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Each warns a warier carriage in the thing, Lest blind presumption work their ruining.

Daniel.

To determine what are little things in religion, great
Sprat's Sermons.

wariness is to be used.

It will concern a man to treat conscience awfully and warily, by still observing what it commands, but especially what it forbids.

South's Sermons.
Others grow wary in their praises of one, who sets
too great a value on them, lest they should raise him
too high in his own imagination. Addison's Spectator.
I look upon it to be a most clear truth; and expressed
it with more wariness and reserve than was necessary.

WASH, v. u., v. N., & n. s.
WASH BALL, N. s.

Atterbury.

Sax. parcan; Teut. waschen; Belg. wassWASH'ER, chen. To cleanse by WASH'POT. ablution; purify by WASH'Y, adj. moisture; moisten; wet; color by washing: to perform the act of ablution; cleanse clothes: a wash is only applied to color superficially; a cosmetic; alluvion; bog; marsh; a quantity of linen washed at once: the compounds seem to require no explanation.

dation of their union, was born on the 11th of February, 1732, O. S., in the parish of Washington, Virginia. He was descended from an ancient family in Cheshire, of which a branch had been established in Virginia about the middle of the seventeenth century. The earl of Buchan assures us that this ancient English family was allied to those of Fairfax and Ferrers, and many others of the highest order, as abundantly appears from public records, and his mother's more immediately from that most ancient Saxon family of Fairfax, of Towcester in Northumberland, and of Walton and Gilley in Yorkshire, now represented by those of Fitzwilliam and Buchan, by which means the family of general Washington came to possess the lands of Mount Vernon, in Fairfax county in Virginia, which came in dower by a daughter of that house from whom he was descended.' His classical instruction was such as the private tutor of a Virginian country gentleman could at that period impart. But before he was twenty he was appointed major in the colonial militia, and he had very early occasion to display those political and military talents of which the exertions on a greater theatre have since made his name so famous throughout the world. In the disputes which arose between the French and English officers, on the subject of the boundaries of the English and French territories in America, major Washington was employed by the governor of Virginia in a negociation with the French governor of Fort du Quesne (now Pitsborough), who_threatened the English frontiers with a body of French and their Indian allies. He succeeded in averting the invasion; but hostilities becoming inevitable, he was in the next year appointed lieutenant-colonel of a regiment raised by the colony for its own defence, to the command of which he soon after succeeded. The unfortunate expedition of Braddock followed in 1755. Colonel Washington served in that expedition only as a volunteer; but such was the general confidence in his talents that he may be said to have conducted the retreat. Cowley.

Wash me thoroughly from mine iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin.

Psalm li. 2.
Be baptized, and wash away thy sins. Acts xxii. 16.
How fain, like Pilate, would I wash my hands
Of this most grievous guilty murther done!

Shakspeare. Richard III.
She can wash and scour. Id. Gent. of Verona.
Full thirty times hath Phoebus' car gone round
Neptune's salt wash, and Tellus' orbed ground.
Shakspeare.
Quickly is his laundress, his washer, and his wringer.

Id.

Try whether children may not have some wash to make their teeth better and stronger. Bacon's Nat. Hist.

A polish of clearness, evenly and smoothly spread, not over thin and washy, but of a pretty solid consist

ence.

Wotton.

Sins of irreligion must still be so accounted for, as to crave pardon, and be washed off by repentance. Taylor.

Behold seven comely blooming youths appear,
And in their hands seven golden washpots bear.

On the washy ouze deep channels wore,
Easy ere God had bid the ground be dry. Milton.
He tried all manner of washes to bring him to a better
complexion; but there was no good to be done.

L'Estrange.

The wash of pastures, fields, commons, and roads,
where rainwater hath a long time settled, is of great
advantage to all land.
Mortimer's Husbandry.

To wash over a coarse or insignificant meaning, is to
counterfeit nature's coin. Collier of the Aspect.
To steal from rainbows, ere they drop in showers,
A brighter wash.
Pope's Rape of the Lock.

Here gallypots and viols placed,
Some filled with washes, some with paste.

Swift.

I asked a poor man how he did; he said he was like a washball, always in decay.

Id.

Recollect the things you have heard, that they may not be washed all away from the mind by a torrent of other engagements.

Watts.

WASHING, in painting, is when a design, drawn with a pen or crayon, has some one color laid over it with a pencil, as Indian ink, bistre, or the like, to make it appear the more natural, by adding the shadow of prominences, apertures, &c., and by imitating the particular matters whereof the thing is supposed to consist.

WASHINGTON (George), the founder of the freedom of the United States of America, and the first president of that congress which laid the foun

After having acted a distinguished part in a subsequent and more successful expedition to the Ohio, he was obliged, by ill health, in 1758, to resign his commission. The sixteen years which followed afford few materials for the biographer. Having married Mrs. Custis, a Virginian lady of amiable character and respectable connexions, he settled at his beautiful seat of Mount Vernon; where, with the exception of such, attendance as was required by his duties as a magistrate and a member of the assembly, his time was occupied by his domestic enjoyments and the cultivation of his estate. At the commencement of the unfortunate differences between Britain and America, Mr. Washington was sent as a delegate from Virginia to the Congress which met at Philadelphia on the 26th of October, 1774. He was appointed to the command of the army which had assembled in the New England provinces, to hold in check the British army then encamped under general Gage at Boston, and he took upon himself the command of that army in July, 1775. To detail his operations in the years which followed would be to repeat the history of the American war. Within a very short period after the declaration of independence, the affairs of America were in a condition so desperate that perhaps nothing but the peculiar character of Washington's genius could have retrieved them. The issue of the contest is

known. The magnanimity of Washington during the ravages of civil war, in which he acted so conspicuous a part, has been much and justly celebrated. The unfortunate case of major André can hardly be urged as an exception. His acting as a spy justified his punishment. The conclusion of the American war permitted Washington to return to those domestic scenes from which no views of ambition seem to have had the power to draw his affections. As a genuine proof of his patriotism he would receive no pay for eight years' service, but defrayed his expenses during the war, out of his private purse. But he was not allowed long to enjoy this privacy. To remedy the distress into which the country had been thrown by the war a convention of delegates was assembled at Philadelphia, which strengthened the bands of the federal union, and bestowed on congress those powers which were necessary for good government. Washington was the president; and in three years after he was elected president of the United States of America under the new constitution. During his chief magistracy the French revolution took place, which convulsed the whole political world, and which tried most severely his moderation and prudence. Washington, as a virtuous man, must have abhorred the crimes committed in France. But, as the first magistrate of the American commonwealth, he was bound only to consider how far the interest and safety of the people whom he governed were affected by the conduct of France. He saw that it was wise and necessary for America to preserve a good understanding and a beneficial intercourse with that great country, in whatever manner she was governed, as long as she abstained from committing injury against the United States. Guided by this just and simple principle, uninfluenced by the abhorrence of crimes which he felt, he received Mr. Genet the minister of the French republic. The history of the outrages which that minister committed, or instigated, or countenanced, against the American government must be fresh in the memory of all our readers. The conduct of Washington was a model of firm and dignified moderation. Insults were offered to his authority in official papers, in anonymous libels, by incendiary declaimers, and by tumultuous meetings. The law of nations was trampled under foot. His confidential ministers were seduced to betray him, and the deluded populace were so inflamed by the arts of their enemies, that they broke out into insurrection. No vexation, however galling, could disturb the tranquillity of his mind, or make him deviate from the policy which his situation prescribed. During the whole course of that arduous struggle, his personal character gave that strength to a new magistracy which in other countries arises from ancient habits of obedience and respect. The authority of his virtue was more efficacious for the preservation of America than the legal powers of his office. During this turbulent period he was re-elected to the office of the presidency of the United States, which he held from April, 1789, till September, 1796. Throughout the whole course of his second presidency the danger of America was great and imminent. The spirit of change, indeed, at that period shook all nations. But in other countries it had to encounter ancient and solidly established power; it had to tear up by the roots long habits of attachment in some nations for their government; of awe in others; of acquiescence

and submission in all. But in America the government was new and weak. The people had scarcely time to recover from the feelings of a recent civil war. Washington employed the horror excited by the atrocities of the French revolution for the most honest and praiseworthy purposes; to preserve the internal quiet of his country; to assert the dignity, and to maintain the rights, of the commonwealth which he governed against foreign enemies. He avoided war without incurring the imputation of pusillanimity. He cherished the detestation of Americans for anarchy without weakening the spirit of liberty; and he maintained, and even consolidated, the authority of government without abridging the privileges of the people. The resignation of Washington, in 1790, was a measure of prudence as well as of patriotism. From his resignation till July 1798 he lived in retirement at Mount Vernon. At this latter period it was no longer possible to submit to the accumulated insults and injuries America was receiving from France, and the United States resolved to arm by land and sea. The command of the army was bestowed on general Washington. In this office he continued during the short period of his life which still remained. On Thursday the 12th of December, 1799, he was seized with an inflammation in his throat, which became considerably worse the next day, and of which, notwithstanding the efforts of his physicians, he died on Saturday the 14th of December, 1799, in the sixty-eighth year of his age.

WASHINGTON, a county on the east side of Maine, bounded on the east by New Brunswick, on the south by the Atlantic, and on the west by Hancock and Penobscot counties. Chief towns, Machias and Eastport.

WASHINGTON, a post town, the capital of Washington county, Pennsylvania, on the head branches of Chartier's Creek: twenty-five miles south-west of Pittsburg, twenty-five W. N. W. of Brownsville, and thirty-two E. N. E. of Wheeling. It is a flourishing town, and contains a court-house, a jail, two banks, two printing-offices, a college, a very large steam flour mill, various other public buildings and manufacturing establishments, and about 400 dwelling houses. It is situated in a fertile, well cultivated, but broken country. Washington College was established a few years later than the college at Canonsburg. It has a large stone edifice of three stories, for the accommodation of students. The library and philosophical apparatus are valuable. The officers are a president and two professors, one of languages and one of mathematics and natural philosophy. The number of students, in 1817, was about 100, a great part of whom were pursuing studies preparatory to the collegiate course. Commencement is held on the fourth Wednesday or Thursday in September, after which there is a vacation till the 1st of November. The course of collegiate education is completed here in three years.

WASHINGTON, the metropolis of the United States, in the district of Columbia, is situated in long. 1° 52′ W. of Philadelphia, 77° 2′ W. of Greenwich, and 79° 22′ W. of Paris; lat. 38° 58′ N. The city of Washington became the seat of the national government in 1800. It is built on the Maryland side of the Potomac, 295 miles by the course of the river and bay, from the Atlantic, on a point of land between the Eastern Brauch and the Potomac; and its site, as laid out, extends two or

three miles up each of these rivers. It is separated from Georgetown by Rock Creek, over which are two bridges, and there is a bridge over the Potomac more than a mile in length, leading to Alexandria. A canal is constructed from the Potomac, passing up the Tiber, a small stream which flows through Washington, and then across the plain of the city to the Eastern Branch, forming a communication between the two rivers.

The natural situation of Washington is pleasant and salubrious; and it is laid out on a plan which, when completed, will render it one of the handsomest and most commodious cities in the world. It is divided into squares by spacious streets or avenues, running north and south, intersected by others at right angles; these are crossed transversely by fifteen other spacious streets, or avenues, named after the different states. The rectangular streets are designated by the letters of the alphabet and by numbers. The grand avenues, and such streets as lead immediately to public places, are from 130 to 160 feet wide; the other streets are from ninety to 110 feet wide. A very small part of the plan only is as yet completed. The buildings, which cover but a small portion of the site as laid out, stand in four or five separate divisions; and Washington at present exhibits the appearance, not of one regular city, but of a collection of villages, in which the splendid edifices appear of a disproportionate grandeur. About three-fourths of the buildings are of brick, and there are some elegant private mansions.

The principal public buildings and institutions in the city are the Capitol, the president's house, the buildings for the great departments of the national government, the General Post office, the navy yard, extensive barracks for the marine corps, a jail, a theatre, a public library, four banks (including a branch of the United States' bank), and ten houses of public worship, two for Presbyterians, two for Episcopalians, two for Baptists, two for Methodists, one for Catholics, and one for Friends. The Capitol is situated on an eminence, commanding a beautiful prospect of the Potomac, of every part of the city, and of a wide extent of the surrounding country. It is surrounded by an elegant iron railing, enclosing a large extent of ground, which is planted with various kinds of trees and shrubs. The two wings only have yet been erected. They are each 100 feet square, and are to be connected by a well-proportioned centre. The foundation of the central part has recently been laid, and the Capitol is now in rapid progress, and is finishing in a style of elegance and grandeur worthy of a nation of great resources. It is built of white freestone, and when completed will be a most magnificent edifice, presenting a front of 362 feet. The president's house is situated on a gentle elevation about a mile and a half west of the Capitol, and is built of the same kind of stone. It is a very elegant edifice, 170 feet by eighty-five, of two stories, with a suitable basement story. The buildings which contain the offices for the great depart ments of government consist of four spacious brick édifices of two stories, situated at a small distance from the president's house. In these buildings are kept the papers, records, archives, and offices of the departments of state, of the treasury, of war, and of the navy. The General Post-office is a large brick edifice, situated about a mile W. N. W. of the Capitol, and contains, besides the various

offices belonging to the post-office establishment; the general land office; the patent office, where are deposited all the models of inventions for which patents have been granted, forming a very extensive and curious collection; and a temporary library room for the national library, purchased, in 1815, of the honorable Thomas Jefferson, late president of the United States, and consisting of about 8000 volumes. The navy yard is situated on the Eastern Branch, which forms a safe and commodious harbour, being sufficiently deep for large ships about four miles from its mouth.

On the 24th of August, 1814, this city was taken by the British, who burnt the public edifices, not sparing even the national library. All these edifices are now rebuilt and repaired, except the Capitol. The foundation of the centre of the Capitol was laid on the 24th of August, 1818, just four years after the conflagration. It is expected that it will be completed in four years: earlier, probably, than it would have been, but for the visit of the British. This event has tended greatly to increase the prosperity of the city, the national pride having been excited not only to rebuild what was destroyed, but to complete what was unfinished.

This is likewise the name of many post-towns and counties of the United States.

WASHINGTON ISLANDS. The group called Washington Islands, was discovered in the year 1791 by captain Ingraham from Boston, in a voyage from the Mendoza Islands to the north-west of that continent. They were also seen a few weeks after by M. Marchand, in the French ship Le Solide, who considered them as previously unknown, and called them Isles de la Revolution. In the following year they were again seen by lieutenant Hergest of the British navy, and captaiu Brown, the master of a merchant ship belonging to the same nation. The last of their discoverers was captain Roberts, of the American ship Jefferson, who fell in with them in 1793. Ingraham had conferred the name of Washington upon Uahuga, and Roberts now gave the same appellation to the whole group.

Washington Islands lie north-east of the Marquesas, and are eight in number, stretching from 9° 30′ to 7° 50′ of S. lat., and from 139° 5' to 140° 13′ W. long. These islands are the following: viz. Nukahiwa, which is the chief island of the group, from its being about seventeen miles long. Uahuga is the most easterly island, and its extreme length nine miles. Uapoa lies farther south. At the distance of about a mile and a half from Uapoa there is a small flat island, about two miles in circumference, which Marchand called Isle Platte. Thirty-three miles nearly north-west of the southern extremity of Nirkahuwa lie the two small uninhabited islands of Mottuaity, which are separated from each other by a channel about a mile broad. The inhabitants of the other islands occasionally visit them in their fishing expeditions, but they never undertake this voyage without being impelled to it by necessity, as the imperfect construction of their canoes renders it dangerous. Hiau and Fattuuhu are the other two islands, which are situated about sixty miles nearly north from the west end of Nukahiwa. Krusenstern describes the inhabitants of this group as indisputably the handsomest in the South Seas. The men are all stout and well made, possessing great regularity of features, and strongly marked by an air of real goodness. Their

complexions in a natural state are but a little darker than those of Europeans, though rendered almost black by tattooing.

WASP, n. s. Sax. pearp; Lat. vespa ; Fr. WASP'ISH, adj. Ìguespe. A brisk stinging insect, in form resembling a bee: waspish is malignant; peevish; irascible.

More wasps, that buz about his nose,

Will make this sting the sooner.

Come, you wasp, you are too angry, -If I be waspish, best beware my sting.

Encountering with a wasp,

He in his arms the fly doth clasp.

Shakspeare.

Id.

Drayton.

The tailor's wife was only a good hearty shrew, under the impotency of an unruly waspish humour: she would have her will. L'Estrange.

Much do I suffer, much, to keep in peace This jealous, waspish, wrong-head, rhiming race. Pepe. WAS'SAIL, n. s. ? From Sax. pærhæl, your WAS'SAILER. Shealth. An ancient English liquor made of apples, sugar, and ale: drunken

bout he who revels in such bouts.

:

The king doth wake to-night, and takes his rouse, Keeps wassail, and the swaggering upspring reels. Shakspeare. I'm loth to meet the rudeness and swill'd insolence Of such late wassailers. Milton.

WASSOTA, a celebrated fortress of Hindostan, in Bejapore, and in the district of the Concan. There are two forts about 1000 yards from each other, both situated on rocks nearly perpendicular, and 3000 feet high. The adjacent scenery is of the grandest description. In April, 1818, a British force, accompanied by the rajah, laid siege to it, and, notwitstanding its great strength, such was the effect of the British shells, that the governor capitulated in a few days, and delivered up the ladies in safety, along with the family jewels, to the amount of several lacks of rupees. WASTE, v. a., v. n., adj., & WASTE FUL, adj. [ n. s.

WASTE FULLY, adv. WASTE FULNESS, n. s. WAST'ER.

Sax. apertan; Teutonic waste; Belgic woesten ; Italian guastare; Latin vastare. To

diminish; consume; squander; desolate; wear out as a verb neuter, to dwindle; be consumed: as an adjective, destroyed; useless; superfluous. as a noun substantive, wanton or luxurious consumption or destruction; loss; mischief; desolate or useless ground: the adjective, adverb, and noun substantives following, correspond.

He found him in a desert land, and in the waste
howling wilderness.
Deut. xxxii. 10.
Job, xiv. 10.

Man dieth and wasteth away.
In wilderness and wasteful desarts strayed,
To seek her knight.

Spenser.

Reasons induce us to think it a good work, which they, in their care for well-bestowing of time, account

waste.

Hooker.

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WATCH, n. s., v. n., & WATCH'ER, 7. S. WATCH FUL, adj. WATCH FULLY, adv. WATCHFULNESS, n. s. WATCH'-HOUSE, WATCH'ING, WATCH -MAKER, WATCH'MAN, WATCH'-TOWER, WATCH WORD.

Carew.

Sax. pæcce; Teut. wacht; Swed. wakt. Forbearance of sleep; attendance or guard involving such forbearance; vigilance; place, post, office, or sphere of a guard; a man on guard; period of the night; a pocket clock: to watch is, to wake; forbear sleep; be vigilant, attentive, or observing: as a verb active, to guard; have in keep; tend; observe: the derivatives and compounds are of obvious meaning.

My soul waiteth for the Lord, more than they that watch for the morning. Psalm cxxx. 6. Saul sent ministers unto David's house to watch him and to slay him. 1 Sam. xix. 11. I will watch over them for evil, and not for good. Jer. xlv.

Be watchful, and strengthen the things ready to die. Rev. iii.

A watchword every minute of the night goeth about the walls, to testify their vigilancy.

Sandys.

Bacon.

Before her gate high God did sweat ordain, And wakeful watches, ever to abide.

Spenser.

Id.

Still, when she slept, he kept both watch and ward. Id.

Thin air is better pierced, but thick air preserveth the sound better from waste.

The profuse wasters of their patrimonies,

We have heard the chimes at midnight, master Shal low.

Divers Roman knights,

So threaten with their debts, as they will now Run any desperate fortune.

Ben Jonson.

--That we have, Sir John: our watchword, hem! boys. Shakspeare.

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British seamen, if we except the dog-watch, between 4 and 8 P. M., that contains two reliefs, each of which are only two hours on deck. The intent of this is to change the period of the night watch every twenty-four hours; so that the party watching from eight till twelve in one night, shall watch from midnight till 4 A. M. on the succeeding one. In France the duration of the watch is, or was, extremely different, being in some places six hours, and in others seven or eight; and in Turkey and Barbary it is usually five or six. A ship's company is usually classed into two parties, one of which is called the starboard, and the other the larboard watch; it is, however, occasionally separated into three divisions, as in a road or in particular voyages. In a ship of war the watch is generally commanded by a lieutenant, and in merchant ships by one of the mates; so that, if there watch; the first and third being in the larboard, are four mates in the latter, there are two in each and the second and fourth in the starboard watch; but in the navy, the officers who command the watch usually divide themselves into three parties, to lighten their duty.

WATCH is also used for a small portable movement or machine for the measuring of time, having its motion regulated by a spiral spring. Watches, strictly taken, are all such movements as show the parts of time; as clocks are such as publish it by striking on a bell, &c. But commonly the name watch is appropriated to such as are carried in the pocket, and clock to the large movements, whether they strike the hour or not. See CLOCK.

WATCH WORK. The regulator of a clock or watch is a pendulum or a balance. Without this check to the motion of the wheels, impelled by a weight or a spring, the machine would run down with a motion rapidly accelerating, till friction and the resistance of the air induced a sort of uniformity, as they do in a kitchen jack. But if a pendulum be so put in the way of this motion, that only one tooth of a wheel can pass it at each vibration, the revolution of the wheels will depend on the vibration of the pendulum. This has long been observed to have a certain constancy, insomuch that the astronomers of the east employed pendulums in measuring the times of their observations, patiently counting their vibrations during the phases of an eclipse or the transits of the stars, and renewing them by a little push with the finger when they became too small. Gassendi, Riccioli, and others, in more recent times, followed this example. The celebrated physician Sanctorius is the first person who is mentioned as having applied them as regulators of clock movements. Machines, however, called clocks, with a train of toothed wheels, leading round an index of hours, had been contrived long before. The earliest of which we have any account is that of Richard of Wallingford, abbot of St. Alban's, in 1326. It appears to have been regulated by a fly like a kitchen jack. Not long after this, James Dondi made one at Padua, which had a motus succussorius, a hobbling or trotting motion; from which expression it seems probable that it was regulated by some alternate movement. We cannot think that this was a pendulum, because, once it was introduced, it never could have been supplanted by a balance. Galileo proposed the pendulum, about the year 1600. Pendulum clocks then came into general use, and were found to be greatly preferable to balance

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