* DESNOYERS, Louis Claude Joseph Florence, a French newspaper writer, was born in 1805. He is one of that bright, racy, pungent school of satirical banterers against which the austere hypocrisy of pretended parental authority, such as despotism feels obliged to assume, could not stand for any length of time. The ruler in France against whom the laugh is turned, must enforce silence, and Desnoyers must console himself with the recollection of those pleasant papers with which his pen once enlivened the Corsaire and other periodicals. Under appearances of reckless writing about serious subjects, Desnoyers can exhibit clear, strong sense; on which account the grave republican Siécle engaged him in bad times to handle difficult questions with an air of innocence calculated to disarm the jealousies of power.—J. F. C.
DESPERRIERS, Bonaventure, born at Arnay-le-Duc towards the end of the fifteenth century; died in 1544; was valet-de-chambre of Margaret of Navarre, sister of Francis I. Desperiers was a Calvinist, or rather he went beyond the reformers in his opposition to Romanism. He published a work entitled "The Cymbalum Mundi," which first was printed in 1537, was censured by the Sorbonne, and ordered to be burned by the parliament. These incidents could not but secure for it notoriety in its own day; and, at a later period, secured it for a while the distinction of being a rare book, and therefore sought for. Of the original edition it is said that but one copy has been found; it was reprinted in 1538, and frequently afterwards. It purports to be an allegory. Rabelais and Lucian are imitated—Lucian in the cast of the work; Rabelais in the worst features of Rabelais' daring coarsenesses. The book of Destiny is falling to pieces; it requires to be rebound; and Mercury is despatched to Athens, for the purpose of getting this done. By some trick or accident the Pandects are substituted for the book with which Mercury has been intrusted. The letter of the "Cymbalum" is plain enough, but the hidden secrets of the author are the subject of much disputation. A key to the work has been found in the discovery, that some of the words are anagrams of Luther, Bucer, &c. The book was regarded as an attack on revealed religion. The author's purpose, as far as it can be detected, seems rather to have been to assist the Reformation than to preach infidelity. Desperriers was a friend and companion of Clement Marot and others of the reformers. Desperriers translated the Adrian of Terence into French rhyme, and published "Nouvelles Recréations," tales of the same class as the Heptameron of the queen of Navarre. He is stated on doubtful evidence to have committed suicide in an access of fever. A selection of his works, including the "Cymbalum," was published at Paris in 1841.—J. A., D.
DESPORTES, Philippe, born in 1545; died in 1606; became an ecclesiastic in early life; went to Rome in the train of a French bishop, and made himself acquainted with Italian literature. On the accession of Henry III., Desportes was named lecteur au roi, and was given a large pension, and the revenues of one or two abbayes. The nobles of the court were not less generous than the king; and a piece of ecclesiastical preferment is recorded as being the payment for a sonnet. Desportes celebrated several ladies in what he called his "Amours;" and towards the close of his life retired, like the heroines of his verse, into religion. He translated the Psalms into French verse. Desportes, in the flattering language of his day, was called the Tibullus of France.—J. A., D.
DESPREAUX. See Boileau.
DESPREZ, Josquin. See Deprès.
DESSAIX, Joseph Marie, Count, a French general, was born in 1784. He was originally bred to the medical profession, but when the Revolution broke out he obtained notoriety by organizing a society for propagating French principles beyond the Alps, and raising a legion composed of Swiss, Savoyards, and Piedmontese, to assist the French arms. He was raised to the rank of colonel in 1793, and distinguished himself at the capture of St. Laurent, Mouga, and Campredon. He then joined the army of Italy, and rendered important services in the campaign of 1794. He was taken prisoner at Rivoli, but was soon exchanged, and on his return to France was elected a deputy to the council of Five Hundred. In spite of his republican sentiments Dessaix was employed and promoted by Bonaparte, who highly appreciated his military talents. He was nominated general of brigade in 1803, was appointed general of division in 1809, served in the grand army throughout the Russian campaign, and held the office of commandant of Berlin in 1813. During the Hundred Days, he was intrusted with the command of the city of Lyons and of one of the divisions of the army of the Alps. After the Restoration, Dessaix was imprisoned for five months, and on his release retired to Ferney, where he remained until the revolution of 1830. He died in 1834.—J. T.
DESSALINES, Jean-Jacques, first negro emperor of Hayti, was born about 1760, and brought up in slavery. Attaching himself to Toussaint L'Ouverture, he subsequently joined and then deserted the French, forcing their general, Rochambeau, to evacuate the island. After ordering and executing a massacre of the whites, he proclaimed himself emperor of Hayti, in the October of 1804. His cruelty to his subjects provoked a rebellion, to which he fell a victim two years after his coronation, in the October of 1806.—F. E.
* DESSAUER, Joseph, a musician, was born at Prague on 28th May, 1798, or according to another authority in 1794. The son of an opulent family, he received a liberal education preparatory to his establishment in his native city as a merchant; but he borrowed time from his commercial pursuits to spend upon his favourite study of music, and was taught the pianoforte by Thomaschek, and composition by Dionys Weber. During a mercantile visit to Naples in 1821, his musical talents first became known, and were so warmly acknowledged, as to induce him sedulously to cultivate them. In 1831 he again visited Italy, and passed some time at Milan; and he spent the two following years in England and France. He then returned to Prague, and has since removed to Vienna, having always devoted t o his favourite art whatever time he could spare from his counting-house. He has written overtures, quartets, trios, and other instrumental pieces of merit; but he is chiefly known by his numerous vocal compositions, which are in the style, if not an imitation, of the Lieder of Schubert. Many of these are extremely popular.—G. A. M.
DE STAEL. See Stael.
DESTOUCHES, Philippe Hericault, born at Tours in 1680; died in 1754. Little is known of Destouches' early life He is said to have been for a while at the college des quatre nations at Paris; to have fallen into irregular habits; to have listed in the army, and made a campaign or two; then to have rambled through France as a strolling player. The first certain view we have of him is as clerk in the bureau of M. de Physieux, the French ambassador at Lausanne. He wrote verse; sent it to Boileau. The great satirist was in good humour; was flattered by the attention; gave some praise to the fluency with which the young aspirant succeeded in expressing religious sentiments. For the next forty years Destouches was an indefatigable writer of tragedy, comedy, farce, historical, pastoral, and everything else that the theatres required or tolerated. Somehow or other, though he persevered to write, the only works of his that had anything like success, were the "Philosophe Marié," the "Glorieux," and the "Irrésolu." Of these the "Glorieux" is the best. The contrasts of society which existed in France under the old regime are very amusingly brought out.—J. A., D.
DESTUTT de Tracy, Antoine Louis Claude, the last great representative of the sensational philosophy in France, was born in the middle of the eighteenth century, and educated for the army. As a member of the constituent assembly he was an eager reformer, and at one time served as major-general under Lafayette. At the fall of the monarchy he retired to Auteuil, where he devoted himself to natural science. Arrested during the Reign of Terror, and thrown into prison at Carmes, he there turned his attention to philosophy; and under the influence of Locke and Condillac studied the great problems of mental science, and displayed a precision of thought and a skill both of generalization and analysis, which have rendered him the metaphysician from whose works the nature of French Idéologie may be most clearly understood. Under the Empire he became a senator, and under the Restoration a peer of France. In 1832 he was called to take part in the reorganization of the philosophical section of the Academy of Sciences. His principal works were—the "Eléments d'Idéologie," comprising the "Traité de la volontè," "la Grammaire génerale," "la Logique," and "l'Ideologie," Paris, 1804-24; and a commentary upon the Esprit des Lois, Paris, 1819. In the system of Destutt all thoughts, volitions, feelings, and determinations of the moral sentiment itself, have their origin in sensation. "Penser, c' est sentir," is an aphorism of his school. In the conduct of his analysis he distinguishes, in the first place,
