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DIPTYCH. 278 DIRECTOR. magistrates to their friends, and those officially connected with them, on their entrance into of- licc, were iiiscribed with their nitnies and bore their |H)rt rails. The ecclesiastical diptychs. on the other hand, are decorated with scenes from sacred history, and were preserved in the churches as pari of the sacred ornaments. Those that exist are of various sizes, rarely exceeding eight inches by four. Siv TiiU'TYCll. DLP'YLON GATE (Gk. Snrv?.ov, from 5;-, <f i-, double + i7v/^, pyli; gate ) , The. The most im- portant gate in ancient .•thcns, between the inner and the outer Ceraniicus. It consisted of two sets of double gates, separated by a court. From it the Sacred Way led to Eleusis. The dead were buried near the gate, and in the vicinity a num- ber of beautiful ancient tombs are in part pre- served. Portions of its foundations and remains of the walls of Themistocles still exist. DIRCE, der's? (Lat.. from Gk. AipKi/, Dirkc). In (ireek legend, the personification of a fountain and stream at Thebes. Besides the fountain, there was the grave of Dirce, at which sacrifices for the dead and other rites were performed. According to the story, Dirce, the wife of Lycus, King of Thebes, had sorely persecuted Antiope, who at last escaped to Jlount Cithieron, where her twin sons, Amphion and Zethus, had been brought up by a herdsman in ignorance of their parentage. Here Dirce. while celebiating the rites of Dionysus, found her, and ordered Am- phion and Zethus to bind her to the horns of a wild bull, that she might be dragged to death. They were about to execute the command, when by the aid of the herdsman they learned their relationship to Antiope, and thereupon inflicted upon Dirce the punishment she had designed for their mother. DIRCKS. Hexry ( 1800-T3). An English civil engineer and author, bom in Liverpool. lie be- gan to lecture on chemistry and electricity in 1S27. Aftenvards he became distinguished as a railway and mining engineer, in which capacity he made se-eral inventions. The unique mechan- ical device known as 'Pepper's Ghost' was in- vented by him, and described in the work entitled The (Ihost, as Produced in the Spectrc-Droma, I'opularly Illustratinp the ilarrellous Optical Illiixions Obtained 61/ the Appnratun Called the Oirckxian T'hantasmanoria (ISGS). Another in- teresting work bv him is the History of the Search for t^elf-.Votivc I'oiccr (1861). DIRECT (Lat. directus, straight, from diri- gere. to dire<'t. from di-, apart -I- regcre, to guide), and RET'ROGRADE (OF. retrograde, Fr. r/-trogradr. Lat. relntgradns. moving back- ward, from retro, backward + gradi. to go). In asfroniimy, the motion of a planet is said to be direct when the planet goes forward by its proper motion in the zodiac according to the succession or order of the signs (i.e. from west to cast), or when it appears to do so to an observer. On the other hand, it is said to be retrograde when it appears to go the contrary way. DIRECTOR. One of the persons chosen to act in a biMinl of managers to control the nfTairs of a business corporation or joint-stock company. Oflircrs acting in a similar capacity for eleemo- synarj' rorporntions arc usually. thon<rh not neces- sarily, known as trustees. The director is usu- ally a stockholder of the corporation and elected to his position by vote of the stockholders, the length of time for which he may hold his otfice and the manner of his election being determined by the by-laws of the cor])oration. The director is in a certain sense the agent for the corporation. He represents the corporation and not its stockholders, and, while not strictly a trustee, he acts in a fiduciary capacity, and his responsibility is not unlike that of a tnistee. .t common law the dinvtor is under no personal liability for" the debts or oblig:itions of the cor- poration. He is liable to the stockholders in an action of tort for gross negligence or misfeasance in otiice resulting in lo.ss to them. He is prohib- ited from using his position of trust for personal Iirofit, and his contracts made with the corpora- tion for that purpose may be set aside on appli- cation of a stockholder to the courts. Generally speaking, the directors, acting as a board or through properly a|)pointed agents, have authority to do any act in the line of the legitimate business of the corporatiim which the company may itself do under its charter: but they may not totally change that business nor dispose of what is essential to it without the consent of the stockholders. Yet in some juris- dictions they may by their act bind the corpora- tion to do acts which are strictly ultra vires. See CORPOKATION. In practice, much of the business of the board of directors is transacted by a committee of its members, usually termed an executive committee, whose powers are defined by the by-laws of the corporation or by vote of the board of directors. In boards of bank directors in England a dis- tinction is made between ordinary and extraordi- nary directors, the former conducting the busi- ness in its details, the latter having little to do with the actual business, and in reality J)eing honorary otliccrs who allow their names to be used to benefit the undertaking by the distinction attached to them from their personal or financial position. This practice is not common in the United States, though not unknown. The disposi- tion of the profits of the corporation is, under most charters, left largely to the directors. Thus they may. if they choose, apply profits to the ex- tension of facilities or purchase of new plant, or other improvements, rather than to dividends, in their discretion and without a vote of the stock- holders. Jlodern statutes have increased the liability of directors of corporations to an extent varying considerably in the dilTcrent States of the United States. A provision freipuntly made is one mak- ing directors personally liable for the debts of the corporation if they do not file annually with the Secretary of State a report upon the affairs and business of the corporation. Under the spe- cial English statutes known as the .Toint Stock Companies -Vets, the duties and rcsponsjliilities of directors are very clearly defined. It is pro- vided that if the directors of a company declare a dividend when the company is known to them to be insolvent, or declare a dividend to pay which would to their knowledge make it insol- vent, they shall be personally liable for the debts of the company to an amount equal to the divi- dend dcilared under such circumstances: in the T'nited Stales the common law on this point generally prevails. It is cu-^t(miary to pay dire<'tors a slight fee for their sc^^•ices, but tliis is usually insignificant