DESCENT

In Law, if a person die seised in fee simple, otherwise than as a joint tenant (see post), of lands or tenements wliich he has not disposed of by will, they will descend to his heir. Such seisin is either actual po e ion or virtual; as, po e ion by the tenant of a chattel interest, whose po e ion is always held to be the same with that of the remainderman, or reversioner, who is to succeed him. If a person have become po e ed by purchase of lands or tenements in fee-simple, of which, from the nature of the estate, he cannot obtain seisin (as a remainder expectant on a particular estate of freehold), these likewise descend to the heir in case of his intestacy. It is well known that by the common law of England the rules of descent were different from those obtaining in other countries; that a direct lineal ancestor could in no case inherit from his descendant; that brothers and sisters of the half blood, i. e. sprung from another mother, or from another father, were also excluded from the succe ion. These rules have now (by 3 & 4 W. 4. c. 106.) been wholly removed or modified; so that the law of descent recognizes in succe ion the following heirs: — 1. The eldest or only son, or his i ue. 2. The younger son, or his i ue. 3. The daughter, or, if more than one, all the daughters as coparceners (see post) and their i ue; such i ue claiming per stirpes, not per capita, i. e. claiming only the share of their respective mothers. 4. In default of lineal descendants, the nearest lineal ancestor now succeeds, in preference to any person who would have been entitled to inherit either by tracing his descent through such lineal ancestor, or in consequence of there being no descendant of such lineal ancestor; e. g. a father inherits before a brother, a grandfather before an uncle, . 5. In default of father, brothers, or sisters of the whole blood and their i ue, then the inheritance devolves on the eldest brother or sister of the half blood by a different mother, the half blood following the same rule where the Inheritance devolves on the descendant of any other ancestor. 7. On failure of male ancestors on the paternal side and their descendants, female paternal ancestors and their descendants. 8. On failure of these, the mother, her ancestors,— first male, then female, — and their respective descendants. 9. The half blood follow always next after any relation in the same degree of the whole blood and his i ue, if the common ancestor be a male; next after the common ancestor, if a female: so that the brother by the half blood on the part of the mother inherits next after the mother. Descent is always traced from the first purchaser; but the last owner is presumed to be the first purchaser unle the contrary can be proved. In some particular localities the custom of gavelkind prevails, by which all the sons inherit equally from the father. By the custom of borough English, the youngest son is heir. Bastards cannot inherit, nor can an alien; but a natural-born subject may derive his title (under certain restrictions) through alien ancestors. Descent, in Mechanics, is the motion of a body towards the centre of the earth caused by the attraction of gravity. The following are the laws of descent of bodies: — 1st. Heavy bodies, in an unresisting medium, fall with a uniformly accelerated velocity. 2d. When the action of gravity is uniform, the space pa ed over in a given time is exactly half that which would be pa ed over in the same time by the velocity acquired at the end of the time if continued uniformly. 3d. The spaces pa ed over in different times are proportioned to the squares of the velocities, or the squares of the times. 4 th. The time of the oblique descent of a body down any chord of a circle, drawn from the uppermost or lowermost point of the circle, is equal to the time of descent through the diameter of the circle. 5th. The times of descent through all arcs of the same cycloid are equal. 6th. It is found by experiment that a heavy body near the surface of the earth, when allowed to descend by its own gravity, falls through 16J feet in the first second of time; consequently, by the 2d law, it acquires a velocity in that time wificn would carry it through 32 feet in a second, if gravity ceased to act. See Attraction, Acceleration. DESCRIPTION (Lat. descriptio), in Rhetoric, is used to designate such a strong amd lively representation of any object as places it before the reader In a clear and DESCRIPTIVE GEOMETRY. satisfactory light. The execution of this task, as Is universally admitted, is attended with great difficulty, and requires no ordinary powers. Indeed, such is the importance which some critics of eminence attach to the po e ion of this quality, that they have erected it into a standard whereby to estimate the productions of genius in every department of literature; and though such a test may seem somewhat arbitrary, yet when we consider the powers indispensably requisite to form a good description, we shall not be surprised to find that amid the galaxy of brilliant productions in other departments with which our literature is adorned, there are so few authors who have attained eminence in this. A good description, according to Dr. Blair, is simple and concise; it sets before us such features of an object as on the first view strike and warm the fancy; it gives us ideas which a statuary or a painter could lay hold of and work after them — one of the strongest and most decisive trials of the real merits of description. Hence among the qualities e entially nece ary, and without which, indeed, even mediocrity is unattainable in this walk of literature, are an eye conversant with nature in all her aspects, a strong imagination wherewith to catch her grand and prominent features, and great simplicity and clearne of style to transmit the impre ion unimpaired to the i magma tion of others. There is no species of composition, prose or poetical, into which description does not enter in some shape; but the term has been borrowed from literature generally, and applied more particularly to those poetical productions which are devoted exclusively to the description of nature, such as Milton's Allegro and Thomson's Seasons. Hence, although Shakespeare may with great justice be styled a descriptive poet, from the exquisite descriptions of nature with which his unrivalled plays are interspersed; yet as his chief excellence lies in pourtraying the character and pa ions of man, he does not fall, properly speaking, within this category. By no writer, either of antiquity or modern times, was the faculty of description po e ed in a more eminent degree than by Sir Walter Scott. All his delineations of natural scenery are executed with an unrivalled fervour of imagination; while at the same time they are marked by such traits of character and truth that every object is brought distinctly before the mind, and might without difliculty be transferred to canva by the artist's pencil. Under the head " Descriptive Poetry," in Blair's Lectures on the Belles Lettres, the reader will find an admirable account of the characteristics of this species of composition, with a critical notice of the most celebrated descriptive poets of all ages and countries. [s. 342]