DUTIES D WIGHT, 



759 



vols., not quite complete. The preface loathe ma- 

 thematical part is highly esteemed by mathemati- 

 cians. Duteiis made himself known as a poet by the 

 two collections Le Caprice poetique and Poesies. His 

 Recherches sur I'Origine des Decouvertes attributes 

 sux Modernes show the extent of his reading, but 

 rate the knowledge and invention of the ancients 

 somewhat too high. His Tocsin ou Appel au Ion 

 Sens, of which he printed several successive editions, 

 contains severe remarks upon Voltaire and Rousseau. 

 In general, he was an opponent of the French philo- 

 sophers, and attacked them on every occasion. In 

 his CEuvres melees (London, 4 vols.) may be found 

 his Logique ou V Art de raisonner. His Histoire de 

 ce quis'est passe pour le Retablissement (Tune Regence 

 en Anglelerre (1789) has historical interest. Dutem 

 also composed a work, rather alien from his common 

 pursuits, On the Genealogy of the Heroes of Ro- 

 mance. Three volumes of Memoires d'un Voyageur 

 qui se repose (Paris, 1806) were received with gene- 

 ral approbation. The third volume, entitled Duten- 

 siana, contains anecdotes and observations. An ear- 

 lier work of a similar kind was interesting as a sort 

 of scandalous chronicle of the distinguished men of 

 his time ; but he thought it advisable to destroy the 

 whole edition before it was made public, and, what is 

 rarely the case, he accomplished his object. 



DUTIES. See Revenue. 



DUVAL, VALLENTINE JAMERAY, librarian of the 

 emperor Francis I., born in 1695, was the son of a 

 poor peasant in the village of Artonay, in Cham- 

 pagne. In his tenth year, he lost his parents ; in his 

 fourteenth year, being driven from his native place 

 by the want of employment, half famished, and soon 

 after attacked by the small pox, he wandered about 

 in the open country, in the terrible winter of 1709. 

 Providence conducted him to the cell of the good her- 

 mit Palgmon, who received him, permitted him to 

 share hitT labours, and taught him to read. Here 

 Duval became devout without being superstitious. 

 He then exchanged this quiet retreat for another at 

 St Anne, near Luneville. Here his only company 

 was four ignorant hermits ; his employment, tending 

 six cows ; and his only means of improvement, some 

 volumes of the Blaue Bibliothek ; but he finally suc- 

 ceeded in learning to write. An epitome of arith- 

 metic, which fell into his hands, highly interested his 

 youthful mind. In the solitude of a forest, he re- 

 ceived his first ideas of astronomy and geography. 

 In order to procure the means of educating himself, 

 he killed game, and, in a few months, the proceeds 

 of his toils furnished him with a little stock of money. 

 Happening to find a gold seal engraved with a coat 

 of arms, he liad it advertised by the minister of the 

 place. An Englishman by the name of Forster ap- 

 peared as the owner, and Duval gave it up to him 

 on condition that he would explain to him the coat of 

 arms. Surprised by this honesty and curiosity, 

 Forster rewarded him so bountifully, that his library, 

 which had been gradually forming out of the hunting 

 fund, was increased to 200 volumes, while he spent 

 nothing oh personal or external conveniences. En- 

 gaged in his studies, Duval paid little attention to 

 his herd, and thereby displeased the hermits. One 

 of them even threatened to burn his books. This 

 roused the spirit of Duval. He seized a fire-shovel, 

 drove the brother out of his own cell, and shut him- 

 self up in it. The other brothers came with the su- 

 perior, but he refused to open the door till they had 

 agreed to pass over all that had happened, and to 

 allow him, in future, two hours a-day for studying, 

 while he, on his part, was to serve them ten years 

 more for his clothes and victuals. Duval was now 

 secure. He pursued his studies with more zeal than 

 ever in the forest where his cows were grazing. He 



was found one day by the young princes of Lorraine, 

 while thus busy with his maps and cliarts. They 

 made him an offer, on the spot, of placing him with 

 the Jesuits, at Pont-a-Mousson. He accepted it, but 

 only on condition that his liberty should not be sacri- 

 ficed by it. He soon made such rapid progress, that 

 duke Leopold took him with liim to Paris, in 1718, to 

 see what effect this new scene would have upon him. 

 But Duval declared that all the pomp of the city and 

 its works of art were far inferior to the majesty of the 

 rising or setting sun. On Ms return, Leopold ap- 

 pointed him his librarian, and made him professor of 

 history in the academy atLuneville. These offices, and 

 the lessons which he gave to the young Englishmen 

 studying there (among whom was the famous Chat- 

 liam), afforded him the means of rebuilding his old 

 hermitage of St Anne. When Lorraine was ceded 

 to France, he removed, with the library under his 

 care, to Florence, where he staid ten years. The 

 emperor Francis invited him to Vienna, to form a 

 collection of medals. Here he died in 1775. With 

 all his learning, Duval was exceedingly modest. His 

 CEuvres, precedees de Mem. sur sa Vie, were pub- 

 lished at Petersburg, Bale, and Strasburg, in the 

 year 1784, in two volumes quarto. 



DWARFS. In ages when knowledge depends 

 mostly on tradition, it is natural for the human mind 

 to people the world with a thousand imaginary 

 beings. Such are dragons, giants, and dwarfs ; all 

 of which have some foundation in reality, and afford 

 amusement to the imagination, even after experience 

 has corrected the belief in the reality of their mar- 

 vellous character. We need hardly say, that the 

 pygmies of the ancients, and the Quimos, whom Com- 

 merson tells us that he discovered, are as fabulous as 

 the renowned Lilliputians. The dwarfs which ac- 

 tually exist are deviations of nature from her general 

 rule ; and the term dwarf is a vague one, as we can- 

 not say how small a person must be to be so called. 

 There is no instance on record of dwarfs distinguished 

 for talents. Their figures are sometimes perfectly 

 well proportioned. They have generally one trait in 

 common with children a very high opinion of their 

 own little person, and great vanity. The Romans 

 used dwarfs for several purposes ; sometimes in gla- 

 diatorial exhibitions, on account of the ridiculous 

 contrast which they afforded to their opponents. To- 

 wards the end of the middle ages, and even in some 

 countries, as late as the beginning of the last century, 

 dwarfs were a fashionable appendage to the courts of 

 European princes, and the families of the nobles. 

 Who does not recollect the numerous pictures of 

 those times, with a negro or a dwarf in the back 

 ground ? They seem to have been great favourites 

 with the ladies of the family. They were sometimes, 

 also, used as fools. Peter the G real carried this fancy 

 for dwarfs to a great extent. He assembled indivi- 

 duals of this kind from all parts of his empire, and 

 ordered the famous marriage of the dwarfs. At the 

 court of Constantinople, a number of dwarfs are al- 

 ways maintained, as pages. Those who happen to 

 be, at the same time, deaf and dumb, and have been 

 mutilated, are particularly valued, and reserved for 

 the sultan. 



DWELLING. See Domicil, and Habitation. 



D WIGHT, TIMOTHY, an eminent American divine 

 was born at Northampton, in Massachusetts, May 

 14, 1752. He was admitted a member of Yale col- 

 lege in September, 1765, when he had just passed 

 his thirteenth year ; and after leaving college, lie 

 took charge of a grammar-school at New Haven, 

 where he taught for two years. While in this situa- 

 tion, his time was regularly divided : six hours a day 

 in school ; eight hours in study ; and the remaining 

 ten hours in exercise and sleep. In 1771, he btv 



