a "thesaurus," in which the words are grouped under logical headings instead of alphabetically. Thus, words of every kind relating to courage will be brought together, and in the best works will be contrasted page by page with their antitheses, namely those connected with fear, in this

instance.

The word dictionary is far more used for dictionaries of languages than in any of its other senses. The masterpieces of Gesenius for Hebrew, Liddell and Scott for Greek, Smith for Latin, Dr. Johnson and Webster for English, Grimm for German, and Littré for French, are instances. In most countries the state or some learned body of the highest importance has undertaken the preparation of a dictionary of its own language. Of such is the famous dictionary of the French Academy, begun by Richelieu, and after such a length of time not yet within measurable distance of completion, so that in our own day the distinguished Comtist, M. Littré, produced his noble work for use, as he modestly put it, meanwhile. In like case, and of like antiquity as regards its commencement, letter A in each being now well into its third century, is the great Florentine dictionary of the Accademia Della Crusca. In England Dr. Johnson, with his three copyists in the garrets of the Gough Square house (Fleet Street, London), produced alone the work which is still a source of pride to us as a monument of the scholarship of his day. But modern views of the derivation of words, &c., have so altogether changed this aspect of the science of English lexicography that it has been felt of late years that a hearty and combined effort must be made to fill this gap. It is to be hoped that the great English dictionary of the Philological Society of London will not share the fate of its French and Italian compeers. Meanwhile we have our Littré in Professor Skeats, of Oxford, whose Etymological Dictionary of the English Language," published in 1883, is a splendid triumph of research, and well worthy the honour of publication by his university. This and its equally valuable abridgment, of the same date, present in their prefaces and addenda the bases of the theories upon which the body of the work has been constructed. They are invaluable to the English philologist as a special application of comparative philology. In 1883 the Philological Society of London began the publication of the monumental "New Dictionary of the English Tongue," to which we have referred above, planned on a scale so great that no publisher could be found to produce it. The University of Oxford again honoured itself by passing it through the Clarendon Press. As an instance of its copiousness, the word "above" is first given in its thirty forms (on bufan, above, abuffe, &c.), and these are followed by an account of the original derivation, of the compounds, and the early grammatic use, accompanied with specimens from Elfric in the tenth century, to Freeman in the nineteenth, &c. Cross-references link these several forms, treated of in their proper places, to this chief article. All words receive this exhaustive treatment. The historical limit of English is fixed at 1100, thus excluding purely Anglo-Saxon and Norman words, and including much that is now obsolete. Every device of typography is utilized to save space and to gain quickness and clearness of reference.

DIC TYS, a Cretan who accompanied Idomeneus to the siege of Troy, and the reputed author of a history of the Trojan War, of which a Latin prose translation is extant. This work was discovered in the reign of Nero in a tomb near Gnossus, which was laid open by an earthquake. It was written in Phoenician characters, and first translated into Greek by one Eufraxidas, or Praxis, at the command of Nero. There is an edition by A. Dederich, 1833. DICYPEL LIUM, a genus of plants belonging to the order LAURINEE. Dicypellium caryophyllatum (bois de rose) is a tree, a native of the woods of Brazil and

Guiana. The bark gives out a smell like cloves, and has a hot, clove-like, peppery taste. It is used as a medicine by the natives in the countries where it grows, and possesses powerful tonic properties.

DIDEROT, DENIS, was born at Langres, in the province of Champagne, in 1713. He was placed first in the Jesuits' College at Langres, and afterwards sent to the Collège d'Harcourt at Paris. Diderot made brilliant progress in the ancient and modern languages, and still more in mathematics. On leaving college his father wished him to enter the church, and on his refusal desired him to study the law; but Diderot had no taste for that profession and neglected it, notwithstanding the urgent desire of his father, who even went so far as to refuse longer to support him. He employed all his time in reading discursively, occasionally writing for those who would employ him. He undertook anything that came in his way-advertisements, indexes, catalogues, and even sermons for the colonies, which were bespoken and paid for by a missionary. He next began translating from the English for the booksellers. He also received indirectly assistance from home. At the age of twenty-nine he married a young woman as poor as himself. In his drama "Le Père du Famille" he has introduced some of the incidents of his courtship and marriage. His first original work was the "Pensées Philosophiques (1746), which met with great success among the partisans of the new philosophy, as it was then called. From that time Diderot ranked as one of the most strenuous assailants of the established systems in religion and politics. In 1749 he published the "Lettre sur les Sourds-Muets," and the "Lettre sur les Aveugles," for which he was imprisoned for three months at Vincennes. After editing, in company with others, a Universal Medical Dictionary, Diderot formed the project of a general cyclopædia, under the title of "Encyclopédie, ou Dictionnaire Raisonné des Sciences, des Arts, et des Métiers." Diderot and D'Alembert were joint editors, but D'Alembert withdrew after a time, and Diderot remained sole editor. The work began to appear in 1751, and was concluded in 1765, in seventeen vols. folio, besides eleven vols. of plates. The publication was stopped two or three times by the government, and the last volumes were distributed privately, though the king himself was one of the purchasers.

One of Diderot's many troubles was the timidity of his publisher, who would frequently strike out passages from the proofs when finally passed for printing, and substitute others which he considered less likely to excite opposition. or simply leave the gap unfilled; and this in the complete ignorance of Diderot as to his proceedings until too late. Diderot frequently and bitterly complained, but could never make himself secure from this danger.

The works of Diderot are numerous, and many of them were not published till after his death. A collection of his principal works was published by his disciple Naigeon in fifteen vols. 8vo (1798), but this is eclipsed by the magnificent edition, in twenty vols., by Assézat (Paris, 1875-77).

Diderot is one of the most fascinating of authors. His originality and fertility in ideas are prodigious. Had he taken equal pains with his style he would have stood among the foremost writers of the world. His thrilling romance of "La Religieuse" was long believed, as was our own Robinson Crusoe," to be an authentic autobiography. Recently a play made from an episode of his "Jacques le Fataliste" was the leading attraction of the French stage, and Mr. Walter Pollock's translation of Diderot's celebrated "Paradoxe sur le Comédien," with a preface by the eminent actor Henry Irving, was one of the most admired publications of 1883. This last is a dialogue (Diderot loved dialogue, and wrote "Jacques" and "Le Neveu de I &c., in that form, and it is admitted that th the most brilliant talker of his time), a: in dispute is whether an actor should pl

Ab is diatonic, A is chromatic; in C major, A is diatonic, Ab is chromatic. All notes not in the diatonic scale of the key (whether a major or minor key is under consideration) are chromatic. See SCALE, KEY, CHROMATIC.

DIB'DIN, CHARLES, was born at Southampton in 1745. He was the son of a silversmith there, and was educated at Winchester, being originally designed for the clerical profession; but his love for music predominated, and after receiving some instruction from the celebrated Kent, organist of Winchester Cathedral, he was sent to London. He commenced his career, as poet and musician, at the early age of sixteen, when he produced an opera at Covent Garden Theatre, written and composed by himself, called "The Shepherd's Artifice." A few years after he appeared as an actor, and was in 1768 the original Mungo in his own "Padlock." Of the several operas and musical plays now rapidly produced by Dibdin, the celebrated "Waterman" (1774), and the almost equally well-known "Quaker" (1775), alone hold the stage now.

About the year 1782 he built the Circus Theatre (afterwards opened under the name of the Surrey), which continued under his management about three or four years. The first appearance of the famous clown Grimaldi was under Dibdin's management. In 1788 Dibdin published his "Musical Tour" (one vol. 4to), and in 1789 presented to the public, at Hutchin's Auction Rooms, King Street, Covent Garden, the first of those entertainments of which he was sole author, composer, and performer, under the title of "The Whim of the Moment." In this, among sixteen other songs, was the ballad "Poor Jack," an effusion of genius that immediately established his reputation both as a lyric poet and melodist. Dibdin took the Lyceum in 1789, and produced another entertainment called the "Oddities," remarkable for containing "Tom Bowling," "The Flowing Can," "The Standing Toast," and several others of those songs which have made and still make Dibdin dear to all lovers of simple melody. This entertainment and its successor ran for nearly 200 nights. He continued this sort of career till 1805, when he retired from public life, very ill provided for. Government, however, bestowed upon him a pension of £200 a year. In 1813 he was attacked by paralysis, and died in the July following. Dibdin published one or two novels and some smaller works; but his fame is built on his songs, of which -so prolific was his muse, and so great his facility in composition-he produced the amazing number of 900! They are chiefly nautical, and their popularity in many cases is still as great as ever.

DI BRANCHIATA. See CUTTLE-FISII.

DIC'AST (Dicastes), a juryman of ancient Athens. Six thousand dicasts (often called "judges") were selected every year from those entitled to the full city franchise and over thirty years of age. The dicasts were paid a small fee, originally an obolus (about 2d. of our money), as instituted by Pericles. Cleon raised it to three oboli a day. From the general body of dicasts for the year the separate courts were selected as occasion made it necessary. It was by one of these courts of dicasts that the illustrious Socrates was condemned.

DICE are small cubes of bone or ivory used in gambling, and marked for that purpose with black dots on each of their six sides. The number of dots are from one up to six, and the game is won by the person who obtains the largest number uppermost, after throwing them from a small tubular box. Dice were formerly liable to a duty

of £1 18. per pair. Unscrupulous gamblers often "load" their dice, by plugging them with lead on a particular side, so that the highest numbers are almost certain to be turned up.

DICHOG'AMY, in botany, is a term used to express the condition of a large number of flowers which have both stamens and pistils, but as these are mature at different

times, self-fertilization is the exception and cross-fertilization the rule. Flowers in which the stamens are mature before the pistils, are called protandrous (or proterandrous); such are Compositæ, Campanulaceae, Labiatæ, Umbelliferæ, also foxglove, geranium, &c. Flowers are called protogynous (or proterogynous) when the stigmatic surface of the pistil is ready to receive pollen, and is either fertilized or even withered up before the pollen in the same flower is ripe. Examples of this condition have been given under ARUM and ARISTOLOCHIACEÆ.

DICHOTOMY, a term in botany employed to express a mode of branching by constant forking. The first stem or vein of a plant divides into two branches, each branch divides into two others, and so on. It is only in the veins of fern leaves, and of those of some coniferous species, and in the stems of lycopodiaceous plants that this mode of division exists as a general character. It, however, does occur elsewhere; for example, the Doom Palm of Thebes is remarkable for its dichotomous branches, and the Screw Pines have a similar habit.

DICHROISM (from the Greek words dis, double; and chroa, colour) is a term applied to that property of certain crystals by which they exhibit different colours according to the position of their axes with respect to the incident pencil of light.

Some of the phenomena relating to the differences of colour in a crystal were observed by Dr. Wollaston in tourmaline and some other minerals, but Sir David Brewster was the first to make the discovery that they were caused by the different absorptions of the rays of coloured light in their passage through the crystal. In the undulatory theory they depend on some modifications of those functions of the lengths of waves by which the tints of colour are expressed. Perhaps pleochroism would be a better term, for it is now well known that there are trichroic crystals, and crystals of even more colours.

As examples we may mention the crystals of the double chloride of palladium and potassium, which appear deep red if viewed along the axis, and brilliant green if viewed across it. The mineral iolite or CORDIERITE is often called dichroite from its appearing blue in one direction and pale yellow in another. The following are a few of a large number of crystals which are dichroic when viewed by polarized light:

DICKENS, CHARLES, the best known English novelist of the nineteenth century, was the son of Mr. John Dickens, who held at one time a position in the navy pay department. Charles was born at Portsmouth in February, 1812. The duties of his father's office obliged him frequently to change his residence, and much of the future novelist's infancy was spent at Plymouth, Sheerness, Chatham, and other seaport towns. The European war, however, came to an end before he had completed his fourth year, and his father, finding his " occupation gone," retired on a pension and removed to London, where he

obtained employment as a parliamentary reporter for one of the daily papers. It was at first intended that young Charles should be sent to an attorney's office; but he had literary tastes, and eventually was permitted by his father to exchange the law for a post as one of the reporters on the staff of the True Sun, from which he subsequently transferred his services to the Morning Chronicle, then under the editorship of Mr. John Black, who accepted and inserted in the evening edition of his journal the first fruits of the pen of Charles Dickens-those "Sketches of English Life and Character" which were afterwards reprinted and published in a collective form under the title of "Sketches by Boz," in 1836 and the following year.

These "Sketches" at once attracted notice, and the public looked with something more than curiosity for the time when the successful author should throw off his mask and proclaim himself to the world. Almost simultaneously with these "Sketches" appeared a comic opera from his pen, entitled "The Village Coquettes."

The graphic power of describing the ordinary scenes of common life, more especially in their ludicrous aspects, did not escape the notice of Messrs. Chapman & Hall, and they accordingly requested Boz" to write for them a serial story in monthly parts; the result was the publication of the "Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club," in 1836. It is said that a portion of the rough outline of the work was the result of a suggestion thrown out by Mr. Hall, one of the firm above mentioned; but be that as it may, the subject was treated by "Boz" in a manner at once so easy, so graphic, and so natural, and yet with such a flow of genuine humour, that the author found himself raised almost at a single step to the highest pinnacle of literary fame. Illustrated at first by Seymour, and afterwards by Mr. Hablot K. Brown ("Phiz"), the "Pickwick Papers" found an enormous sale from their first appearance, and Charles Dickens presented himself to the world as their author in 1838.

The great success of "Pickwick" naturally led to offers being made to Dickens by the London publishers; but the author wisely consulted his own reputation, and confined himself to the production of "Nicholas Nickleby," in a similar style and form, in 1839. The work was written to expose in detail the cruelties which were practised upon orphans and other neglected children at small and cheap schools, where the sum charged for the board of hungry and growing lads, with everything included, ranged from £16 to £20 a year. Dickens tells us, in the preface to this book, as it stands republished in the collective edition of his works, that it was the result of a personal visit of inspection paid by himself to some nameless "Dotheboys Hall" amid the wolds of Yorkshire; and the reader who has carefully studied it will with difficulty be persuaded that Mr. Squeers and Mr. John Browdie are not taken from living examples.

In 1840 he commenced in the pages of Bentley's Miscellany, of which he was the first editor, a tale which proved his command of sterner and more tragic incidents. Oliver Twist" lets the reader into the secrets of life as it was, and perhaps still is, to be found too often in workhouses and in the slums" of London. When finished it was republished as a novel in three volumes. The following year Dickens undertook the production of a collection of stories in weekly numbers. The series was entitled "Master Humphrey's Clock," and it contained, among other tales, those since republished under the names of the "Old Curiosity Shop"-famous for its touching delineation of Little Nell-and of "Barnaby Rudge," which carries the reader back to the days of the Gordon Riots.

The pen of Dickens was henceforth almost incessantly at work. About the time of the publication of "Master Humphrey's Clock" appeared his Memoirs of Joseph Grimaldi," the celebrated clown, almost his only pro

duction which deals with the plain prose of facts, and with every-day life divested of all imagination. The work, however, proved that his imaginative powers ranked far higher than his skill as a biographer. In fact, while "Pickwick" and "Nickleby" live," Grimaldi" is forgotten. After completing "Master Humphrey's Clock" Dickens visited America, where he was received with extraordinary honours. On his return, in 1842, he published the materials which he had collected in the United States, under the title "American Notes for General Circulation." Many of its statements, however, were controverted by American pens in a book entitled "Change for American Notes."

In 1844 he published " Martin Chuzzlewit" in numbers, like "Pickwick" and "Nicholas Nickleby," and in the summer of the same year visited Italy and Rome. An account of much that he saw and heard in this tour he gave to the world in the columns of the Daily News, of which he became the first editor, and afterwards published in a collected form as "Italian Notes" (1846). The first number of the Daily News appeared on 1st January, 1846; but after a few months Dickens withdrew from the editorship, and returned to his former line of humorous serial publications, varying, however, their monthly appearances with occasional stories of a more strictly imaginative cast, called "Christmas Books." Of these the first, "A Christmas Carol," was published in 1843; the second, the Chimes," appeared at Christmas, 1844; the third, the "Cricket on the Hearth," followed in 1845; the fourth, the "Battle of Life," in 1846; and the fifth, the "Haunted Man and the Ghost's Bargain," in 1848.

Besides these Dickens published "Dealings with the Firm of Dombey & Son" (1846-47); the "History of David Copperfield" (1850); "Bleak House" (1853); "Hard Times" (1854); "Little Dorrit" (1857); "A Tale of Two Cities" (1860); "Great Expectations" (1861); "Our Mutual Friend" (1865); the "Uncommercial Traveller" (a series of capital essays on topics of the day-collected in 1861); and last of all, the "Mystery of Edwin Drood," of which only three numbers appeared before his death. In 1850 Dickens began a cheap weekly periodical, which he called Household Words, and which was published by Messrs. Bradbury & Evans; but difficulties having arisen between author and publisher, it was discontinued in 1859, and its place was filled by its successor, All the Year Round, which Dickens continued to conduct till his death.

Dickens was one of the founders of the Guild of Literature, and was an ardent advocate of reforms in the administration of the Literary Fund. He was also an accomplished amateur actor, and often took part in private theatricals for charitable objects. In his later years he frequently appeared before the public as a "reader" of the most popular portions of his own works, of which he showed himself to be a most vivid and dramatic interpreter. He retired from this work only three months previous to his death, when his reputation stood at his highest. His renderings of his best creations, both humorous and pathetic, of his most stirring scenes and warmest pictures of life, will not readily be forgotten. Men and women, persons and places, readers knew all before in the brilliant pages of his novels; but the characters lived with a new life, and the scenes took the shape of reality in the readings of the master. America had an opportunity of appreciating his powers in this direction on the second visit he paid to that country in 1868. Dickens died, after a very short illness, at his residence, Gad's Hill Place, near Rochester, on the 9th of June, 1870.

While Pickwick" charms us with its broad humour, it is in "Nicholas Nickleby" and "Oliver Twist" that the power of Charles Dickens' pathos shows itself. In those two works he evinced a sympathy for the poor, the suffering, and the oppressed which took all hearts by storm.

This power of sympathy it was, no doubt, which has made his name a household word in English homes. How many a phase of cruelty and wrong his pen exposed, and how often he stirred others to try at least to lessen the amount of evil and of suffering which must be ever abroad in the world, will never be fully known. There was always a lesson beneath his mirth.

The Life of Dickens," by his friend John Forster, was published in four vols. in 1872-74, and the first volume passed through fourteen editions in about twelve months. DICKSO'NIA is a genus of ferns, the species of which are generally of noble proportions, some attaining the height of 20 feet and more, with bipinnate fronds from 5 to 15 feet long, forming a tuft at the top of the stem. The veins of the leaves are pinnate, the venules free, and the sori large and globose. The indusium is formed of two valves, of which the outer is hood-like and the inner smaller. Dicksonia antarctica is a very fine species growing in Australia; it is very hardy, and consequently is largely grown in this country. Other species are found in Australia, New Zealand, New Caledonia, Fiji, Java, Juan Fernandez, America, and St. Helena.

DIC'LINOUS is a term in botany applied to flowers which have only stamens or only pistils. Flowers of both kinds often occur on the same plant, which is in that case called monœcious. If the flowers are on different individuals, the plant is said to be diacious. Examples of the first kind are the oak, birch, and vegetable marrow; and of dioecious plants, the hop and willow.

DI COTYLE DONS, a class of plants deriving their name from the embryo having in general two seed-leaves or cotyledons. The stems of dicotyledons are in most cases branched. They have the pith, wood, and bark distinctly separated, and the wood traversed by medullary rays. This wood, if more than one year old, consists of concentric circles, each of which is formed on the outside of that which immediately preceded it. The leaves of dicotyledons are articulated with the stem, so that at a particular time they are thrown off, and leave a clean scar behind them, as in all the trees, whether deciduous or others, which are found in the open air in England. Their veins are repeatedly branched, so as to form a network within the parenchyma. The number of parts in the flower of dicotyledonous plants is four or five; that is, four or five sepals, four or five petals, and the same number of stamens, present in either a complete or imperfect state; or, if the number is greater, it is some power of four or five. When the seeds germinate, the embryo simply extends the points of its radicle in the form of a root, to seek for nourishment in the soil. For the classification of Dicotyledons, see under BOTANY.

DICRA'NUM is a very common genus of MOSSES. The fruit is terminal. The calyptra is split up one side; the lid of the capsule is deciduous and beaked; the peristome is single, and has sixteen equidistant teeth cleft half way into unequal portions; the capsule is mostly nodding, curved, regular; the leaves are of close texture, more or less secund. These mosses grow on rocks, on the ground, and sometimes on trees. Dicranum scoparium is a common moss on banks and rocks; it is one of the largest of our mosses, growing to a height of from 2 to 4 inches. Dicranum majus grows even as high as 6 inches.

DICTATOR was the highest extraordinary magistrate in the Roman republic. The name obviously means "commander." He was also called by the old name of magister populi, and in Greek by a term signifying "double consul." After the expulsion of the kings the consulship was established. The two consuls possessed the same power as the kings in the administration of the state and the command of the army; yet their authority was subject to some restrictions, and principally by the appeal that could be made from their decisions. The two consuls, possessing

equal authority, often differed in their views and opinions, a circumstance which often caused jealousy and disunion. In extraordinary emergencies the state therefore required a single magistrate. Such circumstances led to the estab lishment of the dictatorship. The first dictator was created about the year 253 A.U.c., or 501 B.C. (Liv. ii. 18.)

The dictator had the power of the two consuls, and was nominated by one of them in obedience to a decree of the senate. Without this the consul had no power to nominate a dictator. The authority of all other magistrates, except that of the tribunes, ceased when the dictator was appointed. He possessed the whole administrative power of the state, and the command of the army without any restrictions. He had the power of life and death, and there was no appeal from his decision. Both within and without the city he was attended by twenty-four lictors, with their fasces and axes. After his election the dictator nominated the master of horse (magister equitum), who commanded under him. Generally it was only when the state was menaced by sudden danger that a dictator was nominated. The dictator continued in office for six months, but be commonly resigned as soon as the danger was over which had led to the nomination. The rule that he should continue in office only six months was neglected by Sulla and Julius Cæsar, who were nominated perpetual dictators, the former in the year 81 B.C., and the other after his victory at Pharsalus. Augustus declined the office, though offered to him by the people (Suetonius, "Aug." 52), and the title of dictator was never assumed by the emperors of Rome.

According to Niebuhr, the dictatorship was of Latin origin, and was introduced from the Latins among the Romans. The object of the Roman dictatorship was to evade the Valerian laws and to establish the power of the patricians over the plebeians, for the appeal granted by those laws was from the sentence of the consuls and not from that of the dictator. As the plebeians increased in power the dictatorship was seldom required, and then only for matters of less importance.

DICTIONARY, the English form of dictionarium, a word of modern Latinity, which from its etymology should signify properly a book of phrases or modes of expression. The term, however, has been generally applied to any work which professes to communicate information on an entire subject, or entire branch of a subject, under words or heads digested in the order of the alphabet. This alphabetical arrangement appears to be the distinctive peculiarity of a dictionary, but to constitute the work a dietionary it would seem that there must also be attached to each of the terms or words so arranged some explanati 3 of their peculiar meaning. Thus, an index in which words or titles are merely put down in alphabetical order, with nothing more than a reference to some page or passage appended to each, is not a dictionary. Again, a dictionary, however arbitrary or artificial may be the order in whch its parts are distributed, must profess some unity and completeness of design. It must profess, as has been said, to go over a whole subject or field of knowledge of greater or less extent, but this field may vary from the simple lexicon, enumerating with brief explanations the words of a language, to a work akin to an encyclopædia. A mere list of miscellaneous particulars, even with explanatory ren arks or comments annexed, is not a dictionary, but a catalogue.

Within the limitations noted the term dictionary is applied to works on all kinds of subjects and with every diversity of object. The term encyclopædia is used to express a work which treats of all the various kinds of knowledge, and carrying the information given under its various heads to a far greater completeness and logical interconnection than is customary or desirable in a dietionary. A combination of the two is sometimes attempted under the title of encyclopædic dictionary," but nex sarily results in failure. Another variety of dictionary is