Digaftricus Thus the light diffused by the rays of the fun, iffues 01 all round from that amazing body of fire. Digeft.

DIGASTRICUS, in anatomy, a mufcle of the lower jaw, called alfo Biventer. See ANATOMY, Table of the Mufcles.

DIGBY (Sir Kenelm), became very illuftrious in the 17th century for his virtue and learning. He was defcended of an ancient family in England. His greatgrandfather, accompanied by fix of his brothers, fought valiantly at Bofworth-field on the fide of Henry VII. against the ufurper Richard III. His father, Everard, fuffered himfelf to be engaged in the gun-powder plot against king James I. and for that crime was beheaded. His fon wiped off that ftain, and was reftored to his eftate. King Charles I. made him gentleman of the bed-chamber, commiffioner of the navy, and governor of the Trinity-house. He granted him letters of reprifal against the Venetians, by virtue whereof he took feveral prizes with a small fleet which he commanded. He fought the Venetians near the port of Scanderoon, and bravely made his way through them with his booty. He was a great lover of learning, and tranflated several authors into English; and his “Treatise of the Nature of Bodies and the Immortality of the Soul," difeovers great penetration and extenfive knowledge. He applied to chemistry; and found out feveral ufeful medicines, which he gave freely away to people of all forts, efpecially to the poor. He diftinguished himself particularly by his fympathetic powder for the cure of wounds at a distance, his difcourfe concerning which made a great noife for a while. He had conferences with Des Cartes about the nature of the foul.

In the beginning of the civil wars, he exerted himfelf very vigorously in the king's caufe; but he was afterwards imprifoned, by the parliament's order, in Winchester house, and had leave to depart thence in 1643. He afterwards compounded for his eftate, but was ordered to leave the nation; when he went to France, and was fent on two embaffics to pope Innocent X. from the queen, widow to Charles I. whofe chancellor he then was. On the restoration of Charles II. he returned to London; where he died in 1665, aged 60.

This eminent perfon was, for the early pregnancy of his parts, and his great proficiency in learning, compared to the celebrated Picus de Mirandola, who was one of the wonders of human nature. His knowledge, though various and extenfive, appeared to be greater than it really was; as he had all the powers of elocution and address to recommend it. He knew how to fhine in a circle of ladies or philofophers; and was as much attended to when he spoke on the most trivial fubjects, as when he fpoke on the most important. It is faid that one of the princes of Italy, who had no child, was defirous that his princefs fhould bring him a fon by Sir Kenelm, whom he esteemed a juft model of perfection.

DIGEST, DIGESTUM, a collection of the Roman laws, ranged and digefted under proper titles, by order of the emperor Juftinian.

That prince gave his chancellor Tribonianus a commiffion for this purpofe; who, in confequence thereof, chofe fixteen jurifconfulti, or lawyers, to work upon the fame. Thefe, accordingly, took out the best and

finest decifions from the two thousand volumes of the Digestion ancient jurifconfulti, and reduced them all into one Digging. body; which was published in the year 533, under the name of the Digeft. To this the emperor gave the force of a law, by a letter at the head of the work, which ferves it as a preface.

The Digeft makes the first part of the Roman law, and the firft volume of the corpus or body of the civil law, contained in fifty books. It was tranflated into Greek under the fame emperor, and called Pande&ta. See PANDECTS.

Cujus fays, that Digeft is a common name for all books difpofed in a good order and economy; and hence it is that Tertullian calls the Gospel of St Luke a Digeft.

Hence alfo abridgements of the common law are denominated digefts of the numerous cafes, arguments, readings, pleadings, &c. difperfed in the year-books, and other reports and books of law, reduced under proper heads or common places. The first was that of Statham, which comes as low as Henry VI. That of Fitzherbert was published in 1516; Brook's in 1573, of which Hughes's, published in 1663, is a sequel. Rolls, Danvers, and Nelfon, have also published Digefts or abridgements of this kind, including the cafes of later days; to which may be added the New Abridgement, Viner's Abridgement, &c.

DIGESTION, in the animal economy, is the diffolution of the aliments into fuch minute parts as are fit to enter the lacteal veffels, and circulate with the mafs of blood. See ANATOMY, no 102.

DIGESTION, in chemistry, is an operation which con-fifts in expofing bodies to a gentle heat, in proper ves-fels, and during a certain time. This operation is ve ry ufeful to favour the action of certain fubftances upon each other; as, for example, of well calcined, dry,, fixed alkali upon rectified spirit of wine. When these two fubftances are digefted together in a matrafs, with a gentle fand-bath heat, the spirit of wine acquires a yellow-reddish colour, and an alkaline quality. The fpirit would not fo well acquire thefe qualities by a ftronger and shorter heat.

DIGESTIVE, in medicine, fuch remedies as ftrengthen and increase the tone of the ftomach, and affift in the digeftion of foods. To this class belong all ftomachics and ftrengtheners or corroborants.

DIGESTIVE, in furgery, denotes a fort of unguent, plafter, or the like, that ripens and prepares the matter of wounds, &c. for fuppuration.

DIGGING, among miners, is appropriated to the operation of freeing any kind of ore from the bed or ftratum in which it lies, where every stroke of their tools turns to account: in contradistinction to the openings made in fearch of fuch ore, which are called! hatches, or effay-hatches; and the operation itself, tracing of mines, or batching.

When a bed of avis difcovered, the beele-men, fo called from the inftrument they use, which is a kind of pick-ax, free the ore from the foffils around it; and the fhovel-men throw it up from one shamble to another,, till it reaches the mouth of the hatch.

In fome mines, to fave the expence as well as fatigue of the fhovel-men, they raise the ore by means of a winder and two buckets, one of which goes up as the other comes down.

4

DIGIT

Digit DIGIT, in aftronomy, the twelfth part of the diameter of the fun or moon, ufed to exprefs the quan. Dignitary tity of an eclipfe. Thus an eclipfe is faid to be of fix digits, when fix of thefe parts are hid. DIGITS, or Monades, in arithmetic, fignify any integer under 10; as 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9.

DIGIT is also a measure taken from the breadth of the finger. It is properly 4ths of an inch, and contains the measure of four bailey-corns laid breadthwife.

DIGITALIS, FOX-GLOVE: A genus of the angiofpermia order, belonging to the didynamia clafs of plants; and in the natural method ranking under the 28th order, Lurida. The calyx is quinquepartite; the corolla campanulated, quinquefid, and ventricofe; the capfule ovate and bilocular.-There are fix fpecies; five of which are hardy, herbaceous, biennial, and perennial plants, and the fixth a tender fhrubby exotic. The herbaceous fpecies rife two or three feet high, crowned with fpikes of yellow iron-coloured or purple flowers. The thrubby fort rifes five or fix feet high, having fpear fhaped rough leaves, four or five inches long, and half as broad; the branches being all terminated with flowers growing in loofe fpikes. All the fpecies are cafily raifed by feeds. An ointment made of the flowers of purple fox-glove and May-butter, is much commended by fome phyficians for fcrophulous ulcers which run much and are full of matter. Taken internally, this plant is a violent purgative and emetic; and is therefore only to be administered to robuft conftitutions. The country people in England frequently use a decoction of it with polypody of the oak in epileptic fits. An infufion of two drams of the leaf in a pint of water, given in half-ounce dofes every two hours or fo, till it begin to puke or purge, is recommended in dropfy, particularly that of the breaft. It is faid to have produced an evacuation of water fo copious and fudden, in afcites, by ftool and urine, that the compreffion of bandages was found neceffary. The plentiful ufe of diluents is ordered during its operation. The remedy, however, is inadmiffible in very weakly patients. But befides being given in infufion, it has alfo been employed in fubtance. And when taken at bed-time to the extent of one, two, or three, grains of the dried powder, it often in a fhort time operates as a very powerful diuretic, without producing any other evacuation. Even this quantity, however, will fomctimes excite very fevere vomiting, and that too occurring unexpectedly. During its operation it has often very remarkable influence in rendering the pulfe flower; and it frequently excites very confiderable vertigo, and an affection of vifion. Fox-glove has of late alfo been employed in fome inftances of hæmoptyfis, of phthifis, and of ma-nia, with apparent good effects: but its ufe in these diseases is much lefs common than in dropfy.

DIGITATED, among botanists. See BOTANY, P. 445, n° 230, and Plate CV. fig. 102.

DIGLYPH, in architecture, a kind of imperfect triglyph, confole, or the like; with two channels or engravings, either circular or angular.

DIGNE, an epifcopal town of Provence in France, famous for the baths that are near it. It is feated on a river called Marderic, in E. Long. 5. 27. N. Lat. 44.45.

DIGNITARY, in the canon law, a perfon who

N° 101.

6

holds a dignity, that is, a benefice which gives him Dignity. fome pre-eminence over mere priefts and canons. Such is a bishop, dean, arch deacon, prebendary, &c. DIGNITY, as applied to the titles of noblemen, fignifies honour and authority. And dignity may be divided into fuperior and inferior; as the titles of duke, earl, baron, &c. are the highest names of dignity; and thofe of baronet, knight, ferjeant at law, &c. the loweft. Nobility only can give fo high a name of dignity as to fupply the want of a furname in legal proceedings; and as the omiffion of a name of dignity may be pleaded in abatement of a writ, &c. fo it may be where a peer who has more than one name of dignity, is not named by the Moft Noble. No temporal dignity of any foreign nation can give a man a higher title here than that of of ESQUIRE.

DIGNITY, in the human character, the oppofite of Meannefs.

Man is endued with a SENSE of the worth and excellence of his nature: he deems it more perfect than that of the other beings around him; and he perceives that the perfection of his nature confifts in virtue, particularly in virtues of the highest rank. To exprefs that fenfe, the term dignity is appropriated. Further, to behave with dignity, and to refrain from all mean actions, is felt to be, not a virtue only, but a duty': it is a duty every man owes to himself. By acting in that manner, he attracts love and efteem: by acting meanly, or below himself, he is disapproved and contemned.

This fenfe of the dignity of human nature reaches even our pleasures and amufements. If they enlarge the mind by raifing grand or elevated emotions, or if they humanize the mind by exercising our sympathy, they are approved as fuited to the dignity of our nature: if they contract the mind by fixing it on trivial objects, they are contemned as not fuited to the dignity of our nature. Hence, in general, every occupation, whether of ufe or amufement, that correfponds to the dignity of man, is termed manly; and every occupation below his nature, is termed childish.

To those who ftudy human nature, there is a point which has always appeared intricate: How comes it that generofity and courage are more efteemed, and beftow more dignity, than good-nature, or even juftice; though the latter contribute more than the former to private as well as to public happiness? This queftion, bluntly propofed, might puzzle even a philofopher; but, by means of the foregoing obfervations, will eafily be folved. Human virtues, like other objects, obtain a rank in our eftimation, not from their utility, which is a fubject of reflection, but from the direct impreffion they make on us. Juftice and good-nature are a fort of negative virtues, that fcarce make any impreffion but when they are tranfgreffed: courage and generofity, on the contrary, producing elevated emotions, enliven greatly the fenfe of a man's dignity, both in himself and in others; and for that reafon, courage and generofity are in higher regard than the other virtues mentioned: we defcribe them as grand and elevated, as of greater diguity, and more praise-worthy.

This leads us to examine more directly emotions and paffions with refpect to the present fübject: and it will not be difficult to form a fcale of them, beginning with

the

him nearer to divinity than any other of his attri- Dignity. butes.

Dignity. the meaneft, and afcending gradually to thofe of the highest rank and dignity. Pleafure felt as at the organ of fenfe, named corporeal pleafure, is perceived to be low; and when indulged to excefs, is perceived alfo to be mean: for that reafon, perfons of any delicacy diffemble the pleafure they take in eating and drinking. The pleafures of the eye and ear, having no organic feeling, and being free from any fense of meannefs, are indulged without any fhame: they even rife to a certain degree of dignity when their objects are grand or elevated. The fame is the cafe of the fympathetic paffions: a virtuous perfon behaving with fortitude and dignity under cruel misfortunes, makes a capital figure; and the fympathifing fpectator feels in himself the fame dignity. Sympathetic distress at the fame time never is mean: on the contrary, it is agreeable to the nature of a social being, and has general approbation. The rank that love poffeffes in the fcale, depends in a great measure on its object: it poffeffes a low place when founded on external properties merely; and is mean when bestowed on a perfon of inferior rank without any extraordinary qualification: but when founded on the more elevated internal properties, it affumes a confiderable degree of dignity. The fame is the cafe of friendship. When gratitude is warm, it animates the mind; but it fcarce rifes to dignity. Joy beftows dignity when it proceeds from an elevated cause.

If we can depend upon induction, dignity is not a property of any disagreeable paflion: one is flight, another fevere; one depreffes the mind, another animates it; but there is no elevation, far lefs dignity, in any of them. Revenge, in particular, though it enflame and fwell the mind, is not accompanied with dignity, not even with elevation: it is not however felt as mean or groveling, unless when it takes indirect measures for gratification. Shame and remorfe, though they fink the fpirits, are not mean. Pride, a difagreeable paffion, beftows no dignity in the eye of a fpectator. Vanity always appears mean; and extremely fo where founded, as commonly happens, on trivial qualifica

tions.

We proceed to the pleafures of the understanding, which poffefs a high rank in point of dignity. Of this every one will be fenfible, when he confiders the important truths that have been laid open by fcience; fuch as general theorems, and the general laws that govern the material and moral worlds. The pleafures of the understanding are fuited to man as a rational and contemplative being, and they tend not a little to ennoble his nature; even to the Deity he ftretcheth his contemplations, which, in the difcovery of infinite power, wifdom, and benevolence, afford delight of the moft exalted kind. Hence it appears, that the fine arts, ftudied as a rational science, afford entertainment of great dignity; fuperior far to what they afford as a fubject of tafte merely.

But contemplation, however in itfelf valuable, is chiefly refpected as fubfervient to action; for man is intended to be more an active than a contemplative being. He accordingly fhows more dignity in action than in contemplation: generofity, magnanimity, heroifm, raife his character to the highest pitch: thefe beft exprefs the dignity of his nature, and advance VOL. VI. Part. I.

Having endeavoured to affign the efficient caufe of dignity and meannefs, by unfolding the principle on which they are founded, we proceed to explain the fi nal caufe of the dignity or meannefs beftowed upon the feveral particulars above mentioned, beginning with corporeal pleafures. Thefe, as far as ufeful, are, like juftice, fenced with fufficient fanctions to prevent their being neglected: hunger and thirft are painful fenfations; and we are incited to animal love by a vigorous propenfity: were corporeal pleasures dignified over and above with a place in a high clafs, they would infal libly overturn the balance of the mind, by outweighing the focial affections. This is a fatisfactory final cause for refufing to thefe pleafures any degree of dig nity and the final caufe is not lefs evident of their meannefs when they are indulged to excels. The more refined pleafures of external fenfe, conveyed by the eye and the ear from natural objects and from the fine arts, deferve a high place in our esteem, because of their fingular and extenfive utility in fome cafes they rife to a confiderable dignity; and the very loweft pleafures of the kind are never efteemed mean or groveling. The pleafure arifing from wit, humour, ridicule, or from what is fimply ludicrous, is ufeful, by relaxing the mind after the fatigue of more manly occupation: but the mind, when it furrenders itself to pleasure of that kind, lofes its vigour, and finks gradually into floth. The place this pleafure occupies in point of dignity, is adjusted to these views: to make it useful as a relaxation, it is not branded with meannefs; to prevent its ufurpation, it is removed from that place but a fingle degree: no man values himself for that pleafure, even during gratification; and if it have engroffed more of his time than is requifite for relaxation, he looks back with fome degree of fhame.

In point of dignity, the focial emotions rife above the felfish, and much above thofe of the eye and ear: man is by his nature a focial being; and to qualify him for fociety, it is wifely contrived, that he thould value himself more for being focial than felfish.

The excellency of man is chiefly difcernible in the great improvements he is fufceptible of in fociety: thefe, by perfeverance, may be carried on progreffively, above any affignable limits; and even abftracting from revelation, there is great probability, that the progrefs begun here will be completed in fome future itate. Now, as all valuable improvements proceed from the exercise of our rational faculties, the Author of our nature, in order to excite us to a due use of thefe faculties, hath affigned a high rank to the pleafures of the understanding: their utility, with refpect to this life as well as a future, intitles them to that rank.

But as action is the aim of all our improvements, virtuous actions justly poffefs the highest of all the ranks. Thefe, we find, are by nature diftributed into different claffes, and the first in point of dignity af figned to actions that appear not the firft in point of ufe: generofity, for example, in the sense of mankind is more refpected than juftice, though the latter is un doubtedly more effential to fociety; and magnanimity,

D

heroifm,

DIGON, an ancient, handfome, rich, and very confiderable town of France; capital of Burgundy, and of the Digonois; with a parliament, bifhop's fee, a mint, an univerfity, academy of fciences, an abbey, and a citadel moft part of the churches and public ftructures are very beautiful, and in one of the fquares there is an equestrian statue of Louis XIV. It is feated in a very pleasant plain between two small rivers, which produces excellent wine. E. Long. 5. 7. N. Lat. 47. 19.

DIGRESSION, in oratory, is defined by Quintilian, agreeably to the etymology of the word, to be, a going off from the fubject we are upon to fome different thing, which, however, may be of fervice to it. See ORATORY, no 37.

DIGYNIA, (from dis twice, and yun a woman), the name of an order or fecondary divifion in each of the firft 13 claffes, except the 9th, in Linnæus's fexual method; confifting of plants, which to the claffic cha racter, whatever it is, add the circumftance of having two ftyles or female organs.

DII, the divinities of the ancient inhabitants of the earth, were very numerous. Every object which caufed terror, infpired gratitude, or beftowed affluence, received the tribute of veneration. Man faw a fuperior agent in the ftars, the elements, or the trees, and fuppofed that the waters which communicated fertility to his fields and poffeffions, were under the influence and direction of fome invisible power inclined to favour and to benefit mankind. Thus arose a train of divini ties which imagination arrayed in different forms, and armed with different powers. They were endowed with understanding, and were actuated by the fame paffions which daily afflict the human race, and thofe children of fuperftition were appeased or provoked as the imperfect being which gave them birth. Their wrath was mitigated by facrifices and incenfe, and fometimes human victims bled to expiate a crime, which fuperftition alone fuppofed to exist. The fun, from his powerful influence and animating nature, first attracted the notice and claimed the adoration of the uncivilized inhabitants of the earth. The moon alfo was honoured with facrifices and addreffed in prayers, and after immortality had been liberally bestowed on all the heavenly bodies, mankind claffed among their deities the brute creation, and the cat and the fow fhared equally with Jupiter himself, the father of gods and men, the devout veneration of their votaries. This immenfe number of deities have been divided into different claffes according to the will and pleasure of the mythologifts. The Romans, generally fpeaking, reckoned two claffes of the gods, the dii majorum gentium, or dii confulentes, and the dii minorum gentium. The former were 12 in number, fix males and fix females. [Vid. CONSENTES.] In the clafs of the latter were ranked all the gods which were worshipped in different parts of the earth. Befides these there were fome called di fele&i, fometimes claffed with the 12 greater gods; thefe were Janus, Saturn, the Genius, the Moon, Pluto, and Bacchus. There were alio fome

called demi-gods, that is, who deferved immortality by the greatnefs of their exploits, and for their uncommon fervices to mankind. Among these were Priapus, Vertumnus, Hercules, and those whofe parents were fome of the immortal gods. Befides thefe, all the paffions and the moral virtues were reckoned as powerful deities, and temples were raised to a goddess of concord, peace, &c. According to the authority of Hefiod, there were no less than 30,000 gods that inhabi. ted the earth, and were guardians of men, all subservient to the power of Jupiter. To thefe, fucceeding ages have added an almost equal number; and indeed they were fo numerous, and their functions fo various, that we find temples erected, and facrifices offered, to unknown gods. It is obfervable, that all the gods of the ancients have lived upon earth as mere mortals; and even Jupiter, who was the ruler of heaven, is reprefented by the mythologifts as a helpless child; and . we are acquainted with all the particulars that attended the birth and education of Juno. In process of time, not only good and virtuous men, who had been the patrons of learning and the supporters of liberty, but also thieves and pirates, were admitted among the gods, and the Roman fenate courteously granted im mortality to the most cruel and abandoned of their

emperors.

DIJAMBUS, in poetry, the foot of a Latin verse of four fyllables; it is compounded of two iambics, as fĕvērītās.

DIKE, a ditch or drain, made for the paffage of waters.-The word feems formed from the verb to dig; tho' others choose to derive it from the Dutch, diik, a dam, fea-bank, or wall.

DIKE, or Dyke, alfo denotes a work of ftone, tim. ber or fafcines, raised to oppofe the entrance or paffage of the waters of the fea, a river, lake, or the like. The word comes from the Flemish dyk, or diik, a heap of earth to bound or ftem the water. Junius and Menage take the Flemish to have borrowed their word from the Greek rax, wall. Guichard derives it from the Hebrew daghah. Thefe dikes are usually elevations of earth, with hurdles of ftakes, ftones, and other matters.

The dike of Rochelle is made with veffels faftened to the bottom. The dikes of Holland are frequently broke through, and drown large tracts of land.

DILAPIDATION, in law, a wasteful destroying or letting buildings, efpecially parfonage-houses, &c. run to decay, for want of neceffary reparation. If the clergy neglect to repair the houfes belonging to their benefices, the bishop may fequefter the profits thereof for that purpose. And in thefe cafes, a profecution may be brought either in the spiritual court or at com. mon law, against the incumbent himself, or againft his executor or administrator.

DILATATION, in phyfics, a motion of the parts of any body, by which it is fo expanded as to occupy a greater space. This expanfive motion depends upon the elaftic power of the body; whence it appears that dilatation is different from rarefaction, this laft being produced by the means of heat.

DILATATORES, in anatomy, a name given to feveral mufcles in the human body. See ANATOMY, Table of the Mufcles.

DILATORY PLEAS, in law, are fuch as are put