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'Predkable Accident, Accident Tr<£dicabile, isufedin oppofuion to 'Proper. — Such is any common Quality ; as, Whitenefs, Heat, Learning, or the like. See Quality.
Thus, a Man may be fick or well ; and a Wall white or black ; yet the one be {till a Man, and the other a Wall.
Thefe are call'd in the Schools Predicable Accidents ; becaufe ufually laid down and explain'd in the Doctrine of Predicables. See Predicable.
^Predicable Accidents may either be taken in the Ab- ftract, as Whitenefs, Learning ; or in the Concrete, White, Learned. See Abstract, and Concrete.
If taken in the Abftract, as is done by 'Porphyry ; the Accident is defined as above, that which may either be pre- fent or abfent, without the Deftruction of its Subject.
If it be taken in the Concrete : Accident is ufually defln'd by the Schoolmen, to be fomething capable of being pre- dicated contingently, of many, in refpett of Quality.
As Learnings which may probably be predicated of You, He, i$c.
Predicamental Accident, Accidens Predicament ale 3 which alone properly anfwers to the Idea of an Accident ; is a Mode, or Modification of fome created Subftance, in- hering or depending thereon, fo as not to be capable of fub- fifting without the Tame. See Mode.
In this Senfe, Accident is oppofed to Subftance. — Whence, as Subftance is defined a thing that fubfifts of it felf, and the Subftratum of Accidents ; lb an Accident is faid to be that cujftS effe eft inejje : And therefore Ariftotle, who ufual- ly calls Subftances fimply aew, Entities % Beings ; commonly calls Accidents, far©- op-nt, Entities of Entity 5 as requi- ring fome Subftance wherein to refide, as their Subject of In- hefion.
An Accident, then, has an immediate and effential De- pendence on its Subftance ; both as to its Production, its Continuation, and its Effects : It arifes or is deduced from its Subject, is preferved or fubfifted by it ; and can only be affected by what alters or affects the Subject,
The Schoolmen, however, will not have Accidents to be mere Modes of Matter, but Entities really diftinct from it 5
and, in fome Cafes, feparable from all Matter.- But the
Notion of real Accidents and Qualities is now exploded. See Qualitt.
Ariftotle and the Peripateticks make nine Kinds or Claf- fes of Predicamental Accidents ; others contract em into a lefs Number. See Predicament, and Category.
Abfolnte Accident, is a Term ufed in the Romijb Theo- logy, for an Accident which fubfifts, or may pofiibly fubfift, at leaft miracuioufly, and by fome fupernatural Power, with- out a Subject.
Such, they contend, are the Accidents of the Bread and "Wine in the Eucharift ; e. g. the Colour, Flavour, Figure, ESfc. thereof, which remain after the Subftances they be- long'd to are changed into other Subftances of Flem, £■><;. See Eucharist, Species, Transubstantiation, &c.
This Abfurdity has been very ftifly maintained by many of their Cafuifts ; and even decreed by fome of their Coun- cils. — The Eucharift, fay they, being a Sacrament, i, e. a Vifible Sign of an Invifible Grace ; 'tis neceflary there be fomething fenfible therein : Now, this cannot be the Sub- flance, that being deftroy'd or tranfubftantiated ; and there- fore mull be Accidents, — Add, that in every Conversion there muft be fomething of the former Nature remaining after the Change 5 otherwife it would be no more than a fimple Subiiitution of one thing for another : As, then, no- thing of the Subflance remains, it muft be Accidents. ■
Hence, the Council of Conftans condemns the following Proportion, which is the fecond of WicHijf, as Heretical : The Accidents of Bread do not remain without a SubjeGt in the Sacra?nent. SefT. VIII.
Some of the Fathers feem to give Countenance to the fame Opinion. — S. Bafil, in his Vlth Homily on the Crea- tion, obferves that Light, or rather Brightnefs, the Splendor of Light, tv p*T©- h a*,u-w£?ths, is a thing diftinct from its Subject, as Whitenefs is from a white Body 5 and that it exifted in the Beginning, without this Subject y having been created four Days before.
The Cartefians, to a Man, combat the Notion of A b fo- late Accidents, it being their Doctrine, that the Effence of Matter confifts in Extenfion • and that Accidents are only Modifications thereof, in no wife diftinct from it : An Acci- dent without a Subject mutt be a Contradict:on.' — And hence, Cartefianifm is branded as contrary to the Faith. See Car-
TESIANLSM.
Various Expedients have been invented by the Carte/Fans, to account for Tranfubftantiation, &c. without the Hy- pothec's of Abfolute Accidents.— Some hold, that the ufual Impreffwns are made on the Senfe by the immediate Agen- cy of God ; and without any thing remaining of the former Nature. Others afcribe the whole to heterogeneous Matters contained in the Pores of the Bread, &c. which remaining unalterd by the Tranfubftantiation, produce the fame Sen- fations as the Bread produced.
OsO
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Accident fs a fo popularly ufed for a Contingent Effeft • or fomething produced cafually, and without any Foreknow- ledge or Delt.nation thereof in the Agent that produced it See Chance, Fortune, l£c. '
Per ACCIDENS, is frequently ufed among Philofophers to denote what does not follow from the Nature of a Thing, but from fome accidental Quality thereof: In which Senfe, it Hands oppofed to fer fe, which denotes the Na- ture and Effence of a Thing. See Per fe.
Thus, Fire is faid to burn fer fe, or confider'd as Fire and not fer accidens : But a piece of Iron, tho red hot, on-' ly burns per accidens, by a Quality accidental to it, and not confider'd as Iron.
Accident, in Heraldry, is an additional Note, or Mark in a Coat-Armour, not ncceffarily belonging thereto, but ca- pable either of being retain'd or omitted, without altering the Effence of the Armour.— Such are Abatements, Diffe- rences, and Tincture. See Abatement, Tincture, and Difference.
ACCIDENTAL, fomething of the Nature of an Acci- dent i or, that is not effential to its Subjeft, but indifferent thereto. See Accident, and Essential.
Thus, Whitenefs is Accidental to Marble ; and Heat, to Iron.
Accidental 'Point, in Perfpeflive, is a Point in the- horizontal Line, where Lines parallel to one another, tho not perpendicular to the Piflure or Reprefentation, meet. See Point, Perspective, &c.
Accidental Dignities, and Debilities, in Aftrology, are certain cafual Difpofitions and Affeflions of the Planets, whereby they are fuppofed to be either flrengthen'd or weaken'd, by their being in fuch a Houfe of tho Figure tSct
ACCLAMATION, a confufed Noife, or Shout of Joy, by which the Publick exprefs their Applaufe, Efteem, or Approbation of any thing.
Thefe were formerly ufed in Churches, as well as Thea- tres ; and the Bifhops and other Ecclefiaftical Officers, were elefled by the Acclamations of the People. — But their prin- cipal Ufe has always been at the folemn Entries of Princes and Heroes ; where they are ufually attended with good Wimes, Prayers, "Vows, fsic. See Vow.
Antiquity has handed down to us feveral Forms of Ac- clamations ; as, Dii te nobis fervent, veftra fatus, nofira falus : ' The Gods preferve you for us ; your Safety, our ' Safety.' In te omnia, fer te oiitnia babemus, Antomne.
In you, Antoninus, and by you, we have every thing "
Lampridius relates, that at the Entry of Sevens the
People cried out, Salve Roma, quia falvus Alexander. Oh
' Rome, be fafe ; fince Alexander is fafe.' M. Sriffin
in his Treatife of Formula's, enumerates various fores of Acclamations, ufed by the Senate, the Army, ££?c.
The Hebrews ufed to cry Hofanna. — The Greeks Aza- the Tuche, that is, Good Fortune. See Hosanna.
ACCLIVIS, in Anatomy, a Mulcle, otherwife called Obhquus Afcendens. See Obliojius Afcendens.
ACCLIVITY, theStecpnefs, or Slope of a Line or Plane inclined to the Horizon ; reckon'd upwards. See Inclined Plane.
The Afcent of a Hill is an Acclivity ; the Defcent of the fame a Declivity. See Declivity.
Some Writers of Fortification, ufe Acclivity for Talus. See Talus.
The Word is compounded of the Latin ad, and clivus, Hill, Eminence.
ACCOLA, properly denotes an Husbandman who came from other Parts to till the Land, Eo quod adveniens terram colat ; by which he is diftinguifli'd from Incola. Jf. Accola non fropriam, profriam colit incola terram. Du Frefne.
ACCOLADE, a Ceremony antiently ufed in the confer- ring of Knighthood. See Knight.
The Accolade confided in the King's laying his Arms about the young Knight's Neck, and embracing him ; in to- ken of Friendihip.— After the Accolade, the Prince giving him a little Blow on the Shoulder with the Flat of a Sword he forthwith enter'd into the Profeffion of Arms.
The Word is French, and literally denotes an Embrace, or Hugging ; being form'd of ad, and col, Neck
ACCOMMODATION, in Philofophy, the Application of one thing, by Analogy, to another. See Analogy.
Thus, to know a thing by Accommodation, is to know it by the Idea of a fimilar thing refer'd thereto.
A Prophecy of Scripture is faid to be fulfill'd various ways; Properly, as when a thing foretold comes to pafs ; and Im- properly, or by way of Accommodation, when an Event hap- pens to any Place or People, like to what fell out fome time
before to another. Thus, the Words of Ifaiah, fpoke to
thofe of his own Time, are faid to be fulfill'd in thofe who liv'd in our Saviour's ; and are accommodated to them : Te Hypocrites, well did Ifaias prophefy of you, &c. which fame Words, St. 'Paul afterwards accommodates to the Jews of his Time. — This Method of explaining Scripture by Accommo- dation, ferves as a Key for folving fome of the Difficulties
tela ting
