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education to a celebrated academy at Troy. The ardour with which she entered into new scenes and studies, ambition being now spurred by rivalry, soon sent her home an invalid. On her partial amendment, she was transferred to a similar school in Albany. But it was not long before the hectic flush returned to her cheek, and after little more than three months' sojourn in her new home she died, August, 1825, exactly a month before completing her seventeenth year. In 1829 Mr. Morse of New York published her remains under the title of "Amir Khan, and other Poems," with a biographical sketch. The genial criticism of Mr. Southey gave a temporary eclat to these pieces.—J. P.

DAVIDSON, Margaret Miller, the younger sister of the preceding, born in March, 1823. Her infancy was coincident with the closing years of one who was soon to be to her only a memory; but "the image of the departed Lucretia," says her mother, "mingled in all her aspirations, and she felt that she held close and intimate communion with her beatified spirit." The ecstatic element, if possible, was still stronger in Margaret, and it may be her gifts somewhat interior. But there was a marked resemblance in their lives, and the younger, a predestined victim of like complaints, finished her course, November 25, 1838; having failed by a year and a quarter to rival her sister's span of life. Margaret's "Poetical Remains" appeared in a similar form to those of Lucretia, 12mo, Phil., 1841. Both of these girls were happy in having their memories embalmed by such biographers as Catherine Sedgwick in the earlier case, and Washington Irving in the latter. It may be added, as showing the unusual and premature tastes of these girls, that Margaret is spoken of (though not living to complete sixteen) as studying Victor Cousin's philosophy. Gibbon's great work, and laying out for meditation in the last few weeks of her life, a series of deep, and some of them fiercely debated theological questions.—J. P.

* DAVIDSON, Rev. Samuel, D.D., LL.D., was born near Ballymena, county Antrim, Ireland, in 1808. In 1825 he entered Belfast college, where he passed through the usual course of philosophy, languages, and divinity with distinguished success, and was afterwards licensed by his presbytery to preach the gospel. In 1835 he was called to the chair of biblical criticism in the presbyterian church. Having, however, changed his views of church polity, he resigned, and was immediately, in 1842, chosen professor of biblical literature, oriental languages, and church history, in the Lancashire Independent college, newly erected at Manchester. Here he possessed the love and esteem of the students, but resigned his office in 1857 in consequence of an ill-founded clamour which arose outside the college respecting his orthodoxy. In 1838 he received the degree of LL D. from Marischal college, Aberdeen; and in 1848 the honorary title of doctor in theology from the university of Halle, at the recommendation of Professors Hupfeld and Tholuck. The published works of Dr. Davidson, which are numerous, exhibit the highest biblical scholarship.—J. J.

DAVIEL, Jacques, an eminent French oculist, born in Normandy in 1696; died at Geneva in 1762. He published several works in his own department—medico-surgical science—and through his skilful originality brought into vogue the operation for cataract by extraction.—F. E.

DAVIES, Edward, a Welsh archæologist, born in Radnorshire of humble extraction; died February, 1851, at Bishopston in Glamorganshire, of which he was rector. He published in 1804 "Celtic Researches," and in 1801 "Rites and Mythology of the British Druids."—F. E.

DAVIES, Sir John, poet, lawyer, and politician, was born at Chisgrove, Wiltshire, about 1570. Educated at Queen's college, Oxford, he entered the middle temple about 1588, and in 1595 was called to the bar. Expelled from the middle temple for an assault on a fellow-member, he went into retirement, and in meditative and somewhat penitential seclusion produced his "Nosce Teipsum," a poem on the immortality and immateriality of the soul, of much occasional beauty of language, and of great reflective depth. Restored by the influence of Lord Ellesmere to his position at the bar, he entered the house of commons in 1601 as member for Corfe Castle, and distinguished himself in that last of Elizabeth's parliaments. "Nosce Teipsum" had attracted the admiration of King James; and on his accession to the throne of the United Kingdom, he made the poetical lawyer successively solicitor and attorney general for Ireland, knighting him in 1607. Occasionally visiting England, Sir John Davies remained for many years an official resident in Ireland, and to this residence we owe two works from his pen on the history and social economy of Ireland, the more important of which is his "Discovery of the True Causes why Ireland was never entirely subdued," &c., published in 1612, and a standard authority at this day. On returning permanently to England, he was appointed justice of assize, and sat as member for Newcastle-under-Lyne in the parliament of 1621. He had been nominated lord chief-justice of England, and had actually bought his robes, when, before he could enter on his new duties, he died suddenly on the 7th of December, 1626. His poems were reprinted in a collective form in 1773, by his namesake, Thomas Davies; and his "Historical Tracts" in 1786, with a life by George Chalmers.—F. E.

DAVIES, John, an early Welsh philologist, born at Llanveres in Denbighshire, published in 1621, "Antiquæ Linguae Brittanicæ Rudimenta;" and in 1632, a "Dictionarium Brittanico-Latinum." He assisted in the translation of the Welsh bible published in 1620.—F. E.

DAVIES, John, D.D., born in London on 22nd April, 1679, was educated at the Charter-house, and afterwards at Queen's college, Cambridge, of which he rose to be master. He edited several Greek and Roman classics. His edition of the Tusculan Disputations was enriched by the notes of his friend, the great critic Bentley.—F. E.

DAVIES, Myles, an unfortunate compiler, born at Tre'r Abbot in Flintshire, is thought to have repaired to London about the time of George I.'s accession, and is supposed to have then and there become a lawyer. He published some volumes of a very rare and curious book, "The Athenæ Britannicæ, or a Critical History of the Oxford and Cambridge Writers and Writings," the first volume of which appeared in 1716 bearing the separate title of "Icon Libellorum, or a Critical History of Pamphlets." He hawked his books from door to door, and has recorded in them with copious bitterness the repulses which he met with. Mr. Isaac Disraeli has devoted some pages of his Calamities of Authors, to an account of this singular being and his unhappy career.—F. E.

DAVIES, Samuel, an eminent American divine, the successor of Jonathan Edwards the metaphysician, as president of Princeton college, was born in Newcastle county, on the Delaware river, November 3, 1724. He was ordained as a presbyterian clergyman in 1747, and sent as a missionary to Hanover county, Virginia, where he encountered much opposition, as the episcopal was then the established church in the province, and it was contended by the lawyers that the "act of toleration" did not extend to the colonies. Davies contested the point by an able argument in court against Peyton Randolph, then attorney-general of Virginia; and shortly afterwards went to England, as a delegate for the purpose, and succeeded in obtaining from Sir Dudley Rider, then attorney-general for the crown, an opinion that the act did extend to Virginia. In 1753 the synod of New York sent him to England as an agent to solicit benefactions for Princeton college. He preached before the king at the royal command, and had the boldness to administer an indirect rebuke to his majesty for some act of seeming irreverence during the service. George II. afterwards said of him—"An honest man! an honest man!" In one of his sermons he prophetically points out to the public "that heroic youth, Colonel Washington, whom I cannot but hope Providence has hitherto preserved in so signal a manner for some important service to his country." He died before he had held the office of president eighteen months, on the 4th of February, 1761, aged thirty-six. Four years after his death a collection of his "Sermons on the most Useful and Important Subjects" was published in three volumes octavo, which passed through several editions, and was reprinted in London. Davies was a poet also, and many of his hymns are still printed and read.—F. B.

DAVIES, Thomas, the "honest Tom Davies" of Boswell's Johnson, born about 1712, can be traced as a student at Edinburgh university in 1728-29, where he laid the foundations of what, according to his subsequent patron and friend, Dr. Johnson, was "learning enough for a clergyman." For many years he alternated between bookselling and the stage, succeeding in neither; driven, from the former by bankruptcy, and from the latter by an ill-natured line or two in Churchill's Rosciad. During his later years he made a hit by the publication of his life of Garrick, which appeared in 1780, and went through four editions. He died on the 5th of May, 1785. "He was,"