some years at Saumur, he went to Montpellier, where he completed his medical course, and took his doctor's degree. He afterwards attended the marshal Turenne in his campaigns, and was by him appointed physician to the army. The skill and ability he had shewn in this situation, occasioned his being nominated to succeed Vander Linden, in 1688, as professor of medicine at Leyden, whither he obtained permission to go, though he had been made, several years before, one of the physicians to Lewis the Fourteenth Two years after, he was advanced to the chair of anatomy in the same university. He was also made physician to William, prince of Orange, and to his princess, Mary. As rector of the university of Leyden, he spoke the congratulatory oration to the prince and princess, on their accession to the throne of England. He continued to hold his professorships, the offices of which he filled so as to give universal satisfaction, to the time of his death, which happened on the last day of May, 1697. He was a voluminous and learned writer; his works, which were much read in his time, and passed through several editions, were collected and published together in 1671, and again in 1680, in 4 vols. 12mo. But the most complete edition of them is that published at the Hague, in 1727, in 4to. In one of his orations he has been careful to exculpate professors of medicine from the charge of impiety, so frequently thrown upon them. "Oratio Doctoralis Monspessula, quâ Medicos Dei operum consideratione atque contemplatione permotos, cæteris hominibus Religioni astrictiores esse demonstratur: atque adeo impietatis crimen in ipsos jactatum diluitur." He also, in his "Apologia Medica," refutes the idea of physicians having been banished from, and not allowed to settle in Rome for the space of six hundred years. He was a lover of Greek literature, and like his countryman, Guy Patin, an enemy to the introduction of chemical preparations into medicine, which were much used in his time. He was also a strong opponent to his colleague Sylvius. Bayle has given him a high character. As a man he describes him benevolent, friendly, pious, and charitable; as a scholar, versed in the Greek and Latin tongues, and in all polite literature in as high a degree as if he had never applied himself to any thing else; as a professor of physic, clear and exact in his method of reading lectures, and of

a skill in anatomy universally admired; as an author, one whose writings are of an original and inimitable character.1

DRESSERUS (MATTHEW), a learned German, was born at Erfort, the capital of Thuringia, in 1536. The first academical lectures which he heard, were those of Luther and Melancthon, at Wittemberg; but the air of that country not agreeing with his constitution, he was obliged to return to Erfort, where he studied Greek. When he had taken the degree of M. A. in 1559, he read lectures in rhetoric at home; and afterwards taught polite literature and the Greek tongue, in the college of Erfort. Having thus passed sixteen years in his own country, he was invited to Jena, to supply the place of Lipsius, as professor of history and eloquence. He pronounced his inaugural oration in 1574, which was afterwards printed with other of his orations. Some time after, he went to Meissen, to be head of the college there; where having continued six years, he obtained, in 1581, the professorship of polite learning in the university of Leipsic; and a particular pension was settled on him to continue the "History of Saxony." Upon his coming to Leipsic, he found warm disputes among the doctors. Some endeavoured to introduce the subtleties of Ramus, rejecting the doctrine of Aristotle, while others opposed it; and some were desirous of advancing towards Calvinism, while others would suffer no innovations in Lutheranism. Dresserus desired to avoid both extremes; and because the dispute concerning the novelties of Ramus greatly disturbed the philosophical community, he was very solicitous to keep clear of

it.

But the electoral commissary diverted him from this pacific design; and it happened to him, as it happens to many persons who engage late in disputes of this kind, that they are more zealous than the first promoters of them. Ramism now appeared to Dresserus a horrible monster; and he became the most zealous opposer of it that ever was known in that country.

Dresserus spent the remainder of his life at Leipsic, where he died, in 1607. He married in 1565, and becoming a widower in 1598, he married again two years after. He was a man of great industry, and not easily

Gen. Dict.Moreri.-Freheri Theatrum.-Niceron, vol. XV.-Rees's Cyclopædia.

tired with application, as he shewed at Erfort; for he brought all his colleagues, who, except one, were Roman catholics, to consent that the confession of Augsburgh and the Hebrew tongue should be taught in the university. He was the author of several works, the principal of which were, "Rhetoricæ libri quatuor," 1584, 8vo; "Tres libri Progymnasmatum, litteraturæ Græcæ," 8vo; "Isagoge Historica," Leipsic, 1587, 8vo, not an accurate work. "De festis diebus Christianorum, Judæorum et Ethnicorum liber," Leipsic, 1597, 8vo.'

DREUX DU RADIER (JOHN FRANCIS), advocate, born at Chateauneuf, in Thimerais, the 10th of May, 1714, was for some time of the magistracy of that town. Preferring at an early period of life the pursuits of literature to the practice of the bar, he quitted his station, and composed a great number of pieces in verse and prose. His poetical productions are very indifferent, but several of his works in prose are curious. The principal are: 1. "Bibliothéque historique & politique du Poitou," 1754, 5 vols. 12mo, containing much sound and judicious criticism. 2. "L'Europe illustre," 1755, and the following years. It is a collection of portraits of illustrious persons by Odieuvre ; with historical notices by Du Radier, who was paid at the rate of a crown for each, and several of them are very interesting. 3. "Tablettes anecdotes des rois de France, 3 vols. 12mo. The author has here collected the remarkable sayings, the ingenious sentiments, and the witticisms of the kings, or attributed to the kings, of France. 4. "Histoires anecdotes des reines et regentes de France," 6 vols. 12mo. 5. "Récréations historiques, critiques, morales, & d'érudition," 2 vols. 12mo. 6. "Vie de Witikind le Grand," 1757, 12mo; abridged from the folio of Cruzius. All these works shew that the author has ransacked every scarce and uncommon book for his materials; but his style is prolix, negligent, and familiar; there is a want of method too, in the distribution of the facts, as well as of grace in the narration. Dreux du Radier composed also several briefs for the bar; among others, for John Francis Corneille. This author died 1st March, 1780. Though he was much given to sarcasm in his writings, especially in those of the latter description, yet he was of a friendly disposition, and he often took upon him with pleasure the business of

1 Gen. Dict.-Freheri Theatrum.-Moreri.

328

DREUX DU RADIER.

searching records, archives, and papers for families, or for literary men who wanted the assistance of his pen or of his erudition.1

He

DREXELIUS (JEREMIAH), a celebrated Jesuit, was born at Augsburgh in Germany, in 1581; and after a classical education, entered the society of the Jesuits in 1598. taught rhetoric for some time, but was most distinguished for his talents as a preacher. The elector of Bavaria was so struck with his manner, that he appointed him his chaplain in ordinary, which office he held for twenty-three years. He died at Munich April 19, 1638. Notwithstanding his frequent preaching, and a weak state of health, he found leisure and strength to write a great many volumes for the use of young persons, most of them in a familiar and attractive style, and generally ornamented with very beautiful engravings by Raphael Sadler and others, which made them be bought up by collectors with avidity. Some of them have been also translated into several languages, and one of them, his "Considerations on Eternity," has been often reprinted in this country from a translation made by S. Dunster in 1710. The whole of Drexelius's works were collected in 2 vols. folio, Antwerp, 1643, and Lyons, 1658. Many of his pieces have very whimsical titles, and are upon whimsical subjects. In one of them, entitled "Orbis Phaeton, hoc est, de universis vitiis linguæ," chapter XLI. in which he treats of those who employ their time on trifles, he enters upon a calculation to resolve in how many ways six persons invited to dine may be placed at table, and after six pages of combinations, he gives 720 as the result."

DRIEDO (JOHN), in low Dutch Dridoens, was born at Turnhout in Brabant, studied at Louvain, and took there the degree of doctor of divinity in August 1512. Hadrian Florent, who was afterwards pope Hadrian VI. performed the ceremony of promoting him to that degree; and having observed that his scholar had applied himself too much to human learning, he put him in mind of the distinction which ought to be made between the mistress-science, and those which are her hand-maids. After this advice Driedo directed his chief application to the study of divinity. He became professor of that science in the university of Louyain, and was also curate of St. James, and canon of St.

Dict. Hist.

2 Alegambe.-Niceron, vol. XXII.

Peter in that city. He opposed Lutheranism with great vigour; but if we judge of him by a letter of Erasmus, his zeal was moderate. He died at Louvain in 1535, though those who have published his epitaph, have represented it as affirming that he died August 4, 1555. His works were published 4 vols. 4to and folio, by Gravius, at Louvain. They relate to the disputes between the Roman catholics and protestants; and the principal titles are, "De gratia & libero arbitrio ;""De concordia liberi arbitrii & prædestinationis;" "De captivitate & redemptione generis humani ;", "De libertate Christiana;" "De Scripturis & dogmatibus Ecclesiasticis." 1

DRINKER (EDWARD), was born on the 24th of December, 1680, in a small cabin near the present corner of Walnut and Second Streets in the city of Philadelphia. His parents came from a place called Beverly, in Massachusetts Bay. The banks of the Delaware, on which the city of Philadelphia now stands, were inhabited, at the time of his birth, by Indians, and a few Swedes and Hollanders. He often talked to his companions of picking wortleberries, and catching rabbits, on spots now the most populous and improved of the city. He recollected the second time William Penn came to Pennsylvania, and used to point to the place where the cabin stood, in which he and his friends that accompanied him were accommodated upon their arrival. At twelve years of age he went to Boston, where he served an apprenticeship to a cabinetmaker. In the year 1745 he returned to Philadelphia with his family, where he lived till the time of his death. He was four times married, and had eighteen children, all of whom were by his first wife. At one time of his life he sat down at his own table with fourteen children. Not long before his death he heard of the birth of a grand-child to one of his grand-children, the fifth in succession from himself.

He retained all his faculties till the last years of his life; even his memory, so early and so generally diminished by age, was but little impaired. He not only remembered the incidents of his childhood or youth, but the events of later years; and so faithful was his memory to him, that his son has often said, that he never heard him tell the

Gent. Dict.-Moreri.-Foppen Bibl. Belg.-Dupin. Jortin's Erasmus.Freheri Theatrum.