(,10 C I R 
CIRCONCELLIO'NES, /. A fea of fanatics faid to 
have fprung up in Africa, in the reign of Conftantine. 
The accounts of them are fo abfurd and contradictory, 
that it is very doubtful whether they ever exifted at 
all, at leaft in the-iawlefs manner they appear to be 
delcribed. 
CIR'CUIT, / [ circuit , Fr. circuitus, Lat.] The aa of 
moving round any thing.—There are four moons alfo 
perpetually rolling round the planet Jupiter, and carried 
along with him in his periodical circuit round the fun. 
Watts. —The l'pace inclofed in a circle : 
He led me up 
A woody mountain, whofe high top was plain, 
A circuit wide inclos’d. Milton. 
Space; extent; meafured by travelling round.—The lake 
of Bolfena is reckoned one-and-twenty miles in circuit. 
Addifon. —A ring; a diadem ; that by which any thing is 
in circled : 
And this fell temped (hall not ceafe to rage, 
Until the golden circuit on my head 
Do calm the fury of this mad-brain’d flaw. Shakefpcare. 
Long deduction of reafon : 
Thou (halt not peep thro’ lattices of eyes, 
Nor hear thro’ labyrinths of ears, nor learn 
Hy circuit or collections to difcern. Donne. 
CIR'CUIT, in law,/. A certain divifion of the kingdom 
appointed forjudges to go twice a-year, for the adminif- 
tration of juttice. Thefe circuits are made in the refpeftive 
vacations, after Hilary and Trinity terms. . The leveral 
counties of England are divided into fix circuits, viz. i. 
Midland ; containing the counties of Northampton, Rut¬ 
land, Lincoln, Nottingham, Derby, Leicelter, Warwick, 
s. Norfolk; Bucks, Bedford, Huntingdon, Cambridge, 
Norfolk, Suffolk. 3. Home; Hertford, Eflex, Kent, Suf- 
fex, Surrey. 4. Oxford ; Berks, Oxford, Hereford, Salop, 
Gloticefter, Monmouth, Stafford, Worcefter. 5. Weftern ; 
Southampton, Wilts, Dorfet, Cornwall, Devon, Somerfet. 
<6. Northern ; York, Durham, Northumberland, Cumber¬ 
land, Wefhnorland, Lancafhire. 
\To CIR'CUIT, v. n. To move circularly: 
Pining with equinoflial heat, unlefs 
The cordial cup perpetual motion keep, 
Quick circuiting. Philips. 
CIRCUITEER', / One that travels a circuit.—Like 
your fellow circuiteer, the fun, you travel the round of 
the earth, and behold all the iniquities under the heavens. 
Pope. 
CIRCUI'TION, / [ circuitio , Lat.] The aft of going 
round any thing. Compafs; maze of argument.—To ap¬ 
prehend by what degrees they lean to things in fliew, 
though not in deed, repugnant one to another, requiretli 
more fha’rpnefs of wit, more intricate circuitiohs of dif- 
courfe, and depth of judgment, than common ability doth 
yield. Hooker. 
CIRCU'ITY OF ACTION,/, f circuitus aplionis, Lat.] 
In law, a longer courle of proceeding to recover a thing 
fued for than is needful; as if a perfon grant a rent-change 
©f ten pounds per annum out of his manor of B. and af¬ 
ter, the grantee diffeifeth the grantor of the fame manor, 
who brings an affife and recovers the land, and twenty 
pounds damages, which being paid, the grantee brings 
iiis aflion for ten pounds of his rent due during the time 
of the diffeifin, which he muff have had if no difl’eifln had 
been ; this is called circuity of allion, becaufe, as the gran¬ 
tor was to receive twenty pounds damages, and pay ten 
pounds rent, he might have received but ten pounds only 
for damages, and the grantee might have kept the other 
ten pounds in his hands by way of retainer for his rent', 
and fo laved his aflion, which appears to be needlcfe. 
“Terms de Ley. 
C I R 
CIR'CULAR, adj. \_circularis, Lat.] Round, like a cir» 
cle ; circuml'cribed by a circle: 
He firft inclos’d for lifts a level ground ; 
The form was circular. Dryden. 
Succefiive in order; always returning : 
From whence tli’ innumerable race of things 
By circular lucceflive order fprings. Rofcommon. 
Vulgar; mean ; circumforaneous.—Had Virgil been a. cir¬ 
cular poet, and clofely adhered to hiftory, how could the 
Romans have had Dido? Dennis. —Ending in itfeif: tiled 
of a paralogifin, where the lecond proportion at once 
proves the firft, and is proved by it.—One of Cartes’s firft 
principles of reafoning, after he had doubted of every 
thing, feems to be too circular to fafply build upon; for 
he is for proving the being of God from the'truth of our 
faculties, and the truth of our faculties from the being of 
a God. Baker. 
CIR'CULAR LETTER. A letter direCted to fever.il 
perions, who have the lame intereft in fome common af¬ 
fair; as in the convocation of ailemblies, or for meetings 
to elt£I members in parliament, See. 
CIR'CULAR LINES. Such ftraight lines as are di¬ 
vided from the divifions made in the arch of a circle : as 
the lines of lines, tangents, and fecants', on the plain fcale 
anil feCfor, 
CIR'CULAR SAILING, is that performed on the arch 
of a great circle. See Navigation. 
CIRCUL A'RITY, f. A.circular form.—The heavens 
have no diverfity or difference, but a iimplicity of parts, 
and equiformity in motion, continually fucceeding each 
other; fo that, from uliat point foever we compute, the 
account will be common unto the whole circularity. Brown. 
CIR'CULARLY, ad-u. In form of a circle.—The in¬ 
ternal form of it confifts of leveral regions, involving one 
another like orbs about the fame center; or of the feve- 
ral elements call; circularly about each othef. Burnet.—* 
With a circular motion : ' 
Trade, which, like blood, fhould circularly flow, 
Stopp’d in their channels, found its freedom loft. Dryden . 
To CIR'CULATE, v.n. To move in a circle; to run 
round ; to return to the place whence it departed in a 
conftant courfe.—Nature is a perpetual motion; arrd the 
work of the univerfe circulates without any interval or re- 
pofe. L'Ef range. —To be difperfed.—As the mints of ca¬ 
lumny are perpetually at work, a great-number of curious 
inventions, iflued out from time to time, grow current 
among the party, and circulate through the whole king¬ 
dom. Addifon. 
To CIR'CULATE, v. a. To put about.—In the civil 
wars, the money fpent on both (ides was circulated at 
home; no public debts contracted. Swift. 
CIRCULATION,/. Motion in a circle; a courfe in 
which the motion tends to the point from which it be¬ 
gan, as the circulation of the blood; for which (ee Ana¬ 
tomy, vol. i. p. 60S.—What more obvious, one would 
think, than the circulation of the blood, unknown till thp 
laft age. Burnet —A feries in which the fame order is al¬ 
ways obferved, and things,always return to the fame date. 
—As for the fiqs of peace, thou haft brought upon us the 
miferies of war; fo for the fins of war, tliou feeft fit to 
deny us the bleffmg of peace, and to keep us in a circu¬ 
lation of miferies. K. Charles. — A reciprocal interchange 
of meaning.—When the apoltle faith of the Jews, that 
they crucified the Lord of glory; and when the Son of 
man, being on earth, affirmeth that the Son of man was 
in heaven at the fame inftant, there is, in thefe twoJpeeches, 
that inutual circulation before-mentioned. Hooker. 
CIR'CULATORY,/ A chemical veffel, in which that 
which rifes from the veffel on the fire is collected, and 
cooled in another fixed upon it, and falls dawn again. 
CIR'CULATORY, adj. Circulatory letters, the fame 
with Circular Letters. 
CIR'CULUS; 
