Emily Dickinson Lexicon

EV'I-DENCE, n. [Fr. from L. evidentia, from video, to see. Class Bd.]

1. That which elucidates and enables the mind to see truth; proof arising from our own perceptions by the senses, or from the testimony of others, or from inductions of reason. Our senses furnish evidence of the existence of matter, of solidity, of color, of heat and cold, of a difference in the qualities of bodies, of figure, &c. The declarations of a witness furnish evidence of facts to a court and jury; and reasoning, or the deductions of the mind from facts or arguments, furnish evidence of truth or falsehood.
2. Any instrument or writing which contains proof. I delivered the evidence of the purchase to Baruch. Jer. xxxii. I subscribed the evidence and sealed it. Jer. xxxii.
3. A witness; one who testifies to a fact. This sense is improper and inelegant, though common, and found even in Johnson's writings.