DA V

105

D AY

brick kilns. (-2 Sam. xii. 31.) Even the jus talionis could hardlyvindicate such wanton barbarity, had the Ammonites treated theIsraelites in the samemanner, which is no-where recorded. Somecommentators, however, vindicate David from this charge ofcruelty by saying, that the words he “ put them under saws,” Ac.only mean that he subjected them to hard labour with these instru-ments; but though the passage in 2 Sam. might perhaps bear sucha construction, we doubt the parallel passage in 1 Cbron. xx. 3.will not admit of it, for it is expressly said that he “ cut them withsaws,” &c. As an author ami poet the merits of David have longbeen universally acknowledged, both by Jews and Christians .1'hose who deny, that there has ever been such a thing as any in-spiration, or divine revelation, given by the Almighty to his crea-tures, in any age or country, would do well to study the Psalms ofDavid, and compare them with the writings of the most celebratedauthors iu the Pagan world, and see if there is any thing equal tothem in point of grand and sublime conceptions of the Deity , tohe found in the best of the heathen authors. Upon such acomparison, the ideas given bv Homer himself, of his deities, willbe found quite puerile-and contemptible. Let those, then, whodeny revelation,- account for this plKenomcnon, how a man bornin an early age and a barbarous country, where the arts hadmade little progress, and the sciences much less, and bred up in oneof the lowest stations of life, though afterwards raised to the highest,should have been capable, in the midst of much persecution, vi-cissitude of fortune, and cares of government, if not inspired, ofcomposing a set of poems, which, in sublimity of sentiment, andjust conceptions of the Deity , far excel the most admired pro-ductions of Greece and Roane, iu their highest periods of refine-ment ?

DAVIDICI, DAVIDISTS, or DAVID GEORGIANS, asect of heretics, the adherents of David George, a native of Delft ,who, in 1325, began to preach a new doctrine ; publishing himselfto be the true Messiah ; and that he was sent thither to till heaven,which was quite empty for want of people to deserve it. He islikewise said to have denied the existence of angels, good and evil,of heaven and hell, and to have rejected the doctrine of a futurejudgement. He rejected marriage with the Adamites ; held, withManes, that the soul was not defiled by sin ; and laughed at theself-denial so much recommended by Jesus Christ . Such werehis principal errors. lie made iiis escape from Delft , and retiredfirst into Friesland, and then to Basil , where he changed his name,assuming the name of John Bruek, and died in 1556. He leftsome disciples behind him, to whom he promised that lie wouldrise again at the end of three years. Nor was he altogether a falseprophet: for the magistrates of that city being informed, at threeyears end, of what he had taught, ordered him to lie dug cp andburnt, together with his wiitings, by the common hangman.

DAVID’S, St., a town of Asia , in the peninsula on this sidethe Ganges , and on the coast of Coromandel, which had formerlya fort, l'he town lies 80 miles S. of Tort St. George. Lon. 79.45. E. Lat. 11. 30. N.

David’s, St., an episcopal town of South Wales, in Pembroke-shire, 24 miles N. W. of Pembroke .

David’s Town, a town of New Jersey .

DAVIESIA, in botany, a genus of the class and order decan- jdria monogynia. Calyx angular, simple, live-cleft; corolla pa- jpilionaceous ; stigma simple, acute ; legume compressed, one- jseeded. One species, D. australasia, described by Dr. Smith inthe fourth volume of the Linnaian Transactions.

IJAVIS, John, a famous navigator in the lCth century, washorn at Sandridge, near Dartmouth in Devonshire ; and distin-guished himself by making three voyages to the most northernparts of America , in order to find out a N. \V. passage to the EastIndies ; in which he discovered the Straits which bear his name.He afterwards performed five voyages to the East Indies; in the■ast of which he was slain in a desperate fight with some Japanese ,near the coast of Malacca , on the 27th of December, 1605.Tje wrote an account of his second voyage lor the discoveryof the N. W. passage; a voyage to the East Indies; and othertracts.

Sir John, an eminent lawyer and poet, born about1570. He first distinguished himself by bis poem “ Nosce Teip-suin” on the Immortality of the Soul. " He became attorney-ge-neral, and speaker of the house of commons in Ireland ; and after-wards was appointed lord chief justice of the court of King’s

VOL. II.—\o. 62.

Bench in England, but died before his installation, in 1626. II epublished many law tracts; but was esteemed more as a scholarand a wit, than as a lawyer.

Davis’s Quadrant, the common sea quadrant or backstaff.See Quadrant.

Davis’s Strait, a narrow sea, lying between the N. main otAmerica, and the western coast of Greenland ; running N. \Y.from Cape Farewel.

DAVIT, in a ship, a long beam of timber, represented by a, a,(Plate LIV. fig. 2.) It is used as a crane whereby to, hoist thethikes of the anchor to the top of the bow, without injuring thesides of the ship as it ascends; an operation which, by mariners,is called fishing the anchor. The anchors being situated on boththe bows, the davit may be occasionally shifted, so as to projectover either side of the ship, according to the position of that an-chor on which it is employed. 'The inner end of the davit is se-cured by being thrust into a square ring of iron b, which is boltedto the deck, and forelocked under tlie beams. This ring, which iscalled the span-shackle, exhibited at large in fig. 3, is fixed exactly inthe middle of the deck, and close behind the foremast. Upon theouter end of the davit is hung a large block c, through which astrong rope traverses, railed the fish-pendent d ; t> the foremostend of which is fitted a large iron hook e, and to the after end atackle or complication oPpullies f\ the former of which is calledthe fish-hook and the latter the fish-tackle. The davit, therefore,according to the sea-phrase, is employed to fish the anchor ; whichbeing previously catted, the fish-hook is fastened upon its flukes;and the effort of the tackle being transmitted to the hook, bymeans of the fish-pendent, draws up that part of the anchor suffi-ciently high upon the bow to fasten it, which is done by theshank-painter. See that article. 'There is also a davit of a smallerkind occasionally fixed in the long-boat, and employed to weighthe anchor therein.

DAUMA, a kingdom of Africa, in Negroland, with a town ofthe same name. Lon. 34. 10. E. Lat. 8. 0. N.

DAVOS, a town of the Helvetic republic , and capital of ajurisdiction of the same name, in the country of the Grisons . Itis 60 miles S. E. of Zurich .

DAUPHIN, a title given during the monarchy of France , tothe presumptive heir of the crown ; on account of the province ofDauphine, which in 1349 was given to Philip VI . on this condi-tion, by Hubert II. dauphin of Viennois.

Dauphin was anciently the title of the princes of Viennois inFrance . Most authors who have sought the origin of the nameDauphin and Dauphinb, seem to have given too much loose toconjecture. Du Chesne is of opinion, that it was the grandson ofGuy the Fat who first bore the name of dauphin. Chorier ob-serves, that William, canon of Notre Dame at Grenoble , w ho haswritten the life of Margaret, daughter of Stephen earl of Bur-gundy, married with Guy, the son of Guy the Fat, calls thelatter simply Guy the Old, and the former always countDauphin ; and adds, that no record, no monument, ever attri-butes the title of dauphin to Guy the Fat or any of his predeces-sors: so that it must necessarily have taken its rise in his son, allwhose successors so constantly’ assumed it, that it became the pro-per name of the family. He died in 1142, in the flower of his| youth: so that it must have been about 1120 that the title com-menced ; and without doubt, adds lie, on some illustrious occasion,

Dauphin, an island about 10 miles long, in the mouth of Mo-bile bay, in the Gulf of Mexico .

Dauphin, Tort , a jurisdiction, fort, and sea-port town in theN. part of the island of St. Domingo.

DAUPHINY, or DAUPHINE', a late province of France ,which was bounded on the VV. by the Rhone , on the N. by theRhone and Savoy, on the S. by Provence , and on the E. by theAlps.

DAX, DACQS, or ACQS, a town of France , in the depart-ment of Landes. See Acqs.

DAXABON, DAJABON, DAI1ABON, or LAXABON,a settlement of the Spaniards on the line between the French andSpanish divisions of the island of St. Domingo. It was settledto prevent smuggling, when the Spaniards had their share of theisland.

Daxabo.v, a town in the above district, 040 miles N. W. of St.Domingo.

DAY, according to the most natural and obvious sense of the

2 E word,