have been looked for. Thus the method of calculating compound interefts, which one of our correfpondents cannot find in our Work, is taught in the article ALGEBRA; that of coating mirrors, of which another complains that no account is given, will be found under the term FOLIATING and though it may be true, according to the peevish remark of a third, that the reader is nowhere directly inftructed how to grind optical glaffes, yet if he read the article GLASs-Grinding, and understand the doctrine of lenfes as laid down in the article OPTICS, he will easily, if an artist, discover a method of performing that operation for himself. OMISSIONS, however, there are towards the end of the Work; not the consequence of careleffness, but the offspring of neceffity. IN an addrefs to the Purchasers of the Encyclopædia Britannica, fubjoined to the ninth volume, the proprietors gave a rash promise to comprehend the whole of their undertaking within the limits of eighteen; and if intervening discoveries fhould make it neceffary, to enlarge the last volumes in quantity without any additional charge to Subscribers. THAT the promise was rafh, a moment's reflection should have taught them; for in the prefent rapid progrefs of phyfical fcience, when new difcoveries are daily made, it was obviously impoffible, at so early a period, to ascertain with precision how many volumes would be neceffary to bring a Work of such comprehenfive variety to the utmost perfection of which it is capable. This was indeed foon difcovered; but the proprietors fhrunk not from their engagement, which they determined to fulfil to the utmost extent of its meaning, till the additional tax, which in 1795 was laid upon paper, involved them in difficulties which they had not forefeen. By the act of parliament they were indeed authorised to reimburse themselves by raifing the fubfcription-price of their volumes; but they chose rather to fubmit to a diminution of profit, than to take even a legal advantage of that Public by which they had hitherto been fo generously fupported. To complete their plan, however, in its original extent, was now impoffible, without a violation of the facred duties which they owe to themselves and to their families. In this dilemma the Editor propofed that they should state the cafe to their Subfcribers, of whom he is confident that nine-tenths would have released them from the obligation of their promife: but after long deliberation, they judged that it would be more acceptable to the Public at large to comprehend the Work in the propofed number of volumes, though they fhould exclude from the last fuch articles as might be omitted without injury to fcience or the arts of life. If by any of their readers they fhall be thought to have erred in this judgment, let them not, however, be too severely blamed; for they have done much to adhere to the spirit of their promise; and, in the large addition made to the bulk of the last volume, have fhewn that they prefer their honour. to their interest. Several things have indeed been excluded; but except fuch recent difcoveries as could not be noticed under the laft letters of the alphabet, it is believed that very little has been omitted which can be considered as of great or general importance.. At any rate, the Editor flatters himself, that the last fix volumes of the Encyclopædia Britannica do not difgrace those by which they are preceded, and that the whole will. bear to be compared with any other Work of the fame kind extant. Imperfect it certainly is "but if much has been omitted, let it be remembered that much has likewife been performed;" that perfection is not to be looked for in the works of man ;, and that every compilation of fuch variety and extent fhould be examined with the. fpirit which actuated one of the greateft critics of antiquity when perufing the works. of his brother poets: Verum ubi plura nitent in carmine, non ego paucis man;, HOR. DE ART. POET. WE We mentioned our obligations to occafional contributors; and many of our correspondents have expreffed an earnest defire to know who these contributors have been. As there can be no impropriety in gratifying such a defire, we shall conclude this Preface, by affigning the various articles, not compiled by the Editors themselves, to their respective authors: but as many of the writers for the first twelve volumes were known to Mr Macfarquhar alone, they will not attribute the omiffion of their names to culpable defign, but to irremediable ignorance. FOR whatever inftruction may be conveyed in the articles ANATOMY and SURGERY the Public is indebted to Andrew Bell, F. S. S. A. one of the proprietors, and the ingenious Mr Fyfe. From the former of these gentlemen the world will foon receive one of the most splendid anatomical works which it has yet feen; and as the latter has long officiated under Dr Monro as diffector in the anatomical school of the university of Edinburgh, it is needlefs for us to fay how well he must be acquainted with the subjects on which we employed him to write. AEROLOGY, AEROSTATION, CHEMISTRY, ELECTRICITY, GUNNERY, HYDROSTATICS, MECHANICS, METEOROLOGY, with moft of the separate articles in the various branches of natural hiftory, we have reason to believe were compiled by Mr James Tytler chemift; a man who, though his conduct has been marked by almoft perpetual imprudence, poffeffes no common share of science and genius. The article BLIND was furnished by Dr Blacklock and Dr Moyes, both blind themselves, and both men of fuperior attainments; the former in elegant literature, and the latter in the phyfical sciences. We believe that the article EDUCATION was compofed by Mr Robert Heron, author of a history of Scotland now publishing, who likewife furnished the greater part of what we have published under the titles RELIGION and SOCIETY. The lives of JOHNSON and MARY Queen of Scots, with the articles INSTINCT, LOVE, METAPHYSICS, MIRACLE, the hiftory of Ethics under MORAL PHILOSOPHY, OATH, PASSION, PLASTIC NATURE, POLYTHEISM, PRAYER, SLAVERY, and SUPPER of the Lord, were contributed by Dr Gleig, Editor of the last fix volumes; GRAMMAR (c) and THEOLOGY by Dr Gleig and the Reverend James Bruce, A. B. late of Emanuel College, Cambridge; and MOTION by Dr Gleig and Mr Tytler. The fyftem of MEDICINE, which was published in the former edition, was revised and improved for the prefent by Andrew Duncan, M. D. Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, and Profeffor of the Inftitutes of Phyfic in the Univerfity. The notes.to the article MUSIC were contributed by Dr Blacklock, and the hiftory of the art by William Maxwell Morifon, Efq; advocate, who likewife favoured us with what we have published on the fcience of PHYSIOGNOMY. The articles My STERIES, MYTHOLOGY, and PHILOLOGY, we owe to the erudition of David Doig, L. L. D. F. S. S. A. master of the grammar-school of Stirling, and author of two very ingenious Letters on the Savage State, addreffed to the late Lord Kames. NAVIGATION, PARALLAX, PENDULUM, PROJECTION of the Sphere, SHIP-BUILDING, and Naval TACTICS, were furnished by Andrew Mackay, L. L. D. F. R. S. E. of Aberdeen, and known to the Public as author of a treatise on the Theory and Practice of finding the Longitude for many (c) Mr Bruce, who communicated the most valuable parts of the article GRAMMAR, and who was years a student in the university of St Andrew's, wifhes, from gratitude to his old mafter, to declare, in this public manner, that, to the inftructions of Dr Hunter, profeffor of humanity in that university, he is indebted for much of what philological knowledge he may poffefs. We believe indeed that Dr Hunter may claim as his own the theory which we have given of the cafes of nouns, the doctrine concerning the inverfe acceptation of the adjective, and the refolution of the relative pronoun by means of the prepofition of instead of the conjunction There is nothing else in our article which the attentive reader may not find in the grammatical writings of Voffius, Scaliger, Sanctius, Perizonius, Wallis, Ruddiman, Harris, Horne-Tooke, and Dr Gregory of Edinburgh. Discoveries in grammar are not indeed to be looked for. They are nearly allied to those in metaphyfics; of which, it has been well obferved by one of the acuteft writers of the age, that the very appearance fhould be rejected as an error, if not as an impofition, upon mankind. and. Longitude at Sea or Land. John Robifon, M. A. fecretary to the Royal Society of Edinburgh, and profeffor of natural philosophy in the Univerfity, did the Editor the honour of contributing to the Encyclopædia Britannica the valuable articles PHYSICS, PNEUMATICS, PRECESSION of the Equinoxes, PROJECTILES, PUMPS, RESISTANCE of Fluids, RIVER, ROOF, ROPE-Making, ROTATION, SEAMANSHIP, SIGNALS, SOUND, SPECIFIC GRAVITY, STATICS, STEAM and STEAM-Engine, STRENGTH of Materials, TELESCOPE, TIDE, Articulating TRUMPET, VARIATION of the Compafs, and Water-WORKS. PHILOSOPHY is the joint production of Profeffor Robifon and Dr Gleig. PHYSIOLOGY was furnished by John Barclay, M. D. of Edinburgh, whofe merits, if the Editor be not partial to his friend, it will raise high in the estimation of men of science. The effays on PREDESTINATION and PROVIDENCE were contributed by Robert Forfyth, Efq; advocate; the account of the French REVOLUTION by Mr Forfyth and Dr Gleig; and OXYGEN and PHLOGISTON by John Rotheram, M. D. profeffor of natural philofophy in the University of St Andrew's. The other contributors to the first part of the Work we cannot enumerate; but we know that much useful information was occafionally communicated by Dr Latham of Dartford in Kent, the celebrated ornithologift; by Dr William Wright phyficiangeneral to the forces in the West Indies under the command of Sir Ralph Abercrombie; by the Reverend J. Hawkins, vicar of Halfted in Effex; by the late Mr Adams, mathematical inftrument-maker to his Majefty; and by Mr William Jones, optician in Holborn, London. There is, however, no man to whom the Proprietors of the Encyclopædia Britannica feel themselves under greater obligations than to Dr Black, for the very handsome offer which he made to the person who was at firft entrusted with the chemical department of the Work. And while they exprefs thus publicly their gratitude to him, may not the Editor declare how much he is indebted to his two affiftants, the Reverend James Walker, M. A. of St John's College, Cambridge, and Mr James Thomson of Crieff, preacher in the church of Scotland? Of these gentlemen, who fucceffively had the care of the Work when he was neceffarily abfent, he could always fay, Quibus in rebus ipfi interesse non possumus, in his, operæ noftra vicaria. fides amicorum fupponitur. ENCYCLOPEDIA ENCYCLOPEDIA BRITANNICA. A, abbreviat. A, A. THE first letter of the alphabet,in all the known languages of the world, that of Ethiopia excepted, in which it is the 13th. It has defervedly the firft place in the alphabet, on account of its fimplicity, very little more being neceffary to its pronunciation than opening the mouth. In the English language A is the mark of three different founds, termed, by our grammarians, the broad, the cpen, and the flender A. The first refembles that of the German A, is found in several monofyllables, as wall, falt, &c. and is pronounced as au in caufe. It is probable that the Saxons expreffed only this broad found of the letter, as it is still commonly retained in the northern diftricts of England, and univerfally throughout Scotland; as, tauk for talk, wauk for walk or wake. The open A resembles that of the Italians in adagio, and is the fame with that of a in father, rather, &c. The flender found is peculiar to the English language, and resembles the found of the French diphthong ai in pais, or their a masculine, or perhaps it is a middle found between them: it is exemplified in place, waste, &c. alfo in toleration, juftification, and all other words ending with ation. A is sometimes added afterwards in burlefque poetry; in which case it only makes an additional fyllable without any alteration of the fenfe, as the interjection O very often does in our ballads. It is also sometimes rcdundant, as in the words arife, awake, &c. which are not different in fignification from rife, wake, &c. It is sometimes a word, either noun or interjection; in which last case it is commonly an expreffion of grief, and joined with the aspirate, as ah! When a noun, it is only with refpect to itself; as great A, little a, &c. A is very frequently used as an article; in which cafe it has no plural fignification, and is used to denote the number one, as a houfe, a field, &e. When placed as an article before any of the vowels, y and w only excepted, it is joined with the letter n; as, an ifland, an orator, &c.—In the three following cafes it is a prepofition. 1. When it goes before a participle, or noun derived from a participle; as, I am a doing this or that. 2. When uf 1 before local furnames, as Cornelius a Lapide, Thomas a Kempis, &c. 3. When it is ufed in compofition; as, a foot, a fleep, &c. In fome inftances it denotes the proportion of one thing to another; as, fo much a week, a man, a head, &c. A, among the ancients, was a numeral letter, and VOL. I. Part I. fignified 500; and when a dash was added on the top, A, 5000. A, in the Julian calendar, is the first of the feven DOMINICAL letters. It had been in use among the Romans long before the establishment of Christianity, as the first of the eight nundinales littera; in imitation whereof it was that the dominical letters were first introduced. A is also an abbreviation ufed with different intentions. Hence, A, among logicians, is used to denote an univerfal affirmative propofition; according to the verse, Afferat A, negat E, verúm generaliter amba. Thus, in the first figure, a fyllogifm confifting of three univerfal affirmative propofitions, is faid to be in Bārba-rā; the A thrice repeated, denoting so many of the propofitions to be univerfal, &c. See BARBARA, A, among the Romans, was used in the giving of votes or fuffrages. When a new law was propofed, each voter had two wooden ballots put in his hand; the one marked with a capital A, fignifying antiquo, q. d. antiquam velo; and the other with V. R. for uti rogas. Such as were against the law, caft the first into the urn; as who fhould fay, I refuse it, I antiquate it; or, I like the ancient law, and defire no innovation. A, in the trials of criminal caufès, alfo denoted abfolution: Whence Cicero, pro Milone, calls A, litter a falutaris, a faving letter.-Three ballots were diftributed to each judge, marked with the letters, A for abfolvo, I acquit; C for condemno, I condemn; and N. L. for non liquet, It is not clear. From the number of each caft into the urn, the prætor pronounced the prifoner's fate. If they were equal in number, he was abfolved. A, in the ancient infcriptions of marbles, &c. occafionally ftands for Auguftus, ager, aiunt, &c. When double, it denotes Augufti; when triple, aurum argentum, as; and fometimes its meaning can only be known by the reft of the inscription. Ifidore adds, that when it occurs after the word miles (foldier), it denotes him young. On the reverse of ancient medals, it denotes them ftruck by the city of Argos, fometimes by that of Athens; but on coins of modern date, it is the mark of Paris. A, as an abbreviation, is alfo often found in modern writers: as, A.D. for anno Domini; A:M. artium magifter, mafter of arts, &c. A, the letter a, with a line above it thus, ā, is used A in A, abbreviat. each one ounce. A, put to bills of Exchange, is in England an abbreviation for accepted, and in France for accepté. It is likewife ufual among merchants to mark their fets of books with the letters A, B, C, &c. instead of the numbers, 1, 2, 3, &c. A. A. A. The chemical abbreviation for Amalgama, or Amalgamation. AA, the name of several rivers in Germany and Swifferland. AACH, a little town in Germany, in the circle of Suabia, near the fource of the river Aach, and almoft equally diftant from the Danube and the lake Contance. It belongs to the house of Austria. E. Long. 9 0. Lat. 47. 55. AAHUS, a little town in Germany, in the circle of Weftphalia, and bishopric of Munfter. It is the capital of Aahus, a fmall diftiict; has a good castle; and lies north-east of Coesfeldt. E. Long. 7. 1. Lat. 52. 10. AAM, or HAAM, a liquid measure in common use among the Dutch, and containing 128 measures called mingles, each weighing nearly 36 ounces averdupoise; whence the Aam contains 288 English, and 1483 pints Paris measure. AAR, the name of two rivers, one in Swifferland, and another in Weftphalia in Germany. It is also the name of a small island in the Baltic. AARASSUS (anc. geog.), a town of Pifidia, in the Hither Asia, thought to be the Anaffus of Ptolemy. AARON, high-prieft of the Jews, and brother to Mofes, was by the father's fide great grandfon, and by the mother's grandfon, of Levi. By God's command he met Mofes at the foot of mount Horeb, and they went together into Egypt to deliver the children of Ifrael: he had a great fhare in all that Mofes did for their deliverance; the fcriptures call him the prophet of Moses, and he acted in that capacity after the Ifraelites had paffed over the Red Sea. He afcended mount Si1.ai with two of his fons, Nadab and Abihu, and feventy elders of the people; but neither he nor they went higher than half way, from whence they saw the glory of God; only Mofes and Joshua went to the top, where they ftaid forty days. During their abfence, Aaron, overcome by the people's eager intreaties, fet up the golden calf, which the Ifraelites worshipped by his confent. This calf has given rife to various conjectures. Some rabbies maintain that he did not make the golden calf; but only threw the gold into the fire, to get rid of the importunities of the people; and that certain magicians, who mingled with the Ifraelites at their departure from Egypt, caft this gold into the figure of a calf. According to fome authors, the fear of falling a facrifice to the refentment of the people by giving a refufal, made Aaron comply with their defire: and they allege also, that he hoped to elude their requeft, by demanding of the women to contribute their ear-rings, imagining they would rather choose to remain without a visible deity, than be deprived of their perfonal ornaments. This affair of the golden calf happened in the third month after the Ifraelites came out of Egypt. In the first month of the following year, Aaron was appointed by God high- Aaron, prieft; which office he executed during the time that Aarfens. the children of Ifrael continued in the wilderness. He died in the fortieth year after their departure from Egypt, upon mount Hor, being then 123 years old; A. M. 2522, of the Julian period 3262, before the Chriftian æra 1452. With regard to the attempts of the Egyptian magicians to imitate the miracles performed by his rod, fee fome remarks under the article MAGICIAN. AARON and JULIUS (Saints), fuffered martyrdom. together, during the perfecution under the emperor Dioclefian, in the year 303, about the fame time with Saint Alban the protomartyr of Britain. We are nowhere told what their British names were, it being usual with the Chriftian Britons, at the time of baptism, to take new names from the Greek, Latin, or Hebrew. Nor have we any certainty as to the particulars of their death; only that they fuffered the most cruel torments. They had each a church erected to his memory; and their feftival is placed, in the Roman martyrology, on the firft of July. AARON, or Harun, Al Rafchid, a celebrated khalif, or Mahometan fovereign of the Saracen empire; whofe history is given under the article BAGDAD. AARON Harifchon, a learned rabbi and CARAITE in the 15th century, wrote an Hebrew grammar, printed at Conftantinople in 1581; probably the fame with Aaron the caraite, who wrote a commentary on the five books of Mofes, which is in MS. in the French king's library. AARSENS (Francis), Lord of Someldyck and Spyck, was one of the greatest minifters for negociation the United Provinces could ever boaft of. His father, Cornelius Aarfens, was Register to the States; and being acquainted with Mr Pleffis Mornay, at the Court of William Prince of Orange, he prevailed upon him to take his fon under him, with whom he continued fome years. John Olden Barnevelt, who prefided over the affairs of Holland and all the United Provinces, fent him afterwards agent into France, where he learned to negociate under thofe profound politicians Henry IV. Villeroy, Silleri, Roffie, Jaonnin, &c. and he acquitted himself in fuch a manner as to obtain their approbation. Soon after, he was invefted with the character of ambassador, being the first who was recognised as fuch by the French court; at which time Henry IV. declared, that he should take precedence next to the Venetian minifter. He refided in France 15 years; during which time he received great marks of efteem from the king, who created hin a knight and baron; and for this reafon he was received amongst the nobles of the province of Holland. However, he became at length fo odious to the Frencli court, that they defired to have him recalled. He was afterwards deputed to Venice, and to several German and Italian princes, upon occafion of the troubles in Bohemia. He was the firft of three extraordinary ambaffadors sent to England in 1620, and the second in 1641; in which latter embaffy he was accompanied by the Lord of Brederode as firft ambaffador, and Heemfvliet as third, to treat about the marriage of Prince William, fon to the Prince of Orange. He was likewise ambaffador-extraordinary at the French court in 1624; and the Cardinal de Richlieu having juft |