l," and is much admired for his style; in prose he wrote a "History
of England," and a "Defence of Rhyme," which Swinburne pronounces to be
"one of the most perfect examples of sound sense, of pure style, and of
just judgment in the literature of criticism"; he is associated with
Warner and Drayton as having given birth to "a poetry which has devoted
itself to extol the glory of England" (1562-1619).

DANIELL, JOHN FREDERICK, a distinguished chemist, born in London;
professor of Chemistry in King's College, London; wrote "Meteorological
Essays," and "Introduction to Chemical Philosophy"; invented a hygrometer
and an electric battery (1790-1845).

DANIELL, WILLIAM, an eminent draughtsman; spent his early life in
India; author of "Oriental Scenery," in six folio vols. (1769-1837).

DANITES, or Destroying Angels, a band of Mormons organised to
prevent the entrance into Mormon territory of other than Mormon
immigrants, but whose leader, for a massacre they perpetrated, was in
1827 convicted and shot.

DANNECKER, JOHANN HEINRICH VON, a distinguished German sculptor,
born near Stuttgart, and educated by the Duke of Wuertemberg, who had
become his patron; became professor of Sculpture in the Academy at
Stuttgart; his earlier subjects were from the Greek mythology, and his
later Christian, the principal of the latter being a colossal "Christ,"
which he took eight years to complete; he executed besides busts of
contemporaries, which are wonderful in expression, such as those of
Schiller, Lavater, and Glueck; "Ariadne on the Panther" is regarded as his
masterpiece (1758-1841).

DANTE ALIGHIERI, the great poet of Italy, "the voice of ten silent
centuries," born in Florence; was of noble birth; showed early a great
passion for learning; learned all that the schools and universities of
the time could teach him "better than most"; fought as a soldier; did
service as a citizen; at thirty-five filled the office of chief
magistrate of Florence; had, while but a boy of ten, "met a certain
Beatrice Portinari, a beautiful girl of his own age and rank, and had
grown up in partial sight of her, in some distant intercourse with her,"
who became to him the ideal of all that was pure and noble and good;
"made a great figure in his poem and a great figure in his life"; she
died in 1290; he married another, "not happily, far from happily; in some
civic Guelf-Ghibelline strife he was expelled the city, and his property
confiscated;