in physics, the act of diminishing the velocity of a moving body. See GUNNERY, MECHANICS, PNEUMATICS, and PROJECTILES.

(a) The French convention, whose principles are equally new, daring, and destructive of all that is decent or of good report, have decided this question in a very summary way, by decreeing death to be an eternal sleep; a decree equally absurd in itself and fatal in its consequences. Since this article went to the press, however, we have learned, from the most respectable authority, that wild and absurd as the opinion is, it has been industriously propagated in this country, and that in some places it has gained ground. The consequences of this, were it to become general, must indeed be baneful beyond all conception; and we shall afterwards take occasion to expose the opinion and its nefarious consequences at greater length than it is now possible to do in this place. See THEOLOGY.