The fashion of imperial grandeur is imitated by all

inferior and subordinate sorts of it, as if it were a point of honour. They must be cheated of a third part of their estates; two other thirds they must expend in vanity; so that they remain debtors for all the necessary provisions of life, and have no way to satisfy those debts, but out of the succours and supplies of rapine. Cowley.

Swift, a thousand pounds in debt,
Takes horse, and in a mighty fret
Rides day and night.

Swift.

An atheist is but a mad ridiculous derider of piety; but a hypocrite makes a sober jest of God and religion; he finds it easier to be upon his knees than to rise to a good action: like an impuden debtor, who goes every day to talk familiarly to his creditor, without ever paying what he owes. Pope.

When I look upon the debtor side, I find such innumerable articles, that I want arithmetick to cast. them up but when I look upon the creditor side, 1 find little more than blank paper. Addison.

DECALOGUE, in theology, the ten commandments, which were engraved by God on two tables of stone. The Jews, by way of eminence, call these commandments, after Deut. x. 4, the ten words, from whence they had afterwards the name of decalogue. The church of Rome has, in some catechisms, united the second commandment, in an abridged form, with the first; and, to make their number complete, has divided the tenth into two. The reason is obvious. See Stillingfleet's Works, vol. vi. It should, in fairness, however, be added, that Jews, as well as Christians, have divided the commandments differently

DECA'MP, v. n. Fr.decamper. To shift DECA MPMENT, n. s. the camp; to move off. The act of shifting the camp.

The king of Portugal would decamp on the twentyfourth in order to march upon the enemy. Tatler. DECANT, v. a.) Fr. decanter; Lat. deDECA'NTER, n. s. canto. To pour off gently DECANTATION. by inclination. A decanter is a vessel made for receiving wine perfectly

clear.

Take aqua fortis and dissolve it in ordinary coined ilver, and pour the coloured solution into twelve times as much fair water, and then decant or filtrate

the mixture, that it may be very clear.

Boyle.

Swift.

They attend him daily as their chief, Decant his wine, and carve his beef. DECANUS, in Roman antiquity, an officer who presided over the ten officers, and was head of the contubernium, or serjeant of a file of soldiers.

DECAPITATE, v. a. Lat. decapito. To DECAPITATION. n. s. Sbehead. A beheading, or DECOLLATION, which see.

DECAPOLIS, in ancient geography, a district beyond Jordan, almost wholly belonging to the half tribe of Manasseh; before the captivity, called Bethsan; but after, occupied by heathens. It comprises, as the name denotes, ten principal cities on the other side of the Jordan, except Scythopolis, which stood on this side, but its territory lay on the other.

DECAPROTI, DECEMPRIMI, in Roman antiquity, officers for gathering the taxes. The decaproti were also obliged to pay for the dead, or to answer to the emperor, for the quota parts of such as died out of their own estates.

DECASPERMUM, in botany, a genus of the monogynia order and icosandria class of plants: CAL. perianth turbinated, quinquefid at the apex: COR. five roundish petals. The stamina are corolla: PERICARP. is a dry, globular, decemlomany filiform filaments, a little shorter than the cular berry, with solitary egg-shaped seeds.

DECASTYLE, in the ancient architecture, a building, with an ordnance of ten columns in front, as the temple of Jupiter Olympius was.

Each may feel increases and decays,
And see now clearer and now darker days. Pope.
Now kindred merit fills the sable bier,

Now lacerated friendship claims a tear;
Year chases year, decay pursues decay,
Still drops some joy from withering life away.
Johnson. Vanity of Human Wishes.

Byron

Alas! the lofty city! and alas! The trebly hundred triumphs! and the day When Brutus made the dagger's edge surpass The conqueror's sword in bearing fame away! Alas, for Tully's voice, and Virgil's lay, And Livy's pictured page!-but these shall be Her resurrection; all beside-decay. DECCAN, or the Country of the South, an extensive region of Hindostan, bounded on the north by the Narbuddah, and on the south by the Krishna, or Kistnah river, extending across the peninsula from sea to sea. It was possessed, in former times, by the rajah of Telingana, and the Hindoo princes, and first invaded by the Mahommedans in 1293. They plundered the city of Deoghir, now called Dowlatabad, and the Tagara of Ptolemy. In the year 1306 the city and fortress were taken, and the rajah, Ram Deo, carried to Delhi. In 1323, Warunkul, the capital of Telingana, was also taken by the Mahommedans, and the Hindoo dynasty overthrown. For some time the Deccan remained subject to Delhi, till the governor having rebelled, laid the foundation of an independent state, under the title of the Bhamenee sultans, whose capital was Kalberga; this was in 1347. The Bhamenee dynasty, consisting of fourteen persons, continued till the year 1518. On the dissolution of this empire, the Deccan was subdivided into the five following states: the Adil Shaby, or Beja

pore kingdom; the Kootub Shahy, or Golconda, the Nizam Shahy, or Ahmednagur; the Ummaud Shahy, or Berar; the Beered Shahy, or Beeder.

During the reign of Aurungzebe, all these states were reduced, and the Deccan again annexed to the kingdom of Delhi. It was then divided into six governments, viz. Khandesh, Ahmednagur, Beeder, Golconda, Bejapore, and Berar. In subsequent reigns, these governments came under the superintendance of the Nizam, who, taking advantage of the weak state of the court of Delhi, after the Persian invasion in 1739, threw off his allegiance, became independent, and fixed his court at Hyderabad. The Mahrattas, however, were now rising into power, and the nizam was obliged to cede to them the territorities now constituting the dominions of the peishwa.

DECEASE, v. n. & n. s. Lat. decedo, decessus, from de and cado, to fall. To die; to quit life: death.

He tells us Arthur is deceased to-night.

DECEIVE', v. a.

DECEIVABLE, adj. DECEIVABLENESS, n. s.

DECEIV'ER,

DECEIVING. nart.

French, decevoir; Lat. decipio, from de and capio. See DECEIT. To delude, cheat, deprive by fraud; hence to mislead, guide into error, whether by design or otherwise. Deceivable is used both for fraudulent, and for being liable or particularly exposed to fraud. Deceivableness also expresses both artfulness, and a liableness to be deceived.

For synne through occasioun taken bi the commaundement disseyuyde me, and bi that it slough me. Wiclif. Romayns vii.

Be not borun aboute with ech wynd of techyng in the weiwardnesse of men in sutil witt to the disseyuyng of errowr. Id. Effesies 4. With all deceivableness of unrighteousness 2 Tim. ii. 10. Sporting themselves with their own deceivings, while they feast with you. 2 Pet. ii. 13.

It is no wonder thing though it be so;
A lousy jogelour can deceiven thee,
And parde yet can I more craft than he.

Chaucer. Cant. Tales.

DECEMBER, n. s. Lat. december. The last month of the year, named december, or the tenth month, when the year began in March. What should we speak of

When we are old as you? When we shall hear
The rain and wind beat dark December. Shakspeare.
Men are April when they woo, and December when
they wed.
Id. As You Like It.

DECEMBER is the month wherein the sun enters the tropic of Capricorn, and makes the winter solstice. Among the ancient Romans, December was under the protection of Vesta. Romulus assigned it thirty days, Numa reduced it to twenty-nine, which Julius Cæsar increased to thirty-one. In the reign of Commodus this month was called, by way of flattery, Amazonius, in honor of a courtezan, whom that prince passionately loved, and had painted like an Amazon; but this name died with that tyrant. At the end of December they had the juveniles ludi; and the country people kept the feast of the goddess Vacuna in the fields, having then gathered in their fruits, and sown their corn; whence seems to be derived our popular festival called harvest-home.

DECEMPEDA, dikaπovç, from decem, ten, and pes, a foot; ten-feet rod, an instrument used by the ancients in measuring. It was a rule, or rod, divided into ten feet; the foot was subdivided into twelve inches, and each inch into ten digits. The decempeda was used both in measuring land, like the chain among us; and by architects, to give the proper dimensions and proportions to the parts of their buildings, which use it still retains.

DECE'MPEDAL, adj. Lat. decempeda; from Gr. dexaç. Ten feet in length.

DECEMVIRI, ten magistrates of absolute authority among the Romans. The privileges of the patricians raised dissatisfaction among the plebeians; who, though freed from the power of the Tarquins, still saw that the administration of justice depended upon the will and caprice of their superiors; and it was at length agreed, that ten new magistrates, called decemviri, should be elected from the senate, to put the project into execution. Their power was absolute, all other offices ceased after their election, and they presided over the city with regal authority. They were invested with the badges of the consul, in the enjoyment of which they succeeded by turns; and only one was preceded by the fasces, and had the power of assembling the senate, and confirming decrees. The first decemviri were, Appius Claudius, T. Genutius, P. Sextus, Sp. Veturius, C. Julius, A. Manlius, Ser. Sulpitius, Pluriatius, T. Romulus, and Sp. Posthumius; A. U.C. 302. Under them the

iaws, which had been exposed to public view, were publicly approved of as constitutional, and ratified by the priests and augurs, in the most solemn manner. They were ten in number, and were engraved on tables of brass; two were afterwards added, whence they were called the laws of the twelve tables, leges XII tabularum, and leges decemvirales. The decemviral power, which was at first beheld by all ranks of people with the greatest satisfaction, was continued; but in the third year after their creation, the decemviri became odious on account of their tyranny; and the attempt of Ap. Claudius to ravish Virginia totally abolished the office. Consuls were again appointed, and tranquillity re-established in the state. There were other officers in Rome called decemviri, who were originally appointed in the absence of the prætor, to administer justice. Their appointment became afterwards necessary, and they generally assisted at sales, called subhastationes, because a spear, hasta, was fixed at the door of the place where the goods were exposed to sale. They were called decemviri litibus judicandis. The officers, whom Tarquin appointed to guard the Sybilline books, were also called decemviri. They were originally, two in number, called duumviri, till A.U.C. 388, when their number was increased to ten, five of whom were chosen from the plebeians and five from the patricians. Sylla increased their number to fifteen, hence called quindecemvirs.

Give every bishop income enough, not for display of wordly pomp and fashionable luxury, but to enable him to maintain works of charity, and to make a decent provision for his family. Bishop Watson.

DECE'NNIAL, adj. From Lat. decennium. Continuing for the space of ten years.

DECENNALIA, ancient Roman festivals, celebrated by the emperors every tenth year of their reign, with sacrifices, games, and largesses for the people. Augustus first instituted these solemnities, in which he was imitated by his successors.

DECENNO'VAL, adj. Į Lat. decem and novem. Relating

DECENNO VARY

to the number nineteen.

Meton, of old, in the time of the Peloponnesian war, constituted a decennoval circle, or of nineteen years; the same which we now call the golden num

ber.

.

Id.

Holder. Seven months are retrenched in this whole decennovary progress of the epacts, to reduce the accounts of her motion and place to those of the sun. DECEPTION. n. s. DECEPTIBILITY, DECEPTIBLE, adj. DECEPTIOUS, DECEPTIVE,

DECEPTORY.

From Lat. deceptio. See DECEIT. Fraud; the act or means of fraud. Deceptibility, and deceptible, express a liableness to

imposture; deceptious and deceptive, the power or design of deceiving. Deceptory, says Dr. Johnson, is, containing means of deceit.

Yet there is a credence in my heart, That doth invert the' attest of eyes and ears; As if those organs had deceptious functions, Created only to calumniate.

Reason, not impossibly, may meet Some spacious object by the foe suborned, And fall into deception unaware.

Shakspeare.

Milton. is the

The first and father cause of common errour, common infirmity of human nature; of whose deceptible condition, perhaps, there should not need any other eviction, than the frequent errours we shall ourselves commit.

Browne.

Roscommon.

taken off; the act of taking off.

DECIDUOUS, adj. Į

Lat, deciduus. FallDECIDUOUSNESS, n. s. ing; not perennial; not lasting through the year.

In botany, the perianthium, or calyx, is deciduous, with the flower. Quincy. DECIL, in astronomy, an aspect or position of two planets, when they are distant from each other a tenth part of the zodiac.

DE’CIMAL, adj. Lat. decimus. Numbered or multiplied by ten.

In the way we take now to name numbers by millions of millions of millions, it is hard to go beyond eighteen, or, at most, four-and-twenty decimal progressions, without confusion. Locke.

DECIMAL ARITHMETIC, the art of computing by decimal fractions. See ARITHMETIC, Index. DECIMATE, v. a. Į

Lat. decimus. To

DECIMATION, n. s. Stithe; to take the tenth; a tithing; a selection by lot of every tenth soldier, in a general mutiny, for punishment.

By decimation and a tithed death,
Take thou the destined tenth. Shakspeare.
A decimation I will strictly make
Of all who my Charinus did forsake;
And of each legion each centurion shall die.

Dryden. DECIMATION was a punishment inflicted by the ancient Romans, on such soldiers as quitted their posts, or behaved themselves cowardly in the field. The names of the guilty were put into an urn, or helmet, and as many were drawn out as made the tenth part of the whole number, and those were put to the sword, and the others saved. The ancient Roman militia, to punish whole legions when they had failed in their duty, made the soldiers draw lots, and put every tenth man to death for an example. The Romans had also the vicesimatio, and even centisimatio, when only the twentieth or hundredth man suffered by lot.

DECIPHER, v. a. Fr. dechiffrer, from de and cipher. See CIPHER. To explain that which is written in ciphers; hence to unfold; to explain; to write out.

Zelmane, that had the same character in her heart, could easily decipher it. Sidney.

Assurance is writ in a private character, not to be read, nor understood, but by the conscience, to which the Spirit of God has vouchsafed to decipher it. South.

Could I give you a lively representation of guilt and horrour on this hand, and point out eternal wrath and decipher eternal vengeance on the other, then might I shew you the condition of a sinner hearing himself denied by Christ. Id.

Then were laws of necessity invented, that so every particular subject might find his principal pleasure deciphered unto him, in the tables of his laws.