Page:Imperialdictiona02eadi Brandeis.pdf/105

DEV a sensation ordinarily so called, caused by the action of external objects upon the extremities of the nerves. In the second place, there is the impression left by a sensation already experienced, and this explains memory. Thirdly, there is the perception of a relationship between different sensations, and this is the origin of judgment. Lastly, there is the sensation of desire, and hence results volition. To will, is to experience a desire. These four elementary phenomena of sensation, memory, judgment, and desire—all ultimately derived from sensation itself, according to Destutt—explain the mysteries of intellectual and moral life. The resolution of will into desire is strangely at variance with the fact that man possesses a power to control his wishes, and involves the denial of any absolute morality. From this conclusion Destutt did not shrink. Destutt de Tracy died in 1836, and the narrow bigotry that judges a character by an abstract theory may learn a lesson from his tomb. The man who denied the existence of abstract justice, and reduced the rule of conscience into little more than the activity of a sensation, was justly mourned as the faithful advocate of the rights of citizens in trying times of revolution, and an honourable example of public virtue. His eulogy was pronounced by Guizot.—L. L. P.  DEVEREUX. See.  DEVONSHIRE, Dukes of. See.  D'EWES,, an industrious antiquary and collector, was born on the 18th of December, 1602, at Coxden in Dorsetshire, the son of a wealthy lawyer, one of the six clerks of chancery. Educated privately and at Bury, he was sent to King's college, Cambridge, in 1618, where he studied hard, and joined the school of what may be called moderate puritanism, in politics, religion, and social life. Removed to the middle temple, he was called in 1623 to the bar; but his position did not force him to the practice of his profession, and he had ample means for the prosecution of his favourite studies, antiquarian and historical. At eighteen he had formed a design for the composition of a history of Britain from ancient records and MSS.; and most of his extensive collections had more or less bearing on this scheme of his life. While a law student, he spent much of his time poring over the records in the Tower; and after he was called to the bar, he would often, as he has himself recorded, steal away from the courts at Westminster to the near residence of the great antiquary, Sir Robert Cotton, where he was introduced to Selden, and enjoyed access to collections of old MSS. unparalleled in their day, freely communicated and commented on by their learned possessor. Married to a wealthy heiress and knighted in 1626, Sir Symonds completed in 1629, from the original documents, his laborious compilation "The Journal of Queen Elizabeth's Parliaments," first printed in 1682 (more than thirty years after his death) by his nephew, Paul Bowes. Appointed in 1639 high sheriff of Suffolk, he was returned as member for Sudbury to the famous parliament which began its sittings on the 3d of November, 1640. Although made a baronet by Charles I. in 1641, yet the following year he sided with the parliament against the king, and was one of the adherents to the solemn league and covenant on the 3d of February, 1643. His moderate presbyterianism, however, revolted against extreme courses, and he had to submit to "Pride's Purge" on the 6th of December, 1648. During his membership he spoke occasionally, generally on points of order, matters which his studies had fitted him to elucidate. But the chief result of his parliamentary life was his "Diary of the Long Parliament," which, though it still remains in MS., has been pronounced, by competent judges, one of our most important historical documents, with its Boswellian jottings of the sayings and doings of that most celebrated assembly, down to the epoch of his ejection from it. After this event he retired into private life, and occupied himself with collecting MSS., coins, and so forth; dying on the 18th of April, 1650. His MSS. were subsequently purchased by Robert Harley, earl of Oxford, and form part of the Harleian collection now in the British Museum. His "Autobiography," which comes down no farther than 1636, was published by Mr. J. O. Halliwell in 1845, and gives the notion of a well-meaning and laborious, but rather pragmatical, pedantic, and weak-minded person. Some account of his manuscript notes of the Long Parliament, and samples of the valuable contributions furnished by them to the political history and biography of the time, will be found in the paper on "The Grand Remonstrance," which opens vol. i. of the Historical and Biographical Essays (London, 1858) of Mr. John Forster, the biographer of Goldsmith.—F. E.  * DEWEY,, a celebrated American preacher and man of letters, born in Sheffield, Massachusetts, March 28, 1794, graduated with the highest honours at Williams college in 1814. He completed his studies for the ministry at the Andover theological seminary in 1819; was ordained, and preached for a time in the orthodox or Calvinistic denomination; but afterwards adopted the unitarian faith. Since the death of Dr. Channing he has been generally regarded as the most thoughtful and brilliant pulpit orator of his persuasion. He was the colleague of that celebrated man in Boston for two years, and occupied the pulpit alone during most of that time—Dr. Channing being then absent in Europe. Then he took charge of a unitarian parish in New Bedford, Massachusetts, which the failure of his health compelled him to leave at the end often years. He sought rest and relief by a year's visit to Europe. On his return, after publishing in 1834 some results of his observation in a volume entitled "The Old World and the New," he was settled over the church of the Messiah in the city of New York, where he continued, though with another interval of two years spent in foreign travel, till 1848. Ill health then again compelled him to quit stated work; and he has since officiated in the pulpit only at intervals. Several volumes of his pulpit discourses have been published—all of which were united and issued at London in 1844, 1 vol. octavo. Few preachers have the power of engaging more fully the attention of their hearers, or repaying it by more profitable instruction.—F. B.  DEWEZ,, one of the best-known of modern Belgian historians, was born January 4th, 1760, at Namur, and going through the ordinary course of professional education, became teacher about 1781, at the college of Nivelles. He resigned this post at the beginning of the French revolution; and when the troops of the republic had invaded Belgium, he was named commissioner of the directoire at the criminal court of Nivelles, and soon after, transferred in like capacity to the newly-created department of Sambre et Meuse. Finally, he was elevated to the post of sub-prefect of St. Hubert, which he held till 1814. When Belgium was united to the Netherlands, he likewise remained in favour with the new government, which made him inspector of schools and colleges, a charge which he held up to his death. In 1816 Dewez was elected member of the Academy of Brussels, and in 1825 became its perpetual secretary. He died October 28th, 1834. His principal works are—"Histoire Générale de la Belgique," 7 vols., 1705-7; second edit., 1826-28; "Géographie Ancienne du Department du Sambre et Meuse," Namur, 1812; "Histoire particulière des Provinces Belgiques," 3 vols., Brussels, 1816; "Rhetorique extraite de Cicéron," ib., 1818; "Géographie du Royaume des Pays-Bas," ib., 1819; "Histoire du Pays de Liège," ib., 1822; "Abrégé de l'histoire Belgique," 2 vols., ib., 1834. Besides these works, he was the author of numerous memoirs, published by the Academy of Brussels. Considered as a writer, Dewez has no particular merits of his own, his style being heavy and unpicturesque, and his arguments tame. But he is regarded on the whole as a truthful and conscientious historian.—F. M.  DE WITT, and, two men who were not only the noblest of Dutch statesmen, but who take high rank among the great patriots who have adorned human history, were sons of Jacob De Witt, citizen of Dort, and deputy to the states of Holland. Their father attained sufficient eminence to be one of the deputies committed by the stadtholder, William II., to the castle of Löwenstein, and the two brothers were thus by education, as well as natural character, devoted to a free commonwealth, and therefore hostile to the claims of the house of Orange. United in their lives, their histories cannot be divided. John stood forth before the world a born ruler of men, while Cornelius quietly strengthened the pillars of his power in their deep social foundations. Cornelius was as great in the moral attributes of a servant as John De Witt was in those of a master, so that brother was sustained by brother, and the two diverse natures made well-nigh one perfect whole. The history of the younger brother will indicate that of the elder, who ostensibly only held subordinate offices, although really a chief support of his brother's influence in every direction. John De Witt was born at Dodrecht, 25th September, 1625, and was two years younger than Cornelius. He was educated at Leyden, and studied with indefatigable industry, while at the same time cultivating the graceful accomplishments of a gentleman. After receiving a degree he travelled for some time, and when the death 