D E G
D Y I
The mufical degrees are three ; the greater tone, the letter tone, and femi-tone. See Tone and Semi-tone. The primary caufe of the invention of degrees, or intervals lefs than concords, and whereby the concords are divided, and as it were graduated, des Cartes judges to have been this, that if the voice were always to proceed by harmoni- cal intervals, there would be too great a difproportion or in- equality in the intenfenefs thereof, which would weary both finger and hearer.
Thus, fappofing A and B the diflance of a greater third -, if the voice were immediately to afcend from A to B, then becaufe B being acuter, ftrikes the ear with more torce than A, left that difproportion mould prove uneafy, another found, C, io put between them; by which, as by a ftep or degree, we may afcend more eafily, and with lefs unequal force in raifing the voice.
Hence it appears, fays that author, that the degrees are only certain mediums contrived to be put betwixt the extremes of the concords, for moderating their inequality, but which of themfelves have not fwcetnefs enough to fatisfy the ear, and are of ufe only with regard to the concords. So that when the voice has moved one degree-, the ear is. not yet fatisfied till we come to another, which therefore muft be concord with the firft found. .
The fubftance of what is here alledged amounts to this, that by a fit divifion of the concording intervals into leffer ones, the voice will pafs fmoothly from one note to another ; and the hearer be prepared for a more exquifite relifh of the per- fect intervals, whofe extremes are the proper points in which the ear finds the expected reft and pleafure. Such is the end and office of the degrees or leffer intervals. — Now there are only three, that experience recommends as agreeable ; whofe ratios are 8 : 9, called the greater tone ; 9 : 10, called the leffer tone; and 15 : 16, called the femi- tone. By thefe alone a found can move upwards or down- wards fucceflively, from one extreme of a concord to ano- ther, and produce true melody : and by means of thefe, fe- veral voices are alfo capable of the neceflary variety in pairing from concord to concord.
As to the original of thefe degrees, they arife out of the fim- ple concords, and are equal to their differences. Thus, 8 : 9, is the difference of a fifth and fourth; 9 : IO, is the diffe- rence of a leffer third and fourth, or of a fifth and greater fixth ; and 15 ; 16, the difference of a greater third and fourth, or of a fifth and leffer fixth. For the ufe of Degrees, in the conftruction of the fcale of
mufic. See Scale and Gammut. Degree, in univerfities, denotes a quality conferred on the ftudents or members thereof, as a teftimony of their profi- ciency in the arts or faculties ; and entitling them to cer- ■ tain privileges, precedencies, &c. See University, Fa- culty, &c.
The degrees are much the fame in the feveral univerfities : but the laws thereof, and the difcipline or exercife previous thereto differ. — The degrees are batchelor, majfer and doclor; inftead of which laff, in fome foreign univerfities, they have licentiate. See Licentiate.
In each faculty there are but two degrees, viz. batchelor and docJor, which were anciently called batchelor and majler : nor do the arts admit of more than two, which ftill retain the denomination of the ancient degrees, viz. batchelor and ma- Jler. At Oxford, degrees of mafter and doctor are only conferred once a year, viz. on the Monday after the fe- venth of July ; when a folemn act is held for the purpofe. See Act.
The expences of a degree of doctor in any of the faculties, in treats and fet fees, ufually amounts to about 100/. and that .of a mafter of arts, 20 or 30/. — There proceed year- ly about 150 doctors and mafters. See Doctor and Master.
The degree of batchelor is only conferred in Lent; and there proceed ufually about 2,00 yearly.
To take the degree of batchelor in arts, four years are requi- red, and three more for mafter of arts. See Batchelor. At Cambridge, matters are nearly on the fame footing, only the difcipline is fomewhat more fevere, and the exercifes more difficult. The commencement which anfwers to the act of Oxford, is the Monday before the firft Tuefday in July. — The degrees of batchelor are taken up in Lent, be- ginning on Afh-Wednefday.
To the degree of batchelor of arts, it is required, that the perfon have rcfided in the univerfity near four years ; and in his laft year have kept philofophy acts, i. e. have defended three queftions in natural philofophy, mathematics or ethics, and anfwered the objections of three feveral opponents at two feveral times ; as alfo, that he have oppofed three times. After which, being examined by the mafters and fellows of the college, he is referred to feek his degree in the fchools,
■ where he is to fit three days, and be examined by two ma- fters of arts appointed for the purpofe. The degree of mafter of arts is not given till above three
■ years after that of batchelor ; during which time, the can- • didate is obliged three feveral times to maintain two philolb-
phical queftions in the public fchools, and to anfwer the ob-
jections raifed agairtft him by a mafter of arts. — He mult alfa keep two acts in the batchelors fchool, and declaim one. To pafs batchelor of divinity, the candidate muft have been feven years mafter of arts; muft have oppofed a batchelor of divinity twice ; kept one divinity act ; and preached be- fore the univerfity, once in Latin, and once in Englifh. For the Degree of doctor. See the article Doctor. DYING, the art, or act of tinging cloth, fluff, or other matter with a permanent colour, which penetrates the fub- ftance thereof. See Cloth, Esfr.
Dying differs from bleaching, or whitening, which is not the giving a new colour, but the brightening of an old one : it alfo differs from painting, gilding, marbling, and print- ing, or ftamping, in that the colours in thefe only reach the furface. See Bleaching, Painting, Gilding, &c. Dying may be defined the art of colouring wool, linen, cot- ton, ,filk, hair, feathers, horn, leather, and the threads and webs thereof, with woods, roots, herbs, feeds and leaves, by means of falts, limes, lixiviums, waters, heats, fermenta- tions, macerations, and other proceffes.
Dying with regard to the manner of applying the colours, is divided into hot, and cold. Dying hot, Oep^^a^vi, is that wherein the liquors and ingre- dients are boiled, before the cloth be dipped therein ; or even where the cloths themfelves are boiled in the dye. Dying cold, -iuy^a.^, is where .the ingredients are diflblved cold ; or at leaft are fuffered to grow cold, ere the fluffs be put in them. — V. Savar. D. Comm. T. 2. p. 1697. voc ' Te'inture. Salmaf Exerc. ad Solin. T. 2. p. 1167. Origin of Dying. — -The dying art is of great antiquity; as appears from the traces of it in the oldeft facred, as well as profane writers. The honour of the invention is attributed to the Tyrians * ; though what leffens the merit of it, is that it is faid to have owed its rife to chance. The juices of certain fruits, leaves, CSV. accidentally crufhed, are fup- pofed to have furnifhed the firft hint : Pliny affures us, that even in his time the Gauls made ufe of no other dyes a : it is added, that coloured earths, and minerals wafhed and foaked with rain, gave the next dying materials b . — But pur- ple, an animal juice, found in a fhell-nfh called Murex, Conchylium, and Purpura, feems from hiitory to have been prior to any of them. This indeed was referved for the ufs of kings, and princes ; private perfons were forbidden by law to wear the leaft fcrap of it c . The difcovery of its tinging quality is faid to have been taken from a dog, which having caught one of the purple fifties among the rocks, and eaten it up, ftained his mouth and beard with the precious liquor ; which ftruck the fancy of a Tyrian nymph fo ftrongly, that fhe refufed her lover Hercules any favours till he had brought her a mantle of the fame colour f . — « V. Plin. Nat. Bijl. Lib. XXII. c. 2. Savar. Lib. cit. p. 1689. c Leg. I. C. §tuee res ven. non poffi Salmuth. ad Panciroll. Lib. I. Tit. 1. p. 8. feq. * Poll. Lib. I. de verb. Idon. ad Commod. Polyd. Virg. de Invent. Rer. Lib. III. c. 7. See alfo the article Purple.
- Pliny feems to afcribe the invention of the art of dying wools
to the Lydians of Sardis : Jnficere lanas Sardibus Lydi ' ; where the word incepere muft be understood b . But a modern critic futpects a falfe reading here ; and not without reafon, for Lydi, fubftitutes Lydda, the name of a city on the coaft of Phcenicia, where the chief mart of the ■purple-dye was c .— a V. Plin. Hift. Nat. Lib. VII. c. 56. b Hardou. not. ad loc. c Nurra, in Bill. Chois. T. 20. p. 193. feq. \ After the Phoenicians, the Sardinians feem to have arrived at the greateft perfection in the dying art ; infomuch that (ia^iia EKpSiKiaxoy, Sardinian dye palled into a proverb among the Greeks. Ariftophanes in two places, to exprefs a thing red as fcarlet, compares it to the /3«ftjxa ■Za.fima.Mv*. Salmafms, Palmerius and Spanheim indeed for ZaflivacMv fubftitute Y.ar SiaviHov, which they fuppofe a pofleflive of Sardis, and to de- note Sardian dye: but Nurra in a differtation exprefsly on the fubject. has ftrenuoufly fupported the pretenfions of his coun- try againft this innovation e . — d Ariltoph. in Acharnan. v. 112. item Pax. v. 11, 74. c I. Paul Nurra Dijf. de Varia, Leftione Adagii BAMMA SAPAINIAK.ON, tintlura Sardhiiaca. Fkr. 1709. 4 . le Clerc. Bill. Chois. T. 20. p. 187. feqq. Till the time of Alexander we find no other fort of dye m ufe but purple and fcarlet. — It was under the fucceffors of that monarch, that the Greeks applied themfelves to the o- ther colours, and invented, or at leaft perfected, blue, yel- low, green, C3Y. f . — For the ancient purple it has been long loft, but the perfection to which the moderns have carried the other colours, abundantly indemnifies them of the lofs. In this the French under the aufpices of that excellent mi- nifter M. Colbert, feem to have outftripped moft of their neighbours s. See Gobelins. — f y. Pitifc. L. Ant. T. 1. p. 249. voc. Baphia. £ Savar. HbT cit.
Among the Romans, dye-houfes, baphia, were all under the direction of the comes facrarum largitionum h ; though they had each their peculiar pra?pofitus, as at Alexandria, Tyre, &c. '. — The dyers of London make the 13th company of the city, incorporated under Hen. VI. coniifting of a ma- fter, warden, and livery k . — At Paris, arid in moft of the great cities in France, the dyers arc divided into three com- panies, viz. thofe of the great dye, du grand da" bon teint, who are only to ufe the belt ingredients, and fuch as ftrike the
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