INC 
So a fine, though it have rro breadth, is yet inceptive of 
breadth; that is, it is capable, by its motion, of producing 
a furface which has breadth. See. ..... 
INCEP'TOR, f. A beginner ; one who is in his rudi¬ 
ments. 
INCER'ATED, adj. [from cent, Lat. wax.] Covered 
with wax. Scott. 
INCER A'TION, /. The aft of covering with wax. 
INCER'NING,/. [from incerno, Lat. to lift.] The aft 
of lifting. Not ufed. Cole. 
INCER'TAIN, adj. [from incertus, Lat.] Full of un¬ 
certainty.—With words confus’d incertain tales they told. 
Fairfax. 
INCER'TAINTY, f. Uncertainty.—Notwithftanding 
that vulgar imputation of incertaintie. Davies. 
INCER'TITUDE,/ [ incertitude , Fr. incertitudo, Lat.] 
Uncertainty : doubtfulnefs. 
INCES'SANT, adj. [inandeeffans, Lat.] Unceafing; 
unintermitted; continual; uninterrupted: 
If, by pray’r 
Incejant , I could hope to change the will 
Of him who all things can, I would not ceafe 
To weary him with my alfiduous cries. Milton. 
INCES'SANTLY, adv. Without intermiflion; con¬ 
tinually.—The Ghriftians, who carried their religion 
through fo many perfecutions, were incejfantly comforting 
one another with the example and liiltory of our Saviour 
and his apoftles. Addifon. 
Both his hands, moft filthy feculent. 
Above the water were of high extent, 
And fain’d to walh themfelves incejfantly. Fairy Queen. 
INCES'SANTNESS, f. The Hate or quality of being 
inceflant. Scott. 
IN'CEST, f. [incejle, Fr. incejlum, Lat.] Unnatural and 
criminal conjunftion of perfons within degrees prohibited. 
— He who entered in the firft aft a young man, like Pe¬ 
ricles prince of Tyre, mult not be in danger in the fifth 
aft of committing inceft with his daughter. Dryden. 
Is’t not a kind of incejl to take life 
From their own filter’s lhame. Shakefpcare. 
Some are of opinion, that marriage ought to be per¬ 
mitted between kinsfolks, to the end that the affeftion 
fo neceflaryin marriage might be heightened by this dou¬ 
ble tie ; yet the rules of the church have formerly extend¬ 
ed this prohibition even to the feventh degree; but time 
has now brought it down to the third. 
All nations look on inceft with horror, Perlia and Egypt 
alone excepted. In thehiftory of the ancient kings of 
thofe countries, we meet with inftances of the brother’s 
marrying the filter ; the reafon was, becaufe they thought 
it too mean to join in alliance with their own fubjefts, 
and ftill more fo to have married into any foreign family. 
INCES'TUOUS, adj. Guilty of inceft; guilty of unna¬ 
tural cohabitation.—We *may eafily guels with what im¬ 
patience the world would have heard an incejluous Herod 
difcourling of chaftity. South. 
Hide me, thou bloody hand. 
Thou perjure, and thou fimular of virtue. 
That art incejluous. Shakefpeare. 
INCES'TUOUSLY, adv. With unnatural love.—Ma- 
careus and Canace, fon and daughter to FEolus, god of 
the winds, loved each other incejluoujiy. Dryden. 
INCES'TUOUSNESS, f. The ftate of being inceftuous. 
INCH, f. [luce, Sax. uncia, Lat.] A meafure of length 
fuppoled equal to three grains of barley laid end to end ; 
the twelfth part of a foot.—A foot is the lixth part of the 
ftature of man, a fpan one eighth of it, and a thumb’s- 
breadth or inch one feventy-fecond. Holder. 
The fun Ihould never rnifs, in all his race, 
Of time one minute, or one inch of fpace. Blackmore. 
A proverbial name for a fmall quantity.—The commons 
I N C 833 
were growing by degrees into power and property, gain¬ 
ing ground upon the patricians inch by inch. Swift. 
The plebeians have got your fellow-tribune; 
They’ll give him death by inches. Shakefpeare. 
A nice point of time.—Beldame, I think, w’e watch’d you 
at an inch. Shakefpeare. 
To INCH, v. a. To drive by inches : 
Valiant they fay, but very popular ; 
He gets too far into the foldiers’ graces. 
And inches out my matter. Dryden. 
To deal out by inches; to give fparingly, Ainfworth. —To 
advance or retire a little at a time. 
INCH, an ifland of Ireland, in Lough Swilly, about 
five miles in circumference : fix miles north-weft of Lon¬ 
donderry. 
INCH, a town or village of Scotland, in the county of 
Wigton, in which are i’ome mineral and fulphurous 
fprings: three miles eaft of Stranrawer. 
INCH, a town of Scotland, in the county of Aberdeen ; 
ten miles north-weft of Inverary. 
INCH of CAN'DLE, the manner of felling goods by 
merchants; which is done thus: Firft, notice is to be 
given upon the Exchange, or other public place, of the 
time of fale; and, in the mean time, the goods to be fold 
or divided into lots, printed papers of which, and the 
conditions of fale, are alfo forthwith publiflied ; and, when 
the goods are expofedto fale, a fmall piece of wax-candle, 
about an inch long, is burning, and the laft bidder when 
the candle goes out is entitled to the lot or parcel fo ex- 
pofed. This mode is fubjeft: to the fame regulations and 
duties as any other public fale; for which fee the article 
Auctioneer, vol. ii. p. 547. 
INCH-COLM, or Columba, the ifle of Columba, an 
ifland fituated on the Frith of Forth in Scotland, and fa¬ 
mous for its monaftery. 
This monaftery was founded about 1113, by Alexan¬ 
der I. on the following occafion. In palling the Frith of 
Forth he was overtaken with a violent ftorm, which drove 
him to this ifland, where he met with the moft liofpitable 
reception from a poor hermit, then redding here in the 
chapel of St. Columba, who, for the three days that the 
king continued there tempeft-bound, entertained him with 
the milk of his cow, and -a few fhell-filh. His majefty, 
from the fenfe of the danger he had efcaped, and in gra¬ 
titude to the faint to whom he attributed his lafety, vowed 
fome token of refpeft ; and accordingly founded here a 
monaftery of Auguftines, and dedicated it to St. Columba. 
Allan de Mortimer, lord of Aberdour, who attended Ed¬ 
ward III. in his Scotch expedition, bellowed half of thole 
lands on the monks of this ifland, for the privilege of a-- 
family burial-place in their church. The buildings made 
in confequence of the piety of Alexander were very con- 
liderable. There are ftill to be feen a large fquare tower 
belonging to the church, the ruins of the church, and of 
feveral other buildings. The wealth of this place in tha 
time of Edward III. proved fo ftrong a temptation to his 
fleet, then lying in the Forth, as to fupprefs all the horror 
of facrilege and refpeft to the fanftity of the inhabitants. 
The Englilh landed, and fpared not even the furniture 
more immediately confecrated to divine worlhip. But 
vengeance overtook them ; for in a ftorm which inftantly 
followed, many of them periflied ; thofe who efcaped, 
ftruck with the juftice of the judgment, vowed to make 
ample recompenceto the injured faint. The tern pell ceafed ; 
and they made the promifed atonement. The Da nidi 
monument, figured by fir Robert Sibbald, lies on the fouth- 
eall fide of the building, on a riling ground. It is of a 
rigid form, and the furface ornamented with feale-like 
figures. At each end is the reprefentation of a human 
head. 
INCH-GAR'VIE, a fmall ifland, alfo lying in the 
Frith of Forth. See Forth. 
INCH-KEITH, a fmall ifland fituated in thefame frith, 
■ midway 
