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* POSEN. 297 POSITIVISM. archs. It was a member of the Hansa and at- tained great prosperity in the sixteenth century, but afterwards declined, its population at one time having dwindled to about 12,000. The ■western part of the city was founded by Germans in 1253 and had a separate administration until the annexation of Posen to Prussia in 1793. POSEY, po'zi. Thomas ( 17.50-1818). An Amer- ican soldier. He was born in eastern Virginia, but removed to the western part of the colony in 1769, became quartermaster under Gen. Andrew Lewis, in Lord Dunmore's War Iq.v.). and took part in the battle of Point Pleasant on October 10. 1774. Early in 1775 he became a member of one of the Virginia committees of correspondence, and on .July S. 1776. helped defeat Lord Dun- more at Gwynn's Island. He was appointed captain of a Virginia company !March 20. 1776, joined the Continental army early in 1777. and ■was soon assigned to Morgan's corps of riflemen, with which he served in the campaign against Burgoyne, distinguishing himself in the battles of Saratoga. In October, 1778. as major, he commanded one of the regiments sent against the Indians in the Wyoming Valley: in 1779 he commanded a battalion under Wavne. and was conspicuous at the assault in Stony Point ; and subsequently (1781-82) served under Wayne in Georgia and helped to repel an at- tack of Indians under Gueristersigo on June 23. 1782. In 1793 he became a brigadier-general and led a division of Wayne's army against the Indians, but resigned his commission in February. 1794. He then settled in Kentucky, and became successively State Senator. Lieutenant- Governor (1805). and major-general of militia (1809). He siibsequently removed to Louisiana and was United States Senator from that State (December. 1812-February, 1813). From 1813 to 1816 he was Governor of Indiana Territory and from 1816 to ISlS was an Indian agent. POSIDIP'PUS, or POSEIDIPPirS (Lat., from Gk. lIocreioLTrvos, Poscidippos ). A Greek comic poet, the last exponent of the new comedy, dating from the first half of the third century B.C. He was born at Cassandria in Macedon, lived at Athens, and wrote 40 comedies, of which 18 titles have come down to us. and a few frag- ments, published in Kock, Comicortim Atttcoriim Fragmenta. His Didytnoi ("The Twins") was the original of Plautus's Metiwchtni and of Shake- speare's Comedy of Errors. It is probable that others of his plays were imitated by the Roman comedian. A remarkably fine statue of Posidip- pus is in the Vatican at Rome. POS'IDCNIA (Lat., from Gk. Uoaeiowuia, Pos- eidon in). Tlie ancient name of P;estum (q.v. ). POSTDO'NIUS (C.12S-45 B.C.). A Stoic phi- losopher. Iiorn at Apaniea. in Syria. He wa.s a pupil at Athens of Pansetius. whom he succeeded as the leader of the Stoics: and was a teacher of. Cicero, who frequently speaks of him with praise. Pompey visited him B.C. 67. at Rhodes, where the greater part of his life was passed, and again B.C. 62. after the close of the ilithridatic War: and Posidonius wrote a history of the wars of Pompey. He went to Rome in B.C. 51. Besides his philosophical works, he wrote treatises on history, astronomy, and geography, of which we have only the titles and a few quo- tations preserved hv Cicero. Strabo. and others. He wrote Meteorologica. and Cicero alludes to his artificial sphere, which represented the mo- tion of the heavens. The slight fragments from his works are published in iliiller's Fraginenta HistoricoriDii GrcEcorum (Paris, 1841-51). POSILIPO, po-ze'le-po. A mountain ridge southwest of Naples, remarkable for the tunnel known as the Grotta di Posilipo, through which the road from Naples to Pozzuoli formerly passed. The grotto is in some places 70 feet high and 21 feet wide, and is 2244 feet long. Strabo assigns its construction to il. Cocceius Nerva, superintendent of aqueducts in the time of the Emperor Tiberius. Above the eastern archway of the grotto is the so-called 'tomb of Vergil.' At the base of the hill of Posilipo anciently stood the poet's villa, in which he composed the Ecloniies and Georgics, if not also the .Eneid. Since 1885 new tunnels have been built for the railroad and steam tramway to Naples. Near by is the village of Posilipo, with 4500 inhabitants. The surrounding country is rich in vineyards and olive groves. POSITION (Lat. posit io, from ponere, to place, from *po-, down, Gk. i-n-d, apo, Skt. apa, off + siitere. to allow). In music, a term hav- ing reference to the arrangement of the different tones of a chord. A chord is said to be in fund4imen1al posilion when its fundamental tone is in the bass. In its first inversion (the third in the bass) it is in its second position; in its second inversion (the fifth a b c in thftbass), in its third position. Thus a, 5, c, are first, second, and third positions, respectively, of the C major chord. (See Chobd. ) A chord is also said to be in close position (close harmony) when all its tones are placed so closely together that it is not possible to introduce another note belonging to that chord between those notes, as : A chord is in open posi- t ion ( open or extended har- mony) when its several tones are spread out so that one or more tones be- longing to that chord can be introduced within the compass of the chord, as (See Hariioxy. ) On the ^^Hi violin the word position has reference to the sev- eral systems of fingering. There are seven positions generally recognized (although for the highest tones use is made of the eleventh and even thirteenth position ). The first posi- tion is that, when the lowest tone of the lowest string (G) is played on the open string, using the first finger for a, the second and third for b and c, then passing to the open D string, using the three fingers for e, f, g; then to the open A string, etc. The third position begins with the first finger on 6 (G string). the second, third, and fotirth on c. d. e, respectively: then passing to the D string with f produced by the first finger, etc. (See Violix.i POSITION-FINDEE. See Eauge-Fixder. POSITIVISM (from OF.. Fr. positif. from Lat. positirus. settled by arbitrary appointment, from ponere, to place). A term invented by Auguste Comte (q.v.) to designate his system of philosophy, inasmuch a.s that system purported to exclude all metanhvsical theorizing and to confine itself to 'positive' scientific Icnowledgc of facts. It attempted to reduce the whole universe