DIGRESS. DIGRE'SS,

DIGUE.

Fr. faire une digression; It. digredire; DIGRESSION, Sp. digredir; Lat. digreli, digressum, DIGRESSIVE. to go apart or away from; (compounded of dis, and gradiri, which Vossius thinks may be Hebrew, and Schedius from obs. Gr. yép-eu; Lat. gerere.) See CONGRESS.

To go apart or away from; to wander or go astray; to deviate, to depart or separate from, to turn aside, to diverge.

But how this toune came to distruction
Ne falleth not to purpose me to tell

For it were a long digression.

Chaucer. The first Booke of Troilus, fol. 153.

But now must I make a digression

To tell shortly as in sentement

Of thilke knight that Tideus hath sent

Into Thebes.

Lidgate. The Story of Thebes. The second Part. If they be of mine annoynted and beare my marke, disgresse them, I would say disgraduate them, and (after the example of noble Antiochus ii. Mach. vii.) pare the crownes and fingers of them, and tormēt them craftly, and for very paine make them deny the truth.

Tyndall. Workes. The Obedience of a Christian Man, fol. 134.

Or when I shall giue euidence, or rather declame against an hainous murtherer I may digresse from the offence done, and enter in praise of the dead man, declaring his vertues in most Wilson. The Arte of Rhetorique, fol. 184.

ample wise.

hath ben made.

But to retourne againe to Babilon, from whence the digressio Brende. Quintus Curtius, book x. fol. 303. We seek only to be free of involuntary impositions. But to return to the argument of restraint, from whence I am a little digressed. State Trials. The Great Case of Impositions. Moreover she beginneth to digresse in latitude, and to diminish her motion from the morne rising.

Holland. Plinie, vol. i. fol. 12.

And here I might a just digression make,
Whilst of some four particular knightes I spake,
To whom I owe my thankes; but 'twere not best,
By praysing two or three, t' accuse the rest.

Corbet. To the Lord Mordant.

But let that pass at present, lest
We should forget where we digrest,
As learned authors use, to whom
We leave it, and to th' purpose come.

Butler. Hudibras, part i. can. 1. The digressions I cannot excuse otherwise, then by the confidence that no man will read them, who has not at least as much leisure as I had when I writ them; and whosoever dislikes or grows weary of them, may throw them away.

Sir William Temple. Works, vol. iii. p. 247. On the Gout. He [Lucan] is too digressive also; frequently turning aside from his subject, to give us sometimes geographical descriptions of a country; sometimes philosophical disquisitions concerning natural objects. Blair. Lecture 44. vol. iii.

But of all the bugbears by which the infantes barbati, boys both young and old, have been hitherto frighted from digressing into new tracts of learning, none has been more mischievously efficacious than an opinion that every kind of knowledge requires a peculiar genius or mental constitution, framed for the reception of some ideas, and the exclusion of others.

Johnson. The Rambler, No. 25. We are the more inclined to digress on this occasion, because he has made his theory of power the ground of some Atheistical inferences, which we should not scruple at any time to step out of our way to overturn.

Beattie. On Truth, part ii. ch. ii. sec. 3.

The poet's intention certainly was not to censure the false refinements of their stage-music; but in a short digressive history (such as the didactic form will sometimes require) to describe the rise and progress of the true.

Hurd. Works, vol. i. p. 168. Notes on the Art of Poetry. DIGUE, Fr. "A ditch, bound or bank; a jetty, dam or mount, raised up for a defence against the

This seems more probable, from the great shallowness of that sea, and flatness of the sands, upon the whole extent of it, from the violent rage of the waters breaking in that way, which threaten the parts of North-Holland about Medenblick and Euchusen, and brave it over the highest and strongest digues in the province, upon every high tide, and storm at north-west. Id. Ib. p. 128.

The learned hydrographer, Fournier, speaks of those dams and digues (as he calls them in his language) which are sometimes made in the sea to secure shipping.

Boyle. Works, vol. i. p. 421. The History of Firmness. DIJON, the Divio or Divionum of the Romans, an ancient and well-built City of France, formerly the Capital of the Duchy of Burgundy, with a Parliament, and now the chief Town in the Department of the Côte d'Or. It is situated between the Rivers Ouche and Suzon, at the entrance of a fertile and agreeable plain, bounded by the ridge of hills called the Côte d'Or, which abounds in excellent wines. It is of an oval form, the circumference of its walls, exclusive of the suburbs, being about a mile and a quarter; with a citadel built by Louis XI. The streets are regular, and well paved; and the houses in general neat and commodious. The population, including that of the suburbs, is 21,600. The principal square, or Place Royale, is in the form of a horse-shoe, and contains among other buildings, the Provincial Palace, and the House of Assembly of the ancient Parliament of Burgundy. Among the Churches are to be noticed that of St. Benigne, the spire of which has an elevation of 370 feet; of St. Michael, remarkable for the richness of its portal; of St. Stephen, now the Cathedral Church; and of Notre Dame, which is esteemed one of the best models of Gothic Architecture in Europe. Of the old monastic institutions, the richest was the Cistertian Abbey, the parent of all of that Order throughout Europe. About a quarter of a league from the Town stood the Chartreuse, founded in the year 1383, but in a great measure destroyed at the Revolution.

The University of Dijon has always been reckoned among the best regulated in France. The Academy of Sciences was founded in 1725. Dijon is the birth-place of Bossuet, the Poets Crebillon and Piron, and of Larcher. It is the seat of a Bishop, and contains manufactures of woollens, cotton, and silk. The traffic in these goods, and in wine, corn, &c. is greatly facilitated by the new Canal from St. Jean de Losne to Dijon. 100 miles north of Lyons, and 175 south-east of Paris; longitude 5° 2′ 5′′ east and latitude 47° 19′ 25′′ north. Piere de St. Julian, Antiq. de Bourg; Du Chene, Récherches des Villes, vi. 2; D. Jon. Ricardi Ant. Divionenses, 1585.

DIJUDICATE, DIJUDICATION, DIJUDICANT.

Lat. dijudicare; (dis, and judi-care;) judicare, quod jus dicatur. Judex, quod jus dicat, acceptd potestate, id est, quibusdam verbis dicendo finit. Varr. L. 5.

To deem or doom, to sentence, to give sentence or opinion, to decide, to determine.

DIKE.

So then the senses, phancy, and what we call reason it self, being thus influenced by the bodies temperament, and little better than indications of it; it cannot be otherwise, but that this love of ourselves should strongly incline us in our most abstracted dijudications. Glanville. The Vanity of Dogmatizing, ch. xiii.

And if great philosophers doubt of many things, which popular dijudicants hold as certain as their creeds, I suppose ignorance self will not say, it is because they are more ignorant. Id. Ib. ch. xxiii.

These things, I say, I could here subjoin in confirmation of what I have been saying, to show that the disposition of the organ is of great importance in the dijudications we make of colours. Boyle. Works, vol. i. p. 674. Experimental History of Colours, ch. iii.

DIKE, v.
DIKE, n.

DIKERS,

DIKE-MAKERS.

A. S. dic-ian, fossam fodere, i. e. to dig a ditch. To make a trench, ditch, dyke or moat. Somner. See DIG, and DITCH.

To dike, is now, to dig. A dike, that which is digged or dug. In some Counties, that which is dug out, sc. the mound or bank formed by digging out is called the dike or ditch; but generally the cavity left. And see DIGUE, and the Example from Cowley.

Now dos Edward dike Berwik brode & long.
R. Brunne, p. 272.
Now is Edward left Berwik for to dike,
be Scottis er risen eft, Inglond to bisuike.

Id. p. 273.
Do reise vp þin engyns, & wyn of þam þise dikes.
Id. p. 173.

Alle Crystyne people
To delve and dike a deop diche al aboute unite.
Piers Plouhman, Vision, p. 385,
Thei shulden deluen, and dyken, and dongen the erthe.
Id. Crede, E. 3.
Dykers and delvers. diggeden up þe balkes.

Id. Vision, p. 134.
He wold thresh, and therto dike, and delve.

Chaucer. The Prologue, v. 538.

It were better dike and delue,
And stande vpon the right feith,
Than knowe all that the Bible seith,
And erre, as some clerkes doo.

Gower. Conf. Am. Prologue, fol. 3. Whan they were redy they wente to their churches, and toke the crosses and baners, and made thre batayls, and in euery batayle ten thousande fyghting men, and came to a narowe passage well diked nere to ye place where their enemyes shulde lande.

Lord Berners. Froissart. Cronycle, vol. ii. ch. 212. He loued them moche better than, and caused them to be newly fortyfied, and set workemen aworke, as masons, carpeters, and dyke-makers to amende euery place. Id. Ib. vol. ii. ch. 114.

The third day of our journey, they brought us to a town of their owne, seated near a faire river on the side of a hill, environed with a dike of eight foot broad and a thicke mud wall of ten foot high, sufficient to stop a sudden surprizer. Sir Francis Drake Revived, fol. 51. It is God that breaks up the floodgates of so general a deluge, and all the art then and industry of mankind is not sufficient to raise up dikes and ramparts against us.

Cowley. On the Government of Oliver Cromwell.

Just as if from one water-house there should be pipes conveying the water to every house in a town, and to every room in each house; or from one fountain in a garden there should be little

channels or dikes cut to every bed, and every plant growing DIKE therein, as we have seen more done beyond the seas.

Ray. On the Creation, part ii. p. 314. They who give no assistance on the plundering of a town, on the forcible breaking of a dike, or on seeing a robbery on the highway, shall be banished with their cattle and utensils. Sir William Jones. Works, vol. viii. 47. て Lat. lacerare; Gr. Xák-ev, cum

p.

DILA'CERATE,crepitu rumpi. Fr. dilacerer.

DILACERA'TION.

To rend or tear in pieces.

For at the steringe of errours and faultes of ye, clergye, discorde may be inflammed and kindled, many ruynes, many dilaceracions & diuisions with other inconueniences may folowe (say thei) which will bring forth greter hurtis and breed worser thinges. Joye. Exposicion of Daniel, ch. xi. Struggling to come forth, [the infant] dilacerates and breaks those parts which restrained him before. Sir Thomas Brown, book iii. ch. vi. although it dilacerate, and break the involving membranes, yet Now upon the birth, when the infant forsaketh the womb, do these vessels hold. Id. book v. ch. iv.

Now although in hot countryes, and very numerous conceptions, in the viper or other animals, there may sometimes ensue a dilaceration of the parts, yet this is a rare and contingent effect, and not a natural and constant way of exclusion.

Id. book iii. ch. xvi.

What vast sacks and bags are necessary to contain such a collection of water, which seems to issue from the lymphæducts either dilacerated or obstructed, and exonerating themselves into the foldings, or between the duplicatures of the membranes. Ray. On the Creation, part ii. DILANIATE. Bullokar and Cockeram both have "Dilaniation; a tearing in pieces." Lat. dilaniare; dis, and laniare, to tear. Of uncertain origin.

For there be many perverse men which do dilaniate the flock of Christ: yea, and of them which seem to be pillars, or bearers up of the church: which do rather diminish the faith, than any thing augment it.

Strype. Memorials. Henry VIII. Anno 1535. DILA'PIDATE, Fr. dilapider; Sp. dilapidar; DILAPIDATION, It. dilapidare; Lat. dilapidare, DILAPIDATOR. (dis, and lapis ;) Gr. Maas, a stone; propriè, says Vossius, lapides dissipare, et disperdere; to scatter or disperse stones.

Cotgrave. To pull down stone buildings. generally,

To pull down, to destroy, to ruin.

And,

It is as finely situated as any rectory can be, for it is about the mid-way 'twixt Oxford and London; it lies upon the Thames, and the glebe-land house is very large and fair and not dilapidated. Howell. Letter 15. book i. sec. 5.

There was another fear upon you, lest, having been so liberal to the prince in ecclesiastical matters, the church should sue you for dilapidations of its power.

Marvell. Works, vol. ii. fol. 460. The Rehearsal transposed. From the time of his death to the consecration of Dr. Jo. Bridges his successor, an. 1603, the patrimony of the bishopric of Oxon was much dilapidated, and made a prey (for the most part) to Robert Earle of Essex.

Wood. Athene Oxonienses, vol. i. p. 711. Now also the business of dilapidations came on between our bishop and the archbishop of York, his predecessor. Strype. Life of Bishop Aylmer, ch. iv. The house called Mathern, belonging thereunto, being alienated, that see, or by some other means. whether by Dunstan, the late bishop, a monstrous dilapidator of Id. Life of Parker

Many of us here have felt, in some part of our lives, the inconvenience of succeeding to dilapidated houses, with small resources in our private fortunes, and restrained by the circumstances of a predecessor's family from the attempt to enforce our legal claims.

Bishop Horsley. Sermon 35. vol. iii.

DILAPIDATE.

DILEMMA.

Sir William Temple. Works, vol. i. p. 93.

Others said, that the dilatoriousness, chargeableness, and a faculty of bleeding the people in the purse-vein, even to their utter perishing and undoing, that court [High Court of Chancery] might compare with, if not surpass, any court in the world.

Parliamentary History. Common-wealth, Anno 1653.

The King of Spain, indeed, delayed to comply with our proposals, and our armament was made necessary but unsatisfactory answers and dilatory debates.

Johnson. Falkland's Islands.

Sometime in March I finished the Lives of the Poets, which I wrote in my usual way dilatorily and hastily, unwilling to work, and working with vigour and haste. Id. Prayers and Meditations, p. 190. DILATORY PLEAS, in Law, are such as are put to delay a suit, by questioning the propriety of the remedy rather than by denying the injury; whereas, Pleas to the Action are such as dispute the cause itself. Dilatory pleas are: 1st, to the Jurisdiction of the Court; 2dly, to the Disability of the Plaintiff, by reason of his being incapable of commencing or continuing the suit; 3dly, in Abatement. These Pleas were formerly much used, without any foundation of truth, and solely for delay; but by the 4 and 5 Anne, c. 16, no Dilatory Plea can be admitted without affidavit of its truth, or probable matter shown to the Court to induce a belief of its truth. When these Pleas are allowed, the Cause is either dismissed from that Jurisdiction, or the Plaintiff is stayed till his disability is removed; if overruled as frivolous, the Defendant has judgment of respondeat ouster, or to answer over in

some better manner.

DILATRIS, in Botany, a genus of the class Triandria, order Monogynia, natural order Irides. Generic character: corolla, petals six, superior, hirsute; one filament smaller than the others; stigma simple; capsule globular, inferior, three-celled.

Four species, natives of Southern Africa, and one of North America. Persoon. DILECTION, Lat. diligere, dilectum; (from legere, to choose ;) to choose, to prefer, to love.

So there are diverse Abrahams in this life, as I may terme them, who carry this sort of Lazarus in their bosome, being both rich, humble, and faithfull, contriving all their temporary joy out of the perception and dilection of the true blessing, intended in

the creature.

Mountague. Devoute Essayes, Treat. 7. part i. sec. 2. I beseech Almightie God to set his hand to, and touch it over; so that they who look upon it, may find his hand in it, that has translated us from life to death, by the dilection of our brother. Id. Ib. Treat. 2. part ii. sec. 3. DILEMMA, Lat.; Gr. quua; ĉis, twice, and λήμμα, something taken or assumed, from λέλημμαι, pret. per. passive of Maußáv-e, to take. In a Dilemma, two propositions are taken or assumed; as in South. Either (1) the thing we sorrow for is to be remedied, or (2) it is not; and from each the same inference is made.

Whereas there be, that pretend divine inspiration to be a su- DIpernatural entering of the Holy Ghost into man, and not an LEMMA. acquisition of God's graces, by doctrine and study; I think they are in a very dangerous dilemma.

Hobbes. Of the Kingdom of Darkness, part iv. ch. xlv. Usually the sting of sorrow is this, that it neither removes nor alters the thing we sorrow for; and so is but a kind of reproach

to our reason, which will be sure to accost us with this dilemma: either the thing we sorrow for is to be remedied, or it is not. If it is, why then do we spend the time in mourning, which should be spent in an active applying of remedies? but if it is not, then is our sorrow vain and superfluous, as tending to no real effect. South. Sermons, vol. i. p. 15.

Philosophers, that give themselves airs of superior wisdom and sufficiency, have a hard task when they encounter persons of which they retreat, and who are sure at last to bring them to inquisitive dispositions, who push them from every corner to

some dangerous dilemma.

Hume. Essays, vol. ii. p. 31. Sceptical Doubts, sec. 4. Most Logicians consider the DILEMMA as a disjunctive Syllogism. An example of it given by Aulus Gellius, v. 10, 11, and after him, by many others, will sufficiently explain its power. It is a happy instance of the manner in which this wordy weapon may sometimes be hurled back upon the assailant who has first employed it.

Euathlus, a rich young man, desirous of learning the art of Pleading, applied to Protagoras, a celebrated Sophist, to instruct him; promising a great sum of money as his reward, one half of which was paid down, the other half he bound himself to pay as soon as he should plead a cause before the Judges, and gain it. Protagoras found him a very apt scholar, but, after he had made good progress, he was in no haste to plead causes. The master, conceiving that he intended by this means to shift off his second payment, took, as he thought, a surer method to get the better of his delay. He sued Euathlus before the Judges, and, having opened his cause at the Bar, he pleaded to this purport: O most foolish young man, do you not see that, in any event, I must gain my point? for if the Judges give sentence for me, you must pay by their sentence; if against me, the condition of our bargain is fulfilled, and you have no plea left for your delay, after having pleaded and gained a cause. Euathlus answered: O most wise master, I might have avoided the force of your argument by not pleading my own cause; but, giving up this advantage, do you not see that, whatever sentence the Judges pass, I am safe? If they give sentence for me, I am acquitted by their sentence; if against me, the condition of and losing it. our bargain is not fulfilled, by my pleading a cause unanswerable on both sides, put off the cause to a long The Judges thinking the arguments day.

DILIGENCE, DILIGENT, DILIGENTLY.

Fr. diligence; It. diligenza; Sp. diligencia; Lat. diligens, present. participle of diligere; (de, and legere,) to choose, to prefer; to be choice of, careful of. Opposed to negligence, (ne, and legere.)

Careful of or about; careful or anxious to perform or execute; sedulous, assiduous, steady, constant,

ting.

Hope, whose weak being ruin'd is

Alike, if it succeed, and if it miss.
Whom ill and good doth equally confound,
And both the horns of fate's dilemma wound.

Crashaw. Steps to the Temple. On Hope.

And they to his commandement obey,
And eche of hem doth al his diligence
To do unto the feste al reverence.

Chaucer. The Clerkes Tale, v. 8071.
His parishenes devoutly wolde he teche.
Benigne he was, and wonder diligent.

Id. The Prologue, v. 485.

DILIGENCE