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equal Weight of reafons upon both fides, yet may incline to the one rather than the other, and that there are fome doc- trines neceflary to falvation, which whether they be true or falfe, no human wit is able to diftinguifh : a fuppoiition wh.cn ferns iujurious to the wifdom and goodnefs of God. In effect, to grant that all thefe principles of religion, there is a God, a Providence, a Saviour, &c may be contefted on both hands with equal Argument!, is not this to furmlh weapons to Athe- ifts and Infidels, who will be apt to reafon thus : whether there is, or is not a God, cannot be clearly proved by any proper Arguments or evidence ; therefore whether I believe or difbelieve the exiftence of a God, it will amount to the fame, fince a truth which it is a crime to rejea, muft be clear and evident. On the whole, the Argument is equally applicable to the fupport of falfehood as of truth ; and accordingly we find it ufed by Papifts to make converts from proteftantifm. They argue thus, the Proteftants allow that falvation may be had in the church of Rome ; but the church of Rome denies that Proteftants can be faved ; therefore it is fafer to be in the Ro- man than in the Proteftant communion. Malbranch alfo makes ufe of the fame way of arguing to (hew the lnfigmh- cancy of fecond caufes, and refers all the aflions of creatures to the immediate agency of the deity. But tho' the Argument be improper for proving the truth of any dodfrine, it may be of ufe to move the will and excite us to aaion ', This reafoning may be allowed ; a thing which promifes me pleafure without danger is preferable to another where equal pleafure is attended with danger ; hence the Ar- gument may be of fome ufe with perfons of diflblute morals, whofe loofencfs and infallibility diminiih the force of other Arguments*.— [• Vid. Aa.Erud. Lipf. An. 1724. p. 177. feq. b Bibl. Germ. '1'. 7. p. 231.]
The truth is, in the conduaof life, whether religious or mo- ral, mctaphyfical precifion and proof is not to be demanded, a degree of certitude, fuch as that, to which men of fenfe are ufed to refign, fuflices where the objea is human aflions ; to wait for evidence to aa, would be never to aa at all ; and to take no fide, would be to take the fide of not =aing. Be- noit, Difc. Sur. le Confent. de tous les Peuples. Mem. de Trev. An. 1714. p. 240. feq.
M. MoCieim has a difibrtation cxprefs on the force of the Ar- gument from thefafeft fide in theology, wherein he fllews that it is of no force, with regard to the conviaion of the mind, tho' it may be of life for perfuading or direaing the aBions. De Vi Argumenti quod a tuts dicitur in Theologia. Wolfemb. 1723. 4 . Vid. Aa. Erud. Lipf. lac. cit. M. Aftruc recommends the ufe of the Argumentum a into in the time of a plague, i. e. to aa in fuch manner as if we were convinced of the contagion, even tho' we had reafon to doubt of it, becaufe there is no great harm in an error on the one fide, tho' it might be fatal on the other. Vid. Jour. des Scav. T. 76. p. 562.
ARGUS, in natural hiftory, the name given by authors to a peculiar fpecies of porcellane (hell, the variegations of which are a fort of round fpots reprefcnting the eyes in a peacock's tail.
There are two kinds of this fiiell, a greater and a fmaller ; and befides thefe there is a (hell very nearly approaching to them in its (hape and variegation, ^called the Pfeudo- Argus. See Porcellane.
ARGUTI/E, witty and acute fayings, which commonly fignify fomething further than what their mere words at firft fight feem to import. Writers on rhetoric fpeak of divers fpecies of Argutix, viz.
Argutije ab Alieno, when fomething is faid, which feems re- pugnant either to the nature and property of a thing, or to common cuftom, the laws, EsV. which yet in reality is confident therewith ; or when fomething is given as a reafon of another, which yet is not the reafon of it. For inftance, ft Caius ni- hil didiciffet, erraffet minus : again, aureum hoc Jteculum eft, quia plurimus jam auro honas venil.
Arguti^e ab allufione, thofe wherein allufion is made to fome hiftory, fable, fentence, proverb, or the like, e. gr. multi umbram captant cff carnem amittunt.
Argutije a comparatis, when two things are compared toge- ther, which yet at firft fight . appear very different from each other, but fo as to make a pretty kind of Jimilc or difpmile, e. gr. par eft pauper nil cupiens principi omnia habenti.
Argutije a repugnantibus, when two things meet in a fubjea, which yet regularly cannot be therein ; or when two things are oppofed to each other, yet the epithet of the one is attri- buted to the other, e . gr. dum tacent, clamant. Heder. Schul. Lex. p. 380. feq.
ARGYRFT7E Agones, Aymn A OT ,ti, in antiquity, games where money was the prize. Pott. Archaeol. 1. 2. c. 23.
ARGYRITIS, in natural hiftory, a name given by the antients to a fubftance refembling filver ; fome of the writers of the middle ages fay that it was of the colour of filver, variegated with fpots of gold ; they feem to have taken it for a native fof- fil ; but the account given by Pliny of the Argyritis of the antients, (hews it to have been a recrement of filver call: up in form of froth in the refining.
In this laft fenfe, Argyritis was ufed to fignify fuch litharge as was of a white colour, by way of diftinguiihing it from
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that which was yellow, which they dignified with the name Chryfitis, as we do at prefent that of litharge of gold. Diof- corides calls the litharge of filver alfo calabrites or calau- rites ; this was a name given to it from a peculiar place from whence the antients received it in great quantity ; this place was not Calabria as fome have fuppoled, from the name when fpelt in that manner, but Calaura, an ifland near Crete, where there were metallurgic furnaces always at work, and from whence the Greeks were fupplied with great quantities of all the recrementa metallica which they ufed in medicine. The Argyritis of thefe later writers feems to have been a (tone, the magnetis lapis of the antients mentioned by Theophrattus, and by him carefully diftinguifhed from what we call the magnet or loadftone; he fays it had all the brightnefs of filver, and might even deceive the obferver at firft fight, and be taken for that metal : cups and other veffels for the fervice of the table were made of this (tone in the time of the Greeks, but in all their defcriptions we have no account of thofe variegations of gold in it, mentioned by the after writers ; thefe feem to have been adventitious ornaments to the ftone, either thrown in by the artift in the working, or elfe by the defcriber.
ARGYRODAMAS, A ?W V«, in natural hiftory, a fort of filver coloured talc, which bears the fire, and neither burns, melts, nor changes its hue. Vid. Cafalp. Art. Med. 1. 3. c. 32. Plot, Nat. Hift. Stafford, c. 3. §• 20. Hence its denomination among the antients of Argyrodamas, quafi argentum indomitum.
ARGYROGONIA, A e y.w»'«, is ufed by fome alchymilts for a kind of argentific, or filver-making feed, of a white co- lour, pretended to be procurable from a fulution of that me- tal perfeaiy concofted, Bran. Lex. Med. p. 124. Argyrogonia Hands ebntradiftinguifhed frcm Chryjcgoma.
ARGYROLIBANOS, in the materia medica of the antient Greeks, a word ufed to exprefs the white kind of olibanum. It was common among the Greeks, to affix this word Argyros to the beginning of the names of tilings, to exprefs their be- ing of the colour of that metal, thus argyrolithos expreiled a ftone of a filver colour. The yellow olibanum or trankin- cenfe was in the fame manner expreiled, by prefixing the word chalcos to the nan.e, thus chalcolibanos is uf-d in the apocalyps, but this word has been grievoufly mifunderilood, and fuppofed to mean a fort of brafs or of copper dug in mount Lebanon.
ARIADNIA, AgixW, in antiquity, folemn feftivals held at Naxos in honour of Ariadne. Pint, in Thefeo. The Ariadnia are faid to have been inftituted by Thefeus, in attonement for his cruelty in expoling Ariadne big with child on that coaft. They were of a mournful caft, one part of the ceremony was for a young woman to lie down and coun- terfeit all the agonies of a woman in labour. Pott. Archajol. 1.2. c. 20.
There was alfo faid to have been another feftival of the fame name, held at the fame place, in honour of another Ariadne.
ARIDED, inaftronomy, a fixed flar of the fecond magnitude, in the extremity of the fwan's tail. Vital. Lex. Math, in voc. This is alfo called hierezim and Adigege.
ARIDELOS1S, -'AsiKWii, in rhetoric, is fometimes ufed for the figure commonly cAkdfynonimia. Voff. Rhet. 1. 5. p. 276. See Synonimy, Cycl.
ARIDULLAM, in natural hiftory, the name of a foffil fub- ftance ufed in the Eaft-Indies in intermittent fevers. It is of a greenifll yellow colour, and coarfe texture, and when burnt emits fumes duelling like arfenick. It is properly of the zarnick kind, tho' fomewhat different from all the Euro- pean kinds. See Zarnich.
ARIDURA, in phyfic, a drinefs, or want of juice, and moi- llure, in the parts.
Aridura is alfo ufed by fome for an Art dity, or confumption. Rul. Lex. Alch. p. 71.
Aridura is more particularly ufed to denote a heaic fever. Dol. Encycl. 1. 4. c. 4.
Aridura is more frequently ufed, by modern writers, to denote a particular atrophy, or wafting of fome fingle member of the body.
In which fenfe it amounts to the fame with what we otherwife call withering. ' _ .,
AR1NGA, in ichthyology, a name given byPaulus Jovius and others to the herring. .
ARIOLI, in antiquity, a kind of prophets, or religious conjurers, who by abominable prayers, and horrible fatnfices at the altars of idols, procured anfwers to their quefkons concerning future events. Iftd. Orig. 1. 8. c. 9. Strut). Synt. Ant. Rom. c. 6.
Thefe are alfo called Harioli, and their operation, Hariclation. Sometimes they were denominated Arufpices, or Harufpias The Arioli were diftinguifhed by a flovenly drefs, disorderly and matted beards, hair, 13c. ARISARUM, Friars-Caul, in botany, the name of a genus ot plants, the charaaers of which are thefe. The fruit and in- ner part of the flower are the fame with thofe of the arum and dragons, but the flower itfelf is hooded or lhaped like a friars-coul. '_ '
The fpecies of Arifarum enumerated by Mr. Tournetort
are thefe. „,
1. The
