592 ME Ai 
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MEAS'URE, f [, mcfure , Pr. menfura , Lat.] That by 
which any thing is meafured.—A concave meafure, of 
known and denominated capacity, ferves to meafure the 
capacioufnefs of any other veffel. Holder .— All magnitudes 
are capable of being meafured ; but it is the application 
of one to another which makes aflual meafure. Holder. — 
When Mofes fpe^ks of meafures, for example, of an ephah, 
he prefumes they knew what meafure he meant: that he 
liimfelf was (killed in weights and meafures, arithmetic and 
geometry, there is no reafon to doubt. Arbuthnot on Coins, 
A taylor’s news, 
Who flood with Hi ears and meafure in his hand. 
Standing on flippers, which his nimble hafte 
Had faliely thrufh upon contrary feet, 
Told of many a thoufand. Shakefpeare's King John. 
The rule by which any thing is adjufted or proportioned. 
-—God’s-goodnefs is the meafure of his providence. More. 
—Proportion ; quantity fettled.— Meafure is that which 
perte&eth all things, becaufe every thing is for fome end ; 
neither can that thing be available to any end, which is 
not proportionable thereunto ; and to proportion as well 
exceffes as defects are oppofite. Hooker. —A Itated quan¬ 
tity : as, A meafure of wine : 
Be large in mirth, anon we’ll drink a meafure 
The table round. Shakefpeare's Macbeth. 
Sufficient quantity: 
I’ll never paufe again, 
Till either death hath clos’d thefe eyes of mine, 
Or fortune given me meafure of revenge. Shakefpeare. 
Allotment; portion allotted.—Our religion fets before us 
not the example of a ftupid floic, who had, by obftinate 
principles, hardened liimfelf againft all pain beyond the 
common meafures of humanity, but an example of a man 
like ourfelves. Tillotfon. 
If elfe thou feek’ft 
Ought, not furpaffing human meafure , fay. Milton. 
Degree ; quantity.—There is a great meafure of diferetion 
to be tiled in the performance of confelfion, fo that you 
neither omit it when your own heart may tell you that 
there is fometliing ainifs, nor over fcmpuloufly purfue it 
when you are not confcious toyourfelf of notable failings. 
Taylor.— The rains were but preparatory in fome meafure , 
and the violence and confummation of the deluge de¬ 
pended upon the difri>ption of the great abyfs. Burnet's 
Theory. —Proportionate time ; nnifical time : 
Amaryllis breathes thy fecret pains, 
And thy fond heart beats meafure to thy ft rains. Prior , 
Motion harmonically regulated : 
As when the ftars in their ^ethereal race, 
At length have roll’d around the liquid fpace, 
From the fame point of heav’n their courfe advance. 
And move in meafures of their former dance. Drydin. 
A {lately dance. Thisfenfc isolfolete .— Wooing, wedding, 
and repenting, is as a Scotch jig, a meafure, ami a cinque 
pace. The firft fuit is hot and ha fly, like a Scotch jig, and 
full as fantaftical; the wedding mannerly, modelt as a mea¬ 
fure, full of flate and anchentry. Shakefpeare. 
Now are our brows bound with viftorious wreaths, 
Our hern alarms changed to merry meetings, 
Our dreadful marches to delightful meafures. Shakefpeare. 
Moderation ; not excefs.—Hell hath enlarged herfelf, and 
opened her mouth without meafure. Ifa. vi. 14, 
O love, be moderate, allay thy eeftafy ; 
In meafure rein thy joy, fcant this excefs ; 
I ffei too much thy bleffing ; make it lefs, 
For fear I forfeit. Shakefpeare's Merchant of Venice. 
Limit; boundary.—Lord make me to know mine end, and 
the meafure of my days what it is, that I may know how ( rail 
lam. P/alms .— Any thing adjufted.—-Chrift reveals to us 
U R E. 
thewtea/amaccordingtowhichGod will proceed indifpenf- 
ing his rewards. Smalridge's Sermons. —Syllables metrically 
numbered ; metre.—I addreffed them to a lady, and af¬ 
fected the foftnefs of expreffion, and the fmoothnefs of 
meafure, rather than the height of thought. Dryden. —The 
numbers themfelves, though of the heroic meafure, fhould 
be the fpr.ootheft imaginable. Pope. —Tune; proportionate 
notes: 
The joyous nymphs and light-foot fairies, 
Which hither came to hear their mufick fweet, 
And to the meafures of their melodies 
Did learn to move their nimble-fhifting feet. Spenfer. 
Mean of adlion ; mean to an end. The origin of this 
phrafe referstothe neceflity of me a firing Cat ground upon 
which any ftrudlure is to be raifed, or any diftant effect to 
be produced, as in fhooting at a mark. Hence he that 
proportioned his means to his end was faid to take right 
meafures. By degrees meafures and means were confounded ; 
and any thing done for an end, and fometimes any tranf- 
aClion abfolutely, is called a meafure , with no more pro¬ 
priety than if, becaufe an archer might be faid to have 
taken wrong meafures when his mark was beyond his reach, 
we fhould fay that it was a bad meafure to ufe a heavy ar¬ 
row. Johnfon. —His majefty found what wrong meafures he 
had taken in the conferring that truff, and lamented his 
error. Clarendon. 
To have hard Measure. To be hardly treated. 
Measure, in botany. In deferibing the parts of plants, 
Tournefort introduced a geometrical fcale, which many 
of his followers have retained. They meafured every 
part of the plant; and the effence of the defeription con- 
fifted in an accurate menfuration of the whole. As the 
parts of plants, however, are liable to variation in no cir- 
cumllance fo much as that of dimenfion, Linnaius lias 
thought fit to difeard geometrical meafures, and very 
rarely admits any other menfuration than that arifing 
from the refpedive length and breadth of the parts com¬ 
pared together. In cafes that require aCtual menfuration, 
the fame author recommends, in lieu of Tournefort’s ar¬ 
tificial fcale, the following natural fcale of the human 
body, which he thinks is much more convenient, and 
equally accurate. 
1. Capillus, a hair; the diameter of a hair 5 one-twelfth 
of a line. 
2. Linen, a line ; the length of the little crefcent at the 
root of the finger-nail; one-twelfth of an inch. 
3. Unguis, a nail; the length of a nail; half an inch, 
Paris meafure. 
4. Pollex, an inch; the length of the firft joint of the 
thumb. 
‘5. Palmus, a palm, or hand ; the breadth of the four 
fingers ; three inches. 
6. Spithama, a fhort fpan; the fpace between the end of 
the thumb and of the fore-finger extended; feven incites. 
7. Dodrans, a long fpan ; the fpace between the end of 
the thumb and of the little finger extended ; nine inches. 
8. Pcs, a foot; from the bend of the elbow to the bale 
of the thumb; twelve inches. 
9. Cubitus, a cubit; from the bend of the elbow to the 
end of the middle finger; eighteen inches. 
10. Brachium, an arm; from the arm-pit to the end of 
the middle finger; twenty-four inches, or two feet. 
11. Orgya, a fathom ; the height of a man, or the fpace 
between the ends of the fingers when the arms are ex¬ 
tended ; equal, when greateit, to fix feet. 
Measure, in geometry, denotes any certain quantity 
affumed as one, or unity, to which the ratio of other 
homogeneous or fimilar quantities is expreffed. This de¬ 
finition is foniewhat more agreeable to practice thah that 
of Euclid, who defines mealure a;qua: city, which, being 
repeated any number of times, becomes equal to another* 
for this only anfwers to the idea of an arithmetical mea¬ 
fure, or quota part. 
Measure of the mafs, or quantity of matter, in meeba- 
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