Part 3931

<blockquote>As far as gods and heavenly <b>essences</b> Can perish. <i>Milton.</i></blockquote>

<blockquote>He had been indulging in fanciful speculations on spiritual <b>essences</b>, until . . . he had and ideal world of his own around him. <i>W. Irving.</i></blockquote>

<p><b>5.</b> <def>The predominant qualities or virtues of a plant or drug, extracted and refined from grosser matter; or, more strictly, the solution in spirits of wine of a volatile or essential oil; <as>as, the <ex>essence</ex> of mint, and the like</as>.</def>

<blockquote>The . . . word <b>essence</b> . . . scarcely underwent a more complete transformation when from being the abstract of the verb "to be," it came to denote something sufficiently concrete to be inclosed in a glass bottle. <i>J. S. Mill.</i></blockquote>

<p><b>6.</b> <def>Perfume; odor; scent; or the volatile matter constituting perfume.</def>

<blockquote>Nor let the <b>essences</b> exhale. <i>Pope.</i></blockquote>

<h1>Essence</h1> <Xpage=509>

<hw>Es"sence</hw>, <tt>v. t.</tt> <wordforms>[<tt>imp. & p. p.</tt> <er>Essenced</er> <tt>(?)</tt>; <tt>p. pr. & vb. n.</tt> <er>Essencing</er> <tt>(?)</tt>.]</wordforms> <def>To perfume; to scent.</def> "<i>Essenced</i> fops."

<i>Addison.</i>

<h1>Essene</h1> <Xpage=509>

<hw>Es*sene"</hw> <tt>(?)</tt>, <tt>n.</tt>; <plu>pl. <plw>Essenes</plw> <tt>(#)</tt></plu>. <ety>[Gr. <?/, lit., physicians, because they practiced medicine, fr. Chald <ets>\'besay\'be</ets> to heal, cf. Heb. <ets>as\'be</ets>.]</ety> <def>One of a sect among the Jews in the time of our Savior, remarkable for their strictness and abstinence.</def>

<h1>Essenism</h1> <Xpage=509>

<hw>Es"se*nism</hw> <tt>(?)</tt>, <tt>n.</tt> <def>The doctrine or the practices of the Essenes.</def>

<i>De Quincey.</i>

<h1>Essential</h1> <Xpage=509>

<hw>Es*sen"tial</hw> <tt>(?)</tt>, <tt>a.</tt> <ety>[Cf. F. <ets>essentiel</ets>. See <er>Essence</er>.]</ety>

<p><b>1.</b> <def>Belonging to the essence, or that which makes an object, or class of objects, what it is.</def>

<blockquote>Majestic as the voice sometimes became, there was forever in it an <b>essential</b> character of plaintiveness. <i>Hawthorne.</i></blockquote>

<p><b>2.</b> <def>Hence, really existing; existent.</def>

<blockquote>Is it true, that thou art but a a name, And no <b>essential</b> thing? <i>Webster (1623).</i></blockquote>

<p><b>3.</b> <def>Important in the highest degree; indispensable to the attainment of an object; indispensably necessary.</def>

<blockquote>Judgment's more <b>essential</b> to a general Than courage. <i>Denham.</i></blockquote>

<blockquote>How to live? -- that is the <b>essential</b> question for us. <i>H. Spencer.</i></blockquote>

<p><b>4.</b> <def>Containing the essence or characteristic portion of a substance, as of a plant; highly rectified; pure; hence, unmixed; <as>as, an <ex>essential</ex> oil</as>.</def> "Mine own <i>essential</i> horror."

<i>Ford.</i>

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<p><b>5.</b> <fld>(Mus.)</fld> <def>Necessary; indispensable; -- said of those tones which constitute a chord, in distinction from ornamental or passing tones.</def>

<p><b>6.</b> <fld>(Med.)</fld> <def>Idiopathic; independent of other diseases.</def>