ABRASA, in medicine, ulcers attended with abrafion of part of the substance, or ulcers where the skin is fo tender as to be subject to ABRASION; which fee.

words of the Almighty to Abraham, Gen. xv. 7. "I am the Lord, that brought thee out of Ur of the Chaldees," and argue from their fimilarity to thofe of the introduction to the decalogue, that Abraham must have been delivered from fome great danger or perfecution.-Abraham is faid, by Jofephus, Eupolemus, and others to have been very learned, and to have taught the Egyptians and Phoenicians, arithmetic, geometry and afronomy; as well as to have wrote feveral books. In the firft ages of Chriftianity, the Sethinians difperfed a work entitled Abraham's Revelation; and a work on the Creation, afcribed to him, which is mentioned in the Talmud, was printed at Paris in 1552, and tranflated into Latin by Postel; as well as by Rittangel, a converted Jew, profeffor at Konigsberg, who published it with remarks, in 1642. Kirchen fays, that all the works compofed by Abraham, in the plains of Mamre, are in the library of the monaftery of the Holy Crofs in mount Amaria, in Ethiopia. But what renders the whole of these accounts at leaft doubtful, if not incredible, is, that the ufe of hieroglyphics was continued by the Egyptians for many ages affer Abraham, who, if he had taught them any thing, would furely have begun by teaching them the alphabet, provided he had known the ufe of aphabetical characters himself; which, it is probable, neither he, nor any one elfe did, earlier than Moles. See ALPHABET and MOSES.

ABRAHAMIANS, or ABRAHAMITES, a fect of beretical monks, in the 9th century, who were exterminated by Theophilus for worthipping images. ABRAHAMITES, another fect of heretics, fo & nominated from their leader, and called by the Arabs, Ibrahimiah. They arofe in the 8th century, and renewed the errors of Paulus; but were fupprefied by Cyriacus, patriarch of Antioch.

See PAULICIANS.

ABRASAX, or ABRAXAS, the name given to the Deity by the Bafilidian heretics. It is a myftic word composed of Greek numerals, which amount to the number 365. For Bafilides taught that there were 365 heavens between the Empyrean heaven and the earth; each of which had its angel that created it, each of whom again were created by the next fuperior angel, thus afcending by a fcale to the fupreme Creator. Abrafax was the first principle, or primogenial mind, among the Gnoftics, who taught that from him proceeded the Logos, or word; from the Logos, Phronefis, or prudence from Phronefis, Sophia and Dynamis, or wisdom and strength; and from thefe, other intelligences to the number 365, each the regent of fo many cœleftial orbs. Some authors alledge that the Bafilidians concealed the doctrine of the Trinity, under this word, and that the initials a,, e, ftand for the Hebrew words Ab, Ben, Rouah, i. e. Father, Son, and Spirit. Windelin, of Tournay, improving upon this, explains the whole word thus, A Ab

Pater Filius

Spiritus Sanctus

homines

falvans

per facrum lignum

I

365

* ABRASION. n. f. 1. The act of abrading, or rubbing off. 2. [In medicine.] The wearing away of the natural mucus, which covers the membranes, particularly those of the ftomach and guts, by corrofive or sharp medicines, or humours. Quincy. 3. The matter worn off by the attrition of bodies.

ABRAVANNUS, in ancient geography, the name of a promontory and river of Galloway in Scotland, so called from the Celtic words Aber, fignifying either the mouth of a river or the confluence of two rivers, and Avon, a river.

ABRAUM, in natural history, a name given by fome writers to a fpecies of red clay, ufed in Eng land by the cabinet makers, &c. to give a red colour to new mahogany wood. We have it from the Ifle of Wight; but it is alfo found in Germany and Italy.

ABRAXAS, the fame with ABRASAX, (which fee,) but more particularly used among antiquaries, as the name of thofe amulets, or gems, faid to have been worn by the ancient Bafilidians, Carpocratians and Gnoflics, as an antidote against diseases. These abraxafes are of various fizes and figures, in the form of rings, &c. and are preferved in the cabinets of the curious, most of them being as old as the 3d century, and fuppofed to have come from Egypt. Some of them have no infcription, but the word Abrafax; others fome fymbol of the Bafilidian Deity; others the names of faints, angels, virtues, apoftles, and fometimes that of Jehovah, or its abbreviature, IAN, or JAH; others the words Zabas, Adova, Mithras, or MIO

PAS,

A, B, Semes, Sol, Avis, uis Zeus, Zignwis, &c, &c. and others have the figures of Is, Apis, nonfters, obfcene images, Phalli and Ithyfalli. The characters are ufually either Greek, Hebrew, Coptic or Etrurian. There is a fine abraxas in the abbey of St Genevieve; but it is much difputed, whether the Veronica of Montreuil, or the granite obelisk, mentioned by Gori, be abraxafes. Macarius, Chifflet and Capello have written treatifes on the fubject, with figures and explanations. A complete collection of thefe relics has been much wanted. See ABRASAX.

* ABREAST. adv. [See BREAST.] Side by fide; in fuch a polition that the breafts may bear against the fame line.

My cousin Suffolk,

Afy foul fhall thine keep company to heav'n: Tarry, fweet foul, for mine, then fly abreast. Shak. Henry V. For honour travels in a streight so narrow, Where one but goes abreaft.

Shakefp. Troilus and Crefida. The riders rode abreast, and one his fhield, His lance of cornel wood another held.

Dryden's Fables.

ABREDE, Obf. abroad. Chaucer. To ABREDGE, or ABREGGE, [Abreger, Fr.] Obf. To abridge. Chaucer.

ABREDING, Obf. Upbraiding. Chaucer To ABREIDE, or ABREYD, to start up, to arife, or awake. Chaucer.

ABREIRO, a town of Tra-los-montes, in Portugal, containing between 200 and 300 inhabitants, and comprehending a district of ten parishes. Lon. 7. 10. Lat. 41. 20. N.

ABRETTENE, or ABRETTINE, in ancient geography, a diftrict of Myfla, in Afia, between Ancyra of Phrygia and the river Rhyndacus, from which the epithet Abrettenus was given to Jupiter. Strabo.

ABRETTENI, the inhabitants of Abrettene. See laft article.

ABRICK, or ABRIG, in chemistry, fulphur. ABRICOT. See APRICOT.

* To ABRIDGE. v. a. [abreger, Fr. abbrevin, Lat] 1. To make fhorter lu words, keeping till the fame fubftance.-All these fayings, being declared by Jafon of Cyrene in five books, we will effay to abridge in one volume. 2 Macc. ii. 23. 2. To contract, to diminish, to cut fhort.-The determination of the will, upon enquiry, is follow ing the direction of that guide; and he, that has a power to act or not to act, according as fuch determination directs, is free.-Such determination abridges not that power wherein liberty confifts. Locke. 3. To deprive of; to cut off from; in which fense it is followed by the particle from, or of, preceding the thing taken away.

I have disabled mine estate, By fhewing fomething a more fwelling port, Than my faint means would grant continuance; Nor do I now make moan to be abridg'd From fuch a noble rate. Shak. Mer. of Venice. -They were formerly, by the common law, difcharged from pontage and murage; but this privilege has been abridged them fince by feveral ftatutes. Ayliffe's Parergon Juris Canonici.

* ABRIDGED OF. part. Deprived of, debar ed from, cut fhort.

* ABRIDGER. n. f. 1. He that abridges; fhortener. 2. A writer of compendiums or a 'bridgments.

* ABRIDGMENT. n. f. [abregement, Fr. E The epitome of a large work contracted into finall compafs; a compend; a fummary.-Sure! this commandment containeth the law and th prophets; and, in this one word, is the abridge ment of all volumes of fcripture. Hooker, b. ii. 95 -Idolatry is certainly the firft-born of folly, th great and leading paradox; nay, the very abridg ment and fum total of all abfurdities. South Sermons. 2. A diminution in general.

All trying, by a love of littleness, To make abridgements, and to draw to lefs, Even that nothing, which at first we were. Donna -The conftant defire of happiness, and the con ftraint it puts upon us, no body, I think, account an abridgment of liberty, or at least an abridgmen of liberty to be complained of. Locke. 4. Re ftraint from any thing pleafing; contraction of an thing enjoyed.-It is not barely a man's abridg ment in his external accommodations which make him miferable, but when his confcience fhall tel him, that it was his fin and his folly which brough him under that abridgment. South.

ABRIDGMENT, in literature, or the art of con veying much fentiment in few words, is the hap pieft talent an author can be poffeffed of. Thi talent is peculiarly neceffary in the prefent fat of literature; for many writers have acquired th dexterity of spreading a few trite thoughts ove feveral hundred pages. When an author hits u pon a thought that pleafes him, he is apt to dwel upon it, to view it in different lights, to force i in improperly, or upon the flighteft occafions Though this may be pleafant to the writer, i tires and vezes the reader. There is anothe great fource of diffufion in compofition. It is capital object with an author, whatever be the fubject, to give vent to all his beft thoughts When he finds a proper place for any of them he is peculiarly happy. But rather than facrific a thought he is fond of, he forces it in by way o digreffion, or fuperfluous illuftration. If none o thefe expedients answer his purpose, he has re courfe to the margin, a very convenient apart ment for all manner of pedantry and impertinence There is not an author, however correct, but i more or lefs faulty in this refpect. An abridger however, is not fubject to these temptations The thoughts are not his own; he views them in a cooler and lefs affectionate manner; he difcover an impropriety in fome, a vanity in others, and a want of utility in many. His bufinefs, therefore is to retrench fuperfluities, digreflions, quotations, pedantry, &c. and to lay before the public only what is really ufeful. This is by no means an eafy employment: To abridge fome books, requires talents equal, if not fuperior, to those of the author. The facts, manner, fpirit and reafoning must be preferved; nothing eflen tial, either in argument or illuftration ought to be omitted. The difficulty of the task is the princi

pa

) character, we cannot with-hold our affent to the truth of it. Now, though the operations of nature are governed by uniform laws, and though we have not the teftimony of our fenfes in favour of any violation of them; ftill, if in particular instances we have the teftimony of thousands of our fellow creatures, and thofe too men of strict integrity, fwayed by no motives of ambition or intereft, and governed by principles of commonfenfe, That they were actually eye-witnelles of thefe violations, the conftitution of our nature obliges us to believe them." These two examples contain the fubftance of about 400 pages.→→ Making private abridgments of this kind has many advantages; it engages us to read with accuracy and attention; it fixes the subject in our minds; and, if we fhould happen to forget, inftead of reading the books again, by glancing a few lines we are not only in poffeffion of the chief arguments, but recall in a good measure the author's method and manner. Abridging is peculiarly useful in taking the fubftance of what is delivered by Profeffors, &c. It is impoffible, even with the affiftance of fhort hand, to take down verbatim, all that is said by a public speaker. Befides, although it were practicable, fuch a talent would be of little ufe. Every public speaker has circumlocutions, redundancies, lumber, which deferve not to be copied. All that is really ufeful may be comprehended in a fhort compass. If the plan of the difcourfe, and arguments employed in support of the different branches be taken down, you have the whole. These you may afterwards extend in the form of a difcourfe dreffed in your own language. This would not only be a more rational employment, than the common practice, but would likewife be an excellent method of improving young men in composition; an object too little attended to in all our univerfities.

pal reafon why we have fo few good abridgments. Wynne's abridgment of Locke's Eflay on the Human Understanding, is perhaps the only unexceptionable one in our language. Thefe obfervations relate folely to such abridgments as are defigned for the public. But, when a person wants to fet down the substance of any book, a horter and less laborious method may be followed. It would be foreign to our plan to give examples of abridgments for the public: But as it may be useful, especially to young people, to know how to abridge books for their own ufe, after giving a few directions, we shall exhibit an example or two, to show with what ease it may be done. Read the book carefully; endeavour to karn the principal view of the author; attend to the arguments employed: When you have done , you will generally find, that what the author ufes, as new or additional arguments, are in reality only collateral ones, or extenfions of the principal argument. Take a piece of paper or a common-place book, put down what the author wants to prove, fubjoin the argument or arguments, and you have the fubftance of the book in a few lines. For example, In the Effay on Miracles, Mr Hume's defign is to prove, That miracles which have not been the immediate objects of our fenfes, cannot reafonably be believed upon the teftimony of others. Now, his argument (for there happens to be but one) is, "That experience, which in fome things is variable, in others uniform, is our only guide in reafoning concerning matters of fact. A variable experience gives rife to probability only; an uniform experience amounts to a proof. Our belief of any fact, from the teftimony of eye-witnelles, is derived fram no other principle, than our experience in the veracity of human teftimony. If the fact atteited be miraculous, here arifes a contest of two oppofite experiences, or proof against proof. Now, a miracle is a violation of the laws of nature; and as a firm and unalterable experience bas established these laws, the proof against a miracle, from the very nature of the fact, is as compicte as any argument from experience can pofbly be imagined; and if fo, it is an undeniable confequence, that it cannot be furmounted by ay proof whatever derived from human teftiony." In Dr Campbell's Deflertation on Mitacles, the author's principal aim is to fhow the Blacy of Mr Hume's argument; which he has done moft fuccefsfully by another single argument, as follows: "The evidence arifing from human teftimony is not folely derived from experience: on the contrary, teftimony hath a natural influence ca belief antecedent to experience. The early and unlimited affent given to testimony by child. ren gradually contracts as they advance in life: it ts, therefore, more confonant to truth to fay, that our dfidence in teftimony is the refult of experience, than that our faith in it has this foundation. Befides, the uniformity of experience, in favour of any fact, is not a proof against its being reverfed in a particular inftance. The evidence, arifing from the fingle teftimony of a man of known veracity, will go farther to establish a Relief in its being actually reverfed: If his teftiButy be confirmed by a few others of the fame

ABRINCATARUM OPPIDUM, in ancient geography, the town of the Abrincate or Abrincatui, now Avranches in France, fituated on an eminence in the fouth-west of Normandy, near the borders of Brittanny, on the English channel. Lon. 1. 10. W. Lat. 48. 40, N.

* ABROACH. adv. [See To BROACH.] 1. In a posture to run out, or yield the liquor contained; properly fpoken of veilels.—

The jarrs of gen'rous wine,
He fet abroach and for the feast prepar❜d.

Dryd. Virgil. The Templer fpruce, while ev'ry spout's abroach,

Stays 'till 'tis fair, yet feems to call a coach. Swift's Mifcel. 2. In a figurative fenfe; in a ftate to be diffused or extended, in a state of fuch beginning as promifes a progrefs.—

That man, that fits within a monarch's heart, And ripens in the fun-fhine of his favour, Would he abufe the count'nance of the king, Alack! what mifchiefs might be fet abroacis, In fhadow of fuch greatness!

Shak. Hen. IV. p. ii. * ABROAD.adv. [compounded of a and broad. See BROAD. 1. Without confinement; widely; at large.Intermit

Intermit no watch

This cell's my court; here have I few attendants, And fubjects none abroad. Shak. Tempeft. -Ladywalked a whole hour abroad, without dying after it. Pope's Letters. 3. In another country. They thought it better to be fomewhat hardly yoked at home, than for ever abroad, and difcredited. Hooker, Pref.-Whofoever offers at verbal tanslation fhall have the misfortune of that young traveller, who loft his own language abroad, and brought home no other instead of it. Sir J. Denham.

What learn our youth abroad, but to refine The homely vices of their native land? Dryden. -He who fojourns in a foreign country, refers what he fees and hears abroad, to the state of things at home. Atterb. Sermons. 4. In all directions, this way and that; with wide expanfion.— Full in the midst of this infernal road, An elm difplays her dulky arms abroad.

Dryd. Virg. En. vi. 5. Without, not within.-Bodies politic, being fubject, as much as natural, to diffolution, by divers means, there are undoubtedly more states overthrown through difeafes bred within themfelves, than through violence from abroad. Hooker's Dedication.

ABROCHMENT, or ABROCAMENTUM, in old law, the act of foreftalling, or buying up commodities by whole fale, before they come to market in order to raise the price.

* To ABROGATE. v. a. [abrogo, Lat.] To take away from a law its force; to repeal; to annual.-Laws have been made upon fpecial occafions, which occafions ceafing, laws of that kind do abrogate themselves. Hooker, b. iv. § 14.—The negative precepts of men may ceafe by many inftruments, by contrary customs, by public difrelith, by long omiflion: but the negative precepts of God never can ceafe, but when they are exprefsly abrogated by the fame authority. Taylor's Rule of living holy.

* ABROGATION. n.f. abrogatio, Lat.] The act of abrogating ; the repeal of a law. The commiffioners from the confederate Roman catholics, demanded the abrogation and repeal of all thofe laws, which were in force against the exercife of the Roman religion. Clarendon. b. viii.

ABROGATION, in law, ftands opposed to rogation: it is distinguished from derogation, which implies the taking away only fome part of a law; from subrogation, which denotes the adding a claufe to it; from abrogation, which implies the limiting or reftraining it; from difpenjation, which only fets it afide in a particular inftance; and from antiguation, which is the refuting to pafs a law.

ABROHANNI, ABROANI, OF MALEEMOLLI, a kind of muflin, or clear, white, fine cotton cloth,

brought from the Eaft Indies, particularly from Bengal; being in length 16 French ells and quarters, and in breadth 5 eighths.

ABROKUS, in Botany, a name ufed by fom of the Latin writers for the bromus, or avent fterilis, the wild oat; and by others for th orobus, or bitter vetch. The Greeks original ly used the word, and that not only for thefe tw vegetables, but in a much larger sense, under ftanding by it, any herb refembling the plants cu tivated for the ufe of the table, but not efculent The Greeks and Romans had a way of expreflin the boiling of pulfe, or herbs, by words fignify ing the wetting them: thus the Greeks expreffe boiling things by brocha, sex, and the Roman by madida. Virgil ufes this word for the peaf and Plautus, for all efculent things, that wer boiled: hence these bastard peafe and oats wer called abrocha, non madida, not fit for boiling o eating.

ABROLHOS, or ABROLKOS, dangerous fhoal about 50 miles from the coaft of Brazil, and nea the Ifland of St Barbe.

ABRON, a river of France, in the governmen of the Nivernois.

ABRONO, or ABRUGI, in botany, a nam given by Serapion and others to the heart pease. * To ABROOK. v. a. [from To brook, with fuperabundant, a word not in ufe.] To brook to bear, to endure.—

Sweet Nell, ill can thy noble mind abrook The abject people gazing on thy face With envious looks, ftill laughing at thy fhame Shak. Henry VI. p. i ABROTONUM, in botany. See ARTEMISI and SANTOLINA.

ABROTONUM, in ancient geography, a tow and harbour on the Mediterranean, in the distric of Syrtis Parva, in Africa, one of the three citie that went to form Tripoly.

ABRUG-BANYA, a populous town in Tran fylvania, on the river Ompay, 35 miles abov Alba Julia. There are mines of gold and filve near it, and the mine court is held in it. Lon 23. 24. E. Lat. 46. 50. N.

ABRUGI. See ABRONO.

* ABRUPT. adj. [abruptus, Lat. broken off. 1. Broken, craggy.—

Refiftlefs, roaring, dreadful, down it come From the rude mountain, and the mofly wild, Tumbling through rocks abrupt. Thomf. Win 2. Divided, without any thing intervening.Or fpread his airy flight, Upborn with indefatigable wings, Over the vaft abrupt, ere he arrive

The happy ifle. Miit. Pur. Loft, b. ii. 1. 409 3. Sudden, without the customary or proper pre paratives.

My lady craves

To know the cause of your abrupt departure.

-The abrupt and unkind breaking of the two fir parliaments, was wholly imputed to the duke o Buckingham. Clar.

Abrupt, with eagle speed fie cut the sky; Inftant invisible to mortal eye, Then firft he recogniz'd til' ethereal gueft. Pope's Ody J. b.

4. Unconnected.—The abrust file which hath many breaches, and doth not feem to end but full. Ben Jonson's Discovery.

ABRUPTED. adj. [abruptus, Lat. a word little in ufe Broken off fuddenly.-The effects of their activity are not precipitously abrupted, but gradually proceed to their ceflation. Brown's Vulgar Errours, b. vi. 10.

ABRUPTION. 2 f. [abruptis, Lat.] Breaking off, violent and fudden feparation. Thofe which are inclofed in ftone, marble, or fuch other fold matter, being difficultly feparable from it, because of its adhefion to all fides of them, have commonly fome of that matter ftill adhering to them, or at leaft marks of its abruption from them, on all their fide Woodward's Nat. Hift. p. 4. * ABRUPTLY. aav. [See ABRUPT.] HafliJy, without the due forms of preparation. The fweetness of virtue's difpolition, jealous even over itfdf, fuffered ber not to enter abruptly into quef tions of Mufidorus. Sidney, b. ii.

Now miffing from their joy fo lately found, So lately found, and fo abruptly, gone.

Par. Regained, bii. -They both of them punctually obferved the time thus agreed upon, and that in whatever company or bufinefs they were engaged, they left it ebruptly, as foon as the clock warned them to retire. Addifon's Spedator, N° 241.

mence.

* ABRUPTNESS. n. f. [from abrupt.] 1. Abrupt manner, hafte, fuddennefs, untimely vehe2. The ftate of an abrupt or broken thing; roughness, cragginefs; as of a fragment volently disjoined. The chryftallized bodies found in the perpendicular intervals, but always their root, as the jewellers call it, which is only the abru tnefs, at the end of the body whereby it adhered to the ftone, or fides of the intervals; which abruptness is caused by its being broken from the faid ftone. Wooda. Nat. Hift. p. 4. ABRUS, in botany, the trivial name of the GLYCINE.

ABRUZZESI, the inhabitants of Abruzzo. The character and difpofition of this people, though they vary a little among themselves, according to fituation and climate, differ effentially from thofe of the natives of the more fouthern provinces of Naples. This proceeds from a difference of oririn; for the Lombards, who were barbarians, but not cruel; poor, but hofpitable; endowed with plain honeft fenfe, though polefed of little acutenefs or fubtlety; remained peaceable proprietors of the mountainous regions of Abruzzo, till the Normans, who were accustomed to a fimilar climate came, and difpoffeffed them. The Greeks, who retained almoft every other part of the kingdom under their dominion, never had any fway here. For this reafon the Abruzzefi ftill bear a great relembiance to their northern progenitors or mafters. To this day, one may trace in them the fame goodLefs of heart, but great indolence, and repugnance to lively exertions; a fault that proceeds rather from a want of active virtue, than a difpofition to wickedness. Hence it comes, that in thefe provinces, where the proximity of the frontier almoft infures impunity, fewer atrocious and inhuman dreds are heard of, than in other parts of the realm. Remnants of ancient northern cuftoms cxifted here VOL. L. PART. I.

fo late as the beginning of last century; and, among the mountaineers, very evident traces of the Frank and Teutonic languages may be discovered. ABRUZZO, a province of Naples, bounded on the E. by the gilph of Venice; on the N. and W. by Ancona, Umbria and the Campagna of Rome; and or the S. y the Terra di Lavora and Molife. It is divided into two parts by the river Fefcara, called Ulteriore and Citeriore. The former has Aquila, and the latter Solomona, for its capital. It has two mountains, Cavallo and Mayallo, befides the Apennines. The top of May. allo is always covered with fnow, and the wo are infefted with bears and wolves. The counti, though cold is fertile in corn, rice, fruits, faáron, vines and olives. The rice of Teramo is little inferior to that of Lombardy. A great deal of it is exported, as well as of oil, wines, and Turkey wheat; but the ftaple commodity is wool, the greatest part of which is fent off unwrought, there being no woollen manufactures in the province, except two fmall ones of coarfe cloth. The theep, after spending the fummer on the mountains, are brought down to pafs the winter in the warm plains of Puglia, and fome other places on the coaft, where the fnow does not lie. The manufacture of filk has not been attempted, though mul berry trees would grow well in the low grounds. Formerly the territory of Aquila furnished Italy almoft exclufively with faffron; but fince the culture of that plant has been fo much followed in Lombardy, it has fallen to nothing in Abruzzo. In the maritime tracts of country, the cultivation of liquorice has been increased of late years, but foreigners export the roots in their natural state. In the province of Teramo there is a manufctaory of pottery ware, for which there is a great demand in Germany, by the way of Tricite, as it is remarkably hard and fine; but even this is going to decay, by being abandoned entirely to the ignorance of common workmen. It is not to be expected, that any improvements will be made in arts and manufactures, where the encouragement and attention of fuperiors is wanting, and no pains are taken to render the commodity more marketable, or to open better channels of fale for it. The only advantages thefe provinces enjoy are the gifts of benevolent nature; but the has ftill greater prefents in ftore for them, and waits only for the helping hand of government to produce them. This whole coaft, one hundred miles in length, is utterly deftitute of fea-ports; and the only spots where the produce can be embarked are dangerous inconvenient roads, at the mouths of rivers and along a lee fhore. The difficulty of procuring fhipping, and of loading the goods, frequently caufes great quantities of them to rot on land'; which damps induftry, and prevents all improvements in agriculture. The hufbandman is a poor difpirited wretch, and wretchedness produces emigration: the uneven furface of the country occafions it to be inhabited by retail, if the expreffion may be used, rather than in large maffes for there is not a city that contains ten thousand people, and the most of them would find it difficult to mufter three thoufand. Villages, caftles, and feudatory eftates, are to be met with in abundance; but the numbers of their inhabitants are