Page:A cyclopaedia of female biography.djvu/266

This page has been validated.
244
DIN. DIO. DIX.

brought her large possessions into that family. As Lady Digby lived in the time of the rebellion, the insurgents often assaulted her in her castle of Geashill, which she defended with great resolution. She died in 1658, and lies buried in the cathedral of St. Patrick. She left seven sons and three daughters.

DINAH,

The only daughter of the patriarch Jacob. Her seduction by Prince Shechem; his honourable proposal of repairing the injury by marriage, and the prevention of the fulfilment of this just intention by the treachery and barbarity of her bloody brethren Simeon and Levi, are recorded in Genesis xxxiv. But every character in the Bible has its mission as an example or a warning, and Dinah's should be the beacon to warn the young of her sex against levity of manners and eagerness for society. "She went out to see the daughters of the land;" the result of her visit was her own ruin, and involving two of her brothers in such deeds of revenge, as brought a curse upon them and their posterity. And thus the idle curiosity or weak vanity of those women who are always seeking excitement and amusement, may end most fatally for themselves, and those nearest connected and best beloved. Dinah lived B. C. 1732.

DINNIES, ANNA PEYRE,

A poetess known at first under the name of Moina was born in (Georgetown, South Carolina. Her father. Judge Shackieford, removed to Charleston when Anna was a child, where she was educated. In 1830, Miss Shackieford married John C. Dinnies, of St. Louis, Missouri, where she has since resided. The poetry of Mrs. Dinnies is characterized by vigour of thought and delicate tenderness of feeling. There is something exceedingly fascinating in the display of intellectual power, when it seems entirely devoted to the happiness of others. It is genius performing the office of a guardian angel. There is a fervidness in the expressions of this writer, which goes to the heart of the reader at once, and exalts the strain, no matter what the theme may be. In the regions of imagination she does not soar far or often; the wild and mysterious are not her passion; but the holy fire of poesy burns pure and bright in her heart, and she cherishes it to illumine and bless her own hearth. The genius that has warmed into summer beauty a frozen "Chrysanthemum," that "peerless picture of a modest wife," should be cherished and encouraged; for this "beauty-making power" it is which most essentially aids religious truths to refine and purify social and domestic life. Besides her contributions to periodicals, Mrs. Dinnies prepared a handsome volume, "The Floral Year," published in 1847.

DIOTIMA,

One of the learned women who taught Socrates, as he himself declared, the "divine philosophy." She was supposed to have been inspired with the spirit of prophecy; and Socrates learned of her how from corporeal beauty to find out that of the soul, of the angelical mind, and of God. She lived in Greece, about B. C. 408.

DIX, DOROTHEA L.,

Was born in America, and passed her childhood and youth in