the case of a flagelet was a mansion for him.Shakspeare. Hyperbolic, hyperbolical, having the nature of an hyperbole, exaggerated, or extenuated, beyond the truth: hyperboliform, having the form of an hyperbola.

Tern unsquared Which, from the tongue of roaring Typhon dropt, Would seem hyperboles.

Shak.peare. Troilus and Cressida. Taffata phrases, silken terms precise, Three-piled hyperboles, spruce affectation, Figures pedantical, these Summer flies, Have blown me full of maggot ostentation. Shakspeare. Yet may all be solved, if we take it hyperbolically.

It is parabolical, and probably hyperbolical, and therefore not to be taken in a strict sense. Boyle. The horny or pellucid coat of the eye riseth up, as a hillock, above the convexity of the white of the eye, and is of an hyperbolical or a parabolical figure. Ray on the Creation. Cancellated in the middle with squares, with triaugles before, and behind with hyperbolic lines. Grew's Musæum.

Hyperboles, so daring and so bold, Disdaining bounds, are yet by rules controlled; Above the clouds, but yet within our sight, They mount with truth, and make a tow'ring flight.

Granville.

Had the velocities of the several planets been greater or less than they are, or had their distances from the sun, or the quantity of the sun's matter, and consequently his attractive power, being greater or less than they are now, with the same velocities, they would not have revolved in concentrick circles, but have moved in hyperbolus very eccentrick.

Bentley. The common people understand raillery, or at least rhetorick, and will not take hyperboles in too literal a Swift. Scylla is seated upon a narrow mountain, which thrusts into the sea a steep high rock, and hyperbolically described by Homer as inaccessible.

sense.

Broome's Notes on the Odyssey. HYPERBOLA. See CONIC SECTIONS. HYPERBOLE, in rhetoric. See ORATORY. Lord Kames, in his Elements of Criticism, observes, that an object uncommon with respect to size, either very great of its kind or very little, strikes us with surprise; and this emotion forces upon the mind a momentary conviction that the object is greater or less than it is in reality: the same effect, precisely, attends figurative grandeur or littleness, and hence the hyperbole, which expresses this momentary conviction. A writer is generally more successful in magnifying by a hyperbole than in diminishing. The reason is, that a minute object contracts the mind, and fetters its power of imagination; but that the mind, dilated and inflamed with a grand object, moulds objects for its gratification with great facility. Longinus cites ue following ludicrous instance of a diminishing hyperbole from a comic poet;- he was owner of a plot of ground not larger than a Lacedemonian letter.' But, for the reason now given, the hyperbole has by far the greater force in magnifying objects. It is unnecessary to quote examples. Homer, Virgil, Shakspeare, and all our best

poets abound with them, and many are to be found in Scripture. See Gen. xii. 15, 16; and John xxi. 25. The nicest point of all is to ascertain the natural limits of the hyperbole, beyond which, being overstrained, it has a bad effect. Longinus with great propriety compares this kind of hyperbole to a bow-string, which relaxes by overstraining, and produces an effect directly opposite to what is intended.'

HYPERBOLIC CONOID, a solid formed by the revolution of a cone about its axis.

HYPERBOLICUM ACUTUM, a solid made by the revolution of the infinite area contained between the curve of the hyperbola and its asymptote. This produces a solid, which, though infinitely long, and generated by an infinite area, is demonstrated by Torricelli to be equal to a finite solid body.

HYPERBOʻREAN, n. s. Fr. hyperboren; Lat. hyperboreus. Northern.

HYPERBOREAN, in ancient geography, was applied to those people and places which were situated to the north of the Scythians. The ancients had very little acquaintance with these Hyperborean regions; all they tell us of them is very dubious, much of it false. Diodorus Siculus says, the Hyperboreans were thus called, because they dwelt beyond the wind Boreas; VEO signifying beyond, and Bopɛaɛ, Boreas, the north-wind. This etymology is more natural than that of Rudbeck, who would have the word to be Gothic, and to signify nobility. Herodotus doubts whether there were any such nations as the Hyperborean. Strabo, who believes there are, does not take Hyperborean to signify beyond Boreas or the north; the preposition υπερ, he supposes only to form a superlative, and to mean most northern. Most modern geographers, as Hoffman, Cellarius, &c., place the Hyperboreans in the north parts of Europe, among the Siberians and Samoieds; and think the Hyperboreans of the ancients were those who lived farthest to the north. The Hyperboreans of our days are those Russians who inhabit between the Volga and the White Sea. According to Cluvier, the name Celtes was synonymous with that of Hyperboreans.

HYPERCATALECTIC, adj. in Greek and Latin poetry, is applied to a verse that has one or two syllables too much, or beyond the regular and just measure; as,

Musa sorores sunt Minervæ. HYPERCRITIC, n. s.

Fr. hypercriHYPERCRITICAL, adj. Štique; Gr. vπep, κριτικός. A critic captious beyond use or rea

worship rendered to the holy virgin. The worship offered to the saints is called dulia; and that to the virgin hyperdulia, as being superior. HYPERIA, in ancient geography, the seat of the Phæacians near the Cyclops. Scme take it to be Camarina in Sicily; according to others it is supposed to be Melita, an adjoining island. This is confirmed by Apollonius Rhodius. The Phæacians afterwards removed to Corcyra, being expelled by the Phoenicians, who settled in Melita before the Trojan war, on account of the commodious harbours.

HYPERICUM, St. John's wort, a genus of the polyandria order, and polyadelphia class of plants; natural order twentieth, rotacea: CAL. quinquepartite; the petals five; the filaments many, and coalited at the base into five pencils: CAPS. is a pencil. Of this genus there are eighty-eight species, most of them hardy, deciduous shrubs, and under-shrubby plants, adorned with oblong and oval simple foliage, and pentapetalous yellow flowers in clusters. The most remarkable are,

1. H. androsæmum, tutsan or park leaves, which has an upright under-shrubby stalk, two feet high, branching by pairs opposite; and, at the ends of the stalks, clusters of small yellow flowers appear in July and August, and are succeeded by roundish berry-like black capsules. This plant is hardy, and grows naturally in many parts of Britain. It has long held a place in the medicinal catalogues; but its virtues are not much valued at present. The leaves given in substance are said to destroy worms. By distillation they yield an essential oil. The flowers tinge spirits and oils of a fine purple color. Cows, goats, and sheep, eat the plant; horses and swine refuse it. The dried plant, boiled in water with alum, dyes yarn of a yellow color; and the Swedes give a fine purple tinge to their spirits with the flowers.

2. H. ascyron, or dwarf American St. John's wort, has spreading roots, sending up numerous slender, square stalks, a foot long; oval, spearshaped, close-sitting, smooth leaves, by pairs opposite; and, at the end of the stalks, large yellow flowers. It is a hardy plant.

3. H. Canariense, has shrubby stalks, dividing and branching six or seven feet high; oblong, close-sitting leaves by pairs; and, at the ends of the branches, clusters of yellow flowers appearing in June and July. This species and the hircinum propagate by suckers.

4. H. hircinum, or stinking St. John's wort. It rises three or four feet high, with several shrubby two-edged stalks from the root, branching by pairs opposite at every joint; oblong, oval, close-sitting, opposite leaves; and, at the ends of all the young shoots, clusters of yellow flowers. Of these there are three varieties; one with strong stalks, six or eight feet high, broad leaves, and large flowers; the other with strong stalks, broad leaves, and without any disagreeable odor; the third has variegated leaves. All these varieties are shrubby and hardy plants. They flower in June and July in such numerous clusters, that the shrubs appear covered with them; and produce abundance of seeds in

autumn.

5. H. monogynum, the one-styled China hypericum, has a shrubby purplish stalk, about two feet high; oblong, stiff, smooth, close-sitting leaves, of a shining green above, and white underneath; clusters of small yellow flowers, with colored cups, and only one style, flowering the greatest part of the year. This species is propagated by layers and cuttings, planted in pots, and plunged in a hot-bed.

HYPERIDES, an orator of Greece, and a disciple of Plato and Isocrates, who governed the republic of Athens. He defended with great zeal and courage the liberties of Greece; but was put to death by Antipater's order, A. A. C. 322. He composed many orations, of which only one is extant. He was one of the ten celebrated orators of Greece; and, though the intimate friend of Demosthenes, accused him of taking bribes, and obtained his banishment.

HYPERIUS (Andrew Gerard), a learned divine of Ypres. He was educated in France; but, embracing Protestant principles, he came to England,and afterwards settled as professor of divinity at Marpurg, where he died in 1564. His works make seven vols. folio. HYPER'METER, n. s.

Greek, ύπερ and μÉTρov. Any thing greater than the standard requires.

When a man rises beyond six foot, he is an hypermeter, and may be admitted into the tall club.

Addison.

HYPERTHYRON, in architecture, a sort of table, usually placed over gates or doors of the Doric order, above the chambranle, in form of a frieze.

HYPHEN, n. s. Gr. vpèv. A note of conjunction; as, vir-tue, ever-living. HYPNOTIC, n. s. Gr. voc. Any medicine that induces sleep.

HYPNUM, feather-moss, in botany, a genus of the natural order of musci, and the cryptogamia class of plants. The antheræ are operculated, or covered with a lid; the calyptera smooth; the filament lateral, and rising out of a perichætium, or tuft of leaflets different from the other leaves of the plant. There are 156 species, many of them natives of Great Britain. The most remarkable are,

1. H. parietinum, which has shoots nearly flat and winged, undivided for a considerable length, and the leaves shining; but the old shoots do not branch into new ones. It grows in woods and shady places, and is used for filling up the chinks in wooden houses, whence the trivial name.

2. II. proliferum is of a very singular structure, one shoot growing out from the centre of another; the veil is yellow and shining; the lid with a kind of long bill; the leaves not shining;

The mind casts and turns itself restlessly from one thing to another, till at length it brings all the ends of a long and various hypothesis together; sees how one part coheres with another, and so clears off all the appearing contrarieties that seemed to lie cross, and make the whole unintelligible. South.

With imagined sovereignty
Lord of his new hypothesis he reigns:
He reigns: how long? till some usurper rise:
And he too, mighty thought, mighty wise,
Studies new lines, and other circles feigns.

HYPOTHESIS, in disputation. False hypotheses are often made, in order to draw the antagonist into absurdities; and even in geometry truths are often deducible from false hypotheses. Every hypothetical proposition may be distinguished into hypothesis and thesis; the first rehearses the conditions under which any thing is affirmed or denied; and the latter is the thing itself affirmed or denied. Thus, in the proposition, a triangle is half a parallelogram, if the bases and altitudes of the two be equal; the latter part is the hypothesis, if the basis,' &c., and the former the thesis, a triangle is half a parallelogram.' In strict logic we are never to pass from the hypothesis to the thesis; that is, the principle supposed must be proved, before we require the consequence to be allowed.

HYPOTHESIS, in physics, &c., denotes a system formed to account for some phenomenon or appearance of nature; such as gravity, magnetism, the deluge, the tides, &c. The real causes of natural things generally lie very deep; observation and experiment are in most cases extremely slow, and the human mind is very impatient hence we often invent something that may seem like the cause, and which appears calculated to answer the several phenomena, so that it may possibly be the true cause.

HYPOTIPOSIS. See ORATORY. HYPOXIS, in botany, a genus of the monogynia order, and hexandria class of plants; natural order tenth, coronaria: coR. is divided into six parts, and persisting, superior: CAPS. narrowing at the base: CAL. a bivalved glume. Species thirteen, natives of warm climates.

HYPSICLES, an ancient mathematician of Alexandria, who flourished under Marcus Aurelius He wrote a work entitled Anaphoricus, or A Book of Ascensions, printed in Greek and Latin at Paris in 1680.

HYPSICRATES, an ancient Phoenician nistorian, who wrote a history of Phoenicia in his native tongue, which was saved from the flames of Carthage when that city was destroyed, and translated into Greek.

HYPSIPYLE, in fabulous history, the daughter of Thoas, queen of Lemnos. All the women in the island having conspired to murder the men, in revenge for their busbands having pre

father's life. The Argonauts, soon after landing at Lemnos, rendered the women pregnant, and Hypsipyle had twins by Jason. Being afterwards banished by her subjects, she was taken by pirates, and sold to Lycurgus, king of Nemaa.

HYPSISTARII, from visos, highest, a sect of heretics in the fourth century; so called from the profession they made of worshipping the most high God. Their doctrine was a compound of Paganism, Judaism, and Christianity. They adored the most high God with the Christians; but they also revered fire and lamps with the Heathens, and observed the sabbath, and the distinction of clean and unclean things with the Jews. They bore a near resemblance to the Euchites, or Massalians.

HYRAX, the saphan, or ashkoko, in zoology, a genus of the mammalia class of animals, and of the order of glires. The generic characters are, two broad and distinct fore teeth above; four contiguous, broad, flat notched, fore teeth below; and four large grinders on each side in both jaws. The fore feet have four toes, the hind feet only three. There is no tail, and the clavicles are wanting. There are two species. 1. H. Capensis, the Cape ashkoko, has flat nails on all the toes, except one toe of each hind foot, which is armed with a sharp-pointed claw. It inhabits the Cape of Good Hope; is about the size of a rabbit, being about fifteen inches long; the head is short, with the back part very thick, and the snout very short and blunt; the eyes are small; the ears oval and open, brown, woolly, and half hid in the fur; the legs are very short, the upper joints of both being concealed beneath the skin; the hind legs are rather longer than the fore; the feet are large, black, and naked; the body is short, thick, and contracted, with a prominent belly, and is covered with a soft woolly fur, of a yellowish-brown or grayish color, hoary at the roots; the sides are of a dirty whitish gray, and along the back is a brownish stripe. This fur is interspersed with longer and coarser black hairs, and a few very coarse long bristles. The fore feet have four short, scarcely divided, thick toes, furnished with flat nails; the two outer toes of the hind feet are similar, but the inner toe is longer, and has a sharp claw. animal has a sharp voice, and acute sense of hearing; its gait is very wavering and unsteady, owing to the shortness of its thighs, and unequal length of the hind and fore legs; notwithstanding which it is very active, and moves by leaps; it is very cleanly, lives entirely on vegetable food, drinks little, is fond of heat, and burrows in the ground. In manners and general appearance this animal resembles the marmot and cavy; in the conformation of its toes it has some analogy with the maucauco; but, from the circumstances of the teeth, it cannot be ranked with the last; and the peculiarity of the feet has caused Gmelin to separate it from both of the former.

This

2. H. Syriacus, the Syrian ashkoko, of Bruce and Schreber, has soft tender nails on all the toes. It inhabits Syria and Ethiopia. The body of this species is more lengthened than that of the former, and the snout more oblong. The