AXI 



AXI 



tfboir in the French ; ho et sono in the Ita- 

 lian, &c. In the English language, the 

 auxiliary verb am supplies the want of 

 passive verbs. 



AUXILIARY, in military affairs : by this 

 term is understood foreign or subsidiary 

 troops, which are furnished to a bellige- 

 rent power in consequence of a treaty of 

 alliance, or for pecuniary considerations. 

 Of the latter description may be consider- 

 ed the Swiss soldiers who formerly serv- 

 ed in France, and the Hessians, who were 

 employed by Great Britain during a part 

 of the American war, and on other occa- 

 sions. 



AUXILIUM curia, in law, a precept or 

 order of court, to cite, or convene one 

 party at the suit of another. 



AUXILIUM ad Jilium militem faciendum, 

 vel JHiam maritandam, a precept or writ 

 directed to the sheriff of every county, 

 where the king, or other lords, had any 

 tenants, to levy of them reasonable aid, 

 towards the knighting his eldest son, or 

 the marriage of his eldest daughter. 



AWAIT, in law, way-laying, or laying- 

 in-wait to execute some mischief. It is 

 nacted that no charter of pardon shall 

 be allowed before any justice, for the 

 death of a man slain by await or malice 

 prepense, 13 Rich. II. 



AWARD, in law, the judgment of an 

 arbitrator, or of one who is not appointed 

 by the law a judge, but chosen by the 

 parties themselves for terminating their 

 difference. See ARBITRATOR. 



AWL, or AUL, among shoemakers, an 

 instrument wherewith holes are bored 

 through the leather, to facilitate the 

 stitching or sewing the same. The blade 

 of the awl is usually a little flat and 

 bended, and the point ground to an acute 

 angle. 



AWME, or AUME, a Dutch liquid mea- 

 sure, containing eight steckans, or twen- 

 ty verges or verteels, equal to the tierce 

 in England, or to one-sixth of a ton of 

 France. 



AWN. See ARISTA. 



AWNING, in the sea-language, is the 

 hanging a sail, tarpauling or the like, 

 over any part of the ship, to keep off the 

 sun, rain, or wind. That part of the 

 poop-deck which is continued forward 

 beyond the bulk-head of the cabin, is also 

 called the awning. 



AXETONE. See NEPHRITE. 



AXILLA, in anatomy, the arm-pit, or 

 the cavity under the upper part of the 

 arm. 



AXILLA, in botany, the space compre- 



hended betwixt the stems of plants and 

 their leaves. 



AXIOM, in philosophy, is such a plain, 

 self-evident, and received notion, that it 

 cannot be made more plain and evident by 

 demonstration ; because it is itself better 

 known than anything that can be brought 

 to prove it; as, that nothing can act where 

 it is not ; that a thing can be, and not be, 

 at the same time ; that the whole is greater 

 than a part thereof; and that from no- 

 thing, nothing can arise. By axioms, 

 called also maxims, are understood all 

 common notions of the mind, whose evi- 

 dence is so clear and forcible, that a man 

 cannot deny them, without renouncing 

 common sense and natural reason. 



The rule whereby to know an axiom is 

 this : whatever proposition expresses the 

 immediate clear comparison of two ideas, 

 without the help of a third, is an axiom. 

 But if the truth does not appear from 

 the immediate comparison of two ideas, 

 it is no axiom. 



These sorts of propositions, under the 

 name of axioms, have, on account of their 

 being self-evident, passed not only for 

 principles of science, but have been sup- 

 posed innate, and thought to be the foun- 

 dation of all our other knowledge ; 

 though, in truth, they are no more than 

 identic propositions ; for to say that all 

 right angles are equal to each other, is 

 no more than saying that all right angles 

 are right angles, such equality being im- 

 plied in the very definition. All conside- 

 rations of these maxims, therefore, can 

 add nothing to the evidence or certainty 

 of our knowledge of them : and how lit- 

 tle they influence the rest of our know- 

 ledge, how far they are from being the 

 foundation of it, as well as of the truths 

 first known to the mind, Mr. Locke, and 

 some others, have undeniably proved. 

 According to Bacon, it is impossible that 

 axioms raised by argumentation should 

 be useful in discovering new works; be- 

 cause the subtlety of nature far exceeds 

 the subtlety of arguments ; but axioms, 

 duly and methodically drawn from par- 

 ticulars, will again easily point out new 

 particulars, and so render the sciences 

 active. 



The axioms in use being derived from 

 slender experience, and a few obvious 

 particulars, are generally applied in a cor- 

 responding manner. No wonder, there- 

 fore, they lead us to few particulars ; and 

 if any instance, unobserved before, hap- 

 pen to turn up, the axiom is preserved by 

 some trifling distinction, where it ought 

 rather to be corrected. 



