herbaceous annual, for culinary uses; and the second a shrubby perennial, raised by the curious for variety. They are both exotics of a tender quality, of the temperature of greenhouse or stove plants. The common culinary purslane is raised annually from seed for summer use, and is an excellent ingredient in summer salads, but improper for winter on account of its cold moist nature. The plant, being tender, must be raised either on a hot-bed or in a warm border; in which last it will not succeed before April or May. The shrubby sort must be kept in the hot-house, in pots of a dry soil. 2. P. coleracea, annual or common culinary purslane, rises with herbaceous, low, succulent, branchy stalks, six or eight inches high, garnished with wedge-shaped, thick, succulent leaves, and small close-setting flowers. There are two varieties; one with deep green leaves, the other with yellow leaves; both of which rise from the same seed. PORTUMNA, a town of Ireland, in the county of Galway and province of Connaught, seventy-four miles from Dublin. The castle of Portumna, the seat of the earl of Clanricarde, is at this place, and near it are the ruins of an ancient castle. There is also a garrison for a troop of horse and two companies of foot. The town is seated on the river Shannon, where it falls into Lough Derg. The Cistercian monks had a chapel in it. The walks are still nearly entire. The ancient choir is now the parish church. PORTUMNUS. See MELICERTA. PORUS, in ancient mythology, the god of plenty, worshipped at Rome. He was the son of Metis, the goddess of prudence. PORUS, an Indian monarch, who opposed Alexander the Great, but was defeated by him. When brought before the Macedonian, he was asked how he wished to be treated?'-'Like a king,' replied Porus; and accordingly Alexander not only restored all his dominions, but gave him several additional territories; in consequence of which Porus continued his most faithful ally till his death. Porus is said to have been a man of uncommon stature and strength. PORWIGLE, n. s. frog not yet fully shaped. That black and round substance began to grow oval, after a while the head, the eyes, the tail to be discernible, and at last to become that which the ancients called gyrinus, we a porwigle or tadpole. Browne's Vulgar Errours. POSE', v. a. Sax. gepose. An old word PO'SER, n. s. signifying heaviness or stupefaction. Skinner. To puzzle; gravel; put to a stand or stop one that asks posing questions. A tadpole or young instances of our intellectual blindness, not that I d sign to pose them with those common enigmas a magnetism. Glanville. Particularly in learning of languages, there is least occasion for posing of children. Locke on Education. It leaves no reader at a loss, Or posed, whoever reads; Cowper. Nor even index needs. POSEN, GRAND DUCHY OF, a province of Prussia, comprising that part of Poland which was restored to her by the treaty of Vienna. I is bounded on the east by the new kingdom of Poland, and on the south and west by Silesia and Brandenburgh, and is of an oblong form, with a long projection, to the south-east. It contains about 12,000 square miles. It is divided into the governments of Posen and Bromberg, and is included in the same military division as Silesia. Population 800,000 to 900,000. The soil, like that of Poland, generally is light; in some places there are tracks of heath; in others marshes; but very few parts are incapable of cultivation, or even of yielding a considerable return. It is watered by the Netz, the Wartha, the Obra, the Brahe; and the canal of Bromberg, which makes the influence of the vicinity of Germany to be here sensibly felt: and the duchy of Posen is much less backward than the country to the east. In the towns the number of Germans is considerable; and various foreign colonists have settled here at different times. When the intolerance of the Austrian government compelled a great number of Protestants to emigrate from Silesia, this country, from its vicinity, afforded the manufacturers a retreat, and they introduced here their capital and industry. Ever since 1792 the Prussian government has made efforts to attract foreigners here, granting them several substantial immuni ties; and the manufactures of woollen, linen, leather, and other articles continue to be well kept up. The exports consist of these, corn, cattle, tallow, hides, wool, and the smaller articles of wax, honey, hogs' bristles, feathers, &c. POSEN, GOVERNMENT OF, is the name of one of the two governments into which the grand duchy is divided. It comprehends the south and south-west parts of the province, with an area of 6900 square miles, and 545,000 inhabitants, and is divided into the following circles inhabitants still claim their descent from them. Posen is surrounded with a mound and ditch, and built with regularity. Its public edifices are an old cathedral and council-house, guardhouse, and the building that was the Jesuits' college. Here also is a theatre, a theological seminary, gymnasium, and a school for mid wifery. The manufactures, which are on a small scale, are of linen, leather, and watches; also fire arms. The sale and purchase of goods is chiefly managed by Jews. The chief articles of export are corn, wool, and timber: the last being sent by water as far as Stettin. At midsummer, the great fair of Posen is attended by the landholders of all the adjacent country. As to religion, the majority are Catholics, but the Protestants and Jews are in considerable numbers; and the latter occupy a particular quarter of the town, although the inhabitants are not above 20,000. The situation of Posen exposes it to inundations; and its two suburbs are situated among marshes. This town suffered in the war between Sweden and Poland, between the years 1708 and 1711, both from fire and pestilence. It fell under Prussia in 1772. In 1803 the whole of the Jews' quarter was burned down. In 1806, after the battle of Jena, it was entered by the French, and afterwards added by Buonaparte to the duchy of Warsaw; but in 1815 was restored to Prussia., 144 miles east of Berlin, and 166 west of War saw. POSIDONIUS, an ancient philosopher of Apamea, who lived at Rhodes, and afterwards came to Rome, where he cultivated the friendship of Cicero and Pompey. He attempted to measure the circumference of the earth; he accounted for the tides from the motion of the moon; and he calculated the height of the atmosphere to be 400 stadia. The power or blossom is a positive good, although the remove of it, to give place to the fruit, be a comparative good. Bacon. The good or evil, which is removed, may be esteemed good or evil comparatively, and not positively or simply. Bacon. Laws are but positive; love's power, we see, Is nature's sanction, and her first decree Id. Dryden. It was absolutely certain that this part was ponPOSITED, adj. Lat. positus. Placed tively yours, and could not possibly be written by d; any other. POSITION, n. s. deposited; ranged: poPOSITIONAL, adj. Ssition is state of being placed; site; situation; principle laid down positional, respecting position. Of any offence or sin therein committed against God, with what conscience can ye accuse us, when your own positions are, that the things we observe should every one of them be dearer unto us than ten thousand lives? Hooker. Iron having stood long in a window, being hence taken, and by the help of a cork balanced in water, where it may have a free mobility, will bewray a kind of inquietude till it attain the former position. Wotton. That the principle that sets on work these organs is nothing else but the modification of matter, or the natural motion thereof thus or thus posited or disposed, is most apparently false. Hale. A fallacious illation is to conclude from the position of the antecedent unto the position of the consequent, or the remotion of the consequent to the remotion of the antecedent. Browne. The leaves of cataputia or spurge plucked upwards or downwards, performing their operations by purge or vomit, as old wives still do preach, is a strange conceit, ascribing unto plants positional operations. Id. Vulgar Errours. They are the happiest regions for fruits, by the excellence of soil, the position of mountains, and the frequency of streams. Temple. Since no one sees all, and we have different pros Whatsoever doth or can exist, or be considered as one thing, is positive: and so not only simple ideas and substances, but modes also are positive beings, though the parts of which they consist are very often relative one to another. Locke. The positiveness of sins of commission lies both in the habitude of the will and in the executed act too; whereas the positiveness of sins of omission is in the habitude of the will only. Norris. I would ask a man, that has but once read the bible, whether the whole tenor of the divine law does not positively require humility and meekness to all men. Sprat. I am sometimes doubting, when I might be positive, and sometimes confident out of reason. Rymer. The law is called positive, which is not inbred, imprinted, or infused, into the heart of man, by nature or grace; but is imposed by an external mandate of a lawgiver, having authority to command. White. This peremptoriness is of two sorts; the one a magisterialness in matters of opinion, the other a positiveness in relating matters of fact; in the one we impose upon men's understandings, in the other on their faith. Government of the Tongue. It is impossible that any successive duration should be actually and positively infinite, or have infinite successions already gone and past. Bentley. Some positiva persisting fops we know, That, if once wrong, will needs be always so; But you, with pleasure, own your errors past, And make each day a critick on the last. Pope. Not to consent to the enacting of such a law, which has no view besides the general good, unless another law shall at the same time pass, with no other view but that of advancing the power of one party alone; what is this but to claim a positive voice, as well as a negative? Swift. Courage and positivity are never more necessary than on such an occasion; but it is good to join some argument with them of real and convincing force, and let it be strongly pronounced too. Watts. Where men of judgment creep and feel their way, The positive pronounce without dismay; Their want of light and intellect supplied By sparks absurdity strikes out of pride. Cowper. POSITIVE ELECTRICITY. See ELECTRICITY. POSITURE, n. s. Lat. positura. The manner in which any thing is placed. Supposing the positure of the party's hand who did throw the dice, and supposing all other things, which did concur to the production of that cast, to be the very same they were, there is no doubt but in this case the cast is necessary. POS'NET, n. s. Fr. bassinet. Skinner. A little basin; a porringer; a skillet. Bramhall. To make proof of the incorporation of silver and tin in equal quantity, and also whether it yield no soiliness more than silver; and again, whether it will endure the ordinary fire, which belongeth to chaffing-dishes, posnets, and such other silver vessels. posse. Bacon. POS'SE, n. s. Lat. An armed power. From posse comitatus, the power of the shires. A low word. The posse comitatûs, the power of the whole county, is legally committed unto him. Bacon. As if the passion that rules, were the sheriff of the place, and came off with all the posse, the understanding is seized. Locke. POSSE COMITATUS, in law, signifies the power of the county, or the aid and assistance of all the knights, gentlemen, yeomen, laborers, servants, apprentices, &c., and all others within the county that are above the age of fifteen, except women, ecclesiastical persons, and such as are decrepit and infirm. This posse comitatus was to be raised where a riot is committed, a possession kept upon a forcible entry, or any force of rescue used contrary to the king's writ, or in opposition to the execution of justice; and it is the duty of all sheriffs to assist justices of the peace in the suppression of riots, &c., and to raise the posse comitatus, or to charge any number of men for that purpose. POSSESS', v. a. Fr. posseder; POSSESSION, n. s. & v. a. Lat. possessor. To POSSESSIONER, n. s. own; enjoy; ocPOSSESSIVE, adj. cupy; have power POSSESSORY, over, or disposal Possessor, n. s. of: hence to deliver over; give possession, or command of (taking of or with); affect by inward or concealed power: possession is ownership; property; the state of having in one's own hands, power, or use; effect of being possessed, as the madness caused by an unclean spirit: as an obsolete verb active, to invest with property: possessioner and possessor are both obsolete words Prior. Endowed with the greatest perfections of nature, With the rage of all their race possest, Pope. Swift. I think that the man is possessed. Think of the happiness of the prophets and apostles, saints, and martyrs, who are now rejoicing in the presence of God, and see themselves possessors of eternal glory. Law. POSSESSIO FRATRIS, in law, is where a man has a son and a daughter by one venter or wife, and a son by another venter, and dies; if the first son enter, take possession, and die without issue, the daughter shall have the land as heir to her brother; but if the eldest son die without issue, not having made an actual entry and seisin, the younger brother by the second wife, as heir to the father, shall enjoy the estate, and not the sister. POSSESSION BAY, a bay on the north coast of the island of Georgia, observed by captain Cook in 1775. The head of it, he says, although it was then the summer season, as well as the places on each side, was terminated by high perpendicular ice-cliffs. The inner parts of the country were not less savage and forbidding. The wild rocks raised their lofty summits to the clouds, and the valleys lay clothed with everlasting snow. Long. 37° 18′ W., lat. 54° 5' S. POSSESSION BAY, a bay in the straits of Magellan. The point lies in long. 69° 39′ W., lat. 52° 20′ S.; and a reef of rocks runs off from it for about a mile. The soundings are irregular, but the anchorage is good. POSSESSION ISLAND, an island in the South Pacific, near the north point of New Holland, where captain Cook hoisted the English colors, and took possession of all the east or north-east coast of New Holland, with all bays, harbours, rivers, and islands, situated on it, in the name of the king of Great Britain. Twenty miles north of York Cape. Long. 218° 21′ W., lat. 10° 33' S. POSSESSION, POINT, a cape on the west coast of North America, and east of Cook's inlet; so called because here Mr. King, lieutenant to captain Cook, took possession of the river and country in the name of George III. of England, on the 10th of June, 1778. The natives appeared similar to those of Prince William's Sound. POSSESSION, in English law, is either actual, where a person actually enters into lands or tenements descended or conveyed to him; or where lands are descended to a person, and he has not yet entered into them. A long possession is much favored by the law as an argument of right, even though no deed can be shown, and it is more regarded than an ancient deed without possession. If he that is out of possession of land bring an action, he must prove an undeniable title to it; and when a person would recover any thing of another, it is not sufficient to destroy the title of the person in possession without he can prove that his own right is POSSESSIVE, in grammar, a term applied to nouns, which denotes the enjoyment or possession of any thing, either in particular or in common; as meus, mine; tuus, thine. PO'SSET, n. s. Lat. posca. Milk curlled with wine or any fire. acid. We'll have a posset at the latter end of a sea-coal- A sparing diet did her health assure; Floyer. Increase the milk when it is diminished by the too great use of flesh meats, by gruels a: d posset drink. Arbahnot. I allowed him medicated broths, posset ale, and Wiseman's Surgery. pearl julep. POSSEVIN (Anthony.), a Jesuit, born at Mantua, in 1533. He was employed by Gregory XIII. in embassies to Poland, Sweden, and Germany; and wrote a number of works on theology. He died at Ferrara, in 1611. POSSIBLE, adj. Fr. possible; Lat. possibilis. Practicable; having the power to be or to be done; not contrary to the nature of things: the noun substantive and adverb corresponding. With men this is impossible, but with God all Matthew, xix. 26. things are possible. All things are possible to him that believeth. Mark. There is no let, but that as often as those books are read, and need so requireth, the stile of their differences may expressly be mentioned to bar even all possibility of error. Hooker. Within the compass of which laws, we do not only Brother, speak with possibilities, Id. Shakspeare. When we have, for the proof of any thing, some of the highest kinds of evidence, and in this case it is not the suggestion of a mere possibility that the thing may be otherwise, that ought to be any sufficient cause of doubting. Wilkins. He must not stay within doors, for fear the house should fall upon him, for that is possible: nor must he go out, lest the next man that meets him should kill him, for that is also possible. Id. Possibly he might be found in the hands of the earl of Essex, but he would be dead first. Firm we subsist, but possible to swerve. Clarendon. Milton. Rogers. POSSIDONIUS, a philosopher of Alexandria, who flourished after Eratosthenes, and before Ptolemy. He is by some confounded with Possidonius of Apamea. POSSO (Andrew), an eminent painter of andscapes, history, and portraits, born at Trent in 1642. His paintings are very beautiful. He was also an author, and wrote some excellent tracts on perspective. POST, v. a. Fr. poste, poster; Ital posto; Lat. positus, postis. Situation; station; place: seat; office; employment; military station; a piece of timber erected: to place; station; fix; register (as in a book of accounts); delay; to` fix opprobriously on posts, or in a conspicuous situation. The blood they shall strike on the two side posts and upper post of the house. Exodus xii. 7. I have not stopt mine ears to their demands, Nor posted off their suits with slow delays; Then why should they love Edward more than me? Shakspeare. Fir-trees, cypresses, and cedars being, by a kind of natural rigour, inflexible downwards, are thereby fittest for posts or pillars. Wotton's Architecture. Many gentlemen, for their integrity in their votes, were, by posting their names, exposed to the popular calumny and fury. King Charles. It is a goodly sight to behold things proceeding orderly; to see every person quietly resting in his post, or moving evenly in his rank. Barrow. The conscious priest, who was suborned before, Stood ready posted at the postern door. Dryden. See before the gate what stalking ghost, Commands the guard, what sentries keep the post. Id. Every man has his post assigned to him, and in that station he is well, if he can but think himself L'Estrange. SO. He that proceeds upon other principles in his enquiry into any sciences, puts himself on that side, and posts himself in a party, which he will not quit till he be beaten out. Locke. Many thousands there are who determine the justice or madness of national administrations, whom neither God nor men ever qualified for such a post of judgment. Walts. Post is equivocal; it is a piece of timber, or a swift messenger. Id. Logick. POST, n. s. & v. n.] POST AGE, n. s. POST BOY, POST'HASTE. POST HORN, POST'OFFICE, POST HORSES, Fr. poste; Ital. posta. A carrier or messenger; one who travels with speed; quick manner of travelling to travel speedily or hastily: postage is money paid for conveying letters: postboy, a boy that rides post: a posthorn announces the arrival of letters by a public post, and the post-office receive and distribute them: post-horses are those used in travelling post. He lay under a tree, while his servants were getting fresh posthorses for him. Sidney. The Turkish messenger presently took horse which was there in readiness for him, and posted towards Constantinople with as much speed as he could. Kuolles. I fear my Julia would not deign my lines, Receiving them by such a worthless post. Shakspeare. I brought my master news of Juliet's death, And then in post he came from Mantua To this same monument. Id. Romeo and Juliet. I posted day and night to meet you. Shakspeare. Post speedily to my lord, your husband, Shew him this letter. Id. King Lear. Weird sisters hand in hand, Posters of the sea and land, Thus to go about. This is Id. Macbeth. A cripple in the way out-travels a footman, or a post out of the way. Ben Jonson's Discovery. Espying the French ambassador with the king's coach attending him, made them balk the beaten road and teach posthackneys to leap hedges. Wotton. In certain places there be always fresh posts to carry that farther which is brought unto them by the other. Abbot. This man tells us, that the world waxes old, though not in posthaste. Hakewill on Providence.. |