W 1 £ 



W I E 



WIDJITZE, a town of Bohemia, in the circk of 



' pzaflau ; 8 miles W. of Czaflau. 



I t WIDMINNEN, a town of Pruffia ; 14 miles N.W. of 



' tick, 



, j WIDOW, Vidua, a woman that has loft her hufband. 



' / Some alfo ufe the term wldoiuer, for a man who has loft 



' (lis wife. Marriage with a widow is a kind of bigamy in the 

 jye of the canon law. 



The widow of a freeman of London may ufe her huf- 

 ;>and's trade as long as fhe continues a widow. 

 f Mr. Kerfeboom has given us a table, (hewing how long 

 four hundred and thirty-two widows lived, and finds, that 

 \t a medium, each hved fourteen years. Phil. Tranf. N°46H, 

 ;ea. 3. 



■ It appears that, in Germany, the number of widows 

 lying annually is four times the number of widowers : thus, 

 in Drefden alone, the number of widows who died in four 

 years was 584 ; the number of widowers 149 : /'. f. 4 to i. 

 At Wittenberg, during 1 1 years, 98 widowers died, and 

 376 widows. At Gotha, during 20 years, 210 widowers 

 died, and 760 widows. And as widows are certainly, one 

 with another, feveral years younger than widowers, it may 

 be concluded that the number of the former in life together 

 iould not be lefs than five times the latter. 



Thus alfo, in 1770, the number of widows in life, de- 

 rived from the whole body of profeflbrs and minifters in 

 Scotland, was 380 ; but the number of widowers among 

 i'.hem has, one year with another, been fcarcely 90 ; /. e. 

 not fo much as a quarter of the number of widows. Price's 

 Obferv. on Rev. Paym. eff. 4. 



I Thefe fafts cannot be accounted for without admitting 

 the greater mortahty of males. See Marriage, and Mor- 



ilALITY. 



There have been many fchemes eftabliihed for providing 

 annuities for widows, for an account of feveral of which, 

 fee Price's Obferv. &c. chap. ii. fe<£l. i, 2, 3. 

 j Among the ancient Greeks, widows had the care of the 

 eternal fire of Vefta committed to them ; which charge 

 among the Romans could be performed by virgins only, 

 |who from their office were called veftals. See Vestal. 

 ; Widow of the King, was (he, who, after her hufband's 

 death, being the king's tenant in capite, was driven to re- 

 icover her dower by the writ De dote ajjignanda ; and could 

 not marry again without the king's confent. 



Widow Bench, in tlie county of SuiFex, is that (hare 

 which a widow is allowed of her hufband's eftate, befides 

 her jointure. 



WiDOw'j Chamber, a name given in London to the appa- 

 rel and furniture of the bed-chamber of the widow of a 

 freeman, to which (he is entitled. 



Widow- /^u;7, in Botany. See Cneorum. 



WIDURIS, in Natural Hijlory, the name of a ftone 

 found in Java, Malabar, and fome other places, and de- 

 fcribed by Rumphius. Some fpecies of this are all over of 

 a fine white ; others are of a duUiy colour, with llreaks of 

 white ; the fimply white ones are femi-pelkicid, and look 

 very like the white of an egg. Some alto have called this 

 the hyalops, or achates vitren: pcrfplcuitatis. 



WIECK. See Week. 



WIED, in Geography, a county of Germany, fituated 

 [o the north of Treves, in the yi'ar ij6o, divided into two 

 parts : the Lower County, or New Wied, or Wied New 

 Wicd ; and the Upper County, or Wied Riinkel. Both 

 bad feats in the college of Weftphalia counts. 



Wied, New. See Neuwied. 



Wied, or Old Wied, a town of Germany, in the county 

 jf New Wicd ; 9 mile» N. of Coblentz. 



WIEDENBRUCK, a town of Weftphalia, in the bi- 

 (hopric of Ofnabruck; 32 miles S.S.E. of Ofnabruck. 

 N. lat. 51° 45'. E. long. 8^ 18'. 



WIEDERAU, a town of Saxony ; 5 miles N. of 

 Liebenwerda. 



WIEDERSBERG, a town of Saxony, in the Vogt- 

 land ; 8 miles W.S. W. of Oelfnitz. 



WIEDERSPACH, a town of Germany, in the raar- 

 gravate of Anfpach ; 6 miles W. of Anfpach. 



WIEGANDSTHAL, or Wiegesthal, a town of 

 Upper Lulatia ; 1 1 miles S. of Lauban. 



WIEHE, a town of Thuringia ; 26 miles N.N.E. of 

 Erfurt. N. lat. 51° 18'. E. long. 11° 35'. 



WIEL AND, Christopher Martin, in Biography, was 

 the fon of a Proteftan t clergyman at Biberach, in S wabia, where 

 he was born in September 1733. Educated by his father, he 

 began at the early age of thirteen to diftinguKh himfelf by 

 his Latin and German poems ; and he purfued his education 

 at Magdeburg and at Erfurt. Upon his return home he 

 became aifedtionately attached to Sophia de Guterman, 

 afterwards known by her works under the name of Mad. de 

 la Roche. In the year 1750 he (ludied jurifprudence at 

 Tubingen ; but his time was chiefly devoted to the writing 

 of veries, fo that in 1752 he publiihed a didadic poem in 

 fix cantos, entitled " The Nature of Things ;" " Ante- 

 Ovid, or the Art of Love ;" and " Moral Letters and 

 Tales." He alfo began an epic poem, on the fubjeft of 

 Arminius, the firlt five cantos of which he fent to the famous 

 Swifs poet Bodmer ; and he was thus led to vifit Switzer- 

 land, and to cultivate a friendihip with this celebrated poet, 

 and to refide for fome time in his houfe at Zurich. In this 

 retired and tranquil fituation, he applied with great dihgence 

 to the rtudy of the belles lettres, and acquainted himfelf 

 with the principal modern languages, fuch as Engli(h, 

 French, and Itahan, to which he afterwards added the 

 Spani(h and Portuguefe. He alfo read Plato with great at- 

 tention, and wrote feveral works, among which were the 

 " Trial of Abraham," and " Letters of the Dead." After 

 a refidence of feven or eight years in Switzerland, he quitted 

 this country, having formed his tafte on the models of Eu- 

 ripides, Xenophon, and Shaftfbury, whofe writings he had 

 dihgeiitly ftudied ; and in 1758 he publiflied his " Arafpes 

 and Panthea," a work which manifcfts the afcendency which 

 judgment and moral fentiment had acquired over his imagin- 

 ation. Upon his return in 1760 to his native city, he waa 

 appointed a direftor of the chancery, which olTice he held 

 till the year 1769, referving, however, fome leifure mo- 

 ments for the compofition of his philofophical romance, 

 entitled " Agathon," and his beautiful didaClic poem 

 " Mufarion." About this time he became intimately ac- 

 quainted with count Stadion, a nobleman who lived with 

 fplendour near Biberach, who had cultivated a tafte for li- 

 terature, and who polfefled an excellent library. He after- 

 wards received from the eleftor of Mentz an invitation to be 

 profcfTor of philofophy and the belles lettres at Erfurt, and 

 during his refidence in this place he became acquainted with 

 Anna Amelia, duchefs dowager of Weimar, a patronefs of 

 polite literature, and in 1772 (he appointed him tutor to 

 the two princes, Charles Augulhisand his brother Conftan- 

 tine, of whom (he was guardian. In this fituation he occu- 

 pied hinifcK in preparing a variety of works, botli in profe 

 and verfe, which have done honour to German literature. 

 He was at this time aulic counfellor to the duke of Saxe 

 Weimar, withapenfion, and a counfellor of government to 

 the eleftor of Mentz. Wieland married his favourite 

 daughter Charlotte to a bookfeller at Zurich, who was a 

 fon of the celebrated poet Solomon Gefncr. In 1797 he 



vifited 



