The Arengo is still called together in cases of importance; and if, after due summons, any member absents himself, he is to be fined to the value of about a penny English. Addison. ABSENTANEOUS. adj. Relating to absence; absent. Dict. ABSENTEE. n. s. He that is absent from his station, or employment, or country. A word used commonly with regard to Irishmen living out of their country.

Then was the first statute made against absentees, commanding all such as had land in Ireland, to return and reside thereupon.

Sir John Davies on Ireland. A great part of estates in Ireland are owned by absentees, and such as draw over the profits raised out of Ireland, refunding nothing. Child ABSINTHIATED. part. [from absinthium, Lat. wormwood.] Imbittered; impregnated with wormwood.

Dict.

To ABSI'ST. v. n. [absisto, Lat.] To stand off; to leave off.

Dict.

To ABSOLVE. v. a. [absolvo, Lat.] 1. To clear; to acquit of a crime, in a judicial sense.

Your great goodness out of holy pity Absolo'd him with an axe.

Shakspeare. Our victors, blest in peace, forget their wars, Enjoy past dangers, and absolve the stars. Tickell. As he hopes and gives out, by the influence of his wealth, to be here absolved; in condemning this man, you have an opportunity of belying that general scandal, of redeeming the credit lost by former judgments. Swift's Miscellanies. 2. To set free from an engagement or promise.

Compell'd by threats to take that bloody oath, And the act ill, I am absolv'd by both.

Waller's Maid's Trag.

This command, which must necessarily comprehend the persons of our natural fathers, must mean a duty we owe them, distinct from our obedience to the magistrate, and from which the most absolute power of princes cannot absolve us. Locke.

3. To pronounce sin remitted, in the ecclesiastical sense.

But all is calm in this eternal sleep;
Here grief forgets to groan, and love to weep;
Ev'n superstition loses ev'ry fear;

For God, not man, absolves our frailties here. Pope. 4. To finish; to complete. This use is

not common.

What cause

Mov'd the Creator, in his holy rest
Through all eternity, so late to build
In chaos; and the work begun, how soon
Absolv'd.

Milton's Paradise Lost. If that which is so supposed infinitely distant from what is now current, is distant from us by a finite interval, and not infinitely, then that one circulation which preceded it, must necessarily be like ours, and consequently absolved in the space of twenty-four hours. Hale. ABSOLUTE, adj. [absolutus, Lat.] 1. Complete: applied as well to persons as things.

Because the things that proceed from him are perfect, without any manner of defect or maim; it cannot be but that the words of his mouth are absolute, and lack nothing which they should have,

What is his strength by land?-----Great and increasing: but by sea He is an absolute master.

Hooker.

Shakspeare. 2. Unconditional; as, an absolute promise. Although it runs in forms absolute, yet it is in deed conditional, as depending upon the qualifi cation of the person to whom it is pronounced. South's Sermons.

3. Not relative; as, absolute space. In this sense we speak of the ablative case absolute, in grammar.

I see still the distinctions of sovereign and inferior, of absolute and relative worship, will bear any man out in the worship of any creature with respect to God, as well at least, as it doth in the worship of images. Stilling fleet.

An absolute mode is that which belongs to its subject, without respect to any other beings whatsoever; but a relative mode is derived from the regard that one being has to others.

Watts.

4. Not limited; as, absolute power. My crown is absolute, and holds of none: I cannot in a base subjection live, Nor suffer you to take, tho' I would give. Dryden. 5. Positive; certain; without any hesitation. In this sense it rarely occurs.

Long is it since I saw him,

But time hath nothing blurr'd those lines of favour, Which then he wore; the snatches in his voice, And burst of speaking were as his: I'm absolute, 'Twas very Cloten. Shakspeare's Cymbeline. A'BSOLUTELY. adv. [from absolute.] 1. Completely; without restriction.

All the contradictions which grow in those minds, that neither absolutely climb the rock of virtue, nor freely sink into the sea of vanity.

Sidney.

What merit they can build upon having joined with a protestant army, under a king they acknowledge, to defend their own liberties and properties, is, to me, absolutely inconceivable; and, I believe, will equally be so for ever.

Swift's Presb. Plea 2. Without relation; in a state unconnected. Absolutely we cannot discommend, we cannot absolutely approve either willingness to live, or forwardness to die. Hooker.

3.

These then being the perpetual causes of zeal; the greatest good, or the greatest evil; either al solutely so in themselves, or relatively so to us; it is therefore good to be zealously affected for the one against the other. Sprat's Sermons.

No sensible quality, as light, and colour, and heat, and sound, can be subsistent in the bodies themselves, absolutely considered, without a relation to our eyes and ears, and other organs of sense. These qualities are only the effects of our sensation, which arise from the different motions, upon our nerves, from objects without, according to their various modifications and positions.

Bentley's Sermons. Without limits or dependance.

The prince long time had courted fortune's love, But, once possess'd, did absolutely reign:

Thus with their amazons the heroes strove, And conquer'd first those beauties they would gain. Dryden's Annus Mirabilis., 4. Without condition.

And of that nature, for the most part, are things absolutely unto all men's salvation necessary, either to be held or denied, either to be done or avoided. Hooker.

3. Peremptorily; positively. Being as I am, why didst not thou Command me absolutely not to go

Going into such danger, as thou saidst? Par. Lost. A'BSOLUTENESS. n. s. [from absolute.] 1. Completeness.

2. Freedom from dependance, or limits.

The absoluteness and illimitedness of his commission was generally much spoken of. Clarendon.

There is nothing that can raise a man to that generous absoluteness of condition, as neither to cringe, to fawn, or to depend meanly; but that which gives him that happiness within himself, for which men depend upon others. South's Sermons, 3. Despoticism.

He kept a strait hand on his nobility, and chose rather to advance clergymen and lawyers, which were more obsequious to him, but had less interest in the people; which made for his absoluteness, but not for his safety.

Bacon's Henry VII. They dress up power with all the splendor and temptation absoluteness can add to it." Locke. ABSOLUTION, n. s. [absolutio, Lat.] 1. Acquittal.

Absolution, in the civil law, imports a full acquittal of a person by some final sentence of law; also, a temporary discharge of his farther attendance upon mesne process, through a failure or defect in pleading; as it does likewise in the cañon law, where, and among divines, it likewise signifies a relaxation of him from the obligation of some sentence pronounced either in a court of law, or else in foro pænitentiali. Thus there is, in this kind of law, one kind of absolution, termed judicial, and another, styled a declaratory or extra-judicial absolution.

Ayliffe's Parergon. 2. The remission of sins, or penance, declared by ecclesiastical authority.

The absolution pronounced by a priest, whe ther papist or protestant, is not a certain infal lible ground to give the person, so absolved, confidence towards God. South's Sermons. A'BSOLUTORY. adj. [absolutorius, Lat.] That does absolve.

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Though an absolutory sentence should be nounced in favour of the persons, upon the account of nearness of blood; yet, if adultery shall afterwards be truly proved, he may be again proceeded against as an adulterer.

Ayliffe's Parergon. A'BSONANT. adj. [See ABSONOUS.] Contrary to reason; wide from the purpose.

ABSONOUS. adj. [absonus, Lat. ill-sounding.] Absurd; contrary to reason. It is not much in use, and it may be doubted whether it should be followed by to or from.

To suppose an uniter of a middle constitution, that should partake of some of the qualities of both, is unwarranted by any of our faculties; yea, most abrenous to our reason. Glanville's Scepsis. To ABSORB. v. a. [absorbeo, Lat. preter. absorbed; part. pret. absorbed, or absorpt.] 1. To swallow up.

Moses imputed the deluge to the disruption of the abyss; and St. Peter to the particular canstitution of that earth, which made it obnoxious to be absorpt in water. Burnet's Theory.

Some tokens shew

Of fearless friendship, and their sinking mates
Sustain; vain love, tho' laudable; absorpt
By a fierce eddy, they together found
The vast profundity.

Philips.

2. To suck up. See ABSORBENT. The evils that come of exercise are that it doth absorb and attenuate the moisture of the body. Bacon. Supposing the forementioned consumption should prove so durable, as to absorb and extenuate the said sanguine parts to an extreme degree, it is evident, that the fundamental parts must necessarily come into danger. Harvey on Cons. While we perspire, we absorb the outward air. Arbuthnot. ABSORBENT. n. s. [absorbens, Lat.] A medicine that, by the softness or porosity of its parts, either eases the asperities of pungent humours, or dries away superfluous moisture in the body. Quincy

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There is a third class of substances, commonly Called absorbents; as the various kinds of shells, coral, chalk, crabs eyes, &c. which likewise raise an effervescence with acids, and are therefore called alkalis, though not so properly, for they are not salts. Arbuthnot on Aliments. ABSORPT.part.[from absorb.] Swallowed up: used as well, in a figurative sense, of persons, as, in the primitive, of things.

What can you expect from a man, who has not talked these five days? who is withdrawing his thoughts, as far as he can, from all the present world, its customs and its manners, to be fully possessed and absorpt in the past. Pope's Let. ABSORPTION. n. s. from absorb.] The act of swallowing up.

It was below the dignity of those sacred penmen, or the spirit of God that directed them, to shew us the causes of this disruption, or of this absorption; this is left to the enquiries of Burnet's Theory of the Earth. To ABSTAIN. v. n. [abstineo, Lat.] To forbear; to deny one's self any gratification: with the particle from.

men.

If thou judge it hard and difficult, Conversing, looking, loving, to abstain From love's due rites, nuptial embraces sweet; And, with desires, to languish without hope.

Milton's Paradise Lost.

To be perpetually longing, and impatiently desirous of any thing, so that a man cannot ab stain from it, is to lose a man's liberty, and to become a servant of meat and drink, or smoke. Taylor's Rule of living holy. Even then the doubtful billows scarce abstain From the toss'd vessel on the troubled main. Dryd. ABSTE'MIOUS. adj. [abstemius, Lat.] Temperate; sober; abstinent; refraining from excess or pleasures. It is used of persons; as, an abstemious hermit: and of things; as, an abstemious diet. It is spoken likewise of things that cause temperance.

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The instances of longevity are chiefly amongst the abstemions. Abstinence in extremity will prove a mortal disease; but the experiments of it are very rare. Arbuthnot on Aliments. Clytorean streams the love of wine expel, (Such is the virtue of th' abstemious well) Whether the colder nymph that rules the flood Extinguishes, and balks the drunken god;

Or that Melampus (so have some assur❜d) When the mad Pratides with charms he cur'd, And pow'rful herbs, both charms and simples cast Into the sober spring, where still their virtues last. Dryden's Fables. ABSTE'MIOUSLY. adv. [from abstemious.] Temperately; soberly; without indulg

ence.

ABSTE MIOUSNESS. n. s. [See ABSTEMIOUS.] The quality of being abstemious.

ABSTENTION. n. s. [from abstineo, Lat.] The act of holding off, or restraining; restraint. Dict.

To ABSTERGE. v. a. [abstergo, Lat.] To cleanse by wiping; to wipe. ABSTERGENT. adj. Cleansing; having a cleansing quality.

To ABSTE'RSE. [See ABSTERGE.] To cleanse; to purify a word very little in use, and less analogical than absterge.

Nor will we affirm, that iron receiveth, in the stomach of the ostrich, no alteration; but we suspect this effect rather from corrosion than digestion; not any tendence to chilification by the natural heat, but rather some attrition from an acid and vitriolous humidity in the stomach, which may absterse and shave the scorious parts thereof. Brown's Vulgar Erreurs. ABSTERSION. n. s. [abstersio, Lat] The act of cleansing. See ABSTERGE.

Abstersion is plainly a scouring off, or incision of the more viscous humours, and making the humours more fluid, and cutting between them and the part; as is found in nitrous water, which scoureth linen cloth speedily from the foulness. Bacon's Nat. Hist.

ABSTERSIVE. adj. [from absterge.] That has the quality of absterging or cleansing.

It is good, after purging, to use apozemes and broths, not so much opening as those used before purging; but abstersive and mundifying clysters also are good to conclude with, to draw away the reliques of the humours. Bacon's Nat. Hist. A tablet stood of that abstersive tree, Where Æthiop's swarthy bird did build to nest. Sir J. Denham. There many a flow'r abstersive grew, Thy fav'rite flow'rs of yellow hue. Swift's Mis. ABSTINENCE. Į n. s. [abstinentia, Lat.] A'BSTINENCY.S 1. Forbearance of any thing: with the particle from.

Were our rewards for the abstinencies, or riots, of this present life, under the prejudices of short or finite, the promises and threats of Christ would lose much of their virtue and energy.

Hammond's Fundamentals.

Because the abstinence from a present pleasure, that offers itself, is a pain, nay, oftentimes a very great one; it is no wonder that that operates after the same manner pain does, and lessens, in our thoughts, what is future; and so forces us, as it were, blindfold into its embraces. Locke. 2. Fasting, or forbearance of necessary food. It is generally distinguished from temperance, as the greater degree from the less: sometimes as single perform

ances from habits; as, a day of absti«. nence, and a life of temperance.

Say, can you fast? your stomachs are too young, And abstinence ingenders maladies. Shaks. And the faces of them, which have used abstinence, shall shine above the stars; whereas our faces shall be blacker than darkness. 2 Esdras.

Religious men, who hither must be sent As awful guides of heavenly government; To teach you penance, fasts, and abstinence, To punish bodies for the soul's offence. Dryden. ABSTINENT. adj. [abstinens, Lat.] That uses abstinence, in opposition to covetous, rapacious, or luxurious. It is used chiefly of persons. ABSTO'RTED. adj. [abstortus, Lat.] Forced away; wrung from another by violence.

Dict. To ABSTRACT. v. a. [abstraho, Lat.] 1. To take one thing from another.

Could we abstract from these pernicious effects, and suppose this were innocent, it would be too light to be matter of praise. Decay of Piety. 2. To separate by distillation.

Having dephlegmed spirit of salt, and gently abstracted the whole spirit, there remaineth in the retort a styptical substance. Boyle. 3. To separate ideas.

Those who cannot distinguish, compare, and abstract, would hardly be able to understand and make use of language, or judge or reason to any tolerable degree. Locke.

4. To reduce to an epitome.

If we would fix in the memory the discourses we hear, or what we design to speak, let us abstract them into brief compends, and review them often. Watts' Improvement of the Mind. A'BSTRACT. adj. [abstractus, Lat. See To ABSTRACT.]

1. Separated from something else: generally used with relation to mental perceptions; as, abstract mathematics, abstract terms, in opposition to concrete.

Mathematics, in its latitude, is usually divided into pure and mixed. And though the pure do handle only abstract quantity in general, as geometry, arithmetic; yet that which is mixed doth consider the quantity of some particular determinate subject. So astronomy handles the quantity of heavenly motions, music of sounds, and mechanics of weights and powers.

Wilkins' Mathematical Magick.

Abstract terms signify the mode or quality of a being, without any regard to the subject in which it is; as whiteness, roundness, length, breadth, wisdom, morality, life, death. Watts. 2. With the particle from.

Another fruit from the considering things in themselves abstract from our opinions and other men's notions and discourses on them, will be, that each man will pursue his thoughts in that method, which will be most agreeable to the na ture of the thing, and to his apprehension of what it suggests to him. Locke. ABSTRACT. n. s. [from the verb.] 1. A smaller quantity, containing the vir tue or power of a greater.

You shall there find a man who is the abstract Of all faults all men follow. Shaks. Ant. and Cleop.