ASP 
liercotempofarieS ; and her convcrfation was fo entertain¬ 
ing and indruitive, that, notwithftanding the dilhonoura- 
ble commerce the carried on, perfons of the firft didindtion, 
male and female, retorted to her houfe as to an academy : 
fhe even numbered Socrates among her hearers and admi¬ 
rers. She captivated Pericles in inch a manner, that he 
di funded his own wife in order to efpoufe her; and, by her 
univertal knowledge, irrefiftible elocution, and intriguing 
genius, die in a great meafure influenced tire adminiftra- 
tion of Athens. She was accufed of having excited, from 
motives of perfonal refentinent, the war of Peloponnefus; 
yet, Calamitous as that long and obft'mate conflict proved 
to Greece, and particularly to Athens, it may be lufpebt- 
ed that Afpafia occafioned dill more incurable evils to both. 
Her example, and dill more her inductions* formed a 
fchool at Athens, by which her dangerous profeflion was 
reduced into fydem. The companions of Afpalia ferved 
as models for painting and datuary, and themes for poetry 
and panegyric. Nor were they merely the objects, bat 
the authors, of many literary works, in which they eda- 
blifhed rules for the behaviour of their lovers, particu¬ 
larly at table; and explained the art of gaining the heart 
and captivating the affections. The dvefs, behaviour, and 
artifices, of this clafs of women, became continually more 
ieduCtive and dangerous ; and Athens thenceforth remain¬ 
ed the chief fchool of vice and pleafure, as well as of li¬ 
terature and philofophy. 
A spasia, [from a, for together, and cr 7 r«<v,todraw.] 
A condriftive medicine for the pudendum niuliebre. 
ASPAS'TICUM,/. [from amu^op.u.i, to falute.] A 
place, or apartment, adjoining to the ancient churches, 
wherein the bilhop and prefbyters fat, to receive the falu- 
tations of the perlons who came to vifit them, defire their 
bleding, or confult them on bufinefs. This is alfo called 
afpatio um diaconicum, receptorium, metatorium, or mefatorium 3 
and falutatorium: in Englidi, “greeting-houle.” 
AS'PE, a town of Spain, in Valencia, dtuated on the 
Elda, four leagues wed of Alicant. 
Aspe Vie'jo, a town of Spain, in Valencia, three 
leagues and a half wed of Alicant. 
AS'PECT,yi [ afpedus , Lat. It appears anciently to 
have been pronounced with the accent on the lad fyliable, 
which is now placed on the firft.] Look; air; appearance. 
—I have prefented the tongue under a double afped, fuch 
as may judify the definition, that it is the bed and word 
part. Government of the Tongue. —Countenance; look; 
glance; view; aft of'beholding.-—When an envious or an 
amorous afped doth infeft the fpirits of another, there is 
joined both affeftion and imagination. Bacon. —Direction 
towards any point; view; pofition. Difpolition of any 
thing to fomething elfe ; relation.—The light got from 
the oppofite arguings of men of parts, diewing the diffe¬ 
rent lides of things, and their various afpeds and probabi¬ 
lities, would be quite lod, if every one were obliged to fay 
after the fpeaker. Loche. —Planetary motion : 
To the blank moon 
Her office they preferib’d : to th’ other five 
Their planetary motions, and aj'peels, 
in Textile, fquare, and trine, and oppofite. Milton. 
Aspect, in adronomy, is the fituation of the dars and 
planets in refpefl of each other. Or, in adrology, it de¬ 
notes a certain configuration and mutual relation between 
the planets, arifing from their fituations in the zodiac, by 
which it is fuppofed that their powers are mutualiy either 
increafed or diminifhed, as they happen to agree or difa- 
gree in their aftive or palfive qualities. Though fuch 
configurations may be varied and combined a thoufand 
ways, yet only a few of them are confidered. Hence, 
Wolfius more accurately defines afped: to be, the meeting 
of luminous rays emitted from two planets to the earth, 
either pofited in the fame right line, or including an angle 
which is an aliquot part, or lome number of aliquot parts, 
of four right angles, or of 360 degrees. The doctrine of 
ASP 271 
afpeds was introduced by the adrologers, as the founda¬ 
tion of their predictions. And hence Kepler defines them 
to be, an angle formed by the rays of two planets meeting 
on the earth, capable of exciting fome natural power or 
influence. See Astrology. 
To Aspect', v. a. [ afpicio, Lat.] To behold : not ufed. 
Happy in their miftake, thofe people whom 
The northern pole afpeds-, whom fear of death 
(The greatefb of all human fears) ne’er moves. Temple. 
ASPECT'ABLE, adj. [afpedabi/is, Lat.) Vifible ; be¬ 
ing the objed of fight.—To this ufe of informing us what is 
in this afpedable world, we fliall find the eye well fitted. Ray. 
ASPEC'TION,yi Beholding; view.—A Moorifh queen, 
upon afpedion of the picture of Andromeda, conceived 
and brought forth a fair one. Brown. 
AS'PEN, adj. Belonging to the afp tree : 
Oh! had tlie mender feen thofe lily hands 
Tremble like afpen leaves upon a lute. Shakefpeare. 
AS'PER,y. in grammar, an accent peculiar to the Greek 
language, marked thus ('); and importing, that the letters 
over which it is placed ought to be ftrorigly afpirated, or 
pronounced as if an h were joined with them. 
Asper, a Turkifh coin, three of which make a Me dine. 
AS'PERA ARTE'RIA, in anatomy, the fame with the 
windpipe or trachea. See Anatomy. 
To AS'PERATE, v.a. \_afpero, Lat.] To roughen; to 
make rough or uneven.—Thofe corpufcles of colour, in- 
finuating themfelves into all the pores of the body to be 
dyed, may afperate its luperficies, according to the bignefs 
and texture of the corpufcles. Boyle. 
ASPERA'T 10 N,yi A making rough. 
ASPE'REN, a town in the State of Holland, fituated 
on the Linge, famous for a long fiege which it held out 
againft the Gueldrians, under the conduct of Cha. d’Eg- 
mont, the lad duke of Gueldres, in 1517. The dout and 
long refidance made by the befieged, fo enraged the duke, 
that, when he had made himfelf mader of the town, he 
put every inhabitant to the fword, without regard to age 
or fex. It is two leagues north-ead from Gorcum, five 
fouth from Utrecht, and four north-weft from Bommel. 
ASPERIFO'LIOUS, adj. [from afper , rough, and fo¬ 
lium, I,at. a leaf.] Among botanifts, fuch plants as are 
rough-leaved, having their leaves placed alternately on 
their ftalks, and a monopetalous flower divided into five 
parts. They conftitute an order of plants in the Fragmen- 
ta Methodi Naturalis of Linnaeus. In the prelent fydem 
they are among the pentandria monogynia. 
ASPERIFO'LIiE PLANTAs, rough-leaved plants. 
The name of a clafs in Hermannns, Boerhaave, and Ray’s, 
methods, confiding of plants which have four naked feeds, 
and whofe leaves are rough to the touch. In Tournefort’s 
Syftem, thefe plants conftitute the third fedion or order 
of the fecond clafs; and, in Linnaeus’s Sexual Method, 
they make a part of the pentandria monogynia. 
ASPE'RITY,y. jafperitas, Lat.] Unevennefs; rougli- 
nefs ofTurface. From the tedimony of fome blind per¬ 
fons, it has been fuppofed that every colour hath its par¬ 
ticular degree of afperity. See the article Blind. —Rough- 
nefs of found; harlhnefs of pronunciation. Roughnefs 
or ruggednefs of temper; morofenefs; fournefs; crab- 
bednefs.—The charity of the one, like kindly exhalations, 
will defeend in /bowers of blellings; but the rigour and 
afperity of the other, is a fevere doom upon ourfelves. Go¬ 
vernment of the Tongue. 
ASPERNA'TlGN,yi \afpcrnatio. La*.] Negled ; dif- 
regard. 
ASPER-O'SA, a town of Turkey, in Europe; it is a 
bilhop’s fee, fituated on the coad of the Archipelago. Lat. 
40.58.N. Ion. 25. 20. E. . 
AS'PEROUS, adj. [afper, Lat.] Rough; uneven.—• 
Black and white are the mod afperous and unequal of co¬ 
lours; fo like, that it is hard to didinguilh them: black 
is the molt rough. Boyle, 
To 
