in midwifery, signifies the same with delivery. See MIDWIFERY.

Birth is also used for a person's descent; and is said to be high or low according to the circumstances of his ancestry.

There is scarce any truth (Mr Knox observes in his Essays) of which the world has been more frequently reminded by the moralists, than the unreasonableness of that veneration which is paid to birth. They have been told, that virtue alone is true nobility; but though they have acknowledged the affection to be founded in reason, they have continued, with uniform perseverance, in the same error. The luminous glory of an illustrious ancestor, seems to have diffused a brilliancy over a long line of descendants, too opaque of themselves to emit any original irradiations.

"Gratitude (continues our elegant author), which first raises a benefactor to a distinguished rank in civil honours, is willing to continue its kindness to his immediate offspring. The distinction is rendered hereditary. This predilection for an ancestor soon leads to the accumulation of honours and possessions in his successors; and the incense originally offered, because it was deserved, is at last lavished at the shrine of opulence, independently of merit.

"Subordination is, indeed, essential to society. The order of nobles, as hereditary guardians of the laws, is found an useful political establishment; and none seem so well adapted to supply it, as they who have been raised to eminence by their ancestors, and who possess a territorial patrimony in the land which they are to protect. All that is contended for is, that the recommendation of birth may not set aside or depreciate real merit, the praise of learning, and the intrinsic value of virtuous exertions.

"It is a remarkable circumstance in the history of mankind, that some of the best books have been written, and some of the greatest achievements performed, by those whose origin was truly plebeian. The politest and gentelest books, whether the sentiments or the style be considered, have been produced by slaves, or the descendants of slaves. Horace, Phaedrus, and Terence, wrote in a style which must have been the standard of a court, to an intercourse with which they were by no means entitled by their extraction. The founders of the most distinguished families emerged from the middle and the lower classes, by the superior vigour of their natural abilities, or by extraordinary efforts, assisted by fortune; and unless the adventitious circumstances of wealth and civil honours can effect a change in the constituent principles of the mind and body, there is certainly no real superiority to be derived in a boasted pedigree of Tudors and Plantagenets. And yet there have appeared flatterers who have indirectly suggested, that the minds of the nobility seem to be cast in a finer mould, and to have an elegance inherent in their original constitution. According to this hypothesis, we must go on to suppose, that the mind of a commoner exalted to the higher order of senators, catches this elegance by the contagion of invisible effluvia. On his creation he undergoes a kind of new birth, and puts off the exuviae which encumbered and degraded him in the lower regions. Thus are all the occult perfections of noble blood to be infused by the mandate of a monarch. 'But no,' said Maximilian to a man who asked to be ennobled by him, 'though I can give you riches and a title, I cannot make you noble.'

"In truth, there is many a nobleman, according to the genuine idea of nobility, even at the loom, at the plough, and in the shop; and many more in the middle ranks of mixed society. This genuine idea contains in it generosity, courage, spirit, and benevolence, the qualities of a warm and open heart, totally unconnected with the accidental advantages of riches and honour; and many an English sailor has possessed more of the real hero than a lord of the admiralty.

"If indeed there is any substantial difference in the quality of their blood, the advantage is probably on the side of the inferior classes. Their indigence and their manual employments require temperance and exercise, the best purifiers of the animal juices. But the indolence which wealth excites, and the pleasures which fashionable life admits without restraint, have a natural tendency to vitiate and enfeeble the body as well as the mind; and among the many privileges inherited by him who boasts nobility in his veins, he commonly receives the seeds of the most painful and... the impurest diseases. He displays indeed a coronet on his coat of arms, and he has a long pedigree to perpetuate secret satisfaction; but he has often a gout or a scrophula, which make him wish to exchange every drop derived from his Norman ancestors, for the pure tide that warms a peasant's bosom.

"The spirit of freedom, moral, mental, and political, which prevails in Britain, precludes that unreasonable attachment to birth, which, in the countries of despotism, tends to elevate the noble to a rank superior to humanity. In our neighbour's land, the region of external elegance united with real meanness, the implicit veneration paid to birth adds to the weight of legal oppression. A Frenchman of the plebeian order attends to a Count or a Marquis with all the silent submission of idolatry; on the contrary, there is no doubt but that an English gondolier would box with the best lord in the land, if he were affronted by him, without the least regard for his star and ribbon. It would indeed be an additional pleasure to the natural delight of conquest, to have bruised a puny lord. Even the more refined and polished do not idolise illustrious birth. In truth, wealth appears to be the object of more universal veneration. Noble blood and noble titles, without an estate to support them, meet with great compassion indeed, but with little respect; nor is the man who has raised himself to eminence, and who behaves well in it, neglected and despised because he derives no lucre from his forefathers. In a commercial country, where gain is the general object, they who have been most successful in its pursuit will be revered by many, whatever was their origin. In France, where honour is pursued from the monarch to the cleaner of a jakes, the distinction of birth, even with extreme poverty, is enviable. The brother of a Marquis would rather starve on a beggarly pension, than pollute himself with a trade by which he might acquire the revenues of a German kingdom. In our land of good sense this folly is losing ground; and the younger brothers of noble houses, often think it no disgrace to rival the heir in a princely fortune acquired by honourable merchandise.

"As the world becomes more enlightened, the exorbitant value which has been placed on things not really valuable will decrease. Of all the effects of man's capricious admiration, there are few less rational than the preference of illustrious descent to personal merit, of diseased and degenerate nobility to health, to courage, to learning, and to virtue. Of all the objects of pursuit which are not in our own power, the want of distinguished birth may most easily be dispensed with, by those who possess a solid judgment of that which makes and keeps us happy. There may be some reason to repine at the want of wealth and fame; but he who has derived from his parent health, vigour, and all the powers of perception, need not lament that he is unnoticed at the herald's office.

"It has been observed, that virtue appears more amiable when accompanied with beauty; it may be added, that it is more useful when recommended to the notice of mankind by the distinction of an honourable ancestry. It is then greatly to be wished, that the nobly born would endeavour to deserve the respect which the world pays them with alacrity, by employing their influence to benevolent purposes; to those purposes which can at all times be accomplished, even when the patriotic exertions of the field and cabinet are precluded."

"BIRTH, or Berth, the station in which a ship rides at anchor either alone or in a fleet, or the distance between the ship and any adjacent object, comprehending the extent of the space in which the ranges at the length of her cables; as, she lies in a good berth, i.e., in a convenient situation, or at a proper distance from the shore and other vessels; and where there is good anchoring ground, and shelter from the violence of the wind and sea.

"BIRTH also signifies the room or apartment where any particular number of the officers and ship's company usually mess and reside. In a ship of war there is commonly one of these between every two guns.

"BIRTH-DAY, the anniversary return of the day wherein a person was born. The ancients placed a good deal of religion in the celebration of birth-days, and took omens from thence of the felicity of the coming year. The manner of celebrating birth-days was by a splendid dress; wearing a sort of rings peculiar to that day; offering sacrifices; the men to their genius, of wine, frankincense; the women to Juno; giving suppers, and treating their friends and clients; who in return made them presents, wrote and sung their panegyrics, and offered vows and good wishes for the frequent happy returns of the same day. The birth-days of emperors were also celebrated with public sports, feasts, vows, and medals struck on the occasion.—But the ancients, it is to be observed, had other sorts of birth-days besides the days on which they were born. The day of their adoption was always reputed as a birth-day, and celebrated accordingly. The emperor Adrian, we are told, observed three birth-days; viz., the day of his nativity, of his adoption, and of his inauguration. In those times it was held, that men were not born only on those days when they first came into the world, but on those also when they arrived at the chief honours and commands in the commonwealth, e.g., the consulate. Hence that of Cicero in his oration ad Quirites, after his return from exile: "A parentibus, id quod necesse erat, parvus sum procreatus; a nobis natus fum confusarius."

"BIRTHWORT, in botany. See ARISTOLOCHIA.

"BIRVIESCA, a town of Old Castile in Spain, and capital of a small territory called Bureva. W. Long. 2. 15. N. Lat. 56. 35.

"BIRZA, a town of Poland in the province of Sandomiria. E. Long. 25. 5. N. Lat. 56. 35.

"BISA, or Biza, a coin of Pegu, which is current there for half a ducat. It is also a weight used in that kingdom.

"BISACCIA, a small handsome town of Italy, in the Ulterior Principato, and in the kingdom of Naples, with a bishop's see. E. Long. 15. 35. N. Lat. 41. 3.

"BISACUTA, in middle-age writers, an axe with two edges, or which cuts either way; or a missile weapon pointed at both ends. Walingham represents the securis bifacuta as peculiar to the Scottish nation. See BATTLE-Axe.

"BISBAEA, a feast celebrated by the Messapii after..."