ity. res si measurable nature of the quantities which are the real objects of our contemplation, and the suitableness and propriety of the measures which we adopt in our comparisons. Since, then, the phenomena are the immediate subjects of our discussion, and the operating powers are only inferences from the phenomena considered as effects, the quantity ascribed to them must also be an inference from the quantity of the effect, or of some circumstance in the effect. The measure, therefore, of the cause, or natural power or force, cannot be one of its own parts; for the whole and the part are equally unperceived by us. Our measure, therefore, must be a measure of some interesting part, or of the only interesting part of the phenomenon. It is therefore in a manner arbitrary, and depends chiefly on the interest we take in the phenomenon. It must, however, be settled with precision, so that all men in using it may mean the same thing. It must be settled, therefore, by the description of that part or circumstance of the phenomenon which is characteristic of the natural power. This description is the definition of the measure. Thus Newton assumes as his measure of the centripetal force, the momentary deviation from uniform orce. rectilineal motion. Others, and sometimes Newton himself, assumes the momentary change of velocity, which again is measured by twice this deviation. These measures, being thus selected, are always proper in a mathematical sense; and if strictly adhered to, can never lead us into any paralogism. They may, however, be physically wrong: there may not be that indissoluble connection between the phenomenon and the supposed cause. But this is no mathematical error, nor does it invalidate any of our mathematical inferences: it only makes them useless for explaining the phenomenon by the principle which we adopted; but it prepares a modification of the phenomenon for some more fortunate application of physical principles. ites All that can be desired in the definitions or descriptions of these measures is, that they may not deviate es. from the ordinary use of the terms, because this would always create confusion, and occasion mistakes. Dr Reid has given an example of an impropriety of this kind, which has been the subject of much debate among the writers on natural philosophy. We mean the measure of the force inherent in a body in motion. Descartes, and all the writers of his time, assumed the velocity produced in a body as the measure of the force which produces it; and observing that a body, in consequence of its being in motion, produces changes in the state or motion of other bodies, and that these changes are in the proportion of the velocity of the changing body, they asserted that there is in a moving body a VIS INSITA, an INHERENT FORCE, and that this is proportional to its velocity; saying that its force is rtesi-twice or thrice as great, when it moves twice or thrice id as fast at one time as at another. But Leibnitz obseritzi- ved, that a body which moves twice as fast, rises four this times as high, against the uniform action of gravity; that it penetrates four times as deep into a piece of uniform clay; that it bends four times as many springs, or a spring four times as strong, to the same degree; and produces a great many effects which are four times greater than those produced by a body which has half the initial velocity. If the velocity be triple, quadru Over ween t. ple, &c. the effects are nine times, 16 times, &c. greater; Quantity. and, in short, are proportional, not to the velocity, but to its square. This observation had been made before by Dr Hooke, who has enumerated a prodigious variety of important cases in which this proportion of effect is observed. Leibnitz, therefore, affirmed, that the force inherent in a moving body is proportional to the square of the velocity. It is evident that a body, moving with the same velocity, has the same inherent force, whether this be employed to move another body, to bend springs, to rise in opposition to gravity, or to penetrate a mass of soft matter. Therefore these measures, which are so widely different, while each is agreeable to a numerous class of facts, are not measures of this something inherent in the moving body which we call its force, but are the measures of its exertions when modified according to the circumstances of the case; or, to speak still more cautiously and securely, they are the measures of certain classes of phenomena consequent on the action of a mcving body. It is in vain, therefore, to attempt to support either of them by a demonstration. The measure itself is nothing but a definition. The Cartesian calls that a double force which produces a double velocity in the body on which it acts. The Leibnitzian calls that a quadruple force which makes a quadruple penetration. The reasonings of both in the demonstration of a proposition in dynamics may be the same, as also the result, though expressed in different numbers. But the two measures are far from being equally proper for the Leibnitzian measure obliges us to do continual violence to the common use of words. When two bodies moving in opposite directions meet, strike each other, and stop, all men will say that their forces are equal, because they have the best test of equality which we can devise. Or when two bodies in motion strike the parts of a machine, such as the opposite arms of a le ver, and are thus brought completely to rest, we and all men will pronounce their mutual energies by the intervention of the machine to be equal. Now, in all these cases, it is well known that a perfect equality is found in the products of the quantities of matter and velocity. Thus a ball of two pounds, moving with the velocity of four feet in a second, will stop a ball of eight pounds moving with the velocity of one foot per second. the followers of Leibnitz say, that the force of the first ball is four times that of the second. But All parties are agreed in calling gravity a uniform or invariable accelerating force; and the definition which they give of such a force is, that it always produces the same acceleration, that is, equal accelerations in equal times, and therefore produces augmentations of velocity proportionable to the times in which they are produced. The only effect ascribed to this force, and consequently the only thing which indicates, characterises, and measures it, is the augmentation of velocity. What is this velocity, considered not merely as a mathematical term, but as a phenomenon, as an event, a production by the operation of a natural cause? cannot be conceived any other way than as a determination to move on for ever at a certain rate, if nothing shall change it. We cannot conceive this very clearly. We feel ourselves forced to animate, as it were, the body, and give it not only a will and intention to move in this manner, but a real exertion of some faculty in 4 F 2 consequence It 17 varum restitution Postha Quantity consequence of this determination of mind. We are ported the claim of Sir Isaac Newton to the invention Quantity. conscious of such a train of operations in ourselves; and of fluxions. They rejoiced to find in the elegant writhe last step of this train is the exertion or energy of tings of Huyghens a physical principle of great extent, some natural faculty, which we, in the utmost propriety such as this is, which could be set in comparison with of language, call force. By such analogical conception, some of the wonderful discoveries in Newton's Princi we suppose a something, an energy, inherent in the mo- pia. The fact, that in the mutual action of bodies on ving body; and its only office is the production and each other the product of the masses and the squares continuation of this motion, as in our own case. Sci- of the velocities remain always the same (which they entific curiosity was among our latest wants, and lan- call the conservatio virium vivarum) is of almost uni-Conservatio guage was formed long before its appearance: as we versal extent; and the knowledge of it enabled them to virium viformed analogical conceptions, we contented ourselves give ready and elegant solutions of the most abstruse and with the words already familiar to us, and to this some- intricate problems, by which they acquired a great and thing we gave the name FORCE, which expressed that deserved celebrity. Dr Robert Hooke, whose observaenergy in ourselves which bears some resemblance (in tion hardly any thing escaped, was the first (long before office at least) to the determination of a body to move Huyghens) who remarked *, that in all the cases of the Micr on at a certain rate. This sort of allegory pervades the gradual production and extinction of motion, the sensible Phia, whole of our conceptions of natural operations, and we phenomenon is proportional to the square of the produ-&c. in can hardly think or speak of any operation without a ced or extinguished velocity. language, which supposes the animation of matter. And, in the present case, there are so many points of resemblance between the effects of our exertions and the operations of nature, that the language is most expressive, and has the strongest appearance of propriety. By exerting our force, we not only move and keep in motion, but we move other bodies. Just so a ball not only moves, but puts other bodies in motion, or penetrates them, &c. This is the origin of that conception which so forcibly obtrudes itself into our thoughts, that there is inherent in a moving body a force by which it produces changes in other bodies. No such thing appears in the same body if it be not in motion. We therefore conclude, that it is the production of the moving force, whatever that has been. If so, it must be conceived as proportional to its producing cause. Now this force, thus produced or exerted in the moving body, is only another way of conceiving that determination which we call velocity, when it is conceived as a natural event. We can form no other notion of it. The vis insita, the determination to move at a certain rate, and the velocity, are one and the same thing, considered in different relations. 16 Vis insita. Therefore the vis insita corpori moventi, the determination to move at a certain rate, and the velocity, should have one and the same measure, or any one of them may be taken for the measure of the other. The velocity being an object of perception, is therefore a proper measure of the inherent force; and the propriety is more evident by the perfect agreement of this use of the words with common language. For we conceive and express the action of gravity as uniform, when we think and say that its effects are proportional to the times of its action. Now all agree, that the velocity produced by gravity is proportional to the time of its action. And thus the measure of force, in reference to its producing cause, perfectly agrees with its measure, independent of this consideration. But this agreement is totally lost in the Leibnitzian doctrine; for the body which has fallen four times as far, and has sustained the action of gravity twice as long, is said to have four times the force. The quaintness and continued paradox of expression which this measure of inherent force leads us into, would have quickly exploded it, had it not been that its chief abettors were leagued in a keen and acrimonious warfare with the British mathematicians who sup John Bernoulli brought all these facts together, and meus systematized them according to the principle advanced Works, by Huyghens in his treatise on the centre of oscillation. He and Daniel Bernoulli gave most beautiful specimens of the prodigious use of this principle for the solution of difficult physical problems in their dissertations on the motion and impulse of fluids, and on the communication of motion. It was however very early objected to them (we think by Marquis Poleni), that in the collision of bodies perfectly hard there was no such conservutio virium vivarum; and that, in this case, the forces must be acknowledged to be proportional to the velocities. The objections were unanswerable.-But John Bernoulli evaded their force, by affirming that there were and could be no bodies perfectly hard. This was the origin of another celebrated doctrine, on which Leibnitz greatly plumed himself, THE LAW OF CON-Law of co TINUITY, viz. that nothing is observed to change ab-tinuity. ruptly, or per saltum. But no one will pretend to say that a perfectly hard body is an inconceivable thing; on the contrary, all will allow that softness and compres sibility are adjunct ideas, and not in the least necessary to the conception of a particle of matter, nay totally incompatible with our notion of an ultimate atom. 18 19 Sir Isaac Newton never could be provoked to engage in this dispute. He always considered it as a wilful abuse of words, and unworthy of his attention. He guarded against all possibility of cavil, by giving the most precise and perspicuous definitions of those measures of forces, and all other quantities which he had occasion to consider, and by carefully adhering to them. And Great supe in one proposition of about 20 lines, viz. the 39th riority of of the 1st book of the Principia, he explained every News2 phenomenon adduced in support of the Leibnitzian doctrine, showing them to be immediate consequences of the action of a force measured by the velocity which it produces or extinguishes. There it appears that the heights to which bodies will rise in opposition to the uniform action of gravity are as the squares of the initial velocities: So are the depths to which they will penetrate uniformly resisting matter: So is the number of equal springs which they will bend to the same degree, &c. &c. &c. We have had frequent occasion to mention this proposition as the most extensively useful of all Newton's discoveries. It is this which gives the imme diate application of mechanical principles to the expla nation of natural phenomena. It is incessantly employed tine. Quantity, in every problem by the very persons who hold by the Quaran other measure of forces, although such conduct is virtually giving up that measure. They all adopt, in every investigation the two theorems fiv, and fs=vv; both of which suppose an accelerating force f proportional to the velocity v which it produces by its uniform action during the time t, and the theorem ƒ ƒs=v* is the 39th 1. Princip, and is the conservatio virium vivarum. This famous dispute (the only one in the circle of mathematical science) has led us somewhat aside. But we have little more to remark with respect to measurable quantity. We cannot say what varieties of quantity are susceptible of strict measure, or that it is impossible to give accurate measures of every thing susceptible of augmentation and diminution. We affirm, however, with confidence, that pain, pleasure, joy, &c. are not made up of their own parts, which can be contemplated separately but they may chance to be associated by nature with something that is measurable; and we may one day be able to assign their degrees with as much precision as we now ascertain the degrees of warmth by the expansion of the fluid in the thermometer. There is one sense in which they may all be measured, viz. numerically, as Newton measures density, vis motrix, &c. We can conceive the pain of each of a dozen of men to be the same. Then it is evident that the pain of eight of these men is to that of the remaining four as two to one; but from such mensuration we do not foresee any benefit likely to arise. QUANTITY, in Grammar, an affection of a syllable, whereby its measure, or the time wherein it is pronounced, is ascertained: or that which determines the syllable to be long or short. Quantity is also the object of prosody, and distinguishes verse from prose; and the economy and arrangement of quantities, that is, the distribution of long and short syllables, makes what we call the number. See POETRY, Part III. The quantities are used to be distinguished, among grammarians, by the characters short, as per; and, long, as rōs. There is also a common, variable, or dubious quantity; that is, syllables that are at one time taken for short ones, and at another time for long ones; as the first syllable in Atlas, patres, &c. QUARANTINE, is a trial which ships must undergo when suspected of a pestilential infection. It may be ordered by the king, with advice of the privycouncil, at such times, and under such regulations, as he judges proper. Ships ordered on quarantine must repair to the place appointed, and must continue there during the time prescribed (generally six weeks); and must have no intercourse with the shore, except for necessary provisions, which are conveyed with every possible precaution. When the time is expired, and the goods opened and exposed to the air as directed, if there be no appearance of infection, they are admitted to port. Ships infected with the pestilence must proceed to St Helen's Pool, in the Scilly islands, and give notice of their situation to the customhouse officers, and wait till the king's pleasure be known. Persons giving false information to avoid performing quarantine, or refusing to go to the place appointed, or Quarries. escaping, also officers appointed to see quarantine per- Quaranformed, deserting their office, neglecting their duty, or tine giving a false certificate, suffer death as felons. Goods from Turkey, or the Levant, may not be landed without license from the king, or certificate that they have been landed and aired at some foreign port. See PLAGUE. QUARLES, FRANCIS, the son of James Quarles clerk to the board of green cloth, and purveyor to Queen Elizabeth, was born in 1592. He was educated at Cambridge; became a member of Lincoln's Inn; and was for some time cup-bearer to the queen of Bohemia, and chronologer to the city of London. It was probably on the ruin of her affairs that he went to Ireland as secretary to Archbishop Usher; but the troubles in that kingdom forcing him to return, and not finding affairs more at peace in England, some disquiets he met with were thought to have hastened his death, which happened in 1644. His works both in prose and verse are numerous, and were formerly in great esteem, particularly his Divine Emblems: but the obsolete quaintness of his style has caused them to fall into neglect, excepting among particular classes of readers. "The memory of Quarles, says a late author, has been Headley's branded with more than common abuse, and he seems to select Beau have been censured merely from the want of being read. ties of Ancient EngIf his poetry failed to gain him friends and readers, his lish Poetry. piety should at least have secured him peace and goodwill. He too often, no doubt, mistook the enthusiasm of devotion for the inspiration of fancy: to mix the waters of Jordan and Helicon in the same cup, was reserved for the hand of Milton; and for him, and him only, to find the bays of Mount Olivet equally verdant with those of Parnassus. Yet, as the effusions of a real poetical mind, however thwarted by untowardness of subject, will be seldom rendered totally abortive, we find in Quarles original imagery, striking sentiment, fertility of expression, and happy combinations; together with a compression of style that merits the observation of the writers of verse. Gross deficiencies of judgment, and the infelicity of his subjects, concurred in ruining him. Perhaps no circumstance whatever can give a more complete idea of Quarles's degradation than a late edition of his Emblems; the following passage is extracted from the preface: Mr Francis Quarles, the author of the Emblems that go under his name, was a man of the most exemplary piety, and had a deep insight into the mysteries of our holy religion. But, for all that, the book itself is written in so old a language, that many parts of it are scarcely intelligible in the present age; many of his phrases are so affected, that no person who has any taste for reading can peruse them with the least degree of pleasure; many of his expressions are harsh, and sometimes whole lines are included in a parenthesis, by which the mind of the reader is diverted from the principal object. His Latin mottos under each cut can be of no service to an ordinary reader, because he cannot understand them. In order, therefore, to accommodate the public with an edition of Quarles's Emblems properly modernised, this work was undertaken.' Such an exhibition of Quarles is chaining Columbus to an oar, or making John Duke of Marlborough a train-band corporal.” QUARRIES, a name commonly given to an extraordinary cavern under the city of Paris, the exist ence "There were formerly several openings into the Quarries, quarries, but the two I have mentioned, viz. the Obser- Quarry. vatory and the Val de Grace, are, I believe, the only ones left; and these the inspectors keep constantly locked, and rarely open them, except to strangers particularly introduced, and to workmen who are always employed in some part by the king. The police thought it a necessary precaution to secure all the entrances into this cavern, from its having been formerly inhabited by a famous gang of robbers, who infested the country for many miles round the city of Paris. Quarries. ence of which is known to few even of the inhabitants, and many of those who have heard of it consider the whole as an idle story. Mr White visited this cavern in 1784, having, with many others, obtained leave (which is very cautiously granted) to inspect it, accompanied by guides with torches. He gives the following account of it in the second volume of the Manchester Transactions. "At the entrance by the Observatoire Royal, the path is narrow for a considerable way; but soon we entered large and spacious streets, all marked with names, the same as in the city; different advertisements and bills were found, as we proceeded, pasted on the walls, so that it had every appearance of a large town swallowed up in the earth. "The general height of the roof is about nine or ten feet; but in some parts not less than 30 and even 40. In many places there is a liquor continually dropping from it, which congeals immediately, and forms a species of transparent stone, but not so fine and clear as rock crystal. As we continued our peregrination, we thought ourselves in no small danger from the roof, which we found but indifferently propped in some places with wood much decayed. Under the houses, and many of the streets, however, it seemed to be tolerably secured by immense stones set in mortar; in other parts, where there are only fields or gardens above it, it was totally unsupported for a considerable space, the roof being perfectly level, or a plain piece of rock. After traversing about two miles, we again descended about 20 steps, and here found some workmen in a very cold and damp place, propping up a most dangerous part, which they were fearful would give way every moment. The path is here not more than three feet in width, and the roof so low, that we were obliged to stoop considerably. "On walking some little distance farther, we entered into a kind of saloon cut out of the rock, and said to be exactly under the Eglise de St Jacques. This was illuminated with great taste, occasioned an agreeable surprise, and made us all ample amends for the danger and difficulty we had just before gone through. At one end was a representation in miniature of some of the principal forts in the Indies, with the fortifications, draw-bridges, &c. Cannons were planted with a couple of soldiers to each ready to fire. Centinels were placed in different parts of the garrison, particularly before the governor's house; and a regiment of armed men was drawn up in another place with their general in the front. The whole was made up of a kind of clay which the place affords, was ingeniously contrived, and the light that was thrown upon it gave it a very pretty effect. "On the other side of this hall was a long table set out with cold tongues, bread, and butter, and some of the best Burgundy I ever drank. Now every thing was hilarity and mirth; our fears were entirely dispelled, and the danger we dreaded the moment before was now no longer thought of. In short, we were all in good spirits again, and proceeded on our journey about two miles farther, when our guides judged it prudent for us to ascend, as we were then got to the steps which lead up to the town. We here found ourselves safe at the Val de Grace, near to the English Benedictine convent, without the least accident having happened to any one of the party. We imagined we had walked about two French leagues, and were absent from the surface of the earth betwixt four and five hours. "As to the origin of this quarry, I could not, on the strictest inquiry, learn any thing satisfactory; and the only account I know published is the following contained in the Tableaux de Paris, nouvelle edition, tome premier, chapitre 5me, page 12me. "For the first building of Paris it was necessary to get the stone in the environs; and the consumption of it was very considerable. As Paris was enlarged, the auburbs were insensibly built on the ancient quarries, so that all that you see without is essentially wanting in the earth for the foundation of the city: hence proceed the frightful cavities which are at this time found under the houses in several quarters. They stand upon abysses. It would not require a very violent shock to throw back the stones to the place from whence they have been raised with so much difficulty. Eight men being swallowed up in a gulf of 150 feet deep, and some other less known accidents, excited at length the vigilance of the police and the government, and, in fact, the buildings of several quarters have been privately propped up; and by this means a support given to these obscure subterraneous places which they before wanted. "All the suburbs of St James's, Harp-street, and even the street of Tournon, stand upon the ancient quarries; and pillars have been erected to support the weight of the houses. What a subject for reflections, in considering this great city formed and supported by means absolutely contrary! These towers, these steeples, the arched roofs of these temples, are so many signs to tell the eye that what we now see in the air is wanting under our feet." QUARRY, a place under ground, out of which are got marble, freestone, slate, limestone, or other matters proper for building. See SRATA. Some limestone quarries in Fife are highly worthy the attention of the curious, on account of an amazing mixture of organized marine productions found in them. One of this kind was opened about the year 1759, at a farm called Enderteel, in the neighbourhood of Kirkaldy, belonging to General St Clair. The flakes of the stone, which are of unequal thickness, most of them from eight to ten inches, lie horizontally, dipping towards the sea. Each of these flakes, when broken, presents to our view an amazing collection of petrified sea bodies, as the bones of fishes, stalks of sea-weed, vast quantities of shells, such as are commonly found on those coasts, besides several others of very uncommon figures. In some places the shells are so numerous, that little else is to be seen but prodigious clusters or concretions of them. In the uppermost stratum the shells are so entire, that the outer crust or plate may be scraped off with the finger; and the stalks of the sea-weed have a darkish colour, not that glossy whiteness which they have in the heart of the quarry. The smallest rays or veins of the shells Quarry are deeply indented on the stone, like the impression Quartation. of a seal upon wax. In short, no spot at the bottom of the ocean could exhibit a greater quantity of seabodies than are to be found in this solid rock; for we have the skeletons of several fishes, the antennæ or feelers of lobsters, the roots and stalks of sea-weeds, with the very capsule which contain the seed. The place where all these curiosities are found is on an eminence about an English mile from the sea; and as the ground is pretty steep the whole way, it may be 200 feet higher at least. There are two or three things to be remarked here. 1. That among all the bodies we have mentioned, there are none but what are specifically heavier than water. This holds so constantly true, that the sea-weed, which floats in water when the plant is entire, has been stripped of the broad leaves, which make it buoyant, before it has been lodged here. 2. The shells have been all empty; for the double ones, as those of the flat kind, are always found single, or with one side only. 3. The rock seems to have been gradually deserted by the sea, and for a long time, washed with the tides; for the upper surface is all eaten, and hollowed in many places like an honey-comb, just as we observe in flat rocks exposed every tide to the access and recess of the waters. See the article SEA. QUARRY, or Quarrel, among glaziers, a pane of glass cut in a diamond form. Quarries are of two kinds, square and long; each of which are of different sizes, expressed by the number of the pieces that make a foot of glass, viz. eighths, tenths, eighteenths, and twentieths: but all the sizes are cut to the same angles, the acute angle in the square quarrels being 77° 19', and 67° 21' in the long ones. QUARRY, among hunters, is sometimes used for a part of the entrails of the beast taken, given by way of reward to the hounds. QUARRY, in falconry, is the game which the hawk is in pursuit of, or has killed. QUART, a measure of capacity, being the fourth part of some other measure. The English quart is the fourth part of the gallon, and contains two pints. The quart of the Romans was the fourth part of their congius. The French have various quarts, besides their quart or pot consisting of two pints, and are distinguish ed by the whole of which they are quarters; as quart de muid, and quart de boisseau. QUARTAN, a measure containing the fourth part of some other measure. QUARTAN, a species of intermitting fever. See MEDICINE Index. QUARTATION, is an operation by which the quantity of one thing is made equal to a fourth part of the quantity of another thing. Thus when gold alloyed with silver is to be parted, we are obliged to facilitate the action of the aquafortis, by reducing the quantity of the former of these metals to one fourth part of the whole mass; which is done by sufficiently increasing the quantity of the silver, if it be necessary. This operation is called quartation, and is preparatory to the parting; and even many authors extend this name to the operation of parting. See ORES, Analysis of. QUARTER, the fourth part of any thing, the frae- Quarter. tional expression for which is QUARTER, in weights, is generally used for the fourth part of an hundred weight avoirdupois, or 28 lb. Used as the name of a dry measure, quarter is the fourth part of a ton in weight, or eight bushels. QUARTER, a term in the manege. To work from quarter to quarter, is to ride a horse three times in upon the first of the four lines of a square; then changing your hand, to ride him three times upon the second: and so to the third and fourth; always changing hands, and observing the same order. : QUARTERS, with respect to the parts of a horse, is used in various senses: thus the shoulders and fore-legs are called the fore-quarters, and the hips and hinder-legs the hind-quarters. The quarters of a horse's foot are the sides of the coffin, comprehending between the toe and the heel the inner quarters are those opposite to one another, facing from one foot to the other; and these are always weaker than the outside quarters, which lie on the external sides of the coffin. False-quarters, are a cleft in the horn of a horse's hoof, extending from the coronet to the shoe. A horse is said to be a quarter-cast when for any disorder in the coffin we are obliged to cut one of the quarters of the hoof. QUARTER, in Astronomy, the fourth part of the moon's period: thus, from the new moon to the quadrature is the first quarter; from this to full moon, the second quarter, &c. QUARTER, in Heraldry, is applied to the parts or members of the first division of a coat that is quartered, or divided into four quarters. Franc QUARTER, in Heraldry, is a quarter single or alone; which is to possess one fourth part of the field. It makes one of the honourable ordinaries of a coat. QUARTER of a Ship, that part of a ship's side which lies towards the stern; or which is comprehended between the aftmost end of the main chains and the sides of the stern, where it is terminated by the quarterpieces. Although the lines by which the quarter and bow of a ship, with respect to her length, are only imaginary, yet experience appears sufficiently to have ascertained their limits: so that if we were to divide the ships's sides into five equal portions, the names of each space would be readily enough expressed. Thus the first, from the stern, would be the quarter; the second, abaft the midships; the third, the midships; the fourth, before the midships; and the fifth, the bow. Whether these divisions, which in reality are somewhat arbitrary, are altogether improper, may be readily discovered by referring to the mutual situation or approach of two adjacent vessels. The enemy boarded us on the lar board side.! Whereabouts? Abaft the midships, before the midships, &c. Fig. 1. represents a geometrical elevation of a quar- Plate ter of a 74 gun ship. A the keel, with a the false keel ccccLVIII. beneath it. B the stern-post. DD the quarter-gallery with its ballustrades and windows. EE the quarterpieces, which limit and form the outlines of the stern. F the taffarel, or upper pieces of the stern. FG the profile of the stern, with its galleries. H the gun-ports of |