as first imposed as a standing yearly tax under King Ethelred, A.D. 991. Edward the Confessor remitted this tax, but William I. and II. resumed it occasionally. In the reign of Henry I. it was accounted among the king's standing revenues; but Stephen, on his coronation-day, abrogated it for ever. Church-lands were exempted from the danegelt because, as is set forth in an ancient Saxon law, the people of England placed more confidence in the prayers of the church than in any military defence.

**Danet**, Peter, editor of the Delphin Phaedrus, was abbot of St Nicholas, Verdun, in 1674, and died at Paris in 1709. He published also a Latin and French dictionary.

**Daniel** (*i.e.* judge of God), a celebrated prophet in the Chaldean and Persian period. He was descended from one of the highest families in Judah, if not even of royal blood, and Jerusalem was probably his birth-place.

We find him at the age of twelve or sixteen years already in Babylon, whither he had been carried together with three other Hebrew youths of rank, Ananias, Mishael, and Azariah, at the first deportation of the people of Judah in the fourth year of Jehoiakim. Along with his companions he was obliged to enter the service of the Babylonian court, on which occasion he received the Chaldean name of Belteshazzar. In his new career, Daniel, besides his education in oriental etiquette, was especially instructed "in the writing and speaking Chaldean" (Dan. i. 4); and at an early period acquired renown for high wisdom, piety, and strict observance of the Mosaic law. More especially his refusal to partake of unclean food, and to participate in the idolatrous ceremonies attendant on the heathen banquets, was crowned with the Divine blessing, and had the most splendid results.

After the lapse of three years, Daniel was attached to the court of Nebuchadnezzar, where, by the Divine aid having interpreted a dream of that prince, he rose into high favour with the king, and was entrusted with two important offices—the governorship of the province of Babylon, and the head-inspectorship of the sacerdotal caste.

Considerably later in the reign of Nebuchadnezzar we find Daniel interpreting another dream of the king's, to the effect that, in punishment of his pride, he was to lose, for a time, his throne, but to be again restored to it after his humiliation had been completed (Dan. iv.). Here he displays not only the most touching anxiety, love, loyalty, and concern for his princely benefactor, but also the energy and solemnity becoming his position, pointing out with vigour and power the only course left for the monarch to pursue for his peace and welfare.

Under the successors of Nebuchadnezzar, Daniel was removed from his high posts, and speedily forgotten in some insignificant situation.

We thus lose sight of him until the first and third year of king Belshazzar, generally understood to have been Nebonadius the last king of Babylon, but who was, more probably, the son and successor of Nebuchadnezzar, usually called Evil-Merodach, though passing in Daniel by his Chaldean title and rank. After a reign of two years, this monarch was assassinated by his brother-in-law Neriglissar. Shortly before this event Daniel was again restored to the royal favour, in consequence of being able to read and solve the meaning of a sentence miraculously written on the walls of his banquet-room. During his reign, Daniel was comforted by two remarkable visions, which disclosed to him the ultimate fate of the most powerful empires of the world, with their relations to the kingdom of God, and its great consummation.

After the conquest of Babylon by the united powers of Media and Persia, Daniel busied himself under the short reign (two years) of Darius the Mede or Cyaxares II., with the affairs of his people and their possible return from exile, the term of which was fast approaching, according to the prophecies of Jeremiah. Occupying, as he did, one of the highest posts of honour in the state, the strictness with which he fulfilled his official duties roused the envy and jealousy of his colleagues, who induced the king to issue a decree abolishing for a time the usual hours of prayer. For his disobedience the prophet was thrown into a den of lions, but was miraculously delivered, and raised to the highest posts of honour under Darius and Cyrus (Dan. vi.).

He had at last the happiness to behold his people restored to their own land; but his advanced age would not allow him to be among those who returned to Palestine.

In the third year of Cyrus, he had a series of visions de-