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P E R 
Her had a natural dominion over Abel, for the words are 
conditional: “ If tliou doed well,” and fo perfonal to Cain. 
Locke. —Public reproofs of lin are general, though by 
this they lofe a great deal of their effe£l ; but in private 
conversations the application may be more perfonal, and 
the proofs when fo directed come home. Rogers. 
I know no perfonal caufe to fpurn at him ; 
But for the general. Shahefpeare'’s Jnl. C<ef 
Prefent; not acting by representative.—This immediate 
and perfonal Speaking of God Almighty to Abraham, 
Job, and Mofes, made not all his precepts and dictates, 
delivered in this manner, Smply and eternally moral ; for 
Some of them were perfonal, and many of them ceremo¬ 
nial and judicial. White. 
The favourites that the abfent king in deputation left, 
When he was perfonal in the Irilh war. Shahefpeare. 
Exterior ; corporal.—This heroic condancy determined 
him to defire in marriage a princefs, whofe perfonal charms 
were now become the lead; part of her character. Ad- 
dfon. 
Personal Action, in law, is an aiffion levied direflly 
and Solely againft the perfon ; in oppofition to a real or 
mixed adtion. 
Personal Goons, or Chattels, in law, Signifies any 
moveable thing belonging to a perfon, whether alive or 
dead. 
Personal Vere, in grammar, a verb conjugated in 
nil the three perfons; thus called in oppofition to an im- 
perfonal verb, or that which has the third perfon only. 
PER'SONAL, f. Any movable pofleflion ; goods: in 
oppofition to lands and tenements, or real edate. 
PERSONALITY, f. The exigence or individuality of 
any one.—Perfon belongs only to intelligent agents, ca¬ 
pable of a law, and happinefsand mifery: this perfonality 
extends itfelf beyond prefent exigence to what is pad, 
only by confcioufnefs, whereby it imputes to itfelf pad 
adtions, juft upon the fame ground that it does the pre¬ 
fent. Locke. —Reflection upon individuals, or upon their 
private adlions or charadler. 
Personality, or Personalty, in law.—An adlion is 
faid to be in perj'onality, when it is brought againd the 
light perfon. Chambers. 
To PER'SONALIZE, v. a. To perfonify. Scott. 
PER'SONALLY, adv. In perfon ; in prefence ; not by 
representative.—Approbation not only they give, who 
perfonally declare their aflent by voice, Sign, or adt, but 
alio when others do it in their names. Hooker. —There 
are many reafons, why matters of Such a wonderful na¬ 
ture Should nor be taken notice of by thofe Pagan writers 
who lived before our Saviour’s difciples had perfonally ap¬ 
peared among them. AddtJ'on. 
I couid not perfonally deliver to her 
What you commanded me, but by her woman 
I Sent your meftage. Shahefpeare's Hen. VIII. 
With refpedl to an individual; particularly.—She bore a 
mortal hatred to the houfe of Lancader, and perfonally to 
the king. Bacon's Hen. VII.— With regard to numerical 
exidence.—The converted man is perfonally the fame he 
was before, and is neither born nor created anew in a 
proper literal fenfe. Rogers. 
PERSONA'TA, f. in botany. See Persolata and 
Arctium. 
PERSONA'TAE, f. The fortieth natural order among 
the Fragmenta of Linnaeus; nearly analogous to the 
Scrophularise and the Vitices of Juflleu, embracing more¬ 
over Some that are Subjoined to his Solaneae. Many of 
the plants are fcetid and poifonous, few of them aro¬ 
matic, though the flowers of Some are fragrant. Gifeke 
well obferves, that there is no order in which fo many 
genera bear the names of botanids as in this of the Per- 
fonatae. See the article Botany, vol. iii. p. 297, 8. 
To PER'SONATE, v. a. [from perjbna , Lnt.] To re¬ 
present by a fidlitious or afluined charadler, fo as to pafs 
PER 
for the perfon represented.—This lad was not to perfonate 
one that had been long before taken out of his cradle, 
but a youth that had been brought up in a court, where 
infinite eyes had been upon him. Bacon's Hen. VII.—To 
reprefent by adlion or appearance ; to acl : 
-Herfelf awhile die lays afide, and makes 
Ready to perfonate a mortal part. Crajhaw^ 
To pretend hypocritically, with the reciprocal pronoun.— 
It has been the condant pradtice of the Jefuits to fend 
over emifiaries, with ir.drudtions to perfonate themfelves 
members of the Several fedts amongd us. Swift. —-To 
counterfeit; to feign. Little in vfe. — Piety is oppofed to 
that perfonated devotion, under which any kind of im¬ 
piety is difguifed. Hammond on Fundamentals. —Thus 
have I played with the dogmatid in a perfonated fcepti- 
cifm. Glanville's Scep/is. —To refemble.—The lofty cedar 
perfonates thee. Shahefpeare's Cymbeline. — To make a re¬ 
presentation of, as in pidture. Out of ufe. 
Whofe eyes are on this Sovereign lady fixt, 
One do I perfonate of Timon’s frame, 
Whom fortune with her ivory hand wafts toiler. Shaltefp. 
To defcribe. Out of vfe. —I will drop in his way fome 
obfcure epidles of love, wherein, by the colour of his 
beard, the thape of his leg, the manner of his gait, the ex- 
preflure of his eye, forehead, and complexion, he fhall 
find himfelf mod feelingly perfonated. Shakefpeare. —To 
celebrate loudly ; [perjbno, Lat.] Nut in vfe. 
They louded fing 
The vices of their deities and their own, 
In fable, hymn.orfong, fo perfonating 
Their gods ridiculous, and themfelves pad fhame. Milton . 
To play a fidlitious charadter-—He wrote many poems and 
epigrams, Sundry petty comedies and enterludes, often¬ 
times perfonating with the adtors. SirG. Buck's Rich. III. 
PER'SONATE, adj. in botany, applied to the corolla 
when it is irregular, having the mouth clofed by a kind 
of palate, as in Antirrhinum, or toad’s flax. The term is 
derived from perfona, a mafk; and its application in the 
prefent indance, whether intended or not by Linnaeus, is 
peculiarly happy; the plants furnifhed with fuch a corolla 
being, as it were, of the regular pentandrous tribe, under 
a r.-alk, which they occasionally lay afide. See Peloria 
and Personatje. 
PERSONA'TION, f. Counterfeiting of another per¬ 
fon.—This being one of the dranged examples of a per- 
fonation that ever was, it deferveth to be discovered and 
related at the full. Bacoti's Hen. VII. 
PER'SONATOR, f. One who perfonates a fidlitious 
charadler.—Exprefling a mod real aftedlion in the perfona- 
tors. B. Jonfon's MaJijues at Court. —One vvhoadls or per¬ 
forms.—The mod royal princes, and greated perfons, are 
commonly the perfonators of thole actions. B. Jonfon's 
MaJ'ques at Court. 
PERSONIFICA'TION, f. Profopopceia ; the change 
of things to perfons: as, “ Covfufton heard his voice.” 
Milton’s P. L.—Boethius’s admired allegory on the Con- 
folation of Philofophy introduced perfonijication into the 
poetry of the middle ages. Warlon's Hi/l. E. P. —When 
words naturally neuter are converted into mafeuline and 
feminine, the perfonijication is more didindtly and forcibly 
marked. Lowth. 
Dr. Blair in his Ledhires on Rhetoric gives this account 
of perfonification. “ It is a figure, the ufe of which is 
very extenlive, and its foundation laid deep in human 
nature. At fird view, and when confidered abltradlly, 
it would appear to be a figure of the utmod boldnefs, and 
to border on the extravagant and ridiculous. For what 
can feem more remote from the track of reafonable 
thought, than to Speak of dones and trees, and fields and 
rivers, as if they were living creatures; and to attribute 
to them thought and fenfation, aftedtions and adlions ? 
One might imagine this to be no more than childilh con- 
4 ceir. 
