DAVIDSON 



DAVIS 



690 



Davidson. SAMPEL, P.I)., LL.P.,one of the 



ahliMtof English exegoten, Imrn near Hallvinena in 

 Ireland in ISO?, edneated at the lioyul College of 

 H.-|I:IM, enieivd the Presbyterian ministry, and 

 was called in 1835 to the cliair of Biblical Criticism 

 in liis own college. Becoming a (.'ongrcgatioiialist, 

 In- was called in isi-J I., the cliair of Biblical Litera- 

 ture and Oriental Languages in the Congrega- 

 tionalist College at Manchester ; a position which 

 lie was compelled to resign in 1857 on the publi- 

 rat ion of the volume which lie contributed to a new 

 edition of Home's Introduction, He wasa member 

 of the Old Testament Revision Committee. He 

 died 1st April 189h, and hiu Autobiography, edited 

 )>\ hi* daughter, amnjared in the next year. His 

 works are Sacred atrmtneittics (184&), Lectures on 

 Ecclesiastical Polity ( 1848), An Introduction to the 

 New T<-stii,ii>-nt (3 vols. 1848 51), Treatise on Bibli- 

 cdi Criticism (2 vols. 1852), The Hebrew Text of 

 the, Old Testament reniseti (1855), Text of the Old 

 Testament, and the Interpretation of the Bible, for 

 the new edition of Home's Introduction (1856); 

 Introduction to the Old Testament (3 vols. 1862), 

 AH Introduction to the New Testament (2 vols. 

 1863), On a fresh Revision of the English Old 

 Testament (1873), The Canon of the Bible (1877), 

 The Doctrine of Last Things ( 1883) ; besides trans- 

 lations of the New Testament from Tischendorf's 

 text, of Gieseler's Church History, and Fiirst's 

 Hebrew Lexicon. 



Davies, SIR JOHN, poet and statesman, was 

 born of a good family at Tisbury, Wiltshire, in 1569. 

 At sixteen he entered Queen's College, Oxford, 

 whence he passed to the Middle Temple. He was 

 called to the bar in 1595, but was disbarred three 

 years later for breaking a stick in the dining-hall 

 over the head of a wit whose raillery had provoked 

 him. He returned to Oxford, and there wrote his 

 long didactic poem on the immortality of the soul, 

 Nosce Teipsum, dedicated to Queen Elizabeth, in 

 1599. Spite of the difficulties of a formal poem 

 upon sucn a theme, it is a fairly successful perform- 

 ance, clear, vigorous, and sincere, though quite 

 devoid of passion or imagination. The verse is 

 that of the Annus Mirabilis and Gray's Elegy. 

 Pavies had already published in 1596 his Orchestra, 

 or a Poeme of Dancing, ' a sudden rash half-capreol 

 of my wit.' It is written in seven-line stanzas in 

 imitation of Spenser, and is a graceful and har- 

 monious poem on the conceit that all natural 

 phenomena are subject to a regulated motion 

 here called dancing. In 1599 Pavies published 

 also his Hymns to Astrtca, a collection of clever 

 acrostics each making the name Elizabeth Regina. 

 He contributed also to England's Helicon and 

 to Francis Pavison's Poetical Rhapsody. In 1601, 

 after ample apologies, Pavies was readmitted 

 to the 8'vnetv of the Middle Temple, and was 

 returned to parliament for Corfe Castle. On the 

 death of Elizabeth he accompanied Lord Hunsdon 

 in his journey to the Scottish court, and quickly 

 came into favour with James I., who sent nini in 

 1603 as solicitor-general to Ireland. Three years 

 later he was appointed Irish attorney-general and 

 serjeant-at-law, and was raised to the honour of 

 knighthood. He sent many statesmanlike letters 

 and reports to Cecil, supported severe anti-Catholic 

 and repressive measures, and took an important 

 part in the plantation of Ulster. He sat in the 

 Irish parliament for Fermanagh, and was for sonie 

 time its speaker ; but was returned to the English 

 parliament in 1614 for Newcastle-under-Lyne, and 

 resigned his office at Publin in 1619, continuing to 

 practise as king's serjeant in England. He was 

 nominated chief-justice in Norember 1626, but died 

 suddenly of a fit of apoplexy about a month after. 

 He collected 'his three chief poems into one volume 

 la 1622. His complete works were collected by Pr 



Grosart in the ' Fuller Worthies Library* (3 vol. 

 1869-76). Hin widow, Kleanor Tnuclict, daughter 

 of Baron Audley, whom he had married in 1609, 

 married again and survived till 1652. She waa 

 crazy enough to imagine herself a prophetess ; but 

 her exercitations brought her nothing save fine, 

 imprisonment, and ridicule (see ANAGRAM ). With 

 Sir John Pavies must not In- confounded John 

 Pavies of Hereford (1565-1618), poet and writing- 

 master, whose poetry is not without merit, although 

 prolix and tedious. His chief long poems are Minim 

 in Modum, Microcosmus, ami Sin/una Totalis. In 

 his collection of three hundred poor epigrams ( about 

 1611) is one addressed 'To our English Terence, 

 Mr Will. Shake-speare.' His works were collected 

 by Pr Grosart in two volumes in 1873. 



Dayila, ENRICO CATERING, a celebrated Italian 

 historian, was born at Pieve di Sacco, in the 

 vicinity of Padua, in 1576. When seven years old, 

 he was taken to France for his education, and at 

 the age of eighteen he entered the service of Henry 

 IV., which he afterwards exchanged for the mili- 

 tary service of Venice. In 1631 he was shot by an 

 assassin on his way to Crema, to take command of 

 the garrison. Pavila has been rendered famous by 

 his great work, entitled Storia delle Guerre civili 

 di Francia (1630; best ed. Milan, 1807), a history 

 comprising that eventful period from the death of 

 Henry II. (1558) to the peace of Vervins in 1598. 

 There is a translation by Aylesbury and Cotterell 

 (1647). See BALBOA, AVILA. 



Da Vinci. See LEONARDO DA VINCI. 



Davis, JEFFERSON, president of the Confederate 

 States, was born in Christian county, Kentucky, 

 June 3, 1808. He studied at Transylvania College, 

 and at the United States military academy at West 

 Point, where he graduated in 1828. Entering the 

 army, he served in several frontier campaigns, but 

 resigned his commission in 1835. He entered con- 

 gress in 1845 as a representative from Mississippi, 

 and served in the Mexican war (1846-47) as a 

 colonel of volunteers, in which capacity his bravery 

 won high commendation. He was appointed to the 

 United States senate in 1847, and re-elected in 1848 

 and 1850 ; in 1851 he made an unsuccessful canvass 

 for the governorship of Mississippi. From 1853 to 

 1857 he was Secretary of War under the presidency 

 of Franklin Pierce. After this he returned to the 

 senate, where he succeeded Calhoun as the leader 

 of the extreme State Rights party. He was the 

 author of the seven resolutions passed in May 1860 

 by the senate, in which it was virtually asserted 

 that neither congress nor the legislature of any 

 territory could prohibit slavery in such territory, 

 but that both were bound to protect property in 

 slaves ; that the people of no territory could prohibit 

 slavery until after tne adoption of a state constitu- 

 tion ; and that congress could neither prohibit nor 

 permit the institution of slavery in anv state apply- 

 ing for admission into the Union. The refusal of 

 the lower house of congress to concur in these 

 resolutions led to great popular agitation in the 

 South. The failure of tne Pemocratic National 

 Convention at Charleston to adopt resolution* 

 embodying substantially the same ideas had 

 already (May 1, 1860) caused the disruption of that 

 body and of the Pemocratic party ; and the election 

 of Lincoln, the Republican candidate, to the ^resi- 

 dency was an immediate result of this division 

 of the Pemocrat*. In January 1861 the state of 

 Mississippi seceded from the Union, and as a con- 

 sequence Pa vis left the senate. A few weeks 

 later he was chosen president of the Confederate 

 States under their provisional form of government. 

 In the November following he was without opposi- 

 tion elected president of the confederacy for a term 

 of six years. The history of his presidency is that 



