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(Utilised throughout the pooin, without lading the whole stress onthe dose ; the former is usually Martial ’s practice, and the latterthat of Catullus . The Greek epigrams have scarce any thing ofthe point or briskness of the Latin ones: those collected in theAnthology, have most of them a remarkable air of ease and sim-pl city, attended with something just and witty : such as we find ina sensible peasant, or a child that has wit. They have nothingthat bites, but something that tickles. Though they want therail of Martial, yet to a good taste they are not insipid ; except afew of them, which are quite Hat and spiritless. However the ge-neral faintness and delicacy of the plcasuntry in them, iias givenoccasion for a Greek epigram,ior epigram a la Grecque, to denote,am.mg the French , an epigram void of sharpness. The epigramadmits of a great variety of subjects: some are made to praise,ami others to satirize; which lasl are much the easiest, ill-natureserving in-lead of point and wit. Jloileau’s epigrams are all satireson one or another; those of Des Reax are all in honour of hisfriends; those of Buchanan are partly satirical, partly pnneg\ rice!;and those of Mad. Scudery are so many elegies. The epigrambeing only a single thought, it would be ridiculous to express it ina great number of verses.
EPI1 ,EPSY, a convulsion, or convulsive motion
of the whole body, or of some of its parts, with a loss ot sense. Aconvulsive motion happens when the blood, or nervous tluid, runsinto any part withso great violence, that the mind cannot restrainthem. Quine).
EPILEPSY , or Falling Sickness, as it is also called, thoughhitherto considered an incurable, disease, has often been relievedbv the conjoint power of medicines and an appropriate diet.Hence, a pure and fresh air, light but nutritive food; cheerfulcompany, and >noder..te exercise, will be here of greater servicethan the most celebrated nostrums, which are daily imposed upontlie credulous. On the other hand, epileptic patients should care-fully avoid all strong and heating, as well as hot liquors, whichequally relax the stomach : abstain from swine’s flesh, very fatmeat, game, water-fow l, salted or pickled provisions, and likew isefrom oily and watery vegetables : h -nee they ought not to eatnuts, nor cabbages, greens, &c. See Medicine.
EP1LOBIUM, the Willow-IIerb : in botany, a genus of themonogynia order, and octandria class of plants : natural order, Ca-lycanthemie. Calyx four-cleft; petals four; capsule oblong, in-terior; seeds downy. There are fourteen species. These plantsare hardy perennials, commonly considered as weeds.
EPILOGUE, in oratory, the conclusion of a discourse, ordi-narily containing a recapitulation of the principal matter delivered.
Em.oGUK, The, in dramatic poetry, is addressed to the au-dience, after the play is over, by one of tire principal actors; andusually contains some reflections on certain incidents in the play,especially those in the part of the person that speaks it. Havingsomewhat ot pleasantry, it is intended to compose the passions ex-cited by the representation ; a practice which is ridiculed by theSpectator; and compared to a merry tune upon the organ after agood sermon, to wipe away any impressions that might have beenmade thereby.
P-P1MEDICM, Barren-Wort : a genus of the monogyniaorder, and tetrandria class ot plants; natural order, C.'orydales.Nectary four, cupform, leaning on the petals; corolla four-pe-taled; calyx very caducous; fruit a silique. One species, viz.L. alpimun, alpine bairenworl.
I' Pi M F N I ]) FS, an ancient poet and philosopher, bv souk*■^' ed a Phestian ; by others said to have been born at Gnossus inhl ,l 'V ? '’ Contr:u 7 ^ 1C °f hB country, he always wore
i. 1:U1 , i° n T', which, according lo some, was because lie wasas wined ot' being thought a Cretan : and indeed he does not seemio have had a high opinion of his countrymen, if that verse citedo) ot. Paul be, as is generally believed to be, his; “ The Cre-tans are always liars, evil beasts, slow bellies.” 11 is reputation wasso great over all Greece , that lie was esteemed a favourite of theS°ds. 1 he Athenians being afflicted with the plague, and com-manded by the oracle to make a solemn lustration of the city, sentNiciastlie son ot Niceratus, with a ship to Crete , to desire Epi-menides to come to them. lie accepter! their invitation, accom-panied the messengers to Athens , performed the lustration of thecity, and the plague ceased. Herein: contracted an acquaintance'wth Solon , whom he privately instructed in the proper method
for the regulation of the Athenian commonwealth. Having finish-ed his business at Athens , the citizens offered him many valuabl*presents and high honours, and appointed a ship to carry him back,to Crete : but lie would accept of nothing except a little branch otthe sacred olive preserved in the citadel ; and desired the Athe-nians to enter into an alliance with the Gnossians. Having ob-tained tliis he returned to Crete ; where he died soon after, agid1 :j 7 years; or as the Cretans , consistently with their character,pretended, 209. lie was a great poet, and wrote a000 verses onthe Genealogy of the gods, 6000 on the building ot the ship Argo,and Jason’s expedition to Colchis, and 4000 concerning Minos and Khadi'.uianllm*. He wrote also in prose, Concerning Sacri-fices and the Commonwealth of Crete. St. Jerom likewise men-,tionshis Book of Oracdesand Responses. The Lacedemonians pro-cured his ho.!%, and preserved it among them by the advice ct anoracle ; and Plutarch tells us, that he was reckoned the 7lh wisemau by tiiose who refused lo admit Periander into the number.
KPI MF. i'll KUS, in fabulous history, a son of Japetus andClvmene, one of the Oceanides, w ho married Pandora, by whomlie had Pvrrha, the wife of Deucalion. He had the curiosity loopen the box which Pandora had brought with her, and ironthence issued a train of evils, which from tiud moment have neverceased to all lift the human race. Hope only remained at the bot-tom of the box, not having a sufficient time to escape, and it i->she alone which comforts men under mi-,fortunes. Epimetheus waschanged into a monkey by the gous, and sent into the bland I’i-thecusa.
EPINAL, a town of France, in the department of Vosges , andlate province of Eorrain ; 35 miles S. E. of Nanci.
EPIPH AN [US , St. ail ancient father of the church, born atBesanducan, a village in Palestine, about A. D. .33”. He loundeda monastery near the place of his birth, and presided over it.He was afterwards elected bishop of Salamis; w hen he took partwith Pnulir.us in opposition to Meletius , and ordained in Pales-tine, Paulinian the brother of St. Jerom ; on which a contest arosebetween him and John bishop of Jerusalem . lie afterwards calleda council in the island of Cyprus , in which he procured a prohibi-tion of the reading of Origen ’s writings; and made use ot all hisendeavours to prevail on Theophilus bishop of Alexandria to en-gage St. Chrysostom to declare in favour of that decree: but .notmeeting with success, he went himself to Constantinople , wherelie would not have any conversation with St. Chrysostom ; andformed the design of entering the church of the apostles, to pub-lish his condemnation of Origen; -but being informed of the dan-ger to which he would be exposed, he resolved to return to Cy-prus : hut died at sea, in 403. 11 is works were printed in Greek,
at Basil, 1314, in folio; and were afterwards translated into La-tin, in which language they have been often reprinted. Petavius revised and corrected the Greek text by two manuscripts, andpublished it together with a new translation at Paris in 1022. Thisedition was reprinted at Cologne in 16S2.
EPIPHANY, [iwi?avri«,3 a Christian festival , otherwise called(lie manifestation of Christ to the Gentiles, observed on the sixthof January, in honour of the appearance of our Saviour to thethree magi, or wise men, w ho tame to adore him, ami bring himpresents. The feast of epiphany was not originally a distinct fes-tival, hut made a part of that of die nativity of Christ , which beingcelebrated twelve days, the first and last of which were high orchief days of solemnity, either of these might properly be calledepiphany, as that word signifies the appearance of Christ in theI world. The kings of England aud Spain oiler gold, frankincense,and myrrh, on epiphany, or twelfth day, in memory of the oller-ingsof the w ise men to the infant Jesus . The festival ofcpiphanris called by the Greeks the feast of lights, because our Saviour issaid to have been baptized ou this day ; and baplispi is by themcalled illumination.
EPIPHONOMF.NA. See Acclamation and Oratory.
EPIPHORA, [inrqoj.-T,] an intiammation of any part, but moreespec infix a deilnxion ot humours on the eves.
EPI Pil V LI .OS P E R M O CS, [from IT., and cv-.w-x,j isapplied to plants that bear their seed on the hack part of theirleaves.
EPIPHYSIS, [uifss-i;,] accretion; the part added by accre-tion ; one bone growing to another by simple contiguity, withoutanv proper, articulation. See Anatomy.
P ‘ EPIJ.OCE,