a large breed: wolfish and wolvish, resembling a wolf. No, rather I abjure all roofs, and chuse To be a comrade with the wolf and owl, Necessity's sharp pinch. Thy desires Shakspeare. Id. Are wolfish, bloody, starved, and ravenous. Howel. Nothing more common than those wolfish back-friends in all our pretensions. L'Estrange. There is a base wolvish principle within that is gratified with another's misery. South. The luckless prey how treacherous tumblers gain, WOLF, or WOLF POISON. See POISON. buried with military honors in Westminster Abbey, where a magnificent monument is erected to his memory. WOLFE (John Christian), a celebrated German philosopher, was born at Breslau in 1679. He prosecuted his studies successively in the universities of Jena, Hamburgh, and Leipsic. At the age of twenty-six he had acquired so much distinction, that he was appointed professor of mathematics, and soon afterwards of philosophy in general, in the university of Hall. After Leibnitz had published his Theodicea, Wolfe, struck with the novelty of the edifice which that philosopher had raised, assiduously labored in the investigation of new metaphysical truths. He also digested the elements of mathematics in a new method, and attempted an improvement of the art of reasoning, in a treatise On the Powers of the Human UnderWOLF FISH, or SEA WOLF. See ANARCHICAS. standing. Upon the foundation of Leibnitz's docWOLFE (major-general James) was born at trine of Monads, he formed a new system of cosWesterham in Kent, 1726. His father was lieute- mology and pneumatology, digested and demonnant-general Edward Wolfe. He went into the strated in a mathematical method. This work, enarmy when very young; and, applying himself with entitled Thoughts on God, the World, and the assiduity to the study of his profession, soon be- Human Soul, was published in the year 1719; to came remarkable for his military knowledge. He which were added, in a subsequent edition, Heads distinguished himself at the battle of Lafelt when of Ethics and Policy. Wolfe was now rising little more than twenty. After the peace, he con- towards the summit of philosophical reputation, tinued to cultivate the art of war. He introduced when the opinion which he entertained on the docthe greatest regularity, and the exactest discipline trine of necessity being deemed by his colleagues into his corps, and at the same time preserved the inimical to religion, and an oration which he deaffection of the soldiers. In 1758 he was a briga- livered in praise of the morality of the Chinese dier-general at the siege of Louisbourg. He having given much offence, an accusation of heresy landed first on the island at the head of his di- was publicly brought against him; and though he vision; and in spite of the violence of the surf, attempted to justify himself, in a treatise which he and the force and well-directed fire of the enemy, wrote on the subject of fatality, a royal mandate drove them from their post with great precipitation. was issued in November 1723, requiring him to The surrender of the town, which happened soon leave the Prussian dominions. Having been forafter, was in a great measure owing to his activity, merly invited by the landgrave of Hesse Cassel to bravery, and skill. The fame which he acquired fill a professor's chair in the university of Cassel, here procured him the command of the army Wolfe now put himself under the patronage of that destined to attack Quebec. This was the most prince, who had the liberality to afford him a sedifficult and the most arduous undertaking of the cure asylum, and appointed him professor of mawar. Quebec was well fortified, and defended by thematics and philosophy. The question concerning an army of 20,000 men, regulars and militia, be- the grounds of the censure which had been passed sides a considerable number of Indian allies. The upon Wolfe, was now every where freely canvassed; troops destined for this expedition consisted of ten almost every German university was inflamed with battalions, making up altogether about 7000 men. disputes on the subject of liberty and necessity; He landed his army on the northern shore of the and the names of Wolfians and Anti-Wolfians were river St. Lawrence in spite of the enemy, and every where heard. After an interval of nine years, forced them to a battle, in which they were com- the king of Prussia reversed his sentence of exile, pletely defeated. The consequence of this battle and appointed him vice-chancellor of the university was the reduction of Quebec, and the conquest of of Hall; where his return was welcomed with Canada. In the beginning of the battle, general every expression of triumph. From this time he Wolfe was wounded in the wrist by a musket ball, was employed in completing his Institutes of Phibut he continued to give his orders with his usual losophy, which he lived to accomplish in every calmness and perspicuity. Towards the end of the branch except policy. In 1745 he was created a battle, he received a new wound in the breast; he baron by the elector of Bavaria, and succeeded Luimmediately retired behind the rear-rank, sup- dowig in the office of chancellor of the university. ported by a grenadier, and laid himself down on He continued to enjoy these honors till 1754, when the ground. Soon after a shout was heard; and he expired. one of the officers who stood by him exclaimed, 'See how they run!' The dying hero asked with some emotion, Who run?' The enemy,' replied the officer, they give way every where.' The general then said, Pray, do one of you run to colonel Burton, and tell him to march Webb's regiment with all speed down to Charles River, to cut off the retreat of the fugitives from the bridge. Now, God be praised, I shall die happy!' He then turned on his side, closed his eyes, and expired. His body was brought to England, and WOLFENBUTTEL, or BRUNSWICK WOLFENBUTTEL, an independent duchy of Germany, composed of several scattered territories in the circles of Upper and Lower Saxony and Westphalia. It contains 1615 square miles, and 210,000 inhabitants. The whole is divided, for the purpose of local government, into six districts, of which the principality of Wolfenbuttel retains four. The revenue, amounting to £200,000 a year, is at the disposal, partly of the duke, partly of the states. The personal income of the duke, in consequence of the successive lapse of the property of noble families, is larger than that of most German princes; he draws £15,000 from the duchy of Oels in Silesia. WOLFENBUTTEL, a city of Germany, and the capital of the principality of the same name, stands on the Oker, thirty-seven miles E. S. E. of Hanover. Its environs are fertile; but they contain some marshes, which render the air somewhat unhealthy. It is fortified; but its works are neglected. It is divided into the citadel or fortified part, and two suburbs. The public buildings are the castle, formerly the residence of the dukes of Brunswick, three parish churches, the chancery, and arsenal. The public library is large; but the books are in general old. Wolfenbuttel has a Ducal high school; also other schools, and a Lutheran convent. It is also the seat of a court of justice, and of a consistory. The manufactures, though on a small scale, comprise linen, leather, soap, and silk. Population 6700. WOLFSBANE. See ACONITUM. WOLFSBANE, WINTER. See HELLEBORUS. WOLGA, a river of Russia, which has the longest course, and, with the exception of the Danube, the largest volume of any river in Europe. It rises among the Valdai mountains, in lat. 57° N., and takes a direction in general eastward, but with many windings, until reaching the city of Kazan. Below Kazan it receives the Kama, which brings to it the tribute of a great extent of country. It now flows southward, and forms the boundary between Europe and Asia during several hundred miles, till reaching Tzarystyn, when, turning to the east, it approaches the Caspian, and, after separating into a great number of branches, discharges itself into that sea near Astracan. Its course is computed at the extraordinary length of 2700 miles. From the vicinity of Tver, northward, a communication is opened to the Msta, a river flowing northward to the Nieva; so that Russia in Europe admits of being traversed by water in all its extent. The principal rivers which join the Wolga are the Tvertza, the Mologa, the Sestra, the Soscha, the Oka, the Sura, the Kasanka, the Kama, the Sok, and the Samara. WOLLASTON (William), descended of an ancient family in Staffordshire, was born in 1659. He was in 1674 admitted a pensioner in Sidney College, Cambridge. In 1682 he became assistant to the head master of Birmingham school. Some time after he got a small lecture about two miles distant, but did the duty the whole Sunday; which, together with the business of a great free school for about four years, began to break his constitution. During this space he likewise underwent a great deal of trouble and uneasiness, to extricate two of his brothers from some inconveniences, to which their own imprudence had subjected them. In 1688 affairs took a new turn. He found himself by a cousin's will entitled to a very ample estate; and came to London that same year, where he settled; choosing a private, retired, and studious life. Not long before his death, he published his treatise entitled The Religion of Nature Delineated; a work for which so great a demand was made that more than 10,000 copies were sold in a very few years. He had scarcely completed the publication of it, when he unfortunately broke an arm; and this, adding strength to distempers that had been growing upon him for some time, acce lerated his death. He died the 29th of October, 1724. WOLLSTONECRAFT (Mary), an extraordinary writer, born at Beverley in Yorkshire in 1768. Her father having ruined his fortune, she opened a school at Islington, in her twenty-fourth year, which was soon after transferred to Newington Green. She had for her partner a young lady to whom she was greatly attached, and whom, in 1785, she accompanied to Lisbon. On her return to England she became governess to lord Kingsborough's daughters. In 1787 she again settled in London, and lived by her pen. She published Original Stories from Real Life, for the use of Children, a translation from the French and German. She next had some concern in the Analytical Review. In 1790 she published an Answer to Burke's Reflections on the French Revolution; and, in 1791, her Vindication of the Rights of Women. In 1792 she went to Paris, where she formed an unfortunate connexion with an American gentleman, by whom she had a daughter. For him she undertook a voyage to Norway to regulate some commercial concerns. This tour occasioned her Letters from Scandinavia. On her return to England, she found herself deserted by her paramour, and, in a fit of despair, plunged into the Thames, from Putney Bridge. She was saved and restored to life. In 1796 she was married to Mr. Godwin, the author of Political Justice, and other works. She died in child-birth in August 1797. Her posthumous works, consisting of Letters and Fragments. WOLSEY (Thomas), Cardinal, is said to have been the son of a butcher at Ipswich. He studied at Magdalen College, Oxford, and in 1500 became rector of Lymington in Somersetshire: he was afterwards made chaplain to king Henry VIII., and obtained several preferments. Having gradually acquired an entire ascendency over the mind of Henry VIII., he successively obtained several bishoprics, and at length was made archbishop of York, lord high chancellor of England, and prime minister; and was for several years the arbiter of Europe. Pope Leo X. created him cardinal in 1515, and made him legate à latere; and the emperor Charles V., and the French king Francis I., loaded him with favors, to gain him over to their interest: but, after having first sided with the emperor, he deserted him to espouse the interest of France. As his revenues were immense, his pride and ostentation were carried to the greatest height. He had 500 servants; among whom were nine or ten lords, fifteen knights, and forty esquires. His ambition to be pope, his pride, his exactions, and his political delay of Henry's divorce, occasioned his disgrace. See ENGLAND. He died in the year 1530. The magnificence of the cardinal's chapel establishment, as described by Cavendish, his contemporary and domestic, seems far to have surpassed that of the Roman pontiff himself. First, he had there a deane, a great divine, and a man of excellent learning; a sub-dean, a repeatour of the quire, a gospeller and epistollor; of singing priests, ten, a master of the children. The seculars of the chapel, being singing men, twelve; singing children, ten, with one servant to waite upon them. In the vestry, a yeoman and two grooms; over and besides other retainers that came thither at principal feasts. And for the fur. niture of his chapell, it passeth my weak capacity to declare the number of the costly ornaments and rich jewels that were occupied in the same. For I have seen in procession about the hall forty-four rich copes, besides the rich candlesticks, and other necessary ornaments to the furniture of the same. The earl of Northumberland seems to have been treated with great insolence and indignity by the cardinal, who demanded his choral books for the use of this chapel. Letters concerning this requisition are still preserved, in which the earl says, 'I do perceayff my lorde cardinall's pleasour ys to have such boks as was in the chapell of my lat lorde and ffayther (wos soll Jhu pardon). To the accomplychment of which, at your desyer, I am confformable, notwithstandinge I trust to be able ons to set up a chapell off myne owne. I shall with all sped send up the boks unto my lord's grace, as to say iiij Antiffonars (Antiphoners), such as I think wher not seen a gret wyll-v Gralls (Graduals)-an Ordeorly (Ordinal)-a Manuall-viij Prossessioners (Processionals).' Northumberland Household Book. WOLVERENE, in zoology. See URSUS. WOLVERHAMPTON, a market town in Seisdon hundred, Staffordshire, situate on a rising ground, fourteen miles north-west of Birmingham, and 123 north-west of London. Of its trade and manufactures, hardware is the chief article, but it is also noted for its ingenious locksmiths. Most of the farmers in the neighbourhood have their forges, where they work when not employed in the field, and take their work to market as regularly as other farmers their corn; many of the women are assistants in these manufactures, and work at the file. It has two churches; St. Peter's is collegiate, and has a lofty square tower, embellished with battlements; it has eight bells, a set of chimes, and an organ, and contains several handsome monuments. This church, as well as a convent, was erected about the end of the tenth century, by a Saxon lady, called Wulfruna, whence the corruption of the word Wolver. An act of parliament was obtained, in 1775, for the erection of a new church or chapel of ease here, which was finished in a plain neat manner, in 1758; but, for want of funds, the steeple was not erected till 1776. It is dedicated to St. John. Besides these churches there are three chapels, and numerous dissenting meeting-houses. This town has a canal branching from the Dudley and Birmingham canal; communicating also with the Stafford, Worcester, and Grand-Trunk, and another branch to the Wyrley and Essington canal, at Walsall. Market on Wednesday and Saturday. The mother church is a curacy under the dean of Windsor, and St. John's is a chapel of ease thereto. WOM'AN, n. s. & v. a.] Sax. pirman, pimman WOMANED, adj. (Skinner), meaning wif WOMANHATER, N. s. or womb-man. The huWOM'ANHEAD, man female; a female WOM ANHOOD, servant: to woman is, WOM'ANISE, v. a. to make too pliant; to WOM'ANISH, adj. emasculate womaned WOMANKIND, N. s. is accompanied by, or WOMANLY, adj. & adv.) united with, a woman: womanhead or womanhood, the character or qualities of a woman to womanise is to make effeminate; soften the other derivatives correspond. And Abimelech took men servants and women ser vants. Fenesis. For the present improved treatment of the fair sex, and in consequence thereof of society in general, modern Europeans are indebted to our Gothic ancestors. Women, among the ancient Greeks and Romans, seem to have been considered merely as objects of sensuality, or of domestic conveniency they were devoted to a state of seclusion and obscurity, had few attentions paid them, and were permitted to take as little share in the conversation as in the general commerce of life. But the northern nations, who paid a kind of devotion to the softer sex, even in their native forests, had no sooner settled themselves in the provinces of the Roman empire, than the female character began to assume new consequence. Those fierce barbarians, who seemed to thirst only for blood, always forbore to offer any violence to the women. They brought along with them the respectful gallantry of the north, which had power even to restrain their savage ferocity; and they introduced into the west of Europe a generosity of sentiment, and a complaisance towards the ladies, to which the most polished nations of antiquity were strangers. These sentiments of generous gallantry were fostered by the institution of chivalry, which lifted woman yet higher in the scale of life. Instead of being nobody in society, she became its primum mobile. Every knight devoting himself to danger, declared himself the humble servant of some lady, and that lady was often the object of his love. Her honor was supposed to be intimately connected with his, and her smile was the reward of his valor: for her he attacked, for her he defended, and for her he shed his blood. Courage, animated by so powerful a motive, lost sight of every thing but enterprise: incredible toils were cheerfully endured, incredible actions were performed, and adventures seemingly fabulous were realised. The effect was reciprocal. Women, proud of their influence, became worthy of the heroism which they had inspired: they were not to be approached but by the high minded and the brave; and men then could only be admitted to the bosom of the chaste fair, after proving their fidelity and affection by years of perseverance and of peril. Again, as to the change which took place in the operations of war, it may be observed that the perfect hero of antiquity was superior to fear, but he made use of every artifice to annoy his enemy impelled by animosity and hostile passion, like the savage in the American woods, he was only anxious of attaining his end, without regarding whether fraud or force were the means. But the true knight or modern hero of the middle ages, who seems in all his rencounters to have had his eye on the judicial combat or judgment of God, nad an equal contempt for stratagem and danger. He disdained to take advantage of his enemy: he desired only to see him, and to combat him upon equal terms, trusting that heaven would declare in behalf of the just; and as he professed only to vindicate the cause of religion, of injured beauty, or oppressed innocence, he was further confirmed in this enthusiastic opinion by his own heated imagination. Strongly persuaded that the decision must be in his favor, he fought as if under the influence of divine inspiration rather than of military ardor. Thus the system of chivalry, by a singular combination of manners, blended the heroic and sanctified characters, united devotion and valor, zeal and gallantry, and reconciled the iove of God and of the ladies WOMB, n. s. & v. a. Sax. pamb; Goth. wamba; WOMBY', adj. Isl. wamb. The place of the fœtus in the mother; place whence any thing is produced; cavity to enclose: womby, capacious. Obsolete. When yet he was but tender bodied, and the only son of my womb. Shakspeare. Not for all the sun sees, or He'll call you to so hot an answer for it, Id. Shall chide your trespass, and return your mock. Id. Milton. New-born children bring not many ideas into the world, bating some faint ideas of hunger and thirst which they may have felt in the womb. Locke. miration; astonishment; cause of wonder: wonderful and wondrous mean admirable: strange; marvellous: and the other derivatives correspond. I uttered that which I understood not, things, too wonderful for me, which I knew not. Job xlii. 3. The house which I am about to build shall be won2 Chron. ii. 9. The want of these magazines of victuals I have complained of in England, and wondered at in other counSpenser. It ravished is with fancy's wonderment. When my pen would write her titles true, derful great. tries. Id. My lord led wondrously to discontent. Shakspeare. From that part where Moses remembereth the giants, begotten by the sons of good men upon the daughters of the wicked, did they steal those wondrous great acts of their ancient kings and powerful giants. Raleigh. The pope, knowing himself to be unprofitable to the christian world, was wonderfully glad to hear that there were such echoes of him sounding in remote parts. Bacon. Wonder causeth astonishment, or an immoveable posture of the body; for in wonder the spirits fly not as in fear, but only settle. Id. Then medicines woundrously composed the skilful leech applied. Chapman. The Cornish wonder-gatherer describeth the same. Carew. There is a place deep, wondrous deep, below, Which genuine night and horrours do o'erflow. Cowley. Wondrous indeed, if cause of such effects. The credit of whose virtue rest with thee; Milton. There Babylon, the wonder of all tongues. Hath been the cause, and wonderful to hear. Strange Drawn for your prince, that sword could wonders do. The better cause makes mine the sharper now. Waller. In such charities she passed the day, 'Twas wond'rous how she found an hour to pray. King Turnus wondered at the fight renewed. That image of his filial piety. Id. Id. Dryden. Id. Id. The neighbours made a wonderment of it, and asked L'Estrange. him what he meant. Who can wonder that the sciences have been so over charged with insignificant and doubtful expressions, capable to make the most quick-sighted little the more knowing? Locke. There is something wonderfully divine in the airs of this picture. Addison. Sylphs, yet mindful of their ancient race, Are, as when women, wondrous fond of place. Pope. I could not sufficiently wonder at the intrepidity of these diminutive mortals, who durst venture to mount and walk upon my body. Swift. Researches into the springs of natural bodies, and their motions, should awaken us to admire the wondrous wisdom of our Creator in all the works of nature. WONT, v. n. WONT'ED, adj. WONT EDNESS, n. s. WONT LESS, adj. Watts. Pret. & part. wont; Sax. punian. Teut. wonheit. To be accustomed; to use; be used: wontless is unac customed, and the other derivatives correspond. Passing their time according to their wont, they waited for the coming of Phalantus. Sidney. Through power of that, his cunning thieveries He wonts to work, that none the same espies. Spenser. Whither, love, wilt thou now carry me? What wontless fury dost thou now inspire Into my feeble breast, when full of thee? Id. Things natural in that regard forget their ordinary natural wont, that which is heavy mounting sometime upwards of its own accord. Hooker. Jason the Thessalian was wont to say, that some things must be done unjustly, that many things may be done justly. Bacon. Did I see any thing more of Christ in those that pretend to other modes of government, might suspect my judgment biassed with prejudice or wontedness of my opinion. King Charles. So prayed they, innocent, and to their thoughts Firm peace recovered soon, and wonted calm. Milton. For others that he saw perplexed about the manage of their difficult affairs, he was wont to ask them when they would begin to trust God, or permit him to govern the world? Fell. Who have no house, sit round where once it was, And with full eyes each wonted room require; Haunting the yet warm ashes of the place, As murthered men walk where they did expire. Dryd. The pond-frog would fain have gotten the other frog over; but she was wonted to the place, and would not L'Estrange. remove. And cause spring tides to raise great flood. Calm the tempest of his passion wood; Mad; He hath bid me to a calve's head and a capon; shall I not find a woodcock too? Id. Bacon. The froth called woodsare, being like a kind of spittle, is found upon herbs, as lavender and sage. Wooded so, It makes a spring of all kindes that grow. Chapman. If Jonson's learned sock be on; By dimpled brook and fountain brim, Four times ten days I've passed, Wandering this woody maze, and human food Nor tasted, nor had appetite. Milton. Id. Id. They used to vault or leap up; and therefore they had wooden horses in their houses and abroad. Browne. Having filled it above five inches with thoroughly kindled wood coals, we let it down into the glass, Boyle. Hecate, when she gave to rule the woods, Then led me trembling through those dire abodes. Herrings must be smoaked with wood. The millepes or woodlouse is a small insect; it has only fourteen pair of short legs; it is a very swift runner, but it can occasionally roll itself up into the form of a ball. Tusser. Diana's woody realms he next invades, And crosses through the consecrated shades. The banks are overflown when stopped is the flood. Spenser. Sax. pude; Belgic woud; Goth. and Swed. wid. A large or thick collection of trees; the substance of trees; timber: woodbine is a name of the honeysuckle woodcock, a bird used as an emblem of a fool: WOOD, n. s. WOOD'BINE, WOOD'COCK, WOOD DRINK, WOOD'ED, adj. WOOD'EN, WOOD'HOLE, WOOD'LAND, wooddrink, a decoction of a WOOD'LOUSE, medicinal wood: wooded, supWOOD'MAN, plied with or abounding in WOOD'NOTE, wood wooden, made of wood; WOOD'NYMPH, ligneous; also clumsy; awkWOOD'PECKER, ward; stupid: woodhole, a WOOD'SAPE, store-hole for wood: woodsare WOOD'Y, adj. Jis explained in the extract, and the other compounds seem to require no explanation. With the woody nymphs when she did play. Spenser. The wood-born people fall before her flat, And worship her as goddess of the wood. The duke is a better woodman than thou takest him for. Shakspeare. The woods are ruthless, dreadful, deaf, and dull: There speak and strike. id. Id. Hill. Addis. |