in a general sense, denotes any mark whatever, serving to represent either things or ideas; thus letters are characters, types, or marks of certain sounds; words, of ideas, &c.

Literal characters may be divided, with respect to the nations among whom they have been invented, into Greek characters, Roman characters, Hebrew characters, &c. The Latin character now used through all Europe was formed from the Greek, as the Greek was from the Phœnician; and the Phœnician, as well as the Chaldee, Syriac, and Arabic characters, were formed from the ancient Hebrew, which subsisted till the Babylonish captivity; for, after that event, the character of the Assyrians, which is the square Hebrew now in use, prevailed, the ancient being only found on some Hebrew medals, commonly called Samaritan medals. It was in 1091 that the Gothic characters, invented by Ulfila, were abolished, and the Latin ones established in their room.

Medallists observe, that the Greek character, consisting only of majuscule letters, has preserved its uniformity on all medals, as low as the time of Gallienus; from that time it appears somewhat weaker and rounder: from the time of Constantine to Michael we find only Latin characters; and after Michael the Greek characters recommence; but from that time they begin to alter with the language, which was a mixture of Greek and Latin. The Latin medals preserve both their character and language as low as the translation of the seat of the empire to Constantinople: towards

the time of Decius the character began to lose its roundness and beauty; some time after, it retrieved, and subsided tolerably till the time of Justin, when it degenerated gradually into the Gothic. The rounder, then, and better formed a character is upon a medal, the fairer pretence it has to antiquity.

Character is also used, in several of the arts, for a symbol, contrived for the more concise and immediate conveyance of the knowledge of things. For the Characters used in algebra, see p. 79, 80.

Characters used in astronomy, viz.

Of the planets. See plate XXXIX.

Of the signs. See plate XXXIX.

Of the aspects.

- or S Conjunction △ Trine SS Semisextile By Biquintile * Sextile Vc Quincunx Q Quintile Opposition □ Quartile Dragon's head Td Tredecile Dragon's tail

Of time.

A. M. ante meridiem, before the sun comes upon the meridian.

O. or N. noon.

P. M. post meridiem, when the sun is past the meridian.

Characters in commerce.

D° ditto, the same R° recto N° numero, or number V° vero £. or l. pounds sterling Fo folio, or page C or ℗ hundred weight, or 112 pounds qrs quarters S or s shillings d pence or deniers lb pound weight.

Characters in chemistry. See Chemistry.

Characters in geometry and trigonometry.

|| the character of parallelism △ triangle □ square □ rectangle ○ circle

V equiangular, or similar ⊥ equilateral ∧ an angle L right angle ⊥ perpendicular

denotes a degree; thus 45° implies 45 degrees. ' a minute; thus, 50°, is 50 minutes. " , " , denote seconds, thirds, and fourths: and the same characters are used where the progressions are by tens, as it is here by sixties.

Characters in grammar, rhetoric, poetry, &c.

() parenthesis SS. T. D. doctor in divinity [ ] crotchet V. D. M. minister of the word of God - hyphen LL D. doctor of laws ' apostrophe J. V. D. doctor of civil and canon law emphasis or accent · breve ·· dialysis ^ caret and circumflex

" quotation CHARACTERS among the ancient lawyers, and in ancient inscriptions.

§ paragraphs ¶ digests Scto senatus consulto E. extra S. P. Q. R. senatus populique Romanus

CHARACTERS in medicine and pharmacy.

P. recipe á, áá, or ana, of each alike lb a pound or a pint 3 an ounce 3 a drachm 3 a scruple gr. grains ½ or ¼, half of any thing cong. congius, a gallon coch. cochleare, a spoonful

M. manipulus, a handful P. a pugil P. æ. equal quantities S. A. according to art q. s. a sufficient quantity q. pl. as much as you please P. P. pulvis patrum, the Jesuit's bark.

CHARACTERS used in music. See Music.

Numeral Characters used to express numbers, are either letters or figures. The Arabic character, called also the common one, because it is used almost throughout Europe in all sorts of calculations, consists of these ten digits, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 0.

The Roman numeral character consists of seven majuscule letters of the Roman alphabet, viz. I, V, X, L, C, D, M. The I denotes one, V five, X ten, L fifty, C a hundred, D five hundred, and M a thousand.

The I repeated twice makes two, II; thrice, three, III; four is expressed thus IV, as I before V or X takes an unit from the number expressed by these letters. To express six, an I is added to a V, VI; for seven, two, VII; and for eight, three, VIII; nine is expressed by an I before X, thus IX.

The same remark may be made of the X before L or C, except that the diminution is by tens; thus, XL denotes forty, XC ninety, and LX sixty. The C before D or M diminishes each by a hundred.

The number five hundred is sometimes expressed by an I before a C inverted, thus, CI; and instead of M, which signifies a thousand, an I is sometimes used between two C's, the one direct, and the other inverted, thus CIO. The addition of C and O before or after, raises CIO by tens, thus, CCICIO expresses ten thousand, CCICICOO, a hundred thousand.

The Romans also expressed any number of thousands by a line drawn over any numeral less than a thousand; thus, V denotes five thousand, LX sixty thousand: so likewise M is one million, MM is two millions, &c.

Some modern writers have admitted variations in this method of notation; thus we find IX expressing eight, IICIX eighty-nine, Δ or V denoting 100, and ω or Ω standing for CIO; whence Ψ ten thousand, ΨΨ twenty thousand.

The Greeks had three ways of expressing numbers: first, every letter, according to its place in the alphabet, denoted a number, from α, one, to ω, twenty-four. 2. The alphabet was divided into eight units, α one, β two, γ three, &c., into eight tens, ι ten, κ twenty, λ thirty, &c., and eight hundreds, ε one hundred, σ two hundred, τ three hundred, &c. 3. I stood for one, Π five, Δ ten, Η a hundred, Χ a thousand, Μ ten thousand; and when the letter ΙT inclosed any of these, except I, it showed the inclosed letter to be five times its value; as ΙΤ fifty, ΙΤ five hundred, ΙΤ five thousand, ΙΤ fifty thousand.

French Characters, used in the chamber of accounts, and by persons concerned in the management of the revenue, is, properly speaking, nothing else than the Roman numerals, in letters that are not majuscule: thus, instead of expressing fifty-six by LVI, they denote it by smaller characters lvj.

CHARACTERS upon tombstones.

S. V. Sille viator, i.e. Stop traveller. M. S. Memoriae sacrum, i.e. Sacred to the memory. D. M. Diis manibus. I H S. Jesus. X. P. a character found in the catacombs, about the meaning of which authors are not agreed.

epic and dramatic poetry, that which is peculiar in the manners of any person, and distinguishes him from all others. See Epic, and dramatic compositions.