operly the word refers to an "amateur" as opposed to a "professional"
cultivation of the arts, but like "amateur" it is often used in a
depreciatory sense for one who is only a dabbler, or who only has a
superficial knowledge or interest in art. The Dilettanti Society founded
in 1733-1734 still exists in England. A history of the society, by
Lionel Cust, was published in 1898.

DILIGENCE, in law, the care which a person is bound to exercise in his
relations with others. The possible degrees of diligence are of course
numerous, and the same degree is not required in all cases. Thus a mere
depositary would not be held bound to the same degree of diligence as a
person borrowing an article for his own use and benefit. Jurists,
following the divisions of the civil law, have concurred in fixing three
approximate standards of diligence--viz. ordinary (_diligentia_), less
than ordinary (_levissima diligentia_) and more than ordinary
(_exactissima diligentia_). Ordinary or common diligence is defined by
Story (_On Bailments_) as "that degree of diligence which men in general
exert in respect of their own concerns." So Sir William Jones:--"This
care, which every person of common prudence and capable of governing a
family takes of his own concerns, is a proper measure of that which
would uniformly be required in performing every contract, if there were
not strong reasons for exacting in some of them a greater and permitting
in others a less degree of attention" (_Essay on Bailments_). The
highest degree of diligence would be that which only very prudent
persons bestow on their own concerns; the lowest, that which even
careless persons bestow on their own concerns. The want of these various
degrees of diligence is negligence in corresponding degrees. These
approximations indicate roughly the greater or less severity with which
the law will judge the performance of different classes of contracts;
but English judges have been inclined to repudiate the distinction as a
useless refinement of the jurists. Thus Baron Rolfe could see no
difference between negligence and gross negligence; it was the same
thing with the addition of a vituperative epithet. See NEGLIGENCE.

_Diligence_, in Scots law, is a general term for the process by which
persons, lands or effects are attached on execution, or in security for
debt.

DILKE, SIR CHARLES WENTWORTH, Bart. (1810-1869), English politician, son
of Charles Wentworth Dilke, proprieto