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Dunstan's influence secured the crown for Edward. But a fierce struggle ensued between Dunstan and his enemies. In 977 the Witan met three times; and the last meeting, that at Calne, was signalized by an accident, which the friends of Dunstan called a miracle. Half the floor of the room in which the Witan was assembled gave way at the moment that Dunstan was making a solemn appeal to God, so that the enemies of Dunstan fell, and Dunstan and his friends remained unhurt. This accident has been explained by reference to the archbishop's well-known skill in mechanics. During the first few years of the unhappy reign of Ethelred the Unready, Dunstan probably retained some influence in the government; and it is noteworthy that the year of his death (which took place on the 19th May 988) marks the commencement of the most disastrous invasions of the Danes. Towards the close of his life Dunstau is said to have retired from the court, and his last years were devoted to religious observances and the composition of sacred music, his favourite amusement being, as of old, the manufacture of bells and musical instruments. Dunstan has been frequently painted by historians as one of the most complete types of the bigoted ecclesiastic. If, however, we critically examine the best sources, he will appear to have been statesman much more than ecclesiastic; and the circumstances which caused him to be honoured by the monks as one of their greatest patrons will become manifest. Even in his lifetime he was believed to be endowed with supernatural power, as is shown by the charge of witchcraft brought against him in his youth, and by the story of the miracle at Calne. His earliest biography, written by a contemporary, represents him as a man of vivid imagination, a seer of visions and dreamer of dreams, a man of unusually sensitive nervous organization, as is indicated by the strange "gift of tears" with which he is said to have been endowed; and in this biography we find the first of the tales which became so common of his interviews with the devil, who is said to have tormented him in the form of a bear and in other frightful shapes. By a very common process, there came to be connected with his name a large number of marvellous legends, of which the best known is the story of how the devil appeared to him with impure suggestions while he was working at his forge, and how the saint retaliated by seizing the nose of the great enemy with a pair of red-hot tongs. It is not surprising that the monkish writers should exaggerate any services rendered to their order by an archbishop possessed of so wonderful a reputation. But in fact there is good reason to believe that Dunstan always treated church affairs as subordinate to political considerations. While Ethelwald, the bishop of Winchester, and Oswald, bishop of Worcester, and afterwards archbishop of York, were introducing monks of the strict Benedictine order into their sees in place of the seculars, and doing their utmost to enforce celibacy among the clergy, he allowed the married priests to retain their places in his diocese without interference. On the other hand, no doubt all Dunstan's influence in church affairs was given to the monastic party, though that influence was exerted with a statesman-like moderation for which he has not received credit, and it is likely that he did not attain his canonization without performing substantial service to the church. The political services which Dunstan rendered to England were certainly of the first importance. He guided the state successfully during the nine years reign of the invalid Edred. And there is good

taken the nun afterwards called St Wulfrith as his mistress. Dunstan

is said to have vindicated the independence of the church by forbidding him, among other penances, to wear the crown for seven years; but there are several reasons for doubting this story. The question is elaborately discussed in the article on the "Coronation of Edgar," in Mr E. W. Robertson's Historical Essays

reason to believe that he deserves at least as much credit as the king himself for the settlement of Northumbria and the Danes which was effected. for the peace which prevailed, and the glory which was gained, in Edgar's famous reign. Several works have been attributed to Dunstan, including a commentary on the Benedictine rule, and a Regularis Concordia (published in Reyner's Apostolatus Benedictinorum and in the Newe Monasticon): but the real authorship of both of these is doubtful. His reputation as a miracle-worker so long outlasted his life, that a tract on the philosopher's stone was published in his nanic at Cassel in 18649.

The earliest and the most trustworthy of the biographers of Dunstan was "the priest B.," whom some authorities have supposed, though not upon conclusive grounds, to be the scholar Bridferth of Ramsey. The date of his work is fixed by Prof. Stubbs at about 1000; it is dedicated to archbishop Elfric who died in 1006. The later lives,-those of Adelard (which consists of lessons intended to be used in the monasteries), of Osbern, Eadmer, and William of and filled with extravagant legends. Malmesbury,-are of far less value, being distorted by prejudice The Memorials of Saint Dunstan have been published by Mabillon, and also in the Master of the Rolls' series, edited, with an introduction, by Prof. Stubbs. A scholarly essay on Dunstan and his Policy is contained in Mr E: W. Robertson's Historical Essays; and the life of Dunstan is included in Dean Hook's Lives of the Archbishops of Canterbury. (T. M. W.)

publisher, and author, was born at Graffham, in Huntingdonshire, May 4, 1659. In his boyhood he showed great fondness for adventure, and a faculty for getting into and out of scrapes. At the age of fifteen he was apprenticed to Thomas Parkhurst, bookseller, at the sign of the Bible and Three Crowns, Cheapside, London, whose strictness had full exercise in the endeavour to keep in check his wayward tendencies. During the struggle which led to the Revolution, Dunton joined the Whig apprentices, and became the treasurer of that body. In 1685 he became bookseller at the sign of the Raven, near the Royal Exchange, having, after much consideration as to the lady he should select, business, so that he was left free in a great measure to follow married a sister of Samuel Wesley. His wife managed his his own eccentric devices, which now took the form chiefly of writing and rambling. In 1686, probably because he England, where he stayed eight months selling books and was concerned in the Monmouth rising, he visited New observing with interest the new country and its inhabitants. He then made a short excursion to Holland; after which, returning to England, he opened a new shop in the Poultry, Athenian Mercury, which professed to answer all questions in the hope of better times. Here he published weekly the It enjoyed considerable popularity for some time, but ho on history, philosophy, love, marriage, and things in general. discontinued it, after a course of six years, in 1696. His wife died some time after this. He married a second time; but a quarrel about his wife's property led to a separation, remainder of his life in great poverty. He died in 1735. and, having no one to manage his affairs, he spent the He wrote a great many books which are now forgotten, but his Life and Errors, on account of its naiveté and as a picture of bygone times, is still read, and his letters from New England were published in America in 1867.

DUNTON, JOHN (1659–1735) an eccentric bookseller,

navigator and scientific investigator, was born at Paris, DUPERREY, LOUIS ISIDORE (1786-1865), a French entered the navy in 1803, took part in the military operations of 1809 at Brest and Rochefort, and assisted in the

hydrographical survey of the coast of Tuscany carried on he served under Freycinet in his great voyage round the during that and the following year. From 1817 to 1820 world, being intrusted with the hydrographic operations on board the "Urania; "and he contributed largely to the preservation of the crew and the scientific collections when

1 This question is fully discussed by Prof. Stubbs in his Introduction to the Memorials of Saint Dunstan, but there are no sufficient data for discovering the author

his vessel was wrecked at the Malouin Islands. In 1822 he attained the rank of lieutenant, and was intrusted with the command of the "Coquille," which during the next three years was engaged in scientific explorations in the South Pacific and along the coasts of South America. From this voyage he brought back not only great additions to cartography and important data in regard to the currents of the Pacific, but also numerous pendulum observations, serving to determine the magnetic equator, and to prove the equality of the flattening of the two hemispheres. During the rest of his life he devoted himself mainly to the investiga tion of terrestrial magnetism; and the value of his labours was recognized by his admission into the Académie des Sciences in 1842. He died in August 1865.

The following are his principal works:-The Partie historique, the Hydrographie, and the Physique of the Voyage autour du Monde sur la Coquille, Paris 1826-1830; and extensive contributions to Becquerel's Traité de l'Electricité.

DUPERRON, JACQUES DAVY (1556-1618), a celebrated French cardinal, was born at St Lô, in Normandy, November 15, 1556. His father was educated for a physician, but on embracing the doctrines of the Reformation became a Protestant minister, and to escape persecution settled at Bern, in Switzerland. Here Jacques Davy received his education, being taught Latin and mathematics by his father, and learning without the aid of any one Greek and Hebrew and the philosophy which was then in vogue. At twenty years of age he came to Paris, and was presented to the king by the count of Matignon; and, after he had abjured Protestantism, being again presented by Philip Desportes, abbot of Tiron, as a young man without equal for knowledge and talent, he was appointed reader to the king. He was commanded to preach before the king at the convent of Vincennes, when the success of his sermon on the love of God, and of a funeral oration on the poet Ronsard, induced him to take orders. On the death of Mary Queen of Scots he was chosen to pronounce her eulogy, which, though it contained an attack on Elizabeth of England that the king thought it prudent to disavow, tended to advance both the ecclesiastic's fame and fortune. When the Cardinal de Bourbon, at the end of Henry III.'s reign, plotted to secure to himself the throne to the prejudice of Henry IV., Duperron is accused of having joined in the plot and revealed to Henry IV. its secrets. However that may be, when the plot failed, and Henry IV. mounted the throne, Duperron enjoyed the favour of that monarch, and in 1591 was created by him bishop of Evreux. He convorted Henry to the Catholic religion; and, after the taking of Paris, accompanied the Cardinal d'Ossat to Rome to obtain the removal of the interdict which had been passed upon France. On his return to his diocese, his zeal and eloquence were largely instrumental in withstanding the progress of Calvinism, and among others he converted Henry Sponde, who became bishop of Pamiers, and the Swiss general Sancy. His success attracted the attention of the church, and he was chosen to represent it at the conference at Fontainebleau in 1600. In 1604 he was sent to Rome as "charge d'affaires de France;" and, having hardly arrived when Clement VIII. died, he largely contributed by his eloquence to the election of Leo XI. to the papal throne, and, on the death of Leo twenty-four days after, to the election of Paul V. While still at Rome he was named archbishop of Sens, and the same year was made a cardinal. He died at Paris, Sept. 6, 1618. Duperron was a zealous defender of the infallibility and power of the Pope, and of his superiority over a general council. He was possessed of immense energy, and of a ready and convincing eloquence, which he could make available for whatever opinions he thought it prudent to adopt; and, if he did not

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form his opinions solely with a view to his advancement, they certainly adapted themselves in each case with remarkable appropriateness to the different emergencies and turning points of his life. His works were collected after his death, and published in three volumes in 1622-23 DUPIN, ANDRÉ MARIE JEAN JACQUES (1783-1865), commonly called Dupin the Elder, a celebrated French advocate, president of the Chamber of Deputies and of the Legislative Assembly, was born at Varzy, in Nièvre, on the 1st February 1783. He was educated by his father, who was a lawyer of eminence, and at an early age he became principal clerk of an attorney at Paris. On the establishment of the Académie de Législation he entered it as pupil from Nièvre. In 1800 he was made advocate, and in 1802, when the schools of law were opened, he received successively the degrees of licentiate and doctor from the new faculty. He was in 1810 an unsuccessful candidate for the chair of law at Paris, and in 1811 he also failed to obtain the office of advocate-general at the court of cassation. About this time he was added to the commission charged with the classification of the laws of the empire, and, after the interruption caused by the events of 1814 and 1815, was charged with the sole care of that great work. When he entered the Chamber of Deputies in 1815 he at once took an active part in the debates, and strenuously opposed the election of the son of Napoleon as emperor after his father's abdication. At the election after the second restoration Dupin was not re-elected. He defended with great intrepidity the principal political victims of the reaction, among others, in conjunction with Berryer, Marshal Ney; and in October 1815 boldly published a tractate entitled Libre Défense des Accusés. In 1827 he was again elected a member of the Chamber of Deputies, and in 1830 took part in counselling the revolution, and in exhorting the citizens to resistance. In August of that year he became a member of Louis Philippe's cabinet, and more than any one else contributed to the formation of the new régime. At the end of 1832 he became president of the chamber, which office he held succesively for eight years. On Louis Philippe's abdication in 1848 Dupin introduced the young count of Paris into the chamber, and proposed him as king with the duchess of Orleans as regent. This attempt failed, but Dupin submitted to circumstances, and, retaining the office of procureur-général, his first act was to decide that justice should henceforth be rendered to the "name of the French people." In 1849 he was elected a member of the Assembly, and became president of the principal committee-that on legislation. After the coup d'état of 2d December 1851 he still retained his office of procureurgénéral, and did not demit it till effect was given to the decrees confiscating the property of the house of Orleans. In 1857 he was offered his old office by the emperor, and accepted it, explaining his acceptance in a discourse, a sentence of which may be employed to describe his whole political career. "I have always," he said, 66 belonged to France and never to parties." He died 8th November 1865. Among Dupin's works, which are numerous, may be mentioned Principia Juris Civilis, 5 vols. (1806); Mémoires et plaidoyers de 1806 au 1er Janvier 1830, in 20 vols.; and Mémoires ou souvenirs du barreau, in 4 vols. 1855-57.

DUPIN, LOUIS ELLIES (1657-1719), a celebrated French ecclesiastical historian, belonged to a noble family in Normandy, and was born at Paris on the 17th June 1657. He received his early education from his father, and had scarcely reached his tenth year when he entered the college of Harcourt, where he graduated as M.A. in 1672. Determining to adopt the ecclesiastical profession, he became a pupil of the Sorbonne, and received the degre of B.D. in 1680, and that of D.D. in 1684. About this time he conceived the idea of a Bibliothèque Universelle de tous les

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Auteurs Ecclesiastiques, the first volume of which appeared in DUPONT, PIERRE (1821-1871), a French song-writer 1686. The liberty with which he there treated the doctrines of great popularity, the son of a workman of Provins, was of the fathers aroused ecclesiastical prejudice, and the arch- born at Lyons, his mother's native city, but brought up bishop of Paris condemned the work. Dupin consented from childhood under the care of an elderly cousin who to a retractation, but it was suppressed in 1693; he occupied the position of priest of Roche-Taillée-sur-Saône. was, however, allowed again to continue it on changing its From the seminary of Largentières, where his education was title, to the extent of substituting Nouvelle for Universelle completed, he passed to the uncongenial drudgery of a He was subsequently exiled to Châtellerault as a Jansenist, lawyers and banker's office; in 1839 found his way to Paris, but the sentence of banishment was repealed on a new and got some of his poems inserted in the Gazette de France retractation. In 1718 he entered into a correspondence and the Quotidienne; and two years later was saved from with Wake, archbishop of Canterbury, with a view to a the conscription and enabled to publish his first volumeunion of the Euglish and Gallican churches; and, being | Les deux Anges-through the exertions of a Provins kinssuspected of projecting a change in the dogmas of the man and M. Lebrun. The prize founded by M. de Maillé church, his papers were seized in 1719, but nothing was La Tour-Landry was awarded to him in 1842, and he was found that could be properly framed into an accusation employed for some time in connection with the Academy's against him. The same zeal for union is said to have induced great dictionary. The thought of trying his fortune as a him, during the residence of Peter the Great in France, and writer for the stage was taking shape in his mind, when in at that monarch's request, to draw up a plan for uniting 1847 the success of his peasant song J'ai deux grands bœufs the Greek and Roman churches. He died at Paris on the dans mon étable opened up another prospect of fame; and 6th June 1719. from that date to his death he confined himself mainly, though not exclusively, to the cultivation of his lyrical faculty. Accompanied, as they often were, by airs of his own invention, many of his songs became in the widest sense popular, and were equally welcome in the workshop and the drawing-room. His sympathies were much less, however, with the drawing-room than the workshop; and in 1851 he paid the penalty of having become the poet laureate of the socialistic aspirations of the time by being condemned to seven years of exile from France. The sentence was cancelled, and the poet withdrew for a season from participation in politics. He died at Paris in 1871. His lyrical poems may very fairly be arranged according to his own classification-rustic and, as far as the writer is concerned, objective, legendary and subjective, patriotic and contemporaneous. They have appeared in various formsChants et Chansons, 3 vols., with music, 1852-54; Chants et Poésies, 7th edition, 1862; &c. Among the best known are Lé braconnier, Le tisserand, La vache blanche, La chanson du blé, but many others might be mentioned of equal merit,-natural, bold, delicate, and piquant. Dix eclogues, 1864, Fin de la Pologne, 1847, La legende du juif errant, 1862, written to accompany Doré's engravings, and Muse juvénile, 1859, are separate publications.

Dupin was a voluminous author. Besides his great work on ecclesiastical authors, mention may be made of Bibliothèque Universelle des Historiens, 2 vols. (1707); L'Histoire de l'Eglise en abrégé (1712); and L'Histoire Profane depuis le commencement du Monde jusqu'à present, 4 vols. 1712.

His

DUPLEIX, JOSEPH, governor-general of the French establishments in India, was born about the close of the 17th century. The son of a rich farmer-general, he was carefully educated, made several voyages to America and India, and in 1720 was named a member of the superior council at Pondicherry. He displayed great business aptitude, and, in addition to his official duties, made large ventures on his own account, and acquired a fortune. In 1730 he was made superintendent of French affairs in Chandernagore, the town prospering under his energetic administration and growing into great importance. reputation procured him in 1742 the appointment of governor-general of all French establishments in India. His ambition now was to acquire for France vast territories in India; and for this purpose he entered into relations with the native princes, and adopted a style of Oriental gorgeousness in his dress and surroundings. The English took the alarm. But the danger to their settlements and power was partly averted by the bitter mutual jealousy which existed between Dupleix and La Bourdonnais, French governor of the Isle of Bourbon. When Madras capitulated to the French in 1748, Dupleix opposed the restoration of the town to the English, thus violating the treaty signed by La Bourdonnais. He then sent an expedition against Fort St David (1747), which was defeated on its march by the nabob of Arcot, the ally of the English. Dupleix succeeded in gaining over the nabob, and again attempted the capture of Fort St David, but unsuccessfully. A midnight attack on Cuddalore was repulsed with great loss. In 1748 Pondicherry was besieged by the English; but in the course of the operations news arrived of the peace concluded between the French and the English at Aix-laChapelle. Dupleix next entered into negotiations which had for their object the subjugation of Southern India, and he sent a large body of troops to the aid of two claimants of the sovereignty of the Carnatic and the Deccan. The English were engaged on the side of their rivals. After temporary successes the scheme failed. The conflicts between the French and the English in India continued till 1754, when Dupleix was recalled to France. He had spent immense sums out of his private fortune on account of the French company, but in opposition to their wishes, and vainly attempted to recover them from the Government. Пle appears to have died in obscurity and want about

1763.

Sec Sainte-Beuve, Causeries du lundi, vol. iv., where an interesting description is given of the style in which the author sung his own songs in the clubs and political meetings; Ch. Baudelaire, Notice sur P. Dupont, 1849; Déchaut, Biographic de Pierre Dupont, 1871.

DUPONT DE L'EURE, JACQUES CHARLES (1767-1855), a French lawyer and statesman, was born at Neubourg, in Normandy, on the 27th February 1767. In 1789 he was an advocate at the Parliament of Normandy. During the republic and the empire he filled successively judicial offices at Louviers, Rouen, and Evreux. He had adopted the principles of the Revolution, and in 1798 he commenced his political life as a member of the Council of Five Hundred. In 1813 he became a member of the Corps Legislatif. During the Hundred Days he was vice-president of the Chamber of Deputies, and when the allied armies entered Paris he distinguished himself by the firmness with which he asserted the necessity of maintaining the principles of government that had been established at the Revolution. A resolution to that effect which he moved in the chamber was adopted, and he was chosen one of the commissioners to negotiate with the allied sovereigns. From 1817 till 1849 he was uninterruptedly a member of the Chamber of Deputies, and he acted consistently with the liberal opposition, of which at more than one crisis he was the virtual leader. For a few months in 1830 he held office as minister of justice, but, finding himself out of harmony with his colleagues, he resigned before the close of the year and

resumed his place in the opposition. At the revolution of 1848 Dupont de l'Eure was made president of the provisional government as being its oldest member. In the following year, having failed to secure his re-election to the chamber, he retired into private life. He died in 1855 at the age of eighty-eight. The consistent firmness with which he adhered to the cause of constitutional liberalism during the many changes of his times gained him the highest respect of his countrymen, by whom he was styled the Aristides of the French tribune.

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1814 Dupont became secretary to the Provisional Government, and on the restoration he was made a councillor of state. The return of the emperor in 1815 determined hin to quit France, and he spent the close of his life with his two sons, who had established a powder manufactory in the state of Delaware. He died near Wilmington, Delaware, on the 6th August 1817.

Dupont's most important works, besides those mentioned above, were his De l'origine et des progrès d'une science nouvelle (London and Paris, 1767); Physiocratie, ou constitution naturelle du gouvernement le plus avantageux au genre humain (Paris, 1768); and his Observations sur les effets de la liberté du commerce des grains (17601. Dupont was a inember of the Institute of France, to which he contributed many papers.

DUPUIS, CHARLES FRANÇOIS (1742-1809), an eminent French scientific writer, was born of poor parents at TryéChateau, between Gisors and Chaumont, October 26, 1742. His father, who was a teacher, instructed him in mathematics and land-surveying. While he was engaged in measuring a tower by the geometric method the Duc de la Rochefoucault met him, and, being struck with his intelligence, gave him a bursary in the college of Harcourt. Dupuis made such rapid progress in his studies that, at the age of twenty-four, he was appointed professor of rhetoric at the college of Lisieux, where he had previously passed as a licentiate of theology. In his hours of leisure he applied himself to the study of the law, and in 1770 was admitted an advocate before Parliament. Two university discourses which he delivered, one on occasion of the distribution of prizes, and the other on the death of the empress Maria Theresa, having been printed, wero admired on account of their elegant Latinity, and laid the foundation of the author's fame as a writer. His chief attention, however, was devoted to mathematics, the object of his early studies; and for some years he attended the astronomical lectures of Lalande, with whom he formed an intimate friendship. In 1778 he constructed a telegraph on the principle suggested by Amontons, and employed it in keeping up a correspondence with his friend M. Fortin in the neighbouring village of Bagneux, until the Revolu tion rendered it necessary that he should destroy his machine to avoid suspicion.

DUPONT DE NEMOURS, PIERRE SAMUEL (17391817), a French political economist and statesman, was born at Paris on the 14th December 1739. He studied for the medical profession, but did not enter upon practice, his attention having been early directed to economic questions through his friendship with Quesnay, Turgot, and other leaders of the school known as the Economists. To this school he rendered valuable service by several pamphlets on financial questions, and numerous articles representing and advocating its views in a popular style in the Journal de l'Agriculture, du Commerce, et des Finances, and the Ephémérides du Citoyen, of which he was successively editor. In 1772 he accepted the office of secretary of the Council of Public Instruction from Stanislas Poniatowski, king of Poland. Two years later he was recalled to his native country by the advent of his friend Turgot to power. After assisting the minister in his wisely-conceived but unavailing schemes of reform during the brief period of his tenure of office, Dupont shared his dismissal and retired to Gâtinais, in the neighbourhood of Nemours, where he employed himself in agricultural improvements. During his leisure he wrote a translation of Ariosto (1781), and Mémoires sur la vie de Turgot (1782). He was drawn from his retirement by Vergennes, who employed him in preparing, along with the English commissioner Dr James Hutton, the treaty for the recognition of the independence of the United States (1782), and a treaty of commerce with Great Britain (1786). Under Calonne he was admitted to the Council of State, and appointed commissary-general of commerce. During the Revolution period he advocated reform and constitutional monarchy as against the views of the extreme republicans, and was therefore destined for vengeance when the republicans triumphed. After the 10th August 1792 he was concealed for some weeks in the observatory of the Mazarin College, from which he contrived to escape to the country. During the time that elapsed before he was discovered and arrested he wrote his Philosophie de l'univers. Imprisoned in La Force, he was one of those who had the good fortune to escape the guillotine till the death of Robespierre set them free. member of the Council of Five Hundred, Dupont carried out his policy of resistance to the Jacobins, and made himself prominent as a member of the reactionary party. After the republican triumph on the 18th Fructidor (4th September) 1797 his house was sacked by the mob, and he himself only escaped transportation to Cayenne through the influence of M. J. Chénier. In 1799 he found it advisable for his comfort, if not for his safety, to emigrate with his family to the United States. On his return to France in 1802 he declined to accept any office under Napoleon, and devoted himself almost exclusively to literary pursuits.that it had existed only there; and that this harmony had The consideration accorded to him in the United States was shown by his being employed to arrange the treaty of 1803, by which Louisiana was sold to the Union, and by his being requested by Jefferson to prepare a scheme of national education, which was published in 1812 under the title Sur l'éducation nationale dans les Etats Unis d'Amérique. Though the scheme was not carried out in the United States, several of its features have been adopted in the existing French code. On the downfall of Napoleon in

As a

Much about the same time, Dupuis formed his ingenious theory with respect to the origin of the Greek months. In the course of his investigations upon this subject, he composed a long memoir on the constellations, in which he endeavoured to account for the want of any resemblance between the groups of stars in the heavens and the names by which they are known, by supposing that the zodiac was, for the people who invented it, a sort of calendar at once astronomical and rural, and that the figures chosen for the constellations were such as would naturally suggest the agricultural operations of the season. It seemed only necessary, therefore, to discover the clime and the period in which the constellation of Capricorn must have arisen with the sun-on the day of the summer solstice, and the vernal equinox must have occurred under Libra. It appeared to Dupuis that this clime was Upper Egypt, and that the perfect correspondence between the signs and their significations had existed in that country at a period of between fifteen and sixteen thousand years before the present time;

been disturbed by the effect of the precession of the equinoxes. He therefore ascribed the invention of the signs of the zodiac to the people who then inhabited Upper Egypt or Ethiopia. This was the basis on which Dupuis established his mythological system, and endeavoured to explain the subject of fabulous history, and the whole system of the theogony and theology of the ancients.

Persuaded of the importance of his discoveries, which, however, were by no means entirely original, Dupuis

published several detached parts of his system in the Journal des Savants for the months of June, October, and December 1777, and of February 1781. These he afterwards collected and published, first in Lalande's Astronomy, and then in a separate volume in 4to, 1781, under the title of Mémoire sur l'Origine des Constellations et sur l'Explication de la Fable par l'Astronomie. The theory propounded in this memoir was refuted by Bailly, in the fifth volume of his History of Astronomy, but, at the same time, with a just acknowledgment of the erudition and ingenuity exhibited by the author. Condorcet proposed Dupuis to Frederick the Great of Prussia as a fit person to succeed Thiébault in the professorship of literature at Berlin; and Dupuis had accepted the invitation, when the death of the king put an end to the engagement. The chair of humanity in the college of France having at the same time become vacant by the death of Bejot, it was conferred on Dupuis; and in 1788 he became a member of the Academy of Inscriptions. He now resigned his professorship at Lisieux, and was appointed by the administrators of the department of Paris one of the four commissioners of public instruction. At the commencement of the Revolutionary troubles Dupuis sought an asylum at Evreux; and, having been chosen a member of the National Convention by the department of Seine-et-Oise, he distinguished himself by the moderation of his speeches and public conduct. In the third year of the republic he was elected secretary to the Assembly, and in the fourth he was chosen a member of the Council of Five Hundred. After the memorable 18th Brumaire he was elected by the department of Seine-et-Oise a member of the legislative body, of which he became the president. He had been proposed as a candidate for the senate when he resolved to abandon politics, devoting himself during the rest of his life to his favourite studies. He died September 29, 1809.

In 1794 he published the work by which he is best known, entitled Origine de tous les Cultes, ou la Religion Universelle (3 vols. 4to, with an atlas, or 12 vols. 12mo.) Though its circulation was small, it became the subject of much bitter controversy, and the theory it propounded as to the origin of mythology in Upper Egypt led to the expedition organized by Napoleon for the exploration of that country. In 1798 Dupuis published an abridgment of his work in one volume 8vo, which met with no better success than the original. Another abridgment of the same work, executed upon a much more methodical plan, was published by M. de Tracy. The other works of Dupuis consist of two memoirs on the Pelasgi, inserted in the Memoirs of the Institute; a memoir "On the Zodiac of Tentyra," published in the Revue Philosophique for May 1806; and a Mémoire Explicatif du Zodiaque Chronologique et Mythologique published the same year, in one volume 4to. 1. Dacier, secretary to the third class of the Institute, delivered his éloge; and an historical account of his life and writings was published by his widow.

DUPUYTREN, GUILLAUME, BARON (1777-1835), one of the most distinguished of French anatomists and surgeons, was born October 6, 1777, at Pierre Buffière, a small town of Limousin. He was sprung from poor parents, and was furnished with the means of receiving an ordinary education at the College de la Marche by some charitable persons to whom he had been introduced. At the newly established Ecole de Médecine, under Fourcroy, he began the study of medicine with great diligence, and was appointed by competition prosector of the faculty when only eighteen years of age. His early studies were directed chiefly to morbid anatomy, which he did much to establish on a scientific basis, though many of his theories were unsound. In 1803 he was appointed assistant-surgeon at the Hôtel-Dieu; and he was appointed professor of operative surgery in succession to Sabbatier in 1811. In 1815 he was appointed to the chair of clinical surgery, and three years later he became head surgeon at the Hôtel-Dieu. Many other offices were conferred upon him; he became inspector of the university, a chevalier and afterwards an officer in the Legion of

Honour, chevalier of St Michel, baron, member of the Institute, and first surgeon to the king. Dupuytren's energy and industry were alike remarkable. He visited the Hôtel-Dieu morning and evening, performing at each time several operations, lectured to vast throngs of students, gave advice to his out-door patients, and fulfilled the duties consequent upon one of the largest practices of modern times. By his indefatigable activity he amassed a fortune of £300,000, the bulk of which he bequeathed to his daughter, with the deduction of considerable sums for the endowment of the anatomical chair in the Ecole de Médecine, and the establishment of a benevolent institution for distressed medical men. The most important of Dupuytren's writings is his Treatise on Artificial Anus, in which the principles laid down by John Hunter are happily applied. In his operations he was remarkable for the skill and dexterity with which he overcame the numerous difficulties incidental to so extensive a practice as he enjoyed. Ho had complete control over his feelings, and great readiness of resource. Instead of attempting to introduce new methods of procedure, he commonly limited himself to modifying and adapting to his particular exigencies tho established laws of surgery. He was thus led to invent several new surgical instruments. In private life Dupuytren was cold and reserved; and this was perhaps increased by his constant struggle against a consumptive tendency, which ultimately carried him off, 8th February 1835. In November 1833 he had suffered a slight shock of apoplexy, but he continued in practice almost until thə day of his death.

DUQUESNE, Abraham, MarquIS (1610-1688), one of the most distinguished naval officers in the history of France, was born at Dieppe in 1610. Born in a stirring seaport, the son of a distinguished naval officer, he naturally adopted the profession of a sailor. He spent his youth in the merchant service, and obtained his first distinction in naval warfare by the capture of the island of Lerius from the Spaniards in May 1637. About the same time his father was killed in an engagement with the Spaniards, and the news raised his hatred of the national enemy to the pitch of a personal and bitter animosity. For the next five years he sought every opportunity of inflicting defeat and humiliation on the Spanish navy, and he distinguished himself by his bravery in the engagement at Gattari (1658), the expedition to Coruña (1639), and in battles at Tarragona (1641), Barcelona (1643), and the Cape de Gata. The French navy being left unemployed during the minority of Louis XIV., Duquesne obtained leave to offer his services to the king of Sweden, who gave him a commission as viceadmiral in 1643. In this capacity he defeated the Danish fleet near Gottenburg and thus raised the siege of the city. The Danes returned to the struggle with increased forces under the command of King Christiern in person, but they were again defeated,-their admiral being killed and his ship taken. Peace having been concluded between Sweden and Denmark in 1645, Duquesne returned to France. The revolt at Bordeaux, supported as it was by material aid from Spain, gave him the opportunity of at once serving his country and gratifying his long cherished hatred of the Spaniards. In 1650 he fitted out at his own expense a squadron with which he blockaded the mouth of the For this Gironde, and compelled the city to surrender. service he was promoted in rank, and received a gift of the castle and isle of Indre, near Nantes. Peace with Spain was concluded in 1659, and for some years afterwards Duquesne was occupied in endeavours to suppress piracy in the Mediterranean. On the revolt of Messina from Holland, he was sent to support the insurgents, and had to encounter the united fleets of Spain and Holland under the command of the celebrated Admiral De Ruyter.

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