DISSELHOFF, JULIUS AUGUST GOTTFRIED:
Successor of Fliedner at the head of the Kaiserswerth home for deaconesses (see Fliedner, Theodor; and Deaconess, III., 2, a, §§ 2-3); b. in Soest, Westphalia, Oct. 24, 1827; d. near Simmern (26 m. s.w. of Coblenz) July 14, 1896. He entered the University of Halle in 1846. In the national student movement of 1848 he represented the royalistic old Prussian side, and was Halle's delegate to the parliament at Eisenach. In 1850 he became Fliedner's assistant in Kaiserswerth; in 1853 pastor at Schermbeck, near Wesel, where he established a basket factory for the unemployed in his own parsonage, and showed great talent as an organizer. On the call of FUedner, in 1855 he returned to Kaiserswerth, thenceforth his field of labor. His careful study Gegenwartige Lage der Kretinen, Blodsinnigen und Idioten (Bonn, 1857) led to the foimding of several asylums for the insane. In 1859 appeared his collections of sermons {Geschichte des Konigs Sauls. David, Ruth, Paulus) and his epic poem Konig Alfred; in 1860, Neue Weisen — the last two works under the pseudonym Julius von Soest. He traveled much in the interest of Kaiserswerth, visiting the Orient five times, and founded the orphanage " Zoar " in Beirut in 1861. During the wars of 1864, 1866, and 1870-71 he led the Kaiserswerth deaconesses in the field and organized their work. After Fliedner's death (1865) he became the head of the latter's institutions. With the publication of his Wegweiser zu J. G. Hamann in 1871 he bade farewell to his favorite Uterary studies and devoted himself henceforth for thirty years to his allotted work. When he entered the field he found 115 stations and 327 sisters; he left double the number of stations and 953 sisters.
(DiODAT DiSSELHOFF.) Biblioorapht: The Kaiserswerther Kalendar for 1898 contains a brief sketch of his life. Consult: J. Disselhoff, Pastor Julius Disselhoff, zum Gedachtniss, Kaiserswerth, 1896.
DITTRICH, FRANZ: Roman CathoHc; b. at Thegsten (near Heilsberg, 41 m. s.e. of Konigsberg) Jan. 26, 1839. He studied at Braunsberg, Rome, and Munich, and was ordained to the priesthood in 1863. In 1866 he became privat-docent at Braunsberg, where he was appointed associate professor of theology. In 1873 he was promoted full professor, and since 1903 has also been provost of the cathedral of Ermland. He is a member of the Prussian house of deputies. He was editor of the Mittheilungen des ermldndischen Kunstverems (Braunsberg, 1870-75), and has written Dionysius der Grasse von Alexandrien (Freiburg, 1867); Ohservationes quwdam de ordine naturali et morah (Braunsberg, 1869); Regesten und Brief e des Cardinals Gaspara Contarini (1881); Gasparo tontarini, eine Monographic (1885), Ahriss einer Lehre der Unterziehung und des Unternchts (1890); Nunciaturherichte Giovanni Morones vom deutschen
Divination
THE NEW SCHAFF-HERZOG
Konigshofe (Paderborn, 1892); and Geschichte des Katholizismxis in Altpreussen von 1525 his zum Ausgange des achtzehnten Jahrhunderts (2 vols., Braimsberg, 1901-03).
DIVINATION.
I. In Ethnic Religion. II. In the Bible.
Animistic Basis (§ 1). III. Under Christianity.
Names and Methods (§ 2).
Divination is the supposed art of discovering the -svill of the gods, of forecasting the future from indications ascribed to them, or of deciding from phenomena supposedly supernatural the correct course of action to be followed. Three principles he at the root of divination: (1) behef that Deityis wiUing to reveal to his worshipers both his own will and directions for a correct method of procedure for their advantage; (2) persistent longing to read the future; (3) behef that natural events have a significance for man akin to the principles of magic (see Magic; and Comparative Religion, VI., 1, § 5). The art is confined to no one stage of civilization. It exists in primitive and tribal rehgion, is always a part of the official cults of developed faiths, and persists as a superstition under Christianity, even receiving churchly sanction.
I. In Ethnic Religion: In the stage when man imagined that vohtion and power resided in things now held to be only material he worshiped them as superhuman , not only in power, but also in knowledge. As a characteristic of early re- I. Animis- hgion is to expect from the objects of tic Basis, its worship a quid pro quo in the direction of man's wants (cf. Gen. xxviii. 20-22), the behef obtained that, from objects conceived to possess wisdom greater than man's, knowledge of the future could be gained if the right methods were pursued. Human perceptions were early sufficiently keen and human reasoning was sufficiently logical to look for indications of the future or for directions as to conduct in methods suited to the observed character of the object consulted. Hence men fancied they heard answers to queries or indications of divine will in the leaves of a sacred tree, in the waters of a sacred stream, in the surf on the shore, etc. Individuals claimed superior ability in reading these omens, and diviners developed as a class. Inventive genius came into play, and methods of consulting superhuman powers were devised. Observed sequences were read as cause and effect, and a repetition of the first or its artificial production was believed to insure repetition of the other. Thus a pseudo-science or fictitious art developed with its established canons. Along with other consequences of animistic belief there was unfolded the idea of exchange of souls, the doctrine of possession or obsession of human bodies by spirits to impart information (cf. the phrase " familiar spirits "), the ability of the dead (enlarged in knowledge by passing the gates of death) to share this knowledge with the living, and also the power of the human spirit to wander from the body in search of wisdom. Moreover, persons in abnormal states of mind (see Ecstasy), or with minds diseased (" demoniacs"; see Demoniac) or defective (idiots), or with unu-
sual physical characteristics (as albinos), were considered channels of divine communication and were employed in divinatory art. Where observation had shown that a certain environment produced abnormal states of mind, that environment was sought, or a person inhabited a particular place to act as the medium between the oracle god and the inquirers, and the utterances were accepted as inspired. Such utterances proceeded from the Cumaean and Delphic oracles, at the shrines of which mephitic gases produced ecstatic effects. This condition, expressed by the Greek mania, " prophetic frenzy," developed the technical term mantike or mantike techno. The dream was also believed to be of superhuman sending and to have significance as an index of divine will. Hence dreams were induced by the drinking of decoctions brewed by the knowing, or by sleeping on a spot haunted by divinity or in a temple. The art of reading dreams grew, and persistently survived in advanced stages. Instruments for use in divination were taken from sacred objects and employed in all the ways which the ingenuity of man could devise.
How various were the methods employed is only suggested by the following (incomplete) list of names applied to some of the methods. Hydromancy is divination by water (e.g., the roar of the waves, the flow of an intermittent spring, or the movement of water poured into a cup, the latter also called culicomancy); xylomancy,
2. Names rhabdomancy, and belomancy used and sacred trees or parts of them, or ar-
Methods. rows made from them (compare the modern " dowsing " with a forked twig of hazel); empyromancy employed fire; geomancy used soil from a sacred spot or supposed motions of the earth; asteromancy employed the motions of stars and planets or meteors; capnomancy drew its conclusions from the appearance or motions of clouds (cf. I Kings xviii. 44); cleromancy or sortUegium was the casting of lots -by stones, dice, or other objects; ornithomancy used the flight or voices of birds; ichthyomancy observed the movements of fishes; oneiromancy interpreted dreams; necrnmancy p^-nfessed to use the dead or ancestral images ^ Jogomanc^^ depended upon the chance utterance of a word (cf . I Sam. xiv. 8-10); axinomancy employed an ax; coscinomancy used the oscillations of a suspended sieve, and dactylomancy employed a ring in the same manner; cheiromancy has survived in almost its old form of reading the lines on the hand; scapulomancy or omoplatoscopy read the fissures caused on the shoulderblade of a sacrificial animal by exposing it to fire; haruspication used many methods, including the inspection of the liver or entraUs of slain victims (hepatomancy or hepatoscopy and splanchnomancy). Among the Romans arose the Vergiliance sortes, in which the /Eneid was opened and a passage selected by chance was interpreted with reference to the point at issue. Later the Bible took the place of the Mneid for this purpose (bibliomancy). Especially noteworthy is the Ordeal (q.v.) to decide innocence or guilt. Such methods have been employed among all peoples, the articles depending upon the environment; e.g., the Tongans