D E S 
D E S 
Conjugal affeXion, 
Prevailing over fear and timorous doubt, 
Hath led me on, defirous to behold 
Once more thy.face. Milton. 
DESl'ROUSNESS, f. Fulnefs of defire ; eagernefs. 
DESI'ROUSLY, adv. Eagerly; with defire; with ar¬ 
dent wifhes. 
DESI'SE, a town of France, in the department of the 
Saone and Loire, and chief place of a canton, in the dif- 
triX of Autun : fifteen miles ead of Autun. 
To DESI'ST, v. n. \_defflo, Lat.] To ceafe from any 
thing; to ftcp : with from,. —There are many who will 
not quit a projeX, though they find it pernicious or ab- 
furd ; but will readily dcfijl from it, when they are con¬ 
vinced it is impracticable. Addifon. 
Deff, thou art difcern’d. 
And toil’ll in vain ; nor me in vain moled. Milton. 
DESIST'ANCE, f. The act of deliding; cefiatiorr.— 
Men ufually give freelied where they have not given be¬ 
fore : and make it both the motive and excufe of their 
deffance from giving any more, that they have given al¬ 
ready. Boyle. 
DESI'TIVE, adj. [defiltts, Lat.] Ending; concludent; 
final.—Inceptive and dejitive propofitions are of this fort: 
the fogs vanilh as the fun rifes ; but the fogs have not 
yet begun to vanidt, therefore the fun is not yet rifen. 
1 Watts. 
DESK, /. [ difch, Dut. a table.] An inclining table, 
for the ufe of writers or readers, made commonly with a 
box or repolitory under it.—He is drawn leaning on a 
dejk, with his bible before him. Walton. 
Tell her in the defk, 
That’s cover’d o’er with’Turkifh tapedry, 
There is a purfe of ducats. Skakefpeare. 
DESLYO'NS (John), a learned French ecclefiadic, 
born at Pontoife, in 1615. He purfued.his dudiesat Pa¬ 
ris, where he took his degree of bachelor in divinity, in 
the college of the Sorbonne, and obtained the dignities 
of dean and prebendary of Senlis, in 163S. In 1640 he 
received the bonnet of doXor,and retired to his deanery, 
where he palled the remainder of his life in dudy, and 
the regular di(charge of his profelfional duties. He con¬ 
tinued fenior member of the college, until his death, in 
the year 1700. Befides feveral devotional pieces, fer- 
mons, homilies, &c. he was the author of fome treatifes 
in ecclelialtical antiquities, abounding in erudition and 
profound refearch. The principal of them are, Ecclefi- 
adical DifTertations relative to the fuperditious Obfer- 
vances praXifed on the Eve of Twelfth-day, and other 
Fedivals; A Difculfion of the ancient Rights of the Bi- 
fiiop of Paris over Pontoife and the French Vexin ; and. 
An ecclefiadical Letter refpeXing the Burial of Prieds, 
in which the ferious quedion is learnedly difcuffed, whe¬ 
ther prieds Ihould be interred with their backs towards 
the altar and their faces towards the people, or, like the 
laity, with their faces and their feet turned towards the 
altar! 
DESMAISEAU'X (Peter), a native of Auvergne, 
born in 1666. He came early as a refugee into England, 
and acquired an accurate knowledge of its language and 
literature. He was fellow of the royal lociety, and was 
much conneXed with the men of letters in his time, ef- 
pecially with Bayle and St. Evreniond. He died in Lon¬ 
don in 1745. He is chiefly known by his editions of the 
works, together with the lives, of the two writers above 
mentioned, which contain many curious particulars of li¬ 
terary hidory and anecdote. He alfo wrote the lives of 
Chillingworth and John Hales ; and publilhed a collec¬ 
tion of pieces in philofophy, hidory, mathematics, &c. 
by Leibnitz, Newton, Clarke, Locke, and other cele¬ 
brated authors. He wrote both in French and Englifh, 
and gave in the latter a good tranflation of Bayle’s Dic¬ 
tionary. 
Vol. V. No. 313. 
761 
DESM ARE'S (Toullaint), a French pried, of the con¬ 
gregation of the oratory, remarkable for the popularity 
of his pulpit talents,'was born at Vire in Normandy, in 
1599, and died in 1687. He wrote a great variety of trea¬ 
tifes in controverfial theology, chiefly on the quedions in 
debate between the Janfenifts and their opponents. He 
alfo drew up the Necrologc de Port Royal, which was printed 
in 1723, 4to. and he left behind him, in manufeript, a 
French Tranflation and Commentary upon the Evange- 
lids ; An Explanation of the Prophets Ezekiel and Da¬ 
niel, and of the minor Prophets; A View of the Con- 
troverfy .between the Fathers and the Pelagians; Re¬ 
flexions on the Councils, and among others thofe of Con- 
dance and Bafil, &c. 
DESMOLE'TS (Peter Nicholas), a French ecclefiadic, 
of the congregation of the oratory, and librarian of the 
houfe belonging to that order in the Rue St. Honore at 
Paris, was born in that city about the year 1677, and died 
in 1760. He particularly applied himfelf to the hidory 
of literature, and acquired no fmall reputation by his la¬ 
borious and judicious produXions in that department of 
dudy. But befides his acknowledged learning, the po- 
litenefs and amiablenefs of his manners rendered his ac¬ 
quaintance much fought after, and united him in habits 
of intimacy and friendfhip with the mod refpeXable 
French literati in his time. His principal work is a con¬ 
tinuation of Sallengres Memoirs of Literature, in eleven 
volumes 121110. He w r as alio the editor of Father Lamy’s 
treatife De Tabernaculo Foederis, SanEla civitate Jerafaltm, ct 
Templo ejus, &c. fol. 1720; of Father Pouget’s InJlitntiones 
Catholics in modum Catechefos , &c. two vols. fol. 1725 ; and 
of various other books. 
DES'NA, a river of Rufiia, which runs into the Dnie¬ 
per, near Kiov. 
DESO'J A, a town of Spain, in Navarre : ten miles 
fouth-wed of Edella. 
DE'SOLATE, adj. [ defolatus, Lat.] Without inhabi¬ 
tants ; uninhabited.—This hero appears at firft in a defo¬ 
late ifland, fitting upon the fide of the fea. Broome. 
Let us feek fome defolate (hade, and there 
Weep our fad bofoms empty. Skakefpeare. 
Deprived of inhabitants; laid wade.—This city will be 
defolate, without an inhabitant. Jer. xxvi.—'Solitary; 
without fociety. 
To DE'SOLATE, v. a. [defolo, Lat.] To deprive of 
inhabitants; to lay wade ; to make defect.—The ifland 
of Atlantis was not fwallowed by an earthquake, but was 
deflated by a particular deluge. Bacon. 
Thick around 
Thunders the fport of thofe, who with the gun, 
And dog impatient bounding at the fliot, 
Worfe than the feafon defolate the fields. Tkomfon. 
DE'SOLATELY, adv. In a defolate manner. 
DESOLA'TION, f. DedruXion of inhabitants; re¬ 
duction to folitude : 
Without her follows to myfelf and thee, 
Herfelf, the land, and many a Chriftian foul, 
Death, deflation, ruin, and decay. Shakefptare . 
Gloominefs ; fadnefs ; melancholy; deditution.—Then 
your hofe fhall be ungartered, and every thing about 
you demondrate a carelefs deflation. Skakefpeare. 
To complete 
The feene of deflation, dretch’d around 
The grim guards dand. Tkomfon. 
A place waded and forfaken.—How is Babylon become 
a deflation among the nations. Jer. 1 . 23. 
DESOLA'TION Island. See Kerguelen’s Land. 
DE'SOLATORY, adj. Making defolate; comfort- 
lefs. Scott. 
DESPAI'R,y. [ dfefpoir,Tr.'] Hopeleffnefs; defpon- 
dence ; lofs of hop e.—Defpair is the thought of the un- 
attainablenefs of any good, which works differently in 
9 H men’s 
