Whatever credit we are willing to give the author for the zeal which this work displays in the cause of truth, the regard which it shews for the interests of revealed religion, and the learning and extensive reading which it discovers, we can by no means consider it as affording proof of his proficiency in true science, or the solidity of his judgment. For, at a time when the most illustrious philosophers in the kingdom were making rapid advances to knowledge by the only sure road of experiment and induction, and when Newton had made public his principal discoveries, it exhibits the author seeking for philosophy in the Scriptures--which relate entirely to other objects-and in the justly exploded theories of antiquity! Besides the articles already mentioned, Dr. Dickinson is supposed to have been the author of "Parabola Philosophica, &c. or A Journey to the Mount of Mercury, by Philaretes ;" and he also left behind him, in MS. a treatise in Latin "On the Grecian Games," which was annexed to an account of his life and writings, published in the year 1739. He died in the year 1707. Biog. Britan. Wood's Athen. Ox. vol. II.-M. DIDEROT, DENYS, an eminent French writer, was the son of a cutler at Langres, where he was born in 1713. He was educated among the Jesuits, who wished to engage him in their society; their usual policy with respect to pupils of promising talents;-and one of his uncles, who held a canonry which he meant to bestow upon him, caused him to receive the tonsure. The youth, however, shewed so little inclination for the ecclesiastical profession, that his father sent him to pursue his studies at Paris, and then placed him with an attorney. He was, however, more attached to literature than to the desk; and his neglect of the latter for the former so offended his father, that he withdrew from him his allowance, and for some time left him to himself. Diderot's studies embraced a wide circle: physics, geometry, metaphysics, moral philosophy, belles-lettres, all took their turns. The warmth of his imagination seemed to dispose him to poetry and works of invention; but he chiefly attached himself to more serious pursuits. The ready flow and animation of his language in conversation, and the decisiveness of his tone, gave him partisans and protectors in Paris, where those qualitics have always borne their full value. One of his earliest publications was a translation from the English of "Stanyan's History of Greece." He published, in 1745, "Principles of Moral Philosophy," 12mo. a work which obtained commendation. But it was a piece

published the next year, under the title of

Pensées Philosophiques," which first gave him celebrity. It was highly extolled by the partisans of the new philosophy, among whem he enlisted himself as one of its most zealous disciples-a character he ever after maintained. This work was reprinted with the title of "Etrennes aux Esprits forts." It was much read, and became a companion to the toilet, and doubtless contributed much to that prevalence of free opinions by which France became so distinguished. He soon after began to lay the plan, in conjunction with his friend d'Alembert, of that vast undertaking, the "Dictionnaire Encyclopédique," which, while it was to be a magazine of every species of human knowledge, was likewise to be the great engine for the subversion of all those established opinions which were considered by that school as originating in fraud and superstition. Diderot took, as his proper province in this work, the description of arts and trades, a part of undoubted utility; but he likewise wrote a considerable number of supplemental articles in various branches of science. He is accused of being too wordy and discursive, too fond of the parade of scientific language, too subtle and metaphysical. The first edition of the Dictionary made its appearance from 1751 to 1767, and Diderot was employed in conducting it near twenty years, with very inadequate recompense. In the mean time he composed various other works, of very different kinds. In speculative philosophy he wrote "A Letter on the Blind, for the Use of those who see," 1749; a piece which made much noise, and was the cause of his being confined six months at Vincennes. It was followed by "A Letter on the Deaf and Dumb, for the Use of those who hear and speak," two vols. 12mo. 1751. Other pieces in this class were : "The Sixth Sense," 1752; "The Sixth Sense," 1752; "Thoughts on the Interpretation of Nature," 1754; "The Code of Nature," 1755. He injured his moral cha racter by his "Bijoux Indiscrets," two vols. 12mo, a collection of licentious tales: but his two prose comedies; "Le Fils Naturel," 1757; and

Le Père de Famille," 1758; are equally moral and interesting. The latter, in particular, is accounted one of the best pieces of the senti mental kind that have appeared on the French stage, and has been admired throughout Europe. He wrote likewise a pamphlet " On Public Education," containing some impracticable and some useful ideas; "An Eulogy of Richardson," warm and enthusiastic; and "An Essay on the Life and Writings of Seneca the Philosopher," 1779, his last performance. On

six days, at the age of sixty, a memorable example of the folly of ambition. Crevier. Gibbon.-A.

DIDYMUS, an eminent grammarian, son of a fishmonger of Alexandria, flourished in the age of Augustus. He was celebrated for the number of books he composed, amounting to 3500, or even to 4000, whence he acquired the epithet of Chalcenteros, as if he must have had a brazen inside to have gone through so much fatigue; and of Bibliolathes, from the probable circumstance of forgetting the books he had himself written. Of the subjects which chiefly employed his pen, we may form an idea from what is said of him by Seneca. "Didymus, the grammarian, wrote 4000 books: he were to be pitied had he only read so much unnecessary matter. His topics were-What was the country of Homer; who was the real mother of Eneas; was Anacreon more distinguished by lust or drunkenness; was Sappho a common prostitute; and other things which ought to be forgotten if they were known." (Epist. 88.) Didymus was, however, a profound verbal critic, and ventured to censure the style of Cicero. There are still extant in his name certain scholia upon the Odyssey, which, however, are the composition of Tzetzes, or some other grammarian; but Didymus is quoted in them. Some proverbs likewise remain under his name, joined to those of Tharræus. It appears that there were other writers of the name, also grammarians. Vossii Hist. Græc.-A.

DIDYMUS, of Alexandria, and president, or principal master, of the celebrated catechetical school in that city, flourished in the fourth century. He has been properly called by several ancient ecclesiastical writers a wonderful man, not only on account of his extensive literature, but of the peculiar disadvantages under which he was obliged to prosecute his studies. For he had the misfortune to lose his sight, by the attack of some distemper, when he was in the fourth or fifth year of his age. Notwithstanding this circumstance, so admirable were his natural abilities, and so vigorous and intense his application, that he became perfect in most branches of knowledge. Besides grammar and rhetoric, he understood logic, philosophy, music, and even geometry and astronomy, and the most abstruse problems in mathematics. He was also intimately acquainted with the sacred writings of the Old and New Testaments, on which he wrote several commentaries; and so well conversant in controversial theology and ecclesiastical history,

that he was fixed upon as the most proper person of his time to fill the chair of the famous Alexandrian school. The duties of that office he discharged with eminent reputation, which occasioned his being followed by a vast number of disciples, among the most celebrated of whom were St. Jerome, Ruflinus, Palladius, and Isidore. The first of these eminent characters pronounced him the most learned man of his age; and Palladius affirms, that he surpassed all the ancients in knowledge. But his instructions were not only recommended by his preeminence in learning and knowledge, but by the agreeable manner in which they were delivered, the moderation and amiableness of his temper, and liveliness of his wit. He was the author of various learned works, none of which have reached our day, excepting the following: "A Treatise on the Holy Spirit," translated into Latin by St. Jerome, and inserted among the works of that father; "Breves quædam Enarrationes in Epistolas canonicas," to be met with in the fourth volume of the Bibliotheca Patrum; a considerable fragment of "A book against the Manicheans," which is given in the original Greek in father Combefi's Auct. Nov. Bibl. Pat.; and "Notes and Observations upon the Acts of the Apostles," transcribed by M. J. C. Wolff, from a manuscript Greek chain, at the university of Oxford, and inserted in his Anecdota Græc. vol. I. He was a strenuous advocate for the peculiar sentiments of Origen, and wrote a commentary on his books of Principles; on which account he was condemned in the fifth general council, and by pope Martin V. in the fifth session of the Lateran council. It is not certain when he died, but he was living in 392, when St. Jerome drew up his catalogue of ecclesiastical authors, and was then in the eighty-fourth year of his age. Du Pin. Cave's Hist. Lit. vol. I. sub sæc. arian. Moreri. Lardner's Cred. pt. ii. vol. IX.-M.

DIECMANN, JOHN, a learned German lutheran divine, was born at Stade in the duchy of Bremen, where his father was minister, in the year 1647. He pursued his studies successively at the universities of Giessen, Jena, and Wirtemberg; at the latter of which he was admitted to the degree of M.A. He completed his course of study in the year 1672, and three years afterwards was made rector of Stade. In the year 1683 he was appointed to the dignity of superintendant of the duchies of Bremen and Verden, and was about the same time admitted to the degree of doctor in divinity at the university of

compendium of anatomy and physiology, containing but few observations of his own. All the works of Diemerbroeck were published in folio, 1685, by his son, an apothecary at an apothecary at Utrecht. Moreri. Haller Biblioth. Med. Pract. Anatom.-A.

DIEPENBEKE, ABRAHAM VAN, a painter of merit, was born at Bois-le-duc in 1607. His first line as an artist was painting on glass, in which he acquired the reputation of one of the ablest masters in his time. His designs were of a superior kind, his touch lively and spirited, and his invention fertile. The difficulty which he found in the preparation of his colours at length disgusted him with this branch, and he changed it for oil painting. A residence in Italy gave him improvement, and he afterwards perfected himself in the school of Rubens, of whom he was accounted one of the best disciples. He was made director of the academy at Antwerp in 1641. His compositions are somewhat loaded, and not perfectly correct; but he coloured well, and gave great force to his pieces by his skill in chiaroscuro. He painted chiedy subjects of devotion; and latterly he employed the pencil more than the brush, being engaged by the engravers in making designs for title-pages, theses, decorations of books, monuments, and the like. His greatest work of this kind is the Temple of the Muses, all the plates for which book were designed by him, and do credit to his genius. He died at Antwerp in 1675. D'Argenville. Pilkington's Diction.-A.

DIETERIC, JOHN CONRAD, a learned German lutheran divine, was born at Butzbach, a town of Wetteravia, in the year 1612. His preparatory learning he received at Marpurgh; and afterwards distinguished himself, by his studious application and literary proficiency, in the universities of Jena and Strasburgh. Having finished his academical course, he travelled into Holland, where he had an opportunity of profiting by the acquaintance and conversation of Vossius, Buxhorn, Barlæus, Heinsius, and other learned men; and made some stay at Leyden, to consult the libraries belonging to that university. Afterwards he visited Denmark and Prussia, for the sake of farther improvement, and then returned to his native country, where George II. landgrave of Hesse, gave him the appointment of professor of the Greek language and of history, in the year 1639. Upon the establishment of the university of Giessen, in the year 1653, he was sent to discharge the duties of his professorships in that place, where he maintained an honourable

and respectable character until his death, in the year 1667. He was the author of "De Perigrinatione Studiorum;" "Græcia exulans, seu de infelicitate superioris sæculi, in Græcarum Literarum Ignoratione;"" Antiquitates Romanæ ;" "Iatreum Hippocraticum;"" Breviarium Hæreticorum & Conciliorum;" "Lexicon Etymologico-Græcum;" Antiquitates Biblice, in quibus Decreta, Prophetæ, Sermoncs, Consuetudines, ritusque ac Dicta Veteris Testamenti de rebus Judæorum & Gentilium quâ sacris, quâ profanis, expenduntur, ex Editione Jo. Just. Pistorii," 1671, folio; and "Antiquitates Novi Testimenti, seu Illustra mentum Novi Testamenti; sive Lexicon Philologico-theologicum Græco-latinum in Novum Testamentum," 1680, folio. From the dates of the two last-mentioned publications it appears that they were posthumous. Mareri.-M.

DIETRICH, JOHN WILLIAM ERNEST, or DIETERICY, as he often wrote his name, painter to the king of Poland and elector of Saxony, professor in the Academy of the Arts at Dresden, director of the school of painting at the porcelain manufactory of Meissen, and member of the academies of Augsburgh and Bologna, was born at Weimar on the 30th of October, 1712. His father, John George Dietrich, was painter to the court of Weimar, and esteemed for his portraits and battles. Young Dietrich was taught the principles of drawing by his father till he had attained to his twelfth year, at which time he began to display talents that seemed to give the greatest hopes of his future eminence. In 1724 his father sent him to Dresden, where he enjoyed the advantage of being instructed by the celebrated landscape painter, Alexander Thiele, and he laid a good foundation also in the Royal Academy, particularly in drawing figures. Though he had obtained the title of painter to the court under Augustus II. he remained with count Bruhl, till he entered into actual service under Augustus III. who, in 1743, sent him to Italy; but he brought back from that country nothing of the Italian school, either in his painting or drawing. In 1746 he got an appointment in the gallery of painting at Dresden, with a salary of 400 dollars. In 1763, when the Academy of Dresden was established on its present footing, Dietrich was made one of the first professors; and at the same time was appointed director of the school of painting at the porcelain manufactory of Meissen, which place he resigned in 1765, but he retained the salary attached to it till the period of his death. As long as his health allowed, he laboured with