ACCUBA- Horace describes the order of sitting, in the eighth the nearest to the table; at Rome, the last or upper- ACCUBA satire of the second book: Summus ego & prope me Viscus Sabinus, & infra, Si memnii, Varius: cum Servilio Balatrone Vibidius, quos Mecænas adduxerat umbras, Nomentanus erat super ipsum, Porcius infra. The habit of reclining at table, was no doubt introduced in consequence of that luxury and indulgence which gradually superseded the hardiness of earlier times. At first it was only adopted by the men; children, women, servants, and persons in general of inferior condition, continuing to sit at meals. As luxury, however, overcame the sense of delicacy, women did not hesitate to recline. Hence Suetonius mentions, that at an entertainment of the emperor Caligula, he placed all his sisters below himself, uxore supra cubante, his wife lying above him.' The method of arranging themselves at table, was as follows:-A low round table was placed in the canaculum, or dining-room, called also canatio; and, about this, usually three, sometimes only two, beds or couches; and according to their number, it was called biclinium or triclinium. These were covered with a sort of bedclothes, richer or plainer according to the quality of the person, and furnished with quilts and pillows, that the guests might lie the more commodiously. There were usually three persons on each bed; to crowd more was esteemed sordid. In eating, they lay down on their left sides, with their heads resting on the pillows, or rather on their elbows. The first lay at the head of the bed, with his feet extended behind the back of the second; the second lay with the back of his head towards the navel of the first, only separated by a pillow, his feet behind the back of the third; and so of the third or fourth. The middle place was esteemed the most honourable. Before they came to table, they changed their clothes, putting on what they called canatoria vestis, the dining garment; and pulled off their shoes, to prevent soiling the couch. PETISC. Lex. Ant. Infra aliquem cubare, is the same as lying in one's bosom, which is mentioned in the Gospel of St. John, who thus reclined at table with Jesus. At the commencement of an entertainment, the posture which they assumed was usually wholly recumbent, with their breasts against the pillows; afterwards they leaned on the elbow. If they were indisposed for conversation, the recumbent position was maintained, which is often represented in ancient sculpture. From the period of the heroic ages, the guests were arranged at table according to their rank; so that persons of the greatest distinction had the uppermost seats, and subsequently a nomenclator was employed at public entertainments to call every guest by name to his proper place. The heroes seem to have been ranged in long ranks, and the chief personages at the top of each row on both sides of the table. Thus, in the ninth Iliad, Achilles places himself uppermost on one side, and Ulysses on the other, when he entertains the ambassadors of Agamemnon, ἀτὰς κρέα νειμεν Αχιλλεὺς Αὐτὸς δ ̓ ἀντίος ἴζεν Οδυσσήος θέιοι Τοίχω τῷ ἑτέροιο. In Persia, the middle place was accounted the most honourable, and always given to the king; in Greece, most part of the middle bed or couch was the place TION. of greatest distinction. In convivial and friendly par- ACCUties, the arrangement of the guests was often not very MULATE. solicitously observed; attention being paid rather to convenience or suitability of age, profession or known inclinations, to loquaciousness or taciturnity. The Pharisees, and others among the Jews, appear to have been extremely particular of their situation at table, considering it as involving the question of respecta"the Scribes bility: hence our Saviour's language, and the Pharisees love the uppermost rooms at feasts, and the chief seats in the synagogues." (Mat. xxiii. 6.) Plutarch records a singular instance of feeling, with regard to this point of honour. At a splendid entertainment given by Timon, in which every one was desired to recline in whatever place he preferred, a certain person came in a very elegant dress and attended by a numerous retinue; but no sooner had he approached the door, and taken a view of the guests, who had already arranged themselves in the room, than he suddenly withdrew; and being followed by several of the company, who eagerly inquired the cause of this proceeding, he remarked, "there was no fit place left for him." See MISCELLANIES, Plate II. ACCUM BENT, n. ACCUM BENT, adj. "Now there was leaning on Jesus bosom one of his disciples whom Jesus loved;" which gesture will not so well agree unto position of sitting, but is naturall, and cannot be avoided in the laws of accubation. Brown's Vulgar Errours. Sto. Ad: cumbo. To lie or lean ACCUMB'ER. See CUMBER, ENCUMBER. Used as we now use Encumber. He sette not his benefice to hire, And lette his shepe acombred in the mire, Or with a brotherhede to be withold: Chaucer. Prologue to the Personnes Tale, vol. i. p. 21. A little time his yeft is agreeable, But ful accombrous is the vsing Ful often time causeth distourbing Chaucer, The Complaint of Uenus, fol. 327, col. 1. ACCUMULATE, v. ACCUMULATOR. Ad: cumulus. A heap. To heap together; to increase; to collect, or gather together. By thys meanes and pollecy thys Alexander gat, accumulated, and heaped vp a great summe of money. Hall, p. 492. For her submyssion made to hym, he neglectynge Goddes lawes, honest order, and Christyan religion, presumynge to accumulate myschiefe vpon myschiefe, desyred of her the mariage of her daughter hys naturall nyece, whiche thynge he woulde not haue thought lykely to haue obteyned. Ib. p. 431. Great Strafford! worthy of that name, though all Denham, on the Earl of Strafford's Trial and Death. The greatness of sins is, in most instances, by extension and accuTaylor's Polemical Discourses. mulation. Ill fares the land, to hastening ills a prey, The miser, who accumulates his annual income, and lends it out at interest, has really spent it in the gratification of his avarice. Hume's Essays. ACCUMULATION, among lawyers, refers to the concurrence of titles to the same thing, or of several cir cumstances in the same evidence. ACCUMULATION, in Heraldry, is the addition of some new honour or honours to the shield by marriage, military atchievement, or by the special leave of the heraldic authorities. It is synonymous with the modern quartering of arms." term " ACCUMULATION, in Agriculture, was an ancient term used by the Romans to express the covering up the roots of trees with the earth which previously surrounded them. Ablaqueation is directly opposed to this method. ACCUMULATION of Degrees, is the assumption of several of them together, or at shorter periods than is allowed by the regulations of an university. ACCUMULATIVE TREASON has sometimes, by a violent construction of the law, been acted where upon, no single circumstance of the case would of itself have amounted to treason. The most memorable occurrence perhaps of this description in English history was that of the trial of Lord Strafford, in the reign of Charles I. to which the poet DENHAM SO happily alludes in the preceding quotation. ACCURACY, ACCURATE, ACCURATELY, Ac'CURATENESS. Ad: cura. care. Care, caution; and consequently, correctness, freedom from fault or error. The knowledge of one action, or one simple idea, is oftentimes sufficient to give me the notion of a relation: but to the knowing of any substantial being, an accurate collection of sundry ideas is necessary. Locke's Essay on the Human Understanding. That the earth, speaking according to philosophical accurateness, doth move upon its own poles, and in the ecliptic, is now the received opinion of the most learned and skilful mathematicians. Ray's Wisdom of God in the Creation. Thus nicely trifling, accurately dull, F. I am accurst to rob in that theefe's company: that rascall hath remoued my horse, and tied him I know not where. Shakespeare, 1 H. IV. p. 54. act ii. sc. 2. Fast by, hanging in a golden chain, This pendant world, in bigness as a star Of smallest magnitude, close by the moon. Thither, full fraught with mischievous revenge, Accurs'd, and in a cursed hour he flies. Milton's Par. Lost, b. ii. Accursed is he that geueth the name and glorie of God unto a creature that is no God. Jewel's Apologie. The Council of Gangre accurseth those who make a difference between married and unmarried priests. Comber's Companion to the Temple. Heavy, O Lord! on me thy judgments lie, Prior's Considerations on Pslam lxxxviii. Danger whose limbs of giant mould, 66 Collins's Ode to Fear. ACCURSED, a term used in the Hebrew language synonymously with crucified; for whoever died upon a tree was considered as accursed. If a man have committed a sin worthy of death, and he be to be put to death, and thou hang him on a tree; his body shall not remain all night upon the tree, but thou shalt in any wise bury him that day--for he that is hanged is accursed of God." Deut. xxi. 22, 23. ACCUSE', v. ACCUS'ABLE, ACCUS'ANT, ACCUSA'TION, ACCU'SATIVE, ACCU'SATORY, ACCU'SER. Ad: causa, a cause. "The accusation" (in the common version) set above the head of Jesus Christ at his crucifixion, is called by Wiclif "The Cause." To bring a cause or case, or charge against. Ac Conscience to the kynge a cusede hem boþe And seide Syre Kyng by Cryst bote clerkus amende Thi kyngdom porw here covetyse, wol out of kynde weynde And holy churche porw hem worth harmed for evere. Vision of Piers Plouhman, repr. 1813, p. 36. Nyle ye gesse that I am to accuse you anentis the fadir; it is Moises that accusith you in whom ye hopen. For if ye beleueden to Moyses perauenture ye schulden bileue also to me: for he wroot of But if ye bileuen not to hise lettris how schulen ye bileue to Wiclif, Jon. chap. v. me. my wordis? ACCUSE ACCUSE, To which I answeride, that it is not custom to romayas to dampne ony man bifore that he that is accused haue his accuseris present, and take place of defending to putte awei the crymes that ben putt aghens him. Wielif, Dedis, chap. xxv. To whom I answered: It is not the manner of ye Romayns for fauoure to delyuer eny man that he shuld perishe, before that he whiche is accused, haue ye accusars before hym, and have lycence to answer for him selfe concernynge the cryme layde agaynst him. Bible, 1539. Therfore Pilat wente out without forth to hem and seide, what accusing bringen ghe aghens this man? thei answerden and seiden to him, if this were not a mysdoere we hadden not bitaken him to thee. Wictif, Jon. chap. xviii. O cruell day, accuser of the ioy Chaucer, Third booke of Troilus, fol. 174 col. 2. Than cometh accusing, as whan a man seketh occasion to an noven his neighbour which is like the craft of the divel, that waiteth both day and night, to accusen us all. Ib. The Personnes Tale, vol. ii. p. 324. And now they beyng bent of bothe sydes, with burnynge hartes they prepare theyr accusements they runne to ye judges. Erasmus, Pura. of N. T. by P. Udall, Ene hym self wyth the formest can stand Douglas, bk. xli. p. 431. And dogged Yorke, that reaches at the moone, Shakespeare, 2 H. VI. p. 131. act iii. sc. 1. I am sorry my integrity shoul breed So deepe suspicion, where all faith was meant ; To taint that honour euery good tongue blesses. Id. H. VIII. p. 218. activ. sc. 1. ARMORER. Alas, my lord, hang me if ever I spake the words: my accuser is my prentice, and when I did correct him for his fault the other day, he did vow vpon his knees he would be euen with me. Id. 2 H. VI. p. 124. act i. sc. 3. Summon a session, that we may arraigne Id. Wint. T. p. 286. act ii. sc. 3. Thus they in mutual accusation spent Milton's Par. Lost. bk. ix. A good cause receives more injury from a weake defence than from a frivolous accusation. She [Fancy] bids the flattering mirror, form'd to please, Shenstone's Elegy to the Winds. He who accuses another to the state, must not appear himself unmoved by the view of crimes with which he charges him, lest he should be suspected of fiction, or of precipitancy, or of a consciousness that after all he shall not be able to prove his allegations. Couper's Letters. ACCUSATION significs, in law, the imputation of. a crime or fault to any person; of such a nature as exposes the individual against whom it is preferred, to judicial punishment. In Rome, there was no calumniator publicus, or public accuser for public crimes; every one might prosecute crimes that had a bad public tendency. Lord Kaimes remarks, that this was a faulty institution, because such a privilege given to individuals could not fail to be frequently made the instrument of venting private ill-will and revenge. Cato, though innocent, was accused forty-two times. The accusation of private crimes was received only from those who were immediately concerned. Vossius distinguishes between the three terms of the Roman law, accusatio, postulatio, and delatio, in the following manner:-accusatio expressed the final presentation of a charge; postulatio, leave granted to bring it; delatio, the first exhibition of it to the judge. By the laws of Pompey, A. u. c. 702, the accusers were allowed two hours for pleading their cause, and the party accused three hours for a reply. By the laws of the Inquisition, a person is necessitated to accuse himself of whatever crime may be imputed to him. On the slightest report that a person is a heretic, or even that he is suspected of heresy, an inquisitor will receive the denunciation of a stranger, who generally abjures the office of accuser, because if he should fail in his proof, he is exposed to the law of retaliation. The unhappy culprit is now visited with all the terrors of the institution, to induce him to selfcrimination, which has urged the confession of whatever has been imputed, and even the voluntary invention of crimes that had no existence. By the old French law, the procureur-general only, or his deputies, can form an accusation, except for high treason and coining, where accusation is open to all. In other cases, private persons can only become denouncers. By the constitution of England, no man in this country can, generally, be imprisoned or condemned on any accusation, without trial. No man can be vexed with any accusation, but according to the law, nor molested by petition to the king, unless it be by indictment or presentment of lawful men, or by process at common law. No person is obliged to answer upon oath to any question respecting any crime by which he criminates himself. lated to prevent groundless accusations, and to The institution of a grand jury is admirably calcurestrain the servile zeal of public prosecutors. Before a party can be put on his trial, the grand jury of the county must find a bill'against him, that is, declare on oath that the evidence, brought before them is sufficient to warrant a trial. This jury consists of twentyfour freeholders, chosen by the sheriff. Political writers urge various arguments, both for the encouragement and discouragement of accusations. ACCUS TOM. ACCUSE. against great men. Nothing, according to Machiavel, tends more to the preservation of a state, than frequent accusations of persons trusted with the administration of public affairs. This, accordingly, was strictly observed by the Romans, in the instances of Camillus, accused of corruption by Manlius Capitolinus, &c. Accusations, however, in the judgment of the same author, are not more beneficial than calumnies are pernicious; which is also confirmed by the practice of the Romans. Manlius not being able to make good his charge against Camillus, was cast into prison. Solon facilitated public accusations, deeming general liberty to be endangered without this check upon the individual. At Athens, if an accuser had not the fifth part of the votes on his side, he was obliged to pay a fine of a thousand drachmas. Eschines, who accused Ctesiphon, paid this fine. At Rome, a false accuser was branded with infamy, by marking the letter K on his forehead. Guards were also appointed to watch the accuser, lest he should attempt to corrupt the judges or the witnesses. ACCUSATIVE, the fourth case of Latin nouns, denoting the relation of the noun on which the action implied in the verb terminates. In English this relation of the noun is either shown by its position, or by the assistance of prepositions. See GRAMMAR, Div. ii. ACCUSTOM, v. ACCUS'TOM, . ACCUS'TOMABLE, ACCUS'TOMABLY, ACCUS TOMANCE, ACCUS TOMARILY, ACCUSTOMARY. See CUSTOM. To be wont to do any thing constantly, habitually, usually. Hall, repr. 1809, p. 78. And like as one doth the semblable thinges and accustomes that he is woont to doe, so the emperour set more his intention on wise men, then his eies on fooles. The Golden Booke, chap. vii. He also made ordenaūces to auoydes strumpettes out of the cytie, and punysshemet for all accustomable great swerers, wi many other good ordenauces and lawes. Fabyan, repr. 1811, p. 375. After which murder fynyshed ye sayde syr Rafe, with his adherentys fled unto ye place of ye Erle of Artoys, where the Duke of Burgoyne vsyd accustomably to resorte. For which cause, the more we doubt VOL. XVII. Ib. p. 560. Chaucer's Dreame, fol. 357, c. 1. And forthir elk the samyn goung Pallas. But they of Love, and of his sacred lere, Spenser's Astrophe!. The Dutch, accustom'd to the raging sea, do him the homage accustomed for Normandy; but would do him For real substance, and themselves deceiv'd, Churchill's Farewell. Thou son of chance! whose glorious soul Churchill's Duellist, book i. By several statutes, of the reign of king George II. all private lotteries by tickets, cards, or dice, (and particularly the games of faro, basset, ace of hearts, hazard, passage, rolly polly, and all other games with dice, except back-gammon) are prohibited under a penalty of two hundred pounds. Black. Com. ACELDAMA, or CHAKEL-DAM, in Scripture history, a place beyond the brook of Siloam, without the south wall of Jerusalem, called the Potter's field, on account of clay being dug out of it, of which pots were usually formed; and the Fuller's field, because they dried cloth there. Being afterwards purchased with the money which was given for the blood of Jesus Christ by the Jewish high priests and rulers, it was called Aceldama,' the field of blood. It is still shewn to travellers. The place is small and covered with an arched roof. The bodies deposited L ACCUS TOM. ACEL DAMA. ACEL in it are, it is said, consumed in three or four days, DAMA. or even less. Drutmar, a monk of Corbie, says, that in his time there was a hospital in this place for the LOUS. entertainment of French pilgrims in their journey to the Holy Land. ACEPHA ACEMELLA, or ACMELLA, the name of seeds from the island of Ceylon, which were celebrated for their faculty of dissolving stones. They were successfully used in that island for dissolving calculi, and curing nephritic disorders. See Phil. Trans. 1700-1. vol. xxii. p. 760. ACENTETUM, or ACANTETA, in Natural History, the ancient name appropriated to the purest and most beautiful species of rock crystal. It was sometimes formed into cups and vases, which were held in high estimation; and was obtained from the island of Cyprus. ACEPHALI, or ACEPHALITE, from aкepaloc, headless. The title of a certain faction in the fifth century who had been deprived of their chief, Mongus, by his submission to the council of Chalcedon; which party was afterwards formed into three divisions, and from which sprung, in the succeeding century, several sects in the church who refused to follow a particular leader. It seems to have been first applied to the persons who refused to follow either John of Antioch, or St. Cyril, in a dispute that happened in the council of Ephesus, in 431. This epithet was also given to those bishops, who were exempt from the jurisdiction and discipline of their patriarch. The Acephali were generally Eutychians, or persons who believed there was only one nature in Christ. In the reign of king Henry I. the levellers received this distinctive appellation, because they were not believed to possess even a tenement to entitle them to have the right of acknowledging a superior lord. In our ancient law books, it is used for persons who held nothing in fee. ACEPHALOUS, or ACEPHALUS, an appellation which the credulity of some ancient cosmographers and naturalists has bestowed upon tribes of people whom they fancied to be formed without heads, or at least, with such a different arrangement of their features, as to supersede the ordinary method of its construction. The Blemmyes, an African nation, situated near the source of the Niger, are so represented, or misrepresented, by Pliny, who says they had eyes and mouths fixed in their breasts. Ctesias and Solinus give a similar account of a people resident on the Ganges in India, who had no neck, and whose eyes were placed in their shoulders. Mela, Suidas, Stephanus, Bezantinus, and several others, have transmitted to posterity similar absurdities. Nor have these been confined to ancient writers; many modern travellers have diversified their writings by reports which evidently originate in the same love of the marvellous, and dislike to close observation and accu rate research. Taking the whole, however, as a fable, its origin has been variously explained. Some have considered it as of the nature of a metaphorical illustration, anciently used with regard to such as had less sagacity or prudence than others. Others again, with great probability, interpret these stories by supposing that certain ancient voyagers had been imposed upon by the strange and fantastical dress of barbarians seen at a distance from the coasts, toward which they sometimes ACEPHA approached. Naturalists furnish a variety of instances of individuals born, by some lusus naturæ, without heads. Wepfer gives a catalogue of such acephalous births, from Shenckius, Licetus, Paræus, Wolfius, Mauriceau, &c. Consult also Phil. Trans. vol. lxv. p. 311. ACEPHALUS, is also used in poetry, to express a verse whose beginning is defective: and some have applied the word to all verses which begin with a short instead of a long syllable. ACER, the MAPLE or SYCAMORE TREE; a genus of plants belonging to the class polygamia, order Monœcia. ACER BITY, adj. akıç, acies, acer, sharp. Sharpness; generally applied to that sharpness which we call bitterness. It is true, that purgatory (at least as is believ'd) cannot last a hundred thousand years; but yet God may by the acerbitie of the flames in twenty years equal the canonical penances of twenty thousand years. Taylor's Dissuasive from Popery. ACERRA, a particular description of altar which the Romans erected near the bed of a deceased person. On this altar incense was daily offered till the time of performing the funeral ceremony. The original intention seems obviously to have been to get rid of any disagreeable smell. The law of the twelve tables prohibited the erection of acerræ. The custom in question prevails among the Chinese, who in a room hung with mourning, place an image of the dead person on the altar; every one that approaches is expected to bow four times, and offer gifts. ACERRA was a term applied also to a small pot which contained the incense and perfumes to be offered on the altars of the gods and before departed persons. People were obliged to offer incense in proportion to their estate and condition; the rich in large quantities, the poor only a few grains; the former poured out acerra plena, a full acerra on the altar, the latter took out three pieces. The Jews had their acerræ, in our version, 'censers;' and the Romanists still have their incense pots.' 66 ACERRE, in Ancient Geography, a town in Campania, on the river Clanius, now ACERRA, at no great distance from Naples. It was a Roman colony, and its inhabitants were distinguished for their bravery. "Acerranis," says Livy, plus animi quam vivium erat." Another town, now called la Girola, in the territory and to the south-east of Lodi, had the same The siege of this town by the Romans, which anciently was a very considerable place, is described by Polybius. It still subsists, and by means of large drains, which are now dug about it, the inhabitants are relieved from those apprehensions of being inundated, by which, as Virgil and Livy state, they were formerly agitated. name. ACESINES, or ACESINUS, in Ancient Geography, a considerable river of Persia, which falls into the Indus. The reeds upon its banks are so remarkable in size, that a piece between two knots, served as a bridge to cross the water. Alexander built a city on the banks, under the direction of Hephestion. Pliny says, that this and the Ganges furnished gems. The modern Jenaub is probably the Acesines of the ancients; so at least LOUS. ACESINES. |
