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“ At no time were men born equal; at no time did 
they become, or if they were, could they continue, 
equal. Even previous to the exigence of civil govern¬ 
ment, this inequality exifted. It is aflerted, and with 
the utmoft truth, by the profoundeft reafoner and matured: 
thinker in Pagan antiquity, that man brought not 
Equality, but Subordination, to political fbciety. 
The family diftinctions of Father and Child, Husband 
and Wife, Master and Servant, exifted before, and 
prepared the way for the civil relation of Subject and 
Magistrate. The fame inequality which fubfifted in 
the origin, is effentially necelfary to the continuance of the 
political machine. The inequality of property is the 
foundation of all honed indudry and exertion ; the pro¬ 
tection of property once acquired is the only preventive 
of never-ceafirg blooddted, violence, and confufion. The 
commoned fenfe mud inform us, that the contrary doc¬ 
trine is equally dedruttive of poor as well as rich. De¬ 
prive the merchant of his opulence, and where can the 
numerous manufacturers and their families find that plen¬ 
tiful and comfortable maintenance, which lies open to 
honed indudry in every commercial, town in thefe king¬ 
doms ? Take from the landholder his edates, and where 
will the farmer, and much more his labourer, fly for re¬ 
fuge > Where will be thole improvements and operations 
of agriculture, which fuppofe, and necefiarily infer, a 
much larger portion of landed property than can come to 
any man’s dtare upon an equal divifion ?” See thefe fe- 
veral works, and the volumes of Monthly Review, New 
Series. 
EQUA'LITY, in painting and fculpture, is repre- 
fented by a middle-aged woman, holding in her right hand 
a pair of fcales, and in her left a fwallow’s ned, in which 
the parent bird is equally dividing the food to her young. 
E'QUALL, J'. Equality: 
Thou, that prefum’d to weigh the world anew, 
And all things to an equall to reflore, 
Indead of right, me feemes, great wrong dod fliew, 
And far above thy force’s pitch to fore. Spenjer. 
E'QUALLY, adv. In the fame degree with another 
perfon or thing ; alike.—To reconcile men’s vices to their 
fears is the aim of all the various fchemes and projects of 
fin, and is equally intended by atheifm and immorality. 
Rogers. —Evenly; equably; uniformly.—If the motion 
of the fun were as unequal as ot a fliip, fometimes flow, 
and at others fwift ; or, if being conflantly equally fwift, 
it yet was not circular, and produced not the fame appear¬ 
ances, it would not help us to meafure time more than the 
motion of a comet does. Locke. —Impartially : 
We fliall ufe them, 
As we fliall find their merits and our fafety 
May equally determine. Shakcjpeare. 
E'QUALNESS,/ Equality : 
Let me lament 
That our flars unreconcileable fliould have divided 
Our equalnefs to this. Shakefpcare. 
EQUAN'GULAR, adj. [from equus and angulus, Lat.] 
Confiding of equal angles. 
EQJJANI'MITY, f. \_a-quanimitas , Lat.] Evennefs of 
mind, neither elated nor deprefled. 
EQUA'NIMOUS, adj. £ aquanimis , Lat.] Even; not 
dejeCted; not elated. 
E'QUANT, f an imaginary circle conceived by aftro- 
nomers, for correcting the Ptolemaic fyftem, and called 
the equalizing circle. See Astronomy, vol. ii. p. 330. 
EQUA'TION, f. [aquare, Lat.] The invefligation of 
a mean proportion collected from the extremities of ex¬ 
cels and defect, to be applied to the whole.—We are to 
find out the extremities on both fides, and from and be¬ 
tween them the middle daily motions of the fun along the 
ecliptic ; and to frame tables of equation of natural days, 
to be applied to the mean motion by addition or fub- 
traCtion, as the cafe Ihall require. Holder. —By an argu- 
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ment taken from the equations of the times of the eclipfes 
of Jupiter’s fatellites, it feems that light is propagated in 
time, fpending in its paflage from the fun to us about 
feven minutes of time. Newton. 
EQUA'TION,./. in algebra, an expreflion of the fame 
quantity in two diflimilar terms, but of equal value ; as, 
3*. — 36^. See Algebra, voi. i. p. 288—290. 
- EQUA'TION, J. in aftronomy, the difference between 
the time marked out by the fun’s apparent motion, and 
the time that is meafured by its real or middle motion; 
according to which clocks and watches ought to be ad- 
jufted. See Astronomy. 
EQUA'TOR, f. [(equator, Lat.] The equator on the 
earth, or equinoctial in the heavens, is a great circle, 
whole poles are the poles of the world. It divides the 
globe into two equal parts, the northern and feu them 
hemifpheres. It pafles through the end and weft points 
of the horizon ; and at the meridian is raifed as much 
above the horizon as is the complement of the latitude 
of the place. Whenever the fun comes to this circle, it 
makes equal days and nights all round the globe, becaufe 
he then rifes due eaft and fets due weft, w hich he doth 
at no other time of the year. See the articles Astro¬ 
nomy and Geography. —By reafon of the convexity of 
the earth, the eye of. man, under the equator, cannot dif- 
cover both the poles: neither would the eye, under the 
poles, difeover the fun in tiie equator. Brown. 
Rocks rich in gems, and mountains big with mines, 
That on the high equator ridgy rife. 
Whence many a burfting Itream auriferous plays. Thom/on. 
EQUATO'RIAL, adj. Pertaining to the equator; 
taken at the equator.—The planets have fpheroidicai 
figures, and obliquities of their equatorial to their ecliptic 
planes. Cheyne. 
EQUATO'RIAL,/. An inftrument calculated to an- 
fwer a number of ufeful purpofes in practical aftronotny. 
It may be employed in any fteady room or place, and it 
performs moft of the ufeful problems with the greateft 
accuracy. It is the invention of tire ingenious Mr. 
Ramlden; and confifts of the following parts, as fhewq 
in the annexed figure. A, the azimuth or horizontal 
circle, which reprefents the horizon of the place, and 
moves on a long axis B, called the vertical axis. C, the 
equatorial or hour-circle, reprefenting the equator, placed 
at right angles to the polar axis D, or the axis of the 
earth, upon which it moves. E, the femicircle of decli¬ 
nation, on which the telefcope is placed, and moving on 
the axis of declination, or the axis of motion of the line of 
collimation F ; all which circles are meafured and divided 
as in the following Table : 
Mealures of the leve- 
ral Circles, and divi- 
fions on them. 
Radius 
Inches 
Limb 
divided 
to 
Non. of 
30 gives 
feconds 
Divid. oh 
limh into 
pts.oflnc. 
Livid, by 
Non. into 
pts.oflnc. 
Azimuth or ho 
rizontal cir- V 
cle 3 
5 ' 1 
15 ' 
30" 
45 th 
1350th 
Equatorial or ^ 
hour circle S 
S ' 1 
15', 
or 1 m. 
in time 
30" 
2" 
45^1 
1350th 
Vertical femi- 
circle for de- f 
clination or f 
latitude J 
S' 
15' 
3 °" 
42d 
1260th 
The telefcope placed on the femicircle of declination, 
is an achromatic refractor with a triple objeft-glafs, whofe 
focal diftance is 17 inches, and its aperture 2-45 inches, 
and it is furnifhed with fix different eye-tubes; fo that 
its magnifying powers extend from 44 to 168. The tele- 
fcope in this equatorial may be brought parallel to the 
polar axis, as in the figure, fo as to point to the pole-ftar 
in any part of its diurnal revolution; and thus it has 
been obferved near noon, when the fun has flione very 
bright. 
