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at Franeker, Utrecht, and Leyden. His capital works are, 1. Hierosolymitana; 2. Ægyptiaca et Decaphyllon, cum diatriba de Legione Fulminatrice Christianorum; 3. Economy of the Covenants between God and Men. He died in 1708.

WITT (Emmanuel de), an eminent painter, born at Alcmaer in 1607. He excelled in buildings. He died in 1692.

WITTENBERG, a city of Prussian Saxony, in the government of Merseberg, on the Elbe, is situated on a level sandy spot, and is of an oblong form, consisting of one street, with suburbs widely spread, defended by a dyke. Its works, formerly considerable, were allowed to fall gradually to decay, until reinstated by the French in 1813. It has some linen manufactories, and is a place of some antiquity. Luther having been appointed professor of philosophy in 1508, and having here, from his academical chair, first exposed the corruptions of the Catholic church, he and his associate, Melancthon, are buried in the university church. So lately as October 1821 a monumental colossal statue of Luther was erected in Wittenberg, with great solemnity. After it ceased to be the residence of a court, it was found inadequate to the support of the university, and the latter was annexed to that of Halle; and its place supplied by a gymnasium or classical school. Since 1815 this town has been ceded to Prussia. Population 5000. Sixtynine miles N. N. W. of Dresden, and forty N. N. E. of Leipsic.

WITTINGLY, adv. From witting, knowing. Sax. piran. Knowingly; not ignorantly; with

knowledge; by design.

Whatsoever we work as men, the same we do wittingly work and freely; neither are we, according to the manner of natural agents, any way so tied, but that it is in our power to leave things we do undone. Hooker. Withhold revenge, 'tis not my fault, Nor wittingly have I infringed my vow. He knowingly and wittingly brought evil into the world.

Shakspeare.

More.

WITTOL, n. s. Sax. pizzol, from pitan, to know. A man who knows the falsehood of his wife, and seems contented; a tame cuckold.

O Mars, for what doth serve thy armed ax?
To let that witold beast consume in flames
Thy Venus child.

Sidney.

Amaimon sounds well; Lucifer well; yet they are the names of fiends; but cuckold, wittol, the devil Shakspeare. himself hath not such a name. The jealous wittolly knave hath masses of money.

Id.

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measures.

South.

O'er dreary wastes they weep each other's wo. Pope WOAD, n. s. Sax. pad; Dan. and Teut. waid; Belg. weed. A plant.

In times of old, when British nymphs were known To love no foreign fashions like their own; When dress was monstrous, and fig-leaves the mode, Garth. And quality put on no paint but woad.

WOAD, in botany. See ISATIS. The preparation of woad for dyeing, as practised in France, is minutely described by Astruc, in his Memoirs for a Natural History of Languedoc. The plant puts forth at first five or six upright leaves, about a foot long, and six inches broad: when these hang downwards, and turn yellow, they are fit for gathering: five crops are gathered in one year. The leaves are carried directly to a mill, much resembling the oil or tan mills, and ground into a smooth paste. If this process was deferred for some time, they would putrefy, and send forth an insupportable stench. The paste is laid in heaps, pressed close and smooth, and the blackish crust, which forms on the outside, reunited if it happens to crack; if this was neglected, little worms would be produced in the cracks, and the woad would lose a part of its strength. After lying for fifteen days, the heaps are opened, the crust rubbed and mixed with the inside, and the matter formed into oval balls, which are pressed close and solid in wooden moulds. 2 U

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These are dried upon hurdles in the sun, they turn back on the outside; in a close place, yellowish, especially if the weather be rainy. The dealers in this commodity prefer the first; though it is said the workmen find no considerable difference betwixt the two. The good balls are distinguished by their being weighty, of an agreeable smell, and, when rubbed, of a violet color within. For the use of the dyer, these balls require a farther preparation: they are beaten with wooden mallets, on a brick or stone floor, into a gross powder, which is heaped up in the middle of the room to the height of four feet, a space being left for passing round the sides. The powder, moistened with water, ferments, grows hot, and throws out a thick fetid fume. It is shovelled backwards and forwards, and moistened every day for twelve days; after which it is stirred less frequently, without watering, and at length made into a heap for the dyer.

WOAHOO, or ŎAHOO, one of the Sandwich Islands; and perhaps the finest island of the whole group. Nothing can exceed the verdure of the hills, the variety of wood and lawn, and rich cultivated valleys, which the whole face of the country displayed. The road is formed by the north and west extremities. It is supposed to contain 60,000 inhabitants. Long. of the anchoring place 202° 9' E., lat. 21° 43′ N.

WOBURN, a neat town of Bedfordshire, fortytwo miles N. N. W. of London, long. 0° 32′ W., lat. 52° 2′ N., standing on the high road to Manchester. It has twice been burnt down, in 1595 and 1724, is now regularly built, and has a market house of the Doric order, with a lofty cupola. The church is a pretty building, its steeple stands detached, near the north aisle, and had on its summit a very curious wooden lantern nearly 300 years old, but this from neglect fell in ruins, and has been removed. This church was rebuilt by the last abbot, and the family of Staunton, who had estates in this parish, and left some benefactions to the poor; one of them was standard bearer to Henry VII.; it is now kept in repair by the duke of Bedford, out of the produce of some charity lands vested in them. The chancel was beautified about 100 years ago, under the direction of Sir William Chambers; the body was also thoroughly repaired by the late duke, and the present has given an altar piece, communion plate, and barrel organ; there are some monuments. The parish contains 1700 inhabitants; about one mile and a half from the town in the parish of Wavendon are pits of Fuller's earth of some antiquity.

Woburn abbey of the Cistercian order was founded from Fountain's abbey in Yorkshire, in 1145, by Hugh de Bolebec, and was dissolved in 1537, when the revenues amounted to £391 per annum; this with a variety of church property in different parts of the kingdom, forming at present a magnificent income was bestowed on lord Russell, ancestor of the duke of Bedford, whose seat occupies the site of the abbey, about one mile from the town of Woburn. It is a modern quadrangular building, handsome, but heavy; the west front has four Ionic columns, and the east four fluted Doric ones, the interior contains a large gallery of portraits, and a collection of Italian and Dutch paintings; and in the pleasure ground is a sculpture gallery formed by the present duke, which contains a group of the graces by Canova, which cost £3000. The park is twelve miles in circuit, and contains a 1-ve herd of deer.

WODAN, or WODEN. See ODIN, MYTHOLOGY. and POLYTHEISM.

WODEVILE (Anthony), earl of Rivers, brother to the queen of Edward IV., was born in the end of 1442, or beginning of 1443. He was one of the most accomplished men of his age. He was early and constantly employed either in the tumults of those turbulent times, or in discharging the duties of some of the highest offices of the state, with which he was invested. Yet he found leisure to cultivate letters, and to be the author of works which, though of little value now, made some noise in that age. These consisted chiefly of translations from the French; and his lordship, with his printer Caxton, were the first English author and printer who had the pleasure to see their works printed. He was treacherously imprisoned by Richard III. in Pomfret Castle, where, during his confinement, he composed a short poem, which has been preserved. He was beheaded on the 23d of June, 1483, in the forty-first year of his age.

WOFFINGTON, a celebrated actress, born at Dublin, in 1718. She first appeared at Covent Garden, in 1733, in the character of Sir Harry Wildair, with great applause. She died in 1760.

WOIDE (Charles Godfrey), LL. D., an eminent oriental scholar, born either in Poland or the United Provinces. Having taken up his abode in this country, about 1765, he obtained the appointment of preacher to the German chapel in the Savoy, and also to that adjoining Marlborough house. In 1782 he was elected by the trustees of the British Museum one of the assistant librarians, a situation for which his deep erudition, especially in Egyptian antiquities, eminently qualified him. Four years after he was presented with the honorary degree of LL. D., by the university of Oxford, for superintending the publication of La Croze's Egyptian Lexicon, and Scholtz's Grammar of the language, which issued from the Clarendon press in 1778. He also published a fac-simile of the Alexandrian manuscript of the New Testament, now in the British Museum. His death took place in the spring of 1790.

WOLCOT (John), M. D., better known as Peter Pindar, a satirist, was born at Dodbrook in Devonshire, in 1738. He was educated first at Kingsbridge, in his native county, and next at Bodmin in Cornwall, after which he was brought up under his uncle, an apothecary at Fowey. In 1767 he obtained a doctor's degree in Scotland, and the same year went with Sir William Trelawney to Jamaica, but on the death of his patron returned to England and settled as a physician in Cornwall, where he became the instructor of Opie the painter, with whom he visited London in 1780. He now began, under the name of Peter Pindar, some severe attacks on the royal academicians, in a series of odes. After this he took higher aim, and published a satyrical poem called The Lousiad, in which he ridiculed king George III., with more wit than truth or manners. After this he brought out a number of ludicrous pieces, which went through numerous editions. The author became blind some years before his death, which happened in Somerstown, January 14th, 1819.

WOLD, WELD, or DYER'S WEED. See RESFDA.

WOLF, n. s. WOLF'DOG, WOLI'ISH, adj. WOLV'ISH.

Sax. palp: Teut. and Belg. wolf. A well known beast of prey; any thing ravenous or destructive: a wolfdog is a dog of

a large breed: wolfish and wolvish, resembling a wolf.

No, rather I abjure all roofs, and chuse To be a comrade with the wolf and owl, Necessity's sharp pinch.

Thy desires

Shakspeare.

Id.

Are wolfish, bloody, starved, and ravenous.
My people are grown half wild, they would not worry
one another so in that wolvish belluine manner else.
Howel.

Nothing more common than those wolfish back-friends in all our pretensions. L'Estrange. There is a base wolvish principle within that is gratified with another's misery.

South.

The luckless prey how treacherous tumblers gain,
And dauntless wolfdogs shake the lion's mane. Tickell.
WOLF, in zoology. See CANIS.

WOLF, or WOLF POISON. See POISON.
WOLF DOG. See CANIS.

buried with military honors in Westminster Abbey, where a magnificent monument is erected to his memory.

WOLFE (John Christian), a celebrated German philosopher, was born at Breslau in 1679. He prosecuted his studies successively in the universities of Jena, Hamburgh, and Leipsic. At the age of twenty-six he had acquired so much distinction, that he was appointed professor of matheinatics, and soon afterwards of philosophy in general, in the university of Hall. After Leibnitz had published his Theodicea, Wolfe, struck with the novelty of the edifice which that philosopher had raised, assiduously labored in the investigation of new metaphysical truths. He also digested the elements of mathematics in a new method, and attempted an improvement of the art of reasoning, in a treatise On the Powers of the Human UnderWOLF FISH, or SEA WOLF. See ANARCHICAS. standing. Upon the foundation of Leibnitz's docWOLFE (major-general James) was born at trine of Monads, he formed a new system of cosWesterham in Kent, 1726. His father was lieute- mology and pneumatology, digested and demonnant-general Edward Wolfe. He went into the strated in a mathematical method. This work, enarmy when very young; and, applying himself with entitled Thoughts on God, the World, and the assiduity to the study of his profession, soon be- Human Soul, was published in the year 1719; te came remarkable for his military knowledge. He which were added, in a subsequent edition, Heads distinguished himself at the battle of Lafelt when of Ethics and Policy. Wolfe was now rising little more than twenty. After the peace, he con- towards the summit of philosophical reputation, tinued to cultivate the art of war. He introduced when the opinion which he entertained on the docthe greatest regularity, and the exactest discipline trine of necessity being deemed by his colleagues into his corps, and at the same time preserved the inimical to religion, and an oration which he deaffection of the soldiers. In 1758 he was a briga- livered in praise of the morality of the Chinese dier-general at the siege of Louisbourg. He having given much offence, an accusation of heresy landed first on the island at the head of his di- was publicly brought against him; and though he vision; and in spite of the violence of the surf, attempted to justify himself, in a treatise which he and the force and well-directed fire of the enemy, wrote on the subject of fatality, a royal mandate drove them from their post with great precipitation. was issued in November 1723, requiring him to The surrender of the town, which happened soon leave the Prussian dominions. Having been forafter, was in a great measure owing to his activity, merly invited by the landgrave of Hesse Cassel to bravery, and skill. The fame which he acquired fill a professor's chair in the university of Cassel, here procured him the command of the army Wolfe now put himself under the patronage of that destined to attack Quebec. This was the most prince, who had the liberality to afford him a sedifficult and the most arduous undertaking of the cure asylum, and appointed him professor of mawar. Quebec was well fortified, and defended by thematics and philosophy. The question concerning an army of 20,000 men, regulars and militia, be- the grounds of the censure which had been passed sides a considerable number of Indian allies. The upon Wolfe, was now every where freely canvassed; troops destined for this expedition consisted of ten almost every German university was inflamed with battalions, making up altogether about 7000 men. disputes on the subject of liberty and necessity; He landed his army on the northern shore of the and the names of Wolfians and Anti-Wolfians were river St. Lawrence in spite of the enemy, and every where heard. After an interval of nine years, forced them to a battle, in which they were com- the king of Prussia reversed his sentence of exile, pletely defeated. The consequence of this battle and appointed him vice-chancellor of the university was the reduction of Quebec, and the conquest of of Hall; where his return was welcomed with Canada. In the beginning of the battle, general every expression of triumph. From this time he Wolfe was wounded in the wrist by a musket ball, was employed in completing his Institutes of Phibut he continued to give his orders with his usual losophy, which he lived to accomplish in every calmness and perspicuity. Towards the end of the branch except policy. In 1745 he was created a battle, he received a new wound in the breast; he baron by the elector of Bavaria, and succeeded Luimmediately retired behind the rear-rank, sup- dowig in the office of chancellor of the university. ported by a grenadier, and laid himself down on He continued to enjoy these honors till 1754, when the ground. Soon after a shout was heard; and he expired. one of the officers who stood by him exclaimed, See how they run!' The dying hero asked with some emotion, Who run?" The enemy, replied the officer, they give way every where.' The general then said, Pray, do one of you run to colonel Burton, and tell him to march Webb's regiment with all speed down to Charles River, to cut off the retreat of the fugitives from the bridge. Now, God be praised, I shall die happy!' He then turned on his side, closed his eyes, and expired. His body was brought to England, and

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WOLFENBUTTEL, or BRUNSWICK WOLFENBUTTEL, an independent duchy of Germany, composed of several scattered territories in the circles of Upper and Lower Saxony and Westphalia. It contains 1615 square miles, and 210,000 inhabitants. The whole is divided, for the purpose of local government, into six districts, of which the principality of Wolfenbuttel retains four. The revenue, amounting to £200,000 a year, is at the disposal, partly of the duke, partly of the states. The personal income of the duke, in consequence

of the successive lapse of the property of noble families, is larger than that of most German princes; he draws £15,000 from the duchy of Oels in Silesia.

WOLFENBUTTEL, a city of Germany, and the capital of the principality of the same name, stands on the Oker, thirty-seven miles E. S. E. of Hanover. Its environs are fertile; but they contain some marshes, which render the air somewhat unhealthy. It is fortified; but its works are neglected. It is divided into the citadel or fortified part, and two suburbs. The public buildings are the castle, formerly the residence of the dukes of Brunswick, three parish churches, the chancery, and arsenal. The public library is large; but the books are in general old. Wolfenbuttel has a Ducal high school; also other schools, and a Lutheran convent. It is also the seat of a court of justice, and of a consistory. The manufactures, though on a small scale, comprise linen, leather, soap, and silk. Population 6700.

WOLFSBANE. See ACONITUM.

WOLFSBANE, WINTER. See HELLEBORUS. WOLGA, a river of Russia, which has the longest course, and, with the exception of the Danube, the largest volume of any river in Europe. It rises among the Valdai mountains, in lat. 57° N., and takes a direction in general eastward, but with many windings, until reaching the city of Kazan. Below Kazan it receives the Kama, which brings to it the tribute of a great extent of country. It now flows southward, and forms the boundary between Europe and Asia during several hundred miles, till reaching Tzarystyn, when, turning to the east, it approaches the Caspian, and, after separating into a great number of branches, discharges itself into that sea near Astracan. Its course is computed at the extraordinary length of 2700 miles. From the vicinity of Tver, northward, a communication is opened to the Msta, a river flowing northward to the Nieva; so that Russia in Europe admits of being traversed by water in all its extent. The principal rivers which join the Wolga are the Tvertza, the Mologa, the Sestra, the Soscha, the Oka, the Sura, the Kasanka, the Kama, the Sok, and the Samara.

WOLLASTON (William), descended of an ancient family in Staffordshire, was born in 1659. He was in 1674 admitted a pensioner in Sidney College, Cambridge. In 1682 he became assistant to the head master of Birmingham school. Some time after he got a small lecture about two miles distant, but did the duty the whole Sunday; which, together with the business of a great free school for about four years, began to break his constitution. During this space he likewise underwent a great deal of trouble and uneasiness, to extricate two of his brothers from some inconveniences, to which their own imprudence had subjected them. In 1688 affairs took a new turn. He found himself by a cousin's will entitled to a very ample estate; and came to London that same year, where he settled; choosing a private, retired, and studious life. Not long before his death, he published his treatise entitled The Religion of Nature Delineated; a work for which so great a demand was made that more than 10,000 copies were sold in a very few years. He had scarcely completed the publication of it, when he unfortunately broke an arm; and this, adding strength to distempers that had been growing upon him for some time, acce

lerated his death. He died the 29th of October, 1724.

WOLLSTONECRAFT (Mary), an extraordinary writer, born at Beverley in Yorkshire in 1768. Her father having ruined his fortune, she opened a school at Islington, in her twenty-fourth year, which was soon after transferred to Newingt Green. She had for her partner a young lady to whom she was greatly attached, and whom, in 1785, she accompanied to Lisbon. On her retur to England she became governess to lord King borough's daughters. In 1787 she again settled a London, and lived by her pen. She publise Original Stories from Real Life, for the use Children, a translation from the French and Ge man. She next had some concern in the Ana's tical Review. In 1790 she published an Answe to Burke's Reflections on the French Revolutist and, in 1791, her Vindication of the Rights Women. In 1792 she went to Paris, where se formed an unfortunate connexion with an Amer can gentleman, by whom she had a daughter. Ex him she undertook a voyage to Norway to regul some commercial concerns. This tour occasione. her Letters from Scandinavia. On her return England, she found herself deserted by her par mour, and, in a fit of despair, plunged into se Thames, from Putney Bridge. She was saved a restored to life. In 1796 she was married to Godwin, the author of Political Justice, and othe works. She died in child-birth in August 175′′ Her posthumous works, consisting of Letters 2 Fragments.

WOLSEY (Thomas), Cardinal, is said to have been the son of a butcher at Ipswich. He stude at Magdalen College, Oxford, and in 1500 became rector of Lymington in Somersetshire: he was a terwards made chaplain to king Henry VIII., and obtained several preferments. Having gradedy acquired an entire ascendency over the minds Henry VIII, he successively obtained several to shoprics, and at length was made archbishop York, lord high chancellor of England, and pran minister; and was for several years the arbiter i Europe. Pope Leo X. created him cardinal a 1515, and made him legate à latere; and the eperor Charles V., and the French king Francis loaded him with favors, to gain him over to the interest: but, after having first sided with the er peror, he deserted him to espouse the interest France. As his revenues were immense, his priz and ostentation were carried to the greatest heigit He had 500 servants; among whom were nine ten lords, fifteen knights, and forty esquires. H ambition to be pope, his pride, his exactions, his political delay of Henry's divorce, occasione his disgrace. See ENGLAND. He died in the yar 1530.

The magnificence of the cardinal's chapel est blishment, as described by Cavendish, his conte porary and domestic, seems far to have surpasse that of the Roman pontiff himself. First, had there a deane, a great divine, and a man excellent learning; a sub-dean, a repeatour of t quire, a gospeller and epistollor; of singing priests, ten, a master of the children. The sec lars of the chapell, being singing men, twer singing children, ten, with one servant to wa upon them. In the vestry, a yeoman and ta grooms; over and besides other retainers that came thither at principal feasts. And for the

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niture of his chapell, it passeth my weak capacity to declare the number of the costly ornaments and rich jewels that were occupied in the same. have seen in procession about the hall forty-four rich copes, besides the rich candlesticks, and other necessary ornaments to the furniture of the same. The earl of Northumberland seems to have been treated with great insolence and indignity by the cardinal, who demanded his choral books for the use of this chapel. Letters concerning this requisition are still preserved, in which the earl says, 'I do perceayff my lorde cardinall's pleasour ys to have such boks as was in the chapell of my lat lorde and ffayther (wos soll Jhu pardon). To the accomplychment of which, at your desyer, I am confformable, notwithstandinge I trust to be able ons to set up a chapell off myne owne. I shall with all sped send up the boks unto my lord's grace, as to say iiij Antiffonars (Antiphoners), such as I think wher not seen a gret wyll-v Gralls (Graduals)-an Ordeorly (Ordinal)-a Manuall-viij Prossessioners (Processionals).' Northumberland Household Book.

WOLVERENE, in zoology. See URSUS. WOLVERHAMPTON, a market town in Seisdon hundred, Staffordshire, situate on a rising ground, fourteen miles north-west of Birmingham,

and 123 north-west of London. Of its trade and manufactures, hardware is the chief article, but it is also noted for its ingenious locksmiths. Most of the farmers in the neighbourhood have their forges, where they work when not employed in the field, and take their work to market as regularly as other farmers their corn; many of the women are assistants in these manufactures, and work at the file. It has two churches; St. Peter's is collegiate, and has a lofty square tower, embellished with battlements; it has eight bells, a set of chimes, and an organ, and contains several handsome monuments. This church, as well as a convent, was erected about the end of the tenth century, by a Saxon lady, called Wulfruna, whence the corruption of the word Wolver. An act of parliament was obtained, in 1775, for the erection of a new church or chapel of ease here, which was finished in a plain neat manner, in 1758; but, for want of funds, the steeple was not erected till 1776. It is dedicated to St. John. Besides these churches there are three chapels, and numerous dissenting ineeting-houses. This town has a canal branching from the Dudley and Birmingham canal; communicating also with the Stafford, Worcester, and Grand-Trunk, and another branch to the Wyrley and Essington canal, at Walsall. Market on Wednesday and Saturday. The mother church is a curacy under the dean of Windsor, and St. John's is a chapel of ease thereto. WOMAN, n. s. & v. a.) Sax. pirman, pimman WOM'ANED, adj. (Skinner), meaning wif WOMANHATER, n. s. or womb-man. The huWOM ANHEAD, man female; a female WOM ANHOOD, servant: to woman is, WOM'ANISE, v. a. to make too pliant; to WOM'ANISH, adj. emasculate womaned WOMANKIND, n. s. is accompanied by, or WOMANLY, adj. & adv.) united with, a woman: womanhead or womanhood, the character or qualities of a woman to womanise is to make effeminate; soften the other derivatives correspond. And Abimelech took men servants and women ser

vants.

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Genesis.

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For the present improved treatment of the fair sex, and in consequence thereof of society in general, modern Europeans are indebted to our Gothic ancestors. Women, among the ancient Greeks and Romans, seem to have been considered merely as objects of sensuality, or of domestic conveniercy: they were devoted to a state of seclusion and obscurity, had few attentions paid them, and were permitted to take as little share in the conversation as in the general commerce of life. But the northern nations, who paid a kind of devotion to the softer sex, even in their native forests, had no sooner settled themselves in the provinces of the Roman empire, than the female character began to assume new consequence. Those fierce barbarians, who seemed to thirst only for blood, always forbore to offer any violence to the women. They brought along with them the respectful gallantry of the north, which had power even to restrain their savage ferocity; and they introduced into the west of Europe a generosity of sentiment, and a complaisance towards the ladies, to which the most polished nations of antiquity were strangers. These sentiments of generous gallantry were fostered by the institution of chivalry, which lifted woman yet higher in the scale of life. Instead of being nobody in society, she became its primum mobile. Every

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