Negai'm. See Talmud.
Negation is in philosophical parlance the absence of that which does not naturally belong to the thing we are speaking of, or which has no right, obligation, or necessity to be present with ; as when we say a stone is inanimate or blind or deaf, i. e. has no life, sight, or hear- ing (Watts, Logic, pt. i, ch. ii, § 6). According to the scholastic theologian, Thomas Aquinas (Summa theolog. pt. i, qu. 48, art. v), " simple negation denies to a thing
some certain realities which do not belong to the nature of the same. Privation, on the contrary, is deficiency in some reality which belongs to the nature of the be- ing." See Pkivation. Li simple apprehension there is no aflirmation or denial ; so that, strictly speaking, there are no negative ideas, notions, or conceptions. In truth, some that are so called represent the most positive nullities; as infinity, immortality, etc. But in some ideas, as in that of blindness, deafness, insensibility, there is, as it were, a taking away of something from the object of which these ideas are entertained. This is, however, privation {ryriprjaic) rather than negation {ci7ru(pa(nc), and in general it may be said that negation implies some anterior conception of the objects of which the negation is made. Absolute negation is impossible. We have no idea of nothing— it is but a word. " Xihilum, or nothing," says Clarke, " is that of which everything can truly be denied, and nothing can be truly affirmed. So that the idea oi nothing (if I may so speak) is absolutely the negation of all ideas. The idea, therefore, either of a finite or infinite nothing is a contradiction in terms" (^Answer to Seventh Letter). Nothing, tal?en jwsitively, is what does not but may exist, as a river of milk; taken negatively, it is that which does not and cannot exist, as a square circle, a mountain without a valley. Nothing positively is ens potentiate. Nothing nega- tively is non ens. See Krauth's Fleming, Vocabulanj of Philos. p. 345, 346.
Negeb. See South Country.
Neges (or more commonly Caxusis) is the name of an order of Japanese monks or secular priests who officiate in the mias or temples. They are either main- tained by the endowment money of the mia to which they may happen to belong, or by a pension from the Dairi; but their principal support is derived from the voluntary contributions of the devotees. The Canusis wear, as a badge of their office, either a white or yellow robe over their ordinary dress. Their cap, which is made in the shape of a boat, is tied under the chin with silken strings. Upon this cap are tassels with fringes to them, which are longer or shorter according to the rank of the person who wears them. Their beards are close shaven, but their hair is very long; the superiors, however, wear it curled up under a piece of black gauze. At each ear is a long piece of silk, which comes forward over the lower part of the face. The order of the Ca- nusis depends, with respect to spiritual concerns, on the decision of the Dairi, and with regard to temporal mat- ters they are subject, like all other ecclesiastics, to the authority of the judge of the temple, who is appointed by the secular monarch. The superiors of the Canusis are remarkable for their pride and contempt of the com- mon people. They are to be seen scattered throughout all the provinces and cities of the empire. The leading monks reside at Sliaco ; but, though invested with great authority and influence over the people, they are always subject to the imperial authority, which punishes eccle- siastical delinquents with death. The Canusis, in their discourse to the people, dwell chiefly on points of moral- ity. They preach from a rostrum or pulpit, and along- side of them is placed the tutelar idol of the sect cr order to which they belong, and to this the devotees present their free-will offerings. On each side of the pulpit there is a lighted lamp suspended from the canopy, and a little below it is a desk or pen for the j'ounger priests, where some of them sit and others stand. The preacher wears a hat upon his head shaped like an umbrella, and holds a fan in his hand. Before commencing his sermon he ap- pears to meditate for a little, then rings a small bell by way of enjoining silence upon his audience; and after quiet is obtained he opens a book which lies upon a cushion before him, containing the moral precepts and fundamental principles of the religion of his sect. Hav- ing chosen his text, he delivers his discourse, which is usually clear and vigorous in its language, and strictly methodical in its arrangement. The peroration very
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often consists of a high-flown eiilogium upon the order to which the preacher belongs. Tlie aiulience are called upon, by the ringing of a little bell, to kneel down and say their prayers, sometimes before and sometimes after the sermon. On certain days set apart for the dead, the Japanese priests, as well as monks, sing the Namanda to the sound of little bells for the repose of their de- ceased friends, bee Macfarlane, Japan (Lond. 1852, 8vo), bk. iv.