," 1763, folio. Adelung's Continuation of Föcher's Gelehrt. Lexicon.—J.

DESGODETS, ANTONY, a French architect, was born at Paris in 1653. He was sent by Colbert to study at Rome in 1674, but had the misfortune in his passage to be taken by the Algerines, which subjected him to a rigorous slavery of sixteen months. He was at length exchanged, and reached the place of his. first destination, where he passed three years. During his abode at Rome he composed a work, entitled "The ancient Edifices of Rome drawn and measured with great Exactness," published at Paris in 1682, folio, and reprinted in 1779. After his return he married, and was appointed controller of the royal buildings at Chambord. In 1694 he was removed to the department of Paris; and in 1699 was created king's architect. In 1719 he was made professor of architecture, and lectured in that art

with applause till his death in 1728. From his lectures were published after his death, "Les Loix des Batimens," 1776, 8vo. ; and "Traité du Toise," 8vo. He left other treatises on architectural subjects, which remain in manuscript. Moreri. Nouv. Dict. Hist.-A.

DESHOULIERES, see HOULieres. DESIDERIUS, or DIDIER, last king of the Lombards, was created duke of Tuscany and master of the horse by Astolphus, at whose death, in 1756, he assumed the crown of Lombardy. His election was for some time contested by Rachis, brother of Astolphus, who had embraced the monastic life; but pope Stephen III. in consideration of the cession of some cities to the holy see, confirmed the succession of Desiderius. He afterwards set up a competitor to pope Stephen IV.; and, in order to strengthen his own interest, married his two daughters to the sons of Pepin, Carloman and Charles, afterwards Charlemagne. In the pontificate of Adrian I. Desiderius invaded the territories of the church, took several cities in the exarchate of Ravenna, and threatened Rome itself. In this emergency, Adrian applied for succour to Charlemagne, who had quarreled with Desiderius, and divorced his daughter. That ambitious prince gladly received an invitation to carry his arms into Italy, and accordingly, in 773, forced the passage of the Alps, and entered Lombardy. The Lombard army disappeared before him, and Desiderius took refuge in Pavia. Charlemagne blockaded the place; and, after taking Verona and visiting Rome, returned before Pavia, and obliged it to submit in 774. Desiderius, with his wife and children, were delivered up to the conqueror, who sent them into France, where they ended their days in obscurity. The king himself is said to have died soon after his deposition; and with him ended the kingdom of the Lombards, after it had subsisted 206 years. Moreri. Univers. Hist.-A.

DESIRE, ARTHUR, a fanatical French priest in the seventeenth century, and a furious defender of the measures of the league against the Calvinists. He was deputed by a number of the catholic bigots, in the year 1651, to convey a petition to Philip II. king of Spain, in which he was invited into France, to preserve the truth against the machinations of heretics and their abettors. This petition is inserted in the fifth book of Beza's ecclesiastical history. But the seditious embassador was arrested on his journey, and condemned by the parliament to a three-years' imprisonment, after having made the amende honorable at the bar of the

court.

Before his imprisonment, and after his release, he published a multitude of pieces in support of the party to which he belonged, which exhibit curious compounds of absurdity, dulness, enthusiasm, and buffoonery. The titles of the principal of them are detailed in Moreri and the Nouv. Dict. Hist.-M.

DESLYONS, JOHN, a learned French ecclesiastic, was born at Pontoise, in the year 1615. He pursued his studies at Paris, where he took his degree of bachelor in divinity, in the college of the Sorbonne, and obtained the dignities of dean and prebendary of Senlis, in the year 1638. In the year 1640 he received the bonnet of doctor, and retired to his deanery, where he passed the remainder of his life in close study, and the regular discharge of his professional duties. In the year 1656, when the disputes respecting the celebrated Arnauld were agitated in France, he was one of the doctors of the Sorbonne who refused to subscribe to his condemnation, and who, on that account, had their names erased from the list of the faculty. But, in defiance of that measure, he continued the use of his title, and claimed the honours due to him as senior member of the college, until his death, in the year 1700. Besides several devotional pieces, sermons, homilies, &c. he was the author of some treatises in ecclesiastical antiquities, abounding in erudition and profound research, but not unmixed with singular notions, and unimportant trifling discussions. The principal of them are; "Ecclesiastical Dissertations relative to the supertitious Observances practised on the Eve of Twelfth-day, and other Festivals;" "A Discussion of the ancient Rights of the Bishop and Church of Paris over Pontoise and the French Vexin, in opposition to the Claims of the Archbishops of Rouen, and the false Notions of the Areopagites, &c.;" and "An ecclesiastical Letter respecting the Burial of Priests," in which the serious question is learnedly discussed, whether priests should be interred with their backs towards the altar and their faces towards the people, or, like the laity, with their faces and their feet. turned towards the altar! Moreri.-M.

DESMAISEAUX, PETER, a native of Auvergne, born in 1666, was the son of a French protestant minister. He came early as a refugee into England, and acquired an accurate knowledge of its language and literature. He was a fellow of the Royal Society, and was much connected with the men of letters in his time, especially with Bayle and St. Evremond. He died in London in 1745. He is chiefly

known by his editions of the works, together with the lives, of the two writers above mentioned, which contain many curious particulars of literary history and anecdote. He also wrote the lives of Chillingworth and John Hales; and published a collection of pieces in philosophy, history, mathematics, &c. by Leibnitz, Newton, Clarke, Locke, and other celebrated authors. He wrote both in French and English, and gave in the latter a good translation of "Bayle's Dictionary." Moreri.-A.

DESMARES, TOUSSAINT, a French priest of the Congregation of the Oratory, and remarkable for the popularity of his pulpit talents, was born at Vire in Normandy, in the year 1599. The first part of his education he received at Caen, whence he was carly transplanted to Paris, and entered into the new Congregation of the Oratory. In that seminary, father, afterwards cardinal, Berulle, the founder, paid particular attention to his instruction, under which he made extraordinary improvement, and secured the friendship as well as applause of that celebrated character. Designing himself more immediately for the office of a preacher, besides the other branches of literature, he cultivated with great care an acquaintance with the sacred scriptures, and the works of St. Augustine and St. Thomas, and became strongly attached to the opinions of Jansenius, the famous bishop of Ypres. His reputation for pulpit oratory soon grew very high, and continued undiminished till he arrived at an advanced period of life. His learning and abilities occasioned his being appointed one of the deputies sent to Rome to defend the doctrine of Jansenius before pope Innocent X. where he delivered an eloquent speech on the necessity of efficacious grace, which is inserted in the Journal de Saint Amour. By his zeal, however, in defence of Jansenisin, he provoked the enmity of many monks and Jesuits, who made use of every method in their power to harass him, and render him an object of suspicion and displeasure at court. At length they succeeded so far, as to obtain an order for his being apprehended and committed to the Bastille. But he received timely notice of his danger, and was so happy as to escape the pursuit that was made after him, and to remain concealed for some time in a peasant's cottage, until his enemies procured a lettre de cachet for his banishment. That lettre, to whatever interference it might be owing, was never formally put in force, and father Desmares retired for the remainder of his days to a seat of the duke de Liancourt, in the dioccse

of Beauvais, where he met with a friendly asylum, and died in the year 1687. One day, when Lewis XIV. was at that place, the duke presented his venerable guest to the king. With an air of respectful freedom the old man said to that monarch," Sire, I have a favour to ask of your majesty." "Ask then," said Lewis," and it shall be granted." "I entreat," replied he, " that I may be permitted to wear my spectacles, to have the happiness of being able to contemplate the countenance of my sovereign." Lewis declared himself to those around him better pleased with this polite and modest compliment, than with any that had ever been paid to him. Father Desmares wrote and published a great variety of treatises in controversial theology, chiefly on the questions in debate between the Jansenists and their opponents, the principal of which are particularised in the first of the authorities referred to at the end of this article. He also drew up the "Necrologe de Port Royal," which was printed in 1723, 4to.; and he left behind him, in manuscript, a French "Translation and Commentary upon the Evangelists;" "An Explanation of the Prophets Ezekiel and Daniel, and of the minor Prophets;" "A View of the Controversy between the Fathers and the Pelagians;" "Reflections on the Councils, and among others those of Constance and Basil, &c." Moreri. Nouv. Dict. Hist.-M.

DESMOLETS, PETER-NICHOLAS, a French ecclesiastic of the Congregation of the Oratory, and librarian of the house belonging to that order in the Rue St. Honoré at Paris, was born in that city about the year 1677, and died in 1760. He particularly applied himself to the history of literature, and acquired no small reputation by his laborious and judicious productions in that department of study. But besides his acknowledged learning, the politeness and amiableness of his manners rendered his acquaintance much sought after, and united him in habits of intimacy and friendship with the most respectable French literati in his time. His principal work is a continuation of “Sallengrés Memoirs of Literature," in eleven volumes 12mo. He was also the editor of father Lamy's treatise "De Tabernaculo Fœderis, Sancta civitate Jerusalem, et Templo ejus, &c." folio, 1720; of "Father Pouget's Institutiones Catholicæ in modum Catechesos, &c.” in two volumes folio, 1725; and of various other books. Nouv. Dict. Hist. Dict. Bibliog Hist. & Crit.-M.

DESPAUTER, or VAN PAUTEREN, JOHN,

Grammaticam scivit, multos docuitque per annos,
Declinare tamen non potuit tumulum.

He composed Latin rudiments, grammar, syntax, prosody, &c. all printed together under the title of "Commentarii Grammatici," by Robert Stephen, Paris, 1537, folio, and at Lyons, 1563, 4to. A great number of editions of parts of his works have been made for the use of schools, and the name of Despauter is as familiar on the continent, as that of Lilly in England. Moreri.-A.

DESPIERRES, JOHN, a learned Flemish benedictine monk in the seventeenth century. By his learning and talents he recommended himself successively to several honourable offices belonging to his order, until he became superior of the benedictine college in the university of Douay. He was created doctor in divinity about the year 1640. But he was distinguished for his acquaintance with the mathematical sciences, as well as his proficiency in other branches of literature; on which account he was appointed by the king professor of mathematics in the university above mentioned. He died in 1664, when he was about sixty-seven years of age. He was the inventor of a sphere of iron, which, by an ingenious application of mechanism, illustrated the motions of the sun, moon, and other planets. Among his publications are: "Vindicia Trithemianæ, sive specimen Steganographica Joannis Trithemii, quo Auctoris Ingenuitas demonstratur, & opus Superstitione absolvitur," 1641, 4to.; "Auctoritas Scripturæ sacræ Hebraica, Græcæ, & Latinæ, hoc est Textus Hebraici, Versionis Septuaginta Interpretum, & Versionis Vulgatæ," 1651, 4to.; Commentarius in Psalterium Davidicum, quo sensus literalis tam Textus Hebraici quam vulgatæ breviter exponitur;" "Calendarium Romanum novum, et Astronomia Aquicinctina," 1657, folio, &c. Moreri.-M.

DESPORTES, FRANCIS, an eminent French painter, was born in 1661, at a village in Champagne, where his father was a farmer in good circumstances. He was sent at the age of twelve to an uncle in Paris, where, having discovered his taste for drawing by a copy he made of a print as he lay sick in bed, he was placed with Nicasius, a Flemish painter of

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animals. The death of his master soon left him to himself, and he pursued his improvement by studying nature, and drawing from models and antiques. He practised his art in a variety of branches, and acquired a great facility of design, a truth of expression, lightness of handling, and excellent tone of colouring. He married in 1692; and, soon after, received the king's permission to go to Poland, where he painted with great success the por traits of king John Sobiesky, and the principal persons of his court. On his return to France, he followed his favourite branch of painting animals and hunting-pieces, on his excellence in which his reputation is chiefly founded. He was received into the Academy of Painting in 1699, and the king gave him a pension and apartments in the Louvre. He made portraits of the king's hounds, and accompanied the hunting and fowling parties in order to catch all the attitudes and forms of nature. He likewise copied fruits, flowers, and insects, and drew all the rare animals in the menagerie of Versailles. When the duke d'Aumont went embassador to England, Desportes obtained leave to join his suite, and spent six months in London, where he sold several of his pictures to the nobility, and painted others at their request. He was inuch esteemed, and employed by the regent duke of Orleans; and was afterwards in particular favour with the young king Lewis XV. whose passion for the chace rendered him an admirer and judge of the branch in which this master excelled. Few of the great hotels of Paris were without paintings of Desportes, as decorations of halls, buffets, furniture, and the like. He was of a mild and amiable character, lively in conversation, and a gentleman in his manners. He practised to a great age, dying at Paris in 1743, aged eightytwo. He left a son, who was both an able painter and a poet. The principal works of Desportes were at Versailles, Marly, and other royal palaces. Three of his pieces have been engraved. D'Argenville Vies des Peintres.--A.

DESSAULT, PETER-JOSEPH, an eminent French surgeon, was born in 1744 at Magny Vernois, a village of Franche Comté, of parents in humble life. He was educated in a jesuit school, and was first destined to the ecclesiastical profession; but his decided inclination towards medicine was at length indulged, and he was sent to an apprenticeship in the military hospital at Béfort. He acquired in that situa tion some knowlege of surgery and anatomy; and having previously made some progress in mathematics, he attached himself with ardour

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