That you may see how powerable time is in altering tongs as all things else.-Camden. Remaines. Languages.

But Hatred would my entrance have restrayned,
And with his club me threat'ned to have brayned,
Had not the ladie with her powrefull speach
Him from his wicked will uneath refrayned.

Spenser. Faerie Queene, b. iv. c. 10.

Strong and substantial it hath stood against all the storms of factions, both of belief and ambition, which so powerfully beat upon it.-Daniel. Defence of Rhyme.

That in amazement ev'ry mortal stood,

As though her words such pow'rfulness did bear,
That each thing seem'd her menaces to fear.

Drayton. Legend of Robert Duke of Normandy.
His powrelesse arme benumb'd with secret feare,
From his revengefull purpose shronke abacke.
Spenser. Faerie Queene, b. iv. c. 6.
Through his right shoulder flew the dart, whose blow
strooke all the blowes

In his powre, from his powrelesse arme, and downe he groning fell.-Chapman. Homer. Iliad, b. xvi.

Of all the vices incident to human nature, none so powerfully and peculiarly carries the soul downwards as covetousness does.-South, vol. iii. Ser. 2.

O my Telemachus! the Queen rejoin'd,
Distracting fears confound my labouring mind;
Powerless to speak, I scarce uplift my eyes,
Nor dare to question; doubts on doubts arise.

Pope. Homer. Odyssey, b. xxiii.

Power gradually extirpates from the mind every humane and gentle virtue.-Burke. Vindication of Natural Society. POX. See Pock. POZE. See POSE. PRACTISE, v. PRACTICE, n. PRACTICABLE.

PRACTICABLY.

PRACTICABLENESS.

PRACTICABIlity.
PRACTICAL.
PRACTICALLY.
PRACTICK, adj.
PRACTICK, N.
PRACTISER.
PRACTISANT.
PRACTISING, n.
PRACTITIONER.
PRACTIVELY.

Fr. Practique, practiquer; It. Pràtica, praficare; Sp. Practica, practicar; Low Lat. Prac ticare, from the Gr. ПpakTIKOS, from πρаTTEL, to do, to continue to do.

To do or continue to do; to do continually or habitually; to perform, to use, to exercise; to try or make trial; to act or transact.

Practice (i.e. any thing practised, exercised, tried, attempted) is, in our old writers-an experiment, a trick, an artifice, a stratagem.

Tell forth your tale, and spareth for no man,
And techeth us yonge men of your practike.

The weakness of human understanding, all will confess : yet the confidence of most in their own reasonings, practically disowns it.-Glanvill. Vanity of Dogmatizing, c. 7. For he was wylie witted, and growne old

In cunning sleightes and practick knavery. Spenser. Faerie Queene, b. ii. c. 3. One (either of Venice or Padoa) hath written unto a certain Florentine, of great prattick with strangers, to enquire after me amongst the Dutch nation.

Reliquiæ Wottonianæ, p. 663. Bast. Here entred Pucell, and her practisants. Shakespeare. 1 Pt. Hen. VI. Act iii. sc. 2. Having been no long practiser among them, did grow straight into great estimation, and wan him many friends, by reason of the causes he took in hand to defend. North. Plutarch, p. 289. To whom he shows his uncle's discontent, And of his secret dangerous practising.

Then true religion might be sayd With vs in primitiue,

Daniel. Civil Wars, b. i.

The preachers and the people both
Then practively did thriue.

Warner. Albion's England, b. viii. c. 39.
This is a glorious speech, I confess, and to the angels, to
the cherubims and seraphims perhaps practicable.
South, vol. iv. Ser. 5.
The meanest capacity, when he sees a rule practicably
applied before his eyes, can no longer be at a loss how 'tis to
be performed.-Rogers.

You conclude thus, which is all that needs be said upon this head to shew the consistency and practicableness of this method.-Locke. Third Let. on Toleration, c 3.

As this advice ye practise, or reject,
So hope success, or dread the dire effect.
Pope. Homer. Iliad, b. vii.
philosophy, the Apostles and primitive Christians, who ever
If we pass to the professors and practicers of an higher
so overflowed with spiritual joy as they did?

South, vol. iv. Ser. 11.
Therefore, avaunt all attitude, and stare,
And start theatric, practis'd at the glass!

Cowper. Task, b. ii.
Yet some there are who indiscreetly stray,
Where purblind practice only points the way,
Who ev'ry theoretic truth disdain,
And blunder on, mechanically vain.

Mason. Fresnoy. Art of Painting.
The failure of the attempts hitherto made on this subject,
are not decisive against the practicability of such a project.
Stewart. Moral Philosophy, p. 71.

By synthetical reasonings from the theory of gravitation, we have been enabled to ascertain various astronomical

elements of the highest practical utility with a precision
which mere observation was incompetent to attain.
Id. Philosophical Essays, c. 2. Prel. Dis.
There was in this reign another person too illustrious a
find no mention of him in Vertue's MSS. This was Edward
Courteney, the last Earl of Devonshire.

Chaucer. The Wif of Bathes Prologue, v. 5768. lover, and even practicer of the art to be omitted, though I

He knew the cause of every maladie,

Were it of cold, or hote, or moist, or drie,

And wher engendred, and of what humour,

He was a veray parfite practisour.-Id. Prol. v. 486.

Practike hath yet the thirde apprise,

Whiche techeth howe and in what wise,
Through his purueid ordinance

A kinge shall set in gouernance
His realme.

Gower. Con. A. b. vii,

The sayd dragon had seven heades, signifiynge all the craftye wyles, and subtile suggestions, that he hath practised and vsed against Christ & his word.-Bale. Image, pt. ii.

A champion roughe and practyser
Of vertue straite and sounde.

Drant. Horace. Epistles to Mæcenas.

Lucterius, in times past whyle he was in his prosperitye, was able to wey greatlye wyth hys countrye men, and had gotten great estimation among the rude people, as one that was euer a practiser of new devises. Goldinge Cæsar, fol. 260. Beastlye are they euermore, vayne, carnall, and corrupte

in their studyes, abhominable in the practisynges of their

wicked hertes.-Bale. Image, pt. ii.

Consider how long he hath bin a practicioner: you must consider what Sathan is, what experience he hath, so that

we are not able to match with him.

Latimer. Seventh Ser. on the Lord's Prayer. Mongst which Cymochles of her questioned Both what she was, and what that usage ment, Which in her cott she daily practized

Spenser. Faerie Queene, b. ii. c. 6. And in this first yere also this realme was troubled with ciuile sedition, and the craftie practises of the Frenchmen. Grafton. Hen. IV. an. 1.

And now I briefly come to the las: particular, which will make all the rest practicable.-Bp. Taylor, vol. iii, Ser. 2.

The rest of Aristotle's books must be referr'd to his philosophy, which he divided into two parts, namely, speculative and practical, which is the most beneficial and reasonablest division that can possibly be made.-North. Plut. pt. ii. p. 18. VOL. II.

PRAGMATICK, PRAGMATICAL. PRAGMATICALLY.

PRAGMATICALNESS. PRAGMATIST.

Fr. Pragmatique; Gr. Πραγματικος, from πραγμα, and this from πραττο to do. Able to do or act;

ειν,

skilful, apt, expert in action; willing or desirous to do or act; acting officiously, busily; officious, busy, intermeddling.

I know aduantages; and I loue to hit These pragmaticke young men, at their own weapons. B. Jonson. The Divelle is an Asse, Act i. sc. 6. The absurd pragmaticall impudencie of the present Pope, in that grosse prohibition of a favourable and naturall oath, for his Majesties security, in a sort countenancing rebellion against his person.-Bp. Hall. The Impresse of God, pt. ii. As they say of a swine, that he looks every way but upwards; so we may say of pragmatists, that their eyes look all ways but inward.-Reynolds. On the Passions, c. 16.

They who are busy-bodies in other men's matters, create trouble and mischief to themselves in the best of times, and therefore much more may they expect to reap the ill consequences of their pragmatical humour when the times are ticklish and boisterous.-Sharp, vol. v. Dis. 5.

1489

As for the greatest God, and the whole world, men should not busily and curiously search after the knowledge thereof, nor pragmatically enquire into the causes of things, it being not pious for them so to do. Cudworth. Intellectual System, p. 517.

But pragmaticalness disturbeth the world, confounding things, removing the distinction between superior, inferior, and equal, rendering each man's business uncertain; while some undertake that which belongeth not to them: one busy-body often (as we find by experience) is able to disturb and pester a whole society.-Barrow, vol. i. Ser. 22.

There is a disposition which the writers of the New Testament often reprimand and condemn, and that is a pragmatical impertinence in meddling with the concerns and characters of other people.-Jortin, Diss. 3.

The kyng wepte with his ine, that sight mykelle he praised. R. Brunne, p. 79. So curteis of non men rede, ne prince of more praysing Was non in Cristendam. Id. p. 311. Wiclif. 1 Corynth. c. 4. And then shall every man haue prayse of God. Bible, 1551. Ib. Bissili kepe to ghyue thi silff a preued preisable werkman to God withouten schame rightli tretynge the word of treuthe. Wiclif. 2 Tym. c. 2.

Thanne preisyng schal be to ech of God.

Forsoth o maner gentrie is for to preise, that appareilleth mannes corage with vertues and moralitees, and maketh him Cristes child.-Chaucer. The Persones Tale. And worthily they preisen hire prudence.

Id. The Clerkes Tale, v. 8898. Thou shalt rather drede and flee fro the swete words of flatering preisers than fro the egre wordes of thy frend that saith thee sothes.-Id. The Tale of Melibeus.

And what thinge may ben thought fouler then soche praysynge for thilke folke that ben praised falslye, they mooten nedes haue shame of hir praisinge-Id. Boecius, b iii. He blameth, that is nought to blame, And preiseth, that is nought to preve

Gower. Con. 4. Prol. With laughter great of men, his prayselesse ship Sergestus brought.-Phaer. Virgill. Æneidos, b. v.

But whether they so kept it or not, if this gift of chastitie which they professed, were given them of God, small praisewoorthie was it in them to keepe it.

Fox. Martyrs, p. 121. an. 784. Our tong is able in that kinde to doe as prayseworthely as the rest. Surrey. Editor to the Reader.

Of whose high praise, and praiseful bliss,
Goodness the pen, heaven paper is:

The ink immortal fame doth lend.-Sidney. Arcadia, b. ii. The Englishemen returned to the king, which was commyng forwarde, who gaue them thanks with great praysings for their valiauntnesse.-Grafton. Hen. VIII. an. 5. It hath bene through all ages ever seene, That with the praise of armes and chevalrie The prize of beautie still hath ioyned beene.

Spenser. Faerie Queene, b. iv. c. 5. Her name was Envie, knowen well thereby ; Whose nature is to grieve and grudge at all That ever she sees doen prays-worthily.-Id. Ib. b. v. c.12. Hence the very word, by which we express the praising o. one, is to extol him; that is, to lift him up.

South, vol. viii. Ser. 1. If their words have any meaning at all, by praise, they must mean the exercise or testimony of some sorts of esteem, respect, or honourable regard.

Edwards. On the Will, pt. iii. s. 1.

In this case, so far is the love of praise-worthiness from being derived altogether from that of praise, that the love of praise seems, at least in a great measure, to be derived from that of praise-worthiness.-Smith. Moral Sentim. pt. iii. c. 2.

He by the prechynge of Paulinus forsoke his maumentry. Fabyan, vol. i. c. 130. In this season were dyuers preachynges in the realme, one contrarye to another concernyng the kynges maryage. Hall. Hen. VIII. an. 23.

For the instruction therefor of all sorts of men to eternall life, it is necessarie, that the sacred and sauing truth of God bee openly published vnto them. Which open publication of heauenly mysteries, is by an excellencie termed preaching.-Hooker. Ecclesiasticall Politie, b. v. § 18.

Yet true it is, that long before that day
Hither came Joseph of Arimathy,

Who brought with him the Holy Grayle, (they say,)
And preacht the truth.

Spenser. Faerie Queene, b. ii. c. 10.

According to this forme of theirs, it must stand for a rule: No sermon, no seruice. Which ouersight, occasion.ed the French spitefully to terme religion in that sort exercised, a mere preach.-Hooker. Ecclesiasticall Politie, b. v. s. 28.

And then the preachers aduaunced and set foorth this voyage to be acceptable before God. Grafton. Rich. II. an. 5.

I arose and betook me to the way, the ground that appeared of that purpose, was to speak with my patron, Sir Robert Drury, by occasion of the public preachership of St. Edmund's Bury, then offered me upon good conditions. Bp. Hall. Specialties in his Life.

It [Vertigo] reigns in the pulpit more than any where else, for some of our preachmen are grown dog-mad, there's a worm got into their tongues, as well as their heads. Howell, b. ii. Let. 33.

They will not reade, nor can they preach,
Yeat vp the pulpet towre,
Thear making tedious preachments, of
No edifying powre.

Warner. Albion's England, b. ix. c. 53.

So that with them the best preachers were such as could not read, and the ablest divines such as could not write. In all their preachments, they so highly pretended to the spirit, that they could hardly so much as spell the letter.

South, vol. iii. Ser. 12. Christ's meaning then could be no other than this, that he would not only by his Spirit assist the apostles in the preaching of the gospel during their lives, but he would also

continue that assistance to those that should succeed them in the work of the ministry, even as long as the world should endure.-Sharp, vol. v. Dis. 7.

ANS. Ere a foot further we must be content to hear a preambling boast of your valour, what a St. Dunstan you are to encounter legions, either infernal or human. Milton. Animadversions on the Remonstrants' Defence, &c.

Appius Clodius pleading a matter, said in his preamble, that his friend had earnestly requested him to employ all his knowledge, diligence, and faith upon this matter North. Plutarch, p. 721.

When fierce destruction follows to hell-gate, Pride doth most commonly preambulate. Jordan. Poems, § § 3. B. But I must begin with the fulfilling of your desire in a preambular way, for the subject admits it. Howell, b. ii. Let. 8. These three evangelical resuscitations are so many preambulary proofs of the last and general resurrection. Pearson. On the Creed, Art. 2. Now hereby he not only undermineth the base of religion, and destroyeth the principle preambulous unto all belief; but puts upon us the remotest error for truth. Brown. Vulgar Errours, b. i. c. 10. Simon Magus had preambulatory impieties; he was covetous and ambitious, long before he offered to buy the Holy Ghost.-Bp. Taylor, vol. i. Ser. 17.

Never did a people suffer so much for the empty words of a preamble-This famous revenue stands at this hour as a description of revenue not as yet known in all the comprehensive (but too comprehensive) vocabulary of finance-a preambulary tax.-Burke. On American Taxation.

PRE-APPOINT, v. Pre, before, and appoint; to bring to a point, (ad punctum.)

To fix, settle, or agree upon a point (of time, &c. )-before.

When the time pre-appointed by the divine wisdom for this execution, is come; the internal, central fire shall have got such strength and irresistible vigour that it shall easily melt and dissolve that fence that hath all this while inclosed it-Glanvill. Pre-existence of Souls, c. 14.

PRE-APPREHENSION. Pre, before, apprehension, (qv.) from apprehendere, to take hold

of.

A taking, conception, understanding before or previously, a previous conception.

tion præ, before, and action.

The fore or former action.

If an iron be touched before, it varieth not in this manner; for then it admits not this magnetical impression, as being already informed by the load-stone, and polarily determined by its preaction.—Brown. Vulgar Errours, b. ii. c. 2.

PRE-ADMONISH, v. Pre, before, ad, and monere, to advise, to warn. See MONISH.

To advise, to bring to mind, to apprise, before or beforehand; to forewarn.

These things thus pre-admonish'd, let us enquire what the undoubted meaning is of our Saviour's words, and enquire according to the rule which is observ'd by all learned and good men in their expositions.

Milton. Martin Bucer concerning Divorce.

PRE-A'DVERTISE, v. Pre, and advertise, from advertere, to turn to.

To turn (sc. the mind) to, before or previously; to inform or give information before.

Adam being pre-advertised by the vision, was presently able to pronounce, This is now bone of my bone, and flesh of my flesh.-More. The Literal Cabbala, c. 2.

Many mola's and false conceptions there are of mandrakes: the first, from great antiquity, conceiveth the root thereof resembleth the shape of man; which is a conceit not to be such as regarding the clouds, behold them in shapes conformable to pre-apprehensions. Brown. Vulgar Errours, b. ii. c. 6. PRE-A'UDIENCE. Pre, before, and audientia, from aud-ire, to hear.

A fore or first audience or hearing. Pre-audience in the courts is reckoned of so much consequence, that it may not be amiss to subjoin a short table of the precedence which usually obtains among the practisers. Blackstone. Commentaries, b. iii. c. 3.

PRE BEND.
PREBENDAL.
PRE BENDARY.
PRE BENDARYSHIP.
PRE BENDSHIP.
PREBENDATED.

Fr. Prébende; It. and Sp. Prebenda; Lat. Prebenda, (sc. pars aut portio.) The portion which every member or canon of a cathedral church receiveth in the right of his place for his maintenance, (Minshew.)

The high deanes of cathedrall churches, maisters of colleges, prebedes, persons, and vycars wolde not at so beastly a comaundement, leaue their wyues and chyldren so desolate wythoute all naturall order.-Bale. English Volaries, pt. i.

And that done, he comaunded inquyry to be made of his accessaryes, the prebesons or prebedars, of ye which he punysshed by dyuerse maner of turmetys and dethes, to the great contentacion of the countrey.-Fabyan, vol. i. c. 235.

The intent of the archbishop in planting of that new church, was to found there diuers prebends, and to make both the king and euerie bishop being his suffragans, prebendaries thereof, so that euerie one of them should confer one prebendship to the same foundation. Fox. Martyrs, p. 216. an. 1190.

How manie honest men see ye arize
Daylie thereby, and grow to goodly prize;
To deanes, to archdeacons, to commissaries,
To lords, to principalls, to prebendaries?

Spenser. Mother Hubberd's Tale. My Lords Grace of Canterbury had this week sent hither to Mr. Hales, very nobly, a prebendaryship of Windsor unexpected, undesired, like one of the favors (as they write) of Henry the seventh's time.-Reliquie Wottonian, p. 369.

He falleth into commendation of Stephen Langton his cardinall, declaryng howe learned he was in the literall artes, and in diuinitie, insomuch as he was prebendaled at Paris-Grafion. K. John, an. 11.

And returning to his native country when K. Ed. 6. reigned, [W. Turner] had the prebendship of Botevant, in the church of York, bestowed on him by the Archb. of that place.-Wood. Athena Oxon, vol. i. 155. p.

Which rectory after he [E. Bunney] had enjoyed 25 years, he resigned, maintaining himself with the profits of his prebendship-Id. Ib. vol. i. p. 429.

No sleek prebendal priest could be
More thoroughly devout than he.

Cooper. Ver-Vert. PRECARIOUS. Lat. Precarius, obtained PRECARIOUSLY. by prayer, (prece;) Fr. PRECARIOUSNESS. Précaire, précairement; Sp. Precario, (Cotgrave.)

Obtained by prayer of or from another; and, consequentially, depending on the will of another; and hence, generally, - uncertain, unfixed, unsettled, unsteady, doubtful.

That the fabrick of the body is out of the concurse of atomes, is a mere precarious opinion, without any ground or reason. More. Immortality of the Soul, b. ii. c. 10.

Whereof having once begot in our minds an assured dependence, he makes us rely on powers which he but precariously obeyes.-Brown. Vulgar Errours, b. i. c. 10.

So that after all, the law of the sabbath is but a precarious thing, and depends altogether upon the will of our governors. Sharp, vol. iv. Ser. 12.

For the work of the ministery comprizeth all the duty charged on them whether in way of order or governance; as

they now do precariously and groundlesly in reference to

this case distinguish.-Barrow. The Pope's Supremacy.

Most consumptive people die of the discharge they spit up, which, with the precariousness of the symptoms of an oppressed diaphragm from a mere lodgment of extravasated matter, render the operation but little adviseable. Sharp. Surgery.

It is indeed highly probable, that if the present precarious state of things lasts for any time, the ancient city will be almost deserted, and all the population of Verona pass to the Austrian territory.-Eustace. Italy, vol. i. c. 2.

Our boasted liberty sometimes trodden down, sometimes giddily set up, and ever precariously fluctuating and un. settled.-Burke. A Vindication of Natural Society.

That consideration which carries the mind the most forcibly to religion, which convinces us that it is indeed our proper concern, namely, the precariousness of our present condition, would be done away.-Paley, Ser. 33.

Lat. Precatio, from precari, to pray, (qv.)

PRECATION. PRE CATIVE. PRE/CATORY. beseeching or supplication.

A praying or entreating,

And can you not from your precation,
And your as daily club-potation,

To think of an old friend find some vacation?
Cotton. Epistle to John Bradshaw, Esq.

As this particle, Amen, used in the beginning of a speech is assertory of the undoubted truth of it, so when it is subjoin'd and us'd at the end of it, it is precatory, and signifies our earnest desire to have our prayers heard, and our petitions granted.-Hopkins. On the Lord's Prayer.

The peripatetics (and it seems too with reason) considered all these additional sentences as including within those which they themselves acknowledged, and which they made to be five in number, the vocative, the imperative, the interrogative, the precative, and the assertive.-Hermes,b.i. c.8.

PRE CAUTION,n. PRECAUTION, v. PRECAUTIONAL.

}

Fr. Précaution; It. Precauzione; Sp. Precaucion; Lat. Præcautio; præ, before, and cautio, from cautum, past part. of cavere, to beware. See CAUTION.

To forewarn or give previous warning; to preadmonish.

Wherefore this first filiall fear, is but virtuous and precautionall-Mountague. Devoute Essayes, pt. i. Treat.6. s. 3.

The age is not like to want instances of this kind, which should be made land-marks to him; that by the disgraces, diseases, beggary, and shame of hopeful young men thus brought to ruin, he may be precaution'd. Locke On Education, s. 94. Bend. 'Twas a bare saving game I made with Dorax, But better so than lost: he cannot hurt me, That I precaution'd: I must ruine him.

Dryden. Don Sebastian, Act ii. sc. 1.

Suppose we now--we may suppose-
In verse what would be sin in prose-
The sky with darkness overspread,
And ev'ry star retir'd to bed:
Precaution trudging all about

To see the candles fairly out.-Churchill. The Ghost, b.iv

PRE-CEDE, v. PRECEDENT, adj. PRECEDENT, N. PRECE'DENCE.

PRECEDENCY.

PRECEDENTED.

PRECEDENTIAL.

PRECE'SSION.

Fr. Précéder; It. Pre-' cèdere; Sp. Preceder; Lat. Precedere; præ, before, and ced-ere, to go.

To move, go, or come before; in time or space, in rank or degree. Precedent, n.-any thing PRECEDA'NEOUS. going before or that has gone before, (sc. as an example to follow or shun.) Sometimes written president. See the quotation from Spenser.

And Dus saith, that there is a mollifieng, that precedeth grace, whiche hee calleth attrition.-Barnes. Workes, p. 274.

Duns beeyng wrapped betweene carnall reason, and the inuincible Scriptures of S. Paule, can not tell, whether hee may graunt, that the will of God is alonely the cause of election, or els any merites of man precedyng afore. Id. Ib. p. 278. Then followed great reasonings, and showing of precedents, but no nearer they would come.

Burnet. Records, b. iii. King Edward's Journal.

By the mouth of ye sayd Engwerram the kynge desyred a subsydie of the said cytezins to mayntayne his warre agayne the Flemynges, the whiche, by Stephan Barbet, in the name of the hole cytie, was graunted; by precydence wherof all the great cyties and good townes of Fraunce were charged in lyke maner.-Fabyan, vol. ii. an. 1314. [28. Ph. 4.]

My [Lethington] sovereign's title [Mary of Scotland] in this case shall be little advanced, by taking exceptions to others' pretended and crased titles, considering her precedency.--Burnet. Records, b. iii. No. 30.

Then heav'n and earth renew'd shall be made pure
To sanctitie that shall receive no staine:

Till then the curse pronounc't on both precedes.

Milton. Paradise Lost, b. x.

These precedents presented to my view,
Wherein the presage of my fall was shown,
Might have forewarn'd me well what would ensue,
And others' harms have made me shun mine own.
Daniel. Complaint of Rosamond.

Thousands of them will venture to drink wine, and they will make a precedent prayer to their souls to depart from their bodies in the interim, for fear she partake of the same pollution-Howell, b. ii. Let. 54.

For none sure will claim in hell Precedence, none, whose portion is so small Of present pain, that with ambitious mind Will covet more.

If it be nicely enquired into, it will be found, that there was always an indisposition of body, precedent to these disorders of the mind.-Sharp, vol. iii. Ser. 5.

And because the retrograde motion of the equinoctial points thus advances the time of every equinox a little sooner then it would otherwise have happened, this phenomenon is called the precession of the equinoxes.

Maclaurin Newton. Philos. Dis. b. iv. c. 6. In the case of some operations which are very familiar to us, we find ourselves unable to attend to, or to recollect, the acts of the will by which they were preceded. Stewart. Of the Mind, vol. i. c. 2.

The younger sons and daughters of the king, and other branches of the royal family, who are not in the immediate line of succession, were therefore little farther regarded by the antient law, than to give them to a certain degree precedence before all peers and public officers, as well ecclesiastical as temporal.-Blackstone. Comment. b. i. c. 4.

When one offers to the public the labours of another person, it is allowable and precedented to expatiate in praise of the work. Walpole. Anecdotes of Painting, vol. i. Pref.

I cannot move with this precession of the equinoxes, which is preparing for us the return of some very old, I am afraid no golden æra, or the commencement of some new æra that must be denominated from some new metal.

Know, that, for the first, it is not so much preceptive as permissive.-Bp. Hall. A Letter on Christ's Nativity.

And the names that their parents or preceptours give them, they will not be asham'd or backward to bestow on others, having so good authority for the use of them.

Locke. Concerning Education, s. 77. Sixthly the twelve copies in p. 62, 63, 64, concerning the lands belonging to the Knight Templers of Sandford, near to, and in the County of Oxon, which I transcrib'd from a leiger-book containing all the evidences belonging to the preceptory of Sandford. Wood. Fasti Oxon. vol. ii. (Dugdale.)

The next precept is very remarkable, as implying the use of oil colours, long before that method is supposed to have been discovered.-Walpole. Anecdotes of Painting, vol. i. c.1.

Precepts are short, necessarily must be so; take up but little room; and, for that reason, do not always strike with the force, or leave the impression, which they ought to do. Paley, Ser. 10.

Experience, slow preceptress, teaching oft
The way to glory by miscarriage foul,
Must prompt him.
PRECINCT.

Cowper. Task, b. iii.

It. Precinto; from the Lat. Præcinctus, past part. of præcingere; præ, before. and cingere, to gird, to surround.

A place within, inclosed within certain bounds or limits; a boundary or limit.

Whan this Danys kynge Athelstanne had ye possession of thyse sayd countrees, ye shall vnderstande that all suche Angles as dwelled there, and within ye precynct of them, were [under] his obedyence.-Fabyan, vol. i. c. 172.

Sainte Fabiacre a Scottyshe heremyte had so greate malyce vnto women, that he plaged so many of the with the foul euill, as came within the precinct of his monastery. Bale. English Votaries, pt. i.

I think never man could boast it, without the precincts of paradise; but he that came to gain us a better Eden then we lost.-Glanvill. Vanity of Dogmatizing, c. 12.

The common vice of these castle-builders is to draw every thing within its precincts, which they fancy may contribute to its defence or embellishment. Warburton. Divine Legation, b. iv. s. 2.

variety of things, and precellency of one above another. More. Antidote against Atheism, Pref.

PRECEPT, n. PRECEPTIAL.

PRECEPTION.

Milton. Paradise Lost, b. ii.

PRECEPTIVE.

The old Gauls (whose customs and the British were near the same) had their orbicular tables to avoid controversy of precedency.-Drayton. Poly-Olbion, s. 4. Selden. Illust.

You look here, reader, to see to which of the two I should give the precedency; but since the world hath been to little to the one and the other, I should go too far if I plainly spake what I thought.-North. Plutarch, p. 622.

I have read that, by act of parliament, it [the church] was settled on the city to maintain and repair, and hope their practice hath proved precedential to other places in the same nature.-Fuller. Worthies. Gloucestershire.

If the faith which justifies me be a firm belief and persuasion, that my sins are remitted; it must follow, that my sins are remitted antecedently to that act of belief; forasmuch as the object must needs precede the act. South, vol. v. Ser. 3. But these things are onely passed over, as precedaneous to the constitution or ordination.

Barrow. On the Pope's Supremacy.

But the arguments which bear hardest upon Socinus, are such as are taken from those Scriptures, which beyond all possibility of rational contradiction, declare the pre-existence and precedent being of Christ to his conception. South, vol. iii. Ser. 7.

From all which I conclude, that it is absurd and irrational to suppose, that we can believe the being of a God, upon the bare affirming this of himself, unless we have some precedent, or concomitant knowledge, that the person so affirming it, is God.-Id. vol. v. Ser. 3.

Such a reason of precedence St. Cyprian giveth in another case, because (saith he) Rome for its magnitude ought to precede Carthage.-Barrow. On the Pope's Supremacy.

If we here measure the greatness of the virtue, by the difficulty of its exercise, passive obedience will certainly gain the precedency.-South, vol. viii. Ser. 7.

For much he knows, and just conclusions draws,
From various precedents, and various laws.

Pope. Homer. Odyssey, b. iii.

PRECEPTOR. PRECEPTORY, adj. PRECEPTORY, n. PRECEPTRESS.

Fr. Précepte; It. Precetto; Sp. Precepto; Lat. Preceptum; from præcipere,

to take beforehand, to anticipate, to foretell, (pra, before, and capere, to take,) and hence to teach or in

struct, to command.

A command, order, or direction, (what to do,) a mandate, an authority.

Preceptor, a teacher, an instructor, a tutor.

And whanne he hadde takun such a precept he putte hem in to the ynner prisoun and streynyde the feet of hem in a tree.-Wiclif. Dedis, c. 16.

Frome the geuinge forth of this precepte. Thou shalt not engraue nor make ye any ymage or similitude of any thinge vpon erthe or in heuen, &c vnto the tyme that ymages of sayntis in heuen were made and set up in our chirches, there were more than 2000 yeres.

Joye. Exposicion of Daniel, c. 3. The other place seemeth to sundry to stande for a law preceptorie as well to us now, as to the Levites then. Anderson. Exp. on Benedictus, (1573,) fol. 74. The sun

Had first his precept so to move, to shine,
As might affect the earth with cold and heat.

Millon. Paradise Lost, b. x.
Thence what the lofty grave tragædians taught
In chorus or iambic, teachers best

Of moral prudence, with delight receiv'd
In brief sententious precepts while they treat
Of fate, and chance, and change in human life.
Id. Paradise Regained, b. iv.

Men

Can counsaile, and speake comfort to that griefe,
Which they themselues not feele, but tasting it,
Their counsaile turnes to passion, which before,
Would giue preceptiall medicine to rage,
Fetter strong madnesse in a silken thred,
Charme ache with ayre, and agony with words.
Shakespeare. Much Adoe about Nothing, Act v. sc. 1.
Their Leo calls these words a preception, I did not.
Bp. Hall. The Honour of the Maried Clergie, s. 17.

written nothing satisfactorily; and unless it can be referred to the past part. of prendere, prensum, Pressum, precium, or pretium, that which is taken, (as the Fr. Pris, whence prize and price, from prendre,) the similarity between the Latin and English words must remain unaccounted for. Precious is

Valuable, or of great price, value, or worth, costly; highly prized, esteemed or valued. In Chaucer, valuing (myself) too highly, too nicely, too scrupulously; and thus,

Overnice, overscrupulous.

For which thing the Scripture seith, Lo I schal sette in
Syon the higeste corner stoon chosun and precious.
Wiclif. 1 Petir, c. 2.
Wherefore it is contayned in the Scriptures: behold, I put
in Syon an head corner stone, electe and precious.
Bible, 1551. Ib.
In swiche estat, as God hath cleped us,
I wol persever, I n'am not precious.
Chaucer. The Wif of Bathes Prologue.

But lest that precious folk be with me wroth,
How that he wrought, I dare not to you tell.

Id. The Marchantes Tale, v. 9837. The riches, the fairnesse, the worthinesse of thilke goodes, if there be any soche preciousnesse in hem, ar not thin, thou madeste hem so neuer.-Id. The Testament of Loue, b. iii.

Among ye which-ye blacke crosse of Scotlande is specyally namyd, a relyke accōptyd of great precyosyle. Fabyan, vol. ii. an. 1327.

The whiche for the preciosyle thereof, that it was of such an excellency and fynesse of stuffe, the Frensshe kyng ther fore ware it about his necke, as often as the kyng and he mette together.-Id. vol. ii. an. 1396.

And gaue him a present of foure and twenty chaines of Esurgny, for that is the greatest and preciousest riches they haue in this world.-Hackluyt. Voyages, vol. iii. p. 229.

Two other precious drops that ready stood,
Each in thir chrystal sluce, he ere they fell
Kiss'd as the gracious signs of sweet remorse
And pious awe, that fear'd to have offended.

Milton. Paradise Lost, b. v.
Their fained pretiousnesse [she's] enflam'd to try.
Stirling. Doomes-day. The first Houre.
The index or forefinger was too naked whereto to commit
their pretiosities.-Brown. Vulgar Errours, b. iv. c. 4.

Amidst whole heaps of spices lights a ball,

And now their odours arm'd against them fly: Some preciously by shatter'd porcelain fall,

And some by aromatic splinters die.

Dryden. Annus Mirabilis.

Precipice, a place whence the descent is headlong or with head foremost, without stop or stay, or gradual slope; a steep, a perpendicular; (met.) a situation from which the fall or descent is sudden and dangerous.

That they like vertuous fathers have regard thereunto, and not to suffer the pope's holiness, if he would thus wilfully, without reason or discretion, to precipitate himself and the said see.-Burnet. Records, vol. i. b. ii. No. 22. The personating of the wickednesses of heathen idols, is but a mere stratagem of Satan, to encourage, to precipitate Prynne. Histrio-Mastix, pt. i. Act iii. sc. 3. Provided the same requisition be seasonably made, not upon rash and precipitate advice. Reliquia Wottonianæ, p. 533. And therefore let's avoid precipitation.

and allure men to the self-same sinnes.

Digby. Elvira, Act i. sc. 1. Zelots took upon them to be saviours and preservers of the eity, but as it prov'd, the hast'ners and precipitators of the destruction of that kingdom.-Hammond. Works, vol.iv. p. 590. But these fits being not so ordinary as our naturall sleep, these dreams the precipitant and unskilfull are forward to conceit to be representations extraordinary and supernatural. More. Of Enthusiasm, s. 27. How much less will he hear when we cry hereafter, who once deliver'd by him from a king, and not without wondrous acts of his providence, insensible and unworthy of those high mercies, are returning precipitantly, if he withold us not, back to the captivity from whence he freed us.

Milton. Way to establish a free Commonwealth.

So high as heav'n the tumid hills, so low
Down sunk a hollow bottom broad and deep,
Capacious bed of waters; thither they
Hasted with glad precipitance, uprowld
As drops on dust conglobing from the dew.

Id. Paradise Lost, b. vii. Those who are beholden to Prometheus for a finer mould, are not furnisht with so much truth as otherwise they might be owners of, did not this precipitancy of concluding prevent them.-Glanvill. The Vanity of Dogmatizing, c. 12.

It [anger] hath in it the trouble of sorrow, and the heats of lust, and the disease of revenge, and the boilings of a fever, and the rashness of precipitancy, and the disturbance af persecution.-Bp. Taylor, vol. i. Ser. 5

I perswaded him fairly, in your Majesties name, being a personage of such authority in the present actions, to keep them from any such precipitious and impertinent rupture as might preclude all mediation of accord.

Reliquia Woltonianæ, p. 288. Headlong riot, precipiciously will on, wherever strong desire shall drive, or flattering lust allure. Decay of Christian Piety, p. 174. The small and slender time of the bear's gestation, or going with her young: lasting but few dayes, (a month some say,) the exclusion becomes precipitous, and the young ones consequently informous.

Brown. Vulgar Errours, b. iii. c. 6.

The most common ground which begat or promoted this opinion, is the long continuation hereof without any visible food; which some observing, precipitously conclude they [cameleons] eat not any at all.-Id. Ib. b. iii. c. 21.

She Nature] useth to act by due and orderly gradations, and takes no precipitous leaps from one extream to another. Glanvill. Pre-existence of Souls, c. 13.

As simplicity ordinarily signifies sencelessness, precipitousness, as Trismegistus defines it, μavias eidos, a species of madness in one place, and is μen, a kind of drunkenness in another, a wild irrational acting. Hammond. Works, vol. iv. Ser. 3. Or, when the heavens are charg'd with gloomy clouds, And half the skies precipitate in floods, Chase the dark horrour of the storm away, Restrain the deluge, and restore the day?

Broome. Paraphrase of Job, c. 38, 39 Ill-counsell'd force, by its own native weight precipitately falls. Francis. Horace, b. iii. Ode 4.

Take care Thy muddy beverage to serene, and drive Precipitant the baser, ropy lees. Philips. Cider, b. ii But if we make a rash beginning, and resolve precipitantly, without observing the above-named rules and directions, in all probability our hasty purposes will end in a leisurely repentance.-Scott. Christian Life, pt. i. c. 4. But surely it cannot be safe for any man still to walk upon a precipice, to stand upon an indivisible point, and to be always upon the very border of destruction.

South, vol. vi. Ser. 11. He trembles to think that a single touch might bury him under a crag precipitated from above.

Eustace. Italy, vol. i c. 1. Precipitation, thus incited by the pride of intellectua superiority, is very fatal to great designs.-Rambler, No. 42 PRECISE. PRECISELY. PRECISENESS. PRECISION. PRECISIVE.

PRECI'SIAN. PRECISIANISM.

cise,

Fr. Précis It. and Sp. Preciso; Lat. Pracisus, from pracidere, to cut before, to cut the fore part; and, consequentially, to shorten; to cut off needless parts; to cut into form. (See PRESCIND.) Pre

Cut, pared, trimmed, in size or form; and, cònsequentially, exactly, accurately fitted or suited; exact, accurate, formal; confined or constrained within narrow bounds or limits; rigorously confined or restricted.

Sum follow so precyse

A learned man, that oftentymes

They imitate his vyce.-Drant. Horace. To Mæcenas. But so soone as fryer Garny was returned vnto ye sayd mount, anon he demed ye cotrary, and sayd, presysely yt other they must gyue batayll to theyr enemys, or ellys they must flee wt shame.-Fabyan, vol. i. c. 245.

There be also other more impudent, whiche do plainly and precisely deny it to be sinne.

Calvin. Fovre Godly Sermons, Ser. 1. Thus stood I ballanc'd equally precise, Till my frail flesh did weigh me down to sin; Till world and pleasure made me partialize, And glittering pomp my vanity did win.

Daniel. The Complaint of Rosamond. After these six dayes was sent a commission out of Scotlande, with power to conclude a meeting precisely at such a place, as they knew well we would not, ne could not in winter observe and kepe.-Grafton. Hen. VIII. an. 31.

Iren. But they thinke this precisenes in reformation of apparell not to be so materiall, or greatly pertinent. Spenser. On Ireland.

A text, 1 Tim. 2. 9. which our English ladies have long since forgotten, if not reiected, as savoring of puritanisme and over-strict precisenesse. Prynne. Histrio-Maslix, pt. i. Act v. sc. 7. These men (for all the world) like our precisians be, Who for some cross or saint they in the window see, Will pluck down all the church. Drayton. Poly-Olbion, s. 6. But there was noe such doctrine now at stake, Noe starv'd precisian from the pulpit spake. Corbet. To the Lord Mordant.

'Tis not esteem'd precisianisme in wit
And a disease in nature, to be kind

Toward desert, to love, or seeke good names.

B. Jonson. Every Man out of his Humour, Act iv. sc. 4. It needs must be ridiculous to any judgment uninthrall'd, that they who in other matters express so little fear either of God or man, should in this one particular outstrip all precisianism with their scruples and cases. Milton. Eiconoclastes, Pref.

End all dispute; and fix the year precise,
When British bards begin t'immortalize?

Pope. Horace. Ep. to Augustus. Many cases happen, in which a man cannot precisely determine where it is that his lawful liberty ends, and where it is that it begins to be extravagant and excessive.

Sharp, vol. i. Ser. 7. As the mind frames to itself abstract ideas of qualities or tion, attain abstract ideas of more compounded beings, modes, so does it, by the same precision, or mental separawhich include several coexistent qualities.

Berkeley. Principles, Introd. § 9. Precisive abstraction is, when we consider those things apart which cannot really exist apart; as when we consider a mode, without considering its substance and subject, or one essential mode without another. Watts. Logick, pt. i. c. 6.

I do not suppose, that will and desire are words of precisely the same signification; will seems to be a word of a more general signification, extending to things present and absent. Desire respects something absent. Edwards. On the Will, pt. i. s. 1. He [Ferg] knew how to omit exactness, when the result of the whole demands a less precision in parts. Walpole. Anecdotes of Painting, vol. iv. c. 1. PRECLUDE. Lat. Prachidere, to close or hinder. See EXCLUDE, &c. shut before; and, consequentially, to stop, to

To stop, to hinder, to prevent with some stoppage or hinderance. See PRECIPITIOUS, for an example from Wotton.

The design of subscription being to preserve' one uniform tenor" of faith, to preclude "diversity of opinions," to have her own explications, and none other, (as to points deter mined,) taught and inculcated; and to tie men up from spreading or receiving doctrines contrary to the public determinations.-Waterland. Works, vol. ii. p. 335.

In them I do not find one word to preclude his majesty from consenting to any arrangement which parliament may make with regard to the civil privileges of any part of his subjects. Buvke. A Letter to Sir Hercules Langrishe.

The higher classes of Florence meet every evening at the Cassino, a mode of intercourse which nearly precludes the necessity of domestic visits.—Eustace. Italy, vol. iii. c. 12.

Ripe, mature, too soon, before the season, unseasonably; too forward, premature.

In sum (horresco referens) I had read of divers forward and precoce youths, and some I have known, but I never did either heare or read of any thing like to this sweete child.-Evelyn. Memoirs, vol. ii.

Certainly many precotious trees, and such as spring in the winter, may be found in most parts of Europe, and divers also in England.-Brown. Vulgar Errours, b. ii. c. 6. However it hath been of late so much decried, not only by Atheistical writers, but other precocious and conceited wits also, as nonsence and impossibility.

Cudworth. Intellectual System, b. i. c. 4. To prevent a saucy precociousness in learning, they invite others to drudge in their methods.

Mannyngham. Discourses, p. 10. (1681.) Some impute the cause of his fall to a precocity of spirit and valour in him; and that, therefore, some infectious southern air did blast him -Howell. Vocal Forest.

PRE-COETA'NEAN. Pra, before, and coeta

nean, (qv.)

Indeed I read of Petrarch (the pre-coetanean of our Chaucer) that he was crowned with a laurel in the Capitol, by the senate of Rome, an. 1341. Fuller. General Worthies, c. 9. PRE-COGNITION. Fr. Précognition; the Lat. Pracognitio is used by Boethius, and rendered by Chaucer prescience, from præcognitus; præ, before, and cognoscere, to know. See COGNITION.

Foreknowledge, prescience; previous learning or inquiry for knowledge, or for the sake of knowing.

Therefore when it is said our righteousness must exceed that of the Scribes and Pharisees, let us first take notice by way of precognition, that it must at least be so much.

Bp. Taylor, vol. iii. Ser. 1.