Page:Collier's New Encyclopedia v. 10.djvu/95

LEFT UNIT 77 UNITARIAN CHURCH UNIT, in arithmetic, the least whole number or one, represented by the figure 1. Numbers are collections of things of the same kind, each of which is a unit of the collection. Thus 20 feet is a col- lection of 20 equal spaces, each of which is equal to 1 foot; here 1 foot is the unit or base of the collection. In mathe- matics or physics, any known determi- nate quantity by the constant repetition of which any other quantity of the same kind is measured. It may be a length, a surface, a solid, a weight, a time, as the case may be. Abstract unit, the unit of numeration ; the abstract unit 1 is the measure of the relation of equality of two numbers. It is the base of the sys- tem of natural numbers, and incidentally the base of all quantities. Decimal and duodecimal units, those in scales of num- bers increasing or decreasing by 10 or 12 respectively. Dynamic units: Unit of force, a dyne; a force which, acting for one second on a mass of one gramme, gives to it a velocity of one centimeter per second. Unit of work done, a watt; the power developed when 44.25 foot pounds are done per minute = one 746th part of a horse-power. Fractional unit, the unit of a fraction. Thus in the frac- tion % there is an assemblage of three units, each of which is one-fourth of the whole number. Integral unit, the unit 1; the unit of integral numbers. Spe- cific gravity unit, for solids or liquids, one cubic foot of distilled water at 62° F. = l; of air and gases, one cubic foot of atmospheric air at 62°. Unit of il- lumination, the light of a sperm candle burning 120 grains per hour. The stand- ard for gas is that the flame, burning at the rate of five cubic feet per hour, shall give a light equal to the light of 14 sperm candles, each consuming at the rate of 120 grains per hour. Unit of measure, the unit of measure of any quantity is a quantity of the same kind, with which the quantity is compared. Unit of value, in England, a pound sterling, represented by a gold coin called a sovereign. In the United States, a gold dollar, weighing 25.8 grains, one- tenth of which is alloy. UNITARIAN CHURCH, a communion comprising all who maintain that God exists in one Person only. The name Unitarian is applied specially to a small Christian sect whose distinguishing tenet is the Unity as opposed to the Trinity of the Godhead. In the more general sense the name of course includes the Jews and the Mohammedans. From the middle of the 2d century to the end of the 3d century there was a succession of eminent Christian teachers — Monarch- ians — who maintained, against the eccle- Cyc siastical doctrine of the Logos, the un- divided unity of God. There are said to have been two classes of them — those who taught that Christ was God in such a sense that it was the Father who be- came man and those who held that Christ was in nature a mere man, but exalted above all other prophets bv the superior measure of Divine wisdom with which he was endowed. The latter class was represented by Theodotus, Artemon and especially Paul of Samosata. The grand theological struggle which fol- lowed in the 4th century between the Arians and the Athanasians may be re- garded as but another phase of the Uni- tarian controversy. In England, as early as 1548, a priest named John Ashton was accused of Arianism, and escaped with his life only by recantation; and during the reigns of Edward VI., Mary, Elizabeth and James I. a few suffered martyrdom on similar charges. In the reign of James I. continental Socinianism began to exer- cise considerable influence in England, and in 1665 Dr. Owen wrote that "the evil is at the door, that there is not a city, a town, scarce a village in Eng- land, wherein some of this poison is not poured forth." But it was in the last decade of the 17th century that the con- troversy on this subject was most ac- tive, and at this time were published the anonymous "Unitarian tracts." Hither- to the Unitarians, with the exception of the society formed in London by John Biddle, which did not survive its found- er, had no organized existence. The first to use the term Unitarians (1687) was the heretical mercer and philanthropist, Thomas Firmin (1632-1697), a friend of Biddle's. The first preacher who de- Scribed himself as a Unitarian (1704) was apparently Thomas Emlyn (1663- 1741), a Presbyterian who was impris- oned and fined on the charge of blas- phemy. After the passing of the Tolera- tion Act in 1689 the way was prepared for that gradual change by which the orthodoxy of the English Presbyterian passed into Unitarianism. It was at this time that most of the old Presby- terian chapels were founded; and the trusts being "open," ministers and people were left free to adopt whatever new opinions should approve themselves to their conscience. Thus the Unitarians may be said to be the successors of the 2,000 Presbyterian divines who in 1662 left the Church of England in conse- quence of their inability to comply con- scientiously with the terms of the Act of Uniformity. The English Presbyterians were originally as orthodox as their Episcopal brethren; but having refused 6 Vol X