DICTYS OF CRl i i: 



DIDI 





.VK of Crete, a follower of IdomeneuM in 



I'rojan \viir, wlusu name i- attached t<> a ],,,, 

 I journal of the leading i-M-nt- of tin- contest, 



Which ll.us COMIC ||<|\VII to Us ill Latin Jllose, under 



tin- title Ephemeru Btlli Trojuni. An introduction 

 relates how tlu> narrative, inscriled in Pho-nician 

 oharaotera on lm.rk-papcr, was found in a cotl.-r 

 >t tin in l>i,-t\s's toinli, which had U-cn IMII-I 

 open 1,\ ;l n earthquake in the reign of Nero, und 

 how the emperor caused it t<i ! translated into 

 k : this is accompanied hy a letter from one 

 unintos Septunios, who claims to have prepared 

 tin- condensed Latin version that follows. Tins 

 .liitrs probably from the 4th century A.D., and 

 though of no intrinsic value, was ;i chief source of 

 the romances of the middle ages. The l'-t editions 

 are those of Dederich (Honu, IS3-J ami 1837) and 

 Meister (Leip. 187'2). See Dungcr. />,',-( i/n-Sep- 

 ( i iniiis: iiber die ursprungliche AofMttmg M, die 

 Quellen der Ephemeris ( Dread. 1878). 



Dicyemiflte, a family of very lowly multi- 

 cellular organisms, parasitic in habit They are 

 found in cuttle-fishes, while related organisms 

 known as Orthonectida occur in a hrit tie-star and 

 in a Nemertean worm. Professor E. van Beneden 

 has included them all under the title Meso/.oa in 

 contrast to the lower (single-celled) Proto/.oa on 

 the one hand, and the higher ( many-celled ) Metazoa 

 on the other. The largest species of the genus 

 Dicyema measures 5-7 millimetres.; the smallest 

 is ten times less. These organisms hardly rise 

 above the level of the embryonic gastrula, and 

 some seem hardly to attain it, but it is still uncer- 

 tain how much of this simplicity is primitive, and 

 how much the result of degeneration. See E. van 

 Beneden and C. Julin, Archives de Biologie ( 1882) ; 

 Whitman, Mitth. Zool. Stat. Neapel (1883) ; Braun, 

 Centralbiatt Bacterial. (1887). 



Dicynodon, an important type of Triaasic 

 reptile, usually included in the order Anomodontia. 

 They have been unearthed in Africa, India, and 

 the Ural region, and more recently remains have 

 been found in the Elgin Trias of Scotland. Our 

 knowledge of them is largely due to Owen. They 

 were terrestrial animals, and in some ways suggest 

 affinities with tortoises, in others with mammals. 

 In Dicynodon the lower jaw was incased in a 

 horny beak, but the upper bore two huge teeth. In 

 Oudenodon no teeth were present. See CHELONIA, 

 REPTILES. 



Didoche. See APOSTLES (TEACHING OF THE 

 TWELVE). 



Didactic Poetry, that kind of poetry which 

 aims, or seems to aim, at instruction as it - object, 

 making pleasure entirely sulservient thereto. It 

 has been disputed whether or not the existence of 

 a kind of poetry especially entitled to the name 

 didactic is consistent with the very nature and 

 object of the poetic art. For it is held that, to 

 point nut instruction as the peculiar object of one 

 kind of poetry, is to overlook the high aim of all 

 poetry ; and that a poem may be in the highest 

 sense didactic, which yet is epic, dramatic, or lyric 

 in its form ; and the Book of .lob, tic- I'-.ihns. and 

 other poems contained in the Sacred Scriptures, are 

 quoted as examples. In the poem-, generally called 

 didactic, the information or instruction given in 

 verse is accompanied with j>oetie reflections, illus- 

 trations, and episodes. The Georgia of Virgil ha- 

 been the model for most didactic poems, ami no 

 subject is so unpromising that it has not found 

 some one to select it as a poetic theme. Examples 

 of admirable success as combinations of argument 

 and poetry are the Ars Poetica of Horace and the 

 Essay on Criticism of Pope. The great poem of 

 Lucretius, again, stands the masterpiece of the 

 philosophical poem, which is represented in onr 



own language by poem* like the No** Tip**m at 

 Sir John DaviM, and the Euay urn Man at Pope. 

 See PORBT. 



I'iilHpltia. See MARMUPIAL& 

 DldclphiM. See OPOWUM. 



Diderot. I 'i M , wan born on October 15, 1713, 

 at Langres, in < 'hampagne. \\ln-ie In- family had 

 for two centuries IM-CII engaged in the mannf.i 

 of cutlery. An eldest son, he was intended for th.- 

 church, ami received his early training at tin- Jesuit 

 school in his birthplace. After ttid\ing at the 

 College d Harcoiirt in Paris, he ollended hut father 

 by refusing U> become either a .'iwyerora ph\-i. 

 and was in consequence Hung ii|x>n bin >,\\n 

 resources. From 1734 until about 1744 he led a 

 life of hapha/ard, ill-paid toil a- a tutor and a 

 liooksellers hack. In 1743 he married Ac 



Champion, a young sempstress, again-t the U!i.- 

 of her friends, and without the knowledge of hi* 

 family. After she had lx>rne him a son. he per- 

 suaded his wife to remove with the child to Langres, 

 where she brought alnmt a reconciliation In-tween 

 Diderot and his father. His marriage, ho\\. 

 did not prove a happy one. During his wife's 

 almence in Champagne he formed a liaison with a 

 Madame Puisieux which lasted for several yean; 

 and later in life he became attached to a financier's 

 daughter, Mademoiselle Voland, to whom he 

 remained devoted until her death in 1774. Hut 

 Pen*tt PhUoaophiyuea were burned by order of the 

 Parliament of Pans in 1746, and three years after- 

 wards he underwent imprisonment for tlie opinions 

 expressed in his Lcttre stir It* A u</l> *. Hi* 

 appointment to the editorship of an enc\ clopifdia 

 which the bookseller, Le Breton, had resolved u|on 

 publishing, assured him of a regular income, and 

 gave him a commanding |xsition in the world of 

 letters. Le Breton's intention had U-en meiely to 

 issue an expanded version of the English Cyrk- 

 jin ill, i of Ephraim ('hainU>rx, which had appeared 

 in 1727. But in Diderot's hands the character of 

 the work was transformed. He enlisted nearly all 

 the important French writers of the time as 

 tributors, and in place of a storehouse of useful 

 information, produced an engine of war for the 

 l>lult>fti>h>- party (MI- F.Nrvri.or.v IHA i. For some 

 twenty years he stood at his post in spite of dangers 

 and drawbacks, before which even a strong man 

 might pardonably have flinched. The book was 

 again and again" threatened with prosecution; its 

 sale was more than once prohibited ; its editor 

 ran a constant risk of imprisonment or exile. 

 D'AlemlKTt, at one time co editor with Diderot, 

 forsook him in despair at the olstacles to lie over- 

 come. Hut his marvellous energy, his varied ki 

 ledge, above all, his faculty of rallying and inspirit 

 ing his f -How-workers, enabled l>ideiot to carry 

 his vast undertaking to a successful conclusion. 

 The first volume np|x>ared in I7.">1 : the laM. in 

 17ii">. In his later \ears Diderot fell into jxvuniary 

 difficulties from which he was rescued by t'athsrine 

 II. of Russia, who purchased his Tihrnrv. but 

 allowed it to remain in Paris, and installed dim at 

 a salary as its caretaker. In 1773 he paid a ti*it 

 to his benefactress, by whom he wit-. mM cordially 

 rect-i\ed. He returned to Paris after spending five 

 months in the palace of the empress at 8t Peters- 

 Inirg. and four months at the Hague ait the guest 

 of Prince (ialit/in. During bin old age he lhcl 

 principally in his study at the corner of the Hoe 

 Taranne. sending his dn\s in reading and medita- 

 tion. in directing the studies of his (laughter the 

 only survivor of his four children, in the giving of 

 good counsel, ami the doing of good works*. He died 

 from a stroke of a|>ople\y on the 30th July 



One of the moot prolific and versatile. Diderot 

 was also one of the most careless of writers. He 



