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In my view, the Christian religion is the most important and one of the first things in which all children, under a free government ought to be instructed... No truth is more evident to my mind than that the Christian religion must be the basis of any government intended to secure the rights and privileges of a free people. Preface to 1828 Dictionary
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LA'TENT, a. [L. latens, lateo; Gr; Heb. to cover.]
Not visible or apparent; hidden; concealed;
secret; dormant; as, latent springs of action.
The evils latent in the most promising contrivances are provided for as they arise. Burke. Latent buds (Bot.), buds which remain
undeveloped or dormant for a long time, but may at length grow.
Latent heat (Physics), that quantity of
heat which disappears or becomes concealed in a body while producing
some change in it other than rise of temperature, as fusion,
evaporation, or expansion, the quantity being constant for each
particular body and for each species of change. --
Latent period. | ||||||||