ary and May the female brings from one to three whelps. They climb well, and are cunning and voracious; devouring all small animals, and even attacking deer; but, unless in self-defence, never attack man. Their smell defends them against dogs. When young they may be tamed. Their fur is much valued. The legs are thick, short, and hairy. The female has six teats. They have four fore teeth in each jaw. There is a white variety. 4. U. Indicus, the Indian bear or badger, has a black face; the crown and upper parts white, and the lower black. They inhabit India: the head is small, and nose pointed: they are playful, lively, and good-natured. They are two feet long; the tail four inches. 5. U. Labradorius, the Labrador bear or badger, inhabits Labrador and Hudson's Bay; has soft and silky yellow hair; ears short and white, tinged with black. It has five claws on the hind feet, four on the fore. It has thirty-two teeth. 6. U. lotor, the racoon, has the upper part of the body covered with hair, ash-colored at the root, whitish in the middle, and tipped with black; tail very bushy, annulated with black; toes black, and quite divided. It inhabits the warm and temperate parts of America; is found also in the mountains of Jamaica, and in the isles of Maria, between the south point of California and cape Corientes, in the South Sea is easily tamed, very good-natured, and sportive; but as unlucky as a monkey. It is almost always in motion; and very inquisitive, examining every thing with its paws. It makes use of them as hands; sits up to eat; is extremely fond of sweet things, and strong liquors, and will get excessively drunk. It has all the cunning of a fox; and is very destructive to poultry; but will eat all sorts of fruits, green corn, &c. At low water it feeds much on oysters, and will watch their opening, and with its paw snatch out the fish, but is sometimes caught. It climbs nimbly up trees. It is hunted for its skin; the fur is next to that of the beaver for making hats. 7. U. luscus, the wolverene, has a black sharppointed visage; short rounded ears, almost hid in the hairs; the sides of a yellowish brown, which passes in form of a band quite over the hind part of the back, above the tail; the legs are very strong, thick, and short, of a deep black: the whole body is covered with very long and thick hair, which varies in color according to the season. It inhabits Hudson's Bay and Canada, as far as the straits of Michillmachinac; is found under the name of the glutton in the north parts of Europe and Asia, being a native of the most rigorous climates. It is a most voracious animal, and slow of foot; so is obliged to take its prey by surprise. In America it is called the beaver-eater, watching these animals as they come out of their houses, and sometimes breaking into their habitations and devouring them. It often lurks on trees, and falls on the quadrupeds that pass under; they fasten on the horse, elk, or stag, and continue eating a hole into its body, till the animal falls down with the pain; or else will tear out its eyes: no force can disengage it; yet sometimes the deer in their agony have been known to destroy it by running their head violently against a tree. It devours the isatis or white fox; searches for the traps laid for the sables and other animals; and is often beforehand with the huntsman, who sustains great losses by the glutton; authors have pretended that it feeds so voraciously that at length it is in danger of bursting; and that it is obliged to ease itself of its load by squeezing it out between two trees. In a wild state it is vastly fierce; a terror to both wolf and bear, which will not prey on it when they find it dead, perhaps on account of its being so very fetid, smelling like a pole-cat : it makes a strong resistance when attacked; will tear the stock from the gun, and pull the traps it is caught into pieces. Notwithstanding this it is capable of being tamed, and of learning several tricks. It burrows and has its den under ground. The skin is sold in Siberia for four or six shillings, at Jakutsk for twelve shillings and still dearer at Kamtschatka, where the women dress their hair with its white paws, which they esteem a great ornament. The fur is greatly esteemed in Europe: that of the north of Europe and Asia, whose skins are sometimes to be seen in the furriers' shops, is much finer, blacker, and more glossy than that of the wolverene, or American kind. The glutton has by some authors been confounded with the hyana. ture. 8. U. maritimus, the polar or white bear, has a long head and neck; short round ears; great teeth; the hair long, soft, and white, tinged in some parts with yellow growing to a vast size; the skins of some being thirteen feet long. This animal is confined to the coldest part of the globe; it has been found as far as navigators have penetrated northwards, above lat. 80°. The frigid climes only seem adapted to its nature; for we do not learn from any authority that it is met with farther south than Newfoundland. Its bounds in respect to longitude are also very limited; being an animal unknown except on the shores of Hudson's Bay, Greenland, and Spitzbergen, on one side, and those of Nova Zembla on the other; for such as have appeared in other parts have been brought there involuntarily on floating islands of ice; so that the intermediate countries of Norway and Iceland are acquainted with them but by accident. We cannot trace them farther east than Nova Zembla; though the Frozen Sea, that is continued thence as far as the land of Tschutschi, that lies above Kamstchatka, is equally suited to their naDuring summer the white bears are either resident on islands of ice, or passing from one to another: they swim admirably, and continue that exercise six or seven leagues, and dive with great agility. They bring two young at a time: the af fection between the parents and them is so strong, that they would die rather than desert one another. Their winter retreats are under the snow, in which they form deep dens, supported by pillars of the same. They feed on fish, seals, and the carcases of whales, and on human bodies, which they will greedily tear up: they seem very fond of human blood; and are so fearless as to attack companies of armed men, and even to board small vessels. When on laud, they live on birds and their eggs; and, allured by the scent of seals' flesh, often break into and plunder the houses of the Greenlanders: their greatest enemy in the brute creation is the morse, with whom they have terrible conflicts, but are generally worsted, the vast teeth of the former giving it a superiority. The flesh is white, and said to taste like mutton: the fat is melted for train oil, and that of the feet used in medicine: but the liver is very unwholesome, as three of Barentz's sailors experienced, who fell dangerously ill on eating some of it boiled. One of this species was brought over to England a few years ago; it was very furious, almost always in motion, roared loud, and seemed very uneasy, except when cooled by having pailfuls of water poured on it. 9. U. meles, the common badger, is an animal of a very clumsy make, with short thick legs, long claws on the fore feet, and a fetid white matter exuding from the orifice below the tail. It inhabits most parts of Europe, as far north as Norway and Russia, and the steep or desert beyond Orenburg, in the Russian Asiatic dominions, north of the Caspian Sea; inhabits also China, and is often found in the butcher's shops in Pekin, the Chinese being fond of them: but a scarce animal in most countries. It seldom appears in the day; confines itself much to its hole; is indolent and sleepy; generally very fat; feeds by night; eats roots, fruits, grass, insects, and frogs: it runs slowly; when overtaken, it comes to bay, and defends itself vigorously; its bite is dangerous. It burrows under ground; makes several apartments, but forms only one entrance from the surface. It is hunted during night for the skin, which serves for pistol-furniture; the hairs for making brushes to soften the shades in painting. Its flesh makes good bacon. Mr. Kerr mentions two varieties of this species: viz. i. U. meles albus, the white badger. ii. U. meles maculatus, the spotted badger, of a white color spotted with reddish yellow. 10. U. tetradactylus, the sand bear, is less than the common badger, and has only four toes on each foot. It is almost destitute of hair, burrows in the ground, and is of a yellowish white. URTICA, in botany, a genus of plants of the class of monœcia, and order of tetrandria; natural order fifty-third, scabridæ. The small flower has a calyx of four leaves: COR. none: a nectarium minute, central, urn-fashioned. The female a bivalve calyx and a single, oval, glossy seed. There are twenty-eight species; three of which are British plants: viz. 1. U. dioica, common nettle, has a square firm stem, three or four feet high. Leaves heart-shaped, long-pointed, serrated, beset with stings. Flowers in long catkins. The aculei, or stings of the nettle, have a small bladder at their base full of a burning corrosive liquor. Nettletops in the spring are often boiled and eaten instead of cabbage-greens. The stalks of nettles are so like in quality to hemp, that in some parts of Europe and Siberia they have been manufactured into cloth, and paper has been made out of them. The whole plant, particularly the root, is esteemed to be diuretic, and has been recommended in the jaundice and nephritic complaints. It is also reckoned astringent; and of service in all kinds of hæmorrhagies, but is at present little used in practice. The roots boiled will dye yarn of a yellow color. The larva or caterpillars of many species of butterflies feed on the green plant; and sheep and oxen will readily eat the dried. The common nettle, though it has a place in the materia medica, is now very little used. It has lately been recommended, however, by Zannetini, a physician who attended the French army in Italy, as a good substitute in fevers for cinchona. 2. U. pilulifera, Roman nettle, has a stalk branched, two or three feet high. Leaves opposite, oval, serrated, stinging. Fruit globose. 3. U. urens, less stinging-nettle, has a stem a foot high. Leaves roundish, deeply serrated, opposite, burning. The stings are very curious microscopic objects: they consist of an exceedingly VOL. XXII. fine pointed, tapering, hollow substance, with a perforation at the point, and a bag at the base. When the spring is pressed upon, it readily perforates the skin, and at the same time forces up some of the acrimonious liquor contained in the bag into the wound. URUGUAY, a province or tract of country of South America, bounded north by Guaira in the government of Paraguay, south by the mouth of the river La Plata, east by the province and captainship of Ray in Brasil, and west by the river Parana. Its length from north-east to south-west is somewhat more than 200 leagues, and its width from east to west about 130, although in some parts it is narrower. It is divided by the river of its name into east and west. This rises in the mountains of the kingdom of Brasil, and runs for more than 620 miles in a direct line, with an extraordinary violence, making a terrible noise amongst the rocks, and in the winter season it swells to such a degree as to appear like a sea. The country was inhabited by the Cassapiminian Indians, and is, for the greater part, plain, but abounding in thick woods, in which are infinite numbers of wild animals and birds. URUGUAY, a small river also of Paraguay, which runs east, and enters the Parana near the grand river Curituba. URUMEA, a lake of Aderbijan, Persia, about 300 miles in circuit. The water is salter than that of the sea; no fish can live in it, and it emits a disagreeable sulphureous smell. It contains several islands, the largest of which, forming in the dry season a sort of peninsula, is twenty-five miles in circumference, but only occupied by wild animals. The water is clear. URUMEA, a very ancient city of Persia, situated on the south-western bank of the lake to which it gives name. It lies in a noble plain, watered by the Shar, and contains a population of 12,000 souls. It is the Thebarma of Strabo, yet cannot boast of a single ruin of any consequence. It is defended by a strong wall and deep ditch, which can be filled with water from the river. Ninety miles S. S. W. of Tabreez. US. The oblique case of we. The Lord made not this covenant with our fathers, but with us, even us, who are all of us here alive this day. Deut. v. Fr. usage. Treatment; manuse of any thing in trust. Sners; custom: one who has the U'SAGE, n. s. Į U'SAGER. A gentle nymph was found, Hight Astery, excelling all the crew In courteous usage, and unstained hue. Spenser. Of things once received and confirmed by use, long Hooker. usage is a law sufficient. Which way Mightest thou deserve, or they impose, this usage. Shakspeare. The rest were saved, and made enthralled swaines To all the basest usages there bred. He consumed the common treasury. Whereof he being the simple usager But for the state, not in propriety, Did alien t' his minions. Chapman. Daniel. U'SANCE, n. s. Fr. usance. Use; proper employment; usury. What art thou, 2 L From the world's eye, and from her right usance. He lends out money gratis, and brings down The rate of usance. USE, n. s., v. a., & v. n.` USEFUL, adj. USE FULLY, adv. USEFULNESS, n. s. USE'LESS, adj. USE LESSLY, adv. USE LESSNESS, n. s. U'SER. Spenser. Shakspeare. Lat. usus. The act of employing any thing; practice; custom, quality proper for a purpose; interest of money to use is to employ; treat; accustom to be accus tomed; be wont; frequent (obsolete): useful is profitable; convenient; valuable: the adverb and noun substantive corresponding: useless, the exact opposite; and its adverb and noun substantive correspond: a user is one who uses. The fat of the beast that dieth of itself, may be used in any other use. Leviticus vii. 24. Use hospitality one to another, without grudging. 1 Peter iv. Such things which, by imparting the delight to others, make the user thereof welcome, as musick, dancing, hunting, feasting, riding. Sidney. Conduct me well USEDOM, an island of Prussia, in Pomerania, formed by the Baltic and the Great and Little Haff. Its area is 150 square miles; its population between 11,000 and 12,000. It is intersected br several ranges of downs and sand hills, and has large woods, but not much land fit for agriculture. | USEFUL BOOKS. In a previous article we have promised to give to the reader our ideas on the subject of forming a generally useful, as distinct from a professional, library: and here, as it has been well said, it is more necessary perhaps to pon der well on what ought not to be recommended or described than on those books which ought to be admitted. Our hints therefore will not be such as might enable the classical scholar, the divine, the politician, the natural philosopher, the chemist, or brary is to embrace these and similar objects, the natural historian, to form his library; if a h it must necessarily be either of most unwieldy size and enormous price, or it must exclude many books proper and desirable for general readers. If any one of these descriptions of persons wishes to form a professional library, he ought to consult a professional and exclusive catalogue, and look only to us for suggestions which may enable him to add to his professional library the means and sources of general information. i. Works on history and biography, voyages, and travels, are amongst the most obvious and real sources of interest and instruction. They ought therefore, to form a numerous class in such a hbrary as we would form ; but he who is anxious to go deeply and critically into any particular point of history or geography, would not find materials here for his particular line of study; it could not be made full, or highly useful in this respect, out some inroad on its completeness and utility as a general library. with ii. This library would not admit very voluminous or very expensive books, because these are incompatible with the time, the purse, and the reading of those for whom it ought to be specially and peculiarly adapted: they, indeed, ought to be pur chased and perused only by those who have some particular object of research in view, or from their circumstances are justified and enabled to form their library with a combined reference to its size, splen dor, and utility. iii. It ought to contain all those works the study of which must tend to increase the intellectual and works, by which his duties as a citizen are moral excellence of the general reader. Those pointed out, his relations with society defined, and the means of making himself useful and of increasing the happiness of mankind, clearly laid down. It ought at the same time to abound in those works, which, while they arrest the attention, enlarge the reader's knowledge of the world, past and present, and of the condition of his fellow men wherever fate has placed them. iv. As regards the classics, it ought to be confined to such works as are most generally read and understood by those who wish to retain, and perhaps extend, their knowledge of Greek and Latin, and to those editions which give the most correct text, and the most useful and condensed notes. French literature constitutes so general and neces sary an accomplishment in modern education, that a judicious French scholar should be required to point out the best authors in that language, on the subjects of morals, history, biography, belles lettres, and the best voyages, travels, and poetry. With respect to books in the German, Italian, Spanish, &c., the selection in these branches must entirely depend upon the proficiency acquired in the language, and the taste of the proprietor. The wife of Antony Should have an army for an usher, and Shakspeare. To the' ocean isles; and, in the' ascending scale USHER OF THE BLACK ROD, the eldest of the gentleman ushers or daily waiters at court, whose duty is to bear the rod before the king, at the feast of St. George and other solemnities. An officer of the house of lords also bears this title. USHER (James), archbishop of Armagh, one of the most illustrious prelates in the seventeenth v. It is very desirable, and perhaps indispensa- century. He was born in Dublin in 1580. Dubble, to have in a library one or two of the best lin college being finished, in 1593, he was one of Universal Histories. If it were possible to give the three first students admitted into it. He was such a combined and contemporaneous view of the ordained priest in 1601, and soon after was apevents and state of the principal nations in differ- pointed to preach constantly before the court at ent periods as would enable us to compare them Christ-church Dublin, In 1603 he was sent over with ease, clearness, and accuracy, Universal His- to England with Dr. Luke Chaloner, to purchase tories would be the most instructive and interest-books for the library of Dublin. In 1607 he took ing works. But it seems not possible to secure this advantage, except at the expense of great bulk and frequent repetitions, and attended with an intermingling and entanglement of the histories of the various nations, which bewilders and perplexes the reader. There is more of the good and less of the bad qualities of a universal history, when it confines itself to a general and philosophical view of such events as have been most influential in the progress of nations; and as these are, of course, not voluminous, they ought to find a preference in a general library. In selecting historical works on Greece and Rome, such of the original writers as are level to the knowledge of a common classical scholar ought to be admitted; but these only. Editions with a correct text, and such notes as explain real difficulties, or illustrate passages actually needing illustration, should exclusively be pointed out and recommended. Great care, judgment, and taste, are requisite in selecting books on the antiquities of Greece, Rome, &c. ; there are very few, indeed, which are not either so voluminous that none but the professed antiquary ought to possess them; or which, even if in a moderate compass, do not weary and perplex, without satisfying the reader, by their minute attention to trifles. Such are our ideas of the nature of a library of this kind. A list of books it is impossible to attempt in our limited space. USHANT, an island on the north-west coast of France, about ten miles in circuit, having but one town or village, St. Michael. A naval engagement took place near this on the 27th of July 1778, between the English and French, in which both claimed the victory. The force was great (fully thirty sail of the line) on both sides, and the indecisive result of the action caused much discontent in England; but the fact was, that the French evaded a close action. The centre of the island is in Long. 5° 3' 6" W., lat. 48° 28′ 8′′ N. USH'ER. n. s. & v. a. Fr. huissier (huis, a door). One whose business is to introduce strangers, or walk before a person of rank; an under teacher: to introduce; bring in; forerun. the degree of B. D., and soon after was made chancellor of St. Patrick's cathedral. Being chosen professor of divinity, he took Bellarmine's controversies for the subject of his lectures. In 1612 he took the degree of D. D. At the end of 1620 he was made bishop of Meath, and in 1625 archbishop of Armagh. In 1640 he came over to England with his family, with an intention to return to Ireland; but was prevented by the rebellion which broke out there in 1641; and in that rebellion he was plundered of every thing except his library, which was in England, and some furniture in his house at Drogheda. The king, therefore, conferred on him the bishopric of Carlisle, to be held in commendam; the revenues of which were greatly lessened by the Scots and Irish armies quartering upon it: but, when all the lands belonging to the bishoprics in England were seized by the parliament, they voted him a pension of £400 per annum, though he never received it but once or twice. He afterwards removed to Oxford; and in 1643 was nominated one of the assembly of divines at Westminster, but refused to sit amongst them; which, together with some of his sermons at Oxford giving offence to the parliament, they ordered his study of books of considerable value to be seized; but by the care of Dr. Featley, one of the assembly, they were secured for the primate's use. The king's affairs declining, and Oxford being threatened with a siege, he left that city, and retired to Cardiff in Wales, to the house of Sir Timothy Tyrrel, who had married his only daughter, and was then governor and general of the ordnance. He was afterwards invited to London by the countess of Peterborough. In 1647 he was chosen preacher in Lincoln's Inn; and, during the treaty in the Isle of Wight, he was sent for by the king, who consulted him about the government of the church. The death of the king struck him with great horror. He died of a pleurisy in 1655; and was solemnly buried in Westminster in St. Erasmus's chapel. He published, 1. Brittanicarum Ecclesiarum Antiquitates. 2. Polycarpi et Ignatii Epistolæ, Græce et Latine, &c. 3. Annals of the Old and New Testament, in Latin. 4. De Græco Septuaginta interpretum Versione Syntagma; and many other books which are esteemed. A considerable number of his works still remain in MS. USK, a market-town in the hundred of the same name, near the centre of the county of Monmouthshire, and on the banks of the river Usk, seven miles from Caerleon, and 144 west by north of London. Its trade consists in a manufactory of Pontypool ware: the church, of Norman architecture, was originally built in the form of a cathedral. The river is remarkable for its salmon, and it has several very productive weirs in the neighbourhood. The town house is a modern building. Usk is supposed to be the Burrium of the Romans it is a borough, governed by a mayor, community, and burgesses, and, in conjunction with Newport and Monmouth, sends one member to parliament. Market on Friday. Fairs, Trinity Monday, and October 18th. USQUEBAUGH is a peculiar compounded liquor chiefly taken by way of dram. There are several different methods of making this liquor; but the following is esteemed one of the best:-To two gallons of brandy, or other spirits, put a pound of Spanish liquorice, half a pound of dried raisins, four ounces of currants, and three of sliced dates, the tops of baum, mint, savory, thyme, and the tops of the flowers of rosemary, of each two ounces; cinnamon and mace, well bruised, nutmegs, aniseeds, and coriander seeds, bruised likewise, of each four ounces; citron or lemon, and orange-peel, scraped, of each an ounce : let all these infuse forty-eight hours in a warm place, often shaking them together; then let them stand in a cool place for a week after which, the clear liquor is to be decanted off, and to it is to be put an equal quan. tity of white port, and a gallon of canary; after which it is to be sweetened with a sufficient quantity of refined sugar. USTIUG, VOLIKI, OF THE GREAT, a city of European Russia, in the government of Vologda, situated at the confluence of the Suchona and the Jug, which unite here and form the Dwina. It is an archbishop's see, and, though placed in a very inhospitable climate, contains nearly 12,000 inhabitants. It has two cathedrals, and a number of churches or chapels, but most of its houses are of wood. Its situation however renders it a mart of the trade between the frozen regions of the north and the more temperate provinces. Accordingly its merchants transact a good deal of business with Archangel, St. Petersburgh, Cazan, and even Siberia. The principal articles of traffic are corn and furs; but the fish of the northern ocean, and the silks and tea of China, also form a part of it. There is in this sequestered place a manufactory of discerning the disparities of similar appearances, which is the business of discretion. Fell. If men's desires are usually as large as their abilities, what course we took to allure the former, by that we might engage the latter. South's Sermons. U'SUFRUCT, n. s. Fr. usufruit; Lat. usus and fructus. The temporary use; enjoyment of the profits, without power to alienate. The persons receiving the same have only the usu fruct thereof, and not any fee or inheritance therein. Ayliffe. USUFRUCT, in the civil law, is the use or enjoyment of any lands or tenements; or the right of receiving the fruits and profits of an inheritance or other thing. USURE', v. n. Lat. usura. To practise usury; Usurious god of love, twenty to thee, There may be no commutative injustice, while each retains a mutual benefit; the usurer for his money, the borrower for his industry. Child. Fr. usurper; Lat. usurpo. USURP', v. a. USURPINGLY, adu. tives corresponding. Το possess by force or intrusion; seize possess without right: the derivas coming, usurped the day's right. Ever sithence he hath continued his first usurped power, and now exacteth upon all men what he list: so that now to subdue or expel an usurper, should be no unjust enterprize, but a restitution of antient right unto the crown. Spenser It greatly behoveth the church to have always most special care, lest human inventions usurp the room and title of divine worship. Hooker. Which sways usurpingly these several titles, Lay aside the sword, Thy right royal sovereign. put the same into young Arthur's hand, Shakspeare. Their fox-like thefts are so rank as a man may find whole pages usurped from one another. Ben Jonson. And But this usurper his encroachment proud Few usurpers to the shades descend Who's this, that dares usurp The guards and habit of Numidia's prince? Milton. Dryden. Addison's Cate. enamel and bronzed silver. 210 miles N. N. W. U'SURY, n. s. Fr. usuré; Lat. usura. Money The power of a burning glass is by an ustorious quality in the mirror or glass, arising from a certain unknown substantial form. Watts. U'SUAL, adj. Fr. usuel. Common; freU'SUALLY, adv. quent; customary: the adverb corresponding. Consultation with oracles was a thing very usual and frequent in their times. Hooker. The finding out the similitudes of different things, wherein the fancy is conversant, is usually a bar to the The wished day is come at last, Spenser. Usury bringeth the treasure of a realm into few bands: for the usurer being at certainties, and others at uncertainties, at the end most of the money will be in the box. Bacon. Our angles are like money put to usury; they may thrive, though we sit still and do nothing. Walton's Angler. USURY is an unlawful contract upon the loan of money, to receive the same again with exorbitant |