DITIIYRAMBUS DIVINATION. 



aiay be taken for homage, fealty, or any other ser- 

 vice, of which there wen- many descriptions under 

 the old feudal tenures, due from the tenant to the 

 lord, or person of whom the estate was holden, the 

 rendering or payment of which was the considera- 

 tion or condition OM which (lie land was held. So a 

 distress is, I iy the Knglish and American law, allow- 

 ed to be made of cattle or goods damage-feasant 

 (see Damage-Peasant), both for the purpose of pre- 

 venting further damage, and obtaining satisfaction 

 for that already done. If the party whose goods or 

 cattle are seized, disputes the injury, service, duly, or 

 rent, on account of which the distress is taken, he 

 may replevy the things taken, giving bonds, at the 

 same time, to return them or pay damage, in case the 

 party making the distress shows that the wrong lias 

 U-en done, or the service or rent is due, on account 

 of which the distress was taken. 



Another description of distress is that of attach- 

 ment (see Attachment), to compel a party to appear 

 before a court when summoned for this purpose. 

 The distresses most frequently made in England, are 

 on account of damage-feasance and rent ; though the 

 ordinary attachments on raesne process, that is, on a 

 writ before judgment, that the judgment may be 

 satisfied out of the property so seized, coincides in 

 principle with the right of distress. The reason for 

 giving a right of distress in cases of damage-feasance is 

 obvious, but it is by no means so evident why a land- 

 iord should have a right to distrain for his rent, any 

 more than a grocer for a debt accruing on account of 

 articles supplied for the use of his debtor's family. 

 As to the things that may be distrained, the English 

 law allows any chattel of the lessee, on the premises, 

 to be so taken. The law also prescribes particularly 

 the time and mode of making the distress, and the man- 

 ner of treating the things, especially beasts, distrained. 



DITHYRAMBUS; a surname of Bacchus, because 

 he was said to have been born twice once of his mo- 

 ther Semele, and the second time out of the thigh of 

 his father, Jupiter ; or because several mothers have 

 been ascribed to him. The word means, also, a 

 poem, sung in honour of the god, . at his festivals. 

 Since these festivals were celebrated with all the ex- 

 travagance which could please the intoxicated deity, 

 tlie dithyrambus employed in his worship naturally 

 breathed the same frenzy. The character of the 

 dithyrambus, therefore, requires bold images and 

 lofty periods. The more apparent disorder it 

 contains, the more it partakes of the fire of in- 

 toxication, tlie better it sustains the true dithy- 

 rambic character. In the wild Phrygian music, it 

 was sung in choirs. Arion of Methymne, on the 

 island of Lesbos, is considered as the inventor of it. 

 In public games, it was first made use of by Lasos of 

 Hermione. The expression dithyrambic poem de- 

 notes, also, every lyric poem, filled with a wild and 

 impetuous enthusiasm, as is the case with many odes 

 of Pindar. 



D1TTERS VON DITTERSDORF, CHARLES, 

 born at Vienna, in 1739, is particularly distinguished 

 in comic compositions, and perhaps unrivalled, in 

 this branch of music, among the German composers. 

 Several of his operas are represented with great 

 applause, even in Italy. The emperor of Germany 

 raised him to the rank of nobility. He died in 

 1799. 



DITTO (usually written do.) signifies the afore- 

 mentioned, and is a corruption of the Italian detto, 

 from the Latin dictum, the said. 



DIVAN ; 1. with the Turks, the highest council 

 of state : Turkish ministry. (See Ottoman Em- 

 pire.') . Every pacha has also a divan. 



2. In Turkey, a kind of stage, raised about a foot 

 from the floor, which is found in all the halls of the 



palaces, as well as in the apartments of private per- 

 sons. It is covered with costly tapestry, and a num- 

 ber of embroidered cushions, leaning against the wall- 

 '1 'his divan is a seat of tlie master of the house, and 

 reclining on it, he receives visitors. From this, a 

 kind of sofa has obtained tlie name of divan. 



3. Divan, with the Arabs, Persians, and Turks, is 

 used to denote a complete collection of lyric poems, 

 which they called gazelles, and through each of which 

 one single rhyme extends : they never exceed the 

 length of fourteen strophes. Such a collection is 

 complete if there are as many divisions as there are 

 letters in the alphabet of the respective languages ; 

 and each division contains at least one poem, the 

 rhymes of which terminate with the letter under 

 which the division falls ; some letters are excluded, 

 as few or no words end in them. 



DIVER. See Pear I- Fishery. 



DIVER, a bird. See Loon. 



DIVERGENT ; tending to various parts from one 

 point ; thus we say, divergent lines, rays, &c. mean- 

 ing those lines or rays which, issuing from one com- 

 mon point, go off from that point in various direc- 

 tions. Concave glasses render the rays divergent, 

 and convex ones convergent. Concave mirrors 

 make the rays converge, and convex ones make 

 them diverge. 



DIVERGING SERIES, in analysis, are those 

 series, the terms of which increase more and more, 

 the further they are continued. 



DIVERSION, in military affairs, is an attack on 

 an enemy, in a place where he is weak and unpro- 

 vided, in order to draw off his forces from another 

 place, where they liave made, or intend to make, an 

 irruption. Thus the Romans had no other way in 

 their power of driving Hannibal out of Italy, but by 

 making a diversion in attacking Cartilage. 



DIVIDEND OF STOCKS is a share or propor- 

 tion of the interest of stocks, divided among, and paid 

 to, the proprietors. 



Dividend, in arithmetic, is that number which is to 

 be divided. 



DIVINATION (from the Latin divinatio); the 

 foreseeing or predicting of future events (in Greek, 

 pavrua., (/MVTIK*). Cicero has treated this subject in 

 his book De Divinatione. Man is so dependent upon 

 external things and influences ; he is so conscious of 

 this influence ; he is so perfectly aware of the uncer- 

 tain issue of his best calculations, and is so often 

 obliged to act, when the reasons for and against a 

 measure seem to be almost equally balanced, that it 

 is natural for him to cherish an ardent desire to pry 

 into futurity, and to inform himself about things 

 which are happening in distant regions, by some pro- 

 cess out of the ordinary course of nature. If we take 

 into view, besides this natural desire, the belief which 

 nations, in an early stage of their progress, entertain 

 of the immediate dispensations of Providence, of a 

 constant interference of the Deity in the course of 

 things, rather than of the existence of eternal and all- 

 wise laws, we shall have the reason why belief in 

 divination of some kind or other, in signs given from 

 above, to warn or to alarm, and in the power of par- 

 ticular individuals to lift the veil of futurity, has been 

 so general. 



We need not suppose divination to have had its 

 origin in fraud: the disposition of men to deceive them- 

 selves, and form conclusions as to future events from 

 unmeaning signs, will sufficiently account for its exis- 

 tence. In the sequel, indeed, it became a fruitful 

 source of imposition. Moses prohibited divination 

 expressly. (Deut. xviii. 11.). Saul expelled " those 

 that had familiar spirits, and the wizards," from his 

 kingdom ; yet he was weak enough to consult tlie 

 famous witch of Endor, shortly before the decisive 



