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Watts.

Professional, as well as national, reflections are to be avoided. Clarissa.

A PROFESSOR, in the universities, is a person who teaches or reads public lectures in some art or science from a chair for the purpose. PROFFER, v. a. & n. s. Į Fr. proferer; PROF FERER, n. s. Lat. profero. To propose; offer to acceptance; attempt: essay; offer or attempt made: he who offers. He seide han ye here ony thing that schal be etun? And they profriden to him a part of a fisch roostyd, and a honeycomb. Wiclif. Luke 24.

Basilius, content to take that, since he could have no more, allowed her reasons, and took her proffer thankfully. Sidney.

To them that covet such eye-glutting gain,
Proffer thy gifts, and fitter servants entertain.

Spenser.
Proffers, not took, reap thanks for their reward.
Shakspeare.
Maids, in modesty, say no, to that
Which they would have the profferer construe ay.

Id.

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during the three first centuries, were obliged to pass Persons of riper years, who flocked into the church ficiency. through instructions, and give account of their proAddison.

Some reflecting with too much satisfaction on their own proficiencies, or presuming on their election by God, persuade themselves into a careless security. Rogers's Sermons... Young deathlings were, by practice made Proficients in their fathers' trade. PROFIC'UOUS, adj.

vantageous; useful.

Swift. Lat. proficuus. Ad

It is very proficuous to take a good large dose.

To future times

Harvey.

may fix

Philips.

Proficuous, such a race of men produce, As in the cause of virtue firm, Her throne inviolate. PROFILE, n. s. Fr. profile. The side face; half face.

The painter will not take that side of the face which has some notorious blemish in it; but either draw it in profile, or else shadow the more imperfect side. Dryden.

Till the end of the third century, I have not seen a Roman emperor drawn with a full face: they always appear in profile, which gives us the view of a head very majestic. Addison.

PROFILE, in architecture, is the draught of a building, fortification, &c., wherein are expressed the several heights, widths, and thicknesses, such as they would appear were the building cut down perpendicularly from the roof to the foundation. Whence the profile is also. called the section, sometimes orthographical section.

PROFILE, in sculpture and painting. A head, a portrait, &c., are said to be in profile, when they are represented sidewise, or in a side view; as, when in a portrait there is but one side of the face, one eye, one cheek, &c., shown, and nothing of the other. On almost all medals, the faces are represented in profile.

PROFIT, n. s., v. a., & v. n.
PROFITABLE, adj.
PROFITABLY, adv.

Fr. profit, profiter; Ital. profitto; Lat.

PROFITABLENESS, n. s.

PROF'ITLESS, adj.

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profectus.

Gain; advan

tage; proficiency to benefit, improve, or advance; to gain advantage or improvement; be of use or advantage: profitable is, gainful, advantageous, lucrative; the adverb and noun substantive corresponding: profitless, worthless; without advantage or recompense.

Whereto might the strength of their hands profit me? Job. Wisdom that is hid, and treasure that is hoarded up, what profit is in them both? Ecclus. xx. 30. Meditate upon these things, give thyself wholly to them, that thy profiting may appear to all.

1 Tim.

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What profited thy thoughts, and toils, and cares, In vigour more confirmed, and riper years? Prior. What shall be the just portion of those, whom neither the condescension or kindness, nor wounds and sufferings of the Son of God could persuade, nor yet the excellency, easiness and profitableness of his commands invite? Calamy's Sermons.

The Romans, though possessed of their ports, did not profit much by trade. Arbuthnot on Coins. What was so profitable to the empire, became fatal to the emperor. You have had many opportunities to settle this reflection, and have profitably employed them.

Id.

Wake.

He thinks it highly just, that all rewards of trust, profit, or dignity, should be given only to those whose principles direct them to preserve the constitution.

Swift. PROF LIGATE, adj.,n.s. Lat. profligatus. PROF LIGATELY, [& v. a. Abandoned; lost PROF LIGATENESS, n. s. to virtue and decency; shameless: a rake; an abandoned wretch: Harvey uses the verb after the Lat. profligo, but has not been followed: the adverb and noun substantive correspond with the adjective in

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A race more profligate than we,

With all the pains we take, have still enough to beRoscommon. How far have we

Prophaned thy heavenly gift of poesy? Made prostitute and profligate the muse, Debased to each obscene and impious use, Whose harmony was first ordained above For tongues of angels, and for hymns of love. Dryden. Though Phalaris his brazen bull were there, And he would dictate what he'd have you swear, Be not so profligate, but rather chuse To guard your honour, and your life to lose. Id. It is pleasant to see a notorious profligate seized with a concern for his religion, and converting his spleen into zeal. Addison.

I have heard a profligate offer much stronger arguments against paying his debts, than ever he was known to do against Christianity; because he happened to be closer pressed by the bailiff than the Swift's Miscellanies. Most profligately false, with the strongest professions of sincerity.

parson.

Id.

How could such a profligate as Antony, or a boy of eighteen like Octavius, ever dare to dream of giving the law to such an empire and people? Swift.

Melancholy objects and subjects will, at times, impress the most profligate spirits. Clarissa. PROFLUENCE, n. s. Lat. profluens. ProPROF'LUENT, adj. Sgress; course: flow

ing forward.

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surface; intellectually deep; learned; skilful; cunning; lowly; humble: the deep or main sea; the abyss: as a verb, a barbarism, meaning to dive or penetrate: the adverb corresponds with the adjective: profoundness and profundity mean depth of place, knowledge, or thought.

The revolters are profound to make slaughter, though I have been a rebuker of them. Hosea v. 2. God, in the fathomless profound, Hath all his choice commanders drowned.

Sandys. Their wits, which did every where else conquer hardness, were with profoundness here overmatched. Hooker.

Not orators only with the people, but even the very profoundest disputers in all faculties, have hereby often, with the best learned, prevailed most.

Upon the corner of the moon,
There hangs a vapourous drop profound.

Id.

Shakspeare. Drayton.

The most profoundly wise. What words wilt thou use to move thy God to hear thee? what humble gestures? what profound Duppa.

reverence?

All else deep snow and ice, A gulf profound, as that Serbonian bog Betwixt Damiata and mount Casius old. Milton. If some other place the' ethereal king Possesses lately, thither to arrive, I travel this profound.

Id. Paradise Lost.

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The virgin started, at her father's name,
And sighed profoundly, conscious of the shame. Id.
Domenichino was profoundly skilled in all the
parts of painting; but, wanting genius, he had less
of nobleness.
Id.

Deep learned in the philosophy of heaven,
He searched the causes out of good and ill,
Profoundly calculating their effects
Far past the bounds of time.

PROFUSE', adj.

PROFUSELY, adv.

Pollok. Lat. profusus. Lavish; prodigal; liberal to licenPROFUSE'NESS, n. s. tiousness; exuberant: the PROFUSION. corresponding : profuseness is lavishness; prodigality; extravagance: profusion, abundance; exuberant plenty; also lavish or extravagant expense.

He was desirous to avoid not only profusion, but the least effusion of Christian olood. Hayward.

The great profusion and expence
Of his revenues bred him much offence. Daniel.

On a green shady bank, profuse of flowers,
Pensive I sat.
Milton's Paradise Lost.
Profuseness of doing good, a soul unsatisfied with
all it has done, and an unextinguished desire of
deng more.
Dryden.

In profuse governments it has been ever observed that the people, from bad example, have grown lazy and expensive, the court has become luxurious and mercenary, and the camp insolent and seditious.

Davenant.

What meant thy pompous progress through the
empire?

Thy vast profusion to the factious nobles? Rowe.
Oh liberty, thou goddess heavenly bright,
Profuse of bliss, and pregnant with delight.

Addison.

Trade is fitted to the nature of our country, as it abounds with a great profusion of commodities of its own growth, very convenient for other countries.

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The raptured eye,

The fair profusion, yellow Autumn spies. Id.
The prince of poets, who before us went,
Had a vast income, and profusely spent. Harte.
PROG, or PRIG, v. n. & n. s. Goth. trigda.
To rob; steal; pilfer; shift meanly for provi-
sions; victuals; food. A low word.

She went out progging for victuals as before.
L'Estrange.

Spouse tuckt up doth in pattens trudge it,
With handkerchief of prog, like trull with budget;
And eat by turns plumcake and judge it. Congreve.
O nephew your grief is but folly,
In town you may find better prog.
Swift's Miscellanies.

PROGENITOR, n. s. Į Lat, progenitus. A
PROG'ENY.
forefather; ancestor
in a direct line: progeny is offspring; race;

issue.

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Not me begotten of a shepherd's swain,
But issued from the progeny of kings.
Oh! admirable temperance, worthy the progenitor
of him, in whose lips or heart was no guile.

Bp. Hall.

All generations then had hither come,
From all the ends of the earth, to celebrate
And reverence thee, their great progenitor.

By promise he receives

Milton.

Gift to his progeny of all that land.
Thus shall we live in perfect bliss, and see,
Deathless ourselves, a num'rous progeny.

Id.

Dryden. Power by right of fatherhood is not possible in genitor over his own descendants. any one, otherwise than as Adam's heir, or as proLocke.

The principal actors in Milton's poems are not
only our progenitors, but representatives. Addison.
We are the more pleased to behold the throne sur-
rounded by a numerous progeny, when we consider
the virtues of those from whom they descend.
Id. Freeholder.
Fr. prognos-
tique; Gr.

PROGNOSTIC, adj. & n. s.
PROGNOSTICABLE, adj.
PROGNOSTICATE, v. a.
PROGNOSTICATION, n. s.
PROGNOSTICATOR.

προγνωστικός.

Foretelling or foreshowing;

applied particularly to foreshowing health or
disease: a prediction or token, and (galli-
cism) the skill of foretelling diseases: prognos-
ticable is such as may be foreshown or fore-
known: prognosticate, to foretel; foreshow :
prognostication, the act of doing so, or the token,
sentence, or determination given: prognosticator,
he who gives it forth.

He bid him farewell, arming himself in a black
armour, as a badge or prognostication of his mind.
Sidney.
If an oily palm be not a fruitful prognostication,
I cannot scratch mine ear.
Shakspeare. Antony and Cleopatra.
He had now outlived the day which his tutor
Sandford had prognosticated upon his nativity he
would not outlive.
Clarendon.

The causes of this inundation cannot be regular,
and therefore their effects not prognosticable like
eclipses.
Browne's Vulgar Errours.
Unskilled in schemes by planets to foreshow,
I neither will, nor can prognosticate,
To the young gaping heir, his father's fate.
Dryden.
This theory of the earth begins to be a kind of
prophecy or prognostication of things to come, as it
hath been hitherto an history of things past.

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Out of Ethiopia beyond Egypt has been a strange progress for ten hundred thousand men. Raleigh. Princes, if they use ambitious men, should handle it so as they may be still progressive, and not retrogade.

Bacon.

He gave order that there should be nothing in his journey like unto a warlike march, but rather like unto the progress of a king in full peace. Id. Solon the wise his progress never ceased, But still his learning with his days increased.

Denham.

From Egypt arts their progress made to Greece, Wrapt in the fable of the golden fleece.

The morn begins

Her rosy progress smiling.

Their course

Id.

Milton.

Progressive, retrograde, or standing still. Id. Those worthies, who endeavour the advancement of learning are likely to find a clearer progression, when so many rubs are levelled.

Thus

Browne.

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In progressive motion, the arms and legs move successively; but, in natation, both together. Id. Vulgar Errours.

The reason why they fall in that order, from the greatest epacts progressively to the least, is, because the greatest epacts denote a greater distance of the moon before the sun, and consequently a nearer apHolder. proach to her conjunction.

It is impossible the mind should ever be stopped Locke. in its progress in this space.

In philosophical enquiries, the order of nature should govern, which in all progression is to go from the place one is then in, to that which lies next to it.

Id.

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sion.

Prior.

Newton.

The Sylphs behold it kindling as it flies,
And pleased pursue its progress through the skies.
Pope.

Perhaps I judge hastily, there being several, in whose writings I have made very little progress.

Swift's Miscellanies. You perhaps have made no progress in the most important Christian virtues; you have scarce gone half way in humility and charity. Law.

PROGRESSION, in mathematics, is either arithmetical or geometrical.

PROGRESSION, ARITHMETICAL, or CONTINUED ARITHMETIC PROPORTION, is, where the terms do increase and decrease by equal differences, and is called arithmetical progression :

§ 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, &c. increasing
10, 8, 6, 4, 2, &c. decreasing by the difference 2.

PROGRESSION, GEOMETRICAL, or CONTINUED GEOMETRIC PROPORTION, is when the terms do increase or decrease by equal ratios: thus,

S

2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64, increasing from a continual multiplication by 2.
64, 32, 16, 8, 4, 2, decreasing S

PROHIBIT, v. a. Fr. prohiber; Lat. PROHIBITION, n. s. prohibeo. To forbid; PROHIBITORY, adj. interdict; hinder; debar the noun substantive and adjective corresponding.

She would not let them know of his close lying in that prohibited place, because they would be offended.

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A prohibition will lie on this statute, notwithstanding the penalty annexed; because it has words prohibitory, as well as a penalty annexed. Ayliffe. PROJECT, v. a., v. n. & n. s. Fr. projeter; PROJECTILE, n. s. & adj. Lat. projicio, PROJECTION, n.s. projectus. To PROJECTOR, N. s. throw or cast out; cast forward; exhibit as in the manner of an image on a.mirror; form in the mind; contrive; scheme: a scheme; design; contrivance: a projectile is a body put into motion: as an adjective it means impelled forward: projection is the act of shooting forwards; plan; scheme; crisis of a chemical operation: projector, one who forms schemes or designs; a mere schemer. A little quantity of the medicine in the projection will turn a sea of the baser metal into gold by multiplying. It ceases to be counsel, to compel men to assent to whatever tumultuary patrons shall project.

Bacon.

King Charles.

What sit we then projecting peace and war?

Milton.

If the electric be held unto the light, many particles will be discharged from it, which motion is performed by the breath of the effluvium issuing with agility; for, as the electric cooleth, the projection of the atoms ceaseth. Browne.

Diffusive of themselves where e'er they pass, They make that warmth in others they expect; Their valour works like bodies on a glass, And does its image on their men project.

Dryden. Chymists, and other projectors, propose to themselves things utterly impracticable.

L'Estrange.

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PROJECTILE S.

PROJECTILES is a term under which has been comprehended that branch of mechanical philosophy which treats of the motion of bodies projected in any way from the surface of the earth, and influenced by the action of gravity. The principal application of this science in modern times, particularly in Europe, has been to gunnery, an art totally unknown to the ancients; yet they were far from being ignorant of other branches of this science. Machines were known among the Greeks and Romans by the names of Ballista, Catapulta, &c., which produced effects by the elastic action of a strongly twisted cordage, and formed of tough animal substances, hardly less terrible than the artillery of the moderns; and the various tremendous engines of this kind, invented by the celebrated Archimedes, show to what considerable perfection the direction of projectiles had then been brought. See ARCHIMEDES and ARTILLERY. Such instruments continued in use down to the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, and the use of bows still longer; nor were they totally laid aside till they were superseded by the use of gunpowder and the modern ordnance.

The first application of gunpowder to military affairs was made, as we have shown in the article just referred to, early in the fourteenth century the first pieces of artillery being charged with gunpowder and stone bullets of a prodi

Id.

gious size. Thus, when Mahomet II. besieged Constantinople in 1543, he battered the walls with stones of this kind, and with pieces of the calibre of 1200 lbs.; which could not be fired more than four times a day. It was, however, soon discovered that iron bullets, of much less weight, would be more efficacious if impelled by quantities of stronger powder. This occasioned an alteration in the matter and form of the cannon, which were now cast of brass. These were lighter and more manageable than the former, and at the same time stronger in proportion to their bore.

By these means powder compounded in the manner now practised over all Europe came first in use. But the change of the proportion of materials was not the only improvement. The method of graining was of great advantage. The additional strength which the grained powder was found to acquire, from the free passage of the air between the grains, occasioned the meal powder to be entirely laid aside.

For the last 250 years the formation of cannon has been little improved; the best pieces of modern artillery differing little in their proportions from those used in the time of Charles V. Indeed lighter and shorter pieces have been often proposed and essayed; but, though they have advantages in particular cases, yet it seems now to be agreed that they are altogether insufficient

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