Of which there is not one, I dare auoW

(And now I should not lye) but will deserue

For vertue, and true beautie of the soule,

For honestie, and decent carriage,

A right good husband.-Shakes. Hen. VIII. Act iv. sc. 2.

That life, that Venus of all things, which we

Conceive or show, proportion'd decency,
Is not found scatt'red in thee here or there,
But like the soul is wholly every where.

Cartwright. To the Memory of B. Jonson.

He spoke; the Heavens seem'd decently to bow,
With all their bright inhabitants; and now
The jocund spheres began again to play,
Again each spirit sung Halleluia.

Cowley. The Davideis, b. i.

[He pointed at] the lawfulnesse, decentnesse, and necessitie, of subordinate degrees and ranks of men and servants, as well in ye church as state.-Evelyn. Memoirs, Feb.6,1670.

As beauty of body, with an agreeable carriage, pleases the eye, and that pleasure consists in that we observe all the parts with a certain elegance are proportioned to each other; so does decency of behaviour which appears in our lives obtain the approbation of all with whom we converse, from the order, constancy, and moderation of our words and actions. Spectator, No. 104.

Give no countenance to busie-bodies, and those who love to talk of other men's faults: or if you cannot decently reprove them because of their quality, then divert their discourse some other way: or if you cannot do that, by seeming not to mind it, you may sufficiently signifie that you do not like it.-Tillotson, vol. i. Ser. 42.

The Eunomians seem to have been of opinion that it was not necessary for persons to be plunged all over in water, and that it was not decent for them to be stripped at the performance of this religious rite.

Jortin. Remarks on Ecclesiastical History.

It is for the most part in our skill in manners, and in the observances of time and place, and of decency in general, which is only to be learned in those schools to which Horace recommends us, that what is called Taste, by way of distinction, consists.-Burke. Sublime and Beautiful, Introd.

Then thus Antinoüs, Eupithes' son'
Icarius' daughter! deign but to receive
Such gifts as we shall bring, for gifts demand
That grace, nor can be decently refus'd.

DECENNIAL.

DECE'NNER.

DECENNARY.

Cowper. Homer. Odyssey, b. xviii.

Lat. Decennis, decennium; from decem, ten, and anni, years.

Continuing for ten years.

You know also, that the whole land was divided into hundreds, and those again into decennaries; in which decennaries all men, even children of twelve years of age, are bound to take the oath of allegiance.

Hobbs. A Dialogue on the Common Law.

In case of the default of appearance in a decenner, his nine pledges had one and thirty days to bring the delinquent forth to justice. If this failed, then the chief of those decenners, by the vote of that and the neighbour decennaries, was to purge himself both of the guilt of the fact, and of being parties to the flight of the delinquent.

Fielding. On the Causes of the Increase of Robbers, s. 5. In all these laws, the principal aim visible was, to prevent idle persons wandering from place to place, which, as we have before seen, was one great point of the decennary constitution.-Id. Ib.

DECERN, v. Fr. Décerner; It. DicerDECE'RNERS. Lat. Decernere; (de, nere ; DECE'RNING, n. and cern-ere ;) from the Gr. DECE'RNMENT. Kpw-ev, to separate, to distinguish, to decide; because he who judges, separates or distinguishes truth from falsehood; hence, Kow-e, in a secondary or consequential sense, is used for judicare; and this latter signification, Vossius adds, we have in the compound, de-cern-ere, that is, judic-are, to judge. See Dis

CERN.

To distinguish, to discriminate to decide, to determine, to adjudge.

Hitherto pertaineth the precept of clemencye and mercy for kinges, which is to do well to the good men, decerning the good and lerned from the euil and unlerned, & to moderate the punishements of the tractable & curable & to suppresse the obstinate incurable.-Joye. Exposycion of Daniel, c. 1. So yt this church is knowen well ynough, & therefore may bee well vsed as a sure iudge, for to deserne betwene the true doctrine and the false, & the true preacher & false concerning the right fayth & the decerning of the true woord of God written or vnwritten, fro the countrefet woorde of man, & in the decerning of ye right vnderstanding of the Scripture of God, as farfurth as of necessite perteineth vnto saluacion. Sir T. More. Workes, p. 528.

CEASE.

A going, departure, or separation.
Decessor vulgo Predecessor, (Du Cange.)

The Apostles were actually dispersed by persecution, and this to be sure they look'd for, and therefore (so implying the necessity of a bishop to govern in their absence or decession any ways) they ordained St. James the first Bishop of Jerusalem.-Bp. Taylor. Episcopacy Asserted, p. 65.

Tertullian fiercely declaims against the decree of Pope Zephyrinus, because against the custom of his decessors he admitted adulterers to repentance, while at the same time he refused idolators and murderers.-Id. Repentance, c.9. s.3. It was not without the influence of a divinity, that his [Vespasian's] decessor Augustus, about the time of Christ's nativity, refused to be called Lord.

Id. Great Exemplar, pt. i. s. 4. DECHARM. To charm (qv.) is to act upon charm; Fr. Descharmerby charms (carmina) or incantations; and to de

To free or deliver from the action or agency of charms or incantations; "to frustrate a charm, dissolve a spell," (Cotgrave.)

Notwithstanding the help of physick, he was suddenly cured by decharming the witchcraft.-Harvey. DECIDE, v. DECIDABLE. DECIDEDLY. DECIDEMENT. DECIDER. DECIDING, n. DECIDINGLY. DECI'SE. DECISION. DECI'SIVE.

Fr. Décider; It. Decidere; Sp. Decider; Lat. Decidere; compounded of de, and cadere, to cut off, i. e. scindere, controversiam abscindere, to cut off, to sever; to cut short, terminate, put an end to a dispute. And thus

To determine, to adjudge; to bring to a determination, DECISIVELY. to an end, to a conclusion. DECISIVENESS., Holland uses Decisions literally, (sc.) cuttings, pieces.

Upon iii. points stant Christ's peace oppressed,
First holy church in her selfe diuided,
Which ought of reason first to be redress'd,
But yet so high a cause is not desided.

Chaucer. Balade to K. Hen. IV.
And yet the cause is nought decided.-Gower. Con. A. Prol.
And nowe haue he heard Sainct Austine, whom yf Tyn-
dall wyl beleiue, all your questio is decided.
Sir T. More. Works, p. 692.

For herin is the estate therof from Cristes ascesion to the ende of the worlde vndre pleasaunt figures and elegant tropes decyded.-Bale. Image, Pref.

And therefore sayth M. Caluine: the modestie of the people herein dothe appeare, that after they had committed the decidyng of the controuersies to the Apostles, and other doctours, they were also contente to subscribe to their decree Whitgift. Defence, p. 157.

So if before suche decision a man had agaynst his own conscience, sworn to mayntayn and defend the other side, he hadde not fayled to offende God very sore. Sir T. More. Works, p. 1440.

No man more profoundly discusseth or more fynely deciseth the vse of ceremonies.-Udal. Preface to Matthew.

All folkes would resorte to her, as a iudge hable and also sufficiente to decise any matier of controuersie or ambiguitie that happened among them.-Id. To Quene Katherine. In confidence whereof I once again Defie thee to the trial of mortal fight, By combat to decide whose God is God, Thine or whom I with Israel's sons adore.

Millon. Samson Agonistes.

So when we say, that all controversies of religion are decidable by the Scripture, it is manifest to all but cavillers. that we do, and must, except from this generality, those which are touching the Scripture itself.

Chillingworth. Rel. of Prot. pt. i. c. 2.
Zanch. Fie Signior, there be times, and terms of honor
To argue these things in, descidements able
To speak ye noble gentlemen, ways punctual
And to the life of credit,-ye are too rugged.

Beaum. & Fletch. Love's Pilgrimage, Act ii. sc. 1.
If thou be'st

As thou art spoken, great and virtuous,
The true decider of all injuries

Say, fight again.-Id. Two Noble Kinsmen, Act iii. s. 7.

But Herodotus who wrote his [Homer's] life hath cleared this point: delivering, that passing from Samos unto Athens, he went sick ashore upon the Island Jos, where he died, and was solemnly interred upon the sea side; and so decidingly concludeth, &c.-Brown. Vulgar Errours, b. vii. c. 13.

And especially from rocks and stones along the sea continually, washed and dashed with waves, there be decisions pass of some parcels and smal fragments, the which do cleave unto other bodies.-Holland. Plutarch, p. 827.

Amongst thy shafts of soveraign light
Choose out that sure decisive dart
Which has the key of this close heart,
Knows all the corners of't, and can control
The self shut cabinet of an unsearcht soul.

Crashaw. To the Countess of Denbigh

This success was astonishing, being obtained by men of little experience in affairs of this nature, and upon that account despised by their enemies; yet it proved the deciding battle, the king's party after this time never making any considerable opposition.-Ludlow. Memoirs, vol. i. p. 135.

We wait impatiently for the coming in of the next Dyer's, who, you must know, is our authentick intelligence, our Aristotle in politicks. And 'tis indeed but fit there should be some dernier resort, the absolute decider of all controversies. Spectator, No. 43.

There is no space for repentance in the interval between death and judgment, but the soul immediately after its de executed, and shall be publicly and entirely executed at the parture, receives a decisive irrevocable doom, that is in part last day.-Bates. Ser. Prov. i. 32.

Desisting therefore, now, From farther conflict, we will wage again This strife hereafter, till deciding heav'n Appoint clear vict'ry to thyself or me.

Cowper. Homer. Iliad, b. vii. I have therefore been decidedly of opinion, with our decla vicinage of Europe had not only a right, but an indispen ration at Whitehall, in the beginning of this war, that the sable duty, and an exigent interest, to denunciate this work before it had produced the danger we have so sorely fell, and which we shall long feel.

Burke. On a Regicide Peace, Let. 1. He seemed willing to have his reader infer, that, even other defects would have rendered them very unqualified though they had been masters of their subject, yet these deciders.-Warburton. Julian, Introd.

The town's decision they no more admit,
Themselves alone the arbiters of wit,
And scorn the jurisdiction of that court,
To which they owe their being and support.

Churchill. The Apology

For men observing the decidence of their [deer] hornes, do fall upon the like conceit of this part, that it annually rotteth away, and successively reneweth again.

Brown. Vulgar Errours, b. iii. c. 9.

Which some anatomists therefore call deciduous parts, such as the placenta uterina, and the different membranes that involve the foetus.-Boyle. Works, vol. vi. p. 733.

Their summits are split into sharp cones, pillars, pipes, and other odd shapes, blanched and bare; but the interstices are filled up with forests of evergreen and deciduous trees and plants.-Swinburne. Spain, Let. 8.

Sometimes the criminals were decimated by lot, as appears in Polybius, Tacitus, Plutarch, Appian, Dio, Julius Capitolinus, who also mentions a centesimation.

Bp. Taylor. Rule of Conscience, b. iii. c. 2.

Elfred was sent for by the king then at London; but in his way met at Guilford by Earl Godwin, who with all seeming friendship entertain'd him, was in the night surpriz'd and made prisoner, most of his company put to various sorts of cruel death, decimated twice over.

Milton. History of England, b. vi. Inprimis, the first means or course intended to increase your Majesty's revenues or profits withal, is of greatest consequence, and I call it a decimation, being so termed in Italy, where in some part it is in use, importing the tenth of all subjects' estates, to be paid as a yearly rent to their prince.-State Tridis. The Earl of Bedford, &c. an. 1630. Con. You forge these things prettily: but I have heard you are as poor as a decimated cavalier, and had not one foot of land in all the world. Dryden. The Wild Gallant, Act ii. sc. 2.

And then in the last place, they are to tell their children also of the base and brutish cruelties practised by the bloodbounds in the plunders, sequestrations, decimations, and murders of their poor fellow-subjects.-South, vol. v. Ser. 1. But God, who weighs an evil action by the malignity of its principle, and the unjustness of its design, and not by those exterior circumstances, which only clothe its appearance, but not at all constitute its nature, has as much vengeance in store for an oppressing justice (if that be not a contradiction in the terms,) as he has for the pillaging soldier, or the insolent decimator.-Id. vol. x. Ser. 6.

This division was not made, as is generally imagined, by King Alfred, though he might have introduced better regulations concerning it; it prevailed on the continent, whereever the northern nations had obtained a settlement; and it is a species of order extremely obvious to all who use the decimal notation.-Burke. Abridg. of Eng. History, b. ii. c.7.

It is true that in human governments, the punishment of a few is sometimes accepted as a satisfaction for the offence of many; as in military punishments, when a regiment is decimated.-Horsley, vol. i. Ser. 9.

DECIPHER, v. DECIPHER, n. DECIPHERER. DECIPHERING, N. DECIPHERESS.

It [assurance] is writ in a private character, not to be read nor understood but by the conscience, to which the spirit of God has vouchsafed to decypher it.-South, vol. ii. Ser. 2.

I cannot but observe here, after this swift and contracted method of writing according to letters, that an universal character for entire words would be of universal use; and this I apprehend is to be taken from the tables of decypherers, by making use of the numbers that express the proportions of auxiliary verbs, of pronouns, particles, &c. instead of the words whose proportions they denominate. Sharpe. Origin, &c. of Languages, Notes.

And thou, O Astrology, Goddess divine,
Celestial decypneress, gently incline
Thine ears and thine aid to a lover of science,
That bids to all learning, but thine, a defiance.

DECK, v. DECK, n. DE'CKING.

}

Byrom. The Astrologer.

A. S. Thec-an; Ger. and Dut. Deck-en, operire, vestire, to cover, to clothe.

To cover, to array; and thus, to dress, to adorn, to embellish.

The deck of a ship, so called, because it covers and conceals the rest of the ship.

For he shall put vpon me the garment of health & couer me with the mantle of ryghteousness. He shall decke me like a brydegrome, and as a bryde that hath hir apparel vpon her.-Bible, 1551. Esaye, c. 61.

We wretches loe, that last day of our life, With bowes of fest the town, and temples deck. Surrey. Virgile. Æneis, b. ii. He decked and vitailed dyuers shippes of warre and sent them to the north seas to defende his subiects. Hall. Hen. VIII. an. 25. They goe gorgiously arayed of our Lordes goods, vnto whome they geeue none honour, and of these goods commeth the harlottes decking that thou seest daily, the game players disguising, and kynges apparell. Barnes. Workes, p. 251.

For they couered the former parte, and the mooste parte of their deckes wt copper, to the ende that the graspes shulde not fasten in them, but rather shulde slippe and slyde aboue the copper.-Nicoll. Thucydides, fol. 191.

Then in another place the fruits that be
In gallant clusters decking each good tree
Invite your hand to crop them from the stem,
And liking one, taste every sort of them.

Browne. Britannia's Pastoral, b. ii. s. 3.

That the whole world was but one great animal, and might be resembled to a vast ship, wherein there are many inferiour subordinate governours, under one supreme, the oldest and wisest; as also expert mariners of several sorts, some to attend upon the deck, and others to climb the masts and order the sails.-Cudworth. Intellectual System, p. 270.

I and my father, have purposed a further ornament unto thee, in the more plentiful effusion of our Spirit upon thee: which shall be to thy former deckings, instead of pure gold curiously wrought with specks of silver.

Bp. Hall. Solomon's Song of Songs, c. 1.

Foul is the steed without a flowing mane,
And birds, without their feathers and their train.
Wool decks the sheep.-Dryden. Ovid. Met. b. xiii.

The crew instantly left off pumping, and being enraged at the hardships they had suffered, and the numbers they had lost, (there being at that time no less than thirty dead bodies lying on the deck,) they all with one voice cried, On shore, On shore.-Anson. Voyage round the World, b. i. c. 2.

Strike, louder strike th' ennobling strings
To those whose merchants' sons were kings;
To him, who, deck'd with pearly pride,
In Adria weds his green-hair'd bride.

Collins. Ode to Liberty.

The mode of fishing, for which this tonnage bounty in the white-herring fishery has been given (by busses or decked vessels from twenty to eighty tons burden,) seems not so well adapted to the situation of Scotland as to that of Holland.-Smith. Wealth of Nations, b. xiv. c. 5.

DECLAIM. DECLA'IMER. DECLAIMING, N. DECLAMATION. DE CLAMATOR. DECLA'MATORY.

Fr. Déclamer; Sp. Declamar; It. Declamare; Lat. Declamare, (de, and clamare,) to call or cry out aloud. See CLAIM.

To speak aloud, earnestly, vehemently; to plead loudly, earnestly.

As when one Vibius Curius did speake much of his yeares, and made himself to be much younger then he was, (quoth Tullie) why then maister Vibius, as far as I can gather by my reckening, when you and I declamed together last, you were not then borne by all likelihood, if that be true which you say. Wilson. The Arte of Rhetorique, p. 158.

Parte of their names I thynke to specifie
From olde Quintilian with his declamations.
Theocritus with his Bucolicall relacions.
Skelton. The Crowne of Laurell.

Also they, which only teache rhetorike ought to be named rhetoriciens, declamatours, artificial speakers (named in Greke Logodedali) or any other name than oratours.

Sir T. Elyot. Governovr, b. i. c. 13.

They should likewise use to declaim in Latin, and Englisn, as the Romans did in Greek and Latin, and all this travail be rather led on by familiarity, encouragement, and emulation, than driven by severity, punishment, and terrour. Cowley. Ess. The School. I shall be so troublesome to this declaimer for once, as to shew him what he might have better said in their praise. Milton. An Apology for Smeclymnuus.

The king to stay these declaimings which he knew to be made against the Earl of Lenox, called the ministers to Edinburgh, and shewed them what travel he had taken to convert his cousen.

Spotswood. Church of Scotland, b. vi. an. 1580.

But these last twenty years most of the parliament men seek to improve the reputation of their wisdomes by these declamations, and no honest patriot dare oppose them, lest he incur the reputation of a fool, or a coward in his countries cause.-Cabbala. To his Sacred Majesty, ab ignoto.

Nor doth this come to passe, as I suppose, because (as a certaine declaimor against sciences objects against physicians) they have ever conversant before their eyes such lothesome and sad spectacles, that they must needs retire their minds from these objects, to some other contemplations.-Bacon. On Learning, by G. Wats, b. iv. c. 2.

But oh, what stock of patience wants the fool,
Who wastes his time and breath in teaching school!
To hear the speeches of declaiming boys,
Deposing tyrants with eternal noise.

Dryden. Juvenal, Sat. 7. Whosoever strives to beget or foment in his heart such persuasions concerning God, makes himself the Devil's orator, and declaims his cause: whose proper characteristick badge it is, to be the great accuser or calumniator, for that is the force of the Greek word διάβολος.

South, vol. viii. Ser. 3.

It [affectation] might be borne even here, but it often ascends the pulpit itself; and the declaimer, in that sacred place, is frequently so impertinently witty, speaks of the last day itself with so many quaint phrases, that there is no man who understands raillery, but must resolve to sin no more.-Spectator, No. 38.

I confess their verses are to me the coldest I ever read: neither indeed is it possible for them, in the way they take, so to express their passion, as that the effects of it should appear in the concernment of an audience; their speeches being so many declamations, which tire us with the length. Dryden. Ess. on Dramatick Poesie.

Who could, I say, hear this generous declamator, without being fir'd at his noble zeal, and becoming his profess'd follower, if he might be admitted.-Tatler, No, 56.

When thou hast these declarations wel understand, than shalt thou find it reasonable at proue, and that many things be not thorow necessity, but thorow liberty of will.

Chaucer. The Testament of Loue.

There is a vice full greuable

To hym, whiche is therof culpable:
And stant of all vertues bare

Here after as I shall declare.-Gower. Con. A. b. iv.

So that of generacion

To make declaration

There maie no gentilnes bee.-Id. Ib.

Notwithstanding ye sonne is the cause declaratine wherby we know that the other is a father.-Tyndall. Workes, p. 67.

His meaning was, that he well knew, that the pretended queen of England, by the declaratory sentence of the Pope, was for manifest heresy, deprived from all right of the kingdom, and from dominion, and that therefore, no magistrate created by her, and adhering to her, could be acknowledged by him.-State Trials. Edmund Campion, an. 1581.

During which time, I only entered into general speech, sticking at our just defence in the matters that were objected against us by the said queen's commissioners; looking certainly for none other thing but a summary cognition in the cases of controversy, with a small declaratory to have followed. Id. The Duke of Norfolk, an. 1571.

For at once as soone as Jesus had saide: Loke yu vp, he had hys sight: & of a beggar became a folower of Jesus traine, and an open declarer of God's goodness.

Udal. Luke, c. 18.

But lett this be spoken now for a warning unto vs; and now wil we come to the declaring of the matter in fewe wordes.-Geneva Bible, 1561. 2 Maccabees, vi. 17.

The differences between a covenant, and a law, standeth

thus: In simple covenant, the action to be done, or not done, is first limited and made known, and then followeth the promise to do or not do; but in a law, the obligation to do or not do, precedeth, and the declaration what is to be done, or not done, followeth after.

Hobbs. De Corpore Politico, c. 10.

This is a declarative law, and such are not to be taken by way of consequence, equity or construction, but by the letter only, otherwise they should imply a contradiction to themselves, and be no more declarative laws, but laws of construction or constructive.-Baker. Charles I. an. 1641.

And I dare confidently say it, that since the act was made, the first of Henry IV., the first chapter, whereby the Provisio is repealed, no man hath ever been declared a traitor, either by king or parliament, except it were upon that, or some other statute, literally and declaratively taken.

Sate Trials. The Earl of Strafford, an. 1640.

Every declaratory law, althoe there be no mention of time past, yet by the force of the declaration, it is by all means to be extended to matters past; for the interpretation doth not then begin to be in force, when it is declared; but is made contemporary with the law itselfe. Wherefore never enact declaratory lawes, but in case where lawes may in equity referre and looke back one upon another.

Bacon. On Learning, by G. Wats, b. viii. c. 3.

He was the first that gave such publick approbation unto them declaratorily, though it was true doctrine in itselfe, before hee ever professed it such.

Mountagu. Appeale to Cæsar, pt. ii. c. 20. Surely all persons of alluring fortunes, or of other followed qualities, which are noted for entertainers and cherishers of medisance and bitterness in conversation, do no better then set up a shop declaredly to take off plundered goods.

Mountague. Devoute Essayes, pt. i. Treat 2. s. 2.

For the declarement of this, we are to observe, that every being uncessantly aspires to its own perfection, and is restless till it obtain it, as is the trembling needle, till it find its beloved north.-Glanvill. The Vanity of Dogmatizing, c. 12.

But crystal will calefie unto electricity; that is, a power to attract straws or light bodies, and convert the needle freely plac'd. Which is a declarement of very different parts: wherin we shall not enlarge.-Brown. Vulg. Err. b. ii. c. 1.

But Mr. Attorney answered them, that he is not the declarer of his intentions, he must be judged by the book, by his words, more certainly by the effect.

State Trials. Wm. Prynne, an. 1632.

But how return'd he, let us ask again? In a poor skiff he pass'd the bloody main, Choak'd with the slaughter'd bodies of his train. For fame he pray'd, but let th' event declare He had no mighty penn' worth for his pray'r. Dryden. Juvenal, Sat. 10. What slender opinions the ancients held of the efficacy of this star is declarable from their compute. Brown. Vulgar Errours, b. iv. c. 13.

Others say, that according to Empedocles, the criterion of truth is not sense, but right reason; and also that right reason is of two sorts, the one ecos, or divine, the other av@pwmivos, or human: of which the divine is inexpressible, but the human declarable.-Cudworth. Intel. Sys. p. 23. "The priest shall expiate it," that is declaratively, and it shall be forgiven him.

Bates. Harmony of Divine Attributes, c. 13.

The French were, from the very first, most declaredly averse from treating, either from writings, or from agreeing to a place of public conference.

Sir Wm. Temple. Memoirs, 1672-79.

So far are the Scriptures from giving us the least intimation, that the bishops of Rome are set up by God to be the infallible declarers and interpreters of the sense of Scripture to all the Christian world, from generation to generation, and that consequently in all disputes concerning the meaning of any passage in the Bible, we ought to have recourse to that see. Sharp, vol. vii. Ser. 4.

But we, who have no such prejudices and passions as theirs to mislead our judgments and overpower our natural feelings, must necessarily be filled with love and reverence towards him, when we read that sublime and affecting declaration of his intentions, which is conveyed in the words of the text. (Luke, iv. 17-20.)-Porteus, vol. i. Ser. 17.

If we affirm absolutely, we use the indicative or declarative mood; if relatively, conditionally, or dependently on something else, it is the subjunctive.

Beattie. Elem. Moral Science, pt. i. c. 1. s. 3.

This proceeding of Mr. Fox does not (as I conceive) amount to absolute high treason: Russia, though on bad terms, not having been then declaredly at war with this kingdom.-Burke. On the Conduct of the Minority.

DECLINE, v. DECLINE, n.

DECLINABLE.

DECLINATION.

DECLINATORY. DECLINING, n.

DECLENSION.

Fr. Décliner; Sp. Declinar; It. Declinare, Lat. Declinare; (de, and clin-are; Gr. KAEw, to bend.) "Fr. Decliner

To bend or fall downwards; also, to eschew, decline, bend from, wave, avoid, swarve, turn away, pass by," (Cotgrave,)

But this is the fortune (qd she) of hem that either be put in vertue, and battailen against aspre things, or else of hem that enclinen, and declinen fro vices, and taken ye way of vertue. Chaucer. Boecius, b. iv.

He was that time in Geminis, I gesse, But litel fro his declination Of Cancer. Id. The Marchantes Tale. The high noblesse shal draw to decline Of Greekes blood, in mischiefe, sorow and wo. Lidgate. The Story of Thebes, pt. iii. But soo was it after that the worlde waxynge worse, right good and vertuous lygnages declyned and decayed. Sir T. More. Workes, p. 157.

By night she flies amid the cloudy skie, Shriking by the dark shadow of the earth, Ne doth decline to the sweete sleepe her eyes. Surrey. Virgile. Eneis, b. iv. Your manhoode and courage is alwayes in encrease: but oure force groweth in declination.

Brende. Quintus Curtius, fol. 260. And a better and nearer example herein may be, our most noble Queen Elizabeth, who never toke yet Greeke or Latin grammer in her hand, after the first declining of a nowne and a verbe.-Ascham. The Schole Master, b. ii.

Ecius. Mistake not;

I would not stain your honour for the empire,
Nor any way decline you to discredit,
'Tis not my profession, but a villain's.

Beaum. & Fletch. Valentinian, Act iii. sc. 1.
O let not,

As ye have any flesh that's humane in you
The having of a modest wife decline him,
Let not my vertue be the wedge to break him.

Id. Ib. Act ii. sc. 4. He [Evelyn's father] was a studious decliner of honours and titles. Evelyn. Memoirs, vol. i. p. 1.

This evening from the sun's decline arriv'd
Who tells of som infernal spirit seen
Hitherward bent (who could have thought?) escap'd
The barrs of hell, on errand bad no doubt:
Such where ye find, seise fast, and hither bring.

Millon. Paradise Lost, b. iv.

The preamble recites, That in time of declination of justice, under pretext of defending the country and themselues, divers great men arrogated to themselves regal authority, under the names of captains; that they acquired to them selves that government, which belonged to the crown.

State Trials. Earl of Strafford, an. 1640.

After diners secret conferences among themselues, and returne of sundry letters into Fraunce, signefying the queen's declination from marriage, and the people's unwil lingness, to match that way, (the foresaid lords) held it most conuenient that the duke should come in proper power. Stow. Queen Elizabeth, an. 1581.

Those who are shaken and scandaliz'd at God's order ev'n in this, which is one of the most seeming declinings of his equitie, at the best, incur Oza's trespass of incredulitie, when he saw the oxen stumble, and the ark lean towards a fall-Mountague. Devoute Essayes, pt. ii. Treat. 4. s. 4.

And, since the Muses do invoke my power,

I shall no more decline that sacred bower,
Where Gloriana, their great mistress lies.
Waller. The Apology of Sleep.

Upon this so palpable declension of spirit in the house, the army seem'd much quieter, and resolv'd to set other agents on their work, that they might not appear too busy and active in their own concernment. Clarendon. Civil Wars, vol. iii. p. 59.

And is not that worthy observation (though it may serve to abate our high conceipt of our own times,) that ancient languages were more full of declensions; cases, conjugations; tenses, and the like; the moderne commonly destitute of these, doe loosely deliver themselves in many expressions by prepositions, and auxiliary verbes.

Bacon. On Learning, by G. Wats, b. vi. c. 1. The decline of the old Roman empire making easy way for the powerful ascent of this new comet, [Mahomet,] that appeared with such wonder and terror in the world, and with a flaming sword made way wherever it came, or laid all desolate that opposed it.-Sir W. Temple. Heroic Virtue.

But, this voluntary neglect of honours has been of rare example in the world: few men have frown'd first upon Fortune, and precipitated themselves from the top of her wheel, before they felt at least, the declination of it.

Dryden. Amboyna, Dedication But generally, the extremities of old age are very peeuish and querulous, and a declining and falling back to the weak and helpless condition of infancy and childhood.

Tillotson, vol. i. Ser. 24.

I don't know any greater instance of the decay of wit and learning among the French (which generally follows the declension of empire,) than the endeavouring to follow this foolish kind of wit, [Bouts Rimez.]—Spectator, No. 60.

certainly not obscured, found his business decline, as it was It however hurt the vogue of Mr. Rysbrach, who, though affected considerably afterwards by the competition of Mr. Roubiliac.-Walpole. Anecdotes of Painting, vol. iv. c. 5.

The strength of the frontiers, which had always consisted in arms rather than fortifications, was insensibly undermined; and the fairest provinces were left exposed to the rapaciousness or ambition of the barbarians, who soon discovered the decline of the Roman empire.

Gibbon. Roman Empire, c 7. Infinitives [of Hebrew words] are not declinable. Sharpe. On the Hebrew Language, Let. 4. At length it was finally settled, in the reign of Henry the Sixth, that the prisoner should first be arraigned; and might either then claim his benefit of clergy, by way of declinatory plea; or, after conviction, by way of arresting judgment. Blackstone. Commentaries, b. iv. c. 28 The declension of the needle was discovered, A. D. 1499 by Columbus, in his first voyage to America; and woul have been highly alarming to any but one of his undaunted and philosophical turn of mind.

Grainger. The Sugar Cane, b. i. Notes DECLIVITY. It. Declive, declività; Sp. De clive; Fr. Déclive, steep, deep, hanging or bending downwards, (de, and clivus;) Gr. KAITOS; Eol Κλιπυς, κλίτος, from κλιν-ειν, to bend.

Declination or descent; sloping downwards.

We have, first, the river Dove, that we shall come to b and by, which divides the two counties of Darby and Staf ford for many miles together, and is so called from th swiftness of its current: and that swiftness [is] occasione by the declivity of its course.-Walton. Angler, pt. ii. c. 1

And indeed such prodigious conveyances of the water make it manifest, that no accidental currents and alteration of the waters themselves, no art, or power of man, nothin less than the fiat of the Almighty could ever have made o found so long and commodious declivities and channels fo the passage of the waters.-Derham. Phys. Theol. b. ii. c.

At length we descended into a valley of greater exten than the former: a river or large wintry torrent ran throug it and fell down a steep declivity at the end of it, where i seemed to be lost among the rocks.

Sir W. Jones. On the Island of Hinzuan

DECO/CT, v.Į Fr. Décoction; It. Decozione DECO'CTION. } Sp. Deccciction Lat. Decoquer decoctum, (de, and coquere,) to boil, to seethe. Se CONCOCT.

To boil, to seethe; to reduce, to consume, t digest-by boiling or seething, by heat.

In all colerike feuers the decoction of this herbe [suckorie or the water therof stylled, is right expedient.

Sir T. Elyot. Castel of Helth, b. i Here she attracts, and there she doth retain ; There she decocts, and doth the food prepare; There she distributes it to ev'ry vein,

There she expels what she may fitly spare.

Davies. The Immortality of the Soul, s. 12 If after a decoction of hearbs in a winter-night, we expos the liquor to the frigid air; we may observe in the mornin under a crust of ice, the perfect appearance both in figure and colour of the plants that were taken from it.

Glanvill. The Vanity of Dogmatizing, c. 5

Holy thistle decocted in clear posset drink was heretofore much used at the beginnings of agues, fevers, unknown diseases, and especially if there be any suspicion of poison or infection.-Boyle. Works, vol. vi. p. 371.

I persuaded her to take, as hot as she could well drink it every morning, a full draught of the decoction of centaury boiled in beer or ale, and to walk after it. she did it heartily for a fortnight or more, recovered her roses, was married, hath children, and continues in health these fourteen years since, this being her only medicine at the first, and in all relapses. Id. Ib.

DECO'LLING, n. DECO'LLATE.

DECOLLA'TION.

Lat. Decollare, (de, and collum, the neck.) See COLLAR.

To cut off the neck; to sever or separate the head from shoulders; to behead.

In this, xxv. yere aboute the feast of the decollacion of Seynt Johne Baptyst, in the latter ende of August, a noble man of Spayne called Sir Charlys, with a stronge nauye of Spanyardes entrede the Englysshe stremys, and dyd moche harme vnto Kynge Edwardes frendes. Fabyan, an. 1350.

On tying the cord, there was a strong seam about the neck, by which the head had been, as was supposed, immediately after decollation, fastned again to the body.

State Trials. The Regicides, an. 1660.

By a speedy public dethroning and decolling of the King, and disinheriting his posterity, as the army-remonstrants advise.-Parliamentary History, an. 1648.

The said archbishop esteeming them [three last books of Hooker] as varieties, did put them into the library there, where remaining till the decollation of Archb. Laud, were then by the brethren of the predominant faction, given, with the library, to that most notorious villain Hugh Peters.

Wood. Athenæ Oxon.

Heal the poor martyr flay'd or rackt,
Shrivel'd and scorcht, and torn and hackt,
Restore the decollated head.
Revive the dying and the dead.-Cambridge. On Painting.

A fine piece of a decollated head of St. John the Baptist was shown to a Turkish Emperor; he praised many things, but he observed one defect; he observed that the skin did not shrink from the wounded part of the neck.

Burke. On the Sublime and Beautiful, Introd.

But one of his [Mabuse's] most striking performances was the decollation of St. John, painted in the shades of a single colour.-Walpole. Anecdotes of Painting, vol. i. c. 3.

DECOMPOSE, v. DECOMPOSITE.

Lat. Decomponere, ositum, componere, (de, com, and ponere,) to put, place, or set together.

DECOMPOSITION. DECOMPOUND, v. DECOMPOUND, n. To separate or disjoin DECOMPOUND, adj. things so composed or put, placed or set together; to disorder, disarrange, unsettle. To decompound, is also, (by usage,

To compound compounds; or to compound things already in themselves compounded.

Decomposites of three metals, or more, are too long to enquire of, except there be some compositions of them already observed.-Bacon. Questions touching Minerals.

Congregational presbyteries-they are the natural presbyteries, those others, they are but as step-dames, secondaries; Ley are but compounds and decompounds of the several presbyteries of presbyterial churches.

Goodwin. Works, vol. iv. pt. iv. p. 139.

For these more confined hypotheses may be subordinated to those more general and fertile principles, and there can be no ingredient assigned, that has a real existence in nature, that may not be derived either immediately, or by a Dow of decompositions, from the universal matter, modified by its mechanical affections.—Boyle. Works, vol. iv. p. 75. The same may be done in all our complex ideas whatwever; which, however compounded and decompounded, may at last be resolv'd into simple ideas, which are all the materials of knowledge or thought we have, or can have.

Locke. On Hum. Underst. b. ii. c. 22.

Glass appears to be not only a compounded, but a decompounded body, since the sand or cugali (as the Venetian ass-men call their pebbles,) or other stones being themelves mixt bodies, are further compounded with the salts that dissolve them.-Boyle. Works, vol. i. p. 656.

I say, we consider this, it may seem probable, that ere may be among the works of nature, (not to mention e of art,) a greater number of decompound bodies, than take notice of.-Id. Id. vol. i. p. 524.

he naturalist who has made a thousand experiments, ✰✰✰ the utmost care and skill; the chemist who has, in like amr, decomposed a thousand natural, and composed as artificial bodies, are still liable to be deceived. Bolingbroke, Ess. 1. On Human Knowledge.

VOL L

The first evident of itself, and the second will appear so too, if we consider that in learning their names, and the signification of these names, we learn to decompound them; and that by learning to decompound some, the mind was instructed to compound others.

Bolingbroke, Ess. 1. On Human Knowledge.

The change is to be confined to the peccant part only; to the part which produced the necessary deviation; and even then it is to be effected without a decomposition of the whole civil and political mass, for the purpose of originating a new civil order out of the first elements of society.

To decore and illustre the same assembly, and to shewe their forces in armes, thei shall take counsaill & dispose themselfes to do some fayre feate of armes, as well on foot as on horseback, against all commers. Hall. Hen. VIII. an. 11.

For God I call to record, my harte was fully sette, and my mynde deliberately determined to haue decorated this realme, wyth wholesome lawes, statues and audinaunces. Id. Edward IV. an. 23.

For vndoubtedly as many places as thei vexed and sacked with murder and spoylynge, so many or more in conclusion they did enoble and decorate with their blood and slaughter. Id. Hen. VII. an. 7. Straight when one nam'd a message from the Lord, The wicked Eglon rose. (all pride supprest) And (as he dream'd) with sacred robes decor'd. Stirling. Doomes-Day. Fifth Hour. Which church he decored with many ornaments and edifices, especially the south side thereof.

Fuller. Worthies. Hant-shire.

His familie (saith Hector Boetius) hath and doth continue in great honor amongest Scotishmen euen vnto this day, and is decorated with the office of the marshalship of Scotland, to the high renowne and fame thereof, amongest the chiefest peeres of the realme.-Holinshed.Scotland. Malcolm.

I have been told by those that have seen both, that our church did even then exceed the Romish in ceremonies and decorations.-Marvel. Works, vol. ii. p. 208.

Men of embitter'd passions and of a destroying spirit, altogether devoid of civility, gentleness and moderation, kindness and benignity towards men, and altogether unacquainted with what is lovely, decorous, venerable, praise

worthy, equitable, and just, can have no part nor lot in this matter.-Mede. Works. The Author's Life.

The will of God is goodness, justice, and wisdom, decorousness, fitness.-Cudworth. Intellectual System, p. 874.

Decorum, or decency, in all our actions that we may

avoid all possible offences given, and using this decorum in our gestures, applications, speeches, habit, addresses, receptions, and generally in all we do.

Hale. Cont. Doing as we would be done to.

At this the seed of Neptune, goddess born,
"For ornament, not use, these arms are worn;
This helm, and heavy buckler, I can spare ;
As only decorations of the war."

Dryden. Ovid. Metam. b. xii. If he [Charles Townsend] had not so great a stock, as some have had who flourished formerly, of knowledge long treasured up, he knew better by far, than any man I ever was acquainted with, how to bring together within a short time, all that was necessary to establish, to illustrate, and to decorate that side of the question he supported.

Burke. On the American Taxation.

Such is the apology, expressed or implied, of many individuals, who support a decorous character, and imagine that they are in no respect objects of compassion.

DECORTICATE, v. Į DECORTICATION.

V. Knox, Ser. 9. Lat. De, and cortex, the bark.

To strip off the bark or rind. Take great barley, dried and decorticated, after it is well washed, and boil it in water.-Arbuthnot. On Coins. Decortication, the putting off the outward bark of trees; also the peeling or unhusking of roots. Miller. Gardener's Dictionary. DECOURT, v. To drive or expel from court. See COURT.

It behoveth without doubt his majestie to uphold the duke against them, who if he be but decourted, it will be the corner stone on which the demolishing of his monarchie will be builded.-Cabbala. To his Sacred Majestie, Ab ignolo.

DECO'Y, v.

See Coy. To decoy, as to DECO'Y, n. coy, isTo quiet, to still, to lull, to appease, to soothe, to caress, to allure, to entice.

Rolph answered, "That the king might be decoy'd from thence, as he was from Hampton Court by some letters from his friends, of some danger that threaten'd him, upon which he would be willing to make an escape; and then he might easily be dispatched.

Clarendon. Civil War, vol. iii. p. 232.

Man is to man all kind of beasts: a fawning dog, a roaring lion, a thieving fox, a robbing wolf, a dissembling crocodile, a treacherous decoy, a rapacious vulture.

Cowley. The Dangers of an Honest Man, Ess. 8.

If you give any credit to this jugling rascal, you are worse than simple widgins, and will be drawn into the net by this decoy-duck, this tame cheater.

Beaum. & Fletch. Fair Maid of the Inn, Act iv. sc. 1. One would have thought, sir, that you who keep a general decoy here for fools and coxcombs, might have found one to have recompensed a cast mistress withal, and not have endeavoured the betraying the honour of a gentleman and your friend.-Otway. Friendship in Fashion, Act iv. sc. 1.

But on the other side, where God denies a man these advantages, and casts him under all the forementioned disadvantages of virtue, and decoys to sin; it is yet most certain that they lay upon him no necessity of sinning.

South, vol. viii. Ser. 4. When they had decoyed mankind out of the plain into a wood, they who had planted the wood were necessary guides in it.-Bolingbroke, Ess. 4.

DECREASE, v. Lat. Decrescere, (de, DECREASE, n. and crescere,) to grow, to

enlarge. Gower writes dis

To be, or cause to be, less; to lessen, to diminish.

I wote not of thilke euidence

Now at this time in her estates,

Excuse might the prelates,

Knowend how that the faith discreseth

And all morall vertue cesseth.-Gower. Con. A. b. v.
That none honour fall in discrease,

Whiche might torne into diffame.-Id. Ib. b. vii.
Never such comfort came to mortal man,
Never such joy was since the world began,
As in the ark, when Noah and his behold
The olive leaf, which certainly them told
The flood decreas'd.

Drayton. Noah's Flood.

It is a position of mathematiques; that there is no proportion between somewhat and nothing; therefore the degrees of nullity and quiddity, seem larger than the degrees of increase and decrease.

Bacon. On Learning, by G. Wats, b. vi.

For the inertia of matter, causeth, not only (as this learned author observes) that velocity decreases in proportion as quantity of matter increases (which is indeed no decrease of the quantity of motion;) but also that solid and perfectly hard bodies, void of elasticity, meeting together with equal and contrary forces, lose their whole motion and active force. Papers between Clarke and Leibnitz. Fifth Reply. According to the latest observations the hoops are found to have increased two-tenths of an inch in diameter, and the hats to have decreased two-fifths in the brim.

Thilke same senate, doen through her decretes and her fudgmentes, as though it were a sin and a fellony, that is, to wilne the sãuacion of them.-Chaucer. Boecius, b. i.

The pope anone vpon the cas
Of his papall auctoritee

Hath made and youe the decree.-Gower. Con. A. b. ii.

Suche was the decreed wyll of the father, that Criste shoulde suffre these thynges for our offences.

Udal. Philippians, c. 2.

As they went thorow the cities, they delyuered theim the decrees for to kepe, ordeyned the apostles and elders, whiche were at Jerusalem.-Bible, 1551. Acts, c. 16.

For I was afraid for the weake hearers of the Scripture (which scarslie obeie the iust sentence of their pastour) much more despising this vniust decreement, through the onerous and importable transgression of their pastor, should shew themselues disobedient.

Yo

pope,

Fox. Martyrs, p. 124. Huderike to Pope Nicholas, an. 867. whe he hath bene enformed of a bisshoppes faut, hath as by diuers decretals appereth proceded to the punishment & amendment thereof.-Sir T. More. Workes. p. 619.

They therefore as to right belong'd,

So were created, nor can justly accuse
Their maker, or their making, or thir fate,
As if predestination over-rul'd

Thir will, dispos'd by absolute decree

Or high forknowledg; they themselves decreed

Their own revolt, not I.-Milton. Paradise Lost, b. iii.

In thy book it is written of me, says Christ; that I should do thy will; he is not willing only, but the first decreer of it, it is written of me.-Goodwin. Works, vol.i. pt.iii. p.103.

By way of publick duel, to the decreeing whereof the lord constable and himself, with the assent of those honourable persons of counsel with the court, did intend to proceed. State Trials. Mr. David Ramsey, an. 1631.

Further yet, and it is worth observing, there was never any Bishop of Rome from S. Peter to S. Sylvester, that ever writ a decretal epistle now extant and transmitted to us, but either professedly or accidentally he said or intimated, that the order of bishops did come from God.

Bp. Taylor. Episcopacy Asserted, s. 12.

The decree of Gratian is concordantia discordantiarum, a heap or bundle of contrary opinions, doctrines, or rules; and they agree no otherwise than a hyæna and a dog catch'd in the same snare, or put into a bag; and the decretals and extravagants are in very great parts of them nothing but boxes of tyranny and error, usurpation and superstition. Id. Ib. p. 400. And this match, thus made up, fulfils that decretive word of the Almighty, they twain shall be one flesh.

Bp. Hall. Christ Mystical, c. 1. § 2.

These men are vain and light, easie and effeminate, childish and absurd; these are they of whom our blessed Saviour said those sad decretory words, many shall seek to enter in, and shall not be able.-Bp. Taylor, vol. i. Ser. 7.

But the main considerations, which most set off this number, are observations drawn from the motions of the moon, supposed to be measured by sevens, and the critical or decretory daies dependant on that number.

Brown. Vulgar Errours, b. iv. c. 12.

Celestial states, immortal Gods! give ear, Hear our decree, and reverence what ye hear; The fix'd decree, which not all heaven can move, Thou, Fate! fulfil it; and, ye Powers, approve. Pope. Homer. Iliad, b. viii. But that there was a decretal bull sent by Campegio, will appear evidently in the sequel of this relation.

Burnet. History of the Reformation, an. 1527.

So that by this law, we are liable to have a large Bible; not only the Old and New Testament, but all the new decretals of the old gentleman at Rome, and they not apocryphal, but most properly canonical.-Boyle. Works, vol. vi. p. 311.

The will of God is either decretive or preceptive: the decretive extends to all events; nothing falls out at random, nothing by rash chance and casualty, but all things come to pass "according to the counsel of his will," by his efficiency or permission.-Bates. On Spiritual Perfection, c. 11. God found it needful to bring up the rear of all with those decretory words, in Deut. xxx. 19. Behold, I have this day set before you life and death, blessing and cursing. South, vol. iv. Ser. 5.

With regard to the parts and powers of nature, which the heathen world deified, they are represented in Scripture as the creatures of God's power, and the passive instruments of his decrees-Farmer. On Miracles, c. 3. s. 2.

You would persuade the world, that I condemn Scripture doctrines in the lump, and overrule the Scripture itself, in a decretorial manner; because I do not submit to your explications of Scripture.-Id. Letters to Worthington, Let. 1.

DECREMENT. Lat. Decrescere, to grow less, to decrease, (qv.)

Lessening, decrease, diminution.

Spa. Thou'rt a prick-ear'd foist, a cittern-headed gew-gaw, a knack, a snipper-snapper! Twit me with the decrements of my pendants.-Ford. Fancies Chaste & Noble, Acti. s. 2.

For in the latter age upon the tropick and first descension from our solstice, we are scarce sensible of declination; but declining further, our decrement accelerates, we set apace, and in our last dayes precipitate into our graves. Brown. Vulgar Errours, b. vi. c. 4. We found it very difficult to measure, in what proportion these decrements of the mercurial cylinder did proceed. Boyle. Works, vol. i. p. 35. DECRE/PIT, v. Fr. Décrépite; It. DecreDECRE PITNESS. pito; Lat. Decrepitus. ScaDECREPITUDE. liger says, that old men are DECRE PITY. called decrepit, by a metaphor derived from lanterns or candles; which are said decrepare, to creak or crackle, when they send Vosforth a noise at the moment of going out. sius,—a metaphor, a rebus fragilibus, which from old age creak if yor: move them. Groaning under infirmities, under the weight of age; weighed down by years.

Ages be foure.-Age decrepite, vntil the last time of lyfe accidently moist, but naturally cold and dry, wherein the powers and strength of the bodye be more and more minished. Sir T. Elyot. The Castel of Helth, b. i. And therein sate an old man, halfe blind, And all decrepit in his feeble corse, Yet liuely vigour rested in his mind, And recompenc't him with a better scorse : Weake body well is chang'd for minds redoubled forse. Spenser. Faerie Queene, b. ii. c. 9.

How think you now, sir?

Gost. Even just as before,
And have more cause to think honest credulity
Is a true loadstone to draw on decrepity.

Chapman. All Fools, Act iv. sc. 1. Nor John Apple, whose wither'd rind, intrencht With many a furrow, aptly represents Decrepit age, nor that from Harvey nam'd, Quick relishing. J. Philips. Cider, b. i. All ages, from wailing infancy to querulous decrepitness, and all conditions, from the carefull sceptre to the painfull spade, are fraught with many great inconveniences peculiar to each of them.-Barrow, vol. iii. Ser. 8.

Last, Winter comes; decrepid, old, and dull;
Yet has his comforts too-his barns are full;
The social converse, circulating glass,

And cheerful fire are his.

Jenyns. An Ode. By the young and gay, those who are entering the world, either as a scene of business or pleasure, I [To-day] am frequently desired with much impatience, that although every moment brings on wrinkles and decrepitude with irresistible rapidity, they would be willing that the time of my absence should be annihilated, and the approach of wrinkles and decrepitude rendered yet more precipitate. Adventurer, No. 11. Deprived of the power Sof crackling. See DE

DECRE PITATED. DECRI PATED, adj.

CREPIT.

So will it come to pass in a pot of salt, although decrepitated, and so also in a pot of snow.

Brown. Vulgar Errours, b. ii. c. 5. Into the leg of a worsted stocking, that has long been worn next to the flesh, put in a sufficient quantity of seasalt exactly dried, or else decripated.

Boyle. Works, vol. v. p. 363. DECREW. Fr. Décru; from "décroistre, to lessen, decrease, wain," (Cotgrave.)

Thus long they tract, and trauerst to and fro,
Sometimes persewing and sometimes persewed,
Still as advantage they espied thereto :

But toward th' end, Sir Arthegall renewed
His strength still more, but she still more decrewed.
Spenser. Faerie Queene, b. iv. c. 6.

And it ought to be remembered, that this was done by those men, who a few years before had so bitterly decrie and openly opposed, the king's regular and formal way of proceeding in the trial of a little ship-money.

Cowley. On the Government of Oliver Cromwell. They preserve the authority and sacredness of government, and possibly they are therefore decried, that the reputation of authority may decline altogether.

Bp. Taylor. An Apology for authorized Forms of Liturgie.

Next, my lords to shew the decrying of the people in this time of shipping itself in the rolls of 21 and 51 of Ed. 1., there the people said they were not bound to bear the charge: so it was no practice for the commons to decry it. State Trials. John Hampden, Esq. an. 1637.

But it hath been said, that the people have always petitioned against it, and there hath been a decrying by the people, and they have petitioned in parliament against it.

Id. Ib.

Thus men are rais'd by faction, and decry'd;
And rogue and saint distinguish'd by their side.
Dryden. The Medal.
The forward wits, who without waiting their due time, or

performing their requisite studys, start up in the world as authors, having with little pains or judgment, and by the strength of fancy merely, acquir'd a name with mankind, can on no account afterwards submit to a decrial or disparagement of those raw works to which they ow'd their early character and distinction.

Shaftesbury. Miscel. Reftec. Misc. 5. c. 2. And here I cannot but reflect on the brutish folly and absurd impudence of the late fanatic decryers of the neces sity of human learning, in order to the ministerial function. South, vol. vii. Ser. 2.

What an insufferable impudence then are they guilty of who now-a-days decry all reading, study, and learning, and rely only on enthusiasm and immediate inspiration.

DECUBATION. DECU'MBENT. DECUMBENCY.

DECUMBENCE.

A lying down.

Bp. Bull, vol. i. Ser. 10. Lat. Decumbere, to he down; pres. part. decumbens, past, decubitus; de, and cumbere, to lie.

At this decubation upon boughs the Satirest seems to hint. Evelyn, vol. iv. 7. Underneath is the decumbent portraiture of a woman, resting on a death's head.-Ashmol. Berkshire, vol. i. p. 2.

And yet must thus much come to pass, if we opinion they lie not down and enjoy no decumbence at all. Brown. Vulgar Errours, b. iii. e. 1. And therefore Casaubon justly rejecteth Theophilact; who not considering the ancient manner of decumbency, imputed this guesture of the beloved disciple unto rusticity, or an act of incivility.-Id. Ib. b. v. c. 6.

A phrenitis came on the eighth day, where the patient was in the vigour of his youth, had not been blooded, and had been kept in a dose from his first decumbiture.

Boyle. Works, vol. vi. p. 649 If but a mile she travel out of town, The planetary hour must first be known, And lucky moment; if her eye but akes Or itches, its decumbiture she takes.

DE CUPLE. from Decem, ten. Tenfold.

Dryden. Juvenal, Sat. 6 Fr. Décuple; Lat. Decuplus

If the apostle (1 Tim. v. 17) requires that an elder, provide he rule well, be accounted worthy of double honour, espe cially those who labour in the word and doctrine, it exclude not a decuple or any further proportion, and indeed ther cannot too high a value be set upon such a person.

Marvel. Works, vol. ii. p. 120

If the same proportion holds between the insects native c England, and those of the rest of the world, as doth betwee plants domestick and exotick, (that is, as I guess, near decuple) the species of insects in the whole earth, (land an water) will amount to 10,000.-Ray. On the Creation, pt. i.

There is no impossibility or absurdity in its being doubl or treble or decuple to what it is, for there is abundant roer for multitudes of atoms more in the empty spaces betwee those already in being.

Search. Light of Nature, vol. ii. pt. i. c. 7

DECURION. Į
DECU'RY.

See DECIMATE.

Lat. Decurio; one who i appointed over ten, decem

And lo a man, Joseph by name, of Aramathie a cytee Judee that was a decurion, a good man and a just. Wiclif. Luke, c. 23

He equalled it also after a sort, and in some part with th verie cittie of Rome in priviledges and estimation: by de vising a new kind of suffrages which the decurions or elder touching maiestrates to bee created in Rome. of colonies gave every one in their own touneshippe, a Holland. Suetonius, p. 6