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CIR'CULUS,^ with chemifts, a round inftruinent made 
of iron, for cutting otf the neck of glafs-veflels. The 
operation is performed thus : the inftruinent being heated, 
is applied to the glafs-veffel, and is kept there till it grows 
hot, and then with fome drops of cold water, or a cold 
blaJt upon it, it flies in pieces. And this is the way they 
cut oft the necks of retorts and cucurbits. 
CIRCUMAM'BIENCY,/. The a <51 of encompafiing.— 
Ice-receiveth its figure according unto the furface it con- 
creteih or the circumambi'ency which conformeth it. Brown. 
CIRCUMAM BIENT, adj. [circum and atnblo, Lat.] 
Surrounding; encompafiing; incloling ; ufually fpoken 
of the air.—The circumambient coldnels towards the (ides 
of the veflel, like the fecond region, cooling and con- 
den ling of it. Wilkins. 
To CIRCUMAM'BULATE, nj. n. [from circum and 
ambulo, Lat.] To walk round about. 
To CIR'CUMClSE, ns. a. \circumcido, Lat.] To cut 
the prepuce or forefkin, according to the law given to the 
jews.—They came to circumcife the child. Luke. 
CIRCUMCI'SiON, f. [circoncifwn, Fr. of circumci/io, 
Lat. a cutting round about.] A ceremony ul’ecl by the 
Jews and Mahometans, of cutting away the prepuce or 
forefkin of their male children. The Jews perform the 
operation on the eighth day from the birth ; but the Ma¬ 
hometans, who derive the cuttom from Ifmael, ufually 
adjourn it to between the thirteenth and fixteenth year; 
though fometimes they adminifter this ordinance fo early 
as the fixth or feventh year, in dafes where the fubjedl is 
deemed capable of making an open profeflion of his faith, 
in the cuftomary form : “ La Hah il-allah ; there is no god 
befides the God, [O ©eo?,] i. e. God, absolutely fo edited.'" 
The origin of circumcifion has been referred by fome 
authors to the Egyptians; and their opinion has been 
founded on paflages adduced from Herodotus, ii. 104. 
Diodorus Siculus, i. p. 24. edit. Rhodomanni ; and Stra¬ 
bo, xvi. p.760, 761. But the reafons, which prove filch 
opinion to be erroneous, are many and weighty. In the 
firft place it is notorious, that Herodotus, the molt re- 
fpeftable of thefe writers, did not live till many centuries 
after Mofes; and was therefore removed at a greater dif- 
tance from thVfource of right information. In the next 
place, Herodotus received his account from the priefts 
of Egypt. But it is well known, that in many inftances 
they grofsly impofed on him, with a view of making him 
believe the high antiquity of their nation. Then again, 
Herodotus himfelf does not pretend to fix, W'hether the 
Ethiopians borrowed this rite from the Egyptians, or the 
Egyptians from the Ethiopians. Fourthly, the Greek, 
and we may add the Roman, hitlorians, have betrayed 
extreme ignorance of Jewifh concerns in very many in¬ 
stances : and furely, common apprehenfion would lead us 
to fuppofe that Mofes, himfelf a Jew', and the great Jewifh 
hiftoriographer, was much better acquainted with the 
appointment of his own national inftitutions, than any 
Greek hiftorian poflibly could be. Fifthly, the Scripture, 
certainly (peaking the fentiments of the Jews, deems the 
want of circumcifion a reproach” to the Egyptians, 
Joflt. v. 9. in the fame manner as it afterwards fpeaks of 
the uncircumcifed Philiftines, 1 Sam. xiv. 6. and xvii. 26. 
But, had the Jews borrowed circumcifion from the Egyp¬ 
tians, there had been no room for fugh reproach. Sixthly, 
when Abraham left Egypt, he carried with him many 
fervants, whom he had bought for mo.ney, and w'ho there¬ 
fore were (laves, Gen. xii. 16. and xvii. 13. Had circum- 
cilion been an Egyptian rite originally, it is probable 
Abraham himfelf would have been circumcifed .in Egypt: 
it is more than probable his (laves, purchafed in Egypt, 
would have been there circumcifed. Yet we find, that 
twenty years after his leaving Eg) pt, and at the advanced 
age of “ ninety and nine years,” Gen. xvii. 1-24. Abra¬ 
ham was circumciied, and all his (laves ; having till that 
time been uncircumcifed. Seventhly, l'uch was the ex¬ 
treme abhorrence in which the Jews held the Egyptians, 
C I R 611 
that it is impoflible to conceive they would adopt from 
their opprelfors this cuftoin in particular, when they were 
fo carefully guarded from admitting amongft them any 
other Egyptian ulage. Eighthly, Artapanus, whole words 
are in Eufebius’s Prasp. Evang. l! 9. 27. affects, “ that the 
Ethiopians borrowed it (i.e. circumcifion) from the Jews, 
through their veneration for Mofes; inftead of learning it, 
as Herodotus fancied, from the Egyptians.” Ninthly, 
Jofephus alfo fays, “ God commanded it to Abraham ; de- 
firous that his polterity might continue diftindt, and not 
be blended with other people:” 1 . 10. 5. Tenthly, Ta¬ 
citus remarks, that the Jews “ circumcidere genitalia in- 
ftituere, flt diverfitate nofeantur.” Hilt. v. 5. Tacitus was 
a writer of fuch difpofition, as to leave, us no room for 
doubting that he fpoke according to received opinion : it 
follows therefore, that, in his time, circumcifion was 
deemed a rite of Jewifh origin. On his words we may 
moreover obferve, that if circumcifion were originally 
Egyptian, the whoje force of his fentence is entirely done 
away ; for, his objeft was; to point out the Jews as a lin¬ 
gular people, feparating themfelves from others by diver- 
lity of rites,of which circumcifion was one. The eleventh 
reafon is, that if the Jews had not been the original infti- 
tutors of circumcifion, the terms “ Curti, Vepri, Recutitif 
would never have been applied to them exclu/mely, as we 
find them applied by the Roman poets. Laltly, weighing 
all thefe. confiJerations, we conclude in the fentiments- 
and language of one, who is “ inftar omnium,” the great 
Grotius, who having proved that the Jews could have 
been induced to maintain their religion by no other mo¬ 
tive than the deepeft conviffion that Mofes wrought mi¬ 
racles, adds thefe words: “ Neither is it credible, that a 
people of fo obftinnte a difpofition, could ever be perfuaded 
any otherwife to fubmit to a law' loaded with fo many rites 
and ceremonies ; or that wife men, amorigll; the many dif- 
tindlions of religion which human realon might invent, 
fh mid choofe circumcifion; which could not be perform¬ 
ed without great pain, and was laughed at by llrangers, 
and had nothing to recommend it but the authority 
of God.” Grot. Truth of Chrift. Rel. i. 14. On thefe 
grounds we are firmly perfuaded, that circumcifion is of 
divine appointment, mllituted originally as the mark of 
a covenant with Abraham ; and from Abraham d.erived, 
through his pollerity, fo many eaftern nations. 
CIRCUMCl'SION-STONE, f A variety of the Jafpa- 
chates which comes from the Amazon river. It melts by 
the folar heat into a brown opake glafs, lefs hard than the 
ftone itfelf. 
To CIRCUMDU'CT, <u. a. \_circumduco , Lat.] To con¬ 
travene; to nullify: a term of civil law.—A6ls of judi¬ 
cature may be cancelled and circumduBed by the will 
and direction of the judge; as alfo by the content of the 
parties litigant, before the judge has pronounced and gi¬ 
ven fentence. Aylijfe. 
CIRCUMDUC'TION,/. Nullification; cancellation.— 
The citation may be circumdufVed, though the defendant 
fhould not appear; and the defendant mult be cited, as 
a circumdudhon requires. Ayliffe. —A leading about.—By 
long circumduffion perhaps any truth may be derived from, 
any other truth Hooker. 
CIRCUM'FFRENCE, f. [from circumferential Lat.] 
The peripheiy; the line including and lurrounding any 
thing : 
Extend thus far thy bounds, 
This be thy jull circumference , O world ! Milton. 
The fpace inclofed in a circle : 
He firft inclos'd for lifts a level ground. 
The whole circumference a mile around. Bryden. 
The external part of an orbicular body.—The bubble, 
being looked on by the light of the clouds reflefled f rom 
it, feemed red at its apparent circumference. If toe clouds 
were viewed through it, the colour at its circumference 
z would 
