an individual substance of a rational intelligent nature. Thus we say, an ambassador represents the person of his prince; and that, in law, the father and son are reputed the same person.

The word person, persona, is thought to be borrowed à personando, from personating or counterfeiting; and is supposed to have first signified a mask: because, as Boethius informs us, in larva concava sonus volvitur; and hence the actors who appeared masked on the stage were sometimes called larvati and sometimes personati. He likewise says, that as the several actors represented each a single individual person, viz. Oedipus, or Chremes,