DACIER

dacier, andre (1651-1722), french classical scholar, was born at castres in upper languedoc, on the 6th of april 1651. his father, a protestant advocate, sent him first to the academy of puy laurens, and afterwards to saumur to study under tanneguy lefevre. on the death of lefevre in 1672, dacier removed to paris, and was appointed one of the editors of the delphin series of the classics. in 1683 he married anne lefevre, the daughter of his old tutor (see below). in 1695 he was elected member of the academy of inscriptions, and also of the french academy; not long after, as payment for his share in the "medallic" history of the king's reign, he was appointed keeper of the library of the louvre. he died two years after his wife, on the 18th of september 1722. the most important of his works were his editions of pompeius festus and verrius flaccus, and his translations of horace (with notes), aristotle's _poetics_, the _electra_ and _oedipus coloneus_ of sophocles, epictetus, hippocrates and plutarch's _lives_. his wife, anne lefevre (1654-1720), french scholar and translator from the classics, was born at saumur, probably in march 1654. on her father's death in 1672 she removed to paris, carrying with her part of an edition of callimachus, which she afterwards published. this was so well received that she was engaged as one of the editors of the delphin series of classical authors, in which she edited florus, dictys cretensis, aurelius victor and eutropius. in 1681 appeared her prose version of anacreon and sappho, and in the next few years she published prose versions of terence and some of the plays of plautus and aristophanes. in 1684 she and her husband retired to castres, with the object of devoting themselves to theological studies. in 1685 the result was announced in the conversion to roman catholicism of both m. and mme dacier, who were rewarded with a pension by the king. in 1699 appeared the prose translation of the _iliad_ (followed nine years later by a similar translation of the _odyssey_), which gained for her the position she occupies in french literature. the appearance of this version, which made homer known for the first time to many french men of letters, and among others to a. houdart de la motte, gave rise to a famous literary controversy. in 1714 la motte published a poetical version of the _iliad_, abridged and altered to suit his own taste, together with a _discours sur homere_, stating the reasons why homer failed to satisfy his critical taste. mme dacier replied in the same year in her work, _des causes de la corruption du gout_. la motte carried on the discussion with light gaiety and badinage, and had the happiness of seeing his views supported by the abbe jean terrasson, who in 1715 produced two volumes entitled _dissertation critique sur l'iliade_, in which he maintained that science and philosophy, and especially the science and philosophy of descartes, had so developed the human mind that the poets of the 18th century were immeasurably superior to those of ancient greece. in the same year pere c. buffier published _homere en arbitrage_, in which he concluded that both parties were really agreed on the essential point--that homer was one of the greatest geniuses the world had seen, and that, as a whole, no other poem could be preferred to his; and, soon after (on the 5th of april 1716), in the house of m. de valincourt, mme dacier and la motte met at supper, and drank together to the health of homer. nothing of importance marks the rest of mme dacier's life. she died at the louvre, on the 17th of august 1720. see c. a. sainte-beuve, _causeries du lundi_, vol ix.; j. f. bodin, _recherches historiques sur la ville de saumur_ (1812-1814); p. j. burette, _eloge de mme dacier_ (1721); _memoires de mme de stael_ (1755); e. egger, _l'hellenisme en france_, ii. (1869); _memoires de saint-simon_, iii.; r. rigault, _histoire de la querelle des anciens et des modernes_ (1856). dacite (from dacia, mod. transylvania), in petrology, volcanic rocks which may be considered a quartz-bearing variety of andesite. like the latter they consist for the most part of plagioclase felspar with biotite, hornblende, augite or enstatite, and have generally a porphyritic structure, but they contain also quartz as rounded, corroded phenocrysts, or as an element of the ground-mass. their felspar ranges from oligoclase to andesite and labradorite, and is often very zonal; sanidine occurs also in some dacites, and when abundant gives rise to rocks which form transitions to the rhyolites. the biotite is brown; the hornblende brown or greenish brown; the augite usually green. the ground-mass of these rocks is often micro-crystalline, with a web of minute felspars mixed with interstitial grains of quartz; but in many dacites it is largely vitreous, while in others it is felsitic or cryptocrystalline. in the hand specimen many of the hornblende and biotite dacites are grey or pale brown and yellow rocks with white felspars, and black crystals of biotite and hornblende. other dacites, especially augite- and enstatite-dacites, are darker coloured. the rocks of this group occur in hungary, almeria (spain), argyllshire and other parts of scotland, new zealand, the andes, martinique, nevada and other districts of western north america, greece, &c. they are mostly associated with andesites and trachytes, and form lava flows, dikes, and in some cases massive intrusions in the centres of old volcanoes. among continental petrographers the older dacites (carboniferous, &c.) are often known as "porphyrites." (j. s. f.)