*OATHABLE. adj. [from oath. A word not ufed.] Capable of having an oath administered.— You're not oathable,

Although I know you'll fwear

Into ftrong fhudders the immortal gods. Sbak. * OATHBREAKING. n. f. Loath and break.] Perjury; the violation of an oath.

His oathbreaking he mended thus,

By now forfwearing what he is forsworn. Shake OATHLAW, a parish of Scotland, in Angusfhire, 2 miles from Fortar; 5 miles long and 2 broad; anciently called FINHAVEN, from a hill in it. The S. Efk runs through it. The furface is level; the foil clayey; the air moift. The popu lation in 1790 was 430; decrease 5 fince 1755. There are relics of a Roman camp in it, 1200 yards long and 600 broad. See BATTLE-DYKES. OATLANDS, a village in Surry, near Wey

bridge.

* OATMALT. n. f. [sat and malt.] Malt made of oats.-In Kent they brew with one half oatmalt, and the other half barleymalt. Mortimer.

i. OATHS, ASSERTORY, are required both to confirm our veracity in evidence, and to give fecurity to the public that we believe certain propo. fitions conceived to be of public importance. An oath in evidence binds the juror to declare what he knows to be true, and nothing but what he knows to be true. An oath required to affure the public of our belief in the truth of any propofition, cannot, without the guilt of perjury, be taken by any man, who, at the time of fwearing, has the slightest doubt whether the propofition be really true. Such an oath, however, though it unquestionably requires the fincerity of the juror's belief at the time when it is given, cannot oblige him to continue in that belief as long as he may live; for belief is not in any man's power; it is the neceffary confequence of evidence, which compels the affent of the mind, according as it appears to preponderate on the one fide or on the other. No man, therefore, can be juftly accused of perjury for holding opinions contrary to those which he may formerly have fworn to believe; because his belief at the time of emitting his oath may have been the ne ceffary refult of the evidence which then appeared before him; and his change of opinion may have refulted, with the fame neceffity, from fuperior evidence which had been fince thrown into the oppofite scale, and made it preponderate. On this account, we cannot help thinking, that all affertory oaths, except fuch as are neceffary to confirm teftimony respecting facts, ought either to be abo.. lifhed or expreffed with great caution. Of truths intuitively certain, or capable of rigid demonftration, no man of common fenfe can entertain a doubt; and therefore the public never requires from individuals the folemnity of an oath as an affurance of their believing fuch truths. But with refpect to the truth of propofitions which admit of nothing fuperior to moral evidence on either fide, a man of the moft fteady virtue may think differently at different periods of his life; and in fuch cafes, the effect of an oath, if it have any effect, can only be either to shut the man's eyes against the light, or to make his integrity be caufelefsly queftioned by those who shall observe his change of belief.

ii. OATHS, PROMISSORY, cannot, without the guilt of perjury, be given by him, who, at the time of fwearing, knows, that it will not be in his power to fulfil the promife, or who does not feriously intend to fulfil it. A promiffory oath can not, without great guilt, be given by any man, who, at the time of swearing, believes the object of the promise to be in itself unlawful; for if he seriously mean to fulfil his oath, he calls upon Almighty God to witness his intention to commit a crime. Promiffory oaths give to the public greater fecurity than a fimple promife; because the juror, having the thoughts of God and of religion more upon his mind at the one time than at the other, offends with a higher hand, and in more open contempt of divine power, knowledge, and juftice, when he violates an oath, than when he breaks a promise. Yet it is certain that promiffory oaths, though more folemn and facred, cannot be binding, when the promise without an oath would not be fo in an inferior degree; for the feveral saufes of which fee ALLEGIANCE and PROMISE.

(1.) * OATMEAL. n. f. [oat and meal.] Flower made by grinding oats.-Oatmeal and butter, outwardly applied, dry the scab on the head. Arbuthnot.

Our neighbours tell me oft, in joking talk, Of afhes, leather, oatmeal, bran, and chalk. Gay. (2)* OATMEAL. n. f. [ panicum.] An herb. Ains. (1.) * OATS. n. J. [aten, Saxon.] A grain, which in England is generally given to hories, but in Scotland fupports the people.-It is of the grassleaved tribe; the flowers have no petals, and are difpofed in a loosfe panicle; the grain is eatable. The meal makes tolerably good bread. Miller.The oats have eaten the horses.

Shak.

It is bare mechanifm, no otherwise produced than the turning of a wild oatbeard by the infinuation of the particles of moisture. Locke.-For your lean cattle, fodder them with barley ftraw firft, and the oat ftraw laft. Mort. Hub.-His horfes allowance of oats and beans was greater than the journey required. Swift.

(2.) OATS, in botany. See AVENA, N° 7. Under this article it was observed, that the native place of the common oats is unknown; but Mr Bruce fays he found oats in Arooffi, a small territory in Abyffinia, near the fource of the Nile (fee NILE), growing spontaneously to a prodigious height and fize, capable often of concealing both the horfe and his rider, and fome of the talks being little less than an inch in circumference. (3.) OATS OF CAROLINA. See UNIOLA. (4.) OATS, WILD BEARDED. See BROMUS. *OATTHISTLE. n. f. [oat and thistle.] An herb.

Ains.

OAXES, a river of Crete. Virg. Ecl. i. 66.
OAXUS, a town of Crete.

(1.) OB, [plural Oboth.] in Hebrew antiquity, a dæmon or familiar spirit. (See NECROMANCY, §2.) The original or radical meaning of the word occurs in Job xxxii. 19, where Elihu compares his belly to oboth, new bottles. Hence fome etymologifts derive the name of Ops, the goddess of the Earth, and UPIS, a name of Diana, or the Moon.

(2.) OB, in Egyptian mythology. See MYTHOLOGY, $ 38. (3.) OB,

(3.) OB, or OBY. See OBY.

OBA, a town of Perfia in Adirbeitzan.

(1.) OBADIAH, [Heb. Tay and m, i. e. the fervant of the Lord,] a valiant man of David's army, who came to join him in the wilderness, with feveral others of the tribe of Gad, (1 Chron. xii. 9.)

(2, 3) OBADIAH, was alfo the name of one of thofe whom king Jehoshaphat fent into the cities of Judah, to inftruct the people in their religion; (2 Chron. xvii. 7.) as well as of one of the principal men of Judah, who figned the covenant that Nehemiah renewed with the Lord. (Nehem. x. 5.)

(4.) OBADIAH, the prophet, is believed to have been the fame with the governor of Ahab's house, mentioned in the first book of Kings, (xvii. 3, &c.) who hid and fed the hundred prophets whom Jezebel would have destroyed; and some say, that he was that Obadiah whom Jofiah made overfeer of the works of the temple, (2 Chron. xxxiv. 12.) The truth is, that when he lived or prophefied is wholly uncertain: though moft writers make him cotemporary with Hofea, Amos, and Joel.

(5.) OBADIAH, THE PROPHECY OF, a canonical book of the Old Teftament, which is contained in one fingle chapter; and is partly an invective againft the cruelty of the Edomites, who mocked and derided the children of Ifrael as they paffed into captivity; and with other enemies, their confederates, invaded and oppressed those strangers, and divided the spoil amongst themselves; and partly a prediction of the deliverance of Ifrael, and of the victory and triumph of the whole church over her enemies.

OBAMA, a town of Japan, in Xiphon. *OBAMBULATION, n. f. [obambulatio, from obambulo, Latin.] The act of walking about. OBAMENE, a port on the E. coaft of OrAHA. (1.) OBAN, a flourishing village of Argyllshire, on the NW. fide of the parish of Kilmore, with a good harbour, on the BAY OF OBAN, protected from the forms of the Western Ocean by the island of KERRERA. It had only 2 or 3 houses in 1766, when the custom-house was built, but by the exertions of the D. of Argyll and Mr Camp. bell of Dunftaffnage, in granting leafes, and of two brothers of the name of Stevenson, who fettled in it in 1778, and established manufactures, it increased in buildings, trade and population fo faft, that, in 1794, it had 111 families, and 586 fouls. Ship-building, house-building, tanning, thoe-making, weaving, &c. are carried on in it. It has from 15 to 20 floops employed in the fishing and coafting trade; and one thip of near 300 tons, in the Baltic trade. It is naturally well adapted for a fishing station, as well as for a central market with the Highlands and Western Ifles, as it lies on the road of coafting veffels, paffing from N. to S. through the Sound of Mull, and being fituated near the entrance of the great LocHLINNHE, has a communication with a very extenfive tract of country. The late patriotic traveller, Sir Knox, recommends it to the attention of the British Government, as one of the most proper Tuations in Great Britain for erecting a royal

kyard and arfonal; from whence in times of

war fquadrons and transports with troops could be fitted out, with the utmost secrecy and dispatch, before the enemy could get the fmallest intimation of the intended expedition. From its fituation it has a fpeedy communication with Glasgow by the Clyde, whence naval and military stores might be conveyed through the Crinan canal; and afterwards to Fort-William by Loch-Linnhé. There is a regular ferry from Oban to Kerrera, and thence to Auchnacraig in the ifle of Mull. Near Oban there are immenfe rocks of breccia or pudding-ftone, compofed of very curious rounded pebbles, from the fize of an egg to that of a man's head; fome quartzofe, others granitic, fchiftous, calcareous, &c. cemented together by a black lava. In one of thefe rocks is an immenfe cave extending to an unknown length backwards. Oban lies 26 miles WNW. of Inverary.

(2.) OBAN, BAY OF, a fafe bay in the Sound of Mull, of a femicircular form, from 12 to 14 fathoms deep, and large enough to contain above 500 veffels. It has two openings, one from the S. and the other from the N. and is defended from the fury of the Western winds by the islands of Kerrera and Mull. Its anchorage is everywhere good.

OBÁS, a river of Tenneffee, which rifes in the Cumberland mountains, and running NW. falls into the Cumberland.

OBASINE, a town of France, in the dep. of Correze, 5 miles S. of Tulles, and 6 NE. of Brive. Lon. 1. 44 E. Lat. 48. 25. N.

OBBES, or L'OBBES, a village and abbey of France, in the dep. of Jemappes, and late prov. of Auftrian Hainault. Near it, the French defeated the troops of the allies on the 24th May, 1794, with the lofs of 1500 men. It is 2 miles NW. of Thuin.

OBDACH, a town of Stiria, at the conflux of the Achza and Traun, 35 miles W. of Gratz. Lon 14. 43. E. Lat. 47. 3. N.

OBDORSKOI, a town of Ruffia, in Tobolsk, near the mouth of the Oby: 680 miles E. of Archangel, and 1040 ENE. of Petersburg.

*To OBDUCE. v. a. [obduco, Lat] To draw over as a covering.- No animal exhibits its face in the native colour of its fkin but man; all others are covered with feathers, hair, or a cortex that is obduced over the cutis. Hale.

* OBDUCTION. a. f. [from obductio, obduco, Lat.] The act of covering, or laying a cover.

* OBDURACY. n. S. [from obdurate.] Inflexible wickednefs; impenitence; hardnefs of heart.

Thou think'ft me as far in the devil's book as thou and Falftaff, for obduracy and perfiftency. Sh. -God may, by a mighty grace, hinder the abfolute completion of fin in final obduracy. South.

* OBDURATE. adj. [obduratus, Latin.] 1. Hard of heart; inflexibly obftinate in ill; hardened; impenitent.-

Be not obdurate, open thy deaf ears. Shak.
If, when you make your pray'rs,
God fhould be fo obdurate as yourselves,
How would it fare with your departed fouls?
Shak.

Women are soft, mild, pitiful, and flexible; Thou ftern, obdurate, flinty, rough, remorselefs.

Shak.

To

To convince the proud what figns avail, Or wonders move the obdurate to relent. Milt. Obdurate as you are, oh! bear at least My dying prayers.

Dryden, 2. Hardened; firm; ftubborn: always with fome degree of evil.-Sometimes the very custom of evil makes the heart obdurate against whatsoever instructions to the contrary. Hooker.

A pleafing forcery could charm Pain for a while, or anguifh, and excite Fallacious hope, or arm th' obdurate breast

With ftubborn patience, as with triple fteel. Milt. -No fuch thought ever ftrikes his marble obdu rate heart, but it presently flies off and rebounds from it. South. 3. Harth; rugged.-They joined the moft obdurate confonants without one intervening vowel. Swift.

* OBDURATELY. adv. [from obdurate.] Stubbornly; inflexibly; impenitently.

* OBDURATENESS. n. . [from obdurate.] Stubbornnefs; inflexibility; impenitence.

* OBDURATION. n. /. [from obdurate.] Hard nefs of heart; ftubbornnefs.-What occafion it had given them to think, to their greater obduration in evil, that we did constrainedly those things, for which confcience was pretended? Hooker. This barren feafor is always the reward of obftinate obduration. Hammond.

* OBDURED. adj. [obduratus, Lat.] Hardened; inflex ble; impenitent.

This faw his hapless foes, but food obdur'd, And to rebellious fight rallied their pow'rs Infenfate.

Milton. OBED, the fon of Boaz and Ruth, father of Jeffe, and grand-father of David.

OBEDACH. See OBDACH.

OBED-EDOM, son of Jeduthun, a Levite, and father of 8 fons. He had a numerous family, fays the fcripture, (1 Chr. xvi. 38; and xxvi. 4.) "for God bleffed him". The reafon of this bleffing is recorded in 2 Sam. vi, 10-12. and I Chron. xiii, 13, 14. Afterwards Obededom and his fons were appointed keepers of the doors of the temple. (Chron. xv. 18, 21.) In 2 Samuel, vi. 10. he is called the Gittite, probably because he was of GathRimmon, a city of the Levites beyond Jordan. Josh. xxi. 24. 25.

* OBEDIENCE. n. f. [obedience, Fr. obedientia, Latin.] Obfequioufnefs: fubmiflion to authority; compliance with command or prohibition.If you violently proceed against him, it would. fhake in pieces the heart of his obedience. Shak.Thy husband

Craves no other tribute at thy hands, But love, fair looks, and true obedience. Shak. -His fervants ye are, to whom ye obey, whether of fin unto death, or of obedience unto righteoufnefs. Rom. iv. 16.-It was both a strange commiffion, and a strange obedience to a commiffion, for men so furiously affailed, to hold their hands. Bac. In vain thou bidft me to forbear, Obedience were rebellion here.

Nor can this be,

Cowley.

But by fulfilling that which thou didst want, Obedience to the law of God, impos'd On penalty of death. Milton. -We muft beg the grace and affistance of God's Spirit to enable us to forfake our fins, and to walk

-Religion hath a good influence upon the people, to make them obedient to government. Tillotson.The chief his orders gives; th' obedient band, With due obfervance, wait the chief's command. Pope.

* OBEDIENTIAL. adj. [obedientiel, Fr. from obedient.] According to the rule of obedience.Faith is fuch as God will accept of, when it affords fiducial reliance on the promises, and ebediential fubmiffion to the command. Hammond.Faith is then perfect, when it produces in us a fiduciary affent to whatever the gospel has revealed, and an obediential submiffion to the commands. Wake.

* OBEDIENTLY. adv [from obedient.] With obedience. We should behave ourselves reverently and obediently towards the Divine Majesty. Tillot fon.

OBED'S RIVER, a river of Tenneffee, which runs SW. into Cumberland river, 290 miles above its mouth.

* OBEISANCE. n. f. [obeifence, Fr. This word is formed by corruption from abaisance, an act of reverence.] A bow; a courtesy; an act of reverence made by inclination of the body or knee.Bartholomew my page,

She dreft in all fuits like a lady;
Then call him Madam, do him all obeisance,

Shak.

-Bathsheba bowed and did cheifance unto the king. 1 Kings, i. 16.—

The lords and ladies paid

Their homage, with a low obeisance made, Drgd. (1.)* OBELISK. n. f. [obelifcus, Lat.] 1. A magnificent high piece of folid marble, or other fine ftone, having ufually four faces, and leffening upwards by degrees, till it ends in a point like a pyramid. Harris.

Between the ftatues obelisks were plac'd, And the learn'd walls with hieroglyphicks Pope.

grac'd.

2. A mark of cenfure in the margin of a book, in the form of a dagger [+]. He published the tranflation of the Septuagint, having compared it with the Hebrew, and noted by afterisks what was dedefective, and by obelisks what redundant. Greto.

(2.) An OBELISK, in architecture, (§ 1. def. 1.) is a truncated, quadrangular, and slender pyramid, raifed as an ornament, and frequently charged either with inscriptions or hieroglyphics. Obelisks appear to be of very great antiquity, and to have been first raised to transmit to pofterity precepts of philofophy, which were cut in hierogly. phical characters: afterwards they were used to immortalize the great actions of heroes, and the memory of perfons beloved. The firft obelifk mentioned in hiftory was that of Ramafes king of Egypt, in the time of the Trojan war, which was

(2. OBERSTEIN, a town of France, in the department of Rhine and Mofelle, late capital of the above county; 32 miles ESE. of Treves, and 33 N. of Deux Ponts. It was taken by the French in October 1794. Lon. 7. 26. E. Lat. 49.42. N..

OBERSTENFELD, a town of Suabia, in Wurtenburg, 9 miles SE. of Heilbronn.

OBERVALD, a town of Switzerland, in the Valais; 50 miles E. of Sion. OBERWEIDEN, two towns of Auftria: 1. OBERWEISS; four miles ESE. of Weikendorf: 2. three N. of Gemunden,

OBER-WESEL, a town of France, in the dep. of the Rhine and Mofelle, and late electorate of Treves; feated on the W. bank of the Rhine, 40 miles ENE. of Treves. Lon. 7. 48. E. Lat. 50. I. N.

OBERWOLTZ, a town of Germany, in Stiria, 24 miles W. of Judenburg, and 116 SW. of Vienna. Lon. 31. 2. E. Ferro. Lat. 47. 18. N. OBESE. adj. [obefus, Lat.] Fat; loaden with

flesh,

OBESENESS, Įn. f. [from obese.] Morbid fatOBESITY. nefs; incumbrance of flesh. -On thefe many diseases depend; as on the ftraitnefs of the cheft, a phthifis; on the largenefs of the veins, an atrophy; on their smallness, obefity. Grew's Cofmol.

*To OBEY. v. a. [obeir, Fr. obedio, Lat.] 1. To pay fubmiffion to; to comply with, from reverence to authority.

The will of Heav'n

Shak.

Be done in this and all things! I obey. I am afham'd that women are fo fimple To feek for rule, fupremacy, and fway, When they are bound to ferve, love, and obey. Shakelp. -Let not fin reign in your mortal body, that ye fhould obey it in the lufts thereof Rom. vi. 12.The ancient Britons yet a scept'red king obeyed. Drayton. Was the thy God, that her thou didst obey Before his voice? Milton's Par. Loft. Africk and India fhall his pow'r obey. Dryd. 2. It had formerly fometimes to before the perfon obeyed, which Addifon has mentioned as one of Milton's Latinifms; but it is frequent in old writers; when we borrowed the French word we borrowed the fyntax, obeir au roi-He command. ed the trumpets to found; to which the two brave knights obeying, they performed their courfes, breaking their faves. Sidney.

The flit bark, cbeying to her mind,
Forth launched quickly.
-His fervants ye are, to whom ye obey.
16.-

Spenfer. Rom. vi. Yet to their general's voice they foon obey'd. Milton. OBIAN, a navigable river of Tenneffee, which rifes in the high land between the Miffifippi, and Tenneffee, and running SW. falls into the former.

OBIDOS, a town of Portugal, in Eftremadura.

Pardon

Dishonour not your eye

By throwing it on any other object.

Shak.

Why elfe this double object in our fight? Milt. This passenger felt some degree of concern at the fight of fo moving an obje& Atterbury. 3. [In grammar.] Any thing influenced by fomewhat elfe. The accufative after a verb tranfitive, or a fentence in room thereof, is called, by grammarians, the object of the verb Clarke.

(2.) OBJECT, in philofophy, fomething apprehended or prefented to the mind by fenfation or imagination. See METAPHYSICS, Se&. I, IV.

*To OBJECT. v. a. [objeЯer, Fr. objicio, objectum, Lat.] 1. To oppofe; to prefent in oppofition.-Flowers growing fcattered in divers beds, will fhew more fo as that they be objeƐed to view at once. Bacon.

Pallas to their eyes

The mift objected, and condens'd the fkies. Pope. 2. To propofe as a charge criminal; or a reafon adverfe; with to or against.-Were it not fome kind of blemish to be like unto infidels and Heathens, it would not fo usually be objected. Hooker. -The book requireth due examination, and giveth liberty to object any crime against such as are to be ordered. Whitgifte.-Men affect a credit to objea and foretel difficulties. Bacon -The old truth was, obje& ingratitude, and ye obje& all crimes: and is it not as old a truth, is it not a higher truth, obje& rebellion, and ye object all crimes. Holyday.This the adversaries of faith have too much reafon to object against too many of its profeffors; but against the faith itself nothing at all. Spratt's Sermons.-It was objected against a late painter, that he drew many graceful pictures, but few of them were like. Dryden.-Others objeƐ the poverty of the nation. Addison's State of the War. -There wa but this fingle fault that Erafmus, though an enemy, could object to him. Atterbury. (1.) OBJECTGLASS. . . Glafs remoteft from the eye. An objecglass of a telescope I once mended, by grinding it on pitch with putty. Newton's Opticks.

*

CROSCOPF.

(2.) OBJECT GLASS OF A TELESCOPE or MrSee MICROSCOPE and OPTICS. * OBJECTION n f. [objection, Fr. obje&io, Lat.] 1. The act of prefenting any thing in oppofition. 2. Criminal