106 
DUG 
tied, and put under water. See the article Castica- 
Tory, vo! iii. p. 884.—Reclaim the obdinately oppro¬ 
brious and virulent women, and make the duckingjlool 
more ijfeful. Addifon. 
DUCK'LEGGED, adj. Short legged: 
Ducklegged, fir or t waided, fucli a dwarf fhe is, 
That (he mud rife on tiptoes for a kifs. Dryden. 
DUCK'LING, /. A young duck; the brood of the 
duck : 
Ev’ry morn 
Amid the ducklings let her Ratter, corn. Gay. 
DUCK'STEIN,/ [Germ.] A white calcareous (lone, 
formed by the depofition of chalk from water, in which 
it is diffufed. It is generally formed on branches or roots 
of trees, and hones of different kinds, and differs from 
tire dalaClites in its mode of formation, this laft being 
depofited by water in tire adf of evaporation as it tran- 
fudes through the roofs of caverns. 
DUCK'TRAP, a town of the American States, in the 
dihridt of Maine, where a poh-office is kept, in Hancock 
county, containing 278 inhabitants ; twelve miles from 
Belfaft, and thirty-two from Penobfcot. 
DU'CLER, a town of France, in tire department of 
the Lower Seine, and chief place of a canton, in the dif- 
tridt of Caudebec : three leagues and a half wed-fouth- 
tveh of Rouen. 
DU'CLOS (Charles Dineau), an eminent French writer, 
born in 1705, Ion of a hatter at Dinant in Britanny. He re¬ 
ceived a liberal education at Paris, where he foon made 
hirnfelf known as a writer, and was admitted into the 
academy of infcriptions in 1739, and into the French aca¬ 
demy in 1747. Of the latter-he was made perpetual fe- 
cretary on the death of Mirabaud. His native place nomi¬ 
nated him its fird magidrate in 1744 ; and, when the king, 
in recompence for the patriotic zeal difplayed by the pro¬ 
vince of Britanny, propofed to confer honours on fonre of 
its members who lhould be recommended, Duclos was 
unanimoufly nominated by the third ellate, and was in 
confequence ennobled by letters patent. He was alfo 
penfioned, and obtained the pod of hidoriographer of 
France. It was faid of him, that he was at the fame time 
droit & adroit , honed and dextrous. He W’rote feveral 
novels, which are ingenious and intereding, though the 
incidents and charadters are rather fanciful than natural. 
The bed of thefe is, Con/ejfions du Comte de .... . His 
Hidory of Louis XI. 3 vols. nmo. 1745; and Supple¬ 
ment, 1 vol. 1746, is a work of curious refearch, written 
in a concife and elegant dile, but too much in the fen- 
tentious manner of Tacitus. His moral work, intitled 
Conjiderations fur les Mceurs de cc Siecle, is much edeemed 
for the truth and corredtnefs of its maxims, and the inge¬ 
nuity of its difcuOions. His Remarks on the Grammar 
of the Port Royal, and feveral dilfertations in the Me¬ 
moirs of the Academy of Belles Lettres, do honour to 
his judgment and erudition. He had a large (hare in the 
Dictionary of the French Academy; and, iince his death, 
there have appeared under his name, Secret Memoirs of 
the Reigns of Louis XIV. and Louis XV. in 2 vols. 8vo. 
1791, which are accounted authentic, and contain many 
free and curious particulars of the periods treated of. 
The following he recommends as the bed maxims of hu¬ 
man life : “ Mankind are fo much indebted to each other, 
that they owe mutual attention ; they- owe each other a 
politenefs worthy of themfelves, worthy of thinking be¬ 
ings, and varied according to the diderent fentiments that 
thould dictate it. The politenefs of the great, therefore, 
thou Id be that of humanity ; and that of inferiors grati¬ 
tude, if the great deferve it; that of equals edeem and 
mutual fervices ; far from endeavouring to encourage in¬ 
civility, it is much to be widted, that the politenefs arif- 
ing from foftnefs of manners lhould'-be added to that 
which proceeds from goodnefs ot heart.” 
“■•The mod pernicious cftecl of the common politenefs 
D U C 
of the world is, that it teaches us to do without thofe 
virtues which it imitates. Were we but taught by our 
education to be humane and benevolent, we (hould either 
podefs politenefs, or could do very well without it. We 
(hould not, perhaps, have that politenefs which announces 
itfelf by the graces, but we diould have that which 
announces the honed man and the man of honour. 
We diould then have no occafion to have recourfe to 
mere appearances. Indead of being artificial to pleafe, 
it would then be fufficient that we were goc-d men ; in¬ 
dead of being didemblers to flatter the weaknefs of 
others, it would be enough for us only to be indulgent 
to them. Thofe to whom we behaved in this manner 
would neither be rendered infolent nor corrupted by it; 
they would only be grateful and become better.” 
It was-an obfervation of Duclos, “ That rogues always 
leagued together, whild honed men kept themfelves ifo- 
lated.” “ Impious and profligate writings (faid he) are 
read once for their novelty, and, except on account o£ 
the bad principles they contain, they would never have 
been taken the lead notice of; like thofe obfcure crimi¬ 
nals vvhofe names are known only by their crimes and 
their punifhments.” Duclos died in 1772. He was a 
man of much integrity, a faithful friend, and a patron of; 
merit. 
DUCT,/ \_duElus, Lat.] Guidance; diredlion.—This 
dodlrine, by fadening all our aftions by a fatal decree at 
the foot of God’s chair, leaves nothing to us but only to 
obey our fate, to follow the duB of the dars, or necellity 
of thofe irony chains which we are born under. Hammond . 
—A paffage through which any thing is conducted : a 
term chiefly ttfed by anatomifls.—It was obferved that 
the chyle, in the thoracic dudl, retained the original tade 
of the aliment. Arbutknot. 
DUCTABI'LITY, / Eafinefs of belief, the quality 
of being eadly led. 
DUC'TABLE, or Ductible, adj. [from the Lat. du~ 
co, to lead ] Eafy of belief, eafy to be led, dudtile. 
DUG' FILE, adj. \_du£lilis, Lat.] Flexible; pliable:. 
Thick woods and gloomy night 
Conceal the happy plant from human flight: 
One bough it bears; but, vvon’drous to behold! 
The duElile rind and leaves of radiant gold. Dryden. 
Eafy to be drawn out into length, or expanded.—All bo¬ 
dies duElile and tenfile, as paetals, that w dl be drawn into- 
wires; wool'and tow, that will be drawn into yarn or 
thread ; have the appetite of not difcontinuing drong. 
Bacon. —Tra (Stable ; obfequious ; complying; yielding: 
He generous thoughts indils 
Of true nobility ; forms their duttile minds 
To human virtues. Philips 
DUC'TILENESS,/ Flexibility; duftility: 
I, when I value gold, may think upon 
The duBilenefs, the.application ; 
The wholefomenefs, the ingenuity, 
From rud, from foil, from fire, ever free. Donne . 
DUCTI'LITY,/ Quality of fuffering extenfion; flexi¬ 
bility. Obfequioufnefs; compliance.—Yellow colour and 
duttility are properties of gold: they belong to all gold, 
but not only to gold; for laffron is alfo yellow, and lead is 
duElile. Watts. —This term is almofl exclufively applied to. 
fluch bodies as are capable of being beaten, prefled, drawn, . 
or dretched forth, without breaking; or by which they are 
capable of great alterations in their figure and dimenfions,, 
and of gaining in one way what they lofe in another. Such 
are metals, which, being urged by the hammer, gain in 
length and breadth what they lofe in thicknefls ; or, being 
drawn into wire through holes in iron, grow longer as they 
become more llender. Such alfo are gums, glues, relins, 
and (ome other bodies; which, though-not malleable, 
may yet be denominated dudlile, in as much as, when 
foftened by water, fire, or feme other mendruum, they 
i may 
