Maitland Club > Works of Sir Thomas Urquhart

THE LEXICIDION. 133
Attentat, is said of angles made by a line cutting two or more parallels, which angles
may be properly called so, because they differ in nothing else but their situation ;
for if the sectionary line, to the which I suppose the parallels to be fixed, have the
highest and lowest points thereof to interchange their sites, by a motion progressive
towards the roome of the under alternat, and terminating in that of the upper one,
we will find that both the inclination of the lines towards one another and the quality
of the angles, will, notwithstanding that alteration, be the same as before ; hence
it is that they are called alternat, because there is no other difference betwixt them :
or if alternat be taken, as arithmetically it is, for that proportion wherein the ante-
cedent is compared to the antecedent, and the consequent to the consequent, the
sense will likewise hold in the foresaid angles ; for if by the parallelisme of two
right lines, cut with a third, two blunt and two keen angles be produced, as must
needs, unlesse the secant line be to the parallels a perpendicular, the keen or acute
angle will be to its complement, or successively following obtuse angle, as the other
acute unto its following obtuse ; therefore, alternly, as the antecedents are to one
another, viz. the acute to the acute, so the consequents, the obtuse to the ob-
tuse. And if the angles be right, the direct and alternat proportion is one and
the same, the third and fourth terms of the analogy being in nothing different from
the first and second.
Ambient, is taken for any of the legs of a rectangle, or the including, containing, or
comprehending sides of the right angle. It comes from ambio, ambire, which is
compounded of am and eo, i. e. circumeo, and more properly applied to both then
to any one of them, though usually it be usurped for one alone. Vide Leg.
Amblygonian, is said of obtuse-angled triangles ; and Amblygonosphericall, of obtuse
sphericals. It is composed of A/i/3\ts and yuivia, angulus.
Amfractuosities, are taken here for the cranklings, windings, turnings, and involutions
belonging to the equisoleary scheme ; of am and frango, quod sit quasi via crebris
mceandris undequaque interrupta.
Analogy, signifieth an equality of proportion, a likenesse of reasons, a conveniencie
or habitude betwixt termes : It is compounded of ava, cequaiiter, and \6yos, ratio.
Analytich, resolutory, and is said of those things that are resolved into their first prin-
ciples, of ava, re, and \vu; solvo.
Antilogarithm, is the logarithm of the complement ; as for example, the anti-logarithm
of a sine is the logarithm of the sine complement, vide Logarithm.
Anti-secant, anti-sine, and anti-tangent, are the complements of the secant, sine, and
tangent, and are called sometimes co-secant, co-sine, and co-tangent ; they have
anti prefixed, because they are not in the same colume, and co, because they are
in the next to it.
Apodictick, is that which is demonstrative, and giveth evident proofs of the truth of a
conclusion ; of i>wb, and Biiwfu, monstro, ostendo, unde d-n-oca^n, demonstratio.