EQUILIBRIST EQUITY. 



79 



to receive a horse from the state ; 2. a gold ring 

 (hence annulo aureo donari, i. e. to be made a 

 knight) ; 3. angustus davits, a narrow strip of purple 

 on the tunic ; 4. a particular seat on public occa- 

 sions. At first, their duty was to serve the republic 

 in war ; but, at a later period, they became judges, 

 and farmers of the public revenues. Caius and Ti- 

 berius Gracchus wrested the right of being judges 

 from the senate, and gave it to the eguites. Some 

 authors date the elevation of the equites to a third 

 class at this period. Every fifth year, the censor held 

 a review of the equites, on which occasion they pas- 

 sed before him, leading their horses. If any one of 

 their number had been guilty of any offence, even if 

 he had only neglected his horse, the censor ordered 

 it to be sold, which was equivalent to degrading him 

 from the order ; hence adimere equum, to degrade a 

 knight. Others, who had committed slighter 

 offences, for which they were to be deprived of their 

 rank, were omitted in the list, which was read aloud 

 by the censor. The first on the list was called prin- 

 ceps. The farmers of the revenue were divided into 

 classes, each having a president, called magister 

 societatis : the members were called publicani. They 

 were hated in the provinces. 



EQUILIBRIST (from the Latin (equilibrium) ; one 

 who keeps his balance, in unnatural positions and 

 hazardous movements. The equilibrist entertains 

 the spectator by his artful motions, attitudes, leaps, 

 &c. Every rope-dancer is an equilibrist. India is 

 the native country of equilibrists ; and the accounts 

 given by travellers of the Indian balancers border on 

 the incredible. The French, too, are distinguished 

 as equilibrists. Such performers are met with in all 

 the large cities of Europe and America. The equili- 

 brists are frequently also buffoons, jugglers, con- 

 jurers, &c. 



EQUINOCTIAL, in astronomy ; a great circle of 

 the sphere, under which the equator moves in its 

 diurnal motion. It is the same as the celestial equator. 

 See Equator. 



EQUINOCTIAL GALES ; storms which are ob- 

 served generally to take place about the time of the 

 sun's crossing the equator or equinoctial line, at 

 which time there is equal day and night throughout 

 the world. 



EQUINOCTIAL POINTS are the two points 

 wherein the equator and ecliptic intersect each other; 

 the one, being in the first point of Aries, is called 

 the vernal point ; and the other, in the first point of 

 Libra, the autumnal point. 



EQUINOX is that time of the year when the day 

 and night are equal : the length of the day is then 

 twelve hours ; the sun is ascending six hours, and 

 descending the same time. This is the case twice a- 

 year, in spring and in autumn, when the sun is on the 

 equator. When the sun is in this situation, the horizon 

 of every place is divided into two equal parts by the 

 circle bounding light and darkness ; hence the sun is 

 visible everywhere twelve hours, and invisible for 

 the same time in each twenty-four hours. (See 

 Day.) The vernal equinox is on the 21st March, and 

 marks the beginning of spring, the autumnal is on the 

 23d September, which is considered the commence- 

 ment of autumn ; at all other times, the lengths of the 

 day and of the night are unequal, and their difference 

 is the greater the more we approach either pole, and 

 in the same latitude it is everywhere the same. 

 Under the line, this inequality entirely vanishes : 

 there, during the day, which is equal to the night, 

 the sun always ascends six hours, and descends six 

 hours. In the opposite hemisphere of our earth, the 

 inequality of the days increases in proportion to the 

 latitude : the days increase there, while they diminish 

 with us, and vice versa. The points where the eclip- 



tic comes in contact with the equator are called 

 equinoctial points. The vernal equinoctial point was 

 formerly at the entrance of the constellation of Aries ; 

 hence the next thirty degrees of the ecliptic, reck- 

 oned eastward from it, have been called Aries ; but 

 this point long ago deserted the constellation of 

 Aries, and now stands under Pisces ; for it is found 

 by observation, that the equinoctial points, and all 

 the other points of the ecliptic, are continually mov- 

 ing backward, or westward; which retrograde motion 

 of the equinoctial points is what is called the preces- 

 sion of the equinoxes. (See Precession.) It appears 

 from the result of calculations, that the path of either 

 of the poles is a circle, the poles of which coincide 

 with those of the ecliptic, and that the pole will move 

 along that circle so slowly as to accomplish the 

 whole revolution in about 25,791 years, nearly. The 

 diameter of this circle is equal to twice the inclina- 

 tion of the ecliptic to the equator, or about forty- 

 seven degrees. Now, as the ecliptic is a fixed circle 

 in the heavens, but the equator, which must be 

 equidistant from the poles, moves with the poles, 

 therefore the equator must be constantly changing 

 its intersection with the ecliptic. And from the 

 best observations, it appears, that the equator cuts 

 the ecliptic every year 50-25 seconds more to 

 the westward than it did the year before ; hence 

 the sun's arrival at the equinoctial point precedes its 

 arrival at the same fixed point of the heavens every 

 year by twenty minutes twenty-three seconds of 

 time, or by an arc of 50-25 seconds. Thus, by 

 little and little, these equinoctial points will cut the 

 ecliptic more and more to the westward, till, after 

 25,791 years, they return to the same point. 



EQUISETUM ; a genus of plants, belonging to 

 the Linnaean class cryptogamia. The species are 

 very common in wet places, and are commonly called 

 horse-tails. The fructification is hi terminal oval or 

 conical heads, composed of peltate scales ; the seeds 

 numerous and very minute ; the stem simple or 

 branched, striate, and composed of articulations, each 

 surrounded at base with a scarious sheath, which is 

 toothed on the margin ; the branches are verticillate 

 and destitute of leaves. The E. hyemale (shave- 

 grass or scouring-rush) has a remarkably rough stem, 

 and is used for polishing wood, ivory, and the metals; 

 for this purpose, a piece of iron wire is introduced 

 into the hollow of the stem, which is then rubbed 

 against the substance under operation. The asperity 

 of the cuticle is owing to its containing a proportion 

 of silex. Being a rare plant in England, it is 

 imported in considerable quantities from Holland, 

 and is an article of commerce hi other parts of Eu- 

 rope : the value of that exported from the Rhone is 

 estimated at nearly 450 annually. 



EQUITY. We call that, in a moral sense, equity, 

 which is founded in natural justice, in honesty, and in 

 right ex quo et bono. So, in an enlarged view (as 

 Mr Justice Blackstone has observed, 3 Comm. 

 429), " equity, in its true and genuine meaning, is 

 the soul and spirit of all law ; positive law is'con- 

 strued, and rational law is made by it. In this 

 equity is synonymous with justice ; in that, to the 

 true and sound interpretation of the rule." Hence 

 Grotius has defined it to be the correction of that, 

 wherein the law, by reason of its generality, is 

 deficient. It is applied to cases which the law 

 does not exactly define, but which it submits 

 to the sound judgment of the proper interpreter, 

 arbitrio boni viri permittit. In this sense, equity 

 must have a place in every rational system of juris- 

 prudence; if not in name, at least in substance. It 

 is impossible, that any code, however minute and 

 particular, should embrace or provide for the infinite 

 variety of human affairs, or should furnish ruU-i 



