mic equation; a differential equation, etc.

3. (Astron.) A quantity to be applied in computing the mean place or other element of a celestial body; that is, any one of the several quantities to be added to, or taken from, its position as calculated on the hypothesis of a mean uniform motion, in order to find its true position as resulting from its actual and unequal motion.

Absolute equation. See under Absolute. -- Equation box, or Equational box, a system of differential gearing used in spinning machines for regulating the twist of the yarn. It resembles gearing used in equation clocks for showing apparent time. -- Equation of the center (Astron.), the difference between the place of a planet as supposed to move uniformly in a circle, and its place as moving in an ellipse. -- Equations of condition (Math.), equations formed for deducing the true values of certain quantities from others on which they depend, when different sets of the latter, as given by observation, would yield different values of the quantities sought, and the number of equations that may be found is greater than the number of unknown quantities. -- Equation of a curve (Math.), an equation which expresses the relation between the coördinates of every point in the curve. -- Equation of equinoxes (Astron.), the difference between the mean and apparent places of the equinox. -- Equation of payments (Arith.), the process of finding the mean time of payment of several sums due at different times. -- Equation of time (Astron.), the difference between mean and apparent time, or between the time of day indicated by the sun, and that by a perfect clock going uniformly all the year round. -- Equation clock or watch, a timepiece made to exhibit the differences between mean solar and apparent solar time. Knight. -- Normal equation. See under Normal. -- Personal equation (Astron.), the difference between an observed result and the true qualities or peculiarities in the observer; particularly the difference, in an average of a large number of observation, between the instant when an observer notes a phenomenon, as the transit of a star, and the assumed instant of its actual occurrence; or, relatively, the difference between these instants as noted by two observers. It is usually only a fraction of a second; -- sometimes applied loosely to differences of judgment or method occasioned by temperamental qualities of individuals. -- Theory of equations (Math.), the branch of algebra that treats of the properties of a single algebraic equation of any degree containing one unknown quantity.

 E*qua"tor (?), n. [L. aequator one who equalizes: cf. F. équateur equator. See Equate.] 1. (Geog.) The imaginary great circle on the earth's surface, everywhere equally distant from the two poles, and dividing the earth's surface into two hemispheres.

2. (Astron.) The great circle of the celestial sphere, coincident with the plane of the earth's equator; - - so called because when the sun is in it, the days and nights are of equal length; hence called also the equinoctial, and on maps, globes, etc., the equinoctial line.

Equator of the sun or of a planet (Astron.), the great circle whose plane passes through through the center of the body, and is perpendicular to its axis of revolution. -- Magnetic equator.
 See Aclinic.

 E'qua*to"ri*al (?), a. [Cf. F. équatorial.] Of or pertaining to the equator; as, equatorial climates; also, pertaining to an equatorial instrument.

 E'qua*to"ri*al, n. (Astron.) An instrument consisting of a telescope so mounted as to have two axes of motion at right angles to each other, one of them parallel to the axis of the earth, and each carrying a graduated circle, the one for measuring declination, and the other right ascension, or the hour angle, so that the telescope may be directed, even in the daytime, to any star or other object whose right ascension and declination are known. The motion in right ascension is sometimes communicated by clockwork, so as to keep the object constantly in the field of the telescope. Called also an equatorial telescope.

 The term equatorial, or equatorial instrument, is sometimes applied to any astronomical instrument which has its principal axis of rotation parallel to the axis of the earth.

 E'qua*to"ri*al*ly, adv. So as to have motion or direction parallel to the equator.

 Eq"uer*ry (?; 277), n.; pl. Equerries (#). [F. écurie stable, for older escurie, escuirie (confused somewhat with F. écuyer, OF. escuyer, squire), LL. scuria, OHG. skiura, sc&?;ra, barn, shed, G. scheuer, from a root meaning to cover, protect, and akin to L. scutum shield. See Esquire, and cf. Ecurie, Querry.] 1. A large stable or lodge for horses. Johnson.
2. An officer of princes or nobles, charged with the care of their horses.

 In England equerries are officers of the royal household in the department of the Master of the Horse.

 Eq"ue*ry (?), n. Same as Equerry.

 E*ques"tri*an (?), a. [L. equester, from eques horseman, fr. equus horse: cf. F. équestre. See Equine.] 1. Of or pertaining to horses or horsemen, or to horsemanship; as, equestrian feats, or games.

2. Being or riding on horseback; mounted; as, an equestrian statue.

 An equestrian lady appeared upon the plains.

Spectator.
3. Belonging to, or composed of, the ancient Roman equities or knights; as, the equestrian order. Burke.
 E*ques"tri*an, n. One who rides on horseback; a horseman; a rider.

 E*ques"tri*an*ism (?), n. The art of riding on horseback; performance on horseback; horsemanship; as, feats equestrianism.

 E*ques"tri*enne' (?), n. [Formed after analogy of the French language.] A woman skilled in equestrianism; a horsewoman.

 E"qui- (?). [L. aequus equal. See Equal.] A prefix, meaning equally; as, equidistant; equiangular.

 E"qui*an'gled (?), a. [Equi- + angle.] Equiangular.
 [Obs.] Boyle.
 E'qui*an"gu*lar (?), a. [Equi- + angular. Cf.
 Equangular.] Having equal angles; as, an equiangular figure; a square is equiangular.

Equiangular spiral. (Math.) See under Spiral, n. -- Mutually equiangular, applied to two figures, when every angle of the one has its equal among the angles of the other.

 E'qui*bal"ance (?), n. [Equi- + balance.] Equal weight; equiponderance.

 E'qui*bal"ance, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Equibalanced (?); p. pr. & vb. n. Equibalancing (?).] To make of equal weight; to balance equally; to counterbalance; to equiponderate.

 E'qui*cres"cent (?), a. [Equi- + crescent.] (Math.)
 Increasing by equal increments; as, an equicrescent variable.

 E'qui*cru"ral (?), a. [L. aequicrurius; aequus equal + crus, cruris, leg.] Having equal legs or sides; isosceles.
 [R.] "Equicrural triangles." Sir


mystic (trilateral) figure Om; the Reig, the Yagush, and the Saman Vedas." It is a unity and still a trinity. This Om or Aum stands for the Creator, Preserver, and Destroyer or Regenerator, and represents the threefold aspect of the force within the sun. The doctrine maintained throughout the Geeta is not only that the great life-force represents a trinity in unity, but that it is both female and male. On this subject Maurice, in his Indian Antiquities, says: "This notion of three persons in the Deity was diffused amongst all the nations of the earth, established at once in regions so distant as Japan and Peru, immemorially acknowledged throughout the whole extent of Egypt and India, and flourishing with equal vigor amidst the snowy mountains of Thibet, and the vast deserts of Siberia."

 We have observed that the idea of a trinity as conceived by the so-called ancients, although at all times founded on the same conception, viz., that of the reproductive powers of Nature and especially of mankind, differed in expression according to its application. Although in human beings this triune creative idea was expressed by the mother, father, and child, as set forth in the temples and on the monuments of Egypt, when applied directly to the sun and the planets, it appears as the Creator, Preserver, and Regenerator or Destroyer.

 Destruction, or the absence of the sun's heat, represented by winter, was necessary to life, and therefore the Destroyer was also the Regenerator and equally with the Creator and Preserver constituted a beneficent factor in the god-idea. In fact as this third element really embodied the substance of the other two, it finally became the supreme God, little afterward being heard about the Creator and Preserver. The Regenerator or Destroyer was of course the sun, which in winter died away and rose again in the spring-time as a beneficent Savior or renewer of life. The principle involved in these processes represented Fertility, Life, reproductive energy. As applied to mortals, it comprehended the power to create combined with perceptive Wisdom or Knowledge.

 This idea, portrayed as it was by a mother and her child, linked woman with the stars. It produced the "Virgin of the Sphere," Queen of Heaven, "Isiac Controller of the Zodiac," at the same time that it made her the mother of all mankind.

 Every year this Virgin of the Sphere as she appeared above the horizon at the winter solstice gave birth to the sun. Astronomically this new sun was the Regenerator, by which all Nature was renewed. Mythologically, after the higher truths contained in these doctrines were lost, it came to be the Savior, the Son of the Virgin, the seed of the woman, which was to bruise the serpent's head.

 That the religion of an ancient race comprehended a knowledge of the evolutionary processes of Nature may not be doubted. The myths still extant, and even the oldest Assyrian inscriptions which have been deciphered, reveal the fact that the seeds of the visible universe were hidden in the "great deep"—that animal creation sprang from the earth and the sea through the influence of the sun's rays.

 It is now known that the philosophy of an older race involved a belief in the Eternity of Matter. The abstruse doctrine of Reincarnation and the Renewal of Worlds seems to have formed the basis of their philosophy.
 According to these speculations, a portion of the earth was destroyed or resolved into its primary elements every six hundred years, while at the end of each Kalpia, or great Cycle of several thousand years, the entire earth was renovated or absorbed into the two fecundating principles of the universe. These two indivisible forces represented by Vishnu rested in the water, or brooded on the face of the deep. When stirred by love for each other they again became active, and from the germs of a former world, which had been absorbed by themselves, created again the earth and everything upon it. In other words, "the earth sprang from the navel of Vishnu or Brahme." According to the Buddhists of Ceylon, the universe has perished ten different times, and each time has been renewed by the operations of Nature, or by the preservation of germs from a former world.
 In their mythology these germs are represented by a parent and a triplicated offspring. It is perhaps unnecessary to add that this monad trinity is the Creator, Preserver, and Destroyer with their great parent, the Mother of the Gods, which in process of time came to be regarded as male. According to Wilford, Hindoo chronology presents fourteen different periods, six of which have already elapsed; we are in the seventh, which began with the flood. Each of these periods is called a Manwantara, the presiding genius or Deity of which is a Menu. At the close of each dynasty a total destruction of the world takes place, everything being destroyed except the ruler, or Menu, who "escapes in a boat." Each new world is an exact counterpart of the one destroyed, and each Menu is a representation of all preceding ones. Thus the history of one dynasty serves for all the rest. This doctrine of a triplicated Deity appearing at the beginning of a new creation may be traced in nearly every country of the globe. Among the Buddhists of China, Fo is mysteriously multiplied into three persons in the same manner as is Fo-hi, who is evidently Noah. Among the Hindoos is observed the triad Brahma, Vishnu, and Siva springing from the monad Brahm or Brahme. This triad appears on the earth at the beginning of each Manwantara in the human form of Menu and his three sons. We are assured that among the Tartars evident traces are found of a similar God, who is seated on the lotus. It is also figured on a Siberian medal in the imperial collection at St. Petersburg. The Jakuthi Tartars, who are said to be the most numerous people of Siberia, worship a triplicated Deity under the three denominations of Artugon and Schugo-tangon and Tangara.
 Faber tells us that this Tartar God is the same even in appellation with the Tanga-tanga of the Peruvians, who, like other tribes of America, seem plainly to have crossed over from the North-eastern extremity of Siberia.
 Upon this subject the same writer remarks thus: "Agreeably to the mystical notion so familiar to the Hindoos, that the self-triplicated Great Father yet remained but one in essence, the Peruvians supposed their Tanga-tanga to be one in three, and three in one: and in consequence of the union of hero worship with the astronomical and material systems of idolatry they venerated the sun and the air, each under three images and three names. The same opinions equally prevailed throughout the nations which lie to the west of Hindostan. Thus the Persians had their Ormuzd, Mithras, and Ahriman: or, as the matter was sometimes represented, their self-triplicating Mithras. The Syrians had their Monimus, Aziz, and Ares. The Egyptians had their Emeph, Eicton, and Phtha. The Greeks and Romans had their Jupiter, Neptune, and Pluto; three in number, though one in essence, and all springing from Cronus, a fourth, yet older God. The Canaanites had their Baal-Spalisha or self-triplicated Baal. The Goths had their Odin, Vile, and Ve, who are described as the three sons of Bura, the offspring of the mysterious cow, and the Celts had their three bulls, venerated as the living symbols of the triple Hu or Menu. To the same class we must ascribe the triads of the Orphic and Pythagorean and Platonic schools; each of which must again be identified with the imperial triad of the old Chaldaic or Babylonian philosophy."(43) The history of the catastrophe known as the deluge, which, it is claimed, took place either in Armenia, at Cashgar, or at some other place in the East, is observed, in later ages, to furnish a covering beneath which have been veiled the mythical doctrines of the priests. Of the catastrophes which from time to time have visited our planet, and of the belief which


3. A male Indian or negro. [Colloq. U.S.]

 The word buck is much used in composition for the names of antelopes; as, bush buck, spring buck.

Blue buck. See under Blue. -- Water buck, a South African variety of antelope (Kobus ellipsiprymnus). See Illust. of Antelope.

 Buck (bk), v. i. 1. To copulate, as bucks and does.

2. To spring with quick plunging leaps, descending with the fore legs rigid and the head held as low down as possible; -- said of a vicious horse or mule.

 Buck, v. t. 1. (Mil.) To subject to a mode of punishment which consists in tying the wrists together, passing the arms over the bent knees, and putting a stick across the arms and in the angle formed by the knees.

2. To throw by bucking. See Buck, v. i., 2.

 The brute that he was riding had nearly bucked him out of the saddle. W. E. Norris.
 Buck, n. A frame on which firewood is sawed; a sawhorse; a sawbuck.

Buck saw, a saw set in a frame and used for sawing wood on a sawhorse.

 Buck, n. [See Beech, n.] The beech tree. [Scot.]

Buck mast, the mast or fruit of the beech tree. Johnson.
 Buck"-bas'ket (&?;), n. [See 1st Buck.] A basket in which clothes are carried to the wash. Shak.
 Buck" bean' (bn'). (Bot.) A plant (Menyanthes trifoliata) which grows in moist and boggy places, having racemes of white or reddish flowers and intensely bitter leaves, sometimes used in medicine; marsh trefoil; -- called also bog bean.

 Buck"board' (&?;), n. A four-wheeled vehicle, having a long elastic board or frame resting on the bolsters or axletrees, and a seat or seats placed transversely upon it; -- called also buck wagon.

 Buck"er (&?;), n. (Mining) 1. One who bucks ore.

2. A broad-headed hammer used in bucking ore.

 Buck"er, n. A horse or mule that bucks.

 Buck"et (&?;), n. [OE. boket; cf. AS. buc pitcher, or Corn. buket tub.] 1. A vessel for drawing up water from a well, or for catching, holding, or carrying water, sap, or other liquids.

 The old oaken bucket, the iron-bound bucket, The moss-covered bucket, which hung in the well. Wordsworth.
2. A vessel (as a tub or scoop) for hoisting and conveying coal, ore, grain, etc.

3. (Mach.) One of the receptacles on the rim of a water wheel into which the water rushes, causing the wheel to revolve; also, a float of a paddle wheel.

4. The valved piston of a lifting pump.

Fire bucket, a bucket for carrying water to put out fires. -- To kick the bucket, to die. [Low] Buck"et shop' (&?;). An office or a place where facilities are given for betting small sums on current prices of stocks, petroleum, etc.
 [Slang, U.S.]

 Buck"et*y (&?;), n. [A corruption of buckwheat.] Paste used by weavers to dress their webs. Buchanan.
 Buck"eye' (bk"'), n. 1. (Bot.) A name given to several American trees and shrubs of the same genus (Æsculus) as the horse chestnut.

The Ohio buckeye, or Fetid buckeye, is Æsculus glabra. -- Red buckeye is Æ. Pavia. -- Small buckeye is Æ. paviflora. -- Sweet buckeye, or Yellow buckeye, is Æ. flava.

2. A cant name for a native in Ohio. [U.S.]

Buckeye State, Ohio; -- so called because buckeye trees abound there.

 Buck"-eyed' (&?;), a. Having bad or speckled eyes. "A buck-eyed horse." James White.
 Buck"hound' (&?;), n. A hound for hunting deer.

Master of the buckhounds, an officer in the royal household. [Eng.]

 Buck"ie (&?;), n. (Zoöl.) A large spiral marine shell, esp. the common whelk. See Buccinum. [Scot.]

Deil's buckie, a perverse, refractory youngster. [Slang] Buck"ing, n. 1. The act or process of soaking or boiling cloth in an alkaline liquid in the operation of bleaching; also, the liquid used. Tomlinson.
2. A washing.

3. The process of breaking up or pulverizing ores.

Bucking iron (Mining), a broad-faced hammer, used in bucking or breaking up ores. -- Bucking kier (Manuf.), a large circular boiler, or kier, used in bleaching. -- Bucking stool, a washing block.

 Buck"ish, a. Dandified; foppish.

 Buc"kle (&?;), n. [OE. bocle buckle, boss of a shield, OF. bocle, F. boucle, boss of a shield, ring, fr. L. buccula a little cheek or mouth, dim. of bucca cheek; this boss or knob resembling a cheek.] 1. A device, usually of metal, consisting of a frame with one more movable tongues or catches, used for fastening things together, as parts of dress or harness, by means of a strap passing through the frame and pierced by the tongue.

2. A distortion bulge, bend, or kink, as in a saw blade or a plate of sheet metal. Knight.
3. A curl of hair, esp. a kind of crisp curl formerly worn; also, the state of being curled.

 Earlocks in tight buckles on each side of a lantern face. W. Irving.
 Lets his wig lie in buckle for a whole half year. Addison.
4. A contorted expression, as of the face. [R.]

 'Gainst nature armed by gravity, His features too in buckle see. Churchill.
 Buc"kle (&?;), v. t. [imp. & p. p. Buckled (&?;); p. pr. & vb. n. Buckling.] [OE. boclen, F. boucler.
 See Buckle, n.] 1. To fasten or confine with a buckle or buckles; as, to buckle a harness.

2. To bend; to cause to kink, or to become distorted.

3. To prepare for action; to apply with vigor and earnestness; -- generally used reflexively.

 Cartwright buckled himself to the employment. Fuller.
4. To join in marriage. [Scot.] Sir W. Scott.
 Buc"kle (bk"k'l), v. i. 1. To bend permanently; to become distorted; to bow; to curl; to kink.

Buckled with the heat of the fire like parchment. Pepys.
2. To bend out of a true vertical plane, as a wall.

3. To yield; to give way; to cease opposing. [Obs.]

 The Dutch, as high as they seem, do begin to buckle. Pepys.
4. To enter upon some labor or contest; to join in close fight; to struggle; to contend.

 The bishop was as able and ready to buckle with the Lord Protector as he was with him. Latimer.
 In single combat thou shalt buckle with me. Shak.
To buckle to, to bend to; to engage with zeal.

 To make our sturdy humor buckle thereto. Barrow.
 Before buckling to my winter's work. J. D


[OE. vernish, F. vernis, LL. vernicium; akin to F. vernir to varnish, fr. (assumed) LL. vitrinire to glaze, from LL. vitrinus glassy, fr. L. vitrum glass. See Vitreous.]

1. A viscid liquid, consisting of a solution of resinous matter in an oil or a volatile liquid, laid on work with a brush, or otherwise. When applied the varnish soon dries, either by evaporation or chemical action, and the resinous part forms thus a smooth, hard surface, with a beautiful gloss, capable of resisting, to a greater or less degree, the influences of air and moisture.

 According to the sorts of solvents employed, the ordinary kinds of varnish are divided into three classes: spirit, turpentine, and oil varnishes. Encyc. Brit 2. That which resembles varnish, either naturally or artificially; a glossy appearance.

 The varnish of the holly and ivy.

Macaulay.
3. An artificial covering to give a fair appearance to any act or conduct; outside show; gloss.

 And set a double varnish on the fame The Frenchman gave you.

Shak.
Varnish tree (Bot.), a tree or shrub from the juice or resin of which varnish is made, as some species of the genus Rhus, especially R. vernicifera of Japan. The black varnish of Burmah is obtained from the Melanorrhœa usitatissima, a tall East Indian tree of the Cashew family. See Copal, and Mastic.

 Var"nish, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Varnished (?); p. pr.
 & vb. n. Varnishing.] [Cf. F. vernir, vernisser. See Varnish, n.]

1. To lay varnish on; to cover with a liquid which produces, when dry, a hard, glossy surface; as, to varnish a table; to varnish a painting.

2. To cover or conceal with something that gives a fair appearance; to give a fair coloring to by words; to gloss over; to palliate; as, to varnish guilt. "Beauty doth varnish age." Shak.
 Close ambition, varnished o'er with zeal.

Milton.
 Cato's voice was ne'er employed To clear the guilty and to varnish crimes.

Addison.
 Var"nish*er (?), n. 1. One who varnishes; one whose occupation is to varnish.

2. One who disguises or palliates; one who gives a fair external appearance. Pope.
 Var"nish*ing, n. The act of laying on varnish; also, materials for varnish.

 Var"ta*bed (?), n. [Armen., a doctor, master, preceptor.] (Eccl.)
 A doctor or teacher in the Armenian church. Members of this order of ecclesiastics frequently have charge of dioceses, with episcopal functions.

 ||Va*ru"na (v*r"n), n. [Skr. Varua.] (Hindu Myth.)
 The god of the waters; the Indian Neptune. He is regarded as regent of the west, and lord of punishment, and is represented as riding on a sea monster, holding in his hand a snaky cord or noose with which to bind offenders, under water.

 Var"vel (?), n. [F. vervelle.] In falconry, one of the rings secured to the ends of the jesses. [Written also vervel.]

 Var"veled (?), a. Having varvels, or rings. [Written also varvelled, and vervelled.]

 In heraldry, when the jesses attached to the legs of hawks hang loose, or have pendent ends with rings at the tips, the blazon is a hawk (or a hawk's leg) jessed and varveled.

 Va"ry (?), v. t. [imp. & p. p. Varied (?); p. pr.
 & vb. n. Varying.] [OE. varien, F. varier, L. variare, fr. varius various. See Various, and cf. Variate.]

1. To change the aspect of; to alter in form, appearance, substance, position, or the like; to make different by a partial change; to modify; as, to vary the properties, proportions, or nature of a thing; to vary a posture or an attitude; to vary one's dress or opinions.

 Shall we vary our device at will, Even as new occasion appears?

Spenser.
2. To change to something else; to transmute; to exchange; to alternate.

 Gods, that never change their state, Vary oft their love and hate.

Waller.
 We are to vary the customs according to the time and country where the scene of action lies.

Dryden.
3. To make of different kinds; to make different from one another; to diversity; to variegate.

 God hath varied their inclinations.

Sir T. Browne.
 God hath here Varied his bounty so with new delights.

Milton.
4. (Mus.) To embellish; to change fancifully; to present under new aspects, as of form, key, measure, etc. See Variation, 4.

 Va"ry (?), v. i. 1. To alter, or be altered, in any manner; to suffer a partial change; to become different; to be modified; as, colors vary in different lights.

 That each from other differs, first confess; Next, that he varies from himself no less.

Pope.
2. To differ, or be different; to be unlike or diverse; as, the laws of France vary from those of England.

3. To alter or change in succession; to alternate; as, one mathematical quantity varies inversely as another.

 While fear and anger, with alternate grace, Pant in her breast, and vary in her face.

Addison.
4. To deviate; to depart; to swerve; — followed by from; as, to vary from the law, or from reason. Locke.
5. To disagree; to be at variance or in dissension; as, men vary in opinion.

 The rich jewel which we vary for.

Webster (1623).
 Va"ry, n. Alteration; change. [Obs.] Shak.
 Va"ry*ing, a. & n. from Vary.

Varying hare (Zoöl.), any hare or rabbit which becomes white in winter, especially the common hare of the Northern United States and Canada.

 ||Vas (?), n.; pl. Vasa (#). [L., a vessel. See Vase.]
 (Anat.) A vessel; a duct.

||Vas deferens; pl. Vasa deferentia. [L. vas vessel + deferens carrying down.] (Anat.) The excretory duct of a testicle; a spermatic duct.

 Vas"cu*lar (?), a. [L. vasculum a small vessel, dim. of vas vessel: cf. F. vasculaire. See Vase, and cf. Vessel.]

1. (Biol.) (a) Consisting of, or containing, vessels as an essential part of a structure; full of vessels; specifically (Bot.), pertaining to, or containing, special ducts, or tubes, for the circulation of sap. (b) Operating by means of, or made up of an arrangement of, vessels; as, the vascular system in animals, including the arteries, veins, capillaries, lacteals, etc. (c) Of or pertaining to the vessels of animal and vegetable bodies; as, the vascular functions.

2. (Bot.) Of or pertaining to the higher division of plants, that is, the phænogamous plants, all of which are vascular, in


equal to the square of the radius. -- Inverse, or Reciprocal, ratio (Math.), the ratio of the reciprocals of two quantities. -- Inverse, or Reciprocal, proportion, an equality between a direct ratio and a reciprocal ratio; thus, 4 : 2 : : :, or 4 : 2 : : 3 : 6, inversely.

 In"verse, n. That which is inverse.

 Thus the course of human study is the inverse of the course of things in nature.

Tatham.
 In*verse"ly (?), adv. In an inverse order or manner; by inversion; -- opposed to directly.

Inversely proportional. See Directly proportional, under Directly, and Inversion, 4.

 In*ver"sion (?), n. [L. inversio: cf. F. inversion.
 See Invert.]

1. The act of inverting, or turning over or backward, or the state of being inverted.

2. A change by inverted order; a reversed position or arrangement of things; transposition.

 It is just the inversion of an act of Parliament; your lordship first signed it, and then it was passed among the Lords and Commons.

Dryden.
3. (Mil.) A movement in tactics by which the order of companies in line is inverted, the right being on the left, the left on the right, and so on.

4. (Math.) A change in the order of the terms of a proportion, so that the second takes the place of the first, and the fourth of the third.

5. (Geom.) A peculiar method of transformation, in which a figure is replaced by its inverse figure. Propositions that are true for the original figure thus furnish new propositions that are true in the inverse figure. See Inverse figures, under Inverse.

6. (Gram.) A change of the usual order of words or phrases; as, "of all vices, impurity is one of the most detestable," instead of, "impurity is one of the most detestable of all vices."

7. (Rhet.) A method of reasoning in which the orator shows that arguments advanced by his adversary in opposition to him are really favorable to his cause.

8. (Mus.) (a) Said of intervals, when the lower tone is placed an octave higher, so that fifths become fourths, thirds sixths, etc. (b) Said of a chord, when one of its notes, other than its root, is made the bass. (c) Said of a subject, or phrase, when the intervals of which it consists are repeated in the contrary direction, rising instead of falling, or vice versa. (d) Said of double counterpoint, when an upper and a lower part change places.

9. (Geol.) The folding back of strata upon themselves, as by upheaval, in such a manner that the order of succession appears to be reversed.

10. (Chem.) The act or process by which cane sugar (sucrose), under the action of heat and acids or ferments (as diastase), is broken or split up into grape sugar (dextrose), and fruit sugar (levulose); also, less properly, the process by which starch is converted into grape sugar (dextrose).

 The terms invert and inversion, in this sense, owe their meaning to the fact that the plane of polarization of light, which is rotated to the right by cane sugar, is turned toward the left by levulose.

 In*vert" (?), v. t. [imp. & p. p. Inverted; p. pr.
 & vb. n. Inverting.] [L. invertere, inversum; pref.
 inin + vertere to turn. See Verse.]

1. To turn over; to put upside down; to upset; to place in a contrary order or direction; to reverse; as, to invert a cup, the order of words, rules of justice, etc.

 That doth invert the attest of eyes and ears, As if these organs had deceptious functions.

Shak.
 Such reasoning falls like an inverted cone, Wanting its proper base to stand upon.

Cowper.
2. (Mus.) To change the position of; - - said of tones which form a chord, or parts which compose harmony.

3. To divert; to convert to a wrong use. [Obs.] Knolles.
4. (Chem.) To convert; to reverse; to decompose by, or subject to, inversion. See Inversion, n., 10.

 In*vert", v. i. (Chem.) To undergo inversion, as sugar.

 In"vert (?), a. (Chem.) Subjected to the process of inversion; inverted; converted; as, invert sugar.

Invert sugar (Chem.), a variety of sugar, consisting of a mixture of dextrose and levulose, found naturally in fruits, and produced artificially by the inversion of cane sugar (sucrose); also, less properly, the grape sugar or dextrose obtained from starch. See Inversion, Dextrose, Levulose, and Sugar.

 In"vert, n. (Masonry) An inverted arch.

 In*ver"te*bral (?), a. (Zoöl.) Same as Invertebrate.

 ||In*ver'te*bra"ta (?), n. pl. [NL., fr. L. innot + vertebratus vertebrate.] (Zoöl.) A comprehensive division of the animal kingdom, including all except the Vertebrata.

 In*ver"te*brate (?), a. (Zoöl.) Destitute of a backbone; having no vertebræ; of or pertaining to the Invertebrata.
 -- n. One of the Invertebrata.

Age of invertebrates. See Age, and Silurian.

 In*ver"te*bra'ted (?), a. Having no backbone; invertebrate.

 In*vert"ed (?), a.
1. Changed to a contrary or counterchanged order; reversed; characterized by inversion.

2. (Geol.) Situated apparently in reverse order, as strata when folded back upon themselves by upheaval.

Inverted arch (Arch.), an arch placed with crown downward; -- much used in foundations.

 In*vert"ed*ly, adv. In an inverted order. Derham.
 In*vert"i*ble (?), a. [From Invert.]

1. Capable of being inverted or turned.

2. (Chem.) Capable of being changed or converted; as, invertible sugar.

 In*vert"i*ble, a. [Pref. innot + L. vertere to turn + -ible.] Incapable of being turned or changed.

 An indurate and invertible conscience.

Cranmer.
 In*vert"in (?), n. (Physiol. Chem.) An unorganized ferment which causes cane sugar to take up a molecule of water and be converted into invert sugar.

 In*vest" (?), v. t. [imp. & p. p. Invested; p. pr.
 & vb. n. Investing.] [L. investire, investitum; pref. inin + vestire to clothe, fr. vestis clothing: cf. F. investir. See Vest.]

1. To put garments on; to clothe; to dress; to array; -- opposed to divest. Usually followed by with, sometimes by in; as, to invest one with a robe.

2. To put on. [Obs.]

 Can not find one this girdle to invest.

Spenser.
3. To clothe, as with office or authority; to place in possession of rank, dignity, or estate; to endow; to adorn; to grace; to bedeck; as, to invest with honor or glory; to invest with an estate.

 I do invest you jointly with my power.

Shak.
4. To surround, accompany, or attend.

 Awe such as must always invest


a boat. [Obs.]

 The bail of a canoe... made of a human skull. Capt.
 Cook.
 Bail, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Bailed (bld); p. pr. & vb. n. Bailing.] 1. To lade; to dip and throw; -- usually with out; as, to bail water out of a boat.

 Buckets... to bail out the water. Capt. J. Smith.
2. To dip or lade water from; -- often with out to express completeness; as, to bail a boat.

 By the help of a small bucket and our hats we bailed her out.
R. H. Dana, Jr.
 Bail, v. t. [OF. bailler to give, to deliver, fr. L. bajulare to bear a burden, keep in custody, fr. bajulus he who bears burdens.] 1. To deliver; to release. [Obs.]

 Ne none there was to rescue her, ne none to bail. Spenser.
2. (Law) (a) To set free, or deliver from arrest, or out of custody, on the undertaking of some other person or persons that he or they will be responsible for the appearance, at a certain day and place, of the person bailed.

 The word is applied to the magistrate or the surety. The magistrate bails (but admits to bail is commoner) a man when he liberates him from arrest or imprisonment upon bond given with sureties. The surety bails a person when he procures his release from arrest by giving bond for his appearance. Blackstone.
(b) To deliver, as goods in trust, for some special object or purpose, upon a contract, expressed or implied, that the trust shall be faithfully executed on the part of the bailee, or person intrusted; as, to bail cloth to a tailor to be made into a garment; to bail goods to a carrier. Blackstone. Kent.
 Bail, n. [OF. bail guardian, administrator, fr. L. bajulus.
 See Bail to deliver.] 1. Custody; keeping. [Obs.]

 Silly Faunus now within their bail. Spenser.
2. (Law) (a) The person or persons who procure the release of a prisoner from the custody of the officer, or from imprisonment, by becoming surety for his appearance in court.

 The bail must be real, substantial bondsmen. Blackstone.
 A. and B. were bail to the arrest in a suit at law. Kent.
(b) The security given for the appearance of a prisoner in order to obtain his release from custody of the officer; as, the man is out on bail; to go bail for any one.

 Excessive bail ought not to be required. Blackstone.
 Bail, n. [OE. beyl; cf. Dan. böile a bending, ring, hoop, Sw. bögel, bygel, and Icel. beyla hump, swelling, akin to E. bow to bend.] 1. The arched handle of a kettle, pail, or similar vessel, usually movable. Forby.
2. A half hoop for supporting the cover of a carrier's wagon, awning of a boat, etc.

 Bail, n. [OF. bail, baille. See Bailey.] 1.
 (Usually pl.) A line of palisades serving as an exterior defense.
 [Written also bayle.] [Obs.]

2. The outer wall of a feudal castle. Hence: The space inclosed by it; the outer court. Holinshed.
3. A certain limit within a forest. [Eng.]

4. A division for the stalls of an open stable.

5. (Cricket) The top or cross piece (or either of the two cross pieces) of the wicket.

 Bail"a*ble (&?;), a. 1. Having the right or privilege of being admitted to bail, upon bond with sureties; -- used of persons. "He's bailable, I'm sure." Ford.
2. Admitting of bail; as, a bailable offense.

3. That can be delivered in trust; as, bailable goods.

 Bail" bond' (bnd'). (Law) (a) A bond or obligation given by a prisoner and his surety, to insure the prisoner's appearance in court, at the return of the writ. (b) Special bail in court to abide the judgment. Bouvier.
 Bail'ee" (bl'"), n. [OF. baillé, p. p. of bailler.
 See Bail to deliver.] (Law) The person to whom goods are committed in trust, and who has a temporary possession and a qualified property in them, for the purposes of the trust. Blackstone.
 In penal statutes the word includes those who receive goods for another in good faith. Wharton.
 Bail"er (&?;), n. (Law) See Bailor.

 Bail"er, n. 1. One who bails or lades.

2. A utensil, as a bucket or cup, used in bailing; a machine for bailing water out of a pit.

 Bai"ley (&?;), n. [The same word as bail line of palisades; cf. LL. ballium bailey, OF. bail, baille, a palisade, baillier to inclose, shut.] 1. The outer wall of a feudal castle. [Obs.]

2. The space immediately within the outer wall of a castle or fortress. [Obs.]

3. A prison or court of justice; -- used in certain proper names; as, the Old Bailey in London; the New Bailey in Manchester.
 [Eng.] Oxf. Gloss.
 Bail"ie (&?;), n. [See Bailiff.] An officer in Scotland, whose office formerly corresponded to that of sheriff, but now corresponds to that of an English alderman.

 Bail"iff (&?;), n. [OF. baillif, F. bailli, custodian, magistrate, fr. L. bajulus porter. See Bail to deliver.]

1. Originally, a person put in charge of something; especially, a chief officer, magistrate, or keeper, as of a county, town, hundred, or castle; one to whom powers of custody or care are intrusted. Abbott.
 Lausanne is under the canton of Berne, governed by a bailiff sent every three years from the senate. Addison.
2. (Eng. Law) A sheriff's deputy, appointed to make arrests, collect fines, summon juries, etc.

 In American law the term bailiff is seldom used except sometimes to signify a sheriff's officer or constable, or a party liable to account to another for the rent and profits of real estate. Burrill.
3. An overseer or under steward of an estate, who directs husbandry operations, collects rents, etc. [Eng.]

 Bail"iff*wick (&?;), n. See Bailiwick. [Obs.]

 Bail"i*wick (&?;), n. [Bailie, bailiff + wick a village.] (Law) The precincts within which a bailiff has jurisdiction; the limits of a bailiff's authority.

 Bail"lie (&?;), n. 1. Bailiff. [Obs.]

2. Same as Bailie. [Scot.]

 Bail"ment (&?;), n. 1. (Law) The action of bailing a person accused.

Bailment... is the saving or delivery of a man out of prison before he hath satisfied the law. Dalton.
2. (Law) A delivery of goods or money by one person to another in trust, for some special purpose, upon a contract, expressed or implied, that the trust shall be faithfully executed. Blackstone.
 In a general sense it is sometimes used as comprehending all duties in respect to property. Story.
 Bail'or" (&?;), n. (Law) One who delivers goods or money to another in trust.

 Bail"piece' (&?;), n. (Law) A piece of parchment


[Illustration] The Man Who Was Thursday A Nightmare by G. K. Chesterton Contents A WILD, MAD, HILARIOUS AND PROFOUNDLY MOVING TALE THE MAN WHO WAS THURSDAY CHAPTER I. THE TWO POETS OF SAFFRON PARK CHAPTER II. THE SECRET OF GABRIEL SYME CHAPTER III. THE MAN WHO WAS THURSDAY CHAPTER IV. THE TALE OF A DETECTIVE CHAPTER V. THE FEAST OF FEAR CHAPTER VI. THE EXPOSURE CHAPTER VII. THE UNACCOUNTABLE CONDUCT OF PROFESSOR DE WORMS CHAPTER VIII. THE PROFESSOR EXPLAINS CHAPTER IX. THE MAN IN SPECTACLES CHAPTER X. THE DUEL CHAPTER XI. THE CRIMINALS CHASE THE POLICE CHAPTER XII. THE EARTH IN ANARCHY CHAPTER XIII. THE PURSUIT OF THE PRESIDENT CHAPTER XIV. THE SIX PHILOSOPHERS CHAPTER XV. THE ACCUSER A WILD, MAD, HILARIOUS AND PROFOUNDLY MOVING TALE It is very difficult to classify THE MAN WHO WAS THURSDAY. It is possible to say that it is a gripping adventure story of murderous criminals and brilliant policemen; but it was to be expected that the author of the Father Brown stories should tell a detective story like no-one else. On this level, therefore, THE MAN WHO WAS THURSDAY succeeds superbly; if nothing else, it is a magnificent tour-de-force of suspense-writing.
However, the reader will soon discover that it is much more than that. Carried along on the boisterous rush of the narrative by Chesterton's wonderful high-spirited style, he will soon see that he is being carried into much deeper waters than he had planned on; and the totally unforeseeable denouement will prove for the modern reader, as it has for thousands of others since 1908 when the book was first published, an inevitable and moving experience, as the investigators finally discover who Sunday is.
THE MAN WHO WAS THURSDAY A NIGHTMARE To Edmund Clerihew Bentley A cloud was on the mind of men, and wailing went the weather, Yea, a sick cloud upon the soul when we were boys together.
Science announced nonentity and art admired decay; The world was old and ended: but you and I were gay; Round us in antic order their crippled vices came— Lust that had lost its laughter, fear that had lost its shame.
Like the white lock of Whistler, that lit our aimless gloom, Men showed their own white feather as proudly as a plume.
Life was a fly that faded, and death a drone that stung; The world was very old indeed when you and I were young.
They twisted even decent sin to shapes not to be named: Men were ashamed of honour; but we were not ashamed.
Weak if we were and foolish, not thus we failed, not thus; When that black Baal blocked the heavens he had no hymns from us Children we were—our forts of sand were even as weak as we, High as they went we piled them up to break that bitter sea.
Fools as we were in motley, all jangling and absurd, When all church bells were silent our cap and bells were heard.
Not all unhelped we held the fort, our tiny flags unfurled; Some giants laboured in that cloud to lift it from the world.
I find again the book we found, I feel the hour that flings Far out of fish-shaped Paumanok some cry of cleaner things; And the Green Carnation withered, as in forest fires that pass, Roared in the wind of all the world ten million leaves of grass; Or sane and sweet and sudden as a bird sings in the rain— Truth out of Tusitala spoke and pleasure out of pain.
Yea, cool and clear and sudden as a bird sings in the grey, Dunedin to Samoa spoke, and darkness unto day.
But we were young; we lived to see God break their bitter charms.
God and the good Republic come riding back in arms: We have seen the City of Mansoul, even as it rocked, relieved— Blessed are they who did not see, but being blind, believed.
This is a tale of those old fears, even of those emptied hells, And none but you shall understand the true thing that it tells— Of what colossal gods of shame could cow men and yet crash, Of what huge devils hid the stars, yet fell at a pistol flash.
The doubts that were so plain to chase, so dreadful to withstand— Oh, who shall understand but you; yea, who shall understand?
The doubts that drove us through the night as we two talked amain, And day had broken on the streets e'er it broke upon the brain.
Between us, by the peace of God, such truth can now be told; Yea, there is strength in striking root and good in growing old.
We have found common things at last and marriage and a creed, And I may safely write it now, and you may safely read.
G. K. C. CHAPTER I. THE TWO POETS OF SAFFRON PARK The suburb of Saffron Park lay on the sunset side of London, as red and ragged as a cloud of sunset. It was built of a bright brick throughout; its sky-line was fantastic, and even its ground plan was wild. It had been the outburst of a speculative builder, faintly tinged with art, who called its architecture sometimes Elizabethan and sometimes Queen Anne, apparently under the impression that the two sovereigns were identical. It was described with some justice as an artistic colony, though it never in any definable way produced any art. But although its pretensions to be an intellectual centre were a little vague, its pretensions to be a pleasant place were quite indisputable. The stranger who looked for the first time at the quaint red houses could only think how very oddly shaped the people must be who could fit in to them. Nor when he met the people was he disappointed in this respect. The place was not only pleasant, but perfect, if once he could regard it not as a deception but rather as a dream. Even if the people were not "artists," the whole was nevertheless artistic. That young man with the long, auburn hair and the impudent face—that young man was not really a poet; but surely he was a poem. That old gentleman with the wild, white beard and the wild, white hat—that venerable humbug was not really a philosopher; but at least he was the cause of philosophy in others. That scientific gentleman with the bald, egg-like head and the bare, bird-like neck had no real right to the airs of science that he assumed. He had not discovered anything new in biology; but what biological creature could he have discovered more singular than himself?
Thus, and thus only, the whole place had properly to be regarded; it had to be considered not so much as a workshop for artists, but as a frail but finished work of art. A man who stepped into its social atmosphere felt as if he had stepped into a written comedy.
More especially this attractive unreality fell upon it about nightfall, when the extravagant roofs were dark against the afterglow and the whole insane village seemed as separate as a drifting cloud. This again was more strongly true of the many nights of local festivity, when the little gardens were often illuminated, and the big Chinese lanterns glowed in the dwarfish trees like some fierce and monstrous fruit. And this was strongest of all on one particular evening, still vaguely remembered in the locality, of which the auburn-haired poet was the hero. It was not by any means the only evening of which he was the hero. On many nights those passing by his little back garden might hear his high, didactic voice laying down the law to men and particularly to women. The attitude of women in such cases was indeed one of the paradoxes of the place. Most of the women were of the kind vaguely called emancipated, and professed some protest against male supremacy. Yet these new women would always pay to a man the extravagant compliment which no ordinary woman ever pays to him, that of listening while he is talking. And Mr. Lucian Gregory, the red-haired poet, was really (in some sense) a man worth listening to, even if one only laughed at


. Deducted; p. pr.
 & vb. n. Deducting.] [L. deductus, p. p. of deducere to deduct. See Deduce.] 1. To lead forth or out. [Obs.]

 A people deducted out of the city of Philippos.

Udall.
2. To take away, separate, or remove, in numbering, estimating, or calculating; to subtract; -- often with from or out of.

Deduct what is but vanity, or dress.

Pope.
 Two and a half per cent should be deducted out of the pay of the foreign troops.

Bp. Burnet.
 We deduct from the computation of our years that part of our time which is spent in... infancy.

Norris.
3. To reduce; to diminish. [Obs.] "Do not deduct it to days." Massinger.
 De*duct"i*ble (?), a. 1. Capable of being deducted, taken away, or withdrawn.

 Not one found honestly deductible From any use that pleased him.

Mrs. Browning.
2. Deducible; consequential.

 De*duc"tion (?), n. [L. deductio: cf. F. déduction.]
 1. Act or process of deducing or inferring.

 The deduction of one language from another.

Johnson.
 This process, by which from two statements we deduce a third, is called deduction.

J. R. Seely.
2. Act of deducting or taking away; subtraction; as, the deduction of the subtrahend from the minuend.

3. That which is deduced or drawn from premises by a process of reasoning; an inference; a conclusion.

 Make fair deductions; see to what they mount.

Pope.
4. That which is deducted; the part taken away; abatement; as, a deduction from the yearly rent.

Syn. -- See Induction.

 De*duct"ive (?), a. [Cf. L. deductivus derivative.] Of or pertaining to deduction; capable of being deduced from premises; deducible.

 All knowledge of causes is deductive.

Glanvill.
 Notions and ideas... used in a deductive process.

Whewell.
 De*duct"ive*ly, adv. By deduction; by way of inference; by consequence. Sir T. Browne.
 ||De*duc"tor (?), n. [L., a guide. See Deduce.] (Zoöl.)
 The pilot whale or blackfish.

 De*duit" (?), n. [F. déduit. Cf. Deduct.] Delight; pleasure. [Obs.] Chaucer.
 De*du'pli*ca"tion (?), n. [Pref. de- + duplication.]
 (Biol.) The division of that which is morphologically one organ into two or more, as the division of an organ of a plant into a pair or cluster.

 Deed (?), a. Dead. [Obs.] Chaucer.
 Deed, n. [AS. d&?;d; akin to OS. dd, D. & Dan. daad, G. thai, Sw. dåd, Goth. d&?;ds; fr. the root of do. See Do, v. t.] 1. That which is done or effected by a responsible agent; an act; an action; a thing done; -- a word of extensive application, including, whatever is done, good or bad, great or small.

 And Joseph said to them, What deed is this which ye have done?

Gen. xliv. 15.
 We receive the due reward of our deeds.

Luke xxiii. 41.
 Would serve his kind in deed and word.

Tennyson.
2. Illustrious act; achievement; exploit. "Knightly deeds."
 Spenser.
 Whose deeds some nobler poem shall adorn.

Dryden.
3. Power of action; agency; efficiency. [Obs.]

 To be, both will and deed, created free.

Milton.
4. Fact; reality; -- whence we have indeed.

5. (Law) A sealed instrument in writing, on paper or parchment, duly executed and delivered, containing some transfer, bargain, or contract.

 The term is generally applied to conveyances of real estate, and it is the prevailing doctrine that a deed must be signed as well as sealed, though at common law signing was formerly not necessary.

Blank deed, a printed form containing the customary legal phraseology, with blank spaces for writing in names, dates, boundaries, etc.

6. Performance; -- followed by of. [Obs.] Shak.
In deed, in fact; in truth; verily. See Indeed.

 Deed, v. t. To convey or transfer by deed; as, he deeded all his estate to his eldest son. [Colloq. U. S.]

 Deed"ful (?), a. Full of deeds or exploits; active; stirring. [R.]
 "A deedful life." Tennyson.
 Deed"less, a. Not performing, or not having performed, deeds or exploits; inactive.

Deedless in his tongue.

Shak.
 Deed" poll' (?). (Law) A deed of one part, or executed by only one party, and distinguished from an indenture by having the edge of the parchment or paper cut even, or polled as it was anciently termed, instead of being indented. Burrill.
 Deed"y (?), a. Industrious; active. [R.] Cowper.
 Deem (dm), v. t. [imp. & p. p. Deemed (dmd); p. pr.
 & vb. n. Deeming.] [OE. demen to judge, condemn, AS. dman, fr. dm doom; akin to OFries. dma, OS. admian, D. doemen, OHG. tuommen, Icel. dæma, Sw. dömma, Dan.
 dömme, Goth. dmjan. See Doom, n., and cf. Doom, v.] 1. To decide; to judge; to sentence; to condemn. [Obs.]

 Claudius... Was demed for to hang upon a tree.

Chaucer.
2. To account; to esteem; to think; to judge; to hold in opinion; to regard.

 For never can I deem him less him less than god.

Dryden.
 Deem, v. i. 1. To be of opinion; to think; to estimate; to opine; to suppose.

 And deemest thou as those who pore, With aged eyes, short way before?

Emerson.
2. To pass judgment. [Obs.] Spenser.
 Deem, n. Opinion; judgment. [Obs.] Shak.
 Deem"ster (dm"str), n. [Deem + -ster; i. e., doomster. Cf. Dempster.] A judge in the Isle of Man who decides controversies without process. Cowell.
 Deep (dp), a. [Compar. Deeper (?); superl. Deepest (?).] [OE. dep, deop, AS. deóp; akin to D. diep, G. tief, Icel. djpr, Sw. diup, Dan. dyb, Goth.
 diups; fr. the root of E. dip, dive. See Dip, Dive.]
 1. Extending far below the surface; of great perpendicular dimension (measured from the surface downward, and distinguished from high, which is measured upward); far to the bottom; having a certain depth; as, a deep sea.

 The water where the brook is deep.

Shak.
2. Extending far back from the front or outer part; of great horizontal dimension (measured backward from the front or nearer part, mouth, etc.); as, a deep cave or recess or wound; a gallery ten seats deep; a company of soldiers six files deep


, that it be not done.

Neh. vi. 9.
2. To reduce in quality, strength, or spirit; as, to weaken tea; to weaken any solution or decoction.

 Weak"en, v. i. To become weak or weaker; to lose strength, spirit, or determination; to become less positive or resolute; as, the patient weakened; the witness weakened on cross-examination. "His notion weakens, his discernings are lethargied." Shak.
 Weak"en*er (?), n. One who, or that which, weakens. "[Fastings] weakeners of sin." South.
 Weak"fish' (?), n. (Zoöl.) Any fish of the genus Cynoscion; a squeteague; — so called from its tender mouth. See Squeteague.

Spotted weakfish (Zoöl.), the spotted squeteague.

 Weak"-heart'ed (?), a. Having little courage; of feeble spirit; dispirited; faint-hearted. "Weakhearted enemies." Shak.
 Weak"ish, a. Somewhat weak; rather weak.

 Weak"ish*ness, n. Quality or state of being weakish.

 Weak"-kneed' (?), a. Having weak knees; hence, easily yielding; wanting resolution. H. James.
 Weak"ling (?), n. [Weak + - ling.] A weak or feeble creature. Shak. "All looking on him as a weakling, which would post to the grave." Fuller.
 We may not be weaklings because we have a strong enemy.

Latimer.
 Weak"ling, a. Weak; feeble. Sir T. North.
 Weak"ly, adv. In a weak manner; with little strength or vigor; feebly.

 Weak"ly, a. [Compar. Weaklier (?); superl. Weakliest.]
 Not strong of constitution; infirm; feeble; as, a weakly woman; a man of a weakly constitution.

 Weak"-mind'ed (?), a. Having a weak mind, either naturally or by reason of disease; feebleminded; foolish; idiotic. — Weak"-mind'ed*ness, n. Weak"ness, n. 1. The quality or state of being weak; want of strength or firmness; lack of vigor; want of resolution or of moral strength; feebleness.

2. That which is a mark of lack of strength or resolution; a fault; a defect.

 Many take pleasure in spreading abroad the weakness of an exalted character.

Spectator.
Syn. — Feebleness; debility; languor; imbecility; infirmness; infirmity; decrepitude; frailty; faintness.

 Weal (?), n. The mark of a stripe. See Wale.

 Weal, v. t. To mark with stripes. See Wale.

 Weal, n. [OE. wele, AS. wela, weola, wealth, from wel well. See Well, adv., and cf. Wealth.]

1. A sound, healthy, or prosperous state of a person or thing; prosperity; happiness; welfare.

 God... grant you wele and prosperity.

Chaucer.
 As we love the weal of our souls and bodies.

Bacon.
 To him linked in weal or woe.

Milton.
 Never was there a time when it more concerned the public weal that the character of the Parliament should stand high.

Macaulay.
2. The body politic; the state; common wealth. [Obs.]

 The special watchmen of our English weal.

Shak.
 Weal, v. t. To promote the weal of; to cause to be prosperous.
 [Obs.] Beau. & Fl.
 Weal"-bal'anced (?), a. Balanced or considered with reference to public weal. [Obs.] Shak.
 Weald (?), n. [AS. See Wold.] A wood or forest; a wooded land or region; also, an open country; — often used in place names.

 Fled all night long by glimmering waste and weald, And heard the spirits of the waste and weald Moan as she fled.

Tennyson.
Weald clay (Geol.), the uppermost member of the Wealden strata. See Wealden.

 Weald"en (?; 277), a. [AS. weald, wald, a forest, a wood. So called because this formation occurs in the wealds, or woods, of Kent and Sussex. See Weald.] (Geol.) Of or pertaining to the lowest division of the Cretaceous formation in England and on the Continent, which overlies the Oölitic series.

 Weald"en, n. (Geol.) The Wealden group or strata.

 Weald"ish, a. Of or pertaining to a weald, esp. to the weald in the county of Kent, England. [Obs.] Fuller.
 Weal"ful (?), a. Weleful. [Obs.] Chaucer.
 Weals"man (?), n.; pl. Wealsmen (#). [Weal + man.] A statesman; a politician. [R.] Shak.
 Wealth (?), n. [OE. welthe, from wele; cf. D. weelde luxury. See Weal prosperity.]

1. Weal; welfare; prosperity; good. [Obs.] "Let no man seek his own, but every man another's wealth." 1 Cor. x. 24.
2. Large possessions; a comparative abundance of things which are objects of human desire; esp., abundance of worldly estate; affluence; opulence; riches.

 I have little wealth to lose.

Shak.
 Each day new wealth, without their care, provides.

Dryden.
Wealth comprises all articles of value and nothing else.

F. A. Walker.
Active wealth. See under Active.

Syn. — Riches; affluence; opulence; abundance.

 Wealth"ful (?), a. Full of wealth; wealthy; prosperous. [R.] Sir T. More. — Wealth"ful*ly, adv. [R.]

 Wealth"i*ly (?), adv. In a wealthy manner; richly.

 I come to wive it wealthily in Padua.

Shak.
 Wealth"i*ness, n. The quality or state of being wealthy, or rich; richness; opulence.

 Wealth"y (?), a. [Compar. Wealthier (?); superl.
 Wealthiest.]

1. Having wealth; having large possessions, or larger than most men, as lands, goods, money, or securities; opulent; affluent; rich.

 A wealthy Hebrew of my tribe.

Shak.
 Thou broughtest us out into a wealthy place.

Ps. lxvi. 12.
2. Hence, ample; full; satisfactory; abundant. [R.]

 The wealthy witness of my pen.

B. Jonson.
 Wean (?), v. t. [imp. & p. p. Weaned (?); p. pr.
 & vb. n. Weaning.] [OE. wenen, AS. wenian, wennan, to accustom; akin to D. wennen, G. gewöhnen, OHG. giwennan, Icel. venja, Sw. vänja, Dan. vænne, Icel.
 vanr accustomed, wont; cf. AS. wenian to wean, G. entwöhnen.
 See Wont, a.]

1. To accustom and reconcile, as a child or other young animal, to a want or deprivation of mother's milk; to take from the breast or udder; to cause to cease to depend on the mother nourishment.

 And the child grew, and was weaned; and Abraham made a great feast the same day that Isaac was weaned.

Gen. xxi. 8.
2. Hence, to detach or alienate the affections of, from any object of desire; to reconcile to the want or loss of


Milton.
 He lived when learning was at its highest pitch.

Addison.
 The exact pitch, or limits, where temperance ends.

Sharp.
4. Height; stature. [Obs.] Hudibras.
5. A descent; a fall; a thrusting down.

6. The point where a declivity begins; hence, the declivity itself; a descending slope; the degree or rate of descent or slope; slant; as, a steep pitch in the road; the pitch of a roof.

7. (Mus.) The relative acuteness or gravity of a tone, determined by the number of vibrations which produce it; the place of any tone upon a scale of high and low.

 Musical tones with reference to absolute pitch, are named after the first seven letters of the alphabet; with reference to relative pitch, in a series of tones called the scale, they are called one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight. Eight is also one of a new scale an octave higher, as one is eight of a scale an octave lower.

8. (Mining) The limit of ground set to a miner who receives a share of the ore taken out.

9. (Mech.) (a) The distance from center to center of any two adjacent teeth of gearing, measured on the pitch line; -- called also circular pitch. (b) The length, measured along the axis, of a complete turn of the thread of a screw, or of the helical lines of the blades of a screw propeller. (c) The distance between the centers of holes, as of rivet holes in boiler plates.

Concert pitch (Mus.), the standard of pitch used by orchestras, as in concerts, etc. -- Diametral pitch (Gearing), the distance which bears the same relation to the pitch proper, or circular pitch, that the diameter of a circle bears to its circumference; it is sometimes described by the number expressing the quotient obtained by dividing the number of teeth in a wheel by the diameter of its pitch circle in inches; as, 4 pitch, 8 pitch, etc. -- Pitch chain, a chain, as one made of metallic plates, adapted for working with a sprocket wheel. -- Pitch line, or Pitch circle (Gearing), an ideal line, in a toothed gear or rack, bearing such a relation to a corresponding line in another gear, with which the former works, that the two lines will have a common velocity as in rolling contact; it usually cuts the teeth at about the middle of their height, and, in a circular gear, is a circle concentric with the axis of the gear; the line, or circle, on which the pitch of teeth is measured. -- Pitch of a roof (Arch.), the inclination or slope of the sides expressed by the height in parts of the span; as, one half pitch; whole pitch; or by the height in parts of the half span, especially among engineers; or by degrees, as a pitch of 30°, of 45°, etc.; or by the rise and run, that is, the ratio of the height to the half span; as, a pitch of six rise to ten run. Equilateral pitch is where the two sloping sides with the span form an equilateral triangle. -- Pitch of a plane (Carp.), the slant of the cutting iron. -- Pitch pipe, a wind instrument used by choristers in regulating the pitch of a tune. -- Pitch point (Gearing), the point of contact of the pitch lines of two gears, or of a rack and pinion, which work together.

 Pitch"-black' (?), a. Black as pitch or tar.

 Pitch"blende' (?), n. [1st pitch + blende.] (Min.) A pitch-black mineral consisting chiefly of the oxide of uranium; uraninite.
 See Uraninite.

 Pitch"-dark', a. Dark as a pitch; pitch-black.

 Pitch"er (?), n. 1. One who pitches anything, as hay, quoits, a ball, etc.; specifically (Baseball), the player who delivers the ball to the batsman.

2. A sort of crowbar for digging. [Obs.] Mortimer.
 Pitch"er (?), n. [OE. picher, OF. pichier, OHG. pehhar, pehhri; prob. of the same origin as E. beaker. Cf. Beaker.]
 1. A wide-mouthed, deep vessel for holding liquids, with a spout or protruding lip and a handle; a water jug or jar with a large ear or handle.

2. (Bot.) A tubular or cuplike appendage or expansion of the leaves of certain plants.

American pitcher plants, the species of Sarracenia. See Sarracenia.
 -- Australian pitcher plant, the Cephalotus follicularis, a low saxifragaceous herb having two kinds of radical leaves, some oblanceolate and entire, others transformed into little ovoid pitchers, longitudinally triple-winged and ciliated, the mouth covered with a lid shaped like a cockleshell. -- California pitcher plant, the Darlingtonia California. See Darlingtonia. -- Pitcher plant, any plant with the whole or a part of the leaves transformed into pitchers or cuplike organs, especially the species of Nepenthes. See Nepenthes.

 Pitch"er*ful (?), n.; pl. Pitcherfuls (&?;). The quantity a pitcher will hold.

 Pitch"-faced' (?), a. (Stone Cutting) Having the arris defined by a line beyond which the rock is cut away, so as to give nearly true edges; -- said of squared stones that are otherwise quarry-faced.

 Pitch"fork' (?), n. A fork, or farming utensil, used in pitching hay, sheaves of grain, or the like.

 Pitch"fork', v. t. To pitch or throw with, or as with, a pitchfork.

 He has been pitchforked into the footguards.

G. A. Sala.
 Pitch"i*ness (?), n. [From Pitchy.] Blackness, as of pitch; darkness.

 Pitch"ing, n. 1. The act of throwing or casting; a cast; a pitch; as, wild pitching in baseball.

2. The rough paving of a street to a grade with blocks of stone. Mayhew.
3. (Hydraul. Eng.) A facing of stone laid upon a bank to prevent wear by tides or currents.

Pitching piece (Carp.), the horizontal timber supporting the floor of a platform of a stairway, and against which the stringpieces of the sloping parts are supported.

 Pitch"-ore' (?), n. (Min.) Pitchblende.

 Pitch"stone' (?), n. (Geol.) An igneous rock of semiglassy nature, having a luster like pitch.

 Pitch"work' (?), n. The work of a coal miner who is paid by a share of his product.

 Pitch"y (?), a. [From 1st Pitch.] 1. Partaking of the qualities of pitch; resembling pitch.

2. Smeared with pitch.

3. Black; pitch-dark; dismal. "Pitchy night." Shak.
 Pit"e*ous (?), a. [OE. pitous, OF. pitos, F. piteux.
 See Pity.] 1. Pious; devout. [Obs.]

 The Lord can deliver piteous men from temptation.

Wyclif.
2. Evincing pity, compassion, or sympathy; compassionate; tender.
 "[She] piteous of his case." Pope.
 She was so charitable and so pitous.

Chaucer.
3. Fitted to excite pity or sympathy; wretched; miserable; lamentable; sad; as, a piteous case. Spenser.
 The most piteous tale of Lear.

Shak.
4. Paltry; mean; pitiful. "Piteous amends." Milton.
Syn. -- Sorrowful; mournful; affecting; doleful; woeful; rueful; sad; w


out of their body; I can not say that lump is cancerous but I can state that the cells in that lump test overly strong and that if I myself had a mass of growing cells testing overly strong and if I believed in the standard medical model, then I would be rushing my overly strong testing cells to an oncologist. But I don't dare say the person has a cancer. Or diabetes. Or is getting close to kidney failure.
That is a diagnosis.
 To me, diagnosis is a form of magic rite in which the physician discovers the secret name of the devil that is inhabiting one's body and then, knowing that secret name, performs the correct rite and ritual to cast that demon out. I don't know why people are made so happy knowing the name of their condition! Does it really matter? Either the body can heal the condition or it can't. If it can, you will recover (especially if you give the body a little help). If the body can't heal a condition you will die or live a long time being miserable. No "scientific" medical magic can do better than that.
 By describing a disease in terms of its related organ weaknesses, instead of pinning a Latin name on it, I am able to assist the body to achieve recovery in a superior way that the physician rarely does. By discovering that the body with the lump of overly strong cells also has a weak spleen, liver and thymus gland, I can take actions to strengthen the spleen, liver and thymus. If the body can strengthen its spleen, liver and thymus, then the overly strong cells miraculously vanish. But of course I and what I did did not cure any disease. Any improvements that happen I assign (correctly) to the body's own healing power.
 The way I analyze the organic integrity of the body is through a number of related methods, including the general appearance of the body, the patient's health history, various clues such as body and breath odor, skin color and tone, and especially, biokinesiology, the applied science of muscle testing. Biokinesiology can be used to test the strength or weakness of specific organs and their function.
A weak latissimus dorsi muscle indicates a weak pancreas, for example. Specific acupuncture points can be tested in conjunction with muscle strength to indicate the condition of specific organs or glands. The strength of the arm's resistance to downward pressure could be calibrated with a spring scale and precisely gauged, but experienced practitioners have no need for this bother, because they are able to pick up subtle changes in the arms resistance that are not apparent to the testée. Thus muscle testing becomes an art form, and becomes as effective as the person using it is sensitive and aware.
 Biokinesiology works because every organ and gland in the body is interconnected with other parts of the body through nerve pathways and nerve transmissions, which are electrical and can be measured through muscle testing. This may seem too esoteric for the "scientific" among you, but acupuncture points and energy manifestations around and in the body--are now accepted phenomena, their reality demonstrated by special kinds of photography. Acupuncturists, who heal by manipulating the body's energy field with metal needles, are now widely accepted in the western hemisphere. Kinesiology utilizes the same acupuncture points (and some others too) for analytic purposes so it is sometimes called "contact reflex analysis."
 I have studied and used Kinesiology for 25 years with the majority of my clients with very good success. There are some few people who are very difficult to test because they are either too debilitated, lack electrical conductivity, or their state of mind is so skeptical and negative about this type of approach that they put up an impenetrable mental barrier and/or hold their body so rigidly that I can hardly determine a response. A skilled can overcome the obstacle of a weak body that can barely respond, but the person who is mentally opposed and determined to prove you wrong should not be tested. If you proceed it is sure to have an unsatisfactory outcome for all concerned. For even if I manage to accurately analyze the condition of a skeptical client, they will never believe the analysis and will not follow suggestions.
 The "scientific," open-minded, "reasonable" client can be better approached using an academic-like discussion based on published literature that demonstrates how people with similar symptoms and complaints do very well on a particular dietary regimen and supplements. This type of person will sometimes follow dietary recommendations to the last letter, because their scientific background has trained them to be obedient.
 When a client comes to me, I like to take a real good look at who is sitting in front of me. I take my leisure to find out all about their history, their complaints, their motivation to change, their experience with natural healing, their level of personal responsibility, whether or not they have to work, whether or not they can take time out to heal, will they fast or take supplements, do they have sufficient finances to carry a program through to a successful completion, do they have people closely connected to them that are strongly opposed to alternative approaches, can they withstand some discomfort and self-denial, do they have toxic relationships with other people that are contributing to their condition, are they willing to read and educate themselves in greater depth about natural healing, etc.
I need to know the answers to these questions in order to help them choose a program which is most likely to succeed.
 Even though fasting is the most effective method I know of, it is not for people who are compelled to keep up a work schedule, nor is it for people who are very ill and do not have anyone to assist them and supervise them.
Nor is it for people who do not understand fasting and are afraid of it. People who have associates that are opposed to it, and people who do not have a strongly-functioning liver or kidneys should not fast either. Seriously ill people that have been on a meat-heavy diet with lots of addicting substances need a long runway into a fast so as to not overwhelm their organs of elimination. Does the person in front of me have an eating disorder, or an otherwise suicidal approach to fasting, etc. Clearly fasting is not for everyone, and if I recommend it to the wrong person, the result will be a bad reputation for a marvelous tool.
 Given that many clients can not fast without a lot of preparation, the majority of my clients start out with a gentle detox program that takes considerably more time, but works. These gradients have been outlined under the healing programs for the chronically ill, acutely ill, etc.
 To help rebuild poorly functioning organs, I sometimes use a specialized group of food supplements called protomorphogens. These are not readily available to the general public and perhaps should not be casually purchasable like vitamins, because, as with many prescription drugs, supervision is usually necessary for their successful use. If the FDA ever succeeds at making protomorphogens unavailable to me, I could still have very good results. (At this time the Canadian authorities do not allow importation of protomorphogens for resale, though individuals can usually clear small shipments through Canada Customs if for their own personal use.) But protomorphogens do facilitate healing and sometimes permit healing to occur at a lower gradient of handling. Without them a body might have to fast to heal, with the aid of protomorphogens a person might be able to get better without fasting.
And if protomorphogens are used (chewed up--ugh!) while fasting, healing is accelerated.
 Protomorphogens are made from freeze-dried, organically-raised animal organ meats (usually calf or lamb) combined with very specific vitamins, herbs and other co-factors to potentiate the effect. I view protomorphogens as containing nutritional supplementation specific for the rebuilding of the damaged organ.
 Doctor Royal Lee, a medical genius who developed protomorphogens therapy in the 50s and who spent several stints in prison in exchange for his benevolence and concern for human well-being, also founded the company that has supplied me with protomorphogens. After decades of official persecution and denial of the efficacy of protomorphogens by the power structure, it looks like they are about to finally have their day. As I write this book cutting-edge medical research companies are developing therapies using concentrated animal proteins (protomorphogens) to treat arthritis, multiple sclerosis, eye inflamations and juvenile diabetes. The researchers talk as though they are highly praiseworthy for "discovering" this approach.
 Unfortunately, this development is likely to cut two ways.
On one hand, it vindicates Dr. Lee; on the other, when these drug companies find a way to patent


out to battle. Jamieson.
 Pic (?), n. [Cf. F. pic.] A Turkish cloth measure, varying from 18 to 28 inches.

 Pi"ca (?), n. [L. pica a pie, magpie; in sense 3 prob. named from some resemblance to the colors of the magpie. Cf. Pie magpie.] 1.
(Zoöl.) The genus that includes the magpies.

2. (Med.) A vitiated appetite that craves what is unfit for food, as chalk, ashes, coal, etc.; chthonophagia.

3. (R. C. Ch.) A service-book. See Pie. [Obs.]

4. (Print.) A size of type next larger than small pica, and smaller than English.

 This line is printed in pica Pica is twice the size of nonpareil, and is used as a standard of measurement in casting leads, cutting rules, etc., and also as a standard by which to designate several larger kinds of type, as double pica, two-line pica, four-line pica, and the like.

Small pica (Print.), a size of type next larger than long primer, and smaller than pica.

 This line is printed in small pica ||Pic'a*dor" (?), n. [Sp.] A horseman armed with a lance, who in a bullfight receives the first attack of the bull, and excites him by picking him without attempting to kill him.

 Pic"a*mar' (?), n. [L. pix, picis, pitch + amarus bitter.] (Chem.) An oily liquid hydrocarbon extracted from the creosote of beechwood tar. It consists essentially of certain derivatives of pyrogallol.

 Pic"a*pare (?), n. (Zoöl.) The finfoot.

 Pic"ard (?), n. (Eccl. Hist.) One of a sect of Adamites in the fifteenth century; -- so called from one Picard of Flanders.
 See Adamite.

 Pic'a*resque" (?), a. [F., fr. Sp. picaro rogue.] Applied to that class of literature in which the principal personage is the Spanish picaro, meaning a rascal, a knave, a rogue, an adventurer.

 ||Pi*ca"ri*æ (?), n. pl. [NL., fr. L. picus a woodpecker.] (Zoöl.) An extensive division of birds which includes the woodpeckers, toucans, trogons, hornbills, kingfishers, motmots, rollers, and goatsuckers. By some writers it is made to include also the cuckoos, swifts, and humming birds.

 Pi*ca"ri*an (?), a. (Zoöl.) Of or pertaining to Picariæ.
 -- n. One of the Picariæ.

 Pic'a*roon" (?), n. [Sp. picaron, aug. of picaro roguish, n., a rogue.] One who plunders; especially, a plunderer of wrecks; a pirate; a corsair; a marauder; a sharper. Sir W. Temple.
 Pic'a*yune" (?), n. [From the language of the Caribs.] A small coin of the value of six and a quarter cents. See Fippenny bit. [Local, U.S.]

 Pic'a*yun"ish (?), a. Petty; paltry; mean; as, a picayunish business. [Colloq. U.S.]

 { Pic"ca*dil (?), Pic'ca*dil"ly (?), } n. [OF. piccagilles the several divisions of pieces fastened together about the brim of the collar of a doublet, a dim. fr. Sp. picado, p. p. of picar to prick. See Pike.] A high, stiff collar for the neck; also, a hem or band about the skirt of a garment, -- worn by men in the 17th century.

 Pic"cage (?), n. [LL. piccadium, fr. F. piquer to prick.] (O. Eng. Law) Money paid at fairs for leave to break ground for booths. Ainsworth.
 Pic"ca*lil'li (?), n. A pickle of various vegetables with pungent species, -- originally made in the East Indies.

 ||Pic"co*lo (?), n. [It., small.] 1. (Mus.) A small, shrill flute, the pitch of which is an octave higher than the ordinary flute; an octave flute.

2. (Mus.) A small upright piano.

3. (Mus.) An organ stop, with a high, piercing tone.

 Pice (?), n. [Hind. pais] A small copper coin of the East Indies, worth less than a cent. Malcom.
 ||Pic"e*a (?), n. [L., the pitch pine, from pix, picis, pitch.] (Bot.) A genus of coniferous trees of the northen hemisphere, including the Norway spruce and the American black and white spruces. These trees have pendent cones, which do not readily fall to pieces, in this and other respects differing from the firs.

 Pi"cene (?), n. [See Piceous.] (Chem.) A hydrocarbon (C&?;H&?;) extracted from the pitchy residue of coal tar and petroleum as a bluish fluorescent crystalline substance.

 Pic"e*ous (?), a. [L. piceus, fr. pix, picis, pitch.] Of or pertaining to pitch; resembling pitch in color or quality; pitchy.

 Pi"chey (?), n. [Native name.] (Zoöl.) A Brazilian armadillo (Dasypus minutus); the little armadillo. [Written also pichiy.]

 ||Pi'chi*ci*a"go (?), n. [Native name.] (Zoöl.) A small, burrowing, South American edentate (Chlamyphorus truncatus), allied to the armadillos. The shell is attached only along the back.
 [Written also pichyciego.]

 Pich"u*rim bean' (?). (Bot.) The seed of a Brazilian lauraceous tree (Nectandra Puchury) of a taste and smell between those of nutmeg and of sassafras, -- sometimes used medicinally. Called also sassafras nut.

 ||Pi"ci (?), n. pl. [NL., fr. L. picus a woodpecker.] (Zoöl.)
 A division of birds including the woodpeckers and wrynecks.

 Pi"ci*form (?), a. (Zoöl.) Of or pertaining to Piciformes.

 ||Pic'i*for"mes (?), n. pl. [NL. See Picus, and -Form.] (Zoöl.)
 A group of birds including the woodpeckers, toucans, barbets, colies, kingfishes, hornbills, and some other related groups.

 Pi"cine (?), a. (Zoöl.) Of or pertaining to the woodpeckers (Pici), or to the Piciformes.

 Pick (?), v. t. [imp. & p. p. Picked (?); p. pr.
 & vb. n. Picking.] [OE. picken, pikken, to prick, peck; akin to Icel. pikka, Sw. picka, Dan. pikke, D. pikken, G. picken, F. piquer, W. pigo. Cf.
 Peck, v., Pike, Pitch to throw.] 1. To throw; to pitch.
 [Obs.]

 As high as I could pick my lance.

Shak.
2. To peck at, as a bird with its beak; to strike at with anything pointed; to act upon with a pointed instrument; to pierce; to prick, as with a pin.

3. To separate or open by means of a sharp point or points; as, to


A WOMAN OF NO IMPORTANCE A PLAY BY OSCAR WILDE METHUEN & CO., LTD.
36 ESSEX STREET W.C.
LONDON Eighth Edition First Printed 1894 First Issued by Methuen and Co. (Limited Editions on Handmade Paper and Japanese Vellum) February 1908 Third Edition September 1909 Fourth Edition May 1910 Fifth Edition December 1911 Sixth Edition March 1913 Seventh Edition (Cheap Form) October 1916 Eighth Edition 1919 The dramatic rights of 'A Woman of No Importance' belong to Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree and to Robert Ross, executor and administrator of Oscar Wilde's estate.

TO GLADYS COUNTESS DE GREY [MARCHIONESS OF RIPON] THE PERSONS OF THE PLAY Lord Illingworth Sir John Pontefract Lord Alfred Rufford Mr. Kelvil, M.P.
The Ven. Archdeacon Daubeny, D.D.
Gerald Arbuthnot Farquhar, Butler Francis, Footman Lady Hunstanton Lady Caroline Pontefract Lady Stutfield Mrs. Allonby Miss Hester Worsley Alice, Maid Mrs. Arbuthnot THE SCENES OF THE PLAY Act I. The Terrace at Hunstanton Chase.
Act II. The Drawing-room at Hunstanton Chase.
Act III. The Hall at Hunstanton Chase.
Act IV. Sitting-room in Mrs. Arbuthnot's House at Wrockley.
Time: The Present.
Place: The Shires.
The action of the play takes place within twenty-four hours.
LONDON: HAYMARKET THEATRE Lessee and Manager: Mr. H Beerbohm Tree April 19th, 1893 Lord Illingworth Mr. Tree.
Sir John Pontefract Mr. E. Holman Clark.
Lord Alfred Rufford Mr. Ernest Lawford.
Mr. Kelvil, M.P.
Mr. Charles Allan.
The Ven. Archdeacon Daubeny, D.D.
Mr. Kemble.
Gerald Arbuthnot Mr. Terry.
Farquhar (Butler) Mr. Hay.
Francis (Footman) Mr. Montague.
Lady Hunstanton Miss Rose Leclercq.
Lady Caroline Pontefract Miss Le Thière.
Lady Stutfield Miss Blanche Horlock.
Mrs. Allonby Mrs. Tree.
Miss Hester Worsley Miss Julia Neilson.
Alice (Maid) Miss Kelly.
Mrs. Arbuthnot Mrs. Bernard-Beere.
FIRST ACT SCENE Lawn in front of the terrace at Hunstanton.
[Sir John and Lady Caroline Pontefract, Miss Worsley, on chairs under large yew tree.]
Lady Caroline. I believe this is the first English country house you have stayed at, Miss Worsley?
Hester. Yes, Lady Caroline.
Lady Caroline. You have no country houses, I am told, in America?
Hester. We have not many.
Lady Caroline. Have you any country? What we should call country?
Hester.
[Smiling.] We have the largest country in the world, Lady Caroline. They used to tell us at school that some of our states are as big as France and England put together.
Lady Caroline. Ah! you must find it very draughty, I should fancy. [To Sir John.] John, you should have your muffler. What is the use of my always knitting mufflers for you if you won't wear them?
Sir John. I am quite warm, Caroline, I assure you.
Lady Caroline. I think not, John. Well, you couldn't come to a more charming place than this, Miss Worsley, though the house is excessively damp, quite unpardonably damp, and dear Lady Hunstanton is sometimes a little lax about the people she asks down here.
[To Sir John.] Jane mixes too much. Lord Illingworth, of course, is a man of high distinction. It is a privilege to meet him. And that member of Parliament, Mr. Kettle— Sir John. Kelvil, my love, Kelvil.
Lady Caroline. He must be quite respectable. One has never heard his name before in the whole course of one's life, which speaks volumes for a man, nowadays. But Mrs. Allonby is hardly a very suitable person.
Hester. I dislike Mrs.
Allonby. I dislike her more than I can say.
Lady Caroline. I am not sure, Miss Worsley, that foreigners like yourself should cultivate likes or dislikes about the people they are invited to meet. Mrs. Allonby is very well born. She is a niece of Lord Brancaster's. It is said, of course, that she ran away twice before she was married. But you know how unfair people often are. I myself don't believe she ran away more than once.
Hester. Mr. Arbuthnot is very charming.
Lady Caroline. Ah, yes! the young man who has a post in a bank. Lady Hunstanton is most kind in asking him here, and Lord Illingworth seems to have taken quite a fancy to him. I am not sure, however, that Jane is right in taking him out of his position. In my young days, Miss Worsley, one never met any one in society who worked for their living. It was not considered the thing.
Hester. In America those are the people we respect most.
Lady Caroline. I have no doubt of it.
Hester. Mr. Arbuthnot has a beautiful nature! He is so simple, so sincere. He has one of the most beautiful natures I have ever come across.
It is a privilege to meet him.
Lady Caroline. It is not customary in England, Miss Worsley, for a young lady to speak with such enthusiasm of any person of the opposite sex.
English women conceal their feelings till after they are married. They show them then.
Hester. Do you, in England, allow no friendship to exist between a young man and a young girl?
[Enter Lady Hunstanton, followed by Footman with shawls and a cushion.]
Lady Caroline. We think it very inadvisable. Jane, I was just saying what a pleasant party you have asked us to meet. You have a wonderful power of selection. It is quite a gift.
Lady Hunstanton. Dear Caroline, how kind of you! I think we all do fit in very nicely together. And I hope our charming American visitor will carry back pleasant recollections of our English country life. [To Footman.] The cushion, there, Francis. And my shawl. The Shetland. Get the Shetland. [Exit Footman for shawl.]
[Enter Gerald Arbuthnot.]
Gerald. Lady Hunstanton, I have such good news to tell you. Lord Illingworth has just offered to make me his secretary.
Lady Hunstanton. His secretary? That is good news indeed, Gerald. It means a very brilliant future in store for you. Your dear mother will be delighted. I really must try and induce her to come up here to-night. Do you think she would, Gerald? I know how difficult it is to get her to go anywhere.
Gerald. Oh! I am sure she would, Lady Hunstanton, if she knew Lord Illingworth had made me such an offer.
[Enter Footman with shawl.]
Lady Hunstanton. I will write and tell her about it, and ask her to come up and meet him.
[To Footman.] Just wait, Francis. [Writes letter.]
Lady Caroline. That is a very wonderful opening for so young a man as you are,


.

 In some of the States, and for some purposes, a woman attains lawful age at eighteen. Abbott.
Syn. -- Legal; constitutional; allowable; regular; rightful. -- Lawful, Legal. Lawful means conformable to the principle, spirit, or essence of the law, and is applicable to moral as well as juridical law. Legal means conformable to the letter or rules of the law as it is administered in the courts; conformable to juridical law. Legal is often used as antithetical to equitable, but lawful is seldom used in that sense.

 -- Law"ful*ly, adv. -- Law"ful*ness, n. Law"giv'er (?), n. One who makes or enacts a law or system of laws; a legislator.

 Law"giv'ing, a. Enacting laws; legislative.

 Law"ing, n. Going to law; litigation. Holinshed.
 Law"ing, n. [So called because done in compliance with an English forest law.] Expeditation. Blackstone.
 Law"less, a. 1. Contrary to, or unauthorized by, law; illegal; as, a lawless claim.

 He needs no indirect nor lawless course.

Shak.
2. Not subject to, or restrained by, the law of morality or of society; as, lawless men or behavior.

3. Not subject to the laws of nature; uncontrolled.

 Or, meteorlike, flame lawless through the void.

Pope.
 -- Law"less*ly, adv. -- Law"less*ness, n. Law"mak'er (?), n. A legislator; a lawgiver.

 Law"mak'ing (l"m'kng), a. Enacting laws; legislative. -- n. The enacting of laws; legislation.

 Law"mon'ger (?), n. A trader in law; one who practices law as if it were a trade. Milton.
 Lawn (ln), n. [OE. laund, launde, F. lande heath, moor; of Celtic origin; cf. W. llan an open, clear place, llawnt a smooth rising hill, lawn, Armor. lann or lan territory, country, lann a prickly plant, pl. lannou heath, moor.] 1.
 An open space between woods. Milton.
 "Orchard lawns and bowery hollows."

Tennyson.
2. Ground (generally in front of or around a house) covered with grass kept closely mown.

Lawn mower, a machine for clipping the short grass of lawns. -- Lawn tennis, a variety of the game of tennis, played in the open air, sometimes upon a lawn, instead of in a tennis court. See Tennis.

 Lawn, n. [Earlier laune lynen, i. e., lawn linen; prob. from the town Laon in France.] A very fine linen (or sometimes cotton) fabric with a rather open texture. Lawn is used for the sleeves of a bishop's official dress in the English Church, and, figuratively, stands for the office itself.

 A saint in crape is twice a saint in lawn.

Pope.
 Lawnd (lnd), n. [Obs.] See Laund.

 Lawn"y (ln"), a. Having a lawn; characterized by a lawn or by lawns; like a lawn.

 Musing through the lawny park.

T. Warton.
 Lawn"y, a. Made of lawn or fine linen. Bp. Hall.
 Law*so"ni*a (?), n. (Bot.) An Asiatic and North African shrub (Lawsonia inermis), with smooth oval leaves, and fragrant white flowers. Henna is prepared from the leaves and twigs. In England the shrub is called Egyptian privet, and in the West Indies, Jamaica mignonette.

 Law"suit' (?), n. An action at law; a suit in equity or admiralty; any legal proceeding before a court for the enforcement of a claim.

 Law"yer (?), n. [From Law, like bowyer, fr. bow.] 1.
 One versed in the laws, or a practitioner of law; one whose profession is to conduct lawsuits for clients, or to advise as to prosecution or defence of lawsuits, or as to legal rights and obligations in other matters. It is a general term, comprehending attorneys, counselors, solicitors, barristers, sergeants, and advocates.

2. (Zoöl.) (a) The black-necked stilt. See Stilt.
 (b) The bowfin (Amia calva). (c) The burbot (Lota maculosa).

 { Law"yer*like' (?), Law"yer*ly (?), } a. Like, or becoming, a lawyer; as, lawyerlike sagacity. "Lawyerly mooting of this point." Milton.
 Lax (lks), a. [Compar. Laxer (-r); superl. Laxest.]
 [L. laxus Cf. Laches, Languish, Lease, v. t., Leash.] 1.
 Not tense, firm, or rigid; loose; slack; as, a lax bandage; lax fiber.

 The flesh of that sort of fish being lax and spongy.

Ray.
2. Not strict or stringent; not exact; loose; weak; vague; equivocal.

 The discipline was lax.

Macaulay.
 Society at that epoch was lenient, if not lax, in matters of the passions.

J. A. Symonds.
 The word "æternus" itself is sometimes of a lax signification.

Jortin.
3. Having a looseness of the bowels; diarrheal.

Syn. -- Loose; slack; vague; unconfined; unrestrained; dissolute; licentious.

 Lax, n. A looseness; diarrhea.

 Lax*a"tion (?), n. [L. laxatio, fr. laxare to loosen, fr. laxus loose, slack.] The act of loosening or slackening, or the state of being loosened or slackened.

 Lax"a*tive (?), a. [L. laxativus mitigating, assuaging: cf.
 F. laxatif. See Lax, a.] 1. Having a tendency to loosen or relax. Milton.
2. (Med.) Having the effect of loosening or opening the intestines, and relieving from constipation; -- opposed to astringent.
 -- n. (Med.) A laxative medicine. See the Note under Cathartic.

 Lax"a*tive*ness, n. The quality of being laxative.

 ||Lax*a"tor (?), n. [NL., fr. L. laxare, laxatum, to loosen.] (Anat.) That which loosens; -- esp., a muscle which by its contraction loosens some part.

 Lax"i*ty (lks"*t), n. [L. laxitas, fr. laxus loose, slack: cf. F. laxité, See Lax, a.] The state or quality of being lax; want of tenseness, strictness, or exactness.

 Lax"ly, adv. In a lax manner.

 Lax"ness, n. The state of being lax; laxity.

 Lay (?), imp. of Lie, to recline.

 Lay, a. [F. lai, L. laicus, Gr. &?; of or from the people, lay, from &?;, &?;, people. Cf. Laic.] 1. Of or pertaining to the laity, as distinct from the clergy; as, a lay person; a lay preacher; a lay brother.

2. Not educated or cultivated; ignorant.[Obs.]

3. Not belonging to, or emanating from, a particular profession; unprofessional; as, a lay opinion regarding the nature of a disease.


list of books written by Robert Service is probably incomplete, possibly incorrect, but may serve as a starting point for those interested in his works.

 About the Author Robert William Service was born 16 January 1874 in Preston, England, but also lived in Scotland before emigrating to Canada in 1894. Service went to the Yukon Territory in 1904 as a bank clerk, and became famous for his poems about this region, which are mostly in his first two books of poetry. He wrote quite a bit of prose as well, and worked as a reporter for some time, but those writings are not nearly as well known as his poems. He travelled around the world quite a bit, and narrowly escaped from France at the beginning of the Second World War, during which time he lived in Hollywood, California. He died 11 September 1958 in France.

 Incidentally, he played himself in a movie called "The Spoilers", starring John Wayne and Marlene Dietrich.


adie place; Did never mortal eye behold such heavenly grace." —Spenser: *The Faerie Queene,* bk. I. canto iii. st. 4.]

 4 (return) [ *Anathema maranatha* occurs at the close of St. Paul's first epistle to the Corinthians, and in the English version is made to appear as a composite phrase. It has so passed into common use, *maranatha* being taken as intensifying the curse contained in *anathema*. The words are properly to be divided, *maranatha* signifying "The Lord cometh."]

 5 (return) [ An interesting account of Sir William Phips will be found in Parkman's *Frontenac and New France under Louis XIV.* Hawthorne also tells his romantic story in *Fanshawe and Other Pieces.*]


have purgative qualities. The leaves of several species furnish the senna used in medicine.

2. The bark of several species of Cinnamomum grown in China, etc.; Chinese cinnamon. It is imported as cassia, but commonly sold as cinnamon, from which it differs more or less in strength and flavor, and the amount of outer bark attached.

 The medicinal "cassia" (Cassia pulp) is the laxative pulp of the pods of a leguminous tree (Cassia fistula or Pudding-pipe tree), native in the East Indies but naturalized in various tropical countries.

Cassia bark, the bark of Cinnamomum cassia, etc. The coarser kinds are called Cassia lignea, and are often used to adulterate true cinnamon. -- Cassia buds, the dried flower buds of several species of cinnamon (Cinnamomum cassia, atc..). -- Cassia oil, oil extracted from cassia bark and cassia buds; -- called also oil of cinnamon.

 Cas"si*can (?), n. [NL. cassicus helmeted, fr. L. cassis a belmet.] (Zoöl.) An American bird of the genus Cassicus, allied to the starlings and orioles, remarkable for its skillfully constructed and suspended nest; the crested oriole. The name is also sometimes given to the piping crow, an Australian bird.

 Cas*sid"e*ous (?), a. [L. Cassis helmet.] (Bot.)
 Helmet-shaped; -- applied to a corolla having a broad, helmet-shaped upper petal, as in aconite.

 Cas"si*do*ny (?), n. [Cf. LL. cassidonium, F. cassidoine.
 See Chalcedony.] (Bot.) (a) The French lavender (Lavandula Stœchas). (b) The goldilocks (Chrysocoma Linosyris) and perhaps other plants related to the genus Gnaphalium or cudweed.

 Cas"si*mere (?), n. [Cf. F. casimir, prob. of the same origin as E. cashmere. Cf. Kerseymere.] A thin, twilled, woolen cloth, used for men's garments. [Written also kerseymere.]

 Cas'si*nette" (?), n. [Cf. Sp. casinete, G. cassinet.]
 A cloth with a cotton warp, and a woof of very fine wool, or wool and silk.

 Cas*sin"i*an o"vals (?). (Math.) See under Oval.

 Cas*si"no (?), n. [It. casino a small house, a gaming house.
 See casino.] A game at cards, played by two or more persons, usually for twenty-one points.

Great cassino, the ten of diamonds. -- Little cassino, the two of spades.

 Cas"si*o*ber'ry (?), n. [NL. cassine, from the language of the Florida Indians.] The fruit of the Viburnum obovatum, a shrub which grows from Virginia to Florida.

 Cas'si*o*pe"ia (?), n. [NL., fr. Gr. &?;.] (Astron.) A constellation of the northern hemisphere, situated between Cepheus and Perseus; -- so called in honor of the wife of Cepheus, a fabulous king of Ethiopia.

Cassiopeia's Chair, a group of six stars, in Cassiopeia, somewhat resembling a chair.

 Cas*sit"er*ite (?), n. [Gr. &?; tin.] (Min.) Native tin dioxide; tin stone; a mineral occurring in tetragonal crystals of reddish brown color, and brilliant adamantine luster; also massive, sometimes in compact forms with concentric fibrous structure resembling wood (wood tin), also in rolled fragments or pebbly (Stream tin). It is the chief source of metallic tin. See Black tin, under Black.

 Cas"sius (?), n. [From the name of the discoverer, A. Cassius, a German physician of the 17th centry.] A brownish purple pigment, obtained by the action of some compounds of tin upon certain salts of gold. It is used in painting and staining porcelain and glass to give a beautiful purple color. Commonly called Purple of Cassius.

 Cas"sock (?), n. [F. casaque, fr. It. casacca, perh.
 fr. L. casa cottage, in It., house; or of Slavic origin.]

1. A long outer garment formerly worn by men and women, as well as by soldiers as part of their uniform.

2. (Eccl.) A garment resembling a long frock coat worn by the clergy of certain churches when officiating, and by others as the usually outer garment.

 Cas"socked (?), a. Clothed with a cassock.

 ||Cas'so*lette" (?), n. [F.] a box, or vase, with a perforated cover to emit perfumes.

 Cas'son*ade" (?), n. [F., fr. casson, for caisson a large chest. This sugar comes from Brazil in large chests.] Raw sugar; sugar not refined. Mc Elrath.
 Cas"so*wa*ry (?), n.; pl. Cassowaries (#). [Malay kasuri.]
 (Zoöl.) A large bird, of the genus Casuarius, found in the east Indies. It is smaller and stouter than the ostrich. Its head is armed with a kind of helmet of horny substance, consisting of plates overlapping each other, and it has a group of long sharp spines on each wing which are used as defensive organs. It is a shy bird, and runs with great rapidity. Other species inhabit New Guinea, Australia, etc.

 { Cas'su*mu"nar (?), Cas'su*mu"ni*ar (?), } n. [Hind.] (Med.)
 A pungent, bitter, aromatic, gingerlike root, obtained from the East Indies.

 Cast (kst), v. t. [imp. & p. p. Cast; p. pr. & vb. n. Casting.] [Cf. Dan. kaste, Icel. & Sw. kasta; perh. akin to L. gerere to bear, carry. E. jest.] 1. To send or drive by force; to throw; to fling; to hurl; to impel.

 Uzziah prepared... slings to cast stones. 2 Chron.
 xxvi. 14.
Cast thy garment about thee, and follow me. Acts. xii. 8.
 We must be cast upon a certain island. Acts. xxvii. 26.
2. To direct or turn, as the eyes.

 How earnestly he cast his eyes upon me! Shak.
3. To drop; to deposit; as, to cast a ballot.

4. To throw down, as in wrestling. Shak.
5. To throw up, as a mound, or rampart.

 Thine enemies shall cast a trench [bank] about thee. Luke xix. 48.
6. To throw off; to eject; to shed; to lose.

 His filth within being cast. Shak.
 Neither shall your vine cast her fruit. Mal. iii. 11 The creatures that cast the skin are the snake, the viper, etc.
Bacon.
7. To bring forth prematurely; to slink.

 Thy she-goats have not cast their young. Gen. xxi. 38.
8. To throw out or emit; to exhale. [Obs.]

 This... casts a sulphureous smell. Woodward.
9. To cause to fall; to shed; to reflect; to throw; as, to cast a ray upon a screen; to cast light upon a subject.

10. To impose; to bestow; to rest.

 The government I cast upon my brother. Shak.
Cast thy burden upon the Lord. Ps. iv. 22.
11