INV 
ing of arguments which the orator is to use 
for proving his point, or moving his hearers 
passions. 
This invention, in the opinion of that phi- 
losopher, cannot properly be called inven- 
tion, which is the discovery of things not 
yet known, and not the recollecting things 
that are known ; the only use and office of 
this rhetorical invention being out of the 
stock of knowledge already 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 indicating the parts where- 
in a thing is to be searched after, which he 
calls the topical way ; and the second is by 
laying up arguments for use that were 
composed before hand, and which he calls 
the promptuary way. 
Invention, in poetry, is applied to what- 
ever the poet adds to the history of the sub- 
ject 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 hus- 
band’s death ; which child, if he had been 
born, would be heir to the land of the hus- 
band. A devise toaninfantinventresamere, 
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 con- 
trary 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 lumi- 
nous body, the light and heat are less at a 
greater distance ; and greater at a less dis- 
tance ; 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 illuminated 
body receives more light and heat than he 
would at a greater distance. This is ex- 
pressed in different books, in different 
ways, sometimes by the term inversely, 
sometimes by the term reciprocally, as in 
the case referred to, we say the light and 
heat are inversely, or reciprocally, as the 
INU 
square of the distance ; or in the inverse, or 
reciprocal, duplicate ratio of the distance. 
INVERSION, or as it is in Euclid, in- 
vert endo, or by inversion, is inverting the 
terms of a proportion by changing the an- 
tecedents into consequents, and the conse- 
quents into antecedents : thus, if 
a : b :: c : d 
4 ; 9 :: 12 : 27 
Then by inversion it will be 
h : a :: d : c 
9 : 4 :: 27 : 12 
Inversion, in music, is a changed posi- 
tion 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, sometimes making 
it the bass, at other times the tenor, coun- 
ter-tenor, or the treble. The inversion of a 
chord is that changed position of its com- 
ponent parts, with respect to its fundamen- 
tal bass, by which, though the harmony 
remain the same, the intervals are varied, 
and the compound 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 con- 
siderable 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 tracts or prints of the feet; whence 
mathematicians, schoolmen, and gramma- 
rians, come to use the term in their respec- 
tive 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 an- 
cestor’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 and investi- 
ture. 
INULA, in botany, common inula, or 
elecampane, a genus of the Syngenesia 
Polygamia Superflua class and order. Na- 
tural order of C.omposit® Discoide®. Co- 
rymbifer®, Jussieu. Essential character : 
receptacle naked ; down simple ; anthers 
ending in two bristles at the base. There 
are thirty-four species ; these are generally 
i 
