PRO
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PRO
PRO Ccnfejfo, in Law: when, upon a Bill exhibited Chancery, the Defendant appears, and is in Contempt for not anfwering, and in Cuftody; upon 0. Habeas Corf us, (which is granted by Order) to bring him to the Bar, the Court affigns him a Day to anfwer 5 which being expir d, and no Anfwer put in, a fecond Habeas Corps n granted, and a farther Day affign'd : by which Day, if he anlwer not the Bill, upon the Plaintiff's Motion, (hall be taken fro amfeffo, unlefs Caufe be Ihew'd by a Day, which the Court ufuaiiy gives; and for want of fuch Caufe fhew d, upon Motion, the Subftance of the Plaintiff's Bill fhall be de- creed, as if it had been confefs'd by the Defendant s An- fwer : or, after a fourth inefficient Anfwer made to the Bill, the Matter of Fact not Efficiently anfwer'd unto, ihall be taken fro confeffo. „ „. ~ ~ • r
Vro Illdivifi, in Law, a Poffeffion, or Occupation of Lands, or Tenements, belonging to two or more Perlons; whereof none can fay which is his feveral Portion ; each having the whole, &C. as Co-parceners before Partition. See Yovm-Tarty and Partition.
PROBABILISTS, a Sect, or Divifion, among the Ko- mamlls who adhere to the Dodrinc of probable Opinion!; holding, that a Man is not always obliged to take the more probable fide, but may take the lefs probable, it it be but barely probable. See Probable. ,,.,., „
The Jefuits and Mlinifis are ftrenuous Trobabilip. See Tesuit, i$c. .' , „, ~,
Thofe who oppofe this Doflnne, and affcrt, That we are obliged, on pain of Sinning, always to take the more probable fide, are call'd <Probabiliorip.
The Janfenifis, and particularly the <Port-Royalip, are •Probabilionp. SeejAtjsEtiisT, &c.
PROBABILITY, in Reafoning, a Verifmilitiide ; oran Appearance of Truth. See Truth.
To define it Philofophically, Trobability is the appear- ance of the Agreement or Difagreement of two things by the Intervention of Proofs, whole conned™ is not fixed or immutable, or is not perceived to be fo; but is, or ap- pears, for themofl part, to be fo ; fo as to fufhee to induce the Mind to judge the Propofition to be true or falle, rathet than thecontrary. See Evidence. _
That Propofition, then, \s probable, for which there are Arguments and Proofs to make it pafs, or be received for true. See Probable. , , r cr ,
The entertainment rhc Mind gives to this fort of Propo- fitions, is call'd Belief, Affent, or Opinion. See Faith.
Trobability, then, being to fupply the defed of our Knowledge, is always converfant about Propofitions.whereof we have So certainty, but only feme Inducements to receive them for true. See Opinion.
According to Jriptle, a Propofiuon.. i« friable, if it feems true to all, or moft People, and thofe the w.fer, and more reputable Sorr. Butby/sWKi, he means, what, after a clofe Inquiry, (hall feem to be true.
Of Probability there are various Degrees, from the Con- fines of Certainty and Demonftration, down thro Impro- bability and Unlikelinefs.tothe Confines of Impofiibil.ry ; and alfo Degrees of Affent from certain Knowledge, and, what is next to it, full Affurance and Confidence, quire down to ConjcSure, Doubt, Diftruft, and Disbelief.
The grounds of 'Probability, are, in fhort, thefe two fol- lowing, o/a. the Conformity ot any thing with our own Know- ledge.Experience, or Obfervation.call'd internal Trobability; and the Teftimony of othets, vouching their Obfervation or Experience, call'd external Trobability. See Credi-
Probability, in Poetry, the appearance of Truth in the Fable, or Adion, of a Poem. See Action and Fable.
There are four Kinds of Adions : For a thing may be cither only true, or only probable ; or true and probable at the fame time ; or neither the one nor the other. See Action. r
Thefe four Kinds of Aflions are fhared between four Arts: Hiltory takes the firfl, Hill keeping to Truth.with- out regard to 'Probability: See History.
Epic and Dramatic Poetry have the fecond ; and ft ill prefer Probability, tho' falfe, to an Improbability, tho true : Thus the death of \Vido, who kills herfelf on her being deferted by JEneas, tho' falfe in itfelf, is a fitter Sub- ie£t for a Poem, than the Action of Samffon, or the Maid of Orleans. ■ ' , ; .
Moral Philofophy takes the third ; and the Fabuliits, as jTfop, &c. the fourth. See Fable.
Soffit adds, that the Epopea in its Nature and Effence, ufes Truth and 'Probability like Morality ; yet in its Cir- cumfiances and Exprefftons takes a liberty like that of JEfip : Inflances of each we have in the JEneid.
'Poetical 'Probability may be fo either in refped of the Rules of Theology, of Morality, Nature, Reafon, Experience, or Opinion.
As to the Theology, there is fcarce any thing but is probable, in refpeel hereof; becaufe nothing ».i»-
poflible to God. This is an Expedient they have frequent recourfe to, in order to bring things feign'd contrary to the Order of Nature, within the bounds of Trobability. See this confider'd under the Article Ma- chine.
As to Morality, we have obferved, it requires both Truth and Verifimilitude : An antient Poet was condemn'd on the Theatre for a flip herein ; viz. for making a Perfon, whom he reprefented as an honeft Man, fay, that tho' j&/$ 'tongue puiore, his Mind did not.
Seneca accufes Virgil of an Offence againft Natural Pro- bability, in faying, that the Winds were pent up in Caves ; for, fays that Philofopher, Wind being only Air in Motion, to fuppofe it at Reft, is to deflroy its Nature. To which Vojfius anfwers, that the Poet only fpeaks of the natural Origin of Winds; which are produced in Mountains by Va- pours, tSc. pent there : Juft as we fhould fay, the Winds are enclofed in an JE.olipile.
Virgil, likewife, committed an Offence againft Natural Trobability, by making JEneas find Deer in Africa ; be- caufe that Country produces none.
Indeed thefe Faults are excufable, becaufe, as Ariftotk finely obferves, they are not Faults in the Poet's Art, but arife from his Ignorance of fomething taught in the other Arts.
However, care muft be taken they ben't too grofs ; there being fome 'Probabilities of this kind, which jifof him- felf could not difpenfe withal : He would never be for- given, were he to reprefent a Lion fearful, a Hare daring, a Fox ftupid, iSc.
Trobability, in refped of Reafon, is frequently broke in upon by thofe who affed nothing but the Merveilleux : Here Statins is a notorious Criminal : lidem being furpriz'd in an Ambufcade by fifty Bravoes, who had vow'd his death ; kills fony-nine of 'em, and pardons the laft.
Again, two young Kings, whereof this fame TideUS was one, the other Tolynices, upon a Quarrel, go together by the ears; and box it out; their Swords all the while by their fides. Scriitatur i$ Ultima Vultus, unca mams, peui- tufq; oculis cedent ibus injlat.
Scaliger accufes Homer of an Offence againft Experi- ence ; in faying, that Jupiter flounder 'd and fno'ji'd at the fame time. This, fays the Critic, was never known ; and yet have there been Inftances hereof even in our rime.
But the principal and moft important Kind of Trobabi- lity, is that in refpect of common Opinion. A thing is pro- bable when it looks like Truth : But, fometimes, it /hall appear true to the People, and falfe to the Learned ; and vice verfa. When, then, the Learned and the People are divided, to which fide muft the Poet adhere ? Suppofe, for inftance, the Adventute of 'Penelope, the Hiftory of Medea, Helena, or the like: What Virgil and Homer have wrote of 'em fhall appear probable to the Populace ; yet the Learned read the contrary in Hiftory ; fome Authors having wrote that!2)i</o was chafte, and Mede a innocent; that Tenelope was divorced and banifhed by Ulyffes for abufing his Abfence ; and that Helena never faw Troy.
This Point is foon decided : Homer and Virgil make no fcruple of leaving Hiftory, to improve their Fables : Ho- race does not fend the Poets to the Truths of Hiftory ; but either to Fables already invented, or to common Fame.
All which is confirmed by Ariptle ; where he fays, that a Poet does not tell,, like an Hiftorian, what kind of Perfon Alcibiades was, nor what he really did or faid on this or thatOccafion ; but what he probably might have done or faid. Add to this, that Arifiotle approves of the Fable of Oedipus, and Ifhigenia ; tho' it can never be imagined the truth of thofe Stories was believed by the Learned in thofe days.
In effed, every one finds his Account in this Conduit : The People think they fee Truth ; and the Learned do really fee Truths, and more folid ones too, than thofe the People look for ; and more fure than thofe of the Hiftory which the Poet negleds. The more underftanding they are, the lefs will they defire rhefe hiftorical Truths in a Poem, which is intended for other and deeper Ends. The Truths they require, are Moral and Allegorical Truths. The JEneid was not wrote to teach us the Hiftory of 'Dido, but tofhew, under that Name, the Genius and Conduct of the Republic founded by her, and the Source and Series of its differences with Rome. This we fee with pleafure ; and thefe Truths are more agreeable, more conftanr and noto- rious than any the Poet could take from a Hiftory, fo little known in his time.
To thefe kinds of 'Probability, may be added another ; which we call an Accidental 'Probability : It confifts, not in the ufing of feveral Incidents, each probable a-part ; bur in difpofing 'em fo as to hang probably together.
A Man, e.gr. may probably die of an Apoplexy ; but that this flwuld happen juft in the nick, when the Poet wanted it for an unravelling, is highly improbable.
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