2.53 
A S C 
ASCEN'SION,/. [ afcenfw, Lat.] The act of arcending 
or riling; frequently applied to the vifible elevation of 
our Saviour to heaven : 
Then, riling from his grave, 
Spoil’d principalities and pow’rs, triumph’d 
In open (hew; and, with afeenfion bright, 
Captivity led captive through the air. Milton. 
The thing riling or mounting.—Men err in the theory of 
inebriation, conceiving the brain doth only fuffer from va- 
pourous afeenfions from the (tomach. Brown. 
In afironomy, afeenfion is either right, or oblique ; for par¬ 
ticulars of which, and the afcenfional difference, fee the arti¬ 
cle Astronomy, p. 326 , of this volume. 
ASCEN'SION BAY, in the gulf of Honduras, on the 
end coalt of Yucatan. Lat. 20. 35. N. Ion. 88. 55. W. 
Greenwich. 
ASCEN'SION-DAY, the day on which the afeenfion 
of our Saviour is commemorated, commonly called Holy 
Thurfday ; the Thurfday but one before Whitfuntide: 
Did not the prophet fay, 
That before Afcenjion-day at noon 
My crown I fhould give off ? Shakefpeare. 
ASCEN'SION ISLE, an idand in the ocean between 
Africa and Brafil, difeovered by Triftram Acuna, in the 
year 1508, on Holy Thurfday, whence the name; about 
eighty leagues in circumference ; mountainous, fandy, and 
barren, few places being fit for tillage ; but is chiefly va¬ 
luable to the homeward-bound flipping, on account of its 
excellent harbour, and the vail quantities of fea-fowl, filh, 
and turtle, which are found in it, as well as fome goats, 
whofe fiefh is not inferior to mutton in fweetnefs and de¬ 
licacy. In the crevice of a rock there is a place, called by 
the failors the PoJ 1 -qffi.ee, where fliips leave letters for each 
other { Ihut up in a well-corked bottle, which the next that 
comes breaks open, and leaves another in its (lead. Lat. 
8. o. S. Ion. 14.. 28. W. Greenwich. 
Of this idand, Mr. Forfter, who failed with Capt. Cook, 
gives the following account: “ We landed among fome 
rocks, the furf being always immenfely high on the great 
beach; which confifis of minute (hell-fand, chiefly of a 
fnowy white, very deep, dry, and intolerable to the eyes 
when the fun (hines. We attended among heaps of black 
cavernous done, which perfectly refembles the mod com¬ 
mon lavas of Vefuvius and Iceland, and of which the bro¬ 
ken pieces looked as if they had been accumulated by art. 
The lava-currents cooling very fuddenly, may eafily be 
imagined to produce fuch an effeft. Having afeended 
about twelve or fifieen yards perpendicular, we found our- 
felves on a great level plain of fix or eight miles in circuit; 
m the different corners of which we obferved a large hill 
of an exadt conical (hape, and of a reddifh colour, Band¬ 
ing perfectly infulated. Part of the plain between thefe 
conic hills was covered with great numbers of fmaller hil¬ 
locks, confiding of the fame'wild and ragged lava as that 
near the fea, and ringing like glafs when two pieces are 
knocked together. The ground between the heaps of la¬ 
va was covered with a black earth, on which we walked 
very firmly ; but, when thefe heaps did not appear, the 
whole was a red earth, which was fo loofe, and in fuch 
dry minute particles, that the wind railed clouds of dud 
upon it. The conic hills confided of a very different fort 
of lava, which was red, foft, and crumbling into earth. 
One of thefe hills dands diredtly in front of the bay, and 
has a wooden crofs on its fummit, from whence the bay is 
faid to take its name. Its fides are very deep, but a path 
near three quarters of a mile long winds round it to the 
fummit. After examining this remarkable country a little 
longer, we concluded, with a great degree of probability 
on our fide, that the plain on which we dood was once the 
crater or feat of a volcano, by the accumulation of whofe 
cinders and pumice-dones the conic hills had been gradu¬ 
ally formed ; that the currents of lava, which we now faw 
divided into many heaps, had perhaps been gradually bu- 
Vol. II. No. 69. 
A S C 
rled in freflt cinders and allies; and the waters coming 
down from the interior mountain in the rainy feafon had 
fmoothed every thing in their way, and filled up by de¬ 
grees the cavity of the crater.” 
ASCKN'SIONAL, adj. In adronomy, belonging to 
afeenfion. 
ASCEN'SIVE, adj. In a date of afeent: not in ife.— 
The cold augments when the days begin to increafe, 
though the fun he then ajeenfive, and returning from thq^ 
winter tropic. Brown. • 
ASCENT', f. [a/cenfus, Lat.] Rife; the act of riling 5 
the aft of mounting : 
To him with fwift afeent he up return’d, 
Into his blifsful bofom reaffum’d 
In glory, as of old. Milton. 
The way by which one afeends. An eminence, or high 
place.—A wide flat cannot be pleafant in the Elyfian fields, 
unlefs it be diverfified with depreffed vallies and fwelling 
afeents. Bentley. 
To ASCERTAIN', v. a. [from certain. ] To make cer¬ 
tain ; to fix ; to edablidi.—Money differs from uncoined 
diver in this, that the quantity of diver in each piece is 
afeertained by the damp. Locke. —Sometimes accented on the 
middle fyllable.—Of a l’mall time, which none afeertain 
may. Spenfer —To make confident; to take away doubt ; 
often with of— Right judgment of myfelf may give me 
the other certainty; that is, afeertain me that I am in the 
number of God’s children. Hammond. —This makes us aft 
with a repofe of mind and wonderful tranquillity, becaule 
it afeertains us of the goodnefs of our woiks. Drydcn. 
ASCERTAIN'ER, f. The perfon that proves or efta- 
bliflies ; he who gives incontrovertible evidence. 
ASCERTAIN'MENT, f. A fettled rule; an edablidi- 
ed dandard. — For want of afccrt.ainmenl, how far a writer 
may exprefs his good wilhes for his country, innocent in¬ 
tentions may be charged with crimes. Swift. 
ASCE'SIS, f. [from acry.av, Gr. ufed by the ancientsin 
fpeaking of the exercifes of the athletae.] Properly de¬ 
notes exercife of the body. Afcefs is alfo tiled by philofo- 
phers, to denote an exercife conducive to virtue, or to the 
acquiring habits of virtue. This is particularly denomi¬ 
nated the philofophical afcefs, becaufe pradfifed chiefly by 
philofophers, who make a more peculiar profeflion ot im¬ 
proving themfelves in virtue ; on the model whereof, the 
ancient Chridians introduced a religious afeefis. 
ASCETE'RIUM, J'. [from afcefs, Lat. exercife.] In 
ecclefiadical writers, a term ufed for a monadery, or place 
fet apart for the exercifes of virtue and religion. Origi¬ 
nally it fignified a place where the athletae or gladiators 
performed their exercifes. 
ASCET'JC, adj. [curunhy.of, Gr.] Employed wholly in 
exercifes of devotion and mortification.—None lived fuch 
long lives as monks and hermits, fequedered from plenty 
to a condant afcctic courfe of the levered abdinence and 
devotion. South. 
ASCKT'IC,/ He thatretires to devotion and mortifica¬ 
tion ; a hermit.—lam far from commending thofe afcetics, 
that, out of a pretence of keeping themfelves ur.ipotted 
from the world, take up their quarters indeferts. A 'orris. 
Ascetic is alio a title of feveral books of fpiritual ex¬ 
ercifes ; as the Afcetics, or Devout Exercifes, of St. Ba- 
fil, archbilhop of Caffarea in Cappadocia. 
ASCH'ACH, a town of Germany, in the circle of Fran¬ 
conia, and bilhopric of Wurzburg ; fix miles north of Kif- 
lingen, and thirty-two north of Wurzburg. 
ASCH'AFF, a river of Germany, in the circle of the 
Lower Rhine, which runs into the Mayne near Stockdadt. 
ASCII AF'FEN BURG, a town of Germany, feated on 
the river Mayne, in the circle of the Lower Rhine, and 
territory of the eledtor of Mentz, who had a palace there. 
It is memorable for being the place wdiere the king of 
Great Britain took up his quarters the night before the bat¬ 
tle of Dettingen. Lat. 49. 55. N. Ion. 26. 41. E. Ferro. 
AS'CHAM (Roger), an Englilh author of didinguidi- 
3 T ed 
