males of his family. Their own religion allows them to take their sisters in marriage; but they are restrained from indulging in this connexion, on account of its repugnance to the Mahommedan laws. A Druse seldom has more than one wife, but he divorces her under the slightest pretext; and it is a custom among them, that if a wife asks her husband's permission to go out, and he says to her 'Go;' without adding and come back,' she is thereby divorced; nor can her husband recover her, even though it should be their mutual wish, till she is married again according to the Turkish forms, and divorced from her second husband. It is known that the Druses, like all Levantines, are very jealous of their wives; adultery, however, is rarely punished with death if a wife is detected in it, she is divorced; but the husband is afraid to kill her seducer, because his death would be revenged, for the Druses are inexorable with respect to the law of retaliation of blood; they know too that if the affair were to become public, the governor would ruin both parties by his extortions. Unnatural propensities are very common amongst them.

"The Akal are those who are supposed to know the doctrines of the Druse religion; they superintend divine worship in the chapels, or, as they are called, Khaloue, and they instruct the children in a kind of catechism. They are obliged to abstain from swearing, and all abusive language, and dare not wear any article of gold or silk in their dress. Many of them make it a rule never to eat of any food, nor to receive any money, which they suspect to have been improperly acquired. For this reason, whenever they have to receive considerable sums of money, they take care that it shall be first exchanged for other coin. The sheik El Nedjem, who generally accompanies the sheik Beshir, in his visits to the emir, never tastes food in the palace of the latter, nor even smokes a pipe there, always asserting that whatever the emir possesses has been unlawfully obtained. There are different degrees of Akal, and women are also admitted into the order, a privilege which many avail themselves of, from parsimony, as they are thus exempted from wearing the expensive head-dress and rich silks fashionable among them.

'A father cannot entirely disinherit his son; in that case his will would be set aside; but he may leave him a single mulberry-tree for his portion. There is a Druse Kadhi at Daer-el Kamar, who judges according to the Turkish laws, and the customs of the Druses; his office is hereditary in a Druse family; but he is held in little repute, as all causes of importance are carried before the emir or the sheik Beshir.

'The Druses do not circumcise their children; circumcision is practised only in the mountain by those members of the Shehab family who continue to be Mahommedans.

"The best feature in the Druse character is that peculiar law of hospitality, which forbids them ever to betray a guest. I made particular enquiries on this subject, and I am satisfied that no consideration of interest or dread of power will induce a Druse to give up a person who has once placed himself under his protection. Per

sons from all parts of Syria are in the constant practice of taking refuge in the mountain, where they are in perfect security from the moment they enter upon the emir's territory: should the prince ever be tempted by large offers to consent to give up a refugee, the whole country would rise to prevent such a stain upon their national reputation. The mighty Djezzar, who had invested his own creatures with the government of the mountain, never could force them to give up a single individual of all those who fled thither from his tyrauny. Whenever he became very urgent in his demands, the emir informed the fugitive of his danger, and advised him to conceal himself for a time in some more distant part of his territory; an answer was then returned to Djezzar, that the object of his resentment had fled. The asylum which is thus afforded by the mountain is one of the greatest advantages that the inhabitants of Syria enjoy over those of the other parts of the Turkish dominions.

'The Druses are extremely fond of raw meat; whenever a sheep is killed, the raw liver, heart, &c., are considered dainties; the Christians follow their example, but with the addition of a glass of brandy to every slice of meat. In many parts of Syria I have seen the common people eat raw meat in their favorite dish the Kobbes; the women especially indulge in this luxury.

'Mr. Barker told me that during his two years' residence at Harissa and in the mountain, he never heard any kind of music. The Christians are too devout to occupy themselves with such worldly pleasures, and the Druses have no sort of musical instruments.

"The Druses have a few historical books which mention their nation; Ibn Shebat, for instance, as I was told, gives in his history of the Califes, that of the Druses also, and of the family of Shehab. Emir Haidar a relation of the emir Beshir, has lately begun to compile a history of the Shehabs, which already forms a thick quarto volume.

'I believe that the greatest amount of the military forces of the Druses is between 10,000 and 15,000 firelocks; the Christians of the mountain may, perhaps, be double that number; but I conceive that the most potent pacha or emir would never be able to collect more than 20,000 men from the mountain.' Travels, p. 200—204.

DRUSIUS (John), a protestant writer of great learning, born at Oudenarde in Flanders, in 1555. He was designed for the study of divinity, but his father being outlawed, and deprived of his estate, they both retired to England, where the son became professor of the oriental languages at Oxford: upon the pacification of Ghent, they returned to their own country, where also Drusius was appointed professor of oriental languages. From thence he removed to Friesland, where he was admitted Hebrew professor in the university of Franeker; the functions of which he discharged with great honor till his death in 1616. His works show him to have been well skilled in Hebrew; and the States General employed him in 1600 to write notes on the most difficult passages in the Old Testament, with a pension of 400 florins a-year: but, being frequently disturbed in this undertaking, it was

not published till after his death. He held a large correspondence with the learned; among his papers there were found 2300 Latin letters. DRUSIUS (John), the son of the preceding, was born at Franeker in 1588; and began to learn Latin and Hebrew at five years old; at nine he could read that language without points, and add them where wanted. He spoke Latin as readily as his native tongue, and could make himself understood in English. At twelve he wrote in Hebrew extempore; at seventeen he made a speech in Latin to king James I. in the aidst of his court, and was admired by all resent. He died of the stone, in 1609, aged wenty-one, at the house of Dr. W. Thomas, lean of Chichester, who gave him a considerable alary. He left several works; as, Letters and Verses in Hebrew; Notes on Solomon's Proverbs; &c. And digested into alphabetical order Elias Levita's Nomenclator; to which he added the Greek words.

DRY, adj. v. a. & v. n. \
DRY'ER, n. s.
DRY EYED, adj.

DRY'LY, adv.

DRY'N ESS, n. S.

DRY NURSE, O. a. & n. s. DRY'SHOD, adj.

Goth thur; Sax. drig; Teut. treig; Belg. droog, from Gr. Touyn, dryness. Arid; free from moisture: hence barren, and, figu

ratively, jejune, deficient; hard; severe; sneering. The verbs seem to have been formed from the adjective.

And he seide to it, nevere fruyt come forth of thee into withouten ende; and anoon the fige-tree was dried up and disciplis sighen wondriden and seiden, hout anoon it driede. Wiclif. Matt. xxi.

:

Id.

It remaineth to treat concerning ornaments within or without the fabrick; a piece not so dry as the meer contemplation of proportions: and therefore I hope therein somewhat to refresh both the reader and myself. Wotton's Architecture.

When they have flesh, yet they must stay a time ere they can have a full meal; unless they would eat their meat breadless, and their bread dry. Bp. Hall. Contemplations.

I find that an evil fountain is not soon drawn dry. Bp. Taylor.

It may be, that by this dryness of spirit, God intends to make us the more fervent and resigned in our direct and solemn devotions, by the perceiving of our weakness.

Id.

As Romulus a wolf did rear, So he was drynursed by a bear. The Africans are conceived to be peculiarly scorched and torrified by the sun, by dryness of the soil, from want and defect of water.

Browne's Vulgar Errours. The ill effects of drinking are relieved by this plant, which is a great dryer and opener, especially by perspiration.

Temple. L'Estrange.

It is a dry fable, with little or nothing in it.

"Twas grief no more, or grief and rage were one Within her soul: at last 'twas rage alone; Which, burning upwards in succession, dries The tears that stood considering in her eyes.

Dryden.

Has honour's fountain then sucked back the stream? He has and hooting boys may dryshod pass, And gather pebbles from the naked ford.

Wouldst thou to honour and preferments climb, Be bold in mischief, dare some mighty crime, Which dungeons, death, or banishment deserves; For virtue is but dryly praised, and starves.

Id.

Id. Juvenal. He had embarked us in such disadvantage, as we could not return dryshod. Sidney. A palsy may as well shake an oak, or a fever dry up a fountain, as either of them shake, dry up, or South. impair the delight of conscience.

The marrow supplies an oil for the inunction of the bones and ligaments in the articulations, and particularly of the ligaments, preserving them from dryness and rigidity, and keeps them supple and flexible. Ray on the Creation.

To clear up this theory, I was willing to lay aside dry subtilties with which the schools are filled.

Burnet's Theory.

Is the sea ever likely to be evaporated by the sun, or to be emptied with buckets? Why then must we

ask it.

Garth.

As to the business of being profound, it is with writers as with wells; a person with good eyes may see to the bottom of the deepest, provided any water be there: and that often, when there is nothing in the world at the bottom besides dryness and dirt, though it be but a yard and a half under ground, it shall pass, however, for wondrous deep, upon no

wiser a reason than because it is wondrous dark.

Swift. These epistles will become less dry, and more susPope. ceptible of ornament.

Some dryly plain, without invention's aid, Write dull receipts how poems may be made. Id. Rash Elpenor, in an evil hour,

Dried an immeasurable bowl, and thought
T'exhale his surfeit by irriguous sleep,
Imprudent: him death's iron sleep opprest.

Philips.

Thomson.

Of turbid elements the sport; From clear to cloudy tost, from hot to cold, And dry to moist. You cannot pump the ocean dry; and as long as it continues in its present bed, so long all the causes which weaken authority by distance will continue.

Burke on the American War.

He purposes to take up and reform, whenever his appetites are fully gratified; like the rustic, whose plan was, to wait till the water of the river should run by, and then pass over dry-shod. Beattie.

A beard like an artichoke, with dry shrivelled jaws, that would disgrace the mummy of a monkey!

Sheridan.

DRYADES, or DRYADS, in the heathen my thology, a sort of deities, who, the ancients believed, inhabited groves and woods. They differed from the Ilamadryades; these latter being attached to some particular tree, with which they were born, and with which they died; whereas the Dryads were goddesses of trees and woods in general. See HAMADRYADES. DRYANDER (John), A. M. university of Lund, a Swedish naturalist, the pupil and friend of Linnæus, was born in 1748, near Gottenburgh, where his father was a clergyman. In consequence of the decease of his father, the care of his education devolved on a maternal uncle, Dr. Lars Montin, a member of the Stockholm Academy. This gentleman was also the intimate friend of Linnæus, and published under his presidency, an Inaugural Dissertation on the Genus Splachnum, reprinted in the Amoenitates Academicæ, vol. ii. 263. Young Dryander received his early education in the university of Gottenburgh; but removed to Lund, where he took his degree of Master of Arts, or Doctor of Philosophy, in 1776; he published on this occasion a dissertation, Fungos Regno Vegetabili Vindicans, asserting the vegetable nature of these

bodies. He was afterwards a student for a short time at Upsal, and tutor to a young Swedish nobleman. He first visited England with his countryman Dr. Solander, who introduced him to the acquaintance of Sir Joseph Banks; and on whose sudden death, in 1782, he succeeded to the place of librarian to Sir Joseph. Mr. Dryander was also librarian to the Royal and the Linnæan Societies. Of the latter institution he was indeed one of the first founders, and drew up its laws and regulations, when in 1802 the society was incorporated by royal charter. He continued an able and active vice-president of the society until his death, which took place towards the end of October, 1810, in the sixtythird year of his age. The publications of Mr. Dryander on the subject of botany are very valuable, and consist of, 1. An Account of the Genus Albuca, in the Stockholm Transactions for 1784, in Swedish. 2. Observations on the Genus Begonia, in the Transactions of the Linnæan Society, vol. i. 3. On Genera and Species of Plants which occur twice or three times in Professor Gmelin's edition of Linnæus' Systema Naturæ; Trans. of Linn. Soc. v. ii. 4. Lindsea, a New Genus of Ferns; Trans. of Linn. Soc. v. iii. 5. A Botanical Description of the Benjamin Tree of Sumatra, Phil. Trans. V. lxxvii. Ile also superintended and assisted in the publication of Mr. Aiton's Hortus Kewensis, and Dr. Roxburgh's Plants of the Coast of Coromandel. But his Catalogus Bibliothecæ Historico-Naturalis Josephi Banks, 5 vols. 8vo. is his most celebrated work, and a model for all future bibliographers.

DRYANDRA, in botany, a genus of plants of the class diœcia, order monadelphia: CAL two-leaved; petals five; stamens nine: FRUIT three or four grained: SEEDS solitary. Species one only; a dwarf tree of Japan.

DRYAS, in botany, a genus of the polygynia order, and icosandria class of plants; natural order thirty-fifth, senticosa: CAL. octofid; petals eight: SEEDS long and hairy with a train. Species, one only; a native of Denmark, and sometimes found on our own mountains.

DRYRURGH ABBEY. This place was dedicated to religious institutions so anciently as the year 522, when Modan, a presbyter and missionary was there seated; as appears by records cited in Chalmers de Statu Hominis, veteris simul ac novæ Ecclesiæ, b. i. p. 142; and King, in his Kalendar. Breviar. Aberdeen. There is no doubt that the Roman station of Trimontium was at the foot of the Eilden hills, in this district, about three miles distant from Dryburgh; as appears from the Antonine Itinerary, and from General Roy's Survey and Map of Roman Scotland. Many coins of Vespasian, Domitian, and Trajan, are found in this neighbourhood; and a considerable part of the Roman road is still in good preservation, passing through the parishes of Ancrum, Lillies-leaf, and Maxton. In the abbey of Dryburgh, Chaucer, the English poet, passed some time with his friend Ralph Strode, a Welshman, a monk and student here, to whom Chaucer dedicates or addresses some of his verses. At the Reformation, the abbey lands were erected into a temporal lordship

by James VI. in favor of John earl of Marr, K. G. and lord high treasurer of Scotland; who gave it to Henry his third son, from whom the title descended to the present earl of Buchan, who bought the abbey lately from the heirs of colonel Tod, and has made it his principal residence. It was here that James Thomson composed his beautiful poem of Winter, the first of his classical Seasons; having occasionally resided with the Haliburtons of Newmains, who were then proprietors of the place. Thomas Hannah, an astronomer of considerable merit, was born here, in a house built in the area of the abbey, in 1662; on whom Allan Ramsay the poet composed an epitaph for his tomb in Kelso church-yard, which is still extant.

DRYDEN (John), one of the most eminent English poets of the seventeenth century, descended of a respectable family in Huntingdonshire, was born at Aldwinkle 1631, and educated at Westminster school under Dr. Busby. Thence he was removed to Cambridge in 1650, being elected scholar of Trinity College, of which he appears, by his Epithalamia Cantabrigiens. 4to, 1662, to have been afterwards a fellow. On the death of Oliver Cromwell he wrote some heroic stanzas to his memory; but on the Restoration, being desirous of ingratiating himself with the new court, he wrote first a poem entitled Astræa Redux, and afterwards a panegyric on the king. On the 1st January, 1662, he addressed a poem to Chancellor Hyde; and published in the same year a satire on the Dutch. In 1668 appeared his Annus Mirabilis, an historical poem in celebration of the duke of York's victory over the Dutch. These pieces at length obtained him the favor of the crown; and Sir William Davenant dying at this period, Dryden was appointed to succeed him as poet laureat. In 1669 he produced the Wild Gallants, his first comedy. This met with very indifferent success; yet the author, not discouraged by its failure, soon after pub. lished his Indian Emperor. Other pieces now followed with such rapidity, that in the key to the duke of Buckingham's Rehearsal he is recorded to have engaged himself by contract, to write four plays per year; and in the years 1679 and 1680, he appears to have fulfilled it. To this may be attributed those irregularities, bombastic flights, and even puerile exuberances, for which he has been so severely criticised. In 1675 the earl of Rochester, who was chagrined at the applause with which Dryden's dramatic pieces had been received, was determined if possible to shake his interest at court; and succeeded so far as to recommend a Mr. Crowne, at that time of obscure reputation, to write a mask; an honor which certainly belonged to Dryden's office. The duke of Buckingham also most severely ridiculed several of our author's plays at this time, in his admired Rehearsal. Dryden, however, did not suffer these attacks to pass with impunity; for in 1679 there came out an Essay on Satire, said to be written jointly by that gentleman and the earl of Mulgrave, containing some very severe reflections on earl Rochester and the duchess of Portsmouth; and in 1681 he published his Absalom and Ahitonhel, in which the well-known character of

Zimri, drawn for the duke of Buckingham, is certainly severe enough to repay all the ridicule of that nobleman. The resentment shown by the two peers was very different. Lord Rochester, who was a coward, as well as a man of the most depraved morals, basely hired three ruffians to cudgel Dryden in a coffee-house; but the duke of Buckingham took the task upon himself; and at the same time presented him with a purse containing a large sum of money; telling him that he gave him the beating as a punishment for his impudence, but bestowed that gold on him as a reward for his wit. In 1682 Dryden published his Religio Laici, designed as a defence of revealed religion against Deists, Papists, &c. Soon after the accession of James II. he went over to the church of Rome, and wrote two pieces in vindication of the Romish tenets: viz. A defence of the Papers written by the late king, found in his strong box; and the celebrated poem, afterwards answered by lord Halifax, entitled, The Hind and the Panther. By this extraordinary step he not only engaged himself in controversy, and incurred much censure and ridicule from his contemporary wits: but on the completion of the Revolution, being, on account of his newly-chosen religion, disqualified from bearing any office under the government, he was stripped of the laurel, which, to his still greater mortification, was bestowed on Richard Flecknoe, a man to whom he had a most settled aversion. This circumstance occasioned his writing the very severe poem called Mac-Flecknoe. Mr. Dryden's circumstances had never been affluent; but now, being deprived of this little support, he found himself reduced to the necessity of writing for bread. From this period, therefore, he was engaged in works of labor as well as genius, translating the works of others, &c.; and to this necessity we stand indebted for some of our best translations. In the year he lost the laurel, he published the life of St. Francis Xavier from the French. In 1693 came out his Juvenal and Persius. In 1695 his prose version of Fresnoy's Art of Painting; and in the year 1697 a translation of Virgil's entire work, which still stands foremost among the translations of that author. The minor pieces of this eminent writer, viz. his prologues, epilogues, epitaphs, elegies, songs, &c. are too numerous to specify here, but may all be found in the elegant editions of this poet by Sir Walter Scott, Malone, and Dr. Warton. His last work is his Fables, which consist of many of the most interesting stories in Homer, Ovid, Boccace, and Chaucer, translated or modernised in the most elegant manner; together with some original pieces, among which is the celebrated ode on St. Cecilia's day. Dryden married the lady Elizabeth Howard, sister to the earl of Berkshire, who survived him eight years. By this lady he had three sons, Charles, John, and Henry. Of the eldest there is a circumstance related by Charles Wilson, esq. in his Life of Congreve, which seems so well attested, and is itself of so very extraordinary a nature that we cannot avoid giving it a place here. Dryden, with all his understanding, was weak enough to be fond of judicial astrology, and used to calculate the nativity of his children. On

casting that of Charles he found, according to the rules by which he calculated, that his eighth, twenty-third, and thirty-third years were of peculiar omen. In his eighth year, notwithstanding his father's precautions, he went out on his birth-day to see a stag hunted, and the animal flung down on him a wall ten feet in length which was nearly fatal to him. In his twentythird year he fell from the top of a tower in the Vatican, and never fully recovered his health; and in his thirty-third year he was drowned in swimming across the Thames near Windsor.

Dryden died May 1701, and was buried in Westminster Abbey. The day after his death, the dean of Westminster sent a message to his widow, that he would make a present to her of the ground and all other abbey-fees for the funeral; lord Halifax likewise sent to lady Elizabeth, and to Mr. Charles Dryden, offering to defray the expenses of our poet's funeral, and afterwards to bestow £500 on a monument in the abbey. Accordingly, on Sunday following, the company being assembled, the corpse was put into a hearse and attended by eighteen mourning coaches. When they were just ready to move, lord Jefferys, son of lord chancellor Jefferys, a name dedicated to infamy, riding by with some of his companions, asked whose funeral it was; and being told it was Mr. Dryden's, he protested he should not be buried in that private manner; that he would himself, with lady Elizabeth's leave, have the honor of the interment, and bestow £1000 on a monument in the abbey for him. This put a stop to the procession; and lord Jefferys, with several of the gentlemen who had alighted from their coaches, went up stairs to the lady, who was sick in bed. His lordship repeated the purport of what he had said below; but lady Elizabeth refusing her consent, he fell on his knees, vowing never to rise till his request was granted. The lady under a sudden surprise fainted away; and lord Jefferys, pretending to have obtained her consent, ordered the body to be carried to Mr. Russel's an undertaker in Cheapside, and to be left there till further orders. In the mean time the abbey was lighted up, the ground opened, the choir attending, and the bishop of Rochester waiting some hours to no purpose for the corpse. The next day Mr. Charles Dryden waited on lord Halifax and the bishop, and endeavoured to excuse his mother by relating the truth. Three days after, the undertaker having received no orders, waited on lord Jefferys; who pretended that it was a drunken frolic, that he remembered nothing of the matter, and he might do what he pleased with the body. Upon this the undertaker waited upon lady Elizabeth, who desired a day's respite, which was granted. Mr. Charles Dryden immediately wrote to lord Jefferys, who returned for answer, that he knew nothing of the matter, and would be troubled no more about it. Mr. Dryden hereupon applied again to lord Halifax and the bishop of Rochester, who absolutely refused to do any thing in the affair. In this distress, Dr. Garth, who had been Mr. Dryden's intimate friend, sent for the corpse to the college of physicians, and proposed a subscription; which succeeding, about three weeks after Mr. Dryden's decease,

Dr. Garth pronounced a fine Latin oration over the body, which was conveyed from the college, attended by a numerous train of coaches to Westminster Abbey, but in great disorder. It was interred in a private manner. After the funeral Charles Dryden sent a challenge to lord Jefferys, and repeatedly sought admittance to him to provoke a duel, or to chastise him for the above barbarous indignity, in vain. Dryden had no monument erected to him for several years, to which Mr. Pope alludes in his epitaph intended for Mr. Rowe, in this line,

Beneath a rude and nameless stone he lies.

In a note upon which we are informed, that the tomb of Mr. Dryden was erected upon this hint by Sheffield, duke of Buckingham, to which was originally intended this epitaph:

This Sheffield raised.-The sacred dust below Was Dryden once; the rest, who does not know? Which was afterwards changed into the plain inscription now upon it, viz.

J. DRYDEN,

Natus Aug. 9, 1631. Mortuus Maii 1, 1701.

Johannes Sheffield, dux Buckinghamiensis, fecit.

Were we to form a judgment of this celebrated writer from some of his dramatic writings, we should be apt to conclude him a man of the most licentious morals; many of his comedies containing gross obscenity. But Congreve, whose authority cannot be suspected, has depicted him as no less amiable in his private character as a man, than he was illustrious in his public one as a poet. He was, according to this authority, humane, compassionate, forgiving, and friendly; gentle in the correction of the writings of other authors, and patient under the censure of his own; easy of access himself, but slow and diffident in his advances to others; and of all men the most modest, and the most easy to be discountenanced in his approaches either to his superiors or his equals. As to his writings, he has been thought to have attained the greatest general harmony in his numbers, of any of our poets.

DRYPIS, in botany, a genus of the trigynia order, and pentandria class of plants; natural order twenty-second, caryophylleæ: CAL. quinquedentated: petals five; the opening at the capsule as if cut round horizontally, monospermous. Species one only, a native of Barbary and Italy.

DRYSDALE (John), D. D., a late eminent clergyman of the church of Scotland, was born at Kirkaldy, April 29th 1718. He soon distinguished himself as a classical scholar, and, in 1732, was sent to finish his studies at the university of Edinburgh. In 1740 he was licensed to preach by the presbytery of Kirkaldy; and, after having been several years employed as assistant minister of the college church at Edinburgh, was settled at Kirkliston in 1748. After continuing fifteen years in this town, he obtained a presentation to Lady Yester's church, from the towncouncil of Edinburgh. This having been the first