ESS 
ESS 
21 
fons of knights, and their eldeft fons in perpetual fuc- 
ceflion. 2. The eldeft fons of younger fons of peers, and 
their eldeft fons in like perpetual fuccellion; both which 
fpecfes of efquires Spellman calls armigeri natalitii ■> as he 
denominates the fons themfelves of peers armigeri honora- 
rii. 3. Efquires created by the king’s letters patent or 
other inveftiture, and their eldeft: fons. 4. Efquires b-y 
virtue of their offices ; as juftices of the peace, and others 
who bear any office of truft under the crown. To thefe 
may be added efquires of knights of the bath, each of 
whom conftitutes three at his inftallation ; and all foreign, 
nay Irilh peers; for not only thefe, but even the eldeft 
fons of peers of Great Britain, though frequently titular 
lords, are only efquires in law, and mu ft fo be named in 
all legal proceedings. Barrifters at law l'eem alfo now in 
full poffieflion of the title of efquire, though originally, 
as it ffiould feem, attained by ufurpation. The court of 
Common Pleas refufed to hear an affidavit read, becaufe 
a barrifter named in it was not called efquire. 1 WilJ. 224. 
See the article Herai.dr-y. 
ES'ROM, [Heb. the divifion of a fong.] A man’s 
name. 
ESSAO'IE, a town of Egypt : three miles foutli- 
fouth-eaft of Achmim. 
ESSA'RS (Les), a town of France, in the department 
of la Vendee, and chief place of a canton, in the diftridt 
of la Roche-fur-Yon: three leagues north-eaft of La 
Roche. 
ESSAR'TS (Les), a town of France, in the depart¬ 
ment of the Seine and Oife, and chief place of a canton, 
in the diftridt of Dourdan : four leagues and a half north- 
weft of Dourdan. 
ESSAR'TUM, f. in old records. Woodlands turned 
into tillage. 
7 o ESSAY', v. a. [ejfayer, Fr.] To attempt; to try ; 
to endeavour: 
While I this unexampled talk eJJ'ay , 
Pafs awful gulfs, and beat my painful way, 
Celeftial dove, divine affiftance bring. Blackmorc. 
To make experiment of. To try the value and purity of 
metals.—The ftandard in our mint being now fettled, the 
rules and methods of ejfaying fuited to it fliould remain 
unvariable. Lcckc. 
ES'SAY, f. [from the verb. The accent is ufed on 
either fy liable. 3 Attempt; endeavour; 
Fruitlefs our hopes, though pious our ejfay s ;■ 
Yours to preferve a friend, and mine to praife. Smith. 
A loofe fally of the mind ; an irregular indigefted piece ; 
not a regular and orderly compofition.—My cjfays, of all 
my other works, have been molt current. Bacon. 
Yet modeftly he does his work furvey. 
And calls his finilh’d poem an ejfay. Poem to Rofe. 
A trial; an experiment.—This treatife prides itfelf in no 
higher title than that of an ejfay , or imperfect attempt at 
alubjeft. Glanville. —Firft tafte of any thing; firft experi¬ 
ment.—Tranllating the firft of Homer’s Iliads, I intended 
as an ejfay to the whole work. Drydcn. 
ESSAY'ING, or Assaying, f. in chemiftry and me¬ 
tallurgy, the art of analyfing metallic ores, and thence 
deducing the real quantity of pure metal contained there¬ 
in. See Assay, vol. ii. p. 281 ; and the article Che¬ 
mistry, vol. iv. p. 262-320. See alfo the article Me- 
TALLURGY. 
ES'SAYIST, f. the writer of an effiay.—Grave affies ! 
mere ejfayijls! B.Jonfon. —Montagne the ejfayijl feems to 
have been a little warmed with wine, or naturally hot¬ 
headed. Butler’s Ckara&ers. 
ESSED A'RlI, f. a fort of gladiators, mentioned by 
Seneca, Seutonius, and Tully, who engaged one another 
out of chariots called ejfeda. L he ejfedum was a fort of 
heavy chariot from which the Gauls and Britons engaged 
the Romans. See the article Gladiator. 
ESSED'ONES, a people of Afia, above the Palus 
Vol. VII. No. 404. 
Mceotis, who ate the flefii of their parents mixed with 
that of cattle. They gilded the head, and kept it as fa- 
cred. Mela. 
ES'SEL, or Ehstel, a town of Germany, in the cir¬ 
cle of Weftphalia, and county of Verden : two miles 
north of Verden. 
ES'SEMBERG, a town of Germany, in the circle of 
Weftphalia, and county of Meurs, near the Rhine : three 
miles eaft of Meurs. 
ES'SEN, a town of Germany, in the circle of Weft- 
phalia, and bifhoprick of Ofnubruck : ten miles caft- 
north-eaft of Verden. 
ES'SEN, a town of Germany, in the circle of Weft¬ 
phalia, and bifhoprick of Munfter : ten miles fouth of 
Cloppenburg. 
ES'SEN, a town of Germany, in the circle of Weft¬ 
phalia : fixteen miles north-north-eaft of Dulieldorp. 
ESSENBE'CK, a town of Denmark, in Jutland: four 
miles from Randers. 
ES'SENCE,/. [ejfentia, Lat.] The very nature of any 
being, whether it be actually exifling or not.—A rofe.j 11 
winter has an cjfence ; in fummer it has exiftence alfo. 
Watts’s Logic. 
One thinks the foul is air ; another, fire ; 
Another, blood diffus’d about the heart ; 
Another faith, the elements confpire, 
And to her ejfcnce each doth give a part. Davies. 
Formal exiftence ; that which makes any thing to be 
what it is.—The vifible church of Jefus is one in out¬ 
ward profeffion of thofe things, which fupernaturally ap. 
pertain to the very cjfence of Chriftianity, and are necef- 
farily required in every particular Chriftian man. Hooker. 
■—The ejjence of a circle is, that its femi-diameters be all 
equal. The ejfence of a fquare, that it have four right- 
angles, and as many equal right-lined Tides. Bailey. —Fx- 
iftence; the quality of being.—In fucli cogitations have 
I (food, with fucli a darknefs and heavinefs of mind, that 
I might have been perfuaded to have refigned my very 
ejfence. Sidney. —Being ; exiftent perfon : 
As fur as gods and heavenly ejfences 
Canperifh. Milton. 
Species of exiftent being.—Here be four of you, as dif¬ 
fering as the four elements ; and yet you are friends : as 
for Kupoli, becaufe he is temperate, and without paffion, 
he may be the fifth cjfence. Bacon. —Conftituent fubftance: 
For fpirits when they pleafe, 
Can either fex a Hume, or both ; fo foft 
And uncompounded is their ejfence pure ; 
Nor ty’d or manacled with joint or limb. Milton. 
The caufe of exiftence. This Jenfe is not proper ; 
She is my ejfcnce : and 1 leave to be, 
If I be not by her fair influence 
Foller’d, illumin’d, cherifh’d, kept alive. Shakefpeare. 
[In medicine.] The chief properties or virtues of any 
Ample, or compofition collected in a narrow compufs. 
Perfume ; odour ; feent: 
Our humble province is to tend the fair ; 
To fave the powder from too rude a gale, 
Nor let th’ imprifon’d ejfences exhale. Pope. 
To ES'SENCE, v.a. [from ejfcnce. ] To perfume ; to 
feent.—The hu'fband rails, from morning to night, at 
ejfenced fops and tawdry courtiers. AddiJ'on. 
ESSEN'DI QUIETUM DE TOLONIO,/ in law, a 
writ to be quit of toll ; it lies for citizens and burgeffes 
of any city or town that by charter or prefeription ought 
to be exempted from toll, where the fame is exulted of 
tiiem. 
ESSE'NES, or Essenians, in Jewifh antiquity, one 
of the three ancient fedfs among that people. They al¬ 
lowed a future ftate, but denied a refurredfion from the 
dead. Their way of life was very Angular : they did not 
marry ; but adopted the children of others, whom they 
G bred 
