OPE 
508 
truths : they lie not open, as natural charafters engraven 
on the mind. Locke —Not retrained ; not denied ; not 
precluded.—If Demetrius and the craftfmen have a mat¬ 
ter agai.nft any man, the law is open, and there are depu¬ 
ties ; let them implead one another. Acts xix. 38.—Not 
cloudy; not gloomy. Jo/ni/’on. —-The lolitary example 
which Dr. Johnfon here brings from Bacon, (hows that 
“not frofty,” or “ mild,” is the meaning of the word; 
and fuch is the general acceptation of an open winter. 
Todd. —An open and warm winter portendeth a hot and 
dry fu miner. Bacon's IS at. Hijl. — Did you ever fee fo open 
a winter in England f we have not had two frofty days ; 
but it pays it off in rain. Swift's Letters. — Uncovered ; 
tmconfined.—Here is better than the open air. Shahefpeare. 
With open head, and foot all bare, 
Hirhaire to-lprad, (he gan to fare. Gower. 
And when, at I all, in pity, you will die, 
I’ll watch your birth of immortality; 
Then, turtle-like, I’ll to my mate repair. 
And teach you your firft (light in open air. Dryden. 
Expofed ; without defence : 
The fervice that I truly did his life 
Hath left me open to all injuries. Shahefpeare's Hen. IV. 
Attentive.—Thine eyes ar topen upon all the Tons of men, 
to give every one according to his ways. Jer. xxxii. 19.— 
The eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous, and his ears 
are open to their cry. P/.'xxxiv. 15. 
OP'ECKON, a river of Virginia, which runs into the 
Potomack in lat. 39. 30. N. Ion. 77. 52. W. 
OPEGINSKA'IA, a town ofRuilia, in the govern¬ 
ment of Novgorod, on the river Mila : fixty miles eall of 
Novgorod. 
OPEGRA'PH A, J\ in botany, a genus of plants infti- 
tuted by Acharius, and lb named from the Gr. 07 rn, a 
chink or cleft, and to write or engrave, in allufion 
to the nature of the fructification, which refembles He¬ 
brew or Oriental characters on a white or pale ground. 
It is formed of the Lichen feriptus from Linnaeus, and 
fome other fpecies of the fame genus, or which otherwife 
would have been placed there. See Lichen, vol. xii. 
O'PEN, a town of Pruflia,in Ermeland : fourteen miles 
weft of Heillberg. 
O'PEN, v. and adj. See Ope. 
OPEN-EY'ED, adj. Vigilant; watchful: 
While you here do fnoring lie, 
Open-eyed confpiracy 
His time doth take. Shahefpeare's Tertipcfl. 
OPEN-HAN'DED, adj. Generous; liberal; munifi¬ 
cent.—How open-handed Providence had been to him, in 
heaping upon him all external blelfings ! South's Serm. 
Good Heaven, who renders mercy back for mercy, 
With open-handed bounty (hall repay you. Rowe. 
OPEN-HE'ADED, adj. Bareheaded. Chaucer and 
Gower. See Open, adj. 
OPEN-HEAR'TED, adj. Generous; candid; not 
meanly fubtle.—I know him well; he’s free and open- 
hearted. Dryden. 
OPEN-HEAR'TEDNESS, f. Liberality; franknefs; 
fincerity ; munificence ; generality.—He was a man of 
innocence and open-heartednejs. Walton's Life of Bp. San¬ 
der fon. 
OPEN-MOU'THED, adj. Greedy; ravenous; clamo¬ 
rous ; vociferous.—Up comes a lion open-mouthed toward 
the afs. L'Ef range. —Ringwood, a French black whelp 
of the fame breed, a fine open-mouthed dog. Tatler, No. 62. 
OPENA'CA, a town of Ceylon: thirty-eight miles 
foutn of Candy. 
O'PENER,./! One that opens ; one that unlocks ; one 
that unclofes.—It is a letter fealed and fent; which to 
the bearer is but paper, but to the receiver and opener is 
full of power. Herbert's Country Parfon. 
OPE 
True opener of mine eyes, 
Much better feems this vilion, and more hope 
Of peaceful days portends, than thole two paft. Milton. 
Explainer; interpreter : 
The very opener and intelligencer 
Between the grace, the lanctities, of heav’n, 
And our dull workings. Shakejpeare's Hen. IV. 
That which feparates ; difuniter.—There may be fuch 
openers of compound bodies, becaufe there wanted not 
fome experiments in which it appeared. Boyle. 
O'PENING, f. Aperture; breach.—The fire, thus up, 
makes its way through the cracks and openings of the 
earth. Woodward's Nat. Hijl. —Difcovery at a diftance • 
faint knowledge ; dawn.—God has been pleafed to dilfi- 
pate this confufion and chaos, and to give 11s fome crpeu- 
ings, fome dawnings, of liberty and l'ettlement. South's 
Sermons. 
O'PENLY, ado. Publicly; not fecretly ; in fight; not 
oblcurely.—Their actions, always fipoken of with great 
honour, are now called openly into queftion. Hooker. — 
Prayers are faulty, not whensoever they be openly made, 
but when hypocrify is the caufe of open praying. Hooker. 
—Hovvgrofsly and openly do many of us contradict the pre¬ 
cepts of the golpel, by our ungodlinefs and worldly lulls. 
Tillotfon. 
Why fnould you then have put me to deny, 
This claim which now you wear fo openly. Shahefpeare. 
Plainly; apparently; evidently; without difguife: 
Too openly does love and hatred Ihow : 
A bounteous mailer, but a deadly foe. Dryden. 
O'PENNESS, /' Plainnefs; clearnefs; freedom from 
obfeurity or ambiguity: 
Deliver with more opennej’s your anfwers 
To my demands. Shakejpeare's Cymbeline. 
Plainnefs; freedom from difguife.—The noble opennejs 
and freedom of his reflexions, are exprelfed in lively co¬ 
lours. Felton on the Clafics. —Mildnefs or clearnefs, when 
fpoken of the weather. 
O'PETIDEj f. The ancient time of marriage, from 
Epiphany to Alh Wednefday.—So lavilh opetide caufeth 
falling lents. Bp. Hall's Sat. —He grudges not our mode¬ 
rate and feafonable jollities : there is an opetide by his al¬ 
lowance, as well as a lent. Bp. Hall's Rem. 
OP'ERA,/! [Ital. and Lat. a work.] This word is ufed, 
in its genuine lenfe, in the title-pages of mufical compo- 
fitians, to denote the number of pieces, or “ works,” the 
author has publifhed.— Opera 37. Hook's Guida di Mujica. 
Opera is now more particularly applied to a dramatic 
compofition fet to mufic, and fung on the ftage, accompa¬ 
nied with mufical inftruments, and enriched with magni¬ 
ficent dreffes, machinery, and other decorations.—The 
conftituent parts of an opera are the poem, the mufic, and 
the decorations. The mind is addreffed by the poetry, 
the ear by the mufic, the eye by the painting; and the 
whole ought to harmonize, in order to move the heart, 
and convey to it at once the impreffion through different 
organs. New Cyclopcedia. 
This fpecies of drama is of modern invention. In its 
prefent ftate, it was not known even in Italy before the 
beginning of the 17th century; and, at its introduftion 
into England, a century afterwards, it divided the wits, 
literati, and muficians, of the age. By thofe who were 
efteemed the beft judges of the art, the Englifli language 
was confidered as too rough and inharmonious for the 
mufic of the opera ; and, on the other hand,critics, whole 
tafte was built on the bafisof common fenfe, looked upon 
a drama in a foreign and unknown tongue as the greatelfc 
of all abfurdities. Even when the language is thoroughly 
underftood, we (hould imagine that, to make an opera 
agreeable to good fenfe, much would depend upon the 
choice of the (ubject; for it is (urely abfurd to have per- 
fons of all ranks, and on every occafion, perpetually ac- 
4 companied 
