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DELOS DELPHI. 



His f ride was gratified by this kind of low indepen- 

 dence, and he rejected all assistance, excepting some 

 r.iil from the literary fund, to enable hiiu .to return 

 to his country. This was probably in 1775, since, 

 from that time, he calls himself member of the coun- 

 cil of the two hundred in Geneva. Among his pe- 

 culiarities was this, that, although principally occu- 

 pied with political law, he was never present at a 

 session of parliament. At the time of his arrival in 

 England, aristocmtical arrogance and turbulence had 

 n-arlieil its highest pitch in Sweden and 1'oland, and 

 it was feared, not without reason, in England, that 

 the same evils threatened that country. Delolme 

 entered into an investigation of this subject. Hence 

 originated his famous work, Constitution de VAngte- 

 tfrre, on Etat du Gouvernement Anglais compare avec 

 la Forme republicaine et avec les autres Monarchies 

 de f Europe (Amsterdam, 1771) ; and a work in 

 English, called A Parallel between the English Go- 

 vt rnment and the former Government of Sweden 

 (London 1772). In both, his principal object 

 was to illustrate the excellence and stability of the 

 English constitution. Its character of a spirited eu- 

 logium is undoubtedly the reason that the first poli- 

 ticians of England, lord Chatham, the marquis of 

 < aim Irii. and the author of the celebrated Letters of 

 Junius, spoke so highly of this work of a foreigner. 

 It is not a complete system of the political law of 

 England, and has been reproached as being super- 

 ficial ; but it contains much ingenious reflection on 

 the English constitution, on the energy arising from 

 a happy union of royal power with popular liberty, 

 and particularly on the value of an independent ju- 

 diciary and the freedom of the press, subjected to 

 penal laws, but not to a censorship. This work, 

 translated by the author himself into English, in 

 1772 (fourth English edition, 1784, with observa- 

 tions by doctor Charles Coote), is still considered 

 in England, one of the most ingenious works on the 

 English constitution. Delolme also published, in 

 English, his History of the Flagellants, or Memo- 

 rials of human Superstition (1783, in quarto) ; An 

 Essay on the Union with Scotland (London, 1796, 

 4 to). On the occasion of the will of Mr Thellus- 

 son, he wrote his Observations on the Power of Indi- 

 viduals to prescribe, by testamentary Dispositions, the 

 particular future Uses to be made of their Property 

 (London, 1798, 4to). He died in July, 1806, at a 

 village in Switzerland. 



DELOS ; the central island of the Cyclades, in 

 the JEgean sea, the reputed birthplace of Apollo, 

 and of Diana. Delos, according to the poets, was 

 once a naked rock, floating about in the ocean, and 

 was accidentally driven by the waves into the centre 

 of the Cyclades. The earth had promised Juno, with 

 an oath, not to grant a resting-place to the fugitive 

 Latona (q. v.), where she might be delivered. The 

 unhappy woman wandered restlessly over the earth, 

 until she perceived the floating island. As this was 

 not stationary, it was not comprehended in the oath 

 of the earth, and offered her an asylum. She vowed 

 to build a temple on its rocks, to which all nations 

 should bring offerings. On the rude cliffs, under a 

 shadowing tree, Latona bore the infant gods 

 Apollo (who was hence called Delios) and Diana 

 (who was called Delia). Both were, in after times, 

 particularly worshipped on the island. Delos was 

 thenceforward no longer the sport of the winds ; from 

 the foundation of the earth arose columns which sup- 

 ported it, and the fame of the isle spread over the 

 world. Thus far mythological tradition. 



At first, the island had kings of its own, who also 

 held the sacerdotal office. In the course of time, it 

 came under the dominion of Athens. Nothing was 

 tolerated upon it, which bore the traces of death or 



war. The dead were buried in the adjacent island 

 Rhenea. After the destruction of Corinth, the rich 

 Corinthians fled thither, and made Delos the seat of 

 a flourishing commerce. The greatest curiosity of 

 the island, was the temple and oracle of Apollo. 

 The temple, founded by Erisichthon, son of Cecrops, 

 and embellished successively by different states of 

 Greece, was built of Parian marble, and contained, 

 besides the beautiful statue of the god, a remarkable 

 altar, from which the Delian problem, as it is called, 

 had its name. The inhabitants, having consulted the 

 oracle concerning the remedy of a plague which 

 raged in Delos, were ordered to double the altar of 

 Apollo, which was a cube. This famous geometri- 

 cal problem of the duplication of the cube was solved 

 in different ways, by several of the ancient mathema- 

 ticians and philosophers. The oracles which Apollo 

 uttered here were thought the most intelligible and 

 sure. They were delivered only in summer ; in 

 winter, Apollo gave his responses in Patara, in 

 Lycia. The Grefcians celebrated the Delian festival 

 here every five years ; and the Athenians performed 

 annually the beautiful pilgrimage, called theoria, 

 with processions and dances. Delos was held to be 

 a place of so great a sanctity, that the Persians, 

 when they made war against Greece, and had sent 

 to Delos a navy of a thousand sail, out of reverence 

 to the patron deities, forbore attacking the island. 

 Delos was celebrated, in ancient times, for the num- 

 ber and the excellence of its artists, and the school 

 wliich it founded. Pliny says that its bronze was ex- 

 cellent, and much esteemed. It was also celebrated 

 for the fineness of its silver, which the Delians used 

 with great skill and taste, in the formation of various 

 utensils, vessels, statues of their gods, of heroes, 

 animals. The statue of Jupiter Tonans, in the ca- 

 pitol, was of Deliaii bronze. Cicero, in his oration 

 for Roscius, has many eulogiums upon the fine vases 

 of Delos and Corinth. The temple of Apollo, at 

 Delos, was one of the most celebrated of its time in 

 all Greece. Delos, now called llegi, is uninhabited, 

 or is only the haunt of pirates ; but splendid ruins of 

 its former magnificence yet exist. 



DELPHI, the seat of the most famous oracle of 

 ancient Greece, was situated in Phocis, on the south- 

 ern side of Parnassus. Apollo, according to fable, 

 having killed the serpent Python (some call it Del- 

 phine), and determining to build his sanctuary here, 

 perceived a merchant vessel from Crete sailing by. 

 He immediately leaped into the sea in the form of an 

 immense dolphin (hence he is called Delphiri), took 

 possession of the vessel, and forced it to pass by Py- 

 los, and to enter the harbour of Crissa. After the 

 Cretans had landed, he assumed the figure of a beau- 

 tiful youth, and told them that they must not return 

 to their country, but should serve as priests in his 

 temple. Inspired, and singing hymns, the Cretans 

 followed the god to his sanctuary, on the rocky de- 

 clivity of Parnassus ; but, discouraged by the sterility 

 of the country, they implored Apollo to save them 

 from famine and poverty. The god, smiling, declared 

 to them the advantage which they would derive from 

 serving as his priests. They then built Delphi, call- 

 ing the city at first Pytho, from the serpent which 

 Apollo had killed at this place. 



The oracles were delivered from a cave, called Py- 

 thium. Tradition ascribes its discovery to a shep- 

 herd, who pastured his flocks at the foot of Parnassus, 

 and was filled with prophetic inspiration by the intoxi- 

 cating vapour which arose from it. Over the cave, 

 which was contained in a temple, was placed the 

 holy tripod, upon which the priestess, called Pythia, 

 by whose mouth Apollo was to speak, received the 

 vapours ascending from beneath, and with them the 

 inspiration of the Delphian god, and proclaimed 



