AWN 
AUTUMNAL signs, in astronomy, are 
the signs Libra, Scorpio, and Sagittarius, 
through which the sun passes during the 
autumn. 
AUXILIARY verbs, in grammar, are 
such as help to form or conjugate others ; 
that is, are prefixed to them, to form or de- 
note the moods or tenses thereof. As to 
have and to be, in the English ; estre et avoir 
in the French ; ho et sono in the Italian, &c. 
In the English language, the auxiliary verb 
am, supplies the wan t of passive verbs. 
Auxiliary, in military aftairs : by this 
term is understood foreign or subsidiary 
troops, which are furnished to a belligerent 
power in consequence of a treaty of alli- 
ance, or for pecuniary considerations. Of 
the latter description may be considered 
the Swiss soldiers, who formerly served in 
France, and the Hessians who were em- 
ployed by Great Britain, during a patt 
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 filium militem faciendum, 
vel filiam maritandam, a precept or writ di- 
rected 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 
enacted, that no charter of pardon shall be 
allowed before any justice, for the death of 
a man slain by await or malice prepence. 
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 par- 
ties themselves for terminating their differ- 
ence- See Arbitrator. 
AWL, or Am., among shoemakers, an 
instrument wherewith holes are bored 
through the leather, to facilitate the stitch- 
ing 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 twenty 
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, 
A X I 
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 any thing that can be brought 
to prove it : as, that nothing can act where 
it is not; that a thing cannot, be, and not 
be, at the same time; that the whole is 
greater than a part thereof ; and that from 
nothing, nothing can arise. By axioms, 
called also maxims, are understood all com- 
mon notions of the mind, whose evidence is 
so clear and forcible, that a man cannot de- 
ny 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 sort of propositions, under the 
name of axioms, have, on account of their 
being self-evident, passed not only for prin- 
ciples of science, but have been supposed 
innate, and thought to be the foundation 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 implied in the very definition. All 
considerations of these maxims, therefore, 
can add nothing to the evidence or cer - 
tainty of our knowledge of them : and how' 
little they influence the rest of our know- 
ledge, liowfar they are from being the foun- 
dation 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 dis- 
covering new works ; because the subtilty 
of nature far exceeds the subtilty of argu- 
ments : but axioms, duly and methodically 
drawn from particulars, will again easily 
point our new particulars, and so render 
the sciences active. 
