r m p 
not by any divine authority, but by cuftom ; it being the 
practice among thole people, whenever they prayed to 
God for any perfon, to lay their hands on his head. Our 
Saviour obferved the fame cuftom, both when he confer¬ 
red his blefting on children and when he cured the fick ; 
adding prayer to the ceremony. The apoftles likewife 
laid hands on thofe upon whom they beftowed the Holy 
Ghoft. The priefts obferved the fame cuftom when any 
one was received into their body. And the apoftles them- 
felves underwent, the impofition of hands afrelh every 
time they entered upon any new defign. In the ancient 
church, rmpofition of hands was even pradtifed on perfons 
when they married, which cuftom the Abyftinians ftill 
obferve. 
IMPOSITI'TIOUS, adj. Firft impofed ; radical ; pri¬ 
mitive. Baily. 
IMPOS ITIVE, adj.. Impofed ; unnatural. Cole. 
IMPOSSIBILITY, f. [ impojfibilite, Fr. from impojjible .] 
Impracticability ; the date of being not feafible.—Simple 
Philoclea, it is the impojjibility that doth torment me ; for 
unlawful defires are punilhed after the effedt of enjoying, 
but impoflible defires in the defire itfelf. Sidney. 
Let the mutinous winds 
Strike the proud cedars ’gainft the fiery fun. 
Murdering impojjibility , to make 
What cannot be, fight work. Shakefpeare. 
That which cannot be done.—Though men do, without 
offence, wilh daily that the affairs, which with evil fuccefs 
are paft, might have fallen out much better; yet to pray 
that they may have been any other than they are, this be¬ 
ing a manifeit impojjibility in itfelf, the rules of religion do 
not permit. Hooker. 
Impqjjbilities ! oh no, there’s none. 
Could I bring thy heart captive home. Cowley. 
IMPOSSIBLE, adj. [French.] Not to be done; not 
to be attained'; impradticable.—It is impojjible the mind 
fhould be (topped any where in its progrels in this fpace, 
how far foever it extends its thoughts. Locke. 
I my own thoughts deceive. 
With hope of things impojjible to find. Waljh. 
IMPOSSIBLE, J. [from the adj. ] An impofiibility. 
Obfolete. 
JMFOS'SIBLY, adv. In an impoflible manner. 
IM'POST, f. [ impot , Fr. from impofitum, Lat.] A tax; 
a toll; a cuftom paid.—Taxes and impojls upon merchants 
do feldorn good to the king’s revenue ; for that that he 
wins in the hundred, he lofeth in the (hire. Bacon. —Im- 
polt is properly the tax received by the prince for fuch 
merchandifes as are brought into any haven within his do¬ 
minions from foreign nations. It may therefore in fome 
fort be diftinguilhed from cujloms , becaufe cuftoms are ra¬ 
ther that profit the prince maketh of wares Jhipped out ; yet 
they are frequently confounded. Cowel. —in architecture, 
[from impojle, Fr.] That part of a pillar, in vaults and 
arches, on which the weight of the whole building lieth. 
Ainfworth. 
IMPOS'TEM,/ See Imposthume. 
To IMPOfjT'HUMATE, v. n. [from impojlhume.] To 
form an abfcefs; to gather; to form a cyft or bag containing 
matter.—The bruile impojlhumated, and afterwards turned 
to a (linking ulcer, which made every body (hy to come 
near her. Arbuthnot. 
To IMPOST'HUMATE, v. a. To afflidt with an im- 
pofthume.—They would not fly that furgeon, whofe lan¬ 
cet threatens none but the impojlhumated parts. Decay of 
Piety. 
IMPOST'HUMATING,/! The adt of forming into an 
abfcefs. 
IMPOSTHUMA'TIOM, f. The adt of forming an im- 
pofthume; the ftate in which an impofthume is formed.— 
He that maketh the wound bleed inwards, endangereth 
malign ulcers and pernicious impojlhumations. Bacon. 
IMPOST'HUMEjy.' [This feems to have been formed 
" IMP 871 
by corruption from impojlem, as South writes it; and im- 
pojlcm to have been written erroneoufty for apojlem, otrrof- 
TJj/aos, an abfcefs.] A collection of purulent matter in a 
bag or cyft.—Now rotten dileafes, ruptures, catarrhs, and 
bladders full of impojlhumes, make prepofterous difcoveries. 
Shakefpeare —An error in the judgment is like an impof- 
tem in the head, which is always noifome, and frequently 
mortal. South. 
IMPOS'TOR, /. [ impofeur , Fr. from impo/e ; impoftor, 
Lat.] One who cheats by a fictitious character.—Shame 
and pain, poverty and licknefs, yea death and hell itfelf, 
are but the trophies of thofe fatal conquelts got by that 
grand impojlor, the devil, over the deluded fons of men. 
South. 
IMPOS'TURE, f. Cheat; fraud; fuppofitioulnefs ; 
cheat committed by giving to perfons or things a falfe 
character.—Weknovvhow fuccefsful the lateufurper was 
while his army believed him real in his zeal againft king- 
(hip ; but, when they found out the impofure, upon his af- 
pinng to the fame himfelf, he was prefently delerted, and 
never able to crown his ulurped greatnefs with that title. 
South. 
Form new legends, 
And fill the world with follies and impofures. Johnfon. 
IM'POTENCE, or Im'potency,/. [impotentia, Lat. 1 
Want of power; inability; imbecility; weaknels.—God 
is a friend and a father, whofe care fupplies our wants 
and defends our impotence, and from whofe compaflion in 
Chrift we hope for eternal glory hereafter. Rogers. —This 
is not a reftraint or impotency, but the royal prerogative of 
the mod abfolute king of kings ; that he wills to do no¬ 
thing but what he can; and that he can do nothing which 
is repugnant to his divine goodnefs. Bentlcy.-L\j n „ Q . 
vernablenefs of paflion. A Latin fignification; animi%n- 
potentia: 
Will he, fo wife, let loofe at once his ire. 
Belike through impotence, or unaware. 
To give his enemies their wi(h, and end 
Them in his anger, whom his anger laves. 
To puni(h endlefs i Milton 
Incapacity of propagation : 
Dulnefs with obfcenity mud prove 
As hateful, fure, as impotence in love. Pope. 
Impotence with refpedt to men is the fame as fterility 
in women ; that is,, an inability of propagating the fpe- 
cies; but in the caufes and the circumftances thefe dates' 
greatly differ. In each cafe there is a failure of propa¬ 
gation ; but, in each, there is by no means an unfitnefa 
for the venereal adt.. Sterility in women, indeed, often 
arifes, like impotence in men* from a coldnels of conlti- 
tution, which admits not of due excitement; but, it is 
alfo owing to the caufes which feparate the fcetus almolt 
as (bon as formed. From men who are impotent no im¬ 
pregnation takes place. 
The great caules of impotence in men are organic de¬ 
fects and debility. In generation, the femen mult be car¬ 
ried to the uterus, and perhaps to the fallopian tube; but 
in this ultimate deftination it is apparently aflilted by the 
adtion of the womb itfelf. To carry it to this organ re¬ 
quires a free paflage through the urethra, no inconfider- 
able adtivity in the ejaculatory mulcles, and the full dif- 
tenfion of the corpora cavernofa. The free paflage is 
fometimes prevented by ftridtures in the urethra, and fome- 
times, as in a cafe recorded by Petit, by a faulty direc¬ 
tion of the orifices through which the lemen pafles. A 
natural phymoiis has been found alfo an obltrudlion to 
the free difcharge of the feminal fluid. A fevere priapifm 
feems occafionally to conftridl the cavity of the urethra, 
or of the entrance of the vala deferentia; for in this difl¬ 
ea fe there is no emiflion, and the feelings are thofe of 
violent pain rather than of pleafure. Intoxication, in 
fome men, will produce this violent fpafm, and unfit them 
for the completion of the venereal adt. 
Pebility, 
