Sift OPT 
OP'SO, a town of Iftria: feven miles eaft-north-eaft of 
Capo d’lftria. 
OPSONA'TION, f. [from the Gr. oiJ/«koi', food.] The 
aft of buying viftuals ; the office of a caterer. 
OPSONA'TOR', or Opsonomus, f . A magiffrate of 
Athens, of whom there were two or three, cholen out of 
the fenate. or council. Their office wds to infpeft the 
provifion-markets, and to take care that every thing was 
done in order, and according to the laws. 
OP'STRAET (John), a learned divine and profeffor of 
theology at Louvain, w’as born at Beringlien, a fmall 
town in the country of Liege, in the year 1651. He was 
inftrufte’d in grammar-learning at Liege, and then feiit to 
purfue his academical ftudies at the univerfity of Louvain. 
Here, a few years afterwards, he was appointed tutor in 
the daffies and Latin poetry at the College of the Holy 
Trinity ; but he foon relinquiffied that office, and devo¬ 
ted himfelf entirely to the ftudy of divinity. In 1686, he 
was ordained prieft, and admitted a licentiate in divinity 
during the following year. Four years afterwards he was 
appointed to fill the theological chair at the College of 
Adrian VI. wdience he was called to Mechlin in 1686, by 
M. Huygens, archbifhop of that city, to difeharge the 
duties of the fame poll in the feminary there. After the 
death of that prelate, his fucceffor, M. Humbert de Pre- 
cipiano, finding that our author was attached to the 
caufe of Janfenius and Quefnel, difiniffed him as a dan¬ 
gerous perfon, in 1690 : when he returned to Louvain, 
where, in the year 1709, he was made principal of the Fal¬ 
con-college. This place he retained till his death, in 
1720, in the feventieth year of his age. 
KepoiTeffed confiderable genius andquicknefs of appre- 
henfion ; his reading was very extenfive ; and he could 
write well in Latin, whenever he took the trouble to 
avoid the fcholaftic flyle in which the controverfies of the 
age were chiefly condufted. His life was truly exem¬ 
plary ; and that he was devoid of ambition and interefted 
motives, he fhowed by refufing one of the principal and 
snoft valuable canonries' in the cathedral church of 
Liege. In cafes of confcience, and on a variety of 
difficult points relating to ecclefiaftical difeipline, he 
was confulted as an oracle by the clergy of the coun¬ 
try. He was the author of a multitude of produftions, 
highly efteemed in the Jan fen ill conneftion 5 of which an 
ample lift may be feen in Moreri. 
OP'TABLE, adj. [optabilis , Lat.] Defirable; to be 
wiffied. Cocheram. 
OFT ABLENESS, f. The ftate or quality of being defi¬ 
rable. Scott. 
'To OP'TATE, v.a. [opto, Lat. to defire.] To choofe ; 
to with for ; to defire. Sot in vfe. 
OPTA'TION, f. [optatio, Lat.] The expreffion of a 
wifh. ObJblcte .—To this belong optation, obteftation, inter¬ 
rogation. Peacham's Card, of Eloquence, 1577. 
OP'TATIVE, adj. [optativus, Lat.] Expreffive of de¬ 
fire.—This optative infinity in the foul of man. W. Moun- 
iague's Dev. Eff. 1648.—Belonging to that mood of a verb 
which exprefles defire.—The verb undergoes in Greek a 
different formation to fignify wifhing, which is called the 
optative mood. Clarke .—In molt languages except the 
Greek, the optative is expreffed by only prefixing to the 
fubjunftive an adverb of wifhing : as utinam, in Latin ; 
pint a Bieu, in French ; and would to God, in Englifh, 
&c. And, indeed, the optative mood might be fafely re¬ 
trenched from the Latin and Englifh languages. Chambers. 
OPTA'TUS, a faint in the Roman calendar, was biffiop 
of Milevi, a city of Numidia, and flourilhed in the fourth 
century. Jerome fays that he wrote under the reigns of 
the emperors Valentinian and Valence, that is, between 
the years 364 and 375. With refpeft to his life, we are 
furnifhed with no particulars; and the time of his death 
5 s not afeertained. High commendations are beftowed on 
liim by different ancient writers, which are noticed by 
Tillemont, at the beginning of his article concerning 
him. Among thefe is Auguftine’s teftimony, who 
OPT 
clafles him with Cyprian, and others, who had come over 
from Gentilifm to Chriftianity, and brought with them 
the riches of the Egyptians, that is, learning and elo¬ 
quence, to the no fmall advantage of the Chriftian caufe. 
Optatus acquired much reputation by a work which he 
wrote in defence of the Catholics againft the Donatifts. 
The firft edition of it was publifhed at Mentz, in 1549, 
by John Cochlanis. In 1563, a new edition was publifhed 
at Paris by Baldwin, a civilian, with learned and curious 
notes; which was the foundation of that of Commelin in 
1599. At fubfequent periods, editions of it were given 
by l’Aubefpine bifliop of Orleans, Meric Cafaubon, 
Barthius, Philip Prior, and others. But the belt edition 
of this father was publifhed by Dupin, in 1700, folio, who 
correfted the text by a collation of four ancient manu- 
feripts. _ This work contains ffiort notes of the editor, 
and various readings at the bottom of the pages; and, at 
the end, the notes of Baldwin, l’Aubefpine, Cafaubon, 
and other former editors, together with acolleftion of the 
afts of councils, the conferences and letters of bifhops, 
edifts of emperors, proconfular afts, and afts of martyrs, 
which bear any relation to the hiftory of the Donatifts, 
difpofed in chronological order, from the commencement 
of that left to the time of Gregory the Great. Prefixed 
to this edition is an account or Optatus, and of the dif¬ 
ferent editions of his work ; and twodiffertations, one on 
the hiftory of the Donatifts, and the other on the facred 
geography of Africa. Cave's Hi ft. Lit. vol. i. Dupin. Lard- 
nei''s Cred. vol. ix. 
OPTE'RIA, f. [from onropca, Gr. I fee.] Among the 
ancients, prefents made to a child the firft time a perfon 
favv it. Alio the prefents which the bridegroom made his 
bride when the was condufted to him; this being the firft 
time he faw her. See Barthol. de Puerp. vet. 
OFTIC, adj. [from Gr. the eye.] Vifual; produ¬ 
cing viiion ; fublervient to vifion.—May not the harmo¬ 
ny and difeorefof colours arife from the proportions of 
the vibrations propagated through the fibres of the optic 
nerves into the brain, as the harmony and difeord of 
founds arife from the proportions of the vibrations of the 
air ? Newton's Opt. —Relating to the fcience of vifion.— 
Where our matter handleth the contractions of pillars, 
we have an optic rule, that the higher they are, the lefs 
ffiouid be always their diminution aloft, becaufe the eye 
itfeif doth contraft all objefts according to the diftance, 
Wotton. 
OP'TIC, f. An inftrument of fight; an organ of fight. 
•—Can any thing efcape the perfpics-city of eyes which 
were before light, and in whofe optics there is no opacity. 
Drown. 
Our corporeal eyes we find 
Dazzle the optics of our mind. Denham. 
You may negleft, or quench, or hate, the flame, 
Whofe finoke too long obfeur’d your riflng name. 
And quickly cold indifference will enfue, 
When you love’s joys through honour’s optic view. Prior. 
Why has not man a microfcopic eye ? 
For this plain reafon, man is not a fly. 
Say what the ufe, were finer optics given, 
T’infpeft a mite, not comprehend the heaven. Pope. 
OP'TICAL, adj. Relating to the fcience of optics.—It 
feems not agreeable to what anatomifts and optical writers 
deliver touching the relation of the two eyes to each other 
Boyle. 
OPTI'CIAN, f. One {killed in optics.'—How it is that, 
by means of our fight, we learn to judge of fuch diftances, 
opticians have endeavoured to explain in feveral different 
ways. A. Smith on the External Safes. —One who makes 
or fells optic glaffes.— Opticians have daily experience of 
the truth of thefe obfervations. Adamson Vifion. 
OP'TICS, /I The fcience of the nature and laws of vi¬ 
fion.—Thofe who defire fatisfaftion mull go to the admi¬ 
rable treatife of optics by fir Ifaac Newton. Cheyne. 
TREATISE 
