S04 DIG 
Tight helps of art, which will fcarcely be found by thofe 
who fervilely confine themfelves to the diBates of others. 
Locke, 
I credit what the Grecian dictates fay, 
And Samian founds o’er Scota’s hills convey. Prior, 
DICTA'TION, /. The aft or praftice of diftating or 
prefcribing. 
DICTATOR,/. [Lat.] A magifirate of Rome made 
in times of exigence and diftrefs, and inverted with abfo- 
lute authority. See the article Rome. 
Julius with honour tam’d Rome’s foreign foes ; 
But patriots fell, ere the diBator rofe. Prior, 
One inverted with abfolute authority : 
Unanimous they all commit the care 
And management of this main enterprize 
To him, their great diBator. Milton. 
One whofe credit or authority enables him to direft the 
conduft or opinion of others.-—That riches, honours, and 
outward fplendour, lhould fet up perfons for < dictators to 
all the reft of mankind, is a mod fliameful invnfion of 
the right of our underftanding. Watts. 
DICTATO'RI AL, adji Authoritative; confident; dog¬ 
matical ; overbearing.—A young academic often dwells 
upon a journal, or an obfervator that treats of trade and 
politics in a dictatorial ftile, and is lavifh in the praife of 
the author. Watts. 
DICTATORSHIP,/. The office of diftator.—This 
is the folemneft title they can confer under the prince¬ 
dom, being indeed a kind of diBatorJhip. Wotton. —Autho¬ 
rity ; infolent confidence.—This is that perpetual diBa- 
t'orjhip which is exerciled by Lucretius, though often in 
the wrong. Dryden. 
DICTA'TRIX,/. A female diftator. Scott. 
DIC'TATURE,/. [diBatura, Lat.] The office of a 
diftator ; aiftatorfhip. 
DICTION,/ [ diBion , Fr. diBio, , Lat.] Style; lan¬ 
guage ; expreffion.—There appears in every part of his 
diBion, or exprefiion, a kind of noble and bold purity. 
Dryden. 
DICTIONARY, / [diBionarium, Lat.] A book con¬ 
taining the words of any language, or the terms of art in 
any fcience, in alphabetical order, with explanations of 
their meaning ; a lexicon ; a vocabulary ; a w'ord-book. 
—Some have delivered the polity of fpirits, and left an 
account that they Hand in awe.of charms, fpells, and 
conjurations ; that they are afraid of letters and charac¬ 
ters, notes and dartres, which, fet together, do fignify 
nothing : and not only in the diBionary of man, but in the 
fubtler vocabulary of Satan. Brown. —An army, or a par¬ 
liament, is a colleftion of men; a didlionary, or nomen¬ 
clature, is a colleftion of words. Watts. 
To DIC'TITATE, v.n. [diBitare, Lat.] To fpeak 
often. 
DICTUM,/. In old writings, an arbitrament; an 
award ; the fentence of an arbitrator. 
DICTYN'NA, a nymph of Crete, who firft invented 
hunting nets. She was one of Diana’s attendants, and 
for that reafon the goddefs is often called DiBinna. Some 
have fuppofed that Minos purfued her, and that to avoid 
his importunities, fhe threw herfelf into the fea, and was 
caught in fifliermen’s nets, hy.rva., whence her name. 
There was a feftival at Sparta in honour of Diana, called 
DiBynnia. Paufanias. 
D^CTYOI'DES, /. In anatomy, a mufcle refembling 
a net. 
DIC'TYS, a Cretan, who went with Idomeneus to the 
Trojan war. It is fuppofed that he wrote an hiftory of 
this celebrated war, and that at his death he ordered it 
to be laid in his tomb, where it remained till a violent 
earthquake, in the reign of Nero, opened the monument 
where he had been buried. This convulfion of the earth 
threw out his hiftory, of the Trojan war, which was 
found by fome Ihepherds, and afterwards carried to 
2 
D I D 
Rome. This myfterious tradition is defervedly deemed 
fabulous; and the hiftory of the Trojan war, which is 
now extant, as the compofition of Diftys of Crete, was 
compofed in the fifteenth century, or according to others, 
in the age of Conftantine, and falfely attributed to one of 
the followers of Idomeneus. The edition of Dictys is 
by Mafellus Venia, 4to. Mediol. 1477. 
DID, [bib, Sax.] The preterite of do. —Thou canft 
not fay I did it. Shakefpcare. 
What did that greatnefs in a woman’s mind ? 
Ill lodg’d, and weak to aft what it defign’d. Dryden. 
The fign of the preter-imperfeft tenfe, or perfeft : 
When did his pen on learning fix a brand, 
Or rail at arts he did not underhand ? Dryden. 
It is fometimes ufed emphatically ; as, I did really love 
him. 
DIDACTIC, or Didactical, adj. [of (SiWlw.or, Gr. 
to teach.] Preceptive; giving precepts: as, a didaBic 
poem is a poem that gives rules for fome art; as the 
Georgies.—The means ufed to this purpofe are partly 
didaBical, and partly protreptical ; demonftrating the 
truth of the gofpel, and then urging the profelfors of 
thofe truths to be ftedfaft in the faith, and to beware of 
infidelity. Ward. 
DIDACTICALLY, adv. In a didaftic manner ; pre- 
ceptively. 
DI'DAPPER,/. The provincial name of a water- 
fowl belonging to the genus Colymbus, which fee. 
DIDASCAL'IC, adj. [(Jn^xo-aAnro;, Gr.] Precept¬ 
ive ; didaftic ; giving precepts in fome art.—I found 
it neceflary to form lome ftory, and give a kind of body 
to the poem : under what fpecies it may be comprehend¬ 
ed, whether aidafcalic or heroic, I leave to the judgment 
of the critics. Prior. 
To DID'DER, v. a. [didder//. Tent, zittern, Germ.] 
To quake with cold; to Iliiver. A provincial word. 
Skinner. 
DIDEL'PIIIS,/. The OrossuM ; in natural hiftory, 
a genus of quadrupeds belonging to the order of ferae, 
the generic charafters of which are : ten upper, and two 
canine teeth in each jaw ; eight lower cutting teeth, 
which are very finall ; five toes on each foot; thofe on 
the hind feet formed like a hand, with adiftinft thumb ; 
tail very long, (lender, and ufually naked. Moft of the 
fpecies have abdominal pouches, covering the teats, in 
which may be hid, in time of danger, their young. 
There are twenty-two fpecies of this animal now afeer- 
tained, viz. 
1. Didelphus opodum, or the Virginian opoffium. 
This animal has a long fnout ; large, naked, and very 
thin, ears, of a black colour, edged with pure white ; 
it has fmall, lively, black eyes, with long ftiff hairs 
on each fide of its nofe and behind the eyes ; face co¬ 
vered with ftiort, foft, white, hair; the fpace round 
the eyes dufky ] neck very fliort, and of a dirty yellow : 
hind part of the neck and back covered with hair above 
two inches long, foft, but uneven, having its bottom of 
a yellowirti white, the middle part black, and the ends 
whitifh ; fides covered with dufky hair ; belly with foft, 
woolly, white, hair ; legs and thighs black.; feet dufky ; 
claws white ; the bale of the tail is clothed with long 
hair like that on its back ; the reft of the tail is covered 
with fmall feales, the half next the body is black, the 
reft white ; the fcaly part has an appearance like the bof 
dy of a fnake: it has the fame prehenfile qualities as 
that of fome monkies. Its body is round and very 
thick, and its legs are fhort ; the female has a large 
pouch, ufually called the falfe belly, attached to the 
lower part of the abdomen, in which the teats are lodged, 
and where the young fhelter themfelves. The ufual 
length of this animal, when full grown, is about twenty 
inches, of its tail twelve. It inhabits Virginia, Louifia- 
na, Mexico, Brazil, Peru, and other parts of America, 
whence it is more commonly known by the name of Ame¬ 
rican 
