EPI 
«f the learned amongst them, have different 
opinions, as they have also on the thirty- 
nine articles, which were established in the 
reign of Queen Elizabeth. These are to be 
found in most Common Prayer-Books ; and 
the Episcopal Church in America has re- 
duced their number to twenty. By some 
the articles are made to speak the language 
•of Calvinism, and by others they have 
been interpreted in favour of Arminianism. 
The Church of England is governed by 
the King, who is the supreme head; by 
two archbishops, and by twenty-four bi- 
shops. The benefices of the bishops were 
converted by William the Conqueror into 
temporal baronies; so that every prelate 
has a seat and vote in the House of Peers. 
Dr. Benjamin Hoadley, however, in a ser- 
mon preached from this text, “ My king- 
dom is not of this world,” insisted that the 
clergy had no pretensions to temporal juris- 
diction, which gave rise to various publica- 
tions, termed by way of eminence the 
Bangorian Controversy, Hoadley being 
then bishop of Bangor. There is a bishop 
of Sodor and Man, who has no seat in the 
House of Peers. 
Since the death of the intolerant Arch- 
bishop Laud, men of moderate principles 
have been raised to the see of Canterbury, 
and this hath tended not a little to the 
tranquillity of church and state. The esta- 
blished Church of Ireland is the same as the 
Church of England, and is governed by 
four archbishops, and eighteen bishops. 
EPISODE, in poetry, a separate inci- 
dent, story, or action, which a poet invents 
and connects with his principal action, that 
his work may abound with a greater diver- 
sity of events ; though, in a more limited 
sense, all the particular incidents whereof 
the action or narration is compounded, are 
called episodes. 
EPITAPH, a monumental inscription in 
honour or memory of a person defunct, 
or an inscription engraven or cut on a 
tomb, to mark the time of a person’s de- 
cease, his name, family ; and, usually, some 
eulogium of his virtues, or good qualities. 
EPITHALAMIUM, in poetry, a nup- 
tial song, or composition, in praise of the 
bride and bridegroom, praying for then- 
prosperity, for a happy offspring, &e. 
EPITHET, in poetry and rhetoric, an 
adjective expressing some quality of a sub- 
stantive to which it is joined; or such an 
adjective as is annexed to substantives by 
way of ornament , and illustration, not to 
snake up an essential part of the descrip - 
EQU 
tiou. “ Nothing,” says Aristotle, “ tires the 
reader more than too great a redundancy 
of epithets, or epithets placed improperly ; 
and yet nothing is so essential in poetry as 
a proper use of them.” 
EPITOME, in literary history, an abridg- 
ment or summary of any book, particularly 
of a history. 
EPOCHA, in chronology, a term or fixed 
point of time, whence the succeeding years 
are numbered or accounted. See Chro- 
nology. 
EPODE, in lyric poetry, the third or 
last part of the ode, the antient ode being 
divided into strophe, antistrophe, and epode. 
EPOPOEIA, in poetry, the story, fable, 
or subject treated of, in an epic poem. 
The word is commonly used for the epic 
poerp itself. See Epic. 
EPSOM salt, another name for sulphate 
of magnesia. 
EQUABLE, an appellation given to such 
motions as always continue the same in 
degree of velocity, without being either ac- 
celerated or retarded. When two or more 
bodies are uniformly accelerated or retard- 
ed, with the same increase or dinmnition of 
velocity in each, they are said to be equably 
accelerated or retarded. 
EQUAL, a term of relation between two 
or more things of the same magnitude, 
quantity, or quality. Mathematicians speak 
of equal lines, angles, figures, circles, ratios, 
solids, &c. 
EQUALITY, that agreement between 
two or more things whereby they are deno- 
minated equal. The equality of two quan- 
tities, in algebra, is denoted by two parallel 
lines placed between them : thus, 4 — J- 2 
= 6, that is, 4 added to 2 is equal to 6. 
EQUANIMITY, in ethics, denotes that 
even arid calm frame of mind and temper 
under good or bad fortune, whereby a man 
appears to be neither pulled up or over- 
joyed with prosperity, nor dispirited, sour- 
ed, or rendered uneasy by adversity. 
EQUATION, in algebra, the mutual 
comparing two equal things of different de- 
nominations, or the expression denoting this 
equality ; which is done by setting the one 
in opposition to the other, witli the sign of 
equality ( = ) between them: thus, 3s ~ 
36 d, or 3 feet = 1 yard. Hence, if we put 
a for a foot, and b for-a yard, we shall have 
the equation 3a = b, in algebraical charac- 
ters. See Algebra. 
EQUATION S, construction of, in algebra, 
is the finding the. roots or unknown quanti- 
tities of an equation, by geometrical con- 
