Id. No wonder that pastorals are fallen into disesteem; I see the reader already uneasy at this part of Virgil, counting, the pages, and posting to the Eneis. Walsh. This genius came thither in the shape of a postboy, and cried out that Mons was relieved. Tatler. Without this letter, as he believes that happy revolution had never been effected, he prays to be made postmaster general. Spectator. This only object of my real care, In some few posting fatal hours is hurled From wealth, from power, from love, and from the world. Prior. If you don't send to me now and then, the postoffice will think me of no consequence; for I have no correspondent but you. Gay to Swift. I send you the fair copy of the poem on dulness, which I should not care to hazard by the common Pop'. If you are sent to the postoffice with a letter, put it in carefully. Swift. Dost. An officer at the posthouse in London places every letter he takes in, in the box belonging to the proper road. Watts. By the correspondence which his place in the postoffice facilitated, he procured country newspapers and sold their intelligence to a journalist in London, for a guinea a week. Johnson. But let eternal infamy pursue The wretch to nought but his ambition true, Who, for the sake of filling with one blast The post-horns of all Europe, lays her waste. Cowper. POST, in military affairs, any place where soldiers are stationed, Thus the detachments established in front of the army are termed the out-posts; the stations on the wings of the army are said to be the posts of honor, as being the most conspicuous and most exposed. But in the operations of a campaign, a post properly signifies any spot of ground capable of lodging soldiers, or any situation, whether fortified or not, where a body of men may make a stand and engage the enemy to advantage. The use of them is chiefly felt in a defensive war against an invading enemy; as by carrying on a war of posts in a country where this can be done to advantage, the most formidable army may be so harassed and reduced that all its enterprises may be rendered abortive. Indeed, in modern times, pitched battles have become much more rare than formerly, manœuvring and securing of posts being considered as the most essential objects in the conduct of a campaign. In the choice of a post, the general rules to be attended to are, that it be convenient for sending out parties to reconnoitre, surprise, or intercept the enemy; that if possible it have some natural defence, as a wood, a river, or a morass, in front or flank, or at least that it be difficult of access, and susceptible of speedy fortification; that it be so situate as to preserve a communication with the main army, and have covered places in the rear to favor a retreat; that it command a view of all the approaches to it, so that the enemy cannot advance unperceived and rest concealed, while the detachment stationed in the post are forced to remain under arms; that it be not commanded by any neighbouring heights; and that it be proportioned in extent to the number of men who are to occupy and defend it. It is not to be expected that all these advantages will often be found united; but those posts ought to be selected which offer the greatest number of them. POST OFFICE. This important office for the conveyance of letters through the kingdom, as well from foreign parts as from place to place within Great Britain, was attempted to be erected by the parliament in 1643; an office was erected first in 1657, and after the restoration established by stat. 12 Car. II. c. 35. See Blackstone 1 Comm. 321. The rates of letters have been from time to time altered, and some further regulations added by stats. 9 Ann. c. 10; 6 Geo. I. c. 21; 26 Geo. II. c. 13; 5 Geo. III. c. 25; 7 Geo. III. c. 50; 28 Geo. III. c. 9; 39 Geo. III. c. 76; 41 Geo. III. (U. K.) c. 7; 42 Geo. III. c. 81 and 101; 45 Geo. III. c. 11; 46 Geo. III. c. 73 and 92; 48 Geo. III. c. 116; 55 Geo. III. c. 87, and penalties are imposed in order to confine the carriage of letters to the public office only; except in some few cases. Rates of postage in postage in Ireland, are regulated by 54 Geo. III. c. 119; 55 Geo. III. c. 103. See also 43 Geo. III. c. 28, and Irish act 23, 24 Geo. III. c. 17. The privilege of letters coming free of postage to and from members of parliament was claimed by the house of commons in 1660, but dropped on a private assurance that it should be allowed. A warrant accordingly used to be issued to the postmaster-general to allow the same; till at length it was expressly confirmed by stat. 4 Geo. III. c. 24; which, and stats. 24 Geo. III. stat. 2, c. 37; 35 Geo. III. c. 53, add many new regulations; rendered necessary by the great abuses crept into the practice of franking. This privilege of franking is still further regulated by stat. 42 Geo. III. c. 63; and 46 Geo. III. c. 61; and is by several acts extended to public offices and boards in particular government departments. Our post office originally partook of the spylike character of the present French establishment of this name. The preamble of the ordinance, made in 1657, states that the establishing one general post-office, besides the benefit to commerce, and the convenience of conveying public dispatches, will be the best means to discover and prevent many dangerous and wicked designs against the commonwealth :' and, strange to say, the policy of having the correspondence of the kingdom under the inspection of government is still continued; for by a warrant from one of the principal secretaries of state, letters may be detained and opened. 1 Comm. 322, edit. 1793, n. 28. But by stat. 9 Ann. c. 10, sect. 40, if any person shall, without such authority, wilfully detain or open any letter or packet delivered to the post-office, he shall forfeit £20, and be in capable of future employment in the post-office. It has been decided that no person is subject to this penalty but those who are employed in the post-office, 5 Term Rep. 101. But see stat. 35 Geo. III. c. 62, and 17 Geo. III. stat. 2, c. 53, enabling the postmaster general to open and return letters to foreign parts in consequence of certain political emergencies. By 7 Geo. III. c. 50, enforced by 42 Geo. III. c. 81, persons employed in the post-office secreting any letters containing securities for money, &c., are punished as felons without benefit of clergy; as are also persons procuring such offence. It seems that it is not a felony within 7 Geo. III. c. 50, sect. 1, for a person employed in the post-office, to steal out of a letter entrusted to his care a draft on a London banker, purporting to be drawn in London, but actually drawn about ten miles from London, on unstamped paper. It seems also that sect. 2 of the same act does not apply to persons employed in the post-office; and that such a person, therefore, who steals a letter out of the post-office, is not guilty of felony under that act. 3 Bos and Pull. 311. Their names shall be transmitted to posterity, and spoken of through all future ages. Smalridge. They were fallible, they were men; but if postevity, fallible as they, grow bold and daring, where the other would have trembled, let them look to it. Waterland. No action can be maintained against the postmaster-general, for the loss of bills or articles sent in letters by the post. 1 Ld. Raym. 646; 1 Com. Rep. 100. Many attempts were formerly made by postmasters in country towns to charge d. and id. a letter on delivery, at the houses in the town, above the parliamentary rates; under the pretence that they were not obliged to carry the letters out of the office gratis. But it was repeatedly decided that such a demand is illegal, is as vain as that of Rabelais, to squeeze out wind and that they are bound to deliver the letters to the inhabitants, within the usual and established limits of the town, without any addition to the rate of postage. Yet, by 46 Geo. III. c. 92, letters may be conveyed to and from places, not being post-towns, and charged with extra prices. We have noticed the new building of this name under the article LONDON. POSTDILUVIAN, adj. Lat. post after, and diluvium, a flood. Posterior to the flood. The antediluvians lived a thousand years; and as for the age of the postdiluvians for some centuries, the annals of Phoenicia, Egypt, and China, agree with the tenor of the sacred history. Grew. Take a view of the postdiluvian state of this our globe, how it hath stood for these last four thousand Woodward. years. POSTEL (William), a learned Rhemish enthusiast, was born in Normandy in 1510, and in his youth supported himself at the college of St. Barbe, as the servant of the other students. Francis I. afterwards sent him to the east to collect MSS., which commission he discharged with credit, and was appointed on his return professor of mathematics and languages. After this he fell into disgrace, and was obliged to leave France. He died in a monastery in 1581. Postel pretended to have died, and risen again with the soul of Adam; and called himself Postellus restitutus; he also maintained that, women shall have the dominion over men; and that his doctrines were revealed to him by Jesus Christ. And now had fame's posterior trumpet blown, And all the nations summoned. Pope. To the unhappy, that unjustly bleed, from the posteriors of a dead ass. Swift. Broome. Hesiod was posterior to Homer. Discovered had the world to heaven wide, Go on, good Eglamour, Fairfax. To what purpose are those strait and capital inhibitions of the return of our factious fugitives into this kingdom, if, while the wicked is shut upon them. that they should not come to us, the postern be open to us, that we may go to them. Bp. Hall. The conscious priest, who was suborned before, Stood ready posted at the postern door. Dryden. If the nerves, which are the conduits to convey them from without to the audience in the brain, be so disordered as not to perform their functions, they have no pestern to be admitted by, no other ways to bring then.selves into view. Locke A private postern opens to my gardens, Through which the beauteous captive might remove. Rowe. Thought, busy thought! too busy for my peace! Thro' the dark postern of time long elapsed, Led softly, by the stillness of the night. Young. A POSTERN, in fortification, is usually made in the angle of the flank of a bastion, or in that of the curtain, or near the orillon, descending into the ditch; whereby the garrison can march in and out, unperceived by the enemy, either to relieve the works, or to make private sallies, &c. The word is also used in general for any private or back door. POSTEXISTENCE, n. s. Post and exist ence. Future existence. As Simonides has exposed the vicious part of women from the doctrine of pre-existence, some of the ancient philosophers have satirised the vicious part of the human species, from a notion of the soul's postPOSTHUMOUS, adj. Fr. posthume; Lat. posthumus. Done, had, or published, after one's existence. death. Addison. In our present miserable and undivided condition, how just soever a man's pretensions may be to a great or blameless reputation, he must, with regard to his posthumous character, content himself with such a consideration as induced the famous Sir Francis Bacon, after having bequeathed his soul to God, and his body to the earth, to leave his fame to foreign nations. Addison. POSTICK, adj. Lat. posticus. Backward. The postick and backward position of the feminine parts in quadrupeds can hardly admit the substitution of masculine generation. Browne. POSTIL, v. a. Fr. postille; Lat. postella, a gloss. To gloss; illustrate with marginal notes. I have seen a book of account of Empson's, that had the king's hand almost to every leaf by way of signing, and was in some places postilled in the margin with the king's hand. Bacon. Hence you fantastic postillers in song, My text defeats your art, ties nature's tongue. Cleaveland. It hath been observed by many holy writers, commonly delivered by postillers and commentators. POSTI LION, n. s. Browne. Fr. postillon. One who guides the first pair of a set of horses; one who guides any post-horses. Let the postilion nature mount, and let The coachman art be set. Cowley. A young batchelor of arts came to town recommended to a chaplain's place; but, none being vacant, modestly accepted of that of a postilion. Tatler. POSTING, OF TRAVELLING BY POST, a particular mode of travelling. A person is said to travel post, when, in place of going on during his whole journey in the same vehicle and with the same horses, he stops at different stages to provide fresh horses, for the sake of greater convenience and expedition; and when therefore he takes a carriage expressly for himself instead of going by any regular coach. In tracing the origin of posts, it has been already remarked, that the more ancient establishments of this kind were fully as much for travelling stations as the conveyance of letters. The relays of horses provided at these public stations for the messengers of the prince were occasionally, by special license, allowed to be used by other travellers who had sufficient interest at court. Frequent demands of this nature would suggest the expedient of having in readiness supplies of fresh horses and carriages over and above what the public service required, to be hired out to other travellers on payment of an adequate price. We find, therefore, that in former times the post masters alone were accustomed to let out horses for riding post, the rates of which were fixed in 1548 by a statute of Edward VI. at one penny per mile. In the statute re-establishing the post-office in 1660 it is enacted that none but the post-master, his deputies, or assigns, shall furnish post-horses for travellers; with a proviso, however, that, if he has them not ready in half an hour after being demanded, the traveller shall be at liberty to provide himself elsewhere. The same prohibition is contained in the act establishing the Scotch post-office in 1695, as well as in the subsequent act of queen Anne, erecting the general office for the united kingdom. It is doubtful, however, whether it ever was strictly enforced. By an explanatory act of 26 Geo. II. the prohibition is confined to post horses only, and every person declared to be at liberty to furnish carriages and horses to them of every kind for travellers. The increase of commerce, and necessity for a speedy communication between different parts of the kingdom, have brought stage-coaches into such general use that posting is seldom resorted to. The rate of posting now stands from 1s. to 18, 3d. per mile, according as the season has been favorable to the production of fodder. POSTLETHWAYT (Malachy), an eminent English lexicographer. He published The Universal Dictionary of Trade and Commerce; an extensive and comprehensive work, in 2 vols. large folio, London, dedicated to Sir Stephen Theodore Janssen, Bart. It went through several editions. He died in 1767. POSTLIM'INOUS, adj. Lat. postiliminium. Done or contrived subsequently. The reason why men are so short and weak in governing, is, because most things fall out to them their pre-conceived ends, but are forced to comply accidentally, and come not into any compliance with subsequently, and to strike in with things as they fall out, by postliminous after-applications of them to their purposes. South. POSTMERIDIAN, adj. Lat. postmeridianus. In the afternoon. Over-hasty digestion is the inconvenience of postBacon's Natural History. meridian sleep. POSTPONE', v. a. Fr. postposer; Lat. postpono. To put off; to delay; set in value below another power or thing. You would postpone me to another reign, Til. when you are content to be unjust. Dryden. All other considerations should give way, and be Locke on Education. postponed to this. The most trifling amusement is suffered to postRogers. pone the one thing necessary. POST'SCRIPT, n. s. Lat. post and scriptum. The paragraph added to the end of a letter. One, when he wrote a letter, would put that which was most material in the postscript. Bacon. I think he prefers the public good to his private opinion; and therefore is willing his proposals should with freedom be examined; thus I understand his postscript. Locke. The following letter I shall give my reader at length, without either preface or postscript. Addison. Your saying that I ought to have writ a postscript to Gay's, makes me not content to write less than a whole letter. Pope. Fr. postuler; Lat. postulo. To assume without proof; a postulate is an unproved assumption: postulation, the act of assuming without proof; postulatum is a single position of this kind: postulatory, assuming without proof. POSTULATE, v. a. & n. s. A second postulation to elicit my assent, is the veracity of him that reports it. Hale. They most powerfully magnify God, who, not from postulated and precarious inferences, entreat a courteous assent, but from experiments and unde niable effects. Browne. Calumnies often refuted, are the postulatums of scribblers, upon which they proceed as upon first principles. Addison. Some have cast all their learning into the method of mathematicians, under theorems, problems, and postulates. Watts. POSTULATE, in mathematics, &c., is such an easy and self-evident supposition as needs no explication or illustration to render it intelligible; as that a right line may be drawn from one point to another. POSTURE, n. s. & v. a. Į Fr. posture; Lat. POSTURE-MASTER. S positura. State; place; situation; disposition with regard to something else; position of the limbs in respect to each other: to posture, to put in a particular situation posture-master, one who teaches or practises artificial movements or contortions of the body. He starts, Strikes his breast hard, and then anon he casts He was raw with posturing himself according to the direction of the chirurgeons. Brook. I am at the same point and posture I was, when they forced me to leave Whitehall. King Charles. The lord Hopton left Arundel Castle before he had put it into the good posture he intended. Clarendon In this abject posture have ye sworn T'adore the conqueror. Milton. Although these studies are not so pleasing as contemplations physical or mathematical, yet they recompence with the excellency of their use in relation to man, and his noblest posture and station in this world, a state of regulated society. Hale. The posture of a poetick figure is the description of his heroes in the performance of such or such an action. Dryden. The gill-fins are so postured as to move from back to belly and e contra. Grew. When the students have accomplished themselves in this part, they are to be delivered into the hands of a kind of posturemaster. Spectator. In the meanest marble statue, one sees the faces, postures, airs, and dress of those that lived so many ages before us. Addison. The several postures of his devout soul in all conditions of life are displayed with great simplicity. Atterbury. Where there are affections of reverence, there will be postures of reverence. South. PO'SY, n. s. [contracted from POESY, which A motto on a ring. see.] J. Haddon, Printer, Finsbury. END OF VOL. XVII. |