IMI 



1MM 



executed, by publishing prints of a pro- 

 digious number of them, in his " Regal 

 and Ecclesiastical Antiquities of Eng- 

 land," and " View of the Customs, &c. 

 of England." In the first of these works 

 we are presented with the genuine por- 

 traits, in miniature, of all the kings, and 

 several of the queens of England, from 

 Edward the Confessor to Henry VII. 

 mostly in their crowns and royal irobes, 

 together with the portraits of many 

 other eminent persons of both sexes. 

 The illuminators and painters of this pe- 

 riod seem to have been in possession of 

 a considerable number of colouring ma- 

 terials, and to have knoun the arts oi 

 preparing and mixing them, so as to 

 form a great variety of colours: for in 

 the specimens of their miniature paint- 

 ings that are still extant, we perceive 

 not only the five primary colours, but al- 

 so various combinations of them. Though 

 Mr. Strutt's prints do not exhibit the 

 bright and vivid colours of the originals, 

 they give us equally a view, not only of 

 the persons and dresses of our ancestors, 

 but also of their customs, manners, arts 

 and employments, their arms, ships, 

 .houses, furniture, &c. and enable us to 

 judge of their skill in drawing. The 

 "figures in those paintings are often stiff 

 and formal; but the ornaments are in ge- 

 neral fine and delicate, and the colours 

 clear and bright, particularly the gold and 

 azure. In some of these illuminations the 

 passions are strongly painted. After the 

 introduction of printing, this elegant art 

 of illuminating gradually declined, and 

 at length was quite neglected. 



IMAGE, in optics, is the appearance of 

 an object made either by reflection or re- 

 fraction. In all plane mirrors, the image 

 is of the same magnitude as the object, 

 and it appears as far behind the mirror as 

 the object is before it. In convex mirrors, 

 the image appears less than the object; 

 and farther distant from the centre of the 

 convexity than from the point of reflec- 

 tion. By the follow ing rule, the diame- 

 ter of an image projected in the base of a 

 convex mirror may be found. "As the 

 distance of the objectirom the mirror is 

 to the distance from ihe image to the 

 glass, so is the diameter of the object to 

 the diameter of the image.'' 



IMAGINATION, a power or faculty 

 ofthe mind, whereby it conceives and 

 forms ideas of things communicated to 

 it by the outward organs of sense. 



IMITATION, in literary matters, the 

 act of doing, or striving to copy after, 



or become like to another person or 

 thing. 



IMITATIVE, in music, a terra appli- 

 cable to that music which is composed in 

 imitation of the effects of some of the 

 operations of nature, art, or human pas- 

 sion, as the rol ing of thunder, swiftness 

 of lightning, agitation of the sea, bellow- 

 ing ofthe winds or waves, &c. Imitation 

 is likewise a technical term, for a studied 

 resemblance of melody between the se- 

 veral passages ofthe harmonical parts of 

 a composition. 



IMMATERIAL, something devoid of 

 matter, or that is pure spirit : thus, God, 

 angels, and the human soul, are immate- 

 rial beings. 



IMMEMORIAL, in law, an epithet 

 given to the time or duration of any thing 

 whose beginning we know nothing of. In 

 a legal sense, a thing is said to be qf time 

 immemorial, or time oufof mind, that was 

 before the reign of King Edward II. 



IMMENSITY, an unlimited extension, 

 or which no finite and determined space, 

 repeated ever so often, can equal. 



IMMERSION, that act by which any 

 thing is plunged into water, or other flu- 

 id. See FLUID. 



IMMERSION, in astronomy, is when a star 

 or planet is so near the sun, with regard 

 to our observations, that we cannot see 

 it; being as it were enveloped and hid- 

 den in the rays of that luminary. It also 

 denotes the beginning of an eclipse of 

 the moon, of" that moment when the 

 moon begins to be darkened, and to en- 

 ter into the shadow of the earth ; and the 

 same term is also used with regard to an 

 eclipse of the sun, when the disk ofthe 

 moon begins to cover it. In this sense 

 emersion stands opposed to immersion, 

 and signifies the moment wherein the 

 moon begins to come out of the shadow 

 of the earth, or the sun beginl^to show 

 the parts of his disk which were hid be- 

 fore. 



Immersion is frequently applied to the 

 satellites of Jupiter, and especially to the 

 first satellite, the observation whereof is 

 of so much use for discovering the longi- 

 tude. The immersion of that satellite is' 

 the moment in which it appears to enter 

 within the disk of Jupiter, and its emer- 

 sion the moment when it appears to come 

 out. 



The immersions are observed from the 

 time ofthe conjunction of Jupiter with 

 the sun, to the time of his opposition j 

 and the emersions from the time of hi$ 

 opposition to his conjunction. 



