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Any opinion, principle, dogma, belief, or doctrine, which a person holds or maintains as true; as, the tenets of Plato or of Cicero. That al animals of the land are in their kind in the sea, . . . is a tenet very questionable. Sir T. Browne. The religious tenets of his family he had early renounced with contempt. Macau…

ut to the proof; to prove the truth, genuineness, or quality of by experiment, or by some principle or standard; to try; as, to test the soundness of a principle; to test the validity of an argument. Experience is the surest standard by which to test the real tendency of the existing constitution. Washington.…

Scholastic theology, theology as taught by the scholastics, or as prosecuted after their principles and methods. -- Speculative theology, theology as founded upon, or influenced by, speculation or metaphysical philosophy. -- Systematic theology, that branch of theology of which the aim is to reduce all revealed trut…

That which is considered and established as a principle; hence, sometimes, a rule. Not theories, but theorems (Coleridge. By the theorems, Which your polite and terser gallants practice, I re-refine the court, and civilize Their barbarous natures. Massinger.

An exposition of the general or abstract principles of any science; as, the theory of music.

An instrument for measuring temperature, founded on the principle that changes of temperature in bodies are accompained by proportional changes in their volumes or dimensions.

The principle of key in music; the character which a composition has by virtue of the key in which it is written, or through the family relationship of all its tones and chords to the keynote, or tonic, of the whole. The predominance of the tonic as the link which connects all the tones of a piece, we may, with Fétis,…

ities with the benefit of survivorship. Thus, an annuity is shared among a number, on the principle that the share of each, at his death, is enjoyed by the survivors, until at last the whole goes to the last survivor, or to the last two or three, according to the terms on which the money is advanced. Used also adjectiv…

Insurance in which the benefits of the insurance are distributed upon the tontine principle. Under the old, or full tontine, plan, all benefits were forfeited on lapsed policies, on the policies of those who died within the tontine period only the face of the policy was paid without any share of the surplus, and the su…

An argument or reason. [Obs.] Contumacious persons, who are not to be fixed by any principles, whom no topics can work upon. Bp. Wilkins.

The principles of the Tories.

e brought into prominence. Also, a member of the High Church party, holding generally the principles of the Tractarian writers; a Puseyite.

The principles of the Tractarians, or of those persons accepting the teachings of the "Tracts for the Times."

inence. The Augustinian theology rests upon the transcendence of Deity at its controlling principle. A. V. G. Allen.

m, of or pertaining to that which can be determined a priori in regard to the fundamental principles of all human knowledge. What is transcendental, therefore, transcends empiricism; but is does not transcend all human knowledge, or become transcendent. It simply signifies the a priori or necessary conditions of experi…

The transcending, or going beyond, empiricism, and ascertaining a priori the fundamental principles of human knowledge.

ng, or of passing over or beyond any law, civil or moral; the violation of a law or known principle of rectitude; breach of command; fault; offense; crime; sin. Forgive thy people . . . all their transgressions wherein they have transgressed against thee. I Kings viii. 50. What rests, but that the mortal sentence pass…

sgresses; one who breaks a law, or violates a command; one who violates any known rule or principle of rectitude; a sinner. The way of transgressors is hard. Prov. xiii. 15.

To pass over and view; to survey carefully. My purpose is to traverse the nature, principles, and properties of this detestable vice -- ingratitude. South.

A written composition on a particular subject, in which its principles are discussed or explained; a tract. Chaucer. He published a treatise in which he maintained that a marriage between a member of the Church of England and a dissenter was a nullity. Macaulay.