RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA
Cysat Dagon
Johann Baptist Faber, Christof Wilkow, Erasmus Landenberg, Michael Behm, and tieorg Mylius. Throughout the poetical works of this group, religious or secular, runs the constant theme of the mutable and transitory nature of life, expressed in verse which shows more or less skill, yet reveals, especially in its numerous pastorals and songs of friendship, little sincerity or poetic fire. Dach alone rises above the level of his age to a height where he stands comparable with Gerhardt. His secular poems were written to order under the stress of pressing poverty, and show all the faults of this class of composition. A striking exception, however, is the song Anke van Tharau written in Plattdeutsch. It has become a popular folk-song. In his religious poems, however, Dach finds his true sphere. Sincerity of emotion, a simple fulness of faith and confidence in the justice of providence in the midst of a world of turmoil and uncertainty characterize them; in expression, melody, and deftness of rhythm and rime they are not unworthy of comparison with the productions of a higher age. That a surprisingly small number of his sacred songs have been retained in the Evangehcal hymnals is due partly to the fact that, as poems written for special occasions, they reveal the quiet spirit of meditation rather than the sonorous swing of the hymn. His collected poems were published by Oesterley at Stuttgart in 1877.
(H. Jacoby.)
Bibliography: H. Stiehler, Simon Dach, Konigsberg, 1896; C. V. Winterfeld, Der evangelische Kirchengesang, vol. ii., Leipsic, 1845; G. G. Gervinus, Geschichte der deutschen Dichtung, vol. iii., Leipsic, 1872; K. Goedeke and J. Tittmann, Deutsche Dichter des siebenzehnten Jahrhunderts, ib. 1876; Julian, Hymnology, pp. 276-277.
D'ACHERY, JEAN LUC. See Achery, Jean Luc d'
DA COSTA, IZAAK: Dutch poet and Christian apologist; b. at Amsterdam Jan. 14, 1798; d. there Apr. 28, 1860. His parents were wealthy Jews of Portuguese descent who had departed in faith, though not in practise, from the hereditary belief, and were opposed to the political and social ideals of French revolutionism. At an early age Da Costa acquired a love for Greek Hterature which remained with him throughout life, and later the influence of the scholar and poet Willem Bilderdijk, to whom the elder Da Costa entrusted the education of his son, molded his entire career. In 1816 Da Costa entered the University of Leyden, and took his doctorate in law in 1818, and in philology in 1821. Bilderdijk had accepted a professorship at Leyden, and there his unobtrusive but persistent inculcation of the principles of the Christian faith won Da Costa from the teachings of Voltaire's deism to a fervent belief in the Gospel. In Oct., 1822, he was baptized, and he then devoted himself with characteristic zeal to the service of his new faith, bringing to the task an earnestness of conviction, a disregard of public opinion, and a gift for literary expression that were destined to exert a formative influence on the subsequent religious history of the Netherlands. The genius of the time was one of inoffensive neutrality between religion and secular culture, but men were
inclined to interpret religion in the spirit of that secular culture. In 1823 Da Costa published at Leyden his Bezwaren tegen den geest der eeuw, in which he combated the complacent belief of his contemporaries that the nineteenth century was destined to surpass all that had gone before. As a period of decline in faith, morals, toleration, and humanitarianism, he chose rather to call it the age of slavery, unbelief, superstition, and darkness; De Sadduceen, published in the following year, was in the main an exposition of the same theme, comparing the theology of his own time and the Arminianism of the seventeenth century with the Sadduceeism of the days of Christ. Da Costa thus became the apologist of the old simple faith and orthodoxy, and this not alone in his prose works but in his poems, which are warm with the spirit of the old singers of the Bible. The bold position he assumed subjected him to virulent attacks by the press, and he was regarded with suspicion by the police. With the revolution of 1830, however, an event which he had predicted with almost prophetic foresight, adherents began to flock to him. From that time to the end of his life his zeal remained unabated in the furtherance of the cause of the new orthodoxy; and though the forces he had set in motion soon came to be directed by other hands, he may be called the prophet of the new movement, while others developed his principles.
Aside from his activity as an author. Da Costa conducted classes in the study of the Bible, lectured frequently throughout the country, and was identified with every movement favorable to the cause of religious revival. His poetical works were published by J. P. Hasebroek at Haarlem in 1861; his theological writings were issued two years later by H. J. Koenen. Of these the principal are: Voorlezingen over de eenheid en overeenstemming der Evangelien (2 vols., Leyden, 1840; Eng. transL, The Four Witnesses, London, 1851); Paulus (2 parts, 1846); Israel en de Volken (1849; Eng. transL, Israel and the Gentiles. Contributions to the History of the Jews from the Earliest Times to the Present Day, London, 1850) ; and Beschouwingen van dei Handelingen der Apostelen (3 parts, 1856-58).
(J. A. Gerth van WijKf.)
Bibliography: W G. C. Bijvanck, De jeugd van Is. da Costa, 2 vols., Leyden, 1894-96; H. J. Koenen, Levensbericht ran Mr. Is. da Costa, ib. 1860; G. J. Vos, Geschiedenis der vaderlandsche kerk, ii. 184-272, Dordrecht, 1882; A. Pierson, Oudere Tijdgenooten, pp. 1-35, Amsterdam, 1888; J. Reitsma, Geschiedenis van de hervorming en de hervormde kerk der N ederrlanden, Groningen, 1893.
DAGON : A deity of the Phihstines, perhaps the principal god of that people. He had temples at Gaza (Judges xvi. 21 sqq.) and Ashdod (I Sam. v. 1-2; I Mace. x. 82-85, xi. 4). The location of the temple mentioned in I Chron. x. 10 is not given. Indications are found in place-names, pointing to the worship of a deity with this name over a wider territory than that occupied by the Philistines. Thus a Beth-dagon is mentioned Josh. xv. 41, which is possibly the modern Beit-Dejan (6 m. s.e. of Joppa) ; there is a place of the same name 7 m. e. of Nablus and another near Jericho. The inscription of Eshmunazar of Sid on speaks of Dor and Joppa
DaRon Dalton