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O B S 
.—Not noted; not obfervable.—He fays, that he is an obfcure 
perfon ; one, I fuppofe, that is in the dark. Atterbury. 
My (hort-wing’d Mufe doth haunt 
None but the obfcure corners of the earth. 
Davies's BienVenu, 1606. 
The foldiers murmur, 
To fee their warlike eagles mew their honours 
In obfcure towns. Beaumont and Fletcher. 
OBSCU'RE,y: Darknefs: 
Who fhall tempt with wand’ring feet 
The dark unbottom’d infinite abyfs, 
And through the palpable obfcure find out 
His uncouth way? Milton. 
To OBSCU'RE, v. a. To darken; to make dark.—They 
are all couched in a pit hard by Herne’s oak, with obfcured 
lights ; which, at the very inftant of Falftaff’s and our 
meeting, they will at once difplay to the night. Shakefpeare. 
Sudden the thunder blackens all the fkies. 
And the winds whiffle, and the furges roll 
Mountains on mountains, and obfcure the pole. Pope. 
To make lefs vifible.—Thinking by this retirement to ob¬ 
fcure himfelf from God, he infringed the omnifciency and 
effential ubiquity of his Maker. Brown's Vulgar Errours. 
What! muff I hold a candle to my fhame ? 
They in themfelves, good footh, are too too light. 
Why, ’tis an office of difcovery, love; 
And I ffiould be olfcur'd. Shakefpeare. 
To make lefs intelligible.—By private confent it hath been 
ufed in dangerous times to obfcure writing, and make it 
hard to be read by others not acquainted with the in¬ 
trigue. Holder. —There is fcarce any duty which has been 
fo obfcured by the writings of learned men, as this. Wake. 
To make lefs glorious, beautiful, or illultrious : 
Think’ff thou, vain fpirit, thy glories are the fame. 
And feeff not fin olfcures thy godlike frame ? 
I know thee now by thy ungrateful pride. 
That fhews me what thy faded looks did hide. Dryden. 
To conceal; to make unknown : 
O might I here 
In folitude live favage, in fome glade 
Olfcur'd, w-here higheft woods, impenetrable 
To fun or (far-light, fpread their umbrage broad. Blilton. 
OBSCU'RELY, adv. Not brightly; not luminoufly ; 
darkly : 
The lightning’s light is loff; it (bines not clear, 
But (hoots obfcurely thro’night’s Itormy air. May's Lucan. 
Through the thick (hades obfcurely might you fee 
Minotaurs, cyclopfes. Crajhaw's SoJ'p. d'Herocle. 
Out of fight; privately; without notice ; not confpicu- 
oufly.—After many years wandering obfcurely through all 
the ifland. Milton's Iiifi. of Eng. 
Such was the rife of this prodigious fire, 
Which, in mean buildings firft obfcurely bred, 
From thence did foon to open ftreets afpire. Dryden. 
Not clearly; not plainly; darkly to the mind : 
The woman’s feed at firft obfcurely told, 
Now amplier known, thy Saviour and thy Lord. Milton. 
OBSCU'RENESS, or Obscurity, f Darknefs; want 
of light.—Lo! a day of darknefs and obfcurity, tribulation 
and anguiffi upon the earth. Ejlher xi. 8. 
Should Cynthia quit thee, Venus, and each (tar. 
It would not form one thought dark as mine are: 
I could lend them ohjcurenefs now, and fay, 
Out of myfelf there ffiould'be no more day. Donne. 
Unnoticed (fate; privacy: 
You are not for obfcurity deftgn’d ; 
But, like the fun, muff cheer all human kind. Dryden. 
VOL. XVII. No. 1183. 
O B S 
Darknefs of meaning.—Not to mention that olfcurenefs that 
attends prophetic raptures, there are divers things know- 
able by the bare light of nature, which yet are fo uneafy 
to be fat is faCto rily underftood by our imperfect intellects, 
that, let them be delivered in the cleareft expreffions, 
the notions themfelves will yet appear obfcure. Boyle on 
Colours. 
To OB’SECRATE, v. a. [obfecro , Lat.] To befeech ; 
to in treat. Not now in ufe. 
OBSECRATION, f. Intreaty; Application. — That 
thefe were comprehended under the facra, is manifelt, 
from the old form of obfecration. Stillingfleet. 
OBSE'QUENS (Julius), a Latin writer of an uncertain 
age, fuppofed not later than the reign of Honorius, wrote 
a work De Prodigiis ; from the fubjeCt of which he is 
conjectured to have been a heathen. It is an account of 
the prodigies occurring in the Roman hiftory, fuch as 
thofe narrated by Livy, whofe very words he frequently 
borrows. The earlier part of this work is loft ; and it 
commences with the confulate of L. Scipio and C. Laslius. 
Notwithftanding its trifling and delufive fubjeCt, it has 
been frequently printed. One Conrad Lycofthenes, a 
corrector of the prefs at Bafil, added a fupplement for the 
loft part, which in fome editions has been confounded 
with the original; but the fupplementary articles were 
diftinguiffied by different characters in that of Scheffer, 
Amft. 8vo. 1679. Subfequent editions are thofe of Hearne, 
1703; of Oudendorp, 1720; and of Kappius and Erhard, 
1772. Gen, Biog, 
OBSE'QUENT, adj. [ obfequens , Lat.] Obedient; duti¬ 
ful ; fubmitting to. Not ufed. —Unto himfelf he hath re- 
ferved an infinite power to put any form upon any matter ; 
which he always findeth pliant, and obfequent to his plea- 
fure, even againft the propriety of its own particular na¬ 
ture. Fotherby's Atheom. 1622. 
OBSEQ'UIBLE, adj. [ obfequibilis , Lat.] Obedient, 
ready at command. Bailey. 
OB'SEQUIES, J'. [obfeques , Fr. from objequium, Lat. 
obedience; ns being the laft devoirs we can render to the 
deceafed. Chambers.'] Funeral rites ; funeral folemnities. 
— There was Dorilaus valiantly requiting his friend’s 
help, in a great battle deprived of life, his olfequies being 
not more folemnized by the tears of his partakers than 
the blood of his enemies. Sidney. 
Fair Juliet, that with angels doft remain. 
Accept this lateft favour at my hand, ~ 
That living honour’d thee, and, being dead, 
With funeral obfequies adorn thy tomb. Shakefpeare. 
Seldom found in the fingular.—M. Grind all, in his late 
funeral fermon at the obfequy of Ferdinandus, faieth and 
confeffeth, that it cannot be denied, but that after S. Gre- 
gorie’s time, purgatory went with full fail. Stapleton's 
Fort, of the Faith, 1565.—In this laft folemnity of obfequy 
unto his ever-honoured fovereign and miftrefs, he was the 
moft eminent perfon of the whole land, and principal 
mourner. Sir G. Paid's Life of Abp. Whitgift. 
Or tune a fong of victory to me, 
Or to thyfelf, fing thine own obfequy. Crajhaw. 
OBSE'QUIOIJS, adj. [from cdfcquinm, Lat.] Obedient; 
complaint; not refilling.—Adore not fo the riling fon 
that you forget the father, who raifed you to this height; 
nor be you lb obfequious to the father, that you give juft 
caufe to the fon to fufpeCt that you negleCt him. Bacon's 
Advice to Villiers .— A genial cheriffiing heat aCts fo upon 
the fit and obfequious matter, as to organize and faffiion it 
according to the exigences of its own nature. Boyle. _ 
The vote of an affembly, which we cannot reconcile to 
public good, has been conceived in a private brain, after¬ 
wards fupported by an obfequious party. Swift. 
At his command the up-rooted hills retir’d 
Each to his place; they bear'd his voice, and went 
Obfequious . Milton's P. L. 
JB 
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