a projected play, the character of the cardinal is finely conceived. He is to have “no element not common to all men and no element as common to all men,—a life such as every man might lead but no man does lead,—in which the things done are not those which men do rarely, but the common acts of men done in a rare spirit.” Dobell's prose writings are studded with such suggestive sentences as we have quoted. The singular truth of his observations of nature is well seen in his description of the “Symptoms of the Dissolution of Night” (Thoughts, p. 83.) His prose style lacks simplicity, both in the individual words used and in the structure of the sentences. The classical element is much too prominent in his vocabulary In his religious views, Dobell was a Christian of the Broad Church type. Socially he was one of the most amiable and true-hearted of men. He will long be remembered as an admirable song-writer, a suggestive and original thinker, and an ardent lover of political liberty. The standard edition of his poems is edited by Professor Nichol of Glasgow University, who has prefixed to the work a beautifully
written life.DÖBELN, a town of Saxony, in the circle of Leipsic, and 35 miles to the south-east of that town, standing partly on an island formed by the Mulde. It is the centre of a considerable corn trade. The manufactures are cloth, cordwain and other leather, shoes, hats, belts lacquered tin ware, agricultural and weighing machines, and cigars. Population, 10,909 in 1875.
DOBERAN, or Dobberan, a market town of Northern Germany, in the grand duchy of Mecklenburg-Schwerin, about two miles from the shores of the Baltic, and seven west of Rostock. Besides the ruins of a Cistercian abbey founded by Pribislav II. in 1173, and secularized in 1552, it possesses a church of the 14th century, which ranks as one of the finest in Northern Germany, a grand-ducal palace, a theatre, an exchange, and a concert-room. In 1793 Duke Frederick Francis caused the first seaside watering-place in Germany to be established on the neigh bouring coast, at the spot where the Heiliger Damm, a great bank of rocks about 1000 feet broad and 15 feet high, stretches out into the sea and forms an excellent bathing ground. Though no longer so popular as in the early part of the century, it is still frequented. In the immediate neighbourhood of the town three mineral springs were discovered in 1829 one sulphurous, a second saline, and the third chalybeate. Population in 1875, 3866.
DÖBRENTEI, Gabor (i.e., Gabriel) (1786–1851), an Hungarian philologist and antiquary, was born at Nagyszöllös in 1786. He completed his studies at the universities of Wittenberg and Leipsic, and was afterwards engaged as a tutor in Transylvania. At this period he originated and edited the Erdelyi Afuzeum, which, not withstanding its important influence on the development of the Magyar language and literature, soon failed for want of support. In 1820 Dobrentei settled at Pesth, and there he spent the rest of his life. He held various official posts, but continued zealously to pursue the studies for which he had early shown a strong preference His great work is the Ancient Monuments of the Magyar Language (Regi Magyar Nyelvemlekek), the editing of which was intrusted to him by the Hungarian Academy. The first volume was published in 1838 and the fifth was in course of preparation at the time of his death. Dobrentei was one of the twenty-two scholars appointed in 1825 to plan and organize, under the presidency of Count Teleki, the Hungarian Academy. In addition to his great work he wrote many valuable papers on historical and philological subjects, and many biographical notices of eminent Hungarians. These appeared in the Hungarian translation of Brockhaus's Conversations-Lexikon. He translated into Hungarian Macbeth and other plays of Shakespeare, several of Schiller s tragedies, and Moliere s Avare, and wrote several original poemsi His article on " Magyar Litera ture " in the Conversations-Lexikon was translated into English. Dobrentei does not appear to have taken any part in the revolutionary movement of 1843. He died at his country house, near Pesth, March 28, 1851.
DOBRIZHOFFER, Martin (1717–1791), a Roman Catholic missionary, whose fame is preserved by the historical interest and the literary character of his narrative. Born at Gratz, in Styria, he joined the Society of Jesus in 1736, and in 1749 proceeded to Paraguay, where for eighteen years, first among the Guaranis, and latterly among the Abipones, he continued with steadfast devotion and easy cheerfulness to discharge the difficult and hazardous duties of his profession. Returning to Europe on the expulsion of the Jesuits from South America, he settled at Vienna, obtained the patronage, or rather the friendship, of Maria Theresa, survived the extinction of his order, com posed the history of his mission, and died on July 17, 1791. His history appeared at Vienna in 1784, in the author s own Latin, and in a German translation by Professor Krai! of the university of Pesth. Of the contents of the work some idea may be obtained from its extended title : Historia de Abiponibus, Eqnestri Bellicosaque Paraquarice Natione, locupletata Copiosis Barbararum Gentium Urbiiim, Fluminum, Ferarum, Amphibioritm, Insectorum, Serpentium prcecipuorum, Piscium, Avium, Arborum, Plantarum aliarumqiie ejusdem Provincice Pro- prietatum Observationibus. The " lively singularity " and garrulous quaintness of the style could only be dis played by lengthened quotation. In 1822 there appeared in London an anonymous (not altogether complete) translation, which has not unfrequently been ascribed to Southey, but was really the work of Sara Coleridge, who, while still in her teens, had undertaken the task to defray the college expenses of one of her brothers. To the youthful translator a delicate compliment was paid by Southey in the third canto of his Tale of Paraguay, the story of which was derived from the pages of Dobrizhoffer s narrative:—
| A table should appear at this position in the text. See Help:Table for formatting instructions. |
" And if he could in Merlin s glass have seen By whom his tomes to speak our tongue were taught, The old man would have felt aa pleased, I ween, As when he won the ear of that great Empress Queen."
earliest and greatest of Slavonic philologers, was born of Bohemian parentage at Gjermet, near Raab, in Hungary. He received his first education in the German school at Bischofteinitz, made his first acquaintance with Bohemian at the Deutschbrod gymnasium, studied for some time under the Jesuits at Klattau, and then proceeded to the university of Prague. In 1772 he was admitted among the Jesuits at Brünn ; but on the dissolution of the order in 1773 he returned to Prague to study theology. After holding for some time the office of tutor in the family of Count Nostitz, he obtained an appointment first as vice- rector, and then as rector, in the general seminary at Hradisch; but in 1790 he lost his post through the abolition of the seminaries throughout Austria, and returned as a guest to the house of the count. In 1792 he was commissioned by the Bohemian Academy of Sciences to visit Stockholm, Abo, Petersburg, and Moscow in search of the manuscripts which had been scattered by the Thirty Years War ; and on his return he accompanied Count Nostitz to Switzerland and Italy. His reason began to give way in 1795, and in 1801 he had to be confined in a lunatic asylum; but by 1803 he had completely recovered. The rest of his life was mainly spent either in Prague or at the country-seats of his friends Counts Nostitz and Czernin j
but his death took place at Brünn, whither he had gone in
