hoc est, quietem.-Unquiet, not having rest or a resting-place. He (says Vossius) is importune,

who does not suffer others to rest.

To disquiet or disturb, to trouble or molest, (sc.) by incessant solicitation; to beg, beseech or solicit without ceasing, incessantly; tiresomely, vexatiously; unseasonably.

Importune, the adjective, is also used in old writers (as importunus in Lat.) more strongly ; (sc.) distressing, relentless, cruel.

Spenser uses the verb importune, as equivalent to import.

He is apaide with his fortune And for he will be importune Unto no wight.

Chaucer. Rom. of the Role.

He fyndeth hys hope moch therwith reuyued
He dare importune the Lorde on euery syde.

Wyatt. Psalme 111. The Auctor.
More shall thy pennytent sighes his endless mercy please
Then their importune suits, which dreame that words God's
wrath appease.
Surrey. Ecclesiastes, c. 4.

I am importune on you that ye be not importunate on me. I pray you, that you praie not me. Or els I commaunde you, that you demaunde it no more of me. This harde answere of the father, ceased the importunitie and pitifull request of the mother.-Golden Boke, c. 10.

Wtout any fere of God, or respect of his honour, murmure or grudge of ye worlde he would importunely pursue hys appetite.-Sir T. More. Workes, p. 63.

In generall he controwleth people inquisitiue, and importunable tatlers.-Drant. Horace, Arg. to Sat. 9. b. i.

So true it is that he gate hym not out of the way, nor commaunded them to departe for theyr importunacy, that he came out of the secrete place, where he was, in maner to meete them.-Udal. Marke, c. 6.

She with more and more importunateness craved.-Sidney. Who [Hymerus] forgetting bothe, his owne former lyfe, and whose persone he represented, through his tyrannous crueltie, vexed importunatlie, bothe, Babylon and manie other cities.-Goldyng. Justine, fol. 172.

He made meanes to the maiden's father first by intercession of messengers and mediatours, and after by importuning him in his owne person with earnest requests by word of mouth.-Holland. Livivs, p. 925.

All as blazing starre doth farre out-cast
His hairie beames, and flaming locks disspred
At sight whereof the people stand agast:

But the sage wisard telles (as he has read)
That it importunes death, and dolefull drerihead.

Spenser. Faerie Queene, b. iii. c. 1.

The musical airs, which one entertains with most delightful transports, to another are importune.

Glanvill. The Vanity of Dogmatizing, c. 13.

[For my mortall enemie hath] made importune labours to certaine seruants about my person, to murther or poyson mee, and others to forsake and leaue my righteous quarrell, and to depart from my seruice.-Bacon. Hen. VII. p. 151.

Gom. Do not I know

With thousand gifts, and importunacies,
Thou often hast sollicited this lady.

Beaum. & Fletch. Knight of Malta, Act i. sc. 3. The other noblemen and captains of his own estate, came to him to his tent, and were so importunate of him by intreaty and perswasion, that they got him out of his tent to shew himself to his souldiers.-North. Plutarch, p. 496.

For long ago the calendar

Of women-saints was filde Fewe not to opportunitie,

Importunated, yeild.-Warner. Albion's Eng. b. xii. c. 76.

[Every man for himselfe] entreated and besought them importunately, that all things whatsoever they stood in need of, either for themselves or their beasts, they would receive at his hands especially.-Holland. Livivs, p. 662.

Yet shall he long time warre with happy speed, And with great honour many battels try:

But at the last, to th' importunity

of froward fortune shall be forc't to yeeld.
Spenser. Faerie Queene, b. iii. c. 3.

But since substantial grief so soon destroys,
The gust of all imaginary joys,
Who would be too importunate to live,
Or more for life, than it can merit, give?

Pomfret. Cruelty & Lust.

Their proceedings therein were much obstructed by divers honest citizens, who importunately solicited them to treat with the army.-Ludlow. Memoirs, vol. i. p. 180.

Abnegators and dispensers against the law of God, but tyrannous importunators and exactors of their own. Sir Edward Sandys. State of Religion.

But of all other passages of Scripture, the necessity and efficacy of this importunity in prayer that we speak of, is most lively set forth to us by our blessed Saviour, in that remarkable parable of his in the eleventh of St. Luke's Gospel.-Sharp, vol. iv. Ser. 4.

There goes a report that Charles the Fifth, being importuned by Eccius, and other wretches like him, to arrest Luther, notwithstanding the safe-conduct granted to him,

replied, I will not blush with my predecessor Sigismund."

Jortin. Remarks on Ecclesiastical History.

Knaves in office, partial in the work

Of distribution, liberal of their aid
To clam'rous importunity in rags,

But ofttimes deaf to suppliants, who would blush
To wear a tatter'd garb however coarse.

IMPO'SE, v. IMPO'SE, n. IMPO'SER. IMPOSITION. I'MPOST. IMPO'STOR. IMPOSTO'RIOUS. IMPO'STORSHIP. IMPO'STURE. IMPO'STURED. IMPO'STURAGE. IMPO'STUROUS.

Cowper. Task, b. iv. Fr. Imposer; It. Imporre; Lat. Imponere, impositum, to put upon.

To put, place, or set upon; to set or fix upon, (as a duty, penalty, tax ;) to charge with, enjoin, or exact; whence impost ;

To put upon, as a falsehood, fraud, cheat, deception, or delusion; and, thus,-to cheat, deceive, or delude; and nence imposture and imposition, (met.) The second cause of th' imposicion Of this forsaid name was ielousie.

Chaucer. The Remedie of Loue. Imposing greuous pecuniary mulcts, besides the forfeiture of the clothes so bought or sold, vpon them that would attempt the contrary.-Hackluyt. Voyages, vol. i. p. 174.

He had taken to ferm for many years to come at a small pryce as well the customs for all thingis that were conueyed in and out of the realme, as all other taxes & impositions of the Heduanes.-Goldinge. Cæsar, fol. 14.

Wee plainely vnderstande that the states and gouernours
of the citie segniorie of Venice haue of late time set and
raysed a newe impost and charge ouer and besides their aun-
cient impost, custome, and charge.
Hackluyt. Voyages, vol. 11. 2. 299.
By this praty cautele and sleighte imposture, was the
toune of Poutelarche take and surprised.
Hall. Hen. VI. an. 26.
Vp to a chamber of most height she rose;
And cakes of salt and barley did impose
Within a wicker basket.-Chapman. Homer. Odyssey, b. iv.
All which, in he brought;
Laid downe in heape; and she impos'd a stone
Close to the cauernes mouth.
Id. Ib. b. xiii.
There they do say, that she transformed was
Into a tigre, and that tigres scath

In cruelty and outrage she did pass,
To proue her surname true, that she imposed has.
Spenser. Faerie Queene, b. v. c. 8.
According to your ladiship's impose

I am thus early come, to know what seruice It is your pleasure to command me in. Shakespeare. Two Gentlemen of Verona, Act iv. sc. 3. If for some advantage of gain, or occasion of inconvenience and punishment, any should forswear himself, they hold the imposers of the oath to be accessary to the damnation of the perjur'd man.-Howell, b. ii. Let. 10.

It is no small wonder to me, that amongst all those great Wits of the latter times, that have so curiously pried into all the concerns of the Apostolical institutions and practices, I could meet with no one that hath so much as taken notice of this, of the imposition of hands.

Bp. Hall. Imposition of Hands. These sums his father had been levying long By impositions for the war abroad.

Drayton. The Legend of Pierce Gaveston. He [Ethelbald, King of Mercland] discharged all monasteries and churches of all kind of taxes, works and imposts, excepting such as were for building of forts and bridges. Id. Poly-Olbion, s. 11. Selden. Illustrations. Which beheld, by Hector, he let goe This bitter checke at him. Accurst, made but in beauties

What have vile I to do with noble Day

Which shews Earth Heav'ns bright face! that
which I

Wantonly scorn'd, and cast my love away
Upon impostur'd lust's foul mystery.

Beaumont. Pryche, e. 2. s. 155.

Many other practices of human art and invention, which help crookedness, lameness, dimness of sight, &c. De mana so foolish as to impute to the devil's invention, or to c them any hurtful imposturage.

Bp. Taylor. Artif. Handson. p. 12.

In Cœur de Lion's charge upon the Holy land,
Our Earl of Le'ster, next, to rank with them we bring
And Turnham, he that took th' imposfrous Cyprian kyng
Drayton. Poly-Olian, 1. l

[They] are precedents sufficient to forewarn
The present times, or any that live in them,
What folly, nay, what madness 'twere to lift
A finger up in all defence but your's,
Which can be but imposturous in a title.

Ford. Perkin Warbeck, Act sel

Some had their sense impos'd on by their fear,
But more for interest sake believe and swear.

Dryden. Absalom & Actua And [having] argued with great strength and evit against the imposers of the law; he betakes himself to the inforcing the practice of the general and necessary da of Christianity upon these Galatians.

Stillingfleet, vol. ii. Ser.

For trusteth wel, it is an impossible,
That any clerk wol speken good of wives.
Chaucer. The Wif of Bathes Prologue,
For whan that he himself concluded had.
Him thought eche other mannes wit so bad,
That impossible it were to replie
Again his chois; this was his fantasie.

Chaucer. The Marchantes Tak, r. P Well (qd. she) if thilke impossible were away, the re nance that semeth to be therein, were very remar Shew me the absence of that impossibility (çd. L.) & " she) I shall.-Id. The Testament of Lose, b. ii.

For tho she thought to begyn
Suche thyng, as semeth impossible,
And mad hir selfen inuisible,
As she that with the aire enclosed,
And might of no man be disclosed-Gower. Con. 4.

Neyther doubte they the impossibilitie of that why nature enpossible, as to lyue wythout sustenaunce and of drynke, or whan they haue eaten, neuer to the superfluouse matter.-Bale. Apology, Pref.

But neither god of loue, nor god of sky
Can doe (said she) that which cannot be denne.
Things oft impossible (quoth she) seeme ere be
Spenser. Faerie Queene, d. 27.02.

To convert a Turk, cr Jew, may be well a phrase for an empt impossible. We look for it only from him, to whom t impossibles are none.

Glanvill. The Vanity of Dogmatizing, c. 14.

Then this desire of nature is not vain,

She covets not impossibilities;
Fond thoughts may fall into some idle brain,
But one assent of all is ever wise.

Davies. The Immortality of the Soul, s. 31. Yet they which do affirm, it was the image self that spake, favour this miracle, grounding their proof upon the nion of the fortune of Rome; the which, from so base mean beginning had impossibly attained unto so high. y and power, as it had without the singular favour of Gods: and that hath manifestly appeared unto the ld, by sundry great proofs and examples.

North. Plutarch, p. 116. With such a chief the meanest nation blest, fight hope to lift her head above the rest: hat may be thought impossible to do y us, embraced by the sea and you.

Waller. To my Lord Protector.

he motion of the Sun is plain and evident to some astrolers, and of the earth to others; yet we none of us know ch of them moves, and meet with many seeming imposlities in both, and beyond the fathom of human reason omprehension.

Sir W. Temple. Of Ancient and Modern Learning. etting aside the improbability, or rather impossibility, of 1 huge masses floating out of rivers, in which there is lly water for a boat, none of the productions of the land e found incorporated, or fixed in it; which must have voidably been the case, had it been formed in rivers er great or small.-Cook. Third Voyage, b. iv. c. 10.

tumour, bag, or cyst formed from the huirs departed or withdrawn from the other parts he body. Applied (met.) as in Bacon.

or if any haue an vnreasonable appetite, he is sooner uered, if he be pourged by a boyle or impostume comen ie & broken.-Sir T. Elyot. The Castel of Helth, b. ii. le inner flesh or pulpe cleansed from the seed, is passing for to be laid into those imposthumes or swellings, that to an head or suppuration (which the Greeks call temata.)-Holland. Plinie, b. xx. c. 3.

le leaves are singular good to be laid upon impostumate lings.-Id. Ib. b. xxvii. c. 4.

r he that turneth the humors backe, and maketh the nd bleed inwards, endangereth maligne ulcers, and perus impostumations.-Bacon. Ess. Of Seditions.

e inhabitants [of London] are never free from coughs importunate rheumatisms, spitting of impostumated and ipt matter.-Evelyn. Fumifugium.

Samian peer, more studious than the rest

vice, who teem'd with many a dead-born jest;
id urg'd, for title to a consort queen,
inumber'd acres arable and green,

tesippus nam'd); this lord Ulysses ey'd,
id thus burst out th' imposthumate with pride.
Pope. Homer. Odyssey, b. xx.

1 error in the judgment is like an imposthume in the which is always noysom, and frequently mortal. South, vol. i. Ser. 3.

being no more possible, that a nation should flourish, the wealth of it is grasped into a few hands; than that body should thrive, when the nutriment due to all the of it is gathered into two or three swelling wens or imms.-Id. vol. v. Ser. 9.

A. 1179. In a Council of Lateran, the fourth canon forbids Archbishops and Bishops to impoverish and pillage the Clergy and the Churches by their exactions at their visitations. Jortin. Remarks on Ecclesiastical History.

When taxes without your censent are to be extorted from you, this nation is represented as in the lowest state of impoverishment and public distress; but when we are called upon to oppress you by force of arms, it is painted as scarcely feeling its impositions, abounding with wealth, and inexhaustible in its resources.

Burke. Address to the British Colonists in North America.

Such is the impotence of his affection!

Massinger. The Roman Actor, Act v. sc. 1.
And if I professe I should be that I will not, I befoole
myselfe, and bewray miserable impotency.
Bp. Hall. Heaven upon Earth.

O sacred hunger of ambitious mindes
And impotent desire of men to raigne.

Spenser. Faerie Queene, b. v. c. 12.
An impotent lover

Of women for a flash, but, his fires quench'd,
Hating as deadly.

Massinger. The Unnatural Combat, Act iii. sc. 2.

I told him all the truth: who made reply;

O deed of most abhor'd indecency!

A sort of impotents attempt his bed
Whose strength of minde hath cities leuelled?

Chapman. Homer. Odyssey, b. xvii.

Good Lord, what fury, what frenzy distempers Christians; that they should be so impotently malicious against those, who professe themselves to be redeemed by the ransome of the same most precious bloud.-Bp. Hall. Noah's Dove.

The truth is, I have loved this lady long,
And impotently with desire enough,
But no success: for I have still forborne
To express it, in my person to her.

B. Jonson. The New Inn, Act i. sc. 1.

The great care was rather how to impound the rebels, that none of them might escape, then that any doubt was made to vanquish them.-Bacon. Henry VII. p. 169.

Then till the sun, which yet in fishes hasks,
Or wat'ry urn, impounds his fainting head,
Twixt Taurus' horns his warmer beam unmasks,
And sooner rises, later goes to bed.

P. Fletcher. Miscel. To my beloued Cousin W. R. Esq.
The things distreined must in the first place be carried to
some pound, and there impounded by the taker.
Blackstone. Commentaries, b. iii. c. 1.

Is then the dire Achilles all your care?
That iron heart, inflexibly severe;

A lion not a man, who slaughters wide
In strength of rage and impotence of pride?

Pope. Homer. Iliad, b. xxiv.
Small is your force; and from your arm unstrung,
The harmless lance is impotently flung.

Wilkie. The Epigoniad, b. iii.

IM-POVERISH, v. Also anciently Em, IMPOVERISHING, n. (qv.) Fr. Empauvrer; IMPOVERISHMENT. It. Impoverire; Sp. Empobrecer, q. d. Impauperare; from the Lat. Pauper, poor or needy.

To reduce to poverty or need; to bring to want; to deprive of wealth or fruitfulness.

They say, that a very good King, which took far more care for the wealth and commodity of his country, than for the enriching of himself, made this law to be a stop and bar to Kings from heaping and hoarding up so much money as might impoverish their people.-Sir T. More. Utopia, b. i.

Urging th' exactions raised by the King,

With whose full plenty he his minions fed, Him and his subjects still impoverishing.

Drayton. The Barons' Wars, b. v.

The strange examples of impov'rishments, Of sacrilege, exaction, and of waste, Shall not be made, nor held as presidents For times to come: but end with th' ages past. Daniel. A Panegyrick. To the King's Majesty. It is no constant rule, that trade makes riches; for there may be trade that impoverishes a nation: as it is not going often to market that enriches the countryman. Sir W. Temple. On the United Provinces, c. 6.

It is plain, that there are many kind of sins which have a direct natural efficacy for the impoverishing of men; as all kind of sensuality and voluptuousness, idleness, prodigality, pride, envy, revenge, &c. of all which may be said what Solomon says of one of them, that they bring a man to a morsel of bread, and cloath him with rags.

Bp. Wilkins. Of Natural Religion, b. ii. c. 4. The greatest broil he met with was, that he was reported to have made a great waste of his woods, to the injury and impoverishment of the see.-Strype. Life of Aylmer, c. 10.

I mean that fatal, unconstitutional law, which impowered the Parliament to sit till it should be pleased to dissolve itself. Warburton. Works, vol. x. Ser. 19.

IM-PRACTICABLE.

IMPRACTICABLENESS.

IMPRACTICABILITY.

In, (priv.) and practicable,

from

tiquer; It. Pratticare; Sp. Practicar, to do usually, or use to do; Low Lat. Practicari; Gr. ПрaктIKOS, from TρаTTE, to do.

That cannot be done, performed, managed, accomplished.

I have demonstrated, that Space is nothing else but an order of the existence of things, observed as existing together; and therefore the fiction of a material finite universe, moving forward in an infinite empty space, cannot be admitted. It is altogether unreasonable and impracticable. Clarke. Leibnitz. Fifth Paper.

And indeed I do not know a greater mark of an able minister, than that of rightly adapting the several faculties of men; nor is any thing more to be lamented than the impracticableness of doing this in any great degree under our present circumstances.

Swift. Upon the Present State of Affairs.

The barons exercised the most despotic authority over their vassals, and every scheme of public utility was rendered impracticable by their continual petty wars with each other. Mickle. Lusiad, Introd.

Jesus then may be supposed to have certainly foreseen the present impracticability of converting these men, and to have restrained his power before them on that account. Hurd. Works, vol. vii. Ser. 39.

IM-PREVARICABLE. Not to be prevariated, (qv.) not to be deviated or gone out of the vay, or aside, from.

If then it be an imprevaricable law with all bodies, that one whatever can move, unless it be moved by another: it llows that the soul, which moves without being stirred or xcitated by any thing else, is of a higher race than they; nd consequently is immaterial and void of quantity.

Digby. Of Man's Soul, c. 8. IMPRIMATUR, Lat. Let it be printed. The ord by which the licenser allowed a book to be rinted.

As if the learned grammatical pen that wrote it, would ist no ink without Latin; or perhaps, as they thought, cause no vulgar tongue was worthy to express the pure nceit of an imprimatur.-Milton. Of Unlicens'd Printing. As if a letter'd dunce had said, "Tis right," And imprimatur usher'd it to light.

IM-PRIMING.

Young, Sat. 7.

Lat. Primus, first; the firstngs, first actions, motions, effects.

And these were both their springings and imprimings, as may call them.-Reliquiæ Wottonianæ, p. 164.

IM-PRIMIS, Lat. In the first place.
In-primis, Grand, you owe me for a jest;

I lent you, on meere acquaintance, at a feast.

Let me just tell you how my time is
Past in a country life. Imprimis.
As soon as Phoebus' rays inspect us,
First, sir, I read, and then I breakfast.

B. Jonson, Epig. 73.

Prior. Epistle to Fleetwood Shephard.

Imprimis, pray observe his hat
Wings upon either side-mark that.
Well! what is it from thence we gather?
Why these denote a brain of feather.

Goldsmith. A New Simile. Fr.

IM-PRINT, v. Į Also anciently Em. IMPRINTING, n. Imprimer; It. Imprimere; Sp. nprimir; Lat. Imprimere; to press into, (in, and emere, to press.) See IMPRESS.

To print or press into; to mark, stamp, or infix -letters or characters; to infix (in the mind.) The stap of Jhesu Criste, in a ston imprinted, was that me [Ao. 32. Hen. III.] brought into Englonde by a friere the ordre of prechours. R. Gloucester, p. 250, Note. [Some] haue with long and often thinking theron, iminted that feare so sore in theyr ymaginacion, that some the haue not after cast it of without greate difficultie.

Sir T. More. Workes, p. 1197. Howbeit, two feats they may thank us for. That is the Lence of imprinting, and the craft of making paper. Id. Utopia, b. ii. c. 6. And near that tree's more spacious root, Then looking on the ground, The shape of her most dainty foot Imprinted there I found.-Drayton. Quest of Cynthia. The speculation whereof, carrieth me away againe into a w discourse of living creatures, and their natures; and mely, to fetch from thence the medicines which nature th imprinted in them.-Holland. Plinie, b. xxvii. c. 13.

Exile renown'd and grac'd Rutilius:
Imprisonment and poison did reveal

The worth of Socrates.-Daniel. To Henry Wriothesly.

"Return?" (said Hector fir'd with stern disdain,) "What! coop whole armies in our walls again? Was't not enough, ye valiant warriors say, Nine years imprison'd in those towers ye lay?" Pope. Homer. Iliad, b. xviii.

It is but six or seven years since a clergyman of the name of Malony, a man of morals, neither guilty nor accused of any thing noxious to the State, was condemned to perpetual imprisonment for exercising the functions of his Religion; and after lying in jail two or three years, was relieved by the mercy of Government from perpetual imprisonment, on condition of perpetual banishment.

Burke. Speech at Bristol previous to the Election.

Fr. Improbable; It. Improbabile; Sp. Improbable; Lat. Improbabilis, (in, priv. and probabilis, from prob-are; A. S. Prof-ian, to prove ;) that cannot be proved.

That cannot be proved; consequentially, that cannot be believed, incredible: not to be easily proved, not to be believed without further reason; unlikely.

Dioneth, an imaginary king of Britain, or duke of Cornwal, who improbably sided with them against his own country, hardly escaping.-Id. Ib. b. iii.

It is the praise of omnipotencie to worke by improbabilities; Elisha with salt, Moses with wood, shall sweeten the bitter waters; let no man despise the meanes, when he knowes the Author.-Bp. Hall. Cont. Walers of Marah.

strength of our faculties cannot enter into the knowledge of

And indeed it is very improbable that we, who by the any being, not so much as of our own, should be able to find out by them that supreme nature, which we cannot otherwise define than by saying it is infinite. Dryden. Religio Laici, Pref. But there [are] degrees herein from the very neighbourhood of certainty and demonstration, quite down to improbability and unlikeliness, even to the confines of impossibility. Locke. Hum. Underst. b. iv. c. 15.

The antients made Mnemosyne the mother of the Muses, supposing Memory the ground work and foundation of all skill and learning: nor is it improbable that the structure of a man's organs, which enables him to remember well, may render him equally capable of any other accomplishment with proper cultivation. Search. Light of Nature, vol. i. pt. i. c. 10.

He [Mr. Gibbon] lived long enough to know that the most and best of his readers were much unsatisfied with him. And a few years more may, not improbably, leave him without one admirer.-Hurd. On the Prophecies, App.

IM-PRO BITY. Sp. Improbidad; Lat. Im

Drayton. Poly-Olbion, s. 3. Selden. Illustrations. The plain truth (as words may certify your eyes, saving all impropriety of object) is that in the pool are seated three isles, Brunksey, Fursey, and St. Helen's.-Id. Ib. s. 2.

The Convocation of the Province of York demurred about the same petition, and sent their reasons to the King, why they could not acknowledge him supreme head, which (as appears by the King's answer to them,) were chiefly founded on this, that the term head was improper, and did not agree to any under Christ.-Burnet. Reformation, an. 1531.

I shall, by God's assistance, from these words debate the case of a weak, or (as some improperly enough call it) a tender conscience.-South, vol. iii. Ser. 5.

It is not lest you should censure me improperly, but lest you should form improper opinions on matters of some moment to you, that I trouble you at all upon the subject. Burke. Speech at Bristol previous to the Election. He was read, admired, studied, and imitated, while he was yet deformed with all the improprieties which ignorance and neglect could accumulate upon him; while the reading was yet not rectified, nor his allusions understood.

Johnson. Preface to Shakespeare. IM-PROPITIOUS. In, (priv.) and propitious; Lat. Propitius, from propè, says Vossius, quia, qui, propinqui sunt, auxilium ferre possunt. Unkind; unfavourable.

I am sorry to hear in the mean time that your dreams were impropitious.-Reliquia Wottonianæ, p. 574.

IM-PROPORTION. IMPROPORTIONABLE. IMPROPORTIONATE.

In, (priv.) and proportion; Lat. Proportio; pro, and portio,

truths imprinted on the soul, which it perceives or derstands not; imprinting, if it signify any thing, being thing else, but the making certain truths to be perceived. Locke. Of the Hum. Underst. b. i. c. 2. This, nor gems, nor stores of gold, Nor purple state, nor culture can bestow; But God alone, when first his active hand Imprints the secret bias of the soul.

Akenside. Pleasures of Imagination, b. iii.

IM-PRI'SON, v. Į Also anciently Em, (qv.) IMPRISONMENT. Fr. Emprisoner, It. Imprimare; Sp. Aprisonar; in, and prison; (from is, taken, part. of prendre, to take;) a place for ose taken, for captives.

Пperov, honourable.)

Dishonour or dishonesty.

Christians by externall profession they are all, whose marke of recognizance hath in it those thinges which wee haue mentioned, yea although they be impious idolaters, wicked heretiques, persons excommunicable, yea and cast out for notorious improbilie. Hooker. Ecclesiasticall Politie, b. iii. § 1.

IM-PROFICIENCE. In, (priv.) and proIMPROFICIENCY. Sficience, from Lat. Proficiens, pres. part. of proficere, (pro, and facere,) to make progress or advancement.

Want of progress or advancement; want of im

But this misplacing hath caused a deficience, or at least a great improficience in the sciences themselves." Bacon. Of the Advancement of Learning, b. ii.

For my part, the excellency of the Ministry, since waited on by such an improficiency, increases my presaging fears of the approaching misery of the people.

Boyle. Works, vol. i. p. 35. The Life. IM-PROFITABLE. Also anciently, and now usually written,-Unprofitable, (qv.)

Perceyuynge the improfytable weedes appering which wyll annoy his corne or herbes, forthwith wedeth the clene out of his ground, and wylle nat suffre them to growe or in

crease. Sir T. Elyot. The Governovr, b. i. c. 23.

See the quotation from Spelman, in v. Appropriate.

Canst thou impropriate to the
Augustus worthy praise?

Drant. Horace. Ep. to Quintius.

To impose them [forms] upon ministers lawfully call'd, and sufficiently try'd, as all ought to be ere they be admitted, is a supercilious tyranny, impropriating the Spirit of God to themselves.-Milton. Animad. upon Rem. Def.

Tythes are so undoubtedly God's inheritance, as though some have curiously disputed his title to them, as now due: yet none but the impropriator denies his right to them, as not due.-Spelman. The Rights of the Church, Pref.

Lastly, he has resolv'd that neither person nor cause shall improper him. I may mistake his meaning, for the word ye hear is improper. But whether if not a person, yet a good parsonage or impropriation bought out for him would not improper him, because there may be a quirk in the word, Milton. An Apology for Smectymnuus. After this there followed many other Bulls for other

I leave it for a canonist to resolve.

Religious Houses and Rectories that were impropriated. Burnet. History of the Reformation, vol. i. b. i.

All the impropriations might easily have been purchased in those days, when the national funds were all clear, and such vast arrears in all Bishoprics, as if laid out to that use, would very much have lessened the number of them.

Nelson. Life of Bp. Bull. This design he thought would be more easily carried on, if some rich impropriators could be prevailed upon to restore to the Church some part of her revenues, which they had too long retained.-Id. Ib.

convenient, useful, anо тоυ Tрoo-pepe, to bring forward.

Useless, luckless, unfortunate, unhappy.

Or falsed matches, finished

In wrong of others, might,

By still improsperous presidents.
Deterre from wronging right.

Warner. Albion's England, b. xii. c. 76.

Thus like a rose by some unkindly blast,
'Mongst many buds that round about it grow,
The with'ring leaves impros'prously doth cast,
Whilst all the rest their sovereign beauties show.

Drayton. The Legend of Matilda the Fair.

The improsperousness, ruin perhaps, avoλe@pia, of a whole kingdom should be imputable to one such sin, and all our prayers to Heaven for you, be out sounded and drown'd with that most contrary eloquence.

Hammond. Works, vol. iv. p. 514.

Now seuen revolving years are wholly run,
Since this improsperous voyage we begun.

Dryden. Virgil. Æneis, b. v.
Shouldst thou, O monarch! follow to our cost
Th' improsperous war, soon death may level all,
And chiefs and people share one common fall?

Hoole. Orlando Furioso, b. xxxviii.

For the prosperity or improsperity of a man, or his fate nere, does not entirely depend upon his own prudence or imprudence, but in a great measure upon his situation among the rest of mankind, and what they do.

Jortin. Remarks on Ecclesiastical History.

IM-PROVE, v. IMPROVEMENT. IMPRO/VER. IMPRO VABLE.

He was in leopardye of his lyfe, and all improuided for dread of death, coacted to take a small balynger, and to saye

into Fraunce.-Hall. Edw. IV. an. 23.

The English Ambassadors returned out of Flanders from Maximilian, and certified the King, that he was not to hope for any aide from Maximilian, for that hee was altogether improuided.—Bacon. Hen. VII. p. 109. Nor never dost thou any thing forecast, But as thou art improvident, so light.

Drayton. The Legend of Robert Duke of Normandy.
Distracted in her course, improvidently rash,
She oft against the cleefs her crystal front doth dash.
Id. Poly-Olties, 1.2

As they, to rid an inconvenience,
Stick not to raise a mischief in the stead,
Which after mocks their weak improvident.
Daniel. Musophil

Approve and improve, approvement and improvement, are used in our old law as respectively equivalent. By IMPRO VABLENESS. statute of Merton (see in Rastall) the great men of England, leaving sufficient pasture, are allowed to make the profit or approvement of the residue, &c. and lords of waste woods and pastures are allowed to improve the said woods, &c. or make improvement of them; the tenants having sufficient pasture to their hold. Hence Skinner derives the verb from the Lat. In, fieri, to make or become useful or good. But an and probus; q. d. probum seu bonum facere vel approver, or a prover, probator, is in law alsoone, who being indicted of treason or felony, and arraigned for the same, doth confess the fact before her [Nature] improvision justly accusable. plea pleaded, and appeals or accuses others his accomplices in the same crime, in order to obtain his pardon. Such approvement, Blackstone adds, can only be in capital offences. And it is not at all probable that these words differ in any thing except their application: in the latter usage, to approve is simply to prove or make proof of. (See IMPROVE, ante.) In the former, to make proof or trial of, to make experiment upon; and, consequentially,

To meliorate, to better, to correct, to amend; to enhance, to increase.

Manure thyself then, to thyself b' improv'd,
And with vain outward things be no more mov'd,
But to know that I love thee, and would be lov'd.
Donne. To Mr. Rowland Woodward.

The improvement of the ground is the most naturall obtaining of riches; for it is our great mother's blessing, the earth's; but it is slow.-Bacon. Ess. Of Riches.

Because there is a perfection of degrees, as well as kinds, eminent improvers of any art may be allowed for the coinventors thereof, being founders of that accession which they add thereunto.-Fuller. Worthies General, c. 12.

We might be engaged to enter on the examination of the Romish doctrines of the improvableness of attrition into contrition, by the priest's aid, without the sinner's change of life.-Hammond. Works, vol. i. p. 479.

You have advanc'd to wonder their renown, And no less virtuously improv'd your own. Waller. To a Person of Honour. Did God vouchsafe such transcendent blessings either to them or us only to be improved into the food and fewel of intemperance.-South, vol. v. Ser. 9.

Their scholars, as Aristotle excellently describes them, thought themselves greatly improved in Philosophy, and that they were become gallant men, if they did but hear and understand and learn to dispute about morality; though it had no effect at all, nor influence upon their manners. Clarke. On the Evidences, Prop. 6.

Let us suppose a man according to his natural frame and temper, addicted to modesty and temperance, to virtuous and sober courses. Here is indeed something improvable into a bright and a noble perfection.-South, vol. iv. Ser. 2.

When the corruption of men's manners by the habitual improvement of this vicious principle comes from personal to be general and universal, so as to diffuse and spread itself over a whole community; it naturally and directly tends to the ruin and subversion of the government, where it so prevails-Id. vol. v. Ser. 1.

To censure; to impeach, to blame, to reprove. And because when he rehearsed his preachyng and hys doynges vnto the hygh Apostles, they could improue nothyng, therefore will he be equall with the best. Tyndall. Workes, p. 177. Their rayling uppon the open and manifest truth which they could not improue, and resystyng the Holy Ghost, &c. Id. Ib. p. 340. It is maruell but here be somewhat that they improue, for their mynds is so intoxicate that there is nothing, but they will note it with a blacke coale, and yet all may be established by the testimony of Scripture.-Fryth. Workes, p. 77.

And this is the Catholique faith, against the which, how thauctor wil fortify, that he would haue called Catholique, and confute that he improueth, I intend hereafter more particularly to touch.-Bp. Gardner. Explication, b. i. fol. 15.

Whiche booke this auctor doth after especially allow, how so euer all the summe of his teach yng doth improue it in that point. Id. Ib. Of the Presence, fol. 18.

Which open speche canot stande, and is improued by this

ope speche of his owne likewise.-Id. Ib. Trans. fol. 114.

As the noble founder of the Lectures I have had the honour of preaching, was a great improver of natural knowwell as in pursuit of his genius.

Derham. Physico-Theology, To the Reader. While in the bosom of this deep recess, The voice of war has lost its madding shouts, Let us improve the transient hour of peace, And calm our troubled minds with mutual songs. Warton. Ecl. Acis & Alcyon. Reflect upon that great law of our nature, that exercise is the chief source of improvement in all our faculties. Blair, vol. i. Lect. 2.

IM-PROVIDE, v. IMPRO VIDENT. IMPRO VIDENtly. IMPROVIDENCE. IMPROVISION.

vido ;

Wherein nevertheless there would be a main defect, and

Brown. Vulgar Error, b. c No laws, no manners form'd the barbarous race: But wild, the natives rov'd from place to place; Untaught and rough, improvident of gain, They heap'd no wealth, nor turn'd the fruitful plan. Pitt. Virgil. Eand, b, til

I shall propose to you to suppress the board of trade plantations; and to recommit all its business to the cost from whence it was very improvidently taken.

Burke. Speech on the Economics: Reform

By other his perfidious, unjust, and tyrannical acts lym taking any one rational security whatsoever against the perpetrated and done, and by his total improvidence in 15 inevitable consequences of those acts, did make time guilty of all the mutual slaughter and devastation wh ensued.-Id. Art. of Charge against Warren Hastings.

IM-PRUDENT. IMPRUDENTLY. IMPRUDENCE.

Fr. Imprudent; It. and Sp. Imprudente; Lat. Irprudens, in, (priv.) an prudens, contr. from providens, foreseeing. St IMPROVIDE.

Not foreseeing or forecasting; careless consequences,) regardless, incautious, heedless indiscreet, injudicious.

And thus by the imprudent and foolish hardines of the French earle, the Frenchmen were discomfited, and the valiant English knight ouermatched.

Hackluyt. Voyages, vol. i. p. 3. But whether it were his destinye or hys folre, he sin prudently demeaned hymselfe, that within shorte space. Le came into the handes of his mortall enemies.

Hall. Hen. VI. 12.3
To whom thus Michael. These are the product
Of those ill-mated marriages thou sawst;
Where good with bad were matcht, who of themse.vs
Abhor to joyn; and by imprudence mixt,
Produce prodigious births of bodie or mind.

Milton. Paradise Lost, b. L Her Majesty took a great dislike at the impradat best viour of many of the ministers and readers; there in the public service, and few or none wearing the surp many weak ones among them, and little or no order chem

Strype. Life of Abp. Parker, b

A fight by Adm1 Herbert with the French, he ingr dently setting on them in a creek as they were men in Ireland, by wch we came off with greate slaughte and little honour.-Evelyn. Memoirs, April 26, 1689.

By which he manifested his imprudence, in this so ear' violation of the privileges of the Parliament, by taking tice of what was depending in the two houses, before it can to be judicially presented to him.

Ludlow. Memoirs, vol. ill. p. " Generation continues to produce bodies resembling two first, the souls which flutter in the air, and are h persed every where in these lower regions, ispra enter into the corporeal prisons which concupiscenes th nually produces and prepares for their reception; there they willingly continue, enamoured with their habitation

Jortin. Remarks on Ecclesiastical Histy When he returned to Goa, he enjoyed a tranquillity enabled him to bestow his attention on his epic poer 30 this serenity was interrupted, perhaps by his sun impidence. He wrote some Satires which gave offence. Mickle. The Life of Camort

Fr. Improuveu; It. IM-PUBERTY. Lat. Impubes, in, (priv, Var Improvvido; Sp. Impro-pubes, pubertas; the vigour of youth, first appear Lat. Improvidus, ance of manhood. It is applied by Paley toin, (priv.) and providus, The want of age; at which the contract el from providere, pro, and marriage may be legally entered into. vid-ere, Gr. Eid-eiv, to foresee. Not to foresee, not to forecast, and consequentially, not to prepare. Improvident, (or imprudent,)—not foreseeing or forecasting; careless, regardless of the future; incautious, heedless.

Sentences of the Ecclesiastical courts, which release parties a vinculo matrimonii by reason of impuberia. -dity, consanguinity within the prohibited degrees o marriage, or want of requisite consent of parents C dians, are not dissolutions of the marriage entrae judicial declarations, that there never was any marria

Paley. Moral Philosophy, D.EC"