810 
D I D 
He wrote Iikewife a pamphlet on Public Education, con¬ 
taining Tome impracticable and fome pfeful ideas ; an 
Eulogy of Richardfon, warm and enthufiaftic ; and an 
EflTay on the Life and Writings of Seneca the Philofo- 
pher, 1779, his lad performance. Towards the clofe of 
life, Diderot injured himfelf by fome defamatory attacks 
upon his friend J. J. Rouffeau, who had quarrelled with 
the French philofophical fchool, and from whofe Confef- 
dons they expedted fome anecdotes to their dilhonour. 
The Genevan philofopher, in one of his letters, thus 
fpeaks ot Diderot: “ Although born with a good heart 
and an open difpofition, he had an unfortunate propenfity 
to mifinterpret the words and adlions of his friends ; and 
the mod ingenuous explanations only fupplied his fub- 
tle imagination witli new interpretations againd them.” 
It is curious to obferve how, under the name of another, 
Rondeau has here defcribed himfelf. Diderot was a 
married man, and, though fomewhat irritable, he was 
kind and feeling in his domeftic relations. After the Dic¬ 
tionary was finidied, he was obliged to offer his library 
to fale. The emprefs of Rudia purchafed it for 50,000 
livres, and, with a noble generofity, left him the ufe of 
it for life. At that period die, with the king of Pruf- 
fia, were protedtors of literary freedom, and difciples of 
the new French fchool. Diderot was made a member of 
the royal academy of fciences o'f Berlin. After a linger¬ 
ing indifpodtion, he died fuddenly on ridng from table, 
July 31, 1784. A colledtion of his literary and philofo¬ 
phical pieces has been publifhed in 6 vols. 8vo. The 
imperfedt edition which appeared in 1782 injured his re¬ 
putation, by preferving fome infignificant tranflations, 
and a filthy novel, which lie had difavowed. His Eflays 
on Painting, a pofthumous work, publidied in 1795, is in 
high eftimation; as are his Dialogues on the Origin of 
Being ; Letters on the Blind, the Deaf, and the Dumb ; 
Remarks on Helvetius; and Jaques le Fataliffe, publidied 
at Paris in 1796. Tlie biographical (ketch prefixed to 
this lad: work, throws an imperfect light on the fingular 
charadter of the author. He cared but little for repu¬ 
tation. Prodigal of inftrudtion as he was omnifcient, his 
converfation furnidied to many authors the whole dock 
of idea on which they have contrived to found.a name. 
With the mod felf-denying liberality, he would very fre¬ 
quently toil at long paflage’s, in order to adorn the works 
of his acquaintance. “ It matters not (he was wont to 
fay) whether the thing originates in me or another, fo 
that it be done, and well done.” This literary benevo¬ 
lence endeared him to every dudent in phiiofophy : his 
profound knowledge of the fprings of human adtion fit¬ 
ted him for the office of diredtor of a party ; and a zea¬ 
lous hodility to all religion, natural or revealed, had in 
him attained fo nearly to the nature of a difinterefted 
padioh, that he was become, by a fort of common con-" 
lent, the patriarch of the atheiftic fathers. The atten¬ 
tions of a beloved daughter, perfeveringly yielded during 
a lingering and painful difeafe, of the fatal tendency of 
which he was aware, bedowed on his latter months all 
the confolations of which they were fufceptible. Ar¬ 
dent as was his imagination, bold as were his opinions, 
and, glowing as was his eloquence, he had much pfadti- 
cal timidity ; and he conformed, both in his conduct and 
in his earlier acknowledged works, to the edablilhed no¬ 
tions of moral and religious propriety. His dyle fcintil- 
lates with innovations : but they are thofe of a philofo- 
phic grammarian ; and he has in an efpecial manner con¬ 
tributed to prepare the new dialed! of France. 
DI'DO, called alfo Elifa, a daughter of Belusking of 
Tyre, who married Sichaeus, or Sicharbas, her uncle, 
who was pried of Hercules. Pygmalion, who fucceeded 
to the throne of Tyre after Belus, murdered Sichaeus to 
get poffedion of the immenfe riches that he had; upon 
which Dido, difconfolate for the lofs of her hulband, 
whom die tenderly loved, and by whom die was equally 
edeemed, fet fail 1 in qued of a new fettlement, with a 
number of Tyrians to whom the cruelty of the tyrant 
DID 
had become odious. According to fome accounts, die 
threw into the fea the riches of her huiband, which Pyg¬ 
malion fo greatly defired, and by that artifice compelled 
the diips to fly with her that had come by order of the 
tyrant to obtain the riches of Sichaeus. During her voy¬ 
age, Dido vidted the coad of Cyprus; from whence die 
carried fifty women who had‘prodituted themfelves on 
the fea-fhore, and gave them as wives to her Tyrian fol¬ 
lowers. A dorm drove her fleet upon the African coad, 
where die bought,of the natives as much land as could 
be covered by a bull’s hide cut into thongs. Upon this 
piece of land die built a citadel called Byrfa-, and the 
increafe of population, and the riling commerce among 
her fubjedts, foon obliged her to enlarge her city: and 
this is faid to have been the foundation of Carthage, 
which fee. Her beauty, as well as the fame of her en- 
terprife, gained her many admirers; and her fubjedts 
wifbed her to marry Iarbas king of Mauritania, to pre¬ 
vent a war. Dido erected a funeral pile, as if widiing 
by a folemn facrifice to appeafe the manes of Sichaeus, 
to which die had promifed eternal fidelity. When all 
was prepared, die (tabbed herfelf on the pile in prefence 
of her people ; and by this uncommon adtion obtained 
the name of Dido, “ valiant woman,” inffead of Elifa. 
According to a poetical fidtion of Virgil and Ovid, the 
death of Dido was c.aufed by the hidden departure of 
Hineas, of whom (he is reprefented to have been deep¬ 
ly enamoured. While Virgil defcribes, in a beautiful 
epifode, the defperate love of Dido," and the fubmiflion 
of y£neas to the will of the gods, he at the fame time 
gives an explanation of the hatred which exifted between 
the republics of Rome and Carthage ; and informs his 
readeus, that their mutual enmity originated in their very 
firft foundation, and was apparently kindled by a more 
remote caufe than the jealoufy and rivalfliip of two flou- 
rifhing empires. Dido after her death was honoured as 
a deity by her fubjedts. 
DIDRACH'MUM, f. in antiquity, a coin containing 
two drachmas. 
DIDST. The fecond pcrfon of the preter tenfe of do; 
Oh laff and beft of Scots ! who didjl maintain 
Thy country’s freedom from a foreign reign. Dryden. 
DI DUC'TION,y. [ diduElio , Lat.] Separation by with¬ 
drawing one part from the other,—He ought to fhew what 
kind of firings they are, which, though ftrongly faflened 
to the in fide of the receiver and fuperficies of the blad¬ 
der, muff draw as forcibly one as another, in comparifon 
of thofe that within the bladder draw fo as to hinder the 
diduElion of its fides. Boyle. 
DI'DUS, f. in ornithology, the Dodo; a genus of 
birds belonging to the order of gallinte, the characters 
of which are as follow : bill ftraitened in the middle by 
two tranfverfe wrinkles; the tip of gach mandible in¬ 
flected : noftrils oblique, near the margin of the middle 
of the* bill: face naked beyond the eyes: feet fnort, thick, 
cloven :. wings ufelefs for flying: tail wanting. This 
very fingular genus contains the following three fpecies. 
1. Didus ineptus, the foolifh dodo, ufually called the 
hooded dodo. It poffeffes an ill-thaped body, bulky, 
and almoft cubical, fupported on two exceedingly thick 
andjhort legs, carrying a head ftrangely fhaped, with an 
enormous beak, and two large black eyes, encircled with 
a ring of white; the parting of the mandibles runs be¬ 
yond the eyes, and almoft quite to the ears; thefe two 
mandibles, concave in the middle, inflated at both ends, 
and bent backwards at the pointy refemble two pointed 
fpoons laid towards each other, their convexity being 
turned outwards : all which produces a ftrange voracious 
appearance ; and, to complete the deformity, it is fur- . 
nifhed with an edging of feathers, which, accompanying 
the curvature of the bafe of the bill, ftretch to a point 
on the forehead, and then arch round the face like a 
( cowl, whence the bird has received the name of capu- 
chined fwan (cygnus cucidlatusJ } as well as that of hooded 
dodo* 
