an poet, calls his lady-love
"Delia," but what her real name was is not certain.

_Delia_, the lady-love of James Hammond's elegies, was Miss Dashwood,
who died in 1779. She rejected his suit, and died unmarried. In one of
the elegies the poet imagines himself married to her, and that they
were living happily together till death, when pitying maids would tell
of their wondrous loves.

DELIAN KING (_The_). Apollo or the sun is so called in the Orphic
hymn,

Oft as the Delian king with Sirius holds
The central heavens.

Akenside, _Hymn to the Naiads_ (1767).

DELIGHT OF MANKIND (_The_), Titus the Roman emperor, A.D.40, (79-81).

Titus indeed gave one short evening gleam,
More cordial felt, as in the midst it spread
Of storm and horror: "The Delight of Men."

Thomson, _Liberty_, in. (1725).

DELLA CRUSCA SCHOOL, originally applied in 1582 to a society in
Florence, established to purify the national language and sift from it
all its impurities; but applied in England to a brotherhood of poets
(at the close of the last century) under the leadership of Mrs.
Piozzi. This school was conspicuous for affectation and high-flown
panegyrics on each other. It was stamped out by Gifford, in _The
Baviad_, in 1794, and _The Moeviad_, in 1796. Robert Merry, who signed
himself _Della Crusca_, James Cobb, a farce-writer, James Boswell
(biographer of Dr. Johnson), O'Keefe, Morton, Reynolds, Holcroft,
Sheridan, Colman the younger, Mrs. H. Cowley, and Mrs. Robinson were
its best exponents.

DEL'PHINE, (2 _syl._), the heroine and title of a novel by Mde. de
Stael. Delphine is a charming character, who has a faithless lover,
and dies of a broken heart. This novel, like _Corinne_, was written
during her banishment from France by Napoleon I., when she travelled
in Switzerland and Italy. It is generally thought that "Delphine" was
meant for the authoress herself (1802).

DELPHINE CLASSICS (_The_), a set of Latin classics edited in France
for the use of the grand dauphin (son of Louis XIV.). Huet was chief
editor, assisted by Montausier and Bossuet. They had thirty-nine
scholars working under them. The indexes of these classics are very
valuable.

DELTA [Illustration] of _Blackwood_ is D.M.Moir (1798-1851).

DEL'VILLE (2 _syl_.), one of the guardians of Cecilia. He is a man
of wealth and great ostentation, with a haughty humility and
condescending pride, especially in his intercourse with his social
inferiors.--Miss Burn