50 



INCARNATION IN CfENA DOMINI. 



kferable among Uie nobles of the country still bear 

 the nainv of incit. 



INCAKNAllON (from the Latin, the becoming 

 Jink}; a word used to express the descent of the 

 Oeity, or his nuuiifestAtion in Uie flesh, under the 

 human form; thus we speak of the incarnation of 

 Christ. The Hindoos believe in innumerable incar- 

 nations of their deities. The most celebrated are the 

 nine incarnations of Vishnu. See Avatar. 



I NI ! - 1 ; a crime made such by positive laws, in 

 compliunrf with iht- dilutions of religion. The law 

 .I nature does not recognise it: on this account, the 

 Code Napoleon does not number it among the carnal 

 crimes, on the ground that the punishment of such 

 crimes leads only to their concealment, and that the 

 punishment of public opinion is sufficient. Nature 

 lias, at all times and among all nations, forbidden 

 matrimony and sexual intercourse between descend- 

 ants and ascendants, not between brothers and sisters, 

 who were allowed to marry among the Persians, 

 Athenians, Egyptians, &c. The cultivation of the 

 moral sentiment extended the forbidden degrees of 

 relationship, and moral and religious pedantry carried 

 the prohibition even to spiritual relationship. Dis- 

 pensations were, however, granted for money. It is 

 desirable that the crime of incest should be limited 

 to Uie commerce of parents and children, brothers 

 and sisters. 



INCHBALD, ELIZABETH; a novelist and dramatic 

 writer of great talent, was the daughter of a farmer 

 named Simpson, and born at Stanningfield, in Suffolk, 

 in the year 1756. Having lost her father at the age 

 of sixteen, she went to London with the view of 

 obtaining an engagement for the stage, where she 

 married Mr Inchbald, then an actor of some celebrity, 

 imd accompanied him on several provincial tours, 

 partaking in his engagements. He dying in 1779, 

 she returned to London, and made her debut at 

 Covent-garden, Oct. 3, 1780. She continued on the 

 boards about eight years, and, from her great per- 

 sonal attractions, which she retained to a late period 

 of her life, as well as from her natural talents, was a 

 popular performer. After her retirement from the 

 stage, in 1789, she depended principally on her 

 literary labours for support, publishing several dra- 

 matic pieces, most of which had a temporary success, 

 while some are even yet considered as what is tech- 

 nically termed stock plays, among the latter of 

 which may be mentioned, Such Things are, a play ; 

 Every one has his fault, a comedy; and Lover's 

 Vows. She also wrote two novels, which still hold 

 a high place among works of fiction, and both of" 

 which display much original thought and genuine 

 pathos the one entitled, A Simple Story, (1791, 

 4 vols. 12mo) the other, Nature and Art, (1796, 

 2 vols. 12mo). She besides edited a collection of 

 dramas, entitled the British Theatre, with biographi- 

 cal and critical remarks (in 25 vols., 12mo), during 

 the period from 1806 to 1809; a similar collection of 

 the most popular farces (in 7 vols., 12mo); and the 

 Modern Theatre (in 10 vols. 1809). Her death took 

 place at Kensington, Aug. 1, 1821, in her 66th year. 

 This ingenious and able woman passed a life attended 

 with many difficulties and temptations with unsullied 

 reputation. Her Life and Correspondence was 

 recently published by Boaden, in 2 vols 8vo, and 

 displays in a striking light the noble and self-deny- 

 ing character of her nature. For many of her latter 

 years, she lived in comparatively mean lodgings and 

 in the strictest abstinence, in order that she might 

 uphold in comfort some families dependent on her 

 bounty. 



INCLEDON, BENJAMIN CHARLES; an English 

 vocalist, bom at St Keveran, in Cornwall, about 

 1704. When only eight years old, he was articled 



to Jackson of Exeter, under whose tuition he re- 

 mained as u chorister in Exeter cathedral until <HS 

 fifirmlh year. In 1779, he entered the navy as a 

 common sailor. His vocal abilities having attracted 

 the notice of his officers, he was advised to try his 

 fortune on the stage. In October, 1790, he made 

 his debut on the London boards, at Covent-gunlen 

 theatre, with great success, in the character of 

 Dermont, in O'Keefe's musical farce of the Poor 

 Soldier, and rose at once into a degree of popularity, 

 which attended him till the infirmities consequent 

 upon advancing years, and an irregular mode of life, 

 compelled him to retire from the active duties of his 

 profession. Of the diminution of his powers, how- 

 ever, he never could be persuaded, but constantly at- 

 tributed his declining popularity to the caprice of the 

 public. His voice a rich tenor combined uncom- 

 mon power, sweetness and ductility, both in the 

 natural and falsetto, and his intonation was singularly 

 correct, taking his imperfect education into consi- 

 deration. His articulation was, however, far from 

 equal to his other qualities, being coarse, not to sny 

 vulgar. The better sort of the old English ballad, 

 of which Steven's Storm, and Gay's Black-eyed 

 Susan are, perhaps, among the finest specimens, was 

 decidedly his forte : in this style of singing, he had 

 no equal. Pecuniary embarrassments, arising from 

 an utter carelessness of money and general improvi- 

 dence, embittered the latter part of his life, which 

 was closed at Worcester, February, 1826. 



INCLINATION, in mathematics, means the 

 direction of a line, with regard to a certain point 

 (according to the sense of the ancient mathema- 

 ticians, Apollonius and Pappus particularly.) In 

 astronomy, this word signifies the angle which the 

 orbits of the planets and comets make with the 

 ecliptic or orbit of the earth. This angle is the 

 smaller, the less the planet or comet is distant from 

 the ecliptic. According to the latest observations of 

 Lalande and Bode, this angle of inclination is, in the 

 different planets, as follows : Mercury 7, Venus 3 

 23' 20", Mars 1 51", Pallas about 30, Ceres 10 

 47", Jupiter 1 19' 10", Saturn 2 30' 20", Uranus 

 43' 45". More exact determinations with regard 

 to Ceres, Pallas, Juno, and Vesta may be expected 

 at some future period. The comets make frequently 

 very great angles with the ecliptic, for they traverse 

 the heavens in all directions. The inclination of the 

 moon's path is different, according as the sun atfrcts 

 it differently, but it is between 5 1' and 5 17'. 

 For the inclination of the magnetic needle, see Mag. 

 netic Needle. 



INCLINED PLANE. The inclined plane is one 

 of the three mechanical powers, or simple machines, 

 formed, as its name imports, by a plane surface, sup- 

 posed to be perfectly hard and inflexible, and which 

 is always inclined obliquely to the weight or resist- 

 ance to be overcome. The wedge is a modification 

 of this machine, being formed of two inclined planes 

 placed base to base. The screw is another modifica- 

 tion, being, in fact, merely an inclined plane wound 

 round the cylinder. This machine enables us to 

 raise a given weight along the inclined surface to a 

 given elevation, with less expense of force than 

 would be required to raise it perpendicularly to the 

 same elevation. This perpendicular height is called 

 the elevation of the plane, and the two lines enclosing 

 the angle which it subtends, are called the base, and 

 the length of the plane. See Mechanics. 



IN CO3NA DOMINI (Bulla in Ccena Doming; 

 the most remarkable of all the papal bulls, as it 

 most strikingly shows the arrogance of the popes, 

 and their pretensions as absolute rulers of the church, 

 and the authority which they claimed over temporal 

 princes. It is founded upon oUIer papal decrees. 



