DIARY, a daily record of events or obser vations made by an individual. It contains a narrative, more or less detailed, of matters of personal interest, often including the results of reading or meditation. Yet references to cur rent events of general interest are sometimes introduced. This form of diary is also known as a journal Books convenient for making such records are issued every year, containing be sides the blank pages various reference tables, etc. The of the ancients was originally a military record or journal, a day book or account-book, also a collection of tables showing the position of the heavenly bodies, but passed into literature to mean a collection of records of what has happened on the same day in various years, or a mere general name for any form of periodical books or magazines.
Diaries have often furnished the historian with invaluable material, supplying the absence of public records and furnishing minute and in timate details of manners and of motives that do far more to help us to understand the past than more formal records. Such documents as Robert Baillie's Journals,) the 'Diaries) of Pepys and Evelyn, and the 'Journals) of Gre ville are among the most valuable sources of real history.
DIAS, &Cis, Azitonio Gonealvez, Brazilian poet: b. Caxias, state (then province) of Ma ranhao, 18 Aug. 1823; d. 3 Nov. 1864. He was educated at the University of Coimbra, Portu gal, and returning to his native country, en tered the practice of law in Maranhao. He published at Rio de Janeiro in 1846 a volume of poems entitled cantos,) which was followed by his drama of de Men done& (1847) ; cantos) (1848) ; and (Ultimos cantos) (1850). In 1848 he was chosen professor of national history in the Col lege of Dom Pedro II; he was subsequently employed in the office of the Minister of For eign Affairs, and in 1855 was charged with a scientific mission to Europe. His poetry has been exceedingly popular in Brazil. His works also include a report, 'Brazil e Oceania) ; and several papers of importance on the migrations of the South American Indian tribes in the collection of the Instituto Geografico e }Estor ico of Rio de Janeiro.