in law, a command in writing sent by a chief justice or justice of the peace, for bringing a person, record, or other matter before him.

**PRECEPT of Claret Confess**, in Scots law. See Law, Part II. No. clxxx. 28.

**PRECEPT of Selkirk**, in Scots law. See Law, Part III. No. cixv. 16.

**PRECÆ**, (*precæ*, "early";) the name of the 21 order in Linnaeus's fragments of a natural method; consisting of primrose, an early flowering plant, and a few genera which agree with it in habit and structure, tho' not always in the character or circumstance expressed in the title.