856 E P I 
duo us; outer fix-leaved, very fmall, flat; inner three¬ 
leaved, three times the fize of the other, with ovate, 
fpreading, leaflets. Corolla: petals fix, lefs than the in¬ 
ner calyx, roundifti ; three outer, interpofed between the 
calycine leaflets, three inner. Stamina: filaments fix, 
capillary, bowed inwards, the length of the petals ; an- 
therae roundifti. II. Female flowers on the fame plant. 
Calyx and corolla as in the male. Piflillum: germs 
three, fubglobular; ftyles three, bowed inwards, very 
fmall ; ftigmas comprefled, fpreading. Pericarpium : 
drupes three, fubglobular, mucronate, with the perma¬ 
nent ftyles. Seed: nut kidney-form, comprefled, (lightly 
grooved.— EJfential Charabler. Calyx, double ; outer fix- 
leaved, fmall; inner three-leaved, large; petals, fix, 
three outer, between the calycine leaflets; three inner; 
drupes three, fubglobular, mucronate, with the three 
permanent ftyles inclofing a kidney-form nut. 
Epibaterium pendulum, a Angle fpecies, from Forft. 
Gen. 108. 
EPI'BOLE,yi [Gr.] The aft of throwing in; a figure 
in rhetoric, in which the repetition of the fame word 
occurs at the beginning of feveral fentences; a kind of 
epanalepfis. 
EP'lC, adj. [epicus, Lat. itto;, Gr.] Narrative ; com- 
prifing narrations, not afted, but rehearfed. It is uftially 
fuppofed to be heroic, or to contain one great aCtion 
atchieved by a hero. See Poetry. —From morality they 
formed that kind of poem and fable which we call epic. 
Broome. 
Homer, whofe name (hall live in epic fong. 
While mufic numbers, or while verfe has feet. Dryden. 
EPIC AR'PIUM, f. [from ewi, upon, and Gr. 
the wrift.] A topical medicine applied to the wrift. 
EP'ICED,yi [from eniKn^ov, Gr.] A funeral fong: 
And on the banks each cyprefs bow’d his head. 
To hear the fw3n fing her own epiced. IV. Browne. 
EPICE'DIUM, f. [from E7nx^5S«?, Gr.] An elegy; a 
poem upon a funeral: 
You from above fhall hear each day 
One dirge difpatch’d unto your clay ; 
Tliefe, your own anthems fhall become, 
Your lading epicedium. Sandys. 
EP'ICENE, adj. [from ettixoivo;, Gr.] Common to both 
fexes. 
EPICER AS'TICS, f, [from tort, and xe^avwj/.i, Gr. 
to mix.] Medicines which by mixing with acrimonious 
juices’temper them, and render them lefs troublefome. 
EPICHARl'KAKY, f. [from tm, upon, joy, 
and y.onioti, Gr. evil.] A rejoicing at the misfortunes of 
others. Scott. 
EPICH AR'MUS,ta philofopher and writer of comedy, 
fuppofed to have been a native of Cos, but to have been 
brought very young into Sicily, whence he has ufually 
pa(Ted for a Sicilian. He was a difciple in the Pythago¬ 
rean fcliool ; and upon being prevented by the tyranny 
of king Hiero from publicly profeffing philofophy, lie 
applied to dramatic poetry, and is reckoned by Ariftotle 
the earlieft writer of comedy. He was a fertile compofer; 
for Suidas aftigns to him fifty-two comedies, and the in- 
duftry of modern philologifts has afeertained the titles of 
forty; but of thefe fome fragments only are left. He 
taught at Syracufe, and is faid to have been the inventor 
of the two Greek letters, 6 and %. He wrote alfo com¬ 
mentaries upon phyfical and medical fubjefts. Among 
his fragments are fome moral fentences which do him 
honour : fuch are—Be fober in thought, be flow in be¬ 
lief ; thefe are the finews of wifdom—The gods fet up 
their favours at a price, and induftry is the purchafer— 
Live fo as to be prepared either for a long life or a fliort 
one—He who is naturally inclined to good is noble, though 
his mother were an Ethiop. He lived to the great age 
®f ninety-feven. 
E P I 
EPICHIRE'MA, f. [from eci, upon, and Gr; 
to labour with the hand.] An attempt, an endeavour; a 
prolix kind of argument to prove a point, 
EPICHl'RESIS, f. [from tern, upon, and Gr. 
to labour.] An attempt, a dexterity, a readinels at dif¬ 
fering animal bodies. 
EPICOPHO'SIS, f. [from E<sri, and y.utpty;, Gr. deaf.] 
The medical term for a total deafnefs. 
EPICR A'SIS, f. [Gr.] A gradual evacuation of bad 
humours in the blood by degrees. 
EPICRI'SIS, f. [Gr.] A judging of a difeafe. 
EPICTE'TUS, an eminent philofopher of the Stoic 
fchool, who flourilhed in the firft century of the Chrif- 
tian era, born at Hieronolis in Phrygia, in a fervile con¬ 
dition, and fold as a (lave to Epaphroditus, one of Nero’s 
freed-men. Having by fome means obtained his freedom, 
Epictetus retired to a little hut, where, enjoying only the 
bare neceftaries of life, he clofely devoted his time to the 
ftudy of philofophy. After a diligent application, by which 
he became thoroughly converfant in the principles of the 
Stoic fedt, he commenced his philofophical ledtures, and 
foon acquired great popularity as a moral preceptor. He 
was an acute and judicious obierver of manners; bold and 
animated in his reprelvenfions of vice; fimple, impreflive, 
and conciliating, in his precepts and inftrudtions ; and 
free from that vanity and rudenefs which were too com¬ 
monly affedted by philofophers. The morals which he 
inculcated were of the pureft kind ; and his life was a 
fhining example of true independence of fpirit, content¬ 
ment, magnanimity, temperance, humility, and modefty. 
He was accuftomed to fay, that the fum of moral inftruc- 
tion may be comprifed in two words aviyye xai an E^e, 
i. e. endure and abftain, or bear and forbear. When the 
philofophers were baniftied from Italy under the tyranny 
of the monfter Domitian, he was involved in their fate; 
but he bore his exile with true philofophic firmnefs, con- 
fidering himfelf as a citizen of the world; and knowing 
that wherever he went he carried his bed treafures along 
with him. He fixed his refidence at Nicopolis in Epirus, 
where he profecuted the great objedl to which he had 
devoted his life, by reproving vice and folly, and expa¬ 
tiating on the true means of attaining contentment and 
happinefs. We have no certain account either of the 
time or manner of his death. There feems, however, 
reafon to conclude, from the mention that is made of him 
by Aulus Gellius, and by the emperor Marcus Aurelius, 
that he died towards the clofe of Adrian’s reign. Ex¬ 
cepting fome fragments preferved by Antoninus, Gellius, 
Stobaeus, and others, the only remains of this philofopher 
are to be found in the beautiful manual, or Enchiridion, 
and the Diftertations, collected by Arrian, and drawn up 
from notes taken by himfelf and others from Epictetus’s 
lips. The fame difciple wrote alfo a large account of 
the life and death of EpiCtetus, which has not reached 
modern times. Simplicius likewife has left a commentary 
upon his opinions in the eclectic manner. On the whole, 
the doftrine of EpiCtetus breathes the genuine fpirit of 
the Stoic fchool. The doCtrine of the immortality of the 
foul he firmly maintained, and fpeaks of the happinefs of 
good men after death, in terms which might fuit a better 
lyftem than that of inevitable necefiity. He ftrongly op- 
pofed the opinion which fome of the Stoics held, relpeft- 
ing the lawfulnefs of fuicide: and it may truly be faid, 
that the fyftem of practical virtues which he recommends, 
approaches nearer than that of any inftruCtor, not en¬ 
lightened by revelation, to the purity of Chrirtian mo¬ 
rality. Some of the bed editions of this philofophers 
remains are thofe publifhed at Leyden, in 1670, in oCtavo, 
cum. notis variorum ; at Utrecht, in 1711, in quarto; at 
Oxford, in 1740, in oCtavo, by Jofeph Simpfon, together 
with Cebetis Tabula, Prodici Hercules, See. and at London,, 
in 1742, by J. Upton, in two volumes quarto, which is 
the mod valuable of them all. They have been tranfiated 
into various languages; and the edition in this country 
moft 
