WIS 



W I s 



oracle fhould be confulted. The anfwer of the oracle was 

 • To the Wifeft.' In obedience to this anfwer, the Mile- 

 fians unanimoufly adjudged the tripod to Thales. Thales 

 modeftly declined the honour intended him by his fellow- 

 citizens, and fent the tripod to Bias, a wife man of Priene ; 

 from him it was palTed on through feveral hands, till it came 

 to Solon, the Athenian legiflator, who judging that the 

 charafter of ' the wifeft' could not properly belong to any 

 human being, fent 'the prize of wifdom to Delphos to be 

 dedicated to Apollo. The ftory, as above related, has in it 

 fomething fabulous ; and the circumftances that attend it are 

 differently related by different writers. It is more probable, 

 fays Brucker, that in fome pubhc alTembly a tripod was pro- 

 pofed as an honorary prize to the man who fhould recite, in 

 verfe, the moft excellent maxims of political and moral wif- 

 dom, and that the fages who engaged in this generous con- 

 teft afterwards agreed to dedicate the prize to Apollo. In 

 confirmation of this conjefture it is alleged, from a patfage 

 in Plato's Protagoras, that the wife men of this period met 

 together to frame concife precepts and maxims for the con- 

 duft of life, and agreed to fend fuch fentences as were 

 thought moft valuable to Delphos, to be infcribed in the 

 temple. Hence Apollo is faid by the ancients to have been 

 the author of the precept ' Know thyfelf.' — ' E coelo 

 defcendit, r»iiOi a-ixJlot.' The names commonly included 

 under the appellation of the Seven Wife Men of Greece 

 are, Thales, Solon, Chilo, Pittacus, Bias, Cleobulus, and 

 Periander. Brucker's Philof. by Enfield, vol. i. 



WISECK, in Geography, a river of Heffe, which runs 

 into the Lahn, near Gieifen. 



WISELL, a town of the duchy of Stiria ; 4 miles 

 N.E. of Rein. 



WISEMAN, Richard, in Biography, was firft known 

 as a furgeon in the civil wars of Charles I., and accompa- 

 nied prince Charles, when a fugitive, in France, Holland, 

 and Flanders. He ferved for three years in the Spanifli 

 navy, and returned with the prince to Scotland, and was made 

 prifoner in the battle of Worcefter. After his liberation, 

 in 1652, he fettled in London. When Charles II. was re- 

 ftored, he became eminent in his profeffion, and was made 

 one of the ferjeant-furgeons to the king. In May 1676 he 

 appears, from the preface to his works, to have been a fuf- 

 ferer by ill health for twenty years ; but the time of his 

 death is not known. The refult of his experience appears 

 in " Several Chirurgical Treatifes," fol. 1676, 1686, and 

 in 2 vols. 8vo. 1 7 19. The fubjefts of thefe treatifes are, 

 tumours, ulcers, difeafes of the anus, king's-evil, wounds, 

 gunfhot-wounds, fraftures and luxations, and lues venerea. 

 The courfe of his praftice comprehended more than 600 

 cafes, of which he gives apparently an honeft account, re- 

 cording his failures as well as his cures, and the detail merits 

 attention. In his relation of the miraculous effefts of 

 the royal touch in fcrofula, it is not eafy to reconcile his 

 honefly with his fagacity, though from his own narration, 

 duly confidered, the fallacy is eafily detefted. His writings 

 have long been regarded as ftandard authority in the exa- 

 minations at Surgeon's-Hall. Gen. Biog. 



Wiseman, Mr., a worthy Enghfh mufician, who went 

 early in life to Italy, in order to receive leffons on the 

 violin from Tartini, in Padua, who recommended him, 

 in 1736, to one of his favourite fcholars, Pafqualino Bini, 

 at Rome, where, after fome time, finding himfelf likely 

 to thrive as a profeffor, by the patronage of the Englifh 

 nobility and gentry with which that city always abounds 

 in their travels, fettled there for the reft of his life ; and 

 though not a performer of the firft clafs, being a good 



mufician, and a man of probity and good conduft, he was 

 not only refpefted by his countrymen, but by the natives of 

 that city, which, though no longer the capital of the world, 

 is ftill the capital of Italy and the fine arts. 



Mr. Wifeman had refided fo long in Italy, that he had 

 almoft forgotten his native tongue. In 1770 he lived in the 

 Palazzo Rafaele, without the gates of Rome, where, during 

 the firft winter months, he had a weekly concert till the 

 operas began. It was here that the great Raphael lived and 

 died, where there were ftill fome of his paintings in frefco, 

 and where the late duke of York, the prince of Brunfwick, 

 and feveral other great perfonages, gave concerts to the firft 

 people of Rome. 



WISEN, in Geography, a river of Baden, which runs into 

 the Rhine, near Bale. 



WISENT, a river of Bavaria, which runs into the Red- 

 nitz, near Forcheim, in the bifhopric of Bamberg. 



WISEPPE, a town of France, in the department of the 

 Meufe ; 3 miles S. of Stenay. 



WISFTARDA, a town of Sweden, in the province 

 of Smaland ; 22 miles N. of Carlfcrona. 



WISHART's Island, an ifland in the Pacific ocean. 

 This is one of the Solomon iflands, and by the Spaniards 

 called Artreguada. S. lat. 2° 20'. E. long. 150° 55'. 



WISIR, a fmall ifland in the Eaft Indian fea, near the 

 weft coaft of Aroo. S. lat. 15° 21'. E. long. 134° 51'. 



WISK, or WiRSK, a river of England, in the county of 

 York, which runs into the Swale. 



WISKA, a river of Sweden, which runs into the fea, 



3 miles S. of Waro, in Weft Gothland, 



WISKI, a town of Bohemia, in the circle of Beraun ; 



4 miles N. of Przibram. 



WISLAUFF, a river of Wurtemberg, which runs into 

 the Rems, N.E. of Schorndorff. 



WISLITZA, a town of Poland, in the palatinate of 

 Sandomirz ; 48 miles W.S.W. of Sandomirz. 



WISLOCH, a town of the duchy of Baden, in the pa- 

 latinate of the Rhine ; 14 miles E. of Spire. N. lat. 49° 18'. 

 E. long. 8° 45'. 



WISMAR, a town of the duchy of Mecklenburg, fitu- 

 ated in a bay of the Baltic, with a good harbour ; large, 

 well fortified, and defended by a citadel. This is one of j 

 the beft and largeft places in the country ; as, befides fix 

 churches, it has alfo a particular confiftory of its own, with i 

 a grammar-fchool, under the direftion of eight mafters, and 

 is the feat of a Swedifti court of juftice, eredled in the year 

 i6j3, both for the diftriA and Swedifh Anterior Pomera- 

 nia. The court confifts of a prefident, a vice-prefident, and 

 four alTeffors. It was formerly a Hanfe town, and poffeffed 

 of the privilege of coining : the firft origin is not known 

 with any degree of certainty. In the year 1238, it was en- 

 larged ; and in the year 1266, obtained the Lubeck rights. 

 In the year 126 1, it was annexed to the duchy of Schwerin ; 

 in the year 1627, the Imperiahfts got poffefTion of it ; but in 

 the year 1632 were driven out by the Swedes, to whom it 

 was ceded, at the peace of Weftphalia, in 1648; 33 miles 

 E. of Lubeck. N. lat. 53° 55'. E. long. 1 1° 26'. 



WISMATH, a town of Auftria ; 14 miles S. of Eben- 

 furth. 



WISNA, a town of the duchy of Warfaw ; 70 miles 

 N.E. of Warfaw. 



WISNUM,atown of Sweden, in the province of Warrae- ] 

 land ; 25 miles E.N.E. of Carlftadt. 



WISOKIA, a town of Lithuania ; 20 miles N.N. W. of ! 

 Brzefc. 



WISP, in Rural Economy, a term fignifying a fmall bunch 



of 



