Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 4.djvu/837

 DESPAIR

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DESPRETZ

He crossed the river and pushed on to the north- west until ho reached the province of Autiainque in the north-western corner of Arkansas, where he passed the winter of 1541-42 on the Cayas River, now the Wasliita. In the spring of 1542, retracing his steps, he reached the Mississippi iu May or June. Here, on 20 June, 1542 (according to some authorities on 21 May), he was stricken with a fever, and prepared for death. He made his will, named Luis de Moscoso de Alvarado as his successor in command of the expedi- tion, and took leave of all. On the fifth day de Soto succumbed without having reached New Spain by land. His companions buried the body in a large hole which the natives had dug near one of their vil- lages to get materials to biiild their houses. How- ever, as de Soto had given the Indians to imderstand that the Christians were immortal, they afterwards disinterred the body, fearing the hostile savages might possibly discover it, and, finding him dead, make an attack. They then hollowed out the trunk of a large tree and, placing the body in it, sank it in the Missis- sippi which they called the Grande. The shattered remnant of the expedition under Moscoso then at- tempted to work their way eastward, but, driven back by the Indians, they floated down the Mississippi and, after many hardships, finally reached Panuco in Mexico. This expedition of de Soto, though it ended so disastrously, was one of the most elaborate and persistent efforts made by the Spaniards to explore the interior of North America. It was the first extensive exploration of at least sLx of the Southern states: South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Missis- sippi, and Arkansas, and their written history often begins with narratives whieh tell the story of de Soto's expedition. From these same narratives we also get our first description of the Chcrokecs, Seminoles, Creeks, Appalachians, Choctaws, and other famous tribes of southern Indians. The story of this expedi- tion also records the discoverj' of the Mississippi and the first voyage of Europeans upon it. It must be noted that Alonso de Pineda discovered the mouth of the Mississippi in 1519, and that Cabeza de Vaca crossed.it near its mouth in 1528.

Smith tr.. Narrative of the Career of Hernando de Soto in the Discovery of Florida, by a Kninht of Elvas (New York, 1866); Shipp. History of Hernando de tioto (Philadelphia. 1881); B.\n- CROFT. History of the United Slates (New York, 1883-85); LoWERT, The Spanish Settlements \cithin the Present Limits of the United Slates (1901) ; Orah\m. Hernando de Solo (1903); Bourne, Narratives of de Soto (New York. 1904).

Ventura Fuentes.

Despair (Latin desperare, to be hopeless) ethically regarded is the vohmtary and complete abandonment of all hope of saving one's soul and of having the means required for that end. It is not a passive state of mind: on the contrary it involves a positive act of the will by which a person deliberately gives over any expectation of ever reaching eternal life. There is presupposed an intervention of the intellect in virtue of which one comes to decide definitely that salvation is impossible. This Last is motived by the persuasion either that the individual's sins are too great to be for- given or that it is too hard for human nature to co- operate with the grace of God or that Almighty God is unwilling to aid the weakness or pardon the offences of his creatures, etc. It is obvious that a mere anxi- ety, no matter how acute, as to the hereafter is not to be identified with despair. This excessive fear is usually a negative condition of soul and adequately discernible from the positi\-e elements which clearly mark the vice which we call ilespair. The pusillanimous person has not so much relinquished trust in God as he is un- duly terrified at the spectacle of his own shortcomings or incapacity. The sin of despair may sometimes, although not necessarily, contain the added malice of heresy in so far as it implies an a-ssent to a proposition which is against faith, e. g. that God has no mind to supply us with what is needful for salvation. De-

spair as such and as distinguished from a cert^-in diffi- dence, sinking of the heart, or overweening dread is always a mortal sin. The reason is that it contra- venes with a special directness certain attributes of Almighty God, such as His goodness, mercy, and faith- keeping. To be sure it Ls not the worst sin conceiv- able: that evil primacy is held by the direct and ex- plicit hatred of God; neither is it as great as sins against faith like formal heresj' or apostasy. Still its power for working harm in the lunnan soul is funda- mentally far greater than other sins inasmuch as it cuts off the way of escape anil those who fall under its spell are frequently, as a matter of fact, found to sur- render themselves unreservedly to all sorts of sinful indulgence.

NoLDl.v, Summa Theologite MoraJis (Innsbruck, 1904); RiCK.tBy, Aquinas Elhicus (London. 1896); Genicot, Theo- loffiw Moralis Institution's (Louvain, 1898).

Joseph F. Delant.

Despretz, Cesar-Mansukte, chemist and physi- cist, b. at Lessines, Belgium, 11 May, 1798; d. at Paris, 11 May, 186.3. He was appointed early in life master of studies in the lyceum of Bruges, and later went to Paris to complete his studies. Here he attracted the attention of Gay-Lussac, who had him appointed tutor of the chemical course which the former was then gi^^ng at the Ecole Polj-technique. In 1824 Despretz was made adjimct and then titular professor of physics at the College Henri IV, and in 18.37 received the chair of physics at the Sorbonne. He was naturalized as a Frenchman in 1838, and in 1841 was elected to the Academy of Sciences in the division of general physics, being the successor of Savart. The researches of Despretz did much to establish the foundation of modern physics, notably in the domain of heat. In 1818 he investigated latent heat and the elasticity of vapours. In 1 82 1, following the same line, he studied the heat^conductivity of solids, vapour density, and the latent heat of steam at different pressures; his memoir of 1822 on the causes of animal heat was crowned by the Academy. In 1823 the results of his investigation of the com- pressibility of liquids were published, and in 1827 his researches on the density of gases at different pres- sures; the latter investigation proved that Mariotte's law was not exactly followed by gases. The titles of some of his leading memoirs and their dates of publi- cation are as follows: "The Heat of Combustion" (1828); "Investigation of the Mercurial Thennom- eter" (1837); "The Laws of Conductivity of Heat in Liquids" (1838); "The Limit of Appreciable Sound" (1845).

After this he turned his attention to the voltaic cell and voltaic arc. By uniting the heat from a very large burning glass with the heat of the voltaic arc and with the oxy-hydrogen flame, he experimented on the diffusion and volatilization of refractory solids, performing some experiments of remarkable interest in those days when electricity was not so highly developed as at the present time. I'nder the dis- charge of the Ruhmkorff coil he iipproxiniated the formation of diamonds. Among his books may be cited " Recherches exp^rimentales svir les causes de la chaleur animale" (Paris, 1824); "Traitd ^Mmen- taire de physique" (Paris, 1825, and many later editions) ; " Elements de chimie th^oriquc et pratique" (Paris, 1828-30); in addition to these some fifty memoirs were published by him between 1817 and 1863, the list of which is given in the "Catalogue of Scientific Papers of the Royal Society" (London, 1868"!, VII. Despretz was a true Catholic; he con- stantly resisted assaults upon the Church and the clerical body, was always ready to lead in their defence, and died a devout member of the Church.

Dictionnaire Larousse, s. v. ; Moigno in Lea Mondea (Parie, 18(»), I.

T. O'CoNOR Sloane.