Benefaction. See BENE. Benefice. See BENE. Benefice, in an ecclesiastical sense, a church endowed with a revenue for the per formance of divine service; or the revenue itself assigned to an ecclesiastical person. Beneficence. See BENE. Beneficence differs from benign, as the act from the disposition; beneficence being kindness or benignity exerted in action. Benefit. See BENE. "Benefit of Clergy," denotes an ancient privilege of the church, consisting in this, that places consecrated to religious duties were exempted from criminal arrests, and clergymen were exempted from criminal process before the secular judges in particular cases. In the course of time every one was admitted to this benefit who could read. This privilege was formerly admitted even in cases of murder; but the law is now much altered on this head. Benevolence. See BENE. Benign. See BENEFICENCE. Brief, from brevis, short. A writing in law; so termed because couched in few words compared to the generality of law writings. Brief, also, is a licence granted to a person to make collections for any public or private loss, and is allowed to be read by ministers in churches. C. CADENCE. See CADO. Cadence, in reading, is the term used to denote the falling or lowering of the voice at the close of a sentence, and sometimes denotes the general modulation of the voice. Cadence, in dancing, is when the several steps and motions follow or correspond to the notes and measures of the music. Cadence, in music, a pause or suspension at the end of an D air or some of its parts. Its use is analogous to a stop in reading. Calculate, from calculus, a pebble or small stone. Calculation was anciently carried on by aid of pebbles. Canicular, from canicula, a little dog. Canicular days, or dog-days, denote a certain number of days before and after the heliacal rising of the dog-star. The ancients imagined that the rising of this star occasioned the sultry weather usually felt at the latter part of the summer, or dog-days. They did not consider that the heliacal rising of the star varies much in the course of a few years, and indeed in the same year, in different latitudes. The dog-days, in our almanacks, occupy the time from July 3 to August 11, the name being applied now, as it was formerly, to the hottest time in the year. [Heliacal, from the Greek word helios, the sun; is a term which is applied to the emersion of the stars out of, and their immersion into, the superior splendour of the sun.] Canon, from canon, a rule; a precept. A law made by ecclesiastical councils; the books of Holy Scripture ; or the great rule. The ancient canon or catalogue of books of the Old Testament is ordinarily attributed to Ezra; who is said to have distributed them into the law, the prophets, and the hagiographa or sacred writings. Canon is also a title given to a dignitary in cathedral churches. Canon again is used for the catalogue of saints, acknowledged and canonized in the Roman church.-Canonization. A ceremony in the Romish church, by which persons deceased are ranked in the catalogue of the saints. It succeeds beatification. See BEATIFICATION. Capable, capacity. See CAPIO. Capitulate. See CAPUT. To draw up any thing in heads or articles; to yield or surrender up on certain conditions.-Capitulation, is a treaty made between the garrison or inhabitants of a place besieged and the besiegers, for the delivery up of the place on certain conditions.-Captain. The chief or head of a number or body of men. Captain originally meant one of those who, by tenure in capite, were obliged to bring soldiers to the war. "A tenure in capite," is one held immediately from the head of the government, that is, the king. See Tenure. Captious. Eager to catch at faults; having an inclination to object. See CAPIO. Captive, captor, capture. See CAPIO. Cardinal. In a general sense, an appellation given to things on account of their pre-eminence. The word is formed of cardo, a hinge; it being on these points that all the rest are supposed to turn. Thus, "Justice, Prudence, Temperance, and Fortitude," are called the cardinal virtues, as being the basis of all the rest. The "East, West, North, and South" points of the compass, are termed Cardinal points, as being the principal, Cardinal Numbers are the numbers one, two, three, &c. in opposition to the ordinal numbers. See ORDINAL.-Cardinal. One of the ecclesiastical prince's in the Romish church, by whom the pope is elected out of their own number. Caret, from curet, there is wanting. A mark thus a, which shows where something omitted should be read. Carnage, from caro, carnis, flesh. Heaps of flesh; figuratively slaughter.-Carnally. According to the flesh, not spiritually. "In the sacrament we do not receive Christ carnally, but we receive him spiritually."-Carnation. The name given to a flower, as being of the colour of flesh.-Carnivorous. See VORO. Case. See CADO. In some languages there is a variation in the noun, called by grammarians case. Latin has six cases, the Greek five, the German three, the English two, the Hebrew none. From this differ The ence in the use of cases, it is evident they are not to be considered as essential in language. In English, besides the nominative, there is a case expressing possession, which is therefore called the possessive case. Thus, from God we have for the possessive case, "God's, grace; or, as it was formerly written, "Godis grace," the grace of God. For other relations of one thing to another, we use prepositions: thus, to, from, by, which relations in other languages are expressed by a change in the end of the noun. For the various Cases, See NOMINATIVE, GENITIVE, &c.-" Some of the ancients held the Nominative to be no case and likened the Noun in this its primary and original form to a perpendicular line, such for example, as the line A B. The variations from the Nominative they considered as if AB were to fall from the perpendicular, as for example, в с AC or AD. Hence then, they called these variations casus, (See CADO. Part III.) cases or fallings. Others made the Nominative a case also. Words they considered (as it were) to fall from the mind. Now, when a noun fell thence in its primary form, they called it casus rectus,' an erect or upright case or falling, such as A B, and by this name, they distinguished the nominative. When it fell from the mind under any of its variations, as for example, in the form of a Genitive or Dative, or the like; such variations they called casus obliqui,' oblique cases or sidelong fallings, (such as AC and A D) in opposition to the other (that is A B) which was erect or perpendicular. Hence, grammarians called the method of enumerating the various cases of a noun, declination or declension, it being a sort of progressive descent from the Nominative's upright form through its various declining forms, that is, a descent from A B to AC and AD.' See " Hermes," by Harris, Vol. II. p. 277. "We copy this account because it is very plausible, though we regard it as erroneous, the learned author being misled by the figurative language of geometry. We believe that the Nominative is said to be the upright case, not because it is an upright falling from the mind, but because the Nominative, the Verb, and the object following each other in direct succession form one simple proposition. The Nominative is the leading noun or agent, and the Accusative is the effect, in which the action straightway terminates. And when other nouns are introduced they are spoken of not directly as the Agent, but collaterally or obliquely, as objects to which the direct noun someway belongs. Thus the Accusative as well as the Nominative are right cases or direct parts of a proposition, whereas the Genitive, Dative, Ablative, and Vocative are oblique cases or indirect parts of the proposition. The Nominative and Accusative are expressed by position; while the oblique cases, the Genitive, Ablative, and Dative depend on words expressing beginning, medium, and end. From this we infer, that a case did not at first mean a change in the termination of a noun, but the position of a noun expressing its relation to some other word in the sentence. • God made man,' is a sentence in which the agent, the action, and the object follow each other in the order of nature: 'God,' as occupying the place of the agent, is the Nominative, and man,' as corresponding to the effect, is the Accusative. But in the sentence God is good,' we cannot say 'God' is the agent, because the verb 'is' does not express an action, but serves only to connect the epithet 'good' with 'God.' The Nominative, therefore, here expresses not the agent, but the subject of the attribute connected to it. The Nominative case, then, is that leading slate or position which expresses the subject of a connecting verb, and the agent of an active verb. And the Accusative is that position which expresses the effect of an active verb. The Nominative and Accusative have evidently to each other the relation which a cause has to an effect, and that for no other reason, but that their order corresponds to the order of cause and effect. But suppose that our purpose was not only to express a cause or agent, but the origin of that cause, or the instrument by which it acts, or the end for which it acts; in such cases simple position will |