INC 
^What incidency thou doft guefs of harm declare, 
'Is creeping towards me. Shakcfpcare. 
IN'CIDENT, adj. [Fr. from incidens, Lat.] Cafual > 
fortuitous; occafional; happening accidentally ; iffuing 
in befide the main defign ; happening befide expectation. 
— As the ordinary courfe of common affairs is difpofed 
of by general laws, fo likewife men’s rarer incident necef- 
fities and utilities fliould be with fpecial equity confidered. 
Hooker. —Happening; apt to happen.—Conftancy is fuch 
a firmnefs of friendfliip as overlooks all thole failures of 
kindnefs, that through paflion, incident to human nature, 
n man may be guilty of. South. 
INCIDENT, f. Something happening befide the main 
defign'; cafualty.—No perfon, no' incident in the play, but 
mult be of life to carry on the main defign. Dryden. 
Incident, in law, is a thing appertaining to, or follow¬ 
ing another, that is more worthy or principal. Thus a 
court-baron is infeparably incident to a manor; and a 
court of pie-powder to a fair; thefe are fo inherent to 
their principals, that by the grant of one the other is 
granted; and they cannot be extinft by releafe, or 
l'aved by exception, but in fpecial cafes. Kitch. 36. Co. 
Lit. 151. 
Rent is incident to a reverlion ; timber-trees are inci¬ 
dent to the freehold, andalfo deeds and charters, and a way 
.to lands; fealty is incident to tenures; diitrefs to rent 
and amercements, &c. Co. Lit. 151. Tenant for life or 
ears hath, incident to his eilate, eftovers of wood. Co. 
it. 41. And there are certain incidents to eftates-tail; 
as to be difpunilhable of wafte, to fuller a recovery, See. 
Co. Lit. 224;. 10 Rep. 38, 39. Incidents are needful to 
the well-being of that to which they are incident; and 
the law is tender of them. Hob. 39, 40. If a man, either 
by grant or prefeription, has a right to a wreck thrown 
on another’s land, of confequence he has a right to a way 
over the fame land to take it; and the very polfeflion of 
the wreck is in him before feilure. 6 Mod. 149. See 14 Tin. 
A'or. title Incidents. 
Incident, in a poem, is an epifode, or particular ac¬ 
tion, joined to the principal aftion, or depending on it. 
A good comedy is to be full of agreeable incidents, which 
divert the fpeftators, and form the intrigue. The poet 
ought always to make choice of fuch incidents as are fuf- 
ceptible of ornament fuitable to the nature of his poem. 
The variety of incidents well conduced makes the beauty 
of an heroic poem, which ought always to take in a cer¬ 
tain number of incidents to fufpend the cataltrophe, that 
would otherwife break out too i'oon. 
INCIDENTAL, adj. Incident; cafual; happening 
by chance; not intended; not deliberate; not necelfary 
to the chief purpofe.—By fome, religious duties fcarce ap¬ 
pear to be regarded at all, and by others only as an inci¬ 
dental bufinefs, to be done when they have nothing elfe 
to do. Rogers. 
INCIDENTALLY, adv. Befide the main defign; oc- 
cafionally.-—Thefe general rules are but occaiionally and 
incidentally mentioned in Scripture, rather to manifeft unto 
us a former, than to lay upon us a new, obligation. San- 
■derfon. 
INCIDENTALNESS, /. Cafualty; the ftate of being 
incidental. 
IN'CIDENTLY, adv. Occaiionally; by the bye; by 
the way.—It was incidently moved amonglt the judges what 
ihould be done for the king himfelf, who was attainted ; 
but refolved that the crown takes away defefts. Bacon. 
INCIDENTNESS, / A liablenefs to happen. Siiott. 
To INCINERATE, v. a. \in and cineres, Lat.] To burn 
to allies.—By baking, without melting, the heat indura- 
teth, then maketh fragile; laftly, it doth incinerate and 
calcinate. Bacon. 
INCINERATING, f. The aft of reducing to alhes. 
INCINERA'TION, f. The aft of burning any thing 
to alhes.—I obferved in the fixt fait of urine, brought by 
depuration to be very white, a tafte not unlike common 
Vol. X. No. 727. Ji 
INC ~ 885 
fait, and very differing from the cauflic lixiviate' tafte of 
other lalts made by incineration. Boyle. 
INCIPA'TION,yi [from ccepio, Lat. tobpgin.] The aft 
of beginning; a beginning. Cole. 
7 ’r/lNCIR'CLE. See To Encircle. 
INQIR'CLING, f. The aft of incloling in a circle. 
INCIRCUMSPEC'TION, f. Want of caution ; want 
of heed.—A11 unexpected way of deluiion, whereby he 
more eaiily Jed away the incircumfpetdicn of their belief. 
Brown. 
INCI'SED, adj. {incifere Fr. incifus, Lat.] Cut; made 
by cutting: as, an incifed wound.—I brought fch eineijed 
lips together. Wifeman. 
INCIS'ION, /. [ineijion, Fr. inci/io, Lat.] A cut; a 
wound made with a ftiarp inftrument.—The reception of 
one is as different from the admillion of the other, as 
when the earth falls open under the ineijions of the plough, 
and when it gapes to drink in the dew of heaven, or the 
refrelhments of a fhower. South .—Divifion of vifeofities 
by medicines.—Abfterfion is a fcouring off, or incifion, of 
vifeous humours, and making them fluid, and cutting be¬ 
tween them and the part; as in nitrous water, which 
fcouretli linen. Bacon. 
INCPSIVE, adj. Having the quality of cutting or di¬ 
viding.-—The colour of many corpufcules will cohere by 
being precipitated together, and be deftroyed by the ef- 
fufion of very piercing and incifivc liquors. Boyle. 
INCISOR, /. Cutter; tooth in the forepart of the 
mouth.—The incifors of the upper jaw are larger and 
broader than thole of the lower. Berdmore. 
INCI'SOR-, adj. Having the quality of cutting. 
INCI'SURE, /. A cut; an aperture.—In fome crea¬ 
tures it is wide, in fome narrow, in fome with a deep frc* 
cifiirc up into the head, for the better catching and hold¬ 
ing of prey, and comminuting of hard food. Derham. 
INCITABIL'ITY, /. [from incito, Lat. to Itir up to 
aftion.] In a praftical view, it has appeared necelfary to 
make a diltinftion between this term and Irritability ; 
becaufe, though it is allowed that to thofe two powers 
the exifter.ee of a machine in a living ftate, and the aftion 
of its moving lolids with refpeft to their continuance, are 
entirely owing; yet they do in fome degree certainly exill 
independent of each other. By incitability is meant that 
power in the brain and nervous fyftem which may be ex¬ 
cited to aftion by mental affeftions, as well as local irri¬ 
tation, and which produces thofe affeftions we call fym- 
pathy; by irritability , that power which may be put into 
action by material itimulus, locally exerted, yet is obedi¬ 
ent to the influence of the nerves in general, and cannot 
in the living machine exift for any coniiderable time with¬ 
out this union. More ftriftly, incitability is confined to 
the nervous, and irritability to the nerving, fibres. See 
Irritability. 
INCITA'TION, /. [ incitatio , Lat.] Incitement; in¬ 
centive; motive; impulfe; the aft of inciting; the power 
of inciting. Dr. Ridley defines magnetical attraftion to 
be a natural incitation and difpofition conforming unto 
contiguity, an union of one magnetical body unto ano¬ 
ther. Brown. 
INCITA'TUS, a horfe of the emperor Caligula, made 
high pririi. 
To INCI'TE, v. a. [incito , Lat. inciter , Fr.] To ftir up ; 
to pulh forward in a purpofe ; to animate ; to lpur ; to 
urge on.—Antiochus, when he incited , Prufias to join in. 
war, fet before him the greatnefs of the Romans, compar¬ 
ing it to a fire, that took and fpread from kingdom to 
kingdom. Bacon. 
No blown ambition doth our arms incite ; 
But love, dear love, and our ag’d father’s right. Shake/. 
INCITEMENT, f. Motive ; incentive ; impulfe ; in¬ 
citing caufe.—Hartlib feems fent hither by lome good 
providence, to be the occafion and incitement of great'good 
to this ifland, Milton. • •' 
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