1NV 



INU 



man of invention. Invention, according 

 to Du Bos, is that part which constitutes 

 the principal merit of works, and distin- 

 guishes the great genius from the simple 

 artist. 



INVENTION, in rhetoric, being one of the 

 second divisions of invention, according 

 to Bacon, signifies the finding out and 

 choosing of arguments which the orator 

 is to use for proving his point, in moving 

 his hearers' passions. 



This invention, in the opinion of that 

 philosopher, cannot properly be called 

 invention, which is the discovery of 

 things not yet known, and not the recol- 

 lecting things that are known : the only 

 use and office of this rhetorical invention 

 being, out of the stock of knowledge al- 

 ready laid up, to select such articles as 

 make for the purpose. The same author 

 divides the method of procuring a stock 

 of matter for discourse into two ; the first 

 of which is either by marking out and in- 

 dicating the parts wherein a thing is to 

 be searched after, which he calls the to- 

 pical way; and the second is by laying 

 up arguments for use that were compos- 

 ed before hand, and which he calls the 

 promptuary way. 



INVENTION, in poetry, is applied to 

 whatever the poet adds to the history of 

 the subject he has chosen, as well as to 

 the new turn he gives it. 



INVENTION, in painting, is the choice 

 which the painter makes of the objects 

 that are to enter the composition of his 

 piece. 



IN VENTRE SA MERE, is where a 

 woman is with child at the time of her 

 husband's death ; which child, if he had 

 been born, would be heir to the land of 

 the husband. A devise to an infant in 

 ventre sa mere is good, by way of future 

 executory devise. And where a daughter 

 comes into land by descent, the son, born 

 after, shall put her out, and have the 

 land. 



INVERSE, is applied to a manner of 

 working the rule of three, or proportion, 

 which seems to go backward, or contrary 

 to the order of the common or direct rule. 

 See PROPORTION. 



INVERSE proportion, or INVERSE ratio, in 

 philosophy, is that in which more requires 

 less, or less requires more. Thus, in the 

 case of light and heat flowing from a lu- 

 minous body, the light and heat are less at 

 a greater distance, and greater at a less 

 distance ; so that in this instance more 

 gives less, or a greater distance receives 

 less light and heat ; and less gives more, 

 that is, a person coming nearer the illu- 

 minated body receives more light and 



heat than he would at a greater distance. 

 This is expressed in different books, in 

 different ways, sometimes by the term 

 inversely, sometimes by the term reci- 

 procally; as in the case referred to, we 

 say the light and heat are inversely, or 

 reciprocally, as the square of the dis- 

 tance, or in the inverse, or reciprocal, 

 duplicate ratio of the distance. 



INVERSION, or, as it is in Euclid, in- 

 vertendo, or by inversion, is inverting the 

 terms of a proportion by changing the 

 antecedents into consequents, and the 

 consequents into antecedents: thus if 

 a: b :: c : d 

 4: 9:: 12: 27 



Then by inversion it will be 

 b : a :: d : c 

 9 : 4 ::'27 : 12 



INVERSION, in music, is a changed po- 

 sition either of a subject or of a chord. 

 The inversion of a subject is produced by 

 giving it a higher or lower situation 

 among the several parts of a score, some- 

 times making it the bass, at other times 

 the tenor, counter-tenor, or the treble. 

 The inversion of a chord is that changed 

 position of its competent parts, with re- 

 spect to its fundamental bass, by which, 

 though the harmony remain the same, 

 the intervals are varied, and the com- 

 pound assumes another name. 



INVERSION, in grammar, is where the 

 words of a phrase are ranged in a manner 

 not so natural as they might be. It is a 

 considerable beauty, either in verse or 

 prose, when we have it from an able 

 hand; it gives vigour and variety to a 

 sentence, and keeps the mind in an 

 agreeable suspense and expectation of a 

 marvellous turn and conclusion. 



INVESTIGATION, properly denotes 

 the searching or finding any thing out by 

 the tracks or prints of the feet ; whence 

 mathematicians, schoolmen, and gramma- 

 rians, come to use the term in their re- 

 spective researches. 



INVESTITURE, in law, is the giving 

 possession of lands by actual seisin. The 

 ancient feudal investiture was, where the 

 vassal or descent of lands was admitted in 

 the lord's court, and there received his 

 seisin, in the nature of a renewal of his 

 ancestor's grant, in the presence of the 

 rest of the tenants; but in after-times, 

 entering on any part of the lands, or 

 other notorious possession, was admitted 

 to be equivalent to the formal grant of 

 seisin or investiture. 



INULA, in botany, common inula, or 

 elecampane, a genus of the Syngenesia 

 Polygamia Superflua class and order. 

 Natural order of Composite Discoide, 



