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ENCYCLOPÆDIA AMERICANA.
A
SAM. A. M'COSERY,
POPULAR DICTIONARGARLISLE, PA.
OF
ARTS, SCIENCES, LITERATURE, HISTORY, POLITICS AND
BIOGRAPHY,
BROUGHT DOWN TO THE PRESENT TIME;
INCLUDING
A COPIOUS COLLECTION OF ORIGINAL ARTICLES
IN
AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY;
ON
THE BASIS OF THE SEVENTH EDITION OF THE GERMAN
CONVERSATIONS-LEXICON.
EDITED BY
FRANCIS LIEBER,
ASSISTED BY
E. WIGGLESWORTH.
VOL. I.
Philadelphia:
CAREY, LEA & CAREY.
SOLD IN NEW YORK BY G. & C. & H. CARVILL-IN BOSTON BY
CARTER & HENDEE.
1829.
EASTERN DISTRICT OF PENNSYLVANIA, to wit:
BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the tenth day of August, in the fifty-fourth year of the Independence of the
United States of America, A. D. 1829, Carey, Lea & Carey, of the said district, have deposited in this office
the title of a book, the right whereof they claim as proprietors, in the words following, to wit:
"Encyclopedia Americana. A Popular Dictionary of Arts, Sciences, Literature, History, Politics and
Biography, brought down to the present Time; including a copious Collection of Original Articles in American
Biography; on the Basis of the seventh Edition of the German Conversations-Lexicon. Edited by Francis Lieber,
assisted by E. Wigglesworth."
In conformity to the act of the Congress of the United States, entitled, "An Act for the encouragement of
learning, by securing the copies of maps, charts and books to the authors and proprietors of such copies,
during the times therein mentioned:" and also to the act, entitled, "An Act supplementary to an act, entitled,
'An Act for the encouragement of learning, by securing the copies of maps, charts and books to the authors
and proprietors of such copies, during the times therein mentioned; and extending the benefits thereof to the
arts of designing, engraving and etching historical and other prints."
D. CALDWELL,
Clerk of the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.
Gen. Sib,
Source link,
1-14-46
130.
PREFACE.
It is customary, and very properly so, to reserve the preface of an
encyclopedia till the publication of the concluding volume; but the char-
acter of the present work renders it proper to state, briefly, at this time,
the particulars in which it differs from the numerous works of that descrip-
tion, with which the public are already acquainted, and to explain the plan
which has been pursued by the editors in performing their task.
The German work, which has been adopted as the basis of the
ENCYCLOPÆDIA AMERICANA, grew out of the wants of the age.
The last half century, particularly the latter part of it, has probably been
more fertile in memorable events, and important discoveries and inventions,
than any equal period in history. How many extraordinary changes have
we witnessed in both hemispheres, as well in politics, in the sciences and
in opinions, as in the individuals who have borne a conspicuous part in the
affairs of the civilized world during that time! How important have
been the results of the numberless voyages of discovery, the revolutions
of states, and the wars, which have excited so intense an interest
during that period-an interest which has been the more constantly
kept up, as the facility of communication between all the branches of
the great human family seems, at the same time, to have gone on in-
creasing in proportion to the multitude of events and circumstances which
have thus influenced their destiny. Formerly, years would elapse before
น
iv
PREFACE.
the most important facts could pass the barriers which an imperfect naviga-
tion of the ocean, or a diversity of languages, had thrown between nations.
Now, even the petty quarrels and frolics of students in a German or
French university find their way, in the course of a few weeks, into the
columns of an American newspaper. Then, a century would pass by, be-
fore even a Shakspeare was justly estimated beyond the confines of
his native land; while now, we daily find, on title pages, the united names
of publishers in three or four different nations, and in both continents.
Thus rapidly does knowledge of every kind now diffuse itself over the globe,
and extend the circle of civilization.
In comparison with the present state of the world, how small was the
theatre on which the gods of Grecian fable and the heroes of Grecian his-
tory performed their parts in that interesting drama! During the period
of Roman history, it is true, the field of civilization had become much
more enlarged; but, in our own times, it has extended over both hemi-
spheres, and science gathers contributions from every quarter of the globe.
It is therefore become necessary, that every well-informed man, who
would keep his relative place during this advance of society, should
possess himself of many kinds of knowledge, which might have been dis-
pensed with in former periods; the different sciences and arts, closely
connected as they have ever been, having now more common bonds of
union than in any preceding age. Considerations of this nature induced
the German editors to project a work, which should furnish the general
reader with all the information, that should be necessary to make him
acquainted with the events and discoveries of interest, which did not happen.
to fall within the range of his particular studies.
For the plan of this Encyclopedia we are indebted to the late Mr.
Brockhaus, a bookseller of eminence at Leipsic, who was the publisher,
and, at the same time, the principal editor. He called it the Conversation-
Lexicon, as being a work chiefly designed for the use of persons, who
would take a part in the conversation or society of the well-informed
PREFACE.
circles. The character of the work, however, has been, to a certain degree,
changed by numerous improvements in each successive edition; and its
original title has therefore ceased to be strictly appropriate. But, as the
book had become well known, and gained its well-deserved popularity,
under that name, it was thought inexpedient to reject its original
appellation: it is accordingly included in its new title-Allgemeine deutsche
Real- Encyklopædie für die gebildeten Stände. (Conversations-Lexikon.)
Leipzig: F.A. Brockhaus. 1827-29.
The value attached to this undertaking of Mr. Brockhaus is evident
from the fact, that about 80,000 copies of the work, now consisting of 12
volumes, have been published since 1812; besides which two pirated
editions have appeared in Germany. There has also been a Danish
translation (published by Soldin, Copenhagen), a Swedish, and likewise a
Dutch (published by Thieme, at Zutphen). A French translation is also .
preparing at Brussels. More than two hundred contributors are enumer-
ated in the preface of the original, of whom we will only mention a few,
whose fame is by no means confined to the limits of their country :-G. W.
Becker, in Leipsic; Chladni, in Kemberg; Gruber, in Halle; Hassel,
in Weimar; C. H. L. von Jakob, in Halle; Niemeyer, in Halle; Oken,
in Munich; Kurt Sprengel, in Halle; von Aretin, in Amberg; W. Gese-
nius, in Halle; F. Jacobs, in Gotha; J. S. Vater, in Halle; Paulus, in
Heidelberg; K. W. Bessel, in Königsberg; Fr. Mohs, in Freiberg;
Schubert, in Erlangen.
In presenting this work to the public in the English language,
my intention has been, by making such changes and additions as the
circumstances of this country required, to render it as useful and accepta-
ble to the general reader here as the original is in Germany; and I have
cherished the hope, that the circumstance of its being an American ency-
clopedia, not merely in name, but as constituting an extensive repository
of information relating to America, as well as to the various branches of
general knowledge, would give it a peculiar value with that great European
vi
PREFACE.
nation, whose language and literature are the common property of them-
selves and their descendants in the United States.
In the title page, this work is stated to be formed upon the basis of the
German Conversation-Lexicon; and if the reader will compare it with
the original, and consider the numerous additions and corrections which
have been made, I hope he will not find cause to charge this title with
being too pretending. My idea of a good American encyclopedia has
been, that it should contain, besides the most valuable portions of the
English encyclopedias, and the topics of peculiar value to an American
reader, information upon all subjects of general interest on the continent of
Europe. The publishers have, with great liberality, supplied all the means.
and facilities which were desired by the editor. The trustees of the
Boston Athenæum have obligingly allowed free access to their ample
library, which does so much honor to the metropolis of New England.
But, above all, I ought to acknowledge the zealous and able co-operation
of my friend and associate, Mr. Wigglesworth, who will not permit me
here to express my obligations to him in such terms as my feelings would
dictate. With him I shall be happy to share whatever approbation the
public may think the work shall deserve.
Some of the departments of science and literature, which were but im-
perfectly treated in the original German work, have been entirely re-written
for this edition; for example, Zoology (by Dr. Godman of Philadelphia, au-
thor of the well-known American Natural History), Mineralogy and Chem-
istry. The departments of Political Economy and Geography have also been
much enlarged. Numerous entire articles of American and English Law
have been introduced, and large additions made to the original articles on
Jurisprudence, which, in the German work, are mostly confined to subjects
of Roman, German and French law. In general Biography, large additions
have been made. The articles on American Biography are entirely
original, and have been furnished by Mr. Robert Walsh, Jr., whose learning
and taste are a sufficient pledge of their value. Their apparently dis-
PREFACE.
vii
proportionate length may, with a foreign reader, require some apology;
but I persuade myself, that, with the American reader, the new and
interesting information they contain will be deemed a sufficient reason for
their not being further abridged. Such readers, too, will appreciate the
value of many details of American history, which are not yet to be found,
and could hardly be entitled to a place, in a general work upon that subject.
Besides the contributions of Mr. Walsh, many new and valuable articles
have been written by distinguished American scholars, particularly in
relation to their own country, and to other parts of the American continent.
The biography of living citizens of the United States has, for obvious
reasons, been omitted; but the reader will find an account of our most
distinguished foreign contemporaries.
In Theology, and, indeed, in all the other departments of the work, the
reader will not understand me as intending to give any opinions of my own,
except when expressly so stated: my wish has been not to obtrude opinions,
but to furnish facts. I have endeavored, as far as it was in my power,
that the articles relating to any particular religious sect should present
opinions and tenets as that sect would exhibit them; and, in cases where
the same point of doctrine is considered differently by different sects, that
the respective views of all should be given.
The articles on the Fine Arts are, in the original work, particularly
complete; and I hope the Encyclopædia Americana will, therefore, be
found satisfactory in a department in which the English encyclopedias
have hitherto been very deficient.
The subject of Heraldry, which occupies so large a space in
English encyclopedias, is wholly omitted in the original work; and it has
been thought best to follow the example of the German editors in this
particular, in order to make room for other matter of far greater value and
interest in a country where the well-known sentiment of antiquity is felt in
its full force-
Nam genus et proavos et quæ non fecimus ipsi
Vix ea nostra voco.
viii
PREFACE.
It is evident that a work of this description must be unequal; deficiencies
will doubtless be observed; but in what similar work will they not be de-
tected? It has been our endeavor, however, to correct such errors as
existed in the German work, and in preceding English works of this kind.
While criticising the faults of the present work, it is hoped that the reader
will not overlook the improvements made upon the labors of past writers;
and that he will keep in mind the remark of Scaliger-Lexicographis et
grammaticis secundus post Herculem labor.
If the present work shall conduce to the diffusion of knowledge in this
fortunate country, whose happiness is founded on its liberty, and whose
liberty is to be preserved only by widely-spread information; if it shall
contribute to make known what has been done or thought, attained or
suffered, by other portions of the human family; if it shall contribute to
enlarge our views, and to destroy prejudices, to animate youth to a per-
severance in virtue and to the pursuit of true glory, by exhibiting to them,
on the one hand, the fearless votary of truth and patriotism, and, on the
other, the real character of men whose perverted talents, however splendid,
cannot redeem them from the severe but just sentence of impartial history;—
I shall receive the most gratifying reward for the many laborious days
which have been devoted to the present undertaking.
Boston, Massachusetts,
August, 1829.
FRANCIS LIEBER,
Philos. Dr.
For the sake of compression, the initial letter of the name of an article, instead of the
whole name, is often used in the body of the article. The other abbreviations used are
but few, and of the common sort, such as e. g., exempli gratia (for instance); i. e., id est
(that is); q. v., quod vide (which sec), signifying see that article. For other abbreviations
which may be met with, see the article Abbreviations.
In the alphabetical arrangement of words, the letter I has been separated from J, and
the letter U from V.
Words to be found in Johnson's Dictionary, which, according to the plan of this Ency-
clopedia, would receive only a definition, have been seldom introduced into the list of
articles.
ENCYCLOPÆDIA AMERICANA.
A, in almost all languages, is the first let
ter of the alphabet, because, if pronounced
open, as in father, it is the simplest and
easiest of all sounds. This is the only
mode of pronouncing it in almost every
language except the English. To produce
this sound, the mouth is merely opened,
without the contraction or extension ne-
cessarily accompanying the utterance of
either of the other vowels. A is the letter
with which children generally begin to
speak, and it serves to express many and
even opposite emotions, e. g. admiration,
pain, astonishment, laughter, (with the pre-
eding H,) disgust, pleasure, according to
the mode in which it is uttered. For the
same reason, a is found, in all original lan-
gnages, in many words which infants utter
to designate the objects with which they
are most nearly connected, e. g. in the
names by which they call their parents.
Hence, in Hebrew, am is mother, ab father;
in old Greek and Gothic, atta is father; in
Latin, mamma significs the breast. Many
philologists are of opinion, that a (as in
father) was the original vowel in most of
those words which designate objects ex-
pressive of great strength, quickness, &c.,
as these first attracted the attention of men;
and it is true, that, in original languages, a
appears in very many words belonging to
the class just mentioned, e. g. the numerous
rivers, Aa (pronounced like a as in father)
in Switzerland and Germany, Falarrá
(thalatta, Greek for sea.) A (as in father) is
very rarely the predominating sound in the
cries of animals. In these, the sounds ee,
ow, u, and a, (as in fate,) generally prevail.
We do not include the sounds of singing
birds, which are inarticulate music, like
that of wind instruments. The regularly
arched roof of the human mouth, and the
1
VOL. I.
other fine organs of speech, with which
the Creator has blessed mankind above all
lower orders of animals, are necessary to
pronounce the melodious sound a (open.)
A is, generally speaking, the favorite
sound of singers, because it is the most
musical and full of those which the mouth
of man can utter. Several diphthongal
sounds, as i (in pine), are, in singing, to be
resolved into a (open) and another simple
sound. The frequent occurrence of a
(open) in the Italian language, is one of the
many causes which render the Tuscan dia-
lect so favorable for music. The English
language is the only one among the culti-
vated modern tongues, which has four (ac-
cording to others still more) sounds for the
single character a. Most of the modern
languages, as French, Italian, German, &c.,
have only the open or Italian a, pronounced
short or long. Other languages have also
the sound of the English a, as in all, e. g.
the dialect of Finland. In Greek, this letter,
when prefixed to a word, has the power of
negation, like the syllable un in English,
and hence it was called alpha privativum.
In many English words derived from the
Greek, the a has the same power.-Among
the Greeks and Romans, a was used as an
arithmetical sign: by the former, for 1; by
the latter, for 500. (See Abbreviations.)—Ä,
in music, the sixth diatonic interval of the
first or lowest octave of the modern scale :
a indicates the same interval in the second
octave. As the capital A is used in the
first instance, and the small a in the next,
the former is called the great octave, the
other the small. ā, with a line above,
denotes the same interval in the third, and
a, with two lines, the same interval in the
fourth octave. The first of these, from
each denomination of the note in the oc-
2
A.-ABBE.
tave being designated by a line, is termed
the one-lined octave, the other the two-
lined, and so on. A, major, is that key, in
modern music, in which the sixth diatonic
interval is assumed as the fundamental
tone of the major key. To maintain the
natural characteristic of the major, F, G,
and c must be made sharp, F# G# C#.
According to Schubart's Characteristics of
Music, this key conveys the expression of
innocent love, content, and cheerfulness.
(See Key.) If any numeral figure is added
to the letter A, when prefixed to a vocal
composition, it denotes the number of
voices for which the piece is intended:
thus, A 3 signifies for 3 voices.
AA, the name of a great number of riv-
ers in Switzerland, Germany, France, and
Holland; so, also, Aach, which is, in Ger-
man, originally the same name with Aa,
only pronounced with an aspirated termi-
nation. (See article A.)
AACHEN. (See Aix la Chapelle.)
AARGAU, ARGOVIA, ARGAU, formerly a
part of the cantons Berne and Zurich, but
since 1798 a separate canton. In 1803
it received a large accession of territory.
Capital, Arau; population, 132,763. Sev-
eral liberals have fled, in modern times,
from Germany, and lived for a while in A.,
protected by government. (See Swiss
Confederacy.)
AARON, (Heb. a mountaineer,) the broth-
er of Moses, and first high-priest of the
Israelites. (See Moses.)
AARON, or HARUN AL RASCHID. (See
Harun and Caliph.)
ABACUS signified, among the ancients, a
kind of cup-board, or buffet. They were,
in times of great luxury, plated with gold.
It also signified a table covered with dust,
on which the mathematicians drew their
mathematical figures, as the pupils of the
Lancastrian schools do at present. It
also signified an ancient instrument for
facilitating arithmetical operations, which
was, with the ancients, very necessary, as
their way of writing numbers rendered
any calculation very difficult. In architect-
ure, Vitruvius tells us, it was originally in-
tended to represent a square tile laid over
an urn, or rather over a basket. The form
of the abacus is not the same in all the
orders of Greek architecture. Modern
architects have given different signifi-
cations to the word abacus. (See Ar-
chitecture.)
ABATIS, (Fr.) Trees cut down and laid
with their branches turned towards the
enemy, in such a way as to form a defence
for troops stationed behind them. They
are made before redoubts, or other works,
to render attacks difficult; or sometimes
along the skirts of a wood, to prevent the
enemy from getting possession of it. In
this case, the trunks serve as a breastwork,
behind which the troops are posted, and
for that reason should be so disposed that
the parts may, if possible, flank each other.
Abatis may sometimes be of essential ser-
vice by retarding the progress of the enemy.
ABAUZIT, Firmin, was born in Langue-
doc, 1679. In consequence of the revoca-
tion of the edict of Nantes, his mother, who
was a Protestant, took refuge with her son
in Geneva. He engaged with such eager-
ness in his studies, that he made great pro-
ficiency in languages, theology, antiqui-
ties, and the exact sciences. At the age of
nineteen, he travelled into Holland, where
he became acquainted with Bayle and Bas-
nage. Thence he passed into England,
where he was favorably noticed by New-
ton, and invited to remain by king William
on very advantageous conditions. He
determined, however, to return to Geneva,
and, devoting himself to study, he rendered
important assistance to a society engaged
in translating the New Testament into
French. In 1727, he was appointed public
librarian in Geneva, and was presented
with the freedom of the city. He died in
1767. Abauzit was a profound scholar, a
true philosopher, and a sincere Christian.
His conversation was unostentatious, but
instructive and animated. He was simple
in his manners, independent and decided
in his opinions, but a friend to universal
toleration. He defended the Principia, and
even detected an error in that work, when
very few men could understand it. New-
ton declared him "a fit man to judge be-
tween Leibnitz and himself." Rousseau
describes him as the "wise and modest
Abauzit ;" and Voltaire pronounced him
"a great man." His knowledge was exten-
sive in the whole circle of antiquities, in an-
cient history, geography, and chronology.
In theology his researches were deep, and
his moderation enabled him to avoid the
violence of theological partics. His works
are chiefly on theological subjects. An
Essay on the Apocalypse, Reflections on
the Eucharist, and On the Mysteries of
Religion, are his principal writings.
ABBAS, ABBASSIDES. (See Caliph.)
ABBÉ, before the French revolution,
was the title of all those Frenchmen who
devoted themselves to divinity, or had at
least pursued a course of study in a theo-
logical seminary, in the hope that the king
would confer on them a real abbey; that
is, a certain part of the revenues of a mou-
astery. (See Abbés commandataires.) Or-
ABBE.-ABBOT.
dained clergymen were those only who
devoted themselves entirely to the per-
formance of clerical duty: the others
were engaged in every kind of literary
occupation. There were so many of
them, poor and rich, men of quality and
men of low birth, that they formed a
particular class in society, and exerted
an important influence on its character.
They were seen every where; at court,
in the halls of justice, in the theatre,
in the coffee-houses. In almost every
wealthy family there was an abbé, oc-
cupying the post of familiar friend and
spiritual adviser, and not seldom that of
the gallant of the lady. They corre-
sponded, in a certain degree, to the phi-
losophers who lived in the houses of the
wealthy Romans in the time of the em-
perors. A round toupet, a short, black,
brown, or violet coat, completed the ap-
pearance of an abbé.
ABBÉS COMMANDATAIRES. The king
of France had formerly the right of ap-
pointing abbots over two hundred and
twenty-five monasteries. These abbots
enjoyed a third part of the revenues of
the monastery, but had no authority over
it, the charge of superintendence being
committed to a prieur claustral. Ac-
cording to rule, every abbot ought to
receive ordination in the course of a
year, but the pope dispensed with the
rule, and the abbé spent his income (from
1200 to 150,000 French livres) wherever
he pleased. This shocking abuse excited
the indignation of the people, and was
one of the causes of the revolution. The
lower sinecures of this kind, the abbayes
des savans, were used as pensions for
learned men; the richer, to provide for
the younger sons of the nobility.
ABBEY. (See Abbot and Monastery.)
ABBOт, George, archbishop of Canter-
bury, born 29 Oct. 1562, studied at Ox-
ford. When the translation of the Bible
was begun, in 1604, by order of king
James, Abbot was one of the eight di-
vines to whom it was committed. In
1609, he went to Scotland to assist in
effecting a union between the kirk of
that country and the church of England,
and conducted the business with much
moderation and address. In Dec. 1609,
he was made bishop of Litchfield and
Coventry; in Jan. 1610, bishop of Lon-
don; in Nov. following, archbishop of
Canterbury. His enemies ascribed his
rapid promotion to flattery of the king.
In 1613, however, he opposed James'
project of a divorce between lady Fran-
ces Howard and the earl of Essex, and,
3
in 1618, the royal declaration, permitting
Sunday sports, which he prohibited the
reading of in church. His health de-
clining, he went to Hampshire for recrea-
tion, and, being invited to a hunt by lord
Zouch, had the misfortune to shoot the
game-keeper with an arrow aimed at a
deer from a cross-bow. This accident
affected him so much, that, besides set-
tling an annuity of 201. on the widow, he
kept, during the remainder of his life, a
monthly fast on Tuesday, the day of the
unhappy event. Though troubled with
the gout, he performed the ceremony of
crowning Charles I. He was never much
in this monarch's favor, and was sus-
pended from the exercise of his functions
as primate, on refusing to license a ser-
mon preached by Dr. Sibthorpe, in jus-
tification of a loan demanded by the king.
At a meeting of parliament he was re-
stored, and died at Croydon, Aug. 5, 1633,
aged 71.
ABBOT, Charles, from 1802 till 1817
speaker of the British house of commons;
born 1755, studied at Westminster. His
father was Dr. Abbot, minister of All
Saints' church, at Colchester. Impelled
by the desire of distinction, he devoted
himself to the study of the law, though
possessed of a considerable fortune. His
object, however, was not professional
reputation, though he had an extensive
practice in the court of chancery. On
account of a Latin poem which he wrote
on the empress of Russia, Catherine II.,
the Russian ambassador in London pre-
sented him, in the name of the empress,
a gold medal. He wrote some treatises
on legal subjects, and was chosen in
1790, 1796, and 1802, into the house of
commons. As a member of parliament,
he exerted himself to introduce better
order into the printing and distribution
of the acts of parliament; and endeavor-
ed, though in vain, to effect a reform in
the phraseology of the statutes, which
should make them more perspicuous. In
1795, he supported Pitt's famous Riot Act,
and always attached himself to the min-
isterial party. In 1796, he proposed, as
chairman of the committee of finance,
an amendment in the promulgation of
the laws, which was accepted. In 1799,
he supported the imposition of the in-
come tax. In 1800, he proposed to im-
pose upon the collectors of the public
revenues the interest of the sums un-
collected, in order to prevent deficits in
their returns; and voted to continue the
Mutiny Bill till 1807. He was succes-
sively first secretary of state in Ireland,
4
ABBOT.
and lord commissioner of the treasury;
was made privy counsellor, and in 1802
speaker of the house of commons. This
post is fatiguing, but lucrative on account
of the large fees for the enrolment of pri-
vate bills which pass the house. These
bills are referred to a conmmittee, whose
reports are almost always accepted, un-
less they propose an innovation on some
established usage. The speaker is very
watchful to prevent the occurrence of
any thing informal in the wording of the
bills, and to check all personalities in de-
bate. This superintendence A. is said
to have exercised with much impartiali-
ty. When the opposition made a motion
in the house of commons to impeach lord
Melville, (Dundas,) the votes were equal,
and the motion was decided in the aflirm-
ative by A.'s casting vote. In 1817, he
resigned his office of speaker, on account
of weakness in his eyes, and entered the
house of lords, having been created vis-
count Colchester. He is the author of a
treatise on commerce and maritime law,
according to the principles of the British
ministry, (Lond. 1802, a third edit. 1808.)
Died May 8, 1829.
ABBOT, (Heb. abbas, father,) was origi-
nally the name of every aged monk; but
since the 8th century, it denotes the head
of a monastery. The abbot requires un-
conditional obedience from his monks,
and his office is to supervise the whole
brotherhood, to enforce the observance of
the rules of the order, and manage the
property of the convent. Since the 6th
century, abbots have always been priests;
and, since the second council of Nice, in
787, have enjoyed the power of confer-
ring the lower orders of priesthood; but,
in the essential points of jurisdiction,
were every where subject to the dioce-
san bishop, till the 11th century, and in-
dependent of each other. The conse-
quence of the abbots grew with the
wealth of their monasteries; several, es-
pecially in those countries where the dif
fusion of Christianity proceeded from the
monastic establishments, received epis-
copal titles and privileges; all held a rank
next to that of bishop, and had a vote in
the ecclesiastical councils. Equal privi-
leges and rights appertained to the abbess-
es as the superiors of the nunneries, except
that they have seldom been allowed to
vote in synods; and the power of ordain-
ing, the administration of the sacraments,
and other sacerdotal offices, were ex-
pressly forbidden them, in the 9th centu-
ry.
About this time, by the favor or
from the wants of the kings, abbeys fre-
quently came into the hands of the laity.
What avaricious barons had extorted from
single convents in the 8th century, the
weakness of the Carlovingians accorded
to their partisans, as a reward of fidelity
and military merit, since the kings pos-
sessed the right of patronage over all ab-
beys established on their crown lands or
family estates, and generally over all
which derived their origin from the roy-
al bounty, (monasteria regalia.) Thus, in
the 10th century, a number of the most
considerable convents in the territory of
the Roman church had lay abbots, or ab-
bot-counts, (abbates milites, abba comites,)
who appropriated to their own use the
income of these institutions. In clois-
ters fallen to such worldly masters, the
spiritual supervision was discharged by
inferior abbots, deans, or priors. To the
princes and princesses of the royal family,
abbeys were presented, to defray the ex-
penses of their tables: the richiest were
retained by the kings themselves; (thus
Hugh Capet was abbot of St. Denis, near
Paris, and of St. Martin, at Tours.) Nun-
nerics were sometimes assigned to men,
and monasteries to distinguished females.
But this abuse, which had crept even
into the Byzantine empire, rarely sur-
vived the laymen who had received the
gifts. These were called commendatory
abbots, because the form of the presen-
tation was a recommendation of the con-
vent to their protection. The zeal, which,
in the beginning of the 10th century,
urged a reform in monastic discipline,
gradually succeeded in abolishing such
donatives to the laity; and military abbots
were now more rarely seen discharging,
in person, the duties of a soldier, though
the convents under royal patronage were
for a long time retained, to reward the ser-
vices of the crown vassals in war, by con-
tributions of money and peasants. The
superiors of the military clergy bore, in the
camp, the name of field abbots, as the
name of abbot was, in the middle ages,
frequently used to denote not only magis-
trates (as abbas populi, the prætor at Gen-
on) and secular ecclesiastical dignitaries,
but also the chiefs of religious and jovial
fraternities, e. g. abbas cornardorum, stulto-
rum,the abbot of misrule. In consequence
of the reform commenced at Cluny, there
arose new monasteries without abbots,
over which the abbot of the convent of
reformed Benedictines, at this place, ap-
pointed priors or pro-abbates, or even co-
abbates, who remained dependent on him.
Besides the Benedictines, only the gray
monks of Vallombrosa, the Cistercians.
ABBOT.-ABBREVIATIONS.
Bernardines, Feuillans, Trappists, Grand-
montani, Præmonstratenses, and some bo-
dies of regular choristers, denominate their
superiors abbots. In the other orders, the ti-
tles majores, ministri, priors or rectors, were
in use. Besides the female branches of the
above orders, the nuns of Fontevraud
and the female secular choristers have ab-
besses. These have always remained un-
der the jurisdiction of their diocesan bish-
ops. The abbots of many other convents,
on the contrary, shook off the authority
of the bishops, and acknowledged no mas-
ter but the pope. The mitred abbots en-
joyed the right, frequently conferred on the
Benedictines in the middle ages by the pa-
pal legate, of adopting the episcopal title
and insignia. Only a few, however, pos-
sessed the episcopal power with dioceses
of their own, of whom there was not one
in France. Before the period of seculariza-
tion, there were in Germany, but in Ger-
many only, princely abbots and princely
abbesses. These abbeys were secular-
ized in 1803, and became principalities.
By rule, the choice of abbots appertains to
the chapters of their convents. In the in-
dependent abbeys, this is followed by the
papal confirmation; in the dependent, by
the episcopal: yet, for a long time, many
abbeys in Italy have been conferred by
the pope, and, in France, by the king, not-
withstanding the concordat of 1516. The
secular clergy, who enjoy these benefices
without observing the rules of the order,
are termed secular abbots; on the other
hand, their vicars in the convents them-
selves, like all abbots of the monkish order,
arc called regular abbots. Younger sons
of distinguished families have often en-
tered the ranks of the secular clergy, in
order to become secular abbots, and to
receive the income of an abbey,without be-
ing restricted by monastic rules. As such
expectants were called in France abbés,
this became a general appellation for
young secular clergy who were out of
office. (Sce Abbé.) Since the revolution,
which changed the abbeys into national
property, and took from those expectants
the object of their exertions, this class has
diminished in France; but it is yet nu-
merous in Italy, where young scholars are
called abbots, merely from having under-
gone the tonsure, though not in orders.
Napoleon led a whole army of Italian
abbots to Corsica, where they lived on
reduced incomes, till the restoration scat-
tered them again over Italy. At the time
of the reformation, several abboys and
convents were retained for the benefit of
the clergy and the support of unmarried
5
females. Some Protestant clergymen,
therefore, still bear the title of abbot, with
which dignity the right of sitting in the
diet of the states is united; as, for exam-
ple, in the Wurtemburg assembly. There
are also Protestant ladies who are called
abbesses. In Lower Saxony, this dignity
was indeed abolished, at the time of the
confiscation of the cloisters, etc., under the
French Westphalian government; but in
some countries, e. g. in the kingdom of
Hanover, it has been restored. In the
Greek church, the superiors of a convent
are called higumeni, mandoa, and the ab-
bots general, archimandrites.
ABBREVIATIONS; (called by the Ro-
mans nota; hence notarius, a short-hand
writer.) The desire of saving time and
space, or of secrecy, led to the invention
of abbreviations in writing. The abbre-
viations of the Romans were of three
sorts: 1. Words and syllables were abbre-
viated, sigla; 2. One letter was substituted
for another, for the purpose of secrecy ;
3. Arbitrary signs were used, like those
of mathematics. The sigla are again of
three kinds, according as the abbreviations
relate to syllables, words, or phrases. The
two last kinds of sigla are sometimes
called nota Tironiana, from Cicero's
freed man, Tullius Tiro. Ennius, how-
ever, had already invented 1100 of those
signs, to which Tiro added the preposi-
tions. Others increased their number still
more, and Lucius Annæus Seneca collect-
ed and arranged 5000 of them. But even
Ennius was not their first inventor. Every
written language has such abbreviations.
Many of them are indeterminate and un-
certain, and the contents of many old
writings and inscriptions remain, on that
account, ambiguous. The oldest and
most common abbreviations are those of
names, titles, and formulas; e. g. M. Mar-
cus, Ed. ædilis, Cos. consul, Coss. con-
sules, &c. The monks, in the middle
ages, made use of many abbreviations in
copying the classic authors, on which ac-
count the manuscripts of that time can-
not be read with case, except by practised
eyes. These abbreviations often give
rise to different readings. They have
been much less used since the invention
of printing. The Germans employ them,
for ordinary words, in greater proportion
than other civilized nations. The abbre-
viations in the English law are numerous;
there are also a great many for English
titles. Many words in the modern lan-
guages arose from abbreviations of Latin
terms, as they were taken by the ignorant
for the words themselves. The following
6
ABBREVIATIONS.-ABBT.
list contains many of the abbreviations
most frequently met with:
Roman Abbreviations on Coins, &c.-
A. U. C. or AB. U. C. ab urbe condita,
from the foundation of the city: C.
centum: CIO or CX, 1000: 00, 5000:
ccc, 100,000: C. ML. centum millia:
COS. consul: COSS. consules: C.R.
civis Romanus: D. O. diis optimis vel deo
optimo: I. H. S. Jesus hominum Salvator:
IMP. imperator: K. kalendæ : M. S.
manu scriptum: NON. APR. nonis Apri-
lis: PON. M. pontifex maximus: PRID.
KAL. pridie kalendas: QUIR. quirites:
RESP. respublica: S. C. senatus consul-
tum: S. P. Q. R. senatus populusque
Romanus : VL. videlicet.
Abbreviations in common use.-A. B.
or B. A. bachelor of arts: Abp. arch-
bishop : A. C. ante Christum : A. D.
anno Domini, in the year of our Lord:
Admr. administrator : Ala. Alabama:
A. M. ante meridiem, forenoon; also,
anno mundi, in the year of the world;
and artium magister, master of arts:
Ark. T. Arkansas territory: B. C. before
Christ: B. D. bachelor of divinity: B. M.
bachelor of medicine: Bp. bishop: B. V.
blessed Virgin: C. or Chap. chapter: C.
or cent. a hundred: C. B. companion of
the Bath: C.C. Caius college: C.P.S.
keeper of the privy seal : C.S. keeper of
the seal: Ct. Connecticut: Ct. count:
Cwt. hundred weight : D. C. District of
Columbia: D. D. doctor of divinity:
Del. Delaware: D. F. defender of the faith:
D. G. Dei gratia: D.T. doctor of theolo-
gy: Dwt. pennyweight : E. G. cxempli
gratia: Ex. example : Exr. executor:
F.A. S. fellow of the antiquarian society:
F. L. S. fellow of the Linnaan society:
F. R. S. and A. Š. fellow and associate of
the royal society: F. S. A. fellow of the
society of arts: Gal. gallon:
G. C. B.
knight grand cross of the Bath: Geo.
Georgia: G. R. Georgius rex, king
George: H. or hr. hours: Hhd. hogs-
head: H. M. S. his majesty's ship :
or ibid. ibidem, in the same place: I. c.
id est, that is: + I. H. S. Jesus hominum
Salvator: I. H. S. in hac cruce salus:
Ill. Illinois: In. Indiana: Incog. incog-
nito, unknown: Inst. instant, or of this
month: J. U. D. juris utriusque doctor:
K. B. knight of the Bath: K. C. B.
knight commander of the Bath: Ky.
Kentucky: Kil. kilderkin: Kt. knight:
L. or lib. libra, pound; and also, liber,
book: La. Louisiana: L.D. lady day:
Ldp. lordship: Lea. leagues:
Lieut.
lieutenant : L. L. D. legum doctor, doc-
tor of laws: L.S. locus sigilli, the place
Ib.
of the seal: M. A. master of arts: Mass.
Massachusetts: M. C. member of con-
gress: M. D. doctor of medicine: Md.Ma-
ryland: Me. Maine: Messrs. messieurs,
gentlemen: Mic. T. Michigan territory:
Mis. Mississippi: Mo. Missouri: M. P.
member of parliament: MS. manuscript:
MSS. manuscripts: N. B. nota bene, take
notice: N. C. North Carolina: Nem. con.
or Nem. diss. nemine contradicente, or nem-
ine dissentiente, unanimously: N. H. New
Hampshire: N. J. New Jersey: N. S. new
style: N. Y. New York: Öbt. obedient :
Oh. Ohio: O. S. old style : Oxon. Ox-
ford: Oz. ounces: Pa. Pennsylvania :
Parl. parliament: Part. participle: Per
cent. per centum, by the hundred: Pl.plu-
_ral: P. M. post meridiem: P.S. postscrip-
tum: Q. question :
Q. question: Q. E. D. quod erat
demonstrandum: Q. E. F. quod erat fa-
ciendum: Q. S. quantum sufficit: Q. V.
quod vide: Rev. reverend: R. I. Rhode
Island:
R. N. royal navy: Rt. Hon.
right honorable:
ful: S. south:
Sec. seconds:
Sec. secretary:
cet:
Rt. Wpful. right worship-
S. or St. saint: S. or
S. C. South Carolina :
Sh. shillings: ss. scili-
St. street: Ten. Tennessee : Ult.
ultimo, last: U. S. United States: Va.
Virginia: Viz. videlicet: Vt. Vermont:
W. or Wk. week: Xmas. Christmas:
Xn. Christian: Xper. Christopher : Y.
the: Ym. them: Yº. then: Y'. your,
and year: Ys. this: Y'. that.
ABBREVIATORI. Officers in the court
of Rome, appointed to assist the vice
chancellor in drawing up the pope's
briefs, and reducing petitions, when grant-
ed by the pope, into proper form, to be
converted into bulls. The 12 first have
the dress and rank of prelates; 22 others
belong to the lower clergy; the rest are
laymen. The salary of an A. of the first
rank in the last century was 2000 scudi.
ABBT, Thomas, a philosophical writer,
born Nov. 25th, 1738, at Ulm in Suabia,
carly manifested distinguished talents,
and taste for the sciences. In 1756, he
cntered the university of Halle, where he
applied himself to metaphysics and math-
emnatics, quitting theology, to which he
had at first devoted himself. In 1760,
he was invited to join the university of
Frankfort, on the Oder, as professor ex-
traordinary. 1lere he wrote, amidst the
tumult of war, his treatise on Death for
one's Country. In the following year,
after he had accepted an appointment as
professor of mathematics, at Rinteln, he
lived six months at Berlin, where he
became intimate with both the Eulers,
Mendelsohn and Nicolai, and took an
ABBT.-ABELARD.
active part in the letters on literature, (Lit-
eraturbriefen.) He died in 1766, in the
prime of life, at the residence of one of
the minor German princes, his intimate
friend and protector. A.'s writings ex-
hibit acuteness, imagination, and spirit,
and abound with practical philosophy,
particularly his treatise on "Merit." He
certainly would have ranked among the
most distinguished writers, if he had lived
till his mind was fully matured. Young
as he was, he deserves to be numbered
among the writers, who, in the time of
Lessing, labored with united zeal to
raise and refine German literature.
ABDERA, a city on the Thracian coast,
which is said to have been founded by
Hercules. Though it boasted of being
the native place of Democritus and Pro-
tagoras, yet it was regarded among the
ancients as notorious for stupidity. Wie-
land has portrayed it as such, in an amus-
ing manner, in his Abderites.
ABDICATION, properly speaking, is only
a voluntary resignation of a dignity, partic-
ularly the supreme. Of royal abdications,
the most famous are those of the empe-
rors Diocletian and Maximian, in 305; of
the emperor Charles V., in 1556; of the
queen Christina of Sweden, in 1654. They
have been the most frequent in Spain:
Charles I., in 1556; Philip V., in 1724;
Charles IV., in 1808: next in Savoy and
Sardinia: Amadeus I., in 1440; Victor
Amadeus II., in 1730: but only a few in-
dividuals have remained faithful to their
resolutions; e. g. Diocletian, Charles V.,
and Victor Emanuel, king of Sardinia,
who abdicated in favor of his brother Fe-
lix, in 1821. (See Piedmont, revolution of.)
Victor Amadeus, of Sardinia, attempt-
ing to resume the government by force,
was imprisoned by his son, Charles Em-
anuel III. Involuntary resignations are
also called abdications; e. g. Napoleon's
abdication at Fontainebleau. The right
of a prince to resign the crown cannot be
disputed; but the resignation, as some
say, can affect only his personal right to
the crown, and cannot prejudice his de-
scendants; still less force upon the state
another constitution, or another family.
The abdication of Charles IV. of Spain,
according to them, could only take effect
in favor of the legitimate successor, but
could not entitle a foreign sovereign to
establish a new dynasty. The abdicated
prince is sometimes allowed exterior
marks of homage, the title of majesty, &c.;
but sovereign powers he can no longer
exercise. Out of his own country, he en-
joys not the honors of a monarch, nor,
7
in general, jurisdiction over his suite. If
he, in whose favor the abdication was
made, dies, or declines the offered dignity,
the right of the abdicated prince is re-
vested. Thus Philip V. of Spain resumed
the throne upon the death of his son Louis,
which took place half a year after he bad
resigned in his favor. But queen Chris-
tina of Sweden made a similar attempt in
vain. Voluntary abdications, as they are
called, are often involuntary, and the
effects of court intrigue.
ABDOMEN, in anatomical language, the
belly. Abdominal muscles, the muscles of
the belly.
ABEL, the second son of Adam, a twin
brother of Cain. The latter was a tiller of
the ground, A. a shepherd. Both brought
their offerings before the Lord; Cain, the
first fruits of the ground; A., the firstlings
of his flock. God accepted the offering of
A.; the offering of Cain he rejected. The
latter, instigated by envy, murdered his
brother in the field. Thus the first murder
on earth was committed. The opinion of
several Christian fathers, that A. died un-
married, has given rise to the sect of Abelites
or Abelonites, (q. v.) The church considers
the offering of A. as the pattern of a purc
and holy offering, pleasing to God, and
Christ himself calls him the just.
ABELARD, Peter, originally Abailard,
a monk of the order of St. Benedict,
equally famous for his learning and for
his unfortunate love of Héloise, was born
in 1079, near Nantes, in the little village
of Palais, which was the property of his
father Berenger. His inclination led him
to the study of the sciences; and, in order
to devote himself fully to philosophy, he
ceded to his brothers his rights of primo-
geniture and his estates. He studied
poetry, rhetoric, philosophy, jurispru-
dence, and theology, the Greek, Hebrew,
and Latin languages, and soon became
familiar with them; but scholastic phi-
losophy chiefly engaged his attention.
Though Bretagne then possessed many
distinguished scholars, A. soon acquired
all they could teach. He went therefore
to Paris, the university of which attracted
students from all parts of Europe. Wil-
liam de Champeaux was the most skilful
disputant of his time. A. made so good
use of his instructions, that he was often
victorious over his master, in contests of
wit and logical acumen. The friendship
of Champeaux was soon succeeded by
enmity, in which his other scholars took
part, and A., who had not yet completed
his 22d year, escaped the consequences of
their ill-will, by fixing himself at Melun,
8
1
ABELARD.
where he was soon followed by a multi-
tude of young men, who were induced,
by his reputation, to leave the schools of
Paris, in order to attend his lectures.
Envy pursued him here, and he left Me-
lun for Corbeil, where he was no less
admired and persecuted. In compliance
with the advice of his physicians, he soon
after remitted his labors, for the purpose
of restoring his disordered health by a
journey to his native place. After two
years, he returned with renovated strength
to Paris, became reconciled to his former
teacher, and opened a school of rhetoric,
the fame of which soon deprived all the
others of their pupils. He lectured on
rhetoric, philosophy, and theology, and
educated many distinguished scholars,
among whom were the future pope, Cœ-
lestin II., Peter of Lombardy, bishop of
Paris, Berengar, bishop of Poitiers, and
St. Bernard. At this time, there resided
at Paris a young lady, by name Louisa
or Hélöise, niece to Fulbert, a canon of
that city, then of the age of 17 years.
Few ladies surpassed her in beauty, none
equalled her in genius and knowledge.
A., though already of the age of 39 years,
became inspired with such violent love for
Heloise as to forget his duty, his lectures,
and his fame. Héloise was no less sus-
ceptible. Under the pretext of finishing
her education, A. obtained Fulbert's per-
mission to visit her, and finally became a
resident in the house of the canon. The
lovers lived several months in the utmost
happiness, occupied more with their love
than with their studies. But the verses
But the verses
in which A. celebrated his passion were
circulated in Paris, and finally reached
the eyes of Fulbert. He separated the
lovers, but too late; Heloise was already
pregnant. A. fled with her to Bretagne,
where she was delivered of a son, who
died, however, early. He now resolved
to marry her secretly. F. was obliged
to give his consent, and Héloise, who,
from a false delicacy, preferred to be his
mistress rather than his wife, and had
formerly written to him that she would
not deprive the world of so great a man
by domnestic cares, at last consented. The
marriage was performed, and, in order to
keep it secret, Héloise remained with her
uncle, whilst A. retained his former lodg-
ings, and continued his lectures. They
saw each other but seldom; Fulbert, how-
ever, thought the reputation of his niece
would be injured by this secret union,
and made it known; but Héloise, valuing
A.'s fame higher than her own good
name, denied her marriage with an oath.
Fulbert manifested his anger by ill treat-
ment; to deliver her from which, A.
carried her away a second time, and
placed her in the convent of Argenteuil.
Fulbert erroneously believed it was in-
tended to force her to take the veil, and,
under the influence of rage, he subjected
A. to an ignominious mutilation. A. be-
came, in consequence, a monk in the
abbey of St. Denis, and Héloise took
the veil at Argenteuil. After time had
somewhat moderated his grief, he re-
sumed his lectures, and incurred new
persecutions; his enemies accused him of
heresy at the council of Soissons, 1122,
on account of his Essay on the Trinity.
They succeeded in having it declared
heretical, and A. was condemned to burn
it with his own hands. Continued per-
secutions obliged him at last to leave the
abbey of St. Denis, and to retire to a
place near Nogent-sur-Seine, where he
built an oratory, which he dedicated
to the Holy Ghost, and called it Paraclete.
Being subsequently appointed abbot of
St. Gildas de Ruys, he invited Héloise
and her religious sisterhood to reside at
his chapel Paraclete, and received them
there. The lovers saw each other here
again for the first time after a separation
of 11 years. A. lived afterwards at St.
Gildas, which afforded him but a gloomy
residence, troubled by unsuccessful at-
tempts to reform the nonastery, and
struggling always with his love for Hé-
loise, and the hatred of the monks, who
even threatened his life. St. Bernard,
who had long refused to proceed against
a inan whom he esteemed, finally yielded
to the repeated remonstrances of his
friends, laid the doctrines of A. before
the council of Sens, in 1140, had them
condemned by the pope, and obtained an
order for his imprisonment. A. appealed
to the pope, published his defence, and
went to Rome. Passing through Chu-
ny, he visited Peter the Venerable, who
was abbot there. This humane and en-
lightened divine effected a reconciliation
between him and his enemies; but A.
resolved to end his days in retirement.
The severe penances which he imposed
upon himself, together with the grief
which never left his heart, gradually con-
sumed his strength, and he died, a pat-
tern of nonastic discipline, in 1142, at
the abbey of St. Marcel, near Châlons-
sur-Saône, at the age of 63 years. Hé-
loise begged his body, and had him buri-
ed in the Paraclete, with the view of re-
posing in death by his side. In 1800, the
ashes of both were carried to the museum
ABELARD.-ABERDEEN.
of French monuments at Paris, and, in
Nov. 1817, were deposited under a chapel,
within the precincts of the church of Mo-
namy. A. was distinguished as a gram-
marian, orator, logician, poet, musician,
philosopher, theologian, and mathema-
tician; but he has left nothing to justify
the reputation which he enjoyed among
his contemporaries. He excelled in the
art of disputation. His doctrines were
often reprehensible, and his behavior
censurable. His love and his misfortunes
have secured his name from oblivion;
and the man, whom his own century ad-
mired as a profound divine, is now cele-
brated as the martyr of love. The letters
of A. and Héloise have been often pub-
lished, in the original and in translations.
ABELITES, Abelians, or Abelonians. St.
Augustine gives this name to a Christian
sect, which probably sprang from the
Gnostics. They abstained from matri-
mony, to avoid propagating original sin,
but adopted the children of others, and
brought them up in their own principles.
This society existed, towards the end of
the 4th century, among the people who
dwelt near Hippo, in the northern part of
Africa, and borrowed their name from
Abel, the son of Adam, because he died
unmarried and without children. They
have found followers in the Shakers, (q. v.)
Abensberg, district and town in the
circle of Regen, and kingdom of Bavaria,
83 miles from Ratisbon, on the Abens,
has 230 houses, and 1080 inhabitants. It
is the birth-place of the Bavarian histo-
rian, John Thurmaier, who called him-
self, from his native place, Aventinus,
lived from 1466 to 1534, and left seven
books of Bavarian annals. Here Napo-
leon, April 20, 1809, obtained a victory
over an Austrian army, under the arch-
duke Louis and general Hiller, (see Eck-
mühl,) who retired, with the loss of 12
cannons and 13000 men taken prisoners,
to Landshut. This battle became impor-
tant from its consequences-the taking of
Landshut, on the 21st, the battle of Eck-
mühl, on the 22d, and the taking of
Ratisbon, on the 23d of April.
9
tenant-general, and, in that critical ser-
vice, displayed equal skill and humanity.
In 1795, he received the order of the
Bath, and was appointed commander-in-
chief of the forces in the West Indies.
In this expedition he captured the islands
of Grenada, St. Lucia, St. Vincent, and
Trinidad, with the settlements of Deme
rara and Essequibo. On his return, he
was appointed commander-in-chief in
Ireland; but, for reasons very honorable
to himself, was quickly removed to the
correspondent command in Scotland. In
the attempt upon Holland, in 1799, sir
Ralph had the sole command on the first
landing, and both his troops and himself
greatly distinguished themselves. His
royal highness the duke of York subse-
quently arrived, under whom sir Ralph
acted. The final failure of the expedition
is well known. The next and conclud-
ing service of this able and meritorious
officer was in the expedition to Egypt,
of which he was commander-in-chief.
He landed, after a severe contest, at Abou-
kir, Mar. 8, 1801; and on the 21st of the
same month was fought the battle of
Alexandria, in which sir Ralph was un-
horsed and wounded in two places; not-
withstanding which he disarmed his an-
tagonist, and gave the sword to sir Sid-
ney Smith. The general kept the field
during the day, and was then conveyed
on board the admiral's ship, where he
survived about a week. His body was
conveyed to Malta, and interred beneath
the castle of St. Elmo, and a monument
was voted to him, by parliament, in St.
Paul's cathedral. His widow was also
created baroness Abercromby, with re-
mainder to the issue male of her late hus-
band; and a pension of 20001. a year was
granted in support of the dignity. Sir
Ralph A. left four sons, George, a barris-
ter at law; John, a major-general; James
and Alexander.
ABERDEEN; the principal city in the
north of Scotland; lat. 57° 9′ N. lon. 2° 8'
W. It is divided into Old and New A.
The old town was of some importance as
carly as 893. The population of O. and
ABERCROMBY, sir Ralph, a distin- N. A.
distin- N. A. is supposed to be about 40,000.
guished British general officer, was born A. has two colleges, King's and Maris-
in 1738, at Tillibodie in Clackmannan- chal's, which, though quite distinct, are
shire. His first commission was that of considered as forming one university,
cornet in the 3d regiment of dragoon called the U. of king Charles. There are
guards, in 1756; and he gradually passed about 150 students in each of these col-
through all the ranks of the service, un- leges. The cotton manufactories in the
til he became a major-general, in 1787. vicinity of A. employ nearly 1000 per-
On the commencement of the war with
sons. Vessels to the burthen of about
France, he was employed in Flanders 40,000 tons belong to the port, which is
and Holland, with the local rank of lieu- extensively engaged in the whale and
VOL. I.
2
10
ABERDEEN.-ABILDGAARD,
other fisheries. About 2000 barrels of
salmon are exported annually.
ABERDEEN, George Gordon, earl of,
also viscount Formatine, one of the 16
Scottish peers, who have seats in the
house of lords, was sent as ambassador
to Vienna, for the purpose of concluding
an alliance between England and Austria,
which he signed Oct. 3, 1813, at Teplitz.
He negotiated, also, the alliance of king
Murat, of Naples, with Austria, in 1813;
but endeavored in vain to reconcile those
courts in 1815. Lord A., as an admirer of
Grecian art, instituted, in 1804, the Athe-
nian Society, each member of which must
have visited Athens.
ABERLI, John Lewis, a landscape
painter, famous for his Views of Switzer-
land; born in 1723, at Winterthur. He
relinquished the manner of his teacher,
Meyer, an indifferent artist, went to Berne,
received better instruction from John
Grimm, and at first painted portraits.
But his inclination for landscape painting
gained the ascendency. He went, in
1759, with his pupil Zingg, to Paris, and
returned, esteemed and admired, to Berne,
where he died in 1786. His manner has
been very often imitated, yet his sketches
have always maintained the reputation of
being the best in their kind.
ABERRATION of light. We see an
object because the rays of light proceed-
ing from it strike our eyes, and we see
the place of the object in the direction in
which they proceed. Let us now imag-
ine the earth, in its circuit round the sun,
just arrived opposite to a fixed star, which
sends off rays perpendicularly to the di-
rection of the earth's motion. The eye
of the spectator meets the ray, and as he
perceives not his own motion, he sup-
poses the light to be moving in an oppo-
site direction; as, when we sail in a boat,
the trees on the shore appear to pass
along by us. Thus the eye misses the
perpendicular ray, but meets an oblique
one, and thence receives the impression
of the light in the direction which results
from this compound motion, namely, in
the diagonal of a parallelogram, the sides
of which represent the real motion of the
light, and the apparent one, (i. e. the mo-
tion of the earth,) which take place at
the same time. The spectator sees the
star in its true place only when he is
either approaching it, or receding from it,
in a straight line. When moving in any
other direction, the star appears a little
in advance of its true position in the same
direction (the maximum is 20"-25");
and we call by the name of aberration
of light these apparent changes in the
situation of the heavenly bodies, occa-
sioned by the motion of the earth. We
easily see that these changes are common
to all the heavenly bodies, and are only
more striking in the case of the fixed stars.
They afford an additional proof of the
motion of the earth. In consequence of
this aberration, the fixed star's appear,
during the revolution of the earth about
the sun, according as they are situated,
either in the plane of the ecliptic, or in
its poles, or somewhere between them,
in the first case to deviate in a straight
line to the right or left of their true place,
in the second to describe a circle, in the
third an ellipse about that point, which
further observation determines to be their
real situation. This discovery we owe
to Bradley, (q. v.) For the aberration of
light, see the elementary works on astron-
omy, the dictionaries of natural philoso-
phy by Gehler, Fischer, &c. There is a
very good account of it in Biot's Traité
Élémentaire d'Astronomie Physique, Paris,
1811, 2d Treatise, vol. 3, page 120, et seq.
Tables of aberration, accompanied with
explanations, arc to be found in the baron
von Zach's works, Tabula speciales Ab-
errationis et Nutationis, etc., Gotha, 1806,
and in the same author's Nouvelles Tables
d'Abérration et de Nutation pour 1404 Etoi-
les, avec une Table générale d' Aberration
pour les Planètes et les Comites, Marseilles,
1812, and Supplément, 1813.
ABILDGAARD, Nicolai Abraham, his-
torical painter to the king of Denmark,
and knight of the order of Danebrog.
He was born at Copenhagen, in 1744,
and died there in 1809, director and pro-
fessor of the academy of fine arts. He
was undoubtedly the greatest genius, in
painting, that Denmark ever possessed.
All his works display profound study,
richness of imagination, and remarkable
power of expression. Five years' resi-
dence in Italy completed the education
which he had received in the academy
of arts at Copenhagen, yet his works
never lost the character of originality.
The creations of his productive imagina-
tion were sometimes of a gloomy, and
always of a grand and solemn character.
Modern painting can hardly show a finer
coloring. A considerable number of
the large pictures in the apartments of
the royal palace at Christiansburg, burnt
down in 1794, werc by A. A. has painted
four pictures, representing, with much
force of allegorical expression, the most
striking periods of European history. But
few of his works in the palace were saved
ABILDGAARD-ABO.
from the conflagration. A considerable
number of his pictures, however, still exist
in and out of Copenhagen. The wounded
Philocletes is as vigorous as his Cupid
is delicate; both are executed in the
style of a master. There are also an
excellent Socrates, Jupiter weighing the
fate of man, and others. His last works
were four large paintings, representing
scenes from Terence. Nearly all his
works are those of a painter formed by
the study of the ancients, and of the re-
mains of antiquity. Nothing escaped his
observation, which stood in the remotest
relation to his art. He was likewise a
distinguished lecturer in the royal acade-
my of arts, and has left several disciples,
painters as well as sculptors, who do
honor to their master and to their coun-
try; amongst whom, superior to all the
rest, is Thorwaldsen. A. acquired repu-
tation as a writer by some short essays,
the object of which was, partly, to correct
a false taste in regard to the arts, partly
to illustrate the earlier works of art.
ABIPONIANS; a warlike tribe of Indians,
between 28° and 30° S. lat., on the banks
of the Rio de la Plata, consisting of 5000
persons, who pay little attention to agri-
culture, but employ themselves principal-
ly in hunting and fishing. During the
five rainy months, they resort to the isl-
ands of the Rio de la Plata, or to the tops
of trees. The Abiponians prefer the
flesh of tigers to every other meat, super-
stitiously believing that it gives new cour-
age to the warrior. Long lances, and
arrows with iron points, are their weap-
ons. They are often at war with the
Spaniards. Their wives are not much
browner than the Spanish ladies. The
men are tall, with aquiline noses, are
good swimmers, and fond of painting fig-
ures on their skin. Their caziques are,
in times of peace, their judges, in war
their leaders. In peace, however, their
authority is very limited; for if a cazique
should attempt an unpopular innovation,
the multitude would leave him, and join
other tribes.
ABJURATION, Oath of; the oath by which
an Englishman binds himself not to ac-
knowledge any right in the pretender to the
throne of England. It signifies, also, accor-
ding to 25 Charles II., an oath abjuring par-
ticular doctrines of the church of Rome.
ABLEGATI; in diplomatic language, pa-
pal ambassadors of the second rank, who
are sent with a less extensive commission,
to a court where there are no nuncios.
This title is equivalent to envoy. (See
Ambassador.)
11
ABO (in Finnish, Turku) contains 1100
Since
houses, and 11,300 inhabitants.
1817, it has ceased to be the capital
The
of the government of Finland.
Russian administration has endeavored,
however, to support it by other means;
and it continues to be the capital city of
a district, as well as the seat of a Luther-
an bishopric, (in 1817, raised to an arch-
bishopric,) and of the supreme court of
justice for South Finland. The mouth
of the river Aurajocki, protected by a
promontory of the gulf of Bothnia, forms
the harbor of the city, which, since
1817, has been the chief place of export
from Finland to Sweden, and even to the
Mediterranean. It has important sugar-
works, and manufactures of leather, linen,
sail-cloth, cordage, glass, coarse broad-
cloth, &c. Many ships are built in its
docks. The academy which Gustavus
Adolphus established in 1628 was chang-
ed by Christina, queen of Sweden, into
a university, which was endowed still
more liberally by the emperor Alexander.
It had, in 1824, forty professors, and more
than 500 students, a library of 30,000 vols.,
a botanical garden, an observatory, an
anatomical building, and a chemical labo-
ratory, a cabinet of medals and minerals,
a collection of mechanical and agricultu-
ral models, a society for the promotion
of science, one for natural history, a Bible
society, &c. In the autumn of 1827, the
whole city, including the buildings and
library of the university, was burnt down.
The Russian government has taken ener-
getic measures for rebuilding it.
Аво, peace of. Aug. 17, 1743, Sweden
here concluded peace with Russia. This
ended the war which broke out Aug. 24,
1741, between Russia and Sweden, at the
instigation of France, in order to prevent
Russia from partaking in the Austrian
war of succession. In this war, after the
victory of Lacy, near Wilmanstrand, Sept.
3, 1741, the Russians conquered all Fin-
land, in consequence of the mistakes of the
Swedish generals, Löwenhaupt and Bud-
denbrog. The empress Elizabeth promis-
ed, however, to give up a great part of her
conquests, if Sweden would choose the
prince Adolphus Frederic of Holstein-Got-
torp, bishop of Lubec, heir to the Swedish
crown, instead of the crown-prince of Den-
mark. This was done July 4, 1743. Thus,
in 1751, the house of Holstein-Gottorp took
possession of the Swedish throne, which
it lost again after the abdication of Gus-
tavus IV., in consequence of a resolution
of the states of the kingdom, May 10, 1809,
which took effect upon the death of
12
ABO-ABOUKIR.
Charles XIII., Feb. 5, 1818. After this
election, the treaty of peace was signed
at A., in which Sweden ceded to Russia
the Finnish province of Kymmenégord,
with the cities and fortresses of Frederics-
hamm and Wilmanstrand, and the city
and fort of Nyslot. From that time, the
river Kymmené has been the boundary
between Sweden and Russia, until the
latter power obtained the whole of Finn-
land, at the peace of Fredericshamm,
Sept. 17, 1809. June 25, 1745, peace was
concluded between Sweden and Russia,
at St. Petersburg.
ABOLITION. (See Pardon, right of.)
ABOLITION of slavery. The Society for
mitigating and gradually abolishing the
State of Slavery throughout the British Do-
minions, sometimes called the Anti-slave-
ry Society, has been recently formed. His
R. H. the duke of Gloucester is president
of the society. In the list of the vice-presi-
dents are the names of many of the most
distinguished philanthropists, and, among
them, that of the never-to-be-forgotten
champion of the negro's cause, Mr. Wil-
berforce. The society has already pub-
lished several works illustrative of the
state of slavery, and pointing out its evils
in a commercial, political, and religious
point of view. (See Slavery, Colonization
Society and Wilberforce.) The more im-
mediate objects of the society are to ame-
liorate the condition of the slaves, and to
facilitate the means by which they may
obtain their freedom; and, for the accom-
plishment of these purposes,─To remove
all the existing obstructions to the manu-
mission of slaves: To cause the slaves to
cease to be chattels in the eye of the law:
To prevent their removal, as slaves, from
colony to colony, and, under certain modi-
fications, their sale or transfer, except
with the land to which they may be at-
tached: To abolish markets and com-
pulsory labor on Sunday, and to make
it a day of rest, as well as of religious
worship and instruction; and also to se-
cure to the slaves equivalent time in each
week, in lieu of Sunday, and in addition
to any time which, independently of Sun-
day, is now afforded them, for cultivating
their provision grounds: To protect the
slaves, by law, in the possession and
transmission of the property they may
thus or in any other way acquire: To
enable the slave to purchase his freedom
by the payment at once of a fair price for
his redemption, or of a fifth part of that
price at a time, in return for an additional
day in the week to be employed for his
own benefit: To make the testimony of
slaves available in courts of justice, both in
civil and criminal cases: To relieve all nc-
groes and persons of color from the burden
of legally proving their freedom, when
brought into question, and to throw on the
claimant of their persons the burden of le-
gally proving his right to them: To pro-
vide the means of religious instruction for
the black and colored population, and of
Christian education for their children: To
institute marriage among the slaves, and
to protect that state from violation and
from either forcible or voluntary disrup-
tion: To put an end to the driving sys-
tem: To put an end, also, to the arbitrary
punishment of slaves, and to put their
persons as well as property under the
guardianship of the law: To provide that
all children born after a certain day shall
be free,-care being taken of their edu-
cation and maintenance until they shall
be capable of acting for themselves: To
provide that no colonial governor, judge,
attorney-general or fiscal, shall be a pos-
sessor of slaves, or shall have a direct and
obvious reversionary interest in such
property, or shall be the agent of the pro-
prietors of slaves. The society has fur-
ther proposed, that the final extinction of
slavery should be accomplished by the
redemption of all females from the lowest
age, to about 40; by which means all
their posterity would be born free. The
cost of this measure is estimated at
300,000l.; but should parliament refuse
to accede to this or some other effective
plan, the society trust that their object
will, nevertheless, be obtained by bring-
ing free labor into competition with
slave labor; so that the latter shall be-
come of so little value as to be not worth
retaining. The parent society is sup-
ported by many auxiliaries, not fewer than
250 of which are in active operation in
various parts of the kingdom; and if they
continue to proceed with the energy that
has hitherto marked their progress, there
can be little doubt that they will finally
succeed in a cause, in which truth, jus-
tice, and the dictates of religion, are ar-
rayed on their side.
ABORIGINES; the name given to the
eldest inhabitants of a country, of whose
origin nothing certain is known. The
Roman historians give this name to the
people who dwelt in the vicinity of Rome,
before the arrival of the Trojans. Differ-
ent derivations of the word are given.
For the right of aborigines to the soil, see
Indians, and Occupancy, right of.
ABOUKIR, the ancient Canopus, is at
present a village with 100 Arabian inhabit-
1
ABOUKIR-ABRACADABRA.
ants: it has a strong castle on the western
side of a spacious bay, protected by a
projecting point of land and several small
islands, and is situated on the Egyptian
coast, 10 miles east of Alexandria. This
place has become distinguished, in mod-
ern times, by the naval battle, in which
the English admiral Nelson annihilated
the French fleet, between the first and
the third of August, 1798. May 19, 1798,
the latter sailed from the harbor of Tou-
lon, to convey an army to Egypt, under
the command of general Buonaparte.
As soon as the English admiral St. Vin-
cent, who was cruising before Cadiz, re-
ceived information of this, he despatched
rear-admiral Nelson, with 14 ships of the
line, to the Mediterranean, with orders to
seek and attack the French fleet. Aug.
1, Nelson caught a glimpse of the French
ships in the road of A. and gave the sig-
nal of battle. The French captains, who
were just then assembled on board the
admiral's ship, had hardly time to retire
to their posts, before the first English
ship began the attack. Although the
French fleet was disposed in a curved
line, as near as possible to a small island,
protected by a battery of cannon and
mortars, Nelson suddenly ordered half
of his force to break through, between
the island and the French line of battle,
and to sail under the shore, in their rear,
while the other half approached their
front, and anchored within pistol shot;
so that the French ships were attacked
from all sides. At sunset, about half
past 6 o'clock in the evening, the bat-
tle began. At the end of an hour, 5
French ships were dismasted and taken.
The French admiral, Brueys, was killed
by a cannon-ball; his ship, L'Orient, how-
ever, continued the battle with great spir-
it, until she took fire. About 10 o'clock,
this splendid vessel, of 120 guns, blew up.
Of 1000 men, but 70 or 80 were saved.
Capt. Casabianca was mortally wounded,
and his son, a boy 12 years old, volunta-
rily remained in the burning ship, and
shared his fate. The other ships contin-
ued the cannonade till the morning, which
witnessed the entire defeat of the French
fleet. But 2 ships of the line and 2 frig-
ates escaped to Malta and Corfu; 9 ships
of the line were taken, 1 blown up, and
another, together with a frigate, burned
by the French themselves; 1 frigate,
however, was sunk. Thus the naval
power of France in the Mediterranean
was a second time annihilated; the British
flag waved triumphant from Gibraltar to
Alexandria; Buonaparte's communica-
13
tion with France was cut off, and his
enemies, with renovated hopes, united
again, in the subsequent year, in a new
coalition. (See Egypt, landing of the
French in.)
ABOULFEDA. (See Abulfeda.)
ABOUT; the situation of a ship imme-
diately after she has tacked, or changed
her course.
ABRACADABRA; a term of incantation,
which was formerly believed to have the
power of curing fevers, especially the
slow fevers, the intermittent of 4 days,
and the hemitritæus, so called by Hip-
pocrates, which was generally fatal. At
present, this word is, for the most part,
used in jest, without any particular mean-
ing, like hocus pocus. According to a
Serenus Sammonicus, it ought to be writ-
ten so as to form a magic triangle, in or-
der to produce the supposed effect; viz.
ABRACADABRA
BRACADABR
RACADAB
or as follows:
ACADA
CAD
A
Abracadabra
Abracadabr
A bra c a da b
Abra c ad a
Abra C a d
A br a ca
A br a c
Abra
A br
A b
A
The triangle, thus formed, reads Abraca-
dabra, beginning with A, and thence pass-
ing over to any line you please, and stop-
ping at the last letter of the first line.
Greek amulets, which bear the inscription
ABPAKAAABPA, leave no doubt that this
magic word, properly, ought to be pro-
nounced Abrasadabra, though the Jews
say also Abracalan. Abrasadabra proba-
bly means divine decree, and is derived
from the sacred name of the Supreme
Being, Abrasax, or Abras. Others are of
opinion that the term Abrasar took its
origin from the first letters of the Hebrew
words Ab, Ben, Ruach hakodesh, (Fa-
ther, Son and Holy Ghost,) and from the
initials of the Greek words, owTroia àni
σωτηρία
ou, (salvation from the wood of the
cross.) Abrasax is neither an Ægyptian,
nor Greek, ror Hebrew, but a Persian
name, which denotes the Persian deity,
Mithras. Superstitious people, moreover,
14
ABRACADABRA-ABRAHAMITES.
used to write the word Abracadabra, in
the manner above-mentioned, on a square
piece of paper; then folded it so as to
cover the writing, sewed it together with
white thread, hung it, by a piece of tape,
around the neck, so as to reach the heart,
wore it for 9 days, and then went, before
sunrise, in profound silence, to a river
which flowed to the east, took it from the
neck, and threw it, but without opening
or reading it, into the water over their
heads.
ABRAHAM; the father, and most cele-
brated patriarch of the Jews, with whom
their history commences, as, likewise,
the promises given them by God, and the
miracles performed in their favor. He
was born at Ur, in Chaldæa, about 2000
B. C., and descended in the eighth gen-
eration from Shem, Noah's eldest son.
He passed his early days in the house of
his father, Terah, where he was kept from
idolatry, which prevailed in his family.
Obedient to the voice of God, which
pointed out his noble destiny, and com-
manded him to settle in Canaan, he went
to that country with his father, his wife,
and his nephew, and fixed his abode at
Haran, in Mesopotamia. After his fa-
ther's death, he led a wandering life, in
obedience to the will of God. He visited
Sichem, Bethel, and Gerara, whence he
returned to Bethel. Frequent dissensions
between his servants and those of Lot
caused their final separation. A. remain-
ed at Mamre, but Lot settled in Go-
morrah. Afterwards, on hearing that four
Arabian chiefs had invaded Gomorrah,
and carried off Lot with his family and
property, A. pursued them with 318 ser-
vants, conquered them, and rescued his
nephew, and all that belonged to him.
God revealed futurity to A. and ratified
his covenant with him and his posterity,
by the law of circumcision. The ad-
vanced age of A. and Sarah seemed to
render doubtful the fulfilment of these
promises, when three angels, in the shape
of travellers, came to visit them. They
were sent to punish Sodom and Gomor-
ral for their wickedness, and announced
that, at their return, Sarah would be a
mother. Though she was 90 years old,
she conceived, and bore Isaac, at the time
designated by the angel. When Isaac
had reached his 25th year, God wished
to put A.'s fidelity to a new trial, and
commanded him to sacrifice his only son,
on mount Moriah. The old man was
ready to obey. The victim was already
placed on the altar, and about to receive
the fatal stroke, when God, convinced of
the obedience of his servant, stopped his
lifted arm. Sarah died, but A. married
Keturah, who bore him 6 more children.
He died 175 years old, and was buried
near Sarah, in a cave which he had
bought for his sepulchre from the sons of
Heth. Not only the Jews, but also the
Arabians, derive their origin from this pa-
triarch: the Greek and Roman churches
have introduced his name into their le-
gends. He is also mentioned in the Ko-
ran, and some of the Mahometan writers
assert that A. went to Mecca, and com-
menced the erection of the temple. The
Jews have at all times honored his
tomb and his memory. His history, as
given by the rabbins, is a mixture of
truth and fiction.
His
ABRAHAM a Sancta Clara; born in Krä-
henheimstetten, in Suabia, June 4, 1642.
His true name was Ulrich Megerle. He
was distinguished, as a preacher, for the
originality of his conceptions. At Marien-
brunn, in the south of Austria, he joined,
in 1662, the barefooted friars of the order of
St. Augustin, applied himself to philoso-
phy and theology, in a monastery of his
order at Vienna, was then employed as
preacher in the convent of Taxa, in Bava-
ria, and soon called to preach at the im-
perial court of Vienna, where he contin-
ued till the year 1709, when he died, 67
years old. His sermons are burlesque,
and full of the strangest notions.
striking peculiarities, agreeable, however,
to the spirit of his age, procured him a
numerous audience, and his sermons were
not without effect, since they treated of
popular subjects, and were seasoned with
much sarcasm, adapted to all ranks. The
titles of some of his writings show the
tone in which they are composed: as,
Fy on the World, or, about Virtue and Vice;
Salutary Mixture; Abraham a Sancta Cla-
ra's Nest of newly-hatched Fools, or curious
Workshop of various Fools, both male and
female, etc. A. was, by nature, a popu-
lar orator; he joined to an odd exterior a
strong mind, endowed with a thorough
knowledge of mankind, and a fervent
love of truth. With the boldest frank-
ness, he scourges the follies of his age,
and vigorously attacks the weak mysti-
cisin and pedantry of most preachers of
his time.
ABRAHAM, heights of. (See Quebec.)
ABRAHAMITES, Abrahamians, or deists
of Bohemia, were a number of ignorant
peasants, who came forth from their ob-
scurity in 1782, confiding in the edict of
toleration published by Joseph II., and
avowed the same belief which Abraham
ABRAHAMITES-ABRIAL.
professed before the law of circumcision.
The doctrine of the unity of God, and the
Lord's prayer, were all which they re-
garded in the Bible. Their petition for
freedom in religious worship was, how-
ever, rejected, because they refused to
declare themselves Jews, or members of
any of the established Christian sects.
The emperor Joseph, less enlightened in
matters of religion than is generally be-
lieved, drove these honest people, in 1783,
from their possessions, because they re-
sisted all attempts made for their conver-
sion, and dispersed them, by military
force, among various places, on the boun-
daries of Hungary, Transylvania, and
Sclavonia, where they were compelled to
embrace the Roman Catholic faith, and
the men to join the frontier militia. Many
of them adhered firmly to their religious
principles.
ABRANTES; a city of 3,500 inhabitants,
on the right bank of the Tagus, in the
province of Estramadura, in Portugal. It
is considered as of great military impor-
tance, on account of its situation on a
number of steep hills, forming a defile;
by reason, likewise, of its old castle, con-
verted into a citadel; and of the river,
which is navigable as far as this place.
The Portuguese, in this fortress, braved
the Spaniards as early as 1762. In 1808,
the army under Junot arrived at A., after
a dangerous and tedious march along the
banks of the Tagus, through the woody,
mountainous and barren Beira. Junot
ordered the castle, as well as the city,
which he found ungarrisoned, to be
placed in a state of defence; and, in spite
of the great fatigue of his troops, hastened
to Lisbon, then occupied by 15,000 Por-
tuguese soldiers, and inhabited by 350,000
souls. The quickness of his march, and
the daring courage with which he took
possession of this capital, at the head of
only 1500 grenadiers, induced Napoleon
to make him duke of Abrantes. At a
later period, however, he committed gross
mistakes. At the capitulation of Cintra,
A. was surrendered to the English, who
made it still stronger. It was, however,
of no importance during the remainder
of the war, except to Massena, who re-
connoitred it at the time when he sat
down before the strong position of the
duke of Wellington, between Santarem
and Peniche.
ABRASAX. (See Abraxas.)
ABRAXAS STONES, or ABRASAX STONES,
are very numerous, and represent a hu-
man body, with the head of a cock and
the feet of a reptile. The inscription
=
15
Abraxas or Abrasar is often found on
them, in Greek characters, which betray,
however, a foreign origin. Bellermann,
in his Essay on the Gems of the Ancients,
bearing the Image of Abraxas, Berlin,
1817, declares only those having the above
inscriptions to be genuine. The gems
which have been imported into Europe
from Egypt and Asia, and are also found
in Spain in great abundance, belonged,
according to his opinion, to the religious
sect of the Basilidians, and were used,
partly as means to teach secret doctrines,
partly as symbols, partly as amulets or
talismans. Grotefend derives the name
from the Persian language; Bellermann
thinks it to be a composition of the Egyp-
tian words Abrac and Sax, and renders it
"the holy word of bliss," which reminds
us of the Tetragrammaton of the Jews.
Different explanations have been proposed
by others. The ancients attempted to give
meaning to the word by considering the
letters as Greek numerals, which make
together 365.-The name of Abraxas
stone is, in modern times, applied to a
variety of gems that exhibit enigmatical
compositions, strange words in foreign
characters, as Ablanathanalba, &c., and
even to those which bear the emblems of
Sabæism, the sun and moon, with other
symbols, which want, however, the char-
acteristic type of the Basilidians. These
are more properly called Abraxoids. The
Basilidian names, seen on many stones
of this class, are explained by Bellermann,
by the aid of the Semitic languages. The
interesting disquisition on this subject of
Neander, professor at the university of
Berlin, deserves to be carefully compared
with the opinions advanced by Beller-
mann.
ABRIAL, André-Joseph, born March
19, 1750, at Annonay, department de
l'Ardèche, at present count and peer of
France, &c., studied law in Paris, and
embraced the principles of the revolution,
during which he was, for a long period,
commissioner of the executive power in
the court of cassation. In 1799, he or-
ganized the republican government in
Naples. After the 18th of Brumaire,
the first consul intrusted him with the
ministry of justice, saying, as it is related,
"Not I, but the public voice nominates
you." After 18 months, he quitted this
station, and entered the sénat conserva-
teur. In 1804, he organized the depart-
ment of justice in Italy, when the young
Cisalpine republic was again dissolved.
In 1811, he was made count of the em-
pire, and was for 10 years a member of
16
ABIAL-ABRUZZO.
that committee in the senate, ridicu-
lously called commission de la liberté in-
dividuelle, while it daily submitted, with
blind subservience, to the imperial orders.
In 1814, Abrial voted for the overthrow
of the imperial dynasty. Louis XVIII.
made him a peer, and since that time he
has voted with some independence in the
chamber of peers.
ABRUZZO, the northern extremity of
the kingdom of Naples, is bounded on
the north and west by the states of the
church, on the east by the Adriatic, on
the south by Puglia and Terra di Lavoro.
It contains 628,600 inhabitants, and is di-
vided into A. ulterior, which comprises
the north-western, and A. citerior, which
comprises the south-eastern part. The
highest part of the chain of the Apennines
crosses this mountainous country. In A.
ulterior, especially, it is very lofty, with
steep cliffs, and throws extraordinary obsta-
cles in the way of internal communication.
The rivers which rise in A., the Trento,
Trontino, etc., generally flow in a direct
course into the Adriatic sea, and have
(the Pescara and Sangro excepted) the
character of torrents. They are often
suddenly swollen by the rains, especially
in the spring, and then sweep away the
bridges and all means of communication.
The climate of A. is severc. The sum-
mits of the mountains are covered with
snow from October to April. Thick
woods crown the eminences; the valleys
only are productive; and even they (as
the inhabitants are mostly shepherds)
afford but a very scanty supply of grain.
Almond, walnut, and other fruit-trees
thrive every where; olives, in the lower
regions, near the sea. The finest herds
of all kinds of cattle feed on the heights
and in the valleys, and constitute the
only article of export. The most impor-
tant cities are Aquila, Pescara, (both for-
tresses,) and Sulmona. The importance
of A. consists, principally, in its military
sites. Projecting like a bastion 60 geo-
graphical miles, far into the territory of
the church, it becomes especially impor-
tant from the circumstance that but one
inilitary road, and that an extremely dif
ficult one to an army, leads into the king-
dom. There is, indeed, no one like it
across the mountains, from the shore of
the Mediterranean to that of the Adriatic
sea.
The kingdom of Naples, therefore,
if well defended, is exposed to serious
attacks on two roads only; namely, on
that which stretches along the Mediter-
ranean sea and the Pontine marshes, from
Rome, by Terracina and Capua, to Na-
ples; or on the one which runs along the
Adriatic, from Ancona, by way of Atri,
Pescara, etc. into the interior. On the
latter road, each of the many parallel riv-
ers forms an excellent position, where
the right wing may always be protected
by the sea, the left by the contiguous
mountains, from which the flank of the
assailants is itself exposed to attack. To
force these positions would cost a bold
enemy_much blood. It would be yet
more dangerous to attempt to pass Ter-
racina, on the other road, without having
possession of A.; for as soon as the army
had arrived at Terracina, the rear might
be attacked on the left from Rome and
the mountains. Finally, should the in-
vaders advance by both roads at once,
all communication would be destroyed
before they reached Pescara, whence a
good road leads over the chain to Sul-
mona and Teano. They would meet
with all the above difficulties, and, at the
same time, incur the danger of being de-
feated in detail. The possession of A. is,
therefore, indispensable for the attack of
Naples; to force it, however, would be
very difficult. As has been said above,
of the roads from the states of the church
into this province, only the one from Rie-
ti, through Cività ducale to Aquila and
Sulmona, is practicable for artillery, and
only two others for regular troops, and
that with difficulty. All the other ways
are nothing more than paths through
morasses, where the troops must march
in single files, and the cavalry lead their
horses. The road from Rieti is, there-
fore, the only one on which a serious at-
tack can be undertaken; but the strong
pass of Antrodocco, and numerous good
positions, facilitate its defence. Besides,
the thick forests with deep ravines afford
advantages for a partisan warfare, in the
manner of the guerillas, or the Tyrolese
and, had the Neapolitans a warlike spirit,
the possession of A., whenever attacked,
would not have been obtained without a
great sacrifice. But when a people is
destitute of courage and energy, when
the soldiers, sunk in cowardly apathy,
run away at the mere idea of a battle, the
most favorable ground will be of no ad-
vantage. This is the reason that A., so
well adapted for a defensive war, has al-
ways been of little use; that Naples has
been the prey, sometimes of the Austrians,
at other times of the French or the Span-
iards; and that the inhabitants have but
seldom resisted the conquerors. Once
only, in 1798, did the natives of A. rouse
themselves against the victorious French:
ABRUZZO-ABSENTEE.
they killed their general, Hilarion-Point,
took general Rusca prisoner, and did im-
portant injury to the conquerors, especial-
ly to the column of general Duhesme.
But as the Neapolitan army had been
defeated in the states of the church,
and fled in the most cowardly manner
wherever the French showed themselves,
these momentary ebullitions of courage
were of little avail to the descendants of
the bold Samnites, Marsi and Sabini, who
once dwelt on these mountains, a terror
to the Romans; and the subsequent petty
commotions, in 1806, partook too much
of the character of common robberies to
merit commendation. In 1815, when
Murat advanced against the Austrians,
the government was too much hated to
be able to organize a popular war after
the battle of Tolentino. Instead of re-
sisting, the soldiers born in A. dispersed
to their homes, when they marched
through this province on their return,
and the rivers on the eastern coast rather
hindered the retreat of the Neapolitans
than the advances of the foe, who pro-
ceeded without opposition, both by the
roads along the coast and over the moun-
tains, with columns composed of light
troops, and by this daring step effected
the entire dissolution of the Neapolitan
army. In 1821, the revolutionary party
at Naples hoped that A. would afford the
greatest advantages in a defensive war;
and the Venditas of the Carbonari, the
popular assemblies, and even the French
chamber of deputies, again resounded
with praises of the ground and of the
spirit which inspired the inhabitants, the
worthy descendants of their daring ances
tors. The result completely disappointed
expectation. After the plan of the Aus-
trians to attack A. on the road from Civi-
tà ducale to Aquila and Sulmona was de-
termined on, general Pepe resolved to
commence the offensive. On March 7th,
1821, he crossed the boundary of Cività
ducale, and attacked general Geppert, at
Rieti. His troops advanced with reluct-
ance, found themselves surrounded by
two battalions of Austrians, and deter-
mined to retreat. The Austrians quickly
pursued; the division under Wallmoden
reached the strong pass of Antrodocco
on the 9th, attacked and soon obtained pos-
session of it, another division having al-
ready taken the pass of Borghette with-
out resistance, while one portion of the
Neapolitans fled from dissatisfaction with
the new government, and another from
cowardice. The whole Neapolitan army
being dispersed, the militia and volun-
3
VOL. I.
17
teers returned home; the troops of the
line, weakened by desertion, withdrew
into the interior of the country; and Pepe
himself left the army in anger at their
cowardice. Aquila opened its gates on
the 11th; the citadel then capitulated, and
the inhabitants of Abruzzo furnished the
Austrians with provisions, without evinc-
ing any desire to prolong this partisan
war. By the speedy advance of the Aus-
trians to Sulmona, general Carascosa,
who held possession of the road of Ter-
racina, and also the corps which protect-
ed the road along the coast of the Adri-
atic, were surrounded, and both the
regulars and militia, having dispersed,
hastened back. Thus ended a war, which
affords another proof, that even the pass
of Thermopyla has no value unless de-
fended by Spartans. The inhabitants of
this mountainous region are generally
banditti, who render the frontiers of Na-
ples and of the territories of the church
extremely insecure. These banditti con-
sist of the peasants living in the moun-
tains, who possess property and families,
but, in addition to their agricultural con-
cerns, make a trade of robbery. Urged
by rapacity and poverty to murder and
plunder, they unite and fall upon the
traveller, and not unfrequently upon the
inhabitants and houses of the plains.
ABSALOM, (in Danish, Arel,) bishop of
Roeskilde or Rothschild, and archbishop
of Denmark from 1158 to 1201; renowned
as a clergyman, statesman, general, and
navigator; descended from a family of
high rank, and, even from his early youth,
a friend and counsellor of king Walde-
mar I., whose ability in peace and war
procured him the surname of the Great.
A. had a large share in the administration
of Waldemar I. He was active, humane,
and learned; set an example of industry
to the monks, and improved the condi-
tion of the church in Denmark. In his
youth, he studied at Paris. Under his di-
rection Saxo wrote the valuable Danish
chronicle. A. never abused his power or
the favor of the king; so that Waldemar
ever remained his friend. He had the
honor of being the founder of the chief
city of Denmark,Copenhagen. He built the
castle, called, after him, Axelburg, and the
city, Arelstadt. This castle, enlarged and
improved, served the kings of Denmark
afterwards for their residence, till the 18th
century. A. died, A. D. 1201, in the 73d
year of his age. His grave is still seen in
Soroe, then a convent in Zealand.
ABSENTEE; a word in modern times
particularly applied to those land-owners
18
ABSENTEE-ABYSSINIA.
and churchmen of Ireland who reside in
England, or in foreign countries. In
1715, a tax of 4 shillings in the pound
was levied on all profits, fees, pensions,
&c., derived from Ireland, in all cases
where the persons receiving them should
not reside in that country for six months
in the year; power to grant leave of ab-
sence being reserved to the crown. In
1753, the tax ceased.
((
ABSOLUTION. In the ancient Chris-
tian church, absolution was a judicial act,
by which the priest, in the name of the
community, invoking the favor of God,
announced to the penitent his remission
from ecclesiastical punishment, and re-
admission into the bosom of the church.
Private absolution having become preva-
lent for four centuries, through priests
acting in the place of the bishop, the
opinion was spread among the people,
that they had the power of absolving, by
their own authority, and without the
consent of the church. But down to the
12th century, they used only the formula,
may God or Christ absolve thee;" which
is still the form in the Greek church,
and, in the Romish, makes a part of the
ceremony. The council of Trent, sess.
xiv. cap. 3., declares the essence of the
sacrament of penance to lie in the words
of absolution. Among Protestants, abso-
lution is chiefly used for a sentence, by
which a person, who stands excommuni-
cated, is released from that punishment.
The formula of absolution in the Romish
church has been said to be absolute, in
the Greek church, deprecatory, and in
the Protestant churches, declarative; but
this is a matter strongly contested be-
tween Protestants and Romanists. The
fathers of the church and the best modern
theologians are unanimous in the belief,
that God alone can forgive and deliver
from sin; that a judicial power over the
souls of Christians is conferred neither
on priests nor teachers.
ABSTRACTION;
an operation of the
mind, by which we detach from our con-
ceptions all those circumstances that ren-
der them particular, and thereby fit them
to denote a whole rank or class of be-
ings.
ABULFEDA; known by the name of
Ismael, prince of Hamah, in Syria, sur-
named the victorious king, and the pillar
of religion. This Arabian, famous as a
historian and geographer, was born at
Damascus, in the year of the Hegira 672,
A. D. 1273. He sprung from the family
of the Ayubites, which had already given
birth to the famous Saladin, and was re-
nowned for the valor of its members.
While a youth, he distinguished himself
in various campaigns. From his uncle
he inherited the principality of Hamah;
but, on account of a quarrel with his
brother, he did not come into possession
of it for several years; after which he
remained undisturbed therein till his
death, in the year of the Hegira 732,
A. D. 1333. All writers who mention him
represent him as a prince of the greatest
talents, equally remarkable for courage
and coolness in war, and for wisdom in
council. Amid the cares of government,
he devoted himself with zeal to study,
drew the learned around him, and ren-
dered his power and wealth subservient
to the cause of science. He was well
acquainted with history, jurisprudence,
medicine, botany, mathematics and as-
tronomy, and has bequeathed to us the
fruits of his long inquiries in several valu-
able works, of which his history of the hu-
man race, and his geography, entitled, The
true Situation of Countries, are the most
famous. We have several partial transla-
tions and editions of them, viz. of the his-
torical works, 1. Annales Moslemici Arab.
et Lat. Op. et Stud. Reiskii, 1789-94, 5 vols.
2. De Vita et Rebus gestis Mohammedis, ed.
Gagnier, 1723, to which Schultens has
annexed an appendix. For portions of his
geography, we are indebted to Grævius,
Reiske, Muratori, Michaelis, Rink, Eich-
horn, Rosenmüller, Paulus and Rommel.
Abulfeda's own manuscript is at Paris.
He is a trustworthy author, and his style
is good.
ABYDOS; an ancient city of Asia, on
the eastern side of the Dardanelles, fa-
mous for the bridge of boats, which Xerx-
es is related to have thrown here across
the Hellespont, and for the loves of Hero
and Leander. This city defended itself
with great courage against Philip of Ma-
cedon. Another Abydos was an ancient
town of Upper Egypt, which contained
the palace of Memnon, and the celebrated
temple of Osiris, built by Osymandes.
Under Augustus, the town was reduced
to ruins, but to the west of it, in the pres-
ent village of El-Berbi, magnificent ruins
are still found.
ABYLA; a mountain in Africa, one of the
pillars of Hercules, as they were anciently
called; being directly opposite to Calpe,
(now Gibraltar,) in Spain, from which it is
Between these
distant only 18 miles.
mountains are the straits of Gibraltar.
ABYSSINIA; an extensive kingdom of
Africa, bounded on the east by the Red
sca, on the north by Sennaar, on the west
ABYSSINIA.
and south partly by Sennaar and Kordo-
fan, and partly by vast and barbarous re-
gions, of which the names have scarcely
reached us. Pinkerton makes Abyssinia
770 miles in length, and 550 in breadth.
The number of inhabitants is from 4 to 5
millions, the greater part of whom are of
Arabian extraction, mixed with Jews,
Turks and Negroes. The ancients called
this country, and some of the parts adja-
cent, in a peculiar sense, Ethiopia. They
also gave the same name, indefinitely, to
the interior of Africa, and even to a great
part of Asia. The Ethiopian kingdoms,
of which the ancients had any distinct
knowledge, were two. The first, and the
only one known to the earliest writers, is
Meroe, or the Peninsula, which they sup-
posed to be an island, formed by the suc-
cessive union of the Nile with the Asta-
boras and the Astapus, (Blue River and
Tacazze.) The chief city of Meroe was
placed by them on the Nile, in lat. 16'
26'; and Bruce saw near Chendi, in Sen-
naar, immense ruins, which probably be-
longed to this ancient capital. The other
kingdom was not known until the Greeks,
under the successors of Alexander, had
extended their navigation along the east-
ern coast of Africa. It was that of the
Axumitæ, situated upon the Red sea, and
occupying part of the Abyssinian prov-
ince of Tigré. The capital, Axum, still
remains, though in a state of decay. Its
port, Adulis, was the channel by which
the finest ivory then known was export-
ed, and a commercial intercourse main-
tained with the coasts both of the Red
sea and the Indian ocean.-The Abyssin-
ians boast that their country was the
Sheba of Scripture, and that it was con-
verted to Judaism several centuries be-
fore the Christian era. It is much more
certain, that, prior to the middle of the
fourth century, the nation was converted
to Christianity, which it has ever since
professed. This is, however, more tinc-
tured with Judaism than among other na-
tions. Boys and girls are circumcised;
the Mosaic laws in regard to clean and
unclean meats are respected; the seventh
day is their Sabbath, and their altars have
the form of the ark of the covenant. In
their dogmas they follow the Monophy-
sitic doctrine. (See Monophysites.) In
the church service they use the Bible,
with the apocryphal books, in the Tigré
or Gheez language, which is their lan-
guage of literature.
Baptism and the
eucharist are administered according to
the ritual of the Greek church, of which
they have all the festivals and fasts. It
19
is, however, peculiar to the Abyssinians,
that persons of rank receive larger pieces
of bread at the Lord's supper, and that
no one is admitted to it before his 25th
year, because they pretend that no one is
accountable for sin before that age, and
that all who die prior to it are sure of sal-
vation. They consider the bodies of the
dead as unclean, and hasten their in-
terment. Their small, round, conical
churches stand on hills, near running
water, surrounded by cedars, and are full
of pictures. During the service every
body is obliged to stand, as in the Greek
churches. The shoes are left at the door,
and passing horsemen must dismount.
The service, like that of the Greek church,
consists in reading parts of the Bible and
praying. The clergy, who are very igno-
rant, generally marry, and are distin-
guished by a cross, which they offer to
passengers to be kissed. The head of
the Abyssinian church is called Abuna,
(our father,) and is generally taken from
the Coptic priests, as the Abyssinians and
the Copts keep up a communication with
each other in Cairo. Under the abuna
are the kamosats, or the chief priests of
the secular clergy, the learned theologi-
ans and monks. The latter pretend to
he of the order of St. Augustine, and are
divided into two classes. The members
of one, living unmarried, reside in weal-
thy convents; those of the others, with
their wives and children, live around the
churches, supported by agriculture. Both
sorts, as well as the numerous nuns, travel
about the country, trade in the markets,
and do not appear scrupulously observant
of their vow of chastity. The Abyssinian
clergy have neither a particular dress nor
peculiar privileges. A. is now divided
into three separate states, Tigré, Amhara,
and Efat. The negus, or nagush, as
the king of all A. was called before its
division, lives at Gondar, in Amhara, en-
joying only a nominal sovereignty, and
watched by the chief of that state. The
pope has several times attempted to gain
over A. An opportunity of reducing the
Abyssinians to the Roman church was
offered by their war with the Turks, in
which the regent Helena sought assist-
ance for David II., the minor negus, from
the Portuguese, in 1516. In 1520, a Por-
tuguese fleet, with soldiers and priests,
arrived in A., and after the Turks and
Gallas (a warlike, mountain people, in the
south and west of A.) had been repulsed,
by the assistance of the Portuguese, to-
wards the end of the 16th century, the
zealous Catholics obtained a footing, of
20
ABYSSINIA-ACADEMY.
which the pope knew how to take advan-
tage. He sent Jesuits to convert the in-
habitants to the Roman Catholic religion,
and a Portuguese colony supported their
enterprise. In the beginning of the 17th
century, the Roman Catholic ritual was
introduced; the Jesuit Alphonso Mendez
was elected patriarch of A., in 1626, the
celebration of the 7th day as the Sabbath
abolished, and the whole religious system
accommodated to the Catholic model.
But this favorable turn of affairs was of
short duration. The negus Basilidas be-
gan his administration in 1632, by yield-
ing to the wishes of the majority of the
people, who were opposed to the Roman
Catholic faith. He banished the monks
with the patriarch, and ordered the Jes-
uits who remained to be hanged. Almost
all the Catholic missionaries have since
suffered death, and all the attempts of the
Roman propaganda to establish the Cath-
olic faith in A., until the end of the last
century, have proved fruitless.-In the
western part of this country, an inde-
pendent government of Jews has long
existed. They call themselves Falashas,
that is, exiles; the state is called Falas-
jan. They have their own government,
which is allowed by the negus, on con-
sideration of their paying a certain tribute.
Bruce found there a Jewish king, Gideon,
and a queen, Judith. The customs of
the Abyssinians are described by Bruce
and Salt as exceedingly savage. They
eat the raw and still quivering flesh of
cattle, whose roaring is to be heard at
their feasts. A perpetual state of civil
war seems the main cause of their pecu-
liar brutality and barbarism. Dead bod-
ies are seen lying in the streets, and serve
as food to dogs and hyænas. Marriage
is there a very slight connexion, formed
and dissolved at pleasure; conjugal fidel-
ity is but little regarded. The rulers
are unlimited despots in ecclesiastical
and civil affairs, disposing of the lives
of their subjects at pleasure.-A. is full
of high ranges of mountains, in which
the Nile takes its rise. The climate, on
the whole, is fine, and the soil exceed-
ingly fertile. The vegetable and animal
kingdoms are very rich, and afford many
species peculiar to this country. One of
the most important natural productions of
A. is salt, covering a great plain, which oc-
cupies part of the tract between Amphila
and Massuah. The plain of salt is about
four days' journey across. For about half
a mile the salt is soft, but afterwards be-
comes hard, like snow which has been
partially thawed, and consolidated. It is
perfectly pure: it is cut with an adze, and
carried off by caravans. The country is
rich in gold, iron, grain and fruits. Com-
merce is in the hands of the Jews, Arme-
nians and Turks.
ACACIA, Egyptian Thorn, or Binding
Bean-tree; in the Linnæan system, a spe-
cies of mimosa. The flowers of this plant
are used, by the Chinese, to produce that
yellow color, which we see in their silks
and stuffs. They make a decoction of the
dried flowers, and add alum and calcined
oyster-shells. In the materia medica, aca-
cia is the inspissated juice of the unripe
pods of the mimosa nilotica of Linnæus.
ACADEMY; an association of scholars
or artists, for the promotion of the sci-
ences or arts, sometimes established by
government, sometimes voluntary uni-
ons of private individuals. The acade-
mies at Paris, Stockholm and Berlin, are
in part institutions for the purpose of in-
struction; but at first their only object
was the one above-inentioned. The mem-
bers of an academy either select their own
branches of study, or pursue those which
the government assigns to them. The
results of their labors are read in the reg-
ular mectings, and printed among their
proceedings. The name is derived from
the Athenian academy, belonging to a
certain Acadenus, a famous school for
gymnastic exercises, and the place where
Plato taught. The appellation academy
is also used to denote the various philo-
sophical sects, whose doctrines were
taught in that institution. In this sense
we speak of the first, second and third
academics; the founders of which were
Plato, Arcesilaus and Lacydas er Car-
neades. The first institution of antiquity,.
which merits the name of academy, in the
modern sense of the term, was at Alexan-
dria. Attracted by the generosity of the
Ptolemies, a numerous association of
scholars was collected here, who were to
have labored for the extension and per-
fection of human knowledge, but soon
fell into idleness, or the exercise of gram-
matical subtleties. From Alexandria the
Jews borrowed the custom of founding
academies, which were established, after
the close of the first century, in the cities
on the Euphrates, Sora, Neharda and
Punebedita. From them the Nestorians
learned, in the sixth century, to value
science, and imparted the same spirit to
the Arabs, whose excellent caliplis, Al-
mansor, Harun al Raschid and Almamun,
founded a number of academies, which
were extended from Cordova to Bochara
in the farthest east, with the greatest suc-
cess.
ACADEMY.
At the court, too, of Charlemagne,
we find an academy, founded by the em-
peror, at the suggestion of his instructer
Alcuin, of which he was himself a mem-
ber. This useful institution was dissolved
after the death of Alcuin, and we after-
wards find no academies, properly so
called, till the time of the conquest of
Constantinople by the Turks, when sev-
eral Grecian scholars were compelled to
fly to Italy. Lorenzo de' Medici then
founded, at Florence, the first Grecian
academy, under the care of Argyropylus,
Theodore Gaza, and Chalcondylas. Cos-
mo afterwards established the Platonic
academy, the object of which was the
study of the writings of Plato, and the
restoration of his philosophy. These es-
tablishments did not subsist long, but
their places were filled by others of a
morc general character, which spread
themselves over all the cities of Europe.
We will arrange the most important older
ones, that still exist, according to the sub-
jects to which they are devoted.
General scientific academies. The Acade-
mia Secretorum Naturæ, founded at Naples
in 1560, for the promotion of the mathe-
matical and physical sciences, was abol-
ished by the papal interdict. It was fol-
lowed by the Accademia dei Lincei, found-
ed at Rome, by prince Cesi, about the
end of the same century; of which Gali-
lei was a member. The Accademia del
Cimento arose in the beginning of the 17th
century, under the patronage of prince
Leopold, afterwards cardinal de' Medici,
and numbered among its members Paolo
di Buono, Borelli, Viviani, Redi, Magalotti
and other distinguished men. The Acca-
demia degl' Inquieti, at Bologna, afterwards
incorporated with the Accademia della
Traccia, published several excellent trea-
tises under the title Pensieri Fisico-Mate-
matici, 1667. In 1714, it was united with
the Institute at Bologna, and has since been
called the Academy of the Institute, or the
Clementine Academy, (from Clement XI.)
It possesses a large collection of natural
curiosities and a numerous library. The
Academy of Sciences at Bologna, or the In-
stitute of Bologna, was established in 1712,
by count Marsigli. (See Bologna.) In 1540,
an academy was established at Rossano,
in the territory of Naples, under the name
Società Scientifica Rossanense degl' Incuri-
osi, at first for the belles lettres, but since
1695 for the sciences also. The Royal
Academy at Naples has existed since
1779. Its publications contain some in-
structive disquisitions on mathematical
subjects. Of the Italian academies, we
21
would also mention those at Turin, Padua,
Milan, Sienna, Verona, Genoa, all of
which have published their transactions.
Italy may be called the mother of academ-
ic institutions. Jarckius enumerates 550 of
them in his catalogue.-The French Acad-
emy of Sciences at Paris, Académie Royale
des Sciences, founded in 1666, by Colbert,
received the royal ratification in 1699.
The members were divided into four
classes-honorary members, active mein-
bers or pensionaries (receiving salaries),
associés and élèves. The first class was
to contain ten, and each of the three oth-
ers twenty persons. The president was
appointed by the king out of the first
class. From the second, a secretary and
treasurer were selected. The duke of
Orleans, when regent, abolished the class
of élèves, and substituted for it two new
classes, the one of which comprised
twelve adjuncts, and the other, six asso-
ciés; to which latter class no particular
branch of science was assigned. A vice-
president was to be appointed annually
by the king from the first class, and a
director and sub-director from the second.
In 1785, the king added classes for natu-
ral history, agriculture, mineralogy and
physics; so that the whole now consisted
of eight classes. He also incorporated the
associés and the adjuncts (adjoints). This
academy has rendered many services to
science, especially by the measurement
of a degree of the meridian. Since 1699,
it has, with a few late exceptions, annu-
ally published a volume of its transactions,
which constitute a series of 139 volumes.
Rouille de Meslay founded two prizes,
which the academy annually distributed;
the first, of 2500 livres, for the promotion
of physical astronomy; the second, of
2000 livres, for that of navigation and com-
merce. In 1793, the academy was abol-
ished; and the National Institute took its
place, and that of the other academies ; but
they were restored by Louis XVIII. Im-
portant academies, besides those of Paris,
still exist in the principal cities of France,
e. g. at Caen, since 1705; at Toulouse,
the first volume of whose transactions
appeared in 1782; at Rouen, since 1736;
at Bordeaux, since 1703; at Soissons,
since 1674; at Marseilles, since 1726; at
Lyons, since 1700; at Montauban, since
1744; at Amiens, since 1750; at Dijon,
since 1740; etc.-An Academy of Arts and
Sciences was founded in Berlin in 1700,
by king Frederic I; some changes were
made in 1710, principally relating to the
presidency. The members were divided
into four classes; the first were to devote
22
ACADEMY.
themselves to natural philosophy, medi-
cine and chemistry; the second to math-
ematics, astronomy and mechanics; the
third to the history and language of Ger-
many; the fourth to oriental literature,
with a view to the conversion of the hea-
then. Each class chooses a director for
life. The first president was the famous
Leibnitz. The institution began truly to
flourish under Frederic II, who invited
distinguished scholars from foreign coun-
tries, and appointed Maupertuis president.
Public sessions were held semi-annually,
on the birth-day of the king, and the an-
niversary of his accession to the throne.
In the latter, a prize medal of 50 ducats
is adjudged to him, who has best answer-
ed the question proposed by the academy.
Since that time, their transactions have
appeared in a series of volumes, under the
title Mémoires de l'Académie Royale des
Sciences et Belles Lettres à Berlin. They
are now, however, always published in
the German language. New alterations
were made in 1798, in order to give a
more useful direction to the labors of the
academy: among other things, the royal
library and the cabinet of arts were united
with it.-At Manheim, in 1755, the elec-
tor, Charles Theodore, established an acad-
emy, according to the plan of Schöpflin.
It consisted, at first, of two classes, the his-
torical and physical; the latter was divid-
ed, in 1780, into the physical, properly
so called, and the meteorological. The
transactions in the departments of history
and physic have appeared under the title
Acta Academia Theodoro-Palatina; in the
branch of meteorology, under the title
Ephemerides Societatis Meteorologica Pala-
tina. The academy at Munich has existed
since 1759, but was much enlarged when
Bavaria was exalted to a kingdom. Its
memoirs are entitled Abhandlungen der
baierschen.Akademie.—Peter the Great had
projected the establishment of the Imperi-
al Academy of Sciences at St. Petersburg,
and consulted Wolf and Leibnitz on the
subject; but his death prevented the execu-
tion of his project, which was completed
by Catharine Ï. Its first sitting was held
Dec. 1725. The empress appropriated
about 30,000 roubles a year for the sup-
port of the academy; fifteen distinguished
scholars in different departments received
pensions as members, with the title of
professors. The most famous of them
were Nicholas and Daniel Bernouilli, the
two de Lisles, Bulfinger and Wolf. Un-
der Peter II, the academy languished;
but revived under the empress Anna, and
declined again after her death. Under
Elizabeth, it flourished anew.
It was en-
larged and improved, and an academy of
arts added in 1747, which was separated
again in 1764. Its annual income amounts
to 60,000 roubles. This academy has con-
tributed much to a more accurate knowl-
edge of the interior of Russia, by sending
men like Pallas, Gmelin, Stolberg, Gul-
denstadt and Klaproth, to travel through
single provinces, and has thereby given
rise to some excellent works. The num-
ber of active members, besides the presi-
dent and director, amounts to fifteen. In
addition to these, there are four adjuncts,
who attend the sittings, and are admitted,
on the first vacancies, to the rank of
members. The academy has an excellent
collection of books and manuscripts, a
valuable cabinet of medals, and a rich
collection in natural history. Its transac-
tions appeared from 1728 to 1747, during
which period they amount to 14 volumes,
under the title Commentarii Academia
Scientia Imperialis Petropolitana. From
that time till 1777, they were published
under the title Novi Commentarii, in 20
volumes. They were subsequently enti-
tled Acta Academia, and at present the
new series is called Nova Acta. The
commentarii are all in Latin; the acta
are partly in Latin, partly in French.—
The Royal Academy of Sciences at Stock-
holm originated in a private association
of six learned men, among whom was
Linnæus, and held its first session June
23, 1739. In the same year appeared its
first memoirs. The association soon
attracted public attention, and, March 31,
1741, the king conferred on it the name
of the Royal Academy of Sweden.
receives, however, no pension from the
crown, and is conducted by its own mem-
bers. A professor of experimental phi-
losophy only, and two secretaries, are paid
from the funds of the society, which are
considerable, arising from legacies and
donations. The presidency is held
in turn by the members residing at
Stockholm, cach one remaining in office
three months. The treatises read in the
sittings appear quarterly. The first forty
volumes, till 1779, are called the Old
Transactions; the subsequent volumes
are called the New. The papers relating
to agriculture appear under the title
Economica Acta. Prizes consisting of
money and gold medals are annually
offered.-The Royal Academy at Co-
penhagen sprang from a society of six
literary men, to whom Christian VI com-
mitted, in 1742, the care of his cabinet of
medals. They subsequently enlarged
It
ACADEMY.
their plan, so as to form a regular acade-
my. One of these literary men was the
count of Holstein, at whose suggestion
Christian VI took the academy under his
protection in 1743, endowed it with a
fund, and directed the members to extend
their studies to natural history, physics,
and mathematics. It has published fif-
teen volumes, in the Danish language:
some of these have been translated into
Latin.-The Royal Irish Academy at
Dublin was formed, in 1782, mostly of the
members of the university, who assem-
bled weekly. Its transactions have ap-
peared regularly since 1788. As early as
1683, there was an academy in Dublin,
but, owing to the distracted state of the
country, it soon declined. In 1740, a
Physico-Historical Society was instituted
there, which published two volumes of
transactions, still extant. This also soon
declined. In Lisbon, the late queen
established an academy of science, agri-
culture, arts, commerce and economy in
general, consisting of three classes; those
of natural science, mathematics and
national literature, and comprising sixty
members. It has published Memorias de
Letteratura Portugueza, Memorias Econo-
micas, together with scientific transactions
and a Collecção de Livros ineditos de Histo-
ria Portugueza.
Academies for the promotion of particular
departments of science.-1. Medical. The
Academia Naturæ Curiosorum, at Vien-
na, called also Leopold's Academy, was
formed in 1652. At first, it published its
treatises separately, but after 1684, in vol-
umes. Under Leopold I, who favored it
in a high degree, it adopted the name
Cæsareo-Leopoldina Natura Curiosorum
Academia. Similar academies were es-
tablished at Palermo, 1645, in Spain, 1652,
at Venice, 1701, and at Geneva, 1715.-2.
Surgical. A surgical academy was estab-
lished at Paris, 1731, which proposes
annually a prize question. The prize is
a gold medal of the value of 500 livres.
A surgical academy was founded at
Vienna in 1783. Three prize medals,
each of the value of 50 guilders, are
yearly adjudged to the most successful
students.-3. An academy of theology
was established, in 1687, at Bologna..
Coronelli founded, in the beginning of the
18th century, a geographical academy at
Venice, under the title of the Argonauts:
the object is to publish good maps and
descriptions of countries.-5. Historical.
King John V founded, in 1720, a royal
academy of Portuguese history at Lisbon,
consisting of a director, four censors, a
23
secretary, and fifty members: the subject
of their study is the ecclesiastical and
political history of Portugal. In Madrid,
an association of scholars was instituted
about 1730, for the purpose of investiga-
ting and explaining the historical monu-
ments of Spain. It was formed into an
academy by king Philip V, in 1738. It
consists of 24 members, and has published
several ancient historical works; some for
the first time, some in new editions. The
Academy of Suabian History, at Tübingen,
was established for the purpose of pub-
lishing the best historical works, and the
lives of the best historians, as well as for
compiling new memoirs.-6. For the
study of antiquities. An academy exists
at Cortona, in Italy, for the study of
Etrurian antiquities; another at Upsal, in
Sweden, for the elucidation of the north-
ern languages, and the antiquities of
Sweden. Both have published valuable
works. The academy which Paul II
established in Rome, for the same pur-
pose, soon came to an end, and the one
founded by Leo X met with the same
fate, after it had flourished some time.
Others, less important, rose on their ruins.
But all similar institutions were surpassed
by the Académie des Inscriptions, at Paris,
founded by Colbert, in 1663, for the
study of ancient monuments, and for the
perpetuation of the remarkable occurren-
ces of their own country, by means of
medals, statues, inscriptions, &c. At first,
it had but four members, who were
chosen from those of the French acade-
my; but in 1701, the number was fixed
at ten honorary members, ten associés, ten
pensionaires, and ten élèves. They met
semi-weekly in the Louvre, and held
every year two public sessions. The
class of élèves was finally abolished. The
king annually appointed their president
and vice-president. The secretary and
treasurer held their offices for life. Their
memoirs (from 1701-93) constitute 50
volumes, in 4to. It experienced the fate
of all the French academies, and is now
restored. The Herculanean Academy was
instituted at Naples, in 1755, by the min-
ister Tanucci, to explain the ancient
monuments found in Herculaneum, Pom-
peii, &c. Their labors have appeared,
since 1775, under the title Antichità di
Ercolano. In 1807, Joseph Buonaparte
founded an academy of history and anti-
quities at Naples, which has fallen into
decay. The academy founded in the
same year at Florence, for the explanation
of Tuscan antiquities, has published some
volumes of memoirs.
volumes of meinoirs. In the same year,
24
ACADEMY.
are the Society of Antiquaries of London,
1751; the Literary and Philosophical So-
ciety of Manchester, 1781; the literary
associations of Haarlem, Flushing, Rot-
terdam, Brussels, Amsterdam, Copenha-
gen, Upsal, &c. From Europe they have
spread to the other quarters of the globe.
In Asia there has been a society of arts
and sciences, at Batavia, since 1778; a
society of sciences at Calcutta, in, Bengal,
since 1784; and one at Bombay, to which
we are indebted for the most important
information respecting India and other
parts of the East. The principal learned
academies and societics in the U. S. of
America, are the following: 1. The
American Philosophical Society, Phila-
delphia, founded in 1769. This society
has published nine volumes, 4to., of
Transactions. In 1815, it appointed a
large committee to superintenda histori-
cal department, which has published one
vol. 8vo. 2. The Massachusetts Histori-
cal Society, Boston, founded in 1791. It
has printed 22 vols., 8vo., of Collections.
3. The Connecticut Academy of Arts and
Sciences, New Haven, founded in 1799,
has published one vol. of Transactions.
4. The American Academy of Arts and
Sciences, Boston, founded in 1780, has
published four vols., 4to., of Transactions.
5. The Historical Society of New York,
founded in 1809, has published four vols.,
8vo., of Collections. 6. The Literary and
Philosophical Society of New York,
founded in 1815, has published two vols.,
4to., of Transactions. 7. The Academy
of Natural Science, Philadelphia, found-
ed in 1818, has published five vols., 8vo.
8. The Lyceum of Natural History, New
York, founded in 1818, has published two
vols., 8vo. There are, besides, the Histori-
cal Society of Concord, New Hampshire,
the Essex Historical Society, Salem, Mas-
sachusetts, the Columbian Institute, at
Washington, D. C., and some others;
but their publications have been few.
likewise, a Celtic academy was establish-
ed at Paris, the objects of which were the
elucidation of the history, manners, anti-
quities and monuments of the Celts, espe-
cially those in France; also, researches
into the etymology of all European lan-
guages by the aid of the Celto-Breton,
Welsh and Erse dialects; together with
investigations respecting the Druidical
worship. Lenoir is its president. Its
transactions appear under the title Mé-
moires de l'Académie Celtique.-7. For the
improvement of language. The Accade-
mia della Crusca, or Academia Furfurato-
rum, was formed in 1582, and first attracted
attention by its attacks on Tasso. Its
principal merit consists in having compil-
ed an excellent dictionary, and edited
with care several of the ancient poets of
Italy. The Académie Française, formed
in 1629, was then a private association;
six years after, it was raised by Richelieu
to the dignity of an academy of the
French language, grammar, poetry and
cloquence. The number of members
was fixed at 40, and from them a director
and a chancellor were clected every two
months, and a secretary for life. Besides
many other valuable works, it has pub-
lished a dictionary of the French lan-
guage, (first edition in 1694.) At Madrid,
the duke of Escalona founded an acade-
my for the improvement of the Spanish
language, in 1714, which the king en-
dowed with various privileges. It has done
much towards purifying and perfecting
the language, especially by the compila-
tion of a dictionary. In Petersburg, an
academy for the improvement of the
Russian language was founded in 1783,
and united with the academy of sciences.
In Sweden, also, a royal academy of lan-
guage was instituted in 1789.-Many lit-
erary societies are distinguished only by
name from academies. Such are the
Royal Society of Sciences, at Göttingen,
founded in 1750; the Royal Society of
England, founded in 1645. This society
has made observations and experiments
on most of the works of nature; has im-
proved agriculture, navigation, naval,
civil and military architecture, &c. It
has registered experiments, observations,
&c., and, from time to time, published the
most valuable, under the title of Philo-
sophical Transactions. The Royal Soci-__1345, under the name of San Luca, which
ety of Dublin, for the encouragement of
husbandry and the arts, established in
1731, has been oue of the most active
establishments of the kind in Europe.
The Royal Society of Edinburgh was
established in 1783. Besides these, there
Academies devoted to the promotion of
the fine arts sprung up in the middle of
the 16th century. The academy of Paris
has been a model for many subsequent
institutions of a similar character. The
earliest union of painters, for objects sim-
ilar to those of modern academies of art,
was the fraternity, formed at Venice, in
sprung from a society under the pat-
ronage of St. Sophia. However, neither
this nor the society of San Luca, estab-
lished at Florence, in 1350, bore the name
of an academy. The Accademia di San
Luca, founded at Rome, in 1593, by Frd.
ACADEMY—ACAPULCO.
Zucchero, first obtained a settled charac-
ter in 1715. The academy at Milan may
have preceded the time of Leonardo da
Vinci, who is generally regarded as its
founder. The academies of Bologna,
Parma, Padua, Mantua, Turin, are all of
recent origin, and have never obtained
the importance which such institutions
acquire in large capitals, where the finest
works of art serve as guides and incen-
tives to genius. The Academy of Painting
at Paris was established by Louis XIV,
in 1648, and the Academy of Architecture
by Colbert, in 1671. This latter now exists
under the name of École Spéciale des Beaux
Arts, and is divided into departments,
in a way which might scrve as a model.
Since 1391, the painters of Paris have
been united in a society called the Fra-
ternity of St. Luke, which has received
charters from several kings. Among the
towns of France, Bordeaux had the ear-
liest academy. We now find one in al-
most every town of consequence. The
French academy at Rome, in the Villa
Medici, is a branch of the academy of
Paris. Nuremberg had the first estab-
lishment of this kind in Germany. Its
academy, founded by Sandrart, 1662, and
long conducted by him, gained new dis-
tinction from the celebrity of Preissler.
The academy of Berlin was founded in
1694, was remodelled and received a
fresh impulse in 1786; that of Dresden,
established in 1697, was united with those
of Leipzig and Meissen, in 1764, and has
still the form given it by Hagedorn. The
academy of Vienna was founded by Jo-
seph I, and completed by Charles VI, in
1726; that of Munich was established
in 1770; those of Düsseldorf and Man-
heim are more valuable now than they
were originally. Weimar, Cassel, Frank-
fort, Bern, should not be omitted in this
enumeration. The Academy of Painting
at Madrid had its origin in 1752; the
Royal Academy of Painting at London, in
1768. Lately, a branch of the London
academy has been established at Rome,
which, we have reason to hope, will prove
more useful than the parent society. Ed-
inburgh has possessed a similar society
since 1754. At Brussels, Amsterdam,
Antwerp, there are distinguished acade-
mies. Stockholm has had, since 1733,
an academy of the fine arts, founded by
count Tessin. Since 1738, one has ex-
isted at Copenhagen, but its privileges
were conferred on it in 1754. This acad-
emy has exercised an important influence.
The academy of Petersburg was found-
ed in 1757, and extended in 1764. Its
f
25
influence in awakening diligence and en-
terprise among the Russian artists has
been lately very apparent.-For schools
of music, see Conservatory.
ACADEMY. (See Plato.)
ACADIA, the English, and ACADIE, the
French spelling of the Indian name of
Nova Scotia. Shuben-acadie is the pres-
ent name of the principal river of Ñova
Scotia; shuben, in the Indian dialect of
the country, signifying river. (See Nova
Scotia.)
ACANTHUS; the name ofan ancient town
in Egypt, also of one in Caria, and an-
other in Macedonia (near mount Athos),
&c.-Also, a genus of plants (commonly
called bear's-breech), of the order angis-
spermia, class didynamia. The leaves of
the A. are large, and very beautiful. It
grows wild in Italy. In architecture, an
ornament resembling the leaves of the
acanthus, used in the capitals of the Co-
rinthian and Composite orders.
ACAPULCO is the best Mexican harbor
on the Pacific ocean; lon. 98° 50′ W.,
lat. 16' 50 N.; pop. mostly people of
color. Both the harbor and the road-
stead are deep, with a secure anchorage
from storms. It is the most considerable
port on the S. W. side of Mexico. Hear-
ily-laden ships can lie at anchor, close
to the granite rocks, which environ the
roadstead and harbor. On account
of the steepness of these rocks, the coast
has a wild and barren appearance. it
the entrance of the harbor is situated an
island, Roqueta or Grifo, which forms a
western entrance of 700 or 800 feet broad,
and an castern, a mile or a mile and a
half broad, and from 24 to 33 fathoms
deep. On the north-west lies the city,
defended by fort San Diego, situated on
an eminence. It has not more than 4000
inhabitants, mostly people of color. The
number used to increase much on the
arrival of the galleon from Manilla. Few
commercial places have a more unhealthy
situation. The usual heat in the day is
from 86 to 90° Fahrenheit; in the night,
till 3 o'clock, A. M., 78°, and from that
time till sunrise, 64 to 62. The sun's
rays are reflected by the white rocks up-
on the city, where no creature is com-
fortable, except the musquitoes. To pro-
cure fresh air, the Spanish government
caused a passage to be cut through the
rocks on the cast; but neglected, what
was far more necessary, to drain and
dike the morass, on the same side, situ-
ated most favorably for the culture of
the sugar-cane. About the middle of the
dry season, the water disappears, and the
VOL. I.
4
;
:
26
ACAPULCO-ACCENT.
effluvia of putrid substances infect the
air. Here the yellow fever of the
West Indies, and the cholera morbus of
the East Indies, sweep away many stran-
gers, and especially young Europeans.
The calms, under the line, which fre-
quently continue for a long time, are a
natural obstacle, which renders a voyage
from Callao to Acapulco more difficult,
and often longer, than one from Callao
to Cadiz. Steam-boats would be of great
advantage in this quarter. In order to
take advantage of the trade-winds, it is
especially necessary to keep at a distance
from the line. This, however, is imprac-
ticable on a coasting voyage from Aca-
pulco to Callao. The exports hitherto
from Acapulco have been mostly silver,
indigo, cochineal, Spanish cloth, and some
peltry, which comes from California and
the northern part of Mexico. The im-
ports consist of all the valuable produc-
tions of Asia.
ACARNANIA, now called Il Carnia and
Il Despotato; an ancient country of Epi-
rus, divided from Ætolia by the Ache-
lous.
ACATHOLICI are, in general, those who
do not belong to the Catholic church.
In certain Catholic countries, Protestants
are distinguished by this name, which is
considered less odious.
ACBAR. (See Akbar.)
ACCELERATION. (See Mechanics.)
ACCENT; the law which regulates the
rising and falling of sounds or tones.
Music and language, which are subject
to this law, both originate in the feelings;
and, although they at last separate from
each other, and music remains the lan-
guage of the heart, while speech, or lan-
guage, properly so called, becomes the
language of the mind, yet the latter does
not entirely cease to speak to the heart;
and music and language thus retain cer-
tain qualities in common; these are part-
ly internal and partly external. Both are
adapted to the expression of emotions;
and thence arise the movements, some-
times slow and sometimes quick, which
we perceive in them. They thus become
subject to quantity or time; and we dis-
tinguish sounds, with reference to quan-
tity, into long and short. In order to ex-
press an emotion distinctly and plainly,
there must be a suitable arrangement of
the organs for the sounds intended to be
produced; for, in a series of sounds
measured by the relation of time, and
regulated also by relation to some fun-
damental tone, there will be found a cer-
tain connexion and association, which
represent the emotions in their various
relations and gradations; it is this also,
which distinguishes correctly what is of
primary importance from what is secon-
dary, renders the unimportant subordi-
nate to the important, and gives proper
weight to that which is significant. A
succession of tones thus becomes a mu-
sical composition, which comprehends
in itself a definite meaning or sense;
and, to express this, particular regard
must be had to the signification and im-
portance of single tones in connexion.
The stress, which is laid on the tones,
according to the gradations of meaning,
constitutes what we call accent. We dis-
tinguish the acute, or rising accent, the
grave, or falling, and the circumflex. The
circumflex accent falls on those syllables
or tones which are long in themselves;
the grave properly denotes merely the
absence of any stress; and thus we have
only the acute left, to give a designation
to tones. The reasons for designating a
tone by accent, and dwelling on it longer
than its established quantity requires, are
either mechanical, rhythmical, or emphat-
ical. We divide accent into grammatical
and rhetorical, or the accent of words and
of sentences, which last is called empha-
sis. The former rests on physical or me-
chanical causes; the latter has for its ob-
ject the relations of ideas. The laws
which govern both are briefly the fol-
lowing: A syllable or tone of the natural
length receives the grammatical or verbal
accent; but there are two causes, which
distinguish some syllables of a word from
the rest-their mechanical formation and
their signification. In the word strength-
en, for instance, mechanical causes com-
pel the voice to dwell longer on the first
syllable than on the second, and hence a
greater stress is laid on that syllable.
Rhetorical accent, or emphasis, is design-
ed to give to a sentence distinctness and
clearness. In a sentence, therefore, the
stress is laid on the most important word,
and in a word, on the most important
syllable. Without attaching itself, in
language, to the quantity of a word, or,
in music, to a certain part of a bar, the
accentual force dwells on the important
part; and, in order that this force may
be rendered still more distinguishable, it
hastens over those parts, which, though
otherwise important, the context renders
comparatively unimportant. It follows,
from what has been said, that the accent
of words and the accent of sentences, or
emphasis, may be united or separated
at pleasure. It may now be asked,
ACCENT-ACCESSARY.
whether emphasis destroys verbal accent
and quantity; and whether, for this rea-
son, euphony does not suffer from em-
phasis. In answering this question (in
which lies the secret of prosody in gen-
eral, and the difference between the mod-
ern and ancient), four points come under
consideration: 1. If the accent coincides
with a syllable which is long from me-
chanical causes, it elevates the syllable,
and imparts stress to its prosodial length.
2. The accent does not render an invari-
ably long syllable short, but deprives it,
if it immediately follows the accented
syllable, of a portion of its length. The
quantity, therefore, if it does not coin-
cide with the accent, may be somewhat
weakened by it. 3. Although the accent
cannot render an invariably long syllable
short, it can change the relative quantity
of common syllables. 4. The accent can
never fall on syllables invariably short.
These are the rules which are of the
greatest importance, not only to the versi-
fier, but also to the declaimer, and to the
actor, so far as he is a declaimer.
The grammatical and rhetorical nomen-
clature of the English language is very
defective and unsettled; and hence has
arisen a great degree of confusion among
all our writers on the subject of accent
and quantity in English. We have per-
verted the true meaning of long and short,
as applied to syllables or vowels; and, by
our peculiar application of those terms,
we have made ourselves quite unintelli-
gible to foreign nations, who still use
them according to their signification in
the ancient languages, from which they
are derived. An English writer of some
cclebrity (Foster, on Accent and Quan-
tity), whose own work, however, is not
free from obscurity, observes, that he has
found the word accent used by the same
writer in four different scuses-some-
times expressing elevation, sometimes
prolongation of sound, sometimes a stress
of voice compounded of the other two,
and sometimes the artificial accentual
mark. For a long series of years, however,
accent, as Johnson has remarked, in Eng-
lish prosody, has been the same thing with
quantity; and another English writer of
celebrity, bishop Horsley, observes, that it
is a peculiarity of the English language
that quantity and accent always go togeth-
er, the longest syllable, in almost every
word, being that on which the accent falls.
In other languages, as Mitford justly re-
marks (Essay on the Harmony of Lan-
guage), generally, the vowel character,
representing indifferently a long or a short
27
sound, still represents the same sound, long
or short. A contrary method is peculiar to
English orthography. With us, the same
vowel sound, long and short, is rarely rep-
resented by the same character; but, on
the contrary, according to the general
rules of our orthography, each character
represents the long sound of one vowel
and the short sound of another. This
eminently observable, as Dr. Johnson has
remarked, in the letter i, which likewise
happens in other letters, that the short
sound is not the long sound contracted,
but a sound wholly different. In addi-
tion to the difficulties arising from
an imperfect nomenclature, as above re-
marked, there is an intrinsic difficulty in
the extreme delicacy of the distinctions
of tone, pitch and inflections in language,
and the want of an established notation,
corresponding to that which we have in
music; and, we may add, in the words of
Hermann (De Emendanda Ratione Græc.
Gram.), Quam pauci vero sunt, qui
vel aliqua polleant aurium subtilitate ut
vocum discrimina celeriter notare apte-
que exprimere possint!"-The Chinese
are said to have but 330 spoken words;
but these, being multiplied by the differ-
ent accents or tones which affect the vow-
els, furnish a language tolerably copious.
ACCEPTANCE. (Law.) An acceptance
is an engagement to pay a bill of ex-
change according to the tenor of the ac-
ceptance, and a general acceptance is an
engagement to pay according to the ten-
or of the bill. What constitutes an ac-
ceptance is, in many cases, a nice ques-
tion of law; but the general mode is for
the acceptor to write his name on some
conspicuous part of the bill, accompanied
by the word accepted. In France, Spain,
and the other countries of Europe, where
oral evidence in matters of contract is not
admitted to the same extent as in Eng-
land, a verbal acceptance of a bill of ex-
change is not valid.
ACCESSARY, or ACCESSORY; a person
guilty of an offence by connivance or
participation, either before or after the
act committed, as by command, advice,
or concealment, &c. In high treason, all
who participate are regarded as princi-
pals. Abettors and accomplices also
come, in some measure, under this name,
though the former not strictly under the
legal definition of accessaries. An abet-
tor is one who procures another to com-
mit an offence, and in many, indeed in
almost all cases, is now considered as
much a principal as the actual offender.
An accomplice is one of many persons
28
ACCESSARY-ACCOMPANIMENT.
equally concerned in a felony. The name
is generally applied to those who are ad-
mitted to give evidence against their fel-
low-criminals, for the furtherance of jus-
tice.
ACCLAMATION (acclamatio); in Ro-
man antiquity, a shouting of certain
words by way of praise or dispraise. In
ages when people were more accustomed
to give full utterance to their feelings, ac-
clamations were very common, wherevera
mass of people was influenced by one com-
mon feeling. We find, therefore, accla-
mations in theatres, senates, ecclesiastical
meetings, elections, at nuptials, triumphs,
&c. The senate of Rome burst into con-
tumelious acclamations after the death of
Domitian and Commodus. The theatrical
acclamations were connected with music.
Nero, who was as fond of music as of
blood, ordered 5000 soldiers to chant ac-
clamations when he played in the thea-
tre, and the spectators were obliged to
join them. In the corrupt period of the
Roman empire, the children and favor-
ites of the emperors were received with
loud acclamations, as the French empe-
ror was greeted with Vive l'empereur!
and the French king is with Vive le roi!
The Turks have a custom somewhat sim-
ilar, at the sight of their emperor and
grand viziers.
The form among the
Jews was Hosanna! The Greek em-
perors were received with Ayuỡn topy!
(good luck), or other exclamations. Be-
fore a regular system of voting is adopt-
cd, we find its place supplied, among all
nations, by acclamations. So Tacitus in-
forms us that the Germans showed their
approbation of a measure by clashing
their shields and swords. The bishops, in
the early times of Christianity, were long
elected by acclamation. In the course
of time, acclamations were admitted into
the churches, and the people expressed
their approbation of a favorite preacher by
exclaiming, Orthodox! Third apostle! &c.
They seem to have been sometimes used
as late as the age of St. Bernard. The first
German emperors were elected by accla-
mation at a meeting of the people in the
open air; and the Indians, in North
America, show their approbation or dis-
approbation of proposed public measures
by acclamations.
ACCOLADE, a word derived from bar-
barous Latin, is composed of ad, to, and
collum, neck, meaning, originally, an em-
brace. It signifies an ancient ceremony
used in conferring knighthood. Anti-
quaries are not agreed wherein the acco-
lade consisted. Some think it significs
the embrace or kiss, given by the person
who conferred the honor of knighthood.
It is more probable that it consisted in an
imitation of a blow on the neck, or on the
cheek, signifying that this should be the
last blow which the new-made knight
should endure. The ceremony of stri-
king the candidate with the naked sword,
which afterwards took the place of the
blow with the hand, had the same mean-
ing. The Roman master also gave a
blow to his slave, at the time of his eman-
cipation, which, therefore, was called
manumission; and in those parts of Ger-
many where the ancient corporations of
mechanics still continue, the apprentice
receives a blow from the oldest journey-
man, when his apprenticeship is at an
end. The blow or stroke was in use
among all Christian nations of the middle
ages in conferring knighthood. (Sce
Chivalry.)
ACCOMMODATION; properly, the adap-
tation of one thing to another; in philos-
ophy, the application of one thing by
analogy to another. It is also used in the-
ology; thus, a prophecy of Scripture is
said to be fulfilled iinproperly, or by way
of accommodation when an event hap-
pens to any place or people similar to that
predicted of another. Some theologians
also say that Christ said many things to
his disciples by way of accommodation,
viz. entering into their views, and telling
them only what they were capable of un-
derstanding. Others think this theory in-
consistent with the purity of Christ. A.,
in law, is used for an amicable agreement
or composition between two contending
parties. These accommodations are fre-
quently effected by means of compromise
and arbitration.
ACCOMPANIMENT, in music, (French,
accompagnement; Italian, accompagna-
mento,) is that part of music which serves
for the support of the principal melody
(solo or obligato part). This can be exe-
cuted either by inany instruments, by a
few, or even by a single one.
We have,
therefore, pieces of music with an accom-
paniment for several, or only for a single
instrument. The principles on which
the effect of the accompaniment rests are
so little settled, that its composition is
perhaps more difficult than even that of
the melody, or principal part. Frequent-
ly, the same musical thought, according
to the character of the accompaniment,
produces a good or bad effect, without
our being able to give a satisfactory rea-
son for the difference. Hitherto, the
Italians have been most distinguished for
cacy.
ACCOMPANIMENT-ACCUSATION.
expressive accompaniments contained in
a few notes, but productive of great effect.
In this respect, the Italian music general-
ly surpasses the German and French, as
it never weakens the effect of the prin-
cipal part by means of the accompani-
ment. The French are far behind both
the other nations, in respect to this part
of composition, as they frequently esti-
mate the effect by the quantity of notes.
The accompaniment requires of the per-
former the most scrupulous study, and of
the composer the greatest care and deli-
The accompaniment of various
solo instruments, e. g. the violin, flute,
piano, &c. is extremely difficult, and to
give it full effect requires great knowl-
edge and skill. The Italian composers
accordingly consider a piano accompani-
ment for a full orchestra, especially in the
recitativo, (q. v.) as a great problem, which
they have labored zealously to solve. As
the object of every musical accompani-
ment is to give effect to the principal part,
the accompanier should always aim to
support, and by no means to overpower
and oppress it. Of all composers, Mozart,
even in respect to the accompaniments,
claims the first place for the simplicity
and beauty with which he amalgamates
the leading and accompanying parts,
through his unrivalled knowledge and
excellent management of the parts for
every individual instrument.
ACCORD. (Mus.) (See Concord.)
ACCORD; in common law, an agree-
ment, between two or more persons, to
give and accept satisfaction for an offence
or trespass committed, which becomes a
bar to a suit.
ACCOUCHEMENT (French); the deliv-
ery of a woman in child-bed.
ACCUM, Frederic, a German, from the
Prussian province of Westphalia, went
to London in the year 1803, where he
delivered a course of lectures on chemis-
try and experimental physics, the basis
of which was the discoveries of Priest-
ley and other English chemists. He form-
ed a connexion with Rudolf Ackermann,
a German artist in London, to promote
the general use of gas for lighting cities,
and his work "On Gas Lights" was main-
ly instrumental in producing the exten-
sive use of gas-lights in London, and all
the great cities of England. He subse-
quently published a manual of practical
chemistry, which is in high estimation in
England. He was suspected of having
purloined from the "Royal Institution,
the library and reading-room of which
were, in part, committed to his care,
29
plates and treatises; and the accusation
of the overseer of this institution bore
hard upon him in a court of justice; still
nothing could be legally proved against
him. For several years, A. has lived in
Berlin, where he has received an appoint-
ment.
ACCUMULATION. (See Capital.)
ACCUSATION (from the Latin ad, to,
and causari, to plead); an assertion, im-
puting to some person a crime, or a fault:
in law, a formal declaration, charging
some person with an act punishable by a
judicial sentence. In Rome, where there
was no calumniator publicus, no attorney-
general, every one was permitted to pros-
There-
ccute crimes of a public nature.
fore accusations very often took place
against innocent persons, on which ac-
count it was not considered at all disrep-
Cato is said to
utable to be accused.
have been accused 42 times, and as often
absolved. Also in Prussia and Austria
there exists, according to the codes of
The
these countries, no public accuser.
courts accuse, try and sentence upon in-
formation received from the police, to
which private individuals apply. This is
called the process by inquisition, in con-
tradistinction to process by accusation or
appeal. In the common law of Germa-
ny, the process of appeal, in which the
person injured appears as the accusing
party, is not general, yet not abolished.
(See Criminal process.) For accusation
in England and France, see Jury. At
Athens, if an accuser had not the fifth
part of the votes on his side, he was obli-
ged to pay a fine of a thousand drachmas.
Eschines, who accused Ctesiphon, was
condemned to pay this fine. At Rome, a
false accuser was branded with the letter
K on his forehead, (used for C, i. e. Ca-
lumniator.) The accuser was also watch-
ed to prevent his corrupting the judges
or the witnesses. The Spanish inquisi-
tion forces the suspected person to accuse
himself of the crime objected to him. In
France, peers are to be accused of crimes
only before the chamber of peers, and the
chamber of deputies alone has the right
to accuse ministers, as such, before the
peers. Accusing, in these cases, is called
impeaching. In the United States, any
officer of government, the president not
excepted, is impeachable, and the con-
stitution provides the accuser and the
judges. In no monarchy can the king be
brought to trial for a crime, though, in
some cases, his conduct may be such as
to amount to a virtual abdication of the
throne. Blackstone says, "When king
30
ACCUSATION-ACHAIA.
James II invaded the fundamental con-
stitution of the realm, the convention de-
clared an abdication, whereby the throne
was rendered vacant, which induced a
new settlement of the crown. And so
far as this precedent leads, and no farther,
we may now be allowed to lay down the
law of redress against public oppression."
ACELDAMA (Heb., a field of blood);
the field purchased by the Jewish rulers
with the 30 pieces of silver which Judas
returned to them in despair, after betray-
ing Christ. This field they appropriated
as a burial-place for strangers. The place
is still shown to travellers. It is small,
and covered with an arched roof. The
bodies deposited in it are, it is said, consum-
ed in three or four days, or even less time.
ACEPHALI (headless); several sects of
schismatics in the Christian church, who
rebelled against their Christian head, or
refused to acknowledge any; for exam-
ple, the monophysite monks and priests
in Egypt, who did not acknowledge the
patriarch, Peter Mongus, because he had
not, at the adoption of the Henoticon, in
483, expressly condemned the council of
Chalcedon. They were divided into three
parties, but were soon lost among the oth-
er monophysites. The Flagellants (q. v.)
were also Acephali, because, as a sect,
they acknowledged no head. This term
is also applied to certain nations repre-
sented, by ancient naturalists, as formed
without heads, their eyes, mouths, &c.
being placed in their breasts, shoulders,
&c.
ACERBI, Giuseppe, was born at Castel-
Goffredo, in the territory of Mantua. He
spent a portion of his youth in Mantua,
and there acquired a knowledge of Eng-
lish. On the invasion of Lombardy, by
the French, in 1798, he accompanied Bel-
lotti from Brescia to Germany; thence
he went to Denmark and Sweden, and
lastly to Finland, in 1799. In Tornea, he
met colonel Skiöldebrand, a good land-
scape painter, and with him planned a
voyage to the North Cape. He was the
first Italian that ever penetrated so far.
On his return, he visited England, where
he published a lively description of these
travels, in a work in 3 volumes, in 1802.
In his account of Lapland, A. has made
good use of the exact information of the
Swedish missionary, Canut Leem. The
book was translated in Paris, under the
eyes of the author, by M. Petit Radel.
For 6 years, A. published, in Milan, the
journal Biblioteca Italiana, the spirited crit-
icisms of which have given an impulse to
the literary character of Italy. He has
actively opposed the pretensions of the
Accademia della Crusca, and the arro-
gant pretensions of the Florentine dialect.
For several years past, spirited sketches
of the latest Italian literature by A. have
appeared, and have received universal
approbation. His appointment as consul-
general of Austria in Egypt, 1826, com-
pelled him to resign the Biblioteca Ital-
iana to other hands.
ACERRA; an altar set up by the Ro-
mans, near the bed of a person deceased,
on which his friends daily offered incense
till his burial.
ACETIC ACID; the acid which, in a
more diluted state, is called vinegar.
ACHEANS are properly the inhabitants
of the district Achaia, in the Peloponne-
sus; but this name is very frequently, es-
pecially in Homer, given to all the Gre-
cians. Achæus, a son of Xuthus and
Creusa, went to Thessaly with a number
of followers, but was soon driven out, and
compelled to withdraw to the Peloponne-
sus, where he settled in Sparta and Ar-
gos, the inhabitants of which were called
Achæans. Of the Grecian nations en-
gaged in the siege of Troy, the Achæans
were the most numerous and powerful.
After the conquest of this city, being
overcome by the Dorians, they retired to
Ionia, on the northern coast of the Pelo-
ponnesus, gave to the country the name of
Achaia, and founded a republic, which
was subsequently famous for the Achæan
league. This league was at first formed
by a few cities, for the maintenance of
their security and independence; but it
afterwards included all the other cities of
Achaia, together with Athens, Megara,
&c. Sparta, however, did not join the
confederacy. After the destruction of
Corinth, B. C. 146, the states composing
this league were made a Roman prov-
ince, under the name of Achaia. (See
Greece.)
Acпæus, in ancient history,-1. A king
of Lydia, deposed and hanged for extor-
tion. Ovid. 2. The founder of the Achæan
state in the Peloponnesus, son of Xuthus
king of Thessaly. 3. A tragic poet of
Eretria, who lived some time after Soph-
ocles. 4. Another poet of Syracuse. 5.
A cousin-german to Seleucus Ceraunus
and Antiochus the Great, kings of Syria,
who enjoyed, for many years, the domin-
ions he had usurped from Antiochus; but
at last was betrayed by a Cretan to the
last-mentioned king, and, his limbs being
cut off, his body was sewed in the skin of
an ass and gibbeted.
ACHAIA; properly, a narrow district of
ACHAIA-ACHERON.
Peloponnesus, extending westward along
the bay of Corinth. Early writers, par-
ticularly the poets, sometimes include all
Greece under the name of Achaia. At
the time of the Achæan league, the Ro-
mans applied the name of Achaia to all
the country beyond the isthmus, which
had entered into the league; after the dis-
solution of which, Greece was divided, by
a decree of the Roman senate, into two
provinces, viz. that of Macedonia, con-
taining also Thessaly, and that of Achaia,
including all the other states of Greece.
(See Gibbon's Roman Hist. chap. 1, vol. i.)
ACHARD, Frederic Charles, born at
Berlin, April 28, 1754, an eminent natu-
ralist and chemist, principally known by
his invention, in 1800, of a process for
manufacturing sugar from beets, which,
since that time, has been brought to
greater perfection. He was director of
the department of physics, in the Royal
Academy of Sciences at Berlin. To enable
him to extend his manufacture, the great
importance of which was acknowledged
by the French Institute (July, 1800), the
king of Prussia presented him with an
estate at Kunern, in Silesia, where his
establishment, at the time of the closing
of the ports of Europe, by the decree of
Berlin, was attended with such success,
that, in the winter of 1811, it daily yielded
300 pounds of sirup. Achard connected
with it, in 1812, an institution for the
purpose of teaching his mode of manu-
facture, which attracted the attention of
foreigners. He died at Kunern, April 20,
1821. Besides a number of treatises on
physics and agriculture, he published sev-
eral articles on the manufacture of sugar
from beets.
ACHATES; the companion of Eneas,
and his most faithful friend, celebrated by
Virgil.
ACHEEN, ATCHEEN, ACHEM OF ACHEN;
part of Sumatra, of a triangular form,
and containing about 26000 square miles.
The lands between its two ranges of
mountains are fertile. The Achanese
are stouter, taller and darker-colored than
the other people of the island, more in-
dustrious, have more general knowledge,
and deal, as merchants, in a more liberal
manner. They are Mahometans; their
sailors are expert and bold, and employ a
multitude of vessels in trade and fishing.
The government is despotic, monarchical,
and hereditary; their laws extremely se-
vere. The capital of the kingdom is
Acheen, lon. 95° 46′ E., lat. 5° 22′ N.; pop.
about 36000. Its chief trade is now with
Hindostan, from whence it receives cot-
31
ton goods in return for gold dust, jewels,
sapan wood, betel-nut, pepper, sulphur,
camphor and benzoin. Europeans bring
there opium, iron, arms, &c. (See Mars-
den's History of Sumatra.)
ACHELOUS, also ASPROPOTAMus, a riv-
er running between Etolia and Acarna-
nia, has its source on mount Pindus, flows
through the first settlements of the Gre-
cians around Dodona, and falls into the
Ionian sea. The banks of this river are
the only places in Europe, which formerly
afforded habitation to lions.-Hesiod calls
A. the son of Oceanus and Thetis. Oth-
ers say differently. He wrestled with
Hercules for Dejanira, and, when thrown
to the ground, assumed the shape of a
terrible serpent, then that of an ox, and,
after he had lost a horn, he fled, ashamed,
to his waters. From the broken horn, it
is said, the nymphs made the horn of
plenty. He was the father of the sirens.
ACHENWALL, Godfrey, born at Elbing,
in Prussia, Oct. 20, 1719, first gave a dis-
tinct character to the science of statistics.
He studied in Jena, Halle and Leipsic.
In 1746, he settled at Marburg, and lec-
tured on history, the law of nature and
of nations, and afterwards, also, on statis-
tics. In 1748, he was appointed professor
at Göttingen, where he remained until
his death, May, 1772. A. travelled
through Switzerland, France, Holland
and England, and published several
books on the history of the European
states, the law of nations, political econo-
my, &c. Most of them have gone through
several editions. His principal endeav-
or, in his lectures and historical works,
was to distinguish, in the long series of
occurrences which are recorded in the
annals of nations, every thing which
might have contributed to form their
character, and fix their political condi-
tiou. His chief merit consists in the set-
tled character which he has given to, and
the new light which he has thrown on
the science, which explains systemati-
cally the nature and amount of the active
powers of a state, and hence deduces the
sources of its physical and moral pros-
perity. He gave it the name of statistics.
His most distinguished pupil, who suc-
ceeded him at the university of Göttin-
gen, was Schlözer.
ACHERON; the name given by the an-
cients to a river of the infernal regions,
over which Charon conducted the souls
of the dead in a boat, for which he re-
ceived an obolus, placed under the tongue
of the deceased. Only the shades of
those who had obtained a burial in this
32
ACHERON-ACHILLES.
world, or had, at least, some earth thrown
upon their bodies, were carried over the
river; others were obliged to wander on
its banks a whole century. In ancient
geography, there are 5 different rivers,
named Acheron. The one in Epirus
(now a province of Janina) flows first
through the lake Acherusia, then, for a
short distance, through the rocks of the
Cassiopeian mountains, and falls, near
Prevesa, into the Ionian sea. It is now
called Velchi. A branch of the Nile, in
the neighborhood of Memphis, is also
called Acheron, and a lake, Acherusia.
Over this the Egyptians ferried their
dead, to bury them on an island in the
lake, or on the opposite shore; or, if the
judge of the dead condemned them, to
throw them into the water: hence the
Greek fable. The cave of Cerberus, call-
ed Acherusis, is found on the banks of the
river Acheron, in Bithynia, near Hera-
clea. There is also a swamp in Campa-
nia, between Cuma and the promontory
of Mysenum, called by the ancients Ache-
rusia. At present, there are salt works
on this spot.
ACHILLEIS; a poem, by Statius, in hon-
or of Achilles. (See Statius.)
ACHERUSIA, in ancient geography,-1.
A lake in Egypt, near Memphis, over
which, according to Diodorus, the bodies
of the dead were conveyed for judgment.
The boat was called baris, the boatman,
Charon. Hence came the Grecian fable
of Charon and the Styx. 2. A river in
Calabria. 3. A lake in Epirus, through
which runs the river Acheron. 4. A lake
between Cuma and the promontory Mi-
senum. 5. A peninsula of Bithynia, on
the Euxine, near Heraclea.
ACHILLES; according to the poets, son
of Peleus, king of the Myrmidons, in
Thessaly, and of Thetis, daughter of Ne-
reus, grandson of Æacus. His mother
dipped him, when an infant, in the waters
of the Styx, which made him invulner-
able, except in the heel, by which she
held him. It had been foretold to Thetis
that A. would acquire immortal glory,
but, at the same time, meet an early
death, if he went to the siege of Troy;
while, on the other hand, if he remained
at home, he would enjoy a happy old age.
To prevent him from taking part in the
war against Troy, Thetis disguised him,
when 9 years old, in a female dress, and
sent him, under the name of Pyrrha, to
the court of Lycomedes, king of Scyros,
with whose daughters he was educated.
The prophet Calchas, however, announc-
ed to the Grecians that Troy could not be
taken without the aid of A. He was
consequently sought for every where, and
finally discovered by the crafty Ulysses,
who came to the court of Lycomedes dis-
guised as a merchant, and offered to the
daughters of the king various female or-
naments, among which arms were inter-
spersed. The princesses seized the orna-
ments, but A. took the arms. It was now
an easy task to persuade the fiery and
ambitious hero to join the other princes
of Greece in the expedition against Troy.
Phoenix and the Centaur Chiron had
been his instructors. The latter had
taught him medicine, music, and riding;
the former, more especially his tutor, fol-
lowed him to Troy, to render him an el-
oquent speaker, and a brave warrior. A.
appears in the Iliad, of which he is the
hero, not only as the bravest, but also as
the most beautiful, of the Grecians. He
sailed to Troy with 50 ships filled with
the Myrmidons, Achaians, and Helleni-
ans, and destroyed 12 cities on the islands
and 11 on the main land. Juno and Mi-
nerva took him under their special protec-
tion. On account of a quarrel with Aga-
memnon, whom the princes had chosen.
their leader, he withdrew from the field,
and permitted Hector, at the head of the
Trojans, to destroy the ranks of the Gre-
cians. He remained implacable against
the king, on account of Briseis, daughter
of Brises, and wife of Mines, king of
Lyrnessus, who had fallen to his share,
in the division of the booty, but whom
Agamemnon had taken from him, because
he was obliged to restore to her father
Chryseis, daughter of Chryses, priest of
Apollo, who had fallen to his own share,
in order to avert from the Grecians the
plaguc sent by Apollo, in answer to the
prayers of the old man, his priest. Nei-
ther the defeats of the Grecians, nor the
offers of Againemnon, appeased the wrath
of the hero. He, however, permitted his
friend Patroclus, in his own armor, and
at the head of his own warriors, to min-
gle again in the combat. Patroclus fell
by the arm of Hector; and, to revenge
his death, A. resolved to return to the
field. Thetis herself brought him new
and costly arms, made by Vulcan, among
which the shield was particularly beauti-
ful. He became reconciled to Agamem-
non, received the presents which were
offered, and, refreshed by Minerva with
nectar and ambrosia, hastened to the bat
tle. The Trojans fled, and a part of them
rushed into the river Xanthus and per-
ished. The bodies obstructed the course
of the stream, and the river-god, disgust-
ACHILLES-ACIDS.
ed with the carnage, commanded A. to
desist. Not being obeyed, he overflowed
his banks, and rushed against the hero.
Encouraged by Neptune and Minerva,
A. opposed Xanthus, who called to his
aid the waters of Simois. Juno then
sent Vulcan, and the west and south
winds, who drove the river-god back to
his proper limits.
But A. pursued the
Trojans to their city, which only the in-
terference of Apollo prevented him from
taking. Hector alone remained before
the Scæan gate, and, having fled 3 times
round the city, pursued by A., finally of
fered himself for combat. A. slew him,
and, after dragging his body round the
city, resigned it, for a ransom, to Priam.
Here the narration of Homer ends. A.,
as represented by this sublime poet, is of
a fiery and impetuous character, and has
little of that firmness and rational valor
which constitute the true hero. In this
respect, the heroes of the German poem
"Das Nibelungenlied" are far greater
and nobler than those of Homer. The
further history of A. is told as follows:
Falling in love with Polyxena, he sought
her hand, and obtained it; for which he
promised to defend Troy. But Paris
slew him with an arrow, which pierced
his heel, in the temple of Apollo, where
he was celebrating his nuptials. Others
say it was Apollo who killed him, or di-
rected the arrow of Paris. A bloody con-
test ensued about his body. The Greeks
sacrificed Polyxena on his tomb, in obe-
dience to his request, that he might en-
joy her company in the Elysian fields,
where he is also said to have married
Medea. When Alexander saw his tomb,
it is said that he placed a crown upon it,
exclaiming, "that A. was happy in hav-
ing, during his life-time, a friend like Pa-
troclus, and, after his death, a poet like
Homer."
ACHILLES TATIUS; a Greek novelist,
or Erotic writer, so called, born at Alex-
andria, lived, probably, at the end of the
3d and the beginning of the 4th century,
and taught rhetoric in his native city. In
his old age, he became a convert to Chris-
tianity, and rose to the dignity of a bishop.
Besides a treatise on the sphere, which
we know only from an abridgment still
extant, we possess a romance of his, in
8 books, styled, The Loves of Clitophon
and Leucippe, which, as regards the sub-
jeet and composition, is not without merit,
and in some parts shows much ability.
The language, though rich in rhetorical
ornaments, is not free from sophistical
subtilty. The charge of obscenity, which
5
VOL. I.
33
has occasionally been brought against the
work, is very properly met by a Greek
epigram, which remarks, that the scope
of the work is to be considered, namely,
to teach temperance, to show the punish-
ment of unrestrained passions, and the
reward of chastity. The best editions are
the following; that published at Leyden,
1640, one published at Leipsic, by Bode,
with the notes of Salmasius, 1776, and
that of Mitscherlich, 1792, (Bipont.)
ACHMET III, a Turkish emperor, son
of Mahomet IV, reigned from 1703 to
1730. Many remarkable events took place
during his reign, of which we shall here
only mention, that Charles XII, after the
battle at Poltawa, found protection at his
court. Charles succeeded in involving A.
in a war with the czar Peter the Great,
which would have had a very unfortunate
issue for him, if the prudence of Cath-
arine, his mistress, whom he afterwards
married, had not averted the impending
danger. (See Peter I.) A. established
the first printing press at Constantinople,
in 1727. Towards the end of his reign,
the janizaries revolted against him, and
he was thrown into the same prison in
which his successor, Mahomet V, had
been confined, before he took A.'s place
on the throne. He died in 1736.
ACHMIM, or ECHMIM; a considerable
town of Upper Egypt, on the eastern bank
of the Nile, called by the ancients Chem-
nis and Panopolis, by the Copts Smin.
Though reduced from its former magnifi-
cence, it is still one of the finest towns of
Upper Egypt. It has some manufacto-
rics. Abulfeda speaks of a superb temple
here.
The immense stones which com-
posed it, sculptured with innumerable
hieroglyphics, are now scattered about,
and some are transferred into a mosque.
A. contains also a triumphal arch, built
by the emperor Nero. This place is fa-
mous also for the worship of the serpent
Haridi.
ACHROMATIC Telescopes. (See Optics.)
ACIDS (acida); a class of compound
bodies, which have the following char-
acteristic properties: the greater part of
them, a sour taste, and most of them are
very corrosive; they change the vegetable
blues to red, are soluble in water, and
have great affinity for the alkaline, earthy,
and metallic oxyds, with which they form
neutral salts. Some acids have no sour
taste, but their affinity for the three
classes of bodies above-mentioned is al-
ways characteristic. If a few drops of
sulphuric acid, nitric acid, or muriatic
acid, be added to a solution of blue litmus,
34
ACID-ACOLYTHI.
it becomes red. The same is the case if
they be added to other vegetable colors,
as violet, &c. Hence these colors are
employed as tests of acids, that is, to as-
certain when they exist in any substance.
We may add the infusion to the fluid in
which we are trying to detect an acid,
but a more convenient method is, to
spread it on paper, and allow it to dry.
If a strip of this be put into a fluid in
which there is an acid, it instantly be-
comes red. Some acids appear only in a
fluid state, either gaseous, as carbonic
acid, or liquid, as sulphuric acid; others
appear in a solid form, or crystallized, as
benzoic acid, boracic acid, &c. All acids
are compound bodies, and are sometimes
divided into four classes, the three first of
which are compounded with oxygen; the
fourth class consists of those which, at
least according to some modern chemists,
have no oxygen; c. g. sulphuretted hy-
drogen. The first class consists of acids
compounded with oxygen and one other
body; the second class comprises the
acids compounded of carbon, hydrogen
and oxygen; the third class consists of
those acids which contain nitrogen, in
addition to the three substances above-
mentioned. The ancient chemists were
acquainted with but few of the acids now
known; they divided them, according to
the kingdoms of nature, into mineral,
vegetable and animal acids. This divis-
ion, however, cannot now be retained, as
there are some acids which appear in
all the kingdoms; e. g. phosphoric acid.
If the same radical be compounded with
different proportions of the acidifying
principle, forming different acids, the most
powerful acid receives a name from the
radical, terminating in ic; the weaker, a
name formed in the same manner in ous;
e. g. sulphurous acid and sulphuric acid,
nitrous and nitric acid; and, where there
are intermediate compounds, the term
hypo is occasionally added to the com-
pound next above it in point of acidity.
Thus hyposulphuric acid signifies an in-
termediate acid between sulphurous and
sulphuric acids; hypophosphorous acid,
an acid containing less oxygen than the
phosphorous acid. (For Prussic acid, Py-
roligneous acid, &c. see Prussic, Pyrolig-
neous, &c.)
ACIRS; hurricanes of snow which pre-
vail among the Cevennes, in the south of
France. Villages are sometimes so rap-
idly covered, that the inhabitants have no
means of communication, but by cutting
passages under the snow.
ACKERMANN, Rudolph, was born in
1764, at Schneeberg, in Saxony, where
his father was a saddler. He received
his education at the Latin school of his
native city, and, after learning the trade
of his father, travelled through the coun-
try as a journeyman, according to the
custom of Germany. After residing for
some time at Paris and Brussels, he went
to London. He there became acquaint-
ed with Facius, a German, who had un-
dertaken to conduct a journal of fashions,
(Journal des Modes,) and met with tolerable
success. A. soon afterwards published,
in the same way, drawings of coaches and
curricles, invented, drawn and painted by
himself. The novelty and elegance of
the forms excited universal attention, and
he received orders for drawings from all
quarters. This laid the foundation of a
trade in works of art, which his activity,
attention and precision in business so
much enlarged in a short time, that he
was enabled to marry an English woman,
became a citizen of London, and founded
an establishment called Repository of
Arts, in the Strand, in the centre of Lou-
don. It is one of the curiosities of the
British capital, and gives employment to
several hundred men. An account of
every thing new has appeared for 8 years
in A.'s splendid journal, Repository of
Arts, Literature and Fashion, the first
series of which, in 14 volumes, costs £18;
and the new series already amounts to
more than 40 numbers. Every number
contains three or four elegant, colored
copperplates. For 8 years he has also
becn engaged in a series of topographical
works, exhibiting all the splendor of Brit-
ish aquatinta, which already constitute a
small library, and, for truth of design and
elegance of execution, are hardly surpass-
ed by any similar undertaking in any
country. He now has the most instruct-
ive books of the English and other lan-
guages translated into Spanish, (princi-
pally by the well-known Blanco White,)
and sends them to America, where his
eldest son is engaged, in Mexico, in ex-
tensive dealings in books and works of
art. For some years he has also published
the first souvenir in England, called the
Forget me nol. When the association was
formed, in 1813, for the relief of those
who had been plunged into misery by the
war in Germany, A. showed himself an
active philanthropist. A. is now the best
lithographer in London. He employs in
the summer 600 men, every day, in and
around London.
ACOLYTHI, OF ACOLYTES; servants of
the church, who appeared in the Latin
ACOLYTHI-ACOUSTICS.
church as early as the 3d century; but
in the Greek, not till the 5th. Their
office was to light the candles, thence
they were called acccnsores; to carry the
tapers in the festal processions, thence
ceroferarii; to present the wine and water
at the supper; and, in general, to assist
the bishops and priests in the perform-
ance of the ceremonies. They belonged
to the clergy, and had a rank immediately
below the subdeacons. In the Roman
church, the consecration of an acolythus
is the highest of the lower kinds of ordi-
nation. The person ordained receives a
candlestick and chalice, in token of his
ancient employment. The duties, how-
ever, formerly appertaining to this office,
have been performed since the 7th cen-
tury by menials and boys taken from the
laity, who are improperly called acolythi,
in the books of the liturgy of the Catho-
lic church. The modern Greek church
no longer retains even the name.
ACONITA; a vegetable poison, recent-
ly extracted from aconitum napellus, or
wolf's-bane, (properly alkaline,) by Mr.
Brande. The analysis has not yet been
made known.
ACOUSTICS. One of our most impor-
tant connexions with external objects is
maintained through the sense of hearing;
that is, by an affection which certain ac-
tions or motions, in those objects, pro-
duce on the mind, by being communicat-
cd to it through the ear. The peculiar
excitation or motion perceptible by the
ear is called sound; and the considera-
tion of this motion, its qualities and trans-
mission, forms the science of acoustics.
Philosophers make a distinction between
sound and noise: thus those actions
which are confined to a single shock up-
on the ear, or a set of actions circum-
scribed within such limits as not to pro-
duce a continued sensation, are called a
noise; while a succession of actions which
produce a continued sensation are called
a sound. It is evident from the mechan-
ism of the ear, so far as it is understood,
that it is a refined contrivance for convey-
ing a motion from the medium which
surrounds it to the auditory nerve; and
that this nerve must receive every motion
excited in the tympanum. Every motion
thus excited, however, does not produce
the sensation of sound. That motions
may be audible, it is necessary that they
impress themselves upon the medium
which surrounds the car with velocities
comprised within certain limits. These
motions are commonly produced by dis-
turbing the equilibrium which exists be-
•
35
tween the parts of a body. Thus, for
example, if we strike a bell, the part
which receives the first impulse of the
blow is driven nearer to the surrounding
parts; but, the impulse having ceased, it
is urged back by a force of repulsion
which exists in the metal, and made to
pass beyond its former position. By the
operation of another property of the met-
al, namely, cohesive attraction, it is then
made to return in the direction of its first
motion, again, beyond its position of re-
pose. Each of these agitations influ-
ences the adjacent parts, which, in turn,
influence those beyond them, until the
whole mass assumes a tremulous motion;
that is, certain parts approach to and
recede from each other; and it only
recovers its former state of repose, after
having performed a number of these
sonorous vibrations. It is evident that
such vibrations as are here described
must result from the combined operation
of attraction and repulsion, which, to-
gether, constitute the elasticity of solid
bodies. When fluids, whose elasticity is
confined to repulsion, emit sounds, a force
equivalent to that of attraction in solids
is supplied to them by external pressure.
The sonorous vibrations of bodies are ex-
ceedingly curious, and the more diffi-
cult to be understood from our habits of
measuring changes or motions by the
sight; but these motions affect very sen-
sibly another organ, while they are al-
most imperceptible to the eye; and, as
we are without the means of converting
the ideas derived from one sense into
those derived from another, the sensa-
tion of the motion of sound does not as-
sist us to understand its precise nature,
as compared with visible motions. Thus,
the ear at once perceives the difference
between a grave and an acute sound;
but it is only from attentive observation
by the eye, that we discover the different
rapidity of succession in the vibrations
which produce them. The vibrations of
a great many bodies, as strings, bells and
membranes, when emitting sounds, may,
however, be distinctly seen, and even
felt; but they may often be rendered
more sensible to the eye by a little arti-
fice, such as sprinkling the vibrating
body with sand, or some light, granular
substance. Sound may be produced
without vibrations or alternations; thus,
if we pass the nail quickly over the teeth
of a comb, the rapid succession of single
shocks or noises produces all the effect of
vibrations. It must be evident that the
rapid motions here described, whether
36
ACOUSTICS.
originating in vibrations, or a succession
of concussions, must be communicated
from the body, in which they are excited,
to the sheet of air, or whatever else be
in contact with it, and from this again to
another sheet beyond the first; thus dif-
fusing the motion in every direction.
The agitation of the sounding body must
thus be communicated to the surround-
ing medium to a great distance, and im-
pressed upon any body situated within
this distance; if this body be the car, the
tremor excited in it by these agitations
will be perceived by the mind. The
necessity of some medium for the trans-
mission of sound is proved by experi-
ment. If a bell be rung in an exhausted
receiver, the sound will be hardly per-
ceptible, while the tones will become
clear and distinct, on re-admitting the
air. Having thus given a general outline
of the source and propagation of sound,
we shall proceed to consider, with as much
minuteness as the limits of this work will
permit, some of the more important facts
connected with them.-The most obvious
characteristics, by which we distinguish
different sounds, consist of differences
in their degrees of what we call loudness,
and acuteness, or pitch. We can pro-
duce, at pleasure, sounds having different
degrees of loudness, from the same sono-
rous body, by making the concussions
upon it more or less violent; disturbing
in a greater or less degree the arrange-
ment of its parts. So two bodies of like
substance and figure, but unlike mass,
when subjected to the same shock, emit
sounds unlike in loudness; and, again,
bodies of like mass and figure, but unlike
substance, form sounds more or less
loud, when subjected to the same shock.
In this latter case, the loudness has a re-
lation to the quantity of elasticity pos-
sessed by the bodies; and in all cases,
when the disturbance of the parts is car-
ried beyond the elastic power of the body,
so as to produce a permanent change of
figure, no increase of loudness is induced.
From a consideration of the preceding
facts, we may conclude, that loudness de-
pends upon the quantity of motion, or
sonorous vibration, in which it originates.
The other principal characteristic of
sound, its acuteness or pitch, depends
upon the frequency with which the con-
cussions or vibrations of the sonorous
body succeed each other. That sounds
may be audible to a common car, it is
necessary that the concussions upon the
medium, which communicates them,
should follow each other in such succes-
sion, that not more than 8192, nor less
than 32, distinct concussions shall be
made upon the medium during the lapse
of one second. Some ears, however,
can perceive sounds emanating from vi-
brations a little beyond the extremes to
which the perceptions of other ears are
confined. We should be careful not to
confound the frequency of vibrations
with the velocity of vibratory motion. A
string may vibrate with a greater or less
velocity, as it passes its axis to a greater
or less distance; yet the times of its vi-
brations may be all equal. The differ-
cnce of velocity, affecting the quantity of
motion only, would produce no change,
except in the loudness of the sound.
To those sounds which proceed from in-
frequent vibrations, we give the name of
grave or low; those from frequent vibra-
tions we call sharp or acute. When vibra-
tions succeed cach other in equal times,
their sound excites a pleasant sensation,
and they are called musical. When two
bodies are made to sound together, if their
vibrations are performed in equal times, the
sounds are said to be in unison. When the
vibrations are performed in unequal times,
so that some of those of the one are not
accompanied by those of the other, the ear
perceives a degree of dissonance in the
sounds. If, however, the vibrations meet
after short and regular intervals, the dis-
sonance is not easily detected, and the
sounds are said to accord. During the
continuance of most primary sounds,
however excited, we perceive other and
more acute sounds co-existing with them.
These are called their harmonics. They
are supposed to originate in a series of
secondary vibrations, more short and fre-
quent than the principal vibration. Thus
a sounding string, for example, may be
supposed not to pass its axis in a simple
curve, but to resolve itself into a tortuous
line, formed by a number of smaller
curves, each of which vibrates across its
own axis, thus producing its harmonics.
It is perhaps some combination of the
harmonics with the primary sound, that
characterizes the sound of different in-
struments, though of the same loudness
and pitch, so that we can distinguish one
from another. The air, being the common
medium which surrounds the ear, is that
by which sounds are usually transmitted.
This transmission is performed with a
velocity of about 1130 feet in a second.
All other bodies, however, are capable of
transmitting sound. It may be done
perfectly, even by the solid parts of the
head. If, for example, we hold the stem
ACOUSTICS.
of a watch between the teeth, and cover
the ears with the hands, the beats are
heard more distinctly than when the in-
strument is held at an equal distance in
the air. The rubbing together of two
stones under water may be heard, by an
ear in the same medium, at the distance
of half a mile. When the air, or any
other body of indefinite extent, is dis-
turbed, in a point situated within it, by a
sonorous vibration, it forms a wave which
passes from the disturbed point, as a cen-
tre, in every direction. It follows that as
the wave extends itself, the mass to be
put in motion increases until the original
motion is rendered insensible from the
magnitude of the mass to which it has
communicated itself. The velocity with
which waves, thus formed, move through
any homogeneous elastic medium, is al-
ways equal to that which a heavy body
would acquire by falling through half the
height of the modulus of elasticity.* In
applying this law to the transmission of
sound by the air, it was for a long time
found not to give the same results as
were obtained by experiment. The dis-
crepancy, however, has been most inge-
niously reconciled by a small correction
for the latent heat made sensible by the
compression; the effect of this being to
increase the height of the modulus of
elasticity. We ought, therefore, to find
that liquids, and more especially some of
the solids, should transmit sound much
more rapidly than air; and this agrees
most perfectly with various experiments.
Cast-iron, for example, has been found to
transmit sound with a velocity 10 times
greater than air. Sound does not readily
pass from one medium to another; a
sound made in the air is not easily distin-
guished under water, although the dis-
tance be very small. It is from this,
It is from this,
probably, that cork and all soft cellular
bodies are bad conductors of sound, as in
these the sound must, in passing through
the walls of the cells and the air con-
tained in them, change successively from
one medium to another. All sounds,
whatever be their loudness or pitch, are
transmitted with the same velocity; a
fact most completely proved by every
musical performance. Were it other-
other-
wisc, indeed, this beautiful art could not
exist. To make this apparent, it is only
necessary to consider, that harmony is a
combination of different sounds arranged
with certain relations of time and pitch.
Now, if one sound were transmitted with
* The height of the modulus of elasticity of air is
27,800 feet.
37
greater velocity than another, these rela-
tions would differ at different distances,
or be confounded, except at a single given
point. Nay, further; melody, which is a
succession of single sounds, would not
reach different ears with the same rela-
tions of time, if the different notes were
not transmitted with equal velocities.
Some observations on sound, in very high
latitudes, seem to contradict the above
law of transmission. The seeming anom-
aly, however, is sufficiently reconciled
by supposing the different strata of air,
through which the sounds, in those in-
stances, were transmitted, in very dif
ferent hygrometrical or thermometrical
states; which would make corresponding
differences in their modulus of elasticity.
When a wave of sound meets an elastic
surface, it is partly transmitted and partly
reflected. This reflection, when it re-
turns back perpendicularly, is called an
echo. That an echo may be distinctly
heard, it is necessary that the reflecting
surface be at such a distance that the ori-
ginal sound shall have ceased before the
reflected one returns to the ear; other-
wise they will be blended, and the echo
not perceived.-Hitherto we have consid-
ered the propagation of sounds in an un-
confined medium, particularly the air, in
which the wave of sound can diffuse it-
self in every direction. When this diffu-
sion is prevented by enclosing the medi-
um in a surface capable of reflecting the
wave so that the sound shall be confined
to one direction, the transmission from
one point to another is much more per-
fect. Experiments have been made in
this way, in which a hollow cylinder,
about half a mile long, was formed by cast-
iron pipes. The sound was transmitted
by the air, in this cylinder, with wonder-
fùl distinctness.
ful distinctness. The least whisper, at
one end of the cylinder, was distinctly
heard at the other end. So perfect, in-
decd, was the transmission, "that, not to
hear, it was absolutely necessary not to
speak." Captain Parry and lieutenant
Foster made several experiments, during
the northern expeditions, to ascertain the
velocity of sound. A table of them is
given in a number of the Edinburgh Phil-
osophical Journal. These experiments
were made at Port Bowen, by means of
a brass six-pounder, over a range of
12,892.89 feet. The results given are the
mean of four shots in one case, of five in
another, and, in the rest, of six shots by
each observer. The mean results varied
from 12,7617 to 11,7387 and 11",5311
for the time in which the range of 12,892.89
}
38
ACOUSTICS-ACROCORINTHUS.
feet was traversed by the sound. At the
period of the experiment which gave the
first of these results, there was a calm;
during the second, the wind was light;
during the third, a strong wind was blow-
ing. The velocity per second, in feet, was,
in the first instance, 1010.28; in the sec-
ond, 1098.32; in the third, 1118.10. Omit-
ting the last of the ten results (the last
above given), on account of the strong
wind, the mean of the other nine gives a
velocity of 1035.19 feet, at the tempera-
ture of 17.72, Fahrenheit.—The mean of
a table of velocities formed from observa-
tions made at Fort Franklin, by lieuten-
ant Kendall, who accompanied captain
Franklin, in his second journey to the
shore of the Polar sea, gives a velocity
of 1069.28 feet per second, at the tempera-
ture of 9.14, Fahrenheit.-The science of
acoustics, like the other physical sciences,
has been in a constant state of advance-
ment since the revival of learning. It
appears that Pythagoras knew the rela-
tion between the length of strings and
the musical sounds which they produce.
Aristotle was not only aware of this rela-
tion, but, likewise, that the same rela-
tion subsists between the length of pipes
and their notes, and that sound was trans-
mitted by the atmosphere. This consti-
tuted the sum of ancient learning in this
branch of science. These facts were
taught by Galileo, and, moreover, that the
difference in the acuteness of sounds de-
pends on the different frequency of vibra-
tions, and that the same string, if of uni-
form thickness and density, must perform
its vibrations in equal times. But, with-
out attempting a history of modern dis-
coveries in acoustics, we can only men-
tion, that the names of Taylor, Moreland,
Newton, Daniel Bernouilli, D'Alembert,
Euler, Robison, Lagrange, Laplace,
Chladni, T. Young and Biot are all con-
nected with it. Of these, Newton gave
the law of transmission, which we have
stated in this article, and the correction
for heat was made by Laplace.
ACRE; a measure of land, containing
four square roods, or 160 square poles or
perches. The statute length of a pole or
perch is 5 yards, or 163 feet; but the
length of a pole, and, therefore, the size
of the acre, varies in different counties in
England. The Scottish acre contains
also four square roods; one square rood
is 40 square falls. The English statute
acre is about three roods and six falls,
standard measure of Scotland; or the
English acre is to the Scottish as 78,694
to 100,000. The French acre, arpent, is
equal to 54,450 square English feet, of
which the English contains only 43,560.
The Welsh acre contains commonly two
English ones. The Irish A. exceeds the
English by two roods, 1927 perches,
The U. S. of A. use the English statute A.
ACRE (Akka, St. Jean d'Acre); in the
middle ages, Ptolemais, a city and harbor
on the coast of Syria, capital of a Turkish
pachalic, between the pachalics of Da-
mascus and Tripoli, which contains
420,000 inhabitants, and 6275 sq. miles.
This city, situated at the foot of mount
Carmel, is the chief emporium of Syrian
cotton, and contains about 16,000 inhab-
itants; its harbor, though full of sand-
banks, is still one of the best on this coast.
At the time of the crusades, A. was the
principal landing place of the crusaders,
and the seat of the order of the knights
of St. John as late as 1291; hence the
French name, St. Jean d'Acre. The
Turks, under Djezzar, pacha of this place,
who is famous for his cruelty, sustained,
with the assistance of the British com-
modore Sidney Smith, a siege of 61 days,
by the French army under Buonaparte.
After a great loss of men on all sides, the
French abandoned the siege. (See Egypt,
landing of the French in.)
ACRIDOPHAGI (Gr., from uzgie, a locust,
and puro, to eat); an ancient Ethiopian
people, who are said to have fed on lo-
custs.
ACRISIUS; the father of Danaë. (See
Danaë.)
ACROCERAUNIUM; in anc. geogr. a
promontory of Epirus, on which are situ-
ated the Acroceraunia or montes Cerau-
nii. They run between the Ionian sea
and the Adriatic, where Illyria ends and
Epirus begins, and are the modern Monti
della Chimera.
ACROCORINTHUS; a steep rock, about
2100 feet high, near the city of Cor-
inth, of a gray color, and picturesque
form, crowned with the remains of old
Venetian fortifications, repaired a little by
the Greeks, since the commencement of
their revolution. It was famous, in an-
cient times, for its citadel, and on its top
stood, according to Pausanias, a temple
of Venus. At its foot is a fountain, the an-
cient Pyrene. The shape of the A. is that
of a truncated cone. This little fortress
has been several times taken and retaken
in the war between the Greeks and Turks.
The view from the top is one of the most
charming in the world. It is thus describ-
ed in the "Journal of Dr. Lieber," before
whom no Christian traveller, in modern
times, had probably visited it, as the
ACROCORINTHUS-ACT.
Turks did not allow Christians to ascend
it while it was in their hands:-"The
view from this spot amply rewarded me
for my trouble. To the north lay the
high and snowy summits of Helicon and
Parnassus, as described by Strabo, extend-
ing far under the clear blue of a southern
sky. On the west was seen the bay of
Crissa, mount Citharon, and the prom-
ontory of Olmiæ. On the east the Saro-
nic gulf washes the islands of Salamis
and Egina. To the north-east lay the
shore of Attica. There we could see Pen-
telicus, Hymettus and Laurion, and even
down to the cape of Sunium. The day
was very clear, so that I could discern
the acropolis of Athens. To the south
I could see far into the territory of Argo-
lis. To the west Achaia and Sicyonia
lay in sight. The view comprehended
the scenes of the best displays of Grecian
art, science and valor."
ACROPOLIS (Greek); the highest part
or citadel of a city, particularly that of
Athens, where the treasury and public
records were kept. It is situated on a
rock, and has often been the subject of
contest in the late war between the Greeks
and the Turks.
ACROSTIC (Greek); a poem, of which
the first, and sometimes the final letters
of the lines or verses form some particular
word or words. The middle letters, also,
are sometimes used for the same purpose.
An example of the three kinds united may
be seen in the following Latin hexameters:
Inter cuncta micans I gniti sidera col I,
Expellit tenebras E toto Phoebus ut orb E;
Sic cæcas removet IESUS caliginis umbra S.
Vivificansque simul Vero praecordia mot U,
S olem justitiæ S ese probat esse beati S.
The French abbés and nobles, before the
revolution, often exercised their ingenu-
ity in the composition of these poetical
trifles. The French Encyclopédie mo-
derne says, L'acrostiche était alors un poëme
de cour ou de ruelle.
ACT, in law; an instrument in writing
for declaring or justifying the truth of
any thing. In this sense, records, decrees,
sentences, reports, certificates, &c. are
called acts. The French lawyers distin-
guish between, 1, private records (actes
sous seing privé), which must be acknowl-
edged by the parties, in order to have legal
force; 2, public documents (actes authen-
tiques), which have legal force, without
being acknowledged by the parties, as
long as they are not proved spurious; and,
3, cxecutive acts (actes exécutoires), which,
until their genuineness is called in ques-
tion (inscription à faux), are also binding
39
without acknowledgment by the parties
subject to their operation. Of this kind
are the records of the public notaries (actes
notariés), and all the official documents of
the French courts of justice. In Eng-
land and the United States, act implies de-
cree; hence, an act of parliament is a de-
cree of parliament, confirmed by the king,
a statute. (See Great Britain.) At the close
of each annual session, the decrees or acts
of parliament are collected into one body,
which forms the statute of that session, the
several decrees of which are contained in
separate chapters. They are quoted accor-
ding to the year of the king's reign, and ac-
cording to the chapter; e. g. the act of
habeas corpus is the second chapter of the
statute of the year 1680, the 31st year of
the reign of Charles II, and is quoted, 31
Ch. II, c. 2. In America, there is no uni-
form mode of quoting statutes: each sep-
arate act is deemed a distinct statute.
Generally, the acts are cited by their date
and year; and, if more particularity is ne-
cessary, by the chapter, when the statutes
are divided into chapters. Acts in Ger-
many are the records and documents of
any transaction, especially of a lawsuit.
The whole process, in that country, is
carried on in writing. Nothing is receiv-
ed as evidence, unless laid before the
court on paper. When a criminal pro-
cess begins, the prisoner is brought before
a judge or assistant and a writer. The
judge questions: the question is written
on the left side of a folio sheet; on the
right side the answer of the prisoner is set
down. The same takes place with every
witness. The reader can imagine to what
an immense bulk these acts often in-
crease in the course of a single process.
If there are witnesses in other places, an
order to examine them is sent, and the
papers containing the minutes of their tes-
timony are transmitted to the place of trial.
The examining judge is called the judge
of inquisition (inquisitions-richter).
the close of each stage of the exami-
nation, the prisoner subscribes the min-
utes made during that time with the
words, "read in my hearing, approved
and signed." He also signs his name, as
do likewise the judge and the writer.
When the acts are completed (closed),
they are delivered to the court, who ap-
point another judge to report on them
and move for judgment, while another
still acts as counsel for the prisoner. Af-
terwards, the whole court in pleno de-
cides. In fact, in Germany, the whole
course of administration is conducted in
writing. In Saxony, such acts are almost
At
1
40
ACT-ACTION.
endless. In Prussia, also, they are very
numerous. All acts are preserved in ar-
chives. After sentence passed in one
court, the whole pile of acts is sent to a
court of appeal.
ACT, in the universities, signifies a the-
sis maintained in public by a candidate
for a degree.
ACT OF FAITH. (See Inquisition.)
ACTA ERUDITORUM; the first literary
journal that appeared in Germany. It
enjoyed a long existence and great popu-
larity. The example set by the Journal
des Savans, and by the Giornale de' Lit-
terati, but especially the increasing spirit
of enterprise and activity among the Ger-
man booksellers, induced Otto Mencke,
professor at Leipsic, to lay the foundation
of this periodical publication, in 1680.
Having formed the necessary connexions,
on his travels through Holland and Eng-
land, and being assisted by the most em-
inent German scholars, he commenced
the journal in 1682, which increased in
popularity from year to year. Among
the contributors were Carpzov, Leibnitz,
Thomasius, &c. Its object was, to give
a faithful and particular account of books;
and it was conducted on the same plan,
even after a better taste in composition
and greater independence were introdu-
ced into literary discussions in the French
journals published in Holland. The Ger-
man journal began, however, to decline
gradually in value, and in the number of
its subscribers, particularly after 1754; and
the irregularity of its appearance became
at length so great, that the last volume,
for 1776, was published in 1782, exactly
a century from the time when the journal
was commenced. The whole consists of
117 volumes in 4to., including the supple-
mentary volumes and indices. Leibnitz,
in this journal, first gave to the world his
notions respecting the differential calcu-
lus.
The
cy, during the period of the persecution
of Christian believers, are found as early
as the second and third centuries; par-
ticular narratives and biographies com-
menced with the 4th century, and were
infinitely multiplied till the close of
the middle ages. Since the 6th century,
many works have been compiled from
this immense mass of materials.
first critical collection of original legends
was edited by Boninus Mombritius, in
1474. The above-mentioned collection,
however, surpasses all others of the kind
in extent, fidelity and impartiality. It is
likewise distinguished for sound criticism
and excellent illustrations, which will
make it forever a most valuable store-
house of ecclesiastical history, if truth is
critically separated from fiction and su-
perstition, by the historian who describes
the manners and the spirit of those ages.
ACTEON; in fabulous history, the son
of Aristaus and Autonoč; a great hunter.
He was turned into a stag, by Diana, for
looking on her when she was bathing,
and was torn to picces by his own dogs.
Also, a Corinthian youth, killed by Archi-
as, one of the Heraclidæ, in an attempt to
carry him off from his father's house.
ACTION (law) a term including private
suits and public prosecutions. Actions
are, therefore, criminal or civil; criminal,
for the punishment of crime; civil, for
the obtainment of right. Civil actions
are divided into real, personal and
mixed. Action real is that whereby
man claims title to lands or tene-
ments in fee or for life. Action person-
al is brought upon contracts, or injury
to person or estate. Action mixed lics
for a thing and against the person who
has it. It seeks an object, and a penalty
for its detention.
Leibnitz, for its detention. Many personal actions
die with the person. Real actions sur-
vive. In all actions merely personal, for
wrongs actually committed by the defend-
ant, as trespass, battery, slander, the action
dies with the person, and never can be
revived, either by or against the executors
or other representatives. But in actions
on contracts, where the right descends to
the representatives of the plaintiff, and
those of the defendant have received ef-
fects from the deceased sufficient to an-
swer the demand, though the suits abate
by the death of the parties, yet they may
be revived against or by the executors.
Again, actions are either local or transi-
tory. Actions, real or mixed, for the re-
covery of the freehold, or for damage
done to it, are to be brought in the same
county where the land lies. Actions on
ACTA SANCTORUM; a name sometimes
applied to all collections of accounts of
ancient martyrs and saints, both of the
Greek and Roman churches. It is used
more particularly as the title of a volumi-
nous work, comprising all those accounts,
which was commenced at the instigation
of the Jesuits, in 1643, by John Bolland, a
Jesuit of Antwerp, and after his death
continued by other divines of the same
order, known by the name of Bollandists,
(q. v.) to the year 1794, but not yet finish-
cd, (Antwerp, Brussels and Tongerloo,
1643-1794, 53 volumes in folio.) Some
imperfect notices of persons distinguished
for their holy lives and religious constan-
ACTION-ACTRESSES.
contracts, or for personal injuries, are not
limited to a particular county. Actions
are likewise joint or several; joint, where
several persons are equally concerned,
and one cannot bring the action, or be
sued, without the other; several, in case
of trespass, &c., where persons are to be
severally charged. Every trespass com-
mitted by many is several.
ACTIUM, a promontory on the western
coast of Greece, in ancient Epirus, the
northern extremity of Acarnania (now
Albania), at the entrance of the Ambra-
cian gulf, at present called capo di Figo-
lo, or Azio, on the gulf of Arta, is mem-
crable on account of the naval battle
fought here between Antony and Octa-
vius, Sept. 2, B. C. 31, in sight of their
armies, encamped on the opposite shores
of the Ambracian gulf. The forces of
Octavius consisted of 80,000 infantry,
12,000 cavalry, and 260 ships of war;
those of Antony, of 100,000 infantry,
12,000 cavalry, and 220 ships of war.
Notwithstanding the advice of his most
experienced generals, to meet Octavius
by land, Antony, at the instigation of Cle-
opatra, determined upon a naval engage-
ment. His vessels advanced, beautifully
ornamented, and remarkable for their
size;
41
memoration of this battle, which made
him master of the world.
ACTON, Joseph, prime minister of Na-
ples, was born in 1737, of Irish parents,
who had settled in Besançon. After he
had finished his education, he entered
the French navy, which he soon quitted
for the Tuscan, and was subsequently
employed in the Spanish expedition
against Barbary, in which he found an
opportunity to distinguish himself. This
led him to the Neapolitan navy, and then
to the Neapolitan court, where he acquir-
ed the favor of queen Caroline. He was
successively appointed minister of the
navy, minister of war, then director of the
finances, and, finally, prime minister. In
this office he contracted an intimacy with
the English ambassador, sir Williamı
Hamilton, and, in concert with him, exer-
cised a great, and by no means beneficial
influence over the fortunes of Naples. A.
is a new example, how dangerous it is for
monarchs to intrust favorites with unlim-
ited power. His implacable hatred against
France led him, during the continuance of
the Italian wars, to the most extravagant
measures, which always turned out dis-
advantageously for the royal family, and
strengthened the French party, from
which that of the Carbonari was after-
wards formed. A. accompanied the king,
in 1798, on Mack's expedition against the
French army. During the presence of
Nelson, he had previously presided over
the renowned junta, which, to satisfy its
hatred against men of different political
opinions, with unprecedented cruelty,
sought out victims in all ranks. After
the unfortunate issue of Mack's expedi-
tion, A. was removed from the helm of
the Neapolitan government. He died in
1808, hated and despised by all partics.
those of Octavius, although smaller,
were more skilfully managed. Both fleets
were manned with the soldiers of the
Roman legions, who considered a sea-
fight like a battle on land, and the ships
as forts which were to be stormed. Those
of Antony threw fire-brands and missile
weapons from catapults, whilst those of
Octavius applied grappling-irons to the
ships of the enemy, and boarded them.
Soon after the beginning of the battle,
before any thing decisive had taken place,
the timid Cleopatra fled with 60 Egyp-
tian ships, when she perceived the centre
of Antony's fleet in an unfavorable posi-
tion. Antony imprudently followed her.
Octavius, perceiving his flight, proclaimed
it aloud, and the deserted fleet was soon
overcome, notwithstanding a brave resist-
ance, and immediately went over to the
enemy. Antony's troops, which were
drawn up on the shore, and had beheld
with amazement the flight of their leader,
followed the example of the fleet. Antony
fled with Cleopatra to Egypt, where he
killed himself, to avoid falling into the
hands of his enemies. Augustus enlarg-
ed the temple of Apollo at Actium, in
commemoration of his victory, dedicated
to Neptune and Mars the standards
which he had taken, and instituted games,
to be celebrated every 5 years, in com-
6
VOL. I.
ACTORS. (See Actresses.)
ACTRESSES, in the drama, appear to
have been wholly unknown to the an-
cients, men or eunuchs always performing
the female parts. Charles II is said to
have first encouraged their public appear-
ance in England; but there is evidence
that the queen of James I performed in
a court theatre. Actors were long ex-
cluded from good society, and actresses
still longer, and perhaps the English were
the first who admitted the most distin-
guished into their first circles. Instances
of exemplary conduct are not wanting
amongst actresses in modern times.
France, England, Italy and Germany
have had many of unblemished reputa-
tion. At Athens, actors were highly hon-
ored. At Rome, they were despised, and
42
ACTRESSES-ADALBERT.
deprived of the right of suffrage. The
reason of this difference is, that, among
the Greeks, the actors were freeborn citi-
zens, and the dramatic performances had
their origin in the sacred festivals; but,
among the Romans, the drama was intro-
duced by persons of the lowest class,
Etruscan players and peasants of Atella.
Actors and actresses continued for a long
time to be treated with little regard in
France, after they had been admitted into
good society in England. Marriages of
Englishmen of high rank with actresses
are not rare. In some parts of Germany,
actors were formerly buried like suicides,
in a corner of the burying-ground, sepa-
rated from the other graves. How much
the ancients studied the dramatic art may
be seen from one fact, that Polus, a fa-
mous Greek actor, when he had to play
Electra, in the tragedy of Sophocles,
made use of an urn containing the ashes
of his own son, to represent the funeral
to represent the funeral
urn of Orestes. But here art ceased; this
was again nature.
ACTs of the Apostles (as tur ùroo-
Túlon); one of the books of the N. Testa-
ment, written in Greek by St. Luke (q. v.),
the author of the Gospel which bears his
name. It is addressed to Theophilus, of
whom nothing is known, and is evidently
intended as a continuation of the Gospel,
which the author himself calls his "first
book." (Acts i, 1.) It has been universally
received, and is generally allowed to have
been written A. D. 63 or 64, but in what
place is doubtful; Jerome says, at Rome;
Grotius and Lardner think, in Greece;
Michaelis, in Alexandria. It embraces a
period of about 30 years, beginning im-
mediately after the resurrection, and ex-
tending to the 2d year of the imprison-
ment of St. Paul in Rome. Very little
information is given of any of the apos-
tles, excepting St. Peter and St. Paul, and
the accounts of them are partial and in-
complete. Thus the history of St. Peter
terminates with the death of Herod, al-
though that apostle is considered to have
lived and preached 24 years longer. It
describes the gathering of the infant
church after the death of its Founder; the
fulfilment of the promise of Christ to his
apostles, in the descent of the Holy Ghost;
the choice of Matthias in the place of
Judas, the betrayer; the testimony of the
apostles to the resurrection of Jesus in
their discourses, attested by miracles and
sufferings; their preaching in Jerusalem
and in Judea, and afterwards to the Gen-
tiles; the conversion of Paul, his preach-
ing in Asia Minor, Grecce and Italy, his
miracles and labors. Its place is gener-
ally at the head of the apostolicon, or be-
fore the epistles; but in some MSS. it is
found after the 13 Catholic epistles. The
style of this work, which was originally
composed in Greek, is purer than that of
the other canonical writers; and St. Luke,
in his quotations from the Old Testament,
always makes use of the Septuagint ver-
sion.
ACUNA, Christopher de, a Spanish
Jesuit, born at Burgos, in 1597. He is
principally known as the author of a
curious work, Nuevo Descubrimiento de
Gran Rio de los Amazones, (A new Descrip-
tion of the Great River of the Amazons,)
Madrid, 4 parts, 1641. Only two copies
are said to exist at present. In 1682, a
translation of one of them into French
was published in 4 vols. 12mo. A.'s work
is very curious.
ACUPUNCTURE. Kämpfer made known,
more than 100 years ago, the Japanese and
Chinese nethod of curing arthritic and
rheumatic complaints by acupuncture;
but it is only a few years since it has
been carefully examined and applied in
England and France. (See Churchill's
Treatise on Acupuncture.) In Japan and
China, this mode of curing is applied
much more frequently than in Europe,
and even to the tenderest parts of the
body. It consists in driving a fine needle
one or two inches into the flesh of the af
flicted part. The opinions of the cause
of relief by acupuncture are still very dif
ferent. Some writers think a galvanic
influence on the nerves takes place.
ACUTE. (Sec Accent.)
AD LIBITUM, Used in music for a pia-
cere, when the principal performer is at
liberty to give way to his conceptions, to
change the measure from quick to slow,
or the contrary, without accompaniment,
and to manifest his ability in the effusions
of his fancy. The term is often used in
the full score, to denote those parts which
are not essential, and may be omitted.
ADAGIO (Ital.) expresses a slow time.
Used substantively, it expresses a slow
movement. Sometimes the word is re-
peated to denote a still greater retardation
in the time of the music.
ADALBERT, OF ALDEBERT; a native of
France, who preached the gospel in 744,
on the banks of the Maine. He is re-
markable as the first opponent to the in-
troduction of the rites and ordinances of
the Catholic church into Germany. He
dared to assert, that the multiplication of
saints and relics, and the practice of con-
fession, were superfluous. On this ac-
ADALBERT-ADAM.
count, he was accused of heresy, by Bon-
iface, the apostle of Germany, and con-
demned by two councils, at Soissons in
744, and at Rome in 745. Having finally
made his escape from prison, he is said to
have been murdered by some peasants,
on the banks of the Fulda.
ADALEERT, archbishop of Bremen and
Hamburg, a descendant of a princely
house of Saxony, received his office, in
1043, from the emperor Henry III, whose
relation, friend and follower he was. He
accompanied Henry to Rome, where he
was a distinguished candidate for the
papal chair. Pope Leo IX, in whose
behalf he had spoken at the synod of
Mentz, 1049, made him his legate in the
north of Europe, 1050. He superintend-
ed the churches of Denmark, Norway
and Sweden, but aspired in vain to the
dignity of pope, or patriarch of the North.
During the minority of Henry IV, who
afterwards became emperor, he usurped,
in concert with Hanno, archbishop of
Cologne, the guardianship of the young
prince, and the administration of the cm-
pire, and gained an ascendency over his
rival, by indulging the passions of his
pupil. After Henry had become of age
to rule, A. exercised the government
without control, in his name. A.'s pride
and arbitrary administration induced the
German princes, in 1066, to remove him
by force from the court; but after a short
contest with the Saxon nobles, who laid
waste his territory, he recovered his for-
mer power, which he held till his death
at Goslar, March 17, 1072. He excelled
his contemporaries in princely qualities,
in talent, and in strength of mind; and if
he had possessed magnanimity, and a
wise spirit of moderation, he would have
deserved the name of the great, which has
been given him. The injustice and tyran-
ny which stained his administration were
mainly instrumental in producing the
confusion and calamities, in which the
reign of Henry IV was involved.
ADALBERT of Prague, the apostle of
Prussia proper, son of a Bohemian noble-
man, was educated in the cathedral of
Magdeburg, between the years 973 and
982, and appointed bishop of Prague in
983. He labored in vain to convert the
Bohemians from paganism, and to intro-
duce among them the ordinances of the
church of Rome. Discouraged by the
fruitlessness of his pious zeal, he left
Prague, 988, and lived in convents at
Montecasino and Rome, until the Bohe-
mians, in 993, recalled him. But after two
years, he again left them, disgusted with
43
their barbarous manners. He returned
to Rome, and soon followed the emperor
Otho III to Germany; on which journey
he baptized, at Gran, St. Stephen, who
subsequently became king of Hungary.
After a visit to the monasteries of Tours
and Fleury, he proceeded to Gnesen, to
meet Boleslaus, duke of Poland; and
being informed that the Bohemians did
not wish to see him again, he resolved to
convert the pagans of Prussia. But he
lost his life in the attempt, being murdered
by a peasant, April 23, 997, near what is
now Fischhausen. His body was bought
by Boleslaus, for its weight in gold, and
became famous for its miraculous power.
It was even visited at Gnesen by Otho
III, in 1000, and removed from Bohe-
mia by duke Brzetislaw. Its influence
was greater than that of the saint himself.
The Bohemians, who before had refused
to receive the ordinances of the church,
now suffered them to be introduced into
Prague, on the sole condition, that these
miraculous bones should be transferred to
their city.
ADAM (Hebrew, formed of earth), the
father of the human race, was, according
to Genesis, made of clay, on the sixth day
of the creation. God finished the work
of creation by forming man according to
his own image, making him master of all
created things. He gave him Eve for
his companion (in Hebrew, Hera, the
mother of the living), formed of his flesh,
that the earth might be peopled by their
union. The garden of Eden, diversified
with fruitful trees, was their abode, in
which they found every thing to satisfy
their wants, and to afford them pleasure.
But in the centre stood the tree of the
knowledge of good and evil; and of
this their Creator had forbidden them to
cat. Eve was beguiled by the serpent to
take of this fruit, and to eat of it with
her husband. This crime destroyed their
felicity. The appearance of things was
suddenly changed before their eyes. They
perceived their nakedness, and endeavor-
ed to conceal it. In vain did A. seek to
hide himself from the sight of God; in
vain did he throw the blaine of his trans-
gression upon Eve; a curse followed
them and the whole creation. Driven
from the state of innocence, in which he
was born, A. saw himself condemned to
earn his bread by the sweat of his brow
All the evils of life and the terrors of
death came upon him. He had three
sons, Cain, Abel and Seth, and died at
the age of 930 years, 130 of which he
passed in Paradise. The history of A. is
44
ADAM-JOHN ADAMS.
found, with little variation, in the tradi-
tions of nearly all ancient nations, who
seem to have derived their information
from a common source.
ADAM. Three brothers of this name
were sculptors. The eldest, Lambert
Sigisbert, born in 1700, at Nancy, where
his father was also a sculptor, went, at
the age of 18, to Metz, and thence to
Paris. After four years study in this city,
he received the first prize from the acad-
emy, and soon afterwards went as a royal
pensioner to Rome, where he passed 10
years. The cardinal of Polignac com-
missioned him to supply the parts want-
ing in the 12 marble statues, found in the
palace of Marius, and known by the name
of the family of Lycomedes, which task
A. executed with great skill. When the
erection of the large monument at Rome,
known by the name of the fountain of Tre-
vi, was contemplated, A. was one of the
16 statuaries appointed to furnish designs.
That which he offered was accepted, but
the jealousy of the Italian artists opposed
its execution, and in 1733 A. returned to
France. In 1737, he was chosen mem-
ber of the academy, and afterwards pro-
fessor. The statue of Neptune calming
the waves, with a Triton at his feet, is a
fine specimen of his skill. Besides vari-
ous other works, he now finished the
group of Neptune and Amphitrite, to
adorn the basin of Neptune at Versailles.
A. was skilful in working marble; his
anatomy is correct and his drapery good;
but he was led astray by the bad taste of
his time, which confounded the provin-
ces of painting and sculpture. He died
in 1759.-His brother, Nicholas Sebas-
tian, born at Nancy in 1705, studied the
same art, under the care of his father, and
in the academy of Paris. At the age of
18, he was employed in a castle near
Montpellier, and went, after 18 months, to
Rome, in 1726. After two years, he
gained the prize offered by the academy
of San Luca, worked in connexion with
his brother, spent nine years abroad, and
was finally admitted into the academy of
Paris. His Prometheus lacerated by the
vulture was exhibited as a specimen of
his powers, but not finished until some
time after the exhibition. His masterpiece
is the tomb of the queen of Poland, wife
of Stanislaus. In regard to his merits,
what has been said of his brother holds
true of him. He died in 1778.-The third
brother, Francis Gaspard, born at Nancy
in 1710, was also a pupil of his father. In
1728, he joined his brothers in Rome, and
improved greatly in their company. He
then returned to Paris, gained the first
prize of the academy, and in 1742 visited
Rome again, where he completed his
studies. He then went to Berlin, instead
of his brother Nicholas Sebastian, whom
Frederic II had invited thither. He
labored there several years, and died at
Paris in 1759.
ADAMANT. (See Diamond.)
ADAMANTINE SPAR; a stone of pecu-
liar hardness, approaching to that of the
diamond. It will cut glass easily, and
mark rock crystal. It is found in China
and India, and, as M. Pini alleges, in
Italy.
ADAMI POMUM. (See Adam's Apple.)
ADAMITES; the name of a Christian
sect, said to have existed in the 2d cen-
tury; and also of a band of heretics,
which, in 1421, appeared in Bohemia,
during the commotions occasioned by the
doctrines of Huss. They were called A.
because both men and women were said
to appear naked in their assemblies,
either to imitate Adam in the state of in-
nocence, or to prove the control which
they possessed over their passions. The
tradition respecting the former sect of this
name appears to have had its origin in a
name of derision given to the Carpocra-
tians of indifferent reputation. (See
Gnostics.) The accounts of the latter A.
are not to be relied upon with more cer-
tainty. These were also called Picards,
from the founder of their scct, Picard,
(perhaps also Beghards.) They appeared
about the year 1421, on an island in the
river Lusinicz, where Zisca surprised
them, but was not able to destroy the
whole scct. In the following year,
they were widely spread over Bohemia
and Moravia, and especially hated by the
Hussites (whom they resembled in hatred
towards the hierarchy), because they re-
jected the doctrine of transubstantiation.
They subsequently formed one sect with
the remaining Taborites, who have occa-
sionally been confounded with the A.
ADAMS, John, a distinguished patriot
of the American revolution, was born
at Braintree, Massachusetts, October 19,
1735. The ancestors of Mr. A. had left
England for the wilds of America, in or-
der to enjoy their religious opinions un-
molested. They were among the first
settlers of Massachusetts, Henry Adams,
the great-great-grandfather of John, and
one of the original proprietors of the town
of Braintree, having fled from England,
with other Puritans, in the year 1630.
Their condition was that of substantial
yeomen, who possessed the fee simple of
JOHN ADAMS.
their lands, and maintained themselves
and families by manual labor. Mr. A.
having, when yet a boy, evinced great
fondness for books, and readiness in
learning, his father determined to give
him a collegiate education, and placed
him, in consequence, under the care of
Mr. Marsh (who was afterwards the pre-
ceptor of the celebrated Josiah Quincy),
that he might be prepared for entrance
into the university of Cambridge. He
remained in that institution until the year
1755, when he received his bachelor's
degrec, and in 1758 that of master of
arts. Whilst at college, he is said to have
been distinguished by intense application,
retentiveness of memory, acuteness of
reasoning, boldness and originality of
thought, strength of language, and an
honesty of character which could neither
assume nor tolerate disguise. After he
had left college, he commenced the study
of law, at Worcester, with colonel James
Putnam, and, during the period he was so
engaged, instructed pupils in the Latin
and Greek languages, in order to be able
to defray his expenses himself.-Before
proceeding farther, it may not be amiss to
notice the posture of affairs in Massachu-
setts at that epoch. For a long time past,
that province had been disturbed by al-
most unremitted contentions between its
inhabitants and the parliament of Great
Britain, on various important subjects.
The English legislature had, in fact,
nothing to do with the colonies, as all do-
minion acquired by conquest or discovery
invariably accrued to the king. To him
alone the emigrants paid allegiance and
applied for protection, and, although par-
liament always affected to believe itself
entitled to regulate their concerns, they re-
ceived very little interruption from it in the
exercise of the privilege granted them
by the king of governing and legislating
for themselves. In the course of time,
however, parliament became jealous of
the power, approaching to independence,
which they enjoyed, and began to impose
unconstitutional restraints upon their
commerce, to violate their charters, and,
in short, to treat them so arbitrarily, that
their spirit was completely roused, and a
vigorous resistance called forth. Massa-
chusetts, especially, had become a theatre
of perpetual struggle for power on the
one side, and for freedom on the other.
But it was hitherto only an intellectual
warfare, no idea of a separation from the
nother country having ever been enter-
tained.-In 1758, Mr. A. left the office of
colonel Putnam, and entered that of Jere-
45
miah Gridley, then attorney-general of the
province, and of the highest eminence at
the bar. Gridley had, some years previ-
ously, superintended also the legal studies
of James Otis, and, proud of his two pu-
pils, used often to say, that "he had raised
two young eagles, who were, one day or
other, to peck out his eyes." In 1759,
Mr. A. was admitted, at his recommenda-
tion, a member of the bar of Suffolk.
Mr. A. commenced the practice of his
profession in that part of his native town
now called Quincy, but first brought
himself into notice by his defence of a
prisoner in the county of Plymouth, from
which time a sufficiency of lucrative bu-
siness generally occupied his attention.
In 1761, he was admitted to the degree
of barrister at law, and shortly after-
wards was placed in the possession of a
small landed estate by his father's decease.
In February of this year, an incident
occurred, which inflamed his enthusiasm
in the cause of his country's rights to the
highest pitch. The British cabinet had
long shown a desire to assert the sovereign
authority of parliament over the colonies
in all cases of taxation and internal policy;
but the first evidence of its having deter-
mined to do so was an order in council,
issued this year, enjoining the officers of
the customs in Massachusetts Bay to exe-
cute the acts of trade, and make application
for writs of assistance to the supreme judi-
cature of the province. These writs were
a species of general search-warrants, au-
thorizing those who were empowered to
carry them into effect to enter all houses,
warehouses, &c., for the purpose of dis-
covering and seizing such goods as were
not discharged from the taxes imposed
upon them by the acts. The officers of
the customs applied for them, in pursu-
ance of their instructions, to the court at
Salem, but the demand was refused, on
account of doubts concerning their con-
stitutionality. It was then determined to
have the affair argued by counsel in
Boston. Great alarm now pervaded the
whole community. Mr. Otis was engag-
ed, by the merchants of Salem and Bos-
ton, to oppose the concession of so for-
midable an instrument of arbitrary power.
In order to do so with entire freedom, he
resigned the lucrative station of advocate-
general in the court of admiralty, which
he then enjoyed. Of the masterly man-
ner in which he performed his duty, Mr.
A., who was present at the discussion,
has transmitted a vivid account.
"Otis,"
says he, "was a flame of fire! With a
promptitude of classical allusion, a depth
46.
JOHN ADAMS.
of research, a rapid summary of historical
events and dates, a profusion of legal au-
thorities, a prophetic glance of his eyes
into futurity, and a rapid torrent of im-
petuous eloquence, he hurried away all
before him. American Independence was
then and there born." He afterwards
adds, “Every man of an immensely crowd-
ed audience appeared to me to go away,
as I did, ready to take arms against writs
of assistance." Speaking of this discourse
on another occasion, he said, "that James
Otis, then and there, first breathed into this
nation the breath of life."-In 1764, he mar-
ried Abigail Smith, second daughter of the
reverend William Smith, of Weymouth,
and grand-daughter of colonel Quincy,
of mount Wollaston, a lady every way
worthy of her husband, endowed by nature
with a countenance singularly noble and
lovely, and with a mind whose fine powers
were improved by an excellent education.
Her ardor in the cause of her country
was as elevated as his own, and her piety
unaffected and exemplary.-About a year
afterwards, Mr. A. published in the Boston
Gazette several pieces, under the title of
"An Essay on Canon and Feudal Law,"
which were reprinted in London, in 1768,
and called "A Dissertation on Canon and
Feudal Law." It is, perhaps, not the
smallest proof of its merit, that it was
there attributed to Gridley, who at that
time enjoyed the highest reputation for
ability. The friends of the colonies in
England termed it "one of the very
finest productions ever seen from North
America." The name of the real author
was afterwards divulged, in 1783, when
it was published in Philadelphia, by Rob-
ert Bell, in a pamphlet form, with lord
Sheffield's observations on the commerce
of the American States, and entitled "An
Essay on Canon and Feudal Law, by
Jolin Adams, Esq." It seems to have
been the principal object of the author to
extinguish, as far as possible, the blind
and almost superstitious vencration of his
countrymen for the institutions of the
parent country, by holding up to their
abhorrence the principles of the canon
and feudal law, and showing to them the
conspiracy which existed between church
and state, for the purpose of oppressing
the people. He inculcates the sentiments
of genuine liberty, as well as the neces-
sity of correct information on the part of
his fellow-citizens, in order that they
might be prepared to assert and maintain
their rights by force, if force should ever
become necessary. It was indeed a work
eminently calculated to excite the people
of America to resist, at all hazards, any
infringement of their liberties.-In De-
cember, 1765, Mr. A. was engaged, as
counsel with Mr. Gridley and Mr. Otis,
to support, before the governor and
council, a memorial presented to the for-
mer, from the town of Boston, praying
that the courts, which had been closed
on account of the opposition to the stamp
act, might again be opened. Through
their united exertions, the petition was
successful. In the same year, he remov-
ed to Boston, where he continued in the
practice of his profession on a very ex-
tensive scale. After he had resided there
about two years, the crown officers of the
province, thinking, perhaps, that his pat-
riotism was not without its price, made
him an offer, through Mr. Sewall (between
whom and himself an intimate friendship
subsisted, formed at the time when he
was studying with colonel Putnam), of the
office of advocate-general in the court of
admiralty, the most lucrative post in the
gift of the governor. This office also was
one which conducted its. incumbents di-
rectly to the highest provincial honors.
He refused it, however, as he says in his
preface to the late edition of Novanglus,
decidedly and peremptorily, though
respectfully."—In 1769, he was appointed
chairman of the committee, chosen by
the town of Boston, for the purpose of
drawing up instructions to their represent-
atives, to resist the encroachments of the
British government. His colleagues were
R. Dana and Jos. Warren. At the time
they were thus employed, the metropolis
was invested by an armed force, both by
sea and land, and the state-house sur-
rounded by a military guard, with cannon
pointed at the door. Large majorities of
both houses of parliament had signified
their approval of the measures adopted
by the king; had promised him their sup-
port, and besought him to prosecute,
within the realm, all those who had been
guilty of treasonable acts, in Massachu-
setts, since the year 1767, in accordance
with the decree of parliament of the 35th
of Henry VIII. Nevertheless, the com-
mittec performed their task with un-
daunted firmness, and reported the in-
structions which, no doubt, contributed
to produce the strong resolutions subse-
quently adopted by the legislature of
Massachusetts. It was on account of these
instructions and resolutions, that the pro-
vincial garrison was withdrawn, by order
of the governor, from the castle, and reg-
ular troops, in the pay of the crown, sub-
stituted.
The instructions also formed
JOHN ADAMS.
one of the specific charges made against
the colony by the committee of the lords
of council for plantation affairs, to the
lords of council, July 6, 1770.—A striking
example of the firmness and uprightness
of Mr. A. occurred during the course of
that year. He had, hitherto, been very
active in stimulating the people of his
province to the strenuous maintenance of
their rights, and had thereby aided in pro-
ducing an excitement greater than he
could have wished, and which he found
it necessary to counteract. The people
of Boston had become exasperated at the
idea of a garrison placed in their city, and
were extremely hostile to the soldiers
composing it. These feelings led to an
attack upon a party of them under the
command of captain Preston, March 5.
They fired on the assailants in self-de-
fence, and killed several of them. The
soldiers were immediately arraigned be-
fore the civil authority, and Mr. Adams, in
conjunction with Josiah Quincy and Mr.
Sampson S. Blowers, was requested to
aid them upon their trial. Although the
minds of the people were inflamed al-
most to madness, and the defence of the
accused seemed to involve a certain loss
of popularity, Mr. A. immediately under-
tock to act as their advocate. Mr. A.
was no demagogue; he saw that the hon-
or of his country was at stake, and he rc-
joiced, as has been well said, in the op-
portunity of showing to the world, that
the cause of America did not depend
upon a temporary excitement, which
could stifle the voice of justice, but upon
the sober, steady, persevering determina-
tion of the people to support their rights.
The cause was conducted by him and his
colleagues with great ability, and the sol-
diers were all acquitted save two, who
were found guilty of manslaughter, re-
ceived a slight branding as a punishment,
and were then discharged. Scarcely any
thing which occurred during the revolu-
tion confers more honor upon the nation-
al character, and did more service to the
cause of America, than this triumph of
justice. Mr. A. soon received a proof
that the public confidence in him was not
diminished, by his clection, in May, 1770,
to the legislature of his state, as one of
the representatives of the town of Boston.
His conduct in this new situation display-
ed the same patriotism, courage and hos-
tility to the despotism of the mother
country, by which he had always been
distinguished. He took a prominent part
in every public measure, and served on
several committees, who reported some of
47
the most important state papers of the
time; among which were the address and
protest to the governor against the remo-
val of the general court from Boston to
Cambridge. In Bradford's History of
Massachusetts, we find the following ac-
count of a controversy in which Mr. A.
was engaged in the year 1773. "The
ministerial regulation for paying the sal-
ary of the judges, which rendered them
wholly dependent on the crown, was the
occasion of a learned and able discussion
in the public papers, by William Brattle,
senior member of the council, and John
Adams. The essays of the latter were
written with great learning and ability,
and had a happy effect in enlightening
the public mind on a question of very
great importance. It subjected him, in-
deed, to the displeasure of governor
Hutchinson and the ministerial party;
and at the next election in May, when
chosen by the assembly into the council,
the governor gave his negative to the
choice. These essays were published in
the Boston Gazette of February, 1773,
under Mr. Adams's proper signature, and
would make a pamphlet of 50 or 60 pa-
ges."-In 1774, he was again rejected by
governor Gage, and soon afterwards he
was appointed one of the committee of
the town of Boston, who prepared the
celebrated resolutions on the Boston
port-bill. June 17, of this year, governor
Gage, having dissolved the assembly, this
body, before separating, passed a resolu-
tion to appoint a committee to meet other
committees from other colonies, for the
purpose of consulting upon their com-
mon interests, and, in consequence, Mr.
Thomas Cushing, Mr. Samuel Adams,
Mr. John Adams and Mr. Robert Treat
Paine were elected to the first continen-
tal congress, which met at Philadelphia
in the following September. Soon after
Mr. A. was chosen, an incident occurred
which gives an idea of his feelings on
contemplating this great and daring na-
tional movement. His friend Sewall,
who had taken the ministerial side in pol-
itics, and was at that time attorney-gen-
eral of the province, hearing of his elec-
tion, invited him to a morning walk, in
the course of which he endeavored to
dissuade him from his purpose of assum-
ing the seat in congress to which he had
been appointed. He told him that the
determination of Great Britain to pursue
her system was fixed; that her power
was irresistible, and would involve him
in destruction, as well as all his associates
who persevered in opposition to her de-
$
·
48
JOHN ADAMS.
I
signs. "I know," replied he, "that Great
Britain has determined on her system,
and that very determination determines
me on mine. You know that I have
been constant and uniform in opposition
to her designs. The die is now cast.
have passed the Rubicon. Sink or swim,
live or die, survive or perish with my
country, is my fixed, unalterable deterini-
nation." On bidding him adieu, Mr. A.
said to his friend, "I see we must part,
and with a bleeding heart I say, I fear
forever. But, you may depend upon it,
this adieu is the sharpest thorn on which
I ever set my foot." Mr. A. took his
seat in congress, Sept. 5, 1774, the first
day of their session, and was soon chosen
a member of some of the most important
committees, such as that which drew up
the statement of the rights of the colonies,
and that which prepared the address to
the king. He and his colleagues carried
with them the character of being so thor-
oughly desirous of independence, that,
before they arrived at Philadelphia, warn-
ing had been given to them, by many of
the most respectable inhabitants of the
Middle States, not to utter a word on that
subject, as it was as unpopular as the
stamp act itself. Almost all the delegates
from the other colonics were impressed
with the idea that England could be
brought to terms, without resorting to a
declaration of independence. Washing-
ton alone, of the Virginia delegation, was
doubtful whether the measures adopted
by congress would be efficacious in at-
taining the object for which they were
designed. In one of his letters, Mr. A.
says, that Richard Henry Lee used the
following language to him, when they
parted: "We shall infallibly carry all our
points; you will be completely relieved;
all the offensive acts will be repealed;
the army and fleet will be recalled, and
Britain will give up her foolish project."
On his return to Massachusetts, he be-
came engaged in a controversy with his
friend Sewall, who was writing a series
of essays under the appellation of Massa-
chusettensis, for the purpose of vindicating
the cause of the government party. Mr.
A.'s papers were published in the Boston
Gazette, with the signature of Novanglus,
and exhibit the cause of America in the
most triumphant and favorable light.—
When Mr. A. resumed his seat in con-
gress the following year, hostilities had in
reality commenced between Great Britain
and the colonists, though as yet not openly
declared, and the blood of numbers of
brave men had stained the plains of Lex-
ington and Concord. On receiving the
account of this battle, congress deter-
mined upon war. It was necessary to
fix upon some one for the post of com-
mander-in-chief of the troops which
were ordered to be raised. The
eycs of all the New England delegation
were turned upon general Ward, then
at the head of the army in Massachu-
setts. At a meeting of them, when
that officer was proposed for nomi-
nation, Mr. A. alone dissented, and
urged the selection of George Washing-
ton, one of the representatives from Vir-
ginia. He was resisted, and left the
meeting with the declaration that Wash-
ington on the next day should be nomi-
nated. He was accordingly nominated,
at the instigation of Mr. A., by governor
Johnstone of Maryland, and chosen with-
out an opposing voice.-Five days after
the appointment of general Washington,
Mr. Jefferson made his first appearance
on the floor of congress, having been
chosen by the people of Virginia to fill
the place of Patrick Henry, who had late-
ly been elected the governor of that prov-
ince. Between this distinguished man
and Mr. A. a friendship speedily arose,
which subsisted, with a short interrup-
tion, during the remainder of their lives.-
When Mr. A. returned to Massachusetts,
after the dissolution of the congress of
1775, the post of chief justice of the state
was offered to him, which he declined, on
account of his belief that he should be
able to render more effectual service to
the cause of his country in its national
councils. At the time that he resumed
his seat in them in 1776, hostilities were
active between Great Britain and the colo-
nies. But the object of the latter was as
yet merely to resist the authority assumed
by the parent country to impose taxes
upon them at pleasure. Few persons
entertained the idea of a dissolution of
connexion; very few, even of the delegates
in congress, seemed to desire it; but
among those few John Adams was the
foremost. We have already mentioned
its unpopularity. As soon as Mr. A. was
suspected in Philadelphia of being an ad-
vocate of that measure, he was repre-
sented constantly in the most odious
light, and even pointed at and avoided on
appearing in the streets. Still, however,
he persevered, made every day proselytes,
and, May 6, 1776, moved in congress a
resolution, which was, in fact, a virtual
declaration of independence, recommend-
ing to the colonies "to adopt such a
government as would, in the opinion of
་་
JOHN ADAMS.
the representatives of the people, best
conduce to the happiness and safety of
their constituents and of America." This
passed, after a hard struggle, on the 15th
of the same month, and was the prelude
to the glorious and daring resolution,
moved by Richard Henry Lee, of Virginia,
on the 7th of June following, and second-
ed by Mr. A., "that these united colonies
are, and of right ought to be, free and in-
dependent states; that they are absolved
from all allegiance to the British crown;
and that all political connexion between
them and the state of Great Britain is,
and of right ought to be, totally dissolved."
The debate upon this motion was of the
most animated character. It continued
from the 7th to the 10th, when the fur-
ther discussion of the measure was post-
poned to the 1st of July. A committee
of five was also appointed to prepare a
provisional draught of a declaration of
independence. The members of it were
chosen by ballot, and were Thomas Jef-
ferson, John Adams, Benjamin Franklin,
Roger Sherman, and Robert R. Living-
ston. Mr. Jefferson and Mr. A. were
deputed a sub-committee to prepare the
instrument, the former of whom, at the
earnest solicitation of the latter, became
its author. On the 1st of July, Mr. Lee's
resolution was again considered, and de-
bated during that and the following day,
when it was finally adopted. The draught
of the declaration was then submitted for
the purpose of undergoing an examination
in detail. It was passed on the 4th of the
same month, as prepared by Mr. Jeffer-
son, with only a few alterations, which
were made through a prudent deference
to the views of some of the states. Mr.
A. always preferred the draught as it
originally stood. The declaration was
not adopted without serious opposition
from many members of the congress, in-
cluding John Dickinson, one of the ablest
men in that assembly. But their argu-
ments were completely overthrown by
the force and eloquence of Mr. A., whose
speech on the subject of independence is
said to have been unrivalled. Mr. Jeffer-
son himself has affirmed, " that the great
pillar of support to the declaration of in-
dependence, and its ablest advocate and
champion on the floor of the house, was
John Adams." Speaking of his general
character as an orator, the same illustri-
ous man observed, that he was "the Co-
lossus of that congress: not graceful, not
elegant, not always fluent in his public
addresses, he yet came out with a power,
both of thought and expression, which
5
VOL. I.
49
moved his hearers from their seats."-Mr.
Silas Deane, who was a commissioner,
with Dr. Franklin and Mr. Arthur Lee,
at the court of Versailles, having been re-
called, Mr. A. was chosen, Nov. 28, 1777,
to fill his place. By this appointment, he
was released from the laborious and im-
portant duties of chairman of the board
of war, which post he had filled since
June 13, 1776. It is stated that he was a
member of ninety committees, twice as
many as any other representative, except
Richard Henry Lee and Samuel Adams,
of twenty-five of which he was chairman,
although it was the policy to put Virginia
generally at the head. Among these
committees were several of the greatest
consequence; one of them was that which
was sent to Staten Island at the request
of lord Howe, who had solicited an inter-
view with some of the members of con-
gress, which, however, produced no ef-
fect, on account of the refusal of his lord-
ship to consider them as commissioners
from congress, and the declaration made
by Mr. A., that "he might view him in
any light he pleased, except in that of a
British subject."-About two months af
ter his appointment, Mr. A. embarked
in the Boston frigate, and arrived safely
at his place of destination, though an
English fleet had been despatched to in-
tercept him. The treaties of commerce
and alliance with France were signed
before he reached that country, and, after
remaining there until the following Au-
gust, he returned to the United States, the
nomination of Dr. Franklin as minister
plenipotentiary to the court of Versailles
having superseded the powers of the com-
missioners. Immediately on his arrival,
he was elected a member of the conven-
tion to prepare a form of government for
the state of Massachusetts, and placed up-
on the sub-committee chosen to draught
the project of a constitution, to be laid
before that body. The general frame of
the constitution, particularly the manner
of dividing and distributing power, and
the clause respecting the duty incumbent
upon government with regard to the pat-
ronage of literature and the arts and sci-
ences, were the work of his pen. Three
months after his return, congress again
sent him abroad with two commissions,
one as minister plenipotentiary to nego-
tiate a peace, the other to form a com-
mercial treaty with Great Britain. He em-
barked in the French frigate Sensible, Nov.
17, and was forced to land at Corunna, in
Spain, from which place he travelled over
the mountains to Paris, where he arrived
50
JOHN ADAMS.
in Feb. 1780.-After remaining a short
time in that city, having found the French
court jealous of his commission to form a
treaty of commerce with Great Britain,
he repaired to Holland in Aug. 1780, the
same year in which congress passed a
vote of approbation of his conduct, instead
of recalling him, as the French minister,
count de Vergennes, had solicited them
to do, on account of his refusal to com-
municate to him his instructions about
the treaty of commerce, and his opposi-
tion to a claim set up by France, that,
when congress called in the old conti-
nental paper money at forty for one, a
discrimination ought to have been made,
in favor of the French holders of that pa-
per.-The June previous to his journey
to Amsterdam, Mr. A. was appointed in
the room of Mr. Laurens to obtain loans
in Holland, and, in December of the same
year, was invested with full powers to
negotiate a treaty of amity and commerce
with that country. Mr. A. at first had to
contend with great difficulties in Holland.
He was opposed by the whole influence
of the British government, as well as by
the power of the prince of Orange, and
even, strange as it may appear, by the in-
trigues of France herself, the professed
friend and avowed ally of the United
States. He found the people of Holland
entirely unacquainted with the affairs of
his country, and immediately began to
impart to them information concerning
that subject, using, for this purpose, prin-
cipally, two newspapers, one called the
Leyden Gazette, and the other Le Politique
Hollandois, in which he wrote various
political articles. He also published a
series of twenty-six letters, in answer to a
set of queries proposed to him by Mr.
Kalkoen, an eminent jurist of Amster-
dam, containing an account of the rise
and progress of the dispute with Great
Britain, and of the resources, spirit and
prospects of the United States. These
epistles, together with some essays writ-
ten by Mr. Kalkoen, drawing a compari-
son between the struggles of the United
States for their liberty, and those formerly
made by the seven United Provinces,
which eventuated in their independence,
had a great effect in enlightening the peo-
ple of Holland, and inspired them with
sentiments highly favorable to the Ameri-
can cause. Shortly afterwards, Dec. 21,
1780, a rupture took place between Eng-
land and Holland, occasioned by the ac-
cession of the latter to the armed neutral-
ity, and the discovery of a negotiation
between Mr. Lee, the American commis-
sioner at Berlin, and Mr. Van Berckel,
the pensionary of Amsterdam, for a treaty
of amity and commerce.-Even at this
early period, he had formed an opinion
decidedly in favor of the establishment
of a navy, and expressed it in almost all
his letters to his friends at home.-In Ju-
ly, 1781, he was summoned to Paris for
the purpose of consulting upon the offer
of mediation made by the courts of Aus-
tria and Russia, and suggested an answer
adopted by the French court, which put
an end to the negotiation on that sub-
ject; the mediating powers refusing to
acknowledge the independence of the
United States without the consent of
Great Britain.-Oct. 19, 1781, Mr. A., in
opposition to the advice of the duke de
la Vauguion, the French minister at the
Hague, and on his own responsibility,
communicated to their high mightinesses
his letters of credence, presenting to their
president also, at the same time, a memo-
rial, dated April 19, in which he justified
the declaration of independence, and
endeavored to convince the people of
Holland that it was for their interest to
form a connexion with the United States,
and to give them support in their difficul-
ties. As he had not yet been acknowl-
edged by the States General as the min-
ister of a sovereign and independent na-
tion, the president could not receive the
memorial in form, but he engaged to
make a report of the substance of what
had been communicated to him by Mr.
A. In the August previous, Mr. A. had
received instructions to propose a triple
alliance between France, the United Prov-
inces and the United States, to exist as
long as hostilities were carried on by the
latter against Great Britain, one of the
indispensable conditions of which, on the
part of Holland, was the recognition of
American independence. The alliance
never was effected, but the latter object
Mr. Adams accomplished. Jan. 9, 1782,
not having received a reply to his memo-
rial, he waited upon the president, and
demanded a categorical answer. The
States General then took the subject im-
mediately into consideration, and Mr. A.
was acknowledged, April 19, as ambassa-
dor of the United States to their high migh-
tinesses, and three days afterwards was
received as such.-Having obtained as-
surance that Great Britain would recog-
nise the independence of the United
States, he repaired, in Oct. 1782, to Paris,
whither he had refused to go before such
assurance was given, to commence the
negotiation for peace, and there met Dr.
JOHN ADAMS.
Franklin, Mr. Jay and Mr. Laurens, who,
as well as Mr. Jefferson, had been ap-
pointed his colleagues. Their instruc-
tions, a part of which was "to undertake
nothing without the knowledge and con-
currence of the ministers of France, and
ultimately to govern themselves by their
advice and opinion," placed them almost
entirely under the control of the French
court. They were greatly displeased at
being thus shackled, and, after a short
time, finding themselves in a very embar-
rassing situation, they boldly determined
to disobey their instructions, and act for
themselves and for their country, without
consulting the ministers of a supposed
treacherous ally. The definitive treaty
of peace was ratified Jan. 14, 1784.-Af
ter serving on two or three commissions
to form treaties of amity and commerce
with foreign powers, Mr. A., in 1785, was
appointed the first minister to London.
It is related that, upon his introduction
to the king, the latter, knowing his dis-
gust at the intrigues of the French court,
and wishing to compliment him, express-
ed his pleasure at receiving a minister
who had no prejudices in favor of France,
the natural enemy of his crown. The
reply of Mr. Adams evinced his pairiot
ism and honesty of character. May it
please your majesty," said he, "I have
no prejudices but for my own country."
In 1787, whilst in London, he published
his Defence of the American Constitu-
tions against the attacks which they had
sustained, and in October of that year, by
his own request, he was allowed to re-
turn to the United States. Congress, at
the same time that they gave him such
permission, passed a resolution of thanks
to be presented to him for his able and
faithful discharge of the various impor-
tant commissions with which he had
been intrusted.-Immediately after his
return, Mr. A. was elected the first vice-
president of the United States under the
new constitution, and re-elected as such
in 1793. He discharged the duties of
his office until March 4, 1797, when he
succeeded to the presidency, vacated by
the resignation of general Washington.
This great man's confidence he possessed
in an eminent degree, and was consulted
by him as often as any member of the
cabinet. As the two parties in the senate
were nearly balanced, Mr. A., while act-
ing, ex officio, as president of that body,
had often to decide questions, by his
casting vote, of the highest importance,
and which had excited a great deal of
party feeling. One instance of this oc-
51
curred, when Mr. Clarke's resolution pro-
hibiting all intercourse with Great Britain
on account of the capture of several
American vessels by British ships, and
other grievances, was brought before the
senate, after having been adopted by the
house of representatives, April 18, 1784.
Upon this bill the senators were equally
divided, and Mr. Adams decided against
it, thinking that it would have no good
effect upon the policy of England, would
injure us as much as her, and perhaps
occasion a war.-In 1797, he became, we
have said, president of the U.S. It will
not be necessary to enter into a detail of
the events of his administration, as they
belong rather to the department of the
historian than of the biographer. It will
be sufficient to mention a few important
circumstances. When he commenced
the discharge of the duties of his office,
he found the government embroiled in a
dispute with France, and, in one of his
earliest communications to congress, com-
plained, in dignified and eloquent lan-
guage, of a grievous insult offered by the
government of that country to the am-
bassador of the United States. Wishing
still to preserve peace, he despatched a
Commission consisting of three envoys,
Messrs. Pinckney, Marshall and Gerry,
to France. The French government
treated them in the most contumelious
manner. Such, however, was the violence
of party spirit, and so large a portion of
the American people entertained an en-
thusiastic admiration of France, that even
the measures which Mr. A. then took
for sustaining the national dignity had no
inconsiderable effect in diminishing his
popularity.—Mr. A. was the founder of the
American navy. Before his administra-
tion, scarcely an American ship of war
was to be scen upon the ocean; but, during
this period, by his strenuous exertions,
mainly, a very respectable naval force
was created. His administration, how-
ever, was not of long continuance, having
pleased neither of the two great parties
which divided the country (the greatest
praise, perhaps, that it could receive), his
measures being too strong for the demo-
crats and too weak for the federalists.
In consequence of this, after his term of
four years had expired, March 4, 1801, it
was found that his adversary, Mr. Jeffer-
son, had succeeded by a majority of 1 vote.
After his retirement to his farm in Quin-
cy, Mr. A. occupied himself with agricul-
tural pursuits, obtaining amusement from
the literature and politics of the day. He
was nominated as governor of Massa-
52
SAMUEL ADAMS.
chusetts, but declined being a candidate,
wishing only for repose. During the dis-
putes with England, which occurred
while Mr. Jefferson was in office, Mr. A.
published a series of letters, in a Boston
paper, supporting the policy of the admin-
istration. His published writings, besides
those which we have already mentioned,
are "Discourses on Davila," composed in
1790, while he was vice-president, and
printed in June and July of that year, in
the Gazette of the United States. In 1816,
Mr. A. was chosen a member of the elec-
toral college, which voted for the clevation
of Mr. Monroe to the presidency; and, the
following year, sustained the greatest af-
fliction that he had ever been called upon
to endure, by the loss of his wife. On
this occasion, he received a beautiful let-
ter of condolence from Mr. Jefferson, be-
tween whom and himself their former
friendship, interrupted for a time by the
animosities of party, had been revived.
In 1820, he was elected a member of the
convention, to revise the constitution of
his state, and chosen its president. This
honor he was constrained to decline, on
account of his infirmities and great age,
being then 85 years old; but he attended
the convention es a member, and fulfilled
the auty incumbent upon him as such.
After that, his life glided away in uninter-
rupted tranquillity, until the 4th of July,
1826, when he breathed his last with the
same hallowed sentiment on his lips,
which on that glorious day, fifty years
before, he had uttered on the floor of
congress" Independence forever." On
the morning of the jubilee, he was roused
by the ringing of the bells and the firing
of cannon, and, on being asked by the
servant who attended him, whether he
knew what day it was, he replied, "O
yes! it is the glorious 4th of July-God
Bless it-God bless you all." In the course
of the day, he said, "It is a great and glo-
rious day," and, just before he expired,
exclaimed, "Jefferson survives." But Jef-
ferson had already, at one o'clock, that
same day, rendered his spirit into the
hands of its Creator.
ADAMS, Samuel, was one of the most
remarkable men connected with the
American revolution. He was descended
from a family that had been among the
early planters of New England, was born
in Boston, September 27th, 1722, was
educated at Harvard college, and received
its honors in 1740. When he took the
degree of master, in 1743, he proposed
the following question; "Whether it be
lawful to resist the supreme magistrate,
1
if the commonwealth cannot be otherwise
preserved ?" He maintained the affirm-
ative, and this collegiate exercise furnish-
cd a very significant index to his subse-
quent political career.-On leaving the
university, he engaged in the study of
divinity, with the intention of becoming
a clergyman, but did not pursue his de-
sign. From his earliest youth, his atten-
tion was drawn to political affairs, and he
occupied himself, both in conversation
and writing, with the political concerns
of the day. He was opposed to governor
Shirley, because he thought too much
power was conferred upon him, and was
the friend of his successor, Pownal, as
the latter assumed the popular side. He
became so entirely a public man, and dis-
covered such a jealous, watchful and un-
yielding regard for popular rights, that he
excited the general attention of the patriot-
ic party, and they took the opportunity, in
the year 1766, to place him in the legisla-
ture. From that period till the close of the
revolutionary war, he was one of the
most unwearied, efficient, and disinter-
ested assertors of American freedom and
independence. He grew conspicuous very
soon after his admission into the house, of
which he was chosen clerk, it being then
the practice to take that officer from among
the members. He obtained the same kind
of influence, and exercised the same in-
defatigable activity in the affairs of the le-
gislature, that he did in those of his town.
Ile was upon every committee, had a
hand in writing or revising every report,
a share in the management of every po-
litical meeting, private or public, and a
voice in all the measures that were pro-
posed, to counteract the tyrannical plans
of the administration. The people soon
found him to be one of the steadiest
of their supporters, and the government
was convinced, that he was one of the
most inveterate of their opponents. When
his character was known in England, and
it was also understood that he was poor,
the partisans of the ministry, who felt
annoyed by the "disturbances in Ameri-
ca," resorted to the usual practice, when
the clamorous grow too troublesome, and
proposed that he should be quieted by a
participation in some of the good things
they were enjoying. Governor Hutchin-
son, in answering the inquiry of a friend,
why he was not silenced in this man-
ner, wrote, with an expression of impa-
tient vexation-" Such is the obstinacy
and inflexible disposition of the man, that
he never can be conciliated by any office
or gift whatever."-Ile continued in the
SAMUEL ADAMS-ADAM'S APPLE.
legislature till 1774, when he was sent to
the first congress of the old confederation.
He had been previously chosen secretary
of Massachusetts, which office was per-
formed by deputy during his absence.
He was one of the signers of the declara-
tion of 1776, which he labored most in-
defatigably and unhesitatingly to bring
forward. He was an active member of
the convention that formed the constitu-
tion of Massachusetts; and, after it went
into effect, he was placed in the senate
of the state, and for several years presided
over that body. In 1789, he was elected
lieutenant-governor, and held that office
till 1794, when, after the death of Han-
cock, he was chosen governor, and was
annually re-elected till 1797. He then
retired from public life, and died at his
house in Winter street, Boston, October
2, 1803, in the 82d year of his age. He
was one of that class who saw very carly,
that, "after all, we must fight;" and, hav-
ing come to that conclusion, there was
no citizen more prepared for the extrem-
ity, or who would have been more reluc-
tant to enter into any kind of compro-
mise. After he had received warning at
Lexington, in the night of the 18th of
April, of the intended British expedition,
as he proceeded to make his escape
through the fields with some friends, soon
after the dawn of day, he exclaimed, "This
is a fine day!" Very pleasant, indeed,"
answered one of his companions, suppos-
ing he alluded to the beauty of the sky and
atmosphere. "I mean," he replied, "this
day is a glorious day for America!" His
situation at that moment was full of peril
and uncertainty, but, throughout the con-
test, no damage to himself or to his coun-
try ever discouraged or depressed him.—
The very faults of his character tended, in
some degree, to render his services more
useful, by concentrating his exertions, and
preventing their being weakened by indul-
gence or liberality towards different opin-
ions. There was some tinge of bigotry
and narrowness both in his religion and
politics. He was a strict Calvinist; and,
probably, no individual of his day had
so much of the feelings of the ancient Pu-
ritans as he possessed. In politics, he
was so jealous of delegated power, that
he would not have given our constitutions
inherent force enough for their own pres-
ervation. He attached an exclusive val-
ue to the habits and principles in which
he had been educated, and wished to ad-
just wide concerns too closely after a par-
ticular model. One of his colleagues,
who knew him well, and estimated him
5*
(6
53
highly, described him, with good-natured
exaggeration, in the following manner:
"Samuel Adams would have the state of
Massachusetts govern the Union, the town
of Boston govern Massachusetts, and that
he should govern the town of Boston, and
then the whole would not be intentionally
ill-governed."-It was a sad error of judg-
ment that caused him to undervalue, for
a period at least, the services of Washing-
ton during the revolutionary war, and to
think that his popularity, when president,
might be dangerous. Still, these un-
founded prejudices were honestly enter-
tained, and sprang naturally from his dis-
position and doctrines. During the war,
he was impatient for some more decisive
action than it was in the power of the com-
mander-in-chief, for a long time, to bring
about; and when the new constitution
went into operation, its leaning towards
aristocracy, which was the absurd impu-
tation of its enemies, and which his anti-
federal bias led him more readily to be-
lieve, derived all its plausibility from the
just, generous and universal confidence
that was reposed in the chief magistrate.
These things influenced his conduct in
old age, when he was governor of Massa-
chusetts, and while the extreme heat of
political feelings would have made it im-
possible for a much less positive charac-
ter to administer any public concerns,
without one of the parties of that day be-
ing dissatisfied.-But all these circumstan-
ces are to be disregarded, in making an
estimate of his services. He, in fact, was
born for the revolutionary epoch; he was
trained and nurtured in it, and all his
principles and views were deeply imbued
with the dislikes and partialities which
were created during that long struggle.
He belonged to the revolution; all the
power and peculiarity of his character
were developed in that career; and his
share in public life, under a subsequent
state of things, must be considered as sub-
ordinate and unimportant.-His private
habits were simple, frugal and unostenta-
tious. Notwithstanding the austerity of
his character, his aspect was mild, digni-
fied and gentlemanly. He was entirely
superior to pecuniary considerations, and,
after having been so many years in the
public service, must have been buried at
the public expense, if the afflicting death
of an only son had not remedied this hon-
orable poverty.
ADAM'S APPLE is a kind of orange, the
citrus aurantium of Linnæus.-The same
name is also given to the protuberance in
the fore part of the throat, occasioned by
1
54
ADAM'S APPLE-ADANSON.
the projection of the thyroid cartilage of
the larynx. This name originated from
the tradition, that a piece of the forbidden
fruit, which Adam ate, stuck in his throat,
and occasioned the swelling.
ADAM'S PEAK; the highest mountain in
the island of Ceylon, called by the inhab-
itants Ham-al-el. It lies under 6° 49′ N.
lat., 80° 43′ E. lon., and can be seen, in
clear weather, from the sea at a distance
of 150 miles. It has neither been meas-
ured, nor geologically examined. The
chief river of the island, Mahavillagonga,
the mouth of which forms, at Trincoma-
lee, the best harbor in all India, has its
source in this mountain. It is considered
sacred by the followers of Buddha, many
of whom make pilgrimages to it. The
betel-leaf is exchanged by them as a sign
of peace, for the purpose of strengthening
the bands of kindred, confirining friend-
ships and reconciling enmities. A priest
then blesses them on the summit, and
enjoins them to live virtuously at home.
According to Davy, the road which leads
to the summit is, with all its windings, 8
miles long, and in some places very steep.
Upon the top, the priests show a footstep
which Buddha is said to have made.
The place is surrounded by venerable old
trees, particularly rhododendra.
ADAMSON, Patrick, a native of Perth,
and a distinguished Latin poet, was born
in 1536. After having studied at St. An-
drews, he visited Paris, Padua and other
places distinguished for their universities,
and at Geneva imbibed the Calvinistic
doctrines from the celebrated Beza. On
his return, he escaped from the massacre
of St. Bartholomew by flight, and lay
concealed a long time at Bourges, where
he composed his paraphrase of Job, and
some other works. On his return to Scot-
land, he was appointed minister of Pais-
ley, and afterwards, by the favor and in-
terest of the regent Morton, was raised to
the archbishopric of St. Andrews. In
this elevated situation, he was surrounded
with dangers and difficulties, and the viru-
lence of the Presbyterians was successful-
ly directed against him, as the firmest pil-
lar of episcopacy. James VI, however,
patronised him, and sent him as his am-
bassador to England, where his eloquence
and address gained bin admirers, and
raised such a tide of popularity in favor
of the young king, his master, that the
jealousy of Elizabeth forbade him again
to ascend the pulpit while at her court.
His principal objects in England were to
gain friends for his master among the no-
bles, and to support the cause of episco-
pacy in Scotland. In 1584, he was recall-
cd, and so violent was the irritation of the
Presbyterians against him, that, at a pro-
vincial synod, he was accused and excom-
municated; and neither appeals to the
king and to the states, nor protestations
of innocence, would have saved him from
this disgraceful sentence, if he had not
yielded to the storm, and implored pardon
in the most abject terms. His life con-
tinued a scene of persecution; even the
monarch grew deaf to his petitions, and
alienated the revenues of his see in favor
of the duke of Lenox, so that A., in addi-
tion to the indignities offered to his office,
had to endure the pangs of indigence, in
the midst of a forlorn and starving family.
He died 1591. A 4to. volume of his
works has been published, containing
translations of some of the books of the
Bible in Latin verse, frequently composed
to alleviate his griefs and disarm the ter-
rors of persecution. He also wrote a his-
tory of his own times.
He
ADANSON, Michel, a botanist, born at
Aix, 1727, made natural history his favor-
ite study, and chose Réaumur and Ber-
nard de Jussicu for his guides. His em-
ulation was roused by the brilliant success
of the system of Linnæus. Ile abandoned
the study of divinity, and, in the prosecu-
tion of his favorite pursuits, made several
journeys to regions never yet visited by
man. In 1748, at the age of 21, he went
to the river Senegal, in the belief that the
unhealthiness of the climate would, for a
long time, prevent naturalists from visiting
this country. He collected, with all the
zeal of an enthusiast, invaluable treasures
in the three kingdoms of nature; and, per-
ceiving the defects in the established clas-
sification of plants, endeavored to substi-
tute another more comprehensive.
also prepared exact maps of the countries
through which he travelled, and compiled
dictionaries of the languages of the differ-
ent tribes, with whose manners and cus-
toms he had become acquainted. After
a residence of 5 years in an unhealthy
climate, he returned to his country, in the
possession of very valuable collections,
and published, in 1757, Histoire Naturelle
du Sénégal. Some masterly essays of his
were printed in the memoirs of the French
academy, and procured him the honor of
being chosen a member of the institute.
These essays were only preludes to his
learned and comprehensive botanical
work, Familles des Plantes, 2 vols., 1763.
The work, however, did not effect the
object for which it was written,-the cs-
tablishment of a new system of botany, in
ADANSON-ADDISON.
opposition to that of Linnæus. He was
preparing a new edition, with numerous
alterations and important additions, when
he formed the plan of publishing a com-
plete encyclopædia. In hopes of receiv-
ing support from Louis XV, he began to
collect materials, which, in a short time,
increased to an immense mass; and in
1775, he laid before the academy a pros-
pectus of a work, ou so large a scale as
to excite gencral astonishment. It was
carefully examined, but the result did not
answer the expectations of the author.
A.'s plan was good, but he was wrong in
insisting upon the immediate publication
of the whole. This obstinacy is the rea-
son that the work has never been printed.
He continued, however, to increase his
materials with unwearied diligence. Some
valuable essays, printed in the memoirs
of the academy, are all of his writings
that subsequently came before the pub-
lic. The idea of executing his great work
continually occupied his mind, and he
employed all his means for this purpose.
But the revolution reduced him to ex-
treme poverty, and when the national in-
stitute chose him one of its members, he
declined the invitation because he had no
shoes. A pension was then conferred
upon him, which he enjoyed till his death,
in 1806, continually employed in prepar-
ing his great work. The number of his
printed books is small, in comparison with
the mass of manuscripts which he has
left. A good selection of these would be
very acceptable to the literary public.
ADDINGTON, Henry, lord viscount Sid-
mouth, son of a physician, who united
with the study of his profession a love for
politics. Henry A., born in 1756, was
educated with Pitt, the son of lord Chat-
ham. The splendid career of his friend
opened to him also the path to distinction.
As a member of parliament, he supported
Pitt against Fox with all his power. In
1789, A. was chosen speaker of the house
of commons, and continued in this hon-
orable office, even after the convocation
of a new parliament. Ever faithful to the
party of Pitt, he only once disagreed in
opinion with his friend on the motion of
Wilberforce, in 1792, to abolish the Afri-
can slave trade, and voted for its gradual
abolition. Through his influence, the
time of prohibition was deferred till 1800.
But this temporary difference of opinion
neither destroyed their intimacy, nor pre-
vented their agreement in the same gen-
cral system of politics. Feb. 5, 1801, Pitt
resigned the office of chancellor of the
exchequer in favor of A. While in this
war.
55
office, A. made several reports on the state
of the finances in England, on the neces-
sity of new loans, &c. He was an advo-
cate of peace, after the treaty of Amiens,
which was considered to have been
But as soon
brought about by him.
as the treaty was violated, he propos-
ed measures of hostility, and showed
himself one of the warmest advocates of
His enemies attempted to injure
him, during the period of the king's ill-
ness, in the beginning of 1804; but the
sudden recovery of the king frustrated
their designs. New attacks, however,
compelled him to leave his station, to
which Pitt was again raised, May 10.
The king then conferred upon him the
title of lord viscount Sidmouth, and hon-
ored him with his confidence. In Jan-
uary, 1806, he became again connected
with the government, as keeper of the
great seal, but soon resigned this office.
In 1812, when lord Liverpool was ap-
pointed first lord of the treasury, in the
place of Mr. Perceval, who had been mur-
dered, lord Sidmouth again took his seat
in the cabinet, as secretary of state for
the home department, but retired from
office in 1822. Mr. Peel was his succes-
sor.
ADDISON, Joseph, a poet and miscella-
neous writer, was born at Milston, Wilt-
shire, where his father was rector, in
1672, and died 1719. He received the
first part of his education in his native
place: at the age of 11, his father having
been appointed dean of Litchfield, he be-
came a pupil of Mr. Shaw. But we have
no account of his early character, except
that he distinguished himself in a barring
out.
At the age of 15, he was entered at
Queen's college, Oxford, where his Latin
poem on the inauguration of William and
Mary obtained his election into Mag-
dalen college, on the founder's bene-
faction. His other Latin poems may be
found with this in the Musa Angelicance,
collected by himself. In 1693, having
taken the degree of master of arts, he
published his first attempt in English,
some verses inscribed to Dryden, with a
translation of part of the fourth Georgic
of Virgil, and other pieces in prose and
verse. In 1695, he wrote a poem "To
King William," and obtained the patron-
age of lord Somers, keeper of the great
seal, by addressing it to him. Having
declined entrance into holy orders, he
obtained a pension of £300 by the influ-
ence of Somers, and Montague, chancellor
of the exchequer, to enable him to travel;
and in 1701, he wrote the Poctical Epistle
56
ADDISON.
from Italy, to Montague, now lord Hali-
fax, of which Dr. Johnson says, "It is the
most elegant, if not the most sublime, of
his poetical compositions." During his
travels, he began his tragedy of Cato, and
composed the Dialogues on Medals, and,
after his return, which was hastened by
the loss of his pension, he published his
Travels. In Johnson's opinion, this work
might have been written at home. In
1704, at the request of lord Godolphin, A.
celebrated the victory of Hochstadt, or
Blenheim, in a poem called the Cam-
paign. Before it was finished, it pro-
cured for him the office of commissioner
of appeals, in which he was the successor
of Locke. About this time, he wrote al-
so the opera of Rosamond, which was
hissed from the stage, but was published
with success. The next year he accom-
panied lord Halifax to Hanover, and was
soon after chosen under-secretary of state.
In 1709, he went to Ireland as secretary
to the earl of Wharton, and was at the
same time appointed keeper of the rec-
ords in Bermingham's tower, with an
allowance of £300 per annum. While A.
was in Ireland, Steele, the friend of his
youth, began the publication of the
Tattler, a series of essays on literature
and manners: to this paper A. became a
contributor. The first number of the
Tattler appeared in 1709, and was suc-
ceeded, in March, 1711, by the Spectator,
which was continued daily till December,
1712. Some time afterward, the Guar-
dian was undertaken by Steele, and to
this A. contributed. Ilis papers in the
Spectator are marked by one of the let-
ters in the name Clio, and in the Guardi-
an, by a hand. After the publication of
the Guardian, the Spectator was revived,
and the eighth volume completed. In
this his papers are not distinguished by
any mark. The popularity of these works
was very great, 20,000 copies of the Spec-
tator being distributed at one time, and
they yet stand among the classics of Eng-
lish literature. This preeminence is ow-
ing to the genius of A. This kind of
writing was new, and more adapted to
produce an effect on the great mass of
society than any literary productions
which had preceded it. It is the prolific
mother of modern periodical literature.
It describes and criticises the manners of
the times, delineates character, exposes
the follies and reproves the vices which
fashion countenances. It has contributed
much to reform the taste of the English
nation. A.'s papers, in these works, may
be divided into the comic, the serious and
the critical. His humor is peculiar, his
satire easy and delicate, and his wit is
always on the side of truth and virtue.
His serious papers are distinguished by
beauty, propriety and elegance of style,
not less than by their pure tone of moral-
ity and religion. They are a code of
practical ethics. His critical essays con-
tain many just remarks, conveyed in an
easy and popular manner, and display the
results of much study and delicate taste.
In 1713, A.'s tragedy of Cato was repre-
sented with very great success. It had
a run of 35 nights, and was always receiv-
cd with applause. This was undoubtedly
owing to party feelings; the whigs hail-
ing whatever was favorable to liberty in
the production of a whig, and the tories
reechoing the approbation, to show that
they did not feel the censure it was sup-
posed to convey. But, although not cal-
culated to engage an English audience,
the poetry is fine, and the principal char-
acters well supported. A. was afterwards
engaged in several periodicals, principally
political, went again, as secretary of the
viceroy, to Ireland, and was appointed
one of the lords of trade. In 1716, he
married the countess of Warwick, who
was won with difficulty, and whose
haughty treatment of him often drove
him to a tavern. The year after his mar-
riage, he was appointed secretary of state;
but his inability to speak in public, and
his solicitude about the elegance of his
expressions, rendered him unfit for the
duties of the office, and he soon retired,
with a pension of £1500. Ilis principal
work, after this, was the Evidences of
Christianity, a work useful at the time,
as recommending the subject by elegance
and perspicuity to popular notice, but
since superseded by more complete trea-
tises. His death was that of a Christian
philosopher. Before he expired, he sent
for his pupil, lord Warwick, a young man
of loose life, and addressed him in these
words: "I have sent for you that you
may see how a Christian can die." This
scene is alluded to in the lines of Tickell
on his death:
"
He taught us how to live, and-oh! too high
The price of knowledge-taught us how to die.'
He was buried in Westminster abbey.
A. was a sincere believer in the Chris-
tian revelation; in politics earnest, but not
violent, he was respected, if not beloved,
by individuals of both parties. Serious
and reserved in his manners, modest and
even timid in society, he spoke little be-
fore strangers. "I have never," said lord
Chesterfield, "seen a more modest, or a
ADDISON-ADELUNG.
more awkward man;" but he was easy,
fluent and familiar, in the company of his
friends. He studied all the morning,
dined at a tavern, and spent the evening
at Button's, a coffee-house frequented by
the wits of the time. As a poet, he is
distinguished for taste and elegance, but
is destitute of high poetic genius. His
prose is remarkable for its purity, perspi-
cuity and simplicity, and for the higher
graces of harmony and richness of meta-
phor. It is the sentence of the great
judge of English literature, that "he who
would write English with correctness and
elegance must give his days and nights
to the study of Addison." His chief
works are the tragedy of Cato, his papers
in the Tattler, the Spectator and the
Guardian, and the Evidences of the Chris-
tian Religion.
57
scholar, distinguished for his exertions to
improve the literature and language of
his country, was born August 8, 1732, at
Spantekow, in Pomerania, where his fa-
ther was a clergyman. He received his
first instruction partly at Anklam, partly
at Klosterbergen, near Magdeburg, and
finished his education at Halle. In 1759, he
was appointed professor in the Protestant
academy at Erfurt; but, two years after,
ecclesiastical disputes caused him to re-
move to Leipsic, where he applied him-
self, with indefatigable activity, to the ex-
tensive works by which he has been so
useful to the German language and liter-
ature, particularly his Grammatisch-krit.
Wörterbuch der hochdeutschen Mundart.
Leipsic, 1774-86, 4 vols. and 1st half of
the 5th. In 1787, he received, from the
then elector of Saxony, the place of
first librarian of the public library in
Dresden. This office he held till his
death, Sept. 10, 1806. A. has alone per-
formed for the German language what
whole academies have done for others.
His grammatical, critical dictionary sur-
passes the English lexicon of Johnson in
the accuracy and order of the definitions,
and more especially in the department of
etymology, but is inferior to it in the
selection of classic authorities, because
A.'s predilection for the Upper Saxon, or
Misnian authors, induced him to neglect
those writers whose country or style he
disliked, and his taste was so limited, that
he would not allow of any deviation from
the established forms and settled laws
of style. His methodical mind was struck
with terror at the irregularities and the
flood of new words with which he thought
the German language menaced, and could
not appreciate its admirable flexibility and
copiousness, in which it is equalled by
the Grecian alone.
Voss and Campe
have animadverted upon this defect with
great truth, but perhaps with too little for-
bearance. The second edition of the dic-
tionary of A., 1798-1801, contains a
number of additions which are valuable
in themselves, but in no proportion to the
progress which the language has made in
the mean time, and show too plainly that
the most unwearied industry cannot com-
pensate for a defective plan. (See Ger-
man Language.) Of A's other works,
we would mention his German grammar,
his Magazin für die Deutsche Sprache,
his work on German style, his Aelteste
Geschichte der Deutschen, his Directori-
um, important for its exposition of the
sources of the history of the south of Sax-
ADELUNG, John Christopher. This ony, Meissen, 1802, 4to., and his Mithri-
ADDRESS. In modern times, importance
has been given to the manifestation of
public opinion to the sovereign, in the
form of addresses; and governments, in
difficult emergencies, have in turn ad-
dressed the people. A communication
from the rulers to the citizens is called a
proclamation. In France only, at the time
when the sovereignty of the people was
acknowledged, the higher authorities sent
addresses to the people. An address is
cssentially different from a petition, since
it contains only an expression of thanks,
satisfaction or dissatisfaction, communi-
cates information, justifics measures, &c.
This practice owes its origin to the British
parliament, which is accustomed to an-
swer the king's speeches, delivered at the
commencement and close of each session,
by a public acknowledgment of the obli-
gations of the nation. The same custom
is adopted by the congress of the United
States. (See Jefferson's Manual of Parlia-
mentary Practice.) The constitutions of
the several German states grant this right
in a very limited sense. In Wurtemberg,
it has been declared unconstitutional, in
reference to the army, and in Bavaria,
the estates have only the right of trans-
mitting petitions to the king, and of com-
plaining against the ministers of state.
The right of the citizens, in associations
or otherwise, to present addresses, is con-
nected with the right of complaining, con-
voking assemblies and signing in a body.
It is obvious, that addresses of thanks and
satisfaction, like those with which Napo-
leon was so much pleased, are of impor-
tance only in case the expression of pub-
lic opinion is free.
ADELM. (See Adhelm).
58
ADELUNG-ADHESION.
dates, in which last work he designed to
store up the fruits of all his investigations,
but finished only the first volume; for
the three others, we are indebted to the
lexicographer Vater, of Halle, who em-
ployed for this purpose, partly the papers
of the deceased, partly the materials col-
lected by A. and W. von Humboldt, and
partly the results of his own inquiries.
A. was a man of blameless morals and
amiable temper. He was never married.
He daily devoted 14 hours to labor.
ADELUNG, Frederic von, since 1825,
president of the Asiatic academy at St.
Petersburg, a nephew of the lexicogra-
pher, was born at Stettin, 1768, and has
distinguished himself as a historian and
linguist. Having previously made him-
self intimate at Rome with the treasures
of the Vatican library, and published
some interesting disquisitions on the old
German poems to be found there (Kon-
igsberg, 1796 and 1799), he went to Pe-
tersburg, where he took part in the direc-
tion of the German theatre. In 1803, he
was appointed tutor of the grand princes
Nicholas and Michael, and received an
order of nobility. He then applied him-
self with great assiduity to the study of
languages, in which he was much assist-
ed by the collection of Backmeister, the
librarian. He has written on the Rap-
ports entre la Langue Sanscrite, et la Lan-
gue Russe. At the request of his pat-
ron, count Romanzoff, chancellor of the
empire, he published a description of the
remarkable doors of brass belonging to
the church of St. Sophia, in Novgorod,
which were said to have been cast in
Magdeburg in the 11th century, and the
most exact engravings of which were
prepared by the order of the count.
This work, which appeared at Berlin,
1823, with copper and lithographic plates,
contains interesting contributions to the
history of Russian art, and an essay on
the Swedish, or silver door, so called,
then in Novgorod, which was brought to
Russia, as a trophy, from Sigtuna, the
ancient royal residence of Sweden. A.
is now preparing a Bibliotheca Glot-
tica, an introduction to which has al-
ready been published, entitled Uebersicht
aller bekannten Sprachen, Petersburg,
1820.
These ex-
ADEPT. (See Alchemy.)
ADERSBACH MOUNTAINS.
tend, with some interruptions, from Ad-
ersbach, a village of Bohemia, to the
county of Glatz. Numerous clefts of va-
rious size are found among the rocks,
which rise in strange forms more than
100 feet high, and consist of a remarkable
kind of ferruginous sand-stone. Rain
and snow, filling the cavities of the sur-
face during the winter, form collections
of water, which gradually filters through
the rocks, and produces these clefts. The
sand-stone itself has, in the course of
time, become very brittle, especially on
the surface. The place is a great resort
for travellers.
ADES. (See Pluto.)
ADHELM, or ADELM, was born in Wilt-
shire, in the seventh century. He was
made bishop of Shireburn, and extraor-
dinary tales are related of his miraculous
powers, and his voluntary chastity. He
was, for the times, an eminent scholar,
being acquainted with Grecian and Ro-
man literature, a good writer, a poet of
some merit, and an excellent musician.
His works, which were numerous, are
mostly lost.
ADHESION, according to the latest
phraseology of physics, means generally
the tendency of heterogeneous bodies to
stick together; but cohesion implies the
attraction of homogeneous particles of
bodies. Adhesion may take place be-
tween two solids, as two hemispheres of
glass, or between a solid and a fluid, or be-
tween two fluids, as oil and water. Thus
it is said that a fluid adheres to a solid,
as water to the finger dipped into it. But
there is a great difference, in this respect,
in different bodies; thus small particles
of quicksilver do not adhere to glass, but
they adhere to gold, silver and lead. Wa-
ter adheres to the greatest part of bodies,
unless it is separated from their surface
by oily substances, dust, flour, &c.
Fluids do not form a surface perfectly
horizontal in vessels to which they ad-
here so as to wet them, but rise, on the
contrary, around the brim of the vessels.
This is proved by water, beer, &c. pour-
ed into glasses, pails, pots, &c. Fluids,
on the other hand, in vessels to which
they do not adhere, sink around the brim,
and rise in the centre. Thus quicksilver
in a glass forms a convex surface. This
phenomenon of the rising and sinking of
fluids becomes still more remarkable in
vessels of a small diameter; wherefore
capillary tubes, so called, are used for
performing experiments, and the singular
effects produced are ascribed to capillary
attraction. (See Capillary Tubes.) Water
poured from a vessel to which it adheres
so as to wet it, runs easily down the ex-
terior surface, unless a peculiar direction
is given to the vessel. This is never the
case with quicksilver poured from a glass;
ADHESION-ADMIRAL.
but it is so if poured from a vessel of
lead, &c.
ADIAPHORA (Greek); things indifferent
in themselves, and of small importance:
1. objects and actions which deserve nei-
ther praise nor blame; 2. in matters of
church discipline, customs and rites which
may be retained or rejected without injur-
ing belief or troubling conscience, because
the holy Scriptures have neither forbidden
nor ordained them. This name was ori-
ginally applied to those instruments and
ceremonies of the Catholic church, which
the Protestants admitted into their forms
of worship, as altars, candlesticks, images,
mass-vestments, Latin hymns, vespers and
orisons, private mass, &c. On account
of this admission, Flacius, a theologian
of Jena, in connexion with the clergy of
Lower Saxony, commenced a controver-
sy, known by the name of the adiapho-
ristic controversy, with Melancthon and the
divines of Wittenberg, who received the
name of Adiaphorists. The same trifles
became subsequently marks, by which
the strict Lutherans were externally dis-
tinguished from the Calvinists, who had
retained nothing of this kind. The more
enlightened theologians of the 18th cen-
tury caused the greater part of these ex-
ternal distinctions to be laid aside; but
new importance has been attached to
them in our days; and the question has
again been discussed, "what ceremonies
belong to the A.”
ADIPOCIRE, from adeps, fat, and cera,
wax; a substance of a light-brown color,
formed by the soft parts of animal bodies,
when kept for some time in water, or
when preserved from atmospheric air.
When this substance is subjected to a
chemical analysis, a true ammoniacal
soap is first yielded, composed of ammo-
nia, a concrete oil, and water. The oil
may be obtained pure, and this is called
more strictly A. It was discovered on
removing the animal matter from the
burial ground of the church des Innocens,
at Paris, in 1787, amongst the masses of
the bodics of the poor there interred to-
gether. In this place, about 1500 bodies
were thrown together into the same pit,
and, being decomposed, were converted
into this substance. (See Nicholson's
Journal, vol. 4, p. 135; Phil. Trans. 1794,
vols. 84, 85; Journal de Physique, tom.
38, &c.)
ADJUTANT; in the military art, an offi-
cer whose duty is to assist the major.
ADJUTANT-GENERAL; an officer of dis-
tinction who assists the general.-Among
the Jesuits, this name was given to a se-
59
lect number of fathers, who resided with
the general of the order, and had each a
province or country assigned to him, and
their office was to inform the father-gen-
eral of public occurrences in such coun-
tries.
ADMETUS. (See Alceste.)
ADMINISTRATOR (Latin); the person
to whom the goods of a man dying intes-
tate are committed by the proper author-
ity, for which he is accountable when
thereunto required. For matters relating
to this title, see Executor.
ADMIRAL; the commander-in-chief of a
squadron or fleet of ships of war, or of
the entire naval force of a country. Prob-
ably this word is of Arabic origin, and
signifies originally the emir, or prince, of
the waters. In the time of the crusades,
the office and name were introduced into
Europe. The first authentic instance
that occurs of admirals in Europe is
about 1284, when Philip, king of France,
created Enguerrand de Coucy admiral of
his fleet. In the reign of Edward I,
king of England, we find a title of honor,
“Admiral de la mer du roy d'Angleterre,"
conferred for the first time on W. de Ley-
bourne; and about this time the jurisdic-
tion of the English seas was committed to
three or four admirals, who held the of
fice durante bene placito. From the time
of Edward II, a regular succession of ad-
mirals is to be traced; and in the 34th year
of Edward III, John de Beauchamp, loid
warden of the Cinque Ports, was created
high admiral of England. The office un-
derwent several changes, and persons of
high rank, some of whom were entirely
unacquainted with naval affairs, continu-
ed to fill this office until 1632, when it
was first put into commission, as it re-
mained during the protectorate of Crom-
well. James, duke of York, afterwards
James II, exercised the functions of lord
high admiral for several years of Charles
II's reign. Many of his regulations are
observed to the present time, and evince
his zeal for this most important service
in England. During the reign of Wil-
liam and Mary, the powers of the lord
high admiral were committed to lords
commissioners of the admiralty. Prince
George of Denmark enjoyed this dignity
during a short period of the reign of
Anne; since which time it has always
been vested in seven lords commission-
ers, acting under the statute of William
and Mary, till the year 1827, when the
first step of Mr. Canning, as premier, was
to prevail on the duke of Clarence to ac-
cept the office of lord high admiral; but
60
ADMIRAL-ADMIRALTY COURTS.
the duke, soon after the formation of the
duke of Wellington's administration, gave
up the office. The income of the first
lord-commissioner is at present equal to
£5000 per annum. The surplus revenue
forms what are called the droits of admi-
ralty, and is applied at the pleasure of
government. To the lord high adiniral,
or lords commissioners of the admiralty
of England, belongs the power of decis-
ion in all maritime cases, both civil and
criminal; a jurisdiction upon or beyond
the sea in all parts of the world; upon
the sea coasts in all ports, havens or har-
bors, and upon all rivers below the bridge
nearest to the sea-according to the
terms of the patent, " To preserve all pub-
lic streams, ports, rivers, fresh waters and
creeks whatsoever, within his jurisdic-
tion, as well for the preservation of the
ships as of the fishes; to reform too
straight nets and unlawful engines, and
punish offenders; to arrest ships, mari-
ners, pilots, masters, gunners, bombardiers,
and any other persons whatsoever, able
and fit for the service of ships, as often
as occasion shall require, and whereso-
ever they shall be met with; to appoint
vice-admirals, judges and other officers
durante bene placito; to remove, suspend,
or expel them, and put others in their
places; to take cognizance of civil and
maritime laws, and of death, murder and
maim." The lord warden of the Cinque
Forts has, nevertheless, a jurisdiction ex-
empt from the control of the admiralty
within these ports, and the lord admiral
seems to have his more proper jurisdic-
tion confined to the main sea. Between
high and low water marks, the common
law and the admiralty have jurisdiction
by turn. By the regulations of the navy,
the lord high admiral grants commissions
to inferior admirals to enforce obedience
in all the branches of the service; to all
courts-martial for the trial of offences
against the articles of war, upon which
they decide by the majority of votes, a
deputy judge advocate, who resides at
Plymouth, presiding over those of most
importance. To the office of lord high
admiral are given, as perquisites, by the
patent, treasure, deodands and relics
found within his jurisdiction; all goods
picked up at sea; all fines, forfeitures,
ransoms, &c.; all whales and large fishes;
all ships and goods of the enemy coming
into any port, &c. by stress of weather,
mistake or ignorance of war; all ships
seized at sea, salvage &c., together with
his shares of prizes. In ancient times,
this officer carried a gold whistle set with
((
OF
precious stones.-In France, the admiral
(l'amiral) enjoyed, until 1627, very great
prerogatives; but Richelieu, deeming the
influence of the office too great, abolished
it. Louis XIV reëstablished it in 1669 with
less power. In the revolution, this office, of
course, vanished with the abolition of the
monarchy. Napoleon renewed the office,
and invested his brother-in-law Murat
with it. The duke of Angouleme was the
first admiral after the restoration of the
Bourbons. The highest officers in the
French navy have only the title vice-ad-
miral; after these follow the rear-ad-
mirals (contre-amiraux).—ADMIRAL
THE FLEET; the highest naval officer
under the admiralty of Great Britain, who,
when he embarks, is distinguished by the
hoisting of the union flag at the main-top-
gallant-mast head.-The powers of the
lord high admiral of Scotland have been
vested, since the union, in the admiralty
of Great Britain, which appoints a judge, or
vice-admiral, who executes its duties, and
presides over an admiralty court in Scot-
land.-Admirals, being commanders in
chief of any fleet or squadron, carry their
flags at the main-top-gallant-mast head,
from which they are designated as admi-
rals of the red, of the white, of the bluc.
They rank with field-marshals in the army.
The vicc-admiral carries his flag at the
fore-top-mast head, and takes rank with
the
lieutenant-generals of the army. The
rear-admiral carries his flag at the mizzen-
top-mast head, and ranks with major-gen-
crals.-The United States have no admi-
rals. The board of the navy directs all the
affairs of the navy.-The vice-admiral is
a civil officer, appointed by the lords com-
missioners of the admiralty, having judges
and marshals under him. From his de-
cisions, however, there is a final appeal
to the court of admiralty. The place of
vice-admiral of England is now a sinc-
cure. Ireland has four vice-admirals;
Scotland one; and the governors of col-
onies generally hold a commission to
preside over vice-admiralty courts. A.
is also a name given to the most consid-
crable ship of a fleet of merchantmen, or
of the vessels employed in the cod-fish-
ery of Newfoundland. The ship which
first arrives is entitled to this appellation,
and some privileges; it carries during the
fishing season a flag on the main-mast.-
A. in natural history, a very beautiful
shell of the voluta genus. It is sold at a
very high price.
ADMIRALTY COURTS have cognizance
of civil and criminal causes of a mari-
time nature, including captures in war
ADMIRALTY COURTS-ADONIS.
made on the high seas, and likewise of
fences committed, and many contracts
made thereon. In civil suits, the judges
decide unaided. In criminal cases, the
judge in England is associated with three
or four commissioners; in the United
States, he is assisted by a jury. In the
latter country, the admiralty jurisdiction
is vested in the circuit and district courts
of the Union. In England, it is divided
between the instance and the prize courts,
the former being the ordinary admiralty
court, the latter being constituted by a
special commission, in time of war, to
take cognizance of prizes, though the
individuals composing the court are the
same in both cases.
ADMIRALTY ISLANDS; a cluster of isl
ands to the north of New Britain, in the
South Pacific ocean, in about 20 18 S.
lat. and 146° 44′ E. lon. There are be-
tween 20 and 30. The Dutch discovered
them in 1616. The islanders are black,
but not of a deep shade; tall, and almost
in a state of nudity. They evinced much
kindness towards La Perouse. A. I. is
likewise an island in George III's Ar-
chipelago, on the north-west coast of
New Norfolk, in America, between N.
lat. 57° and 58° 30′, and between W.
lon. 134° and 135°. (See Vancouver's
J'oyage, vol. iii.)
ADOLPHUS of Nassau was elected em-
peror of Germany, May 1, 1292, and
crowned at Aix la Chapelle, June 25.
He was of an illustrious family, and of
approved courage; but without any pat-
rimony, except his sword, and destitute
of those great qualities, which had raised
his predecessor, Rodolph of Hapsburg, to
the throne. A. owed his election, in part,
to the arrogant conduct of Albert of Aus-
tria; in part, to his intrigues with the
electors of Cologne and Mentz, who im-
posed on him the hardest conditions, and
forced him to resign to them cities and
territories, which were not his own. But,
refusing to fulfil, when emperor, what he
had promised when count, he soon saw
himself hated and deserted by his friends.
Urged by want of money, he received
100,000 pounds sterling from Edward I of
England, and, in return, engaged to assist
him against Philip the Fair of France;
but he was by no means sorry to see the
pope forbid his participation in the war.
In this way he made himself contemptible
in the eyes of the German princes, and
became still more odious to them by
taking advantage of the hatred of Albert,
landgrave of Thuringia, against his sons,
and purchasing this territory from him.
.6
VOL. I.
61
This purchase involved him in a 5 years'
war, in which he attempted, unsuccess-
fully, to subjugate the country which he
had bought. Disgusted at such disgraceful
conduct, and urged on by Albert of Aus-
tria, the college of electors, excepting
those of Treves, Cologne and the Palat-
inate, cited Adolphus to appear before it.
Failing to appear, the throne was declar-
ed vacant, June 23, 1298, and Albert of
Austria elected. A war already existed
between the two rivals, in which Adol-
phus seemed superior, until, deceived by
the manœuvres of his foe, he found
himself surrounded at Gellheim, and fell,
after a heroic resistance, by Albert's own
hand, July 2, 1298. His body was depos-
ited by Henry VII in the imperial vault
at Spire, at the same time with_that of
Albert. His faults sprung mostly from
the inadequateness of his abilities to his
situation. One mistake followed another,
and when, in the latter part of his carecr,
he wished to adopt a better course, it was
too late.
ADONAI; one of the many Hebrew
names for God. The word properly sig-
nifies my lords, in the plural number,
which is called, in the Hebrew grammar,
pluralis majestatis. The Jews, who, from
religious reverence, do not pronounce the
name Jehovah, read Adonai in all the
places in which the former name occurs.
This practice commenced among the
latter Jews after the Babylonish captivi-
ty, at least before the time of Josephus.
(See Geddes' Crit. Remarks, vol. i, p. 167,
and Leigh's Crit. Sacr. in verb. Kipios.)
ADONIC. The Adonic verse consists
of a dactyle and a spondee or trochee,
e. g.
rārā jūvēntūs z
and, on account of its animated move-
ment, is adapted to gay and lively poetry.
Long poems, however, would become
monotonous if written entirely in a meas-
ure so short, and recurring with no vari-
ety. It is therefore rarely used by itself.
Even the ancients always combined it
with other kinds of verse; thus the last
verse of the Sapphic strophe is Adonic.
ADONIS; Son of Cinyras by his daugh-
ter Myrrha. The wood-nymphs educa-
ted him, and he grew up so remarkably
beautiful, that he became the favorite of
Venus, who accompanied him to the
chase, pointing out the dangers to which
he was exposed. A., disregarding her
advice, eagerly pursued the wild beasts
of the forest, but, happening to fail in an
attack upon a wild boar, he was mortally
62
ADONIS-ADOPTION.
wounded by this ferocious animal. The
goddess, hearing of his misfortune, hurried
to his assistance, and in her haste her foot
was wounded by a rose-bush, the flowers
of which, formerly white, from that time
took the color of blood. When she
reached the spot, she found him lifeless
on the grass, and, to alleviate her grief
and preserve his memory, she transform-
ed him into an anemone. At her request,
however, Jupiter permitted A. to spend
6 months with her, and the other 6
with Proserpine. A full explanation of
this fable may be found in Creuzer's
Symbolik und Mythologie der Völker des
Alterthums.
ADOPTIANI; a religious sect which as-
serted that Christ, as to his divine nature,
was properly the Son of God; but, as to
his human nature, only such by adoption,
by baptism and regeneration, through
which God's mercy adopts other men
also as his children; for they could not
comprehend how a human being could
be called the Son of God in a literal
sense. Flipandus, archbishop of Toledo,
and Felix, bishop of Urgel, in Spain,
avowed this doctrine in 783, and made
proselytes both in Spain and France.
Charlemagne condemned their heresy at
the council of Ratisbon, and dismissed
Felix from his office. This sentence was
repeated 3 times; at Frankfort, 794, at
Rome and at Aix la Chapelle in 799,
because the bishop relapsed twice into
his former error. He was then placed,
for the remainder of his life, under the
care of the bishop of Lyons. After the
death of Flipandus, the whole controver-
sy ceased. The dispute is worthy of
notice, both on account of the modera-
tion of Charlemagne, and because the
opinion of the Adoptiani has often been
made use of by those who have exerted
themselves to adapt the doctrine of the
divinity of Christ to the comprehension
of man. (See Socinians.)
ADOPTION, the admission of a stran-
ger by birth to the privileges of a child,
has come down to us in the Roman law.
Its purpose was the acquisition of pater-
nal power, which could either be ceded.
to the person adopting by the natural
parent (adoption in the strictest sense), or
be obtained by the assent of a person no
longer under the patria potestas, or of his
guardians. This second sort is called arro-
gation. According to the ancient civil law,
the adopted child left the family of its pa-
rents or guardians, and became a member
of the family of the person adopting it.
The emperor Justinian abolished this prin-
ciple in regard to adoption properly so
called. Adoption was intended to sup-
ply the want of offspring in those persons
who might have been parents. Eunuchs,
therefore, and persons already having
legitimate issue, were excluded from this
privilege. The person adopting must
have been at least 18 years older than the
person to be adopted. Guardians were
not permitted to adopt their wards, nor a
poor man a rich child. Females, strictly
speaking, were not permitted to adopt,
but might, with the permission of the
sovereign, secure to any child the right
of support and inheritance. In Germany,
the rules respecting adoption are derived
from the civil law, but require the sanc-
tion either of the sovereign or of the ju-
diciary. (Civil Code of Austria, 1. 179;
Prussian Code, part 2, tit. 2, § 666.) The
adopted child receives the name of its
adopter, but does not share in his rank if
he be a nobleman, except by the special
permission of the sovereign. In Prussia,
a married couple must have lived many
years without children, before they are
allowed to adopt a child. The modern
French law (Code civile, a. 343) also ad-
mits adoption, but only on certain con-
ditions. The code establishes three
kinds of adoption-l'adoption ordinaire,
la rémunératoire, et la testamentoire. Those
who wish to adopt must have supported
the person to be adopted for six years, or
the adopter's life must have been saved
by the person to be adopted. Excepting
in this last case, the latter must be as much
as fifteen years younger than the former.
Adoption (excepting as before) cannot
take place until the person to be adopted is
of age, and inust be ratified by the dis-
trict court as well as by the court of ap-
peal. There is nothing corresponding
with adoption in the law either of Eng-
land or America. In Asia, adoption is a
very common practice. The ceremo-
ny is frequently performed merely by
the adopting person exchanging girdles
with the person adopted. The Turks de-
clare adoption often before the cadi, and a
writing regularly witnessed is drawn up.
The law of Mahomet prescribes still an-
other very curious ceremony of adoption.
The person adopted is required to pass
through the shirt of the adopter; and
hence the phrase to draw another through
one's shirt is, among them, expressive of
adoption. An adopted son is called aki-
etogli, that is, the son of another life. Sev-
cral writers have applied this ceremony
as explanatory of many passages both of
the Old and New Testaments.
ADORATION.
ADORATION; originally, the expression
of the highest respect either to God or
man; now used, more particularly, for the
act of religious homage. The word lit-
erally signifies applying the hand to the
mouth; manum ad os admovere, i. e. to
kiss the hand. The word kissing is the
usual idiom of the Hebrew language to
signify adoration. Herodotus considers
the custom of kissing the hand in adora-
tion to have been adopted by the Greeks
from the Persians. It certainly prevailed
at an early period all over the East. The
Roman ceremony of adoration has been
thus described: the devotee, having his
head covered, applied his right hand to
his lips, the fore finger resting on his
thumb, which was erect, and, thus bowing
his head, turned himself round from left
to right. The kiss given was called oscu-
lum labratum. Sometimes, however, they
kissed the feet or even the knees of their
gods. The Grecians generally worship-
ped uncovered. During their prayers,
their hands were raised above their heads
with the palms turned towards heaven
or the statues of their god; a custom still
often seen, in Catholic countries, accom-
panying fervent prayer; but generally
the Christians clasp their hands during
prayer, which is still the custom in Eu-
rope, both among Catholics and Protes-
tants. The first Christians often turned
the face towards the east when they
prayed. The Mahometans turn the
face towards Mecca. Prostration, ac-
companied sometimes by kissing the
ground, is an ancient mode of adoring
the gods, and expressing the highest re-
spect for men. In Russia and Poland, it
is still the custom for people of the lower
classes to kneel down and kiss the gar-
ment of the person to whom they wish
to show respect. Diocletian offered his
foot to be kissed by the courtiers, and
even under Charlemagne and his son, the
noblemen kissed the emperor's foot.
Probably, therefore, the popes took this
custom from the emperors, to whose
power they laid claim in succeeding to
their title of sovereign pontiff. They
have an embroidered cross on the slipper
of their right foot, which is kissed by the
Catholics. When the late king of Spain
was in Rome, he prostrated himself before
the pontiff, and kissed the cross on his
foot. There is no doubt that the Roman
emperors borrowed this custom from the
East. In the primitive Christian church,
this honor is said to have been shown to
every bishop, as it often is still in the
Greek church. In kissing the bishop's
63
foot, the words oоozur σe were, and
still are used. The Jews, being an Asi-
atic tribe, often prostrated themselves in
the act of worship. (See Joshua, Judges,
1 Chron., Ezekiel, &c.) Taking off the
shoes or slippers during adoration is an
old custom in Asia. It is also practised
on common occasions as an act of polite-
ness. The Oriental takes off his shoes
before he enters the temple, the mosque,
or the apartment of a man of respectabil-
ity. This custom was also adopted by
the Roman Catholic church in some cases.
At the adoration of the cross on Good
Friday, the Roman Catholics walk bare-
footed; and the ceremony of humiliation,
when the pope and all the cardinals ap-
proach the cross bare-footed, in the Cap-
pella Sistina, cannot but make a deep
impression on every traveller. Kneeling
was in all ages a common posture of ado-
ration, and originates from the feeling
of humility in addressing a higher and
mightier being. Sitting with the thighs
resting on the heels, was an
ancient
Egyptian attitude in the act of worship.
There are many statues represented in
this position. Standing with the body
inclined forward, the eyes fixed on the
ground, the hands probably resting on the
knees, was an early eastern attitude of
adoration. Dancing, screaming, rolling
on the ground, and many similar acts ac-
company the worship of different savage
tribes. Mr. Ward, one of the Baptist
missionaries at Serampore, in a work on
the history and literature of the Hindoos,
has given a very curious and minute
account of the modes of adoration, which
they call pooja. The objects of adora-
tion have been greatly diversified.
all ages, worship has been paid to idols,
but many of the worshippers have re-
garded the image merely as the repre-
sentative of the Divinity. Protestants
often mistake when they impute to Catho-
lics, universally, the worship of external
things, as being in themselves objects of
adoration, while, in fact, they are regard-
ed by the church merely as visible signs
of the invisible Deity. The ancients
placed crowns or garlands on the statues
of the gods; and the Catholics still offer
flowers to their saints and the virgin. It
was common to sleep in the ancient tem-
ples, with a view of receiving responses
from the gods in dreams. The sick, in
particular, slept for this purpose in the
temple of Esculapius. In the Roman Ca-
tholic church adoration is not offered to
saints and martyrs, as has been suppos-
ed, but their intercession is solicited. The
In
64
ADORATION-ADRIAN.
Phoenicians (the first navigators) adored
the winds, a practice adopted by many
other nations. The Persians adored the
sun and fire. The Greeks and Romans
adored fire under the name of Vesta.
Pliny mentions the adoration of light-
ning by gently clapping the hands. The
Egyptians adored animals, plants and
fishes; the Arabs, stones; the Scythians,
swords; the Chinese, the statues of their
ancestors. The Hindoos have not only
an amazing variety of gods, but they
worship human beings, beasts, birds,
trees, rivers, fish, books and stones. (See
Ward's View of the History, Literature
and Religion of the Hindoos, and Bishop
Heber's Narrative of a Journey through
the Upper Provinces of India, from Calcut-
ta to Bombay, 1824-1825, with Notes up-
on Ceylon, and an Account of a Journey to
Madras and the Southern Provinces, 1826.)
It must be remembered, that all ad-
oration originates from two different
sources, either from love and thankful-
ness, or from fear.
ADRAGANTH, in medicine, gum dragon.
It distils by incision from the trunk or
roots of a plant which grows in the Le-
vant. The gum is of different colors,
white, red, gray and black, and is useful
in medicine. Skinners use great quanti-
ties, and prefer the red to the black. It
is the astragalus tragacanthus of Linnæus.
ADRASTEA; a daughter of Jupiter and
Necessity, the servant of eternal Justice,
the punisher of all injustice, whom no
mortal escapes. A. is generally a mere
epithet, given to Nemesis, (q. v.) She is
represented sometimes with wings, some-
times with a rudder, and sometimes with
a wheel.
ADRASTUS, king of Argos; son of Tula-
us and Eurynome. In obedience to the
oracle which commanded him to give one
of his daughters to a lion and the other
to a wild boar, he gave Argia to Polynices,
who came to him in a lion's skin, and
Deiphyle to Tydeus, who was dressed in
the skin of a wild boar. He was one of
the seven heroes who encamped before
Thebes, and the only one who survived
the siege. Ten years after this, he made
a second expedition against Thebes, ac-
companied by the sons of his former al-
lies, and took the city, but lost his son
in the engagement, and died himself of
grief. (See Thebes.)
ADRIAN, the African, abbot of St. Pe-
ter's, Canterbury, in the 7th century, ac-
companied Theodore, archbishop of Can-
terbury, to England. A. was the precep-
tor of Adhelm, and Bede extols the hap-
py time when the island enjoyed his tui-
tion, and Kent "was the fountain of
knowledge to the rest of England.'
""
ADRIAN, OF HADRIAN, Publius Ælius, a
Roman emperor, the successor of Trajan,
was born at Rome, A. D. 76. His father,
Trajan's cousin, died when A. was ten
years of age. A. showed very early great
talents, and is said to have spoken the
Greek language so perfectly in his 15th
year, that he was called the young Greck.
His memory is said to have been so extra-
ordinary, that he could commit a book to
memory by once perusing it, and that he
could call all his soldiers by name. These
stories may be exaggerated, but they
prove the estimation in which his talents
were held. He was an orator, poet,
grammarian, mathematician, physician,
painter, musician and astrologer. The
greater developement of the sciences in
modern times does not admit of distinc-
tion in so many branches. His great
qualities, however, were stained by great
faults, so that he never won the affections
of Trajan, who was his guardian. He
was indebted for his elevation to the
throne to the wife of Trajan, Plotina,
who concealed the death of her husband
until she had time to forge a testament
bearing the name of the late emperor, in
which he was made to adopt A. and de-
clare him his successor. Her bribes also
had in the mean time prepared the troops
to espouse the cause of A. After these
preparations had been made, A. sent infor-
mation of the emperor's death from Anti-
och to Rome, pretended that the imperial
dignity had been forced upon him, prom-
ised the senate that he would discharge
faithfully the duties of his station, and as-
sured the pretorian guards that they should
receive twice the usual present. A.D.117,
he ascended the imperial throne, appeared
in Romo, and strove at first to win the
favor of the people by the mildness of
his administration. It was not long,
however, before he manifested a cow-
ardly and suspicions character, together
with too great a devotion to pleasure.
Among other things, he purchased peace
from the Sarmatians and Roxolani, who
had attacked Illyria, by the payment of
a tribute.
a tribute. From A. D. 120 to 131,
made his famous journey on foot, and
with his head uncovered, through all the
provinces of his empire. In Egypt, he
lost his favorite Antinous (q. v.), whose
death he lamented long and bitterly.
During his stay of two years in Athens,
he established a colony of Roman sol-
diers on the site of the ruined Jerusalem ;
he
:
ADRIAN.
and on the spot where the temple of Solo-
mon had stood, he erected a temple to
Jupiter Capitolinus. Upon this, a dread-
ful insurrection broke out among the Jews,
which lasted two years and a half. He
embellished Athens with buildings, and
finished the temple of the Olympian Ju-
piter, begun 560 years before. A. died
at Bajæ, 138 A. D. in the 63d year of
his age, and the 21st of his reign. He had
good qualities and great faults. He pro-
moted literature and the arts, did many
good things on his journey, established
the edictum perpetuum, enacted laws
against dissipation and the cruelties of
the slave trade, prohibited human sacri-
fices, forbade the indiscriminate bathing
of men and women, &c. Antoninus
Pius succeeded him. It was with much
difficulty that his successor could obtain
a decree from the senate, granting him,
according to usage, divine honors. A.
wrote several books; among others a his-
tory of his own life, under the name of
Phlegon, one of his freedmen, which is
no longer extant. He composed, not
long before he breathed his last, the fol-
lowing lines:
Animula, vagula, blandula,
Hospes, comesque corporis,
Quæ nunc abibis in loca
Pallidula, rigida, nudula ?
Nec, ut soles, dabis jocos.
Pope has imitated them.
ADRIAN. There have been six popes
of this name. The first, a Roman, ruled
from 772 to 795, was a cotemporary and
friend of Charlemagne, who, on account
of A.'s able defence of his claims to the
crown of France, protected him with his
army, 774, against Desiderius, king of the
Lombards, confirmed the donation of
Pepin to the territory of the church, and
made further grants himself. The pope
was not allowed, however, to enjoy in
peace the gifts of Charlemagne till 787,
after the termination of the frequent
campaigns of this king against the Ital-
ian princes, who claimed the territory.
By confirming the decrees of the council
of Nice, 786, in favor of the worship of
images, A. gave offence to Charlemagne,
who was opposed to the practice, and
procured a repeal of the decree at the
council of Frankfort. The repeal was
resisted by A.; but he so carefully
and skilfully avoided offending the
king, that he remained his friend,
and honored him after his death,
795, with an inscription, yet preserved
in the Vatican. Though by no means
a profound thcologian, A. obtained
65
great influence by the correctness of his
conduct, and his decision of character.
By a prudent use of this influence, he
greatly increased his power.-ADRIAN II,
a Roman, was elected pope in 867, at the
age of 75 years. He was esteemed for
his virtues, and famous on account of his
bold opposition to the divorce of Lothaire,
king of Lotharingia, from his wife Thiet-
berga. By interfering in the dispute,
which arose after the death of Lothaire,
between Charles the Bald and the empe-
ror Louis, respecting the right of succes-
sion, he made the former his enemy.
He had another dispute in France, where
bishop Hincmar of Laon had been dis-
missed against his will; he likewise
excommunicated the patriarch Photius
of Constantinople, on account of his
spiritual jurisdiction over Bulgaria, which
diminished the authority of the pope,
since the Greek church maintained its
independence against him, and made
Bulgaria dependent on itself. He died
872, in the midst of his conflicts with this
church.-ADRIAN III, a Roman, elected
884, was pope for 1 year and 4 months
only. He was opposed to the influence
of the emperors on the election of the
pope, and determined, if Charles the Fat
should die without heir, to give Italy a
new king.-ADRIAN IV, an Englishman,
originally named Nicholas Breakspear,
rose, by his great talents, from the situa-
tion of a poor monk to the rank of cardi-
nal, and legate in the north, where he
established at Drontheim the first Nor-
wegian archbishopric, and a second at
Upsal. He was elected pope in 1154,
and waged an unsuccessful war against
William, king of Sicily, who, at the peace
of 1156, claimed the privilege, still exist-
ing in the monarchia Sicilia, so called, that,
in matters relating to the church, nothing
should be done by the pope without the
consent of the king.
The emperor
Frederic I, who, before, had held his
stirrup, and had been crowned by him at
Rome, June 18, 1155, was opposed to
this peace with William, his enemy. A.
increased his resentment by the haughty
language of his letters, and instigated the
Lombards against him. Frederic, on the
other hand, acted in ecclesiastical inatters
as if there had been no pope. Before
these difficulties came to a close, A. died,
Sept. 1, 1159, at Anagni. The permission
which he gave to Henry II, king of
England, to invade Ireland, on the con-
dition that every family of that island
should pay annually a penny to the papal
chair, because all islands belong to the
6*
1
66
ADRIAN-ADRIATIC SEA.
pope, is worthy of remark. On this
grant the subsequent popes founded their
claims on Ireland.-ADRIAN V, previous
ly called Ottoboni da Fiesco, of Genoa,
settled, as legate of the pope, the dispute
between king Henry III of England and
his nobles, in favor of the former; but
died soon after his election to the papal
chair, 1276.-ADRIAN VI, son of a me-
chanic of Utrecht, and professor in Lou-
vain, was, in 1507, appointed tutor of the
emperor Charles V. When ambassador
of the emperor Maximilian, in 1515, he
persuaded Ferdinand the Catholic to
nominate young Charles his successor to
the Spanish throne; after which he be-
came, in 1516, bishop of Tortosa and
regent of Spain, and, in 1517, cardinal.
The Spaniards were not pleased with his
severe and often partial government, and
expressed great joy when, at the sug-
gestion of Charles V, he was elected to
the papal chair, in 1522. He was not less
hated at Rome, on account of his antip-
athy to classical literature, and his honest
endeavors to reform the papal court, to
abolish the prevailing luxury, bribery,
and other abuses; but his efforts were
frustrated by the cardinals, and, if they
had been successful, could not have pre-
vented the progress of the reformation
already begun in Germany. A. opposed
the zeal of Luther with reproaches and
threats, and even attempted to excite
Erasmus and Zuinglius against him; but
his abilities were not equal to the existing
emergency. His measures against France
also were unsuccessful. Notwithstanding
his honest efforts and upright character,
he died unlamented, in 1525, after a reign
of one year and a half. His reign was,
according to his own confession, the most
unhappy period of his life. On his tomb,
in the church of St. Peter, is the follow-
ing epitaph:
Adrianus Papa VI hic situs est,
Qui nihil sibi infelicius
In vita,
Quam quod imperaret,
Duxit.
ADRIANOPLE (in Turkish, Edrene), the
second capital and residence of the Otto-
man rulers, is situated in ancient Thrace
(now Rumelia), on the banks of the navi
gable river Hebrus (now Maritza). On
this spot a small town formerly stood,
inhabited by the Bessi, a Thracian tribe.
The emperor Adrian founded this city
on the left bank of the Hebrus, called it
after his own name, and made it the cap-
ital of the province of mt. Hamus. From
the range of hills on which it is situated,
it commands a beautiful prospect over a
large and fertile plain, divided by two
ranges of hills, between which the river
runs. It was fortified, and resisted, in the
4th century, the violent attack of the vic-
torious Goths, who were, however, igno-
rant of the mode of conducting a regular
siege. To give it the appearance of a
Greek origin, the writers of Byzanti-
um called it Orestea or Orestias. Ac-
cording to their accounts, it is five days'
journey distant from Constantinople. In
1360, it was taken by Amurath, the
Turkish sultan; and from that time it
continued to be the residence of the
Turkish emperors for nearly a century,
until the conquest of Constantinople.
The number of the houses is 16,000, and
that of the inhabitants 100,000, among
whom there are 30,000 Greeks, under an
archbishop. It contains also an impe-
rial palace, 40 mosques, of which that of
Selim II and of Aniurath II are the most
magnificent, 22 bathing establishments,
with beautiful aqueducts, important
inanufactures, and exports, among other
articles, oil of roses, which is made in its
vicinity, of the best kind.
ADRIAN'S WALL; a celebrated Roman
work in the north of England. This
work, though called by the Roman his-
torians murus, which signifies a wall of
stone, was only composed of carth cov-
cred with green turf. It was carried
from the Solway frith, in as direct a line
as possible, to the river Tyne, on the
east, at the place where the town of New-
castle now stands; so that it must have
been above 60 English and nearly 70 Ro-
nan miles in length. It consisted of four
parts: 1, the principal agger, mound of
carth or rampart, on the brink of the
ditch; 2, the ditch, on the north side of
the rampart; 3, another rampart on the
south side of the principal one, about five
paces distant from it; 4, a large rampart
on the north side of the ditch. For
many ages, this work has been in so ruin-
ous a condition, that it is impossible to
discover its original dimensions with cer-
tainty.
But from their appearance, it
seems probable that the principal ram-
part was at least ten or twelve feet high,
and the south one not much less; the
northern one was considerably lower.
The ditch, taken as it passes through a
lime-stone quarry near Harlow hill, ap-
pears to have been 9 feet deep and 11
feet wide at the top. The north rampart
was about twenty feet distant from the
ditch.
ADRIATIC SEA (mare Adriaticum, Adri-
ADRIATIC SEA-ADULTERY.
anum), now more commonly called gulf
of Venice, though in Italian, German and
French the old name continues, is an
arm of the Mediterranean included by
the coasts of Italy, Illyria, Dalmatia, Al-
bania and Epirus, about 200 leagues long
and 50 broad, extending from south-east
to north-west, lat. 40° to 50° 55′ north. It
contains about 90,000 sq. miles of sur-
face. Different derivations of the name
are given. On the Austrian coast it has a
number of small islands, and forins many
bays, the most remarkable of which are
those of Trieste, Quarnaro and Cattaro.
It is called the gulf of Venice from the city
of this name, which formerly claimed
exclusive dominion over this sea, and in
those times annually wedded it on As-
cension Day. The ceremony was per-
formed by the doge of Venice throwing
a ring into the sea with great pomp.
The entrance of the gulf is commanded
by Corfu, one of the lonian islands un-
der the British government. The coast
of the A. sea is, in many places, very
dangerous. The most important ports
on the gulf are Venice (since 1829 a free
port), Trieste, Ancona, Otranto, &c.
ADULE; ADULIAN MARBLE. Adule, a
city in Ethiopia, mentioned by ancient
authors as the most important commer-
cial place of the Troglodytes and Ethio-
pians, in later times the emporium of
Axum, seems to be the same with the
modern Arkiko. This city, now the res-
idence of the Naib of Massuah, is fre-
quently mentioned on account of an in-
scription, first copied in the Topogra-
phia Christiana, a work partly theological,
partly geographical, written by Cosmas
Indicopleustes, in the 6th century, under
the reign of the emperor Justin. The in-
scription, engraved on marble, is contain-
ed in part on a throne, the remainder on
a stone separated from it, and there are
many inconsistencies in the several frag-
ments, which have induced some scholars
to declare the inscription spurious. Bc-
sides the genealogy of Ptolemy Euerge-
tes, it contains on a second part, which Salt
supposes to be of Axumitic, that is, of
Ethiopic or Abyssinian origin, the cata-
logue of nations whom some king boasts
to have subdued. Buttmann (in Wolf's
Museum der Alterthumskunde, vol. 2, p.
105) has removed the difficulties arising
from the date on the marble, which is the
27th year of the reign of a king, whose
name is unknown, probably not Ptolemy
Euergetes. Several things, however, re-
main to be explained, and require a more
accurate knowledge than we have at pres-
67
ent of the country where the inscription
was found.
ADULTERY. Mankind, in almost all
ages, and in all civilized countries, have
regarded the violation of the marriage-bed
with abhorrence. It has been punished
in various ways and with different de-
grees of severity, according to the general
manners and morals of the country;
sometimes with extreme and even cruel
rigor; in other instances, with capricious
and ridiculous penalties. By the Jewish
law, it was punished with death. Strabo
says the same was the case in Arabia
Felix. Among the ancient Egyptians, it
was not common, but when it did occur,
a thousand lashes were inflicted on the
man, and the woman was deprived of her
nose. In Greece, the laws against it were
severe. The rich were sometimes allow-
ed to redeem themselves by paying a
fine; in which case, the woman's father
returned the dower which he had receiv-
ed from the husband. Some suppose it
was refunded by the adulterer. A fre-
quent punishment there, was putting out
the eyes. According to Homer, adulter-
ers were stoned to death. By the laws
of Draco and Solon, adulterers, when
caught in the act, were at the mercy of
the injured party. Adulteresses were pro-
hibited, in Greece, from appearing in fine
garments and entering the temples. Some
suppose that this offence was made capi-
tal by a law of Romulus, and again by
the twelve tables; others, that it was first
made capital by Augustus; and others, not
till the reign of Constantine. The fact is,
that the punishment was left to the dis-
cretion of the husband and parents of the
adulteress. The most usual mode of ta-
king revenge was by mutilating, castra-
ting, or cutting off the ears or nose. The
punishment assigned by the lex Julia de
adulteris, instituted by Augustus, was
banishment or a heavy fine. It was de-
creed by Antoninus, that, to sustain a
charge of adultery against a wife, the
husband who brought it must be inno-
cent himself. Under Macrinus, adulter-
ers were burned at a stake. Under Con-
stantius and Constans, they were burned
or sewed in sacks and thrown into the
sea. But the punishment was mitigated
under Leo and Marcian to perpetual
banishment, or cutting off the nose; and
under Justinian the wife was only to be
scourged, lose her dower, and be shut up
in a monastery; at the expiration of two
years, the husband might take her again;
if he refused, she was shaven, and inade
a nun for life. Theodosius instituted the
68
ADULTERY-BILL OF ADVENTURE.
shocking practice of public constupration,
which, however, he soon abolished. In
Crete, adulterers were covered with wool,
as an emblem of their effeminacy, and
carried in that dress to the magistrate's
house, where a fine was imposed on
them, and they were deprived of all their
privileges and their share in public busi-
ness. The punishment in use among the
Mingrelians is the forfeiture of a hog,
which is usually eaten very amicably by
the woman, the gallant and the cuckold.
In some parts of India, it is said, that any
woman may prostitute herself for an el-
ephant, and it is reputed no small glory
to have been rated so high. Adultery is
stated to be extremely frequent at Ceylon,
although punishable with death. Among
the Japanese and some other nations,
adultery is punishable only in the wo-
man. Among the Abyssinians, the crine
of the husband is punished on the inno-
cent wife. On the contrary, in the Ma-
rian islands, the woman is not punishable,
but the man is, and the wife and her re-
lations waste his lands, burn him out of
the house, &c. Among the Chinese,
adultery is not capital; fond parents will
even make a contract with the future
husbands of their daughters, to allow
them the indulgence of a gallant. In
Portugal, an adulteress is condemned to
the flames, but the punishment is seldom
executed. By the ancient laws of France,
this crime was punishable with death. In
Spain, the crime was punished by the
deprivation of the instrument. In Poland,
previously to the establishment of Chris-
tianity, the criminal was carried to the
market-place, and there fastened by the
testicles with a nail; a razor was laid
within his reach, and he had the option
to execute justice on himself, or remain
where he was and die. The Saxons con-
signed the adulteress to the flames, and
over her ashes erected a gibbet, on which
her paramour was hanged. King Ed-
mund the Saxon ordered adultery to be
punished in the same manner as homi-
cide, and Canute the Dane ordered that
the offender should be banished, and the
woman have her ears and nose cut off.
In the time of Henry I, it was punished
with the loss of the eyes and the genitals.
Adultery is, in England, considered a spir-
itual offence, coguizable by the spiritual
courts, where it is punished by fine and
penance. The common law allows the
party aggrieved only an action and dam-
ages. The Mahommedan code pronoun-
ces adultery a capital offence. It is one
of the three crimes which the prophet
directs to be expiated by the blood of a
Mussulman. In France, before the rev-
olution, an adulteress was usually con-
demned to a convent, where the husband
could visit her during two years, and take
her back if he saw fit. If he did not
choose to receive her again by the expi-
ration of this time, her hair was shaven,
she took the habit of the convent, and re-
mained there for life. Where the parties
were poor, the wife might be shut up in
a hospital instead of a convent. The Code
Napoléon does not allow the husband to
proceed against his wife for adultery, in
case he has been condemned for the same
offence. The wife can bring an action
against the husband only in case he has
introduced his paramour into the house
where she resides. An adulteress can be
imprisoned from three months to two
years. The husband can prevent the ex-
ecution of the sentence, if he sees fit to
take her back. Her partner in guilt is
liable to the same punishment. In the
United States, the punishment of adultery
has varied materially at different times.
In the state of Massachusetts, an adulter-
er or adulteress may be set on the gallows
for one hour, be publicly whipped, be
imprisoned or fined. All or any of these
punishments may be inflicted, according
to the degree of the offence. Corporal
punishment and exposure, however, are in
that state always commuted into impris-
onment and labor. Morcover, adultery is
very seldom punished criminally in the
United States.
ADVENT (from the Latin adventus, i. e.
adventus Redemptoris) signifies the coming
of our Savior. The name is applied to
the holy season which occupies the 4 or
6 weeks preceding Christmas. The Ro-
man Catholics spend this season in fast-
ing, humiliation and prayer, as if prepar-
ing for the reception of the Savior of the
world. This holy season is first men-
tioned by Maximus Laurinensis, a divine,
in one of his homilies, written in the mid-
dle of the 5th century, but is supposed
to have been instituted by St. Peter. No
nuptials could be celebrated in Advent,
since the council held at Lerida, in the
6th century, in order that Christians
might more frequently partake in the
Lord's supper.
ADVENTURE, bill of; in commerce, a
writing signed by a merchant, to testify
that the goods shipped on board a certain
vessel belong to another person, who is
to take the hazard, the subscriber signing
only to oblige himself to account to him
for the produce.
ADVENTURE ISLAND—ADVOCATE.
Adventure IsLAND; a small island in
the S. Pacific ocean; lon. 144' 18' W.; lat.
17° 5' S. There is also an Adventure Bay,
on the S. E. coast of New Holland; lon.
147° 29′ E.; lat. 43° 21' S.
Adventurers, the society of; an an-
cient company of merchants, crected for
the discovery of unknown regions, open-
ing new channels of trade, &c. It origi-
nated in Burgundy, and was established
by John, duke of Brabant, in 1248, for
the encouragement of English and other
merchants at Antwerp. It was afterwards
confirmed in England by Edward III
and IV, Richard III, Henry IV, V, VI
and VII; and by patent of the last-men-
tioned monarch, in 1505, they received
the title merchant adventurers. The in-
fluence of the English merchant adven-
turers at Antwerp was, in 1550, so great,
that they were able to resist successfully
the establishment of the inquisition in
that city.
69
manent members of these bodies, who
were versed in the law. This period was
about the beginning of the 14th century;
for, although the kings of the Merovin-
gian and Carlovingian dynasties had their
advocates (procuratores or actores regis),
these were only officers appointed for the
collection of the revenue; and the office
of the crown advocate did not acquire
greater authority until the highest court
of law of the hereditary possessions of the
line of Capet (the parliament of Paris)
had attained a permanent session in that
capital. As early as 1356, the procureur
général appears making a complaint
against the city of Tournay, which had
maintained an asylum for the protection
of notorious murderers, and proposed the
abolition of a usage so contrary to the
principles of justice. Every thing which
related to public order, the rights of the
crown, and the general welfare, was pla-
ced under the cognizance of these officers,
ADVOCATE OF THE CROWN; STATE AD- who, as the president Henrion de Pansey
VOCATE. The institution of crown advo- says (De l'autorité judiciare en France,
cates or public attorneys (ministire public), ch. 12, p. 185), have rendered incalculable
which is found in almost all modern sys- services to the crown and to the people.
tems of government, has been no where so In every supreme court of the realm (the
well regulated as in France. The separa- parliaments), and in the cours souverainęs,
tion of the office of judge from every other which were substantially equal to them,
has been there completed, which is not and in the chambres des comptes, the
only indispensable on principles of general cours des aides, &c. a procureur général
constitutional law, but also desirable, that was appointed, who was the soul of the
the people may see in the judiciary judg- institution, the representative of the king
es only, and not men who, by virtue of and state in the court.
In his name
their office, are obliged to take care of the were made all motions in the court; al-
interests of the state and the government, though the first avocat général took pre-
and who, when these interests are in cedence of him in rank, and though, in
question, must be necessarily, at the same some cases, he was bound by the major-
time, both party and judge. It is not sufity of voices, and the avocats généraux
ficient that the judge be personally con-
scious of impartiality; he should be so
situated, that no particular effort should
be required to attain it. Those who ap-
pear before the judge should have no oc-
casion to doubt it. It must be considered
as a particular defect in criminal proceed-
ings, if the judge is obliged, by his office,
to occupy the place of accuser, as he
must necessarily appear to be the adversa-
ry of the accused persons. To avoid these
inconveniences, the office of public advo-
cate was established in France in carly
times, and constituted an essential part of
the establishment for the administration of
justice. It has given to the whole class
of advocates higher honer and considera-
tion. This institution originated in those
times when the modern constitution of
the courts began to develope itself, by
means of permanent sessions of the par-
liaments, and through the agency of per-
who stood next to him had the exclusive
privilege of arguing orally at the sessions
of the court, wherein they were entirely
independent of the procureur général. In
the same rank with the procureur général
stood one or more avocats généraux, and
under them were certain substitutes.
The business was not apportioned among
them every where in the same manner,
but was arranged in each tribunal by pe-
culiar regulations; but, as a common rule,
the same distinction existed between
them which generally prevailed in France
between the orders of avocats and pro-
cureurs, assigning to the latter that part in
the management of a cause which was
performed in writing, and to the former,
the oral argument. Under the crown
advocates belonging to the highest courts
were the procureurs du roi, and there
was no court in France, in which such
an officer was not appointed, excepting
70
ADVOCATE.
only the conseil du roi, and the commer-
cial courts.
Even in the feudal courts,
the lord had a similar officer under the
name of procureur fiscal. The sphere of
action of the state advocates, as is evi-
dent from the nature of the institution,
was very extensive and important. 1. It
comprehended every thing that related to
the royal domains and the public proper-
ty; and this part of their duties, which
gave origin to the whole institution, fur-
nishes now, in other countries, almost the
only business of these advocates. The
fiscal, in most of the German states, has
been confined almost entirely to the rep-
resentation and defence of the public
property and the state treasury in the
courts; of the other branch of the official
duties of the French crown advocate,
viz. the prosecution of crimes, only such
portion has been assigned to the German
fiscal as consists in the support and de-
fence of the legal prerogative and fiscal
rights, and in the collection of the fiscal
fines. 2. The crown advocate in France,
in all criminal proceedings, occupied the
station of public prosecutor, and appeared
as a party against the accused. To him
was assigned the duty of instituting the
proceedings in criminal cases, of procur-
ing evidence, of replying to the defence,
and finally of introducing the motions for
punishment. By this means, the office
of judge was, in most respects, established
on correct principles, and relieved from
the double and often inconsistent duty of
taking care as well of the accusation as
of the defence. In France, the judges
have only to decide correctly on the mo-
tions of the parties. 3. In the old consti-
tution of France, as well as in Germany,
the departments of the police and the ju-
diciary were in the same hands. In the
exercise of power by the courts, as heads
of the police, the crown advocates bore
an important part. No police ordinance
could be issued before the procureur gé-
néral had been heard thereupon; in fact,
they were usually proposed by him. 4.
The ordinances of the king, both those of
a public and those of a private character,
including pardons, promotions, &c., were
published and carried into effect by entry
on the records of the courts. Such entries,
which, it is well known, often met with
opposition, could be made only on the
motion of the crown advocate. 5. It was
the duty of this officer to watch over the
execution of the laws, particularly in the
courts themselves. Wherever the state
advocate observed any violation or neg-
lect of legal rules, he took measures for
the correction of the abuse. 6. It was
his duty, moreover, to preserve good or-
der in the court to which he was attach-
ed. He had no authority, indeed, to cor-
rect irregularities himself, but could make
a motion to the court for this purpose,
who were bound to deliberate thereupon.
He could also make report of the fact to
the higher authorities. To carry into ef-
fect this part of his duty, it was provided
that, every half year, on the first Wednes-
day after the vacation of the courts, a
session should be held with closed doors
(originally on the first Wednesday of ev-
ery month), at which the procureur gé-
néral should report all the delinquencies
which he had observed in the public and
private conduct of the judges, advocates
and inferior procureurs. These reports,
as they were made on Wednesday, were
called Mercurials, and, to give them more
weight, they were sent to the chancellor
of France. The avocat général was also
accustomed, at the first session of the court
after the vacation, to deliver a discourse
on some important point of the official
duties of the judge or advocate, by which
many of them, e. g. D'Aguesseau, have
greatly distinguished themselves. 7. To
the duties of the state advocates also be-
longed the support of the authority of the
court to which they were attached; and,
8. The representation of all corporations
and persons or things placed under the
especial guardianship of the state, viz. the
church, charitable institutions, ecclesias-
tical societies, congregations, minors, in-
sane persons, notorious spendthrifts and
absent persons. Whenever the interest
of such persons or corporations came in
question, it was necessary that the state
advocate should be consulted and heard.
Officers with such powers could not be
treated as subordinate to the courts.
point of fact, the procureur général stood
in the same rank with the president of
the courts; and as his office, like the oth-
ers connected with the administration of
justice, was venal, extravagant sums were
sometimes paid for it. The celebrated
minister of finance under Louis XIV,
Nicholas Fouquet, sold his office of first
avocat général in the parliament of Paris,
for 1,400,000 livres.
généraux and avocats généraux had also
the same official dresses as the presidents;
these were long, black, and, on solemn
occasions, scarlet robes, square caps, &c.
The revolution has made many changes in
this institution. Its circle of official duties
has been narrowed, but, on the other
hand, it has gained in unity, connexion
In
The procureurs
ADVOCATE.
and solidity. These officers were at first
called commissaries of the king, afterwards,
of the government. Under the imperial
government, particularly by the decrees of
April 20 and July 6, 1810, the institution
was put nearly on its old footing, and has
remained so ever since. Attached to ev-
ery court of appeal (cour royale) is a pro-
cureur général; under him is an avocat gé-
néral for the civil department of the court,
and also one for that branch of the court
which has appellate jurisdiction of cases
tried before the police correctionnelle, which
has cognizance of all minor offences, sim-
ple thefts, trespasses, and, lately, offences
of the press. There are likewise two sub-
stitutes or deputies to supply the place of
these officers. All these stand immediate-
ly under the minister of justice, receive
commands from him, and give regular
information of the administration of jus-
tice within their precincts. It is incum-
bent on them to send to the minister of
justice, semi-annually, a list of processes,
especially of delayed causes, that is, such
as have been waiting for oral discussion
longer than three months. Under them
are the procureurs criminels in the courts
of assize, and the procureurs du roi in the
courts of the first instance (the provincial
or district courts), and all the officers of
the judicial police, so called, viz. the com-
missioners of police, the mayors of cities,
justices of the peace, officers of the gen-
darmerie, field and forest rangers and their
deputies. The sale of offices is abolish-
ed; all the crown advocates are appointed
by the king, but not for life, like the
judges; on the contrary, they are remov-
able at pleasure. Their former official
duties are lessened only in so far as the
province of the courts has become more
confined. The state advocates still take
care that the laws are correctly adminis-
tered, and act as representatives of the
public interests. They are the organs of
the executive department of government
in the courts, and are required to attend to
the execution of judgments in which the
state is interested. As a part of their gen-
eral duty of enforcing the strict observ-
ance of the laws in the courts, it is also
incumbent on them to oppose those judg-
ments in which the parties acquiesce, but
which contain any contravention or erro-
neous exposition of the laws, lest the
public should be thereby injured. These
decisions, indeed, are binding on the par-
ties, but a more strict adherence to the
laws is enjoined on the courts for the fu-
ture. One of the most important duties
of the state advocates is, the institution
71
of the trials for offences before the police
courts and the courts of assize, which they
are bound to attend to in their capacity
of public prosecutors. All reports of
crimes committed are to be made to the
procureur criminel, and by him to that
member of the district court, who is ap-
pointed to conduct the preliminary exam-
inations, the juge d'instruction. The pro-
cureur criminel searches out the evidence,
summons the witnesses, and, when the
preliminary examination is concluded,
makes the necessary motions in court,
either for the acquittal of the accused, or
for the institution of further proceedings,
varying, of course, according to the na-
ture of the offence, which may be a mat-
ter cognizable by the ordinary police
magistrates, or falling within the jurisdic-
tion of the police correctionnelle, or belong-
ing to the courts of assize as a crime in
the strict sense of the word. In all these
cases, an oral discussion takes place, but
only criminal causes, technically so call-
ed, before the courts of assize, are tried
by a jury. The jurisdiction of the police
correctionnelle is limited to offences, the
punishment of which does not exceed 5
years' imprisonment. At the opening of
criminal causes, the procureur général is
required to ask of the court, in the first
instance, a formal bill of complaint (mise
en accusation), which formerly was found
by the jury d'accusation (corresponding to
the English grand jury), but now origi-
nates from a branch of the court of ap-
peals, and is very similar to the report of
a special inquisition in the German courts.
After this, the procureur général draws up
the indictment, which serves as a basis
for the subsequent proceedings, summons
the witnesses, and assists in empannelling
the jury, as he has, like the accused, a
right of challenging. He sees that the
proceedings are rightly conducted, and is
allowed to propose questions to the wit-
nesses. After the examination of the
witnesses is concluded, he makes the
motions for condemnation (conclusions),
grounded on the evidence produced in
the course of the trial, and subsequently
the accused is heard in his own defence.
The court may decree a severer punish-
ment than is moved for by the officers of
government; and, on the other hand, the
state advocate has the right to appeal
from too mild a sentence (appel a mini-
ma), though he is bound to acquiesce in
an acquittal by the jury. Finally, the
crown advocates attend also to the exe-
cution of the sentence, and thus every
thing is committed to them which may
72
ADVOCATE.
be considered as flowing from the exec-
utive department of government. In re-
gard to the great excellence of this whole
institution, there prevails but one voice
among the French lawyers and statesinen.
It allows the judges to lay aside all con-
siderations except those of strict justice,
as it relieves them from the duty of taking
care of the interests of the government.
By means of the subordination in which
the state procureurs in the courts of the
districts (arrondissements) and the procu-
reurs criminels stand to the office of state
advocate in the courts of appeals, and the
procureurs généraux in the last to the min-
ister of justice, that unity of influence is
maintained, which the government should
exercise over the courts and the adminis-
tration of justice. When every thing goes
on properly, this influence will not be al-
lowed to overstep its natural and benefi-
cial limits, and to interrupt or disturb the
right of the judges to decide according to
law. It cannot, indeed, be denied, that
the great power confided to the state ad-
vocates is liable to abuse. This is not
the place to pronounce judgment on the
complaints which have been brought
against the procureurs généraux, e. g. on
the occasion of the criminal trial of the
merchant Fonk at Cologne; but the ex-
istence of these complaints proves what
it is in the power of a state advocate to
do, if he chooses to misuse his power for
purposes of oppression and the gratifica-
tion of selfish passions. In France, of
late, the state advocates are charged with
being influenced too much by political
differences of opinion. Some of them, in
particular, have drawn upon themselves
thereby very severe animadversions. It
is said that, in the trials of general Berton,
of Caron and Roger, at Colmar, and oth-
ers, on account of political offences, they
sought to implicate persons against whom
nothing could be proved but a justifiable
opposition to the ministry, in accordance
with the charter and the nature of a
representative government. It is well
known how severely Benjamin Constant
expressed himself on this point, with re-
gard to the procureur général of Saumur.
Certainly the dependence of the crown
advocates on the government has a ten-
dency to give a certain bias to their official
conduct. But this bias is not very perni-
cious, because it is a notorious and natu-
ral consequence of their official situation,
and the judge is required, as well as em-
powered, to resist it.-England has also
her superior state advocates, the attorney
general and solicitor general; but, in con-
formity with the English judiciary sys-
tem, their sphere of action is much more
limited, and is not to be compared with
that of the French ministère public. In
criminal causes, the prosecution is con-
ducted, indeed, in the name and by the
advocates of the crown; but a great deal
depends on the injured party, and the po-
lice magistrates, that is, the justices of the
peace. The former have it in their pow-
er, by avoiding to appear at the trial (al-
though liable to punishment for so doing),
to defeat the whole proceeding; and, in
every session of the courts, a large num-
ber of accused persons are set free, be-
cause, after a public summons or procla-
mation in court, no person appears against
them. In Scotland, the king's advocate,
or lord advocate, is an officer of great
power and dignity, and is empowered to
commence prosecutions without com-
plaint presented by an injured party.-
So, in other countries, there exist officers
under the names of fiscal, advocatus fisci,
advocatus patriæ, &c. But these have
not the authority which is indispensable
to render their offices as efficient as that
of the French advocate.-Frederic II of
Prussia had the office of the French
advocate in mind when he conferred
greater powers on the office of fiscal, and
appointed a superior fiscal in cach of the
superior courts, to whom the provincial
fiscals in the inferior courts were subor-
dinate; at the head of these stood the fis-
cal general at Berlin. But the institution
was deficient in strength. It has not ac-
quired the efficiency of the French mi-
nistère public, and appears to have fallen
almost entirely into disuse.-But, even in
France, it is capable of an important, and,
we may well say, a necessary extension
of authority, if the constitutional respon-
sibility of the higher offices of state is
ever to be seriously insisted on. It is
necessary, and this remark may be appli-
ed to all representative governments, that
the state advocate should be required to
watch over the execution of the laws in
the highest offices of government; and
therefore a superior state advocate should
be appointed, to whom (as to the Prussian
fiscal-general) the ministers should be re-
quired to render an account of their ad-
ministration, and who, when any viola-
tion of the law came to his knowledge,
should be bound to make a report there-
of to the representatives of the people.
There should be a still further extension
of the institution, by placing in subordi-
nation to the crown advocate, who re-
ceives the orders of the ministry, a state
ADVOCATE.
or national advocate (in a narrow sense),
who should be considered as the officer
of the people, and should be obliged
to come forward whenever the interest
of the treasury came into collision with
that of wards, absentees, and the like.
Then this institution would answer the
high purposes for which it was designed.
(See Das Institut der Staatsanwaltschaft,
by Müller, counsellor of state, Leipsic,
1825.)-In the United States, the attorney
general is an officer under the federal
constitution, corresponding substantially
to the English law officer of that name.
His duty, as defined by the law of con-
gress, is, to prosecute and conduct all
suits in the supreme court of the union,
in which the United States shall be con-
cerned, and to give his advice and opin-
ion upon questions of law, when required
by the president of the United States, or
when requested by the officers at the head
of any of the departments, touching any
matters that may concem their depart-
ments. He is also required to examine
all letters patent for useful inventions, and
to certify to the secretary of state whether
they are conformable to the law on that
subject, previously to the public seal being
affixed to them. The attorney general of
the United States is also a member of the
president's cabinet council. In addition
to this law officer, the government of the
United States has in each of the states
(which, in judicial proceedings, are styled
districts) a district attorney, as he is called,
whose duty it is, within his particular
state, to prosecute, on behalf of the United
States, all delinquents for crimes and of-
fences cognizable under the authority of
the United States' laws, and all civil actions
in which the United States shall be con-
cerned, except those which come before
the supreme ecurt, in the district in which
that court shall be holden. Besides these
law officers of the general government of
the United States, each of the states of
the union has its attorney general and sub-
ordinate public prosecutors, or attorneys,
for its territorial subdivisions or districts;
and their duties are, to prosecute and de-
fend in all causes, criminal and civil, aris-
ing under the local laws of their respect-
ive states, and in which their own state
is concerned.
ADVOCATES. This profession has play-
ed a conspicuous part in almost every
civilized country. Among the Romans,
the greatest statesmen and orators belong
cd to this class, devoting themselves es-
pecially to the defence of criminal causes
of importance. Those of less consequence
7
VOL. I.
73
and of a civil character were committed
to procurators. The advocates of Eng-
land and France are often men of high
rank, enjoying an ample income and the
prospect of attaining to the highest digni-
ties of the state. Men of the best tal-
ents, therefore, are found in their ranks.
In Germany and some of the other coun-
tries of Europe, the advocates occupy a
comparatively subordinate station in the
courts. The profession is there consid-
ered only as a preparatory step to public
employments, and these frequently of an
humble description. This is the' cause
of the inferiority of the German lawyers
in general to those of England and
France; and the whole administration
of justice there suffers from the same
cause. There are exceptions, however,
in some of the German states, particular-
ly in Prussia. In the French revolution,
the lawyers acted the most important
part in public affairs. Advocati ecclesiarum,
superintendents of the property of the
church, divided, according to their several
offices, into defensores, causidici, actores,
pastores laici, &c., were first appointed
under the consulship of Stilico. The
pope, at the same time, issued orders,
that the bishops, abbots and churches
should have good advocates. These offi-
ces were first intrusted to canons, but
afterwards were held even by monarchs;
e. g. the German emperor, the king of
France, &c. became advocati of the Ro-
man church. The advocates set over
single churches administered justice in
secular affairs in the name of the bishops
and the abbots, and had jurisdiction over
their whole dioceses. In case of neces-
sity, they defended the property of the
clergy by force of arms. In the courts
of justice, they pleaded the causes of the
churches with which they were connect-
ed. They superintended the collection
of the tithes and the other revenues of
the church, and enjoyed, on the part of
the convents, many benefices and consid-
erable revenues. After a time, these ad-
vocates and their assistants becoming a
burden to the clergy and the people
under their charge, who began to suffer
severely from their avarice, the churches
attempted to get rid of them. Urban III
labored to deliver the church from these
oppressors, but was astonished to find, A.
D. 1186, the German prelates, in con-
nexion with the emperor Frederic I, op-
posed to it. Under the emperor Frederic
II, most of the German churches sue-
ceeded, however, in abolishing these offi-
ces by the grant of large sums of money
74
ADVOCATES-ÆDILES.
and of various immunities.-In the U.
States, the profession of the law possesses
an extensive influence upon society. It
embraces, as it does in England, various
classes of lawyers, such as proctors, con-
veyancers, solicitors, attorneys, and lastly,
and above all, counsellors, or advocates.
In the U. States, the different branches of
the profession are often carried on by the
same person, though this practice is not
universal, especially in large cities. The
higher ranks of lawyers in the U. States
enjoy great public and private confidence.
Many of thein are selected for the first pub-
lic employments in the state, e. g. for the
presidency, for the office of senators and
representatives in the national and state
legislatures, for governors, for secretaries
of the great departments, and for foreign
embassies. From this class of men are
also taken, almost as a matter of course,
the judges of the various courts in the
union. The constitutions and laws of the
several states entitle every person, in civil
as well as criminal cases, to the assistance
of counsel, and generally two are admitted
on each side. All trials are public, and
forensic eloquence is eagerly heard. The
profession of the law is very numerous
in the U. States, on account both of its
emoluments, and its free access to public
favor and patronage. There is no diffi-
culty in gaining admission to the courts,
as an advocate, after three or four years
of preparatory studies; and, after admis-
sion, success is generally in proportion to
talents and industry, and devotion to
juridical studies. Of the seven presidents
of the U. States, six were bred to the law.
ADVOCATE'S LIBRARY. In 1660, the
faculty of advocates in Edinburgh found
ed a library upon an extensive plan, sug-
gested by sir George M'Kenzie, of Rose-
haugh, advocate to Charles II and James
II, who enriched it with many valuable
books. It has been daily increasing since
that time. It contains, besides law-books,
works on all subjects, many original man-
uscripts, and a great variety of coins and
medals.
ADVOWSON (from advoco); in English
law, a right of presentation to a vacant
benefice, or, in other words, a right of
nominating a person to officiate in a va-
cant church. The name is derived from
advocatio, because the right was first ob-
tained by such as were founders, bene-
factors, or strenuous defenders (advocates)
of the church. Those who have this
right are styled patrons. Advowsons are
of three kinds-presentative, collative and
donative; presentative, when the patron
presents his clerk to the bishop of the
diocese to be instituted; collative, when
the bishop is the patron, and institutes or
collates his clerk by a single act; dona-
tive, when a church is founded by the
king, and assigned to the patron without
being subject to the ordinary, so that the
patron confers the benefice on his clerk
without presentation, institution or induc-
tion.
}
ADY; the palm-trec of the island of St.
Thomas. Its juice supplies the place of
wine among the Indians. The fruit, call-
ed abanga, is of the shape and size of a
lemon, and is eaten roasted. An oil,
prepared from this fruit, answers the pur-
pose of butter.
ADYTUM (from «, not, and do, to en-
ter); the most retired and sacred place in
the ancient temples, into which priests
only were allowed to enter. It corre-
sponded to the Jewish holy of holies
(sanctum sanctorum).
ACUS; son of Jupiter and the nymph
Ægina, daughter of the river god Aso-
pus.
pus. He acquired the government of the
island called after his mother, and be-
came, by his uprightness, a favorite with
the gods. In compliance with his prayers,
his father peopled anew the island, which
had been depopulated by the plague.
The new inhabitants sprung froin ants,
and were termed, on that account, Myr-
midons. Greece, too, was delivered, at
his entreaty, from a great drought and
famine. The naine of his wife was En-
deis, and Peleus and Telamon were his
children. Æ., on account of his love of
justice, was joined with Minos and Rhad-
amanthus in the office of judging the
dead. His particular duty was the dis-
tribution of rewards and punishments.
He is represented as scated upon a tribu-
nal, bearing a crown and sceptre; as a
distinguishing mark, he carries the key
of the infernal world, given to him by
Pluto.
EDILES; Roman magistrates of sec-
ondary rank, who had the supervision of
public spectacles and public edifices, and
decided questions relating to the erection
of buildings, and to the police of the
market. At first, there were but two,
chosen from the common people (@diles
plebeii). At the end of the 4th century
from the foundation of Rome, two more
were added from among the patricians,
to whom an ivory chair (sella curulis) was
allowed, and who were thence called
adiles curules. Julius Cæsar added the
third class (œdiles Cereales), to whose care
the public granaries were intrusted.
ÆGEON-ÆGINETAN STYLE.
ÆGEON ; in ancient mythology, a huge
giant, the son of Titan and Terra, who
was fabled to have had 100 hands, with
which he threw 100 rocks at once at Ju-
piter, who, when he had overcome him,
bound him with 100 chains.
EGEAN SEA; the ancient name of the
modern Archipelago (q. v.; see also E-
geus).
ÆGEUS; king of Athens and father of
Theseus, by Æthra, daughter of Pittheus,
king of Troezene. He caused him to be
secretly educated at Troezene, to deceive
the sons of Pallas (Pallantides), who ex-
pected to succeed him, on the supposi-
tion that he was childless. In order that
he might recognise his son, he concealed
a sword, and some other articles, under a
stone, on his departure from Troezene,
and left orders that Theseus should bring
them to Athens when he had reached a
certain age. As soon as this young hero
became acquainted with his birth, he has
tened to Athens, where he was at first
repulsed, and in danger of his life; but
his father finally acknowledged him, and
declared him successor to his throne.
Under the erroneous idea that Theseus
had been devoured by the Minotaur, E.
plunged into the sea, from which circum-
stance the Archipelago, between Greece
and Asia, as far as the Hellespont, re-
ceived the name of the Egean sea. (See
Theseus.)
ÆGINA, NOW ENGIA, or EGINA; a Gre-
cian island in the Saronic gulf, about 30
miles in circumference. In ancient times,
it constituted an independent state, and
was rich and flourishing by reason of its
commerce. The Greeks had a common
temple in it, dedicated to Jupiter. The
capital of this island was called also
Egina.
EGINETAN STYLE AND MONUMENTS
OF ART. An association of English and
German artists and lovers of the arts was
formed in 1811, chiefly with a view of
obtaining an architectural survey of the
temple of Jupiter Panhellenius, at Ægi-
na, which is one of the most beautiful
remains of the Doric architecture. A
sketch of this temple may be found in
the English Journal of Science, and in
Isis, a periodical edited by Oken, in Ger-
many. This undertaking was amply re-
warded by a fine collection of valuable
sculpture, which once adorned the east-
ern and western fronts of that noble edi-
fice. It was purchased by the king of
Bavaria in 1812, and the deficient parts
restored by Thorwaldson. Every mem-
ber of the association received a cast of
75
it carefully executed in plaster of Paris.
These works are valuable as faithful imi-
tations of nature, and for the light which
they shed over one of the darkest peri-
ods in the history of art. They show
that the Æginetan style of art was inde-
pendent of the Attic. Pausanias calls
Smilis the Dædalus of Ægina, assures us
that he was the contemporary of Dæda-
lus, and ascribes therefore to the Ægine-
tan style equal antiquity and independ
ence with the Attic. The language and
manners of Ægina were Doric; and its
sculpture has a Doric character, as dis-
tinct from the Attic (which was original-
ly Ionic) as Doric poetry and architect-
ure.
ure. The characteristic peculiarity and
aim of the Æginetan style is the faithful
and exact imitation of nature, carried even
to deception. Attic art was a daughter of
the Egyptian, and a striving after the ideal
is perceptible in both. To gain a clear
idea of primitive art, we must distinguish
between the Egyptian, ancient Attic,
Æginetan and Etrurian styles. Rude-
ness, stiffness and meagerness belong to
the first attempts in every art. In other
respects, they differ from one another, al-
though, at a later period, they exercise a
mutual influence. The perfection of art
in Phidias has hitherto appeared almost a
miracle; but we now comprehend how
the Æginetan school, imitating nature
with almost perfect exactness, pointed out
the way to the ancient Attic, teaching it
to rise from the abstract to the living,
from the conventional to the natural.
Thus we find the long-desired link of
connexion between the ancient severe
and beautiful styles. Since the creations
of Phidias, the traces of the proper Ægi-
netan style have disappeared. There
was subsequently, therefore, only one
perfect style of art, which spread over
all Greece; and Eginetan became the
name for primitive sculpture. Smilis
was the father and founder of the Ægi-
netan style of art; next to him came Cal-
lon, who lived between the 60th and 70th
Olympiads (540-500 B. C.) About the
time of Phidias, there lived the following
masters, famous in this style: Anaxago
ras, who made the Jupiter which was
placed in Olympia at the common ex-
pense of all the Greeks, who fought victo-
riously at Platæa, B. C. 379; Simon, the
maker of the consecrated offering of a
certain Phormis at Olympia; and Glau-
cias and Onatas, who flourished in the
78th Olympiad. The Æginetan figures
now exhibited at Munich are 17. They
may be divided into 4 classes: 1. upright,
76
ÆGINETAN STYLE-EGISTHUS.
clothed, and female; 2. advancing or
fighting combatants; 3. kneeling, or
archers; 4. lying, or wounded. The
largest of these figures is Minerva. She
is a little above the human size; all the
others are rather below this measure.
If we consider the style of these works,
there prevails in every part of the bodies,
the head excepted, a minute imitation of
nature, without the least traces of the
ideal. Still the imitation is neither poor
nor offensive to the rules of art, but a
good copy of beautiful nature, with the
most perfect knowledge of the bones and
muscles. With respect to proportion,
these figures are slender, rather small at
the hips, and the legs remarkably long.
There is much life in the attitudes, though
they are not altogether free from a certain
stiffness, such as may be observed in the
paintings of Giotto, Masaccio, Perugino,
&c. The heads seem to belong to an
earlier epoch of art; the eyes project,
and are lengthened somewhat in the Chi-
nese fashion; the mouth has prominent
lips, with well marked edges; the corners
in some are turned up; the nose is
rather small; the ears finished with the
greatest care; the chin is full, and gen-
crally too large. They all look alike, and
exhibit not the slightest expression of
passion; between conquerors and con-
quered, gods and men, there is not the
least difference. The appearance of the
hair is not natural, but stiff and conven-
tional. The arms are rather short; the
hands natural to deception; not a wrinkle
of the skin is forgotten. The legs are
well shaped ; the knees masterly; the feet
elegant; and the toes, which are rather
too long, run out parallel. The drapery
close to the body, with folds artificially
arranged. Though the style is hard, the
exccution is tasteful and elaborate. They
were apparently made at the same time,
but not by the same artist. No one of
them has any support, and they are
equally finished on all sides. The num-
ber of figures originally amounted to 30
at least. They were symmetrically_ar-
ranged on both fronts of the temple. The
Minerva stood in the middle, the standing
warriors next, then the archers, and the
lying figures last. The temple was not
intentionally destroyed, but was probably
thrown down by an earthquake. Since
Eacus erected this temple to Jupiter
Panhellenius, it is probabic that the
figures represent the battles of the a-
cidæ, under the protection of Minerva.
The two contests in which the acid
distinguished themselves most gloriously
were the Trojan war and the naval battle
of Salamis: in the latter, the images of
the Æacidæ of Homer, Ajax and Tela-
mon, were displayed, and regarded as
supernatural protectors. According to
another opinion, the group of the castern
front represented the contest around the
body of Laomedon, king of Troy; and the
one on the western, that around the body
of Patroclus. The figures should prob-
ably be assigned to a period between the
60th and 80th Olympiads. Pindar calls
Egina the "well-fortified seat of the
acidæ," probably referring to these
images, for no one of the sons of Eacus
then remained in the country. The
marble of which they are wrought is
Parian, of the kind usually called Gre-
chetto. The colors perceptible here and
there on the figures are vermilion and
azure. All the decorations and foliage
of the temple, which are generally carved,
were painted. The niches of the fronts
in which these figures stood were azure,
the partitions red, the foliage green and
yellow, and even the marble tiles were
painted with a kind of flower. We cannot
call this system of painting barbarous; we
find it even on the Parthenon. Winc-
kelmann was the first who conjectured the
existence of an ancient school of art in
gina, from the accounts of Pausanias.
(See Wagner's Bericht über die Eginctische
Bildwerke herausgegeben, und mit kunst-
geschichtlichen. Anmerkungen begleitet
von Schelling, 1817; Wagner's Report on
the Æginetan Remains of Art, &c.) Sub-
sequently, K. Otfr. Müller, in his learned
and acute work, Eginaticorum Liber,
Leipsic, 1820, attempted to determine
their relation to the other monuments
still extant; and Thiersch to investigate
their mythological signification. Against
the idea of a peculiar Æginetan style of
art, deduced from these marbles, Henry
Meyer wrote in Göthe's Kunst und Alter-
thum, 3 Bd. 1. Heft., and opposed the
derivation of Grecian sculpture from the
Egyptian as strenuously as Winckelmann
advocated it.
EGINHARD. (See Eginhard.)
EGIS; the shield of Jupiter, who is
cailed by Homer the Egis-bearer. It
derives its name from the she-goat Ægis,
which suckled the god in Crete, and with
the skin of which the shield was covered.
Also the shield of Pallas or Minerva, in
the middle of which was the head of
Medusa. Sometimes the cuirass of Me-
dusa is thus called. In a figurative souse,
E. denotes protection.
ÆGISTIUS. (See Agamemnon.)
ELFRIC-ENIGMA.
ELFRIC; archbishop of Canterbury
in the 10th century. He composed a
Latin Saxon vocabulary, which was
printed by Somner, under the title of a
Glossary, Oxon: 1659.
Æ. translated
also most of the historical books of the
Old Testament, and canons for the regu-
lation of the clergy, which are inserted in
Spelman's Councils. He frequently as-
sisted his country in a spirited resistance
of the Danish invaders, and died highly
venerated, Nov. 1005.
ELIANUS Claudius; a Greek author
who lived at Præneste, about A. D.
221. He was a learned sophist, and has
left two works, compiled in a pretty good
style-a collection of stories and anec-
dotes, and a natural history of animals.
Of the first work, one of the best critical
editions was published by Gronovius, at
Leyden, 1731, 2 vols. 4to. Later editions
have been published by Kühn, Leipsic,
1780, and Coray, Paris, 1805.
EMILIUS, Paulus, surnamed Macedoni-
cus; a noble Roman of the ancient family
- of the Æmilii. He conquered Perseus,
king of Macedon, and on this occasion
obtained a triumph, A. U. C. 586; B. C.
168. During the triumph, two of his
sons died. He bore the loss like a
hero, and thanked the gods that they had
chosen them for victims, to avert had for-
tune from the Roman people. He was
father of the renowned Scipio Africanus
the younger. His father, a brave general
in the second Punic war, commanded and
was slain at the battle of Cannæ, B. C.
216.
ENEAS; son of Anchises and Venus,
next to Hector the bravest among the
heroes of Troy. He is the hero of the
Æneid, in which his life is thus described:
In the night of the capture of Troy by the
Greeks, Hector warned him in a dream
to fly with the images of his gods. E.
rushed, notwithstanding this warning, to
the fight, but fought in vain. After Pri-
am was slain, he returned, at the com-
mand of his mother, to his home, and
carried off his father, his child and his
household gods; but lost his wife, Creusa,
in the confusion of his flight. With 20
vessels, he sailed for Thrace, where he
began to build the city Ænos, but, terri-
fied by a miracle, abandoned the attempt.
From thence he went to Delos to consult
the oracle. Misunderstanding its reply,
he went to Crete, from which he was
driven by a pestilence. Thence he di-
rected his course to the promontory of
Actium, where he celebrated games in
honor of Apollo. In Epirus he found
***
77
Helenus and Andromache. Thence he
sailed by Italy, passed the straits of Mes-
sina, and circumnavigated Sicily to cape
Drepanum on the western coast, where
Anchises died. A tempest drove him on
the shore of Africa, where Dido received
im kindly in Carthage, and desired to
detain and marry him. Jupiter, however,
mindful of the fates, sent Mercury to .
and commanded him to sail for Italy.
Whilst the deserted Dido ended her life
on the funeral pile, Eneas set sail with
his companions, and was cast by a storm
on the shore of Sicily, in the dominions
of his Trojan friend Acestes, where he
celebrated funeral games in honor of his
deceased father. The wives of his com-
panions, weary of a seafaring life, and
instigated by Juno, set fire to the ships,
on which he resolved to depart, leaving
behind the women and the sick. In this
resolution he was confirmed by Anchises,
who admonished him in a dream to de-
scend, by the aid of the sibyl, into the
infernal regions, after his arrival in Italy.
He built the city Acesta, and then sailed
for Italy, where he found the sibyl, near
Cuma, who foretold his destiny, and aid-
ed his descent into the lower world. On
his return, he embarked again, and
reached the eastern shore of the river
Tiber, in the country of the Laurentian
king Latinus. Ilis daughter, Lavinia, was
destined by an oracle to a stranger, but
promised by her mother, Amata, to Tur-
nus, king of the Rutuli. This occasioned a
war, after the termination of which, E
married Lavinia. Thus Virgil relates the
history of Eneas in his Eneid, deviating
in many particulars from historical truth.
His son by Lavinia, Eneas Sylvius, was
the ancestor of the kings of Albalonga,
and of Romulus and Remus, the founders
of the city of Rome. By his first wife,
he had a son, Ascanius, who built Alba-
longa, from whose son, Iulus, the Romans
derived the Julian family. For the dif
ferent traditions respecting Eneas, and
the probability of their late introduction
among the Romans, see Niebuhr's Roman
History, chapter entitled Encas and the
Trojans in Latium.
ENEID. (See Virgil.)
ENESIDEMUS; a sceptical philosopher,
born at Gnossus, who flourished a little
later than Cicero, and taught scepticism,
in Alexandria, to a greater extent than
had been done before. He placed truth
in the general agreement of men as to
the impressions produced by external
objects.
ENIGMA; a proposition put in ob-
78
ENIGMA-ÆRA.
scure, ambiguous, and generally contra-
dictory terms, to puzzle or exercise the
wit in finding out its meaning; or an ob-
scure discourse covering some common
and well known thing under remote and
uncommon terms. Many distinguished
poets have written ænigmas in verse. In
the East, they have been in vogue, both
in ancient and modern times. Every na-
tion has shown a fondness for them in
the infancy of its cultivation. A great
part of the Egyptian learning is said to
have been comprised in æuigmas. In
these, too, the ancient oracles often
spoke. But the symbols of the ancient
religions should not, as is often the case,
be confounded with ænigmas. (See
Hieroglyphics.) They were in vogue
among the Jews.
EOLIAN HARP, or EOLUS' HARP, was
introduced into England about the middle
of the last century. It is generally a simple
box of thin, fibrous wood (often of deal),
to which are attached a number of fine
catgut strings, sometimes as many as 15,
of equal size and length, and consequent-
ly unisons, stretched on low bridges at
each end. Its length is made to corre-
spond with the size of the window or
other aperture in which it is intended to
be placed; its width is about five or six
inches, its depth two or three. It must
be placed with the strings uppermost,
under which is a circular opening in the
centre as in the belly of the guitar. When
the wind blows athwart the strings, it
produces the effect of a choir of music
in the air, sweetly mingling all the har-
monic notes, and swelling or diminishing
the sounds according to the strength or
weakness of the blast. A more recent
Eolian harp, invented by Mr. Cross-
thwaite, has no sounding-board, but con-
sists merely of a number of strings ex-
tended between two deal boards. The
invention of the Eolian harp has been
generally ascribed to father Kircher, but
the fact is, that it was known and used at
a much earlier date in the East, as Mr.
Richardson has proved (Dissertation on
the Manners and Customs of the East).
ÆOLIANS; a Greck_tribe in Thessaly,
who took their name from Æolus, son of
Hellen, and grandson of Deucalion, spread
themselves there, and established several
small states. A portion of them went to
Asia Minor, and possessed themselves of
the ancient Troas, giving the territory the
name of olis. While united in a confed-
eracy, which held its yearly meetings, with
much solemnity, at Cuma, they long con-
tinued free; afterwards, they came under
1
the dominion of the Lydians, then of the
Persians. After they had thrown off the
Persian yoke, with the help of Athens, they
were again subdued by Darius Hystaspes,
and, as the Greeks had afforded them re-
peated aid, the famous Persian war arose,
B.C.500. They regained their liberty, but
once more came under the Persian do-
minion, and so remained till the time of
Alexander; and at length, after they had
been freed by the Romans froin the yoke
of the Syrian kings, successors of Alex-
ander in this portion of his vast em-
pire, they were totally subdued by Sylla,
because they had assisted Mithridates.
Their language, the Eolian dialect, was
one of the three principal dialects of the
Greek; their country was one of the most
fertile in the world; agriculture and the
raising of cattle were their chief occupa-
tions.
EOLIPILE; a spherical vessel of metal,
with a pipe of sinall aperture, through
which the vapor of heated water in the
ball passes out with considerable noise.
The ancient philosophers thought to ex-
plain by this experiment the origin of the
winds. In Italy, it is said that the coli-
pile is used to reinedy smoky chinneys.
EOLUS; in Homer, the son of Hippo-
tas, and king of the island Lipara, to the
north of Sicily. He is described as pious
and just, hospitable to strangers, and the
inventor of sails; having, moreover, fore-
told the course of the winds, with the ut-
most exactness, from his own observa-
tion, he was said to have the power of
directing their course. His history was
afterwards still more embellished with
fiction; the poets made him a son of Ju-
piter or Neptune, and god of the winds,
He is represented as an old man, with a
long beard, holding a sceptre in his hand,
sitting on a rock, or smiting the rock with
his sceptre, at which signal the winds
rush out. He is represented, also, stand-
ing in a grotto with a muscle in his
mouth, and a pair of bellows under his
feet.
ÆRA is used synonymously with
epoch, or epocha, for a fixed point of time,
from which any computation of it is
made. Era is more correctly the range
or circuit of years within certain points
of time, and an epoch is one of those
points itself. The word ara has been
supposed to be derived from the abridge-
ment, or initial letters, of Annus Erat Au
gusti, A.ER.A., a mode of computing
time in Spain from the year of the con-
quest of that country by the Romans;
and Vossius favors this opinion. Various
ÆRA-AERONAUTICS.
ærns have been given by chronologists
as aids in historical research; and it was
a long time before all the Christian world
agreed to compute time by the Christian
æra. Mariana says that the Spanish æra
ceased in the year of Christ 1383, under
John I, king of Castile. It continued to be
used somewhat longer in Portugal. We
inust subtract 38 from the number of a
year of the Spanish æra to get that of the
Christian. The Mahometan æra begins
with the flight of the prophet, 16th July,
622. This is called the Hegira (q. v.)
The ancient Roman æra began with the
building of the city, 750 before Christ.
The Jewish era begins with the creation.
AËRIAL PERSPECTIVE; that branch of
the science of perspective, which treats
of the relative diminution of the colors of
bodies in proportion to their distance from
the eye.
AERIANS; the followers of Aerius, an
Arian monk and schismatic, who was
exiled from Scbaste, in Armenia, because
he denied the difference between the of
ficial power of a bishop and a presbyter,
pronounced prayers and offerings in be-
half of the dead to be ineffectual and in-
jurious, rejected the ordinance of fast-
ing, and declared the practice prevailing
among Christians, of sacrificing a lamb on
the passover, to be contrary to the spirit
of their religion. Though guilty, in fact,
only of opposing the abuses of the hie-
rarchy, and the corruptions of supersti-
tion, the Aërians were condenmed as
heretics, and soon disappeared. The
Protestants were accused of Arianism
by the Catholics, because they maintained
propositions of a similar character.
ÂËRODYNAMICS; a branch of aërology,
or the higher mechanics, which treats of
the powers and motion of elastic fluids.
Aerodynamics are often explained in con-
nexion with hydrodynamics, a branch of
hydrology. (See Mechanics.)
AEROLITES; stones or masses that de-
scend from the air. (Sec Meteoric Stones.)
AËRONAUTICS; the art of sailing in or
navigating the air. The idea of inventing
a machine, which should enable us to rise
into the air, appears to have occupied the
human mind even in ancient times, but
was never realized till the last century.
Henry Cavendish, having discovered,
about 1766, the great levity of inflam-
mable air or hydrogen gas, Dr. Black,
of Edinburgh, was led to the idea that a
thin bladder, filled with this gas, must
ascend into the air. Cavallo made the
requisite experiments in 1782, and found
that a bladder was too heavy, and paper
79
not air tight. Soap bubbles, on the con-
trary, which he filled with inflammable
air, rose to the ceiling of the room, where
they burst.-In the same year, the broth-
ers Stephen and Joseph Montgolfier con-
structed a machine which ascended by its
own power.
own power. In Nov. 1782, the elder
Montgolfier succeeded, at Avignon, in
causing a large bag of fine silk, in the
shape of a parallelopiped, and containing
40 cubic feet, to mount rapidly upwards
to the ceiling of a chamber, and after-
wards, in a garden, to the height of 36 feet,
by heating it in the inside with burning
paper. The two brothers soon after-
wards repeated the experiment at Anno-
nay, where the parallelopiped ascended
in the open air 70 feet. A larger ma-
chine, containing 650 cubic feet, rose
with equal success.-They now resolved
to make the experiment on a large scale,
and prepared a machine of linen, lined
with paper, which was 117 feet in circum-
ference, weighed 430 pounds, and car-
ried more than 400 pounds of ballast.
This they sent up, June 5, 1783, at Auno-
nay. It rose in ten minutes to a height
of 6000 feet, and fell 7668 feet from the
place of ascension. The method used to
cause it to ascend was, to kindle a straw
fire under the aperture of the machine,
in which they threw, from time to time,
chopped wool. But, though the desired
effect was produced, they had no clear
nor correct idea of the cause. They did
not attribute the ascension of the vessel
to the rarefaction of the air enclosed in
it by the operation of the heat, but to a
peculiar gas, which they supposed to be
developed by the burning of the straw
and wool. The error of this opinion
was not discovered till a later period.-
These experiments roused the attention
of all the philosophers of Paris. It oc-
curred to some of them, that the same
effect might be produced by inflammable
air. M. Charles, professor of natural
philosophy, filled a ball of lutestring, 12
feet in diameter, and coated with a varnish
of gum-elastic, with such gas. It weighed
25 pounds, rose 3123 feet in two minutes,
disappeared in the clouds, and descended
to the earth, after three quarters of an
hour, at the village of Gonesse, about 15
miles from Paris.-Thus we see two
original kinds of balloons; those filled
with heated air, and those filled with in-
flammable air.-Meantime, Montgolfier
had gone to Paris, and found an assistaut
in Pilatre de Rozier, the superintendent
of the royal museum. They completed,
together, in Oct. 1783, a new machine,
80
AERONAUTICS.
74 feet in height and 48 in breadth, in
which Rozier ventured for the first time
to ascend, though only 50 feet. The bal-
loon was from caution fastened by cords,
and soon drawn down. Eventually, the
machine, being suffered to move freely,
took an oblique course, and at length
sunk down gradually about 100 feet from
its starting place.-By this the world was
convinced that a balloon might, with prop-
er management, carry a man through the
air; and the first aerial expedition was
determined on. Nov. 21, 1783, Pilatre
de Rozier and the marquis d' Arlandes
ascended from the castle la Muette, in the
presence of an innumerable multitude,
with a machine containing 6000 cubic
feet. The balloon, after having attained
a considerable height, came down, in 25
minutes, about 9000 yards from la Muette.
But the daring aëronauts had been ex-
posed to considerable danger. The bal-
loon was agitated very violently several
times; the fire had burnt holes in it; the
place on which they stood was injured,
and some cords broken. They perceived
that it was necessary to descend without
delay; but when they were on the sur-
face of the earth, new difficulties pre-
sented themselves. The weak coal fire
no longer supported the linen balloon,
the whole of which fell into the flame.
Rozier, who had not yet succeeded in
descending, just escaped being burnt.-M.
Charles, who had joined with M. Robert,
soon after informed the public that they
would ascend in a balloon filled with in-
flammable air. To defray the neces
sary expense of 10,000 livres, he opened
a subscription. The balloon was spheri-
cal, 26 feet in diameter, and consisted of
silk coated with a varnish of gum-clastic.
The car for the aeronauts was attached to
several cords, which were fastened to a
net, drawn over the upper part of the
balloon. A valve was constructed above,
which could be opened from the car, by
means of cords, and shut by a spring.
This served to afford an outlet to the in-
flammable air, if they wished to descend,
or found it necessary to diminish it. The
filling lasted several days; and, Dec. 1,
the voyage was commenced from the
gardens of the Tuileries. The balloon
quickly rose to a height of 1800 feet, and
disappeared from the eyes of the specta-
tors. The acronauts diligently observed
the barometer, which never stood at less
than 26°, threw out gradually the ballast
they had taken in to keep the balloon
steady, and descended safely at Nesle.
But as soon as Robert stepped out, and it
was thus lightened of 130 pounds, it rose
again with great rapidity about 9000 feet.
It expanded itself with such force, that it
must have been torn to pieces, had not
Charles, with much presence of mind,
opened the valve to accommodate the
quantity of gas to the rarity of the sur-
rounding atmosphere. After the lapse
of half an hour, the balloon sunk down
on a plain, about three miles from the
place of its second ascent.-These suc-
cessful aerial voyages were soon followed
by others. Blanchard had already as-
cended several times, when he deter-
mined to cross the channel between Eng-
land and France, which is about 23 miles
wide, in a balloon filled with inflammable
air. He succeeded in this bold attempt,
Jan. 7, 1785, accompanied by an Ameri-
can gentleman, Dr. Jeffries. About one
o'clock, they left the English coast, and
at half past two, were on the French.
Pilatre de Rozier, mentioned before as
the first aeronaut, attempted, June 14,
1785, in company with Mr. Romain, to
pass from the French to the English side;
but the attempt was unsuccessful, and the
adventurers lost their lives. M. de Ro-
zier had on this occasion united the two
kinds of balloons; under one, filled with
inflammable air, which did not alone
possess sufficient elevating power, was a
second, filled by means of a coal fire un-
der it. Rozier had chosen this combina-
tion, hoping to unite the advantages of
both kinds. By means of the lower bul-
loon, he intended to rise and sink at
pleasure, which is not possible with in-
flammable air; for a balloon filled with
this, when once sunk to the carth, cannot
rise again with the same weight, without
being filled anew; while, on the contrary,
by increasing or diminishing the fire under
a balloon filled with heated air, it can be
made to rise and fall alternately. But this
experiment caused the death of the projec-
tors. Probably the coals, which were only
in a glowing state near the surface of the
ground, were suddenly kindled to a light
flame as the balloon rose, and set it on
fire. The whole machine was soon in
flames, and the two aëronauts were pre-
cipitated from on high. The condition
of their mangled bodies confirms the con-
jecture that they were killed by the ex-
plosion of the gas.-This unhappy acci-
dent did not deter others; on the contra-
ry, the experiments were by degrees
repeated in other countries. However
important this invention may be, it has
as yet led to no considerable results. Its
usc has hitherto been confined to obser-
AERONAUTICS-ÆSCHYLUS.
vations in the upper regions of the atmos-
phere. But should we ever learn to
guide the balloon at will, it might, per-
haps, be employed for purposes of which
we now have hardly an idea; possibly
the plan of professor Robertson might be
accomplished by the construction of a
gigantic balloon, which would enable us
to perform an aërial circumnavigation of
the earth. During the French revolution,
an aérostatic institution was founded at
Meudon, not far from Paris, for the edu-
cation of a corps of aeronauts, with the
view of introducing balloons into armies
as a means of reconnoitring the enemy.
But this use of balloons was soon laid
aside, for, like every other, it must be at-
tended with great uncertainty, as long
as the machine has to obey the wind.
Among the French, Blanchard and Gar-
nerin have undertaken the greatest num-
ber of aerial voyages; among the Ger-
mans, professor Jungius, in Berlin, in
1805 and 1806, made the first. Since
that time, professor Reichard and his
wife have become known by their aëri-
al excursions. Even in Constantinople,
such a voyage was performed, at the wish
and expense of the sultan, by two Eng-
lishmen, Barly and Devigne. Blanchard
has rendered an essential service to aero-
nauts by the invention of the parachute,
which they can use, in case of necessity,
to let themselves down without danger.
Many attempts have been made to regu-
late the course of balloons, by means of
oars, wings, &c., but hitherto with little
success.
AËROSTATION, or AEROSTATICS, is the
science of weighing air, cither by itself
or with other substances. Since the in-
vention of the balloon, this term has been
sometimes applied to the art of managing
balloons, which is more properly called
aeronautics, (q. v.)
ESCHINES; a famous orator of Athens;
born 393, died 323, B. C. Being the son
of poor parents, he passed his youth
among the lower classes, with whom he
wandered about, partaking in their amuse-
ments, particularly in the festivals in hon-
or of Bacchus. Encouraged by their ap-
plause, he became an actor, acquired the
right of citizenship, engaged in politics,
attended the lectures of Plato and Isocra-
tes, and soon became the rival of Demos-
thenes, whom, however, he did not equal
in power and energy, although he was
distinguished by a happy choice of words,
and by richness and perspicuity of ideas.
He gradually lost the favor of the people,
and fled to Rhodes and Samos, where he
81
gave instruction in rhetoric till his death.
Three orations and twelve letters of his
are extant. They are to be found in the
collections of Aldus, Stephanus and
Reiske, (3d and 4th vols.)
ESCHINES, the philosopher, a native
of Athens, who, by way of distinction
from the preceding, is called the Socratic,
was a poor disciple of Socrates. We
possess under his name three dialogues,
"On Virtue," "On Riches," and "On
Death," which, however, are not allowed
by strict critics to be genuine. The best
edition is that of I. F. Fischer, Leipsic,
1786.
ESCHYLUS; the father of ancient Greek
tragedy; born in the 3d or 4th year of the
63d Olympiad (525 B. C.), at Eleusis, in
Attica, of a noble family. Of the circum-
stances of his life we have but deficient
and uncertain accounts. He fought in
the battles of Marathon and Salamis, wit-
nessed the destruction of the power of
Darius and Xerxes, and wrote his trage
dies under the proud feeling of a success-
ful struggle for liberty. In these he first
raised the tragical art from the rude be-
ginnings of Thespis to a dignified char-
acter, so that he may be considered as
its real creator. Tragedy sprang from
his head in full armor (says 1. W.
Schlegel), like Pallas from the head of
Jupiter. He clothed it with becoming
dignity, and gave it an appropriate place
of exhibition; he invented scenic pomp,
and not only instructed the chorus in
singing and dancing, but appeared him-
self in the character of a player. He first
perfected the dialogue, and reduced the
lyrical part of the tragedy, which still,
however, occupies too much space in his
plays. His characters are sketched with
a few bold and strong features; his plots
are extremely simple, but grand. His art
knew nothing of intrigues and develope-
ments. All his poetry reveals a lofty and
ardent mind. Not the softer emotions,
but terror is his ruling characteristic. He
holds up the head of Medusa to the over-
awed spectators. His manner of treating
fate is terrible in the extreme; in all its
gloomy majesty it hovers over mortals.
The Cothurnus of Eschylus is of an iron
weight; none but giant figures stride in
it. It appears to have required an effort
in him to represent mere men. He deals
commonly with gods, especially the Ti-
tans, those elder deities, the symbols of
the dark primitive powers of nature, long
since cast down to Tartarus. In accord-
ance with the grandeur of his figures, he
endeavors to make their language gigantic.
82
ÆSCHYLUS-ESOP.
Thence arise harsh expressions, overload-
ed with epithets, and frequently, in his
chorus, intricate constructions and great
obscurity. In the daring grandeur of his
images and expressions, he resembles
Dante and Shakspeare. We have only
7 of his tragedies remaining: their whole
number is stated to have been 70; accord-
ing to some, 90; but among these, ac-
cording to the testimony of the ancients,
we have some of his principal works.
They are,
"The Prometheus Vinctus,"
"The Seven before Thebes," "The Per-
sians," "Agamemnon," "The Choëphora,"
"The Eumenides," and "The Suppliants."
Disgusted at seeing inferior pieces pre-
ferred to his own, and particularly at the
victory of the young Sophocles, or, ac-
cording to the more probable account,
compelled by an accusation of atheism,
Eschylus left his native country, and
went to Sicily, where he was received
with great honors by king Hiero, and
died 456 B. C., at the age of 70 years.
The best editions of his works are, Lon-
don, 1663 and 1664, folio, by Stanley;
Hague, in 1745, 2 vols. quarto, by Paw;
and Halle, 1809 to 1821, 5 vols. 3d edition
by Schütz. Single plays have been pub-
lished by Brunck, Herrmann, Blomfield,
and others.
ESCULAPIUS; the god of medicine.
Some writers call him a son of Apollo and
Arsinoë, daughter of Leucippus; others, of
Apollo and Coronis, daughter of Philegyas.
There are also different accounts of the
wonders which befell his infancy. Accord-
ing to some, he was exposed by his mother,
suckled by a goat, found by shepherds, and
his divine nature recognised by a glittering
halo round his head according to oth-
ers, Coronis having admitted the em-
braces of Ischys as well as those of
Apollo, the latter, in a fit of anger (or
Diana in his stead), killed Coronis, but
saved the child from her womb. The
last opinion was the most common, and
was confirmed by the Pythian oracle.
Apollo afterwards brought his son to Chi-
ron, who instructed him in medicine and
bunting. In the former he acquired a
high degree of skill, so as to surpass even
the fame of his teacher. He not only
prevented the death of the living, but
even recalled the dead to life. Jupiter,
however, induced by the complaints of
his brother Pluto, slew E. with a thun-
derbolt. After his death, he received di-
vine honors. In particular, he was wor-
shipped at Epidaurus in Peloponnesus,
(see Argolis), where a temple with a
grove was dedicated to him. From the
accurate register here kept of the most
remarkable diseases and their remedies,
the greatest physicians gathered experi-
ence and knowledge. Thence his wor-
ship spread over all Greece, and finally
to Rome. After the plague had raged
there for three years, ambassadors were
sent to Esculapius at Epidaurus by the
advice of the Delphian Apollo. They
had hardly appeared before the god,
when a serpent crept from beneath his
image, and hastened directly to the Ro-
man ship. This serpent, which was
thought to be Esculapius himself, was
carried with great solemnity to Rome,
upon which the plague ceased. Escu-
lapius had two sons, Machaon and Poda-
lirius, who were called Asclepiades, and
during the Trojan war made themselves
famous as heroes and physicians.
daughters were Hygeia, Iaso, Panacea
and Egle, the first of whom was wor-
shipped as the goddess of health. Escu-
lapius is represented with a large beard,
holding a knotty staff, round which was
entwined a serpent, the symbol of con-
valescence. Near him stands the cock,
the symbol of watchfulness. He is some-
tines crowned with the laurel of Apollo.
Sometimes his little son Telesphorus is
represented beside him, with a cap upon
his head, wrapped up in a cloak. Some-
times Esculapius is represented under
the image of a serpent only.
His
Esor; the oldest Greck fabulist. Ic
is said to have been a native of Phrygia,
and a slave, till he was set free by his
last owner. He lived about the middle
of the 6th century B. C. He inculcated
rules of practical morality, drawn from
the habits of the inferior creation, and
thus spread his fame through Greece and
all the neighboring countries. Cræsus,
king of Lydia, invited Æsop to his court,
and kept him always about his person.
Indeed, he was never absent, except 'dur-
ing his journeys to Greece, Persia and
Egypt. Cræsus once sent him to Delphi
to offer a sacrifice to Apollo; while en-
gaged in this embassy, he wrote his fable
of the Floating Log, which appeared terri-
ble at a distance, but lost its terrors when
approached. The priests of Delphi, ap-
plying the fable to themselves, resolved
to take vengeance on the author, and
plunged him from a precipice. Planu-
des, who wrote a miserable romance, of
which he makes Æsop the hero, describes
him as excessively deformed and disa-
grecable in his appearance, and given to
stuttering; but this account does not agree
with what his contemporaries say of him.
ESOP-ÆTNA.
A
The stories related of Æsop, even by the
ancients, are not entitled to credit.
collection of fables made by Planudes,
which are still extant under the name of
the Grecian fabulist, are ascribed to him
with little foundation; their origin is lost
in the darkness of antiquity. Of the
early editions, the most valuable are those
by Henry Stephens, Paris, 1546, 4to.; and
by Hudson, Oxford, 1718. More lately,
they have been published from the man-
uscript, in a very different form, by De
Furia, 2 vols., Florence, 1809, and Leip-
sic, 1810; Coray, Paris, 1810; and
Schneider, Breslau, 1811. These fables
have had numberless imitators.
ÆSOPUS, Clodius, a celebrated actor,
who flourished about the 670th year of
Rome. He was a contemporary of Ros-
cius. His folly in spending money on
expensive dishes made him as conspicu-
ous as his dramatic talents. He is said,
at one entertainment, to have had a dish
filled with singing and speaking birds,
which cost £800. When acting, he en-
tered into his part to such a degree as
sometimes to be seized with a perfect
ecstasy. Plutarch mentions it as report-
ed of him, that, whilst he was represent-
ing Atreus, deliberating how he should
revenge himself on Thyestes, he was so
transported beyond himself, that he smote
with his truncheon one of the servants
who was crossing the stage, and killed
him on the spot.
AESTHETICS (from the Greek din91nış,
perception); the science which treats of
the beautiful, and of the various applica-
tions of its principles. Baumgarten, a pro-
fessor in the university at Frankfort on
the Oder, first used this name, and in-
tended to designate by it a branch of phi-
losophy, which should establish correct
principles of criticism in relation to the
beautiful. Since the time of Baumgarten,
this word has been used in Germany,
France, and Italy, and has lately been
employed by some English writers. For
the character of the science, and the atten-
tion which it has received, see Philosophy.
ÆTHER; an extremely fine, subtile and
elastic fluid, which philosophers have sup-
posed to be diffused throughout the uni-
verse, and by means of which they have
explained many of the great phenomena of
nature. It is mentioned by Aristotle. Its
existence cannot be proved. Newton be-
lieved in it, and explains by it the connexion
of the parts of a body, and the laws of
gravity. Euler asserts that æther is almost
39,000,000 times thinner, and 1,278 times
more elastic, than atmospheric air.
ETHER; in chemistry. (See Ether.)
ETHIOPIA. (See Ethiopia.)
ETHRA. (See Theseus.)
83
ÆTIUS; one of the most zealous de-
fenders of Arianism, born in Syria, flour-
ished about 336, and his followers were
called Ætians.
ETNA (in Italian, monte Gibello); the
famous volcanic mountain on the eastern
coast of Sicily, not far from Catania.
This mountain rises more than 10,000
feet above the surface of the sea; Buf-
fon thinks, 2000 fathoms; Saussure gives
10,963 feet, Spallanzani 11,400, and sir
G. Shuckburgh 10,954. Its circumference
at the base is 180 miles. On its sides are
77 cities, towns and villages, containing
about 115,000 inhabitants. From Cata-
nia to the summit the distance is 30
miles, and the traveller must pass through
three distinct climates-the hot, the tem-
perate and the frigid. Accordingly, the
whole mountain is divided into three dis-
tinct regions, called the fertile region (rc-
gione culta), the woody region (regionc
selvosa), and the barren region (regione
deserta). The lowest region extends
through an ascent of from 12 to 18 miles.
The city of Catania and several villages
are situated in the first zone, which
abounds in pastures, orchards, and vari-
ous kinds of fruit-trees. Its great fertility
is ascribed chiefly to the decomposition
of lava; it is perhaps owing, in part, to
cultivation. The figs and fruits in gen-
eral, in this region, are reckoned the finest
in Sicily. The lava here flows from a
number of small mountains, which are
dispersed over the immense declivity of
Etna. The woody region, or temperate
zone, extends from 8 to 10 miles in a di-
rect line towards the top of the moun-
tain; it comprehends a surface of about
40 or 45 square leagues, and forms a zone
of the brightest green all round the
mountain, exhibiting a pleasing contrast
to its white and hoary head. It is called
la regione selvosa, because it abounds in
oaks, beeches and firs. The soil is simi-
lar to that of the lower region. The air
here is cool and refreshing, and every
breeze is loaded with a thousand per-
fumes, the whole ground being covered
with the richest aromatic plants. Many
parts of this region are the most delight-
ful spots upon earth, and have inspired
ancient and modern poets with images of
beauty and loveliness. The animal king-
dom of these two regions is not equal in
point of richness to the vegetable. The
upper or barren region is marked out by a
circle of snow and ice. Its surface is, for
84
ÆTNA-AFFINITY.
the most part, flat, and the approach to it
is indicated by the decline of vegetation, by
uncovered rocks of lava and heaps of sand,
by near views of an expanse of snow and
ice, and of torrents of smoke issuing from
the crater of the mountain, also by the
difficulty and danger of advancing amidst
streams of melted snow, sheets of ice, and
gusts of chilling winds. The curious
traveller, however, thinks himself amply
rewarded, upon gaining the summit, for
the peril which he has encountered. The
number of stars seems increased, and
their light appears brighter than usual;
the lustre of the milky way is like a pure
flame that shoots across the heavens; and
with the naked eye we may observe clus-
ters of stars totally invisible in the lower
regions. The scoriæ, of which the moun-
tain is composed, have the same kind of
base, containing schorl and feldspar. The
first eruption of which we have any au-
thentic account, is mentioned by Diodorus
Siculus. The last eruption took place in
1819. It appears very probable that mount
Ætna is exhausting its volcanic powers,
as the eruptions of modern times are by
no means so frequent as in former ages,
nor are they so tremendous in their ex-
tent and effects. Before the Christian
sera, there were 9 cruptions, of which
those in 477 and 121 B. C. are the most
important: after Christ, the most impor-
tant are those in 1160, 1169, 1829, 1536,
1537, 1669, 1693, 1763, 1787, 1792, 1802,
1809, 1811, 1819. Mount Ætna supplies
Sicily and a large part of Italy, and even
Malta, with the luxury of snow and ice.
The trade in these articles belongs to the
bishop of Catania, who, as it is stated,
makes from 3000 to 4000 dollars per an-
num by it. The vegetation of the woody
region is exceedingly luxuriant. There
is one chestnut tree, under which 100
horses may be sheltered against the sun;
it therefore is called dei cento cavalli. (See
Denon's Voyage pittoresque en Sicile, vol.
4., and Alexander von Humboldt's Per-
sonal Narrative.) Since 1824, Catania
has had the Gioenian Academy (so called
in honor of the chevalier Giuseppe Giocni,
author of a Litologia Vesuviana), the ob-
ject of which is to investigate the topogra-
phy and natural history of Ætna.
ETOLIA; a country in Greece, on the
northern coast of the Corinthian gulf; so
called from Ætolus, the brother of Epeus,
king of Elis, who, escaping from Elis,
made himself master of this region. An-
cient Ætolia was separated from Acar-
nania by the river Achelöus, and extend-
ed thence to Calydon, or to the river
Evenus. On the south lay the gulf of
Corinth, and Thessaly on the north. Its
extent from north to south was about 48
miles, and from cast to west above 20.
It was subsequently enlarged by success-
ful wars. The additions were compre-
hended under the name of Etolia Epic-
telos. The borders of Ætolia on the
north were now mount Eta and the Atha-
manes in Epirus. Thermopyla, Hera-
clea, and a great part of Thessaly also
belonged to it.
. in
On the east, Doris and
the coast as far as Naupactus and Eupa-
lion were added to it. The country was
rough and unfruitful, but strong by rea-
son of its mountains. According to Ile-
rodotus and Aristotle, lions infested
the most ancient times. The original
ancestors of the Etolians were Hellenes.
Divided into small tribes, they had no
principal city; they were occupied in
hunting and robbery, and made them-
selves feared both on land and sea. In their
state of independence, they preserved for
a long time their ancient rudeness of
manners. They very early formed the
great Ætolian confederacy, which assem-
bled once a year at Therma, but first
became remarkable in the time of the
Achæan league. To oppose this confed-
eracy they united with the Romans; and
afterwards deserted them, on perceiving
that their freedom was in danger from
their allies. They then went over to the
side of the Macedonians, with whom they
were obliged at last to submit to the Ro-
man yoke. The government of Æ. was
republican, controlled by the Panalolium,
a general council, held as occasion re-
quired. Livy says that their cavalry was
at one period esteemed supcrior to that
of any other of the Grecian states.
AFFA; a weight on the Gold Coast of
Guinea, equal to one ounce.
AFFINITY; in chemistry. When two
bodies are brought in contact with each
other, they will oflen, without the sensible
operation of any extraneous influences,
combine by a spontaneous and reciprocal
action, and form new bodies with differ-
ent properties; a single body, modified
by the action of the natural agents, ca-
loric, electricity, &c. sometimes produces
the same results; finally, a body not ap-
parently acted upon by other bodies, nor
by the natural agents, sometimes acquires
new properties, and assumes new forms.
These changes in the chemical character
of bodies are produced by a force, to
which we give the name of affinity
Some of the laws or modes of action of
this force are, that it is exerted only at
AFFINITY—AFFRY.
insensible distances, which distinguishes
it from gravitation (see Attraction), and
between heterogeneous particles, in which
it differs from cohesion (q. v.) The proper-
ties of the resulting compound differ es-
sentially from its component parts, as a
salt is formed by an acid and an alkali.
The forms of the elements are often
changed, and the change is attended with
remarkable phenomena, as the explosion
of gunpowder by its conversion into
gases, the solidification of water in slak-
ing lime, &c. One of the most important
laws of affinity is, that one body has not
the same force of affinity towards all
others, but attracts them very unequally,
and some of them not at all. The knowl-
edge of the affinities of different bodies
is of great use to the chemist in effecting
decompositions. Bergmann, who first, in
1775, developed the theory of affinities,
distinguishes three cases in the reciprocal
action of two bodies—when they are both
free, which he calls simple affinity; when
one of them is already in combination,
clective; and when both are combined in
different compounds, complex. Berthollet
has much improved the theory of affini-
ties. (See Berthollet's Statique chimique,
and Berzelius' Theory of chemical Propor-
tions.)
AFFINITY, in law, is that degree of
connexion, which subsists between one
of two married persons and the blood re-
lations of the other. It is no real kindred.
A person cannot, by legal succession, re-
ceive an inheritance from a relation by
affinity; neither does it extend to the
nearest relations of husband and wife, so
as to create a mutual relation between
them. The degrees of affinity are com-
puted in the same way as those of con-
sanguinity, or blood. By the Jewish law,
marriage was prohibited within certain
degrees. Nearly the same limitations are
adopted into the laws of Europe and
America. All legal impediments, arising
from affinity, cease upon the death of the
husband or wife, excepting, of course,
those which relate to the marriage of the
survivor. The table of forbidden degrees
of affinity is, by the ecclesiastical law of
England, commanded to be hung up in
all churches. The Roman church speaks
of spiritual affinity, which is contracted
by the sacraments of baptism and con-
firmation; according to which a god-
father may not marry his god-daughter
without a dispensation.
AFFIRMATION signifies, in one sense,
the solemn declarations of Quakers, and
members of some other sects, in confir-
8
VOL. I.
85
mation of their testimony in courts of law,
or of their statements on other occasions,
on which the sanction of an oath is re-
quired of other persons. The English
laws did not permit affirmations instead
of oaths, in criminal cases, until 1828.
No distinction has been made, in any of
the United States, between testimonies in
civil and criminal cases in this respect, it
having been permitted to Quakers gener-
ally, and, for the most part, to other per-
sons scrupulous about swearing, to give
testimony upon mere solemn affirmation.
Even the president of the U. S. is allowed
to affirm instead of taking the usual oath,
when inducted into office, if he has con-
scientious scruples about swearing. The
privilege of affirmation is allowed in Prus-
sia only to sects recognised by govern-
ment, and whose principles do not permit
them to make oath. False affirmation is
subjected to the same penalties as perjury
in England and elsewhere.
AFFRY, Lewis Augustinus Philip, count
of, first magistrate of Switzerland after
Napoleon had proclaimed himself the
protector of the Helvetic confederacy,
was born at Freyburg, 1743. He was
early destined to a inilitary life, accom-
panied his father on an embassy to the
Hague, soon became adjutant in the Swiss
guards, and was finally elevated to the
rank of lieutenant-general. At the com-
mencement of the revolution, he com-
manded the army on the Upper Rhine,
till Aug. 10, 1792, when, the Swiss troops
having been disbanded, he returned to
his country, and became a member of the
secret council at Freyburg. Switzerland
being menaced, in 1798, with a French
invasion and a revolution, he resumed the
command of the troops. He acknowl-
edged the uselessness of resistance, con-
ducted himself with undeviating pru-
dence, and averted as much as possible
from his country the evils of war and
rebellion. When Freyburg was taken by
the French, he became a member of the
provisional government. He had no share
in the insurrections of 1801 and 1802, but
accepted with pleasure the appointment
of deputy to Paris, when the first consul
invited the Swiss to send delegates thith-
er, and offered them his mediation. Na-
poleon distinguished him above the other
deputies, and intrusted to him the forma-
tion of an administration, which was to
ensure the peace and happiness of the
ancient allies of France. Feb. 19, 1803,
A. received from the first consul the act
of mediation, was appointed first magis-
trate for this year, and invested with ex-
86
AFFRY-AFRANCESADOS.
traordinary powers, until the convocation
of a diet. He sought to promote the
views of the first consul, and acted, in
every thing, with the ability, the intelli-
gence and the experience of a thorough
statesman. He died June 16, 1810.
AFGHANISTAN, or AFGHAUNISTAUN, the
country of the Afghans, or Cabulists, also
called the kingdom of the Abdallians, con-
tains 350,000 square miles, is bounded on
the north, towards Budukshan, by mount
Hindoo-Koh and Paropamisus; on the
cast, towards Hindostan, by the Indus and
mount Solomon; on the south, by the
vale of Bolahn and the mountains near
Sistan; on the west, towards Iran, by the
great desert. The Hindoo-Koh is a con-
tinuation of the Himalaya; many ranges
run in all directions from the Paropamisus
and mount Solomon. The Indus is the
principal river. The atmosphere is dry
and healthy, and some of the valleys are
very fertile. The untilled portions serve
as pastures for cattle. It abounds in sil-
ver, lead, iron, sulphur, lapis lazuli, cotton,
horses, asses, dromedaries, camels, oxen,
sheep with fat tails, goats, &c., and con-
tains, also, several species of carnivorous
animals. Of the 14,000,000 of inhabit-
ants, 4,300,000 are Afghans, and 5,700,000
are Hindoos; the remaining part consists
of Tadshicks (descendants of the ancient
Persians), with Tartars and Belooches.
Their religion is that of Mahomet. Be-
sides the capital, Cabul, which contains
30,000 inhabitants, there are other impor-
tant cities; as Candahar, a fortress and
commercial place, of 100,000 inhabitants;
Peshawur, or Peshour, of 100,000 inhabit-
ants, &c.; Bulkh, or Balk (the ancient
Bactria, now inhabited by Usbecks), and
Cashmere. These are almost independ-
ent cities on the frontiers. The king is
of the house of Saddosei; the throne is
hereditary, but limited by the power of
the chiefs of the tribes. The British
couriers and travellers, who are going to
Bagdad, generally prefer the way by Ca-
bul. In consequence of the influence of
the English over the people of A., the
Persian court at Tehraun is subjected to
an unwilling dependence on the East
India company, which acts as protector
of Persia and of A., and has contributed
much to the preservation of peace he-
tween the two nations, as far as the aris-
tocratic character of the government of
A. admits. Private quarrels, however,
frequently happen between the Persian
governors and the chiefs of A. The great
influence of the English in the East, over
the nations of the Lower Indus (sciks), is
continually exerted to prevent these pow-
erful nations from weakening one another
by wars, with a view of advancing the
commercial interests of the English com-
pany, and of providing a bulwark against
the progress of the Russian conquests
beyond the Caucasus, in Lower Persia, in
Armenia, and on the Caspian sea. But,
in spite of these precautions, the rajah of
Lahore, Rungeet Singh, has usurped the
throne of Cabul, in A., and, to brave the
British, has taken many Russians into his
service. The Russians trade with the
Afghans by way of Bucharia.
or
AFGHANS, OF AFGHAUNS, signifying
mountaineers, is the name of a powerful na-
tion, called also Patans, in the eastern part
of Persia, in the kingdom of Cabulistan.
They originally lived in the mountains
between Persia, Hindostan and Bactria,
and are of Median descent. The A.'s are
even now wandering tribes; both those
of the west, who are robbers, and live in
tents, and those of the cast, who have
more regular settlements. During the
revolution in Persia, which took place in
1747, after the death of Nadir Shab, Amed
Abdallah, chief of the A.'s in the Persian
army, took possession of the provinces of
Candahar and Chorasan, made himself
independent of Persia, and founded the
kingdom of Afghanistan.
AFORE (avant, French); all that part of
a ship which lies forward, or near the
stem.
AFRANCESADOS. This title is used to
denote those Spaniards who took the oath
of fidelity and allegiance to the constitu-
tion of Bayonne and king Joseph, ex-
pecting, from the new order of things in-
troduced by the French into Spain, a
regeneration of their country. They were
also termed Josefinos, because they were
taken into the Spanish service by Joseph.
After the overthrow of the usurper (intru-
so), his principal partisans fled to France,
to avoid the hatred of their countrymen.
When king Ferdinand VII recovered his
throne in 1814, he persecuted, with equal
cruelty, the liberales, or adherents of the
cortes, who had wrought the downfall of
the French system, and the Josefinos. A
gazette of Madrid, the Atalaya (Sentinel),
demanded their destruction in the follow-
ing terms: "Is it possible, sire, that the
liberales and Josefinos still exist among us?
Why have not a hundred scaffolds, a
hundred pyres, been erected in every city
and in every village of Spain, to do justice
on the wretches ?" May 30, 1814, a de-
cree was issued, prohibiting the return
of all emigrant afrancesados, more espe-
蓄
​AFRANCESADOS-AFRICA.
cially those who had received, from the
invading government, any ratification of
their former offices, or any new appoint-
ment, title, rank, order, &c. In the same
decree were included all generals and
officers who had fought under the ban-
ners of Napoleon or Joseph, and all fe-
males who had accompanied their hus-
bands in their emigration. The number
of emigrant liberales who lived in France
was estimated at 16,000; among whom
were many distinguished literary charac-
ters, and excellent civil and military offi-
cers. They published, in London, a jour-
nal (El Español constitucional), in which
they labored to convince their country-
men, that the only remedy for the misfor-
tunes of Spain was the adoption of a lib-
eral constitution. All others were allowed
to return, but were compelled to live 50
miles from the capital, under the super-
vision of the police. The decree of am-
nesty, published Sept. 29, 1816 (suspend-
ed again in 1817), was so constructed,
that it did not ameliorate the condition of
the banished Josefinos. Even the soldiers
and officers, returning home after Napo-
leon's fall, from their captivity in France,
were remanded to the frontier, through
fear that they might have imbibed liberal
or revolutionary principles in France.
The continual attempts at rebellion in
Spain were, at the same time, the conse-
quence and the cause of the continuance
of these severe regulations. When Fer-
dinand VII accepted the constitution of
the cortes, he proclaimed a general an-
nesty, March 8, 1820, and afterwards al-
lowed all Josefinos to reside in any part
of Spain, Madrid excepted. The cortes,
Sept. 21, 1820, determined that they
should be restored to the enjoyment of
their rights and possession of their prop-
erty, but not to their dignities, offices and
pensions. They proceeded on the prin-
ciple, that most of them had been brought
by accidental circumstances under the
power of the "usurper” (intruso), but had,
nevertheless, with honest intentions, pre-
pared, in Bayonne, reforms beneficial to
their country, and had exerted themselves
with spirit to promote its welfare; and
that afterwards, becoming involved in in-
extricable difficulties, they had remained
faithful to their oath, king Joseph, and
the constitution. The afrancesados have
always shown great moderation, and are,
for this reason, even now, hated by the
absolutists. (See Mexico.)
AFRANIUS, Lucius, a Roman comic
poet, flourished in the first half of the 2d
century B. C. He was preeminently the
87
creator of the Roman national drama, or
the fabula togata; and his delineations of
the life and manners of his countrymen
comprehended even the lowest classes,
whence arose the fabula tabernaria. From
the Greeks he borrowed only the outward
form of their comedy, and adapted it to
the Roman manners, which gave rise to
the saying, that the toga of A. perfectly
fitted Menander. His coarse expressions
and licentiousness have been censured by
some critics, but his wit and vivacity are
acknowledged by all. He wrote much,
but of his many pieces only a few frag-
ments remain.
AFRICA, one of the five divisions of the
globe, mentioned in history thousands of
years ago, is still to us what it was to the
ancients the land of mystery. Only a
small extent of sea separates Africa from
Europe; its coasts lie in sight of the most
civilized countries; and yet we know
nothing more than its outlines: into the
interior the foot of a European has lately,
for the first time, penetrated. Whether
the Africans are descended from a Negro
Adam, or whether a descendant of Noah
conducted thither from Asia its first in-
habitants, who received their black com-
plexion from the fierce heat of the Africa.
sun, is a problem which can never b
solved. Under the same name which i
now bears, the valley of the Nile was, in
the earliest ages of history, the cradle of
commerce, the arts and sciences. But
even in the period of Egypt's greatest
prosperity, deep night seems to have en-
veloped the surrounding countries, which
were called Negroland. Subsequently, the
Greeks (see the very minute accounts of
Herodotus) and Romans became better
acquainted with the Mediterranean coast
of Africa, and penetrated into the interior
perhaps as far as the river Joliba; but
their knowledge never reached beyond
the confines of Numidia, and they were
totally ignorant of the southern part of A.
How vague was the conception which
Ptolemy himself formed of this portion
of the earth, though it appeared to him a
large peninsula! Its outlines were not
determined till the 15th century. Henry,
the Navigator, sailed round the formida-
ble cape Non (non plus ultra), Diaz and
Vasco de Gama discovered the cape of
Good Hope, and both the western and
eastern coasts were examined by Euro-
pean navigators.—Africa is a vast penin-
sula, forming a triangle, with its vertex
towards the south, containing 12,256,000
(according to Gruberg, 11,031,400) square
miles; situated between 18° W. and 51°
888
AFRICA.
E. lon., and from 34° S. to 37° 30′ N. lat.;
bounded on the north by the Mediterra-
nean, on the east by Asia, the Red sea
and Indian ocean, and on the south and
west by the Southern and Atlantic oceans.
It has a great breadth from east to west.
The northern portion is much larger than
the southern; the greatest breadth, from
west to east, from cape Negro to cape
Guardafui, is 69. Under the equator, the
breadth is 4500 geographical miles. The
internal structure of Africa is marked by
many peculiarities. It possesses immense
chains of mountains, extending, perhaps,
from the cape of Good Hope to the Medi-
terranean, in many parallel ranges. Such
are the Atlas mountains, the mountains
of the Moon, of Kong and Lupata; those
of the Cape, 5000 feet high, and covered
with continual snows; but, on the whole,
it is more level than any other quarter of
the globe. In none other do we find
such boundless deserts; and the Cobi, in
the centre of Asia, is not to be compared
with the Sahara. These deserts appear
like oceans of sand, by no means destitute
of fertile islands. These islands are the
Oases, peculiar to Africa. (Sec Oases.)
Among the mighty streams of A. we can
now follow the Egyptian Nile to its
sources. The courses of the other great
rivers have not yet been satisfactorily ex-
plored. We know, indeed, where the
Congo or Zaire, Coanza, and Cuama or
Zambese terminate, but not where they
rise. The Joliba (the Niger of Herodo-
tus), Mungo Park has informed us, flows
from west to east. The Senegal, the
Gambia and the Orange are also impor-
tant rivers. A. contains several large
lakes, such as the Dembea, Wangara,
Maravi, Tschad and Aquilunda. The
climate is various, but in general extreme-
ly hot. In the lifeless atmosphere of the
tropics, which have but two seasons, the
wet and the dry, the heat of the sun is
terrible; and Adanson tells of eggs being
roasted in the sands of Guinea, and the
naked feet of the Negroes blistered. On
the coasts, the heat is mitigated by the
breezes from the sea and the mountains,
and by incessant rains; but the atmos-
phere is not so healthy and pure as in
the interior, which has a higher elevation.
The whole tract of Barbary is warmer
than the more southerly regions, and all
A., compared with Europe, is a hot coun-
try. Of its winds, the dry, parching har-
mattan is peculiar to A.; it has the si-
moom in common with Asia, and the
sirocco with Europe.-To the naturalist,
this wonderful country seems the first fa-
vorite of nature, as far as it respects the
riches of the organic world, and the num-
ber of giant forms of animals and plants.
It can enumerate five times as many
species of quadrupeds as Asia, and three
times as many as all America. It ex-
cels Asia in the size of its colossal river-
horse (hippopotamus), gigantic giraffe and
large antelopes and apes. That giant of
birds, the ostrich, is exclusively indige-
nous to Africa. But the most beneficent
gift of nature to the African is the camel,
the constitution of which is in every re-
spect adapted to the country and climate.
Among the other animals are the cle-
phant and rhinoceros, the lion, panther,
leopard, ounce, jackal, hyena, wolf, fox,
dog, cat, mongus, bat, rat, marmot (cavia
capensis), hare, rabbit, jerboa, porcupine,
hedgehog, mole, civet-cat, ichneumon,
bear, horse, ass, zebra, sheep (some
with hair and large, fat tails), argalis (cu-
pra ammon), goat, inumerable varieties
of the gazelle, the buffalo, fallow-deer. In
Guinea are found the roe, swine, einga-
los, babyroussa, and other quadrupeds,
whose natural history has been as yet by
no means sufficiently investigated; even
the problematical unicorn is still said to
exist in the interior. The varieties of
birds are equally numerous; among which
is the crown-bird, the most beautiful of
the feathered tribes; the flamingo, king-
fisher, pelican, and many kinds of parrots;
the peacock, partridge, pheasant, widow
and cardinal-bird; the cuckoo, the cucu-
lus indicator, turtle-doves, pigeons, ducks,
geese, &c. The class of reptiles com-
prises the crocodile and boa constrictor,
with many other serpents, some innox-
ious, some highly poisonous. The bays
and rivers abound in fish, but the variety
of the species is not so great as in the
northern seas, and many of the most usc-
ful are entirely wanting. The shrubs and
carth swarm with termites, ants, scolo-
pendras, spiders and caterpillars, while
passing armies of locusts obscure the sun
like clouds. The most beautiful insects
abound. Still more extraordinary is the
force of vegetation. The earth renders
back the seed to the cultivator increased
a hundred fold, and produces those im-
inense trees, among which the baobab,
or monkey bread-tree, whose crown of
branches sometimes forms a circle 130
fect in diameter, holds the first rank; the
splendid white trunk of the ceiba grows
almost perpendicularly from the root to
the branches, 60 feet, and, with its fine
round crown, riscs to a height of 120 feet.
In Africa, as in America, the torrid zone
AFRICA.
produces plants and fruits, at the same
time the most nutritious, the most re-
freshing and most wholesome. The an-
tiseptical quality appertains to the fruits
of the palm, banana, orange, shaddock,
pine-apple, tamarind, and to the juice and
leaves of the baobab. The best butter
(likewise an excellent medicine) may be
procured from the shih or butter-tree, in
the interior of the west of Africa, and the
ground-nuts of Whidah ripen within six
weeks from the time of sowing. The
vegetable productions, used for suste-
nance, are principally wheat, barley, mil-
let, poa abyssinica, rice, the convolvulus
batatas, L., yams, lotus berries, gum Sen-
egal, dates, figs, the various kinds of
spices, and especially sugar-cane; for
drink, coffee is used, palm wine, from the
female palm-tree, the milk of cocoa-nuts,
and Cape wine; for clothing, cotton,
hemp, and even flax. Here thrive the
papaw, the pomegranate, five kinds of
pepper, the best indigo, the dracana draco,
from which is procured dragon's blood,
the tallow-tree, the best wood for dyeing
and cabinet work, innumerable spices,
&c. Madagascar
Madagascar is rich in the most
rich in the most
valuable productions. Our information
respecting the mineral kingdom is the
most limited. Of gold, Africa has more
than any other portion of the globe; and
iron is found in most parts of this conti-
nent; but it wants the other metals. Of
other minerals, it has only saltpetre, sal
ammoniac, some fuller's earth, and emery
in abundance; ambergris is found on the
coasts. The want of salt, except in a few
regions, is most severely felt.-The Afri-
can races of men offer many points of
interest to the inquirer. The majority of
them are distinguished from the rest of
the human family, not only by their black
complexion and curly hair, but also by
peculiarities in the construction of the
bones of the head and even of the nerves.
This seems to imply that the Negro is
originally a distinct race. It is thought
that traces of this primitive race may still
be detected here and there; e. g. of the
original Egyptians in the Copts, and of
the Guanches (the original inhabitants of
the Canaries) in the natives of Barbary,
The population is probably between 100
and 110 millions. The interior of the
country must be very populous, since,
within two centuries and a half, it has
contributed 40 millions of vigorous men to
the slave trade, and, notwithstanding, is
any thing but depopulated. Even the
countries along the coast are thickly
peopled. Jackson computed the popu-
S*
89
lation of Morocco alone at 17 millions;
and the Barbary states, with Egypt, which
constitute but an eighth part of the con-
tinent, contain 20 millions. The torrid
Guinea has, on the whole, a numerous
population; and large cities are situated
on the Joliba, of which we hardly know
the names. The inhabitants belong to
two branches of the human family; to
the black, or Ethiopian race, which ex-
tends from the Joliba to the southern
extremity, comprising, notwithstanding
their tawny complexions, the Hottentots;
and to the Caucasian race, which includes
the natives of Barbary, Copts, the Arabs
or Moors, the Agaziones or Abyssinians,
and the nations of Nubia. The Arabs are
not to be regarded as aborigines of Africa,
but they have scattered theinselves, and
become occupants of the greater part of
the north and west. On the islands and
some points of the sea-board, we find
Portuguese, Spaniards, French, Dutch,
British, and even Jews in particular
spots; but the Falaschas in Tigre, though
they profess the religion of Moses, seem
not to be of Hebrew descent.-The Ara-
bie is the leading language throughout
all the north, and as far as the Joliba,
where it is understood, in some degree
at least, by those nations who revere the
Koran. The Berberd and Shelluh tongues
are spoken in the Barbary states, and
along the Atlas mountains. The Man-
dingö language is used from the Senegal
to the Joliba. On the western coast, a
corrupt Portuguese is heard; in the re-
gions of Abyssinia, the Tigre and Amhara
tongues prevail. The languages of the
blacks are as multifarious as the nations.
In Sahara, alone, 43 dialects are said to be
spoken. But of all the 150 languages
(this conjectural number was adopted by
Seetzen) of the African nations, we are
hardly acquainted with 70. Equally man-
ifold are the modes of worship. Mo-
hammedanism has diffused itself over the
north to the Joliba, and most of the east-
ern coast; the Christian religion is pro-
fessed by the inhabitants of Tigre and
Amlara, by the Copts, the Nubians, and
European strangers, though with great
diversity of forms. The most disgusting
Fetichism prevails among most of the
Negro nations, demanding, from many of
its votaries, human sacrifices.-We must
not look to A. for the triumphs of sci-
cnce, not even to the country which was
its cradle in the infancy of man. All that
the Pharaohs and Ptolemies had ever ef-
fected, was swept away by the storms
which broke upon this unhappy region
90
AFRICA.
in the middle ages. Schools, however,
are still maintained by the Mohamme-
dans in the cities of Barbary, by the Ma-
raboots, in the countries where they have
settled, and, here and there, by the Copts
and Monophysites in Tigre and Amhara.
The arts are exercised only on the north-
ern coasts, where the Moors manufacture
much silk, cotton, leather and linen; an
active commerce is carried on by them
with the maritime nations of Europe, and,
by means of caravans, a traffic, full as im-
portant, with the interior, to which they
convey their own products and those of
Europe. Some of the most important
routes pursued by the caravans are the fol-
lowing:-1. From Mourzouk, the capital
of Fezzan, to Cairo, 30 days' journey, by
way of the market-places and encamp
ments Siwah, Augila and Temissa. 2.
From Mourzouk to Bornou, 50 days'
journey, by way of the deserts of Bilma
and Tibesti; the market-places and en-
campments are Temissa, Domboo and
Kanem. 3. From Mourzouk to Cashina
or Cassina, 60 days' journey, by way of
Hiatts, Ganatt and Agadez. 4. From Fez
to Timbuctoo, 54 days'; but a halt of soine
time is made at the encampments; e. g.
at Akka or Tatta, the general rendezvous,
at Tegaza and Aroan, 65 days; so that
this caravan is 119 days in reaching its
place of destination. 5. Another route
along the sea coast leads through Wadey,
cape Bojador and Gualata. 6 and 7. The
caravans from Sennaar and Darfur to
Egypt do not travel regularly every year,
but once every 2 or 3 years; such a car-
avan comprises from 500 to 2000 camels.
It goes about three miles an hour, and
rarely travels more than 7 or 8 hours a
day. The blacks stand on the verge of
absolute barbarism, even where they are
united into states. Their wants are ex-
ecedingly simple, and every article used
by them is prepared by themselves; the
cloth which surrounds their loins, the hut
which protects them from the weather,
the bow and arrow necessary for the
hunt and self-defence, as well as all their
household furniture, are manufactured by
themselves; the gold, which they collect
from the surface of the earth, is wrought
by them into ornaments, and iron into
anns. Commerce, however, with Euro-
peans has taught them many wants, and
increased their list of necessaries; among
which may now be reckoned fire-arms,
powder, brandy, tobacco, different kinds
of cloth, glass beads, coral, &c.; for
which they barter slaves, ivory, gold and
gums, the staples of Africa. The slave
trade is yet of such importance, that,
although most of the European and
American nations have agreed to prohibit
it, nearly 50,000 Negroes are yearly torn
from the interior by the Mussulman, Portu-
guese, French, American, and even Brit-
ish dealers. Formerly, 105,000 slaves
were annually introduced into the West
Indies, besides those who were transport-
ed into Asia by the Kermanians, and by
the North Americans into the southern
states of the Union. The exports of ivo-
ry, gold dust and gums are also impor-
tant; those of ostrich feathers, tiger skins,
hides, and other natural productions, are
of less consequence. Of all the states of
Africa, Barbary alone uses coin; in the
rest, not frequented by Europeans, money
rarely serves as the medium of exchange;
in some, on the western coast, cowries
are made to answer the purposes of coin
in others, pieces of salt.-The tropic of
Cancer and the equator divide Africa into
three principal parts:-1. Northern Africa,
comprising Egypt, the piratical states of
Tripoli (including the coast of Barca), Tu-
nis and Algiers, the empire of Morocco,
Fezzan, and the northern part of Soodan or
the Sahara, with the Azores, Canary and
Madeira islands. 2. Central Africa, com-
prising, on the eastern coast, Nubia, Tigre,
Amhara, Efat, Adel, Ajan, the southern
part of Soodan, with Darfur and the
countries of the Gallas; and, on the west-
crn coasts, Benin, Owhere, Senegambia
and Guinea, besides the cape Verd isl-
ands, those near Guinea, the 16 Bissao
islands, Socotora, &c. 3. Southern Af-
rica, with all the south-east and south-
western coasts and interior, the cape of
Good Hope and the island of Madagas-
car, the Comoro islands, with those of
Mascarenhas, Amirante, Tristan d'Acum-
ha, St. Helena and Ascension.-In a his-
torical view, also, Africa is deserving of
the minutest investigation, as one of the
richest archives of former times and the
ancient world. It guards, couched in
mysterious characters, innumerable an-
nals of the history of man's progress from
the earliest times down to the overthrow
of the Roman empire in the East. In A.
the enterprising European is discovering
new sources of industry and commerce.
Great Britain has already flourishing col-
onies established on its coasts; on which
the Portuguese colonies, planted four cen-
turies since, laid the foundation of the
colonial system of Europe. It is with
reason, therefore, that Africa has, in our
days, engaged the attention of geogra-
phers, as in the period of Herodotus, and
;
AFRICA.
400 years since, in the time of Henry the
Navigator. The French expedition to
Egypt (q. v.) first opened this country to
modern investigation, and roused even
the Turks from their sluggish apathy.
British perseverance has created for the
nations of the Cape new sources of pros-
perity, and established a colony there, to
receive the superfluity of British pop-
ulation; while the colony previously
established (1793) at Sierra Leone has
been laboring, not without success, for
the civilization of the Negroes. At the
same time, adventurous travellers, Brit-
ish, German, French, Italian and Ameri-
can, have penetrated into A. from all
sides. But we must regard as erroneous
the idea that the eastern coasts of A.
were visited, in the remotest antiquity, by
the Jewish and Tyrian merchants, who,
according to Hebrew accounts, sailed to
Tarshish and Ophir, said to be situated
on those coasts, and carried thence great
riches to kings David and Solomon. For
a history of the voyages of discovery in
Africa, since the time when the Phoeni-
cians, under Nechos, king of Egypt, sail-
ed from the Red sea, round Africa, and
back through the pillars of Hercules (600
years before the Christian era), down to
the enterprises of the latest times, we re-
fer the reader to the complete history of
voyages and discoveries in Africa, from
the most distant times down to the pres-
ent, by Dr. Leyden and Mr. Hugh Mur-
ray, Edinburgh, 1817; translated from the
English into French, with additions,
Paris, 1821, 4 vols.; and the N. Geogr.
Ephem., 1824. Among the most important
travels of our own time are the mission
of Bowdich, an Englishman, to Ashan-
tee, in 1818, which has made us acquaint-
ed with a powerful and warlike nation
near the western coast; and the jour-
neys undertaken by Burckhardt to Nubia,
which have made known to us the active
commerce of the Nubian nations. It is
principally by means of these, that the
African Association," incorporated in
1787, in London, as well as the British
consulate (e. g. Salt, in Egypt), and the
British Bible and Missionary societies,
have been enabled to raise the veil which
hung over this continent.
The bold
Mungo Park, Hornemann and Röntgen,
of Neuwied, had previously penetrated
into the interior. The last was murdered
on the road to Timbuctoo, not far from
Mogadore. Besides those mentioned
above, we ought to cite Leod's Voyage
to Africa, London, 1821, because it gives
a more minute description of the people
91
of Dahomy (q. v.), who inhabit the most
fertile part of Guinea, with which we
were only superficially acquainted from
the accounts of Norris, and Capt. Lyon's
Narrative of Travels, 1818-20, in North-
ern Africa, London, 1821, who, starting
from Tripoli, visited the caves of the
tribes of mt. Garean, and penetrated, by
way of Mourzouk, to Tegerby, (24° 4′ N.
lat.), the most southern city of the king-
dom of Fezzan, in company with his
friend Ritchie, who died, however, in
Mourzouk, Nov. 20, 1819. In September,
1821, three Englishmen, doctor Oudney,
major Denham and captain Clapperton,
proceeded on a similar expedition to
Tripoli, in order to travel to Bornou,
by way of Mourzouk, and explore the
course of the Niger. Oudney died at
Murmur, Jan. 12, 1821, in consequence
of catching a cold when the frost was so
violent on a plain, between hills of sand,
that water froze in the leather bags. His
fellow-traveller, Clapperton, pursued his
journey to Cano, the present capital of
Houssa, and reached Soccatoo, the resi-
dence of the governor of Soodan. They
discovered the fresh-water lake Tschad,
into which two large rivers empty, the
Shary from the south, the Yaou from the
west. (See Narrative of Travels and Dis-
coveries in Northern and Central Africa, by
Maj. Denham, Capt. Clapperton and the
late Dr. Oudney, in the years 1822, 23, 24,
London, 1826.) In 1824, major Gordon
Laing undertook to travel from Tripoli to
Timbuctoo. Clapperton commenced, in
1825, a new expedition into the interior
from Benin, by way of Soccatoo, to the
Tschad, in order to penetrate into Abys-
sinia through Timbuctoo, whence Laing
was to start for Benin. He was accom-
panied by doctor Dickson, the naturalist,
capt. Robert Pearce and doctor Morrison.
Clapperton died of a dysentery at Socca-
too, April 13, 1827, and Laing is now
known to have been killed near Timbuc-
too in the latter part of the year 1826. Clap-
perton's journal of his second expedition
has been published at London, 1829, to-
gether with the journal of Richard Lan-
der, from Cano to the sea-coast. Among
the German and French adventurers, who
have explored the interior of Africa, start-
ing from Egypt, are Minutoli (q. v.), Cail-
laud, and, since the year 1822, Ed. Rup-
pel. Ruppel explored, in 1825, the great
Oasis in the west of Nubia, and the un-
known country of Kordofan, and under-
took, in 1826, a journey to the Red sea.
He has imparted to the public much that
is new respecting Egypt and Ethiopia,
92
AFRICA-AFRICAN COMPANY.
and the antiquities of the East, in von
Zach's Corresp. Astron. The French
Gasp. Mollien, who published a Voyage
dans l'Intérieur de l'Afrique aux Sources
du Sénégal et de la Gambia, Paris, 1820,
2 vols., set out from St. Louis, and reach-
ed the sources of the Senegal, the Gam-
bia and the Rio Grande, at no great dis-
tance from each other, lon. 7° 15′ W.,
and lat. 10° 30′ N., in the neighborhood
of Teemboo. But he was unable to
reach the sources of the Niger, and also
wanted instruments to give accuracy to
his observations. In the connexion of
those two streams by the Nerico, he has
shown the route on which the caravans
from the kingdoms of Oubi and Foutadi-
allon, in the interior, might proceed along
the Senegal to fort St. Louis. Much light
has been shed over the south of Africa
by Burchel, an Englishman, who travelled
five years in the interior, setting out from
the Cape. Before him, the Cape itself had
been explored, by Barrow, in 1797, and
by John Campbell, agent of the London
Missionary Society, as far as Latakoo, a
settlement of the Bushwana tribe, 900
miles north of Cape Town. In 1818,
Campbell undertook a second journey, in
the same direction, arrived at Latakoo in
1819, and reached, in April, 1820, Old La-
takoo, containing 8000 inhabitants. He
here found, in a northerly direction, sev-
eral populous citics, situated in a fertile
and cultivated country, where he discov-
ered the tribe of the red Caffres, and
reached Kurerchance (almost 24° S. lat.),
a city of the Marootzees, near the eastern
coast, said to contain 16,000 inhabitants.
Auguste Caillé, a French traveller, has at
length reached Timbuctoo. (q. v.) He
set out from Kakondy April 19, 1827, and
arrived at Timbuctoo April 19, 1828.
The committee of the geographical soci-
ety at Paris, appointed to examine him,
report that his journey is connected, in a
way very advantageous for science, with
those of Park, Laing and others, who
have explored A. (See Caillé.) Thus the
courage of European discoverers has pen-
etrated Africa from four sides, the Cape,
Senegal, Tripoli and Egypt. North Afri-
ca has now been intersected and scientif-
ically explored, by five or six important
expeditions. But there are yet wanting
communication and connexion between
the 20 or 25 principal lines, which mark
the routes of the discoverers. The space
already explored by them in Africa is
estimated at 225,000 square miles. We
have, therefore, accounts more or less
authentic respecting the 50th part of this
vast continent. (See Jomard., Sur les
Découvertes dans l'Intérieur de l'Afrique,
Rev. Enc., 1824, Dec.) Ukert has coin-
piled the latest geography of the northern
half of Africa (Weimar, 1824, the 21st
vol. of the Vollst. Handb. der neuesten Erd-
beschreib.) A new and very complete
lithographic map of Africa was pub-
lished in 1828, by Cotta, at Munich, con-
taining all the late additions to African
geography, price six guilders. For infor-
mation respecting the American colony Li-
beria, and the other important settlements
on this continent, see the separate articles.
AFRICAN ASSOCIATION; a society of 95
members, who held their first meeting
June 9, 1788, in London. Its object is to
explore the interior of Africa, to promote
the civilization of the blacks, and the
commercial interests of Great Britain.
The soul of this association was the fa-
mous sir Joseph Banks. (See Banks.)
Ledyard, the American traveller, and Lu-
cas, were the first persons sent out to ex-
plore the interior of Africa, at the expense
of this association, which subsequently
despatched, at different times and on dif
ferent routes, major Houghton, Mungo
Park, and two Germans, Hornemann anl
Burckhardt. (q. v.) See the results of
these enterprises in the Proceedings of the
Association for promoting the Discovery of
Africa, 1790. The principal point settled
was the eastern course of the Niger,
agreeing with the account of Herodotus,
and the country was explored as far as
Darfur. (q. v.)
•
AFRICAN COMPANY; a society of mer-
chants established by Charles II, for the
purpose of trading to Africa. Similar
companies had been formed during the
reigns of Elizabeth, of James I, and of
Charles I, but did not continue long.
Another was incorporated in 1662, with
a charter from Charles II, securing to
the English a monopoly of all commerce
from cape Blanco to the cape of Good
Hope. The last incorporation of this
kind was formed in 1672, and conducted
for some time a flourishing trade. At the
time of the English revolution, the trade
to Africa was thrown open. All private
traders, however, were obliged to pay 10
per cent. towards maintaining the forts
and factories already erected. In 1750,
the original company being completely
bankrupt, its forts and various establish-
ments on the African coast were vested,
by 23 Geo. II, in the present company
of merchants trading to Africa. This
company cannot trade as a corporato
body, nor possess transferable stock. Its
AFRICAN COMPANY-AGAPE.
duties are to maintain the forts and garri-
sons in good order; and any British sub-
ject may be admitted into it on the pay-
ment of 40 shillings.
AFRICAN INSTITUTION; a society in
England, the first meeting of which was
held April 14, 1807. Its principal object
is the abolition of the slave trade, and the
promotion of civilization among the Afri-
can nations. With this view, it labors to
collect the most complete accounts of the
agricultural and commercial relations of
the country, and of the physical, intel-
lectual and political condition of its inhab-
itants; to form connexions with them;
to introduce valuable plants; to found
schools; to make the natives acquainted
with the useful arts of Europe, &c. The
institution is governed by a president,
vice-president and 36 directors. But its
funds have not been sufficient to accom-
plish much. It has, however, supported
teachers in Sierra Leone, and exerted it-
self with zeal for the abolition of the
slave trade, as may be seen from its ex-
cellent annual reports.
AFT; a sea term, signifying near the
stern of the ship.
AGA; among the Turks, the command-
er of a body of infantry; likewise a title
of politeness. The A. of the janizaries,
their commander-in-chief, had nearly as
much authority as the grand vizier, and
was the only person allowed to appear
before the grand seignior, without his
arms crossed on his breast, in the attitude
of a slave. The word aga is often used,
as a complimentary title in Turkey, much
in the same way as captain is in some
parts of the United States. The chief
officers under the khan of Tartary are
also called A. The A. of Algiers is the
president of the divan, or senate.
a
AGADES (ludagost of Edrissi);
flourishing town of Central Africa. It ap-
pears to be the centre of the trade of the
eastern part of the interior of Africa. It
is 47 days' journey from Mourzouk, and
many of the merchants from that quarter
stop at A. to change their commodities
for those of Soudan, and the countries to
the south of the Niger. Hornemann re-
ports it to be the capital of an indepen-
dent kingdom called Asben.
AGALMATOLITE; a soft mineral sub-
stance, capable of being cut with the
knife, of a dull greenish, reddish or yel-
lowish-white color, and consisting of
silex and alumine, with a little potash.
It is chiefly found in China, where it is
wrought into figures and various orna-
ments. It has lately been recommended
93
as a substitute for the bricks made of
Cornish porcelain clay, to measure high
heats in the pyrometer of Wedgewood; it
being capable of standing a great heat,
and of contracting its dimensions very
considerably and equably.
AGAMEMNON; king of Mycene and Ar-
gos, son of Plisthenes, nephew of Atreus,
and brother of Menelaus and Anaxibia.
His mother is said by some to have been
Eriphyle, by others, Aërope. Common
opinion, and the authority of Homer, make
him the son of Atreus. At least, the two
brothers are denominated Atrides by Ho-
mer. From Tantalus, the founder of the
race, down to Agamemnon and his chil-
dren, the members of this family of
heroes were constantly persecuted by
fate. (See Tantalus, Pelops, Atreus and
Thyestes.) The children of A. and Cly-
temnestra were Iphigenia, Electra, Chry-
sothemis and Orestes. When the Tro-
jan war broke out, A. was appointed
leader of the united army of Greeks,
and manned alone 100 ships. The ar-
my assembled in the bay of Aulis in
Boeotia. Here they were long detained
by a calin, occasioned by the anger of
Diana (see Iphigenia), but finally arrived
before Troy. During the protracted siege
of the city, A. appears superior to the
other chiefs in battle and in councils,
and maintains, under all circumstances,
the dignity of a commander. His quarrel
with Achilles is described under .Achilles.
Returning home, after a 10 years' siege,
he was treacherously assassinated. Egis-
thus, whom, at his departure, he had par-
doned for the murder of Atreus, and in-
trusted with the care of his wife and chil-
dren, joined with Clytemnestra, and slew
him at a banquet, together with Cassan-
dra, the daughter of Priam (who had
fallen to his share in the division of the
captives), and their children. Thus says
Homer; others say that Clytemnestra
murdered him in the bath, having entan-
gled him in a tunic. The eause of his
murder is alleged by some to have been
her adulterous connexion with Ægisthus ;
by others, her jealousy of Cassandra.
AGAMIC PLANTS. (See Cryptogamic.)
AGANIPPE, likewise called Hippocrene;
a fountain which, according to the Gre-
cian poets, sprung out of the summit of
Helicon, the seat of the muses, when
struck by the hoof of Pegasus. This
fountain had the property of inspiring
with poetic fire whoever drank `of it.
Solinus distinguishes A. from Hippocrene
as a different fountain.
AGAPE, in ecclesiastical history (from
94
AGAPE-AGATHO.
ayun, Gr. love); the love-fcast, or feast
of charity, in use among the primitive
Christians, when a liberal contribution
was made by the rich to feed the poor.
St. Chrysostom gives the following ac-
count of this feast, which he derives from
the apostolical practice. He says, "The
first Christians had all things in common,
as we read in the Acts of the Apostles; but
when that equality of possession ceased,
as it did even in the apostles' time, the
agape or love-feast was substituted in the
room of it. Upon certain days, after par-
taking of the Lord's supper, they met at
a common feast, the rich bringing provis-
ions, and the poor, who had nothing, being
invited." These love-feasts, during the
three first centuries, were held in the
churches without scandal, but in after
times the heathen began to tax them with
impurity. This gave occasion to a ref-
ormation. The kiss of charity, with
which the ceremony used to end, was no
longer given between different sexes, and
it was expressly forbidden to have any
beds or couches for the convenience of
those who wished to eat at their ease.
The abuses, however, became so noto-
rious, that the holding of the A., in
churches at least, was solemnly condemn-
ed at the council of Carthage, in the year
397. Some modern sects, as the Wes-
leyans, Sandemanians, Moravians, &c.
have attempted to revive this feast.
AGAR; Abraham's concubine. (See Ha-
gar.)
AGAR, Jean Antoine Michel, count of
Mosbourg, bom in the department du
Lot, was an advocate and professor at Ca-
hors. He accompanied Murat to Tusca-
ny, which he organized before it was
given up to the king of Etruria, and was
engaged in the proceedings of the con-
sulta at Lyons and Milan. Murat made
him his prime minister in the grand
duchy of Berg, where he gained univer-
sal respect. On the occasion of his mar-
riage with one of the nieces of Murat, he
received from him the county of Mos-
bourg. The Prussian government at first
sequestrated it, but restored it in 1816.
During Murat's government in Naples,
he was his minister of finance, and drew
up the constitution ratified by him, which
was proclaimed the very day that Murat
was forced to fly from Naples.
AGARIC, AGARICUM, AGARICUS; the
mushroom, a genus of the order of fungi,
belonging to the class of cryptogamia,
Linnæus. The generic character is a pileus,
or cap, with gills underneath, which differ
in substance from the rest of the plant,
being composed of two laminæ ; the seeds
are in the gills.-Some have enumerated
no less than 634 species of this fungus, oth-
ers 400. Of all these, only one species, A.
campestris, common mushroom, or chami-
pignon, has been selected for cultivation in
England. It is considered the most savory
of the genus, and is much in request for
the table. It is eaten fresh, either stewed
or boiled and preserved, either as a pickle
or in powder; and it furnishes the sauce
called ketchup. The field plants are bet-
ter for eating, inasmuch as they are more
tender than those raised on artificial
beds. The wild mushrooms are found in
parks and pastures, where the turf has
not been ploughed up for many years,
and the best time for gathering them is
August and September.
AGATE; a fossil compounded of various
substances, as chalcedony, cornelian, jas-
per, hornstone, quartz, &c. These differ-
ent fossils do not all occur in every A.,
commonly only two or three of them.
There are different kinds of A., as the
fortification, the landscape, the ribbon,
the moss, the tube, the clouded, the zoned,
the star, the fragment, the punctuated,
the petrifaction, the coral and the jasper
A. No country affords finer A., or in
greater abundance, than Germany. It is
found in great quantities at Oberstein, in
that country. It is also found in France,
England, Scotland, Ireland, Sicily, Sibe-
ria, and very beautiful in the East Indies,
where, however, it is confounded with
onyx. It is cut into vases, mortars, snufl-
boxes, cups, rings, seals, handles for
knives and forks, hilts for swords, beads,
smelling-boxes, &c. It was highly val-
ued by the ancients, who executed many
fine works with it. The collections of
Brunswick and Dresden are remarkable
for beautiful specimens of this kind.
Great medicinal virtues were formerly at-
tributed to the agate, but it is now reject-
ed from medical practice. Agate some-
times contains figures bearing a striking
resemblance to some regularly-shaped
object, either natural or artificial, e. g. a
man, a circle, an animal, &c. This kind
is the most prized. These figures may,
however, be produced by artificially stain-
ing the stone, so that stories of wonder-
ful figures found on agates are not to be
implicitly believed.
AGATHO; an Athenian, distinguished
both as a tragic and a comic writer. We
know only the names of some of his
pieces. He is said to have been too par-
tial to antithesis. As a tragic poet, he
was once crowned at the Olympic games.
AGATHO-AGE.
He was a friend of Socrates and Euripi-
des, and was the first who wrote on ficti-
tious subjects. He was distinguished also
for musical talent.
AGATHOCLES was one of the boldest
adventurers of antiquity. His history is
principally drawn from Diodorus Siculus,
books 19 and 20, and fragments of book
21, and from Justin, books 22 and 23.
They derived their accounts from differ-
ent sources, and differ, therefore, especial-
ly in the history of his youth. Agatho-
cles was the son of Carcinus, who, having
been expelled from Rhegium, resided at
Thermæ, in Sicily. On account of a
mysterious oracle, he was exposed in his
infancy, but was secretly brought up by
his mother. At the age of 7 years, the
boy was again received by his repentant
father, and sent to Syracuse to learn the
trade of a potter, where he continued
to reside, being admitted by Timoleon
into the number of the citizens. He was
drawn from obscurity by Damas, a noble
Syracusan, to whom his beauty recom-
mended him, and was soon placed at the
head of an army sent against Agrigentum.
By a marriage with the widow of Damas,
he became one of the most wealthy men
of Syracuse. Under the dominion of So-
sistratus, he was obliged to fly to Taren-
tum, but returned after the death of the
latter, usurped the sovereignty, in which
he established himself by the murder of
several thousands of the principal inhab-
itants, and conquered the greater part of
Sicily, 317 B. C. He maintained his
power 28 years, till 289 B. C. To
strengthen his authority in his native
country, and to give employment to the
people, he endeavored, like Dionysius,
to drive the Carthaginians from Sicily.
Having been defeated by them, and be-
sieged in Syracuse, he boldly resolved to
pass over to Africa with a portion of his
army. Here he fought for 4 years, till
307, generally with success. Disturban-
ces in Sicily compelled him to leave his
army twice, and, at his second return into
Africa, he found it in rebellion against
his son Archagathus. He appeased the
commotion by promising the troops the
booty they should win; but, being de-
feated, he did not hesitate to give up his
own sons to the vengeance of the exaspe-
rated warriors, and expose these latter,
without a leader, to the enemy. His sons
were murdered; the army surrendered to
the Carthaginians. He himself restored
quiet to Sicily, and concluded a peace,
306 B. C., which secured to both parties
their former possessions. He then enga-
95
ged in several hostile expeditions to Italy,
where he vanquished the Bruttii, and
sacked Crotona. His latter days were
saddened by domestic strife. His inten-
tion was, that his youngest son, Agatho
cles, should inherit the throne. This stim-
ulated his grandson, Archagathus, to re-
bellion. He murdered the intended heir,
and persuaded Mænon, a favorite of the
king, to poison him. This was done by
means of a feather, with which the king
His
cleaned his teeth after a meal.
mouth, and soon his whole body, became
a mass of corruption. Before he was en-
tirely dead, he was thrown upon a funeral
pile. According to some authors, he
died at the age of 72 years; according to
others, at that of 95. Before his death,
his wife, Texena, and 2 sons, were sent to
Egypt. His son-in-law, Pyrrhus, king of
Epirus, inherited his influence in Sicily
and southern Italy. Agathocles possess-
ed the talents of a general and a sove-
reign. He was proud of his ignoble de-
scent. His cruelty, luxury and insatiable
ambition were the occasion of his ruin.
AGATHODEMON (Greek); a beneficent
spirit, opposed to cacodamon, an evil
spirit. Ancient writers give this name to
a kind of serpent revered by the Egyp-
tians.
AGAVE. (See Aloe, American.)
AGE, in law; the time when the law
allows persons to do acts, which, for want
of years, they were prohibited from doing
before. Some of the rules of the common
law of England, in regard to age, are as
follows: 14 years in a man, and 12 in a
woman, is the age of discretion for con-
scnting to marriage. At 14, a minor may
choose a guardian. Twenty-one years is
the full age. A person under the age of
21 may make a purchase, but may disa-
gree to it, if he chooses, on reaching his
full age. No one can be chosen a mem-
ber of parliament under the age of 21
years, nor ordained a priest until the age
of 24 years, nor made a bishop before he
is 30 years old. In marriages, when either
of the parties is under 21 years, and is not
a widower or widow, the consent of the
parents or guardians of such minor is re-
quired, if the marriage is in pursuance of
a
license; or, if it be in pursuance of bans
published, the parent or guardian may, at
the time of the publication of the bans,
declare in church his dissent to such mar-
riage, and prevent its taking effect. The
age for serving in the militia is from Iu
to 45 years. Coke's 1 Inst. 78.-The_fol-
lowing are some of the provisions of the
Code Napolion with regard to age: 40
96
AGE-AGEDA.
years are required for a member of the
legislature, 30 for a judge, juror or elector,
and 22 to discharge any office in the
courts. To contract marriage, it requires
that the man should be at least 18 years
old, and the woman 15. But marriage is
not valid without the consent of parents
(or, in case of their death, of the other re-
lations in the ascending line, who take
their place), until the man is 25, and the
woman 21 years old, and even then it is
necessary to give the parents or other
relations notice. A person adopting must
be as much as 50 years old, and at least
15 years older than the person adopted,
unless the latter has saved the life of the
former, in which case it is only necessary
that the person adopting should be of full
age, and older than the person adopted.
(See Adoption.) Full age is fixed at 21
years for both sexes. At 16 years, a minor
can make a will. Witnesses, in a strict
sense, must be of full age. Under 15 years
of age, a person can only affirm, without
an oath. An innocent debtor of 70 years
and upwards cannot be deprived of his
personal liberty. If a criminal is under
16 years, and the jury find that he has
acted without a proper sense of his guilt,
he is acquitted, except that he may be
confined, for a limited time, in a house of
correction. These are the provisions of
the French code.--In the U. S. of Ameri-
ca, the rules of the English law respecting
age have, in most cases, been adopted
where applicable. To be chosen presi-
dent of the U. S., a man must be at least
35 years old, a senator must be 30, and a
representative 25 years old. Every free
white male citizen, of 18 years, is obliged
to serve in the militia till he reaches the
age of 45 years, unless exempted for some
special reason. (See age in Criminal Law.)
AGE. We find the ages of the world
mentioned by the earliest of the Greek
poets. They compared the existence of
mankind to the life of an individual, and
the earliest period of the world to the
tranquillity and happiness of youth. He-
siod speaks of five distinct ages: 1. The
golden or Saturnian age, when Saturn ruled
the earth. The people were free from the
restraint of laws; they had neither ships
nor weapons, wars nor soldiers; the fertile
fields needed no cultivation, and perpetual
spring blessed the earth. 2. The silver
age, which he describes as licentious and
wicked. 3. The brazen age; violent, sav-
age and warlike. 4. The heroic age, which
seemed an approximation to a better state
of things. 5. The iron age, when justice
and honor had left the earth. The poet
supposed this to be the age in which he
himself lived. Ovid retained, in his Meta-
morphoses, the division of Hesiod, with
this difference-he omitted the heroic age,
and placed the four ages before the flood
of Deucalion. This idea, first used as a
poetical embellishment, was also intro-
duced into philosophy. The ages were
looked upon as a part of the great year of
the world, the revolution of which was to
bring the heavenly bodies to their first po-
sition. Mythology was thus brought into
the closest connexion with astronomy.
The first, or golden age, was under the
dominion of Saturn; the second, of Jupi-
ter; the third, of Neptune; and the fourth,
of Pluto, or, as some say, of Apollo.
The time of the completion of the great
year of the world, or of the heavens, was
fixed by some at 3000 solar years; by
others, at the mysterious number 7777 so-
lar years. Cicero estimated it at 12,954;
Heraclitus, at 18,000; and Orphicus, at 12
months, consisting each of 100,000 years.
The Sibylline books divided it into ten
secular months, or the four seasons of the
year. Spring was the golden age; Sum-
mer, the silver; Autumn, the brazen,
which was interrupted by Deucalion's
flood; and Winter, the iron age; and then
the cycle began with Spring again.-The
idea of ages of the world is so deeply fixed
in the nature of man, that it is interwoven
with the religious sentiments of almost
every nation on the globe. We find ex-
amples of it in the millennial reign of the
Apocalypse, and in the Yugs of the East
Indians. The idea of four ages of the
world prevailed anong the Brahmins.
The first, a kind of golden age, lasted, ac-
cording to their tradition, 1,728,000 years;
the men of this period lived 400 years,
and were all giants; in this period, the god
Bralna was born. In the second period,
which lasted 1,296,000 years, their rajahs
were born; men lived only 300 years, and
vice began to creep into the world. Dur-
ing the third age, which lasted 8,064,000
years, men lived only 200 years, owing
to the increase of vice. Of the last age,
in which we now live, 4,027,213 years are
already gone, and the life of man is sunk
to one fourth of its original duration.
AGE. For the different ages of life, see
Life; see also Longevity.
AGEDA, Synod of; an assembly of Jew-
ish doctors, held A. D. 1650, so denomi-
nated from a plain, on which they met,
about thirty leagues distant from Buda in
Hungary. More than 300 rabbies, and
many other Jews, of different nations, at-
tended. The object was, to debate the
;
AGEDA-AGINCOURT.
question whether the Messiah had ap-
peared. The negative of the question
was carried, and it was agreed that his
coming was delayed on account of their
sins and impenitence. They were of
opinion that he would be born of a virgin,
would come as a great conqueror, would
deliver the Jews from every foreign yoke,
and alter nothing in the Mosaic religion.
Some ecclesiastics from Rome attended
this meeting, but the multitude would not
hear them.
AGEMOGLANS, or AZAMO GLANS, are
children purchased from the Tartars, or
raised every third year, by way of tribute,
from the Christians tolerated in the Turk-
ish empire. They are circumcised and
instructed in the religion of their masters,
and in military exercises. From them
the janizaries were recruited. (See Jani-
zaries.)
AGENDA, among divines, sometimes
signifies things which a man is bound to
perform, in opposition to credenda, which
he is bound to believe. It also denotes
the service or offices of the church. A. is
also used to signify church books com-
piled by public authority, prescribing the
order to be observed by the ministers and
people, in the ceremonies and devotions
of the church; e. g. the ritual, liturgy,
missal, &c. In Prussia, the new A. (in
the last sense), arbitrarily introduced by the
king, but rejected by many clergymen
and congregations, has occasioned some
trouble of late years. Honors and promo-
tions induced many of the clergy to adopt
it, but others remained firm in their oppo-
sition. The city of Berlin and the famous
professor Schleiermacher were very con-
spicuous in resisting it. In all the churches
of which the king was patron, it was in
troduced.
AGESILAUS; a king of Sparta, 390–306,
B. C.; elevated to the throne after the death
of his brother Agis, by Lysander, who af-
terwards formed a conspiracy to depose
him; but the plan was discovered and
frustrated. Called by the lonians to their
assistance against Artaxerxes, he com-
menced, after Lysander's death, his glori-
ous career; defeated the Persians, but was
compelled to stop in his victorious course,
and turn his arins against Thebes, Cor-
inth, &c., which had united against Spar-
ta, and, in a subsequent war with Thebes,
to contend against Pelopidas and Epami-
nondas, the greatest generals of those
times. His prudence, however, saved the
city, without the hazard of a battle. He
delivered it anew, at the age of eighty
years, though it was actually in the hands
9
VOL. I.
97
of Epaminondas. On his return from
his last campaign in Egypt, loaded with
honors and presents, he was overtaken
by a storm on the coast of Libya, and
perished, being then in his 84th In
year.
person, he was small and insignificant.
He was, nevertheless, a noble prince, and
almost adored by his soldiers, though he
sometimes violated the virtue of justice,
in cases in which he could be useful to
his country or friends.
AGGREGATION, in physics; a species of
union, whereby several things, which have
no natural dependence or connexion with
one another, are collected together, so as,
in some sense, to constitute one. Thus, a
heap of sand, or a mass of ruins, are bodies
by aggregation.
AGHRIM, or AUGHRIM; a village in the
county of Galway, in Ireland, memorable
for a decisive battle fought in the neigh-
borhood, July 12, 1691, between the forces
of William III, amounting to 20,000 men,
commanded by general Ginckel, and
those of James II, amounting to 28,000
men, commanded by the French general
St. Ruth. The forces of William were
victorious.
AGINCOURT, OF AZINCOURT; a village in
the district Saint-Pol, in the department
Pas de Calais, famous for the battle of
Oct. 25, 1415, between the French and
English. Henry V, king of England,
eager to conquer France, landed at Har-
fleur, took the place by storm, and wished
to march through Picardy to Calais, in
order to fix his winter-quarters in its neigh-
borhood. With a powerful force, the dau-
plin advanced against him. The numer-
ical superiority of the French was great.
and the confidence of the leader and
the nobles such, that they refused the
proffered aid of the duke of Burgundy
and the city of Paris. Henry V retreat-
ed to the Somme. The French followed
to harass his retreat, and to defend the
passage from Abbeville to St. Quentin,
which he gained only through the inat-
tention of the enemy. The English, how-
ever, being destitute of every thing, and re-
duced by sickness, Henry asked for peace
on disadvantageous termis. The French
refused his proposals, and succeeded in
throwing themselves between Calais and
the English. These latter consisted of
2000 men at arms and 12,000 archers,
and were ranged in order of battle be-
tween two hills, with the archers on the
wings. Stakes, of which every man ear-
ried one, were fixed in front of them.
The French, commanded by the consta-
ble d'Albret, numbered 100,000 troops,
98
AGINCOURT-AGITATORS.
of whom 8000 were men at arms. They
arranged themselves in two divisions,
with the men at arms, of whom 2000
were mounted, in front. The English first
put themselves in motion. The French
horse instantly hastened to meet them,
but were received with such a shower of
arrows by the archers, that they fell back
on the first division, and threw it into con-
fusion. The light-armed archers seized
their clubs and battle-axes, and broke into
the ranks of the knights on foot, who
could not move on account of their heavy
coats of mail, and the closeness of their
array. The English horse flew to assist
the archers; the first French division re-
treated; the second could not sustain the
charge of the victors; and the whole
French army was soon entirely scattered.
The victory was complete. Henry thought
that the French would rally and renew
the battle; and, being alarmed also by the
report, that a party of peasants, in arms,
were plundering his baggage, he ordered
all the prisoners to be massacred. The
command was already executed, when he
discovered the groundlessness of his fear.
The victorious army, however, in the pur-
suit of the flying enemy, took 14,000 prison-
ers more. 10,000 Frenchmen lay dead on
the battle-field. Among them was the
constable, with six dukes and princes.
Five princes, among whom were the
dukes of Orleans and Bourbon, were
taken prisoners. The English lost 1600
men killed; among them the duke of
York, Henry's uncle, whom the duke
d'Alençon slew at his side, while press-
ing towards the king. He had already
dashed the crown from Henry's head,
and lifted his hand for a more effectual
blow, when the king's attendants sur-
rounded him, and he fell covered with
wounds. After the battle, the English
continued their march to Calais, and
thence sailed for England, to assemble an
army for a new invasion.
AGINCOURT. (See Scroux d'Agincourt.)
AGIO is the difference in value between
bank money and coin or other currency.
The term is in most frequent use in Hol-
land and Venice. It is, however, used at
Hamburg and other places in Germany.
It is synonymous with premium, when the
bank money is worth more than the same
nominal amount of the current coin, and
with discount, when its value is less. The
agio at the bank of Amsterdam was from
three to four per cent. before the French
invasion of Holland in 1795; that of
Venice was formally fixed at 20 per cent.;
the bank money of each of those places
being so much more valuable than the
current coin. This difference in value
arises often from the circumstance, that
the current coin is depreciated by wear-
ing and clipping. The agio of the bank-
money of Hamburg was formerly 14 per
cent. on this account. Agio is sometimes
used to signify the premium or discount
on bills of exchange.
AGIS IV, king of Lacedæmon, and col-
league of Leonidas in the government of
Sparta, was the son of Eudamidas, and a
lineal descendant of Agesilaus. Histori-
ans affirm that he was, in youth, of singu-
lar promise, and that, in maturer age, he
prepared, by the introduction of new laws,
to correct the abuses which had crept
into the Spartan government. This he
found a measure of peculiar difficulty, but
he was supported by his maternal uncle
Agesilaus, though with a selfish design,
and likewise by many of the citizens.
They obtained a law for the equalization
of property, and A. himself shared a valu-
able estate with the community. In con-
sequence of his exertions, Leonidas was
deposed and banished. The people, how-
ever, soon became dissatisfied with the
projected reform, and while A. was lead-
ing an army to aid the Achæans, the in-
discretion of his uncle Agesilaus, during
his absence, occasioned a conspiracy for
the restoration of Leonidas. The con-
spirators, having succeeded, forced A. to
take refuge in a temple, which he never
left but for the purpose of bathing. On
one of these occasions, he was surprised
and dragged to prison. The ephori hav-
ing there questioned him respecting his
views in altering the laws, he answered
that it was for the purpose of restoring
those of Lycurgus. Sentence of deatli
was passed upon him; but the ministers
of the law, until forced by Demochares,
refused to conduct him to a chamber re-
served for the execution of criminals. He
was there strangled, and he submitted to
his sentence with heroic firmness. The
grandmother and mother of A. shared the
sume fate.
AGITATORS, in English history, were
persons elected by the army, in 1647, to
watch over its interests, and to control
the parliament, at that time sitting at
Westminster. Two private men, or infe-
rior officers, were appointed from each
troop or coinpany, and this body, when
collected, was presumed to equal the
house of commons; while the peers were
represented by a council of officers of
rank. Cromwell at first made use of
them, but afterwards issued orders for
AGITATORS-AGNESI.
suppressing them. These associations, so
dangerous to the constitution, gave rise to
the act which forbids any member to en-
ter either house of parliament armed-a
regulation enforced with jealousy to this
day. Hume's Hist. chap. lix.
AGLAIA; according to Hesiod, one of
the 3 graces, daughter of Jupiter and Eu-
rynome; according to others, the mother
of the graces, and wife of Vulcan. (See
Graces.)
AGLAR. (See Aquileia.)
AGNANO; a lake lying west of Naples.
In its neighborhood are the famous grotto
del Cane and the baths of St. Januarius.
The former is noted for the suffocating
vapors of carbonic acid gas, which ascend
from its bottom. The baths are benefi-
cial in cases of gout, syphilis, &c. Their
reputation has been increased, of late
years, by the way in which they have
been applied by Mr. von Gimbernat to
restore the weakened electricity of the
sick.
AGNATES (agnati), in the civil law; re-
lations on the male side, in opposition to
cognates, relations on the female side. In
the Scotch law, A. are understood to be
those persons nearest related by the fa-
ther, though females intervene.
AGNES, St.; a saint who suffered mar-
tyrdom at the time of the persecution of
the Christians, in the reign of the empe-
ror Diocletian. Her festival is celebrated
on the 29th of January. Domenichino
has painted her at the moment of her
execution. Two churches of this saint,
one in Rome, the other near the city, are
remarkable buildings. In front of the lat-
ter, the feast of the saint is celebrated
with much observance. Many cattle,
horses, &c. are brought there and blessed
by the priest. This ceremony is thought
to protect them against sickness during
the following year.
AGNES, St.; one of the Cassiterides, or
Scilly isles. (q. v.) This island is com-
monly called Light-house island, because
it has a light-house. W. lon. 6° 20′; N.
lat. 49° 53'.
AGNES SOREL, the mistress of Charles
VII, king of France, was born 1409, of a
noble family, and was one of the most
beautiful and accomplished women of her
time. As lady of honor to Isabella of
Lorraine, duchess of Anjou, she accom-
panied that princess, in 1431, to the French
court. Her beauty attracted the favor of
the young king, and he appointed her one
of the queen's ladies of honor. After
some resistance, A. yielded to the passion
of the monarch. The English then had
99
possession of half of France; and Charles
VII, though naturally bold, became de-
pressed and inactive under the weight of
his misfortunes.
his misfortunes. A. alone was able to
rouse him from his apathy, and make
him feel what he owed to himself and his
people. The eventual success of his arms
increased his passion for his mistress, who
did not, however, abuse her power over
him. She retired, in 1445, to Loches,
where Charles had built her a castle. He
afterwards conferred on her the county
of Penthièvre, in Bretagne, the seigniories
of Roche-Servière and Issoudun, in Berri,
and the château de Beauté, on the bank
of the Marne; whence she received the
name of dame de beauté. She had lived
here about 5 years, frequently visited by
the king, when the queen invited her
again to court, in 1449. A. consented,
and, to be nearer the king, proceeded to
the castle of Masnal-la-Belle, where she
died, in 1450, so suddenly as to afford
ground for the suspicion of poison. She
was buried in the collegiate church of
Loches, where her monument was to be
seen in 1792. She left the king three
daughters, who were acknowledged by
him, and portioned at the expense of the
crown.
AGNESI, Maria Gaetana, an ornament
of her sex, was born at Milan, in 1718.
Her father was don Pedro di Agnesi.
In her 9th year, she spoke Latin with
correctness, and also delivered an oration
in this language, in which she maintained
that the study of the ancient languages
was proper for females. This oration
was printed at Milan, in 1727. In her
11th year, she is said to have spoken
Greck as fluently as her mother tongue.
She now procceded to perfect herself in
the oriental languages, so that she was
usually called a living polyglot. She next
studied geometry and speculative phi-
losophy. Her father fostered her love of
learning by assembling at his house, at
certain times, learned societies, in which
Maria proposed and defended philosophi-
cal theses. The president de Brosses
asserts, in his Letters on Italy, that noth-
ing can be imagined more delightful than
these conversations with one of the pret-
tiest and most learned females of the
time. In her 20th year, she appears to
have become tired of these erudite dis-
putations, the substance of which was
afterwards published by her father. They
fill a quarto volume. Mathematics now
attracted her attention, and she compos-
ed a treatise on conic sections: besides
which, in her 30th year, she published a
Um
+
100
AGNESI-AGRARIAN LAWS.
treatise on the rudiments of analysis,
which has been considered as the best
introduction to Euler's works, and was
translated into English, in 1801, by the rev-
erend John Colson, professor of mathe-
matics at Cambridge. It gained her so
much reputation, that she was appointed,
in her 32d year, professor of mathemat-
ies at the university of Bologna. Her
deep study of this science seems to have
cast a gloom over her spirits. She se-
cluded herself altogether from society,
retired to the strict order of blue nuns,
and died in her 81st year, 1799. Her
sister, Maria Theresa, set to music sev-
cral cantatas, and the 3 operas, Sophonis-
ba, Ciro in Armenia, and Nitocri, with
applause.
AGNOËTÆ. (See Monophysiles.)
AGNOMEN, in ancient Rome; a name
or epithet given to a person by way of
praise or dispraise, or from some remark-
able event in his history. Such names
remained peculiar to the person, and not
descendible to his issue. Thus one of the
Scipios obtained the A. of Africanus, and
the other of Asiaticus, from their achieve-
inents in Asia and Africa. The Romans
often had three names besides the A.; the
prænomen, corresponding to our Christian
name, distinguishing the individual from
others of the same family; the second, or
nomen, marked his clan; and the third,
or cognomen, expressed his family; to
these the A., e. g. Allicus, Cunctator, Ger-
manicus, &c. was added.
AGNUS DEI (Latin; the Lamb of God).
1. A prayer of the Romish liturgy, begin-
ning with the words Agnus Dei, generally
sung before the communion, and, accord-
ing to the regulation of pope Sergius I,
in 688, at the close of the mass. 2. A
round piece of wax, on which is in-
pressed the figure of the sacred Lamb,
with the banner of the cross, or of St.
John, with the year and name of the
pope. The pope consecrates and distrib-
utes a great number of them. It was
originally customary, in the churches of
Rome, to distribute the remains of the
Paschal taper, consecrated on Easter eve,
in small pieces, among the people, who
burned them at home, as an antidote
against all kinds of misfortune. But when
the number of candidates became too
large to be all satisfied, the above expe-
dient was adopted. A. D. is also the
name of that portion of the mass, which
is introduced, in Roman Catholic church-
es, at the distribution of the host.
AGOWS,
Acows, in geogr.; the inhabitants of a
province of Abyssinia. They are, in their
manners, ferocious, and in their religion,
superstitious. They are heathens, and
adore the spirit residing in the Nile. (See
Abyssinia.) Bruce's Trav. vol. i. 401. vol.
iii. 527.
AGRA; a province of Hindostan Proper,
situated between 25° and 28° N. lat.; the
capital of which, of the same name, is in
the possession of the British. Several
rajahs, allies of the British, possess the
western and north-western district. The
part of the province south of the Chum-
bul is under the dominion of the Mahrat-
tas. No part of Hindostan affords a richer
soil; grain of all kinds, sugar, indigo and
cotton are yielded with little labor in all
the British districts. Formerly the prov-
ince was also fainous for its silks. It fur-
nishes superior horses. It contains 6
millions of inhabitants. A., the city, N.
lat. 27° 12′, and E. lon. 77° 56', is con-
nected with the whole of the modern
history of India. The Mahometans call
it Akbarabad. It is ornamented with
splendid edifices, of which the Taje Ma-
hal, or Crown of Edifices, an unrivalled
toinb to the memory of the empress of
Shah Jehau, who died 1632, is the most
famous. This is wholly built of the finest
white marble. General lord Lake took
A. in 1803, from the Mahrattas. A. is
137 miles from Delhi, and 830 from Cal-
cutta.
AGRARIAN LAWS; laws enacted in an-
cient Rome for the division of public
lands. In the valuable work on Roman
history by Mr. Niebuhr, it is satisfactorily
shown, that these laws, which have so
long been considered in the light of un-
just attacks on private property, had for
their object only the distribution of lands
which were the property of the state, and
that the troubles to which they gave rise
were occasioned by the opposition of per-
sons who had settled on these lands with-
out having acquired any title to them.
These laws of the Romans were so inti-
mately connected with their system of
establishing colonies in the different parts
of their territories, that, to attain a proper
understanding of them, it is necessary to
bestow a moment's consideration on that
system.-According to Dionysius of Hali-
carnassus, their plan of sending out colo-
nists, or settlers, began as carly as the
time of Romulus, who generally placed
colonists from the city of Rome on the
lands taken in war. The same policy
was pursued by the kings who succeeded
him; and, when the kings were expelled,
it was adopted by the senate and the
people, and then by the dictators. There
AGRARIAN LAWS.
were several reasons inducing the Roman
government to pursue this policy, which
was continued for a long period without
any intermission; first, to have a check
upon the conquered people; secondly, to
have a protection against the incursions
of an enemy; thirdly, to augment their
population; fourthly, to free the city of
Rome from an excess of inhabitants;
fifthly, to quiet seditions; and, sixthly,
to reward their veteran soldiers. These
reasons abundantly appear in all the best
ancient authorities. In the later peri-
ods of the republic, a principal motive
for establishing colonies was to have the
means of disposing of soldiers, and re-
warding them with donations of lands;
and such colonies were, on this account,
denominated military colonies. Now, for
whichever of these causes a colony was
to be established, it was necessary that
some law respecting it should be passed,
either by the senate or people; which
law, in either case, was called lex agra-
ria, an agrarian law, which will now be
explained. An agrarian law contained
various provisions; it described the land
which was to be divided, and the classes
of people among whom, and their num-
bers, and by whom, and in what inanner,
and by what bounds, the territory was to
be parcelled out. The mode of dividing
the lands, as far as we now understand
it, was twofold; cither a Roman popula-
tion was distributed over the particular
territory, without any formal erection of
a colony, or general grants of lands were
made to such citizens as were willing to
form a colony there. The lands which
were thus distributed were of different
descriptions; which we must keep in
mind, in order to have a just conception
of the operation of the agrarian laws.
They were either lands taken from an
enemy, and not actually treated by the
government as public property; or lands
which were regarded and occupied by
the Roman people as public property; or
public lands which had been artfully and
clandestinely taken possession of by rich
and powerful individuals; or, lastly, lands
which were bought with money from the
public treasury, for the purpose of being
distributed. Now, all such agrarian laws
as comprehended either lands of the en-
emy, or those which were treated and
occupied as public property, or those
which had been bought with the public
money, were carried into effect without
any public commotions; but those which
operated to disturb the opulent and pow-
crful citizens in the possession of the
101
lands which they unjustly occupied, and
to place colonists (or settlers) on them,
were never promulgated without creat-
ing great disturbances. The first law
of this kind was proposed by Spurius
Cassius; and the same measure was af-
terwards attempted by the tribunes of the
people almost every year, but was as con-
stantly defeated by various artifices of the
nobles; it was, however, at length passed.
It appears, both from Dionysius and Varro
(de Re Rustica, lib. 1), that, at first, Romu-
lus allotted two jugera (about 14 acre) of
the public lands to each man; then Nu-
ma divided the lands which Romulus
had taken in war, and also a portion of
the other public lands; afterwards Tullus
divided those lands which Romulus and
Numa had appropriated to the private
expenses of the regal establishment; then
Servius distributed among those who had
recently become citizens certain lands
which had been taken from the Veientes,
the Carites and Tarquinii; and, upon
the expulsion of the kings, it appears that
the lands of Tarquin the Proud, with the
exception of the Campus Martius, were,
by a decree of the senate, granted to the
people. After this period, as the repub-
lic, by means of its continual wars, re-
ceived continual accessions of conquered
lands, those lands were either occupied
by colonists or remained public property,
until the period when Spurius Cassius.
twenty-four years after the expulsion of
the kings, proposed a law (already men-
tioned), by which one part of the land
taken from the Hernici was allotted to
the Latins, and the other part to the Ro-
man people; but, as this law compre-
hended certain lands which he accused
private persons of having taken from the
public, and as the senate also opposed
him, he could not accomplish the pas-
sage of it. This, according to Livy, was
the first proposal of an agrarian law; of
which he adds, no one was ever proposed,
down to the period of his remembrance,
without very great public commotions.
Dionysius informs us, further, that this
public land, by the negligence of the
magistrates, had been suffered to fall into
the possession of rich men; but that, not-
withstanding this, a division of the lands
would have taken place under this law,
if Cassius had not included among the
receivers of the bounty the Latins and
Hernici, whom he had but a little while
before made citizens. After much de-
bate in the senate upon this subject, a
decree was passed to the following ef
fect: that commissioners, called decem-
9*
102
AGRARIAN LAWS.
virs, appointed from among the persons
of consular rank, should mark out, by
boundaries, the public lands, and should
designate how much should be let out,
and how much should be distributed
among the common people; that, if any
land had been acquired by joint services
in war, it should be divided, according to
treaty, with those allies who had been
admitted to citizenship; and that the
choice of the commissioners, the appor-
tionment of the lands, and all other things
relating to this subject, should be com-
mitted to the care of the succeeding con-
suls. Seventeen years after this, there
was a vehement contest about the divis-
ion, which the tribunes proposed to make
of lands then unjustly occupied by the
rich men; and, three years after that, a
similar attempt on the part of the trib-
unes would, according to Livy, have pro-
duced a ferocious controversy, had it not
been for the address of Quintus Fabius.
Some years after this, the tribunes pro-
posed another law of the same kind, by
which the estates of a great part of the
nobles would have been scized to the
public use; but it was stopped in its
progress. Appian says, that the nobles
and rich men, partly by getting possession
of the public lands, partly by buying out
the shares of indigent owners, had made
themselves owners of all the lands in
Italy, and had thus, by degrees, accom-
plished the removal of the common peo-
ple from their possessions. This abuse
stimulated Tiberius Gracchus to revive
the Licinian law, which prohibited any
individual from holding more than 500
jugera, or about 350 acres, of land; and
would, consequently, compel the owners
to relinquish all the surplus to the use of
the public; but Gracchius proposed that
the owners should be paid the value of
the lands relinquished. The law, how-
ever, did not operate to any great extent,
and, after having cost the Gracchi their
lives, was by degrees rendered wholly
inoperative. After this period, various
other agrarian laws were attempted, and
with various success, according to the
nature of their provisions and the temper
of the times in which they were proposed.
One of the inost remarkable was that of
Rullus, which gave occasion to the cele-
brated oration against him by Cicero, who
prevailed upon the people to reject the
law. From a careful consideration of
these laws, and the others of the same
kind on which we have not commented,
it is apparent, that the whole object of
the Roman agrarian laws was, the lands
belonging to the state, the public lands or
national domains, which, as already ob-
served, were acquired by conquest or
treaty, and, we may add also, by confis
cations or direct seizures of private es-
tates by different factions, either for law-
ful or unlawful causes; of the last of
which we have a well-known example
in the time of Sylla's proscriptions. The
lands thus claimed by the public became
naturally a subject of extensive specula-
tion with the wealthy capitalists, both
among the nobles and other classes. In
our own times, we have seen, during the
revolution in France, the confiscation of
the lands belonging to the clergy, the no-
bility and emigrants, lead to similar re-
sults. The sales and purchases of lands,
by virtue of the agrarian laws of Rome,
under the various complicated circum-
stances which must ever exist in such
cases, and the attempts by the govern-
ment to resume or re-graut such as had
been sold, whether by right or by wrong,
especially after a purchaser had been long
in possession, under a title which he sup-
posed the existing laws gave him, natu-
rally occasioned great heat and agitation;
the subject itself being intrinsically one
of great difficulty, even when the pas-
sions and interests of the parties concern-
cd would permit a calm and deliberate
examination of their respective rights.-
From the commotions which usually at-
tended the proposal of agrarian laws, and
from a want of exact attention to their
truc object, there has long been a general
impression, among readers of the Roman
history, that those laws were always a
direct and violent infringement of the
rights of private property. Even such
men, it has been observed, as Machiavel-
li, Montesquieu and Adam Smith, have
shared in this misconception of them.
This erroneous opinion, however, has
lately been exposed by the genius and
learning of Niebuhr, in his Roman
History above mentioned, a work which
may be said to make an era in that de-
partment of learning, and in which he
has clearly shown, that the original and
professed object of the agrarian laws was
the distribution of the public lands only,
and not those of private citizens. Of the
Licinian law, enacted about 376 B. C.,
on which all subsequent agrarian laws
were modelled, Niebuhr enumerates the
following as among the chief provisions:
1. The limits of the public land shall be
accurately defined. Portions of it, which
have been encroached on by individuals,
shall be restored to the state. 2. Every
AGRARIAN LAWS-AGRICULTURE.
103
sion, and one which would partake more
of legal investigation, than might be ad-
missible in the present work. But as the
republic of the U. States, like that of
Rome, has also been much occupied in
legislating upon the subject of its public
lands, and as laws have been made, in
some of the states, bearing a considerable
resemblance, in their operation, to the
Roman agrarian laws, which will afford
room for a useful and interesting com-
parison between the laws of the two re-
publics, we shall make some further re-
marks upon this subject under the head
of Public Lands. (See Lands, public.)
AGRICOLA, Cneius Julius; a Roman
consul under the emperor Vespasian, and
governor in Britain, all of which he re-
duced to the dominion of Rome, about
70 A. D.; distinguished as a statesman and
general. His life has been excellently
written by his son-in-law, the famous
Tacitus, who holds him up as an exam-
ple of virtue. This life of A., in addition
to its excellence as a piece of biography,
contains information interesting to the
English antiquarian.
estate in the public land, not greater than
this law allows, which has not been ac-
quired by violence or fraud, and which is
not on lease, shall be good against any
third person. 3. Every Roman citizen
shall be competent to occupy a portion of
newly acquired public land, within the
limits prescribed by this law, provided
this land be not divided by law among
the citizens, nor granted to a colony. 4.
No one shall occupy of the public land
inore than five hundred jugera, nor pas-
ture on the public commons more than a
hundred head of large, nor more than
five hundred head of small stock. 5.
Those who occupy the public land shall
pay to the state the tithe of the produce
of the field, the fifth of the produce of
the fruit-tree and the vineyard, and for
every head of large stock.and for every
head of small stock,-yearly. 6. The pub-
lic lands shall be farmed by the censors to
those willing to take them on these terms.
The funds hence arising are to be ap-
plied to pay the ariny.-The foregoing
were the most important perinanent pro-
visions of the Licinian law, and, for its
immediate effect, it provided that all the AGRICOLA, John, properly Schnitter, the
public land occupied by individuals, over son of a tailor at Eisleben, was born in
five hundred jugera, should be divided by 1492, and called, in his native city, mas-
lot in portions of seven jugera to the ple-ter of Eisleben (magister Isleb.), also John
beians. But we must not hastily infer, as
some readers of Niebuhr's work have
done, that these agrarian laws did not in
any manner violate private rights. This
would be quite as far from the truth as
the prevailing opinion already mentioned,
which is now exploded. Besides the ar-
gument we might derive from the very
nature of the case, we have the direct
testimony of ancient writers to the injus-
tice of such laws, and their violation of
private rights. It will suffice to refer to
that of Cicero alone, who says, in his
Offices (lib. 2, c. 21), “Those men who
wish to make themselves popular, and
who, for that purpose, either attempt agra-
rian laws, in order to drive people from
their possessions, or who maintain that
creditors ought to forgive debtors what
they owe, undermine the foundations of
the state; they destroy all concord, which
cannot exist when money is taken from
one man to be given to another; and they
set aside justice, which is always violated
when every man is not suffered to re-
tain what is his own”—which reflections
would not have been called forth, unless
the laws in question had directly and
plainly violated private rights. The vari-
ous modes in which those rights might
be violated would require a longer discus-
Eisleben. He was one of the most active
among the theologians who propagated
the doctrines of Luther. He studied at
Wittemberg and Leipsic; was afterwards
rector and preacher in his native city,
and, in 1526, at the diet of Spire, chap-
lain of the elector John of Saxony. He
subsequently became chaplain to count
Albert, of Mansfeld, and took a part in
the delivery of the confession of Augs-
burg, and in the signing of the articles of
Smalcald. When professor in Wittem-
berg, whither he went in 1537, he stirred
up the Antinomian controversy with Lu-
ther and Melanethon. (See Antinomian-
ism.) He afterwards lived at Berlin,
where he died in 1566, after a life of con-
troversy.
troversy. Besides his theological works,
he published a work explaining the com-
mon German proverbs. Its patriotic
spirit, its strict morality and pithy style
place it among the first German prose
compositions of the time, at the side of
Luther's translation of the Bible. In con-
junction with Julius Pflug and Michael
Heldingus, he composed the famous In-
terim.
AGRICULTURAL CHEMISTRY. (See Chem-
istry.)
AGRICULTURE is the art of cultivating
the earth in such a manner as to cause it
104
AGRICULTURE.
to produce, in the greatest plenty and per-
fection, those vegetables which are useful
to man, and to the animals which he has
subjected to his dominion. This art is
the basis of all other arts, and in all coun-
tries coeval with the first dawn of civil-
ization. Without agriculture, mankind
would be savages, thinly scattered through
interminable forests, with no other habi-
tations than caverns, hollow trees or huts,
more rude and inconvenient than the
most ordinary hovel or cattle-shed of the
modern cultivator. It is the most univer-
sal as well as the most ancient of the arts,
and requires the greatest number of oper-
ators. It employs seven-eighths of the
population of almost every civilized com-
munity.-Agriculture is not only indis-
pensable to national prosperity, but is em-
inently conducive to the welfare of those
who are engaged in it. It gives health to
the body, energy to the mind, is favorable
to virtuous and temperate habits, and to
knowledge and purity of moral character,
which are the pillars of good government
and the true support of national indepen-
dence. With regard to the history of
agriculture, we must confine ourselves to
slight sketches. The first mention of ag-
riculture is found in the writings of Moses.
From them we learn that Cain was a
"tiller of the ground," that Abel sacri-
ficed the "firstlings of his flock," and that
Noah "began to be a husbandman, and
planted a vineyard." The Chinese, Jap-
anese, Chaldeans, Egyptians and Phoni-
cians appear to have held husbandry in
high estimation. The Egyptians were so
sensible of its blessings, that they ascribed
its invention to superhuman agency, and
even carried their gratitudo to such an
absurd excess as to worship the ox, for
his services as a laborer. The Carthagin-
ians carried the art of agriculture to a
higher degree than other nations, their
contemporaries. Mago, one of their most
famous generals, wrote no less than
twenty-eight books on agricultural topics,
which, according to Columella, were
translated into Latin by an express decree
of the Roman senate.-Hesiod, a Greek
writer, supposed to be contemporary with
Homer, wrote a poem on agriculture, en-
titled Weeks and Days, which was so
denominated because husbandry requires
an exact obscrvance of times and scasons.
Other Greek writers wrote on rural econ-
omy, and Xenophon among the number,
but their works have been lost in the
lapse of ages.-The implements of Gre-
cian agriculture were very few and sim-
ple. Hesiod mentions a plough, consist-
ing of three parts-the share-beam, the
draught-pole and the plough-tail; but an-
tiquarians are not agreed as to its exact
form; also a cart with low wheels, and
ten spans (seven feet six inches) in width;
likewise the rake, sickle and ox-goad; but
no description is given of the mode in
which they were constructed. The oper-
ations of Grecian culture, according to
Hesiod, were neither numerous nor com-
plicated. The ground received three
ploughings-one in autumn, another in
spring, and a third immediately before
sowing the seed. Manures were applied,
and Pliny ascribes their invention to the
Grecian king Augeas. Theophrastus
mentions six different species of manures,
and adds, that a mixture of soils produces
the same effect as manures. Clay, he
observes, should be mixed with sand, and
sand with clay. Seed was sown by hand,
and covered with a rake.
Grain was
reaped with a sickle, bound in sheaves,
threshed, then winnowed by wind, laid
in chests, bins or granaries, and taken out
as wanted by the family, to be pounded
in mortars or quern mills into mcal.-The
ancient Romans venerated the plough,
and, in the carliest and purest times of the
republic, the greatest praise which could
be given to an illustrious character was
to say that he was an industrious and ju-
dicious husbandman. M. Cato, the cen-
sor, who was celebrated as a statesman,
orator and general, having conquered na-
tions and governed provinces, derived his
highest and most durable honors from
having written a voluminous work on
agriculture. In the Georgics of Virgil,
the majesty of verse and the barinony of
numbers add dignity and grace to the
most useful of all topics. The celebrated
Columella flourished in the reign of the
emperor Claudius, and wrote twelve
books on husbandry, which constituted a
complete treatise on rural affairs. Varro,
Pliny and Palladius were likewise among
the distinguished Romans who wrote on
agricultural subjects.-With regard to the
Roman implements of agriculture, we
learn that they used a great many, but
their particular forms and uses are very
imperfectly described. From what we
can ascertain respecting them, they ap-
pear more worthy of the notice of the
curious antiquarian, than of the practical
cultivator. The plough is represented by
Cato as of two kinds-one for strong, the
other for light soils. Varro mentions one
with two mould-boards, with which, he
says, "when they plough, after sowing
the seed, they are said to ridge." Pliny
AGRICULTURE.
mentions a plough with one mould-board,
and others with a coulter, of which he
says there were many kinds.-Fallowing
was a practice rarely deviated from by
the Romans. In most cases, a fallow and
a year's crop succeeded each other. Ma-
nure was collected from nearly or quite
as many sources as have been resorted to
by the moderns. Pigeons' dung was es-
teemed of the greatest value, and, next to
that, a mixture of night soil, scrapings of
the streets and urine, which were applied
to the roots of the vine and olive. The
Romans did not bind their corn into
sheaves. When cut, it was sent directly
to the area to be threshed, and was sepa-
rated from the chaff by throwing it from
one part of the floor to the other. Feed-
ing down grain, when too luxuriant, was
practised. Virgil says, "What commen-
dation shall I give to him, who, lest his
corn should lodge, pastures it, while
young, as soon as the blade equals the
furrow!" (Geor., lib. i, 1. 111.) Watering
on a large scale was applied both to arable
and grass lands. Virgil advises to "bring
down the waters of a river upon the
sown corn, and, when the field is parched
and the plants drying, convey it from the
brow of a hill in channels." (Geor., lib. i,
1. 106. The farm management most ap-
proved of by the scientific husbandmen
of Rome was, in general, such as would
meet the approbation of modern cultiva-
tors. The importance of thorough tillage
is illustrated by the following apologue:
A vine-dresser had two daughters and a
vineyard; when his oldest daughter was
married, he gave her a third of his vine-
yard for a portion, notwithstanding which
he had the same quantity of fruit as for-
merly. When his youngest daughter was
married, he gave her half of what remain-
ed; still the produce of his vineyard was
undiminished. This result was the con-
sequence of his bestowing as much labor
on the third part left after his daughters
had received their portions, as he had
been accustomed to give to the whole
vineyard. The Romans, unlike many
conquerors, instead of desolating, improv-
ed the countries which they subdued.
They seldom or never burned or laid waste
conquered countries, but labored to civil-
ize the inhabitants, and introduce the arts
necessary for promoting their comfort and
happiness. To facilitate communications
from one district or town to another, seems
to have been a primary object with them,
and their works of this kind are still dis-
cernible in numerous places. By em-
ploying their troops in this way, when
105
not engaged in active service, their com-
manders seem to have had greatly the
advantage over our modern generals. The
Roman soldiers, instead of loitering in
camps, or rioting in towns, enervating
their strength, and corrupting their mor-
als, were kept regularly at work, on ob-
jects highly beneficial to the interests of
those whom they subjugated. In the ages
of anarchy and barbarism which succeed-
ed the fall of the Roman empire, agricul-
ture was almost wholly abandoned. Pas-
turage was preferred to tillage, because of
the facility with which sheep, oxen, &c.
can be driven away or concealed on the
approach of an enemy. The conquest
of England by the Normans contributed
to the improvement of agriculture in
Great Britain. Owing to that event, many
thousands of husbandmen, from the fertile
and well-cultivated plains of Flanders and
Normandy, settled in Great Britain, ob-
tained farms, and employed the same
methods in cultivating them, which they
had been accustomed to use in their na-
tive countries. Some of the Norman bar-
ons were great improvers of their lands,
and were celebrated in history for their
skill in agriculture. The Norman clergy,
and especially the monks, did still more
in this way than the nobility. The monks
of every monastery retained such of their
lands as they could most conveniently
take charge of, and these they cultivated
with great care under their own inspec-
tion, and frequently with their own hands.
The famous Thomas à Becket, after he was
archbishop of Canterbury, used to go out
into the field with the monks of the mon-
astery where he happened to reside, and
join with them in reaping their corn and
making their hay. The implements of
agriculture, at this period, were similar
to those in most common use in modern
times. The various operations of hus-
bandry, such as manuring, ploughing,
sowing, harrowing, reaping, threshing,
winnowing, &c. are incidentally men-
tioned by the writers of those days, but it
is impossible to collect from them a defi-
nite account of the manner in which
those operations were performed.-The
first English treatise on husbandry was
published in the reign of Henry VIII, by
sir A. Fitzherbert, judge of the common
pleas. It is entitled the Book of Hus-
bandry, and contains directions for drain-
ing, clearing and enclosing a farm, for en-
riching the soil, and rendering it fit for
tillage. Lime, marl and fallowing are
strongly recommended. The author of
the Book of Husbandry," says Mr. Lou-
106
AGRICULTURE.
don, "writes from his own experience of
more than forty years, and, if we except
his biblical allusions, and some vestiges
of the superstition of the Roman writers
about the influence of the moon, there is
very little of his work which should be
omitted, and not a great deal that need
be added, in so far as respects the culture
of corn, in a manual of husbandry adapt-
ed to the present time."-Agriculture at-
tained some eminence during the reign
of Elizabeth. The principal writers of
that period were Tusser, Googe and sir
Hugh Platt. Tusser's Five Hundred
Points of Husbandry was published in
1562, and conveys much useful instruc-
tion in metre. The treatise of Barnaby
Googe, entitled Whole Art of Husbandry,
was printed in 1558. Sir Hugh Platt's
work was entitled Jewel Houses of Art
and Nature, and was printed in 1594. In
the former work, says Loudon, are many
valuable hints on the progress of hus-
bandry in the carly part of the reign of
Elizabeth. Among other curious things,
he asserts that the Spanish or Merino
sheep was originally derived from Eng-
land. Several writers on agriculture ap-
peared in England during the common-
wealth, whose names, and notices of their
works, may be seen in Loudon's Ency-
clopedia of Agriculture. From the resto-
ration down to the middle of the eigh
teenth century, agriculture remained
almost stationary. Immediately after that
period, considerable improvement in the
process of culture was introduced by Je-
thro Tull, a gentleman of Berkshire, who
began to drill wheat and other crops
about the year 1701, and whose Horse-
hoeing Husbandry was published in 1731.
Though this writer's theories were in
some respects erroneous, yet even his er-
rors were of service, by exciting inquiry,
and calling the attention of husbandmen
to important objects. His hostility to
manures, and attempting, in all cases, to
substitute additional tillage in their place,
were prominent defects in his system.-
After the time of Tull's publication, no
great alteration in British agriculture took
place, till Robert Bakewell and others
effected some important improvements in
the breed of cattle, sheep and swine. By
skilful selection at first, and constant care
afterwards to breed from the best animals,
Bakewell at last obtained a variety of
sheep, which, for early maturity and the
property of returning a great quantity of
mutton for the food which they consume,
as well as for the small proportion which
the weight of the offal bears to the four
·
quarters, were without precedent. Cul-
ley, Cline, lord Somerville, sir J. S. Se-
bright, Darwin, Hunt, Hunter, Young,
&c. &c. have all contributed to the im-
provement of domestic animals, and have
left little to be desired in that branch of
rural economy.-Among other works on
agriculture, of distinguished merit, may
be mentioned the Farmer's Letters, Tour
in France, Annals of Agriculture, &c. &c.
by the celebrated Arthur Young; Mar-
shall's numerous and excellent works,
commencing with Minutes of Agriculture,
published in 1787, and ending with his
Review of the Agricultural Reports in
1816; Practical Agriculture, by Dr. R.
W. Dickson, &c. &c. The writings of
Kaimes, Anderson and Sinclair exhibit a
union of philosophical sagacity and patient
experiment, which have produced results
of great importance to the British nation
and to the world. To these we shall
only add the name of John Loudon, F. L.
S. H. S., whose elaborate Encyclopædia
of Gardening and Encyclopædia of Agri-
culture have probably never been sur-
passed by any similar works in any lan-
guage.-The establishment of a national
board of agriculture was of very great
service to British husbandry. Hartlib, a
century before, and lord Kaimes, in his
Gentleman Farmer, had pointed out the
utility of such an institution, but it was
left to sir John Sinclair to carry their
ideas into execution. To the indefatiga-
ble exertions of that worthy and eminent
man the British public are indebted for
an institution, whose services cannot be
too highly appreciated. "It made farmers,
residing in different parts of the kingdom,
acquainted with one another, and caused
a rapid dissemination of knowledge
amongst the whole profession. The art
of agriculture was brought into fashion,
old practices were amended, new ones
introduced, and a degree of exertion call-
ed forth heretofore unexampled among
agriculturists in this island."-We shall
now make a few remarks on the agricul-
ture of different countries of Europe and
of the U. States.
French agriculture began to flourish
carly in the 17th century, under Hen-
ry IV, and a work on that subject was
published by Olivier de Serres. In 1761,
there were 13 agricultural societies in
France, and 19 auxiliary societies. Those
of Paris, Amiens and Bourdeaux have
distinguished themselves by their me-
moirs. Du Hamel and Buffon made the
study of rural economy fashionable, and
other writers contributed to the advance-
AGRICULTURE.
ment of husbandry. M. de Trudaine in-
troduced the Merino breed of sheep in
1776, and count Lasteyrie has written
a valuable work on sheep-husbandry.
The celebrated Arthur Young made an
agricultural survey of France in 1787-
89. Since that time, several French
and English writers have given the sta-
tistics of different districts, and the mode
of cultivation there in use, and the abbé
Rosier and professor Thouin have pub-
lished general views of the whole king-
dom. Buonaparte established many new
agricultural societies and professorships,
botanical and economical gardens, for the
exhibition of different modes of culture,
and the dissemination of plants. He also
greatly enlarged and enriched that exten-
sive institution, the National Garden,
whose professor of culture, the chevalier
Thouin, is one of the most scientific ag-
riculturists in Europe. The lands in
France are not generally enclosed and
subdivided by hedges or other fences.
Some fences occur near towns, but, in
general, the whole country is open, the
boundaries of estates being marked by
slight ditches or ridges, with occasional
stones or heaps of earth, trees in rows or
thinly scattered. Depredations from pas-
sengers on the highways are prevented
by gardes champêtres, which are estab-
lished throughout all France. Since the
time of Colbert, the French have paid
attention to sheep, and there are consid-
erable flocks of Merinos owned by indi-
viduals, besides the national flocks. That
of Rambouillet, established in 1786, is, or
lately was, managed by M. Tessier, an
eminent writer on agriculture. Sheep
are generally housed, or kept in folds and
little yards or enclosures. Mr. Birkbeck
considers the practice of housing or con-
fining sheep as the cause of foot-rot, a
disease very common among them in
France. Where flocks remain out all
night, the shepherd sleeps in a small
thatched hut, or portable house, placed
on wheels. He guides the flock by walk-
ing before them, and his dog guards them
from wolves, which still abound in some
parts of the country. In the south part
of France, the ass and the mule are of
frequent use in husbandry. A royal stud
of Arabian horses has been kept up at
Aurillac, in Limousin, for more than a
century, and another has been more re-
cently established near Nismes. Poultry
is an important article in French hus-
bandry. Mr. Birkbeck thinks that the
consumption of poultry in towns may be
equal to that of mutton. The breed of
107
swine is in general bad; but fine hams are
made in Bretagne from hogs reared on
acorns, and fatted with Indian corn.-The
French implements of agriculture are
generally rude and unwieldy, and the
operations of husbandry unskilfully per-
formed.-The vine is cultivated in France
in fields and on terraced hills, in a way
different from that which prevails else-
where. It is planted in hills, like Indian
corn, kept low, and managed like a plan-
tation of raspberries. The white mulberry
tree is very extensively cultivated for
feeding the silk-worm. It is not placed
in regular plantations, but in corners, in
rows by the sides of roads, &c. The trees
are raised from the seed in nurseries,
and sold, generally, at five years' growth,
when they have strong stems. They
are planted, staked, and treated as pol-
lards. The eggs of the silk-worm are
hatched in
hatched in rooms heated by means of
stoves to 18° of Réaumur (724 Fah.) One
ounce of eggs requires one hundred
weight of leaves, and will produce from 7
to 9 pounds of raw silk. The hatching
commences about the end of April, and,
with the feeding, is over in about a month.
Second broods are procured in some
placcs. The silk is wound off the co-
coons, in little balls, by women and chil-
dren. The olive, the fig, the almond and
various other fruits are also extensively
cultivated in France.
Agriculture in Germany. The car-
liest German writer on husbandry was
Conradus Heresbachius, who lived and
died in the 16th century. His work, De
Re Rustica, was an avowed compilation
from all the authors who had preceded
him. No other books on agriculture, of
any note, appeared previous to the 17th
century. With regard to the present
state of agriculture in Germany, we would
remark, that the country is very exten-
sive, and presents a great variety of soils,
surface, climate and culture. Its agricul-
tural produce is, for the most part, con-
sumed within its limits; but excellent
wines are exported from Hungary and
the Rhine, together with flax, hams, geese,
silk, &c. The culture of the mulberry and
the rearing of the silk-worm are carried
on as far north as Berlin. The theoreti-
cal agriculturists are well acquainted with
all the improved implements of Great
Britain, and some of them have been in-
troduced, especially in Holstein, Hanover
and Westphalia; but, generally, speaking
the ploughs, wagons, &c. are unwieldy
and inefficient. Fish are carefully
bred and fattened in some places, espe-
108
AGRICULTURE.
cially in Prussia, and poultry is every
where attended to, particularly in the
neighborhood of Vienna. The culture
of forests likewise receives particular
attention in that country as well as in
France. The common agriculture of
Germany is every where improving.
Government, as well as individuals, have
formed institutions for the instruction of
youth in its principles. The Imperial So-
ciety of Vienna, the Georgical Institution
at Presburg, and that of professor Thaer,
in Prussia, may be numbered among re-
cent institutions of this description.
Agriculture in Italy. The climate, soil
and surface of Italy are so various as
to have given rise to a greater diversity
of culture than is to be found in the whole
of Europe besides. Corn, grass, butch-
er's meat, cheese, butter, rice, silk, cotton,
wine, oil and fruits of all kinds are found
in perfection in this fertile country. Lou-
don asserts that only one-fifth of the sur-
face of Italy is considered sterile, while
only a fifth of the surface of France is
considered fertile. The population of
Italy is greater, in proportion to its sur-
face, than that of either France or Great
Britain. Among the writers on the rural
economy of Italy arc, Arthur Young, in
1788, Sigismondi, in 1801, and Chateau-
vieux, in 1812.—In Lombardy, the lands
are generally farmed by melayers (from
metà, half). The landlord pays the taxes
and repairs the buildings. The tenant
provides cattle, implements and seeds,
and the produce is divided. The irri-
gation of lands, in Lombardy, is a re-
markable feature of Italian husbandry.
All canals taken from rivers are the
property of the state, and may be car-
ried through any man's land, provided
they do not pass through a garden, or
within a certain distance of a mansion,
on paying the value of the ground
occupied. Water is not only employed
for grass-lands (which, when fully wa-
tered, are mowed four and sometimes
five times a year, and, in some cases, as
early as March), but is conducted between
the narrow ridges of corn-lands, in the
hollows between drilled crops, among
vines, or to flood lands, to the depth of a
foot or more, which are sown with rice.
Water is also used for depositing a sur-
face of mud, in some places where it is
charged with that material. The details
of watering, for these and other purposes,
are given in various works, and collected
in those of professor Re. In general,
watered lands let at one third higher price
than those not irrigated.—The imple-
ments and operations of agriculture in
Lombardy are both imperfect. The
plough is a rude contrivance, with a han-
dle 13 or 14 feet long. But the cattle are
fed with extraordinary care. They are
tied up in stalls, bled once or twice, clean-
ed and rubbed with oil, afterwards comb-
ed and brushed twice a day. Their food
in summer is clover or other green herb-
age; in winter, a mixture of elm-leaves,
clover-hay, and pulverized walnut-cake,
over which boiling water is poured, and
bran and salt added. In a short time, the
cattle cast their hair, grow smooth, round
and fat, and so improved as to double
their value to the butcher.-The tomato
or love-apple (solanum lycopersicum), so
extensively used in Italian cookery, forms
an article of field-culture near Pompeii,
and especially in Sicily, from whence it is
sent to Naples, Rome and several towns
on the Mediterranean sea.
Agriculture of the U. States of America.
The territory of the U. States is very
extensive, and presents almost every
variety of soil and climate.
The ag-
riculture of this wide-spread_country
embraces all the products of European
cultivation, together with some (such as
sugar and indigo) which are rarely made
objects of tillage in any part of Europe.
A full description of the agriculture of
these states would require a large vol-
ume. We shall confine ourselves to such
sketches as we may deem of most practi-
cal importance to those who are or intend
to become cultivators of North American
soil. The farms of the Eastern, Northern
and Middle States consist, generally, of
from 50 to 200 acres, seldom rising to
more than 300, and generally falling short
of 200 acres. These farms are enclosed,
and divided either by stone walls, or
rail fences made of timber, hedges not
being common. The building first erect-
ed on a "new lot," or on a tract of
land not yet cleared from its native
growth of timber, is what is called a log-
house. This
house. This is a hut or cabin made of
round, straight logs, about a foot in diami-
eter, lying on cach other, and notched
in at the corners. The intervals between
the logs are filled with slips of wood, and
the crevices generally stopped with mor-
tar made of clay. The fire-place com-
monly consists of rough stones, so placed
as to form a hearth, on which wood may
be burned. Sometimes these stones are
made to assume the form of a chimney,
and are carried up through the roof; and
sometimes a hole in the roof is the only
substitute for a chimney. The roof is
66
AGRICULTURE.
109
good crop of wheat or Indian corn without
ploughing, hoeing or manuring.-If new
land lie in such a situation that its natural
growth may turn to better account, wheth-
er for timber or fire-wood, it will be an
unpardonable waste to burn the wood on
the ground. But if the trees be taken off,
the land must be ploughed after clearing,
or it will not produce a crop of any kind.
The following remarks on this subject
are extracted from some observations by
Samuel Preston, of Stockport, Pennsyl-
vania, a very observing cultivator. They
were first published in the New England
Farmer, Boston, Massachusetts, and may
prove serviceable to settlers on uncleared
lands. Previous to undertaking to clear
land, Mr. Preston advises,-"1st. Take
a view of all large trees, and see which
way they may be felled for the great-
est number of small trees to be felled
along-side or on them. After felling the
large trees, only lop down their limbs;
but all such as are felled near them
should be cut in suitable lengths for two
men to roll and pile about the large trees,
by which means they may be nearly all
burned up, without cutting into lengths,
or the expense of a strong team, to draw
them together. 24. Fell all the other
trees parallel, and cut them into suitable
lengths, that they may be readily rolled
together without a team, always cutting
the largest trees first, that the smallest
may be loose on the top, to feed the fires.
3d. On hill-sides, fell the timber in a level
direction; then the logs will roll together;
but if the trees are felled down hill, all
the logs must be turned round before
they can be rolled, and there will be
stumps in the way. 4th. By following
these directions, two men may readily
heap and burn most of the timber, witli-
made of rafters, forming an acute angle
at the summit of the erection, and is cov-
ered with shingles, commonly split from
pine-trees, or with bark, peeled from
the hemlock (pinus canadensis).—When
the occupant or "first settler" of this
new land" finds himself in "comfortable
circumstances," he builds what is styled
a "frame house," composed of timber,
held together by tenons, mortises and
pins, and boarded, shingled and clap-
boarded on the outside, and often painted
white, sometimes red. Houses of this
kind generally contain a dining-room and
kitchen and three or four bed-rooins on
the same floor. They are rarely destitute
of good cellars, which the nature of the
climate renders almost indispensable.
The farm-buildings consist of a barn, pro-
portioned to the size of the farm, with
stalls for horses and cows on each side,
and a threshing-floor in the middle; and
the more wealthy farmers add a cellar
under the barn, a part of which receives
the manure from the stalls, and another
part serves as a store-room for roots, &c.
for feeding stock. What is called a corn-
barn is likewise very common, which is
built exclusively for storing the ears of
Indian corn. The sleepers of this build-
ing are generally set up four or five feet
from the ground, on smooth stone posts
or pillars, which rats, mice or other ver-
min cannot ascend.-With regard to the
best manner of clearing forest-land from
its natural growth of timber, the fol-
lowing observations may be of use to a
"first settler." In those parts of the coun-
try where wood is of but little value, the
trees are felled in one of the summer
months, the earlier in the season the bet-
ter, as the stumps will be less apt to
sprout, and the trees will have a longer
time to dry. The trees lie till the follow-out requiring any team; and perhaps the
ing spring, when such limbs as are not
very near the ground should be cut off,
that they may burn the better. Fire must
be put to them in the driest part of the
month of May, or, if the whole of that
month prove wet, it may be applied in
the beginning of June. Only the bodies
of the trees will remain after burning,
and some of them will be burned into
picces. Those which require to be made
shorter are cut in pieces nearly of a length,
drawn together by oxen, piled in close
heaps, and burned, such trees and logs
being reserved as may be needed for
fencing the lot. The heating of the soil
so destroys the green roots, and the ashes
made by the burning are so beneficial as
manure to the land, that it will produce a
VOL. I.
10
·
brands and the remains of the log-heaps
may all be wanted to burn up the old,
fallen trees. After proceeding as direct-
ed, the ground will be clear for a team and
sled to draw the remains of the heaps
where they may be wanted round the old
logs. Never attempt either to chop or
draw a large log, until the size and weight
are reduced by fire. The more fire-heaps
there are made on the clearing, the better,
particularly about the old logs, where
there is rotten wood. The best time of
the year to fell the timber in a great meas-
ure depends on the season's being wet or
dry. Most people prefer having it felled
in the month of June, when the leaves
are of full size. Then, by spreading the
leaves and brush over the ground (for
*
110
AGRICULTURE.
they should not be heaped), if there
should be a very dry time the next May,
fire may be turned through it, and will
burn the leaves, limbs and top of the
ground, so that a very good crop of In-
dian corn and pumpkins may be raised
among the logs by hoeing. After these
crops come off, the land may be cleared
and sowed late with rye and timothy
grass, or with oats and timothy in the
spring. If what is called a good burn can-
not be had in May, keep the fire out until
some very dry time in July or August;
then clear off the land, and sow wheat or
rye and timothy, harrowing several times,
both before and after sowing; for, after
the fire has been over the ground, the sod
of timothy should be introduced as soon
as the other crops will admit, to prevent
briers, alders, fire-cherries, &c. from
springing up from such sceds as were not
consumed by the fire. The timothy should
stand four or five years, either for mow-
ing or pasture, until the small roots of the
forest-trees are rotten; then it may be
ploughed; and the best mode which I
have observed is, to plough it very shallow
in the autumn; in the spring, cross-plough
it deeper, harrow it well, and it will pro-
duce a first-rate crop of Indian corn and
potatoes, and, the next season, the largest
and best crop of flax that I have ever
seen, and be in order to cultivate with
any kinds of grain, or to lay down again
with grass.-These directions are to be
understood as applying to what are gen-
erally called becch lands, and the chop-
ping may be done any time in the winter,
when the snow is not too deep to cut low
stumps, as the leaves are then on the
ground. By leaving the brush spread
abroad, I have known such winter chop-
pings to burn as well in a dry time in
August as that which had been cut the
summer before."-The agricultural im-
plements and farming operations of the
U. States are, in nost particulars, very
similar to those of Great Britain. Cir-
cumstances, however, require variations,
which the sagacity of the American cul-
tivator will lead him to adopt, often in
contradiction to the opinions of those who
understand the science better than the
practice of husbandry. In Europe, land
is dear and labor cheap; but in the U.
States, the reverse is the case. The Eu-
ropean cultivator is led, by a regard to his
own interest, to endeavor to make the
most of his land; the American cultiva-
tor has the same inducement to make the
most of his labor. Perhaps, however,
this principle, in America, is generally
carried to an unprofitable extreme, and
the farmers would derive more benefit
from their land, if they were to limit
their operations to such parts of their pos-
sessions as they can afford to till thor-
oughly and to manure abundantly. A
man may possess a large landed estate,
without being called on by good husband-
ry to hack and scratch over the whole,
as evidence of his title. He may culti-
vate well those parts which are naturally
most fertile, and suffer the rest to remain
woodland, or, having cleared a part, lay
it down to permanent pasture, which will
yield him an annual profit, without re-
quiring much labor. The climate and
soil of the U. States are adapted to the cul-
tivation of Indian corn, a very valuable
vegetable, which, it has been supposed,
could not be raised to advantage in Great
Britain.* This entirely and very advan-
tageously supersedes the field culture of
the horse-bean (vicia faba), one of the
most common fallow crops in that island.
The root husbandry, or the raising of roots
for the purpose of feeding cattle, is like-
wise of less importance in the U. States
than in Great Britain. The winters are
so severe in the northern section of the
Union, that turnips can rarely be fed on
the ground, and all sorts of roots are with
more difficulty preserved and dealt out to
stock, in this country, than in those which
possess a milder climate. Besides, hay
is more easily made from grass in the U.
States than in Great Britain, owing to the
season for hay-making being generally
more dry, and the sun more powerful.
There are many other circumstances
which favor the American farmer, and
render his situation more eligible than
that of the European. He is generally
the owner as well as the occupier of the
soil which he cultivates; is not burthen-
ed with tithes; his taxes are light; and
the product of his labors will command
more of the necessaries, comforts and in-
nocent luxuries of life.-The American
public secm, at present, fully aware of
the importance of spirited and scientific
agriculture. The state of Massachusetts
has appropriated considerable sums to
add to the funds of the agricultural soci-
etics in that commonwealth. Institutions
for the promotion of husbandry, cattle-
shows and exhibitions of manufactures
are common in every part of the Union.
* Mr. Cobbett has lately attempted to raise Indian
London, 1828, (A Treatise on Cobbett's Corn,) he
corn in England. In a book which he published in
professes to have met with much success in the cul-
re of it.
AGRICULTURE-AGRIGENTUM.
A periodical publication, entitled the
American Farmer, is established at Balti-
more, and another, called the New Eng-
land Farmer, is published in Boston. Men
of talents, wealth and enterprise have dis-
tinguished themselves by their laborious
and liberal efforts for the improvement of
American husbandry. Merino sheep have
been imported by general Humphreys,
chancellor Livingston and others, and are
now common in the U. States. The
most celebrated breeds of British cattle
have been imported by colonel Powel of
Powelton, near Philadelphia; and there
prevails a general disposition, among men
of intelligence and high standing in the
community, to promote the prosperity of
American agriculture.-We shall con-
clude with a few brief notices of some
of the most prominent benefits and im-
provements which modern science has
contributed to the art of agriculture. The
husbandmen of antiquity, as well as those
of the middle ages, were destitute of many
advantages enjoyed by the modern culti-
vator. Neither the practical nor the theo-
retical agriculturists of those periods
had any correct knowledge of geology,
mineralogy, chemistry, botany, vegetable
physiology or natural philosophy; but
these sciences have given the modern
husbandman the cominand of important
agents, clements and principles, of which
the ancients had no idea. The precepts
of their writers were conformable to their
experience; but the rationale of the prac-
tices they prescribed they could not, and
rarely attempted to explain. Nature's
most simple modes of operation were to
them inexplicable, and their ignorance
of causes often led to erroneous calcula-
tions with regard to effects. We are in-
debted to modern science for the follow-
ing among other improvements: viz. 1.
A correct knowledge of the nature and
properties of manures, mineral, animal
and vegetable; the best modes of apply-
ing them, and the particular crops for
which particular sorts of manures are
best suited. 2. The method of using all
manures of animal and vegetable origin
while fresh, before the sun, air and rain,
or other moisture, has robbed them of
their most valuable properties. It was
formerly the practice to place barn-yard
manure in layers or masses for the pur-
pose of rotting, and turn it over frequent-
ly with the plough or spade, till the whole
had become a mere caput mortuum, desti-
tute of almost all its original fertilizing
substances, and deteriorated in quality
almost as much as it was reduced in
111
quantity. 3. The knowledge and means
of chemically analyzing soils, by which we
can ascertain their constituent parts, and
thus learn what substances are wanted to
increase their fertility. 4. The introduc-
tion of the root husbandry, or the raising
of potatoes, turnips, mangel-wurzel, &c.
extensively, by field husbandry, for feed-
ing cattle, by which a given quantity of
land may be made to produce much more
nutritive matter than if it were occupied
by grain or grass crops, and the health
as well as the thriving of the animals in
the winter season greatly promoted. 5.
Laying down lands to grass, either for pas-
ture or mowing, with a greater variety of
grasses, and with kinds adapted to a
greater variety of soils; such as orehard-
grass (dactylis glomerata), for dry land,
foul-meadow-grass (agrostis stricta), for
very wet land; herds'-grass or timothy
(phleum pratense), for stiff, clayey soils,
&c. &c. 6. The substitution of fallow
crops (or such crops as require cultiva-
tion and stirring of the ground while the
plants are growing), in the place of naked
fallows, in which the land is allowed to
remain without yielding any profitable
product, in order to renew its fertility.
Fields may be so foul with weeds as to
require a fallow, but not what is too of
ten understood by that term in this coun-
try. "In England, when a farmer is
compelled to fallow a field, he lets the
weeds grow into blossom, and then turns
them down; in America, a fallow means
a field where the produce is a crop of
weeds running to seed, instead of a crop
of grain." 7. The art of breeding the
best animals and the best vegetables, by
a judicious selection of individuals to
propagate fron.-These improvements,
with others too numerous to be here
specified, have rendered the agriculture
of the present period very different from
that of the middle ages when it had
sunk far below the degree of perfection
which it had reached among the Romans.
AGRIGENTUM, in ancient geogr.; now
Girgenti or Agrigenti; a town in Sicily,
in the valley of Mazara, about three miles
from the coast. The modern town is
near the ruins of the ancient one, is a
bishop's see, and lies on the river St. Blaise,
47 miles S. Palermo; long. 13° 33′ E.; lat.
37° 22′, N.; pop. 11,876.—A. was much
renowned among the ancients. Different
stories are told of its foundation, among
which is the fabulous tale, that Dædalus,
who fled to Sicily from the resentment of
Minos, erected it. Its situation was pecu-
liarly strong and imposing, standing as it
112
AGRIGENTUM-AGRIPPINA.
did on a bare and precipitous rock, 1100
feet above the level of the sea. To this
military advantage, the city added those
of a commercial nature, being near to the
sea, which afforded the means of an easy
intercourse with the ports of Africa and
the south of Europe. The soil of A. was
very fertile. By incans of these advan-
tages, the wealth of A. became very great.
It was therefore considered the second
city in Sicily, and Polybius says (1. ix.) that
it surpassed in grandeur of appearance, on
account of its many temples and splendid
public buildings, most of its contempora-
ries. Among the most magnificent of
these buildings were the temples of Mi-
nerva, of Jupiter Atabyris, of Hercules,
and of Jupiter Olympius; the latter, which
vied in size and grandeur of design with
the finest buildings of Grecce, is said by
Diodorns (Sic. 1. xiii.) to have been 340 feet
loug, 60 broad, and 120 high, the foun-
dation not being included, which was it-
self remarkable for the immense arches
upon which it stood. The temple was or-
namented with admirable sculpture. But
a war prevented the completion of it, when
the roof only remained unfinished. Near
the city was an artificial lake, cut out of
the solid rock, about a mile in circuit,
and thirty feet deep; from which fish
were obtained in abundance for the pub-
lic feasts. Swans and other water-fowl
frequented it. Afterwards, the mud hav-
ing been suffered to accumulate in this
basin, it was turned into a remarkably
fruitful vineyard. Both the temple of Ju-
piter Olympius and the lake were the
work of a number of Carthaginian cap-
tives. The people of Agrigentum were
noted for their luxurious and extravagant
habits. Their horses were also famous.
(Virgil, En. 1. iii. v. 705.) After the ex-
pulsion of the Carthaginians from Sicily,
it fell, with little resistance, under the
power of the Romaus. Diodorus states
the population, in its best days, to have
been not less than 120,000 persons. Many
of the modern writers describe minutely
this interesting spot. Christian churches
have there, as in many other places, been
erected out of the remains of temples.
AGRIONIA; a Grecian festival, solem-
nized at night in honor of Bacchus. He
was supposed to have fled, and the fe-
males assembled to seek him. At length,
tired of their vain search, they exclaimed,
that he had taken refuge with the Mu-
ses, and conccaled himself among them.
These mysteries have been thought to
signify that learning and the muses should
accompany good cheer. This solemnity
was followed by a banquet, at the close
of which it was customary to propose to
each other riddles, whence A. is used to
denote a collection of riddles, charades, &c.
AGRIPPA, Henry Cornelius, born in
1486, at Cologne, was a man of talents,
learning and eccentricity. In his youth,
he was secretary to the emperor Maxi-
milian, subsequently served 7 years in
Italy, and was knighted. He says that he
was acquainted with 8 languages. On
quitting the army, he devoted himself to
science, and made pretensions to an ac-
quaintance with magic. In certain lec-
tures, he advanced opinions which in-
volved him in contests with the monks
for the remainder of his life. In 1530, he
wrote a treatise "On the Vanity of the Sci-
ences," which was a caustic satire upon
the inefficiency of the common modes of
instruction, and upon the monks, theolo-
gians and members of the universities. At
a subsequent period, he produced another
treatise at Antwerp, "On the Occult Philos-
opher." This was a sketch of mystical the-
ology, explaining, on the principles of the
emanative system, the harmony of the el-
ementary, celestial and intellectual worlds.
His pretensions to skill in occult science,
particularly alchymy, led to his receiving
numerous invitations from royal persona-
ges and others of high rank, and his ina-
bility to answer their absurd expectations
produced their subsequent neglect of him.
After an active, varied and eventful life,
he died at Grenoble, in 1539.
AGRIPPA, Marcus Vipsanius; a Roman,
the son-in-law of Augustus, with whom
he was twice consul. Although not of
high birth, his talents soon raised him to
honor. He distinguished himself as a
general, and commanded the fleet of Au-
gustus in the battle at Actium. As the
minister and friend of the emperor, he
rendered many services to him and the
Roman state. Ile was impartial and up-
right, and a friend of the arts. To hin
Rome is indebted for 3 of her principal
aqueducts, and several other works of
public use and ornament. (See Augus-
tus.)
AGRIPPINA. 1. The wife of the emperor
Tiberius, who very reluctantly_divorced
her, when obliged to marry Julia, the
daughter of Augustus, after the death of
her first husband, Agrippa. A. was sub-
sequently married to Asinius Gallus, whom
Tiberius, still retaining his love for his
former wife, condemned to perpetual im-
prisonment, in the spirit of a jealous rival.
2. The daughter of Marcus Vipsanius
Agrippa, by Julia, daughter of Augustus;
AGRIPPINA-AGUESSEAU.
wife of C. Germanicus; a heroic woman,
adorned with great virtues. She accom-
panied her husband in all his campaigns,
and accused Tiberius, before the senate,
of compassing his death. The tyrant,
who hated her for her virtues and popu-
larity, banished her to the island of Pan-
dataria, where she starved herself to death.
The cabinet of antiquities at Dresden pos-
sesses 4 famous busts of this A.-3. A
daughter of the last mentioned A. and
sister of Caligula, born at Cologne, which
she enlarged, and called Colonia Agrippi-
næ. She had the misfortune to become
the mother of Nero, by Domitius Aheno-
barbus. Her third husband was the em-
peror Claudius, brother of her father, who
married her after he had divorced Mes-
salina. She was distinguished for ability
and political experience, but her ambition
was boundless, and her disposition cun-
ning and dissolute. She was murdered
by Nero, her son, to whom she was
troublesome after he had become empe-
ror. It is said, that she begged the assas-
sins to stab her first in the womb, that had
brought forth such a monster.
AGUE, in medicine; a disorder belong-
ing to the class of intermittent fevers (fe-
bres intermittentes.) It may be followed
by serious consequences, but, generally, it
is more troublesome than dangerous, and
is sometimes even considered salutary.
According to the length of the apyreria,
or intermission between one febrile parox-
ysm and another, agues are denominated
quotidians, tertians, or quartans; which
latter are much the most obstinate, being
generally attended with a greater degree
of visceral obstruction than those the at-
tacks of which return at shorter intervals.
The quartan ague is apt to terminate in
dropsy. An ague paroxysm has been di-
vided into the cold, the hot and the sweat-
ing stages. The feeling of extreme cold,
in the first stage, cannot be prevented by
fire or the heat of summer. Generally,
after the sweating stage, in which there is
a profuse exhalation from the pores of the
skin, with a flow of urine, depositing a co-
pious sediment, of a lateritious or brick-
dust appearance, the patient falls into a
refreshing sleep, from which he awakes
without any remains of indisposition, ex-
cept a slight degree of languor and debility.
Agues occur chiefly in situations where
there are shallow, stagnant waters. Hence
their frequency in Holland, in the East
and West Indies, in the flat, marshy parts
of England, and the thinly settled parts
of the U. States, where they diminish
with the clearing of the woods and the
113
draining of the lands. The neighborhood
of rivers or marshes, therefore, is carefully
to be avoided by persons afflicted with
agues. They are cured by medicines,
which, at the same time that they exert a
tonic influence, produce and keep up an
impression upon the system greater than
that communicated by the causes of the
disease; such as Peruvian bark, various
bitter and astringent drugs, certain metal-
lic salts, &c.
AGUE-CAKE; a name sometimes given
to a hard tumor on the left side of the
belly, lower than the false ribs, said to be
the effect of intermittent fever.
AGUESSEAU, Henry Francis d', a man
distinguished in the annals of French elo-
quence and jurisprudence, was born at
Limoges in 1668, and early evinced dis-
tinguished talents. His father, intendant
of Languedoc, was his first instructer.
The intercourse of d'A. with Racine and
Boileau formed his taste for poetry. He
was, in 1691, avocat général at Paris, and
at the age of 32 years, procureur général
of the parliament. In this office, be ef-
fected many improvements in the laws
and the adininistration of justice, and took
particular care of the government of hos-
pitals. During a famine in the winter of
1709, he employed all his power to re-
lieve the suffering. As a steady defender
of the privileges of the nation and the
Gallican church, he procured the rejection
of the decrees of Louis XIV, and the chan-
cellor Voisin, in favor of the papal bull
Unigenitus. Under the government of
the duke of Orleans, he was made chan-
cellor in 1717, but fell, in 1718, into dis-
grace, on account of his opposition to
Law's destructive system of finance, and
retired to his country seat at Fresnes.
He there passed, according to his own
words, the happiest days of his life, em-
ployed in reading the Bible, projecting a
code, and instructing his children. Math-
ematics, agriculture and the arts and sci-
ences occupied his leisure hours. In
1720, loud clamors against Law were
raised throughout France, and it was
thought that a man like d'A., who pos-
sessed the love of the nation, was neces-
sary to allay the general discontent. He
was, therefore, replaced in his former dig-
nity. This period of his life did not add
to his renown; for he accepted his office
from Law, and gave his consent to cer-
tain weak and injurious plans, which the
parliament rejected; he finally suffered
the same parliament to be exiled to Pon-
toise. In 1722, he was banished a second
time, for opposing the cardinal Dubois,
10*
114
AGUESSEAU—AIGNAN.
but was recalled in 1727 by the cardinal
Fleury, and in 1737 restored to his former
office. He formed the design of intro-
ducing uniformity into the execution of the
ancient laws, and of adding what was
wanting. But this work surpassed the
ability of a single man. He died in 1751,
after resigning, in 1750, the office of chan-
cellor. His works, which have passed
through several editions, are said, by Bou-
terwek, to be models of their kind; full
of spirit, judicious, elegant, yet powerful,
and rich in valuable instruction for states-
men and lawyers. His discourses, with
which he opened the sittings of the par-
liament, arc`excellent.-His nephew, the
marquis d'Aguesseau (Henry Cardin Jean
Baptiste), peer of France, and member of
the academy of sciences, died at Paris,
January 22, 1826. He was a lawyer,
member of the first national assembly,
and senator under Napoleon; afterwards,
a faithful adherent of the king.
AGUIRRA, Joseph Saenz de, a Benedic-
tine, and learned man, was born in 1630.
He was censor and secretary of the su-
preme council of the inquisition in Spain,
and professor in the university of Sala-
inanca. He published commentaries on
Aristotle's Ethics. He died at Rome, in
1699.
AGUSTINI, in mineralogy; a term by
which professor Tromsdorff has desig-
nated a supposed new earth, discovered
by him in 1808. It bears a great resem-
blance to alumina.-Annales de Chimie,
xxxiv, p. 133.
AGUTI, the cavia aguli of Linens; an
American animal, much resembling the
Guinea pig. There are three varieties, all
indigenous to South America and the
West Indies. They live on vegetables,
inhabit hollow trees, and burrow in the
ground. They cat like the squirrels, grow
fat, and are used as food in South Ameri-
ca. They propagate very fast.
AGYNIANI, OF AGYNNENSES. (See Sha-
kers.)
AHANTA; a kingdom on the Gold Coast
of Africa, extending from the Ancobra to
the Chamalı; bounded on the west by
Apollonia, and on the cast by the Fautee
territorics. It is the richest, and in every
respect the most improved district upon
this coast. The principal towns are Ax-
in, Dixcove aud Succondec.
AHASUERUS, in Scripture history; aking
of Persia, the husband of Esther, to
whom the Scriptures ascribe a singular
deliverance of the Jews from extirpation,
which they commemorate to this day, by
an annual feast, that of Purim, preceded
by what is called the fast of Esther. Dif-
ferent opinions have been entertained by
Scaliger, Prideaux and others as to which
of the kings of Persia mentioned in other
historical books may be the A. of the Bi-
ble.-Ahasuerus is also a Scripture naine
for Cambyses, the son of Cyrus, Ezra iv. 6.
and for Astyages, king of the Mcdes, Dan.
ix. 1.
AHITOPHEL; one of king David's coun-
sellors, and highly esteemed for his po-
litical sagacity. He was certainly one of
the first inen of his age, both for wisdom
and wickedness. His advice to Absalom,
who followed the wicked part of it, but
left the wise part unaccomplished, to-
gether with the tragical end of the poli-
tician, the first suicide recorded in histo-
ry, are well known.
A-HULL; the situation of a ship when
all her sails are furled on account of the
violence of a storm, when, having lashed
her helm on the lee-side, she lies nearly
with her side to the wind and sea, her
head being somewhat inclined to the di-
rection of the wind.
AID; a subsidy paid, in ancient feudal
times, by vassals to their lords on certain
occasions.
AID-MAJOR. (See Adjutant.)
AIGNAN, Stephen, a poet and author,
born in 1773, at Beangency, on the river
Loire, and since 1814 a member of the
French academy, has distinguished him-
self by successful translations of the Iliad,
and of Pope's Essay on Criticism, into
verse. The translation of the Hiad is the
best in the French language. He also
translated the Odyssey, but we know not
whether the version has been published.
He translated, likewise, some English
tales, e. g. the Vicar of Wakefield. "His
original writings consist of a tragedy,
Bruarhaui; an opera, Nephthali, with
music by Blangini; and some excellent
political essays, Sur le jury; De l'état den
protestants en France, depuis le XV siècle,
jusqu'à nos jours, &c. 2d ed. Paris, 1818,
and Sur les coups d' étal; as well as vari-
ous contributions of merit to the Minervc
Française. He was liberal in his views,
wrote well and independently, but withi
moderation. A. showed remarkable cour-
age in publishing his tragedy, La Mort de
Louis XVI, his first poem, a few weeks
after the execution of the king. He held
several public offices during the reign of
terror, and opposed, in some cases suc-
cessfully, the tyranny of the administra-
tion. A. died at Paris, June 23, 1824.
His place in the aculeiny was filled by
Sominet.
AIGUILLON-AIR.
AIGUILLON, duke d'; peer of France,
and minister of foreign affairs under
Louis XV; distinguished, as a courtier, by
his ready wit, but destitute of almost all
the qualities that constitute the statesman.
During his ministry the partition of Po-
land took place; and till it was actually
accomplished, d' A. knew nothing of this
profligate project. Even Louis XV ex-
claimed, when it came to his knowledge,
"Had Choiseul been here, this partition
would never have taken place." D' A.
was born in 1720. When he first ap-
peared at the court of Lonis, he struck
the fancy of the duchess of Chateauroux,
mistress of the king. She obtained him
an appointment in the army in Italy. Af
ter experiencing many alternations of
favor and disgrace, he was admitted,
through the influence of the countess du
Barry, into the ministry with the abbe
Terrai and the chancellor Maupeou, af-
ter Choiseul's downfall. His administra-
tion of the department of foreign affairs
was disgraceful to France, which, under
him, degenerated from the high diplo-
matic character she had hitherto sus-
tained. He boasted of having brought
about the revolution of Sweden in 1772,
which now is made a matter of reproach
to him. At the accession of Louis XVI,
he was removed from the ministry. His
place was supplied by the count of Ver-
gennes, in 1774. D'A. was hated by the
queen, was exiled in 1775, and died in
banishment in his 80th year.
AILSA, OF ELSA; a small, rocky island
in the Frith of Clyde, near the W. coast
of Scotland, of a conical form. It is a
conspicuous object, 940 feet high, 7 miles
from the shore, about 2 miles in circum-
ference; lon. 5° 8 W., lat. 55° 18′ N.
Innumerable sea-fowl, many of which
are good for the table or valuable on ac-
count of their feathers, frequent it; a few
rabbits and goats live on its sterile
surface. A ruinous castle stands on its
summit, and is useful as a sea-mark.
Excellent banks, well stocked with fish,
surround it.
AINOS, or AINUS; the aborigines of
Jesso and Saghalin, commonly called
wild Kuriles, and supposed to be covered
with hair in unnatural profusion. They
are nearly black, and resemble the Kamt-
schadales, but have more regular features.
The Chinese and Japanese say that they
have immense beards; captain Brough-
ton, who anchored at Endermo harbor,
in Jesso, in 1797, remarks, that the bodies
of the men are covered with long black
hair; and Krusenstern, the Russian navi-
115
gator, mentions that a child of this de-
scription was seen in 1805, but that the
parents had no such characteristics, and
he denies that it is general. Other testi-
mony, e. g. that of the early missionaries
at Japan, seems to confirm this peculiari-
ty of the A. The women are very ugly.
The A. are of a mild, liberal disposition;
their manners, however, are very little
known. Polygamy is practised among
them. Agriculture they know very little
of. They fatten bears for winter provis-
ion. The A. were formerly independent,
but are now in subjection to the Japanese.
AINSWORTH, Dr. Henry, an English-
man, distinguished himself, about 1590,
among the Brownists. His knowledge
of Hebrew, and his annotations on the
Holy Scriptures, gained him much repu-
tation. He died about 1629, in Amster-
dam. He is said to have restored to a
Jew a valuable diamond which he had
lost. The only compensation which he
asked was a conference with some Jew-
ish rabbies on the prophecies of the Old
Testament relating to the Messiah. The
Jew promised to bring it about, but, fail-
ing of success, is said to have poisoned
A. through shame and vexation.
AINSWORTH, Robert, born at Wood-
yale, in Lancashire, 1660, was master
of a boarding-school at Bethnal-Green,
whence he removed to Hackney and
other places in the neighborhood of Lon-
don. After acquiring a moderate fortune,
he lived privately till 1743, when he died.
He wrote the well-known Latin and
English Dictionary, published in 1736;
and in 1752, the fourth edition, under the
care of Dr. Ward and William Younge,
was enlarged to 2 vols. folio. Many edi-
tions with improvements have followed.
A1oU; a group of 16 islands in the east-
ern seas, off the N. coast of Waggiou, and
surrounded by a reef 50 miles in compass,
which is penetrated by a deep channel
on the north-west side. Aiou Baba is
the largest, about 5 miles in circuit, 500
feet high, lon. 128° 25′ E., lat. 0° 32′ N.
Fish, turtle and tropical fruits abound in
these islands. They have some trade with
the Chinese.
AIR (Greek, &o: Latin, aër), in natural
philosophy, is that fluid, transparent sub-
stance which surrounds our globe, reach-
ing to a considerable height above its
surface, perhaps 40 miles; and this ocean
of air is the great laboratory in which
most of the actions of life go on, and on
the composition of which they depend.
Though invisible, except in large masses,
without snell or taste, yet it is a sub-
116
AIR.
stance possessing all the principal attri-
butes of matter; it is impenetrable, pon-
derable, compressible, dilatable, perfectly
elastic, and its particles are operated on
like those of other bodies, by chemical ac-
tion. To prove the impenetrability of the
air, a very simple experiment is sufficient.
Plunge a glass receiver perpendicularly
into water, after having put under the
receiver a piece of cork. However deep
you may plunge the vessel, the water
never reaches the top of it, though it
diminishes the volume of the air; the
liquid, therefore, cannot penetrate the air.
The cork serves to show how high the
water rises. In fact, the most common
occurrences give constant proofs of the
impenetrability of the air, and the theory
of sailing, of windmills, &c. is based on
that property of this fluid. (See Wind.)
To prove that the air is ponderable, it is
only necessary to weigh a large balloon,
first empty, and afterwards filled with air.
It has been found, that 100 cubic inches
of air, very dry, taken at the temperature
of 60°, and under the barometrical pres-
sure of 30 inches, weighs 30.5. grains;
and this weight is to that of water as 1 to
770. Galileo first discovered that air is
ponderable, though several preceding
philosophers scem to have had some sus-
picion of the fact. (See Galileo, Torricel-
li, Barometer.) In consequence of this
quality of air, the atmosphere which sur-
rounds us exerts a pressure on all points
of the globe proportionate to its weight;
this is the cause of the rise of liquids in
sucking-pumps, siphons and the barome-
ter. To show this pressure, plunge the
orifice of an exhausted tube, closed at
the other end, into a liquid. The liquid,
yielding to the pressure of the external
air, rises in the tube till the weight of its
column is equal to that of the atmospher-
ic column. In this experiment water
will rise 33 feet, and mercury 29 inches,
provided the place where the experiment
is tried is nearly on a level with the sea;
for the height varies with the weight of
the column of air, which diminishes in
proportion as we ascend above the level
of the sea.
The height of the column
of mercury in the barometer, therefore,
affords a good means of determining the
clevation of any given place. The weight
of the column of air, which presses con-
stantly on a man of middle stature, is
equal to 32,3434 pounds. But this weight
does no injury, because it is counterbal-
anced by the reaction of the fluids, which
fill the interior cavities of the body. (See
Air-pump.) That air is compressible, and
It
that the space which it occupies corre-
sponds always to the pressure on it, has
been shown by Mariotte. He took a bent
glass tube, with legs of unequal length,
exactly graduated; after having sealed
the orifice of the shorter leg, he intro-
duced a small quantity of mercury, suffi-
cient to rise to an equal height in both
legs. The air enclosed in the shorter
leg then counterbalanced the atmospheric
column. By raising the mercury in the
longer leg to the height of 29 inches, the
air in the shorter leg was compressed in-
to half the space which it occupied at
first. In other words, the weight of two
atmospheres (the column of mercury be-
ing equal to one) compressed the air to
this degree. Mariotte continued to pour
mercury into the long leg, and found that
the weight of 2, 3, 4, &c. atmospheres
reduced the air confined in the shorter
leg to 2, 3, 4, &c. of its primitive vol-
ume. In repeating this experiment, it is
necessary to give time to the caloric
which is disengaged to pass off.
seems as if the compression of air would
be indefinite, if we had sufficiently pow-
erful means; but as yet we have only
been able to reduce its volume to one
eighth. (See Compression, Air-gun.) The
dilatability of air consists in the tendency
of a voluine of confined air to occupy a
greater space. In consequence, it presses
equally in all directions on the sides of
the vessel containing it, and this pressure
increases or diminishes in proportion as
the enclosed air is condensed or rarefied,
provided the temperature remains the
same. The dilatability of air has, accord-
ing to the preceding experiment, no
limits. A bladder, almost empty, will
become inflated if placed in an exhausted
receiver, Elasticity being the property
of a body to resume its original form as
soon as the force which changes it ceases,
it is evident, from what we have said, that
it is a property of air. The different ap-
plications made of air in the different
branches of art are so various and nu-
merous, that we cannot possibly enume-
rate them. Of the chemical properties
of air, it will be sufficient to mention
the following: the ancients believed it a
simple body, one of the four elements;
modern chemists have discovered that it
is composed of two bodies, apparently
elementary,-oxygen and azote.
most accurate experiments have shown
that this fluid, taken from different parts
of the globe, and even at a great height,
is composed of 21 parts of oxygen, 78 of
azote, 1 part of carbonic acid, and some
The
AIR.
atoms of hydrogen. The air refracts the
rays of light, and its power of refraction
is in the ratio of its density. (See Re-
fraction.) It is capable of acquiring elec-
tricity, and it refuses, when very dry, a
free passage to the electricity which tends
to escape from electrified bodies. (See
Electricity.) When subjected to great
heat or cold, it is dilated or condensed,
but undergoes no change of properties.
If it is suddenly compressed, much heat
is disengaged, with a bright light. It en-
ters bodies through the most minute
pores, and adheres to them strongly; coal,
particularly, absorbs a great quantity of
air. (See Carbon.) Water and all liquids
always contain it, and it can only be ex-
pelled by a strong heat. Almost all com-
bustible bodies decompose it at a high
temperature, which varies with the dif-
ferent substances. They absorb its oxy-
gen with the disengagement of more or
less caloric and light, and form acids or
oxydes: phosphorus, however, combines
at a low temperature with the oxygen
and azote of the air, and produces, with
the former, phosphorous acid; with the
latter, phosphureted nitrogen: the mois-
ture of the air and the inelting of the
phosphorus favor these combinations.
When the air is brought into contact
with animal and vegetable substances, it
changes them immediately, particularly
if it is moist, and gives to some of them
acid properties; it bleaches flax, hemp,
silk, and increases the brilliancy of many
colors. It is indispensable to the life of
all organic beings; animals respire it in-
cessantly, and decompose it; a part of its
oxygen is transformed into carbonic acid,
and this combination produces caloric,
which contributes principally to the pres-
ervation of animal heat. (See Respira-
tion.) Vegetables imbibe the carbon,
which the carbonic acid, diffused through
the air, contains. The air is the agent of
combustion; the particles of bodies com-
bine with its oxygen, and evolve heat
and light. (See Combustion.) Finally,
the air is the principal medium of sound.
(See Acoustics.) For further information,
see the articles Atmosphere, Gas and Con-
tagion.
AIR, in painting, deserves the most ac-
curate study of the artist, particularly of
the landscape painter, as it is the medi-
um through which all objects are seen,
and its density or transparency deter-
mines their appearance, both in respect
to size and color. It softens the local
colors, and renders them more or less
decided or characterized, producing what
117
is technically called tone. The appear-
ances produced by the interposition of
the air differ with the climate, the season,
and the time of the day; and landscape
painters, who, in other respects, are not
masters, liave given the greatest charm to
their pictures by a happy imitation of
these appearances, even where the ob-
jects painted possessed in themselves
very little attraction. Hackert, a Ger-
man, who was a long time painter to the
late king of Naples, excels, perhaps, in this
branch of art, all modern painters. His
views on this subject are given in his
life by Göthe.
AIR, fixed. (See Gas.)
AIR, in music (in Italian, aria), at the
present day, means a continuous melody,
in which some lyric subject or passion is
expressed. It was originally opposed
to the irregular declamation of recita-
tive, or the more staid action of choral
music. Saunaise regards the term as
derived from the Latin aëra. The air ap-
pertained, consequently, to measured mù-
sic, and, whether constituted of one or of
more voices, this measured style (if not
choral) was denominated air. But in mod-
ern days, by way of distinction, the lyric
melody of a single voice, accompanied by
instruinents, is its proper form of composi-
tion. Thus we find it in the higher or-
der of musical works; as in cantatas, ora-
torios, operas, and also independently, in
concertos. It should be constituted of
euphonic simple lyric strains. An air
formerly supposed as its ground-work a
particular state of feeling or emotion, oi
a certain duration, expression and interest,
to which the recitative is generally pre-
paratory. Formerly, too, as essential to
an air, a symphony, expressing the bur-
den of the stanzas or couplets of the song
(ritornello, or refrain), was introduced as
tributary to the leading melody, which
was followed by another and less elabo-
rate part, forming the antithesis, to which
was subsequently added a repetition of
the first part. Since the days of Gluck
and Mozart, these have declined, ant
other forms have been adopted, particu-
larly by Mozart, more conformable to
poetry, and more expressive of the senti-
ments and situation of the singer. Still
Mozart could not entirely withstand the
prevailing taste, with reference to which
he produced numerous bravura airs, not
always in character, yet not wanting in
expression and effect. Another form of
airs are the cavatinos (or single strains),
lately introduced by the Italians, and cal-
culated to add grace and embellishment
......
118
AIR-AIR-PUMP.
to the song. At the present day, the
Germans either adopt this or make use
of other forms, as the subject may re-
quire.-Arietta signifies a short, less elab-
orate air, designed to express a more sim-
ple and transient emotion.-Arioso is also
applied to music resembling the aria, and
is inserted in single lyrical passages to
vary the recitative.
AIR-GUN; an instrument for the pro-
jection of bullets by means of condensed
air. The ancients were acquainted with
the principles of its construction, and an
instrument of this description was invent-
ed by Ctesibus of Alexandria, who flour-
ished about 120 B. C. The first modern
account of an air-gun, which we meet
with, is in the Éléments d'Artillerie of David
Rivaut, preceptor to Louis XIII of France.
AIR-PIPES; a
recent invention for
the ventilation of ships by means of the
rarcfying power of heat. Mr. Sutton, a
brewer of London, is the inventor. If the
usual aperture to any fire be closed up in
front, and another be introduced by the
side of the fire place, it will attract the
current of air into that direction; and
the coppers, or boiling-places of ships, are
well known to be placed over two holes,
separated by a grate, the one for the fire,
the other for the ashes; there is also a
flue from the tops for the discharge of
smoke. Mr. Sutton's pipes, now, are in-
troduced into the ash-place, and carried
through the hold to any part of the ves-
sel. The two holes before alluded to
are closed up by strong iron doors; a con-
tinued draught of air supplies the fire,
and creates a salutary circulation through
any part of the vessel into which the
pipes may be directed. They are made
either of copper or lead.
AIR-PUMP; a machine for
the purpose of withdrawing the
air from some vessel or cavity,
and thereby making what is
called a vacuum. It is one of
the most curious and useful
of philosophical instruments.
By experiments with it, the
weight, elasticity and many
other properties of air may
be shown in a very simple and
satisfactory manner.-Let R be
the section of a glass bell, closed
at the top T, but open at the
bottom, and having its lower
edge ground smooth, so as to
rest in close contact with a
smooth brass plate, of which
SS is a section. This glass
is called a receiver, because it
S
receives and holds substances on which
experiments are to be made. If a little
unctuous matter be rubbed upon the
edge of the receiver R, and it be pressed
with a slight circular motion upon the
plate S S, it will be brought into such
close contact as to be air-tight. In the
middle is an opening A, which commu-
nicates by a tube A B with a hollow cyl-
inder or barrel, in which a solid piston P
is moved. The piston-rod C moves in
an air-tight collar D, and at the bottom
of the cylinder a valve V is placed,
opening freely outward, but immediately
closed by any pressure from without.
There is thus a free communication be-
tween the receiver R, the tube A B and
the exhausting barrel B V. This com-
munication extends in the same manner
to a second similar barrel X V. When
the piston C P is pressed down, and has
passed the opening at B, the air in the
barrel BV will be enclosed, and will be
compressed by the piston. As it will
thus be made to occupy a smaller space
than before, its density, and consequently
its elasticity, will be increased. It will
therefore press downwards upon the valve
V with a greater force than that by
which the valve is pressed upwards by
the external air. This superior elastic
force will open the valve, through which,
as the piston descends, the air in the bar-

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AIR-PUMP-AIR-TRUNK.
rel will be driven into the atmosphere.
If the piston be pushed quite to the bot-
tom, the whole air in the barrel will be
thus expelled. The moment the piston
begins to ascend, the pressure of the air
from without closes the valve completely.
None of the external air can enter; and,
as the piston ascends, a vacuum is left
beneath it; but, when it rises beyond the
opening B, the air in the receiver R and
the tube A B expands, by its elasticity, so
as to fill the barrel B V. A second depres-
sion of the piston will expel the air con-
tained in the barrel, and the process may
be continued at pleasure. The commu-
nication between the barrels and the re-
ceiver may be closed by a stop-cock at G.
It is evidently only in consequence of the
elasticity of the air that it expands and
fills the barrel, diffusing itself equally
throughout the cavity in which it is con-
tained. The operation of the machine
depends, therefore, on the elasticity of the
air, and it is obvious that a perfect vacu-
um cannot be formed by it in the receiver,
as only a part of the air is cach time ex-
pelled, and a portion must always remain
after each depression of the piston. The
degree of rarefaction produced by the
machine may, however, be easily calcu-
lated. Suppose that the barrel contains
one third as much as the receiver and
tube together, and, therefore, that it con-
tains one fourth of the whole air within
the valve V. Upon one depression of the
piston, this fourth part will be expelled,
and three fourths of the original quantity
will remain. One fourth of this remain-
ing quantity will in like manner be ex-
pelled by the second depression of the
piston, which is equal to three sixteenths
of the original quantity. By calculating
in this way, it will be found that, after 30
depressions of the piston, only one 3096th
part of the original quantity will be left
in the receiver. The rarefaction may
thus be carried so far that the elasticity
of the air pressed down by the piston
shall not be sufficient to force open the
valve. To show how far the exhaustion
has been carried at any particular point
of the process, a barometer-gauge is con-
nected with the machine. This is a glass
tube, opening at E into the receiver, and
at F immersed in a cistern of mercury.
As the rarefaction proceeds, the mercury
rises from the pressure of the external
air, and indicates how far this pressure
exceeds that from within the receiver,
that is, the degree of exhaustion. Both
pistons are worked by the wheel H and
119
winch Y, by means of the rack or
tooth-work on the piston-rods. When
one piston is raised, the other is depressed.
The winch is then turned in the oppo-
site direction, and the piston which had
been raised is depressed, and the other
raised. When the rarefaction of the air
within the barrels is considerable, the
pressure of the atmosphere upon each
piston is not resisted from within, and
therefore opposes its ascent. But this
pressure is not felt by the operator, as the
pressure upon one piston counterbalances
that upon the other. The elasticity of
the air is proved by the action of the
machine. Its pressure is proved by the
great firmness with which the receiver is
pressed upon the plate S S during the
rarefaction of the air within. If any ani-
mal is placed beneath the receiver, and
the air exhausted, he dies almost imme-
diately; a lighted candle under the
exhausted receiver immediately goes
out. Air is thus shown to be necessary
to animal life and to combustion. A
bell, suspended from a silken thread be-
neath the exhausted receiver, on being
struck, cannot be heard. If the bell be
in one receiver, from which the air is not
exhausted, but which is within an ex-
hausted receiver, it still cannot be heard.
Air is therefore necessary to the produc-
tion and to the propagation of sound. A
shrivelled apple or cranberry, placed be-
neath an exhausted receiver, becomes as
plump as if quite fresh. They are thus
shown to be full of elastic air. A great
variety of experiments may be made,
which are very interesting, but too nu-
merous to be described. The air-pump
was invented by Otto de Guericke, bur-
gomaster of Magdeburg, about the year
1654. Modifications and improvements
were afterwards made by Boyle, Hawks-
bee, Morton and many others. It is made
in various forms, one of the simplest of
which is that already described.
AIR-TRUNK; a contrivance by Dr. Hales
to prevent the stagnation of putrid efflu-
via in jails, or any apartments where
many people are collected. It consists
of a long, square trunk, open at both ends,
one of which is inserted into the ceiling
of the room, and the other extends à
considerable distance beyond the roof.
Through this trunk a continued circula-
tion is carried on, because the putrid
effluvia are much lighter than the pure
atmosphere. Dr. Keil estimates these
effluvia arising from one man in 24
hours at not less than 39 ounces. These
120
AIR-TRUNK—AIX LA CHAPELLE.
trunks were first tried in the English
house of commons, where they were 9
inches wide within, and over the court
of king's bench, where they were 6
inches wide.
France and Italy. This is the reason
that the accounts of the population of the
southern cities of Europe seem so fre-
quently exaggerated to strangers, unae-
quainted with the circumstance. Aix
derives its principal support from the
culture and manufacture of silk, in its
extensive district, which contains marshy,
sandy, calcareous and stony soils, together
with the cultivation of the olive, and
of the fruits of the south, which are well
paid for by the luxury of northern
France. Lon. 5° 97 E.; lat. 43° 32′ N.
Aïssé (Demois.) well known for her
romantic adventures and unhappy fate,
born in Circassia, 1689, was purchased by
the count de Ferriol, the French ambassa-
dor at Constantinople, when a child of 4
years, for 1500 livres. The seller de-
clared her to be a Circassian princess.
She was of great beauty. The count
took her with him to France, and gave
her an education, in which nothing was
neglected but the inculcation of virtuous
principles. Her disposition was good, but
her life immoral. She sacrificed her in-
nocence to the solicitations of her bene-
factor. On the other hand, she resisted
the splendid offers of the duke of Or-
leans. Of her numerous suitors, she fa-
vored only the chevalier Aidy. This
love decided her fate. Aidy had taken
the vows at Malta; he wished to disen-
gage himself from them; but his mistress
herself opposed the attempt. The fruit
of her love was a daughter, born in Eng-rounded by beautiful hills.
land. She was subsequently a prey to
the bitterest remorse; she resisted her
passion in vain, and lived in a continual
struggle with herself, which her weak
health was unable long to sustain. She
died 1727, thirty-eight years old. Her
letters are written in a pleasant and flu-
ent strain, and exhibit a lively picture
of the author's feelings. They contain
many anecdotes of the prominent per-
sonages of her times. They first ap-
peared with notes by Voltaire, subse-
quently with the letters of Mesdames de
Villars, Lafayette, and de Tencin, 1806,
3 vols.
AIX LA CHAPELLE (in German, Aachen);
capital of the district of the same naine,
in the Prussian grand duchy of the Lower
Rhine; 51° 55′ N. lat. ; 5° 54' E. Jon. The
district contained, in the year 1825, upon
1550 square miles, 336,025 inhabitants,
among which were 324,453 Catholics,
9686 Protestants, and 1891 Jews. The
city itself contains 2732 houses, and, in
1822, had 34,584 inhabitants. It lies be-
tween the Rhine and the Meuse, at a
distance of about 37 miles from the for-
mer and 18 from the latter. It is very
pleasantly situated, in a fine vale, sui-
Aix (among the Romans, Aquæ Sexlia),
in the Frencli department of the mouths
of the Rhone, on the river Are, contains
21,960 inhabitants, is the seat of an arch-
bishop, a royal court of appeals and
chamber of commerce, a school of theolo-
gy and jurisprudence, a college, a con-
siderable library, a learned society and a
museum. Several manufactures are car-
ried on in the city, principally of cotton;
they are, however, on the decline. The
warm baths, 100, are less visited than for
merly. In the church of the Minorites,
Frederic the Great erected a monument
to the marquis d' Argens. This city has
the largest limits of any city in France.
The numerous families residing on the
great gardens around the city are counted
umong the population, as is customary in
There are
traces of its existence under the govern-
ment of the Romans, to whom it was
known as early as the time of Cæsar and
Drusus; Pliny mentions it under the
name of Vetera. Here, according to.
some writers, the emperor Charlemagne
was born, A. D. 742; here he died, A. D.
814. The extensive privileges which he
and other cmperors conferred on this im-
perial city, gave rise to the saying, that
"the very air of A. made free even the
outlaws of the empire." 55 emperors
have been crowned in this city, and the
imperial insignia were preserved here
till the year 1795, when they were carri-
ed to Vienna, and are now in the imperial
treasury. Its citizens, throughout the
empire, were exempt from fendal service,
both in peace and in war; from attach-
ment of their goods and imprisonment ;
from tolls and taxes levied on the proper-
ty of travelling merchants, &c. By the
peace of Luneville, concluded Feb. 9,
1801, which separated the left bank of
the Rhine from Germany, the city was
transferred to France, and remained, till
the overthrow of Napoleon, the chief
town of the department of the Roer.
To its French name, Aix, the term la Cha-
pelle has been added in order to distin-
guish it from other towns of the same
nane. The market-place of A. is adorned
with a statue of Charlemagne, in bronze.
On the spot witere, in ancient times, a
AIX LA CHAPELLE.
Roman castle stood, the kings of the
Franks built a royal castle, in German
Pfalz. This was destroyed, A. D. 882,
by the Normans, restored by the emperor
Otho III, 993, and used in the 14th cen-
tury as the town-house. This building
contains many relics of old German art,
the hall where the emperors were
crowned, the bust of Napoleon and his
first empress painted by David, a tower
of Roman origin, &c. The minster was
erected between the years 796 and 804,
by the emperor Charlemagne, and was
ornamented with great splendor. In the
middle rises the monument of Charle-
magne, with the simple inscription, Ca-
rolo Magno. Above it hangs, suspended
by a chain, a colossal crown of silver and
gilt copper, a donation of Frederic I,
which serves as a chandelier for 48 can-
dles. Here is to be seen the chair of
white marble, on which several emperors
have sat at the time of their coronation.
It was formerly overlaid with gold. The
church of the Franciscans is distin-
guished by a beautiful picture of Ru-
Dens, the Descent from the Cross, which
was carried to Paris, but has been brought
back. The inhabitants are for the most
part Catholics, many of whom are ac-
tively engaged in manufactures. The
cloths of A. are famous on the continent
of Europe. A manufacture of needles,
established about the middle of the 16th
century, by Gauthier Wolmar, formerly
employed more than 15,000 workmen,
but in the year 1808 only 8000. 1. con-
tains 15 charitable institutions; it has 7
mineral springs, 6 of them warin. The
most famous is the imperial spring, the
vapor of which, if confined, deposites sul-
phur. The rooms for bathing are excel-
lent, with baths from 4 to 5 feet deep, in
massive stone, after the old Roman fash-
ion; the greater part have bed-chambers
with chimneys. At a distance of 500
paces from A. lies the village of Burt-
scheid, which also contains hot springs,
The upper springs are in the village it-
self, the lower in the valley, in the open
air. The water is useful for washing
and dyeing cloths. The upper springs
contain no hepatic gas, and deposit no
sulphur; in this respect they differ from
the lower, and those of A. There are
also in Burtscheid manufactures of broad-
cloth, cassimere and needles. The coal-
mines and pyrites in the surrounding
country account for the hot-wells of A.
and B. The names of several streets,
Alexander, Francis, Wellington street,
remind us of the congress of A. in 1818.
VOL. I.
11
121
(See the article A. Congress at.) The histo-
ry and description of A. with B. and Spa,
by Aloys Schreiber, Heidelberg, 1824, is
the best guide-book for travellers on the
Rhine.
In
AIX LA CHAPELLE, congress at.
modern politics, the congress at A. in Oct.
and Nov. 1818, is of high importance.
The principal measures determined on
at this meeting of the great powers which
had conquered Napoleon were the fol-
lowing: 1. The army of the allies, con-
sisting of 150,000 English, Russian, Aus-
trian, Prussian and other troops, which,
since the second peace at Paris, had re-
mained in France, to watch over its
tranquillity, was withdrawn, after France
had paid the contribution imposed at the
peace of 1815. The king of France was
then admitted into the holy alliance.
Thus the congress of A. restored inde-
pendence to France. 2. The 5 allies, the
emperors of Austria and Russia, and the
kings of Great Britain, France and Prus-
sia, issued at this time the famous decla-
ration of Nov. 15, 1818, a document of
very dangerous tendency, too indefinite
to settle any of the important political
questions then pending, but full of the
personal views and feelings of the mon-
archs, and the legitimate offspring of the
holy alliance concluded Sept. 26, 1815,
at Paris. The friends of absolute gov-
erminent in Europe, who confound the
idea of the reigning family with that of
the state and the government, admired
the paternal professions of the sovereigns
in this instrument, which is principally
of a religious character; but sagacious
politicians and the friends of justice fore-
saw all the evils which it afterwards pro-
duced. Its vagneness admitted of a great
latitude of construction, and it was soon
followed by a breach of the law of nations
in the invasion of Italy and Spain under
the newly-declared droit d'intervention
armée, promulgated at Laybach, a direct
consequence of the doctrines advanced
at 1. The holy alliance, with all the
declarations of the succeeding congresses
at Troppau, Laybach and Verona, affords
the first instance of an avowedly personal
alliance between many monarchs to main-
tain certam principles of government, and
attack every nation within their reach
which adopts a different political creed.
After the termination of the struggle
against Napoleon, in which princes and
people were firmly united, the former
anxiously separated their interests from
those of the latter, and at the congress at
A. they openly manifested the designs
122
AIX LA CHAPELLE-AJACCIO.
which every succeeding congress has
developed more clearly. (See Holy Alli-
ance.) The king of France, at this con-
gress, became a member of the holy alli-
ance only in his personal character, not as
the constitutional chief of the French gov-
ernment, following the example of the
present king of England, then prince
regent. In fact, the accession of these
two sovereigns was only to avoid appear-
ing directly opposed to the alliance. 3.
From the congress of A. are to be dated
all the decisive measures of the German
governments against the liberal spirit
which had spread among their subjects
since the wars with Napoleon. In A. it
was first seen how unwilling the king of
Prussia was to fulfil his promises of libe-
ral institutions, and how anxiously Aus-
tria desired to suppress whatever tended
to give force to public opinion, to secure
the rights of the people, or promote the
cause of representative governinent. At
A. Mr. Stourdza, a Russian subject, pub-
lished his influential work, Mémoire sur
l'État actuel de l'Allemagne. The con-
gress at Carlsbad (q. v.) was an immedi-
ate consequence of the congress at A.
It had reference, however, only to Ger-
many. History will point out the period
of these congresses as the era of violent
political bigotry, corresponding to the for-
mer ages of religious bigotry in its prin-
ciples as in its measures. (See M. de Pradt's
L' Europe après le Congrès d' Aix la Cha-
pelle, 8vo. Paris, 1819, and Mr. Scholl's
Histoire des Traités de Paix, with his Ar-
chives politiques, 1818-19.) For the con-
gress at A. in 1748, see the following
article.
AIX LA CHAPELLE, treaties of peace
concluded at. The first, May 2d, 1668,
put an end to the war carried on against
Spain by Louis XIV, in 1667, after the
death of his father-in-law, Philip IV, in
support of his claims to a great part of
the Spanish Netherlands, which he urged
in the name of his queen, the infanta
Maria Theresa, pleading the jus devolu-
tionis, prevailing among private persons
in Brabant and Namur. Condé had al-
ready conquered Franche-Comté, and
Turenne had taken 10 fortresses, when
the triple alliance, concluded by de Witt
and sir William Temple (sce Will and
Temple), determined France to make
peace with Spain, on conditions which
were agreed upon at St. Germain with
the allies, and ratified at A. Spain had the
option to surrender either the Franche-
Comté or the fortified places in the Neth-
erlands. She chose to give up the latter.
Thus France obtained a part of the an-
cient Burgundy, the Spanish fortresses
Lille, Charleroi, Binch, Douai, Tournai,
Oudenarde, and six others, together with
their appendages. (See Schöll, Hist. des
Traités, &c. i. 331.) The second peace of
A., Oct. 18, 1748, terminated the Aus-
trian war of succession (see Austria), in
which the parties were at first Louis XV
of France and the empress Maria There-
sa, and, in the sequel, Spain on one side,
and Great Britain, Maria Theresa and
Charles Emanuel, king of Sardinia, on
the other. In this war, the United Neth-
erlands were engaged as allies of Great
Britain and Austria, Modena and Gen-
oa as allies of Spain. Maria Theresa
surrendered to Philip, infant of Spain,
Parma, Piacenza and Guastalla. Thus
the fourth sovereign line of the house of
Bourbon, that of Parma, (since 1817 estab-
lished in Lucca), took its origin. On the
whole, the state of possession before the
war was restored, the pragmatic sanction
and the succession of the house of Hano-
ver in Great Britain guarantied, and Si-
lesia and Glatz secured to the king of
Prussia. A Russian auxiliary army of
37,000 men, under prince Repnin, in the
pay of the naval powers, approaching, in
the spring of 1748, from Bohemia to the
Rhine, accelerated the conclusion of the
peace. The plenipotentiaries of France,
Great Britain and the States General, in
a secret session, April 30, 1748, signed the
preliminaries, four copies of which were
presented to the other powers engaged
in the war, and signed by them separately.
Charles Stuart, the eldest son of the pre-
tender, protested, at Paris, July 16, against
the exclusion of his father, who called
himself James III, from the British
throne. The above-named three powers
first signed, in like manner, the definitive
peace, whereupon Spain, Genoa and
Modena, July 20, and Austria, July 23
(by her plenipotentiary, count, afterwards
prince Kaunitz), did the same. (Sec
Schöll. i. 411, et seq.)
ASACCIO, or AJAZZO, the capital of
Corsica, contains 6570 inhabitants. It
has a harbor, protected by a citadel, lying
to the north of the gulf of the same namie,
on the western coast of the island, at the
confluence of the rivers Terignano and
Restonico. The entrance into the har-
bor is rendered unsafe by projecting
rocks. A. is the birth-place of Napoleon,
his brothers and sisters. It is the hand-
somest city of Corsica, and the seat of a
bishop. In the commercial world, it is
famous for its coral and anchovy fishe-
เว
AJACCIO-AKENSIDE.
ries; less so, in the learned world, for its
academy. Lon. 8° 44′ E.; lat. 41° 59′ N.
AJALON; a town rendered memorable
by Joshua's victory over the five Canaan-
itish kings, and still more so by the extra-
ordinary circumstance of the miraculously
lengthened day.
AJAN; a coast and country of Africa,
which has the river Quilmanci on the
south, the mountains from which that
river springs on the west, Abyssinia and
the straits of Babelmandel on the north,
and the Indian ocean on the east. The
coast abounds with all the necessaries of
life, and has plenty of very good horses.
AJASSALUCK; the Turkish name for a
village on or near the site of the ancient
Ephesus. The whole place seems to
have been built from the ruins of Ephe-
sian grandeur. Tamerlane encamped
here, after having subdued Smyrna, in
1402.
AJAX (Greek, 4tas). Among the Gre-
cian chiefs who fought against Troy
were Ajax Oileus and Ajax Telamonius.
The former, the son of Oileus and Eti-
opis, a Locrian, was called the less. He
accompanied the expedition to Troy, be-
cause he had been one of the suitors of
Helen. In the combat, his courage some-
times degenerated into inconsiderate fury.
Examples of this are given by the poets
who succeeded Homer. When the
Greeks, they say, had entered Troy, Cas-
sandra fled to the temple of Pallas, from
whence she was forced, and dragged
along, bound as a captive. Some ac-
counts add, that she caught hold of the
statue of the goddess, and that A. dragged
her away by the hair; others, that he vi-
olated the prophetess in the temple of the
goddess. Ulysses accused him of this
crime, when he exculpated himself with
an oath. But the anger of the goddess
at last overtook him, and he perished in
the waves of the sea. The other A. was
the son of Telamon, from Salamis, and a
grandson of Eacus. He, also, was a
suitor of Helen, and sailed with 12 ships
to Troy, where he is represented by
Homer as the boldest and handsomest of
the Greeks, after Achilles. He under-
stood, not how to speak, but how to act.
He was frank, and full of noble pride.
After the death of Achilles, when his
arms, which Ajax claimed on account of
his courage and relationship, were award-
ed to Ulysses, he was filled with rage,
and, driven by despair, threw himself on
his sword.
AKBAH; a celebrated Saracen conquer-
or in the first century of the Hegira, who
123
overran Africa from Cairo to the Atlantic
ocean. A general revolt among the
Greeks and Africans recalled him from
the west, and occasioned his destruction.
He founded Cairoan, in the interior of
Africa, to check the barbarians and se-
cure a place of refuge to the families of
the Saracens.
AKBAR, or AKBER, Mohammed, sove-
reign of India; the greatest Asiatic prince
of modern times. He was born at Amer-
ket, in the year of the Hegira 949 (1542
of the Christian æra), and, after the death
of his father, ascended the throne, at the
age of 13, and governed India under the
guardianship of his minister, Beyram.
His great talents were early developed.
He fought with distinguished valor
against his foreign foes and rebellious
subjects, among whom was Beyram him-
self. His government was remarkable
for its mildness and the greatest toler-
ance towards all sects. Though com-
pelled, by continued commotions, to visit
the different provinces of his empire at
the head of his army, he loved the sci-
ences, especially history, and was inde-
fatigable in his attention to the internal
administration of his empire. He insti-
tuted inquiries into the population, the
nature and productions of each province.
The results of his statistical labors were
collected by his minister, Abul Fazl, in a
work, entitled Ayeen Akberi, printed in
English, at Calcutta, 1783-86, 3 vols.,
and reprinted in London. A. died, after a
reign of 49 years, in 1017 (1604, A. D.)
His splendid sepulchral monument still
exists near Agra, with the simple inscrip-
tion, Akbar the Admirable. He was suc-
ceeded by his son Selim, under the name
Djihangir.
AKENSIDE, Mark, a poet and physician,
was born in 1721, at Newcastle-upon-
Tyne. His father, a butcher, of the Pres-
byterian sect, intended him for a clergy-
man, and placed him, at the age of 18,
in the university of Edinburgh, to qualify
him for that office. The taste of A. was
not inclined to that profession, and he
abandoned the study of theology for that
of physic. Having received some assist-
ance from the funds employed by the
Dissenters in the education of young men
intended for the ministry, he very honor-
ably refunded the amount when he relin-
quished his theological studies. After 3
years residence at Edinburgh, he went to
Leyden, and in 1744 became doctor of
physic. In a thesis, which he published
on receiving his degree, De Ortu et Incre-
mento Fætus Humani, he proposed a new
124
AKENSIDE-AKERMAN.
theory, which has been since confirmed
and received. In the same year, he pub-
lished the Pleasures of Imagination,
which, however, he is said to have writ-
ten during his residence at Edinburgh.
In the following year, he published a col-
lection of odes, arid the epistle to Curio,
a satire on Pulteney. After having un-
successfully attempted the practice of his
profession at Northampton and Hamp-
stead, he was invited to London by his
friend Mr. Dyson, from whom he received
a pension of £300 a year. Here he be-
came a fellow of the royal society, was
admitted into the college of physicians,
and read the Gulstonian lectures in anat-
omy, but never obtained a very extensive
practice. While at London, he wrote
little poetry, but published several medi-
cal essays and observations, His dis-
course on the dysentery (1764) has been
much admired for the elegance of its
Latinity. He died 1770, in the 49th year
of his age, of a putrid fever. A. was a
inan of religion and strict morals; a phi-
losopher, a scholar and a fine poet. His
conversation is described to have been of
the most delightful kind, learned and in-
structive, without any affectation of wit,
cheerful and entertaining. Yet his pride,
insolence and irascibility involved him in
frequent disputes, and prevented his suc-
cess in the practice of his profession.
His favorite authors were Plato and Cice-
ro among the ancients, and Shaftesbury
and Hutchinson among the moderns.
The odes of A. do not entitle him to a
very high rank in lyric poetry; his epistle
to Curio is written in a tone of vigorous
and poignant satire. He is particularly
distinguished as a didactic poet, and has
left in his Pleasures of Imagination one
of the most pleasing didactic poems in
our language. The periods are harmo-
nious, the cadence graceful, and the
measure dignified. It is replete with el-
evated sentiments, with images of poetic
beauty and high philosophy. The sen-
tences are sometimes extended to too
great length, splendid imagery too much
accumulated, and the thought sometimes
too thickly overlaid with words. These
faults he endeavored to correct in the
new edition, in which many other changes
are introduced; but the original will al-
ways be more read and admired.
AKERBLAD, John David; by birth a
Swede. When very young, he accom-
panied the Swedish embassy to Constan-
tinople in the capacity of secretary. The
leisure which his station afforded, he em-
ployed in travelling through the East.
+
He visited Jerusalem and the Troad in
1792 and 1797; and has offered some
suggestions respecting the situation of the
city of Troy, in the German translation
of Le Chevalier's travels, which display
both the classical scholar and the learned
orientalist. For some time, about the
year 1800, he lived in Göttingen, and then
went to Paris, as Swedish chargé d'af-
faires. Discontent at the changes in his
native country is said to have induced
him to throw off all connexion with
Sweden, and retire to Rome, where he
received from the duchess of Devonshire,
and other friends of literature, the means
of living in literary leisure. He died at
Rome, Feb. 8, 1819. His writings dis-
play a great knowledge of the oriental
and western languages, which he could
speak as well as interpret. Among them
are his Lettre à M. Silvestre de Sacy, sur
l'Écriture cursive Copte (Mag. Encyc., 1801,
tom. v.), the Lettre à M. de Sacy, sur l'In-
scription Egyptienne de Rosette (id. 1802,
tom. iii.), his famous explanation of the
inscriptions on the lions at Venice, Notice
sur deux Inscriptions en Caractères Ru-
niques, trouvées à Venise et sur les Varan-
ges, avec les Remarques de M. d'Ausse de
Villoison. Equally important, both for
the knowledge of ancient writings and
of inscriptions, is the Inscrizione Greca
sopra una Lamina di piombo Trovato in un
Sepolcro nelle vicinanze d'Alene (Rome,
1813, 4to.), in improving which he was
employed when surprised by death. The
last of his works, that appeared in print,
was a Lettre sur une Inscription Phéni-
cienne trouvée à Athènes (Rome, 1814, 4to.),
addressed to count Italinsky. The na-
tional institute at Paris chose him a cor-
responding member of their society. He
lies buried near the pyramid of Čestius,
at Rome.
AKERMAN, OF ACKERMAN (the ancient
Julia Alba and Hermonoclis); a town in
Bessarabia, a province of Russia, on the
coast of the Black sca, at the mouth of
the Dniester, 65 miles S. E. of Bender,
68 S. W. of Otchakow; lon. 30° 44′ E.;
lat. 46° 12′ N.; pop. stated very differ-
ently; formerly at 20,000, more recently
at 8000. It contains a number of mosques,
one Catholic and one Armenian church,
and has some trade. A. has recently ac-
quired some celebrity by the treaty be-
tween Russia and Turkey, there con-
cluded, Oct. 6, 1826, in which the latter
power agreed to the 82 points of the
Russian ultimatum. This treaty is a sup-
plenient to the peace of Bucharest. The
porte ceded to the emperor Nicholas all
AKERMAN-ALABAMA.
the fortresses in Asia of which it had pre-
viously demanded the restoration, and ac-
knowledged the political organization (if
we dare use this expression for so rude
a state of politics) which Russia had
determined on for Servia, Moldavia and
Walachia. But the treaty was not exe-
cuted till 1827, and then not to the satis-
faction of Russia. This furnished the
ostensible reason of the present war be-
tween the two great eastern powers.
(See Russia, and Ottoman Empire.)
125
tility, generally from tomile wide.
On the outside of this is a space which
is low, wet, and intersected by stagnant
water. Next to this river swamp, and
elevated 10 or 15 feet above it, succeeds
an extensive body of level land, of a black,
rich soil, with a growth of hickory, black
oak, post oak, poplar, dogwood, &c. Af
ter this come the prairies, which are wide-
spreading plains, or gently-waving land,
without timber, clothed with grass, her-
bage and flowers, exhibiting, in the month
ALABAMA,
one of the U. States; bounded of May, the most enchanting scenery.
N. by Tennessee, E. by Georgia, S. by Cotton is the staple production, and is
Florida and the gulf of Mexico, and W. raised in great quantities. Other produc-
by Mississippi; lon. 85° to 88 30 W.; tions are inaize, rice, wheat, rye, oats, &c.
lat. 30° 10' to 35° N.; 330 miles long, from Iron ore is found in several places, and
N. to S., and 174 from E. to W.; square coal abounds on the Black-Warrior and
miles, about 51,000; pop. in 1810, less Caliawba.-The climate in the southern
than 10,000; in 1816, 29,683; in 1818, part of the bottom-land bordering on the
70,544; in 1820, by the imperfect census rivers, and of the country bordering on
as first returned, 127,901; by the census the Muscle shoals, is unhealthy. In the
as subsequently completed, 144,317; in elevated country, the climate is very fine;
1827, 244,041, of whom 152,178 were the winters are mild, and the summers
whites, 93,308 slaves, and 555 free per- pleasant, being tempered by breezes from
sons of color. The last estimate of the the gulf of Mexico.—The population of
number of Indians within the territory of this state, from the time when the first
the U. States, by the war department, in settlement was commenced, has increased
1829, states that there are 19,200 Indians with remarkable rapidity. Occupying the
in the state of A.-The number of counties valley of the Mobile and its tributary
into which this state was divided in 1820, streams, the Alabama and Tombeckbee,
was 24; and in 1828, 36. Tuscaloosa is its position, in an agricultural and com-
the present seat of government. Cahaw-mercial point of view, is highly advan-
ba was formerly the capital. Mobile is
the principal port. (q. v.)-The principal
rivers are the Alabama, Tombeckbee, Mo-
bile, Black-Warrior, Coosa, Tallapoosa,
Tennessee, Chatalioochce, Perdidé, Ca-
hawba and Conecuh.-The southern part
of the state, which borders on the gulf of
Mexico and Florida, throughout a space 50
or 60 miles wide, is low and level, cov-
cred with pine, cypress and loblolly; in
the middle it is hilly, with some tracts of
open land or prairies; in the northern
part it is somewhat broken and mountain-
OUS.
The Alleghany mountains termi-
nate in the north-cast part. The forest-
trees in the middle and northern divis-
ions are post, black and white cak, hick-
ory, poplar, cedar, chestnut, pine, mul-
berry, &c.-The soil is various, but a
large part of it is excellent. In the south
it is generally sandy and barren; and a
part of the high lands are unfit for culti-
vation. A large portion of the country
which lies between the Alabama and
Tombeckbee, of that part watered by the
Coosa and Tallapoosa, and of that on the
Tennessee, consists of very excellent land.
On the margin of the rivers there is a
quantity of cane bottom-land of great fer-
tageous; and from the fertility of its soil,
and the value of its productions, it may
be expected to become an important mem-
ber of the Union.-The Cherokee Indians
occupy the N. E. corner of the state, the
Creeks the eastern part, and the Chicka-
saws and Choctaws some portions of the
western.-Alabama originally belonged to
the state of Georgia; in 1800, the country
including the present states of Mississippi
and Alabama was formed into a territory ;
the part of Florida between Pearl and
Perdido rivers being taken possession of
by the U. States in 1812, and annexed to
this territory, cinigration into it imme-
diately cominenced. During the years
1813 and 1814, it was harassed by the
attacks of the savages, who were reduced
to submission by general Jackson. In
1817, the western portion of the territory
became the state of Mississippi, and the
eastern the territory of Alabama, which,
by an act of congress, March, 1819, was
admitted into the Union as an indepen-
dent state. By its constitution, adopted
July, 1819, the legislative power is vested
in two houses, chosen by universal suf-
frage.-Many of the settlers in this state
are rich planters. Some of the lands were
11*
126
ALABAMA-ALAMANNI.
sold for $50 an acre in a state of nature.
The fertility of the soil, the general salu-
brity and mildness of the climate, the
great facilities for internal navigation and
foreign commerce, sufficiently account for
the rapid increase of its population.-
For an account of the Yazoo lands, and
the proceedings of the legislature of
Georgia respecting them, see Georgia.
For the constitution of A. sce Constitu-
tions of the U. States.
ALABAMA; a river which gives its name
to the state so called; (see the preceeding
article). It is formed by the junction of
the Coosa and Tallapoosa, and, flowing
S. S. W., unites with the Tombeckbee,
45 miles above Mobile bay, to form the
river Mobile. From the junction to Clair-
borne, 60 miles, it is navigable at all sca-
sons for vessels drawing 6 feet. From
Clairborne to the mouth of the Cahawba,
about 150 miles, the river has 4 or 5 feet
of water. From the inouth of the Cahaw-
ba to the junction of the Coosa and Talla-
poosa, the navigation generally contimes
good, the river affording 3 fect of water in
the shallowest places. The river is sub-
ject to great variation by rising and falling.
ALABAMA; a tribe of Indians so called,
which formerly inhabited the eastern side
of the Mobile river.
ALABASTER (in Greek, azúßuorgos; in
Latin, alabaster), in mineralogy; (see Gyp-
sum.) In sculpture; the common name,
among ancient and modern artists, for
gypsum and the calc-sinter of modern in
eralogy. A. has a greater or less degree
of transparency, according to its good-
ness; has a granular texture, is softer than
marble, does not take so fine a polish, and
is usually of a pure white color. In Eu-
rope, it is found near Coblentz in Germa-
ny; in the neighborhood of Cluny, in
France; in Italy, near Rome. Some of the
A. near this city is particularly celebrated
for its whiteness and the size of its blocks,
which are large enough for a statue of the
size of life. There are, also, many quar-
rics of the granular gypsum, which is used
for the manufacture of plaster of Paris, in
Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire, Eng-
land. To prepare the plaster, the gyp
sum is burned and ground. Moulds and
casts from statues and other sculptures
are formed from this valuable material,
and also a very strong cement for the use
of the sculptor and mason, to form the
close joints of marble; plasterers use it
also much, particularly for mouldings
and foliage. The ancients obtained large
blocks of A. from Thebes (where was a
town from which it received this name),
and used it for statues and columns. The
various museumis contain many vases and
similar articles of A., for which the Ro-
mans often employed this material. They
imported much from Cyprus, Spain and
even Africa. They liked particularly to
put their lamps in vases of transparent A.,
which gave an agrecable softness to the
light. In the museums, several figures
of ancient sculpture are preserved, the
bodies of which are of A. and the heads
of some other substance. A box, vase,
or other vessel, to hold perfumes, formed
of A. was called by the ancients alabas-
trum; Horace calls them onychites. The
alabastrum is always among the attributes
of the Bathing Venus. Oriental A. was the
most sought after for the purpose of
making these vessels.
ALACRANES; a range of hidden rocks,
shoals and banks in the gulf of Mexico,
near the coast of Yucatan. Lon. 90°
W.; lat. 22° 36′ N.
ALADAN, ALADA, or ALADINE ISLANDS;
a cluster of small islands in the bay of
Bengal, belonging to what is sometimes
called the Mergui Archipelago, near the
coast of Siam. They run from 9° 5′ to 9°
40', N. lat., and are in 97° 52', E. lon.
ALAMANNI, Luigi; a fanious Italian
poet, born at Florence, in 1495, of one of
the noblest and most distinguished fami-
lies of the republic. His father was zcal-
ously devoted to the party of the Medici,
and he himself stood in high favor with
the cardinal Giulio, who governed in the
naine of pope Leo X; but, conceiving
himself to have been injured, he joined a
conspiracy formed against the life of the
cardinal. The plan was discovered; A.
fled to Venice, and, when the cardinal as-
cended the papal chair, under the name
of Clement VII, he took refuge in Franec.
But the misfortunes which befell this pope
giving Florence an opportunity to become
free, in 1527 A. returned thither. His
country sent him on an embassy to Gen-
oa. Here he became the friend of An-
drew Doria, with whose fleet he went to
Spain. Charles V soon after sailed in
the same fleet from Spain to Italy, to ar-
range the affairs of Florence, and subject
it to the Medici. After this new revolu-
tion, A., proscribed by the duke Alessan-
dro, went to France, where the favors
of Francis I retained him. Here he
composed the greater part of his works.
The king esteemed him so highly, that,
after the peace of Crespy, in 1544, he sent
him as ambassador to the emperor Charles
V. A. discharged his office with great
skill. He was held in like estimation by
1
ALAMANNI—ALARIC.
Henry II, who also employed him in sev-
eral negotiations. He followed the court,
and was with it at Amboise, when he was
attacked with the dysentery, which ter-
minated his life. His principal works are
a collection of poems, eclogues, psalms,
satires, elegies, fables, &c., part in blank
verse, the invention of which is contested
with him by Trissino; Opere Toscane,
a didactic poem; La Coltivazione, to
which he is mostly indebted for his fame;
Girone il Cortese, a heroic poen, in
24 cantos, from an old French poem of
the same name; La Ivarchide, an epic,
in which he describes, in a few happy
imitations of Homer, the siege of the city
of Bourges (Avaricum,) likewise in 24
cantos; Flora, a comedy in versi sdruc-
cioli (sec Rhyme); and a number of epi-
grains. The writings of A. are recom-
mended by ease, perspicuity and purity
of style, but often want strength and
poetic elevation.
A-LA-MI-RE, in music; an Italian
method to determine the key of A, by its
dominant, and subdominant, AED. In
the Guidonian scale of music, a-la-mi-re
is the octave above a-re, or A in the first
space in the base.
ALAN, or ALLEN, William, was born
in Lancashire, in 1532. Being warmly
attached to the Roman Catholic religion,
he left England on the accession of Eliz-
abeth; and, though he soon after returned,
he lived in the greatest privacy, and final-
ly fled to Flanders. He was, both during
this concealment in England and his res-
idence abroad, actively engaged in writing
and distributing poleinical tracts, and was
one of the ablest advocates of Rome. He
asserted the necessity of deposing Eliza-
beth, maintained that heresy absolved
subjects from their allegiance, and recom-
mended the invasion of England by the
Spaniards. For these services he was
created a cardinal, and continued to re-
side at Rome till his death, in 1594.
ALAND; a cluster of islands in the gulf
of Bothnia; 59° 47′ to 60° 32′ N. lat., and
18° 47′ to 21° 37′ E. long. They contain
13,340 inhabitants, of whom more than
9000 belong to the principal island of the
same name, which is 40 miles long and
30 broad. Above 80 of these islands and
rocks are inhabited. They contain some
good harbors. In 1809, this cluster of
islands, together with Finland, was made
over by Sweden to Russia. The govern-
ment founded a city there, and fortified
some spots. The ground is so stony, and
the soil so thin, that the crops sometimes
wither in hot summers. Several circum-
127
stances conspire to make the Aland isles
the principal rendezvous of the Russian
fleets, which ride there secure in fortified
the
harbors. These circumstances are,
early breaking of the ice in spring; the
lateness of the period till which the har-
bors and roadsteads remain open and free
from ice, on account of the strong currents
which cross there from the gulfs of Both:-
nia and Finland; the facility of observing
the ships entering lake Maler, and of
watching the Swedish coasting trade
along the right coast of the gulf of Both-
nia, as well as of protecting the Russian
coasting trade on the left shore of the
same gulf.
ALANI, OF ALANS; one of the warlike
tribes which migrated from Asia west-
ward at the time of the decline of the
Roman empire. They appear to have
lived near mount Caucasus. A part of
the tribe (about 375 A. D.) was conquered
by the Huns; another part turned their
steps towards the west, probably, drove
the Vandals and Suevi from their abodes,
and passed with them over the Rhine into
France and Spain (about 407). The Vis-
igoths drove them from hence or reduced
them to subjection; and, since 412, they
are lost among the Vandals. (q. v.)
ALARIC, king of the Visigoths; the
least barbarous of all the conquerors who
ravaged the Roman empire. History first
mentions him about A. D. 395, when the
Goths were united with the armies of
Theodosins the Great, in order to repel
the Huns, who menaced the western ein-
pire. This alliance disclosed to A. the
weakness of the Roman empire, and in-
spired him with the resolution of attack-
ing it himself. The dissensions between
the two sons and successors of Theodo-
sius, Arcadius and Honorius, and their
ministers, Rufinus and Stilico, facilitated
the execution of his purpose; and, though
the brave Stilico was successful in avert-
ing his first attack, in the years 400-403,
by routing him on the Adda and at Ve-
rona, yet A. found, in 104, an opportu-
nity of returning to Italy with his army.
By the mediation of Stilico, he conclud-
ed a compact with Honorius, conforma-
bly to which he was to advance to Epirus,
and from thence to attack Arcadius, in
conjunction with the troops of Stilico.
This war did not take place; but A. de-
manded an indemnification for having
undertaken the expedition, and Hono-
rius, at the advice of Stilico, promised
him 4000 pounds of gold (see Stilico);
but, after the execution of the latter, he
failed to fulfil his promise. A. advanced
1
128
ALARIC-ALBALONGA.
with an army to Italy, and invested Rome;
but was persuaded to spare the city on
receiving a ransom of 5000 pounds of
gold, 30,000 pounds of silver, 4000 silk
garments, 3000 pieces of fine scarlet cloth,
and 3000 pounds of pepper. Negotiations
took place between Honorius, in Raven-
na, and A., with a view of putting an end
to the war; but the parties could not
agree, and A. besieged Rome a second
time. By cutting off the supplies of the
city, he soon compelled a capitulation,
by virtue of which the senate declared
the prefect of the city, Attalus, emperor
instead of Honorius. But Attalus evinced
so little prudence, that A. obliged him
publicly to resign the empty dignity.
Negotiations again took place with Ho-
norius, but were as unsuccessful as the
former, and A. besieged Rome for the
third time. The Goths penetrated into
the city in 410, sacked it, burned a part
of it, and destroyed a great quantity of
ancient works of art. But the modera-
tion of A. is praised, because he gave
orders to spare the churches, and those
who had fled to them for shelter. The
once proud mistress of the world now
experienced a severe retribution for the
sufferings which she had caused to so
many cities, countries and nations in the
days of her former splendor and power.
The treasures collected during a thousand
years, from all quarters, became the prey
of barbarians. A. left Rome after a resi-
dence of days, with the view of reduc-
ing Sicily and Africa. He had already laid
waste Campania, Apulia and Calabria,
when death overtook him at Cosenza, a
Calabrian town, A. D. 410. He was buri-
ed in the channel of the Busento, that his
remains might not be found by the Ro-
mans; and the captives employed in the
work were murdered. Rome and Italy
celebrated public festivals on the occa-
sion; Sicily and Africa saw themselves
freed from imminent danger; and the
world enjoyed a moment of peace. But
the march of desolation was soon re-
newed; the barbarians had learned the
way to Rome; A. had taught them the
weakness of the former queen of the
world.
ALATAMAHA, or ALTAMAHA; the larg-
est river of the state of Georgia, formed
by the junction of the Oakmulgee and
Oconee, both of which rise in the spurs
of the Alleghany mountains. After the
junction, the A. becomes a large river,
flowing with a gentle current, through
forests and plains, 120 miles, and runs
into St. Simon's sound by several mouths,
60 miles S. W. Savannah. Its average
breadth is about 600 yards, its depth 8
feet, and the bar at the mouth of the
river has 14 feet of water at low tide.
Large steam-boats have ascended the
Oconce branch to Milledgeville, and the
Oakmulgee to Macon, about 300 miles
from the ocean by the windings of the
rivers.
ALAY, or Triumph; the name of a
ceremony practised by the Turks at the
commencement of war. We are in-
formed by baron Tott (q. v.), who saw the
ceremony which accompanied the break-
ing out of a war between Russia and the
porte, that the A. consists of a kind of
inasquerade, in which the different trades-
inen exhibit the implements of their re-
spective arts, and their mode of opera-
tions. (A similar exhibition of various
trades was seen in the procession formed
to celebrate the commencement of the
rail-road at Baltimore, July 4, 1828.)
The mechanics are followed by the stand-
ard of the prophet Mahomet, brought
from the scraglio, to be carried to the
Ottoman ariny. This sacred banner is
viewed with fanatical reverence. None
but emirs are allowed to touch it; and
the very look of an infidel is said to be
sufficient to profane it. The A. having
been almost forgotten, from the long
peace which preceded the war above-
inentioned, the Christians imprudently
crowded to witness the exhibition; the
emir, who preceded the holy standard,
cried with a loud voice, "Let no infidel
profane with his presence the banner of
the prophet; and let every Mussulman,
who perceives an unbeliever, make it
known under pain of reprobation." At
these words, the fanaticisin of the Turks
was roused, and a horrid massacre of the
Christians began, in which no age and
neither sex was spared.
ALBA LONGA; a considerable city of
Latium; according to tradition, built by
Ascanius, the son of Æneas; governed,
after the death of its founder, by Æneas
Sylvius, the second son of Æneas. it
was the birthplace of Romulus and Re-
mus, the parent of Rome, under whose
dominion it fell, in consequence of the
victory of the Romans in the contest be-
tween the Horatii and Curiatii. The beau-
tiful lake of Albano, with its canal, and
the castle of Gandolfo, still remind us of
A. (See Niebuhr's Roman Hist.)—There
was also a city of Alba near the Lacus
Fucinus, a town of the Marsi; an A. Pom-
peia in Liguria, and an A. Julia, now
Weissemburg, in Transylvania.
ALBAN-ALBANIA.
ALBAN, St., lived in the 3d century, and
is said to have been the first person who
suffered martyrdom for Christianity in
Great Britain. He was born near the
town which now bears his name, in Hert-
fordshire. In his youth, he served 7
years as a soldier, under the emperor
Diocletian. Returning to Britain, he em-
braced Christianity, and suffered martyr-
dom in the great persecution which took
place in the time of the above emperor.
A number of miracles are attributed to
this saint. The celebrated monastery of
St. Alban's was founded between 4 and 5
centuries after his death, by Offa, king
of Mercia.
ALBANI; a rich and powerful family
of Rome, which fled before the Turks in
the 16th century, from Albania to Italy.
Here it was divided into two branches;
the one constituting the family of Berga-
mo; the other, that of Urbino. The Ro-
man branch of the A. owes its splendor
to a fortunate circumstance. It was an
A. who announced to Urban VIII the
acquisition of Urbino; and riches and
posts of honor were the reward of his
tidings. The influence of the family was
very great when Clement XI ascended
the papal chair, in 1700. Of the nephews
of this pope, Annibale A., Alessandro A.,
and Giovanni Francesco A., Annibale has
distinguished himself by his writings and
collections of books and works of art,
which have been incorporated with the
treasures of the Vatican. Alessandro A.,
his younger brother, born at Urbino in
1692, took orders at the express desire of
pope Clement XI. He was raised to the
dignity of cardinal, in 1721, by Innocent
XIII. As a member of the sacred col-
lege, as protector of Sardinia, and, under
Benedict XIV, as associate protector of
the imperial states, he took an active part
in all the contests in which the papal
court was then engaged, particularly on
account of his great friendship for the
Jesuits, of which many proofs exist, es-
pecially in the journals of father Corda-
ra.
In the charms of a quiet, literary
life, of agreeable society, and a well-filled
table, the cardinal found greater enjoy
ment than in the turmoil of business.
One of his greatest pleasures was in a
collection of works of art, which he was
assisted in arranging by Winckelmann,
whose collections he inherited. It is
known how sincerely Winckelmann was
devoted to the cardinal, whose knowledge
could appreciate and second the genius
of the archeologist. Of this, his splendid
villa before Porta Salara, at Rome, not-
129
withstanding many losses, affords striking
proof. Morcelli, Marini, Fea and Zoega
combined to make it known, and owe a
portion of their own reputation to its
treasures. It contains the richest modern
private collection, and does honor to the
taste of its founder. It was said in Rome,
soon after the death of the cardinal, as a
proof of his acquaintance with ancient
coins, that he could distinguish the genu-
ine from the counterfeit by the mere
touch, without the aid of his eyes. Inde-
fatigably active, yet never an author, the
cardinal died, Dec. 11, 1779. Dionigio
Strocchi has written his life.
ALBANI, Francesco, a famous painter,
born at Bologna, in 1578, entered the
school of Dionysius Calvert, a Flemish
painter, who had a great reputation in
Bologna. A. was one of his most distin-
guished scholars. He labored here sev-
eral years, in connexion with Domenich-
ino, to whom he was closely attached by
friendship and love of art; and some re-
semblance is perceptible in their manner
of coloring. But in invention he sur-
passes his friend, and, indeed, all his rivals
of the school of Calvert. His female
forins Mengs places above those of all
other painters; an opinion which we can-
not assent to unconditionally. Those of
his compositions that are most frequently
met with arc,
met with are, the sleeping Venus; Diana
in the bath; Danäe reclining; Galathea
on the sea; Europa on the bull. Scrip-
tural subjects he has less frequently sc-
lected; when he has, the paintings are
principally distinguished for the beauty
of the heads of the angels. In general,
he was most successful in paintings of a
limited character. He had a numerous
school in Rome and Bologna. The
scholars of Guido, with whom he vied,
accused him of effeminacy and weakness
of style, and maintained that he knew
not how to give any dignity to male
figures. For that reason, he avoided sub-
jects which demand fire and spirit, and
has been called, not without reason, the
Anacreon of painters. The narrowness
of his sphere of excellence was eventu-
ally injurious to him. He outlived his
fame, and died in 1660, in the 824 year
of his age. He left behind him several
writings, which Malvasia has preserved.
ALBANIA (in the Turkish language,
Arnaut; in the Albanian, Skiperi); (Epirus
and Illyria); a Turkish province in Ar-
naut-Wilajeti, extending from the Drino to
the Acroceraunian mountains, along the
coast of the Adriatic and Ionian seas. 1:
has a delicious climate, and produces in
130
ALBANIA-ALBANO.
into the neighboring territory, or military
service in foreign countries. The sons
of influential families, or distinguished
soldiers, collect a troop, and, like the for-
mer condottieri of Italy, sell their aid to
any one who will pay them well. This
migration of armed hordes, caused by the
want of landed property sufficient to
support them, is a national instinct, com-
mon to the Greek, Catholic and Ma-
hometan Arnauts. For this reason, the
communities in the most fertile valleys
rarely increase, and there is a great dis-
proportion of unmarried females. But in
case of attack, the women defend their
homes and property with masculine cour-
age. The political influence of the clergy
is great among the Christian Arnauts.
abundance wine, grain, oil, tobacco, cot-
ton, wood, mineral salt, and horned cattle.
The principal mountains are the Monte-
negro and the Chimera; the principal
rivers the Drino, Bojana, Somini, &c.
The 300,000 inhabitants are composed of
Turks, Greeks, Jews and Arnauts; the
last of which constitute the boldest sol-
diers in the Turkish armies. The country
is divided into the pashalics of Janina,
Ilbessan and Scutari, and the sangiacats
of Aulona and Delvino. The principal
cities are Janina, Delvino, Scutari, Du-
razzo, Argyro-Castro, Valona, &c. The
authority of the porte in this region is
very uncertain, being more or less relax-
ed in proportion as the independent com-
munities and beys enlarge or contract
their possessions, in opposition to the pa-
ALBANO. Roman tradition represents
shas whom it appoints. The vast, moun- Alba Longa as the parent city of Rome.
tainous coast of A. is very little known. It gives us a catalogue of the kings of
The Venetian government, while the re- Alba, who lived before the foundation of
public of Venice existed, defended it the latter city; but this is now universally
against any permanent conquest by the believed to be fabulous. Tullus Hostilius
Turkish paslas. Here Greck and Cath- is said to have destroyed the city, and
olic Christians, and Mahometans like- transplanted the inhabitants to Rome.
wise, live in a half savage state, and under Its site was afterwards occupied by a
the most various forms of government. village, surrounded by the splendid villas
At the time of the revolt of the Greeks, of the Roman nobility. Tiberius and
the most southern part of Albania took Domitian indulged in their palaces at A.
the ancient name of Epirus. (See Epirus.) their appetite for pleasure and for cruelty.
From the lake of Janina arise the rivers The present A. still glories in its old re-
Acheron (q. v.) and Cocytus, not far from nown. On the mountain of A. the unni-
the inouth of which lies Parga. Epirus, versary of the alliance of the Romans and
especially in the neighborhood of the sea, Latins, concluded under Tarquin the
is a fertile country; it produces wine, Proud, was celebrated with peculiar so-
corn and fruit. In ancient times, its lemnities. The lake of A. is a wonder
horses were famed for swiftness, its of nature and ancient art. During the
cows for size, and its dogs for strength war with Veii, 395 B. C., this lake is said
and courage. These races seem now to to have risen in a hot summer, without
be extinct. Before the Greck revolution, any visible cause, to an unusual height.
Ali Pasha (q. v.) ruled in Janina. In Etruscan soothsayers spread the report,
Scutari, there are yet independent com- that the fate of Veii depended on the
munities, the inhabitants of mount Mon- drawing off of this water; and the Ro-
tenegro, the Suliots and others in the mans, confirmed in this belief by a Del-
neighborhood of the former Venetian, phic oracle, erected a remarkable struct-
How Austrian, territory. These small free ure for this purpose. (Liv. v. 15—19.)
tribes enjoyed, as long as the republic of During the labor, they probably learned
Venice existed, the secret protection of from the architectural Etruscans the art
that government; to which is to be at- of excavating subterranean canals, which
tributed their success in maintaining they soon applied to undermining the
themselves against the Turkish force, fortifications of Veii, and thereby gained
and the violence of private feuds. The possession of the city. The canal of the
same policy was pursued likewise by the lake of A. is 3700 paces in length, 6 feet
French Illyrian government. In the high, and 34 broad. Niebuhr, in his Rộ-
country itself, the Arnauts are called mische Geschichte (Roman History), part 2,
Skypetars. They are bold and indefati- page 234, regards this admirable work as
gable, but mercenary and perfidious war- an ancient labor of all Latium; or, if be-
riors. They once constituted the flower longing particularly to Rome, to be re-
of the Turkish army. Every one who ferred to the age of the kings. The Al-
has no landed property secks to acquire banian stone is also famous. It is of a
the means of obtaining it, by incursions dark-gray color, and is excavated in large
ALBANO-ALBATROSS.
quantities near A. It is of two kinds;
the one of which is called Sperone, the
other Peperino. Of this, says Winckel-
mann, was made the foundation of the
capitol at Rome, built in the year of the
city 387, of which five layers of large
stones are still to be seen above ground.
The cloaca marima, a work of the Tar-
quins, as well as the most ancient of the
Roman funeral monuments at A., and
another of their oldest works, constructed
about the 358th year of the city, the out-
let of the lake of A., at present Lago di
Castello, are built of this stone.
ALBANY, OF ALBANI, Countess of, prin-
cess Louisa Maria Carolinc, or Aloysia,
born in 1753, cousin of the last reigning
prince of Stolberg-Gedern, who died in
1804, married, in 1772, the English pre-
tender, Charles Stuart. After this mar-
riage, she bore the title of countess of A.
Her marriage was unfruitful and unhap-
py. To escape from the barbarity of her
husband, who lived in a continual state
of intoxication, she retired, in 1780, to a
cloister. After his death, in 1788, the
French court conferred on her an annu-
ity of 60,000 livres. She survived the
house of Stuart, which became extinct at
the death of her brother-in-law, the car-
dinal of York, in 1807. (See Stuart.) She
died at Florence, her usual place of resi-
dence, Jan. 29, 1824, in her 72d year.
Her name and her misfortunes have been
transmitted to posterity in the works and
the autobiography of count Victor Alfieri.
This famous poet called her mia donna,
and confessed that to her he owed his
inspiration. Without the friendship of
the countess of A., he has said that he
never should have achieved any thing
excellent: senza laquella non aurei mai
fatto nulla di buono." The sketch of his
first meeting with the countess, quella
gentilissima e bella signora, as he calls
her, is full of sentiment and genuine po-
ctry. (Sec Alfieri.) Her ashes and those
of Alfieri now repose under a common
monument, in the church of Santa Croce,
at Florence, between the tombs of Ma-
chiavelli and Michael Angelo.
ALBANY, a city of New York, the seat
of the government of the state, is situated
on the west bank of the Hudson, 144
miles N. of the city of New York; lat.
42° 39′ N.; lon. 73° 13′ W.; pop. in 1810,
9,356; in 1820, 12,613; and in 1825,
15,974. Albany lies near the head of
tide-water, on one of the finest rivers in
the world, which is navigable as far as
the city for sloops of 80 tous; and, ex-
cept when the river is obstructed by ice,
131
steam-boats run daily between this place
The Erie
and the city of New York.
and Champlain canals form a junction at
Watervliet, about 8 miles north of the
city, and their united channel is connect-
ed at A. with a large basin, which covers
a surface of 32 acres, on the west side of
the river. These advantages, together
with many stage-coaches in various direc-
tions, render A. one of the greatest thor-
oughfares in the United States. The city
carries on an extensive trade by means
of sloops, chiefly with the city of New
York; and also, to a considerable amount,
with Boston, Philadelphia, and other
places. The exports consist of wheat,
and various other kinds of produce.-A.
was settled by the Dutch about the year
1614, and is, next to Jamestown in Vir-
ginia, the oldest town in the U. States.
The site on which it is built is very un-
even, and it was originally laid out with
little regard to elegance. The older
houses are in the Dutch style, with the
gable ends to the streets; but within the
last 20 years, the city has been greatly
improved, and it now contains many
elegant public and private buildings.
The principal public edifices are the cap-
itol or state-house, a large structure of
stone, the Albany academy, a spacious
and elegant edifice, the state-hall for the
public offices, a state arsenal, and 12
houses of public worship.
ALBANY; the modern district of the
colony of the cape of Good Hope. (See
Good Hope.)
ALBATROSS (diomedea, L.); a genus of
web-footed birds, having the following
generic characters: a very long bill,
which is sutured, robust, thick, straight
and laterally compressed, terminating in
a large hook, apparently articulated there-
with. The upper mandible is laterally
grooved, and the short, tubular nostrils
are situated in these grooves; the lower
mandible is truncated. The toes are very
long, and are webbed with an entire
membrane; the lateral toes are externally
edged by a narrow membrane. There is
no hind toe nor nail; the nails are short
and blunt. The tail is rounded, and com-
posed of fourteen feathers.-The A. most
generally known is the diomedea exulans
of naturalists, the frigate bird, man-of-war
bird and cape sheep of sailors. It is the
largest of marine birds, as its wings, when
extended, measure from 10 to 12 feet from
tip to tip. These long wings are very
narrow, but the A. being extremely
strong, is able to fly with ease over a vast
space. Except during high winds, when
132
ALBATROSS.
it ascends to the superior regions of the
air, the A. sails gently over the surface
of the billows, rising and sinking in grace-
ful undulation, and seizing with avidity
every luckless creature that approaches
the surface. Pursuing its prey in this
manner, it urges its flight far from land,
and, by occasionally alighting upon ves-
sels, deceives the inexperienced voyager
into an idea that the shore cannot be very
distant. At night, this bird settles down
upon the waves, and sleeps securely until
hunger again commands a renewal of its
efforts.-The A. might be assumed as a
perfect emblem of gluttony, as it is scarce-
ly possible, in description, to do justice to
its excessive voracity. Whenever food is
abundant, it gorges to such a degree as to
become unable either to fly or swim;
frequently it is seen in this state, with a
fish partly swallowed and partly hanging
from its mouth. The gulls then attack
and worry it until it disgorges its prey,
upon which they are ready to seize.
When caught by hand, it nakes violent
struggles with its wings, and strikes with
its beak. Fish spawn, gelatinous mol-
luscæ, and various small marine animals
constitute its ordinary food. Flying-fish
are also particularly exposed to this de-
vourer, whose swiftness of wing is far
superior to theirs. The voice of the A. is
a harsh, disagreeable cry, somewhat re-
sembling that of a pelican; it has also
been compared to the braying of an ass.—
Towards the middle of June, vast num-
bers of these birds flock towards the coast
of Kamtschatka, the sea of Ochotsk, the
shores of the Kurile islands and Behring's
straits. They arrive there, extremely lean,
a short time preceding the fish, which
come annually to spawn in the fresh wa-
ter of the rivers; but, soon after, the birds
become very fat from the abundance of
food. They begin to retire from these
coasts about the end of July, and by the
15th of August the whole have disap-
peared. During their sojourn, the Kamt-
schadales catch numbers of them by bait-
ing hooks with fish, or by knocking then
on the head when overgorged. They are
not taken for their flesh, which is coarse,
rank and disgusting; but their large, hol-
low wing-bones furnish the natives with
various useful implements, while certain
parts of their intestines are inflated and
employed as floats for fishing-nets.-About
the middle of September, they seek the
southern shores of America, for the pur-
pose of breeding; there they build nests
of earth two feet or more high, and lay
numerous eggs, which are larger than
those of a goose, being about 4 inches
long, generally white, except towards the
larger extremity, where they are speckled
with black. These eggs are edible, and
it is stated, by those who have used them,
that the white is not rendered hard by
boiling. While the female sits upon the
nest, the male is industriously employed
in supplying her with food. This seems
to be inore especially necessary, as hawks
are constantly on the watch for an oppor-
tunity of pouncing upon the eggs the
moment the nest is left exposed. As
soon as the A. finally relinquishes the
nest, it is taken possession of by a species
of penguin.-The common A. (diomedea
exulans) is from 3 to 4 feet long, of a
grayish-brown or whitish color, with lines
of black upon the back and wings. The
inferior part of the body and rump are
white; the end of the tail and a great
part of the wings are black. The shafts
of the quills are yellow. The feet, toes
and web membrane are of a reddish-
brown color; the beak is blackish. The
female is similar to the male; the young
differ much from the adult. The A.
moults twice a year without changing its
colors.-Three other species are consid-
ered as having been established by natu-
ralists: diomedea chlororhyncos, black and
yellow-beaked A., of the size of a domestic
goose; diomedea spadicea, dark-brown or
chocolate-colored A., larger than the com-
mon goose; diomedea fuliginosa, sooty or
quaker A., smaller than the common A.
It is highly probable that future investi-
gation will reduce the number of species
which have been proposed.-This bird is
most commonly found within the tropics,
about the cape of Good Hope, and even
amid the ice of the Austral seas. It is
sometimes, though rarely, seen on the
coasts of the Middle States of the Union.—
Except what has been already mentioned
relative to the use made of them by the
Kamtschadales, we know of no economic
purpose for which they are employed.
Possibly their large quills might be found
useful, if obtained in sufficient numbers.—
The importance of the A. in the economy
of nature may be readily collected from
what we have stated relative to its food,
and the vast extent of surface over which
it can protract its flight. It serves as one
of the numerous restrainers of the super-
abundant increase of animal life, and, in
its turn, becomes the prey of creatures
stronger or more sanguinary than itself.
Among others, a species of lestris is a
dreadful enemy, and beats it, while on the
wing, until the A. disgorges its food,
$
ALBATROSS-ALBERT 1.
which the other immediately seizes, or
the blows are continued until the huge
bird expires, a victim to the ravenous ap-
petite of its adversary. This fierce bird
is commonly called the skua gull; but it
is improperly termed gull, being more
closely allied to the petrels and A. in ap-
pearance; in habits, it has some analogy
with the eagles. When the A. is attacked
by a flock of gulls or other birds, while
on the wing, it has no other resource but
that of suddenly dropping upon the water.
Under all circumstances, however, the
cowardice of this gigantic bird is equal to
its voracious gluttony.
ALBEMARLE SOUND; an inlet of the sea
on the east coast of N. Carolina. It ex-
tends into the country 60 miles, and is
from 4 to 15 wide. It may be considered
as an estuary of the Roanoke and Chowan
rivers. It communicates with the Atlan-
tic ocean and Panilico sound by small
inlets, and with Chesapeake bay by a
canal cut through Dismal swamp.
ALBERONI, Giulio, cardinal, and minis-
ter of the king of Spain, was the son of a
gardener. He was born in 1664, at Fi-
renzuola, a village of Parma, and edu-
cated for the church. His first office was
that of bell-ringer in the cathedral of
Piacenza. Possessed of uncommon tal-
ents, he soon became canon, chaplain and
favorite of the count Roncovieri, and
bishop of St. Donnin. The duke of
Parma sent him as his minister to Ma-
drid, where he gained the affection of
Philip V. He rose, by cunning and in-
trigue, to the station of prime minister;
became a cardinal; was all-powerful in
Spain after the year 1715, and endeavored
to restore it to its ancient splendor. He
reformed abuses, created a naval force,
organized the Spanish army on the model
of the French, and rendered the king-
dom of Spain more powerful than it had
been since the time of Philip II. He
formed the great project of restoring to
Spain her lost possessions in Italy, and
he began with Sardinia and Sicily. Even
when the duke of Orleans, regent of
France, renounced the Spanish alliance
to form a connexion with England, the
proud prelate did not alter his system;
on the contrary, he threw off his mask,
attacked the emperor, and took Sardinia
and Sicily. After the Spanish fleet was
destroyed by the English in the Mediter-
rancau, he entertained the idea of stirring
up a general war in Europe; of forming
an alliance for this purpose with Peter
the Great and Charles XII; of involving
Austria in a war with Turkey, exciting
12
VOL. I.
133
an insurrection in Hungary, and causing
the duke of Orleans to be arrested by a
court faction. But the scheme was dis-
covered. The duke, in connexion with
England, declared war against Spain, and
explained, in a manifesto, the intrigues
of the Italian cardinal. A French army
invaded Spain, and, although Alberoni en-
deavored to cripple the power of France
by fomenting disturbances within that
kingdom, the Spanish monarch became
despondent, and concluded a peace, the
chief condition of which was the dismis-
sal of the cardinal. He received, Dec.
1720, orders to quit Madrid within 24
hours, and the kingdom within 5 days.
He was now exposed to the vengeance
of the powers of Europe, by all of whom
he was hated, and saw no country where
he could abide. He did not even dare to
go to Rome, because he had deceived the
pope, Clement XI, in order to obtain the
rank of cardinal. While crossing the
Pyrenees, his carriage was attacked, one
of his servants killed, and he himself
obliged to continue his journey on foot
and in disguise. He wandered about a
He was
long time under false names.
arrested in the territory of Genoa, at the
request of the pope and the king of
Spain; the Genoese, however, soon dis-
missed him. The death of Clement put
an end to this persecution, and his suc-
cessor, Innocent XIII, restored him, in
1723, to all the rights and honors of a
cardinal. He died in 1752, at the age of
87 years.
ÅLBERT I, duke of Austria, and after-
wards emperor of Germany, was born in
1248, son of Rodolph of Hapsburg (q. v.),
who had, a short time before his death,
attempted to place the crown on the head
of his son. But the electors, tired of his
power, and imboldened by his age and
infirmities, refused his request, and in-
definitely postponed the election of a king
of the Romans (this was the title of the
designated successor of the emperor).
After the death of Rodolph, A., who in-
herited only the military qualities of his
father, saw his hereditary possessions,
Austria and Stiria, rise up in rebellion
against him. He quelled by force this
revolt, which his avarice and severity had
excited; but success increased his pre-
sumption. He wished to succeed Ro-
dolph in all his dignities, and, without
waiting for the decision of the diet, seized
the insignia of the empire. This act of
violence induced the electors to choose
Adolphus of Nassau emperor. The dis-
turbances which had broken out against
134
ALBERT I.-ALBERT THE GREAT.
him in Switzerland, and a disease which
deprived him of an eye, made him more
humble. He delivered up the insignia,
and took the oath of allegiance to the new
emperor. As soon as he had quelled the
insurrection in Switzerland, he was in-
volved in new quarrels with his subjects
in Austria and Stiria, especially with the
bishop of Salzburg, who, upon the report
of his death, had made an incursion into
his dominions. In the meantime, Adol-
phus, after a reign of 6 years, had lost the
regard of all the princes of the empire.
A. endeavored to avail himself of this
change of feeling, and succeeded so far,
by assumed mildness, in deceiving the
princes, that they chose him emperor,
after deposing Adolphus at the diet in
1298. Adolphus, however, would not re-
sign his high dignity, and force was found
necessary to remove him. The rivals met,
with their armies, near Gellheim, between
Worms and Spire. A. enticed Adolphus,
by a feigned retreat, to follow him with
his cavalry only. The leaders engaged
hand to hand, and Adolphus exclaimed
to his adversary, "Thou shalt lose at once
thy crown and life." "Heaven will de-
cide," was the answer of A., striking him
with his lance in the face. Adolphus fell
from his horse, and was despatched by
the companions of his antagonist. The
last barrier had fallen between A. and the
supreme power, but he was conscious of
having now an opportunity of displaying
his inagnanimity. He voluntarily resign-
cd the crown conferred on him by the
last election, and, as he had anticipated,
was reelected. His coronation took place
at Aix la Chapelle, in August, 1298; and
he held his first diet at Nuremberg, with
the utmost splendor. But a new storm
was gathering over him. The pope, Bon-
iface VIII, denied the right of the electors
to dispose of the imperial dignity, de-
claring himself the real emperor and le-
gitimate king of the Romans. He accord-
ingly summoned A. before him, to ask
pardon, and submit to such penance as
he should dictate; he forbade the princes
to acknowledge him, and released them
from their oath of allegiance. The arch-
bishop of Mentz from a friend became
the enemy of A., and joined the party of
the pope. On the other hand, A. forined
an alliance with Philip le Bel of France,
secured the neutrality of Saxony and
Brandenburg, and, by a sudden irruption
into the electorate of Mentz, forced the
archbishop not only to renounce his alli-
ance with the pope, but to form one with
him for the 5 ensuing years. Dismayed
by this rapid success, Boniface entered
into negotiations with A., in which the
latter again showed the duplicity of his
character. He broke his alliance with
Philip, acknowledged that the western
empire was a grant from popes to the
emperors, that the electors derived their
right of choosing from the see of Rome,
and promised to defend with arms the
rights of the pope, whenever he should
demand it, against any one. As a reward,
Boniface excommunicated Philip, pro-
claimed him to have forfeited his crown,
and gave the kingdom of France to A.
Philip, however, chastised the pope. A.
was engaged in unsuccessful wars with
Holland, Zealand, Friesland, Hungary,
Bohemia and Thuringia. While prepar-
ing to revenge a defeat which he had
suffered in Thuringia, he received the
news of the revolt of the Swiss, and saw
himself obliged to direct his forces thither.
The revolt of Underwalden, Schweitz
and Uri had broken out Jan. 1, 1308. A.
had not only foreseen this consequence
of his oppression, but desired it, in order
to have a pretence for subjecting Switzer-
land entirely to himself. A new act of
injustice, however, put an end to his am-
bition and life. Suabia was the inherit-
ance of Jolm, the son of his younger
brother, Rodolph. John had repeatedly
asserted his right to it, but in vain. When
A. set out for Switzerland, John renewed
his demand, which was contemptuously
rejected by A., who scoffingly offered him
a garland of flowers, saying, "This be-
comes your age; leave the cares of gov-
crnment to me." Jolm, in revenge, con-
spired with his governor, Walter of Es-
chenbach, and three friends, against the
life of A. The conspirators improved the
moment when the emperor, on his way
to Rheinfelden, was separated from his
train by the river Reuss, and assassinated
him. A. breathed his last, May 1, 1308,
in the arms of a poor woman, who was
sitting on the road. He was a prince re-
gardless of right and equity, tyrannical,
avaricious, ambitious and able.
cruelly Agnes, queen of Hungary, re-
venged her father's death, will be related
under John the Parricide.
How
ALBERT THE GREAT, or ALBERTUS
MAGNUS, bishop of Ratisbon; a distin-
guished scholar of the 13th century. Be-
sides his theological learning, he was well
versed, for his time, in mechanics, natural
history and natural philosophy. He was
born in 1193 (according to some accounts,
in 1205), at Lauingen, in Suabia, of the
noble family of Bollstädt; studied at
ALBERT THE GREAT.-ALBINOS.
Padua; became a monk of the Domini-
can order; in 1254, was made provincial
of his order; and, in 1260, received from
pope Alexander IV the bishopric of Rat-
isbon. Two years later, he returned to
his convent, devoted himself to science,
and produced many learned works on
arithmetic, geometry, optics, music, as-
trology and astronomy. He died in 1280.
ALBIGENSES (Albigeois); a name com-
mon to several heretical sects, particularly
the Cathari and Waldenses, who agreed
in opposing the dominion of the Roman
hierarchy, and endeavoring to restore the
simplicity of primitive Christianity. They
had increased very much towards the
close of the 12th century, in the south of
France, about Toulouse and Albi, and
were denominated by the crusaders A.,
from the district Albigeois (territory of
Albi), where the army of the cross, called
together by pope Innocent III, attacked
them in 1209. The assassination of the
papal legate and inquisitor, Peter of Cas-
telnau, while occupied in extirpating these
heretics in the territory of the count Ray-
mond of Toulouse, occasioned this war,
which is important as the first which the
Romish church waged against heretics
within her own dominions. It was carried
on with a degree of cruelty which cast a
deep shade over the Roman clergy, as
their real object appeared to be to deprive
the count of Toulouse of his possessions,
on account of his tolerating the heretics.
It was in vain that this powerful prince
had suffered a disgraceful penance and fla-
gellation from the legate Milo, and obtain-
ed the papal absolution by great sacrifices.
The legates, Arnold, abbot of Citeaux, and
Milo, took Beziers, the capital of his neph-
ew Roger, by storm, and put all the inhab-
itants (about 60,000), without any distinc-
tion of creed, to the sword. Simon de
Montfort, the military leader of the cru-
sade, under the legates, was equally severe
towards other places in the territory of
Raymond and his allies, of whom Roger
died in a prison, and Peter I, king of Ara-
gon, in battle. The lands taken were pre-
sented by the church, as a reward for his
services, to the count of Montfort, who,
however, on account of the changing
fortune of war, never obtained the quiet
possession of them; he was killed by a
stone, at the siege of Toulouse, in 1218.
The legates prevailed on his son, Amal-
ric, to cede his claims to the king of
France. The papal indulgences attracted
from all provinces of France new crusa-
ders, who continued the war, and, even
after the death of Raymond VI, in 1222,
135
under excommunication, his son, Ray-
mond VII, was obliged, notwithstanding
his readiness to do penance, to defend his
inheritance, till 1229, against the legates,
and Louis VIII of France, who fell, in
1226, in a campaign against the heretics.
After hundreds of thousands had fallen
on both sides, and the most beautiful
parts of Provence and Upper Languedoc
had been laid waste, a peace was made,
by the terms of which Raymond was
obliged to purchase his absolution with a
large sum of money, to cede Narbonne,
with several estates, to Louis IX, and
make his son-in-law, a brother of Louis,
heir of his other lands. The pope suffered
these provinces to come into the posses-
sion of the king of France, in order to
bind him more firmly to his interests, and
force him to receive his inquisitors. The
heretics were now delivered up to the
proselyting zeal of the Dominicans, and
to the courts of the inquisition; and these
new auxiliaries, which priestcraft had ac-
quired during the war (see Dominic de
Guzman, and Inquisition), employed their
whole power to bring the remainder of
the A. to the stake, and made even the
converts feel the irreconcilable anger of
the church, by heavy fines and personal
punishments. The name of the A. disap-
peared after the middle of the 13th cen-
tury; but fugitives of their party formed,
in the mountains of Piedmont and in
Lombardy, what is called the French
church, which was continued, through the
Waldenses, to the times of the Hussites
and the reformation.
ALBINOS (white Negroes, Blafards,
Leucæthiops, Dondos), who were former-
ly found on the isthmus of Panama and
at the mouths of the Ganges, and have
been described as a distinct race of men,
have been likewise discovered, by mod-
ern naturalists, in various countries of
Europe, e. g. in Switzerland, among the
Savoyards in the valley of Chamouni, in
France, in the tract of the Rhine, in Ty-
rol, &c. The characteristics of the A.
are now said to be owing to a disease
which may attack men in every climate,
and to which even animals are subject,
such as white mice, rabbits, &c. The A.
have a milky or cadaverous look, and are
distinguished from the genuine whites,
not only by their wrinkled skin, but also
by their red eyes, which want the black
mucus, and cannot, therefore, endure the
bright light of day. By moon-light, and
in the dark, they can see pretty well,
for which reason they are accustomed to
go abroad only in the night, and, by Lin-
136
ALBINOS-NEW ALBION.
næus and other naturalists, are termed
nocturnal men. Their hair is woolly, when
they are descended from actual Negroes,
and somewhat less curly, when they are
the children of East Indians; but it is al-
ways of an unpleasing milk-color, like
their skin. They are weak in body and
mind, and very rarely attain the common
size of the nations to which they belong.
They are generally incapable of begetting
children, but when the case is otherwise,
the offspring resemble the parents. There
are instances of A. possessed of the com-
mon faculties of mind, and capable of
literary accomplishments. (See, likewise,
Cretin.) The Germans use the word
Albino for all individuals afflicted with
this disease of the skin, but Kakerlake for
varieties, whose skin is only sprinkled
with white spots.-The East Indians give
the name of albino to a species of beetle,
(blatta), especially the blalta gigantea of
the Indian forests, which grows 3 inches
long, and forms an ornament of entomolo-
gical collections. It is dark-brown and
shining; the feathers of its wings are fox-
colored and yellow. After this beetle the
Indians have named the Albinos.-Blu-
menbach, Saussure, Buzzi, surgeon to the
hospital at Milan, Soemmering, and many
others, have made interesting observations
on Albinos, and the causes which pro-
duce their peculiar color.
ALBINUS, Bernard Siegfried, whose
true name was Weiss (White), a distin-
guished anatomist, born Feb. 24, 1696, at
Frankfort on the Oder, died Sept. 9,
1770, at Leyden, where he was 50 years
professor of anatomy. Instructed by his
father, Bernard, who enjoyed a good rep-
utation as a professor of medicine, and by
the famous professors of the Leyden
school, Rau, Bidloo, Boerhaave, he went
to France in 1718, where he formed an
intimacy with Winslow and Senac, with
whom he afterwards carried on a corre-
spondence highly advantageous to anato-
my, their favorite science. He entered
He entered
upon his office as lecturer, in Leyden,
1719, with an oration, De Anatomia Com-
parata. The medical faculty there confer-
red on him the degree of doctor, without
either examination or disputation. A few
weeks after, professor Rau died, and, in
1720, A. succeeded him in the professor-
ship of anatomy and surgery. Ho was
one of the first who felt the impulse
which Boerhaave gave to anatomy, by
explaining the phenomena of the animal
economy, not chemically, but mechani-
cally, a system which rendered a more
accurate study of the single parts of the
body, and of their formation, necessary;
for the least deviation in the form of any
part, according to him, necessarily pro-
duces differences in its action. This sys-
tem rendered it necessary to describe
with more accuracy what Vesalius, Fal-
lopius and Eustachius had explained on-
ly in a general manner. A. labored in
this spirit; we are indebted to him for the
most exact anatomical descriptions and
prints, especially of the muscles and
bones. While he held the office of pro-
fessor, at Leyden, he wrote Index Supel-
lectilis Anatomica Ravianæ, likewise De
Ossibus Corporis Humani, also Historia
Musculorum Hominis, and other works,
which fill an honorable place in the his-
tory of science. He edited, also, several
writings of Harvey, Vesalius, Fabricius
ab Aquapendente and Eustachius. His
brother, Christian Bernard, professor at
Utrecht, distinguished himself in the same
science, and was likewise an esteemed
anatomical writer: he died May 23, 1778.
ALBION; the former name of the island
of Great Britain, called by the Romans
Britannia Major, from which they distin-
guished Britannia Minor, the French
province of Bretagne. Agathenerus (lib.
xi, c. 4), speaking of the British islands,
uses the names Hibernia and Albion for the
two largest; Ptolemy (lib. ii, c. 3) calls A.
a British island; and Pliny (H. Ñ. lib. iv,
c. 16) says, that the island of Great Britain
was formerly called Albion, the name of
Britain being common to all the islands
around it. In poetry, A. is still used for
Great Britain. The etymology of the
name is uncertain. Some writers derive
it from the Greek gor (white), in refer-
ence to the chalky cliffs on the coasts;
others, from a giant, the son of Nep-
tune, mentioned by several ancient wri-
ters:
some, from the Hebrew alben
(white); others, from the Phoenician alp
or alpin (high, and high mountain), from
the height of the coast. Sprengel, in his
Universal History of Great Britain, thinks
it of Gallic origin, the same with Albyn,
the name of the Scotch Highlands. It
appears to him the plural of alp or ailp,
which signifies rocky mountains, and to
have been given to the island, because
the shore, which looks towards France,
appears like a long row of rocks. The
ancient British pocts call Britain Inis
Wen, i. e. the white island.
ALBION, New. This name is given to
an extensive tract of land on the N. W.
coast of America. It was originally ap-
plied by sir Francis Drako, in 1578, to
the whole of California, but is now, by
NEW ALBION-ALBUHERA.
recent geographers, e. g. Humboldt, con-
fined to that part of the coast which ex-
tends between 43° and 48° N. lat. Cook
discovered it March 7, 1778. In 1792,
Vancouver visited this coast, made a very
diligent inspection of all its parts, and
gave a most interesting account of them.
The country is described as very fertile;
the quadrupeds seem not to be very nu-
merous. The inhabitants are not numer-
ous, and resemble the other savages of
the north-west coast of N. A. Vancou-
ver's chart of this region is still the best.
The most authentic account of a part of
New A. is to be found in Lewis and
Clark's Expedition to the Sources of the
Missouri, 2 vols., Philadelphia, 1814. The
citizens of the U. States, and others who
have frequented the north-western coast
of America for commercial purposes, have
had but little, if any, intercourse with the
natives, who inhabit that part of the coast
which lies between the entrance of Co-
lumbia river, in lat. 46° 15', and the Rus-
sian settlement at Port Bodega, in lat. 38°,
21', because no harbor, capable of admit-
ting such vessels as are usually employed
in the north-west trade, has yet been dis-
covered within these limits. It has been
affirmed by the Russians, that they have
discovered several sinall rivers, but they,
are not probably of sufficient importance
to give any value to the country, until the
settlements of civilized nations have be-
come much more extensive than at pres-
ent. The appearance of the country, as
seen from the ocean, is by no means in-
viting; but some hunters, who have pen-
etrated into the interior, give a favorable
representation of it, particularly of that
portion which lies near the Multnomah,
a branch of the Columbia river, that runs
from the south. (See North-West Coast,
trade to.)
ALBOIN, king of the Lombards, suc-
ceeded his father, Audoin, in 561. He
reigned in Noricum and Pannonia, while
Cunimund, king of the Gepidæ, ruled in
Dacia and Sirmia, and Baian or Cha-
gan, king of the Avars, was completing
the conquest of Moldavia and Walachia.
Narses, the general of Justinian, sought
his alliance, and received his aid, in the
war against Totila. A., in connexion with
the Avars, made war against the Gepida,
and slew their king, Cunimund, with his
own hand, in a great battle fought in 566.
This victory established his fame. After
the death of his wife, Clodoswinda, he
married Rosamond, the daughter of Cun-
imund, who was among the captives.
He afterwards undertook the conquest of
137
Italy, where Narses, who had subjected
this country to Justinian, offended by an
ungrateful court, sought an avenger in A.,
and offered him his cooperation. Every
year witnessed the increase of A.'s power
in Italy, in reducing which he met with
no resistance, except the brave defence
of single cities. Pavia fell into his hands
after a siege of 3 years. After reigning
3 years in Italy, he was slain at Verona,
in 574, by an assassin, instigated by his
wife, Rosamond. He had incurred her
hatred by sending her, during one of his
fits of intoxication, a cup, wrought from
the skull of her father, filled with wine,
and forcing her, according to his own
words, to drink with her father. This
incident has been introduced by Ruccel-
lai and Alfieri, into their tragedies, called
Rosmunda, in a very pathetic manner.
ALBORAK; amongst the Mahometan
writers, the beast on which Mahomet
rode in his journeys to heaven. The
Arab commentators report many fables
concerning this extraordinary animal. It
is represented as of an intermediate shape
and size between an ass and a mule. A
place, it seems, was secured for it in par-
adise, at the intercession of Mahomet,
which, however, was in some measure
extorted from the prophet by Alborak
refusing to carry him upon any other
terms, when the angel Gabriel was come
to conduct him to heaven.
ALBUFERA; a considerable salt-water
lake, lying north of the city of Valencia,
in Spain, near the sea, with which it is
connected by sluices. It abounds in fish,
but dries in summer so much as, in some
parts, to become a mere marsh. The
French general Suchet received the title
of duke of Albufera on account of the
blockade and capture of the Spanish gen-
eral Blake, in Valencia. The water-birds
and eels, which are taken here, yield
12,000 dollars annually.
ALBUHERA; a village in Estremadura,
on the Albuhera, 12 miles S. S. E. Bada-
joz. A battle was fought here, May 16,
1811, between the army of marshal Be-
resford, consisting of about 30,000 British,
Spanish and Portuguese, and that of the
French marshal Soult, amounting to
about 25,000 men, but considerably supe-
rior in artillery. The object of the French
was to raise the siege of Badajoz, which
was invested by the English. Soult was
obliged to retreat to Seville, with a loss
stated at 8000 men. The allies lost about
7000 men, and gained the victory by a
cool, well-directed and opportune fire on
the columns of French infantry. Badajoz,
12*
138
ALBUHERA-ALBUQUERQUE.
a few days after, fell into the hands of
the allies.
ALBUM; among the Romans, a white
board for official publications. These
boards received their appellations from
the various magistrates; the album pontif-
icum served as a state chronicle.-Album
is also used to denote a kind of table or
pocket-book, wherein the men of letters,
with whom a person has conversed, in-
scribe their names, with some sentence
or motto. The famous Algernon Sydney,
being in Denmark, was presented by the
university of Copenhagen with their al-
bum, whereupon he wrote these words;
Manus hæc inimica tyrannis
Ense petit placidam sub libertate quietem.
Albums are at present in fashion among
ladies. In Germany, where the fash-
ion is said to have originated, they are
now almost out of use, excepting such
as are kept on interesting spots, high tow-
ers, mountains, fields of battle, &c.
Göthe, being once asked by a tedious
visitor to write something in his albumn,
wrote G, the initial of his name. The
name of this letter, in German, signifies
go.
A. acts in the same way, also, in clarifying
spirituous fluids. When, for instance, the
white of an egg is added to wine, or to
any cordial, the alcohol coagulates it, and
the coagulum entangles the impurities,
and carries them to the bottom.
Both
gelatin and A. exist in flesh, and, as the
former is soluble in warm water, hence
the difference in the nutritious quality of
butcher's meat, according to the mode of
cooking it; when, for instance, meat is
boiled, the greater part of the gelatin is
extracted, and retained by the soup;
when, on the contrary, it is roasted, the
gelatinous matter is not removed; so that
roasted meat contains both gelatin and A.,
and should, therefore, be more nutritious
than the other. By the analysis of Gay-
Lussac and Thenard, 100 parts of A. are
formed of 52,883 carbon, 23,872 oxygen,
7,540 hydrogen, 15,705 nitrogen. The
negative pole of a voltaic pile in high ac-
tivity coagulates A. Orfila has found the
white of eggs to be the best antidote to
the poisonous effects of corrosive subli-
mate on the human stomach. (See Egg.)
ALBUQUERQUE, Alfonso de, viceroy of
India, surnamed the Great, and the Portu-
guese Mars, was born at Lisbon, 1452, of
ALBUMEN, in physiology, exists nearly a family that derived its origin from kings.
pure in the white of eggs. As thus pro- A heroic and enterprising spirit at that
cured, it is a glareous fluid, with very time distinguished his nation. They had
little taste. When kept for some time become acquainted with, and had sub-
exposed to the air, it putrefies, but when jected to their power, a large part of the
spread in thin layers and dried, it does western coast of Africa, and began to
not undergo any change. When heated extend their sway over the seas and na-
to about 165° Fahr., it coagulates, and its tions of India. A. was appointed viceroy
properties are entirely changed. It is of their acquisitions in this quarter, and
soluble in cold water, and is separated, in arrived, Sept. 26, 1503, with a fleet and
its coagulated state, by hot water, if the some troops, on the coast of Malabar;
quantity of fluid be not great; but if the took possession of Goa, which he made
water be about 10 times as much in the centre of the Portuguese power and
amount as the albumen, there is no coagu- commerce in Asia; subdued the whole
lation. Hence we cannot dissolve it in of Malabar, Ceylon, the Sunda_islands,
warm water, for, when put into it (as when and the peninsula of Malacca. In 1507,
a little of the white of eggs is thrown into he made himself master of the island of
a glass of boiling water), it is instantly Ormus, at the entrance of the Persian
coagulated. It is also coagulated by acids. gulf. When the king of Persia demanded
A. exists in different parts of animals, as the tribute which the princes of this island
cartilage, bones, horns, hoofs, flesh, the had formerly paid him, A. laid before the
membranous parts, and in considerable ambassadors a bullet and a sword, saying,
quantity in blood, from which it is usual- "This is the coin in which Portugal pays
ly procured, when required in the arts. her tribute." He made the Portuguese
From the property which it possesses of name highly respected by all the nations
being coagulated by heat, it is employed and princes of India, and several, as the
for clarifying fluids, as in the refining kings of Siam and Pegu, courted his
of sugar, and in many other processes. friendship and protection. All his enter-
When required in a large quantity, bul- prises were extraordinary. His discipline
lock's blood is used. When this or the was strict; he was active, cautious, wise,
white of eggs is put into a warin fluid, its humane and just; respected and feared
A. is coagulated, and entangles the impu- by his neighbors, beloved by his inferiors.
rities, and, as the scum rises, it is removed. His virtues inade such an impression on
ALBUQUERQUE-ALCANTARA.
the Indians, that they, for a long time
after his death, made pilgrimages to his
tomb, and besought him to protect them
against the tyranny of his successors.
Notwithstanding his great merits, he did
not escape the envy of the courtiers, and
the suspicions of king Emanuel, who sent
Lopez Soarez, the personal enemy of A.,
to fill his place. The ingratitude of his
sovereign severely afflicted him, and he
died, a few days after receiving the intelli-
gence, at Goa, in 1515, having recom-
inended his only son to the king's favor,
in a letter written a short time before his
death. Emanuel honored his memory
by a long repentance, and raised his son
to the highest dignities of the kingdom.
ALBURNUM; the soft, white substance
which, in trees, is found between the liber,
or inner bark, and the wood, and, in pro-
gress of time acquiring solidity, becomes
itself the wood. A new layer of wood,
or rather of A., is added annually to the
tree in every part, just under the bark.
ALCEUS, one of the greatest Grecian
lyric poets, was born at Mitylene, in Les-
bos, and flourished there at the close of
the 7th and the beginning of the 6th centu-
ries B. C. Somewhat older than Sappho,
he paid homage to the charms of his re-
nowned countrywoman, but, as it seems,
unsuccessfully. Being of a fiery temper-
ament, he sought at the same time the
laurel of war and of the muscs. His
misfortune in losing his shield, in a war
between Mitylene and Athens, has been
falsely attributed to cowardice. He en-
gaged in the civil war which convulsed his
country at the time of the expulsion of
the tyrants, and used both the lyre and
the sword in the cause of liberty. In the
beginning, he took part with Pittacus;
subsequently against him, when he took
the reins of government into his own bands,
after the overthrow of the petty tyrants,
in order to unite and quiet the divided
people. A., expelled from Mitylene by
the change of circumstances, wandered
about for a long time, and at last fell into
the hands of Pittacus, in an attempt to
force his way into his native city, at the
head of a body of exiles. The latter mag-
nanimously restored him to liberty. His
songs breathe the same spirit with his
life. A strong, manly enthusiasm for
freedom and justice pervades even those
in which he sings the pleasures of love
and wine. But the sublimity of his nature
shines brightest when he praises valor,
chastises tyrants, describes the blessings
of liberty and the misery of exile. His
lyric muse was versed in all the forms
139
and subjects of poetry, and antiquity at-
tributes to him hymns, odes and songs.
A few fragments only are left of all of
them, and a distant echo of his poetry
reaches us in some odes of Horace. He
wrote in the Æolic dialect, and was the
inventor of the metre that bears his name,
one of the most beautiful and melodious
of all the lyric metres. Horace has em-
ployed it in many of his odes. German
poets, too, have imitated it, as Klopstock.
Jani has collected the fragments of his
works. Some of them are in the Analecta
of Brunck, and in the Anthologia of Jacobs.
There were two other poets of the same
name, but of less reputation.
ALCALA DE HENAREZ; a beautiful and
extensive city of Spain, in New Castile,
seated upon the river Henarez, 11 miles
S. W. of Guadalaxara, and 15 E. N. E.
of Madrid. The ancient name was Com-
plutum, when it was a Roman colony, and
here was printed the celebrated Biblia
Complutensia, or Complutensian Polyglot,
at an expense of 250,000 ducats to cardi-
nal Xinienes. It was the first polyglot
Bible ever printed. 600 copies were
struck off, three on vellum. One of these
three was deposited in the royal library
at Madrid, a second in the royal library
at Turin; a third, supposed to have be-
longed to the cardinal himself, after pass-
ing through various hands, was purchased
at the sale of signor Pinelli's library, in
1739, for the late count M'Carthy, of
Toulouse, for £483. On the sale of his
library, at Paris, 1817, it was sold for over
£676 sterling.
ALCALDE (Spanish), or ALCAIDE (Por-
tuguese); the name of a magistrate in the
Spanish and Portuguese towns, to whom
the administration of justice and the reg-
ulation of the police is committed. His
office nearly corresponds to that of justice
of the peace. The name and the office
are of Moorish origin.
ALCALI. (See Alkali.)
ALCAMENES. (See Sculpture.)
ALCANTARA; an ancient town and fron-
tier fortress in the Spanish province Es-
tremadura, with 3000 inhabitants, built by
the Moors, on the Tagus, over which is
a splendid bridge, erected by the Romans.
One of the three ancient Spanish orders
of knighthood, which derives its origin
from the brethren of St. Julian del Parero
(of the pear-tree), in the 12th century, and
fought bravely against the Moors, receiv-
ed, in 1207, from the order of Calatrava,
the town of Alcantara, of which it took
the name, and was united with the Span-
ish crown, after the grand master, don
་
140
ALCANTARA-ALCHEMY.
Juan de Zuniga, had delivered up the
town to Ferdinand the Catholic, in 1494.
The knights, since 1540, have been allow-
ed to marry. The order was very rich.
The badge is a gold and green cross,
fleur de lis; the coat of arms, a pear-tree,
with two chevrons.
ALCAVALA is the name of a tax or
excise imposed in Spain and the Spanish
colonies upon sales of property, whether
movable or immovable. The rate of
this tax has varied, heretofore, in Spain,
from 14 to 6 per cent. It differs from the
ordinary excise in this, that an excise is
most generally intended to be levied upon
consumption, so that each one shall pay
in proportion to the goods he may con-
sume; and it is, therefore, founded upon
one of the legitimate principles of taxa-
tion. But the alcavala, being levied upon
all sales, is, in fact, a tax upon internal
commerce; it is a forfeit paid by the
vender for selling a thing to be used or
consumed by another, instead of using or
consuming it himself, which he might do
free of any such tax. It is, accordingly,
one of the most unequal and pernicious
taxes that could possibly be levied, since
its amount is not governed by the amount
of property which the party paying it is
worth, nor by the amount that he con-
sumes. It is, to all intents and purposes,
an arbitrary tax, and Ultaritz attributes to
it the ruin of the Spanish manufactures.
The alcavala was introduced under Al-
phonso XI, and was borrowed from the
Arabians. It was imposed at first in 1342,
only for a specified period. In 1349, it was
made perpetual, and fixed at 10 per cent.
ALCEA. (See Hollyhock.)
ALCEDO. (See Kingfisher.)
ALCESTE; the daughter of Pelias, and
wife of Admetus, king of Thessaly. Her
husband was sick, and, according to an
oracle, would die, unless some one else
made a vow to meet death in his stead.
This was secretly done by A. She be-
caine sick, and Admetus recovered. After
her decease, Hercules visited Admetus,
with whom he was connected by the ties
of hospitality, and promised his friend to
bring back his wife from the infernal
regions. He made good his word, com-
pelling Pluto to restore A. to her husband.
Euripides has made this story the subject
of a tragedy.
ALCHEMY; the art of changing, by
means of a secret chemical process, base
metals into precious. Probably the an-
cient nations, in their first attempts to
melt inetals, observing that the composi-
tion of different metals produced masses
of a color unlike either, for instance, that
a mixture like gold resulted from the
melting together of copper and zinc,-ar-
rived at the conclusion, that one metal
could be changed into another. At an
early period, the desire of gold and silver
grew strong, as luxury increased, and
men indulged the hope of obtaining these
rarer metals from the more common. At
the same time, the love of life led to the
idea of finding a remedy against all dis-
cases, a means of lessening the infirmities
of age, of renewing youth, and repelling
death. The hope of realizing these ideas
prompted the efforts of several men, who
taught their doctrines through mystical
images and symbols. To transinute met-
als, they thought it necessary to find a
substance which, containing the original
principle of all matter, should possess the
power of dissolving all into its clements.
This general solvent, or menstruum uni-
versale, which, at the same time, was to
possess the power of removing all the
secds of disease ont of the human body,
and renewing life, was called the philoso-
pher's stone, lapis philosophorum, and its
pretended possessors adepts. The more
obscure the ideas which the alchemists
themselves had of the appearances occur-
ring in their experiments, the more they
endeavored to express themselves in sym-
bolical language. Afterwards, they re-
tained this phraseology, to conceal their
secrets from the uninitiated. In Egypt,
in the carliest times, Hermes, the son of
Anubis, was ranked among the heroes,
and many books of chemical, magical and
alchemical learning are said to have been
left by him. These, however, are of a
later date. (See Hermes Trismegistus.)
For this reason, chemistry and alchemy
received the name of the Hermetic art.
It is certain that the ancient Egyptians
possessed particular chemical and metal-
Jurgical knowledge, although the origin
of alchemy cannot, with certainty, be
attributed to them. Several Grecians
became acquainted with the writings of
the Egyptians, and initiated in their
chemical knowledge. The fondness for
magic, and for alchemy more particu-
larly, spread afterwards among the Ro-
mans also. When true science was per-
secuted under the Roman tyrants, super-
stition and false philosophy flourished the
more. The prodigality of the Romans
excited the desire for gold, and led them
to pursue the art which promised it in-
stantaneously and abundantly. Caligula
made experiments with a view of obtain-
ing gold from orpiment. On the other
ALCHEMY-ALCIBIADES.
hand, Diocletian ordered all books to be
burned that taught to manufacture gold
and silver by alchemy. At that time,
many books on alchemy were written,
and falsely inscribed with the names of
renowned men of antiquity. Thus a
number of writings were ascribed to
Democritus, and more to Hermes, which
were written by Egyptian monks and
hermits, and which, as the Fabula Sma-
ragdina, taught, in allegories, with mys-
tical and symbolical figures, the way to
discover the philosopher's stone. At a
later period, chemistry and alchemy were
cultivated among the Arabians. In the
8th century, the first chemist, commonly
called Geber, flourished among them, in
whose works rules are given for prepar-
ing quicksilver and other metals. In
141
possibility of obtaining metal from other
substances which contain the ingredients
composing it, and of changing one metal
into another, or rather of refining it, must,
therefore, be left undecided. Nor are all
alchemists to be considered impostors.
Many have labored, under the conviction
of the possibility of obtaining their object,
with indefatigable patience and purity of
heart (which is earnestly recommended
by sound alchemists as the principal
requisite for the success of their labors).
Designing men have often used alchemy
as a mask for their covetousness, and as
a means of defrauding silly people of
their money. Many persons, even in our
days, destitute of sound chemical knowl-
edge, have been led by old books on
alchemy, which they did not understand,
into long, expensive and fruitless labors.
Hitherto chemistry has not succeeded in
unfolding the principles by which metals
are formed, the laws of their production,
their growth and refinement, and in aid-
ing or imitating this process of nature;
consequently the labor of the alchemists,
in search of the philosopher's stone, is
but a groping in the dark.
ALCIBIADES. This famous Greek, son
of Clinias and Dinomache, was born at
Athens, in the 82d Olympiad, about 450
B. C. He lost his father in the battle of
Charonea, and was afterwards educated
in the house of Pericles, his grandfather
by his mother's side. Pericles was too
much engaged in affairs of state to bestow
that care upon him, which the impetuosity
of his disposition required. In his child-
hood, A. showed the germ of his future
character. One day, when he was play-
ing at dice with some companions in the
street, a wagon came up; he requested
the driver to stop, and, the latter refusing,
A. threw himself before the wheel, ex-
claiming, "Drive on, if thou darest." He
excelled alike in mental and bodily exer-
cises. His beauty and birth, and the high
station of Pericles, procured him a multi-
the middle ages, the monks devoted them
selves to alchemy, although they were
afterwards prohibited from studying it by
the popes. But there was one, even among
these, John XXII, who was fond of
alchemy. Raymond Lully, or Lullius, was
one of the most famous alchemists in the
13th and 14th centuries. A story is told
of him, that, during his stay in London,
he changed for king Edward I a mass of
50,000 pounds of quicksilver into gold, of
which the first rose-nobles were coined.
The study of alchemy was prohibited at
Venice in 1488. Paracelsus, who was
highly celebrated about 1525, belongs to
the renowned alchemists, as do Roger
Bacon, Basilius, Valentinus and many
others. When, however, more rational
principles of chemistry and philosophy
began to be diffused, and to shed light on
chemical phenomena, the rage for alche-
my gradually decreased, though many
persons, including some nobles, still re-
mained devoted to it. Alchemy has, how
ever, afforded some service to chemistry,
and even medicine. Chemistry was first
carefully studied by the alchemists, to
whose labor and patience we are indebted
for several useful discoveries; c. g. va-
rious preparations of quicksilver, mineral_tude of friends and admirers, and his rep-
kermes, of porcelain, &c.-Nothing can
be asserted with certainty about the trans-
mutation of metals. Modern chemistry,
indeed, places metals in the class of
elements, and denies the possibility of
changing an inferior metal into gold.
Most of the accounts of such transmuta-
tion rest on fraud or delusion, although
some of them are accompanied with eir-
cumstances and testimony which render
them probable. By means of the galvanic
battery, even the alkalies have been dis-
covered to have a metallic base. The
utation was affected by the dissipation in
which he became involved. He was for-
tunate in acquiring the friendship of Soc-
rates, who endeavored to lead him to
virtue, and undoubtedly obtained a great
ascendency over him, so that A. öften
quitted his gay associates for the company
of the philosopher. He bore arms, for
the first time, in the expedition against
Potidea, and was wounded.
who fought at his side, defended him, and
led him out of danger. In the battle of
Delium, he was among the cavalry who
Socrates,
142
ALCIBIADES.
were victorious, but, the infantry being
beaten, he was obliged to flee, as well as
the rest. He overtook Socrates, who was
retreating on foot, accompanied him, and
protected him. As long as the dema-
gogue Cleon lived, A. was principally
distinguished for luxury and prodigality,
and did not mingle in the affairs of state.
On the death of Cleon, 422 B. C., Nicias
succeeded in making a peace for 50 years
between the Athenians and Lacedæmo-
nians. A., jealous of the influence of
Nicias, and offended because the Lace-
dæmonians, with whom he was connected
by the ties of hospitality, had not applied
to him, fomented some disagreement be-
tween the two nations into an occasion
for breaking the peace. The Lacedæmo-
nians sent ambassadors to Athens; A.
received them with apparent good will,
and advised them to conceal their crc-
dentials, lest the Athenians should pre-
scribe conditions to them. They suffered
themselves to be duped, and, when called
into the assembly, declared that they were
without credentials. A. rose immedi-
atcly, accused thein of ill faith, and indu-
ced the Athenians to form an alliance
with the Argives. A breach with the
Lacedæmonians was the consequence.
A. commanded several times the Atheni-
an fleets, which devastated the Pelopon-
nesus; but even then he did not refrain
from luxury and dissipation, to which he
gave himself up entirely after his return.
On one occasion, after leaving a noctur-
nal revel, in the company of some friends,
he laid a wager that he would give the
rich Hipponicus a box on the car, and so
he did. This act made a great noise in
the city, but A. went to the injured party,
threw off his garment, and called upon
him to revenge himself by whipping him
with rods. This open repentance recon-
ciled Hipponicus; he not only pardoned
him, but gave him afterwards his daugh-
ter, Hipparete, in marriage, with a portion
of 10 talents ($10,500). A., however, still
continued his levity and prodigality. His
extravagance was conspicuous at the
Olympic games, where he entered the
stadium, not like other rich inen, with one
chariot, but with 7 at a time, and gained
the 3 first prizes. He seems to have been
victor, also, in the Pythian and Nemean
games. All this together drew upon him
the hatred of many of his fellow-citizens,
and he would have fallen a sacrifice to the
ostracism (q. v.), if he had not, in connex-
ion with Nicias and Phæax, who feared
a similar fate, artfully contrived to procure
the banishment of his most formidable
The
enemy. Soon afterwards, the Athenians,
at the instance of A., resolved on an ex-
pedition against Sicily, and elected him
commander-in-chief, together with Nicias
and Lamachus. But, during the prepara-
tions, it happened, one night, that all the
statues of Mercury were broken.
enemies of A. charged him with the act,
but postponed a public accusation till he
had set sail, when they stirred up the
people against him to such a degree, that
he was recalled, in order to be tried. A.
had been very successful in Sicily, when
he received the order to return. He
obeyed, and embarked, but, on reaching
Thurium, disembarked, and concealed
himself. Some one asking him, "How
is this, Alcibiades? have you no confi-
dence in your country?" he answered,
"I would not trust my mother, when my
life is concerned; for she might, by mis-
take, take a black stone instead of a white
one.
"" He was condeinned to death in
Athens, and said, when the news reached
him, "I shall show the Athenians that I
am yet alive." He now went to Argos,
thence to Sparta, where he made himself
a favorite, by conformning closely to the
prevailing strictness of manners. Here
he succeeded in inducing the Lacedæino-
nians to form an alliance with the Persian
king, and, after the unfortunate issue of
the Athenian expedition against Sicily,
he prevailed on them to assist the inhab-
itants of Chios in throwing off the yoke
of Athens. He went himself thither, and,
on his arrival in Asia Minor, roused the
whole of Ionia to insurrection against the
Athenians, and did them cousiderable in-
jury. But Agis and the principal leaders
of the Spartans became jealous of him,
on account of his success, and ordered
their commanders in Asia to cause him to
be assassinated. A. suspected their plan,
and went to Tissaphernes, a Persian sa-
trap, who was ordered to act in concert
with the Lacedæmonians. Here he
changed his manners once more, adopted
the luxurious habits of Asia, and under-
stood how to make himself indispensable
to the satrap. As he could no longer
trust the Lacedæmonians, he undertook
to serve his country, and showed Tissa-
phernes that it was against the interest of
the Persian king to weaken the Athenians
entirely. On the contrary, Sparta and
Athens ought to be preserved for their
mutual injury. Tissaphornes followed this
advice, and afforded the Athenians some
relief. The latter had, at that time, con-
siderable forces at Samos. A. sent word
to their commanders, that, if the licen-
ALCIBIADES-ALCMEON.
tiousness of the people was suppressed,
and the government put into the hands
of the nobles, he would procure for them
the friendship of Tissaphernes, and pre-
vent the junction of the Phoenician and
Lacedæmonian fleets. This demand was
granted, and Pisander sent to Athens; by
whose means the government of the city
was put into the hands of a council con-
sisting of 400 persons. As, however, the
council showed no intention to recall A.,
the army of Samos chose him their com-
mander, and exhorted him to go directly
to Athens, and overthrow the power of
the tyrants. He wished, however, not to
return to his country before he had done
some services, and therefore attacked
and totally defeated the fleet of the Lacc-
dæmonians. When he returned to Tis-
saphernes, the latter, in order not to appear
a participator in the act, caused him to be
arrested in Sardis. But A. found means
to escape; placed himself at the head of
the Athenian army; conquered the Lace-
dæmonians and Persians, at Cyzicus, by
sea and land; took Cyzicus, Chalcedon
and Byzantium; restored the sovereignty
of the sea to the Athenians, and returned
to his country, whither he had been re-
called, on the motion of Critias. He was
received with general enthusiasm; for the
Athenians considered his exile the cause
of all their misfortunes. But this triumph
was of short duration. He was sent with
100 ships to Asia; but, not being supplied
with money to pay his soldiers, he saw
himself under the necessity of seeking
help in Caria, and committed the com-
mand to Antiochus, who was drawn into
a snare by Lysander, and lost his life,
and a part of his ships. The enemics of
A. improved this opportunity to accuse
him, and procure his removal from office.
A. went to Pactyæ in Thrace, collected
troops, and waged war against the Thra-
cians. He obtained considerable booty,
and secured the quiet of the neighboring
Greek cities. The Athenian fleet was, at
that time, lying at Egos Potamos. He
pointed out to the generals the danger
which threatened them, advised them to
go to Sestos, and offered his assistance to
force the Lacedæmonian general, Lysan-
der, either to fight, or to make peace. But
they did not listen to him, and soon after
were totally defeated. A., fearing the
power of the Lacedæmonians, betook
himself to Bithynia, and was about to go
to Artaxerxes to procure his assistance for
his country. In the meantime, the 30
tyrants, whom Lysander, after the capture
of Athens, had set up there, requested the
143
latter to cause A. to be assassinated. But
Lysander declined, until he received an
order to the same effect from his own gov-
ernment. He then charged Pharnabazes
with the execution of it. A. was at that
time with Timandra, his mistress, in a
castle in Phrygia. The assistants of
Pharnabazes set fire to his house, and
killed him with their arrows, when he had
already escaped the conflagration. Ti-
mandra buried the body with due honor.
Thus A. ended his life, 404 B. C., about
45 years old. He was endowed by nature
with distinguished qualities, a rare talent
to captivate and rule men, and uncommon
eloquence, although he could not pro-
nounce r, and stuttered; but he had no
fixed principles, and was governed only by
external circumstances. He was without
that elevation of soul, which steadily pur-
sues the path of virtue; on the other hand,
he possessed that boldness which arises
from consciousness of superiority, and
which shrinks from no difficulty, because
always confident of success. Plutarch
and Cornelius Nepos, among the ancients,
have written his life.
ALCIDES; a surname of Hercules, usual-
ly derived from the name of his grand-
father, Alcæus, the father of Amphitryou.
ALCINOUS; said to have been a king of
the Phæacians, in the island now called
Corfu. His gardens have immortalized
his memory. The passages in which
Homer describes his hospitality toward
Ulysses, and the ardent desire of the lat-
ter to reach his home, are most beautiful.
He was a grandson of Neptune.
ALCIPHRON; the most distinguished of
the Grecian epistolary writers. Nothing
is known of his life, and even his age is
uncertain. It is probable that he belongs
to the second century after Christ. We
have 116 fictitious letters by him; the ob-
ject of which seems to be, to represent
the manners, thoughts and feelings of
certain strongly-marked classes in the
free communication of epistolary inter-
course. These letters are distinguished
by purity, clearness and simplicity of
language and style. Principal editions,
Geneva, 1606; Leipsic, 1715, and one in
1798, at the same place, by T. A. Wag-
ner.
ALCMEON; the son of Amphiaraus and
Eriphyle (q. v.) of Argos; chosen chief of
the seven Epigoni, in which capacity he
took and destroyed Thebes. His father,
going to war, charged A. to put to death
Eriphyle, who had betrayed him. He did
so, and was pursued by the furies. An
oracle informed him, that, to escape their
144
ALCMÆON-ALCOHOL.
vengeance, he must reside in a land which
was not in existence when he was cursed
by his mother. He at last found rest, for
a short time, on an island in the river
Achelous, where he married Callirrhoe,
the daughter of the god of the river,
after repudiating his former wife, Arsinoë.
But he did not long enjoy peace. At the
request of his wife, he attempted to re-
cover the fatal necklace of Hermione
from his former father-in-law, the priest
Phlegeus, who caused him to be mur-
dered by his sons.
ALCMAN; a Grecian poet, son of a Spar-
tan slave, born at Sardis, in Lydia, about
670 years B. C. He seems to have lived,
for the most part, in Sparta, where he ob-
tained the rights of citizenship. He sang
hymns, pæans and other lyrical poems, in
the Doric dialect, and gave their polished
form to these higher kinds of poetry.
His remaining works were collected by
F. Th. Welcker (Giessen, 1815, 4to).
ALCMENA; the daughter of Electryon,
and wife of Amphitryon. Jupiter loved
her, and deceived her by assuming the
form of her husband. From this con-
nexion, which continued for 3 nights,
sprang Hercules.
ALCOHOL; the purely spirituous part
of all liquors that have undergone the
vinous fermentation, and derived from
none but such as are susceptible of it.
As a chemical agent, it is of the highest
importance, involving in its various com-
binations all the grand principles of chem-
istry. It has been found that spirit of
wine, of sp. gr. ,867, when enclosed in a
bladder, and exposed for some time in the
air, is converted into alcohol of sp. gr.
,817, the water only escaping through
the coats of the bladder.-Alcohol, ob-
tained by slow and careful distillation, is
a limpid, colorless liquid, of an agreeable
smell, and a strong, pungent flavor. Its
specific gravity varies with its purity, the
purest obtained by rectification over chlo-
ride of calcium being,791; as it usually
occurs, it is ,820 at 60°. If rendered as
pure as possible by simple distillation, it
can scarcely be obtained of a lower spe-
cific gravity than ,825 at 60°.-Mr. Hut-
ton is said to have succeeded in freezing
alcohol, but the fact is regarded as doubt-
ful, as the means by which he effected its
congelation were never disclosed. Mr.
Walker exposed it to a temperature of
-91°, but no congelation took place; it
has, therefore, been much used in the con-
struction of thermometers. Even when
diluted with an equal weight of water, it
requires a cold of 6° below 0 to congeal
it. When of a specific gravity of,825, it
boils at the temperature of 176°, the bar-
ometrical pressure being 30 inches. In
the vacuum of an air-pump it boils at
common temperatures. The specific grav-
ity of the vapor of alcohol, compared with
atmospheric air, is 4,613.—Alcohol may
be mixed in all proportions with water,
and the specific gravity of the mixture is
greater than the mean of the two liquids,
in consequence of a diminution of bulk
that occurs on mixture.-The strength
of such spirituous liquors as consist of
little else than water and alcohol, is of
course ascertained by their specific gravi-
ty; and, for the purpose of levying duties
upon them, this is ascertained by the hy-
drometer. But the only correct node of
ascertaining the specific gravity of liquids,
is by weighing them in a delicate balance
against an equal volume of pure water,
of a similar temperature.-Alcohol is ex-
tremely inflammable, and burns with a
pale-blue flame, scarcely visible in bright
day-light. It occasions no fuliginous de-
position upon substances held over it, and
the products of its combustion are carbonic
acid and water, the weight of the water
considerably exceeding that of the alco-
hol consunied. According to Saussure,
jun. 100 parts of alcohol afford, when
burned, 136 parts of water. The steady
and uniform heat, which it gives during
combustion, makes it a valuable material
for lamps.-The action between alcohol
and some of the metals, particularly pla-
tinum, is remarkable. When a small
piece of thin platinum leaf, suspended by
a wire, is heated by a spirit lamp, and
then quickly put into a glass, in which
there is a little alcohol, so that it shall re-
main just over the surface, and of course
in the vapor arising from the alcohol, it
continues red-hot, as long as there is any
fluid in the jar; which is owing to the va-
por undergoing a sort of combustion, and
generating heat sufficient to keep the
metal in that state. This action affords
the means of making a lamp without
flame.-There are some substances which
communicate color to the flame of alco-
hol; from boracic acid, it acquires a green-
ish-yellow tint; nitre and the soluble salts
of baryta cause it to burn yellow, and
those of strontia give it a beautiful rose
color; cupreous salts impart a fine green
tinge.-Alcohol dissolves pure soda and
potassa, but it does not act upon their
carbonates; consequently, if the latter be
mixed with alcohol containing water, the
liquor separates into two portions, the up-
per being alcohol deprived, to a consider-
ALCOHOL-ALDENHOVEN.
able extent, of water, and the lower the
aqueous solution of the carbonate. The
alcoholic solution of caustic potassa was
known in old pharmacy under the name
of Van Helmont's tincture of tartar. It
is used for purifying potassa.-Alcohol
dissolves the greater number of the acids.
It absorbs many gaseous bodies. It dis-
solves the vegetable acids, the volatile oils,
the resins, tan and extractive matter, and
inany of the soaps; the greater number
of the fixed oils are taken up by it in sinall
quantities only, but some are dissolved
largely. The composition of alcohol was
investigated by Saussure and Gay-Lus-
sac. The result was, that 100 parts of
pure alcohol consist of
•
• •
•
13,70
Hydrogen
Carbon
51,98 100,00.
Oxygen
34,32
These numbers approach to 3 propor-
tionals of hydrogen, 3; 2 of carbon,
12; and 1 of oxygen, 8. Or it may
be regarded as composed of 1 vol. carbu-
reted hydrogen, and 1 vol. of the vapor
of water; the 2 volumes being condensed
into 1, the specific gravity of the vapor of
alcohol, compared with common air, will
be 1,599, or, according to Gay-Lussac,
1,613. When alcohol is submitted to dis-
tillation with certain acids, a peculiar
compound is formed, called ether (q. v.),
the different ethers being distinguished by
the names of the acids employed in their
preparation.
ALCORAN. (See Koran.)
ALCUDIA. (See Godoy.)
ALCUINUS, or ALBINUS, Flaccus; an
Englishman, renowned, in his age, for
learning; the confidant, instructer and ad-
viser of Charlemagne. He was born in
York (according to some, near London)
in 732, was educated under the care of
the venerable Bede and bishop Egbert,
and was made abbot of Canterbury,
Charlemagne became acquainted with
him in Parma, on his return from Rome,
whence he had brought the pallium for a
friend; invited him, in 782, to his court,
and made use of his services in his en-
deavors to civilize his subjects. In the
royal academy, he was called Flaccus
Albinus. To secure the benefit of his in-
structions, Charlemagne established at his
court a school, called Palatina, and in-
trusted him with the superintendence of
several monasteries, in which A. exerted
himself to diffuse a knowledge of the sci-
ences. Most of the schools in France
were either founded or improved by him;
thus he founded the school in the abbey
of St. Martin of Tours, in 796, after the
13
VOL. I.
145
plan of the school in York. He himself
instructed a large number of scholars in
this school, who afterwards spread the
light of learning through the empire of
the Franks. A. took his leave of the court
in 801, and retired to the abbey of St.
Martin of Tours, but kept up a constant
correspondence with Charles to the time
of his death, in 801. He left, besides
inany theological writings, several ele-
mentary works in the branches of philos-
ophy, rhetoric and philology; also poems,
and a large number of letters, the style of
which, however, is not pleasing, and plain-
ly betrays the uncultivated character of
the age; nevertheless, he is acknowledged
as the most learned and polished man of
his time. He understood Latin, Greek
and Hebrew. His works appeared in
Paris, 1617, fol., and, in a more complete
form, in Ratisbon, 1777, 2 vols., fol.
ALDEBARAN, or the bull's eye, in astron.;
a star of the first magnitude in the south-
ern eye of the constellation Taurus.
ALDEGONDE, St. Philip, of Marnix, lord
of mount St. Aldegonde, was born in Brus-
sels, 1538, and studied in Geneva. He
drew up, in the beginning of Dec. 1565,
the act of compromise for the preserva-
tion of the privileges of the Netherlands,
which was signed by count Louis of Nas-
sau, Henry of Brederode and himself. The
act was directed chiefly against the intro-
duction of the inquisition into the Neth-
erlands, and the members promised to
assist each other with their persons and
property. It was rejected, however, by
the regent Margaret. In 1566, Alva ar-
rived. St. A. fled, with the friends of
the prince of Orange, to Germany, and
returned with them as their leading coun-
sellor. In 1573, he fell into the hands of
the Spaniards, at Maesluys, was afterwards
exchanged, and conducted many diplo-
matic negotiations of the young republic
abroad. He defended Antwerp a long
time, though not successfully. He as-
sisted in establishing the university of
Leyden, and died there, professor of the-
ology, in 1598.
4
ALDENHOVEN, battle at, March 1, 1793.
The engagement near this town, situated
between Juliers and Aix la Chapelle,
opened the campaign of 1793. The year
previous, the Austrians had been obliged,
after the battle of Jemappe, to evacuate
Belgium, and retire behind the Roer.
Dumouriez, at the beginning of the year
1793, threatened Holland with an inva-
sion. To prevent this, and to raise the
siege of Maestricht, the prince of Coburg
drew together his army, consisting of
146
ALDENHOVEN-ALDERNEY.
40,000 men, behind the Roer, and forded
this river, March 1, in 2 columns, at Duren
and Juliers. In the engagement which
ensued, the French lost about 6000 men
killed and wounded, and 4000 prisoners.
On the following day, Aix la Chapelle
and Liege were occupied, the siege of
Maestricht raised, and the French active-
ly pursued. At Neerwinden the French
halted, and received a reënforcement, con-
sisting of the corps destined to invade Hol-
land, but were beaten here, March 18, a
second time.
ALDER. The alder or owler (betula
alnus) is a tree which grows in wet situ-
ations, and is distinguished by its flower-
stalks being branched, its leaves being
roundish, waved, serrated and downy at
the branching of the veins beneath. It is
common in Europe and Asia, and the
United States of America. There are few
means of better employing swampy and
morassy grounds, than by planting them
with alders; for, although the growth of
these trees is not rapid, the uses to which
they are applicable are such as amply to
compensate for the slowness with which
they come to perfection. The wood of
the alder, which is in great demand for
machinery, is frequently wrought into
cogs for mill-wheels, as it is peculiarly
adapted for all kinds of work which are
to be kept constantly in water. It is con-
sequently used for pumps, sluices, pipes,
drains and conduits of different descrip-
tions, and for the foundation of buildings
situated in swamps. For these purposes,
it has been much cultivated in Flanders
and Holland. It is commonly used for
bobbins, women's shoe-heels, plough-
men's clogs, and numerous articles of
turnery ware. This wood also serves for
many domestic and rural uses, for spin-
ning-wheels, troughs, the handles of tools,
ladders, cartwheels, &c. The roots and
knots furnish a beautifully-veined wood,
nearly of the color of mahogany, and well
adapted for cabinet-work. The bark may
be advantageously used in the operations
of tanning and leather-dressing, and by
fishermen for staining their nets. This and
the young twigs are sometimes employ-
ed in dyeing, and yield different shades
of yellow and red. The Laplanders chew
the bark of the alder, and dye their leather
garments red with the saliva thus pro-
duced. With the addition of copperas, it
yields a black dyc, used to a considerable
extent in coloring cotton. In the High-
lands of Scotland, we are informed that
young branches of the alder, cut down in
the suminer, spread over the fields, and
The
left during the winter to decay, are found
to answer the purpose of manure.
fresh-gathered leaves, being covered with
a glutinous moisture, are said to be some-
times strewed upon floors to destroy fleas,
which become entangled in it, as birds are
with bird-lime.
ALDERMAN (aldor, elder, and man);
among the ancient Saxons, the second
order of nobility. It was synonymous
with the Latin comes, the corla or jarl of
the Danes (which after the Danish times.
superseded it), and the senior and major
of the Franks. The aldermen were at
first governors of counties, and were ad-
mitted into the wittenagemot, or great
council of the nation; gave their consent
to the public statutes; kept order among
the freeholders at the county courts; in
times of war, appeared at the head of the
military forces of their shires, and were
called dukes, or heretogen, (the Germ. her-
zog). They were at first appointed by
the king, and were afterwards elected by
the freeholders of the shire; at first the
office was during good behavior, but final-
ly became hereditary. Aldermen, at pres-
ent, are officers associated with the mayor
of a city, for the administration of the
municipal government, both in England
and the United States. In some places,
they act as judges in certain civil and
criminal cases. In London, there are
26 aldermen, who preside over the 26
wards of the city, and from whose num-
her the mayor is elected annually.
ALDHELM. (See Adhelm.)
ALDERNEY; an island on the coast of
Normandy, about 8 miles in circumfer-
ence. Though within 7 miles of cape la
Hogue, it is subject to the crown of Great
Britain. With Guernsey, Jersey and Sark,
it forms the only part of the possessions
of William the Conqueror that now re-
main under the government of England.
A. is about 30 miles from the nearest
part of the English coast, and about 18
from Guernsey. The race of A. is a
name given to the strait running be-
tween the coast of France and this island.
The town of this name, about 2 miles
from the harbor, is but poorly built, and con-
tains about 1000 inhabitants. In stormy
weather, the whole coast is dangerous,
particularly from a ridge of rocks, called
the Caskets, which form numerous eddies
that have often proved fatal to mariners.
The air is salubrious, the soil fertile and
much cultivated; but the custom of gav-
elkind dividing the lands into small parts,
keeps the people in a state of poverty.
They send grain to England. In 1119,
ALDERNEY-ALDINI.
Henry, duke of Normandy, son of king
Henry I, with many nobles, was lost near
this island; and in 1744, the Victory, of
116 guns, admiral sir John Balchen, with
1100 marines and sailors, was lost near
the coast of A.
147
inently beautiful. His ink is of excellent
quality. At the same time, his prices were
fair. His Aristotle, 5 vols. fol., cost only
11 ducats. The press sunk in reputation
under the care of his son Paul, and his
grandson Aldus. When it was broken
up, in 1597, after a duration of 100 years,
and after producing 908 editions, it was
distinguished in nothing from other
presses in the country. The Aldine edi-
tions, especially those of the father, were
early sought for. The printers in Lyons,
and the Giunti in Florence, in 1502, found
it advantageous to publish inferior and
spurious reprints. In modern times, they
have been highly prized by scientific col-
lectors. The Hora b. Mar. virg., of
1497 (lately sold for 100 ducats), the Vir-
gil of 1501, and the Rhctores Græci, not to
mention the very rare editions between
1494 and 1497, are particularly scarce and
valuable. The bookseller and bibliogra-
pher Renouard, in Paris, and the grand
duke of Tuscany, possess the most com-
plete collections. Of the former's excel-
lent work on the press of Aldus, a sup-
plementary volume appeared in 1812. A
list of all genuine Aldine editions is given
in the appendix to the 1st vol. of Ebert's
Bibliographical Lexicon.-See, also, An-
nales de l'Imprimerie des Aldes, ou Histoire
des trois Manuce, ct de leurs editions; par
Ant. Aug. Renouard; second edit., Paris,
1825, 3 vols. 8vo.; and Repertorium Bib-
liographicum, in quo Libri omnes ab Arte
Typographica inventa usque ad Annum
MD. typis expressi, ordine Alphabetico
enumerantur vel adcuratius recludentur;
Opera L. Hain; Stuttgard. The second
part of the first vol. of this work has been
published quite recently.
ALDINE EDITIONS; the name given
to the works which proceeded from the
press of the family of Aldus Manutius.
(See Manutius.) Recommended by their
intrinsic value, as well as by a splendid
exterior, they have gained the respect of
scholars, and the attention of book-col-
lectors. Many of them are the first
editions of Greek and Roman classics,
and some have not been printed again;
as Rhetores Græci, Alexander Aphrodisi-
ensis. The text of the modern classical
authors printed by them, as Petrarca,
Dante, Boccaccio and others, was criti-
cally revised from manuscripts. Gener-
ally speaking, their editions are distin-
guished for correctness, though their
Greek classics are inferior, in this respect,
to their Latin and Italian. These edi-
tions, especially those of Aldus Manutius,
the father, are of importance in the his-
tory of printing. Aldus deserves much
credit for his beautiful types. He had
nine kinds of Greek types, and no one
before him printed so much and so beau-
tifully in this language. Of the Latin
character he procured 14 kinds of type.
Among the latter is the antiqua, with
which Bembus de Etna, 1495, 4to., is
printed; a very beautiful character. The
Italic characters, invented and cut by
Francesco of Bologna, and brought into
use by Aldus, who employed them for
the collection of editions of ancient and
modern classics, in 8vo. (the first of which,
Virgil, appeared in 1501), are less hand-
some; they are too stiff and angular, and
faulty in a technical respect, on account
of the many letters connected together.
He had even three kinds of Hebrew types.
He was no friend to ornaments of the
capitals, roses, vignettes and the like.
The Hypnerotomachia Poliphili, 1499, fol.,
is his only work furnished with orna-
ments of that kind and wood-cuts. His
paper is invariably strong and white. He
introduced the custom of striking off some
copies of an edition on better, finer and
whiter paper than the rest; first, in the
Epistolæ Græcæ, 1499. He also first pub-poleon appointed him, in 1805, secretary
lished single copies on large paper, in the
edition of Philostratus, 1501. He printed
also the first impressions on blue paper,
beginning with some copies of the Libri de
Re Rustica and Quinctilian, both in 1514.
His impressions on parchment were em-
ALDINI, Antony, was born in 1756, in
Bologna; pursued there, and afterwards
in Rome, the study of law; became pro-
fessor of law in Bologna; was sent to
Paris by his fellow-citizens, when his na-
tive town, in the days of the revolution,
withdrew from the pope's dominion; and
was afterwards a member of the council
of elders who presided over the Cisalpine
republic. In 1801, he became a member
of the consulta of Lyons, and afterwards
president of the council of state, from
which he was excluded, at the instance
of the vice-president, count Melzi. Na-
of state for the kingdom of Italy, with the
title of count. He gained, in 1819, the
confidence of the Austrian government,
and now lives in Milan. He had built,
with great expense, one of the most
beautiful palaces in the park of Montmo
148
ALDINI--ALEMANNI.
rency, near Paris, and adorned it with the
finest productions of Italian art. It was
injured so much at the second occupation
of Paris, in 1815, that nothing could be
done with it, except to sell it to the bande
noire. (q. v.)
ALDOBRANDINI; the name of a princely
family at Rome, celebrated in the history
of art on account of an antique fresco, in
their villa, representing a wedding, and
called by the name of the Aldobrandine
wedding. It was discovered in the time
of Clement VIII, not far from the church
Santa Maria Maggiore, in the district
where, formerly, were the gardens of
Mæcenas, and carried thence into that
villa. Winckelmann supposed it to be
the wedding of Peleus and Thetis; the
count Bondy, that of Manlius and Julia.-
Several scholars, also, of this name have
distinguished themselves, especially Syl-
vester A., famous for his knowledge of
law, and his brother Thomas, both in the
16th century.
ALDRED; abbot of Tavistock, and after-
wards bishop of Worcester, 1046. He
was the first English bishop who visited
Jerusalem, and after his return was raised
to the see of York, an elevation, which,
when he appeared at Rome, the pope re-
fused to ratify, on account of his ignorance
and simony. A.'s solicitations, however,
prevailed, and he received the pallium
from the pontiff. On the death of Ed-
ward the Confessor, he crowned Harold,
and afterwards the Conqueror, whose es-
teem he enjoyed, and whose power he
made subservient to the views of the
church. When he had received some
indignities from a governor of York, he
flew to London, and, with all the indig-
nation and haughtiness of an offended
prelate, demanded vengeance, and pro-
nounced a curse on the head of William.
His wrath was with difficulty pacified by
the entreaties of the sovereign and his
nobles, and the curse was recalled, and
changed into a blessing. It is said that
he died with grief, on seeing the north of
England desolated by the ravages of
Harold and Canute, sons of Sweyn, Sept.
11, 1068.
ALDUS. (Sec Manulius.)
ALE; a fermented liquor obtained from
an infusion of malt; differing from beer
chiefly in having a less proportion of
hops. (See Brewing.) We first hear of
ale in Egypt. The natives of Spain, the
inhabitants of France, the aborigines of
Britain and Germany, all used an infusion
of barley; and it was called by the various
names of calia and ceria in the first
country, cerevisia in the second, and cur-
mi in the two last; all literally signifying
strong water. Tacitus, Diodorus Siculus
and Pliny speak of this beverage as com-
mon among the nations just mentioned.
Henry's History of England (8vo. vol. ii.
p. 364), Hume's Hist. (vol. ii. p. 224), and
Pinkerton's Geography (vol. i. p. 65), give
the history of this liquor in England.
Dr. Stubbs (Phil. Trans. No. 27) says that
ale may be preserved from turning sour
on long voyages, by putting in every
rundlet of five gallons, after being placed
in a cask on board the ship, not to be
moved again, two new-laid eggs whole.
The value of this receipt, however, has
been disputed. The duties on ale and
beer make a considerable branch of the
revenue of England. They were first
imposed in 1643, and again during the
reign of Charles II.
ALECTO. (See Furies.)
A-LEE; the situation of the helm when
it is pushed down to the lee side of the
ship, in order to put the ship about, or to
lay her head to the windward.
ALEGAMBE, Philip; an author whose
writings afford a great amount of infor-
mation respecting the order of the Jesuits.
He was a Jesuit, born at Brussels, 1592.
His Bibliothèque des auteurs Jesuites was
published at Antwerp, 1643; Vita P. Joan-
is Cardin. Lusitani ex Societ. Jesu, 12o.,
Rome, 1649; Heröcs et Victimo Cari-
tatis Societ. Jesu, 4to. Rome, 1658; Mor-
tes illustres et gesta corum de Societ.
Jesu, qui in Odium Fidei ab Hæreticis vel
aliis occisi sunt, fol. Rome, 1657.
died at Rome, 1652. He was for some
time confessor of the emperor Ferdinand,
and afterwards retained at Rome by the
general of his order as secretary, to pre-
pare the Latin despatches to Germany.
The Bibliothèque, his chief work, was
also published in Latin, Rome, 1675.
A.
ALEMANNI; that is, all men, or various
sorts of men; the name of a military con-
federacy of several German tribes, which,
at the commencement of the 3d century,
approached the Roman territory. Their
settlements extended, on the east side of
the Rhine, from lake Constance, the Elbe
and the Danube, to the Maine and the
Lahn. Their neighbors on the east were
the Suevi, and, farther on, the Burgun-
dians. The principal tribes composing
the Alemannio league were the Teucteri,
Usipetes, Chatti and Vangiones. Cara-
calla first fought with them, on the south-
ern part of the Rhine, in 211, but did not
conquer them; Severus was likewise un-
successful. Maximin was the first who
(
ALEMANNI-D'ALEMBERT.
conquered and drove them beyond the
Rhine, in 236. After his death, they
again invaded Gaul; but Posthumius de-
feated them, pursued them into Germa-
ny, and fortified the boundary with ram-
parts and ditches; of which the mounds
near Phöring, on the Danube, the rampart
extending through Hohenlohe to Jaxthau-
sen, and the ditch with palisadoes on the
north side of the, Maine, are remnants.
(See Devil's Wall.) But the A. did not
desist from their incursions, and were
successively repulsed by Lollianus, the
successor of Posthumius, by the emperor
Probus, in 282, and afterwards by Con-
stantius Chlorus. Nevertheless, during
the disturbances in the empire, and until
Constantine became its sole master, they
occupied the tract from Mentz to Stras-
burg. At last, Julian was sent, when
Cæsar, to Gaul, in 357. He again repulsed
the A., and forced their princes, of whom
there were then eight, to sue for peace.
Their whole force, in the chief battle
against Julian, amounted to 35,000 men.
When the migration of the northern tribes
began, the A. were among the hordes
that overran Gaul. They spread along
the whole western side of the Rhine, and,
in the latter half of the 5th century, over
all Helvetia. At last, Clovis broke their
power in 496, subdued them, and de-
prived them of a large portion of their
possessions. Many of them fled to The
odoric, king of the Ostrogoths, into Italy
and the Alps; the greater part, however,
returned to their own country.
ALEMBERT, Jean le Rond d', one of
the most distinguished mathematicians
and literary characters of the 18th cen-
tury, was born in Paris, in 1717, but was
exposed by his parents, madame de Ten-
cin and the poet Destouches, provincial
commissary of artillery. The child ap-
peared so weak, that the police officer, in-
stead of carrying it to the foundling hospi-
tal, committed it to the care of the wife of a
poor glazier. Perhaps he had secret in
structions to do so; for, although his pa-
rents never publicly acknowledged him,
they did not withdraw their care from
him; on the contrary, his father after-
wards settled upon him an income of
1200 livres, a sum which was then suffi-
cient to procure the necessaries of life.
He showed much facility in learning, and
at the age of 4 years, was sent to a board-
ing-school. He was but 10 years old,
when the principal, a man of merit, de-
clared that he could teach him no more.
He entered the college Mazarin at the
age of 12. His talents surprised his in-
149
structers, who thought they had found in
him a second Pascal to support the cause
of the Jansenists, with whom they were
closely connected. He wrote, in the first
years of his philosophical studies, a com-
mentary on the epistle of Paul to the
Romans. But, when he began to study
mathematics, this science captivated him
so much, that he renounced all theologi-
cal disputes. He left college, studied
law, became an advocate, but did not
cease to occupy himself with mathemat-
ics, though he was almost entirely desti-
tute of property. A pamphlet on the
motion of solid bodies in a fluid, and an-
other on the integral calculus, which he
laid before the academy of sciences in
1739 and 1740, showed him in so favora-
ble a light, that the academy received
him, in 1741, into the number of its mem-
bers. He soon after published his famous
works on dynamics, Traité de dynamique,
and on fluids, Traité des fluides. In
1746, his Theory of the Winds obtained
the prize offered by the academy of Ber-
lin, of which he was chosen a member.
Ainong his communications to this acade-
my, two are highly distinguished—that on
pure analysis, and the one which treats of
the vibrations of strings. He also took a
part in the investigations which completed
the discoveries of Newton respecting the
motion of the heavenly bodies. Whilst
Euler and Clairaut were engaged in these,
he delivered, in 1747, to the academy of sci-
ences, a solution of the problem proposed
to determine what disturbances are occa-
sioned by the mutual attraction of the plan-
ets, in their elliptical revolutions round the
sun, and what their motion would be, if
they were acted on only by the attractive
power of the sun. He continued these
labors for several years, and published, at
intervals, various important astronomical
treatises, including one on the precession
of the equinoxes; also his experiment on
the resistance of fluid bodies, and a num-
her of dissertations on other subjects;
works, of the value of which there is but
one opinion among scholars, but which
produced a coldness on the part of Euler
and others.-In the first fervor of his
fondness for mathematics, he had, for a
time, become indifferent to belles-lettres:
but his early love of them soon revived,
after his most important discoveries,
when mathematical investigations ceased
to afford him so rich a harvest of new
truths, or he felt the necessity of relaxa-
tion. He entered on this new career,
with his introduction to the Encyclopédie,
and it will always be a pattern of style in
13*
•
150
D'ALEMBERT-ALEPPO.
treating of scientific subjects, uniting, as
it does, elegance and precision. D'A.
comprised, in this introduction, the es-
sence of all his knowledge of mathemat-
ics, philosophy and literature, acquired in
a study of 20 years, and this was all that
was known at that time, in France, on
these subjects. He undertook to prepare
the mathematical part of the Encyclopé-
die, and wrote a great number of excel-
lent articles. His name being prefixed
to this work, he shared its fate, and ex-
posed himself to numberless quarrels.
D'A. soon after entered the French acad-
emy, and continued to cultivate the belles-
lettres, together with mathematics. His
literary works, on account of their pro-
foundness and accuracy, met with the
approbation of all sound minds; they are
distinguished by purity of language, clear
ness of style, and force of thought. Al-
though he experienced much persecution
on account of his connexion with the
Encyclopédie, and was neglected by the
government of his country, he would not
accept the invitations of Frederic II to
settle in Berlin, nor the offers of the
Russian empress, who desired him to take
charge of the education of her son, with
a pension of 100,000 livres. His country
learned his worth from foreigners; and
the king of Prussia gave him a pension,
when the academy of sciences, at Paris,
refused him the salary to which he was
justly entitled. Though his income was
always moderate, his beneficence was
great. He lived above 30 years, in the
plainest manner, in the house of the
woman who had brought him up, and
left these lodgings only when his health
compelled him. His long attachment to
Mlle. de l'Espinasse shows that he was
not destitute of a feeling heart. Valu-
ing independence more than any thing
else, he avoided the society of the great,
and sought only that into which he could
enter with cheerfulness and frankness.
The reputation which he enjoyed, the
intimate friendship between him and
Voltaire, and his great merits, procured
him many enemies. He had a literary
contest with J. J. Rousseau, on account
of an article on Geneva, intended for the
Encyclopédie. His religious character
seems to have been that of a sober deist.
He died of the stone, being unwilling to
submit to an operation, in 1783, in the
66th year of his age. Frederic II, who
had, in 1763, become personally acquaint-
ed with d'A., maintained a correspond-
ence with him, which was published
after the death of both, and is very inter-
1
esting. The enemies of d'A., with a view
of depreciating his merits, called him a
good geometrician among the literati,
and a good belles-lettres scholar among
the geometricians. The truth is, that his
rank is somewhat higher in geometry
than in belles-lettres; but, owing to the
influence of style upon the fate of writ-
ings, his works in the department of
belles-lettres, will continue to interest
longer than his mathematical treatises.
The former are collected in the Œuvres
philosophiques, historiques et littéraires
de d'Alembert, 18 vols. Paris, 1809. Con-
dorcet has drawn his character in his
Éloge.
ALENÇON, capital of the French depart-
ment of the Orne, on the Sarthe, contains
1528 houses, and 13,500 inhabitants, a
college, a société d'émulation, a library,
and considerable manufactories of bone-
lace, etamine, woollen stockings, leather,
&c. The diamonds of A., so called, are
found in the neighboring quarries. 3000
women are employed here in manufac-
turing point-lace. Also a kind of linen,
toile d'Alençon, enjoys much reputation.
The neighboring country has become
richer by the division of the large estates,
and the town itself more industrious.
ALENIO, Julius; a Jesuit, born at Bres-
cia, in the territory of Venice. He was a
missionary in China, arrived, in 1610, at
Macao, and left several works in the
Chinese language. He died 1649.
ALEPPO, OF HALEP; capital of the Asi-
atic pashalic of the same name, which is
the second in the Turkish empire, and
comprises the northern part of Syria,
including mount Lebanon. It contains
9,800 square miles, and 450,000 inhabit-
ants. The Orontes, abounding in fish, is
the only river of the pashalic, which,
under any other government, would long
since have been connected, by a canal
running through a level plain, with the
Euphrates. The country produces chief-
ly wheat, barley, cotton, indigo, sesamum,
&c., and, in the mountains, mulberry,
olive and fig-trees. Halep, the seat of a
pasha of three tails, a Greek patriarch, an
Armenian, a Jacobite, and a Maronite
bishop, is, within the walls, about 35
miles in circumference; including the
suburbs, however, about 7 or 8. It contains
14,137 houses, 200,000 inhabitants (24,000
of whom are Christians), 100 mosques, 3
Catholic churches, 1 Protestant church, a
synagogue, many manufactories of silk,
cotton, &c. It carries on considerable
trade, forming the centre of the inter-
course between the Persian gulf and the
ALEPPO-ALEXANDER THE GREAT.
Mediterranean sea. Most of the inhabit-
ants are Mohammedans, the rest Jews,
oriental Christians, and Europeans. The
city lost two thirds of its houses, and 8000
inhabitants, by the carthquakes in 1822
and 1823. Lon. 37° 10 E.; lat. 36° 11' N.
ALESIA, the capital of the Mandubii,
a Gallic people, who dwelt in what is
now Burgundy, was an important for-
tress, the siege and taking of which was,
undoubtedly, the greatest military exploit
of Cæsar. All Gaul had risen against the
Romans, even the Edui, the old allies of
the oppressors; but Cæsar conquered
them under Vercingetorix, and besieged
them in Alesia. 80,000 men were shut
up in the town; Cæsar, with 60,000 troops,
Jay before it. He erected, immediately,
a line of contravallation, extending
leagues, in order to reduce the place by
famine, since its situation on a hill, 1500
feet high, and on all sides abrupt, between
the rivers Ope and Operain, rendered an
attack impossible. Vercingetorix, after
making several furious but unsuccessful
sallies, called all the Gauls to arms, and,
in a short time, 250,000 men appeared
before the place. Cæsar had, in the
mean time, completed his line of circum-
vallation, protecting himself against any
attack from without by a breast-work.
a ditch with palisadoes, and several rows
of pit-falls. These defences enabled him
to repel the desperate attack of 330,000
Gauls against the 60,000 Ronaus under
his command, though he was assailed
both in front and rear. The Gauls were
unable to force his lines at any point.
Vercingetorix, reduced to extremity by
hunger, was compelled to surrender, with
out having carried into execution his
design of murdering all the persons in
the town who were unqualified for battle.
But the whole tribe of the Mandubii,
which had been expelled from the city by
the Gauls, and were not allowed by the
Romans to pass into the open country,
died of famine between the two camps.
Afterwards, A. rose again to a flourishing
condition, until it was destroyed, in 864,
by the Normans. Vestiges of wells,
aqueducts, broken tiles, coins and the
like, found in the fields where A. once
stood, prove the former existence of the
city. At the foot of the ancient citadel
(now mount Auxois), is a village called
Alise (depart. Côte d'Or), with several
hundred inhabitants.
ALESSANDRIA. (Sec Alexandria.)
ADEUTIAN ISLANDS; a group belong
ing to Russia, and separating the sea of
Kamtschatka from the northern part of
151
the Pacific ocean, extending nearly 700
miles from E. to W., from lon. 169° to 183°
E.; lat. 53° N. They form a chain connect-
ing Asia and America, and include what
have generally been called, in English
geographical works, the Fox islands, Beh-
ring's and Copper islands, and the group
formerly divided into the Aleutian and
Andrenovian isles, altogether above 100,
comprising about 10,000 square miles, all
rocky, some containing volcanoes and hot
springs. The most known and largest
are the Oonalashka, Behring's island and
Kodiak. The principal place is Alex-
andria, the seat of the governor, and the
chief emporium. No tree grows on these
islands, and no domestic animal thrives
there; but they afford an abundance of
valuable fur and of fish. The inhabitants
belong to the same stock with the natives
of Kaintschatka; they are a harmless race
of hunters and fishers. Their number has
been reduced by the small pox and the
venereal disease to 1000. The Russians,
to whom they pay tribute, visit these in-
hospitable islands only for the sake of
fur. The officers of the Russian-Ameri-
can company treat the inhabitants so
cruelly, that Krusenstern made a report
about it to the Russian government.-
Müller's Sammlung Russischer Geschichte.
vol. iii.; Coxe's Account of the Russian Dis-
coveries; Tooke's View of the Russian
Empire: Krusenstern's Foyage round the
World: Cooke, &c.
ALEXANDER THE GREAT, Son of Philip
of Macedon, was born in Pella, B. C. 356.
His mother was Olympias, the daughter
of Neoptolemus of Epirus. In his early
youth, he showed the marks of a great
character. When he heard of the victo-
ries of Philip, he exclaimed, “My father
will not leave any thing for me to do."
Philip confided the charge of his educa-
tion first to Leonidas, à relation of his
mother, and to Lysimachus; afterwards
to Aristotle. At a distance from the court,
this great philosopher instructed him in
all the branches of human knowledge,
especially those necessary for a ruler,
and wrote for his benefit a work on the
art of government, which is unfortunately
lost. As Macedon was surrounded by
dangerous neighbors, Aristotle sought to
cultivate in his pupil the talents and vir-
tues of a military commander. With
this view he recommended to him the
reading of the Iliad, and revised this po-
em Himself. The copy revised by Aris-
totle was the favorite book of A., who
never lay down without having read some
pages in it. At the same time he formed
152
ALEXANDER THE GREAT.
his body by gymnastic exercises. When
very young, as every body knows, he
tamed the horse Bucephalus, which no one
else dared to mount. When he was 16
years old, Philip, setting out on an expe-
dition against Byzantium, delegated the
government to him during his absence.
He performed prodigies of valor, two
years later (338), in the battle at Charonea,
where he obtained great reputation by
conquering the sacred band of the The-
bans. My son," said Philip, after the
battle, embracing him, "seek another
empire, for that which I shall leave you
is not worthy of you." The father and
son, however, quarrelled when Philip
repudiated Olympias. A., who took the
part of his mother, was obliged to flee to
Epirus, to escape the vengeance of his
father; but he soon obtained pardon, and
returned. He afterwards accompanied
Philip on an expedition against the Tri-
balli, and saved his life in a battle. Phil-
ip, having been elected chief commander
of the Greeks, was preparing for a war
against Persia, when he was assassinated,
B. C. 336. A., not yet 20 years of age,
ascended the throne, punished the mur-
derer, went into the Peloponnesus, and
received, in the general assembly of the
Greeks, the chief command in the war
against Persia. After his return, he found
the Illyrii and Triballi in arms, went to
meet them, forced a passage through
Thrace, and was every where successful.
But the Thebans, having heard a rumor
of his death, had taken up arms, and the
Athenians, urged by Demosthenes, were
about to join them. A. hastened to
prevent this junction, appeared before
Thebes, and, having summoned it in vain
to surrender, took and destroyed the city.
6000 of the inhabitants were put to the
sword, and 30,000 carried into captivity.
The house and family of the poet Pindar
alone were spared. This severity terri-
fied all Greece. The Athenians suffered
less. A. demanded only the banishment
of Charmides, who had spoken most
bitterly against him. Leaving Antipater
to govern in his stead in Europe, and be
ing confirmed as commander in chief of
the Greek forces, in the general assembly
of the Greeks, he crossed over into Asia,
in the spring of 334, with 30,000 foot and
5,000 horse. To secure the protection of
Minerva, he sacrificed to her, on the fields
of Ilium, crowned the tomb of Achilles,
and congratulated this hero, from whom
he was descended through his mother, on
his good fortune in having had such a
friend as Patroclus, and such a poet as
Homer. When he approached the
Granicus, he learned that several Persian
satraps, with 20,000 foot, and as many
horse, awaited him on the other side. A.,
without delay, led his army through the
river, and obtained a complete victory;
having overthrown, with his lance, Mith-
ridates, the son-in-law of Darius, and
exposed himself to every danger. The
Macedonians, encouraged by his example,
bore down every thing before them, and
the whole ariny crossed the river. The
Greek auxiliaries of the Persians, who
were formed in phalanxes, resisted longer,
and were all destroyed, except 2000, who
were taken prisoners. A. performed
splendid funeral ceremonies in honor of
those of his army who had fallen, and
granted privileges to their fathers and
children. Most of the cities of Asia Mi-
nor, even Sardis, opened their gates to
the victor. Miletus and Halicarnassus
resisted longer. A. restored democracy
in all the Greek cities. In passing through
Gordium, he cut the Gordian knot, and
conquered Lycia, Ionia, Caria, Pamphylia
and Cappadocia. But a dangerous sick-
ness, brought on by bathing in the Cydnus,
checked his course. On this occasion
he showed the elevation of his character.
le received a letter from Parmenio, say-
ing that Philip, his physician, had been
bribed by Darins to poison him. A. gave
the letter to the physician, and at the
same time drank the potion which he
had prepared for him. Scarcely was he
restored to health, when he advanced
towards the defiles of Cilicia, whither
Darius had imprudently betaken himself,
with an immense army, instead of await-
ing his adversary on the plains of Assyria.
The second battle took place near Issus,
between the sea and the mountains. The
disorderly masses of the Persians were
broken by the charge of the Macedoni-
ans, and fled in wild confusion. On the
left wing, 30,000 Grecks, in the pay of
the Persian king, resisted longer; but
they also were obliged to yield. The
treasures and family of Darius fell into
the hands of the conqueror. The latter
were treated most magnanimously. A.
did not pursue Darius, who fled towards
the Euphrates, but, in order to cut him
off from the sea, turned towards Cœlo-
yria and Phoenicia. Here he received a
letter from Darius, proposing peace. A.
answered, that, if he would come to him,
he would restore to him not only his
mother, wife and children without an-
som, but also his empire. This answer
produced no effect. The victory at Issus
7
ALEXANDER THE GREAT.
had opened the whole country to the
Macedonians. A. took possession of
Damascus, which contained a large por-
tion of the royal treasures, and secured
all the towns along the Mediterranean
sea. Tyre, imboldened by the strength
of its situation, resisted, but was taken,
after seven months of incredible exer-
tions, and destroyed. A. continued his
• victorious march through Palestine, where
all the towns surrendered, except Gaza,
which shared the fate of Tyre. Egypt,
weary of the Persian yoke, received him
as a deliverer. In order to confirm his
power, he restored the former customs
and religious rites, and founded Alexan-
dria, which became one of the first cities
of ancient times. Hence he went through
the desert of Libya, to consult the oracle
of Jupiter Ammon. Some historians
assert that the god recognised him as his
son, but others reject all that has been
related respecting this journey. At the
return of spring, A. marched against Da-
rius, who, in the meantime, had collected
an army in Assyria, and rejected the pro-
posals of A. for peace. A battle was
fought at Gaugamela, not far from Arbe-
la, in 331. Justin estimates the forces of
Darius at 500,000 men; Diodorus, Arrian
and Plutarch at more than double that
number. Notwithstanding the immense
numerical superiority of his enemy, A. was
not a moment doubtful of victory. At the
head of his cavalry, he attacked the Per
sians, and routed them immediately; he
then hastened to the aid of his left wing,
which had been, in the mean time, se-
verely pressed. His wish was to take, or
kill, the king of Persia. The latter was
on an elevated chariot, in the midst of his
body-guards. These, when they saw how
A. overthrew every thing, fled. Darius
then mounted a horse, and fled likewise,
leaving his army, baggage and immense
treasures to the victor. Babylon and Su-
sa, where the riches of the East lay accu-
mulated, opened their gates to A., who
directed his march towards Persepolis,
the capital of Persia. The only passage
thither, Pyle Persidis, was defended by
40,000 men under Ariobarzanes. A. at-
tacked them in the rear, routed them, and
entered Persepolis triumphant. From
this time the glory of A. began to decline.
Master of the greatest empire in the
world, he became a slave to his own pas-
sions; gave himself up to arrogance and
dissipation; showed himself ungrateful
and cruel, and, in the arms of pleasure,
shed the blood of his bravest generals,
Hitherto sober and moderate, this hero,
153
who strove to equal the gods, and called
himself a god, sunk to the level of vulgar
men. Persepolis, the wonder of the
world, he burned in a fit of intoxication.
Ashamed of this act, he set out with his
cavalry to pursue Darius. Learning that
Bessus, satrap of Bactriana, kept the king
prisoner, he hastened his march with the
hope of saving him. But Bessus, when
he saw himself closely pursued, caused
Darius to be assassinated (B. C. 330), be-
cause he was an impediment to his flight.
A. beheld, on the frontiers of Bactriana,
a dying man, covered with wounds, lying
on a chariot. It was Darius. The Mace-
donian hero could not restrain his tears.
After interring him with all the honors
usual among the Persians, he took pos-
session of Hyrcania, the land of the Marsi,
and Bactriana, and caused himself to be
proclaimed king of Asia. He was form-
ing still more gigantic plans, when a con-
spiracy broke out in his own camp. Phi-
lotas, the son of Parmenio, was implicated.
A., not satisfied with the blood of the son,
caused the father also to be secretly mur-
dered. This act of injustice excited
general displeasure. At the same time,
his power in Greece was threatened.
Agis, king of Sparta, had collected 30,000
men to shake off the Macedonian yoke;
but Antipater, at the head of a numerous
army, overcame the Spartans, and dis-
solved the league of the Greeks. In the
mean time, A. marched, in the winter,
through the north of Asia, as far as it
was then known, checked neither by
mount Caucasus nor the Oxus, and
reached the Caspian sea, hitherto un-
known to the Grecks. Insatiable cù
glory, and thirsting for conquest, he spar-
ed not even the hordes of the Scythians.
Returning to Bactriana, he hoped to gain
the affections of the Persians, by assum-
ing their dress and inanners, but this
hope was not realized. The discon-
tent of the army gave occasion to the
seeue which ended in the death of Clitus.
A., whose pride he had offended, killed
him with his own hand at a banquet.
Clitus had been one of his most faithfiel
friends and bravest generals, and A. was
afterwards a prey to the keenest remorse.
In the following year, he subdued the
whole of Sogdiana. Oxyantes, one of
the leaders of the enemy, had secured
his family in a castle built on lofty rocks.
The Macedonians stormed it. Roxana.
the daughter of Oxyantes, one of the
most beautiful virgins of Asia, was among
the prisoners. A. fell in love with and
married her. Upon the news of this
1
154
ALEXANDER.
Oxyantes thought it best to subinit, and
came to Bactra, where A. received him
with distinction. Here a new conspiracy
was discovered, at the head of which was
Hermolaus, and, among the accomplices,
Callisthenes. All the conspirators were
condemned to death, except Callisthenes,
who was mutilated, and carried about
with the army in an iron cage, until he
terminated his torments by poison. A.
now formed the idea of conquering India,
the name of which was scarcely known.
He passed the Indus, and formed an alli-
ance with Taxilus, the ruler of the region
beyond this river, who assisted him with
troops and 130 elephants. Conducted
by Taxilus, he marched towards the
river Hydaspes, the passage of which,
Porus, another king, defended at the
head of his army. A. conquered him in
a bloody battle, took him prisoner, but
restored him to his kingdom. He then
marched victoriously through India,
established Greek colonies, and built,
according to Plutarch, 70 towns, one of
which he called Bucephala, after his
horse, which had been killed on the Hy-
daspes. Intoxicated by success, he in-
tended to advance as far as the Ganges,
when the murmurs of his army com-
pelled him to return, in doing which he
was exposed to great dangers. When
he had reached the Hydaspes, he built a
fleet, in which he sent a part of his army
down the river, while the rest proceeded
along the banks. On his march, he en-
countered several Indian princes, and,
during the siege of a town belonging to
the Mallii, was severely wounded. Hav-
ing recovered, he continued his march,
sailed down the Indus, and thus reached
the sea. Nearchus, his admiral, sailed
hence to the Persian gulf, while A. di-
rected his march by land to Babylon.
He had to wander through immense
deserts, in which the greater part of his
army, destitute of water and food, per-
ished in the sand. Only the fourth part
of the troops, with which he had set out,
returned to Persia. On his route, he
quelled several mutinies, and placed
governors over various provinces. In
Susa, he married two Persian princesses,
and rewarded those of his Macedonians
who had married Persian women, be-
cause it was his intention to unite the
two nations as closely as possible. He
distributed rich rewards among his troops.
At Opis, on the Tigris, he declared his
intention of sending the invalids home
with presents. The rest of the army mu-
tinied; but he persisted, and cffected his
purpose. Soon after, his favorite, He-
phæstion, died. His grief was unbounded,
and he buried his body with royal splen-
dor. On his return from Ecbatana to
Babylon, the magicians are said to have
predicted that this city would be fatal to
him. The representations of his friends
induced him to despise these warnings.
He went to Babylon, where many foreigu
ambassadors waited for him, and was
engaged in extensive plans for the future,
when he became suddenly sick, after a
banquet, and died in a few days, 323 B. C.
Such was the end of this conqueror, in
his 32d year, after a reign of 12 years and
8 months. He left behind him an im-
mense empire, which became the scene
of continual wars. He had designated
no heir, and, being asked by his friends
to whom he left the empire, answered,
"To the worthiest." After many disturb-
ances, the generals acknowledged Ar-
idæus, a man of a very weak mind, the
son of Philip and the dancer Philinna,
and Alexander, the posthumous son of
A. and Roxana, as kings, and divided
the provinces among themselves, under
the name of satrapies. They appointed
Perdiccas, to whoin A. on his death-bed
had given his ring, prime minister of the
infant kings. The body of A. was inter-
red, by Ptolemy, in Alexandria, in a
golden coffin, and divine honors were paid
to him, not only in Egypt, but also in
other countries. His sarcophagus, since
1802, has been in the British museum.
Arrian, Diodorus, Plutarch and Curtius
are the sources from whence the history
of A. is drawn. (See also St. Croix, Exam.
critique des Historiens d'Alex., 4to., Paris,
1804.) Secunder is the oriental name of A.
ALEXANDER BALAS, king of Syria, was,
according to some, the natural son of An-
tiochus Epiphanes, but, according to oth-
ers, a young man of mean extraction at
Rhodes, suborned by Heraclides, at the in-
stigation of Ptolemy, Attalus and Ariar-
thes, to personate the son of Antiochus,
and under that title to lay claim to the
crown of Syria, in opposition to Demetrius.
In a war between the two competitors, A.
was slain, B. C. 145.
His
ALEXANDER JANNEUS, king of the Jews,
succeeded to the throne B. C. 106.
fourth brother endeavored to deprive him
of the crown, and was put to death. A.
began his reign by leading an army
against Ptolemais, but was obliged to re-
turn to defend his own dominions against
Ptolemy Lathyrus, and was defeated on
the banks of the Jordan. He subsequently
conquered Gaza, made war on the Ara-
}
ALEXANDER.
bians, and was engaged in quarrels with
his own subjects. After reducing them to
order, he extended his conquests through
Syria, Idumæa, Arabia and Phoenicia. On
returning to Jerusalem, he devoted him-
self to drinking and debauchery, and died
B. C. 79.
ALEXANDER SEVERUS, a Roman em-
peror, was born at Acre, in Phoenicia, in
the year 205. He was the son of Gene-
sius Marcianus and of Mamma, niece to
the emperor Severus. He was admirably
educated by his mother, and was adopted
and made Cæsar by his cousin Heliogab-
alus, then but a few years older than
himself, at the prudent instigation of
their common grandmother, Mæsa. That
contemptible emperor, however, soon
grew jealous of his cousin, and would
have destroyed him, but for the interfer-
ence of the prætorian guards, who soon
after put Heliogabalus himself to death,
and raised Alexander to the imperial
dignity in his 17th year. Alexander
adopted the noble model of Trajan and
the Antonines; and the mode in which
he administered the affairs of the empire,
and otherwise occupied himself in poetry,
philosophy and literature, is eloquently
described by Gibbon. On the whole, he
governed ably both in peace and war;
but, whatever he might owe to the good
education given him by his mother, he
allowed her a degree of influence in the
government, which threw a cloud over
the latter part of his reign, as is usually
the case with the indirect exercise of fe-
muale political influence. A. behaved with
great magnanimity in one of the frequent
insurrections of the prætorian guards;
but, either from fear or necessity, he al-
lowed many of their seditious mutinies to
pass unpunished, although, in one of them,
they murdered their prefect, the learned
lawyer Ulpian, and, in another, compelled
Dion Cassius, the historian, then consul,
to retire into Bithynia. At length, under-
taking an expedition into Gaul, to repress
an incursion of the Germans, he was
murdered, with his mother, in an insur-
rection of his Gallic troops, headed by the
brutal and gigantic Thracian, Maximin,
who took advantage of their discontent at
the emperor's attempts to restore disci-
pline. This event happened in the year
235, after a reign of 12 years. A. was
favorable to Christianity, following the
predilections of his mother, Mammæa; and
he is said to have placed the statue of
Jesus Christ in his private temple, in
company with those of Orpheus and Apol-
lonius Tyaneus. In return, the Christian
155
writers all speak very favorably of him.
Herodian, on the contrary, accuses him
of great timidity, weakness, and undue
subjection to his mother; but exhibits a
disposition to detract from his good charac-
ter on all occasions, in a way that renders
his evidence very suspicious. He was
thrice married, but left no children. Ælius
Lampridius tells the following singular
story of A. :—Ovinius Camillus, a Roman
senator, conspired against him. A., learn-
ing the fact, sent for Ovinius, thanked him
for his willingness to relieve him from the
burden of government, and then pro-
claimed him his colleague. A. now gave
him so much to do, that he had hardly
time to breathe, and, on the breaking out
of a war with Artaxerxes, the fatigues to
which A. exposed himself, and which
Ovinius was compelled to share, so over-
whelmed the latter, that, at last, he be-
sought A. to permit him to return to a
private station. He was accordingly al-
lowed to resign the imperial dignity.
ALEXANDER; the name of several popes.
Alexander I reigned from 109 to 119,
and is known only as having introduced
the use of holy water.-A. II, Anselm of
Milan, previously bishop of Lucca, was, in
1061, raised to the papal throne by the
party of Hildebrand, afterwards Gregory
VII, while the adherents of the German
king, and of the nobility of Rome, chose
Honorius II at Basle. This antipope
expelled A. from Rome, but Hildebrand,
then the soul of the papal government,
supported him; a synod at Cologne ac-
knowledged him in 1062, and the Ro-
mans themselves revolted, in 1063, from
Honorius. Thus A. attained quiet pos-
session of Rome, and of the papal power,
which, however, Hildebrand administered
in his name. The papal bulls, therefore,
against lay investiture, against the mar-
riage of priests, and the divorce of Henry
IV, and the haughty summons of this
king to appear before the papal chair,
must be ascribed to the influence of Hil-
debrand, who used the weak A. II as his
tool. A. died in 1073. (See Gregory VII.)
-A. III reigned from 1159 to 1181, and
struggled with various fortune, but un-
daunted courage, against the party of
the emperor Frederic I, and the antipopes
Victor III, Paschal III, and Calixtus III,
who rose, one after the other, against him.
He was obliged to flee to France in 1161,
where he lived in Sens, until the dissatis-
faction of the Lombards with the govern-
ment of Frederic, the assistance of the
German ecclesiastical princes, and the
desire of the Romans, opened a way for his
!
!
156
ALEXANDER.
return, in 1165. He now strengthened his
power by a league with the cities of Lom-
bardy, but was obliged to retire, in 1167,
before the imperial army, and resided in
Benevento, Anagni and Venice, until after
the victory of the Lombards over the em-
peror at Legnano, followed by the peace
of Venice (so humiliating to the pride of
the emperor Frederic, who was compelled
to kiss the feet and hold the stirrup of A.,
in 1177), the abdication of the third anti-
pope, and the return of the victor to Rome.
A. humbled, also, Henry II, king of Eng-
land, who had exposed himself to the
papal vengeance by the assassination of
Becket. The terms, on which the Ger-
man and English sovereigns were restored
to favor, were such as to increase the power
of the pope in both countries. He placed
Alfonso II on the throne of Portugal,
and laid Scotland under an interdict on
account of the disobedience of the king.
The rest of his labors to augment the pa-
pal power, and his persevering efforts, in
the spirit of Gregory VII, till the period
of his death, are related in the article
Popery.-A. IV, count of Segni and bishop
of Ostia, ascended the papal throne in
1254, at a very unfavorable time. Con-
quered by Manfred of Sicily, implicated
in the quarrels of the Guelphs and Ghib-
ellines, despised in Italy, this pope, with
good intentions, and a peaceable dispo-
sition, was not able to prevent, either by
his prayers or his excommunications
(which were only laughed at), the disturb-
ances prevailing over the whole country.
At his death, in 1261, he left the papal
power in a state of great weakness.-A. V.,
a Greek from Candia, under the name of
Peter Philargi, a mendicant friar, rose to
the dignity of cardinal, and was chosen
pope in 1409, at the saine time with the
antipopes Gregory XII and Benedict
XIII. He was considered by the greater
part of Christendom legitimate pope, but
carried his prodigality and luxury in
Bologna, where he constantly resided, to
an extent injurious to the interests of the
church. At the council of Pisa, he prom-
ised to reform the abuses prevailing in the
church, but took no steps towards it.
While occupied in the condemnation of
the doctrines of Wickliffe, and in prepa-
rations for the trial of the Bohemian re-
former, Huss, he died in 1410, probably
by poison.-A. VI. (See the following ar-
ticle.)—A. VII, who was employed, when
cardinal Chigi, as papal nuncio, in nego-
tiations of peace at Munster and Osna-
bruck, and was revered on account of his
pious zeal for the church and holy life,
laid aside the mask of sanctity after his
elevation to the papal throne, April 8, 1655,
and gave himself openly up to luxury
and voluptuousness. He surrounded him-
self with show and splendor, and appeared
in the character of an intriguing politician.
For an account of his condeinnation of
the 5 points of Jansen's Augustinus, and
the quarrels in which he was consequent-
ly involved in France, see Jansen. He
quarrelled not only with the Sorbonne,
and the parliament, but even with king
Louis XIV; so that the latter declared
war against him, took Avignon and Ve-
naissin, and forced him, in 1663, to make a
disgraceful peace at Pisa. His improve-
ments in the city of Rome, his attempts
at poetry, and encouragement of learned
men, could not indemnify the Roman
court for the loss of authority in France,
and he died without glory, May 22, 1667.
-A. VIII, an Ottoboni from Venice, be-
came pope in 1689. By artful negotia-
tions, he induced Louis XIV to deliver up
Avignon and Venaissin, and to renounce
the privileges belonging to the quarter of
his anbassador in Rome. He supplied
the Venetians with men, money and ships
to carry on a war against the Turks. Less
intent upon the weal of the church than
on enriching his own family, he delayed
the condemnation of the 4 articles of the
Gallican church, in order to gain advan-
tages for his relations. He was hostile to-
wards the Jesuits, and condemned their
doctrine of the philosophical sin; at the
same time, however, 31 theses of the Jan-
senists. (Sec Jansen.) The library of the
Vatican is indebted to him for the pur-
chase of the excellent library of the queen
Christina of Sweden. He died in 1691,
81 years old.
ALEXANDER VI, a notorious pope,
was born at Valencia, in Spain, in 1430,
and ascended the papal throne in 1492.
His name was Rodrigo Lenzuoli; but he
took the ancient and renowned name of
his mother's family, Borgia. In his youth
he was noted for dissipation, though not
destitute of talent. He had 5 children,
by a woman fanious for her beauty, Rosa
Vanozza. Cæsar Borgia and Lucretia are
the most known; the latter was four times
narried, and was suspected of incestuous
intercourse with her father and brothers.
A. was made a cardinal by pope Calix-
tus III, his uncle. By bribing the car-
dinals Sforza, Riario and Cibo, he pre-
pared his way to the papal throne, after
the death of Innocent VIII. The long
residence of the popes in Avignon, at a
distance from their dominions in Italy, had
ALEXANDER.
diminished both their authority and rev-
enues. To make up for this loss, A. VI
endeavored to impair the power of the
Italian princes, and seize upon their pos-
sessions, for the benefit of his own family.
To effect this end, he employed the most
execrable means. His policy, foreign as
well as domestic, was faithless and base,
particularly in the case of France, whose
king, Charles VIII, was his enemy. He
understood how to extract immense sums
of money from all Christian countries.
He decided the dispute between the kings
of Portugal and Castile concerning Amer-
ica, dividing their conquests, in 1494, by
a line running from pole to pole, 370 miles
west of the Azores. A. died, 74 years
old, in 1503. Machiavelli abhorred this
detestable miscreant, and says of him,
Malò valenza, e per aver riposo
Portato fu fra l'anime beate
Lo spirito d' Alessandro glorioso ;
Del qual seguiro le sante pedate
Tre sue familiari e care ancelle,
Lussuria, simonia e crudeltade.
ALEXANDER NEWSKOI, a Russian hero
and saint, the son of the grand-duke
Jaroslav, was born in 1219. In order to
defend the empire, which was attacked
on all sides, but especially by the Mon-
gols, Jaroslav quitted Novgorod, and left
the charge of the government to his sons,
Fedor and Alexander, the former of
whom soon afterwards died. A. repulsed
the assailants. Russia, nevertheless, came
under the Mongolian dominion, in 1238.
A., when prince of Novgorod, defended
the western frontier against the Danes,
Swedes, and knights of the Teutonic
order. He gained, in 1240, a splendid
victory, on the Neva, over the Swedes,
and thence received his surname. He
overcame, in 1242, the knights of the
sword, on the ice of lake Peipus. After
the death of his father, in 1245, A. became
grand-duke of Wladimir. He died in
1263.
The gratitude of his countrymen
has commemorated the hero in popular
songs, and raised him to the dignity of a
saint. Peter the Great honored his mem-
ory by the erection of a splendid monas-
tery in Petersburg, on the spot where A.
gained his victory, and by establishing the
order of Alexander Newskoi.
ALEXANDER. Several kings of Scotland
were so named.-A. I, son of Malcolm III,
succeeded his brother Edgar in 1107. He
was called the Fierce, from his vigor and
impetuosity. A conspiracy was formed
against his life, and the traitors obtained
admission into his bed-chamber at night.
A., having killed six of them, made his
157
escape. He died in the 17th year of his
reign.-A. II succeeded his father, Wil-
liam the Lion, 1214, in his 16th year, and
died in his 51st year.-His son, A. III,
succeeded him in 1249. He married
Margaret, daughter of Henry III of Eng-
land. In 1263, he defeated, at Largs,
Haquin, king of Norway, who had landed
an army in his kingdom. He was killed
in hunting, by his horse rushing down a
high precipice. He was a prince of an
excellent character, introduced many good
regulations of government, and greatly
contributed to diminish the burdens of the
feudal system, and to restrain the license
and oppressions of the nobility. His
death makes an æra in Scottish history.
ALEXANDER 1, PAULOWITSCH (that is,
the son of Paul), emperor and autocrat
of all the Russias, and king of Poland,
was born Dec. 23, 1777; ascended the
throne March 24, 1801; was crowned 27th
Sept. of the same year, in Moscow; mar-
ried, 9th Oct., 1793, Elizabeth (previously
called Louisa Maria Augusta), third
daughter of Charles Louis, hereditary
prince of Baden; and died 1st Dec., 1825.
A. was one of the most important men of
modern times. He was a great benefac-
tor of his own country, and did some
good and a great deal of evil to Europe.
Nature had endowed him with great
talents, which were judiciously cultivated
by his mother and his instructers. He
recognised the spirit of the age; frequently
acted in accordance with liberal princi-
ples; had sense enough to know that a
monarch, to play an important part, must
have respect to the wishes of the people,
whatever his ultimate object may be;
loved justice, if it did not militate with
his love of power, which was indeed of a
higher order than that of a common
tyrant; and sought to make himself, like
Napoleon, master of Europe, though with
different means. In many respects he
resembled the great pope Gregory VII.
He was, whether from policy or convic-
tion of its necessity, in a religious point
of view, the principal contriver and the
chief support of the Holy Alliance”
(q. v.),--a league which history will de-
nounce as the origin of infinite evil. His
father did not take any part in his educa-
tion, which was directed by the empress
Catharine II and colonel Laharpe. (q. v.)
His mother, Maria, the daughter of the
duke Eugene of Wirtemberg, always
possessed his love and confidence, and
retained a great influence over him
throughout his reign. She died in the
year 1828. Laharpe educated him in the
VOL. I.
14
158
ALEXANDER.
principles of an enlightened age. His first
governor, count Nich. Soltikoff, receiv-
ed orders from Catharine not to give the
young prince any instruction in poetry
and music, as requiring too much time
for the attainment of proficiency. Pro-
Pro-
fessor Kraft instructed him in natural
philosophy, and Pallas, a short time, in
botany. He took part, it is probable, in
the conspiracy against his father, though
it is not likely that he had the most dis-
tant thought against his life. . He wished
to save himself and many nobles of the
empire from the mad persecution of the
emperor, and nothing short of dethroning
him could afford them safety. He is often
said, therefore, to have acted in self-de-
fence. The history of his government
may be divided into 3 periods: The first
was peaceful, and entirely devoted to the
execution of the schemes of Peter the
Great and Catharine II, respecting the in-
ternal administration. The second, ex-
tending from 1805 to 1814, was a time of
war with France, Sweden, the Porte and
Persia, and developed the resources and
the national feeling of the people. In the
third period, he used the experience ac-
quired in the two preceding, to carry into
effect the declaration of Peter the Great,
made 100 years before, in 1714, after a
victory over the Swedish fleet, near the
Aland islands:-"Nature has but one Rus-
sia, and it shall have no rival."-A. was
distinguished for moderation, activity and
attention to business, personally superin-
tending the multiplied concerns of his
vast empire, while his simple and amiable
manners gained him the love and confi-
dence of his subjects. He understood
and was zealous in promoting the welfare
of his people. Great attention was paid,
during his reign, to education and intel-
lectual culture, and many improvements
were introduced into the internal admin-
istration of the empire; c. g. the establish-
ment of the senate by the ukase of 1802,
of the imperial council and the ministry
of 8 divisions by the ukase of 1810, of
the provincial administration in the gov-
ernments, &c. The shackles which hung
on the industry of the nation were re-
moved, and its commerce increased.-A.
has likewise advanced the military estab-
lishments of Russia to a high degree of
perfection; he has developed in his peo-
ple the sentiments of union, courage and
patriotisin; and, lastly, he has raised Rus-
sia to a high rank in the political system
of Europe, and has made its importance
felt even in Asia. It must be also ac-
knowledged that, during his reign, taste
and intelligence began to be diffused
among the higher classes, as well as emi-
nent and even liberal statesmen to be
formed, though it is in this, as in so many
other things, difficult to distinguish what
is owing to the prince, and what to the
spirit of the age.-Among the most inti-
mate associates of the emperor were gen-
eral Jermoloff, afterwards Wolchonsky,
Araktschejeff and Diebitsch. In the ear-
lier part of his reign, some Greeks stood
high in his favor, as did the French am-
bassador, count Caulaincourt, from 1807
to 1812.-Among the merits of A. are to
be reckoned his exertions for the im-
provement of the Sclavonian nations, and
the cultivation of their language and liter-
ature. He founded or new-inodelled 7
universities, at Dorpat, Kazan, Charkov,
Moscow, Wilna, Warsaw and St. Peters-
burg; 204 academies, many seminaries
for the education of instructers, and above
2000 common schools, partly after the
system of Lancaster. He did much for
the distribution of the Bible, by the aid
which he rendered to the Bible socie-
ties (abolished in 1826). He granted in-
portant privileges, by a ukase of 1817, to
Jews becoming Christians. He appropri-
ated large sums for the printing of impor-
tant works, as the Voyage of Krusenstern,
the History of Russia by Karamsin, &c.
e esteemed and rewarded literary merit,
both in and out of Russia. He purchased
rare and valuable collections. In 1818,
he invited two orientalists, Demange and
Charmoy, from Paris to Petersburg, to
advance the study of the Arabic, Arine-
nian, Persian and Turkish languages. He
attended particularly to the education of
young men of talent, whom he sent to
travel through foreign countries. He en-
deavored, at the same time, by moderate
ineasures, to relieve his subjects from the
tyranny of their lords, the nobles, the bo-
yars, starosts, &c. Servitude was abolished
in 1816, in Esthouia, Livonia and Cour-
land; and A. declared, that he would no
longer transfer with the crown-lands the
boors who cultivated them. He forbade
the advertising of human beings for sale,
and gave leave to a number of boors, a part
of the bondmen of the late chancellor
Romanzoff, to ransom themselves from
their master. He endeavored, with much
earnestness, to give to his people a good
systein of law, but the civil code of Rus-
sia still requires many improvements.
The law-school, opened in 1807, ceased
in 1810.-The custom of slitting the nose
and branding, hitherto connected with
whipping with the knout, was abolished
ALEXANDER.
by A. in 1817. He likewise abolished, in
1801, the secret court, as it was called,
before which political criminals, chiefly,
were brought, and compelled, by hunger
and thirst (not, however, by instru-
ments of torture), to confess. He checked
the abuse of power in the hands of gov-
ernors, by preventive laws. The privi-
lege of the nobles, that their estates could
not be confiscated as a punishment for
their crimes, was extended by A. to all
his subjects. He also rendered efficient
aid to manufactures and commerce in
his empire, by the introduction of a bet-
ter tariff; the improvement of the finan-
ces and currency of the country, after the
establishment of a sinking fund; the erec-
tion of the bank of the imperial chamber,
May 19, 1817; by providing continually
for the construction of roads and canals;
by making Odessa a free port, and grant-
ing it other privileges, in 1817. The
condition of manufactures in Russia has
greatly improved since 1804, when it be-
came known from the report of the min-
ister of the interior. The greatest prog-
ress has been made in manufactures in
wool. The whole foreign policy of Rus-
sia; the voyages round the world, under
the patronage of her government; the
embassy to Persia, in 1817, to which was
attached a Frenchman, Gardanne, who
was acquainted with all the plans of Na-
poleon respecting India and Persia; the
mission to Cochin China and Khiwa; the
relations of Russia with the U. States,
Brazil and Spain; the treaties of com-
merce and navigation with the Porte; the
settlements on the western coast of North
America, all prove the enlightened com-
mercial policy of the Russian cabinet.
The travels of A. in foreign countries,
even his short stay in England, his inter-
course with well-informed and sensible
men, but, principally, his frequent jour-
neys through the provinces of his empire,
afforded the materials of his numerous
projects for the benefit of his country.
On this his attention was continually fixed.
-The peace of Tilsit, in 1807, makes an
epoch in the Russian military system. It
not only opened the way to the conquest
of Finland, in 1809, and of two of the
mouths of the Danube, in 1812, but af-
forded A. time to remove the defects of
the military system hitherto in use. The
armies of Russia, during the war with
Napoleon, were remarkable for their
equipment and discipline. The active
interest which A. took in the proper or-
dering of all the branches of the admin-
istration, is the reason why the nation
159
was attached to him with full confidence,
which he experienced in time of danger.
A. never showed a timid, unenterprising
spirit. His decision frustrated the plans
of Napoleon at Moscow. He gave his
word to his people, that he would never
negotiate with Napoleon, as long as an
armed enemy was in the country. The
activity which prevailed in the military
department of the Russian administration
is proved by the army which appeared, in
1813, in Germany, and that which was kept
ready, in 1815, to march against France,
comprising 300,000 men and 2000 pieces
of cannon. The peaceful character of A.'s
policy is remarkable. His personal friend-
ship for the king of Prussia, Frederic
William III, which was confirmed at the
tomb of Frederic II, in 1805, led to im-
portant consequences. The queen, Lou-
isa, was the living tie of this union. Ad-
miration for the dazzling qualities of
Napoleon drew him over to his side. He
believed, too, that he might, in connexion
with the emperor of France, decide the
fate of Europe. This was the purpose
of his famous meeting with Napoleon at
Erfurt, in Sept., 1808. But when he saw
that the ambitious conqueror wished to
involve him in political contradictions,
and prescribe laws to him injurious to
the welfare of his empire, he resolutely
maintained his independence. He suc-
cceded, at an interview with the prince-
royal of Sweden, at Abo, Aug., 1812, in
forming an alliance with that country,
after having induced the Porte, in May
of the same year, to conclude the peace
of Bucharest. After 1812, a kind of reli-
gious character appears in the policy
of A., and he gave himself up, more
and more, to religious influence. This
character is remarkably manifest in the
proclamation which he addressed from
Warsaw, on the 10th (228) Feb., 1813, to
the nations of Europe, and the proclama-
tion of Kalitz, 23th March, 1813, directed
to the Germans, in which he promised a
great improvement in their condition, by
means of a proper constitution, the object
of which should be, to promote their lib-
erty, security and prosperity. The mem-
orable manifesto of 27th Jan., 1816, con-
tained an exposition of the political prin-
ciples of the emperor.
In the war of
1813–14. A. exposed himself to dan-
ger, in order to inflame the courage of
his troops. He undoubtedly exercised a
great influence upon the course of the
war in France. His openness gained the
confidence of the French, and it is said
that he was secretly applied to from Paris.
160
ALEXANDER.
He also principally directed the march of sian court. A., together with the powers
Schwartzenberg, on the 29th March, 1814, that had concluded the treaty of Chau-
to this capital, which put a glorious ter- mont, took an active part in the general
mination to the war. The magnanimity concerns of Europe; for instance, the re-
with which he treated Paris and all the volt of the Spanish colonies, and the dis-
French, the strict discipline of his troops, pute of Spain with Portugal, on account of
and the assurances which the allies, at Monte Video. He took measures against
his instance, tendered to the nation, facil- the piracy of the African states. Very
itated the settlement of peace; and it is soon, nothing occurred, of importance to
asserted that he acted from the belief the political affairs of the European con-
that he was complying with the wishes tinent, in which this ambitious monarch
of the French, and not from adherence to did not appear as leader, mediator or par-
the principles of legitimacy, in recalling taker. From the formation of the holy
the Bourbons. He did not treat the con- alliance (q. v.), in Paris, 26th Sept., 1815,
quered and dethroned emperor meanly, to his death, A. was actively engaged in
but respected in him the former sove- politics, and kept his emissaries all over
reign and distributor of crowns, regard- Europe, who reported to him every im-
less of his birth. He called upon the portant occurrence. Among these was
empress Josephine, and dined with her at Kotzebue, the German author, who was
Malmaison; he interceded in favor of the assassinated by the student Sand. The
prince Eugene Beauharnois; he visited memoir, directed to all the Russian am-
Ney. The enthusiasm of the Parisians bassadors, concerning the affairs of Spain,
for him was unlimited. June 1, 1814, he the answer of the Russian cabinet to the
went to England, where he was joyfully Spanish minister, the chevalier Zea Ber-
received. Several things, however, seem nudez, and the declaration of the con-
to have made an unfavorable impression gress of Aix-la-Chapelle, 15th Nov., 1818,
upon him. He was not at case among are interesting documents in the history
free Britons. He rose from his scat, how- of A. He took part, in 1820, in the con-
ever, at the banquet in Guildhall, in hon- gresses held at Troppau and Laybach, to
or of the national song, Rule, Britannia. settle the affairs of Italy, and ordered his
He left England 28th June, and reached army to advance towards this country, to
Petersburg 25th July, where he declined suppress the revolt of the Carbonari. As
the name of the Blessed, offered to him its presence was found to be unnecessary,
by the senate. A later ukase, of 27th it returned to Russia, when the affairs of
Nov., 1817, forbade the praises which the Grecce (q. v.) occupied the attention of
clergy were accustomed to bestow on hin the Russian cabinet, in 1821. A. pub-
from the pulpit. His presence in Vienna, licly expressed his disapprobation of the
during the congress, had a great influ- enterprise of prince Alexander Ypsilanti
ence upon the policy of Europe, occa- (q. v.), but interceded, however, with the
sioned the admission of some liberal Porte, for the cause of humanity and
views into the acts of the assembly, and Christianity. (See Stroganoff.) It is pos-
added the kingdom of Poland to the sible, that, from a sincere love of peace, he
gigantic power of Russia. The draft of suffered the best opportunity to escape of
the Polish constitution, prepared at the liberating Greece, and increasing his em-
instance of A., was the first symptom of pire. His letter to the viceroy of Poland,
a disposition in the European rulers to prince Zajonczeck [Aix-la-Chapelle, 7
perform the promises made to their sub- (19) Oct., 1818], is a proof that he was not a
jects during the wars with Napoleon. stranger to liberal sentiments. He spoke
A. again visited Paris, July, 1815, and in the same spirit, March 5, 1819, to a
from that period the great influence deputation of the Livonian nobility, re-
of Russia upon the French cabinet, in questing his ratification of the new con-
opposition to the influence of England, stitution, which had been made for the
was apparent, especially when Richelieu, benefit of the Livonian peasantry, when
who had formerly been in the Russian he used the memorable words,-" You
service, was placed at the head of the have acted in the spirit of our age, in
ministry of Louis XVIII. In Spain, which liberal ideas afford the true basis
also, the same influence manifested itself. of the happiness of nations." His remark
Even the court of Rio Janeiro showed a to madame de Staël, several years before,
desire of allying itself with Russia; and was characteristic: "You will be offended
the kingdom of the Netherlands, as well with the sight of servitude in this land.
as Prussia, Wirtemberg and other states, It is not my fault; I have set the exam-
entered into a closer union with the Rus-ple of emancipation, but I cannot employ
ALEXANDER.
force; I must respect the rights of others
as much as if they were protected by a
constitution, which, unhappily, does not
exist." Madame de Staël answered
1
Sire, votre caractère est une constitution"
(Sire, your character is a constitution).
He had, at the beginning of his reign,
abolished the secret police of state and
the censorship of books (the latter of
which, however, he introduced again at a
later period), and declared, April 7, 1801,
"I acknowledge no power to be lawful
which does not emanate from the laws."
In the same spirit he banished the Jesuits,
1st Jan., 1816, from Petersburg and Mos-
cow, and at last, 25th March, 1820, from
the empire, because they dared to inter-
fere with the affairs of the government,
and disturb the peace of families. He had
prohibited proselytism, and promoted the
instruction of the Jews. A. developed, in
the same spirit, the internal resources and
the external power of his immense em-
pire. The addition of Georgia, Bialystock,
Finland, Warsaw, Schirvan and Bessara-
bia has rendered its froutiers almost every
where impenetrable, and increased the
number of its inhabitants from 36 millions
to more than 43, for the most part Euro-
peans. The speedy rebuilding of Mos-
cow, the progress of cultivation in Siberia
and the Crimea, the number of inhabit-
ants in the governments of Tobolsk,
Tomsk and Irkutsk increased by 800,000,
and similar proofs of the advancing pros-
perity of the empire, have immortalized
the reign of A. Whether the gigantic
plan of uniting the supporters of the po-
litical power of Russia, the classes of peas-
ants and soldiers, will prove to be good,
experience must decide. (See Military
Colonies of Russia.) A., by the edict
of 28th Dec., 1818, granted to all peasants
in his empire the right of establishing
manufactories,—a right confined, hitherto,
to the nobility, and the merchants of the
first and second classes. A better dispo-
sition of the national debt, and a sinking
fund, permitted an alleviation of taxes.
A ukase of 1st Jan., 1819, therefore, abol-
ished the tax upon income from land-
ed property, established 11th Feb., 1812,
but the expenses attending the support of
a numerous army prevented any further
remission. The population of southern
Russia has been greatly increased by the
admission of German emigrants; and the
same plan was extended to Poland, where,
by a decree of A., Warsaw, 10th Aug.,
1816, the new settlers received deserted
houses and lands, belonging to the na-
tional domains, or assistance of some
161
other kind. Schools and universities have
been established; the system of Bell and
Lancaster introduced; the ecclesiastical
affairs of the Protestants and the Catholics
arranged; the conversion of the Jews, or
Christian Israelites, as they are called,
encouraged; the activity of all public
institutions for instruction increased, and
the 17 scientific institutions in Petersburg
and Moscow much improved. The ex-
pulsion of the Jesuits, indeed, disturbed a
little the relations of the emperor with the
see of Rome, but satisfactory explanations
were made by A. to the pope at Laybach.
Lastly, the emperor nominated a bishop,
and established a general consistory for
the Lutheran church throughout the em-
pire, in 1820, which was to maintain, in
their purity, the doctrines of the Protest-
ant church. A. showed great respect for
all Christian sects, and protected them
equally. His endeavors to elevate the
condition of the boors, and the general
tendency of his policy to introduce the
principles and manners of western Eu-
rope, offended the old Muscovite nobility,
and, towards the conclusion of his reign,
in spite of the vigilance of the police, a
fearful and widely-spread conspiracy was
formed against him, the discovery and
punishment of which was reserved for
his successor. Perhaps A. was aware of
the existence of treasonable projects when
he followed his sick wife to the Crimea.
His intention may have been to choose a
place of retirement from the cares of
gov-
ernment; but he fell sick at Taganrock
(q. v.) of a bilious fever, and died, Ist Dec.,
1825, in the arms of his wife. The news
of his death had scarcely reached Peters-
burg, 8th Dec., O. S., when his eldest
brother, Constantine, then in Warsaw, was
proclaimed emperor; and all the civil offi-
cers and the guards took the oath of alle-
giance 9th Dec. O. S. But the grand duke
declined accepting the crown, having re-
signed his right of succession, during the
lite-time of A., in a letter addressed to the
emperor, Petersburg, 14th Jan., 1822, to
which an answer was sent, Feb. 2, 1822,
by A., expressing his approbation, and
that of the empress mother. Before the
arrival at Petersburg of the letter of
Constantine, dated Nov., 26th, O. S. in
which he announced to his mother and
brother, the grand duke Nicholas, that he
recognised the latter as emperor, the sen-
ate had opened the testament of A., and
found in it the document containing the
resignation of Constantine, together with
a manifesto of the emperor (dated Zars-
kojcselo, 16th Aug., 1823), declaring his
14*
162
ALEXANDER-ALEXANDRIA.
second brother, Nicholas, his successor.
This prince, therefore, ascended the
throne, made known these documents in
his proclamation of the 12th Dec., O. S.
1825, and declared, at the same time, that
the day of the death of A. was the begin-
ning of his reign (1st Dec., N. S., 19th
Nov., O. S.) Then the oath of allegiance
to the emperor Nicholas I was taken,
13th Dec., O. S., 25th, N. S., in Peters-
burg. The death of A. was a fortunate
event for Europe; for the influence of
Russia was growing continually stronger
in all the cabinets of the European conti-
nent, and even England could not keep
entirely exempt from it. No other empire
has united, on so great a scale, the pow-
er of masses, yet rude and vigorous, with
experience and the advantages of culture,
-a union the more dangerous, as it was
under the control of one absolute master.
With A., moreover, perished the princi-
pal support of the holy alliance, a suffi-
cient reason for Europe to rejoice at his
decease. Russia, however, laments in
him a great benefactor. He had the good
fortune to ascend the throne at a time
when the empire was prepared for the
greatest improvements, and his ambition
was of a kind to be gratified by promo-
ting the welfare of his people.
-a
Alexander, William, a major-general
in the service of the U. States during the
revolutionary war, was born in the city
of New York, but passed a portion of his
life in New Jersey. He was generally
styled, through courtesy, lord Stirling,
in consequence of being considered by
many as the rightful heir to the title and
estates of an earldom in Scotland, from
which country his father came, though
the government refused to acknowledge
the son's claim, when he repaired to
Great Britain in pursuit of this inherit-
ance. He was early remarkable for his
fondness for mathematics and astronomy,
in which sciences he made considerable
progress.—Throughout the revolution, he
acted an important part, and distinguish-
ed himself particularly in the battles of
Long Island, Germantown and Mon-
mouth. In the first, he was taken pris-
oner, after having, by a bold attack upon
a corps commanded by Cornwallis, ef-
fected the escape of a large part of his
detachment. In the second, his division,
with the brigades of generals Nash and
Maxwell, formed the corps de reserve; and,
in the last, he commanded the left wing
of the American army. He was always
warmly attached to general Washington,
and the cause which he had espoused.
He died at Albany, Jan. 15, 1783, aged
57 years, leaving behind him the reputa-
tion of a brave, discerning and intrepid
officer, and an honest and learned man.
ALEXANDRIA (in Turkish, Scanderia);
the capital of Lower Egypt, and the ancient
residence of the Ptolemies, built 332 B.
C., by Alexander the Great, who destined
it to be the capital of his empire, and the
centre of the commerce of the world. Its
natural situation is strong, and it has five
harbors. The Ptolemies, especially P.
Soter, or Lagus, and P. Philadelphus, im-
proved it much, and made it the seat of
learning. (See Alexandrian School.)—The
first inhabitants of Alexandria were a
mixture of Egyptians and Greeks, to
whom must be added numerous colonies
of Jews, transplanted thither in 336, 320
and 312 B. C., to increase the population
of the city and country, who, becoming
familiar with the Greek language and
learning, were called Hellenists. (q.v.) It
was they who made the well-known
Greek translation of the Old Testament,
under the name of the Septuaginta. (q. v.
-The most beautiful part of the city, near
the great harbor, where stood the royal
palaces, magnificently built, was called
Bruction. There was the large and splen-
did edifice, belonging to the academy and
muscumn, where the greater portion of
the royal library (400,000 volumes) was
placed; the rest, amounting to 300,000,
was in the Serapion, the temple of Jupi-
ter Scrapis. The larger portion was
burned during the siege of Alexandria by
Julius Caesar, but was afterwards replaced
by the library of Pergamus, which Anto-
ny presented to Cleopatra. The museum,
where many scholars lived and were sup-
ported, ate together, studied and instruct-
ed others, remained unhurt till the reign
of Aurelian, when it was destroyed in a
period of civil commotion. The library
in the Serapion was preserved to the time
of Theodosius the Great. He caused all
the heathen temples, throughout the
Roman empire, to be destroyed; and even
the splendid temple of Jupiter Serapis
was not spared. A crowd of fanatic
Christians, headed by their archbishop,
Theodosius, stormed and destroyed it.
At that time, the library, it is said, was
partly burned, partly dispersed; and the
historian Orosius, towards the close of
the 4th century, saw only the empty
shelves. Christian barbarians, therefore,
and not Arabs under Omar, as is usually
asserted, were the cause of this irrepar-
able loss to science. The Alexandrian
library, called, by Livy, Elegantiæ regum
ALEXANDRIA-ALEXANDRIAN COPY.
curæque egregium opus, embraced the
whole Greek and Latin literature, of
which we possess but single fragments.-
In the division of the Roman dominions,
Alexandria, with the rest of Egypt, was
comprehended in the Eastern Empire.
The Arabs possessed themselves of it in
640; the caliph Motawakel, in 845, restor-
ed the library and academy; but the Turks
took the city in 868, and it declined more
and more, retaining, however, a flourish-
ing commerce, until the Portuguese, at
the end of the 15th century, discovered a
way to the East Indies by sea. The
modern A., situated N. lat. 31° 11', E.
lon. 30° 16', does not occupy the place
of the old town, of which nothing remains
except a portico in the vicinity of the
gate leading to Rosetta, the south-western
amphitheatre, the obelisk, or needle of
Cleopatra (presented to the king of Eng-
land by the pacha-but a mass of 400,000
pounds is too heavy to be transported),
and Pompey's pillar, 88 feet 6 inches high,
which, according to an English traveller
(Memoirs relating to Europe and Asiatic
Turkey, by Robert Walpole, 1817), was
erected by a governor of Egypt, named
Pompey, in honor of the emperor Diocle-
tian. The equestrian statue on the top is
no longer standing. The town has now 2
citadels and harbors, of which the western,
which is the best, is closed against Chris-
tian ships. Before both harbors are the
peninsula Farillon and the island Pharos,
with the ruins of the lighthouse of Ptole-
my. (See Pharos.)—The population, for-
merly amounting to 300,000, is now
12,600; the houses, 3132. A. is the seat
of a patriarch. The canal of Ramanieli,
from Cairo to Alexandria, 40 miles,
was restored by the viceroy, Mohanimed
Ali Pacha, and first navigated 26th Jan.,
1820. In consequence of this, the com-
merce of Alexandria has been much im-
proved. In the year 1824, 1290 ships,
among them 606 Austrian, arrived, and
1199 departed.-A peculiarity of modern
A. is the great number of dogs, which
here, as well as in Cairo and Constanti-
nople, run about in a very wild state.-
According to the latest accounts, the tra-
ding pacha of Egypt has appointed an
Italian renegade, to collect all the remains
of ancient art, which are capable of trans-
portation, in his dominions, in order to
sell them, in a bazar to be built for this
purpose in A., to the Europeans.
ALEXANDRIA, with the surname della
Paglia; a considerable town and fortress
in Piedmont, situated in a marshy country,
near the junction of the Bormida and the
163
Tanaro. It was built in 1178, by the Cre-
moncse and Milanese, and at first called
Casarea; afterwards, in honor of the pope
Alexander III, who established there a
bishopric, Alessandria. Its magnitude
and opulence increased from century to
century; it now contains 30,000 inhab-
itants, and may be considered flourishing,
since it is the capital of the province of
the same name, and has two fairs annual-
ly, which are much frequented. Intended,
originally, for a fortress to guard the pas-
sage over the Tanaro and Bormida, and
constantly kept in good order, as the
point where several roads meet, Alexan-
dria has frequently been the object of
long contention. It was taken and plun-
dered, in 1522, by duke Sforza; besieged,
without success, by the French, under
prince Conti, in 1657; and taken, after an
obstinate defence, by prince Eugene, in
1707. On the 16th of June, 1800, after
the battle of Marengo, the Austrian gen-
eral, Melas, agreed upon an armistice
with Buonaparte, at Alexandria, by which
he ceded to the latter Upper Italy, as far
as the Mincio, and 12 fortresses. The
fortifications of A. consist now of a sur-
rounding wall and bastions, a strong cita-
del, formed by 6 bastions and many out-
works, on the left bank of the Tanaro, and
a redoubt protecting the bridge on the
right bank of the Borinida. A bridge of
stone connects the town and citadel.-For
an account of the revolt of the garrison
of A., sec Piedmont, Revolution of
·
ALEXANDRIA; a city and port of entry,
in the district of Columbia, and county of
Alexandria, on the S. bank of the Po-
tomac, 6 miles S. Washington, 115 N.
Richmond; lon. 77° 4′ W.; lat. 33° 49′ N. :
pop., in 1800, 4,196; in 1810, 7,227; in
1820, 8,218; blacks, 2,603: houses, in
1817, 1,385. Among the public buildings
are a court-house, a jail, an alms-house, a
theatre, a market-house, and 8 houses of
public worship.-The situation of Alex-
andria is considerably elevated, with easy
and gradual descents to the river, which
is neatly wharfed for about half the length
of the city, with water sufficient for the
largest merchant-ships. The streets in-
tersect each other at right angles, and a
great part of them are neatly paved. The
city is favorably situated for commerce,
nearly at the head of the tide-water of the
Potomac, having an extensive and fertile
back country, and carries on a consider-
able trade, chiefly in flour. A. expects
to derive much benefit from the intended
canal from Ohio to Washington.
ALEXANDRIAN COPY, or CODEX ALEX-
164
ALEXANDRIAN COPY-ALEXANDRIAN SCHOOL.
ANDRINUS; a manuscript, now in the Brit-
ish museum, of great importance in bibli-
cal criticism. It is on parchment, with
uncial letters, without breathings and ac-
cents, written, probably, in the latter half
of the 6th century, and contains, in 4 vols.
folio, the whole Greek Bible (the Old
Testament according to the Septuagint),
together with the letters of the bishop
Clement, of Rome. A large part of the
Gospel of St. Matthew and of the Second
Epistle to the Corinthians, as well as a
portion of the Gospel of St. John, are
wanting. The text of the Gospels is dif-
ferent from that of the other books. The
patriarch of Constantinople, Cyrillus Lu-
caris, who, in 1628, sent this manuscript
as a present to Charles I, said he had
received it from Egypt; and it is evident,
from other circumstances, that it was
written there. But it cannot be decided,
with certainty, whether it came from Al-
exandria (whence its name). Jolin Er-
nest Grabe follows it in his edition of the
Septuagint (Oxford, 1707—20, fol., 4 vols.)
Dr. Woide published the New Testament
from this copy, (London, fol., 1786), with
types cast for the purpose, line for line,
with intervals between the words, as in
the manuscript itself. The copy is so
perfect a resemblance of the original, that
it may supply its place. Henry Hervey
Baber undertook a similar edition of the
Old Testament, London, 1816, fol. This
famous manuscript belonged, in 1098, to
the library of the patriarch of Alexandria.
The text of this manuscript is of the
greatest importance in the criticism of
the Epistles of the New Testament; in the
Gospels it is evidently worse. The 3 first
divisions contain the Alexandrian transla-
tion of the Old Testament; the 4th, the
New Testament in the original language.
ALEXANDRIAN SCHOOL. When the
flourishing period of Greek poetry was
past, study was called in to supply what
nature no longer furnished. Alexandria
in Egypt was made the seat of learning,
by the Ptolemies, admirers of the arts,
from whence this age of literature took the
name of the Alexandrian. Ptolemy Phil-
adelphus founded the famous library of
Alexandria, the largest and most valuable
one of antiquity, which attracted many
scholars from all countries; and also the
museum, which may justly be considered
the first academy of sciences and arts. (See
Alexandria.) The grammarians and poets
are the most important among the schol-
ars of Alexandria. These grammarians
were philologists and literati, who ex-
plained things as well as words, and may
be considered a kind of encyclopedists.
Such were Zenodotus the Ephesian, who
established the first grammar school in
Alexandria, Eratosthenes of Cyrene, Aris-
tophanes of Byzantium, Aristarchus of
Sainothrace, Crates of Mallus, Dionysius
the Thracian, Apollonius the sophist, and
Zoilus. Their merit is to have collected,
examined, reviewed and preserved the
existing inonuments of intellectual cul-
ture. To the poets belong Apollonius
the Rhodian, Lycophron, Aratus, Nican-
der, Euphorion, Callimachus, Theocritus,
Philetas, Phanocles, Timon the Phliasian,
Scymnus, Dionysius, and 7 tragic poets,
who were called the A. Pleiads. The A.
age of literature differed entirely, in spirit
and character, from the preceding. Great
attention was paid to the study of lan-
guages; correctness, purity and elegance
were cultivated; and several writers of this
period excel in these respects. But that
which no study can give, the spirit which
filled the earlier poetry of the Greeks, is
not to be found in most of their works.
Greater art in composition took its place;
criticism was now to perform what genius
had accomplished before. But this was
inpossible. Genius was the gift of ouly
a few, and they soared far above their
contemporaries. The rest did what may
be done by criticisin and study; but their
works are taine, without soul and life, and
those of their disciples, of course, still
more so. Perceiving the want of origin-
ality, but appreciating its value, and striv-
ing after it, they arrived the sooner at the
point where poetry is lost. Their crit-
icism degenerated into a disposition to
find fault, and their art into subtilty.
They seized on what was strange and
new, and endeavored to adorn it by learn-
ing. The larger part of the Alexandri-
ans, commonly grammarians and poets
at the same time, are stiff and laborious
versifiers, without genius.-Besides the
A. school of poetry, one of philosophy is
also spoken of, but the expression is not
to be understood too strictly. Their dis-
tinguishing character arises from this cir-
cumstance, that, in Alexandria, the cast-
ern and western philosophy met, and an
effort took place to unite the two systems,
for which reason the A. philosophers
have often been called Eclectics. This
name, however, is not applicable to all.
The new Platonists form a distinguished
scries of philosophers, who, renouncing
the scepticisin of the new academy, en-
deavored to reconcile the philosophy of
Plato with that of the East. The Jew
Philo of Alexandria (q. v.) belongs to the
nea.
ALEXANDRIAN SCHOOL-ALEXIS PETROVITSCH.
earlier new Platonists. Plato and Aris-
totle were diligently interpreted and com-
pared in the 1st and 2d centuries after
Christ. Ammonius the Peripatetic belongs
here, the teacher of Plutarch of Charo-
But the real new Platonic school
of Alexandria was established at the
close of the 2d century after Christ, by
Ammonius of Alexandria (about 193
A. D.), whose disciples were Plotinus and
Origen. (See Platonists, New.) Being,
for the most part, Orientals, formed by the
study of Greek learning, their writings
are strikingly characterized, e. g. those of
Ammonius Saccas, Plotinus, Iamblicus,
Porphyrius, by a strange mixture of
Asiatic and European elements, which
had become amalgamated in Alexandria,
owing to the mingling of the eastern and
western races in its population, as well as
to its situation and commercial inter-
course. Their philosophy had a great
influence on the manner in which Chris-
tianity was received and taught in Egypt.
The principal Gnostic systems had their
origin in Alexandria. (See Gnosis.) The
principal teachers of the Christian cate-
chetical schools (q. v.), which had risen
and flourished together with the eclectic
philosophy, had imbibed the spirit of this
philosophy. The most violent religious
controversies disturbed the A. church,
until the orthodox tenets were establish-
ed in it by Athanasius, in the controversy
with the Arians.-Among the scholars of
Alexandria are to be found great mathe-
maticians, as Euclid, the father of scien-
tific geometry; Apollonius of Perga in
Pamphylia, whose work on conic sections
still exists; Nicomachus, the first scientific
arithmetician-astronomers, who cm-
ployed the Egyptian hieroglyphics for
marking the northern hemisphere, and
fixed the images and names (still in use) of
the constellations, who left astronomical
writings (e. g. the Phænomena of Aratus,
a didactic poem, the Sphærica of Mene-
laus, the astronomical works of Eratos-
thenes, and especially the Magna Syntaxis
of the geographer Ptolemy), and made im-
provements in the theory of the calendar,
which were afterwards adopted into the
Julian calendar;-natural philosophers,
anatomists, as Herophilus and Erasistra-
tus;-physicians and surgeons, as De-
mosthenes Philalethes, who wrote the first
work on the diseases of the eye; Zopyrus
and Cratevas, who improved the art of
pharmacy and invented antidotes ;-in-
structers in the art of medicine, to whom
Asclepiades, Soranus and Galen owed
their education;-medical theorists and
165
empirics, of the sect. founded by Phili-
nus. All these belonged to the numerous
association of scholars continuing under
the Roman dominion, and favored by the
Roman emperors, which rendered Ålex-
andria one of the most renowned and
influential seats of science in antiquity.—
The best work on the learning of Alex-
andria is the prize essay of Jacob Matter;
Essai Historique sur l'École d'Alexandrie,
Paris, 1819, 2 vols.
ALEXANDRINE, or ALEXANDRIAN; the
name of a verse, which consists of six feet,
or of six and a half, equal to twelve or
thirteen syllables, the pause being always
on the sixth syllable; e. g. the second of
the following lines:
A needless Alexandrine ends the song,
Which, like a wounded snake, drags its slow
length along.
It corresponds, in our language, to the
hexameters in the Greek and Latin;
though, according to some writers, it
rather answers to the senarii of the ancient
tragic poets. Chapman's translation of
Homer and Drayton's polyolbion are
written in this measure. The concluding
line of the Spenserian stanza is also an
A. This verse becomes fatiguing from
monotony, unless the writer has a very
delicate car. The French, in their epics
and drama, are confined to this verse,
which, for this reason, is called by them
the heroic. The A. derives its name from
an old French poem, belonging to the
middle of the 12th or the beginning of
the 13th century, the subject of which is
Alexander the Great, and in which this
verse was first made use of. (See French
Poetry.)
ALEXIANS. (See Fraternities.)
ALEXIS-BATH; a watering-place in
Anhalt-Berenburg, of all the German
mineral springs the most strongly im-
pregnated with iron. It is charmingly
situated at the foot of the Harz.
ALEXIS COMNENUS. (See Comnenus.)
ALEXIS PETROVITSCH, the eldest son of
the czar Peter the Great and Eudoxia La-
puchin, was born in Moscow, 1690, and
opposed the innovations introduced by
his father, who, on this account, deter-
mined to disinherit him. A. renounced
the crown, and declared that he would
become a monk; but, when Peter set out
on his second journey, he made his escape,
in 1717, to Vienua, and thence to Naples,
under the pretext of going to his father,
who had sent for him. At the command
of Peter, he returned; but the enraged
czar, regarding his flight as an act of trea-
son, disinherited him, by a ukase of 2d
166
ALEXIS PETROVITSCH-ALFIERI.
Feb., 1718; and, when he discovered that
A. was paving the way to succeed to the
crown, he not only caused all the partici-
pators in his project to be punished capi-
tally or otherwise, but had A. also con-
demned to death, and the sentence read
to him, as pronounced unanimously by
144 judges. Although he was soon after-
wards pardoned, yet the fright and anx-
iety which he had experienced, affected
him so much, that he died in the course
of 4 days, June 26, O. S. 1718. He left a
daughter, and a son, afterwards the em-
peror Peter II. The account of B-
sching, that general Weide decapitated A.
in prison, is without any authority.
ALFIERI, Vittorio, count, was born at
Asti, in Piedmont, in 1749, of a rich and
distinguished family. His early educa-
tion was very defective, like that of most
men of his rank and country at that time.
His uncle and guardian sent him to Tu-
rin, whose academy he left as ignorant
and unformed as when he entered it.
He then joined a provincial regiment,
which was only called together for a few
days during the year. He afterwards
travelled over Italy, France, England and
Holland; returned and commenced the
study of history, but, soon disgusted with
this pursuit, commenced his travels anew,
and wandered for nearly 3 years, con-
- tinually restless and unsatisfied. He left
the military service, and led, for a long
time, an inactive life, until ennui drove
him to write dramatic poetry. His first
attempt was crowned with undeserved
success; and he determined, at the age
of 27 years, to devote all his efforts to the
single object of becoming a tragic poet.
Sensible of his deficiencies, he went to
work zealously to acquire the rudiments
of knowledge. He first studied Latin and
He first studied Latin and
Tuscan, for which purpose he went to
Tuscany. In this journey he became
acquainted with the countess of Albany
(q. v.), the consort of the English pre-
tender, and a daughter of the noble family
of Stolberg, to whom he soon became
deeply attached. From this time, he
strove with restless zeal to acquire dis-
tinction as a poet, in order to be worthy
of her, whose esteem and love had such
value in his eyes. In order to continue
his labors wholly free and independent,
he broke the last tie which bound him to
his country. He bestowed his fortune on
his sister, reserving only a moderate in-
come for himself, and henceforth lived
alternately at Florence and Rome. Here
he composed 14 tragedies, to which he af
terwards added some others, although con-
trary to his own inclination. The unfor-
tunate situation of his beloved friend often
disturbed him, but the death of her hus-
band at length put an end to her troubles,
and enabled her to marry A. Henceforth
A. lived with her alternately in Alsace
and in Paris, unceasingly busied with
composition, and the arrangement and
publication of his works (by Didot and
Beaumarchais). When the disturbances
in France began, he quitted the country,
and went to England. Embarrassed by
the constant fall of assignats, he went
back to Paris, angry at seeing the cause
of freedom dishonored by unworthy
hands, and unable, from the state of his
feelings, to continue his intellectual la-
bors. This torture of mind he endured
till the end of Aug. 1792, when he fled
from Paris, and escaped the horrors of
the ensuing September. He lost his books,
and the greatest part of the complete
edition of his tragedies, published by Di-
dot, in 5 vols. Afterwards, he lived with
his inseparable companion at Florence,
resumed his usual labors, wrote his sat-
ires and 6 comedies, and, in his last years,
studied the Greek language; with the
Greek poetry he did not become ac-
quainted till his course was nearly fin-
ished. He died in the midst of these la-
bors, Oct. 8, 1803. He was buried in the
church of Santa Croce, at Florence, be-
tween Machiavelli and Michael Angelo,
where a beautiful monument by Cano-
va covers his remains.-A. has distin-
guished himself as a dramatic poet in
three different departments. He has writ-
ten 6 comedics, 21 tragedies, and a tra-
melogedia, so called. All these works are
to be looked upon as the efforts of a great
spirit employed out of its proper sphere
of action.. Disgusted with idleness, and
desirous to distinguish himself, A. became
a poct. It was wholly impossible, for one
who seldom contented himself with per-
forming half of any design, to propose to
himself a moderate degree of excellence
in that which he had made the business
of his life. He expressed his hope that
his high exertions would associate his
name with those of all the great poets
that Italy had possessed. His noble ef
forts disarm the severity of criticism. He
was worthy to attain what he could not
attain. Above the degeneracy of his
contemporaries, cherishing, too, a deep
abhorrence of despotism, and possessed
of a proud, free and passionate heart, A.
was animated with a political rather than
a poetical spirit. In the midst of a de-
based people, he wished to inspire the
•
•
ALFIERI-ALGARDI.
spiritless with strength, courage and free-
dom of thought; but he disdained the
arts of persuasion. He purposely threw
aside all ornament, and wished to attain
his end by loftiness of thought, strong
brevity, and manly earnestness; but he
forgot, that, in doing this, he must throw
off the peculiar characteristics of a poet.
His tragedies are abrupt and stiff; the
plots simple, even to barrenness; the verse
bard and unpleasing; and the language
devoid of that attractive splendor, by
which the poet stirs the inmost soul of
man. Nevertheless, he is the first tragic
writer of Italy, and has served as a model
for those who have followed him.-If, in
his youth, the genius of A. was too stiff
for tragedy, he must, of necessity, fuil
when he attempted comedy in his old
age, long after the sweet deceptions of
life had vanished. His comedies, like his
former works, had a serious, and, gener-
ally, a political aim; they are barren of
invention; their plots are without interest;
the characters, as in his tragedies, only
general sketches, without individuality.
They are, therefore, far inferior to his
tragedies, and, indeed, are not worthy of
his lofty spirit. We consider A.'s Abel
the most successful of all his dramatic
works. This he called a tramelogedia,-a
name as novel as the work itself. He
invented this species of drama intermedi-
ate between the tragedy and opera, and
intended to have written 6 pieces in this
form. His genius, which was the most
successful when least restrained, here
found its proper sphere, and if the species
can stand before the critic, then the in-
vention and execution of Abel make it,
without doubt, a fine poetic work. Be-
sides his dramas, A. has written an epie
poem in cantos, several lyrical pieces,
16 satires, and poetical translations from
Terence, Virgil, and some portions of
Eschylus, Sophocles, Euripides and
Aristophanes. After his death appeared
the Misogallo, a monument of his hatred
towards the French; and his autobiogra-
phy, a striking exhibition of his character.
His complete works appeared at Padua
and Brescia in 1809 and 1810, 37 vols.
Alfred the GREAT, king of England
(born 849, died 900), ascended the throne
of England 872, at a time when the
Danes, or Normans, who were formidable
to the Saxons as early as the year 787,
had extended their conquests and devas-
tations very widely over the country. A.'s
efforts against them were at first unsuc-
cessful, and he concluded some treaties
which were not kept on their side. He
167
was obliged to fly in disguise, and re-
mained, for more than a year, in the ser-
vice of a shepherd. In this situation, he
formed the design of freeing his country.
He ordered his subjects to hold them-
selves in readiness against the enemy,
gave them intelligence of his retreat, and
informed himself of the condition of the
Danes. He went, disguised as a harper,
into the camp of king Gutbrum, and,
having ascertained that the Danes felt
themselves secure, hastened back to his
troops, led them against the enemy, and
gained such a decided victory, that the
Danes begged for, peace. Those who
were already in the country he allowed
to remain there, on the condition that
they and their king should embrace Chris-
tianity. A. now built forts, and exer-
cised a part of his people in arms, while
the rest cultivated the ground. He soon
after divided the kingdom into counties,
or shires, whereby he secured the public
tranquillity. He made London the capi-
tal city of his dominions, and held there,
twice a year, a general assembly of the
estates. From time to time, new swarms
of Danes sought entrance into the land,
but the fleets of A. drove them from the
coasts. He collected the laws of his
predecessors, and endeavored to improve
the condition of his subjects by an impar-
tial administration of justice. He trans-
lated the Psalms, the fables of Esop,
and other writings, into Anglo-Saxon,
and founded a school at Oxford. His
familiar acquaintance with the most learn-
ed men of his time improved his own
mind, and enabled him to do much for
the good of his people. He laid the
foundation of the English navy by caus-
ing ships, or rather galleys, of 60 oars to
be built, which were as strong as any
ships at that time in use. He also made
discoveries in the north, and in the Baltic
sea, the results of which he has made
known in his translation of Orosius. II's
history, considering the times in which
he lived, presents one of the most perfect
examples on record of the able and patri-
otic monarch united with the virtuous
man.
ALGE, in botany; one of the seven
families of plants, into which Linnæus
distributed the whole vegetable kingdom.
They are defined to be plants, of which
the roots, leaf and stem are all one. Un-
der this description are comprehended
all the sea-weeds, and some other aquatic
plants. A. are also one of the Linnæan
orders of the class cryptogamia.
ALGARDI, Alexander, a sculptor, de-
168
ALGARDI-ALGEBRA.
rived his origin from a family of high
standing in Bologna. He was educated
in the academy of Lodovico Caracci, and
went, when 20 years old, to Mantua.
The attempt to imitate, in sculpture, the
famous pictures of Giulio Romano, in the
palace del T, was sufficient to give his
genius a wrong direction, since the ex-
cellences of these pictures are directly
opposed to those of sculpture. In 1625,
he went to Venice, and thence to Rome.
The duke of Mantua had recommended
him to cardinal Ludovisi, nephew of pope
Gregory XV, who was intent on renewing
the magnificence of the gardens of Sal-
lust. Here A. was employed in restoring
mutilated antiques (e. g. a Mercury), and
in preparing original works. Here he
became acquainted with his countryman
Domenichino. The statue of St. Magda-
len, for the church of St. Silvestre, on
the Quirinal, was his first great work.
Cardinals and princes now availed then-
selves of his talents, and the French court
wished him to come to Paris; but the
prince Pamfili succeeded in retaining him
in Rome, where he died, June 10, 1654,
52 years old, and was buried in the church
St. Giovanni de Bolognesi. His Flight of
Alila, a basso-relievo in marble, with fig-
ures of the size of life, over the altar of
St. Leo, in St. Peter's church, is his most
renowned work. But, with all the excel-
lences of this work, an inclination to give
to sculpture the effect of painting is ob-
servable. This was owing to the influ-
ence of the school of Caracci on him.
His God of sleep, of nero antico, in the
villa Borghese, has often been taken for
an antique. The båsso-relievo of the
Flight of Atila has often been engraved.
It may be seen in Cicognara's Storia della
Scollura.
ALGAROTTI, Francesco, count; born at
Venice, 1712; an Italian writer, who
united the study of the sciences with a
cultivated taste for the fine arts. Ic
studied at Rome, Venice and Bologna.
He was a distinguished connoisseur in the
fine arts, and excelled in mathematics,
astronomy and natural philosophy. He
had a predilection for this last science, as
well as for anatomy, and devoted himself
to them. He was acquainted with the
Latin and Greek tongues, and paid great
attention to the Tuscan style and lan-
guage. He visited France, England, Rus-
sia, Germany, Switzerland, and all the
important towns of Italy. The last ten
years of his life he spent in his own
country. When 21 years old, he wrote,
at Paris, the greatest part of his Neuloni-
A.
anismo per le Dame, 1737, after the model
of Fontenelle's Plurality of Worlds, and
thereby laid the foundation of his fame.
Until 1739, A. lived alternately in Paris,
at Cirey, with the marchioness du Chate-
let, and in London. At that time he made
a journey to Petersburg with lord Balti-
more. On his return, he visited Fred-
eric II, then crown-prince, and residing
at Rheinsburg. The prince was so much
pleased with him, that, after his ascension
to the throne, he invited him to live with
him, and raised him to the rank of count.
He was not less esteemed by Augustus
III, king of Poland, who conferred on
him the office of privy counsellor.
now lived alternately at Berlin and Dres-
den, but particularly in the former place,
after receiving from Frederic, in 1747, the
order of merit and the office of chamber-
lain. In 1754, he returned to his own
country, where he resided first at Venice,
afterwards at Bologna, and, after 1762, at
Pisa. Here he died of a consumption,
1764, after suffering long from hypochon-
dria. He himself formed the design of
the monument, which Frederic II caused
to be erected over his grave, in the court
of the campo santo, at Pisa. He was call-
ed, in the inscription, with reference to
his Congresso di Citera, and his Neutoni-
anismo, a rival of Ovid, and a scholar of
Newton. A.'s knowledge was extensive
and thorough in many departments. In
painting and architecture, he was one of
the Best critics in Europe. Many artists
were formed under his direction.
drew and etched with much skill. In his
works, which embrace a great variety of
subjects, he shows much wit and acute-
ness. His poems, though not of a very
high order, are pleasing, and his letters
are considered among the finest in the
Italian language. The latest collection
of his works appeared at Venice, from
1791 to 1794, 17 vols.
He
ALGEBRA is a general method of re-
solving mathematical problems by means
of equations, or it is a method of perform-
ing the calculations of all sorts of quanti-
ties by means of general signs or charac-
ters. Some authors define algebra as the
art of resolving mathematical problems;
but this is the idea of analysis, or the
analytic art in general, rather than of al-
gebra, which is only one species of it.
In the application of algebra to the reso-
lution of problems, we must first trans-
late the problem out of common into
algebraic language, by expressing all the
conditions and quantities, both known
and unknown, by their proper characters,
ALGEBRA.
arranged in an equation, or several equa-
tions, if necessary, and treating the un-
known quantity as if it were a known
one; this forms the composition. Then
the resolution or analytic part is the dis-
entangling the unknown quantity from
the several others with which it is con-
nected, so as to retain it alone on one
side of the equation, while all the known
quantities are collected on the other side,
thus obtaining the value of the unknown.
This process is called analysis, or resolu-
tion; and hence algebra is a species of the
analytic art, and is called the modern anal-
ysis, in contradistinction to the ancient
analysis, which chiefly regarded geome-
try and its application. The mode of
applying algebra to the resolution of
problenis may be seen in the following
example:-If we wish, from the given
difference of two numbers, and the differ-
ence of their squares, to find the num-
bers themselves, then the algebraist rep-
resents, in his language, the first of these
differences by a, the second by b, the
unknown numbers to be found by r and
y, and marks the relation between the
things given and those sought by the
expressions — y= a, and ryb.
Then x'y', he continues to say in his
language, = (x+y) (x—y); thus is x+y
b and hence, by addition and subtrac-
a
b + aa
b- aa
which
and y=
tion, x=-
2α, y = 2a
is then the general expression of this
proposition. For particular cases, we have
only to substitute the respective numbers
instead of a and b, in order to have in
mediately the corresponding values of
x and y. The oldest known work on
algebra, that we possess, is by Diophan-
tus of Alexandria. (The best edition of
the works of this geometrician, who is
commonly supposed to have lived in the
4th century, is that of Toulouse, 1670,
folio, with a commentary by Bachet, and
notes by Fermat.) Europe, however,
owes its first acquaintance with this
science, not to the Alexandrian writer,
but (as is the case with much of its
knowledge) to the Arabians, as, indeed,
the name itself shows. The Arabians
brought their algebra to Spain, whence
it found its way to Italy. The state of
this science at that time may be learned
from the work of Lucas de Burgo sancti
sepulebri, Summa Arithmetica et Gcome-
tria, Proportionumque et Proportionalita-
tum, Venice, 1494. Tartaglia of Brescia,
Gardanus of Milan, and Ferrari of Bo-
logna, are highly distinguished names
15
VOL. I.
169
among the Italian algebraists of this early
period. In Germany, also, the study of al-
gebra was prosecuted in the first half of
the 16th century, of which the work of
Mich. Stifel, professor of mathematics at
Jena, Arithmetica Integra cum præf. Me-
lanchthonis, Nuremb. 1544, 4to., gives the
most decisive proof. In England, Recorde,
in France, Peletarius, were distinguished
algebraists about the same time; but this
science was afterwards greatly enriched
by Vieta, master of requests of queen
Margaret of France, who died in 1603, and
by the Englishman Harriot, who died in
1621, to whose labors the Flemish mathe-
matician Albert Girard, who died about
1630, added his own with splendid suc-
cess. Next appeared Descartes (q. v.),
and Fermat, counsellor of the parliament
of Toulouse, who died in 1664; and the
great Newton (q. v.) published in 1707
his Arithmetica Universalis. At the same
time with him, Leibnitz acquired credit
by some algebraical propositions. After
him, Maclaurin and Euler distinguished
themselves in the most eminent manner
by their additions to this part of mathe-
matical knowledge. In later times, there
have been constant efforts to raise alge-
bra to a higher degree of perfection. We
may name Lambert, d'Alembert, La-
grange, Ozanam, Saunderson, Clairaut,
Cousin, Tempelhof, Kästner, Bézout,
Gauss, &c.-Álgebra enables us to sur-
vey remote and highly complicated rela-
tions. It is distinguished by this, that
each of its expressions contains exactly
the idea intended to be conveyed, while
all other languages, as those of words, of
the arts, of symbols, only approximate
more or less to the proposed idea. On
this account an exact lexicon of two lan-
guages can never be made, because every
word in one is connected with ideas and
associations different from those belong-
ing to the corresponding word in the
other. An algebraical formula, on the
contrary, can be understood equally well
by the Frenchman and the Hindoo, if they
are both acquainted with the signs. In
Rosenthal's Eneye. of Mathem. Sciences,
i. 44, there is a list of the principal works
on algebra. The most important are,
Wiedeburg on the Study of Algebra,
Jena, 1775, Euler's Algebra, translated
by Bernoulli into French, with notes by
Lagrange. A new and good edition of
this translation appeared at Lyons in
1795, in 2 vols. Kaussler translated La-
grange's additions separately (Frankfort
on the Maine, 1796). The profound
Maclaurin's Treatise on Algebra (2d ed.
170
ALGEBRA-ALHAMRA.
London, 1756) is distinguished among
the old elementary books for solidity and
clearness. We find examples aud expla-
nations in Saunderson's Elements of Al-
gebra, Cambridge, 1740, 2 vols, 4to.,
translated into French by Jancourt, Am-
sterdam, 1756. Clairaut's Algebra, which
was first published in 1746, has been
several times reprinted, lately in 2 vols.,
by Lacroix, with notes by Lagrange and
Laplace. Bézout's Algebra, in the 2d
part of his excellent work, Cours des
Mathématiques à l'Usage de la Marine et
de l'Artillerie, 2d ed. by Peyard, Paris,
1800, is well written. The French have
the most excellent elementary works in
this as in every other branch of mathe-
matics. The first vol. of Vega's Lectures
on Mathematics, 3d ed., Vienna, 1802,
contains a thorough introduction to com-
mon arithmetic and algebra. An excel-
lent collection of problems in algebra and
other branches of mathematics, is that of
Meier Hirsch, a German, 2d ed., Berlin,
1811, which well deserves to be trans-
lated into other languages, because it
contains the greatest variety of interesting
examples arranged in the best order.
ALGIERS. (See Barbary.)
ALGOA or ZWARTKOP'S BAY, on the
S. coast of Africa, where ships may lie
in 5 fathoms' water, a mile from the gen-
eral landing-place. The bay abounds in
black whales and a variety of other fish.
500 miles E. from the Cape. Lon. of the
landing-place, 26° 35′ E.; lat. 33° 56' S.
lat. 33° 56′ S.
A small river of the same name flows in-
to it. Mr. Barrow describes the adjacent
country as very fertile, and abounding in
useful animals. Fort Frederic is a recent
establishment on the shore of the bay,
but as yet very small.
ALGONQUINS; North American In-
dians on the Assiniboin or Rainy lake,
and Prairie de Portage; formerly morc
numerous than at present; their number
amounts only to 600. This tribe was
once closely connected with the Iroquois
Indians, and considered as their protee-
tors; but their allies and protégés soon
began to rival their former masters in the
arts of hunting and of war, and quarrels
arose, which proved almost fatal to the
existence of the A., although they were
assisted by the French. There is a church
devoted to the Romish religion in their
territory, but the exertions of the clergy
have hitherto had little effect on their mor-
als. They are in the general practice of
polygamy, and much given to the use of
intoxicating liquors. The country around
them is cultivated in miserable and de-
tached patches, and this solely by their
women, the men being engrossed with
fishing and hunting. They are, like most
of the other Indians, declining, and in a
miserable state. (See Indians.)
ALGUAZIL; in Spain, an officer whose
business it is to execute the decrees of a
judge.
ALHAMA; the ancient Artigis Julia; a
town of Spain, in Granada; lon. 2° 46′
W.; lat. 36° 57′ N.; on the Motril, 25
miles from Granada; population, 4,500.
This place is celebrated for its warm
medicinal baths and drinking waters, its
romantic situation between craggy moun-
tains, and the gallant defence of the
Moors against the Spaniards, 1481, when
the town was taken and sacked. The
kings of Spain have erected a grand
building for the use of invalids, with
baths of free-stone, regulated to dif
ferent degrees of heat. On the sur-
rounding mountains the Rio Frio rises,
and forms several cascades. Washing-
ton Irving, in his Chronicle of Granada,
gives a spirited account of the taking of
A., "the key of Granada." Byron's
translation of the Romance Muy Doloroso,
on the taking of A., is familiar to every
reader.
ALIAMRA, MEDINAT ALHAMRÃ, or AL-
HAMBRA, i. c. the Red City; a splendid
portion or suburb of ancient Granada,
when it was one of the principal seats of
the empire of the Moors in Spain. It
was the Alcazar, or royal palace of the
kings of Granado, but grew, by numerous
additions, at last, into another city. Ih-
nu-l Khatib, or Alkatib, describes it in his
account of this kingdom and capital
(which is preserved in Casiri's Bibliotheca
Arabico-Escurialensis) as a most splendid
place, where art and nature rival each
other in magnificence. Seated on the
northern brow of a lofty eminence, which
commands a full view of the city of Gra-
nada on the one side, and of a charming
country on the other, A. encloses in its
ruined walls many monuments of ancient
art, and traces of its former splendor.
Our limited room does not allow us to
give a description of the Arabian palace,
commenced by Muhammad Abu Abdil-
lih Ben Nasr, the second of the Moorish
kings of Granada, and completed under
Abu-l Hajjaj, in the year of the Hegira
749, or A. D. 1348; nor of the Spanish
palace commenced by Charles V, on a
portion of the ruins of the Moorish edi-
fices. It is a place equally interesting
for the artist, the antiquarian, and the
historian. Mr. Murphy's splendid work
ALHAMRA-ALI.
on the Arabian Antiquities of Spain con-
tains many views of these ruins. See
also History of the Mahometan Empire in
Spain, 4to., London, 1816, with the sup-
plement; a Collection of historical Notices
and Poems on the Alhamra of Granada;
and Swinburne's Travels through Spain.
ALI; the son of Abu Taleb, who was
uncle of Mahomet. When the latter
assembled his kinsmen, and declared his
prophetic mission, he asked which among
them would be his vizier. "I am the
man," exclaimed Ali, then but 14 years
old. "Whoever rises against thee, I will
dash out his teeth, tear out his eyes, break
his legs, rip up his belly. O prophet, I
will be thy vizier." Ali kept his word;
distinguished both by eloquence and val-
or, he became one of the inain pillars of
the new faith, and obtained the name of
the Lion of God, always victorious. He
also received Fatima, the daughter of the
prophet, in marriage. After the death of
Othman, he became caliph, and finally
lost his life by assassination, at Cufa, in
the 63d year of his age. There was
something of grandeur in the primitive
simplicity and fanatical heroisin of the
first followers of Mahomet, and Ali form-
ed one of the most conspicuous examples
of the conjunction. The Mohammedan
schism caused by the murder of Ali, is
well known, and his sect is called Shiites,
or heretics, by the Sonnites, or orthodox.
The Persians, a part of the Usbec Tar-
tars, and some of the princes of India,
remain followers of Ali to this day. His
posterity are numerous, and are allowed
to wear green turbans, in honor of their
descent from the prophet. There is ex-
tant, among various writings attributed to
Ali, a collection of a hundred maxims or
sentences, which have been translated by
Golius and Ockley.
ALI; pacha of Yanina (Tepcleni), gen-
crally called Ali Pacha; a bold and crafty
rebel against the Porte; an intelligent and
active governor of his province; as a war-
rior, decided and able; as a man, a very
fiend. His life is a curious exemplifica-
tion of the state of the Turkish empire.
He was born at Tepeleni, in 1744, of a
noble family, which stood at the head of
an independent tribe, the Toczides; and
was the grandson of a bey named by the
Porte. His early life was unfortunate,
but his extraordinary strength of mind,
which shrunk from no danger nor crime,
united with great address, raised him to
princely independence. The neighboring
pacha had stripped his father of all his
possessions. After his death, his mother,
171
a warlike and cruel Albanian, placed her
son, then 16 years old, at the head of her
dependants. He was defeated and taken
prisoner; but the Curd pacha was so
much struck with his beauty and vivaci-
ty, that he set him at liberty, after chas-
tising him. A. then commenced robber,
but was so unfortunate that he fled into
the mountains, where, to keep himself
from starving, he pawned his sabre. In
this situation, his mother scornfully ad-
vised him to put on a woman's garment,
and serve in the haram. In a second at-
tempt at plunder, he was wholly defeated,
and concealed himself in a ruined build-
ing, where, brooding over his fate, he
sat, unconsciously pushing up the ground
with a stick. He struck something hard,
and found a chest containing gold. With
this treasure he raised 2000 men, gained
his first victory, and returned in triumph
to Tepeleni. From this time he was
continually fortunate, but, at the same
tine, false and cruel. On the day of his
return, he murdered his own brother,
whom he thought guilty of treachery,
and confined his mother to the haram,
under pretence of her having poisoned
the deceased, where she soon after died
from grief and rage. A. now continued
his robberies, regained the favor of the
Porte by assisting in the subjugation of
the rebellious vizier of Scutari, and pos-
sessed himself of the estates which had
been taken from his father, as well as of
some Grecian cities. He then attacked
the pacha Selim of Delvino, who was
obnoxious to the Porte, and caused him
to be beheaded, by which means he be-
came his successor. At length the divan,
in which he had obtained great influence
by bribery, named him lieutenant of the
dervendgi pacha, whose duty it was to
preserve the highways secure; but, in-
stead of attending to the duties of his
office, A. sold commissions, in the name
of the grand signior, to the richest bands
of robbers, and thereby gave them legal
authority to plunder. The dervendgi
pacha and his lieutenant were now de-
posed, but A. purchased anew the favor
of the prime minister. He rendered such
important services to the Porte with his
bold Albanians, in the war with Russia
and Austria (begun 1787), although he
carried on a secret correspondence with
prince Potemkin, that the Porte named
him pacha of Tricala in Thessaly. He
immediately possessed himself of the city
of Yanina, by showing a forged firman,
which gave him the city and the citadel,
and then compelled the inhabitants to
{
172
ALI.
sign a petition to the sultan, requesting
him to give them A. for a governor. He
likewise compelled them to pay him a
large sum of money, with which he
bribed the divan, who granted the re-
quest. He afterwards entered into an
alliance with Buonaparte, who sent him
engineers to build him fortifications; but
when Napoleon was defeated in Egypt,
those places on the coast of Albania,
which had belonged to the Venetians,
and were now under the dominion of the
French, were seized by A. Parga (q. v.)
alone made a successful resistance. But
he contrived that, in the treaty between
Russia and the Porte, in 1800, all the Ve-
netian places on the main land (and,
therefore, Parga) should be surrendered
to the latter power.
He then attacked
the brave Suliotes (q. v.), and conquered
them in 1803, after a 3 years' war. The
Porte now made him governor of Roma-
nia, where he continued his system of
oppression still more openly than before.
He then revenged on the inhabitants of
Gardiki an injury which they had done
to his mother, 40 years before, by putting
to death 739 of the descendants of the
perpetrators, they themselves being all
dead. Security and quiet now reigned
in his dominions; the roads were well con-
structed; commerce flourished; so that
European travellers, with whom A. was
glad to converse (see Hughes' Travels in
Greece), acknowledged in him an active
and intelligent governor. In 1807, he
entered again into an alliance with Buona-
parte, who sent him M. Pouqueville, as
consul general, and from this time his
dependence on the Porte was merely
nominal. His object in this alliance was,
to have Parga and the Ionian islands in-
cluded in the peace of Tilsit. Failing to
attain this end, he made an alliance with
the English, and gave them many advan-
tages; whereupon Parga was restored
nominally to the Porte, but in reality to
A. He afterwards caused it to be insert-
ed in his gazette, that Maitland, who was
the British lord high commissioner of
the Ionian islands, had received from the
Porte, at his recommendation, the order
of the crescent. When A. thought him-
self strongly fixed in his power, he caused
some of the capitani (q. v.) of the Greek
Armatolicks, who had hitherto rendered
him assistance, to be murdered (among
them, the father of Ulysses, the famous
chief), and had the murderers, also, put
to death, that he might not be known as
the author of the crime. At length, in
1820, the Porte determined to crush him.
Ismail Pascho Bey, with 5000 Turks, and
supported by the capitani, who brought
10,000 soldiers to his standard, advanced
against him. The Greeks surrounded his
positions in the passes of the mountains,
so that he was compelled to throw him-
self, with all his troops, into the citadel
of Yanina, well provided with every thing.
From hence he set Yanina on fire. Pas-
cho Bey had no ordnance fit for besieging
the city, and was suspected by the Porte,
because he had called the Christians to his
assistance. The Porte therefore gave the
chief command to Kavanos Oglu. This
commander dismissed the capitani and
their bands, with cruel threats, compel-
ling them to make restitution to the
Turks for the loss which they had before
occasioned them. Hereupon they went
over to A., especially after they beheld
the insurrection of the Hetaria, and aided
him in the field against the Turks before
Yanina. Kavanos Oglu could then do
nothing against the rebels. The valiant
Beba Pacha, his successor, died sudden-
ly, after the capture of Arta, which Veli,
A.'s son, had defended.
The savage
Khurschid Pacha, of the Morea, who was
hated by all the Greeks, now advanced
against the city with 12,000 men. But
every attack was repulsed by A.'s brave
troops, and the capitani, strengthened by
the Suliotes, suddenly attacked the Turk-
ish camp. Immediately the Hetaria (q. v.)
called all Greece to arms. The Turks were
now compelled to throw themselves into
the strong places, and Khurschid retreat-
ed, Aug. 1821, with the remains of his
army, out of Epirus into Macedonia. The
Albanians alone, whom A. had beguiled
with empty promises, left the tyrant.
Khurschid Pacha attacked Yanina with a
new army. The Greeks gave up A.'s
cause for lost. He then determined, per-
suaded, perhaps, by his wife, Wasilika,
who was a Greek, to treat with Khurschid.
On receiving assurances, confirmed by an
oath, that his property and his life should
be spared, he surrendered his fortress to
the pacha, Feb. 1, 1822, and retired to
his summer-palace in the lake of Yanina.
Here Khurschid's lieutenant, Mehmet Pa-
cha, made known to him the sentence of
death pronounced against him by the
sultan. A. put himself on his defence,
but was cut down, with 6 companions.
This happened Feb. 5, 1822. The head
of the rebel was sent to Constantinople.
The Porte took possession of A.'s treas-
ures. His sons, Veli and Muchtar Pacha,
had come into the power of the Turks, in
1820, when the strong places of A. were
ALI-ALIENS.
taken, and lived afterwards in exile, in
Asia Minor. But attempting, by means
of a Greek disguised as a dervise, to form
a connexion with the party of their fa-
ther, they were executed in Aug., 1821.
A.'s grandson obtained from the Porte, in
1824, permission to retire to Larissa with
A.'s widow, Wasilika. Pouqueville, in
his Histoire de la Régénération de la Grèce,
vol. i., paints a dreadful picture of A.'s
barbarity, falsehood, and love of revenge.
He says that A. caused a Greek lady,
Euphrosyne, and 15 other women, to be
thrown into the sea, because they ap-
peared to have too much influence over
his son Veli. Since his mother was an
Albanese and his father a Turk, from this
double relationship, he seized on all prop-
erty left by persons dying, on pretence
that the testator was his relation, by the
mother's side, if he happened to be a
Greck, or on his father's side, if a Turk.
In this way A. amassed vast quantities of
furniture and utensils, and occasionally
held a market for the sale of these effects.
A Jew was his treasurer. If he saw a
beautiful maiden whom he wished to
possess, his executioner, who was always
at his side, went to the parents and said,
"Your daughter has pleased Ali ;" where-
upon the daughter was sent to him, or
the whole family were obliged to fly.
The writer of this knows two families
who were compelled to fly in this way.
He took possession, in the same summary
mode, of every thing which struck his
fancy. This favorite of fortune had great
endowments from nature. He united a
remarkably enterprising spirit with equal
penetration; an extraordinary knowledge
of men and things with determination
and courage; great firmness with great
adroitness. But he was false, suspicious,
implacable and blood-thirsty from ambi-
tion and avarice; every means pleased
him alike, provided that it led him to his
object with quickness and safety. The
dissensions of his enemies, the corruption
of the divan, and the political weakness
of the Porte, were the corner-stones on
which this modern Jugurtha built up his
ephemeral greatness.
ALIAS (Latin), otherwise; often used
in the trial of criminals, after one name
and before another, to signify that they
have more than one appellation; as, John,
alias Thomas.
ALIBI (Latin), elsewhere, in law, de-
notes the absence of the accused, at the
time of the crime committed, from the
place where he is charged with having
committed it.
173
ALICANT, OF ALICANTE (ancient Lucen-
tum); a city and port on the Mediterrane-
an sea, lon. 0° 29′ W., lat. 38° 21′ N.,
with 17,300 inhabitants, situated in the
Spanish kingdom of Valencia, with a
castle which was formerly strong, but has
fallen to decay since the war of the Span-
ish succession. It is the see of a bishop.
The harbor is good. The maritime na-
tions of Europe have all of them consuls
here. The principal article of export is
sweet wine, called Alicant, and also, from
its dark color, vino tinto, which is, for the
most part, sent to England. Charles V
first planted the vines, bringing shoots
from the Rhine. A. is important as the
emporium of Valencian produce, and the
central point of the commerce between
Spain and Italy.
ALICONDA; an African tree, of an im-
mense bulk, a native of Congo. Of the
bark a coarse thread is made; the shell
or rind of the fruit may be made into a
nourishing pap, serves for vessels of vari-
ous kinds, and gives an aromatic taste to
water preserved in it. The small leaves
are used as food in time of scarcity, the
large ones to cover huts, and, being burn-
ed, make good soap.
ALIENS. The legislation of a nation in
regard to aliens is a criterion of its civili-
zation. All uncivilized nations treat the
alien as an enemy, as out of the protec-
tion of law. Some difference, however,
is universally made between aliens and
natives; c. g., some states require the
alien to give sureties when he institutes
a criminal prosecution against a citizen.
In some, he cannot become a guardian,
or a witness of a will; the protection of
the law may be denied him, and he him-
self be banished from the country. The
alien, also, has no right to enjoy certain
advantages, granted by the state to the
citizen, in addition to the general protec-
tion of the laws; for instance, the benefit
of institutions of education, poor-houses,
&c. Some countries treat aliens with
unreasonable severity, by throwing obsta-
cles in the way of their admission, by
rendering naturalization difficult, and by
depriving them of personal security. Al-
though the right of a state to forbid the
entrance of aliens, even under pain of
death, as in China and Japan, may be
abstractly defended, the policy of exer-
cising such a right can be justified only
to a very limited extent. A high degree
of civilization can be attained only by a
free and active intellectual intercourse
among nations, in like manner as their
true prosperity is best promoted by a free
15*
174
ALIENS.
and active commerce. All the progress
made by one nation, whether in the
production of raw materials, or in the art
of preparing them, or in scientific dis-
covery, is advantageous to every other na-
tion, if they only permit perfect freedom
of intercourse. In our days, civilized
states rarely oppose the personal entrance
of aliens; but the liberty of commercial
intercourse is still imperfectly understood.
-In respect to naturalization, several
states have had peculiar causes of cau-
tion; such, for instance, as the excessive
influence of a foreign power, or the oc-
cupation of the throne by a foreign dynas-
ty. The following are the principal points
in the laws of England and the U. States
of America respecting aliens :-In regard
to each country, an alien may be defined
to be a person born out of the jurisdiction
of the country, and not having acquired
the rights of a citizen by naturalization.
This, however, is not strictly true; for
children, born out of the dominions of the
English king, whose grandfathers by the
father's side, or whose fathers were natu-
ral-born subjects, are entitled to the rights
of native citizens, unless, at the time of
their birth, their fathers were in the ser-
vice of an enemy. In the U. States, this
same right is given by the act of April,
1802, "to the children (born out of the
jurisdiction of the U. States) of persons
who now are or have been citizens of the
U. States." "This clause," as chancellor
Kent observes (Commentaries on Ameri-
can Law, vol. ii.), "applies only to the
children of persons who then were, or
had been, citizens, and consequently the
benefit of this provision narrows rapidly
by the lapse of time; and the time will
soon arrive, when the children of Ameri-
can parents, born abroad, will be obliged
to resort for aid to the dormant and
doubtful principles of the English law."
Minor children of naturalized persons are
also admitted to the privileges of citizens
in the U. States. Aliens cannot acquire
a title to real property by descent or other
mere operation of law. They may pur-
chase it or receive it by devise, but the
state has a right to take possession of it
as forfeited, whenever it is ascertained,
by a proper examination, to be the prop-
erty of an alien. (In point of fact, aliens
often do own real property in the U.
States, holding it in the name of a friend.)
They can acquire, hold and transmit
movable property in the same manner
as citizens, and they can bring suits for
the recovery and protection of such prop-
erty. They owe a local allegiance, and
are bound equally with natives to obey
all gencral rules for the preservation of
order, which do not relate specially to
citizens. Even alien enemies may sue
and be sued, as in time of peace. Aliens
may dispose of their personal property by
will, and, in case of their dying intestate,
their personal property is distributed ac-
cording to the law of distribution of the
place of their domicil at the time of their
death. The unjust and inhospitable rule
of the most polished states of antiquity
prevailed, in many parts of Europe, down
to the middle of the last century. The
law, which claimed for the benefit of the
state the effects of deceased foreigners,
who left no heirs who were natives, ex-
isted in France till 1791, when it was
abolished by the first constituent assem-
bly. Chancellor Kent, in the 2d volume
of his very valuable Commentaries on
American Law, observes, that "the Napo-
leon Code seems to have revived the harsh
doctrine of the droit d'aubaine, with the
single exception, that aliens should be
entitled to enjoy in France the same civil
rights as were secured to Frenchmen, by
treaty, in the country to which the alien
belongs. The law in France, at present,
is, that a stranger cannot, except by spe-
cial favor, dispose of his property by will;
and, when he dies, the sovereign succeeds,
by right of inheritance, to his estate."
The remark on the revival of the droit
d'aubaine by the Code Napoleon, we sup-
pose to be correct; but we believe that
this "inhospitable rule," as the learned
judge justly terms it, has been since abol-
ished. The article Aliens, in the German
Conversations-Lexicon, states, that the
droit d'aubaine, in France, was wholly
abolished July 4, 1819, and the Encyclo-
pédie Moderne, in the article Étranger,
printed in 1828, says, that "aliens have
been placed again under the protection
of the common law of the country. They
can now acquire and enjoy property, sell
it, transmit it to their heirs, and dispose
of it by testament or donation, like the
other inhabitants of the kingdom. They
cannot, however, exercise political rights,
or be appointed to public offices, previous
to naturalization.”—An alien may, by let-
ters patent ex donatione regis, be made an
English subject, and is then called a deni-
zen, being in a middle state between a
natural-born subject and an alien. He
may now purchase lands, or possess them
by devise, but cannot take them by inher-
itance, although his heirs may inherit
from him; the parent of the denizen
being held to have no inheritable blood,
ALIENS-ALIMONY.
which the denizen possesses after becom-
ing such. The full rights of a natural-
born subject can be conferred only by act
of parliament. Even after naturalization,
an alien cannot become a member of the
house of commons or privy council, or
hold offices or grants under the crown.
If the parliament wish to confer these
privileges, as is sometimes the case when
a foreign prince becomes connected, by
marriage, with the royal family, a double
act of legislation is necessary. In the U.
States of America, naturalization confers
all the privileges of a native citizen, ex-
cept that of being a candidate for the of-
fice of president of the Union. Previous
to becoming a citizen of the U. States, an
alien must have resided in the country 5
years, and, 2 years before the ceremony
of naturalization takes place, he must
have abjured all allegiance to every other
power. England is the only country
where an act of the legislature is required
for naturalization. In the countries of
Europe generally, with the above-men-
tioned exception of England, the right of
naturalization, in each particular case, be-
longs to the executive branch of govern-
inent. It is so in France, in Bavaria, and
in all the German states. In France, a
residence of 10 years gives to the alien
all the rights of a citizen, even that of be-
coming a member of the chamber of dep-
uties (e. g. Benjamin Constant). In the
states of the German confederacy, no
German can be treated as an alien; e. g.
the Prussian laws grant the full rights of a
citizen to every one who takes up his
residence in that state. The unjust dis-
tinctions formerly made between aliens
and natives, in cases where the interests
of the two came in collision, are going
continually out of use. As to the right of
As to the right of
aliens to own real estate, the laws of dif-
ferent countries are very different. We
have already said, that this is not permit
ted in England and the U. S. of America.
France allows it without limitation, like
most of the German states. This right
is a fundamental principle of the German
confederation. By the law of July 4,
1819 (which contains a total abolition of
the droit d'aubaine), every alien has an
equal right of inheritance with native
Frenchmen in respect to all real and
personal goods in France; only, when
Frenchmen have to divide an inheritance
with foreign heirs, and the laws of the
foreign country do not allow them a pro-
portionate share of the property abroad,
they receive in advance, from the property
in France, as much as is necessary to the
-
175
restoration of equality. In addition to
what we have already said on the laws
of England and the U. S. of America
respecting aliens, we will add a short
account of certain acts passed by the
legislative bodies of these countries, with
a view of guarding against the hostile
attempts of aliens. In England, certain
alien acts of recent date (33 Geo. III. c. 4.
and 34 Geo. III. c. 43, 67) arose out of
the influx of strangers into that country
from the continent during the French
revolution. They compelled the masters
of ships arriving from foreign ports, un-
der certain penalties, to give an account
at every port of the number and names
of the foreigners on board to the cus-
tom-house officers, appointing justices
and others to grant passports to such
aliens, and giving the king power to
restrain them, and to send them out of the
kingdom, on pain of transportation, and,
on their return, of death. The same acts
also direct an account to be given in of
the arms of aliens, which, if required, are
to be delivered up; and aliens are not to
go from one place to another in the king-
dom without passports. These acts have
been, from time to time, amended and
continued, as in 43 Geo. III. c. 155, &c.
Of late, all restrictions of this kind on
aliens have been abolished, and they are
only obliged to inform the secretary of
the home department, from time to time,
of their places of residence. The only
restrictions of this kind, on aliens in the
U. States of America, are, that, in case of
war between the U. States and any other
nation, the president is authorized, if he
sees fit, to order the subjects of the hos-
tile country to be apprehended and
removed, or to prescribe the conditions
on which they shall be allowed to remain
in the U. States. If such aliens are not
chargeable with actual hostility, or with
any other crime against the public safety,
they are to be allowed a reasonable time
to remove with their effects. During the
late wars in Europe, severe restraints
were imposed on Englishmen in France,
in retaliation, as Buonaparte alleged, of
the strict enforcement of the English alien
acts in regard to French subjects. In
the states of Europe, generally, aliens
cannot travel without passports. In
England and the U. States of America,
none are required.
ALIMONY, in law; the allowance to
which a woman is entitled on a legal
separation from her husband, not occa-
sioned by adultery or elopement on her
part.
176
ALIQUANT PART-ALL-FOURS.
Aliquant Part, in arithmetic; a part
of a given quantity which will not divide
it exactly, or without remainder.
ALIQUOT PART is such part of a num-
ber as will divide and measure it exactly,
without any remainder. For instance, 2
is an aliquot part of 4, 3 of 9, and 4 of 16.
To find all the aliquot parts of a number,
divide it by its least divisor, and the quo-
tient by its least divisor, until you get a
quotient not further divisible, and you
will have all the prime divisors or aliquot
parts of that number. By multiplying
any 2 or 3 of these together, you will find
the compound aliquot parts. Aliquot
parts must not be confounded with com-
mensurable ones; for though the former
are all commensurable, yet the latter are
not always aliquot parts: thus 4 is com-
mensurable with 6, but not an aliquot
part of it.
ALKALI, in chemistry; from the Arabi-
an kali, the name of a plant from the
ashes of which one species of alkali can
be extracted. The substances that are
met with under the denomination of alka-
line are possessed of certain peculiar
properties; they are mainly characterized,
however, by a power of combining with
acids in such a nanner as to impair the
activity of the latter, so that alkalies, as
chemical agents, are distinguished by
properties the reverse of acids; acids and
alkalies are, therefore, generally consid-
ered as antagonist substances. Besides
the power of neutralizing acids, and
thereby forming certain saline substances,
the alkalies are further distinguished by
the following properties:-1, they have an
acrid taste and corrosive power when
applied to some substances, thus proving
caustic to the skin and tongue; 2, they
change vegetable blue to green, red to
purple, and yellow to a reddish-brown
(if the purple be reddened by an acid, an
alkali will restore the orignal color); 3,
they are almost indefinitely soluble in
water; that is, they combine with it in
every proportion; 4, they unite with oils
and fats, and form by this union the
well known compound called soap.
There is another class of substances
which have a strong analogy with alka-
lies, especially in the particular of oppo-
sition to acids, viz. the earths. Soine of
these, indeed, have been classed by Four-
croy among the alkalies, but they have
been kept separate by others, on the
ground that the analogy between them is
far from amounting to an identity of
properties. The true alkalies have been
arranged by a modern chemist in three
classes:-1, those which consist of a
metallic basis, combined with oxygen;
these are 3 in number-potash, soda and
lithia; 2, that which contains no oxy-
gen, viz. aminonia; 3, those containing
oxygen, hydrogen and carbon; in this
class are placed aconita, atropia, brucia,
circuta, datura, delphia, hyoscyamia,
morphia, strychina. And it is supposed
that the vegetable alkalies may be found
to be as numerous as the vegetable acids.
The original distribution of alkaline sub-
stances was into volatile and fixed, the
volatile alkali being known under the
name of ammonia; while, of the two fixed
kinds, one was called potash or vegetable,
because procured from the ashes of vege-
tables generally; the other, soda or mineral,
on account of its having been principally
obtained from the incineration of marine
plants.
ALKANET is a dyeing drug, the bark of
a root which produces a rough plant (an-
chusa tinctoria), with downy and spear-
shaped leaves, and clusters of small, pur-
ple or reddish flowers, the stamens of
which are shorter than the corolla. This
plant is sometimes cultivated in England,
but by far the greater portion of the A.
there used is imported either from the
Levant, or from the neighborhood of
Montpellier in France. A. imparts a fine
deep-red color to all unctuous substances
and to spirit of wine; but it tinges wa-
ter with a dull, brownish hue. Its chief
use is for the coloring of oils, plasters,
lip-salve and other similar articles. It
is likewise employed in compositions for
rubbing and giving color to mahogany
furniture. Wax, tinged with A., and
applied to the surface of warm marble,
stains it flesh-color, and sinks deep into
the stone.
ALKMAAR, Henry von. (See Reynard
the Fox.)
ALKOHOL. (See Alcohol.)
ALKORAN. (See Koran.)
ALL-FOURS; a game played by two
persons with an entire pack of cards.
The name is derived from the 4 chances
of which it consists, viz. High, Low, Jack
and Game.-Laws of the game. 1. If, in
dealing, the dealer discovers any of the
adversary's cards, a new deal may be
demanded. 2. If the dealer, in dealing,
discovers any of his own cards, he must
abide by the same. 3. If it is discovered,
previous to playing, that the dealer has
given his adversary too many cards,
there must be a new deal; or, if both
parties agree, the extra cards may bo
drawn by the dealer from his opponent's
ALL-FOURS-ALIMENT.
hand; and the same if the dealer gives
himself too many cards. But, in either
case, if a single card has been played,
then there must be another deal. 4.
No person can beg more than once in a
hand, unless both parties agree. 5. In
playing, you must either follow suit or
trump, on penalty of your adversary's
adding one point to his game. 6. If
either player sets up his game erroneous-
ly, it must not only be taken down, but
the antagonist is entitled to score four
points, or one, as shall have been agreed
upon. 7. It is allowable for the person
who lays down a high or a low trump to
inquire whether the same be high or
low.
ALL HANDS HOAY, in sea language; the
order by which the ship's company is
summoned on deck by the boatswain.
All hands to quarters hoay, is the order to
the crew for preparation for battle. This
command is more generally given by the
boatswain piping down the hatchway.
ALL IN THE WIND; the state of a ship's
sails when parallel to the direction of the
wind, so as to shake and shiver by turn-
ing the ship's head to windward, either
by design or neglect of the helmsman.
ALL SAINTS' BAY, or Bahia da Todos
Santos; a bay on the coast of Brazil,
province of Bahia. It is secure and large
enough for a great number of ships.
Lon. 38° 50′ W.; lat. 13° 10′ S.
ALL SAINTS, Feast of. After the perse-
cution, in the 4th century, against the
Christians, in the Roman empire, had
ceased, the Sunday after Whitsuntide
was appointed to commemorate the holy
martyrs. Chrysostom's 74th homily was
delivered on such an occasion, and shows
how far they were from being objects of
adoration, A. D. 380. This feast was in-
troduced into the western church, in 610,
by Boniface IV. The emperor Phocas had
presented the Pantheon, in Rome, to this
pope, who made a church of it, and dedi-
cated it as such, March 4, to the honor
of the virgin and all the martyrs. This
church still exists under the name of Ro-
tunda or Maria dei Martiri. Gregory
IV, in 835, appointed Nov. 1 for the
celebration of this feast, and consecrated
it to all the saints and angels. In order
that it might be generally celebrated,
Gregory solicited the emperor Louis le
Débonnaire to confirm it. About the year
840, we find this feast in the calendar of
the monk Wandelbert. About 870, it
was introduced into England.
ALL SOULS; a feast celebrated on the
2d of November, in commemoration of
177
all the faithful deceased. It was insti-
tuted in the 11th century.
ALIMENT; a term which includes every
thing serving as nutriment for organized
beings. In animals and vegetables we
can observe the phenomena of decompo-
sition and reproduction, and analyze the
substances that administer to their growth
and repair distinctly. Generally, how-
ever, the word A. is used for what serves
as nutriment to animal life. It is, in this
respect, a subject of great interest for the
zoologist. In the present article we shall
confine ourselves to the aliment of man-
kind.-Man, it is well known, derives
nourishment both from animal and vege-
table substances. He eats fruits, both
ripe and unripe, roots, leaves, flowers,
and even the pith and the bark of differ-
ent plants, many different parts of ani-
mals, and the whole of some. Climate,
custom, religion, the different degrees of
want and of civilization, give rise to an in-
numerable diversity of food and drink,
from the repast of the cannibal savage of
New Zealand to that of the Parisian epi-
cure at the table of Very; from the diet of
the carnivorous native of the north to that
of the Braunin, whose appetite is satisfied
with vegetables; from the oak-bark bread
of the Norwegian peasant to the luxuri-
ously-served table of a Hungarian mag-
nate at Vienna. Some nations abhor
what others relish, and great want often
renders acceptable what, under other
circumstances, would have excited the
greatest disgust. The flesh of dogs is
commonly eaten in China, and in Africa
that of snakes, particularly of the rattle-
snake and boa constrictor. Locusts are
eaten both in Asia and Africa, and the
Negroes on the coast of Guinea relish
lizards, mice, rats, snakes, caterpillars, and
other reptiles and worms. The Otomacs,
a tribe of American Indians, are said by
Humboldt to collect a kind of clay to eat
in the rainy season. It is an interesting
subject, by no means sufficiently investi-
gated as yet, how far the different ali-
ment of various countries is connected
with the climate, &c., and what influence
it exerts on the different races, as well as
the consequences of introducing new spe-
cies of aliments. Some excellent remarks
on the national dishes of different nations
were published by baron Rumor, a Ger-
man, in 1822, in a work which he called
Kochkunst (Art of Cookery). All kinds
of aliment must contain nutritious sub-
stance, which, being extracted by the act
of digestion (q. v.), enters the blood, and
effects by assimilation (q. v.) the repair
178
ALIMENT
of the body. (See Nutrition.) Aliment-
ary matter, therefore, must be similar to
animal substance, or transmutable into
such. In this respect, alimentary sub-
stances differ from medicines, because the
latter retain their peculiar qualities in
spite of the organs of digestion, and will
not assimilate with the animal substance,
but act as foreign substances, serving to
excite the activity of particular organs or
systems of the body. All alimentary
substances must, therefore, be composed,
in a greater or less degree, of soluble parts,
which easily lose their peculiar qualities
in the process of digestion, and corre-
spond to the elements of the body. These
substances, in their simple state, are mu-
cilage, gelatin, gluten, albumen, farina,
fibrin and saccharine matter. Of these,
vegetables contain chiefly mucilage, sac-
charine matter and farina, which latter
substance, particularly in connexion with
the vegetable gluten, by which both be-
come apt for fermentation, and thus for
dissolution and digestion, is the basis of
very nutritious food. The nutritive part
of fruits consists of their saccharine mat-
ter and a little mucilage. In animal food,
gelatin is particularly abundant. The
nutritiousness of the different species of
food and drink depends, therefore, upon
the proportion which they contain of
those substances, and the mode in which
they are connected, favoring or obstruct-
ing their dissolution. Organs of digestion
in a healthy state dissolve alimentary
substances more easily, and take up the
nutritious portions more abundantly, than
those of which the strength has been im-
paired so that they cannot resist the ten-
dency of each substance to its peculiar
chemical decomposition. The whole-
some or unwholesome character of any
aliment depends, therefore, in a great
measure, on the state of the digestive
organs, in any given case. Sometimes a
particular kind of food is called whole-
some, because it produced a beneficial
effect of a particular character on the sys-
tem of an individual. In this case, how-
ever, it is to be considered as a inedicine,
and can be called wholesome only for
those whose systems are in the same con-
dition. Very often a simple aliment is
made indigestible by artificial cookery.
Aliments abounding in fat are unwhole-
some, because fat resists the operation of
the gastric juice. The addition of too
much spice makes many an innocent A.
injurious, because spices resist the action
of the digestive organs, and produce an
irritation of particular parts of the system.
They were introduced as artificial stimu-
lants of appetite. In any given case, the
digestive power of the individual is to be
considered, in order to determine whether
a particular aliment is wholesome or not.
In general, therefore, we can only say,
that that A. is healthy, which is easily
soluble, and is suited to the power of di-
gestion of the individual; and, in order to
render the A. perfect, the nutritious parts
must be mixed up with a certain quantity
of innocent substance affording no nour-
ishment, to fill the stomach, because there
is no doubt, that many people injure their
health by taking too much nutritious food.
In this case, the nutritious parts which
cannot be dissolved act precisely like food
which is in itself indigestible. (See Di-
gestion.) In Prussia and Austria, where,
as in many despotic governments, the
medical police is very good (this being a
thing much more easily regulated in an
absolute government than in a free one),
the public officers pay much attention to
aliment, and are careful that provisions
exposed to sale shall be of a good quality,
particularly that no decayed or adulter-
ated things are sold to the poor.
Such
regulations exist, to a certain extent, in
England, France, the U. States of A. and,
in fact, in every civilized country. The
kind of A. used influences the health and
even the character of man. He is fitted
to derive nourishment both from animal
and vegetable A., but can live exclu-
sively on either. Experience proves that
animal food most readily augments the
solid parts of the blood, the fibrin, and,
therefore, the strength of the muscular
system, but disposes the body, at the same
time, to inflammatory, putrid and scorbu-
tic diseases, and the character to violence
and coarseness. On the contrary, vegeta-
ble food renders the blood lighter and more
liquid, but forms weak fibres, disposes the
system to the diseases which spring from
feebleness, and tends to produce a gentle
character. Something of the same differ-
ence of moral effect results from the use
of strong or light wines. But the reader
must not infer that meat is indispensable
for the support of the bodily strength.
The peasants of some parts of Switzer-
land, who hardly ever taste any thing but
bread, cheese and butter, are vigorous
people. The nations of the north incline
generally more to animal A. ; those of the
south, and the Orientals, more to vegeta-
ble. These latter are generally simpler in
their diet than the former, when their taste
has not been corrupted by luxurious indul-
gence. Some tribes in the East, and the
ALIMENT-ALLEGIANCE.
caste of Brahmins in India, live entirely
on vegetable food. The inhabitants of
the most northern regions live almost en-
tirely upon animal food, scarcely ever
partaking of any vegetable substance, at
least during the greater part of the year.
Some nations feed chiefly on terrestrial
animals, others on aquatic ones.
ALLA BREVE is the proper designation
of the time of a piece of music, in which the
breve is equal to a semibreve in time;
and is to be played in a movement of twice
the usual rapidity; so that a breve is
played as fast as a semibreve, a semi-
breve as fast as a minim, and so on. It
is usual, in this mode of time, to prefix to
the piece a designation, that resembles a
C with a perpendicular line through it,
but is intended to represent a circle bi-
sected; sometimes also a 2, or large 2,
or. It is, however, distinct from two-
minim time, which is also often called alla
breve time, and may be designated by 2, and
C with a perpendicular line through it;
but the value of the note corresponds with
the designation. Besides, the expression
alla cappella is sometimes used; by which
phrase is ineant, that though the notes in
their proportional magnitude are the same
as in the ancient psalm tune, yet they are
not to be given in the choral style as sung
by the congregation, but more lively, as is
usual in the chapel style.
ALLAH, OF ALLA, in Arabic; the name
of God, the Creator of all nature, of whom
Mohammed says, he is the only being who
derives his existence from himself, and has
no equal. All creatures are made by him.
He is Lord of the material and spiritual
universe; and Mohammed inculcates
obedience to him as the one true God, the
Author of his religion. The word is com-
pounded of the article al, and the word
Elah, which signifies the Adored and the
Adorable, and is synonymous with the sin-
gular of the Hebrew word Elohim.
ALLAN, David, a Scotch historical
painter, was born in 1744. Some early
efforts of his genius having attracted at-
tention, he was sent to an academy of
painting and engraving, in Glasgow,
where he remained 7 years. He after-
ward visited Italy, where he passed 16
years in pursuing his studies, and copying
the remains of antiquity and the old
masters. While at Rome, in 1773, he
received a gold medal, for the best speci-
men of historical composition. On his
return, he established himself at Edin-
burgh, where he died, in 1796. His illus-
trations of the Gentle Shepherd, the Cot-
ter's Saturday Night, and other sketches
་
179
of rustic life and manners in Scotland, in
aquatinta, obtained for him the name of
the Scottish Hogarth. His principal
painting is the Return of the Prodigal
Son. The subject of his prize composi-
tion, which is much admired, is the Ori-
gin of Painting.
ALLAY. (See Alloy.)
ALLEGHANY or APPALACHIAN MOUN-
TAINS; a range of mountains in the U.
States. They commence in the northern
part of Georgia and Alabama, and run
north-east to the state of New York, nearly
parallel with the sea-coast, about 900 miles
in length, and from 50 to 200 in breadth.
They divide the rivers and streams of
water, which flow into the Atlantic on
the E., from those which flow into the
lakes and the Mississippi on the W. These
mountains are not confusedly scattered
and broken, but stretch along in uniform
ridges, for the most part scarcely half a
mile high. The several ridges are known
by different names, as Blue ridge, Alle-
ghany ridge, north mountain, Jackson's
mountain, Laurel mountain, Cumberland
mountains, &c.-For the geological struc-
ture of these mountains, see North America.
ALLEGHANY; a river which rises in
Lycoming county, Pennsylvania, winds
through the south part of New York, turns
again into Pennsylvania, runs S. W., and
unites with the Monongahela at Pittsburg,
to form the Ohio. It is navigable for
keel boats of 10 tons to Hamilton, in
New York, 260 miles above Pittsburg.
Its most important branches are the Kis-
kimenetas, and Toby's and French creeks.
It
ALLEGIANCE (from alligare, to bind);
the obedience which every subject or citi-
zen owes to the government of his coun-
try; in England and the U. States, obedi-
ence to its lawful commands. It is the
doctrine of the English law, that natural-
born subjects owe an allegiance which is
intrinsic and perpetual, and which cannot
be divested by any act of their own.
has been a question frequently and grave-
ly argued, both by theoretical writers and
in forensic discussions, whether the Eng-
lish doctrine of perpetual allegiance ap-
plies in its full extent to the citizens of the
U. States of America. From a historical
review of the principal discussions in the
federal court of the U. States on this in-
teresting subject in American jurispru-
dence, the better opinion would seem to
be, that a citizen cannot renounce his
allegiance to the U. States without the
permission of government, to be declared
by law; and that, as there is no exist-
ing legislative regulation on the subject,
180
ALLEGIANCE-ALLEGORY.
the rule of the English common law re-
mains unaltered. (See Kent's Commenta-
ries, vol. ii.) If an alien wishes to become
a citizen of the U. States, he must re-
nounce his allegiance to the government
whose subject he has been, as much as
two years before he can be admitted to
take the oath of allegiance to the govern-
ment of the U. States.
ALLEGORY (from the Greek ά220, some-
thing else, and you, to speak); a figu-
rative representation, in which the signs
(words or forms) signify something be-
sides their literal or direct meaning. Irony
is distinguished from allegory by convey-
ing a meaning directly contrary to the
literal signification of the words, while in
allegory there is an agreement between
the literal and the figurative sense, each
of which is complete in itself. The al-
legory should be so constructed as to ex-
press its meaning clearly and strikingly;
and the more clear and striking the mean-
ing is, the better is the allegory. All of
the fine arts have, to a certain degree, an
allegorical character, because, in all, the
visible signs generally represent something
higher, the ideal; but, in the narrower
sense of allegory, its object is to convey a
meaning of a particular character by
means of signs of an analogous import.
The allegory, moreover, ought to represent
an ensemble, by which it is distinguished
from the trope or metaphor and the con-
ventional symbol. The last differs from
the allegory, also, in this particular, that its
character could not be understood, if it had
not been previously agreed upon. For in-
stance, the olive-branch would not convey
the idea of peace if it had not been adopted
as its sign. From all which has been said,
it is clear that the allegory can take place
in rhetoric, poetry, sculpture, painting and
pantomime, but never in music or archi-
tecture, because these two arts are not
capable of conveying a double meaning
in their representations. As an instance
of allegory in poetry, Prior's verses from
Henry and Enima may serve ;
directly to its figurative meaning; thus
a warrior throwing the doves out of a liel-
met would be a bad allegory of war; a good
one would be a husbandman making a
weapon out of his sithe. In rhetoric, al-
legory is often but a continued metaphor.
The symbolic and allegoric representa-
tion often come very near to each other,
and sometimes it is hard to say to which
a piece of art most inclines. This is the
case, for instance, with the beautiful rep-
resentations of Justice, Poetry, &c., by
Raphael, in the Vatican. Parables and
fables are a species of allegory; e. g. the
beautiful parable in one of the tales in
the Arabian Nights, in which the three
religions, the Mohammedan, Jewish and
Christian, are compared to three similar
rings, bequeathed to three brothers by
their father. This allegory has been re-
peated by Boccaccio in a tale of his De-
cameron, and by Lessing in his Nathan
the Wise. Allegory in rhetoric was used
by the most ancient nations, because it is
well fitted to express an elevated state of
feeling, and, at the same time, to give
somewhat of the charm of novelty to ideas
at ouce common and important. Addison
truly says, “Allegories, when well chosen,
are like so many tracts of light in a dis-
course, that make every thing about them
clear and beautiful.” In painting and
sculpture, however, the ancients made by
no means so much use of allegory as the
modern artists, partly owing to their
greater facility of expressing certain ideas
by means of the stories and the images
of their different gods, who all more or
less represented a single idea. The mod-
erns have no such copious stores of illus-
tration, the Protestants particularly, who
are not familiar with the multitude of
Catholic saints and legends; thus they are
often obliged to express single ideas by
allegory. Another cause of the greater
prevalence of allegory in modern times is
to be found in the circumstance, that al-
legory is always more cultivated in the
period of the decline of the arts, when the
want of great and pure and simple con-
Did I but purpose to embark with thee
On the smooth surface of a summer's sea,
ceptions of the beautiful is supplied by
While gentle zephyrs play with prosperous gales, studied and ingenious inventions, as well
And fortune's favor fills the swelling sails,
as in the fact, that the ancients were more
But would forsake the ship, and make the shore, exclusively conversant with simple ideas
When the winds whistle, and the tempests roar?
than the moderns, among whom the rela-
or the often quoted ode 1, 14 of Horace. An tious of society are much more compli-
instance of allegory in painting or sculp-cated, and every branch of science, art
ture is the representation of peace by two
turtle-doves sitting on their nest in a hel-
met or a piece of ordnance; or Guido's
representation of Fortuna. The represen-
tation of an allegory ought always to lead
and social life more fully developed.
Sometimes, whole poems are allegorical,
as Spenser's Fairy Queen; but, in these
cases, the poet must take great care not
to fall into trifling. Bunyan's Pilgrin's
1
ALLEGORY-ALLEN.
Progress is a famous instance of a work
wholly allegorical. There was a time
when every poem was taken as an alle-
gory; even such works as those of Arios-
to and Tasso were tortured from their
true meaning, and made to pass for alle-
gorical pictures. There exist many edi-
tions of these poets, in which, at the be-
ginning of each canto, the allegory of it
is given. With equally little reason, the
Song of Solomon has long been consid-
ered an allegory of Christ's love to his
church. The most productive period of
allegory in painting and sculpture was
that of Louis XV, which may be styled,
in regard to the arts, the age of fiattery.
During this period, innuunerable bad, and
some good ones were produced. They
are now much less in vogue. Rubens
painted several fine allegorical pictures, in
the Luxemburg gallery. Lessing, Her-
der and Winckelmann have investigated
the subject of this article, perhaps, more
thoroughly than any other modern writers.
No poet, in our opinion, has inade use of
allegory in a more powerful and truly
poetical manner than the great Dante; yet
the opinion that the whole of lus Divina
Commedia is allegorical, is quite erroneous.
ALLEGRI, Gregorio; born at Rome, in
1590, and died there in 1652; a singer in
the papal chapel, and considered to this
day, in Italy, one of the most excellent
composers of that time. He was a scholar
of Nanini. His Miserere, one of the most
sublime and delightful works of human
art, has particularly distinguished him.
It is even now sung yearly, during pas-
sion-week, in the Sistine chapel at Roine.
This composition was once esteemed so
holy, that whoever ventured to transcribe
it was liable to excommunication. Mo-
zart disregarded this prohibition, and,
after two hearings, made a correct copy
of the original. In 1771, it appeared at
London, engraved, and in 1810 at Paris,
in the Collection des Classiques. In 1773,
the king of England obtained a copy, as a
present from the pope himself. Accord-
ing to the opinion of Baini, at present the
leader of the choir (maestro della cappella),
in the pope's chapel, the Miserere of Alle-
gri was not composed for all the voices, but
only the bass of the 18 or 20 first parts;
all the rest is the addition of successive
singers. But in the beginning of the 18th
century, the existing manner of singing it
was established as a standard at Rome,
by the orders of the pope. A full score
of it has never existed.-A. is also the
name of an Italian satirical poet, a native
of Florence, who flourished towards the
16
VOL. I.
-
181
end of the 16th century. His Christian
name was Alexander.
ALLEGRO, in music; a word denoting one
of the six distinctions of time. It expresses
a sprightly motion, the quickest of all, and
originally means gay. The usual distinc-
tions succeed each other in the following
order-grave, adagio, largo, vivace, allegro,
presto. Allegro time may be heightened,
as allegro assai and allegrissimo, very live-
ly; or lessened, as allegretto or poco allegro,
a little lively. Più allegro is a direction
to play or sing a little quicker.
ALLELUIA. (See Halleluia.)
ALLEMAND; 1, a well-known dance,
originally German, distinguished for its
sprightliness; 2, a very lively dancing-
tune, in time, which has much resem-
blance to the French tambourine.
ALLEN, Ethan, a brigadier-general in
the American revolutionary army, was
born in Salisbury, Connecticut, but was
educated principally in Vermont, to which
state his parents emigrated whilst he was
yet young. His education was of a limit-
ed character. In the disturbances which
agitated Vermont, he took an active part
against the royal authority, in favor of the
Green mountain boys, the name by which
the settlers in that territory were desig-
nated.-In 1775, soon after the battle of
Lexington, in compliance with the re-
quest of the legislature of Connecticut, A.
collected a body of about 230 Green moun-
tain boys, and marched against the for-
tresses of Ticonderoga and Crown Point,
for the purpose of taking them by assault.
At Castleton, he was joined by colonel Ar-
nold, who had received directions from the
Massachusetts committee of safety to
raise a corps of men for the same pur-
pose, but, failing to accomplish that ob-
ject, he determined to proceed with the
small force of colonel A. They arrived at
the lake opposite to Ticonderoga, on the
evening of May 9, and, having with great
difficulty procured boats, landed 83 men
on the other shore during the night. The
day beginning, however, to dawn, A. was
obliged to attack the fort before his rear
could cross the lake, having previously
animated his soldiers, by a harangue,
which he concluded with saying, “I now
propose to advance before yoù, and in
person to conduct you through the wicket-
gate; but, inasmuch as it is a desperate
attempt, I do not urge on any one contrary
to his will. You that will undertake vol-
untarily, poise your firelocks." They all
immediately poised their firelocks. He
then advanced at the head of the centre
file to the wicket-gate, where a sentry
$
182
ALLEN.
snapped his fusee at him, and retreated
through the covered way, followed by A.,
who formed his men upon the parade.
The apartments of the commanding offi-
cer having been pointed out to him by a
sentry who asked quarter, he instantly
repaired thither, and, holding his sword
over captain de Laplace, whom he found
undressed, demanded the surrender of
the fort. The latter asking him by what
authority, "I demand it," said A., "in
the name of the great Jehovah, and of the
continental congress." De Laplace was
constrained to comply with the summons,
and the fort, with its stores and garrison,
was given up. On the same day, also,
A. obtained possession of Crown Point,
and soon after captured a sloop of war,
the only armed vessel on lake Cham-
plain, and thus acquired the entire com-
mand of that lake. In the following
autumn, he was twice despatched into
Canada, to engage the inhabitants to lend
their support to the American cause. In
the last of these expeditions, he formed a
plan, in concert with colonel Brown, to
reduce Montreal. September 10, 1775, A.
accordingly crossed the river, at the head of
110 men, but was attacked, before Brown
could join him, by the British troops, con-
sisting of 500 men, and, after a most obsti-
nate resistance, was taken prisoner. The
events of his captivity he himself has re-
corded in a narrative compiled by him after
his release, in the most singular style, but
apparently with great fidelity.-For some
time, he was kept in irons, and treated with
much severity. He was sent to England
as a prisoner, with an assurance, that, on his
arrival there, he would meet with the hal-
ter. During the passage, extreme cruelty
was exercised towards him and his fellow-
prisoners. They were all, to the number of
34, thrust, hand-cuffed, into a small place
in the vessel, enclosed with white-oak
plank, not more than 20 feet wide by 22
long. After about a month's confinement
in Pendennis castle, near Falmouth, he was
put on board a frigate, January 8, 1776,
and carried to Halifax. Thence, after an
imprisonment of five months, he was re-
moved to New York. On the passage
from Halifax to the latter place, A. was
treated with great kindness by captain
Smith, the commander of the vessel, and
evinced his gratitude by refusing to join in
a conspiracy to kill the British captain and
seize the frigate. His refusal prevented
the execution of the plan. He remained
at New York for a year and a half, some-
times in confinement, and sometimes at
large, on parolc.—On May 6, 1778, A. was
exchanged for colonel Campbell, and im-
mediately afterwards repaired to the head-
quarters of general Washington, by whom
he was received with much respect. As
his health was impaired, he returned to
Vermont, after having made an offer of
his services to the commander in chief, in
case of his recovery. His arrival in Ver-
mont was celebrated by the discharge of
cannon; and he was soon appointed to
the command of the state militia, as a
mark of esteem for his patriotism and
military talents. A fruitless attempt was
made by the British to bribe him to lend
his support to a union of Vermont with
Canada. He died suddenly at his estate
in Colchester, February 13, 1789.—Gen-
eral Allen was a man of a strong and en-
terprising, but haughty and restless mind.
Although his education had been circum-
scribed, he was daring in his pretensions
to knowledge, and hold and peremptory
in his assertions. Besides the narrative
of his captivity, which we have noticed,
and a number of pamphlets in the con-
troversy with New York, he published a
"Vindication of the Opposition of the In-
habitants of Vermont to the Government
of New York, and their Right to form an
independent State," 1779, and a work, en-
titled "Allen's Theology, or the Oracles
of Reason," the first formal publication,
in the U. States, openly directed against
the Christian religion. A. was a confirmed
infidel. He adopted some of the most
fantastical and absurd notions imaginable,
believing, with Pythagoras, that the soul
of man, after death, would live again in
beasts, birds, fishes, &c. He often told
his friends, that he himself would live
again under the appearance of a large
white horse. However, there is an anec-
dote extant, which proves that he pro-
fessed to entertain those ideas more from
an affectation of singularity, than from
conviction. Whilst sitting in his library,
conversing with a physician by the name
of Elliot, A. was informed that his daugh-
ter was dying, and desired to speak with
him. He immediately repaired to her
chamber, followed by doctor Elliot. His
wife was distinguished for piety, and had
instructed her daughter in the principles
of Christianity. As soon as her father
stood at her bedside, she said to him, “I
am about to die; shall I believe in the
principles you have taught me, or shall I
believe in what my mother has taught me ?”
He became greatly agitated; his chin quiv-
ered; his whole frame shook; and, after
waiting a few moments, he replied, “Be-
lieve what your mother has taught you."
ALLEYN-ALLIGATOR.
ALLEYN, Edward; a celebrated actor
in the reigns of Elizabeth and James I,
better known as the founder of Dulwich
college. He was born 1566, in London,
in the parish of St. Botolph, Bishopsgate.
According to the testimony of Ben Jon-
son and the other dramatists of the age,
he was the first actor of the day, and of
course played leading characters in the
plays of Shakspeare and Jonson; al-
though, in consequence of the names not
being set against the parts in the old edi-
tions of those authors, his particular share
in them is not ascertained. He was keep-
er of the royal bear-garden. Having be-
cone wealthy, he founded Dulwich col-
lege, for the maintenance of one inaster,
one warden, and four unmarried fellows
of the name of Allen, three whereof were
to be clergymen, and the fourth a skilful
organist; also six poor inen and as many
women; and 12 poor boys, to be educated
until of the age of 14 or 16, and then put
out to some trade or calling. Aubrey
tells a ridiculous story of the origin of this
donation, in a fright endured by A., who
saw a real devil on the stage, while him-
self performing a fictitious one in a drama
by Shakspeare. After the college was
built, he inet with some difficulty in ob-
taining a charter, owing to the opposition
of the lord chancellor Bacon. The very
rational letter of this great man to the
marquis of Buckingham on this subject
is extant. A. was the first master of his
own college, and, dying in 1626, was
buried in the new chapel belonging to it.
Within these few years, it has been
brought into great additional notice by
the admirable collection of pictures of the
best masters, bequeathed by sir Francis
Bourgeois.
ALLGEMEINE ZEITUNG, i. e. General
Gazette; a German political daily paper,
published at Augsburg in Bavaria, for
which reason it is sometimes called by
foreigners the lugsburg Gazette. The A.
Z. is by far the best German newspaper,
and particularly rich in information re-
specting the affairs of the East and of
Italy. The summary of new publications
which it contains semi-annually after the
book-fair in Leipsic is excellent. Baron
Cotta, the owner of the A. Z., has regular
correspondents in Constantinople, in al-
most all the capitals of Europe, and in the
U. States. He has recently established
another daily paper, Das Ausland, at Mu-
nich, which contains accounts of foreign
countries only. The A. Z. has existed
now 40 years or longer. It is, like all
the German newspapers, small in com-
183
parison with the English or American,
and is afforded at a very low price.-For a
general view of the German newspapers,
see Newspapers.
ALLIANCE; a league between two or
more powers. Alliances are divided into
offensive and defensive. The former are
for the purpose of attacking a common
enemy, and the latter for mutual defence.
An alliance often unites both of these con-
ditions.
Offensive alliances, of course,
are usually directed against some partic-
ular enemy; defensive alliances against
any one from whom an attack may come.
As regards the obligations and rights of
the contracting parties, alliances are di-
vided into three chief classes:-1. Those
in which the allied parties agree to prose-
cute the war with their whole force (so-
ciété de guerre; alliance pour faire la guerre
en commun). In this case, all the parties
are principals. 2. Auxiliary alliances, if
the allies pledge themselves mutually to
furnish assistance to a fixed amount, in
which case only one of the contracting
powers appears as principal. 3. Mere
treaties, by which one power promises, in
consideration of certain subsidies, to fur-
nish troops, or to place its troops in the
pay of another power, without directly
taking part in the war; or to make only
advances of money. Triple alliance is an
alliance between three, quadruple alliance,
quintuple alliance, between four and five
powers. (See Coalition, Quadruple Alli-
ance, and Holy Alliance.)
ALLIANCE, Holy. (See Holy Alliance.)
ALLIGATION is of two kinds, alternate
and medial. Alligation alternate is the
method of finding the quantities of ingre-
dients of different values, necessary to
form a compound of a given value, and it
is the converse of alligation medial, which
teaches how to find the mean rate of a
mixture, when the particular quantities
composing the mixture, and their respec-
tive mean rates, are given.
ALLIGATOR; the name of a large rep-
tile, of the saurian or lizard order, de-
rived, according to Cuvier, from a cor-
ruption of the Portuguese word_lagarto,
equivalent to the Latin lacerta. The alli-
gators or caimans form the second sub-
genus of Cuvier's crocodile family, and
belong to the southern parts of the Amer-
ican continent. Two specics, very nu-
merous in these regions, are well known;
the spectacled eaiman, crocodilus sclerops,
most common in Guiana and Brazil; and
the pike-nosed A. (C. lucius), frequenting
the southern rivers and lagoons of the U.
States. In the water, the full-grown A.
184
ALLIGATOR.
is a terrible animal, on account of its great
size and strength. It grows to the length
of 15 or 20 feet, is covered by a dense
harness of horny scales, impenetrable to
a musket ball, except about the head and
shoulders, and has a huge mouth, armed
with a fearful row of strong, unequal,
conical teeth, some of which shut into
cavities of the upper jaw-bone. They
swim or dart along through the water
with wonderful celerity, impelled by their
long, laterally-compressed and powerful
tails, which serve as very efficient oars.
On land, their motions are proportionally
slow and embarrassed, because of the
length and unwieldiness of their bodies,
the shortness of their limbs, and the sort
of small, false ribs which reach from joint
to joint of their necks, and render lateral
motion very difficult. In addition to the
usual number of ribs and false ribs, they
are furnished with others, for the protec-
tion of the belly, which do not rise up to
the spine. The lower jaw extends far-
ther back than the skull, so that the neck
inust be somewhat bent when it is open-
ed; the appearance thus produced has
led to the very universal error of believ-
ing that the A. moves its upper jaw,
which is incapable of motion, except with
the rest of the body. Under the throat
of this animal are two openings or pores,
the excretory ducts from glands, which
pour out a strong, musky fluid, that
gives the A. its peculiarly unpleasant smell.
-In the spring of the year, when the
inales are under the excitement of the
sexual propensity, they frequently utter
a roar which is a very alarming sound,
from its harshness and reverberation, re-
sembling distant thunder, especially where
numbers are at the same time engaged.
At this period, frequent and terrible bat-
tles take place between the males, which
terminate in the discomfiture and retreat
of one of the parties. At this season,
also, an old champion is seen to dart forth
on the surface of the waters, in a straight
line, at first as swiftly as lightning, grad-
ually moving slower as he reaches the
centre of a lake; there he stops, inflates
himself by inhaling air and water, which
makes a loud rattling in his throat for a
moment, until he ejects it with vast force
from his mouth and nostrils, making a
loud noise, and vibrating his tail vigor-
ously in the air. Sometimes, after thus
inflating himself, with head and tail raised
above the water, he whirls round until
the waves are worked to foam, and, at
lengthı, retires, leaving to others an oppor-
tunity of repeating similar exploits, which
have been compared to an Indian warrior
rehearsing his acts of bravery, and exhib-
iting his strength by gesticulation.-The
females make their nests in a curious
manner, upon the banks of rivers or la-
goons, generally in the marshes, along
which, at a short distance from the water,
the nests are arranged somewhat like an
encampment. They are obtuse cones, 4
feet high, and about 4 feet in diameter at
the base, built of mud and grass. A floor
of such mortar is first spread upon the
ground, on which a layer of eggs, having
hard shells, and larger than those of a
common hen, are spread. Upon these
another layer of mortar, 7 or 8 inches in
thickness, is deposited, and then another
bed of eggs; and this is repeated nearly
to the top. From 100 to 200 eggs are
found in one nest. It is not ascertained
whether each female watches her own
nest exclusively, or attends to more than
her own brood. It is unquestionable,
however, that the females keep near the
nests, and take the young under their
vigilant care as soon as they are hatched,
defending them with great perseverance
and courage. The young are seen fol-
lowing the mother through the water like
a brood of chickens following a hen.
When basking in the sun on shore, the
young are heard whining and yelping
about the inother, not unlike young pup-
pics. In situations where alligators are
not exposed to much disturbance, the
nesting-places appear to be very much
frequented, as the grass and reeds are
beaten down for several acres around.
The young, when first hatched, are very
feeble and helpless, and are devoured by
birds of prey, soft-shelled turtles, &c., as
well as by the male alligators, until they
grow old enough to defend themselves.
As the eggs are also eagerly sought by
vultures and other animals, the race
would become speedily extinct, but for
the great fecundity of the females.-The
A. is generally considered as disposed to
retire from man, but this is only to be
understood of alligators frequenting riv-
ers or waters where they are frequently
disturbed, or have learned to dread the
injuries which man inflicts. In situations
where they are seldom or never inter-
rupted, they have shown a ferocity and
perseverance in attacking individuals in
boats, of the most alarning character ;
endeavoring to overturn them, or rearing
their heads from the water, and snapping
their jaws in a fearful manner. Bartram,
who has made more interesting and valu-
able observations on the A. than any
ALLIGATOR-ALLIX.
185
excellent instance of imitative harmony
and happy alliteration is afforded by the
line of Virgil, describing the measured
gallop of the horse-
Quadrupedante pedum sonitu quatit ungula
campum ;
or another verse of the same poet-
Luctantes ventos tempestatesque sonoras-
or
Weave the warp and weave the woof,
Ruin seize thee, ruthless king!
Among the French, a line of Racine-
Pour qui sont ces serpens qui sifflent sur vos têtes ?—
is thought to represent very happily the
hissing of the serpent. In German liter-
ature, Bürger, perhaps, has made the most
use of alliteration; but he often carries
too far. A sonnet of A. W. Schlegel fin-
ishes with the following:
other naturalist, gives numerous instances
of their daring and ferocious disposition,
and himself very narrowly escaped with
his life on several occasions. At present,
alligators, though still numerous in Flor-
ida and Louisiana, are no longer regarded
as very dangerous. Their numbers an-
nually decrease, as their haunts are in-
truded upon by man, and at no distant
period they must be nearly, if not quite, in which the continual recurrence of the
exterminated. In the winter, the alligat reminds us of the uninterrupted noise
tors spend great part of their time in deep of the winds. Greek literature affords
holes, which they make in the marshy
banks of rivers, &c. They feed upon many instances of this imitative harmony.
fish, various reptiles, or carrion flesh English poetry furnishes many beautiful
which is thrown into the streams, and, specimens of alliteration, but instances of
an unhappy use of this figure are not
though very voracious, are capable of
existing a long time without food. The wanting even in good writers. Gray has
barking of a dog, it is said, will at any many alliterations, e. g.
time cause then to forsake their holes,
and come on shore, as they prey upon
any sinall quadruped or doinestic animal,
which comes within their reach. They
have a very small brain, and live a long
time even after it is destroyed. Titian
Peale, a naturalist distinguished for prac-
tical acquaintance with the works of na-
ture, informed the writer that he destroyed
the whole superior part of the head and
brain of a large A. by a hall from his gun,
in the morning of a long day, and, on
passing the same place in the evening,
he found the animal had crawled off.
Following his trail through the marsh for
a considerable distance, he found him still
alive, and, though dreadfully mangled
about the head, ready to make battle.
In the economy of nature, alligators are
of very considerable importance. They
abound most where fish and other crea-
tures are found in the greatest numbers.
Their voracity tends to repress exuberant
increase in the beings upon which they
fecd; while themselves are exposed to
very numerous enemies in early life, and
gradually pass away, as man usurps the
sway over their peculiar dominions. The
peculiarities of construction, &c. will be
given under the title Crocodile, which see.
ALLITERATION; a figure or embellish-
ment of speech, which consists in the
repetition of the same consonants, or of
syllables of the same sound, in one sen-
tence. Such alliteration sometimes hap-
pens without the intention of the writer
or speaker, and may be disagreeable to
the ear, in the same way as a rhyme
occurring involuntarily. Alliteration is
pleasing when skilfully managed, so as to
produce what the French have called
harmonie imitative; but by too frequent
usc, it becomes trivial and ridiculous. An
Wo Liebe lebt und labt ist lieb das Leben.
Among modern languages, alliteration is
altogether more used in those belong-
ing to the Teutonic stock, than in those of
Latin origin.
ALLIX, Jacques Alexandre François; a
French lieutenant-general, and member
of the academy of sciences at Göttingen;
born at Perci, in Normandy, Sept. 21,
1776. He distinguished himself early in
the military career, c. g. in the war of St.
Domingo, but, not having shown much
zeal on the 18th of Brumaire, he did not
rise in the service. In 1808, he entered
the army of the king of Westphalia. In
1813, he defended that kingdom with
courage. On both the occasions when
France was conquered by the allies, he
served his country faithfully. The or-
donnance of Louis XVIII, July 24, 1815,
obliged him to leave the kingdom. In
his exile, he wrote his work against New-
ton's law of gravitation, in which he ex-
plains all the motions of the heavenly
bodies by the evolution of gases in the
different atmospheres. This work has
been translated into many languages, but
was disapproved by Laplace. In 1819,
he returned to France, and entered again
the military service.
16*
}
186
ALLODIUM-ALLSPICE.
ALLODIUM; land held by a man in his
own right, without any feudal obligation.
It is opposed to fee, or feudum. All land-
ed property must be either feudal or allo-
dial. In England, according to the theory
of the British constitution, all land is held
in fee. The word allodial is, therefore,
never applied to landed property there.
Such as is really allodial bears the name
of fee-simple. The same word is used in
the U. States of America, though land is
not held there, in fact, by any feudal ten-
ure. In ancient France, the feudal char-
acter of landed property was taken for
granted (nulle terre sans seigneur), until
the contrary was proved. In Germany,
the contrary rule prevails. As the vassal
is under many restrictions in respect to
the disposal of the feud, and as the prin-
ciples of inheritance with respect to the
A. are, in some particulars, different from
those which govern the feud, the distinc-
tion is of importance. If a feud falls back
to the lord, of course the A. is separated
from it; the same takes place when the
heir of the A. and that of the feud are
different persons. In Germany, the word
allodificiren signifies to make an estate
allodial, which is favored by many gov-
ernments. In such allodification, a part
of the value must be paid as a compensa-
tion to the former lord, or a fixed annual
tax (canon) is imposed on the estate. The
great, and generally successful efforts,
which the Prussian government has made
for about 17 years, to absolve the estates
of the peasants from all feudal obliga-
tions, on the payment of a certain part of
their value to the lord, must be considered
as one of the consequences of the en-
lightened spirit of the age, even in coun-
trics not favored with a representative gov-
ernment. The immense change which
took place in France, during the revolu-
tion, by the extinction of all feudal ten-
ures, and the endeavors to bring about
the same change wherever governments
in the French spirit were established, e.
g. in the kingdom of Westphalia, are well
known. The etymology of the word A.
is uncertain; most probably it is of Ger-
man origin.
ALLOY; a composition, the result of a
mutual combination of two or more met-
als. To alloy generally means to mix a
metal of less with one of more valuc.-
Various processes are adopted in the
formation of alloys, depending upon the
nature of the metals. Many are prepared
by simply fusing the two metals in a cov-
ered crucible. It has been a question
whether alloys are to be considered as
compounds, or as mere mixtures. Mr.
Dalton considers alloys to be chemical
compounds, one striking instance of
which is in the alloy of tin and copper,
called speculum metal; the smallest devi-
ations from the true proportions will spoil
the alloy as a reflector. In some cases,
the metals are found to unite in definite
proportions only; and it is probable that
all the alloys contain a definite compound
of the two metals.-The principal char-
acters of the alloys are the following:-1.
We observe a change in the ductility,
malleability, hardness and color. Mal-
leability and ductility are usually impair-
cd, and often in a remarkable degree;
thus gold and lead, and gold and tin, formi
a brittle alloy. The alloy of copper and
gold is harder than either of its compo-
nent parts; and a minute quantity of
arsenic added to copper renders it white.
2. The specific gravity of an alloy is rare-
ly the mean of its component parts; in
some cases an increase, in others a dini-
inution of density having taken place.
3. The fusibility of an alloy is generally
greater than that of its components. Thus
platinum, which is infusible in our com-
mon furnaces, forms, when combined
with arsenic, a very fusible alloy; and an
alloy of certain proportions of lead, tin
and bismuth is fusible at 2123, a tempera-
ture several degrees below the melting
point of its most fusible constituent. 4.
Alloys are generally more oxydizable than
their constituents taken singly; a proper-
ty which is, perhaps, partly referable to
the formation of an electrical combina-
tion.-From early times, the baser metals
have been used to alloy gold and sil-
ver coins, to prevent loss by wear.
England, the legal proportion of base
netal for gold coin is 1 part in 12, and
for silver coin 3 parts in 40. In France,
the legal proportions of the different coins
are as follows: silver coin, 9 parts silver,
1 copper; copper money, 4 parts copper,
1 silver; gold coin, 9 parts gold, 1 cop-
per. For silver plate, the French propor-
tions are 93 parts silver, copper; for
trinkets, 8 parts silver,
parts silver, 2 copper.
gold plate, they have three different stan-
dards; 92 parts gold, 8 copper; also, 84
gold, 16 copper, and 75 gold, 25 copper.
Gold and silver are alloyed partly that
they may wear better, partly to diminish
the price of articles made of them.
In
For
ALLSPICE, OF PIMENTO, is the dried
berry of a West Indian species of myrtle
(myrtus pimenta), which grows to the
height of 20 feet and upwards, and has
somewhat oval leaves, about 4 inches long,
睿
​ALLSPICE-ALMAGEST.
ALLUM. (See Alum.)
187
ALLUVION (from the Latin alluvio, or
adluvio, rising or swelling of a river, flood,
deluge) now signifies a gradual increase
of land along the sea-shore or the banks
of large rivers, or at their mouths. Great
alterations in the limits of countries are
produced by A.; e. g. New Orleans and
Messalonghi stand on land formed by A.
Holland, too, constantly experiences the
effects of A.
Whole islands are often
formed by this cause. In most of the
countries on the European continent, the
sovereigns have declared themselves own-
ers of all alluvial formations. In Germna-
ny, A., which is there called by the much
more proper name Anländung, takes place
constantly on the coast of the North sea,
owing, probably, to the great extent of
flats along the shore, on which every tide
deposits some mud. This alluvial land is
at first without vegetation: then the sali-
cornia maritima appears, which affords a
rich salad. Next follows poa maritima,
and, on very rich A., aster tripoleum,—a
plant from 1 to 6 feet high. In this state,
the A. receives the name of Vorland, and
geese begin to resort to it. Afterwards it
is diked, and used as pasture for sheep,
horses and cattle. It is supposed that this
kind of land will increase much, in con-
sequence of the many flats along the sea-
shore of Germany.
of a deep shining, green color, and nu-
merous branches of white flowers, each
with 4 small petals. In the whole vegeta-
ble creation there is scarcely any tree
more beautiful or more fragrant than a
young pimento-tree about the mouth of
July. Branched on all sides, richly clad
with deep-green leaves, which are re-
lieved by an exuberance of white and
richly aromatic flowers, it attracts the no-
tice of all who approach it. Pimento-
trees grow spontaneously, and in great
abundance, in many parts of Jamaica;
but they cannot be propagated without
great difficulty. The usual method of
making a new pimento walk, or planta-
tion, is to appropriate for this purpose a
piece of woody ground in the neighbor-
hood of an already existing walk, or in a
part of the country where the scattered
trees are found in a native state. The
other trees are cut down; and, in a year
or two, young pinuento plants are found
to spring up in all parts, supposed to have
been produced from berries dropped there
by birds, which eagerly devour them.
About the month of September, and not
long after the blossoms have fallen, the
berries are in a fit state to be gathered.
At this time, though not quite ripe, they
are full grown, and about the size of pep-
per-corns. They are gathered by the
hand; and one laborer on a tree will strip
then off so quickly, as to employ three
below in picking them up and an indus-
trious picker will fill a bag of 70 pounds'
weight in a day. The berries are then
spread on a terrace, in the sun, to be
dried, but this is an operation which re-
quires great care, from the necessity of
keeping them entirely free from moisture.
By the drying they lose their green color,
and becoine of a reddish-brown; the
process is known to be completed by
their change of color, and by the rattling
of the seeds within the berries. They
are then packed into bags or hogsheads
for the market. When the berries are
quite ripe, they are of a dark-purple color,
and filled with a sweet pulp. Pimento is
thought to resemble, in flavor, a mixture ALMAGEST; a celebrated book, com-
of cinnamon, nutmegs and cloves, whence posed by Ptolemy; being a collection of
it has obtained the name of all-spice. It the observations and problems of the an
is much employed in cookery, and is cients relating to geometry and astrono-
chiefly used in whole grains. It is also my. The original Greek name was air-
employed in medicine, as an agreeable razie usyair or uɛyının, i, e. greatest compi-
aromatic, and forms the basis of a distillation. The Arabians, at the time when
led water, a spirit, and an essential oil.
The leaves of the pimento-trees yield, in
distillation, an odoriferous oil, which is
not unfrequently used, in medical prepa-
rations, instead of the oil of cloves.
ALMA. The Latin word almus belongs
to those words which cannot be rendered
precisely in other languages, and of which
every idiom possesses some. It means
cherishing, nourishing, fostering, bountiful,
dear. This epithet, therefore, was applied
to gods, men, qualities and things-Alma
Corts, A. Venus, A. lux, A. parens, &c.
In modern times, it is particularly used in
Italy, alma città, for Rome, and in Eng-
laud, alma mater, for Oxford, Cambridge,
&e., by those who have received their
education at these universities. This cus-
tom has been transplanted into the U.
States. Sometimes A. is used as the
Christian name for individuals of the fe-
male sex.
science flourished among them, translated
it, about 827, and added their article al to
the word megiste; thus the word almagest
originated. (See Ptolemy.) In 1230, the
emperor Frederic II caused this work
188
ALMAGEST-ALMANAC.
to be translated from the Arabic into
Latin.
ALMAGRO, Diego; a Spaniard of low
birth, one of the adventurers who accom-
panied Francis Pizarro. He showed him-
self brave, profligate and cruel. In 1525,
he took Cusco, the ancient capital of the
incas, by storm, when he exhibited the
greatest barbarity towards the unfortu-
nate Atahualpa, or Atabalipa, as he is
sometimes called, the last monarch of the
race of Manco Capac, and put him to a
horrid death. Quarrelling with Pizarro
about the division of their spoil and pow-
er, a schism ensued; and, both factions
taking arms, Almagro was defeated, made
a prisoner by his rival, and strangled in
1538, at the age, it is said, of 75. His son,
however, succeeded in avenging him: the
friends of his father, rallying round him,
assassinated Pizarro in his turn, after an
obstinate resistance, in his own palace,
July 26, 1541. This outrage excited the
attention of de Castro, viceroy of Peru;
and young Almagro, falling into his pow-
er, was, with a considerable number of
his party, executed by his orders in the
following year. (See Pizarro.)
ALMAMON, OF ABDALLAII, caliph of Bag-
dad, was the son of Haroun al Raschid,
and succeeded his brother, Al Amin, in
813. He was a great patron of learning,
and founded a celebrated academy at
Bagdad. He died in 833.
ALMANAC ; a table or calendar, in which
are set down the revolutions of the sca-
sons, the rising and setting of the sun, the
phases of the moon, the most remarkable
conjunctions, positions and phenomena
of the heavenly bodies, for every month
and day of the year; also the several fasts
and feasts to be observed in the church
and state, &c. The history of A., and
even the etymology of the word, are in-
volved in considerable obscurity. By
some, it is derived from the Arabic al
manach, to count. Verstegan, who has
written on the antiquities of Great Britain
under the title of Restitution of decayed
Intelligence concerning Britaine, makes the
word of German origin, almonat, and
says that the Saxons were in the habit of
carving the annual courses of the moon
upon a square piece of wood, which they
called almonaught. The modern almanac
answers to the fasti of the ancient Ro-
mans. There are several very splendid
English almanacs of the 14th century
existing in MS., particularly in the British
museum. A very curious specimen is in
the library of Corpus Christi college, Cam-
bridge. Alinanacs became generally used
in Europe within a short time after the
invention of printing; and they were very
early remarkable, as some are now in
England, for the mixture of truth and
falsehood which they contained. In 1579,
their effects in France were found so
mischievous, from the pretended proph-
ecies which they published, that an edict
was promulgated by Henry III, forbid-
ding any predictions to be inserted in
them relating to civil affairs, whether
those of the state or of private persons.
No such law was ever enacted in Eng-
land. It is singular, that the earliest
English almanacs were printed in Hol-
land, on small folio sheets; and these
have occasionally been preserved, from
having been pasted within the covers of
old books. In the reign of James I, let-
ters patent were granted to the two uni-
versities and the Stationers' Company for
an exclusive right of printing almanacs.
These, in 1775, were declared to be ille-
gal. During the civil wars of Charles I,
and thence onward to our own times,
English almanacs became conspicuous
for the unblushing boldness of their astro-
logical predictions, and their determined
perpetuation of popular errors. At the
present day, the almanacs of the conti-
nental states are generally free from mis-
leading matters of this nature; and the
almanacs most similar to some of those
extensively circulated amongst the Eng-
lish are produced in Persia. A modern
Persian almanac is thus described in the
Encyclopedia Metropolitana: "The first
page contains a list of fortunate days for
certain purposes; as, for example, to buy,
to sell, to take medicine, to marry, &c. ;
then follow predictions of events, as earth-
quakes, storins, political affairs, &c., after
the manner of Moore's Almanac, except
being apparently more concise." This
resemblance between the productions of
a highly-cultivated nation, and one which
is noted for its general ignorance, is
a remarkable instance of the permanency
of vulgar errors. The first almanac at
Constantinople is said to have been print-
ed in 1716, under the direction of Abdon-
aham. Regiomontanus was the first per-
son in Europe, who prepared almanacs
in their present form with the exception
of their predictions, which were, in
all probability, introduced into Europe
from the Persians.-Some of the alma-
nacs in the U. States still contain pre-
dictions respecting the weather. There
is, perhaps, no class of books, which bear
so obviously the stamp of the age, and of
the spirit of different countries, as alma-
nacs.
ALMANAC-ALMEIDA.
At present, they become every
year more full of statistical matter. Once
they were almost entirely filled with sub-
jects of a religious character. At another
time they overflowed with astrological
calculations and predictions. In the time
of Napoleon, an almanac was published
in France, in which, to every day, an
achievement of the emperor, or something
else relating to him, was added. Alma-
nacs, in the petty principalities of Germany,
exhibit the endless genealogical tables of
the princes. Some almanacs in modern
Greek, printed at Venice, where, formerly,
all books in this language were published,
we found full of astrological superstition,
and matters relating to the Greek church.
One of the most curious almanacs which
we have seen is an Italian one for 1822,
exhibiting, in a striking manner, the
Italian vivacity. To the 30th of July is
added, Sudano ancora le ossa! to the 11th
of August, Oh! che noja; to July 12,
Cascano le braccia; to January 2, Stivali
e Ombrello! In Germany, almanach is the
name given to annuals like those which
appear in England, and the U. States of
America, under the names of Souvenir,
Forget me not, &c. In France, a work
appears annually under the title of Alma-
nach des Gourmands, which is conduct-
ed with much spirit, and is in high repute
among epicures.
ALMANAC, Nautical. An important work
of this kind is published in England an-
nually, but two or three years in advance,
bearing the name of Nautical Almanac, in
which (besides most things essential to
general use, that are to be found in other
almanacs) are contained many interest-
ing particulars; more especially, the dis-
tances of the moon from the sun, and
from certain fixed stars, for every three
hours of apparent time, adapted to the
meridian of the royal observatory, Green-
wich. By comparing these with the dis-
tances carefully observed at sea, the
mariner may, with comparative ease and
certainty, infer his longitude to a degree
of accuracy unattainable in any other
way, and sufficient for most nautical pur-
poses. This almanac was commenced,
in 1767, by Dr. Maskelyne, astronomer
royal, and has been continued ever since.
During 48 years, Dr. Maskelyne devoted
the most sedulous attention to it, and it
was distinguished for accuracy. Since
his death, it has not been so well con-
ducted, and the board of longitude, under
whose auspices it was published, has been
lately dissolved. The French Connais-
sunce des Tems is published with the
189
same views as the English Nautical Al-
manac, and nearly on the same plan. It
commenced in 1698, and has been, in one
or two instances, discontinued for short
intervals. For many years, however, it
has been published with great regularity,
and in a manner highly creditable to the
bureau de longitude. The most valua-
ble of the nautical almanacs now existing,
is that published at Berlin, under the su-
perintendence of professor Encke, who
has, within a short time past, taken
charge of it. It is called Astronomisches
Jahrbuch, and is the same which was con-
ducted for 50 years by professor Bode,
with great credit to himself. It is dis-
tinguished for completeness and accu-
racy.
ALME, or ALMA; girls in Hindostan
and Egypt, whose profession is to tell
stories, dance, sing, play, and appear as
improvisatrici. The latter accomplish-
ment is not of very difficult acquisition,
as the extempore poetry of the East deals
much in repetition, and is little constrain-
ed by rule. These arts are taught to female
slaves, with a view to enhance their price
in the market. The art of telling stories,
of which the Asiatics are so fond, is un-
doubtedly carried to much greater per-
fection in the East, than with us.
Almes, in their dances, imitate the oc-
currences and actions of life, and often
overstep the bounds of decency. Their
singing, like Asiatic singing in general, is
extremely poor; but in their dances, they
show the greatest skill. They often amuse
rich people at dinner. There are also
Almes for the lower classes.
The
ALMEIDA, Francisco and Lorenzo; fa-
ther and son. Francisco was the first
viceroy of India, in 1505. After rar-
aging the coast of Africa in the course of
his expedition, he subjected to the Portu-
guese dominion Quiloa, Onor, Cananor,
with other petty states, and, in a desperate
struggle, carried by storm and burned the
strong fortress of Panama, though defend-
ed by a resolute garrison of 4000 men,
while his own force scarcely exceeded
700. His son, who accompanied him,
being now detached on a separate expe-
dition, subdued the island of Ceylon,
carried off 250,000 lbs. weight of cinna-
mon as the first fruits of his success, and
imposed on the country an annual tribute
to the same amount. In a subsequent ex-
pedition against the combined fleets of the
Arabians and Egyptians, he was slain.
His father revenged his son in a bloody
battle at Dabul. He then resigned his
command to the famous Albuquerque,
190
1
ALMEIDA-ALMOND.
and sailed for Portugal, but was killed on
the African coast, near the cape of Good
Hope.-A Portuguese bishop, a Jesuit,
meinber of the same family, called Apol-
linarius, suffered martyrdom in Ethiopia,
whither he went as a missionary, in 1568.
ALMEIDA, one of the strongest fortress-
es in Portugal, is situated in the province
of Beira, near the Spanish border, on the
Coa, and contains 2750 inhabitants. In
1762, it was taken by the Spaniards, after
great loss, but was restored at the peace.
When Ney, 24th July, 1810, attempted to
pass over the Coa into Portugal, the Eng-
lish defended the fortress of A. against mar-
shal Massena, till 27th August, when they
were obliged to capitulate. In his retreat
from Portugal, March 1811, the evacua-
tion of A. cost marshal Massena a bloody
battle of two days with Wellington, the
3d and 4th of May, near Fuentes d'Onoro,
when the French commander, general
Brenier, blew up the fortress on the night
of the 11th, and made his way through
the midst of the besiegers. The English
have restored the works.
ALMENE; a weight of 2 pounds, used
to weigh saffron in several parts of the
East Indies.
ALMOHEDES; the name of an African
dynasty which succeeded that of the Al-
nioravides, in Barbary, in the commence-
nent of the 12th century.
ALMONER, in its primitive sense, denot-
ed an officer of any religious establishment,
to whom belonged the distribution of
alms. By the ancient canons, all monas-
teries were to spend at least a tenth part
of their income in alms,-a rule which is
still followed by several convents. Ev-
cry bishop, also, was required to keep an
alinoner. The great almoner (grand au-
monier) of France was the highest cccle-
siastical dignitary in that kingdom before
the revolution. Napoleon restored this
office, and it has been kept up by the
Bourbons, but we do not know its rank
at present. To the almoner belonged the
superintendence of all hospitals and houses
of charity. The king received the sacra-
meut from him, and he said mass at all
grand solennities. He still officiates at
the performance of the mass called Veni,
Spiritus, before the chamber of deputics.
The lord almoner, or lord high almouer
of England, is an ecclesiastical officer,
generally a bishop, who formerly received
all deodands and the goods of every felo
de se,
which he was to distribute among
the poor. He had, also, the power of
giving the first dish from the king's table
to whatever poor person he pleased.
The emperors of Germany, too, and most
of the European monarchs, had their
almoners. The alinoner of the pope is
one of the highest officers of his state.-
The name almoner has been given, by
some writers, to the chaplains of ships,
regiments, &c.
ALMOND. The common or sweet al-
mond is a soft and pleasantly-flavored
kernel, contained in a nut, which is of
flattish shape, and has a tender shell, with
numerous small holes on the outside. The
almond-tree (amygdalus communis) is usu-
ally 12 or 14 fect high. Its beautiful pink
flowers, of five petals, grow in pairs, and
appear very early in spring. The leaves
are oval, pointed, and delicately serrated at
the edges. Its flowers are remarkably
beautiful, and form a great ornament of
the English shrubberies, particularly as
they appear in March and April,—a sea-
son when few other parts of the vegetable
creation have recovered from their wintry
state. Though known to the ancients
from the most remote period of antiquity,
the almond-tree has been cultivated in
England only since 1562, and this almost
wholly on account of the beautiful appear-
ance of its flowers, since the climate of
Great Britain is not sufficiently warm for
the fruit to be perfected. The almonds
which are consumed in that country and
the U. States are imported, sometimes in
the shell, and often without, from France,
Spain, Italy and the Levant; and they
are packed in casks, boxes or bales.
The province of Valencia was formerly
much celebrated for its almonds, but the
cultivation of the trees in that part of
Spain has for several years been much
neglected. The chief uses of sweet al-
monds are in confectionary and cooking.
They are also eaten with raisins in desserts
after dinner; but they should be well
chewed, since every piece that is swal-
lowed entire is indigestible. By pressure,
they yield a considerable proportion, some-
times nearly half their weight, of oil.
Some preparations of almonds are used
in medicine, particularly that called milk
of almonds, which is formed of pounded
almonds, loaf-sugar and water, well mixed
together. In some parts of the East In-
dies, it is said that almonds supply the
place of small money.-Bitter almonds
resemble, in all respects, the sweet al-
monds, both in the appearance of the
kernels themselves, and of the trees which
produce them, excepting a slight differ-
ence in the size of the flowers and fruit.
Like the sweet almonds, they yield a
large portion of oil. This has no bitter-
ALMOND-ALOES.
ness, but the substance that remains after
the pressure is intensely bitter. If these
almonds be eaten freely, they occasion
sickness and vomiting; and, to many
quadrupeds and birds, they are fatal poi-
son. There was formerly a notion, but
it is quite erroneous, that the eating of
them would prevent the intoxicating ef-
fects of wine. They are frequently used
instead of apricot kernels in ratifia, and
sometimes are employed in making a
counterfeit cherry-brandy. The oil and
emulsions of bitter almonds are used in
medicine, and a powder and paste for
washing the hands is made both from
them and from sweet almonds. By con-
fectioners, they are much used to give
flavor to biscuits and other articles. The
substance which gives their peculiar flavor
to bitter almonds, and to the kernels of
peaches, apricots, &c., as also to the
leaves of all the species of cherry and
peach, is the prussic acid, so well known
as a powerful medicine and poison. It
is this which renders a large draught of
noyau, or other cordial of a similar kind,
so often injurious, or even fatal. The
Prussian medical police, therefore, which
is remarkably vigilant, is in the babit of
examining liquors of this sort exposed for
sale. For a further account of this sub-
stance, see Cherry Laurel and Prussic
Acid.
ALNUS, in botany. (See Alder.)
ALOADIN; prince of the Assassins, or
Arsacides; commonly called the Old Man
of the Mountains. He was the sheik of a
Syrian tribe professing the Mohammedan
religion, but blindly devoted to the will
of their chief, with whose temporal supc-
riority was also mingled a sort of ecclesi-
astical character. Uniting, as it were, in
his own person the pretensions of prince
and prophet, the slightest of his com-
mands is said to have been always exe-
cuted, though at the expense of certain
loss of life to the emissary. Many fabu-
lous stories are related of this prince, from
whose followers the word assassin has its
derivation.
ALOES are an extensive tribe of plants,
some of which are not more than a few
inches, whilst others are 30 feet and up-
wards, in height. All the leaves are
fleshy, thick, and more or less spinous at
the cages, or extremity. These plants,
which are chiefly inhabitants of hot
climates, have flowers of a single petal,
the mouth expanded, the base nectarifer-
ous, and the filaments of the stamens in-
serted into the receptacle. Some of the
larger kinds of aloes are of great impor-
191
An
tance to the inhabitants of countries in
which they grow. Beset as the leaves
are with strong spines, they form an im-
penetrable fence. The Negroes of the
western coast of Africa make ropes and
weave nets of the fibrous parts of these
leaves. The Hottentots hollow out the
stems of one of the kinds into quivers
for their arrows. In Jamaica, there is a
species of aloe, which supplies the inhabit-
ants with bow-strings, fishing-lines, and
materials from which they are able to
weave stockings and hammocs.
aloe which grows in the kingdom of
Mexico is applied by the inhabitants to
almost every purpose of life. It serves to
make hedges for enclosures; its trunk sup-
plies beams for the roofs of houses, and
its leaves are used instead of tiles. From
this plant they make their thread, needles,
and various articles of clothing and cor-
dage; whilst from its juices they manu-
facture wine, sugar and vinegar. Some
parts of it they eat, and others they apply
in medicine. The juice of aloes was
formerly used in Eastern countries, in
embalming, to preserve dead bodies from
putrefaction; and, as the resinous part of
this juice is not soluble in water, it is
sometimes adopted, in hot climates, as a
preservative to ships' bottoms against the
attacks of marine worms. One ounce of
it, mixed with turpentine, tallow and
white lead, is considered sufficient for
covering about two superficial feet of
plank; and about 12 pounds as sufficient
for a vessel of 50 tons burthen. In proof
of the efficacy of this method, two planks
of equal thickness, and cut from the same
tree, were placed under water, one of
them in its natural state, and the other
smeared with this composition. They
were suffered to continue in the water S
months, and when, at the end of that
time, they were taken out, the former was
perforated in every part, and in a state of
absolute decay, whilst the latter was as
perfect as at first. In the East Indies, the
juice of these plants is used as a varnish
to preserve wood from the attacks of de-
structive insects; and skins, and even
living animals, are sometimes smeared
with it for the same purpose. There is a
tract of mountains about 50 miles north
of the cape of Good Hope, which is
wholly covered with aloes. Among the
Mohammedans, and particularly in Egypt,
the aloc is a kind of symbolic plant; it is
dedicated to the offices of religion, and
pilgrims, on their return from Mecca, sus-
pend it over their doors, to show that they
have performed that holy journey. The
192
ALOE-ALPHABET.
inspissated juice of several species of
aloes is used in medicine, under the name
of aloes. The medicinal properties of al-
oes have been long known and establish-
ed, and their extensive application in med-
icine is, perhaps, the best proof that can
be adduced of their utility. In the arts,
aloes are in several respects useful. Par-
ticularly, a beautiful violet color is afford-
ed by the leaves of the Socotrine aloe,
which does not require the aid of any
mordant to fix it; the same also is capa-
ble of being formed into a fine transparent
color for painting in miniature.
ALOE, the great or American (agave
Americana), is a large plant, the leaves of
which are thick, fleshy and spinous at the
edge, and the stern branched, and of great
height. The flowers have the tube of the
corolla narrowed in the middle, the sta-
mens longer than the corolla, and the
style longer than the stamens. This mag-
nificent native of North America is by
no means an uncommon plant in English
gardens, but is seldom seen there in
flower. There is, indeed, a notion, but an
erroneous one, that the American aloc
does not bloom until it is 100 years old.
The fact is, that the time of flowering
depends almost wholly on the rapidity of
its growth. In hot countries, it will flower
in a few years; but in colder climates, the
growth being slower, it is necessarily lon-
ger in arriving at maturity. The stem,
which bears the blossoms, rises from the
centre of the leaves, and, when the plant
is in a vigorous state, it frequently exceeds
the height of 20 feet. An American
aloe, in the garden of the king of Prussia,
was 40 feet high. Branches issue from
every side, and in such a manner as to
form a kind of pyramid, composed of
greenish-yellow flowers, which stand
erect, and are seen in thick clusters at
every joint. When in full flower, its ap-
pearance is extremely splendid; and, if
the season be favorable, and the plant be
sheltered from the cold in autumn, a suc-
cession of blossoms will sometimes he
produced for near three months. In the
warmer parts of Europe, the American
aloe is cultivated as an object of consider
able utility. They are frequently set out
in rows, as fences for enclosures, particu-
larly in Spain, Portugal and Italy. In
Algarvia, the leaves are employed for
scouring pewter, kitchen utensils and
floors, and, being cut into slices, are used
for the feeding of cattle. The juice of
these leaves is made into cakes, which
arc used for washing, and will make lather
with salt-water as well as with fresh.
The fibres of the leaves, when properly
prepared, may be separated into threads,
which are useful in various ways. This
is sometimes done by bruising and steep-
ing them in water, and afterwards beating
them. The process in some parts of
Portugal is, after plucking the largest
and best leaves, to place them on a
square board, which a person presses
obliquely between his breast and the
ground, and then scrapes with a square
iron bar, held in both hands. By this op-
eration, all the juices are pressed out, and
only the fibres and some of the membra-
nous parts of the leaves remain, which
are easily detached. The fibres are
employed for all the purposes to which
thread can be applied; but they are nei-
ther strong nor durable, and, if exposed
to moisture, soon decay.
ALOIDES (SO called from their supposed
father, Aloëus). Otus and Ephialtes, sons
of Iphimedia and Neptune, were enor-
mous giants. They attempted to storm
heaven with the other giants, but were
killed by Apollo. As a punishment, they
were bound to a stake in Tartarus, and
gnawed by snakes, while an owl, on the
top of the stake, disturbed them with its
cries. (See Giants.) This fable, which is
also differently related, originated with
the Baotians, who maintain that the Alo-
ides introduced the worship of the Muses.
ALPHA and OMEGA, the first and last
letters of the Greek alphabet, in the Holy
Scriptures, signify the beginning and the
end, or the first and the last; i. e. before
and after all things. These two letters
are, therefore, used as a symbol of the
Divine Being. They were also formerly
the symbol of Christianity, and engraved
accordingly on the tombs of the ancient
Christians, to distinguish them from those
of idolaters.
ALPHABET (from qa and sira, the
two first letters of the Greek alphabet);
the ordinary series of the letters or sylla-
bles (in syllabic alphabets) of a language.
(For the hypotheses respecting their ori-
gin, the relation between the different
alphabets, and the different systems on
which they are based, see the article
Writing, Art of.)—The number of letters
and their meaning varies in the different
tongues very much. The English alpha-
bet (including j and v) contains 26 letters;
the French, 23; the Italian, 20; the Span-
ish, 27; the German, 26, or 24, if some
compound letters are not reckoned; the
Dutch, 26; the Bohemian, or that of the
Czechian Slavonic dialect, 42; the Rus-
sian, 41; the Ethiopic, Abyssinian or Tar-
ALPHABET-ALPHONSO.
tarian, 202, as has been asserted, but this
subject needs further investigation; the
Turkish, 33; the Georgian, 36; the Ben-
galese, 21; the Baramese, 19; the Cop-
tic, 32; the Persic, 32; the Arabic, 28;
the Armenian, 38; the Sanscrit, 50; the
Japanese, 50; the Hebrew, Chaldee, Syr-
iac and Samaritan, 22 each; the ancient
and modern Greek, 24; the Latin, 22;
the Cherokee, 82 syllables. Almost all
alphabets begin with A. (See article 4.)
For further information, see the arti-
cles on the different languages and letters.
ALPHEUS; one of the largest rivers of
Greece, which rises near the source of
the Eurotas, in Arcadia, flows by Olym-
pia, and falls into the Ionian sea.-In iny-
thology, a son of Oceanus and his sister
Thetis. When a river-god, he fell in love
with Diana, who, in order to escape him,
disfigured with mire her own face, and
the faces of her nymphs. He was enam-
ored of and pursued the nymph Arethusa,
but Diana concealed her in a cloud, and
changed her into a fountain. Upon this,
Alpheus resumed his own form of a river,
and mingled his waters with hers. This
fable probably arose from the circum-
stance, that the river Alpheus, at a certain
place, is lost in the earth; the fable makes
it come to light again in Sicily, where it
unites with the fountain Arethusa.
ALPHONSO III, king of Leon and Astu-
rias, called the Great, succeeded his father,
Ordogno, in 866, at the age of 18 years;
according to some, in 862, when 14 years
old. After having subdued by force the
powerful nobles of his kingdom, who saw
with jealousy the royal dignity remain
hereditary in a family, he turned his arms
against his foreign enemies, and distin-
guished his reign by more than 30 cam-
paigns, and numerous victories obtained
over the Moors. He crossed the Duero,
overthrew the walls of Coimbra, passed
the Tajo into Estremadura, added to his
dominions a part of Portugal and Old
Castile, and peopled Burgos anew. But
all these successes did not conciliate his
subjects, and he had the grief of seeing
his own son, don Garcia, at the head
of the malcontents, endeavoring to tear
the crown from his head. A. defeated
the rebels, took his son prisoner, and
kept him in close confinement at the
castle of Gauson. The queen, donna
Ximena, then formed a dangerous con-
spiracy in Garcia's favor, and armed both
her other sons against the king. A bloody
war desolated the kingdom, until A., de-
feated by his own son, abdicated the
crown, and placed it on don Garcia's
VOL. I.
17
193
head. He afterwards commanded an ar-
my, as the general of his son, against the
Moors, conquered them, and returned
cnriched with booty. After this expedi-
tion, he died at Zamora, 912, 64 years
old.
ALPHONSO X, king of Leon and Cas-
tile, surnamed the Astronomer or the Phi-
losopher, succeeded his father, Ferdinand
the Holy, in 1252. His love of the sci-
ences and of law, and his surname of S-
bio (the wise) gave his subjects hopes of a
happy reign; but the event did not an-
swer their expectations. A. was neither
loved by his family, his subjects, nor his
neighbors; but his learning and eloquence
had given him such a reputation in Eu-
rope, that many German princes favored
his claim to the imperial throne. Instead
of employing himself in expelling the
Moors, and humbling his own nobility, he
exhausted the strength of his kingdom by
endeavoring to secure his election to the
imperial throne (1257). But it was rain
for him to aspire to this dignity in opposi-
tion to Rodolph of Hapsburg; and pope
Gregory X not only refused to acknowl-
edge him as emperor, but even to allow
his right to Suabia, which he claimed
through his mother, Beatrice, daughter
of Philip I, archduke of Suabia. In the
mean time, his throne was endangered at
home by the conspiracies of the nobles
and the attacks of the Moors. He finally
conquered them, in a bloody battle, in
1263, took from them Xeres, Medina-Si-
donia, San-Lucar and a part of Algarvia,
and united Murcia with Castile.
these victories were interrupted by new
troubles, excited by his son, the infante
Philip, which he succeeded in quieting
only after 3 years' war. But the mildness
with which he treated the rebels was con-
sidered only a proof of weakness, and,
when he at last determined to act with
rigor against his own family, his son San-
cho again rebelled, and, in 1282, deprived
him of his crown. A. sought support in
an alliance with the Moors, and died in
1284, after unsuccessful efforts to regain
the throne. A. was the most learned
prince of his age, and has gained a last-
ing fame by his collection of laws, called
Las Partidas. There is in this book a very
remarkable sentiment, considering the
age in which it was produced:
despot roots up the tree; the wise master
only prunes off the superfluities." Europe
is indebted to A. for the astronomical ta-
bles which go under his name. Under his
patronage, the first general history of
Spain was composed, in the Castilian
But
The
194
ALPHONSO-ALPS.
tongue, and the Bible translated. He
contributed much to the revival of sci-
ence, and, with this view, strove to in-
crease the privileges and the professor-
ships of the university of Salamanca; but
without firmness and prudence, learning
is useless to a ruler.
ALPS; the highest ridge of mountains
in Europe, lying between 5° and 17° E.
lon., and 45° and 48° N. lat.; consequent-
ly extending through 11°—12' of lou., and
2º—4° lat., or 120,000 square miles. Their
branches connect them with almost all
the other mountains of Europe. The
highest points are in Savoy and Switzer-
land, and thence branches diverge in all
directions. The principal divisions are
the following:-1. The Maritime Alps,
between Nice and Provence, extending
from mount Viso to the Mediterranean,
and connecting the Apennines, in Italy,
with the Alps, in Provence. Their princi-
pal summits are the mount Ardente, di
Tenda and Camelon.-2. The Cottian
Alps, from mount Viso, by mount Genevre,
to mount Cenis. They separate Piedmont
and Dauphiné. The Pelvoux de Val-Lou-
ise is 13,836 feet high, the Olan, 11,206,
and the Viso, 13,820 feet.-3. The Gray or
Grecian Alps, from mount Cenis to the
Col de bon Homme, traversing the de-
partment of Isere. They separate Pied-
inont from Savoy, but do not equal the
height of the Cottian Alps. Their high-
est summit, mount Cenis, is 11,460 feet
high.-4. The Pennine Alps, from Col
de bon Homme, by mount Blane and the
Great St. Bernard, to mount Rosa. They
separate Piedmont from Savoy and the
Valais, and contain the highest summits
and most dreadful glaciers of the whole
ridge. Mount Blanc, the highest moun-
tain of Europe, which was first ascended
in the last part of the 18th century, rises
15,766 feet (according to de Luc, 2,391
French toises, or 15,304 English feet);
mount Rosa, 15,380; the Great St. Ber-
nard, 10,780; mount Velan, 10,627; and
Simplon, 6,574 feet.-5. The Lepontine
or Helvetian Alps, which cover Western
Switzerland, extending from mount Rosa,
on both sides of the Rhone, through the
Valais, by St. Gothard, to the Muschel-
horn and Bernardino in the Grisons, and
dividing Lombardy from Switzerland. It
is the most visited of all the chains of the
Alps, and is remarkable for its sublime
scenery, and as giving rise to several of
the largest rivers of Europe. Its most
elevated summits are the Finsteraar
horn, 14,094; the Jungfrau, 13,720; the
Schreckhorn, 14,062; the Furka, 14,040;
the Grimsel, 9,704; and the St. Gothard,
9,964 feet high. The Iurten mountain
and the Jura run out from this chain.-
6. The Rhotian Alps, from Bernardino,
through the Grisons and Tyrol, to the
Dreiherrnspitz, on the borders of Saltz-
burg and Carinthia, and southwards to
the Pellegrino. They separate Lombardy
from Germany and the Grisons, and are
connected, by means of the Arlberg, with
the Raulie-Alb or Suabian Alps, and
through them with the principal moun-
tains of Germany. The Orteles rises
12,859 feet; the Wetterhorn, 12,176; the
Dodi, 11,735; the Riegleberg, 9,775; and
the Pilates, 7,496 feet.-7. The Noric
Alps, which run from the Dreiherrnspitz,
through all Carinthia, Saltzburg, Austria
and Styria, and lose themselves in the
plains of Edenburg. The Cetian moun-
tains unite them with the Bohemian for-
est and the Hungarian mountains. They
have very high summits, above which
projects the Great Glockuer, 12,982 feet
high.-8. The Carnic Alps, from Pelle-
grino, between the Save and the Drave,
to the Terglou. One of their highest
peaks, the Obis, is 7,035 feet high.-9.
The Julian Alps reach from the Terglou,
between the right bank of the Save, the
Kulpa and the Adriatic, to the rock called
Kleck, near Segna, and separate Lombardy
from Illyria. The Terglou rises to the
height of 9,906 feet; the Loibl, 4,266. To
these belong the Karst, the Croatian and
Selavonian mountains.-10. The Dinarian
Alps, from the Kleck to the vicinity of
Sophia, where they unite with the Balkan,
and form, by different spurs, the Hellenie
and Rumelian mountains.-The popula-
tion of all the different branches of the
Alps amounts to at least 7,000,000,
of which the greater part is of German
origin; the rest are Italians and Selavoni-
ans. More than 2,000,000 are herdsmen,
who live by breeding cattle. The declivi-
tics of the Noric, Carnie and Rhotian Alps
are rich in metals, particularly in iron,
copper, lead, and many kinds of semi-
metals. The bouquetin grazes on their
summits. It is now, however, become
very rare. Half-way up their sides are
found chamois, marmots, dormice, cagles
and vultures. Here also are found the
beautiful Alpine flowers, which disappear
towards the summits. (See Alps, Roads
over the.)-As to the geological struc-
ture of the Alps, it is, in general, very
regular. To the north and south runs a
steep and almost perpendicular wall; a
chain of sand-stone hills extends along it,
reaching, however, but to an unimportant
ALPS-ROADS OVER THE ALPS.
height, and not belonging, in a geognos-
tical respect, to the proper Alpine forma-
tion. This mass of steep mountains is
formed by a central chain and two ridges
of lime-rocks, which extend from S. S. W.
to E. N. E., and near Turin and Geneva
cease to accompany the central ridge.
This consists of the oldest mountain for-
mations. Gneiss and granite occupy the
whole middle tract of the Alps, and form,
in particular, the body of the upper range,
which is covered with an infinite num-
ber of peaks and glaciers, and can be
crossed with tolerable convenience only
at a few points. This range forms the
division of the Alpine streams, and here
are situated the highest of the above-
mentioned mountains. This formation is
particularly rich in beautiful minerals, of
which lime-stone, gneiss, mica slate and
granite are the chief. To this succeeds,
as well upon the northern as upon the
southern side, the slate formation, which
rises also to a considerable height, with-
out reaching, however, the highest points.
It consists principally of table-slate, whet-
slate, silicious slate, graywacke, and con-
tains, also, a kind of lime-stone. In it
there are found, also, layers of ore, partic-
ularly the famous masses of sparry iron
in Styria. The porphyry formation ap-
pears only on the south side of the Alps,
particularly in Tyrol, where it forms a
wide, low plateau. The latest formation
of the central chain is the elder or red
sand-stone, consisting of a coarse stone,
often a conglomerate, or of a finer red or
gray stone.
The ridges of lime-stone
Alps rise northwards and southwards, at
the foot of the central chain, steep and
highly picturesque, constituted by Alpine
or elder Floetz lime-stone, marl, plaster,
clay, fossil salt, trap, porphyry, also amyg-
daloid and conglomerate. It is distin-
guished by beds of calamine, galena and
clay iron-stone. On the lime-stone chain
lean the younger formations of the Jura
(q. v.), of the Suabian Alps, &c. See the
article Alps, Suabian; also Ebel, über den
Bau der Erde in dem Alpengebirge, On the
Structure of the Alps, 2 vols., Zurich,
1808.)
ALPS, Roads over. One of the most
lasting monuments of the power and pol-
icy of Napoleon are the artificial moun-
tain-roads, which connect Savoy with
France, and Valais with Italy. The first
leads over mount Cenis (a mountain 5,879
feet high) by Lanslebourg to Susa, from
Savoy to Piedmont. Formerly, travellers
were obliged to pass over the steepest
height on mules or in chairs; but, in
195
1805, Napoleon ordered a winding road
for carriages to be laid out here, 30 miles
long and 18 feet wide, which is passable
even in winter. In 1815, 16,000 carriages
and 34,900 mules passed this road.-The
second leads over the Simplon (Sem-
pione), which is 10,327 feet in height,
from Valais to Piedmont, from the vil-
lage Glüs to Domo d'Ossola. This road,
constructed between 1801 and 1806, is
the only one from Switzerland, over the
Alps, passable by wheel carriages. It is
about 36 miles long, and 25 feet wide
throughout, and is nowhere too steep to
be passed by the heaviest wagons. It is
carried over steep precipices, and through
6 galleries hewn in the rocks. Some of
these passages are several hundred paces
in length, and are lighted by openings.
From them you step into lovely valleys,
adorned with cottages, and see above
them dark forests of pine, glaciers, and
peaks covered with snow shining in the
blue sky. Bridges are thrown over tre-
mendous precipices, from one mountain
to the other. The Italian side offers a
more beautiful spectacle than the Swiss,
because the rocks are steeper. The
grande galerie is 683 feet long, entirely
excavated in granite, called the gallery of
Frissinone, from the rivulet, which forms
a splendid cascade near it. The road
commences a mile westward from Brieg,
and leads over the Saltina-bridge; above
the village of Ried, it goes through a
beautiful grove of larch-trees, to the first
gallery, and then over the Canter-bridge,
0 paces in length, to Persal. Here begin
precipices and avalanches, on which ac-
count the road has many windings. At
the galerie des glaciers the growth of trees
ceases, and the road rises 1,033 toises
above the lago Maggiore, or almost 6,000
feet above the sea. At the top stands a
hospitium for travellers, a turnpike, and,
lower down on the right, the old hospital.
Four miles farther on lies the village of
Simplon, 4,548 feet above the sea.
road goes along the river Veriola, till near
Domo d'Ossola. At Gunt is a tavern; a
mile farther, the territory of Valais termi-
nates near a chapel; the first Italian village
is S. Marco. Avalanches and masses of
earth, brought down by the rain, often
damage this road, so that the annual repair
requires a considerable expense, which,
however, neither the Swiss nor the Sar-
dinian government have, as yet, been will-
ing to take upon themselves. Osterwald
has given fine sketches of the picturesque
views on the road over the Simplon.
(q. v.)—A third road leads over mount
The
196
ROADS OVER THE ALPS—ALSACE.
Genévre (about 6000 feet high), on the
frontiers of France and Piedmont. There
is a village on the level summit of the
Inountain, with a monastery, where trav-
ellers are received. The fourth road (la
corniche) goes from Nice, by Monaco, to
Genoa, through the rocky ground at the
foot of the Maritime Alps.-Among the
other roads over the Alps are to be men-
tioned, 1, that over Mt. St. Gothard (g. v.),
from the canton Uri to the canton Tessi-
no; but, as this is very toilsome, and, in
some places, dangerous, particularly near
the Devil's bridge, in the Urnerloch, and
at the descent to Airolo, in the Val Livino,
goods can be transported from Switzer-
land to Italy only on pack-horses. The
road ascends to a height of 8264 feet, and
at an elevation of 6367 feet there is a
hospitium of the Capuchins. 2. The road
over the Great St. Bernard (q. v.), from
the lake of Geneva to Italy (the nearest
of all to Turin and Genoa), is unfit for
carriages, and can only be passed on foot
and by pack-horses. In order to shorten
the way, it has been proposed to make a
passage, for the transport of wares, from
the Valais to Genoa. 3. The main road
from Innspruck to Italy, over the Bren-
ner, a mountain of Tyrol, 6063 feet in
height. At this place the road is about
10 miles long, and ascends to a height
of 4367 feet. With this is connected, 4,
the new road built by Austria since 1821,
the highest in Europe, from Bormio,
in Valtellina, over the Braglio and the
yoke of Stilfs, 8400 feet high. 5 and 6.
The road from Bellinzona to Coire, over
the Bernardin, and that over the Splügen,
passable for wheel-carriages since 1823;
the former leading to the lake of Lugano,
the latter to the lake of Como. The can-
ton Tessino, in 1818, entered into a com-
pact with the government of Lombardy,
by which, on condition of being allowed
the importation of salt and fruits from
Lombardy, it promised to prevent the
building of a new road from Bellinzona
to Coire, over the Bernardin, and only to
keep the old road in its present condition.
The validity of this treaty, however, so
contrary to the interest of the Grisons and
the other cantons, was disputed, and the
building was finally commenced. The
roads over the yoke of Stilfs, and that
over mount Simplon, are among the
greatest productions of hunan energy
and art in modern times.
ALPS, the Suabian. The northern con-
tinuation of the Schwarz-wald, or Black
Forest, is a regular, calcareous mountain,
70 miles long, and from 9 to 20 broad, on
the southern frontier of Wirtemberg, of
which the highest and most barren part
is the Rough Alps (Rauhe Alp). The high-
est point is not quite 3000 feet above the
level of the sea. In the village of Sirchin-
gen, the eaves of a house shed the rain,
on one side, into the Rhine, through the
Neckar, and on the other, into the Dan-
ube. As the mountain abounds in lime,
it is rich in caverns containing stalactites.
The higher the quarries of limestone are
situated, the finer is the grain of the stone,
and the greater the mass of petrifactions;
among which are particularly to be no-
ticed large specimens of the cornu ammo-
nis. These Alps are poor in metals.
ALPUXARAS, los (ancient montes Soles);
a range of mountains in Granada, about
51 miles in length, from E. to W., and 33
in breadth, from N. to S. They can be
seen from Gibraltar, and even from the
coast of Africa. Here the descendants
of the Moors, Moriscoes (now Christians),
live, and cultivate the land extremely
well. No part of Spain is so well peopled.
ALSACE (Gerin., Elsass; Freuch, Alsace);
before the French revolution, a province
of France, on the Rhine, now constituting
the departments of the Lower and the
Upper Rhine (the former of which con-
tains 1760 square miles, with 370,660 in-
habitants; the latter, 2140 square miles,
with 504,600 inhabitants); a fertile conn-
try, formerly divided into Lower and Up-
per Alsace. In ancient times, it was a
German duchy, but, in 1268, the line of
its dukes becoming extinct, it was par-
celed out to several members of the Ger-
man empire. By the peace of Münster,
in 1648, the part of A. belonging to Aus-
tria and to ten free cities of the empire,
was ceded to France. The possessions
of the other German states in A. still
preserved their connexion with the Ger-
man empire. By the peace of Ryswick,
in 1697, the city of Strasburg, and all the
territory occupied by the French troops
on the left bank of the Rhine, were ceded
to France. Several states of the empire
had still important possessions in it,
which, at the beginning of the revolution,
the first national assembly declared to be
a conquest pointed out by nature itself;
because, they said, foreign powers could
not be allowed to retain possessions with-
in the territory of France without dan-
ger; compensation was promised for the
losses sustained by the German owners;
few of them, however, were willing to
accept it, and this affair was one of the
chief causes of the war which took place
soon after between France and Germany.
F
ALSACE-ALTER EGO.
By the peace of Paris, Nov. 20, 1815, a
part of A., viz. Landau, was again sepa-
rated from France, and reunited with
Germany.-(See Résumé de l'Histoire d'
Alsace, par M. V., Paris, 1825; and Nouv.
Descript. Histor. et Typogr. des deux De-
part. du Rhin, par J. F. Aufschlager, I
number, Strasburg, 1825.) The inhabit
ants of A. continue to speak German.
Strasburg is the chief city. The two
departments produce wine, copper, iron,
hemp, flax, tobacco, madder, &c. Sev-
eral of the most distinguished liberals in
the French chamber have lately been
sent from these departments, and, on the
whole, they were much attached to the
French emperor.
AL SEGNO (Italian; to the mark or sign).
This expression is usually accompanied
with this character, $ and signifies that
the performer is to return to a similar
mark in the composition, and end with
the first part of the strain.
AL-SIRAT; the bridge, of breadth less
than the thread of a famished spider, over
which the Mussulmans must skate into
paradise, to which it is the only entrance.
But this is not the worst; the river be-
neath being hell itself, into which, as may
be expected, the unskilful and tender of
foot contrive to tumble, with a facilis de-
scensus Averni, not very pleasing in pros-
pect to the next passenger. There is a
shorter cut downwards, for the Jews and
Christians.-Lord Byron.
ALSOP, Richard, a man of letters, born
in Middletown, Connecticut, published a
number of fugitive pieces in verse and
prose, which had considerable success, be-
sides several translations from the Italian
and French. The principal one is the
Natural and Civil History of Chili, from
the Italian of the abb. Molina, in 2 vols.,
8vo., reprinted in London. In 1815, he
prepared the Narrative of the Captivity
and Adventures of J. R. Jewett among
the Savages of Nootka Sound. He died
Aug. 20, 1815, in the 57th year of his age.
ALT; a term applied to that part of the
great scale of sounds which lies between
Fabove the treble-cliff note, and G in
altissimo.
ALTAI or ALTAIC MOUNTAINS; a vast
chain of mountains in Asia, extending
from lon. 68° to 170° E., terminating at
East Cape, and forming, for a great dis-
tance, the southern boundary of Siberia.
Their length is about 5000 miles. They
assume different names, and are supposed
to be connected with the Uralian chain.
A large part of the A. chain is sometimes
called the Kolhyvan mountains, because
197
situated in the government of that name.
The highest summits are computed at
10,730 feet above the sea.
ALTAR; an elevated place intended for
sacrifice. At first, altars were made of
earth or ashes, but afterwards, when men
began to build temples, they were made
of stone or metal, and much adorned.
They stood in the eastern part of the edi-
fice, before the statue of the god, but
lower. Very different from these are the
altars in Christian churches. In these,
the altar is not a place of sacrifice, but
was, at first, a table at which the love-
feast (agape) was held. When this
was changed into a church ceremony,
the altar yet remained a table, placed in
the choir of the church, used for the dis-
tribution of the Lord's supper, and for
various other purposes. Altars of mason-
work were, probably, first used among
Christians in the reign of Constantine the
Great. The regulation of placing them
always towards the cast originated with
Sextus II. Since the time of Gregory VI,
Roman Catholic churches frequently con-
tain several altars.
tain several altars. The high altar, the
most important, is in the chancel of the
church, somewhat elevated; the other
smaller ones are near the pillars, or the
side walls, or in the chapel.
In the
larger Protestant churches, also, there is
usually a great and small altar.
ALTENBURG; a Saxon duchy, which
is divided into 2 parts by the princi-
pality of Gera. At present, it belongs
to the houses of Gotha and Saalfeld.
The division belonging to the former
house contains about 525 square miles,
with 109,557 inhabitants, famous for their
attention to agriculture and to the breed-
ing of cattle. It is one of the most beau-
tiful and best cultivated parts of Germa-
ny. The division of Saalfeld contains
about 212 square miles, with 30,500 in-
habitants (according to some, about 170
square miles and 21,400 inhabitants); has
4 cities, 1 market-town, and 100 villages.
Each line possesses full sovereignty. The
city of A., well built on the Pleisse, con-
tains 1279 houses, 10,100 inhabitants, and,
till 1308, was a free city of the empire.
ALTER EGO (Latin; the other I); a law
term, used particularly in the official style
of the kingdom of the Two Sicilies, by
which the king gives to a substitute, ap-
pointed to manage the affairs of the king-
dom, the full exercise of royal power.
This happened in Naples after the insur-
rection of Monteforte, where the present
king, when crown-prince, July 6, 1820,
was appointed by his father vicar-general
17 *
198
ALTER EGO—ALUM.
of the kingdom. In France, the phrase
used to express this is, lieutenant-général
du royaume.
base.
ALTITUDE denotes the perpendicular
height of the vertex of any plane, or solid
body, above the line or plane of its base;
thus the altitude of a triangle is measured
by a perpendicular let fall from any one
of its angles upon the base, or upon the
base produced; therefore the same tri-
angle may have different altitudes, ac-
cordingly as we assume one side or an-
other for its base. Again, the altitude of
a cone or pyramid, whether right or ob-
lique, is measured by a perpendicular let
fall from the vertex to the plane of its
Similar remarks apply to other
solids. In astronomy, altitudes are meas-
ured or estimated by the angles subtend-
ed between the object and the plane of
the horizon; and this altitude may be
either true or apparent. The apparent
altitude is that which is obtained imme-
diately from observation; and the true
altitude that which results from correct-
ing the apparent altitude, by making al-
lowance for parallax, refraction, &c. The
altitude of a terrestrial object is the height
of its vertex above some horizontal plane
assumed as a basc. The altitude of
mountains is measured, generally, from
the level of the ocean; that is, the alti-
tude of a mountain is the difference be-
tween the mean terrestrial radius, and the
distance of the vertex of the mountain
from the centre of the earth. If the alti-
tude of a mountain is given without any
explanation, the altitude above the ocean
is always understood. This altitude can
be measured trigonometrically, by baro-
metrical observations, or by actually
measuring the level between the base
and vertex of an object; and, if very great
accuracy is not required, by optical re-
flection, by the length of shadows, mova-
ble staves, the geometrical square, &c.;
and, generally, by any method in which
the calculation depends upon the similar-
ity of plane rectilinear triangles.
ALTO, or ALTO TENORE. Allo is the
term applied to that part of the great vo-
cal scale which lies between the mezzo
soprano and the tenor, and which is as-
signed to the highest natural adult male
voice. In scores it always signifies the
counter-tenor part.
ALTONA; the largest city of Denmark,
after Copenhagen, in the duchy of Hol-
stein; 53° 54′ 25 N. lat.; 9° 55′ E. lon.;
two miles from Hamburg on the Elbe.
The city contains upwards of 23,000 in-
habitants; among whom are 2400 Ger-
man and Portuguese Jews, under the di-
rection of a rabbin. The remainder are
Lutherans, Calvinists, Catholics and Ana-
baptists. The number of houses is about
2230. There are also 520 habitable cel-
lars. The city is built on the side of a
steep hill, which gives it the appearance
of an amphitheatre, when viewed from the
side of the Elbe. The commerce of A.,
both inland and foreign, is considerable.
'The Danish government has conferred
many privileges on the city. Here is a
board of commerce, a mint, an exchange,
a royal bank, and, since 1739, a royal
school. In 1713, A. was almost totally
burnt by the Swedish general Steenbock.
It has been since beautifully rebuilt.
ALTRANSTADT; a town in Saxony, fa-
mous for the treaty concluded between
Charles XII, king of Sweden, and Au-
gustus, elector of Saxony, Sept. 24, 1706,
by which the latter resigned the crown
of Poland. After the defeat of Charles,
at Pultawa, Augustus, Aug. 8, 1709, de-
clared the peace of Altranstadt void, be-
cause his commissioners, von Imhof and
Pfingsten, had exceeded their powers in
signing the conditions. The former was
condemned to be imprisoned for life, the
latter to be put to death. Augustus, at the
invitation of some Polish nobles, returned
to Poland, took possession of the throne,
and renewed his alliance with the czar.
ALUM, artificial. Common alum is a
triple salt, consisting of sulphuric acid,
alumine, potash and water, or of sulphate
of alumine and sulphate of potash, united
together, with a certain quantity of water
of crystallization. It crystallizes in regu-
lar octahedrons, which are generally trun-
cated on their edges and solid angles.
Alum may also be formed by substituting
either soda, ammonia or magnesia for the
potash, without at all altering its crystal-
line form or its taste. It dissolves in 5
parts of water, at 60°, and the solution
reddens vegetable blues, indicating the
excess of acid which this salt contains.
Exposed to heat, it undergoes a watery
fusion, and becomes light and spongy, in
which condition it possesses slightly cor-
rosive properties, and is used as a caustic,
under the name of alumen cxsiccatum.-
The simplest process by which alum is
prepared is, perhaps, that adopted at the
Solfatara near Naples, which is covered
with a white clayey soil, through which
sulphurcous vapors are constantly emit-
ted. This soil is always hot, and nothing
more is requisite than to immerse into it
cisterns, and subject the earthy matter to
lixiviation; after which, the saline solu-
ALUM-ALUMINE.
tion is evaporated by means of the sub-
terranean heat, also, and placed in a situa-
tion to cool, when the alumn is deposited in
crystals. As nothing is added during the
process, it is obvious that the alum must
exist ready formed in the soil. From the
presence of a small portion of iron, the
Solfatara alum is not so valuable, for
many purposes, as that produced else-
where; and, accordingly, its use is mostly
confined to the Neapolitan states.-The
manufacture of alum directly from its
component parts has, of late years, fur-
nished a large proportion of this substance
found in commerce. The process is con-
ducted in the following manner: Sulphur
and nitrate of potash (nitre) are mixed
together, in the proportions for forming
sulphuric acid, and brought into combus-
tion in large leaden chambers, or rooms
lined with a thick coating of plaster. The
sulphur is thus acidified, and converted
into vapor, and, the floor of the apartment
being covered with clay of the purest
kind, previously calcined, the acid gradu-
ally combines with it, and formns sulphate
of alumine, which, after a few days, is
dissolved out and considerably reduced
by evaporation, when a solution of sui-
phate of potash (being the residue of the
combustion of the nitre and sulphur) is
poured in, and the perfect crystals of
alum are deposited. The importance of
alum, in the arts, is very great, and its
annual consumption is imminense. It is
employed to increase the hardness of tal-
low, to remove greasiness from printers'
cushions and blocks in calico manufacto-
ries, and to render turbid waters limpid.
In dyeing, it is used to cleanse and open
the pores on the surface of the substance
to be dyed, and, by the attraction of the
coloring matter for the alumine it con-
tains, to render it fit for receiving the
coloring particles. Wood and paper are
dipped into a solution of it to render them
less combustible. Paper impregnated
with alum is useful in whitening silver,
and in silvering brass without heat. It is
also largely used in the composition of
crayons, in tannery and in medicine.
ALUM, native, is found in most coun-
tries, in the state of an efflorescence or
mould upon the surface of certain slate
clays and lavas, and, in the U. States, in
mica-slate rocks; also, in delicate hair-
shaped fibres, occupying clefts in a bitu-
minous shale, principally found in Italy.
It may always be easily recognised by its
sweetish, astringent taste, in which it re-
199
sembles the artificial alum. It exists only
in very limited quantities, and contains
too many impurities to be of any practical
use.-A native alum has of late been
found near the foot of the Andes, in
South America, in which soda is substi-
tuted for potash.†
ALUM-SLATE; a slaty rock, of different
degrees of hardness; color grayish, blu-
ish, or iron-black, and often possessed of
a glossy or shining lustre. It is chiefly
composed of silex and alumine, with va-
riable proportions of sulphuret of iron
(iron pyrites), lime, bitumen and magne-
sia. It is found abundantly in most Eu-
ropean countries, and from it is obtained
the largest part of the alum of commerce.
As the alum-slate contains only the re-
mote principles of this salt, the process for
obtaining it is somewhat complicated. In
the first place, it is requisite to acidify the
sulphur of the pyrites, and combine it
with the alumine. This is effected by
roasting the ore in contact with the air,
and then lixiviating it; after which, pot-
ash is added, and the crystallized alum
obtained by evaporation.
ALUM-STONE; a mineral of a grayish
or yellowish-white color, fine-grained, and
approaching to earthy in its composition,
and filled with numerous small cavities.
It may be scratched with the knife, and
easily reduced to fragments. When
strongly heated, it emits a sulphureous
gas. It is composed of alumine, 43.92 ;
silex, 24.00; sulphuric acid, 25.00; pot-
ash, 3.68; water, 4.00. It is found at
Tolfa, in Italy, in secondary rocks, and
from it is obtained a very pure alum, by
simply subjecting it to roasting and lixivi-
ation.
ALUMINE, or ALUMINA one of the
carths entering most largely into the
combination of all rocks, clays and loams.
From its forming the plastic principle in
clays, it was forinerly called argil, or the
argillaceous earth; but since it has been
ascertained that it constitutes the base of
the salt alum, it is styled alumine. Like
the other earths, it was regarded as an
elementary substance in chemistry, until
the researches of sir H. Davy led to the
belief that it was a compound of a pe-
culiar metallic base with oxygen.-It ex-
ists in the state of a hydrate, or in com-
bination with water, in the Gibbsite, a
mineral found in Richmond, Mass., and
nearly pure in the corundum gems. The
porcelain clays and kaolins contain about
half their weight of this earth, to which
† Am. Lyceum, Nat. Hist. New York, vol. 3,
* For other modes of manufacturing alum, see
Alum-slute and Alum-stone.
p. 19.
200
ALUMINE-ALVA.
they owe their most valuable properties.
Alumine may be obtained pure by add-
ing, in the first place, to a solution of
alum in 20 parts of water, a small quan-
tity of a solution of carbonate of soda, to
precipitate any iron that may be present,
and afterwards a little water of ammonia
(aqua ammonia) to the supernatant liquid,
separated from its precipitate, which,
uniting with the sulphuric acid of the
alum, liberates the alumine. On being
washed and thoroughly dried, it is of a
white color, and without taste or smell.
It is soluble in liquid soda and potash,
from which it may be separated, unaltered,
by the acids. It is infusible, except in
the heat of the compound blow-pipe.
Alumine is the basis of porcelain pottery,
bricks and crucibles. It has a strong
affinity for oil and coloring matter, which
causes it to be employed, in the state of
clays, as a cleansing powder, and, in a
state of purity, in the preparation of
lakes, in dyeing and calico-printing.-It
combines with the acids and forms nummer-
ous salts; the most important of which
are the sulphate of alumine aud potash
(see Alum), and the acetate of alumine.
This salt is formed by digesting strong
acetic acid (vinegar) upon the newly-pre-
cipitated earth; but, for the use of the
manufacturer, by decomposing alum with
acetate of lead (sugar of lead), or, more
economically, with acetate of lime, a gal-
lon of which, of the specific gravity 1.050,
is employed for every 23 lb. of aluni.
The sulphate of lime formed falls to the
bottom, and the acetate of alumine re-
mains in solution with an excess of alum,
which is necessary to prevent its decom-
position. It is of extensive use in calico-
printing and dyeing, as a mordant, and is
employed in the place of alum, to which
it is generally preferred.
ALVA, Ferd. Alvarez, of Toledo, duke
of, minister of state, and general of the
imperial armies, was born in 1508, of one
of the most illustrious families of Spain.
He was educated under the eyes of his
grandfather, Frederic of Toledo, who in-
structed him in military and political sci-
ence. He carried arms, when very young,
at the battle of Pavia; commanded under
Charles V, in Hungary; also at the siege
of Tunis, and in the expedition against
Algiers. He defended Perpignan against
the dauphin, and distinguished himself
in Navarre and Catalonia. His cautious
character, and his inclination for politics,
at first, led inen to believe that he had
but little military talent; and Charles V
himself, whom he advised, in Hungary,
In
to build a bridge of gold for the Turks,
rather than risk a decisive battle, deemed
him unqualified for high commands, and
intrusted him with important offices rath-
er from personal favor than respect for
his ability. His pride was offended at
the low estimation in which he was held,
and his genius roused to the performance
of exploits deserving of a permanent re-
membrance. Ilis able generalship gained,
in 1547, the battle of Mühlberg, against
John Frederic, elector of Saxony. The
elector was taken prisoner, and the duke,
who presided in the council of war, ad-
judged him to death, and strongly urged
the emperor to execute the sentence.
1555, he was commissioned to attack the
French in Italy, and pope Paul IV, the
irreconcilable enemy of the emperor. He
gained several victories, relieved Milan,
advanced to Naples, where the intrigues
of the pope had stirred up a rebellion, and
confirmed there the Spanish influence.
When Charles V resigned the govern-
ment to his son, Philip II, A. received the
supreme command of the army. He
conquered the States of the Church, and
frustrated the cflorts of the French. Phil-
ip, however, compelled him to contract
an honorable peace with the pope, whom
A. wished to humble. Recalled from
Italy, he appeared, in 1559, at the French
court, in order to marry Elizabeth, the
daughter of Henry II, by proxy, for his
sovereign; she was, at first, destined for
the crown-prince, don Carlos. About
this time, the Netherlands revolted, and
A. advised the king to suppress the insur-
rection by severity and force. The king
intrusted him with a considerable army
and unlimited power, to reduce the re-
bellious provinces. Scarcely had A.
reached Flanders, when he established
the council of blood, at the head of which
stood his confidant, Juan de Vargas.
This tribunal condemned, without dis-
crimination, all whose opinions were sus-
pected, and whose riches excited their
avarice. The present and absent, the
living and the dead, were subjected to trial,
and their property confiscated. Many
merchants and mechanics emigrated to
England; more than 100,000 men aban-
doned their country; others resorted to
the standard of the proscribed prince of
Orange. The cruelty of A. was increased
by the defeat of his lieutenant, the duke
of Aremberg, and he caused the counts
of Egmont and Horn to be executed on
the scaffold. He afterwards defeated the
count of Nassau, on the plains of Gem-
mingen. Soon after, the prince of Orange
+
ALVA—AMÁDIS.
advanced with a powerful army. The
young Frederic of Toledo sent to his
father, asking permission to attack the
prince. The duke, who demanded blind
obedience from his inferiors, answered,
that he pardoned him on account of his
inexperience, but bade him beware of
pressing him further, for it would cost
the life of any one who should venture
on a similar message. The prince of
Orange was forced to withdraw to Ger-
many. The duke stained his reputation,
as a general, by new cruelties; his execu-
tioners shed more blood than his soldiers.
The pope presented him with a conse-
crated hat and sword,-a distinction previ-
ously conferred only on princes. Holland
and Zealand, however, resisted his arms.
A fleet, which was fitted out at his com-
mand, was annihilated; and he was every
where met with insuperable courage. This,
and perhaps the fear of losing the favor
of the king, induced him to request his
recall. Philip willingly granted it, as he
perceived that the resistance of the Neth-
erlands was rendered more obstinate by
these cruelties, and was desirous of trying
milder measures. In Dec. 1573, A. pro-
claimed an amnesty, resigned the com-
mand of the troops to Louis de Reque-
sens, and left the land, in which he had
executed 18,000 men, as he himself boast-
cd, and kindled a war, that burned for
68 years, cost Spain 800 millions of dollars,
its finest troops, and 7 of its richest prove
inces in the Low Countries. Duke A.
was received with distinction in Madrid,
but did not long enjoy his former credit.
One of his sons had seduced one of the
queen's ladies of honor, under a promise
of marriage, and was, for that reason, ar-
rested; his father assisted him to escape,
and married him to one of his relations,
contrary to the will of the king. A. was
banished, in consequence, from the court,
to his castle Uzeda. Here he lived 2
years, when the troubles stirred up by don
Antonio, prior of Crato, who had been
crowned king of Portugal, forced Philip
to have recourse to A., as one in whose
talents and fidelity he placed great reli-
ance. A. led an army to Portugal, gained
two battles in three weeks, drove out don
Antonio, and reduced all Portugal, in
1581, to subjection to his sovereign. He
made himself master of the treasures of
the capital, and permitted his soldiers
to plunder the suburbs and surrounding
country, with their usual rapacity and
cruelty. Philip was displeased at this,
and desirous of instituting an investiga-
tion into the conduct of his general, who
201
was, moreover, charged with having ap-
plied the wealth of the conquered to his
own purposes. But a haughty answer
from the duke, and the fear of rebellion,
caused him to desist. The duke died,
January 21, 1582, aged 74 years. A. had
a proud mien, a noble aspect, and a strong
frame; he slept little, labored and wrote
much. It is said of him, that, during 60
years of warfare against different enemies,
he never lost a battle, and was never taken
by surprise. But pride, severity and cru-
elty tarnished his renown.
AMADEISTS. (See Franciscans.)
AMADEUS; the name of several counts
of Savoy.-A. V, surnamed the Great, suc-
ceeded to the sovereignty in 1282. He
gained distinguished honor in defending
Rhodes against the Turks. He died, after
a reign of 38 years, in 1323, at_Avignon,
where he was soliciting pope John II to
publish a crusade in favor of Andronicus,
emperor of the East, who had married
his daughter. He was much loved and
honored by all the sovereigns of Europe,
and was frequently the mediator in their
differences.-A. VIII succeeded his fa-
ther, A. VII, in 1391, and acquired the
titles of the Pacific and the Solomon of his
age. In 1416, Savoy was made a duchy;
but, after this elevation, A. retired from
his throne and family, into a religious
house, at a place called Ripaille. In this
retreat, he devoted himself to pleasure, so
that faire ripailles became proverbial to
signify a life of indulgence and exquisite
gratification. Here he aspired to the pa-
pacy, and employed large sums of money,
at the council of Basil, to secure his elec-
tion. Accordingly, this council, in 1439,
having deposed Eugenius IV, chose A. in
his place, under the name of Felix V,
though he had never taken holy orders.
Eugenius excommunicated him. On the
death of his rival, A. was persuaded to
abdicate. He died at the age of 69, in
1451.-A. IX, surnamed the Happy, on
account of his virtue and piety. Being
once asked by a courtier whether he kept
hounds, he pointed to a great number of
poor people seated at tables, eating and
drinking, and replied, "These are my
hounds, with whom I go in chase of
heaven." He died in 1742, aged 37
years.
AMADIS; a name very celebrated in the
romances of chivalry.-1. A. of Gaul,
called, from the bearings on his shield,
the knight of the lion, but in the wilder-
ness, Beltenebros; a son of king Perion of
France, and Eilesena, daughter of king
Gavinter of Bretagne.-2. A. of Greece, a
202
AMADIS-AMALTHÆA.
great-grandson of the Gallic A., and son
of Lisuarte, and Onoleria, daughter of the
emperor of Trebisond.-3. A. of the Star,
a great-grandson of the Grecian A., son
of Agesilaus, king of Colchis, who was
descended from Alastraxerea, a natural
child of the Grecian A., by the queen
Zahara of Caucasus. The mother of this
3d A. was Diana, a natural child of Sido-
nia, queen of Guindaga, by Florisel, the
knight of the beautiful shepherdess, a law-
ful son of the Grecian A.-4. A. of Tre-
bisond, descended from Roger of Greece,
the Much-beloved, a son of Florisel and
Hellen, princess of Apollonia. This A.
was a great-grandson of Florisel, and son
of Polixana and Liscaron, prince of Ca-
thay. The history of this hero, who was
nearly the same to Spain as Charlemagne
with his 12 peers to France, and king
Arthur with his knights of the round
table to England, is continued through 9
generations; but the question concerning
its origin, and mixture of truth with fable,
is involved in so much darkness, that it is
even doubtful whether it originated with
the Spanish, the Portuguese or the French.
In the Spanish original, this romance is
contained in 13 books, of which Cervan-
tes, in the well-known examination of the
library of Don Quixote, caused the 4 first
to be preserved, because they were not
only the first, but also the best and only
books of this kind which Spain had pro-
duced; but the others were committed
to the flames. These 4 contain only the
history of A. de Gaul. Some say, that
Pasco Lobeira, a Portuguese, who lived
at the beginning of the 14th century, was
their author; some, that they were writ-
ten by an unknown Portuguese lady; and
others ascribe them to the infante don
Pedro, son of John I of Portugal. On
the contrary, the count Tressan has en-
deavored to render it probable, that the
honor of their authorship belongs to a
French troubadour of the school of Rusti-
cien de Puice, the author of nearly all the
romances of the round table till the time
of Philip Augustus (1180-1223). We
shall be ready to acknowledge this, if it is
established by a critical comparison of the
most ancient manuscripts. Garcias Or-
donnez de Montalbo, tlie corrector of the
old edition, is said to have been the au-
thor of the 5th book, which contains the
history of Esplandian, the eldest son of
A. The 6th book, by Pelag. de Ribera, con-
tains the adventures of the knight Florisan-
do; the 7th, those of an unknown knight;
and the 8th, by J. Diaz, contains the deeds
of Lisuarte; the 9th and 10th, those of Flo-
risel, of A. of Greece, and of the knight
Anaxante; the 11th and 12th, the adven-
tures of Rogel and Agesilaus; and the
13th, those of Silvio de la Silva. The
Spanish original goes no farther. Next
follow the French translations, which
have been increased to 24 books, since
the translation of Nicholas d' Herberay,
lord of Essars, in 1540. The books from
the 14th to the 17th contain the exploits
of Sphäramont and A. of the Star; those
from the 17th to the 24th, the adventures
of the remaining posterity of A. of Gaul,
including the deeds of A. of Trebisond.
The separate parts of this work, which
are seldom found all together, are of very
various merit. The additions are by no
means equal to the 4 first books. There
is not one of the new German modifica-
tions of this romance, or, rather, this string
of romances, which deserves the name.
The New A. of Wieland, a licentious
book, has nothing in conmmon with the
old A., except its title and profusion of
adventures. A late French poet, Creuzé
de Lesser, has undertaken to give the ad-
ventures of Arthur and his knights of the
round table, Charlemagne and his Pala-
dins, and Amadis, in a new dress. His
version of the first of these contains 20
cantos. A second edition of it appeared in
1812. His Amadis, containing, likewise,
20 cantos, appeared in 1813.
AMALGAM; a name applied to the com-
binations of mercury with the other metals.
(See Mercury.)
AMALIA, Anna, duchess of Saxe-
Weimar, born October 24, 1739, daughter
of Charles, duke of Brunswick-Wolfen-
büttel, died 1806. During the latter half
of the 18th century, this princess was the
centre of a court, which, in more than one
respect, resembled that of the duke of
Ferrara, which was adorned by the pres-
ence of Tasso and Ariosto. She gave to
learned men the support which they
looked for in vain from the great princes
of Germany, while she afforded them a
point of union and an agreeable residence.
She assembled round her Wieland, Göthe,
Schiller, and inany of the finest minds of
Germany; and governed with wisdom
after the death of her husband.
AMALTIEA; the name of a goat in Crete,
which suckled Jupiter when his mother
concealed him there through fear of
Saturn. From this goat came the horn
of plenty, which Jupiter gave to the
daughters of Melissus, who assisted Rhea,
with the power of obtaining from it every
thing necessary for their subsistence;
called cornu Amalthea (the same
2.9
AMALTHÆA-AMAZONS.
cornu copia, the horn of plenty). Ac-
cording to some, A. was the name of the
nympli who watched this goat. The Cu-
mæan sybil also bore this name.
AMARANTH; a kind of flower which
preserves its bloom after it is plucked
and dried. On this account, poets make
it an emblem of immortality.
AMATHUS; formerly a city in Cyprus,
renowned for the worship of Venus, who
is called, from this place, Amathusia.
AMATI; a family of Cremona, who
manufactured violins, in the 16th and 17th
centuries, which, on account of their full
tones, are yet held to be the best in use,
and have become very dear. They are
called Amati violins, and also Cremonas.
AMAZON, AMAZONS, MARANON, or OREL-
LANA; a river of South America, the
largest in the world. It is formed by a
great number of sources which rise in the
Andes; but the two head branches are the
Tunguragua and Ucayale, both rising in
Peru, the former from lake Lauricocha,
in lat. 10° 29′ S., the latter formed by the
Apurimac and Beni, the head waters of
which are between lat. 16° and 18° S. The
general course of the river is N. of E.,
and, including its windings, is upwards of
4000 miles in length. It flows into the
· Atlantic under the equator; the width of
the mouth is stated by some writers at
150, by others at 180 miles. Boat navi-
gation commences at Jaen de Bracomo-
ros, in Quito; and it is said that vessels
of 400 or 500 tons may sail from the
mouth throughout almost the whole ex-
tent.
The depth is stated at from 30 to
40 fathoms, 1500 miles from the ocean,
and the tide is perceptible 600 miles.
Its descent, in a straight course of 1860
miles, was found by Condamine to be
1020 feet (about 6¦ inches in a mile); but
the place where the tide is first perceived
is only 90 feet above the sea. Its current
is very rapid and violent.-It drains an
extent of country about 1600 or 1700
miles from N. to S., receiving the waters
of about 200 rivers, some of them as large
as the Danube. From the N. it re-
ceives the Santiago, Morona, Pastaza,
Tigre, Napo, Negro, Putumayo, Yupura,
Yaguapiri, Curupatuba, Yari, &e.; from
the S., the Guallaga, Ucayale, Cuchivara,
Yahuari, Cayari, Madeira, Topayos, Xin-
gu, Guanapu, Muju, &c.-The banks are
clothed with immense and impenetrable
woods, which afford a haunt to tigers,
bears, leopards, wild boars, and a great
variety of venomous serpents; they also
abound in birds of the most beautiful
plumage, and apes of the most fantastic
203
appearance. The waters swarm with al-
ligators, turtles, and a great variety of
fish. The vegetable productions, that
grow wild, are cacao, cinnamon, vanilla,
pines, &c. The country is adapted to
coffee, sugar-canes, rice, maize, plantains,
lemons, limes, and oranges. Here are
also precious woods, as cedar, red-wood,
holly-wood, pine, &c. In the rainy sea-
son, the river overflows its banks, and
waters and fertilizes the adjacent country.
The shores and islands were formerly
peopled by numerous tribes of Indians,
who have either become extinct or have
retired to the mountains. The first Eu-
ropean that visited this river was Francis
d' Orellana, who, having met with some
armed women on its banks, from this cir-
cumstance gave it the name of the river
of the Amazons.
AMAZONS. An old tradition, which ap-
pears to be founded, in some measure, on
historical truth, gives an account of a
community of women, who permitted no
men to reside among them, fought under
the conduct of a queen, and long consti-
tuted a formidable state. They had com-
merce with the men of the neighboring
nations merely for the sake of preserving
their community. The male children
they sent back to their fathers, but they
brought up the females to war, and burned
off the right breast, that this part of the
body might not impede them in the use
of the bow. From this circumstance,
they were called Amazons; i. e., wanting
a breast. The ancients enumerate 3 na-
tions of A.-1. The African, who made
great conquests under their queen, My-
rena, but were afterwards extirpated by
Hercules.-2. The Asiatic, the most fa-
mous of all, who dwelt in Pontus, on the
river Thermodon. These once made war
on all Asia, and built Ephesus. Their
queen, Hippolyta, was vanquished by Her-
cules. They attacked Attica in the time
of Theseus. They came to the assistance
of Troy under their queen, Penthesilea,
daughter of Mars and Ötrere. About 330
years before Christ, their queen, Thales-
tris, made a visit to Alexander of Mace-
don, soon after which they disappear
from history.-3. The_Scythian A., a
branch of the Asiatic. They attacked the
neighboring Scythians, but afterwards
contracted marriages with them, and went
farther into Sarmatia, where they hunted
and made war in company with their hus-
bands.-The old geographers gave the
name of Amazonia to a large tract of
country in the interior of South America,
because the first discoverers of the country
204
AMAZONS-AMBERGRIS.
said that they found there a nation of
Amazons. Later writers have corrected
-this error, and Amazonia has disappeared.
It is laid down on the old maps as a part
of what is at present Brazil and Peru.
The river Amazon (q. v.), or Maranon,
which inundates and fertilizes this coun-
try as the Nile does Egypt, is the largest
river in the world. (See South America.)
Orellana, the first discoverer of the coun-
try, relates, that, as he sailed up the river,
he found on its banks a nation of armed
women, who made war on the neighbor-
ing people; and this circumstance gave
the name to the river and country.
AMBASSADOR (French, ambassadeur);
the highest degree of foreign ministers.
They represent the person of their sove-
reign, or the people, if they are sent by a
republic. They enjoy great privileges.
Ambassadors, in this strict sense of the
word, are sent at present only by a few
of the most important governments of
Europe, e. g. Spain, England, France,
Austria, Russia: Prussia never sends
them. The old republic of Venice was
accustomed to send ambassadors, and
was always considered equal in rank to
a king. For further information, sce
Minister, foreign.
AMBER. This well known mineral
substance usually presents some shade
of yellow in its color, from which it
sometimes passes to reddish-brown. It is
brittle; yields easily to the knife; is trans-
lucent, and possessed of a resinous lus-
tre. Specific gravity, 1.081. It burns with
a yellow flame, emitting a pungent, aro-
matic smoke, and leaving a light, carbon-
aceous residue, which is employed as the
basis of the finest black varnishes. By
friction it becomes strongly electric; from
which property originated the name and
science of electricity, "HAEZToor being the
Greek word for amber; and with this sub-
stance Thales, one of the Greek philoso-
phers, performed the first electrical
experiment. It is found in masses, from
the size of coarse sand to that of a man's
head, and occurs in beds of bituminous
wood situated upon the shores of the
Baltic and Adriatic scas; also in Poland,
France, Italy and Denmark. More
recently, it has been found in the U.
States, at cape Sable, in Maryland. From
its occurring very frequently attached to
pieces of bitumenized wood, and contain-
ing insects, it is inferred, with great prob-
ability, that amber originated from vege-
table juices, and has undergone its pres-
ent modification, possibly, from sulphuric
acid, derived from the iron pyrites which
always abounds in the deposits where it
occurs. It is susceptible of a good polish,
and has, at different times, been much
esteemed as a personal ornament; but its
want of hardness and lustre, together
with the ease with which imitations arc
made of it, have brought it into compara-
tive disuse.-By distillation, it affords an
oil, and a peculiar acid, the former of
which is denominated oil of amber, and
the latter succinic acid, from succinum, the
Latin name for amber. The succinic
acid, when purified, exists in white, trans-
parent, prismatic crystals. It is soluble
in water and alcohol; has strong acid
properties; it forms salts with the alka-
lies and several of the carths. The sue-
cinate of potash is useful in analysis for
the separation of oxyde of iron. The oil
of amber is used in medicine.
AMBERG; formerly the capital city of
the Upper Palatinate, on the Vils, in the
Bavarian dominions, in the midst of nu-
merous iron-works. Lon. 11° 50′ E.; lat.
49° 25′ N. It contains 7680 inhabitants
and 712 houses. The manufactory of
arms yields yearly from 10,000 to 20,000
muskets of the best quality. The old
fortifications serve for a public walk.
A. the archduke Charles, Aug. 24, 1796,
defeated the French general Jourdan, and
compelled him, Sept. 3, by the battle of
Würtzburg, to retreat to the Rhine.
At
AMBERGER, Christoph. ; a German paint-
er of the 16th century, born in Nurem-
berg. He resided in Augsburg, where he
painted, in 1530, a portrait of the emperor
Charles V, who rewarded him richly,
and honored him highly. This painting
is now at Berlin. The History of Joseph,
in 12 pictures, is said by Sandrart to be
his best work. He painted in the power-
ful style of the elder Holbein, who was
living in his time; he copied, also, many
portraits of this master, and cut in wood.
A. died between 1550 and 1560.
ÂMBERGRIS is found floating in the
sca near the coasts of various tropical
countries, and has also been taken from
the intestines of the spermaceti whale,
where it is supposed to originate, owing
to disease. It is met with in masses of
various sizes, sometimes weighing nearly
200 pounds. Its color is a yellowish or
blackish white; it is generally brittle,
and may be compressed with the teeth or
nails. It melts at 140°, and is entirely
dissipated on red-hot coals. It is soluble
in æther, volatile oils and alcohol, and is
chiefly composed of a peculiar animal
substance called adipocire. Its odor is
very agreeable, and hence arises its only
*
AMBERGRIS-AMBROSE.
use. In the state of an alcoholic solution,
it is added to lavender-water, tooth-pow-
der, hair-powder, wash-balls, &c., to
which it communicates its fragrance. Its
retail price in London is a guinca per oz.
AMBOYNA; one of the largest and most
valuable of the Molucca islands, in the
Indian ocean, the seat of their govern-
ment, and the centre of the commerce in
nutmegs and cloves. It lies in E. lon.
It lies in E. lon.
128° 15', and S. lat. 3° 42', and is between
50 and 60 miles long. Its general aspect
is beautiful, and its climate generally salu-
brious. It has been occasionally visited
by earthquakes. It affords a great vari-
ety of beautiful wood for inlaying and
other ornamental work. Rumplius reck-
Rumplius reck-
ons the species at 400. The clove-tree
is the staple production of A. The
island affords annually about 650,000
pounds of its fruit. The Dutch, during
the long period of their possession of A.,
made every effort to monopolize this
valuable spice. The number of trees
was regularly registered by the governor,
all the plantations of them visited, and
particular districts devoted to their culti-
vation. They bought from the neigh-
boring islands all the cloves that other
nations were likely to import, and, in
some cases, compelled the chiefs to de-
stroy the rest, and even the trees that bore
them. They are said to have prohibited
the culture of many edible roots on the
island, to withhold the means of subsist-
ence from settlers and conquerors. Su-
gar and coffee are plentiful in A. Sago
is the principal article of food. The few
fruits cultivated are delicious. The na-
tives, like other Malays, are rude and
savage, and, when intoxicated with opi-
um, capable of any crime. There are
many Chinese and European settlers on
the island, and mixed races, from inter-
marriages, nearly as fair as Europeans.
The Chinese are industrious, and live
much together. Some of the aborigines
in the woods are said to be as barbarous
as ever, and to offer hunan sacrifices.
When the English took A., in 1796, it
contained about 45,252 inhabitants, of
whom no less than 17,813 were Protes-
tants; the rest were Mohammedans and
Chinese. The houses of the natives are
made of bamboo-canes and sago-trees.
They sleep upon mats. Their weapons
are bows, darts, cimeters and targets.
They are said to be indolent, effeminate
and pusillanimous, and their women to
be licentious. In 1605, A. was conquered
by the Dutch, and taken from the Portu-
guese, its former masters. They did not,
18
VOL. I.
205
however, get possession of the whole
island, till after the lapse of some years.
During this period, the English had
erected some factories in A., and the dis-
pute between the settlers of the two
nations led to the event called the mas-
sacre of Amboyna. The Dutch accused
the English inhabitants of being engaged
in a conspiracy against the Dutch posses-
sions. They were immediately seized,
loaded with irons, thrown into prison,
put to the torture to extort a confession,
and those who survived this treatment
were executed. The number of persons
who perished were 22; 10 Englishmen,
11 Japanese, and 1 Portuguese.
English factory was in consequence with-
drawn from the island, and the effects
of the English merchants seized to the
amount of £100,000. The English facto-
ries in the adjacent islands were also
seized. James I and Charles I obtained
no satisfaction for this outrage, but Crom-
well compelled the United Provinces to
pay £300,000 as a small compensation.
A. has been twice taken by the English,
in 1796 and 1810, but, after each capture,
restored to the Dutch, in whose posses-
sion it is at present. The capital city of
the island is called by the same name.
The
AMBRAS, OF AMRAS; a castle in Tyrol,
near Inspruck, formerly distinguished for
its museum, containing armor, paintings,
&c., and a library, which is now at Ins-
pruck. The museum is at present in
Vienna, and has been described by Alois
Primisser (Vienna, 1819). 69 MÊS. bv-
long to this museum, one of which is a
copy of the famous Heldenbuch.
AMBROSIA, in the mythology of the
Greeks and Romans; a sweet and bal-
samie juice flowing from the soil of the
happy island of Oceanus. It was the
nutriment of the gods, and preserved their
immortality. Generally it was taken as
food, sometimes as drink, but must not
be confounded with nectar. (q. v.) It was
used also as an ointment. Men who
were allowed to partake of A. received
an increase of beauty, strength, swiftness,
and became, in some measure, assimilated
to the gods.
AMBROSE, Saint; a celebrated father
of the church; born 340, probably at
Treves, where his father resided as gov-
ernor of Gaul. Happy omens attended
him, even in the cradle. A swarm of
bees covered the eyes of the boy, while
slumbering in the court of his father's
castle, and, when the nurse hastened to
him, she was astonished to perceive the
bees going in and out of his mouth, with-
206
AMBROSE-AMENDE HONORABLE.
guages. It now contains 60,000 printed
books (according to Millin, 140,000). It
was called the Ambrosian Library, in
honor of St. Ambrose, the patron saint
of Milan. Angelo Maio, in his preface to
the fragments of the Iliad, which he ob-
tained from the treasures of this library
has shown how the collection has been
improved, particularly by the addition of
the Pinellian manuscripts. Its learned
founder wished to connect with it a col-
lege of learned men, who should take
charge of the different departments of
the library, and make known its treas-
ures, particularly to foreigners, who
wished for information. The want of
funds reduced this college from 16 mem-
bers to 2, who yet bear the title Doctores
Bibli. Ambros., with a gold medal, having
Singuli singula inscribed on it. Besides
the palimpsests discovered by Maio, this
library contains a Virgil, in which is the
account of Petrarch's first meeting with
Laura, written by his own hand.
At a
little distance from the library is a gallery
of works of art, containing, besides casts
in plaster, several pictures of eminent
masters, particularly the cartoon of Ra-
phael's School of Athens, and the studies
of Leonardo da Vinci, as well as the carly
copies of this great painter's Last Supper
(La Cena). Of the 12 volumes, containing
manuscripts in the hand of Leonardo da
Vinci, which were formerly preserved as
a treasure in the A. L., only 1 vol., more
interesting than the others on account of
the drawings in it, is to be found there at
present; all the others having been car-
ried to Paris.
out doing him any injury. His father,
recollecting, perhaps, a similar wonder
mentioned of Plato, hoped, from this cir-
cumstance, that he was destined for
greatness. His education was suitable to
his rank; the best teachers at Rome,
where the family had gone after the death
of his father, formed his mind and his
heart. After finishing their studies, A.
and his brother, Satyrus, went to Milan,
where they commenced the study of the
law. Here A. distinguished himself so
much that Valentinian appointed him
governor of the provinces between the
Alps, the Mediterranean, Tuscany, the
Adige and the Adriatic sea. His kind-
ness and wisdom gained him the esteem
and love of the people; but their pros-
perity was interrupted by the disturb-
ances growing out of the doctrines of
Arius, and he was called to the bishop-
ric of Milan, by the unanimous voices of
Arians and Catholics. A. long refused
to accept this dignity, but in vain. He
fled by night, and thought himself on the
way to Pavia, but unexpectedly found
himself again before the gates of Milan.
At length he yielded, received baptism,
for he had hitherto been only a catechu-
men, and, eight days after, was conse-
crated a priest. The 7th of December is
still celebrated by the church on this ac-
count. A. obtained great honor by his
conduct as bishop. He died in 397.
Amiable, affable, mild and modest, he
used his authority only to promote the
happiness of those around him, and the
good of the Catholic church. His writ-
ings (the best edition is by the Benedic-
tines, 2 vols., folio, 1686-90) bear the
stamp of his character. The Ambrosian
Chant, or Te Deum Laudamus, has been
ascribed to him. Later critics, however,
have shown that he should not be con-
sidered its author. A. improved the sing-service in the Jewish synagogues, was
ing in the western churches. A Latin com-
mentary on the 13 epistles of the apostle
Paul, called Ambrosiaster, or Pseudo-Am-
brosius, has been falsely ascribed to him.
AMBROSIAN LIBRARY. This collection
of books at Milan, famous, in modern
times, on account of the discoveries made
by Angelo Maio, was opened to the pub-
lic, in 1609, by cardinal Frederic Borro-
meo, a relation of St. Charles Borro-
mco. The cardinal, archbishop of Milan,
a lover of knowledge, caused the books
to be purchased by learned men whom
he sent through Europe, and
through Asia. At the opening of the li-
brary, it contained about 35,000 printed
books, and 15,000 manuscripts in all lan-
even
AMEN, a Hebrew word, originally sig-
nifying verily, truly, has been transferred
from the religious language of the Jews
to that of the Christians. He who pro-
nounced the blessing, at the close of the
answered by the Jewish audience with
the word amen. Also, in the religious
assemblies of the first Christians, the
prayer made by the eldest of the wor-
shippers, or by a teacher, was concluded
by the people with an amen. Public
prayers are still often concluded with this
word. By the amen of a composer of
music, we understand this word set to
music to enable the choir to respond to
the prayer or blessing chanted by the priest
before the altar. Some amens are fainous.
Amende honORABLE was an infamous
kind of punishment formerly inflicted, in
France, upon traitors, parricides and sac-
rilegious persons. The offender being
delivered into the hands of a hangman,
AMENDE HONORABLE-AMERICA.
his shirt was stripped off, a rope put about
his neck, and a taper in his hand; then
he was led into court, where he was
obliged to ask pardon of God, the king,
the court and his country. Sometimes
the punishment ended here; but some-
times it was only a prelude to banishment
to the galleys, to imprisonment in the
Bastile, death or torture.-Amende honora-
ble is also a term used for making recan-
tation in open court, or in presence of the
person injured.
AMENDMENT, in law; the correction of
any error committed in a process. An
error in judgment cannot be amended,
but an error after judgment may be. A
writ of error must be brought by the party
aggrieved by an error in judgment. Any
error after judgment, in plea or other-
wise, may always be amended, by leave
of the court.-Amendment, in parliament
or congress, denotes an alteration made
in the original draught of a bill, whilst it
is passing through the houses. Amend-
ments may be inade so as totally to alter
the nature of the proposition; and it is a
way of getting rid of a proposition, by
making it bear a sense different from
what was intended by the movers, so that
they vote against it themselves. A mem-
ber who has spoken to the main question
may speak again to the amendment.
(See, for this and other points respecting
amendments, both in England and the U.
States, Jefferson's Manual of Parliamenta-
ry Practice, sect. 35.) The French Charte
Constitutionelle says, article 46,-“Aucun
amendement ne peut être fait à une loi s'il
n'a été proposé ou consenti par le roi, et s'il
n'a été renvoyé et discuté dans les bureaux.'
AMERICA. Eastward of Asia, westward
of Europe and Africa, between the Atlan-
tic and Pacific oceans, lies the continent
of America. It extends from lat. 56° S.
to an unknown northern latitude, and
consists of two great divisions, North and
South America (q. v.), which are connect-
ed by the isthmus of Darien or Panama.
The whole continent is upwards of 9,000
miles in length, and from 1,500 to 1,800
in average breadth. The number of
square miles which it contains is sta-
ted differently by different authorities.
Templemann gives 14,323,000; Balbi,
14,622,000; Graberg, 15,737,000; Hassel,
17,303,000. Between the two great divis-
ions lie the West India islands (q. v.), ex-
tending from the gulf of Mexico and the
Caribbean sca into the Atlantic.-North
America includes Greenland, belonging
to Denmark; British America, which
comprises New Britain, Upper Canada,
207
Lower Canada, New Brunswick and No-
va Scotia; the Russian possessions in the
north-west; the United States; Mexico,
and Guatimala. The principal ranges of
mountains are, the Alleghany mountains,
the Rocky mountains, and the Cordilleras
of Mexico. Some of the largest rivers are,
the St. Lawrence, Mississippi, Missouri,
Rio del Norte, Colorado, Arkansas, Red
river and Ohio. North America con-
tains the largest fresh-water lakes on the
globe; some of the most extensive are,
lakes Superior, Huron, Michigan, Erie,
Ontario, Winnipeg, Slave lake, Athapes-
cow, Champlain and Nicaragua.
principal bays and gulfs are, Baffin's bay,
Hudson's bay, James's bay, the gulf of
St. Lawrence, Delaware bay, Chesapeake
bay, the gulfs of Mexico and California,
and the bays of Honduras and Cam-
peachy. The most important islands
are, Newfoundland, Cape Breton, St.
John's, Rhode Island, Long Island and the
Bermudas on the eastern coast; queen
Charlotte's islands, Quadra and Vancou-
ver's island, king George III's island,
and the Fox islands on the western coast.
The
South America comprises Colombia,
Guiana, Brazil, Peru, Bolivia, Chili, Bue-
nos Ayres, or the United Provinces of La
Plata, and Patagonia. The principal
range of mountains is the Andes. The
largest rivers are, the Amazon, La Plata,
Orinoco, Parana, Paraguay, Madeira, To-
cantins, St. Francisco and Magdalena.
There are few large lakes; some of the
most considerable are, Maracaybo and Titi-
caca. The principal islands are, the Falk-
land islands, Terra del Fuego, Chiloe, Ju-
an Fernandez and the Gallapagos.-The
coast of A. was explored to 72 N. lat. by
Hearne, in 1770; to 69° N. by Mackenzie,
in 1789; to 78° N., along the shore of
Baffin's bay, by captain Ross, in 1818;
but its northern boundary is lost in the
arctic circle. Near the southern extrem-
ity of America, in the latitude of 54°, lie
the straits named, from the first circum-
navigator of the world, Magellan (q. v.),
and beyond, the southern promontory of
the Terra del Fuego, cape Horn.-The
continent of A. has been examined by
Europeans principally on the seaboard.
Expeditions, however, have been made
through its interior, in several directions;
e. g. through North America, by captains
Lewis and Clarke, in 1804; major Pike,
in 1805; through Brazil, by Langsdorf,
Grant, Mawe, Koste, Eschwege, the
prince of Neuwied, Spix, Martius and
others, especially by Alex. von Humboldt.
(q. v.)—For the history of its aboriginal
208
AMERICA.
population, and its condition oefore the
arrival of the Europeans, only a small
portion of the existing materials have, as
yet, been collected. Traditions, monu-
ments and other circumstances seem to
indicate a double emigration from the
East, one across the Aleutian islands,
another farther south, over the tract which
occupied the present place of the Atlantic
ocean, if such a tract ever existed, as
many writers have imagined. Or are the
earliest inhabitants of America, the Tol-
tecas, in Mexico, descended from that
branch of the Huns, who migrated to the
north-east A. D. 100, and the nations of
South America from a tribe of the Mexi-
cans, driven southward by the plague,
about the year 1050? More light, we
hope, will be shed on this subject, espe-
cially on what respects North America,
by the American antiquarian societies.
From the first volume of the transactions
of the one established at Worcester, in
Massachusetts, it may be seen that those
antiquities which pertain, in reality, to the
North American Indians, consist, for the
most part, of rude hatchets and knives of
stone, of mortars for bruising naize, of
arrow-heads, and similar articles. A sec-
ond class consists of articles which the
natives received from the earliest settlers.
They are frequently found in the graves
of the Indians. There is a third and more
interesting class, derived from the nation
that built the forts or tumuli (graves, walls,
artificial eminences, hearths, &c.) in North
America. To judge from these works, this
nation must have been far more civilized,
and much better acquainted with the use-
ful arts, than the present Indians. From the
lofty trees with which they are overgrown,
it is concluded that a long period must
have elapsed-perhaps 1000 years-siuce
the desertion of these fabrics, and the ex-
tinction of the people by whom they were
constructed. They are found in the vicin-
ity of each other, spread over the great
plains, from the southern shore of lake
Erie to the gulf of Mexico, generally in
the neighborhood of the great rivers.
Their structure is regular, and they have
been supposed to warrant the opinion of
the existence, in aucient times, of great
cities along the Mississippi. The mum-
mies, as they are called, or dried bodies,
enveloped with coarse cloth, and found
in some of the saltpetre caves of Ken-
tucky, are worthy of attention. As we
proceed farther south, these works in-
crease in number and magnitude. Their
traces may be followed, through the prov-
inces of Texas and New Mexico, into
Their
South America.-Although the accounts
of the earliest generations of this quarter
of the world are scanty and obscure, its
later history is rich in occurrences.
The
Icelanders made a voyage, in 982, to
Winland (the name given to the tract
extending from Greenland to Labrador);
and the Venetians gave some information
respecting the West India islands (in
maps of 1424); but America still remained
a sealed book for Europe till the period of
its discovery by Columbus (q. v.), in 1492.
Besides several voyages which he made
subsequently to this continent, it was
visited by Amerigo Vespucci (from whom
it takes its name), in 1497; by Cabot,
likewise, in 1497; by Cabral, in 1500,
and by Balbao, in 1507. Shortly after,
followed the expeditions of Cortez, Pizar-
ro, &c. It is probable that the new world
has not been inhabited inore than 12
centuries. This circumstance, together
with the oppression which the aborigines
have suffered since the settlement of the
whites in their country, will account for
the smallness of their number.-Equally
obscure with the origin of the Americans
are their various ramifications.
different languages, stated by Franc. Lo-
pez at 1500, have been resolved, by Alex.
von Humboldt, into 2 original tongues,-
the Toltecan and the Apalachian. (See
Indians.)-Nature has cast the surface of
the new world in larger forms, and en-
dowed it with fresher vitality, at least in
the warmer regions, than she has bestow-
ed on the soil of the old world. A. has
every variety of climate; but the climate
generally differs from that of the eastern
hemispliere, by a greater predominance
of cold. It is calculated that the heat is
at least 10 degrees less, than in the same
parallels in the eastern continent. A.
abounds in almost all the varieties of the
animal, vegetable and mineral produc-
tions. It contains a great variety of wild
animals; and, since its discovery, the va-
rious domestic animals of Europe have
been introduced, and are now found in
great abundance. In comparing animals
of the same species, in the two continents,
it has been found, in a majority of instan-
ces, where a difference in size has been.
ascertained, that the American animal is
larger than that of the eastern continent.
The birds are exceedingly numerous, and
are said to be more beautiful in their plu-
mage than those of Asia and Africa, but
in their notes less melodious. The con-
dor, which frequents the Andes of South
America, holds, on account of its size,
strength and rapacity, the preeminence
ous.
AMERICA.
over all the feathered creation. Reptiles
are numerous, and many of them venom-
Insects abound, and, in many parts,
are very offensive. The American waters
are remarkable for the variety and abun-
dance of their fish. A. produces every
A. produces every
kind of grain, fruit, pulse, herbs, plants
and flowers native to Europe, besides a
great variety of others, as cacao, cinna-
mon, pepper, sarsaparilla, vanilla, scarlet
dye, a great variety of balsams, mahogany,
logwood, Brazil-wood, sassafras, aloes,
barks, gums, resins and medicinal herbs.
This continent, particularly South Amer-
ica and Mexico, abounds in gold and sil-
ver.
Since the discovery of the Amer-
ican mines, such ample supplies of these
precious metals have been carried to Eu-
rope, that their value has become much
diminished. A. also produces an abun-
dance of copper, quicksilver, iron, anti-
mony, sulphur, nitre, lead, loadstone, and
marbles of every sort. It has various
kinds of precious stones, as diamonds,
rubies, emeralds, amethysts, alabaster,
&c. The inhabitants may be divided
into 3 classes, Whites, Negroes and In-
dians. The whites are descendants of
Europeans, who have migrated to A.
since its discovery. The Negroes are
mostly held in slavery, and are descend
ants of Africans, forced from their native
country. The Indians are the aborigines,
and generally savages. They are of
copper complexion, fierce aspect, tall,
straight, athletic, and capable of enduring
great fatigue. They are hospitable and
generous, faithful in their friendships, but
implacable in their resentments. Their
common occupations are hunting, fishing
and war.
At the time of the discovery
of America, the natives, in some parts,
particularly Mexico and Peru, were con-
siderably advanced in civilization. For
the most part, they continue a distinct peo-
ple, and retain their savage customs; but,
in some instances, they have mingled
with the white population. The Indians
still occupy the greater part of America.
In North America, they possess almost all
the country, except the southern and
eastern parts; that is, the northern part of
Spanish America, most of the territory of
the U. States which lies west of the Mis-
sissippi, and nearly all the vast regions
which lie north of the U. States' territory,
and west of the St. Lawrence. In South
America, they possess Patagonia, and
most of the interior of the continent.-The
whites, who are descended from Span-
ish, Portuguese, British, French, Dutch,
Danish, German and Russian colonists,
209
•
8,600,000
are estimated, by Humboldt, at 13,500,000
Indians,
Negroes,
Mixed races, .
6,500,000
6,500,000
The whole amount is over 35 millions;
some think there are 40 millions of inhab-
itants; but there is yet space and fertile
soil for more than 500 millions. A great
part of the Indians are subdued, and are
included in the population of Mexico,
Guatimala and the states of South Amer-
ica. The numbers of those who speak
the different languages made use of in A.,
are thus distributed:
English language,
Spanish,.
Portuguese,
•
Indian languages,
French language,
Dutch, Danish, Swedish
and Russian,
11,647,000
10,174,000
3,740,000
7,593,000
1,242,000
216,000
(See Carey and Lea's Historical, Chrono-
logical and Geographical American Atlas,
&c., Philadelphia, 1825, fol.)-See also the
different names mentioned in this article.
AMERICA, Geology of. The great lead-
ing features in the structure of the new
world are,-1st. The continuous belt of
high mountains and plateaus traversing
its western border, from Behring's straits
to Terra del Fuego, forming the most
uninterrupted extent of primitive moun-
tains known. Their northern portion,
consisting of the Rocky mountains, ap-
pears to be chiefly granitic, while, in the
Cordilleras of Mexico, and the Andes of
South America, the primitive strata are,
for the most part, covered with immensc
accumulations of transition porphyries,
trachytes and lavas, forming numerous
volcanoes, many of which are in constant
activity. 2dly. The wide expanse of low
and generally plain country, that suc-
ceeds immediately on the west to the
above-mentioned zone of mountains, and
through which, in both hemispheres, flow
some of the most magnificent streams in
the world. This region consists of im-
mense deposits of newer rocks, over
which is strewed every where, as with a
mantle, the alluvial formation, or a cover-
ing of sand and gravel, with which are in-
termingled rolled masses of rocks. 3dly.
The chain of mountains of lower eleva-
tion and inferior continuity, which forms
the eastern boundary to the low country,
and whose principal masses and highest
points are composed of granite. 4thly.
The clusters of islands occupying the seas
between North and South America, which
are, almost without exception, of a vol-
canic origin.-The geological character
18*
210
GEOLOGY OF AMERICA-AMERICANISM.
of A. partakes of the simplicity observable
in her great mountain ranges, which obey
highly uniform laws of arrangement, and
are, in a measure, free from those inter-
ruptions which occur in Europe, arising
out of its numerous chains, whose irregu-
lar and often contradictory structure it is
frequently difficult to reconcile or explain.
The two continents agree in the prevail-
ing primitive character of their northern
extremities, and in the prevalence of vol-
canoes about their equatorial and south-
ern regions; and an investigation of their
geological relations affords no grounds for
the common opinion, that the new world
is of a more recent origin than the old.
For a more minute account of the geol-
ogy of America, see North America, Mex-
ico and South America.
AMERICAN COMPANY, the Russian. In
1785, two Russian mercantile houses,
Schelikoff and Golikoff, projected the
formation of a regular company, to en-
courage the fur-trade of the north-west-
ern shore of North America. They erect-
ed forts for the protection of a chain
of factories on most of the islands, and
induced several respectable merchants to
join in their extensive and lucrative adven-
tures. Many cruelties against the natives
were charged upon the company, and the
emperor Paul was upon the eve of sup-
pressing it altogether, when the company
pledged itself to more regular proceed-
ings. In 1799, it was formally established
with considerable privileges. The em-
peror Alexander took it under his partic-
ular patronage at his accession. The
condition of the fur-collectors of the com-
pany is said, however, to be still wretch-
ed in the extreme, and only to be exceed-
ed by that of the oppressed Aleutians,
who are, in turn, their slaves.
AMERICANISM; an idiom, or use of the
English language, peculiar to the inhabit-
ants of the U. States. The deviations of
the Americans from the English usage, in
their common language, were occasion-
ally noticed, many years ago, by some of
their own writers, as well as by the crit-
ics of the mother country. Among the
American authors, who have animadvert-
ed upon them, the most conspicuous was
doctor Franklin, who was himself a wri-
ter of great purity and correctness of
style, and who censured, in strong lan-
guage, "the popular errors several of our
states were continually falling into," both
with respect to "expression and pronun-
ciation." This remark was made 40 years
ago, when he himself noted a few words,
which, at that time, he pronounced to be
objectionable innovations "in our parlia-
mentary language;" as the verbs to notice,
to advocate and to progress, the last of
which he condemned as "the most awk-
ward and abominable of the three. The
word opposed," he adds, "though not a
new word, is used in a new manner; as,
'the gentlemen who are opposed to this
measure, to which I have myself been op-
posed.” ” Several other American writers
have remarked upon particular words and
expressions. The British reviewers and
other writers have also, until very lately,
indulged themselves in severe animadver-
sions upon American writers, for their
occasional deviations from the English
standard; though, in some instances, they
have themselves adopted the very words
which they formerly condemned." Of the
words thus sanctioned by them, the verb
to advocate was, no longer ago than in the
year 1793, denounced as one of the words
which the Americans had "invented,
without any apparent reason," and which
the English had "altogether declined to
countenance." But this ill-fated word,
which was then proscribed as an Ameri-
can intruder into the language, has more
recently been discovered to have been
used as long ago as the age of Milton, the
excellence of whose prose writings had,
until modern days, been entirely lost sight
of in the splendor and majesty of his
poetic diction. We have still, however,
some doubt whether Milton used this
word in the sense now affixed to it both
in England and America; it was certainly
used in a different sense by his contem-
poraries, and the present meaning of it
had not been sanctioned, as we strongly
believe, by any subsequent writers (if we
except a single instance in Burke's works),
until it was brought into general use in
America, by the writers of this country,
and, more recently, by the authority of
Milton's name, among English writers,
some of whom now claim it as their
own, with as much zeal as it was once
condemned. (See Todd's edition of John-
son's Dict.) Some other words, which
were either newly-coined, or old ones
newly brought into use in America,
have been admitted into good writing in
England. The particulars in which Ameri-
cans have departed from English usage,
may be reduced to the following classes:
-I. Words entirely new, of which the
number is extremely small; e. g. caucus,
boatable. 2. Words to which is affixed a
meaning different from that of the Eng-
lish; e. g. clever, to girdle. 3. Words
whose original meaning has been preserv-
AMERICANISM-AMERICUS VESPUCIUS.
211
guage and literature. These relations
must, sooner or later, exert a decisive in-
fluence upon the common dialect; for no
language is so settled as not to undergo
continual changes, if spoken by a nation
in the full vigor of social and political
life. Authority, in regard to language, will
go far, but never can withstand for a long
time the energies and wants of a free, in-
dustrious and thinking people. Spain and
Portugal, indeed, with the independeut
nations of South America, present an in-
stance in many respects parallel; but the
contest of language will be more languid,
in proportion as there is less energy and
activity in the mother countries, and less
progress in the arts and sciences, as well
as less political advancement, in the states
which have lately shaken off the yoke.
ed by Americans, while the English have
given them a new signification. 4. Pro-
vincialisms, originally brought froin differ-
ent counties in England, by the first em-
igrants to America, and still used here,
just as they are in the mother country at
this day. This class of words may be
said to be wholly confined to the language
of conversation. 5. Words which have
become obsolete in England, but are still
in use in America; as, to tarry. It may
be further remarked, that, in all these
classes, a great proportion of the words
are of local use, technical, mere vulgar-
isms, or used only by individual writers,
whose caprice and affectation of style are
not followed by the nation at large. We
have observed, that single words and ex-
pressions had been occasionally mention-
ed by American writers many years ago.
AMERICUS VESPUCIUS: properly, Amer-
The first attempt to make a general col- igo Vespucci; born March 9, 1451, at
lection of all such words as had been Florence, of an ancient family. He early
supposed to be American peculiarities, made great progress in natural philoso-
was that of Mr. John Pickering, who pub-phy, astronomy and geography, at that
lished a Vocabulary of them in the Me-
moirs of the American Academy (vol. 3,
p. 439), in the year 1809. This valuable
collection was afterwards reprinted, with
large additions by the author, under the
title of Vocabulary or Collection of
Words and Phrases, which have been sup-
posed to be peculiar to the U. States of
America (8vo., pp. 206, Boston, 1816), and
was accompanied with a Memoir on the
present State of the English Language in
the U. States. It contains a list of about
500 words and phrases, which are all
carefully examined, and traced, in almost
every instance, to an English origin. This
Vocabulary has been freely used in the late
valuable edition of Johnson, by Mr. Wor-
cester, who observes that it has had a
salutary influence on our literature, by
calling the attention of our scholars to the
occasional deviations of American writers
from pure English." Mr. Webster's new
Dictionary of the English Language (pub-
lished 1829, Hartford, Connecticut) con-
tains many words with their American
significations; but this work is not so com-
plete in Americanisins as the Vocabulary
of Mr. Pickering above-mentioned. We
shall recur to this subject under the article
English Language.-We cannot conclude
these remarks, without directing the read-
er's attention to the circumstance that
England and the U. States of America
afford the first instance in history of two
great, independent and active nations
daily developing new and characteristic
features, situated at a great distance from
each other, and having a cominon lan-
time the three principal branches of sci-
ence studied at Florence, on account of
their importance in relation to commerce.
In 1490, he went to Spain for the purpose
of trading, and was at Seville when Co-
lumbus was making preparations for his
second voyage. The success of Colum-
bus's undertaking excited Vespucci to give
up trade, and explore these newly-dis-
covered countries. According to his own
account, in one of his letters, he entered
on his first voyage, under the command
of adıniral Ojeda, May 20th, 1497, who
left the harbor of Cadiz with 4 ships, and,
after a voyage of 37 days, reached the
main land of America, explored the bay
of Paria, and the coast for several hundred
miles, and, after 18 months, returned to
Spain, and was received with distinction
by the court at Seville. In May, 1499,
he began his second voyage, the fruit of
which was the discovery of a multitude
of small islands. This is his own account.
But it is fully proved, that no such voyage
as the one first mentioned was made, and
that his first expedition to the new conti-
nent was in 1499, under the command
of Ojeda, a year after the discovery and
examination of that part of the coast by
Columbus. Other accounts of Vespucci
are, also, inconsistent with the statement
above given. (See Irving's Columbus.)
After this, he entered the service of king
Emanuel of Portugal, and made 2 voyages
in Portuguese ships; the first, May 10,
1501; the second, May 10, 1503. The
object of this last voyage was to find a
westerly passage to Malacca. A. arrived
212
AMERICUS VESPUCIUS—AMES.
at Brazil, and discovered the bay of All
Saints. In 1505, he again entered the
service of the king of Spain, but made no
more voyages, as appears from memoran-
da, showing that he was at Seville till
1508, at which time he was appointed
principal pilot. His duties were to pre-
pare charts, and prescribe routes for ves-
sels in their voyages to the new world,
which soon received his name. This
honor certainly belonged to Columbus
rather than to A., for the prior discovery
of the continent by the former is not to
be questioned. We have a chart of Amer-
ica laid down by A.; a journal of 4 of his
voyages, printed at Paris, 1532, in the
Latin language, in 22 pages, 4to.; and
Amerigo's Letters, which appeared at
Florence after his death, published by
John Stephen di Carlo da Pavia. Ves-
pucci died at Seville, in 1512. Emanuel,
king of Portugal, caused the remains of
the ship Victoria, in which he had made
his last voyage to America, to be hung up
in the cathedral at Lisbon, and Florence
conferred marks of distinction on his fam-
ily. The accounts of his life are full of
contradictions and perplexities. (See Ir-
ving's Life of Columbus, 3d vol., Appen-
dix, No. ix.)
AMES, Fisher, one of the most cloquent
of American statesmen and writers, was
born at Dedham, in Massachusetts, April
9, 1758, of very respectable parents. Soon
after the completion of his 12th year, he
was admitted to Harvard college, with the
reputation of uncommon talents and at-
tainments. Diligence, regularity and suc-
cess marked his collegiate course of four
years. After receiving his degree, in 1774,
the narrow circumstances of his widowed
mother compelled him to postpone, for
several years, the accomplishment of his
original purpose of studying the law.
In the interval, he acted as an assistant
teacher in a public school, and continued
to cultivate classical literature, to the sig-
nal improvement of his taste and fancy.
At length, in 1781, he commenced the
practice of the law, with the stock of
knowledge which he had acquired in the
office of a member of the profession, in
Boston. Opportunity soon occurred for
the display of his superior qualifications,
both as a speaker and essay writer. The
fame which followed his early efforts con-
duced to place him in the Massachusetts
convention for ratifying the constitution,
in 1788. From this sphere, in which he
made a deep impression by some of his
speeches, particularly that on biennial
elections, he passed to the house of rep-
resentatives in the state legislature. Here,
he soon became so eminent as an orator
aud man of business, that the voters of
the Suffolk district elected him their first
representative in the congress of the U.
States. He had not been long in that
assembly before his friends and admirers
were satisfied that they had not overrated
his abilitics. He won there the palin of
eloquence, besides proving himself equal
to the discussion of the deepest subjects of
politics and finance, and the execution of
the most arduous committee labors. He
remained in congress during eight years,
the whole of Washington's administra-
tion, which he constantly and zealously
defended. "His speech on the British
treaty," says his distinguished biographer,
doctor Kirkland, "was the era of his
political life. For many months, he had
beru sinking under weakness, and, though
he had attended the long and interesting
debate on the question which involved
the constitution and the peace of the
U. States, it was feared he would be un-
able to speak. But when the time came
for taking a vote so big with consequences,
his emotions would not suffer him to he
silent. His appearance, his situation, the
magnitude of his subject, the force and
the pathos of his eloquence, gave this
speech an extraordinary power over the
feelings of the dignified and numerous
assembly who heard it. When he had
finished, a member in opposition moved
to postpone the decision of the question,
that they might not vote under the in-
fluence of a sensibility which their calm
judgment might condemn.”—On the re-
tireinent of Washington, Mr. A. returned
to his residence at Dedham, where he ev-
cupied himself with the management of
his farm and the practice of the law.
The latter he relinquished in a few years,
owing to the decline of his health; but ho
felt too deep an interest in the welfare of
his country to withdraw his mind and
pen from politics. He published a con-
siderable number of essays, relating chief-
ly to the contest between Great Britain
and revolutionary France, as it might af
feet American liberty and prosperity. No
writer evinced more ardor for the success
of Britain, or more horror of the charac-
ter and tendencies of the French despo-
tism. In 1804, Mr. A. was chosen presi-
dent of Harvard college,-an honor which
he declined. When Washington died,
Mr. A., then a member of the council of
the commonwealth, was appointed to
pronounce his funeral eulogy before the
legislature of Massachusetts.-The injury
AMES-AMHERST.
which his constitution sustained in 1795
was never fully repaired. From that pe-
riod his health declined, until, at length,
after an extreme debility for two years,
death ended his sufferings. He expired
July 4, 1808; and, when the intelligence
of this event was received, a public meet-
ing of citizens was held, in order to testify
the general respect for his character. His
remains were carried to Boston, where
they were interred with honors such as
had not been before paid to those of any
private citizen. In 1809, his works were
issued in a large octavo volume, with pref-
atory notices of his life and character,
from the pen of the reverend doctor Kirk-
land, president of Harvard college, who
had enjoyed his personal friendship and
intimacy. The volume is fraught with
profound remarks, various historical lore,
and eloquent declamation. Although the
political interest of most of the topics is
gone, there remains much to captivate
and reward attention in the richness of
fancy, warnth of feeling, beauty of lan-
guage, and felicity of copious illustration,
which distinguish almost every page.
-Fisher Ames left seven children and a
wife, to whom he was tenderly attached.
In person, he exceeded a little the middle
stature, was well-proportioned and per-
feedly erect. His features and counte-
nance were fine, and his manners easy
and affable. Of his delivery as an orator,
his biographer states, that he did not sys-
tematically study the exterior graces of
speaking, but his attitude was firm, his
gesticulation natural and forcible, his
voice clear and varied, and his whole
manner earnest and expressive. Ac-
cording to the same authority, all the
other efforts of his mind were proba-
bly surpassed by his powers of conversa-
tion.
AMES, Joseph, the historian of British
typography, was born at Yarmouth, 1688
9. He published, in one vol., 4to.,
1749, "Typographical Antiquities, being
a historical Account of Printing in Eng-
land, with some Memoirs of its ancient
Printers, and a Register of the Books
printed by them from 1471 to 1600; with
an Appendix concerning Printing in Scot-
land and Ireland to the same time." Mr.
A. died in 1739. Besides his great work,
he wrote a Catalogue of English Print-
ers from 1471 to 1700, 4to., and several
other works. An enlarged edition of the
Typographical Antiquities was published
by the late Mr. W. Herbert, vol. 1, 1785,
vol. 2, 1786, and vol. 3, 1790. A new and
splendid edition of Anies and Herbert has
213
since been presented to the world by the
Rev. T. F. Dibdin.
AMETHYST. (See Quartz.)
AMHERST; a pleasant and flourishing
post-town of Massachusetts, in the county
of Hampshire; 8 miles N. E. of North-
ampton, 90 W. of Boston; pop., in 1820,
1917. It is noted chiefly for its literary
institutions, which consist of a college,
an academy, and a seminary styled the
Mount Pleasant Classical Institution. Am-
herst college was opened in 1821, and in-
corporated in 1825. It is a flourishing
institution, and has 3 edifices or halls for
the accommodation of students. In 1828,
the college was under the direction of a
president, 5 professors, one tutor and 2
assistant teachers, and had 211 students.
AMHERST, Jeffery, lord, a distinguished
British general officer, was descended
from an ancient Kentish family, and born
in 1717. He early devoted himself to the
profession of anus, receiving an ensign's
commission when only 14 years of age.
At the age of 25, he acted as aide-de-
camp to lord Ligonier, in the battles of
Dettingen and Fontenoy, and afterwards
served on the staff of the duke of Cum-
berland, at those of Laffeld and Hasten-
beck. In 1756, he received the coloneley
of a regiment, and was appointed major-
general, and, in the summer of 1758,
coinmanded the expedition against Louis-
burg, which, together with the whole isl-
and of Cape Breton, surrendered to his
arms. The capture of fort du Quesno,
Niagara and Ticonderoga in due time fol-
lowed; and, in 1760, the whole of Can-
ada being reduced, general Amherst re-
ceived, for his share in these exploits, the
thanks of the house of commons, and the
order of the Bath. In 1763, he was made
governor of Virginia; in 1770, governor
of the isle of Jersey, and, in 1772, lieuten-
ant-general of the ordnance, and officiat-
ing commander-in-chief of the English
forces. Besides these, and several other
military honors, he was, in 1776, created a
peer by the title of baron Amherst of
Holmesdale in the county of Kent. On
the breaking up of the North adminis-
tration, lord Amherst was removed from
the commandership-in-chief, and the lieu-
tenancy of the ordnance, and, in 1787, re-
ceived another patent of peerage as baron
Amherst of Montreal, with remainder to
his nephew, William Pitt Amherst; and,
on the staff being re-appointed in 1793,
he was once more called upon to act as
commander-in-chief. In 1795, he resigned
the commandership-in-chief to the duke
of York, and, in 1796, received the rank
214
AMHERST-AMIOT.
of field-marshal. He died in 1797, in the
81st year of his age. A. was twice married,
but left no issue, being succeeded by his
nephew as aforesaid. Lord Amherst was
` regarded as a man of a collected and tem-
perate mind, without brilliancy or parade;
a strict officer, yet the soldier's friend.
He had two brothers, one an admiral of
the blue, the other a lieutenant-general;
it is the son of the latter who has suc-
cceded him.
AMIANTHUS ; a kind of flexible asbes-
tos. (q. v.)
AMIDSHIPS; the middle of a ship, either
with regard to her length or breadth.
AMIENS, in Picardy; a fortified city in
the French department of the Somme,
situated on the river Somme; lon. 2°
18′ E.; lat. 49° 53′ N. It contains 5980
houses, 41,000 inhabitants, is the resi-
dence of a bishop, and has possessed,
since the year 1750, a Société d'Emulation,
an academy of arts and sciences, of liter-
ature, commerce and agriculture, a lyce-
um, a school at St. Acheul, under the di-
rection of the Jesuits, a convent of the
order of la Trappe, in the abbey du Gard,
many considerable manufactories of wool-
len cloth, tapestry, damask and kersey-
mere (of which 130,000 pieces are sold
annually), leather, soap, as well as 80 cot-
ton factories. The pastry of A., also, often
goes across the channel, and is very cel-
cbrated.
AMIENS, peace of; concluded March
27, 1802, by Joseph Bonaparte, the
marquis Cornwallis, d'Azzara, and von
Schimmelpenninck. In 1800, England
saw herself deprived of all her conti-
nental alliances; the Russian cmperor,
Paul, was dissatisfied that Malta was not
restored to the order of which he was
grand master, and Pitt had laid an en-
bargo on the ships of Prussia, Denmark
and Sweden, because, at the instigation
of Paul, they determined to revive the
armed neutrality of the north. On the
other hand, the ports of the continent
were closed against the English ships,
and this circumstance gave the opposi-
tion in parliament a majority against the
ministry. At the same time, the minister
could not obtain the consent of the king
to the emancipation of the Catholics. So
the Pitt ministry was dissolved, and the
speaker, Addington, took Pitt's place, as
first lord of the treasury. The new min-
istry, of which lord Hawkesbury was
secretary of foreign affairs, comnienced
negotiations for peace, and the prelimina-
ries were signed at London, Oct. 1, 1801.
A definitive treaty was concluded at A.
between Great Britain, France, Spain and
the Batavian republic, March 27, 1802.
England retained, of her conquests, the
islands of Ceylon and Trinidad; the har-
bor of the cape of Good Hope remained
open to her ships. France regained her
colonies, and the Arowari was made the
boundary of her possessions in Guiana on
the side towards Brazil. The republic of
the Seven Islands was acknowledged, and
Malta was restored to the order of the
same name. Spain and the Batavian re-
public, also, regained their colonial pos-
sessions, with the exception of Ceylon
and Trinidad. The French were to evacu-
ate Rome and Naples, together with Elba.
The house of Orange was to be indenui-
fied; the status quo ante bellum guarantied
to the Porte; and, on these conditions, the
sultan Selin formally acceded to the
treaty of A., May 13, 1802. But this
peace soon became generally unpopular
in Englaud; for the first consul fitted out
a great expedition against St. Domingo,
and wished to place French cousuls in
all the ports of Ireland. On the other
hand, Great Britain declined evacuating
Egypt and Malta, inaintaining that France
had first threatened; in which assertion
they were confirmed by Sebastiani's in-
considerate report of his mission to Egypt.
May 10, 1803, the English court declared
the conditions on which, aloue, all new
differences could be reconciled; demand-
ed indemnification for the king of Sar-
dinia, who had been expelled from the
continent; restitution of the island of
Lampedusa, and the evacuation of the
Batavian and Helvetian republics by the
French troops. These conditions the
French refused, and the court of St.
James declared war, May 18, 1803.
AMILCAR, OF HAMILCAR; the name of
several Carthaginian generals. A. Bar-
cas, the father of Hannibal, is the most
celebrated of them. The Roman fleet
defeated his, near Trapani, 242 B. C., and
thus put an end to the first Punic war.
A. began the second, landed in Spain,
and subdued its most warlike nations;
but, as he was preparing for an expedi-
tion against Italy, he was killed in battle,
A. U. C. 526, B. C. 228. He left 3 sons,
and is said to have made Hannibal swear
an eternal hatred against the Romans.
AMIOT, father; a French Jesuit, born,
in 1718, at Toulou ; a missionary to Pekin,
who has contributed much to our knowl-
edge of China. We owe to him the most
elaborate account of the antiquities, the
history, the language and the arts of this
kingdom. In 1750, he went to Macao,
sources.
AMIOT-AMMONIA.
and, in the following year, by the invita-
tion of the emperor of China, to Pekin,
where he remained till his death, in 1794.
Uninterrupted study gave him a knowl-
edge of the Chinese and Tartar lan-
guages, by means of which he became
acquainted with China through the best
Most of his valuable works,
which treat of the writing, the art of war,
the music, &c., of the Chinese, together
with a biography of Confucius, and a
grammar, &c. of the Tartar-Mantcheou
language, are to be found in Mémoires
concernant l'Histoire, les Sciences et les
Arts des Chinois, the 10th part of which
sets forth, in 14 columns, his contributions
to the first ten volumes. He wrote, also,
Éloges de Moukden, published by Guignes,
and the Dictionnaire Tatarmantcheou-
Français, published by Langlès.
AMMIANUS, Marcellinus; à Roman his-
torian, of the 4th century after Christ,
born at Antioch, in Syria. His work, in
31 books (of which only 24 are extant),
includes the history of the Cæsars, from
Nerva to Valens. It may be considered
a continuation of Tacitus and Suetonius,
and is very interesting and instructive.
There is an old and good edition by Gro-
novius (Leyden, 1693), a later one by
Ernesti (1773), and the latest by Wagner
(Erfurt and Leipsic, 1808, 3 vols.).
AMMIRATO, Scipio; a distinguished
Italian historian, born at Lecce, in Na-
ples, 1531. After having travelled through
Italy, he was employed by the grand duke
of Tuscany to write the history of Flor-
ence; for which he was presented to a
canonry in the cathedral there. Some of
his works, while in this station, are, 1.
Arguments, in Italian verse, 4to. Venice,
1548. 2. Il Decalione Dialogo del Poeta,
Svo. Naples, 1560. 3. Istorie Fiorentine,
dopo la Fondatione di Firenze insino all'
anno, 1574. He died in 1601.
AMMON; a Libyan deity. Some writers
make him a son of Triton; others say,
that he was found in a wood, where,
with the exception of a sheep, no living
thing was to be seen; and affirm, there-
fore, that he was the son of this sheep
and Jupiter. Others say, that, when a
boy, he was found by some herdsmen,
playing in the sand, between Carthage
and Cyrene; and that, as long as he re-
mained on the sand, he continued utter-
ing predictions, but, as soon as they re-
moved him, he became dumb. Finally,
it is related, that Bacchus, on his journey
through India, being exhausted by heat
and thirst, called upon Jupiter for help, not
far from Xerolibya; thereupon a ram ap-
•
215
peared, and, stamping with his foot, open-
ed a spring in the sand, and then vanished.
This ram he acknowledged as Jupiter
himself, paid him divine honors, and built
a temple to him. According to Diodorus
Siculus, A. was a king in Libya, whose
wife was Rhea, sister to Saturn, and
whose mistress was Amalthea, by whom
he had Bacchus. The latter built that
celebrated temple to A., where he deliv-
ered oracles, not by words, but by signs
made by his priests, and where he was
exhibited under the form of a ram, or,
according to some, of a man with a ram's
head or horns. Alexander visited this
temple, and was declared, by the priests,
a son of the deity. For an account of
this old temple of A., in the Oasis of Si-
wah, see, also, Oasis and Meroe.-A.'s
horn is a species of fossil, in the form of
a ram's horn.-A., in Hebrew history, the
son of Lot, by his youngest daughter.
He was the father of the Ammonites.
AMMONIA; an alkaline substance, dif-
fering from the other alkalies by its vola-
tility, not being obtained pure, except in
its gaseous form, and hence called the
volatile alkali. It is obtained by mixing
together equal weights of dry quick-lime
and muriate of ammonia (sal ammoniac),
separately powdered, and introducing
them into a retort or iron bottle, and
applying heat. It is a transparent, color-
less gas, of little more than half the
weight of common air, and has an ex-
ceedingly pungent smell, well known
under the old name of spirits of harts-
horn. It extinguishes flame, and is fatal
to life. It is decomposable, by a strong
heat, into 3 parts, by measure, of hydro-
gen, and 1 of nitrogen gas. It is rapidly
absorbed by water, which dissolves one
third of its weight of this gas, or 450
times its bulk, and forms the aqueous
ammonia, or aqua ammon'æ, as it is com-
monly termed in commerce. The process
for procuring this is merely to connect a
retort, or iron bottle, containing the mu-
riate of ammonia and quick-lime (gener-
ally slacked), with a common still and
refrigeratory, and apply a moderate heat.
It is very accurately valued by its specific
gravity; that used in medicine is about
0,950. It is also soluble in alcohol, and
is used in medicine under the name of
spirits of hartshorn.—Ammonia combines
with the acids, and forms a numerous
class of salts: with carbonic acid, it forms
the carbonate of ammonia (volatile sal
ammoniac), which was formerly prepared
from the destructive distillation of animal
substances, but is now fabricated, in part,
216
AMMONIA-AMNESTY.
AMMONIA, nitrate of, is formed by satu-
rating diluted nitric acid with carbonate
of ammonia. From it is obtained the
nitrous oxyde, or exhilarating gas.
AMMONIA, Sulphate of, in the form of
stalactites, is found in the fissures of the
earth surrounding certain small lakes in
Tuscany, also in the lavas of Ætna and
Vesuvius, and, dissolved in a spring, in
Dauphiné. It is, of late, obtained in large
quantities, as a secondary product in the
distillation of coal for gas-lights. A chal-
dron of Newcastle coal affords 200 pounds
of ammoniacal liquor, which consists
chiefly of sulphate of ammonia and car-
bonate of ammonia. It is used for the
manufacture of sal ammoniac and volatile
salt.
AMMONIUS. There were many learned
men and philosophers in Alexandria of
this name:-1. A Peripatetic or rather
Eclectic philosopher, who was the in-
structer of Plutarch, in the first century
after Christ. 2. A., surnamed Saccas,
who was a founder of the new Platonic
school in Alexandria, 193. (Sec Alexan-
drians.) 3. A disciple of this school, in
the 5th and 6th centuries, son of Hermias,
scholar of Proclus, and master of Simpli-
cius.
by mixing one proportion of muriate of
ammonia with two of carbonate of lime,
in a state of dryness, and subliming in an
earthen pot; and, more largely, from pu-
rified sulphate of ammonia, mixed with
one quarter of its weight of chalk, finely
ground, and previously calcined, intro-
duced into cast-iron retorts, and subjected
to a red heat: the carbonate of ammonia,
as it is formed, is conveyed by a tube into
a leaden or cast-iron receiver, where it is
condensed. It is used as a stimulant,
usually in the form of smelling-bottles,
and also by bakers, to raise their bread
lighter and quicker than by ycast alone.
With muriatic acid, ammonia forms mu-
riate of ammonia (sal ammoniac). It is
found native in fibrous masses and crusts,
sublimed into the cracks of lava, among
other volcanic matters, about the craters
of volcanoes. The muriate of ammonia
of commerce, however, is prepared, by a
tedious process, from an impure carbonate
of ammonia, obtained by the distillation
of bones and other animal matters: the
carbonate is decomposed by sulphate of
lime, and the sulphate of ammonia again
by muriate of soda; and the muriate of
ammonia is separated from the sulphate
of soda by crystallization, after which it
undergoes the process of sublimation two
or three times; and, this being done in
rounded vessels, it assumes the form with
which we are familiar with it in com-
merce. The sulphate of ammonia, ob- AMNESTY (Greek, from « priv. and uráo-
tained in procuring gas-lights for illumi-, to remember), in law; an act of ob-
nation from coal, is also made use of in livion; the entire freedom from penalty,
the manufacture of sal ammoniac. It has granted to those who have been guilty
lately been discovered, that muriate of of any neglect or crime, usually on con-
ammonia exists in the water of the ocean, dition that they return to their duty within
and that it may be obtained, by sublima- a certain period. An animesty is often
tion, from the uncrystallizable part called declared in case of the rebellion of whole
bittern.* This salt was formerly imported districts or countries, because it is not
from Egypt, but is now manufactured in possible to exercise on them the severity
Europe. Great quantities are annually of the law, and it is often considered
carried from Bucharian Tartary to Russia suflicient to punish the leaders. In do-
and Siberia.-Sal ammoniac is applied to mestic disturbances and civil wars, ob-
many useful purposes. Occasionally, it is livion of the past is a necessary prelude
used in medicine. A considerable portion to peace. But amnesties are often only
of it is consumed by dyers, to give bright- deceitful assurances, of which modern
ness to some of their colors. It is also history affords many instances. The am-
employed in the assay of metals, to dis- nesty, or the religious peace, of 1570, in
cover the presence of iron; and, having France, was followed, in 1572, by the
the property of rendering lead brittle, is shocking spectacle of a government caus-
sometimes used in the manufacture of ing a part of its subjects to be murder-
shot. By coppersmiths and tinners, it is ed. (Sec St. Bartholomew, massacre of.)
used for cleansing the surface of the The terms of the religious peace concluded
metals which they are about to cover at Passau, 1552, contain an amnesty, in
with tin. It is said that 20 tons of sal which the campaign of the elector, Mau-
ammoniac, for the purpose of soldering, rice, of Saxony, against the emperor
are yearly used in Birmingham.
Charles V, is mildly termed an excursion
for the sake of military exercise, and full
* Phil. Trans. 1822, p. 454.
AMMUNITION BREAD, SHOES, STOCK-
INGS, &c.; such as are contracted for by
government, and served out to private
soldiers.
AMNESTY-AMORETTI.
forgiveness is promised to all who had
taken part in the war. Also in the peace
of Westphalia (art. 2.), after much diffi-
culty, a full and general amnesty, from
the beginning of the disturbances in Bo-
hemia, was granted. A general amnesty
was proclaimed in England, 1660, at the
restoration of Charles II, from which the
king excepted no one, and the parliament
only the judges of Charles I. The French
revolution is rich in amnesties; the vic-
torious party promising them to their
opponents, or securing themselves in this
way from punishment. At the restora-
tion, a formal amnesty was not thought
expedient; but in the Charte Constitutio-
nelle, (art. 11), all prosecutions on account
of political offences are forbidden. Not-
withstanding his abdication, Napoleon
Bonaparte considered those who had con-
spired, in 1814, to overturn his throne, as
state traitors, and, March 12, 1815, granted
them an amnesty, at Lyons, from which
only 13 men (prince Talleyrand, Bouri-
enne, the duke of Dalberg, &c.) were
excluded. At the second restoration, Jan.
12, 1816, all who had taken an immedi-
ate part in the usurpation of Bonaparte
were pardoned, with the exception of
only 19 persons, who were prosecuted
under the decree of July 24, 1815 (Ney,
Labédoyère, Lavalette, Bertrand, Rovigo,
&c.), besides 38 others, whom the king
was to have the right of banishing any
time within two months (Soult, Bassano,
Vandamme, Carnot, Hullin, Merlin, &c.),
and, in fine, all those who had voted for
the death of Louis XVI (rigicides), and
such as had taken office during the
"hundred days." These, as well as all
the members of the Bonaparte family,
were banished from France. Many of
Many of
them have been permitted to return.
Also, in the Italian and Portuguese revo-
lutions and counter-revolutions, such po-
litical amnesties have been proclaimed,
with more or fewer restrictions. An ar-
ticle of this nature is to be found in the
peace signed at Vienna between Prussia
and Saxony.-For amnesties in Spain,
see Spain. Of all the instances of am-
nesties which history affords, there have
been few in which the promise of for-
giveness has been strictly kept by the
ruling party, when seated in secure pos-
session of power. Generally, govern-
ments have found means to punish their
opponents without openly violating their
promise of pardon.
AMOR, with the Romans; with the
Greeks, "Eows; the god of love. Accord-
ing to the later mythology, A. is the son
19
VOL. I.
217
of Venus and Mars, the most beautiful of
all the gods; a winged boy, with bow and
arrows, sometimes represented blind-fold-
ed. His arrows inflict the wounds of
love, and his power is formidable to gods
and men. He is not always a playful
child in the arms of his mother, but ap-
pears sometimes in the bloom of youth,
e. g., as the lover of Psyche. He is
brother to Hymen, the god of marriage,
whom he troubles much by his thought-
lessness. (See Hymen and Cupid.) Ac-
cording to the earlier mythology (that of
Hesiod and Orpheus), he is the eldest of
all the gods, and existed before any cre-
ated being. By his means the sterile
Chaos brought forth Nox, from whom
issued Day and Light. This eldest A. is
the lofty idea of the all-exciting and all-
fructifying love. To him, according to
some writers, Hate is opposed. In Eng-
lish, the god of love is less frequently
called A. than Cupid; yet, with the an-
cients, Cupido denoted, properly, only the
animal desire, which the Greeks expressed
by the word uos.

Be-
AMORETTI, Abbate Carlo; born at
Oneglia, March 13, 1741, died at Milan,
in 1816; a great mineralogist, and, since
the year 1797, one of the conservatori of
the Ambrosian library. Till 1772, he was
professor of canon law at Parma. Being
well versed in modern languages, he en
deavored to make known to his country-
men the progress of other nations in the
arts and sciences. A. was a member of
many learned societies in Italy.
tween 1775 and 1788, he published, at
Milan, 27 vols. in quarto, with engravings,
Nuova scelta d'Opuscoli Interessanti sulle
Scienze e sulle Arti, in connexion with
several friends.
several friends. His knowledge of the
art of mining obtained him a seat, in 1808,
in the Consiglio delle Miniere. He first
encouraged a careful examination of the
treasures of the Ambrosian library, in
which Maio has since exerted him:self so
successfully. By his means, the follow-
ing works were printed:-the first voy-
age round the world of Pigafetta of Vi-
cenza, from 1519-1522, and a treatise on
navigation, by the same; also, the north-
eastern voyage through the Atlantic and
the Pacific oceans, by captain Maldonado
(this appeared in 1811); and, in 1804,
Leonardo da Vinci's Trattato della Pittura,
with plates; also a biography of this re-
nowned painter, in 1806; and, finally, in
1808, Codice Diplomatico Sant' Ambrosi-
ano, a supplement to the collection of
Italian documents, of the 8th and 9th cen-
turies, by Pater Fumigalli. Of his great
218
AMORETTI-AMPHISBÆNA.
work, Della Rabdomanzia Ossia Elettro-
metria Animale Ricerche Fisiche e Storiche,
Milan, 1808, he published, in 1816, an
abridgment, Elementi di Elettrometria An-
imale.
AMORTIZATION; the right of transfer-
ring lands in mortmain, i. e. to some
community which is never to cease.
This word is used in France and Ger-
many to signify the redeeming of public
debts. Amortissement, from amortir, is the
French word for sinking fund.
AMOS, the prophet; a herdsman who
appeared in the vicinity of Jerusalem,
under the kings Josias of Judah, and
Jeroboam II of Israel, B. C. 850, and
preached with zeal against the idolatry
then prevailing in Israel. His propheti-
cal book, contained in the Old Testament,
is made up of descriptions of the moral
profligacy and idolatry of this people, and
of threatenings and promises, similar to
those which the other Jewish prophets
have delivered. His peculiarities are the
use of certain rural images, a rounded
style, clearness in the construction of his
sentences, and distinctness in his descrip-
tions. He is among the best of the He-
brew writers.
AMPELLITES, or CANDLE-COAL, or CA-
NAL-COAL. (See Coal.)
AMPHIARAUS; son of Oicleus (accord-
ing to some, of Apollo) and Hypermnes-
tra; endowed by the gods with propheti-
cal powers. Foreseeing that he should
perish before Thebes, he hid himself;
but, being betrayed by his wife, Eriphyle
(q. v.), he joined Polynices in his expedi-
tion against this city, and was one of his
most valiant warriors. The besiegers
having been repulsed in one of their
attacks, the earth opened under him in
his flight, and swallowed him, with his
horses. On the spot where this event is
said to have taken place, at Oropus, a
feast was celebrated in honor of him
(Amphiaraa), and, not far from this city, a
temple was dedicated to him, where ora-
cles were delivered. His death was re-
venged by his son, Alcinæon.
AMPIIIBIA; animals of the third class,
in the Linnæan system, most of which,
by their peculiar anatomy, are able to
live either upon land or in the water.
Since Cuvier's exertions to introduce a
better classification in zoology, this term
has been superseded by the term reptilia.
(See Reptiles.)
AMPHIBOLOGY, in grammar; a loose
manner of expression, whereby the sense
may be construed into a double meaning.
It has a similar application to phrases or
sentences with the word equivocal in
respect to words.
AMPHIBRACHYS. (See Rhythm.)
AMPHICTYONS, court of the; an assem-
bly composed of deputies from the differ-
ent states of Greece, according to most
authors, established by king Amphictyon,
son of Deucalion and Pyrrha, according
to Strabo, by Acrisius, king of Argos, as
a point of union for the several Grecian
states. At first, they assembled at Delphi;
in later times, at Thermopylæ, or rather
at the neighboring village, Anthela. 12
Grecian states sent 2 deputies each, who
assembled with great solemnity; com-
posed the public dissensions, and the
quarrels of individual cities, by force or
persuasion; punished civil and criminal
offences, and, particularly, transgressions
of the law of nations, and violations of
the temple of Delphi. After the decision
was published, a fine was inflicted on the
guilty state, which, if not paid in due
time, was doubled. If the state did not
then submit, the whole confederacy took
arms to reduce it to obedience. The
assembly had also the right of excluding
it from the confederation. An instance
of the exercise of this right gave rise to
the Phocian war, which continued 10
years.
AMPHIMACER. (Sce Rhythm.)
AMPHION; Son of Jupiter and Antiope;
the eldest of the Grecian musicians. In
Lydia, where he married Niobe, the
daughter of king Tantalus, he learned
music, and brought it thence into Greece.
He reigned in Thebes, which was before
called Cadmea. A. joined the lower and
upper city by walls, built the 7 gates, and
gave it the name of Thebes. To express
the power of his music, and, perhaps, of
his cloquence, the poets said, that, at
the sound of his lyre, the stones volun-
tarily formed themselves into walls; that
wild beasts, and even trees, rocks and
streams, followed the musician. With
the aid of his brother, Zethus, he is said
to have revenged Antiope, who was
driven into banishment by his father, and
to have bound Dirce to the tail of a wild
bull; which incident is supposed to be
represented by the famous piece of sculp-
ture, the Farnese bull.
AMPHISBÆNA; a genus of serpents, so
called on account of the shape of its body,
which is of equal thickness from head to
tail; they are, consequently, diflicult to
distinguish. This occasioned the notion
of its having two heads. Different natu-
ralists establish different numbers of spe-
cies. Doctor Shaw mentions two, viz.
AMPHISBÆNA-AMPULLA.
}
the alba and the fuliginosa. The alba is
about 18 or 20 inches long, and totally
white. It is a native of South America,
and a harmless animal. The fuliginosa
is white, with black or deep-brown spots.
The head is without spots. It is found
in many parts of South America, and in
Libya. It is innoxious. All the other spe-
cies are also found in America.
AMPHITHEATRE, with the Romans; a
building without a roof, of a round or
oval form, destined for the combats of
gladiators, or of wild beasts. In the
middle was the arena, a large place cov-
ered with sand, on which the fights were
exhibited. Round about were the vaults
or caves, in which the animals were kept;
above these was the gallery, from which
ascended successive rows of seats, each
of greater height and circumference than
the preceding. The 14 first were for the
senators and judges, the others for the
common people. In the year 709 from
the building of the city, Julius Cæsar
erected the first large amphitheatre at
Rome, for his gladiatorial exhibitions.
was of wood, and was pulled down after
it had been used. Statilius Taurus, 20
years later, built the first stone one. The
Coliseum (q. v.), at Rome, is the largest
of all the ancient amphitheatres. In Ve-
rona there is one, the interior of which
still shows the whole ancient architect-
ure, and is carefully preserved; it is
called there arena. Of all the Roman
antiquities, none has withstood the effects
of time so well as this remarkable build-
ing. The form is oval, and the architect-
ure is in the taste of the Coliseum at
Rome. There is another at Pola.
It
AMPHITRITE; daughter of Occanus
and Tethys, or of Nereus and Doris.
Neptune wished to make her his wife,
and, as she hid herself from him, he sent
a dolphin to find her, which brought her
to him, and received as a reward a place
among the stars. As a goddess and
queen of the sea, she is represented as
drawn in a chariot of shells by Tritons, or
riding on a dolphin, with the trident of
Neptune in her hand.
AMPHITRYON; king of Thebes, son of
Alcæus, and husband of Alcmena. Plau-
tus, after him Moliere, and, still later,
Falk and Kleist, have made the trick
played upon him by Jupiter (see Alcmena)
the subject of amusing comedies, in which
the return of the true A., and his meeting
with the false one, occasion several
humorous scenes at the palace and in the
city. The French give this name to a
courteous host.
219
AMPLIFICATION, in rhetoric; the part
of a speech wherein circumstances are
enumerated and dwelt upon to excite the
minds of the auditors. Some writers on
rhetoric understand by amplification only
the explanation of a subject by examples.
The Greek and Roman rhetorical writers
meant by it a mode of adding to or de-
tracting from the dignity of a subject by
an accumulation of words or ideas. Lon-
ginus defines amplification the collection
of all the circumstances connected with
a subject, in order to give force to that
which is already proved. The ampli-
fication generally embraces both these
objects. Cicero and other ancient orators
make the amplificatio and enumeratio
(recapitulation) essential to a speech. In
this case, amplification, also called exag-
geratio, embraces only the concluding
strokes by which the orator sought to
heighten the effect of what he had said.
Every one, who makes use of this rhetori-
cal figure, ought to remember the simple
and just remark of Boileau:
Tout ce qu'on dit de trop est fade et rebutant.
AMPLITUDE, in astronomy; the dis-
tance of any celestial body, or other
object (when referred by a secondary
circle to the horizon), from the east or
west points; the complement to the am-
plitude, or the distance from the north or
south point, is called the azimuth.—Im-
plitude denotes, also, with reference to
the direction of the magnetic needle, or
compass, the arc of the horizon contained
between the sun or a star, at its rising or
setting, and the magnetical east or west
points of the horizon; or it is the dif-
ference of the rising or setting of the sun
or star from the east or west points of
the compass.-In gunnery, amplitude is
sometimes used for the range of a shell,
or other projectile, from its departure out
of the mouth of the piece to the place
where it falls. Thus the French engi-
neers speak of the amplitude de parabole,
&c.
AMPULLA, in antiquity; a vessel belly-
ing out like a jug, that contained unctions
for the bath; also a vessel for drinking at
table. In ecclesiastical rites, the ampulla
was employed for several purposes, such
as holding the oil for chrismation, conse-
cration, &c., also for anointing monarchs
at their coronation. In England and
France, a vessel of this kind is still in use
for the last-mentioned purpose. The
French ampulla is at Rheims, the arch-
bishop of which performs the coronation
of the French kings. A dove, it is said,
220
AMPULLA-AMSTERDAM.
6
brought this ampulla from heaven for the
baptismal unction of the crafty Clovis I, in
496. In the revolution, this ampulla was
lost; and it is said that a soldier oiled his
boots with the miraculous liquid. On
the late coronation of Charles X, the pub-
lic papers stated that a phial containing
some of this unction had survived the
catastrophe. The ampulla of the Eng-
lish kings, now in use, is an eagle, weigh
ing about 10 ounces, of the purest chased
gold. Having passed through various
hands to the Black Prince, it was by him
deposited in the tower. Henry IV is the
first king who was anointed from it.
(Sec Anointing.)
AMPUTATION, in surgery; that opera-
tion by which a member is separated from
the body according to the rules of the
science. Though the medical art en-
deavors to prevent the necessity of am-
putation, yet many cases arise in which
it is absolutely necessary, in order to
save the life of the patient. It may be
considered as one of the great victories
which science and skill have gained over
barbarism. There is no decisive proof
that Hippocrates ever performed this ope-
ration. A. C. Celsus, who lived under
Tiberius, has left a short description, in
his book De Re Medica, of the mode of
amputating gangrenous limbs. Paulus
Egineta, about eight centuries after-
wards, suggests little improvement. The
Arabians seem to have made little pro-
gress in the art of suppressing the bleed-
ing after the amputation, which was still
the most important desideratum. The
greatest improvements were introduced
by Pari, a French surgeon, in the 16th
century, since whose time amputation has
been performed with much skill among
all civilized nations, and, in the latest times,
with a boldness at which former ages
would have shuddered, and with great
precision and success. The late wars in
Europe have advanced this branch of the
surgical art, perhaps, more than any for-
mer period, by the number and variety of
the cases requiring amputation, which
they have presented. Increasing knowl-
edge of anatomy has continually increased
the boldness of the operator.
AMRETSIR, i.e. the pool of immortality;
formerly called Chak, a town of Hindos-
tan, in the province of Lahore, the prin-
cipal place of the religious worship of
the Seiks. It is, on account of its favor-
able situation between Cabul and Delhi,
Cashmere and the Deccan, a place of
great trade; but its chief importance is
derived from the sacred pond, constructed
by Ram Dass (one of the earlier pontiffs
of the Seik faith), in which the Seiks and
other Hindoo tribes immerse themselves,
that they may be purified from all sin.
This holy basin is 135 paces square, built
of brick, having in its centre a temple
dedicated to the Hindoo saint Gooroo
Govind Singh. Under a silken canopy,
in this temple, is deposited the saint's
book of religion and laws, called Grant'h.
The voluntary contributions of pilgrims
and devotees support this place, to which
600 priests are attached.
AMSTERDAM; the chief city of the
Netherlands; lon. 4° 44′ E.; lat. 52°25′ N.;
situated at the mouth of the Amstel,
where it falls into an arm of the sea, called
Yor Wye, 65 miles from Antwerp, 210
miles north-east of Paris. This famous
commercial city, by the constitution of
the Netherlands, the capital of that king-
dom, though not the usual residence of
the royal family, was, at the beginning of
the 13th century, a fishing village in the
possession of the lords of Amstel. About
the middle of that century, it became a
small town, and obtained a municipal
government. In 1296, it was suddenly
attacked and plundered by the neighbor-
ing Kennemers, on account of the par-
ticipation of Gysbert of Amstel in the
murder of the count Floris of Holland,
and Gysbert himself was expelled. In
this way Amsterdam, together with Am-
stelland, came under the rule of the counts
of Holland, who granted the city many
privileges. Amsterdamn soon acquired an
important commerce in the Baltic sea,
and, in the 16th century, was a place of
considerable commerce. The transition
from the bondage of its lords to the state
of subjects of the counts of Holland was
the origin of its prosperity. A second
cause was its deliverance from the Span-
ish dominion. It became, in a short time,
the first commercial city in the United
Provinces. In 1585, after Antwerp had
fallen a second time under the dominion
of Spain, its extensive commerce was
transferred to Amsterdam, and the west-
ern
ern or new part of the city was built.
The city received new accessions in 1593,
1612, 1658. In 1622, it contained 100,000
inhabitants. Its increasing importance
awakened the envy of its neighbors. In
1587, Leicester attempted to take it by
treachery, and prince William II, in 1650,
by surprise. Both attempts were frus-
trated by the prudence of the two burgo-
masters, Hooft and Bicker. The burgo-
masters of Amsterdam then acquired so
much weight in the assembly of the
AMSTERDAM.
states general, that their authority, during
the first 94 years of the 18th century,
rivalled that of the hereditary stadt-holder.
During this period of prosperity, A.
acquired so great wealth, that it surpassed
every other city in Europe. It was the
great market of all the productions of
the East and West, and its harbor was
always full of ships. The fame of Dutch
honesty and frugality increased the flour-
ishing trade of the city. This was ob-
structed, however, by the sand bank be-
fore the Pampus, on account of which
large vessels could not enter without un-
loading part of their cargoes into lighters.
Vessels, moreover, could not sail from the
Zuyder-zee, near the Texel, except with
certain winds. Finally, A. has often
experienced great depression during the
continuance of wars. Even in the glori-
ous period of the 17th century, in 1653,
the war with England did such injury to
its commerce, that 4000 houses in the
city were left unoccupied, and, it is said,
the exchange was overgrown with grass.
Commerce, however, afterwards revived,
and continued, with little diminution,
even during the unquiet period from
1780 to 1794, with the exception of the
time of the English war, from 1781 to
1782. But after the change of govern-
ment in 1795, the trade and wealth of
A. continually diminished. The forced
alliance of Holland with France, which
obliged her to follow the French policy,
against the powers at war with France,
operated to the great disadvantage of A.
Louis Bonaparte endeavored to restore
the trade of Holland by means of grants
and privileges, and even transferred his
residence and the seat of government to
A. in 1808; but the first measure only
irritated Napoleon against Holland, and
the other, though it opened some new
sources of trade, was followed by various
disadvantages. The complete incorpora-
tion of Holland with France, in 1810, en-
tirely annihilated the foreign trade of A.;
and many other measures, as, for instance,
the introduction of the monopoly of to-
bacco and of the droits réunis, as they
were called, were very injurious to the
domestic trade of the city. The revolu-
tion of 1813 restored the business of A.
Since that time, its commerce has in-
creased very considerably. Many of the
long-established houses are very rich, but,
nevertheless, for several reasons, less ac-
tively engaged in trade than the mer-
chants of Antwerp.-Besides the public
buildings, Amsterdam contained, in 1732,
26,385 dwelling-houses, besides a great
221
number of ship-yards, manufactories of
ropes, cordage, tobacco, &c. The num-
ber of inhabitants was, in 1796, 217,000,
in 1808, 208,000, among whom were
20,000 Jews. In 1820, however, there
were but 180,000, of whom 90,000 were
Calvinists, 38,000 Catholics, and 30,000
Lutherans. From comparing the censuses,
it appears that the proportion of the male
to the female sex is about 4 to 5. In 1817,
the number of the poor of all degrees
amounted to 39,000. On account of the
lowness of the site of the city, the greater
part of it is built on piles. A. affords a
splendid prospect from the harbor by rea-
son of its numerous steeples; the view
from the Amstel bridge is also very fine.
In earlier times, A. was a strong fortress.
Its 26 bastions, and its means of inun-
dating the country, made even Louis
XIV cautious of attacking it; but, in
1787, when threatened by a Prussian
army of only moderate size, it was
obliged to surrender after the capture of
the fortified villages in the vicinity. In
consequence of the changes which have
taken place in the mode of conducting
sieges, A. can be defended only by the
inundation of the surrounding country.
Yet it is said, that, in the last years of the
reign of the ex-king Louis, a plan was
formed for the regular fortification of A.
On the side towards Haarlem, the city is.
at present, protected by the sluice of Half-
wegen, and on the eastern side by the for-
tress of Naarden. Within the semicircle
which the borders of the city describe on
the land side, several canals form many
smaller semicircles, which all open into
the Amstel river, or into the Y, or Wye.
Among the public buildings, the old stadt-
house is particularly famous. The build-
ing began under the superintendence of
the architect Jacob van Kampen, after
the pcace of Westphalia, in 1648, which
fixed the independence of the Dutch
republic, and it was finished in 1655.
In the vaults under the stadt-house are
deposited the treasures of the bank of
Amsterdam. This splendid building
stands upon 13,659 piles, is 282 feet long,
235 feet wide, and 116 feet high, without
reckoning the high tower. The interior
of this magnificent building was decorated,
by the Dutch painters and sculptors of
the 17th century, with their master-pieces.
The patriotic Dutch were therefore high-
ly offended, when Louis Bonaparte, in
1808, chose the stadt-house for his resi-
dence, and his attendants and courtiers
occupied the council-rooms of the fathers
of the city. The hall prepared for the
19 *
222
AMSTERDAM.
reception of the throne on this occasion
is probably the finest in Europe. The
magnificent museum of Dutch paintings,
which were exhibited in the stadt-house,
is now transferred to the Trippen-house.
The present king, also, resides in this
palace (the former stadhuis), when he
is at Amsterdam. The public weigh
house, which was opposite to it, was
pulled down under king Louis, in order to
have an open space before the palace,
and was transferred to the western mar-
ket. The magistrates of the city now
assemble in the former royal hall. The
exchange of Amsterdam, which was built
between 1608 and 1613, rests upon five
vaulted arches, under which the Amstel
flows into the Damrack water; it is 250
feet long and 140 feet wide. The East
India house, of which a whole wing, used
for granaries, lately tumbled down, the
national ship-yard, and the magazine
upon the Katenburg, at the Y, are at
present used for other purposes of com-
inerce and navigation. The beautiful
Trippen-house, where the academy of
arts and sciences assembles, is now a
temple of the arts and sciences. The soci-
ety felix meritis (established by the mer-
chants), which promotes the study of
every thing that can occupy and ennoble
the mind; the society doctrina el amicitia;
the tot nut van't algemeen, devoted to the
liberal arts and sciences; the excellent
reading-room; several musical societies;
the Dutch, French and German theatres;
the hortus medicus, belonging to the Athe-
næum illustre; the famous Latin schools;
the many excellent national poets,-prove
the taste of the citizens of A. for science
and learning. Their regard for religion,
charity and order is manifested by the
numerous churches, by the hospital for
the aged, the poor-house and orphan
asylum, the houses of correction, the
navigation school, the many societies for
hurnane objects, and the work-houses of
different descriptions. The churches are
numerous; among them the Dutch Re-
formed have 10, the French 1, the Eng-
lish 1, the Roman Catholics 18, and even
the Greeks and Armenians have a church.
The most splendid is the new church
upon the Damm, in which the pulpit and
organs are master-pieces; here you see
the monuments of the admiral de Ruyter,
of the valiant von Galen, and of the great
poct Vondel; here, also, after so many
storms, the fabric of the state was strength-
ened by the adoption of the constitution,
and by the allegiance sworn to the pres-
ent sovereign, March 29 and 30, 1814. In
the Oude Kerk monuments are erected
to the naval heroes Heemskerk, van der
Zaan, Zweerts and van der Hultz. The
Western Kerk has a handsome steeple.
With so much that is beautiful and great,
and with a trade which affords the means
of support to every industrious man, A.
has, indeed, the disadvantage of a very
damp air, and an offensive, mephitic smell,
which often rises, in summer, from the
canals. It suffers, also, from the want of
good spring-water, and from the inconve-
nience of very high and narrow dwelling-
houses, occasioned by its crowded popu-
lation. The new canal, extending from
its harbor to the extreme point of North
Holland, 26 feet in depth, is of great advan-
tage to A. It removes some of the chief
impediments to the commerce of the city,
viz. the necessity which existed of un-
loading large vessels, before they could
enter the harbor, and of encountering the
passage through the Zuyder-zee, which
was peculiarly difficult with contrary
winds. The shipping of goods to and
from Amsterdam will, therefore, be ef-
feeted in future more promptly and
cheaply. This caual extends from A. to
Niewe Diep. The distance between the
extreme points is 41 English niles; bu:
the canal is about 50 miles and a half
long. The breadth at the surface is 1243
English feet; the breadth at the bottom.
36 feet; the depth, 20 feet and 9 inches.
It passes through a somewhat marshy
country, and touches, besides several vil-
lages, the cities of Purmerend and Alk-
maar. Like the Dutch canals generally,
its level is that of the high tides of the
sea, from which it receives its supply of
water. The only locks which it requires,
of course, are two tide-locks at its extrem-
ities; but there are, also, two sluices with
flood-gates in the intermediate space.
The locks and sluices are double, that is
to say, there are two in the breadth of the
canal. The canal is wide enough to ad-
init of one frigate passing another. The
time spent in tracking vessels from the
Helder to A. is 18 hours.-There is an
excellent account of this city, in a medical
point of view, by D. C. I. Nieuwenhuijs:
Proeve tener geneeskundige planesbeschrij-
ving der Stad Amsterdam, Amst., 1820.
4 vols.
AMSTERDAM; an island of the South
Pacific ocean, in lon. 76° 54′ E., and lat.
38° 42′ S., first visited by van Vlaming,
a Dutch navigator, in 1697, and explored,
in 1793, by the gentlemen attached to
lord Macartney's embassy to China.
The length of the island, from N. to S., is
AMSTERDAM-ANA.
frantic about the streets.
running a-muck, or a-mock.
223
This is called
AMULET; a piece of stone, metal, or
other substance, marked with certain
figures or characters, which people wear
about them as a protection against dis-
eases and enchantinents. The name, as
well as the thing itself, is derived from
the East. The word comes from the
Arabic hamail (locket, any thing hung
round the neck). The derivation from
the Latin amollire has less probability.
Ainulets serve as a convenient substitute
for the talismans of stone or metal, and
must be thought of more recent origin.
Among the Turks, and many people of
Central Asia, every individual thinks an
amulet necessary to secure him from
harm. They were introduced into Chris-
tian Europe by the Jews. With the an-
cients, c. g., the Egyptians, Greeks, Ro-
upwards of 4 miles; its breadth, from
E. to W., about 2 miles. A fertile, but
very soft and spongy, soil covers the
island, which bears every where unques-
tionable marks of a volcanic origin. Sev-
cral springs of hot water were visited
by the travellers, of which the average
heat is about 212' Falır. The soil is evi-
dently a decomposition of lava, which is
continually spreading a rich mould over
all parts of the island, for the tall, rank
grass that abounds in it.
The putrefac-
tion of vegetable matters mixes with this
Java and with the mouldering ashes, while
the long roots of the grass forin the prin-
cipal tie of the whole. The soil is so light,
that the foot breaks in at every step. Sea-
birds abound on the island. Near the
centre is an area of about 200 yards
square, where the heat of the soil is so
great, as to admit of no vegetation. Dur-
ing the winter months, violent storms pre-mans, they were frequently found. From
vail in A. On the shores of the island,
immense numbers of seals were formerly
taken, of the phocourzina species. The
people of the U. S. have taken more of
these useful animals here than any other
nation. They are altogether the most ac-
tive seal-hunters in the South sea. The
number of seals on the island is now very
much less than when it was first visited,
as is always the case in places where the
animal is actively hunted. At first it was
inmense, as it usually is in undisturbed
resorts of this creature. The American
vessels, at present, generally leave a num-
ber of men on the islands frequented by
the seal, and return to take them after
they have had time to collect a sufficient
number of skins. The neighborhood of
A. abounds in fish.
AMSTERDAM; a small, uninhabited isl
and in the North sea, near the N. W.
coast of Spitzbergen. Dutch vessels re-
sort thither towards the end of their
whale-fishery. Lon. 9° 40′ E.; lat. 79°
40′ N.
AMSTERDAM; an island in the South
sea. (See Tonguiaboo.)
AMSTERDAM ISLAND; a small island on
the N. W. coast of Ceylon, 5 miles long
and 2 in breadth; lon. 8° 1' E.; lat. 9°
50' N.
AMSTERDAM, New; a town in Dutch
Guiana, situated between the rivers Ber-
bice and Canje; lon. 57° 15′ W.; lat. 6°
20 N. It is the seat of the government
of Berbice.
AMUCK, OF AMOK; an Indian term for
slaughter, and an exclamation of certain
Batavian slaves, who, when irritated, in-
toxicate themselves with opium, and run
the pagans they were introduced among
the Basilidians. Their amulets were
stones with the word bruxas (q. v.)
engraved on them. The Jews had
many superstitious notions about amu-
lets. Many Christians of the first cen-
tury wore amulets, which were marked
with a fish, as a symbol of the Redeemer.
To the Christian divines, the use of amu-
lets was interdicted, by the council of
Laodicea, under penalty of dismission
from office. With the spread of Arabi-
an science and astrology, the astrological
amulets of the Arabians, the talismans
(q. v.), came into use in the West. The
small images of saints, which the Nea-
politan seamen, and almost all the Greeks,
wear about them, are nothing but amulets.
The Turks, the Chinese, the people of
Thibet, and many other nations, have yet
great confidence in them.
AMUSETTE; a small 1 pound cannon,
employed in war, in mountainous regions
Lightness and a great facility of movement
are its advantages. Marshal Saxe recom-
mends the A. strongly. The count of
Lippe Bückeburg improved it essentially,
and introduced it among the Portuguese
infantry. Each platoon had an A. drawn
and served by 5 men. The duke of Wei-
mar, also, in 1798, gave his riflemen anu-
settes. At present they are out of use in
all armies.
AMYGDALUS. (See Almond.)
AMYOT, James; an old French writer,
who died 1593, at the age of 79. He was
bishop of Auxerre, and is known even in
foreign countries, by his much esteemed
translations of Plutarch and Diodorus.
ANA. This termination, derived from
224
ANA-ANABAPTISTS.
the Latin, when connected with a proper
name, is used to denote collections of the
sayings of distinguished men, or of anec-
dotes relating to them. These collections
are numerous; and compilations of the
same character were known even among
the Greeks. The Memorabilia of Xeno-
phon, and the Lives of the Philosophers
by Diogenes Laërtius, are full of anec-
dotes and sayings. The Attic Nights of
Aulus Gellius contain many observations
and repartees of distinguished persons in
Rome. Thus, according to Quinctilian,
a freed man of Cicero left a whole book
of his master's jests, and another freed
man of Maecenas the table-talk and wit-
ticisms of this distinguished friend of the
muses. At the time of the restoration of
learning, the sayings of famous men
began to be collected. The Scaligeriana
were the first compilation which ap-
peared under that name. Since that
tune, they have become common, partic-
ularly among the French, who have often
used them merely as a vehicle for dis-
seminating certain opinions under some
famous name.
Among the French col-
lections are the Huctiana, Menagiana, Fol-
tariana, Bonapartiana, Bièvriana, Bruneti-
ana, Pradtiana, &c. Among the English,
such collections are also very common,
e. g., Walpoliana, Baconiana, Parriana,
&c. Selden's Table-talk and Boswell's
Life of Johnson are of a very similar
character, though they have not a similar
title. The Germans make not so much
use of the syllable ana, as their literature
is extremely poor in memoirs and works
of the sort above mentioned, when com-
pared with the English or French. In
some instances, however, they employed it,
e. g., Taubmanniana. The most famous
German work of this kind is Luther's
Table-talk (Tischreden). Collections of a
different kind, likewise, bear a title ter-
minating in ana, e. g., Parisiana, Revolu-
tiana, Polissoniana, Ivrogniana. There
even exists a work entitled Encyclopedia-
na, ou Dictionnaire Encyclopédique dès ana,
by la Combe, Paris, 1791, 4to. M. Peig-
not has published a Bibliographie raison-
née des ana. (See his Répertoire de Bib-
liographies speciales, curieuses et instruc-
tives, Paris, Renouard, 1810, 8vo.)-If it
is allowable to add the syllable and to
proper nouns, still such words as Ency-
clopediana, Literariana, &c., will always
be barbarous and offensive to a cultivated
ear.
ANA SANTA; the name of three desert
islands in the Atlantic ocean, W. lon. 43°
44', S. lat. 2º 30, near the coast of Bra-
zil, in the bay of San Luis de Masanasis ;
also of an island on the coast of the prov-
ince of Maranham, called Dos Macomes
by the Portuguese, and of another in the
straits of Magellan, on the northern coast,
near the entrance of the South sea. Also
the name of several points.
7
ANABAPTISTS (from the Greek aru and
punti); a name given to a Christian
sect by their adversaries, because they
objected to infant baptism; they baptized
again those who joined their sect, and
hence their name. It is certain that in-
fant baptisin was not customary in the
carlicst period of the Christian church.
(See Baptism.) In the middle ages, it
was declared invalid by many dissenting
parties, as the Petrobusians, Catharists,
Picards, &c.; but in the prevailing
church, for important reasons, it was
retained. In 1521, when the progress of
the reformation had opened the way to
new opinions, some enemics of infant
baptism appeared at Zwickau, in Saxony,
united partially with the rebels in the
peasants' war, and were completely sep-
arated, by their lawless fanaticism, froin
the Protestant cause. (See Münster.)
With the baptism of adults, performed
even by layinen, they connected princi-
ples subversive of all religious and civil
order. They acknowledged neither ce-
clesiastical or civil authority; and at-
tempted to bring about a perfect equality
of all Christians. The vast increase of
their adhercuts from the year 1524, espe-
cially among the common people on the
Rhine, in Westphalia, Holstein, Switzer-
land, and the Netherlands, was soon met by
severe measures on the part of the magis
trates. After 1525, imperial and ecclesias-
tical decrees were issued against the An-
abaptists in Germany, and many were
put to death, after being urged to recant.
The same happened in Switzerland and
in the Netherlands. Still, new associu-
tions of this sect were perpetually formed
by itinerant prophets and teachers; and
their doctrines consisted of the following
propositions: "Impiety prevails every
where. It is therefore necessary that a
new family of holy persons should be
founded, enjoying, without distinction of
sex, the gift of prophecy and skill to in-
terpret divine revelations. Hence they
need no learning; for the internal word
is more than the outward expression.
No Christian must be suffered to engage
in a legal process, to hold a civil office, to
take an oath, or to hold any private prop-
erty; but all things must be in common."
With such sentiments, John Bockhold, or
ANABAPTISTS.
Bockelson, a tailor of Leyden, aged 26,
and John Matthias, or Matthiesen, a baker
of Harlem, came, in 1533, to Münster in
Westphalia, a city which had adopted the
doctrines of the reformnation. Here they
soon gained over a portion of the excited
populace, and, among the rest, Rothmann,
a Protestant clergyman, and the counsellor
Knipperdolling. The magistrates in vain
excluded them from the churches. They
obtained possession of the council-house
by violence. Their numbers daily in-
creased, and, towards the end of the year,
they extorted a treaty, securing the reli-
gious liberty of both parties. Being
strengthened by the accession of the
restless spirits of the adjacent cities, they
soon made themselves masters of the
town by force, and expelled their adver-
saries. Matthiesen came forward as their
prophet, and persuaded the people to
devote their gold and silver and mova-
ble property to the common use, and to
burn all their books but the Bible. But
in a sally against the bishop of Müuster,
who had laid siege to the city, he lost his
life. He was succeeded in the prophetic
office by Bockhold and Knipperdolling.
The churches were destroyed, and twelve
judges were set over the tribes, as in Is-
rael; but even this form of government
was soon abolished, and Bockhold, under
the name of John of Loyfen, raised himself
to the dignity of king of New Zion (so the
Anabaptists of Münster styled their king-
dom), and caused himself to be formally
crowned. From this period (1534), Mün-
ster was a theatre of all the excesses of
fanaticism, lust, and cruelty. The intro-
duction of polygamy, and the neglect of
civil order, concealed from the infatuated
people the avarice and madness of the
young tyrant, and the daily increase of
danger from abroad. Bockhold lived in
princely luxury and magnificence; he
sent out seditious proclamations against
neighboring rulers, against the pope and
Luther; he threatened to destroy with
his mob all who differed in opinion from
him, made himself an object of terror to
his subjects by frequent exccutions, and,
while famine and pestilence raged in the
city, persuaded the wretched, deluded in-
habitants to a stubborn resistance of their
hesicgers. The city was at last taken, June
24, 1535, by treachery, though not without
a brave defence, in which Rothmann and
others were killed, and the kingdom of the
Anabaptists destroyed by the execution of
the chief men. Bockhold and two of his
most active companions, Knipperdolling
and Krechting, were tortured to death
225
with red-hot pincers, and then hung up
in iron cages on St. Lambert's steeple at
Münster, as a terror to all rebels.-In the
mean time, some of the 26 apostles, who
were sent out by Bockhold to extend the
limits of his kingdom, had been successful
in various places, and many independent
teachers, who preached the same doctrines,
continued active in the work of founding
a new empire of pure Christians, and
propagating their visions and revelations
in the countries above-mentioned. It is
true that they rejected the practice of pol-
ygamy, community of goods, and intol-
crance towards those of different opin-
ions, which had prevailed in Münster;
but they enjoined upon their adherents
the other doctrines of the early Anabap-
tists, and certain heretical opinions in
regard to the humanity of Christ, oc-
casioned by the controversies of that
day about the sacrament.
The most
celebrated of these Anabaptist prophets
were Melchior Hoffinann and David Joris.
The former, a furrier from Swabia, first
appeared as a teacher in Kiel, in 1527;
afterwards, in 1529, in Emden; and final-
ly in Strasburg, where, in 1510, he died
in prison. He formed, chiefly by his mag-
nificent promises of a future elevation of
himself and his disciples, a peculiar sect,
whose scattered members retained the
name of Hoffmannists, in Germany. till
their remains were lost among the Ana-
baptists. They have ever owned that
Hoffmann recanted before his death. Da-
vid Joris, or George, a glass-painter of
Delft, born 1501, and re-baptized in 1534,
showed more depth of mind and warmth of
imagination in his various works. Amidst
the confusion of ideas, which prevails in
them, they dazzle by their elevation and
fervor. In his endeavors to unite the dis-
cordant parties of the Anabaptists, he col-
lected a party of quiet adherents in the
country, who studied his works (as the
Gichtelians did those of Bohme), especially
his book of miracles, which appeared at
Deventer in 1542, and revered him as a kind
of new Messiah. Unsettled in his opinions,
he travelled a long time from place to place,
till, at last, to avoid persecution, in 1554,
he became a citizen of Bale, under the
name of John of Bruges. In 1556, after
an honorable life, he died there, among
the Calvinists. In 1559, his long-con-
cealed heresy was first made public. Ho
was accused, though without much rea-
son, of profligate doctrines and conduct,
and the council of Bale condemned him,
and ordered his body to be burnt. A
friend of Joris was Nicholas, the founder
226
ANABAPTISTS.
of the Familists, who do not belong, how-
ever, to the Anabaptists. After the dis-
turbances at Münster, an opinion slowly
gained ground among the Protestants, that
no heretic could be punished with death
unless he was guilty of exciting disturb-
ances; hence these and similar parties of
separatists were permitted to remain un-
molested, provided they continued quiet.
But, till after the middle of the 16th cen-
tury, prophets were constantly rising up
among the Anabaptists, and subverting
civil order. Of the heretics executed by
Alva in the Spanish Netherlands, a large
proportion were Anabaptists. In fact,
they were never worthy of toleration,
till quiet and good order were intro-
duced among them. The institutions of
Menno were the first occasion of this
change. This judicious man, about the
Iniddle of the 16th century, united them
in regular societies, which formed an in-
dependent church, under the name of
Mennonites, Mennists, or Anabaptists, as
they are still called in the north of Ger-
many and in Holland, imitating strictly
the peculiarities of the primitive apostoli-
cal church. But he could not prevent
the division, which took place among
them as early as 1554, in regard to the
degree of severity necessary in case of
excommunication. The stricter party
punished every individual transgression
against morality and church order with
excommunication, and carried their se-
verity so far that near relations, even
husbands and wives, were obliged to re-
nounce all connexion with one another,
in case of such punishment. The more
noderate party resorted to excommuni-
cation only in case of long-continued dis-
obedience to the commands of the Holy
Scriptures. Moreover, they never inflicted
this punishment till after various kinds of
warnings and reproofs (gradus admoni-
tionis), and even then it did not extend
beyond the relation of the individual
excommunicated with the church. As
neither party would yield, and the strict
often excluded the moderate from their
communion, the Anabaptists have contin-
ued, to this day, divided into two parties.
The moderate party were called Water-
landers, because their carliest congrega-„
tions lived in the Waterland, on the Pam-
pus in the north of Holland, and in
Franeker. By the strict party they were
styled the Gross, and even the Dung-carts,
as a designation of their inferior purity.
This latter party, who consisted of the
Frieslanders in and about Emden, Flem-
ish refugees (Flemingians), and Germans,
called themselves the Pure (Die Feinen),
i.e. the Blessed, the Strict. Menno did not
wholly adopt the excessive rigor of the
Pure, nor yet would he abandon the
Frieslanders, among whom he taught.
Immediately after his death, in 1565, a
contest broke out among the Pure, and
they divided into three parties. Of these,
the Flemingians were more severe and
fanatical than the rest, and maintained
the utmost severity in regard to excom-
munication; the Frieslanders did not in-
deed exercise this discipline on wholo
congregations, nor extend the curse, in
the case of individuals, to the destruction
of their family relations; the Germans
were distinguished from the Frieslanders
only by more carefully avoiding all luxury.
To the party of these Germans belonged
those who were settled in Holstein, Prus-
sia, Dantzic, the Palatinate of the Rhine,
Juliers, Alsace, and Switzerland, and the
numerous Anabaptists, who inhabited Mo-
ravia till the 30 years' war. In 1591, they
were united again with the Frieslanders
by means of the concept of Cologne, so
called, or articles of faith, chiefly because
their separation was injurious to com-
merce, in which the Anabaptists soon
became much engaged. With these two
sects, thus connected, after many attempts
towards reconciliation and friendship, the
strictest Anabaptists at length joined them-
selves, and certain articles of faith were
adopted by the whole body. But these ar-
rangements were insufficient to check the
bitterness with which they persecuted onc
another. Soon after the union of the Fries-
landers with the Germans, a large number
of malcontents left the former, because
they were displeased with this connexion
and the laxness of the church discipline.
Under Jan Jacob, their teacher, they consti-
tuted a separate church on the most rigid
principles. They were not numerous.
During the negotiations of the Flemin-
gians with the Frieslanders, there appear-
ed among the former a Friesland peasant,
Uke-Wallis, who held the opinion that
Judas and the high-priests were blessed,
because in the murder of Jesus they had
executed the designs of God. In 1637,
he collected a party of individuals, who
adopted this opinion, but still remained
distinct from the other Anabaptists, on
account of their aversion to the excessive
strictness of the ancient Flemingians.
The Uke-Wallists, or Gröningenists, so
called because the sect arose in the terri-
tory of Gröningen, received the malcon-
tents of the united parties, and therefore
called themselves emphatically the an-
ANABAPTISTS.
cient Flemingians, or the ancient Fries-
landers; but, by their adversaries, they
were denominated the Dompelers, i. e.
Dippers, because some of their churches
used, in baptism, the three-fold immersion
of the whole body. The other Anabap-
tists, on the contrary, regarded the sprin-
kling of the head as sufficient. Beyond
Friesland, though not numerous, they
spread to Lithuania and Dantzic. The
Anabaptists in Galicia, a part of the an-
cient Moravia, who were divided, on ac-
count of their dress, into Buttoners (those
who buttoned their clothes) and Pinners
(those who used wire pins instead of but-
tons, and wore long beards), and compre-
hended about 24 families of the simple
country-people, agreed with the Uke-Wal-
lists in maintaining the ancient doctrines
and strict exercise of excommunication,
and were distinguished for purity of mor-
als. The ancient Flemingians, or the
strictest sect of Anabaptists, persevere
firmly in the ancient doctrines and prac-
tices of the sect. They reject the word
person, in the doctrine of the Trinity,
and explain the purity of the human
nature in Christ, according to Menuo, by
saying, that he was created out of nothing
by God, in the womb of Mary, although
he was nourished by the blood of the
mother. They view the baptism of their
own party as alone valid, and practise
the washing of feet, as an act commanded
by Christ, not only towards travellers of
their own party, like the Pure, but even
in religious assemblies. Like Anabap-
tists in general, they view as improper,
oaths, the discharge of civil offices, and
all defence of property, liberty or life,
which requires violence against their
fellow-men. Hence they were formerly
called, without distinction, the unarmed
Christians. Only in this particular, and in
church-discipline, are the ancient Flem-
ingians more strict than the other Ana-
baptists. Immorality, the bearing of
arms, marriage with a person out of their
church, extravagance in dress or furni-
ture, they punish by excommunication,
without gradus admonitionis, and extend
their discipline to domestic life. Those of
Dantzic excluded persons who had their
portraits painted, as a punishment for
their vanity. In general, they strive to
imitate, with the utmost exactness, the
simplicity and purity, and the democrat-
ic government, of the carliest apostolic
church, the restoration of which was
originally the object of every Anabaptist.
Hence they appoint their teachers by a
vote of the whole church, forbid them to
227
enjoy any political office, and place but
little value on learning. In modern times,
it is true, they have gradually remitted
their severity, and given up, in particular,
the rebaptism of proselytes from other
Anabaptist sects, while Christians, who
have only been baptized in infancy, are
admitted into any sect of the Anabaptists
only after rebaptism. The Flemingians,
Frieslanders and Germans, who had uni-
ted, 1649, and at first belonged also to the
Pure, gradually sided with the moderate
party, with which they are now reckoned.
A division took place in the general
church of the united Waterlanders, Flem-
ingians, Frieslanders and Germans, in
166-1, on account of the favor with which
a part of them regarded the doctrines of
the Remonstrants. Galenus Abrahams-
sohn, of Haen, a learned physician and
teacher of the Anabaptists, of a gentle dis-
position and distinguished talents, was the
leader of this new party, which was called,
after him, the sect of the Galenists. He
maintained that sound doctrine is less de-
cisive of Christian worth than a pious life;
and, therefore, church-communion should
be refused to no virtuous person, believing
in the Scriptures. But he betrayed, by
these opinions, his Socinian views of
Christ and the Holy Ghost. Samuel
Apostool (also a physician and teacher of
the church) and the orthodox party in it,
declared themselves opposed to such in-
novations, and determined to maintain
their ancient faith and discipline.-Be-
sides the branches of the ancient Flem-
ingians, or the proper Pure, described
above, there are now two leading parties
of Anabaptists,-the Apostoolians, who,
from their attachment to the ancient con-
fessions, founded on the doctrines of
Menno, are called Mennonites, in a more
limited use of that word; and the Galen-
ists, who are likewise styled Remonstrants
and Arminian Baptists, after Arminius,
the founder of the Remonstrants. The
Mennonites, as they belong to the mod-
erate party, no longer maintain Men-
no's doctrine of the creation of Christ in
the womb of Mary; they rebaptize no
proselyte, and punish none but gross
crimes with excommunication, and that
not without previous warning. They do
not require church-members utterly to
avoid the excommunicated. They care-
fully prohibit oaths, military service, and
the holding of civil offices. The confes-
sion of faith of the true Mennonites, com-
posed by Cornelius Riss, one of their
teachers, and published in German, at
Hamburg, in 1776, corresponds, in almost
228
ANABAPTISTS-ANACHORETS.
every point, with the doctrines of the Cal-
vinist church.-The Remonstrants have
departed the most widely from the faith
and order of the ancient Anabaptists.
They reject all symbolical books, and
permit the most unrestrained reading;
hence they have among them many So-
cinians. They tolerate, in the bosom of
the church, those of a different faith, and
receive Christians of all creeds, but only
in a few congregations without rebaptism.
They consider the Pure and Mennonites
as brethren; seldom exclude members,
except from the sacrament, and this not
so frequently as the latter parties; permit
military service, and the discharge of
civil offices, and even an oath of testimo-
ny, and prohibit only the oath of promise.
They allow of learning, and have erected
a seminary at Amsterdam for the educa-
tion of ministers, to which young men of
the Mennonite party are also admitted.
In Holland, the Anabaptists obtained tol-
eration under William I, and complete re-
ligious liberty in 1626. There are now in
that country 131 churches, and 183 teach-
ers of all the parties of Anabaptists, of
whom the majority belong to the Remon-
strants, about one third to the Mennonites,
and a few small congregations to the Pure.
The Anabaptists in Germany, where they
are most numerous, on the banks of the
Rhine, in East Prussia, Switzerland, Al-
sace and Lorraine, consider themselves
proper Mennonites. In the religious wor-
ship of all these parties, there is but a
trifling difference from the forms of the
Protestant service; but they more nearly
resemble the Calvinists than the Luther-
ans. The Pure have elders or bishops
who administer the sacraments, ministers
who preach, and deacons or almoners.
All these officers are chosen by the vote
of the churches. The Mennonites have
ministers or deacons, of whom the former
are the proper pastors, and the latter only
exhorters or preachers; but both are cho-
sen by the ecclesiastical council or pres-
bytery. The Remonstrants pursue a sim-
ilar course.
In general, the Anabaptists
still deserve the praise formerly bestowed
upon them, of diligence, industry, order
and purity of morals. Many of them,
however, have become so accustomed to
the manners of the world, that the pecu-
liarities of this sect have gradually worn
away, and the sect itself seems hastening
to decay. The Baptists (q. v.) in Eng-
land form a distinct sect, without any
connexion with the successors of the an-
cient Anabaptists here described.
ANACHARSIS THE YOUNGER, a Scythian,
and brother of the king Saulus, was a
lover of wisdom and of the sciences, and
esteemed one of the seven wise men of
Greece. The love of knowledge induced
him to leave his barbarous country, and
travel among the more civilized nations.
In the time of Solon, he visited Athens,
from whence he proceeded to other coun-
tries. After his return, the king put him
to death, in order to prevent the introduc-
tion of the effeminate manners and wor-
ship of the Greeks, which was attempted
by A. (See Voyage du jeune Anacharsis,
par Barthélémi; see also the translation,
Travels of Anacharsis the Younger.)
ANACHORETS, or ANCHORETS, in ecclesi-
astical history, were a celebrated class of
religious persons, who generally passed
their lives in cells, from which they never
removed. Their habitations were, in
many instances, entirely separated from
the abodes of other men, sometimes in the
depth of wildernesses, in pits or caverns;
at other times, several of these individu-
uls fixed their habitations in the vicinity
of each other, when their cells were
called by the collective name of laura;
but they always lived personally separate.
Thus the laura was distinguished from
the cœnobium or convent, where the
monks lived in society on a common
stock; and the anachoret differed from a
hermit, although his abode was frequently
called a hermitage, inasmuch as the latter
ranged at liberty, while the former rarely,
and, in many instances, never, quitted his
cell. But a couvent was sometimes sur-
rounded by a laura, to which the more
devout or the more idle of the monks
would ultimately retire. Paul the Hermit
is said to have been the first person who
devoted himself to this kind of solitude.
In all ages and in all countries, retire-
ment from the world has been considered
as facilitating the attainment of a virtuous
life, as adding strength to strong charac-
ters, and enabling the mind to follow out
great ideas without interruption. The
prophets prepared themselves in solitudo
for their tasks; the Pythagoreans, Stoics,
Cynics and Platonists recommend the
self-denial and the quiet happiness of tho
solitary sage. Vasari calls solitude tho
delight and school of great minds.
many parts of the East, where a sombro
religion throws over life a melancholy
shade, it has been thought, from time
immemorial, a religious act to quit for-
ever the busy world, and even to add
bodily pain to the melancholy of solitude,
This spirit, which still prevails in the
East, passed over, with many other Ori-
In
ANACHORETS-ANACREON.
229
ental ideas, doctrines and customs, to the
early Christians, and the state of the
'world, in the beginning of the Christian
æra, was peculiarly fitted to favor its
growth. The continual prevalence of
bloody wars and civil commotions, at this
period, must have made retirement and
religious meditation agreeable to men of
quiet and contemplative minds. Accord-
ingly, we find, in the first centuries of
our æra, very eminent and virtuous men
among the anachorets, e. g., St. Augustin.
This spirit, however, as might have been
expected, soon led to fanatical excesses.
All the horrid penances of the East were
introduced among Christian hermits; and
we find, at the close of the 4th century,
Simeon Stylites passing 30 years on the
top of a column, without ever descending
from it, and finally dying there. Though
we must needs pity such unhappy delu-
sion, such a moral insanity, we cannot
help acknowledging the strong power of
will exhibited in this and many other in-
stances of a similar kind. In fact, the
spirit of retirement and self-torment raged
like an epidemic among the early Chris-
tians in the East. In Egypt and Syria,
where Christianity became blended with
the Grecian philosophy, and strongly ting-
ed with the peculiar notions of the East,
the anachorets were most numerous; and
from those who lived in cells, in the vicin-
ity of a church (such as Moore describes in
the Epicurean), the convents of a later
period sprung, which were filled with in-
mates anxious to escape from the tumult
and bloodshed, which marked the begin-
ning of the middle ages. Early in the 7th
century, the councils began to lay down
rules for the order of anachorets. The
Trullan canons say "Those who affect
to be anachorets shall first, for 3 years, be
confined to a cell in a monastery; and if,
after this, they profess that they persist,
let them be examined by the bishop or
abbot, let them live one year at large,
and, if they still approve of their first
choice, let them be confined to their cell,
and not be permitted to go out of it but by
the consent and after the benediction of
the bishop, in case of great necessity."
Frequently, at this period, the monks of
various abbeys would select from among
them a brother, who was thought to be
most exemplary in his profession, and
devote him to entire scclusion, as an
honor, and to give him the greater oppor-ed on him his friendship. Here A. com-
tunity of indulging his religious contem
plations. In Fosbrook's Monachism, (4to.,
1817), the ceremony by which an anacho-
ret was consecrated to seclusion from the
20
world is described at length. The cells
in which the anachorets lived were, ac-
cording to some rules, only 12 feet square,
of stone, with 3 windows. The door was
locked upon the anachoret, and often
walled up. The cell which is said to
have been occupied by St. Dunstan, at
Glastonbury, was, according to Osborn,
in his life of that monk, not more than 5
feet long, 24 fect broad, and barely the
height of a man. Here the recluse passed
his time in ingenious self-torture; e. g. in
cternal silence, heavy chains, severe fla-
gellations, singing psalms in cold water
during winter nights, &c. Tantum relli-
gio potuit suadere malorum! This species
of devotion, originally introduced, as we
have said, from the warin climate of the
East, found many more adherents in the
south of Europe than in the north. With
the revival of science, and the consequent
diffusion of more liberal views, the strict-
est kind of anachorets have almost en-
tirely disappeared. Few men now retire
to any seclusion more strict than that of
a convent. Some persons, who pass a
solitary life in the neighborhood of Rome,
call themselves anchorites; but in India,
the practice still prevails in all its severity.
VOL. 1.
ANACLETUS; two popes of this name.
The first is said to have suffered death as
a martyr, A. D. 91. All the other stories
respecting him, c. g., that he divided
Rome into 25 parishes, are uncertain.-
The second, the grandson of a baptized
Jew, at first called Peter de Leon, was a
monk in Clugny, a cardinal and papal
legate in France and England, and, in
1130, competitor for the papal chair,
against Innocent II. Rome, Milan and
Sicily were on his side, and Roger of
Sicily received from him the royal title.
He also maintained himself against Lo-
thaire II, and died 1138.
ANACOLUTHON, in grammar and rhet-
orie; a want of coherency. This often
arises from want of attention on the part
of an orator or author. Such an omnis-
sion may proceed from passionate feel-
ing, and the anacoluthon may then be-
come a beauty. Many anacolutha are
peculiar to certain languages.
ANACREON, whom the Greeks esteem
one of their 9 greatest lyric poets, was
born at Teos, in Ionia, and flourished
about 500 B. C. Polycrates, king of Sa-
mos, invited him to his court, and bestow-
posed his songs, inspired by wine and
love. After the death of his protector,
he went to Athens, where he met with
the most distinguished reception from
230
ANACREON-ANALECTA.
Hipparchus. The fall of the latter drove
him from Athens, and, probably, he re-
turned to Teos. But when Ionia revolted
from Darius, he fled to Abdera, where he
passed a gay and happy old age, and dicd
in his 85th year. According to tradition,
he was choked by a grape-stone. The
city of Teos put his likeness upon its
coins; his statue was placed on the Acrop-
olis, in Athens, and he was held in hon-
or throughout Greece. Only a small part
of his works has come down to us. Of 5
books, there are 68 poems remaining,
under the name of A. Among these, crit-
icism acknowledges but few as genuine.
Those generally believed to be A.'s are
models of delicate grace, simplicity and
ease. The difficulty of attaining these
excellences is proved by numberless
unsuccessful imitations, unworthy of the
name of Anacreontics. The measure in
which A. composed his poems, and which
is called after him, is commonly divided
into 3 iambuses, with a cæsura. But,
according to Hermann, it consists of the
Ionic a majore, with the anacrusis:
Among the best editions are that of Fi-
scher (Leipsic, 1793), and that of Brunck
(Strasburg, 1786, last edition). The latest
are that of Moebius, 1810, and that of
Mehlhorn, 1825.
ANADYOMENE (Greck; she who comes
forth); a name given to Venus, when
she was represented as rising from the
sea. Apelles painted her rising from the
waves, and, according to some writers,
Campaspe, the mistress of Alexander,
according to others, the famous courtesan
Phryne, served him as a model. Of the
latter it is related, that she threw off her
clothes, at a feast in honor of Neptune at
Eleusis, in presence of many spectators,
loosened her hair, and bathed in the sea,
in order to give the painter a lively idea
of the Venus Anadyomene. In the reign
of Augustus, this picture was brought to
Rome. Antipater of Sidon, in the An-
thology, and also other poets, have cele-
brated its beauty.
ANAGNOSTA, OF ANAGNOSTES, in antiqui-
ty; a kind of literary servant, whose chief
business it was to read to his master
during meals. They are first mentioned
by Cicero. Atticus, according to Corn.
Nepos, always had an anaguostes to read
to him at supper.
In many convents,
one of the monks still reads aloud, while
the others take their meal. Charle-
magne, too, hcard reading during dinner
and supper, generally on historical sub-
jects.
ANAGOGY (from the Greek ùr and
y); one of the various modes of inter-
preting the text of the Bible.-To explain
anagogically means, to apply the literal
sense of the text to heavenly things; for
instance, to treat the Sabbath as a symbol
of the rest in heaven. Of such explana-
tions, frequent use was made in carlier
times, particularly in sermons and reli-
gious books. The bride and the bride-
groom, in Solomon's Song, were and are
often still referred to Christ as the bride-
groom, and to his church as the bride;
and the application of this figure was fre-
quently carried to an indelicate extreme.
Even now, such extravagances of a dis-
ordered imagination seem to be favored,
in many places, by the spirit of mysti-
cism.-Anagogy, in medicine, signifies
the return of humors, or the rejection of
blood from the lungs by the mouth.
ANAGRAM (from the Greek and
ro); in its proper sense, the letters"
of one or several words read backwards;
thus, evil is an anagram of live. In a
wider sense, it means a transposition of
letters, to form a new word or phrase;
for instance, tone and nole. An anagram
is called impure, if, in their transposition,
all the letters of the given words are not
used. In former times, such plays of
ingenuity were popular, and we frequent-
ly find, in old inscriptions, the year and
date indicated by means of an anagram.
An anagram of Berolinum is Lumen orbi.
Calvin, in the title of his Institutions, call-
ed himself Alcuinus, by an anagram of his
name, Calvinus. In a similar way, the
words Revolution Française include the
words Un Corse la finira, and the siguiti-
cant leto. The question of Pilate to
Christ, Quid est veritas? gives the ana-
gram-Est vir qui adest. Dr. Burney's
anagram of Horatio Nelson is one of the
happiest ;-Honor est a Nilo. The name
of William Noy, attorney-general to
Charles I, a laborious lawyer, affords the
anagram, I moyl (toil) in law.
A very
curious work respecting the subject of
this article is, Z. Cilspirii (Christ. Serpilii)
de Anagrammatismo Libri ¡¡. quorum prior
Theoriam, posterior Anagrammatographos
celebriores, cum Appen lice selectorum Ana-
grammatum exhibet; Ratisbonæ, 1713, in
8vo.
ANALECTA (from the Greek arabéym, I
gather); extracts from different works;
e. g., analecta of philosophy, of history and
of literature. A periodical of the famous
philologist, Wolf, was called Analecta.-
ANALECTA-ANALYSIS.
With the ancients, analecta signified a
servant, whose business it was to gather
up what fell from the tables, at meals, as
the pavements of the Roman floors some-
times were too finely inlaid to admit of
sweeping.
ANALOGY originally denotes a relation,
similarity or agreement of things in cer-
tain respects. The knowledge which
rests merely on this relation is called
analogical. The conclusion deduced from
the similarity of things in certain respects,
that they are similar, also, in other re-
spects, is called, in logic, an analogical
conclusion, and amounts only to a proba-
bility. This reasoning is applied to the
explanation of authors (analogia interpre-
tationis), and particularly to the interpre-
tation of the Holy Scriptures, in which
consistency of doctrine is taken for grant-
ed (analogia fidei). It is also used in the
application of the laws, to form a judg-
ment, in any particular case, by a com-
parison of former decisions in similar
cases. In practical medicine, it is used
in the application of remedies.-A great
part of the principles of experimental
philosophy are established by inferring a
further uniformity from that which has
been already settled.-In grammar, by
analogy is meant a conformity in the
organization of words.-In mathematics,
it is the similitude of certain proportions.
-Newton gives analogy the second place
amongst his laws of philosophizing, and
may be said to have established some of
the most characteristic parts of his system,
as arising out of the doctrine of gravita-
tion, on its sober and patient use. In fact,
analogical reasoning is essential in induc-
tive philosophy, though it must be used
with caution. The history of philosophy
shows innumerable instances of the wild-
est errors, as well as of the sublimest dis-
coveries arising from its application. The
modern philosophy of Germany has suf-
fered much in point of correctness and
clearness, from several bold speculators,
led away by fancied analogies between
the moral and physical world; though it
cannot be denied, that much of the prog-
ress of that nation in philosophical inves-
tigations is due to the use of the same
instrument.
ANALYSIS, in philosophy; the mode of
resolving a compound idea into its simple
parts, in order to consider them more
distinctly, and arrive at a more precise
knowledge of the whole. It is opposed
to synthesis, by which we combine and
class our perceptions, and contrive ex-
pressions for our thoughts, so as to repre-
231
sent their several divisions, classes and
relations. Analysis is regressive, search-
ing into principles; synthesis is progress-
ive, carrying forward acknowledged
truths to their application.-Analysis, in
mathematics, is, in the widest sense, the
expression and developement of the func-
tions of quantities by calculation. There
are two ways of representing the relations
between quantities, to wit, by construc-
tion, and by calculation. Pure geometry
determines all magnitudes by construc-
tion, i. e., by the mental drawing of lines,
whose intersections give the proposed
quantities; analysis, on the contrary,
makes use of symbolical formulæ, called
equations, to express relations. In this
widest extent of the idea of analysis, alge-
bra, assisted by literal arithmetic, appears
as the first part of the system. Analysis,
in a narrower sense, is distinguished from
algebra, inasmuch as it considers quanti-
ties in a different point of view. While
algebra speaks of the known and un-
known, analysis treats of the unchanging
or constant, and of the changing or vari-
able. The algebraic equation, r+ax
b=0, for example, seeks an expression
for the unknown by means of the
known a and b; but the analytical equa-
tion, y²
a x, expresses the law of the
formation of the variable y, by means of
the variable r, together with the constant
a.-In its application to geometry, anal-
ysis seeks by calculation the geometrical
magnitudes for an assumed or undeter-
mined unit. The analysis of the ancients
was exhibited only in geometry, and
made use only of geometrical assistance,
whereby it is distinguished from the anal-
ysis of the moderns, which, as before said,
extends to all measurable objects, and
expresses in equations the mutual de-
pendence of magnitudes. But analysis
and algebra resemble each other in this,
that both, as is shown more fully in the
article on algebra, reason in a language,
into the expressions of which certain con-
ditions are translated, and then, according
to the rules of the language, are treated
more fully, in order to arrive at the result.
Analysis, when considered in this light,
appears to be the widest extent of the
province of this language. Analysis, in
the more limited sense, is divided into
lower and higher, the bounds of which
run very much into one another, because
many branches of learning are accessible
in both ways. While we comprise in
lower analysis, besides arithmetic and al-
gebra, the doctrines of functions, of series,
combinations, logarithms and curves, we
232
ANALYSIS-ANATHEMA.
comprehend in the higher the differen-
tial and integral calculus, which are also
included in the name infinitesimal calcu-
lus; the first of which the French consid-
er as belonging, in a wider sense, to the
théorie des fonctions analytiques.-A good
account of the ancient analysis is given
by Pappus of Alexandria, a ratheinati-
cian of the 4th century, in his Collection
of Geometrical Problems,* in which there
is also a list of the analytical writings of
the ancients. What progress was made
after the destruction of the Roman em-
pire, particularly by the Arabians, in alge-
braical, and, as interwoven with them,
in analytical inquiries, has been related
in the article on algebra. Newton and
Leibnitz (q. v.) invented the above-men-
tioned infinitesimal calculus. After them,
Euler and the brothers Bernoulli (q. v.)
labored with splendid success for the
further improvement of mathematical
analysis; and, in later times, d'Alem-
bert, Laplace, Lagrange, &c. have raised
it still higher. Hindenburg (q. v.) is the
inventor of the analysis of combinations.
We have not room here to go into de-
tail with respect to the other analytical
doctrines. Euler's Introductio in Analy-
sin Infinitorum,† Lausanne, 1748, 2 vols.
(new ed., Leyden, 1797) still continues
one of the most important works, in re-
gard to the analysis of finite quantities.
In close connexion with this stands the
same author's Institutiones Calculi differ-
entialis, Petersburg, 1755, 4to. Lagrange's
Théorie des Fonctions Analytiques (new
ed., Paris, 1813, 4to.) is, on account of the
depth of its views and its many valuable
applications to geometry and mechanics,
a valuable work for the study of the
connexion between the analysis of finite
quantities, and the so named (though, in-
deed, here considered in a very different
light) calculation of infinities. As this
work cannot be understood without a
good acquaintance with general and very
abstract calculations, we would connect
with it the same author's Leçons sur le
Calcul des Fonctions (new ed., Paris, 1806).
Arbogast's Calcul des Derivations, Stras-
burg, 1800, 4to., is new in its views of the
analysis of finite quantities. The most
excellent of the old works on the integral
calculus is Euler's Institutiones Calculi
Integralis, Petersburg, 1763-1770, 3
mkd g
* There is a Latiu translation of it by Comman-
dinus-Mathemat. Collationes, Commentariis illus.
trale, Bonn, 1659, folio. The Greek text is not
published.
† It has this title on account of the application
which is here made of the idea of the infinite, and
its connexion with the higher analysis.
vols., 4to. The present state of the inte-
gral calculus, after the improvements of
the French analysts, may be learned from
Lacroix's Traité du Calcul différentiel et du
Calcul intégral, Paris, 1797 and seq., 3
vols., 4to. (There has since appeared a
new edition.
new edition.) For beginners, we recom-
mend Pasquicli's Mathematical Analysis,
Leipsic, 1791, and, for more advanced
students, the same author's Elementi
Analyscos sublimioris, Leipsic, 1799, 4to.
Nürnberger's Exposition of the Forma-
tion of all derived Functions, Hamburg,
1821, treats this subject in a new point of
view. For A. in chemistry, see Chemistry.
ANAMORPHOSIS; a perspective projec-
tion of any thing, so that it shall appear
at one point of view deformed; at another,
an exact representation.
ANAPEST. (Sce Rhythm.)
ANANAS, in botany; a species of bro-
melia, commonly called pinc-apple (q. v.),
from the similarity of its shape to the
cones of firs and pines.
ANAPHORA (Greek, drug ogir, repetition);
a rhetorical figure, which consists in the
repetition of the same word or phrase at
the beginning of several successive sen-
tences. A similar repetition at the end
of sentences is called epiphora, or ho-
moiotcleulon. Anaphora is sometimes used
as the general name for both figures; the
former is then called epanaphora. The
anaphora ains to increase the energy of
the phrase, but is often rendered ineflect-
ual by too frequent repetition.
ANASTASIUS I, emperor of the East,
succeeded Zeno, A. D. 491. He distin-
guished himself by his moderation to-
wards different Christian sects, whos
quarrels at that time disturbed the peace
and safety of the Byzantine empire.
Moreover, he repealed a very heavy tax,
called chrysargyrum, and prohibited the
fighting with wild beasts. He died A. D.
518, after a reign of 27 years.-A. II was
another emperor of the East, dethroned
by Theodosius, in 719, and afterwards
put to death.-A., surnamed Bibliotheca-
rius, a Roman abbot, keeper of the Vati-
can library, and one of the most learned
men in the 9th century, assisted, in 829,
at the 4th general council, the acts and
canons of which he translated from the
Greek into Latin. He also composed the
lives of several popes, and other works,
the best edition of which is that of the
Vatican, 4 vols. fol., 1718.
ANATHEMA (Cursed by God) is the form
of excommunication from the church.
Ilence, to pronounce the anathema, or to
anathematize, means, in the Roman Cath-
ANATHEMA-ANATOMY.
olic church, to excommunicate the living
from the church, and the dead from sal-
vation. How important an instrument of
spiritual power the anathema was, in the
hands of the popes, in the middle ages,
how much disorder they gave rise to, and
how little they have been regarded in
modern times, is matter of history. Na-
poleon died in excommunication, and yet
a priest attended him, and the circum-
stance is hardly mentioned.-Originally,
the word was applied to various persons
and things separated from ordinary life
or uses to the will of a real or supposed
deity, a gift hung up in a temple, and
dedicated to some god, a votive offering;
but, as the word is derived from ri9
(to separate), it has been, in later ages, used
for expulsion, curse. The Greek and Ro-
man Catholic churches both make use
of the anathema. In the latter, it can
be pronounced only by a pope, coun-
cil, or some of the superior clergy. The
subject of the anathema is declared an
outcast from the Catholic church, all
Catholics are forbidden to associate with
him, and utter destruction is denounced
against him, both body and soul. The
The
curse is terrible. Mere excommunica-
tion is less severe. The heretic has also
to anathematize his errors. Once in every
Once in every
year, the pope publicly repeats the anath-
ema against all heretics, amongst whom
the Protestants, Luther, &c., are mention
ed. When councils declare any belief
heretical, the declaration is couched in the
following form: Si quis dixerit, &c., anath-
ema sit, which often occurs in the decisions
of the councils. (See Excommunication.)
ANATOMICAL PREPARATIONS. Dead
bodies and parts of bodies, notwithstand-
ing their tendency to decomposition, can
be preserved by art. It is important to
the physician, for the determination of
the medical treatment proper in similar
cases, to preserve the organs, which have
been attacked by diseases, in their diseased
state, and, as a counterpart, the same or-
gan in its sound condition. The ana-
tomical preparations of healthy parts may
serve for instruction in anatomy. Prep-
arations of this sort can be preserved
either by drying them, as is done with
skeletons, or by putting them into liquids,
c. g., alcohol, spirits of turpentine, &c., as
is done with the intestines and the other
soft parts of the body, or by injection.
The injection is used with vessels, the
course and distribution of which are to be
made sensible, and the shape of which is
to be retained. The beginning of the
vessel, c. g., the aorta among the arteries,
233
for
is filled, by means of a syringe, with a
soft, colored mass, which penetrates into
all, even the smallest branches of the ves-
sels, dries them, and makes them visible.
The finest capillary vessels may be thus
made perfectly distinguishable. The in-
fusion usually consists of a mixture of
soap, pitch, oil and turpentine, to which
is added a coloring substance; for in-
stance, red for the arteries, green or blue
for the veins, white for the lymphatic
vessels. For very fine vessels, e.
the absorbing lymphatic vessels, quick-
silver is preferred, on account of its ex-
treme divisibility. Dried preparations are
the bones, cleared of all the soft parts by
boiling, and bleached, or any of the soft
parts, covered with a protecting but trans-
parent varnish; e. g., muscles, intestines,
&c. The quicker the drying of the organs
destined for preparation can be effected,
the better they will be preserved. For
the purpose of preserving them, alcohol
is used; the more colorless, the better,
Spirits of wine, distilled with pepper, or
very strong pimento, are also used, togeth-
er with some muriatic acid. Washing with
acids (lately, pyro-ligneous acid has been
used) gives to the preparation some-
times firniness, and sometimes whiteness.
Washing is particularly necessary with
bones which are in a state of putrefaction.
Muscles are usually tanned; and all that
is in danger of being eaten by worms, or
injured by a damp atmosphere, is covered
with a suitable varnish.
tions treated thus are fixed upon a solid
body, or in a frame. Preparations pre-
served in liquids are usually kept in trans-
parent glasses, hermetically sealed, to
secure them from the destroying influen-
ces of dust, air, humidity, heat, cold, the
sun, insects, &c. Damaged preparations
can seldom be perfectly restored.
The prepara-
ANATOMY (Greck, rien, to dissect);
in
the art of dissection; that of brutes is
frequently called zootomy. Anatomy is a
part of natural history, and is one of the
most important branches of the science
of medicine. The dissection of the hu-
man body was but little practised by the
ancients. The old Egyptians held it in
great abhorrence, and even pursued with
stones those men, who, in embalming the
dead, were obliged to cut open their bod-
ies. The Greeks were prevented by the
principles of their religion from studying
anatomy, since these required them to
bury the bodies of the deceased as soon
as possible. Even in the time of Hippoc-
rates, anatomical knowledge was imper-
feet, and was probably derived from the
20 *
234
ANATOMY.
dissection of animals; the skeleton, how-
ever, was better known. When, in later
times, under the Ptolemies, Alexandria in
Egypt became the seat of the arts and
sciences, anatomy was also brought to
a high degree of perfection, by Heroph-
ilus of Chalcedon, 300 B. C., and by
Erasistratus of Chios. According to the
testimony of Celsus, the former obtained
permission to open living criminals. He
cnriched anatomy with many important
discoveries; e. g., respecting the brain,
the functions of the nerves, the blood-ves-
sels of the mesentery, which go to the
liver, &c. Erasistratus determined many
facts in the construction of the brain with
greater distinctness, and, among other im-
provements, gave to the valves in the vena
cava the names which are yet used. In
later times, the study of anatomy was
again neglected, particularly by the em-
pirics. Galen, educated in Alexandria
(born A. D. 131), collected all the ana-
tomical knowledge of his contemporaries,
and of earlier physicians, but seems not
to have much enriched human anatomy
himself, as he was principally occupied
with the dissection of animals, and only
applied his observations on them to the
structure of the human body. Among the
Arabians, anatomy was not practised; it
was forbidden by their religion. Their
physicians, therefore, took their anatomi-
cal information merely from the writings
of the Greeks, particularly from those of
Galen. Thus anatomy was checked in
its progress for several centuries. Final-
ly, in the fourteenth century, individuals
arose, who, not satisfied with the ana-
tomical instruction of the age, ventured
to make investigations of their own. The
superstitions fear of the dissection of hu-
man corpses, which had hitherto pre-
vailed, appeared to subside by degrees,
when a philosophical spirit gave birth to
more liberty of thought. Mondiui di
Luzzi, professor at Bologna, first publicly
dissected two corpses, in 1315, and soon
afterwards published a description of the
human body, which for a long time was
the common compendium of anatomy,
though many errors were contained in it.
From this time it became customary, in
all universities, to make public dissections
once or twice a year. Anatomy, how-
ever, made but slow progress, since the
dissections were intended only as il-
lustrations of the writings of Galen and
the compendium of Mondini. Montag
nana alone, professor at Padua in the 15th
century, could boast of having performed
14 dissections, which was then a great
number. In the 16th century, there were
many celebrated anatomists, by whose in-
fluence the study of anatomy became
more general. Fallopia, Eustachi, Vesal,
Varol and many others enriched anatomy
with new discoveries. In the 17th cen-
tury, there were likewise many famous
anatomists, and many discoveries were
made; thus Harvey discovered the circu-
lation of the blood, Wirsung the pancre-
atic duct, Schneider the mucus membrane,
&c. In the 18th century, Pacchioni,
Valsalva, Keil, Lancisi, Ruish, Haller,
Boerhaave, Vicq-d'Azir and others dis-
tinguished themselves by their skill in
anatomy. Meckel, Soemmering, Loder,
Reil, Pichat, Rosenmüller, are worthy to
be mentioned as renowned anatomists of
later times. According to the parts of
the body described, the different divisions
of anatomy receive different names; as,
osteology, the description of the bones;
myology, of the muscles; desmology, of
the ligaments and sinews, &c.; splanch-
nology, of the viscera or bowels, in which
are reckoned the lungs, stomach and in-
testines, the liver, spleen, kidneys, bladder,
pancreas, &c. Angiology describes the
vessels through which the liquids in the
human body are conducted, including the
blood-vessels, which are divided into ar-
teries and veins, and the lymphatic vessels,
part of which absorb the chyle from
the bowels, while others are distributed
through the whole body, absorbing the
secreted humors, and carrying them back
into the blood. Neurology describes the
system of the nerves and of the brain;
dermology, of the skin. Comparative
anatomy is the science which compares
the anatomy of different classes or species
of animals; e. g., that of man with quad-
rupeds, or that of fish with quadrupeds.
It is a science which has greatly increased
our knowledge of nature, and affords ono
of the most interesting subjects of study.
Among anatomical labors are particularly
to be mentioned the making and preserving
of anatomical preparations. (q. v.) By pre-
paring, we mean the separating of any
organ, or of an entire system, or of single
parts, from all the other parts of the body.
Thus, for instance, the whole system of
bones, cleared from all the adherent mus-
cles, tendons and other parts, is prepared,
and called the skeleton; so, too, the muscles,
nerves, intestines, their vessels and distribu-
tions are laid open in order to examine their
peculiar construction. These labors re-
quire considerable anatomical knowledge.
ANATOMY OF PLANTS. (Sec Plants, anat-
omy of.)
ANATRON—ANAXIMENES.
ANATRON; the scum which swins upon
the molten glass in the furnace, some-
times called sal vitri, which, when taken
off, melts in the air, and coagulates into
common salt. It is also that salt which
gathers upon the walls of vaults; like-
wise the same with natron. (q. v.) Ana-
tron is also a compound salt, made of
quick-lime, alum, vitriol, common salt
and nitre, used as a flux to promote the
fusion and purification of metals. It is
also used for the terra saracenica.
ANAXAGORAS, one of the principal Ionic
philosophers, born at Clazomene, in Iouia,
in the first year of the 70th Olympiad
(500 B. C.), of rich and respectable parents,
devoted himself to the study of philoso-
phy, under Anaximenes of Miletus, or,
according to some, under Hermotimus,
his countryman. At the age of 20 years,
he set out on his travels, visited Egypt,
and all the countries where the sciences
flourished, and finally settled at Athens.
There he formed an intimacy with Peri-
cles, and numbered among his disciples
the most respectable citizens; e. g., Arche-
laus (the natural son of Perdiccas, king
of Macedonia, who himself reigned 9
years) and Euripides. A profound study
of the natural sciences enabled him to
explain the eclipses of the sun and moon,
earthquakes, and similar phenomena;
but, by the intrigues of his enemies, he
became suspected of blasphemy, and,
in consequence of this accusation, was
obliged to leave Athens, in 431. He
went to Lampsacus, where he died after
three years, 72 years old. The principle
of A. was, "from nothing comes nothing."
He adopted, therefore, the idea of a chaos,
and, as the primary element of all bodies,
a kind of atoms, of the same nature as the
bodies which they formed. These atoms,
in themselves motionless, were, in the be-
ginning, put in motion by another equally
eternal, immaterial, spiritual, elementary
being, which he called Nous (Intelligence).
By this motion, and by the separation of
the dissimilar particles, and the combina-
tion of those of the same nature, the
world was formed; the earthy bodies
sunk down, whilst the æther or fire rose
and spread in the upper regions. The
stars, however, were, according to him,
of earthy materials, and the sun a glowing
mass of stone, about as large as the Pelo-
ponnesus. The milky way he thought
to be, like the rainbow, the reflection of
light. The earth was, according to him,
flat; the moon, a dark, inhabitable body, re-
ceiving its light from the sun; the comets,
wandering stars. He contended that the
235
real existence of things, perceived by our
senses, could not be demonstrably proved,
and considered reason as the source of
truth. On account of this principle, many
have regarded him as the first theist
among the philosophers. Archelaus of
Athens was his disciple.
He
ANAXIMANDER, son of Praxiades, a dis-
ciple of Thales, and an original thinker,
was born at Miletus in the 42d Olympiad
(610 B. C.) His chief study was mathe-
matics. He discovered, or taught, at least,
the inclination of the ecliptic, and de-
termined the solstices and equinoxes, by
means of a dial (gnomon). He first used
figures, to illustrate the propositions of
geometry. He was also the first who
attempted to sketch the outlines of lands
and seas on a globe, and made a celestial
globe, for the explanation of his system
of the universe. Yet his statements are
not to be entirely relied upon. His ideas
concerning the first principle of things are
so obscurely stated, that they cannot well
be ascertained. His system seems to have
been that infinity, To door, is the origin
of all existence, from which all emanates,
and to which every thing returns.
has not, however, defined the nature of
this eternal, incorruptible, original mat-
ter, the parts of which are variable, the
whole unchangeable. The number of
worlds is, according to him, infinite. The
firmament is composed of heat and cold,
the stars of air and fire. The sun occu-
pics the highest place in the heavens, has
a circumference 28 times larger than the
earth, and resembles a cylinder, from
which streams of fire issue. When its
opening is obstructed, it appears eclipsed.
The moon is, according to him, likewise
a cylinder, 19 times larger than the earth;
its inclination produces the phases, its
entire revolution the eclipses. Thunder
and lightning are productions of the
wind, compressed within the clouds. The
earth has the shape of a cylinder, and is
placed in the midst of the universe, where
it remains suspended. He died in the
58th Olympiad (546 B. C.), 64 years of
age.
ANAXIMENES of Miletus flourished
about the 56th Olympiad (556 B. C.) He
was a disciple of Anaximander, from
whose doctrines he, however, deviated.
According to him, the air () is the in-
finite, divine, perpetually active, first prin-
ciple of all things. He taught that the
exterior circumference of the heavens
consisted of earth; that the stars were
solid bodies, surrounded by fire; that the
sun, by whose course alone the seasons
236
ANAXIMENES ANCHOR.
are determined, was flat, as well as the
earth, which rests upon the air. Diog-
enes of Apollonia carried his doctrine
still further.
ANBERT KEND (the cistern of the waters
of life); a celebrated book of the Brah-
mins, wherein the Indian religion and
philosophy are contained. It is divided
into 50 beths or discourses, each consist-
ing of 10 chapters. It has been trans-
lated into Arabic, under the title of Morat
al Maani; i. e., the marrow of intelli-
gence.
ANCESTORS. All nations, in any way
civilized, have paid respect to the memo-
ry of their ancestors. Some have gone
so far as to offer them religious homage.
All the Asiatic nations are proud of a
long line of ancestors. The Bible abounds
in genealogies, and modern travellers state,
that the same pride of descent prevails
among the Arabians, Persians, &c. Men
of rank in the East are frequently enter-
tained with songs in praise of their an-
cestors, a custom which prevailed in
Greece and Rome, and throughout Eu-
rope in the middle ages. Esteem for
parents and ancestors is so natural to all
mankind, that low people, throughout the
world, if they happen to quarrel, as the
readiest means of insulting the opposite
party, attack the honor of his mother, the
honesty of his father, or the general char-
acter of the family from which he is
descended, as the writer has had occasion
to remark in very different countries.
There is hardly any age which does not
furnish many instances, some even in the
shape of political institutions, of an erro-
neous transfer to a man's posterity, of the
honor belonging to himself, by which a
natural and laudable feeling has been
made the source of much injustice, and
moral and political confusion. Another
very common fault, into which mankind
constantly fall, is that of suffering rever-
ence felt for the persons of ancestors
to produce an undue respect for their
knowledge and wisdom,-an error which
arises, perhaps, partly from the idea of age
and experience attached to that of an-
cestors. The age and experience of living
ancestors demand our respect, and the
same feeling is transferred to the dead and
to former ages, which, in point of fact,
were younger and less experienced than
we. It is therefore ridiculous to see a
numerous party, c. g., in France, constant-
ly recommend the example of their an-
cestors (even of those who lived in ages
when hardly any thing in politics was
settled), as the only model to be imitated.
Individuals and whole nations act as if
wisdom belonged only to the dead. The
true feeling of respect to ancestors is that
expressed by a contemporary orator, on
the 200th anniversary of the settlement of
his native city: "Let us not act as they did,
but as they would have acted to-day.".
The Egyptians are known to have paid
particular attention to the bodies of their
deceased relations; but no nation ever
revered their ancestors in such degree as
the Chinese, whom Confucius directed to
offer them sacrifice. Filial love, in fact,
is one of the essential elements of tho
Chinese religion, politics and domestic
life. Sir George Staunton (see his Em-
bassy to China, 3 vols. 8vo.) gives several
instances which support this opinion.
The inhabitants of New England aro
noted for the esteem in which they hold
their ancestors, without, however, being
blind to their faults.
ANCHISES, son of Capys, and great-
grandson of Tros. Venus, captivated by
his beauty, appeared to him on mount
Ida (according to some, near the river
Simois), in the shape of a Phrygian
shepherdess, and bore him Encas. His
son carried him off on his shoulders at
the burning of Troy, and made him tho
companion of his voyage to Italy. Ho
died during the voyage, in Sicily. Ac-
cording to other accounts, Jupiter killed
A. with a thunder-bolt, because, when
excited with wine, he betrayed the secret
of his intimacy with Venus.
ANCHOR, in navigation, is an impor-
taut, strong and heavy instrument of iron,
consisting of a shank having at one end
a ring, to which the cable is fastened, and,
at the other end, two arms or flukes, with
barbs or edges on each side, intended to
be dropped from a ship into the bottom
of the water, to retain her in a convenient
station in a harbor, road or river. Tho
most ancient anchors are said to have
been of stone, and sometimes of wood,
to which a great quantity of lead was
usually fixed. In some places, baskets
full of stones, and sacks filled with sand,
were employed for the same use.
these were let down by cords into tho
sea, and, by their weight, stayed the course
of the ship. Afterwards, they were com-
posed of iron, and furnished with teeth,
which, being fastened to the bottom of
the sca, preserved the vessel inmovable;
whence ddorres and dentes are frequently
taken for anchors in the Greek and Latin
poets. At first, there was only one tooth,
whence anchors were called cipócropoi ;
but, in a short time, the second was added
All
ANCHOR-ANCHOVY.
by Eupalamus, or Anacharsis, the Scyth-
ian philosopher. The anchors with two
teeth were called αμφιβόλοι, Οι αμφίστομοι,
and, from ancient monuments, appear to
have been much the same with those used
at present, only the transverse piece of
wood upon the handles (the stocks) is
wanting in all of them. Every ship had
several anchors, one of which, surpassing
all the rest in bigness and strength, was
peculiarly termed íɛg, or sacra, and was
never used but in extreme danger; whence
sacram anchoram solvere is proverbially
applied to such as are forced to their last
refuge.-Large ships, at the present day,
carry several anchors, with two flukes
each. 1. The sheet anchor is the largest,
and is only used in case of violent storms.
2. Two bower anchors, viz. the best bower
and small bower, so called from their situ-
ation at the bows. 3. The stream anchor,
the kedge, and grappling, or grapnel. The
three last are often used for moving the
ship from place to place, in a harbor or riv-
er. The anchor is said to be a-peak, when
the cable is perpendicular between the
hawse and the anchor; it is said to come
home, when it does not hold the ship; it
is said to be foul, when the cable gets
hitched about the flukes. To shoe an
anchor, is to fix boards upon the flukes, so
that it may hold better in soft bottom.-
Riding at anchor is the state of the vessel
when moored or fixed by the anchor.
Dropping or casting anchor is letting it
down into the sea. Weighing anchor is
raising it from the bottom. The anchor,
as every body knows, is the symbol of
hope.
ANCHORET. (See Anachoret.)
ANCHOVY; a small fish of the clupea or
herring genus, constituting, in Cuvier's
classification, a subgenus, under the title
of engraulis.
The common anchovy
(clupea enchrasicolus, L.) is about a span
long, brownish on the back, with argen-
tine belly and flanks. It differs from the
other herrings in having the ethmoid and
nasal bones prolonged to a point, beneath
which their very small intermaxillaries
are attached; their maxillaries are very
straight and long; the mouth and throat
very wide; both jaws well furnished with
teeth, and the gills more open than in
other species.—The anchovy is found in
the greatest abundance in the Mediter-
ranean, on the coasts of France, England,
and Holland, whither they come in im-
mense shoals, like the larger herrings, for
the purpose of spawning. Nets of 40
fathoms long, and from 25 to 30 feet
wide, are employed to take them; these
237
nets differ in nothing from those com-
inonly used, except in having very small
meshes.-The anchovy fishery, in the
Mediterranean, is begun in the spring,
and continues until the commencement
of summer, and is especially carried on,
in dark nights, by the aid of fires. The
fishermen provide themselves with floats,
upon which a fire of pine-knots is made,
and these are placed, at different dis-
tances, over a very considerable extent
of sea. The anchovies approach these
lights, and collect near them in vast mul-
titudes, when the fishermen silently sur-
round them with their nets, extinguish
the fire, and begin to beat upon the water.
The frightened fish immediately endeavor
to make their escape, and, rushing against
the net, are caught by the meshes, which,
passing over their gills, neither allow
them to advance nor retreat. The fish-
crmen, as soon as the net appears suffi-
ciently full, raise it, and remove the fish,
and go to repeat their operations at the
next light. The Dutch, on their coasts,
make use of a sort of funnel-shaped trap
of reeds, with a net attached to the bot-
tom. This is fastened to a stake, at low-
water, and, at every change of tide, is
visited for the purpose of removing the
anchovies, which generally fill the net.
Nearly all the anchovies caught are im-
mediately salted, because otherwise they
spoil with great rapidity. The scales
separate from the surface with so much
ease, that it is a common notion that
these fish are not possessed of this in-
tegument. The heads of the anchovies
must be taken off, on account of their
bitterness, a quality which has obtained
for this species the name of enchrasicolus,
from a strange idea, that the gall-bladder
was in the head. The intestines are re-
moved, and the fish, after being washed,
are packed in barrels like ordinary her-
rings, with layers of salt and fish alter-
nately. A considerable difference is pro-
duced in the quality of anchovies by the
sort of salt used, and the state of the
pickle in which they are kept. The fish-
ermen of Provence believe that the salt
ought to be of a red color, which is gen-
erally caused by rust of iron, where salt
has been prepared in iron vessels, but,
for their use, is mostly caused by mixing
a small quantity of ochre with the salt.
They are very careful, also, not to change
the pickle, merely supplying the loss, from
leakage or evaporation, by adding water.
These anchovies have a peculiar acrimo-
ny of taste, which is prized by epicures.
They do not keep, however, so well as
238
ANCHOVY-ANCONA.
those packed by the northern fishermen,
which are cured with gray salt, and have
the pickle changed as often as 3 times.-
As an article of diet, anchovies recently
caught are eaten dressed in a great vari-
ety of modes. Salted anchovies ought to
be recent, white above and reddish below,
and free from taint. The books of cook
ery exhibit numerous salads, sauces and
relishes, of which anchovies form a part.
A very favorite inode of using them is in
anchovy-toast, made by spreading the
flesh of the pickled anchovy over bread
toasted brown. This is eaten as a pro-
vocative of thirst, by topers, or as a stim-
ulant to a languid appetite, by persons
whose stomachs are enfeebled or dyspep-
tic from excesses. Like all other stimu-
lants, however, they soon lose their effi-
cacy in such cases, and become positively
injurious.-The ancient Romans made
use of a sauce celebrated under the name
of garum, which is thought, by some
writers, to have been prepared from the
anchovy. We have made some investi-
gations on this subject, and are led to the
conclusion, that this sauce was prepared
from the intestines, &c. of fish, but by no
means of any one species. According to
Pliny (lib. 31, cap. 3), it was originally
prepared from the shrimp called garum.
Subsequently, the sauce was made by
macerating the intestines of fish in salt
and water, until they became slightly pu-
trescent, to which vinegar and parsley,
chopped fine, or pounded, were added.
As the anchovy was caught in such abun-
dance in the Mediterranean, this fish was
doubtless sometimes used for the prep-
aration of the luxurious garum. Martial
speaks of it as made from the scombrus, or
mackerel, in the following words :-
Exspirantis adhuc scombri de sanguine primo,
Accipe fastosum, munera cara, garum.
Lib. xiii. Ep. cii.
How well it deserved the epithet fasto-
sum, may be gathered from the statement
of Pliny (lib. 31, cap. 8), in which he says,
that two gallons of this garum sold for
singulis millibus nummorum, or some
thousands of sesterces.
ANCHYLOSIS; a stiffness or immobility
of the joints. The existence of the dis-
case is obvious to the eye. It is often
connected with deformities of the limbs,
and, in the anchylosis of the little bones
of the ear, with deafness; in that of the
joint of the lower jaw, with inability of
chewing. The anchylosis may occasion
the decaying of a limb, bleedings, aneu-
risms, &c., and may even become fatal.
In the beginning of these diseases, the
patient usually suffers pain in the limbs,
a more or less audible rustling in moving
the joint affected, a feeling of weakness
and inability of directing the limb as it
could be done in a state of health. An
anchylosis usually arises from several
causes, and afflicts sometimes the whole
body, at other times one limb only. The
anchylosis is sometimes constitutional;
old people are more subject to it than
young, and the male sex than the female.
The real anchylosis is incurable. Ex-
cessive indulgence in animal love may
contribute to this disease; but it is, for
the most part, the result of inflammation
in the membrane lining the joints.
ANCILLON, Jean Pierre Frederic; born
at Berlin, April 30, 1766; a man much
esteemed in Prussia, known by his writ-
ings, particularly by his Tableau des Rév-
olutions du Système Politique de l'Europe,
depuis le 15me Siècle; 4 vols., second edi-
tion, 1824. He has published several po-
litical essays, all of which display attach-
ment to the modern doctrine of legitimacy,
yet with a slight tincture of liberalism.-
He writes sometimes in French, at other
times in German. He was formerly min-
ister of the French Protestant church in
Berlin, but is now employed in the de-
partment of foreign affairs.-David A., a
Protestant minister, who fled from France
after the revocation of the edict of Nantes,
and died at Berlin, 1692, 75 years old,
was an author of some merit, as was also
his son Charles, who was historiographer
to the king of Prussia, and died at Berlin,
in 1715.
ANCONA, capital of the delegation, and
of the former inarquisate of Ancona, lon.
13° 29′ E., lat. 43° 38′ N., on the gulf of
Venice, the seat of a bishop, has 17,330
inhabitants, among whom are 5000 Jews.
The city and its fine harbor are praised
by the most ancient writers. This harbor
was improved and beautified by Trajan;
and the grateful citizens erected to him,
in return, a triumphal arch of white mar-
ble, which is yet standing on the oldest
mole. In 1732, A. was declared a free
port, and, notwithstanding the frequent
obstruction of the haven by mud, it is
visited every year by more than 1100
vessels, and the commerce and manufac-
tures of the city are considerable. A. has
also a quarantine establishment. It was
always a famous fortress; was conquered
and destroyed repeatedly by the Romans,
Goths, Lombards and Saracens; rose by
its own resources from its ruins, and be-
came a republic. It was, however, in
1532, taken by the pope, by surprise, and
ANCONA-ANDES.
annexed, together with its territory, to the
papal dominions. The siege of this place
by the Russians, Turks and Austrians, in
1799, was remarkable, because the Rus-
sian colors, first planted on the walls of
A., were pulled down by the Austrian
soldiers, which gave occasion to the un-
fortunate dissensions of the emperor Paul
with the allies. Since 1815, the citadel
only has remained fortified.
ANCUS MARTIUS, the fourth king of
Rome, succeeded Tullus Hostilius, 640 B.
C. (114 A. U.) and died 618 B. C. (136
A. U.) He built the harbor at Ostia, the
mouth of the Tiber. Rome, therefore,
must have had, as early as that period,
some navigation, even if it did not amount
to more than a coasting trade. He re-
vived the neglected observance of reli-
gion, and inscribed the laws respecting
religious ceremonies on tables set up in
the market-place. Ennius and Lucretius
call him the Good. Virgil reproaches him
with undue regard for popular favor, be-
cause he distributed the conquered lands
among the citizens.
ANDA; a tree of Brazil, the wood of
which is spongy and light, the flower
yellow and large, and the fruit a gray nut,
which encloses two kernels, of the taste
of chestnuts, in a double rind. The fruit
is said to be purgative. Oil is pressed
from these kernels, with which the na-
tives anoint their limbs. The rinds of
the fruit, thrown into ponds, kill the fish.
ANDALUSIA (ancient Batica); a prov-
ince of Spain, divided into Upper and
Lower. Upper A. comprehends Grenada;
Lower A. comprehends Jaen, Cordova and
Seville. A. is the most western province
of Spain, and is bounded N. by Estrema-
dura and La Mancha; E. by Murcia; S.
by the sea and the straits of Gibraltar;
and W. by Portugal; 170 miles long, and
180 wide. It is, without doubt, one of
the finest, the richest and most fertile
parts of Spain, producing abundance of
oil and grain, also honey, sugar, silk and
wine. Its herds of cattle are numerous,
and its horses are esteemed the best in
the kingdom. The inhabitants are de-
scended, in part, from the Saracens, and
differ much from the natives of Castile,
and other parts of Spain, in their physi-
ognomy and character. Pop., in 1787,
788,153. Its chief cities are Seville and
Cadiz. (See Grenada.)
ANDANTE (music) denotes a time some-
what slow, and a performance distinct
and exact, gentle and soothing. Andan-
tino stands between andante and allegret-
to, at least according to the common
239
notion; some assert that andantino im-
plies a little slower motion than andante.
The andante requires a delicate perform-
ance.
ANDES, called by the Spaniards Cor-
dilleras de los Andes, are an iminense
chain of mountains, extending throughout
South America from north to south, gen-
erally at the distance of about 150 miles
from the western coast.
from cape Pilares, in the straits of Magel-
They extend
lan, northwards to the isthmus of Darien.
A mountainous ridge passes through the
isthmus of Darien, dividing farther north
into various branches, styled the Cordil-
leras of Mexico. To the north of Mexico
the principal range takes the name of the
Rocky mountains, and reaches to the
Frozen ocean, the northern limits of the
American continent. These are by many
considered as parts of one continued
range, but the term Andes is usually lim-
ited to the mountains in South America.—
The Andes differ greatly in their general
aspect and character, being in some parts
blended together into an entire mass, and
in others, divided into two or three dis-
tinct ridges. In Chili, they are about 120
miles in breadth, presenting numerous
summits of prodigious height. To the
north, they diverge in a straggling man-
ner; and in Peru, they are formed into
three irregular ridges, which continue to
about lat. 6° S., where they are formed
into a single chain. They divide again,
in Quito, into two chains; and farther
north, between lat. 2° and 5° N., they are
formed into three parallel ridges, which
are again blended together between lat.
6° and 7° N.-Between the two ridges in
Quito, there is a plain from 5 to 6 leagues
in breadth, of great fertility, well culti-
vated, and thickly settled, having popu-
lous towns, and though under the equa-
tor, yet, owing to its great elevation, which
is about 9000 feet above the sea, it pos-
sesses a temperate and delightful cliniate.
The Andes are the highest mountains
in America, and, next to the Himmaleh
mountains, the most elevated in the
known world. They are composed, in a
great part, of porphyry, and abound in
the precious metals. Many of them are
volcanic, and there are numerous sum-
mits which are covered with perpetual
snow. The medium height of the range,
under the equator, may be estimated at
about 14,000 feet above the level of the
sea, while that of the Alps hardly ex-
ceeds 8000.-The following table exhibits
some of the highest summits, with their
elevation above the level of the sea.
240
Chimborazo,
Misté,
Disca Casada,
Cayamba Ourco,
Antisana,
Cotopaxi,
Altair,
Ilinissa,
Sangai,
Tunguragua,
Pichinca,
ANDES-ANDOVER.
Feet.
muscles at the period of dissolution. The
24,441 pine lingers last of the more stately tribes
20,328 of vegetables, accompanied by a low spe-
19,570 cies of moss. It is found 13,000 feet in
19,388 altitude above the level of the sea. Nu-
19,149 merous orders of the larger trees appear
18,891 progressively in the space between the
17,256 heights of 10,000 and 9000 feet. At the
17,238 height of 9200 feet, is found the oak,
17,136 which, in the equatorial regions, never
16,500 descends below that of 5500. It is, how-
15,939 ever, said to be found in the neighborhood
Mr. Pentland has recently asserted, that of Mexico, at the height of only 2620 feet.
mount Nevado de Sorato is the highest European grains flourish best between
mountain of America. He estimates its the altitude of 6000 and 9000 feet. Wheat
height at 25,200 feet: Its situation is in under the equator will seldom spring up
15° 30′ S. lat. The second in altitude he below the elevation of 4500 fect, or ripen
considers mount Illimani (Nevados de above that of 10,800. Humboldt says there
Illimani), in Paz, in Bolivia, or Upper are very fine harvests of wheat near Vic-
Peru, 22 marine leagues S. E. of the city toria, in the Caraccas province, at 1640
Paz, between 15° 35′ and 16° 40′ S. lat., and 1900 feet above the level of the sea.
and between 67° and 68° W. lon. The In Cuba, wheat crops will flourish and
most northern peak of it he gives as ripen at a small elevation. Rye and bar-
24,200 feet higli. (See Annales des Sci- ley, from their constitution, are capable
ences, xiv. 299.)-A lively idea of the of resisting cold better than wheat, and,
character and grand features of the Andes consequently, of ripening in a superior
may be formed from the accounts given altitude. Maize is cultivated in the same
in the celebrated Alexander von Hum- climate as the banana, but will flourish
boldt's Journey into the Equinoctial 9000 feet high. Oranges, pine-apples,
Countries of the New Continent; which, and every variety of delicious fruits and
at the same time, affords much scientific vegetables, are found on the lower
information on these remarkable moun- grounds of the Andes, within the tropics.
tains.-Good roads have been cut with Cassava, maize, cacao, coffee, sugar, cot-
great labor in the neighborhood of Chim- ton and indigo are cultivated with suc-
borazo, one of which is 1000 miles in
cess. Indigo and cacao, however, require
length; and similar labors of the ancient great heat to ripen them. Cotton and
incas of Peru may be found throughout coffee require a more temperate clime.
the province. Over the Rio Desaguadero, Sugar arrives at a superior degree of per-
in Buenos Ayres, is a singular bridge, fection in the more temperate regions of
formed of ropes and rushes, attributed to the province of Quito.-For further in-
Capac Yupanqui, the 5th inca.-The ap- formation, see Humboldt, and the Journal
proach to the Andes from the western de Physique, vol. liii. for 1801. For the
coasts has always been admired. The different mountains of the Andes, sce
road leads through the most beautiful their respective articles. See, also,
forests, the foliage of which exhibits the America.
most various and lovely colors. As the
traveller advances, an awful sublimity
pervades the mind, and the wide inter-
stices and tremendous chasms, together
with cataracts that roll down the moun-
tains from an amazing altitude, filling the
distant view, overwhelm him with admi-
ration. The highest deserts of the Andes
are in the north called Paramos, and in
Peru, Punas; but so acute and peculiar
is the cold air in these places, as rather to
pierce the vitals than affect the exterior
feelings. It is no uncommon circum-
stance to meet with the bodies of travel-
lers who have perished in the cold, whose
faces have the horrid appearance of
laughter, owing to the contraction of the
ANDOVER; a borough in Hampshire,
England, situated on the small rivulet
Aude. It is a great thoroughfare between
London and Salisbury, and sends two
members to parliament. It lies 65 miles
W. by S. of London.
ANDOVER; a post-township of Massa-
chusetts, in the county of Essex, 20 miles
N. of Boston; pop. in 1820, 3889. It is
situated on the S. E. side of the Merri-
mack, and is also watered by the Shaw-
sheen; is pleasant and flourishing, and
contains three parishes, in each of which
there is a Congregational meeting-house.
A. has some manufactures, but it is chief-
ly celebrated for its literary institutions,
particularly its theological seminary. In
•
ANDOVER-ANDREWS.
the north parish is an academy styled
Franklin academy. The south parish
contains the theological seminary, and an
academy styled Phillips academy, which
was founded in 1778. The theological
seminary was founded in 1807, and is
very liberally endowed. It has a pleas-
ant, healthy and elevated situation, which
commands a beautiful and extensive pros-
pect. The buildings consist of dwelling-
houses for the professors; a steward's
house, containing a dining-hall; and 3
public edifices of brick. The library con-
tains upwards of 5000 volumes. There
are 4 professors. The number of stu-
dents is now about 120.-The course of
education is completed in 3 years. As
qualifications for admission, the constitu-
tion requires a liberal education, and tes-
timonials of good character aud talents.
Tuition and room-rent are afforded free
of expense to all, and the charity funds
give support to such as are indigent. A
public examination is held on the 4th
Wednesday of September. There are 2
vacations, of 5 weeks each.
ANDRE, major J.; an adjutant-general
in the British army in N. America du-
ring the revolutionary war. He was
originally a merchant's clerk. Employed
to negotiate the defection of the Ameri-
can general Arnold, and the delivery of
the works at West Point, he was appre-
hended in disguise, Sept. 23, 1780, within
the American lines, and sent prisoner to
general Washington, who submitted his
case to the examination and decision of a
board of general officers, consisting of
major-general Grecue, William Alexan-
der (lord Stirling), the marquis de la
Fayette, &c. The board declared him a
spy from the enemy, and, agreeably to
the law and usage of nations, he was
hanged at Tappan, in New York, Oct. 2,
1780. A monument is erected to his
memory in Westminster abbey. He is
the author of a poem entitled The Cow
Chase. (See Arnol1.)
ANDREA DEL SARTO. (See Sarto.)
ANDREOSSY, Antoine François, count;
a French general, great-grandson of the
renowned François Andreossy; died in
1688. He was the engineer who finished
the canal of Languedoc, from the Atlan-
tic to the Mediterranean, was born at
Castel-Naudary, in 1761, and, in 1781, was
lieutenant in the French artillery. In
1797, he distinguished himself, as com-
mander of the gun-boats, upon the lake
of Mantua, at the siege of this fortress.
In later tinies, he made himself conspicu-
ous, in the French expedition to Egypt,
VOL. I.
21
241
by his learned writings, as a member of
the national institute at Cairo, particu-
larly on mathematics. He was sent as
French ambassader to London, after the
peace of Amiens; afterwards, to Vienna,
and at last to Constantinople. In 1814,
the king recalled him from this post. In
1815, he was again einployed by Napo-
leon, during the "hundred days." Be-
sides his Mémoire sur l'Irruption du Pont-
Euxin dans la Mediterranée, and his Mé-
moire sur le Système des eaux qui abreuvent
Constantinople, his work on the Bosphorus
and the Turkish empire is esteemed good.
er.
ANDREW, St.; brother of St. Peter, and
the first disciple whom Christ chose.
Both brothers were fishermen, but left
their business, and followed the Redeem-
The fate of A., after Christ's death,
is uncertain; the common opinion is,
that he was crucified. The Russians
revere him as the apostle who brought
the gospel to them; the Scots, as the
patron saint of their country. In the
early ages of the church, a pretended
Gospel of his was in circulation.
Acta, also, which bear his name, are not
genuine. The order of St. A. is one of
the highest orders of the empire of Rus-
sia, instituted by Peter the Great, in 1697.
-For the Scottish knights of St. A., see
Thistle.
The
ANDREW's, St.; an important city of
Scotland, on the Firth of Tay, 39 miles
from Edinburgh; W. lon. 2° 50; N. lat.
56° 19'. It is about a mile and a half in
circuit, consisting of 3 principal streets;
2 churches of the kirk of Scotland, one
Episcopalian, two Dissenting meeting-
houses, and a university, having two col-
leges-St. Salvador's and St. Mary's.
Pop. 3300. It is a royal burgh, and re-
turns, in union with 4 other places, one
neimber to parliament. St. A. was for-
merly a place of considerably greater
extent than at present. The iconoclastic
zeal of the reformers, in the year 1559,
levelled with the ground its noble cathe-
dral. Ruins of several ancient buildings
are still to be seen. The university was
founded in 1412. The number of stu-
dents, at both colleges, has never been
known to exceed 300, and they do not, at
this time, amount to 200.
ANDREW, St., cross of; a cross of the
form X, because, according to tradition,
St. A. was executed on a cross which
had this shape, Nov. 30, A. D. 83, at Pa-
tras, in Achaia.
ANDREWS, Lancelot, bishop of Win-
chester, in the reigns of James I and
Charles I, was born in London, 1565.
242
ANDREWS-ANDROS.
He is particularly known by one of his
works, Tortura Torti (1609), which he
wrote against a publication of cardinal
Bellarmine, under the fictitious name of
Matthew Tortus, in which the cardinal had
attacked James' Defence of the Rights of
Kings. His works best known at pres-
ent are, a volume of Sermons, 1628-31,
fol. 1642; the Moral Law expounded, or
Lectures on the Ten Commandments,
1642, fol.; Collection of Posthumous and
Orphan Lectures, delivered at St. Paul's
and St. Giles', London, 1657, fol.
ANDRIEUX, François Guillaume Jean
Stanislas, one of the most distinguished
modern French dramatic poets, born at
Strasburg, May 6, 1759, was, before the
revolution, secretary of the duke of Uzès.
By his zeal for true liberty during the
revolution, by his firm adherence to the
constitution, and by his constant support
of the rules of natural right, he was not
less distinguished, than by his easy wit,
and the striking characters and fine poe-
try contained in his numerous literary
works. His writings sometimes want
finish, particularly in respect to the lan-
guage. In 1798, he entered the legisla
tive body, as deputy of the department
of the Seine, where he made a conspicu-
ous figure by his speeches, and motions
respecting the establishment of primary
schools, the liberty of the press, and the
murder of the ambassadors at Rastadt.
After the 18th Brumaire, he became trib-
une; July 21, 1800, secretary; and, in
September, president of the tribunate.
He declared himself with zeal and firm-
ness against the anti-constitutional meas-
ures of the first consul and of the senate,
until 1802, when he was obliged to re-
sign. Nevertheless, the emperor after
wards made him knight of the legion of
honor, and professor of literature at the
Collège de France, and of belles-lettres at
the polytechnic school. In 1816, the
king admitted him a member of the
French academy. His principal work of
classical reputation, is Anaximander, a
play in one act. His Les Étourdis is also
very popular. He is likewise the author
of Molière avec ses Amis. His Examen
Critique du Théaire des Grecs is highly
valued.
ANDROCLUS, or ANDRODUS; a Dacian
slave, who being exposed to a lion in the
circus, the animal forbore to hurt him,
because he had formerly taken a thorn
out of his foot. He was, in consequence,
liberated, and led the lion about the
streets of Rome.-Aul. Gel. l. v. c. 14.
Jl. Hist. An. 1. vii. c. 48.
ANDROIDES (from rig, a man, and sidus,
formn); a figure of human shape, which,
by certain machinery, is made to perform
some of the natural motions of a living
man.
ANDROMACHE; daughter of Eetion, king
of Thebes in Cilicia, and wife of Hector.
(q. v.) After the conquest of Troy, she
became the prize of Pyrrhus, son of
Achilles, who carried her to Epirus, and
had 3 sons by her, but afterwards left her
to Helenus, brother of Hector, to whom
she bore a son. Euripides has made her
the chief character of a tragedy.
ANDROMEDA; daughter of the Ethio-
pian king Cepheus, and of Cassiopeia.
The mother and daughter were very
beautiful. The former having boasted
that her daughter surpassed the Nereides
(if not Juno herself) in beauty, the of
fended goddesses called on their father to
revenge the insult. He not only inun-
dated the territory of Cepheus, hut also
sent a horrid sea-monster, which threat-
ened universal destruction. The oracle
declared that the wrath of Neptune could
not be appeased, unless Cepheus deliv-
ered his daughter to the monster.
this extremity, Perseus beheld her, when,
with the head of the Gorgon in his hand,
and mounted on Pegasus, he was re-
turning from his victory, over Medusa.
Touched by compassion and love, the
hero promised to kill the monster on
condition that the virgin should be given
him in marriage. The father promised
it, and kept his word. In memory of the
exploits of Perseus (q. v. ), A., by the
favor of Pallas, was placed among the
stars.
In
ANDRONICUS of Cyresthes; a Greek
architect, celebrated for having con-
structed, at Athens, the tower of the
winds, an, octagonal building, on cach
side of which was a figure representing
one of the winds. On the top of the
tower was a small pyramid of marble
supporting a brazen Triton, which turned
on a pivot, and pointed with its rod to the
side of the tower on which was repre-
sented the wind that was then blowing.
As cach of the sides had a sort of dial, it
is conjectured that it formerly contained
a clepsydra or water-clock.
ANDRONICUS of Rhodes; a follower
of Aristotle, who lived B. C. 63, and
wrote commentaries on that author. Hlo
also restored and published the works of
that philosopher, which Sylla had brought
from Greece.
ANDROS; islands of the Holy Ghost
(isles del Espiritu Santo); a group of isles
ANDROS-ANFOSSI.
extending in the form of a crescent, for up-
wards of 50 leagues in the neighborhood of
the Great Bahama bank, and amongst the
Bahamas; in N. lat. 24° to 25° 30, and
W. lon. 77° to 78° 20. The passages.
through them are dangerous. Attempts
have been made to colonize the principal
Andros island. In 1788, 200 inhabitants,
including slaves, were settled there. It
has the privilege of sending one member
to the house of assembly of the Bahamas.
The approach to it is very difficult, for
various reasons.
ANDROSCOGGIN, or AMERISCOGGIN; a
river which forms the outlet of Umbagog
lake, and has the first part of its course
in the eastern part of New Hampshire.
After entering the state of Maine, it flows
first in an casterly, and afterwards in a
southerly direction, and joins the Kenne-
bee at Merry-meeting bay, 6 miles above
Bath, and 18 miles above the entrance
of the river into the ocean. Its whole
course is about 150 miles in length.
ANELLO, Thomas. (See Musaniello.)
ANEMOMETER; an instrument con-
trived to measure the strength and veloc-
ity of the wind.
ANEMONE, wind-flower, in botany; a
genus of the polygamia order, and polyan-
dria class, ranking, in the natural method,
under the 26th order, multisiliquæ. It
It
has its name from the Greek avepos, (the
wind), because it is supposed not to open
unless the wind blows. Linnæus enu-
merates 21 species: those valuable on
account of their beauty are the follow-
ing: 1, anemone apennina, a native of
Britain, growing in the woods; 2, anem-
one coronaria ; 3, anemone hortensis;
both natives of the Levant, particularly
of the Archipelago islands, where the
borders of the fields are covered with
them; 4, anemonc nemorosa, growing
wild in the woods, in many parts of Brit-
ain, where it flowers in April and May.
Prof. Candole (De Cand. Syst. vol. i. 188)
enumerates 45 species of anemone.
ANEMOSCOPE; every contrivance which
indicates the direction of the wind. The
vane upon towers and roofs is the sim-
plest of all anemoscopes. There are
also some, where the vane turns a move-
able spindle, which descends through the
roof to the chamber where the observa-
tion is to be made. On the ceiling of this
apartment a compass-card is fixed, and,
whilst the wind turns the vane together
with the spindle, an index, fixed below,
points out the direction of the wind on
the card. Some are so made as, even in
the absence of the observer, to note down
243
the changes of the wind. Among the
most perfect of this kind, is that of prof
Moscati, and of the cav. Marsilio Landri-
ani.
ANEURISM; the swelling of an artery,
or the dilatation and expansion of some
part of an artery. This is the true aneu-
rism. There is also a spurious kind of
aneurism, when the rupture or puncture
of an artery is followed by an extravasa-
tion of blood in the cellular membrane.
is
If the external membrane of the artery
injured, and the internal membrane pro-
trades through, and forms a sac, it is
called mixed aneurism. Lastly, there is the
varicose aneurism, the tumor of the artery,
when, in bleeding, the vein has been
entirely cut through, and at the same
time the upper side of an artery beneath
has been perforated, so that its blood is
The genuine
pressed into the vein.
aneurisms arise partly from the too vio-
lent motion of the blood, partly from a
preternatural debility of the membranes
of the artery, which is sometimes consti-
tutional. They are, therefore, more fre-
quent in the great branches of the arte-
ries; in particular, in the vicinity of the
heart, in the arch of the aorta, and in the
extremities, for instance, in the ham and
at the ribs, where the arteries are exposed
to frequent injuries by stretching, violent
bodily exertions, thrusts, falls and contu-
sions. They may, however, be occa-
sioned also, especially the internal ones,
by diseases, violent ebullitions of the
bloed, by the use of ardent spirits, by
vehement passions and emotions, particu-
larly by anger: in such cases, the arteries
may be ruptured, and sudden death pro-
duced. The external aneurisms
either healed by continued pressure on
the swelling, or by an operation, in which
the artery is laid bare, and tied above the
swelling, so as to prevent the flow of the
blood into the sac of the aneurism, which
contracts by degrees. Sometimes the
ligature is applied both above and below
the aneurism.
are
ANFOSSI, Pasquale, was born at Naples,
in 1729, played on the violin in the music
schools of Naples, and studied composi-
tion under Sacchini and Piccini. The lat-
ter had a great friendship for him, and pro-
cured him, in 1771, his first employment,
in the theatre delle dame at Rome. Though
he met with no success, Piccini procured
him, in the following year, a second en-
gagement, in which he was also unsuc-
cessful. In a third engagement, the year
afterwards, A. was more fortunate. The
Persecuted Unknown was performed, in
244
ANFOSSI-ANGELO.
1773, with great applause, as were also La
Finta Giardiniera and Пl Geloso di Cimento
some time afterwards. On the other
hand, the Olimpiade, in 1776, entirely
failed, and the mortification of the author,
on this occasion, induced him to leave
Rome. He travelled through Italy, and,
about 1780, went to France. He per-
formed in the royal academy the Perse-
cuted Unknown; but this lovely and
delicate music did not meet with the
reception which it deserved. From
France A. went to London, where, in
1783, he was director of music at the
Italian theatre. In 1787, he returned to
Rome, where he brought out several
pieces, the success of which made him
forget his disappointments, and gained
him a reputation which he enjoyed until
his death, in 1795. A. frequently reminds
us of Sacchini and Piccini, after whom
he formed his style; but his taste, ex-
pression and style of progression and
resolution are extraordinary. Several of
his finales are models in their kind. His
fertility proves that he composed with
ease. Of his works, we may also men-
tion the Avaro, Il Curioso Indiscreto and
IViaggiatori Felici, which rank among the
best comic operas. He has also com-
posed several oratorios and psalms, writ-
ten mostly by Metastasio.
ANGEL (from the Greek dyychos, a mes-
senger). Under the articles Demon and
Demonology is shown in what way the
idea of angels was introduced into Chris-
tianity; here we shall only explain how
this idea was further developed. Under
the name of angels is understood a kind
of good spirits, having a near connexion
and communication with men. In the
Jewish theology, they were divided into
different classes and ranks. These have
been most accurately described by the
author of the Heavenly Hierarchy, as-
cribed to Dionysius the Areopagite. He
forms them into three classes, each con
taining as many subdivisions. According
to the majority of writers, they were cre-
ated long before the visible world; ac-
cording to others, at the same time as the
heaven and earth, when God commanded
the light to be, and his spirit moved over
the waters. Their office is to serve the
Deity, whose agents they are in effecting
his good purposes, as the tutelary spirits
of whole nations and kingdoms, as the
heralds of his commands, as the guardians
of particular individuals, and the directors
of particular events. They were sup-
posed to be spirits with ethereal bodies.
This conception of them was established
as a doctrine of the church by the council
of Nice (in 787), but is at variance with
the decision of the Lateran council of
1215, which makes them immaterial be-
ings. Those who regard the body mere-
ly as an incumbrance, or prison of the
soul, and conceive a very exalted idea of
pure spirits; hold angels to be such spirits,
and explain their visible appearance by
supposing that they have the power of as-
suming at will bodily forms and a human
shape. Those who consider it no imper-
fection for a spirit to exist in a body,
maintain that angels have bodies. As
finite beings, they must have some place
where they reside. The ancients easily
found a habitation for them in their
heaven, which was conceived to be a
vast azure hall, where God dwelt with
his angels; but we, who have very differ-
ent ideas of heaven and the universe, can
ouly suppose that, if they still operate on
human things, they dwell invisibly with
and about us. As to their names, the
Catholic church receives only three as
sanctioned by the Scriptures,-Michael,
Gabriel and Raphael. Among the herc-
sies of Aldebert, condemned by a Catho-
lic council, at Rome, under pope Zachary,
704, he was accused of invoking angels
by unknown names, such as Uriel, Raguel,
Simiel, &c. It was expressly declared
that these were not names of angels, but
of evil spirits. The later Catholics, how-
ever, have not changed their views in
this respect, and the Catholic Sonnen-
berg has, after the example of Milton and
Klopstock, not only mentioned other an-
gels, but invented names for them. Swe-
denborg gives in his works a classification
and detailed description of the angels.
It is known that his followers believe in
a constant intercourse with angels and
deceased persons.
ANGEL; a gold coin formerly current
in England, so named from having the
representation of an angel upon it. It
weighed four pennyweights, and was
twenty-three carats and a half fine. It
had different values in different reigns;
but is now only an imaginary sum, or
money of account, implying 10 shillings.
ANGELO BUONAROTTI, Michael; of the
ancient family of the counts of Canosa;
born, 1474, at Caprese or Chiusi; one of
the most distinguished names in the his-
tory of modern art, eminent alike in
painting, sculpture and architecture, and,
withal, no mean poet. He was also
an expert fencer. A. was one of those
favorites of nature, who combine in their
single persons the excellences of many
MICHAEL ANGELO.
highly-gifted men. Domenico Ghirland-
aio was his first master in the art of draw-
ing. Before he had been with him two
years, in the academy of arts established
by Lorenzo de' Medici, he studied statua-
ry under Bertoldo, and, in his 16th year,
copied the head of a satyr in marble, to
the admiration of all connoisseurs. He
attracted no less attention as a painter,
and received the honorable commission
(together with the great Leonardo da
Vinci) of decorating the senate-hall at
Florence with historical designs. For
this purpose, he sketched that renowned,
though not completely preserved cartoon,
which represents a scene from the Pisan
war, and is praised by critics as one of
his nost perfect creations. Meanwhile,
pope Julius II had invited him to Rome,
and intrusted him with the charge of
erecting his sepulchral monument. Twice
this labor was intcrrupted-once by the
offended pride of A., and then by the
envy of contemporary artists. Bramante
and Juliano da San Gallo, in particular,
persuaded the pope to have the dome of
the Sistine chapel painted by Michael A.
Knowing that he had not yet attempted
any thing in fresco, they hoped that the
imperfect execution of this task would
alienate the favor of the pope from hin.
A. declined the commission, but the pope
would not be refused, and, in the short
space of 20 months, the artist finished the
work, which was adinired by all con-
noisseurs, and of which Fernow says
rightly, that it displays, perhaps, more than
any other of his productions, all the sub-
limity of his original genius. The cappella
Sistina is certainly the grandest ensemble
of art.
Its perfection is owing chiefly to
Michael Angelo's divine paintings. (See
Sistine Chapel.) A. was about to proceed
with the monuinent of Julius, when this
pope died. His successor, Leo, sent A.
to Florence to erect the front of the Lau-
rentian library. Leo, however, shortly
after died, and his successor, Adrian VI,
employed A. to make the statues for the
monument of Julius; particularly the re-
nowned statue of Moses, and the Christ,
which was afterwards placed at Rome, in
the church della Minerva. Clement VII,
who next ascended the pontifical chair,
recalled A. to Rome, and charged him
with the finishing of the new sacristy and
the Laurentian library at Florence. In
the first, the monuments of the Medici are
by him; e. g., the figures of Day and Night.
Tumultuous times followed, after the
lapse of which, he was employed to paint
the Last Judgment in the Sistine chapel.
-
245
The artist, now 60 years old, unwilling-
ly cominenced a work which might en-
danger his fame. Naturally inclined to
deep and earnest thought; preferring the
sublime conceptions of Dante to all other
poetry; having, by a constant study of
anatomy, investigated the most secret
mechanism of the muscles, and conscious
of his own power, he endeavored, in this
work, to strike out a new path, and to sur-
pass his predecessors, particularly Luca
Signoretti, by a display of terrible power.
The picture is grand, nay, gigantic, like
the mind which created it. It represents
Christ in the act of judging, or, rather, at
the moment of condemning. Martyrs are
seen, who show to the Judge of the living
and dead the instruments of their torture
souls ascend to the choirs of angels hov-
ering above; the condemned strive to
break loose from the grasp of the devils;
there the evil spirits burst into shouts of
triumph at the sight of their prey; the lost,
who are dragged down, endeavor to cling
to the good, who remain in Christ's king-
dom; the gulf of eternal damnation
is seen opening; Jesus Christ and his
mother are seen surrounded by the apos-
tles, who place a crown on his head, and
by a multitude of saints, while angels
above carry in triumph the symbols of
his passion; and, lower down, another
company of angels sound the trumpets
intended to awaken the dead from their
tombs, and call them to judgment. All
this, and a vast deal more, is executed in
the awful style of Dante. With these
scenes of fear and despair, of judgment
and of heavenly beatitude, a wall of great
height and breadth is filled, and every
where is displayed the most profound
study, the richest experience, and the lofty
spirit of a master. The effect of this pic-
ture resembles that of the sublimest
passages of Dante, particularly in con-
nexion with the large images of the
prophets, who, like warning and stern
heralds of the last judgment, look
down from the ceiling upon the specta-
tor, resembling beings of another world,
rather than images made by the hand of
man. Whilst this picture of the Last
Judgment shows the human figure in all
its attitudes and foreshortenings, and gives
us the expression of astonishment, of
pain, of despair, through all their degrees,
it may be considered as an inexhaustible
treasure for the study of the arts.
last considerable works in painting were
two large pictures-the Conversion of St.
Paul, and the Crucifixion of St. Peter, in
the Pauline chapel. In sculpture, he
A.'s
21 *
246
MICHAEL ANGELO-ANGLE.
executed the Descent of Christ from the
Cross, four figures of one piece of marble.
It is reported of his Cupid in marble, that
it was a more perfect copy of another
Cupid, which he had buried in the ground,
after having broken off one of its arms,
in order that it might pass for an antique.
This perfect Cupid is as large as life.
A's statue of Bacchus was thought, by
Raphael, to possess equal perfection with
the masterpieces of Phidias and Praxite-
les. As late as 1546, A. was obliged to
undertake the continuation of the build-
ing of St. Peter's. He corrected its plan,
for which he chose the form of the Gre-
cian cross, and reduced to order the con-
fusion occasioned by the various plans
which had been successively pursued in
the course of its construction. But he
did not live long enough to see his plan
executed, in which many alterations were
made after his death. Besides this, he
undertook the building of the Campido-
glio (Capitol) of the Farnese palace, and
of many other edifices. His style in ar-
chitecture is distinguished by grandeur
and boldness, and, in his ornaments, the
untamed character of his imagination fre-
quently appears, preferring the uncom-
mon to the simple and elegant.-His
poems, which he considered merely
as pastimes, contain, likewise, convincing
proofs of his great genius. They are
published in several collections, but have
also appeared singly.-One of the great-
est historians of our time has suggested,
that a king of Italy, such as Machiavelli
wished him, and every reflecting Italian
must wish him, in order to unite that un-
happy country, ought to be a man like
Michael Angelo-ardent, severe, firm and
bold. Michael A., though of a lofty spirit,
was not haughty; he is said to have been
in the habit of giving models for the ima-
ges of saints to the engravers in wood, and
the dealers in pictures and casts. His prose
works, consisting of lectures, speeches,
ciccolate, that is, humorous academical
discourses, are to be found in the collec-
tion of the Prose fiorentinc, and his letters
in Bottari's Lettere pittoriche. (See the
Vita di Michelangelo B., scritta da Ascanio
Condivi, suo Discepolo; Rome, 1553, 4;
Florence, 1746, fol., with addit.; the last
edition, Pisa, 1823, with cominents by the
cav. de Rossi.)
ANGELONI, Luigi, count, from Frosi-
none, lived at Paris respected as a scholar,
where he published, in 1818, in 2 vols.,
Dell'Italia, uscente del Settcmbre del 1818.
Ragionamenti IV, dedicati alla Italica Na-
zione. His pamphlet, published in May,
1814, in favor of the union of Italy, was
favorably received by the king of Prussia,
whilst, in Milan, the bookseller Stella was
arrested for selling it. He displays a dis-
like, not only towards Austria, but to-
wards every foreign government of his
native country. This representation of
its former and present civil, social and
intellectual condition is very interesting.
The account of the disappointment of the
Lombard embassy, sent to the allied sove-
reigns, at Paris, 1814, to obtain the prom-
ised independence, is entirely new. Lord
Castlereagh called the promises, which
had been made to the Italians in the
earlier manifestos, opere d' imbecillitù.
ANGERSTEIN, John Julius, was born
at St. Petersburg in 1735, and went to
England under the patronage of the late
Andrew Thompson, with whom he con-
tinued in partnership upwards of 50
years. A. first proposed a reward of
2000l. from the fund at Lloyd's to the in-
ventor of the life-boats. His celebrated
collection of paintings has been purchased
since his death by the English govern-
ment, at the expense of 60,000l., as the
nucleus of a national gallery. Mr. A.
died at Woodlands, Blackheath, January
22, 1822, aged 91.
ANGERSTEIN GALLERY. (See National
Gallery.)
ANGLE; the inclination of two lines:
1, of two straight lines. Angles are meas-
ured by ares of a circle, the centre of
which is the point where both the sides
of the angle meet, the vertex, as it is
called in geometry. Every circle, large or
sinall, is divided into 360 degrees, cach
degrec into 60 minutes, cach minute into
60 seconds. It is, therefore, clear, that
the size of the angle has nothing to do
with the length of the lines, because only
their inclination is measured. An angle
of 6 degrees, 2 minutes and 3 seconds is
written thus: 6° 2′ 3″. Angles are di-
vided into right angles, equal to 90°, four
of which are equal to the whole circle;
obtuse angles, those greater than 90°;
and acute angles, those which are less.
2. There are, also, spherical angles and
solid angles; the former formed by ares,
the latter by planes.—Whole sciences are
based on the theory of angles, e. g., trigo-
nometry. The calculations of the astron-
omer, and the measuring of distant objects,
depend on the science of triangles, which,
in fact, is nothing else but the science of
angles. The ancients were acquainted
with the theory of angles. In fact, geome-
try, and, one might almost say, mathemat-
ics began with the science of angles.
ANGLES-ANGLING.
ANGLES; a German nation, which re-
sided in what is now the dukedom of
Magdeburg, in Prussia, near the Elbe,
and, probably, succeeded to the former
seat of the Lombards, when these latter
had driven the Cherusci from the northern
half of their country. As they never
approached the Rhine and the Roman
frontiers, we do not find their name men-
tioned by the Roman authors, who com-
prehended them, with many others, under
the general name of Chauci and Saxons,
until the conquest of Britain made them
better known as a separate nation. In
the 5th century, they joined their pow-
erful northern neighbors, the Saxons, and,
under the name of Anglo-Saxons, con-
quered the country now called England.
(Sec Great Britain.) A part of them re-
mained near the Danish peninsula, where,
to the present day, a small tract of land,
on the eastern coast of the duchy of Sles-
wic, bears the name Angeln.
ANGLESEA, OF ANGLESEY (ancient Mo-
na); an island and county of North
Wales, in the Irish sea, separated from the
main land of Britain by a narrow strait
called Menai, over which there has been
lately erected a magnificent suspension
bridge. (See Menai.) The island is 24 miles
long and 17 broad, containing 4 market-
towns and 74 parishes. Sq. miles, 402;
population, 37,045. The soil is fertile;
the chief products are grain and cattle.
Of the former, about 100,000 bushels are
exported in favorable seasons. It returns
2 members to parliament.
ANGLESEA (Henry William Paget, earl
of Uxbridge), marquis of; British general
of cavalry, who, after the battle of Water-
Ioo, June 18, 1815, where he lost a leg,
was created marquis of Anglesea, on
account of the valor he displayed there.
He served as a lieutenant-general under
Wellington, in Portugal and Spain, where,
under the name of Paget, he distinguished
himself on several occasions by his skill
and courage, and was wounded several
times. On his return to England, in
August, 1815, the citizens of Litchfield
carried him, in triumph, to the town-hall,
and presented him with a sword. The
marquis has a seat in the British house
of lords, and voted, in the trial of the
queen, for the bill of condemnation. His
unfortunate union with lady Charlotte
Wellesley, sister-in-law of Wellington,
whom he married after her separation
from her husband, is known. He was
made lord lieutenant of Ireland, Feb.
1828, and recalled in Jan. 1829. Great
honors were paid him by the people of
247
Ireland on his departure. His successor
is the duke of Northumberland.
ANGLING; the art of ensnaring fish
with a hook, which has been previously
baited with sinall fish, worms, flies, &c.
Among no people has this art attracted
so much attention, and nowhere have so
many persons of all classes, both clerical
and secular, resorted to angling as an
amusement, as in England, whose litera-
ture is richer than that of any other
country in works relating to this sport,
both in prose and verse. A similar fond-
ness for angling exists in the U. States.
In both countries, in England and North
America, angling is followed by many
sportsmen with a kind of passion. In
England, it has been thought of sufficient
importance to be protected by statute;
and a series of acts, from the reign of Ed-
ward I to George III, exists, relating to
angling and fishing. In the U. States of
America, angling, like all other kinds of
sport, is free to any body. Several Eng-
lish sportsinen, who have resided for a
long period in the U. States, have assured
us, that angling affords much better sport
in the latter country, on account of its
great number of rivers rich in fish, the
perfect liberty with which the angler can
prosecute his pleasure, and the small
number of gentlemen who are at leisure
to give their time to it. In this country,
ladies do not partake so often in this
amusement, as in England. It is said
that angling came into repute in the lat-
ter country about the period of the refor-
mation, when both the secular and regu-
lar clergy, being prohibited by the com-
mon law from the amusements of hunt-
ing, hawking and fowling, directed their
attention to this recreation. The inven-
tion of printing aided in drawing atten-
tion to this subject, and made known its
importance "to cause the helthe of your
body, and specyally of your soul," as the
first treatise concludes. Wynkin de Worde
gave the world, in 1496, a small folio re-
publication of the celebrated Book of St.
Albans. It contained, for the first time,
a curious tract, entitled the Treatyse of
Fyshinge wyth an Angle, embellished
with a wood-cut of the angler.
treatise is ascribed to dame Juliana Ber-
ners or Barnes, prioress of a nunnery
near St. Alban's. The angler," she
observes,
observes, “atte the leest, hath his holsom
walke and mery at his ease, a swete ayre
of the swete sauoure of the mecde floures
that makyth him hungry; he hereth the
melodyous armony of the fowlls, he seeth
the yonge swannes, heerons, duckes, cotes
This
248
ANGLING-ANGLO-SAXON.
and many other fowles, with their brodes,
whych ne seemyth better than alle the
noyse of houndys, the blastes of hornys,
and the serye of fowles, that hunters,
fawkeners and foulers can make. And
if angler take fysshe, surely thenne is
there noo man mericr than he is in his
spyryte." Walton's inimitable discourse
on angling was first printed in 1653, in
an elegant duodecimo, with plates of the
most considerable fish cut in steel. This
edition and three subsequent ones con-
sisted wholly of what is now called part
the first of the Complete Angler, being
Walton's individual portion of the work.
In a rude state of society, angling was
resorted to from necessity. This occu-
pation soon became an amusement for
those who had leisure enough to spend
time in it, as it affords to most people
much pleasure. We find occasional
allusions to this pursuit among the Greek
writers, and throughout the most ancient
books of the Bible. Plutarch mentions
an amusing anecdote of Antony's unsuc-
cessful angling in the presence of Cleopa-
tra, and a fine trick which she played him.
ANGLO-SAXON History. (See the article
England, and, for further information,
Turner's History of the Anglo-Saxons,
London, 1807; also the article Anglo-Sax-
on in the American edition of the New
Edinburgh Encyclopædia.)--Anglo-Saxon
Language; that language which, in the
middle of the 5th century, was trans-
planted by the Angles, Saxons and some
other Gerinan tribes, into England, and
continues, though much altered, to form
the basis of the modern English dialect.
The German language was early divided
into two principal dialects, the Upper and
Lower German, both derived from the
Gothic, as we find it in Ulphilas' transla-
tion of the Gospels. To the Lower Ger-
man belonged the idiom which was spoken
by the Saxons, a numerous and valiant
German tribe, who inhabited almost all the
north of Germany, where this idiom
prevailed, and branched out, at a later
period than the migration of the Anglo-
Saxons and Goths, or Jutes, into various
dialects, of which the Frisian was the
carlier, the Dutch the more recent, for-
mation. It remained the prevailing lan-
guage, even after the subjugation of the
Saxons in Germany by Charlemagne, and
continued, down to the period of the
reformation, not only the dialect of con-
versation, but also of several valuable-lite-
rary works, in prose and verse, many of
which, from the period of the middle
ages, are still preserved. At the reforma-
tion, it gave way to the High German, for
the purposes of literary composition and
the conversation of the higher classes
though, to this day, it continues to be the
dialect of the people, and is known by the
name of the Low German. There is no
doubt that any one, who intends to in-
vestigate the English language scientifi-
cally and thoroughly, tracing the words,
as well as the structure of the language,
as far towards their origin as possible, can-
not dispense with studying Low German,
which has been too much neglected even
by those eminent scholars whose investi-
gations have done so much service to the
English language. Few readers, proba-
bly, are aware of the striking resemblance
between Low German and English, even
as it is now spoken, and we feel induced
to quote some lines of the famous poem
Reynard the Fox (q. v.), in Low German,
first published in 1498, with a literal in-
terlineary translation into English. The
poem begins thus:
It shag up enen Pinkste-dag,
It chanced upon a Pentecost-day,
Dat man de wolde un felde sog
That men the woods and fields saw
Grone stân mid Er un gross, &c.
Green stand with leaf and grass, &c.
The difference between the Low and
the High German is, in many respects,
striking. It is found in the words, the
grannar, the pronunciation, and in the
whole style of expression; and it is very
interesting to see how many of these de-
viations from the High German are com-
mon to the Low German with the Eng-
lish: for instance, it has not the augment
ge of the participle; it often cuts of the
ends of words which do not belong to the
radix; and has many more monosyllables
than the High German; it makes no
distinction between the accusative and
dative; the masculine, feminine and non-
ter articles are the saune; the pronuncia-
tion of a is, in many cases, mixed with
the sound of o, as in the English all, and
often inclines strongly to the English
sound a in case; it has often an s, where
the High German has och (pronounced sh),
preceding a cousonant; in some parts of
Low Germany, sch (pronounced, generally,
sh), before a vowel, takes the sound of
the English ek; instead of ch at the end
of words, it takes a kor c; in all which
particulars it is nearer to the English than
to the High German. A deeper investi-
gation would show the close connexion
even of the Saxon, as it now forms a part
of English, with the Low German; to
ANGLO-SAXON.
249
In no
tion and decomposition, in which all the
German idioms nearly resemble the
Greek, has been, in a considerable degree,
lost, so that we now very often find a word
common to both languages, German and
English, but in the former putting forth
many branches, and giving birth to a
whole family of words for the different
shades of one idea or many connected
ideas, whilst in the latter it has remained
like a stump with no foliage; and, 2, that
the English language has acquired too
great a readiness to receive foreign words,
without seeking, in its own store, the
means of supplying the new want.
period, perhaps, has this disadvantage
appeared more strikingly than at the
present, when a greater intercourse be-
tween England and France exists than
ever, and fashionable works appear full
of French intruders. If we consider the
Saxon stock in the present English idiom,
the following circumstances appear the
most striking:-1. By far the greater part
of the language is of Saxon or (to include
the Danish) of Teutonic origin; almost
all the verbs, particles and other words,
which form the frame of our speech, be-
ing of Teutonic descent. Mr. Turner has
shown this very strikingly at the end of
his History of the Anglo-Saxons, where
he gives many passages of the most-emi-
nent writers, both in poetry and prose,
of different ages, with the words of Saxon
origin printed in italics. Mr. Duponceau,
in the article Anglo-Saxon, in the Ameri-
can edition of the Edinburgh Encyclopæ-
dia, says, "So far as we are able to judge
from a superficial investigation of the
subject, we are apt to believe that the
English words of northern derivation are
to those derived from the ancient, as well
as the modern languages of southern
Europe, in the proportion of something
more than three, but not quite as much
as four, to one. 2. The structuer of the
verb and the greater part of the grammar
is, fundamentally, Saxon.
3. A large
quantity of Saxon words have disappear-
ed, which were used before the Norman
conquest. Mr. Turner, in the work¯ al-
ready mentioned, says, "I found, in three
pages of Alfred's Orosius, 78 words which
have become obsolete, out of 548, or about
one seventh. In three pages of his
Bede, I found 230 obsolete, out of 969, or
about one fifth.” 4. In many cases, the
Saxon word denotes the raw material, or
the thing before it is changed by human
art; e. g., or, swine, sheep the English
word of Latin or French origin signifies
the same thing after changes have been
say nothing of the innumerable words
which are almost the same in both lan-
guages. (Among other works on this sub-
ject, see A Letter from Germany to the
Princess royal of England on the English
and German Languages; by Herbert
Croft; London and Leipsic, 1797.) The
remarkable English pronunciation of the
i is less common in the dialects we have
just spoken of, than in the German dia-
lect spoken in Dantzic and Prussia
Proper. In this dialect, the German ei
(pronounced i) and the German i (pro-
nounced ee) are uttered more in the
English way than in the other German
dialects. Probably this pronunciation,
when the Saxon conquerors left Germany,
was common to all the dialects of the
north of Germany.-After the conquest
of England by the Angles and Saxons,
the Saxon became the prevalent tongue
of that country, borrowing words, indeed,
from the aborigines, and from the Roman
conquerors, but these were only single
and detached parts, and did not constitute
an integral portion of the language. From
this time to the conquest of the Normans,
the Saxon idiom made very considerable
advances, as appears from the relics of the
Saxon literature. The Saxon language
of that time, morcover, seems to have
been more sonorous and finer-sounding
than its remains in the present English
tongue, in the same manner as the
modern German is of a less open sound,
and is poorer in vowels, than the ancient
Who does not think the words
noma, cortho, urna, willa, finer than their
successors, name, earth, our, will? It is
strange to see how both the German and
English languages have lost many of their
vowels and finer sounds, whilst, at the
same time, the Italian language has
always had a decided tendency to soften
and euphonize all the materials left from
the Latin. After the conquest by the
Normans, the English language exhibits
the peculiar case, where languages of
two different stocks are blended into one
idiom, which, by the cultivation of a free
and active nation and highly-gifted minds,
has grown to a powerful, organized whole.
It cannot be doubted, on the one hand,
that the English language has derived
great advantages from the addition of
the French stock, and the closer connex-
ion with Latin, and all the languages of
Latin origin, thus effected; but, on the
other hand, this addition could not fail to
prove injurious in some respects, of
which we will here mention only two;-1,
that the power of formation, of composi-
was.
:
250
ANGLO-SAXON-ANGOSTURA.
made in it by human labor; e. g., beef,
pork, mutton. 5. If there exist two sy-
nonymous words, one of Saxon, the other
of Latin origin, the former, on account of
its greater antiquity (as far as regards the
English language), is, generally, more
expressive and poetical, though the latter
is frequently considered more clegant;
e. g., fatherly and paternal, motherly and
maternal, happiness and felicity, faithful-
ness and fidelity, kindred and relations,
bereave and deprive, to dwell and to
lodge, &c. If the reader will take any
fine passage of Shakspeare or the Bible,
and change all the Saxon words for which
he finds synonymes of French origin,
the thoughts will appear deprived of their
proper dress. This is also the reason
why passages of German writers on com-
mon subjects often sound to Englishmen,
who begin the study of this kindred lan-
guage, as if poetically expressed, because
the German words correspond to the Sax-
on and more poetical words of their own
Janguage. 6. In the English Bible, the
Saxon stock prevails more than in any
other English work, not only in respect
to the words (many a long passage being
wholly composed of Saxon words), but
also in respect to the construction.-We
may be allowed to close this article with
the remarks of Mr. Duponceau in the
Encyclopædia above mentioned. "The
peculiar structure of the English lan-
guage," he says, "is far from having been
investigated as yet with that degree of
attention and accuracy that it deserves.
Among other things, we do not find that
any grammarian has been at the pains to
take a full comparative view of its two
great component parts; by which we
mean, on the one hand, those words that
are derived from the Saxon, Danish and
other northern languages, and, on the
other hand, those from the Greek, Latin,
French, Spanish and other idioms of the
south of Europe. These two sets of voca-
bles are so dissimilar from each other, that
they appear at first view incapable of be-
ing amalgamated together, so as to form
a harmonious whole; yet who is there
that can read, feel and understand, and
does not admire the sublime harmony
which Milton, Dryden, Pope, Shakspeare,
Bolingbroke, and the other immortal
poets and prose-writers of Great Britain,
have produced out of those discordant
elements? To analyze, therefore, those
clements, from which have resulted such
inconceivable effects, is well worth the
trouble of the grammarian and philologer;
and the interesting discoveries, to which
such an inquiry will lead, will amply
repay their learned labors." We will only
add, that not only would such an inquiry
lead to interesting and beneficial results,
but the trouble of the student would be
well repaid, if he would investigate the
tendency of the language at different pe-
riods, and observe how, in some, an incli-
nation to the Saxon stock, in others, to the
Latin and its derivative languages, is ap-
parent. At present, the Saxon stock is
undoubtedly most in favor, as may be seen
by any one who will look into the writ-
ings of Byron, sir Walter Scott, and other
eminent writers of our time, although a
disposition to make free use of French
and Italian words is very observable in
the intercourse of society and among sec-
ondary writers in the departments of
light literature. (See Low German.)
ANGOLA (formerly called Abonda, or
Dongo); a country of Western Africa, S.
of Congo. In mercantile language, it
includes all the coast from cape Lopez
Gonsalvo to St. Phelipe de Benguela, from
about lat. 1° to 12° S. The principal ob-
ject for which this coast is visited is the
trade in slaves, of which the number an-
nually obtained is estimated, at least, at
40,000. Lounda, or St. Paul de Loanda,
is the principal Portuguese establishment
for obtaining Negroes. The Portuguese
settled there in the middle ages. A re-
markable range of mountains commences
at the southern limits of Angola, now
cape Negro, and runs up the interior in a
N. E. direction. Large herds of wild
cattle and mules adorn the plains, whilst
lions, tigers, elephants, &c., infest the
surrounding country. Vegetation is ex-
tremely luxuriant in A.
ANGOSTURA (S. Tomas de Angostura);
a town of South America, in the republic
of Colombia, 140 miles N. of Santa Fe de
Bogota, on the Magdalena river; known
by the congress held here.-The second
congress of Venezuela, commonly called
the congress of Angostura, was installed
in the city of S. Tomas de A., Feb. 15,
1819, and the 9th year of the independ-
ence of Venezuela. 26 deputies assem-
bled at that time, being 4 short of the
number of which it was intended to con-
sist, but sufficient to constitute a quorum.
There were 5 from the province of Carac-
cas; 4 from the province of Varinas; 5
from the province of Barcelona; 4 from
the province of Guiana; 4 from the
province of Cumana; and 4 from the
province of Margarita. The session of
this congress was opened with an elabo-
rate address from the supreme chief, Bol-
3
ANGOSTURA-ANGOULEME.
ivar; after which, thé deputy Francisco
Antonio Zea was elected president. This
congress had the honor, eventually, of
proposing and effecting the union of New
Grenada and Venezuela into one govern-
ment, under the name of Colombia, by
the fundamental law of the republic,
dated Dec. 17, 1819. Its sessions termi-
nated Jan. 15, 1820, arrangements being
previously made for assembling the first
general congress of Colombia at Rosario
de Cúcuta, on the 1st of Jan., 1821. (See
Colombia, Rosario de Cúcuta.)
ANGOULÈME; a city of France, the
capital of the department of Charente,
60 miles from Bordeaux. The inhab-
itants are about 14,000, and carry on a
considerable trade in paper. Lon. 9° 14'
E.;
lat. 45° 39′ N. Before the revolution,
it was the capital of Angoumois. Balzac
and Ravaillac were born here.
ANGOULÊME, Louis Antoine de Bour-
bon, duke of; dauphin since 1824, nephew
of Louis XVIII, and eldest son of the
present king of France, and of Maria
Theresa of Savoy; born at Versailles,
Aug. 6, 1775. He emigrated, with his
father, in 1789, and spent his time at his
grandfather's, in Turin, with the duke de
Berri, his brother, chiefly in the study of
gunnery. In Aug., 1792, he placed him-
self at the head of a corps of emigrants
in Germany. The bad success of the
war induced him to settle with his father
at Edinburgh. He went, however, some
time afterwards, to Blankenburg, in the
duchy of Brunswick, and finally to Mittau,
in Russia. There he married the only
daughter of Louis XVI. In 1801, he left
Mittau, and went, with his wife and Louis
XVIII, to Warsaw, under the protection
of the king of Prussia. But the political
system of the cabinet of Berlin obliged
them, in 1805, to go a second time to
Russia, where they inet with the kindest
reception from Alexander. Thence he
went to England, where the count d'Ar-
tois and the whole Bourbon family re-
sided together, at a retired country-seat,
near London. When the allied armies
invaded France, in 1814, the duke of A.
Feb. 2, 1814, repaired to the head-quarters
of the British army, at St. Jean de Luz,
and immediately wrote that famous proc-
lamation to the French army (Jarrive,
je suis en France, dans cette France qui
m'est si chère.) The inhabitants of Bor-
deaux had already declared themselves
against Napoleon, and the most zealous
royalists hastened daily to the frontiers to
offer their services to the duke. At length,
under the protection of the English army,
.
251*
he made his entry into Bordeaux. The
duke solemnly promised to the mayor,
before the assembled citizens, oblivion of
the past, and happiness for the future.
Three days afterwards, he issued a proc-
lamation, in which, in the name of the
king, he promised the abolition of the
conscription and of unpopular taxes, en-
couragement of commerce, and complete
religious liberty; but, at the same time,
demanded of the French quietness and
order, without any party spirit. Inde-
fatigable in his zeal for the king, he has-
tened from city to city, in order to gain
the favor of the citizens and soldiers, and
arrived in Paris in May, where he found
the whole royal family united. He was
made colonel-general of the cuirassiers
and dragoons, and admiral of France. In
Feb., 1815, he made a journey into the
southern provinces, with the duchess.
But in Bordeaux, March 9, he received
from Paris the news of the landing of
Napoleon, and, at the same time, his ap-
pointment as lieutenant-general of the
kingdom, with unlimited authority. He
left the city immediately, confiding the
duchess to the fidelity of Bordeaux, and
established a new government in Toulon,
at the head of which he placed count
Damas and the baron de Vitrolles. After
this, he advanced, with some troops of the
line and national guards, towards Monte-
limar, where he beat the Bonapartists,
March 30. He then marched from Moute-
mart to Valence, in order to take pos-
session of Lyons, and, near Loriol, upon
the heights of Livron, and at the bridge
over the Drome, defeated the enemy a
second time, but was attacked, April 6,
near St. Jacques, driven back to Valence,
and deserted by his troops. Bordeaux
and Toulouse fell off, and he himself was
arrested near Port St. Esprit, and impris-
oned. After 6 days, he was released, and,
with his followers, put on board of the
Swedish vessel Scandinavia, at Cetic.
He landed at Barcelona, and went to
Madrid, to Ferdinand VII. Soon after,
he returned to the French frontier, to oz-
ganize a new opposition to Napoleon.
In Puycerda, July 10th, he learned that
Marseilles had revolted from Napoleor.
He wrote immediately to the royal com-
mittee in this city, and made the lieuten-
ant-general, marquis de Rivière, governor.
He himself collected all the French who
had fled to Spain, and was about to pass
the frontiers, when the events in the
Netherlands opened anew to Louis XVIII
the gates of the capital. The duke im-
mediately hastened from Bordeaux to
252
ANGOULEME-ANGUILLA.
Toulouse, where he restored the royal
government, and in a short time organ-
ized several battalions of royal volunteers,
who enlisted for 4 years, and garrisoned
the fortresses in the Pyrenees, in the
Alps, and along the coasts. After his
return to Paris, he was made president
of the electoral college in the department
of the Gironde, and set out with his wife,
Aug. 15, for Bordeaux, where he opened
the sittings of the electoral body with a
speech, and had the pleasure of seeing
the elections result according to his wish.
Oct. 12, he was made president of the 5th
bureau of the chamber of peers, but
appeared there as seldom as the other
princes of the blood. Political quarrels,
and, still more, the violent religious dis-
putes between Catholics and Protest-
ants, soon obliged the king to send this
prince into the southern provinces, where,
after some ebullitions of party spirit, he
succeeded in restoring tranquillity. In
the campaign of 1823, in Spain, he was
commander-in-chief, and is said to have
carried on the war in a spirit of mild-
ness.
*
ANGOULEME, Maria Theresa Charlotte,
duchess of, dauphiness, daughter of Louis
XVI, born Dec. 19, 1778, at Versailles,
displayed, in early youth, a penetrating
understanding, an energetic character,
and the tenderest feeling for the misfor-
tunes of others. The grand-prince czar
Paul, who travelled through France as
comte du Nord, at his departure, took the
little princess, then 4 years of age, in his
arms, and kissed her, with the words,
"Farewell; I shall never see you again.'
"Dear count,” replied the child, "I shall
come to you."-The revolution broke out,
and, Aug. 10, 1792, the whole royal family
was imprisoned in one of the towers of
the temple. The princess, in Dec., 1795,
was exchanged for the deputies whom
Dumouriez had surrendered to the Aus-
trians, and was carried to Vienna. Her
income, at this time, consisted of the in-
terest of a capital of 400,000 franes, which
the archduchess Christina, of Austria, had
bequeathed to her. During her residence
at Vienna, Louis XVIII concluded to
marry her to the duke of Angouleme ;
this was done, June 10, 1799, in Mittau.
The emperor of Russia signed the con-
tract. But the political situation of Russia
obliged all the Bourbons, in the year
1801, to fly to Warsaw. Here they lived
till 1805, when they returned, with the
permission of the emperor Alexander, to
Mittan. Towards the end of 1805, they
were obliged, by the successes of Na-
poleon, to fly to England. The princess
left her retired seat at Hartwell, for the
first time, at the invitation of the prince
regent, June 4, 1811, on the birth-day of
George III. In April, 1814, she heard
the news of the restoration of the Bour-
bons to the throne of France, and, May
4th, she made her entrance into Paris
with the king. On the return of Napo-
leon to France, she was at Bordeaux with
her husband. Her endeavors to preserve
this city for the king being ineffectual,
she embarked for England, went to
Ghent, and returned thence to Paris, on
the new change of things.
ANGORA, ANGYRA, OF ANGOURA; a pop-
ulous city of Natolia, 212 miles from Con-
stantinople, and one of the neatest and
most polished towns of Asia Minor. The
inhabitants, the number of whom is not
ascertained, are composed of Turks and
Christians. It formerly was much more
extensive, and its population, perhaps,
double that of recent times, having been
reckoned at 80,000 souls. The town
stands on an eminence, and is surrounded
by hills covered with fine gardens. It is
fortified, but the walls of the city are suf-
fered to go to decay. A. was, at one time,
a place of great trade, and the inhabitants
still maintain a considerable manufacture
of yarn, Angora stuffs and shawls. It is
supposed that not less than 15,000 picces
of these latter articles are yearly made in
the city. The shawls are peculiarly fine,
rivalling even those of Cashmere, and
fabricated from the hair of the Angora
goat. The surrounding country is chiefly
devoted to the raising of wheat. Opium,
however, is cultivated in the district, and
large quantities of honey and wax are
obtained from the extensive bee-hives in
and near the city. A. stands on the very
site of the ancient Ancyra, in E. lon. 332
18', N. lat. 40° 4. Numerous caravans
continually pass through this city.
ANGRA; a seaport on the S. side of
Terceira, one of the Azores, of which A,
is the capital; lon. 27° 14′ W.; lat. 38° 38′
N.; pop. 11,000. The town is well built,
and has 5 parishes, a cathedral, 4 monas-
teries, and as many nummeries. It is de-
feuded by a strong castle and deep diteh.
King Alphonso VI was imprisoned in
this castle by his brother, Peter H, in
1668. The town derives its name from
angra, a creek, bay, or station for ship-
ping; this hay being the only convenient
harbor in all the Azores. The English,
French and Dutch have consuls residing
here.
ANGUILLA; the most northerly of the
ANGUILLA—ANICHINI.
Caribbee islands, so named from its form.
It was discovered in 1650, by the English.
In 1745, the militia defended it against
the French. Some sugar is raised here.
Lon. 63° 10′ W.; lat. 18° 15′ N.-There is
a rocky island of the same name, one of
the smaller Bahama or Lucayos islands;
20 miles long, 5 broad; lon. 78° 50′ W.;
lat. 23° 36′ N.-Anguilla bay lies on the
north side of the island of St. John's, in
the gulf of St. Lawrence, opposite the
Magdalen isles.—Anguilla cape; a prom-
ontory on the west side of Newfoundland,
in the gulf of St. Lawrence.
ANGUINUM OVUM, the adder-stone; a
fabulous kind of egg, said to be produced
by the saliva of a cluster of serpents, and
possessed of certain magical virtues. The
superstition in respect to these was very
prevalent among the ancient Britons, and
there still remains a tradition of it in
Wales. This wondrous egg seems to
have been nothing more than a bead of
glass, used by the Druids as a charm to
impose on the people, whom they taught
to believe that the possessor of it would
be fortunate in all attempts. The method
of ascertaining its genuineness was no
less extraordinary than the powers attrib-
uted to it. It was to be enchased in gold,
and thrown into a river; and, if it was
genuine, it would swim against the stream.
Pliny gives a similar account of it, lib.
xix. c. 3.
ANHALT. Under this name, the pos-
sessions of three different dukes-those of
Anhalt-Bernburg, Anhalt-Cöthen and An-
halt-Dessau-are comprehended. Before
the right of primogeniture was intro-
duced, in the succession of the German
princes, this little country was divided
into 4 hereditary sovereignties, but was
afterwards reduced to the above-men-
tioned 3. In April, 1807, the princes of
A. took the title of duke. The house
has, at present, joined the German con-
federation, and, together with Oldenburg
and Schwarzburg, has the 15th vote in
the diet; in the general assembly (plc-
num), however, each of the 3 houses has
a separate vote. Each enjoys sovereign
power in its own division, yet the 3 to-
gether form a confederation, by the terms
of which the right of mutual succession
is secured to the lines respectively, and
the assembly of the states, as well as the
public debt of the family, put under the
direction of the senior member of the
house for the time being, at present the
duke of Bernburg. The ducal house
bears a common title and arms, and pro-
fesses the Calvinistic faith. The greater
22
VOL. í.
253
part of the inhabitants, also, are of the
same persuasion. Towards the close of
1825, however, the duke and duchess of
Cöthen went over to the Catholic church
at Paris. There are also among the in-
habitants many Lutherans and a few
Jews. The lands of the house of A.,
comprising about 1030 square miles, with
128,100 inhabitants, are mostly situated
between the Hartz and the river Elbe,
and are surrounded by the Prussian prov-
ince of Saxony; they are fertile. ˆThe
inhabitants are wealthy, and live partly
by agriculture and grazing; but, in the
vicinity of Bernburg, also by mining. The
manufactures are unimportant.
ANHYDRITE; a dry sulphate of lime,
found in the salt-mines of Austria and
Salzburg, and in limestone at Lockport,
New York. It presents several varieties
of structure and color. The vulpinite of
Italy is the only one used in the arts.
This possesses a granular structure, re-
gembling a coarse-grained marble.
color is grayish-white intermingled with
blue. It is cut and polished for various
ornamental purposes, under the name of
marmo bardiglio di Bergamo.
Its
ANICH, Peter; a Tyrolese peasɔnt, as-
tronomer and geographer; born in 1723,
at Oberporfess, near Inspruck; died in
1766. Till 28 years old, he was, like his
father, a farmer, but very early became
an admirer of the sciences. The Jesuits
in Inspruck perceived his talents, and
gave him instruction in mechanics and
mathematics. This was sufficient to induce
the young man to undertake the making
cf a celestial globe, of a terrestrial globe,
and of many mathematical instruments.
When his teacher, a Jesuit, observed
the success of his labors, he recommend-
ed him to the empress Maria Theresa,
who ordered him to draw a map of the
northem Tyrol. The superstition of his
countrymen made his labors difficult, and
even endangered his life. Finally, the
map was finished; but it was found, in
Vienna, that it had been executed on too
large a scale, and he was commanded to
reduce it to 9 sheets. This reduction
cost him much labor, and he died before
completing it, Sept. 1, 1766. In 1774, the
map finally appeared, under the title Ty-
rolis geographice delineata a Petro Anich
ct Blasio Huerer, curante Ign. Weinhart.
ANICHINI, Luigi; a famous scal-en-
graver, in the time of Michael Angelo.
He was a native of Ferrara. His Interview
of Alexander the Great with a High-priest
at Jerusalem was declared by Michael An-
gelo to be the perfection of his art.
254
ANIMA MUNDI-ANIMAL.
ANIMA MUNDI; the soul of the world
or universe; a certain pure, ethereal sub-
stance or spirit, which was said, by some
ancient philosophers, to be diffused
throughout all nature-the living princi-
ple of the world, the god of the Panthe-
ists. Plato treats at large of the yuzi Tou
xioμov, the soul of the world, in his Timæus.
He is considered, by some, the origina-
tor of this idea, but this is not at all
probable; on the contrary, it is an ancient
idea, prevailing in the systems of certain
Eastern philosophers. The Egyptians
also adopted it. Many philosophical and
philosophico-religious sects entertained
the same notion, under a considerable
diversity of forms. Many of the first
Christian sects believed in the anima
mundi; and at all times there have ex-
isted estimable and religious men and
philosophers, who could not believe in a
God who exists without the material
world, but pervades it every where. Of
the most recent philosophers, Schelling
has dwelt most on this idea, and incorpo-
rated it into his whole system. He calls
it Die Weltseele. (See Philosophy.)
ANIMAL, ANIMAL LIFE. Life, in the
earlier periods of natural history, was
attributed only to animals. With the
progress of science, however, it was ex-
tended to plants; and man, who had been
hitherto regarded as a distinct order of
being, was now considered as but a high-
er animal, intimately connected with the
whole chain of the organized world. The
great discoveries in chemistry, magnetism,
electricity and galvanism, have shown
that those elements and principles, on
which rest the laws of life, pervade nature
in the most various forms and combina-
tions; that there is no harsh and abrupt
distinction between the animate world
and the inanimate, but, on the contrary,
an intimate connexion between the en-
ergy which makes the crystallizing min-
eral follow the law of the strictest regu-
larity, or the stone fall from the height,
and that which makes the heart of man
beat. The difficulty of defining animal
life has, therefore, been greatly increased.
What is animal life? What constitutes
an animal? Since mankind began to
cultivate philosophy, they have sought in
vain for a definition of life. It would
require much more metaphysical discus-
sion, to enter at all satisfactorily into this
subject, than the character of the present
work allows; and we are constrained to
offer the reader only the following remarks
on this most interesting subject.--Linnæus
defines an animal an organized, living
and sentient being. An animal is indeed
organized; but are not vegetables organ-
ized also? Animals are endowed with
sensation; but are all, without exception?
and do not some plants possess this fac-
ulty? Locomotion is not a more certain
characteristic of animals than life or inri-,
tability, for many animals are destitute of
this power, and vegetate like plants, the
images of torpidity and insensibility. Nei-
ther are the chemical characters of ani-
mal substances more distinct; animals
are chiefly composed of azote, and vege-
tables of carbon; but, among the latter,
some are, like the former, composed prin-
cipally of azote. In whatever point of
view we consider these two kingdoms of
nature, we find them blended in so many
ways, and separated from each other by
such imperceptible gradations, that it is
impossible to draw a line, at which we
can affirm that animal life ends and the
vegetable begins. We cannot, therefore,
give a rigorous definition of the animal
kingdom, but we may point out certain
general characteristics, which clearly dis-
tinguish this from the other kingdoms of
nature. There are two kinds of motion
in animals, one of which is voluntary,
and the other mechanical. The latter is
involuntary, and belongs to the vegetative
life of the animal. By this the vital ac-
tions are carried on independently of
volition. By this the heart beats, the
blood circulates, the food is assimilated.
The former is voluntary, and is peculiar
to animal life; it cannot exist without a
nervous system, or something equivalent,
by which the animal perceives and wills.
However feeble the manifestations of this
will may be, it nevertheless exists in pro-
portion to the simplicity or complexity
of the organization of the creature which
perceives and wills. Thus the vibrio and
the monas, although apparently destitute
of viscera, organs and locomotive appa-
ratus, when they avoid or pursue sur-
rounding objects, act by virtue of the will
as completely as the highest orders of
organized creatures. One sense is suffi-
cient to produce voluntary motion, and,
therefore, to constitute animal life; the
vibrio and the monas have at least one
sense analogous to that of touch. This
kind of motion may exist without loco-
motion, as in the oyster.-There is no
one organ which characterizes the animal
kingdom; there is none which is found
in all animals. The head, the stomach,
the system of circulation, in a word, all
the complicated apparatus of the man-
malia, for example, disappears in other
ANIMAL.
classes, or undergoes a thousand various
combinations of form and proportion.
The organ, of which the slightest injury
in one animal produces instant death,
may be wounded or even extracted from
another without fatal consequences
whilst some are killed by the loss of
some parts of the body, others may be
cut in pieces, and each fragment becomes
a perfect animal.-M. de Lamarck lays
down the 9 following characteristics, as
common to all animals, and peculiar to
them, and constituting, therefore, the dis-
tinction between the animal and vegeta-
ble kingdoms:-1, that they have parts
susceptible of contraction of themselves,
and thus the power of moving themselves
suddenly and repeatedly; 2, that they
have the power of changing place, and
of acting at will, if not completely, at least
to a great extent; 3, that they perform
Lo motion, total or partial, unless in con-
sequence of certain motives, and that they
are able to repeat the motion as often as
the exciting cause operates; 4, that they
betray no perceptible relation between
the motions they perform and the exciting
cause; 5, that their solid as well as fluid
parts partake of the vital motions; 6, that
they nourish themselves with compound
substances of a different nature from
themselves, and that they digest these
substances in order to assimilate them;
7, that they differ from each other in their
organization, and in the faculties resulting
from this organization, from the most
simple to the most complicated, so that
their parts cannot be mutually transform-
ed into each other; 8, that they are able
to act for their own preservation; 9, that
they have no predominant tendency in the
developement of their bodies to grow per-
pendicularly to the plane of the horizon,
or to preserve a parallel direction in the
vessels which contain their fluids.-Lin-
næus was the first who ventured to in-
clude man in the systematic classification
of animals; and, though he was violently
assailed for thus degrading the dignity of
the human race, he has been followed, in
this arrangement, by succeeding philoso-
phers. Cuvier has, however, assigned
him a distinct order, bimana, by which
means he is separated from monkeys,
with whom Linnæus had classed him.-
Linnæus divided the animal kingdom into
6 classes, as follows:-*. Such as have
the blood warm and red; the heart with
two auricles and two ventricles.-1. Jam-
malia; viviparous; suckle their young.—
II. Aves, birds; oviparous; have neither
teats nor milk.-** Such as have the
255
blood red and cold; single heart, with
one auricle.-III. Amphibia; oviparous;
without teats, milk, hair or feathers.-IV.
Pisces, fishes; breathe by gills, a sort of
external lungs; oviparous; their organs
of locomotion, fins; their covering, scales;
they emit no sound, and inhabit the wa-
ter.-***. Such as have a single heart,
without auricles; blood cold and white,
consisting of a sort of transparent lymph.
(These characters have since been found
to be incorrect; for some of these ani-
mals have red blood, and some have no
heart at all.)-V. Insects; provided with
antennæ; breathe by lateral stigmata; all
have feet, most have wings, and undergo
transformations.-VI. Vermes, worms;
provided with tentacula; no feet or fins.
The progress of natural history has re-
vealed some defects in the system of Lin-
næus. Cuvier has corrected its errors and
supplied its deficiencies. His system is
as follows:-*. Tertebral animals. They
have an internal skeleton, composed of a
series of bones attached to each other, and
called the vertebral column.
It is perfo-
rated by a canal containing the substance
from which the nerves, or organs of sen-
sation, take their rise. This column is
terminated at one end by the head, (which
is, perhaps, only a vertebra fully devel-
oped), and at the other by the os coccygis,
or tail. Two cavities, the chest and the
abdomen, contain the principal organs of
life. The sexes are two, male and fe-
male; testicles belong to the former, ova-
ries to the latter; a spleen, liver, pan-
creas, jaws incumbent, transversal, and
provided with teeth (which are imper-
fectly developed in the beak of birds),
not more than four limbs, constitute the
character of this class. The organization
of the vertebral animals presents a striking
analogy throughout.-I. Mammalia; pro-
ducing their young alive, which they
suckle by teats; having warm blood; a
heart with two ventricles; lungs; a con-
voluted brain, with a corpus callosum ;
five senses; a muscular diaphragm be-
tween the chest and the abdominal cavity;
seven cervical vertebræ (one species ex-
cepted, which has nine). The mammalia,
among which man is included, are gen-
erally the most intelligent of animals:
they are divided into orders, according to
the structure of their teeth and their feet,
which organs determine the habits and
manner of life in animals.-II. Birds,
aves; oviparous; the eggs covered with
a calcareous shell; without milk or teats;
heart and blood like those of the mam-
malia; lungs; no diaphragm; no teeth
;
256
ANIMAL.
apparent on the jaws, which are called
the beak; feathers and wings; projecting
sternum, which completes the apparatus
for flying; a gizzard for a stomach; no
external car.
These animals are the only
ones which sleep standing; they are di-
vided into orders, according to the struct-
ure of the beak and feet.-III. Reptiles;
oviparous; the eggs without shells, and
sometimes fecundated without coition;
single heart; blood almost cold, and red.
The reptiles indisputably forin a separate
class, but they have few common charac-
ters peculiar to them; some are enclosed in
a bony shell; others are naked; and others
are covered with plates, scales, or rings.
There are some which have limbs; oth-
ers, without the least trace of them; and
others, in which the number and structure
of the limbs vary. Some undergo trans-
formations, like insects, and are, at one
period of their life, real fish, and for the
rest of their days, little quadrupeds.-IV.
Pisces, fish; oviparous; eggs without
shell or albuminous envelope, and fe-
cundated without coition; single heart;
blood cold and red; no real limbs, their
place being supplied by vertical fins: this
vertical disposition of the fins is sufficient
to distinguish, at the first glance, fishes
from the cetaceous animals, which have
horizontal fins; the body is naked, when
not covered with scales; the skeleton is
destitute of solidity, and, in the lower
species, is reduced to a mere cartilagi-
nous vertebral column.-**. Mollusca;
no skeleton; the muscles attached to
a soft skin, which is sometimes naked,
and sometimes covered with shells of
very various forms. The nervous sys-
tem, in these animals, is confounded
with the other parts; none of the or-
gans is protected by a bony case; the
nervous system is composed of several
ganglia, a sort of little brain, connected
by sensitive filaments. The organs of
nutrition and generation are very com-
plicated in some; they appear to have
but two senses, touch and taste, but some
have also sight; they breathe by gills,
and have sometimes three hearts. Cu-
vier divides the mollusca into six orders:
the cephalopoda, pteropoda, gasleropoda,
acephala, branchiopoda, and cirrhopoda.-
***. Articulated. Their nervous system
is composed of two long cords, running
the whole length of the body, interrupted,
at intervals, by knots, or ganglia, the first
of which is always the largest; the blood
is cold, generally a white lymph, except
in the first order, the annclides, in which
it is red. The body and limbs, when
they have any, are composed of ringa.
This great division will probably undergo
some modifications hereafter.-I. Annel-
ides; heart fleshy, visible; blood red;
breathe by gills, the position of which is
various; body composed of articulated
rings; no feet, sometimes thread-like
members in their stead. The annelides
are hermaphrodites, and probably ovipa-
rous.-II. Crustaceous; heart composed
of one fleshy ventricle; blood white, cir-
culates; breathe by gills; provided with
antennæ, commonly with four, and sev-
cral transverse jaws; they are oviparous,
and the sexes are distinct.-III. Arach-
nules, spiders; head and thorax united;
no antennæ, nor gills; breathing by tra-
cheæ, or by pulmonary bags; distinct
sexes; eggs; the young undergo no com-
plete transformation after they are hatch-
ed; number of eyes and feet variable.—
IV. Insects; no heart; lymph instead of
blood; breathe by trachea; body divided
into three important parts,-the head,
which supports the antennæ, and com-
pound eyes, consisting of numerous fa-
cets; the thorax, to which are attached
the feet, to the number of six, and the
wings, to the number of four or two;
finally, the abdomen, containing the prin-
cipal viscera: sexes distinct; oviparous;
generate by copulation; the young un-
dergo wonderful transformations. Insects
propagate but once during their life.
They are divided into orders, according
to the structure of the mouth, of the.
tarsus or foot, of the antennæ, and of the
wings.-****. Radiated. This class is dis-
tinguished from the 3 preceding almost
entirely by negative characters, the ani-
mals included in it having few characters
in common. Abortions of nature, pro-
vided only with the incipient forms of
organization, they show no traces of cir-
culation, no organs of sense, no distinct
nervous system; the organs of respiration
are indistinct; those of digestion some-
times complicated, sometimes consisting
only of a sack without an outlet; some-
times exhibiting organs, of which the ac-
tion is visible, but the functions unknown ;
some of them manifest a tendency to the
radiated formation, and many are com-
posed of rays, that is, of tentacula diverg-
ing regularly from the centre to the cir-
cumference; but this character is far from
being universal, since many of this class
are perfectly spherical or membranous,
without the least tendency to the radiated
structure. They all inhabit the water.—
I. Echinodermata; distinct organs of res-
piration and circulation; the viscera con-
ANIMAL.--ANIMAL HEAT.
tained in an interior.cavity formed by the
spines disposed in rays, and sometimes
star-formed; they inhabit the sea.-II.
Intestini, intestinal worms; long body,
without limbs; no distinct viscera, except
a long digestive canal; parasites of other
animals, in whose bodies they are found;
it is not known how they enter them, nor
is any thing known of their manner of
respiration and generation. III. Acalephe,
sea-nettles; body orbicular or radiated,
containing a digestive sack; no organs of
circulation, respiration or generation dis-
tinguishable; some of them, however,
emit a substance, which might be taken
for eggs, and which, when touched, ex-
cites a tingling sensation in the skin, simi-
lar to that produced by nettles; the
mouth serves as an anus; they inhabit
the sea.-IV. Polypi; body soft, con-
tractible, forming an intestinal sack, which
presents the appearance of an orifice sur-
rounded by tentacula; no appearance
of organization which would lead us to
suppose them endowed with any sense
except that of touch; they are found only
in the water, but inhabit both salt and
fresh.-V. Infusoria; bodies transparent,
contractible, microscopic; no organ dis-
cernible. For the mental powers of ani-
mals, see the article Understanding.
ANIMAL HEAT is that property of all
animals, by means of which they preserve
a certain temperature, which is quite in-
dependent of that of the medium by which
they are surrounded, and appears rather
to be in proportion to the degree of sensi-
bility and irritability possessed by them.
It is greatest in birds. The more free
and independent the animal is, the more
uniform is its temperature. On this ac-
count, the human species preserves a tem-
perature nearly equal, about 96-100
Fahr., in the frozen regions at the pole,
and beneath the equator; and on this
account, too, the heat of the human body
remains the same when exposed to the
most extreme degrees of temperature; in
fact, cold at first rather elevates, and ex-
treme heat rather depresses the tempera-
ture of the human body. Fordyce and
Blagden endured the temperature of an
oveň heated almost to redness, and two
girls in France entered a baker's oven
licated to 269° Fahr., in which fruits were
soon dried up, and water boiled. A
Spaniard, Francisco Martinez by name,
exhibited himself, a short time since, at
Paris, in a stove heated to 279° of Fahr.,
and threw himself, immediately after, into
cold water. Blagden was exposed in an
oren to a heat of 257, in which water
257
boiled, though covered with oil. There
is also a remarkable instance of a similar
endurance of heat by the convulsionnaires,
as they were called, upon the grave of St.
Medardus, in France. A certificate signed
by several eye-witnesses, among whom
were Armand, Arouet, the brother of
Voltaire, and a Protestant nobleman from
Perth, states that a woman named la
Sonet, surnamed the salamander, lay
upon a fire 9 minutes at a time, which
was repeated four times within two hours,
making, in all, 36 minutes, during which
time fifteen sticks of wood were consum-
ed. The correctness of the fact stated is
allowed even by those opposed to the
abuses in which it originated. The
flames sometimes united over the wo-
man, who seemed to sleep; and the whole
miracle is to be attributed to the insensi-
bility of the skin and nerves, occasioned
by a fit of religious insanity. These facts
are the results of a law of all living sub-
stances, viz., that the temperature of the
living body cannot be raised above
certain limits, which nature has fixed.
There is also an increased flow of
perspiration, by means of which the heat
of the body is carried off. The extreme
degrees of cold which are constantly
endured by the human frame without
injury are well known, and are to be
explained only by this power in the
living body to generate and preserve its
own heat. The greater the irritability of
individuals, whether from age, sex, or pe-
culiarity of constitution, the greater the
warmth of the body: it seems also to de-
pend, in part, upon the quickness of the
circulation of the blood: thus children
and small animals, whose circulation is
lively, feel the cold least. The heat and
the power of preserving it differ also in
the different parts of the body; those ap-
pearing to be warmest in which there is
the most copious supply of blood, as the
brain, the head and neck, the lungs and
central parts of the body. We scè, also,
that when the irritability of the body, or
of any part of it, is particularly increased,
the heat of the part undergoes a similar
change. Increased activity and motion
of the body, as in walking, running, &c.,
and diseases of increased excitement, as
fever and inflammation, produce a similar
increase in the temperature of the body.
All this justifies the conclusion, that ani-
mal heat depends chiefly upon the irrita-
bility of the body, and is thus most inti-
mately connected with the state of the
nervous system. This view is confirmed
by the late experiments of Brodie, who
22 *
258
ANIMAL HEAT.—ANIMALCULE.
ascribed this power of the living body to
the influence of the brain. He destroyed
the brain of a rabbit, and kept up the respi-
ration by artificial means; but the heat of
the animal regularly diminished.
ANIMAL MAGNETISM. (See Magnetism.)
ANIMAL MATTER is the protection, the
residence and the visible form of animal
life. The simple elementary substances
are combined by the powers of life, ac-
cording to the objects for which it was
destined, into various animal substances,
falling naturally under certain divisions,
which all, however, in some respects,
comprehend each other. These divisions
are as follows:-a. FLUIDS. These have
no distinct form or organization, and yet
possess properties, by means of which,
when acted upon by the vital powers,
they are capable of forming all the va-
rious organs of the body; and it is surely
a most unnatural view of them to regard
them as destitute of life. In the follow-
ing list of animal fluids, which, in the
processes of life, pass constantly the one
into the other, we find all the fluid parts
cr kinds of animal matter: they are
chyme, chyle, lymph, venous and arterial
blood, and the various secreted and ex-
creted fluids.―b. SOLIDS. These compre-
hend all the solid parts of the animal
frame, both hard and soft, and are of
nearly the same essential structure in all
animals, although variously arranged, ac-
cording to their species. A minute de-
scription of all these belongs to anatomy;
we shall merely enumerate them. They
appear in the form of, 1, bones, cousti-
tuting the basis, the frame, of the animal,
and found in all animals till we come to
shell-fish (whose shells may be even re-
garded as external bones), and to still in-
ferior animals, possessing no substitute for
bones; 2, ligaments and fibrous mem-
branes, connecting and covering them; 3,
muscles, which move them, and place
the body and its limbs at the command
of the animal; 4, fat and marrow, which
soften and lubricate all the various parts
of the body; 5, nervous or medullary
matter, constituting the brain and nerves,
in which the vital power seems more par-
ticularly to reside; 6, the cellular sub-
stance, or membrane, which pervades all
parts of the frame, and serves to connect
them, and to furnish with the fat, which
fills its cells, a soft bed for the vessels,
nerves, &c; 7, the mucous membranes,
lining the whole body, from the nose and
mouth to the parts at which all evacua-
tions take place, and thus coating the
mouth, throat, lungs, stomach and bowels,
·
in which the important functions of di-
gestion and respiration are performed; 8,
the serous membranes, which line all the
large cavities, and which, by the soft fluid
that always moistens their surface, render
easy the motion of all the internal organs
upon each other; 9, the vascular sys-
tem, or vessels of all descriptions, con-
veying the blood to all the organs of the
body, and returning it from them to the
heart and lungs; and, 10, the glandular
system, by means of which various fluids
important to life are separated from the
blood, or rather formed from it by a new
composition of its original elements.
These various classes of animal matter
comprehend all the various forms, in
which it appears in all animals of all
kinds; the heart of a frog and of a phi-
losopher being composed of similar mus-
cular fibres, and their brains of similar
nervous matter. These obvious compo-
nent parts of animals are, however, sepa-
rable by the art of the chemist into more
simple and ultimate elements. The fol-
lowing are all that are at present known
to exist, and of these some are peculiar
to animals, while others enter, more or
less, into the composition of all parts of
the creation. They are, 1, iron, which
is found chiefly in the blood, in the state
of an oxyde; 2, lime, which enters large-
ly into the composition of bones, shells,
&c. ; 3, silex, in the enamel of the teeth;
4, water, which gives their liquid charac-
ter to all the animal fluids; 5, air is
found, mixed with watery vapor, in the
various cavities of the body; 6, soda,
united with various acids, in all the vari-
ous fluids of the body; 7, ammonia, in
the sweat, urine, &c.; 8, sulphur; 9,
phosphorus, in the bones, &c.; 10, ear-
bon; 11, various acids, as the phospheric,
muriatic, uric, lactic, fornie, &e., which
are found, variously combined, in most
of the solid and fluid parts of the body;
12, gelatin, or glue; 13, albumen, con-
stituting the chief part of the transparent
and colorless membranes, and the fluids
which moisten them; 14, fibrine, con-
stituting the basis of all the muscles, liga-
ments, &c., and the most important in-
gredient in the composition of the blood.
Most of these substances are again sus-
ceptible of still farther analysis, by which
they may be resolved into the simple
gases, as azote, hydrogen, oxygen, &c.;
so that it appears, that the ultimate cle-
ments of all parts of the visible world are
nearly the same in their essential character.
ANIMALCULE. (See Microscopical Ani-
mals.)
•
ANIME-ANNA IVANOWNA.
ANIME; a resin exuding from the trunk
of a large American tree, called by Piso
jetaiba, by the Indians, courbaril, a spe-
cies of hymenaa. The tree is found par-
ticularly in New Spain and the Brazils.
A superior kind is sometimes imported
from the East.
ANISE-SEEDS are the production of an
umbelliferous plant (pimpinella anesum),
which grows wild in Egypt, Syria, and
other eastern countries. They are round-
ish and striated, flatted on one side, and
pointed at one end; and of a pale color,
jaclining to green. Attempts were made,
inore than 200 years ago, to cultivate
anise in England, but the summers are
seldom warn enough to bring the plant
to perfection. It has, consequently, been
found necessary to import the seed from
Malta and Spain, where it is cultivated to
a considerable extent. Anise-seeds have
an aromatic smell, and pleasant, warm
taste, accompanied with some degree of
sweetness. They have long been em-
ployed in medicine, and have been con-
sidered useful in diseases of the lungs and
complaints of the stomach. They give
out all their virtue to rectified spirit; and
a spirituous water is kept in the shops as
a cordial, which is prepared from a mix-
ture of equal parts of anise-seed and an-
gelica.
ANJOU; an ancient province of France,
75 miles in length and 60 in breadth, now
forming, with some of the lute provinces
in its neighborhood, several departments,
viz., that of the two Sevres, of the Indre and
Loire, the Sarthe, the Loire, but chiefly
that of Mayenne and Loire, in which also
the old capital is situated. The noble river
Loire divided the old province. The en-
tire district contains about 256 French
square miles, and is watered by upwards
of 40 rivers. A. is very fertile, producing
all sorts of grain, fruits, hemp and flax;
it contains excellent pastures and rich
vineyards. Much brandy is sent from
hence to Nantes and Paris. A. contains,
also, coal, lead and tin. It manufactures
uch. The chief town is Angers, and
the population was estimated, prior to the
revolution, at upwards of 90,000 families.
St. Louis bestowed this province on his
brother, Charles, in 1246; but, in 1328, it
again fell to the crown with Philip IV.
John I. raised it to the rank of a ducal
peerage, and gave it to his son, Louis I;
but, in 1480, it reverted once more to the
crown. Different princes of the blood
bore, subsequently, the title of Anjou, till
Louis XV. conferred it, together with
that of Provence, on his graudson, Louis
259
Stanislaus, count of Provence, afterwards
Louis XVIII. (See the history of France
in the article France.)
ANKERSTREM, John Jacob, the mur-
derer of Gustavus III, was, at first, a page
in the Swedish court, afterwards an inte-
rior officer in the regiment of body guards,
and, later, an ensign in the royal guards.
His father was lieutenant-colonel, and
knight of the order of the sword. He
was of a passionate and gloomy character,
and maintained a continual opposition to
the measures of the king, particularly
those for limiting the power of the senate
and nobles. The loss of a suit aggravated
his animosity against the king. In 1783,
he received his dismission, married, and re-
tired to the country; but, in 1790, returned
to Stockholm. He here united himself
with several of the nobility, particularly
the counts Horn and Ribbing, barons
Bidke and Pechlin, lieutenant-colonel
Liljehorn and others, and they decided
upon the death of the king. A. entreated
that the murder might be left to him: but
Ribbing and Horn putting in their claims,
they cast lots, and it fell to A. The king
had just assembled a diet in Gefle, 1792,
and the conspirators went there. Here,
however, they found no opportunity to
execute their plan. The measures of the
diet exasperated them still more.
king returned to Stockholm, and it was
known that he would be present at a
masquerade, March 15. Here A. dis-
charged a pistol at him, and wound-
ed him mortally. (See Gustavus III.) He
was discovered, arrested, and confessed
his crine, but refused to betray his ac-
complices. April 29, 1792, he was con-
demired to death, scourged during several
days, and dragged upon a cart to the
scaffold. Through the whole of his suf-
ferings he showed the greatest calmness,
boasted of his deed, and ended his life at
the age of 31 years. The counts Horn
and Ribbing, and colonel Liljehorn, were
banished for life.
The
ANLACE; a falchion or sword, shaped
like a sithe.
ANNA IVANOWNA, empress of Russia:
born in 1693; the daughter of Ivan, the
elder brother of Peter the Great. She
was married to the duke of Courland,
was left a widow, and, in 1730, ascended
the throne of the ezars, under singular
circumstances. Peter I, son of the un-
fortunate Alexis, died in his 16th year,
and the young princes, Ivan and Basil
Dolgorucky, administered the govern-
ment, under the direction of the old
chancellor Ostermanu. As the latter flat-
260-
ANNA IVANOWNA-ANNE.
terred himself that he should retain his
authority under a princess to whom he
had given the first instruction in reading,
he used his whole influence to procure
the crown for the duchess of Courland.
He gained over the synod, and the nobles
assembled at Moscow, and thus A. was
preferred to both the daughters of Peter
the Great, and the prince Basil Dolgo-
rucky was appointed to inform her of the
choice of the nation. When he entered
her apartment, he found a poorly-dressed
man in the room, to whom he inade a sign to
withdraw. The other showed no inclina-
tion to obey, and, when Dolgorucky took
his arm to turn him out of the door, he
was prevented by A.; it was Ernestus
John von Biren, the favorite of his sove-
reign, whose influence was soon all-pow-
erful in Russia. A.,. at first, promised to
remove her favorite, and to limit the un-
restrained powers of the czars, but had
scarcely ascended the throne, when she
refused to do either, and proclaimed her-
self autocrat of all the Russias. Biren
now put no limits to his ambition. The
Dolgoruckys were his first victims. Their
friends experienced a similar fate, not-
withstanding A.'s carnest remonstrances.
(See Biren.) In 1737, she forced the
Courlanders to choose him duke, and
nominated him, at her death, regent of
the empire during the minority of prince
Ivan (of Brunswick). She died in 1740.
ANNABERG; one of the most important
manufacturing towns of the Erzgebirg.
Mining is also carried on here, though to
a less extent. The number of inhabitants
is about 5000. It was, at first, only a
mining place. Afterwards, manufactures
were introduced, particularly those of va-
rious kinds of lace, of which a great
part is exported to America. The mines
are nearly exhausted. The population
of the town was greatly increased by the
addition of the Belgians who fled from
the persecutions of duke Alva.
ANNALS; a historical account of the
affairs of a state, digested in the order of
time. The name comes from the first
annual records of the Romans, which
were called annales pontificum, or annales
maximi, and the compilation of which
was the business of the pontifex maximus.
ANNAMABÜE; a town of Africa, on the
Gold Coast, formerly a very considerable
market for slaves. It is a strongly-forti-
fied place, having a port, where, in 1808,
a British garrison of 30 men withstood
the attacks of 20,000 Ashantecs, who were
compelled to raise the siege and retire.
It is said to contain 10,000 inhabitants.
The fortifications are maintained by the
African company at an expense of about
19007. per amum.
ANNAMOOKA, or ROTTERDAM; one of
the Friendly islands in the Polynesian
group of the South sea. Round the island,
which is of a triangular form, and about
10 or 12 miles in circuit, lie scattered
a number of small isles, sand-banks and
breakers. These, together with Middle-
burg, or Eaoowee, and Pylstart, make a
group occupying about 3 degrees of lat.
and 2 of lon., named, by captain Cook,
the Friendly islands or archipelago, as a
firm alliance and friendship seemed to
subsist among their inhabitants, 'whose
courteous behavior entitled them to that
appellation. Lon. 174° W.; lat. 20° S.
The island was discovered by Tasman, a
Dutch navigator, in 1643. Cook visited
it in 1777.
ANNAPOLIS; city and port of entry, in
the county of Ann Arundel, Maryland, on
S. W. side of the Severn, 2 miles from
its mouth; 28 miles S. S. E. Baltimore,
40 E. N. E. Washington. Lon. 76° 43′
W.; lat. 39° N. Population, 2260. It is
the seat of the state government, is a
pleasant and healthy town, and contains
a spacious and elegant state-house, a
market-house, a theatre, and 2 houses of
public worship. The streets converge to
the state-house and to the Episcopal
church, as two centres. The shipping
owned here, in 1816, amounted to 2,553
tons.-There is another Annapolis, A.
Royal, a city of Nova Scotia, on the bay
of Fundy; lon. 65° 50′ W. ; lat. 44° 47′ N.
The harbor is large and safe.
ANNATES; a year's income due to the
pope, on the death of any bishop, abbot,
or parish-priest, to be paid by his succes-
sor.
The concordata Germania, in 1448,
restored to the pope the right of raising
the ammates, which had been forbidden
by the council of Bale, in 1434. They
were made perpetual, by Boniface IX, in
1399. In France, they were finally abol-
ished in 1789. In England, they were at
first paid to the archbishop of Canterbu-
ry, but afterwards appropriated by the
popes. In 1532, the parliament gave them
to the crown; but queen Anne restored
them to the church, by applying them to
the augmentation of poor livings.
ANNE, the last member of the family
of Stuart (now extinct) who was seated
upon the throne of Great Britain, was born
at Twickenham, near London, 1664, 4
years after her uncle, Charles II, ascend-
ed the throne. She was the second daugh-
ter of James II, then duke of York, and
ANNE-ANNEALING.
Anne, his wife, daughter of the renowned
Clarendon. Her father had not then gone
over to the Catholic church; A., was,
therefore, educated according to the prin-
ciples of the English church, and, in 1683,
married to prince George, brother to king
Christian V of Denmark. When, in 1688,
the party which invited the prince of
Orange to dethrone his father-in-law pre-
vailed, A., the favorite daughter of James,
wished to remain with her father. But
she was, in some measure, forced by
Churchill, afterwards duke of Marlbo-
rough, to join the triumphant party. After
the death of her sister, Mary, in 1694, and
that of William III, in 1702, without
children, and after she herself, in 1699,
had lost her only son, the young duke of
Gloucester, she ascended the English
throne. Her capacity was but moderate,
and she was governed by Marlborough
and his wife. The tories were satisfied to
know that the sceptre was in the hands
of a daughter of James II, and hoped to
see the old royal house revived in her
male descendants. The whigs rejoiced,
at least, that the queen, faithful to the
triple alliance, opposed the domineering
spirit of Louis XIV, in order to defend
the liberty of Europe, and to prevent the
union of the French and Spanish crowns
in one house. She, therefore, took part in
the war of the Spanish succession, in which
England captured Gibraltar, the only im-
portant acquisition of this 11 years' war.
During the reign of queen A., England
and Scotland were united under the name
of Great Britain, and, notwithstanding the
wishes of the queen for the restoration
of her own house to the line of succes-
sion, it was settled in the house of Hano-
ver. James in vain attempted a landing
in Scotland, and the queen, A., was obliged
to sign a proclamation setting a price on
his head. Of her 17 children, all died
young; and, when left a widow, she would
not listen to the entreaties of the parliament
(although but 44 years old at the time) to
conclude a new marriage, which might
throw new obstacles in the way of the
restoration of her own family. She now
intended to put all power into the hands
of the tories, who were then the majority
in the three kingdoms. The duchess of
Marlborough lost her influence; Godol-
phin, Sunderland, Somers, Devonshire,
Walpole, Cowper, were superseded by
Harley, earl of Oxford, Bolingbroke,
Rochester, Buckingham, George Grenville
and sir Simon Harcourt, and the parliament
was dissolved. Peace was resolved upon.
Marlborough was accused, suspended
261
and banished. Meanwhile A., . notwith-
standing the measures which she publicly
took against her brother, seenis not to
have given up the hope of securing to
hin the succession; but the irreconcila-
ble enmity of Oxford and Bolingbroke,
the former of whom accused the latter of
favoring the pretender, was an insur-
nountable obstacle. Grieved at the dis-
appointment of her secret wishes, she fell
into a state of weakness and lethargy,
and died July 20, 1714. The words, "O,
my dear brother, how I pity thee!" which
she pronounced on her death-bed, un-
veiled the secret of her whole life. The
reign of A. was distinguished not only by
the brilliant successes of the British arms,
but also as the golden age of English lit-
erature, on account of the number of ad-
mirable and excellent writers who flour-
ished at this time, among whom were
Pope and Addison. It may be considered
the triumph of the English high-church
party, owing to her strong predilection
for the principles by which it has always
been actuated. Her private character
was amiable, but her good sense was
rendered ineffectual by want of energy.
The goodness of her disposition obtained
for her the title of the good queen Annc.
She was an excellent wife and mother,
and a kind mistress.
ANNE of Austria, queen of France, was
the daughter of Philip III, king of Spain,
and, in 1615, married Louis XIII.* On
her cousin's death, his son being under
age, she became sole regent of France
during the minority. She, however,
brought upon herself the hatred of the
nation, by her boundless confidence in
cardinal Mazarin, and was forced to flee
from Paris. In a little time, matters were
accommodated; and, when her son took
the reins of government into his own
hands, in 1661, she gave up all concern
with public affairs, and spent the remain-
der of her life in retirement. She died in
1666.
ANNE of Cleves, the wife of Henry
VIII, king of England, was the daughter
of John III, duke of Cleves. The king
asked her in marriage after having seen à
portrait of her, drawn by Holbein; but it
was not long before he was disgusted with
the Flanders mare, as he called her, and
a divorce ensued; when Anne, without
seeming disconcerted, returned to her
own country, where she died in 1557.
ANNEALING, OF NEALING, as it is called
by the workmen, is a process particularly
employed in the glass-houses, and con-
sists in putting the glass vessels, as soon
►
262
ANNEALING-ANNUITIES.
as they are formed, and while they are
yet hot, into a furnace or oven, not so hot
as to remelt them, in which they are suf-
fered to cool gradually. This is found to
prevent their breaking so easily as they
otherwise would, particularly on exposure
to heat. Unannealed glass, when broken,
often flies into powder, with great vio-
lence, and, in general, it is in more danger
of breaking from a very slight stroke than
from one of considerable force. An un-
annealed glass vessel will often resist the
effect of a pistol-bullet dropped into it;
yet a grain of sand, falling into it, will
make it burst into small fragments, and,
which is very curious, it will often not
burst until several minutes after being
struck. The same phenomena are still
more strikingly seen in glass-drops or
tears: they are globular at one end, and
taper to a small tail at the other: they are
the drops which fall from the melted mass
of glass on the rods, on which the bottles
are made, into the tubs of water, which are
used in the work. Those which remain
entire, after having fallen into the water,
show the properties of unannealed glass
in the highest degree. They will bear a
smart stroke on the thick end, but, if the
sinall tail is broken, they burst into pow-
der, with a loud explosion. The reason
of this singular fact is differently given.
A similar process is used for rendering
cast-iron vessels less brittle.
praises was composed not long after his
death. The last edition of it was pub-
lished by doctor Goldmann, Leipsic, 1816.
The political importance of St. A., as
chancellor of the emperor Henry III, and
afterwards as administrator of the empire
during the minority of Henry IV; his bold
spirit of government, as well as the dig-
nity of his holy life; his paternal care for
his archbishopric; the zeal with which he
labored for the reformation of the monas-
teries, and established new ones, as well as
churches,-gained him the character of a
saiut. The Hymn of St. Anno begins with
the popular traditions of Germany, goes
over to the history of the archiepiscopal
seat at Cologne, of its 33 bishops before
A., among whom were 7 saints, and of
their residence in the city of Cologne,
on the Rhine. The poet then describes
the secular and spiritual government of
the saints, and his grief on account of
the madness of his countrymen, continu-
ally at war, and mutually destroying each
other by internal discord. In despair at
not being able to change this state of
things, the German patriot becomes weary
of life, and dies of grief at the ingratitude
of his contemporaries, whom he had zeal-
ously striven to benefit. This Hymn is
the only poetical monument, of impor-
tance, of the German national literature
of the 11th century.
ANNUITIES are periodical payments of
money, amounting to a certain annual
sum, and continuing either a certain num-
ber of years, as 10, 20 or 100, or for an
uncertain period, to be determined by a
particular event, as the death of the an-
nuitant, or that of the party liable to pay
the annuity, or of some other person, or
indefinitely; and these last are called per-
pctual annuities. The payments are made
at the end of each year, or semi-annually,
or at the end of every quarter, or at other
periods, according to the agreement upon
which the annuity arises; and, where it is
liable to cease upon the happening of
an event, the time of the occurrence of
which is uncertain (c. g., the death of a
person), and such event happens after the
ANNIUS of Viterbo, or JOHN NANNI, a
Dominican friar, was born at Viterbo, in
1432. He was distinguished for his learn-
ing, and was made master of the sacred
palace by pope Alexander VI. He died,
as was suspected, of poison, administered
at the instigation of Cæsar Borgia, in 1502.
He employed his leisure in the construc-
tion of fraginents, which he palmed on
the world as the remains of several an-
cient writers, in "Seventeen Books of An-
tiquities." The first edition of this work,
dedicated to Ferdinand and Isabella, was
printed at Rome, in 1498, and, in 1552,
republished in 8vo. at Antwerp. The
imposition passed for some time; and,
when discovered, the Dominicans, anx-
ious to save the credit of their order, pre-expiration of a part of the time between
tended that Annius copied his inventions
from a manuscript which he found in
the Colbertine library; but, as this mann-
script was never produced, the dishonor
was ineffaceable. The success and mag-
nitude of the forgery render it exceed-
ingly remarkable, as an instance of great
but unprincipled ability.
ANNO, archbishop of Cologne, died in
1075. The Hynm which celebrates his
one payment and another, neither the
ammuitant nor his heirs will be entitled to
any proportional part of a payment for
such time, unless some express provision
is made for this purpose in the contract.
The probability of the loss of such frae-
tional part is to be taken into considera-
tion in estimating the present value of
the annuity; e. g., if the life in question is,
according to the tables of longevity, gord
ANNUITIES.
for 5 years, an annuity for such life is
worth more than if it were good for only
just 5 years, since the probability of its
continuing 6 years is greater.-As an an-
nuity is usually raised by the present pay-
ment of a certain sum, as a consideration
whereby the party making the payment,
or some other person named by him, be-
comes entitled to an annual, semi-annual,
quarterly or other periodical payment of a
certain sum, for a stipulated number of
years, or for a period to be determined
by the happening of a certain event;
the rules and principles by which this
present value is to be computed have
been the subjects of much scientific inves-
tigation. The present value of a perpet-
ual annuity is evidently a sum of money
that will yield an interest equal to the
anuity, and payable at the same periods;
and an annuity of this description, paya-
ble quarterly, will evidently be of greater
value than one of the same amount pay-
able annually, since the annuitant has the
additional advantage of the interest on 3
of the quarterly payments, until the expi-
ration of the year; or, in other words, it
requires a greater present capital to be
put at interest, to yield a given sum per
annum, payable quarterly, than to yield
the same annual sum, payable at the end
of each year.-The present value of an
annuity, for a limited period, is a sum
which, if put at interest, will, at the end
of that period, give an amount equal to
the sum of all the payments of the ammu-
ity and interest; and, accordingly, if it be
proposed to invest a certain sum of mon-
ey in the purchase of an annuity, for a
given number of years, the comparative
value of the two may be precisely esti-
mated, the rate of interest being given.
But annuities for uncertain periods, and
particularly life annuities, are more fre-
quent, and the value of the annuity is
computed according to the probable du-
ration of the life by which it is limited.
Many such annuities are granted for pub-
lie services. Of this description are the
pensions granted by the acts of the con-
gress of the U. States to surviving officers
and soldiers of the army of the American
revolution. Many such are granted by
every government, and, as these do not
arise from a specific contract, and are
not usually subjects of purchase (the acts
of congress, especially, by which those of
the U. States are created, contain provis-
ions to prevent their sale and transfer
from the original grantees), their precise
value is not often a subject of investiga-
tion. But life annuities are often created
263
by contract, whereby the government or a
private annuity office, agrees, for a certain
sum advanced by the purchaser, to pay a
certain sum annually, in yearly, quarterly
or other periodical payments, to the per-
son advancing the money, or some other
annuitants named by him, during the life
of the annuitant; or the annuity is granted
to the annuitant, his heirs and assigns,
during the life of some other person, or
during two or more joint lives, or during
the life of the longest liver or survivor
among a number of persons named in the
act or agreement whereby the annuity is
raised. Such annuities are usually made
transferable, and are sold and purchased
in the market as a species of public stocks.
When granted by a government, they are
generally one mode of raising loans;
when created by a contract with a private
corporation or company, their object usu-
ally is, to give the annuitant the use, during
his life, not only of the income of his cap-
ital, but of the capital itself. If a person,
having a certain capital, and intending to
spend this capital and the income of it
during his own life, and leave no part to
his heirs, could know precisely how long
he should live, he might loan this capital
at a certain rate during his life, and, by
taking every year, besides the interest, a
certain amount of the capital, he might
secure the same annual amount for his
support during his life, in such manner
that he should have the same sum to
spend every year, and consume precisely
his whole capital during his life. Bui,
since he does not know how long he is to
live, he agrees with the government, or an
annuity office, to take the risk of the dura-
tion of his life, and agree to pay him a
certain annuity during his life, in ex-
change for the capital which he proposes
to invest in this way. The probable
duration of his life, therefore, becomes a
subject of computation; and, for the pur-
pose of making this calculation, tables of
longevity are made, by noting the propor-
tions of deaths, at certain ages, in the
same country or district. A table of this
sort was made by professor Wigglesworth,
of Cambridge university, and published
in the Transactions of the American
Academy, vol. ii, p. 133, and republished
in the Massachusetts Reports, vol. x, p.
313. This table is very much used in
estimating the value of life-estates and
annuities in the U. States. The value of
an annuity will depend, also, in some de-
gree, upon the responsibility of the goy-
ernment or company agreeing to pay it.
An annuity guarantied by a pledge of
264
ANNUITIES—ANONYMOUS.
real estate is worth more than one of the
same amount resting upon the mere
promise of a government or private com-
pany. Accordingly, for the purpose of
raising money upon better terms, that is,
of selling the annuity for a greater present
value, some of the governments of Europe
have occasionally pledged their domains
or the income of certain taxes, to secure
the payment of the annuities. (For anoth-
er species of life annuities, see Tontine.)
ANNUNCIATION; the declaration of the
angel Gabriel to the virgin Mary of the
incarnation of Christ in her womb.-Luke
i. 26-38.
ANNUNCIATION DAY; a feast of the
church, in honor of the annunciation,
celebrated in the western churches March
25. The institution of this festival is gen-
erally assigned to the 7th century.
ANODYNES (from the Greek adó,
pain, and the privative «); means for
soothing pain. As the pain may arise
from very different causes, the means for
counteracting it must be very different.
Thus, for instance, a pain may be pro-
duced by inflammation; and, in this case,
cooling means, lukewarm poultices, some-
times even bleeding or purging, will be
the proper anodynes. At other times they
should be of an inflammatory kind; for
instance, in debility of the nerves, cramps,
or spasms. In the stricter sense, we un-
derstand by anodyncs such renicdics as
lessen the susceptibility to painful im-
pressions, by diminishing the sensibility
of the nerves. In early times, when the
doctrine of poisons and antidotes was
more attended to than any other part of
medicine, the soothing quality of many
simples was also more closely observed,
and a particular class was formed in this
way.
As this property existed to a high
degrec in opiuin, then already in use, it
not only obtained the first place in this
class of simples, but the name anodyne
was given to all mixtures containing it.
The use of anodynes is proper only when
the cause of pain cannot be removed, or
not so soon as its violence requires, or
where the pain itself is more injurious
than the cause which produces it; c. g.,
when it prevents a favorable crisis, by
rendering the patient unable to sleep.
ANOINTING. From time immemorial,
the nations of the East have been in the
habit of anointing themselves for the sake
of health and beauty; and to anoint a
guest, was to show him one of the highest
marks of respect. In the Mosaic law, and
several ancient religions, a sacred charac-
ter was attached to the anointing of the
garments of the priests, and things belong-
ing to the ceremonial of worship. This
could be done only with oil made for the
purpose, and signified a consecration of
the articles to the service of religion. The
Jewish priests and kings were anointed
when inducted into office, and were call-
ed the anointed of the Lord, to show that
their persons were sacred, and their office
from God. In the Old Testament, also,
the prophecies respecting the Redeemer
style him, on account of his royal de-
scent and his dignity, Messias, that is,
the Anointed. The custom of anointing
priests still exists in the Roman Catholic
church, and that of anointing kings in
Christian monarchies. In the Catholic
church, the ordaining bishop anoints with
the holy oil called chrism (q. v.) the palm
of both hands, the thumb and the fore-
finger (by which the priests hold the host),
of the person to be ordained; and thus,
according to the expression of the ritual
of ordination, the hands receive power to
bless, to consecrate, and to make holy.
If a clergyman is excommunicated, these
spots are rubbed off. (For the ceremony
of anointing kings, sec Coronation.) The
Greeks and Romans, particularly the for-
mer, anointed themselves after the bath,
and thus gave a yellow color to the body.
Perhaps in order to imitate this color,
perhaps to make the figure look softer,
and to deprive it of the harsh white color,
The re-
they often oiled their statues.
mains of the oily matter used are still some-
times to be seen. Athletæ anointed them-
selves, in order to render it more difficult
for their antagonists to get hold of them.
ANOMALY; the deviation from a rule.
That which deviates is called anomalous.
We use this expression in this significa-
tion in grammar, where it is opposed to
analogy. It is also used in astronomy, to
denote the deviation of the planets from
the aphelion (or, rather, according to the
aodern usage, from the perihelion), which
is owing to their unequal velocity.
ANOMEANS; the name by which the
stricter Arians were called in the 4th cen-
tury, in contradistinction to the Semi-
Arians.
ANONYMOUS (from the Greek); literally,
without name; also, a person whose name
is unknown, or who keeps his name a
secret, e. g., the author of an anonymous
writing. Pseudo is an epithet applied to
au assumed name. Writers often conceal
themselves under a pseudo or false
name, which they retain as authors, even
when their true name has long been
known. It was some time since decided
ANONYMOUS–ANSELM.
by a legal tribunal at Stuttgard in Germa-
ny, that it was not lawful for a third per-
son to put the pseudo name of another
known writer before his own work. The
knowledge of the anonymous and pseu-
lonymous authors is indispensable to the
bibliographer. (See Barbier's Diction-
naire des Ouvrages Anonymes et Pseudo-
nymes, composés, traduits ou publiés en
Français et en Latin, with historical and
critical notes, 2d ed., Paris, 1822-1824,
3 vols.) Authors often keep their names
secret from political motives, e. g., Junius.
(q. v.)-In history, we call pseudo, impos-
tors who act a political part under a feign-
ed name; for instance, the pseudo Sebas-
tians in Portugal, the pseudo Demetri in
Russia, pseudo Woldmar in Brandenburg,
the pseudo Smerdis in Persia.
ANQUETIL DU PERRON, Abraham Hya-
cinthe; one of the most distinguished
Orientalists of the 18th century; born in
Paris, Dec. 7, 1731; studied theology at
the university there, and afterwards at
Auxerre and Amersfort; devoted himself
with ardor to the Hebrew, Arabian and
Persian languages, and returned to Paris
in order to study them with more advan-
tage. Here his assiduous attendance at
the library excited the attention of the
abbé Sallier, keeper of the manuscripts,
who introduced him to some of his
friends, by whose means the young A.
obtained a small salary, under the title of
a student of the Oriental languages. Hav-
ing accidentally laid his hands on some
fragments of a manuscript of the Zend-
Avesta, India became the object of his
thoughts, and he cherished the hope of
discovering there the holy books of the
Parsees. In the harbor of l'Orient, an
expedition was preparing for the East
Indies, but the endeavors of his protectors
to procure a passage for him were fruit-
less. A. immediately went to the recruit-
ing captain, enlisted as a private soldier,
and set out from Paris, with his knapsack
on his back, in 1754. Struck with such
extraordinary zeal for science, the gov-
ernment allowed him a free passage and a
salary. Arrived at Pondicherry, he learn-
ed the modern Persian, and then went to
Chandernagore, where he hoped to study
the Sanscrit. But sickness and the war
between France and England frustrated
his hopes. Chandernagore was captured,
and A., not to lose the whole object of his
voyage, returned on foot to Pondicherry,
and embarked for Surat. But in order to
explore the interior, as well as the coast of
Coromandel, he landed at Mahé, and jour
neyed on foot to Surat. Here he succeed-
23
VOL. I.
235
ed, by perseverance and address, in over-
coming the scruples of some priests of
the Parsees (Destour). They instructed
him so far in the Zend and Pehlwi, that
he was able to translate the Dictionary
and some other works from this language.
He then resolved to go to Benares, to
study the languages, the antiquities, and
the sacred laws of the Hindoos, when the
capture of Pondicherry forced him to re-
turn to Europe. He visited London and
Oxford, and returned to Paris in 1762,
with 180 manuscripts, and other curiosi-
ties. The abbé Barthélemy and his
other friends obtained for him a salary,
with the office of interpreter of the Ori-
ental languages, at the royal library. In
1763, he was made member of the acade-
my of belles-lettres. A. then commenced
the arrangement of the materials which
he had collected with so much toil; he
published in succession, the Zend-Avesta,
the Spirit of Oriental Legislation, his his-
torical and geographical researches in
India, and his work on commerce. Af-
terwards, the revolution disturbed his lit-
erary labors. To withdraw himself from
its horrors, he broke off all connexion
with society, and shut himself up in his
chamber, with no friend but his books,
no recreation but the recollection of his
dear Brahmins and Parsecs. The fruits of
this retirement were his work, l'Inde en
Rapport avec l'Europe, and the Unre-
vealable Mysteries (Čupnek hat), 2 vols.,
4to, 1804; the latter, a translation into
Latin of a Persian extract from the Ve-
das. When the national institute had ta-
ken the place of the former academies,
A. was elected a member. Exhausted
by continued labors, and a very abstemi-
oùs diet, he died at Paris, Jan. 17, 1805.
Immense learning, acquaintance with al-
most all the European languages, and a
restless activity, were united, in A., with
the purest love of truth, with sound phi-
losophy, rare disinterestedness and an ex-
cellent heart.
ANSELM, archbishop of Canterbury,
was born at Aosta, in Piedmont, 1034;
became a monk in 1060; some years later,
a prior; and, in 1078, abbot of the monas-
tery of Bec, in Normandy, whither the
fame of the renowned Lanfrane had at-
tracted him. In 1093, he suceceded Lan-
frane as archbishop of Canterbury, in
England, which place he held till his
death. Intelligence and piety distinguish
his writings. He endeavored to discover
some conclusive proofs of the existence
of God, which he thought he had finally
effected in the ontological method, as it is
266
ANSELM-ANSON.
called, of which he is falsely styled the
inventor. He inferred the existence of a
Supreme and Perfect Being by arguments
drawn from the abstract idea of such a
Being. Notwithstanding the insufficiency
of this proof, which found an early oppo-
nent in Gaunilo, a monk at Marmontier,
the labors of A. were of great importance.
Though the influence of the church, and
the fathers of St. Augustin in particular,
is obvious, he deserves the praise of hav-
ing developed the principles of his system
of philosophical religion in a decidedly
logical form, with acuteness and energy,
and of having laid, at the same time, the
foundation of the scholastic philosophy.
He died in 1099, and will be remembered
by his writings, De Veritate, De Libertate
Arbitrii, by his Monologium and Prologi-
um; in the latter of which his argument
in proof of the existence of a Supreme
Being is set forth.
ANSGAR, OF ANSHAR; called the apostle
of the North, because he introduced Chris-
tianity into Denmark and Sweden. Born
in 800, in Picardy, and educated in the
monastery of Corvey, he became, in 813,
a Benedictine. At the instigation of the
emperor, Louis le Débonnaire, he went to
Denmark in the suite of some baptized
Danish princes, in 826, and, after many
disappointments and persecutions, con-
verted the king, and the greater part of
the nation, in 830. After his return, 831,
he founded a metropolitan church at
Hamburg, and became first archbishop in
that place. In 847, he transferred bis
residence to Bremen. At this time, he
undertook a new mission into Denmark,
in order to convert king Eric I, and went,
with recommendations from him, to Swe-
den, where he baptized many converts,
with the permission of king Ölaus. He
also baptized the successor of Eric, in
858. He died 865, with the reputation
of having undertaken, if not the first, the
most successful attempts for the propa-
gation of Christianity in the North. His
prudence, the purity and warmth of his
religious zeal, and the integrity of his life,
are equally praised by all his contempo-
raries. The Catholic church has placed
him among the saints.
ANSON, George, lord, whose name
shines in the annals of English naviga-
tion, was born in 1697, at Shugborough
manor, in Staffordshire, and entered carly
into the navy. In 1716, he served, as
second lieutenant, under sir John Norris,
in the Baltic, and in 1717 and 1718, under
sir George Byng, against the Spaniards.
In his 27th year, he was raised to the rank
of post-captain, and was, for a long time,
on the South Carolina station. When, in
1739, the ministry considered a rupture
with Spain as unavoidable, he was made
commander of a fleet in the South sea,
directed against the trade and the colo-
nies of that nation. The expedition con-
sisted of 5 men-of-war, and 3 smaller
vessels, which carried 1400 men. A. left
England, with this squadron, Sept. 18,
1740, and was attacked, on leaving the
straits of le Maire, by terrible storms,
which prevented him from doubling cape
Horn for 3 months. Separated from the
rest of his squadron, he reached the island
of Juan Fernandez, where 3 of his vessels
rejoined him in a very miserable condi-
tion. After his men had rested, he pro-
ceeded to the coast of Peru, without wait-
ing for the missing ships, made several
prizes, and captured and burnt the city
of Paita. After a fruitless attempt to
intercept the annual Manilla galleon, he
found himself obliged to burn, not enly a
great part of his booty, but all except one
of his vessels, in order to equip that one,
the Centurion, with which he made his
retreat to Tinian, one of the Ladrones.
Here the Centurion was blown out to sea
while the commander was on shore.
Upon this, much exertion was made to
enlarge and fit out a small vessel, found
in the island. The return of his ship
relieved him from this difficulty, and, after
some weeks of rest, he sailed for Macao,
where he formed a bold plan for taking
the galleon of Acapulco. For this pur-
pose, he spread the report of his having
returned to Europe, but, in fact, directed
his course to the Philippines, and cruised
near the promontory Spiritu Santo. Af-
ter a month, the expected galleon ap-
peared, which, trusting to its superiority,
commenced the fight. But the valor of
the English prevailed, and the galleon,
worth £400,000, was taken; the booty
gained on the former occasion amounted
to more than £600,000. With these ac-
quisitions, A. returned to Macao, sold his
prize, and maintained with energy the
rights of his flag against the Chinese gov-
erment at Canton. From this place he
sailed for England, and, passing undis-
covered through the French fleet in the
channel, arrived at Spithead, June 15,
1744, after an absence of 3 years and 9
months. This perilous voyage through
unexplored scas added much to geogra-
phy aud navigation. His adventures and
discoveries are described in Anson's Voy-
age. A few days after his return, he was
made rear-admiral of the blue, and, not
ANSON-ANT.
long after, rear-admiral of the white; he
was also elected member of parliament.
His victory over the French admiral Jon-
quière, near cape Finisterre, in 1747,
raised him to the peerage, with the title
of lord Anson, baron of Soberton. Two
of the prizes taken on this occasion were
called l'Invincible and la Gloire, which
induced the captain of the former to say,
on giving up his sword, "Monsieur, vous
avez vaincu l'Invincible, et la Gloire vous
suit." 4 years afterwards, he was made
first lord of the admiralty. In 1758, he
commanded the fleet before Brest, pro-
tected the landing of the English at St.
Malo, Cherbourg, &c., and received the
repulsed troops into his vessels. Finally,
in 1761, he was appointed to convey the
queen of George III to England. He
died in 1762, on his estate at Moor-park,
leaving no children.
ANSPACH (Onolzbach); formerly the
residence of the margraves of Anspach-
Baireuth, now the chief town of the Ba-
varian district of the Rezat; contains
1016 houses, and 16,370 inhabitants, with
a fine palace, a royal school, and some
Inanufactures. In the garden of the pal-
ace stands the monument of the poet Uz,
who was born at A., and died there in
1796. The last margrave ceded the mar-
quisate or principality of A. to Frederic
William II, king of Prussia, Dec. 2, 1791.
His wife was lady Craven. (q. v.) Fred-
eric William III ceded A., in 1806, to
France, and she exchanged it with Bava-
ria for Juliers and Berg. Prussia gave
up, also, Baireuth, in 1807, at the peace
of Tilsit, to France, and France trans-
ferred it to Bavaria. In the time when
Auspach and Baireuth were under the
French government, Bernadotte, the pres-
ent king of Sweden, was their governor,
and gained the love of all the inhabitants,
by his strict justice, even where French
soldiers were concerned, and by his en-
deavors to alleviate, as much as possible,
the evils of war. His conduct presented
a striking contrast to that of several other
French governors of conquered provinces
under Napoleon. (See Charles XIV.)
ANSTEY, Christopher, an ingenious
poet of the 18th century, was the son of
the reverend Christopher Anstey, D. D.,
and born in 1724. He was educated at
Bury St. Edmund's, whence he removed
to Éton. In 1754, he succeeded to his
patrimonial property, when he married
Ann, daughter of Felix Calvert, esq., of
Albury-hall, Herts, by whom he had 13
children, 8 of whom survived him. He
then resided, for the most part, at Bath.
267
He had long cultivated poetry, but most
of his early productions were Latin trans-
lations of English popular poems, one of
which was Gray's Elegy. It was not un-
til 1766, that his humorous production,
the New Bath Guide, was published,
which at once became highly popular
for its pointed and original humor, and,
as usual, led to numerous imitations. He
also wrote several other works. He died
in 1805, in his 81st year.
ANT (formica, L.), a genus of hymenop-
terous or membranous-winged insects, be-
longs to Cuvier's second section, aculeata ;
family, heterogyna.-This race of insects,
celebrated from all antiquity for singular
instincts, industry and foresight, would
require a volume for the enumeration of
all the curious and interesting circum-
stances observed by various naturalists,
who have devoted themselves to their
investigation. But as such amplitude and
minuteness of detail are inconsistent with
the present work, our remarks will be
confined to essentials. To the works of
Swammerdam, Réaumur, and, most es
pecially, Huber, we must refer those who
desire to be particularly informed on the
subject: the last-named author has, in his
work on ants, rivalled his father's justly-
celebrated treatise on bees, and bestowed
upon lovers of natural science a gift as
precious as it is rare.-Most of the spe-
cies live in large companies or societies,
composed of three sorts of individuals,
males, females and neuters. The maies
and females have long wings, not so much
veined as in other insects of the same
section, which are very temporary; the
neuters, which are actually females with
imperfect ovaries, are destitute of wings.
The males and females are found in the
vicinity of their habitation but a short
time, as they speedily mount into the
air, where their sexual connexion is con-
summated, after which the males perish,
and return no more to their former dwell-
ing; while the impregnated females,
alighting on the ground, detach their
wings by the aid of their feet, and com-
mence the great work of their existence,-
the deposition of their eggs for the con-
tinuance of the species. Some of the
females, which couple in the vicinity of the
ant-hill, are frequently seized upon by the
numerous neuters, carried back into the
galleries of their dwelling, and detained
until they destroy their wings, and force
them to lay their eggs; after which they
cease to be of consequence, and are driv-
en forth. The males are much smaller
than the females, and have larger eyes,
$
268
ANT.
though the head and mandibles are pro-
portionally smaller. The neuters have
neither wings nor smooth eyes; their
heads are large, their jaws strong, and
their corselet compressed, or even knotty;
their feet proportional. These neuters
perform all the labors of the ant-hill;
they excavate the galleries, procure food,
and wait upon the larves until they are fit
to leave their cells, appearing always in-
dustrious and solicitous. They are appa-
rently endowed with the power of com-
municating to each other the result of
their searches after food, and thus obtain
the coöperation of several, where the
strength of an individual would be insuf-
ficient. They feed the larves, or young
ants, which are destitute of organs of
motion, with materials which they dis-
gorge from their own niouths, and which
seem to have undergone some prepará-
tion in their stomachs. In fine weather,
they carefully convey them to the surface
for the benefit of the sun's heat, and as
attentively carry them to a place of safety,
either when bad weather is threatened, or
the ant-hill is disturbed. In like manner
they watch over the safety of the nymphs
or larves about to acquire their perfect
growth, some of which are in cocoons,
and some uncovered. When the time
arrives at which the former are to un-
dergo their final change, they tear open
the cocoons to permit them to escape.
If the weather be unfavorable, they detain
hose which have acquired their wings
till a suitable opportunity offers, and then
aid them to gain their liberty by the casi-
est route. There is a very considerable
variety in the ant-hills, or nests, according
to the peculiar nature or instinct of the
species. The greater number make their
nests in the earth, under buildings, &c.,
where they excavate extensive galleries
for the reception of their young; and of
these the dwelling is almost entirely con-
cealed. But others build their hills or
nests of various substances, and form
cones or domes of considerable size above
ground. Some, again, prefer the trunks
of old trees, in which they form the most
singular labyrinths, leading to the cells
where their progeny are to be reared.
These nests, whether above or under
ground, have commonly a strong and
sour odor, which arises from the acid
secreted by some of them from glands
placed near the anus. This acid, once
supposed to be of peculiar character, but
now considered as acetic acid, is known
by the name of formic, or acid of ants.-
One among the most curious circumstan-
ces connected with the general history of
ants, is the exception to the general rule
relative to the occupants of nests being
individuals of the same species. Huber
first observed, and his observations have
since been amply confirmed, that the
reddish, Amazon or sanguineous ant re-
sorts to violence to obtain working ants,
of other species, for their own use, thus
actually making slaves of those they carry
off to their nests. The neuters of these
Amazons, regularly about the same hour,
when the heat of the day begins to di-
minish, and for several successive days,
advance in a dense mass towards the ant-
hill they design to plunder; there, in
spite of all the opposition made, they
enter, seize on the larves and nymphs
peculiar to this species, and carry them
off to their own nest, where other neuters
of the same species, but of full growth,
take care of these kidnapped individuals,
as well as of the offspring of their van-
quishers. Another exceedingly curious
fact, in relation to ants, is the subserviency
of the little insects, called aphides or vine-
frelters, to their necessities. The aphides
are remarkable for ejecting from little
prominences on the posterior part of their
bodies, a small drop of limpid and sweet-
tasted fluid. Not only do the ants protit
by this when it is found on the leaves,
but they know how to obtain it from the
aphides at will. An ant approaches the
aphis, and begins very gently to touch it
with his antenna over the sides and back,
as if caressing it. In a very short time,
the aphis raises its binder limbs slightly
and from the orifices on its back a small,
clear drop exudes, which is greedily
drank up by the aut, who repeats the
same treatment to several, until his hun-
ger is entirely sated. These aphides have
been appropriately called the cows of the
ants, which, in fact, seem to regard them
as their peculiar property, not only taking
great care of them, but fighting for their
possession. So fully sensible are they of
their great value, that they carry the eggs
of the aphides into their nests, where
they take care of them till they are
hatched. Some species of ants keep their
aphides altogether under ground, or at
least during bad seasons, where they feed
on the roots of plants; others build with
clay small galleries from the ant-hills
up trees, and even to the branches, upon
which the aphides abound.-Male and
female ants survive, at most, till autumn,
or to the commencement of cool weather,
though a very large proportion of them
crase to exist long previous to that time.
ANT-ANT-EATER.
The neuters pass the winter in a state of
torpor, and of course require no food.
This well-ascertained fact proves that
their remarkable foresight has no other
object than the continuance of the species
by perfecting and securing their habita-
tions. The only time when they require
food is during the season of activity, when
they have a vast number of young to
feed. It would be well for mankind if
ants derived all their nourishment from
the aphides, or from the dead bodies of
other insects, small birds, &c. Unfortu-
nately, they are but too celebrated, in most
countries, for their destructive operations
among the grain, in gardens, pantries and
conservatories. Their larves and nymphs
are, in some parts of the world, collected
for the purpose of feeding pheasants and
young turkeys, but we know of no other
economic use, to which they are partic-
ularly applicable. The bodies of small
animals, skinned, and secured near an
ant-hill, are soon converted into very
neatly-cleaned skeletons; but care must
be taken to prevent them from being car-
ried off by larger animals, or from re-
maining too long exposed to the weather
after having been stripped by the ants of
their flesh.
ANT-EATER (myrmecophaga, L.); a ge-
nus of mammiferous quadrupeds, of the
order edentata, C.-This peculiar race of
animals is only found in the southern part
of the American continent, where they
aid in diminishing the numbers of im-
mense hordes of ants, which desolate the
country in the vicinity of their dwellings.
Every particular of their construction
renders the ant-eaters especially fit for
the duty they perform. The whole head
is remarkably elongated, and destitute of
teeth, but furnished with a very narrow,
long, smooth tongue, by the aid of which
they gather their prey. Their limbs,
especially the anterior, are very robust,
and furnished with long, compressed,
acute nails, admirably adapted for break-
ing into the hillocks containing their ap-
propriate food. The most remarkable of
the species, whose habits are best known,
is the myrmecophaga jubata, or great ant-
eater, sometimes called ant-bear. The
great ant-eater is 4 or 5 feet long, exclu-
sive of the tail, which is about 3. The
head and anterior extremities are covered
with a brownish hair, which is mixed
with white on the trunk and tail, though
the predominant color is brown.
On
each side of the shoulders there is a black
band between two white ones, which
ascend towards the middle of the back,
269
where the hair is elongated to a sort of
mane, which increases in length and
thickness towards the base of the tail.
The hair is flat at the end, and round for
the rest of its length, somewhat rescm-
bling the hair of the deer. The fore feet
claws; the
have 5 digits, with very strong
hind feet, 4: there are 2 pectoral mnam-
inæ.-The great ant-eater leads a harm-
less and solitary life, but is not so inca-
pable of self-defence as might be inferred
from its exceedingly small mouth and
entire want of teeth. When irritated, it
erects its long, brush-like tail, and waves
it in the air, and, when attacked by a dog
or other small quadruped, either seizes
and compresses it to suffocation between
its powerful fore legs, or, sitting on its
hinder limbs, strikes destructive blows
with its strong, sharp claws. To man,
however, they offer very little resistance,
being easily killed by blows on the head.
In feeding, the great ant-eater either
thrusts his long, narrow tongue, covered
with a glutinous fluid, into the ant-heap,
whence he withdraws it covered with the
insects, or else, having partially demolished
the hill by means of his fore limbs, he,
with wonderful celerity, transfers the
alarmed inhabitants to his stomach, by
repeated extensions and retractions of his
tongue, which operation the animal is
stated, by observers, to effect twice in a
second. The savages and Negro slaves
hunt the great ant-eater for the sake of
its skin and flesh, which the Negroes
esteem highly. This species may be do-
mesticated, and then feeds upon small
pieces of bread or meat, and various in-
sects.-Two other species have been long
known, both of which have naked, scaly
and prehensile tails. These are the three-
toed ant-eater, myrmecophaga tamandua,
C.; tridactyla, L.; and the two-toed ant-
cater, myrmecophaga didactyla, L. These,
as might be inferred from their size (the
first 25 inches, with a tail 16 inches long;
the second 7 or 8 inches long, with a tail
of 8 or 9 inches), and the prehensile char-
acter of their tails, are adapted for climb-
ing trees and preying upon ants which
make their nests in such situations. The
two-toed ant-eater brings forth but a sin-
gle young one at a birth, on a bed of
leaves prepared in a hollow tree. Kru-
senstern, in the narrative of his voyage,
describes a species which grunted some-
what like a hog, had a tail shorter than
the body, was of a white color, with 12
blackish bands. The name of myrme-
cophaga annulatus has been given to this
by Desmarest.-All the ant-eaters are slow
23 *
270
ANT-EATER-ANTELOPE.
in their movements, and the two smaller
species are especially helpless when on
the ground, though they defend them-
selves bravely when attacked. In order
to use their defensive fore claws to great-
er advantage, they sit upon their hinder
limbs like the bear, and strike with great
force.
ANTEUS; the giant son of Neptune and
of the Earth, who lived in a cave in Lybia,
and forced every stranger who arrived
to fight with him. Whenever he was
thrown to the earth, his strength was re-
stored by his mother. By this means, he
succeeded in killing his antagonists, and
planted their skulls round his dwelling.
But Hercules, whom he challenged to
combat, perceiving the secret of his
strength, grasped him in his arms, and
stifled him suspended in the air.
ANTAGONIST MUSCLES; those muscles
which have opposite functions, as flexors
and extensors, abductors and adductors.
ANTANACLASIS (Greck; from tar
ziάo, I drive back); the repetition of a
word in a different incaning, or as a differ-
ent part of speech, which attracts atten-
tion, and gives expressiveness to the
phrase; e. g., "Let the dead bury their
dead;" or,
"Live while you live." The
returning to a subject after a long paren-
thesis is also called antanaclasis.
ANTAR, OF ANDAR; a famous Arabian
prince in the middle of the 6th century, and
one of the 7 poets, whose successful verses,
embroidered with gold upon silk, were
hung up at the door of the Caaba. (See
Arabian Literature, and Moallakut.) He
describes in his Moallaka his warlike deeds
and his love for Abla. The most complete
edition is that of Menil (Leyden, 1816,4to.)
Hartmann's German translation, from the
English translation by sir William Jones,
was published in the Hellstrahlenden
Plejaden, am Arab. poet. Himmel. (Műn-
ster, 1802.) In the Arabian romance Antar,
the author, Asmai, a renowned grammna-
rian and theologian at the court of Ha-
roun Al Raschid, in the beginning of the
9th century, who first collected the old
Arabian traditions, has added to the name,
and the heroic adventures of Antar, the
other most famous chivalrous deeds of
the Arabians. Sir W. Jones first made us
well acquainted with this remarkable and
attractive romance; after him, v. Hammer,
in his Fundgruben des Orients (1812,) de-
scribed the complete copy of it in the im-
perial library at Vienna; besides which,
there are 6 others in Europe. This ro-
mance gives the most complète idea of the
manners and life, of the way of thinking,
of the opinions and the superstitions, of
the early Arabians, before the time of the
prophet, and the fidelity of the picture is
even now to be recognised in many fea-
tures of the modern Bedouins. It is writ-
ten in the purest Arabic, and ranked
among the classics of Arabian literature.
It is so attracting, that critics prefer it to
the Arabian Nights. Hamilton, secreta-
ry of the British embassy in Constantino-
ple, has translated it into English (Antar,
a Bedoueen Romance, translated from
the Arabic, by Terrik Hamilton; London.
1819, 4 vols.) A French translation has
since appeared at Paris.
ANTARCTIC CIRCLE (of ȧTI, opposite,
and dozroc, a bear) is one of the smaller
circles of the sphere, parallel to the equa-
tor, and distant from the south pole 23°
30.-Antarctic pole, being opposite to the
arctic pole, denotes the opposite end of the
carth's axis, or the south pole. Till lately.
no land was known to exist beyond the
60th degree of south latitude. Cook (q. v.)
reached this degree, but masses of ice
and storms drove him back. In 1820, :1
whalenan discovered an island south of
cape Horn, in lat. 61°, about 200 miles in
length, which he called New Shetland.
Since this time, English and Russian ships
have penetrated still farther towards the
south pole. (See Southern Polar Islands.
Probably not the cold, but the great num-
ber of islands, with shallow currents be-
tween them, and the late melting of the
ice on the sand-banks, in narrow gulfs,
would form the chief obstruction to ever
reaching the south pole. As, in this re-
gion of cold, the whales have been pur-
sued but a few years, they are very nu-
merous, and chance will, no doubt, lead
some seaman, while engaged in the whale
fishery in the antarctic region, to new dis-
coveries.
ANTEDILUVIAN; any thing, or being,
which existed before the deluge. (q. v.
See also Fossil Remains.)
ANTELOPE; a genus of mammiferous,
ruminant quadrupeds, intermediate to the
deer and goat, first established by the
Russian naturalist Pallas, and subsequent-
ly divided into numerous sections by
Blainville, founded on characters furuisli-
cd by the shape and curvature of the
horns, &c.
The characteristics of the
genus are the following:-horns persist-
eut, hollow, resting on a solid, bony nu-
cleus of the os frontis; straight, spiral,
lyre-shaped, annulated at base; marked
with transverse bands, a salient spiral
line, or bifurcated in diflèrcut species: gall
bladder uniformly present, which is not
ANTELOPE-ANTEROS.
possessed by deer. In other characters,
the antelopes bear a very marked resem-
blance to the deer, except that some spe-
cies of antelope have tufts of hair pendent
from the carpus.-Numerous as are the
species of antelope, but two are found in
Europe, and only one in America-the
chamois and saiga in the former, the
prong-horn (q. v.) in the latter. All the
All the
rest are natives of the hottest parts of
Asia and Africa. They are generally re-
markable for the syınınetry and delicacy
of their forms, and surpassing celerity of
movement. Their eyes are proverbial for
largeness and lustre; their legs are slen-
der and graceful, longer before than be-
hind, whence they can run to greatest ad-
vantage on ascending ground. Possess-
ing less of muscular vigor and compact-
ness of frame than the deer, they do not
advance by successive bounds, but by a
regular race, the swiftness of which, in
some species, almost exceeds imagination.
They are, generally, yellow on the back,
and white beneath, having a brown band
separating these colors at the flank.
The ears are long, straight, pointed, and
somewhat dilated in the middle. Great
varieties of appearance and habits are ex-
hibited in the different species: some are
Inonogamous and solitary; some prefer
arid deserts, where but a scanty subsist-
ence is to be obtained, of aromatic, acrid,
or salt-tasted plants; others delight exclu-
sively in the fresh herbage growing in the
vicinity of rivers and marshes. One spe-
cies, the chamois, delights to browse on
the almost inaccessible summits of the icy
Alps; almost all the others prefer the sul
try plains of the torrid zone. In form,
some of the species resemble a slender
deer or goat; while a few others approxi-
mate considerably to the appearance of
the ox.
With a solitary exception, that
of the gnu, they are gentle, timid, harm-
less, and easily tamed. The gnu is fierce
and warlike, exhibiting through life a
vicious and indomitable disposition. Many
of the species are gregarious, living in
herds or families, consisting of twenty or
thirty individuals. They feed exclusively
on vegetable food, and their flesh is re-
garded as a luxury when obtained in the
proper season. Against their mumerous
enemies, they have no resort but in flight,
and, swift as this is, it cannot save them
from the unremitted pursuit of the jackal,
or the insidious prowling of the tiger.
Lions, leopards, ounces and other car-
nivorous tyrants lie in ambush for them
at their drinking-places; and man, aided
by dogs and falcons, contributes his share
271
to their destruction. In the great system
of balances established by nature, they
seem peculiarly adapted for their situa-
tion, which is generally in countries
where a luxuriant vegetation requires
constant efforts to repress its superabun-
dance; while they, at the same time, fur-
nish large supplies of food to numerou
carnivorous animals, as well as to the
human race. The following are the
names of the subgenera proposed by
Blainville, &c., and now generally adopt-
ed by naturalists:-1. Antilope. 2. Ga-
zella. 3. Cervicapra. 4. Alcelaphus. 5.
Tragelaphus. 6. Oreas, Desm.
selaphus. 8. Oryx. 9. Egocerus, Desm.
10. Bupicapra. 11. Antilocapra.
7. Bo-
ANTENATI (a Latin word, signifying
born before); the subjects of Scotland
born before the accession of James I. to
the English crown are thus called; those
who were born after the accession being
denominated postnati. The A. were
considered aliens in England; so, too,
persons born in England before the sep-
aration of the present U. States from the
other country have been held to be
aliens in the U. States.
ANTENNE, in entomology; slender bodies,
with which nature has furnished the heads
of insects, being the same with what are
called horns or feelers.
ANTENOR; a noble Trojan. In Homer.
he is represented as a prudent old man.
He received Ulysses and Menelaus as
guests, during their embassy to Troy,
accompanied Priam to the field of battle.
to ratify the treaty, and, after the single
combat between Ajax and Hector, pro-
posed, though in vain, the restoration of
Helen. This was probably the founda-
tion of the story that he was friendly to
the Greeks, and treacherous to the Tro-
jans. He is said to have delivered the
Palladium to the Greeks, to have given
the signal for their entrance by a light
from the wall, and to have himself opened
the famous horse. His house remained
safe in the sack of the city, which may,
however, be explained by the former hos-
pitality of A. to Menclaus. He himself
escaped in the same manner as Eneas, and
became, like him, the founder of a new dy-
nasty. Traditions differ concerning it. The
most common is the story told by Virgil,
that he removed with his sons to Thrace,
and thence, with the Heneti, to Italy, where
he founded Patavium, now Padua.
ANTEROS, in mythology; the god of
mutual love. The later mythology says,
that, as soon as Eros, the god of love, was
grown up, his mother bore Anteros to
272
ANTEROS-ANTHONY.
Mars, a fiction which indicates that love
must be mutual. According to some
modern interpreters, however, Anteros is
the enemy of love, or the god of antipathy.
ANTHEM. (See Antiphony.)
ANTHING, Frederic; known by his bi-
ography of the famous field-marshal Su-
waroff, whose companion in arms he
had been. He was born in Gotha, trav-
elled through Europe, and went to Pe-
tersburg, where he lived by taking sil-
houettes (profiles cut in paper), which just
then had come into fashion. The likenesses
of this sort, which he took of the imperial
family, made him known. He was for a
long time on the most intimate terms with
Suwaroff, till this general fell into disgrace
with the emperor Paul. A. died, in 1805,
in Petersburg.
ANTHOLOGY (Greek; a collection of
flowers) is the name given to several col-
lections of short poems, mostly epigrams,
which have come down from antiquity.
The first compiler of this kind was Melea-
ger, a Syrian, who, about 60 B. C., made
a collection of his own poems, and those
of others. In later times, the same was
done by Philip of Thessalonica, probably
in the time of Trajan; Diogenianus of
Heraclea, Strato of Sardis, both under
Adrian;
and Agathias, in the 6th century.
But all those ancient collections are lost.
We now possess two of a later period,
the one by Constantine Cephalas, in the
10th century, who, in his Florilegium,
made much use of the earlier ones, par-
ticularly that of Agathias; the other by
Maximus Planudes, in the 14th century,
a monk of Constantinople, who, however,
by his tasteless extracts from the Antholo-
gy of Cephalas, rather injured than im-
proved the existing stock. The latter is
the most common. It contains 7 books,
which, with the exception of the 5th and
7th, are subdivided in alphabetical order.
It agrees only in part with the Anthology
of Cephalas, which has been preserved
in a single copy. This copy was carried
from Heidelberg to Rome, and thence to
Paris, but has been again restored to the
Heidelberg library. The last and most
complete edition of this original text is
that of Jacobs, Leips. 1813, 4 vols. The
editions of Brunck (Analecta), Strasb.
1772,3 vols., which appeared accompanied
with the commentary of Jacobs, Leips.
1794, 13 vols., are compiled from the An-
thology of Planudes and Constantinus.
In Germany, the Greek Anthology has
been often translated, and the rich poeti-
cal vigor, the delicacy of feeling, the
sportive gayety, the noble and elevated
thoughts, displayed in these little pieces,
have secured for them a deserved admi-
ration. A similar Latin Anthology has
been collected by Joseph Scaliger, Lin-
denbruch, and several others; the best
edition is that of Peter Burmann, junior,
Amsterdam, 1759-73, 2 vols. 4to. Orien-
tal literature, particularly the Arabian, is
very rich in Anthologies. The Arabian
name for them is Hamasah.
ANTHONY, St., the Great; first institutor
of monastic life; born A. D., 251, at Coma,
in Heraclea, a town of Upper Egypt; went
into retirement from a propensity to devo-
tion, A. D. 285, when he had never known
the pleasures of knowledge, and, probably,
never learned to read. A. D. 305, sev-
eral hermits united with him, and formed
the first community of monks. A. D.
311, he went to Alexandria, to seek the
honor of martyrdom, amid the persecu-
tious then raging against the Christians;
but, as his life was spared, he returned to
the cottages of his monks. He afterwards
left this institution to the care of his
scholar Pacomius (see Monastery), and
retired with two friends to a more remote
desert, where he died, A. D. 356. That
he used no garments but a shirt inade of
hair and a sheep-skin, and never washed
his body, is more credible than the strange
stories of his contests with devils, and
the wonders which he has himself made
known, as related in his life by St. Atha-
nasius. All his conduct indicates a fervent
and melancholy imagination. Seven let-
ters, and some other ascetic writings, were
formerly attributed to him, but it is not
probable that he was their author. There
is, also, but little proof that he instituted
laws for the monks; and the opinion is
wholly unfounded that he established a
particular order. Yet the monks of the
heretical churches in the East, e. g., the
Maronites, Armenians, Jacobites, Copts
and Abyssinians, pretend to belong to the
order of St. A., but they only follow the
rules of St. Basil. As a saint of the
Catholic church, A. is much esteemed.
Prayer for his intercession was intended,
particularly, to preserve from the St. An-
thony's fire, so called from him,—a violent
and terrible disease of the middle ages,
which dried up and blackened every limb
which it attacked, as if it were burnt.
Gaston, a rich nobleman in Dauphiny,
whose son had been cured (as he sup-
posed) by the pretended bones of St. A.,
at St.-Didier-là-Mothe, in token of his
gratitude, established, A. D. 1095, the hos-
pitable fraternity of St. Anthony, for the
care of the sick, and the assistance of pil-
ANTHONY-ANTHRACITE.
grims, of which he was the first chief.
This order received, from the churches
assembled at Clermont, A. D. 1096, the
papal confirmation; took the monastic
vows, A. D. 1218; and were declared by
Boniface VIII, A. D. 1298, a fraternity of
regular canons, according to the rules of
St. Augustin; their chief was to be termed
abbot, have his seat at St.-Didier-la-Mothe,
and be the general of all the houses of that
order. The priors of these houses called
themselves comthure, afterwards precep-
tors, and were subject to the abbot. The
dress of these Anthonians was black, mark-
ed on the breast with a blue cross, nearly in
the form of a T. They afterwards altered
the rules of their institution, and devoted
themselves to a silent, contemplative life
of devotion. This society became very
rich by reason of the many pilgrimages
to the grave of St. A., and the presents
which they received. Their order now
became widely extended. Even in the
18th century, they numbered 30 convents,
mostly in France; but not one of them
has continued to the 19th.
ANTHONY, St.; a cape on the coast of
Buenos Ayres. It forms the southern
point of the entrance into the La Plata.-
There are 3 other capes of the same name,
one of which forms the western extremity
of the island of Cuba; another on the coast
f Todos Santos in Brazil; another on the
coast of the straits of Magellan.
ANTHONY, St., falls of, on the Mis-
sissippi; lon. 93° 40′ W.; lat. 44° 15′ N.
The river is 627 yards broad above the
falls, and immediately below it is con-
tracted within a channel of 209 yards.
An island divides the falls into 2 parts.
The perpendicular height of the cataract
is 16 feet, besides 58 feet more of a rapid.
below; so that, when viewed from a dis-
tance, it appears to be much higher than
it really is. When the river is high, the
appearance of these falls is very sublime,
as the spray then formed reflects all the
colors of the rainbow. The surrounding
country is extremely beautiful, exhibiting
any gentle ascents, with eminences
covered with the finest verdure. The
portage around the falls is 260 rods long.
ANTHONY, St., island of; the most north-
ern of the cape Verd islands. Topazes
are found in one of its mountains, and it
is said to contain mines of gold and silver.
The inhabitants, chiefly Negroes, are about
580 in number.
ANTHONY of Padua, St.; born August
15, A. D. 1195, of a noble family in Lis-
Lon; one of the most renowned disciples
of St. Francis of Assisi, and a powerful
273
advocate of the Franciscan order, which
he entered A. D. 1220; was shipwrecked
on the coast of Italy, in a voyage to Af
rica, which he had undertaken with a
view of becoming a martyr to the Chris-
tian faith, and preached, with great ap-
plause, at Montpellier, Toulouse, Bologna
and Padua, where he died, June 13, A. D.
1231. His Legends are full of prodigies;
but all agree in extolling his talents as a
preacher. According to tradition, the very
fishes were affected by his eloquence.
The Catholic church, particularly in Por-
tugal and Italy, honored him as one of
its most eminent saints, among whom
pope Gregory IX assigned him a place,
A.D. 1232. At Padua, a church, contain-
ing his sepulchre, is consecrated to him,
which is a master-piece of architecture.
ANTHRACITE (from arpa, coal) is the
name of one of the most valuable kinds
of coal used in the arts and domestic econ-
omy. Its mineralogical character is as fol-
lows: color, grayish-black, or iron-black;
lustre, imperfectly metallic; opaque; spe-
cific gravity, from 1-4 to 1-6; fracture,
conchoidal. Some varieties abound in
fissures, in consequence of which they
possess an irregular columnar structure,
and a lower degree of lustre; while others
are highly compact, of a black color, with
a shining lustre, and occasionally highly
tarnished with iridescent colors. Anthra-
cite consists wholly of carbon, mixed with
a slight and variable proportion of oxyde
of iron, silex and alumine. It is inflam-
mable with some difficulty, and burns
without smell or smoke, leaving a more or
less earthy residue. It is less widely dis-
tributed than the bituminous coal, and
belongs exclusively to transition rocks.
It has been found in several European
countries, where, owing to its limited ex-
tent and other causes, its use appears to
be but little known. In the U. States, on
the contrary, it occurs in the greatest
abundance, and, within the last 10 years,
has acquired a high degree of importance.
Its difficult combustibility was, for a time,
an obstacle to its introduction; this, how-
ever, was obviated by the invention of
peculiar furnaces and grates. It is now
very largely used in all the maritime parts
of the U. States, not only for manufac-
turing purposes, in which its utility is
immense, but in the warming of apart-
ments, both private and public; and its
cheapness, the intensity and equability of
heat it produces, together with its perfect
safety, and freedom from all disagreeable
smoke and smell, give it a decided pref-
erence over every other species of fuel.
274
ANTHRACITE-ANTIBES.
In Pennsylvania, the anthracite coal for-
mation is known to cover a tract of coun-
try many miles in width, extending across
the two entire counties of Luzerne and
Schuylkill. Mauch Chunk, upon the Le-
high, Pottsville, at the head of the Schuyl-
kill canal, and Wilkesbarre, upon the Sus-
quehanna, have afforded the chief supply
of coal from this region, as well as the great-
est proportion consumed in the U. States.
At Mauch Chunk, 800 men were em-
ployed in digging coal, in 1825, in which
year 750,000 bushels were sent to Phila-
delphia. The anthracite, throughout this
region, is explored with very little labor,
being situated in hills from 300 to 600 feet
above the level of neighboring rivers and
canals, and existing in nearly horizontal
beds, from 15 to 40 feet in thickness, cov-
ered only by a few feet of gravelly loam.
At Portsmouth, in Rhode Island, an exten-
sive bed of this coal has been worked, with
some interruption, for 20 years; and, more
recently, a mine of anthracite has been
opened at Worcester, in Massachusetts,
at the head of the Blackstone canal.
ANTHROPOLITES; petrifactions of human
bodies or parts of the body. (See Petrifac-
tions.) Those of animals are called zoolites.
ANTHROPOLOGY (from av@pwmos, man, and
Aúyos, a discourse) signifies the science
which treats of human nature, either in
a physical or an intellectual point of view.
It is frequently used to denote the science
of anatomy. In theology, it denotes a
way of speaking of God after the manner
of men, by attributing to him human pas-
sions and affections. (Sec Philosophy.)
ANTHROPOMORPHITES (from Opoños,
man, and µoppǹ, form); called also Audi-
ns; the adherents of Audius, or Audaus,
a teacher in Syria, who was banished to
Scythia, introduced Christianity among
the Goths, and died about 370 after
Christ. They were excommunicated by
the orthodox church, rather on account of
their persevering in the old way of cele-
brating Easter, at the same time with the
Jewish Passover, their deviation from the
usual penances, and their zeal against un-
worthy priests, than on account of their
representation of God in a human shape.
Towards the close of the 4th century,
they still existed, as schismatics of severe
morals, in small bodies in Syria; in the
5th century, they were extinct. The
Italian divines at Vicenza, about the year
938, who were called Anthropomorphists
on account of similar representations of
God, formed no sect.
ANTHROPOPHAGI (from Opwños, man,
and pay, I cat); man-eaters, cannibals.
The practice of eating human flesh, un-
natural as it may seem to us, is found to
prevail among some nations. In some
cases, hunger, in others, revenge, in oth-
ers, superstition, is the motive; at least, it
is reported that the Mexicans used to eat
the flesh of the victims whom they had
sacrificed to their idols. In some in-
stances, a horrid desire for human flesh
appears to have been occasioned by
disease, like other perversions of the
appetite. Thus a cowherd, named
Goldschmidt, who had committed a mur-
der, and, in order to prevent discovery,
had cut the body in pieces, is said to have
felt a craving for human flesh arise with-
in him, and, after devouring the body of
the murdered man, to have killed an in-
fant expressly for the purpose of gratify-
ing his unnatural longing. (See Gruner's
Almanac for Physicians (Almanach für
Aerzte), 1782, page 312.) Boethius reports,
in his history of Scotland, an instance, in
which this disease seized a whole family.
A robber, his wife and children, were
burnt, because they had killed and eaten
several persons whom they had enticed
into their dwelling. Only one daughter,
who was very young, was left alive; but
scarcely had she reached her 12th year,
when she was executed for the same
crime. That there are nations who eat
the flesh of enemies slain in battle, e. g.,
the New Zealanders, is well known; but
there are none who make human flesh
their usual food, except, perhaps, the
Battos in Sumatra, according to the re-
port of Anderson (London, 1826). The
cruelty of the first conquerors of ´Ameri-
ca, the Spaniards, inflamed the gentle
natives to a barbarous revenge; and they
were calumniated as cannibals, to afford
a better pretext for their destruction.
Under this pretence, the Caribs were ex-
tirpated. Modern navigators have not
confirmed those sweeping accusations of
barbarism and cannibalism; and even
where they have met with nations who
ate human flesh (that of slaughtered ene-
mies), they have found them mild and
kind-hearted people. In Germany, during
the reign of Joseph II, it was pretended
that gipsies had been known to murder
travellers, cut them in pieces, salt and cat
them! Cannibalism prevailed among the
savage Scythians and Sarmatians, also
among the ancient inhabitants of Canaan.
ANTIBACCHIUS. (See Rhythmus.)
ANTIBES; an old town of Provence,
in the department of the Var, on the
Mediterranean, with a commodious har-
bor and a strong citadel. It was founded
ANTIBES--ANTIGONUS.
by the Massilians, 340 B. C., and named
Antipolis. A. now contains 500 houses,
with 5270 inhabitants. It is an important
barrier fortress on the side of Italy, and
was, in 1747, besieged without effect by
the Austrians and English. A. is remark-
able for being the only place where the
French soldiers refused to join Napoleon
on his landing from Elba, in 1815. Lon.
7° 11' E.; lat. 43° 35′ N.
ANTICAGLIA. (See Antique.)
ANTICHRIST. In the last centuries
before Christ, the Jews connected with
their idea of the Messiah the notion of an
Anti-Messiah, or an enemy to the attempts
of the Messiah to promote the good of their
nation, who would cause great sufferings
before the advent of the latter. The books
of the New Testament mention the Anti-
christ as one or several false prophets,
who would pretend to be the true Christ,
and would deceive the world. In the
In the
Apocalypse alone, he is represented as a
powerful ruler, opposed to Christianity.
The Christians, in the first centuries, re-
tained the idea of such a powerful enemy
of the church, whose appearance, an-
nounced by their own persecutions, would
precede the reappearance of Christ, which
was then commonly expected. With the
belief of the millennium, which was to suc-
ceed the vexations of the church by the
Antichrist, the idea of such a being con-
tinued under various forms, and height-
ened by the most lively descriptions on
the part of the Christian fathers, until the
year 1000 had elapsed without the fulfil-
ment of these prophecies, and the millen-
nial enthusiasm itself was cooled. The in-
terpretation of the Apocalypse constantly
occasioned new calculations on the ap-
pearance of the Antichrist. In the middle
ages, the opponents of the Roman hie-
rarchy eagerly applied this character to
the pope, in whom not only the Walden-
ses, Wickliffites and Hussites, but even
Luther and his friends, recognised the
true Antichrist, as having placed himself
against and above Christ. On the other
hand, the Catholics bestowed this title on
Luther and other reformers. Thus the
idea of the Antichrist, as a dangerous
enemy to the true church, remained un-
der a variety of forms, without ever re-
gaining universal acknowledgment. The
fathers have generally agreed, that the
Antichrist will appear, at the approach of
the last day, in a bodily shape; but as to
his origin, and time and place of appear-
ing, their opinions differ. Some believe
that he will be a mere man-"the man of
sin, the son of perdition," spoken of by St.
275
Paul; and others, that he will be an in-
carnation of the devil. Malvenda, in a
large work, consisting of 13 books, has
given the most minute account of the
birth, childhood, education, character,
power, wars, persecutions and death of
Antichrist. The church of Rome has
never pronounced any decision with re-
gard to the various notions its members
have entertained on this subject. Napo-
leon was styled Antichrist by some per-
sons, and several passages of the Apoca-
lypse were referred to him. At present,
the great party of fanatics, political and
religious, perceive the Antichrist in hu-
man reason, or, rather, in the free use of
it against the views and pretensions of
fanaticism. Among the Jews, too, since
the destruction of Jerusalem by Titus,
the wonderful prophecy of a contest is
preserved, in which an Antichrist, by
name Armillus, will be vanquished by
the true Messiah, after a severe oppres-
sion of the Jews.
ANTICTRA; a town of Phocis, in Greece,
famous for the hellebore which it pro-
duced. This plant was of great service
in curing diseases, particularly insanity.
and A. was therefore much resorted to
by the ancients; hence the expression of
Horace, Naviget Anticyram.
ANTIGONE, the fruit of the incestuous
marriage of Edipus and Jocasta, though
innocent, bore the curse of her father's
house. For her history, see the articles
Eteocles and Edipus. Sophocles has im-
mortalized her in a tragedy.
ANTIGONUS; one of the generals of Al-
exander, to whom, after his first conquests
in Asia. he intrusted the government of
Lycia and Phrygia. A. not only defend-
ed his provinces with very small forces,
but also subdued Lycaonia. When, after
the death of Alexander, his generals di-
vided his conquests among themselves,
he obtained the Greater Phrygia, Lycia
and Pamphylia. Perdiccas, who strove
to unite all the states of Alexander under
his own dominion, and who feared the
energy of Antigonus, accused him of dis-
obedience to the commands of the king.
A. saw through his intentions, embarked
secretly for Europe, and connected him-
self with Craterus and Antipater. These
three, then, together with Ptolemy, de-
clared war against Perdiccas. The latter
was killed by his own soldiers. Eume-
nes, the general of Perdiccas, was still,
however, very powerful in Asia. A. con-
tinued the war against him alone, got
him into his power, and put him to death.
Thus, in a short time, he became master
276
ANTIGONUS-ANTIGUA.
of almost all Asia; for Seleucus, who
reigned in Syria, and had endeavored to
oppose his usurpations, was likewise
overpowered by him, and sought shelter
with Ptolemy. A. possessed himself, al-
so, of the greater part of the treasures of
Alexander at Ecbatana and Susa, but
would not render an account of them to
Ptolemy, Cassander and Lysimachus, and
even declared war against Cassander, in
order to revenge, as he said, the death of
Olympias, and to deliver the young Alex-
ander, who lived with his mother, Roxa-
na, at Amphipolis. Disgusted by his
ambition, all the generals united them-
selves against him; and, whilst Cassander
attacked Asia Minor, Ptolemy and Seleu-
cus invaded Syria, where they defeated
Demetrius, the son of A. Seleucus
retook Babylon. As soon as A. was ap-
prized of these events, he returned, and
obliged Ptolemy to retrcat. Demetrius
recovered Babylon from the hands of Se-
leucus. Antigonus, Ptolemy, Lysima-
chus and Cassander concluded a treaty
of peace, by which they were to retain,
till the majority of the young Alexander,
who bore the title of king, the territories
in their possession. But, after the mur-
der of the young king, with his mother,
by Cassander, the war was rekindled
among the competitors. A. took the
royal title, but was obliged to give up his
plan of conquering Egypt, as part of his
fleet was lost at sea in a storm, and Ptol-
emy frustrated every attempt at invasion
by land. Soon afterwards, young Deme-
trius drove Cassander from Greece. He
applied for aid to Lysimachus, who went
with a powerful army to Asia; here Se-
leucus also joined him. Near Ipsus, in
Phrygia, 301 B. C., a battle was fought by
the three allies against A. and his son, in
which A. fell, aged 84 years.-There are
several other persons of the name of An-
tigonus mentioned in history.-A., king
of Judea, son of Aristobulus. le be-
sieged Jerusalem, was taken prisoner by
Herod, and sent to Mark Antony, who
put him to death, B. C. 36.—A. Gonatas,
son of Demetrius Poliorcetes. He was
distinguished by his mild and humane
disposition. At his father's death, he
succeeded him in the kingdom of Mace-
don, and all his other European domin-
ions. He died, after a peaceful reign of
34 years, B. C. 243. Demetrius II suc-
ceeded him.-Antigonus II, surnamed
Doson, king of Macedonia, the son of
Antigonus I, succeeded his brother, De-
metrius II, B. C. 225, and was soon after
chosen commander-in-chief of the Achæ-
an forces by sca and land. A. defeated
Cleomenes, king of Sparta, at Sellasia.
He was succeeded by his nephew,
Philip VI, B. C. 220.
ANTIGUA; an island in the West In-
dies, one of the Caribbees, 21 miles long,
and nearly the same in breadth, upwards
of 50 miles in circumference. It contains
59,838 acres of ground, of which 34,000
are appropriated to the growth of sugar
and to pasturage; its other principal com-
modities are cotton, wool, and tobacco.
Population, in 1817, 2,102 whites, exclu-
sive of troops; 1,747 free people of col-
or, and 31,452 slaves. Official value of
exports, in 1809, £216,000; imports,
£198,000. Antigua is divided into 6 par-
ishes, and 11 districts. The name of the
capital is St. John's. No island in this part
of the West Indies can boast of so many
excellent harbors. Of these the principal
arc English harbor and St. John's, both
well fortified; and at the former the British
government has established a royal navy-
yard and arsenal, and conveniences for
careening ships of war. Lon. 61° 48′ W.;
lat. 17° 5' N. Antigua constitutes, along
with St. Christopher, Nevis, Montserrat,
and those of the Virgin islands which be-
long to the English, a separate government.
The governor, who is styled captain-general
ofthe Leeward and Caribbean islands, gen-
crally resides at A., and occasionally visits
the other islands. Antigua was discovered
by Columbus in 1493. The first settlement
was made, in 1632, by a few English fami-
lies. In 1663, Charles II granted it to lord
Willoughby. In 1666, a French expedition,
uniting with the Caribs, invaded the island,
laid waste the settlements, and committed
great crueltics. The island was re-settled
a few years afterwards, through the enter-
prise of colonel Codrington, of Barbadoes,
who was appointed commander-in-chief
of the Leeward islands. In 1706, and
during the three succeeding years, An-
tigua was cursed by the government of a
ferocious and unprincipled tyrant, whose
varied crimes and tragical end will not
soon be forgotten in the West Indies.
The administration of governor Park
seems to have resembled more closely the
barbarous despotism of Nero or Caracalla
than the governments of modern times.
Ample vengeance was taken by the peo-
ple, who, driven to madness by oppres-
sion, rose in a body, overpowered the reg-
ular troops, tore the living body of the
oppressor limb from limb, and gave the
fragments to beasts of prey. So well
was this punishment thought to be de-
served, that the British government rati-
ANTIGUA-ANTIMONY.
fied the act by granting a general pardon
to all concerned in it, and shortly after-
wards promoted two of the principal
actors to public offices. No event of im-
portance has occurred in the recent his-
tory of A., which still remains under the
British government.
ANTILEGOMENA; a word in Scripture
criticism denoting those books the author-
ity of which has been disputed.
ANTILLES; a cluster of islands in the
West Indies, extending in the form of a
crescent from the coast of Florida to the
mouth of the Orinoco, in Colombia. They
arc distinguished into Windward and
Lecward islands, and into Greater and
Less. The Greater comprehend Cuba,
Hayti or St. Domingo, Jamaica and Porto
Rico. The Less einbrace Antigua, Bar-
badoes, St. Christopher, Guadaloupe, Mar-
tinico, Grenada, Trinidad, St. Thomas,
Santa Cruz, Dominica, St. Vincent, To-
bago, St. Lucia, &c. (Sec West Indies.)
ANTILOCHUS; son of Nestor, it is said,
by Anaxibia or Eurydice; the youngest
soldier in the army of the Grecks before
Troy; valiant and courageous, beautiful,
and of great strength and activity; on this
account the most favored, after Patro-
clus, by Achilles. He was, for this rea-
son, according to Homer, chosen to
announce to Achilles the death of Patro-
clus. He was called from the battle,
flew to his friend, reported, with tears,
the mournful tidings, and soothingly held
the hands of the despairing Achilles. In
the games in honor of the dead, he
received the third prize in running, the
value of which was enhanced by the
praises of Achilles. He slew many of the
Trojan chiefs in battle, and was once
saved from the perils of fight by Neptune
himself. He finally fell in the defence of
his gray-haired father, who, when hard
pressed by the Ethiopian Memnon, had
called hini to his aid (Pindar, Pyth. VI.),
on which account the name Philopator
has been given to him. His fall is repre-
sented in the Ilian Table, No. 48. United
with his friends Patroclus and Achilles,
he appears among the shades in the
lower world. The other traditions re-
specting him are of later origin.
ANTIMACHUS; a poct, a native of Colo-
phon, who is supposed to have lived in
the 5th century B. C. Adrian, who
placed Ennius before Virgil, preferred A.
to Homer,—a circumstance which renders
the loss of his compositions a subject of
great regret. The names of two of his
works, the Thebaid and the Lydian, are
preserved, and a fragment of A. is to be
21
VOL. I.
277
found in the Analecta of Brunck. The
rest of his remains were published, in
1786, by Schellenburg, under the title of
Antimachi Colophonii Reliquiæ.
ANTIMONY is a bluish-white, brittle
metal, of a scaly or foliated texture; it
has a brilliant lustre, but becomes tarnished
by exposure to the air; its specific gravity
is 6.7. In this state, it is called the regu-
lus of antimony, and is used as an ingre-
dient in the manufacture of the best pew-
ter, in some type-metal, and in casting
leaden medallions. By exposure to heat
it melts, and, becoming oxydized, rises in
dense white fumes, formerly called ar-
gentine flowers of antimony.—Antimony
forms with oxygen several oxydes, with
which the acids unite and give rise to
numerous salts, the most important of
which is the triple one, called tartrate of
potash and antimony. It is manufactured
in the large way by mixing one pound of
glass of antimony with a pound of cream
of tartar, and boiling the mixture in a
gallon of water for an hour or two: it is
then filtered, evaporated and set by to
crystalize. Tartar emetic is the inost
generally used antimonial medicine; and
it may be so managed as to produce ei-
ther sweating, purging, or vomiting.—An-
timony is found in its metallic state in
minute quantities in several countries,
and in occasional mixture with ores of
silver, lead and copper; but it is from its
combination with sulphur, in which state
it occurs abundantly in Auvergne, Scot-
land and Hungary, that the antimony of
commerce is furnished. This mineral,
the sulphuret of antimony, is found in com-
pact, foliated and radiated masses, as
well as in distinct rhombie prismus. Its
color is a light lead-gray; it is dull, and
often iridescent. Specific gravity, 4.3. It
melts in the flame of a candle, and before
the blow-pipe, on charcoal, is wholly evap-
orated, with a sulphureous odor.-It is
composed of animiony 72.86, and sulphur
27.14, and in its composition exactly
resembles the artificial compound which
possesses the same properties.—To obtain
the crude antimony of commerce, the
above ore is reduced to fragments, and
put into large earthen pots, with holes in
their bottonis, and these are inserted into
other similar vessels; heat is applied to
the upper ones, which causes the sul-
phuret of antimony to separate from its
stony gangue, and flow into the lower
vessels, which are kept cold; here it
concretes into fibrous, crystalline masses,
without having undergone any change
in its nature during the process. In this
278
ANTIMONY-ANTIOCH.
condition, it constitutes the crude antimo-
ny of commerce.-From this substance
the regulus of antimony is prepared, by
roasting the sulphuret of antimony in a
reverberatory furnace, until it forms a
gray oxyde, 100 weight of which is after-
wards mixed with 8 or 10 pounds of
argal, or crude tartar, and smelted in
large melting pots in a wind-furnace. It
also affords, by calcination and subsequent
fusion in earthen crucibles, the glass of
antimony, which is of so much importance
in the preparation of tartar emetic. The
Kermes mineral, a popular medicine, is
likewise prepared from the sulphuret of
antimony, by boiling crude antimony and
pearlashes; the Kermes mineral is de-
posited in the form of a purplish-brown
powder. The supernatant liquid, on the
addition of any acid, yields an orange
sediment, called golden sulphur of antimo-
ny, which is used by the calico-printers
as a yellow color.
ANTINOMIANISM (opposition to the law);
the name given, by the reformers of Wit-
tenberg, to the disparagement of the mor-
al law, particularly the law of Moses, by
certain Protestants, who aimed thereby
to exalt the efficacy of faith in the salva-
tion of man. John Agricola was the
most conspicuous member of this party,
and, in 1537, violently attacked Luther and
Melancthon on this ground, in a public
dissertation, in Wittenberg. But, in 1539,
he recanted, and published a renunciation
of his errors, in 1540, at Berlin.-Antino-
mians is the name given to those who
adhere to this doctrine, which had its
origin in an erroneous apprehension of
the grace of God and the insufficiency of
good works.
ANTINOUS; a young Bithynian, whom
the extravagant love of Adrian has im-
mortalized. Whether he threw himself
into the Nile, with the intention of pre-
serving the life of Adrian, whom he accom-
panied on his travels, or because weary
of his own life, is not to be decided.
Adrian set no bounds to his grief for his
loss. Not satisfied with giving the name
of his favorite to a newly-discovered star
in the galaxy (which appellation is still
preserved), he erected temples in his hon-
or, called cities after him, and caused him
to be adored as a god throughout the em-
pire. His image was, therefore, repre-
sented by the arts in every way. Several
of these figures belong to the finest re-
mains of antiquity, particularly the statue
called the Antinous of Belvedere, in the
Vatican, found in the bath of Adrian; and
the A. of the Capitol, found in the villa of
Adrian at Tivoli. Antiquaries, however,
differ much in opinion concerning these
statues, and many will not allow them to
be images of A., but recognise in them the
characteristics of certain heroes or gods.
This dispute is difficult to be decided,
because the artists, who represented A.
as a god, chose divine ideals, to which
they gave his features. The Vatican statue,
which goes under his name, is probably
a Hermes, the Capitoline probably a
Hermes-Antinous. "In all the figures of
A.," says Winckelmann, "his counte-
nance has something melancholy; his
eyes are always large, with good outlines;
his profile gently descending; and in his
mouth and chin there is something ex-
pressed which is truly beautiful." (See
Levezow on A., represented in the Monu-
ments of Ancient Art; Berlin, 1808.)
ANTIOCH, OF ANTAKIA (anciently, Anti-
ochia, and Antigonia, and Theopolis, aud
Seleucis, and Epiphane, and Reblata), in
Syria, 50 miles W. of Aleppo, lon."36
18′ E., lat. 36° 6 N., once greater and
richer than Rome itself, but often ruined
by earthquakes, and finally razed by the
Mamelukes, in 1269, is now only a small
town. It was founded by Antigonus, and
captured by Seleucus, who changed its
situation, and called it Antioch, from his
father, Antiochus. Long celebrated as
one of the first cities of the East, it was
the residence of the Macedonian kings
of Syria, and of the Roman governors. It
is frequently mentioned in the New Tes-
tamcnt, and the name Christians was first
given to the disciples of Christ in this
city (Acts, xi. 26). In the 7th century, it
was taken by the Saracens, and, in the
11th, by the crusaders, who established a
principality under the name of A. Boë-
mond was the first ruler. A. is situated
on the Orontes, about 21 miles from the
sea.
The "Queen of the East" now ex-
hibits hardly any relics of her former
splendor; even the ruins are constantly
thrown down by earthquakes. The pop-
ulation is less than 20,000; the houses arc
low, with only one story above ground;
the streets narrow; and the whole appear-
ance of the city is dull and melancholy.
The banks of the Orontes are covered
with mulberries, figs and olives, but the
plain of A. is uncultivated. The governor
here is called mohassel, and is dependent
on the pacha of Aleppo, but appointed by
the Porte. A. is also the residence of a
Greek patriarch.-There was also another
Antiochia (ad Pisidiam) in the Greater
Phrygia, where the Romans settled a colo-
ny. It was famous for a temple of Luna,
ANTIOCHUS—ANTIPATHY.
ANTIOCHUS; a name of several Syrian
kings, which makes an epoch in Roman
history. The first who was known by this
name, a Macedonian, and general of king
Philip, was father of the famous Seleucus
(q. v.), by his wife Laodice. The son of
the latter, A. Soter, carried on many un-
successful wars, and is chiefly known for
his love of his step-mother, Stratonice.
Though he endeavored to subdue his
passion, it threw him into a lingering
sickness, which continued till the king's
physician, Erasistratus, perceived the
cause, and disclosed it to his father, who,
thereupon, from love to his only son, gave
him his young and beautiful bride in
marriage. One of his descendants was
A. the Great, who succeeded his brother,
Seleucus Ceraunus, as king of Syria, 244
years B. C. He chastised Molo, governor
of Media, and conquered Ptolemy Philop-
ator, who was obliged to surrender all
Syria. He was no less successful against
the Parthians, and at length engaged in a
contest with the Romans. This is the
famous war of A., for which, with the
aid of Hannibal, he made great prepara-
tions. He did not, however, enter fully
into the plans of this general, and sent
only one army to Greece, which remained
inactive, and was defeated first at Ther-
mopyla, and several times by sea, till, at
length, he became so disheartened, that he
did not even contest with the Romans
the passage into Asia Minor, where they
gained a victory at Magnesia, and obliged
him to contract a disgraceful peace.
a disgraceful peace.
Afterwards, attempting to take away the
treasures from the temple of Jupiter Ely-
mæus, he was slain, with all his followers.
His second son, Epiphanes, who is rep-
resented, in the history of the Maccabees,
as a most cruel oppressor of the Jews,
attacked the Egyptian king, Ptolemy Phi-
lopator, and laid siege to Alexandria.
But he afterwards abandoned it, as well
as all Egypt, where the Romans took
the part of Ptolemy. Many other Syrian
kings, under the name of A., with various
surnames, succeeded, till, at last, A. Asiat-
icus, was expelled from his dominions by
Pompey, and Syria (see Syria) became a
Roman province.
ANTIOPE; daughter of Nycteus, king of
Thebes (according to Homer, of the river
Asopus), renowned through all Greece
for her uncommon beauty. Epopeus,
king of Sicyon, carried her off, and mar-
ried her; but Lycus, the successor of Nyc-
teus, who had promised him to punish
his daughter, slew Epopeus, and carried
A. prisoner to Thebes, where he deliv-
273
ered her to his wife, Dirce, by whom she
was treated with the greatest cruelty. A.,
however, was happy enough to escape,
and to see herself avenged by her own
sons, Zethus and Amphion, whom she
boasted to have conceived in the embra-
ces of Jupiter. The rest of her story is
told in a variety of ways.
ANTIPAROS. (See Paros.)
ANTIPASCHIA, among ecclesiastical wri-
ters, denotes the first Sunday after Easter.
It is also called dominica in albis.
ANTIPATER; a general, and a confiden-
tial friend, of Philip of Macedon. Alexan-
der left him governor of Macedonia when
he went to Asia. Although he filled this
post with honor, reducing to obedience
Memnon, a seditious governor of Thrace,
and, after a hard-fought battle, overcom-
ing the Spartans, who were struggling for
independence, yet Olympias, the mother
of Alexander, with whom he was con-
stantly at variance, succeeded in making
him an object of her son's suspicion; so
that he summoned him to his presence in
Asia, and appointed Craterus governor of
Macedonia. But Alexander died before
this change was accomplished. A. re-
ceived Macedonia and Greece in the well-
known division of the empire, and was
appointed guardian of the child with
which Roxana, Alexander's widow, was
then pregnant. Soon after, he was in-
volved in a war with all the powers of
Greece. At first, he was unsuccessful;
but, when Leonatus and Craterus came
to his assistance, the Greeks again sub-
mitted. This war was followed by anoth-
er with Perdiccas, which terminated as
happily. A. died 317 years B. C., at an
advanced age, having confided to Polys-
perchon the guardianship of the young
king. The assertion that he caused Al-
exander to be poisoned, is wholly un-
founded.
ANTIPATHY; a natural enmity or aver-
sion of one thing towards another. In a
more restricted sense, antipathy denotes the
natural aversion which an animated and
sensitive being feels towards some ob-
ject presented to it, either in reality or
imagination, the cause of which is often
mysterious and inexplicable. Such is the
aversion of which some persons are con-
scious under the apprehension or at the
sight of particular objects, as cats, mice,
spiders, serpents, eels, &c. Many in-
stances of antipathies are no better than
fables, and a severe examination would
reduce them to the class of vulgar errors.
There are also fictitious aversions, having
their source in affectation and a pre-
280
ANTIPATHY-ANTIPOPE.
tended delicacy of nerves. The greater
part of antipathies arise from prejudice;
many from terrors inspired in infancy;
and, in most cases, reflection and a grad-
ual accustoming of ourselves to the ob-
jects of our dislike will weaken or re-
move the feeling of aversion; yet there
are instances of incurable A., which seems
to have its seat in the nervous system.
ANTIPHLOGISTIC CHEMISTRY.
Chemistry.)
(See
ANTIPHONY (alternate song); applied
particularly, in the Catholic church, to the
verse which is first sung by a single voice,
and then repeated by the whole choir,
after the psalm has been sung by the two
parts of the choir alternately.—Also, a
song of the priest, to which the choir or
the congregation responds. Hence Anti-
phonarium, or Antiphonale, a large volume
of Latin songs, from which the canons
and other ecclesiastics sing antiphonies,
hymns, collects, &c. The 87th psalm,
7th verse, proves that this mode of alter-
nate singing formed a part of the old Jew-
ish worship. Its introduction into the
Christian church is ascribed to Ignatius,
a father of the church, in the 1st century
after Christ. The Western church is said
to have received it more particularly from
Ambrose. (q. v.) At the end of the 6th
century, Gregory the Great composed an
Antiphonary in honor of the virgin Mary,
and the other saints. In the Protestant
church, two sorts of antiphony are known.
They consist cither of whole psalms, as
the Litany, or of only a few words of
Scripture. The latter sort includes the
introductory chant of the preacher, and
the mutual response of the choir and the
congregation. A species of English ca-
thedral music is called an anthem or an-
tiphony. Handel has composed several
antheins.
ANTIPHRASIS. This may be defined a
form of speech, in which we affirm a
thing by denying it to be the contrary; as,
He is no fool. It is also used, though less
correctly, to signify a figure of speech, by
which the name of any thing is derived
from a quality it does not possess; e. g.,
the name of the Fates, Parcæ, from par-
cere, to spare, though to spare is foreign to
their nature. So also the name of the
Furies, Eumenides. Such appellations
are usually ironical.
ANTIPODES; the name given to those
inhabitants of the earth who are diametri-
cally opposite to each other, and, of
course, turn their feet towards each other.
The name comes from the Greek ȧvr,
against, and muõs, a foot. The zenith of
the one is the nadir of the other. The
antipodes live in similar but opposite lat-
itudes, and their longitudes differ 180
degrees. Hence the difference in their
days is about 12 hours, and their seasons
are reversed. The spherical form of the
earth naturally leads us to the idea of the
antipodes, of whose existence some idea
was entertained even before the age of
Cicero. The fathers of the church, how-
ever, found in this theory a contradiction
of the Bible, and, in the 8th century, Vir-
gilius, archbishop of Saltzburg, was ex-
communicated for maintaining it. Cir-
cumnavigators of the globe first put the
question beyond all doubt, and the oppo-
sition to the doctrine of the sphericity of
the earth, and the existence of the antip-
odes, is now done away.
ANTIPOPE; thus are called all those
who, at different periods, have produced
a schism in the Roman Catholic church,
by opposing the authority of the pope,
under the pretence that they were them-
selves popes. This is the Catholic expla-
nation, because it is evident that the Ro-
man church cannot admit that there ever
existed two popes; but the fact is, that, in
many cases, both competitors for the
papal chair (sometimes there were even
three) were equally antipopes; that is to
say, the claims of all were equally good.
Each was frequently supported by whole
nations, and the schism was nothing but
the struggle of political interests, which
induced particular governments to sup-
port a pope against the pope supported
by other governments. Those were the
most unhappy periods of the Roman
church, when to many other evils were
added violent contests between rival can-
didates for the papal chair, and the con-
sciences of the honest believers were
offended and perplexed by the excom-
munications which the adversaries thun-
dered against each other. These quarrels,
of course, lessened much the belief in the
pope's sanctity and infallibility, shook the
whole fabric of the church, and contrib-
uted much to prepare the way for the
great reformation; but it would be unjust
to throw on the popes alone the blame of
these unhappy conflicts. They were nat-
ural consequences of the diminution of
the dependence of the different govern-
ments on the papal sec, resulting, in a
great measure, from the increase and dif-
fusion of knowledge. Another cause of
these schisms was the diminished author-
ity of the clergy, whose corruption and
profligacy, in many countries, had given
the greatest offence throughout Christen-
ANTIPOPE-ANTIQUE.
dom. Of this the most melancholy proof
may be found in almost any work of the
14th and 15th centuries, as well as in the
proceedings of the councils. Those, for
instance, of the councils of Constance and
Basle, and some of the writings of Pe-
trarca, who lived at Avignon when it was
the seat of the papal court, are full of
such facts and complaints of them. Only
one antipope is recorded to have existed
at an earlier period-Novatianus, a Ro-
man priest and heretic, the rival of Cor-
nelius, in 251. Amadeus VIII, duke of
Savoy, was the last antipope. He was
elected by the council of Basle, in 1439,
in opposition to Eugene IV and Nicholas
V. But he renounced his title in favor
of the latter, in 1449. Similar scenes had
taken place in the latter ages of the Ro-
man empire. When that gigantic struc-
ture was fast verging to ruin, emperors
rose against emperors, elected and sup-
ported by their soldiers in different quar-
ters of the world. In fact, such divisions
must always take place whenever a vast
empire, spiritual or temporal, declines, and
loses that energy which had conducted it
to greatness. Thus we find in the Mo-
hammedan history, at one period, many
anticaliphs.
ANTIQUARIES; men who employ then-
selves in the study or collection of antiqui-
ties. In Italy, the ciceroni are often anti-
quaries. In England, and particularly in
Scotland, there are important associations
of antiquaries. In Germany, those book
sellers who deal exclusively in old books,
are called by this name, and the custom
has extended beyond this country. In
France, these dealers are ironically called
bouquinists, from bouquin, a book of little
value. In London, the most valuable col-
lections may be found at Longman's and
Lackington's; in Paris, at Renouard's; in
Madrid, at Sancha's; in Rome, at de
Romanis'; in Florence, at Molini's; in
Utrecht, at Wild's and Altheer's; and in
Leyden, at Luchtmans's. In Germany,
Weigel in Leipsic, Meusel in Coburg,
Hassler and Nestler in Hamburg, and
Sommerbrod in Berlin, are among the
best known, and often have very valuable
editions.
ANTIQUE. After the convulsions which
attended the settlement of the tribes of
the North and the East on the ruins of the
Roman empire had, in some degree, sub-
sided, and the nations of Europe began to
enjoy, to a certain degree, the blessings
of peace, a regard for science and the
arts grew up among the rude conquerors,
and revived in the minds of the vanquish-
281
It
ed. In the midst of barbarism, the re-
mains of Grecian and Roman civilization,
literature and art appeared like the pro-
ductions of a better and nobler world; and
the word antiquus, applied to literature,
science or art, became almost synonymous
with excellent. By degrees, the relics of
ancient literature were collected in libra-
ries, and those of art in museums.
was not, however, till the 14th and 15th
centuries, that the effects of the admira-
tion and study of the numerous and con-
tinually increasing collections of antiques
began to be perceptible, and first of all in
Italy. What is termed modern art, in con-
tradiction to ancient, then had its origin.
This was based, indeed, on different prin-
ciples from the ancient, inasmuch as it
was influenced by the spirit of Christian-
ity, of chivalry, and the prevailing charac-
ter of the Teutonic nations. Still the
noble impulse, which it received at this
time, was derived almost entirely from the
study of the remains of antiquity, to which
the greatest masters of modern times de-
voted themselves most intensely; though
their own works bear distinctly the stamp
of their own characters, and of the age in
which they lived. The great question
then arises,-In what does the difference
between ancient and modern art consist?
To explain this, it would be necessary to
go deeply into the nature of the fine arts;
and, moreover, it can never be correctly
understood without personal acquaintance
with the great works of both. Some of
the most striking diversities are, that the
ancient art attaches more importance to
the form; ancient art, also, aims particu-
larly to express gencral ideas, and to give
something of a general character even to
individual representations; while the mod-
ern confines itself more to individual char-
acteristics. To explain the reasons of the
existing differences, would require a closer
investigation of the religion and govern-
ment, the science and social life of the
ancients, as distinguished from those of
the moderns. One of the principal causes
is to be found in the different light in
which man and outward nature are re-
garded, in the popular belief of antiquity,
from that in which Christianity considers
them. The ancient creeds gave a divine
character to the outward creation, and
represented the gods in the figures of
men; while the Christian religion has
been generally understood as inculcating
contempt for all things earthly, and the
Scriptures themselves continually connect
the idea of sin with that of the world.-
We shall pursue these ideas farther, under
24 *
282
ANTIQUE-ANTIQUITY.
tne articles Classical and Romantic, also name antiquities is given to the remains
in the article Philosophy.-When we con- of ancient art.
of ancient art. The phrase is used in a
sider the remains of Greek and Roman wider sense, to signify all which belongs
art, we find the former far superior; in to a knowledge of the politics, manners,
fact, the Roman might be considered an religion, literature and arts of the nations
after-blossom of the Greek, sprung from of antiquity, or of the modern nations,
the immensely rich collections of antiques until the existing order of things com-
in Rome. Greek art was so pure and menced. We have no single work giv-
chaste, so truly based on nature, and yet ing such a general picture of nations and
strove so zealously after ideal beauty, that states, but only separate treatises en
the study of its remains is, and must con- the antiquities of the Hebrews, Greeks,
tinue, indispensable to the artist and the Romans, Etrurians, Gauls, Germans, Brit-
connoisseur. Among the circumstances ons, &c. The want of a knowledge of
which contributed to produce its excel- antiquities was first felt in the 15th centu-
lence, we may mention, in addition to ry, when the zeal for classical learning
the influence of the prevailing religion began to revive. In the earlier works on
(which saw in the gods ideal men, raised this subject, one finds extensive learning,
men to the rank of gods, and personified but no fixed plan, no critical division of
every quality in its multitude of gods and the time and subjects. In the 18th cen-
demigods), the number of small states, and tury, the rich collections of materials,
also the joint celebration of the Olympic which had formerly been made, were crit-
games by all of them, the inventive and ically examined and systematically dis-
finely-tempered spirit of the people, their tributed. The Bibliographia Antiquaria
happy views of life, the mildness and of Fabricios (Hamburg, 1713–1716) con-
beauty of the climate, and the fine marble tains valuable information, especially the
which the country afforded in abundance. new edition by Schaffhausen (1740), to
In painting, as we have already said, the which it is desirable that some additions
moderns are superior, although the an- should be made. Among the principal
cients had many excellent artists in this works treating of Grecian and Roman
branch of art. In poetry, we cannot attrib- antiquities are, Thesaurus Antiquitatum
ute to cither the superiority. In archi- Gracarum, by Gronovius (Leyden, 1697–—–
tecture, both have reached a high degree 1703, 13 vols.); Thesaurus Antiquitatum
of excellence. The Gothic architecture Romanarum, by Grævius (Utrecht, 1694—
is esteemed, by many persous, as perfect 99, 12 vols.); Novus Thesaurus Antiqu.
as the ancient, though resting on very dif- Roman. by Sallengre (Hague, 1716—19,
ferent principles; others, however, regard 3 vols.); and Poleni Utriusque Thes. nova
it as decidedly inferior. However niuch
However ninch Supplem. (Venice, 1737, 5 vols, fol.) Bur-
the remains of ancient art and literature man has left a Catalogus Librorum qui
deserve our admiration and study, there in Thes. Rom., Græc., Italico el Siculo conti-
was a time when they were overrated, at nentur (Leyden, 1725). The information
the expense of the best productions of collected by these antiquaries has been
modern times. This was particularly the revised and arranged by later scholars. A
case when the real spirit of art had fled, very useful work on Roman antiquities is
and the power of invention was lost. It Sam. Pitisci Lexicon Antiquit. Roman.
was reserved to the present age to value (Leyden, 1713; Venice, 1719, 3 vols.;
both according to their merits, which can Hague, 1737, 3 vols.), an edition of which
never be impartially estimated, while one appeared at Berlin, 1793. The assistance
is made the standard of the other. Each which these works afforded to the scholar,
must be studied and judged on its own desirous of obtaining a just idea of Gre-
principles.
cian and Roman literature and history,
stimulated the students of the Oriental
languages to similar labors. Their atten-
tion was directed to Hebrew antiquities,
on account of the connexion between
Hebrew literature and customs and the
evidences of Christianity. On the sub-
ject of Hebrew antiquities, Iken, Faber,
Warnekros, Bellerman, Jahm and others,
have given us books as useful as they are
interesting. On the antiquities of the
other nations of the East, the Asiatic Re-
searches, and the labors of Goguet, furnish
ANTIQUITY. The word antiquity, old
time, in opposition to new, is in itself inde-
terminate, but is, in general, applied to
the time which elapsed between the crca-
tion of the world and the irruption of the
barbarians into the Roman empire, which,
in connexion with the wide spread of
Christianity, makes a great epoch in the
history of the human race. In a narrower
sense, it is applied to the two principal na-
tions of former times, Greece and Rome,
or to the early age of any nation. The
ANTIQUITY-ANTISYPHILITIC.
valuable information. Sir William Jones,
Anquetil du Perron, A. W. von Schlegel
and others, have thrown light on the an-
tiquities of India; Zoega, Denon and oth-
ers, on those of Egypt; von Hammer,
Rhode, Görres, on those of Persia. Many
collections exist, which treat of the anti-
quities of the modern nations of Europe.
The Italians have very rich ones by Mu-
ratori, Donati, Maffei and others; the
French, those of Montfauçon, Millin; and
the English, the Archæologia Britannica.
They are found also among the Germans
and other northern nations. Since the
beginning of the 18th century, the arts
have been made a separate branch of an-
tiquarian research.
ANTISABBATARIANS; a modern reli-
gious sect, who deny the necessity of
observing the Sabbath. Their chief argu-
ment is, that the Sabbath was a Jewish
institution; and that, in the New Testa-
ment, no commandment for keeping it
is to be found. The Quakers do not
object to the observance of the Sabbath,
yet they attach importance neither to this
nor to any form or ceremony, and believe
that there is no difference, in a religious
point of view, between Sabbath and any
other day.
ANTISEPTICS; remedies against putre-
faction. The ancients thought it possible,
by certain preparations, to resist a general
tendency to putrefaction, which they sup-
posed to exist in the system. The mod-
erns have only attempted to prevent the
affection of the sound by the mortified
parts, by means of external applications,
which favor their separation. We are
indebted to chemistry for most of these
remedies, which generally operate by
absorbing the liquids and gases of the
gangrenous parts. Among antiseptical
substances, charcoal-powder has hitherto
been one of the most esteemed, but the
chloride of lime has been recently discov-
ered to be much more efficacious in
arresting the progress of putrefaction.
Placed in contact with the affected parts,
it destroys the offensive odor which they
exhale, and prevents the extension of the
corruption. The practitioner must adapt
the treatment to particular circumstances:
to inflammation he opposes bleeding,
emollients, &c.; to weakness, nourishing
food, tonics, &c.; at the same time with
the local application of the antiseptic.
ANTI-SLAVERY SOCIETY. (See Aboli-
tion of Slavery.)
ANTISPASMODIC (Greek, arn, against,
onáoμos, the cramp); that which has the
power of relieving the cramp. Antispas-
283
modics are more accurately defined, med-
icines proper for the cure of spasms and
convulsions. Opium, balsam of Peru, and
the essential oils of many vegetables, are
the most useful of this class of medicines.
ANTISTHENES; founder of the sect of
the Cynics; born at Athens, in the 89th
Olympiad, 424-421 years B. C. He en-
joyed the instructions of the sophist
Gorgias, and followed the profession of
a rhetorician; but, after he had heard
Socrates, he renounced the vain orna-
ments of eloquence, in order to devote
himself entirely to philosophy. From
the doctrines of Socrates he acquired
that zeal for virtue, and that unexampled
hatred to vice, by which the school that
he founded is distinguished. He made
virtue to consist in voluntary abstinence,
and independence of exterior circum-
stances; and be despised wealth, honors,
sensual pleasure, and even knowledge.
He aimed to reduce body and mind to
the fewest possible wants; nor did he
hesitate to appear publicly as a beggar,
with a wallet on his back, and a staff in
his hand. Plato perceived the true de-
sign of this strange behavior. "I see thy
vanity," said he to him, "through the
holes of thy coat." The eccentricity of
his behavior induced many to imitate
him. His most distinguished scholar was
Diogenes. (q. v.) The latter is celebrated
for the firmness and vivacity of his mind,
and the originality of his remarks; but
the conduct of A. was more dignified.
He was unalterably a virtuous citizen.
He first attacked the accusers of Socrates,
procured the banishment of one of them,
and the death of another. This, however,
Barthélemy doubts. His conversation
was agreeable, and is praised in the Sym-
posium of Xenophon. After the death of
Socrates, he took up his abode in the
Cynosarges, a school of Athens; from
which circumstance some suppose the
school derived its name. The opinions
of A. are well known. His numerous
works are all lost; for the letters published
under his name are considered spurious.
The time of his death is unknown.
ANTISYPHILITICc; a term applied to
remedies used in cases of syphilis. They
are almost numberless; and there ex-
ists, perhaps, not one substance in the
3 kingdoms of nature, to which an anti-
syphilitic power has not been ascribed.
The most efficacious are preparations of
mercury, which is administered in a great
variety of ways; sudoriferous vegetables,
the combinations of which are also ex-
tremely numerous; and preparations of
है
284
ANTISYPHILITIC-ANTOINETTE.
gold, particularly of the muriate of this
metal.
ANTITHESIS (opposition); a figure of
speech, by which two things are attempt-
ed to be made more striking, by being set
in opposition to each other. This figure
often produces a great effect, yet, by too
frequent use, becomes disgusting. Les-
sing affords an instance of a happy an-
tithesis, when, in the review of a book, he
says, "This book contains much that is
good, and much that is new; only it is a
pity that the good is not new, and the
new is not good." Some use antithesis
only to express the connexion of things
exactly opposite.
ANTITRINITARIANS; all who do not
receive the doctrine of the divine Trinity,
as it is represented by the Nicene and
Athanasian creeds, and either put the
Son and the Holy Spirit in the Godhead
below the Father, or consider Christ
inerely a man, and the Holy Spirit an
arbitrary personification of the divine
mind. In the carly period of the Chris-
tian church, parties maintaining these
sentiments were very numerous; espe-
cially the Arians, Sabellians and Pneu-
matomachists. The name Antitrinitari-
an first arose in the 16th century, and
was applied to Socinians, or Unitarians,
who reinonstrated against the system of
Episcopius, who died in 1643, and to a
great number of theologians, who ven-
tured, in their writings, to maintain the
preceding opinion. Many were unwill-
ing to acknowledge Antitrinitarians as
Christians, estceming them enemies to
the fundamental doctrines of Christianity,
or even to tolerate them in Christian
states. The Spanish Protestant, Michael
Servctus, was burnt at Geneva, in 1553,
at the instigation of Calvin, on account of
this heresy, and the severest edicts were
once issued against them in England.
An English clergyman, however, The-
ophilus Lindsey, at London, in 1774, and
a merchant, William Christie, at Mon-
trose, in Scotland, formed Unitarian con-
gregations, who separated themselves
from the established church, since which
time they have become numerous, both
in England and America. (Sec Unita-
rians.)
ANTIUM; an ancient city of the Volsci,
situated on the Tuscan sca. In the
neighborhood, the Romans gained their
first naval reputation, in an engagement
with the Antiates. It was entirely de-
stroyed by the Saraccns; but vestiges of
it still remain in Capo d'Anzo, or Autio.
Antoinette (Marie Antoinette Josephe
Jeanne) of Lorraine, archduchess of Aus-
Nov. 2, 1755, was daughter of the empe-
tria and queen of France, born at Vienna,
ror Francis Í and Maria Theresa. She
received a careful education, and obtained
an acquaintance with various branches
of knowledge. Nature had bestowed
upon her an uncommon share of grace
and beauty. In a letter of Maria Theresa
to her future husband, she says, among
other things, "Your bride, dear dauphin,
is separated from me. As she has ever
been my delight, so will she be your hap-
piness. For this purpose have I edu-
cated her; for I have long been aware
that she was to be the companion of your
life. I have enjoined upon her, as ainong
her highest duties, the most tender at-
tachment to your person, the greatest
attention to every thing that can please
or make you happy. Above all, I have
recommended to her humility towards
God, because I am convinced that it is
impossible for us to contribute to the hap-
piness of the subjects confided to us,
without love to Him, who breaks the
sceptres and crushes the thrones of kings
according to his own will."-The de-
parture of Marie Antoinette from Vienna
filled the capital with sorrow. Her arrival
at Strasburg, and her journey to Com-
piegne, where Louis XV and the dauphin
received her, and to Versailles, wherê her
inarriage took place, May 16, 1770, had
the appearance of a triumph. It was
subsequently remarked, that, immediately
after the marriage ceremony, a fearful
thunder-storm, such as had scarcely ever
before been witnessed, threw Versailles
and all the surrounding country into the
greatest terror. Anxious minds indulged
in yet more fearful forebodings, when, at
the festivity which the city of Paris pre-
pared, May 30, for the celebration of the
dauphin's marriage, through the want of
judicious arrangements, a great number
of people, in the rue Royale, were pressed
or trodden to death in the crowd. 53
persons were found dead, and about 300
dangerously wounded. When Marie An-
toinette, after the death of Louis XV, be-
came queen, she imitated the example of
Louis XII. An officer of the gardes du
corps, who had formerly displeased her,
and now was about to resign, she ordered
to reinain at his post, and forget the past
"Heaven forbid that the queen should
avenge the injuries of the dauphiness!"
Thus she continued to win the hearts of
the people by mildness and generosity;
in particular, she took the most energetic
measures to relieve the sufferers in the
ANTOINETTE.
dreadful winter of 1788. But, about this
time, she drew upon herself the hatred of
the court party, who used every means
to make her odious to the nation. She
was accused, in pamphlets, of continually
contriving plots, and though none of the
accusations could be proved, and many of
them were wholly improbable, yet it must
be confessed that the young and inexpe-
rienced queen gave cause for them. Her
lively imagination often gave her the ap-
pearance of levity, and sometimes of dis-
simulation. A natural restlessness led
her to change, to new fashions, to a con-
tinual varying of her diversions. Great
sums of money were, by this means, taken
from more important objects. It was still
more to her disadvantage, that she injured
her dignity by neglecting the strict for-
mality of court manners. Besides, she
expressed herself with pettishness, in re-
ply to the censures that were passed upon
her. Her enemies now spread abroad a
report that she was still an Austrian at
heart, and a natural enemy to the French,
to whose happiness she could no longer
contribute. An extraordinary occurrence
added fuel to the flame of calumny, while
it subjected the name of the queen to a
disgraceful law-suit. Two jewellers de-
manded the payment of an immense price
for a necklace, which had been purchased
in the name of the queen. In the exam-
ination which she demanded, it was
proved that she had never ordered the
purchase. A lady of her size and com-
plexion had impudently passed herself off
for the queen, and at midnight had a
meeting with a cardinal in the park of
Versailles. (Sec Lamothe and Rohan.)
Notwithstanding this, the enemies of the
queen succeeded in throwing a dark
shade over her conduct. When Calonne
had reported a great deficiency in the
finances, the cause was blindly attributed
to the queen's extravagance. At length
it became necessary to summon a meeting
of the states general. The queen was
present at the opening of the first session;
but from that moment her tranquillity
was gone. Events soon followed, which
put her courage to the test. She appear-
ed with her husband at the banquet,
which the gardes du corps gave at Ver-
sailles, Oct. 1, to the officers of the troops
of the line, where, soon after the depar-
ture of the court, the national cockade
was trampled on. This excited the Pa-
risians still more against the queen. They
regarded her as the soul of the party
which, at that time, was collecting an ar-
my against Paris, and against the national
285
assembly. On the 5th, the Parisians
rushed violently to Versailles. Early on
the 6th, they broke into the castle, mur-
dered several of the body-guards, and
uttered against the queen the most furi-
ous threats. In the middle of the night, a
clergyman wrote to her, "Take measures
for your preservation; early in the morn-
ing, at 6 o'clock, you are to be murdered."
She remained tranquil, and concealed the
letter. The infuriated mob rushed into
her chamber; she fled to the king. To
put a stop to the scene of murder, the
king and queen showed themselves, with
both their children, in the balcony. This
spectacle made a momentary impression
upon the enraged people; but soon the
cry resounded from every mouth, "No
children! the queen-the queen alone!"
She instantly put her son and daughter
into the arms of the king, and returned to
the balcony. This unexpected courage
disarmed the mob; their threats were
followed by shouts of approbation. The
same day she was obliged to view a most
fearful spectacle, for six hours, on her way
to Paris. Before her carriage were borne,
on pikes, the heads of two guards; intox-
icated furies surrounded her, with the
most horrid imprecations. When she
was asked about the scene that had just
ended, by the officers of justice, who de-
sired to punish the guilty, she replied,
"Never will I accuse one of the king's
subjects;" and when the question was
repeated, "I have seen all, I have heard
all, I have forgotten all," was her answer.
The first month after her arrival in Paris,
she expended 300,000 livres in redeem-
ing clothes pledged by the poor to the
pawnbrokers; but all her benefits were
insufficient to appease their exasperated
minds. In 1791, when Louis XVÏ deter-
mined to flee, she followed her husband,
though she saw the attempt was fruitless.
From Varennes, she was brought back to
the Tuileries, and when the committee
of the constituent assembly demanded an
explanation, she answered, "As the king
wished to depart with his children, noth-
ing in the world could hinder me from
accompanying him. I have given suffi-
cicut proof, for these two years, that I
would never desert him. What made
me more decided on that point was, the
firm conviction that the king would never
leave France; if he had wished to do so,
I should have employed every effort to
restrain him." This tempest was followed
by a momentary calm. In the meantime
came on the 20th of June and the 10th
of August, 1792. Prepared for whatever
286
ANTOINETTE-ANTONINUS.
might happen on the latter of these days,
the queen exerted all her power to excite
her husband to meet death sword in
hand. Led with him into the legislative
assembly, she heard his deposition an-
nounced, together with the appointment
of his judges, and then went with him to
the temple. None of her female attend-
ants were suffered to accompany her.
Here she occupied the only comfortable
chamber with hier daughter and the prin-
cess Elizabeth. Close bars of iron se-
cured the window, admitting only a
glimmering light. She now exhibited
the full strength of her character. Inva-
riably calm in the circle of her friends,
she urged them to disregard sickness and
suffering. When Louis XVI informed
her of his condemnation, she congratu-
lated him on the approaching termination
of an existence so painful, and the unper-
ishing reward that should crown it. Af-
ter her husband's death, she asked nothing
of the convention but a mourning-dress,
which she wore the remainder of her
days. July 4, 1793, she was separated
from her son. She felt that this separa-
tion was forever, yet her firmness was
unchanged. Aug. 5, at midnight, she
was removed to the keeper's house. A
dark and damp dungeon here was her
jast abode. Oct. 3, the convention or-
dered her to be brought before the revolu-
tionary tribunal. She was charged with
having dissipated the finances, exhausted
the public treasury, given large suins out
of it to the emperor, with having corrc-
sponded with foreign enemies, and favored
domestic tumults. But, notwithstanding
the multitude of witnesses who were ex-
amined, no evidence could be brought
against her; and her defender, Chauveau-
Lagarde, exclaimed justly, "I am embar-
rassed, not to find answers, but plausible
accusations." Bailly, then mayor of Paris,
who was summoned as a witness, had the
courage to take the queen into his protec-
tion, without hesitation, and to censure,
with the greatest severity, her blood-
thirsty accuser, Fouquier-Tinville, for his
testimony, which all might see to be
false. The qucen herself replied to all
inquiries with firmness and decision.
When Hébert shamefully accused her
of having seduced her own son, she an-
swered, with the deepest indignation, "I
appeal to every mother here, whether
such a crime be possible." She heard
her sentence of death with perfect calm-
ness, and soon gently fell asleep, when
she was carried back to her prison,
after sitting 18 hours. The next day, at
11 o'clock, she ascended the cart which
conveyed her to the scaffold. Great ef-
forts were made to induce the people to
insult her on the way, but a deep silence
reigned. The charms for which she was
once so celebrated were gone.
Grief
had distorted her features, and, in the
damp, unhealthy prison, she had almost
lost one of her eyes. Her look seemed
to fill the fierce people with awe. At 12
o'clock, the cart arrived at the place of
Louis XV. She cast back a long look at
the Tuileries, and then ascended the
scaffold. When she came to the top, she
threw herself on her knees, and exclaim-
ed, "O God, enlighten and affect my ex-
ecutioner! Farewell, my children, for-
ever; I go to your father!" Thus died
the queen of France, Oct. 16, 1793, to-
wards the close of the 38th year of her
age. (See Marie Antoinette, à la Con-
ciergerie; Fragm. Hist. Publ. par le Comte
de Robiano, Paris, 1824; and Mém. sur
la Vie privée de Marie Antoinette, Reine
de France, &c., by madame Campan (her
reader), 5th edition, 4 vols., Paris, 1823.)
ANTONELLO of Messenia. (Sce Oil-
Painting.)
ANTONINUS (Annius Verus), the Philoso-
pher, best known by the name of Marcus
Aurelius, born A. D. 121, ascended the
throne A. D. 161, after the death of An-
toninus Pius, who had adopted him. He
voluntarily divided the empire with Lu-
cius Verus (see the succeeding article),
whom he made emperor, and united
in marriage with his daughter Lucilla.
Brought up and instructed by Plutarch's
nephew Sextus, the orator Herodes Atti-
cus, and the famous jurist 1. Volusius
Mecianus, he had become acquainted
with learned men, and formed a particn-
lar love for the Stoic philosophy. While
his generals, Statius Priscus, Avidius Cas-
sius, Marcius Verus and Fronto, over-
came the Parthians, conquered Armenia,
Babylon and Media, and destroyed the
great city Seleucia, on the Tigris, he de-
voted his attention to Rome and Germa-
ny. The former was laid waste by pesti-
lence, famine and inundations, the conse-
quences of which he endeavored to miti-
gate; the latter kept the Roman territory
in continual alarm, by frequent invasions
which, however, were always repulsed
At the same time, he undertook to im
prove the morals of the people, and tho
administration of justice. After the ter
mination of the Parthian war, both em-
perors celebrated a triumph, and assumed
the title Parthicus. But a fearful pesti-
lence soon broke out, with which the
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sea.
ANTONINUS-WALL OF ANTONINUS.
castern army infected all the countries
they passed through. In addition to this,
there were earthquakes, inundations, and
a universal insurrection on the confines
of the empire, from Gaul to the Black
Both emperors went to Aquileia, in
order to attack the Marcomanni, early in
the spring. A part of the enemy sub-
mitted for a time, but soon took up arms
again. For 8 years, they fought with va-
rious success. Verus died, A. D. 169, in
the first year of the war. A. D. 174, the
enemy invaded Italy, and, as the treasury
was exhausted, the emperor saw himself
reduced to the necessity of selling the
most valuable furniture of the palace. In
the following campaigns, the Romans
came off conquerors. A. D. 178, when
the emperor, in the city Gran, in the war
against the Quadi, was surrounded on
every side by his enemies, he was re-
duced to extremity from want of water.
A fearful tempest arose, a sudden shower
refreshed the army, and the Quadi were
vanquished. Afterwards, the Marcoman-
ni, the Quadi, as well as the rest of the
barbarians, sued for peace. The sedition
of the Syrian governor, Avidius Cassius,
who had brought Egypt and the region
within mount Taurus to own his author-
ity, called off the emperor from his con-
quests; but, before he reached Asia, the
rebel was slain by his own party. Aure-
lius pardoned all who were engaged in
the revolt, marched in triumph to Rome,
and busied himself about the internal
concerns of the empire, till new incur-
sions of the Marconianni compelled him
once more to take the field. He con-
quered the enemy several times, but was
taken sick at Sirmium, and died, accord-
ing to Aurelius Victor, at Vindoboua, in
the 59th year of his age, and 19th of his
reign. The best editions of the Medi-
tations, which he wrote in Greek, and in
which he acknowledges himself a fol-
lower of the Stoics, are by Casaubon,
London, 1643; Morus, Leipsic, 1775; and
Schulz, 1802, translated by Schulz and
Kuhn, with annotations.—Aurelius was
one of the best emperors who ever gov-
erned Rome, although his philosophy
and the natural magnanimity of his char-
acter did not restrain him from ordering
the persecution of the Christians in Gaul.
ANTONINUS PIUS (Titus Aurelius Ful-
vius), of a family originally from Nismes,
in Gaul, was born at Lavinium, in the
neighborhood of Rome, A. D. 86. His
father, Aurelius Fulvius, had enjoyed the
consulship, and, A. D. 120, he succeeded
to the same dignity. He was one of the
287
four persons of consular rank, among
whom Adrian divided the supreme ad-
ministration of Italy. He then went, as
proconsul, to Asia, and, after his return to
Rome, became more and more the object
of Adrian's confidence. By his wife,
Faustina, the daughter of Annius Verus,
whose licentious conduct he wisely en-
deavored to conceal from the view of the
The
world, he had 4 children. They all died
but Faustina, who afterwards became the
wife of Marcus Aurelius. A. D. 138, he
was adopted by Adrian, for which reason
he, in his turn, adopted L. Verus and M.
Annius Verus (Marcus Aurelius). The
same year, he ascended the throne, and
under him the empire enjoyed tranquil-
lity and happiness. Temperate and sim-
ple in his private life, ever ready to assist
the necessitous, an admirer of virtue and
wisdom, he was truly the father of his
people. He often repeated those beauti-
ful words of Scipio, "I had rather pre-
serve the life of a citizen than destroy a
thousand enemies." His wise frugality
enabled him to diminish the taxes.
persecutions of the Christians he speedily
abolished. He carried on but a few wars,
viz. in Britain, where he extended the
Roman dominion, and, by raising a new
wall, put a stop to the desolating inva-
sions of the Picts and Scots. The senate
gave him the surname Pius, i. e. remark-
able for filial affection, because, in grati-
tude to the memory of Adrian, his second
father, he had built a temple in honor of
him. Conflagrations, floods and earth-
quakes spread desolation in many places
during his reign, but his generosity did
much to initigate the consequences of
these unhappy events. He died A. D.
161, 74 years old, having reigned 23 years.
His remains were deposited in the tomb
of Adrian. The senate built a pillar to
his memory, which is yet standing, under
the name of the Antonine column. The
whole kingdom lamented him, and the
following emperors assumed his name as
an honor. It has been said of him, “Re
is almost the only monarch that has lived
without spilling the blood of his country-
men or his enemies."
ANTONINUS, the wall of; a barrier
erected by the Romans across the isthmus
between the Forth and the Clyde. It
was constructed A. D. 140, and consisted
of a ditch, from 12 to 14 feet wide, the
wall being formed of the earth that was
thrown up. This wall is now nearly de-
molished by the ploughshare. General
Roy, in his 35th plate, has traced its
course, and given plans of the station
288
WALL OF ANTONINUS-ANTONIUS.
belonging to it. This wall was the third
rampart built by the Romans against the
incursions of the North Britons. It is
called, by the people in the neighborhood,
Graham's dyke.
ANTONIO, Nicholas; a native of Seville
in Spain; born in the year 1617. After
22 years spent at Rome, in the capacity
of agent-general for Spain, he returned to
Madrid, and obtained a seat at the coun-
cil-board. His works are, Bibliotheca
Hispana Vetus, in 2 folio volumes; De
Exilio, Lib. iii., folio, published in 1659;
Bibliotheca Hispana Nova, 2 vols. folio,
1672, reprinted in 1783; and Censura de
Historicis Fabulis, folio, 1742. His library
was of great value. He died 1684.
ANTONIO, St.; a Dutch fort of Axim,
on the Gold Coast of Africa. It belongs
to the West India company.—This is also
a name of one of the cape de Verd islands,
separated from St. Vincent by a nar-
row, navigable channel, 15 miles broad.
The inhabitants, mostly Negroes, about
500 in number, live, notwithstanding all
the plenty of the island, in wretched
poverty. Lon. 0° 26 E.; lat. 18° 4′ N.
ANTONIUS, Marcus, the triumvir, son
of the prætor, and grandson of the orator
of the same name, born 86 years B. C.,
was connected with the family of Cæsar
by his mother Julia, a lady of distin-
guished excellence. Debauchery and
prodigality marked his youth. To study
eloquence and the art of war, he went to
Greece, and from thence followed the
consul Gabinius on a campaign in Syria.
Ile showed much activity and courage
here, as well as in Egypt, where he aided
in the establishment of Ptolemy Aule-
tes. The soldiers, whom he treated with
extreme generosity, indulgence and con-
fidence, conceived a strong affection for
him. In Rome, he united with Curio, and,
like him, supported the party of Cæsar.
He became augur and tribune of the peo-
ple; but some of his projects excited such
odium against him, that, with Curio and
Cassius Longinus, he fled for refuge to
the camp of Cæsar. This became one of
the pretences for civil war. At the break-
ing out of this war between Cæsar and
Pompey, A. was appointed by Cæsar
commander-in-chief in Italy: he after-
wards led a considerable force to Epirus,
to his assistance. In the battle of Phar-
salia, he commanded the left wing, and
afterwards returned to Rome with the
appointment of master of the horse and
governor of Italy. He degraded himself
so deeply by acts of excess and violence,
that, on his return, Cæsar treated him
with great coldness. About this time, ho
married Fulvia, the widow of Clodius,
who long ruled him. When Cæsar
returned from Spain, A. regained his favor
by the basest flattery, and, B. C. 44, be-
came his colleague in the consulship. At
the Lupercalia, he threw himself publicly
at Cæsar's feet, and thrice offered him a
diadem, which he exhibited amid the
shouts of the people. Soon after Cæsar
was assassinated, and A. would have
shared the same fate, had not Brutus,
who hoped to gain him over for the
republic, stood up in his defence.
A.
delivered, over the body of Cæsar, a fu-
neral oration, in the course of which be
spread out his garment stained with blood,
and thus excited the people to anger and
revenge. The murderers were obliged
to flee, and A. long ruled with unlimited
power. After having many times quar-
relled with young Octavius, the heir of
Cæsar, who aspired to the supreme pow-
er, and, from political motives, took the
side of the senate, he was reconciled to
him, and went with an army to Cisalpine
Gaul, the government of which fell to his
share, and laid siege to Mutina, which
Decimus Brutus valiantly defended. In
the mean time, Cicero delivered his fa-
mous orations against him. The senate
declared him a public enemy, and both
consuls, Hirtius and Pansa, accompanied
by Octavius, met him in the field. At
first, A. vanquished Pansa in a bloody
battle, but Hirtius hastened to his aid, and
A. was subdued. Both consuls, however,
fell, and Octavius took the head of the
republican army. A. fled with his troops
over the Alps, amid great difficulties and
privations. Lepidus then commanded
in Gaul, and A. fled to his camp in
mourning garments, and soon gained the
affections of the army, so that Lepidus
was obliged to resign the command to
him. Planeus, also, and Pollio, strength-
ened his party with their forces; so that
A., who, a short time before, had filed
from Italy, returned now at the head of
23 legious and 10,000 horse. Octavius,
who had hitherto appeared to be a sup-
porter of the senate, and a defender of
republican freedom, now suffered the
mask to fall off. He marched against A.
and Lepidus, and, on the small island of
Reno, not far from Bologna, or, according
to some, on the island of Panaro, near
Modena, had that memorable meeting
with them, in which they divided among
themselves the whole Roman world.
Here they decided upon the proscription
of their mutual enemies: cach gave up
·
ANTONIUS.
his friends to the other. Upon this, the
triumviri marched to Rome, and their
steps were marked with murder and
rapine throughout Italy. A. caused Cice-
ro's head and right hand to be fixed up,
as a spectacle, on that same rostrum from
which his eloquence had so often been
victorious. 300 senators and 2000 knights
perished in this proscription. When the
sum of money necessary for the war was
procured, viz. 200,000,000 sesterces (about
6,300,000 dollars), and the triumviri had
appointed magistrates for several years,
B. C. 42, A. and Octavius departed for
Macedonia, where the united forces of
their enemies, Brutus and Cassius, formed
a powerful army. At Philippi, A. com-
manded in an engagement against Cas-
sius, who, when he perceived the event
of the fatal battle, ordered one of his
slaves to stab him. After the second bat-
tle, Brutus, also, destroyed himself. At
the sight of his body, A. discovered the
deepest emotion, covered it with his
cloak, and gave orders that it should be
interred with the highest honors. He
then went to Greece, visited the public
schools at Athens, and manifested his
admiration of this city, splendid even in
its ruins. Thence he proceeded to Asia.
In Cilicia, he ordered Cleopatra, queen
of Egypt, to apologize for her insolent
behavior to the triumviri. She appeared
in person, and her charms fettered him
forever. He followed her to Alexandria,
where, in a constant course of dissipation,
be bestowed not even a thought upon the
affairs of the world, till he was aroused
by a report that hostilities had com-
menced in Italy, between his wife, Ful-
via, and Octavius. A short war followed,
which was decided in favor of Octavius,
before the arrival of A. in Italy. The
death of Fulvia facilitated a reconcilia-
tion, which was sealed by the marriage
of A. with Octavia, the sister of Octavius.
The two armies made a new division of
the Roman dominions. A. obtained the
Eust, Octavius the West. For mere form,
Africa was consigned to the feeble Lepi-
dus. With Sexins Pompey, who ruled
the Mediterranean, a treaty was made.
Upon this, A. went to Athens, made a
campaign against the Parthians, which
brought him but little houor, and then
returned to Italy. By the interposition
of Octavia, there appeared to be perfect
harmony between the triumviri; but, after
his return to Asia, A. gave himself up to
a most abandoned course of life; lavished
upon Cleopatra, without regard to the
interests of the state, whole kingdoms and
VOL. I.
25
289
provinces; and exercised the most open
injustice. After a second disgraceful
campaign against the Parthians, he took
Artavasdes, king of Armenia, prisoner,
by treachery, accusing him of want of
fidelity, and carried him, in triumph, to
Alexandria. Octavius excited against A.
the displeasure of the Romans, by a rela-
tion of his conduct. War between the
two rivals was inevitable, and both began
to prepare for it. Amid a round of
pleasures, A. neglected his most impor-
tant affairs, and filled the island of Samos,
the rendezvous of his troops, with musi-
cians and revellers, and, at the same time,
divorced Octavia. These measures were
followed by disapprobation as universal
as the knowledge of Octavia's magna-
nimity and the hatred of Cleopatra's arro-
gance. At length, war was declared at
Rome against the queen of Egypt, and
A. was deprived of his consulship and
government. Each party assembled its
forces, and A. lost, in the naval battle at
Actium (q. v.), B. C. 31, the dominion of
the world. He disgracefully followed
Cleopatra in her flight. The army on
land waited in vain for his arrival, and at
last surrendered to the conqueror. Upon
this, he went to Libya, where a consider-
able host, which he had left there, was
his last hope. On his arrival, he per-
ceived that it had embraced the party of
Octavius, and his grief on the discovery
was so great, that he was, with much dif-
ficulty, prevented from committing sui-
cide. He returned to Egypt, and lived
in obscurity, till Cleopatra succeeded in
bringing him back to her palace and to
his former mode of life. Her festivals
were interrupted by the arrival of Octa-
vins, who refused all proposals of sub-
mission. At his appearance before
Alexandria, A. seemed to recover all his
former courage. He marched out at the
head of his cavalry, and repulsed the
hostile forces; but afterwards, desorted
by the Egyptian fleet and his army, and
suspecting that he was betrayed by Cleo-
patra, he again lost his courage. He
retired to the palace of the queen, in order
to take vengeance upon her; she fled,
however, and deceived him by a falsó
report of her death. Resolved to die
with her, he fell upon his own sword,
B. C. 30. Plutarch relates, that A. com-
manded his slave Eros to slay him; the
slave, pretending to be ready to obey,
requested him to turn away his face, and
then, stabbing himself, fell dead at his
feet. Moved by this exhibition of heroic
atlèction, A. threw himself upon the
290
ANTONIUS-ANTWERP.
same sword. On being told that Cleopa-
tra was still alive, he caused himself to be
carried into her presence, that he might
die in her arms. (See Augustus and
Cleopatra.)
ANTONY, Mark. (See Antonius, Marcus.)
ANTRAIGUES (Emanuel Louis Henry
Launey), comte d'. This man, who be-
came distinguished as a statesman during
the revolution, was born in Bivarais. His
tutor, the famous abbé Maury, early cul-
tivated his talents for a splendid and cap-
tivating, though unsubstantial eloquence.
He made the first public display of his tal-
ents in the renowned Mémoire sur les Élats
Généraux, leurs Droits et la Manière de les
convoquer, A. D. 1788, in which his love
of liberty, extending to the entire condem-
nation of all despotic governments, and
the justification of resistance, was ex-
pressed with such force, that, in the excite-
ment of the age, the work was honored
with the greatest applause, and may justly
be regarded as one of the first sparks that
lighted the flame of the French revolu-
tion. But when he was appointed depu-
ty to the states general, in 1789, he
defended the privileges of hereditary
nobility, was among those who most vio-
lently opposed the intended union of the
three estates, and voted for a constitution
fixing the rights of man, or rather of citi-
zens, in which he declared the veto of
the king an indispensable support of mon-
archy. In 1790, he left the assembly,
renounced his oath of citizenship, with
certain limitations, was accused of dis-
turbing the public peace, openly defended
himself, and then went to Petersburg
and Vienna, engaged, continually, in
diplomatic business. He was now the
most zealous defender of monarchy and
the Bourbons. Having been sent from
Russia to Italy, in 1798, he was imprison-
ed, by order of Bonaparte, at Milan. His
wife, the renowned opera singer St. Hu-
berti, procured for him the means of
escape. He returned to Vienna, and then
to Russia, where, in 1803, he was made
counsellor of state by Alexander I, and
sent on public business to Dresden. He
wrote here a remarkable work against
Napoleon-Fragment du 18me Livre de
Polybe, trouvé sur le Mont Alhos. After
his return to Russia, he found meaus to
become acquainted with the secret arti-
cles of the peace of Tilsit, went to Eng-
land, and communicated them to the
ministry, by which means his influence
became so great, that Canning did noth-
ing in relation to France without his
advice. He maintained his diplomatic
connexions, especially in France, and was
every where esteemed one of the first
politicians on the stage. In spite of his
attachment to the Bourbons, and his
numerous struggles in their behalf, he did
not succeed in gaining, entirely, the con-
fidence of Louis XVIII. In 1812, he was
murdered, in a village near London, to-
gether with his wife, by his servant Lo-
renzo, an Italian, who, immediately after,
shot himself also.
ANTWERP (Anvers, French; Amberes,
Spanish; Antwerpen, German and Dutch);
a large, well-built capital of a province of
the same name in the Netherlands, which,
in 1814, was formed out of the former
marquisate of A. and the lordship of
Mechlin, which, under the French gov-
ernment, had composed the department
of the two Nethes. The province con-
tains 1017 square miles, and 287,347 in-
habitants. The city lies on the Scheldt ;
E. lon. 4° 24′ ; N. lat. 51° 13'. The largest
vessels can ascend the river to the wharfs
of A. on 8 chief canals and 3 basins, built
by the French. The city contains 60,000
inhabitants, is strongly fortified, has a cit-
adel, more than 10,000 houses, among
which is the magnificent exchange, the
oldest in Europe; also the council-house,
the cathedral, in which Rubens (whose
family was from A.) lies buried, the ample
house of the Ostrelins (the former ware-
house of the Hanseatic league), &c. A.
is the sce of a bishop, contains an acade-
my of sciences, an academy of painting
and sculpture, a medico-surgical school,
and a marine arsenal. Its manufactures
of laces, sugar, white lead, litmus, cotton
cloth and fine thread are very important.
Its sewing-silk, black silk stuff and print-
ers' ink are known throughout Europe.
Its commerce has greatly increased since
the Scheldt was once more opened; and,
in 1828, 955 vessels, amongst which were
73 from America, cntered this port. Be-
fore the war of the Netherlands with
Spain, A. was even more important than
Amsterdam, which increased very much
by the decline of A., in the 16th cen-
tury. At that time, the Scheldt was
covered with vessels belonging to all na-
tions, of which, at one time, 2500 lay in
the harbor. An animated description of
the commerce and activity of A., at that
period, is given in Schiller's introduction
to his Thirty Years' War. It then had
200,000 inhabitants, and the Hansa, the
famous league of the Hanse towns, had
numerous warehouses here. The first
blow was given to its prosperity by the
memorable siege under the prince of Par-
ANTWERP-APANAGE.
ma, in 1585, and it was entirely ruined
by the closing of its harbor after the
peace of Westphalia. Joseph II attempt-
ed in vain to open the Scheldt. This
was not done till after the conquest of the
Austrian Netherlands by the French.
The Scheldt was then declared free, and
commerce would soon have revived, had
not Napoleon made the place a military
depot. In 1814, it was besieged by the
English and Saxons under Graham, and
defended by Carnot, who did not surren-
der it till the 5th of May, after the armis-
tice with Monsieur had been concluded.
Carnot's conduct was such, that he gained
the admiration of all soldiers and military
connoisseurs, and the love of the people
of A., though they hated the French, and
suffered much from the siege. Van Dyk,
both the Teniers, Seyher, Crayer, Floris
and Brili were born here.
ANUBIS; one of the most distinguished
deities of the Egyptians. At first, he
was worshipped under the form of a dog;
afterwards, under that of a man with a
dog's head; hence he was termed Cyno-
cephalus. Tradition calls him a son of
Osiris by Nephthys, whom he mistook
for Isis. When Isis was convinced of
this by the lotus wreath left with Neph-
thys by Osiris, she sought out the child,
exposed by his mother for fear of Typhon,
discovered him, with the help of a dog,
educated him, and found in him a faith-
ful guard and attendant. A. guards the
gods as the dog guards men. So says
Plutarch. According to Diodorus, Osiris
was accompanied on his expeditions by
A., and Macedon, another of his sons.
A. carried a helmet covered with a dog's
skin, and was therefore worshipped in
the form of a dog.-According to the
astronomical theology of the Egyptians,
he was the 7th among the 8 gods of the
first class, and designated the planet Mer-
cury, as did also Piernies, the more com-
mon name of the planet. He was, conse-
quently, lord of the ascendant for an hour
of the day, and genius of wisdom. His
original form was derived, probably, from
the worship of the dog among the Egyp-
tians, who regarded him as the god of
hunting; then he became, according to
Zoega, a guardian spirit in general, a
protector of the gods. The Greeks
recognised in him their Hermes, with
whom, therefore, he became confounded.
ANVILLE, Jean Baptiste Bourguignon
d', first geographer of the king, pension-
naire of the academy of inscriptions and
fine arts, &c., was born at Paris, in 1697.
A map, which chance put into his hands,
291
awakened his love for geography, at the
age of 12. He began to sketch regions
mentioned in the Roman historians, and
directed all his studies to geography. He
read the ancients only to ascertain the
position of cities, and to fix the limits of
the remote kingdoms, of which we find
traces in history. Thus he early acquired
an extensive knowledge of geography,
became acquainted with the learned, and,
at the age of 22, received the office of
geographer to the king. He now began
to examine and set in order the mass of
his knowledge, and acquired a nice tact,
resembling instinct, which was the result
of ingenious and careful comparison.
Almost every where, his accuracy was
rewarded by the discovery of truth. The
highest estimation is due to him as a critic,
and most of his opinions and conjectures
have been verified by later inquiries on
the spot. He has published 211 maps
and plans, and 78 treatises. His atlas of
ancient Egypt is the most deserving.
His Orbis Veteribus notus, and his Orbis Ro-
manus, ought to be in the hands of all who
read ancient history. So, also, his maps
of Gaul, Italy and Greece. His maps of the
same countries for the middle ages are of
equal value. His maps of modern times
are as good as could be formed of
the materials in his possession. He was
modest and unassuming, although too
irritable when censured. The natural
delicacy of his constitution did not hin-
der him from laboring 15 hours daily.
Two years before his death, his mental
powers sunk beneath the infirmities of
age.
He died in 1782. His valuable
collection of maps was purchased by the
government in 1779.
AONIAN MOUNT; Parnassus (q. v.); the
residence of the Muses. The name Aonia
was sometimes given to a part of Bœotia.—
Aonides; one of the many names given to
the Muses.—Aõnes (ãores) were a chain of
mountains, of which Helicon was one.
AORTA; the great artery, which rises
immediately out of the left ventricle of
the heart. It is divided into two grand
trunks, distinguished by the epithets as-
cending and descending. (See Artery.)
APANAGE; an allowance which the
younger princes of a reigning house (in
which the right of primogeniture prevails,
as is now generally the case) receive from
the revenues of the country, that they
may be enabled to live in a manner be-
coming their rank. It consists mostly in
money, with the use of a princely castle
and hunting-grounds, attended, frequent-
ly, with the right of jurisdiction over
292
APANAGE-APE.
these domains. When it is once fixed, it
passes to the descendants of the apanaged
princes, sprung from a lawful marriage,
of a suitable rank, and, in their default,
commonly falls into the hands of the
reigning sovereign. Sometimes it is
added to the possessions of the surviving
apanaged princes. A tract of land with
the right of ruling it, set aside for an
apanage, is called paragium.
APE. This designation, often indis-
criminately applied to the members of the
monkey tribe, was first properly restricted
by Ray, the precursor of Linnæus, to those
quadrumanous animals which, in struc-
ture, most closely approximate to the hu-
man configuration. In speaking of apes
as distinguished from monkeys, we have
reference to those genera of the great
family quadrumana, which have neither
tails nor check-pouches, attain nearly
to human height, and present a facial
angle, varying from 65° to 30. The
apes at present known are classed dif-
ferently by different naturalists: Cuvier
considers them all as species of one
genus; Desmarest, whose arrangement,
in this instance, we prefer, places them
under the three gencra, troglodytes, pi-
thecus and pongo, the 2d of which he
divides into two sub-genera, orangs
proper, having no gluteal callosities, and
gibbons, or long-armed apes, having cal-
Tosities. The species are, troglodytes
niger, the chimpanzee or orang-otang,
which is a native of Africa, especially of
the coasts of Angola and Congo; pithe
cus satyrus, the red orang, found in the
most eastern parts of Southern Asia, par-
ticularly in Cochin China, Borneo and
Malacca; pithecus lar, the great gibbon,
a native of the Molucca islands, Coro-
mandel, &c.; pithecus leuciscus, the
wou-wou (so called on account of its cry),
found in the same countries; pithecus
syndactylus or siamang, and the pithecus
agilis or active gibbon, both from Suma-
tra.
except when they have been taught to
stand crect by man.-They generally live
in troops, and some of the species are
said to construct a sort of hut of leaves,
as a defence against the weather. They
defend themselves with clubs, and employ
these weapons with considerable effect,
even against the human race. They are
frugivorous in a state of nature, but, from
the resemblance of their teeth to those
of the human species, it is very evident
that their diet may be almost as various
as that of man. Some of them, the gib-
bons, are very remarkable, from the
exceeding length of their superior extrem-
ities, the arm being so long that the hands
hang near the ground when the animal is
in the erect position. This singular con-
formation serves to adapt these creatures
to their situations, in a manner which
would scarcely be imagined, without
having been witnessed. They spend
their days chiefly upon the tops and
branches of lofty trees, canes and bam-
boos, and, in passing from one to the
other, are forced to make great leaps.
The advantage of their vast length of finb
is then rendered evident, as the gibbons
would be unable to cling with their hind-
er hands to a long, flexile branch, swayed
in various directions by the breeze, were
it not that they can maintain their posi-
tion by balancing themselves with their
long arms. On the loftiest branches of
the gigantic castern forest trees, troops of
these animals are seen sitting balanced in
perfect security, and some of the species
at sunrise and sunset scream forth discord -
ant cries from such positions.
circumstances occur to disturb these ori-
sons, the apes disappear with amazing
celerity into the depths of the forest,
springing from tree to tree, swinging them-
selves to great distances by their long
arins, and catching as readily at the next
object with the posterior hands. The
orangs of Boruco attain to the greatest
size, growing to be five or six feet high;
and travellers speak of apes of a still
larger size. They are represented, with
justice, as terrible animals, and are on-
dowed with unexampled strength of limb,
one adult ape being more than a match
for several unarmed men. They causo
much terror to the natives residing near
their haunts, and commit great ravages
aniong the plantations of fruit, &c.—The
orang most frequently exhibited and
closely observed in captivity is the chim-
panzee, jocko or wild man of the woods,
commonly called orang-otang (S. trog-
lodytes, L.) This species is an inhabitant
As to the pongo, Cuvier has given
excellent reasons for believing it to be
nothing but the first-mentioned species in
a state of maturity.-Like all the four-
handed animals, the apes are destined to
live among the branches of trees, and arc
especially adapted, from their size and
strength, to occupy large forests. All of
them have the power of assumning a near-
ly crect position, though on the ground
this is by no means convenient, as they
stand upon the outer edges, being unable
to apply the palmis of the posterior hands
fairly against the soil, and require a staff,
or other support, to maintain this attitude,
If any
APE-APELLES.
of Africa, and especially of the coasts of
Congo and Angola. In the proportions
of its members, and form of the head, it
most closely resembles the human kind.
It is a very amusing, though, at the same
time, an unproductive employment, to
read the monstrous exaggerations and
ridiculous fables, which have been writ-
ten of this animal by various learned
authors. As they are always obtained
when very young, they are trained to the
performance of actions, which their ex-
hibitors afterwards are careful to say have
been acquired by voluntary imitation. It
is, however, only after long and painful
discipline that this education is cffected;
and, this once terminated, they advance
no farther. They never exhibit as much
sagacity as is shown by a good dog, nor
are they capable of an equal degree of
improvement. As they advance in life,
they become untractable and savage, and,
if Cuvier's opinion be confirmed, that the
pongo of Africa is this orang-otang in a
state of maturity, they become, with age,
the most terrible and indomitable of their
whole race. Lascivious, filthy, gluttonous
and ferocious, they offer to man a perfect
picture of what he would be, were he,
like them, destitute of the divine faculty
of reason, which controls the brute im-
pulses of his organization. In their na-
tive haunts, these animals manifest differ-
ences sufficiently striking, in their habits
and modes of life, to render them inter-
esting objects of contemplation. Some
of the species are remarkable for great
activity; others are sluggish, indolent and
inert. The females manifest an ardent
attachment to their offspring, and make
vigorous efforts to save them from injury.
All show various degrees of that restless
mobility, which indicates how much they
are under the exclusive influence of sen-
sation, without appearing to form conclu-
sions from their repeated experience. An
ape, in captivity, on seeing his image in a
mirror, will look behind it to discover the
animal reflected; and will as eagerly per-
form this action after the thousandth
repetition as the first.-Our limits will
not permit us to enter more particularly
into this subject; but the curious reader
will find in the works of F. Cuvier de-
tails sufficiently ample to satisfy the most
inquisitive spirit.
A-PEAK (a pique, Fr.); perpendicular to
the anchor. A ship is said to be in this
situation, when the cable is drawn so
tight into the bow as to bring her directly
over the anchor, so that the cable bears
right down from the ship's stem.
293
APELLES, the most famous of the an-
cient portrait-painters, was the son of
Pythias; probably born at Colophon. At
Ephesus, he received the rights of citizen-
ship, and therefore is called, sometimes,
the Ephesian. Ephorus of Ephesus was
his first teacher, but, attracted by the re-
nown of the Sicyonian school, which
distinguished itself by exact study, he
became the disciple of Pamphilus, in
Sicyon, though already himself an artist
of reputation. Here he executed, with
some other pupils of the same master,
different paintings, which, for a long time,
enjoyed great fame. In the time of Philip,
A. went to Macedonia, and there, proba-
bly, the friendship and familiar inter-
course between him and the king were
established, which have given origin to so
many anecdotes. But many of these
may relate to a meeting with Alexan-
der in Ephesus, where A. had gone,
after a short stay at Rhodes, Cos and
Alexandria. While staying at Rhodes,
being in the study of Protogenes, during
the absence of the latter, he drew a
sketch, in which Protogenes, on his re-
turn, recognised the masterly stroke of
A., and undertook to excel him. A. re-
turned, and drew a third sketch, superior
to both, so that the Rhodian painter de-
clared himself conquered. The table
containing the figures was afterwards
brought to Rome, and ornamented the
palace of the Cæsars, till destroyed in a
conflagration. The most celebrated paint-
ing of this artist-Alexander holding the
lightning, from which the chief light of
the picture proceeds-stood in the temple
of Ephesus. By a happy application of
perspective and chiaro-oscuro, the hand
with the lightning seemed to project from
the picture. The talent and renown of
A. were at their height in the 112th
Olympiad. Yet, after the death of Alex-
ander, he several times painted king An-
tiochus. This must have happened in
the 118th Olympiad. Death seems to
have surprised the artist in Cos, where
an unfinished Venus was shown as his
work, which nobody dared to complete.
But the story that A., at the court of
Ptolemy, at Alexandria, was accused, by
the painter Antiphilus, of being engaged
in a conspiracy, and that, his innocence
being proved, he took revenge on the
king and his rival, by a picture of Cal-
umny, must refer to another artist of the
same name. Tolken, professor at the
university of Berlin, in his lecture, Apelles
and Antiphilus, in vol. iii. of Amalthea, has
proved that this Apelles lived between the
25 *
294
APELLES--APIS.
Olympiads 139 and 144, consequently 100
years later than the contemporary of Al-
exander. The greatest merit of A. was
inimitable grace; his works were full of
life, grace and poetry, and his art, there-
fore, was justly called ars Apellea.-Ac-
cording to Pliny, A. generally painted
with four colors only, which he made to
harmonize by means of the varnish,
which he himself had invented.
APENNINES, OF APPENNINES; a chain
of mountains beginning near the Mari-
time Alps, not far from Genoa, there
forming the pass of Bocchetta, extending
through all Italy to the shores of Otranto
and the straits of Sicily, and dividing it
into two nearly equal parts, eastern and
western. The Apennines are covered
to the top with trees, particularly chest-
nut-trees, the fruit of which, in some
countries, is the principal food of the
inhabitants. Lower than the Alps, the
Apennines present only a few elevated
summits; e. g., the Gran Sasso, at Aquila,
in the province of Abruzzo, 8255 feet
high, and the Velino, 7872 feet high.
The Apennines are covered with snow in
winter, which sometimes melts late, and,
congealing, forms ice, indispensable in a
warm climate like Italy. In the Apen-
nines are some large valleys, a few lakes
and rivers, and many marshes at the foot
of the hills. The internal construction
of the chain shows great uniformity, the
prevailing mineral, a thick, white line-
stone, being found in the same position in
many places. The northern part deviates
from this formation where it unites with
the Alps, as well as the extreme south:
both exhibit a great variety of elder for-
mations. The lower elevations between
the plain and the central chain display
considerable diversity of construction.
Primitive forinations are wanting entirely
in the next range of heights. In the
highest of all, they are not abundant. Yet
in the southern part, granite, gueiss
and unica-slate are considerably diffused.
The transition rocks, however, are widely
spread, and abundaut in various parts of
the chain; e. g., gray wacke, clay-slate,
limestone (e. g., the Carrara marble) and
gabbro. Very widely diffused, also, is
the compact floetz liniestone, known im-
der the name of Apennine limestone, which
probably belongs to the limestone forma-
tion of the Jura. These mountains also
are rich in recent formations, and in the
volcanic tufa, which is an aggregate of
volcanic substances transported and depos-
ited by water. Proper volcanic and trapp
formations, as they are called, are for-
eign to the principal chain of the Apen-
nines. These are confined to the south-
eastern part of Italy. Only Vesuvius, the
extinct volcanoes of Nemi and Albano,
and the lava stream of Borghetto, ap-
proach the borders of the chain.
APHELION (Greek, ano, from, and ios,
the sun); that part of the orbit of the earth,
or any other planet, in which it is at the
point remotest from the sun. This also
applies to a satellite; for the moon has
her aphelion as well as the planets.
APHRODITE; the goddess of love among
the Greeks; synonymous with Aphroge-
neia, that is, born of the foam of the sea.-
Aphrodisia; a festival sacred to Venus,
which was celebrated in various parts of
Grecce, but with the greatest solemnity
in the island of Cyprus. (Sce Venus.)
APICIUS, M. Gabius; an epicure in the
time of Augustus and Tiberius. He
had the most delicate table in Rome,
proved his genius for cookery by the in-
vention of new dishes, and at last, when
he had exhausted his vast fortune, he
poisoned himself, that he might not die
with langer.-There were two other no-
torious epicures of the same name at
Rome. The book of cookery, however,
De Arte Coquinaria, published under the
name of Apicius, was written by one
Calins, who assumed the proverbial nick-
name Apicius. The latest edition was by
Bernhold, Anspach, 1806.
APIS; a bull, to which divine honors
were paid by the Egyptians, chiefly at
Memphis. According to the belief of the
people, a cow became pregnant of him
by a beam of light from heaven, coming
particularly froni the moon. It was ne-
cessary that he should be black, with a
triangle of white on the forehead, a white
spot, in the form of a crescent, on tho
right side, and a sort of knot, like a
beetle, under his tongue. When a bull
of this description was found, he was fed
4 months in a building facing the cast.
At the new moon, he was led to a splen-
did ship, with great solemnity, and con-
veyed to Heliopolis, where he was fed 40
days more by priests and women, who
performed before him various indecent
ceremonies. After this, no one was suf
fered to approach him. From Heliopolis
the priests carried him to Memphis, where
he had a temple, two chapels to dwell in,
and a large court for excrcise. He had
the gift of prophecy, which he imparted
to the children about him. The omen is
good or bad, according as he goes into
one chapel or the other. His birth-day
was celebrated every year; when the Nilo
APIS-APOCRYPHAL.
began to rise, the festival continued for 7
days; a golden shell was thrown into the
Nile, and the crocodile was always tame
as long as the feast continued. Notwith-
standing all this veneration, the bull was
not suffered to live beyond 25 years; the
reason of which is probably to be found
in the astronomical theology of the Egyp-
tians. He was buried in a fountain.
Belzoni thought he had discovered a
tomb of Apis in one of the stone sepul-
chres among the mountains of Upper
Egypt, which enclose the valley of tombs,
or the gates of the kings. In the same
place, he found a colossal sarcophagus
of alabaster, transparent and sonorous
(now in the British museum), ornamented
within and without by carved hieroglyph-
ics and figures. In the interior of the
apartinent was found the body of a bull,
embalmed with asphaltum. The death of
Apis excited universal mourning, which
continued till the priests had found a
successor to him. As it was extremely
difficult to find one with all the above
distinctions, fraud was often practised by
the priests.
APOCALYPSE (Greek; from ànoranzo,
I reveal); the name of the last book of
the New Testament, containing an ac-
count of the visions of St. John the evan-
gelist. It is generally, at least, believed,
that the Apocalypse was written by John,
in his old age, at the end of the 1st cen-
tury, in the isle of Patmos, whither he
had been banished by the Roman empe-
ror Domitian. Though the book was
commonly regarded as genuine in the first
centuries of Christianity, critics have not
been wanting, who have doubted the evi-
dence of its being the work of St. John.
Its genuineness seems to have been first
questioned in the 3d century, and, whether
it be genuine or not, it still remains a
question, whether it is the work of divine
inspiration. However this may be, so
much is certain, that the Apocalypse, on
account of its metaphorical language, has
been explained differently by almost ev-
ery writer who has ventured to interpret
it; and, for the same reason, it is one of
those parts of the Bible which has fur-
nished all sorts of sects and fanatics with
quotations to support their creeds or pre-
tensions. Even at the present time, peo-
ple who have no clear and simple views
of religion, but make it a mere matter of
feeling and passion, refer more to this
mystericus book, and to some parts of the
Old Testament, than to the Gospels, and
the other comparatively intelligible por-
tions of the Scriptures. In the meta-
295
phors and symbolical expressions with
which the Apocalypse abounds, the author
seems to have had in view the then ex-
isting state of the church of Christ, and
its future prospects. He speaks of his
vision as of a matter of fact, with a con-
fidence resembling that of Dante; but
though the language is often bold and
poetical, yet it is evident that the mind
of the author had been formed among
Jews, whose history shows them to have
been always deficient in sensibility for
the beautiful. The Apocalypse contains
22 chapters, which may be divided into
two principal parts. The first, after the
title of the book (ch. i. 1–3.), comprises
"the things which are," that is, the then
present state of the Christian church, in-
cluding the epistolary instructions and
admonitions to the angels or bishops of
the 7 churches of Ephesus, Smyrna, Per-
gamos, Thyatira, Sardis and Laodicea,
situated in Asia Minor. The second part
comprehends a prediction of "the things
which shall be hereafter," referring either
to the future state of the church through
succeeding ages, from the time when the
apostle beheld the apocalyptic visions, to
the grand consummation of all things, or
the state of the souls of men after the
great resurrection of the dead. The mil-
lennium, which is spoken of in the Apoc-
alypse, has, at different times, seduced
people into the strangest expectations re-
specting the end of the world, particularly
in the earlier times of Christianity; nay,
the expectation of a speedy destruction
of the world appears to have been an
idea of the apostles themselves, based on
a misinterpretation of the assurance of
Christ, that he would soon return, con-
nected with the idea, that the only object
of his return must be to judge the living
and the dead.
APOCRYPHAL (Greck: concealed); an
epithet generally applied to certain books
not admitted into the canon of the Old
Testament; being either spurious, or not
acknowledged as of divine origin. They
are opposed to the canonical writings, i. e.
those which are considered as affording
rules of faith and conduct, because a di-
vine origin is attributed to them. Besides
the apocryphal books of the Old Testa-
nent, which usually stand after the canon-
ical books in our editions, there are nu-
merous spurious books, composed in tho
early days of Christianity, and published
under the names of Jesus Christ and his
apostles, their companions, &c. These
bear the names of Acts, Epistles, Revela-
tions, &c. They are entirely destitute of
296
APOCRYPHAL-APOLLO.
evidence to justify their admission into
the sacred canon, and, on this account, are
omitted entirely. They may be found in
the Cod. Apocryph. by Fabricius, (Ham-
burg, 1719, 2 vols.) There are also sev-
eral books of the New Testament, in the
cominon editions, which, though general-
ly regarded as canonical, are by some
deemed apocryphal; e. g., the Revelation
of St. John. (See Apocalypse.)
APOGEE (Greek; from ane, from, and yň,
the earth); that point in the orbit of the
sun, or of a planet, which is at the greatest
distance possible from the earth. The
point of greatest nearness is called the
perigee. The ancient astronomers, re-
garding the earth as the centre of the
system, paid particular attention to these
points, which the moderns, making the
sun the centre, change for the aphelion
and perihelion.
APOLLINARIANS, in ecclesiastical histo-
ry; a sect which maintained the doctrine
that the Logos (the Word of God) holds
in Christ the place of the rational soul,
and consequently that God was united in
him with the human body and the sensi-
tive soul. Apollinaris, the author of this
opinion, was, from A. D. 362 till at least
A. D. 382, bishop of Laodicea, in Syria,
and a zealous opposer of the Arians. As
a man and a scholar, he was highly
esteemed, and was among the most pop-
ular authors of his time. According to
the old historians of the church, when
the emperor Julian forbade Christians
the use of schools and the study of the
Greek classics, Apollinaris, with his fa-
ther, of the same haine, a teacher of lan-
guages, and a presbyter, composed imita-
tions of them, for the use of the Chris-
tians; for instance, heroic poems and
tragedies, from the historical matter of
the Old Testament, and dialogues in ini-
tation of Plato's, from portions of the New.
None of these works are now extant.
His doctrine above-mentioned was first
made known A. D. 371, and has been
condemned as heretical, since A. D. 375,
by various councils; among others, by
the œcumenical council at Constantino-
ple, A. D. 381. Apollinaris, however,
formed a congregation of his adherents
at Antioch, and made Vitalis their bishop.
The Apollinarians, or l'italians, as the
followers of Apollinaris and Vitalis were
called, soon spread their sentiments in
Syria and the neighboring countries,
established several societies, with their
own bishops, and one even in Constanti-
nople; but, after the death of their leader,
between A. D. 382 and A. D. 392, they
separated into two parties-one, the Va-
lentinians, who adhered to the doctrine
of Apollinaris; the other, the Polemians,
who assert that God and the body of
Christ became one substance, and who,
consequently, pay divine honors to the
flesh; for which reason they were called
Sarcolatra, Anthropolatre, and, because
they admit the union of both natures in
Christ, Synusians. Imperial edicts, A. D.
388 and 397, forbade them to hold reli-
gious assemblies; and, A. D. 428, they
were wholly forbidden to have ecclesias-
tics, or to dwell in cities.
This sect,
never numerous, now disappeared, being
partly included among the orthodox, and
partly, afterwards, among the Monophy-
sites. The doctrine of transubstantiation,
and divine honor to the consecrated host,
arises from the same view, which the
Catholics deemed a crime in the Pole-
mians.
APOLLO; Son of Jupiter and Latona,
who, being persecuted by the jealousy of
Juno, after tedious wanderings and nine
days' labor, was delivered of him and his
twin sister, Artemis (Diana), on the island
of Delos. (q. v.) A. appears in mythology
as the god of poetry, music and prophecy,
the patron of physicians, shepherds and
the founders of cities. Skilled in the use
of the bow, he slew the serpent Python
on the fifth day after his birth ; after-
wards, with his sister Diana, he killed
the children of Niobe, &c. He aided
Jupiter in the war with the Titans and
the giants. He destroyed the Cyclops,
because they forged the thunderbolts
with which Jupiter killed his son and
favorite Esculapius. All of the male
sex who were snatched from the world
by a sudden and easy death, without pre-
vious sickness, were supposed to be smit-
ten by the arrows of Â, In the oldest
poems, A. is exhibited as the god of song.
In the festivals of the gods on Olympus,
and those of men in which they took part,
he plays and sings, while the Muses dance
around him. He invented the harp or
lyre. Marsyas, who ventured to contend
with him on the flute, was conquered and
flayed alive by the god. A. had another
contest with Pan, in which the former
played on the lyre, the latter on the pipe.
Tniolus had already decided in favor of
A., when Midas opposed the sentence,
and was decorated with a pair of ass's
cars for his insolence. That A. had the
gift of prophecy, appears from the Iliad,
where he is said to have bestowed it upon
Calchas; and, in the Odyssey, mention is
made of an oracular response, delivered
APOLLO--APOLLONIUS.
by him in Delphi. (q. v.) The oracle of
A. at this place became very famous.
He also revealed future events at Didyma,
Claros, Tenedos and Patara. As medical
advice was sought chiefly from oracles
and soothsayers, A., in later times, came to
be regarded as the god of physic. He
was called the father of Esculapius, and
poets feigned that he taught the Asclepi-
ades the art of healing. Fables about the
pastoral life of A. were not unknown in
Homer's time, and Callimachus mentions
him among the gods of shepherds. He is
reported to have taken charge, for a long
time, of the herds of Admetus, according
to some authorities, voluntarily, according
to others, compelled by Jupiter, on ac-
count of the murder of the Cyclops, or
the serpent Python. As a builder of
cities, the founding of Cyzicum, Cyrene
and Naxos in Sicily, is ascribed to him.
Homer relates that he built the walls of
Troy together with Neptune, and afflicted
the city afterwards with a pestilence, be-
cause Laomedon defrauded him of his
pay. According to Pansanias, he assisted
in building the walls of Megara; at which
time he laid down his lute upon a stone,
which ever after sent forth the music of
the late, as often as it was touched. Ac-
cording to the descriptions of poets, and
le representations of sculptors, A. with
Mars, Mercury and Bacchus, belongs to
the beardless gods, in whom the dawn-
ings of early manhood appear. His at-
tributes are a bow, a quiver and plec-
trum, a serpent, a shepherd's crook, a
griffin and a swan, a tripod, a laurel, an
olive-tree, &c. Mythology relates many
of his amours. (See Daphne.) In later
times, he was confounded with Helios,
among the Romans, Sol, the sun. Be-
sides many temples, the island Delos, the
city Delphi, mount Helicon, Leucadia
and Parnassus were sacred to him. The
Apollinaria were games, celebrated in
hönor of him at Rome, which consisted
of bull-fights, theatrical shows, and ath-
letic exercises. He is often called Pha-
bus, both by Greeks and Romans. Among
the ancient statues of A. that have come
down to us, the most remarkable, and, in
the judgment of the learned and acute
Winckelmann, the best and most per-
fect that art has produced, is the one
called the Apollo Belvidere, from the
pavilion of Belvidere in the Vatican, at
Rome; also called the Pythian Apollo,
because it is supposed that the artist has
represented the god as the conqueror of
the serpent Python. This statue was
found in the ruins of Antium, at the end
297
of the 15th century. On the peace of
Tolentino, 1797, it was carried to Paris,
with other treasures of art, whence it was
restored to Rome, 1815.
APOLLODORUS; son of Asclepiades; an
Athenian grammarian, who flourished
about 140 B. C.; studied philosophy un-
der Panatius, and grammar, in the ancient
sense of the word, under Aristarchus. He
wrote a work on the gods, a commentary
on Homer's catalogue of ships, and a his-
tory in verse. The mythological work
entitled Bibliotheca, which bears his name,
is probably a later extract from the larger
work of A. It is very closely connected,
however, with his history of the gods and
heroes. The best editions are Heyne's,
2d edition, Göttingen, 1803, 2 vols., and
Clavier's, Paris, 1805, 2 vols., with a
French translation.-A. is also the name
of a distinguished architect, who built
the forum Trojani.
APOLLODORUS of Athens; a distin-
guished painter, about 408 B. C. (See
Painting.)
APOLLONIKON; a large hand-organ,
completed, in 1817, by Flight and Rob-
son, organ-builders, which, however, may
he played by the aid of keys, of which
there are five rows arranged together in
such manner that several musicians may
perform at the same time. It is said to
resemble the panharmonicon of Maelzel,
and is calculated to produce a powerful
effect, which is greatly enhanced by the
variety of its stops. Prior to this, Roeller,
an instrument-maker, born in Hesse-
Darmstadt, had invented an instrument
with two rows of keys, which might be
played as a piano-forte and as a chamber-
organ, combined at the same time with a
musical automaton. It is described in
the 2d vol. of the Leipsic Musical Jour-
nal. This instrument was called the
apollonion.
APOLLONIUS of Perga, in Pamphylia;
one of four authors (Euclid, Archimedes,
Apollonius and Diophantes) whom we
must regard as the founders of mathemat-
ical science. He lived about 240 B. C.,
and studied mathematics at Alexandria,
among the scholars of Euclid. The most
renowned of his numerous mathematical
works is a book on Conie Sections (Ox-
ford ed., 1710, fol.), a branch of the sci-
ence to which he added much by new
inventions and happy explanations.-A.
of Rhodes, according to some authorities,
was born at Alexandria, according to
others, at Naucratis, about 230 B. C. As
the jealousy of other learned men inces-
santly persecuted him in his own country,
298
APOLLONIUS-APOLOGETICS.
he retired to Rhodes, where he taught
rhetoric with so much reputation, and
obtained, by his writings, so much fame,
that the Rhodians bestowed upon him
the rights of citizenship. He returned
to Alexandria to succeed Eratosthenes,
as superintendent of the library of that
city. Of his various works, we have only
the Argonautica, a poem of moderate
inerit, though written with much care
and labor. There are some passages,
however, of great beauty, especially the
episode on the love of Medea. The best
editions are those of Brunck, Strasb. 1780,
Leipsic, 1810, and that of 1813, with notes,
&c.; the latter is not yet completed.
(See Weichert On the Life and Poetry
of Apollonius, Meissen, 1821.)—A. of Ty-
ana, in Cappadocia, was born in the be-
ginning of the Christian æra, and became
a follower of the Pythagorean philosophy.
Euthydemus, the Phoenician, instructed
him in grammar, rhetoric, and the various
philosophical systems, and Euxenus of
Heraclea taught him the Pythagorean
philosophy. A. felt an irresistible desire
to become a disciple of Pythagoras, ac-
cording to the rigid rules of his sect. At
ge, there was a temple consecrated to
Esculapius, where this god wrought mir-
acles for the cure of the sick. To this
temple A. repaired. In obedience to the
precepts of Pythagoras, he abstained from
all animal food, and lived only on fruits
and herbs, drank no wine, dressed in a
stuff prepared from plants, went bare-
footed, and suffered his hair to grow.
The priests of the temple instructed him,
and initiated him into their mysteries.
It is said that Asculapius himself made
him a witness of his cures; yet we have
never been told that he had then attempt-
ed to perform miracles. He established
a philosophical school, and enjoined si-
lence upon himself for five years. Dur-
ing this time, he visited Pamphylia and
Cilicia, and, afterwards, Antioch, Ephe-
sus, and other cities. He then determined
to pass beyoud Babylon, to India, in order
to become acquainted with the doctrines
of the Bramins; and, as his scholars re-
fused to follow him, he began his journey
alone. A certain Damis, who met him,
and regarded him as a deity, was his com-
panion, and the narrator of his tray-
els. At Babylon, he conversed with the
Magi, and departed thence, with rich
presents, on his way to Taxella, where
Phraortes, king of India, had his scat of
government, who gave him letters of in-
troduction to the first among the Bramins.
After 4 months, A. returned to Babylon,
from whence he proceeded to Ionia, and
visited several cities.
His fame every
where preceded him, and the people
came forth eagerly to meet him. He
publicly reproached them for their indo-
lence, and recommended community of
goods, according to the doctrines of Py-
thagoras. He prophesied pestilence and
earthquakes at Ephesus, which after-
wards really came to pass. He spent
one night in solitude at the grave of
Achilles, and pretended to have had a
conversation with the shade of that hero.
At Lesbos, he conversed with the priests
of Orpheus, who, at first, refused to initi-
ate him into the sacred mysteries, regard-
ing him as a sorcerer; but they received
him some years later. At Athens, he
recommended to the people sacrifices,
prayers, and reformation of their morals.
In every place which he visited, he main-
tained that he could prophesy and per-
form miracles. At last he came to Rome.
Nero had, just before, banished all the ma-
gicians from the city. A. felt that he might
be arrested in consequence of this edict:
this reflection, however, did not prevent
him from entering the city, with 8 of his
companions; but his stay was short. He
raised a young lady from the dead, says a
historian, and was expelled from the city.
He then visited Spain, returned through
Italy to Greece, and thence to Egypt,
where Vespasian made use of him for
the support of his authority, and asked
advice of him as of an oracle. Thence
he journeyed to Ethiopia, and, after his
return, was received as favorably by Ti-
tus, who asked his advice in all the affairs
of government. When Domitian ascend-
ed the throne, A. was accused of having
excited an insurrection in Egypt, in favor
of Nerva. He readily submitted to a trial,
and was acquitted. After this, he went
once more to Greece, and passed over to
Ephesus, where he opened a Pythagorean
school, and died, almost 100 years old.
Among the many miracles related of him,
he is said to have announced the murder
of Domitian, at the very moment when it
happened. The heathens compare him
to Christ, as a worker of miracles. Fla-
vius Philostratus wrote a history of his
life, very favorable to him, in 8 parts.
APOLOGETICS. A great number of apol-
ogies were written in defence of Christian-
ity, in the early ages of the church, by Jus-
tin and others, but apologetics did not
form a separate branch of theological
science till the 18th century. We under-
stand by them a philosophical exhibition
of the arguments for the divine origin of
APOLOGETICS-APOPLEXY.
Christianity. They are to be carefully
distinguished from polemical writings,
which have for their object only to main-
tain the peculiarities of one religious sect
or party against another. Hugo Grotius
is one of the most eminent among the
writers of these works. The Génie du
Christianisme of Chateaubriand is a su-
perficial declamation, with little merit but
that of elegance. One of the principal
apologetic works of modern times is in
Danish-Kristelig Apologetik, eller Vi-
denskabelig Udvikling af Grundene for
Kristendommens Guddommelighed, ved P.
E. Müller (Christian Apologetics, or phil-
osophical Arguments for the divine Origin
of Christianity), Copenhagen, 1810.
APOLOGUE. (See Fable.)
APOLOGY; defence of one who is ac-
cused. Judicial trials, among the ancients,
were public, as they are in England and
America, and consisted of speeches for
and against a person or cause, and of the
examination of witnesses. From judicial
defences, which were often written down
during the trial, and frequently composed
accurately, and committed to paper by
the speakers themselves, and afterwards
made public, arose apologies. Of this
nature are the apologies of Socrates, at-
tributed to Plato and Xenophon. The
former is a labored speech, in which Soc-
rates is introduced speaking himself; the
latter, rather a narration of the last hours
and words of the wise man, with an ex-
planation of the reasons why he preferred
death, by which he seemed elevated
above his accusers more than he would
have been by a formal defence, which he
scorned to make. Later rhetoriciaus wrote
upon the use of apologies, and caused
them to be composed by their scholars.
Of this sort are the Apologies of Libanius
(in 4 parts, the Reiske edition). Thus the
name passed over to Christian authors,
who, having before been orators or philos-
ophers, borrowed a great part of their
technical terms from the public courts of
justice. They gave the name of apolo-
gies to the writings which were designed
to defond Christianity against the attacks
and accusations of its enemies, particu-
larly the pagan philosophers, and to justify
its professors before the emperors. Of
this sort were those by Justin Martyr,
Athenagoras, Tertullian, Tatian and oth-
ers, which are lost, written by Quadratus,
Aristides, Melito, Miltiades, Theophilus.
To these might be added several works
of Origen, Clement of Alexandria, Euse-
bius; and, among the Latins, those of
Lactantius, Arnobius, Minucius Felix and
299
Augustin, though they are published un-
We must not expect
der another title.
in them strict philosophical connexion,
nor the accurate interpretation of the sa-
cred writings. It must be remembered,
that most of the authors, part of whom
had belonged to the profession of advo-
cates, made use of all the arts of clo-
quence, that were permitted in public
courts. After the secure establishment
of Christianity, such apologies, in a great
measure, ceased to appear, till, in later
times, several writers have again attacked
it, either directly or by indirect insinua-
tion. In consequence, new apologies
have been written, and, among many
weak ones, some exhibit great power and
eloquence. There are, also, apologies for
the doctrines of particular sects; e. g.,
Robert Barclay's Apology for the People
in Scorn called Quakers.
APONO, Peter, one of the most cele-
brated physicians of the 13th century, was
born at Apono, or Abano, a village near
Padua, in 1250. He studied at the uni-
versity of Paris. His reputation as a
physician became so great, that his rivals,
envious of his celebrity, gave out that he
was aided in his cures by evil spirits, and
brought him under the notice of the in-
quisition, but he died before his process
was finished. His body would have been
consigned to the flames, but for the attach-
ment of a female domestic, who had it
privately disinterred, and secretly re-bu-
ried. His memory received honors more
than equal to this attempted disgrace,
for the duke of Urbino and the senate of
Padua afterwards erected statues to him.
Besides the work, Conciliator Differentia-
rum Philosophorum, et præcipue Medicorum,
which he composed in Paris, and which
was published at Padua, in 1490, and
reprinted at Florence and at Venice, this
author wrote De Venenis corumque Reme-
diis, Marpurg, 1517, and Venice, 1550;
De Medicină Omnimoda; Quæstioncs de
Febribus; and various other works.
APOPHTHEGM (from the Greek ázóy-
Ocyp(); a short, pithy sentence, or maxim,
as, for example, the sayings of the seven
wise men, so called. Julius Cæsar wrote
a collection of them, but history has not
handed them down to us. Several modern
writers have written such apophthegms, in
prose and verse, Some parts of the Bible
are entirely composed of apophthegms.
APOPLEXY is the name applied to a
disease which occurs very suddenly, as
if a blow had been inflicted upon the
head, and deprives the person of con-
sciousness and voluntary motion, while
$
300
APOPLEXY.
others, indirectly, through the medium
of the stomach, as when this disease is
produced by indigestible food, &c. The
disposition to it is sometimes hereditary,
and is most usually found to accompany
a short, full person, a short neck, and a
system disposed to a too copious sanguifi-
cation. It sometimes, also, occurs in peo-
ple who are exhausted by old age, exces-
sive labor or anxiety, and, in these cases,
the brain seems to be too weak to per-
form its cominon functions, and the efforts
required of it produce an injurious or
destructive flow of blood to it. It will
be readily conjectured, from what has
been said, that the cure of this disease is
by no means easy, as the treatment must
be accommodated to the various causes
which may have produced it. It is at all
times a disease of great danger, but by
no means always fatal; and those affected
by it sometimes recover as entirely as
from any other complaint, although some
lameness or defect of motion is apt to
remain, either in the limbs, the organs of
specch, the eyes or mouth, or some other
part. A fatal result is to be anticipated,
when the consciousness and feeling are
entirely lost; when the eye is insensible
to light, and the pupil does not contract;
when the patient cannot swallow, the
respiration grows more laborious, and
froth or blood appears at the mouth or
nose. But if, on the contrary, the reme-
dies used appear to afford relief, and pro-
duce a gradual diminution of the symptoms
above described, a favorable result may
be expected. Although an attack of ap-
oplexy comes on, for the most part, sud-
denly and unexpectedly, yet it is often
preceded by appearances, which give
warning of its approach. These are a
high color of the whole face, giddi-
ness or vertigo, sparks or flashes of light
before the eyes, noises in the ears, bleed-
ing at the nose, and pain in the head.
The danger, in such cases, may most com-
monly be averted by bleeding and abste-
mious diet, to be continued till these
symptoms are removed. When a person
is unfortunately attacked by apoplexy,
the first step should be to open the cravat
and collar, so as to leave the neck free:
if it be a short time after a meal, or if the
last meal has been of an indigestible
character, the stomach should be emptied
by an cinetic, or by tickling the throat
with the finger, without waiting for a
physician, and, at the same time, a vein or
two should be opened, so as to produce
a free flow of blood, which should be
continued, if the face is flushed and red,
the respiration and action of the heart
continue, although much oppressed. In
a complete apoplexy, the person falls sud-
denly, is unable to move his limbs or to
speak, gives no proof of seeing, hearing
or feeling, and the breathing is stertorous
or snoring, like that of a person in deep
sleep. In a case of less violence, the
symptoms are more moderate. Con-
sciousness sometimes remains in part;
some power of motion is retained, upon
one side, or in some parts, at least; the
speech is not entirely lost, but is only an
unintelligible muttering of incoherent
words. The immediate cause of this dis-
ease is some affection or injury of the
brain, or of some portion of it; and it is
most commonly produced by a fulness
of blood in the head, either remaining in
the blood-vessels, or poured out, in or upon
the brain, from their rupture in some part,
and in sufficient quantity to exert con-
siderable pressure upon that organ. As
the state of the whole body depends much
upon the sound condition of the brain
and nerves, it is evident that such an un-
natural state of these organs cannot con-
tinue long without danger to life. The
termination and effects of the disease
vary with the violence of the attack; and
it is either fatal in a few hours, or after a
few days, during which a degree of fever
is often observed, or the patient recovers,
entirely or with a weakness or lameness
of one or more limbs. The immediate
cause of the symptoms first occurring,
and of those remotely subsequent, is not
known with absolute certainty; but from
the examination of the bodies of those
who have died with this disease, or in
whom death has been produced by me-
chanical injuries to the head, which have
been attended by similar appearances; and
from the entire similarity of the symptoms
in persons whose brains are injured by the
pressure of bones, or blood, or in whom
the brain exposed by some wound is pur-
posely compressed, &c., to the symptoms
presented by apoplexy; there is scarcely
room to doubt, that genuine, complete apo-
plexy is produced by the pressure of blood
(whether extravasated or not) upon the
brain. This arises from the destruction
of the equilibrium or balance of the circu-
lation by various causes, by which an un-
natural quantity of blood is forced into an
otherwise healthy brain, or the brain and its
vessels so weakened, that they are unable
to sustain the pressure of the usual quanti-
ty of blood. Some of these causes operate
directly upon the brain, as strong passions,
hard study, exhaustion from fatigue, &c.;
APOPLEXY-APOSTLES.
till relief is obtained. Subsequent treat-
ment will of course be directed by a med-
ical attendant. Great care should be
taken, in such cases, that no attempt is
made to arouse the person by rubbing, or
any sort of stimulation, internal or exter-
nal, as these can only do harm. Paral-
ysis, or palsy, is sometimes a consequence
of apoplexy, but it is more commonly
produced by causes of a different charac-
ter, and constitutes a different disease.
(See Palsy.)
his own.
APOSTASY (from Greek in and orapat,
I keep myself far); a renunciation of
opinions or practices, and the .adoption
of contrary ones, usually applied to one
who has forsaken his religion. It is al
ways an expression of reproach. What
What
one party calls apostasy is termed by the
other conversion. History mentions three
eminent apostates-Julian the Apostate,
who had never been a Christian, except
nominally, and by compulsion; Henry IV,
king of France, who thought that Paris
raut bien une messe, and that, of course,
all France was worth the whole Catho-
lic faith; and William of Nassau, the
stadtholder, who separated himself from
the Catholic church, and became a Prot-
estant, according to the faith of his father,
which, in fact, had always been secretly
One day, Henry IV, standing
with the marshal Joyeuse on a balcony,
seeing many people looking at him, said,
Mon cousin, ces gens-là me paraissent fort
aises de voir ensemble un apostat et un
renégat. General Bonneval, a French-
man, was a famous apostate. He became
a Turkish pacha. Generally, apostates,
religious or political, are violent partisans.
Catholics, also, call those persons apos-
tates, who forsake a religious order, or
renounce their religious vows without a
lawful dispensation. The apostasy of a
Christian to Judaism or paganism was pun-
ished, by the emperors Constantius and Ju-
lian, with confiscation of goods; to which
the emperors Theodosius and Valentinian
added capital punishment in case of the
apostate's perverting others. Also, in an-
cient England, it is said that apostasy was
punishable by burning, and tearing to
pieces by horses. Statutes 9 and 10 of
William III, c. 32, also provide that, if
any person, educated in, or having made
profession of the Christian religion, shall
deny it to be true, he shall be rendered
incapable of holding any office for the
first offence, and, for the second, shall be
made incapable of bringing any action,
of being guardian, executor, legatce or
purchaser of lands, and shall suffer three
26
VOL. I.
301
years' imprisonment without bail. The
punishment of the first offence, however,
will be remitted in case the delinquent,
within 4 months after conviction, publicly
renounces his error in open court. Penal
laws of this sort, relating to religion, have
generally lain dormant in England.
A POSTERIORI. (See A priori.)
APOSTLES; such as are sent; (from the
Greek docTy, to send); in the Chris-
tian church, the 12 men whom Jesus
selected from his disciples as the best in-
structed in his doctrines, and the fittest
instruments for the promulgation of his
religion. Hence they were regarded as the
ambassadors of Jesus to the rest of the
world. (Matt. ch. xxviii. ver. 19.) Their
names were as follows:-Simon Peter
(Greek for Caiaphas, the rock), and An-
drew his brother; James the greater, and
John his brother, who were sons of
Zebedee; Philip of Bethsaida, Bartholo-
mew, Thomas, Matthew; James the son
of Alpheus, commonly called James
the less; Lebbeus, his brother, who was
surnamed Thaddeus, and was called Ju-
das, or Jude; Simon the Canaanite, and
Judas Iscariot. Of this number, Simon
Peter, John, James the greater and An-
drew were fishermen; and Matthew, a
publican or tax-gatherer. When the
apostles were reduced to 11 by the sui-
cide of Judas, who had betrayed Christ,
they chose Matthias by lot, on the propo-
sition of St. Peter. Soon after, their num-
ber became 13, by the miraculous vocation
of Saul, who, under the name of Paul,
became one of the most zealous propa-
gators of the Christian faith. The Bible
gives the name of apostle to Barnabas
also, who accompanied Paul on his mis-
sions (Acts of the Ap. ch. xiv. ver. 13), and
Paul bestows it also on Andronicus and
Junia, his relations, and companions in
prison. Generally, however, the name is
used, in a narrower sense, to designate
those whom Christ selected himself while
on earth, and Paul, whom he afterwards
called. In a wider sense, those preachers
who first taught Christianity in heathen
countries, are sometimes termed apostles ;
e. g., St. Denis, the A. of the Gauls; St.
Boniface, the A. of Germany; the monk
Augustin, the A. of England; the Jesuit
Francis Xavier, the A. of the Indies;
Adalbert of Prague, A. of Prussia Proper.
Paul was the only A. who had received a
scientific education; the others were me-
chanics. Peter, Andrew and John are
called in the scripture (Acts, ch. iv. ver. 13),
homines sine litteris, idiota. Questions
have often been started respecting the
•
302
APOSTLES-APOSTOLICS.
domestic circumstances of the apostles.
Were they very poor? Were they mar-
ried? &c. Our information on these
points is very limited. Some eminent
theologians have thought that Christ was
not poor, and that the apostles had a
common fund sufficient to meet many
expenses, of which some indications ex-
ist. Tradition reports that several of the
apostles were married. The wife of St.
Peter is said to have accompanied him on
his journeys, and died a martyr. The
tradition further states, that Peter had a
daughter, Petronilla, who was also a
martyr; thus, at least, say St. Augustin,
St. Epiphanius and St. Clement of Alex-
andria. St. Philip, also, is said to have
been married, and to have had several
daughters, among whom was St. Her-
mione. Hegesippus speaks of 2 martyrs,
grandsons of Jude. His wife was called
Mary. St. Bartholomew is also said to
have been married. But tradition affords
almost our only authority respecting their
private lives. During the life of the Sa-
vior, the apostles more than once showed
a misunderstanding of the object of his
mission, and, during his sufferings, evinced
little courage and firmness of friendship
for their great and benevolent Teacher.
After his death, they received the Holy
Ghost on the day of Pentecost, that they
might be enabled to fulfil the important
duties for which they had been chosen.
Their subsequent lives the Catholic
church represents as follows, partly on
the authority of the book of Acts, mostly
on that of tradition :-St. John made some
excursions into Asia, and preached ainong
the Parthians, and in India. In the reign
of Domitian, he was carried to Rome, tor-
tured, and exiled to Patinos, where he
wrote the Apocalypse. He died in Ephe-
sus. St. Bartholomew travelled through
India, Persia, Abyssinia, Arabia Felix,
and finished his course in Armenia. St.
Philip preached in Phrygia; St. Thomas
in Media, Caramania, Bactria, in India,
and even in China; but this last fact is
not positively asserted. St. Matthew
preached in Ethiopia. St. Simon, say the
Greeks, after having baptized in Egypt,
Cyrenaica, Libya and Mauritania, went to
England, and thence to Persia, where he
died. St. Jude preached in Syria, Meso-
potamia, Persia, Armenia and Libya. St.
Peter, afterwards bishop of Antioch, and
then of Rome, visited Asia Minor, and also
Babylon, as one of his letters shows,
provided Babylon does not signify, in
that passage, Rome, as some critics have
thought. St. Paul visited Asia Minor,
Greece and Rome. The two Jameses
seem not to have gone far from Jeru-
salem; yet the body of James the great-
er is said to be buried at Compostel-
la in Spain. According to Matthew (ch.
xvi. ver. 18), Christ considered St. Peter
the first in rank of the apostles; and
it is known, that the pope derives his au-
thority over the living and the dead from
the power which Christ gave to St. Peter,
of whom all the popes, according to the
Catholic dogma, are successors in an un-
interrupted line.-In Venice, the 12 first
families were called apostles, as are like-
wise 12 islands in the straits of Magel-
lan.
APOSTOLES ISLANDS; in the strait of
Magellan, at its entrance into the Pacific,
near cape Deseado. They are 12 in num-
ber, which circumstance gave them their
name. All are small, barren and desert.
Their shores abound with shell-fish. Lon.
75° & W.; lat. 52° 34' S.
APOSTOLICAL; all that comes from the
apostles, or has relation to them. Thus
the apostolical writings are writings com-
posed by the apostles. The earlier Chris-
tian church was called the apostolica!
church, because the apostles at first con-
ducted it, and, after their death, their spirit
remained in it. So, also, the papal sec
is called the apostolical see, because it is
supposed to have been founded by the
apostle Peter. The apostolical office, at
Rome, is the name of the office which
manages the papal revenues.-The apos-
tolical blessing is the blessing bestow-
ed by the pope, as successor of Peter.-
The king of Hungary is styled apostolical
king, apostolical majesty. Pope Sylvester
II bestowed this title on Stephen I, duke
of Hungary, A. D. 1000, because he not
only greatly promoted the Christian re-
ligion in Hungary, but, also, in imitation
of the apostles, preached himself. Clem-
ent XIII renewed the memory of this
occurrence, by giving the empress-queen
Maria Theresa the title of apostolical
queen, in 1758.-The apostolical sym-
bol is a short summary of the Chris-
tian faith, and bears this name because it
contains, in three articles, the doctrines of
the apostles. This apostolical symbol is
found even in the writings of Ambrose,
who lived in the beginning of the 4th
century. Peter Gnapheus, in the 5th cen-
tury, ordered the constant repetition of
the same in the church service.
APOSTOLICS, or APOSTOLICI; the name
of three sects who professed to imitate
the manners and practice of the apostles.
The first flourished at the close of the 2d
-
APOSTOLICS-APOTHEOSIS.
century. They had all things in com-
mon. Little else is known of their pecu-
liar tenets. The second sect of this name
existed in the 12th century. It was com-
posed of people of the lower class. They
were numerous, and their lives, as Bernard
admits, were exemplary. Their peculi-
arities were as follows:-They held it to
be unlawful to take oaths; they suffered
their hair and beards to grow to an enor-
Inous length; they preferred celibacy to
wedlock, calling themselves the chaste
brethren and sisters; each man, however,
had a spiritual sister, with whom he lived
in a domestic relation. The third sect of
A. was founded, about 1260, by Gerhard
Sagarelli. They went barefooted, beg-
ging, preaching and singing throughout
Italy, Switzerland and France; announced
the coming of the kingdom of heaven,
and of purer times; had females in their
retinue, as the apostles had their female
companions, and were suspected of un-
lawful intimacy with these sisters. This
society never received the papal confir-
mation; on the contrary, it was abolished,
A. D. 1286, by Honorius IV. Though
they were persecuted by the inquisition,
they continued in existence, perpetually
wandering about; and, when Sagarelli
was burnt as a heretic, A. D. 1300, another
chief apostle appeared,-Dolcino, a learn-
ed man of Milan,-who encouraged the
sect, now increased to 1400 men, with his
prophetic promises. To defend them-
selves against persecution, they were com-
polled, about the year 1304, to station
themselves in fortified places, whence
they might resist attacks. In the plun-
dering habits which they were forced to
alopt, they wholly lost the original de-
sign of their institution, and, after having
devastated a large tract of country belong-
ing to Milan, they were subdued, A. D.
1307, by the troops of bishop Raynerius,
in their fortress Zebello, in Vercelli, and
alınost all destroyed. Dolcino was burnt.
The survivors afterwards appeared in
Lombardy, and in the south of France,
as late as A. D. 1368. Their heresy
consisted in reviling the pope and the
clergy.
APOSTOOL; a Mennonite minister at
Amsterdam, who established, in 1664, a
sect called Apostoolians, a branch of the
Mennonites.
APOSTROPHE; & figure of speech which
received this name from the ancients, be-
cause the orator, in using it, turned from
the judge to the accuser or the accused,
and spoke to him. In a more limited
sense, we understand by it, an address to
303
one absent as if he were present, or to
things without life and sense as if they
had life and sense. The apostrophe, ac-
cording to its nature, is spoken in an ele
vated tone.
The same term is also used
to signify the contraction of a word by the
use of a comma.
APOTHECARY. (See Pharmacy.)
APOTHEOSIS (deification); a solemnity
among the ancients, by which a man was
raised to the rank of the gods. The cus-
tom of placing mortals, who had render-
ed their countrymen important services,
among the gods, was very ancient among
the Greeks, who generally followed, in
so doing, the advice of an oracle. On
their coins, most of the founders of cities
and colonies are immortalized as gods;
and, in subsequent times, living princes
assumed this title. The Romans, for sev-
eral centuries, deified none but Romu-
lus, and first imitated the Greeks, in the
fashion of frequent apotheosis, after the
time of Augustus Cæsar. From this
period, apotheosis was regulated by the
decrees of the senate, and accompanied
with great solemnities. There are still
many monuments extant exhibiting the
Roman apotheosis. It became, at last, so
common, as to be an object of contempt.
Vespasian, in an attack of sickness, said,
by way of joke, "I am a god, or, at least,
not far from it."-According to Eusebius,
Tertullian and Chrysostom, Tiberius pro-
posed to the senate the apotheosis of Je-
sus Christ, which, however, was refused
by this body. Juvenal, satirizing the fre-
quent practice of A., introduces poor
Atlas, complaining that he could not any
longer bear the immense and daily-in-
creasing mass of gods. That virtuous
persons, after their death, were raised to
the rank of demigods, was a doctrine of
Pythagoras, who probably derived this
idea from the East. It corresponds with
the notions of many Christians, who be-
lieve that virtuous men become angels
after their death. The period of the Ro-
man emperors, so rich in crime and folly,
offers the most infamous instances of
apotheosis. After Cæsar, the greater part
of the Roman emperors were deified.
The same hand which had murdered a
predecessor often placed him among
the gods. The savage Nero deified the
beautiful Poppaa, his wife, after having
killed her by a kick when she was preg-
nant; and Caracalla, having murdered his
brother, Geta, with his own hands, in his
mother's arms, granted him divine honors,
accompanied with the infamous remark-
Sit divus, dum non sit virus. The first em-
304
APOTHEOSIS-APPEAL.
perors were not adored in their life-time;
but, with the progress of insanity, temples
were built to the living tyrant. Caligula
was not satisfied with being a god; he
wished to be a priest too, and, taking his
horse as a companion in the office, offered
sacrifice to himself, and, immediately
afterwards, appeared as Jupiter or as Cy-
thera, &c. Constantinus had the double
advantage of being deified by the religion
which he had persecuted, and canonized
by that which he supported. It was
quite customary for the Christian empe-
rors to have altars, and be adored by their
pagan subjects. Critics are not wanting,
who sec, in the canonization of the Cath-
olic church, nothing but a continuance of
this Roman fashion of deifying men, with
this difference only,-that saints were
never canonized during their life-time.
This deification of the living the Romans
derived, perhaps, froin the Greeks, whose
lively and poetical imaginations led thein
sometimes to build altars to their mis-
tresses, and offer sacrifices to them. The
apotheosis never degenerated to such
a criminal excess among the Greeks as
among the Romans. The ceremonies of
the Roman apotheosis were very curious,
hut are too long to be repeated here.
APPALACHIAN MOUNTAINS. (See Alle-
ghany Mountains.)
APPALACHICOLA; a river of the U.
States, formed by the Chatahoochee and
Flint rivers, which unite near the north-
ern border of Florida. The A., after a
course of about 70 miles, flows into St.
George's sound, in the gulf of Mexico,
and is navigable throughout for schooners
of considerable size. The Chatahoochee,
the western and largest tributary of the
A., rises in the Appalachian or Allegha-
ny mountains, on the confines of Georgia
and Tennessee, and is navigable for boats
nearly 400 miles from the gulf of Mexico.
APPANAGE. (See Apanage.)
APPARENT, among mathematicians and
astronomers, denotes things as they ap-
pear to the eye, in distinction from what
they really are. Thus they speak of
apparent notion, magnitude, distance,
height, &c. So important is this differ-
ence between reality and appearance, par-
ticularly in regard to the heavenly bodies,
that we find all early astronomers, who
were ignorant of this fact, running contin-
ually into errors; and a great advancement
in science was required, before mankind
were able to establish systems opposed to
appearances. Every one knows that a
body may appear to move while it is, in
fact, at rest, and the motion is in the spec-
tator, or the place on which he stands, as
is the case with the sun, in relation to the
inhabitants of this earth.-The phrase
apparent heir, or heir apparent, signifies
one whose right of inheritance is inde-
feasible, provided he survives his ances-
tors; as the eldest son or his issue, who
nust, by the course of the common law,
be heirs to the father. Heirs presumptive
are such who, if the ancestor should die
immediately, would, in the present state
of things, be his heirs.
APPEAL (law) signifies the removal of
a cause from an inferior tribunal to a
superior; from the French appeller, of the
same signification. In England, appeals
lie from the ordinary courts of justice, and
also from the equity courts to the parlia-
ment. Appeals from courts of equity
differ from writs of error, which impugn
the judgments of the ordinary courts, in
these respects,-that the former may be
brought upon interlocutory matters, that
is, questions occurring in the course of
the trial; the latter, upon definitive judg-
ments only. On writs of error, the
house of lords pronounces judgment; in
appeals, it directs the court to rectify its
judgment. In Germany, originally, ap-
peals could be brought only when the
feudal lord refused to administer justice.
The cause might then be carried before
the king's court; and, if magistrates de-
cided wrongly, their decisions might be
called in question (Fr. fausser le jugement),
and thus the appellant became at issue
with his former judges, and the dispute,
according to law, was to be decided by
mortal combat. Subsequently, all judg-
ments were examined by a superior court.
This change had been already introduced
in France by king Louis IX, but was
first firmly settled in Germany, by the
establishment of the court of the imperial
chamber, A. D. 1495. Appeal was inade
from the tribunals of the lords of manors
to the courts of the princes, and from
these latter to the tribunals of the empire,
the court of the imperial chamber, and the
aulic council. The states of the empire
endeavored, as far as possible, to shake
off this subordination of their tribunals to
the supreme judicature of the kingdom.
Austria, from the very first, kept her-
self perfectly free from this dependence.
The electors were entitled to the same
liberty, by virtue of their ancient privi-
leges; but it had now become a funda-
mental law, that there should be three
degrees of courts, and those who would
not establish tribunals of the third or
highest degree (high courts of appeals),
APPEAL.
305
there are 15, in as many important places;
of the third degree, there is properly but
one, the superior tribunal at Berlin;
but the efficacy of this court in main-
taining unity in the administration of jus-
tice is much interrupted by many revis-
ions of each other's decrees, which take
place between the various courts of the
second degree. The Prussian lands on
the Rhine still have the French judicial
constitution; and, for this, a court of re-
vision was established at Berlin, by the
decree of July 20, 1819, in the room of
the French court of cassation. Bavaria
has 8 tribunals, with appellate jurisdiction,
and a supreme court of appeal, at Munich.
The high courts of appeal of individual
states, according to the choice of the par-
ties in every case, stand in the place of a
joint tribunal, for the settlement of the
contests of the states with one another.
In France, only two gradations are per-
mitted-the tribunals of the first instance
(district and county courts), and the courts
of appeal (cours royales), which have ta-
ken the place of the old parliament.
For the whole kingdom, however, there
is the royal court of cassation, which has
to decide only in cases where the com-
petency of a tribunal, or the formality of
a process, is called in question. This
court does much towards the preserva-
tion of harmony in the administration of
justice. (For courts of appeal in the U.
States, see Courts.)
were obliged to allow the right of appeal
to the supreme courts of the empire, and
could obtain exemption therefrom only
by particular imperial privileges (privile-
gia de non appellando). The same privi-
lege was granted also to other states, who
might establish their own supreme tribu-
nals (as Sweden at Wismar, Hanover at
Celle, Hesse-Cassel, &c.), or else send
the documents, belonging to questions at
issue, to foreign colleges, which had the
right of final judgment. The tedious
forms in the supreme courts of the empire,
and other defects in the judicial adininis-
tration, gave popularity to these establish-
ments, on the part of the separate states;
although the maxim, that 3 consecutive
decrees are requisite for the entire settle-
ment of a controversy at law, infinitely
delayed the process; and the want of a
supreme court, extending its authority
throughout Germany, was highly preju-
dicial to the improvement of the German
code. The dissolution of the German
empire increased the difficulties attending
the administration of justice in the small
states; and it is one of the most salutary
resolves of the German compact (while
recognising the necessity of 3 consecutive
judgments as a fundamental law of the
empire), that the smaller states shall be
compelled to ercct, in common, high courts
of appeal, and not confine themselves to
petty, local jurisdictions. These supreme
courts, common to several states, have all,
within a few years past, been reduced to APPEAL, in the judicial language of
a regular order. The great limitation, England, besides the common meaning
almost amounting to exclusion of crimi- in other countries, had, till lately, another,
nal cases, is a remarkable circumstance also, denoting an accusation by one pri-
in the constitution of these courts. The vate subject against another, for some
diversity in the amounts of property in heinous crinie, demanding punishment
question, for which appeal is allowed on account of the particular injury suffer-
from the different states, is also interested, rather than for the offence against the
ing. Saxe-Hildburghausen alene suffers
all causes, without reference to the
amount in dispute, to go to the high court
of appeal at Jena. In the rest of the
states, the limitation varies between 100
and 500 Saxon dollars. With a few dif
ferences in names and forms, all the judi-
cial administration of Germany is now
uniform, and the rule of the 3 gradations
of tribunals is universal. The smaller
states, we have already said, have joint
courts of appeal. Austria has such courts
of her own, at Vienna, and many other
places, besides a supreme court of justice
at Vienna. Hungary and Transylvania
have a judicial constitution peculiar to
themselves. In old Prussia, the courts of
the first or lowest degree are those of
cities, districts, &c.; of the second degree,
The
public. The usual English criminal pro-
cess is a process of accusation by in-
dictment of a grand jury, in which the
accuser is obliged to prove his charges, and
the accused is not bound to give answer
or reply with regard to his actions.
German criminal process, on the contrary,
secks especially to investigate the truth
from the statements of the accused him-
self. In the English system, the prose-
rution is conducted by the government,
at the request of the injured party, who
has nothing further to do, but to fur-
nish means of proof to the advocates of
the crown. But the process of appeal, of
which we are now to speak, was another
sort of prosecution or suit, in which the
defendant, or one of his relations, sum-
moned the plaintiff before the proper tri-
26 *
306
APPEAL-APPIAN WAY.
bunal of justice (the king's bench), in or-
der to obtain satisfaction for the offence,
and to have the proper punishment in-
flicted. The accuser, here, is called appel-
lor, or appellant, and the accused, appellec.
This kind of appeal took place when the
supposed criminal had been acquitted on
an indictment, but not if he had been sen-
tenced and punished for a less crime than
that of which he was accused; for in-
stance, of manslaughter instead of mur-
der. If he was pardoned, this did not
protect him from this private accusation,
and, if found guilty on these charges, he
was obliged to suffer the punishment
established by law, and the king could
not pardon him. This right of private ac-
cusation continued for a year. If, there-
fore, the judge, the public or the relatives
were not satisfied with the sentence of
acquittal passed by the jury, such an
appeal might be inade, and the person
acquitted detained in prison till the end
of the year, unless bail was given for his
appearance to answer to the appeal. The
jury on the appeal was usually different
from that on the indictment, and exam-
ples are not wanting where a man has
been brought in guilty by the second jury,
on the same grounds upon which he was
acquitted by the first. Thus, A. D. 1708,
John Young was murdered, and suspicion
fastened upon Ephraim Slaughterford, his
friend, with whom he was last seen. He
was acquitted at the assizes, but the pub-
lic were so convinced of his guilt, that a
subscription was opened to pay the ex-
penses of a private accusation. Slaugh-
terford was found guilty by a second trial,
and executed. A similar event happened
A. D. 1818. A young lady, Mary Ash-
ford, was found murdered under circum-
stances which fixed the strongest suspi-
cions upon one Abraham Thornton. He
had waited upon her home from a ball,
and had been with her, as he himself
confessed, a short time before the discov-
ery of her body, not far from the pit, full
of water, in which it lay. Notwithstand-
ing this, he was acquitted, and the brother
of the deceased now prosecuted him by
an appeal of inurder. Upon this, Thorn-
ton made use of a right, the existence of
which had been alinost forgotten. He
summoned the accuser to a wager of
battle, i. e. a trial by combat, instead of
submitting to a trial by jury. The valid
ity of this right could not be questioned,
and the advocate of the accuser received
a´severe reproof from the court, because
he suffered himself to call it unreasonable
and barbarous. The accuser, a weak
young man, 20 years old, did not venture
to engage in a contest, with clubs, with
the athletic Thornton: he was obliged to
recall his accusation, and the suspected
murderer was once inore acquitted. The
public feeling, however, was so strong
against him, that he emigrated to Ameri-
ca, where he soon after died. This event
occasioned the abolition, not only of the
wager of battle, but also of the right of
appeal, as experienced lawyers were of
opinion that the accused could not be
deprived of the choice between a second
trial by jury and a wager of battle. This
was done A. D. 1819, by the act of parlia-
ment 59 George III, c. 46. Some may
think that this abolition has occasioned
an essential defect in the English laws;
but it is merely applying to such cases
a just and proper principle of criminal
law, which is now generally adopted both
in England and America, that no person
shall be twice tried for the same offence,—
a principle that gives great security against
oppressive and successive prosecutions.
The process of appeal and the trial by
combat were never introduced into the
American law.
APPELLANTS; a religious party. (See
Unigenitus.)
APPENZEL; a canton of the Swiss con-
federation, surrounded on all sides by the
canton St. Gall. It is divided into 2 parts,
called Inner-rood, or rhode, and Outer-
rood, each having, since 1597, a separate
government, independent of the other.
In respect to the other cantons of the
confederacy, both are considered as form-
ing one canton. The form of government
is entirely democratic. Every man, above
the age of 16 years, annually appears, with
his sword, in the general assembly, when
the officers are chosen. A. contains, on
222 square miles, 55,000 inhabitants. The
canton is active in manufactures of differ-
ent kinds, and in raising cattle. The chief
place is the market-town, Appenzel, in
the Inner-rood; lon. 9° 31′ E.; lat. 47° 20′
N.; pop. 3,000. (See Swiss Confederation.)
APPIAN of Alexandria; governor and
manager of the imperial revenues, under
Adrian, Trajan and Antoninus Pius, in
Rome. He wrote a Roman history, from
the earliest times to those of Augustus,
in 24 books, of which only half have
come down to us,-an unequal work, ac-
cording to the sources from which the
author drew his materials. The best late
edition is that of Schweighäuser, Leipsic
and Strasburg, 1785, 3 vols.
APPIAN WAY, leading from Rome to
Capua; the oldest and most renowned
APPIAN WAY-APPIUS CLAUDIUS CRASSINUS.
Roman road. It was made by Appius
Claudius Crassus Cocus, when he was
censor, 313 years B. C., and afterwards
extended to Brundusium. It consisted
of hard, hexagonal stones, exactly fitted
to one another; and there may still be
seen, particularly at Terracina, impor-
tant remains, which prove its excellent
workmanship.
APPIANI, Andrew; a painter, born at
Milan, May 23, 1754, of an old and noble,
but poor family. He was obliged to work
with scene-painters for his support, and
to go with his masters from town to town.
In Parma, Bologna and Florence, he had
an opportunity to see and study the mas-
ter-works of his art, and to form his style.
He visited Rome 3 times, in order to
penetrate the secret of Raphael's style of
fresco-painting, and soon excelled in this
art every living painter in Italy. He
displayed his skill particularly in the cu-
pola of Santa Maria di S. Celso, at Milan,
and in the paintings which he prepared
for the walls and ceiling of the villa of the
archduke Ferdinand, at Monza (1795).
Napoleon appointed him royal court paint-
er, gave him the order of the legion of
honor, and that of the iron crown, and
made him member of the Italian institute
of sciences and arts. A. painted after-
wards almost the whole of the imperial
family. His best works are the fresco-
paintings on the ceiling of the royal pal-
ace at Milan, allegories relating to Napo-
leon's life, and his Apollo with the Muses,
in the villa Bonaparte. Almost all the
palaces of Milan have fresco-paintings by
him. Napoleon's fall affected A.'s fortune
severely. He died in 1817, in straitened
circumstances.
APPIUS CLAUDIUS CRASSINUS, a mem-
ber of the patrician family of the Claudii,
though cruel and arrogant, like his ances-
tors, was hardly appointed consul, B. C.
401, when, to gain the favor of the people,
he supported the law proposed by the
tribune Terentillius, or Terentius, which
had for its object a change in the form of
government. Instead of the usual magis-
trates, decemvirs (10 men) were appoint-
ed to compose a code of laws for Rome
(afterwards called the laws of the twelve
tables), and to possess sovereign power
for a year. He was himself chosen de-
cemvir, and when, after the first year, this
office was prolonged for a year more, he
was the only one who succeeded, by his
influence over the chief men among the
people, in being rechosen. Ile was re-
solved never again to give up his power,
and conspired with his colleagues for the
307
accomplishment of this plan. The same
year, the Æqui and Sabines laid waste a
portion of the Roman territory. The
decemviri collected an army, and march-
ed against the enemy. Only A. and Op-
pius remained in Rome, with 2 legions,
to support the authority of the decemviri,
already prolonged beyond the lawful
term, when an unexpected event over-
threw them. A. was passionately in love
with the daughter of Virginius, a respect-
able plebeian, absent with the army.
When A., as a husband and a patrician,
could not lawfully marry Virginia, who
was betrothed to Icilius, formerly a trib-
une of the people, and had sought in vain
to seduce her, he persuaded M. Claudius,
his client, with several associates, to carry
her off by violence from the public school
where she was, under the pretence that
she was the daughter of one of his slaves.
The people compelled him to set her at
liberty; but Claudius summoned her im-
mediately before the tribunal of A., who
decided that the pretended slave should
be given up, for the present, to her mas-
ter. Upon this, Nunitorius, her uncle,
and Icilius, her lover, made known the
criminal designs of A. A fearful disturb-
ance arose, and the decemvir was com-
pelled to leave Virginia in the hands of
her family; but he declared that he would
pronounce his decision the next day.
Virginius, summoned by his brother and
Icilius, appeared in the forum, with his
daughter, in a mourning dress. He
brought the most indubitable proofs of
the groundlessness of the claini; but A,
trusting to the number of his guards, still
commanded Claudius to take her as his
slave. When Virginius asked permission
of the decemvir to speak to her nurse in
Virginia's presence, that he might, for his
own satisfaction, be convinced of his er-
ror, A. consented. Upon this, the unhap-
py father tenderly embraced his daughter,
suddenly seized the knife of a butcher
who was standing by, and plunged it into
her bosom, with these words: "Go, free
and pure, Virginia, to thy mother and thy
ancestors." A. commanded Virginius to
be seized; but he fled to the camp. The
senators Valerius and Horatius, who hated
the decemvirate, inflamed a spirit of
vengeance in the people, already excited
by the sight of Virginia's body, and A.
could silence the disturbance only by
summoning a meeting of the senate. In
the meantime, Virginius had related the
affair to the army, which marched to
Rome, demanding revenge. The decem-
virs, seeing they could no longer maintain
308
APPIUS CLAUDIUS CRASSINUS-APPOGGIATO.
their authority, resigned their offices.
The senate, without delay, resolved to
restore the tribunes and consuls, A. U. 305.
A. died in prison, Livy says, by his own
hand; according to Dionysius of Halicar-
nassus, the tribunes caused him to be
strangled. Oppius, also, who was accused
of being his companion in crime, killed
himself. The remainder of their col-
leagues escaped accusation by voluntary
exile. The abject Claudius, as he had
only been the tool of a tyrant, was ban-
ished to Tibur, then a desert. Alfieri
has written a tragedy on the death of Vir-
ginia.
APPLAUSE (from Latin plaudere); to
express approbation by any movement of
the hands. No nation has systematized
applause like the Romans, who, according
to Suetonius, had 3 kinds-bombus, the
noise of which was like the humining of
bees; imbrices, which sounded like rain
falling on the tiles; and testæ, a sound
like the breaking of pots. The 2 latter
were produced by instruments placed in
the theatre, and persons were instructed
to give applause with skill. The plau-
sores, or applauders, were divided into
chori, and disposed in theatres opposite
each other, like the choristers in cathe-
drals. In France, England and Amer-
ica, applause is often given by making a
noise with the feet, which, in Germany,
always signifies a high degree of dissatis-
faction. (For further information, see the
article Acclamation.)
APPLE. The apple, in all its innumer-
able varieties, is said to have been derived
entirely from the crab-apple (pyrus malus),
which grows wild in every part of Eng-
land, and, it is believed, in some of the
middle regions of the U. States. The
uses of the apple are very various; even
the bitter crab-apple is not without value;
for its fermented juice, known by the name
of verjuice, is employed both in cookery
and medicine, and also for the purifying
of wax. Hogs and deer are fond of them.
The wood is hard and durable, and makes
good wheel-cogs, &c. All good apples,
and many of the common kinds, are pro-
duced by the process termed grafting.
This is performed by inserting young
twigs or shoots from trees bearing fine
fruit into stocks of inferior kinds, raised
upon every farm, from the poace of the
cider-mill. Crab-stocks are thought to
answer best in England, but all kinds
are made use of in the U. States. The
branches formed by the twig inserted are
found to bear fruit corresponding in qual-
ity to the tree from which it was cut.
The same process is pursued with all
other kinds of fruit-trees; for inoculated
or ingrafted fruit is always found to be
the best. The kinds of apples most highly
prized in all countries are the varieties of
pippin. The pippins of New York, New
Jersey and Pennsylvania are the richest
in flavor of any apples known in the U.
States; while the greening, the pearmain,
and gilliflower, are the best fruit of New
England; and the varieties of russet-apple
the most lasting, being often found in a
good condition at midsummer of the next
year. The common family uses of the
apple are too familiar to need specifica-
tion; but its most important application is
to the manufacture of cider. The process
for making the best cider is simple; per-
haps quite as much so as any mode of
spoiling it. The apples should be sorted
according to their degrees of ripeness, &c.,
and left a few days in heaps to ripen, if
necessary. They should then be ground
in a mill, till they are entirely bruised.
They are afterwards allowed to stand a
day or two in open vessels or troughs,
and then pressed between hair-cloths or
layers of clean straw; the last is not so
good, froin absorbing and wasting a por-
tion of the juice. The liquor running
from the press is then received into a vat,
or large casks, till it has fermented, when
it is drawn off, and placed in clean, tight
barrels or casks, to stand till it is fine and
clear; it is then racked off from the lees,
and kept in casks or bottled for use. A
portion of brandy and a little flowers of
sulphur render it more pure, and less
likely to grow hard and sour. Cider is
a very wholesonie drink during the hicat
of summer, although more apt to derange
the stomach, produce colic, &c., than
beer. A liquor is obtained by distillation
from cider, termed cider-brandy, of which
great quantities are made in the Middle
States; while a very strong liquid may be
obtained by allowing cider to be frozen,
and then drawing off the portion which
remains fluid, and thus retains its heat.
But a far more wholesome liquor than
either is the pomona wine, which is
prepared by adding 1 gallon of brandy to
6 of new cider, after it is racked off. This,
when 8 or 12 months old, is a very good
substitute for wine, for the use of the
poor
or the sick, and is, beyond all comparison,
more wholesome than the wretched mix-
tures sold so cheap under the name of
Lisbon wine, &c. &c.
APPOGGIATO denotes, in music, and
particularly in song, a blended and not
abrupt utterance of the tones; so that they
APPOGGIATO-APPRENTICESHIP.
insensibly glide and melt into each other,
without any perceptible break. It is from
appoggiare, to lean on. Hence, also,
APPOGGIATURA; a small additional note
of embellishment preceding the note to
which it is attached, and taking away
from the principal note a portion of its
time. It is expressed thus:
APPRENTICEship. The ancients had
nothing similar to our apprenticeships,
not even a term of corresponding signifi-
cation. The mechanical arts were carried
on, among the Greeks and Romans, by
slaves. Apprenticeships in these and the
liberal arts and professions grew up in
the middle ages, when the members of a
particular trade or profession formed a
corporation. These corporations belong
to those many institutions recorded in
history, which were once necessary, and
had useful effects, but which a change of
circumstances, and revolutions in the so-
cial condition, as well as many abuses to
which they became subject, have ren-
dered, in most cases, inexpedient. They
have generally been abolished. One of
these abuses, in relation to trades, was
the long period of service required in the
apprenticeships, as it was evidently for
the interest of the masters, who were
already admitted to the practice of a trade,
or made free of a corporation, to make
the time of service as long, or the consid-
eration for admission into the company
as high, as they could. In some coun-
trics, another abuse crept in, viz., a very
great latitude of discretion and authority
allowed to masters in the treatment of
their apprentices, many of whom were,
accordingly, treated with great harshness
and severity. The usual time of service
was 7 years, and the custom of appren-
ticeships was extended to almost every
trade and profession. The time of tech-
nical apprenticeship, among barristers in
Englaud, was 16 years, for which period
the candidates were apprenticii ad legem;
after which they might take the degree
of serjeants, servientes ad legem. Adam
Smitli, in his Wealth of Nations, b. i, c.
10, maintains that apprenticeships are
entirely unnecessary. He says, "Arts
which are much superior to common
trades, such as those of making clocks
and watches, contain no such mystery as
to require a long course of instruction.
The first invention of those beautiful and
useful machines, indeed, must, no doubt,
have been the work of deep thought and
long time; but, when both have been
309
fairly invented, and are well understood,
to explain to any young man, in the com-
pletest manner, how to construct the ma-
chines, cannot well require more than the
lessons of a few weeks; perhaps those of
a few days might be sufficient. In the
common mechanical trades, those of a
few days might certainly be sufficient.
Dexterity of hand, indeed, even in com-
mon trades, cannot be acquired without
much practice and experience." He
thinks, however, that it would be much
better for the learner to acquire this dex-
terity in the character of a journeyman,
than in that of an apprentice. But this
view of the subject does not seem to be
very practical. The change of the name
of the novitiate, from that of apprentice to
that of journeyman, would effect no mate-
rial alteration in the relation between the
employer and the employed, except in
respect to the authority of the former over
the latter. Doctor Sinith, probably, would
not recommend that a boy, going to learn
a trade, should, from that time, be free;
and, if not, it is much better that his mas-
ter should stand to him, in some respects,
in the relation of a parent. This is what
is intended in the ordinary erticles of
apprenticeship; and the advantage to the
parties, mutually, arising from this rela-
tion, is so great, and its beneficial influ-
ence in the community is so apparent,
that there seems to be hardly any ground
for questioning the expediency of con-
tinuing it. As to the time for which an
apprentice ought to serve, without any
compensation, or only for his support, it
must depend on the particular trade. In
the U. States, the conditions, in this
respect, are very various. In some kinds
of mercantile business, for instance, the
apprentice or his parents defray the ex-
pense of his board and clothing; in other
instances, something is allowed the ap-
prentice on this account. In England,
again, a sum of money is paid to the mas-
ter, as a consideration for taking an ap-
prentice; even in a common mechanical
trade, the sum of 10 pounds, more or less.
is paid for this purpose. In the U. States,
nothing is paid on this account, but the
terms of apprenticeship, in the different
trades, and in agriculture, are very vari-
ous. It is a frequent practice for a farmer
to take a child, male or female, into his
family, upon an agreement, in the case of
a boy, that he shall remain until he is 21
years of age, or, in that of a girl, until she
is 18; and, at the time of becoming free,
the boy is to receive a certain number of
suits of clothes, a certain sum of money,
}
310
APPRENTICESHIP-APRIL.
or perhaps a certain number of domestic
animals, sheep, cows or oxen. The stip-
ulations for the female are for clothes,
some articles of furniture, &c. In the
mechanical trades, the apprentice is, in
many cases, entitled to a certain rate of
wages for the latter years of his service,
or, at the expiration of his apprenticeship,
he is to receive certain tools, or implements
of his trade. All these stipulations must
evidently depend upon the kind of trade
to be learned, the character of the boy
who is to learn, and the rate of wages
allowed in the community for that partic-
ular kind of industry; and the laws of
the U. States leave the parent or guardian
of the youths, and other persons in the
various professions, to make such stipula-
tions upon these subjects as they choose,
not restricting them as to the period or
the terms of the apprenticeship, and leav-
ing, in general, every person to practise
any trade or profession, without regard
to the time of his service as an appren-
tice. The only exceptions to this general
rule relates to professions which immedi-
ately concern the public safety, or the
lives of individuals, as those of the pilot,
physician, surgeon, apothecary. In some
of these professions and occupations, the
laws of the U. States, and some of the
individual states, put some restraints upon
The practice of them by persons not duly
qualified; or give some advantages or
facilities to those who produce testimo-
nials of their qualifications, or comply
with certain prescribed conditions; such,
for example, as taking a medical degree
at some college or medical society, in the
case of physicians.-In England, France
and Prussia, the former laws, which re-
strained every one from the practice of
any mechanical trade, who had not served
a certain period as an apprentice, or ob-
tained the license of some corporation,
are, for the most part, abolished. In Prus-
sia and France, the laws do not now rec-
ognise any corporations of these descrip-
tions, as invested with any powers of this
sort. The terms of apprenticeship are, as
in the U. States and England, left to be
regulated entirely by a contract between
the master and the parents or guardian
of the apprentice. (For information re-
specting the correctional and disciplinary
authority formerly exercised by these cor-
porations, in relation to apprentices, see
Corporation.)
APPROACHES. (See Trenches.)
APPROXIMATION; a term used in mathe-
matics to signify a continual approach to
a quantity required, when no process is
known for arriving at it exactly. Al-
though, by such an approximation, the
exact value of a quantity cannot be dis-
covered, yet, in practice, it may be found
sufficiently correct; thus the diagonal of
a square, whose sides are represented by
unity, is 2, the exact value of which
quantity cannot be obtained; but its ap-
proximate value may be substituted in
the nicest calculations. This process is
the basis of many calculations in pure
and applied mathematics, and is of fre-
quent use and great importance in all
practical operations.
19
APRICOT (prunus armeniaca) is a fruit
of the plum tribe, which grows wild in
several parts of Armenia, and was intro-
duced into England about the middle of
the 16th century. Some consider the
apricot the most delicate of all our hardy
fruits. For pastry, certainly none
more excellent. It is used for tarts, both
green and ripe; it is also preserved with
sugar in both these states, and is some-
tines dried as a sweet-mcat. Care should
be taken to gather
be taken to gather it before it becomes
soft and mealy. The kernels of apricots
have a pleasantly bitter flavor, and an-
swer much better, for several purposes
in confectionary, than bitter almonds,
which are commonly used. They like-
wise contain a sweet oil, which, like that
of almonds, was formerly used in emul-
sions. The gum that issues from the
apricot-tree is similar to that of the cher-
ry. The wood is coarsely-grained and
soft, and is consequently seldom used in
carpentry. Apricot-trees are chiefly rais-
ed against walls, and are propagated by
grafting upon plum-trec stocks.
APRIL; the name of a month; either
from aperire, to open, because, at this
time, the earth seems to be opening and
preparing to enrich us with its gifts; or,
according to Varro, from Aphrodite, be-
cause April is consecrated especially to
this goddess.-Something similar to April
fools' day, about the origin of which there
are different opinions, is said, by Mr.
Hammer, to exist in the East Indies, at
the time of the Huli feast. This strange
custom
of April fools' day prevails
throughout Europe, and in those parts
of America which are inhabited by the
descendants of Europeans. One of the
explanations of the custom is as follows:
In the middle ages, scenes from biblical
history were often represented by way of
diversion, without any feeling of impro-
priety. The scene in the life of Jesus,
where he is sent from Pilate to Herod,
and back again from Herod to Pilate,
APRIL-APULIA.
was represented in April, and may have
given occasion to the custom of sending
on fruitless errands, and other tricks prac-
tised at this season. The phrase of
"sending a man from Pilate to Herod" is
common in Germany, to signify sending
about unnecessarily. The reason of choos-
ing the first of April for the exhibition of
this scene was, that the feast of Easter
frequently falls in this month, and the
events connected with this period of the
life of Jesus would naturally afford sub-
jects for the spectacles of the season.
The tricks of the first of April may, how-
ever, be the remains of soine Roman
custom derived from the East, and spread
over Europe, like so many other customs,
by these conquerors. In France, the un-
lucky party who may be fooled is called
un poisson or poison (mischief) d'Avril.
In the north of Scotland, he is called a
gowk, which signifies, in the Scotch dia-
lect, a cuckoo. One of the best tricks of
this description is that of Rabelais, who,
being at Marseilles without money, and
desirous of going to Paris, filled some
phials with brick-dust or ashes, labelled
them as containing poison for the royal
family of France, and put them where he
knew they would be discovered. The
bait took, and he was conveyed as a trai-
tor to the capital, where the discovery
of the jest occasioned universal mirth.
A PRIORI; the opposite of a posteriori.
To judge or prove any thing a priori,
means to do it on grounds or reasons
preceding actual knowledge, or indepen-
dent of it. Mathematical proofs, e. g., are
a priori. On the contrary, judgments or
proofs a posteriori are founded on knowl-
edge before acquired, like the conclusions
of natural history, and all experimental
science.
APRON, in ship-building; a piece of
curved timber fixed behind the lower
part of the stem, immediately above the
foremost end of the keel.
APSIDES. The orbits of the planets and
comets are ellipses, in one of the foci of
which is the sun. In the same way the
satellites move round their planets. The
nearest point of the ellipse from that fo-
cus, or the lower apsis (Greek, aqs), is
called, in the orbits of the planets and
comets, perihelion; the farthest point, or
the higlier apsis, is called aphelion. In
the orbit of our moon, the correspond-
ing terms are perigee and apogee. The
straight line which joins the apsides, or
the transverse axis of the ellipse, is called
the line of the apsides. It moves slowly
forward in the direction of the planet's
311
course. Therefore, if the carth sets out
from the apogee, it must make more than
a whole revolution in its orbit before it
returns to the same point. The time
which it employs in so doing is called an
anomalistical year. It is, therefore, longer
than a tropical one. (See Year.)
APULEIUS, A. Lucius, born at Madaura,
in Africa, towards the end of the reign of
Adrian, descended from respectable an-
cestors, and flourished about the middle,
and in the latter half, of the 2d century.
He studied at Carthage, became acquaint-
ed with Greek literature at Athens, par-
ticularly with the Platonic philosophy,
and thence went to Rome, where, he him-
self says, he learned the Latin language
without a teacher, by great exertions, a
circumstance not to be overlooked, in
judging his style. To satisfy his thirst
for knowledge, he performed tedious
journeys, in which he was initiated into
various mysteries; again lived some time
at Rome; studied law; returned, finally,
to his own country; married a rich wid-
ow, and was much respected.-A. was
of an ardent and active spirit, with an
uncommon share of wit, though much
devoted to religious mysticism and magic.
His Golden Ass, a romance in 11 books,
contains wit, humor, powerful satire,
and much poetical merit. He drew the
materials from Lucian. The finest part
of this work is the episode of Psyche,
called, by Herder, the most tender and
diversified of all romances. It is suffi-
cient to render him immortal, even if he
be, as some have supposed, only the nar-
rator, and not the inventor, of the story.
A. was also the author of many works on
philosophy and rhetoric, some of which
are still extant. His style is not pure.
He is fond of numerous epithets and un-
usual constructions, and sometimes falls
into a flowery and bombastic manner.
The best edition of the Golden Ass, or
the Metamorphosis (" golden" was a sub-
sequent addition, to express the value of
the book), is by Oudendorp Ruhnken
and Boscha; Leyden, 1786-1823; 3 vols.
4to. Elmenhorst published the Meta-
morphosis, with a large part of the rest
of A.'s philosophical writings, Frankfort,
1621.
APULIA. lapygia, so called from Japyx,
son of Dædalus, comprehending the
south-eastern parts of Italy, from the river
Siris to mount Garganus, contains A.
within its limits. lu the most ancient
times, three distinct nations dwelt here-
the Messapians, or Sallentines, the Peu-
cetians, and the Dauni, or Apulians. (See
}
*
312
APULIA-AQUA TOFANA.
Niebuhr's Inquiry concerning the oldest
historical Accounts of this Country, in his
Roman History, part i, sect. 99, compared
with Wachsmuth's older History of Rome,
sect. 61.) The Peucetians were in the
southern part, as far as the Aufidus; the
Dauni in the northern, as far as mount
Garganus. The old Latin traditions speak
of Daunus, a king of the Apulians, who
was expelled from Illyria, and retired to
this part of Italy. According to the tra-
dition which conducts the wandering he-
roes of the Trojan war to Italy, Diomed
settled in A., was supported by Daunus
in a war with the Messapians, whom he
subdued, and was afterwards treacher-
ously killed by his ally, who desired to
monopolize the fruits of the victory. Ro-
man history informs us of no other Apu-
lian kings, but mentions Arpi, Luceria
and Canusium, as important cities. Au-
fidus, a river of A., has been celebrated
by Horace, who was born at Venusia, in
this territory. The second Punic war
was carried on for years in A. Cannæ,
famous for the defeat of the Romans, is
in this region. Puglia, the modern name,
is only a melancholy relic of the ancient
splendor which poets and historians have
celebrated. It now supports more sheep
than men.
APURÊ; a river of South America,
which rises in the Andes, near Pamplona,
in Colombia, and, after an easterly course
of about 500 miles, runs into the Orinoco,
of which it is one of the most important
tributaries. Lon. 66° 36′ W.; lat. 7° 36′ N.
APURIMAC; a river of Peru, which rises
from a lake N. of Arequipa, and after-
wards, joining the Ene, with several other
rivers, forms the Ucayale. Lon. 73° 40′
W.; lat. 10° 50′ S.
AQUA FORTIS; nitric acid in a diluted
state. (Sec Nitric Acid.)
AQUA MARINA. (Sec Beryl.)
AQUA REGIA; the name given by the
alchemists to what is now called nitro-
muriatic acid,-a mixture of nitric and
muriatic acid, yellow, and possessing the
power of readily dissolving gold, which
neither possessed separately. (Sce Nitric
Acid.)
AQUA TINTA; the art of engraving on
copper, after the manner of Indian ink,
by which happy imitations are made of
figures that have been drawn with the
pencil in Indian ink, bistre, sepia, &c.,
particularly those which are on a large
scale. There are several sorts of it. In
the first, after the outlines of the figure
have been etched, finely powdered mastic
(colophonium) is sifted over the plate,
which is then warmed over coals, that
the mastic may be melted. In this way,
insensible spaces are formed between the
particles of mastic, upon which the nitric
acid is afterwards to act. The work then
goes on as in the mezzo tinto, only that
the scraper is used in this, and the pencil
in that; and all the places where there is
to be no work or shade, are covered with
a thick black varnish, on which the acid
does not act. The nitric acid is now
poured on, and left to stand as long as is
necessary for the lightest shade-about
five minutes. The light shades are now
stopped out with varnish, and the acid
allowed to act a second time, and this
stopping out is continued till we come to
the deepest shades, which are bit in last.
This method is best for historical and
architectural subjects; but in landscapes,
in which the trees require more freedom
of the pencil, the second is used. In this,
a good etching ground is spread over the
plate, and covered, by means of a hair-
pencil, with oil of lavender or oil of tur-
pentine, to which lamp-black is some-
times added. The oil softens the ground,
which may be wiped off with a fine linen
cloth, leaving all the marks made with
the pencil apparent on the copper. Then,
as in the first process, fine mastic is sifted
over the plate, melted in and etched.
This operation may be repeated many
times, according as there are more or
fewer tints in the original. By a happy
union of both sorts, this style of engraving
is carried to a high degree of perfection,
and is particularly adapted to express the
coloring of the air, where large surfaces
are often represented of one tint. In
France and Switzerland, the roulette is
used a little wheel or roller of steel, with
a rough surface and several prominences,
which, when it is rolled back and forth
on the plate, deepen the excavations
made by the acid. They have roulettes
of all degrees of size and fineness, to
make deeper or more shallow impressions
on the plate. From time to time, the par-
ticles separated by this process are re-
moved with a scraper.-The aqua tinta
mode was first introduced a short time
since into England and Germany; and
the English, particularly since Gilpin
brought the art into notice, have adorned
their literary works in this manner. (See
Engraving.)
AQUA TOFANA; a poisonous liquid,
which excited extraordinary attention at
Naples, at the end of the 17th and begin-
ning of the 18th centuries, the history of
which, however, is obscure. Tofana, a
AQUA TOFANA-AQUEDUCT.
Sicilian woman, seems to have invented
it. According to Lobat, after she had
murdered many hundred men, she was
strangled, although, on the discovery of
her guilt, she fled to a convent. Keyss-
ler, on the contrary, affirms that she was
still alive in prison, 1730.-The drink
is described as transparent, tasteless wa-
ter, of which five or six drops are fatal,
producing death slowly, without pain, in-
flammation, convulsions or fever. Grad-
ual decay of strength, disgust of life, want
of appetite, and constant thirst, were the
effects, which soon changed to an entire
consumption. That the exact day of
death can be predicted, is a mere fable.
The strangest stories, with regard to its
composition, have gone abroad. A solu-
tion of crystallized arsenic seems to have
been the chief ingredient, to which some-
thing else was added, probably to conceal
the presence of it.
AQUEDUCT. (Sec Aqueduct.)
AQUAMBOE; one of the greatest king-
doms on the coast of Guinea, in Africa,
stretching 20 miles in breadth, and 10
times that space in length from E. to W.
The inhabitants are very warlike, and in-
fest their neighbors much.
AQUARIANS. 1. Christians in the prim-
itive church, who consecrated water in-
stead of wine for the celebration of the
Lord's supper; some for the sake of ab-
stinence, others because they thought it
unlawful to eat flesh or drink wine. 2.
Those Christians, also, were denominated
Aquarians, who used water instead of
wine, at the celebration of the eucha-
rist, for fear the smell of wine should
discover them to the heathens.
AQUARIUS is the name of the eleventh
sign of the zodiac, emblematical of the
rainy season. The constellation of the
same name contains 108 stars in the
Britannic catalogue, and 119 in that pub-
lished at Berlin.
Aquaviva, Claude, son of the duke of
Atri, was born in 1542. He became gen-
eral of the Jesuits in 1581, and died
about 1607. (See Jesuits.)-There is an-
other A., with the baptismal name of
Ollavio, cardinal and papal legate at
Avignon. He was renowned for moder-
ation, wisdom and patronage of the sei-
ences and arts. He was the particular
friend of the learned Peiresc, and lived
under Clement VIII.
AQUEDUCT (Latin, aquæductus); a con-
veyance of any kind made for conducting
water. The Greeks did very little to-
wards the construction of aqueducts and
roads. The Romans, on the contrary,
27
VOL. I.
313
who were more persevering, and had
abundant resources of men and money,
made prodigious structures of both kinds.
Some of the immense aqueducts of the
Romans are still in use; some, in the state
of ruins, are among the greatest orna-
ments of Italy. In other ancient coun-
tries, also, large aqueducts were built;
e. g., under Sesostris, in Egypt; under
Semiramis, in Babylonia; under Solomon
and Hezekiah, among the Israelites. The
consul Sextus Julius Frontinus, who had,
under the emperor Nerva, the direction
of the aqueducts, has written a treatise
on this subject,-De Aquæductibus Urbis
Roma,-and is of opinion, that they are
the most distinguishing proofs of the
grandeur of the empire. He mentions 9
aqueducts, which had 1594 pipes of an
inch and upwards in diameter.—Aque-
ducts were either formed by erecting one
or several rows of arcades across a valley,
and making these arcades support one or
more level canals; or by piercing through
mountains, which would have interrupted
the water-course. When the aqueduct
was conveyed under the ground, there
were openings at about every 240 feet.
Some of the Roman aqueducts brought
water from the distance of upwards of 60
miles, through rocks and mountains, and
over valleys in places more than 190 feet
high. The declivity of the aqueduct, ac-
cording to Pliny, was 1 inch, and accord-
ing to Vitruvius, a foot, in a hundred.—
The censer Appius Claudius Crassus
Crecus, the builder of the great road
which was called after him, caused the
first aqueduct to be built at Rome, the
Appia aqua. Frontinus, as we stated,
mentions 9, Procopius 14, and P. Vietor
24 aqueducts; some of which were one,
some two, some even three stories high,
and many miles long. In almost all
countrics where the Romans extended
their conquests, aqueducts were built;
thus we find the remains of them in
France, Spain and Asia. The principal
Roman aqueducts now remaining are the
aqua Virginia, repaired by pope Paul IV,
and the aqua Felice, constructed by Sex-
tus V. In modern times, that of Segovia
may be compared with the most admired
works of antiquity. At a recent period,
there remained 159 arcades, wholly con-
sisting of enormous stones joined without
mortar. Louis XIV began an aqueduct,
in 1684, near Maintenon, to carry water
from the river Eure to Versailles; but the
works were abandoned in 1688. This
would have been, perhaps, the largest
aqueduct in the world; the whole length
314
AQUEDUCT—AQUINAS.
being 60,000 fathoms, the bridge being
2070 fathoms in length, 220 feet high, and
consisting of 632 arches.-Aqueduct, in
anatomy, is a bony canal or passage, in
the os petrosum, supposed to contribute to
the purposes of hearing.
AQUILA; the chief city of Abruzzo Ul-
teriore II, on the chain of the Apennines,
with a population of 7500. It is the an-
cient Amiternum, and the birth-place of
Sallust. It is of military importance as
the point where several roads meet, and
contains a citadel which capitulated, 1815
and 1821, on the first appearance of the
Austrians. (See Abruzzo.) In 1703, it
suffered most severely by an earthquake.
Lon. 13° 25′ E.; lat. 42° 19′ N.
AQUILEIA, also AGLAR; in the time of
the Roman emperors, a flourishing com-
mercial city on the Adriatic sea, and the
Timavus, in Upper Italy. Marcus Aure-
lius made it, A. D. 168, the principal for-
tress of the empire. It was the key of
Italy against the barbarians, and, on
account of its wealth, was sometimes
called the second Rome. It was also the
seat of a patriarch, whose diocese, in
1750, was divided into the archbishoprics
Udine and Gorz, afterwards Laybach. In
452, it was destroyed by Attila. The in-
habitants fled to the islands on which
Venice was afterwards built. An incon-
siderable city afterwards arose here, which
now belongs to the Austrian kingdom
Illyria (circles Trieste and Friuli). The
inhabitants (1500) support themselves,
chiefly, by a trifling fishery, and foreign-
ers visit the place on account of the Ro-,
man antiquities to be found there.
AQUINAS, St. Thomas, a celebrated
scholastic divine, descended from the
counts of Aquino, in Calabria, in the
kingdom of Naples, was born in the year
1224. He acquired the rudiments of edu-
cation at the school of Monte Cassino,
and was thence removed to the university
of Naples. At the age of 17, he entered
a convent of Dominicans, much against
the wishes of his mother, who persever-
ing in her wishes to recover him, the
monks, anxious to secure so honorable
an addition to their fraternity, determined
to send him out of the kingdom to Paris,
He was, however, arrested by his two
brothers on his way, and, refusing to give
up his intention, was shut up in a castle
belonging to his father for two years. He
at last, however, found means to escape to
Naples, and, in the year 1244, was con-
ducted by John, master of the Teutonic
order, to Paris, whence he soon after
departed to Cologne. At Cologne, he
studied under Albert, an eminent teacher
of philosophy, who foresaw his future
celebrity. In 1246, he visited Paris, in
company with Albert, and, at the age of
24, became a preceptor, at the university
of that capital, in dialectics, philosophy
and theology, and acquired the highest
reputation. Princes and popes held him
in the greatest estimation, and he was
invited by St. Louis, then reigning in
France, to his court and table. On a
visit to Rome, Aquinas distinguished him-
self by a neat repartee: being in a closet
with Innocent IV, when an officer brought
in a large sum of money produced by
the sale of absolutions and indulgences,
"You see, young man," said the pope,
"the age of the church is past, in which
she said, 'Silver and gold have I none."
"True, holy father," replied the angelic
doctor; "but the age is also past, when
she could say to a paralytic, Rise up,
and walk.'” In 1263, he returned to Ita-
ly, when pope Clement IV offered him the
archbishopric of Naples, which he refused.
A general council being summoned at
Lyons, in 1274, for the purpose of uniting
the Greek and Latin churches, Aquinas
was called thither, to present the council
with a book, which he had written on the
subject, but died on the way, near Terraci-
na. After his death, the honors paid to
his memory were prodigious: besides the
title of angelic doctor, bestowed on him
after the fashion of the times, he was
called the angel of the schools, the cagle
of divines, and the fifth doctor of the
church; and, at the request of the Domini-
cans, he was canonized by John XXII,
his tomb supplying the necessary testi-
mony of miracles. His writings, which
were held in the highest estimation in
the next century, gave rise to a sect,
called, after him, Thomists. They are
exceedingly voluminous, amounting to
17 volumes folio. His principal work,
Summa Theologia, bears a high reputa-
tion in the Roman Catholic church, and
the second section on morals is universal-
ly esteemed. The latest edition of his
works at large is that of Antwerp, 1612;
but his Summa Theologiæ has passed
separately through various editions. The
resemblance, in thinking and writing,
between Augustin and Aquinas is so
marked, that it has been fancifully said,
that the soul of the one had passed into
the body of the other.-Another A.,
properly called Philip d' Aquino, a bap-
tized Jew, acquired much reputation by
his knowledge of Hebrew, which he
taught at Paris, in the reign of Louis XIII,
AQUINAS-ARABIA.
as well as by his Dictionarium Hebræo-
Chaldæo-Thalmudico-Rabbinicum.
AQUITANIA; the name of a Roman
province in Gaul, which comprehended
the countries on the coast from the Ga-
ronne to the Pyrenees, and from the sea
to Toulouse. Augustus extended it to
the Loire. Those who dwelt near this
western coast were called, by the Celts,
Armoricans, and were probably of Span-
ish origin, driven towards the west by
the incursions of the Celts. They were
actively engaged in commerce. In Aqui-
tania the Visigoths established a king-
dom, A. D. 412. Since that time, it has
been sometimes a kingdom, sometimes a
duchy; and, more lately, it has passed
under the name of Guienne. At present,
the ci-devant Guienne forms the two
departments of Gironde, and of Lot and
Garonne.
ARABELLA STUART; commonly called
the lady Arabella. This unhappy and in-
nocent victim of jealousy and state policy
was the only child of Charles Stuart, earl
of Lennox, younger brother to Henry
lord Darnley, the husband of Mary queen
of Scots. She was therefore cousin-ger-
man to James I, to whom, previously to
his having issue, she was next in the line
of succession to the crown of England,
being the grand-daughter of Henry VII,
by the second marriage of his eldest
daughter, Margaret. She received an ex-
cellent education. Her proximity to the
throne was the source of her misfor-
tunes. Elizabeth, for some time before
her decease, held the lady Arabella under
restraint, and refused the request of the
king of Scotland to give her in marriage
to the duke of Lennox, his kinsman, with
a view to remove her from England.
The pope had likewise formed the design
of raising her to the English throne, by
espousing her to the duke of Savoy;
which project is said to have been lis-
tened to by Henry IV of France, from a
wish to prevent the union of England
and Scotland. The detection of a plot of
some English nobles to set aside James
in favor of A., of which she was alto-
gether innocent, ultimately proved her
destruction; for, although lett at liberty
for the present, when it was some time
after discovered that she was secretly
married to the grandson of the earl of
Hertford, both husband and wife were
committed to the tower. After a year's
imprisonment, they contrived to escape,
but the unhappy lady was retaken. Re-
manded to the tower, the remainder of
her life was spent in close confinement,
315
which finally deprived her of her reason.
She died on the 27th September, 1615,
aged 38 years. She possessed talents of a
superior order, and a very pleasing person.
ARABESQUE, or ARABESK. (See Gro-
tesque.)
ARABIA; a peninsula containing about
1,000,000 square miles, and 12,000,000
inhabitants; the most westerly portion of
southern Asia, extending from 33° 30′ to
59° 30′ E. lon., and from 12° to 30° N. lat.
By the inhabitants, it is sometimes called
Arabia, sometimes Dschesira al Arab ; by
It lies
Turks and Persians, Arabistan.
between the Red sea and Persian gulf;
bounded on the north by the great des-
erts Irak and Dschesira, on the south by
the Arabian sea, and connected with Af-
rica on the north-west by the isthmus of
Suez. Instead of the old divisions of
Ptolemy,--A. Deserta, A. the Stony, or A.
Petræa (froin an ancient fortified place,
used for merchandise, called Petra), and
A. the Happy,-the more natural divis-
ion is that which distinguishes the coast,
covered with aloes, manna, myrrh, frank-
incense, indigo, nutmegs, and especially
coffee, from the interior, consisting of a
desert of moving sand with thorns and sa-
line herbs. The civil divisions are 5 prov-
inces:-1. The country of Yemen, contain-
ing about 68,700 sq. miles, and 3,000,000
inhabitants, is governed by the hereditary
caliph or imam of Yemen, who recognises
the supremacy of the Turkish caliphate,
and resides at Sana. In 1818, the vice-
roy of Egypt subjected Yemen, which
contains Mocha, on the straits of Babel-
mandel. The tribute which he obtains
from it is 2000 hundred weight of coffee.
Aden, the chief gum-market, lies in ruins.
2. The province Oman, under the imam
of Mascat, a seaport, containing 60,000
inhabitants, to which belongs, also, the
island Socotra (which furnishes the best
aloes), on the coast of Africa. 3. The
province Lachsa, or Hadsjar, whose har-
bors, in the Persian gulf, are infested
with pirates, has also rich pearl-fisheries.
4. The provinces Nedsched and Jemama,
the original and principal country of the
Wahabees (q. v.), or Wehhabites, with
their chief city, Derrejeh. This country,
or Central Arabia, has become very fa-
miliar by Mengin's Hist. d' Egypte sous
Mohammed Ali, and a map of Jomard,
1823. 5. The province Hedsjas, on the
upper shore of the Red sea. Here is the
Holy Land of the Mohammedans, contain-
ing Mecca, Medina, &c. Not far from
the valley of Moses are the remarkable
antiquities of Petra and Jerrasch. The
316
ARABIA.
brownish-yellow: their hardy education,
cleanliness and temperance_secure them
from sickness. They call themselves
Bedouins (Bedevi, sons of the desert,
the Arabes Sienite, among the ancients),
and are distinguished by their mode of
life from the Moors, who dwell in houses,
and carry on, exclusively, agriculture,
trade and commerce. Besides the origi-
sea-port, Jidda, population 5000, is indeed
the residence of a Turkish pacha, but
the sheriff of Mecca conducts the govern-
ment himself. In the Syrian deserts lie
the ruins of Palmyra. (q. v.) On the
western coast of Arabia there are high
chains of mountains, which unite on the
north with the mountains of Syria, and
are connected with the primitive moun-
tains of Asia: among them are Sinai and_nal inhabitants, Christians, Jews, Turks
Horeb. Of the rivers, which appear only
after great rains, and seldom reach the
sea, the Aftan, on the sea-coast is the
most considerable: the Euphrates lies on
the northern boundary.-The climate is
very various. Countries where it rains
half the year alternate with others, where
dew supplies the place of rain for the
whole season.
The greatest cold pre-
vails on high places, and the most op-
pressive heat in the plains. Daimp
winds succeed to the dry simoom, which
is as dangerous to life as the harmattan
and khamseen in Africa. The soil con-
sists of sandy deserts and the most fruit-
ful fields. Wheat, millet, rice, kitchen
vegetables, coffee (which grows on trees
in Arabia, its home, and on bushes in
America, the plants being kept low for
the sake of gathering the fruit more easi-
ly), manna, sugar-cane, cotton, tropical
fruits, senna-leaves, gums, aloes, myrrh,
tobacco, indigo, odorous woods, balsam,
&c., are the rich products of Arabia.
There are, also, precious stones, iron and
other metals (gold excepted, which the
ancients, however, seem to have found
pure in rivers and in the earth). The
animals are, mules, asses, camels, buffa-
loes, horned cattle, goats, noble horses,
lions, hyænas, antelopes, foxes, apes, jer
boas; birds of all sorts, pelicans, ostriches,
&c.; esculent locusts, scorpions, &c.-
The inhabitants are principally genuine
Arabs, who speak a peculiar language,
and profess the Mohammedan religion.
The Arabians are still, as in the most an-
cient times, Nomades, of patriarchal sim-
plicity. They are herdsmen and hus-
bandmen. A passionate love of liberty,
independence and justice keeps them in
a condition in many respects happy.
The old "Peace be with thee" is still
their common salutation. "Welcome!
what do you wish?" is the address to
a stranger, whose entertainment .costs
him only a "God reward you." They
practise robbery, though never at the ex-
pense of the laws of hospitality. This
warlike people have much activity and
skill in bodily exercises; a good physical
conformation; in warm plains, a skin of a
and Baniaus dwell in the country. For-
merly, Arabia was the great depót of the
Phoenician land trade: at present, the
trade by land and sea is wholly in foreign
hands. That by land is conducted by
caravans. In the high schools of the
Arabians, instruction is given in astrono-
my (rather astrology), pharmacology, and
philosophy, so called: attention is also
paid to history and poetry. The Bedou-
ins remain in the deepest ignorance.
Their government is very simple: the
chiefs are named the great emir, the emir,
and sheikh, and the judges are called cadi.
The Turkish sultan is, indeed, nominal
master of the country, but the free Ara-
bian scorns his imbecile rule, and only
obeys when he pleases.-The history of
the Arabians, before Mohammed, is ob-
scure, and, on account of its slight con-
nexion with the rest of the world, of lit-
tle interest. The original inhabitants of
the country are called by the present
Arabs Bajadites (the lost). The present
Arabs derive their origin from Joktan or
Kahtan in part, and in part from Ishmael.
The descendants of the former call them-
selves, emphatically, Arabs; those of the
latter, Mostarabs. The name Arab signi-
fies an inhabitant of the West (for they
are in that direction from the Asiatics):
in Europe and Africa, they were called
Surucens (inhabitants of the East). The
older Arabian historians understand by
Arabia only Yemen. Hedsjaz (the rocky)
they regard as belonging partly to Egypt,
partly to Syria; and the rest of the coun-
try they call the Syrian desert.
princes (tobbai) of this land were, an-
ciently, entirely of the race of Kahtan, to
which belonged the family of the Homey-
rites, who ruled over Yemen two thou-
sand years. The Arabians of Yemen
and a part of the desert of Arabia lived
in cities, and practised agriculture: they
had commerce, also, with the East Indies,
Persia, Syria and Abyssinia; and to the
latter of these countries they sent many
colonies, so that it was probably peopled
by them. The rest of the population
then, as now, led a wandering life in the
deserts.-The religion of the Arabians, in
The
ARABIA-ARABIAN LITERATURE AND LANGUAGE.
the time of their ignorance (as they call
the period before Mohammed), was, in
general, adoration of the stars; varying
much, however, in the different tribes,
each of whom selected a different con-
stellation as the highest object of worship.
-For a thousand years, the Arabians
manfully defended the freedom, faith and
manners of their fathers against all the
attacks of the Eastern conquerors, pro-
tected by deserts and seas, as well as by
their own arms. Neither the Babylonian
and Assyrian, nor the Egyptian and Per-
sian kings, could bring them under their
yoke. At last they were overcome by
Alexander the Great; but, immediately
after his death, they took advantage of the
disunion of his generals and successors
to recover their independence. At this
period, the northern princes of the coun-
try were bold enough to extend their do-
minion beyond the limits of Arabia. The
Arabian Nomades, especially in winter,
made deep inroads into the fertile Irak or
Chaldæa. They finally conquered a por-
tion of it, which is hence still called Irak
Araby. Thence the tribe of Hareth ad-
vanced into Syria, and settled in the
country of Gassan, whence they received
the appellation of Gassanides. Three
centuries after Alexander, the Romans
approached these limits. The divided
Arabians could not resist the Roman armis
every where successfully; their country,
however, was not completely reduced to
a province; the northern princes, at least,
maintained a virtual independence of the
emperors, and were regarded as their
governors. The old Homeyrites in Ye-
men, against whom an unsuccessful war
was carried on in the time of Augustus,
preserved their liberty. Their chief city,
Saba, was destroyed by a flood. With
the weakness of the Roman government,
the struggle for absolute independence
increased, which a union of all the Ara-
bian tribes would have easily gained;
but, weakened and scattered as they
were, they spent several centuries in this
contest, during which the mountainous
country of the interior (Nedschid) be-
came the theatre of those chivalrous
deeds so often sung by Arabian poets,
till a man of extraordinary energy united
them by communicating to them his own
ardor, and union was followed by aug-
mented force.-Christianity early found
many adherents here, and there were
even several bishops, who acknowledged
as their metropolis Bosro in Palestine, on
the borders of Arabia. Yet the original
worship of the stars could not be entirely
317
abolished. The former opposition of the
Arabians to the despotism of Rome drew
to them a multitude of heretics, who had
been persecuted in the orthodox empire
of the East, especially the Monophysites,
and the Nestorians, who were scattered
through all the East; and the religious
enthusiasm of those exiles rekindled the
flame of opposition. The Jews, also, after
the destruction of Jerusalem, became very
numerous in this country, and made prose-
lytes, particularly in Yemen. The last king
of the Homeyrites (Hamjarites) was of the
Jewish faith, and his persecutions of the
Christians, A. D. 502, involved him in a
war with the king of Ethiopia, which
cost him his life and his throne. To the
indifference excited by so great a variety
of sects is to be referred the quick suc-
cess of Mohammed in establishing a new
religion. He raised the Arabians to im-
portance in the history of the world, and
with him begins a new epoch in the his-
tory of this people. (See Moors, and Ca-
liph, Caliphate.)
ARABIAN GULF. (See Red Sea.)
ARABIAN LITERATURE AND LANGUAGE.
Of the first cultivation and literature of
this country, we have but few accounts.
That poetry early flourished in Arabia,
may be inferred from the character of the
inhabitants, who are known to be bold,
valiant, adventurous, proud, and exces-
sively fond of honor. The tribes who
wandered, under the government of their
sheiks, through the beautiful region of
Arabia the Happy, had every thing favor-
able to the growth of poetry,—a delightful
country, lively feelings and warm fancy.
If it were beyond doubt, that the poem
of Job was of Arabian origin, this would
show, not only that Arabia Petræa had
its poets, but also the character of their
productions. We find in it bold images,
noble metaphors, comparisons and de-
scriptions, mingled with enigmas. The
antiquity of philosophy among the Ara-
bians might also be shown from Job,-a
poem comprehending, at the same time,
physical and astronomical knowledge,
which is, however, very imperfect. Even
before the time of Mohammed, the genius
of the people was very conspicuous, par-
ticularly in poetry. In the fairs at Mecca
and at Okadh, A. D. 500, poetical con-
tests were held, and the poems to which
the prize was awarded, were written on
byssus, in letters of gold, whence they
were called Modabahath, (gilt), and hung
up in the caaba, at Mecca, therefore called
Moallakrith, (hung up). The collection of
the Moallakath contains 7 poems, by 7
27 *
318
ARABIAN LITERATURE AND LANGUAGE.
authors-Amralkeis, Tharasah, Zoheir,
Lebid, Anthara, Amru Ben Kalthuu, and
Hareth. They are distinguished by deep
feeling, high imagination, richness of im-
agery and sentiment, national pride and
liberal spirit, violent breathings of rc-
venge and love.-The brightest period of
the Arabian history commenced with Mo-
hammed, and was soon followed by the
golden age of their literature. Mohammed
announced himself to the people as a
prophet sent from God, and laid down
rules of faith and life, which were collect-
ed by Abubekr, first caliph after his death,
corrected and published by Othman, the
third caliph, and constitute the Koran.
(q. v.) By this, the Arabian language of
literature was fixed, the first literary di-
rection given to the people, and their
national character determined. The Ara-
bians seem to be favorably situated for
commerce, but less so for conquest, par-
ticularly as a large part of the population
consists of tribes wandering through the
desert, and living alternately by keeping
cattle and by plunder. But Mohammed
succeeded in subduing the whole country,
gave it a constitution at once religious
and military, and inflamed the native
valor of the people by an enthusiastic
zeal for religion. When he died, A. D.
632, without a male heir, his adherents
chose a caliph (successor) in his room,
ander whom the spirit of conquest first
took possession of the Arabians, and urged
them onward like a rapid stream. Only 80
years after the death of Mohammed, their
power extended from Egypt to the Indies,
from Lisbon to Samarcand. During this
period, the nation was only animated
with warlike enthusiasm, under the do-
minion of which the tender blossoms of
genius seldom thrive. Time, and inter-
course with cultivated nations, by degrees
overcame their rudeness. With the gov-
ernment of the caliph of the family of the
Abassides, A. D.750, began their progress
in the arts and seinees. In the splendid
court of Al Mansur, at Bagdad, these first
found support; but it was Haroun al
Raschid, (786-808) who infused into his
people an enduring love for them. He
invited learned men, from all countries,
to his kingdom, and paid them princely
salaries. He caused the works of the
most famous Grecian authors to be trans-
lated into Arabic, and spread abroad by
numerous copies. Al Mamum, who ruled
soon after him, offered the Grecian em-
peror 10,000 pounds of gold and a per-
petual peace, if he would send him the
philosopher Lco, for a time, to instruct
him. Under his government, excellent
schools were established at Bagdad, Bas-
sora, Bochara, Cufa, and large libraries
at Alexandria, Bagdad and Cairo. The
caliph Motasem, who died A. D. 841,
was of the same disposition, and a high
degree of literary rivalry existed between.
the dynasty of the Abassides in Bagdad,
and that of the Ommaiades in Spain.
What Bagdad was to Asia, the high
school at Cordova was to Europe, where,
particularly in the 10th century, the Ara-
bians were the chief pillars of literature.
At a time when learning found scarcely
any where else a place of rest and en-
couragement, the Arabians employed
themselves in collecting and diffusing it
in the three great divisions of the worid.
Soon after the beginning of the 10th cen-
tury, students travelled from France, and
other European countries, to the Arabian
schools in Spain, particularly with the
view of learning mathematics and medi-
cine. Besides the academy of Cordova,
the Arabians had established 14 others in
Spain, without mentioning the higher
and the elementary schools. They had
5 public libraries, and Casiri mentions 17
Arabians, in Spain, who undertook sci-
entific journeys. Such rapid advances
did this nation make (which, scarcely half
a century before, was limited to the Ko-
ran, poetry and eloquence) when they
had formed an acquaintance with the
Greeks. In geography, history, philoso-
phy, medicine, physics, mathematics, and
especially in arithmetic, geometry and
astronomiy, their efforts have been crown-
ed with great success, as is proved froni
the various terms of Arabian origin, still
in use; for example, almanac, algebra, al-
cohol, azimuth, zenith, nadir, and many
others. The invention of the common
ciphers, also, has been generally ascribed
to them; but professor Seyflarth, who has
been lately engaged in examining the
precious collection of papyri and other
Egyptian antiquities in the royal museum
of Turin, among other important discov-
cries, asserts, that the Arabie figures are
found among those of the Egyptians,
which renders it probable that the Arabi-
ans did not invent, but merely borrowed,
their ciphers. The Egyptians wrote, as
we do, 1, 2, 3, &c. Even their fractions
resemble ours, their fractional figures be-
ing written above and below a small hor-
izontal line. He has also discovered that
they employed the decimal system. Most
of the geography in the middle ages
the work of the Arabians. They ex-
tended, in Africa and Asia especially, the
ARABIAN LITERATURE AND LANGUAGE.
limits of the known world. In the north
of Africa, they penetrated as far as the
Niger; in the west, to the Senegal; in
the east, to cape. Corrientes. When they
first commenced their conquests, the gen-
erals were ordered, by the caliphs, to give
a geographical description of the con-
quered countries. The countries, nations
and wealth of Asia were, in a great de-
gree, known to them. They extended the
knowledge of Arabia, their own country,
of Syria and Persia, and gained some
acquaintance, at least, with Great Tar-
tary, the south of Russia, China and Hin-
dostan. Al Marun, Abu Ischak, Scherif
Edrisi, Nassir Eddin, Ebn Haukal, who
wrote between A. D. 15 and 21, Abulfeda,
and Ulugh Begh Abdoliatif, distinguished
themselves as geographers; and much
that the most renowned among them,
Abulfeda and Edrisi, have written, is still
useful and important in regard to histori-
cal geography. The Arabian historians,
since the 8th century, have been very
numerous, though they have not yet been
long enough known to European scholars
to enable them to derive much advantage
therefrom. The oldest and best known
historian is Hesham Ibn Muhamed Ibn
Schoaib Alkhekebi, A. D. 818. Praise is
due, also, to Abu Abdallah Mohammed
Ibn Achined, Ahulpharagius, George Al-
10akin, Abulfeda (who wrote a universal
history of the world till A. D. 1315), Ma-
crizi, Arabschah, and others. The later
historical works are in a calmer and more
simple style.-The philosophy of the
Arabians was of Greek origin, and de-
rived principally from that of Aristotle,
which was studied first by those in
Spain, and thence in all the west of Eu-
rope, having been translated from Arabic
into Latin. Hence the origin of the
scholastic philosophy may be traced to
the Arabians. To dialectics and meta-
physics they paid particular attention.
Of their philosophical authors, Alfarabi
must be mentioned, who wrote on the
principles of nature, 954; Avicenna, who
died A. D. 1036, and, besides other philo-
sophical writings, was the author of a
treatise on logic, physics and metaphys-
ics, and of a commentary on the works
of Aristotle. Ibn Bajah distinguished
himself as an original thinker. Algazel
wrote a work, attacking all philosophical
systems, to which lappalath Hahappalah
published an answer. The commentary
The commentary
on Aristotle, by Averroes, was particu-
larly esteemed, and his paraphrase of
Plato's Republic, which appears formerly
to have been little read, even among his
319.
countrymen, deserves much praise. Many
famous philosophers were, at the same
time, physicians; for the physical sci-
ences, including medicine, were not then
separated from philosophy. Next to ge-
ography, the Arabians, without doubt, have
contributed most to these sciences. At
Dschondisabur, Bagdad, Ispahan, Firuza-
bad, Bukharia, Cufa, Bassora, Alexandria
and Cordova, from the 8th to the 11th
century, medical schools were instituted,
and, with the devoted study bestowed on
this branch of science, the nation could
not fail of making important advances
in it, though, in reality, they were here
also dependent on the Greeks. Anatomy
made no progress among them, because
the Koran expressly prohibited dissec-
tions. Yet they had an extensive knowl-
edge of medicine, zealously studied bota-
ny, and might be regarded as the invent-
ors of chemistry; at least, they have made
many discoveries in it, and Dscheber is
regarded as the inventor of a panacea.
In the science of diseases (nosology) they
made much progress, and learned how to
treat judiciously various kinds of sickness.
To their famous writers on medicine be-
long Aharum (who first described the
small-pox), Jahiah Ibn Serapion, Jacob
Ibn Ishak Alkendi, John Mesve, Rhazes,
Almansor, Ali Ibn Abbas, Avicenna (who
published the Canon of Medicine, for a
long time the best work of the kind),
Ishak Ben Soleiman, Abulcasis, Aben
Zohar, Averroes (the author of a compen-
dium of physic). It cannot be denied,
that honor is due to the Arabians for
having maintained the scientific knowl-
edge of medicine during the middle ages,
and revived the study of it in Europe.
If physics made less progress among
them, the cause lies in the method of
study. This science was treated meta-
physically, in order to reconcile the prin-
ciples of Aristotle with the doctrine of
fatality taught in the Koran. Mathemat-
ics the Arabians enriched, simplified and
extended. In arithmetic, they introduced
the use of the ciphers which go under
their name, and of decimals, into Europe,
and, in trigonometry, sines instead of
chords. They simplified the trigonomet-
rical operations of the Greeks, and ex-
tended the general and useful applications
of algebra. Mohammed Ben Musa and
Thebit Ben Corrah particularly distin-
guished themselves in this department.
Alhazen wrote on optics. Nassireddin
translated the elements of Euclid.
Dscheber Ben Afla wrote a commentary
on the trigonometry of Ptolemy.
As-
F
320
ARABIAN LITERATURE AND LANGUAGE-ARABIAN NIGHTS.
tronomy they especially cultivated, for
which famous schools and observatories
were erected at Bagdad and Cordova.
As early as A. D. 812, Alhazen and Ser-
gius had translated into Arabic the Al-
magest of Ptolemy, the first regular trea-
tise on astronomy, of which, in 833, Al-
fargani, and, still later, Averroes, published
editions. Albaten, in the 10th century,
observed the motion of the aphelion.
Mohammed Ben Dscheber noticed the
obliquity of the ecliptic, and completed a
theory of the sun. Almansor formed
astronomical tables, in which appear some
observations on the obliquity of the eclip-
tic. Alpetragius wrote a theory of the
planets. Geography was brought into
connexion with mathematics and astron-
omy, and treated scientifically, particu-.
larly by Abulfeda. The division of the
earth into 7 climates, various geographi
cal measures and the like, belong to the
Arabians. Much as the severer sciences
were cultivated, the genius of the people
for poetry was not fettered. Abu Te-
mam, in 830, collected the greater Ilam-
asah, an anthology in 10 books, and
Bochteri, in 880, the lesser Hanasah,
as a supplement to the other. These con-
tain the 7 prize poems of the Moallakáth.
After this period, the oriental peculiarities
of Arabian poetry became more and
more strong, the tone grew mystical and
extravagant, and the language lost its
purity. Motenabbi deserves to be noticed
for his tender elegies in a classic style;
(see Proben der Arabischen Dichtkunst,
Specimens of Arabic Poetry,—by Reiske,
Leipsic, 1765; and Motenabbi, translated
[into German] completely, for the first time,
by Joseph Hammer, Vienna, 1823;) Abu
Ismael Tograi, vizier of Bagdad, for his
elegies and poems (see New German Mer-
cury, 1800, No. 1. sect. 8); Ithiel Hariri,
for his history of a knight errant, entitled
Makamat, in 50 chapters (see Rosenmul-
ler On an Arabic Romance of Hariri,
Leipsic, 1801, translated, 1826, by Rüc-
kert); Abu Dschaafar Ibn Tophail, for
his interesting philosophical roniance, the
Natural Man, translated by Eichhorn, Ber-
lin, 1783. Adinai's great heroic romance,
Antar's Life (see Antar), is still said to
still said to
produce amusement in the coffee-houses
of Aleppo. It is written in 35 parts.-
The dramatic excepted, there is no sort
of poetry which the Arabians have left
unattempted. The ballad, a production
of the bold and adventurous spirit of the
nation, was invented by them. There is
no doubt that they had, by this means, a
powerful effect on modern European po-
etry; for no small share of the romantic
poetry of the middle ages belonged to the
Arabians. The adventurous, chivalrous
spirit, the tales of fairies and sorcerers,
and perhaps, also, rhyme, passed from the
Arabians to our western poetry. Thus
this nation, in the period of the middle
ages, contributed, in various ways, to the
literature and the refinement of Europe,
and left behind many traces of its former
superiority. Hence the importance of
their language to learned inquirers must
appear evident to all. No one can do with-
out it, who would take an accurate view
of knowledge and human character. It
belongs to the Semitic dialects, so called,
among which it is distinguished for its
antiquity, richness and softness. By the
Koran it was fixed as a written language,
and, a short time after Mohammed, and
still more since the 10th century, among
the Arabian authors, who established the
principles of the language, its beauties
were explored, and its wealth collected
in dictionaries. By the entrance of the
Arabians into Sicily and Spain, their di-
alect became known in Europe. But,
notwithstanding it has left many traces
in the languages of those countries, the
knowledge of it has been mostly lost since
the expulsion of the Moors from Europe.
Postel again introduced the scientific
study of it into France, and Spey into
Germany. In the 17th century, it four-
ished in the Netherlands, and was after-
wards zealously pursued in Germany,
Holland and England. We have valua-
ble grammars by Erpen, Michaelis, Rich-
ardson, Jahn, Rosenmüller, de Sary;
good dictionaries by Erpen, Golius, Gig-
geji, Castell, Meniniski, Wilmet, Scheid;
collections of extracts by Reiske, Hirt,
Rosemnüller, Jahn, de Sacy, Savary and
others. Kirsten, Schultens, Jones, Eich-
horn, Tychsen, Schnurrer, Hasse, Kose-
garten, Hezel, Wahl, Paulus, Rosenmül-
ler, Vater, Augusti and others have done
the world important services, by their
great cultivation, investigation and illus-
tration of the language. Gruner and
Sprengel have shown how important the
knowledge of it is to physicians. In fine,
the remains of Arabian architecture, in
Spain and Africa, deserve the attention
of travellers. The French architect P.
Coste, in 1818, studied this style, particu-
larly in Cairo and Alexandria. Thence
arose his work, Architecture Arabe, ou
Monuments du Caire, dessinés et mesurés,
with 74 engravings, fol., Paris, 1823.
ARABIAN NIGHTS, or the THOUSAND
and one NigHTS; a celebrated collection
ARABIAN NIGHTS.
of Eastern tales. The East is the ancient
and native country of fabulous histories.
The ever-active fancy of the people, their
love of adventures, their belief in spirits,
and their fondness for lively stories, are
attested by numerous travellers. This
character appears in the amusements of
their coffee-houses and caravansaries. It
gave rise (perhaps first in India and Per-
sia) to those thousand fables, which, con-
trary to Mohammed's express cominand,
found in Arabia a second hoine, and
were spread, with alterations and improve-
ments, first separately, and afterwards in
large collections, through all Europe.
Many of them found their way thither
in the time of the crusades or sooner.
They were the inexhaustible fountains
which supplied the writers of the French
fabliaur, and the story-tellers and fabu-
lists of Germany. In the beginning of
the 18th century (1704), the collection
which had long existed in the East, under
the above title, was introduced to the lit-
erary men of Europe, and, in a short time,
to the public generally, by means of the
translation of Ant. Galland, a distin-
guished French Orientalist. Its appear-
ance was hailed with universal delight,
and it became one of the most popular
works in all Europe. The manuscript of
Galland, now in the royal library at Paris,
was incomplete. The interest inspired
by the work led to more careful investi-
gation; and, in the year 1788, appeared at
Paris the New Thousand and one Nights,
by Chaois and Cazotte, from a manu-
script deposited in the royal library by
the former, who was a native Arab. The
genuineness of the book was, at first, sus-
pected, on account of the freedom which
the editors used with the original; but
the suspicion was afterwards proved to
be without foundation. Much is due,
however, to Caussin de Perceval, the suc-
cessor of Galland in the chair of the Ara-
bie professorship, who made a new ver-
sion, in 1806, from the original text, and
to the improved copy of Galland added
the conclusion of the whole. But many
defects still remained, and many lost pas-
sages were yet to be found. The work,
however, was not rendered complete by
the improved translation of Jonathan
Scott, in 1811, nor by the last edition of
Galland's Mille et une Nuits, prepared by
Gautiers, aided by Langles, and published
in 1822. It was reserved for the German
literati to put a finishing stroke to this
rich collection, by the use of manuscripts
before unknown. In 1823-4, appeared
a German translation, superintended by
321
Zinserling, of a splendid collection of new
tales, which had been found at Rosetti, in
Egypt, and a French translation of which
had been unaccountably lost. The Ger-
inan translation was ushered into the
world by Mr. von Hammer. Still more
valuable was a Tunisian manuscript in
the possession of professor Habicht, of
Breslau, by the assistance of which ev-
ery defect was corrected, and, with the
advice of two other learned men, a Ger-
man translation was made, far excelling
every previous one-Tausend und eine
Nacht, vollständig übersetzt, von Max.
Habicht, v. der Hagen und K. Schall, (the
Thousand and one Nights, translated in
full, by Max. Habicht, v. der Hagen and
K. Schall), 15 vols. 12mo. Breslau, 1825;
also the original Arabic was published by
doctor Habicht, with a glossary, in 1 vol.,
Breslau, 1825. A Danish translation of
the Arabic text, printed in Calcutta, in
1814, has been published by Rasinus-
sen, professor of Oriental languages at
Copenhagen (1st vol., Copenhagen, 1824).
With these exertions to restore to its
original beauty and value one of the most
remarkable monuments of Eastern man-
ners, inquiries into the origin of the Ara-
bian Nights were also prosecuted with
success. It was easy to show that the
position maintained by Caussin, that the
work was a production of the 16th cen-
tury, was untenable, and every other
hypothesis which considers them as all
composed at the same time. Von Ham-
mer certainly took a more correct view
of the subject. It was his opinion, that
these fables sprung up in the soil of India,
were afterwards transplanted to Persia,
and finally made Arabian property by a
translation into that language, in the time
of the caliph Al Mansur, about 30 years
before the time of Haroun al Raschid, the
contemporary of Charlemagne. After a
time, new branches, native and exotic,
were grafted upon this original stock,
which soon sent forth new shoots, like
the parent tree. And no one can doubt
the reasonableness of this opinion, who
knows that stories of this sort allow of
the introduction of every circumstance
and every event in any way connected
with the subject of the tale; and, in fact,
it is plain, that many of these fables have
a later origin and another home. Ac-
cording to Jonathan Scott, no two manu-
scripts in different countries agree; the
copies found in every nation are corrupt-
ed by the traditions of the people. The
story which forms the point of uniou
among the Thousand and one Nights is
322
ARABIAN NIGHTS-ARACATSCHA.
•
as follows:-The sultan Schahriar, exas-
perated by the faithlessness of his bride,
made a law, that every one of his future
wives should be put to death the morning
after marriage. At length one of them,
named Sheherazade, the generous daugh-
ter of the grand vizier, succeeded in abol-
ishing the cruel custom. By the charm
of her stories, the fair narrator induced
the sultan to defer her execution every
day till the dawn of another, by breaking
off in the middle of an interesting tale
which she had begun to relate. Thus
passed a thousand and one nights,-two
years and nine months,-and, in the course
of this period, Sheherazade became the
mother of three children. These she led
before the throne of her husband. The
stern monarch was melted by her tears;
he clasped his wife and children to his
bosom, gave Sheherazade her life, and
required of her no return, but the frequent
relation of some of those tales, which had
often kept him fascinated with delight at
her side. Only a part of this story was
known to the first French translator of
the work; the conclusion was unknown
till von Hammer discovered the circum-
stances just related, and laid them before
the world. The delight felt by Schahriar
has been felt by thousands more of his
own faith, and still continues in the great-
est part of Asia, in Egypt, and along the
southern shores of the Mediterranean. It
has been spread by the translations
through the countries of Christian Eu-
rope, and will continue as long as men
delight in the phenomena of a mysterious
world, summoned up by the magic of an
innocent and playful imagination. Most
of the Arabian tales aim merely to delight
the fancy, yet many of them contain
much knowledge of mankind, and some-
times acute delineations of the hidden
passions and vices of man's heart, and
much practical wisdom. They are doub-
ly interesting to the European reader,
because they place before us, in a far more
striking light than travellers can do it, all
the peculiarities of the Eastern nations.
The fearless courage of the Arab knight,
his propensity to bold adventures, his
dexterity and skill, his love and his re-
venge, the cunning of the women, the
hypocrisy of the priests, the venality of
the judges,-all stand before us in full re-
lief. Golden palaces, beautiful women,
splendid gardens and rich banquets cap-
tivate our senses, and fetter us to a soil
in which we delight to view the shadowy
forms of a foreign world of fancy. Be-
sides this, the poetical language of many
passages, and the great naïveté of the
whole, cannot but interest the reader. If
we were to give an idea of the Arabian
Nights by pointing out its very antipode
in literature, we would mention Dante's
Divina Commedia. Both are creations of
the boldest fancy; but the latter is grave,
sometimes harsh, reflective, and speaks
design throughout; the former, playful,
naif, sometimes childish, exhibiting the
natural flow of a lively imagination.
There are, however, some truly and deep-
ly tragical tales among them; we only
mention that of Ali Ebn Becar and
Schemselnihar.-The pleasure inspired
by the Arabian Nights soon gave rise to
numerous imitatious and changes. We
ought to mention, among the first, the
Thousand and one Days; an imitation,
in Persian, of the Thousand and one
Nights. It
Nights. It is less artless than the pat-
tern, and executed with more apparent
design. It attempts to remove the preju-
dices of a king's daughter against men,
by recounting numerous examples of
honor and faithfulness in that sex. Of
the ancient French and German para-
phrases, we have already spoken inci-
dentally. Among modern paraphrases,
we will mention only Oehlenschläger's
Aladdin, which is founded on one of the
Arabian tales.
ARABIAN SEA; a part of the Eastern
ocean, on the southern coast of Arabia.
ARABICI; a sect of Christian teachers
who arose in Arabia, in the first half of
the 3d century. Their distinguishing
doctrine was, that the human soul dies,
decays, and rises again, at the same time
with the body. Origen refuted and con-
verted them, A. D. 246. Their error
took its rise from the opinion, at that time
prevalent, of the materiality of the soul.
ARAC, or ARRAC. (See Arack.)
ARACATSCHA; a plant; a native of the
chain of the Andes, and first discovered
in Santa Fé de Bogota (New Grenada, in
Spanish South America).
It is more
nourishing and prolific than the potatoe
(solanum tuberosum), which grows wild in
this country, in the woods of Santa Fé
de Bogota, in Peru and Chile. In taste
and solidity, the aracatscha resembles the
Spanish walnut. The soil requires no
greater degree of warmth or moisture
than is afforded by Europe. In Germany,
it was first cultivated successfully in
Bamberg or Würzburg. In the 19th page
of the Quarterly Journal of Science, Lit-
erature and the Arts (Oct. 1820), Mr.
Lambert gives an account of the aracat-
scha (heracleum tuberosum Molinæ), and
ARACATSCHA-ARAGO.
its cultivation in England. James Grey
Jackson, in the 20th page of the same
journal, asserts that this plant grows also
in the country of Sus, on the south side
of the Atlas, and is called, by the Arabi-
ans, aracatscha, or atschu, i. e. dry root.
How did it find its way to America, and
maintain its original name there? Had
the old Arabians more knowledge of nav-
igation than is commonly supposed? Or
shall we believe that a former continent,
by name Atlantis, has sunk below the
ocean, which, before its destruction, form-
ed a connexion between Africa and South
America?
ARACHNE, daughter of Idmon, a dyer
of purple, at Colophon, in Ionia, had
learned from Pallas the art of weaving,
and ventured to challenge her teacher to
a trial of skill. In vain did the goddess,
in the form of an old woman, forewarn
her of the consequences of her folly.
The contest began, and A. prepared, with
much skill, a web which represented the
amours of Jupiter. This irritated Pallas,
who tore the web in pieces, and struck
A. on the head with the shuttle. A. hung
herself in despair. The goddess restored
her to life, but changed her into a spider.
ARACHNOLOGY, or ARANEOLOGY; the
art of deciding on the changes of the
weather from the motions and works of
spiders. Intimations of it appear even in
Pliny (H. N., book xi., sect. 28). It is also
treated of in the Ewigwahrenden Practica
(Things of everlasting Value), which ap-
peared at Gorlitz in 1588. In later times,
Quatrem re Disjonval, once member of
the academy of sciences at Paris, during
an 8 months' imprisonment, in which
some spiders were his only companions,
made various observations on the subject,
and, in 1797, at Paris, made known his
discovery of the close connexion existing
between the appearance or disappearance,
the labor or rest, the greater or less circum-
ference of the webs and fibres, of spiders
of different sorts, and the atmospherical
changes from fair weather to rain, from dry
to wet, and particularly from hot to cold,
and from frost to a milder temperature.
ARACK, OF RACK; a strong spirituous
liquor, distilled from rice, sugar-cane, or
the juice of the cocoa-nut. The last,
which is the best, comes from Batavia;
the others, from Goa. At Goa, there are
3 kunds-single, double, and treble-distil-
led. The double is most sought, although
weaker than the Batavian.
ÁRAFAT, oF GIBEL EL ORPHAT (the
menntain of knowledge or of gratitude),
mabia, ncar Mecca. The Mohammed-
323
ans say that it was the place where
Adam first received his wife, Eve, after
they had been expelled from Paradise,
and separated from each other 120 years.
On the summit is a chapel ascribed to
Adam, rifled, in 1807, by the Wahabees.
The mountain not being large enough to
contain all the devotees that come annu-
ally on pilgrimage to Mecca, stones are
set up round it, to show how far the sacred
limits extend. The latest description of a
celebration is by the indefatigable traveller
Burckhardt (q. v.), who visited the place
in July, 1814. He estimates the num-
ber present at 70,000. The camp cov-
ered a space of between 3 and 4 miles
long, and from 1 to 2 broad, containing
300 tents and 25,000 camels. In this
Babel, he reckoned about 40 languages,
and had no doubt there were many more.
The sermon delivered on the mount con-
stitutes the main ceremony of the Hadj,
and entitles the hearer to the name and
privileges of a Hadjy. The hill is about
200 feet high, with stone steps reaching
to the summit. After concluding the
ceremonies at A., the pilgrims set out for
Mecca, passing through the valley of
Muna, on their return, in which they
spend some time in stoning the devil.
This ceremony consists in throwing
stones against small pillars set up at each
end of the valley. Each completes 63
jaculations. 6 or 8000 sheep and goats
are then sacrificed. The third day brings
them back to Mecca, where some further
ceremonies finish the festival.
ARAGO, Dominique-François, born at
Estagel, in Perpignan, Feb. 25, 1786, as
early as 1804, was, an instructer in the
polytechnic school. In 1805, he became
secretary of the bureau des longitudes.
With Biot, and the Spanish commissaries
Chaix and Rodriguez, after Delambre and
Méchain had measured the arc of the
meridian between Dunkirk and Barcelo-
na, he continued the measurement to the
island Formentera. When the French
army entered Spain, A. was imprisoned
by the Spanish officers, and remained
several months in Rosas. Attempting to
return to France by sea, he was taken
and carried to Algiers by a corsair. In
1809, the then French consul procured
his freedom. He had, fortunately, pre-
served his apparatus, and all his observa-
tions and calculations. The latter formed
a continuation of the Basc du Système
métrique, published before, by the insti-
tute, under the following title: Recueil
d'Observations géodésiques, astr. et phy‹.,
exécutées par Ordre du Bureau des Longi-
324
ARAGO-ARANJUEZ.
tudes, en Espagne, pour déterminer la Va-
riation de la Pesanteur et des Degrés ter-
restres sur le Prolongement du Méridien de
Paris; réd. p. Biot et Arago; 4to. A.
took the place of Lalande in the national
institute, and, in 1816, became a member
of the 3d class of the academy of sci-
ences. At present, he is principally de-
voted to physics, particularly to investiga-
tions relating to the theory of light and
galvanism.
ARAGON, Tullia d', a poetess of the
16th century, descended from an illegiti-
mate branch of the royal family of Spain.
Her father, Pietro Tagliava, cardinal d'Ar-
agon, whose natural daughter she was,
placed her first at Ferrara, and afterwards
at Rome, where her fine talents received
the highest degree of cultivation. Her
works which remain arc, "Rine," in one
8vo vol. printed in 1547; Dialogo dell' in-
finito d'Amore, which appeared in the same
year; and Il Meschino o il Gucrino, 4to.,
in 1560. Her beauty and accomplish-
ments were the theme of several poets.
She died, near Florence, at the end of the
16th century.
ARAGON, kingdom of. (See Arragon.)
ARAL; next to the Caspian sea, the larg-
est inland collection of water in Asia. It
was unknown to the ancients. It lics
amid the plains of the Turcomans and
Kirghises. Its length is estimated at 250
miles, and its greatest breadth at 120. Its
water is salt, like all standing collections
without an outlet. It receives the Oxus
and the Jaxartes, and contains a multitude
of sturgeons and seals. It is encircled by
desert, sandy heaths, and its sandy shores
are without harbors. Evaporation, as
there is no outlet, seems to draw off its
water. It lies very low, and is surrounded
by many small lakes and morasses, but no
hills. It was once, probably, united with
the Caspian sea, the eastern coast of
which is separated from the western
coast of the A. only by 80 miles of low,
sandy and marshy lands. Both ends of
these scas, where they approach each
other, are very shallow. The A. is full
of islands, which, like its banks, are with-
out inhabitants.
Aram, Eugene, a man of considerable
learning, and remarkable for his unhappy
fate, was born in Yorkshire, 1704. His
education consisted in learning to read;
but, being of a studious disposition, he
made great progress in mathematical
studies and polite literature, by his own
unaided exertions. He acquired the Latin
and Greek languages, reading all of the
Roman and most of the Greek classics,
and also became acquainted with the Ori-
ental and Celtic tongues. The most ex-
traordinary event of his life was the mur-
der of Daniel Clark, a shoemaker, with
whom he had been before concerned in
some fraudulent practices. The murder
was concealed 14 years, and was then
accidentally discovered. His wife, from
whom he was separated, was the princi-
pal witness against him; and, after an able
defence, which he read to the court, he
was found guilty. After his conviction,
he confessed the justice of his sentence,
and alleged his suspicion of an unlawful
intercourse between Clark and his wife,
as his motive for the commission of the
murder. He attempted to end his life,
while in prison, by bleeding, but was re-
vived and executed.
ARANDA (don Pedro Pablo, Abarca de
Bolea) count of; born 1719, of a distin-
guished family in Arragon. He devoted
himself to military pursuits; but, as he
discovered a remarkably penetrating spir-
it, Charles III appointed him his minister
at the court of Augustus III king of
Poland, an office which he held 7 years.
After his return, he became governor-
general of Valencia. In 1765, the king
recalled him, in consequence of au insur-
rection that broke out in Madrid, and ap-
pointed him president of the council of
Castile. A. not only restored order, but
also effected the expulsion of the Jesuits
from the kingdom. The influence of
Rome and the priests, however, succeed-
ed in inducing the king to send him on an
embassy to France. In Paris A. lived 9
years; then returned to Madrid, as coun-
sellor of state, and lived in a sort of dis-
grace, till the queen, not contented with
the count Florida Blanca, in 1792, gave
his place to A. Some months after, he
was succeeded, greatly to the displeasure
of the court and nation, by don Manuel
Godoy. (q. v.) A. continued president of
the council of state till he declared his
opinion respecting the war against France,
when he was banished to Arragon. He
died here, A. D. 1794, leaving a young
widow, and no children. Madrid was
obliged to him, in a great degree, for its
security, good order, and the abolition of
many abuses.
ARANJUEZ; a village and palace, with
splendid gardens, beautiful walks shaded
with elms, and a park for hunting, in the
Spanish province of Toledo, in a charm-
ing shady vale of the Tagus, which re-
ceives here the waters of the Xarama; 30
miles from Madrid, to which a Roman
road, built by Ferdinand VI., leads; every
ARANJUEZ—ARATUS.
mile of which cost 3,000,000 reals, about
147,000 dollars. A. lies in lon. 3° 36′ W.,
lat. 41° 5 N. The court usually resides
here from Easter till the close of June,
when the number of people increases
from 2600 to about 8000. Charles V
marked out this vale as the seat of a royal
residence. Philip II founded the palace
and garden. His successors, particularly
Ferdinand VI, Charles III, and Charles
IV, improved and greatly enlarged it.
The village is built in the Dutch style,
and has broad and straight streets, which
cut each other at right angles. The pal-
ace has marble stairs, superb mirrors from
the manufactory of St. Ildefonso, rich
works of art; and both the church and
the monastery are adorned with many
fine paintings by Spanish and Italian
masters. The casa del labrador was
designed by Charles IV with great rich-
ness and splendor. The palace of A. has
been often celebrated by Spanish poets,
and is renowned for its gardens, shaded
walks and water-works. The gardens
are in the form of a star. The chief
walk, overshadowed by elms, is 600 or
700 paces long, 12 feet wide, and is bor-
dered by a quick-set hedge. Every 70
or 80 paces, there are resting-places, in
the form of a hexagon, cooled with foun-
tains. 12 passages, shaded by elm-trees,
unite in forming a large, round area. The
royal stud, the herds of mules and buffa-
loes, the grounds under tillage, the or-
chards and gardens here, were formerly
in a good condition. There is a fountain
in the neighborhood, from which a sort of
Glauber's salts is obtained. A. has become
celebrated, of late years, by the revolution
of March 18, 1808. (See Spain.)
ARARAT; a mountain in Armenia, in
the pachalic of Erzerum. It stands on
an extensive plain, and is connected by
low hills with mount Taurus. Its sum-
mit, covered with perpetual snow, in the
form of a sugar-loaf cut into 2 peaks,
presents a formidable appearance with its
craggy cliffs and deep precipices. Its
highest peak, Mazis, is in the Persian
province of Iran, rising to the height of
about 9500 feet. It is the greatest eleva-
tion in the whole region, whence sacred
history affirms that Noah's ark settled
upon it.
ARARAT, OF PILOT MOUNTAIN; a moun-
tain of North Carolina, on the N. side of
the Yadkin, about 16 miles N. of Salem.
It is about a mile in height, and rises in
the form of a pyramid, with an area of an
acre at top, on which is a stupendous rock
300 feet high. From the summit of this
28
VOL. I.
325
rock there is an extensive, variegated and
delightful prospect. It is seen at the dis-
tance of 70 miles, and served as a beacon
or pilot to the Indians in their routes.
ARATUS; a Greek poet, born at Soli
(Pompeiopolis), in Cilicia. He flourished
about 270 B. C., was a favorite of Ptolemy
Philadelphus, and a firm friend to Antig-
onus Gonatas, son of Demetrius Poliorce-
tes. We know him only from his poem
Phænomena, in which he has given us,
in correct and elegant verse, all that was
then known of the heavens, with their
signs and appearances, although there is
reason to believe that he was not himself
an astronomer. The esteein which the
ancients had for this work, appears from
the fact that it was translated by Cicero,
Cæsar Germanicus and Avienus. Eratos-
thenes, with many other great astrono-
mers, wrote commentaries on it. The
best editions are by Fell, Oxford, 1672;
by Buhle, Leipsic, 1793-1801, 2 vols.;
and by Matthiae, Frankfort, 1817-18. It
has been translated into German by J. H.
Voss, Heidelb., 1824, and published with
the Greek text and illustrations.
ARATUS of Sicyon, son of Clinias, was
bom 273 B. C His father fell in a tumult
excited by Abantidas, and A. fled, without
knowing it, into the house of the tyrant's
sister, who, struck with the circumstance,
saved the life of the boy, then 7 years old.
Afterwards he was sent to Argos, and the
exiles from Sicyon expected in him their
future restorer. When he had scarcely
reached his 20th year, he delivered Sicyon
from the tyrant Nicocles. He would not
stain the liberty of his native city with
the blood of any citizen, but met with
much difficulty in the administration of
affairs, as, besides a large party in the city,
the king of Macedon also espoused the
cause of the deposed Nicocles. Under
these circumstances, he deemed it best to
join Sicyon to the Achæan league,—the
only remaining support of freedom in
Greece. By his influence with Ptolemy,
king of Egypt, he obtained a sum of
money sufficient to settle the various
claims of the returned citizens, and, being
vested with the supreme constitutional
power in Sicyon, he governed with jus-
tice and moderation. In due time, being
made general of the Achæan league, he
recovered the almost inaccessible fortress
of Corinth from the king of Macedon, by
a plan which is one of the most admired
instances of ancient military stratagem.
In the end, however, owing to a hostile
league against the Achæans between the
Etolians and Spartans, A., in opposition
326
ARATUS-ARBITER.
to his own principles, was obliged to call
in the assistance of Antigonus, king of
Macedon. This turned the tide of affairs
for a while, but, on the death of Antigo-
nus, similar difficulties occurring, his suc-
cessor, Philip, was in the same manner
called to the aid of the Achæans. At
first, Philip highly esteemed A., but was
gradually estranged from him, and it was
thought that he had caused a slow poi-
son to be administered to him, for A.,
spitting blood in the presence of a friend,
exclaimed, "Behold the friendship of
kings!" He died in his 57th year, 216 B. C.,
and was interred with the highest honors.
A. was one of the most virtuous and noble-
minded men that shed lustre on the de-
clining days of Greece. Polybius speaks
in high terms of Commentaries, written
by A. on his own actions and the affairs
of the Achæans, which, it is much to be
regretted, have not reached posterity.
The chief materials for his history are to
be found in Polybius and Plutarch.
ARAUCANIANS. This is a South Ameri-
can nation, of 400,000 inhabitants, in the
southern part of Chile. They occupy a
territory containing 64,000 square miles,
and stretching from 33° 44′ to 39° 50′ of
S. lat. They have maintained their inde-
pendence against the Spaniards to the
present time. Bounded on the N. by the
river Bio-Bio, on the S. by the river Gal-
lacallay, on the E. by the Andes, and W.
by the Pacific ocean, they live under a
free, though aristocratical form of govern-
ment, agreeably to common laws and cus-
toms. They dwell in villages, and em-
ploy themselves in agriculture and raising
cattle. The woollen dress of the incn is a
shirt and a dark-blue mantle; the women
wear a mantle and a long petticoat. The
freemen live in huts. Vegetables form
their principal food. Polygamy prevails
among them, yet the domestic affairs are
managed by the women. Their language
is allied to the Patagonian. One of the 4
toquis (high hereditary nobility) conducts
the public affairs. If he does not, how-
ever, enjoy universal respect, the ulnenes,
or hereditary nobility of an inferior class,
displace him, and substitute one of their
own number. Distinguished knowledge
and boldness must be shown by the no-
bility, to excite respect. The general ap-
points his own lieutenant, who, in his
turn, appoints another for himself. Thus
every inferior rank is dependent upon the
one above it, yet not on the supreme power.
In establishing laws and determining in
military operations, every A. has a voice.
The executive power, however, is not
bound by expression of the popular opin-
ion. Till 1551, the A. fought only on
foot, and then, for the first time, they
learned the value of cavalry. Now they
have many horses, and, on their marches,
each rider carries a foot-soldier behind
him, so as to advance with more speed.
In battles, the cavalry are posted on both
wings. The lieutenant-general, vice-to-
qui, commands one of the wings. In the
middle stand the infantry, armed with
clubs or spears. They are, likewise, well
skilled in the use of fire-arms. In their
battles, a portion of the warriors usually
remain behind as a corps-de-reserve.
The A. advance to an attack with a hide-
cus noise. In the revolutionary struggle
of the South American states, the toqui
of the A. resolved upon neutrality, which
he honorably maintained.-Araucana; an
epic poem of Ercilla. (See Ercilla.)
ARBELA, now Erbil; a small place in
Eastern Assyria, renowned for a decisive
battle fought by Alexander the Great
against Darius, at Gaugamela, in its neigh-
borhood, B. C. 331.
ARBITER; a name applied among the
Romans, 1. to a judge, whom the prætor
had commissioned to decide a controver-
sy pending before him, according to the
principles of equity (ex quo et bono); 2. to
a person to whom the contending partics
had committed the decision of their dis-
pute, without the interference of a magis-
trate, by an agreement partly with one
another (compromissum), partly with him
(receptum); finally, 3. one whom the
contending parties had only consulted,
with the design of his drawing up terms
of settlement, without binding themselves
to assent to them. To an arbiter, in the
first signification, decisions were commit-
ted by the prætor only in affairs of trust
and confidence (in negotiis bonæ fidei), not
in cases of strict right (in negotiis stricti
juris). In the latter cases, the prætor ap-
pointed a judge (judex pedaneus) who was
to decide according to a strict rule (formu-
la) which was given to him. In this three-
fold signification, the arbiters (Stairnrai)
among the Athenians are comprehend-
ed. From the arbiter comes the arbitra-
tor, i. c. one to whom the deciding judge
proposes questions depending on scien-
tific or technical knowledge, which affect
the decision of the dispute. From the
opinions of such a man, the parties may
appeal to the opinion of a third (to a re-
ductio ad arbitrium boni viri). But as soon
as they have committed the decision to a
third by an agreement (compromissum),
and the commission (receptum) has been
ARBITER-ARBUTHNOT.
received by him, they must submit to his
decision. His sentence (arbitrium, or lau-
dum) can only be assailed when something
fraudulent, c. g., bribery, can be proved
against him. In the opinion of many
learned jurists, however, it may be called
in question in case of a great though un-
intentional violation of justice (propter læ-
sionem enormissimam). Justinian estab-
lished a distinction between the decision
to which the parties subscribe, or which
they approve by a silence of 10 days, and
that against which they have protested
within 10 days. The former is called
arbitrium homologatum; the latter, non-
homologatum. The latter, according to
him, ought to have no legal force.
ARBITRATION. Parties may submit a
dispute to arbitration either orally or in
writing, and, in either case, the award,
when properly made, will be binding on
the parties. The submission is in the
nature of a commission by both parties to
the arbitrators to determine the subject in
dispute. If either revokes this authority
before the award is made, the award will
not be binding upon the party so revok-
ing. But if the submission were by bond
or covenant, or in writing, and, in some
cases, if it were merely oral, the other
party will be entitled to damages against
the party so revoking, for the breach of
his agreement to submit the matter in dis-
pute to arbitration. General agreements
to subunit disputes that may arise, such as
those contained in policies of insurance,
are not binding by the laws of the U.
States nor by those of England. Similar
agreements are, however, binding in Ger-
many, and some other parts of the conti-
nent, where articles of copartnership fre-
quently contain a clause to submit dis-
putes between the partners to arbitration;
and wills often contain a provision that
disputes among the legatees and devisees
shall be so settled. In submitting disputes
under these stipulations, the parties some-
times take an oath to comply with the
award, or they agree upon a penalty for
not complying. Each is binding. One
reason for not giving effect to such gen-
cral agreements, in England and the U.
States, is, that it substitutes other tribu-
nals in the place of those established by
the laws of the country, which may be
done in case of a dispute that has actu-
ally arisen, but not by a general and pro-
spective agreement. The laws of most
countries, however, favor the settlement
of disputes by arbitration. The parties
may agree in court to refer their case to
arbitration, and the judges will recognise
327
the agreement. For the purpose of en-
couraging arbitrations, the laws of many
if not all of the U. States provide the
forms and proceedings in relation to them.
The object of these statutes is to provide
a way of making a binding submission,
procuring a valid award, and securing its
ready execution. Crimes cannot be made
the subjects of adjustment and composi-
tion by arbitration, for the public is here
one party; but the personal injuries and
pecuniary damage resulting from crimes
or breaches of the peace may be made
subjects of reference. As to the persons
who may agree upon a submission, any
one may do so who is capable of making
a disposition of his property, or a release
of his right; but one under a natural or
civil incapacity cannot, as a married
woman or minor. The arbitrators chosen
by the parties are often authorized to
choose an umpire, in case they disagree;
but in some of the general stipulations for
reference in Germany, the umpire is agreed
on beforehand by the parties. As an ar-
bitrator is a judge who receives a com-
mission from the contending parties, it
must be left to them to decide on his
qualifications, and the laws do not gen-
erally make any specific provisions on
this subject. If, however, it appears that
the arbitrator was interested, and his in-
terest was unknown to one of the parties,
or that he was bribed, or that any other
strong objection lay against his acting as
arbitrator, exception may be made to the
award on that account. The provisions
of various statutes for carrying awards
into execution, and the exceptions that
may be made to them on the ground of
interest, circumvention, mistake or infor-
mality, are too numerous to be stated par-
ticularly.
AREUTHINOT, John, an eminent physi-
cian and distinguished wit, was born in
Scotland soon after the restoration, but in
what year is uncertain. He received the
degree of doctor of physic at the univer-
sity of Aberdeen, and engaged in the busi-
ness of teaching mathematics in London,
where he soon distinguished himself by
his writings and by his skill in the prac-
tice of his profession. In 1704, he was
chosen fellow of the royal society, and
soon after appointed physician extraordi-
nary, and then physician in ordinary, to
queen Anne. About this time he be-
came intimate with Swift and Pope, and
this brilliant triumvirate formed the plan
of a satire on the abuses of human learn-
ing. But the completion of this design
was interrupted by the death of the queen,
328
ARBUTHNOT-ARCADIANS.
and we have only an imperfect essay,
under the title of Memoirs of Martinus
Scriblerus. The death of queen Anne
made such an impression on doctor Ar-
buthnot, that, to divert his melancholy, he
visited Paris, and, on his return, was de-
prived of his place at St. James's. He
continued, however, the practice of his
profession, and, in 1723, was chosen 2d
censor of the royal college of physicians,
and afterwards an elect of the same
college. Being afflicted with an asthma,
which, having increased with his years,
was at last become incurable, he retired
to Hampstead for relief; but, being sensible
that his disease was mortal, he returned
to London, where he died in 1735.-The
principal works of doctor Arbuthnot are,
an Examination of Doctor Woodward's
Account of the Deluge, 1697, and an Es-
say on the Usefulness of Mathematical
Learning, which were the foundation of
his literary reputation; the Table of An-
cient Coins, Weights and Measures, ex-
plained and exemplified, in several Dis-
sertations, which appeared in 1727; the
treatise of the Nature and Choice of Ali-
ments, 1732; and that of the Effects of
Air on Human Bodies, 1733. In these
he displays his solid and extensive learn-
ing. His treatise on the Altercation of
the Ancients, his History of John Bull,
his contributions to Martinus Scriblerus,
and other pieces usually published in
Swift's works, are equally distinguished
for ingenuity, wit and exquisite satire.
His epitaph on Chartres is a masterly
composition in its kind. The following
sketch of his character, from doctor John-
son's life of Pope, is justified by the tes-
timony of his contemporaries and of his
works:-"A. was a man of great compre-
hension, skilful in his practice, versed in
the sciences, acquainted with ancient lit-
erature, and able to animate his mass of
knowledge by a bright and active imagi-
nation; a scholar, with great brilliance of
wit; a wit, who, in the crowd of life, re-
tained and discovered a noble ardor of
religious zeal; a inan estimable for his
learning, amiable for his life, and venera-
ble for his piety." His miscellaneous
works have been published in 2 vols.
12mo., with a memoir of his life prefixed.
—Another A., of the name of Alexander,
was an active supporter of the reformed
church of Scotland. Ile was born in
1538, and died in 1583.
ARC, Jeanne d'. (See Joan of Arc.)
ARCADIA; the middle and highest part
of the Peloponnesus; the Greek Switzer-
land; bounded on the north by Achaia
and Sicyon, on the east by Argolis, on the
south by Messenia, and on the west by
Elis. It is rich in rivers, springs and
pastures, and is watered by the Eurotas
and Alpheus. The principal mountains
were called Cyllene, Erymanthus, Stym-
phalus, and Manalus. From its first in-
habitants, the Pelasgi, the land derived
the name Pelasgia. In later times, it was
divided among the 50 sons of Lycaon,
and received from his grandson, Arcas,
the name Arcadia. In the course of
time, the small kingdoms made themselves
free, and formed a confederacy. The
principal were, Mantinea, where Epami-
nondas obtained a victory and a tomb
(now the village of Mondi), Tegea (now
Tripolizza), Orchomenus, Pheneus, Pso-
phis and Megalopolis. The shepherds
and hunters of the rugged mountain
country remained for a long time in a
savage state. By degrees, they acquired
the rudiments of civilization, began to
cultivate their fields, and to ainuse them-
selves with dancing and music. At the
same time, they always remained warlike,
and fought, when they had no wars of
their own, in the service of other states.
Their chief deity was Pan; their chief
business, breeding of cattle and agricul-
ture. This occasioned the pastoral poets
to select Arcadia for the theatre of their
fables. Thus it has been made to appear
as a paradise, although it was far from
deserving this character.
ARCADIANS, Academy of the; a socie-
ty of Italian poets in Rome, established
in the latter half of the 17th century, for
the improvement of taste and the cultiva-
tion of Italian poetry. The whole con-
stitution of the society had as its object
the imitation of the pastoral life of
the Arcadians. Hence their meetings
are held in gardens, and every member
adopts the name of a Greek shepherd, by
which he is called in the society. Under
these nanies the poems of the members
are usually published. The laws of the
society are drawn up after the model of
the 12 Roman tables: the most impor-
tant are, that the society shall have no
patron, and that no poems are to be read
which are contrary to religion and good
morals. The device of the society is the
syrinx (the ancient shepherd's pipe), en-
twined with pines and laurels. Only
poets (without distinction of sex, how-
ever) can be members of it. Formerly,
the society enjoyed much respect, and it
was an object of ambition to obtain ad-
mission to it; but this is no longer the
case. In imitation of the chief society in
ARCADIANS-ARCHANGEL.
Rome, societies for the same purpose
were instituted in several Italian cities.
Crescimbeni (q. v.) has published collec-
tions of the poems of this association, and
biographies of several of its members. In
1824, Leo XII, under the name of Leo
Pistate Cecropio, was admitted a mem-
ber.
ARCANUM; a secret; especially a se-
cret remedy, or a medicine of which the
ingredients and preparation are kept se-
cret. Such medicines, on account of nu-
merous abuses, have been made, in some
countries, an object of medical police. In
the time of alchemy, there were many
celebrated arcana.
ARCE, Manuel José, was elected first
president of the republic of Central
America, and entered upon the duties of
his office at the organization of the repub-
lican government in April 1825. The
salary assigned him by congress was
10,000 dollars; and his term of office is
fixed at four years by the constitution.
(For the history of his administration, see
Central America.)
ARCESILAUS; the founder of the second
or middle academy; born at Pitane, in
olis, in the first year of the 116th Olym-
piad, B. C. 316; was carefully educated;
and sent to Athens to study rhetoric.
but philosophy attracted him more. He
enjoyed the instructions of the Peripatet
ic Theophrastus, then of Polemon, and,
after the death of Crates, stood at the
head of the academy, but made impor-
tant innovations in its doctrines. Plato
and his successors had distinguished two
kinds of objects-material, which act up-
on the senses, and those that are only
comprehended by the mind. Our notions
of the former, they say, compose opinion;
of the latter, knowledge. Arcesilaus, who
approached to scepticism, or rather went
beyond it, denied that a man knows any
thing even the fact that he knows
nothing. He rejected as false and delu-
sive the testimony of the senses, and
accordingly maintained, that the truly
wise man can maintain nothing. In this
way he was able to combat all opinions.
As he was obliged, however, to reconcile
these strange maxims with the necessities
of life, imposed alike on every being, he
said their strict application was admitted
only in science, and that a man may even
adhere to what is only probable in the
present life. Moreover, he was kind to
the distressed, and a friend to pleasure.
A rival of Aristippus, he divided his time
between Venus, Bacchus and the Muses,
without ever filling a public office. He
28 *
329
died, from intemperate indulgence in
wine, 75 years old, in the 4th year of the
134th Olympiad.
ARCH, in building. (See Architecture.)
ARCH (from the Greek prefix açx‹); a
syllable which is placed before some
words, in order to denote the highest de-
gree of their kind, whether good or bad,
e. g., archangel, archduke, archchancellor,
archbishop, archspirit of evil, archfiend,
archflatterer, archfelon, &c.
Many of
the highest officers in different empires
have this syllable prefixed to their titles,
and, in the German empire, the arch-
offices (erzämter), as they were called,
were of high importance. They were
established in France, by the same con-
stitution which conferred the imperial
dignity on Napoleon.
ARCHAISM; an antiquated word or
phrase. In general, the use of archaisms
is objectionable, but in certain kinds of
writing, and particularly in poetry, they
may even be an ornament, as they are
often peculiarly forcible.
ARCHANGEL; the chief city in a Rus-
sian district of the same name, which con-
tains 356,400 sq. miles, with 263,100 inhab-
itants, among whom are 7000 Samoyedes.
It lies between 20 and 30 miles from the
mouth of the Dwina, on the White sea;
lon. 40° 43′ E.; lat. 64° 32′ N.; contains
1900 houses and 15,100 inhabitants. The
monastery of Michael the archangel,found-
ed there in 1584, gave the city its name.
The English first discovered a passage
thither through the Frozen ocean, A. D.
1553, and, until the building of Petersburg,
A. was the only port from whence the
productions of Russia were exported.
When Petersburg became a place of ex-
port, and Riga also was used as a Russian
port, the trade of A. sunk till 1762, when
queen Elizabeth granted to it all the
privileges of Petersburg. The trade on
the Dwina bas since increased more and
more with the growing population of
Russia; and A. has become the chief
mart of all imports and exports for Sibe-
ria, being connected by canals with Mos-
cow and Astrachan. In June or July,
foreign vessels arrive, which sail again in
the last of September or October. In
these summer months, there is a perpet-
ual market for fish, fish-oil, tallow, grain,
various sorts of fur, skins, ship-timber,
wax, iron, coarse linen, hogs' bristles,
china and japaned wares, caviare, stur-
geon, &c. More than 200 foreign vessels
arrive annually; in 1823, 230 sailed. The
trade is seriously obstructed by a sand-
bank, affording only 12 feet of wai śr,
330
ARCHANGEL-ARCHBISHOP.
at the entrance of the harbor, which is in
other respects good. The fortification
of Novo-Dwiesk protects the entrance.
There are now dock-yards here for ships
of war, which are built by the Russian gov-
ernment in A. as cheap or cheaper than
they can build them in any other place;
also an excellent ware-house for foreign
merchandise subject to a duty. In April,
the ice breaks up at the mouth of the
Dwina, on the banks of which, 65° N. lat.,
the vegetation of grain and fruit entirely
ceases. Seventeen versts from the city
is the anchoring place of ships, with three
docks. A civil and military governor,
and an archbishop, reside at A. The
house of the admiralty and the barracks of
the soldiers are situated on the island So-
lombol, formed by the river Cuschenida.
In 1816, the value of imported goods sub-
ject to duties was 1,138,000 rubles, and
of the exports, 8,600,000 rubles. The
shortness of the nights, during the time
the harbor is navigable, presents a natural
obstacle to smuggling. The shortest day
is 3 hours and 12 minutes long. Many
expeditions, every year, for fishing and
hunting, go from this place to Spitzber-
gen and Nova Zembla, by water in sum-
mer, and by sledges in winter, to the
mouth of the Lena, and perhaps farther.
ARCHBISHOP (from the Greck; in Latin,
archiepiscopus); a metropolitan prelate,
having several suffragan bishops under
him. In Catholic countries, the archi-
episcopal chapters elect the archbishop,
who is confirmed by the pope. The
establishment of this dignity is to be
traced up to the earliest times of Chris-
tianity, when the bishops and inferior
clergy met in the capitals to deliberate on
spiritual affairs, and the bishop of the
city where the meeting was held presided.
Certain honors were allowed him, the
title of metropolitan particularly, on ac-
count of his residence. The synod of
Antioch gave the archbishops, in the
year 341, the superintendence over sev-
cral dioceses, which were called their
province, and a rank above the clergy of
the same, who were obliged to ask their
advice in some cases. By degrees, their
privileges increased; but of these the
pope has retained many since the 9th
century, so that only the following were
left to the archbishops :-jurisdiction, in
the first instance, over their suffragan
bishops, in cases not of a criminal nature,
and appellate jurisdiction from the bish-
ops' courts; the right of convoking a pro-
vincial synod, which they were required
to do at least once in every three years,
·
and the right of presiding in the same;
the care of enforcing the observance of the
rules of the church, of remedying abuses,
of distributing indulgences; the right of
devolution (q. v.), of having the cross car-
ried before them in all parts of the prov-
ince (if the pope himself or a legatus a latere
is not present), and of wearing the archi-
episcopal pallium (q. v.) In England are
two (Protestant) archbishops-those of
Canterbury and York; the former styled
primate of all England, the latter, primate
of England; but with regard to the ex-
act distinctions between these appella-
tions, there is no little obscurity in the
books of such as treat upon this subject.
In ancient times, the primacy of the
archbishop of Canterbury extended to
Ireland, as well as England. Hence he
was styled a patriarch, had the titles of
orbis Britannici pontifex, and of papa
alterius orbis. He is the first peer of
the realm, having precedency before all
dukes not of royal birth. He crowns the
sovereign, whether king or queen, and
when he is invested with his archbishop-
ric, he is said to be enthroned. The first
prelates in England are his officers. He
is addressed by the titles of your grace,
and most reverend father in God, and
writes himself by divine providence,
while the bishop only writes by divine
permission. His jurisdiction extends
over 21 dioceses. The first archbishop
of Canterbury was Austin, appointed A. D.
598, by Ethelbert, when he was converted
to Christianity. Next in dignity is the
archbishop of York. He takes place of
all dukes not of the blood royal, and all
the great officers of the crown, except
the lord high chancellor of England.
He crowns the queen consort. The first
archbishop of York was Paulinus, ap-
pointed in 622. The income of these two
highest prelates of England has often
been misrepresented, one party stating it
too high, the other too low. It is cer-
tainly very great, though the amount
cannot be ascertained. (For the immense
salaries of some of the English clergy,
and the scanty incomes of the larger
portion, see the article Clergy.) Scotland
had two archbishops-those of St. An-
drew's and Glasgow; now she has none.
In Ireland, there are four-those of Dub-
lin, Armagh, Tuam and Cashel. In the
U. States, there is an archbishop of the
Roman Catholic church, whose see is at
Baltimore, and whose spiritual jurisdic-
tion extends over all the U. States. There
is, as yet, no archbishop of the Protestant
Episcopal church, though there are seve-
ARCHBISHOP-ARCHERY.
ral bishops. In the year 1828, pope Leo
XII appointed, after much delay, an
archbishop in Colombia, whom Bolivar
had proposed. Perhaps the two most
important archbishops in history were
those of Cologne and Mentz. These
archbishops were sovereigns of a consid-
erable country, electors of the German
empire, and the two highest officers un-
der the emperor. Till Napoleon dis-
solved the German empire, they played
a conspicuous part in the history of the
continent. In France, there are now 9
archbishops; in Spain, 8; in Portugal, 2;
in Hungary, 3; in Italy, 38.
ARCHDEACON. This ecclesiastical offi-
cer, who was at first only the chief among
the deacons in a cathedral or metropoli-
tan church, in the 5th century, acquired
an importance, which raised him above
the rank of presbyters, and placed him
nearly on an equality with the bishops.
The archdeacons have since been not
mere assistants, but representatives of
the bishops in the dioceses and councils.
By degrees, the affairs of the bishop's
jurisdiction, the superintendence of the
clergy, the churches, convents, and eccle-
siastical possessions, the right of visita-
tion, the trial of heresies in the western
bishoprics, came to be exercised by the
archdeacons. Until the 9th century, they
were only delegates of the bishops, but
they afterwards became independent offi-
cers of the church, with almost episcopal
power, partly through the weakness and
ignorance of their principals, partly
through the division of the dioceses,
which took place in the 8th century, into
several smaller districts or achdeaconates,
over which the archdeacons presided.
In the 11th and 12th centuries, they were
acknowledged as the most influential
prelates of the church, and at the summit
of their power. On the establishment of
the general episcopal tribunals under
particular officers or general vicars, in
the 13th century, the dignity of the arch-
deacons diminished, and their jurisdiction
in most dioceses, in the 15th and 16th
centuries, passed to the new courts. In
the 18th century, they were still regarded
as dignitaries in some chapters; but now
this office, principally on account of the
contention about rank with the deans
and other officers, is almost wholly abol-
ished in the Catholic church. In the
chapters established again since the down-
fall of Napoleon, it has not been revived.
In the Greek church, since the 7th cen-
tury, there have been no archdeacons,
except one in the Greek imperial court
331
at Constantinople. The episcopal church
in England, on the contrary, still has
archdeacons, who are the deputies of the
bishops, to superintend the districts.
The archdeacons in the evangelical Lu-
theran church enjoy no particular privi-
leges, except precedence over the other
deacons. In Hamburg, they are the sec-
ond ecclesiastics in the principal churches.
ARCHELAUS.-1. A Greek philosopher,
a disciple of Anaxagoras. He flourished
about 440 years B. C. Like his prede-
cessor, he chiefly devoted his attention
to the origin of things. He first taught at
Lampsacus, and subsequently removed
to Athens, where Socrates became his
disciple and successor.-2. A king of Ma-
cedon, natural son of Perdiccas II, and
his successor. He entertained at his
court Euripides, and employed Zeuxis'
pencil. He died about 398 B. C.-3. The
son of Herod the Great. His reign is
described as most tyrannical and bloody.
The people at length accused him before
Augustus (Judea being then dependent
upon Rome). The emperor, after hearing
his defence, banished him to Vienne, in
Gaul, where he died. To avoid the fury
of this monster, Joseph and Mary retired
to Nazareth.—4. The son of Apollonius,
a sculptor. He was a native of Ionia, and
is thought to have lived under Claudius.
He executed in marble the apotheosis of
Homer, which was found, in 1568, at a
place called Fratocchia, belonging to the
house of Colonna.
ARCHENHOLZ, John William von; a
very voluminous German author; born
1743, died 1812. He is known in foreign
countries by his England and Italy, trans-
lated into almost all the living languages
of Europe. He also wrote Annals of
British History, from 1788, in 20 vols.,
1789-98. Perhaps his most important
work is his History of the Seven Years'
War (in German), 2 vols., Berlin, 1793.
ARCHERY; the art of shooting with a
bow and arrow. This art, either as a
means of offence in war, or of subsistence
and amusement in time of peace, may be
traced in the history of almost every na-
tion. It always, however, declines with
the progress of time, which introduces
weapons more to be depended on, and
not so easily exhausted as a bundle of
arrows. With the ancients, the sagit-
tarii, or archers, were an important class
of troops. In the middle ages, the bow
was much more used by the burghers
than by the barons. The Swiss were
famous archers. In modern times, this
weapon is used by the Asiatic nations, by
332
ARCHERY-ARCHIMEDES.
the tribes of Africa, by the American In-
dians, &c. In 1813 and 1814, irregular
troops, belonging to the Russian army,
particularly the Bashkeers, appeared in
Paris, armed with bows and arrows, and
made surprising shots. The English
monarchs, in former times, took great
pains to encourage the exercise of shoot-
ing with the long bow, as appears from
several acts in the reigns of Edward III,
IV, Henry VII and VIII. Every citizen
and burgher was ordered to practise ar-
chery, and the founder of Harrow school
insisted upon shooting with the bow, as a
fundamental part of the regulations of the
institution. În Germany, there still exist,
in some cities, societies of archers. The
bows of the middle ages exhibit some-
times very excellent workmanship.
ARCHES COURT (curia de arcubus);
the chief and most ancient consistory
court, belonging to the archbishop of Can-
terbury, for the debating of spiritual
causes. It is so called from the church
in London, commonly called St. Mary le
Bow (de arcubus), where it was formerly
held, which church is named Bow church,
from the steeple, which is supported by
pillars built archwise, like so many bent
bows. The jurisdiction of this court
extends over the province of Canterbury.
An appeal, however, lies to the king.
ARCHIL, OF ARCHILLA, called, also, ro-
cella and orsielle; a whitish moss, which
grows upon rocks, in the Canary and
cape Verd islands, and yields a rich pur-
ple tincture, fugitive, indeed, but extremely
beautiful. When it is prepared for dye-
ing, it is called lacmus, or litmus (q. v.)
ARCHILOCHUS; a Greek poet, born on
the island of Paros. IIe flourished about
700 B. C. His ardent spirit hurried him
into the whirlpool of political party, and
he was obliged to leave his country.
He retired to Tarsus, where he fought
against the Thracians, and lost his shield,
more by accident than cowardice. Ile
afterwards visited Greece, but the Spar-
tans banished him from their state. He
gained the laurel crown, however, at the
Olympic games, for a hymn to Hercules.
Some say he was killed in battle; others,
that he was assassinated. A. was no less
formidable with the pen than with the
sword. Lycambes, who had promised
him his daughter, and faithlessly violated
his agreement, hung himself in despair
on account of the satires in which the
offended poet wreaked on him his re-
venge. With the same severity, he per-
secuted all his fellow citizens, who were
unfortunate enough to displease him. His
memory was honored in all Greece so
highly, that he was placed beside Homer.
His iambic poems were renowned for the
force of the style, the liveliness of the
metaphors, a sententious conciseness, ele-
vated feeling, and a powerful, but bitter
spirit of satire. In other lyric poems of
a higher character, he was also consid-
ered as a model. All his works are lost
but a few fragments, collected by Liebel,
Leipsic, 1812-17. He used the half-pen-
tameter verse in his poems, whence this
verse is called, from him, Archilochian
verse':
ARCHIMANDRITE; in the Greek church,
abbots or general-abbots, who have the
superintendence of many abbots and con-
vents; because, in the ancient Greek
church, the abbots were called mandra,
and archi is the Greek prefix (see Arch).
In Sicily, the abbots are called thus be-
cause their convents were originally of
Greek institution, and conform to the
rules of St. Basil. The general-abbots
of the united Greeks in Poland, Galicia,
Transylvania, Hungary, Sclavonia and
Venice bear this title.
ARCHIMEDES, the most celebrated
among the ancient geometricians, born
at Syracuse, about 287 B. C., a relation of
king Hiero, appears to have borne no
public office, but to have devoted himself
entirely to science. We cannot fully
estimate his services to mathematics, for
want of an acquaintance with the previ-
ous state of science; still we know that
he enriched it with discoveries of the
highest importance, upon which the
moderns have founded their admeasure-
ments of curvilinear surfaces and solids.
Euclid, in his elements, considers only
the relation of some of these magnitudes
to each other, but does not compare
them with surfaces and solids bounded
by straight lines. A. has developed the
propositions necessary for effecting this
comparison, in his treatises on the
sphere and cylinder, the spheroid and
conoid, and in his work on the measure
of the circle. He rose to still more
abstruse considerations, in his treatise
on the spiral, which, however, even those
acquainted with the subject can with
difficulty comprehend. A. is the only
one among the ancients, who has left us
any thing satisfactory on the theory of
mechanics, and on hydrostatics.
first taught the principle, "that a body,
immersed in a fluid, loses as much in
weight as the weight of an equal volume
of the fluid," and determined, by means of
it, how much alloy an artist had fraudu-
He
ARCHIMEDES-ARCHITECTURE.
lently added to a crown, which king Hi-
ero had ordered to be made of pure gold.
He discovered the solution of this prob-
lem while bathing; and it is said to have
caused him so much joy, that he hastened
home from the bath undressed, and crying
out, "I have found it, I have found it!"
Practical mechanics, also, appears to have
been a new science at the time of A.; for
his exclamation that he could move the
earth, if he had a point without it to stand
upon, shows the enthusiasm with which
the extraordinary performances of his
machines had inspired him. He is the
inventor of the compound pulley, proba-
bly of the endless screw, &c. During
the siege of Syracuse, he devoted all his
talents to the defence of his native coun-
try. Polybius, Livy and Plutarch speak
in detail, and with admiration, of the
machines with which he repelled the
attacks of the Romans. They make no
mention of his having set on fire the ene-
my's fleet by burning-glasses,-a thing
which is, in itself, very improbable, and
related only in the later writings of Galen
and Lucian. At the moment when the
Romans, under Marcellus, gained pos-
session of the city by assault, tradition
relates that A. was sitting in the market-
place, absorbed in thought, and contem-
plating some figures which he had drawn
in the sand. To a Roman soldier, who
addressed him, he is related to have cried
out,
"Disturb not my circle !" but the
rough warrior little heeded his request,
and struck him down. As the conquest
of Syracuse is placed in the year 212
B. C., Archimedes must have been 75
years old when he lost his life. On his
tombstone was placed a cylinder, with a
sphere inscribed in it, thereby to immor-
talize his discovery of their mutual rela-
tion, on which he set particular value.
Cicero, who was appointed quæstor over
Sicily, found this monument in a thicket
which concealed it.
ARCHIPELAGO; a corruption of Egeo-
pelago, the modern Greek pronunciation
οἱ Αἰγαῖον Πέλαγος, the Agean sea. The
term, however, is applied to any tract of
sea abounding in small islands, and to the
clusters of islands situated therein. The
group to which the name is most gener-
ally given is that lying in the Ægean sea,
between the coasts of ancient Greece and
Asia Minor. According to their situation,
they are divided into the islands belong-
ing to Europe and to Asia. The former
lic together, almost in a circle, and for
this reason have been called, by the
Greeks, the Cyclades (q. v.); the latter,
333
being farther from one another, the Spor-
All these islands are in
ades (q. v.)
the government of the capudan pacha, to
which, however, Candia, with the little
islands lying about it, does not belong.
(Compare with this article Hydra, Ne-
gropont, Scio, Samos, Rhodes, Cyprus, &c.)
Archipelago, Northern, extends between
the coasts of Kamschatka and the west
coast of America, and comprehends four
clusters: 1, Sasignan, containing five
islands; 2, Khoa, including eight islands;
both these groups together are called the
Aleutian islands (q. v.); 3, the Andrea-
noffski Ostrova, comprising sixteen isl
ands; 4, the Lyssil or Fox islands, includ-
ing, also, sixteen islands.-Archipelago of
Lazarus, near the coast of Malabar and
Malacca.-Archipelago of the Great Cyc-
lades; a cluster of islands in the South
Pacific ocean, so named by Bougainville,
and afterwards called the New Hebrides
by Cook.—Archipelago of the Philippines,
containing the Philippines, Moluccas,
Celebes, &c. Some call it, also, the
Great A.-Archipelago of the Recherche ;
several groups of islands, rocks and
shoals, on the south coast of New Hol-
land, extending from between 34° to 34°30′
S. lat., and 121° 30′ to 123° 20′ E. lon.
The largest islands were named, by the
French, Mondrain and Middle island.
Many other A. might be mentioned.
ARCHITECTURE, in the general sense
of the word, is the art of erecting durable,
commodious, healthful and handsome
buildings of all kinds, adapted to the pur-
poses of the builder. According to the
objects to which it is applied, architecture
is commonly divided into civil architect-
ure, military architecture (see Fortifica-
tion), and naval architecture. For the
sake of convenience, further divisions
are sometimes introduced, such as hy-
draulic, mining, &c., architecture. Upon
the continent of Europe, architecture is
often divided into private and public.
The latter includes all structures com-
monly undertaken or particularly super-
intended by government. In Germany
and France, there is a building police,
which oversees both public and private
edifices, and takes care that security and
health are provided for in both.-There
is something divine in man, which
prompts him to look beyond the mere
supply of his necessities, and to aim
continually at higher objects. He there-
fore soon expected from his habitation
and his temples more than mere utility.
He aimed at elegance, and architecture
became, by degrees, a fine art, differing
1
334
ARCHITECTURE.
essentially, however, from the other fine
arts in these respects; 1, that it is based
on utility; 2, that it elevates mathematical
laws to rules of beauty. Painting and
sculpture are only the expression of the
feeling of the beautiful. On the contra-
ry, every creation of architecture must
appear to have utility in view. A column
or an architrave, which supports nothing,
appears ridiculous, and every part of a
building ought to show the purpose for
which it is designed.
Architecture appears to have been
among the carliest inventions, and its
works have been commonly regulated by
some principle of hereditary imitation.
Whatever rude structure the climate and
materials of any country have obliged its
early inhabitants to adopt for their tem-
porary shelter, the same structure, with
all its prominent features, has been after-
wards kept up by their refined and opu-
lent posterity. Thus the Egyptian style
of building has its origin in the cavern
and mound the Chinese architecture is
modelled from the tent; the Grecian is
derived from the wooden cabin, and the
Gothic from the bower of trees.-The
essential elementary parts of a building are
those which contribute to its support, en-
closure and covering. Of these, the most
important are the foundation, the column,
the wall, the lintel, the arch, the vault, the
dome and the roof. In laying the foun-
dation of any building, it is necessary to
dig to a certain depth in the carth, to
secure a solid basis, below the reach of
frost and common accidents. The most
solid basis is rock, or gravel which has
not been moved. Next to these are clay
and sand, provided no other excavations
have been made in the immediate neigh-
borhood. From this basis a stone wall
is carried up to the surface of the ground,
and constitutes the foundation. Where
it is intended that the superstructure shall
press unequally, as at its piers, chimneys,
or columns, it is sometimes of use to occu-
py the space between the points of pres-
sure by an inverted arch. This distributes
the pressure equally, and prevents the foun-
dation from springing between the differ-
ent points. In loose or muddy situations,
it is always unsafe to build, unless we
can reach the solid bottom below. In
salt marshes and flats, this is done by de-
positing timbers, or driving wooden piles
into the earth, and raising walls upon
them. The preservative quality of the
salt will keep these timbers unimpaired
* Wilkins' Vitruvius, p. xvii.
for a great length of time, and makes the
foundation equally secure with one of
brick or stone.-The simplest member in
any building, though by no means an
essential one to all, is the column or pillar.
This is a perpendicular part, commonly
of equal breadth and thickness, not in-
tended for the purpose of enclosure, but
simply for the support of some part of
the superstructure. The principal force
which a column has to resist, is that of
perpendicular pressure. In its shape, the
shaft of a column should not be exactly
cylindrical, but, since the lower part must
support the weight of the superior part,
in addition to the weight which presses
equally on the whole column, the thick-
ness should gradually decrease from bot-
tom to top. The outline of columns
should be a little curved, so as to repre-
sent a portion of a very long spheroid, or
paraboloid, rather than of a cone. This
figure is the joint result of two calcula-
tions, independent of beauty of appear-
ance.
One of these is, that the form best
adapted for stability of base is that of a
cone; the other is, that the figure, which
would be of equal strength throughout
for supporting a superincumbent weight,
would be generated by the revolution of
two parabolas round the axis of the col-
unn, the vertices of the curves being at
its extremities.*-The swell of the shafts
of columns was called the entasis by the
ancients. It has been lately found,f that
the columns of the Parthenon, at Athens,
which have been commonly supposed
straight, deviate about an inch from a
straight line, and that their greatest swell
is at about one third of their height.
Columns in the antique orders are usual-
ly made to diminish one sixth or one
seventh of their diameter, and sometimes
even one fourth. The Gothic pillar is
commonly of equal thickness throughout.
-The wall, another elementary part of a
building, may be considered as the lateral
continuation of a column, answering the
purpose both of enclosure and support.
A wall must diminish as it rises, for the
same reasons, and in the same proportion,
as the column. It must diminish still
more rapidly if it extends through several
stories, supporting weights at different
heights. A wall, to possess the greatest
strength, must also consist of pieces, the
upper and lower surfaces of which are
horizontal and regular, not rounded nor
oblique. The walls of most of the an-
* See Tredgold's Principles of Carpentry, p. 50.
t By Messrs. Allason and Cockerell. See
Brande's Journal, vol. x. p. 204.
ARCHITECTURE.
cient structures, which have stood to the
present time, are constructed in this man-
ner, and frequently have their stones
bound together with bolts and cramps of
iron. The same method is adopted in
such modern structures as are intended
to possess great strength and durability,
and, in some cases, the stones are even
dovetailed together, as in the light-houses
at Eddystone and Bell Rock. But many
of our modern stone walls, for the sake of
cheapness, have only one face of the
stones squared, the inner half of the wall
being completed with brick; so that they
can, in reality, be considered only as brick
walls faced with stone. Such walls are
said to be liable to become convex out-
wardly, from the difference in the shrink-
ing of the cement. Rubble walls are
made of rough, irregular stones, laid in
mortar. The stones should be broken, if
possible, so as to produce horizontal sur-
faces. The coffer walls of the ancient
Romans were made by enclosing succes-
sive portions of the intended wall in a
box, and filling it with stones, sand and
mortar, promiscuously. This kind of
structure must have been extremely inse-
cure. The Pantheon, and various other
Roman buildings, are surrounded with a
double brick wall, having its vacancy fill-
ed up with loose bricks and cement. The
whole has gradually consolidated into a
mass of great firmness. The reticulated
walls of the Romans, having bricks with
oblique surfaces, would, at the present
day, be thought highly unphilosophical.
Indeed, they could not long have stood,
had it not been for the great strength of
their cement. Modern brick walls are
laid with great precision, and depend for
firmness more upon their position than
upon the strength of their cement. The
bricks being laid in horizontal courses,
and continually overlaying each other, or
breaking joints, the whole mass is strongly
interwoven, and bound together. Wood-
en walls, composed of timbers covered
with boards, are a common, but more
perishable kind. They require to be
constantly covered with a coating of a
foreign substance, as paint or plaster, to
preserve them from spontaneous decom-
position. In some parts of France, and
elsewhere, a kind of wall is made of
carth, rendered compact by ramming it
in moulds or cases. This method is call-
ed building in pisé, and is much more
durable than the nature of the material
would lead us to suppose. Walls of all
kinds are greatly strengthened by angles
and curves, also by projections, such as
335
pilasters, chimneys and buttresses. These
projections serve to increase the breadth
of the foundation, and are always to be
made use of in large buildings, and in
walls of considerable length. The lintel,
or beam, extends in a right line over a
vacant space, from one column or wall to
another. The strength of the lintel will
be greater in proportion as its transverse
vertical diameter exceeds the horizontal,
the strength being always as the square
of the depth. The floor is the lateral
continuation or connexion of beams by
means of a covering of boards.-The arch
is a transverse member of a building, an-
swering the same purpose as the lintel,
but vastly exceeding it in strength. The
arch, unlike the lintel, may consist of any
number of constituent pieces, without im-
pairing its strength. It is, however, neces-
sary that all the pieces should possess a
uniform shape, the shape of a portion of
a wedge, and that the joints, formed by
the contact of their surfaces, should point
towards a common centre.
In this case,
no one portion of the arch can be dis-
placed or forced inward; and the arch
cannot be broken by any force which is
not sufficient to crush the materials of
which it is made. In arches made of
common bricks, the sides of which are
parallel, any one of the bricks might be
forced inward, were it not for the adhe-
sion of the cement. Any tico of the
bricks, however, constitute a wedge, by
the disposition of their mortar, and cannot
collectively be forced inward. An arch
of the proper form, when complete, is
rendered stronger, instead of weaker, by
the pressure of a considerable weight, pro-
vided this pressure be uniform. While
building, however, it requires to be sup-
ported by a centring of the shape of its
internal surface, until it is complete.
The upper stone of an arch is called the
key-stone, but is not more essential than
any other. In regard to the shape of the
arch, its most simple form is that of the
semi-circle. It is, however, very fre-
quently a smaller are of a circle, and, still
more frequently, a portion of an ellipse.
The simplest theory of an arch support-
ing itself only, is that of Dr. Hooke. The
arch, when it has only its own weight to
bear, may be considered as the inversion
of a chain, suspended at each end. The
chain hangs in such a form, that the
weight of each link or portion is held in
equilibrium by the result of two forces
acting at its extremities; and these forces,
or tensions, are produced, the one by the
weight of the portion of the chain below
336
ARCHITECTURE.
the link, the other by the same weight in
creased by that of the link itself, both of
them acting originally in a vertical direc-
tion. Now, supposing the chain inverted,
so as to constitute an arch of the same
form and weight, the relative situations of
the forces will be the same, only they will
act in contrary directions, so that they are
compounded in a similar manner, and
balance each other on the same condi-
tions. The arch thus formed is denomi-
nated a catenary arch. In common cases,
it differs but little from a circular arch of
the extent of about one third of a whole
circle, and rising from the abutments with
an obliquity of about 30 degrees from a
perpendicular. But though the catenary
arch is the best form for supporting its
own weight, and also all additional weight
which presses in a vertical direction, it is
not the best form to resist lateral pressure,
or pressure like that of fluids, acting
equally in all directions. Thus the arch-
es of bridges and similar structures, when
covered with loose stones and earth, are
pressed sideways, as well as vertically, in
the same manner as if they supported a
weight of fluid. In this case, it is neces-
sary that the arch should arise more per-
pendicularly from the abutment, and that
its general figure should be that of the
longitudinal segment of an ellipse. In
small arches, in common buildings, where
the disturbing force is not great, it is of
little consequence what is the shape of
the curve. The outlines may even be
perfectly straight, as in the tier of bricks
which we frequently see over a window.
This is, strictly speaking, a rcal arch, pro-
vided the surfaces of the bricks tend to-
wards a common centre. It is the weak-
est kind of arch, and a part of it is neces-
sarily superfluous, since no greater portion
can act in supporting a weight above it,
than can be included between two curved
or arched lines. Besides the arches al-
ready mentioned, various others are in
use. The acute or lancet arch, much
used in Gothic architecture, is described
usually from two centres outside the arch.
It is a strong arch for supporting vertical
pressure. The rampant arch is one in
which the two ends spring from unequal
heights. The horse-shoe or Moorish arch
is described from one or more centres
placed above the base line. In this arch,
the lower parts are in danger of being
forced inward. The ogee arch is conca-
vo-convex, and therefore fit only for or-
nament. In describing arches, the upper
surface is called the extrados, and the in-
ner, the intrados. The springing lines are
those where the intrados meets the abut-
ments, or supporting walls. The span is
the distance from one springing fine to
the other. The wedge-shaped stones,
which form an arch, are sometimes called
voussoirs, the uppermost being the key-
stone. The part of a pier from which an
arch springs is called the impost, and the
curve formed by the upper side of the
voussoirs, the archivolt. It is necessary
that the walls, abutments and piers, on
which arches are supported, should be so
firm as to resist the lateral thrust, as well
as vertical pressure, of the arch. It will
at once be seen, that the lateral or sideway
pressure of an arch is very considerable,
when we recollect that every stone, or
portion of the arch, is a wedge, a part of
whose force acts to separate the abut-
ments. For want of attention to this
circumstance, important mistakes have
been committed, the strength of buildings
materially impaired, and their ruin accel-
erated. In some cases, the want of lateral
firmness in the walls is compensated by
a bar of iron stretched across the span of
the arch, and connecting the abutments,
like the tie-beam of a roof. This is the
case in the cathedral of Milan and some
other Gothic buildings.*-In an arcade,
or continuation of arches, it is only neces-
sary that the outer supports of the termi-
nal arches should be strong enough to re-
sist horizontal pressure. In the interme-
diate arches, the lateral force of each arch
is counteracted by the opposing lateral
force of the one contiguous to it. In
bridges, however, where individual arches
are liable to be destroyed by accident, it
is desirable that each of the piers should
possess sufficient horizontal strength to
resist the lateral pressure of the adjoining
arches.-The vault is the lateral continu-
ation of an arch, serving to cover an arca
or passage, and bearing the same relation
to the arch that the wall docs to the
column. A simple vault is constructed
on the principles of the arch, and distrib-
utes its pressure equally along the walls
or abutments. A complex or groined
vault is made by two vaults intersecting
each other, in which case the pressure is
thrown upon springing points, and is
greatly increased at those points. The
groined vault is common in Gothic archi-
tecture. The dome, sometimes called
cupola, is a concave covering to a build-
ing, or part of it, and may be either a seg-
ment of a sphere, of a spheroid, or of any
similar figure. When built of stone, it is
* Cadell's Journey through Carniola and Italy,
vol. ii. p. 77.
ARCHITECTURE.
a very strong kind of structure, even more
so than the arch, since the tendency of
each part to fall is counteracted, not only
by those above and below it, but also by
those on each side. It is only necessary
that the constituent picces should have a
common form, and that this form should
be somewhat like the frustum of a pyra-
mid, so that, when placed in its situation,
its four angles may point toward the cen-
tre, or axis, of the dome. During the
erection of a dome, it is not necessary
that it should be supported by a centring,
until complete, as is done in the arch.
Each circle of stones, when laid, is capa-
ble of supporting itself without aid from
those above it. It follows that the dome
may be left open at top, without a key-
stone, and yet be perfectly secure in this
respect, being the reverse of the arch.
The dome of the Pantheon, at Rome, has
been always open at top, and yet has stood
unimpaired for nearly 2000 years. The
upper circle of stones, though apparently
the weakest, is nevertheless often made
to support the additional weight of a lan-
tern or tower above it. In several of the
largest cathedrals, there are two domes,
one within the other, which contribute
their joint support to the lantern, which
rests upon the top. In these buildings,
the donie rests upon a circular wall, which
is supported, in its turn, by arches upon
massive pillars or piers. This construc-
tion is called building upon pendentives,
and gives open space and room for pas-
sage bencath the dome. The remarks
which have been made in regard to the
abutments of the arch, apply equally to
the walls immediately supporting a dome.
They must be of sufficient thickness and
solidity to resist the lateral pressure of the
dome, which is very great. The walls of
the Roman Pantheon are of great depth
and solidity. In order that a dome in it-
self should be perfectly secure, its lower
parts must not be too nearly vertical,
since, in this case, they partake of the na-
ture of perpendicular walls, and are acted
upon by the spreading force of the parts
above them. The dome of St. Paul's
church, in London, and some others of
similar construction, are bound with
chains or hoops of iron, to prevent them
from spreading at bottom. Domes which
are made of wood depend, in part, for
their strength, on their internal carpentry.
The Halle du Bled, in Paris, had, origin-
ally, a wooden dome more than 200 fect
in diameter, and only one foot in thick-
ness. This has since been replaced by a
dome of iron.—The roof is the most com-
VOL. I.
29
337
mon and cheap method of covering build-
ings, to protect them from rain and other
effects of the weather. It is sometimes
flat, but more frequently oblique, in its
shape. The flat or platform-roof is the
least advantageous for shedding rain, and
is seldom used in northern countries.
The pent roof, consisting of two oblique
sides meeting at top, is the most common
form. These roofs are made steepest in
cold climates, where they are liable to be
loaded with snow. Where the four sides
of the roof are all oblique, it is denominat-
ed a hipped roof, and where there are two
portions to the roof, of different obliquity,
it is a curb, or mansard roof. In modern
times, roofs are made almost exclusively
of wood, though frequently covered with
incombustible materials. The internal
structure or carpentry of roofs is a sub-
ject of considerable mechanical contri-
vance. The roof is supported by rafters,
which abut on the walls on each side,
like the extremities of an arch. If no
other timbers existed, except the rafters,
they would exert a strong lateral pressure
on the walls, tending to separate and over-
throw them. To counteract this lateral
force, a tic-beam, as it is called, extends
across, receiving the ends of the rafters,
and protecting the wall from their hori-
zontal thrust. To prevent the tie-beam
from sagging, or bending downward with
its own weight, a king-post is erected
from this beam, to the upper angle of the
rafters, serving to connect the whole, and
to suspend the weight of the beam. This
is called trussing. Queen-posts are some-
times added, parallel to the king-post, in
large roofs; also various other connecting
timbers. In Gothic buildings, where the
vaults do not admit of the use of a tie-
bean, the rafters are prevented from
spreading, as in an arch, by the strength
of the buttresses. In comparing the lat-
eral pressure of a high roof with that of a
low one, the length of the tie-beam being
the same, it will be seen that a high roof,
from its containing most materials, may
produce the greatest pressure, as far as
weight is concerned. On the other hand,
it the weight of both be equal, then the
* The largest roof that has hitherto been built is
supposed to have been that of the riding-house at
Moscow. Its span was 235 feet, and the slope of
the roof about 19 degrees. The principal support
of this immense truss consisted in an arch of tim
ber in three thicknesses, indented together, and
strapped and bolted with iron. The principal raft-
ers and tie-beams were supported by several ver-
tical pieces, notched to this arch, and the whole
stiffened by diagonal braces.- Tredgold's Carpen-
try, p. 87.
338
ARCHITECTURE.
low roof will exert the greater pressure;
and this will increase in proportion to the
distance of the point at which perpendic-
ulars, drawn from the end of each rafter,
would meet. In roofs, as well as in wood-
en domes and bridges, the materials are
subjected to an internal strain, to resist
which, the cohesive strength of the mate-
rial is relied on. On this account, beams
should, when possible, be of one piece.
Where this cannot be effected, two or
more beams are connected together by
splicing. Spliced beams are never so
strong as whole ones, yet they may be
made to approach the same strength, by
affixing lateral pieces, or by making the
ends overlay each other, and connecting
them with bolts and straps of iron. The
tendency to separate is also resisted, by
letting the two pieces into each other, by
the process called scarfing. Mortises, in-
tended to truss or suspend one piece by
another, should be formed upon similar
principles. Roofs in the U. States, after
being boarded, receive a secondary cover-
ing of shingles. When intended to be in-
combustible, they are covered with slates
or earthen tiles, or with sheets of lead,
copper or tinned iron. Slates are prefer-
able to tiles, being lighter, and absorbing
less moisture. Metallic sheets are chiefly
used for flat roofs, wooden domes, and
curved and angular surfaces, which re-
quire a flexible material to cover them, or
have not a sufficient pitch to shed the rain
from slates or shingles. Various artificial
compositions are occasionally used to cover
roofs, the most common of which are
mixtures of tar with lime, and sometimes
with sand and gravel.-Styles of building.
The architecture of different countries has
been characterized by peculiarities in ex-
ternal form, and in modes of construction.
These peculiarities, among ancient na-
tions, were so distinct, that their struc-
tures may be identified even in the state
of ruins; and the origin and era of each
may be conjectured with tolerable accu-
racy. Before we proceed to describe ar-
chitectural objects, it is necessary to ex-
plain certain terms, which are used to
denote their different constituent portions.
The architectural orders will be spoken
of under the head of the Grecian and
Roman styles, but their component parts
ought previously to be understood. The
front or façade of a building, made after
the ancient models, or any portion of it,
may present three parts, occupying dif-
ferent heights.-The pedestal is the lower
part, usually supporting a column. The
single pedestal is wanting in most antique
structures, and its place supplied by a
stylobate. The stylobate is either a plat-
form with steps, or a continuous pedestal,
supporting a row of columns. The lower
part of a finished pedestal is called the
plinth ;* the middle part is the die, and the
upper part the cornice of the pedestal, or
surbase. The column is the middle part,
situated upon the pedestal or stylobate.
It is commonly detached from the wall,
but is sometimes buried in it for half its
diameter, and is then said to be engaged.
Pilasters are square or flat columus, at-
tached to walls. The lower part of a
column, when distinct, is called the base;
the middle, or longest part, is the shaft;
and the upper, or ornamented part, is the
capital. The height of columns is meas-
ured in diameters of the column itself,
taken always at the base.-The entabla-
ture is the horizontal, continuous portion,
which rests upon the top of a row of col-
umus. The lower part of the entablature
is called the architrave, or epistylium.
The middle part is the frieze, which, from
its usually containing sculpture, was call-
ed zophorus by the ancients. The upper,
or projecting part, is the cornice.—A pedi-
ment is the triangular face, produced by
the extremity of a roof. The middle, or
flat portion, enclosed by the cornice of the
pediment, is called the tympanum. Ped-
estals for statues, erected on the summit
and extremities of a pediment, are called
acroteria. An attic is an upper part of a
building, terminated at top by a horizon-
tal line, instead of a pediment.-The dif
ferent mouldings in architecture are de-
scribed from their scctions, or from the
profile which they present, when cut
across. Of these, the torus is a convex
moulding, the section of which is a senti-
circle or nearly so. The astragal is like
the torus, but smaller. The ovolo is con-
vex, but its outline is only the quarter of
à circle. The echinus resembles the
ovolo, but its outline is spiral, not circu-
lar. The scotia is a deep, concave mould-
ing. The cavetto is also concave, and oc-
cupying but a quarter of a circle. The
cymatium is an undulated moulding, of
which the upper part is concave, and the
lower convex. The ogee or talon is an
inverted cymatium. The fillet is a small,
square or flat moulding.f-In architec-
tural measurement, a diameter means the
*The name plinth, in its general sense, is appli-
ed to any square, projecting basis, such as those at
the bottom of walls, and under the base of columns.
+ By a singular mixture of derivations, the Greek,
Latin, Italian, French and English languages are
laid under contribution for the technical terms of
architecture.
ARCHITECTURE.
width of a column at the base. A module
is half a diameter. A minute is a 60th
part of a diaineter.-In representing edi-
fices by drawings, architects make use of
the plan, elevation, section and perspec-
tive. The plan is a map, or design, of a
horizontal surface, showing the ichno-
graphic projection, or ground-work, with
the relative position of walls, columns,
doors, &c. The elevation is the ortho-
graphic projection of a front, or vertical
surface; this being represented, not as it
is actually seen in perspective, but as it
would appear if seen from an infinite dis-
tance. The section shows the interior of
a building, supposing the part in front of
an intersecting plane to be removed.
The perspective shows the building as it
actually appears to the eye, subject to the
laws of scenographic perspective. The
three former are used by architects for
purposes of admeasurement; the latter is
used also by painters, and is capable of
bringing more than one side into the same
view, as the eye actually perceives them.-
As the most approved features in modern
architecture are derived from buildings
which are more or less ancient, and as
many of these buildings are now in too
dilapidated a state to be easily copied, re-
course is had to such imitative restora-
tions, in drawings and models, as can be
made out from the fragments and ruins
which remain. In consequence of the
known simplicity and regularity of most
antique edifices, the task of restoration is
less difficult than might be supposed.
The ground-work, which is commonly
extant, shows the length and breadth of
the building, with the position of its walls,
doors and columns. A single column,
whether standing or fallen, and a frag-
ment of the entablature, furnish data from
which the remainder of the colonnade,
and the height of the main body, can be
made out. A single stone from the cor-
nice of the pediment is often sufficient to
give the angle of inclination, and, conse-
quently, the height of the roof. In this
way, beautiful restorations are obtained
of structures, when in so ruinous a state
as scarcely to have left one stone upon
another. We come now to the different
styles of architecture.-I. Egyptian style.
In ancient Egypt, a style of building pre-
vailed, more massive and substantial than
any which has succeeded it. The ele-
mentary features of Egyptian architec-
ture were chiefly as follows: 1. Their
walls were of great thickness, and sloping
on the outside. This feature is supposed
to have been derived from the mud walls,
339
mounds and caverns of their ancestors.
2. The roofs and covered ways were flat,
or without pediments, and composed of
blocks of stone, reaching from one wall
or column to another. The principle of
the arch, although known to them, was
seldom, if ever, employed by them. 3.
Their columns were numerous, close,
short, and very large, being sometimes 10
or 12 feet in diameter. They were gen-
erally without bases, and had a great va-
riety of capitals, from a simple square
block, ornamented with hieroglyphics, or
faces, to an elaborate composition of palm-
leaves, not unlike the Corinthian capital.
4. They used a sort of concave entabla-
ture, or cornice, composed of vertical flut-
ings, or leaves, and a winged globe in the
centre. 5. Pyramids, well known for
their prodigious size, and obelisks, com-
posed of a single stone, often exceeding
70 feet in height, are structures' peculiarly
Egyptian. 6. Statues of enormous size,
sphinxes carved in stone, and sculptures
in outline of fabulous deities and animals,
with innumerable hieroglyphics, are the
decorative objects which belong to this
style of architecture. The architecture
of the ancient Hindoos appears to have
been derived from the same original ideas
as the Egyptian. The most remarkable
relics of this people are their subterrane-
ous temples, of vast size and elaborate
workmanship, carved out of the solid
rock, at Elephanta, Ellora and Salsette.-
II. The Chinese style. The ancient Tar-
tars, and wandering shepherds of Asia,
appear to have lived from time immemo-
rial in tents, a kind of habitation adapted
to their erratic life. The Chinese have
made the tent the elementary feature of
their architecture; and of their style any
one may form an idea, by inspecting the
figures which are depicted upon common
China ware. Chinese roofs are concave
on the upper side, as if made of can-
vass, instead of wood. A Chinese portico
is not unlike the awnings spread over
shop windows in summer time. The
verandah, sometimes copied in dwell-
ing houses, is a structure of this sort.
The Chinese towers and pagodas have
concave roofs, like awnings, projecting
over their several stories. The lightness
of the style used by the Chinese leads
them to build with wood, sometimes with
brick, and seldom with stone.-III. The
Grecian style. Grecian architecture, from
which have been derived the most splen-
did structures of later ages, had its origin
in the wooden hut or cabin, formed of
posts set in the earth, and covered with
340
ARCHITECTURE.
transverse poles and rafters. Its begin-
nings were very simple, being little more
than imitations in stone of the original
posts and beams. By degrees, these were
modified and decorated, so as to give rise
to the distinction of what are now called
the orders of architecture.-By the archi-
tectural orders are understood certain
modes of proportioning and decorating
the column and its entablature. They
were in use during the best days of
Greece and Rome, for a period of 6 or 7
centuries. They were lost sight of in the
dark ages, and again revived by the Ital-
ians, at the time of the restoration of let-
ters. The Greeks had 3 orders, called
the Doric, Ionic and Corinthian. These
were adopted and modified by the Ro-
mans, who also added 2 others, called
the Tuscan and Composite.-The Doric is
the earliest and most massive order of the
Greeks. It is known by its large columns
with plain capitals; its triglyphs resem-
bling the ends of beams, and its mutules
corresponding to those of rafters. The
column, in the cxamples at Athens, is
about G diameters in height. In the older
examples, as those at Paestum, it is but 4
or 5. The shaft had no base, but stood
directly on the stylobate. It had 20 flut-
ings, which were superficial, and separat-
ed by angular edges. The perpendicular
outline was ncarly straight. The Doric
capital was plain, being formed of a few
annulets or rings, a large echinus, and a
flat stone at top called the abacus. The
architrave was plain; the frieze was in-
tersected by oblong projections called
triglyphs, divided into 3 parts by vertical
furrows, and ornamented beneath by
gutla, or drops. The spaces between the
triglyphs were called metopes, and com-
monly contained sculptures. The sculp-
tures representing Centaurs and Lapithe,
carried by lord Elgin to London, were
metopes of the Parthenon, or temple of
Minerva, at Athens. The cornice of the
Doric order consisted of a few large
mouldings, having on their under side a
series of square, sloping projections, re-
sembling the ends of rafters, and called
mutules. These were placed over both
triglyphs and metopes, and were orna-
mented, on their under side, with circular
gutta. The best specimens of the Doric
order are found in the Parthenon, the
Propylæa and the temple of Theseus, at
Athens.-The Ionic is a lighter order than
the Doric, its column being 8 or 9 di-
ameters in height. It had a base often
composed of a torus, a scotia and a second
torus, with intervening fillets. This is
called the Attic base. Others were used
in different parts of Greece. The shaft
had 24, or more, flutings, which were
arated by a fillet or square edge. The
narrow, as deep as a semicircle, and sep-
capital of this order consisted of 2 parallel
double scrolls, called volutes, occupying
opposite sides, and supporting an abacus,
which was nearly square, but moulded at
its edges. These volutes have been con-
sidered as copied from ringlets of hair, or
perhaps from the horns of Jupiter Am-
'mon. When a column made the angle
of an edifice, its volutes were placed, not
upon opposite, but on contiguous sides,
each fronting outward. In this
In this case, the
volutes interfered with each other at the
comer, and were obliged to assume a di-
agonal direction. The Ionic entablature
consisted of an architrave and frieze,
which were continuous or unbroken, and
a cornice of various successive mouldings,
at the lower part of which was often a
row of dentels, or square teeth. The ex-
amples at Athens, of the Ionic order, are
the temple of Erectheus, and the temple
on the Ilissus, which was standing in Stu-
art's time, 70 years since, but is now ex-
tinct.-The Corinthian was the lightest
and most decorated of the Grecian orders.
Its base resembled that of the Ionic, but
was more complicated. The shaft was
often 10 diameters in height, and was
fluted like the Ionic. The capital was
shaped like an inverted bell, and covered
on the outside with two rows of leaves of
the plant acanthus,* above which were &
pairs of small volutes. Its abacus was
moulded and concave on its sides, and
truncated at the corners, with a flower on
the centre of each side. The entablature
of the Corinthian order resembled that of
the Ionic, but was more complicated and
ornamented, and had, under the cornice,
a row of large, oblong projections, bearing
a leaf or scroll on their under side, and
called modillions. No vestiges of this or-
der are now found in the remains of Cor-
inth, and the most legitimate example at
Athens is in the choragic monument of
Lysicrates. The Corinthian order was
much employed in the subsequent struc-
tures of Rome and its colonies.-Caryat-
ides. The Greeks sometimes departed
so far from the strict use of the orders, as
to introduce statues, in the place of col-
umns, to support the entablature. Statues
* The origin of the Corinthian capital has been
ascribed to the sculptor Callimachus, who is said
oped in leaves of acanthus. A more probable
position traces its origin to some of the Egyptian
oped in leaves of acanthus. A more probable sup-
capitals, which it certainly resembles.
ARCHITECTURE.
of slaves, heroes and gods appear to have
been employed, occasionally, for this pur-
pose.
The principal specimen of this
kind of architecture, which remains, is in
a portico called Pandroseum, attached to
the temple of Erectheus, at Athens, in
which statues of Carian females, called
Caryatides, are substituted for columns.
One of these statues has been carried to
London.-Grecian temple. The most re-
markable public edifices of the Greeks
were their temples. These being intend-
ed as places of resort for the priests, rather
than for the convening of assemblies with-
in, were, in general, obscurely lighted.
Their form was commonly that of an ob-
long square, having a colonnade without,
and a walled cell within. The cell was
usually without windows, receiving its
light only from a door at the end, and
sometimes from an opening in the roof.
The part of the colonnade which formed
the front portico, was called the pronaos,
and that which formed the back part, the
posticus. The colonnade was subject to
great variety in the number and disposi-
tion of its columns, from which Vitruvius
has described 7 different species of tem-
ples. These were, 1. The temple with
anta. In this, the front was composed of
pilasters, called antæ, on the sides, and 2
columns in the middle. 2. The prostyle.
This had a row of columns at one end
only. 3. The amphiprostyle, having a row
of columns at each end. 4. The peripteral
temple. This was surrounded by à sin-
gle row of columns, having 6 in front and
in rear, and 11, counting the angular col-
umns, on each side. 5. The dipteral, with
a double row of columns all round the
cell, the front consisting of 8. 6. The
6. The
pseudo-dipteral differs from the dipteral,
in having a single row of columns on the
sides, at the same distance from the cell
as if the temple had been dipteral. 7. The
hypethral temple had the centre of its roof
open to the sky. It was colonnaded with-
out, like the dipteral, but had 10 columns
in front. It had also an internal colon-
nade, called peristyle, on both sides of the
open space, and composed of 2 stories or
colonnades, one above the other.-Tem-
ples, especially small ones, were some-
times made of a circular forin. When
these were wholly open, or without a
cell, they were called monopteral temples.
When there was a circular cell within
the colonnade, they were called perip-
teral.* The theatre of the Greeks, which
*The intercolumniation, or distance between the
columns, according to Vitruvius, was differently ar-
ranged under the following names-In the pycno-
341
was afterwards copied by the Romans,
was built in the form of a horse-shoe,
being semicircular on one side, and
square on the other. The semicircular
part, which contained the audience, was
filled with concentric seats, ascending
from the centre to the outside. In the
middle, or bottom, was a semicircular
floor, called the orchestra. The opposite,
or square part, contained the actors.
Within this was erected, in front of the
audience, a wall, ornamented with col-
umns and sculpture, called the scena
The stage, or floor, between this part and
the orchestra, was called the proscenium.
Upon this floor was often erected a mova-
ble wooden stage, called, by the Romans,
pulpitum. The ancient theatre was open
to the sky, but a temporary awning was
erected to shelter the audience from the
sun and rain.-Grecian architecture is
considered to have been in its greatest
perfection in the age of Pericles and
Phidias. The sculpture of this period is
admitted to have been superior to that of
any other age; and although architecture
is a more arbitrary art than sculpture, yet
it is natural to conclude, that the state of
things, which gave birth to excellence in
the one, must have produced a corre-
sponding power of conceiving sublimity
and beauty in the other. Grecian archi-
tecture was, in general, distinguished by
simplicity of structure, fewness of parts,
absence of arches, lowness of pediments
and roofs, and by decorative curves, the
outline of which was a spiral line, or con-
ic section, and not a circular arc, as after-
wards adopted by the Romans.-IV. Ro-
man style. Roman architecture had its
origin in copies of the Greek models.
All the Grecian orders were introduced
into Rome, and variously modified. Their
number was augmented by the addition
of 2 new orders-the Tuscan and the
Composite.-The order derived from the
ancient Etruscans is not unlike the Doric
deprived of its triglyphs and mutules. It
had a simple base, containing 1 torus. Its
column was 7 diameters in height, with
an astragal below the capital. Its entab-
lature, somewhat like the Ionic, consisted
of plain, running surfaces. There is no
vestige of this order among ancient ruins,
and the modern examples of it are taken
from the descriptions of Vitruvius.-The
Romans modified the Doric order by in-
creasing the height of its column to 8 di-
style, the columns were a diameter and a half apart;
in the systyle, they were 2 diameters apart; in the
diastyle, 3; in the aræostyle, more than 3; in the
eustyle, 24.
29**
342
ARCHITECTURE.
ameters. Instead of the echinus, which
formed the Grecian capital, they employ-
ed the ovolo, with an astragal and neck
below it. They placed triglyphs over the
centre of columns, not at the corners, and
used horizontal mutules, or introduced
foreign ornaments in their stead. The
theatre of Marcellus has examples of the
Roman Doric.-The Romans diminished
the size of the vòlutes in the Ionic order.
They also introduced a kind of lonic cap-
ital, in which there were 4 pairs of diag
onal volutes, instead of 2 pairs of parallel
ones. This they usually added to parts
of some other capital; but, at the present
day, it is often used alone, under the name
of modern Ionic.-The Composite order
was made by the Romans out of the Co-
rinthian, simply by combining its capital
with that of the diagonal, or modern Ionic.
Its best example is found in the arch of
Titus. The favorite order, however, in
Rome and its colonies, was the Corinthi-
an, and it is this order which prevails,
among the ruins, not only of Rome, but
of Nismes, Pola, Palmyra and Balbec.-
The temples of the Romans sometimes
resembled those of the Greeks, but often
differed from them. The Pantheon, which
is the most perfectly preserved temple of
the Augustan age, is a circular building,
lighted only from an aperture in the
dome, and having a Corinthian portico in
front. The amphitheatre differed from the
theatre, in being a completely circular,
or rather elliptical building, filled on all
sides with ascending seats for spectators,
and leaving only the central space, called
the arena, for the combatants and public
shows. The Coliseum is a stupendous
structure of this kind. The aqueducts
were stone canals, supported on massive
arcades, and conveying large streams of
water, for the supply of cities. The tri-
umphal arches were commonly solid, ob-
long structures, ornamented with sculp-
tures, and open with lofty arches for
passengers below. The basilica of the
Romans was a hall of justice, used also as
an exchange, or place of meeting for mer-
chants. It was lined on the inside with
colonnades of 2 stories, or with 2 tiers of
columns, one over the other. The carliest
Christian churches at Rome were some-
times called basilica, from their possessing
an internal colonnade. The monumental
pillars were towers in the shape of a col-
umn on a pedestal, bearing à statue on
the summit, which was approached by a
spiral staircase within. Sometimes, how-
ever, the column was solid. The therma,
or baths, were vast structures, in which
་
multitudes of people could bathe at once.
They were supplied with warm and cold
water, and fitted up with numerous rooms
for purposes of exercise and recreation.-
In several particulars, the Roman copies
differed from the Greek models on which
they were founded. The stylobate or
substructure, among the Greeks, was
usually a plain succession of platforms,
constituting an equal access of steps to all
sides of the building. Among the Ro-
mans, it became an elevated structure,
like a continued pedestal, accessible by
steps only at one end. The spiral curve
of the Greeks was exchanged for the ge-
ometrical circular arc, as exemplified in
the substitution of the ovolo for the echi-
nus in the Doric capital. The changes in
the orders have been already mentioned.
After the period of Adrian, Roman ar-
chitecture is considered to have been on
the decline. Among the marks of a de-
teriorated style, introduced in the later
periods, were columns with pedestals,
columns supporting arches, convex fricz-
es, entablatures squared so as to represent
the continuation of the columns, pedestals
for statues projecting from the sides of
columns, niches covered with little pedi-
ments, &c.-V. Greco-Gothic style. After
the dismemberment of the Roman cm-
pire, the arts degenerated so far, that a
custom became prevalent of erecting new
buildings with the fragments of old ones,
which were dilapidated and torn down
for the purpose. This gave rise to an ir-
regular style of building, which continued
to be imitated, especially in Italy, during
the dark ages. It consisted of Grecian
and Roman details, combined under new
forms, and piled up into structures wholly
unlike the antique originals. Hence the
names Greco-Gothic and Romanesque ar-
chitecture have been given to it. It fre-
quently contained arches upon columns,
forming successive arcades, which were
accumulated above each other to a great
height. The effect was sometimes im-
posing. The cathedral and leaning
tower, at Pisa, and the church of St.
Mark, at Venice, are cited as the best
specimens of this style. The Saxon ar-
chitecture, used anciently in England,
has some things in common with this
style.-VI. Saracenic, or Moorish style.
The edifices erected by the Moors and
Saracens in Spain, Egypt and Turkey
are distinguished, among other things, by a
peculiar form of the arch. This is a curve,
constituting more than half of a circle or
ellipse. This construction of the arch is
unphilosophical, and comparatively inse-
ARCHITECTURE.
cure. A similar peculiarity exists in the
domes of the Oriental mosques, which
are sometimes large segments of a sphere,
appearing as if inflated, and, at other
times, concavo-convex in their outline, as
in the mosque of Achmet. The minaret
is a tall, slender tower, peculiar to Turk-
ish architecture. A peculiar flowery deco-
ration, called arabesque, is common in the
Moorish buildings of Europe and Africa.
Some distinguish the Arabian style, form-
ed after the Greek, and the Moorish, form-
ed after the remains of the Roman build-
ings in Spain, which seems a good division.
With regard to the latter, nobody can be
hold the remains of the Moorish buildings
at Grenada, Seville and Cordova, without
admiration. The Arabian style is particu-
larly distinguished by light decorations and
splendor.—VII. Gothic style. By this style
is generally understood what is strictly
called the modern Gothic, which flourished
after the destruction of the Gothic king-
dom by the Arabians and Moors. The
old Gothic style, which probably origina-
ted under Theodoric, king of the Ostro-
goths, during whose reign in Italy the
Romans, with little sense of beauty, inn-
tated the ancient Roman style, is coarse
and heavy. The style now called Gothic
exhibits a wonderful grandeur and splen-
dor, and, at the same time, the most accu-
rate execution; yet it is only in modern
times that its great master-pieces, as the
minster of Strasburg, the cathedral of Co-
logne, &c., have begun to be justly appre-
ciated. Very great attention is, at pres-
ent, paid to the study of this style. Its
principle seems to have originated in the
imitation of groves and bowers, under
which the Druids performed their sacred
rites. Its striking characteristics are, its
pointed arches, its pinnacles and spires,
its large buttresses, clustered pillars,
vaulted roofs, profusion of ornaments, the
general predominance of the perpendicu-
lar over the horizontal, and, in the whole,
its lofty, bold spirit. As the common
place for the display of Gothic architect-
ure has been in ecclesiastical edifices, it
is necessary to understand the usual plan
and construction of these buildings. A
church or cathedral is commonly built in
the form of a cross, having a tower, lan-
tern or spire, crected at the place of inter-
section. The part of the cross situated
toward the west is called the nave. The
opposite or eastern part is called the choir,
and within this is the chancel. The
transverse portion, forming the arms of
the cross, is called the transept. Any high
building erected above the roof is called
343
a steeple; if square-topped, it is a tower;
if long and acute, a spire; and, if short
Towers of great
and light, a lantern.
height in proportion to their diameter are
called turrets. The walls of Gothic
churches are supported, on the outside,
by lateral projections, extending from top
to bottom, at the corners, and between
the windows. These are called buttresses,
and they are rendered necessary to pre-
vent the walls from spreading under the
enormous weight of the roofs. On the
tops of the buttresses, and elsewhere, are
slender pyramidal structures, or spires,
called pinnacles. These are ornamented
on their sides with rows of projections,
appearing like leaves or buds, which are
named crockets. The summit, or upper
edge of a wall, if straight, is called a par-
Gothic
apet; if indented, a battlement.
windows were commonly crowned with
an acute arch. They were long and nar-
row, or, if wide, were divided into perpen-
dicular lights by mullions. The lateral
spaces on the upper and outer side of the
arch are called spandrells; and the orna-
ments in the top, collectively taken, are
the tracery. An oriel, or bay window, is a
projecting window. A wheel, or rose win-
dow, is large and circular. A corbel is a
bracket, or short projection from a wall,
serving to sustain a statue, or the spring-
ing of an arch. Gothic pillars or columns
are usually clustered, appearing as if a
number were bound together. The single
shafts, thus connected, are called boltels.
They are confined chiefly to the inside of
buildings, and never support any thing,
like an entablature. Their use is to aid
in sustaining the vaults under the roof,
which rest upon them at springing points.
Gothic vaults intersect each other, form-
ing angles called groins. The parts which
are thrown out of the perpendicular, to
assist in forming them, are the pendentives.
The ornamented edge of the groined
vault, extending diagonally, like an arch,
from one support to another, is called the
ogyve. The Gothic term gable indicates
the erect end of a roof, and answers to
the Grecian pediment, but is more acute.
The Gothic style of building is more im-
posing, admits of richer ornaments, and is
more difficult to execute, than the Gre-
cian. This is because the weight of its
vaults and roofs is upheld, at a great
height, by supporters acting at single
points, and apparently but barely suffi-
cient to effect their object. Great me-
chanical skill is necessary in balancing
and sustaining the pressures; and archi-
tects, at the present day, find it often dif-
344
ARCHITECTURE-HISTORY OF ARCHITECTURE.
ficult to accomplish what was achieved
by the builders of the middle ages. In
edifices erected at the present day, the
Grecian and Gothic outlines are common-
ly employed to the exclusion of the rest.
In choosing between them, the fancy of
the builder, more than any positive rule
of fitness, must direct the decision. Mod-
ern dwelling-houses have necessarily a
style of their own, as far as stories and
apartments, and windows and chimneys,
can give them one. No more of the styles
of former ages can be applied to them, than
what may be called the unessential and
decorative parts. In general, the Grecian
style, from its right angles and straight
entablatures, is more convenient, and fits
better with the distribution of our com-
mon edifices, than the pointed and irreg-
ular Gothic. The expense, also, is gen-
erally less, especially if any thing like
thorough and genuine Gothic is attempt-
ed,—a thing, however, rarely undertaken,
as yet, in the U. States. But the occasion-
al introduction of the Gothic outline, and
the partial employment of its ornaments,
has undoubtedly an agreeable effect, both
in public and private edifices; and we are
indebted to it, among other things, for
the spire, a structure exclusively Gothic,
which, though often misplaced, has be-
come an object of general approbation,
and a pleasing landmark to cities and
villages. (For further information, see,
among other works, Bigelow's Technolo-
gy, Boston, 1829, p. 112-152, from which
the above article is extracted, with the
exception of the first paragraphi.)
ARCHITECTURE, history of. The first
habitations of men were such as nature
afforded, with but little labor on the part
of the occupant, and sufficient to satisfy
his simple wants,-huts, grottos and tents.
But as soon as men rose above the state
of rude nature, formed societies, and cul-
tivated the soil, they began to build more
durable and more commodious habitations.
They wrought the materials with more
care, fitted the parts together more closely
and neatly, prepared bricks of clay and
earth, which they first dried in the air,
and afterwards baked by the fire; they
smoothed stones, and joined them, at first
without cement. After they had learned
to build houses, they began to erect tem-
ples for their gods, who first dwelt with
them in caverns, huts and tents. These
temples were larger and more splendid
than the habitations of men. Thus archi-
tecture became a fine art, which was first
displayed on the temples; afterwards, on
the habitations of princes, and public
buildings, and, at last, with the progress of
wealth and refinement, became a univer-
sal want of society. The haughty palace
appeared in the place of the wretched hut
of reeds and clay; the rough trunk was
transformed into a lofty column, and the
natural vault of a cavern into the splen-
did Pantheon. Colonnades, halls, courts,
and various ornaments now appeared.
Stieglitz contends that the fundamental
forms of the ancient Egyptian and Gre-
cian architecture probably originated in
structures of stone, and not from those of
wood, as Hirt maintains in his History of
the Architecture of the Ancients. The
most ancient buildings of the Indians
were modelled on the structure of cav-
erns. To the most ancient nations known
to us, among whom architecture had
made some progress, belong the Babylo-
nians, whose most celebrated buildings
were the temple of Belus, the palace
and the hanging gardens of Semira-
mis; the Assyrians, whose capital, Nine-
veh, was rich in splendid buildings; the
Phoenicians, whose cities, Sidon, Tyre,
Aradus and Sarepta, were adorned with
equal magnificence; the Israelites, whose
temple was considered as a wonder of
architecture; the Syrians and the Philis-
tines. No architectural monument of
these nations has, however, been trans-
mitted to us. But we find subterraneous
temples of the Hindoos, hewn out of the
solid rock, upon the islands Elephanta
and Salsetta. Of the Persian architecture,
the ruins of Persepolis still remain; of the
Egyptian, obelisks, pyramids, temples,
palaces, sepulchres; of the Etruscan, some
sepulchires and portions of city-walls.-
The character of this elder architecture
was immovable firmness, gigantic height,
prodigal splendor, which excited admira-
tion and astonishment, but comparatively
little pleasure. The Greeks were the first
who passed from the rough and gigantic
to a noble simplicity and dignity. The
Doric order of columns characterizes
this first period. The greatest masters,
Phidias, Irtinus, Callicrates and others,
encouraged and supported by Pericles,
emulated each other, as soon as pcace at
home and abroad was restored.
beautiful temple of Minerva was erected
upon the Acropolis of Athens, also the
Propyleum, the Odeum, and other splen-
did buildings. An equal taste for the arts
arose in the Peloponnesus and in Asia
Minor. A high degree of simplicity was
united with majestic grandeur and ele-
gance of form. The beauties of archi-
tecture were displayed not only in tem-
The
HISTORY OF ARCHITECTURE.
ples, but also in theatres, odeurs, colon-
nades, market-places and gymnasia. The
Ionic and Corinthian columns were added
to the Doric. At the end of the Pelopon-
nesian war, the perfection of architecture
was gone. A noble simplicity had given
place to excess of ornament. This was
the character of the art at the time of
Alexander, who founded a number of
new cities. But a strict regularity hith-
erto prevailed in the midst of this over-
charged decoration. After the death of
Alexander, 323 B. C., the increasing love
of gaudy splendor hastened the decline of
the art more and more. In Greece, it was
afterwards but little cultivated, and, in the
edifices of the Seleucide in Asia, and of
the Ptolemies in Egypt, an impure taste
prevailed. The Romans had no temples,
or similar public edifices, equal to the
Grecian master-pieces, although they had
early applied their industry to other ob-
jects of architecture, viz., to aqueducts
and sewers.
The capitol and the temple
of the capitoline Jupiter were erected by
Etruscan architects. But, soon after the
second Punic war, 200 B. C., they became
acquainted with the Greeks. Sylla was
the first who introduced the Grecian ar-
chitecture to Rome; and he, as also Marius
and Cæsar, erected large temples in this
aud in other cities. But under Augustus
the art first rose to the perfection of which
it was capable at that time. He encour-
aged the Greek artists, who had exchang-
cd their country for Rome, and erected,
partly from policy, many splendid works
of architecture. Agrippa built temples
(the Pantheon), aqueducts and theatres.
Private habitations were adorned with
columns and marble. Splendid villas
were built, of which the rich Romans
often possessed several. The interior was
adorned with works of art, obtained from
Greece. The walls were covered with
thin marble plates, or were painted, and
divided into panes, in the middle of which
were represented mythological or histori-
cal subjects. They were also surrounded
with the most elegant borders. These
borders were what we call grotesques.
Almost all the successors of Augustus
embellished the city more or less, erected
splendid palaces and temples, and adorned,
like Adrian, even the conquered countries
with them. Constantine the Great trans-
ferred the imperial residence from Rome
to Constantinople, so that nothing more
was done for the embellishment of Rome.
-But, at the time when the Romans re-
ceived the art from the Greeks, it had
already lost, among the latter, its perfec-
345
tion and purity. In Rome, it rose, indeed,
in a short time, to its former height, but
soon degenerated, with the continually-
increasing magnificence of the emperors,
About
into extravagance of ornament.
this time, the Roman or Composite column
originated, which was employed in tem-
ples and splendid buildings. In the time
of Nero, whose golden palace is celebra-
ted, the exterior and interior of the build-
ings were profusely adorned. Adrian,
who encouraged artists as much as possi-
ble, was not able to restore a noble and
simple taste in architecture. Instead of
imitating the beautiful models already
existing, the endeavor, in his time, was to
invent new styles, and to embellish the
beautiful more and more. Now originated
the many curved and twisted ornaments,
the high pedestal under the columns, the
numerous bass-reliefs on the exterior of
buildings, the flutings of the columns, the
reduction of the same according to a
curved line, the coupled columns, the
reduced pilasters behind the columns, the
small columns between larger ones, the
round and cut pediments, and the concave
friezes. Thus the art was practised from
the time of Vespasian to the reign of the
Antonines. Works were produced, in this
period, which may still be considered as
master-pieces, but which want the great
and noble style of the Greeks. In the
provinces, taste became still more corrupt.
Architecture declined continually after
the Antonines; more ornaments were
continually added, which is proved par-
ticularly by the arch of the goldsmiths, so
called, in Rome. Alexander Severus, in-
deed, himself a connoisseur, did some-
thing for its improvement, but it rapidly
declined under his successors. The build-
ings of this time are either overcharged
with mean and trifling ornaments, as those
of Palmyra, erected about 260 A. D., or
they border on the rude, like those of
Rome, erected under Constantine. Little
was done, under the following emperors,
for the embellishment of the cities, on
account of the continually disturbed state
of the empire. Justinian, however, built
much. His principal edifice was the
church of St. Sophia, at Constantinople.
The beautiful works of ancient architect-
ure were almost entirely destroyed by the
Goths, Vandals, and other barbarians, in
Italy, Spain, Greece, Asia and Africa;
and whatever escaped destruction re-
mained in neglect. Theodoric, king of
the Ostrogoths, a friend of the arts, en-
deavored to preserve and restore the an-
cient buildings, and even erected several
346
HISTORY OF ARCHITECTURE.
new ones, the ruins of which are still to
be seen in Ravenna and Verona. We
may consider this period as the era of the
origin of modern art. We see a new style
taking place of the ancient classical ar-
chitecture, and eventually extending as far
as the conquests of the Goths, through
Italy, France, Spain, Portugal, a part of
Germany, and even to England, whither,
however, the Goths did not penetrate.
Whether this modern architecture, which
is called Gothic, originated from the Ger-
mans, is not decided. We find, in the
buildings erected under Theodoric, noth-
ing attempted but simplicity, strength,
and the display of national taste in their
exterior (the interior is unknown to us).
But the buildings erected during the
Lombard dominion in Italy (from 568),
and all the monastic architecture of that
time, have been erroneously called Gothic.
Since the error was perceived, it has been
distinguished, by the name of the old
Gothic, from the proper Gothic, which is
called the modern Gothic. The Lombards
entertained no respect for antiquities,
and neither spared nor preserved them.
Whatever they built was tasteless and
faulty. On the exterior of their churches
they placed small semicircular columns;
and small pillars in a row along the cor-
nice of the pediments; in the interior,
coarse pillars united by semicircular
arches; the small windows and doors
were finished with semicircles; the col-
umns, capitals and arches were often
overlaid with incongruous sculpture; the
roofs of the naves covered with beams
and boards, which were afterwards
changed into arches, and, on this account,
often required arched buttresses on the
outside. This Lombard style in archi-
tecture clearly proves the decline of sci-
ence and art. It was employed, in the 17th
century, in Pavia, the chief city of the
Lombard kingdom, in the erection of the
churches of St. Jolin and St. Michael; at
Parma, in the church of St. John; at
Bergamo, in the church of St. Julia; in
the chapel of Altenötting, in Bavaria; in
the castle of Nuremberg, in the Scottish
church at Ratisbon, &c. The architects
driven from Constantinople (Byzantium)
were the first who combined with it the use
of the Ionic pedestals and columns, pro-
vided with capitals formed according to
their own taste, among which were twist-
ed ones. In this Lombard-Byzantine style
were erected the cathedrals of Bamberg,
Worms and Mentz, also the church Min
iato al Monte, near Florence, and the
most ancient part of the minster of Stras-
burg. Cupolas were afterwards added,
as used in the East, and these, as well as
the tasteless capitals, and the many slen-
der pillars and minarets, of which we
often see 2 rows, one on another, indicate
the proper Byzantine or Oriental style of
architecture. In this style were erected,
besides the church of St. Sophia in Con-
stantinople, and others, the church of St.
Mark, in Venice, the Baptisterium and
the cathedral of Pisa, and the church of
St. Vitalis, in Ravenna. The Normans,
who had settled in Sicily, built the cathe-
dral of Messina upon the foundation of
an old temple,-a huge but tasteless edi-
fice, in which, by means of the changes
made in different centuries, we may
observe, at the same time, the rise and
fall of the art. The Vandals, Alans, Suevi
and Visigoths had penetrated into Spain
and Portugal: the Arabs and Moors ex-
pelled them in the 8th century, and de-
stroyed the kingdom of the Goths. The
Mussulman conquerors had, at that time,
almost exclusive possession of the arts
and sciences. Saracen architects rose in
Greece, Italy, Sicily, and other countries:
after some time, many Christians, partic-
ularly Greeks, joined them, and formed
together a fraternity, who kept secret the
rules of their art, and whose members
recognised one another by particular
signs. (See Freemasons.) At this peri-
od, three different styles of architecture
prevailed-the Arabian, a peculiar style,
formed after Greck models; the Moor-
ish, which originated in Spain, out of
the remains of Roman edifices; and the
modern Gothic, which originated in the
kingdom of the Visigoths, in Spain,
through the mixture of the Arabian and
Moorish architecture, and flourished from
the 11th until the 15th century. The 2
first styles differ but little from each other:
the Moorish style is principally distin-
guished from the Arabian by arches in
the form of a horse-shoe. But the Gothic,
or old Gernan, is very different. Swin-
burne mentions the following marks of dis-
tinction: The Gothic arches are pointed;
the Arabian, circular: the Gothic churches
have pointed and straight towers; the
mosques terminate in globes, and have
here and there minarets, covered with a
ball or a cone: the Arabian walls are
adorned with Mosaic and stucco, which
we find in no ancient church in the
Gothic style. The Gothic columns often
stand united in groups, over which is
placed a very low entablature, upon which
arches are erected; or the arches stand
immediately upon the capitals of the col-
HISTORY OF ARCHITECTURE.
umus. The Arabian and Moorish col-
umns are single, and if, by chance, they
are placed close together, in order to sup-
port a very heavy part of the building,
they never touch one another; but the
arches are supported by a stout and thick
arch below. If, in an Arabian building, 4
columns are united, it is by a low, square
wall at the bottom, between the columns.
The Gothic churches are extremely light
buildings: they have large windows, often
with variegated panes. In the Arabian
mosques, the ceiling is mostly low; their
windows are of less height, and often cov-
ered with carvings; so that the light is
received less through them than through
the cupola and the opened doors. The
entrance of a Gothic church is a deep
arch, diminishing towards the interior of
the building, and adorned on the side-
walls with statues, columns, niches and
other ornaments; but those of the mosques,
and of other Arabian, and even Moor-
ish buildings, are shallow, and made in the
same manner as doors are at present.
Besides, Swinburne observes, that, among
the different Arabian capitals which he
saw, he found none resembling, in design
and arrangement, those which we find in
the Gothic churches of England and
France. The Moorish architecture ap-
pears in all its splendor in the ancient
palace of the Mohammedan monarchs
at Grenada, which is called the Alhambra,
or red-house, and which resembles more a
fairy palace than a work of human hands.
The character of the Arabian architecture
was lightness and splendor. Rich orna-
ments, and lightness in the single parts,
render it agreeable to the eye. The
modern Gothic architecture, which origi-
nated in the attempts of Byzantine artists
to cover the coarseness and heaviness of
the old Gothic by an appearance of light-
ness, excites the imagination by its richly
adorned arches, its distant perspective,
and its religious dimness, produced by its
painted windows. It retained, from the
old Gothic architecture, the high, bold
arches, the firm and strong walls; but it
disguised them under volutes, flowers,
niches, little pierced towers, so that they
appear to be light and weak. Afterwards,
the architects went still farther, and
pierced the large, high towers, so that the
stairs appear hanging in the air; they
gave to the windows an extraordinary
height, and adorned the building itself
with statues. This style, in which many
churches, convents and abbeys were
erected, was formed in Spain, and thence
extended over France, England and Ger-
庸
​347
many.-The Germans were unacquainted
with architecture until the time of Char-
lemagne. He introduced from Italy to
Germany the Byzantine style, then com-
mon: Afterwards, the Arabian architect-
ure had some influence upon that of the
western nations; for the German art
shows its characteristics in the pointed
arches, and the buttresses, &c. This was
united with the Byzantine style, to which,
in general, they still adhered, and thus
originated a mixed style, which maintain-
ed itself until the middle of the 13th cen-
tury. Then began the modern Gothic or
German style, which we may also call
the romantic, since it was formed by the
romantic spirit of the middle ages. Grow-
ing up in Germany, it obtained its perfec-
tion in the towers of the minster of Stras-
burg (see Minster), in the cathedral of
Cologne, in the church of St. Stephen in
Vienna, the cathedral of Erfurt, the church
of St. Sebaldus in Nuremberg, the church
of St. Elizabeth in Marburg, &c., and
extended itself, from thence to France,
England, Spain and Italy. The Gernian
architecture shows also the influences of
climate and religion, particularly in the
churches. The slender columns, always
united in groups, rise to a lofty height,
resembling the giants of the grove, in
whose dark shade the ancient Teuton
used to build his altar. In the chiaro
oscuro of the dome, the soul, divested of
earthly thoughts, must collect itself, and
rise, like the dome, to its Maker. The
decorations of the ancient Christian
churches are by no means an accidental or-
nament. They speak a figurative, religious
language; and at the tabernacle, or cibori-
um, over the altar, where the pyx is kept,
the whole temple is presented, in minia-
ture, to the view of the beholder. In these
edifices, every one must admire the accu-
rate proportions, the bold yet regular con-
struction, the unwearied industry, the
grandeur of the bold masses on the exte-
rior, and the severe dignity in the inte-
rior, which excites feelings of devotion in
every spectator. We must, therefore,
ascribe to the German architecture more
symbolical than hieroglyphic eloquence
and dignity. (See Costenoble On old
German Architecture and its Origin, Halle,
1812; Rumohr's Fragments of a History
of Architecture, in Schlegel's German
Museum, 1813, March number, &c.) —
The Italians disengaged themselves, by
little and little, from the Byzantine taste.
Even in the 11th century, Byzantine
architects built the cathedral of Pisa and
the church of St. Mark in Venice. But,
348
HISTORY OF ARCHITECTURE-ARCHIVES.
J
in the 12th century, a German architect,
named William (Guglielmo), and, in the
13th, Jacob, with the surname Capo, who
died in 1262, and his pupil or son, Arnolf,
are mentioned as having built churches
and convents in Florence. The modern
Gothic style passed from the churches and
abbeys to the castles, palaces, bridges and
city gates, many of which were built in
this manner; e. g., in Milan, 16 city gates
of marble, and several new palaces; in
Padua, 7 bridges, and 3 new palaces; in
Genoa, 2 docks and a splendid aqueduct;
and the town of Asti, in 1280, alinost en-
tirely. Architecture was continually im-
proving in Italy, particularly in the 14th
century. Galeazzo Visconti finished the
great bridge at Pavia, and built a palace
which had not then its equal. About the
same time, the famous cathedral of Milan
was erected. The marquises of Este
erected handsome edifices at Ferrara, and
Albert the splendid palace at Belsiore.
In Bologna, the great church of St. Pe-
tronius was begun, and, in Florence, the
famous tower of the cathedral. The 15th
century, in which the study of ancient
architecture was revived, was greatly dis-
tinguished. The dukes of Ferrara, Bor-
so and Ercole of Este, were active pat-
rons of architecture. Duke Francesco
cmbellished Milan with the ducal palace,
the castle Porta di Giove, the hospital and
other edifices. Ludovico Sforza erected
the buildings of the university at Pavia
and the hospital of Milan. The popes
adorned Rome, and Lorenzo de' Medici,
Florence, with splendid buildings. The
artists returned to the monuments of an-
tiquity, and studied their beautiful forms
and just proportions. The most illustri-
ous architects of this time were Filippo
Brunelleschi, who built, at Florence, the
dome of the cathedral, the church S.
Spirito, and the palace Pitti, besides many
edifices at Milan, Pisa, Pesaro and Man-
tua; Battista Alberti, who wrote, at the
same time, on architecture; Michelozzi
Bramante, who commenced the building
of St. Peter's; Michael Angelo Buona-
rotti, who erected its magnificent dome;
and Giocondo, who built much in France,
and afterwards directed, with Raphael,
the building of the church of St. Peter's.
These were followed by others, who pro-
ceeded in their spirit-Palladio, Sca-
inozzi, Serlio, Barozzio, known by the
name of Vignola. They are the founders
of the existing taste in architecture. That,
however, they studied their art in those
works of antiquity which had already de-
viated from the early purity and elevated
grandeur, is evident in their buildings,
from the many curved and twisted orna-
ments, the circular, irregular and cut
pediments, the coupled columns, high
pedestals, and other things, which were
unknown to architecture at the time of
Pericles. Thus a new period in archi-
tecture had begun in Italy. Italian mas-
ters, and young artists sent to Italy, in-
troduced the Roman taste into foreign
countries, which gradually supplanted the
Gothic.-Since that time, architecture
has experienced different destinies in dif-
ferent countries. It has risen and de-
clined at different periods; yet laudable
attempts have been made, in recent times,
to advance it to its true perfection, though
we cannot affirm that they have succeed-
ed every where.-In America, the pure
Grecian architecture is gradually prevail-
ing, either because this style is founded
on plainer principles than the others, or
because the Grecian really deserves to
be called a republican style, since it is
better adapted than the Gothic to small
buildings, and does not require large and
splendid edifices (a great number of
which can never exist in a democracy),
in order to display all its beauty. (For
an account of modern architecture in dif-
ferent countries, see the respective arti-
cles.)
ARCHIVES; a collection of written doc-
uments, containing the rights, privileges,
claims, treaties, constitutions, &c., of a
family, corporation, community, city or
kingdom; also, the place where such
documents are kept. There are, accord-
ingly, private and public or state archives.
Archives were known among the most
ancient people. The Israelites, Greeks
and Romans had them in their temples,
and the Christians, at first, preserved im-
portant manuscripts with the sacred ves-
sels and relics, till proper places were
assigned to them. Those governments
which transact every thing by writing
have, of course, much larger archives than
others; thus the archives in every branch
of government in Prussia and Austria are
immense.-According to Wageinselius,
the archives of the German empire contain
very few documents before the time of
the emperor Rodolph of Hapsburg (who
was elected in 1273), or even of the sub-
sequent century. At the end of the 15th
century, and at the beginning of the 16th,
under Maximilian 1, the archives of the
empire received a new form, and have
been preserved with great care. Some
historians, (e. g., Schmidt, in his History of
the Germans), have made the most diligent
ARCHIVES—ARCOT.
and praiseworthy use of them.
The
modern archives of Prussia are excel-
lently arranged; probably none are so
complete in respect to statistical matters.
The English have been so careful in pre-
serving their archives, that other Euro-
pean nations have often found documents
highly important to themselves in Lon-
don. In France, the archives were dis-
persed all over the country till the revo-
lution, when, by law of Sept. 7, 1790, they
were put in a common place of deposit,
after a very large quantity of documents
had been destroyed. This immense col-
lection of public acts is now in the an-
cient hotel Soubise, au Marais, in Paris.
The laws of Oct. 10, 1792, and Feb. 20,
1793, put the whole management of the
archives on a systematic footing. In
1814, June 6, the archives of the navy
and the war departments were organized,
in order to preserve the historical docu-
ments, military memoirs, plans and maps,
&c. The archives of the U. States are
easily accessible, and proper recommen-
dation will open them to any one who
wants to use them for scientific purposes.
ARCHONS; the highest magistrates in
Athens. (See Attica.) The Jews, also,
had archons in their captivity.
ARCHYTAS of Tarentum; a famous
Pythagorean, renowned as a truly wise
man, a great mathematician, statesman
and general. He devoted himself, at
Metapontum, to the study of the Pythag-
orean philosophy. Being the contem-
porary of Plato (Olympiad 96; 400 B. C.),
he must have lived a century later than
Pythagoras, and was still alive when
Plato travelled to Sicily. Hence he can-
not be regarded as the instructer of Phi-
lolaus, who was older; and still less as
the immediate scholar of Pythagoras.
The invention of the analytic method in
mathematics is ascribed to him, as well
as the solution of many geometrical and
mechanical problems. He also construct-
ed an automaton (a flying pigeon). Per-
haps he was also the inventor of the cate-
gories in philosophy. It is, however, still
undecided whether Aristotle's work on
the ten categories is drawn from his work
or forged. Horace mentions him, in one
of his poems, as having been drowned
on the coast of Apulia.
ARCKENHOLZ, John, the historian, was
born, 1695, in Swedish Finland, and died
1777, at Stockholm. He wrote Mémoires
concernant Christine, Reine de la Suède,
Amsterdam, 1751-60, 4 vols. 4to.
ARÇON, Jean Claude Éléonore d', in-
ventor of the floating batteries for the
30
VOL. I.
349
attack of Gibraltar, born, 1732, at Pontar-
lier, was designed for the church, but his
father, a lawyer, yielded to the decided
inclination of his son for military science.
He was received into the military school
at Mézières, 1754, and, the following
year, into the corps of engineers. In the
seven years' war, he highly distinguished
himself, particularly at the defence of
Cassel, in 1761. In 1774, he was em-
ployed in drawing a map of the Jura and
the Vosges, and, to expedite the labor, he
invented a new mode of shading, much
superior to the common one.
He was
gifted with an inventive imagination and
an unwearied activity. He wrote much,
and in all his writings, which are read
with pleasure in spite of their incorrect
style, we find a richness of ideas, and
traces of a splendid genius. In 1780, he
invented the floating batteries. The jeal-
ousy and disunion of the French and
Spanish generals alone prevented the
event from answering his expectation.
Elliot, who directed the defence of Gib-
raltar, did full justice to the inventor.-
At the invasion of Holland, under Du-
mouriez, he took several places, including
Breda. He then went into retirement,
where he wrote his last and best work,
the result of all the rest,-Considérations
Militaires et Politiques sur les Fortifica-
tions, (Military and Political Considera-
tions on Fortifications). The first consul
placed him in the senate in 1799, and he
died July 1, 1800.
ARCONA; the most northern point of
Germany (if Prussia Proper is not in-
cluded therein); the north-eastern prom-
ontory of the island Rügen, in the parish
Altenkirchen, upon the peninsula Wittow,
consisting of chalk, flint and petrifactions.
Here was formerly situated the old Van-
dal castle, with the chief temple of the
god Swantewit, who was highly ven-
erated by all the Sclavonians in North
Germany, and whose worship king Wol-
demar I of Denmark put an end to, by
capturing the castle, in 1168. The coun-
try is delightful and fertile. The shores
are precipitous and abrupt, and very pic-
turesque. In the vicinity of the old Her-
thasburg, in the holy grove of Hertha,
may yet be seen the deep lake which
served for ablutions and secret sacrifices.
Travellers frequently visit the island,
which, on account of its seclusion,
abounds with old and marvellous tales.
(See Rügen.) Lately, a light-house has
been erected on the promontory of A.
by the Prussian government.
ARCOT; a large district of Hindostan.
350
ARCOT-AREA.
It was formerly independent, but, since
1802, it has been under the British do-
minion. The exports consist chiefly of
arrack, pepper, palmirahs, received from
Ceylon, Travancore and Prince of Wales's
island.
ARCOT (anciently Arcati, Regia Sora,
and Soromandala); a city of Hindostan,
capital of the Carnatic, on the Peliar, 57
miles W. S. W. of Madras; lon. 79° 29′
E.; lat. 12° 52′ N. The fort is a mile in
circumference.
The city is extensive,
and manufactures coarse cotton cloth.
Hyder Ali gained possession of it Sept.
30, 1780, after having defeated the Eng-
lish, who had possessed it since 1760.
ARCTIC; an epithet given to the north
pole, or the pole raised above our horizon.
It is called the arctic pole, on account of
the constellation of the Little Bear, in
Greek called aprтos, the last star in the
tail whereof points out the north pole.-
Arctic circle is a lesser circle of the sphere,
parallel to the equator, and 23° 28′ distant
from the north pole, from whence its
name. This and its opposite, the ant-
arctic (q. v.), are called the two polar cir-
cles, and may be conceived to be de-
scribed by the motion of the poles of the
ecliptic round the poles of the equator, or
of the world.
ARCTURUS; a fixed star of the first
magnitude, in the constellation of Arc-
tophylax or Boötes.
ARCTUS (Greek, apkтos); a name given
by the Greeks to 2 constellations, called,
by the Latins, Ursa (major and minor), and
by us, the Bear (great and little).
ARCUATION; the method of raising, by
layers, such trees as cannot be raised from
seed. The process consists in bending
to the ground the branches which spring
from the offsets or stools, after they are
planted. Arcuation is based on this prin-
ciple in vegetable life, that the plant de-
pends chiefly upon external influences,
and that a part, which now has become a
branch by the influence of air, may be
easily turned into a root by the influence
of the earth. In fact, alleys of trees have
been made, which, after growing to a
considerable size, have had the branches
square miles, and had, in 1828, a popula-
tion of 328,419.
ARDENNES; a chain of mountains cov-
ered with woods, between the Meuse and
the Moselle, in the grand-duchy of Lux-
emburg. In the time of the Romans, the
wood of A. comprehended a large part of
Gallia Belgica, and, according to Cæsar,
extended from the Rhine, through the
country of Treves, to the territory of the
Remii. More than 20 rivers and brooks
take their rise in it. The mines are no
longer worked for iron, copper, and the
precious metals. Sheep are raised here
in considerable numbers, and the country
affords much game.-The name A. is
derived from the Celtic ar, in, and duan-
na, well of God.-In a wider sense, the
mountains extending from the former
French IIainault to the Moselle are
called A.; whence, also, a department in
the north-eastern part of France, contain-
ing about 2100 square miles and 281,624
inhabitants, the chief city of which is
Mézières, has the same name.
ARDEY; the chain of mountains ex-
tending along the Ruhr, in the county
of Mark, from Frödenberg to Volmarstein.
It consists of rough sandstone, above
which are masses of coal. This mineral
is very important in this populous manu-
facturing region. The ruins of a castle,
where the counts of Ardey dwelt in the 7th
century, are still to be scen in this moun-
tain.
ARE; a superficial square measure in
France, substituted for the former square
rod. It consists of 1076.44 English square
feet. The 10th part of an are is called a
deciare, and the 100th a centiare. Decare
is a surface of ten arcs.
AREA (from the Latin, in which it signi-
fied, first, a threshing-floor; later, a vacant
place bounded on all sides, or before a
public building); in geometry, the super-
ficial contents of any figure; in geogra-
phy, the contents of any surface. The
amount of the oceanic arca of our globe
is 160,152,000 square miles; and of the
different parts of the world as follows :—
Polynesia,
turned into the ground, and the roots to Ruralasia, Occanica, {
wards the sky. The former, after a
while, became roots, and the latter put
forth foliage. In the animal kingdom,
such great changes do not appear to take
place; yet some parts may be turned into
others.
ARDÉCHE, département de l'; a depart-
ment in the south of France, on the right
bank of the Rhone. It contains 1836
Asia,
Europe,
Africa,
America, Greenland, &c.
Amount of land area,
This, with the oceanic area,
gives, as the amount of the
area of the carth,
•
•
•
square miles.
•
100,000
3,000,000
11,500,000
3,020,000
•
8,000,000
13,220,000
38,810,000
160,152,000
198,992,000
AREA-ARENDT.
From which it appears, that the surface
of the land on our globe does not amount
to the one fourth part of the entire super-
ficies of the earth. Very interesting tables
on the areas of the different zones, seas
and countries, with valuable remarks on
the same, have been given to the public
in Mr. Darby's View of the U. States,
historical, geographical and statistical;
Philadelphia, 1828. The areas given
above, as well as those which follow, are
taken from his work. We should men-
tion, however, that they are differently es-
timated by other writers.
Asia,
The torrid zone contains land in
Australasia,
Polynesia, or Oceanica,
Africa,
South and North America,
Total,
•
·
•
•
sq. miles.
351
dukes of A. derive their name from this
place. Maximilian II made this house
princes, and Ferdinand III, in 1644,
dukes. By marriage and inheritance, the
dukes became very rich. The peace of
Luneville deprived this house of large
possessions, and bestowed on it, in return,
a portion of Westphalia. The present
duke of A., Prosper, lives in Vienna. He
belonged to the confederation of the
Rhine, but, in 1810, lost his sovereignty,
by Napoleon's incorporating his duke-
dom with France and Berg. In 1808, he
married a niece of the empress Josephine,
Stephanie Tascher de la Pagerie, whom
Napoleon elevated to the rank of a French
3,000,000 princess. In 1816, they were divorced.
1,000,000 Since 1815, the duke is, on account of
100,000 some of his mediatized possessions, a peer
5,000,000 (Standesherr) of the Westphalian estates
4,500,000 in Prussia, and, on account of other pos-
sessions, member of the house of lords in
13,600,000 Hanover. George IV, May 9, 1826, ele-
vated the duke's possessions in Hanover
1,400,000 (about 700 square miles, with 39,500 in-
640,000
habitants) to a dukedom, called Aremberg-
1,520,000 Meppen. The duke is also a grandee of
Spain, of the first class. All the posses-
sions of the duke, in Germany, contain
about 954 square miles, and 79,100 in-
habitants. He has also large estates in
France, and extensive tracts of forest in
the Pyrenees. The ducal house is of the
Land area of the southern temperate zone.
Australasia,
Africa,
•
South America,
Total,
•
•
3,560,000
Land area of the northern temperate zone.
Asia,
7,600,000
Europe,
3,020,000
North America, Greenland, &c. 5,000,000
Africa,
2,360,000
Total,
•
•
•
17,960,000
Land area in the northern polar circle.
Asia,
900,000
Europe,
20,000
North America, Greenland, &c. 2,000,000
Total,
Land area in the southern polar
•
3,520,000
200,000
circle,
But it is doubtful whether there are, in
reality, 200,000 square miles of land
within the antarctic circle.
ARELAS, OF ARELATUM; the present
Arles; in ancient geography, a town of
Gallia Narbonensis, situated on the Rhone.
It was a favorite place of the Romans,
and hence called Gallula Roma. A. was
the chief city of the kingdom of Arelat
or Arles, which consisted of the duchy
of Burgundy, with Provence, and existed
for a short time in the 9th century. (See
Burgundy.)
AREMBERG; a place with 490 inhabit-
ants, in the mountains of the Eifel, near
Cologne, now belonging to the Prussian
grand-duchy of the Lower Rhine. The
Catholic faith.
ARENA. (See Amphitheatre.)
ARENDT, Marin Frederic. This learn-
ed man, renowned for his scientific trav-
els through a large part of Europe, was
born at Altona, 1769, and died of the
palsy, in the neighborhood of Venice,
1921. Being recommended by count de
Reventlow, in 1797, he was appointed an
éléve in the botanic garden at Copenha-
gen. But his predilection for the study
of antiquities led him to the library of the
university, where, in the most piercing
cold, he spent whole hours in examining
the collections of Arnæmagnæ. He trav-
elled, in 1798, to Finmark, under the
royal patronage. He made accurate ob-
servations in Norway and other countries,
which had been visited by no stranger
before him. He was to have collected
living plants and seeds, but he brought
back little or nothing, and was therefore
discharged. He began his antiquarian
collections in Norway, 1799 and 1800.
He then resided again in Sweden, in
Rostock, in Paris, and in Venice. A part
of his papers, drawings and treatises, all
containing researches respecting northern
antiquities, he deposited in the library at
352
ARENDT-ARETIN.
Copenhagen. He also published some
separate treatises in Paris, and in various
cities of Sweden, Germany and Denmark.
Afterwards, he travelled through Swit-
zerland, Spain, Italy and Hungary. He
lived on the charity of strangers, and slept
often in the open air, without suffering
any inconvenience. He carried all his
papers with him. The persecutions which
he endured at Naples, on a suspicion of
Carbonarismı, contributed much to hasten
his death.
ARENS, or ARENSHADE; a district of
Denmark, in the duchy of Sleswick,
through which runs the famous wall
called Danneuske, which Gottric, king of
Denmark, built, in the 9th century, across
the country from Hollingsted to the Sley
(an extent of 46 miles), as a defence
against the inroads of the Saxons and
Slavi. The natives of A. were the first
in the country who professed Christianity,
and their church, built in 826, was de-
molished several times by the idolaters.
ANVIN
AREOPAGUS; the oldest of the Athe-
nian courts of justice, and, at the same
tine, the most famous for its respectabil-
ity, purity and love of justice. It ob-
tained its name from its place of meeting,
on the hill of Mars, near the citadel.
The establishment of this court is ascribed,
by some, to Cecrops, by others, to Solon;
from the latter, however, it seems to have
only received a better constitution and
more important privileges. Of how many
mambow it consisted,
got now known,
A seat in it was held for life. The mem-
bers were men who had formerly been
archons, had rendered themselves worthy
of this honor by the honest and diligent
execution of their office, and whose char-
acter and conduct had been subjected to a
particular examination. Aristides called
the areopagus the most sacred tribunal of
Greece; and Demosthenes assures us,
that they never passed a sentence in
which both parties did not concur. The
crimes tried before this tribunal were
wilful murder, poison, robbery, arson, dis-
soluteness of morals, and innovations in
the state and in religion; at the same
time, they took care of helpless orphans.
The other states of Greece, also, submit-
ted their disputes to the judgment of the
areopagus. Its meetings were held in
the open air, and in the night time. Af
ter the investigation of a case, the votes
were collected. Till the government of
Pericles, this court of justice retained its
purity inviolate; it was first encroached
upon by his causing himself to be made
a member, without having been archon.
It retained its respectability, however, for
a long time, but sunk, gradually, with the
decline of Athens.
AREQUIPA; a city of Peru, and capital
of a province of the same name; 180
miles S. of Cuzco, 340 N. W. of La Plata;
lon. 71° 48′ W.; lat. 16° 30 S.; pop;
stated from 24,000 to 40,000. It is situated
in a fertile valley, and is elevated 7775
feet above the level of the sea. Behind
the city rises 3 lofty mountains, one of
which is called the volcano of Arequipa,
or peak of Misté, and is one of the most
elevated summits of the Andes. The
houses are well built of stone, are vaulted,
and are much decorated on the outside.
It contains a cathedral, a college, an hos-
pital, 3 nunneries, 6 convents, &c. It is
subject to frequent earthquakes; but this
evil seems to be overbalanced by the
mildness of the climate, and the beauty
and fertility of the country round about.
Aranta is the port of A.
ARES. (See Mars.)
ARESKOUI, or AREOUSKI; the god of
war among some of the American In-
dians.
ARETHIUSA. 1. One of the Hesperides.
-2. A daughter of Nereus and Doris, first
a nymph of Diana, then a famous foun-
tain of the island Ortygia, which comprises
a fourth part of the city of Syracuse.
(Respecting her metamorphosis into a
fountain, see Alpheus.) As Theocritus
composed his idyls on her banks, she is
often made the muse of pastorals.
ARETIN (Christopher), baron of; born
at Ingolstadt, December 2, 1772; studied
at Heidelberg, under the then professor,
now minister of justice, von Zentner, and
afterwards at Göttingen and Paris. He
was, at one time, involved in the affairs
of the Illuminati. He early entered into
the public service. In 1799 and 1800, he
urged the abolishment of the feudal es-
tates, and the assembling of the diet. In
the contest of the Bavarian states with the
government, in 1800 and 1801, he was
very active as a writer. In 1803, after the
abolition of the monasteries, he was ap-
pointed commissioner, by the government,
to examine their libraries; in 1804, he
was made vice-president of the academy
of sciences; in 1806, chief director of the
library of Munich, and, in 1807, secretary
of the first class of the academy of sci-
ences. He now published, with some
other persons, from 1804 to 1806, a daily
paper, the Aurora, and afterwards, as a
continuation of the well known Leipziger
Allgem. Liter. Anzeiger (Leipsic Universal
Literary Informer), the Neuer Lit. An-
ARETIN-ARETINO.
zeiger (New Literary Informer); also, De-
cisions of the Courts of Love, and a Histo-
ry of the Jews in Bavaria, 1803; Oldest
Traditions respecting the Birth of Char-
lemagne, 1803; Memoir on the History of
the Divining Rod, 1807; the Earliest Con-
sequences of the Art of Printing, exhibited
in the History of the World, 1809; His-
torical and Literary Memoirs (Beiträge),
particularly from the Treasures of the
Library at Munich, 7 vols.; Introduction
to the Theory and Practice of Mnemonics,
1810; Historical Literature of Bavaria,
1810; Information on the History of Ba-
varia, from hitherto unused, and mostly
foreign Sources, 1811; Annals of the
Administration of Justice in Bavaria,
1813 and 1818; History of the 13th Arti-
cle of the Act of the German Confedera-
tion; and many other works on the poli-
tics and literature of Bavaria. One of
his works excited a long and violent con-
test between the learned men of Munich,
at the end of which A., by order of the
king, laid down his former offices, and,
in 1811, went to Neuburg, as first direc-
tor of the court of appeal; in 1813, he
became vice-president. His pamphlet,
Saxony and Prussia (in favor of Saxony),
excited uncommon attention, and drew
upon him much persecution. In 1819,
he was chosen member of the chamber
of deputies in the Bavarian diet, and was
one of the most influential men in the
assembly. In the same year, he became
a member of the society for collecting
the ancient history of Germany. He died,
Dec. 24, 1824, at Munich, in the office
of president of the court of appeal in the
circle of Regen.-His brother, Adam, has
also held high offices under the govern-
ment, and has published several works, but
not under his name. Most of these relate
to the fine arts. He has one of the largest
collections of engravings, and some mas-
terly paintings.
ARETINO, Guido, or Gui; a Benedic-
tine monk of the 11th century, born at
Arezzo. He is said to have first reduced
the science of music to a fixed system, and
to have been the inventor of the mono-
syllables of the solfeggio,-ut, re, mi, fa,
so, la,-drawn from the words of a Latin
hymn. It is far from improbable, that
Aretino was merely the restorer of the
true principle of the ancient Greek music,
with which, in the course of his studies,
he became acquainted, through sources
which have escaped modern research.
It is unnecessary to add, that the mono-
syllable si, whence the modern scales of
the two modes, major and minor, is a later
353
invention.-The syllables ut, re, mi, &c.,
are taken from a hymn of St. John, com-
posed by Paul, in 770:
Ut queant laxis Re sonare fibris
Mi ra gestorum Fa muli tuorum,
So Ive pollutis La biis reatum.
ARETINO, Leonard; a very learned Ital-
ian historian, born at Arezzo, in Tuscany,
in 1370. At the period of the revival of
learning, he was a very distinguished
scholar, and, being chosen secretary to
the republic of Florence, amassed a large
fortune. He died in that capital, highly
respected, in the year 1443. He trans-
lated Aristotle's Ethics and Politics, and
Plutarch's Lives, into elegant Latin. His
original works are also in Latin, amongst
which a History of Florence (folio, 1476),
On Studies and Letters (1642), Epistles
(republished in 1741, 8vo.), with his life by
Melius, are particularly esteemed.
ARETINO, Pietro, one of the most fa-
mous Italian authors of the 16th century,
who was indebted for the greatest part of
his fame to the licentiousness of his pen.
He was born at Arezzo, 1492, the natural
son of a nobleman, whose name he never
bore (for the name A. is expressive of his
birth-place), and, from a bookbinder's ap-
prentice, became an author, who soon
gained the favor of kings. He was, in-
deed, called their scourge, but he was
profuse in his adulation to them. He had
warm admirers, notwithstanding the ma-
lignity and severity of his satires. Not-
withstanding his ostentatious pride and
bitterness, he submitted to such treat-
ment as men never practise except against
the contemptible and despised. Although
he was so licentious a writer, that his
very name is expressive of indecency and
profligacy, he wrote many works of de-
votion, and gave the preference to the
latter, if his own interest required it. His
reputation gained for him the name of
divine, by which even Michael Angelo
addressed him; and his ostentation led
him to adopt the name as his title. He
caused medals, therefore, to be struck for
him, with the inscription, Divus Petrus
Aretinus, flagellum principum, and pre-
sented them to several princes. Being
banished from Arezzo, on account of a
sonnet against indulgences, he went to
Perugia, and thence to Rome, where he
entered into the service of Leo X, and
afterwards of Adrian VI. On account of
the 16 indecent sonnets, which he com-
posed as illustrations of as many designs
of Giulio Romano, he was obliged to leave
Rome. Giovanni de' Medici invited him
to his court, and took him to Milan, where
30 *
354
ARETINO-ARGALI.
he found an opportunity to insinuate him-
self into the favor of Francis I. After
having again visited Rome, he returned
to his protector, Giovanni de' Medici,
who grew more and more attached to
him, and died in his arms of his wounds.
In 1528, A. went to Venice, where he ac-
quired powerful friends, among whom
was the bishop of Vicenza, who recon-
ciled the pope to him, and recommended
him to Charles V so strongly, that he was
presented by him with a golden chain.
Francis I, wishing to be equally generous,
gave him a similar chain. But when
Charles afterwards settled on him a
pension of 200 dollars, which liberality
Francis did not equal, the former alone
received all the encomiums which he
had formerly divided between them both.
The duke of Leve also gave him a con-
siderable pension. He gained, besides,
according to his own assertion, 1000 dol-
lars in gold, every year, by his writings,
together with a ream of paper and a flask
of ink. Nicolo Franco, as licentious an
author, though not so learned, aided him
in his labors. A.'s fame was extended to
such a degrec, that he received letters
from all parts of Italy, and his company
was much sought. By his devotional
writings, he regained the favor of the
Roman court, and Julius III, who was
also from Arezzo, was so pleased with a
sonnet addressed to him by his country-
inan, that he sent him 1000 crowns of
gold, and made him knight of St. Peter.
Three years afterwards, he was intro-
duced, by the duke of Urbino, to the pope,
who received him not only with honor,
but even with tenderness. Yet he could
not obtain the dignity of cardinal, for
which he made very great exertions.
The nature of his death corresponded to
his life. He had some sisters at Venice,
who equalled their brother in licentious-
ness. As a person was one day relating
to him one of their adventures, he was so
amused that he burst into a fit of laugh-
ter, and, losing his balance, fell to the
ground, and died soon after, in 1556, aged
65. He had received from nature a
happy constitution. He was born with a
taste for the arts, and practised several
with success. But, above every thing else,
he loved money, a good table, and hand-
some women.-His works consist of sev-
eral religious compositions; 5 comedies
and a tragedy, the former full of wit and
genuine comic humor, the latter not with-
out merit; the licentious Ragionamenti,
and Puttana errante; 16 profligate So-
netti lussuriosi, several pieces in rhyme,
stanze, capitoli, partly laudatory, and
partly licentious and satirical: some un-
finished epics complete the list. The
academicians of la Crusca counted A.
among the classic authors of the nation.
He deserved this honor less, however, for
the purity than for the boldness, skill and
originality of his style.
AREZZO (anciently Aretium); a city in
Tuscany, seated on the declivity of a
mountain, in the middle of a fruitful
plain, 17 miles from Città di Castello, and
lying between it and Florence. It had
gone almost entirely to decay before Cos-
mo de' Medici took it under his protec-
tion. A. is the birth-place of Maecenas,
Petrarch and Pietro Aretino. It contains
now about 8000 inhabitants.
ARGAL; crude tartar, in the state in
which it is taken out of empty wine-
vessels.
ARGALI (ovis ammon); mountain, or wild
sheep. This animal is regarded with
propriety as the savage stock whence the
endless varieties of domestic sheep are
descended; though it is difficult, from an
inspection of the A., to conceive how so
wild and energetic an animal could, by
any management, be converted into the
imbecile and helpless creatures of which
our flocks are composed.-In size, the A.
equals the common deer, and in port and
bearing resembles the wild goat, though
his huge, laterally-twisted horns give his
head a very marked similarity to that of
the common ram. These horns are very
large, arise near the eyes, curve first back-
wards and then forwards, and have the
points directed forwards and outwards;
from their base, they are transversely
waved or wrinkled for half their length,
the remainder being nearly smooth. The
horns of the female are more like those
of the common goat, rising directly up-
wards, and curving gently backwards,
especially towards the extremity.
summer, the A. is covered with harsh
and rather short hair, generally of a gray-
ish-yellow, having a blackish or reddish
stripe along the back, and a large spot of
the same color on the rump. The infe-
rior parts of the body, and inside of the
thighs, are of a pale reddish-white; in
winter, the color is a deeper red, with a
greater whiteness about the muzzle, throat
and belly.-The mountain sheep is found
in considerable numbers on the elevated
ranges of northern Asia, in the deserts or
steppes of Siberia, the mountains of Cali-
formia, and the Rocky mountain range of
America. They live in herds or families,
consisting of a male with the females and
In
ARGALI-ARGENSON.
young, and seek their food on the lofty
elevations, covered only with lichens or
small shrubs. They are shy and fearful,
and, when disturbed, retreat with a swift-
ness and agility which renders pursuit
hopeless, as they bound from rock to rock
with security, and are soon lost to sight.
It is by stealing upon them against the
wind, or lying in ambush near where
they must pass, that the hunter is enabled
to make them his prey. In the spring of
the year, when under the influence of
sexual excitement, the males acquire a
warlike disposition, which induces severe
and obstinate combats for the possession
of the females.-The A. was first satis-
factorily made known as an inhabitant of
America by the expedition of Lewis and
Clarke, who brought the skins of a male
and female from the Rocky mountains,
which are still preserved in the Philadel-
phia museum. The A. had been previ-
ously indicated as an inhabitant of Cali-
fornia by Veregas. The species is called
bighorn by the Indians and traders. The
Indians make various domestic utensils
of these large horns, and apply their skins
to the same purpose as those of the deer.
The domestication of the sheep is
coeval with the infancy of the human
family; and it is not, therefore, surprising,
that the domesticated breeds should differ
so materially from the parent stock, when
we know what can be accomplished by
cross-breeding, even during the life of a
single man. When domesticated soft-
fleeced sheep are taken to warm climates,
this fleece is speedily shed, as we have
repeatedly witnessed, and a coarse, red-
dish hair takes its place. In this condi-
tion, the resemblance of the animal to the
A. becomes very striking.
ARGAND LAMP. (See Lamp.)
ARGENS (Jean Baptiste), marquis d';
born, 1704, at Aix. He was designed for
the law, but, following his inclination, en-
tered into the military service at the age
of 15. His passion for Sylvia, an actress,
induced him to leave the service, and
France also, to be with her in Spain. But
he was arrested, brought back to Prov-
ence, and sent to Constantinople with the
French ambassador. His residence in Tur-
key was marked with adventures. After
his return, he entered the army again. In
1734, at the siege of Kehl, he was wound-
ed, and afterwards, before Philipsburg,
rendered incapable of further service by
a fall from his horse. Disinherited by
his father, he became an author, and went
to Holland, that he might write with
more freedom. Here he published his
355
Lettres Juives, Lettres Chinoises, and Let-
tres Cabalistiques. Frederic II, then
crown-prince, wished to become ac-
quainted with the author, and receive
a visit from him. He replied, that he
should be in danger from Frederic Wil-
liam I, with his six feet six (this king
being in the habit of compelling tall men
to join his regiment of grenadiers). After
the death of the king, Frederic again in-
vited him. D'A. appeared in Potsdam,
received the place of chamberlain, and
that of director of the fine arts, in the
academy, and became the king's daily
companion, who loved him for his frank-
ness, but ridiculed his melancholy humor.
When almost 60 years old, he fell in love
with the actress Cochois, and married her
without the knowledge of Frederic, who
never wholly pardoned him for this act
of rashness. After the seven years' war,
being on a journey to France, the second
since his residence in Prussia, to visit his
family, he found, by the way, a forged
ordinance of the archbishop of Aix, in
which he was excommunicated as a blas-
phemer. This paper, at first, made him
very melancholy, till he perceived the
source of it, by the signature, in which
Frederic had, by mistake, written bishop,
instead of archbishop. After his return,
he was obliged to bear, more than ever,
the king's satirical humor. He after-
wards received permission to take a jour-
ney into Provence, where he died, in
1771. Frederic II caused a monument
to be erected to him, in the church of the
Minorites, in Aix.-His numerous wri-
tings, the fruits of an unrestrained free-
dom of thought, once had some reputa-
tion, but now, though instructive, are no
longer esteemed, because they are defi-
cient in purity, taste, critical discernment
and sound views.
ARGENSON (de Voyer), marquis d'; born
at Paris, 1771; son of the lieutenant-gen-
eral d'Argenson, and descended from one
of the most distinguished families in the
service of the state. His great-grand-
father was lieutenant of the police; his
grandfather, a long time, minister of war.
His great uncle, minister of foreign affairs,
was the friend of Voltaire, and a philoso-
pher, as well as a politician. This ap-
pears from his Considérations sur le Gou-
vernement, complimented by Rousseau in
his Contrat Social. The courtiers of
Louis XV called him d'Argenson la bête.
He wrote, in two vols., Loisirs d'un Mi-
nistre. His son, the marquis de Paulmi,
was governor of the arsenal, after having
been ambassador to Venice and Poland.
356
ARGENSON-ARGOLIS.
He left at his death the Bibliothèque de l'Ar-
senal, containing 150,000 volumes, which
was subsequently purchased by the count
d'Artois. The marquis de Paulmi pub-
lished, in 80 vols., Mélanges Extraits
d'une Grande Bibliothèque, in which he
exhibited an accurate personal acquaint-
ance with the treasures of the library.
The present member of the chamber of
deputies was studying at Strasburg, at
the time of the king's flight to Varennes,
and immediately entered into the military
service of his country, as the aide-de-
camp of Lafayette. When Lafayette
was obliged to flee from France, d'A.
retired to his estates, married the widow
of the prince Victor de Broglio, mother
of the duke de Broglio, peer of France,
and occupied himself in the education of
his children, and in agriculture, in Poitou,
where he was a friend to the poor, and
an example of agricultural industry. As
president of the electoral college of the
department of Vienne, in 1803, he neg-
lected to send a deputation with congrat-
ulations to the emperor. In 1804, he was
again chosen, and made a member of the
deputation to the emperor. This occa-
sioned his appointment as prefect of the
department of deux-Nethes, where he dis-
tinguished himself by defending the con-
stitutional administration, and gave in his
resignation when he saw himself unsup-
ported by the ministry. After Louis
XVIII ascended the throne, he was ap-
pointed prefect of the department of the
Bouches-du-Rhone. He refused the sta-
tion, however, because France had no
constitution. Being chosen into the
chamber of deputies, in 1815, he signed
a protest in July of the same year, when
the foreign troops in Paris closed the
entrance to the chamber. In the electoral
college of Vienne, he declared the power
of the people to modify the constitution
an inalienable right, before he took the
oath prescribed by law. In 1815, he op-
posed the measures of the ministry, which
they declared necessary for the public
security. In 1816 and 1817, he opposed
several projects of the government, and
maintained that the church, and other
establishments of public utility, should be
supported by the community, and not by
the state, and that no arbitrary departure
from the laws was necessary. In 1818,
he defended the position, that the charter
was, in fact, a limitation of the rights of
the nation, and not a concession. He al-
ways spoke, with the liberal party, in
favor of institutions of general utility,
and against all exclusive privileges. He
maintained the dangers of a privileged
clergy in France, and the necessity of the
free importation of corn: he called the
opposite a premium for rich, ignorant or
idle landlords. In 1819 and 1820, he de-
fended the principles of the general good,
in the debates on the new laws.
ARGENT (French for silver, from the
Latin argentum); a word used in heraldry,
and in several terms of art employed by
the goldsmiths.
ARGENTEUS, CODEX; a MS. copy of
the four Gospels, so named from its silver
letters. It is preserved in the university
of Upsal, and is a copy from the Gothic
version of bishop Ulphilas, who lived in
the 4th century. It is in quarto, written
on vellum, stained with a violet color.
On this ground the letters, all uncial, or
capitals, are painted in silver, except the
initial letters, which are in gold. This
MS. was discovered, in 1597, in the Bene-
dictine abbey of Werden, in Westphalia,
and, after several changes of owners, was
sent, as a present, to Christina, queen of
Sweden. Vossius, a Dutchman, either
received it from her, or stole it. Count
Magnus Gabriel de la Gardic bought it,
at Vossius' death, for £250, and sent it to
Upsal. Three editions of it have been
given to the public; at Dort, 1655; Stock-
holm, 1672; the Clarendon press, 1750.-
Some fragments of the Gothic version of
St. Paul's Epistle to the Romans were
discovered by Knittel, in 1756, in a codex
rescriptus, in the ducal library of Wolfen-
büttel. It seems to have been written in
the 6th century; and Angelo Maio (q. v.)
lately discovered fragments of the Maso-
Gothic translation of the Epistles of St.
Paul, made by Ulphilas; also a codex re-
scriptus. These discoveries are interesting
additions to the above-mentioned codex.
ARGENTIERA, or KIMOLI (the ancient
Cimolus); a small island in the Archipela-
go, which belonged to the government of
the capudan pacha. It is rocky and ster-
ile. The inhabitants (Greeks) live in one
village, and are very poor. Formerly,
silver mines were worked here, whence
its name. The whole island is covered
with a sort of chalk, called Cimolian earth,
which is used in the washing and bleach-
ing of linen. Lon. 24° 42′ E.; lat. 36°
47' N.
ARGIPHONTES. (Sce Argus.)
ARGIVES. (Sec Argolis and Argos.)
ARGO. (See Argonauts.)
ARGOLIS; the castern region of Pelo-
ponnesus; bounded N. by Achaia and
Corinth; N. E. by the Saronic gulf; W.
by Arcadia; S. by Laconia, and S. W. by
ARGOLIS-ARGONAUTS.
the Argolic gulf. The Greeks inhabiting
it were often called, by the ancient au-
thors, Argives and Argians. Hills and
mountains alternate with fruitful plains
and valleys. According to the monu-
ments of Greek mythology, A. was pe-
culiarly rich, and early cultivated. Ina-
chus, about 1800, and Danaus, about 1500
years B. C., came hither with colonists
from Egypt. Here reigned Pelops, an
emigrant from Asia Minor, from whom
the peninsula derives its name. Here,
too, was afterwards the seat of govern-
ment of Atreus and Agamemnon, Adras-
tus, Eurystheus, Diomedes. Here Her-
cules was born. In the morass of A. he
slew the Lernæan hydra, and, in the cave
of Nemea, subdued the ferocious lion.
In the earliest times, it was divided into
the small kingdoms of Argos, Mycenæ,
Tirinthus, Trazene, Hermione and Epi-
daurus, which afterwards formed free
states. The chief city, Argos, has re-
tained its name since 1800 B. C. Its in-
habitants were renowned for their love
of the fine arts, particularly of music.
Here, and in Delphi, statues were erected
to the brothers Biton and Cleobis, who
fell victims to their filial piety. In 1825,
a high school and a monitorial school
were established at Argos. Near this city
lies Napoli di Romania (q. v.), the ancient
Nauplia, with an excellent harbor, and the
most important fortress of the peninsula.
On the site of the present village Castri,
on the Ægean sca, formerly lay the city
Hermione, with a grove dedicated to the
Graces; opposite is the island of Hydra
(q. v.) Near the city of Epidaurus, the
watering-place of ancient Greece, on the
gcan sea, Esculapius (q. v.) had his
temple. At Træzene, now the village
Damala, Theseus was born.
ARGONAUTS; those heroes of ancient
Greece who performed a hazardous jour-
ney, through unexplored seas, to Colchis,
in quest of the golden fleece. Eson,
king of Iolcos, in Thessaly, enfeebled by
age, had abdicated the throne in favor of
his son, Jason, and appointed his brother-
in-law, Pelias, to administer the govern-
ment during his son's minority. At the
time fixed, Jason appeared to demand
his father's kingdom. Pelias, apparently
ready to resign the throne, required of
him first to bring from Colchis the golden
fleece of the ram, on which Phryxus and
Helle (q. v., under Athamas) had escaped
the persecutions of their step-mother, Ino;
for Phryxus, having sacrificed the ram,
had hung up the fleece in a consecrated
grove at Colchis. The ambitious youth,
357
unconscious of the treacherous nature of
the proposal, engaged to accomplish the
adventure; and the most valiant heroes
of Greece took part with him. Hercules,
Castor and Pollux, Peleus, Admetus, Ne-
leus, Meleager, Orpheus, Telamon, The-
seus and his friend Pirithous, Hylas, and
many others. They sailed with favorable
winds, from the promontory of Magnesia,
in a vessel called the Argo, built at the
foot of mount Pelion, in Thessaly, supe-
rior to all ships previously built in size
and equipment. Tiphys, skilled in navi-
gation, managed the rudder, and the
sharp-sighted Lynceus explored the seas
for the place of their destination. Or-
pheus elevated the courage of his com-
panions, when danger threatened, by mu-
sic and songs. When a tempest broke
upon them, as he was initiated into the
mysteries, he made vows, with the rest of
his companions, to the Samothracian de-
ities, upon which the storm was allayed;
and, to show the interposition of the gods
by a miracle, two stars appeared over
the heads of the Dioscuri. (See Castor.)
They happily reached the harbor of Lem-
nos, where they remained 2 years. The
women of Lemnos, instigated by the an-
gry Venus, offended with their husbands,
and oppressed by their Thracian concu-
bines, avenged themselves by the murder
of their husbands, and detained among
them the welcome strangers. At length
they sailed to Samothrace, where, accord-
ing to their vows, they caused themselves
to be initiated into the mysteries there.
Then they landed at Troas. Here Hylas
rambled, and lost his way, and Hercules,
who went in search of him, remaining too
long on shore, the vessel sailed without
them. Telamon, also, left them here.
Thence they went to the city of Cyzicus,
where the king received them hospitably.
But at night, being forced back by a
storm, they were taken for enemies; a
contest followed, in which Jason slew the
king, in consequence of which Rhea, the
guardian goddess of the island, detained
the Argo by magic. Having appeased
the angry deity, they sailed to the east,
and landed at Bebrycia. Driven by a
storm to the shores of Thrace, the Argo-
nauts sailed thence to Salmydessa, where
the blind soothsayer, Phineus, was king.
Phineus gave the strangers directions, and
a guide to conduct them through the
Cyanean rocks, which, driven furiously
against each other by the winds, dashed
in pieces vessels passing through them.
Having arrived at the rocks, in compli-
ance with the advice of Phineus, they
1
358
ARGONAUTS.
caused a dove to fly through before
them, and followed, rowing with all their
strength, while Orpheus played on his
lyre. The rocks stood firm, and the
danger was escaped. The last adventure
awaited them at the island of Aretias (or
Dia). Here they found the Stymphalides,
birds which shot their feathers like ar-
rows, and from which the heroes could
only protect themselves by a violent
clashing of weapons. Having driven
away these dangerous monsters, they met
with the sons of Phryxus, who, having
been sent by Æetes to Orchomenus, to
take possession of their father's inherit-
ance, had been forced hither by storms.
They relieved these sufferers, and re-
ceived from them much useful informa-
tion. At last, the shore of Colchis ap-
peared in view; they landed, at night, at
the mouth of the Phasis. King Eetes,
previously informed of the design of the
strangers, and fearing their power, did
not refuse, absolutely, to deliver the gold-
en fleece, on which his life depended, but
charged Jason with 3 labors, by which
he hoped to destroy him. Jason was to
Jason was to
yoke the two fire-breathing bulls of Vul-
can to a ploughshare of adamant, and to
plough with thein 4 acres of land conse-
crated to Mars, never before turned up.
He was then to sow in the furrows the
remaining serpents' teeth of Cadmus, in
the possession of etes, and to kill the
armed heroes which they produced; at
last, to fight with and slay the dragon
that guarded the golden fleece. All 3
labors he was to accomplish in a single
day. To rescue the hero, Juno and Mi-
nerva, who had instructed Medea, the
daughter of Æetes, in magic, infused into
her an ardent love for Jason, and, in re-
turn for a promise to conduct her home
as his bride, she gave him a mixture to
anoint himself with, a stone to throw
among the formidable heroes sprung from
the serpents' teeth, and herbs and a drink
to lull to sleep the dragon. Thus equip-
ped, in the sight of the king and assem-
bled people, Jason yoked the formidable
bulls, and ploughed with them the fatal
field, sowed the serpents' teeth, and threw
among the armed host that arose the
stone given him by Medca; upon which
they turned their weapons against one
another, and, in a furious conflict, all per-
ished. Eetes, terrified, commanded him
to delay the last adventure. Contriving
another plan, he resolved to murder Jason
and his companions, and to burn the sa-
cred Argo. Being informed, by Medea,
of the king's design, Jason hastened, by
night, to the consecrated grove, lulled to
sleep the dragon, by a magic potion, and
took the golden fleece from the oak on
which it hung; thence he retired in haste,
with Medea and his companions, to his
ship. The next day, Æetes, perceiving
the robbery of the grove, and the flight of
the strangers, embarked on board a ves-
sel to pursue them. At the mouth of the
Danube, they were within sight of one
another. Here, also, Medea averted the
threatening danger, by killing her brother,
Absyrtus, and strewing on the shore his
mangled limbs. The melancholy sight
detained the unhappy father, who quitted
the pursuit to collect the bloody limbs of
his beloved son. As Phineus had advised
the Argonauts to return another way,
they now sailed up the Danube, carried
the lightly-built Argo many miles over
mountains and valleys, to the shore of the
Adriatic sea, and here again embarked.
Then the voice of an oracle sounded
from the Dodonean mast of the Argo-
"You shall not kiss the shores of your
country, till Jason and Medea have atoned
for the murder of Absyrtus, and appeased
the goddesses of vengeance." Upon this,
they directed their course to the port of
ea, to Circe, sister of Æetes. She,
however, refused them expiation, but di-
rected them to the promontory of Malea,
where they might obtain it. On their
voyage, they encountered the frightful
Scylla and Charybdis, the alluring Sirens,
and a fearful storm not far from the coast
of Libya. Then they came to Crete,
where the giant Talos, who guarded the
island, opposed their landing. A single
vein ran from his head to his heel, and
was closed below by a brass nail. Medea
gave him an intoxicating potion, and
opened the vein, that he might bleed to
death. At last, they reached the long-
wished for promontory of Malea; their
crime was expiated, and, without further
misfortune, the Argo arrived at the port
of Iolcos. On the isthmus of Corinth,
Jason consecrated his ship to Neptune,
and it afterwards shone as a constellation
in the southern part of the heavens.
Thus the expedition terminated glorious-
ly. But, before the heroes parted, they
agreed to aid one another in war, and
resolved, at certain times, to celebrate
public games in honor of Jupiter. These
were the beginning of the Olympic games.
The further fortunes of Medea and Jason
are mentioned under those articles. The
tales describing the return of the Argo-
nauts differ very essentially. Several
poets of antiquity have celebrated this
ARGONAUTS ARGYLE.
adventurous undertaking, which is placed
in the middle of the 13th century B. C.
We still have, under the name of Orpheus,
a poem on this subject; another by Apol-
lonius of Rhodes, and one by Valerius
Flaccus.
ARGONNE; a former province of France,
between the rivers Meuse, Marne and
Aisne. St. Menehold was the capital.
-Argonne, wood of, runs through Up-
per Champagne and Lower Bar, and is
mostly mountainous. It was so desert,
that the prince of Condé, who received
it, in 1657, as an apanage, and his suc-
cessors, used it only as a hunting-ground,
and place for felling wood, and it became
a resort of the smugglers of salt. In order
to expel them from the place, the crown
purchased the wood, in 1784, for 650,000
livres. This wood became too well
known in the unhappy campaign of
Prussia, in 1792.
ARGOS. (See Argolis.)
ARGUELLES, don Augustin; Spanish
ex-minister for the home department
(de la gobernacion de la peninsula); born,
1775, at Ribadesella, in Asturia; studied
at Oviedo, and distinguished himself by
fine talents and a lively imagination.
After finishing his studies, he was ap-
pointed, in Madrid, to the secretaryship
of the interpretacion de lenguas. Espi-
nosa, who perceived his talents, sent him
on important embassies to Lisbon and
London. At the breaking out of the war
of independence, in 1808, he was at
Cadiz, and, from 1812 to 1814, he was
chosen, by his province, deputy to the
cortes. He labored here on the commit-
tee which was intrusted with the charge
of drawing up a new constitution of gov-
ernment, and composed the famous re-
port delivered by this committee. His
talents excited among the liberals such
admiration, that he received the name of
the divine and the Spanish Tully. On
the return of Ferdinand, he was arrested,
May 10, 1814, and put in prison. When
brought to trial, he managed his defence
so skilfully, that the judges, though new
ones were appointed 5 times in succes-
sion, could not unite in his condemnation.
At last, the king declared himself judge,
caused the acts to be laid before him, and
wrote at the bottom, "Ten years punish-
ment in the house of correction in the
garrison at Ceuta." On his way thither,
he refused the pecuniary aid offered him
by some Englishmen, because he would
receive nothing from the subjects of a
government, which had not, in accord-
ance with its promise, assisted Spain to
359
preserve its freedom. 14 unhappy men
shared the fate of A., among whom was
his friend, John Alvarez Guerra, who was
sentenced, by the king, to hard labor at
Ceuta. By their noble conduct here, they
obtained the respect of the people, but
were cruelly oppressed by the officers of
government, particularly by the bishop.
Through his influence at Madrid, the
liberals, banished to Alcudia, in Majorca,
were put in a place almost uninhabitable
on account of its unhealthy air. Here
they suffered from the captain-general,
Coupigny, so cruel treatment, that, in
years, 3 of them died, and 2 lost their
reason. The rest were all sick when they
were set at liberty. The revolution of
1820 procured A. his freedom and a place
in the ministry, which, however, he re-
signed in 1821, because the king, at the
opening of the cortes, March 1, 1821,
complained of the weakness of the exec-
utive power. The minister of finance,
Canga Arguelles, is not to be confounded
with Augustin A.
ARGUIM, OF ARGUIN; an island on the
coast of Africa, not far from cape Blanco,
scarcely 2 miles long. Notwithstanding
its insignificance, the possession of it was
violently disputed, for 87 years, between
the Portuguese, Dutch, English and
French. After a variety of fortune, it has
been at last totally abandoned. Che san-
gue pella follia d' alcuni pochi!-Lon. 16°
20 V.; lat. 20° 30′ N.
ARGUMENTUM AD HOMINEM; an argu-
ment which presses a man with conse-
quences drawn from his own principles
and concessions, or his own conduct.
ARGUS, Son of Arestor, or Agenor, or
Inachus and Ismene, had a hundred eyes.
According to some, his whole body was
covered with eyes (hence he was called
Panoptes), half of which were always
awake, while the rest were closed in
sleep. The jealous Juno made him
keeper of the unhappy Io (q. v.); but
Mercury lulled him to sleep with the
sound of his flute, and cut off his head;
hence Mercury is called Argiphontes.—
Juno afterwards took his eyes to adorn
the tail of the peacock.
ARGYLE, OF ARGYLL; a county of Scot-
land, bounded on the south by the Irish
sea and the Frith of Clyde. The wealth
of the country is dug from the bowels of
the mountains, in iron, copper, lead, &c.
A. is the seat of a provincial synod. Ar-
gyleshire is mostly peopled by the clan
of Campbell, and contains a great num-
ber of castles and seats belonging to gen-
tlemen who hold of the duke of A., and
360
ARGYLE-ARIANS.
boast of their descent from his family.
It sends one member to parliament. The
population, in 1811, was 85,585. The
dukes of A. belong to the family of Camp-
bell, and are at the head of the most
powerful clan in Scotland. They hold
several hereditary offices under the crown,
and are possessed of many royalties.
ARGYLE ROOMS; a house in Regent-
street, London, a great rendezvous of
fashion. In 1818, the royal harmonic
institution erected the present building,
the façade of which displays very little
taste. The rooms, properly so called, are
4—a ball-room, a drawing-room, an ante-
room, and the grand concert-room. The
usual price of tickets for the concerts
held here is half a guinea, for which the
finest performances may sometimes be
heard, and sometimes such as it is diffi-
cult for the most patient hearer to put up
with, e. g., the music of the 4 Jews, who
sung dressed as 4 Tyrolese.
ARIA, in music. (Sce Air.)
ARIADNE; in mythology, a daughter of
Minos, king of Crete, who, having fallen
in love with Theseus, when he was en-
gaged in an attempt to destroy the Mino-
taur, gave him, in token of her love, a
clue of thread, which served to conduct
him out of the labyrinth, after his defeat
of the monster. Theseus, on leaving the
island, took with him A., but abandoned
her on the isle of Naxos, where she was
found by Bacchus, who married her, and
presented her with a crown of gold man-
ufactured by Vulcan, which was after
wards transformed into a constellation.
A. had a son by Bacchus, called Eumedon,
who was one of the Argonauts.-Accord-
ing to Plutarch, there were two females
of the name of A. One of them was es-
poused to Bacchus on the island of Nax-
os, and became the mother of Staphylos;
the other was abandoned by Theseus on
the same island, where she died. Hence
were derived the two kinds of feasts,
called Ariadnæa.
ARIANNA; a small village, 6 miles N.
E. of Tunis, remarkable for a fine range
of the Carthaginian aqueduct, 74 feet
high, supported by columns 16 feet
square, which increase in grandeur the
nearer they approach the site of Car-
thage. The stone is all cut in a diamond
shape. Near this spot, several ancient
matamores, or subterraneous magazines
for corn, have been discovered within
these few years, capable of containing 100
bushels, strongly arched with large square
stones. The Moors have already begun
to demolish them.
ARIANS; the adherents of the Alex-
andrian bishop Arius, who maintained,
about A. D. 318, that Christ, the Son of
God, is the most noble of all things cre
ated out of nothing, but inferior to God,
and produced by his free will. This
opinion was condemned in the council
of Alexandria, 320, and in that of Nice,
325, by the orthodox church, which at-
tributed to the Son of God perfect equal-
ity of essence with the Father (homousia,
hence Homousians), and knew no way of
expressing his relation to the Father, but
by calling it his eternal generation. The
articles of the Nicene and of the Athana-
sian creeds, the latter of which, though
fuller, is based on the former, arose from
the contest against Arius. Though his
party was banished, he found means to
procure powerful adherents; and Con-
stantine the Great, from his desire of
peace, wished to bring about the restora-
tion of Arius to the Catholic communion,
when the latter died suddenly, 336. Af-
ter his death, his party gained considera-
ble accessions, and Constantine, a short
time before his decease, 337, caused him-
self to be baptized in the Arian mode.
Under Constantius, Arianism became the
religion of the court, formed its own
liturgy, and, after 350, when Constantius
ruled alone, it prevailed also in the West,
and Rome was obliged to receive the
Arian bishop Felix. The divisions among
the Arians themselves, in the meantime,
prepared a final victory for the Catholic
church, which held the former constantly
under its anathema. At first, the Semi-
Arians, or Half-Arians, whose leaders,
Basil of Ancyra and George of Laodicea,
were powerful in Syria, approximated to
the Catholic creed by maintaining a sim-
ilarity of essence between the Son and
the Father (homoiusia, hence Homoiu-
sians), and by that means gained the su-
periority at the imperial court, although
Macedonius and the Pneumatomachists
(see Holy Spirit) belonged to the Catholic
party. But the victory of the orthodox
was promoted by the excesses of the
strict Arians, Ætius and Eunomius of
Cappadocia, together with their numer-
ous adherents, who, in the council at Sir-
mium, 357, by maintaining that the Son
of God is a wholly different being from
the Father (hence Heterusians, Anoma-
ans), excited even the Semi-Arians against
them, and, by restoring the former mode
of baptism by immersion, aroused even
the opposition of the people. The em-
peror Julian the Apostate, who, from con-
tempt towards Christianity, tolerated all
ARIANS-ARIOSTI.
sects, ended the contest, and suffered no
religious disputes to arise. Arianism
again ascended the throne in the East
with Valens, 364, and, growing bold, pro-
ceeded to acts of violence against the
Catholics. But Gratian maintained peace,
Theodosius restored the dominion of the
ancient faith, and the divisions among
the Arians themselves hastened the
downfall of their influence and respecta-
bility in the Roman empire. After the
first half of the 5th century, Arianism was
extinct in that portion of the Roman em-
pire which remained under the rule of
the emperors. Among the Goths, who
had become acquainted with Christianity,
about 340, by means of the Arians, it pre-
vailed in the western part of the empire,
till the victories of the orthodox Frank
Clovis, and the reformation of the church
by the Visigothic king Reccared, sup-
pressed it here, also, at the end of the
5th century. About this time, it was de-
stroyed among the Suevi in Spain, among
whom it had prevailed for a century.
The Burgundians, who received it 450,
had already renounced it, at the begin-
ning of the 6th century. It was more
difficult to convert the Vandals to the
Catholic faith. Ever since 430, they had
been strict Arians, and propagated the
doctrines of their sect in Northern Africa,
even by the severest persecutions. The
victories of Belisarius, 334, first put an
end to their kingdom, as well as to their
separation from the orthodox church.
Arianism was maintained longest among
the Lombards, who brought it to Italy,
and adhered to it firmly till 602. Since
that time, the Arians have no where con-
stituted a distinct sect; and, though the
Albigenses, in France, in the 12th and
13th centuries, were accused of similar
doctrines, and the sects, which, from the
16th century till the present time, have
been comprehended under the name of
Antitrinitarians, have, in reality, main-
tained the opinion that Christ is inferior
to the Father, yet neither of them can be
regarded as Arians.
ARICA; a seaport of Peru, and capital
of a province; 210 miles N. W. La Plata;
lon. 70° 11′ W.; lat. 18° 27' S. In this
port the silver from the mines of Potosi
shipped for Europe. It is much fre-
quented by vessels, and has a considerable
trade with Lima. Near it is a mountain
of rock-salt, great quantities of which are
dug, and sent to all parts of the coast.
ARIES (Latin, a ram); one of the 12
signs of the zodiac; the vernal sign. In
the ancient military art, aries signified,
31
VOL. I.
361
also, a battering-ram, an engine with an
iron head, to batter and beat down the
walls of places besieged. (See Battering-
Ram.)
ARIETTA. (See Air.)
ARIMANES, or AHRIMAN; the principle
of evil in the Persian theology, which
perpetually counteracts the designs of
Ormuzd, or Oromazdes, who denotes the
principle of good. (See Demon and Zo-
roaster.)
ARIMASPIANS ; a fabulous people,
placed sometimes in Scythia, sometimes
on the Rhipæan mountains, and used
synonymously with the Cyclops.
ARION; the inventor of dithyrambics,
born at Methynma, in Lesbos, and flour-
ished about B. C. 625. He lived at the
court of Periander, in Corinth, and after-
wards visited Sicily and Italy. At Taren-
tum, he won the prize in a musical con-
test. Having embarked in a Corinthian
vessel, with rich treasures, to return to
his friend Periander, the avaricious sailors
resolved to murder him. Apollo, how-
ever, having inforined him in a dream of
the impending danger, Arion, in a mag-
nificent dress, with his lyre in his hand,
went upon deck, and endeavored to soften
the hearts of the crew by the power of
his music. The dolphins, attracted by
the sound, assembled around the vessel,
and listened to his sweet songs, though
the avaricious seamen still continued un-
moved. A. then resolved to escape the
hands of the murderers by a voluntary
death, and threw himself into the sea.
A dolphin received him on his back, and,
while he soothed the stormy billows by
the power of his strains, bore him safe to
mount Tenarus, whence he sailed for
Corinth. The sailors, having returned to
Corinth, and being questioned by Perian-
der concerning A., replied that he was
dead. Upon this, he appeared before
them, and convicted them of their crime,
when Periander caused them to be cruci-
fied. The lyre of A., and the dolphin
which rescued him, became constellations
in the heavens. Of the poems of Arion,
we have only a hymn to Neptune, which
may be found in Brunck's Analecta.
ÁRIOSO, in music. (See Air.)
ARIOSTI, Attilio; a composer of emi-
nence, born at Bologna. He is said to
have given lessons to Handel in his child-
hood, in conjunction with whom, and
with the celebrated Bononcini, he after-
wards produced the opera of Muzio Sce-
vola; Ariosti setting the first act, Bonon-
cini the second, and Handel the third.
He likewise composed several other ope-
362
ARIOSTI-ARISMENDI.
ras in England about the year 1721, at
which time the royal academy of music
was established; and is said to have in-
troduced into that country, for the first
time, the instrument called the viol
d'amour, on which he performed a new
symphony at the sixth representation of
Handel's Amadis, on the 12th July, 1716,
soon after his arrival. He then went
abroad, but again returned in 1720, and
composed several operas. He once more
left England, after publishing a book of
cantatas by subscription; and the place
and date of his death are unknown.
ARIOSTO, Ludovico, born at Reggio,
Sept. 8, 1474, was descended from a
noble family. His father was a member
of the first judicial court of Ferrara. He
was the eldest of ten children. Even
in his childhood, he prepared tragedies,
which he acted with his brothers; among
others, one founded on the story of Pyra-
mus and Thisbe. In the school of Fer-
rara, he distinguished himself in his stud-
ies. His father designed him for the
profession of the law; but, after five years
of fruitless application to it, the young
man renounced the study, that he might
devote himself to literature. He enjoyed
the instructions of the learned Gregory of
Spoleto. Plautus and Terence, whom
he studied with this teacher, furnished
thoughts for two comedies, the Cassandra
and the Supposti, which he there planned.
His lyric poems, in the Italian and Latin
languages, distinguished for ease and
elegance of style, introduced him to the
notice of the cardinal Ippolito d' Este,
son of duke Ercole I. In 1503, Ippolito
fixed him at his court, used his counsel in
the most important affairs, and took him
with him on a journey to Hungary. Af-
ter the death of Ercole, Alfonso, his son
and successor, put the same confidence in
A. At this court he began and finished,
amid distractions of every kind, in 10 or
11 years, his immortal poem, the Orlando
Furioso. In 1516, the printing of it was
finished. When Ariosto gave a copy to
the cardinal, he asked him, " Master Louis,
where did you pick up all this trumpery ?"
In 1517 or 1518, A. was invited to accom-
pany the cardinal Ippolito d' Este on a
second journey to Hungary. The un-
healthy climate and the infirm health of
the poet appeared to him no sufficient
apology; and, on declining to attend him,
therefore, A. lost forever the cardinal's fa-
vor, which gradually passed from coldness
and indifference to settled hatred. A. was
now received by the noble duke Alfonso, a
lover of the arts, who put much confi-
dence in him, but bestowed on him only
trifling rewards, and (what seemed more
like a punishment than a mark of favor),
in 1521 and 1522, commissioned him to
quell the disturbances that had broken
out in the wild and mountainous Garfag-
nana. He successfully accomplished this
difficult enterprise, and, after three years,
returned to Ferrara, where he employed
himself in the composition of his come-
dies, and in putting the last touches to his
Orlando. He died June 6, 1533, at the
age of 58. A. had a good figure, a gentle
character, polished manners and an amia-
ble disposition. He had been rich, and
he loved splendor. He was obliged to
content himself, however, with a small,
but convenient and pleasant house, over
which he caused the following verses to
be inscribed :
Parva sed apta mihi, sed nulli obnoxia, sed non
Sordida, parta meo sed tamen aere domus.
His Orlando Furioso, which is a continu-
ation of Boiardo's Orlando Innamorato,
and cannot be perfectly understood with-
out it, is a perfect epic romance, full of
the fairest flowers of poetry, and of fresh-
ness and spirit, in which A. far excels
even Tasso. The Orlando displays a
splendid and inexhaustible richness of
invention, an ever-changing variety of in-
cidents connected with the talent of lively
narration. The activity of a youthful
fancy animates the whole work. A. ex-
hibits, also, a wonderful skill in inter-
weaving the episodes, which he continu-
ally interrupts, and again takes up with
an agreeable, and often imperceptible art,
and so entwines them with one another,
that it is difficult to give a connected his-
tory of the contents of the poem, consist-
ing of 46 cantos. These qualities place
him among the great masters of poetry,
and have gained for him, among his
countrymen, the appellation of divine.
Besides this great epic, we have some
comedies, satires, capitoli and sonnets by
A., and a collection of Latin poems, in all
of which the richness of his genius shines
with more or less brightness.
ARISMENDI, Juan Bautista; a distin-
guished general in the war of Colombian
independence. Subsequently to the re-
duction of Margarita by Morillo, in 1815,
A. raised the republican standard anew
in 1826, defeated Morillo's garrison in
several actions, and regained part of the
island. This movement was eminently
useful to Bolivar, who, landing in Marga-
rita, from Aux Cayes, restored the wa-
vering fortunes of his country. In 1819,
ARISMENDI-ARISTIDES.
A. was vice-president of Venezuela, pre-
vious to its union with New Grenada.
ARISTEUS, Son of Apollo and Cyrene,
was brought up by the Nymphs. The in-
troduction of the use of bees is ascribed
to him (hence he is called Melissaus), and
gained for him divine honors. His love
of Eurydice, the young bride of Orpheus,
caused her death; for, as she fled from
him, along the side of a river, she received
a mortal bite from a poisonous snake.
He was punished by the loss of his bees.
The loss, however, was repaired by new
swarms, produced, after nine days, in the
bodies of some cattle which he had slain.
He was the son-in-law of Cadmus, and
father of Acteon. He has been con-
founded with the Proconnesian Aristæus,
who appeared on earth from time to time,
e. g., as the instructer of Homer, and,
afterwards, as a scholar of Pythagoras.
This is explained by the fact, that there
was a scholar of Pythagoras of this
name, who succeeded that philosopher,
and whose whole life was afterwards
involved in fable.
ARISTARCHUS; a Greek grammarian,
who criticised Homer's poems with the
greatest severity, and established a new
text; for that reason, severe and just
critics are often called Aristarchi. He was
born in the island of Samothrace, and
lived at Alexandria about B. C. 150.
Ptolemy Philometor, who highly esteemed
him, confided to him the education of his
children. After having spent his life in
criticising Pindar and other poets, espe-
cially Homer, he died at Cyprus, aged 72.
-Aristarchus of Samos, born B. C. 267,
was a famous astronomer, who first as-
serted the revolution of the earth about
the sun.
His work on the magnitude and
distance of the sun and moon is still ex-
tant. He is also regarded as the inventor
of the sun-dial.
ARISTIDES, for his strict integrity sur-
named the Just, was the son of Lysima-
chus, and descended from one of the most
honorable families of Athens. He was
one of the ten generals of the Athenians,
when they fought with the Persians at
Marathon. According to the usual ar-
rangement, the command of the army
was held by each of the generals, in rota-
tion, for one day. But Aristides, perceiv-
ing the disadvantages of such a change
of commanders, prevailed on his col-
leagues each to give up his day to Milti-
ades; and to this, in a great measure, must
be ascribed the victory of the Greeks.
The year ensuing, he was archon, and, in
this office, enjoyed so universal a popu-
363
larity, that he thereby excited the jealousy
of Themistocles. This ambitious man,
not daring, openly, to attack his rival,
contrived to spread a report, that A. was
aiming at a kind of sovereignty, and, at
last, succeeded in procuring his banish-
ment by the ostracism. It is said, that a
rustic citizen, who happened to stand
near A. in the public assembly which de-
creed his banishment, turned to him,
without knowing who he was, and asked
him to write the name of Aristides upon
the shell with which he was going to
vote. "Has Aristides injured thee ?" in-
quired he. "No," answered the voter;
"but I am tired of hearing him called the
Just." A. wrote his name, and returned
the shell in silence to the voter. He left
the city, with prayers for its welfare.
Three years after, when Xerxes invaded
Greece with a large army, the Athenians
hastened to recall a citizen to whom they
looked for aid in this emergency. For-
getting every thing but the good of his
country, upon receiving intelligence that
the Greek fleet was surrounded, at Sala-
mis, by the Persians, he hastened thither
with all speed, to warn Themistocles
of the danger which threatened him.
Touched by his generosity, Themistocles
admitted him at once to his confidence,
telling him that the report had been pur-
posely spread by himself, to prevent the
separation of the Grecian fleet. He also
invited him to assist in the council of war,
and, having determined on battle, posted
him on the little island of Psyttalia, where
those, whose ships were sunk during the
engagement, found refuge. In the battle
of Platæa, A. commanded the Athenians,
and had a great share in the merit of the
victory. It is thought that he was again
archon the year following, and that, dur-
ing this time, he procured the passage of
the law by which the common people
were admitted to all public offices, even
that of archon. On one occasion, when
Themistocles announced that he had
formed a project of great importance to
the state, but which he could not make
known in a public assembly, the people
appointed A. to confer with him on the
subject. The project was to set fire to
the combined fleet of the Greeks, which
was then lying in a neighboring port, and
thereby to secure to the Athenians the
sovereignty of the sea. A. returned to the
people, and told them that nothing could
be more advantageous, but, at the same
time, nothing more unjust, than the plan
of Themistocles. The plan was at once
rejected. To defray the expenses of the
?
364
ARISTIDES-ARISTOGITON.
Persian war, he persuaded the Greeks to
impose a tax, which should be paid into
the hands of an officer appointed by the
states collectively, and deposited at De-
los. The implicit confidence which was
felt in his integrity appeared in their in-
trusting him with the office of apportion-
ing the contribution,-an office which he
executed with universal satisfaction. He
died at a very advanced age, and, what
most strikingly evinces his integrity and
disinterestedness, so poor that he was
buried at the public expense. He left
two daughters, who received dowries
from the state, and a son, who was pre-
sented with 100 silver mine and a tract
of wood-land.-Aristides Elius, a famous
rhetorician, born A. D. 129, in Bithyn-
ia, after travelling for some time, set-
tled in Smyrna. When the city was de-
stroyed by an earthquake, A. D. 178, A.,
by his influence with the emperor Anto-
ninus, had it rebuilt. The inhabitants
showed their gratitude for this service by
erecting a statue to him. The merit of
his orations, of which forty-five are yet
extant, consists only in the splendor of
the language, by which the emptiness of
the matter is tolerably well concealed.-
Another Aristides, a Theban painter, con-
temporary with Apelles, flourished B. C.
240. A famous picture of his is spoken
of by Pliny, representing a mother, in a
captured town, mortally wounded, with
an infant sucking at her breast, who, she
is apprehensive, will suck blood instead
of milk: it became the property of Alex-
ander the Great. Several other very fa-
mous pictures of his are also mentioned,
for one of which Attalus, king of Perga-
Inus, is said to have given 100 talents.
Expression seems to have been the great
excellence of this ancient artist.-Aristides
was also the name of a Christian philoso-
pher in the 2d century.
ARISTIPPUS; the founder of a cele-
brated philosophical school among the
Greeks, which was called Cyrenaic, from
his native city, Cyrene, in Africa. He
flourished 380 B. C. Being sent by his
wealthy father to Olympia, probably to
take part there in the chariot-races, he
heard Socrates spoken of, and was so de-
sirous to receive instruction from him,
that he immediately hastened to Athens,
and mingled with his disciples. He did
not, however, adopt all the principles of
this philosopher. Like him, he thought
that we should refrain from speaking of
things which are beyond human compre-
hension, and likewise paid but little atten-
tion to the physical and mathematical
sciences; but his moral philosophy dif
fered widely from that of Socrates, and
was a science of refined voluptuousness.
His fundamental principles were, that all
human sensations may be reduced to
two-pleasure and pain. Pleasure is a
gentle, and pain a violent emotion. All
living beings seek the former, and avoid
the latter. Happiness is nothing but a
continued pleasure, composed of separate
gratifications; and as it is the object of all
human exertions, we should abstain from
no kind of pleasure. Still we should al-
ways be governed by taste and reason in
our enjoyinents. As Socrates disapproved
of these doctrines, they were the cause
of many disputes between him and his
disciple; and it was, probably, to avoid
his censures, that Aristippus spent a part
of his time at Ægina, where he was when
his master died. He made many journeys
to Sicily, where he met with a very friend-
ly reception from Dionysius the tyrant.
The charms of the celebrated Lais allured
him to Corinth, and he became very inti-
nate with her. When he was reproached
with squandering so much money upon
a woman who gratuitously surrendered
herself to Diogenes, he answered, "I pay
her that she may grant her favors to me,
not that she may refuse them to another."
He said, another time, "I possess her, not
she me."
she me." (See Lais.) Diogenes Laertius
is not to be credited, when he says that
Aristippus opened a school after he re-
turned to Athens, as we know of no dis-
ciple instructed by him. His doctrines
were taught only by his daughter, Arete,
and by his grandson, Aristippus the
younger. Other Cyrenians compounded
them into a particular doctrine of pleas-
ure, and are hence called Hedonici.´ The
time of his death is unknown. His writ-
ings are lost. Wieland's historico-philo-
sophical romance (Aristippus and some
of his Contemporaries) gives us a lively
and highly interesting delineation of the
life and doctrines of this amiable sensual
philosopher.
ARISTOCRACY. (See Government.)
ARISTOGITON; a citizen of Athens,
whose name is rendered famous by a con-
spiracy formed, in conjunction with his
friend Harmodius, against the tyrants Hip-
pias and Hipparchus, the sons of Pisistra-
tus. They succeeded in killing Hippar-
chus (514 B. C.); but, not being seconded
by the people, Harmodius was despatched
by the guards, and A. secured. Hippias
instituted a severe inquisition into the
plot, and tortured A. to discover his ac-
complices; upon which he is reported to
ARISTOGITON-ARISTOTLE.
have named all the best friends of the ty-
rant in succession, and they were imme-
diately put to death. On being asked by
Hippias if there were any more, "There
now remains," said Aristogiton, with a
smile, "only thyself worthy of death."
Hippias being expelled three years after,
the Athenians paid the greatest honors to
the two friends Harmodius and Aristogi-
ton, placing in the forum their statues by
Praxiteles, singing hymns to their praise
at the Panathenæa, and decreeing that
no slave should ever bear their names.
(See Plutarch and Thucydides.)
ARISTOMENES; a young, valiant hero,
and leader of the Messenians against the
Spartans, B. C. 682. The story of his
escape from a deep cavern (into which he
had been thrown by the Spartans), by
creeping through a fox-hole, is extraordi-
nary, but not well authenticated. Not-
withstanding his boldness and heroic
courage, he could not prevent the sub-
jection of the Messenians.
ARISTOPHANES; the only Grecian com-
ic poet of whom any pieces have been
preserved entire; the son of a certain
Philippus, and by birth an Athenian.
He appeared, as a poet, in the fourth year
of the Peloponnesian war, B. C. 427; and,
having indulged himself in some sarcasms
on Cleon, at that time a powerful dema-
gogue, was accused, by the latter, of hav-
ing unlawfully assumed the title of an
Athenian citizen. He defended himself
before the judges merely with the known
verses of Homer,-
To prove a genuine birth (the prince replies),
On female truth assenting faith relics:
Thus manifest of right, I build my claim,
Sure founded, on a fair maternal fame,
Ulysses' son.
Pope's Od. i. 275-9.
and, when the same accusation was re-
newed against him, he succeeded in re-
pelling it a second time. He afterwards
revenged himself on Cleon, in his comedy
of the Knights, in which he himself acted
the part of Cleon, because no actor had
the courage to do it. This little remains
to us of the life of A., who was distin-
guished, among the ancients, by the ap-
pellation of the comedian, as Homer was
by that of the poet. Of 54 comedies
which he composed, 11 only remain; and
in these, without doubt, we possess the
flower of the ancient comedy, which, in
his last play, the Plutus, borders on the
middle; but, in order fully to enjoy them,
and not to be offended by the extrava-
gances and immoralities with which they
abound, we must be intimately acquainted
with ancient customs and opinions. His
365
pure and elegant Attic dialect, the skill
and care displayed in the plan and execu-
tion of his pieces, and their various other
excellences, have gained for A. the fame
of a master. His wit and humor are in-
exhaustible, and his boldness unrestrained.
The Greeks were enchanted with the
grace and refinement of his writings; and
Plato said, the Graces would have chosen
his soul for their habitation." According
to our ideas of decorum," says a late schol-
ar, "we should esteem the soul of A. a
fitter residence for the licentious and mali-
cious satyr, or, at least, we should call him,
with Göthe, the spoiled child of the Graces."
He made use of allegory in his attacks on
the politicians of the day, as well as in
scourging the vices and follies of his age.
In a political and moral view, he is a
strong advocate for ancient discipline,
manners, doctrines and art; hence his
sallies against Socrates, in the Clouds, and
against Euripides, in the Frogs and other
comedies. The freedom of ancient com-
edy allowed an unbounded degree of per-
sonal satire, and A. made so free use of it,
that nothing, divine or human, which offer-
ed a weak side, escaped his sarcasms. He
feared the Athenian people so little, that
he personated them, under a most misera-
ble figure, in his old Demos. He inces-
santly reproached them for their fickle-
ness, their levity, their love of flattery,
their foolish credulity, and their readiness
to entertain extravagant hopes. Instead
of being irritated, the Athenians rewarded
him with a crown from the sacred olive-
tree, which was, at that time, considered
an extraordinary mark of distinction.
This excessive freedom characterized the
ancient comedy, which was long consid-
ered as a support of democracy. After
the Peloponnesian war, its licentiousness
was much restrained; and, in the year
388 B. C., it was forbidden by law to name
any person on the stage. At that time,
A. produced, under the name of his eld-
est son, the Cocalus, a play in which a
young man seduces a maiden, and, after
having discovered her descent, marries
her. With this play the new comedy be-
gan. A., who was very old, appears to have
died soon after.-The best editions of his
comedies are those of L. Küster, Amster-
dam, 1710, fol.; Bergler, Amsterdam, 1760,
2 vols., 4to.; Brunck, Strasburg, 1781, 4
vols., 4to. and 8vo.; Invernizio, Leipsic,
1794, 2 vols., with Beck's commentaries.
ARISTOTLE, one of the most celebrated
philosophers of Greece, and founder of
the Peripatetic sect, was born at Stagira,
in Macedonia, in the 1st year of the 99th
31 *
366
ARISTOTLE.
Olympiad (384 B. C.) Nicomachus, his
father, claimed descent from Machaon,
the son of Esculapius; Phæstis, his
mother, was also of noble extraction.
The profession of medicine was heredi-
tary in the family of the Asclepiada; and
Aristotle's father, who was physician to
king Amyntas, had pursued it with repu-
tation and success. He designed his son
for the same profession, and probably in-
structed him in the science of medicine,
and the philosophy connected with it.
He doubtless owed to his early education
his inclination for the study of natural
history, of which he is to be regarded as
the founder, since he was the first who
made accurate observations. After the
death of his parents, he went, at the age
of 18, to Atarnea, and lived with one
Proxenus, a friend of his family, who
did much towards his further education
and improvement. Here he staid a short
time, and then repaired to Athens. A.
remained, during this his first, abode in
Athens, about 20 years; and, not content
to continue merely a hearer of Plato,
whose school was then in high renown,
he opened a school of rhetoric himself,
and became the rival of Isocrates. He
probably composed, also, some philosoph-
ical works, the fame of which reached
the ears of Philip of Macedon. It is cer-
It is cer-
tain, at least, that this king wrote to him,
soon after Alexander's birth, 356 B. C.,
the celebrated letter,-"King Philip of
Macedon to Aristotle, greeting. Know
that a son has been born to me. I thank
the gods not so much that they have
given him to me, as that they have per-
initted him to be born in the time of Ar-
istotle. I hope that thou wilt form him to
be a king worthy to succeed me, and to
rule the Macedonians." Several writers
affirm that A. quarrelled with Plato a
short time before the death of the latter,
and, in consequence, set up his school in
opposition to the Platonic. It is certain
that there was some dispute between the
two philosophers, but it never came to an
open rupture. A. constantly manifested
the highest reverence for his teacher, and
every where, in his works, speaks with
great respect of him, even when he criti-
cises him. The Athenians having de-
clared war against Philip, soon after Pla-
to's death, A. left Athens for Atarnea,
where his friend Hermias was sovereign.
Hermias soon after was betrayed into the
hands of Artaxerxes, who dishonorably
put him to death. A., deeply moved by
the fate of his friend, sought to perpetuate
his memory by an ode, which is rich in
poetical beauties; and espoused his niece.
It appears that A. lived some time after
the death of his friend at Mitylene; but,
towards the year 343 B. C., he was invited
by Philip to his court, to take charge of
the education of Alexander, who was
then 13 years old. The particulars of his
method of instruction are not known to
us; but when we see the greatness of
mind which Alexander displayed in the
first years of his reign,-his command of
his passions, till flattery had corrupted
him, and his regard for the arts and sci-
ences, we cannot but think that his edu-
cation was judiciously conducted. It may
be objected, that Aristotle neglected to
guard his pupil against ambition and the
love of conquest; but it must be recollect-
ed that he was a Greek, and, of course, a
natural enemy to the Persian kings; his
hatred had been deepened by the fate of
his friend Hermias; in short, the conquest
of Persia had, for a long time, been the
wish of all Greece. It was, therefore,
natural that Aristotle should exert all his
talents to form his pupil with the disposi-
tion and qualifications necessary for the
accomplishment of this object. Both fa-
ther and son sought to show their grati-
tude for the services of such a teacher.
Philip rebuilt Stagira, and established a
school there for Aristotle. The Stagi-
rites, in gratitude for this service, appoint-
ed a yearly festival, called Aristotelia. A.
continued at Alexander's court a year
after his accession to the throne, and
is said to have then repaired to Athens.
Ammonius the Eclectic says that he fol-
lowed his pupil in a part of his cam-
paigns; and this seems very probable,
because it is hardly possible that so many
animals as the philosopher describes could
have been sent to Athens, or that he could
have given so accurate a description of
them without having personally dissected
and examined them. We may conjecture
that he accompanied Alexander as far as
Egypt, and returned to Athens about 331
B. C., provided with the materials for his
excellent History of Animals. Here he
opened a school of philosophy in the Ly-
ceum, a gymnasium not far from the city.
Thither he went twice a day. The fore-
noon was devoted to his most intimate
pupils, when he explained to them the
diflicult parts of science. In the evening,
he admitted all those who were desirous
of hearing him, while he discoursed, in a
familiar and intelligible way, on subjects
inore nearly connected with common life.
Accordingly, his works also are divided in-
to the esoteric or abstruse, and the exoteric
ARISTOTLE-ARK.
or familiar. Alexander aided his extensive
studies by sending him presents from
Asia, and, as a reward for his services,
gave him 800 talents. Notwithstanding
this, he afterwards conceived an enmity
against his tutor. At the death of that
prince, 334 B. C., A. was reported to be
concerned in his pretended assassination.
The Athenians, now hoping to recover
the command of Greece, endeavored to
prevail on the other states to take arms
against the Macedonians, and Aristotle
became an object of suspicion, on account
of his connexion with Philip, Alexander
and Antipater. The demagogues, sup-
ported by his numerous enemies, took
this opportunity to accuse him. To escape
prosecution, on a charge of atheism, he
left Athens with the observation (alluding
to the condemnation of Socrates), that he
would spare them the guilt of a second
crime against philosophy. He retired,
with most of his scholars, to Chalcis, in
Euboea, where he shortly after took poi-
son, 322 B. C., on being summoned, as it is
said, to appear before the court of areop-
agus at Athens, to answer to the accu-
sation against him. His character can
hardly be acquitted of ambition and dis-
honesty. (For his doctrines and sect, see
Philosophy, Peripatetic.)-The works of
Aristotle, which were not published during
his life-time, first became known to the
world when the Romans began to devote
themselves to philosophy. The original
manuscripts of his works, and those of
Theophrastus, were brought by Sylla to
Rome, with the library of Apellicon. An-
dronicus of Rhodes arranged them, and
furnished them with indices. Many of
his important works are now lost. Those
yet extant, according to the edition of
Sylburg, 5 vols., 4to., Frankfort, 1587,
which is esteemed the best, are the fol-
lowing:-Organon; Rhetorica et Poetica;
Ethica ad Nicomachum; Ethica Magna;
Política et Economica; Animalium Histo-
ria; De Animalium Partibus; Physica Aus-
cultationis, lib. xiii., et alia Opera; De Ca-
lo; De Generatione et Conceptione; De
Meteoris, lib. iv.; De Mundo; De Anima;
Parva Naturalia; l'aria Opuscula; Aris
totelis, Alexandri et Cascii Problemata;
Aristotelis et Theophrasti Metaphysica.-
Besides the edition above-mentioned,
those of Casaubon aud Duval are esteem-
ed. The latest edition is that of Buhle,
not yet completed. (See Philosophy.)
ARITHMETIC (from the Greek dpad,
number); a branch of mathematics, the
object of which is, to combine numbers,
according to certain rules, in order to
367
obtain results which satisfy given condi-
tions. These rules, methodically arranged,
form a science, to which the name of
arithmetic is given. This science is very
ancient, and we find it (of course, in very
different degrees of perfection) among all
nations. Arithmetic, to the best of our
knowledge, first attained a high degree
of perfection, and was formed into a well-
connected whole among the Greeks, from
whom the Romans learned it. Still, the
arithmetic of the ancients was, by no
means, so convenient as the modern sys-
tems. The superiority of the modern
systems is owing, in a great degree, to
our system of notation, which deserves to
be called one of the sublimest inventions
of the human mind. A great number of
works on arithmetic have been published.
The French, who excel all nations in
popular treatises on mathematics, have
the best school-books in the department
of arithmetic. Those of Lacroix, Clai-
raut, Bezout, Mauduit, are excellent for
persons who wish to pursue mathemati-
cal studies to a considerable extent, or to
devote themselves to engineering, military
or civil; while those of Gremillet, Quer-
ret, Longuêtre, Juvigny, are better fitted
for young persons, who intend to pursue
commerce or practise the mechanical arts.
Among the English treatises, that of
Walsh is a good one. In German, those
of Fischer and Busch deserve to be men-
tioned. Fischer's is, in many respects,
excellent. A very complete treatise on
arithmetic is to be found in the Encyclo-
pædia Metropolitana (London), a work
which is not yet completed.
ARIUS. (See Arians.)
ARK; the name applied, in our transla-
tion of the Bible, to the boat or floating
edifice in which Noah resided during the
flood or deluge; derived, undoubtedly,
from the Latin arca, a chest, or vessel.
(Sec Deluge.)-In the synagogue of the
Jews, the chest, in which the tables of the
law were preserved, bore the name of the
ark of the covenant. This was a small
chest or coffer, 3 feet 9 inches in length,
2 feet 3 inches in breadth, and the same
in height, in which were contained the
various sacred articles mentioned in the
quotations. It was made of shittim-wood,
and covered with the mercy-seat, called
also the propiliatory, as the Septuagint
expresses it, origio inpa, that is, the lid
or cover of propitiation; because, in the
typical language of Scripture, those sins
which are forgiven are said to be covered.
This lid was made of pure gold: at either
end was a cherub: these looked towards
368
ARK-ARKWRIGHT.
each other, and embraced the whole cir-
cumference of the mercy-seat with their
expanded wings (Ex. xxv. 17, 22, and
xxxix. 1—9); between which the She-
chinah, or symbol of the divine presence,
manifested itself in the appearance of a
cloud, hovering, as it were, over the
mercy-seat (Lev. xvi. 2). From hence the
divine oracles were given (2 Kings xix.
15; Isa. lxxx. 1). The high priest, once
every year, on the great day of expiation,
appeared before the mercy-seat, to make
atonement for the people (Heb. ix. 7).
The ark was placed in the sanctuary of
the temple of Solomon: before his time,
it was kept in the tabernacle, and was
moved about as circumstances dictated.
At the captivity, it appears to have been
either lost or destroyed; for the Jews
universally concur in stating that, among
the things wanting in the second temple,
one was the ark of the covenant.
ARKANSAS; a territory or district of
country belonging to the U. States, bound-
ed N. by the territory and state of Missou-
ri, E. by the Mississippi, which separates
it from the states of Tennessee and Mis-
sissippi, S. by Louisiana and Mexico, and
W. by Mexico; length, from E. to W., 550
miles; mean breadth, about 220; square
miles, about 120,000; between lon. 90°
and 100° W.; lat. 32° 40 and 36° 30′ N.
This is the usual statement of the size of
the territory; but the limits of what is
properly called A. territory have been late-
ly reduced, so that it now contains about
45,000 square miles. Pop., in 1810, 1062;
in 1820, 14,273; slaves, 1,617. It was
erected into a territorial government in
1819. The number of counties, in 1820,
was 7, and, in 1828, 15. Little Rock is
the seat of government. According to a
report made in congress, by one of the
committees on public lands, the popula-
tion of Arkansas, probably, will amount, in
1830, to 35,000.—The Arkansas flows
through the central part; the Mississippi
forms the castern, and Red river a part
of the southern boundary. The other
The other
principal rivers are White, St. Francis
and Washita or Ouachitta rivers. The
Ozark (a provincial corruption of Arkan-
sas) mountains traverse the country from
N. E. to S. W. The part of the territory
between this range and the Mississippi is,
in general, low and level, and, in many
places, liable to annual inundation. To
the N. W. of the mountains, the country
consists mostly of extensive prairies, with-
out trees, except on the borders of the
streams of water. The soil, on the rivers,
is exceedingly fertile; but, in other parts,
much of it is sterile. Throughout most
of the country, there is a great scarcity of
water. The climate is subject to great
extremes of heat and cold, and is un-
healthy to new settlers. Arkansas was
discovered and settled by the French,
under the chevalier de Tonti, as early as
1685. In the various transfers of territory,
it followed the fate of other parts of Lou-
isiana, until February, 1819, when, by a
law of congress, that part of Louisiana
between the state of Louisiana, or N. lat.
33°, and the southern boundary of Mis-
souri, was erected into a separate territo-
rial government, and such it continues
to the present day.-Cotton and Indian
corn are the staple productions. The
country is exceedingly well adapted to
the raising of cattle. Wild animals and
fowls are abundant, as the buffalo, deer,
elk, otter, beaver, rabbit, raccoon, wildcat,
catamount, wolf, bear, &c.; wild geesc,
turkeys, quails, &c. Of minerals, there
are iron, lead, coal, salt, &c. There are
several salt springs, and, 1300 or 1400
miles up the Arkansas, is a tract called
the salt prairie, which, according to gov-
ernor Miller, is covered, for many miles,
from 4 to 6 inches deep, with pure, white,
crystallized salt. About 150 miles N. W.
Arkansas are the famous hot springs.
They are much resorted to by invalids,
and are useful in chronic and paralytic
affections. The temperature, in the driest
seasons, is at the boiling point, but subject
to considerable variation. The principal
tribes of Indians, in this territory, are the
Osages, Cherokees, Quapas, Choctaws,
Cadoes, Camanches, &c.- Arkansas; a
river of North America, which rises in
the Rocky mountains, about N. lat. 40°,
near the sources of the rio del Norte, and
near the borders of the territory of the U.
States and Mexico. It forms a part of
the boundary between the Missouri ter-
ritory and Mexico, flows through the cen-
tral part of Arkansas territory, and unites
with the Mississippi, lat. 33° 40′ N. Its
course is E. S. E. It is navigable for
boats, at some seasons, 1980 miles; its
whole length, following its windings, is
2170 miles. Its channel is broad, and
its navigation safe, unobstructed by rocks,
shoals or rapids. Silver is found on
this river, and much of the land on its
banks is of the first quality.
ARKEBUSS. (See Harquebuss.)
>
ARKWRIGHT, Sir Richard; at first a poor
barber, afterwards inventor of the spin-
ning jenny, and thereby the real founder
of a branch of manufactures, to which
Great Britain owes an immense increase
ARKWRIGHT-ARMADILLO.
of her exports, and which affords employ-
ment to millions of hands. Some esteem
this remarkable man as a genius of the
first order, gifted with an extraordinary
power of invention; others, as an artful
contriver, who understood how to appro-
priate to himself the discoveries of others.
It is certain that A. raised himself by his
talents from low circumstances, that he
had a great influence on the improve-
ment of the spinning machines in Eng-
land, and that he thus obtained honors
and wealth. He left his barber's shop in
1767, and came to the village of Warring-
ton, where he began his career of me-
chanical invention, with a kind of perpet-
ual motion. A watch-maker, named Kay,
advised him to persevere, and induced
him to employ his talents on machinery
for spinning wool. Kay, had himself at-
tempted to contrive a machine for that
purpose, but without much success. As
their united means were not sufficient to
carry their design into execution, they
applied for assistance to a Mr. Ather-
ton, of Liverpool. Although the pover-
ty of A.'s appearance promised but little,
Mr. Atherton took the two projectors
under his patronage, and a machine was
at length completed. A. took out a patent
for it in 1769, which was renewed in 1775,
but was set aside, in 1785, by the king's
bench. After procuring the patent, he
formed, in connexion with a Mr. Smalley,
an establishment which soon fell through.
He then went to Nottingham, where his
attempts were more successful. There
he connected himself with a Scotchman,
named Dale, and, as he was attacked,
about this time, by other English manu-
facturers, he was accustomed to say, that
he would put into the hands of a Scotch-
man a razor that would effectually shave
them all. A. separated also from Dale,
carried on his works alone, and soon
became one of the richest manufacturers
in the kingdom. When he died, in 1792,
at his great establishment at Crumford
bridge, his property amounted to at least
£500,000. If the first conception of the
spinning jenny cannot be refused to Kay,
still we must not forget, that he who ma-
tures a crude idea, and understands how
to apply it, deserves more credit than the
inventor or projector. Since A.'s time,
no important discovery or improvement
has been made in the method of spinning
cotton by water machinery. To give an
idea of the immense influence which his
invention has had upon the increase of
cotton fabrics, it is sufficient to observe,
that, from 1771 to 1780, only 5,735,000
369
pounds of raw cotton, on an average,
were annually imported; but, from 1817
to 1821, about 144,000,000, of which
130,000,000 pounds were worked up in
England, or, at least, spun there.
ARMADA (Spanish); a fleet of ships of
war. This term is applied particularly to
that great naval armament, which was
called the invincible armada, fitted out, in
1588, by Philip II, against queen Eliza-
beth. It consisted of 150 ships, most of
which were of a remarkable size, carrying
2650 guns, and having on board about
20,000 soldiers, and 8000 sailors, besides
2000 volunteers of the most distinguished
families. This force was to be joined by
34,000 men, assembled in the neighbor-
hood of Dunkirk. The English navy, at
that time, consisted of 30 ships of war;
but it was reinforced by the voluntary
exertions of the citizens, commanded by
Howard, Drake, Hawkins and Frobisher,
and manned by the most skilful seamen
in the world. The loss of their admiral,
and a violent tempest, the day after they
sailed, retarded, for some time, the opera-
tions of the Spaniards; and, on the voy-
age, they were harassed by the flying
attacks of the English. They arrived on
the coast of the Netherlands in July.
were thrown into disorder by a stratagen:
of lord Howard, and, in this situation,
were attacked with such impetuosity, that
it became necessary to attempt to return.
Contrary winds obliged the Spanish ad-
miral to make the circuit of the island,
with the wreck of this magnificent arma-
ment. In passing the Orkneys, it was
attacked by a violent storm, and only a
feeble remnant returned to Spain. Eliz-
abeth struck medals with the motto-
Afflavit Deus et dissipantur.
ARMADILLO (dasypus, L.); a genus of
mammiferous quadrupeds, belonging to
the order edentata, inhabiting the hotter
regions of the American continent. The
species comprised within this genus are
provided with a very remarkable, hard
shell, consisting of scales or plates, ar-
ranged somewhat like a tessellated pare-
ment or coat of mail, covering the head,
body, and, in some species, the tail. This
shell forms a sort of shield on the head;
a second, very convex, protects the shoul-
ders, and a third is extended over the
rump; while the space intermediate to
the two last is occupied by a number of
parallel plates, united by a strong, flexible
membrane, which allows of the neces-
sary flexions of the body. When the
animal places the head between the fore-
feet, and brings the tail and posterior ex-
370
ARMADILLO-ARMATOLIC.
tremities close together, a ball is formed,
which offers an uniform, solid surface, not
pervious to the attacks of birds of prey,
nor small quadrupeds. The inferior sur-
face of the body, not covered by the shell,
is clothed with a coarse, scattered hair,
some of which, also, appears at different
points between the plates or bands of
the shell. All the armadillos have a rather
pointed snout, long ears and stout claws;
of the latter, some species have four on
the anterior feet, others five; all, however,
have five on the posterior feet. They
have no incisive or canine teeth, but seven
or eight separate, cylindrical jaw-teeth,
which are only enamelled on the outside.
They feed on vegetables, insects and car-
rion, have a simple stomach, and no
cœcum.-But for their peculiar fecun-
dity, the armadillos would be speedily
exterminated, as they are sought with
great avidity in Guiana, Paraguay, Brazil,
&c., on account of their flesh, which is
regarded as a great luxury. To obtain
these animals, is not so easy as might be
supposed, since they burrow with astonish-
ing rapidity, so that it is almost impossible
to get at them by digging. The hunters
are obliged to smoke them out of their
dens. When they appear on the surface,
they are easily captured, as they roll
themselves into a ball, and remain mo-
tionless as soon as approached by a dog
or man. If near a precipice, however,
they sometimes elude pursuit by thus
rolling themselves up and falling from the
top, which they do without receiving any
obvious injury. The Indians make use
of the shell or covering of these animals,
especially of the larger species, in the
fabrication of baskets, &c.-Like all the
animals belonging to this order, the arma-
dillos are slow-motioned and harmless;
sometimes they are troublesome in gar-
dens, both from the destruction of plants,
and the number and extent of the exca-
vations which they form. The species
are distinguished from each other, princi-
pally, by the number of bands on the
trunk of the body, between the shield on
the fore shoulders and that on the rump.-
The species enumerated by Cuvier are
--dasypus tricinctus, L. (3 banded A.), of
middling size, found in Brazil and Para-
guay; D. 6 cinctus et 18 cinctus, L. (6 band-
ed A.), having the borders of the posterior
shield serrated, and the parts not covered
by shell furnished with longer and thicker
hair than the other species; D. 7, 8 et 9
cinctus, L. (9 banded A.), having a body
15 inches long, with a tail of the same
length; and the D. gigas, C., or giant ar-
madillo, which has 12 or 13 intermediate
bands, and grows to the length of 3 feet,
exclusive of the tail. We have good
reason to believe that this species attains
to a much larger size, or that there is
another species, to which the epithet gi-
gantic is still more applicable than to
this.
ARMAGH; a county of Ireland, in the
province of Ulster, containing, on 459
square miles, 141,381 souls. The linen
manufacture flourishes in this country.
The chief city of this county is Armagh,
which was formerly the metropolis of
Ireland; lon. 6° 37′ W.; lat. 54° 21′ N.
It contains 1268 houses, and 7010 inhab-
itants; 2000 of the established church,
3413 Catholics, and 1596 Dissenters. In
the middle ages, it was an extensive and
populous city, and celebrated for its learn-
ing, having, at one period, according to
Irish historians, 7000 students at its col-
lege. It is, at present, the seat of the
consistorial court of the archbishop of
Armagh, who is lord primate of all Irc-
land.
ARMATOLIC (from the modern Greek
'Apparodiov, i. e., territory of arms); a dis-
trict in the mountains of Greece, assigned
to a capitani for protection. They were
the last refuge of liberty in Greece. These
armatolics are very numerous in the
mountains of Macedon, Epirus and Thes-
saly; and the freedom of the Mainotes,
Suliotes, inhabitants of Montenegro, &c., is
supported almost entirely by them. When
Mohammed II finished the conquest of
Greece, he was satisfied with possessing
the plains, the fortified places and the sea-
ports. The natural fortresses of the coun-
try seemed unimportant to him, as well as
to his successors, whose efforts were di-
rected, in preference, against Ilungary and
Poland. To these fastnesses, unconquered
by the Turks, fled the independent part
of the Greeks, in order to continue the
war in detail, under their bold leaders,
called capitanis. A capitani collected,
generally, a troop of 50-200 men, who
remained true to him through every va-
riety of fortune, and attacked the enemy
every where, on the roads and in the
towns. They said, "We never have made
peace with Turkey." Thus involved in an
endless struggle with the oppressors, their
war soon degenerated into robberies. A
large number of them were careful to
confine their depredations to Mussul-
mans; but this was not the case with all,
and many instances occurred, as may easi-
ly be imagined, in which Greeks were at-
tacked when the booty expected was con-
1
ARMATOLIC—ARMENIA.
siderable. The pachas, unable to sub-
due these enterprising warriors, generally
treated with them. The capitanis received,
on condition of remaining quiet, money
or stores, and the government of the dis-
trict which was defended by their arms.
Such a district was then called armatolion.
Very recently, the capitanis Odysseus,
Perrhæos, Tzonko, Tasios, Pisko, &c.,
made themselves feared by Ali Pacha,
(q. v.) as well as by the pachas sent against
him, and most of them took part against
the Porte in the struggle for the liberty
of Greece.
ARMED SHIP; a name used, in England,
to signify a vessel occasionally taken into
the service of the government in time of
war, and employed to guard some par-
ticular coast, or to attend on a fleet. She
is therefore armed and equipped, in all
respects, like a ship of war, and command-
ed by an officer of the navy, who has the
rank of a master and commander. All
ships of this sort are upon the establish-
ment of the king's sloops, having a lieu-
tenant, master, purser, surgeon, &c.
ARMENIA; an Asiatic country, contain-
ing 106,000 square miles, formerly divided
into Armenia Major and Minor. The
first, which is the modern Turcomania,
and is still sometimes called Armenia, lies
south of mount Caucasus, and compre-
hends the Turkish pachalics Erzerum,
Kars and Van (which extend over 33,770
square miles, and have 950,000 inhabit-
ants), and also the Persian province Iran,
or Erivan. Armenia Minor, now called
Aladulia or Pegian, belongs to the Turks,
and is divided between the pachalics
Merashe and Sivas. Armenia is a rough,
mountainous country, which has Cau-
casus for its northern boundary, and, in the
centre, is traversed by branches of the
Taurus, to which belongs mount Ararat.
(q. v.) Here the two great rivers Eu-
phrates and Tigris take their rise; like-
wise the Kur, and other less considerable
streams. The lakes Van and Geuk-sha
are also in this part of the country. The
climate is rather cold than warm; the soil,
in general, moderately fertile, and better
fitted for grazing than for agriculture; it
produces, however, the finest southern
fruits. The mountains are rich in iron and
copper. The inhabitants consist of gen-
uine Armenians, of Turcomans, who pass
a wandering life in the plains, and of a
few Turks, Greeks and Jews. Of the
ancient history of this country but little
is known. It appears to have been sub-
jected, in turn, by the Assyrians, Medes,
Persians and Macedonians. After the
371
death of Alexander, it became part of the
kingdom of Syria, and so remained till
the overthrow of Antiochus the Great,
when it fell into the hands of different
rulers, and was divided into Armenia
Major and Minor.-Armenia Major was
exposed to many attacks. The Romans
and Parthians fought a long time for the
right of giving a successor to the throne,
and it was governed at one period by
Parthian princes, at another, by those
whom the Romans favored, until Trajan
made it a Roman province. Armenia
afterwards recovered its independence,
and was under the rule of its own kings.
Sapor, king of Persia, attempted its sub-
jugation in vain, and it remained free
until 650, when it was conquered by the
Arabians. After this, it several times
changed its masters, among whom were
Gengis-Khan and Tamerlane. In 1552,
Selim II conquered it from the Persians,
and the greater part has since remained
under the Turkish dominion. Armenia
Minor has also had several rulers, among
whom Mithridates was first distinguished.
From him Pompey took the kingdom, and
gave it to Dejotarus, &c. On the decline
of the Roman empire in the East, it was
conquered by the Persians, and, in 950,
fell into the hands of the Arabians, since
which time it has shared the same fate as
Armenia Major, and was made, in 1514,
a Turkish province, by Selim I. Of the
cities of ancient Armenia, some ruins are
yet to be seen, which display a good style
in architecture; e. g., the ruins of the old
capital Ani, which was destroyed, in 1319,
by an earthquake; and those of the an-
cient city Armavir, which, during 1800
years, was the residence of the kings;
some families still reside here. After
Armavir, Artaxarta (Artaschad) on the
Araxes, built in the time of the Seleucidæ,
became the capital, but sunk into decay
before the end of the 8th century.-The
Armenians, a sober and temperate nation,
are chiefly occupied in commerce, which,
in Turkey, is almost entirely in their
hands; and in all Asia, except China,
merchants of their nation are to be found.
Their religion has facilitated their en-
trance into Eastern Europe; accordingly
they are numerous in Russia.
says of the domestic life of the Christian
Armenians, that, in their native country,
they are good agriculturists; that old age
is highly honored; and that the wife looks
up to her husband, and the son to his
father, as in the time of the patriarchs.
They prefer permanent habitations, where-
ever the eternal feuds of the pachas and
Jaubert
犟
​372
ARMENIA-ARMENIAN LITERATURE.
น
Curds permit them to remain quiet. The
Armenians received Christianity as early
as the 4th century. During the Mono-
physitic disputes, being dissatisfied with
the decisions of the council of Chalce-
don, they separated from the Greek
church, in 536. The popes have at differ-
ent times, when they requested protection
against the Mohammedans, attempted to
gain them over to the Catholic faith, but
have not been able to unite them perma-
nently and generally with the Roman
church. Only in Italy, Poland, Gallicia,
Persia, under the archbishop of Nachit-
schevan (a new town on the Don, in the
Russian government Ekaterinoslav, of
which the inhabitants are mostly Arme-
nians), and in Marseilles, there are United
Armenians, who acknowledge the spiritu-
al supremacy of the pope, agree in their
doctrines with the Catholics, but retain
their peculiar ceremonies and discipline.
The case is the same with the United
Armenian monasteries upon mount Leb-
anon in Syria. At the Persian invasion,
in the beginning of the 17th century,
many of them were obliged to become
Mohammedans, but the far greater part are
yet Monophysites, and have remained
faithful to their old religion and worship.
The Porte has constantly protected them
against the attempts of the Catholics.
Their doctrine differs from the orthodox
chiefly in their admitting only one nature
in Christ, and believing the Holy Spirit to
issue from the Father alone. In their 7
sacraments, which they call mysteries,
there are these peculiarities, that, in bap-
tism, they sprinkle thrice, and dip thrice,
and this is immediately followed by con-
firmation; that, in the Lord's supper,
they mix no water with the wine, and
use leavened bread, which they distrib-
ute dipped in wine; and that they allow
extreme unction' only to divines, imme-
diately after their death. They adore
saints and their images, but do not believe
in purgatory. In fasting, they surpass the
Greeks. Their feasts are fewer than those
of the Greeks, but they celebrate them
more devoutly. They worship, in Turkey,
mostly in the night time; the mass is said
in the ancient Armenian, the sermon is
preached in the modern. Their hierarchy
liffers little from that of the Greeks. The
catholicos, or head of the church, has his
seat at Etschmiazim, a monastery near
Erivan, the capital of the Persian Arme-
nia, on mount Ararat. The holy oil,
which he prepares and sells to the clergy,
and the frequent pilgrimages of the Ar-
menians to Etschmiazin, supply him
with means for the support of a mag-
nificent style of worship, and of establish-
ments for education. He maintains, in
his residence, a seminary for the educa-
tion of divines. The patriarchs, bishops
and archbishops of the Armenians are in-
vested by him, and every three years con-
firmed in their offices, or recalled. The
remainder of the clergy resemble the
priests of the orthodox church in rank
and duties. The monks follow the rule
of St. Basil. The vertabets, who live like
monks, cultivate the sciences, take de-
grees, which may be compared with our
academical honors, and are the vicars
of the bishops, form a class of divines
peculiar to the Armenian church. The
secular priests must be married once,
but are not permitted to take a second
wife. In superstition, and attachment to
old forms, the Armenians resemble the
Greeks, but are distinguished by better
morals. In general, they surpass all the
kindred Monophysitic sects in informa-
tion; allow the people to read the Bible;
study the theological, historical and math-
ematical sciences; possess a respectable
national literature, and, at Etschmiazim,
have a printing office, which produces
splendid copies of the Bible. Besides the
religious societies of the Armenians in
their own country and in Turkey, where
they are very numerous (their patriarch
at Constantinople maintains the same
relation as the Greek patriarch_towards
the Porte), there are others in Persia, at
Ispahan, Schiras and Nerinkale; in Rus-
sia, at Petersburg, Moscow, Astrachan, and
in the Caucasian governments; also, small
ones at London and Amsterdam. (See
Ker Porter's Travels in Georgia, Persia,
Armenia ancient, Babylon, etc., in the years
1817-20 (London, 1821, 4to. with cop-
perplates), and the travels of a Frenchman
(Amad. Jaubert) through Armenia and
Persia, in 1805, 1806.)
ARMENIAN LITERATURE. The Arme-
nians, one of the most ancient nations
of the civilized world, have maintained
themselves as a cultivated people, amidst
all those revolutions which barbarism,
despotism and war have occasioned, in
Western Asia, from the days of Assyria,
Greece and Rome, down to the period
of Mongolian, Turkish and Persian do-
minion. During so many ages, they
have faithfully preserved, not only their
historical traditions, reaching back to the
period of the ancient Hebrew histories,
but also their national character, in a
physical and moral point of view. Their
first abode, mount Ararat, is, even at the
ARMENIAN LITERATURE.
present day, the centre of their religious
and political union. Commerce has scat-
tered them, like the Israelites, among all
the principal nations of Europe and Asia
(with the exception of China); but this
dispersion and the mercantile spirit have
not debased their character; on the con-
trary, they are distinguished by superior
cultivation, manners and honesty, from
the barbarians, under whose yoke they
live, and even from the Greeks and Jews.
The cause is to be found in their creed,
and in their religious union. The culti-
vation of the Armenians is a proof of
the salutary influence of a well-ordered
Christian church on the moral and intel-
lectual developement of a nation, which
has preserved its history, and, with it, its
national character. They owe this in
particular to the Bible, which is freely
distributed among the people by the
clergy, in translations that are esteemed
valuable in theological literature. This
is done not only at Etschmiazim,-the
principal monastery of the Armenians,
the chief seat of their church, the abode
of their patriarch (catholicus), and, at the
same time, the seminary of their teachers,
where many Bibles are printed, and
whither every pious Armenian must per-
form a pilgrimage at least once during his
life, but also in the other dioceses of the
Armenian patriarchs, archbishops and
bishops at Sis (Ajas), in Caramania,
Constantinople, Jerusalem, and other
places. Some time since, a society for
the distribution of Armenian Bibles was
formed in the Armenian church in Russia,
the archbishop of which has his seat in
an Armenian monastery at Astrachan.
With the Biblical literature of the Ar-
menians is connected their theological,
historical and mathematical literature.
It is as old as the conversion of the people
to Christianity, and sheds much light on
the ancient history of the people of the
East. Hence it has recently found many
assiduous students in Paris. According
to their natural historians, the name
Armenia is derived from Aram, the
seventh king of the first dynasty, who,
about the year 1800 B. C., gave a settled
character to the kingdom. The Arme-
nians call themselves Haji, after Haico,
the father and patriarch of the people, a
contemporary of Belus. With him com-
mences the Armenian history, about 2100
B. C., and closes with Leo VII, who fled
from his country, when invaded by the
barbarians, and died at Paris, in 1393.
The kingdom shared the fate of Asia
Minor and Persia.-To return to its an-
VOL. I.
32
373
cient history: Valarsaces, the founder of
an Armenian dynasty, organized the state
anew, about 150 B. C. Besides many
other institutions, he added to the senate
two censors, who had no votes, but were
allowed to put questions, and make ob-
servations on every measure, and even to
reprove the king himself, in cases of pre-
cipitation or injustice. The same Valar-
saces caused the traditions yet existing in
the country, and in the Parthian empire,
to be collected by Mar Ibas Catani, the
only Armenian writer before Christ with
whom we are acquainted. In the be-
ginning of the 4th century, the Armeni-
ans became Christians. With this event
their literature begins. Since that time,
they have translated from the Greek
(there is a Homer in Armenian hexame-
ters), Hebrew, Syriac and Chaldean, into
their own dialect, which Cirbied asserts
to be an original language: according to
others, it is a mixed dialect, composed of
the Syriac, Chaldean, Hebrew and Ara-
The
bian. Both opinions are correct.
old Armenian, the language of literature
and of the church, is, as Vater agrees, an
original language; the modern Armenian
has been formed, as a popular language,
by foreign additions, during the succes-
sive changes of their conquerors, and
consists of four principal dialects. The
written language owes its cultivation to
the translation of the Bible, begun in 411,
by Mesrob, with his disciples,-among
whom was Moses Choronensis,-by the
desire of the patriarch Isaac the Great,
and finished in 511. Schroeter's diction-
ary (Thes. Ling. Armenica), Amsterdam,
1711, 4to., is still valuable. Mesrob first
added 7 vowel signs to the old Armenian
alphabet, which before only contained 27
consonants. At the same time, schools
were established. The most flourishing
period of Armenian literature was in the
6th century, at the time of the separation
of the Armenians from the Greek church,
after the council of Chalcedon. It con-
tinued to flourish till the 10th century,
revived in the 13th, and maintained a
respectable character till 1453. In scien-
tific inquiries, it never arose to any con-
siderable eminence. It is particularly
valuable in what relates to history. The
royal library at Paris possesses the Ar-
menian historical authors nearly com-
plete, partly printed, partly in manuscript.
From them, J. M. Chalan de Cirbied, a
learned Armenian employed in this libra-
ry, published, in 1806, his Recherches CU-
rieuses sur l'Histoire ancienne de l'Asie,
and compiled, with M. J. Saint-Martin,
374
ARMENIAN LITERATURE-ARMINIANS.
a universal history of Armenia. The best
introduction to Armenian history, geogra-
phy and literature, is that which M.J.Saint-
Martin, member of the French institute,
has extracted from old Armenian writings,
inscriptions and other sources-Mémoires
historiques et géographiques sur l'Armé-
nie, Paris, 1818, 2 vols. This work con-
tains the Armenian text of the history of
the reigning Orpelian family, by a prince
of this family, the archbishop Stephen
Orpelian, and the text of the Armenian
geographers Moses of Chorene, and Var-
tan, with additions, translated into the
French, with annotations. Among the liv-
ing Armenian scholars, we may mention
Dr. Zorab, in Venice, and the librarian of
the Armenian congregation of St. Lazarus,
in Venice, John Bapt. Aucher, who has
lately published Armenian translations
of the 5th century, from ancient authors,
e. g., the famous Grecian Jew, Philo. At
an Armenian monastery, on an island
in the Lagoons, near Venice, a newspaper
is published in the Armenian language,
which circulates in the Levant and in
Constantinople.
ARMFELT (Gustavus Maurice), count of;
a distinguished Swede, whose public life
was marked by singular changes of for-
tune, but belongs, in a considerable de-
gree, to the secret history of the Swedish
court, and has, therefore, not been fully
explained. Gustavus Maurice, born April
1st, 1757, the oldest son of the major
general baron Armfelt, was educated in
the military school at Carlscrona, and was
afterwards appointed ensign in the guard
at Stockholm. By his fine figure, and the
charms of his conversation, he gained
the favor of Gustavus III. He was rap-
idly promoted, and loaded with marks
of distinction. In the war against Russia,
1788-1790, he showed a courage in the
field as splendid as his talents in social
life, on which account he continued to
rise in the favor of his king. As lieuten-
ant-general, he concluded the peace of
Werela, was honored by the Russian em-
press with several orders, and received,
even at the death-bed of his sovereign,
the most flattering marks of royal favor.
He was appointed governor of Stockholm,
and connected, by means of Gustavus III,
in marriage with the ancient family of the
count de la Gardie. He was said, also, to
have been intended for president of the
council of regency, during the minority
of Gustavus IV, though the guardianship
of the young king had been assigned to
the duke of Sud rmanland by a previous
will. Possibly, this is the source of the
hatred with which A. was now persecu-
ted. He was deprived, Sept. 7, 1792, of
all his offices and dignities, and sent as
ambassador to Naples. It was supposed,
not without foundation, that an unrequi-
ted passion of the duke of Sudermanland
for a court lady, von Rudenskjold, by
whom A. was favored, had exasperated
his rivalry to hate. It is certain, that Arm-
felt and Rudenskjold were made the sub-
ject of scandalous rumors; she was dis-
honorably reprimanded in the house of
correction; and he, then in Italy, escaped
the daggers of hired assassins, and a
formal requisition of the Swedish govern-
ment, only by flight; was declared a trai-
tor and an outlaw, and all his fortune and
honors, nay, even his nobility, were pro-
nounced forfeit. He afterwards resided in
Germany, till 1799, when Gustavus IV
annulled this decrec, and restored A. to
his former situation. He was appointed
ambassador to the court of Vienna, and, in
1807, the rank of general of infantry was
conferred on him. As such, he command-
ed the Swedish troops in Pomerania, and,
in 1808, the western army against Nor-
way. In the autumn of this year, he was
appointed president of the military insti-
tution at Stockholm, and made peer of
the kingdom. In 1810, he obtained his
desired discharge, and lived as a private
man at Stockholm. A connexion with
the infamous countess Piper involved
him in new difficulties, and induced him
to seek shelter with the Russian ambas-
sador, and to go over to the Russian ser-
vice. Here he was favorably received,
was made count, chancellor of the uni-
versity,of Abo, president of the de-
partment for the affairs of Finland, and
member of the Russian senate.
He now
enjoyed general esteem till his death,
Aug. 19, 1814, at Czarskocselo. He was
particularly respected by the Finland-
ers.
ARMIGER, or ESQUIRE; in England, a
title belonging to such gentlemen as bear
arms; and these are either by courtesy, as
sons of noblemen, eldest sons of knights,
or by creation, as the king's servants.
ARMINIANS; a religious sect, which has
its name from its founder, Arminius. (q. v.)
In Germany and Holland, they are more
generally called Remonstrants, on account
of the title Remonstrantia, which they gave
to a document presented to the states-
general of Holland, in which they en-
deavored to prove the opinions of the
reformed church, in respect to predes-
tination, erroneous. Diversity of opinion
on this subject was the chief reason
ARMINIANS-ARMINIUS.
of their separation from the reformed
church. They maintained, 1, that God
had, indeed, resolved from eternity on
the salvation and damnation of men, but
with the condition, that all those who be-
lieved should be saved, while the unbe-
lievers should be damned; 2, that Christ
died for all men, but nobody could par-
take in his salvation, except he believe;
3, that nobody can have saving faith from
himself, but must be born again of God,
in Christ, through the Holy Ghost, in or-
der to attain it; 4, that nobody can, with-
out the grace of God, think, will, nor do
any thing good, because all our good
works have their origin in God's grace;
5, that the faithful can struggle against
Satan, the flesh and the world, and con-
quer them, by the assistance of the Holy
Ghost. This is the genuine doctrine of
Arminius and his sect. From these orig-
inal Remonstrants, however, are to be
distinguished those who were not satis-
fied with these 5 articles, but proceeded
farther in the contest with the reformed
or Calvinistic church. As, even before
the Arminian dispute, several writings of
Socinius had been circulated secretly in
Holland, particularly among the men of
learning, who were almost all Arminians,
it was natural that the later Arminians
should coincide, in many points, with the
Socinians. They were therefore accused
of Socinianism. The states of Holland
issued an ordinance, in 1614, directing
the Remonstrants and Counter-remon-
strants (the latter were also called Gomar-
ists, from their leader, Francis Gomarus,
professor of theology at Leyden) to
live in love and charity with each other.
But, as both parties doubted the obliga-
tion of such a decree in respect to spiritual
affairs, the famous synod at Dort was
held from Nov. 13, 1618, to May 9, 1619,
in order to adjust the differences. The
decision of the synod is very remarkable.
It made reason the servant of the fear of
God, subjecting it to the control of faith,
and declared, with much piety and theo-
logical consistency, that the doctrine of
predestination is very hard, but cannot be
avoided; let the Holy Scriptures stand
fast, and the opinion of the opposing
world perish. The Counter-remonstrants,
so called, gained the ascendency by the
decree of this synod, in which they were
accusers and judges. The opposite party
have accused them of unjust and cruel
behavior on this occasion, and they have
not yet been able to disprove the accusa-
tion. Though the former were obliged
to yield to the decision of the synod, they
375
continued to print and defend their doc-
trines. The decree of this synod was
highly prejudicial to the sect of the Ar-
minians, and they were particularly in
danger when some of their members took
part in a conspiracy against prince Mau-
rice. He was, however, soon convinced,
that the sect, as such, had nothing to do
with the plot, and, after his death, in 1625,
they received from Henry, his brother,
the liberty to erect churches and schools
in all parts of Holland. In Amsterdam,
they established an academy for educa-
tion, which became very famous. The
congregations at Rotterdam and Amster-
dam were the most numerous. They did
not endeavor to increase their sect. Any
one who joined them was not obliged to
accept their creed, but only to declare,
generally, that he was a believer in Chris-
tianity according to the apostolic symbo-
lum, and endeavored to regulate his life
according to Christ's commands. Their
public service was almost entirely like
that of the Calvinistic church, only they
did not require, like this church, from the
parents of a child about to be baptized,
a profession of belief in their doctrines,
and a promise to educate the child in the
same, but demanded only a promise to
educate the child in the Christian faith,
without mentioning the creed of any sect.
The Arminians were very numerous as
long as they were persecuted, but rather
decreased, when they had gained liberty
and peace.
ARMINIUS (the Latin name for Her-
mann); the deliverer of Germany from the
Roman yoke. The victories of Drusus
had added to the Roman empire the Ger-
man districts lying on the Rhine, the
Elbe and the Saal. No measures were
neglected, by the Roman government, to
keep the natives of these territories in
subjection. The Sicambri, whose fearless
spirit was so fatal to Lollius, were trans-
planted, with a few of the most powerful
tribes, to the banks of the Rhine, and the
interior of Gaul; and attempts were made
to secure the allegiance of the remaining
tribes by hostages, and by a Roman edu-
cation, gratuitously bestowed on the chil-
dren of the chiefs. A., son of a prince
of the Cherusei, Sigimer (which, in the
old German, signifies a famous conqueror),
was born 18 B. C. He was educated at
Rome, admitted into the rank of equites,
and appointed to an honorable station in
the army of Augustus. But princely fa-
vor and the charms of learning were
insufficient to make the young barbari-
an forget his early associations, and his
370
ARMINIUS.
country's gods; and the effect of his Ro-
man education was to teach him how
to conquer his instructers. Convinced
that the rude strength of his savage coun-
trymen would be unequal to cope with
the disciplined forces of the Romans in
the open field, he had recourse to strata-
gem. Every circumstance seemed to
favor his designs. Quintilius Varus, who
commanded the flower of the Roman
army, was appointed to maintain tran-
quillity and submission in the new terri-
tories on the right bank of the Rhine.
Relying upon his power, he expected to
be able to introduce Roman institutions,
and thereby change the character of the
German tribes, who viewed liberty as the
highest good. He was accompanied to
his destination by a large number of mer-
chants and lawyers, who were to bring
about the intended changes. The object
of this expedition was sufficiently odious
in itself, and the arrogance and oppres-
sion of the Romans increased the dissat-
isfaction of the Germans to the highest
degree. A. chose this favorable moment
for the execution of his designs, and
succeeded in gaining over to his views
the chiefs of nearly all the tribes between
the Elbe and the Rhine. About the same
time, A. D. 9, a general rebellion broke
out in Pannonia and on the borders of
Dalmatia. Whether this rebellion was
connected with the plans of A., and in-
tended to aid in supporting the monarchy
which had been founded by Marhodius,
between the Elbe, the Saal and the Oder,
and suppressed by the Roman governor,
we shall not now stop to decide. Even
if it had no connexion with the designs
of A., we have reason to admire the har-
mony which marked the undertakings of
the allies; for the treachery of Segestes,
one of their number, was insufficient to
break the strong bond of their union.
This Segestes, prince of the Catti, in-
formed the Roman general of their secret
intentions; but Varus disregarded his ad-
monitions. A. succeeded in removing
his distrust, and turned the attention of
the Romans to the disturbances on the
Weser, which he had himself excited, in
order to draw the Roman soldiers into
the heart of the country. The auxiliary
German troops every where yielded the
strictest obedience, and their commander,
the faithful confederate of A., was every
day lulling Varus into a deeper security.
Slight disturbances, which had been pre-
viously concerted, now took place in dis-
tant parts of the empire, to induce the
Roman governor to divide his strength.
The main body of the army consisted of
3 legions, a few cohorts and the treacher-
ous auxiliaries. The spirit of rebellion
now became universal. A. and his most
intimate friends, who had enjoyed the
confidence of Varus, and been admitted
to his secret councils, multiplied the
proofs of their apparent zeal in the Ro-
man service. They urged the Roman
commander not to wait for the undisci-
plined rebels, but to march against them,
and extinguish the flames of sedition
where they raged with the greatest fury.
It was in vain that Segestes repeated his
warnings. The arts of A. prevailed. The
army advanced every day farther from
the Rhine, and plunged deeper in the
regions where they were most exposed
to destruction. In the territory of the
Bructeri, near the source of the Lippe,
after a long and tiresome march through
marshes and forests, they suddenly found
themselves in a deep valley, surrounded
by hills, which were all occupied by their
German foes; and, to add to their con-
sternation, A., with his rear-guard, was
now their enemy, and the soul of all the
assaults which were made upon them.
Varus now saw destruction impending
over him. The courage and discipline
of the Roman soldiers had long excited
admiration, but could now only defer for
a time their fate. For 3 days their suf-
ferings continued. A. made himself mas-
ter of 3 Roman eagles, and put a stop
forever to their advance in the north of
Germany. Varus could not survive his
disgrace; he killed himself, as so many
other Romans had done, when the for-
tune of war was adverse. The victory
of A. was stained by useless acts of vio-
lence and cruelty. The Germans cut off
the hands of the lawyers, whose subtleties
were most odious to the national feeling,
and put out the eyes of others. We must
not forget, however, the strong provoca-
tion which they had received from their
cruel and oppressive conquerors. It is
difficult to determine the place of this
celebrated engagement. The ancients
called it Teutoburgiensis Saltus. The
opinion of Mannert is very different from
that of Tacitus. The former fixes the
field of battle on the borders of the prin-
cipalities of Lippe and Mark, and the
duchy of Westphalia; but the account
of Tacitus agrees more nearly with the
tradition, which says the action was
fought at the source of the Ems and the
Lippe, near what is now the little city of
Detmold. All the neighborhood is full
of memorials of that day.-After A. had
ARMINIUS.
secured the liberty of his country, he de-
stroyed the fortifications of the Romans
on the Elbe, the Weser and the Rhine.
He labored to elevate the martial spirit
of his countrymen, which he regarded as
the best defence against the arms of
Rome. But he was soon involved in a
difficulty with his own countrymen, par-
ticularly with Segestes, the head of a
powerful tribe, whose daughter, betrothed
to another prince, had been carried off by
A. Segestes was first attacked by the
national party, of which A. was the head,
and immediately applied for aid to Ger-
manicus. The Romans hastened to assist
him, and delivered him from a siege.
Among the prisoners was the wife of A.
When she was presented before German-
icus, her whole behavior showed her
worthy of her valiant husband. Her
grief, Tacitus says, was silent. She shed
not a tear; she offered not a prayer; her
hands were folded; her eyes fixed on her
breast. The treachery of Segestes and
the fate of Thusnelda gave new ardor to
the patriotic feelings of A. Inguiomar,
his uncle, a warrior of great celebrity,
offered him his aid. Germanicus felt the
necessity of anticipating the blow, and
undertook a campaign, which, in spite of
the successes of the Romans, served only
to draw closer the bonds of union among
the German confederates, and to increase
their confidence in their own strength.
The next year was marked by new exer-
tions on the part of the Roman general.
His preparations were immense, and his
whole plan faultless in design and execu-
tion. This fourth campaign of Drusus
in Germany was distinguished by the
defeat of A. on the plains of Idistavisus,
on the banks of the Weser; but it ended
in the retreat of the Romans. At the
commencement of the campaign, and
previous to the battle of Idistavisus, A.
desired an interview with his brother,
Flavius, who had been educated with
him in Italy, and still adhered to the Ro-
mans. They conversed in Latin, from
the opposite banks of the Weser. It was
in vain that A. sought to gain over his
brother to the cause of their common
country. It was in vain that he stigma-
tized his military badges as the reward
of baseness, and the pledges of a shame-
ful bondage. Nothing but the river, which
flowed between, prevented them from ac-
tual violence. Flavius was at length con-
veyed away from the place by his friends.
The jealousy of Tiberius against German-
icus favored the exertions of the allics.
But, when they had repelled the attacks
377
of their foreign foes, they turned their
arms against one another. Marbodius,
the king of the Suevi, and founder of the
kingdom of the Marcomanni, was prompt-
ed by ambition to carry his conquests
beyond the Saal and the Elbe. He, too,
had received his education in Rome, but
had returned with principles decidedly
opposed to those of the hero of the Che-
In A. the Romans had found a
ruści.
bold defender of his country's freedom,
and in Marbodius an enemy of his ambi-
tious views. Notwithstanding the revolt
of Inguiomar, who went over to the party
of Marbodius, rather than serve under his
nephew, A. came off victorious in the
civil war. He obtained the honor of
having freed his country from a foreign
yoke, and of preserving his fellow-citi-
zens from domestic tyranny. A long and
bloody battle decided the claims of the
contending parties. The Germans no
longer fought in disorder; for A. bad
accustomed them to the rigid discipline of
the Romans, and all the rules of war had
become familiar to the barbarians. The
event was long doubtful. But the king
of the Marcomanni first withdrew his
troops from the field, and was thus looked
upon as vanquished. A large proportion
of his army abandoned him, and he was
forced to retreat in haste to Bohemia, in
the interior of his dominions, and, at last,
to Italy, where he lived in obscurity.
Tacitus relates, that A. drew upon him-
self the hatred of his countrymen by
aiming at the regal authority; and, in the
37th year of his age, he was assassinated
by one of his own relations. A short
time before his death, Adgantestes, or Ad-
gantestrius, prince of the Celts, proposed
to the Roman senate to despatch him by
poison; but the senate took no notice of
the offer. A. was 26 years old when he
destroyed the legions of Varus and 2
years before his death, he gained his vic-
tory over Marbodius.
In the language
of Tacitus, "A. was doubtless the deliv-
erer of Germany. He fought against the
Romans, not like other kings and gener-
als, when they were weak, but when their
empire was mighty and their renown
glorious. Fortune, indeed, sometimes de-
serted him; but, even when conquered,
his noble character and his extensive in-
fluence commanded the veneration of his
conquerors. For 12 years, he presided
over the destiny of Germany, to the com-
plete satisfaction of his countrymen; and,
after his death, they paid him divine
honors." If we dwell a moment on the
results of his victory, we find that it had
32 *
378
ARMINIUS-ARMS.
a decided influence on the whole charac-
ter of Germany, political and literary;
because it is evident, that, had the Ro-
mans remained in quiet possession of the
country, they would have given a tone to
all its institutions and its language, as
was the case with all the other countries
of Europe conquered by them. The rea-
son, therefore, why the language of the
Germans remained unmixed and unin-
fluenced by Latin, and why their politi-
cal institutions retained so much of their
ancient character, is to be found in the
victory of A. To the same cause must
be ascribed, however, their tardy devel-
opement in several respects. It is not to
be doubted, that other nations have de-
rived great benefit from the introduction
among them of the Roman civilization,
as far as respects the order, tranquillity
and refinement of social life; but all advan-
tages could not be had at once; and had
not A. crushed the Roman power in Ger-
many, an idiom similar to the French and
Spanish would be spoken there, where
now a language and literature exist of a
peculiar and original character. Some
influence, however, the Romans did un-
doubtedly exercise on the dialect of Ger-
many, and many Latin words were intro-
duced into it, yet with such alteration,
that they can with difficulty be recog-
nised.
ARMINIUS, OF HERMANN, James, found
er of the sect of Arminians or Remon-
strants, was born at Oudewater, in Hol-
land, 1560. He studied at Utrecht and in
the university of Leyden. Here he ob-
tained so much reputation, that the mag-
istrates of Amsterdam sent him, at the
public expense, to finish his studies at
Geneva, where his chief preceptor in
theology was Theodore Beza. Adopting,
in philosophy, the new doctrines of Peter
Ramus, he privately taught them; which
innovation gave so much offence, that he
was obliged to quit Geneva. Anxious to
attend the celebrated lectures at Padua,
he next visited Italy. Distinguished by
his zeal for the reformed religion, and
talents as a preacher, he was chosen to
undertake the refutation of a work writ-
ten against Beza's doctrine of predestina-
tion;
but he happened to be converted by
the work which he had undertaken to
refute. He honestly avowed his change
of opinion, and, renouncing the Calvin-
istic doctrine concerning the decrees of
God and divine grace, maintained that
the merits of Christ extended to all man-
kind, and that the grace necessary to sal-
vation is attainable by every one. Elect-
ed professor of divinity at Leyden, he
openly declared his opinions, which rap-
idly spread both among the clergy and
laity. The adherents to the Calvinistic
system, however, caused him much vex-
ation. He was several times summoned
to the Hague, to give an account of his
doctrines; and his colleague, Gomarus,
was among the most violent of his ene-
mies. These contests, with the continual
attacks on his reputation, at length im-
paired his health, and brought on a com-
plicated disease, of which he died in
1609. A. was candid, amiable, sincerc,
and possessed of great integrity. He was
a friend to universal toleration, maintain-
ing that Christians are accountable to
God alone for their religious sentiments.
His followers included some of the first
men in Holland, as Barneveldt, Hooger-
beets and Grotius. The Arminians still
remain a distinct sect in Holland, and,
from the time of Laud, have been the
predominant party in the church of Eng-
land. Editions of the whole of the writ-
ings of this divine were published in one
volume, 4to., Leyden, 1629; Frankfort,
1631-1634; and often afterwards. The
principal piece in this collection is enti-
tled Dissertationes de Diversis Christianæ
Religionis Capitibus. (Sce Arminians.)
Armor, coat or, in England, signifies
the cscutcheon of any person or family,
with its several charges, and other furni-
ture; as, mantling, crest, supporters, mot-
to, &c. Thus the phrase a gentleman of
coat-armor means one who bears arms.
ARMORICA; the ancient name of the
whole northern and western coast of
Gaul, from the Pyrenees to the Rhine;
under which name it was known even in
Caesar's time. The word is said to be of
Bas-Breton origin, and to signify mari-
time.
ARMS. Man has not, like many ani-
mals, received from nature any member
intended particularly as a weapon. He
is obliged to use artificial means to in-
crease his strength, when he attacks, as
well as to screen his body, which na-
ture has left unprotected. Arms were,
therefore, an early invention; perhaps, in
the first instance, as a means of defence
against animals. They were soon used,
however, for the purpose of conflict be-
tween man and man.-The first and most
natural of all arms are the club and the
sling. Every one naturally uses missiles
as means of offence, and the sling adds
force to the cast. In the history of the
arms of all nations, we find, invariably,
that man, beginning with the means of
ARMS ARMSTRONG.
injury in the close struggle, endeavors
continually to invent weapons which
shall take effect from greater and greater
distances. In consequence of the prog-
ress made in this way, dexterity always
takes, at last, the place of courage. Na-
ture has given to man only one weapon,
in a limited sense of the word,-the arm,
used in boxing,-and this can be made
truly a weapon only by the dexterity ac-
quired by long training. The art of box-
ing, moreover, is of use only against men.
Within its sphere, indeed, it is very ef-
fectual. As soon as men learned the use
of the metals, they worked them into
pikes, spears, lances, and soon afterwards
into swords and armor. Of this last, part
only was at first made of metal, but the
proportion went on increasing, till at last
a complete suit of iron came into use.
The first improvement on the sling and
the bow was the cross-bow. Still later
came the large engines employed by the
ancients, and called catapulta, balista, &c.
These would produce effect at the dis-
tance of 1000 feet. But the discovery
of gunpowder changed the character of
arms. Objects 6000 paces distant could
now be reached, and obstacles over-
thrown with ease, which formerly cost
the labor of years. By the invention of
steam-guns, still more may be accom-
plished in future. The inventor, Mr.
Perkins, an American of great mechani-
cal talent, has not, however, yet been able
so far to perfect the machine, as to qualify
it to take the place of fire-arms.-Arms
may be divided into offensive and defen-
sive; the first kind, again, into, 1, arms
for cutting, e. g., the sabre; 2, for thrust-
ing, e. g., the straight sword, the small
sword, the bayonet, pike, lance, &c.; 3,
arms for throwing, e. g., the mortar, how
itzer, &c.; 4, arms for shooting, e. g.,
pistols, carabines, rifles, guns, cannons.
It must be observed, that arms for thrust-
ing are much more injurious, and there-
fore better, than those for cutting; but
they require infinitely more skill, and
cannot, therefore, be used so much in
armies as they otherwise would be. Man
is protected by nature much more against
a downward blow, by the strong bones of
the skull and the shoulders, than against
a thrust, to which the more vulnerable
parts of the belly and the breast are ex-
posed. So great is the difference in this
respect, that a downward blow with the
fist hardly ever injures seriously, while
the thrust of a boxer is highly dangerous.
-II. Defensive arms include all those
which are properly so called, cuirasses,
379
helmets, &c., and also the parts of fortifi-
cations which are intended particularly to
protect the body. The most important
arms are treated of under the proper
heads. Some writers make a distinction
between armed men (infantry and cav-
alry), and manned arms (artillery). The
history of war includes also that of arms.
French and German military writers ap-
ply the word arms to the different spe-
cies of troops, and speak of the three
arms, i. e. cavalry, infantry and artillery.
Some writers use bayonet for infantry,
as horse is used for cavalry, and say, The
army consisted of 12,000 bayonets and
2000 horse.-To readers desirous of be-
coming acquainted with the armor of the
ancients, and that used in the middle ages,
we recommend the splendid work, Criti-
cal Inquiry into Ancient Armor, &c., with
a Glossary for the Names of the Arms of
the Middle Ages, by Sam. Rush Meyrick,
3 vols. large 4to., London, 1824; a work
interesting to the student of the politics,
arts, manners and wars of the ancients and
the middle ages. There are, in Europe,
many collections of arms used in both
these periods (e. g., one of the arms of the
ancients, at Naples), which, with the col-
lections of the arins of the Indians, strik-
ingly manifest the progress of civilization.
ARMS, COAT OF. (See Heraldry.)
Armstrong, John, born, in 1709, at
Castleton, was educated at the univer-
sity of Edinburgh, and took his medical
degree, in 1732, with much reputation.
His early attempts in verse contain noth-
ing remarkable. His practice in his pro-
fession was never extensive; this he at-
tributed to his neglect of little artifices;
others to his indolence and devotion to
literature. Soon after his arrival in Lon-
don, he published the Economy of Love,
a disgraceful production, which he en-
deavored, at a later period, to correct.
His Art of preserving Health appeared in
1744, and established his poetical reputa-
tion. In 1746, he was appointed physi-
cian to an hospital for soldiers, and, in the
course of a few years, published his poem
on Benevolence, Epistle on Taste, and
his prose Sketches by Lancelot Temple,
none of which added to his reputation.
In 1760, he was appointed physician to
the forces which went to Germany. This
appointment was obtained for him by
Wilkes, with whom he was then on
friendly terms; but their friendship did
not stand the tug of political warfare.-
After his return to London, he published
a collection of his Miscellanies, contain-
ing the Universal Almanac, a new prose
380
ARMSTRONG-ARMY.
piece, and the Forced Marriage, a trage-
dy, which had been refused by Garrick.
This collection contains nothing valuable.
He afterwards visited France and Italy,
and published an account of his tour,
under the name of Lancelot Temple. His
last production was a volume of Profes-
sional Essays. He died in 1779, of an
accidental hurt.-The conversation of A.
is said to have been rich and entertaining,
though he is painted, in the Castle of In-
dolence (to which he contributed the
stanzas describing the diseases produced
by sloth), as
One shyer still, who quite detested talk.
The Art of Preserving Health is a suc-
cessful attempt to incorporate science
with poetry. By giving it a moral as
well as a medical interest, A. raised the
dignity of the poem. It is distinguished
by judicious thoughts, correct expression
and lucid management, rather than by
originality of genius, harmony of versifi-
cation, or poetic ardor of thought.
ARMY. In the history of armies we
must distinguish those of 3 different pe-
riods;-1, the ancient armies, which ar-
rived at their perfection under the Ro-
mans; 2, those of the middle ages, the
offspring of the feudal system, ill-organ-
ized bodies, created only for a short time,
and undoubtedly the worst which history
makes known to us; 3, such as have ex-
isted since the invention of gunpowder
and the establishment of standing armies.
(See the succeeding article.) By the inven-
tion of gunpowder, the whole character
of armies has been changed, from the
organization and equipment of the whole
mass to the very point d'honneur of the
individual. As long as personal courage,
strength and dexterity decided the fate of
a battle, war had great charms for noble-
minded characters. At this period, too,
science had not become incorporated with
the very life-blood of society; and the
want of intellectual occupation contrib-
uted its share in making war the favorite
occupation of the higher classes. They
fought on horseback, every one at his
own expense. None but the poorer class,
the vassals, fought on foot. Under sucli
circumstances, the art of war could never
attain a high degree of perfection, nor
could the organization of an army be
very complete. It was not till the wars
between Charles V and Francis I of
France, that the great importance of reg-
ular infantry was seen, and the Swiss,
then the best foot-soldiers in Europe,
often determined the fate of the battle.
By the introduction of fire-arms, partic-
ularly of artillery, courage and bodily
strength lost the.r exclusive importance,
and the advantages of regular tactics began
to be felt, by which generals were enabled
to direct the movements of armies with
greater exactness. Now that war was
reduced to a system, it lost much of its
charms in the eyes of an idle and ambi-
tious nobility. The estimation of infantry
continually increased; volunteers became
more rare. It became necessary to take
mercenaries from the lowest classes of
the people, and, at the same time, the
regular tactics introduced required a more
thorough training; the individual was lost
more and more in the mass, and standing
armies were at length established, and
rose continually in estimation. Much
was done to improve the new system by
Henry IV of France, as well as by the
republic of the Netherlands, in their
struggle for liberty against Spain. The
number of troops organized in this way
still remained, however, very small, com-
pared with the others. Henry IV, prince
Maurice of Nassau, and Alexander, duke
of Parma, did much for the improvement
of tactics, and of the art of besieging,
which made great progress in the war
above-mentioned, and contributed, in no
small degree, to advance the character of
armies. Still more important, in these
respects, was the thirty years' war. Ar-
mies, as yet, consisted, for the most part,
of soldiers raised by the general, to serve
only during a particular war, e. g. Wal-
lenstein's troops; but the time of service
having much increased, particularly in
the wars of Gustavus Adolphus of Swe-
den, the character of armies and tactics
was much elevated. This king estab-
lished smaller divisions, introduced lighter
weapons, and made many improvements
in the artillery, by which quicker and
more complicated movements became
practicable.
practicable. Repeated victories proved
the advantages of the new system, which
even Wallenstein acknowledged. Soon
after, under Louis XIV, the whole system
of war received another form by means
of the minister of war le Tellier, and his
son and successor Louvois, the art of
tactics being particularly improved by
Turenne and other contemporary great
generals. Standing armies attained an ex-
tent hitherto unexampled. Instead of
the 14,000 men maintained by Henry IV,
Louis XIV, after the peace of Nimeguen,
had on foot an army of 140,000 men.
France had set the example, and all the
other powers. of Europe followed, with
ARMY.
the exception of England and Holland,
which, for a long time, opposed a similar
augmentation, regarding standing armies
as dangerous to freedom. These great
These great
masses must necessarily have exerted an
important influence upon the art of war.
This art was practised upon a continually
increasing scale.
France was, at the
same time, endeavoring, in every way, to
secure her boundaries by the erection of
new fortifications, and her military en-
gineers were particularly eminent. In
the beginning of the 18th century, a new
and important epoch commenced in the
military system. Not only did Russia, in
the time of Peter the Great, maintain a
large standing army, well disciplined in
the European manner, which afterwards,
under the empress Anna, in its internal
regulation, also, was made to resemble
the armies of the other European states;
but Prussia, too, came forward, under
Frederic William I, as a respectable mil-
itary power, and supported an army far
exceeding a proper proportion to her
population; hence she was induced to
set the example of foreign levies, in which
originated the inconvenience, that, in the
hour of danger, a large part of the army
could not be depended on, and, moreover,
it was difficult to maintain discipline over
this same portion, consisting of the refuse
of foreign nations. The native soldiers,
too, were corrupted by the contact, and it
was found necessary to reduce the army
to a machine, in order to make such ma-
terials serviceable. This idea was put in
This idea was put in
execution by Frederic II. The system
of standing troops was carried to an ex-
tent such as it had never reached, and
Prussian tactics became a pattern for all
the other states of Europe. The system,
however, had fatal imperfections, which
would necessarily produce very injurious
consequences. The great number of for-
eign vagabonds enlisted, led to the intro-
duction of a degrading discipline, which
made the condition of the soldiers com-
pletely miserable. Every prospect of ad-
vancement and all ambition were destroy-
ed by the exclusive promotion of officers
taken from the ranks of the nobility; and
even their promotion was determined by
length of service (a natural consequence
of the long peace, which had existed
since the seven years' war). This system
seemed, indeed, to have been carried to
its height, when the French revolution
broke out with a violence which shook
Europe to its foundation. Standing ar-
mies had now become bodies having little
connexion with the nations by which
361
they were maintained.
they were maintained. They only were
armed; the nation had become altogether
defenceless. When the army was beaten,
the nation was subdued. At the same
time, the armies had been so much in-
creased beyond all proportion to the
wealth of the states, that they must ne-
cessarily remain, in a great measure, use-
less. They had become mere machines,
without any moral incentive. What was
the necessary consequence, when, as now
happened in France, a people excited to
fury commenced a struggle with these
antiquated and rusty engines? A new
mode of carrying on war, produced by
the pressure of circumstances, and by the
rapid, bold and energetic efforts of young
military geniuses, overturned multitudes
of common forms, and carried victory in
its train, until the opposing powers had
learned to make it their model, and there-
by restored the equilibrium. When the
French ruler ultimately began to use his
army more and more as a machine for
the promotion of his ambitious designs,
then the other European powers, taught
by experience, called the nations them-
selves to arns, in behalf of freedom; and
it was demonstrated anew, that no excel-
lence of discipline, no mechanical perfec-
tion of an army, can enable it to with-
stand, for any length of time, moral en-
ergy and excitement, though connected
with far inferior discipline. The armies
on the continent of Europe are raised, at
present, from among the citizens, who
are bound to serve for some time, and are
then assigned to the class reserved for
any sudden emergency. The time of
service is various; in France, for in-
stance, 6 years; in Prussia, 3, that is, in
time of peace. In England and North
America, no citizen is obliged to serve in
the standing army, but only in the mili-
tia, which is destined merely for the de-
fence of the country. (See Militia and
Soldier.) The essay of the French colonel
Carrion Nisas, Essai sur l'Histoire géné-
rale de l'Art Militaire, &c. (Paris, 1824, 2
vols.), mostly according to the views of
Guibert, in his Essai de la Tactique, is
neither comprehensive nor complete.-
The organization of armies is nearly
alike throughout the continent of Eu-
rope; and France, Prussia, Austria and
Russia have paid much attention to the
perfection of all classes of troops. The
military schools of these countries, for the
officers of different rank, as well as for
the various kinds of troops, particularly
those of France and Prussia, are excel-
lent. Among the Prussian troops, learn-
382
ARMY-STANDING ARMY.
ing is so universally cultivated, that the generally referred to the reign of Charles
army is considered as a great institution VII, king of France (1423–1461), who,
for the diffusion of knowledge, because by means of them, overawed his rebellious
every Prussian serves 3 years without vassals, and increased not a little the
being able to send a substitute, and in power of the crown. King Philip Au-
each regiment schools for the privates gustus, in consequence of the absence of
are kept. In respect to these military great numbers of his vassals, in the cru-
schools, as well as to internal organiza- sades, had introduced, as early as 1215,
tion, the armies of the European conti- the troupes des communes (communia;
nent very much surpass the English, in communitates parochiarum), composed of
which the practice of selling commissions, the inhabitants of the cities and villages,
the expense of the half-pay system, the of which no city furnished more than
non-promotion of privates, the still con- 400 or 500. These served with the feu-
tinued use of tents, the degrading flog- dal militia, at the expense of the cities to
ging, &c., remind one of a continental which they belonged, and only at a cer-
army such as it was 50 years ago. In the tain distance from them. The power of
army of the U. States, commissions are the cities was thus increased, and the
not sold, and the half-pay system has not citizens formed, in war, a separate order,
been adopted. Napoleon increased the independent of the nobles. It was, in a
size of armies to a degree before unex- great measure, owing to this cause, that
ampled. They are distinguished, accord- they came to form a third estate in the
ing to the purposes for which they are administration of government. These
destined, by the names of blockading ar- troops, however, like the feudal militia,
mies, armies of observation, of reserve, &c. were never summoned, except in case of
ARMY, STANDING. In modern times, we emergency. Thus the troops of Philip
designate by the name of standing armies and is successors consisted of feudal
bodies of troops which, in time of peace, militia, of the troupes des communes, and
are kept under arms for the defence of of irregular troops, who were taken into
the state, within and without, trained to pay (whence soldats, soudoyers), and form-
war, and paid by the government (whence ed certain companies, as they were called
the name soldiers, from soldati, from the (compagnies). The imperfection of the
Italian soldo, the French sous, for pay). first class, who often made war on each
These troops inay be composed of per- other, and paid but little regard to the
sons obliged to bear arms, or not, of na- public summons, and the rapine of the
tives, or of foreigners. In this sense of latter, led Charles V to meditate a change,
the word, we find standing armies first in and Charles VII resolved to establish a
the monarchies of modern times, when better military system. After long con-
the general introduction of fire-arins had sultation with his nobles, he laid the
changed the whole art of war, rendering foundation, in 1445, by selecting 15 cap-
personal courage of less consequence, and tains (capitaines), whom he ordered to
supplying its place with dexterity and choose the bravest men from all the
mechanical skill, which can only be ac- troops, and form them into as many com-
quired by practice. The first standing panies.
The first standing panies. These companies received the
armies consisted of mercenaries, assisted, name of compagnies d'ordonnance, which
indeed, at first, by the feudal militia, who, was, perhaps, earlier applied only to the
however, gradually disappeared, as mili- royal troops, and were maintained, in war
tary service and discipline assumed a and peace, by the cities and villages.
more systematic character by means of the Each of these companies, at first, con-
standing troops. The expense of incrce- sisted of 600 horsemen (gens d'armes),
naries, which increased with the number exclusive of the volunteers, who soon
of troops, and the security of the state, became numerous, and were distributed
which could not be committed solely to in the different cities. Henceforward the
hired troops, now required that a great feudal militia fell more and more into
proportion of the citizens capable of bear- disrepute, and the vassals assembled their
ing arms (to be determined by the popu- forces only on occasions of great emer-
lation, size, geographical and political situ- gency. The feudal militia was not, how-
ation and civilization of the state) should ever, wholly supplanted by mercenaries
be continually under arms, and supported until the 18th century. In 1448, Charles
by the state, in connexion with the pro- established a corresponding infantry, call-
fessional soldiers. These were, in a pe- ed Francs-archers, which, in conjunction
culiar sense, called standing troops.-The with the troops just described, constituted
introduction of standing armies has been a very respectable army. The military
STANDING ARMY-ARNAOUTS.
system thus established in France spread
thence through the other countries of Eu-
rope. (See Daniel's Histoire de la Milice
Française, &c.) With the progress of
standing armies in France, and the in-
crease of wealth, the standing armies of
other countries increased also; e. g., those
of Holland, England and Germany.
When this increase arrives at its highest
point, and the decision of war becomes
almost entirely dependent on numbers,
the duty of military service is extended
to all the citizens, and a system of con-
scription is introduced, adapted to the
condition, population and necessities of
a state, by which all the citizens, of a
certain age, capable of bearing arms, are
called upon to do military duty, for a
longer or shorter period. In this way,
standing armies, and the military, consid-
ered as a separate profession, are, to a
great degree, abolished, and, all the citi-
zens (with few exceptions) able to bear
arms being disciplined for the protection
of their country, and obliged to act in its
defence, the number of troops becomes
proportionate to the natural relations of
states to each other, and military disci-
pline becomes more liberal and honora-
ble.
At least, this has been the case upon
the European continent. The increase
of the militia renders it also more difficult
to give the proportion of the military
power of some states to their population,
because the standing army is no longer
the sole, and, with some governments, not
even the chief, military power. Malte-
Brun, in his Geography, estimates the
proportion, in the principal states of Eu-
rope, as follows; though, for the reason
just given, the estimate is necessarily im-
perfect:-
In England, 1 soldier to
Inhabitants.
•
140
. 110
100
90
69
68
France,
Austria,
Russia,
Bavaria,
Prussia,
Poland,
GO
•
Wirtemberg,
59
58
Denmark,
57
49
Sweden,.
•
The two Hesses,
383
would be found a proportion not injuri-
ous to the resources of the states. The
U. States of America have now on foot
not even 6442 men, to which number
the army is limited by the law of 1821.
The importance of militia is daily in-
creasing. (For further information in
regard to the militia, and the great changes
which have taken place in standing ar-
mies during the last 20 years, see Militia
and Army.)
ARNAOUTS, or ALBANIANS; a people of
mixed origin, probably the primitive in-
habitants of Illyria and Macedonia, inter-
mixed with Goths, Huns and Sclavonians,
who have spread in the western part of
Rumelia, along the coasts of the Adriatic
and Ionian seas, and have sent colonies
to the Neapolitan and Sicilian coasts.
Their language has not risen to the dig-
nity of a written one. They call them-
selves Skypetars; by the Turks they are
called .Arnaouts. They are divided into
several tribes, among whom the Suliotes
(q. v.) are partly of Greek origin. Strong
and warlike by nature, the Arnaouts were
the best soldiers in the Turkish army.
They are frank towards friends and su-
periors, but allow themselves, like all
rude nations, every kind of artifice and
perfidy towards their enemies. The op-
pression, under which they formerly lived,
filled them with the desire of liberty.
For arts and trades they have no incli-
nation. Agriculture they csteem not so
bonorable an occupation as arms. Their
restless spirit is averse to the uniformity
of peace. Yet they are not acquainted
with the higher tactics: they never form
a line of battle, and do not understand the
advantages of strong positions. Hence
they are not so efficient against Euro-
pean armies as might be expected from
their personal courage. They carry the
choicest weapons. Upon their breast they
wear a plate of silver, and their legs are
covered with a kind of greaves; their
hair is cut short in front, and hid by a
red bonnet, drawn down to the eye-
brows.—Albania, part of the Turkish
province Arnaout Vilajetti, a mountain-
ous, maritime country, but very well
adapted to the cultivation of wine, fruit,
cotton and tobacco, lying along the Adri-
The proportions in other states are much atic and Ionian seas, is the true coun-
lower :-
In the Two Sicilies,
Tuscany,
•
•
. 180
. 200
. 300
The Roman states,
Malte-Brun thinks that, on the European
continent, 1 soldier to 100 inhabitants
try of the Arnaouts.-The Montenegrins
(q. v.) in the hills of Montenegro, whom
the Turks have not yet been able to van-
quish, are distinguished among them.
Among the principal towns, we may
mention Janina (q. v.) and Scutari, with
12,000 inhabitants (not to be confounded
384
ARNAOUTS-ARNAULD.
with the city of the same name in Anato-
lia, over against Constantinople), both
residences of pachas; also Durazzo, the
old Dyrrhachium.
ARNATTO, OF ANNOTTA, is a red dyeing
drug, generally imported in lumps, wrap-
ped up in leaves, and produced from the
pulp of the seed-vessels of a shrub (bixa
orellana), which grows spontaneously in
the East and West Indies. This shrub is
usually about 7 or 8 feet high, and has
heart-shaped and pointed leaves. The
flowers, which have each 10 large, peach-
colored petals, appear in loose clusters at
the ends of the branches, and produce
oblong, hairy pods. The seed-vessels of
the arnatto shrub are, in appearance,
somewhat like those of the chestnut.
They each contain from 30 to 40 seeds,
enveloped in a kind of pulp, of red color
and unpleasant smell, not very unlike the
paint called red-lead, when mixed with
oil. In the West Indies, the method of
extracting the pulp, and preparing it for
sale, is to boil this, and the seeds which
are mixed with it, in clear water, until
the latter are perfectly extricated. They
are then taken out, and the pulp is al-
lowed to subside to the bottom of the
water; this is drawn off, and the sediment
is distributed into shallow vessels, and
gradually dried in the shade, until it is
sufficiently hard to be worked into lumps
or masses for sale. Arnatto, though made
in the West Indies, is an object of no
great commercial importance; the de-
mand not being sufficient to give much
encouragement to its culture. It is now
chiefly prepared by the Spaniards in
South America, and for the purpose, es-
pecially, of mixing with chocolate, to
which, in their opinion, it gives a pleas-
ing color and great inedical virtue, as
well as an improved flavor. The princi-
pal consumption of arnatto depends upon
painters and dyers; and it is supposed
that Scott's nankeen dye is only arnatto
dissolved in alkaline lye. This drug is
sometimes used by the Dutch farmers
to give a rich color to butter; and the
double Gloucester, and several other kinds
of cheese, are colored with it. The poor
occasionally use it instead of saffron. In
countries where the armatto shrubs are
found, the roots are employed by the in-
habitants in broth, and answer all the
purposes of the pulp, though in an infe-
rior degree. The bark is occasionally
manufactured into ropes; and the In-
dians use pieces of the wood to procure
fire by friction.
ARNAUD, François-Thomas-Baculard
d'; a prolific French writer, born at Paris,
1718, where he studied with the Jesuits.
In his youth, among other pieces, he
wrote three tragedies, one of which, Co-
ligny ou la St. Barthélémy, was published
in 1740. Voltaire conceived an affection
for him, and aided him with money and
advice. Frederic II opened a corre-
spondence with him, invited him, after-
wards, to Berlin, received him kindly,
called him his Ovid, and addressed a
poem to him, which closed with these
verses:
Déjà l'Apollon de la France
S'achemine à sa décadence;
Venez briller à votre tour.
Elevez-vous, s'il baisse encore;
Ainsi le couchant d'un beau jour
Promet une plus belle aurore.
France's Apollo, Voltaire, thought this
comparison not very flattering to himself,
and took his revenge by satirizing d'Ar-
naud's person and verses. At the end
of a year, d'Arnaud left Berlin for Dres-
den, where he had received an appoint-
ment, and returned thence to his native
country. During the reign of terror, he
was imprisoned in a dungeon, and after-
wards led a life of miserable poverty.
Owing to his carelessness and extrava-
gance, neither the aid of the government
nor his own pen could preserve him from
want. He died at Paris, in 1805, at the
age of 86 years. His best works are,
Epreuves du Sentiment, Délassements de
l'Homme sensible, Loisirs utiles, and some
others. Ilis dramatic works are
esteemed. Only the Comte de Comminge,
in 1790, had a short run on the stage.
A part of his numerous pocms appeared
in 1751, in three volumes.
not
ARNAULD. From this old family of
Auvergne, which belongs to the nobility
de la robe et de l'épée, are here selected—
1. Antony A., an advocate at Paris, from
1580, a zealous defender of the cause of
Henry IV, distinguished for several po-
litical pamphlets, and for his powerful and
successful defence of the university of Par-
is against the Jesuits, in 1594. By this he
drew on himself the hatred of the Jesuits,
but remained, till his death, in 1618, in pos-
session of his honors, and was esteemed
the greatest lawyer of his time.
twenty children formed the rallying point
of the sect of Jansenists (see Jansenius)
in France; the daughters and grand-
daughters as nuns, in Portroyal, the sons
as members of the learned society, who
shut themselves up in this monastery,
and are known under the name of Mes-
sieurs du Port Royal. A son of his eldest
His
ARNAULD-ARNAULT.
daughter, Isaac le Maître de Sacy, also
united himself to this society, and, as
translator of the Bible that appeared at
Mons, played an important part in the
history of Jansenism.-2. Robert Arnauld
d'Andilly, oldest son of Antony, born at
Port Royal, in 1588, died in 1674, made
himself known as a very correct French
writer, by his religious poems and tracts,
and his translations of Josephus's History
of the Jews, and of Davila's works. He
was far surpassed in intellect by his
youngest brother,-3. Antony Arnauld,
the youngest child of the lawyer Antony
Arnauld, born Feb. 6, 1612. Under the
guidance of the abbot of St. Cyr, John du
Vergier de Havranne, first head of the
Jansenists in France, he devoted himself
to theology, and was received, in 1643,
among the doctors of the Sorbonne. In
the same year, he attacked the Jesuits in
two works, De la fréquente Communion,
and La Théologie Morale des Jésuites, the
first of which occasioned much contro-
versy, because it applied the principles
of the Jansenists to the receiving of the
sacrament. He excited similar contro-
versies by his work, De l'Autorité de
St. Pierre et de St. Paul residente dans le
Pape, 1645, by the opinion therein main-
tained, that the two apostles should be
regarded as of equal rank, and as found-
ers of the Roman Catholic church. After
1650, when Jansenism had become an
object of public odium, and the watch
word of an important party in the state,
Arnauld engaged in all the quarrels of
the French Jansenists with the Jesuits,
the clergy and the government, was their
chief writer, and was considered their
head. The intrigues of the court occa-
sioned his exclusion from the Sorbonne,
1656, and the persecutions which com-
pelled him to conceal himself. In his
retirement, he wrote a system of logic on
the principles of Descartes, and a Gram-
maire raisonnée, which were, for a long
time, esteemed as school-books. After
the reconciliation between pope Clement
IX and the Jansenists, 1668, he appeared
in public, and enjoyed the homage which
even the court did not refuse to his merits
and talents. To satisfy his love of con-
troversy, he attacked the Calvinists in
many controversial tracts, and, with his
friend Nicole, composed the great work,
La Perpétuité de la Foi de l'Église Cathol.
touchant l'Eucharistie, in opposition to
them. For this, a cardinal's hat was des-
tined for him at Rome, but, as he scorned
it, and as the court had become unfavor-
able to him, it was not conferred. On
33
VOL. I.
385
account of the new persecutions of the
court, or rather of the Jesuits, he fled,
in 1679, to the Netherlands, employed
himself, in his exile, in controversial writ-
ings against the Calvinists and the Jesu-
its, and died, in want, at a village near
Liege, Aug. 9, 1694. He was a man of a
vigorous and consistent mind, full of solid
knowledge and great thoughts; in his
writings, bold and violent to bitterness;
undaunted in danger, and of irreproach-
able morals. He is acknowledged to
have done much for the improvement
of morality in the Catholic church; yet
would his genius have been far more
useful to the church and to literature, had
not his situation and character involved
him in a multitude of controversies,
which rendered his literary activity, for
the most part, fruitless to posterity.
ARNAULT, Antoine Vincent, born at
Paris, 1766, an esteemed dramatic poet,
laid the foundation of his fame by his
tragedy Marius à Minturnes, which was
first performed at the theatre in 1791.
Soon after appeared his Lucrèce. After
the overthrow of the throne, Aug. 10, 1792,
and the tragical scene of the 2d of Sep-
tember, he took refuge in England, and
thence passed over to Brussels. At his
return, he would have been arrested as an
emigrant, but the committee declared the
law not applicable to the learned author of
Marius. He now wrote some operas and
the tragedies Cincinnatus and Oscar. In
1797, he went to Italy, where general
Bonaparte committed to him the organ-
ization of the government of the Ionian
isles. At that time, he wrote, partly in
Venice, his tragedy Blanche et Mont-
Cassin, ou les Vénitiens. In 1798, he
embarked in the fleet for Egypt, but was
obliged to remain in Malta, on account
of the sickness of his brother-in-law,
Regnaud de Saint Jean d'Angély. The
frigate, in which he was returning to
France, was taken by the English; yet A.
gained his freedom, and went to Paris,
where his tragedy Les Vénitiens was
performed, in 1799. In the same year, he
became a member, and, in 1805, president,
of the national institute. In Sept. 1808,
he was named counsellor and secretary-
general of the university, which offices he
retained till 1814. As such, he took part
in the preparation of the Dictionnaire de
l'Académic. He also drew up for the em-
peror the general report concerning the
decennial prizes. After the abdication
of the emperor, he went to meet the king
at Compiegne, but, in the year 1815, lost
all his offices, which Napoleon restored
386
ARNAULT-ARNE.
to him during the "hundred days." He
was then member of the deputation from
the chamber of deputies to the army.
The decree of the king of the 24th July
banished him to the distance of twenty
leagues from Paris. In consequence of
the decree of Jan. 17, 1816, he found
himself compelled to fly, and now resided
sometimes in Belgium, sometimes in Hol-
land. His four years' banishment, and
his exclusion from the national institute,
arose, perhaps, from the erroneous sup-
· position, that he had been one of the edi-
tors and contributors to the journal Le
Nain jaune. His tragedy Germanicus
(translated into German, also twice into
Italian) was performed, in 1817, in the
Théatre Français, at Paris, to a very full
house, and occasioned great disturbance
in the theatre, as the opposite political
parties made it the occasion for the clam-
orous expression of their opinions. The
design of effecting the recall of the au-
thor from banishment, by the representa-
tion of this piece, was disappointed, and
it was not repeated. A collection of his
works appeared, in 1818, at Brussels, in
6 vols., and a new collection at Paris, 1824.
In Nov. 1819, he obtained permission to
return to France; his pension was also
renewed. He has not yet been restored
to his seat in the institute. Among his
works are several speeches and treatises,
of the year 1804, on the system of public
instruction. He has also written fables
(1812; new edition, 1815), and a comedy
(La Rançon de Duguesclin, 1813). His latest
tragedies are, Les Guelfes et les Gibelins,
Lycurgue, and Guillaume I, 1826, in which
the character of Philip II is very well
drawn. He has also taken part in several
periodicals, especially in the Veillées des
Muses, 1797; in the Mercure, 1815; and in
the Libéral, at Brussels, from 1816 to 1820,
in which most of the articles on morality,
literature and philosophy were written
by him. He was one of the editors of
the Miroir des Spectacles, des Lettres, des
Mœurs et des Arts. As such, he was
obliged to defend himself, in 1821, before
the police correctionnelle, at Paris, because
some of the articles were considered to
have a political bearing, but was entirely
acquitted, as were also the other editors.
With Jouy, Jay and Norvins, he has un-
dertaken, on an excellent plan, the Bio-
graphie nouvelle des Contemporains. He
has also written Vie Politique et Militaire
de Napoléon (with plates). Napoleon re-
membered him in his will, and bequeathed
him a legacy of 100,000 francs.-Of his
sons, the eldest, Lucien Émile, former
prefect of the department of Ardèche, has
also gained celebrity as a tragic poet,
particularly by his Régulus, 1819. An
earlier production, Pertinax, published un-
der his name, was written by his father.
ARND, John; a Lutheran minister,
distinguished for piety. He is the author
of a work, which has been translated in-
to almost every language of Europe, and
has been extensively read in Germany
for 200 years. Its title is, True Christi-
anity (Wahres Christenthum).
A. was
born, in 1555, at Ballenstedt, in Anhalt,
and died, in 1621, at Celle, after he had
been a minister in different places, and
suffered from the Calvinists, and even the
Lutherans. A few hours before his
death, he preached from the text, Psalm
cxxvi., "They who sow in tears shall
reap in joy," and, on arriving at his
house, spoke of his discourse as a fune-
ral sermon. His work above mentioned
has been reprinted since his death, in 1777,
by Feddersen, and in 1816, by Sintenis.
ARNDT, Ernst Moritz; a German an-
thor, who contributed towards the libera-
tion of Germany from the dominion of
the French, by his bold and patriotic
writings. He was born in Pomerania,
and, in 1806, was professor of philosophy
at Greifswald. At first, he was an ad-
mirer of Napoleon, though moderate in
his praises, but became his most decided
enemy, when he discovered his views of
conquest. A. was obliged to fly to Swe-
den, from whence he returned to Germa-
ny, when it threw off the French yoke.
At this time, he wrote a number of pam-
phlets and poems, all intended to inflame
the hatred of his countrymen against
the French. These writings are distin-
guished by patriotic, but often overstrained
sentiments, and, at the same time, by con-
fused notions of politics, liberty, German
nationality, and the old German empire.
The liberality of his sentiments afterwards
involved him in the famous demagogic
inquisitions in Prussia, when he was pro-
fessor of the university of Bonn. How
unwisely the Prussian government con-
ducted, in its political prosecutions, is
shown by its treatment of A. From a
man of such vague notions on politics,
no danger was to be feared. A. has
written much on history. He is a man
of uncommon talents, but no politician.
ARNE, Thomas Augustin, whom the
English consider as one of their first
composers. He was born at London, in
1704, the son of a respectable upholsterer,
and received the first part of his educa-
tion at Eton. He was intended for the
ARNE-ARNOBIUS.
study of the law, but a strong inclination
led him to devote himself to music, and
lie secretly carried an old spinet into the
garret of his father's house, in order to
pursue his favorite occupation. For a
long time, he was obliged to keep it secret,
but his father was finally induced to yield
to his wishes, after he had made great
progress in the art. Discovering that his
sister had a fine voice and a great fond-
ness for music, he prevailed on her to
choose the profession of a singer. He
composed a part for her in his first ope-
ra, Rosamond, after the text of Addi-
son, which was performed, in 1733, at
Lincoln's-Inn fields, and was received
with great applause. Then followed
Fielding's comic opera, Tom Thumb, or
the Tragedy of Tragedies. His style in
the Comus 1738, is still more original
and cultivated. The public was delight-
ed with his lively, clieerful and natural
melodies, and with the truth and simpli-
city of his expression. In 1740, he mar-
ried Cecilia Young, an excellent singer,
educated in the Italian school. They
went, in 1742, to Ireland, where they
were well received. After two years, he
was engaged as a composer, and his wife
as a singer, at the Drury lane theatre, in
London. He composed several songs in
1745, for the Vauxhall concerts. After
having composed two oratorios, and seve-
ral operas, one of which was called Eliza,
and having received the title of doctor
of music, at Oxford, he attempted a com-
position in the Italian style (Metastasio's
Artaserse), which was very popular. His
talents, however, were better adapted to
the simple, lovely and soft, than to the grave
and elevated. He composed, also, seve-
ral of the songs in Shakspeare's dramas,
and various pieces of instrumental music.
He died in 1778. His sister was after-
wards a distinguished singer under the
name of Mrs. Cibber: his brother, also,
went on the stage.
ARNO (anciently Arnus); one of the
largest and finest rivers of Italy, which
divides Tuscany into two parts, and
washes Florence and Pisa. The A. rises
in the Apennines, on the east of Flor-
ence, ncar a village called S. Maria della
Grazia, on the borders of Romagna, 15
miles W. of the sources of the Tiber;
then turns southward towards Arezzo,
where it is increased by the lakes of the
Chiana; after which it runs westward,
dividing Florence into two parts, and, at
length, washing Pisa, falls, 4 miles below
it, into the Tuscan sea. This river has been
sung by many poets, on account of the
:
387
beautiful banks between which it mean-
ders, and the cities with which they are
adorned. From any hill in the neigh-
borhood of Florence, or at the confluence
of the Chiana, the view into the valley of
the A. is charming. In ancient times,
the Etruscans erected here extensive
works of hydraulic architecture, long be-
fore any other Italian nation had arrived
at such a degree of civilization. Niebuhr,
in his Roman History, division Tuscans
*The
and Etruscans, says as follows
greatest part of Tuscany is mountainous.
The rich valley, through which the Arno
flows, was, in ancient times, covered by
a lake and marshes. From Segna to
Fiesole, and toward Prato, was one lake:
the Gonfalina closed up the valley: a
passage was made through this rock, to
open a way for the river towards Pisa.
The water covered this space at the time
of the erection of the walls of Fiesole, as
is shown by many openings which were
designed for draining it off. It covered
the site of modern Florence, whose ori-
gin, it is, therefore, absurd to refer to the
Etruscan times. A section was also cut
at La'ncisa (the cut), to drain the rich
fields of the upper valley of the Arno; or
it may be that the rivers, which now form
this part of the Arno, formerly fell into
the Clanis, and the object was, to dimin-
ish the water of the Tiber. The marshes
through which Hannibal marched are, at
present, dry on the right bank of the
Lower Arno." In the time of Napoleon,
the A. gave its name to an extensive and
populous department in the grand em-
pire; Florence being the capital. The
population amounted to about 600,000.
ARNOBIUS the Elder, called, also, the
African, was, about A. D. 300, teacher of
rhetoric, at Sicca Veneria, in Numidia,
and, in 303, became a Christian. While
yet a catechumen, he wrote 7 books of
Disputationes adversus Gentes, in which
he refuted the objections of the heathens
against Christianity with spirit and learn-
ing. This work betrays a defective
knowledge of Christianity, but is rich in
materials for the understanding of Greek
and Roman mythology. Hence it is one
of the writings of the Latin fathers, which,
like the works of his disciple Lactantius,
are particularly valued by philologists.
Orelli has published the last and best
edition (Leipsic, 1816). From the younger
A., a Gallic divine, in the last half of
the 5th century, we have only an in-
significant commentary on the Psalms,
which betrays the principles of the Semi-
Pelagians.
388
ARNOLD-BENEDICT ARNOLD.
ARNOLD of Brescia, one of the disci-
ples of Abelard, returned, full of new
ideas on religion and the church, in
1136, to his native city. His bold and
lofty spirit, his knowledge of Christian
antiquities, and his vehement clo-
quence in his public harangues, gave
authority to his reproaches against the
abuses of the church. Thus he insti-
gated the people against the clergy; and,
in France, where he was obliged to flee
in 1139, he also found numerous adhc-
rents; for the immorality and arrogance
of the clergy had every where excited
discontent. The fierce flame which he
had kindled could not be extinguished
by the excommunication pronounced
against him and his adherents (Arnoldists)
by Innocent II. A. preached his doctrine
in safety at Zurich, in Switzerland, until
1144, when he appeared at Rome, and,
by the powers of his cloquence, occa-
sioned a violent excitement among the
people against the clergy. The furious
multitude, whom he himself could no
longer restrain, revered him as their fa-
ther, and even the senate protected him,
till Adrian IV, in 1155, laid an interdict
pon the city. This disgrace, never bc-
fure experienced, subdued the Romans,
They sued for mercy, and A. was obliged
to fly. He was taken in Campania, and
burnt at Rome, as a heretic and a rebel;
his ashes were thrown into the Tiber, and
his party was suppressed. But the spirit
of his doctrine descended upon the sects
which arose during the same and the fol-
lowing centurics.
ARNOLD, Benedict. (Our readers will
excuse the length of the present and some
other articles of American biography, on
account of the reasons given in the pref-
ace.) This man, one of the most distin-
guished generals in the American army
during the carlier part of the contest of
the colonies with Great Britain, and sub-
sequently, infamous as a traitor to his
country, was born in Connecticut, of ob-
scure parentage, and received an edu-
cation suitable to an humble condition.
'The occupations of his youth were not
fitted to prepare him for the functions
which he was called upon to exercise in
the sequel. At first a dealer in horses,
he sustained losses in his trade. Eager
for renown, greedy of money, the troubles
of his country inspired him with the hope
of acquiring fame and fortune by the pro-
fession of arms: accordingly, on the break-
ing out of the revolutionary war, he cm-
braced the cause of his countrymen with
enthusiasm, and took the command of a
He
company of volunteers at New Haven.
He soon won a high military reputation
Washington, encouraged by secret ad-
vices that the Canadians were inclined to
make part of the Union, projected the
surprise of Quebec. This hazardous un-
dertaking required leaders at once active,
vigilant, bold, and inflexibly patient. He
committed it to Montgomery and colonel
Arnold, as the most capable. He exhort-
ed them, with extreme carnestness, to treat
the Canadians as friends, as fellow-citi-
zens, and to punish severely the least irreg-
ularities of the soldiery. Arnold began his
march in the month of September.
conducted his small force through deserts
which man had never before penetrated.
The river of Kennebeck had overflowed
its banks; he crossed it by swimming, or
on rafls. Unknown streams presented a
new obstacle: he diverted their course.
The snow fell in abundance; a few hours
of sun during the day were insufficient to
thaw the ice formed in the long and
severe nights of the northern autumn;
but nothing could arrest his progress. He
was always in the van with the pioneers,
who cut a passage through this wild
country, and, at the end of each march,
had arrived before the enemy knew of
his approach. He thus put in practice a
maxin which he was fond of repeating:
"In war, expedition is equivalent to
strength." The last division, conduct-
ed by a man less resolute and persever-
ing, returned; while he, at the head of
the two first, sustained the courage of the
soldiers, who were exhausted by fatigue,
hunger and every species of suffering.
After two months of toil, all impediments
were overcome, and he encamped before
the fortress, but with a band so much
enfeebled, that he was obliged to await
the arrival of Montgomery, who ap-
proached by another route. Montgom-
ery died gloriously in an assault, Dec. 31,
1775. Arnold was severely wounded in
the leg, and forced to convert the siege
into a blockade. He was not, however, to
be daunted by any reverse. From the
bed to which his wound confined him, he
infused into the little army, the command
of which had now devolved upon him,
his own spirit of determination and confi-
dence. The enterprise failed: the cour-
age and intelligence, which he exhibited
throughout, placed him, nevertheless, in
the first class of American officers. He
served with better fortune, and still great-
er distinction, in the subsequent cam-
paigns, and bore a considerable part in
that in which Burgoyne and his army
BENEDICT ARNOLD.
were made prisoners. He fought with
He fought with
his usual intrepidity in the engagement
which immediately preceded the capitula-
tion. The first to throw himself into the
intrenchments of the enemy, he was ani-
mating his men by his example, when a
ball shattered the leg already wounded at
the siege of Quebec. As he was borne
from the ranks to his tent, he still issued
orders for the continuance of the assault.
The boldness of Arnold was so great, that
he was accused of a disposition to entangle
himself rashly in perilous situations; but
it could not be denied, that his rapid dis-
cernment supplied him, in the midst of
danger, with the surest expedients, and
that success always justified his daring.
The admiration of his fellow-citizens kept
pace with his services. His love of glory
was accompanied with an equally strong
love of pleasure and dissipation, and he
was very unscrupulous about the mode
of obtaining the means of gratifying it.
Ilis ill-gotten wealth he squandered in
frivolous expenses, or mere ostentation.
Montreal, the second city of Canada, was,
under his command, a scene of injustice
and rapacity, and the Canadians soon
abandoned the design of joining the con-
federation. The attempt on Canada was
abandoned, and, the wounds of Arnold
being not yet healed, he could be invest-
ed only with some stationary command.
Washington, though he detested his vices,
did not wish to leave his talents idle. The
English having evacuated Philadelphia, he
directed Arnold to take possession of that
city with some troops of the Pennsylva-
nia line,-a delicate charge for a man so
prone to extend his powers, and define
them according to his interests. It was
not long before he displayed in this city a
magnificence as foreign to the habits of
the country, as it was unseasonable in the
inidst of the calamities of war. He even
lodged in his house the French envoy
and all his suite on their arrival. From
this time, too, he began to profess an ex-
traordinary attachment to the French, and
great zeal for an alliance with them. To
relieve himself from the difficulties into
which his extravagance had plunged him,
he resorted to the same oppression and
extortion which had rendered his author-
ity odious to the Canadians. Under pre-
tence of the wants of the army, he for-
bade the shopkeepers to sell or buy; he
then put their goods at the disposal of his
agents, and caused them afterwards to be
resold with a profit. He prostituted his
authority to enrich his accomplices, and
squabbled with them about the division
389
of the prey. The citizens applied for re-
dress to the courts of justice. But, with
his military authority as his shield, he set
at defiance both justice and the laws. At
length, however, a representation of the
grievances which the state was suffering,
was made to congress by the president of
the executive council of Pennsylvania, a
man of firm and upright character, who
had endeavored in vain to repress the
overweening and predatory spirit of Ar-
nold, and a committee was appointed to
inquire into the subject. Arnold replied to
the charges with arrogance. Some mem-
bers of congress were of opinion that he
should be suspended from his military
functions until the investigation of his pub
lic conduct was brought to an issue; but
the accusation had become an affair of par-
ty, and he had influence enough to cause
this proposition to be set aside. Congress
at length resolved to lay the complaints
against him before the commander-in-
chief-As soon as Arnold saw that the
resolutions of congress would be of this
tenor, he resigned the command which he
held in Philadelphia. He was tried before
a court martial, and condemned, January
20, 1779, to be reprimanded by the com-
mander-in-chief. Congress ratified the
sentence, and Washington, having caused
the culprit to appear before him, performed
the task with the considerate delicacy
which he thought due to so distinguished
an officer. Arnold, however, quitted the
army, and, thenceforth, nourished an im-
placable hatred towards the cause which
he had so brilliantly defended.-The em-
barrassment of his affairs was at this time
such, that private aid would not suffice to
extricate him. He had, some time before,
formed a partnership with some owners
of privateers, who paid his share of the
expenses of equipment, and expected to
be compensated, for their advances, by his
countenance and protection; but the
chances were adverse, and, instead of
profits to be divided, there were losses to
be borne. Arnold, now without credit or
authority, was no longer regarded by the
owners as any thing more than an ordi-
nary partner. They exacted his propor-
tion of the loss, and their knowledge of
his difficulties only served to render them
more urgent in their suit. In this ex-
tremity, he tried a last resource.-Con-
gress, at the commencement of the revo-
lution, committed an error which proved
of great detriment to the finances. It in-
trusted some officers with agencies which
had no immediate connexion with the
business of command or military service.
33 *
390
BENEDICT ARNOLD.
Arnold, the least proper for such trusts,
was charged with considerable oncs, and
had large claims for monies and stores
furnished in the expedition to Canada.
The commissioners, to whom they were
referred for settlement, reduced them very
considerably. He appealed from their
decision to congress, who pronounced
That the cominissioners had shown more
lenity than rigor in the liquidation of his
accounts. Disappointed in all his expec-
tations, Arnold at last determined to be-
truy his country, and to make his treason
in a high degree useful to England, that it
inight procure him a full pardon for his
share in the revolt of the colonies. He
wished to be regarded as a subject rc-
turned to his allegiance, and worthy of
the honorable rewards due to faithful and
virtuous citizens. As a first step, the
British commanders were to be made ac-
quainted with his discontent, but in so
guarded a manner as to leave a retreat
open, in case the offers, which might be
made to him, should not prove satisfac-
tory. Particular circumstances facilitated
the communications between them.-As
soon as the English commander was ap-
prized of the disposition of Amold, he
despatched emissaries charged with such
offers as were most likely to determine a
man whose hesitation was only about the
incans and conditions. Some of Arnold's
proceedings, about this period, warrant the
supposition, that he at first meant to tan-
per with his brother officers, but relin-
quished this design on more mature re-
flection. He took good care that nothing
of his real intentions should be divined by
the subaltern English agents; but there
was, at New York, a man whom he
thought he could trust without risk. This
was Charles Beverley Robinson, an Ameri-
can by birth, and a colonel in the British
army, whose property all lay within the
U. States. His mansion, situated on the
Hudson, was included in the American
lines, and three miles lower than the forts
upon the opposite bank. The command-
ing officers of West point, having found it
deserted, had made it their quarters. Ar-
hold wrote to this officer, that the ingrati-
tude of his country, and other considera-
tions to be afterwards disclosed, had pro-
duced a change in his political sentiments;
that he aspired to merit, thenceforward,
the favor of the king; that he could ren-
der signal services; and wished to enter
into a correspondence on the subject with
Sir Henry Clinton.-This overture was
well received, and, a direct cornmunication
with the English general being established,
it was agreed that Arnold should dissem-
ble, with the utmost care, his discontent;
that he should make every effort to obtain
a command from general Washington;
that, as soon as he succeeded, he should
consult with sir Henry Clinton as to his
future movements, and be guided by the
instructions which would be given to him.
-From this time, he entirely altered his
manner and language. He affected to
have forgotten the affront of the repri-
mand, and pretended to feel a more live-
ly attachment than ever to the cause
of independence.-The country through
which the Hudson flows was the principal
theatre of the war. A station in this quar-
ter would, he thought, best answer his
purpose. He was well acquainted with
the localities. He examined, with minute
attention, in what spot, by what operations,
he could most beneficially second the en-
terprises of the British, and which was
the most important position to betray into
their hands. New York was, at this time,
in the hands of the British, who had as-
sembled there the greatest part of their
troops. The fortress of West point, a mili-
tary station of very great importance, is
distant 20 leagues from this city. Arnold
aimed at the chief command of this post,
with a view of betraying it into the hands
of the British, with the garrisons, and the
arms and immense stores which were de-
posited there; for fort Clinton contained,
besides the ammunition necessary for its
own defence, the stock of powder of the
whole army. The command of the fort
had been intrusted to general Howe, an
officer of tried courage, but of limited ca-
pacity, who could be employed elsewhere
without inconvenience to the service. The
wounds of Arnold did not as yet allow him
to mount on horseback; they did not dis-
qualify him, however, for conducting the
defence of a citadel. He had early secured
the patronage of some of the leading men
of the state of New York, and Washing-
ton was prevailed upon to consign West
point to him. Being a traitor to his own
country, he was apprehensive lest those
to whom he was about to sell himself
might prove treacherous to him. He felt
anxious to receive the price of his igno-
minious bargain at the moment of its ratifi-
cation; but he could extort nothing more
than a promise of 30,000 pounds sterling,
and the assurance that he should be main-
tained in the British army, in the rank
of brigadier-general, which he already
held. About a mouth previous (July 10,
1780), the first division of the French army
arrived at Newport, in the state of Rhode
―
BENEDICT ARNOLD.
Island. The situation of the English be-
came every day more and more critical.
Sir Henry Clinton had relinquished his
projected expedition. He urged Arnold
to fulfil his engagements, and supposed
the thing easy for a general who was
mnaster of the forts and the river; but there
were, in fact, numerous obstacles in the
way, and of these the presence of the
commander-in-chief was the most serious.
Arnold knew his vigilance and activity.
He insisted, therefore, with Clinton, on the
necessity of deliberation, adding, how
ever, that all should be in readiness to
improve the first favorable opportunity.
A young officer of foreign extraction
served in the British army. He was en-
dowed with all the qualities which render
a man useful to his country and dear to
society. This was JOHN ANDRÉ, adju-
tant-general of the British army. Gen-
eral sir Henry Clinton had taken him
as his aid-de-camp, and did not disdain
him as a counsellor. To him Clinton
committed the business of negotiating
with Arnold. A correspondence ensued
between Arnold and André, under the
supposititious names of Gustavus and An-
derson. Mercantile relations were feigned,
to disguise the real object, and an Ameri-
can, whose dwelling stood between the
lines that separated the two armies, served
as a common messenger. At this period,
the rumor began to spread of a second
division of the French army having sailed,
and that Washington only awaited its
arrival to begin the siege of New York.
The marshal de Castries, who then ad-
ninistered the department of the marine
with so much reputation, had, in fact,
advised the French envoy of the approach-
ing departure of a second expedition.
Clinton caused Amold to be told that it
was time to act; that a day must be fixed
for the surrender of the forts; and that,
if time were given to the allies to effect a
junction, it might no longer be in the
power of Arnold himself to fulfil his en-
gagements. He asked, also, plans of the
forts, and the instructions necessary for
the safe guidance of the British troops
when they were sent to take possession
of West point. Amold replied to these
new importunities in the language con-
certed with André :--“ Our master goes
away the 17th of this month. He will be
absent five or six days. Let us avail our-
selves of this interval to arrange our busi-
ness. Come immediately, and meet me
at the lines, and we will settle definitively
the risks and profits of the copartner-
ship. All will be ready; but this inter-
391-
view is indispensable, and must precede
the sailing of our ship." It was thus that
Arnold apprized Clinton of the approach-
ing departure of the commander-in-chief.
Washington had, in fact, given a rendez-
vous to count de Rochambeau, general
of the French land-forces, and to the
chevalier de Ternay, commander of the
squadron. They were to meet at Hart-
ford, in Connecticut, to confer about the
operations of this and the ensuing cam-
paigns. But Arnold was not correctly
advised as to the period of Washington's
departure, and the mistake led to impor-
tant consequences. He had, in other let-
ters, solicited an interview with André,
and he now exacted it as a condition in-
dispensable for the prosecution of the
enterprise. Hitherto, every thing had
succeeded beyond his hopes. There had
been a total absence of those mysterious
rumors, and vague surmises, which ac-
company, and seem to portend, a great
conspiracy. Never had so momentous a
plot been more felicitously brought so
near to its execution. This profound sc-
crecy was owing to the precaution of
Arnold, in not having unbosomed himself
to any of his own countrymen, and in
admitting only André and Beverley as
correspondents. He took credit for this
policy, and his urgency for an interview
with André arose chiefly from his reso-
lution to confide to the hands of this offi-
cer, alone, the maps and particular infor-
mation which Clinton demanded. The
17th of September, the day specified for
the departure of Washington, passed, and
he was still at West point. Arnold ad-
vertised Clinton of the delay, and ex-
plained his mistake by mentioning a
circumstance which had not been before
noted. The 17th fell on a Sunday,—a day
which the Americans consecrated entirely
to the duties of religion, and on which
most of them abstained even from jour-
neys, which, elsewhere, would be thought
indispensable. Clinton admitted this ex-
planation the more readily as he knew
that Washington respected the scruples
of others, and was himself very religious.
To obviate untoward accidents, it was
agreed that André should leave New
York only on the 19th of September, and
reach the American forts about the 20th.
He accordingly embarked in the night on
board the Vulture sloop of war. Clinton
sent with him Beverley Robinson, the
colonel through whom Arnold had made
his first overture. He expected that the
prudence of this officer would moderate
the ardor of André. Moreover, Arnold
392
BENEDICT ARNOLD.
occupied Robinson's house, and the pri-
vate affairs, which he, as a refugee, had to
adjust with congress, furnished a plausible
pretence for his approaching the Ameri-
can lines and posts. September 20; they
arrived almost opposite to fort Montgom-
ery, situated on the same side as West
point, five miles lower down. They cast
They cast
anchor in sight of the nearest American
redoubts, but beyond the reach of some
small cannon, the only artillery of those
redoubts. The Vulture got aground at
low water. The movement on board, and
some signals which she made, alarmed
the vigilance of colonel Livingston, who
commanded at Verplanck's point. He as-
certained, on reconnoitring, that the sloop
might be sunk by one or two pieces of
heavy cannon; and as those of the forts
which he commanded were of too small
a caliber, he requested larger from Ar-
nold. The general refused them, to the
great surprise of Livingston. But tacit
obedience is the life of discipline, and he
acquiesced in some idle cxcuse. Two
days clapsed after the Sunday, and still
Washington had, apparently, inade no
preparations for departure. Amold was
himself uncasy at this disappointment;
but the apprehension of exciting suspicion
by too frequent communications prevent
ed him from making it known to Clinton.
The English general was informed of it
through another channel. He knew the
He knew the
unprincipled character of Arnold, and
could comprehend the probability of a
snare masked by a counterfeit scheme of
treason. He was the more disquieted as
André and Robinson were already far on
their way; and there was equal incon-
venience in leaving them ignorant, or ad-
vising them of their danger. If Arnold
were sincere in his defiction, his return
to New York would disconcert all Ar-
nold's measures, and expose him to seri-
ous risks. If he deceived the British, all
the risks were for André and Robinson.
They had not, as yet, been able to com-
municate with the shore, but, persuaded
that Washington must have set out for
Hartford, they put in execution a strata-
gem, arranged beforehand with Arnold, to
facilitate the rendezvous. Robinson wrote
to the American general Putnam, as if to
transact with him business relating to his
property, and proposed an interview. In
this letter was enclosed another to general
Arnold, wherein Robinson solicited a con-
ference with him, in case Putnam should
be absent. The packet, being directed to
Arnold, would be opened only by him; but
if, perchance, it fell into other hands, the
whole could be read without exciting sus-
picion of a plot. This letter was de-
spatched to the shore by a flag of truce
as soon as the sloop had cast anchor. It
happened to be on the very day fixed by
Washington for his departure. He had
never meant to set out earlier, and had
neither sanctioned nor contradicted the
various rumors current on the subject.
He left his quarters in the morning, and,
on reaching the bank, found Arnold there
with his barge, ready to transport him to
the other side. In crossing, Washington
remarked the sloop with the English
flag, and took a spy-glass to observe her
inotions more narrowly. Some moments
after, he gave to an officer near him, in a
low voice, according to his usual manner,
an order probably of no consequence,
which Arnold was unable to overhear.
Arnold was guilty, and whatever he could
not immediately penetrate, alarmed his
fears. He supposed that the general could
not remain ignorant of the circumstance
of the flag of truce, and, doubtful even
whether he might not be already acquaint-
ed with it, he thought it well to show him
the two letters which he had received, as-
ing him, at the same time, what course
he ought to pursue. Washington, in the
presence of several persons, dissuaded himn
from seeing Robinson, and directed him to
give for answer to this officer, that his pri-
vute business appertained exclusively to
the jurisdiction of the civil authority.
'They touched the shore just as this con-
versation ceased. The commander-in-
chief, whose presence kept Arnold in the
greatest perplexity, landed, and pursued his
journey to Hartford. Thus was the main
obstacle removed, and the plot could pro-
ceed. The opinion uttered by Washing-
ton, in such positive terms, concerning the
conference with Robinson,-the order
heard by several porsons present,-be-
came, however, a law for Arnold, with re-
spect to his ostensible conduct. It was, in
this way, the first obstacle that thwarted
the measures concerted between him and
André. They could not meet publicly
under the auspices of a flag of truce, and,
though André had used this means to reach
the lines, they were obliged to arrange a se-
cret interview.On the morning after the
departure of Washington, Arnold sought
out a inan called Joshua Smith, well known
to be devoted to the English, although he
resided within the American posts. He
made him the bearer of two passports to
be carried on board the Vulture,—one for
André, under the fictitious name of An-
derson; the other for Charles Beverley
1
+
BENEDICT ARNOLD.
Robinson, who had not the same reason
for practising disguise. He charged him
with a letter also, in which he urged them
to repair to him on shore. Smith waited
until night-fall, and then proceeded to the
English sloop in a boat which Arnold had
provided for him. André and Robinson
expected that Arnold would himself visit
them, and were surprised when his emis-
sary, Smith, appeared before them alone.
Robinson declared that he would not go
on shore, and used every effort to deter
his companion; but the young man, full
of impatience and ardor, saw only the
chances of success, would listen to no
remonstrance, and could not brook the
idea, either of returning to New York
without having executed his mission, or
of exposing the main enterprise to mis-
carriage, by a caution which his rivals
would infallibly stigmatize as cowardice.
He put on a gray surtout, to hide his uni-
form, and accompanied Smith on shore.
Arnold was waiting to receive him at the
water's edge. They discoursed there for
some time; but, as they were liable to be
surprised, Arnold led him towards the
house of Smith, when he immediately
laid before him plans of the forts, a me-
moir, composed (for a better use) by the
chief engineer, Duportail, on the means
of attacking and defending them, and
minute instructions with respect to the
measures to be taken by the British for
the occupation of them, when he (Arnold)
should have done his part in opening the
way. They presumed that Washington
had already reached Hartford, and they
were right; for he was there, at the same
hour, in consultation with the French
commanders.—Arnold and André, calcu-
lating anxiously the probable length of
Washington's absence, supposed that he
would return in three or four days, that is,
on the 25th or 26th of Sept., and one
or other of these days was fixed for the
execution of the plot. It was settled that
André should go back in all haste to New
York; that the English troops, which
were already embarked, under pretence
of a distant expedition, should be held
ready to ascend the river, and sail at the
first signal; that, to facilitate the reduc-
tion of West point, Arnold should march
out of the forts all the troops destined for
the defence, and entangle them in gorges
and ravines, where he would pretend to
await the English assailants, while these
were to debark on another side, and enter
by passes left unguarded; and, at all
events, the garrisons and troops were to
be so distributed, that, if they did not sur-
393
Then
render at the first summons, they must be
immediately cut in pieces. He informed
André, that the chain which was stretched
across the river from West point to Con-
stitution island, forming, when perfect,
an effectual bar to the passage of the river,
was now no longer an impediment. He
had detached a link, ostensibly to have
mended; the smiths would not return it
for some days; and the two ends of the
chain were held together by a fastening
too weak to bear even a slight concussion.
The English would know at what mo-
ment they were to advance, by the kindling
of fires, in the night, under the directions
A
of Arnold, on the adjacent eminences.
single cannon fired from their ships, to be
followed by a similar discharge from the
shore, would proclaim that they had per-
ceived the signals. Other tokens agreed
upon were to furnish, successively, in-
formation of the several distances of the
British forces in their approach. When
they had arrived within three miles of the
fortress, two English officers, in American
uniform, were to ride full gallop to Ar-
nold's quarters, to learn how matters
stood, and to hasten with the intelligence
to the British naval commander.
only was Arnold to put in motion that
portion of the garrison which remained
in the works, and station it at posts which
would not be attacked. They agreed
upon the countersign to be given on the
24th and 25th. Arnold delivered to the
Englishman draughts of all the works,
and of the passes leading to them, several
memoirs, written with his own hand, and
full returns of the garrisons and the forces
of each division of the army. He had
never before allowed a single paper to go
out of his hands, which might expose him
to detection. But he now saw no danger
in confiding these to André, who was to
re-embark directly on board the sloop,
and make sail for New York-André re-
turned alone to the beach, whence a boat
was to convey him to the Vulture. But
this arrangement was defeated by an ob-
stacle wholly unexpected. At an early
hour, Livingston, still disturbed at the
proximity of the sloop, had, of his own
authority, caused a four-pounder to be
dragged from his redoubt to a point of
land from which the shot could reach the
vessel. She was aground, and had al-
ready sustained some damage from the
small piece of the American officer, when
she began to float again at the rising of
the tide. Robinson took advantage of this
circumstance to weigh anchor, and re-
move some miles lower down, beyond
394
BENEDICT ARNOLD.
they traversed all the American posts
without molestation. They arrived, un-
interrupted, a little beyond Pine's bridge,
a village situated on the Croton: they
had not, however, crossed the lines, al-
though they could descry the ground
occupied by the English videttes. Smith,
looking all around, and perceiving no
one, said to André, "You are safe-good
by," and retook, at full speed, the road
by which they had come. André, on his
part, believing himself out of danger, and
all further precaution superfluous, put
spurs to his horse. He had proceeded
four leagues onward with the same good
fortune; he could see the Hudson once
more, and was about entering Tarry-
town, the border village, when a man,
armed with a gun, sprung suddenly from
the thickets, and, seizing the reins of
his bridle, exclaimed, "Where are you
bound?" At the same moment, two oth-
ers ran up, who were armed in like man-
ner, and formed, with the first, part of the
patrol of volunteer militia that guarded
the lines. They were not in uniform,
and André, preoccupied by the idea that
he was no longer on enemy's ground,
thought that they must be of his own
party. It did not, therefore, occur to him
to show them his passport, which was
sufficient to deccive Americans, and could
not alter his destination, if those who ar-
rested him were of the English side.
Instead of answering their question, he
asked them, in his turn, where they bc-
longed to. They replied, “To below,"
words referring to the course of the river,
and implying that they were of the Eng-
lish party. "And so do I," said André,
confirmed in his mistake by this stratagem.
"I am," continued he, in a tone of com-
mand, " an English officer on urgent busi-
ness, and I do not wish to be longer de-
tained." "You belong to our enemies,"
was the rejoinder, "and we arrest you."
André, struck with astonishment at this
unexpected language, presented his pass-
port; but this paper, after the confession
he had just made, only served to render
his case more suspicious. He offered
them gold, his horse, and promised them
large rewards, and permanent provision
from the English government, if they
would let him escape. These young
men, whom such offers did but animate
the more in their duty, replied, that they
wanted nothing. They drew off his
boots, and detected the fatal papers. They
no longer hesitated to carry him before
colonel Jameson, who commanded the
out-posts. When questioned by that off -
the reach of a similar attack. This change
of station attracted the notice of the mas-
ter and rowers of the boat in which An-
dré expected to regain the sloop. They
were Americans. The movements which
they had witnessed for the two last days
were unusual; and, although men of their
description, accustomed to ferry all per-
sons indifferently from one side of the
river to the other, did not affect to be of
any party, they were unwilling to commit
themselves. When André proposed to
them to convey him to the sloop, they
told him that it was too far, and peremp-
torily refused to go. He went back im-
mediately to Arnold, and urged him to
exert his authority in so serious a predica-
nent. But the latter, perplexed at his
unlooked-for re-appearance, and already
harassed with various disappointments,
durst not attempt to compel the men, and
told him he must submit to return by
land; to lay aside his uniform altogether,
and assume another dress. André changed
his coat for one which Smith provided.
Arnold now wished to withdraw the pa-
pers which he had intrusted to him; he
thought it hazardous to send them by
land. But André was very desirous of
showing to Clinton with what punctuality
he had executed his mission. These pa-
pers were a trophy of which he would not,
therefore, allow himself to be dispossessed.
He observed to Arnold, that danger of any
kind could now no longer be in question,
except so far as to show that they both
despised it; and added, that he would
keep the papers, which brought him into
greater peril than Arnold, and, to allay
his fears, would secrete them in his boots.
Arnold submitted, and, leaving André in
Smith's house, returned to his quarters,
from which he had been absent since the
day before. The patrol, spread through
the whole neighborhood, made it impru-
dent for André to begin his journey before
twilight. He was accompanied by Smith:
cach had a passport from Arnold, "to go
to the lines of White plains, or lower, if
the bearer thought proper; he being on
public business."-They were accosted,
at Crompond, by an American officer of
militia, who told them that it was too late
for them to reach, that evening, any other
quarters. In order not to awaken his
suspicions, they resolved to pass the night
there. The next day, 23d, they crossed
the Hudson to King's ferry, pushing for-
ward when they were not observed, and
slackening their pace to conceal their
cagerness, wherever they were likely to
be seen. By means of their passports,
BENEDICT ARNOLD.
cer, he still called himself Anderson, the
name mentioned in his passport, and
evinced no discomposure; he had re-
covered all his presence of mind, and, for-
getful of his own danger, thought only
of Arnold's, and of the ineans of extricat-
ing him. To apprize hiin of it safely, he
begged Jameson to inform the command-
ing officer of West point that Anderson,
the bearer of his passport, was detained.
Jameson thought it more simple to order
him to be conducted to Arnold. He was
already on the way, and the thread of the
conspiracy was about to be resumed in
the interview of the accomplices, when
the American colonel, recollecting that the
papers found upon the prisoner were in
the hand-writing of Arnold himself, and
adverting to the several extraordinary
features of the business, sent, in all haste,
after the pretended Anderson, and had
him conveyed, under guard, to Old Sa-
lem. He despatched, at the same time,
an express to Washington, charged with
a letter containing a circumstantial ac-
count of this affair, and with the draughts
and other papers taken from the prisoner.
But the commander-in-chief, who set out
on the same day, the 23d of September, to
return to his army, had pursued a differ-
ent route from that by which he went to
Hartford, and the messenger was com-
pelled to retrace his steps without having
seen him. This delay proved the salva-
tion of Arnold.-Jameson was a gallant
soldier, but a man of an irresolute temper,
and no great sagacity; moreover, treache-
ry on the part of Arnold appeared im-
possible to one of an ingenuous and hon-
orable character. He began to view his
first suspicions as an outrage to an officer
distinguished, as Arnold was, by so many
noble exploits, and, wishing to reconcile
the deference due to him with the per-
formance of his own duty, he wrote him,
that Anderson, the bearer of his passport,
had been arrested on the 23d.-Arnold
did not receive this intimation until the
morning of the 25th. It was on a Mon-
day; and the same day, or the one follow-
ing, had been selected for the consumma-
tion of the plot. Until that moment, he
had believed success infallible. The
exhilaration which this belief produced
was even remarked, and he ascribed it to
his expectation of the speedy arrival of
his general, "for whom he had pleasant
news." He was busy with the appropri-
ate arrangements for the reception of a
body of more welcome visitors, when he
received the letter of Jameson. Those
who were present on the occasion recol-
395
lected, afterwards, that he could not, st
first, conceal his dismay and extreme agi-
tation; but that, recovering himself quick-
ly, he said, in a loud voice, that he would
write an answer; and, dismissing all about
him, withdrew, to reflect on the course
which it was best to adopt. The entrance
of two American officers, however, inter-
rupted his musings. They were sent by
the commander-in-chief, and informed
Arnold, that he had arrived that morning
at Fishkill, a few leagues from West
point; that he was to have set out a few
hours after them, and could not be far
distant.—Thus did the most alarming cir-
cumstances rapidly succeed each other.
The traitor had no resource but a precipi-
tate flight. Suppressing his emotion, he
told the two officers that he wished to go
and meet the general alone, and begged
them not to follow him. He then entered
the apartment of his wife, exclaiming—
"All is discovered :-André is a prisoner:
-The commander-in-chief will know
every thing:-The discharge of cannon,
which you hear, is a salute, and announ-
ces that he is not far off:-Burn all my
papers:-I fly to New York." He em-
braced her, as well as their infant child,
whom she carried in her arms, and, solely
intent on his escape, left her, without
waiting for her reply, mounted the horse
of one of the two officers, and rushed to-
wards the Hudson, which was not far
from his house. He had taken the pre-
caution to have always ready a bargo
well-manned: he threw himself head-
long into it, and caused the boatmen to
make for the English sloop, with all pos-
sible despatch. The barge, bearing a flag
of truce, was still visible from the heights
when Washington arrived. The two
officers related to him what they had
witnessed. Arnold had absconded. His
wife, in the agonies of despair, seemed to
fear for her infant, and maintained an
obstinate silence. No one knew how
to explain these extraordinary incidents.
The commander-in-chief repaired, with-
out delay, to the fort of West point, where,
however, he could learn nothing of a de-
cisive import. But some orders, issued
by Arnold the day before, redoubled his
suspicions: he returned to the quarters
of the general, and at this instant Jame-
son's messenger presented himself, and
delivered the packet with which he was
charged. Washington seemed, for a few
minutes, as it were overwhelmed by the
discovery of a crime which ruined the
fame of an American general, and wound-
ed the honor of the American anny.
396
+
BENEDICT ARNOLD.
Those who were near him anxiously in-
terrogated his looks in silence, which he
broke by saying,-"I thought that an
officer of courage and ability, who had
often shed his blood for his country, was
entitled to confidence, and I gave him
mine. I am convinced now, and for the
rest of my life, that we should never trust
those who are wanting in probity, what-
ever abilities they may possess. Arnold
has betrayed us."-Meanwhile, the pre-
cautions required by the occasion were
every where taken. General Heath, a
faithful and vigilant officer, was substitut-
ed for Arnold at West point; the com-
manders of the other posts were admon-
ished to be on their guard. Greene, who
had been invested with the command of
the army during the absence of Washing-
ton, recalled within the forts the garrisons
which the traitor had dispersed, and
marched a strong division near to the
lines. Hamilton lost not an instant in re-
pairing to King's ferry, the last American
post on the side of New York. He had
the mortification to learn, that a very short
time before his arrival, Arnold's barge had
glided by with the swiftness of an arrow,
and was then getting along side the Vul-
ture, some miles lower down, opposite
Teller's point,-an anchorage situated at
the head of the great basin of the Hudson,
which is called Tappan bay. Livingston
had remarked the barge that carried the
fugitive, and, his suspicions, being roused
by the strange movements of the two or
three days previous, would have stopped
it, had not the sailors of his spy-boats been
ashore when it passed. Messengers were
sent to all the states of the Union, and to
the French general, to inform them of
this event. The express which bore the
news to congress travelled with such
rapidity, that he reached Philadelphia on
the same day that the discovery was mado
in the camp. The magistrates were im-
mediately directed to enter the house of
Arnold, and to seize and examine his
papers. They found nothing there re-
lating to the conspiracy; but he had left
memoranda which furnished ample proof
that he was guilty of the extortions and
peculations of which he had been accused
two years before.-Jameson caused his
unknown prisoner to be strictly guarded.
The latter at first suppressed his true
name, from consideration for Arnold; but,
the day after his capture, supposing that
the American general had had time to
make his escape, he said to Jameson,-
"My name is not Anderson; I am major
André." The death of André (q. v.),
though ignominious, was happiness in
comparison with the life of Arnold. Upon
his establishment in the army of Great
Britain, he found it necessary to make
some exertions to secure the attachment
of his new friends. With the hope of
alluring many of the discontented to his
standard, he published an address to the
inhabitants of America, in which he en-
deavored to justify his conduct. He had
encountered the dangers of the field, he
said, from apprehension that the rights of
his country were in danger. He had ac-
quiesced in the declaration of indepen-
dence, though he thought it precipitate.
But the rejection of the overtures made by
Great Britain, in 1778, and the French
alliance, had opened his eyes to the am-
bitious views of those who would sacri-
fice the happiness of their country to
their own aggrandizement, and had made
him a confirmed loyalist. He artfully
mingled assertions, that the principal
members of congress held the people in
sovereign contempt. This was followed,
in about a fortnight, by a proclamation,
addressed "to the officers and soldiers of
the continental army, who have the real
interest of their country at heart, and who
are determined to be no longer the tools
and dupes of congress and of France.'
To induce the American officers and sol-
diers to desert the cause which they had
embraced, he represented that the corps
of cavalry and infantry, which he was
authorized to raise, would be upon the
same footing with the other troops in the
British service; that he should with pleas-
ure advance those whose valor he had
witnessed; and that the private men,
who joined him, should receive a bounty
of three guineas each, besides payment at
the full value for horses, arms, and ac-
coutrements. His object was the peace,
liberty and safety of America.
proclamations did not produce the effect
designed, and in all the hardships, suffer-
ings and irritations of the war, Arnold
remains the solitary instance of an Amer-
ican officer who abandoned the side first
embraced in the contest, and turned his
sword upon his former companions in
arms.
"
These
He was soon despatched, by sir
Henry Clinton, to make a diversion in
Virginia. With about 1700 men, he ar-
rived in the Chesapeake in January, 1781,
and, being supported by such a naval
force as was suited to the nature of the
service, he committed extensive ravages
on the rivers, and along the unprotected
coasts. It is said, that, while où this ex-
pedition, Arnold inquired of an American
ARNOLD.
captain, whom he had taken prisoner,
what the Americans would do with him,
if he should fall into their hands. The
officer replied, that they would cut off
his lame leg, and bury it with the honors
of war, and hang the remainder of his
body in gibbets.-After his recall from
Virginia, he conducted an expedition
against New London in his native state
of Connecticut. He took fort Trumbull,
Sept. 6, with inconsiderable loss. On the
other side of the harbor, lieutenant-colonel
Eayre, who commanded another detach-
ment, made an assault on fort Griswold,
and, with the greatest difficulty, entered
the works. An officer of the conquering
troops asked who commanded. "I did,"
answered colonel Ledyard, "but you do
now," and presented him his sword,
which was immediately plunged into his
own bosom. A merciless slaughter now
commenced of the brave garrison, who
had ceased to resist, and the greater part
were either killed or wounded. After
burning the town, and the stores which
were in it, Arnold returned to New York
in eight days. He survived the war but
to drag on, in perpetual banishment from
his native country, a dishonorable life
amid a nation that imputed to him the
loss of one of the brightest ornaments of its
army-the lamented André. He trans-
mitted to his children a name of hateful
celebrity. He obtained only a part of the
debasing stipend of an abortive treason.
His complaints soon caused it to be known,
that all the promises by which he had
been inveigled were not fulfilled. But
baffled treason appears always to be over-
paid, and the felon is the only one who
thinks that he experiences injustice. He
enjoyed, however, the rank of brigadier-
general; but the officers of the British
army manifested a strong repugnance to
serve with him. He possessed their
esteem while he fought against them;
they loaded him with contempt when
treason brought him over to their side.
He resided principally in England after
the conclusion of the war, was in Nova
Scotia, and afterwards in the West In-
dies, where he was taken prisoner by the
French, from whom he escaped, and, re-
turning to England, died in Gloucester
place, London, June 14, 1801.
ARNOLD, Christopher; a peasant of
Sominerfeld, near Leipsic, celebrated as
an astronomer. He was born in this vil-
lage in 1646, died in 1695, and accom-
plished so much by his own exertions,
that he corresponded with the most cele
brated literati of his age, whose original
34
VOL. I.
397
letters are preserved at Leipsic, in the
library of the council, where may also be
seen A.'s picture. He erected an obser-
vatory at his dwelling-house, which pre-
served the memory of this remarkable
man till 1794, when it was pulled down,
on account of its decay. Unwearied in
his observations, he discovered many phe-
nomena sooner than other astronomers;
as, for instance, the two comets of 1683 and
1686, to which he directed the attention
of the astronomers of Leipsic. He ac-
quired yet more celebrity by his observa-
tion of the transit of Mercury, in 1690.
The magistracy of Leipsic made him, ou
this occasion, a present of money, and
remitted his taxes for life. A.'s observa-
tions were so accurate, that they were
received by a learned periodical journal
that appeared at that time-the Acta
Eruditorum. (q. v.) A. himself published
Signs of divine Grace exhibited in a
solar Miracle, in 1692, 4to., with plates.
In the churchyard at Sommerfeld is the
monument of this astronomical peasant,
by whose name the celebrated astrono-
mer Schröter distinguished three valleys
in the moon.
ARNOLD, John; a miller, known by a
law-suit in which he was engaged during
the reign of Frederic II (the Great), king
of Prussia. The king believed that the
miller had suffered great injustice by a
decision in favor of his territorial lord,
and deposed the minister of justice, and
several other officers, on their refusal to
change the judgment. He then under-
took the office of judge himself, and
reversed the sentence. By this act, one
of the best monarchs was made to re-
semble one of the worst, Ferdinand VII,
who reversed, in a similar way, the judg-
ment in the case of Arguelles. The case
became notorious throughout Europe, and
added to the fame of Frederic as a gen-
eral that of a lover of justice. It after-
wards, however, became evident that the
monarch had been seduced into injustice
by his zeal for equity; and those of the
judges who had been imprisoned were
set at liberty. This case affords an in-
stance of the danger to which the cause
of justice is exposed under an arbitrary
government, even when the sovereign is
well disposed. The memoirs of Nettel-
beck, captain of a Prussian vessel, ex-
hibit a proof of the general admiration
excited by this act of supposed justice.
Nettelbeck came to Lisbon, and, when the
people learned that he was a Prussian, a
mob assembled, and accompanied him, for
a long time, with loud shouts. The same
398
ARNOLD-ARPINO.
man was afterwards captured by the Al-
gerines; but, when the dey learned that
he was a subject of the great king, he set
him immediately at liberty, to show his
respect for Frederic.
ARNOLD, Samuel, doctor, a distinguish-
ed composer, born in 1739 or 1740, re-
ceived his musical education in the chapel
royal, in London. In his 23d year, he
was the author of a dramatic composition,
and was afterwards appointed a composer
at the Covent garden theatre. Here he
set to music the Maid of the Mill. He
distinguished himself still more by his
oratorios of the Cure of Saul (poetry by
Brown) and Abimelech. To these suc-
ceeded the oratorios of the Prodigal Son
and the Resurrection, of which the for-
mer, in particular, is highly distinguished.
He composed, also, many vocal and in-
strumental pieces for the garden concerts.
He was made doctor of music at Oxford,
and, in 1783, organist of the royal chapel.
He prepared an edition of all the works
of Handel, in 36 vols., folio. In 1789, he
was made director of the academy of
ancient music; 4 years afterwards, organ-
ist at Westminster abbey, and, in 1796,
conductor of the annual performances in
the church of St. Paul, for the benefit of
the sons of clergymen. In 1798, he com-
posed his oratorio of Elijah, or the Shu-
namite Woman, in which Madame Mara
sang. He died in 1802, and was buried
on the northern side of the choir of West-
minster abbey. Various as were his com-
positions, his inventive talent was but lim-
ited.
ARNOLDISTS. (See Arnold of Brescia.)
ARNOULT, Sophie; a Parisian actress,
famed in the annals of gallantry and wit,
born at Paris, Feb. 14, 1740. Her father
kept a hôtel garni, and gave her a good
education. Nature endowed this favorite
of the Parisian public with sprightly wit,
a tender heart, a charming voice, and the
most beautiful eyes. Chance brought her
upon the stage, where she delighted the
public from Dec. 15, 1757 to 1778. The
princess of Modena happened to be in
retirement at the Val de Grace.
It was
the custom, at that time, for ladies of rank
to confess, in Passion week, the sins com-
mitted during Lent. The princess was
struck with a very fine voice, that sang
at the evening mass. The songstress was
Sophie Arnoult. The superintendent of
the royal choir was informed by the prin-
cess of the discovery which she had made,
and, against her mother's will, Sophie was
obliged to join the choir, where madame
de Pompadour heard her sing, and ex-
claimed sentimentally, "Such talents are
enough to make a princess." This paved
the way for Sophie to the Parisian opera,
where she soon became queen, and shone
particularly as Thealire in Castor and Pol-
lux, as Ephise in Dardanus, as Iphigenia
in Iphigenia in Aulis. By her beauty,
her exquisite performance and her viva-
city, she enchanted every one.
All per-
sons of rank and all the literati sought
her society: among the latter were d'A-
lembert, Diderot, Helvétius, Mably, Du-
clos and Rousseau. She was compared to
Ninon de l'Enclos and Aspasia; she was
sung by Dorat, Bernard, Rhulières, Mar-
montel and Favart. Her wit was so
successful at the time, that her bons mots
were collected. It was sometimes severe,
when she wished to make her superiority
felt, and yet she had no enemies. When
she saw Sully and Choiseul's images on
a small box, in the time of the revolution,
she ridiculed the circumstance with the
words, "C'est la recette et la dépense."
When, in 1802, the priest of St. Gerinain
l'Auxerrois gave her the extreme unction,
she suddenly said to him, "Je suis comme
Magdeleine, beaucoup de péchés me seront
remis, car j'ai beaucoup aimé." She died
in 1802, in the very chanıber in which
the admiral Coligny was murdered; and
in the same year with her, the actresses
Clairon and Dumesnil. In the beginning
of the revolution, she bought the parson-
age-house at Luzarche, and transformed
it into a country house, with this inscrip-
tion over the door-Ite missa est. Her
third son, Constant Dioville de Brancas,
colonel of cuirassiers, was killed at the
battle of Wagram.
AROBA, or AROBE (by some spelled
and pronounced arrobe; in Spanish, arro-
ba; in the dialect of Peru, arrou). 1. A
weight used in Spain, Portugal, Goa,
Brazil, and in all Spanish America. The
weight of these arobas differs much.
The aroba of Madrid, and almost all over
Spain, weighs 25 pounds avoirdupois.-
2. A measure for wine, brandy and hon-
ey: 1 8 azumbras, 32 quartillos,
805.5 arrobas menores, used for measur-
ing oil, 626.8 cubic inches of Paris
measure. At Malaga, the aroba is equal
to 794 cubic inches, Paris measure.
=
ARPINO, Josephino d'; born 1560, at
Rome. The precocity of his talent for
painting caused him to be employed, at a
very carly age, in ornamenting the Vati-
can, as assistant to the artists engaged in
that design; when, luckily attracting the
attention of pope Gregory XIII, that pon-
tiff took him under his protection, and gave
ARPINO-ARRHIDEUS.
him every opportunity to improve himself.
In France, to which he went with cardi-
nal Aldobrandini, he was knighted. His
death took place at Rome, 1640.
ARRACAN, OF RAKHANG; a large prov-
ince in the empire of Burmah or Ava,
extending along the eastern side of the
bay of Bengal. The Anoupectoumiou
mountains bound it to the east. A. is
about 500 miles long, but its breadth, in
many places, does not exceed 10, no-
where 100, miles. The sea-coast of A. is
studded with islands and clusters of rocks.
The country is very fertile, but much
oppressed by the Burmans. The name
of the capital is also Arracan. Lon. 93°
6' E.; lat. 20° 47′ N.
ARRAGON, the realm of, constituted,
formerly, the second chief division of
Spain, and was composed of the kingdoms
of Arragon, Valencia and Mallorca, and the
principality of Catalonia. Down to the
time of the marriage of king Ferdinand
the Catholic with Isabella, heiress of
Castile, A. formed a kingdom separate
from Castile, and comprised not only the
4 countries above named, but also Sicily
and Sardinia. After the death of Ferdi-
nand, in 1516, it was united forever with
Castile; but the Arragonian provinces
retained their privileges, liberties and
laws, which they lost, almost entirely,
after the Spanish war of succession, be-
cause they had attached themselves firmly
to Austria; and the Bourbons, on ascend-
ing the throne, could not forgive the fidel-
ity of the subjects of an enemy. The
present province of A. still preserves the
title of a kingdom. It is bounded N. by
the Pyrenees, N. W. by Navarre, W. by
Castile, S. by Valencia, and E. by Cata-
lonia. It contains 70 towns, only 8 of
which are considerable, viz., Saragossa,
Albarazin, Balbastro, Calataiud, Darocca,
Jaca, Taraçona and Teruel. Pop., in
Pop., in
1800, 658,630; square miles, 15,503. A
part of the country is mountainous, and
the soil generally productive, but, in some
parts, stony or sandy. The characteris-
tics of the inhabitants are industry, activ-
ity, national pride and courage.
ARRAIGN, ARRAIGNMENT. To arraign,
is to call the prisoner to the bar of the
court, to answer the matter charged
upon him in the indictment. It is from
the Latin ad rationem ponere ; in French,
ad reson, or a resn. (See Blackstone's
Com. v. 4, p. 322 and note.)
ARRAN (the ancient Brandinos); an isl-
and on the W. coast of Scotland, in the
Frith of Clyde, of an oval form, 20 miles
in length, and, where broadest, 12 wide,
399
containing several villages; pop., 6754;
square miles, 165. The centre of the isl-
and is mountainous, on a part of which,
called Goatfield, exceedingly steep, have
been found topazes, and pebbles capable of
receiving a polish. The summit of Goat-
field is 2865 feet above the level of the sea.
There are several lochs and rivers where
salmon are caught, and many sorts of fish
abound on the coasts. The inhabitants
are employed in raising cattle, sheep and
goats. The climate is severe, but healthy.
Lon. 5° 4′ W.; lat. 55° 27′ N.
ARRAN ISLANDS, or SOUTH ARRAN ISL-
ANDS; 3 islands near the western coast of
Ireland, in the Atlantic, at the mouth of
Galway bay, extending about 10 miles in
Lon. 9° 30
length, from N. W. to S. E.
to 9° 42′ W.; lat. 53° 2 to 53° 8' N.
ARRAS, capital of the department Pas
de Calais, on the navigable river Scarp,
contains 20,000 inhabitants, an academy
of the fine arts, and many manufactories
of tapestry, battiste, laces, &c. A. is the
seat of a bishop. The fortifications con-
sist of an irregular wall, guarded by 10
partly detached bastions, several ravelins
and lunettes, two horn-works, and a cita-
del, which forms a regular pentagon, with
caseinates, bomb-proof. These fortifica-
tions were improved or laid out by Vau-
ban. Here he first employed his tenail-
lons. The citè, or old town, is separated
from the ville, or new town, by a wall and
ditch. In 1640, the French, under the
marshals Chaume, Chatillon and Melle-
raye conquered A. In 1654, the Span-
iards, under Condé, attempted to regain
it from them; but Turenne attacked the
Spanish lines, took them by storm, and
rescued the fortress.
ARREST (from the French arrêter, to
stop) is the apprehending or restraining
one's person, which, in civil cases, can
take place legally only by process in exe-
cution of the command of some court or
officers of justice; but, in criminal cases,
any man may arrest without warrant or
precept. Some persons are privileged
from arrest-ambassadors and their do-
mestic servants, officers of courts of jus-
tice, witnesses, and all other persons
necessarily attending any court of record
upon business, members of the legisla-
ture, and, in England, peers and bishops
likewise.
ARRHIDEUS, OF ARIDEUS; Son of Philip
of Macedon and the dancer Philina, con-
sequently a half-brother of Alexander,
whom he also nominally succeeded in the
government. When he was deprived of
his reason by poison administered by
400
ARRHIDÆUS—ARROWROOT.
Olympias, Perdiccas, and, after him, An-
tipater, governed in his place. After a
nominal reign of 6 years, he was put to
death, with his wife, Eurydice, by Olym-
pias.
ARRIA; the heroic wife of Cæcina
Pætus, who, being suspected of a con-
spiracy against the einperor Claudius,
was ordered to destroy himself. Per-
ceiving him hesitate, she plunged a dag-
ger into her breast, and presented it to
her husband with these words: " Pate,
non dolet" (Pætus, it is not painful).
ARRIAN, a Greek historian, native of
Nicomedia, flourished in the 2d century,
under the emperors Adrian and the An-
tonines. He was first a priest of Ceres;
but, at Rome, he became a disciple of
Epictetus. He was honored with the
citizenship of Rome, and appointed pre-
fect of Cappadocia by the emperor Adri-
an, who patronised him on account of his
learning. In this capacity, he distin-
guished himself in the war against the
Massagetæ, and was afterwards advanced
to the senatorial, and even consular dig-
nities. Like Xenophon, he united the
literary with the military character. No
less than seven of the epistles of Pliny
the younger are addressed to A. His his-
torical writings are numerous; but of
these, with the exception of some frag-
ments in Photius, only 2 remain. The
first is composed of 7 books on the expe-
dition of Alexander, which, being princi-
pally compiled from the memoirs of Ptol-
emy Lagus and Aristobulus, who both
served under that king, are deemed pro-
portionably valuable. To this work is
added a book on the affairs of India,
which pursues the history of Alexander,
hut is not deemed of equal authority with
the former. An epistle from A. to Adrian
is also extant, entitled, Periplus Ponti
Euxini, probably written while he was
prefect of Cappadocia. There are, be-
sides, under the name of A., a Treatise on
Tactics; a Periplus of the Red Sea, of
which the authority is doubtful; and his
Enchiridion, an excellent moral treatise,
containing the discourses of Epictetus.
The best editions of A. are that of Gro-
novius, Greek and Latin, 1704, folio; of
Raphelius, Greek and Latin, Amsterdam,
1750, 8vo.; and of Schneider, Leipsic,
1798. Of his Enchiridion, the most val-
uable edition is that of Upton, London, 2
vols., 4to., 1739. The Expedition of Al-
exander has been translated into English
by Rooke, in 2 vols., 8vo., London, 1729.
ARRIGHI, duke of Padua; one of those
who were banished from France, by the
royal decree of July 24, 1815. He was a
native of Corsica, and related to the fam-
ily of Bonaparte. He distinguished him-
self as colonel at Austerlitz and Wagrain,
and, after 1812, as general of division in
many battles; e. g., at Leipsic, in 1813,
and at the defence of the pass of Nogent,
in 1814. After the return of Napoleon
from Elba, 1815, he was sent to Corsica,
as commissioner extraordinary, to restore
every thing to its former condition, and
received the dignity of peer. He was
one of the most devoted partisans of the
emperor, and executed his severe com-
mands in the harshest manner. In the
beginning of the campaign of 1813, he
declared Leipsic in a state of siege, and
compelled all the citizens to arm them-
selves a measure as useless as it was
burdensome. Fournier's attack on the
corps of Lützow, at Kitzen, June 17,
1813, was also the work of A. He lived
in Lombardy until recalled from exile
by the ordinance of Nov. 19, 1820.
ARROBA. (See Aroba.)
ARROWROOT is a kind of starch manu-
factured from the roots of a plant, the
maranta arundinacea, which is cultivated
in gardens both in the East and West
Indies. It is about 2 feet in height; has
broad, pointed, and somewhat hairy
leaves; bears small, white flowers in clus-
ters, and globular fruit of the size of cur-
rants. The starch or powder of the
arrowroot is obtained by the following
process:-The roots are dug when a year
old, and well washed, and beaten in deep
wooden mortars till they are reduced to a
milky pulp. This is well washed again
in clear water, and the fibrous parts,
which are found among it, are carefully
separated, and thrown away. It is next
passed through a sieve or coarse clothı,
and suffered to stand for some time, til!
the starch has settled to the bottom. The
water is then drawn off, and the white
residue is again washed; after which the
water is entirely drained off, and the
pulp, when dried in the sun, is found to
be an extremely pure starch, which, when
reduced to powder, is the arrowroot of
commerce. There is no vegetable, if we
except, perhaps, the salep or orchis root,
which yields so large a proportion of
nutritious mucilage as this. As an article
of diet for children and invalids, it is in-
valuable, more especially in all forms of
bowel complaints. Owing to the great
demand for it, it has been much adulter-
ated, and care is required in the selection
of it. The purest is the Jamaica or Ber-
nuda arrowroot. A very cheap and tol-
ARROWROOT-ARSINOE.
crable substitute for this article may be
found in the starch obtained from the
potato (see Potato), which cannot be too
highly recommended.
ARROWSMITH, Aaron; hydrographer to
the king of Great Britain, distinguished
as a constructor of maps and charts. He
published a New General Atlas, 4to., 1817,
to accompany the Edinburgh Gazetteer.
He has also published a great number of
maps and charts.
18
1 Chi-
ARSCIIN (of Turkish origin); a Russian
measure of length. 3 arschins make 7
English feet; 1500 arschins, 1 werst.
Every arschin is divided into 4 parts, call-
ed quarters or spans, and every quarter
into 4 werschecks, 315 Paris lines.
It is also a Chinese measure.
nese arschin 302 Paris lines.
ARSENIC is a metal of very common
occurrence, being found in combination
with nearly all of the metals in their native
ores. It is of a bluish-white color, readily
becoming tarnished on exposure to air,
first changing to yellow, and finally to
black. In hardness, it equals copper, is
extremely brittle, and is the most volatile
of all metals, beginning to subline before
it melts. Its specific gravity is 5.736. It
burns with a blue flame and a white
smoke, emitting a strong smell of garlic.
It commonly bears the name of black
arsenic, and is prepared from the white
arsenic of commerce, by heating this sub-
stance with carbonaceous matter, and
allowing the volatile arsenic to condense
in an adjoining vessel. Arsenical pyrites,
a very abundant natural substance, is
also advantageously used in the prepara-
tion of arsenic, in which case iron filings
and lime are added, to engage the sul
phur, and prevent its sublimation along
with the arsenic. Native arsenic has
been found in the veins of primitive rocks
in several countries, but in small quanti-
ties, and generally alloyed by the pres-
ence of iron, silver or gold. This metal
is used in metallic combinations, when a
white color is desired. With oxygen,
arsenic forms two compounds, both of
which, from their property of combining
with alkaline and earthy bases, are called
acids. The arsenous acid, the most in-
portant of the two, is the white arsenic of
the shops. It is usually seen in white,
glassy, translucent masses, to which form
it is reduced by fusion from a powdery
state. It is one of the most virulent poi-
sons known, not only when taken into the
stomach, but when applied to a wound, or
even when its vapor is inspired. It is
found native in small quantities, but is
401
obtained for use from the roasting of sev-
eral ores, particularly from that of cobalt
and arsenical pyrites. The arsenous acid
is condensed in long, horizontal chimneys,
leading from the furnaces where these
operations are conducted, and usually
requires a second sublimation, with the
addition of a little potash, to deprive it of
any sulphur it may contain. Its manu-
facture has been chiefly confined to Bo-
hemia and Hungary. Persons brought up
from their youth in the works live not
longer than to the age of 30 or 35 years.
Knowing the deleterious nature of their
occupation, they are so careless, that we
have seen them cleaning their plates &c.
in wells, over which a skull was painted,
to warn every body that the water con-
tained arsenic. Besides its use in medi-
cine, and as a ratsbane, it is much employ-
ed as a cheap and powerful flux for glass;
but, when too much is added, it is apt to
render the glass opaque, and unsafe for
domestic use. Arsenite of potash, min-
gled with sulphate of copper, affords an
apple-green precipitate, called Scheele's
green, which, when dried and levigated,
forms a beautiful pigment. With sulphur,
arsenic forms likewise 2 definite coin-
pounds the realgar and orpiment. The
former of these contains the smallest pro-
portion of sulphur, and is red; the latter
is yellow. They are both found native in
many countries, but their supply in com-
merce depends upon their artificial inan-
ufacture. This is done by distilling a
mixture of arsenical pyrites and iron py-
rites, or of white arsenic and rough brim-
stone. Realgar or orpiment is obtained
as the proportion of sulphur employed is
greater or less. These compounds afford
valuable pigments to the painter.
ARSHIN. (See Arschin.)
ARSINOË; the sister and wife of Ptolemy
Philadelphus, worshipped, after her death,
under the name of Tenus Zephyritis.—A
daughter of Ptolemy Lagus, who married
Lysimachus, king of Macedonia. After
her husband's death, Ceraunus, her own
brother, married her, and ascended the
throne of Macedonia. He previously mur-
dered Lysimachus and Philip, the sons
of A. by Lysimachus, in their mother's
arms. A. was, some time after, banished
into Samothrace.-A younger daughter
of Ptolemy Auletes, sister to Cleopatra.
Antony despatched her to gain the good
graces of her sister.-The wife of a king
of Cyrene, who committe adultery with
her son-in-law.-A daughter of Lysima-
chus.
ARSINOE: the ancient name of several
31 *
402
ARSINOE-ARTEMISIA.
places in Egypt and other countries.-1.
A town of Egypt not far from the modern
Suez.-2. A town of Egypt, W. of the
Nile, above Memphis, and N. of Ptol-
emais. It was called the city of the croc-
odiles, because the animal was worshipped
there, and reared by the inhabitants in the
neighboring lakes. It is now called Fai-
oum.-3. A port of the Red sea, near its
entrance, sometimes called Berenice.-4.
On the Red sea, farther N.-5. In Africa,
in the Cyrenaica, between Leptis and
Ptolemais.-6. In Colosyria.-7. In Syria.
-8. In Cilicia.-9. In Ætolia, near Cano-
pa.-10. A name of the city of Ephesus.
11. In Cyprus, between old and new
Paphos.-12. On the northern coast of
Cyprus, near the promontory of Acamas.
13. On the eastern coast of the same
island, near Salamis.-14. An inland
town, also, of Cyprus.
ARSIS. (See Rhythm.)
ARSON, in law; the act of wilfully set-
ting fire to a house, or other property, be-
longing to others. This crime, by the
law of England, is punishable with death.
If a man sets fire to his own house, the
act is punishable by fine, imprisonment,
or setting in the pillory. In the U. States
of America, there is some difference in
the degree of punishment provided by the
laws of the different states. In Massachu-
setts, setting fire to a dwelling-house, in
the night time, is punishable with death;
in the day time, with hard labor for life.
For burning buildings not dwelling-honses,
the punishment, though severe, is milder.
In New Hampshire, the law is very simi-
lar. In New York, setting fire to an in-
habited dwelling-house is punishable with
death; to an uninhabited building, with
imprisonment. In Kentucky, arson is
punishable with imprisonment in the peni-
tentiary. In all the states, it is treated, of
course, as an offence of the blackest char-
acter.
ART. (See Arts.)-ART, schools of.
(See Painting, Sculpture, &c.)
ARTA, or LARTA; a gulf, river and
town of European Turkey, in Albania.
The town is situated on the river of the
same name, about 20 miles N. E. of Pre-
vesa, and about 360 W. N. W. of Con-
stantinople. The number of inhabitants
amounted to 6000, before the late revolu-
tion. Lon. 21° 8' E.; lat. 39° 30′ N. In
1822, a battle was here fought, between
the Greeks and Turks, in. which the for-
iner abandoned the Philhellenes, who,
almost without exception, were killed.
ARTAXERXES; the name of several
Persian kings.-1. Artaxerxes, surnamed
Longimanus, on account of his long
arms, the second son of Xerxes, escaped
from Artabanus and the other conspira-
tors, who had murdered his father, and
elder brother Darius, and, 464 B. C.,
ascended the throne. He subjected the
rebellious Egyptians, terminated the war
with Athens, by granting freedom to the
Greek cities of Asia, governed his sub-
jects in peace, and died B. C. 425. He
was favorable to the Jews, and is thought
to be the Ahasuerus of scripture.-2. Ar-
taxerxes, surnamed Mnemon, from his
strong memory, followed his father Da-
rius II, in the year 405 B. C. After hav-
ing vanquished his brother Cyrus (q. v.),
he made war on the Spartans, who had
assisted his enemy, and forced them to
abandon the Greek cities and islands of
Asia to the Persians. He favored the
Athenians, and endeavored to foment dis-
sensions among the Greeks. He was kill-
ed, in 361, by his son Ochus, who succeed-
ed him under the name of—3. Artaxerxes
Ochus. After having subjected the Pha-
nicians and Egyptians, and displayed great
cruelty in both countries (in Egypt, he had
Apis slaughtered, and served up at his ta-
ble), he was poisoned by his general Bago-
as, who threw his body to the cats, and had
sabre-handles made of his bones.
ARTEMIDORUS, called the Daldian, from
the birth-place of his mother, a small
city of Lydia, was a Greek writer at Eph-
esus, in the 2d century after Christ. He
occupied himself, principally, with the
interpretation of dreams. We still have
two of his writings on this subject, which
are particularly deserving of the notice of
philologists, on account of the informa-
tion they contain relative to ancient rites
and customs. The latest critical edition
is that of Reiff, Leipsic, 1805.
ARTEMIS. (See Diana.)
ARTEMISIA; queen of Caria, sister and
wife of Mausolus, whose death she la-
mented in the most tender manner, and
to whom she erected, in her capital, Hali-
carnassus, a monument, which was reck-
oned among the seven wonders of the
world. The principal architects of Grecce
labored on it. Bryaxis, Scopas, Leocha-
res and Timotheus made the decorations
on the four sides of the edifice; Pythes,
the chariot drawn by four horses, which
adorned the conical top. Vitruvius thought
that Praxiteles was also employed on it.
After the death of A., the artists finished
it without any compensation, that they
might not be deprived of the honor of their
labor. It was an oblong square, 411 feet
in compass, and 130 feet high. The prin-
ARTEMISIA-ARTICHOKE.
cipal side was adorned with 36 columns,
and 24 steps led to the entrance. A. died,
soon after her husband, in the monument
which she had erected to him, 351 B. C.
-Another A., queen of Halicarnassus,
accompanied Xerxes on his expedition
against Greece, and distinguished herself,
in the battle of Salamis (480 B. C.), by
her determined boldness.
ARTEMISIUM, in ancient geography; a
promontory of Euboea, on the northern
side of the island, which is famous for
the great naval victory, gained in its
neighborhood, by the Grecians, over
Xerxes.
ARTEMON; a heretical teacher, of the
3d century, who denied the divinity of
Christ, and declared him to be a mere
man, of rare virtue. He lived in the dio-
cese of Rome. His adherents, the Arte-
monites, seem to have spread, also, to
Syria. In the latter half of the 3d cen-
tury, they were confounded with other
opponents to the doctrine of the Trinity.
(See Antitrinitarians.) Samuel Crell ap-
peared, in 1726, under the name Artemo-
nius, as an antagonist of the same doc-
trine.
ARTERY. (See Blood-vessel.)
ARTHRITIS (from apopov, a joint); any dis-
temper that affects the joints, but the gout
particularly. (See Gout.Arthritis planet-
ica, arthritis vaga, the wandering gout.
ARTHUR, OF ARTUS; prince of the Si-
lures, in the 6th century; an ancient Brit-
ish hero, whose story has been the theme
of much romantic fiction. He was, says
Geoffrey of Monmouth, who probably
followed the chronicle Brut d'Angleterre,
the fruit of an adulterous connexion be-
tween the princess Igerna, of Cornwall,
and Uther, the pendragon or chief
commander of the Britons. He was
born about 501. In 516, he succeeded
his father in the office of general, and
performed those heroic deeds against the
Saxons, Scots and Picts, which have
made him so celebrated. He married
the celebrated Guenever, or Ginevra, be-
longing to the family of the dukes of
Cornwall; established the famous order
of the round table; and reigned, surround-
ed by a splendid court, 12 years, in peace.
After this, as the poets relate, he con-
quered Denmark, Norway and France,
slew the giants of Spain, and went to
Rome. From thence he is said to have
hastened home, on account of the faith-
lessness of his wife, and Modred, his
nephew, who carried on an adulterous
intercourse, and stirred up his subjects to
rebellion; to have subdued the rebels,
403
but to have died, in consequence of his
wounds, in 542, on the island of Avalon,
where it is pretended that his grave was
found, in the reign of Henry II. Hume
thinks that the story of Arthur has some
foundation in fact.
ARTHUR'S SEAT; a high hill in the
neighborhood of Edinburgh, said to have
been so denominated from a tradition that
king Arthur surveyed the country fron:
its summit, and defeated the Saxons in its
neighborhood. The highest point is
nearly 700 feet from the base. From
hence may be seen the German ocean,
the whole course of the Forth, the distant
Grampians, a large portion of the most
populous and best cultivated part of
Scotland, including the picturesque city
of Edinburgh and its castle. The view
is a most beautiful one.
ARTICHOKE. The artichoke (cynara
scolymus) is a well-known plant, which is
cultivated in Europe chiefly for culinary
purposes. This plant was cultivated in
England as early as the year 1580. The
parts that are eaten are the receptacle of
the flower, which is called the bottom.
and a fleshy substance on the scales of
the calyx. The choke consists of the
unopened florets and the bristles that
separate them from each other. These
stand upon the receptacle, and must be
cleared away before the bottom can be
eaten. Its name undoubtedly arose from
a notion, that any one, unlucky enough to
get it into his throat, must certainly be
choked.-In England, artichokes are gen-
erally boiled plain, and eaten with melted
butter and pepper, and are considered
both wholesome and nutritious. The
bottoms are sometimes stewed, boiled in
milk, or added to ragouts, French pies
and other highly-seasoned dishes. For
winter use, they inay be slowly dried in
an oven, and kept in paper bags, in a dry
place. On the continent, artichokes are
frequently eaten raw with salt and pep-
per. By the country people of France,
the flowers of the artichoke are some-
times used to coagulate milk, for the pur-
pose of making cheese. The leaves and
stalks contain a bitter juice, which, mixed
with an equal portion of white wine, has
been successfully employed in the cure
of dropsy, when other remedies have
failed. The juice, prepared with bismuth,
imparts a permanent gold color to wool.
-The Jerusalem artichoke is a somewhat
potato-shaped root, produced by a species
of sun-flower (helianthus tuberosus), which
grows wild in several parts of South
America. This plant bears single stalks,
*
404
ARTICHOKE-ARTIGAS.
which are frequently 8 or 9 feet high, and
yellow flowers, much smaller than those
of the common species. So extremely
productive are these valuable roots, that
between 70 and 80 tons weight of them
are said to have been obtained, in one
season, from a single acre of ground.
They succeed in almost every soil; and,
when once planted, will continue to
flourish in the same place, without requir-
ing much manure, or much attention to
their culture. The season in which they
are dug up for use, is from about the
iniddle of September till November, when
they are in the greatest perfection. After
that, they may be preserved in sand, or
under cover, for the winter. The roots
are generally eaten plainly boiled, but
they are sometimes served at table with
fricassee-sauce, and in other ways. Their
flavor is so nearly like that of the com-
mon artichoke, that it is difficult to distin-
guish one from the other. We are in-
formed that Jerusalem artichokes are a
valuable food for hogs and store pigs;
and that, if washed, cut, and ground in a
mill similar to an apple-mill, they may
also be given to horses.
ARTICLE OF FAITH is a point of Chris-
tian doctrine established by the church.
The thirty-nine articles of the church of
England were founded, for the most part,
upon a body of articles compiled and
published in the reign of Edw. VI. They
were first passed in the convocation, and
confirmed by royal authority in 1562.
They were ratified anew in 1571, and
again by Charles I. To these the law
requires the subscription of all persons
ordained to be deacons or priests (13 Eliz.
cap. 12); of all clergymen, inducted to
any ecclesiastical living (by the same
statute), and of licensed lecturers and
curates (13 Eliz. cap. 12 and 13, and 14
Ch. II, cap. 4); of the heads of colleges,
of chancellors, officials and commissaries,
and of schoolmasters. By statute Wm.
III, cap. 10, dissenting teachers are to
subscribe to all except the 34th, 35th and
36th, and part of the 20th; and, in the
case of Anabaptists, except, also, part of
the 27th. By the 19th Geo. III, cap. 44,
however, dissenting preachers need only
profess, in writing, to be Christians and
Protestants, and that they believe the
Scriptures to be the revealed will of God;
and school-masters need neither sign the
articles nor such professions.
ARTIGAS, J.; a native of Monte Video,
and a captain in the royal service at the
opening of the revolution on the rio de
la Plata. In 1811, he applied to the junta
of Buenos Ayres for assistance, in arms
and ammunition, to enable him to revo-
lutionize the Banda Oriental, then gov-
erned by the Spanish captain-general-
Elio. The junta sent an auxiliary force,
under Rondeau, to aid him; and they
gained a signal victory over the royalists,
at Las Piedras, in May, 1811, upon which
they immediately laid siege to Monte Vi-
deo. The siege was suspended, by agree-
ment, in November, but afterwards re-
sumed by A., in conjunction with several
successive generals from Buenos Ayres,
until the garrison capitulated to A. and
Alvear, in 1814. Meanwhile, A. had
been gradually extending his influence,
and assuming rank as chief of the Banda
Oriental. Rondeau, in the name of the
junta, assembled a convention of the
people of this district, for the purpose of
choosing deputies to a general congress,
and appointing a governor. A. demanded
that the electors should receive directions
from him; but, the latter proceeding in
opposition to his demand, a breach en-
sucd. He declared the convention ille-
gal, and its doings void, and succeeded
in persuading nearly all the troops from
the Banda Oriental to support him, and to
leave the Buenos Ayrean army. In con-
sequence of this, the director, Posadas,
declared A. a traitor and an outlaw, and
set a price upon his head. This precipi-
tate ineasure served to widen the breach
between A. and the government of Bue-
nos Ayres, and greatly strengthened his
power in the Banda Oriental. He claimed
that possession of Monte Video should be
given to him as political chief; and, hav-
ing attacked and defeated colonel Soler,
who had been appointed governor of the
city, he entered it in triumph, and thus
held complete control over the whole
Banda Oriental. Extending his views
farther, he marched, in 1815, against the
province of Santa Fe, which declared in
his favor. General Viana and colonel
Alvarez being sent against him by the
existing director, Alvear, with a body of
2000 men, Alvarez united with A., and
arrested Viana, being actuated by dislike
of the director, Alvear, whose adminis-
tration was unpopular. Attempts were
afterwards made against A. without suc-
cess, and, at length, in 1816, Pueyredon
being placed at the head of the govern-
ment, conciliatory measures were resorted
to, with as little success, to induce him to
listen to terms of accommodation, in con-
sequence of a threatened invasion of the
Banda Oriental by the Portuguese.
treaty was, at that tine, concluded by
A
ARTIGAS-ARTS.
commissioners appointed on the part of
Pueyredon and of A.; but the people of the
Banda Oriental refused to ratify it, insti-
gated, it was said, by A. himself. A. con-
tinued to maintain his independence. In
Dec. 1816, general Lecor invaded the
Banda Oriental with a Portuguese army,
which A. could not withstand in the open
field. Accordingly, he evacuated Monte
Video, which was entered by Lecor, Jan.
19th, 1817, and permanently retained by
the government of Brazil. Subsequently,
the defeat of La Torre, a general of the
Banda Oriental, at Arrayo de los Catala-
nos, increased the difficulties of this ter-
ritory. A. was compelled to have recourse
to a guerilla warfare, wherein he and Ri-
vera, one of his adherents, were greatly
distinguished, and inflicted serious losses
upon Lecor. At this period, a large por-
tion of the inhabitants desired a reunion
with Buenos Ayres, as the only means of
successfully resisting the Portuguese. But
the intrigues and influence of A. prevent-
ed this, and the time for accommodation
passed away. A. even sent an abusive
letter to the director, and attacked and
defeated a detachment of troops under
Montes de Oca, and another under Bal-
carce, which had been ordered to march
into the province of Entre Rios, and to
secure Santa Fe against the Portuguese.
He continued to wage war against his in-
vaders, with undaunted resolution, with-
out any assistance from the government
of Buenos Ayres, which was accused,
falsely, no doubt, of secretly aiding the
Brazilians, in order to destroy him. But,
in 1820, the power of A. was com-
pletely broken, he being defeated with
the loss of nearly all his army; in con-
sequence of which, Ramirez, the chief
of Entre Rios, became his enemy, and
compelled him to fly into Paraguay. Of
his subsequent fate little is known. (See
Banda Oriental.)
ARTILLERY signifies all sorts of great
guns or cannon, mortars, howitzers, pe-
tards, &c., together with all the appara-
tus and stores thereto belonging, which
are taken into the field, and used for be-
sieging and defending fortified places.
It signifies also the science of artillery or
gunnery (q. v.), which, originally, was not
separated from military engineering. The
class of arms called artillery has always
been the subject of scientific calculation,
more than any other species, as the Ital-
ian word arte, in its name, seems to indi-
cate. The same name is also given to
the troops by whom these arms are served,
the men being, in fact, subsidiary to the
405
instruments. The other portions of an
army are armed men, while the artillery
consists of manned arms. The history,
&c., of artillery in the different countries,
will be given under the head of Gunnery.
Artillery, park of, is the place appointed
by the general of an army to encamp the
train of artillery, with the apparatus, am-
munition, &c., as well as the battalion ap-
pointed for its service and defence. Strict
order and a convenient arrangement for
breaking up, &c., are very important in
encamping a park of artillery.-Field ar-
tillery is distinguished from artillery for
defence or besieging.-Flying artillery;
consists of light pieces, with accommoda-
tions for the artillerists, so that the whole
can move quickly in battle. In some
armies, the mounted artillery, also, is
called flying artillery. (See, also, Amu-
sette, Cannon, &c.)
ARTOIS; a former province of France,
anciently one of the 17 provinces of the
Netherlands. It was bounded on the
S. and W. by Picardy, on the E. by Hai-
nault, and on the N. by Flanders. A.
always was accounted very productive.
It was 75 miles in length, and 36 in
breadth. It is now included in the de-
partments of Pas de Calais, Somme,
and Nord. (For comte d'Artois, see
Charles X.)
ARTOTTRITES (from apros, bread, and ruçòs
cheese); a sect, in the 2d century, in Gala-
tia, which used bread and cheese in the
eucharist, because, they said, the first
men offered not only the fruits of the
earth, but of their flocks too. They ad-
mitted females to the priesthood, and
even to the dignity of bishops.
ARTS (from the Latin ars); in the most
general sense of the word, any acquired
skill. As the fine arts, in early times,
were not distinctly separated from the
merely useful arts (nor even from the sci-
ences), and as there is, in fact, much diffi-
culty in drawing the line, in many cases,
one word is used, in most languages, for
both, and an epithet is necessary to distin-
guish them; in some languages, however,
e. g., the German, they are distinguished by
two very different words. The ancients
divided the arts into liberal arts (artes libe-
rales, ingenua, bone) and servile arts (artes
serviles). Under the latter were com-
prehended the mechanical arts, because
they were practised only by slaves. The
former ones were such as were thought
becoming to freemen. The name ser-
vile arts was lost as soon as freemen
began to practise them, but the name of
liberal arts was retained. The following
406
ARTS-AS.
seven were usually called by this name:
grammar, dialectics, rhetoric, music, arith-
metic, geometry and astronomy, according
to the well-known verse,-
Gram. loquitur, Dia. verba docet, Rhe. verba
ministrat,
Mus. canit, Ár. numerat, Ge. ponderat, As. colit
astra.
This awkward and illogical division con-
tinues in many Catholic schools, where the
different classes are arranged according to
it. In modern times, we divide arts into
fine and useful or mechanical arts, com-
prising under the former all those, the di-
rect object of which is not utility, as poe-
try, music, architecture, painting, sculp-
ture, &c. If we speak of the fine arts
simply, not in contradistinction to the use-
ful arts, we generally intend only architec-
ture, painting, sculpture and engraving,
with their subdivisions. (For the history
and description of each of the fine arts,
see the respective articles.)-The mechan-
ical arts, as we have said, were practised,
among the ancients, by slaves or by women,
many things of the first necessity being, of
course, manufactured in the house. Re-
finement, however, in the course of time,
made more skill necessary, in some
branches of manufacture, than is general-
ly to be expected from women or slaves.
Thus we find, in the middle ages, up to
the 10th century, besides the slaves or
bondsmen, free persons practising the
useful arts. From that time, however, it
seems that mechanical arts were carried
on only by freedmen, or nuns and monks,
who worked both for themselves and oth-
ers.
When the cities grew up, and their
number and population rapidly increased,
one of the immense changes which his-
tory shows to have sprung from them,
was the elevation of the mechanical arts.
It was now esteemed honorable to be a
skilful mechanic. In many instances,
too, they became blended with the fine
arts, and the names of several workmen
have been handed down to us, with a
reputation akin to that of artists; e. g.,
Benvenuto Cellini, Peter Fischer. (See
Corporation.)
ARUNDELIAN MARBLES; a series of an-
cient sculptured marbles, discovered by
William Petty, who explored the ruins of
Greece, at the expense of and for Thomas
Howard, earl of Arundel, who lived in the
time of James and Charles I, and devoted
a large portion of his fortune to the collec-
tion of monuments illustrative of the arts,
and of the history of Greece and Rome.
These marbles, named in honor of their
purchaser, arrived in England, in the
year 1627, with many statues, busts,
sarcophagi, &c. John Selden published
some of the inscriptions, which he thought
most interesting, under the title of Mar-
mora Arundeliana, 4to., London, 1628.
of the original number escaped destruc-
It is supposed that not more than half
tion in the civil wars: they were then in
the garden of the earl, in the Strand, in
London. Henry Howard, duke of Nor-
folk, grandson of the collector, presented
the remainder to the university of Oxford,
where they still remain. The whole
collection of inscriptions was published
by Humphrey Prideaux, in 1676; by Mi-
chael Maltaire, in 1732; by Dr. Chandler,
very splendidly, in 1763. These inscrip-
tions are records of treaties, public con-
tracts, thanks of the state to patriotic in-
dividuals, &c., and many of a private
nature. The most curious and interest-
ing is one usually known by the name of
the Parian Chronicle, from having been
kept in the island of Paros. It is a
chronological account of the principal
events in Grecian, and particularly in
Athenian history, during a period of 1318
years, from the reign of Cecrops, B. C.
1450, to the archonship of Diognetus,
B. C. 264. The authenticity of this
chronicle has been called in question, but
has been vindicated by many of the most
learned men.
ARUNS, Tarquinius; the son of Tar-
quin II, the last king of Rome, who,
meeting Brutus in the first battle after the
expulsion of the royal family, they mutu-
ally killed each other.
ARUSINI CAMPI (Arusian fields); plains
in Lucania, famous for the last battle be-
tween the Romans and Pyrrhus. (q. v.)
ARUSPICES, or HARUSPICES; Roman
priests and prophets, who foretold events
from observing the entrails of sacrificed
animals. They observed, too, all the
circumstances which accompanied or
happened during the sacrifice; e. g., the
flame, the mode in which the animal be-
haved, the smoke. Their origin is to be
sought for in Etruria. They were intro-
duced into Rome by Romulus, where
they enjoyed their authority till the time
of the emperor Constantine, 337 A. D.,
who prohibited all soothsaying on pain of
death. Their number, at this time, was 70;
their chief priest was called summus arus-
pex, or magister publicus.
As. The Romans used this word in
three different ways, viz., to denote, 1, any
unit whatever, considered as divisible;
2, the unit of weight, or the pound (libra);
3, their most ancient coin. In the
AS-ASBESTUS.
first use of the word, the pound, foot, ju-
gerum sextarius, were called as, when
contradistinguished from their divisions
or fractions. In fact, the word was ap-
plied to any integer; e. g., inheritances,
interest, houses, funds, &c. Therefore
ex asse heres signifies to inherit the whole.
Different names were given to different
numbers of asses: dupondius (duo pondo)
= 2 asses, sestertius (sésqui tertius, viz., the
third half) = 21 asses, tressis 3 asses,
quatrussis 4 asses, and so on to centas-
sis = 100 asses. The as, whatever unit
it represented, was divided into 12 parts,
or ounces (uncia), and the different frac-
tions of the as received different names,
as follows:-
As,
•
•
•
12 ounces.
Deunx, . 11
•
•
Dextans, . . 10
Dodrans, 9
Bes, or des,. 8
Septunx, 7
Semis,
•
•
•
6
"
(
C4
Co
5 ounces.
·
·
•
4
Quincunx,
Triens,
Quadrans, or
teruncius, 3
Sextans,
Uncia,
•
Sescuncia was 1 ounce.
1 uncia contained 2 semiunciæ,
3 duellæ,
4 sicilici,
6 sextulæ,
•
•
{
៩៩
1 ounce.
407
our own cooks, but in very minute quan-
tity, in place of garlic. In many parts of
Arabia and Persia, asafoetida is murha
esteemed as a remedy for various internal
diseases, and even as an external applica-
tion to wounds. With us, it is considered
a powerful medicine in several disorders.
It has been applied, with success, in the
cure of hooping-cough and worms; and
in flatulent colics, it has, in many cases,
afforded great relief. It is imported in
masses of various sizes and forms, and of
yellow, brown or bluish color, sometimes
interspersed with roundish, white pieces.
The plant, from the root of which asafoet-
ida is produced, grows in the mountains
which surround the small town of Dis-
guum, in Persia; and, at the season when
it is collected, the whole place smells of
it. The upper part of the roots, which
are sometimes as thick as a man's leg,
rises somewhat above the surface of the
ground. The harvest commences when
the leaves begin to decay; and the whole
gathering is performed, by the inhabitants
of the place, in 4 different journeys to the
mountains. The demand for the article,
24 scrupula (scriptula, or scripula.) in foreign countries, being first ascertain-
48 oboli,
144 siliquæ.
Scholars are not agreed on the weight
of a Roman pound, but it is not far
from 327,1873 grammes, French measure.
Budæus has written 9 books De Asse et
jus Partibus (Of the As and its Parts). In
the most ancient times of Rome, the cop-
per coin, which was called as, actually
weighed an as, or a pound, but, in differ-
ent periods of the republic and the suc-
ceeding empire, this coin was of very
different values.
ASAFŒTIDA is a resinous gum, procured
from the root of a large umbelliferous
plant (ferula assafœtida), which grows in
the mountains of some parts of Persia.
The leaves of this plant are nearly 2 feet
long, doubly-winged, and have the leaflets
alternate. The flowers are small, and the
seeds oval, flat, and marked with 3 longi-
tudinal lines. No one, who has ever
smelt the peculiarly powerful and gar-
lic-like odor of asafoetida, can well forget
it. If exposed to the air, but particularly
when heated, it will pervade every apart-
ment of a house. Notwithstanding this,
it constitutes a favorite seasoning for food
with the inhabitants of many parts of the
East. The Indian Banians, who never
eat animal food, use it in almost all their
dishes, and, before their meals, even rub
their mouths with it, in order to stimulate
their appetite. It is sometimes used by
ed to be sufficient to repay the trouble of
collecting it, the persons employed pro-
ceed to the mountains in companies of 4
or 5 each. It is stated that a single ship
is exclusively devoted to transporting the
bulk of this commodity to the ports in the
Persian gulf; and that, when smaller par-
cels are carried, it is usual to tie them to
the top of the mast.
ASAPH, St., a native of North Wales,
lived under Carentius, king of the Brit-
ons, about 590. He wrote the ordinances
of his church, and the Life of St. Kenti-
gern, whom he succeeded in the charge
of the convent of Llan Elwy. Bayle
says he was the first who received unc-
tion from the pope.
ASBEN; a considerable kingdom in the
interior of Africa, between Fezzan and
Cashna. The sultan is said, by Horne-
mann, to rank next to that of Bornou,
among the sovereigns of Interior Africa.
The inhabitants of A. are Tuaricks, of the
tribe Kolluvi.
ASBESTUS; a mineral substance, pre-
senting much diversity in its structure and
color. It occurs in long, parallel, ex-
tremely slender and flexible fibres (amian-
thus); in finely-interwoven and closely-
matted filaments, forming flat pieces
(mountain leather); in fibres interlaced so
as to form numerous cells resembling cork
(mountain cork); in hard, brittle, slightly-
curved fibres (mountain wood); and in
408
ASBESTUS-ASCENSION DAY.
compactly-fibrous masses, harder and
heavier than the other varieties (common
asbestus). Its most common colors are
gray, yellow, green and blue, intermingled
with white. It is found in all countries
more or less abundantly, and exists, form-
ing veins, in serpentine, mica slate, and
primitive lime-stone rocks. Amianthus,
the most delicate variety, comes most
plentifully from Savoy and Corsica. Its
fibrous texture, and the little alteration it
undergoes in strong heats, caused it to be
used by the eastern nations as an article
for the fabrication of cloth, which, when
soiled, was purified by throwing it into the
fire, from whence it always came out clear
and perfectly white; hence it obtained
the name of apiarros, or undefiled. By the
Romans, this cloth was purchased at an
exorbitant price, for the purpose of wrap-
ping up the bodies of the dead, previously
to their being laid upon the funeral pile.
The preparation of this cloth is effected
by soaking the amianthus in warm water,
rubbing it with the fingers, soaking the
filaments in oil, when they are mingled
with a little cotton, and spun upon the
ordinary spindle. When woven into cloth,
the fabric is heated red-hot, and the oil
and cotton consumed, leaving only a tis-
sue of pure amianthus. Paper may also
be formed from this substance, in the way
in which common paper is made, except
that more size is requisite. A book has
even been printed on such paper. (See
Bibliomania.) Lamp-wicks have also been
constructed from amianthus, but they re-
quire to be cleaned occasionally from the
lamp-black, which accumulates upon
them, and prevents the due supply of oil.
In Corsica, it is advantageously used in
the manufacture of pottery, being reduced
to fine filaments, and kneaded up with
the clay; the effect of which is to render
the vessels less liable to break, from sud-
den alternations of heat and cold, than
common pottery.
ASCANIUS, son of Æneas and Creusa,
accompanied his father in his flight
from the burning Troy, and went with
him to Italy. He was afterwards called
Iulus. He behaved with great valor
in the war between his father and the
Latins. He succeeded Æneas in the
government of Latium, and built Alba, to
which he transferred the seat of his em-
pire from Lavinium. The descendants
of A. reigned in Alba for above 420 years,
making 14 kings, till the age of Numitor.
A. reigned 38 years, and was succeeded
by Sylvius Posthumus, son of Æneas by
Lavinia. Iulus, the son of A., disputed
:
the crown with Sylvius; but the Latins
gave it to the latter, as he was descended
from the family of Latinus, and Iulus was
invested with the office of high priest,
which remained a long while in his family.
ASCENDANTS, in law, are opposed to
descendants in succession; i. e., when a
father succeeds his son, or an uncle his
nephew, &c., the inheritance is said to as-
cend, or to go to ascendants. (See Descent.)
ASCENDING, in astronomy, is said of
such stars as are rising above the horizon
in any parallel of the equator; and thus,
likewise, ascending latitude-the latitude
of a planet when going towards the north
pole.-Ascending node is that point of a
planet's orbit, wherein it passes the eclip-
tic to proceed northward. This is other-
wise called the northern node.
ASCENSION; an uninhabited island, con-
sisting of naked rocks; a shattered volca-
no, of about 60 miles in circumference, in
the Atlantic ocean; lon. 14° 28′ W.; lut.
7° 56' S. It has an excellent harbor, fre-
quented by the East Indiamen and whale-
fishers. Fish, sea-fowl and turtles abound,
but there is an entire want of water. The
vegetation, scarcely sufficient to support
some goats, is confined to an eminence in
the south-east. In a crevice of the rock
there is the sea post-office, as it is called-a
place where bottles, closely sealed, are left
with letters for passing vessels. This isl-
and formerly belonged to the Portuguese,
who discovered it in 1501; but, in 1816,
some English families from St. Helena set-
tled here, on account of the inconven-
ience which they experienced from the
residence of Napoleon. Ascension was
then taken possession of, by the British
government, as a military station, and 60
transport ships provided the garrison of
200 inen with supplies from the cape
of Good Hope. A road was laid out, and
a fort was built.
In 1821, the govern-
ment resolved to continue the occupation
of this post.
ASCENSION, in astronomy. We under-
stand by the right ascension of a star, that
degree of the equator, reckoned from the
beginning of Aries, which comes to the
meridian with the star. By the right as-
cension and declination, the situation of
stars in the heavens is determined, as that
of places on the earth by longitude and
latitude. By oblique ascension, we under-
stand that degree of the equator, counted
as before, which rises with the star,
oblique sphere.
an
ASCENSION DAY; the day on which the
ascension of the Savior is commemorated,
often called Holy Thursday. It is a mova-
ASCENSION DAY-ASCLEPIADEAN VERSE.
ble feast, always falling on the Thursday
but one before Whitsuntide. (For the
Ascension of the Virgin, a feast of the
Roman Catholic church, see Assumption.)
Much has been written on the ascension
of Christ, in Germany, by Protestant Bib-
lical critics, of whom we will only men-
tion Semmler and Paulus.-The idea of
ascension is common to the mythology of
almost every nation.
ASCETICS; a name given, in ancient
times, to those Christians who devoted
themselves to severe exercises of piety,
and strove to distinguish themselves from
the world by abstinence from sensual
enjoyments, and by voluntary penances.
Hence those writings which teach the
spiritual exercises of piety, are termed
ascetic writings. Even before Christ, and
in the times of the first Christian church,
there were similar ascetics among the
Jews (see Essenes), also among the phi-
losophers of Greece, and in particular
among the Platonics. The expression
ascetic is borrowed from the Greek word
Knots (exercise), used by the ancient
Greeks to signify the spare diet of the
athlete, who, to prepare themselves for
their combats, abstained from many indul-
gences. (For the character of the Chris-
tian ascetics, and the religious views by
which they were guided, see Gnostics,
Saints, Monks.)
ASCHAFFENBURG (the ancient Ascibur-
gum, laid out by the Romans); a town in
the Bavarian district of the Lower Maine,
with 750 houses and 6200 inhabitants, on
the Maine and Aschaff. It formerly be-
longed, with its territory, to the electorate
of Mentz. The scenery is so beautiful, and
the castle so fine, that Gustavus Adolphus
of Sweden, when he took possession of
it, in his expedition to the Rhine, wished
to transfer it, with its view, to lake Maler,
in Sweden. After the dissolution of the
electorate of Mentz, in 1811, A. became
the summer residence of the prince pri-
mate, afterwards grand duke of Frankfort.
ASCHAM, Roger, was born, in 1515, of a
respectable family in Yorkshire. He was
entered at Cambridge, 1530, and was
chosen fellow in 1534, and tutor in 1537.
In this period of religious and literary
revolution, A. joined himself with those
who were extending the bounds of knowl-
edge. He became a Protestant, and appli-
ed himself to the study of Greek, which
began, about that time, to be taught in
England. There was yet no established
lecturer of Greck: the university, there-
fore, appointed him to read in the open
schools. He was not less eminent as a
35
VOL. I.
409
writer of Latin than as a teacher of
Greek. He wrote all the public letters of
the university, was afterwards Latin sec-
retary to king Edward, and also to Mary.
Cardinal Pole, who was particularly eini-
nent for his skill in Latin, employed him
to translate, for the pope, his speech in the
English parliament. In 1544, he wrote
his "Toxophilus, or Schole of Shooting,"
in praise of his favorite amusement and
exercise-archery. This book he present-
ed to the king, who rewarded him with a
pension of 10 pounds. In 1548, the prin-
cess Elizabeth_invited him to direct her
studies; but, after instructing her 2 years,
he left her without her consent, and, soon
after, went to Germany as secretary to
sir R. Morisine. In this journey, he wrote
his Report of the Affairs in Germany.
Upon the death of Edward, he was re-
called, but preserved the office of Latin
secretary to Mary, although a Protestant,
through the interest of Gardiner. Upon
the accession of his pupil, he was contin-
ued in his former employment, and was
daily admitted to the presence of the
queen, to assist her studies, or partake of
her diversions, but received no very sub-
stantial marks of her bounty. In 1503,
he was invited by sir E. Sackville_to
write the Schoolmaster, a treatise on edu-
cation, which, though completed, he did
not publish. To this work, conceived
with vigor and executed with accuracy,
he principally owes his modern reputa-
tion. His style was, in his own age, mel-
lifluous and eloquent, and is now valuable
as a specimen of genuine English. He was
never robust, and his death, which hap-
pened 1568, was occasioned by his too
close application to the composition of a
poem, which he intended to present to the
queen on the anniversary of her accession.
ASCLEPIADEAN VERSE consists of 2 or
3 choriambuses, and is accordingly dis-
tinguished into greater and less. It al-
ways begins with a spondee, and ends
with an iambus:
11-~~-1
Less.
11-~~-1~
Greater.
ཚ
Their character is lyric, uniting grace
with vigor. In Horace, there are 5 dif-
ferent metres formed of Asclepiadean
verses. He uses either the greater or the
less alone, or alternately with the Glycon-
ic verse; or employs 3 less Asclepiadean
verses, followed by a Glyconic, or 2 less
Asclepiadean, by a Pherecratian and a
Glyconic verse.
2
410
ASCLEPIADES-ASHMOLE.
ASCLEPIADES, the descendants of the
god of medicine, Esculapius, by his
sons Podalirius and Machaon, spread,
together with the worship of the god,
through Greece and Asia Minor. They
formed an order of priests, which pre-
served the results of the medical experi-
ence acquired in the temples as a hered-
itary secret, and were thus, at the same
time, physicians, prophets and priests.
They lived in the temple of the god, and,
by exciting the imaginations of the sick,
prepared them to receive healing dreams
and divine apparitions; observed carefully
the course of the disease; applied, as it is
believed, besides the conjurations and
charms usual in antiquity, real magnetic
remedies, and noted down the results of
their practice. They were, accordingly,
not only the first physicians known to us,
but, in fact, the founders of scientific
medicine, which proceeded from their
society. The constitution of this medical
family order was, without doubt, derived
from Egypt, whence also the coluber Es-
culapii, Linn., which was used as a heal-
ing and prophetic serpent, was brought by
the Phoenicians to Epidaurus, the chief
seat of the god. Round this serpent-god
an order of priests was gathered, and
thence spread his worship. (In later
times, 292 B. C., such a healing serpent
was sent to the island of the Tiber, near
Rome.) No one could be initiated into
the secrets of their knowledge without a
solemn oath. At first, this order of priests
was confined to the family of the Ascle-
piades, who kept their family register
with great care. Aristides celebrated
them by his eulogiums at Smyrna. Hip-
pocrates of Cos, the founder of scientific
physic, derived his origin from it, and the
oath administered to the disciples of the
order (jusjurandum Hippocratis) is pre-
served in his writings. An Asclepiades
from Prusa, in Bithynia, 20 years B. C., is
mentioned as the first practical physician
at Rome, and as the founder of the me-
thodical school. In the course of time,
strangers, also, as Galen reports, were ini-
tiated into these mysteries and this order.
-We find the name of A. also in the lit-
erature of the Greeks. (See Dissertations
on the Fragments of Asclepiades of Tragi-
lus in the Actis Philologorum Monacensi-
um, edited by Thiersch, 1st vol., 4th No.,
p. 490.)
ASELLI, or ASELLIUS, Caspar; an Ital-
ian anatomist of the 17th century. He
was born at Cremona, studied medicine,
and became professor of anatomy in the
university of Pavia, where he highly dis-
tinguished himself by discovering the lac-
teals, a system of vessels, the office of
which is to absorb the chyle formed in the
intestines, and thus contribute to the sup-
port of animal life. A. first observed these
vessels in dissecting a living dog. His
investigations were published after his
death at Milan, 1627.
ASEN. (See Mythology, northern.)
ASHMOLE, Robert, a celebrated Eng-
lish antiquary and virtuoso, born at Lich-
field, in 1617, was sent to London at the
age of 16, where he studied law and other
branches of knowledge, and practised as
a chancery solicitor. On the breaking out
of the civil wars, he retired to Oxford, and
entered himself of Brazen-Nose college,
where he engaged in the study of natural
philosophy, mathematics and astronomy.
On the ruin of the king's affairs, he re-
turned to London, and formed a close
intimacy with the celebrated astrologers
Moore, Lilly and Booker, but shared only
in their absurdity, not in their roguery.
He subsequently married lady Mainwa-
ring, a rich widow. On this accession of
fortune, he gave up his profession, and his
house in London became a resort of all
the proficients and professors in the occult
sciences. A., about this time, published,
under another name, a treatise on alche-
my, by the celebrated doctor Dee; and
undertook to prepare for the press a com-
plete collection of the manuscript wri-
tings of English chemists, under the title of
Theatrum Chymicum Britannicum. Hav-
ing for some time attached himself to the
study of antiquity and the perusal of rec-
ords, he began to collect materials for his
celebrated History of the Order of the
Garter. His love for botany having in-
duced him to lodge with the celebrated
gardener of Lambeth, John Tradescant,
he obtained the curious collection of rar-
ities got together by that person and his
father. On the restoration, A. was grati-
fied with the post of Windsor herald, aud
received other appointments, both honor-
able and lucrative; was admitted a fellow
of the royal society, and favored with
the diploma of a doctor of physic from
the university of Oxford. In 1672, he
presented to the king his work on the
Order of the Garter, and, in 1675, resigned
his office of Windsor herald. An acci-
dental fire in the Temple destroyed a
library which he had been upwards of 30
years collecting, with a cabinet of 9000
coins, and other valuable antiquities. In
1683, he presented to the university of
Oxford his Tradescantian collection of
rarities, to which he afterwards added his
ASHMOLE-ASH WEDNESDAY.
books and MSS., thereby commencing
the muscum Ashmoleanum at Oxford. He
died in May, 1692, aged 76. He left a
number of MSS., several of which have
been printed, and a diary of his life.
ASHANTEE; a warlike nation of Ne-
groes, on and near the Gold Coast of
Guinea, in the vicinity of the British set-
tlement, Cape Coast castle, at Sierra Le-
one, with which we have become ac-
quainted by Bowdich's Mission to Ashan-
tee (London, 1819), and Jos. Dupuis'
Journal of a Residence in Ashantee
(London, 1824), as well as by their bloody
war with the English, in 1824, in which
the governor of the above-mentioned
British colony, general McCarthy, lost his
life. The kingdom of the Ashantees was
founded, about 100 years ago, by a suc-
cessful conqueror, with a kind of feudal
constitution. It extends from 6° to 9° N.
lat., and from 0° to 4° W. lon. to the river
Volta. The residence of the king is Coo-
massie. The law permits him to have
3333 wives, a mystical number, on which
the welfare of the nation rests. His ser-
vants, above 100 in number, are slaugh-
tered on his tomb, that he may arrive in
the infernal regions with a suite becoming
his rank. Several Negro states, under
their own princes, are dependent on him.
Ashantee itself (14,000 square miles, with
1,000,000 inhabitants) forms a part of
Wangara, which contains two other states,
Dahomy and the powerful Benin, whose
king can lead 200,000 men to war. The
fertile Benin is more advanced in civili-
zation than Ashantee. The latter, how-
ever, display much taste and elegance in
their architecture; they also dye with
skill, and manufacture cloths of exquisite
fineness and brilliancy of color.
ASHES; the fixed residuum, of a whit-
ish or whitish-gray color, which remains
after the entire combustion of organic
bodies, and is no longer able to support
combustion. The constituent parts of
ashes are different, according to the dif-
ferent bodies from which they originate.
The ashes of vegetables consist chiefly of
carthy and saline ingredients, the latter of
which may be separated by washing, and
are called vegetable alkali. (See Alkali.)
The more compact is the texture of the
wood, the more alkali it affords. Some
herbs, however, yield more than trees,
and the branching fern the most. The
more the plants have been dried, the less
they produce. The vegetable alkali is
always combined with carbonic acid.
The greater, therefore, the heat by which
the ashes are produced, and the more
411
continued and powerful the calcination
of the alkali, the more caustic will it be.
It can only be entirely purified from for-
eign substances by crystallization. (See
Potash.) Of quite a different quality are
animal ashes, particularly those obtained
from bone. After calcination, it retains
its original texture, and contains, besides
lime, a peculiar acid, called phosphoric
acid. The use of vegetable ashes is very
extensive, as is well known; soap-mak-
ers, bleachers and other tradesmen use
them in an immense quantity. They are,
also, an excellent manure.
ASH-TREE. The common ash (frari-
It is
nus excelsior) is a well-known tree.
a native of Europe and the north of
Asia, and grows in a light, springy (but
not marshy) soil, especially if marly or
calcarious. When planted in bogs, it
contributes much to drain them. It will
grow in almost any situation, even in hard
clay and dry gravel; though_poor, dry,
sandy ground is fatal to it. Its smooth,
stately stem rises to a great height, with
spreading, or, rather, drooping branches,
with winged leaves, the leaflets in four or
five pairs, with an odd one serrated, and
without foot-stalks, and the flowers with-
out petals.-Of late years, this valuable
tree has been much planted in several
parts of England. The timber, which
has the rare advantage of being nearly as
good when young as when old, is white,
and so hard and tough, as generally to be
esteemed next in value to oak. It is
much used by coach-makers, wheel-
wrights and cart-wrights; and is made
into ploughs, axle-trees, felloes of wheels,
harrows, ladders and other implements of
husbandry. It is likewise used by ship-
builders for various purposes, and by
coopers for the hoops of tubs and barrels.
Where, by frequent cutting, the wood has
become knotty, irregular and veined, it is
in much request for cabinet-work, by
mechanics in Europe. As fuel, this tree
burns better, whilst wet and green, than
any other wood.
ASH-WEDNESDAY; the first day of Lent,
a fast 40 days long, which the Catholic
church orders to be kept before the feast
of Easter. It derives its name from the
ancient and still existing custom of put-
ting ashes upon the head, as a symbol of
humble repentance for sin. It was for-
merly, and, to a certain extent, is still the
custom in Catholic countries, to confess on
Ash-Wednesday, to chastise one's self dur-
ing Lent, and to partake of the Lord's sup-
per at Easter. In Rome, the spectacle
is highly impressive, when all the people,
412
ASH-WEDNESDAY-ASIA.
after giving themselves up to every spe-
cies of gayety during the carnival, till 12
o'clock on Tuesday, go, on Ash-Wednes-
day morning, into church, where the offi-
ciating priest puts ashes on their heads,
with the words, "Dust thou art, and unto
dust thou shalt return." To throw ashes
on the head, as an expression of humili-
ation and repentance, was an old custom
of the Jews.
ASIA; the cradle of the human race,
of nations, religions and states, of lan-
guages, arts and sciences; rich in natural
gifts and historical remembrances; the
theatre of human activity in ancient
times, and still exhibiting, in many places,
the characteristic traits which distinguish-
ed it many centuries since. It forms the
eastern and northern part of the old
world, and is separated from Australia
by the Indian and the Pacific oceans, in-
luding the gulfs of Bengal, Siam and
Tonquin; from America, on the N. E., by
Cook's or Behring's straits, and on the
E. by the great Eastern or Pacific ocean,
including the gulf of Corea, the seas of
Japan, Tongou (Yellow sea) and Okotsk;
from Africa by the Arabian sea (with
which is connected the Persian gulf) and
by the Arabian gulf, or Red sca, with the
straits of Babelmandel; from Europe by
the sea of Azoph, with the straits of Cafla,
by the Black sca with the Bosphorus, by
the sea of Marmora and the Dardanelles,
and by the Grecian archipelago. On the
other hand, it is united with Africa by the
desert isthmus of Suez, and with Europe
by the waters of the Wolga (which rises
near the Baltic, and falls, with the Ural,
into the Caspian sea); also by the rocky
girdle, as the Tartars call it, of the Ural
and the Werchoturian mountains, which
rise 77° N. lat. in Nova Zembla, separate
the plain of the Wolga from the higher
table-lands of Siberia, and are connected
with Upper Asia by a branch of the Little
Altai, abounding in ores. The area of
Asia is calculated at 16,175,000 square
miles. It extends from 26° to 190° E. lon.,
and from 2° to 78° N. lat. Its greatest
breadth, from N. to S. is 4140 miles, and
its greatest length about 8000. It is four
times larger than Europe. It is divided
into, 1, Southern Asia, comprehending Na-
tolia, Armeniu, Curdistan, Syria, Arabia,
Persia, Hindostan, Farther India, Siam,
Malacca, Annain, Tonquin, Cochin China,
Laos, Cambodia, China, Japan; 2, Mid-
dle or Upper Asia, containing Caucasus,
Tartary, Bucharia, Mongolia, Tungousia;
3, Northern or Russian Asia, from 44° N.
lat., containing Kasan, Astrachan, Oren-
burg, Kuban, Kabarda, Georgia, Imireta,
Siberia, with the Alpine regions of Dauria
and Kamschatka. The centre of this
continent, probably the oldest ridge of
land on the earth, is called Upper Asia.
Here the Bogdo (the majestic summit of
the Altai) forms the central point of all
the mountains of Asia. Upper Asia con-
prises, perhaps, the most elevated plain
on the surface of the earth-the desert of
Kobi, or Shamo, on the northern fron-
tiers of China, 400 leagues long, and 100
leagues broad; barren, dry and waste;
visited alternately by scorching winds
and chilling storms, even in summer, and
affording, besides its deserts, only rivers
and lakes; as the Caspian, the lakes Aral
and Baikal, and several situated among
the mountains. From the northern and
southern declivities of this region, the first
tribes of men set out in all directions,
following the course of the rivers in four
chief lines of descent (north, east, south
and west). At least, the radical words in
the Indian, Median, Persian, Sclavonian,
Greek and Teutonic original languages,
between which there are striking affini-
ties, all point to the west of Upper Asia
or Iran. Those heights in the Himalaya
chain (q. v.), under the 35th degree of N.
lat., which are said to attain an elevation
of 27,677 English feet, could not be
reached by the currents, which, coming
from the south, where they were broken
by cape Comorin and cape Romania,
flowed round the Chinese sea to the
north, where the East cape on the east,
Tebukotskoi-Noss on the north-east, and
the ley cape in the Arctic occan, became
the extreme points of the continent. The
islands in the east (Japan, the Kurile and
Aleutian isles, those of Formosa, Hainan
and Leeoo-Keeoo) and in the south-west
(Socotra, Ormus, &e.), in particular the
groups of islands on both sides of the
equator (sce Indies, East), and the penin-
sulas Kamschatka and Corea, India on
this side and beyond the Ganges, and
Arabia, bear visible marks of the destruc-
tion of the primitive continent by fire and
water; hence the numerous extinguish-
ed or still active volcanoes, in the interi-
or, on the coasts, and particularly on the
islands. The interior opens an immense
field of scientific research for a traveller
like Humboldt. The sources of all the large
rivers of Asia, which must be sought for
in the mountains of Upper Asia, have not
been accurately examined since the time
of Marco Polo. As little known are the
southern declivities of the Mussart, Mustag
(or Imaus), and of the Indian Alps, which
ASIA.
413
extend over 630,000 square miles, and grasses, and the most charming flowers;
contain the kingdoms of Thibet, Bootan, and unites, in its productions, symme-
Nepaul, Assam, &c., with the snowy try with richness, particularly in the
summits of the Hindoo Koosh (Paropa- western regions. Here the oldest tradi-
misus), Belurtag, Kentaisse and the Him- tions place Paradise; here lie the en-
alaya. It is the same with the northern chanting Cashmere and the Garden of
elevation of the Altai, which, in the north- Damascus; here blossoms the rose of
east, joins the mountains Changai (the Jericho (anastatica), near the cedars of
holy land of Genghis Khan and of the Lebanon. The eastern countries, in the
Mantchoo tribes, extending to Corea and same latitude, possess the tea-shrub and
Japan). From the southern Alpine gir- the genuine rhubarb. The camel, the
dle descend the holy rivers of the Hin- Angora goat, the Thibetan sheep, the
doos-the Bramapootra, the Ganges and pheasant and the horse are natives of
Indus; in the east, the less known rivers this zone. In the north blossoms the
of Irawaddy, Meinam, Lukian and Mecon Alpine fiora of Dauria, and from the icy
(or Cambodia), and, in the west, the Eu- soil grows the dwarf-like Siberian cedar,
phrates and the Tigris (q. v.), which all till, at 70°, vegetation mostly ceases. Here
take their course towards the south, and lives the smallest of quadrupeds—the
run into the great gulfs of the Indian shrew-mouse of the Yenisey. Sables, er-
ocean. From the northern ridge, the Oby, mines, foxes, otters, &c. afford the finest
Yenisey, Lena and many others flow into fur. The mineral kingdom furnishes rich
the Arctic ocean; on the eastern coast, ores, rare precious stones, and remarkable
the great rivers Amour, Hoang-ho and fossil remains, e. g., those of the mam-
Yang-tse-Kiang descend into the bays moth, in high northern latitudes. (See
of the Pacific ocean; farther west, the Organic Remains.)-The inhabitants
Gihon, or Amu (the ancient Orus), and (amounting to 300,000,000; according to
the Sir-Daria, or Jihon (Jaxartes of the some, to 580,000,000) are divided into three
ancients), flow into lake Aral. Almost as great branches:-The Tartar-Caucasian,
little known are the western ranges of in Western Asia, exhibits the finest fea-
mountains, the Taurus in Natolia, and in tures of our race in the Circassian form :
Armenia the Ararat, near which the Eu- the Mongolian race is spread through
phrates and Tigris become much in- Eastern Asia; the Malay in Southern
creased, and where, in ancient times, the Asia and the islands. The north is in-
Roman victories found a limit. We have habited by the Samoiedes, Tchooktches
lately become better acquainted with the and others. 24 tribes, of different lan-
mountain passes, through which the first guage and origin, may be distinguished,
inhabitants of Europe may have wander- some of which are the relics of scattered
ed from Asia, the valleys of the Caucasus, tribes of Nomades: Kamtschadales, Os-
from the bosom of which the Cuban tiacs, Samoiedes, Koriacks, Kurilians,
flows into the Black sea, and the Aras Aleutians, Coreans, Mongols and Kal-
(Araxes), with the Kur, into the Caspian. mucks, Mantchoos (Tungoos, Daurians
-Nature has spread over Asia all the and Mantchoos Proper), Finns, Circas-
treasures of the earth, most abundantly in sians, Georgians, Greeks, Syrians and
India; her bounties arc distributed, by im- Armenians, Tartars and Turks, Persians
perceptible gradations, through all its three and Afghans, Thibetans, Hindoos, Siam-
zones. In the torrid zone, whose genial ese, Malays, Annamites (in Cochin China
warmth converts the juices of plants and Tonquin), Birmese, Chinese and
to spices, balsam, sugar and coffee, with Japanese, besides the indigenous inhabit-
which Asia has enriched the West Indies, ants of the East Indian islands, Jews and
the palms (sago, cocoa, date and umbrel- Europeans. The principal languages are
la-palms) reach a height of 200 feet, and the Arabian, Persian, Armenian, Turk-
the white elephant attains a size surpass- ish, Tartar, indoo, Malayan, Mongol,
ing that of all other quadrupeds. From Mantchoo and Chinese. Of the extinct
hence the silk-worm was brought to Eu- civilized nation of the Igoors (Oigoors) in
rope. This region conceals in its bosom Upper Asia, the written characters have
the most beautiful diamonds, the finest been preserved in Thibet. The Sanscrit
gold, the best tin, &c., whilst the waves of the Bramins is yet spoken in the
flow over the purest pearls and corals. higher mountains of India, and the an-
The temperate zone has given to Europe cient Pehlevi in the mountains of the
the melon, the vine, the orange and many Persian borders. The still more ancient
of its most agreeable garden-fruits, as Zend is entirely extinct; and the civili-
well as the most productive farinaceous zation of the old Iberians and Colehians,
35 *
414
ASIA.
on the Kur and Phasis (Georgia and Imi-
reta), has left no vestiges. All the forms
of society are displayed in the existing
Asiatic nations, from the savage state of
the wandering hordes to the most effem-
inate luxury; but liberty, founded on law
and the moral and intellectual education
of man, is wanting. Priests and conquer-
ors have long decided the political char-
acter of the East, amidst frequent revo-
lutions and changes of dynasties, ever
maintaining the principles of blind obedi-
ence. Asia has been subject, at different
times, to the Assyrians, Medes, Chalde-
ans, Persians, Greeks, Syrians, Parthians,
Arabians, Mongols, Tartars, Seljooks,
Turks, Afghans, &c. Ancient forms are
preserved most rigidly, and the intellect
is least progressive in China and Japan.
Slavery still prevails in this continent.
Woman yet remains degraded to a slave
of man. The prevailing government is
despotism, the offspring of Asia. Ilence
those artificial forins of a rigid etiquette,
which are kept up in all the public
relations, and that apathy of the people,
in regard to fate, connected with cruelty,
and produced partly by opium, partly by
superstition, which is almost an universal
characteristic of the Asiatics, notwith-
standing the violence of their passions.
There are, however, some tribes with a
republican form of government; and relies
of the patriarchal authority of the heads
of families still are found. Near the col-
onies of the Europeans in Southern and
Northern Asia, the civilization of the
Christian world has been introduced.
Christianity, though degenerated in many
of the more ancient sects (see Maronites,
Monophysites and Sects), has gained many
adherents, throughout all Asia, by means
of translations of the Bible, distributed by
England and Russia. In Bengal and St.
Petersburg, the translation of the Bible
into the languages of Southern Asia has
been prosecuted with a benevolent zeal.
In Petersburg, similar efforts have been
inade for the benefit of the Mongolian
Tartars. Even in China, Christians are
found again, but none in Japan since
1637. The astronomy and astrology, po-
etry, morals, theology, laws, and the rude
empirical medicine of the Asiatics, are
mostly confined to the priests, and united
with deeply-rooted superstition, which
leads even to child-murder and self-sacri-
fice in the flames. The Mohammedan
religion, the central point for instruction
in which is at Samarcand, prevails in
Western Asia. (Sec Wahaby.) Over all
Central and the castern part of Northern
Asia, prevails the religion of the Lama.
The religion of Brama, the head-quar-
ters of which is Benares, is confined
chiefly to Hindostan, and Shamanism to
the tribes in Northern Asia and to the
Russian archipelago. The ancient doc-
trine of Zoroaster is confined to single
families in India and Persia; whilst
the Mosaic has numerous adherents
through all Asia, except the Russian part.
Physical and mechanical cultivation is
carried to a higher degree of perfection
than intellectual and moral; e. g., by the
Indian jugglers and Chinese mechanics.
Remarkable skill has been acquired by
certain classes of Hindoos in the weaving
of silk and cotton. The shawls of Cash-
mere, the leather of Persia and Syria
(morocco, cordovan, shagreen), the porce-
lain of China and Japan, the steel of
Turkish Asia, the lackered wares of Chi-
ua and Japan, &c. are well known. The
internal commerce is still carried on by
caravans, as in the most ancient times,
before Abrahan and Moses, when iner-
chandise was transported from India,
through Bactria, to Colchis, as at present
to Makarieu, Moscow and Constantinople.
The foreign commerce of China and the
East Indies is wholly in the hands of
the Europeans-English, Dutch and Rus-
sians and of the North Americans. The
religious, civil and social condition of the
Asiatics proves, that, where the free de-
velopement of the higher powers of man
is subject to the restraints of castes, and
to the tyranny of priests and despots, and
where the adherence to established forms
has become a matter of faith, law and
habit,-the character of society must
degenerate, and the energies of man be-
come palsied. Hence the Asiatic, not-
withstanding the richness of his imagina-
tion, never attained the conception of
ideal beauty, like the free Greek; and, for
the same reason, the European, whose
mental improvement and social activity
have been unimpeded, has shaken off the
control which the East formerly exercised
over the West, and has obtained domin-
ion over the coasts and territories of his
old lord and master. Greece led the
way, and, after having transformed the
obscure symbols of the East to shapes of
ideal beauty, shook off the spiritual fet-
ters of priests and oracles, and, at the
same time, the temporal yoke which the
Persian Darius had prepared for Athens
and Sparta. After a struggle of 50 years,
the triumphs of Cimon (in 449 B. C.)
first enabled Europe to prescribe laws
to the East. Grecian civilization then
ASIA-ASIATIC SOCIETIES.
spread over the whole of Western Asia,
to India, and even the military despotism
which succeeded has not been able to
extinguish the light entirely. In later
times, the Romans and Parthians fought
for the possession of the Euphrates, and
the Persians, under the Sassanides, at-
tempted to tear the dominion of the
world from the hands of Rome. Since
that period, Asia has four times taken up
arins against Europe. The nations of
Upper Asia, driven from the frontiers of
China to the Irtish, crowded upon the
West. Huns, Avari, Bulgarians and
Magyars successively issued from the
Caucasian gates, and from the wilder-
nesses of the Ural, to subdue Europe; be-
sides those later hordes, which were min-
gled and confounded with each other in
Southern Russia and on the Danube.
But the rude power of Attila and of the
grandsons of Arpat was broken in con-
flict with the Germans. Next, the Ara-
bians attacked Constantinople, Italy and
France, but their fanatical impetuosity
was checked by Charles Martel, in 732,
and the chivalrous valor of the Gothic
Christians rescued the peninsula within
the Pyrenees. The West then armed
itself against the East, to recover the
holy sepulchre from the sultan of the
Seljooks, and Christian Europe became
better acquainted with Asia; but the
sword alone cannot conquer a continent.
(See Crusades.) Upper Asia sent again,
under the Mongol Temudschin (see Gen-
ghis-Khan), her mounted hordes over the
world. Again the Germans stayed the
destroying flood near Liegnitz. (See
Wahlstadt.) Finally, the Tartars and Ot-
toman Turks invaded Europe. In 1453,
they took the Bosphorus and Grecce
from the feeble hands of the eastern
Romans. In succeeding times, Europe
has been defended against Asia, on this
side, by Germany. The intellectual prog-
ress of the European, since that period,
has raised him above the most ancient
nations of the East-Persians, Arabians,
Indians and Chinese. Gunpowder, the
mariner's compass and the art of printing
(which the last-mentioned nation possess-
ed, but could not apply to much use), have
become powerful in his hands. Hence
Russia has gained the Wolga, explored
Siberia, kept watch over the seat of the
ancient and modern Scythians, the moun-
tains of the Altai, and finally conquered
the tribes of the Caucasus; whilst [since
Vasco da Gama (q. v.) discovered the way
by sea to the East Indies, in 1498] the
Portuguese, Dutch and French, and par-
415
ticularly the English, by their universal
commerce, have made the rich countries
of Southern Asia acquainted with Euro-
pean laws, and Europe with the condition
and luxury of those countries. Persia is
already entangled in the European in-
ternational policy, which is principally
owing to the efforts of sir Harford Jones,
sir Gore Ousely, Mr. James Morier, and
the Russian general Yermatoff. The
diplomacy of the court of China, now
more than 10 centuries old, still resists
European encroachments, and the celes-
tial empire prefers the North Americans
to the English and Russians. Japan,
alone, yet denies all approach to Euro-
peans; and her jealousy is as effective as
the polar ice, which blocks up the pas
sages of the Frozen seas. But the in-
quisitive spirit of European navigators
has gradually penetrated the most se-
cluded regions, from the time of Marco
Polo, the Venetian (1272), to that of the
present English and Russians, who will
soon join hands, or perhaps swords, in
the heart of Asia. (For further informa-
tion, see Malte-Brun's Geography; Mur-
ray's work On the Progress of Discovery
in Asia; Ritter's Geography, an excellent
and original work, published in 1824, by
Reimer, Berlin; also, Leake's Journal of
a Tour in Asia Minor; also, the articles
on the different countries of Asia, and
those on Niebuhr and Burckhardt.)
ASIA MINOR. (See Natolia.)
ASIATIC SOCIETIES AND MUSEUMS;
learned bodies instituted for the purpose
of collecting valuable information, of every
kind, respecting the different countries of
Asia. The three great central points where
this knowledge is accumulated are, Lon-
don, Paris and Petersburg. The royal
Asiatic society of Great Britain and Ire-
land contains 300 members. It was es-
tablished by Mr. Colebrooke, and opened
March 19, 1823. Its transactions are
published in London. Similar societies
have been formed in Asia itself, at Cal-
eutta, Bombay and Bencoolen. Since the
foundation of the Asiatic society in Cal-
cutta, by sir William Jones, in 1784, the
study of Asiatic literature has made great
advances. The secret of the Sanscrit
literature has been obtained from the Bra-
mins, and its connexion with the Greek
put beyond doubt. Works have been
printed which greatly facilitate the study
of the Arabian and Persian languages and
literature. Asiatic philology has made
great progress. Even Chinese literature
has come forth from its recesses.—The
société Asiatique, at Paris, was founded, in
416
ASIATIC SOCIETIES-ASP.
1822, by a number of learned men. Its
honorary president is the duke of Orleans.
It opened its sittings April 21, 1823, hav-
ing already commenced, in July, 1822,
the publication of the Journal Asiatique,
qu Recueil de Mémoires, d'Extraits et de
Notices relatifs à l'Histoire, à la Philoso-
phie, aux Sciences, à la Littérature et aux
Langues des Peuples Orientaux. The 2d
vol. appeared in 1823. The museum
connected with it was established in 1823.
The principal members, who are, at the
same time, editors of the journal, are
Chézy, Cocquebert, de Montbret, Degé-
rando, Fauriel, Grangeret, de Lagrange,
Hase, Klaproth, Abel Remusat, Saint-
Martin, Silvestre de Sacy. The latter is
president of the standing committee. In
the Asiatic societies at Paris and London,
professorships of the Oriental languages
are wanting, which are connected with
the society at Petersburg. London is
particularly deficient in this respect, the
professors being confined to Oxford and
Cambridge. The newly-established pro-
fessorships in Haleybury are destined ex-
clusively for the education of young men
for the service of the East India company.
In Paris, lectures are given on the Ara-
bian, Persian, Turkish, Sanscrit, Chinese
and Tartar languages, in the collège royal,
and in the royal library.
ASIOLI, Bonifacio; a musical composer,
born at Corregio, in Modena, 1769. As
early as his 8th year, he composed with-
out instruction; in his 10th, he was in-
structed in composition by Morigi, in
Parma; in his 12th, he gave two concerts
at Vicenza. After a residence of four
months in Venice, he returned to Corregio,
where he was appointed master of the
chapel, and composed musical pieces of
every description. In his 18th year, he
went to Turin, where he resided about
nine years, and likewise composed much.
In 1796, he again visited Venice, and, in
1799, Milan, where he remained till 1813,
was made director of music to the then
viceroy, and composed very assiduously.
As censore of the conservatory in Milan, he
wrote several books of instruction, c. g.,
Trattato d'Armonia, Principj Elementari,
Dialogo sul Trattato, &c., Preparazione al
bel Canto, contenente Molti Solfeggi d'Ar-
monia. Since 1813, he has lived in his
native place. His greater works are little
known beyond Italy, but are said to be
very scientific. (For a list of his works,
see the Leipsic Musical Journal, 1820,
No. 40.)
ASLAN, or ASLANI; in commerce, a
name given to the Dutch dollar, in most
parts of the Levant. Sometimes the word
is written asselani. It is of Turkish ori-
gin, signifying a lion, the figure stamped
on these dollars. It is silver, but much
alloyed, and is current for 115 to 120
aspers. (See Asper.)
ASMANNSHAUSEN, wine of. The plant
which yields this wine grows on the
Rhine, below Rüdesheim, a village on the
banks of that river, on a soil formed of
blue slate. The red kind, the production
of a small, red, Burgundy vine, is the more
valuable. Its color is peculiar. In some
places, an awme (a seventh of an English
tun) of the best must often costs from 120
to 160 florins. It retains its value only 3
or 4 years. After this time, it grows worse
every year, and precipitates the whole of
its red coloring-matter. Many delicate
judges of wine prefer the red sort to the
best Burgundy. It is distinguished by
color and taste from all the other Rhenish
wines. We know of instances in which
it has borne transportation across the At-
lantic.
ASMODAI; according to Hebrew my-
thology, an evil spirit which slew seven
husbands of Sara, daughter of Raguel, at
Rages. By the direction of the angel
Raphael, the young Tobias drove him
away, with the smell of a fish's liver
burnt on the coals, into the uttermost
parts of Egypt, where the angel bound
him.-Asmodai signifies a desolator, a de-
stroying angel; it is also written Abaddon.
ASOPUS; the name of several rivers in
Greece. The most celebrated of this
name are those in Achaia and Bœotia.
(See Egina.)
ASP, ASPIC; a species of viper found
in Egypt, resembling the cobra da_capel-
lo, or spectacle serpent of the East Indies,
except that the neck of the asp is not so
capable of expansion, and its color is
greenish, mingled with brown. The asp
is the coluber haje, L., vipera haje, Geoff.
-This venomous serpent is found in the
vicinity of the Nile, and has been cele-
brated for ages, on account of the quick
and easy death resulting from its bite.
When approached or disturbed, this viper,
like the cobra da capello, elevates its head
and body to a considerable degree, cx-
tends the sides of its neck, and appears to
stand erect to attack the aggressor. This
peculiarity gave origin to the ancient
Egyptian superstition, that the asps were
guardians of the spots they inhabited, and
led to the adoption of the figure of this
reptile as an emblem of the protecting
genius of the world. Hence, on the por-
tals of Egyptian temples, it is common to
ASP.
see, carved on each side of a globe, one of
these serpents, in the attitude above de-
scribed. The same device is also found
among the paintings on the coffins of
mummies, which also contain representa-
tions of the asp in various relations to
other hieroglyphics.-The circumstance
originating the preceding notion has led
to the employment of the asp as a dancing
serpent by the African jugglers, either for
exhibition as a source of profit, or to im-
pose upon vulgar credulity. The asps
for this purpose are carefully deprived of
their fangs, which enables their owners
to handle them with impunity. When
they are to be exhibited, the top of their
cage, commonly a wicker-basket, is taken
off, and, at the same moment, a flute or
pipe is played. The asp inmediately
assumes the erect position, and the bal-
ancing motions, made during its protract-
ed efforts to maintain this attitude, are
what is called dancing. A really curious
circumstance is stated, on good authority,
relative to the asp, which is, that the
jugglers know how to throw it into a sort
of catalepsy, in which condition the mus-
cles are rigidly contracted, and the whole
animal becomes stiff and motionless.
This is done by compressing the cervical
spine between the finger and thumb. The
trick is called changing the serpent into a
rod or stick. In the relation given by
Moses of the miracles performed before
Pharaoh, to induce him to allow of the
departure of the Israelites, we read, that
"Aaron cast down his rod before Pha-
raoh and his servants, and it became a
serpent. Then Pharaoh called also the
wise men and the sorcerers: now the
magicians of Egypt, they also did in like
manner with their enchantments: for
they cast down every man his rod, and
they became serpents: but Aaron's rod
swallowed up their rods." Erod. vii. 10,
11, 12. It is possible, that, to keep up
their credit with Pharaoh, by appearing
to possess equal power with Aaron, the
Egyptian jugglers held asps in their
hands, in the cataleptic condition above
described, as rods, which only required
to be thrown down to resume their ac-
tivity as serpents. The superiority of
the real miracle of Aaron's transformed
rod over this pretended one of the jug-
glers, is shown by the swallowing up of
the other serpents.-The asp has also ac-
quired a great degree of notoriety in con-
sequence of the use made of it by Cleo-
patra, the queen of Egypt, equally famous
for the brilliancy of her charms and the
licentiousness of her life. In his Life of
417
Mark Antony, Plutarch makes the follow-
ing statement, which shows to what an
extent a vicious course of living had cor-
rupted a noble and talented woman:-
"Antony and Cleopatra had before es-
tablished a society, called the inimitable
livers, of which they were members; but
they now instituted another, by no means
inferior in splendor or luxury, called the
companions in death. Their friends were
adiñitted into this, and the time passed in
mutual treats and diversions. Cleopatra,
at the same time, was making a collection
of poisonous drugs, and, being desirous to
know which was least painful in the
operation, she tried them on the capital
convicts. Such poisons as were quick in
their operations, she found to be attended
with violent pain and convulsions; such
as were milder were slow in their effects.
She therefore applied herself to the ex-
amination of venomous creatures, and
caused different kinds of them to be ap-
plied to different persons, under her own
inspection. These experiments she re-
peated daily, and at length she found that
the bite of the asp was the most eligible
kind of death; for it brought on a gradu-
al lethargy, in which the face was covered
with a gentle sweat, and the senses sunk
easily into stupefaction. Those who were
thus affected showed the same uneasiness
at being disturbed or awaked, that people
do in the profoundest natural sleep."
Langhorne's Plutarch.-It is not surpris-
ing that Cleopatra finally resorted to the
asp to destroy her own life. This is
stated very doubtfully by Plutarch, and
is, by Brown, ranked among his popular
errors; yet, as the Egyptian queen
known to have committed suicide, we
cannot doubt, after what we have cited
from Plutarch, that she resorted to the
mode of dying which her own experi-
ments had proved most easy. As two
small punctures were found on her arm,
quite adequate to produce the result, if
made by an asp, we conclude, with Shak-
speare, that it is
most probable
That so she died; for her physician tells me
She hath pursued conclusions infinite
Of easy ways to die. Antony and Cleopatra.
-Dreadful as the poison of the asp, and,
indeed, of most of the vipers, is, it may
be rendered entirely harmless by imme-
diately applying forcible pressure on the
side of the wound nearest the heart.
this way the cupping-glass, ligature, &c.,
produce their beneficial effects, and not
by the removal of the poison. For a
most satisfactory establishment of this
In
418
ASP-ASPECT.
highly important fact, the scientific world
is indebted to Caspar W. Pennock, M. D.
of Philadelphia, whose experiments are
published in the 1st vol. of the American
Journal of the Medical Sciences, where
he has shown that simple pressure, how-
ever applied, sufficient to close the ves-
sels on the side of the wound next the
heart, prevents any poison, even that of
the rattlesnake, from producing injurious
consequences.
ASPARAGUS. Asparagus officinalis is a
well known plant, the young shoots of
which are a favorite culinary vegetable.
Few circumstances in the phenomena of
vegetation are more remarkable than the
gradual enlargement of size, and improve
ment of quality, which have taken place
in the cultivation of asparagus. It grows
wild on the pebbly beach near Weymouth
(England), and in the island of Anglesea;
but its stem, in these situations, is not
usually thicker than a goose-quill, and
its whole height does not exceed a few
inches: whereas, in gardens, its stem is
sometimes nearly three quarters of an
inch thick, and its height, when at matu-
rity, is four or five feet. Asparagus is
one of the greatest delicacies which our
kitchen gardens afford, and it is particu-
larly valuable from the early season at
which it is produced. It is usually raised
from seed, in beds formed for the purpose;
and the plants should remain three years
in the ground before they are cut; after
which, for several years, they will con-
tinue to afford a regular annual supply.
During the winter, they are secured from
the effects of frost by the beds being
covered some inches thick with straw or
litter. In the cutting of asparagus, the
knife is passed three or four inches
beneath the ground. The plants are cut
by sloping the blade upward; and the
white part that we see is that which had
not previously been exposed to the air.
The smallest plants are suffered to grow,
for the purpose of producing berries to
restock the beds, and keep them continu-
ally in a state of supply.
ASPASIA was born at Miletus, in Ionia.
Her father's name was Axiochus. She
seems to have followed the example of
Thargelia, another beautiful woman of
Jonia, who united a love for politics and
learning with all the graces of her sex.
All foreign women, in Athens, were de-
prived of the benefits of the laws: their
children were looked upon as illegitimate,
even though they were the offspring of a
lawful marriage. To this circumstance
it is in a great measure owing, that A.
has been classed among courtesans. She
devoted her attention to politics and
eloquence. Plato mentions an elegant
speech, which she delivered in praise of
the Athenians who fell at Lechæum; and
she is asserted to have instructed Pericles
in eloquence. Her house was the gen-
eral resort of the most virtuous, learned
and distinguished men in Greece, and
Socrates often favored her with his com-
pany: he was even accused of a sensual
passion for her. She inspired the strongest
and most enduring affection in the heart
of the noble Pericles, who understood the
grand secret of being, at the same time,
the citizen and the ruler of a repub-
lic. The people used to call Pericles
Olympian Jupiter, and his companion
Aspasia Juno. The orator divorced his
former wife to marry A. Plutarch re-
lates, that he constantly evinced the
liveliest attachment for her a feeling
which could never have been inspired by
a low and corrupt courtesan. She is ac-
cused of having been the cause of two
wars-one between the Athenians and
Samians, on account of her native Miletus;
the other between the Athenians and
Lacedæmonians, on account of Megara.
Plutarch acquits her of this charge, and
Thucydides does not mention her name,
though he relates the minutest circum-
stances which gave birth to the Pelo-
ponnesian war. The accusation allud-
ed to is mentioned only by Aristophanes,
whose historical correctness cannot be
trusted. When the Athenians were dis-
satisfied with Pericles, instead of attack-
ing him, they persecuted the objects of his
particular favor, and accused A., among
others, of contempt of the gods. Pericles
burst into tears, in the midst of the are-
opagus, while advocating her cause, and
disarmed the severity of the judges. Af-
ter his death, A., who had been the friend
of Socrates, the companion of Pericles,
and the object of Âlcibiades' devoted
adoration, is said to have attached her-
self to an obscure individual, of the name
of Lysicles, whom she soon made, how-
ever, an influential citizen in Athens. It
may be said, with safety, that A. had an
important influence over the whole na-
tion; for the men who sat at the helmn
of government were formed in her soci-
ety. Her name was so celebrated, that
the younger Cyrus named his favorite
Milto after her; for Asposia signified the
loveliest of women, as Alexander the
bravest of herocs.
ASPECT, in astronomy and astrology,
denotes the situation of the planets and
ASPECT-ASPERN.
stars with respect to each other. There are
five different aspects:-1, sextile aspect,
when the planets or stars are 60° distant,
and marked thus, *; 2, the quartile or
quadrate, when they are 90° distant,
inarked; 3, trine, when 120° distant,
marked ; 4, opposition, when 180° dis-
tant, marked 8; and, 5, conjunction,
when both are in the same degree, marked
d. Kepler added 8 more. It is to be
observed, that these aspects, being first
introduced by astrologers, were distin-
guished into benign, malignant, and indif
ferent; and Kepler's definition of aspect,
in consequence, is, "Aspect is the angle
formed by the rays of two stars meeting
on the earth, whereby their good or bad
influence is measured."
ASPEN. The aspen or trembling pop-
lar (populus tremula), is a tree which
grows in moist woods, has nearly circu-
lar leaves, toothed and angular at the
edges, smooth on both sides, and attached
to foot-stalks so long and slender as to be
shaken by the slightest wind. There is
scarcely any situation in which the aspen
will not flourish; but it succeeds best
where the soil is moist and gravelly. Its
wood is light, porous, soft, and of a white
color, and, though inferior in excellenco
to that of the white poplar, is applicable
to many useful purposes. It is used,
particularly, for field-gates, the frames
of pack-saddles, for milk-pails, clogs,
and the wood of pattens. It is im-
proper for bedsteads, as it is liable to
liable to
be infested by bugs. In some coun-
tries, the bark of the young trees is
made into torches.
ASPER, ASPRE, OF ARKTSHE; the small-
est silver coin of Turkey. The common
asper, since 1764, has amounted to the
35th part of a drachin of fine silver.
make a para, 120 a piaster or dollar. The
great or heavy aspers, in which the court-
officers receive their payment, are of
double the value and weight of the com-
mon asper.
ASPERN and ESSLINGEN; two villages
lying cast of Vienna, and on the opposite
bank. They are celebrated for the battle
fought, May 21st and 22d, 1809, between
the archduke Charles and the emperor
Napoleon. After the fall of the capital,
the Austrian general resolved to suffer a
part of the enemy's forces to pass the
Danube, and then to surround them with
his own army, and drive them, if possible,
into the river. Every thing seemed to
favor this plan; but it was frustrated by
the energy of the French general, and the
extraordinary valor of his troops. The
419
archduke now stationed himself behind
Gerasdorf, between Bisamberg and Russ-
bach, from which he issued with his
army in five columns, consisting of 75,000
inen, with 288 pieces of cannon, May 21,
at noon, just as Napoleon, with about
half his forces, had left the island of Lo-
bau, in the Danube. By a dexterous evo-
lution of his troops, he immediately formed
a semi-circle, in which the French army
was, in a manner, enclosed. In the nar-
row plain between Aspern and Esslingen
(they are about two miles distant from
one another), a bloody engagement now
commenced. Every thing depended on
the possession of these two villages: As-
pern was, at first, taken by the Austrians,
again lost and retaken, till they, at length,
remained masters of it: from Esslingen
they were continually repulsed. Napo-
leon repeatedly attempted to force the
centre of the Austrians, but was frustrated
by the firmness of their infantry. At last,
the darkness of the night put a temporary
stop to the contest. The bridge, connect-
ing the right bank of the Danube with the
island of Lobau, had already been destroy-
ed, so that the French reenforcements came
up slowly, being compelled to sail over in
small parties, and the whole corps of
Davoust, on the right bank, were idle
spectators of the battle. Notwithstanding
these disadvantages, the battle was re-
newed on the 23d; the French army be-
ing now increased so as, at least, to equal
the Austrians in number. The engage-
ment was of the same exterminating
character as on the day before; thousands
of lives were sacrificed in vain attempts
to capture the villages. Aspern continued
to be the strong-hold of the Austrians,
and Esslingen of the French. When the
army of Napoleon gave up all hopes of
gaining the victory by forcing the centre
of the Austrians, Esslingen served to
secure their retreat to the island of Lo-
bau, which was disturbed only by the
cannon of the archduke. It has been
said, that the archduke did not make a
proper use of his advantage; but this
assertion will be shown to be erroneous,
if we consider the position of the French
on the island, the courage of his adversa-
ry, and the want of materials for rebuild-
ing bridges. The loss of the Austrians,
in killed, wounded, &c., was estimated at
less than a third of the whole army; that
of the French at half. The latter lost, on
this occasion, marshal Lannes. (q.v.) The
feelings of the combatants were too vio-
lent to allow of many prisoners being
made.
420
ASPHALTITES-ASS.
ASPHALTITES; a lake of Judea.
Dead Sea.)
(See in the U. States. Besides his practice in
this disorder, when it was generally pre-
vailing, he was permitted, after the year
1788, to keep an hospital open at all times,
to which great numbers resorted. When
vaccine inoculation was first introduced,
he was aware that, if it had the virtues
ascribed to it, his pecuniary prospects
would be essentially affected. But he
deemed it his duty to give it a fair trial;
and, finding it succeed, he promptly ac-
knowledged its virtue, saying to Dr. Wa-
terhouse, who raised the first vaccine
pustules ever seen in the new world,
This new inoculation of yours is no
sham. As a man of humanity, I rejoice
in it; although it will take from me a
handsome annual income." As a physi-
cian, Dr. A. obtained great distinction.
To his practice, which was very exten-
sive, he devoted himself, with unceasing
ardor and fidelity, for the space of 45
years, during the greater part of which
time he rode on horseback, often upwards
of 40 miles a day, and seldom retired to
rest until after midnight.
For some
years before his death, he was afflicted
with blindness, occasioned by a cataract
in the eye, which had been brought on by
reading and writing late at night. H
bore this misfortune with resignation and
tranquillity, and preserved, to the last, his
curiosity about daily occurrences and
public events. He died, April 16, 1823, of
natural decay, having nearly completed his
80th year, with the calmness and compo-
sure of a Christian, whose duties he had
always fulfilled.
ASPHALTUM. (See Bitumen.)
ASPHYXIA (from privat., and opušis,
the pulse); the state of a living man, in
whom no pulsation can be perceived.
It begins with an inactivity of the lungs,
which proceeds to the heart and brain.
The person appears dead, without breath,
pulsation or feeling. It may be occa-
sioned by different causes, either such as
interrupt the mechanical motion of breath-
ing, or such as disturb the action of the
lungs themselves. The former may be
caused by an external pressure on the
breast, if air enters the thorax through
wounds, or by an accumulation of blood
in the lungs, so that they cannot contract
themselves: the latter state takes place if
no air at all enters the lungs, as is the
case with suffocated, drowned or hanged
persons, or if the air breathed in cannot sup-
port life. (For the treatment of persons suf-
fering from asphyxia, see Death, apparent.)
ASPINWALL, William, M. D., was born
in Brookline, Mass., May 23 (old style),
1743. He was descended from ancestors
who came from England, about the year
1630, with the 4000 emigrants. He was
graduated at Harvard university, in 1764.
Immediately afterwards, he began the
study of medicine, with Dr. Benjamin
Gale, of Conn., and completed his course
at the hospital of Philadelphia, in the uni-
versity of which city he received his
medical degree about the year 1768. He
then returned to his native village, and
commenced the exercise of his profes-
sion, being the first physician who settled
in the place. When the revolutionary
war broke out, he applied for a commis-
sion in the army; but his friend and re-
lation, doctor, afterwards major-general
Warren, persuaded him to enter the service
in a medical capacity. In consequence,
Dr. A. was appointed surgeon in general
Heath's brigade, and, soon after, through
the influence of general Warren, deputy-
director of the hospital on Jamaica plain,
a few miles from Boston. He fought, in
person, as a volunteer, in the battle of
Lexington, and bore from the field the
corpse of Isaac Gardner, whose eldest
daughter he afterwards inarried. After
the death of Dr. Zabdiel Boylston, the
first inoculator of small-pox in America,
Dr. A. undertook the prosecution of that
system, and erected hospitals for the pur-
pose in Brookline. He perhaps inocu-
lated more persons, and acquired greater
skill and celebrity in treating this dis-
ease, than any other physician ever did
ASPIRATE, OF SPIRITUS ASPER, in gram-
mar; an accent peculiar to the Greek
language, marked thus (*), and importing
that the letter over which it is placed
ought to be strongly aspirated, that is,
pronounced as if an h were prefixed.
ASRAEL, in the Mohammedan mytholo-
gy; the angel who watches the souls of
the dying.
Ass (equus asinus, L.). This well-
known and valuable species of horse is
a descendant of the onager, or wild ass,
inhabiting the mountainous deserts of
Tartary, &c., and celebrated, in sacred and
profane history, for the fiery activity of its
disposition, and the fleetness of its course.
But, in the state of degradation induced
by rearing a succession of generations un-
der the most debasing influences of slave-
ry, the severest labor, combined with ex-
posure to all the rigors of climate, and
miserable fare, the ass has long since be-
come proverbial for stolid indifference to
suffering, while the insensibility induced
ASS.
by protracted ill usage has fixed upon the
race the character of obstinacy and stu-
pidity. The ass is truly smaller in size,
and wanting in that ardor and impetuosity
which distinguish the horse, yet there are
circumstances in which these differences
give the ass a higher value. He requires
à smaller quantity, and is content with a
coarser quality, of food than the horse, and
is therefore far better adapted for hilly
and mountainous regions, where the horse
is more difficult to feed, as well as less
able to travel to advantage. In high and
dry situations, over the most precipitous
roads, the ass moves with ease and secu-
rity, under a load which would render it
almost impossible for a horse to advance
with safety. In various parts of South
America, asses are exceedingly service-
able in carrying ores, &c., down steep
nountains; and in the West India islands,
they are of great value in carrying the
sugar-cane to the mills, from situations
barely accessible to man, on account of
the acclivity of the ground.-Washington,
so justly named the father of his country,
was the first who introduced this useful
animal into the U. States; and his lauda-
ble example has since been imitated by a
small number of agriculturists. Neverthe-
less, either from prejudice or neglect, the
benefits derivable from a more general
employment of this animal for draught
and burthen have not been attained.-
The best breed of asses is that originally
derived from the dry and hot regions of
Asia; perhaps the best breed now acces-
sible to Americans is the Spanish, which
was obtained through Arabia and Egypt,
and long received a most careful attention
in Spain. During the existence of the
Spanish dominion in the southern portion
of the American continent, this breed was
generally introduced, and may be thence
obtained at this time in considerable per-
fection. Those raised in Peru, where the
breeding of the animal is carefully attend-
ed to, are very good. Very valuable asses
are also exported from the island of Puer-
to Rico to the adjacent islands, where
they are more useful in the cultivation of
sugar than horses, as they consume much
less provender, and, as already stated,
are better adapted to the work. The male
ass is in condition to propagate his species
at two years of age; the female still earlier;
and both sexes manifest a sexual ardor
which is really surprising, and sometimes
destructive. It therefore becomes neces-
sary to geld the males not intended to
continue the race, and the operation is
performed in the same way as on horses.
36
VOL. I.
421
The regular season for the females is
about the month of June, though many
observe no regular period; in the latter
case, however, they are less productive.
The ass carries her young 11 montlis,
and foals at the commencement of the
12th. The mare is again in condition to
receive the male seven days after foaling,
and may thus be almost constantly kept
breeding, until too far advanced in life.
It happens exceedingly seldom that more
than one foal is brought forth at once:
the mare exhibits great attachment to this
while it is suckling: it becomes necessa-
ry to wean it at six months old, if the
mare be again gravid. The teeth of the
young ass follow the same order of ap-
pearance and renewal as those of the
horse.-The most general color of the
ass is a mouse-colored gray, with a black
or blackish stripe, extending along the
spine to the tail, and crossed by a similar
Varieties
stripe over the fore-shoulders.
of color are observed in different breeds,
though by no means to the same extent
as among horses. In some places, dappled
and pied asses are not uncommon, and
pure white ones are also found. In pro-
portion as the color of the ass verges to-
ward reddish-brown or bay, it is considered
as an indication of bad disposition and in-
ferior quality.—As we cannot, for want of
space, enter upon a more detailed history
of this species, we may sum up the cir-
cumstances which entitle the ass to a
greater degree of attention than it has
hitherto received, by observing that it is
gentle, strong, hardy, patient of toil, re-
quiring but a small quantity of coarse
food, sure-footed, and capable of a high
degree of attachment to its owner. It is
especially suited to the cultivation of light
and dry soils, in hilly or mountainous
districts, or in hot and dry climates, where
the breed arrives at the highest perfection.
-The disagreeable noise called braying,
the voice of this species, is owing to the
peculiar construction of the larynx. lu
the geldings, this ceases to be an incon-
venience, as they attempt to bray but sel-
dom, and always in a low key. Nothing
is more certain than that, as this species
has exceedingly deteriorated under a long-
continued ill usage, it might be improved
to an equal degree by the same attention
which is bestowed on the breeding of
other domestic animals. The life of the
ass does not exceed 30 years.-Asses'
milk, long celebrated for its sanative qual-
ities, more closely resembles that of the
human female than any other. It is very
similar in taste, and throws up an equally
422
ASS-ASSAULT.
operation, which were approved by a com-
fluid cream, which is not convertible into
butter. Invalids suffering from debility_mittee of the national institute. In the
of the digestive and assimilative functions Russian campaigns of 1812 and 1813, he
make use of asses' milk with great ad- had the misfortune to freeze some of his
vantage: persons in consumption also de- limbs. He is still living at Milan, an
rive benefit from its use, as it is at once esteemed physician, and professor of clin-
nutritive and unproductive of irritation ical surgery. His treatise on surgery, in
while digesting. The ass, whose milk is Italian, is a valuable work.
taken for invalids, should have foaled but
a short time previously, and be secluded
from the male. The quality of her food,
and her comfortable stabling, should also
be particularly attended to.-The mules
produced between the he-ass and the mare
are generally known; and they combine
the good qualities of both animals in a re-
markable degree. In some countries, they
are even more highly prized than horses,
on account of their greater hardiness. The
mule produced between the horse and the
she-ass is a smaller animal than the com-
mon mule, and altogether inferior.
ASSALINI, Pietro, of Modena, studied
medicine in Italy. On account of a duel
in which he had been concerned, he en-
tered the French army as surgeon-major,
and accompanied Napoleon's expedition
to Egypt, as far as Jaffa. At this place,
the French garrison was attacked by the
plague, and, at the end of 40 days, the
number of men able to bear arms was
reduced two thirds. In his Mémoire sur
la Peste (Observations on the Plague)
(1803), he maintains that the plague is not
so dangerous for physicians and attend-
ants as is commonly supposed, if they re-
main with the sick only as long as their
duties require, and immediately inhale
fresh air. He states that baron Larrey
dissected several persons, who had died
of that disease, and carefully examined
the biles caused by it; and that Des-
genettes introduced into his blood, by a
lancet, the poison from one of these sores,
in two different places; but neither of
these physicians was attacked by the
disease. To these observations on the
plague are added remarks on the yellow
fever in Cadiz, on the dysentery, so fre-
quent in armies, and on the mirage, or
image of the opposite shore reflected
from the clouds, in the straits of Sicily
and Calabria. (See Fata Morgana.) Na-
poleon raised the author to important and
influential stations. In 1811, he wrote
In 1811, he wrote
a work, in Italian, on diseases of the eyes,
which was highly approved, and added
much to his fame. He published, also,
the same year, Novi Stromenti di Ostetricia
e loro Uso, and recommended a new for-
ceps to be employed in delivery, with
improved instruments for the Caesarean
ASSAM, or ASHAM; a country between
Bengal and Thibet, 700 miles in length, by
about 70 in breadth. It is intersected by the
Bramapootra, and several other rivers; is
very fertile; and, in the beds of the rivers,
a considerable quantity of gold is found. It
also yields ivory, lac, pepper, silk, cotton,
&c. The inhabitants are genuine Hin-
doos. No European merchant is permit-
ted to settle in this country without the
previous permission of the East India com-
pany-a favor which was granted to it by
the rajah, after having been reinstated in
his government by its assistance, in 1793.
ASSAS (Nicholas), chevalier d', was born
at Vigan. He was commander of a French
regiment at Auvergne, and, by his patriotic
death, made himself worthy of the admi-
ration of posterity. On the night of the
15th of October, 1760, he commanded an
outpost at Klosterkamp, in the neighbor-
hood of Gueldres, and, at break of day,
went out to examine the posts. On this
expedition, he fell in with a division of the
enemy's troops, who were on the point of
assaulting the French army. He was
seized, and threatened with immediate
death if he uttered a cry to alarm his
regiment. The safety of the French
forces was at stake. Without a moment's
hesitation, he summoned all his strength,
and exclaimed, "Onward, Auvergne!
here is the enemy!" The threat was im-
mediately executed, but the patriot had
gained his object; the attack was unsuc-
cessful. Assas was never married; but
a pension of 1000 livres was decreed to
his family forever: the payment was in-
terrupted during the revolution, but has
since been renewed.
ASSASSINS. (See Ishmaelites.)
ASSAULT (law) (assultus, from the Fr.
asslayer); an attempt or offer, with force
and violence, to do a corporeal hurt to
another; as by striking at him, with or
without a weapon. Assault does not al-
ways necessarily imply a hitting or blow;
because, in trespass for assault and bat-
tery, a man may be found guilty of the
assault, and acquitted of the battery. But
every battery includes an assault. If a
person in anger lift up or stretch forth his
arm, and offer to strike another, or
menace any one with any staff or weapon,
ASSAULT-ASSEMANNI.
it is an assault in law; and if a man threat-
en to beat another person, or lie in wait to
do it, if the other is hindered in his busi-
ness, and receive loss thereby, an action
lies for the injury.-Any injury, however
small, actually done to the person of a
man, in an angry or revengeful, or rude
or insolent manner, as by spitting in his
face, or any way touching him in anger,
or violently jostling him, is a battery in
the eye of the law. To lay hands gently
upon another, not in anger, is no founda-
tion of an action of trespass and assault:
the defendant may justify so doing in de-
fence of his person or goods, or of his
wife, father, mother or master, or for the
maintenance of justice.-If an officer, hav-
ing a warrant against one who will not suf-
fer himself to be arrested, beat or wound
him in the attempt to take him, he may
justify it so if a parent, in a reasonable
manner, chastise his child, or a master his
servant, being actually in his service at that
time, or a schoolmaster his scholar, or a
gaoler his prisoner, or even a husband his
wife (for reasonable and proper cause); or
if one confine a friend, who is mad, and
bind and beat him, &c., in such manner
as is proper in his circumstances; or if a
man force a sword from one who offers
to kill another, or beat one who makes
an assault upon his person, or that of his
wife, parent, child, or master; or if a
man fight with or beat one who attempts
to kill any stranger, if the beating was
actually necessary to obtain the good end
proposed; in all these cases, it seems, the
party may justify the assault and battery.
ASSAULT (mil). (See Siege.)
ASSAY-BALANCE; a very delicate bal-
ance, employed in determining with great
precision the weight of minute bodies.
It is used for assaying metals.
ASSAYING; a species of chemical analy-
sis, to ascertain the quantity of gold or
silver in a metallic alloy. In its more
extended meaning, it is used for the de-
termination of the quantity of any metal
whatsoever, in composition with any other
metal or mineral. The assaying of gold or
silver is divided into two operations; by
one of which they are separated from the
imperfect metals, or those casily oxydized;
by the second they are separated from the
metals which resist oxydation by simple
exposure to the air, and which are, there-
fore, called the perfect metals. This sec-
ond process generally consists in separat-
ing gold and silver from each other, as the
third perfect metal, platina, is but seldom
found united to them. The method of
separating gold or silver from the other
423
metals is founded on the facility with
which the latter imbibe oxygen, and the
process is calculated to accelerate this
operation; hence the oxyde of lead, or
litharge, is generally considered as the
most powerful purifier of the perfect
metals, from the ease with which it parts
with its oxygen to the imperfect metals
united with them; but, of late, oxyde of
manganese has been found superior to it,
in several instances, for this purpose. In
the chemical analysis of metals, the oxyde
of lead is generally preferred for the above
purpose; but, in the assays performed by
order of government, metallic lead is al-
ways used, probably from the facilities
which it is supposed to afford for deter-
mining the weight of different ingredients
by calculation. The lead in the process
first becomes oxydated, then yields some
of its oxygen to the other imperfect metals,
and afterwards becomes vitrified, in con-
junction with the other oxydes so formed,
and carries them off with it, leaving the
perfect metals pure. The above opera-
tion is called the cupellation, and is per-
formed on a flat, round cake of bone-
ashes, compressed within an iron ring,
which is named a cupel: this is placed in
a vessel called a muffle, which resembles a
small oven, fixed in a furnace capable of
giving a heat sufficient for the fusion of
gold, so that its mouth may come in con-
tact with the door, at the side to which it
is luted, to separate it from the peal:
there are small slits made in the sides of
the muffle, to afford a passage for the air.
ASSELYN, John; a Dutch painter of the
17th century. He was a pupil of Isaiah
Vandervelde, and afterwards went to
Rome. Settling at Amsterdam, in 1645,
he obtained great reputation by the pro-
ductions of his pencil, which consist
principally of historical paintings, battle-
pieces, and landscapes with ruins, and are
distinguished for their adherence to nature
and correct style of coloring. A set of
his landscapes (24 in number) has been
engraved by Perelle. He died in 1650,
aged about 40.
ASSEMANNI, Simon; born Feb. 20,
1752, at Tripolis di Soria; one of the most
learned Maronites of modern times. He
was educated in Rome, where his family
enjoys the rights of citizenship and pa-
trician honors. In 1785, he was appoint-
ed professor at Padua, where he died,
April 8, 1821. He began the series of his
works with Museo Cufico Naniano (Venice,
1788, 2 vols. folio), an explanation of the
Cufic Arabian antiquities in the palace
Nani at Venice. His Explanation of
424
ASSEMANNI-ASSIGNAT.
Arabian Monuments in Sicily is highly
esteemed, and equally so his Description
of a Globus Cœlestis, with Arabian letters,
which was in the museum of the cardinal
Borgia. Assemanni was a very laborious
student till his death.
ASSEMBLY, GENERAL. This name sig-
nities, in some of the U. States of America,
the two branches of the legislature; e. g.,
in Vermont, Connecticut, Pennsylvania,
Virginia, &c. In some other states, the
house of representatives is called the as-
sembly, as in New York. In New Jersey,
the house of representatives is called
general assembly.-General assembly, in
Scotland, is the name of the supreme ec-
clesiastical court in Scotland, which holds
its meetings annually, and consists of a
certain number of ministers and ruling
elders, delegated from the various presby-
teries, according to the number of parishes
contained in each.
ASSENT, THE ROYAL, is the approba-
tion given by the king in parliament to a
bill which has passed both houses; after
which it becomes a law. The royal assent
may be given in two ways:-1. In person;
when the king comes to the house of peers,
and, the commons being sent for, and
standing at the bar, the titles of all the bills
that have passed both houses are read,
and the king's answer is declared by the
clerk of the parliament in Norman-French,
with several singular ceremonies. If the
king consents to a public bill, the clerk
usually declares Le roi le veut (The king
wills it); if to a private bill, Soit fait
comme il est desirè (Be it as desired). If the
king refuses his assent, it is in the gentle
phrase, Le roy s'avisera (The king will
consider of it). When a money-bill, or
bill of supply, is passed, it is carried up
and presented to the king by the speaker
of the house of commons, and the royal
assent is thus expressed-Le roy remercie
ses loyal sujets, accepte leur benevolence, et
aussi le veut (The king thanks his loyal
subjects, accepts their benevolence, and
wills it also). 2. By the statute 33 Hen.
VIII, ch. 21, the king may give his assent
by letters patent, under his great scal,
signed with his hand, and notified in his
absence to both houses, assembled to-
gether in the upper house.-When the
president of the U. States approves a
bill passed in both houses, he writes under
it. Approved, with his name. (See Sanction.)
ASSETS (Fr. assez, i. e. satis). Goods
enough to discharge the burden which is
cast upon the executor or heir, by satis-
fying the debts and legacies of the testator
or ancestor.-Assets are real or personal.
Where a man holds lands in fee-simple,
and dies possessed thereof, the lands which
come to his heirs are assets real; and
when he dies possessed of any personal
estate, the goods which come to the exec-
utors are assets personal.
ASSIENTO (Spanish, for treaty); the per-
mission of the Spanish government to a
foreign nation to import negro slaves from
Africa into the Spanish colonies in Ameri-
ca, for a limited time, on payment of cer-
tain duties. Philip IV and Charles II
concluded a treaty of this sort with the
people of England and Holland. The
English were the sole possessors of this
assiento till 1701. They lost it when
Philip V of Anjou ascended the throne of
Spain; but, in 1702, the French Guinea
company, who afterwards assumed the
title of the assiento company, became pos-
sessed of this privilege for 10 years, with-
in which period they were permitted to
import yearly 4800 slaves, of both sexes,
into the main land and islands of Spanish
America. In 1713, the celebrated assi-
ento treaty with England, for 30 years,
was concluded at Utrecht; (Great Britain
afterwards gave up the trade to the South
sea company). By this contract, the
English, among other privileges, obtained
the right of sending a permission or
assiento ship, so called, of 500 tons, every
year, with all sorts of merchandise, to the
Spanish colonies. This led to frequent
abuses and contraband trade; acts of vio-
lence followed, and, in 1739, a war broke
out between the two powers. At the
peace of Aix-la-Chapelle, in 1748, four
years more were granted to the English;
but in the treaty of Madrid, two years
later, 100,000 pounds sterling were pron-
ised for the relinquishment of the two re-
maining years; and the contract was
annulled.
ASSIGNAT; the name of the national
paper currency in the time of the Freuch
revolution. Four hundred millions of thus
paper money were first struck off by the
constituent assembly, with the approba-
tion of the king, April 19, 1790, to be re-
deemed with the proceeds of the sale of the
confiscated goods of the church. August
27 of the same year, Mirabeau urged the
issuing of 2000 millions of new assignats,
which caused a dispute in the assembly.
Vergasse and Dupont particularly distin-
guished themselves as the opponents of
Mirabeau. They saw that the plan was
an invention of Clavière (of whose work
the speech of Mirabeau was only an ex-
tract), to enrich himself and his adherents;
that it would tend to put the rich usurers
ASSIGNAT-ASSIZES.
in possession of the wealth of the nation,
which would be insufficient to redeem
the assignats, particularly if they were
increased. Among other arguments, Mi-
rabeau maintained the expediency of the
measure he proposed, on the ground that
the holders of assignats would necessarily
support the new constitution, which was
the only guarantee for the redemption of
the assignats. His exertions were sec-
onded by Pethion, and 800 millions more
were issued. They were increased, by
degrees, to 40,000 millions, and the cur-
rency, after a while, became of no value.
A further account of this paper money is
given in the article Mandate.
ASSIGNATION; a Russian paper money,
used since 1769. Its loss of value, since
1787, has diminished the worth of rubles.
Regularly, under the term ruble, is under-
stood assignation-ruble. There are assig-
nations of 5, 10, 25, 50 and 100 rubles.
In 1809, 4 rubles-assignation were paid
for 1 ruble silver money. The value
fluctuated till 1818, when the silver ruble
was fixed at 375 kopecks: in 1825, it
stood at 372 kopecks.
ASSINIBOIN; a large river of North
America, in the U. States and the British
territories. It flows into the south end of
lake Winnipeg. It is formed by two
rivers, which unite about 50 miles from
the lake. The eastern branch, called Red
river, rises near the head waters of the
Mississippi. The western branch, the
Assiniboin proper, rises about lon. 104° W.,
lat. 52° N. Both are navigable for canoes
to their source. The country between
these rivers, and to the south, is a contin-
ued plain, with little wood; the soil, sand
and gravel, producing a short grass. The
north-west company have several trading
establishments on the A.
ASSINIBOINS; an Indian tribe, in the
western part of N. America, on the Assi-
niboin river, near the Rocky mountains.
Their number is said to be 4200.
ASSISES. (See Assizes.)
ASSISI; a small town in the papal do-
minions, 20 miles from Spoleto, on a hill,
in one of the most charming parts of Ita-
ly. It is the see of a bishop. It is fa-
mous as the birth-place of St. Francis
d'Assisi, and for the splendid church
built over the chapel where St. Francis
received his first impulse to devotion.
This church is one of the finest remains
of the architecture of the middle ages in
the Gothic style. A. lies in lon. 12° 30′ E.,
lat. 43° 3′ N.
ASSIZES; L., the name given in France,
and in Lower or Normen Italy, to assem-
425
blies which were common in the middle
ages, and to the courts for the administra-
tion of justice to vassals and freemen.
After Godfrey of Boulogne had taken Je-
rusalem, in 1099, he adopted, for his two
courts of justice, a code of laws drawn
from the ordinances established in these
assemblies: hence this remarkable col-
lection was styled Assises de Jérusalem
(French edition by La Thaumassière,
Bourges, 1690, folio. See Bernardi's Hist.
des Droits Franç., 1816).—II. After the
conquest of England, the term was intro-
duced from Normandy. It is still used
to signify the sessions of the courts, held
annually, in every county, by the judges.
In disputes concerning property, Henry II
gave the contending parties the right of
deciding their difference by a trial before
the grand court of assizes, or by combat.
The grand court of assizes consisted of
all the knights in the county; the infe-
rior court of assizes, which decided ques-
tions relating to possession, of 12 freemen.
From these the jury took its rise. Twelve
judges, who are members of the three
highest courts in England,-the king's
bench, the court of common pleas and the
court of exchequer,-thrice in every year,
perform a circuit into all the counties (be-
ing 40) into which the kingdom is divided,
to hold these assizes, with the exception of
the four northern counties, where they
are held only once a year, and London
and Middlesex, where they are held eight
times. (Bl. Comm. iv. 269.) Eight other
judges, appointed for the purpose, who
are called Welsh judges, do the same duty
for Wales. At these assizes, all the jus-
tices of the peace of the county are bound
to attend, or else are liable to a fine; and
also all the persons who have been sum-
moned as grand jurymen or petit jury-
men, by the sheriff. Upon these occa-
sions, the court is opened with consider-
able pomp. The judges are conducted to
their seats at the tolling of a public bell,
and divine service is performed in their
presence. The presiding judge directs
the court to be opened, and, when the
grand jury is duly impannelled and
sworn, which is generally composed of
the most respectable men of the county,
he makes a public address to them, re-
specting the duties of their office, and the
crimes which are to come before them
for consideration. At these assizes, the
judges sit under five separate commis-
sions, some of which relate to civil and
some to criminal causes or business. The
first is the commission of assize, from
which the session derives its name, by
36 *
426
ASSIZES.
which they are authorized to take assizes
in the several counties; that is, to take
the verdict of a peculiar sort of jury,
called an assize, and summoned to de-
cide certain cases respecting the titles to
land. This class of causes is now obso-
lete, the trial of such land titles being now
had in other and more modern forms of
action. 2. The commission of nisi prius,
as it is called, which empowers them to
try all questions or issues of fact, issuing
out of the courts in Westminster hall,
and which must be tried by a jury from
that county wherein the cause of action
arises. These issues are, strictly, triable
in the courts at Westminster, by a jury
returned there from the county. But
there is a proviso, nisi prius, "unless, be-
fore" the term assigned for trial at West-
minster, the judges of assize come (as
they are sure to do) into the county in
question, and then the commission au-
thorizes such trial by the judges of assize.
(Bl. Comm. iii. 60.) These commissions
are of a civil nature; but the judges of
assize have also, by virtue of several stat-
utes, a criminal jurisdiction in certain
special cascs. 3. The commission of
oyer and terminer, to hear and determine
all treasons, felonies and misdeineanors
committed within the county. By virtue
of this commission, they can proceed only
upon an indictment found at the same
assizes by the grand jury. 4. On this ac-
count, they have another commission, of
general gaol delivery, which empowers
them to try and deliver every prisoner,
who shall be in gaol when the judges
arrive at the circuit town, whenever or
before whomsoever indicted, or for what-
ever crime cominitted. (Bl. Comm. iv.
270.) 5. The cominission of the peace,
by which they are einpowered to do all
things necessary or proper, according to
the English laws, to preserve public
tranquillity, to suppress crimes, and to
arrest offenders. (Bl. Comm. i. 350, 351.)
In this manner, and by these means, the
gaols are, in general, cleared, and offenders
tried and convicted, or acquitted, at least
every half year. In America, there are no
courts, or sessions of courts, which are
technically called assizes. The judges,
however, perform the same duties in
the counties, within their respective cir-
cuits and jurisdictions, as the English
judges, and, generally, in the same man-
ner, that is to say, according to the course
of the common law. The American
judges have not, like the English, any
special commissions. Their commission
is single, and appoints then to the office.
But the general and public laws mark out
and define their duties and authorities,
whether general or special, and these
duties and authorities are generally sub-
ject to be altered and changed by the
legislative authority. In general, how-
ever, the duties and authorities of the
judges of the higher courts are very simi-
lar to those of the judges in England.
The manner of proceeding, except that
it is more simple and unostentatious, re-
sembles very much that of the English
courts. Matters of fact, in criminal cases,
are tried by a jury, upon an indictment
found by a grand jury. And in civil
cases, also, matters of fact, in common
law-suits, are tried in the same manner.
The sessions of the courts are usually call-
ed terms, and, generally speaking, the
causes are tried before the courts of the
county in which they are commenced,
without having been sent there by a recordi
from a court sitting in another county.
Since 1808, there have been assize courts
in the judicial system of France. With the
English institutions, however, they have
scarcely any thing in common but the
name. The administration of the penal
laws belongs to the worst part of the an-
cient constitution. It united the two op-
posite evils of torture, which is often appli-
ed only to make the punishment of death
more severe, and of capital punishinent,
inflicted upon suspicion. The higher
and lower courts of France were distin-
guished from those of every other coun-
try by a spirit of dark and thoughtless
cruelty, of which the 18th century pre-
sents a series of the most shocking in-
stances. One of the first labors of the
constitutional government, in the revolu-
tion, was a reform of this part of the con-
stitution. The English institutions, par-
ticularly that of trial by jury, were taken
for precedents. The administration of
justice, in civil causes, was committed to
circuit courts and courts of appeal (on the
abolition of the ancient institutions); and,
for the disposal of criminal cases, a law
was enacted, Feb. 25, 1791, establish-
ing, in every departinent, a criminal court,
which consisted of a president and three
other judges. No one of these officers
was appointed by the executive govern-
ment, but an attorney of the crown was
attached to every court. The president
and the public prosecutor were chosen
by the electors of the department, and the
members of the district courts performed,
in succession, the duties of judges. This
system remained substantially the same
till the introduction of the consular gov-
ASSIZES.
ernment: the right of appointing these
officers was then transferred to the first
consul. By the constitution of the crimi-
nal courts, adopted in 1808 (Code d'In-
struction Criminelle), permanent criminal
courts were again abolished, and the ad-
ministration of the penal laws was com-
mitted to the courts of appeal, who are
to decide upon the propriety of having a
trial in any given case. The public hear-
ing and decision are referred to a special
court (cours d'assises) and a jury. This
latter tribunal is to consist of a judge
of the high court, who shall act as
president, and the four senior members
of the district or county court (a court of
original jurisdiction), in whose precinct
the cause originated. Inferior violations
of the police regulations are tried before
the mayors (maires) and the justices of
the peace, and those involving some pe-
nal law, before the district courts. The
process, in the French assizes, is as fol-
lows:-Every French tribunal of original
jurisdiction has a juge d'instruction, so
called. It is his business to examine into
the circumstances of every crime of which
he is informed by the state advocate (see
Advocate of the Crown), the police officers
or private individuals." He traces out the
act and the perpetrator amid every wind-
ing, summons witnesses, examines docu-
ments, brings forward and records the tes-
timony. Finally, he refers the cause, ver-
bally, to the tribunal which has original
cognizance of it, in private session (en
chambre de conseil). If facts and circum-
stances satisfy this tribunal that the accused
is innocent, or, from the nature of the case,
that proof of guilt is not to be expected,
he is acquitted. If the offence alleged
against him is found to be not of the
highest class, crimes, but of an inferior
kind, delits, which are defined to be in-
fractions d'un ordre inferieur punies seule
ment de peines correctionnelles ou de police,
it is referred to the tribunaux correc-
tionnelles; if it be a mere infringement
of the rules established for the sake of
good order, contravention, it falls within
the jurisdiction of the common police
authorities. If the previous examination
raises a probability of the guilt of the
accused, the whole cause is referred, in
the case of a crime, technically so called,
with an explanatory report, to the high
court (cour royale). This body deliber-
ates on the subject (en chambre de conscil),
and hears the arguments of the attorney-
general, and, if the act alleged is found
to be criminal, and capable of being
proved, a formal accusation is drawn up,
-
427
and the culprit subjected to a special
trial, to fix the degree of his guilt (arrit
des renvois aux assises). The courts for
the trial of criminal cases hold their ses-
sions, in each department, at least once
every three months, and dispose of all
cases which have accumulated during
the vacation. The institution of a jury
rests upon the liberal principle, that no
individual servant of the state can lawful-
ly have power over the life and death of
a citizen; and that a power so important
ought rather to be committed to a num-
ber of well-qualified men, chosen from
the midst of the nation, who shall return,
at the close of the session, to the same
rank which they held before. Four days.
at least, before the opening of the assizes,
the præfect communicates to the presi-
dent of the assizes a list of 60 persons in
the department, who are eligible to the
office of jurymen. Every juryman is re-
quired to be, at least, 30 years of age, and
enjoy all the rights and privileges of a
citizen it is also required, that he should
be a member of the college electorale, or
one of the 300 inhabitants in the county
who pay the highest taxes; a doctor.
licentiate, or corresponding member of
some literary society, recognised by the
government; a notary or a licensed banker,
an exchange broker, a merchant or trader
of the first or second class, an officer of the
civil service, with an income of, at least,
4000 francs per annum: or he must have
a special qualification. Ministers of gor-
ernment, præfects, sub-præfects, judges,
state-attorneys and clergymen, and every
one who has before been engaged offi-
cially or privately in the criminal cause,
are wholly excluded from this number.
The president of the assizes, before men-
tioned, by virtue of his pouvoir discrétion-
naire (discretionary power), selects 24
persons from this list of 60. He obtains,
likewise, a list of all eligible persons in
the place where the assizes hold their
session, that, in case the 36 remaining jury-
men should be prevented from attending,
so many may be added, that, at least, 30
may be present at the sessions. The
state's attorney then appears before the
assizes as an accuser in behalf of the
public, and the accused with his advo-
cate: the accused is previously furnished,
in writing, with his accusation, the day
of trial, a copy of the documents to be
used, and the names of the witnesses
and jury. Both the attorney-general and
the accused have a right to reject some of
the jury, and 12 are chosen by lot out of
those that remain. After they are chosen,
428
ASSIZES-ASSUMPSIT.
they take their seats upon a sort of stage,
and the doors are thrown open, that their
proceedings may be subject to public scru-
tiny. The president now administers the
oath to the 12 jurymen: then the accusa-
tion and the accompanying documents,
including the observations collected on
the spot where the offence was commit-
ted, are read. The attorney for the gov-
ernment sets forth the essential points in
the accusation, which are investigated
with reference to the attendant circum-
stances, and the corpora delicti. The evi-
dence on both sides is then read from the
record of the former trial, but the ques-
tion of guilt or innocence is determined
by the oral testimony given in at the
time. Morcover, the rest of the judges
present, the jury, the state's attorney, the
accused and his advocate, also the party
who complains of the injury, have full
liberty to propose further questions to the
witnesses. When the examination is
concluded, the state's attorney, the com-
plainant and the advocate, and, if he
wishes it, the accused, speak, in succes-
sion, upon the question at issue, usually
twice each. The witnesses are often
questioned anew in regard to any doubt
ful expressions, and, if every thing neces-
sary for the sentence is accomplished dur-
ing the session, the president, at the same
session, declares the process finished.
The presiding officer then briefly sums
up the evidence on both sides, and gives
the jurymen a written copy of the points
to be decided. Upon this, they retire to
confer, and, on their return, declare pub-
licly the result of their deliberations. If
only seven out of the twelve jurymen
bring the accused in guilty, the judges
take up the question, and, if the majority
of the judges coincide with the minority
of the jury, the accused is acquitted. If
all the judges are in favor of his acquittal,
and the whole or more than seven of the
jury are in favor of his condemnation, the
cause is deferred till the next session, at
which it is finally decided. If the inajori-
ty of the jury are for the acquittal of the
accused, the president orders him to be
set at liberty, unless some other accusation
demands his further detention. If the
accused is brought in guilty, a new ques-
tion arises, relating to the punishment
suitable to be inflicted, or the satisfaction
to be made to the party injured. Upon
this the judges agree among themselves,
and then assign the grounds of their de-
cision. Against this sentence no appeal
can be made, except to the court of cassa-
tion. (q. v.) This court receives the peti-
7
tion of the appellant as well founded, if a
want of substantial validity, or an error in
form, is pointed out, or if the sentence has
manifestly been passed in violation of some
existing law; and they refer the cause, for
decision, to another court of assizes.
ASSONANCE, in rhetoric and poetry; a
term used when the words of a phrase
or verse have the same sound or termina-
tion, and yet make no proper rhyme.
This is usually a fault in English: the
Romans sometimes used it with elegance.
The Latins call this similiter desinens; the
Greeks, poιOTÝλεUTOV.
ASSONANT RHYMES is a term particu-
larly applied to a kind of verses, common
among the Spaniards, where the vowels
only are required to rhyme; as, ligera,
cubierta, tierra, mesa, may answer each
other in a kind of assonant rhyme.
ASSUMPSIT, in law, is an action to re-
cover a compensation in damages for the
non-performance of a parol promise;
that is, a promise, whether verbal or
written, not contained in a deed under
seal. For breach of a promise of the lat-
ter kind, assumpsit will not lie; but the
proper remedy is by action of covenant
or debt. The word assumpsit (Latin)
means he undertook, and has been taken
as the name of this action, from its occur-
rence in declarations; i. e., formal state-
ments of the plaintiff's cause of action,
when these were in Latin. The common
law adopts the maxim, that a mere nude
agreement and undertaking, without any
quid pro quo, will not constitute a binding
contract. This maxim is commonly said
to have been borrowed from the civil
law, where we find it laid down, that ex
nudo pacto non oritur actio : but this seems
rather to have referred to agreements
without certain formalities. (See Fon-
blanque On Equity, i. p. 326.) What our
law requires, in order to sustain a promise,
is termed a consideration; and it must be
either a benefit to the party promising, or
to some third person, in whom he takes
an interest; or detriment sustained by the
party to whom the promise is made, at
the request of the party making it. The
degree of benefit or detriment, or its rela-
tive proportion to the thing promised, is
immaterial. A promise in remuneration
of an act which the party is bound to
perforin, as a promise to a sailor of extra
pay for extraordinary exertion in extreme
peril of the ship, is void. The law re-
gards such exertion as the sailor's previ-
ous duty; the consideration, therefore, for
the promise, fails. Assumpsits are of two
kinds, express and implied; the former
ASSUMPSIT-ASTRACHAN.
are where the contracts are actually made,
in word or writing; the latter are such as
the law implies from the justice of the
case; as, for instance, if I employ an ar-
tificer to do any work for me, the obvious
justice of my paying him a reasonable
sum for that work, when done, raises an
implication, in the understanding of the
law, of a promise on my part to pay him.
ASSUMPTION; a city in Paraguay. (See
Asuncion.)
ASSUMPTION is the festival by which
the Roman and Greek Catholic churches
celebrate the miraculous ascent of the
Virgin, on the 15th of August. One of
Raphael's earlier pictures represents the
empty coffin in which, according to the
Catholic tradition, flowers were found
after Mary had ascended to heaven. The
picture is now in the Vatican.
ASSURANCE. (See Insurance.)
ASSYRIA; a kingdom of Asia, formerly
of great celebrity. Its limits were dif
ferent at different times. A., originally,
was bounded on the N. by mount Nipha-
tes and Armenia the Greater; on the W.
by Mesopotamia; on the S. by Susiana;
and on the E. by Media. Ashur is said to
have founded it. Its most famous mon-
archs are Ninus (q. v.) and his widow and
successor, Semiramis. Ninus subdued
the Babylonian, the Median and several
other kingdoms, and united them to his
own. In the time of Sardanapalus (about
900 years before the Christian æra, or,
according to Volney, 717), Arbaces, gov-
ernor of Media, made himself master of
the kingdom of A. Herodotus, whose
correctness has been proved by Volney,
fixes the duration of the Assyrian empire
in Upper Asia at 520 years. It was then
divided into three kingdoms—the Median,
Assyrian and Babylonian,-the principal
part of which were before included in
the Assyrian. Soon after, A. rose again
to a resemblance of its former splendor,
while Media and Babylon again yielded
to its superiority. Salmanassar was then
the sovereign of the empire, and Nineveh
the capital. About 700 B. C., Media
again revolted. Cyaxares, the king of
Media, afterwards forming an alliance
with Nabopalassar, governor of Babylon,
they marched against Nineveh, and de-
stroyed it, B. C. 606. A. now became a
province of Media; and Babylon, by the
victories of Nebuchadnezzar, was made a
powerful kingdom, B. C. 600. About 550
years before the Christian æra, the three
kingdoms were united by the victorious
Cyrus (q. v.) of Persia.
ASTARTE; a Syrian goddess, probably
429
corresponding to the Semele of the Greeks
and the Astaroth of the Hebrews. Ac-
cording to Lucian, she had a very ancient
temple in Phoenicia. Some also believe
her to be the same with Here (the Juno of
the Romans), and others with Aphrodite.
ASTERIA, a gem, sometimes called the
cat's eye, or oculus felis. It is a beautiful
stone, and somewhat approaches to the
nature of the opal. It is very small, and
has only two colors, a pale-brown or white.
It is hard, and will take a fine polish. The
stone is found in the East and West In-
dies and in Europe. In Bohemia, they
are often found imbedded in the same
masses of jasper with opal.
ASTERISK (a small star); a sign to refer
to notes. The ancient critics made use
of this sign, or of a cross (obelus), to point
out an incorrect passage in the text of an
author. Others used the same mark as a
sign of the correctness of a passage.
ASTHMA; a frequent, difficult and short
respiration, joined with a hissing sound
and a cough, especially during the night,
and when the body is in a prone pos-
ture.
ASTLEY, John; a native of Wem in
Shropshire, who adopted the profession
of a portrait painter, and was a pupil of
Hudson, the master of sir Joshua Rey-
nolds. He is known by his marriage
with lady Daniel, a lady of large fortune,
whom he had painted. He died in 1787.
ASTLEY, Philip; the founder of the
royal amphitheatre near Westminster
bridge, London, and the author of some
literary productions. He was born at
Newcastle-under-Line, in 1742, served in
the English cavalry, in Germany, for seven
years, and, on his return, began to exhibit
equestrian performances. In 1780, he
erected a building which he called the
amphitheatre riding-house, and for which
he subsequently procured a license. He
erected, afterwards, several amphitheatres
in England and Paris, and wrote a trea-
tise on horsemanship, also two works of a
military character. He died at Paris,
Oct. 20, 1814, aged 72.
ASTRACHAN, or ASTRAKHAN, a viceroy-
alty of the Russian empire, extending
from 46° to 52° N. lat., containing 293,000
sq. miles, with 2,600,000 inhabitants, is di-
vided into three governments-Astrakhan
(72,600 sq. miles; 223,000 inhabitants),
Saratov and Orenburg. It is bounded
on the N. by the country of the Bulgari-
ans and Bashkeers; on the S. by the Cas-
pian sea; on the W. by the Wolga, which
separates it from the Nogai Tartars and
the Cossacks of the Don; and on the E.
430
ASTRACAN-ASTROLOGY.
by a long chain of mountains, which di-
vides it from Tartary. The summer is
long, and very hot; the winter lasts three
months, and is very severe. The rich
and fertile soil is not cultivated by the
Tartars. On the W. and S. side are large
heaths, which afford fine salt in abun-
dance. The capital, Astrakhan, E. lon.
48° 2′ 15″, N. lat. 46° 21′ 12", is on the
island Seitza, in the Wolga, about 34
miles from the entrance of this river into
the Caspian sea. It is the see of a Greek
archbishop and of an Armenian bishop;
has 25 Greek, 2 Armenian churches, 26
Tartar mosques, an Indian temple, a high
school, a seminary for priests, a botanical
garden, and many manufactures. The
city, with the suburbs, is 4 miles in cir-
cumference. It contains, in 3800 houses,
30,000 inhabitants, consisting of Arme-
nians, Tartars, Persians and Hindoos, be-
sides 20,000 people who spend some time
in the year there, on account of the fishe-
ries. The houses are of wood, mean and
inconvenient. The environs are covered
with gardens and vineyards. The stur-
geons, which are taken in the Wolga, are
salted, and carried through all parts of
Russia. In winter, they are transported
without salting. The trade in caviar is
of some importance. Besides sturgeons,
seals and other fish are caught here.
From July to Oct. large swarms of lo-
custs are not unfrequent. Formerly, As-
trakhan had commerce with Khiwa and
Bukhara: at present, its trade is limited to
Persia and the interior of Russia, but is
still considerable. 60 vessels and 7 car-
avans arrive here annually. The exports
are leather, linen, woollen cloth, and other
European manufactures. Astrakhan im-
ports from Persia silk ribbons worked with
gold for sale in Poland, also silk and cotton
stuffs, rice, raw cotton, rhubarb and some
other drugs; chiefly, however, raw silk.
The capital of the Ural-Cossacks, Ural-
skoi (containing 4000 wooden houses and
18,000 inhabitants), belongs also to this
government.
ASTROGNOSY (from acrǹp, a star, and
yivúckw, I know); the science which
teaches the constellations, ranks, &c., of
the stars. (See Astronomy.)
ASTROLABE (planisphere, analemma;
from derp, a star, and Xapßárw, I take); an
instrument for measuring the degrees,
minutes, and sometimes even the seconds,
of angles. It generally consists of a hori-
zontal circular plate of metal, having
those divisions on its extreme circumfe-
The utmost accuracy may be
obtained in the measurement of angles,
rence.
by means of a peculiar contrivance
(vernier), which consists of an arc, on
which the smallest divisions of the circle
are subdivided as minutely as is requisite
in the observations, and as the skill of the
maker can graduate it. This arc is mov-
able, so that it can be fitted to the divis-
ions of the circle. Fixed to this circle
are two indexes, provided with telescopes.
One of them is immovable; the other
turns round the centre of the instrument.
By taking sight from the vertex of the
angle, at two fixed points in the direction
of its sides, the arc, which measures the
angle, is intersected on the circle of the
instrument. In modern astronomy, this
instrument is no longer used, except in
the practical applications of geometry.
The first application of the astrolabe to
navigation was made by the physicians
Roderic and Joseph, and Martin Behaim
of
Nuremberg, when John II, king of Por-
tugal, desired them to invent a method of
preserving a certain course at sea. They
taught how to discover the situation of a
vessel at sea without the use of the mag-
netic needle.
ASTROLOGY; an art which pretends to
foretell future events, especially the fate
of men, from the position of the stars. It
is among the oldest superstitions in the
world, and, as Bailly conjectures, with
great apparent probability, it owes its
origin to the influence of the heavenly
bodies, particularly the sun and moon, on
the seasons, the weather, and the fertility
of the earth. This led to the idea that
these luminaries were created only for the
use of the planet we inhabit, and that, as
they have an influence upon the earth,
they probably have some connexion with
the destiny of individuals and of nations.
The Egyptians have a tradition that Belus
founded a colony from Egypt on the banks
of the Euphrates, in Asia; and this colony
was furnished with priests, according to
the custom of the mother country, who
were free from public taxes, and were
called, by the Babylonians, Chaldees.
Hence it may be conjectured, that astrolo-
gy was invented by the Egyptians; among
whom the inhabitants of Thebes partic-
ularly claimed the honor of the invention.
Most of the ancient writers are agreed,
that astrology was communicated by the
Chaldecs to other nations. From this
circumstance, astrologers used to be called
Chaldees by the ancient writers; sometimes
Genethliaci (see Genethliacon); and, in later
times, Chaldee has been synonymous with
astrologer. (See Horoscope.) The great
antiquity of this art may be inferred from
ASTROLOGY-ASTRONOMY.
the fact, that most astrological observa-
tions are founded on the position of the
stars in reference to the horizon, which
was the first circle recognised in the
heavens; also from its being mentioned in
the Mosaic history. As astrology, in later
times, fell into disrepute on account of the
cupidity and fraud of its practitioners,
these assumed the name of mathemati-
cians, by which they were generally
known at the time of the Roman em-
perors. They caused so much trouble,
that Tiberius at length banished them
from Rome. The law relating to this ban-
ishment of astrologers, however, makes a
distinction between geometry and the
mathematical, i. e., astrological, art.-How-
ever objectionable astrology may be in it-
seif, it has been of essential use to astron-
omy. It has excited more interest in, and
led to more careful observations of, the
heavenly bodies. During the middle
ages, astrology and astronomy were culti-
vated in connexion by the Arabs, and
their works on the subject are still extant.
Pico of Mirandola, who manfully combat-
ted the errors of astrology towards the
close of the 15th century, found but little
attention paid to his labors. Even in the
16th and 17th centuries, astrology could
boast of literary men, such as Cardano,
and even Kepler, among its adherents.
The Copernican system, the correctness
of which experience has been continually
confirming, has shaken the foundations
of the ancient science; but the disease is
not wholly eradicated. A full account
of astrological terminology is given in
Lalande's Astronomy, vol. i. (2nd edition),
sect. 497.
ASTRONOMY (from dorpor, a heavenly
body, and ripos, law) is the science of the
heavenly bodies and their motions. It is
founded on observation, but it receives its
last perfection from calculation. What an
interval from the imperfect notions of the
Chaldean shepherd and the Phoenician
mariner to the Celestial Mechanics of a
Laplace! How many centuries of obser-
vations were necessary to render the mo-
tion of the earth suspected! How slow
the progress to the laws of planetary mo-
tion, and from those laws to a universal
principle of gravitation! Founded on
geometrical considerations, this great
principle explains all the celestial phe-
nomena in their minutest details: there is
not a single seeming irregularity which
does not necessarily result from it. Out-
running the cautious advances of observa-
tion, it descends from causes to phenom-
ena, and renders astronomy a great me-
431
chanical problem, of which the only data
necessary are the motions, figures and
magnitudes of the heavenly bodies. That
part of the science which relates to their
motions, magnitudes and periods of revo-
lution, is called descriptive astronomy; that
part which explains the causes of their
motions, and demonstrates the laws by
which those causes operate, is called
physical astronomy. From a simple view
of the heavens, we see stars, with which
the blue vault above us is sprinkled, ap-
pear regularly in a certain point, rise with
a uniform motion to a certain elevation,
and then descend, and disappear in the
opposite quarter of the heavens. This
motion is common to all the heavenly
bodies, and is performed in equal times,
though they appear to pass through arcs
of very different magnitudes. At a ccr-
tain point, this notion appears to cease:
this point is called the pole, which signi-
fies a pivot, on which the heavens appear
to turn. The celestial vault being con-
ceived as fonning a sphere, there are two
of these points: that which is visible in
our hemisphere is the north celestial pole;
and that which is visible in the opposite
hemisphere is the south celestial pole. The
circle which bounds our view on all sides
is called the horizon, or boundary: its
plane passes through the centre of the
earth: it is also called the celestial or
rational horizon, to distinguish it from the
sensible horizon, which limits the view of
objects on the surface of the earth. A
circle perpendicular to the horizon, pass-
ing through the poles, is called the meridi-
an. It divides the celestial hemisphere
into two equal parts, so that the heavenly
bodies, at the moment they arrive at this
circle, are at the middle of their apparent
course: the passage of the sun over this
circle determines the instant of noon.
The period occupied by the stars in pass-
ing from this circle through the celestial
sphere, and returning to the same point, is
called a siderial day, and is a little less than
24 hours. As we remove from the poles,
the arcs described by the stars gradually
increase, and at an equal distance between
them, we find the largest, which, dividing
the celestial sphere into two equal parts, is
called the celestial equator. A line drawn
from the centre of the globe, through the
place of the observer, ascertains a point
in the heavens, perpendicularly over his
head, which is called the zenith: the same
line produced in the opposite direction
determines a point in the opposite part of
the heavens, which is called the nadir.
We have thus far spoken of the ascend-
432
ASTRONOMY.
ing and descending of the heavenly bod-
ies in the heavenly vault. But does all this
train of worlds actually move round the
earth daily? Or can it be proved that
our senses deceive us, and that this ap-
parent motion is an illusion? The true
cause of these appearances is the motion
of the earth round its own axis, from W.
to E., in the space of nearly 24 hours. A
moment's reflection will convince us that
the horizon of the observer, as it turns
along with him during the rotation of the
earth, must advance towards the stars
successively, so as to give them the ap-
pearance of gradually approaching the
horizon; as a vessel leaving the shore
causes it to appear to recede to a person
on board. As the meridian turns at the
same time, it must arrive successively at
the same stars, which will then appear to
have ascended to the middle part of the
course they describe above the horizon.
As soon as the star touches the western
verge of the horizon, it appears to set, and
ceases to be visible until the motion of the
earth again brings it back on the eastern
boundary of the same circle. But has
the earth no other motion? Every one
must have observed that the sun, besides
its apparent diurnal motion, which it has
in common with all the stars, appears in
the course of a year to change its place in
a twofold manner. First, it appears to
rise and sink alternately towards one or
other of the poles; and, secondly, if we
observe its place among the stars, it ap-
pears either that the sun recedes daily to-
wards the east, or that the stars advance
daily towards the west; for the stars,
which we see at one time set inmediately
after the sun, are, on the following even-
ing, lost in his rays: some days after, they
reappear in the east, and their rising
precedes daily more and more that of
the sun.
At last, after a year, or about
365 days, the sun and stars are again
seen in the same relative position. The
complexity of these motions is increased
by the confusion presented by the appa-
rent motion of the other planets: some-
times they seem to be hurried along with
great rapidity; at other times they appear
stationary, and, at still others, retrograde.
All this seeming chaos of motions is re-
duced to order by a knowledge of the
fact, that, while the earth turns on its axis,
it advances, at the same time, in absolute
space from west to east, and performs an
entire revolution round the sun in the
course of a year, in a plane inclined to
the equator. The circle which the centre
of the earth describes in this revolution,
and which is the apparent path of the sun,
is called the ecliptic. The axis of the earth
remaining always parallel to itself, the
opposite poles will be directed towards
the sun once in each revolution. When a
pole is directed towards the sun, it receives
more light and heat, and for a longer pe-
riod, than at any other portion of the revo-
lution. It is then the summer solstice in
that hemisphere; the days are longest, the
nights shortest, and the heat greatest. Six
months, or, rather, half a year from that
period, every thing is reversed; the same
pole is turned from the sun; the light and
heat is received in small quantities, and
for a short period; the days are short, the
nights long; the cold intense: it is the
winter solstice. At two other points of the
orbit, equidistant from each other and
from the solstices, the poles are equally
inclined to the sun; they receive an
equal supply of heat and light, and dur-
ing equal periods; the days and nights
are equal all over the globe: it is the ver-
nal or autumnal equinox. The diurnal
rotation of the earth on its own axis pro-
duces, therefore, the alternation of day
and night. The annual revolution round
the sun, and the obliquity of the ecliptic
to the equator, causes the changes of the
seasons. The daily rotation of the earthı
produces, also, the phenomena of tides
in the ocean and the atmosphere. (See
Tides.)—Let us now take a more general
view of the celestial phenomena. The
discovery of peculiar qualities common to
a number of heavenly bodies, has led to
the formation of classes (see Planets, Sat-
ellites, Comets, Fixed Stars); or convenience
of description has clustered them into
groups with fanciful names (see Constella-
lions); or their peculiar influence on hu-
man affairs has given a name to indi-
viduals (see Sun, Moon, Earth, &c.). At
first view, the stars in general do not seemi
to change their relative positions; and, if
they have particular motions, a long series
of observations is necessary to render then
sensible. But, by continuing to compare
the heavens at different epochs, we per-
reive that some of them are distinguished
by relative motions, and by the nature
of the light which they transmit to us.
These we call planets, that is, wandering
stars, in distinction from those, which,
maintaining always the same relative po-
sitions, are called fixed stars. The planets
transmit to us a soft, mild, steady light,
never exhibiting any change of color.
They are opaque bodies, and their light
is only a reflection of that which they re-
ceive from the sun, around which they
ļ
ASTRONOMY.
revolve in regular but unequal periods,turn-
ing at the same time on their axes. Their
number now known is 11. We mention
them in the order of their distances from
the sun-Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars,
Vesta, Juno, Ceres, Pallas, Jupiter, Saturn,
and Uranus, or Herschel. Five of these are
visible to the naked eye, and were known
to the ancients; five have been discovered
in modern times by the aid of the teles-
cope. Some of these bodies have smaller
ones in their neighborhood, which revolve
round them at the same time that they
accompany them in their orbits of revo-
lution round the sun, and turn on their
own axes. The former are called prima-
ry, to distinguish them from these attend-
ants, which are called the secondary plan-
ets, or satellites. The latter are opaque, like
the former. The earth is accompanied by
one, which is called the moon, Jupiter by
four, Saturn by seven, with his remarkable
ring, and Herschel by six. The interposi-
tion of one of the planets between the sun
and an observer stationed on another
planet, produces an eclipse. (q. v.) From
time to time, small specks appear in the
heavens, of a feeble lustre, moving slowly
in the midst of the other stars. Gradual-
ly, as they approach nearer, their velocity
increases; their light is more brilliant; and,
after passing into the immediate vicinity
of the earth and sun, they recede again,
and disappear in the distance. These
are called comets (which signifies hairy
bodies) from the peculiar luminous train
by which they are attended, and which
the ancients called hair, and the moderns,
tail. These bodies, long the objects of
terror to man, as the harbingers of pesti-
lence and war, are now known to be sub-
ject to the common laws of nature, and to
revolve round the sun in regular periods.
The sun, the 11 primary and 18 seconda-
ry planets, and the comets, constitute the
solar system. Far beyond these limits, at
an immeasurable distance, lie the fixed
stars, infinite in number, of a brilliant lus-
tre, and constantly changing color. Their
distance, and the brilliancy of their light,
with the fact that their magnitudes remain
always the same, render it probable that
they are luminous bodies, like so many
suns. They have been formed into
groups of arbitrary extent, under the
names of gods, men, beasts, &c., which
are called constellations. Of these the
ancients knew 48; the moderns have in-
creased the number to more than 100.
should be understood, that the stars,
thus grouped together under one name,
have no connexion with each other, but
37
VOL. I.
433
are so arranged for convenience of de-
scription. The first astronomers, in order
to estimate better the apparent motion
of the sun, referred it to those constella-
tions through which it appeared to pass,
and which are 12 in number. They are,
in Latin, Aries, Taurus, Gemini, Cancer,
Leo, Virgo, Libra, Scorpio, Sagittarius,
Capricornus, Aquarius and Pisces. The
zone, or band, which contains them, is
called the zodiac (q. v.), and each constel-
lation is called a sign of the zodiac. In
consequence of a motion of the earth's
axis, the constellations no longer corre-
spond to the same points of the orbit; but
as we confine the name signs to the 12
divisions of the circumference of the cir-
cle, which measures the whole revolution
of the earth, and as these divisions do not
change, the vernal equinox always cor-
responds to the first point of the sign
Aries, the summer solstice to the first
point of the sign Cancer, the autumnal
equinox to that of Libra, and the winter
solstice to that of Capricorn, although the
constellations, which bear these names,
have ceased to be connected with these
seasons. (See Precession of the Equinox-
es.) To penetrate yet farther into the
heavens, it is necessary to aid the imper-
fection of vision by the telescope, which
discovers to us millions of stars in the in-
finity of space. In a clear night, turn
your eyes to the irregular zone of whitish
light: it is the milky way (q. v.): you will
find it to consist of an infinite number of
stars, whose inconceivable distance ren-
ders their light too feeble to make a dis-
tinct impression on the naked eye. Con-
tinue your examination, and you will
observe luminous spots of an undefined
shape: these are nebulæ, some of which
a further observation will show you to be
assemblages of stars, like the milky way,
while others will appear to consist of an
unbroken mass of whitish light. You
will find, also, some stars to be variable,
undergoing a periodical change of bright-
ness: some, which appear single to the
naked eye, will be found to be double,
triple, &c., and to revolve round a com-
mon centre of gravity by twos, threes, &c.
Compare your observations with those of
your predecessors, and you will find that
new stars have appeared at different
times, and afterwards disappeared, and
that others have experienced a change in
the intensity of their light. Of the actual
magnitude and distance of the stars we
know nothing. The diameter of the
earth's orbit is 200,000,000 miles; yet
we can detect no difference in their ap-
1
$
434
us.
ASTRONOMY-HISTORY OF ASTRONOMY.
parent places, viewed from the opposite
points of this diameter: a change of place
amounting only to a second would be de-
tected by the accuracy of modern obser-
vations: geometrical considerations, there-
fore, prove that the nearest star cannot be
less than 20 billions of miles distant from
After considering the apparent mo-
tions of the heavenly bodies, and the real
motions which give rise to these appear-
ances, physical astronomy rises to the
explanation of the cause, and the investi-
gation of the laws, of the celestial phe-
nomena. Applying the laws of motion to
the heavenly bodies, it discovers a force
operating throughout, which is called at-
traction, the amount of which is directly
as the quantity of matter, and inversely
as the squares of the distances. By the
application of this general principle,
it descends to those more refined ine-
qualities, which, owing to their minute-
ness, or the length of their periods, would
escape or mislead the observer unassisted
by theory.
ASTRONOMY, history of. The history
of this science begins with the most re-
mote antiquity. The starry heavens must
have been one of the first and most strik-
ing objects which attracted the attention
of man, and his immediate wants com-
pelled him to attend to the revolution of
the seasons, the changes of the moon, &c.
The most ancient astronomical observa-
tions known to us are Chinese. Such a
one, mentioned by Montucla (see p. 455
of his work, vol. 1, quoted below), viz., a
conjunction of Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, Mer-
cury and the moon, occurs almost 2500
years before our æra. The Chaldeans
also boast of some very ancient astronom-
ical observations, but Ptolemy (q. v.) only
mentions two lunar eclipses observed by
them, about 700 B. C. Still less impor-
tance does he ascribe to the astronomical
knowledge of the Egyptians, although the
placing of their pyramids in a position ex-
actly facing the four cardinal points of the
compass, the zodiacs discovered in Egypt
(see Zodiac), and other circumstances, are
by no means calculated to give us such a
disadvantageous idea of it. The theory of
Bailly, a later historian of astronomy, re-
specting a nation settled in Middle Asia,
and possessed of profound astronomical
knowledge, seems as unfounded as our
acquaintance with Indian astronomy is
slight. The science made greater prog-
ress in Greece, and the Greek philoso-
pher Thales (q. v.), born 640 B. C., calcu-
lated a solar eclipse. Pythagoras, also,
seems to have been possessed of astro-
nomical knowledge. After him, the Athe-
nian Meton (433 B. C.) introduced the
famous lunar cycle of 19 years, at the end
of which time the new moon appears on
the same day of the year as at the begin-
ning of it, since 19 solar years constitute
very nearly 235 lunations-a discovery
which was then regarded as so important,
that the calculation was engraved in let-
ters of gold, whence the number, which
marks the year of the cycle, is still called
golden. Great progress was made in
astronomy under the Ptolemies, and we
find Timocharis and Aristyllus employed,
about 300 years B. C., in making useful
planetary observations. But they were
far surpassed, in philosophical spirit, by
Aristarchus (q. v.) of Samos, born 267
years B. C., who, according to the indu-
bitable evidence of Archimedes (see the
remarkable passage in the beginning of
Avenarius), taught the double motion of
the earth around its axis and around the
sun;* and, about 100 years after him,
Hipparchus (q. v.) determined more ex-
actly the length of the solar year, the
eccentricity of the sun's orbit, the preces-
sion of the equinoxes, and even undertook
a catalogue of the fixed stars; ausus, as
Pliny (Hist. Natur., lib. 2, cap. 26) ex-
presses himself, rem etiam Deo improbam,
annumerare posteris stellas, cœlo in heredi-
tatem cunctis relicto. From the time of
Hipparchus, a chasm exists in the history
of astronomy, till the commencement of
the 2d century after Christ, when Ptole-
my (q. v.) compiled a complete system of
astronomy, in 13 books, which is best
known under the name of Almagest, given
it by the Arabians, who translated it into
their language in 827, and which, as the
Ptolemæan system of the world, notwith-
standing its many errors, exposed in the
article Üniverse, system of the, in this work,
has maintained its value down to the latest
times. Among the Romans, on the con-
trary, astronomy was never much esteem-
ed; and no astronomical discovery had its
origin with them; though it must bo ob-
served, that expressions occur in Seneca's
Quæstiones Nat., vii. 13, respecting com-
ets, which are worthy of a riper age; and
* Aristarchus says expressly, 1st c., that the earth
revolves in an oblique circle around the sun, and
that the distance of the fixed stars is so great, that
this circle can only be considered as a point in com-
parison; but he seems to have come to this conclu-
sion, not as an astronomer, but as a Pythagorean,
regarding fire (the sun) as the centre of the uni-
verse. We take this occasion to correct the com-
indebted, for his system of the world, to this pas-
sage of Avenarius, as this book was not printed
till after his time.
HISTORY OF ASTRONOMY.
the service likewise deserves mention,
which Julius Cæsar rendered, by his cor-
rection of the calendar, the details of
which may be found in the article Calen-
dar. But, with the irruption of the bar-
barians on one side, and the destruction
of the Alexandrian library on the other,
such a total stagnation occurred in the
case of astronomy, as in that of the sci-
ences in general, that we find no traces
of astronomical study and observation,
till the 9th century, among the Arabs,
whose translation of Ptolemy's works
has already been mentioned. Öf their as-
tronomers, the caliph Almamon and the
princes Albategni and Thebith deserve
to be named. Among the Moors who
invaded Spain, there were Arabic schol-
ars, who transplanted the science to that
country. With the Mohammedan faith,
Arabic learning was likewise introduced
into Persia, the reigning prince of which,
Ulug-Beigh, in the beginning of the 15th
century, collected, at his capital, Samar-
cand, an assemblage of the most famous
living astronomers. But we must not
overrate the merits of the Arabian astron-
omers, since they confined themselves
entirely to the system of Ptolemy, and
confounded the science with the dreams
of astrology; though, on the other hand,
the benefits which they have rendered by
valuable observations of the fixed stars
(many of which, it is well known, still bear
Arabic names), of eclipses, of the obliquity
of the ecliptic (q. v.) &c., and by the
preservation of ancient mathematical
works, which have come to us in their
translations, are not to be forgotten.
Among the Christian nations, during this
time, a deep ignorance generally prevail-
ed, but the cultivation of the astronomical
sciences was not entirely neglected. Thus
the emperor Frederic II, who died in
1250, caused the Almagest (the Greek
original being no longer extant) to be
translated from the Arabic into Latin; and
and
king Alphonso of Castile, about the same
time, invited to his court several astrono-
mers, and commissioned them to prepare
a set of new astronomical tables, which,
under the name of Alphonsine tables, have
acquired much celebrity, but, in the 17th
century, differed a whole degree from the
true situation of the celestial bodies. We
pass over several less famous names, in
order to introduce those of the German
astronomer and mathematician, George
of Peurbach or Purbach, born in the Aus-
trian dominions, in 1423, who published
various valuable astronomical tables, such
as the table of sines, from 10 to 10', and
435
a still more famous scholar, John Müller,
born at Königsberg, in Franconia, and
thence called Regiomontanus, from whom
we possess the first good and complete
Ephemerides. After him, a brighter light
was shed over astronomy by Nicholas
Copernicus (q. v.), born in 1473, who
gave the science an entirely different
aspect, exploded the Ptolemæan hypoth-
esis, and, in its stead, substituted the Co-
pernican system of the world, which, with
a few modifications, is still prevalent, and
universally acknowledged to be correct.
He it was that gave the sun its place in
the centre of the planetary system; who
first conceived the bold idea, that the
earth is a planet, like Mercury, Venus,
and the rest, and moves, in common with
them, in a circle around the sun; and who
maintained that these circles (or, in con-
formity with subsequent corrections, these
orbits, differing but little from circles)
were sufficient to explain the most com-
plicated motions of the other planets, and
even their apparent cessations of motion
and retrogradations, which had hitherto
baffled all conjecture. How much free-
dom of spirit was required thus to rise
superior to the prejudices of centuries,
we are almost incompetent to judge, now
that the truth of the system is settled;
but his great countryman, Kepler, has
depicted the spirit of the man, by a few
energetic strokes, calling him virum max-
imo ingenio et quod in hoc exercitio magni
momenti est, animo libero. His system did
not, however, meet, immediately, with a
general reception; and, while Rheticus
and others were its advocates, some dis-
tinguished astronomers made objections
to it, among which the imperceptibleness
of any annual parallax of the fixed stars,
which it seemed must necessarily result
from the motion of the earth, was the one
of most weight. The most distinguished
of these opponents of the great Coperni-
cus was Tycho Brahe (q. v.), born in
Denmark, in 1546. He maintained that
the earth is immovable, in the centre
of the universe; that the whole heavens
turn around it in twenty-four hours; that
the moon, and also the sun, by virtue of
their own motions, describe circles
around the earth, while Mercury, and
the other planets describe epicycles
around the sun. (See Epicycle.) The
principal authority that Tycho adduced
in support of this opinion was, the literal
sense of various passages of the Bible,
where a total absence of motion is ascribed
to the earth; but, although he did much
injury to science by supporting this erro-

436
HISTORY OF ASTRONOMY.
neous opinion, we are under infinite obli-
gation to him for the great exactness of
his observations, which opened to his
pupil and assistant, Kepler (q. v.) of
Wurtemburg (born 1571, died 1631), the
way to the more accurate discovery of
the form of the celestial orbits, and the
true theory of the planets; for only eight
minutes' difference between the position
of the planet Mars, as calculated on the
hypothesis of the circle, and its actual
position, as observed by Tycho, gave this
sagacious astronomer occasion, as he ex-
presses himself, in p. 114 of his Astrono-
mia,*
* "ad totam astronomiam reforman-
dam," since he derived from it the ellipti-
cal forms of the orbits of the planets (differ-
ing, however, but little from the circles of
Copernicus), the sun being situated in one
of the foci of the ellipse. Advancing in
his glorious course, Kepler, moreover,
demonstrated that, in each elliptical revo-
lution of the planets around the sun, an
imaginary straight line, drawn from the
latter to the former (the radius vector),
always describes equal areas in equal
times; and, lastly, that, in the revolutions
of the planets and satellites, the squares
of the times of revolution are as the
cubes of the mean distances from the
larger body. These three important truths
are comprehended under the name of
Kepler's laws. About the same time,
Galileo (q. v.), who died in 1642, accom-
plished another step towards the more
accurate investigation of celestial mechan-
ics, by his discovery of the laws of the
descent of heavy bodies; and, although
the Catholic church compelled this phi-
losopher to abjure as heretical the doc-
trine which he had publicly promulgated
respecting the motion of the earth, to
which he had been led by his observa-
tions of the other celestial motions, made
by means of the telescope, then first in-
vented, this attempt to obstruct the march
of intellectual improvement only served
to show the impotency of such persecu-
tions. In the first 10 years of the 17th
* The title of this immortal work, containing the
code of theoretical astronomy, is, Astronomia nova,
'AiTiOdOYNTòs, seu Physica Coelestis tradita Commen-
tariis de Motibus Stella Martis, ex Observationibus
Tychonis Brahe, Jussu et Sumptibus Rudolphi II,
Romanorum Imperatoris, etc., plurium Annorum per-
tinaci Studio elaborata, Praga, a S. C. M. Mathe-
matico Joanne Keplero (1609, fol.).
These persecutions have, nevertheless, been
very recently repeated, and the public papers have
related the following anecdote :" About the begin-
ning of the year 1820, the professor of astronomy at
the academy della sapienza at Rome, signor Set-
tele, submitted the manuscript of his astronomical
lectures to the appointed authorities, soliciting per-
century, there appeared, in Dantzic, He-
velius, who was distinguished for his ob-
servations of Mars; in France, Cassini,
whose exertions in most of the branches
of astronomy were highly successful, and
who transmitted his industry and his en-
ergy to a son, grandson and great-grand-
son; and in Holland, Huygens, the famous
inventer of the pendulum, and the precur-
sor of the immortal Newton, in his inves-
tigations respecting celestial mechanics.
Newton himself (q. v.), born in 1642, was
engaged till a short time before his deatlı,
1727, in producing an entire revolution in
physical astronomy (see the preceding
article), while, by his Principia Mathemat-
ica Philosophic Naturalis, he became the
lawgiver of celestial mechanics, as Kep-
ler had been of theoretical astronomy, by
means of his Astronomia. Descartes had
sought the cause of the motion of the
planets around the sun, and of the satel-
lites around the planets, in the rotatory
motion of a subtile matter. Newton felt
the defects of this hypothesis, and proved,
with the superiority of true genius, that
the elliptical motion of the planets waз
caused by the combined action of the
attractive power exerting a force in the
inverse ratio of the squares of the dis-
tances, and of an impulse originally com-
municated to the planets, which impulse,
as may be demonstrated, continues for
ever in empty space. With Newton the
laws of the heavenly bodies were com-
pleted, and he and Kepler have left to
later times merely the developement of
the truths which they established. By the
application of their principles, several suc-
ceeding astronomers have gained a high
reputation; e. g., Halley, by his theory of
comets; Bouguer and Maupertius, by their
exertions to determine the form of the
earth; their countryman de la Caille, by
improving the doctrine of refraction; the
great German astronomer Tobias Mayer,
by his lunar tables; Bradley, by the dis-
covery of the aberration of light; also de
l'Isle, Lambert, Euler and others. (q. v.)
mission to print them. This was refused, “because
he defended the motion of the earth around the
sun"-a doctrine condemned by the Roman court,
as contrary to the Bible, and which had already
involved the immortal Galileo in the disgrace of
recantation. Not discouraged by this, Settele ap-
plied to the inquisition, with the request that it
would give an explanation of its own, adapted to
the present state of science. The inquisition was
silenced; permission was granted to print the book;
but Settele was ordered to add in a note,
formity with truth," that the persecutions which
Galileo had suffered were to be imputed not so
much to his system as to the improper language
used by him. This, however, is notoriously false.
" in con-
HISTORY OF ASTRONOMY.
In more recent times, Laplace, by his Mé-
canique Céleste, and Gauss, by his Theoria
Motus Corporum Cœlestium, have com-
pleted the structure of Newton; while
Zach, Lalande, Maskelyne, Bessel, Olbers,
Piazzi, Encke, Delambre, Biot, Arago, Me-
chain, Herschel, &c., have enlarged, on all
sides, the territory of the science. Thus
Herschel's discovery of the planet Uranus
and its moons, in 1781; Schröter's efforts
to obtain a knowledge of the surface of
our moon and of Venus; Piazzi's discov-
ery of Ceres, in 1801; Olbers' discovery
of Pallas, in 1803, and of Vesta, in 1807;
Harding's discovery of Juno, in 1804;
Olbers' and Encke's computation of the
orbits of two comets; the recent measure-
ments of a degree in France, England,
Germany, Sweden; the perfection which
has been given to astronomical instru-
ments, by Ramsden, Troughton, Reich-
enbach, &c., are well known; and the
combined industry of so many living as-
tronomers allows us to hope for no less
splendid results in the advancing im-
provement of astronomy.-On the advan-
tages of this science, it can scarcely be
necessary to dwell. "It need but be
mentioned," says Gehler, "to excite emo-
tions of grandeur; and the idea which it
gives us of the immensity of the universe,
and the power, wisdom and goodness of
its almighty Author, must inspire men of
the coldest feelings with sentiments of
admiration. It is not necessary for us to
point out the benefits which accrue from
it to the human race, by enabling them to
divide and observe the flight of time; its
use in navigation, the determination of
the situation of places on the earth, &c."
By the aid which it affords to navigation,
it exercises no small influence in the
general improvement of the human con-
dition. This science, moreover, unites the
strictness of mathematical reasoning with
an exalted feeling for the sublime and
beautiful, and fills the mind both with
confidence in itself, from its ability to cal-
culate with certainty the career of distant
worlds, and with a becoming humility in
reflecting how small a part of the universe
is our earth, and how brief its known
duration, compared with the immense
periods which enter into the calculations
of astronomy. Young says,
An undevout astronomer is mad.
There have been, however, several astron-
omers who believed in no God; being led,
by the contemplation of the necessary
laws of the heavenly bodies, to the belief
in a general, universal necessity.-Ger-
man literature contains a great number of
437
popular works on astronomy, of which
several are designed for ladies. Of the
numerous works on astronomy, we shall
only mention here the latest and most
important manuals and elementary works:
Astronomie par de Lalande, 3d ed., Paris,
1792, 3 vols., 4to. (there is an abridg-
ment of it-Abrége d'Astronomie par de
Lalande, Paris, 1795); Astronomie Theo-
rique et Pratique, par Delambre, Paris,
1814, 3 vols., 4to.-a work important
for professional astronomers; Schubert's
Theoretical Astronomy, Petersburg, 1798,
3 vols., 4to., and the new French edition
of the same work, 1822; Biot's Traité
Élémentaire d'Astronomie Physique, 2d ed.,
Paris, 1810, 3 vols.; Laplace's Exposition
du Système du Monde, 5th ed., Paris, 1824
(a general exposition of the results devel-
oped in the large work, Mécanique Céleste);
Bode's Illustrations of Astronomy (which
is confined to the less difficult propositions
of geometry and astronomy) 3d ed., Berlin,
1808, 2 vols.: together with this work, we
may mention Bürjas' Manual of Astrono-
my, Berlin, 1794, 5 vols., which requires,
however, more extensive knowledge. Ex-
cellent, though very condensed, is Bohn-
enberger's Astronomy, Tübingen, 1811.
Piazzi's Italian Manual of Astronomy is a
good work. Among the English treatises
are Woodhouse's Elementary Treatise on
Astronomy, 1823, and Ferguson's Lec-
tures on Astronomy, a popular work;
also Vince's Complete System of Astron-
omy, 3 vols., 4to., with additions, 1814.
To astronomers, practical and theoretical,
Bessel's Observations at the Observatory
of Königsberg, which have appeared in
folio since 1813, are indispensable. No-
tices of astronomical tables may be found
in the larger astronomical treatises men-
tioned. With respect to astronomical
periodicals, Zach's Monatl. Correspondenz
zur Beförderung der Erd- und Himmels-
Kunde, with which is connected Linde-
nau's and Bohnenberger's Astronom. Zeit-
schr., is continued under the title Corre-
spondence Astronomique, Géographique, &c.
du baron de Zach. Schumacher has also
published, in Copenhagen, since 1822,
Astronomische Nachrichten. The latest
observations may be also found in the
Paris Connaissance des Tems, and in the
Berlin Astronomisches Jahrbuch, which
has been published for more than 50
years. The history of astronomy may be
found at large in Montucla's already men-
tioned Histoire des Mathématiques, 4 vols.,
4to.; in Delambre's Histoire de l'Astrono-
mie Ancienne, celle du Moyen Age et Mod-
erne, Paris, 1817, 5 vols. 4to.; and in Bail-
37 *
438
HISTORY OF ASTRONOMY-ASYLUM.
ly's Histoire de l'Astronomie, of which the
first volume appeared in 1771, containing
the history of ancient astronomy, and the
3 other volumes, 1779 and 1782, contain-
ing the history of modern astronomy, fol-
lowed, in 1787, by his Traité de l'Astrono-
mie Indienne, which work, however, as
we have already remarked, must be used
with precaution, on account of the inclin-
ation of the author to adopt theories on
insufficient grounds.
·
ASTURIA, or the ASTURIAS; a Spanish
principality, of about 3670 square miles,
with 365,000 inhabitants. It is bounded
by Biscay on the east, Galicia on the
west, Castile and Old Leon on the south,
and the sea on the north. To this moun-
tainous country of the north of Spain
the Moor never penetrated with success.
There the Goth retreated, in the 8th cen-
tury, before the sword of the Saracen.
Each Asturian, therefore, thinks himself
a free hidalgo. The inhabitant of A.
lives more upon maize, chestnuts, fruits,
hazelnuts, game, fish, honey and beans,
than upon wheat or similar grain. The
pasture and cattle are excellent. Oil and
salt are wanting entirely. The Asturian
is less industrious than the Galician, and
less sociable than the Biscayan. The
mountains are not capable of supporting
all the inhabitants, and therefore the free
Asturian goes into the service of other
Spaniards, who are, in his eyes, much
less noble than himself, and becomes a
coachman or footman.-A. formerly en-
joyed many privileges, not belonging to
the Castilian provinces, in respect to its
interior administration, and in regard to
imposts. These were abolished at the
time of the revolution, but, since 1823, the
old state of things has been, in a great
measure, restored. The capital, Oviedo
(6000 inhabitants), has a university. In
Gihon, a sea-port (3200 inhabitants), is the
instituto Asturiano, for the cultivation of
mathematics, mineralogy and navigation.
The hereditary prince of Spain has borne,
since 1388, the title of prince of A., or de
las Asturias, according to the obsolete di-
vision into Á. de Oviedo and A. de San-
tillana, the two chief cities of this country.
ASTYAGES; son of Cyaxares, the last
king of the Medes. Herodotus relates,
he dreamed, that from the womb of
his daughter Mandane, married to Cam-
byses, king of Persia, there sprang up a
vine which spread over all Asia; and she
being with child, he resolved to kill the
infant as soon as it was born. The child
was Cyrus. Harpagus, being commis-
sioned to destroy it, preserved its life.
Astyages, learning long after what Har-
pagus had done, caused him to eat his
own son. Harpagus, in revenge, called
in Cyrus, who dethroned his grandfather,
after his victory at Pasargarda, in which
the Persians defeated the Medes, and put
an end to their monarchy. (See Cyrus.)
ASUNCION, Or NUESTRA SEÑORA DE LA
ASUNCION (in English, Assumption); the
chief city of Paraguay, 18 miles from the
first mouth of the Pilcomayo, built in
1538, and, in 1547, erected into a bishop-
ric. The streets are ill-made and crooked.
The population consisted, formerly, of
about 2000 Spanish colonists, and several
thousand mestizoes and Indians. The
climate is tenperate, and the adjacent
country rich and fertile: throughout the
year, many of the trees are either in foli-
age or loaded with fruits. The trading
boats from Buenos Ayres to A. take two or
three months to ascend the Plata, owing to
the force of the descending current.
has become more known, of late, as the
capital of Paraguay, and the residence of
the dictator, doctor Francia. (See Fran-
cia and Paraguay.) The latest inforna-
tion which we have of that part of the
world is to be found in the Historischer
Versuch über die Revolution von Paraguay,
&c. von J. R. Rengger und M. Long-
champ, Stuttgart, 1827 (1istorical Essay
on the Revolution of Paraguay, &c., by
J. R. Rengger and M. Longchamp).

A.
ASYLUM; a place to which persons
flee for protection. Among the ancients,
temples, statues of the gods and altars
afforded such a refuge, and it was deemed
an act of impiety to remove forcibly one
who had fled to them for protection.
The abuses of these institutions some-
times led men to forget their sacred char-
acter, as the Lacedemonians did in the
case of Pausanias, whom they starved in
the temple of Minerva. People who had
fled to asylums were often starved to
death by their pursuers, or the places of
refuge were set on fire. All temples and
sacred places, however, were not asylums,
but only those particularly consecrated
for this purpose. The emperor Tiberius
abolished them all, except the temples of
Juno and Æsculapius. These institutions
passed over to the Christian world.
der Constantine the Great, all Christian
churches were asylums for those who
were pursued by the officers of justice
or the violence of their enemies. The
younger Theodosius extended the privi-
lege, in 431, to all courts, gardens, walks
and houses belonging to the church. The
Franks confirmed the privilege, and, in
Un-
ASYLUM-ATE.
681, the synod of Toledo extended the
limits of asylums to 30 paces from every
church. This ecclesiastical privilege has
since prevailed in all Catholic countries.
It remained inviolate, at least in Italy,
while the papal government retained its
independence. It was a strong armor of
defence against the wild spirit of the mid-
dle ages, and was not without good con-
sequences at a time when force often
prevailed over justice. It also changed
civil punishments into ecclesiastical, lim-
ited the power of sovereigns, and extend-
ed the influence of the church. For this
reason, and because justice is now much
better administered, asylums have been
abolished in most modern countries. It
is generally known, and as generally re-
gretted, that the late pope Leo X, on his
accession to the apostolical see, reëstab-
lished the asylums, which had been abol-
ished by his predecessor, Pius VII; the
chief consequence of which has been to
afford the robbers in the papal dominions
a better opportunity to escape the pursuit
of the Austrian troops.-In England and
the U. States, this name has been given
to many charitable institutions for the re-
lief of orphans, blind, or dumb and deaf
persons, &c. In no countries are institu-
tions of this kind more common.
ASYMPTOTE; Commonly, a straight
line, which approaches a curve line, so
that the distance between them is con-
stantly diminishing, although they can
never meet, even if indefinitely continu-
ed. Hence Leibnitz called infinite spirits
the asymptotes of the Deity. An asymp-
tote may also be a curve.
ASYNDETON; the omission of the small
connecting particles of speech, in order to
render the expression more lively and
impressive. This is particularly the case
when a series of actions, quickly follow-
ing each other, is to be represented; e. g.,
in Virgil,
Ferte cito flammas, date vela, impellite remos.
ATAHUALPA, or ATABALIPA; the last
of the incas. He succeeded his father,
in 1529, on the throne of Quito, whilst
his brother Huascar obtained the king-
dom of Peru. They soon made war
against each other, when the latter was
defeated, and his kingdom fell into the
hands of A. The Spaniards, taking ad-
vantage of these internal disturbances,
with Pizarro at their head, invaded Peru,
where they were entertained with no
little hospitality by the king and the peo-
ple; but, instead of returning the kindness,
they held A. in captivity, and requested
439
him to acknowledge the king of Spain as
his master, and embrace the Christian re-
ligion. Upon his asking their authority
for this request, the friar Valverde gave
him the breviary as authority. A. put it
to his ear, and said, "It tells me nothing;"
then threw it away. This was made a
pretext for a massacre of the people and
the imprisonment of the king. He offered
a large sum of gold as a ransom: this the
Spaniards took, but still kept him prison-
At last, he was burnt, in 1533. (See
er.
Pizarro.)
ATALANTA. There were two persons of
this name in the ancient mythology. One
of them was a native of Arcadia, the
daughter of Iasus and Clymene, cele-
brated for her skill in archery. She slew,
with her arrows, the Centaurs Rhocus
and Hylæus, who were about to offer vi-
olence to her; sailed to Colchis with the
Argonauts, and was afterwards present at
the chase of the Calydonian boar, which
she first wounded; hence Meleager
awarded to her the prize. (See Calydon
and Meleager.)-The other was a daugh-
ter of Schoeneus, king of Seyros, re-
nowned for her beauty, and swiftness in
running. Conscious of her exquisite
beauty and her great fleetness, she im-
posed upon her lovers the severest condi-
tions. She required each to run a race
with her. Her admirer was to run before,
unarmed, while she followed him with a
dart. If she could not overtake him, she
was his own; but if he was conquered,
he was doomed to death, and his head set
up at the goal. Many had fallen victims
in the attempt, when Hippomenes, the
son of Mægareus, by the aid of Venus,
overcame her. The goddess gave him
three golden apples, which he threw be-
hind him, one after another, as he ran.
A. stopped to pick them up, and Hippo-
menes reached the goal before her. Her
former reserve now gave place to such
ungovernable passion, that she even pro-
faned the temple of Ceres, which stood
near the place of the race.
The angry
goddess changed both the parties into
lions, and compelled them, from that
time, to draw her chariot.
ATAMAN. (See Hetman.)
ATE; among the Greeks, the goddess
of hate, injustice and crime. Homer says
of her—
Jove's daughter. Ate, most pernicious power,
By whom all suffer, challenges from all
Reverence and fear. Delicate are her feet,
Which scorn the ground; and over human heads
She glides, injurious to the race of man;
Of two who strive, at least entangling one.
Cowper's Truns. Iliad, xix. 1. 90.
440
ATE-ATHANASIUS.
Just before the birth of Hercules, she ex-
cited Jupiter to a strain of boasting, and
thus afforded Juno an opportunity to
overreach him by bringing Eurystheus
first into the world. The indignant mon-
arch of the gods seized her by her hair,
precipitated her to the earth, and swore
that she should never return to Olympus.
Fable informs us, that she has ever since
paced the earth with incredible velocity,
and spread destruction and misery every
where. Hesiod calls her a daughter of
Eris.
ATELLANE FABULE (called, also, Os-
can plays); a kind of light interlude be-
tween the tragedy and comedy, which, in
ancient Rome, was not performed by the
regular company of actors, but by free-
born young Romans. This kind of play
is said to have originated from the ancient
Atella, a city of the Oscans, between Cap-
ua and Naples, and is, at the same time,
the beginning and all that remains of a
national Italian comedy, consisting of
farce seasoned by satire.
A TEMPO (Italian, in time), in music;
of similar signification with a battuta, and,
like that expression, seldom used but
when the time has been interrupted.-A
tempo, in any kind of fencing or fighting,
means a blow or thrust at the same time
with the antagonist's blow or thrust. It
is, of course, necessary that a tempo blows
should be made in such a way as to af-
ford, at the same time, a guard against the
other's thrust, or to prevent its full effect.
This kind of blows takes place particularly
in fighting with the broad-sword, when
the antagonist leaves himself much ex-
posed.
ATHALIAH; daughter of Omri, king of
Israel, and wife of Joram, king of Judah;
a woman of abandoned character, and
fond of power, who, after the death of
her son Ahaziah, opened her way to the
throne by the murder of 42 princes of the
royal blood. She reigned 6 years: in
the 7th, the high-priest, Jehoiada, placed
Joash, the young son of Ahaziah, on
the throne of his father. This prince had
been preserved and brought up secretly
in the temple by Jehosheba, the sister of
Joram and wife of Jehoiada. Athaliah,
attracted by the noise of the people, who
were crowding to the coronation of Joash,
entered with them into the temple, where
the ceremony was going on. At the
sight of the new king, surrounded by
priests, Levites, great officers of the king-
dom, and the joyful people, she was be-
side herself; she tore her hair, and cried
out, Treason! Jehoiada ordered her to be
immediately led from the temple by the
officers, and commanded that all who
should offer to defend her should be
slain; but she was put to death, at the
gate of her palace, without opposition.
This happened about 877 B. C. The
altars of Baal, which she had erected,
were thrown down, and the worship of
the true God restored. (See Second Book
of Kings, viii, ix.) Racine has written a
tragedy on this story.
ATHAMAS, the son of Æolus and Ena-
reta, governed a part of Boeotia. He was
the husband of Nephele. Their children
were Helle and Phryxus. Being after-
wards separated from Nephele, he had by
Ino, his second wife, Learchus, Melicertus
and Eurycleia. Ino, determining to get
rid of the children of Nephele, caused a
failure of the crops, and bribed the mes-
sengers, whom A. had sent to the oracle
to inquire the cause of the misfortune, to
bring for an answer, that the children of
Nephele must be sacrificed. Juno had
instigated her to this measure in order to
destroy her, hating her because she had
heen the nurse of Bacchus. But the
plan failed. Nephele preserved her chil-
dren by means of the golden ram, and
the messengers revealed the treachery of
Ino, who would have inevitably felt the
vengeance of A., had not the grateful
Bacchus conveyed away his nurse. A.,
supposing that she was put to death,
married Themisto, the daughter of Hyp-
seus, king of the Lapithæ. But Ino re-
turned, gained his love once more, and
excited the jealousy of Themisto to such
a pitch, that she determined to murder
Ino's children. With this view, she or-
dered their beds to be covered with black;
but Ino, suspicious of some evil design,
changed the clothes, and the unconscious
Themisto murdered her own children, and
became a victim to despair. Others re-
late, that A., having lost his reason
through the anger of Juno, and taking
Ino and her children for a lioness and her
whelps, seized Learchus, and dashed him
against a stone; that he then pursued
no, who, with Melicertus in her arms,
plunged into the sea. Stained with blood,
A. now abandoned Boeotia, and fled to
Phthiotis, where he built Alos, and again
united himself with Themisto; but, ac-
cording to Pausanias, he first went to
Audreus, who gave him the country
around the mountain Laphystium, which
afterwards came to the children of
Phryxus.
ATHANASIUS, Saint; bishop of Alex-
andria; a renowned father of the church,
ATHANASIUS-ATHAPESCOW.
born in that city, about 296. He had a
He had a
Christian education, and came into the
family of Alexander, afterwards arch-
bishop of Alexandria, whose private sec-
retary he became. He then went to St.
Anthony, led an ascetic life with that re-
nowned anchorite, but at length returned
to Alexandria, where he became a dea-
con. Alexander took him to the council
at Nice, where he gained the highest es-
teem of the fathers, by the talents which
he displayed in the Arian controversy.
He had a great share in the decrees passed
here, and thereby drew on himself the
hatred of the Arians. After six months, he
was appointed the successor of Alexan-
der. The complaints and accusations of
his enemies at length induced the em-
peror Constantine to summon him, in
334, before the councils of Tyre and Jeru-
salem. A. brought to light the iniquitous
arts which had been practised against
him, and threw his judges, who were
likewise his enemies, into such confusion,
that the imperial deputies could with
difficulty rescue him from their anger.
They could do nothing, however, further
than suspend him from his office. He
still continued in the discharge of his du-
ties, until the emperor, deceived by new
falsehoods, banished him to Treves. The
death of Constantine put an end to this
banishment at the end of a year and
some months. Constantius, emperor of
the East, recalled the holy patriarch. His
return to Alexandria resembled a triumph.
The Arians made new complaints against
him, and he was condemned by 90 Arian
bishops, assembled at Antioch. On the
contrary, 100 orthodox bishops, assembled
at Alexandria, declared him innocent;
and pope Julius confirmed this sentence,
in conjunction with more than 300 bish-
ops assembled at Sardis, from the East
and West. In consequence of this, he
returned a second time to his diocese.
But when Constans, emperor of the West,
died, and Constantius became master of
the whole empire, the Arians ventured to
rise up against A. They condemned him
in the councils of Arles and Milan, and,
as the worthy patriarch refused to listen
to any thing but an express command of
the emperor, when he was one day pre-
paring to celebrate a festival in the church,
5000 soldiers suddenly rushed in to make
him prisoner. But the surrounding priests
and monks placed him in security. A.,
displaced for a third time, fled into the
deserts of Egypt. His enemies pursued
him even here, and set a price on his
head. To relieve the hermits, who dwelt
441
in these solitary places, and who would
not betray his retreat, from suffering on
his account, he went into those parts of
the desert which were entirely uninhab-
ited. He was followed by a faithful ser-
vant, who, at the risk of his life, supplied
him with the means of subsistence. In
this undisturbed spot, A. composed many
writings, full of eloquence, to strengthen
the faith of the believers, or expose the
falsehood of his enemies. When Julian
the Apostate ascended the throne, he al-
lowed the orthodox bishops to return to
their churches. A. therefore returned,
after an absence of six years. The mild-
ness which he exercised towards his ene-
mies was imitated in Gaul, Spain, Italy
and Greece, and restored peace to the
church. But this peace was interrupted
by the complaints of the heathen, whose
temples the zeal of A. kept always empty.
They excited the emperor against him,
and he was obliged to fly to Thebais to
save his life. The death of the emperor,
and the accession of Jovian, again brought
him back; but, Valens becoming emperor
8 months after, and the Arians recovering
the superiority, he was once more com-
pelled to fly. He concealed himself in
the tomb of his father, where he remained
four months, until Valens, moved by the
pressing entreaties and threats of the Al-
exandrians, allowed him to return. From
this period, he remained undisturbed in
his office till he died, 373.-Of the 46
years of his official life, he spent 20 in
banishment, and the greatest part of the
remainder in defending the Nicene creed.
A. is one of the greatest men of whom
the church can boast. His deep mind,
his noble heart, his invincible courage,
his living faith, his unbounded benevo-
lence, sincere humility, lofty eloquence,
and strictly virtuous life, gained the honor
and love of all. His writings are on po-
lemical, historical and moral subjects.
The polemical treat chiefly of the myste-
rious doctrines of the Trinity, the incarna-
tion of Christ, and the divinity of the Holy
Spirit. The historical ones are of the
greatest importance for the history of the
church. In all his writings, the style is
distinguished, considering the age in
which they were produced, for clearness
and moderation. His Apology, addressed
to the emperor Constantine, is a master-
piece. The best edition is that of Mont-
faucon, 3 vols., fol., Paris, 1698. As a
supplement to this may be added the 2d
vol. of the Library of the Church Fathers,
from the same editor (1706).
*
ATHAPESсOW; a lake of North America,
442
ATHAPESCOW-ATHENS.
about 100 leagues long, and from 10 to 30
wide; lon. 110° W.; lat. 59° N. The name
is applied to the adjacent territory, and also
to a river which flows into the lake. Slave
river flows from it to Slavé lake.
ATHEISM (Greek, a priv. and Ocòs, God);
the doctrine which teaches the non-ex-
istence of God, and is opposed to theism,
or deism. As a disposition or a manner
of thinking in regard to religion, it is the
opposite of faith and belief. Atheism
is always found to prevail most in the
most depraved times; e. g., among the
Greeks after Pericles, among the Romans
after Augustus, among the French before
the revolution, in the time of the systéme
de la nature, &c. As men have at all
times conceived very different ideas of
the Supreme Being, it is evident that a
great variety must have existed in the
definitions of atheism: thus we find that
many of the most moral and noble men
have been called atheists, because their idea
of the Divine Being did not agree with that
of the multitude; e. g., Spinoza, a pattern
of virtue. And even in the present age,
persons are not wanting, who stamp every
one with the name of atheist, who does
not conceive God as separated from his
creation, like an artist from his work, and
governing it as an artist directs a ma-
chine. Others have asked whether there
ever existed a real atheist, because such a
one could not believe in any difference
between the good and the bad, the noble
and the base; and it is indeed doubtful
whether one could be found, though some
persons may pretend to this entire disbe-
lief. If we consider the immense variety
of conceptions entertained of the Supreme
Being, some of which are essentially
different from others, we shall come to
the conclusion, that no one should be re-
garded as an atheist as long as he believes
in the existence of virtue.
ATHELSTAN, king of England, succeed-
ed his father, Edward the Elder, in 925.
Though of illegitimate birth, his age and
talents caused him to be preferred to the
lawful children of Edward. He was vic-
torious in his wars with the Danes of
Northumberland, and the Scotch, by whom
they were assisted. After a signal overthrow
of his enemies at Brunsbury, he governed
in peace and with great ability. In his reign,
a law was passed conferring the rank of
thane on every merchant who had made
three sea voyages on his own account.
ATHENA. (See Minerva.)
ATHENEUM ('AOnvatov). 1. The name of
several places in Greece.-2. The cele-
brated school which Adrian established on
the Capitoline mount. Many learned men
received ample salaries for giving in-
struction in this institution, and that they
might be enabled to study at leisure.
Here, also, learned men assembled to ex-
change ideas on their writings. In fact,
it was what is now called a scientific
academy.-3. A gymnasium, at Ath-
ens, dedicated to Minerva, and destined
for assemblies of poets and orators. In-
struction was also given there to the
youth, and, in later times, the name was
applied to all places of education for the
young.-4. In modern times, the name
given to different establishments which
are connected with the sciences, as the
Athenée in Paris.-In the U. S. of America,
the name is frequently given to public libra-
ries frequented for the purpose of reading.
ATHENÆUS; a Greek rhetorician and
grammarian, who lived at Naucratis, in
Egypt, at the end of the second, and be-
ginning of the third century after Christ.
He has left an encyclopædian work, in the
form of conversation, called the Feast of
the Sophists, which is a rich, but ill-arranged
treasure of historical, antiquarian, philo-
sophical, grammatical, &c., knowledge.
The principal edition is by Schweighau-
ser, Strasburg, 1801-7, in 14 volumes.
ATHENAGORAS; a Platonic philosopher
of Athens, a convert to Christianity, who
wrote a Greek Apology for the Christians,
addressed to the emperor Marcus Aure-
lius, in 177, one of the earliest which ap-
peared. This legatio or deprecatio pro
Christ. defends the Christians from the
accusations brought against them by the
heathens (of atheism, of incest, and of
eating murdered children), with a philo-
sophical spirit, and a lively and forcible
style. Lindner published, in 1774, the
latest edition of this Apology; also, a
treatise on the resurrection of the dead, an
able philosophical work on the possibility
and fitness of a resurrection.
ATHENS; called, by the Turks, Athiniah,
and also Setines; the celebrated city,
from whence the light of intellectual cul-
tivation has spread for thousands of years,
down to our own time. This capital of
the old kingdom of Attica, and of the
more modern democracy, was founded by
Cecrops, 1550 years before Christ, and, in
the most ancient times, was called Cecro-
pia, which name, in after times, was re-
tained merely by the Acropolis. Under the
government of Ericthonius, it lost its old
name, and received that of Athens, proba-
bly from Minerva, who was called, by the
Greeks, Athena. The old city was built on
the summit of some rocks, which lie in the
ATHENS.
midst of a wide and pleasant plain, which
became filled with buildings as the inhabit-
ants increased; and this made the distinc-
tion between Acropolis and Catapolis,
or the upper and lower city. The citadel
or Acropolis was 60 stadia in circumfer-
ence, and included many extensive build-
ings. A. lies on the Saronic gulf, opposite
the eastern coast of the Peloponnesus.
It is built on a peninsula formed by the
junction of the Cephissus and Ilissus.
From the sea, where its real power lay,
it was distant about five leagues. It was
connected, by walls of great strength and
extent, with three harbors-the Piræus,
Munychia and Phalerum. The first was
considered the most convenient, and was
one of the emporiums of Grecian com-
merce. The surrounding coast was cov-
ered with magnificent buildings, whose
splendor vied with those of the city. The
walls of rough stone, which connected the
harbors with the city, were so broad, that
carriages could go on their top. The
Acropolis contained the most splendid
works of art of which A. could boast. Its
chief ornament was the Parthenon, or
temple of Minerva. This magnificent
building, which, even in ruins, has been
the wonder of the world, was 217 feet
long, 98 broad, and 65 high. Destroyed
by the Persians, it was rebuilt in a noble
manner by Pericles, 444 years B. C. Here
stood the statue of Minerva by Phidias, a
masterpiece of art, formed of ivory, 46
feet high, and richly decorated with gold,
whose weight was estimated at from 40
to 44 talents (2000 to 2200 pounds), which,
if we reckon according to Barthelemy,
the silver talent at 5700 livres, and the
ratio of gold to silver as 1 to 13, would
make a sum of 2,964,000, or 3,260,400
livres (523,700, or 576,004 dollars). The
Propylæum, built of white marble, formed
the entrance to the Parthenon. This
building lay on the north side of the
Acropolis, close to the Erectheum, also
of white marble, consisting of two tem-
ples, the one dedicated to Pallas Minerva,
and the other to Neptune; besides another
remarkable building, called the Pandro-
seum. In the circle of Minerva's temple
stood the olive-tree, sacred to that god-
dess. On the front part of the Acropolis,
and on each end, two theatres are visible,
the one of Bacchus, the other, the Odeum;
the former for dramatic exhibitions, the
latter for musical competitions, also built
with extraordinary splendor. The treas-
ury is also in the back part of the temple
of Minerva. In the lower city were
many fine specimens of architecture,
443
were
viz., the Poikile, or the gallery of histori-
cal paintings; besides the temple of the
Winds, built by Andronicus Cyrrhestes,
and the monuments of celebrated men.
But the greatest pieces of architecture
were without the city-the temples of
Theseus and Jupiter Olympius, one of
which stood on the north, the other on
the south side of the city. The first was
of Doric architecture, and resembled the
Parthenon. On the metopes of this tem-
ple the famous deeds of old heroes and
kings were excellently represented. The
temple of Jupiter Olympius was of Ionic
architecture, and far surpassed all the
other buildings of Athens in splendor
and beauty. Incalculable sums
spent on it. It was from time to time en-
larged, and rendered more beautiful, until,
at length, it was finished by Adrian. The
outside of this temple was adorned by
nearly 120 fluted columns, 60 feet high,
and 6 feet in diameter. The inside was
more than half a league in circumference.
Here stood the renowned statue of the
god made by Phidias, of gold and ivory.
The Pantheon (sacred to all the gods)
must not be forgotten. Of this the Pan-
theon at Rome is an exact copy. Besides
these wonderful works of art, Athens con-
tains many other places which must al-
ways be interesting, from the recollections
connected with them. The old philoso-
phers were not accustomed, as is well
known, to shut up their scholars in lec-
ture-rooms, but mingled with them on
the freest and pleasantest terms, and,
for this purpose, sought out spots which
were still and retired. Such a spot
was the renowned academy where Plato
taught, lying about six stadia north of the
city, forming a part of a place called Ce-
ramicus. This spot, originally marshy,
had been made a very pleasant place, by
planting rows of trees, and turning through
it streams of fresh water.
Such a place
was the Lyceum, where Aristotle taught,
and which, through him, became the seat
of the Peripatetic school. It lay on the
bank of the Ilissus, opposite the city, and
was also used for gymnastic exercises.
Not far from thence was the less renowned
Cynosarges, where Antisthenes, the foun-
der of the Cynic school, taught. The
sects of Zeno and Epicurus held their
meetings in the city. Zeno chose the
well-known Poikile, and Epicurus estab-
lished himself in a garden within the
walls, for he loved both society and rural
quiet. Not only literary, but political
assemblies gave a particular interest to
different places in Athens. Here was the
444
ATHENS.
court of areopagus, where that illustrious
body gave their decisions; the Prytaneum,
or senate-house; the Pnyx, where the free
people of Athens deliberated. After 23
centuries of war and devastation, of
changes from civilized to savage masters,
have passed over this great city, its ruins
still excite astonishment. No inconsider
able part of the Acropolis was lately stand-
ing. The Turks have surrounded it with
a broad, irregular wall. In this wall
one may perceive the remains of the old
wall, together with fragments of ancient
pillars, which have been taken from the
ruins of the old to construct new edifices.
The right wing of the Propylæum, built
by Pericles at an expense of 2012 talents,
and which formed the ancient entrance,
was a temple of victory. The roof of
this building stood as late as 1656, when
it was destroyed by the explosion of some
powder kept there. In a part of the
present wall, there are fragments of excel-
lent designs in basso relievo, representing
the contest of the Athenians with the
Amazons. On the opposite wing of the
Propylæum are six whole columns, with
gate-ways between them. These pillars,
half covered on the front side by the wall
built by the Turks, are of marble, white
as snow, and of the finest workmanship.
They consist of three or four stones, so
artfully joined together, that, though they
have been exposed to the weather for 2000
years, yet no separation has been ob-
served. From the Propylæum we step
into the Parthenon. On the eastern front
of this building, also, there are eight
columns standing, and several colonnades
on the side. Of the pediment, which
represented the contest of Neptune and
Minerva for Athens, there is nothing re-
maining but the head of a sea-horse, and
the figures of two women without heads;
but in all we must admire the highest
degree of truth and beauty. The battle
between the Centaurs and Lapithe is
better preserved. Of all the statues with
which it was adorned, that of Adrian
alone remains. The inside of this temple
is now changed into a mosque. In the
whole of this mutilated building, we find
an indescribable expression of grandeur
and sublimity. There are also astonish-
ing remains to be seen of the Erectheum
(the temple of Neptune Erectheus), es-
pecially the beautiful female figures called
Caryatides, and which form two arch-
ways. Of both theatres there is only so
much of the outer walls remaining, that
one can estimate their former condition
and enormous size. The arena has sunk
down, and is now planted with corn. In
the lower city itself, there are no vestiges
to be found of equal beauty and extent.
Near a church, sacred to Santa Maria
Maggiore, stand three very beautiful Co-
rinthian columns, which support an archi-
trave. They have been supposed to be
the remains of a temple of Jupiter
Olympius, but the opinion is not well
grounded: probably, they are the re-
mains of the old Poikile. The temple of
the Winds, built by Andronicus Cyrrhes-
tes, is not entire. Its form is an octagon:
on each side it is covered with reliefs,
which represent one of the principal
winds: the work is excellent. The pres-
ervation of this edifice is owing to its being
occupied by the dervises as a mosque.
Of the monuments of distinguished men,
with which a whole street was filled, only
the fine one of Lysicrates remains. It
consists of a pedestal surrounded by a
colonnade, and is surmounted by a dome
of Corinthian architecture. This has
been supposed to be the spot which De-
mosthenes used for his study, but the
supposition is not well supported. What
lord Elgin has done for the preservation
of the remains of old Grecian architec-
ture, may be seen by a reference to the
articles on Elgin, and Elgin's Marble
Monuments. Some prostrate walls are
the only remains of the splendid gym-
nasium built by Ptolemy. Outside of the
city, our wonder is excited by the lofty
ruins of the temple of the Olympian
Jupiter. Of 120 pillars, 16 remain; but
none of the statues are in existence. The
pedestals and inscriptions are scattered
here and there, and partly buried in the
earth. The main body of the temple of
Theseus has remained almost entire, but
much of it, as it now stands, is of modern
origin. The figures on the outside are
mostly destroyed, but those which adorn
the frieze within are well preserved.
They represent the actions of the heroes
of antiquity. The battle between The-
seus and the Centaur is likewise depicted.
On the hill where the famous court of
arcopagus held its sittings, you find steps
hewn in the rock, places for the judges to
sit, and over against these the stations of
the accuser and the accused. The hill is
now a Turkish burial-ground, and
covered with monuments. The Pnyx,
the place of assembly for the people, not
far from the Arcopagus, is very nearly in
its primitive state.
its primitive state. One may see the
place from which the orators spoke hewn
in the rock, the seats of the scribes, and,
at both ends, the places of those officers
ATHENS.
whose duty it was to preserve silence,
and to make known the event of public
deliberations. The niches are still to be
seen, where those who had any favor to
ask of the people deposited their pe-
titions. The paths for running are also
visible, where the gymnastic exercises
were performed, and which Herodes At-
ticus (q. v.) built of white marble. The
spot occupied by the Lyceum is only
known by a quantity of fallen stone. A
more modern edifice stands in the garden
in the place of the academy. In the sur-
rounding space, the walks of the Peripa-
tetics can be discerned, and some olive-
trees of high antiquity still coinmand the
reverence of the beholder. The long
walls are totally destroyed, though the
foundations are yet to be found on the
plain. The Piræus has scarcely any
thing of its ancient splendor, except a few
ruined pillars, scattered here and there:
the same is the case with the Phalerum
and Munychia. Some little commerce is
carried on here, and a custom-house stands
on the place. Modern Athens, in Livadia,
lately contained 1300 houses, and 12,000 in-
habitants, 2000 of whom were Turks. The
Greeks here experienced from the Turks
a milder government than elsewhere.
They also retained some remains of their
ancient customs, and annually chose
four archons. The Greek archbish-
op residing here had a considerable in-
come. In 1822, the Acropolis, after a
long siege, fell into the hands of the free
Greeks. In 1825, a Greek school, under
the care of the patriot professor George
Gennadios, was in a flourishing condition.
The most thorough investigation of the
places among the ruins of A. worthy of
attention, is contained in Leake's Topog-
raphy of Athens, with some Remarks
on its Antiquities, London, 1821, with an
atlas in folio. (See Stuart and Revett's
splendid work, the Antiquities of Ath-
ens, which the architect Eberhard copied,
and had printed on zinc plates, and pub-
lished, Darmstadt, 1824, folio.) Leake
makes it appear probable, that, in the time
of Pausanias, many monuments were ex-
tant which belonged to the period before
the Persian war; because so transitory a
possession as Xerxes had of the city,
scarcely gave him time to finish the de-
struction of the walls and principal public
edifices. In the restoration of the city to
its former state, Themistocles looked
more to the useful, Cimon to magnifi-
cence and splendor; and Pericles far sur-
passed them both in his buildings. The
great supply of money which he had from
38
VOL. I.
445
the tribute of the other states, belonged to
no succeeding ruler. A. at length saw
much of her ancient splendor restored;
but, unluckily, Attica was not an island,
and, after the sources of power, which
belonged to the fruitful and extensive
country of Macedonia, were developed by
an able and enlightened prince, the op-
posing interests of many free states could
not long withstand the disciplined army
of a warlike people, led by an active, able
and ambitious monarch. When Sylla
destroyed the works of the Piræus, the
power of A. by sea was at an end, and
with that fell the whole city. Flattered
by the triumvirate, favored by Adrian's
love of the arts, A. was at no time so
splendid as under the Antonines, when
the magnificent works of froin 8 to 10
centuries stood in view, and the edifices
of Pericles were in equal preservation
with the new buildings. Plutarch himself
wonders how the structures of Ictinus, of
Menesicles and Phidias, which were built
with such surprising rapidity, could retain
such a perpetual freshness. The most cor-
rect criticism on the accounts of Greece
by Pausanias and Strabo is in Leake.
Probably Pausanias saw Greece yet un-
plundered. The Romans, from reverence
towards a religion approaching so nearly
to their own, and wishing to conciliate a
people more cultivated than themselves,
were ashamed to rob temples where the
masterpieces of art were kept as sacred,
and were satisfied with a tribute of money
in Philipsdors, although in Sicily they
did not abstain from the plunder of the
temples, on account of the prevalence of
Carthaginian and Phoenician influence in
that island. Pictures, even in the time
of Pausanias, may have been left in their
places. The wholesale robberies of col-
lectors, the removal of great quantities of
the works of art to Constantinople, when
the creation of new specimens was no
longer possible, Christian zeal, and the
attacks of barbarians, destroyed, after a
time, in A., what the emperors had spared.
We have reason to think, that the colos-
sal statue of Minerva Promachos was
standing in the time of Alaric. About
420 A. D., paganism was totally annihi-
lated at A., and, when Justinian closed
even the schools of the philosophers, the
recollection of the mythology was lost.
The Parthenon was turned into a church
of the Virgin Mary, and St. George stepped
into the place of Theseus. The manu-
factory of silk, which had hitherto re-
mained, was destroyed by the transporta-
tion of a colony of weavers, by Roger of
446
ATHENS-ATHLETE.
Sicily, and, in 1456, the place fell into the
hands of Omar. To complete its degra-
dation, the city of Minerva obtained the
privilege (an enviable one in the East) of
being governed by a black eunuch, as an
appendage to the haram. The Parthenon
became a mosque, and, at the west end
of the Acropolis, those alterations were
commenced, which the new discovery of
artillery then made necessary. In 1687,
at the siege of A. by the Venetians under
Morosini, it appears that the temple of
Victory was destroyed, the beautiful re-
mains of which are to be seen in the
British museum. Sept. 28, of this year,
a bomb fired the powder-magazine kept
by the Turks in the Parthenon, and, with
this building, destroyed the ever memora-
ble remains of the genius of Phidias.
Probably, the Venetians knew not what
they destroyed; they could not have in-
tended that their artillery should ac-
complish such devastation. The city
was surrendered to them Sept. 29. They
wished to send the chariot of Victo-
ry, which stood on the west pediment
of the Parthenon, to Venice, as a trophy
of their conquest, but, in removing, it fell
and was dashed to pieces. April, 1688, A.
was again surrendered to the Turks, in
spite of the remonstrances of the inhab-
itants, who, with good reason, feared
the revenge of their returning masters.
Learned travellers have, since that time,
often visited A.; and we may thank their
relations and drawings for the knowledge
which we have of many of the monu-
ments of the place. How little the Greeks
of modern times have understood the im-
portance of these buildings, is proved
by Crusius' Turco-Grecia. From them
originated the names temple of the un-
known God, lantern of Demosthenes, &c.
It is doing injustice to the Turks to at-
tribute to them, exclusively, the crime
of destroying these remains of antiquity.
From these ruins the Greeks have sup-
plied themselves with all their materials
for building for hundreds of years. The
ruins are in the neighborhood of inhabited
places, and, in the seaport towns, are par-
ticularly exposed, because ease of trans-
portation is added to the daily want of
materials. In the mean time, the most
accessible part of A. has rich treasures to
reward well-directed researches; and each
fragment, which comes to light in A.,
proves the all-pervading art and taste of
this people. It is fortunate that many of
the remains of Grecian art have been
covered by barbarous structures, until a
brighter day should dawn on Greece.
ATHENS; a post-town of Georgia, in
Clarke co., on the Oconee; 92 W.N. W.
Augusta, 197 N. W. Savannah. It has a
very elevated, pleasant and healthy situa-
tion. It contained, in 1827, upwards of
70 dwelling-houses, and nearly 1000 in-
habitants. Franklin college, which, to-
gether with the incorporated academies
of the state, is styled the university of
Georgia, was incorporated and established
at this place in 1784, but did not go into
operation till 1803. The buildings consist
of two large brick edifices for the accom-
modation of students, a chapel, a steward's
hall, a brick building for the chemical and
the philosophical apparatus, and the library,
which contains about 2000 volumes, and
a building for a grammar-school, which is
connected with the college. The govern-
ment and instruction of the college are
intrusted to a president, four professors
and two tutors. The number of students,
in 1827, was 100.
The
ATHENS; a small post-town of Ohio,
and capital of a county of the same name,
41 miles W. Marietta, 52 E. Chillicothe;
lon. 182° 7′ W.; lat. 39° 23′ N. It is sit-
uated on an elevated peninsula, formed
by a large bend of the Hockhocking,
which meanders about the town.
situation is pleasant and healthy, and
commands an extensive prospect. An
institution is established here, styled the
Ohio university, which is endowed with
46,000 acres of land, yielding about 2300
dollars annually. A college edifice of brick,
large and elegant, was erected in 1817.
ATHLETE; combatants who took part
in the public games of Greece; also,
young men who went through the gym-
nastic exercises to harden themselves, and
to become fit to bear arms. In a nar-
rower sense, the athletæ are those who
make the athletic or gymnastic exer-
cises their principal business, particularly
wrestlers and boxers. Their business
was to contend at the public festivals;
and they regulated their habits of life
with reference to this purpose. They
were well fed, and were obliged to abstain
from intercourse with the other sex.
fore they were permitted to exhibit them-
selves at the public games, inquiries were
made respecting the birth, rank and con-
duct of each. A herald called out the
name of the athlete, and demanded of
all whether they had any objection against
him. After this examination, and after
the athlete had taken an oath that he
had complied with all the conditions
required, and that he would strictly obey
the laws of the contest, permission was
Be-
ATHLETÆ-ATLANTIC OCEAN.
given him to contend. The antagonists
were designated by lot. Not only the
applause of the people, but also crowns and
statues, were conferred upon the victor.
He was led in triumph; his name was
written in the public records; an Olym-
piad was named after him, and poets sung
his praise. He also received peculiar
privileges, had a yearly pension, and the
foremost seat at the sacred games. Par-
ticular honors were conferred on him by
his native city, for all his fellow-citizens
partook of his glory. (See Gymnastics.)
ATHOS, now Agion Oros, or Monte San-
to; a high mountain, or the extremity of
a long chain of mountains, in the province
of Salonica, in European Turkey, which
runs through a peninsula seven miles
long, and three miles broad, into the Ar-
chipelago. Xerxes caused a canal, half
a league wide, to be dug through the
neck of land which connects the penin-
sula with the continent, for the purpose
of conducting his fleet to Thessaly.
The mountain is about 5900 feet above
the level of the sea, and is inhabited by
Greeks. On the sides are about twenty
monasteries, and a multitude of hermit-
ages, which contain more than 6000
monks, mostly Russian, of the order of
St. Basil. These live here in a perfect
separation from the world, and under
such strict regulations, that they do not
tolerate any female being, not even of the
class of domestic animals, among them.
They are also extremely industrious: they
carve statues of the saints, Agnos Dei
and Paternosters, which they send to the
market-town of Kareis, on the mountain,
where weekly markets are held, and to
the rest of Europe, especially to Russia.
They also collect alms, to pay their heavy
taxes to the pacha and the Porte. They
have many schools. The holy mountain is
considered one of the most important
seminaries for instruction among the
Greeks, and the libraries of the monas-
teries are rich in literary treasures, particu-
larly in manuscripts, partly procured from
Constantinople, before its conquest by the
Turks, partly presented to them from the
same place, and partly written by the
laborious monks. Many books have been
brought thence to the great collections at
Paris, Vienna, &c. Their monasteries
and churches are the only ones in the
Ottoman empire which have bells.
ATHWART (par le travers, Fr., from a
and twert, Dan., transverse), when used in
navigation, implies across the line of the
course.
ATHWART-HAWSE; the situation of a
447
ship when she is driven by the wind,
tide, or other accident, across the fore-
part of another. This phrase is equally
applied when the ships bear against each
other, or when they are at a small dis-
tance; the transverse position of the for-
mer to the latter being principally under-
stood.-Athwart the fore-foot denotes the
flight of a cannon-ball from one ship
across the course of another, to intercept
the latter, and oblige her to shorten sail,
that the former may come near enough.
to examine her.
ATLANTICA, Atland eller Manheim; a
work, in Latin and Swedish, by O. Rud-
beck, in which the author, with great
learning, labors to prove a ludicrous hy-
pothesis, that the Atlantis of the ancients
was Sweden, and that the Romans,
Greeks, English, Danes and Germans
originated from Sweden. The work is
a typographic rarity.
typographic rarity. The first volume
appeared in 1675-79, at Upsal. Several
editions of it followed. The last Lat-
in edition is of 1699, and bears a high
price. Written copies of it are in several
European libraries.
ATLANTIC OCEAN; the mass of water
between the western coast of Europe and
Africa, and the eastern coast of America;
the only considerable aquatic communi-
cation between the polar extremities of
the earth, if we do not give to both its
extremities the name of the Frozen ocean.
The name is derived from Atlas. (q. v.)
The Atlantic, in its narrowest part, be-
tween Europe and Greenland, is upwards
of 1000 miles wide, and, opening thence
to the S. W. with the general range of
the bounding continents, spreads, under
the northern tropic, to a breadth of 60
degrees of longitude, or 4170 miles, with-
out estimating the gulf of Mexico. Be-
yond the torrid zone, the A. inflects to
the N. W. and S. E., again complying
with the bearing of the adjacent conti-
nents, which correspond with great ex-
actness to each other. The A. and its
gulfs occupy about the seventh part of the
superficies of the globe, curving round
the western, southern and northern part
of the eastern continent, from 72° N. lat.
to 35° S. lat., or through 107 degrees of
latitude. This immense strait is limited,
on the west, by the most lengthened land-
line, extending north and south, that can
be drawn on the carth. "When we cast
an eye over the Atlantic," says Humboldt,
in his Personal Narrative, "or that deep
valley which divides the western coasts
of Europe and Africa from the eastern
coasts of the new continent, we distin-
448
ATLANTIC OCEAN.
guish a contrary direction in the motion
of the waters. Between the tropics, es-
pecially from the coast of Senegal to the
Caribbean sea, the general current, that
which was earliest known to mariners,
flows constantly from east to west. This
is called the equinoctial current. Its mean
rapidity, corresponding to different lati-
tudes, is the same in the Atlantic and
Southern oceans, and may be estimated
at 9 or 10 miles in 24 hours; conse-
quently from 59 to 65 hundredths of a
foot every second of time." This great
observer also says, "In comparing the
observations which I had occasion to
make in the two hemispheres, with those
which are laid down in the Voyages of
Cook, la Perouse, d'Entrecasteaux, Van-
couver, Macartney, Krusenstern and Mar-
chand, I found that the swiftness of the
general current of the tropics varies from
third of a foot to one and two tenths per
second." The western equinoctial cur-
rent is felt, though feebly, as high as 28°
N. lat., and about as far south, though it
must be in excess along the equator.
The eastern salient point of South Amer-
ica being in upwards of 6° S. lat., the
great mass of ocean flood is unequally
divided. South from cape St. Roque,
the current is turned down the coast of
South America, and, between 30° and
40° S. lat., reacts towards Africa. North
from cape St. Roque, the coast of South
America bends to a general course of N.
62° W., and, with the Caribbean sea and
the gulf of Mexico, maintains that direc-
tion to the mouth of the Rio Grande del
Norte, 2560 miles. Along this coast, the
equinoctial current is inflected north-
ward, and augmented by constant accu-
mulations from the east; the whole
body pouring through the various inlets
between the Windward islands of the
West Indies into the Caribbean sea, and
thence, between Cuba and Yucatan, into
the gulf of Mexico. In the latter reser-
voir, it has reached its utmost elevation,
and again rushes out into the A. through
the Cuba and Bahama or Florida chan-
nel, and, sweeping along the coast of the
U. States and Nova Scotia, to about 50° N.
lat., meets the Arctic currents from Da-
vis's straits, and, from the Northern At-
lantic ocean, is turned towards Europe
and the north-west of Africa, and is final-
ly merged in its original source within
the tropics. To this oceanic river has
been given the name of gulf-stream. It
is the second most extensive and much
the most strongly marked whirlpool on
the globe, having an outline of about
15,000 miles. The mean motion of the
gulf-stream is, no doubt, changeable, even
at the same points. The time of its peri-
odical revolution is about 2 years, and
the maximum of motion in the Bahama
channel. Humboldt notices this phenom-
enon thus :-"In the Florida channel, I
observed, in the month of May, 1804, in
the 26th and 27th degrees of latitude, a
celerity of 80 miles in 24 hours, or 5 feet
every second, though at this period the
north wind blew with great violence. At
the end of the gulf of Florida, in the par-
allel of cape Cannaveral, the gulf-stream,
or current of Florida, runs to the N. E.
Its rapidity resembles that of a torrent,
and is sometimes five miles an hour." (For
further information on this subject, see
the article Current, and also Darby's View
of the United States, Philadelphia, 1828.)
-Humboldt endeavored to ascertain the
comparative height of the waters of this
ocean along its shores, and that of the
Pacific on the opposite side of the isth-
mus, taking the level of the gulf of Mexico
as a standard. He found the surface of
the former to be 6 or 7 metres higher
than that of the latter (19 or 22 feet, Eng-
lish measure). The depth of the A. is
also extremely various, in many places
being wholly beyond the power of man
to fathom. Captain Scoresby, in the
Greenland sea, in 1817, plumbed to the
greatest known depth which a line has
reached, i. e. 7200 feet. Many parts of
this ocean, however, are thought to be
much deeper.-The saltness and specific
gravity of the A. differ in various parts,
and gradually diminish from the equator
to the poles. In the neighborhood of the
British isles, the salt has been stated at
'gth of the weight of the water; and, ac-
cording to doctor Thompson, the propor-
tion of saline contents does not appear to
differ much, whatever may be the latitude
in which the water is examined. The
variation resulting from all the observa-
tions of Pages, Phipps and Baumè, is
from 0.0451 to 0.35 saline matter. The
temperature of the A. is highest between
5° 45′ and 6° 15′ N. lat., where it has
been found, by actual observation, to vary
from about 82° 5' to 84° 5′ of Fahrenheit.
Peron and Humboldt give several inter-
esting results of their observations. The
currents and the masses of ice which go
from the north, in the general current, to
the equator, change the temperature of
the water very much. Fragments of these
icebergs occasionally reach the 40th de-
gree of latitude. In the months of June
ATLANTIC OCEAN-ATMOSPHERE.
and July, they add much to the danger of
a passage between North America and
England. We do not know that there
exists an exact comparison of the natu-
ral history of the A. with that of other
oceans.
ATLANTIDES; pillars, in the form of a
man, used in building, to support a pro-
jection or a cornice. (See Caryatides.)
ocean.
ATLANTIS; among the ancients, the
name of an island in the Atlantic, of
which vague accounts had been received
from ships which had ventured into the
Their descriptions of its situation
were very indefinite, and, as they placed
it in a spot where afterwards no island
was found, it was supposed that it had
sunk. But some persons imagine that
Phoenician or Carthaginian merchant-
ships (as we know happened to a Portu-
guese ship in the time of Columbus),
being driven out of their course by storms
and currents, were forced over to the
American coasts, from which they after-
wards fortunately returned to their coun-
try; and that, therefore, the island of A.
mentioned by Plato, as well as the great
nameless island spoken of by Diodorus,
Pliny and Arnobius, was nothing more
than what is now called America.-The
most distinct account of the island of
A. is in Plato's Timæus. (See Atlan-
tica.)
ATLAS; a chain of mountains which
extends over a large part of Northern
Africa. The Greater A. runs through the
kingdom of Morocco, as far south as
Sahara, and is more than 11,000 feet high.
The Lesser A. extends from Morocco,
towards the N. E., to the northern coast.
-The mythology of the Greeks assigned
this mountain to a Titan, son of Japetus
and Clymene. Jupiter, the conqueror of
the Titans, condemned him to bear the
vault of heaven; which fable arose from
his lofty stature. He was endowed with
wisdom, and later accounts ascribe to him
much knowledge, particularly of astrono-
my. By Pleione, the daughter of Ocea-
nus, he had seven daughters, who, under
the name of Pleiades (called, likewise, after
their father, Atlantides), shone in the
heavens. According to some, he was
also the father of the Hyades.--Atlas, in
anatomy, is the name of the first vertebra
of the neck, which supports the head.-
Allas, in commerce; a silk cloth manu-
factured in the East Indies. The manu-
facture is admirable, and, as yet, inimi-
table by Europeans; yet it has not that
lustre, which the French know how to
give to their silk stuffs.-Atlas; a name
449
given to collections of maps and charts;
so called from the giant who supported
heaven. This name was first used to
signify a geographical system, by Gerard
Mercator, in the 16th century.
ATMOSPHERE; commonly, the air in
which our earth appears to swim; but, in
the widest sense, it is that mass of thin,
elastic fluid, with which any body is com-
pletely surrounded. Hence we speak of
an atmosphere of the sun, of the moon,
of the planets, of electric and magnetic
bodies, &c., the existence of which may
not be fully proved, but is more or less
probable. It is certain that our earth has
an atmosphere, by which, according to
the preceding definition, we understand
the surrounding body of air and vapor.
By means of its weight, the air is in-
separably connected with the earth, and
presses on it according to the laws of
heavy, elastic fluids. Its whole pressure
is equal to its weight, and, like that of
all other heavy, elastic fluids, is exerted
equally on all sides. If, now, by any cir-
cumstance, a stronger pressure is exerted
on one side, certain phenomena are ob-
served, which continue till the equilibrium
is restored. Thus, for instance, water as-
cends, in the bore of a pump, above its
general level, as soon as a vacuum is
made between it and the piston, which is
drawn up. The cause of this is the dis-
turbance of the equilibrium, since the
air without the bore presses on the water
without, while no air is present within.
By means of this pressure, if the bore is
long enough, the water may be raised to
the height of 323 feet. This is the weight
with which the atmosphere presses on
the earth, and which is equal to the pres-
sure of an ocean 32 feet deep, spread
over the whole earth. Hence it follows,
that, at 28 inches barometrical height, the
atmosphere presses with a weight of
32,440 pounds on the human body, esti-
mated at 15 square feet. The man does
not perceive this pressure, because the air
entirely surrounds him, and is, besides,
within him. On account of its elasticity,
it presses in every direction, even from
within the man outwards, and conse-
quently counterbalances the air spread
over the body. That the atmosphere has.
not a uniform density, may be inferred
from this, that the lower strata of the air
have to support the weight of the upper
ones, on which account they must be-
come more compressed and denser. Ac-
cording to the law of Mariotte, the density
of the atmosphere diminishes in geomet-
rical, while the height increases in arith-
38 *
450
ATMOSPHERE-ATREUS.
metical progression. This law may not
hold at the extreme limits of the atmos-
phere, because the air at that height, free
from all pressure, must be completely in
its natural state. The height of the at-
mosphere has been estimated, by natural
philosophers, at from 30 to 40 miles
partly from the pressure which it exerts,
partly from the twilight; since it is to be
supposed, that the air, as far as it reflects
light or receives illumination, belongs to
our planet. Delambre, however (Astro-
nomie, vol. 3, p. 337), considers this height
to be almost 46 miles, which, remarkably
enough, Kepler has mentioned in the
Cap. Astr., p. 73. In respect to its form,
the atmosphere may be considered as a
spheroid, elevated at the equator, on ac-
count of the diurnal motion of the earth,
and also on account of the great rarefac-
tion of the air by the sun's rays, which
there exert a powerful influence. The
constituent parts of the earth's atmos-
phere are nitrogen and oxygen, which
are found every where, and at all times,
nearly in the proportion 76: 23. Beside
these, there is a small portion of carbonic
acid, a variable portion of aqueous vapor,
and a very small, indefinite quantity of
hydrogen. (See Gas.) It also contains,
in the form of vapor, a multitude of ad-
ventitious substances, in those injurious
mixtures known under the name mias-
mata, the nature of which can hardly be
investigated. As to the manner in which
these different ingredients are united, va-
rious hypotheses have been formed, of
which that of Dalton, which denies a
chemical mixture, is one of the most cel-
ebrated, but also the most opposed. (For
what has been written upon the atmos-
phere, see the article Atmosphere, in the
new edition of Geller's Dictionary of
Natural Philosophy, 1 vol., Leipsic, 1825.
De Luc's Recherches sur les Modifications
de l'Atmosphère, 2 vols. 4to., Geneva, 1772
(in German, Leipsic, 1776-78), still con-
tinues to be held in high esteem. See
the section d'Atmosphère, in Biot's Traité
d'Astronomie Physique, 2d ed., Paris, 1810,
3 vols. On the atmosphere of the sun,
moon and the other planets, see the re-
spective articles. See, also, Air.)
•
ATOMS; according to the hypothesis
of some philosophers, the primary parts
of elementary matter not any further di-
visible. Moschus of Sidon, who is said
to have lived before the Trojan war,
taught, as we are told, that the original
matter is composed of small, indivisible
bodies. Leucippus (510 B. C.) established
a system respecting the origin of the
world, resting on the mixture of atoms, in
which chance governed, in opposition to
the immaterial systein of the Eleatics, who
contended, that whatever existed was only
one being, and that all apparent changes
in the universe are mere illusions of sense.
Democritus and Epicurus extended this
system: the latter, particularly, made
many additions to it. Lucretius, and,
among the moderns, Gassendi, have illus-
trated the doctrine of Epicurus. Des-
cartes formed from this his system of the
vortices. Newton and Boerhaave sup-
posed that the original matter consists of
hard, ponderable, impenetrable, inactive
and immutable particles, from the variety
in the composition of which, the variety
of bodies originates. A system founded
on the theory of atoms is called atomic,
e. g., that of le Sage; sometimes it is also
called corpuscular philosophy, and is op-
posed to the dynamic theory. (See this
article.) In Germany, the theory of
atoms finds very few adherents: it is
generally thought, in that country, a gross
conception of the universe, and a very
unsatisfactory one, as it only removes the
question respecting the nature of matter
one step farther. In France and England,
the number of believers in it is greater.
ATOOI, or ATTOWA, or ATTOWAY, or
Towi; one of the Sandwich islands, in
the Pacific ocean; about 30 miles in
length from E. to W., according to some;
others make it 300 miles in circumfer-
ence. It has a good road and anchoring-
place on the S. W. side of the island,
called Wymoa. It is supposed to contain
54,000 inhabitants. The natives make
canoes of fine workmanship. Some of
them, from the frequent visits of British
and American navigators, are able to con-
verse in English. Several Europeans re-
side here. Lon. 159° 40′ W.; lat. 21°57′
N. (See Sandwich Islands.)
ATREBATES; the ancient inhabitants of
Gallia Belgica, who possessed that part
of Gaul afterwards called Artois. A col-
ony of them settled in Britain. Cæsar
mentions them as one of the nations con-
federated against him, and as having en-
gaged to furnish 15,000 troops to the allied
army. The Atrebates, or Atrebatii, in
Britain, resided next to the Bibroci in a
part of Berkshire and Oxfordshire. They
were one of the tribes which submitted
to Cæsar.
ATREUS; son of Pelops and Hippoda-
mia. He and his brother Thyestes mur-
dered their half-brother Chrysippus, from
jealousy of the affection entertained for
him by their father. Thereupon, they
1
ATREUS-ATTACHMENT.
fied to Eurystheus, with whose daughter,
Ærope, A. united himself, and, after the
death of his father-in-law, became king
of Mycene. Thyestes, yielding to an un-
lawful passion for the wife of his brother,
dishonored his bed, and had two sons by
her. A., after the discovery of this in-
jury, banished Thyestes with his sons.
Thirsting for revenge, Thyestes conveyed
away secretly a son of his brother, and
instigated him to murder his own father.
This design was discovered, and the
youth, whom A. thought to be the son
of his brother, was put to death. Too
late did the unhappy father perceive his
mistake. A horrible revenge was neces-
sary to give him consolation. He pre-
tended to be reconciled to Thyestes, and
invited him, with his two sons, to a feast,
and, after he had caused the latter to be
secretly slain, he placed a dish made of
their flesh before Thyestes, and, when he
had finished eating, brought the bones of
his sons, and showed him, with a scorn-
ful smile, the dreadful revenge which he
had taken. At this spectacle, the poets
say, the sun turned back in his course, in
order not to throw light upon such a hor-
rible deed.
ATRIDES. (See Agamemnon.)
ATRIP (trepor, Fr.; trippen, Dutch) is
applied indifferently to the anchor or to
the sails. The anchor is atrip (derangée),
when it is drawn out of the ground in a
perpendicular direction, either by the ca-
ble or buoy-rope. The top-sails are said
to be atrip, when they are hoisted up to
the mast-head, or to their utmost extent.
ATROPHY is a deficient nourishment of
the body. There are many diseases in
which the body becomes daily more lean
and emaciated, appears deprived of its
common nourishment, and, for that rea-
son, of its common strength. It is only,
therefore, in those cases in which the
emaciation constantly increases, that it
constitutes a peculiar disease; for when
it is merely a symptom of other common
diseases, it ceases with the disease, as
being merely a consequence of great
evacuations, or of the diminished useful-
ness or imperfect digestion of the nour-
ishment received. But, when emaciation
or atrophy constitutes a disease by itself,
it depends upon causes peculiar to this
state of the system. These causes are,
permanent, oppressive and exhausting
passions, organic disease, a want of proper
food or of pure air, exhausting diseases,
as nervous or malignant fevers, suppura-
tions in important organs, as the lungs,
the liver, &c. Copious evacuations of
451
blood, saliva, semen, &c., are also apt to
produce this disease, and, on this account,
lying-in women, and nurses who are of
slender constitution, and those who are
too much addicted to venery, are often
the subjects of this complaint. This state
of the system is also sometimes produced
by poisons, e. g., arsenic, mercury, lead,
in miners, painters, gilders, &c. A spe-
cies of atrophy takes place in old peo-
ple, in whom an entire loss of strength
and flesh brings on a termination of life
without the occurrence of any positive
disorder. It is known as the marasmus
senilis, or atrophy of old people. Atrophy
is of frequent occurrence, in infancy, as a
consequence of inproper, unwholesome
food, exposure to cold, damp or impure
air, &c., producing a superabundance of
mucus in the bowels, worms, obstructions
of the mesenteric glands, followed by
extreme emaciation, which state of things
is often fatal, although the efforts of the
physician are sometimes successful, when
all the causes of the disease have been
previously removed. A local state of the
same kind is sometimes produced in sin-
gle limbs, by palsies, or the pressure of
tumors upon the nerves of the limb, &c.,
and is generally curable by removing the
cause.
ATROPOS; one of the Fates. (q. v.)
ATTACCA, Italian (attach), signifies, in
music, that a passage is to follow another
immediately; e. g., attacca allegro.
An at-
ATTACHMENT denotes the apprehend-
ing a person, or seizing a thing, in virtue
of a writ issuing from a court.
tachment of the person is more usually
called an arrest. In respect to property,
the word attachment more frequently re-
fers to an arrest of it on mesne process, or
before a judgment of court.
In some of
the U. States, a creditor may previously
attach another person's property, real or
personal, to satisfy the judgment he may
recover: in other states, no such previous
attachment can ordinarily be made, and
is permitted only in case of absconding
debtors, or other particularly excepted
cases. And the more general and pre-
vailing rule throughout the world is, that
the property of a person can be seized
only in pursuance of a judicial order
or decree, made upon testimony being
produced, and the party heard; and be-
tween a creditor and debtor, the more
general and almost universal rule is, that
the creditor cannot seize the goods or
property of his alleged debtor until the
debt is established by the proceedings of
a judicial tribunal. In regard to the per-
452
ATTACHMENT-FOREIGN ATTACHMENT.
son, attachments or arrests are made for
a variety of causes, and, among others,
for debt. But, in respect to an arrest of
the person, as well as that of property,
the laws of most countries do not permit
the person of any citizen to be seized and
imprisoned without a decree or judgment
of a court directly authorizing the arrest.
But in some of the U. States, any creditor
to the amount of five dollars, or some other
amount, greater or smaller, may arrest the
person of his debtor, at the commence-
ment of the process against him, in order
that the creditor may have his body to
levy execution upon, when the debt shall
be established by a judicial decree or
judgment. But attachment of the person
for this cause is not permitted by the
laws of most countries, except in cases
of the apprehended absconding of the
debtor; this being an exception to the
rule most generally adopted, which is,
that the creditor first establishes his debt,
and gets judgment and execution upon it,
before he can use it as an instrument for
violating the personal liberty of his debtor.
In cases of alleged crime, the person of
the accused party is seized, and he is im-
prisoned, or compelled to give bail by the
laws of all countries; but he is most gen-
erally first taken before a magistrate, and
permitted to show cause against being
imprisoned, or required to give bail.-An-
other cause of attachment is, the defend-
ant's not appearing at court, after being
summoned by subpoena (an order of court
prescribing a penalty in case of disobedi-
ence) out of a court of chancery. His
not obeying is considered to be a con-
tempt of the court, which thereupon or
ders him to be arrested, and brought into
court. But attachment for this cause is
not made in a court of law; for if the de-
fendant, being summoned, does not ap-
pear, on being called in court, his default
is noted, and the court proceeds to give
judgment against him, upon such testi-
mony as the plaintiff may produce. One
reason of this distinction between a
court of equity and a court of law
is, that the presence and agency of the
defendant are requisite, in many equity
cases, in order to carry into effect the
judgment of the court; as when the
court decrees the specific execution of
an agreement, or the rendering of an ac-
count, or the disclosure of facts by the
defendant upon his oath. Attachments
are issued by courts for various other
contempts, as against an officer of a court
for abusing the process of the court, e. g.,
if he refuse to execute it without a bribe
from a party; against a witness who re-
fuses to appear when summoned for the
purpose of giving testimony, or who re-
fuses to testify, after he has appeared, be-
fore a court of law or a grand jury;
against any person, whether an officer of
the court, a party, witness, or mere by-
stander, for disorderly conduct in the
presence of the court, whereby its pro-
ceedings are disturbed and the adminis-
tration of justice interrupted; for attempt-
ing to corrupt a juryman, or forcibly de-
tain a witness who is summoned to testify
in a case; for publishing an account of
the proceedings of the court while a cause
is pending, in such a manner that the
minds of the judges or jurors may be
prejudiced by such publication; for ob-
structing the service of any writ or pro-
cess of the court; for taking out an exe-
cution where there is no judgment; and,
in general, an attachment lies against any
person who directly obstructs or inter-
feres with the regular administration of
justice. It lies against the judges of an
inferior court who proceed in a case con-
trary to the order of a superior court.
ATTACHMENT, FOREIGN, is the attach-
inent, by a creditor, of a debt due to
his debtor from a third person; called
foreign attachment, from its being one
mode of securing debts due from foreign-
ers.
In Scotland, it is called assisting
the debt. In London, the process is
called a garnishment, or warning, the
person summoned being the garnishee.
The same process is, in some of the U.
States, called the trustee process, and the
person summoned is called the trustee, on
the supposition of his having in his hands
and possession, or being intrusted with,
the money
the money or goods of the principal
debtor.-The general rule, as to arresting
debts due from third persons, by foreign
attachment, is, that only absolute debts can
be so attached, not the claims which the
principal debtor may have against the
garnishee, or supposed trustee, for dam-
ages on account of trespasses and wrongs
done to him by the garnishee or supposed
trustee. As the process is instituted to
recover a supposed debt due to the plain-
tiff from the principal defendant, by ob-
taining satisfaction of a debtor of that
defendant, he must have notice, and be
made a party to the suit, and have an
opportunity to dispute the demand of the
plaintiff; and the law, in some instances
at least, allows the garnishee or trustee,
if he be really a debtor to the principal
defendant, to take upon himself the de-
fence against the plaintiff's demand.
ATTACK-ATTAINT.
ATTACK. Every combat consists of
attack and defence: the first, with few
exceptions, will always be more advan-
tageous: hence an experienced general
chooses it, if possible, even in a defensive
war. Nothing is more ruinous than to
more ruinous than to
lose its advantage; and it is one of the
most important objects to deprive an ad-
versary of it, and to confine him to the
defensive. The attack is directed accord-
ing to the condition and position of the
enemy, according to the purpose of the
war, according to place, time and circum-
stances. Many modes and combinations
are allowable. The simplest and most
unexpected form will be the best. On
the dexterity and courage of the troops,
the correct and quick execution of the
attack will depend. Those attacks are
the best, where all the forces can be di-
rected in concert towards that point of
the enemy on which his position depends.
If he be beaten at this point, the resist-
ance at others will be without concert or
energy. Sometimes it may be of advan-
tage to attack the weakest side of the en-
emy, if in this way a fatal blow can be
given to him; otherwise, an attack at this
point is not advisable, because it leads to
no decisive results, leaves the stronger
points to be overcome afterwards, and
divides the force of the assailant. In
most cases, the enemy may be defeated,
if his forces can be divided, and the ser-
eral parts attacked in detail. The worst
form of attack is that which extends the
assailing troops in long, weak lines, or
scatters thein in diverging directions. It
is always unfortunate to adopt half ineas-
ures, and not aim to attain the object at
any price. Instead of saving power,
these consume it in fruitless efforts, and
sacrifices are made in vain. Feeble
assaults and protracted sieges are of this
ruinous character. The forms of attack
in a battle, which have been used from
the earliest times, are divided by the tac-
ticians into, 1, the parallel. This is the
most natural form, and even the troops
attacked strive as much as possible to pre-
serve it; for as long as they can do so,
they retain their connexion, and the power
of applying their force as occasion may
require; but, for this very reason, it is not
the best form of attack, because it leaves
the defensive party too long in possession
of his advantages. 2. The form in which
both the wings attack, and the centre is
kept back. Where the front of the enc-
my is weak (the only case in which it is
practicable), it appears, indeed, overpow
ering. 3. The form in which the centre
453
is pushed forward, and the wings kept
back, will hardly ever be chosen, on ac-
count of several evident disadvantages.
4. The famous oblique mode, where one
wing advances to engage, whilst the other
is kept back, and occupies the attention
of the enemy by pretending an attack.
Epaminondas, if not the inventor of this
form, knew, at least, how to employ it to
the greatest advantage. Whilst the wing
which remained behind engaged the at-
tention of the enemy, he increased, con-
tinually, the strength of the one advancing,
which he led against the flank of the en-
emy, with a view of overpowering it by
numerical superiority. The success of
this mode is almost certain, provided the
enemy takes no measures against it. In
our times, this form of attack is executed
in another way whilst engaging the en-
emy, his flank is surrounded by detached
corps, which fall, at the same time, on his
If he suffers this quietly, he is van-
quished. The enemy's attention is kept
occupied, during such operations, mostly
by feigned attacks or movements, which
are called, in general, demonstrations, and
are intended to keep him in error con-
cerning the real object. (On the attack of
fortresses, see the article Siege.) Field
fortifications are attacked with columns,
if possible, from several sides at the same
time, and with impetuosity. Commonly,
the artillery breaks a way beforehand,
destroys the works, and disturbs the gar-
rison.
rear.
ATTAINDER is, by the common law,
the corruption of blood, or stain conse-
quent upon a person's being adjudged
guilty of a capital offence, in which case
the law set a note of infamy upon him,
and put him out of its protection, taking
no further concern about him, except that
he should be executed. But this attain-
der does not take place until judgment
is pronounced against him. It might be
by confession, as when the party pleaded
guilty, or by verdict, when he pleaded
not guilty, and was found guilty by the
jury. There were, formerly, by the Eng-
lish law, various forfeitures incident to
attainder, such as incapacity to inherit or
transmit property; but attainder is scarce-
ly known at present in the laws of the
U. States; at least, the term is of very
rare occurrence in their laws, though
there are some disabilities consequent
upon conviction of perjury, or any other
crime which makes a man infamous, such
as incompetency to be a witness.
ATTAINT is a writ at the common law
against a jury for a false verdict. It might
1
454
ATTAINT-ATTERBURY.
be brought by a party aggrieved, and lay
where the jury found a verdict against
the evidence, or found a fact foreign to
the evidence, or where their verdict was
against well-known and acknowledged
law. It was a process for trying the jury-
men for misconduct in trying a cause.
The writ seems to be now obsolete in
England, and it has never been adopted
in practice in the U. States.
ATTERBOM, Daniel Amadeus, born, Jan.
19, 1790, at Asbo, East Gothland, in Swe-
den, son of a country clergyman, grew up
in a retired and romantic part of the
country. He early became acquainted
with German literature. In 1805, he went
to the university of Upsal, where, some
time afterwards, he established, in con-
nexion with several young friends, a po-
etical-critical society, which contributed
not a little to influence the taste of Swe-
den. In 1817-19, A. visited Germany
and Italy, and was, on his return, ap-
pointed teacher of the German language
to the royal prince Ottocar. Afterwards,
he lived partly in Stockholm, partly in
Upsal, as magister docens of universal his-
tory. In 1812, he began his Poetisk Kal-
ender (Poetical Almanac), which is still
continued annually. He has published
many poems and prose writings in his
native tongue, also some German poems.
His greatest merit is, that he strove with
success against the constrained French
style which had prevailed in the literature
of Sweden since the time of Gustavus III.
His chief antagonist is the librarian Wall-
mark in Stockholm.
ATTERBURY, Francis, a celebrated Eng-
lish prelate, was born in 1662, and re-
ceived his education at Westminster,
where he was elected a student of Christ's-
church college, Oxon. He distinguished
himself at the university as a classical
scholar, and gave proofs of an elegant
taste for poetry. In 1687, he took his
degree of M. A., and for the first time
appeared as a controversialist in a defence
of the character of Luther, entitled, Con-
siderations on the Spirit of Martin Luther,
&c. He was also thought to have assist-
ed his pupil, the Hon. Mr. Boyle, in his
famous controversy with Bentley on the
epistles of Phalaris. He continued some
time longer at college, exceedingly dis-
contented, feeling, with truth, that he was
adapted to act on a wider theatre, and
possessing all the ambition and restless-
ness, by which his subsequent career was
so much distinguished. His father ad-
vised him to marry into some family of
interest,“ bishop's, or archbishop's, or
some courtier's;" to which parental coun-
sel the future bishop duly attended.-
Having taken orders in 1691, he settled in
London, where he became chaplain to
William and Mary, preacher of Bridewell,
and lecturer of St. Bride's, and soon be-
came distinguished by the spirit and ele-
gance of his pulpit compositions, but not
without incurring opposition, on the score
of their tendency and doctrine, from Hoad-
ly and others. Controversy, however,
was altogether congenial to the disposi-
tion of A., who, in 1706, commenced one
with doctor Wake, which lasted four
years, on the rights, privileges and powers
of convocations. For this service, he re-
ceived the thanks of the lower house of
convocation, and the degree of doctor of
divinity from Oxford.-Soon after the ac-
cession of queen Anne, he was made dean
of Carlisle, and, besides his dispute with
Hoadly on the subject of passive obedi-
ence, he aided in the defence of the fa-
mous Sacheverell, and wrote "A Repre-
sentation of the present State of Reli-
gion," which was deemed too violent to
be presented to the queen, although pri-
vately circulated. In 1712, he was made
dean of Christ-church, and, in 1713, bishop
of Rochester and dean of Westminster.
The death of the queen, in 1714, put
an end to his hopes of further advance-
ment; for the new king treated him with
great coolness, doubtless aware of either
the report or the fact of his offer, on
the death of Anne, to proclaim the pre-
tender in full canonicals, if allowed a suf-
ficient guard. A. not only refused to sign
the loyal declaration of the bishops in the
rebellion of 1715, but suspended a clergy-
man for lending his church, for the per-
formance of divine service, to the Dutch
troops brought over to act against the
rebels. Not content with a constitutional
opposition, he entered into a correspond-
ence with the pretender's party, was appre-
hended in August, 1722, and committed
to the Tower; and, in the March follow-
ing, a bill was brought into the house
of commons for the infliction of pains
and penalties. This measure met with
considerable opposition in the house of
lords, and was resisted with great firmness
and eloquence by the bishop, who main-
tained his innocence with his usual acute-
ness and dexterity. His guilt, however,
has been tolerably well proved by docu-
ments since published. He was deprived
of his dignities, and outlawed, and went to
Paris, where he chiefly occupied himself
in study, and in correspondence with men
of letters. But, even here, in 1725, he was
ATTERBURY-ATTICA.
actively engaged in fermenting discontent
in the Highlands of Scotland. He died
in 1731, and his body was privately inter-
red in Westminster abbey. As a com-
poser of sermons, he still retains a great
portion of his original reputation. His let-
ters, also, are extremely easy and elegant;
but, as a critic and a controversialist, he
is deemed rather dexterous and popu-
lar than accurate and profound. If an
anecdote told by Pope to Chesterfield be
correct, he was a sceptic early in life; but
the same authority also states, that he
ceased to be so after his mind had be-
come mature.
ATTIC BASE; a peculiar kind of base,
used by the ancient architects in the Ionic
order, and by Palladio and some others in
the Doric.-Attic Order, or Attics, in ar-
chitecture; a kind of order raised upon
another larger order by way of crowning,
or to finish the building.-Attic Salt; a
delicate, poignant kind of wit, for which
many Athenians were distinguished, and
which, in fact, was peculiar to them.
The moderns have adopted this expres-
sion from the Latin writers.-Attic Story,
in architecture; a story in the upper part
of a house, where the windows are usually
square.
ATTICA, a province of ancient Greece,
the capital of which, Athens, was once,
by reason of its intellectual culture and
refinement, the first city in the world, is
a peninsula, united, towards the north,
with Boeotia, towards the west, in some
degree, with Megaris, and extends far in-
to the Ægean sea at cape Sunium (now
cape Colonna), where the Athenians had
a fortress and a splendid temple of Mi-
nerva. The unfruitfulness of its soil
protected it against foreign invaders, and
the Athenians boasted of their ancient
and unmingled race. They called them-
selves sons of the soil on which they
dwelt, and pretended that they originated
at the same time with the sun. The ear-
liest inhabitants of A. lived in a savago
manner, without bread, without marriage,
and in scattered huts, until the time of
Cecrops, who came, B. C. 1550, with a
colony from Sais, at the mouth of the
Nile, to A., and is acknowledged as their
first real king. He softened their man-
ners, and taught them a better mode of
living; he planted the olive-tree, and in-
structed them in the culture of different
kinds of grain; he instituted the wor-
ship of the gods, and commanded to
offer them sacrifices of the fruits of the
earth; he established laws of marriage,
and directed the burial of the dead.
455
The inhabitants, who amounted to about
20,000, he divided into four classes, com-
pelled them to bring their habitations
near to each other, and protect them
with a wall against the attacks of robbers.
This was the origin of Athens, which, at
that time, bore the name of Cecropia.
One of Cecrops' descendants, as like him
in spirit as in name, founded 11 other
cities, which, in after times, made war
upon each other. Theseus compelled
these cities to unite, and to give to Ce-
cropia, now called Athens, as the capital
city of the whole country, the supreme
power over the confederacy. He found-
ed the great feast called the panathenaa.
He himself, as the head of the state,
watched over the administration of the
laws, and commanded the army. He di-
vided the whole people into three classes
noblemen, husbandmen and mechanics.
From the first class the magistrates were
selected, who performed the duties of
priests, and interpreted the laws. He
embellished and enlarged Athens, and
invited foreigners to people the country.
After the death of Codrus, B. C. 1068,
the monarchical form of government,
which had continued 487 years from the
time of Cecrops, was abolished. An ar-
chon, chosen for life, possessed the regal
power. After 316 years, the term of of
fice of the archons was limited to 10
years, and, 70 years later, to 1 year, and
A
their number was increased to 9.
regular code of laws was now needed.
The archon Draco was commissioned to
draw one up; but his severity disgusted
the minds of the people, and, B. Č. 594,
Solon introduced a milder code and a
better constitution. He provided that the
form of government should continue
democratic, and that a senate of 400
members, chosen from the people, should
administer the government. He divided
the people into four classes, according to
their wealth. The offices of government
were to be filled from the three first, but
the fourth were to be admitted to the as-
semblies of the people, and to have an
equal share, by their vote, in legislation.
But this constitution was too artificial to
be permanent. Pisistratus, a man of tal-
ents, boldness and ambition, put himself
at the head of the poorer classes, and
made himself master of the supreme
power in Athens. His government was
splendi and beneficent, but his two sons
could not maintain it. Hipparchus was
murdered, and Hippias banished. Clis-
thenes, a friend of the people, exerted
himself to prevent future abuses, by some
1
456
ATTICA.
changes in the laws of Solon. He divid-
ed the people into 10 classes, and made
the senate consist of 500 persons. A.
was already highly cultivated; the vint-
age and harvest, like all the labors of this
gay people, were celebrated with dance
and song, with feasts and sacrifices. The
wool of A. was famous, on account of
the care bestowed upon the sheep, and
the skill with which it was dyed of the
most beautiful colors. Mount Hymet-
tus (q. v.) yielded the finest honey, and
mount Laurium contained rich silver
mines, the products of which were appro-
priated to the support of the fleet. Then
"ame the splendid era of the Persian war,
which elevated Athens to the summit of
fame. Miltiades at Marathon, and The-
mistocles at Salamis, conquered the Per-
sians by land and by sea. The freedom of
Greece escaped the dangers which had
threatened it; the rights of the people
were enlarged; the archons and other
magistrates were chosen from all classes
without distinction. The period from
the Persian war to the time of Alexander
(B. C. 500 to 336) was most remarkable
for the developement of the Athenian
constitution. According to Böckh's ex-
cellent work, Die Staatshaushaltung der
Athener (2 vols., Berlin, 1817), A. con-
tained, together with the islands of Sala-
mis and Helena, a territory of 847 square
miles, with 500,000 inhabitants, 365,000
of whom were slaves. Böckh estimates
the inhabitants of the city and harbors at
180,000; those of the mines at 20,000.
Cimon and Pericles (B. C. 444) introdu-
ced the highest elegance into Athens, but
the latter laid the foundation for the fu-
ture corruption of manners, and for the
gradual overthrow of the state. Under
him began the Peloponnesian war, which
ended with the conquest of Athens by
the Lacedemonians. The vanquished
were obliged to receive the most mortify-
ing conditions from the victors. Thirty
supreme magistrates were placed over
the city, who, under the protection of the
Lacedemonian garrison, were arbitrary
and cruel. After eight dreadful months,
Thrasybulus overthrew this tyranny, and
restored freedom and the old constitu-
tion, with some improvements.-Athens
began to elevate herself again among the
states of Greece, and was fortunate in her
alliance with Thebes against Sparta. But
this new period of power did not long
continue. A more dangerous enemy rose
in the North-Philip of Macedon. The
Athenians had opposed him in the Pho-
cian war, and Philip, therefore, took pos-
session of some of their colonies. The
Greeks took up arms, but the battle of
Cheronæa (B. C. 338) was the grave of
their liberty. Athens, together with the
other states of Greece, was now depend-
ent on the Macedonians. In vain, after
the death of Alexander, did the Atheni-
ans attempt to regain their freedom: they
were obliged to receive a Macedonian
garrison in the harbor of Munychia. An-
tipater ordered that only those citizens
who possessed an estate of more than
2000 drachmæ should take part in the ad-
ministration of the government. Soon
after, Athens was taken by Cassander,
because it had joined his enemies, con-
trary to the advice of Phocion. Cassander
restored the oligarchy, and named Deme-
trius Phalereus governor of the state, who
quietly enjoyed the office for 10 years.
But the Athenians, who hated him be-
cause he was not chosen by them, called
Demetrius Poliorcetes to their assistance,
who took the city, restored the ancient
constitution, and was loaded with the
most extravagant marks of honor by the
Athenians; yet, when he went to war, he
lost the affection of the unstable multi-
tude, who, on his return, excluded him
from the city. But he conquered Athens,
forgave the citizens, and permitted them
to enjoy their liberty, merely placing a
garrison in the havens of Munychia and
the Piræus. This garrison was afterwards
driven out by the Athenians, who, for a
long time, maintained their freedom. An-
tigonus Gonatas again conquered them,
and in this situation they remained until
they separated themselves from the Mace-
donians, and joined the Achæan league.
They afterwards united with the Romans
against Philip, and their new allies con-
firmed their freedom. When they suffer-
ed themselves to be misled to support
Mithridates against the Romans, they
drew upon themselves the vengeance of
Rome. Sylla captured the city, and left
it only an appearance of liberty, which
it retained until the time of Vespasian.
This emperor formally changed it into a
Roman province. After the division of
the Roman empire, A. belonged to the
empire of the East. A. D. 396, it was
conquered by Alaric the Goth, and the
country devastated.-The latest and most
beautiful engravings of the antiquities of
this country are, "The Unedited Antiqui-
ties of Attica, comprising the Architectu-
ral Remains of Eleusis, Rhamnus, Suni-
um and Thoricus, by the Society of
Dilettanti;" London, pub. by Longman
and Murray, 1817, folio. (See Athens.)
ATTICUS-ATTILA.
ATTICUS, Herodes. (See Herodes At-
ticus.)
ATTICUS, Titus Pomponius; a Roman,
belonging to the rank of equites, who, in
the most agitated times, preserved the
esteem of all parties. The Pomponian
family, from which he originated, was
one of the most distinguished of the
equites, and derived its origin from Numa
Pompilius. He lived in the latter period
of the republic, and acquired great celeb-
rity from the splendor of his private char-
acter. He inherited from his father and
from his uncle, Q. Cæcilius, great wealth.
When he attained maturity, the republic
was disturbed by the factions of Cinna
and Sylla. His brother Sulpicius, the
tribune of the people, being killed, he
thought himself not safe in Rome, for
which reason he removed, with his for-
tune, to Athens, where he devoted him-
self to science. His benefits to the city
were so great, that he gained the affec-
tions of the people in the highest degree.
He acquired so thorough a knowledge of
Greek, that he could not be distinguished
from a native Athenian. When Rome
had recovered some degree of quiet, he
returned, and inherited from his uncle 10
millions of sesterces. His sister married
the brother of Cicero. With this orator,
as well as with Hortensius, he lived on
terms of intimate friendship. It was his
principle never to mix in politics, and he
lived undisturbed amid all the successive
factions which reigned in Rome. Cæsar
treated him with the greatest regard, though
he was known as a friend of Pompey.
After the death of Cæsar, he lived in
friendship with Brutus, without, however,
offending Antony. When Brutus was
obliged to flee from Italy, he sent him a
million of sesterces, and likewise support-
ed Fulvia, the wife of Antony, after the
disastrous battles of Mutina, and therefore
was spared when fortune again smiled on
Antony, and the friends of Brutus gene-
rally were the victims of his vengeance.
The daughter of A. was married to M. Ves-
pasianus Agrippa, and Augustus became
his friend. He often received letters both
from Augustus and from Antony, when
he was absent from Rome. He reached
the age of 77 years without sickness. At
this time, he became afflicted with a
disorder which he felt to be incurable.
He therefore ended his life by voluntary
starvation, and was buried near the Ap-
pian way, in the grave of his uncle.
ATTILA (in German, Etzel); the son
of Mandras, a Hun of royal descent,
who followed his uncle Roas in 434, and
39
VOL. I.
457
shared the supreme authority with his
brother Bleda. These two leaders of the
barbarians, who had settled in Scythia
and Hungary, threatened the Eastern em-
pire, and twice compelled the weak The-
odosius II to purchase an inglorious
peace. Their power was feared by all
the nations of Europe and Asia. The
Huns themselves esteemed A. their brav-
est warrior and most skilful general.
Their regard for his person soon amount-
ed to superstitious reverence. He gave
out that he had found the sword of their
tutelar god, and, proud of this weapon,
which added dignity to his power, he de-
signed to extend his rule over the whole
earth. He caused his brother Bleda to
be murdered (444), and, when he announ-
ced that it was done by the command of
God, this murder was celebrated like a
victory. Being now sole master of a
warlike people, his unbounded ambition
made him the terror of all nations; and he
became, as he called himself, the scourge
which God had chosen to chastise the
human race. In a short time, he extend-
ed his dominion over all the people of
Germany and Scythia, and the Eastern
and Western emperors paid him tribute.
The Vandals, the Ostrogoths, the Gepida,
and a part of the Franks, united under his
banners. Some historians assure us, that
his army amounted to 700,000 men.-
When he had heard a rumor of the
riches and power of Persia, he directed
his march thither. He was defeated on
the plains of Armenia, and drew back to
satisfy his desire of plunder in the domin-
ions of the emperor of the East. He
easily found a pretext for war, for all
states which promised him a rich booty
were his natural enemies, and all princes
whom he hoped to conquer had broken
alliances, He therefore went over to Il-
lyria, and laid waste all the countries
from the Black to the Adriatic sea.
emperor Theodosius collected an army to
oppose his progress; but, in three bloody
battles, fortune declared herself for the bar-
barians. Constantinople was indebted to
the strength of its walls, and to the igno-
rance of the enemy in the art of besieging,
for its preservation. Thrace, Macedonia
and Greece, all submitted to the savage
robber, who destroyed 70 flourishing
cities. Theodosius was at the mercy of
the victor, and was obliged to purchase a
peace. One of the servants of Attila,
Edekon, was tempted by a eunuch, Chry-
saphius, to undertake the assassination of
his master on his return to the Danube ;
but, at the moment of execution, his cour-
The
458
ATTILA-ATTIRET.
age failed him; he fell at the feet of his
master, and acknowledged his criminal
design. Constantinople trembled at the
idea of Attila's revenge; but he was con-
tented with reproaching Theodosius for
his perfidy, and requiring the head of
Chrysaphius. The emperor engaged to
pay a new tribute.-A. now directed his
views to Gaul. With an immense army,
he passed the Rhine, the Moselle and the
Seine, came to the Loire, and sat down
under the walls of Orleans. The inhabit-
ants of this city, encouraged by their
bishop, Agnan (Anianus), repelled the
first attack of the barbarians, and the
united forces of the Romans, under their
general, Aëtius, and of the Visigoths, un-
der their king, Theodoric, compelled A.
to raise the siege. He retreated to Cham-
pagne, and waited for the enemy in the
plains of Chalons. The two armies soon
approached each other. A., anxious for
the event of the battle, consulted the
soothsayers, and they assured him of a
defeat. He concealed his alarm, rode
through the ranks of his warriors, re-
minded them of their deeds, spoke of
his joy at the prospect of a battle, and at
the thought that their valor was to be
rewarded. Inflamed by this speech, and
by the presence of their leader, the Huns
were impatient for battle. Both armies
fought bravely. At length, the ranks of
the Romans and Goths were broken
through, and A. was already sure of the
victory, when the Gothic prince Thoris-
mond, the son of Theodoric, poured down
from the neighboring height upon the
Huns. He threw them into disorder,
spread death through their ranks, and A.,
pressed on all sides, escaped with diffi-
culty to his camp. This was, perhaps,
the bloodiest battle which has ever been
fought in Europe; for, according to con-
temporary historians, 106,000 dead bodies
covered the field of battle. A. caused all
his camp equipage and treasures to be
brought together into a heap, in order to
burn himself with them, in case he should
be reduced to extremities. But the ene-
my were contented with collecting their
forces during the night, and, having paid
the last honors to the dead body of king
Theodoric (Dietrich), which they dis-
covered with difficulty, they saluted his
son, Thorismond, king upon the field of
battle. Thus A. escaped destruction.
But the Franks pursued him, hanging
on his rear, till he had passed the
Rhine.—Rather irritated than discour-
aged, he sought a new opportunity to
scize upon Italy, and demanded Honoria,
the sister of Valentinian III, in marriage.
This princess had been separated from
the court, and confined in a monastery,
on account of an intrigue with Eugenius,
her chamberlain. She offered her hand
to A.; he accepted the proffered match,
and demanded, as a dowry, half the king-
dom. When this demand was refused,
he attacked Italy with dreadful fury.
The emperor trembled, and his ambassa-
dors supplicated in vain. A. conquered
and destroyed Aquileia, Padua, Vicenza,
Verona, Bergamo, and laid waste the
plains of Lombardy. The inhabitants
fled to the Alps, to the Apennines, and to
the small islands in the shallows (lagoons)
of the Adriatic sea, where they built
Venice. The emperor had no army to
oppose him; the Roman people and sen-
ate had recourse to tears and supplica-
tions. Pope Leo I went with the Ro-
man ambassadors to the enemy's camp,
and succeeded in obtaining a peace. A.
went back to Hungary. The Romans
looked upon their preservation as a mira-
cle, and the old chronicles relate that the
threats of St. Peter and St. Paul had ter-
rified A.-a legend which the art of Ra-
phael and Algardi has immortalized. Not
having obtained Honoria for a wife, A.
would a second time have demanded her,
sword in hand, if the beautiful Ildico had
not been added to his numerous wives,
with whom he solemnly united himself.
This circumstance hindered him from
fulfilling his threats. On this occasion,
he gave himself up to all the extrava-
gance of debauchery; but, on the day after
the marriage, the servants and warriors,
impatient to salute their master, thronged
into the tent: they found Ildico veiled, sit-
ting by the cold corpse of her husband.
During the night, he had been suffocated
by his own blood (453). The news of
his death spread sorrow and terror in the
army. His body was enclosed in three
coffins the first was of gold, the second
of silver, and the third of iron. The
captives, who had made the grave, were
strangled.-The description that Jornan-
des has left us of this barbarian king re-
minds us of his Calmuck-Tartar origin.
He had a large head, a flat nose, broad
shoulders, and a short and ill-formed
body. His walk was proud, his voice
strong and well-toned.
ATTIRET, John Denis, a French Jesuit
and painter, was born at Dole, Franche-
Comté, in 1702, and died, in 1788, at Pe-
kin, whither he had accompanied a mis-
sion. The emperor Kien-Long was so
much pleased with his battle-pieces, that
ATTIRET-ATTRACTION.
he offered him the dignity of mandarin,
and gave him the income thereto belong-
ing, when A. refused the Chinese title.
A. wrote a very interesting account of the
emperor's gardens, of which a translation
by Spence, under the name of sir Harry
Beaumont, appeared in 1752.
ATTITUDE (French), as a term of art,
signifies the position and situation of fig-
ures. Attitudes require a regular study,
a part of which is a knowledge of anato-
my. The art of exhibiting attitudes, at
least in modern times, is of recent inven-
tion. At the end of the last century, the
celebrated lady Hamilton began the prac-
tice, and, as every art begins with imita-
tion, she imitated, with great talent, the
attitudes of antique statues in many large
towns of Europe, and sir William Ham-
ilton could say that he possessed, in his
wife, a whole collection of antiques. Her
dress was a simple tunic, fastened with
a ribbon tight under the breast, and a
shawl. With these she imitated all the
different draperies. Mr. Rehberg drew
her attitudes, and published them in Lon-
don. On the continent of Europe, this
art has been carried to much perfection
by Mrs. Hendel-Schütz, who exhibited
the most beautiful attitudes, copied from
the Greek, Egyptian, Italian and German
styles of art. But she was not satisfied
with imitations: she invented many atti-
tudes, which were declared, by all the
critics of the day (amongst whom was
Göthe), some of the finest productions
of art. Her attitudes have been drawn
and published by Peroux and Ritter
(Frankf. on the Maine, 1809). There
has been also a male artist of the same
kind, Mr. von Seckendorf (called Patrick
Peale), who accompanied his exhibitions
with lectures. He died in America.
ATTORNEY (attornatus, in Latin), a per-
son appointed to do something for and in
the stead and name of another. An at-
torney is either public or special. The
former is an officer of a court, who is au-
thorized by the laws and the rules of the
court to represent suitors, without any
special written authority for the purpose.
The rules and qualifications, whereby one
is authorized to practise as an attorney in
any court, are very different in different
countries and in different courts of the
same country. There are various statutes
on this subject in the laws of the several
U. States, and almost every court has cer-
tain rules, a compliance with which is
necessary, in order to authorize any one
to appear in court for, and represent any
party to a suit, without a special au-
459
thority under seal. The principle upon
which these rules are founded, is the ex-
clusion of persons not qualified by hon-
esty, good moral character, learning and
skill, from taking upon them this office.
And any attorney may, by malpractice,
forfeit this privilege; and the court, in
such case, strikes his name from the roll
of attorneys. Still this does not prevent
his being a special attorney, with a spe-
cific power from any person who wishes
to constitute him his representative; for
every man, who is capable of contracting,
has the power to confer upon another the
right of representing him, and acting in
his stead. An attorney of a court has
authority, for and in the name of his
principal, to do any acts necessary for
conducting a suit, and his employer is
bound by his acts.-A special attorney is
appointed by a deed called a power or
letter of attorney, and the deed by which
he is appointed specifies the acts which
he is authorized to do. It is a commis-
sion, to the extent of which only he
can bind his principal. As far as the acts
of the attorney, in the name of the princi-
pal, are authorized by his power, his acts
are those of his principal. But if he
goes beyond his authority, his acts will
bind himself only; and he must indemni-
fy any one to whom, without authority,
he represents himself as an attorney of
another, and who contracts with him, or
otherwise puts confidence in him, as be-
ing such attorney.
ATTRACTION; the tendency, as well of
the parts of matter in general, as of vari-
ous particular bodies, to approach each
other, to unite, and to remain united;
sometimes, also, the power inherent in
matter, exerting itself at the moment of
approach. Experience teaches that this
property is common to all matter. Even
liquids cohere in their parts, and oppose
any endeavor to separate them. The mi-
nute particles unite into drops; drops, it
they are brought in contact, into large
masses. Fluids attach themselves to solid
bodies, particularly to such as have very
smooth surfaces, as to glass: they rise
up of themselves in fine tubes (see Cap-
illary Tube), &c. Every body tends to
the earth, and, if raised from its surface,
falls back to it again. The plumb-line,
which is usually vertical, takes an oblique
direction in the vicinity of high moun-
tains; the sea tends to the moon; the
moon itself is constantly drawn towards
the earth; the earth and the other planets,
towards the sun. The heavenly bodies
are continually subject to the simple law

460
ATTRACTION-DROIT D'AUBAINE.
of mutual attraction. The Grecian natu-
ralists speak of attraction; Copernicus and
Tycho likewise admit it; Kepler's bold
and comprehensive mind first hazarded
the assertion that it must be universal and
mutual in all bodies; Des Cartes sought
to banish it entirely from natural philoso-
phy, as one of those occult powers which
he did not acknowledge; but Newton
adopted it, and determined its laws, af-
ter many years of accurate observation.
Fruitless attempts have been made to ex-
plain it. The phenomenon of attraction
is exhibited, either in bodies that are at
perceptible distances from each other, and
is then called gravitation; or in bodies at
insensible distances, taking place between
their surfaces, when it is adhesion; or
uniting their component parts, when it is
cohesion. (q. v.) We cannot enumerate
all the particular subdivisions of attrac-
tion, but the most important are those of
chemical affinities (q. v.), of magnetic
and electric attractions, &c. (Respecting
these, see the particular articles.) The
best work on the attraction of the heav-
enly bodies is Newton's Philosoph. Natu-
ral. Principia Mathematica. On the at-
traction which mountains exert on the
plumb-line, see von Zach's L'Attraction
des Montagnes et ses Effets sur les Fils à
Plomb (Avignon, 1814, 2 vols.) Kant's
Metaphys. Elements of Natural Science
(3d ed. Leips., 1800) treats of the nature
of attraction. (For further information on
the subject of attraction, see the article
Mechanics.)
ATTRIBUTE. 1. Every quality which
is ascribed to any one as characteristic.
2. The sign which indicates that quality.
In this latter sense, it is synonymous with
symbol. (q. v.)
ATWOOD, George, F. R. S.; an eminent
mathematician, who was educated at the
university of Cambridge. In 1784, he
published, in one volume, 8vo., a Treatise
on the Rectilinear Motion and Rotation
of Bodies; with a Description of Original
Experiments relative to that Subject-a
work remarkable for its perspicuity, and
the extensive information which it affords.
About the same time, he made public an
Analysis of a Course of Lectures on the
Principles of Natural Philosophy, read at
the University of Cambridge, which is
not less valuable than the preceding.
William Pitt, having attended Mr. At
wood's university lectures, conceived such
an opinion of his talents and scientific in-
formation, that he engaged him to devote
a considerable part of his time to financial
calculations, and bestowed on him a
sinecure office, the income of which he
retained from 1784 till his death, in 1807,
at the age of 62, when the office which
he had held was abolished. Mr. Atwood
published a Dissertation on the Construc-
tion and Properties of Arches, 1801, 4to.,
and several other valuable treatises rela-
ting to mathematics and mechanical.sci-
ence.
ATYS, or ATTYS. 1. The favorite of
Cybele, who, having broken the vow of
chastity which he made to the goddess,
castrated himself, as a punishment for his
crime. (See Cybele.) 2. A son of Cro-
sus, king of Lydia; an affecting example
of filial love. He was dumb, when, seeing
a soldier in a battle who had raised a
sword against his father, he exerted him-
self so much, that the bands of his tongue
gave way, and he cried out, "Soldier, kill
not Croesus !"
The
AUBAINE, DROIT D'. Foreigners in
France, in the middle ages, were called
Albani, or Albini. Some derive this word
from Albanach, which term the Highland-
ers of Scotland, even now, apply to them-
selves; and, if this name was common to
all the Gælic tribes, or, at least, if it was
used by the inhabitants of Bretagne, the
German races may have applied it, from
this circumstance, to all foreigners.
Romans, indeed, did not permit foreign-
ers to inherit property-a law which the
emperor Frederic I abolished, since he
gave to all foreigners the right of making
a will, and ordered that the effects of such
as died without one should be assigned
by the bishop to the foreign heirs, or, if
this was not possible, should be employed
for some pious purposes. France was
the only country where foreigners were
treated according to the maxim of law,
peregrinus liber vivit, servus moritur. They
were permitted to acquire all kinds of
property, even real estate. They could
not, however, obtain it by inheritance, nor
bequeath it at their death. The king (by
virtue of the law of aliens, droit d'Aubaine),
in whose peace and protection they re-
mained during life, was their only heir
after death. No feudal lord could acquire
this right. It was very early softened in
favor of the relations who resided in the
kingdom. Some cities, as Lyons, in order
to favor commerce, obtained the privilege
that the estate of foreigners who died in
them should go to the foreign heirs, and
this was agreed upon by treaties with
certain states. (See the account of these
states in Schlözer's State Papers-Staats-
anzeigen—H. 31, and the later treaties
in Marten's Recueil des Traités.) The
DROIT D'AUBAINE-AUBURN.
national assembly, by the decrees of the
6th of Aug., 1790, and the 8th and 31st of
Aug., 1791, abolished this law; and, as it
was acknowledged by no other country
of Europe as a general rule, but was only
put in force as a measure of retaliation
against France, there was no necessity for
a particular abrogation of the same in any
European state. The French, however,
were not conscious of this. They con-
founded their own droit d'Aubaine with
the rule prevailing in other countries, of
deducting a certain proportion of the
estates of foreigners deceased; and the
droit d'Aubaine was restored in the Code
civile (Code de Napoléon, art. 11), because
complaint was made that other countries,
especially Prussia, had not abolished it.
-2. In England, no droit d'Aubaine is
known. The alien can transact any busi-
ness there (under the provisions of the
alien act), and his property descends to
his heirs, wherever they may be. Real
estates alone he cannot acquire. (For
further information respecting the rights
of aliens in England and the U. States,
see Alien, Alien Act and Naturalization.)
AUBE, department of; a French de-
partment in the former province of Cham-
pagne. (See Department.)-Aube; a river
of France, which rises in the department
of Upper Marne, and, running through
that of Aube, passes by Bar-sur-Aube and
Arcis, and falls into the Seine, near No-
gent. The Aube became important, in
the last war against France, as a line of
military operation.
AUBER, D. F. E.; a French composer
of operas, now popular, and a distinguish-
ed support of the opéra comique in Paris.
His first opera, by means of which he
made his fortune in Germany, is La Neige
(Snow). His Concert à la Cour (Concert
at Court) and Le Maçon (the Mason) are
very much esteemed. His music is ele-
gant, but not elevated, and betrays the
desire of the new French composers to be
piquant and novel. He seeks to unite
the style of Boyeldieu, and the French
opera composers, with that of Rossini.
AUBERT-DUBAYET, Jean Baptiste An-
nibal; born in Louisiana, Aug. 9, 1759.
From the 18th year of his age, he was an
officer, and fought in the service of the
U. States in the war of independence.
Shortly before the breaking out of the
French revolution, he went to France.
In 1792, he was elected president of the
legislative assembly. As general of brig-
ade, he defended Mayence, and justitied
himself from the charge of improperly
surrendering the place. He afterwards
461
fought with vigor against the Vendeans,
in the west of France. In the year 3 of
the republic, he was appointed minister
of war, and went, in the year 4, to Con-
stantinople as French ambassador, where
he died two years afterwards. He was an
ardent republican, upright, and endowed
with talent, but is said to have been ex-
tremely vain.
AUBIGNE, Theodore Agrippa d'; a
French author, born in 1550. He early
gave proofs of talent. In his 13th year,
he lost his father, and fought afterwards
under Henry IV, king of France, who
made him a gentleman of his bed-cham-
ber. He soon became a favorite of Henry,
but when the king, thinking it necessary,
favored the Catholics more than the Prot-
estants, A. expressed his displeasure with
little reserve, and, at length, lost the favor
of Henry. He now retired to Geneva,
where he devoted himself to literary pur-
suits. He wrote a Histoire Universelle,
from 1550 to 1601, with a short account
of Henry IV's death, 3 vols., folio, the
first volume of which was ordered to be
burned by the parliament of Paris. He
died at Geneva, in 1630.
AUBREY, John, F. R. S.; an English
antiquary, born at Easton-Piers, in Wilt-
shire, in 1626; educated at Oxford. He
collected materials for the Monasticon
Anglicanum, and afforded important as-
sistance to Wood, the Oxford antiquary.
He lost his property, and was reduced to
absolute want; but a lady Long supported
him till his death, about the year 1700.
He published little, but left large collec-
tions of manuscripts, which have been
used by subsequent writers.
AUBRY DE MONTDIDIER; a French
knight of the time of king Charles V,
who, according to tradition, was basely
murdered, in 1371, by his companion in
arms, Richard de Macaire. The murder
was discovered by means of a dog of the
deceased, who showed the most hostile
disposition to the murderer. The king
compelled Macaire to fight with his ac-
cuser, the dog, in order to decide the
case; and the murderer was conquered.
This story has been formed into a drama,
for the German stage, called the Dog o
Aubry, or the Wood of Bondy, which has
been very profitable, being a very popular
spectacle, and has exposed the German
theatre to the most lively ridicule.
AUBURN; a post-village of New York,
and capital of the county of Cayuga, in
the township of Aurelius, on the great
western turnpike, at the northern end of
Owasco lake, 170 miles W. of Albany.
89%
462
AUBURN-AUCTION.
Pop., in 1825, 2982. It is a pleasant and
flourishing village, and contains an acad-
emy, a court-house, a state-prison large
enough to receive 1000 prisoners, a county
jail, a market-house, a Presbyterian theo-
logical seminary, and four houses of public
worship. The theological seminary was
incorporated in 1820, and has four profes-
sors-one of Christian theology, one of
ecclesiastical history and church govern-
ment, one of Biblical criticism, and one
of sacred rhetoric. The number of stu-
dents, in 1825, was 47. The building
appropriated to the seminary is a large
stone edifice, containing rooms for stu-
dents, a chapel, and valuable library.
AUCKLAND, William Eden, lord a
statesman who had great influence in
Pitt's ministry, and was employed in im-
portant embassies. He began his career,
in 1778, as a mediator between the mother
country and the insurgent colonies in
North America. He was accompanied
by lord Howe and sir Henry Clinton, G.
Johnstone and lord Carlisle, upon this
important embassy; but the result did not
answer the expectations which had been
formed from the talents of these distin-
guished men, and nothing was left for
England but to acknowledge the indepen-
dence of the colonies. Afterwards, as a
member of parliament, he had a great
influence in the reform of the penal laws,
and, with Howard and Blackstone, in the
organization of a new system of police,
and a better mode of treating prisoners.
He subsequently held the important post
of secretary of state for Ireland, and, in
1785, was ambassador extraordinary to
the French court, to negotiate a commer-
cial treaty, which was concluded in 1786.
During the first year of the French revo-
lutionary war, he was ambassador extra-
ordinary to the states general of the Neth-
erlands; and, in this capacity, he had the
greatest influence on the measures which
the crowd of events was constantly ren-
dering more complicated. After his re-
turn, his conduct was subjected to an
investigation by parliament, and was de-
clared to be unexceptionable. He died
in 1814.
AUCTION is a public sale, to the party
offering the highest price, where the buy-
ers bid upon each other; or to the bidder
who first accepts the terms offered by the
vender, where he sells by reducing his
terms until some one accepts them. This
mode of sale was in use among the Ro-
mans, called sub hasta, from its being, in
early times, a sale of the spoils taken in
war, under a spear erected as the signal
of the auction.
of the auction. The same signal was
afterwards used in other sales, which
were made under the superintendence of
particular tribunals. This mode of selling
is subject to particular regulations, by the
laws of many communities, the object of
which is to prevent frauds, or to levy a
tax. In the time of lord Mansfield, a
question was made in the case of Bexwell
vs. Christie (Cowper's Reports, p. 395,)
whether a sale by auction was fair, at
which some one bid for the owner. The
subject was treated as being, in some
measure, a question of conscience, upon
the supposition that the real bidders sup-
posed themselves to be bidding only
against other real bidders; and the pur-
chaser at the sale, in that case, was held not
to be bound by his bid, because there had
been by-bids on behalf of the vender. But
the decision, in that case, was subsequently
overruled by lord Rosslyn, in the case of
Conolly vs. Parsons (3 Vesey Jr.'s Reports,
p. 625), and again by the master of the
rolls in Bramley vs. Alt (3 Vesey Jr.'s
Reports, p. 620), with one qualification,
however, in this latter case, viz., that if
none bid, except by-bidders or puffers,
against one real bidder, to whom the arti-
cle was struck off, he was not bound by
the purchase.
the purchase. No similar decision has
been made in the U. States, and there
seems to be no reason for supposing that
a sale by auction would be void on this
account, unless it were a violation of the
conditions upon which the auction was
announced. It is evident that the fairness
or unfairness of this proceeding must de-
pend, in any case, very much upon a com-
pliance with the understanding entertain-
ed, or the conditions laid down in respect
to the sale; and, certainly, it is not univer-
sally understood that no bid will be made
for the vender. In regard to a tax upon
sales by auction, there does not appear to
be any good ground for it in principle,
and the same objections lie against this
tax that are made to the Spanish alcavala
(q. v.), or tax on private sales. The vender
must pay the tax, and a man's selling
goods is not, in general, a proof, nor the
value of the goods a measure, of his ability
to pay a tax. So far from this is the
fact, that, in very many instances, the
poverty or straitened circumstances of
the vender are the cause of his putting up
his property at auction. When these
sales are taxed, therefore, the law makes
inany exceptions, with the intention of
preventing the tax from falling upon per-
sons who sell from necessity, rather than
the expectation of making a profit.—
AUCTION-AUDITOR.
Much discussion has been had upon the
effect of sales by auction, in an economi-
cal point of view; as, whether they give
a facility to the introduction of foreign
manufactures, to the discouragement and
depression of the domestic, with which
they come into competition; and whether
they have a favorable or unfavorable in-
fluence upon the course of production and
consumption, considered as a part of the
general system of business and economy,
independently of their effect in respect to
the introduction of foreign fabrics or pro-
ducts. No general answer can be made
to these questions, since it must, in each
case, depend, in some degree, upon the
manner in which the auctions are con-
ducted. But, supposing them to be con-
ducted with perfect fairness and honesty,
it must then depend upon the condition
of the industry of the community. The
German fairs have an effect similar to
that of auction sales. An extensive fair,
or sale by auction, by showing, and, in
effect, exaggerating the surplus or defi-
ciency of articles, aggravates the stagna-
tion in one case, and enhances the prices
in the other. All such fluctuations tend
to check and destroy the production that
is carried on upon a small scale. Those
who carry it on upon the largest scale,
whether domestic or foreign, will drive
out the smaller ones, since they will, as
has been invariably proved, push on their
business, in spite of the sacrifices which
they may be obliged to make, and they
gain an impetus which is not easily
checked. Whether auctions are injurious
or not, in either respect, will depend,
therefore, upon the scale on which they
are conducted, and the extent of different
systems or processes of production, which
are thus brought into competition. Where
there is a competition, they undoubtedly
tend to make it more close and direct,
and if one of the rivals has any ad-
vantage at the time being, he is likely to
destroy the other; or, if there be no other
advantage on either side, the party will-
ing and able to make the greatest sacri-
fices will eventually keep possession of
the market.
AUDE, department of; a French de-
partment in the former province of Lan-
guedoc. (Sec Department.)
AUDEBERT, Jean Baptiste, united, in a
high degree, the talents of an engraver
with the knowledge of natural history.
He was born at Rochefort in 1759, went,
at the age of 18, to Paris, to learn drawing
and painting, and made himself a skilful
miniature painter. In 1789, he became
463
acquainted with Gigot d'Orcy, a great
lover and promoter of natural history,
who possessed a vast collection, the rarest
specimens of which he employed A. to
paint, and afterwards sent him to England
and Holland, whence he brought back a
number of designs, which have been used
in Olivier's History of Insects. This
occupation awakened in him a taste for
natural history. He now undertook some
works which laid the foundation of his
fame. The first was, Histoire Naturelle des
Singes, des Makis et des Galéopithéques
(Paris, 1800, folio), in which he shows
himself an able draughtsman, engraver
and writer. With regard to coloring, so
essential in natural history, be brought it to
a greater perfection than it had ever before
attained. Not satisfied with laying different
colors on the same plate, so as to produce
a kind of painting, he went farther, and,
instead of water-colors, used the more
durable oil-colors. He carried his art to
still greater perfection by using gold in his
impressions, the color of which he chang-
ed in different ways, in order to imitate
the splendor of his patterns. Natural his-
tory was greatly benefited by his work,
the splendor of which was astonishing.
His Histoire des Colibris, des Oiseaux-
Mouches, des Jacamars et des Promerops
(Paris, 1802, folio), is esteemed the most
complete work that has appeared in this
department. Fifteen copies were struck
off with golden letters. Scarcely was this
work begun, when A. formed new plans,
for the execution of which the longest
life would hardly have been sufficient.
He died in 1800, when he had scarcely
begun the Histoire des Grimpereaux et des
Oiseaux de Paradis. Both works were
excellently finished by Desray, who was
in possession of the materials, and the
process for carrying on the work. A.
rendered much assistance in the publica-
tion of Levaillant's African Birds. He
conducted the impressions of the plates
as far as the thirteenth number.
AUDIENCE is used to signify the cere-
monies, practised in courts, at the admis-
sion of ambassadors and public ministers
to a hearing. It is also the name of courts
of justice or tribunals which were estab-
lished by the Spaniards in America, and
formed upon the model of the court of
chancery in Spain.-It is also the name
of one of the ecclesiastical courts in Eng-
land, which is held wherever the arch-
bishop calls up a cause to be argued
before himself.
AUDITOR, in the language of the ancient
law; an officer of the courts, whose duty
464
AUDITOR-AUGER.
it was to interrogate the parties. In a
narrower sense, an officer who overlooks
accounts. The auditeur du châtelet, in
France, was a member of that court of
justice for the city of Paris. (See Châ-
telet.) This court decided in causes of
small importance (where the amount in
dispute did not exceed 50 francs.) In the
11 high offices of accounts (chambres des
comptes) of France, the members were
divided into conseillers-maîtres and conseil-
lers-auditeurs, as the German colleges (de
partments of government) are into coun-
sellors and assistants. A similar division
in the courts of justice was introduced by
Napoleon, viz., that of conseilleurs and
juge-auditeurs, which distinction still ex-
ists. In England, this term is applied to
those who examine accounts. The chief
accountant's office is called office for au-
diting the public accounts. The members
of the Spanish courts of justice are gener-
ally called oydores. This appellation also
obtains among the papal officers. The
12 counsellors of the renowned rota Ro-
mana (q. v.) are called auditores sacri pa-
latii apostolici, or auditores rota. In the
papal college of finance, the camera apos-
tolica, at the head of which is the cardi-
nale camerlingo, there is an auditor came-
ra, who exercises the power of the college
in causes of minor importance.
AUERBACH, Henry; born in 1482, at a
place of the same name in Bavaria; the
builder of the Auerbach-court and cellar at
Leipsic, mentioned in Göthe's Faust. His
real name was Stromer, but, according to
the fashion of his time, he took the name
of the place where he was born. The
building was erected in 1530, and tradi-
tion reports that, five years after, doctor
Faust was seen riding out of it on a bar-
rel of wine. This tale Göthe has made
use of in his famous poem. The building
was known also at the Leipsic fairs as
one of the most frequented places for the
exhibition of merchandise.
AUERSTEDT, battle at, Oct. 14, 1806.
(See Jena.)
AUGEAN CODEX (Codex Augiensis); a
Greek and Latin MS. of the Epistles of
St. Paul, supposed by Michaelis to have
been written in the ninth century, and so
called from Augia Major, the name of a
monastery at Rheinau, to which it be
longed. After passing through several
hands, it came, in 1718, to doctor Bentley,
who purchased it for 250 Dutch florins,
and it is now in the library of Trinity col-
lege, Cambridge. This MS. (noted F. in
the second part of Wetstein's New Test.)
is written in uncial letters, and without
accents; not continua serie, as is common
with the more ancient copies, but with
intervals between the words, and a dot at
the end of each. The Greek text is writ-
ten in capitals, the Latin in Anglo-Saxon
letters; whence it is tolerably clear that it
must have been written in the west of
Europe, where that formation of the Latin
letters, usually called Anglo-Saxon, was in
general use between the 7th and 12th cen-
turies. The manuscript is defective from
the beginning to Romans iii. 8, and the
Epistle to the Hebrews is only found in
the Latin version.
AUGEAS, in fabulous history; a king of
Elis, famed for his stable, which contained
3000 oxen, and had not been cleaned for
30 years. Hercules was desired to clear
away the filth in one day, and A. prom-
ised, if he performed it, to give him a
tenth part of the cattle. This task Her-
cules is said to have executed by turning
the river Alpheus, or, as some say, the
Peneus, through the stable, which imme-
diately carried away the dung and filth.
A. not only refused to perform his en-
gagement, pretending that Hercules had
used artifice, and experienced no labor or
trouble, but banished his own son, Phy-
leus, from his kingdom, for supporting
the claims of the hero. Upon this, a war
commenced, and Hercules conquered
Elis, put A. to death, and gave his king-
dom to Phyleus. A. has been called the
son of Sol, because Elis signifies the sun.
After his death, he received the honors
usually paid to heroes.
AUGER, Athanase, born at Paris, Dec.
12, 1734, a great linguist, was a clergy-
man, and professor of rhetoric in the col-
lege of St. Rouen. The bishop de Noé
made him his chief vicar, and called him,
in jest, his grand vicaire in partibus
Atheniensium, on account of the zeal
with which the abbé pursued the study
of Grecian antiquities. Learning proved
its worth in his character and life. He
lived in a simple style in the midst of
Paris, retired, and free from anxiety,
or wish to attain a higher station. He
divided a moderate income with his needy
family. It was said of him that he had
never spoken ill of any one, and no one
had spoken ill of him. As a member of
the academy of inscriptions, he remained
true to his principles of honest candor,
and was no less beloved than respected
by the whole society. The breaking out
of the revolution aroused the sympathies
of a man who lived, by his daily studies, in
Greece and Rome. He hoped for the
abolition of crying abuses, and for the
AUGER-AUGITE.
introduction of true freedom. This ex-
pectation appears in several of his writ-
ings. He died before the occurrence of
any events which could have shaken his
faith, Feb. 7, 1792. His writings, partly
translations from the ancient languages,
and partly political, were published from
his papers, at Paris, in 30 vols. Among
his political works, the most distinguished
are Projet d'Education publique précédé
de quelques Reflexions sur l'Assemblée Na-
tionale, 1789; and De la Constitution des
Romains sous les Rois et au Temps de la
République, 1792, the product of 30 years'
labor, which first appeared after his death,
with the rest of his posthumous works.
AUGEREAU, Pierre François Charles,
duke of Castiglione, marshal of France;
son of a fruit merchant; born at Paris,
1757; served as a carabinier in the
French army; went from thence into the
Neapolitan service, established himself at
Naples, in 1787, as a fencing-master, and
was banished thence, in 1792, with the
rest of his countrymen. He served, after-
wards, as a volunteer in the army of Italy,
in which his talents and courage soon
gained him promotion. He distinguished
himself, in 1794, as general of brigade in
the army of the Pyrenees, and, in 1796,
as general of division in the army of Italy.
He took the pass of Millesimo; made him-
self master, April 16, of the intrenched
camp of the Piedmontese at Ceva, after
wards of that at Casale; threw himself on
the bridge of Lodi, and carried it with the
enemy's intrenchments. June 16, he pass-
ed the Po, and made prisoners the papal
troops, together with the cardinal legate
and the general's staff. Aug. 1, he came
to the assistance of Masséna; maintained,
during a whole day, a most obstinate
struggle against a superior number of
troops, and took the village of Castiglione,
from which he derived his ducal title.
Aug. 25, he passed over the Adige, and
drove back the enemy as far as Roveredo.
In the battle of Arcole, when the French
columns wavered, A. seized a standard,
rushed upon the enemy, and gained the
victory. The directory bestowed this
standard on him Jan. 27, 1797. Aug. 9,
he was named commander of the 17th
military division (division of Paris), in
place of general Hatry. He was the in-
strument of the violent proceedings of the
18th of Fructidor, and was saluted, by the
decimated legislative body, as the savior
of his country. In 1799, he was chosen
a member of the council of five hundred,
and, therefore, resigned his command.
He then obtained from the consul, Bon-
465
aparte, the command of the army in Hol-
land. He led the French and Batavian
army on the Lower Rhine to the support
of Moreau, passed the river at Frankfort,
and fought with the imperial general, with
various success, until the battle of Hohen-
linden ended the campaign. In October
of 1801, being superseded by general Vic-
tor, he remained without employment till
1803, when he was appointed to lead the
army, collected at Bayonne, against Por-
tugal. When this enterprise failed, he
went back to Paris, and, May 19, 1804,
was named marshal of the empire, and
grand officer of the legion of honor. In
July of this year, the king of Spain sent
him the order of Charles III. At the
end of 1805, he was at the head of a
corps of the great army in Germany,
formed of troops collected under his com-
mand at Brest. He contributed to the
successes which gave birth to the peace
of Presburg, and, in March 1806, had pos-
session of Wetzlar and the country around,
until, in the autumn of this year, a new
war called him to Prussia. The wounds
which he received in the battle of Eylau
(q. v.) compelled him to return to France.
Early in 1811, Napoleon gave him the
command of a corps in the army of
Spain. Afterwards he returned from
thence, and remained without any em-
ployment until July, 1813, when he led
the army in Bavaria against Saxony,
where he took part in the battle of Leip-
sic. At the entrance of the allies into
France, his duty was to cover Lyons.
Louis XVIII named him a peer. After
the fall of Napoleon, A. used reproachful
language respecting him in a proclama-
tion to his army. Napoleon, therefore, on
his landing in 1815, declared him a traitor.
A., however, expressed himself in his fa-
vor, but took no active part in the new
order of things. After the return of the
king, he took his place again in the cham-
ber of peers, sat among Ney's judges, was
for a while unoccupied, and died, June
11, 1816, at his estate La Houssaye, of
the dropsy.
AUGIAS. (See Augeas.)
AUGITE (pyroxene); the name of a
species in mineralogy, interesting on ac-
count of its wide distribution and the nu-
merous varieties of form and color under
which it appears. When crystallized, it
assumes the form of short, slightly rhom-
bic prisms, with their lateral edges replac-
ed, and terminated at one or both extrem-
ities by numerous planes; and, when
massive, is generally capable of mechan-
ical division, in lines parallel to the sides

466
AUGITE-AUGURS.
of an oblique rhombic prism of 87° 5' and
92° 5', its primitive form. Its specific grav-
ity is from 3,23 to 3,34; lustre vitreous;
and hardness sufficient to scratch glass.
Different names have been applied to
some of its most remarkable varieties; as,
diopside, to greenish-white, transparent
crystals; sahlite, when it is in imperfectly
prismatic and foliated masses; and coccolite,
when in small, slightly-cohering grains.
This species occurs abundantly in black
crystals in basalt and lava, and enters into
the regular composition of many rocks,
besides being found in veins in primitive
rocks. It is composed essentially of silex,
lime and magnesia, to which oxyde of iron
is sometimes added; and is one of those
few mineral substances, whose composi-
tion may be imitated by the artificial mix-
ture of its constituents, and subjecting them
to fusion. Its native crystals, likewise,
when fused, and suffered to cool slowly,
reassume their original shape and color.
A transparent green variety, found at
Zillerthal, in the Tyrol, is used in jew-
elry.
AUGSBURG, the capital city in the Ba-
varian circle of Upper Danube, formerly a
free city of the empire, lies between the
Wertach and Lech, and is the residence
of a bishop. It has 3690 houses, and
29,000 inhabitants, of whom 12,000 are
Protestants. Lon. 10° 55′ E.; lat. 48° 22
N.; 35 miles N. W. of Munich. The cu-
riosities are the bishop's palace, where the
confession of Augsburg was signed in
1530; the city-house, with the golden
hall, esteemed the finest in Germany; the
Fuggerei (106 small houses, built by two
brothers, by the name of Fugger, for the
residence of the poor inhabitants of the
city, a monument of the benevolence of
those immensely rich citizens); the cathe-
dral church, and the gallery of paintings
of the German schools, &c. The city
has considerable carrying trade and deal-
ings in bills of exchange, important com-
mercial transactions with Vienna and It-
aly, and is likewise a mart for the wines
of southern Germany and Italy. Wheth-
er A. bore the name of Damasia before
the entrance of the Romans into the
country is uncertain, but it is well settled
that the emperor Augustus, about 12 B. C.,
after conquering the Vindelici, placed a
colony there, which must be considered as
the origin of the present A. After the
division of the empire of the Franks, A.
came under the dominion of the duke of
Suabia, and, becoming rich by its com-
merce, finally purchased its freedom of
the duke, which was afterwards confirm-
ed by the emperor. The city now reach-
ed the summit of its prosperity, and was,
together with Nuremberg, a great_mart
for the commerce between the north and
south of Europe, until, towards the end of
the 15th century, the discoveries of the
Portuguese and Spaniards gave a new di-
rection to the whole commerce of the
world. In 1368, in consequence of the
opposition of the lower classes of citizens,
the aristocratic government was abolished,
and a democratic form substituted, which
continued till 160 years later, when the
nobles, with the assistance of the emperor,
Charles V, again obtained the supremacy.
A. is still one of the principal manufac-
turing places in Germany.
AUGSBURG CONFESSION, presented by
the Protestants, at the diet of Augsburg,
1530, to the emperor and the diet, and,
being signed by the Protestant states, was
adopted as their creed. Luther made the
original draught at the command of John,
elector of Saxony, at Torgau, in 17 arti-
cles; but, as its style appeared to be too
violent, it was altered by Melancthon, at
the command of the elector, and in com-
pliance with the wishes of the body of
Protestant princes and theologians. Thus
changed, it was presented and read in the
diet, June 25. The original is to be found
in the imperial Austrian archives, and the
edition of the Augsburg confession, at
Wittemberg, 1531, was printed from this.
Afterwards, Melancthon arbitrarily alter-
ed some of the articles, and a new edi-
tion, with his changes, appeared in 1540.
There now arose a division between those
who held the original and those who held
the altered Augsburg confession. The
former is received by the Lutherans, the
latter by the German Reformed, who
thereby secured to themselves, at the re-
ligious peace of 1555, the privileges ex-
tended only to the adherents of the Augs-
burg confession, and kindred sects.
AUGSBURG GAZETTE. (See Allgemeine
Zeitung.)
AUGURS; certain priests among the Ro-
mans, who, from the flight and the cries
of birds, from lightning, &c., predicted
future events, and announced the will of
the gods. They were consulted respect-
ing both public and private concerns, and
their respectability, as well as their influ-
ence in the state, was very great. By
merely pronouncing the words Alio die
(another day), they could dissolve the as-
sembly of the people, and annul all the
decrees which had been passed at the
meeting. Their answers, as well as the
signs by which they governed themselves,
AUGURS-AUGUSTIN.
were called auguries. Public auguries
were, 1, appearances in the heavens, as
thunder and lightning. The augur re-
marked the place where the flash of
lightning originated, and where it disap-
peared. He stood on an elevated place
(arx, templum), where he had a full view
of all around him. After the sacrifices
had been made, and solemn prayers offer-
ed, he took his station, his face towards
the east, his head covered, and pointing
with his staff (lituus) to that portion of
the heavens within the limits of which he
proposed to make his observations. On
the left were the propitious, on the right
the unpropitious omens. 2. The cries
and the flight of birds. Predictions
founded on the observation of birds were
properly called auspices, and were very
common even among the Greeks, who
took them from the Chaldeans. They
afterwards became so important, that,
among the Romans, nothing of conse-
quence in peace or in war was under-
taken without consulting birds, whose
continual flight was supposed to give
them universal knowledge. They were
propitious or unpropitious, either from
their species or from the circumstances
in which they appeared. The birds of a
prophetic character were divided into two
principal classes—those whose flight and
those whose cry was indicative of future
events. In the latter class were included
the_raven, the crow, the night-owl, the
cock; in the former were the eagle, the
crow, the raven, the kite and the vulture.
The two last were always unpropitious;
the eagle, on the contrary, was propitious
when he flew from left to right; the crow
and the raven were propitious on the left
and unpropitious on the right. 3. The
willingness or unwillingness of chickens
to eat was also ominous. The former
was interpreted as a good omen, the latter
as a bad one. Chickens were made use
of particularly in war; therefore a ponti-
fex, some augurs and haruspices (see
Aruspex), together with a pullarius with a
hen-coop, were attached to the army.
Besides these three principal classes, cer-
tain omens were drawn from quadrupeds;
e. g., if a beast crossed one's path, or was
seen in an unusual place, and from many
occurrences more or less uncommon, e.g.,
sudden melancholy, sneezing, spilling the
salt on the table, &c. The augurs ex-
plained such signs, and taught how the
gods were to be appeased. The right of
taking the auspices, that is, the right to
inquire of the gods, by certain signs, how
the war would terminate, belonged only
467
to the commander-in-chief. The inferior
officers fought only under his auspices;
that is, the declaration which he issued
was binding upon them, and the fortunate
or the unfortunate issue of the war was
attributed to him alone.
AUGUST; the name of the eighth month
from January, inclusive, and the sixth
of the Roman year, which began with
March. It was called Sextilis, till the
emperor Augustus, in consideration of
the many instances of good fortune which
had happened to him in this month, affix-
ed to it his own name.
AUGUSTA; the name of a very great
number of ancient places; as, Augusta
Treverorum, now Treves; Augusta Aus-
ciorum, now Auch; Augusta Taurinorum,
now Turin; Augusta Suessonum, now
Soissons, &c. Augusta also is the name
of many modern places and rivers in
South America.
AUGUSTA; a post-town of Maine, on the
river Kennebec, 56 miles N. N. E. Port-
land, 168 N. E. Boston; population, in
1810, 1805; in 1820, 2457. It is a pleas-
ant and flourishing town, and has, by an
act of the state legislature, been constitut-
ed the seat of the state government after
January 1, 1832. Here is an elegant bridge
across the Kennebec, consisting of two
arches, each 180 feet long. The river is
navigable to A. for vessels of 100 tons.
AUGUSTA; a city of Georgia, opposite to
Hamburg, in South Carolina, with which
it is connected by a bridge; 87 miles E.
N. E. Milledgeville, 123 N. N. W. Savan-
nah, 138 W. N. W. Charleston; lon. 80°
46′ W.; lat. 33° 33′ N; population, in
1810, 2476; and in 1827, about 5000. It
is situated on an elevated plain. The
streets are wide, intersecting each other
at right angles, and are ornamented with
trees. The houses are mostly of brick,
and many of them are spacious and ele-
gant. Among the public buildings are a
city-hall, an academy, a court-house, a
theatre, an hospital, two markets and six
houses of public worship. A. is favorably
situated for trade, and has a very flourish-
ing commerce. More than 100,000 bags of
cotton are annually deposited here, and
hence conveyed down the river to Savan-
nah and Charleston, for northern and Eu-
ropean markets.
AUGUSTIN, OF AUSTIN, Saint, called the
apostle of the English, flourished at the
close of the sixth century. He was sent,
with 40 monks, by Gregory, to introduce
Christianity into the Saxon kingdoms.
He was kindly received by Ethelbert,
king of Kent, whom he soon converted ;

468
AUGUSTIN-AUGUSTINE.
and such was his success with his sub-
jects, that he is said to have baptized
10,000 in one day. This success may be
attributed to his reputation of miraculous
power in the restoration of sight and life,
more probably than to any other cause.
He has the merit of allowing no coercive
measures to be used in the propagation
of the gospel. Elated by the rapid prog-
ress he had made, A. became ambitious
of possessing the supreme authority over
the English churches as archbishop of
Canterbury, and received the archiepisco-
pal pall from the pope, with instructions
to establish 12 sees in his province.
The British bishops in Wales, successors
of the British converts of the second cen-
tury, had never submitted to the jurisdic-
tion of the church of Rome, and A. en-
deavored to persuade them to unite with
the new English church. They asserted
their independence, and 1200 Welsh
monks were soon after put to the sword,
as is thought, at the instigation of A. He
died in 604, or 608, or 614, and his relics
have been carefully preserved in the ca-
thedral of Canterbury.
AUGUSTINE, Saint, one of the most re-
nowned fathers of the Christian church,
born at Tagaste, a small city in Africa,
Nov. 13, 354, during the reign of the em-
peror Constantine, has related his life in
the work to which he gave the title of
Confessions. His parents sent him to
Carthage to complete his education, but
he disappointed their expectations by his
neglect of serious study and his devotion
to pleasure. In his 16th year, he became
very fond of women. For 15 years, he
was connected with one, by whom he had
a son. He left her only when he changed
his whole course of life. A book of
Cicero's, called Hortensius, which has not
come down to our times, led him to the
study of philosophy; and, when he found
this did not satisfy his feelings, he went
over to the sect of the Manichæans. He
was one of their disciples for nine years;
but, after having obtained a correct knowl-
edge of their doctrines, he left them, and
departed from Africa to Rome, and thence
to Milan, where he announced himself as
a teacher of rhetoric. Saint Ambrose was
bishop of this city, and his discourses con-
verted A. to the orthodox faith. The
reading of Paul's Epistles wrought an
entire change in his life and character.
The Catholic church has a feast (May 3)
in commemoration of this event. He
retired into solitude, wrote there many
books, and prepared himself for baptism,
which he received in the 33d year of his
life, together with his son Adeodatus.
from the hands of Ambrose. He return-
ed to Africa, sold his estate, and gave the
proceeds to the poor, retaining only
enough to support him in a moderate
manner. As he was once present in the
church at Hippo, the bishop, who was a
very old man, signified a desire to conse-
crate a priest to assist and succeed him.
At the desire of the people, A. entered
upon the holy office, preached with ex-
traordinary success, and, in 395, became
bishop of Hippo. He entered into a warm
controversy with Pelagius (see Pelagians)
concerning the doctrines of free will, of
grace and of predestination, and wrote a
book concerning them. A. maintained
that men were justified merely through
grace, and not through good works. (See
Grace.) He died, Aug. 28, 403, while
Hippo was besieged by the Vandals.
There have been fathers of the church
more learned, masters of a better language
and a purer taste; but none have ever
more powerfully touched the human
heart, and warmed it towards religion.
Painters have therefore given hun for a
symbol a flaming heart. Augustus Ne-
ander published, in Berlin, 1823, Sancti
Augustini Confessionum Libri XIII. A.
left a monument of his zeal for the mo-
nastic life by founding some monasteries
for monks and nuns in Africa, which
were shortly after destroyed by the Van-
dals. This order was governed by strict
rules, but was very different from the
one called, after him, Augustine. The
different branches of the Augustine order
were first established in the 11th and 12th
centuries, and their rules were the work
of the popes and priors. They did not
constitute a regular order, however, till
1256, and, in 1567, were made the fourth
in rank among the mendicant orders,
coming after the Dominicans, Francis-
cans and Carmelites. They wear black
cowls. Before the reformation, they had
about 2000 convents, containing 30,000
monks, and also 300 nunneries. After
the reformation brought about by Luther,
a brother of their order, they were sep-
arated into many considerable brother-
hoods, among which the barefooted
monks, in Italy, Spain and France, were
the most numerous. At the beginning
of the 18th century, the order numbered
42 provinces. The number of convents
of this order is now smaller. They are
to be found in Italy, Spain, Portugal, in
the Austrian states, and in America. In
1817, Augustine nuns of the congregation
of Our Lady appeared again in Paris.
AUGUSTINE-AUGUSTUS.
Their number is 32; they support them-
selves by their industry, educate 200 poor
children, and possess no landed property.
AUGUSTINE, St.; a city and sea-port in
East Florida. (See Saint Augustine.)
AUGUSTULUS (Romulus Momyllus, sur-
named Augustulus); son of Orestes, a
general of the Roman emperor Julius
Nepos. Orestes deposed the emperor,
and placed his son upon the throne, in
475. In the following year, Odoacer, a
commander of the German forces in the
Roman service, revolted, put Orestes to
death, obliged A. to resign, and thus put
an end to the Roman empire in the West.
During the 20 years of the Roman empire
which succeeded the murder of Valen-
tinian III, no less than nine emperors
are mentioned.
469
two parties, that of the republicans, who
had killed Cæsar, and that of Antony
and Lepidus, who, under the pretence
of avenging him, strove to establish their
own authority. The latter party became
victorious, and the consul, Antony, exer-
cised almost unlimited power. Octavius
addressed himself first to Cicero, who had
retired to his villa at Cumæ, being de-
sirous to gain this great orator, always
beloved by the people, and whom Anto-
ny hated and feared. From thence he
went to Rome, where the greatest part of
the magistrates, soldiers and citizens came
to meet him, Antony, alone, paying no
attention to his return. After Octavius
had caused his adoption to be confirmed
in the most solemn manner, he went to
Antony, begged his friendship, and de-
AUGUSTUS (Caius Julius Cæsar Octa- manded of him the inheritance left him
vius); originally called Caius Octavius; by Cæsar, in order to pay the legacies
son of Caius Octavius and Accia, a daugh- mentioned in his will. Antony, at first,
ter of Julia, the sister of Julius Cæsar. haughtily refused to acknowledge his
The Octavian family originated at Velle- claims, but afterwards changed his de-
tri, in the country of the Volscians. The meanor, when he found the influence of
branch to which Octavius belonged was Octavius continually increasing, and his
rich and distinguished. His father had own proportionably diminishing. There
risen to the rank of senator, and had gone could be no lasting union between two
to Macedonia, after being chosen prætor, equally ambitious rivals. Their hearts
where he was very distinguished as a cherished reciprocal hatred and jealousy;
civil and military officer. Octavius was and their enmity was so little a secret,
born during the consulate of Cicero, 65 that Octavius was accused of having
B. C. He lost his father when young, wished to get Antony murdered. How
but was very carefully brought up at the latter went to Cisalpine Gaul, besieged
Rome by his mother, and L. M. Philippus, Mutina, and was declared an enemy to
the second husband of Accia. His tal- his country while absent from Roine;
ents gained him the regard of his great how Octavius, who had obtained the most
uncle, Julius Cæsar, who declared him- powerful party in the senate, accompanied
self willing to adopt him for his son, in the consul sent against Antony, and, after
case he himself should remain without the death of the consul, took the chict
children. Octavius was at Apollonia, in command; how he, afterwards, when An-
Epirus, where he was studying eloquence, tony, together with Lepidus, entered Italy
under the renowned orator Apollodorus, at the head of a powerful army, united
when he received the news of the tragical with him; how a triumvirate was formed
death of his uncle, and of his having by the three generals; and how, after
adopted him as his son. Notwithstanding dreadful scenes of blood, in Rome and the
the anxiety of his friends, he went over to rest of Italy, they defeated the republican
Italy, in order, if circumstances should army under Brutus and Cassius, in Mace-
favor him, to satisfy the hopes which he donia;—all this is contained in the article
had entertained from being adopted by on Antony. Antony honored the memo-
Julius Cæsar. When he landed at Bruni-y of Brutus, but Octavius insulted his
dusium, deputies from the veterans col-
lected there came to him. Conducted in
triumph to the city, and saluted as the
heir and avenger of Cæsar, he made his
adoption publicly known, and took the
name of his uncle, adding to it that of
Octavianus. He placed himself, then only
19 years old, at the head of the veterans,
possessed himself of all the public money
in Brundusium, and advanced through
Campania to Rome. Here there were
40
VOL. I.
corpse. After his return to Rome, he
satisfied the avarice of his soldiers by the
division of the conquered lands. This
division caused great disturbances. In
the midst of the stormy scenes which
convulsed Italy, he was obliged to contend
with Fulvia, whose daughter, Clodia, he
had rejected, and with Lucius, the brother-
in-law of Antony. After several battles,
Lucius threw himself into the city of
Perusia, where he was soon after obliged
T
470
AUGUSTUS.
to surrender. The city was given up to
be plundered, and 300 senators were con-
demned to death, as a propitiatory sacri-
fice to the manes of the deified Cæsar.
After the return of Antony, an end was
put to the proscriptions. Octavius al-
lowed such of the proscribed persons as
had escaped death by flight, and whom
he no longer feared, to return. There
were still some disturbances in Gaul, and
the naval war with Sextus Pompeius
continued for several years. After his re-
turn from Gaul, Octavius married the
famous Livia, the wife of Claudius Nero,
whom he compelled to resign her, after
he himself had divorced his third wife,
Scribonia. Lepidus, who had hitherto
retained an appearance of power, was now
deprived of his authority, and died, as a
private man, 13 B. C. Antony and Oc-
tavius now divided the empire. But,
while the former, in the East, gave him-
self up to a life of luxury, the young
Octavius pursued his plan of making
himself sole master of the world. He
especially strove to obtain the love of the
people. He showed mildness and mag-
nanimity, without the appearance of
striving after the highest power, and de-
clared himself ready to lay down his
power when Antony should return from
the war against the Parthians. He ap-
peared rather to permit than to wish
himself to be appointed perpetual tribune
-an office which gave him supreme
power. The more he advanced in the
affections of the people, the more openly
did he declare himself against Antony.
By making public a will, whercin his
rival appointed his sons by Cleopatra his
heirs, he stirred up the ill-will of the
Romans against him. Availing himself
of this feeling, Octavius declared war
against the queen of Egypt, and led a
considerable force, both by sea and land,
to the Ambracian gulf, where Agrippa
(q. v.) gained the naval victory of Actium
(q. v.), which made Octavius master of
the world, B. C. 31. He pursued his
rival to Egypt, and ended the war, after
he had rejected the proposal of Antony
to decide their differences by a personal
combat. Cleopatra and Antony killed
themselves. Octavius caused them to be
splendidly buried. A son of Antony and
Fulvia was sacrificed, to ensure his safe-
ty. Cæsarion, a son of Cæsar and Cleo-
patra, shared the same fate. All the other
relations of Antony remained uninjured,
and Octavius, on the whole, used his
power with moderation. He spent two
He spent two
years in the East, in order to arrange the
affairs of Egypt, Greece, Syria, Asia
Minor and the islands. On his return to
Rome, he celebrated a triumph for three
days in succession. Freed from his
rivals and enemies, and master of the
world, he was undecided concerning the
way in which he should exercise his power
in future. Agrippa, whose victory had
given him universal dominion, counselled
him to renounce his authority. Mæcenas
opposed this; and Octavius followed his
advice, or rather his own inclinations.
In order to make the people willing to
look upon him as an unlimited monarch,
he abolished the laws of the triumvirate,
beautified the city, and exerted himself
in correcting the abuses which had pre-
vailed during the civil war. At the end
of his seventh consulship, he entered the
senate-house, and declared his resolution
to lay down his power. The senate,
astonished at his moderation, besought
him to retain it. He yielded to their
pressing entreaties, and continued to gov-
ern through them. He now obtained the
surname of Augustus, which marked the
dignity of his person and rank, and united,
by degrees, in himself, the offices of
imperator, or commander-in-chief by sca
and land, with power to make war and
peace; of proconsul over all the provinces;
of perpetual tribune of the people, which
rendered his person inviolable, and gave
him the power of interrupting public pro-
ceedings; and, in fine, of censor, and pon-
tifex maximus, or controller of all religious
matters. The laws themselves were sub-
ject to him, and the observance of them
depended upon his will. To these digni-
tics we must add the title of father of his
country. Great as was the power given
to him, he exercised it with wise modera-
tion. It was the spirit of his policy to
retain old names and forms, and he stead-
fastly refused to assume the title of dicta-
tor, which Sylla and Cæsar had made
odious.-A. conducted many wars in
Africa, Asia, and particularly in Gaul
and Spain, where he triumphed over the
Cantabrians after a severe struggle. His
arms subjected Aquitania, Pannonia,
Dalinatia and Illyria, and held the Da-
cians, Numidians and Ethiopians in check.
He concluded a treaty with the Parthians,
by which they gave up Armenia, and re-
stored the eagles taken from Crassus and
Antony. At the foot of the Alps he
erected monuments of his triumphs over
the mountaineers, the proud remains of
which are yet to be seen at Susa and
Aosta. After he had established peace
throughout the empire, he closed (for the
:
AUGUSTUS.
third time since the foundation of Rome)
the temple of Janus, B. C. 10. But this
peace was interrupted, A. D. 9, by the
defeat of Varus, who lost three legions in
an engagement with the Germans, under
Arminius, and killed himself in despair.
The information of this misfortune great-
ly agitated A. He let his beard and hair
grow, and often cried out, in the deepest
grief, "O Varus, restore me my legions!"
Meanwhile the Germans were held in
check by Tiberius. During the peace,
A. had issued many useful decrees, and
abolished abuses in the government. He
gave a new form to the senate, employed
Limself in improving the manners of the
people, particularly by promoting mar-
riage, enacted laws for the suppression of
luxury, introduced discipline into the
armies, and order into the games of the
circus. He adorned Rome in such a man-
ner, that it was truly said, "He found it of
brick, and left it of marble." He also
made journeys, as Velleius says, every
where, to increase the blessings of peace:
he went to Sicily and Greece, Asia Minor,
Syria, Gaul, &c. in several places he
founded cities and colonies. The people
erected altars to him, and, by a decree of
the senate, the month Sextilis was called
August. Two conspiracies, which threat-
ened his life, miscarried. Cæpio, Murena
and Egnatius were punished with death:
Cinna was more fortunate, receiving par-
don from the emperor. This magnanim-
ity increased the love of the Romans, and
diminished the number of the disaffected;
so that the master of Rome would have
had nothing to wish for, if his family had
been as obedient as the world. The de-
bauchery of his daughter Julia gave
him great pain; and he showed himself,
more severe against those who destroyed
the honor of his family, than against those
who threatened his life. History says,
that, in his old age, he was ruled by Livia,
the only person, perhaps, whom he truly
loved. He had no sons, and lost by death
his sister's son, Marcellus, and his daugh-
ter's sons, Caius and Lucius, whom he
had appointed his successors. Also, Dru-
sus, his son-in-law, whom he loved, died
early; and Tiberius, the brother of the
latter, whom he hated, on account of his
bad qualities, alone survived. These nu-
merous calamities, together with his con-
tinually-increasing infirmities, gave him a
strong desire of repose. He undertook a
journey to Campania, from whose purer
air he hoped for relief; but disease fixed
upon him, and he died, at Nola (August
19, A. D. 14), in the 76th year of his age,
471
and 45th of his reign. When he felt
his death approaching, he is said to have
called for a mirror, arranged his hair, and
demanded of the by-standers, "Have I
played my part well ?" and, an answer be-
ing returned in the affirmative, "Then,"
added he, using the form of the players,
"farewell, and applaud" (valete, et plaudite).
If this last passage in the life of A. is true,
it is certainly indicative of his character,
his policy, and even of his fortune. It is
certain, that his conduct was always
measured and determined beforehand, and
that he had a great power of remaining
cool and unmoved amid the cares and agi-
tations of government. Studiously con-
cealing his own plans, he made use of the
passions, as well as the talents, of others, to
further them. He conquered Brutus by
means of Antony, and Antony by means
of Agrippa. He several times changed his
party, but never his purposes, and knew
how to cause power to be offered, and
pressed upon him, while it was, in fact, the
object of all his exertions. It cannot be de-
nied that he used his power with wisdom,
and became the benefactor of his country,
which he had previously plunged into the
horrors of civil war. His taste and active
mind led him to favor and protect the learn-
ed; and he even exercised the art of the poet
himself; so that he was not unworthy of
giving his name to an age distinguished for
intellectual creations. His death plunged
the empire into the greatest grief. He
was numbered among the gods, and tem-
ples and altars were erected to him.
AUGUSTUS II, Frederic, elector of Sax-
ony and king of Poland, second son of
John George III, elector of Saxony,
born at Dresden, in 1670, was remarka-
ble for his bodily strength and activity.
To his residence in France he owed that
taste for luxury and the fine arts, which
afterwards made the Saxon court inferior
in splendor to none in Europe, except that
of Louis XIV. In 1691, he visited Vien-
na, where he contracted a friendship with
the archduke Joseph, afterwards Joseph
I. By the death of his elder brother, John
George IV, in 1694, he became elector.
The Polish throne having became vacant,
in 1696, by the death of John Sobiesky,
A. presented himself as a candidate for it.
The abbé de Polignac, the French am-
bassador at Warsaw, supported the pre-
tensions of the prince of Conti, whom the
Polish nobility preferred; but A. had an
army on the frontiers, obtained votes by
bribery, and publicly embraced the Cath-
olic religion. June 27th, 1697, the election
took place. A. strengthened his party by
1
}
472
AUGUSTUS.
marching 10,000 Saxons into Poland.
Bribery and intimidation obtained him the
victory. After he had ascended the throne,
a treaty was concluded between Den-
mark, Poland and the czar Peter I, against
Charles XII of Sweden, in which the
object was the conquest of Livonia.
(Sec Oliva.) But Charles, having de-
feated the Danes under the walls of
Copenhagen, and the Russians at Narva,
was now ready to advance into Poland,
and A. was obliged to provide for the de-
fence of his own dominions. Thus com-
menced the celebrated northern war,
which lasted twenty years, in which A.,
with his faithful Saxons, had to withstand
the opposition of the Poles, as well as the
valor of the Swedes. Charles declared
him a usurper, and thus separated the
cause of the republic from that of the
king, who obtained but little assistance
from the Poles. The Swedes advanced
to Clissow, between Warsaw and Cra-
COW. A. had 24,000 men, Charles only
half the number; but the Poles gave way
in the beginning of the engagement, and
Charles gained a complete victory, July
20, 1702. May 1, 1703, the Saxon army
was defeated again at Pultusk. The diet
assembled at Warsaw declared A., Feb.
14, 1704, incapable of wearing the crown
of Poland, and Stanislaus Lesezinsky,
waywode of Posen, was chosen king,
July 12, 1704. Charles, victorious on
every side, advanced into Saxony, and A.
found himself obliged to conclude a se-
cret peace, at Altranstädt (q. v.), Sept.
24, 1706. Meanwhile the Russians, ig-
norant of these transactions, obliged A. to
attack the Swedish general Mardefeld.
He gained a signal victory at Kalisch, and
entered Warsaw in triumph, at the time
that the proposals of Charles were brought
to him. However much he might desire
to take advantage of his good fortune, it
was too late. Saxony lay at the mercy
of the Swedes. He signed the treaty,
and, December 18, 1706, visited Charles
in his camp at Altranstädt. To complete
his mortification, Charles compelled him
to send to Stanislaus the jewels and ar-
chives of the crown, with a letter of con-
gratulation. He returned to Dresden,
where he soon after received an unex-
pected visit from Charles. Count Flem-
Ining, his first minister, advised him to
make himself master of the person of his
dreaded enemy; but he rejected the un-
just proposal. He now devoted himself
to the domestic affairs of Saxony. His love
of splendor had involved him in many
expenses, by which the finances of his
kingdom were disordered. In 1708, he
served, under an assumed name, in a cam-
paign against the French, in the Nether-
lands. In 1709, after the defeat of Charles
at Pultawa, the Poles recalled A., who
united himself anew with Peter. These
two monarchs, in alliance with Denmark,
sent troops into Pomerania. Notwith-
standing the exhausted state of Sweden,
the Swedish general Steinbock gained a
splendid victory over the allies at Gade-
busch, Dec. 20, 1712, which compelled
them to raise the siege of Wismar and
Stralsund. Charles XII, having afterwards
returned from his residence in Turkey, and
made known his determination to prose-
cute the war with vigor, an alliance, at the
head of which was A., was formed against
him; but his death put an end to the war,
and A. concluded a peace with Sweden. A
confederation was now formed in Poland
against the Saxon troops, at the head of
which was a nobleman, named Ledekus-
ki. The Saxons were attacked on all
sides, and were obliged to surrender. At
length, through the mediation of Peter,
an arrangement was concluded at War-
saw, 1716, between A. and the republic.
The Saxon troops were removed from
the kingdom, and A., says a celebrated
historian, renouncing the idea of subdu-
ing it by force, sought to attain his end by
other means. He gave himself wholly
up to voluptuousness and a life of pleas-
ure. His court was one of the most
splendid and polished in Europe. The
Poles yielded but too readily to the ex-
ample of their king, and the last years of
his reign were characterized by boundless
luxury and corruption of manners.
read with astonishment, even at this day,
the descriptions of the entertainments
given by him. It is related that he gave
a regiment of dragoons to king Frederic
William of Prussia for 12 porcelain vases.
He was not disliked by his subjects, and
filled with dignity his station among the
In his character gen-
European powers.
erous ideas were united with despotic feel-
ings, a taste for pleasure with the cares of
ambition, and the restlessness of a warlike
spirit with the effeminacy of a luxurious
life. Death surprised him in the midst of
his pleasures and projects. On his journey
to Warsaw to attend the diet, a small
wound in his knee becoming inflamed, he
died, Feb. 1, 1733, and was buried in Cra-
Cow. His wife, Christine Eberhardine,
left him one son. By his mistresses he had
many children. The countess of Königs-
mark bore him the celebrated Maurice
of Saxony. (See Cosel, countess of.)
We
AUGUSTUS—AULIC.
AUGUSTUS III, Frederic, elector of
Saxony and king of Poland, son of Au-
gustus II, born at Dresden, 1696, succeed-
ed his father as elector, in 1733. To-
wards the end of this year, Louis XV
endeavored to replace Stanislaus Lesczin-
sky, whose daughter he had married, on
the throne of Poland; but France was
too far distant to send troops enough to
Poland to support him. A part of the
Polish nobility separated from the diet,
and, supported by a Russian army, chose
A. king; and, in 1736, he was first gener-
ally recognised as such by the congress
assembled at Warsaw to conclude a
peace. Although without the great and
amiable qualities of his father, in other
respects he closely followed his example,
distinguishing himself by the splendor of
his feasts and the extravagance of his
court. He squandered immense sums on
pictures and musicians. Hunting was
his passion. The cares of government he
gave up to his favorite and prime minis-
ter, count Brühl (q. v.), who was artful
enough to persuade a inonarch, weak, but
proud and jealous of his dignity, that he
alone exercised the supreme power. His
system of politics consisted in entire de-
pendence upon Russia. He preferred
Dresden to Warsaw, and, through his
long absence from Poland, the govern-
ment sunk into entire inactivity. Never
were the annual diets more turbulent, and
never were they so inefficient from the
unbending obstinacy of the members,
who continually opposed each other, un-
der the most trivial pretexts. A. was
satisfied if he could remain in his beloved
Saxony, and thus the great kingdom of
Poland was almost entirely without a
government for 30 years. In the midst
of this confusion, the Poles appeared to be
satisfied and happy; but, when Frederie
II had conquered Silesia, A., disturbed by
the rapidly-increasing power of Prussia,
united himself with the queen of Hungary,
by the treaties of Dec. 1742, May 13, 1744,
and by that of Leipsie, May 18, 1745.
He pledged himself, by means of the
money which England and Holland were
to pay him, to furnish her with 30,000
auxiliary troops, which he sent into Si-
lesia, where they were united with the
Austrian army, but were entirely defeated
at Hohenfriedberg, June 4, 1745. Fred-
cric now attacked Saxony itself, and
prince Leopold of Dessau defeated the
Saxon army once more, Dec. 15, 1745, at
Kesselsdorf, under the walls of Dresden.
A. deserted his capital, and preserved his
pictures and porcelain, but lost the ar-
473
When
chives of the state, which fell into the
hands of the victors. By the peace of
Dresden, Dec. 25, 1745, he was reinstated
in the possession of Saxony, in the next
year. In 1756, he saw himself involved
anew in a war against Prussia.
Frederic declined his proposal of neutrali-
ty, he left Dresden, Sept. 10, and entered
the camp at Pirna, where 17,000 Saxon
troops were assembled. Frederic sur-
rounded the Saxons, who were obliged to
surrender, October 14. A. fled to König-
stein, and afterwards to Poland. His au-
thority in this country had always been in-
considerable, and, after the loss of Saxony,
became still more insignificant. The as-
cension of Catharine to the Russian throne
was a new source of disquietude to him,
for the great empress sought, in every
way, to deprive the Saxon princes, who
were allies of France, of the Polish throne.
The peace of Hubertsburg, therefore, was
hardly concluded, when A. returned from
Warsaw to Dresden, where he was seized,
Oct. 5, 1763, with a fit of the gout, which
attacked his stomach, and put an end to
his life. He had, like his father, before
his ascension to the Polish throne (1712),
embraced the Catholic religion at Bologna.
His son Frederic Christian succeeded
him as elector of Saxony, and Stanislaus
Poniatowsky as king of Poland.
AULIC (from the Latin aulo, used for
court); an epithet given to a council in
the ci-devant German empire, the Reichs-
hofrath. The aulic council was one of the
two supreme courts of the German em-
pire, which first received a distinct form,
after the estates had obliged the emperor,
in 1495, to establish the court of the impe-
rial chamber (das Reichs-Kammergericht).
After the erection of this court, the em-
peror still had, as before, officers who
decided all disputes brought to him from
his hereditary dominions, and from the
empire at large. He, of course, would not
allow the estates the same influence, in
the appointment of these officers, which
they exercised in the appointment of the
members of the other court above-men-
tioned.
tioned. But, as his officers composing
the aulic council took cognizance of ju-
dicial processes, the estates frequently
complained of it, after 1502. They were
not able, however, to attain any thing, ex-
cept more precision in its organization,
in 1559 and 1654. In the peace of West-
phalia, it was acknowledged as a supreme
court of the empire, equal to the court of
the imperial chamber. It consisted of a
president, a vice-president, and 18 coun-
sellors, a part of whom, at least, were to
40 *
474
AULIC-AURENG-ZEBE.
be taken, not from Austria, but the other
states of the empire. Six were to be
Protestants: all were appointed and paid
by the emperor. If the Protestant coun-
sellors were unanimous, the votes of the
rest could not prevail against them. The
counsellors were divided into a bench of
counts and lords, and a bench of learned
men (Gelehrte), with no distinction, except
that the latter, who generally were raised
to the rank of nobles, had a higher salary.
The vice-chancellor of the empire, also,
appointed, by the archbishop, elector of
Mayence, had a seat in the aulic council,
and a vote after the president. This
court had not only concurrent jurisdiction
with the court of the imperial chamber,
but, in many cases, exclusive jurisdiction;
in all feudal processes, and in criminal
affairs, over the immediate feudatories of
the emperor, and in affairs which con-
cerned the imperial government. The
right of appeal, possessed by the estates,
existed also in regard to the judicial de-
cisions of the aulic court. With the death
of an emperor this court ceased, and
the next emperor established a new
one. In the mean time, the regents of
the empire constituted vicc-aulic councils,
which ceased again with the beginning
of the new imperial government. The ar-
chives of this court, which were separated
from those of the Austrian house as late as
1740, are in Vienna. Justice was, perhaps,
never more slowly administered than by
the two imperial courts. An epigram of
the matheinatician Kästner ascribes di-
vine power to these bodies, because they
gave immortality to legal processes; and a
German expression, still in use, to shove
any thing on the long bench, meaning, to
delay something indefinitely, is said to be
derived from the protracted processes of
these courts. But the rota at Rome, and
some other courts, have, perhaps, equally
good claims to this divine power.
AULIS, in ancient geography; a sea-
port in Baotia, on the strait called Euri-
pus, between Boeotia and Euboea. Aga-
inemnon (q. v.) assembled here the Greek
fleet intended to sail against Troy. (See,
also, Iphigenia.)
AUNOY (Marie Catherine Jumelle de
Berneville), countess of, born 1650, and
died 1705, was the author of Contes des
Fées (Fairy Tales), which, in their day, met
with great success in France. Her style
was easy and agreeable, but verbosc. Her
tales are often founded on fact. The critic
cannot pardon the insipid gallantry of
many of her heroes. But that was the
fashion of the time. She was fond of de-
veloping her plots philosophically. Her
husband was accused of treason by three
of his tenants, was imprisoned, and sub-
jected to a severe cxamination, and in dan-
ger of being condemned to death, when a
mortal disease seized upon one of his ac-
cusers, who, to obtain absolution, confessed
the falsehood of the whole accusation.
AURELIAN, an emperor of Rome, dis-
tinguished for his military abilities and
stern severity of character, was the son of
a peasant of Ïllyricum. He gradually rose,
under Valerian II, to the highest honors
in his profession, and even to the con-
sulate; which good fortune was further
favored by a wealthy marriage. Claudi-
us II, on his death-bed, recommended A.
to the choice of the troops of Illyricum,
who readily acceded to his wishes. He
delivered Italy from the barbarians, re-
duced Tetricus, who had been unwilling-
ly made to assume the purple in Gaul,
and conquered the famous Zenobia,
queen of Palmyra. Owing to the un-
generous excuse of the queen, that she
had waged war by the advice of her
ministers, her secretary, the celebrated
Longinus, was put to death by the victor;
but, after having graced his triumphal
entry, Zenobia herself was presented with
a villa on the Tiber, and allowed to spend
the remainder of her days as a Roman
matron. A. followed up his victories by
the reformation of abuses, and the restora-
tion throughout the empire of order and
regularity, but tarnished his good inten-
tions by the general severity of his meas
ures, and the sacrifice of the senatorian
order to his slightest suspicions. He had
planned a great expedition against Persia,
and was waiting in Thrace for an oppor-
tunity to cross the straits, when he lost
his life, A. D. 125, by assassination, the
result of a conspiracy excited by a sec-
retary whom he intended to call to ac-
count for peculation. A. was a wise,
able and active prince, and very useful
in the declining state of the empire; but
the austerity of his character caused him
to be very little regretted. It is said that
he ineditated a severe persecution of the
Christians, when he was so suddenly cut
off, after a distinguished and eventful reign
of only five years.
AURENG-ŽEBE (ornament of the throne),
born Oct. 20, 1619, received this title from
his grandfather, Jeban-Guyr, who at that
time was sovereign of Hindostan. When
he was nine years old, his weak and un-
fortunate father, Shah Jehan, succeeded
to the throne. Aureng-Zebe was dis-
tinguished, when a youth, for his serious
AURENG ZEBE-AURORA BOREALIS.
look, his frequent prayers, his love of
solitude, his profound hypocrisy, and his
deep plans. He caused himself to be re-
ceived among the fakirs, wore their
habit, and wished to visit the tomb of the
great prophet at Medina. But in his 20th
year, he laid aside the Koran, which he
had hitherto carried in his bosom, raised
a body of troops by his address and good
fortune, and obtained the government of
the Deccan. Here, wishing to give the fakirs
a proof of his love and friendship, he in-
vited them to a feast, and compelled them,
notwithstanding their resistance, to put on
new and decent clothing. He burnt the
old clothes, and found therein a quantity
of gold and silver pieces, which did him
good service when he came to carry on
war with his brother. He stirred up dis-
sensions between his brothers, made use
of the assistance of one against the other,
and finally shut his father up in his harem,
where he kept him prisoner. He then
murdered his relatives, one after the other,
and, in 1659, ascended the throne of Hin-
dostan, and took the name of Jalem Guyr.
Notwithstanding the means by which he
had got possession of power, he governed
with much wisdom, consulted the wel
fare of his people, watched over the pres-
ervation of justice, and the purity of man-
ners, and sought to confirm his own power.
Two of his sons, who endeavored to form
a party in their own favor, he caused to be
arrested and put to death by slow poison.
He carried on many wars, conquered Gol-
conda and Visiapour, and drove out, by
degrees, the Mahrattas from their country.
Aurungabad, once his residence, now des-
olate, Seely has described in his Wonders
of Elora (London, 1824). After his death,
the Mogul empire declined, wars imme-
diately broke out between his sons, and
several conquered provinces sought to
make themselves independent.
AUREUS, OF AUREUS NUMMUS; the first
gold coin which was coined in Rome,
5-16 A. U., in the second Punic war. It
weighed two denarii and one quinarius,
and was worth 25 denarii, or 100 sesterces
(Suet. Oth. 4; Tacit. Hist. i. 24). In later
times, it was called solidus, but had di-
minished in value. At first, 40 aurei
were made out of a pound; under Nero,
45; under Constantine, 72. It was about
as much as a ducat.
AURICULAR CONFESSION. (Sce Con-
fession.)
AURIGA, in astronomy; the Wagoner
(hríoxos); a constellation of the northern
hemisphere, containing 66 stars, accord-
ing to the British catalogue.
475
AURORA (Greek, s); daughter of Hy-
perion and Thia, and sister of Sol and
Luna. She was one of the ancient god-
desses of the race of the Titans, but re-
tained her rank among the later race of
gods. To the Titan Astræus, son of
Crius, she bore the Winds, Zephyrus, Bo-
reas, and Notus, the Morning-star, and the
Constellations. She rises from the ocean,
drawn by the celestial horses Lampus and
Phaeton, and, with rosy fingers, raises the
veil of night, shedding light upon the
world, until she flies from the splendor
of day. Among the mortals whose beau-
ty captivated the goddess, poets mention
Orion, Tithonus and Cephalus.
AURORA AUSTRALIS. (See Aurora Bo
realis.)
AURORA BOREALIS (French, aurore bo-
réale; German, Nordlicht); northern light.
We often see in the north, near the hori-
zon, usually a short time after sunset, a
dark segment of a circle, surrounded by a
brilliant arch of white or fiery light; and
this arch is often separated into several
concentric arches, leaving the dark seg-
ment visible between them. From these
arches, and from the dark segment itself,
in high latitudes, columns of light, of the
most variegated and beautiful colors, shoot
up towards the zenith, and, sometimes,
masses like sheaves of light are scattered
in all directions. The appearance is then
splendid; and its increasing beauty is an-
nounced by a general undulation of the
masses of light. A kind of fiery coronet
is afterwards formed about the zenith, by
the meeting of all the columns of light,
resembling the knob of a tent. At this
moment, the spectacle is magnificent,
both for the multiplicity and beauty of
the columns which the aurora presents.
(Compare Maupertuis De la Figure de la
Terre, Paris, 1738.) The light, after
this, grows fainter and more tranquil.
This faintness and tranquillity, however,
are only temporary, for the phenomena
are soon repeated in all their beauty-the
oscillation of the columns of light, the
formation of the corona, and the like,
though with a thousand variations. At
length, the motion wholly ceases, the light
is collected about the northern horizon,
the dark segment vanishes, and nothing
is left but a strong brightness in the nortli,
which is lost in the dawning day. These
brilliant appearances are also attended, in
high latitudes, with loud noises, described
as resembling the hissing and crackling
of fire-works. This appearance has re-
ceived the name of northern light, be-
cause, on account of our position on the
476
AURORA BOREALIS-AUSTERLITZ.
earth, we see it only about the north pole.
A similar appearance, aurora australis,
was seen about the south pole, in 1773,
by Cook's sailors, between 58° and 60° S.
lat., and later travellers have observed the
same. These phenomena ought, there-
fore, properly to be called polar lights.-
Philosophers are of different opinions as
to the cause of the aurora. It is, how-
ever, satisfactorily ascertained to be within
the region of our atmosphere. Hell as-
cribed it to the reflection of the sun and
moon by the clouds of snow and needles
of ice, which are constantly floating in
the atmosphere of the frigid zones. Mai-
ran supposed it to proceed from the at-
mosphere of the sun. Bailly ascribed it
to magnetism, and its remarkable influ-
ence on the needle has been generally
observed. Franklin attributed it to elec-
tricity. Biot, who was sent to the Shet-
land islands, in 1817, by the French acad-
emy of sciences, to determine the length
of the pendulum vibrating seconds, hud
an opportunity, Aug. 27 of the same year,
of observing the aurora borealis, in all its
splendor, at the island of Unst. On this
occasion, he ascribed to the phenomenon
a volcanic origin, and his reasoning is
given at length in the Journal des Savans
for 1820. His description of this wonder-
ful phenomenon is to be found in Biot's
Précis Élémentaire de Physique, 3d ed.,
Paris, 1824, vol. ii. p. 99, et seq. An in-
genious hint of Kästner, advanced in the
sixth edition of Gren's Physik (Physics),
Halle, 1820, is deserving of attention.
He considers polar lights as the elcc-
tricity of the earth rising periodically to
the poles. The latest observations on
this appearance were communicated by
Richardson and Hood, in the appendix to
Franklin's Narrative of a Journey to the
Shores of the Polar Sea, in 1819, &c.
London, 1823, 1824.
AUSONIUS, Decius Magnus, the most
celebrated Roman poct of the 4th cen-
tury, was born at Burdigala (Bordeaux),
about the year 310. He studied under
several distinguished masters, and became,
at last, professor of rhetoric in his native
city, whence his fame extended through
the whole empire. Valentinian intrusted
to him the education of his son Gratian,
and appointed him afterwards questor and
pretorian prefect. After Gratian had as-
cended the throne, he showed himself
not less grateful to his preceptor. About
the year 370, he appointed him consul in
Gaul. After the death of Gratian, A. lived
upon an estate at Bordeaux, devoted to lit-
erary pursuits, and died about 394.-As
Valentinian was of the Christian religion,
it is probable that A. was also; and many
of his writings confirm this conjecture.
Critics are not unanimous on the subject
of his poetical merits. He is, undeniably,
learned and ingenious, but his style and
versification have the blemishes of the
age, and his Latin is impure. His epi-
grams, idyls, eclogues, letters in verse, &c.,
are extant. The most valuable editions
are, Bordeaux, 1575-80, 2 vols., 4to., by
Souchay; Paris, 1730-34, Jaubert; Paris,
1760-70, 4 vols., 12mo.
AUSPICES. (See Augur.)
AUSTERLITZ, a town with 2000 inhab-
itants, in the dominions of the prince of
Kaunitz-Rittberg, in the circle of Brünn,
in Moravia, 10 miles east of Brünn, on
the highway which leads by Göding to
Hungary, is famous for the battle of the
2d of December, 1805, and the armistice
of the 6th of the same month. These
events were turning points in the destiny
of Europe and the elevation of Napoleon.
Their immediate consequence was the
peace of Presburg; but the most import-
ant result was the subjection of Germany
and the humiliation of Prussia; for the
victory at A. not only frustrated Pitt's
great plan of reducing the power of
France, by the allied arms of Britain,
Russia and Austria, to the bounds, which,
10 years after, the peace at Paris assigned
to it, but also established, with the assist-
ance of French diplomacy, Napoleon's
continental and federative system. Na-
poleon, after the capitulation of Mack, in
Ulm, Oct. 19, unchecked at Lambach
and Mariazell by the Austrians under
Meerveldt, and at Dürnstein, Nov. 11
(where Mortier suffered loss), by the Rus-
sians under Koutousoff, occupied Vienna,
13th Nov., and immediately took posses-
sion of the bridge over the Danube, lead-
ing to Moravia, while prince Auersberg,
who should have burnt it, allowed him-
self to be deluded by a pretended nego-
tiation for peace. Marshal Lannes, there-
fore, on the 15th, came up with the
Russian army under Koutousoff, who, to
preserve himself, resolved to sacrifice the
rear-guard of 6000 men, whom prince
Bagration commanded.
general, however, notwithstanding he was
attacked by 30,000 French at Hollabrunn,
on the 16th, and at Guntersdorf, on the
17th, forced his way, with the remains
of his troops, to the main army, on the
19th. Here the emperor Alexander had
arrived, on the 18th, from Berlin, and on
the same day the second Russian army
under Buxhöwden, had united with that
This intrepid
AUSTERLITZ.
of Koutousoff. November 24, the Rus-
sian guards, 10,000 strong, also arrived,
and it was resolved, at the head-quarters
of the two emperors, Alexander and Fran-
cis, at Olmütz (the troops being then in
want of provisions), to march, Nov. 27,
from the advantageous station of Olschan
(8 miles from A.), in five parallel columns,
against Brünn, where Napoleon had al-
ready taken up his head-quarters on the
20th, and offer him battle. But the Rus-
sians lost many days by repeated changes
in their plans of attack, and Napoleon
deceived them by negotiations (in which
prince Dolgorucki made very high de-
mands), also by retiring, as if he wish-
ed to avoid an attack, and, to conceal
his force, contracted his troops into a
narrow space. He thereby gained time,
till the arrival of the corps under Berna-
dotte, and two divisions of Davoust's, Dec.
1st, when he prepared his army, which
rested on Brünn, for battle, and assured
his troops of the victory of the following
day, being the anniversary of his corona-
tion. The French army, in a position
unknown to Koutousoff, was about 80,000
strong. The army of the allies numbered
about 84,000 foot and 16,000 horse,
among which
were 20,000 Austrian
troops. On the morning of the 2d, about
7 o'clock, the battle began, according to
a plan prepared by the Austrian general
Weyrotter. Buxhöwden, who command-
ed the left wing of the Russian army,
was stationed beside the 1st column, led
by lieutenant-general Docktoroff, which,
together with the 2d, under general Lan-
geron, and the 3d, under general Przybys-
zewsky, was to surround the right wing
of the French under Soult. The village
of Delnitz was taken after an obstinate
engagement; but, deluded by the enemy's
retreat, Buxhöwden pressed forward, with
the 1st column, too far to the left, and fell
into a narrow defile, which two divisions
of Davoust had occupied in the night.
About the same time, the 2d and 3d col-
umns, in order to attack the right wing
also in front, had left the heights of Pratz,
which overlooked the field of battle.
These were immediately occupied by
Soult, and maintained, after a fight of two
hours, by the aid of a part of the centre,
under Bernadotte, against the efforts of
Koutousoff. This decided the victory; for
the Russian left wing, which was before
engaged with Davoust, and, after Soult's
change of position, with the French re-
serve also, was cut off from the centre,
and attacked both in flank and rear.
Thus the 2d and 3d columns fell into
477
disorder. Lannes immediately pressed
forward with the left wing, and the
French centre, under Bernadotte, sup-
ported by a well-directed fire, broke the
centre of the allies (where the Austrians,
mostly newly-enlisted troops, stood under
the command of Koutousoff), and pushed
it upon the right wing of the Russians un-
der Bagration and prince Liechtenstein,
so that the Russian reserve came too soon
into the engagement. Still it made, for
a long time, a gallant resistance under
the grand prince Constantine and the
prince Dolgorucki. After this body was
thrown into disorder by the French left
wing under Lannes, and the last attack
of the Russian guards frustrated by the
French guards and the cavalry, which
Murat commanded, the allied army re-
treated, under cover of Bagration and
Kienmayr, about 1 o'clock, in good order,
to A., and, at 4 o'clock, passed over the
March. The issue of this battle was sin-
gular. The French troops of the right
wing, with their rear resting on A., at-
tacked the remainder of the left wing
of the allies, and, in the end, marched
down from the same heights, from which,
in the morning, the allies had descended
to attack them. Consequently, the Rus-
sian left wing suffered the most, as it had
to force its way over the frozen ponds at
Kobelnitz and Satschau, and over a nar-
row dike. According to the French ac-
count, several thousand of the allied
troops were drowned in these ponds,
when Napoleon ordered the ice to be
broken with shot. At this crisis, lieuten-
ant-general Przybyszewsky, with 113 of
ficers and 6000 men, was forced to lay
down his arms. According to Koutou-
soff's report, the Russians lost 12,000 men.
The French made their own loss about
4500 men, but the number of prisoners
taken on the 2d and 3d, about 20,000 men,
and that of the cannons taken, which, for
the most part, were stuck fast in the mo-
rasses, rather more than 150. The Aus-
trians lost 5922 in killed, wounded and
prisoners.-The battle, it is said, would
have been won by the Russians, if they
had fought either before the 1st of De
cember, and consequently before Berna-
dotte and Davoust had reënforced the
French army, or after the 15th; for an
army of 80,000 men was approaching,
from the Hungarian frontier, towards Vi-
enna and the Danube, led by the arch-
dukes Charles and John, who had joined
their forces near Windisch-Feistritz, in
Styria, Nov. 27, while Massena remained
at his post on the Isonzo. Troops were
478
AUSTERLITZ-AUSTRALIA.
also levied in Hungary, and, in addition to
this, a body of Russians, 12,000 strong,
under the command of general Bennig-
sen, had invaded Upper Silesia, Dec. 3,
and prepared the people of Bohemia to
rise in a body; and, in consequence of
the treaty of Potsdam, Nov. 3, by which
the king of Prussia joined the Russian
alliance, an army of 180,000 men—Prus-
sians, Saxons and Hessians-stood ready,
in case Napoleon should refuse, on the
15th of December, the mediation of
Prussia, according to the treaty of Lune-
ville, to invade France, and to break
through Napoleon's line upon the Dan-
ube ;
while an army of 80,000 men-Prus-
sians, Russians (under Tolstoi), Swedes,
Hanoverians and English-in Upper Ger-
many, threatened the frontiers of the
Netherlands. In Italy, too, the landing
of the English and Russians might effect
an important diversion. In spite of all
these resources, Austria asked for peace.
December 3, prince John von Liechten-
stein appeared at Napoleon's head-quar-
ters, and, on the 4th, the emperor Francis
himself had a two hours' interview with
him at the French outposts, not far from
the village of Nasedlowicz, near a mill at
Saroschütz, where the two monarchs
made a truce, and laid the foundation of
a peace. Napoleon's adjutant, general
Savary, accompanied the Gerinan cm-
peror back to his head-quarters, to learn
whether Alexander would accede to the
treaty. The Russian accounts say that
the emperor would not allow him to come
into his presence; but the French bulle-
tins give a circumstantial account of his
audience, which is also mentioned by the
Austrian general von Stutterheim, the
author of Matériaux pour servir à l'Hist.
de la Bataille d'Austerlitz (1806, with
notes by a French officer, said to have
been dictated by Napoleon). Prince Ber-
thier and prince von Liechtenstein con-
cluded, on the 6th, a truce, according to
the terms of which the French army was
to hold the Austrian circle, Venice, a part
of Bohemia and Moravia, and Presburg;
the Russian army was to evacuate the
territorics of the emperor of Austria; no
levy was to be made in Bohemia or
Hungary, and no foreign army was to
enter the states of the house of Austria.
On the 7th, Napolcon imposed upon the
countries held by his troops a tax of a
hundred millions of francs. Alexander,
according to the wishes of the emperor of
Austria, drew off his army, though he
would not accede to the treaty, but placed
his troops in Silesia and Lower Saxony,
at the disposal of the king of Prussia.
March 4, 1806, his troops in Dalmatia
took possession of Cattaro (q. v.), which
had been given up by Austria to France.
The truce of A. paralyzed the strength
of the Austrian nonarchy, and broke its
former alliances, so that the Prussian
minister, count von Haugwitz (who had
come to Vienna, in November, that he
might act as mediator on the 15th Dec.,
but had been anticipated by Napoleon),
finding, in the altered state of affairs, that
he must either declare open war against
the French emperor, or make an alliance
with him, concluded, Dec. 15, in oppo-
sition to his instructions, the treaty by
which Prussia exchanged the alliance of
Russia for that of France. (See Luc-
chesini On the Confederation of the Rhine,
i. 348, and Schöll's Traités de Paix, viii.
27.) Austria afterwards subscribed, Dec.
26, the hard conditions of the peace of
Presburg (q. v.), by which she not only gave
up a territory of 24,200 square miles, with
2,785,000 inhabitants, and a revenue of
13,610,000 florins, but lost her alliance with
Switzerland and Italy, and her influence
in the German empire. Thus Napoleon's
superiority was established in Italy, the
dependence of the princes of Lower Ger-
many upon France confirmed, and Prus-
sia drawn from its system of neutrality.
AUSTIN, St. (See Augustin.)
AUSTRAL OCEAN. (See South Sea and
Krusenstern.)
AUSTRALIA. (The English geographers
make two divisions of the islands mention-
ed in this article: 1. Australasia or Austra-
lia; those lying around New Holland, from
lon. 96° to 185° E., and lat. 3° N. to 50° S.
2. Polynesia, lying N. of Australasia, and
E. of the Philippines, from lon. 170° to
230° E., and lat. 35° N. to 50° S. Wo
have retained the term Australia, in the
more comprehensive sense in which it is
used in Germany, it being a word of in-
definite signification.) This is the fifth
division of the globe, at first called South-
ern India, and, on account of the multi-
tude of islands of which it consists, Poly-
nesia, or the Island world. It has its name
from its southern position with regard to
the old world. This portion of the globe
began to be discovered after America and
the South seas were known to the Euro-
peans. Magellan, who first undertook a
voyage round the world, had promised
the Spanish monarch, into whose service
he entered when he left the Portuguese,
that he would arrive at the Moluccas by
sailing westward. On this voyage, he
discovered, March 6, 1521, the Ladrones,
AUSTRALIA.
or Mariana islands, a group which consti-
tutes a part of A. Magellan must, there-
fore, be regarded as the first discoverer of
this portion of the globe, and opened the
way for the subsequent discoveries in this
quarter. 300 years clapsed before all the
islands, which now pass under the name
of A., were known to Europeans. After
Magellan, the Spanish navigators contin-
ued the process of discovery in this part
of the world, particularly Alvaro de Men-
dana, who, in the last part of the 16th
century, discovered the Solomon islands
and the Marquesas, and passed through
the Society and Friendly islands without
seeing them. Fernandez de Quiros, who
had accompanied him on his third voy-
age, took a southerly direction, and hit
upon the part of the South sea which
contains the most islands. He made
known to the world the Society islands
and Terra del Espiritu Santo. In the
17th century, the Dutch began to explore
this part of the ocean, and, besides several
small islands, discovered the largest island
of A., New Holland, which received its
name from them, although there is some
reason for supposing that it had been vis-
ited by the Portuguese a hundred years
earlier; but their discoveries seem to have
been concealed by their government, and
afterwards forgotten. The coasts of New
Holland, e. g. Edel's Land, Nuyt's Land,
De Witt's Land, retain the names of the
Dutch discoverers. Tasman, a Dutchman,
and Dampier, an Englishman, continued
the discoveries. In the middle of the 18th
century, the Englishmen Byron, Wallis and
Carteret, and the Frenchman Bougainville
exerted themselves to extend the knowl-
edge of A. But James Cook (q. v.), who
circumnavigated the world from 1768 to
1779, contributed most to the more accu-
rate examination of this portion of the
globe, corrected the knowledge of Euro-
peans with regard to the islands already
known, again discovered islands before
seen, and was the original discoverer of
New Caledonia and the Sandwich islands.
After the time of Cook, both the French
and English exerted themselves to give
the world a better acquaintance with A.
Among the later navigators, Entrecas-
teaux, Grant, La Peyrouse, Baudin, Flin-
ders, Krusenstern and Kotzebue have
added to our knowledge of A. There
are, doubtless, many islands still in these
seas, which no European has seen, and
of those known, only the coasts have yet
been explored. The South sea and the
Pacific ocean, between the eastern shore
of Asia and the western shore of Amer-
479
ica, contains all the islands of A. which
occupy a space of 130° in length, and 85°
in breadth, as they extend from 50° S. to
35° N. lat., and from 95° to 230° E. lcn.
The superficial contents are estimated at
about 3,500,000 square miles; of which
New Holland alone is almost equal in
size to Europe.-We may regard all these
islands as continuous chains of mountains,
which rise from the sea, and, running in
a direction from N. to S. E., in a double
row, like hills and promontories, surround
New Holland. The line nearest the main
land of New Holland begins with New
Guinea, and ends with New Zealand;
the second line begins at the Ladrones,
and passes on to Navigator's islands and
the Friendly islands, whence it takes a
direction from the west towards the east.
From these almost continuous rows of
islands the Sandwich islands are wholly
separated.-The soil of A. is fruitful, es-
pecially in the islands of the torrid zone.
Plants transported hither from Europe
flourish. Some of the islands are low
and flat; others have steep, rocky shores,
and are filled with mountains, some com-
posed of primitive rocks, others of flotz
and basalt. The highest known are the
Mauna Roa, in the Sandwich islands, and
Peak Egmont, in New Zealand, the height
of which amounts to 14,000 feet. Sev-
eral of these islands are of volcanic origin:
others are raised from the bottom of the
sea by successive layers of coral, or car-
ried to their present height by accumula-
tions of the same substance on the origi-
nal rocks at the bottom of the deep. The
coral formations extend to a distance from
their coasts, and constitute reefs, so that
it is dangerous to approach them. The
mountains of A. have not yet been ex-
plored, and their structure investigated.
The shores of New Holland, New Guinea
and New Zealand, and the mountains in
their vicinity, have been examined by
naturalists but slightly. The residence
of Europeans in the other islands, also,
has been too short to allow them to make
accurate observations. In later times, the
English have made an attempt to pass
from the castern coast of New Holland,
where their colonies are situated, to
the interior. The mountains extending
from north to south, on the west of these
colonies, called the Blue hills, consist of
steep crags, fearful precipices, and ranges
of heights of successively increasing ele-
vation, which made all early attempts to
become acquainted with the interior of
no avail. At length, Nov. 3, 1813, Mr.
Evans, an Englishman, succeeded in as-
480
AUSTRALIA.
cending them, and, in 1815, a road was
completed over them. On the whole,
naturalists have only penetrated into the
interior about 140 miles from the eastern
shore, though the distance to the western
shore is more than 2700 miles. There is
a remarkable want of large streams in
this portion of the world, though the isl-
ands in general are not deficient in water.
The rivers of New Holland are small
arms of the sea, which extend far into
the interior, retain the saltness of the
ocean, experience the ebb and flow of
the tide, and receive some insignificant
streams on the coast. The largest river
of New Holland is the Hawkesbury, in
Broken Bay, which is navigable for the
largest ships 46 miles up the country, and
is 150 rods wide. Beyond the Blue hills,
the river Macquarie has been discovered,
which is lost, with other rivers, in the
inorasses. New Holland probably con-
tains, according to the account of Oxley,
a large lake in the interior, similar to the
Caspian, into which the rivers flow. The
climate of A., as it lies partly in the south-
ern temperate zone, and partly in the
torrid, is in some parts warm, though the
heat is generally less oppressive than in
the same latitudes in Asia and Africa.
In other parts, it is temperate, mild and
healthy. Those countries of A. which
lie in the southern hemisphere are colder
than those in the northern. The produc-
tions are, in part, the same with those of
other countries of the same latitude; in
part, peculiar to itself: for instance, birds
without wings, having hair instead of
feathers; quadrupeds with the beaks of
birds, white eagles, &c. The mammalia
and beasts of prey are few. The principal
mammalia are the kangaroo, weighing
from 100 to 150 pounds; the wombat
(both of which have a pouch under the
belly, a characteristic belonging to many
of the quadrupeds of New Holland); the
ornithorynchus, perhaps the most singular
animal in the world, to which nature has
given the body of a quadruped, and the
head, or, at least, the beak of a bird; the
dasyure, the dingo, or New Holland dog,
the New Holland flying-squirrel, several
species of opossum, the kangaroo rat,
hogs, dogs, rats, bats, whales, sea-bears,
sea-lions and sea-elephants. Horses, ox-
en, sheep and goats were introduced there
by Europeans. Among the birds which
are distinguished for the splendor of their
colors and variety of their plumage, are
several kinds of parrots and birds of para-
dise; the New Holland cassiowary, which
weighs 70 pounds, and surpasses the East
Indian birds in size and in the beauty of
its plumage; the splendid manura, re-
markable for the elegance of its tail; and
the black swan. There are also hens,
doves and ducks. The coasts are well
stocked with fish, of which there are sev-
eral kinds peculiar to them. The vari-
eties of insects and shell-fish are very
great. The richness of the vegetable
kingdom is still greater: in New Holland
alone, 1000 new plants have been discov-
ered. The smaller islands are still richer
than New Holland in esculent plants.
Among these are the sago, areca, cocoa
and eucalyptus trees, which attain a height
of 180 feet, and a circumference of 30 feet;
the cajaputi, gum-tree, bread-fruit, gua-
vas, bananas, rotang; casuarina, or club-
trees, of which the natives make the most
durable weapons and furniture; paper-
mulberry-trees, from the finest bark of
which cloth is manufactured; lemons, or-
anges, figs, sugar-cane, betel-pepper, and
another kind of pepper, of which an in-
toxicating drink, called ava, is made; cot-
ton-trees; New Zealand flax, which forms
an excellent cord; yams, arum. These
form the principal articles of agriculture
in the Sandwich islands. The Europeans
have introduced European plants, grains,
and garden-fruits, almonds, pomegranates,
tobacco, hemp, flax, hops, &c. In the
mineral kingdom, though little examina-
tion has been given to it, there have been
found copper and iron ore, granite, por-
phyry, basalt, chalcedony, agate, jade, or
oriental kidney-stone, marble, lime, rock-
salt, &c. A. is very thinly inbabited.
There are, on an average, about two in-
habitants to a square mile, as the whole
number is estimated at only 1,700,000.
They consist, principally, of two distinct
classes; one of Negroes, called Papuas,
and one somewhat different from the
Europeans in appearance, and belonging
to the Malay race. From the union of
the two principal varieties several inter-
mediate ones arise. The Papuas inhabit
New Holland, New Guinea, Louisiade,
the Solomon islands, New Hebrides, New
Britain and New Caledonia; and, in New
Holland particularly, they have projecting
lips and woolly hair, like all other Ne-
groes, from whom they are distinguished
by very thin, lean arnis and legs. This
race, in cultivation, is far below the other
race, the Malays, especially in New Hol-
land, where they have very disgusting
and ape-like features, stand on the lowest
step of bodily and mental improvement,
and live in a savage state, without laws
and without religion. Their great mouths,
·
AUSTRALIA—AUSTRIA.
and thick, projecting lips, jut out some-
what like a snout, and their little, flat
noses are lost behind them. Their deep-
sunk eyes betray a rude and malicious
spirit, and sometimes, though rarely, a
stupid good humor. They are naked, or
slightly clothed in the skins of beasts, live
on fish, or the fruits of trees, or on the
flesh of the kangaroos, which they find no
difficulty in catching, and devour every
thing almost raw; they hardly pull the
feathers from birds before they consume
them. The inhabitants of New Caledo-
nia and the New Hebrides, who are also
regarded as Papuas, eat the flesh of their
enemies, when they have killed them,
though they have fields covered with
bananas, yams and arum. The pure Ma-
lay race, who inhabit the Australian isl-
ands,-i. e. the Friendly, Society and
Sandwich islands,—are distinguished for
the most beautiful and regular forms of
which humanity is capable. Their com-
plexion is sometimes not darker than that
of the Spaniards and Italians, and some
of the women are as white as the most
beautiful Europeans. In general, these
islanders seem to be good-natured, socia-
ble, gentle, happy and gay. Travellers,
however, agree in this, that they have a
strong propensity to steal, and give up
their wives and daughters to the Euro-
peans without restraint. Among some of
them, the shocking custom of eating hu-
man flesh, and offering human sacrifices,
still prevails. They live in villages, where
there are even some public buildings to
be found. They make boats ornamented
with carved work, tools, furniture, and
weapons of stone and wood, which, con-
sidering their means, are very remarkable.
They make nets, baskets, cords, very fine
mats, and cloth for their dress, which they
know how to dye exquisitely. They carry
on a sort of agriculture, which consists
principally in the cultivation of arum,
yams and potatoes, and live in a civil
union, of which the foundation is a sort
of feudal system. They worship a su-
preme and inferior gods; they have priests
and sacrifices, and entertain hopes of sen-
sual indulgences in another life. Their
morais, or buildings for the dead, are
commonly places where the worship of
their gods is performed. English and
American missionaries have spread the
Christian religion in the Society and
Sandwich islands. Among all these isl-
anders, the inhabitants of the Sandwich
islands have made the greatest progress,
through their acquaintance with the Eu-
41
VOL. I.
481
ropeans. Besides these original inhabit-
ants of A., there are also some Europeans;
a few in the Sandwich islands, upwards
of 50,000 in the colony established by the
English on the eastern shore of New
Holland, and a less number in Van Die-
men's Land. In 1824, Great Britain took
possession of all the islands and tracts of
land in A., lying between 111° E. and
153 W. Ion., besides Apsley and Clar-
ence straits, and port Essington, on the
peninsula of Coburg. The principal parts
of A., besides several smaller islands lying
separately, are New Holland, Van Die-
men's Land, New Guinea, the Admiral-
ty islands, New Britain, Solomon isles,
Queen Charlotte's islands, or the archi-
pelago of Santa Cruz, New Hebrides, or
Terra del Santo Espiritu, New Caledonia,
New Zealand, the Pelew, Caroline or
New Philippine islands, Marian or La-
drone, Monteverdos, Mulgrave, Fisher,
Friendly, Bligh's, Navigator's, Society,
Marquesas, Washington's and Sandwich
islands. (See King's Survey of the Coasts
of Australia, London, 1827, and Cunning-
ham's Two Years in New South Wales,
3d edit., London, 1828); also, Statistical
Account of the British Settlements in Aus-
tralasia, &c., 3d ed., London, 1825, 2 vols.)
·
AUSTRIA (in German, Estreich, i. e.
East-empire.) This state is a mon-
archy, with a population composed of
Germans, Sclavonians, Magyars (by which
name the Hungarians call themselves)
and Italians. Its cradle was the territory
below the Ens. In the time of Charle-
magne, about 800, the margraviate of
A. was formed by a body of militia,
which protected the south-east of Ger-
many from the incursions of the Asiatic
tribes. In 1156, it was united with the
territory above the Ens, and made a
duchy. In 1282, the state began to in-
crease under the dominion of the house
of Hapsburg. (q. v.) This dynasty soon
added several new territories, which af-
terwards formed the Austrian circle, and,
in 1438, obtained the electoral crown of
the German emperors. In 1453, A. was
raised to an archduchy, and, having ac-
quired Bohemia and Hungary in 1526,
with the consent of the inhabitants, it at-
tained the rank of a European monarchy.
The Lorraine branch of the house of
Austria maintained this rank at the
peace of Aix-la-Chapelle, signed in the
year 1748. They confirmed the union
of their territories by elevating the mou-
archy, in 1804, to a hereditary empire,
and established its dignity as one of
482
AUSTRIA.
the chief powers in Europe, before,
during and after the congress of Vienna,
in 1815.
Ancient History of the Country till the
year 982.-After the Romans had van-
quished the Noricans, A. D. 33, and
gained possession of the Danube, the
country north of the Danube, extending
to the borders of Bohemia and Moravia,
belonged to the kingdom of the Marco-
manni and Quadi; a part of Lower Aus-
tria and Stiria, with Vienna (Vindobona),
a municipal city of the Roman empire,
belonged to Upper Pannonia; the rest of
the country, with Carinthia and a part of
Carniola, formed a portion of Noricum.
Gőrz belonged to the Roman province
of Illyricum, and Tyrol to Rhætia. These
limits became confused by the irruptions
of the barbarians. The Boii, Vandals,
Heruli, Rugii, Goths, Huns, Lombards,
and Avars, in the course of the 5th and
6th centuries, successively occupied the
country. But after the year 568, when
the Lombards had established their power
in Upper Italy, the river Ens formed the
boundary line between the German tribe
of Bajuvarii, the proprietors of the terri-
tory above the Ens, and the Avars, who
had removed from the East to the banks
of that stream. In 611, the Wendi, a
Sclavonic tribe, appeared on the Murr,
Drave, and Save. In 788, the duchy of
Bavaria was dissolved, and the Avars
passed over the Ens, and invaded the
counties of the Franks in the Bavarian
territory. In 791, Charlemagne forced
them to retire to the Raab, and united the
territory extending from the Ens to the
junction of the Raab with the Danube
(the territory below the Ens) with Ger-
many, under the name of Avaria, or
Eastern Marchia (Marchia Orientalis), or
Austria; and, in the 10th century (in a
document of Otho III, 996), it was called
Ostirrichi, or Estreich, the German name
for Austria. Many colonists, particularly
from Bavaria, were sent by Charlemagne
into the new province, and a margrave
was appointed to administer the govern-
ment. The archbishop of Salzburg was
at the head of ecclesiastical affairs. After
its separation from Verdun, in 843, Ava-
ria formed the eastern boundary of the
German empire. On the invasion of
Germany by the Hungarians, in 900,
Avaria fell into their hands, and was held
by them till 955, when the emperor Otho
I, in consequence of the victory of Augs-
burg, reunited a great part of this province
to the empire. By the power and ad-
dress of its margraves, the whole country
was joined again with Germany, and, in
1043, under the emperor Henry III, and
the margrave Albert I (the Victorious),
its limits were extended to the Leytha.
Austria under the House of Bamberg, till
1282.-From 982 to 1156, the margraviate
of Austria was hereditary in the family of
the counts of Babenberg (Bamberg); the
succession, however, was not regulated
by primogeniture, but by the will of the
emperor. In ancient documents, men-
tion is made of the estates of Austria in
the year 1096. After Henry the Proud
(duke of Bavaria and Saxony) was put
under the ban of the empire, Leopold V,
margrave of A., received the duchy of
Bavaria, in 1138, from the emperor Con-
rad. But when the margrave Henry, son
of Leopold, under the title of Ja-so-mir-
Gott (Yes-so-me-God), had again ceded
it, in 1156, to Henry the Lion, the bound-
aries of A. were extended so as to include
the territory above the Ens, and the
whole was created a duchy with certain
privileges. Under this duke the court
resided at Vienna. Duke Leopold VI,
the son of Henry, received the duchy of
Stiria, in 1192, as a fief from the emperor
Henry VI, it having been added to the
empire by Otho I, in 955, by his victory
over the Hungarians. It was this prince
who imprisoned Richard Cœur de Lion
(q. v.), king of England. Duke Leopold
VII, the youngest son of the former,
erected a palace within the city of Vien-
na, which is still occupied by the Austrian
monarchs, under the name of the old
castle. Leopold VII, called the Glorious,
established the hospital of the Holy Cross,
made Vienna, which had adopted a mu-
nicipal constitution in 1198, a staple-town,
and granted 30,000 marks of silver for the
promotion of trade and commerce. In
1229, he purchased a part of Carniola, from
the ecclesiastical principality of Freisin-
gen, for 1650 marks, and left the country
in a flourishing condition to the youngest
of his three sons, Frederic II, surnamed
the Warrior. In 1236, this prince was put
under the ban of the empire, on account
of his joining the alliance of the cities of
Lombardy against the emperor Frederic
II; and Otho, duke of Bavaria, seized upon
his territory above the Ens as far as Lintz.
The rest of the country was granted, as a
fief, by the emperor, to a margrave, and
Vienna became an imperial city. During
the emperor's campaign in Italy, duke
Frederic recovered the principal part of
his lands, and his rights were confirmed
AUSTRIA.
by the emperor, at Verona, 1245. The
rights of Vienna, as an imperial city, were
abolished, and Frederic was to be called
king, as sovereign of Austria and Stiria;
but all his expectations of empire were
disappointed by his death, in the battle of
Leytha against Bela IV, king of Hunga-
ry, July 15, 1246, in the 35th year of his
age. Thus the male line of the house of
Bamberg became extinct.-The period
from 1246 to 1282 is styled the Austrian
interregnum. The emperor Frederic II
declared Austria and Stiria a vacant fief,
the hereditary property of the German
emperors, and sent a governor to Vienna,
the privileges of which, as an imperial
city, were once more renewed. But the
female relations of the deceased duke
Frederic, his sister Margaret (widow of
the emperor Henry VI), and his niece
Gertrude, by the persuasion of pope In-
nocent IV, in 1248, laid claim to the in-
heritance of their brother. The margrave
Hermann, with the aid of the pope and a
strong party, made himself master of Vi-
enna, and of several Austrian cities. In
Stiria, he was opposed by the governor,
Meinhard, count of Görz. But Hermann
died in 1250, and his son Frederic, who
was afterwards beheaded, in 1268, at Na-
ples, with Conradin of Suabia, was then
only a year old. The whole country was
distracted by various parties, and the em-
peror Conrad IV was prevented, by dis-
putes with his neighbors, from turning his
attention to A. In 1251, the states of Aus-
tria and Stiria determined to appoint one
of the sons of the second sister of Frede-
ric the Warrior, Constantia (widow of the
margrave Henry the Illustrious), to the
office of duke. Their deputies were on
the way to Misnia, when they were per-
suaded by king Wenzeslaus, on their en-
trance into Prague, to declare his son
Ottocar duke of Austria and Stiria, who
made every effort to support his appoint-
ment, by arms, money, and especially by
his marriage with the empress-widow,
Margaret. Ottocar wrested Stiria from
Bela, king of Hungary, by his victory of
July, 1260, in the Marchfield; and, in
1262, forced the emperor Richard to in-
vest him with both duchies. Soon after,
by the will of his uncle Ulrich, the last
duke of Carinthia and Friuli (who died
1269), Ottocar became master of Carin-
thia, a part of Carniola connected with it,
the kingdom of Istria, and a part of Fri-
uli. But his arrogance soon caused his
fall. In 1272, he refused to acknowledge
count Rodolph of Hapsburg emperor,
and was obliged to defend himself against
483
his arms. After an unsuccessful war, be
was forced to cede all his Austrian pos-
sessions, in Nov. 1276. In 1277, he at-
tempted to recover these territories, but,
in the battle of the Marchfield, Aug.
26, 1278, he was slain, and his son Wen-
ceslaus was obliged to renounce all claim
to them, in order to preserve his heredi-
tary estates. The emperor Rodolph_re-
mained three years in Vienna, and then
appointed his eldest son governor. But,
having succeeded in gaining the consent
of the electors of Saxony and Branden-
burg, of the three ecclesiastical electors,
and of the count-palatine of the Rhine, he
granted the duchies of Austria and Stiria,
with the province of Carinthia, to his two
sons Albert and Rodolph, Dec. 27, 1282.
This brings us to the History of Austria
under the House of Hapsburg.-I. From
1282 to 1526. Albert and Rodolph trans-
ferred Carinthia to Meinhard, count of
Tyrol, father-in-law to Albert. In 1283,
they concluded a treaty, by which Albert
was made sole possessor of Austria, Stiria,
and Carniola. Vienna, having again re-
nounced its privileges as an imperial city,
was made the residence of the court, and
the successors of Rodolph, from this time,
assumed Austria as the family title. The
introduction of the Hapsburg dynasty was
the foundation of the future greatness of
A. The despotic Albert was assailed by
Hungary and Bavaria, and, in 1298, he won
the Roman crown in an engagement with
Adolphus of Nassau. After this, he un-
dertook the conquest of Switzerland; but
was assassinated, May 1, 1308, at Rhein-
felden, by his nephew, John of Sua-
bia (see John the Parricide), from whom
he had basely withheld his hereditary
estates. The inheritance of John now
fell to the five sons of the murdered Al-
bert-Frederic, surnamed the Fair, Leo-
pold, Henry, Albert, and Otho. They
were forced to purchase of the emperor
Henry VII the investiture of their pater-
nal estates (consisting, in 1308, of 26,572
square miles), for 20,000 marks of silver.
Under their father, in 1301, the margravi-
ate of Suabia was added to the territories
of Austria, and the contest with Bavaria
ended in the cession of Neuberg. On the
contrary, the attempt of duke Leopold, in
1315, to recover the forest-towns of Swit-
zerland, which had been lost under Albert,
was frustrated by the valor of the troops
of the Swiss confederacy in the battle of
Morgarten. In 1314, his brother Frederic,
chosen emperor of Germany by the elect-
ors, was conquered by his rival, the em-
peror Louis (of Bavaria), in 1322, at
484
AUSTRIA.
Mühldorf, and was his prisoner, for two
years and a half, in the castle of Traus-
nitz. The dispute with the house of
Luxemberg, in Bohemia, and with pope
John XXII, induced the emperor, in
1325, to liberate his captive. Upon this,
the latter renounced all share in the gov-
ernment, and pledged himself to surren-
der all the imperial domains which were
still in the possession of A. But Leopold
considered the agreement derogatory to
his dignity, and continued the war against
Louis. Frederic, therefore, again surren-
dered himself a prisoner in Munich. Mov-
ed by his faithful adherence to his word,
Louis concluded a friendly compact with
Frederic, and made preparations for their
common government, Sept. 7, 1325.
These preparations, however, were never
carried into execution; for the agreement
had been concluded without the consent
of the electors. Leopold died in 1326,
and Henry of A. in 1327; Frederic also
died without children, Jan. 13, 1330, after
which his brothers, Albert II and Otho,
came to a reconciliation with the emperor
Louis. After the death of their uncle,
Henry, margrave of Tyrol and duke of
Carinthia (the father of Margaret Maul-
tasch), they persuaded the emperor to
grant them the investiture of Tyrol and
Carinthia, in May, 1335: they ceded Ty-
rol, however, to John, king of Bohemia,
by the treaty of Oct. 9, 1356, in behalf of
his son John Henry, or rather of his wife,
Margaret Maultasch. In 1344, after the
death of Otho and his sons, Albert II,
called the Wise, united all his Austrian
territories, which, by his marriage with
the daughter of the last count of Pfirt,
had been augmented by the estates of her
father in 1324, and by the Kyburg estates
in Burgundy in 1326. Of the four sons
of Albert II (Rodolph, Albert, Leopold
and Frederic), Rodolph II (IV) completed
the church of St. Stephen's, and died at
Milan, in 1365, without children, a short
time after his youngest brother, Frederic.
In 1379, the two surviving brothers divid-
ed the kingdom, so that Albert III (with
the queue) became master of Austria, and
gave the other territories to his brother
Leopold III, the Pious. Leopold had
made repcated attempts to gain the Haps-
burg possessions in Switzerland. He
was killed, July 9, 1386, on the field of
Sempach, where he lost the battle in con-
sequence of the valor of Winkelried, and
Albert administered the government of
the estates of his brother's minor sons.
Margaret Maultasch ceded Tyrol to him
on the death of Meinhard, her only son,
who was married to the sister of Albert.
She retained nothing but a few castles
and 6000 marks of gold. Her claims to
Bavaria, also, she renounced, in consider-
ation of receiving Schärding and three
Tyrolese cities, Kitzbühl, Ballenberg and
Kuffstein, and 116,000 florins of gold. In
1365, Leopold III had bought the claims
of the count of Feldkirch for 36,000 florins;
for 55,000 florins Austria received Bris-
gau from the count of Fürstenberg, with
the cities of Neuberg, Old Brisach, Kent-
zingen, and Billingen. The remainder
of Carniola and the Windisch Mark, after
the death of the last count of Görz, were
purchased, together with the county of
Pludentz, from the carl of Werdenberg,
and the possessions of the count of Ho-
henberg, for 66,000 florins; and the city
of Trieste was acquired, in 1380, by aid-
ing in the war between Ilungary and
Venice. Moreover, the two governments
of Upper and Lower Suabia were pledg-
ed for 40,000 florins by the king of Rome,
Wenceslaus, to duke Leopold. The Aus-
trian and Stirian lines, founded by Albert
III and Leopold III, his brother, continu-
ed for 78 years. In 1395, when Albert III
died, his only son, Albert IV, was in Pal-
estine. On his return, he determined to
take vengeance on Procopius, margrave of
Moravia, for his hostile conduct; but he
was poisoned, in 1404, at Znaym. His
young son and successor, Albert V, was
declared of age in 1410; and, being the
son-in-law of the emperor Sigismund, he
united the crowns of Hungary and Bohe-
mia in 1437, and connected them with
that of Germany in 1438. But in the fol-
lowing year the young prince died. His
posthumous son, Ladislaus, was the last
of the Austrian line of Albert, and its pos-
sessions devolved on the Stirian line, 1457.
From this time, the house of Austria has
furnished an unbroken succession of Ger-
man emperors. Hungary and Bohemia
were lost for a time by the death of Al-
bert V, and, after the unhappy contests
with the Swiss, under Frederic III, the
remains of the Hapsburg estates in Switz-
erland. But several territories were gain-
ed; and, to increase the rising splendor
of the fainily, the emperor conferred upon
the country the rank of an archduchy.
The dispute which broke out between
Frederic and his brothers Albert and
Sigismund, relating to the division of
their paternal inheritance, ended with the
death of Albert, in December, 1464. In
the course of the troubles which resulted
from this quarrel, the emperor was be-
sieged in the citadel of Vienna by the
AUSTRIA.
citizens, who favored the cause of the
murdered prince. Sigismund now suc-
ceeded to his portion of the estate of La-
dislaus, and Frederic became sole ruler
of all Austria. His son Maximilian, by
his marriage with Mary, the surviving
daughter of Charles the Bold, united the
Netherlands to the Austrian dominions.
But it cost Maximilian much anxiety and
toil to maintain his power in this new
province, which he administered as the
guardian of his son Philip. His confine-
ment at Brüges, in 1489, resulted in an
agreement which was decidedly for his
advantage; but he lost, at the same time,
the duchy of Guelders. After the death
of his father, which happened Aug. 19,
1493, he was made emperor of Germany,
and transferred to his son Philip the gov-
ernment of the Netherlands. Maximilian
I (see this article and Germany) added to
his paternal inheritance all Tyrol, and
several other territories, particularly some
belonging to Bavaria. He also acquired
for his family new claims to Hungary and
Bohemia. During his reign, Vienna be-
came the great metropolis of the arts and
sciences in the German empire. The
marriage of his son Philip to Joanna of
Spain raised the house of Hapsburg to
the throne of Spain and the Indies. But
Philip died in 1506, 13 years before his
father, and the death of Maximilian, which
happened Jan. 12, 1519, was followed by
the union of Spain and Austria: his grand-
son (the eldest son of Philip), Charles I,
king of Spain (see Charles V), was elected
emperor of Germany. In the treaty of
Worms, April 28, 1521, and of Ghent,
May 7, 1540, he ceded to his brother Fer-
dinand all his hereditary estates in Ger-
many, and retained for himself the king-
dom of the Netherlands. The house of
A. was now the proprietor of a tract of
country in Europe comprising 360,230 sq.
miles. The emperor Charles V immedi-
ately increased the number of provinces
in the Netherlands to 17, and confirmed
their union with the German states, which
had been concluded by his grandfather,
under the title of the circle of Burgundy.
In 1526, A. was recognised as a European
monarchy.-II. From 1526 to 1740. Fer-
dinand I, by his marriage with Anna, the
sister of Louis II, king of Hungary, who
was killed in 1526, in the battle of Mo-
hacs, acquired the kingdoms of Hungary
and Bohemia, with Moravia, Silesia, and
Lusatia, the appendages of Bohemia.
Bohemia rejoiced to hail Ferdinand its
king. Notwithstanding the divided opin-
ions of the nobles, and the rising fortune
485
of his adversary, John von Zapolya (see
Hungary), he was raised to the throne of
Hungary, Nov. 26, 1526, by the Hungari-
an diet, and was crowned, Nov. 5, 1527.
But Zapolya resorted for assistance to the
sultan Soliman II, who appeared, in 1529,
at the gates of Vienna. The capital was
rescued from ruin solely by the prudent
measures of the count of Salm, general
of the Austrian army, and the imperial
forces compelled Soliman to retreat. In
1535, a treaty was made, by which John
von Zapolya was allowed to retain the
royal title and half of Hungary, and his
posterity were to be entitled to nothing
but Transylvania. But, after the death of
John, new disputes arose, in which Soliman
was again involved, and Ferdinand main-
tained the possession of Lower Hungary
only by paying the warlike sultan the sum
of 30,000 ducats annually. This took
place in 1562. Ferdinand was equally
unsuccessful in the duchy of Würtem-
berg. This province had been taken from
the restless duke Ulrich by the Suabian
confederacy, and sold to the emperor
Charles V; and, when his estates were
divided, it fell to Ferdinand. Philip, land-
grave of Hesse, the friend of duke Ulrich,
took advantage of the opportunity offered
him by the embarrassment of Ferdinand
in the Hungarian war. With the aid of
France, he conquered Würtemberg; but
France ceded it again to Ulrich in the
treaty of Caden, in Bohemia, concluded
June 29th, 1534, on condition that the
province should still be a fief of Austria,
and, after the extinction of the male line of
the duke, that it should revert to that coun-
try. The remaining half of Bregentz, the
county of Thengen, and the city of Con-
stance, were insufficient wholly to com-
pensate these losses; nevertheless, the
territory of the German line of the house
of Austria was estimated at 114,468
square miles. Ferdinand received also
the imperial crown in 1556, when his
brother Charles laid by the sceptre for a
cowl. He died July 25, 1564, with the
fame of an able prince, leaving 3 sons
and 10 daughters. According to the direc-
tions given in his will, the three brothers
divided the patrimony so that Maximilian
II, the eldest son, who succeeded his
father as emperor, obtained Austria, Hun-
gary and Bohemia; Ferdinand, the sec-
ond son, received Tyrol and Hither Aus-
tria; and Charles, the third, became
master of Stiria, Carinthia, Carniola and
Görz. But, in 1595, after the death of
the archduke Ferdinand, the husband of
Philippine Welser, the fair maid of Augs-
41 *
486
AUSTRIA.
burg, his sons Andrew (cardinal and bish-
op of Constance and Brixen, and governor
of the Netherlands for Spain) and Charles
(inargrave of Burgau) were declared in-
competent to succeed their father, and
his possessions reverted to his relations.
In Hungary, the emperor Maximilian inet
with far better fortune than his father had
done. The death of Soliman, at Sigeth,
in 1566, was followed by a peace, and, in
1572, Maximilian crowned his eldest son,
Rodolph, king of Hungary: he was after-
wards crowned king of Bohemia, and
elected king of Rome. In his attempts to
add the Polish crown to his Austrian
dominions, he was equally unsuccessful
with his fourth son, Maximilian, who
engaged in a similar enterprise after the
decease of Stephen Bathori, in 1587.
Maximilian died Oct. 12, 1576, and Ro-
dolph, the eldest of his five sons, succeeded
to the imperial throne. The most remark-
able events, by which his reign is distin-
guished, are, the war against Turkey and
Transylvania, the persecution of the Prot-
estants, who were all driven from his
dominions, and the circumstances which
obliged him to cede Hungary, in 1608,
and Bohemia and his hereditary estates
in Austria, in 1611, to his brother Mat-
thias. From this time we may date the
successful exertions of the Austrian sove-
reigns to put down the restless spirit of
the nation, and to keep the people in a
State of abject submission. Matthias, who
succceded Maximilian on the imperial
throne, concluded a peace for 20 years
with the Turks; but he was disturbed by
the Bohemians, who took up arms in
defence of their religious rights. Matthias
died March 20, 1619, before the negotia-
tions for a compromise were completed.
The Bohemians refused to acknowledge
his successor, Ferdinand, and chose Fred-
eric V the head of the Protestant league,
and elector of the palatinate, for their king.
After the battle of Prague, 1620, Bohemia
submitted to the authority of Ferdinand.
He immediately applied himself to eradi-
cate Protestantism out of Bohemia Proper
and Moravia. At the same time, he de-
prived Bohemia of the right of choosing
her king, and of her other privileges. He
erected a Catholic court of reform, and
thus led to the emigration of thousands
of the inhabitants. The house of Haps-
burg has presented an example, which
stands alone in history, of the manner in
which violence and tyrammy can check
the progress of civilization; and Bohemia,
the land of Iluss, the land where reli-
gious freedom has been defended with
i
such heroic zeal, is now greatly inferior
in cultivation to every other country of
western Europe. The Austrian states
also, favoring, in general, the Protestant
religion, were compelled by Ferdinand to
swear allegiance to him, and Lutheranism
was strictly forbidden in all the Austrian
dominions. The province of Hungary,
which revolted under Bethlen Gabor,
prince of Transylvania, was, after a long
struggle, subdued. This religious war
dispeopled, impoverished and paralyzed
the energies of the most fertile provinces
of the house of Austria. During the reign
of Ferdinand III, the successor of Fer-
dinand (1637-57), Austria was contin-
ually the theatre of war. In the midst of
these troubles, Ferdinand ceded Lusatia
to Saxony at the peace of Prague, con-
cluded in 1635; and, when the war was
ended, he ceded Alsace to France, at the
peace of Westphalia, in 1648. The
emperor Leopold I, son and successor of
Ferdinand III, was victorious through
the talents of his minister, Eugene, in
two wars with Turkey; and Vienna was
delivered, by John Sobieski (q. v.) and
the Germans, from the attacks of Kara
Mustapha, in 1683. In 1687, he changed
Hungary into a hereditary kingdom, and
joined to it the territory of Transylvania,
which had been governed by distinct
princes. Moreover, by the peace of Car-
lovitz, concluded in 1699, he restored to
Hungary the country lying between the
Danube and the Theiss. It was now the
chief aim of Leopold to secure to Charles,
his second son, the inheritance of the
Spanish monarchy, then in the hands of
Charles II, king of Spain, who had no
children to succeed him; but his own in
decision, and the artful policy of France,
induced Charles II to appoint the grand-
son of Louis XIV his successor. Thus be-
gan the war of the Spanish succession, in
1701. Leopold died May 5, 1705, before
it was terminated. The emperor Joseph
I, his successor and eldest son, continued
the war, but died without children, April
17, 1711. His brother Charles, the des-
tined king of Spain, immediately has-
tened from Barcelona to his hereditary
states, to take upon him the administra-
tion of the government. He was clected
emperor, Dec. 24 of the same year;
but was obliged to accede to the peace of
Utrecht, concluded by his allies, at Ras-
tadt and Baden, in 1714. By this treaty,
Austria received the Netherlands, Milan,
Mantua, Naples and Sardinia. In 1720,
Sicily was given to Austria in exchange
for Sardinia. The duchy of Mantua,
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occupied by Joseph in 1708, was now
made an Austrian fief, because it had
formed an alliance with France, prejudi-
cial to the interests of Germany. This
monarchy now embraced 191,621 square
miles, and nearly 29 million inhabitants.
Its annual income was between 13 and
14 million florins, and its army consisted
of 130,000 men; but its power was weak-
ened by new wars with Spain and France.
In the peace concluded at Vienna, 1735
and 1738, Charles VI was forced to cede
Naples and Sicily to don Carlos, the in-
fant of Spain, and to the king of Sardinia
a part of Milan, for which he received
only Parma and Piacenza. In the next
year, by the peace of Belgrade, he lost
nearly all the fruits of Eugene's victories,
even the province of Temeswar; for he
was obliged to transfer to the Porte Bel-
grade, Servia, and all the possessions of
Austria in Walachia, Orsova and Bosnia.
All this Charles VI willingly acceded to,
in order to secure the succession to his
daughter, Maria Theresa, by the Prag-
matic sanction. This law of inheritance
was passed 1713-1719, and acknowl-
edged, one after another, by all the Euro-
pean powers.
History of Austria under the House of
Hapsburg-Lorraine.-I. From 1740 to
1790. By the death of Charles VI, Oct.
20, 1740, the male line of the Austrian
house of Hapsburg became extinct; and
Maria Theresa (q. v.), having married
Stephen, duke of Lorraine, ascended the
Austrian throne. On every side her
claims were disputed, and rival claims
set up. A violent war began, in which
she had no protector but England. Fred-
eric II of Prussia subdued Silesia; the
elector of Bavaria was crowned in Lintz
and Prague, and, in 1742, chosen emperor
under the name of Charles VII. Hun-
gary alone supported the heroic and beau-
tiful queen. But, in the peace of Breslau,
concluded June 4, 1742, she was obliged
to cede to Prussia Silesia and Glatz, with
the exception of Teschen, Jágerndorf and
Troppau. Frederic II, by assisting the
party of Charles VII, soon renewed the
war. But Charles died Jan. 20, 1745, and
the husband of Theresa was crowned
emperor of Germany under the title of
Francis I. A second treaty of peace,
concluded Dec. 25, 1745, confirmed to
Frederic the possession of Silesia. By
the pence of Aix-la-Chapelle, Oct. 18,
1748, Austria was obliged to cede the
duchies of Parina, Piacenza and Guastalla
to Philip, infant of Spain, and several
districts of Milan to Sardinia. The Aus-
487
trian monarchy was now firmly establish-
ed; and it was the first wish of Maria
With this
Theresa to recover Silesia.
object in view, she formed an alliance
with France, Russia, Saxony and Sweden.
This was the origin of the seven years'
war; but, by the peace of Hubertsberg,
1763, Prussia retained Silesia, and Aus-
tria had sacrificed her blood and treasures
in vain. The first paper money was now
issued in Austria, called state obligations,
and the emperor Francis erected a bank
to exchange them. After his death, Aug.
18, 1765, Joseph II, his eldest son, was
appointed colleague with his mother in
the government of his hereditary states,
and clected emperor of Germany. To
prevent the extinction of the male line of
her family, Maria Theresa now establish-
cd two collateral lines; the house of Tus-
cany, in her second son, Peter Leopold;
and the house of Este, in the person of
the archduke Ferdinand. For these sep-
arations, Maria Theresa indemnified the
country by the confiscation of several
cities, formerly pledged to Poland by
Hungary, without paying the sum for
which they stood pledged; by obtaining
Galicia and Lodomiria in the first profli-
gate division of the kingdom of Poland,
in 1772; and by the capture of Bukowina,
which was ceded by the Porte, in 1777.
In the peace of Teschen, May 13, 1779,
Austria received Innviertel, and the va-
cant county of Hohenembs in Suabia,
the county of Falkenstein, and the Sua-
bian territories of Tettnang and Argen;
and thus, at the death of the empress.
Nov. 28, 1780, Austria contained 234,684
square miles: it had lost 16,366 square
miles, and gained 34,301. The popula-
tion was estimated at 24 millions; but the
public debt, also, had increased to 160
million florins. The administration of
the empress was distinguished by the
most useful institutions of government,
agriculture, trade and commerce, the ed-
ucation of the people, the promotion of
the arts and sciences, and of religion.
The foreign relations of the kingdom,
also, even those with the Roman court,
were happily conducted by the talents of
her minister, Kaunitz. (q. v.) Her suc-
cessor, Joseph H (q. v.), was active and
restless; impartial, but too often rash and
violent. While a colleague with his moth-
er in the government, he diminished the
expenses of the state, and introduced a
new system in the payment of pensions
and of officers. But, after the death of
his mother, all his activity and talent as
a sovereign was fully døveloped.
ક
As
488
AUSTRIA.
severe to the military as to the civil offi-
cers, he adhered, however, to liberal prin-
ciples. The censorship of the press was
reformed; the Protestants received full
toleration, and the rights of citizens; the
Jews were treated with kindness; 900
convents and religious establishments
were abolished, and even the visit of Pius
VI made no alteration in Joseph's system
of reformation. The system of education
he subjected to revision and improve-
ment; and he encouraged manufactures
by heavy duties on foreign goods. But
his zeal excited the opposition of the ene-
mies of improvement. The Low Coun-
tries revolted, and his vexation probably
led him to attempt the exchange of the
Netherlands, under the title of the king-
dom of Austrasia, for the palatinate of
Bavaria, under an elector. But the proj-
ect was frustrated by the constancy and
firmness of the next agnate, the duke of
Deux-Ponts, and by the German league,
concluded by Frederic II. Joseph was
equally unsuccessful in the war of 1788
against the Porte. His exertions in the
field destroyed his health; and grief at
the rebellious disposition of his hereditary
states accelerated his death, which hap-
pened Feb. 20, 1790.—II. From 1790 to
1815. Joseph II was succeeded by his
eldest brother, Leopold II (q. v.), formerly
grand duke of Tuscany. By his moder-
ation and firmness, he quelled the turbu-
lent spirit of the Netherlands, and restored
tranquillity to Hungary. The treaty of
Reichenbach, with Prussia, July 27, 1790,
and the treaty of Sistova, Aug. 4, 1791,
led to a peace with the Porte. The un-
happy fate of his sister and her husband,
Louis XVI of France, induced him to
form an alliance with Prussia; but he
died March 1, 1792, before the revolution-
ary war broke out. Soon after the ac-
cession of his son, Francis II, to the
throne, and before the 14th of July, 1792,
when he was elected German emperor,
France declared war against him, as king
of Hungary and Bohemia. (See France.)
In the first articles of peace, dated at
Campo-Formio, Oct. 17, 1797, Austria
lost Lombardy and the Netherlands, and
received, as a compensation, the largest
part of the Venetian territory: two years
previous, in 1795, in the third division of
Poland, the Austrian dominions had been
enlarged by the addition of West Galicia.
In the beginning of the year 1799, the
cmperor Francis, in alliance with Russia,
renewed the war with France. But Na-
poleon extorted the peace of Luneville,
Feb. 9, 1801, and Francis acceded to it,
without the consent of England. By the
conditions of the treaty, he was to cede the
county of Falkenstein and the Frickthal.
Ferdinand, grand duke of Tuscany, at
the same time, renounced his claim to this
province, and received, in return for it,
Salzburg and Berchtesgaden, with a part
of the territory of Passau, and was after-
wards made master of the largest part of
Eichstädt, and honored with the title of
elector. Austria obtained the Tyrolese
archbishoprics Trent and Brixen, and,
notwithstanding its cessions of territory to
France, had gained, including its acquisi-
tions in Poland, 9580 square miles: this
made the whole extent 253,771 square
miles. The public debt had also increased
to 1220 million florins. The first consul of
France now caused himself to be pro-
claimed emperor; and, Aug. 11, 1804,
Francis declared himself hereditary em-
peror of Austria, and united all his states
under the name of the empire of Austria.
Immediately after this important act, he
took up arms once more, with his allies,
Russia and Great Britain, against the gov-
ernment of France. The war of 1805 was
terminated by the peace of Presburg (Dec.
26, 1805). By the conditions of the treaty,
Francis was obliged to cede to France
the remaining provinces of Italy; to the
king of Bavaria Burgau, Eichstädt, a part
of Passau, all Tyrol, Vorarlberg, Hohen-
embs, Rothenfels, Tettnang, Argen and
Lindau; to the king of Würtemberg the
five towns lying on the Danube, the coun-
ty of Hohenberg, the landgraviate of Nel-
lenburg, Altdorf, and a part of Brisgau;
and to the grand duke of Baden the
remainder of Brisgau, Ortenau, Constance
and the commandery of Meinau.
received, in return, Salzburg and Berch-
tesgaden; the elector of Salzburg was
compensated by the province of Würz-
burg; and the dignity of grand master of
the Teutonic order was made hereditary in
the house of Austria. Thus ended a war
which cost the Austrian monarchy, besides
the territories just enumerated, 90 million
florins, which were carried away by the
French from Vienna, and 800 millions for
the other expenses of the war; of which
Francis paid a large proportion from his
private purse. After the formation of the
confederation of the Rhine (July 12, 1806),
Francis was forced to resign his dignity
as emperor of Germany (Aug. 6, 1806),
which had been in his family more than
500 years. This was one of the most
important consequences of the war. - He
now assumed the title of Francis I, empe-
ror of Austria, and resolved, in 1809, on a
-
He
AUSTRIA.
new war with France, aided only by
Great Britain, who did nothing more than
furnish some pecuniary assistance, and
make a tardy attack on Walcheren.
Austria fought courageously, but in vain.
The peace of Vienna (Oct. 14, 1809) cost
the monarchy 42,380 square miles of ter-
ritory, 3,500,000 subjects, and more than
11 million florins of revenue. The pub-
lic debt was also increased to 1200 million
florins, and all the paper money in cir-
culation was estimated at 950 millions.
Napoleon, after tearing from the Austrian
monarchy its fairest provinces, the duchy
of Salzburg, with Berchtesgaden, Inn-
viertel, Western Hausruckviertel, Carniola
and Gőrz, Trieste, the circle of Villach,
a large part of Croatia, Istria, Ræzuns in
the Grisons, the Bohemian territories in
Saxony, all West Galicia, the circle of
Zamoski in East Galicia, Cracow, with
half the salt-works of Wieliczka, the cir-
cle of Tarnopol, and many other prov-
inces which were given to Russia,
formed a personal connexion with the an-
cient family of Hapsburg by his marriage
with Marie Louise, daughter of the empe-
ror of Austria, and, March 14, 1812, con-
cluded an alliance with the emperor Fran-
cis against Russia. But the emperor of
France was repulsed, on his invasion of
this country; Prussia rose up against
him; the congress of Prague met and
separated again without accomplishing
any thing; and Francis, Aug. 10, 1813,
declared war against France, and formed
an alliance, Sept. 9, 1813, at Teplitz, with
England, Russia, Prussia and Sweden,
against his son-in-law. In the battle of
Leipsic, the Austrian troops took an hon-
orable part. The firmness with which
the emperor signed the act of proscription
against his son, and fixed the fate of his
daughter and her infant, excited general
respect. He signed the saine act against
Napoleon a second time, when he return-
ed from Elba. He also opposed Murat in
Italy. Yet the Austrian cabinet endeav-
ored to provide for young Napoleon in
the settlement of the affairs of France.
By the peace of Paris, 1814, Austria gain-
ed the portion of Italy which now forms
the Lombardo-Venetian kingdom, and
recovered, together with Dalmatia, the
hereditary territories which it had been
obliged to cede. The former grand duke
of Würzburg, on the contrary, ceded his
territory to Bavaria, and again took pos-
session of Tuscany. In the new system
of Europe, established at the congress
of Vienna, which met in 1815, and by the
treaty concluded with Bavaria, at Munich
489
(April 14, 1816), the Austrian monarchy
not only gained more than 4238 square
miles of territory, but was also essentially
improved in compactness; and its com-
mercial importance was increased by the
accession of Dalmatia and Venice. The
influence of this power among the states
of Europe, in consequence of the congress
of Vienna, as the first member of the
great quadruple alliance (changed, by the
congress of Aix-la-Chapelle, 1818, to a
quintuple alliance), and as the head of the
German confederation, has been continu-
ally increasing since the congress at Aix-
la-Chapelle, as is evident to those who feel
an interest in the history of the age. Of the
foreign affairs of the government, which
have been conducted by the prince von
Metternich, the most important is the con-
nexion of Austria with the German confed-
eration. The imperial cabinet overruled
the deliberations of the German confed-
erates at Frankfort, through its minister,
count Buol-Schauenstein (who was suc-
ceeded, in 1823, by the baron of Munch-
Bellinghausen), so that all the decrees
made in the congress of Carlsbad, in
Aug., 1819 (see Congress and Carlsbad),
relating to a general censorship of literary
institutions, the suppression of liberal
opinions and writings, and of secret soci-
eties, were unanimously adopted and pub-
lished, Sept. 20, 1819, and renewed Aug.
16, 1824. A congress was held at Vien-
na, Nov. 25, 1819, composed of all the
ministers of the German confederates, to
draw up a constitution for the confedera-
ted states. It was signed at Vienna, May
15, 1820; and, June 8 of the same year,
it was acknowledged at Frankfort as the
universal law of the German confedera-
tion. (q. v.) The ideas of the Austrian
cabinet, in regard to the political condi-
tion of Germany, were made known to
the public by the remarkable Lettre conf-
dentielle de S. A. le Prince de Metternich
à M. le Baron de Berstett, premier Minis-
tre du Grand Duché de Baden, June, 1820.
This letter is printed in Lesur's Annuaire
(Paris, 1821, p. 252). The united influ-
ence of A. and Prussia, in the military
committee of the confederation, laid the
foundation of the German military sys-
tem, and regulated the numbers and dis-
tribution of the army of the confederacy,
and the occupation and command of the
fortresses of the empire. It must be ob-
served, however, that A. (in conformity
with the 18th art. of the constitution),
abolished, in 1820, the right of emigration
from its own states to those of the Ger-
man allies, and concluded the Elbe navi-
490
AUSTRIA.
gation acts (see Elbe) at Dresden, in 1821,
and at Hamburg, in 1824. Saxony and
Bavaria formed a closer connexion with
the house of A., by a family union, in
1819 and 1824. The queen dowager of
Saxony is a sister, and the wife of Fred-
eric prince of Saxony a daughter, of the
emperor Francis. November 4, 1824, the
second imperial prince, the archduke
Francis (born 1802), was married to So-
phia, princess of Bavaria, half-sister of
the empress of A. (The house of A.
now exists in 24 separate branches.) Of
the five principal powers which decided
the political condition of Naples, Pied-
mont, Spain and Greece, in the congress
of Troppau, 1820, Laybach, 1821, and
Verona, 1822 (q. v.), A. was the first.
The harmony which existed between the
three founders of the Holy Alliance, so
called, led to the establishment of the
principles of legitimacy; and every one
knows the important consequences of
this union, in the maintenance of princi-
ples contrary to the spirit of the age and
the law of nations; as in the law relating
to the armed interference. A. executed
the decrees of the congress as far as re-
lated to Naples and Piedmont. (See Na-
ples and Piedmont, revolution of) Her
influence was felt in the Swiss confeder-
acy.
In the dispute between Portugal
and Brazil, A., being connected with the
emperor of Brazil by means of a family
union, did not oppose the independence
of the new empire, for which Great Brit-
ain interceded. The infant don Miguel
swore allegiance, in Vienna, to the Portu-
guese constitution of 1826, and has since
conducted like a robber and a madman.
Time will probably show what share has
been taken by A. in the disputes of the
royal family of Portugal. To the alli-
ance formed by Russia, Great Britain and
France for the pacification of Greece
(July 6, 1827), A. never acceded. In-
deed, it is important for her that the
Greeks should still remain in bondage;
especially if the fall of the Porte (a power
which the congress of Vienna declared to
be indispensable to the other states of
Europe) should increase the strength of
Russia. This power already presses on
the unprotected frontiers of A. if it
should extend its conquests in that di-
rection, the trade of this country with
Moldavia and Walachia would be en-
tirely cut off. Moreover, it would be very
prejudicial to her to have a constitutional
state established in the south-east, on the
confines of Hungary and Transylvania,
which, by religious sympathies, would
exert an influence on Servia and the
southern provinces of Hungary. When
prince Alexander Ypsilanti, leader of the
Hetærists (see Hetara) in Moldavia, en-
tered the Austrian territory, he was de-
tained by the Austrian authorities at
Munkatsch, and afterwards in Theresien-
stadt, as a public prisoner, and liberated,
at last, in 1827. A. prohibited all socie-
ties for the aid of Greece, and all contri-
butions of money or arms: the Greeks
from Russia were forbidden to march
through the country, and the Philhellenes
were forbidden to traverse her territories
to reach the ports of the Adriatic.* On
the other hand, A. aided (by its inter-
nuncios in Constantinople) the efforts of
the British ambassador to settle the dis-
putes between Russia and the Porte, and
effected the evacuation of the principali-
ties by the Turkish troops; which led,
also, to the conclusion of the treaty of
Ackerman, in 1826. (See Ottoman Em-
pire.)-In its politics, both at home and
abroad, A. has more influence than any
other state in Europe, in suppressing lib-
eral opinions and resisting the claims of
the age. The cabinet has recourse to
measures, of which other cabinets, striving
after the same end, are as yet ashamed.
The subjects are forbidden to praise or
blame the administration; and thus no
one is permitted to express any politi-
cal opinions. The citizens are
off from literary intercourse with other
nations by a twofold censorship estab-
lished on the frontiers. There are, like-
wise, in Austria, different kinds of pro-
hibited books: some are wholly prohib-
ited; others are prohibited to all but the
learned; and the whole nation has been,
for centuries, destitute of the means of
high intellectual cultivation. They are
good-natured and lively. Eating, drinking,
dancing, music and women make up the
sum of an Austrian's enjoyment. If his
emperor allows these indulgences, he re-
ceives the approbation of his subjects,
even though he appropriates the estates of
orphans, which have been intrusted to
the government, and proclaims a public
bankruptcy. Every restraint is used to
cut
*The semi-official paper at Vienna, the Estrei-
chisch Beobachter (the Austrian Observer), which is
entirely subservient to the government, constantly
wrote against the Greeks, and in favor of the Turks.
It is worth while to mention here the definition
which this paper (on the whole, an able one) gave
of legitimacy, when the question rose, whether the
Turks were a legitimate power or not, and wheth-
er, in consequence, the Grecks were rebels or not.
The Observer said, that any power was legitimate,
with which other legitimate powers had concluded
treaties for a series of years!!
*
AUSTRIA.
keep the spirit of the people stagnant.
Francis, on his visit to Laybach, 1820,
observed to the professors there, that he
wished for no learned men; that he need-
ed good, loyal citizens, and common
schools were quite sufficient for their edu-
cation. The administration of justice, ex-
cept in political cases, is good; for a per-
fect despotism, as well as a free govern-
ment, requires that the rights of all the
people should be equally respected. But,
in state trials, every species of injustice is
permitted. The policy of A. has been
characterized, for ages, by an insatiable
thirst for the extension of her territory,
and by the oppression of every country
which she has held in subjection, except
during the reign of Joseph II. She has
contended with France, for centuries, for
the control of Europe; and no one can
tell what she yet may effect by means of
the son of Napoleon, who was, at first,
destined to the clerical profession, but
afterwards suddenly took up that of a
soldier. A. has always directed its ef-
forts towards Italy and the East, and
the former may now be regarded as
wholly dependent on her. (See Metter-
nich.) The internal government is re-
markable for the constant embarrassment
of the financial department, which leads
to the most unjust and arbitrary measures.
The state becomes bankrupt, extorts
loans, and compels the borrowers to make
new ones to secure the first. In order to
smother every liberal sentiment, foreign-
ers engaged in private instruction, espe-
cially the Swiss, have been generally ex-
pelled from the empire. The adherents
of Carbonarism have been condemned
to death (see Italy); and, in July, 1824,
several persons, on account of their opin-
ions and writings, were forbidden to en-
forbidden_to_en-
ter the Austrian states; among them
were lady Oxford, Mrs. Hutchinson, lady
Morgan and lord Holland. Finally, an
imperial decree has been issued, that all
works written by Austrians in foreign
countries should undergo the censorship
of the press at home; and, in 1824, the
order was extended to engravings, litho-
graphs and other prints. The archduke
Rodolph was chosen by the ecclesiastical
chapter, and appointed archbishop of Ol-
mütz, by pope Pius VII. His brother,
the emperor, confirmed him in this digni-
fied office; and, soon after (Aug. 2, 1819),
he was made a cardinal. In the autumn
of 1820, the emperor travelled to Pres-
burg and Ofen. He pledged himself to
the nobles of the palatinate of Pest, to
maintain inviolate the constitution of the
491
country, as the palladium of its privileges
and the security of its happiness. His
speech on this occasion contained the
following specimen of elegant Latin:-
"Totus mundus delirat, et relictis antiquis
suis legibus, constitutiones imaginarias
quarit" (The whole world is mad; they
have deserted the good laws of their
fathers, and run after the shadows of con-
stitutions). The public measures have
lately raised the financial credit of the
government. All that has been done for
this department since the charter of
March 21, 1818, is recounted in a sub-
sequent article (Funds, public) where
the lottery loans of Rothschild are also
described. From the report of the com-
mittee chosen to examine the operations
of the sinking fund, it appeared, that, of
the old debt (contracted before the year
1815), nearly 39,000,000 florins were dis-
charged in 1824; and the new debt
(contracted since 1815), amounting to
208,000,000 florins, was considerably di-
minished. But the sinking fund was so
increased after its establishment (March
1, 1817), that, in 1825, the amount dis-
posable was estimated at more than
160,000,000 florins. The public debt has
since been regularly reduced. From the
annual report of the president of the bank
of A., the count of Dietrichstein, now de-
ceased, it appears, that, in seven years
previous to Jan. 10, 1825, 284,342,600
florins of the paper money in circulation
had been redeemed. In order to raise the
value of the depreciated paper currency,
a particular fund was established to re-
deem it, and the rate fixed at 250, since
1816. The paper florin is worth 6 gros-
chen, 8 pfennige and 20 kreuzer,
kreuzer of Vienna currency. Loans were
afterwards instituted to increase the quan-
tity of specie in the monarchy, and to
promote the payment of old arrears. Of
these, the loan of two and a half million
pounds sterling, made at London, in the
close of the year 1823, was destined for
the payment of the British demands (from
1794 to 1800), liquidated Nov. 23, 1823.
Notwithstanding this, the Austrian paper
money increased to such a degree, that,
in the beginning of 1825, the national se-
curities at five per cent. (metalliques) stood,
in Frankfort, at almost 96 (on the 6th of
Aug., 1827, at more than 91), and the bank
stocks at more than 1400 (on the 6th of
Aug., 1827, at 1302), while, at the end of
1820, the former had stood at only 73, and
the latter at scarcely 552.* By its ar-
50
* The public debt of the Lombardo-Venetian
kingdom is managed separately. In 1822, a
1
492
AUSTRIA.
tificial financial system, A. has made the
rich speculators of many other countries
dependent on itself, and rendered it their in-
terest to promote her power and influence.
The prosperity of agriculture is closely
connected with the improvement of the
finances. In order to gain a knowledge
of the state of the country in general, it
was decided, in 1819, to establish a com-
mittee of topography and statistics (taking
the Prussian board as a model), and to
connect it with the council of state.
This led to an attempt to drain the mo-
rasses of Laybach. In the next year, the
new system of taxation was completed.
To divide the expenses of the govern-
ment more equally, the whole monarchy
had been surveyed in the time of Joseph
II. To facilitate the trade of Italy with
the south of Germany, the road from
Chiavenna over the Splügen has been
built since 1820, with the aid of the
neighboring Swiss cantons; and a new
passage from Italy to South-eastern Ger-
many was opened in September, 1824,
by a splendid road through Bormio and
Tyrol. (See Alps, roads over.) For the
completion of the Alpine roads over the
Splügen and mount St. Bernard, A. con-
cluded a treaty with Sardinia, May 20,
1824, to which the cantons of the Grisons
and Tessin acceded. The canal from
Vienna to the borders of Hungary has
been opened, and another from Vienna to
Trieste, to unite the Danube with the
Adriatic sea, has been begun.* In 1820,
the canal from Milan to Pavia was finish-
ed, connecting Milan with the gulf of
Venice. In the commencement of the
19th century, Bohemia contained only
280 miles of regular roads; at present, it
contains 1104 miles. The Danube has
been connected with the Moldau by
means of a rail-road, which is carried
over the mountains from Mauthausen, in
Upper Austria, to Budweis, in Bohemia;
in all, 75 miles. The navigation of the
Danube and the trade of Turkey were
opened to the subjects of Austria by the
new commercial treaty concluded with
the Porte in 1818: at the same time, the
commerce of the Mediterranean became
an object of importance. The arrivals
and clearances at the free port of Trieste
amount annually to 2200 vessels; and the
state, which numbered, in 1815, only 157
bank (monte) was erected at Milan for the payment
of it.
* The house of Fries and company hired, in
1822, the navigable portion of the canal of Lower
Austria, and undertook to continue it to the Adri-
atic, by forming an incorporated canal company.
licensed vessels, had, in 1820, exclusive
of coasters, 528 trading vessels, of 110,500
tons burden, 6836 sailors and 2369 guns.
The naval force was increased for the
protection of trade; and the emperor
erected, at Venice, a college for the in-
struction of young naval officers.-In
August, 1819, young men were prohibit-
ed from entering foreign universities, and
a resolution was made, Sept. 25, 1819, to
establish a Lutheran theological institu-
tion in the centre of the empire. This
"theological school for the adherents to
the Augsburg confession," was opened at
Vienna, April 2, 1821. The professors
are native theologians, and the two Prot-
estant consistories exercise a general su-
perintendence over the whole. The gov-
ernment, at the same time, received into
Galicia 50 Jesuits, who were banished
from Russia in 1820, and appropriated to
their use the great Dominican monastery
at Tarnopol. Lyceums also were erected,
or instructers provided for those already in
existence. Towards the close of this year,
the Redemptorists (q. v.) were established
in Vienna, and the Jesuits instituted a
school in this capital. In the public pa-
pers of the year 1821, an order was issued,
forbidding private persons in the city and
in the provinces to send abroad for in-
structers; especially since the education
of youth might be intrusted to the Jesuit
fathers, and their colleagues, the Re-
demptorists. In November, 1822, the
Bible societies were once more forbidden
to distribute Bibles in the Austrian do-
minions, particularly the Bohemian Bible,
printed in Berlin; or to sell them at re-
duced prices. The Protestant society
in Prague has lately erected a school.
About 40 inhabitants of Galneikirchen, in
the country above the Ens, went over to
the Protestant church in the year 1821,
and the little Protestant community at
Venice had already been recognised in
the year 1820. The medical institution
of Joseph was reopened at Vienna, in
November, 1824, on a new plan.-As to
the military affairs of the empire, since
1819, the government has been employed
in erecting fortifications on the borders
of Galicia. In 1823, 25,000 men were
dismissed from the standing army. In-
stead of the grants made by Napoleon to
the Italian officers in Tyrol, the emperor
gave them, in 1821, a yearly pension from
the year 1814.* The military schools
*The pensions were also continued to the civil
officers of the former kingdom of Italy, which they
would have received if the kingdom had not ceased
to exist.
AUSTRIA.
established in several regiments, on the
Lancasterian plan, have been abolished
since 1821. But there are 53 schools, in
each of which 48 children, belonging to
the foot-soldiers of the German and Hun-
garian regiments, are instructed. The
Milan school for the Italian regiments is
designed for 250 boys. There is an en-
gineering academy, at Vienna, for the
education of officers; and in the military
academy at Wienerisch-Neustadt, 327
cadets are educated at the expense of the
state. The cadet schools at Olmütz and
Gratz are still in a flourishing condition;
and an institution has been set on foot for
the daughters of officers, at Herrnhals,
where 46 pupils can be instructed. Von
Hietzinger published, at Vienna, in 1822,
in 2 vols., the statistics of the Austrian
military districts, established in the year
1807. A comparison of this account with
the statistics of the military colonies of
Russia (q. v.) affords interesting views.
A., it is well known, first carried into
effect the idea of military colonies, by the
grant of lands to 18 Sclavonic regiments,
along the confines of Turkey. These
regiments have the same origin, the same
language and the same religion with the
majority of the Russians. The whole
country is divided into 214 company-
districts and 8 squadron-districts. Of the
male population, in 1820, only 16,834 men
were exempt from military duty. The
troops consisted of 17 regiments of in-
fantry, one battalion of Tschaikistes, and
a regiment of Hussars; together, 45,579
men, exclusive of the civil officers. In
case of war, this number can be increased
to 70,000, including the reserves, besides
the militia, which are kept under pay.
The common service in the cordon on
the frontiers requires 4200 men. In case
of troubles in Turkey, or reports of the
plague, 6800 are called out; if the danger
is imminent, 10,000 men are brought into
action, and often dismissed again within
8 or 14 days. The inhabitants on the
frontiers are obliged to serve, on an aver-
age, at least 100 days yearly. The reve-
nue of the frontier settlements was esti-
mated, in 1820, at 1,553,000 florins, con-
vention-money (see Money, standard of);
but the money expended on them was
2,457,900 such florins; 1,384,800 of which
were applied to the support of the troops
stationed there. (See Military frontiers.)
The economical regulations of the Aus-
trian army are described by Hübler; and
an account of the nature of their disci-
pline is given by Bergmayer (Vienna,
1821). The Austrian Military Journal,
42
VOL. I.
493
conducted by captain Schels, is full of in-
formation on this subject. The best map
of the Austrian empire is that prepared
by the topographical cabinet of the quar-
ter-master-general's staff, drawn under the
direction of colonel Fallon. It is in nine
sheets, published at Vienna, in 1822. Ac-
cording to this map, the Austrian mon-
archy embraces, I. The hereditary states
of Austria, which form a part of the Ger-
man confederacy; 76,199 square miles,
9,843,490 inhabitants. They contain, 1.
The arch duchy of Austria; 14,833 square
miles, 1,908,200 inhabitants: a. Austria
below the Ens, or Lower Austria (7713
square miles, 1,119,900 inhabitants), em-
bracing Vienna, the capital: b. Austria
above the Ens, or Upper Austria, including
the Innviertel, the Hausruckviertel and
the Salzach or Salzburg circle (the duchy
of Salzburg, q. v.); 7119 square miles,
788,282 inhabitants. 2. The duchy of
Stiria; 8454 square miles, 780,100 inhab-
itants. 3. The county of Tyrol, raised to
a principality, with several districts of
Salzburg, and the Vorarlberg dominions;
11,569 square miles, 738,000 inhabitants.
4. The kingdom of Bohemia, with Eger
and Asch; 20,172 square miles, 3,380,000
inhabitants. 5. The margraviate of Mo-
ravia, with Austrian Silesia; 10,192 square
miles, 1,805,500 inhabitants. 6. The
duchy of Auschwitz, lying in Galicia, but
included in the German confederacy, as
an ancient Bohemian fief and Silesian
principality; 1843 square miles, 335,190
inhabitants. 7. The kingdom of Illyria;
9132 square miles, 897,000 inhabitants.
This kingdom includes, a. the government
of Laybach, or the duchies of Carniola
and Carinthia: b. the government of Tri-
este, or the Littorale; 3242 square miles,
370,000 inhabitants.-II. The hereditary
states of Hungary; 125,105 square miles,
10,628,500 inhabitants. They contain, a.
the kingdom of Hungary, with the prov-
inces of Sclavonia and Croatia; 88,574
square miles, 8,200,000 inhabitants: b.
the grand principality of Transylvania
(exclusive of the military districts); 18,350
square miles, 1,435,000 inhabitants: c.
the Austrian military districts; 1. in Cro-
atia; Banal, Warasdine and Carlstadt,
united under one governor, in 1824, to-
gether with the Banal military lands, 995
square miles, 96,000 inhabitants; likewise
the two generalats, 5022 square miles,
301,200 inhabitants: 2. in Sclavonia ;
2945 square miles, 244,000 inhabitants :
3. the Hungarian and Bannatic military
lands; 3856 square miles, 205,000 inhab-
itants : 4. the Transylvanian military
494
AUSTRIA.
frontiers; 5361 sq. miles, 147,300 inhab-
itants.-III. The kingdom of Dalmatia,
with Ragusa and Cattaro, containing 5827
square miles, and 320,000 inhabitants.
IV. The Lombardo-Venetian kingdom;
17,608 square miles, 4,176,000 inhabitants.
V. The kingdom of Galicia and Lodo-
miria, with the province of Bukowina;
32,272 square miles, 4,075,000 inhabitants.
-Thus the whole Austrian monarchy
contains more than 256,399 square miles,
and upwards of 29 million inhabitants.
By the census of 1826, the population is
estimated at 30 millions. Besides this,
the collateral lines of A. have many valu-
able possessions:-Tuscany and Este (Mo-
dena and Massa), containing 10,489 square
miles, and 1,618,500 inhabitants. The
principal nations of A. are, 1. the Scla-
vonians, 13,400,000; 2. the Germans,
5,900,000; 3. the Italians, 4,350,000; 4.
the Magyars, or Hungarians, 4,000,000;
5. the Walachians, 1,700,000; 6. the
Jews, 450,000; 7. the Zigeunes, or Gip-
sies, 110,000; 8. the Armenians, 13,052;
9. the Greeks, 3910; together with Cle-
mentines, Turks, Albanese, French, &c.
The most populous part of Austria is the
Lombardo-Venetian kingdom: the popu-
lation is 237 to a square mile. Next to
this are Bohemia and Moravia, above and
below the Ens. The smallest population
is found in the military districts on the
frontiers, Carinthia and Tyrol, Salzburg
and Dalmatia. According to the local
returns, published by the geographical
board of Vienna in 1822, edited by colo-
nel Fallon, and prepared in the preceding
year, the rate of the annual increase of
the population appears to be as fol-
lows:-
In Hungary and Transylvania,.
Austria Proper, Stiria and Tran-
sylvania,
Bohemia, Galicia, Illyria, and
Moravia,
• •
145
213
35
32
2100
Dalmatia, Tyrol, and the Lom-
bardo-Venetian kingdom, 20%
This statement gives an increase, in 12
years, on the population of 1815, calcu-
lated at 27,000,000, of more than 27 per
cent.; in fact, nearly 7,000,000. Different
authorities agree, up to the year 1821, in
a rate of increase, which, if continued to
1828, would make that increase more
than 7,000,000. The monarchy num-
bers 777 cities, 635 suburbs, 2224 mar-
ket-towns, and 69,105 villages. The most
populous cities are, Vienna, Milan, Ven-
ice, Lemberg, Padua, and Debreczyn
(population, 41,175.)-Of the numerous
1
navigable rivers, the largest are, the Dan-
ube, Ens, Morawa or Marsch, Leytha,
Raab, Drave, Save, the Po, the Elbe, the
Moldau, Eger, Oder, Vistula, and Dnies-
ter. Thirty canals, seven of them very
large, have been constructed, during the
reign of the present emperor, for the pro-
motion of trade. The largest lakes are,
Neusidle, Platten, Palitsch, Cirknitz and
Lago Maggiore.-The mountains are, 1.
The Alps, which present a surface of
48,397 square miles: the Ortlesspitze is
14,466 feet high; the Great Glockner,
12,239; Hohenwart, 10,392; Wiesbach-
horn and Hochhorn, 10,600-11,000; Ter-
glou, 9,744; Watzmann, 9,600; Brenn-
kogal, 9,000. 2. The Sudetes (white
meadows, 4,500 feet high), Paschkopol.
3. The Carpathian mountains.-The cli-
mate is different in different parts of the
empire.-The Austrian mines and wash-
ings yield, annually, of gold, 3,900 marks;
of silver, 108,000 marks; upwards of 2,200
tons of copper; of tin, 100; of iron, 69,000;
of mercury, 281; of cinnabar, 435; cobalt,
88 tons; calamine and zinc, 386 tons; ar-
senic, chrome, tellurium, uranium, anti-
mony (383 tons), manganese, bismuth,
loadstone, precious stones, marble, porce-
lain, meerschaum, coal, sulphur, salt, &c.
-There are also 600 mineral springs in
the empire, of which Bohemia alone con-
tains 150; the most celebrated are at
Carlsbad, Teplitz, Franzensbad, Marien-
bad, Seidschütz, Bilin, Baden, Gastein,
Meadia in the Bannat, Albano in Italy,
&c.-Austria furnishes wheat, and similar
kinds of grain, in abundance; also maize,
rice, pulse, fruits, including the best south-
ern fruits, oil, &c., wine, hops, saffron,
tobacco, hemp and flax, woad, various
woods, black-cattle, buffaloes, horses, asses
and mules, sheep, goats, swine, poultry,
wild beasts, fishes, pearl-oysters, bees
(which yield, annually, 1200 tons of wax
and 19,500 tons of honey), silk (2,570,000
pounds). Prince Liechtenstein, at Eis-
grub, in Moravia, has the largest planta-
tion of foreign woods in Europe. Every
branch of agriculture is prosecuted with
care and skill, and the raising of sheep is
particularly attended to. There are still,
however, in Hungary, 2119 square miles
of morass. The most fertile and best
cultivated part of the empire is the Lom-
bardo-Venetian territories. The manu-
facture of silk, in this district, has also
been highly improved by count Dan-
dolo. The manufactures yield, annually,
1425 million florins, convention-money.
They consist of watches and clocks, por-
celain, mirrors, and brass, iron and steel,
AUSTRIA.
linen, cotton, paper, tobacco, sugar, wool,
silk, leather, bleached wax. The trade
has increased since the recovery of Italy.
The exports of the country amount to
more than 36 million florins, convention-
money (see Money); and the imports to
44 millions. The principal sea-ports are
Trieste, Venice, and Fiume: other places
of trade are Vienna, Prague, Pest, Lem-
berg, Brody and Gratz. The bank of
Vienna affords the most important sup-
port to the commercial interests of the
state: the same advantage is derived from
the Austrian national company of com-
merce, lately erected for the sale of mer-
chandise, and the promotion of trade.
The prevailing religion is the Roman
Catholic. The bishoprics in Germany
and Hungary are richly endowed, partic-
ularly the archbishoprics of Gran, Co-
locza, Olműtz, Erlau, &c. The whole
number is 14. In Lemberg and in Ven-
ice there is an Armenian Catholic arch-
bishop, and in Venice a Catholic patriarch.
The Greek church is under the archbish-
op of Carlovitza. The Lutherans and
Calvinists have consistories and superin-
tendents; and in Hungary and Transyl-
vania, their civil rights are nearly equal to
those of the Roman Catholics. There
are also Mennonites, Mohammedans, &c.,
in various parts of the empire. The
number of Catholics in A. is estimated
at 23,978,000; members of the Greek
church, 2,814,378; Calvinists, 1,584,716;
Lutherans, 1,119,800; Unitarians, 49,000.
-Universities are established at Vienna,
Prague, Pest, Lemberg, and Pavia. There
are lyceums at Lintz, Gratz, Brünn, Gross-
wardein; a mining academy at Schem-
nitz; a medical school at Vienna; an
academy for painting, sculpture, archi-
tecture and engraving at Vienna; a li-
brary; a gallery of paintings; collections
of medals and other antiquities, which are
deserving of notice.-The government is
a monarchy; in Hungary and Transyl-
vania, a limited monarchy: in the other
territories of the empire, the estates (of
which there are four in Tyrol, including
the peasantry) are convened to grant the
supplies called for to meet the expenses
of government. But the system of im-
posts and customs, existing between the
different districts, is an impediment to
commerce. The law of primogeniture
prevails in regard to the succession to
the throne. There are seven knightly
orders,-1. that of the golden fleece; 2.
of the starry cross, for ladies of princely
or ancient noble families; (the following
being also orders of merit); 3. the milita-
495
ry order of Maria Theresa; 4. the royal
order of St. Stephen, in Hungary; 5. the
imperial Austrian order of Leopold, which
has existed since 1808; 6. the order of
the iron crown (renewed in 1816); 7. the
order of Elizabeth Theresa, for officers
only, who have risen, at least, to the rank
of colonels. There are, also, in Austria,
a. the ancient imperial Teutonic order,
of which an archduke is appointed grand-
master by the emperor; b. the spiritual
order of St. John, which has a grand-pri-
orate in Bohemia, and several command-
eries in Upper and Lower Austria; c.
the order of the cross, with the red star.
At the head of the administration, under
the direction of the emperor, stands the
privy-counsellor for home affairs. There
are two departments of government, one
for foreign and the other for domestic
affairs, both under the direction of a
minister. The judicial system is mild
and well-regulated. The civil code, com-
pleted July 1, 1811, is very good. The
courts were much improved as early as
1781. A general penal code was adopted
Jan. 1, 1804. These laws are in force
only for the German, Galician, and Ital-
ian territories, for Dalmatia, and the mili-
tary districts. The revenue of the state
(including the extraordinary income) is
estimated at 220 million florins of silver,
and the interest of the public debt at
22 millions yearly. By the loan of 1827,
the public debt was increased to 680 mil-
lion florins. This estimate is exclusive
of 98,025,413 florins in redemption and
anticipation certificates (einlösungs und
anticipations scheine), which were in cir-
culation June 30, 1827. The standing
army, in time of peace, is composed of
271,400 men, including 39,000 horse,
and 17,790 artillery. The supplementary
troops, the reserve, and the militia, to-
gether, comprise about 479,000 men. The
naval force consists of three ships of the
line, six frigates, three corvettes, three brigs
and four schooners. There are, also, in
the empire, 25 fortresses, and 59 fortified
towns. On the history of the Austrian
monarchy, see the works of Genersich (Vi-
enna, 8 vols. 1817); Coxe (History of the
House of Austria, London, 1807, 3 vols.
4to.); J. B. Schels's History of Austria
(Vienna, 1819-27, 9 vols., to the time of
Joseph II). In regard to the statistics of
this country, the following works are val-
uable :-Darstellung des Fabrik- und Ge-
werbwesens in seinem gegenw. Zustande ;
vorzügl. in technischer mercantil. und sta-
tisch. Bezieh. und mit Berücksicht des Fa-
brik- und Gewerbwesens im Estr. Kaiser-
>
496
AUSTRIA-AUTOCRATOR.

staate, herausgeg von Steph. Edl. von Kees.
Vienna, 1824. Die Douanen und Qua-
rantaineverfassung des Estreich. Kaiser-
staats, in ihrer gegenw. Gestalt von A. A.
Kronegger. Vienna, 1824. Handbuch für
Reisende in dem Estreich. Kaiserstaate von
R. E. von Jenny to which Hormayr's
Archiv., 1824, is a useful supplement. Ge-
lehrten und Schriftsteller-Lexicon der Es-
treich. Monarchie von D. Sartori, which
begins in 1801, and forms a valuable ad-
dition to De Luca's Gelehrtes Estreich.
AUTENRIETH, John Henry Ferdinand,
chancellor of the university of Tübingen,
and professor of medicine in the same in-
stitution, was born in the year 1772, and
early evinced decided talent in the depart-
ment of natural science. His imagination
was lively, and his memory remarkably
tenacious. After he had received his doc-
torate, he visited North America. During
his travels in this part of the world, he
was attacked by the yellow fever in a sol-
itary place, at a distance from human as-
sistance, and saved his life by bold and
copious bleeding. After his return, he
was appointed professor of medicine, par-
ticularly of anatomy and clinical medicine,
at Tübingen. Here he labored zealously.
His lectures were eloquent, and his atten-
tion to the sick unremitted. He publish-
ed, likewise, several periodicals, partly
alone, partly in connexion with Reil.
The king of Wurtemburg appointed him
chancellor of the university of Tübingen.
AUTEUIL; a small town of France, at
the entrance of the wood of Boulogne,
somewhat less than a mile from Paris.
Men of literary reputation have often re-
sided there. The country-seat of the
poet Boileau is still shown there, where
the beaux esprits of France often banquet-
ed. On a certain time, heated with wine
at a supper, the literati complained of the
degeneracy of the age, and lamented their
misfortune in having been born at such a
period. All agreed to plunge into the
neighboring Seine, and the flower of the
French writers were already on their way
to the river, when the thought struck Mo-
lière, that such an act, by such men, ought
not to be performed in the darkness of
night. The companions stopped, found
he was in the right, and agreed to drown
themselves at day-break, after drinking
the remainder of their wine. The inge-
nious Andrieux brought this anecdote
upon the stage in the piece Molière avec
ses Amis, ou le Souper à Auteuil. While
the physician Gendron was in possession
of this house, he was visited by his friend
Voltaire, who wrote the following not
very poetical inscription for it:-C'est ici
le vrai Parnasse des vrais enfans d'Apol-
lon.-Sous le nom de Boileau ces lieux vi-
rent Horace; Esculape y paraît sous celui
de Gendron. Madame Helvetius, his wid-
ow, finally occupied it. Her evening
parties here were celebrated. All who
were distinguished in the walks of liter-
ature or of active life, were always wel-
come, whether French or foreigners. All
were without restraint. Her society was
therefore called la société libre des égo-
istes. In 1798 or 1799, Bonaparte here
became acquainted with several men of
liberal minds, and often used to walk
with the celebrated owner in her garden.
She soon perceived his soaring ambition,
and said to him one day with a smile,
Vous ne vous doutez pas combien on peut
trouver de bonheur dans trois arpents de
terre.-The monuments of several illustri-
ous men are to be seen in the church-
yard at A.; among others, that of Nicolaï,
president of the chambre des comptes, and
the chancellor d'Aguesseau, remarkable
as a great civilian and advocate of the
rights of men.
AUTHENTICS; a name applied, in the
civil law, to an extract from the Novels
(see Corpus Juris), by which a law of the
code is either changed or entirely abol-
ished. They were extracted by the first
doctors of the law, in the middle ages,
from a manuscript copy of the Novels
(liber authenticus), put among the altered
passages of the code, and have thus re-
mained in the editions of the Corpus Ju-
ris. Some laws, moreover, of the empe-
rors Frederic I and II of Germany have
been introduced in this way.
AUTO DA FÈ. (See Inquisition.)
AUTOCHTHONES (from the Greek) sig-
nifies men produced from the ground
which they inhabit. Several ancient na-
tions assumed this name, to indicate the
antiquity of their origin; e. g. the Athe-
nians.
AUTOCRATOR (from Greek avròs, him-
self, and kpáros, power); a name given to
the Athenian general, when, in particular
cases, unlimited authority over the troops
was intrusted to him, and he was not
bound to give account of his proceedings.
Thus Aristides was an autocrator in the
battle of Platea. Пpeoßes avтokpáтopes were
Athenian ambassadors with full powers,
corresponding to our plenipotentiaries.
In modern times, the word autocrat is
used, in politics, for a ruler with abso-
lute power. Thus the emperor of Rus-
sia is styled autocrat of all the Russias.
Some writers on morals apply this term to
AUTOCRATOR—AUTUMN.
man, to represent his power over his own
conduct.
AUTODIDACTI (Greek avròs, himself, and
didáσkw, I teach); those who have obtained
knowledge and skill in any art or science,
without the personal instruction of others.
AUTOGRAPHS (Gr.); manuscripts written
by the author himself, in distinction from
copies. They are more highly esteemed
than the latter, not only as interesting rel-
ics, but also as more correct and free from
faults than those copied by another hand.
Some collections of autographs of famous
men are very interesting.
AUTOMATON (from Gr. avróµatos, sponta-
neous); a self-moving machine, without
life. Machines of this kind are kept in
motion by means of springs or weights.
When they represent human figures,
they are called androides; but clocks,
watches, &c. are also automata. We find
very early mention of them. Homer de-
scribes Vulcan fabricating tripods, which
moved on living wheels, instinct with
spirit. The celebrated statue of Memnon,
which emitted musical sounds at sunrise,
the walking statues of Dædalus, the flying
dove of Archytas (q. v.), are instances of
ancient skill in this respect. In modern
times, friar Bacon (q. v.) constructed a
brazen head which spoke. Regiomonta-
nus (q. v.) made a flying eagle, and an
iron fly, which, after making the tour of
the room,
returned to its master. Alber-
tus Magnus (q. v.), in the 13th century,
spent thirty years in constructing a hu-
man figure, which advanced to the door
when any one knocked, opened it, and
saluted the visitor. In the water-clock
presented by Charlemagne to Haroun al
Raschid, twelve doors in the dial opened
respectively at the hour which they rep-
resented they continued open till noon,
when 12 knights issued out on horseback,
paraded round the dial, and then, return-
ing, shut themselves in again. Camus
constructed an ingenious toy for Louis
XIV, consisting of a carriage drawn by
two horses, containing a little figure of a
lady, with a coachman and attendants.
The coachman smacked his whip; the
horses moved their legs naturally; and,
when the carriage arrived opposite to the
king's seat, it stopped; the page stepped
down, and opened the door; the lady alight-
ed, and presented a petition to Louis.-
The flute-player, the tambour-player, and
the wonderful duck of Vaucanson (q. v.),
are celebrated for the astonishing ingenu-
ity displayed in their construction. The
two brothers Droz (q. v.) have executed
some admirable works of the kind. One
497
of them is a child, sitting at a desk, who
dips his pen into the ink, shakes it, and
writes, in French, whatever is dictated to
him. This must be done, of course, by
human intervention. A vase, presented
to Bonaparte, when first consul, on being
touched, exhibited a palm-tree, under
which a shepherdess was spinning. The
chess-player of von Kempelen (q. v.) has
been supposed to be moved by a man
concealed in the chest. The speaking
machine of the same artist, the flute-
player of Siegmeier, the trumpeters of
Maelzel and Kaufmann, deserve mention
among the later automata. One of the
most ingenious automatical mechanists
of the present day is the Swiss Maillar-
det. He constructed a female figure,
which performs 18 tunes on the piano-
forte; the bosom heaves, the eyes move,
and the natural motions of the fingers are
performed. The action of this machine
continues an hour. Besides this figure,
there is a magician, who answers any
question taken from 20 medallions. The
medallion selected is placed in a drawer,
the magical books are gravely consulted,
and the magician then strikes with his
wand against a door, which opens, and
displays an appropriate answer.
er automata are, a boy, which draws and
writes; a little figure, a few inches in
height, which dances to music produced
in a glass case, in which it is enclosed; a
humming-bird, which issues from a box,
sings, and returns to the box again; a
steel spider; a hissing serpent, &c. An
engine has been made by Mr. Babbage
capable of computing any table by the
method of differences. The greater the
number of differences, the more it will
outstrip the most rapid calculator.
His oth-
AUTOPSY (from Greek, avròs, himself,
and yes, sight); observation which one
makes himself, in contradistinction from
knowledge which we get from the ac-
counts of others.
AUTUMN; that one of the seasons, which,
in the northern temperate zone, begins
when the sun, in its apparent descent to
the southern hemisphere, touches the
equator. The end of autumn is at the time
of the sun's greatest south declination, or
when he enters Capricorn. According to
our computation of time, the beginning
of autumn is Sept. 23, when, for the
second time in the year, the days and
nights are equal; and the end is Dec. 21,
at the time of the shortest day. The au-
tumn of the southern hemisphere takes
place at the time of our spring. From
this astronomical autumn the physical or
1
42 *
498
AUTUMN-AVALANCHES.
popular autumn differs according to the
climate.-Autumnal equinox. (See Equi-
nox.)-Autumnal point is called, by as-
tronomers, that point where the equator
cuts the ecliptic: the sun reaches it Sept.
23. It is said to be at the beginning of
Libra, and is continually marked so, not-
withstanding the point has long since re-
ceded from this constellation, and is now
near the stars of the left shoulder of Vir-
go. It is opposite to the vernal point;
therefore its ascension amounts to 180°,
and its longitude also to as many, or six
signs; its declination and latitude = 0.
AUVERGNE; a ci-devant province of
France, which took its name from the
ancient inhabitants, called Averni. It was
surrounded by Velay and Forez, Limou-
sin, Bourbonnais, Berry, Rouergue and
Gevaudan, in the heart of France. Upper
and Lower Auvergne contained together,
on 500 square leagues, 800,000 inhabit-
ants. The mountains of Auvergne are
among the most noted of France. The
northern part is called Puy de Dôme;
the southern, Puy de Cantal; while the
centre is formed of the Mont d'Or.
The revolution divided this province into
three departments. (See Department.)-
Auvergne was celebrated in the time of
ancient Gaul, and has always remained a
very important part of France.
AUVERNAS; a deep-colored wine, made
of black raisins, so called at Orleans. It
is not fit to drink until a year old, but, if
kept two or three years, becomes excel-
lent.
AVA, or AUNGWA; a town in Asia,
formerly the capital of Ava, or Birmah,
on the Irrawaddy, 4 miles W. S. W. of
Ummerapoora, 500 miles E. Calcutta;
lon. 95° 58′ E.; lat. 21° 51′ N. It was
divided into the upper and lower city;
both fortified. The lower was about four
miles in circumference, protected by a
wall 30 feet high, with a deep and broad
ditch; an embankment of earth supports
the wall within. The upper town, which
may be called the citadel, does not exceed
a mile in circumference, and is much
stronger and more compact than the
other. The walls are now mouldering,
and a great part of the timber of which the
houses were built has been carried away
to be used in a new town, called Ummera-
poora. Numerous temples are falling, and
the few houses built of brick become
the abode of bats. In the temple of
Logathero Praw is still to be seen a gi-
gantic image of Godama, of marble. The
height of the idol, from the top of the
head to the pedestal on which it sits, is
nearly 24 feet; the head is eight feet in
diameter, and across the breast it measures
10 feet. The Birmans assert that it is
composed of one entire block of marble;
nor can any junction be perceived. (For
the country of Ava, see Birmah.) A short
time ago, Mr. Crawford's Embassy to Ava,
one vol., 4to., was advertised in the Lon-
don papers as on the eve of appearance,
which must contain much valuable infor-
mation.
AVA-AVA; a plant so called by the in-
habitants of Otaheite, who make an in-
toxicating juice out of it. Their chiefs
vie with each other in drinking the great-
est number of draughts, as the German
students do in drinking beer.
AVADONTAS; a sect of Bramins, who,
in austerity, surpass all the rest. They
even reject the earthen vessels to hold
provisions, and the stick to lean on-lux-
uries which the other sects allow them-
selves. Some Avadontas go perfectly
naked: when hungry, they beg for some-
thing to eat: others go to the holy rivers,
and there expect the peasants to feed
them.
AVAL, or BAHHREIN; the largest of the
Bahhrein islands in the gulf of Persia, 30
miles in length, and 12 wide, where it is
broadest. Besides the fortified town of
Bahhrein, it contains some poor villages.
Lon. 48° 4′ E.; lat. 26° 36′ Ñ.
AVALANCHES (in German, Lavinen, or
Lauwinen); large masses of snow, which
roll down from the mountains, causing
great damage by their fall. There are
three kinds. The wind or dust ava-
lanches are so called because they are
occasioned by the wind, which carries
along the fresh fallen snow, and throws it,
in the form of dust, into the valleys. The
rapidity with which they come would
render this kind the most dangerous of
all, were it not for their great lightness,
which renders it easy to extricate one's self
from them. There have been instances
of people remaining 24 hours under such
avalanches without being suffocated. The
second kind are called mountain, snow,
hail or thunder avalanches (Schrund-Lavi-
nen). These are not blown off by the
wind, but fall by their own weight, bring-
ing down with them all the ground on
which they lie, together with the trees,
rocks, &c., which are there. They gen-
erally fall in the spring, when the increas-
ing warmth has rendered the snow more
damp and heavy. Their fall makes
mountain and valley tremble, and is
accompanied with a noise like thunder.
The third kind, earth avalanches, or land-
AVALANCHES-AVENTINE.
slips, occur when the soil has been weak-
ened by long-continued and deep-pene-
trating rains, when it slides down into the
valleys, with all the houses, trees and entire
forests which stand thereon, and causes
the most horrible destruction.
AVANTURINE. (See Quartz.)
Avant-LA-LETTRE (French; before the
letter). It is customary to strike off from
a copper-plate a number of impressions
before the name, dedication, or any other
words are cut under the engraving; and, as
these impressions are of course the best,
they are distinguished in Europe by the
name avant-la-lettre, and bear always a
higher price than the common impres-
sions. Some avant-la-lettre are extremely
dear. (See Proof Impression.)
AVARES; a nation, the remains of the
Scheu-Schen, driven from their country
by the Turks. They came, 100 years
later than the Bulgarians, to the regions
around the Don, the Caspian sea and the
Wolga. A part remained in Circassia,
where they still exist; another portion
advanced to the Danube in 555, and set-
tled in Dacia, served in Justinian's army,
aided the Lombards in destroying the
kingdom of the Gepidæ, and gradually
conquered (especially under the powerful
khan Bajan, in 582) the region of Panno-
nia. Under his successors, they made
themselves masters of Dalmatia, pressed
into Thuringia and Italy, where they
fought with the Franks and Lombards,
and extended their dominion over the
Sclavonians dwelling on the Danube, and
farther north, as well as over the Bulgari-
ans, on the Black sea. But they were
soon divided, and lost Dalmatia in 640.
Limited to Pannonia, they were at length
overcome by Charlemagne, 796, and ex-
pelled from Moravia and Petschenegern.
After 827, they disappear from history.
AVATÁR, in Hindoo mythology; an in-
carnation of the Deity. Innumerable in-
carnations have taken place, according to
the Hindoos, but ten are peculiarly distin-
guished, and four of them are the subjects
of Puránas, or sacred poems. These ten
are the incarnations of Vishnú, the su-
preme God. The Matsya avatár was the
descent of the Deity in the form of a fish;
Kachyapa, or Kurma, in that of a
tortoise; Varáha, as a boar; Nara-singha,
as a monster, half man, half lion; Váma-
na, as a dwarf; Parasù-Ráma, as the son
of Jamadagni. All these took place in
the Satya Yuga, or golden age. The oth-
ers are more recent. The seventh incar-
nation is called Ráma-chandra avatár, the
descent of Vishnu to destroy a giant.
499
Their contests are the subject of the
celebrated epic called the Ramayana.
The eighth avatár, called Bala-Ráma,
was in order to chastise other giants;
the ninth, Buddt'ha, had a similar object.
The Kalki, or tenth avatár, is yet to come,
at the end of the Kali Yuga, or the iron
age. (See Indian Mythology.)
AVELLINO (Furca Caudina); a passage
lying between a city of the same name
(25 miles N. E. from Naples) and Bene-
vento, in the valley Di Gargano. A Ro-
man army, having entered this pass with
its rear exposed, was surrounded by the
Samnites, who better understood mnoun-
tain warfare, and, having laid down its
arms, was sent under the yoke, like slaves,
B. C. 321. The surrounding country yields
the mountain productions of the south
(which often serve the frugal peasants for
bread), sweet chestnuts and walnuts on
the north side of the mountains, where
they are protected against night frosts and
too early blossoming. The gloomily-built
city Avellino, with 11,300 inhabitants, in
the Principato Ultra, contains manufacto-
ries of maccaroni, in which mountain-
maize is used with chestnuts, &c. They
belong to the princes Caraccioli, who
have established a granary there for their
vassals, and derive considerable revenues
from the profitable business of dyeing,
which is favored by the soft water of the
surrounding country.
AVE MARIA, also AVE MARY, among
the Catholics; the beginning of a prayer
to the holy Virgin, whence the whole
prayer is called Ave Maria. Ave, in Latin,
means hail. Ave, Maria! is Hail, Mary!
It is the beginning of the salutation which
the angel addressed to the Virgin, when
he announced to her that she should be
the mother of the Savior (Luke i. 28.
Ave, gratia plena: Dominus tecum; bene-
dicta tu in mulieribus). The name Are
Maria is also given to those little balls in
rosaries, each of which denotes a prayer,
called Ave Maria (see Rosary); while the
larger balls denote a Pater-noster. As, in
Italy, a bell tolls at sun-down, which
admonishes the people to address their
prayers to the Queen of heaven, the close
of the 24th hour, which, according to the
Italian division of time, coincides always
with sun-down, is called Ave Maria; and
it is usual to say, at Ave Maria, half past
Ave Maria, &c., instead of at 24 o'clock,
half past 24, &c.
AVENTINE, John (properly, Thurmayr),
a historian, born at Abensberg, in Bavaria,
in 1477, studied at Ingoldstadt and at
Paris, and afterwards gave lectures at
500
AVENTINE-AVERNUS.
Cracow and Ingoldstadt. In 1512, he
was appointed tutor to two Bavarian
princes, with one of whom he visited
foreign countries. In 1517, he was ap-
pointed Bavarian historiographer, and
wrote his famous Annales Bojorum (last
edition by Gundling, Leipsic, 1710, folio),
and his Bavarian Chronicle, both standard
works for German history. His Rudi-
menta Grammatica Latina were publish-
ed in 1512, and contributed much to ad-
vance the study of philology in Germany.
He died Jan. 9, 1534.
AVENZOAR, or EBN ZOHAR; an Arabi-
an physician of the 12th century, born at
Seville, in Spain, where his father prac-
tised medicine. He became eminent in
his profession, travelled much, and passed
through many adventures, among which
was a long imprisonment at Seville. He
had the care of an hospital, and composed
a work entitled Al Theiser, containing a
compendium of medical practice, and in-
cluding many facts and observations not
found in preceding writers, which were
probably the result of his own experience.
He died at Morocco, in 1169. The report
of his having lived to the age of 135 is
probably an error, arising from his having
been confounded with his son, of the
same name and profession, who lived at
Morocco, and was the author of a treatise
on the regimen of health.
66
""
Average, common, customary, or petty.
In case of shipments of goods, the bills
of lading often contain a stipulation that
the shipper shall, besides a certain rate
or amount of freight-money, also pay
primage and average.' The word av-
erage, in this place, originally denoted sev-
eral petty charges, such as towage, bea-
conage, &c., which are to be borne by
the ship, freight and cargo, the kind
and amount of which are very various,
being determined by the marine ordi-
nances of some countries, and, in others,
by the usage of particular ports. There
is often a great variety in the usages at
the different ports of the same country in
this respect. But the practice has come
very much into use in Great Britain, and
is general in the United States, to allow a
certain rate per cent. on the amount of the
freight for primage and average, where
the bill of lading provides for the pay-
ment of these. The printed form of bills
of lading usually contains the words pri-
mage and average, with a blank space, so
that, when filled up, it reads either with
or without primage and average, accord-
ing to the agreement of the parties. The
laws of the United States have not hitherto
regulated the amount of these charges.-
Average, general or gross, consists of ex-
penses incurred, sacrifices made, or dam-
age sustained, for the common benefit of
ship, freight and cargo, and comprehends
jetson (the loss sustained by throwing
overboard a part of the cargo, or of the
provisions, tackle or furniture of the ship,
for the general safety), or the cutting away
of a mast, and also ransom paid to pirates,
compromise with captors (if permitted by
the laws), the damage occasioned by pur-
posely running the vessel on shore, and,
by the usage of some countries, the ex-
pense of getting a stranded vessel afloat,
though it was accidentally stranded, and
the expenses of delaying the voyage to
seek a port to refit. The expenses and
damage that are the subjects of contribu-
tion in general average, must be divided
among all the parties to whom the ship,
freight and cargo belong, in the propor-
tion of their several interests. Contribu-
tion for jetson was provided for in the
maritime laws of Rhodes, and thence
adopted into the Roman code.-Average,
particular, is the loss, expense and dam-
age sustained on a ship, freight or cargo,
which is to be borne by the party to whom
the interest belongs, without any claim
upon the other interests for contribution,
and, in general, comprehends loss or dam-
age that happens accidentally, and is not
incurred voluntarily and purposely. It is
also called partial loss, which description
is likewise applied to a loss of only a part
of the value of the interest at risk, in
distinction from a total loss.
AVERNUS; a lake in the kingdom of
Naples, between ancient Cuma and Pu-
teoli. It is circular, in some places 180
feet deep, and surrounded by hills of a
moderate height, which used to be cov-
ered with immense woods, so that gloom
and darkness surrounded the lake, and
accumulated effluvia filled the air with
contagion. These woods no longer stand,
but the regions about the lake are still
unhealthy. In ancient times, a savage
people fled hither, who only ventured out
by night. Their conduct struck terror
into the neighboring people, whose stories
gave rise to the fable of the Cimmerians,
who lived in perpetual darkness; and the
idea arose, that the dead were here called
up from the infernal world. Homer
makes this lake the entrance to hell, and
describes the visit of Ulysses to it. Virgil
has followed in his steps. Afterwards,
certain priests also took up their resi-
dence at this lake, who dealt in conjura-
tions, exorcised spirits, &c., and carried on
AVERNUS-AVIGNON.
their occupation only by night. Hence
this wood became the grove of Hecate.
AVERROES (corrupted from Ebn or Ibn
Rushd), the most renowned of the Ara-
bian philosophers, and instructer of Mo-
ses Maimonides, was born at Cordova, in
Spain. His father, chief magistrate there,
instructed him in the Mohammedan laws,
and appointed Tophail to teach him the-
ology and philosophy. His talents and
knowledge procured him the succession
to his father's office. The king of Mo-
rocco appointed him cadi in the province
of Mauritania. But his success was en-
vied, and he was accused of rejecting the
established religion, and, in consequence,
deprived of his offices, and banished to
Spain. He returned to Cordova, where
he was assisted by his scholar Maimoni-
des; but was soon persecuted there, also,
and fled to Fez. Here he was condemn-
ed, by a spiritual court, to recant, and
undergo a public penance. Upon this, he
went back to his own country, where the
caliph Almansor, after a time, restored
him to his dignities. He died, after an
active life, at Morocco, A. D. 1217 or
1225. A. regarded Aristotle as the great-
est of all philosophers, and explained his
writings, with only a slight deviation from
his views. The Alexandrian doctrines,
also, had much influence upon him.
Against the orthodox Arabians, particu-
larly against Algazal, he set himself up
as a defender of philosophy on rational
principles. He was called, among the
Arabians, by way of eminence, the Inter-
preter (of Aristotle). They adhered very
closely to his translation of Aristotle, made
from the Syriac. He wrote, also, a com-
pendium of physic, called Colliget, or
Universal, and many treatises in theol-
ogy, philosophy, jurisprudence and med-
icine.
AVESNES, OF AVENNES; one of those
many fortresses which protect France on
the side of Germany, and which mostly
originated under the restless Louis XIV.
It was also one of the fortresses kept by
the allies by the terms of the peace of
1815. Lon. 4° E.; lat. 50° 7' N.
AVEYRON, département de l'; a French
department in the former Guyenne and
Garogne. (See Department.)
AVICENNA, or EBN-SINA, an Arabian
philosopher and physician, was born at
Assena, near Bochara, A. D. 980. He
possessed a ready genius and a strong
memory, and, after going through a course
of study with various masters, became
a pupil at the school of Bagdad, where
he exhibited indefatigable industry and
501
no inconsiderable portion of fanaticism.
According to his own account, he read
the metaphysics of Aristotle 40 times
without understanding them. He com-
pleted his studies at the early age of 18,
and began to practise as a physician. He
soon acquired a degree of reputation
which reached the ears of the various
Eastern princes, all of whom were de-
sirous of retaining him in their service;
but he finally went into that of the sultan
Nedjmeddevle, who appointed him his
physician and grand vizier. His undue
love of pleasure, however, soon made
him lose his post and his master's favor;
and the remainder of his life was spent in
great adversity, as he was charged with
the crime of heresy, in addition to other
accusations. He died at Hamadan, in
abject circumstances, A. D. 1036, aged
58. A. left many writings, mostly com-
mentaries on Aristotle. They consist of
20 books on the Utility of the Sciences;
the Heads of Logic; and various pieces
in metaphysics and morals. Of his med-
ical works, the principal is called Canon
Medicine, which is thought very lightly
of by Haller and Freind. His works
were printed in the original Arabic, at
Rome, in 1497, more than one Latin ver-
sion of which has been translated, the
latest being that of Vopucius Fortunatus,
(Louvain, 1651.)
AVIENUS, Rufus Festus; a Latin poet
of the 4th century. The works attributed
to him are, Latin versions of the Phe-
nomena of Aratus, and Periegesis of Di-
onysius, &c. Some of these productions
still remain, and show him to have been
a tolerable versifier. The best edition of
his works is that of Cannegetier, 1731.
Very little is known of his history.
AVIGNON, chief city of the department
of Vaucluse, in the south-eastern part of
France, on the Rhone, with narrow and
crooked streets, contains a great number
of churches and sacred buildings, among
which is the church of the Franciscans:
several scientific institutions, and among
them an athenæum and a medical library;
2800 houses and 24,000 inhabitants; re-
spectable silk manufactories, silk-dyeing
establishments, and other works. The
country is agreeable, and extremely fruit-
ful in corn, wine, olives, the Avignon
berry (of a yellow color), kermes, sumach,
and the richest fruits of the south. Here
Petrarch lived several years: here he saw
his Laura, who formed the subject of his
most beautiful verses, and whose tomb is
still to be found in the Franciscan church.
The fountain of Vaucluse is five leagues


502
AVIGNON-AXIOM.
from A. This city and its district, in the
middle ages, was a county which the
popes, who had already received the
county of Venaissin, in 1273, from king
Philip the Bold, as a present, bought of
Joanna, queen of Sicily and countess of
Provence, in 1348, for 80,000 florins. Jo-
anna had fled to Provence because Louis
İ, king of Hungary, wished to take re-
venge on her for the death of his brother,
her husband, whom she had caused to be
murdered. The papal government re-
tained the two provinces, under the rule
of a vice-legate, till 1790, when, after
many stormy scenes, the city, with its
district, was annexed to the French re-
public, and, in 1791, was formally united
with it. At the peace of Tolentino, the
pope renounced A. and Venaissin. Louis
XIV and Louis XV several times took
possession of A., when offended with the
popes. From 1305 to 1377, seven popes
in succession fixed their residence in this
city. The Catholic historians commonly
call this period the Babylonish captivity of
the popes. Near A. are found many Ro-
man antiquities.
AVOIRDUPOIS (French, avoir du pois);
a kind of weight, of which a pound con-
tains 16 ounces, and is in proportion to a
pound troy as 17 to 14. All the larger
and coarser commodities are weighed by
avoirdupois weight. The avoirdupois
ounce is less than the troy ounce in the
proportion of 72 to 79; though the pound,
as we have said, is greater. (See Meas-
ures.)
AVON; the name of four rivers in Eng-
land:-1. Rising in Leicestershire, runs S.
W., and falls into the Severn at Tewks-
bury. Stratford-on-Avon, a town on this
river, is the birth-place of Shakspeare.
2. In Monmouthshire. 3. In Wiltshire,
enters the English channel at Christ-
church bay, in Hampshire. 4. The Low-
er Avon, which rises near Tetbury, in
Gloucestershire, and falls into the Sev-
ern N. W. of Bristol, being navigable as
far as Bath.
AWARD. (See Arbitration.)
A-WEIGH; the state of the anchor when
it is drawn out of the ground in a perpen-
dicular direction.
AXEL. (See Absalom.)
AXIM; a part of the fertile territory of
Ahanta, on the Gold Coast. The Dutch
have a fort here, called fort Anthony,
situated on the most western promontory
of cape Three Points. The Portuguese
founded the first settlement here, but
were driven from it by the Dutch, in
1642.-Axim is likewise the name of a
river which runs through the capital of
this country, called, also, Axim.
AXINITE ; a crystallized substance,
found principally in Dauphiny, in France,
and latterly in Cornwall, in the neighbor-
hood of St. Just. The colors are gener-
ally a light violet-brown. Its name is
derived from the general form of the
crystals, the edges of which bear some
resemblance to the edge of an axe.
All reasoning
AXIOM (principle); a universal propo-
sition, which the understanding must per-
ceive to be true as soon as it perceives
the meaning of the words, though it can-
not be proved, because it is impossible to
make it plainer. It is therefore called a
self-evident truth. To these propositions
belong, indisputably, those in which the
subject and predicate are either the same
or are only expressed in different words,
since we cannot think a thing is really
different from itself: for instance, A is A;
Every quantity is like itself; A thing is
like itself; A thing cannot, at the same
time, be and not be ; &c. To axioms be-
long also propositions, of which the pred-
icate expresses only some idea which
enters necessarily into our conception of
the subject. Such is the proposition, A
triangle has three sides, because the sub-
ject, triangle, cannot be conceived other-
wise than three-sided.
must start from axioms. There has been
much dispute what proposition is to be
regarded as absolutely first in all human
knowledge. Some have considered as
such the position, It is impossible for a
thing to be and not to be at the same time;
others, Whatever is, is; others, Every thing
either is or is not; others, the principle of
the sufficient reason, We cannot regard
any thing as true without proofs, or any
thing false against established proofs. All
these positions are fundamental truths.
They all have this in common, that we
cannot help regulating our thoughts, in the
judgment of truth, conformably to them.
They are all necessarily believed to be
true. Many principles, however, are es-
teemed, by one class of men, self-evident,
which another will not admit. There
can never, therefore, exist perfect uni-
formity in human reasoning. There is
only one science, which starts from ax-
ioms acknowledged by all mankind,
and which, therefore, is of a more gen-
eral character than any other-viz. mathe-
matics. But about some principles of
every other science, which are generally
considered axioms, great doubts have ex-
isted. Thus it is regarded as an axiom
of moral philosophy, that There exists a
AXIOM-AZIMUTH.
distinction, in the nature of things, between
moral good and evil. This cannot be
proved, but it is generally admitted; and
all our social, political and religious rela-
tions are regulated by this principle; yet
there have existed men of acute minds,
who have disavowed this axiom altogeth-
er, and made interest the sole rule of con-
duct. Many of them lived in the time of
Helvetius. (q. v.) It has always been a
great question in philosophy, whether
these axioms are innate, or drawn from
experience.—Bacon calls axiom a general
principle, obtained by experiment and
observation, from which we may safely
proceed to reason in all other instances;
and Newton gives the name of ariom to
the laws of motion, which, of course, are
ascertained by the investigation of nature;
he also terms arioms those general, ex-
perimental truths, or facts, which form
the ground-work of the science of optics.
Dugald Stewart thinks that, in this, and
other instances, Newton followed Bacon's
phraseology "too implicitly."
Axis, in geometry; the straight line
which divides the area of a curved figure
(e. g., of a circle, ellipse, &c.) into two
parts, similar and similarly situated, on
both sides of the line. Further, a straight
line, drawn from a point in the periphery
through the centre of a sphere, is its axis;
and a straight line drawn from the vertex
of a cone through the centre of its base,
is the axis of the cone.-The aris of the
world is the imaginary line drawn through
its two poles and its centre.
Axum, Axoma, AXOMIS, or AKSUM; a
city in Tigre, a province of Abyssinia.
Neither Herodotus nor Strabo mentions
A., though, in the 1st century after Christ,
it was repeatedly spoken of, and particu-
larly after the time of Ptolemy, as the
chief city of an important kingdom,
which, through Adulis, was connected
with Arabia and Ethiopia. At the time
of the periplus of the Red sea, A. was
the great depôt of the ivory trade. The
importance of this city and its kings
was first made known to us by a stone
(Axumitic marble) with a Greek inscrip-
tion, first explained by Salt, who discov-
ered it, and afterwards by Buttmann and
Niebuhr (Museum der Alterthumswissen-
schaften, v. Wolf und Buttmann, 2d vol.,
sec. 575). This inscription, like similar
ones that have since come to us from
that quarter, contains an account of the
clemency of one Aizanas (a boasting king,
who called himself a son of Mars) towards
several inferior kings, whom he conquer-
ed. The interest in this inscription was
AYACUCHO, Battle of.
503
increased by the explanation which it
afforded of the second half of the Adulian
marble. (q. v.) A., the place where it
was found, still exhibits many remains
of its former greatness. Among its ruins
are shown the royal throne and groups
of obelisks, originally 55 in number, one
of which Salt declared to be the most
beautiful that he had seen. Cotton goods
and the finest parchment are still manu-
factured here.
This engage-
ment is one of the most celebrated in the
history of South America, having been
decisive of the independence of Upper
and Lower Peru. For several months
before this event, tl e Colombian auxiliary
army, under general Sucre, and the royal-
ist army, under the viceroy La Serna, had
been moving in face of each other with
various success, but, on the whole, to the
disadvantage of the Colombians. Sucre
and his men were anxious for battle; and
at length La Serna determined to engage
them on the plain of Ayacucho, Dec. 9,
1825. The royalist force consisted of
9,310 men, that of the patriots of 5,780
men.
Generals Sucre (the commander in
chief), La Mar, Cordova and Miller distin-
guished themselves on this occasion, and
the battle terminated in the total defeat of
La Serna, who was taken prisoner, with the
loss of 1800 men in killed and wounded,
and in the capitulation of Canterac, the
second in command. Of the patriots,
only 370 were killed. The intelligence
of this splendid victory filled all Spanish
America with rejoicings, as it effectually
accomplished the delivery of Peru from
the Spaniards. (See Peru, Bolivia, Sucre.)
AYCINENA, Mariano, became governor
(gefe supremo) of the state of Guatemala,
in the republic of Central America, in
January 1827, after the murder of Cirilo
Flores, the vice-chief, and the removal
of the actual governor by president Arce.
He is one of the most influential members
of the Guatemaltecan party. (See Central
America.)
AYESHA; daughter of Abubeker, the
favorite wife of the Arabian prophet,
though she bore him no child. After his
death, she opposed the succession of Ali,
raised an army against him, and was
taken prisoner, but dismissed with that
spirit of chivalry which had already
arisen among the Arabians, and com-
municated itself afterwards to the Chris-
tians. She died in 677, it is said, 67 years
old.
AZIMUTH of a star; the arc of the hori-
zon comprehended between the merid-
504
AZIMUTH-AZZARA.
ian of the observer and the vertical circle
passing through the star. It is easterly,
if the star is observed before, westerly, if
after, and zero, if at, the time of culmina-
tion. It is usual to connect with the
quadrant a graduated, horizontal circle,
called the azimuth circle. The zero of its
divisions is brought into the situation of
the meridian, and we have immediately
the azimuth of the star, whose height
above the horizon is determined by the
telescope of the quadrant.
AZINCOURT. (See Agincourt.)
AZOGA SHIPS (from the Spanish azogue,
quicksilver) were those Spanish ships,
commonly called the quicksilver ships,
from their carrying mercury to the Span-
ish West Indies, to extract the silver from
the mines of Mexico and Peru. They
were prohibited from carrying any goods
except for the king of Spain.
AZOPH, or Azor; a small town and
fortress in the Russian government of
Ekaterinoslav, upon an island at the
mouth of the Don, where it flows into the
sea of Azoph. Lat. 46° 53′ N.; lon. 39°
14 E. It contains about 3000 inhabit-
ants, and was, as late as 1774, given up
entirely to the Russians by the Turks.
The Sea of Azoph is merely a bay of the
Black sea, with which it is united by the
straits of Caffa. In the middle ages, it
was called Mar de Zabacchi, and, in an-
cient times, Palus Mæotis. Its principal
port is Taganrock. Its fish are plentiful.
On Sept. 5, 1799, a new volcanic island
was thrown up. The sea is 210 miles in
length, and about 50 broad. Lat. 45° 20′
-47° 20′ N.; lon. 34° 30′-39° 30′ E.
AZORES (i. e., Hawk islands); a group
of nine Portuguese islands in the Atlantic
ocean, between Africa and America,
extending from 36° to 39° N. lat., and
containing 1160 sq. miles. The inhabit-
ants are of Portuguese origin, and gov-
erned by Portuguese laws. The country
is volcanic and mountainous, but well-
watered and uncommonly fruitful. The
highest mountain, the peak of Pico, is
7016 feet high. The climate is warm and
healthy, producing corn, wine, and va-
rious fruits. The inhabitants are engaged
in grazing and fisheries, have some man-
ufactures and a lively trade. There is no
good harbor. The Portuguese discovered
these islands, A. D. 1446, though the
Dutch navigators had seen them earlier,
and called them the Flemish islands.
Their names are St. Michael, population
80,000; Tercera, 28,900; Pico, 20,900;
St. George, 11,200; Fayal, 16,300; Santa
Maria, 5000; Graciosa, 7400; Flores,
7100; and Corvo, 800. Angra, the chief
city, on Tercera, contains 15,000 inhabit-
ants. The total population of the Azores
is estimated by some at more than
200,000.
AZOTE (from a, and gwn, life, because
it is fatal to animal life; called also nitro-
gen, because one of the most important
properties of its base is, that, in combina-
tion with oxygen, it composes nitric acid);
a gas. Though incapable of supporting
respiration or combustion, its presence
seems to be necessary to dilute the oxygen,
and thus diminish its activity. Atmos-
pheric air is a mixture of oxygen and azote,
in the proportion of 21 to 79 in volume.
The specific gravity of azote is 0,9757,
that of air being taken as unity. Its re-
fractive power is 1,03408. The specific
caloric of azote and the air, taken in
equal volumes, is the same; taken by
equal weights, that of azote is greater.
Azote is procured by burning phosphorus
in a receiver over mercury; the phospho-
rus unites with the oxygen, and the azote
is set free: it still contains a small quanti-
ty of carbonic acid, which is separated by
shaking the gas in a closed bottle, con-
taining lime-water, from which the air
has been exhausted. It is also evolved
from decaying organized substances, and
forms ammonia with their hydrogen when
burnt. Azote has a feeble affinity for
other substances; the number of mineral
compounds into which it enters is, there-
fore, small.--Animal and vegetable sub-
stances differ from each other only in
this, that the former contain azote, the lat-
ter are destitute of it.-Some chemists
consider azote a compound of equal
volumes of oxygen, and a base which
they call nitricum.
ÁZYME, or AZYMUS (Greek, a¿upos, with-
out ferment, unleavened); a term much
used in the violent controversies between
the Roman and Greek Catholics; the
former of whom contend, that the bread,
in the mass, ought to be azymus. The
controversies on this important subject
are of equal consequence with those be-
tween the German Lutherans and Cal-
vinists, whether the Lord's prayer ought
to begin Our Father or Father of us; or
between some religious orders, whether
the cowl ought to be pointed or round,
&c., &c., &c.
AZYMITES. (See Azyme.)
AZZARA, don Joseph Nicholas, cheva-
lier d', born, 1731, at Barbanales, in Arra-
gon, early showed a strong inclination for
the arts and sciences, which was increased
by his connexion with the painter Mengs,
AZZARA-BAAL.
who had entered the service of the king
of Spain. A. entered on the career of
diplomacy, was sent to pope Clement
XIII, as royal agent for ecclesiastical af-
fairs, highly distinguished himself in this
post, and always maintained a great in-
fluence in the most important negotia-
tions between his country and the papal
court. (See Dohm's Memoirs of Joseph
II. and Rome.) In 1796, he was sent to
the conqueror of Italy, to obtain his favor
towards Rome. Bonaparte immediately
conceived an esteemn for him, and, after
this meeting, A. always regarded him with
505
admiration. At that time, also, commenced
his connexion with Joseph Bonaparte.
He went soon after, in a diplomatic char-
acter, to Paris, where the agreeable society
and reception which he met with com-
pensated him for the loss of his old friends,
of an elegant library, and a rich collection
of paintings and antiques. He was sub-
sequently recalled, banished to Barcelona,
again sent ambassador to Paris, and again
deprived of this important office. His
feeble health at last gave way, and he
died at Paris, Jan. 26, 1804.
B.
B; the second letter in all European
alphabets, in Hebrew, and most other
languages. It belongs to the mutes and
the labials, and, as all labials are easy to
be pronounced, b is one of the first letters
which children learn to speak, after they
utter a. The first syllable which they
pronounce is, generally, ba or pa. The
pronunciation of b differs from that of v
only in this, that the lips are compressed
a little more closely. The difference is
so slight, that, in all original languages, a
considerable period elapses before the
two sounds cease to be used indifferently.
In some languages, b continues to be pro-
nounced v, under certain circumstances.
In the Spanish, it has this sound between
two rowels in the middle of a word, and,
generally, when it occurs between a vowel
preceding, and an r succeeding it. The
modern Greeks pronounce b always r,
and represent our sound of b by combin-
ing the two letters, and ; e. g., Boston
they write MROσTor. The languages of the
American Indians have few perfect labi-
als, and are, therefore, spoken with an
open mouth, and scarcely any motion of
the lips. Another letter, into which bis
often changed, is p, which requires merely
a stronger breathing, with the same mo-
tion of the lips. In one part of Saxony,
the people use p and b indifferently, and,
in another part, b is not used at all. Some
languages regularly change b into p, un-
der certain circumstances; as the Latin,
when this letter occurs before p; thus obis
changed into op before ponere (opponere).
The German pronounces b, at the end of
VOL. I.
43
a word, invariably p.-B is often used as
an abbreviation, and its most common
meanings are before (as in B. C.), bachelor
(as in B. A., B. D., B. L.). Among the
Greeks and Hebrews, B signified 2; among
the Romans, 300; with a dash over it,
3000; and with a sort of accent under it,
200. (See Abbreviations.)—In music, b is
the designation of the seventh note in the
natural diatonic scale of c, to which De
Nevers, a French musician, in the begin-
ning of the last century, is said to have
first applied the syllable si. The ancients
denoted by b the second interval in their
musical scale, beginning with a—the only
interval, with them, which had two chords
differing half a note. The lower one was
denoted by a small B, the higher one by a
large B.
BAAL, BEL; a Babylonian or Phæni-
cian god, the idea of whom has been very
much obscured by time, and the imper-
fection of language. Some believe him to
have been a man, the founder of Babylon;
Herodotus calls him the son of Alcæus;
others make him a Chaldean giant. From
the traditions which history has transmit-
ted to us, we might think him to have
been an extraordinary man, who founded
the kingdom of Babylon, and was after-
wards deified. Some writers report of
him, that he made the land fertile and
habitable, connected rivers by canals, and
surrounded Babylon with a wall. His
son Ninus, the great conqueror, is said to
have declared him a god after his death,
and to have ordered that divine honors
should be paid him. But his worship
1
506
BAAL-BABOON.
was not limited to Babylon and Assyria;
we find it among the Persians, Tyrians
and others. Of the manner in which the
god Baal was worshipped, we have but
imperfect and contradictory statements.
Amongst the sacrifices offered to him,
the Bible mentions human victims, which,
however, is, perhaps, a mere figurative
expression, to denote the apostasy from
Jehovah to Baal.-Besides, the name Baal
or Bel, in several Oriental languages, sig-
nifies lord, and denotes the dignity of a
ruler; e. g., when compounded with sev-
eral proper names, as Bel-shazar, Hanni-
bal.
BAALBEK. (See Balbek.)
BAAL-ZEBUB. (See Beelzebub.)
BAAN, John van; a Dutch portrait
painter, born in 1633, and died in 1702.
He resided some time in England.
BABEL-MANDEB, or BABELMANDEL (lit-
erally, the gate of affliction; anciently,
Dira, or Dira); a narrow strait between
the Indian ocean and the Red sea, formed
by projecting points of Arabia in Asia,
and Abyssinia in Africa. It is 15 miles
wide. In the middle is an island, called
El Mandel, or Perim, or Mehun. It is
said to be about five miles in circumfer-
ence, barren, and very thinly inhabited.
Niebuhr, Bruce and lord Valentia give an
account of these straits and this island.
BABER, or BABOUR, sultan; the found-
er of the Mogul dynasty in Hindostan.
He was descended from the great Tartar
prince Timour, usually called Tamerlane,
and was sovereign of Cabul. He attempt-
ed the conquest of Samarcand, and, while
engaged in an expedition against it, was
deprived of his hereditary dominions, and
reduced to the utmost extremities, by an
invasion of the Usbecks. After more than
once recovering his fortunes, when they
seemed to be almost desperate, he inva-
ded Hindostan, and, in 1525, overthrew
and killed sultan Ibrahim, the last Hindoo
emperor of the Patan or Afghan race.
Another emperor was chosen to oppose
B., who, however, overcame the combi-
nation against him, and firmly established
himself on the throne. After an active
and glorious reign, he died in 1530. Fe-
rishta, the Persian historian of Hindos-
tan, informs us that this prince wrote an
elegant history of his own life. He is said
to have been of a voluptuous disposition;
and he is noted as the first Indian sove-
reign who had the road, by which he
travelled, measured after him. (See Dow's
History of Hindostan.)
BABEUF, Francis Noel; one of the nu-
merous individuals, of more zeal than
judgment, who distinguished themselves
during the French revolution. He was
born at St. Quentin, and left without re-
sources, at the age of 16, by the death of
his father. Having been unjustly impris-
oned in the citadel of Arras for forgery,
he made his escape, and went to Paris,
where, in concealment, he published a
pamphlet against the Jacobins, entitled
Du Systéme de Dépopulation, ou la Vie et
les Crimes de Carrier, 8vo. Soon after,
he started a democratic journal, called
Le Tribun du Peuple, par Gracchus Babeuf.
He then wrote with great severity against
the Jacobins, and even addressed severe
reproaches to the national representatives.
After the fall of Robespierre, to which he
powerfully contributed, he openly attack-
ed the terrorists, and, after the organiza-
tion of the new government, in 1795, he
resumed his journal, and advocated in it
the most democratic principles, with such
energy as to bring on him the vengeance
of the ruling powers. He was accused of a
conspiracy against the directorial govern-
ment, tried at Vendome, with some accom-
plices, declared guilty, and condemned to
death, in 1797. He endeavored to destroy
himself, but was prevented, and fell by
the hand of the public executioner. The
debates on his trial were published in
6 vols., 8vo.
BABINGTON, Anthony; a Catholic gen-
tleman of Derbyshire, who associated
with others of his own persuasion to
assassinate queen Elizabeth, and deliver
Mary, queen of Scots. The plot being
discovered by Walsingham, the conspira-
tors were executed in 1586. Babington
secins to have been principally induced
to this rash conspiracy by a romantic.
hope that Mary, in gratitude, would accept
of him as a husband.
BABOON; a common name applied to a
genus of monkeys, with the exception of
one specics peculiar to Africa. This
genus is the cynocephalus, or dog-head
monkics of modern naturalists, and is
divided into two sub-genera, well charac-
terized by the difference of their tails: the
first is called baboon, having the tail longer
than, or nearly as long as, the body, and
continuous with the dorsal spine; the
second, named mandrill, is characterized
by a short, slender and pig-like tail, placed
perpendicular to the dorsal spine. There
are four species of the first and two of the
second sub-genus. The most striking
peculiarity of the whole is the elongated,
dog-like head, with its flat, compressed
cheeks, projecting and strong teeth, and
forehead depressed below the level of the
BABOON-BABYLONIA.
superior margins of the orbits. Notwith-
standing this close approximation to the
shape of the dog's head, the form and
position of the eyes, combined with the
similarity of the arms and hands, give to
these creatures a resemblance to human-
ity as striking as it is disgusting. The
whole aspect of the animal impresses the
beholder with an idea of great physical
strength, united with a temper at once
incorrigibly vicious and brutally ferocious.
Such, at least, is the true character of the
baboons capable of being ruled by the
severest treatment. It is only while coër-
cion is continued, that they can be even
partially restrained: left to their own will,
their savage nature immediately resumes
its sway, and their actions are gratuitously
cruel, destructive and disgusting. The
phrenologist finds ample evidence, in the
conformity of the character of these crea-
tures with their cerebral developement,
of the correctness of his doctrine. In the
vicinity of the cape of Good Hope, where
a species of baboon (C. sphinx) is found in
considerable numbers, the inhabitants
chase them with dogs and guns, in order to
destroy them, on account of the ravages
they commit in the fields and gardens.
They make a very obstinate and effectual
resistance to the dogs, and only retreat be-
fore men when armed with guns. They
feed exclusively on fruits, seeds, and other
vegetable matter, which shows how inde-
pendent their disposition is of every thing
but peculiar organization. Nothing can
exceed the lasciviousness of these disa-
greeable creatures, which, when in captiv-
ity, indulge their lubricity in the most dis-
gusting manner-a circumstance which
renders it unsafe for females to visit exhi-
bitions of animals where these beasts
form a part of the number. If a woman
be in presence of a baboon, the slightest
attention paid her by a man, the taking
her by the hand, or exhibiting any ap-
proach to caresses, throws the animal into
a paroxysm of rage, and, no doubt, could
he escape, he would inflict severe punish-
ment on the offender.-The baboon can
never be called tamed, how long soever
his confinement may have endured. As
he advances in age, all his worst qualities
become more strongly expressed, and his
savage disposition grows exceedingly dan-
gerous, and slight causes provoke him to
terrible fury. For such reasons, these ani-
mals should not be allowed to form a part
of a caravan for general exhibition, without
being carefully secured and well watched.
BABOUR. (See Baber.)
BABRIAS, OF BABRIUS; a Greck poet,
507
supposed to have lived a short time before
the beginning of the Christian era. He
turned the fables of Æsop into verse, of
which work some fragments have been
published in Fabula Gr. Lat., cum Notis
Neveleti, Frankfort, 1660, 8vo. Mr. Tyr-
whitt printed, in 1776, Dissertatio de Ba-
brio, Fabularum Esopearum Scriptore,
containing all the information he could
collect concerning this ancient writer.
BABYLONIA (now, Irak Arabi); an old
Asiatic empire, bounded E. by Susiana,
S. by the Persian gulf and Chaldea, W.
by Arabia Deserta, and N. by Media and
Armenia, or Mesopotamia. As the Chal-
deans had possession of the whole coun-
try, it was also included under the name
Chaldea. It is a level region, watered by
two great rivers, the Euphrates, or Frat,
and the Tigris. The former stream, which
is almost always on a level with its low
banks, overflows on the slightest occa-
sion. It inundates the whole country
every spring, when it is swollen by the
waters from the Armenian mountains,
and fertilizes it as the Nile does Egypt.
Nature has supplied the want of wood and
stone by clay, which, when dried in the
sun, or burnt in furnaces, makes durable
bricks, that even to the present time have
resisted the effects of the climate in the
ruins of the ancient city. For mortar,
the inhabitants use bitumen, of which
there are copious springs. The extent
of the old capital, Babylon, situated on
the Euphrates, according to the represen-
tations of the ancients, approaches the
miraculous. The walls are said to have
been 350 feet high, and 87 feet thick; to
have had 250 towers, and 100 gates of
brass, and to have been more than 60 miles
in circuit. The temple of Belus and the
hanging gardens were among the greatest
curiosities of this gigantic city, of which
almost every trace is destroyed. The
Babylonians, one of the most ancient
nations of the earth, of the Semitic race,
as appears by their language, which is
an Aramaic or Syriac dialect, were a dis-
tinct people, with settled abodes, and a
certain degree of scientific cultivation,
as early as 2000 B. C. The Mosaic ac-
count mentions Nimrod as the founder
of the first empire in Babylonia. The
later Greeks describe Belus, Ninus and
Semiramis as great conquerors. (See As-
syria.) B. C. 630, the Chaldeans, a wan-
dering people, under Nabopolassar, de-
scended from Taurus and Caucasus,
conquered Western Asia, destroyed Je-
rusalem under Nebuchadnezzar (588),
subjected Tyre and Phoenicia, and found-
508
BABYLONIA-BACCHUS.
ed an empire which extended to the
shores of the Mediterranean. Babylon,
which, even earlier, was the seat of scien-
tific, particularly of astronomical and
astrological knowledge, was the capital
of this empire. Commerce and industry
introduced wealth, and this produced a
love of luxury and magnificence. The
manufactures of linen, cotton and silk
were especially celebrated. Learning was
confined to the priests, who are men-
tioned under the name of Chaldeans.
Under Nabonidas, the empire declined,
until Cyrus put an end to it by de-
stroying the capital, in 536, and united
Babylonia with Persia. It shared the
fate of Persia, until A. D. 640, when it
was conquered by the followers of Mo-
hammed, who built Bagdad on the Tigris
in 762. This became the seat of the ca-
liphs, who were expelled, in 1258, by
Holagou, a prince of the Tartars. In
1534, Bagdad fell into the power of the
Turkish victors, from whom Shah Abbas
took it in 1613. It came, with Babylonia,
anew under the dominion of the Turks, in
1639, who possess it at the present day.
Of the ruins of Babylon, which engage the
attention of travellers in modern times, the
most correct accounts are contained in
the Memoir on the Ruins of Babylon, by
Claude James Rich, resident of the East
India company at the court of the pacha
of Bagdad (3d edition, with copper-
plates, London, 1818). Rich, Niebuhr
and Rennel suppose ancient Babylon to
have been situated in the Turkish pa-
chalic Bagdad, near the village Hill or
Hella, which lies in 32° 28′ N. lat., on
the eastern bank of the Euphrates, and
contains 6-7000 inhabitants. In the
neighborhood are a number of old, ruined
canals. Idols, vessels, intaglios, &c., and
even ruins of large buildings, are still
seen there. Della Valle and Rennel
think one of them to be the tower of Be-
lus. The greatest height of this is 141
feet, and the sides are directed to the four
cardinal points. Another ruin of a castle
contains many caves and passages. A
third, a huge oblong edifice, on the west-
ern side of the Euphrates, is called by the
Arabians Birs Nimrud. This was first
described by Rich. He takes it for the
tower of Belus, the top of which was to
serve as an observatory. Of this opinion
is also Ker Porter. Grotefend has done
much towards deciphering the arrow-
headed inscriptions. The material is
entirely brick, as described by Herodotus.
Of the old city walls not a trace has been
discovered. As to the rest, these ruins
bear the character of grandeur, but not
of beauty. The ornaments still existing
are clumsy and tasteless.
ages,
BACCALAUREUS (anciently, baccalari-
us, bachelor) denoted, in the middle
1. a warrior of lower rank (bachelier),
under a knight banneret; 2. transferred
to the clergy, it signified a canon of the
lowest rank; 3. a candidate who had
passed three academical courses and ex-
aminations, and was himself entitled to
give lectures without being reckoned
among the independent lecturers. This
was, consequently, the lowest academical
degree. After the first examination, he
was called baccalaureus simplex; after the
second (or Biblical), baccalaureus currens ;
after the third (philosophical and dogmati-
cal), baccalaureus formatus. The bacca-
laureus could now become a licentiate,
i. e., acquire all the rights of a teacher. In
France,.this institution remained until the
revolution. In England, it is even now in
existence, and the baccalaureus, created
according to the regular forms, is called a
formed bachelor; one who is created by
an extraordinary diploma, a current bach-
elor.-In the universities of Cambridge
and Oxford, a bachelor of arts must keep
a certain number of terms; and a bach-
elor of divinity must be a master of arts.
There are, also, at these universities,
bachelors of laws, of medicine and of
music.-In France, since the 1st of Octo-
ber, 1822, he who wishes to become bac-
calaureus must have attended, at least one
year, the philosophical course, in one of
the royal colleges, institutes of education
or divinity schools, in which philosophy
is taught. Those candidates, likewise,
who have been educated and instructed
in the house of their father, of their
brother, or uncle, can be admitted to the
baccalaureat des lettres. The candidates
for the academical degree of baccalaureus
are examined in all that is taught in the
higher classes of the royal colleges, that
is, in Greek and Latin authors, rhetoric,
history, philosophy, the elements of math-
ematics and natural history.-Bachelor
of arts is a degree commonly conferred,
in the U. States, on students who have
completed the course of study established
at the several colleges in this country.
BACCHANALIA. (See Bacchus and Or-
gies.)
BACCHIUS. (See Rhythm.)
BACCHUS (in Greek, Aóvnoos); the god
of wine, born of a mortal mother, yet one
of the immortal gods. His history is one
of the most perplexed in the Greek my-
thology. Semele was pregnant with him
BACCHUS.
by Jupiter. Before his birth, however,
she became a victim of the craft of Juno.
Jupiter hastened to save the unborn fruit
of his embrace, and concealed it, till ma-
ture, in his own thigh. He afterwards
committed the infant to Mercury, who
carried him to Ino and Athamas, and
finally to the nymphs of Nysa, in India,
where he grew and prospered. His
teacher was Silenus, afterwards his con-
stant companion. In the vales of Nysa,
Bacchus invented the preparation of a
beverage from grapes, and taught the
planting of vines. To spread the knowl-
edge of his invention, he travelled over
almost the whole known world, and re-
ceived in every quarter divine honors.
Drawn by lions (some say panthers,
tigers or lynxes), he began his march,
which resembled a triumphal pomp,
with a great suite of men and women,
Sileni, Satyrs, and Mænades. Inspired by
the presence of the god, rejoicing, bran-
dishing the thyrsus, and crowned with
vines and ivy, they danced around him,
shouting, "Evoe! Eleleus!" over hill and
valley, accompanied by the tones of
Phrygian flutes and timbrels. The The-
bans would not acknowledge his divinity,
and Pentheus armed himself against him.
Bacchus resolved to punish the crime,
and inspired the women with a fury which
drove them from their dwellings, to wan-
der on mount Citharon. Pentheus him-
self was torn in pieces by his own mother
and her sisters, to whom he appeared a
wild beast. He punished the daughters
of Mynias, who derided his feasts, with
frenzy and transformation. At Naxos,
some Tuscan sailors attempted to carry
him off to Italy, supposing him, from his
purple robe, to be the son of a king. They
fettered him; but the fetters fell off, vines
and ivy entwined the vessel, and kept it
fixed in the midst of the sea: the god
transformed himself to a lion, and the
seamen, seized with madness, leaped into
the waves, where they were changed into
dolphins. On the other hand, he reward-
ed such as received him hospitably, and
rendered him worship; as, for instance,
Midas (q. v.), who restored to him the faith
ful Silenus.-His love was shared by
several; but Ariadne, whom he found de-
serted upon Naxos, alone was elevated to
the dignity of a wife, and became a sharer
of his immortality. To confer the same
favor on his mother, Semele, he descended
into the realms of Pluto, and conducted
her to Olympus, where she was hence-
forth called Thyone. In the dreadful
war with the giants, he fought heroically,
509
and saved the gods from impending ruin.
According to some, he escaped the dan-
gers which surrounded him in this con-
flict, by transforming himself into a lion.
During the rejoicings for victory, Jupiter
joyfully cried to him, "Evan, evoe!" (Well
done, my son!) with which words Bac-
chus was afterwards usually saluted. We
find him represented with the round, soft
and graceful form of a maiden, rather than
with that of a young man. An ornament
peculiar to him is the tiara. His long,
waving hair is knitted behind in a knot,
and wreathed with sprigs of ivy and vine-
leaves. He is usually naked; sometimes
he has an ample mantle hung negligently
round his shoulders; sometimes a fawn-
skin hangs across his breast. The beard-
ed Bacchus is properly of Indian or
Egyptian origin. The golden horns (the
symbol of invincible force) upon his head
were hidden by the Greek sculptors, or
shown but little. The feasts consecrated
to Bacchus were termed Bacchanalia,
Dionysia, or, in general, Orgia. They were
celebrated with particular solemnity in
Athens, where the years were universally
reckoned by them. During their continu-
ance, the least violence towards a citizen
was a capital crime. The great Dionysia
were celebrated in spring. The most
important part of the celebration was a
procession, representing the triumph of
Bacchus. This was composed of the
above-mentioned train of Bacchantes,
of both sexes, who, inspired by real or
feigned intoxication, wandered about,
rioting and dancing, and gave them-
selves up to the most extravagant licen-
tiousness. They were masked, clothed
in fawn-skins, crowned with ivy, and bore
in their hands drinking cups and spears
entwined with ivy (thyrsi). Amidst this
mad crowd marched, in beautiful order,
the delegated bodies of the Phratia (cor-
porations of citizens). They bore upon
their heads consecrated baskets, which
contained first-fruits of every kind, cakes
of different shape, and various mysterious
symbols. This procession was usually in
the night-time. The day was devoted to
spectacles and other recreations. At a
very early hour, they went to the theatre
of Bacchus, where musical or dramatical
performances were exhibited. All over
Athens reigned licentiousness and revelry.
These feasts passed from the Greeks to
the Romans, who celebrated them with
still greater dissoluteness, till the senate
abolished them, B. C. 187. (On the wor-
ship of Bacchus, the Dionysiaca, &c., see
the prize essay of P. N. Rolle, Recherches
43*
510
BACCHUS-BACCIOCCHI.
sur le Culte de Bacchus, Paris, 1824, 3
vols.)
BACCHYLIDES; born in Iulis, a city of
the island Cos; the last of the 10 great
lyric poets of Greece, whom the Alex-
andrine canon declared classical. The
nephew of Simonides, and a contempo-
rary of Pindar, he is placed as a poet be-
side them. Hiero, at whose court he
lived, esteemed him very highly, and
preferred him even to Pindar. Of his
odes, hymns, pæans, triumphal songs,
the few fragments which remain are col-
lected in some editions of Pindar, and in
the Analecta of Brunck: there are many
traces of him in the odes of Horace.
Without having the impetuous, eagle-
flight of Pindar, he was neither destitute
of fire and energy, nor of grace and rich-
ness.
BACCIO DELLA PORTA, Francisco Bar-
tolomeo, better known under the name
of Fra Bartolomeo di San Marco,* born
in 1469, at Savignano, near Prato, in Tus-
cany, learned, in Florence, the first prin-
ciples of painting from Cosimo Roselli,
made rapid progress, and acquired, by
studying the works of Leonardo da Vinci,
that beauty and grandeur of style, that
vigor of coloring and of outline, by which
his later productions are distinguished.
At this time, he undertook his famous
fresco in the church-yard of the hospi-
tal Santa Maria Nuova, representing the
last judgment, which was finished by
his friend Albertinelli. Seduced by the
preaching of the fanatical Savonarola, he
abandoned every thing to follow him, and
shut himself up, with a great number of
his followers, in the monastery of San
Marco, when this turbulent preacher of
sedition was pursued by the officers of
justice. The monastery was besieged,
and B. made a vow to become a monk, it
he should happily escape this peril. In
consequence of this vow, he took the
Dominican habit in the same monastery,
1500, and assumed the name of Fra
Bartolomeo. This event agitated him so
much, that, for the space of four years, he
did not touch his pencil, and employed it
afterwards only on devotional subjects.
The pictures which he executed at this
period are superior to his earlier produc-
tions. Raphael visited Florence in 1504,
and contributed to the brilliant success
of Fra Bartolomeo. The latter learned
perspective from his friend, and gave him,
in return, instruction in coloring. Some
years afterwards, he visited Michael An-
#Fra is the abbreviation of frate (brother), and
is often put before the names of monks.
gelo and Raphael at Rome, and had the
rare modesty to do homage to their great
talents by confessing his own inferiority.
After his return to Florence, he executed
several religious pictures, among which
were a saint Mark and saint Sebastian,
two compositions which obtain the ad-
miration of every connoisseur. His style
is severe and elevated, but, at the same
time, very graceful in youthful figures;
his coloring possesses vigor and brilliancy,
and comnes near to that of Titian and
Giorgione. But he particularly excels in
drapery, which none before him repre-
sented with equal truth, fulness and ease.
He died in 1517. His disciples were
Cecchino del Frate Benedetto, Ciamfanini,
Gabriel Rustucci and Fra Paolo of Pis-
toia, who inherited his designs. His ex-
cellent pictures are preserved in the gal-
lery of the grand duke at Florence and
in the palace of Pitti.
BACCIOCCHI, Felix Pascal, formerly
prince of Lucca and Piombino, husband
of Elisa Bonaparte, sister of Napoleon,
born May 18, 1762, in Corsica, of a noble
but poor family, entered the army as u
cadet, and was a captain when Bonaparte
commanded the army in Italy. At this
time his marriage took place, in con-
sequence of which he was made colonel
of the 26th regiment of light infantry,
afterwards president of the electoral col-
lege of Ardennes, and, in 1804, a senator,
without having distinguished himself,
either from want of ability or of oppor-
tunity. In 1805, he received the title of
prince, from the principality of Lucca and
Piombino, assigned to his wife, whom,
after the revolution of 1814 and 1815, he
accompanied into banishment. From that
time he lived with her and his son, under
the surveillance of the Austrian govern-
ment, at Trieste.-His wife, Marie Anne
Elisa Bonaparte, born at Ajaccio, Jan. 8,
1777, and educated in the royal institution
for noble ladies at St. Cyr, had lived
with her mother, at Marseilles, during the
revolution. In 1797, she married captain
Bacciocchi, according to the wish of her
mother, but without the consent of her
brother, who was then general-in-chief.
In 1799, she went to Paris, and resided
there with her brother Lucien, who
awakened in her a taste for poetry and
the fine arts. She collected around her
the most accomplished men of the capi-
tal, among whom were the chevalier de
Boufflers, Laharpe, the viscount Château-
briand and the marquis de Fontanes.
Generous as she ever was towards dis-
tinguished talent, she conferred particular
BACCIOCCHI-BACHAUMONT.
obligations on the two last. Fontanes
was patronised by Napoleon, chiefly,
through her recommendation. Conscious
of her intellectual superiority, she kept
her husband in a very subordinate situa-
tion. It was she, in fact, who governed
the principalities of Lucca and Piombino,
and, as grand duchess of Tuscany, she
enacted the part of a queen. When this
Semiramis of Lucca, as a witty writer
styles her, reviewed the troops of the
duchy, her husband discharged the office
of aide-de-camp. She introduced many
improvements, though not properly as-
sisted by the officers intrusted with her
confidence. In 1814, she retired to Bo-
logna, but was obliged, in the following
year, to reside in Austria. Here she
lived, at first, with her sister Carolina; af-
terwards, with her family, under the in-
spection of the government, at Trieste,
where she called herself the countess Com-
pignano. Elisa Bacciocchi died of a ner-
vous fever, August 7, 1820, at her country
seat, Villa Vicentina, near Trieste. She
was deposited in the chapel of her own
palace, in a tomb built by herself. In
Trieste, she was distinguished for charity
and benevolence. Notwithstanding her
wish, that her daughter Napoleona Elisa,
born June 3, 1806, and her son, should be
put under the care of her brother Jerome,
her husband remained their legal guardian.
BACH, John Sebastian, among the
German musical composers of the last
century, one of the most famous, and the
greatest of this name, so distinguished in
musical literature, born in 1685, at Eise-
nach, died in 1750, at Leipsic. He re-
ceived his first instruction on the harpsi-
chord, at Ordruff, from his elder brother,
John Christopher. After the death of
his brother, he studied music at Lüneburg,
and made himself familiar with the French
style, while in the chapel of the duke at
Halle; in 1703, entered into the service
of the duke of Weimar; went, in 1704, to
Arnstadt, where he made great proficien-
ey; was, in 1707, organist at Mühlhausen;
in 1708, organist of the court in Weimar;
and, in 1714, master of the concert at the
same place; afterwards, in 1717, chapel-
master at Cöthen; in 1723, chanter and
director of music at St. Thomas' school at
Leipsic; and, in 1736, composer at the royal
and electoral court of Saxony. His life
has been written by Forkel. As a player
on the harpsichord and organ, Sebastian
Bach had no equal among his con-
temporaries. His compositions breathe
an original inspiration, uncontaminated
by foreign taste, and are chiefly of the
511
religious kind. They consist of cantatas
and motettos, and many pieces for the or-
gan and the piano.-B.'s family came from
Presburg, in Hungary, which Sebastian's
father, John Ambrosius, himself a good.
musician, left on account of religious
difficulties, and settled in Germany. More
than 50 musical performers have pro-
ceeded from this family. Sebastian him-
self had 11 sons, all distinguished as
musicians. The most renowned were the
following: Wilhelm Friedemann, born
in 1710, at Weimar, died master of
the chapel of Hesse-Darmstadt, at Berlin,
in 1784. He was one of the most scien-
tific harmonists, and most skilful organists.
-Charles Philip Emanuel, born in 1714.
at Weimar, died in 1788, at Hamburg.
After having studied law at Leipsic, he
went to Berlin, as a musician in the
Prussian service, and was, finally, director
of the orchestra at Hamburg. He has
composed mostly for the piano, and has
published melodies for Gellert's hymns.
His vocal compositions are excellent. His
essay on the true manner of playing on
the harpsichord is, even now, a classical
work in its kind.-John Christopher Fred-
eric, born at Weimar, 1732, died in 1795.
master of the chapel at Buckeburg, a great
organist, is known also by the music he
has published.-John Christian, born in
1735, at Leipsic, died in London, 1782, was,
on account of the graceful and agreeable
style in which he wrote, a favorite com-
poser with the public.
BACHARACH; a small place, of 1200 in-
habitants, on the Rhine, three leagues from
Bingen. It contains the ruins of the cas-
tle Stahleck, also those of a church, and
another church, still existing, in the true
Byzantine style. It produces excellent
wine, which was once so highly esteemed.
that pope Pius II (Eneas Sylvius) ordered
every year a quantity to Rome, and the
emperor Wenceslaus granted to Nurem-
berg some important privileges for a mod-
erate quantity of this delicious beverage.
The view from the ruins of the castle is
one of the sublimest on the Rhine.
BACHAUMONT, François le Coigneux
de, born at Paris, 1624, died there, 1702,
was early employed as counsellor of the
parliament of Paris, of which his father
was president. In the disturbances of
1648, he took part against the court, and
from him originated the name of the
Fronde. He said that the parliament re-
minded him of the school-boys who played
with slings in the boulevards of Paris, and
dispersed at the sight of a police officer,
but collected again as soon as he was out
512
BACHAUMONT-BACON:
of sight. The comparison pleased; the
enemies of Mazarin adopted hat-cords in
the form of a sling (fronde), and were
called Frondeurs. In the war of the Fronde,
B. found frequent occasion to exercise
his wit, in epigrams, against the court.
After the troubles were past, he devoted
himself to pleasure and to poetry. Simi-
larity of taste and character produced an
intimate friendship between him and La
Chapelle, and they composed, in common,
that charming account of a Journey, which
met with so much favor among the friends
of light and sportive poetry. He has writ-
ten, also, many gay songs, which, however,
are too much scattered to allow of a com-
plete collection being made. M. Lefevre
de St. Marc has published one, but does not
pretend that all the pieces are genuine.
BACHELOR. (See Baccalaureus.)
BACK; a word often used in sea-terms.
To back an anchor; to carry out a small
anchor, ahead of the large one, in order
to support the latter.-To back and fill,
is an operation generally performed in
narrow rivers, when a vessel has the tide
in her favor, and the wind against her.-
To back the sails, is to arrange them in a
situation that will occasion the vessel to
retreat, or to move astern, in consequence
of the tide or current being in her favor,
and the wind contrary, but light.-Back
the main-topsail; the command to brace
that sail in such a manner, that the wind
may exert its force against the fore-part
of the sail, and, by thus laying it aback,
materially retard the vessel's course.
BACKGAMMON;
a game played with
dice, by two persons, on a table divided
into two parts, upon which there are 24
black and white spaces, called points.
Each player has 15 men, black and white,
to distinguish them. The word is of
Welsh origin, signifying little battle.-
Laws of the game. 1. If a man is taken
from any point, it must be played. 2. A
man is not played, till it is placed upon a
point and quitted. 3. If a player has only
14 men in play, there is no penalty attend-
ing it. 4. If he bears any number of men
before he has entered a man taken up, and
which, of course, he was obliged to enter,
such men, so borne, must be entered again
in the adversary's table, as well as the man
taken up. 5. If he has mistaken his throw,
and played it, and his adversary has thrown,
it is not in the choice of either of the
players to alter it, unless both parties agree
to it. (See Hoyle's Games, improved from
the latest and best authorities.)
BACKEREEL, or BACQUERELLI, William ;
a Dutch historical painter, born at Ant-
werp, and a disciple of Rubens at the
same time with Vandyke. Sandrart ob-
serves, that, in his time, there were seven
or eight eminent painters of this name in
Italy and the Low Countries.
BACKHUYSEN, Ludolf, one of the most
celebrated painters of the Dutch school,
particularly in sea-pieces, born in 1631, at
Embden, was first employed as a clerk by
his father, who was secretary to the states-
general. He afterwards entered a mer-
cantile house at Amsterdam, and, without
instruction, began to sketch the vessels
which arrived in the harbor. These at-
tempts met with applause, and led him to
devote himself entirely to painting. He
received instruction from von Everdin-
gen, and soon acquired, by his assiduity,
and his frequent visits to the rooms of the
best artists, an extraordinary degree of
facility and skill; but what most con-
tributed to his rapid progress was, the
zeal with which he studied nature. On the
approach of a storm, he was accustomed
to embark in a light boat, and calmly ob-
serve the motions of the waves, the tre-
mendous shock of the breakers, and the
tossings of the agitated vessels. The
terrified sailors often forced him to the
shore, in spite of his earnest entreaties.
Full of what he had seen, he then hastened
home, without speaking a word, or allow-
ing his attention to be distracted by any
other object, and completed, with admira-
ble exactness in the most minute particu-
lars, the sketches which he had already
made. This courageous zeal procured
his pictures the first rank in their class.
Several princes visited his rooms, and
Peter the Great even wished to take les-
sons of him. The burgomasters of Am-
sterdam commissioned him to execute
a sea-piece, for which they paid 1300
florins, and which they presented, in 1665,
to Louis XIV. This beautiful picture is
still in Paris. In all his paintings, the ut-
most truth prevails. His colors are excel-
lent, and his stroke is remarkably well
suited to imitate the water and its motions:
his skies are light, and of a great variety.
B. also attempted poetry, and gave in-
struction in penmanship. His gayety and
strength of mind did not quit him even
during the long sufferings which put an
cnd to his life, in 1709, at the age of 78
years. His pictures will always retain a
high value. At the sale of the pictures
of P. de Smeth, in Amsterdam, 1810, four
pieces of Backhuysen were sold for 550,
805, 980, and 1400 florins.
BACON, Anthony, the son of sir Nich-
olas, and elder brother to the celebrated
BACON.
lord chancellor, was born in 1558. He
studied at Cambridge, and travelled much.
In 1579, he went to Paris, and resided
there, and in other parts of France, a con-
siderable time. He there became ac-
quainted with Henry IV, with whom,
and with many of the first literati of Eu-
rope, he carried on an extensive corre-
spondence after he had returned to Eng-
land. The time of his death is not
known.
BACON, Francis, baron of Verulam ; one
of the most remarkable men of whom any
age can boast; a reformer of philosophy,
by founding it on the observation of na-
ture, after it had consisted, for so many
centuries, of scholastic subtilties and bar-
ren dialectics. He was born at London,
in 1561, and displayed, from his earliest
childhood, proofs of a superior mind. In
his 13th year, he entered the university
of Cambridge, where he made astonish-
ing progress in all the sciences there
taught. He had not completed his 16th
year, when he wrote against the Aristoteli-
an philosophy, which seemed to him more
calculated to perpetuate disputes than to
enlighten the mind. It was then the cus-
tom, in England, to send abroad, particu-
larly to France, those young men who
were destined for public life. Young B.
went to Paris in the suite of sir Amias
Paulet, who soon after sent him to Eng-
land with an important message.
He
discharged it to the satisfaction of the
queen (Elizabeth), returned to France,
and travelled through several provinces
of that country, to study its manners and
laws. When 19 years old, he wrote a
work, entitled, Of the State of Europe, in
which he gave the most astonishing proofs
of the early maturity of his judgment.
The death of his father called him back
to England, where, in order to be enabled
to live suitably to his rank, he devoted
himself to jurisprudence, and pursued the
study of the law with so much success,
that he was made counsel extraordinary
to the queen before he was 28 years old.
His professional labors did not, however,
make him lose sight of the idea, which he
had early conceived, of reforming the plan
of scholastic studies agreeably to sound
philosophy. His place was more honor-
able than lucrative. B.'s talents, and his
connexion with the lord treasurer Bur-
leigh, and his son sir Robert Cecil, first
secretary of state, seemed to promise him
the highest promotion; but the enmity
between the latter and the earl of Essex,
likewise a friend and protector of B., pre-
vented his advancement. Essex endeav-
513
ored to indemnify him by the donation of
an estate in land. B., however, soon for-
got his obligations to this generous bene-
factor, and not only abandoned him as
soon as he had fallen into disgrace, but,
without being obliged, took part against
him on his trial. Against this ingratitude
the public voice was raised, and, whatever
B. might say in his justification, he re-
mained at court the object of hatred to
one party and of jealousy to the other,
and the queen did not appear inclined to
do any thing in his favor. In parliament,
he conducted, for some time, with dignity
and independence. He had been chosen
member for the county of Middlesex, in
1593, and voted with the popular party
against the measures of the ministers,
though he continued in the service of the
crown. But, towards the end of Eliza-
beth's reign, his parliamentary conduct
became more servile. If any thing can
excuse him, it is his poverty, which was
so great that he was twice arrested for
debt. The reign of James I was more
favorable to him. This prince, who was
anbitious of being considered a patron of
letters, conferred upon him, in 1603, the
order of knighthood. Having been com-
missioned to make a solemn representa-
tion of the oppressions committed by the
royal purveyors in the king's name, he
executed the task with so much address
as to satisfy both the king and the parlia-
ment. The house of commons voted him
the public thanks, and James made him
one of the king's counsel, with a pension
of 40£, which was soon followed by
another of 60£. His situation now con-
tinually improved: he contracted an ad-
vantageous marriage; in 1617, was made
lord keeper of the seals; in 1619, lord
high chancellor of England and baron of
Verulam, and, in the following year, vis-
count St. Alban's. He might now have
lived with splendor, without degrading
his character by those acts which have
stained his reputation. Nevertheless,
great complaints were made against him.
He was accused, before the house of
lords, of having received money for
grants of offices and privileges under the
seal of state. He was unable to justify
himself, and, desiring to avoid the morti-
fication of a trial, confessed his crimes, and
threw himself on the mercy of the peers,
beseeching them to limit his punishment
to the loss of the high office which he had
dishonored. After he had acknowledged,
by an explicit confession, the truth of al-
most all the charges, notwithstanding the
intercession of the king, and the interest
514
BACON.
which they themselves took in one of
their most distinguished members, the
lords sentenced him to pay a fine of
40,000£, and to be imprisoned in the
Tower during the pleasure of the king.
He was also declared forever incapable
of place or employment, and forbidden to
sit in parliament, or to appear within the
verge of the court. This severe sentence
was doubtless just; yet it must be allow-
ed, that he was actuated neither by ava-
rice nor corruption of heart, but that his
errors are rather to be attributed to a
weakness of character, which was abused
by others. Traits of generosity and inde-
pendence, which his life also displays,
show clearly that he knew and valued
virtue. He was unfaithful to it because
he had not sufficient firmness to refuse
the unjust demands of others. His sen-
tence was not rigorously executed; he was
soon released from the Tower, and the rest
of his punishment was, by degrees, remit-
ted entirely. He survived his fall only a
few years, and died in 1626.-All the
studies and efforts of this great man aim-
ed at a reform in the system of human
knowledge. He examined the whole circle
of the sciences, investigated their relations,
and attempted to arrange them according
to the different faculties of the human
mind, to which each belongs. In this,
however, he could not succeed, for want
of a well-founded and natural division of
the powers of the mind; for he divided
the sciences into those of the memory, of
the understanding and of the imagination.
This he explains in his Instauratio Magna,
under the head De Dignitate et Augmentis
Scientiarum. B. further perceived that, in
all the branches of natural science, the
only way to truth is by the observation
of nature. How this observation is to be
directed, and how nature is to be examin-
ed, is illustrated in several places. He
explained his ideas on this subject in the
above-mentioned treatise (De Dignitate,
&c.), and in the Novum Organum Scien-
tiarum. His universal genius had attend-
ed to all the sciences; he perceived to
what point each of them had advanced,
what false directions they had taken, and
how they were to be brought back to
truth. As a metaphysician, he displays
no less penetration than profoundness in
his views of the operations of the mind,
of the association of ideas, and of the
prejudices which surround us from our
cradle, and prevent the free exercise of
reason. As a natural philosopher, he
brought forward very ingenious views,
and was on the route to several impor-
tant discoveries. He invented a kind of
pneumatic machine, by his experiments
with which he was led to suspect the
elasticity and gravity of the air, which
Galileo and Torricelli afterwards discov-
ered. He clearly indicated the attraction
of gravitation, which Newton afterwards
proved. He wanted only experiments in
order to demonstrate the principles of
this power. He treated also of natural
history, but only in an abridged manner,
in his work Sylva Sylvarum, &c. He
wrote several treatises on medicine;
among others, one on life and death.
But physiology and chemistry were then
so imperfectly understood, that he could
not avoid falling into great errors. The
science of law he treated not merely as a
lawyer, but as a legislator and philosopher.
His aphorisms are not less remarkable for
profound views than for vigor and pre-
cision of expression. Morals are the sub-
ject of one of his finest works, entitled
Essays, or Sermones Fideles-a treasure
of the most profound knowledge of man
and of hunian relations, delivered in an
eloquent and vigorous style. As a histo-
rian he is less distinguished; he wrote a
history of Henry VII. Of his knowledge
of antiquity, his work On the Wisdom of
the Ancients bears witness, in which he
explains the ancient fables by ingenious
allegories. B. possessed a less profound
knowledge of mathematics, and to this it
is to be ascribed, that he who so generally
discovered the errors of the human mind,
and pointed out the truth, opposed the Co-
pernican system. In this point alone he
renained behind some enlightened men of
his time. In other departments of human
investigation, he soared to such a height,
that his contemporaries could not fully
estimate the extent of his genius, the just-
ness of his views, and the importance of
his labors. He himself was his only
judge, and, with a just pride, he says, in his
will, "My name and memory I bequeath
to foreign nations and to my own coun-
trymen, after some time be passed over.'
Göthe says of B., "He drew a sponge over
the table of human knowledge." The best
edition of all his works appeared in Lon-
don, in 1765, in 5 vols. quarto. They are
partly in English, partly in Latin. The
Library of Useful Knowledge contains a
popular treatise on the Novum Organum.
""
BACON, Nathaniel, a leader of insur-
gents in Virginia, while under the royal
government, was educated in England,
where he engaged in the profession of
the law. About the year 1675, he came
to Virginia, bringing with him a high
BACON.
reputation for talent and legal erudition,
which soon rendered him conspicuous,
and obtained him a seat in the provincial
council. At the time of his arrival, the
people of the colony were in a state of
great exasperation against the English
government, in consequence of various
obnoxious proceedings, and, shortly af-
ter, took up arms. The commanding
person and lofty character of B. attracted
the attention of the multitude, who made
him their leader. He immediately set
about confirming the spirit of the people,
and making preparations for an inroad
upon the savages. Affecting to consider
himself as acting in submission to the
proper authorities, he requested the gov-
ernor of the colony, sir William Berkeley,
to grant him a commission confirming
his appointment by the people. This
was refused, and a proclamation issued,
commanding the mutineers and their
leader to surrender, under penalty of
treason. This proclamation, however,
was of no avail, as the revolt had become
general. The governor was obliged to
descend to concessions, and dismantle the
forts, dissolve the old assembly, and issue
writs for a new election, which, of course,
terminated in favor of the malcontents,
and reinstated B. in tlie council.-Whilst
these events were passing at the capital,
B. had attacked some of the Indian settle-
ments, and taken a considerable number
of captives. On his return to James-
town, having embarked in a sloop with
only 40 men, he was made prisoner by
the English vessels which covered the
river, and sent to the city. The governor,
deeming this a favorable opportunity to
conciliate the disaffected by an act of
clemency, immediately reversed his at-
tainder, and admitted him to his seat in
the council. B. soon after returned to his
army, and charged the governor with du-
plicity in withholding his commission,
which, he said, had been promised to him
at the time when he was set at liberty, and
with obstinacy in not according the re-
dress due to their courage and sufferings.
By these means he so inflamed their
minds, that they demanded to be led to
Jamestown. He complied with their
wishes, and, by means of their presence,
and the solicitations of a majority of the
assembly, he procured the governor's sig-
nature to an act of indemnity, and a com-
mission of general for himself. He then
left the city, and led his soldiers towards
the frontiers.-During his absence, the
governor dissolved the assembly, issued a
second proclamation declaring B. a rebel,
515
and raised his standard in Gloucester
county, the inhabitants of which remained
faithful to him. Receiving intelligence of
these occurrences, B. immediately retraced
his steps. On his approach, the governor
hastily withdrew, with a few friends, to
Accomac, which, though properly under
the jurisdiction of the colony, was nom-
inally a distinct territory. Pretending
that, by retiring to this place, the governor
had abdicated his authority, B. assembled
a number of the most influential men of
the colony, who expressed the same opin-
ion. Upon this he called an assembly, by
writs with his signature and those of four
other members of the council. Having
now procured a shadow of authority for
his ineasures, B. renewed his Indian ex-
pedition. Several savage tribes had con-
federated on the frontiers since his depar-
ture, and committed numerous depreda-
tions. He came up with their army near
a stream, since called the Bloody run,
from the sanguinary conflict which took
place on its margin, and defeated it with
great slaughter.-In the interim, the gov-
ernor had collected a body of troops, to
the number of 600, and regained posses-
sion of Jamestown. B. received the ac-
count of this revolution during his return,
and, although his army was reduced to
300 men, immediately marched towards
the city. When arrived near it, he caus-
ed his men to erect a breast-work, under
cover of which they might repose in safe-
ty. Here they were attacked by the gov-
ernor, but unsuccessfully. Finally, the
governor was obliged to abandon the
town, and retreat to the vessels on the
river, in consequence of the numerous
desertions from his army, and the daily
increase of his adversaries.-When B. re-
covered the capital, perceiving that every
article likely to be useful to his army had
been carried off or destroyed, and that it
was not susceptible of defence against
regular approaches, he caused it to be
burnt. He then proceeded to organize
the new government, which he did on
the most popular footing, and established
the seat of his administration at Middle
Plantation. But death soon put an end
to his career. In the trenches before
Jamestown, he had caught a cold, which
settled into a diarrhoea, that exhausted
his constitution, but could not check his
efforts. At length he sunk under it, and
died, at the residence of a doctor Pate, in
Gloucester county, in the year 1677.-B.
was a man of a sanguine temper, much
courage, promptness, decision and pres-
ence of mind.—After his death, the insur-
516
BACON.
gents gradually relaxed their exertions, and
the province soon returned to its allegiance.
This rebellion cost the colony 100,000£.
BACON, Roger, an English monk, who,
by the power of his genius, raised himself
above his time, made astonishing discov-
eries in several sciences, and contributed
much to the extension of real knowledge.
He was born in 1214, near Ilchester, in
the county of Somerset, of an old and re-
spectable family. Following the impulse
of an inquisitive spirit, he overcanie all
the obstacles opposed to his progress by
ignorance and superstition. He first en-
tered the university of Oxford, and went
afterwards to that of Paris, then much
frequented, where he distinguished him-
self much by successful study, and re-
ceived the degree of doctor of theology.
In 1240, he returned to England, where
he entered the order of Franciscans, and
fixed his abode at Oxford. Natural
philosophy seems then to have been the
chief object of his labors; but this study
required expenditures beyond his means.
He met, however, with generous friends
of science, whose contributions enabled
him to purchase books, to prepare instru-
ments, and to make the necessary experi-
ments. In examining the secrets of na-
ture, he made discoveries, and deduced
results, which gained him the admiration
of the enlightened, who comprehended
their natural connexion; but which ap-
peared so extraordinary to the ignorant,
that they were believed to be works of
magic. This opinion was countenanced
by the jealousy and hatred of the monks
of his fraternity. He himself loudly
blamed the ignorance and corruption of
the clergy, and in particular of the monks,
and even wrote a letter to the pope, rep-
resenting the necessity of reform. In re-
venge, they denounced to the court of
Rome his dangerous opinions and as-
tonishing operations, which they attrib-
uted to the agency of the devil. The
pope forbade him to teach at the univer-
sity. He was soon afterwards thrown
into prison, prevented from holding com-
munication with any person, and even
deprived of necessary food. Among the
few enlightened individuals, who admired
his genius and pitied his misfortunes,
was the cardinal bishop of Sabina, papal
legate in England, who no sooner ascend-
ed the papal chair, under the name of
Clement IV, than he liberated him, and
took him under his protection. Clement
demanded a collection of all his works;
upon which B. wrote that work, which
was afterwards printed, under the title of
Opus Majus, and sent it to him by his
favorite disciple, John of Paris, in 1267.
Under Clement's successor, Nicholas III,
the general of the Franciscans, Hierony-
mus ab Esculo, declared himself against
B., forbade the reading of his writings,
and issued an order for his imprisonment,
which was confirmed by the pope. This
new confinement lasted 10 years; and
when Hieronymus ab Esculo was elected
pope, under the name of Nicholas IV, B.
vainly endeavored to convince him of the
innocence and utility of his labors, by
sending him a treatise On the Means of
avoiding the Infirmities of Old Age. Af-
ter the death of Nicholas IV, he regained
his liberty by the intercession of some
distinguished Englishmen, and returned
to Oxford, where he wrote a Compendi-
um of Theology, and died soon after-
wards, according to some, in 1292, or, as
others think, in 1294. Though an extra-
ordinary man, B. could not entirely free
himself from the prejudices of his time.
He believed in the philosopher's stone
and in astrology. There are to be found
in his writings new and ingenious views
on optics, e. g., on the refraction of light,
on the apparent magnitude of objects, on
the magnified appearance of the sun and
moon when in the horizon, &c. He de-
scribes very exactly the nature and effects
of convex and concave lenses, and speaks
of their application to the purposes of
reading, and of viewing distant objects,
both terrestrial and celestial; and it is
easy to prove from his writings, that he
was either the inventor or improver of
the telescope. He also gives descriptions
of the camera obscura, and of the burn-
ing-glass. He made, too, several chemical
discoveries. In one place he speaks of
an inextinguishable fire, which was prob-
ably a kind of phosphorus: in another,
he says that an artificial fire could be pre-
pared with saltpetre and other ingredi-
cnts, which would burn at the greatest
distance, and by means of which thunder
and lightning could be imitated: a por-
tion of this mixture, of the size of an inch,
properly prepared, would destroy a whole
army, and even a city, with a tremendous
explosion, accompanied by a brilliant
light: and, in another place, he says de-
cidedly, that thunder and lightning could
be imitated by means of saltpetre, sulphur
and charcoal. Hence he had already an
idea of gunpowder. He was so well
versed in Greek and Hebrew, and wrote
Latin with such elegance and clearness,
that his acquirements in these respects
would alone secure him a high character.
BACON-BADEN.
He was intimately acquainted with geog-
raphy and astronomy, as appears by his
discovery of the errors of the calendar,
and their causes, and by his proposals for
correcting them, in which he approached
very near to truth. He himself made a
corrected calendar, of which there is a
copy in the Bodleian library. Even in
moral philosophy, B. has laid down some
excellent precepts for the conduct of life,
and is, in every respect, entitled to re-
membrance as a great philosopher and a
wonderful man.
BACTRIANA, or BACTRIA; one of the
principal provinces of ancient Persia, and,
before Cyrus, a powerful kingdom, the
inhabitants of which were noted for
bravery. On the north and east, it was
bounded by one of the largest rivers of
Asia, the Oxus, now Gihon; on the
south, it stretched along the Paropamisus;
on the west, it reached Margiana. On
account of its situation and fertility, it had
made great progress in civilization at a
very early period. The Persians derived
their mythology, religion and architecture
from Bactria. Bessus here declared him-
self sovereign of Asia, after the destruction
of the Persian monarchy. It is to be
regretted, that our knowledge of this
country is but slight. Even the compan-
ions of Alexander give no particular ac-
count of it.
BADAJOZ, or BADAJOX (with the Ro-
mans, Par Augusta); the fortified capital
of the Spanish province Estremadura, on
the left bank of the Guadiana, which is
crossed by a stone bridge of 22 arches.
B. lies not far from the Portuguese fron-
tiers, and has 14,000 inhabitants. Lon. 6°
47 W.; lat. 38° 49′ N.; 82 miles N. N. W.
of Seville. B. contains a cannon foundery,
and is a bishop's see. It was besieged, in
the wars with Napoleon, three times by
the English. After the expulsion of
Massena from Portugal, and his retreat
through Estremadura, it was the chief
object of the British general to take B.,
which the French had possessed from
March 10, 1811, as well as Ciudad-Rodri-
go and Almeida. After the capture of
Olivenza (April 16, 1811), Wellington
caused B. to be invested; but, as Soult
approached to its succor, he was obliged
to raise the siege, May 14. After the bat-
tles of Fuentes d'Onor and Albufera, B.
was besieged a second time, May 25; but,
after several unsuccessful attacks, Wel-
lington raised the siege, June 16, 1811.
After the capture of Ciudad-Rodrigo (Jan.
19, 1812), Wellington commenced the
third siege, March 17, with 16,000 men,
44
VOL. I.
517
and, on the 6th of April, took the city by
storm, after a sanguinary conflict. The
garrison, together with the commander,
general Philippon, were made prisoners.
The besiegers lost 72 officers and 963
men killed; 366 officers and 3483 men
wounded. In the peace of B., concluded
between Spain and Portugal, 6th June,
1801, Portugal promised to shut its harbors
against the English. Spain retained Oli-
venza and its territory along the Guadi-
ana. (See Portugal.)
BADEN, grand-duchy; governed by a
family of princes, who derive their origin
from Godfrey, a duke of the Alemanni,
who defended his country till his death,
in 709, against the attempts of the Franks.
In 1801, the government devolved upon
Charles Louis Frederic, who, in 1806,
was married to Stephanie Louise Adri-
enne Napoleone, an adopted daughter of
Napoleon. After his death, Dec. 8, 1818,
as he left no male descendants, his uncle,
the present grand-duke, Louis William
Augustus, became his successor, with the
title of margrave. He was born Feb. 9,
1763. This prince has no children; hence
the sons of the last grand-duke but one,
and of the countess of Hochberg,_will
succeed him. The eldest of them, Leo-
pold (born in 1790), was married, in 1819,
to Wilhelmina, eldest daughter of the
late king of Sweden, Gustavus IV.-Until
the peace of Luneville, the territory of
Baden contained 1631 square miles, with
210,000 inhabitants. At this peace, 169
square miles, with 25,000 inhabitants,
were given up, and, on the other hand,
1270 square miles, with 245,000 inhabit-
ants, were gained. May 1, 1803, the mar-
grave received the dignity of elector. By
the peace of Presburg, which restored
Brisgau to Baden, and by her accession
to the confederation of the Rhine, to
which she owes the grand-ducal title, and
the sovereignty of the greater part of the
territory of the prince of Furstenberg,
of the landgraviate of Clettgau, and of
the principality of Leiningen, &c., as
well as by the exchange of lands with
Würtemberg, in 1810, which added to Ba-
den almost 30,000 new subjects, the size
of her territory has been enlarged to 5900
square miles, with 1,145,000 inhabitants.
This was the number of inhabitants in
1826. In 1822, there were 1,090,910, ac-
cording to official papers, showing an in-
crease at the rate of one and forty-eight
hundredths annually.
lands (Baden-Baden and Baden-Durlach)
contain, exclusive of the territories ceded,
1080 square miles, with 217,381 inhabit-
The hereditary
518
BADEN.
ants; and the whole of the acquisitions
have been estimated at about 4450 square
miles, with 750,000 inhabitants; among
which, however, some seigniories seem
not to be comprehended. The grand-
duchy contained, in 1819, eight seignior-
ies, comprising 1315 square miles and
196,000 inhabitants, and a taxable capital
of 139,306,000 florins, besides 81 inde-
pendent proprietors, with 635 square
miles, 120,000 inhabitants and 99,043,000
florins taxable capital. Setting these
aside, there remain under the exclusive
control of the sovereign, about 3800
square miles, with 690,000 inhabitants,
and 535,531,000 florins taxable capital.
The finance regulations for 1825, 1826
and 1827, fixed the revenue of the state
at 9,320,280 florins, from which are to be
deducted the expenses of the administra-
tion, 2,110,465 florins. According to the
budget of 1820, Baden had but 14,605,100
florins of debts. After the battle of Leip-
sic, the grand-duke of Baden left the
confederation of the Rhine, and, in 1815,
joined the German confederation, in the
diet of which he has the seventh place,
and in the general assembly (plenum)
three votes.
The country of Baden, one of the most
fertile in Germany, extends to a great
length, but with little width, along the
Rhine, from its outlet from lake Constance
to the confluence of the Neckar, and con-
sists mostly of a fertile plain, with excellent
corn-fields and vineyards, washed on the
west by the Rhine, and bordered on the
east by the Oden-wald and the Black
Forest, of both which mountains consid-
erable parts belong to this grand-duchy,
and contribute to its beautiful scenery,
among which the charming Bergstrasse
and the picturesque valley of the Murg
are distinguished. The chief productions
are grain, which is abundant, in particu-
lar, spelt, a great plenty of fruit (in the
warm regions of the Bergstrasse, almonds,
chestnuts and walnuts are found), of
which a great deal is exported, tobacco,
madder, excellent hemp and good wines,
many kinds of which are esteemed in
foreign countries. The forests are like-
wise in an excellent condition, as the
former grand-duke was careful to pre-
serve them, whilst other princes of Ger-
many wasted their woods. By means of
mercantile societies, and the easy com-
munication afforded by the rivers Murg,
Kenzig and Rhine, considerable com-
merce in wood has been carried on be-
tween Baden, France and Holland. The
raising of cattle is extensively pursued in
the regions of the Black Forest. In the
mountains, minerals of various kinds are
found, but there is a deficiency of salt.
From the sands of the Rhine gold is
washed, of which Baden, in former times,
coined ducats, bearing the inscription,
Sic fulgent litora Rheni. The manufac-
tures are limited. They employ about
10,000 persons. Most of them are in
Manheim, Pforzheim and Carlsruhe. The
manufactures of jewelry, of toys and trin-
kcts, at Pforzheim, of which there are, at
present, 21, produting annually wares to
the amount of 600,000 florins, are gener-
ally known. A peculiar branch of indus-
try, among the inhabitants of the Black
Forest, is the making of wooden clocks.
This business employs about 700 work-
men, who furnish annually above 100,000
clocks, which are sold all over Europe
and in America. The exports of the
country, however, consist rather of its
natural productions than of its manufac-
tures, and are casily transported along
its good roads, and the navigable riv-
ers Rhine, Neckar and Maine. On ac-
count of its situation between Germany,
France and Switzerland, Baden derives
much advantage from its carrying trade.
The majority of the inhabitants are of the
Catholic church, though the grand-duke
is a Lutheran. For the instruction of the
Protestant youth, and for the country
schools, which are every where estab-
lished, teachers are educated in the sem-
inary at Carlsruhe. Provision is made
for the promotion of learning by the Latin
schools, academies and gyninasiums, aud
by the universities of Heidelberg and
Freiberg. On the 3d of May, 1819, the
grand-duke established the following di-
vision of the state: the capital, Carlsruhe,
belongs to no circle, but is immediately
subject to the minister of the interior; the
rest of the state is divided into six circles.
Since that time, in consequence of the
convention with Bavaria and Austria
(Frankfort, July 10, 1819), the Austrian
county Hoheugeroldseck (near the Black
Forest, containing 52 square miles and
4500 inhabitants, and yielding a revenue
of 34,000 florins) has been incorporated
with Baden, for which she gave up to
Austria a proportional part of Wertheim.
The grand-duchy of Baden anciently en-
joyed, like almost all the countries of Eu-
rope, a constitution in which the estates
were represented. This was, however,
finally lost, like the constitutions of most
of the other states. After the middle of
the 17th century, the dukes of Baden
were absolute, till the reigning grand-
BADEN-BADEN-BADEN.
duke, in 1818, bestowed on his subjects a
constitution, proceeding, like the French,
from the prince alone (constitution octroyé),
and not consisting of a compact between
the people and the prince, like the Eng-
lish constitution, or that of Würtemberg.
The legislature of Baden now consists of
two chambers. To the first one belong,
besides the peers, eight deputies of the
nobility, one deputy of each of the uni-
versities of Baden, the Catholic bishop
and a Protestant prelate; and the grand-
duke can besides nominate eight mem-
bers, without reference to their birth or
station. Accordingly, the first cham-
ber may consist of 28 members. The
second chamber consists of 63 deputies;
one for about 16,000 souls. Every citizen
and officer of government may partake in
the elections. A deputy must possess
either a taxable property of 10,000 florins,
or some office which gives him an in-
come of at least 1500 florins. In 1819,
the chambers assembled for the first time,
but were dissolved July 28, because they
could not agree either with each other or
with the ministry. In 1820, they were
assembled again, and, though the dissen-
sions had by no means subsided, they
agreed on some important measures the
abolition of the remains of bond-service,
the responsibility of ministers, &c. The
discussions have been published by each
of the chambers, at Carlsrulie.
BADEN (a German word signifying
bathing); the name of three cities famous
for their baths:-Baden in Suabia, with
418 houses and 3200 inhabitants (Civitas
Aurelia aquensis of the Romans), in later
times, during 600 years, the residence of
the margrave of Baden, situated in a
charming vale, about two leagues from
the river Rhine. The castle affords, from
all sides, the most splendid prospects. It
contains a number of subterranean vaults,
which, according to tradition, served as a
seat of the secret court of criminal justice,
called the Feme. They were, probably
made by the Romans. The hall of an-
tiquities (museum palæo-technicum) con-
tains Roman monuments, which have
been found in the vicinity. The college
church of the Jesuits is distinguished by
the sepulchres of the margraves. It has
six altar-pieces, painted by Lill, after Gui-
do Reni. Baden has 26 mineral springs,
the principal of which has a temperature
of 133° Fahrenheit, and affords, in 24
hours, 7,345,440 cubic inches of water.
The rock from which it issues is even
now covered in part with marble of Car-
rara, and was probably a Roman bath.
519
In the former bath for the poor, there
In
are also remains of Roman baths.
the Höllenquelle (hell-spring), of 144°
Fahrenheit, meat is cooked. There is a
bath for the poor kept in good order be-
fore the Geresbach gate.-Baden in Low-
er Austria, with 400 houses and 2400
inhabitants. Its situation, on rocky hills
of limestone, is beautiful. Near the park
of the bath of Theresa, with its beautiful
alleys, is the lime-rock from which the
medicinal spring bubbles out. The tem-
perature of the baths is 92°-97° Fahren-
heit. The hottest of them are the Urs-
prung, the Ladies' bath and Joseph's
bath. There are 12 in all. They are built
in such a way, that each of them can
contain from 40 to 150 persons. Who-
ever wishes to bathe in private, can do so
at a particular hour. The common bath,
however, is preferred. On mount Cal-
vary there are vapor-baths. The cave at
the Ursprung is noted for a salt deposited
on its base, which is called salt of Baden.
The number of foreigners, who annually
visit Baden, is estimated to be from 7000
to 8000.-Baden in Switzerland, in the
canton Aargau, on the Limmat, in a very
pleasant country. The Romans here
founded a city, on account of the medici-
nal waters, and built a castle at a place
where now stands the city. In later
times, the assemblies of the representa-
tives of the Swiss federation were held
here till 1712.
BADEN, peace of, concluded between
Germany and France, Sept. 7, 1714. (See
Rastadt.)
BADEN-BADEN (Louis William I), mar-
grave of; grandson of the margrave Wil-
liam I, of Baden-Baden; born at Paris,
April 8, 1655, where Louis XIV was his
godfather. The princess of Carignano,
his mother, wished to educate him at
Paris, but his father and grandfather se-
cretly took him away, when he was but
three months old, that he might pass his
childhood among the people whom he
was destined to govern. He served his
first campaign under Montecuculi, against
Turenne, in Alsace, where this great gen-
cral fell. The prince of Baden was or-
dered to harass the retreat of the French
army, which he did with success, until
Condé took the command. Montecuculi
gave in his resignation, and the duke of
Lorraine succeeded him. Louis served
under this general until the peace of
Nimeguen, when he returned, in 1678, to
his margraviate. When the war between
Austria and Turkey broke out, he threw
himself, with a body of troops, into Vi-
520
BADEN-BADEN-BADGER.
enna, which was besieged by the Turks.
The duke of Lorraine, and the king of
Poland, Sobieski, came to the relief of
this capital, and Louis effected a junction
with them by a vigorous sally. The city
was relieved, the Turks retired in disor-
der, and Louis gained several victories.
He subsequently received the command
in chief of the imperial army on the
Danube, and defeated the Turks, Sept.
24, 1689, at Nissa, and Aug. 19, 1691, at
Salenkemen. In 1693, he was intrusted
with the command of the imperial army
in Germany, against the French; he re-
took Heidelberg, and afterwards visited
England to concert with king William
the plan of operations against France.
He opened the campaign in the spring of
1694, invaded Alsace, baffled the vigi-
lance of the duke of Lorges, and showed
the greatest activity, though he suffered
violently from the gout. When the
throne of Poland was vacant, by the
death of Sobieski, in 1697, he was among
the competitors for the crown; but Fred-
eric Augustus II, elector of Saxony,
gained the prize, and the margrave re-
turned, after the peace of Ryswick, into
his own country.
When the Spanish
war of succession broke out, he com-
manded the imperial army, and, in 1702,
took Landau, notwithstanding its valiant
resistance. In 1703, he showed his tal-
ents in the art of fortification, by laying
out the famous lines of Stollhofen, which
extended from the Black Forest, through
Bühl, to Stollhofen and the Rhine. Yet
the fortune of war proved, at last, less
favorable to him, of which his excessive
caution, owing to his bad health, and the
poor condition of the army of the empire,
were the causes. He was one of the
greatest generals of his time, and was
never really defeated. After having made
26 campaigns, commanded at 25 sieges,
and fought 13 battles, he died at Rastadt,
Jan. 4, 1707.
BADENS, Francis; a historical and por-
trait painter, born at Antwerp in 1751.
He was highly esteemed. The news of
his brother's having been assassinated
caused his death in 1803.
BADGER (meles, Briss.); a genus of mam-
miferous quadrupeds, belonging to the
plantigrade tribe, which place the soles
of the hinder feet on the ground in walk-
ing. The head of the animals pertaining
to this genus is very similar to some of
the smaller varieties of dogs, having a
moderately elongated snout, small eyes,
and short, rounded ears. The teeth bear
a considerable resemblance, in figure and
arrangement, to those of the bear, to which
genus that of the badger is closely allied.
The body is large, supported on short,
stout legs, the digits of which are envel-
oped by the integument so as to leave but
a small part free, and are provided with
long, curved claws, especially adapted for
burrowing. The motions of the badger
are slow, and the belly appears to be trail-
ed along the ground, although the length
of hair on the inferior part of the body
makes this trailing appear greater than
it really is. Possessing a considerable
strength of limb, and claws especially
suited for the purpose, the badger exca-
vates a long and winding cavern, at the
extremity of which it sleeps securely
during the day-time. At night, it comes
out to seek for its food, which consists
either of vegetables, insects, or small birds,
&c.—a regimen which shows the simi-
larity of this genus to the bear as much
as its general resemblance of structure.
When attacked by dogs or other enemies,
the badger defends itself with great reso-
lution, and inflicts, many severe wounds
on the aggressors before it is finally van-
quished. It is, therefore, hunted with
eagerness by such as call themselves
sportsmen, whose greatest amuseinent is
derived from seeing two poor beasts try-
ing to destroy each other. Foxes often
drive out the badger from his den, and
enlarge it for their own use. On the
whole, the badger is a harmless creature,
seldom seen unless hunted for, and doing
very little injury, except when greatly
multiplied. The female brings forth three
or four at a litter.-Only two species of
badger are known, the European (M. vul-
garis) and American (M. labradoria). The
European badger has a broad, white
stripe from its forehead down to the nose;
and a longitudinal black stripe begins
between the eye and snout, on each side,
dilating as it goes backward, until it in-
cludes the eye and ear, behind which it
terminates. The hair covering the body
is harsh, long, scattered, and of three col-
ors, white, black and red, differing in the
proportion of these tints in different parts.
Black is the predominant color on the
inferior parts of the body.—The American
badger is only found in the remote west-
ern territories of the U. States and in some
parts of the British possessions in Amer-
ica. It is very different from the Euro-
pean in physiognomy, having a forehead
projecting considerably above the root of
the nose, which, in the European species,
forms a continuous line with the forehead,
and in having a longer tail, covered with
BADGER-BAERT.
long hair, reaching almost to the ground
when the animal is walking. The tail of
the European badger is not more than
half the length of the legs. The color of
the American badger is chiefly grayish,
and lighter than that of the European.
The weight of the American species is
from 14 to 18 pounds.
BADIA, Domingo; a Spanish traveller,
who, under singular circumstances, visited,
in 1803 and the four following years, the
Mohammedan countries bordering on the
Mediterranean. During the whole of his
tour, he professed to be a Mussulman,
which character he had qualified himself
to support, by submitting to circumcision.
He travelled under the denomination of
Ali Bey el Abbassi, which style he also
assumed in his Travels, published in
French, at Paris, by Didot, in 1814, 2 vols.,
Svo.; and about the same time in English,
at London. It is now admitted that he
was employed as a political agent by the
prince of peace, at the instigation of Na-
poleon. His peculiar situation and reli-
gious profession gave him opportunities
for making many observations which
could not occur to other travellers; and
his volumes are curious and interesting,
though rather tinctured with an air of
exaggeration, somewhat excusable in a
person placed in such extraordinary cir-
cumstances. Burckhardt, another Oriental
traveller, who heard of Ali Bey at Aleppo,
gives the following account of him:-"He
called himself Ali Bey, and professed to
be born of Tunisian parents in Spain, and
to have received his education in that
country. Spanish appears to be his native
language, besides which he spoke French,
a little Italian, and the Moggrabeyan dia-
lect of Arabic, but badly. He came to
Aleppo by the way of Cairo, Yatla and
Damascus, with the strongest letters of rec-
ommendation from the Spanish govern-
ment to all its agents, and an open credit
upon them. He seemed to be a particular
friend of the prince of peace, for whom
he was collecting antiques; and, from the
manner in which it was known that he
was afterwards received by the Spanish
ambassador, at his arrival in Constanti-
nople, he must have been a man of dis-
tinction. The description of his figure,
and what is related of his travels, called
to my recollection the Spaniard Badia,
and his miniature in your library. He
was a man of middling size, long, thin
head, black eyes, large nose, long, black
beard, and feet that indicated the former
wearing of tight shoes. He professed to
have travelled in Barbary, to have crossed
44 **
521
the Lybian desert, between Barbary and
Egypt, and, from Cairo, to have gone to
Mecca and back. He travelled with
Eastern magnificence, but here he was
rather shy of showing himself out_of
doors: he never walked out but on Fri-
days, to the prayers of noon in the great
mosque. One of the before-mentioned
dervishes told me that there had been a
great deal of talking about this Ali Bey
at Damascus and Hamar: they suspected
him of being a Christian; but his great
liberality, and the pressing letters which
he brought to all people of consequence,
stopped all further inquiry. He was busily
employed in arranging and putting in or-
der his journal during the two months of
his stay at Aleppo." This traveller died
in his native country, some time after his
return to Europe.
BAERT, Jean; also BARTH; born at
Dunkirk, 1651; the son of a poor fisher-
man; according to some, a native of the
parish of Corban, in the district of Mun-
ster, and the canton of Berne, where his
family lives at present. He raised himself,
under Louis XIV, to the rank of commo-
dore. The Dutch, English and Spanish
called him the French devil. The marine
of Louis XIV owed principally to this
rough mariner the respect which it en-
joyed from other nations. B. happening
to be at Versailles, the monarch" said to
him, "Jean Baert, I have made you a
commodore." "Sire, then you have done
well," answered the mariner. The cour-
tiers laughed; but Louis told them, "This
is the answer of a man who feels his own
worth." B. brought into port a number
of Dutch and English vessels, burned
others, landed at Newcastle, and laid
waste the neighboring country. In 1692,
with a fleet of three sail, he met the Dutch
fleet, loaded with corn from the Baltic,
put to flight the escort, and took 16 mer-
chantmen. In 1694, when there was a
scarcity of corn in France, he succeeded
several times, notwithstanding the watch-
fulness of the English, in bringing into
the harbor of Dunkirk ships loaded with
this article. Once he delivered a number
of such vessels, in the boldest manner,
from the Dutch, into whose hands they
had fallen, and received, in consequence,
letters of nobility. After having passed
the English, in 1696, who blockaded the
harbor with a fleet three times as strong
as his own, he met the Dutch fleet, from
the Baltic, consisting of 110 sail, and con-
voyed by five frigates. The escort, with
40 ships, soon fell into the hands of the
French; but, on his return to Dunkirk,
522
BAERT-BAGDAD.
13 Dutch ships of the line appeared, and,
to avoid a very unequal combat, he
was obliged to burn the greatest part of
his captures. The peace of Ryswick put
a stop to the deeds of this valiant officer.
He spent the last years of his life at Dun-
kirk, and died there in 1702.
BAFFIN'S BAY; the largest and most
northern gulf on the eastern coast of
North America; between 70° and 80° N.
lat.; discovered by Baffin, in 1616. This
gulf flows through Baffin's and Davis's
straits, between cape Chidley, on the coast
of Labrador, and cape Farewell, on the
coast of West Greenland, into the Atlan-
tic. On the south-west side of Davis's
strait, Baffin's bay is separated by a mass
of islands from Hudson's bay, which
abounds with whales. From Baffin's bay
captain Parry started, in 1819, in search
of the north-west passage. (See North
Pole, expeditions to.)
BAGDAD; capital of a Turkish pachalic
of the same name, the southern part of
Mesopotamia, or Al-Dschezira, now Irak
Arabi, containing about 70,000 square
miles, and 650,000 inhabitants; 44° 25′ E.
lon., and 33° 20′ N. lat. The greatest
part of it lies on the eastern bank of the
Tigris, which is crossed by a bridge of
boats, 620 feet long. The old B., the res-
idence of the caliphis, with 2,000,000 in-
habitants, now in ruins, was situated on
the western bank of the river. The mod-
ern city is surrounded with a brick wall,
about six miles in circuit, and with a diteli
from five to six fathoms deep, which may
be filled with water from the Tigris; but
the cannon on the numerous towers are
old, and unfit for use. The castle com-
mands the Tigris, and contains an arsenal,
but is untenable. The houses, mostly
built of brick, are but one story high, the
streets unpaved, and so narrow, that two
horsemen can scarcely ride abreast. The
houses of the wealthy are distinguished
by a better architecture. The palace of
the governor is spacious, and magnificent-
ly furnished. The public baths and the
coffee-houses of the city, though in a bad
condition, are much frequented. The
markets afford an abundance of provis-
ions, at a low price. B. is an important
mart for Arabian, Indian and Persian pro-
ductions, as well as for European manu-
factures. A splendid view is afforded by
the bazars, with their 1200 shops filled
with all kinds of Oriental goods. The
chief manufactures of the city are, red and
yellow leather, much esteemed, and silk,
cotton and woollen cloths. With the aid
of the English and Persians, the pacha
has established a cannon foundery. B.
supplies Asia Minor, Syria, and part of
Europe, with East Indian goods, which
are imported to Bassora, ascend the Ti-
gris in boats, and are carried by caravans
to Tokat, Constantinople, Aleppo, Damas-
cus, and the western parts of Persia.
There is also some trade in jewels. An
English packet runs between Bagdad and
Bassora. A multitude of strangers assen-
ble at B., partly on mercantile business,
partly to visit the sepulchres of the saints,
among which is that of the prophet Eze-
kiel. The heat of the summer obliges
the inhabitants to shelter themselves in
subterranean chambers; but the winter is
cold enough to make a fire necessary.
The city is, nevertheless, agreeable,
healthy, and free from pestilential dis-
eases; but the inhabitants frequently suf-
fer from cutaneous disorders. B. is in-
habited by Turks, Persians, Armenians,
Jews, and a small number of Christians.
The Turks compose three fourths of the
whole population. The Jews are confined
to a secluded district of the city, and are
in a very oppressed condition. Inclusive
of the Arabs, Hindoos, Afghans and Egyp-
tians, who are accustomed to reside here,
the population may amount to 80,000.
The Persians, under the particular pro-
tection of the government, enjoy a very
extensive trade, and are renowned for hon-
esty, prudence and integrity. The higher
classes are more civil and attentive to
strangers than is usually the case with
Mohammedans. On the other hand, the
lower classes are infected with the pre-
vailing vices of the East. The people
are bold, enterprising and turbulent. B.
was begun, in 762, by the caliph Abu Gi-
afar-Alinanzor, finished in four years, and
raised to a high degree of splendor, in
the ninth century, by Haroun Alraschid;
but, 100 years after, it was destroyed
by the Turks. In the 13th century, it
was stormed by Holagou, grandson of
Zingis-Khan, who caused the reigning
caliph to be slain, and destroyed the ca-
lipliate.
liphate. The descendants of the con-
queror were expelled, in 1392, by Tamer-
lane (q. v.), and, in 1412, by Kara-Yusef.
In the following century, Shah Ismael,
the first sovereign of Persia of the house
of Sofi, took possession of the city. From
that time it was a perpetual subject of
contest in the wars between the Turks
and Persians. After a memorable siege,
in 1638, it was conquered by the Turkish
emperor Amurath IV, and Nadir Shah
endeavored in vain, in the 18th century,
to wrest it from the Turks.
BAGGESEN-BAHAMA ISLANDS.
BAGGESEN, Jens (the Danish for Eman-
uel), a Danish poet, who also wrote much
in German, was born Feb. 15, 1764, at
Corsör. He has given the history of his
education, and described the influences
which determined his character, in the
Labyrinth. In 1785, he displayed, in his
Comic Tales, his humor and power as an
author. The prince of Holstein-Augus-
tenburg enabled him to travel through
Germany, France and Switzerland. In
1793, he visited Italy. He afterwards
received from the Danish government an
appointment in Copenhagen. In 1800,
he went with his wife, a niece of the
famous Haller, to reside at Paris. In
1811, he was appointed professor of the
Danish language at Kiel, and, in 1814,
resigned his office, and went to reside in
Copenhagen. At this time, his poetical
fame reached its highest point. He again
left Denmark, and died suddenly at Dres-
den, Oct. 3, 1826. His best productions
are his smaller poems and songs, several
of which are very popular with his coun-
trymen. His Seasons, in Danish, are
much esteemed. In 1827, a humorous
poem of his, Adam and Eve, in German,
was published at Leipsic.
BAGNIO (Italian, a bath). This name is
particularly given to that place, near Ga-
lata, in the suburbs of Constantinople,
where slaves are kept. There are one
Greek and two Catholic churches for the
use of the slaves.-Enclosures for slaves,
in Turkey and Barbary, are, in general,
called bagnios.
BAGPIPE; a well-known wind instru-
ment, of high antiquity among the north-
ern nations, which has so long been a
favorite with the natives of Scotland, that
it may be considered as their national
instrument. It consists of two principal
parts: the first comprises a leather bag,
which receives and holds the wind con-
veyed to it by a small tube, furnished with
a valve, to prevent the wind from return-
ing. The second part of the instrument
consists of three pipes ;-the great pipe or
drone; a smaller pipe, which emits the
wind at the bottom; and a third with a
reed, through which it is blown. The
wind is forced into the pipes by com-
pressing the bag under the arm, while the
notes are regulated, as in a flute or haut-
boy, by stopping and opening the holes,
which are eight in number, with the ends
of the fingers. It is not known when the
bagpipe first found its way into Scotland,
but it is probable that the Norwegians
and Danes first introduced it into the
Hebrides, which islands they long pos-
523
sessed. In Rome, at the time of Advent, the
peasants of the mountains play on the bag-
pipe before the images of the Virgin. The
music is very simple, and yet sweet; and
every traveller remembers it with delight.
BAHAMAS, or LUCAYA ISLANDS; in the
Atlantic, near the east coast of North
America. There are a great number of
these islands, some say 500; but many of
them are mere rocks, and others, on ac-
count of the difficulty of the navigation,
little known. The principal are, Bahama,
Eleuthera, Abaco, Yuma or Exuma,
and Providence. They are in general fer-
tile, with a soil similar to South Carolina.
Lon. 73 to 81° W.; lat. 22° to 27° N.
These islands, in 1773, contained 2,052
whites, and 2,241 blacks; and, in 1803,
14,318, including 11,395 blacks and peo-
ple of color. The inhabitants are of two
descriptions, the residents and the wreck-
ers. The residents are chiefly loyalists,
and their descendants, who emigrated
from Carolina and Georgia, at the close
of the American war. The wreckers are
constantly employed in the business of
rescuing shipwrecked vessels, with their
crews and cargoes, from the waves. They
sail in small, flat-bottomed sloops, just
fitted for the seas which they navigate.
They are excellent sailors; are familiar
with all the keys, shoals and breakers;
and, with alacrity and courage, encounter
any danger or hardship. They are licens-
ed by the governor, and receive salvage
on all property rescued from the waves.
By day they are always cruising; at night,
they usually put into the nearest harbor.
Their great places of rendezvous are,
the
Florida gulf, the Hole in the Wall, and
the Hogsties. The number of these ves-
sels is very great, 40 sail being sometimes
seen in one inlet. These islands are heaps
of limestone and shells, covered with veg-
etable mould. The keys are chiefly rocky
and sandy: on some of them a few trees
are found. All the large islands that
front directly upon the Atlantic stretch
from south-east to north-west, and the
ridge of each is in the same direction.
The soil of all the islands is a thin, but
rich, vegetable mould. It yields, for a few
years, luxuriantly, but is soon exhausted.
The chief production is cotton. The
first discovery of these islands was made
by Columbus, Oct. 12, 1492, when he fell
in with Guanahani. New Providence, one
of the largest of the group, was discov-
ered on the 17th of the same month. In
1667, Charles II of England granted all
the Bahamas to the duke of Albemarle
and the other proprietors of Carolina.
524
BAHAMA ISLANDS-BAHRDT.
Five years after this grant, the first settle-
ment was made on New Providence. For
many years, the inhabitants suffered se-
verely from the depredations of pirates
and of their Spanish neighbors. The cel-
ebrated Black Beard, or John Tench,
was the leader of the buccaneers. He
was killed off the coast of North Carolina,
in November, 1718. The islands were
soon afterwards abandoned by the pirates,
and a permanent settlement made at Nas-
sau, in New Providence, under governor
Rogers. The town was fortified in 1740.
Early in the American war, it was taken
by the Americans, but speedily abandoned.
The Spaniards took it again in 1781, but
the English soon repossessed themselves
of it. Since that period, all the islands
have continued under their jurisdiction.
Bahama; the chief of the Bahama isl-
ands, which gives its name to the whole;
63 miles long, and about 9 wide; 57 miles
from the coast of East Florida; lon. 78°
10 to 80° 24′ W.; lat. 26° 40′ to 27° 5' N.
Though this island is well watered, the
soil fertile, and the air serene, yet it is in-
habited only by a few people, who subsist
by selling necessaries to ships, which the
currents drive on their coasts. It formerly
produced guaiacum, sarsaparilla and red-
wood; all which the Spaniards are said to
have destroyed.
+
BAHAR (more properly Bihar, from
the Sanscrit Vilúr, a Budd'hish monaste-
ry); the second province of the British do-
minions in India; bounded E. by Bengal,
N. by Nepal and Morung, S. by Orissa, and
W. by Oude and Allabahad; lon. between
84° and 88° E.; lat. between 22° and 27° N.
The population is estimated at 5,800 000;
three Hindoos to one Mohammedan. B.
contains 51,973 square miles, of which
about 26,000 are plain arable ground. It
is one of the most fertile, highly-cultivated
and populous countries of Hindostan,
producing grain, sugar, tobacco, cotton,
rice, opium, betel, saltpetre, timber, &c.
It is now divided into seven collector-
ships. The climate of B. is more temper-
ate than that of Bengal. The Ganges,
the Soane, the Gunduck, the Dummoo-
dah, Carainnassa and the Dewah are the
most remarkable of its rivers. The chief
towns are Patna, Monghyr, Buxa, Rotas,
Gayah, Dinapoor and Boglipoor. The
inhabitants excel the Bengalese both in
strength and stature.-Bahar Proper is
one of the seven districts into which B. is
divided. Square miles, 6680.-Bahar, the
capital of this district, 220 miles N. W.
Calcutta, lon. 85° 45′ E., lat. 25° 14′ N.,
is remarkable for the number of mag-
nificent funeral monuments which it con-
tains.
Bahar, or Barre; weights used in sev-
eral places in the East Indies. They
have been distinguished as the great bahar,
with which are weighed pepper, cloves,
nutmegs, ginger, &c, and the little bahar,
with which are weighed quicksilver, ver-
milion, ivory, silk, &c. But this weight
varies much in different parts of the East.
The bahar of Acheen, in Sumatra, consists of 100
cattees, and is 490 lbs. avoirdupois.
(
18
"
"
"
of Betlefackee, in Arabia, consists of 40
farcels, is 815 lbs. avoirdupois.
of Bencoolen = 560 lbs. avoirdupois.
of Junkseylon = 8 capins, = 485 lbs. 5
oz. 5 dr. avoirdupois.
of Malacca 3 pecals, 405 lbs. avoir-
dupois.
of Mocha = 15 franks,
dupois.
=
=445 lbs. avoir-
BAHIA, formerly St. Salvador, till 1771
the capital of Brazil, is situated on the
bay of All Saints, in 12° 59′ S. lat., and 37°
23′ W. lon. It is strong by nature, and
is also fortified. It has 13,000 houses,
and about 100,000 inhabitants, among
whom are 40,000 whites: the rest are
mulattoes and negroes. It is the seat of
an archbishop, and contains a university;
has a very healthy climate, as well as one
of the best harbors in Brazil; carries on
an active trade with the U. States and Eu-
rope, and pursues the whale-fishery near
the south pole. The exports are the
productions of the tropics-Brazil-wood,
spices, southern fruits, rice, tapioca, cattle,
sugar, tobacco, cotton and coffee (cheaper
than that of Rio Janeiro, but inferior, be-
cause the soil is too rich for the coffee-
tree). Gold and diamonds are also se-
cretly exported.-The government of this
name (54,649 square miles, 560,000 in-
habitants), on the river San Francesco, is
crossed, from north to south, by the
mountains Erio and Champado. It has
its name from the bay on which the capital,
described above, is situated. Sugar and
coffee are raised here in large quantities,
and the soil is esteemed the best in Bra-
zil for the growth of the sugar-cane.
BAIRDT, Charles Frederic, a German
theologian, born in 1741, at Bischofswer-
da, in Saxony, studied in Schulpforte and
Leipsic. He was endowed with great
talents, and made himself known very
early, but was probably spoiled by this
very success. In 1762, he was appointed
professor in the university of Leipsic.
His works and his talents as a preacher
procured him many admirers, but, in con-
sequence of an irregularity, he was obliged
to quit that city in 1768. From this time
BAHRDT-BAIL.
he led an unsettled life. He was succes-
sively professor of theology and preacher
in Erfurt (where he was made doctor of
theology), in Giessen, Switzerland and in
Turkheim, but was obliged to leave each
of these places, on account of his severe
attacks on the clergy, and the heterodox
views manifested in his writings and ser-
mons, as well as on account of his irreg-
ular life. The aulic council declared him
disqualified to preach or to publish, unless
he would revoke the religious principles ad-
vanced in his works. At length he found
an asylum in the Prussian dominions. In
1779, he went to Halle, where he publish-
ed his Creed. It is thoroughly deistical,
denying the miracles, and not insisting on
the immortality of the soul. He lectured
in Halle, but soon became involved in
difficulties with the clergy; upon which
he left the city, and established, in a
neighboring vineyard, a public house,
where he had many customers. But two
works which he wrote against the Reli-
gious Edict (a miserable law, issued under
the late king of Prussia, a man who was
governed by mistresses, and believed in
apparitions), in one of which he proposed
a union of all religions, made himi sus-
pected. He was condemned, and confin-
ed in the fortress of Magdeburg. Here
he wrote his life. At the end of a year,
he again opened his public house at Halle,
and died in 1792. B. wrote and spoke
with ease and fluency, but his works, even
the most learned of them, are wanting in
thorough knowledge; yet they have cer-
tainly had some influence.
525
was impatient to call his mistress away
from it, and Cicero, in his defence of the
young M. Cœlius, thought it necessary to
apologize for defending a man who had
lived at Baiæ." Its insalubrity, of which
there are intimations even in the letters
of Cicero, may have been occasioned
partly by the vapors of its hot springs, but
is now increased by the desertion of the
country, and the stagnation of the ditches
used for steeping flax. Yet the charm of
its situation still survives, though only
single fishing-boats are seen on its bay, to
call to mind the fleets, which, starting
from the Julian and Misenian lakes,
passed by the islands, within sight of
Puzzuoli.
BAIKAL; a lake or inland sea in Siberia,
360 miles long, from S. W. to N. E., and
from 20 to 53 in breadth, interspersed
with islands; lon. 104° to 110°, E.; lat.
51° 20′ to 55° 20′ N. It contains a great
many fish, particularly sturgeons, pikes
and seals. In the environs are seve-
ral sulphurous springs, and in one part,
near the mouth of the river Barguzin, it
discharges a kind of pitch, which the in-
habitants purify. The water is sweet,
transparent, and appears, at a distance,
green, like the sea. It receives the waters
of the Upper Angara, Selinga, Barguzin,
and other rivers; but the Lower Angara
is the only one by which it seems to dis-
charge its waters. Nothing can be con-
ceived more interesting and magnificent
than this lake. Those who have visited
it seem at a loss for language adequate
to describe the feelings which it excites
BAIADEER. (See Bayadeer.)
when first beheld. It is enclosed by rug-
BALE. This Campanian Brighton (.Vulged mountains, and the sublime scenery
lus in orbe sinus Bajis prælucet amanis, around strikes every beholder with aston-
Horace), once the place
where the ishment and awe. At some seasons, it is
wealthy Romans had their country-seats, so agitated by violent storms, that, in the
the favorite abode of the Ambubaiæ and tremendous roaring of its billows, it equals
the Balatrones, is now deserted, and inter- the mighty ocean, while, at others, the
esting to the stranger only for the ruins clearness of its unruffled bosom emulates
of old baths, which are shown as temples, the lustre of the finest mirror.
and for the remains of former palaces,
visible beneath the waves of the sea. B.
owes its fame to its hot baths, and its sit-
nation on a most charming bay, secured,
by surrounding hills, from the violence of
the winds. "Even before the time of
Cæsar," says Wieland, in his remarks on
the 15th epistle of the first book of Hor-
ace, "Baie was the place where the rich
Romans thought themselves entitled to
lay aside the restraint of republican hy-
pocrisy, and to give themselves up, with-
out shame, to the pleasures and voluptu-
ousness which brought this charming
place into such ill-repute, that Propertius
BAIL is, in one of its senses, the deliv-
ery of a person to another for keeping,
and is used in reference to one arrested,
or committed to prison, upon either a
civil or criminal process; and he is said to
be bailed, when he is delivered to another,
who becomes his surety in bonds (to a
greater or less amount, according to the
amount of the demand for which he is
sued, or the heinousness of the crime with
which he is charged), for his appearance
at court to take his trial. Bail is either
common or special; the former being
merely fictitious, whereby nominal sure-
ties, as John Doe and Richard Roe, are
A
526
BAIL-BAILIFF.
feigned to be answerable for the defend-
ant's appearance at the court to which he
is cited. Special bail is that of an actual
surety. The laws of the U. States, and
of the several states, allow of bail to be
given in all civil processes, whatever may
be the amount of damages which the de-
fendant inay be called upon to answer in
the suit; and the jealousy of personal lib-
erty, so congenial to the American insti-
tutions, has introduced a provision into
some of the constitutions, that excessive
bail shall not, in any case, be demanded;
and when the defendant, or party charged
with a crime, for which he is arrested,
considers the hail demanded to be excess-
ive, he may, by habeas corpus, or other
process or application, according to the
provisions of the laws under which he is
arrested, have the bond reduced to a rea-
sonable amount. In respect to bail, the
act of congress, 1789, c. 20, s. 33, pro-
vides that, "upon all arrests, in criminal
cases, bail shall be admitted, except where
the punishment may be death, in which
case it shall not be admitted, except by
the supreme or circuit court, or by a jus-
tice of the supreme court, or a judge of
the district court, who shall exercise their
discretion therein." The laws of the sev-
eral states are generally equivalent, or
substantially so, to this act of congress, on
the subject of bail. The party bailed is
considered to be in the custody of his bail
or sureties, who may scize and deliver
him up to the court, and thus discharge
themselves from their responsibility.
BAILIFF. In the court of the Greck
emperors there was a grand bajulos, first
tutor of the emperor's children. The su-
perintendent of foreign merchants seems
also to have been called bajulos, and, as
he was appointed by the Venetians, this
title (balio) was transferred to the Vene-
tian ambassador. From Greece, the ofli-
cial bajulos (ballivus, bailli, in France;
bailiff, in England), was introduced into
the south of Europe, and denoted a su-
perintendent: hence the eight ballivi of
the knights of St. Jolin, which constitute
its supreme council. In France, the royal
bailiffs were commanders of the militia,
administrators or stewards of the domains,
and judges of their districts. In the
course of time, only the first duty remain
ed to the bailiff; hence he was called
bailli d'épée, and laws were administered
in his name by a lawyer, as his deputy,
Lieutenant de robe. The seigniories, with
which high courts were connected, em-
ployed bailiffs, who thus constituted, al-
most every where, the lowest order of
judges. From the courts of the nobility,
the appellation passed to the royal courts;
from thence to the parliaments. In the
greater bailiwicks of cities of importance,
Henry II established a collegial constitu-
tion, under the name of presidial courts.
As all offices of justice could be pur-
chased, and, in the lower courts, no ex-
amination was required (only the counsel-
lors in the presidial courts were to be 25
years of age, licentiates of law, and be
examined by the chancellors), and as the
bailiwicks were generally very small, this
kind of jurisdiction fell into great con-
tempt. The baillis had become a stand-
ing subject of ridicule on the stage, for
their ignorance, their ridiculous presump-
tion, their deceit and injustice. The royal
bailiwicks, therefore, by an order of Sept.
1, 1770, were reformed; the jurisdiction
of the nobles was first abolished by the
laws of Aug. 4, 1789, and supplied by the
district courts, tribunaux de première in-
stance.-The name of bailiff was introdu-
ced into England with William I. The
counties were also called bailiwicks (bal-
live), while the subdivisions were called
hundreds; but, as the courts of the hun-
dreds have long since ceased, the English
bailiffs are only a kind of subordinate
officers of justice, like the French huis-
siers. These correspond very nearly to
the officers generally called constables in
the U. States. Every sheriff has some of
them under him, for whom he is answer-
able. In some cities, the highest muni-
cipal officer yet bears this name, as the
high bailiff of Westminster. In London,
the lord mayor is at the same time bailiff'
(which title he bore before the present
became usual), and administers, in this
quality, the criminal jurisdiction of the
city, in the court of Old Bailey, where
there are, annually, eight sittings of the
court, for the city of London and the
county of Middlesex. Usually, the re-
corder of London supplies his place as
judge. In some instances, the term bai-
liff, in England, is applied to the chief
magistrates of towns, or to the command-
ers of particular castles, as that of Dover.
The term baillie, in Scotland, is applied to
a judicial police officer, having powers
very similar to those of justices of peace
in the U. States.-Among the Teutonie
order of knights, and in the German di-
vision of the knights of St. John, the do-
minions of the order, and with them the
knights, were divided into districts (baili-
wicks), over each of which a commander
presided. The single houses of the order
were called commanderies.
BAILLOT-BAILLY.
BAILLOT, Pierre, one of the chief mas-
ters of the modern French school of vio-
linists, born in 1771, studied under Viotti,
was employed in the chapel of the duke
of Artois in 1791, and became, in 1803,
teacher in the conservatory. From 1805
to 1808, he travelled in the north of Eu-
rope, and acquired an extensive musical
fame, in which he rivals Kreutzer and
Rode. His style is bold and original. He
is one of the chief contributors to the Vio-
lin School, printed for the use of the con-
servatory in Paris, under the title Violin
School, by Rode, Kreutzer and Baillot.
His Exercises pour le Fiolin are a contin-
uation of this. He has also published,
together with Levasseur, Catel and Bau-
diot, another Violin School, for the use
of the conservatory, and accompanied it
with exercises.
A
527
magnetism, discovered by Mesmer. B.
delivered a double report on this subject,
one for the public, to give it a just view
of the doctrine, the other for the king
alone, on the real causes of magnetism,
and its moral influence. The latter was
not published till a later period.—B. was
now enjoying the general esteem due to
merit and to virtue, when the revolution
tore him from his peaceful pursuits. Paris
chose him, May 12, 1789, first deputy
of the tiers stat; in the assembly it-
self, he wa made first president. He
retained th place after the commons had
declared emselves a national assembly;
and wh the king forbade them to as-
semble, he presided, June 20, 1789, in
the session of the tennis-court, when all
the deputies swore never to separate till
they had given France a new constitu-
BAILLY, Jean Sylvain; born at Paris, tion. Being chosen mayor of Paris, July
1736. Though designed by his father, 16, he discharged the duties of his office
keeper of the royal gallery of pictures, for with his usual integrity and disinterested-
a painter, he followed his natural inclina- ness; but these virtues were not sufficient
tion for literature. His first attempts to restrain a furious populace, exposed by
were in poetry. Becoming afterwards turns to the influence of opposite parties.
acquainted with Lacaille, he was induced The palliatory measures employed by B.
by his instructions and example to devote to preserve the appearance of tranquillity
himself to astronomy. After the death might delay the eruption, but could not
of Lacaille, in 1763, he entered the acad- suppress it; perhaps matters had arrived
emy, and published the calculation of a at such a point, that even the most vigorous
great many of Lacaille's observations on resistance would have been ineffectual.
the stars of the zodiac. He undertook, Once only, and on the most just occasion,
also, at this time, a great work on the he had recourse to rigorous measures.
satellites of Jupiter, the theory of which This was after the return of the king
the academy had made a prize question. from Varennes. The violent revolution-
His Essai sur la Théorie des Satellites de Ju- ists wished to seize this opportunity for
piter, avec des Tables de leurs Mouvements, his deposition, and a great number of
appeared in 1766. In 1771, he published them assembled, July 17, 1791, in the
a treatise on the light reflected by the Champ-de-Mars, in order to sign, upon
satellites of Jupiter, which he undertook the altar of their country, a petition to
to measure by an ingenious process. this effect. B., accompanied by the na-
Amidst these laborious occupations, he tional guards, commanded the rebels to
never lost his love of literature. His disperse, and, on their refusal, dispersed
culogiums on Pierre Corneille, Leibnitz, them by force. The national assembly
and others, were so favorably received, approved of his conduct; nevertheless, he
that he resolved to select a scientific sub- resigned his place, Sept. 19, 1791. Pe-
ject, susceptible of the ornaments of style, tion (q. v.) became his successor. B. re-
which might secure his literary fame. He tired entirely from public affairs to the
chose the History of Astronomy (1775 to country in the vicinity of Nantes. When
1787,5 vols. quarto). It met with general the increasing troubles left him no seen-
approbation, which was increased by the rity even here, his friend Laplace offered
discussions that succeeded, between the him a shelter in his own house at Melun.
author and Voltaire, which led B. to pub- In the mean time, by the events of May 31,
lish his Lettres sur l'Origine des Sciences, 1793, circumstances were changed, and a
et sur l'Atlantide de Platon. In 1784, the division of the revolutionary army entered
French academy elected him a member, Melun. Laplace informed B. of this dan-
in the place of Tressan, and, in 1785, he ger, but, unfortunately, he did not regard
was admitted into the academy of inscrip- the warning, but persisted in going to
tions. The government also made him a Melun. As soon as he entered this place,
member of the committee for examining he was known. He was sent to Paris,
the character and influence of animal where, Nov. 11, 1793, he was condemned
528
BAILLY-BAIUS.
to death by the revolutionary tribunal, and
executed on the 12th, with circumstances
of great cruelty. He died with the utmost
composure. His crimes were, his con-
duct on the Champ-de-Mars, and the
boldness with which he had declared the
accusations brought against the queen
false and calumnious. His posthumous
works are, Essai sur l'Origine des Fables,
et des Religions Anciennes, and his Journal
during the early period of the revolution,
from April 21 to Oct. 2, 1789 (3 vols.
1804)..
BAILMENT, in law, is the delivery of a
chattel or thing to another to keep, either
for the use of the bailor, or person deliv-
ering, or for that of the bailee, or person
to whom it is delivered. A bailment al-
ways supposes the subject to be delivered
only for a limited time, at the expiration
of which it must be re-delivered to the
bailor; and the material inquiries, in cases
of bailment, relate to the degree of re-
sponsibility of the bailee in regard to the
safe-keeping and re-delivery of the subject
of the bailment. This responsibility will
depend, in some degree, upon the con-
tract on which the bailment is made. If
a thing is delivered to the bailee to keep,
without any advantage or use to himself,
or any compensation, but merely for the
benefit of the bailor, he is answerable on-
ly for gross negligence; but if the bail-
ment is for the mutual benefit of both
parties, the thing must be kept with the
ordinary and usual care which a prudent
man takes of his own goods; but if it be
delivered for the benefit of the bailee on-
ly, he must exercise strict care in keeping
it, and will be answerable for slight neg-
ligence. A special agreement is made in
many cases of borrowing or hiring, speci-
fying the risks assumed by the borrower
or hirer; and, in such case, his obligations
will be determined by his stipulations.
Pledging and letting for hire are species
of bailment.
BAIRAM, or BEIRAM; the Easter of the
Mohammedans, which follows immedi-
ately the Rhamazan or Lent (a month of
fasting), and lasts three days. This feast
begins, like the Rhamazan, as soon as the
new moon is announced by the persons
appointed for that purpose, and, during
the course of 33 years, takes place in all
the seasons and all the months of the year,
because the Turks reckon by lunar years.
It is the custom, at this feast, for inferiors
to make presents to their superiors. This
custom formerly extended even to the
Europeans, who were obliged to make
presents to men of rank, to the pachas
and the cadis. The grand seignior is also
accustomed to distribute favors and pres-
ents. Sixty days after this first great Bai-
ram, begins a second-the lesser Bairam.
They are the only two feasts, the celebra-
tion of which the Mohammedan religion
prescribes to the faithful.
BAIRDSTOWN; a post-town of Ken-
tucky, and capital of Nelson county, on
Beech Fork river; 35 miles S. W. Frank-
fort, 60 W. S. W. Lexington; lon. 86°
10 W.; lat. 37° 49′ N.; population in
1810, 820. It contains a court-house, a
jail, a market-house, a church, and a flour-
ishing Roman Catholic college, styled the
college of St. Joseph, which is under the
care of the Roman Catholic bishop of
Kentucky, and has about 200 students.
The college edifice is of brick, four sto-
ries high,
BAIUS, or DE BAY, Michael, born 1513,
at Melin, in Hainau, educated at Louvain,
in 1551 made professor of theology at this
university, in 1563 or 1564 chosen a mem-
ber of the council of Trent, was one of the
greatest theologians of the Catholic church
in the 16th century. He founded systematic
theology directly upon the Bible and the
Christian fathers, leaving the scholastic
method. He had read the writings of St.
Augustine nine times, and had fully adopt-
ed the views of that father, whose doctrines
of the entire incapacity of the human will
for good, and the insufficiency of good
works, he first maintained against the less
rigid notions of the Jesuits. The doc-
trines that the human will, when left to
itself, could only sin; that even the mother
of Jesus was not free from hereditary and
actual sin; that every action, which did
not proceed from pure love to God, was
sinful; and that no penance was effectual
for the justification of the sinner, but
every thing was to be attributed solely to
the grace of God, through Christ,-caused
him to be persecuted as a heretic by the
old Scotists, and, in particular, by the
Jesuits, who, notwithstanding the favor
in which he stood at the Spanish court,
at length succeeded in obtaining a papal
bull, in 1567, condemning these doctrines,
with others falsely imputed to him. B.
submitted; yet the persecutions against
him still continued, as did also his defence
of the opinions of Augustine in his lec-
tures; and, as the theological faculty at
Louvain was entirely in his favor, he not
only remained in the quiet possession of
his dignities, but was also appointed dean
of St. Peter's, in 1575, and, in 1578, chan-
cellor of the university; nay, the king of
Spain conferred upon him the office of
BAIUS-BALANCE OF TRADE.
inquisitor-general in the Netherlands. He
died in 1589, and left the reputation of
great learning, pure morals, and a rare
modesty. His Augustinian views, which
were called then Baianism, descended to
the Jansenists (as the precursor of whom
he is to be regarded), and, in their hands,
received an interpretation formidable to
Jesuitism and to the papal power. His
doctrine of pure, undivided love to God
has been adopted by the Quietists. His
writings, mostly polemical, were pub-
lished by Gabriel Gerberon, at Cologne,
1696, quarto.
•
•
BAJAZET I, Turkish emperor, in 1389,
succeeded his father, Amurath, who fell
in the battle of Cassova against the Ser-
vians. He caused his elder brother, Ja-
cob, his rival for the throne, to be stran-
gled-an act of barbarity, which, since his
time, has become a custoin at the Turkish
court. He made great and rapid con-
quests. Hence his name, Ilderim, the
Lightning. In three years, he conquered
Bulgaria, part of Servia, Macedonia,
Thessaly, and subjected the states of Asia
Minor. He besieged even Constantinople
for ten years, and hoped to starve it into
a surrender. In order to save the city,
king Sigismond of Hungary (afterwards
emperor of Germany) assembled a great
army (including a number of French
troops and 2,000 noblemen, under the
command of the duke of Nivey), and at-
tacked the city of Nicopolis, in Bulgaria,
situated near the Danube. But B. met
them, and obtained a decisive victory over
the allied Hungarians, Poles and French,
28th Sept., 1395. Sigismond escaped, by
a hasty flight, in disguise. The French,
by whose imprudent impetuosity the bat-
tle was lost, were most of them taken
prisoners, and executed by the order of B.
He would probably have now overturned
the whole Greek empire, if Timur (see
Tamerlane) had not attacked Natolia, in
1400. B. marched to meet him, and suf-
fered a total defeat near Ancyra, in Gala-
tia, June 16, 1402. He himself fell
into the power of the conqueror, who
treated him with generosity. The story
of his being carried about in a cage by
Timur is without historical proof. B.
died, in 1403, in Timur's camp, in Cara-
mania. His successor was Soliman I.-
Bajazet II succeeded his father, Mahomet
II, sultan of the Turks, in 1481. He in-
creased the Turkish empire by conquests
on the north-west and in the east, took Le-
panto, Modon and Durazzo, in a war against
the Venetians, and ravaged the coasts of the
Christian states on the Mediterranean, to
45
VOL. I.
529
revenge the expulsion of the Moors from
Spain. At home, he had to contend
against his rebellious son Selim, to whom,
at last, he resigned the empire. He died
in 1512, on his way to the place which
he had chosen for his retirement. It has
been supposed that he was put to death
by the order of his son. He was a man
of uncommon talents, and did much for
the improvement of his empire, and the
promotion of the sciences.
BAKHUYSEN. (See Backhuysen.)
BAKKER, Peter Huysinga, a Dutch
poet, born in 1715, died in 1801, was a
member of the academy of sciences at
Leyden. His poem on the inundation of
1740 is much esteemed. All his works
make three volumes, of which one volume
contains satires and contemptuous songs
against the Britons. He was a friend and
relation of the Dutch historian Wagenaer,
of whose life he published some notices.
He translated Hight's Latin poem on
Spring into Dutch.
BALALAIKA; a musical instrument, of
very ancient Sclavonian origin, common
among the Russians, Tartars, and, accord-
ing to Niebuhr, also frequent in Egypt
and Arabia. It is of the guitar kind, but
has only two strings.
BALANCE OF POWER. (See Power.)
BALANCE OF TRADE, a subject formerly
so much discussed, is now rarely men-
tioned. The notion was once entertained,
that the prosperity of a country depended
on exporting merchandise exceeding the
value of the imports, and receiving the
balance in the precious metals. If a na-
tion has no mines, it can obtain the pre-
cious metals only by importation. So far,
therefore, there is some ground for the
notion. But, in speculating on this sub-
ject, men fell into two errors-1, in sup-
posing that any direct legislative interfe-
rence was necessary, in respect to the
precious metals; 2, in computing the
balance of trade; for, if we compare the
value of exports with that of imports re-
ceived in exchange, the more profitable
the trade is, the more the balance is
against us; that is, the more will the
value of imports, including the precious
metals, exceed that of exports, if we esti-
mate the value in our own markets; and
there must be an excess equal to freight
and charges, or it is a losing trade to those
concerned. But any country may, in fact,
have a balance of trade against it, provid-
ed it gets credit abroad; and that balance,
consisting of the debts of individuals, may
be embarrassing to the national industry
as much as a private debt may be to a
1
1
530
BALANCE OF TRADE-BALDE.
debtor, who has either made a bad bar-
gain, or has to struggle to obtain the
means of making payment. This sub-
ject of the balance of trade was not un-
derstood in the U. States until 1824, when
the tariff of that date was under dis-
cussion.
BALANCING; among seamen, the con-
tracting a sail into a narrower compass, in
a storm, by folding up a part of it at one
corner, by which it is distinguished from
reefing. Balancing is peculiar to few
sails.
BALBEC, or BAALBEC; the ancient He-
liopolis (city of the sun), in Cœlosyria, in
the pachalic of Acre, in Syria, in a fertile
valley at the foot of Antilibanus, 40 miles
from Damascus; lon. 36° 11' E.; lat. 34°
I' N. ; a small, meanly-built town, sur-
rounded by ruinous walls, containing
about 5,000 inhabitants, among whom
there are some Christians and Jews.
The city is under the government of an
aga, who assumes the title of emir. Here
are the finest ruins in the East, of which
a society of English travellers, who visited
B. in the middle of the 18th century, have
given the most complete description. As
early as the time of Augustus, Heliopolis
had a Roman garrison. Whether the
magnificent temple of the sun, a great
part of which is still uninjured, and which
is one of the most splendid remains of
antiquity, was built by the emperor Anto-
ninus Pius, or by Septimius Severus,
upon whose medals it appears to have
been first represented, is uncertain. Of
54 lofty columns, there are but 6 standing:
their shafts are 54 feet high, and nearly
22 in circumference; and the whole height,
including the pedestal and capital, is 72
feet. Excellent marble statues of Jupiter,
Diana and Leda, and bass-reliefs and busts
of Roman emperors and empresses, are
yet to be seen. The size of the stones,
with which the walls of the temple are
constructed, is astonishing. No mechan-
ical expedients now known would be
able to place them in their present posi-
tion. Under the emperor Constantine,
this temple was neglected, and was
changed into a Christian church. Thus
it remained until after the irruption of
the Arabians, when it fell to decay. The
great palace, which Antoninus Pius is also
said to have built, and several other tem-
ples, are of distinguished beauty. Obei-
dah, a general of the caliph Omar, cap-
tured the city, after a vigorous defence.
In 1401, it was taken by Tamerlane. An
earthquake almost entirely destroyed it in
1759.
BALBOA, Vasco Nuñez de; born about
1475; one of the Spanish adventurers who
pu ued the path which Columbus had
pointed out, and sought to make their
fortunes in America. The Spanish court
granted them full permission to make dis-
coveries, without giving them sufficient
support. B., after having dissipated his
fortune in Spain, went to America, arrived
at the isthmus of Darien, and soon became
the leader of a small troop of Spaniards.
He succeeded in founding a colony in
these regions, either winning the inhabit-
ants by kindness, or subjecting them by
force. A dispute having taken place be-
tween two of his companions, on the
division of a quantity of gold, an Indian,
who perceived the eagerness of the Span-
iards for it, offered to show them a coun-
try where this metal was used for the
meanest vessels. He led them to the
coast of the Pacific ocean, where the way
to Peru was open before them. B., how-
ever, ventured not to attack Peru with
his troop of 150 men. He was satisfied
with getting information, and with taking
possession, in the name of the king of
Spain, of the great ocean, the boundless
plain of which was spread out before him.
After four months, he returned to Darien,
loaded with gold and pearls. Here he
found a new governor, Pedrarias, whom
he was commanded to obey by an order
of Ferdinand. Though surprised at this
ingratitude, he complied, and, in the fol-
lowing year, was appointed viceroy of the
South sea. Pedrarias was apparently
reconciled to him, but, soon after, under
pretext of neglect of duty, ordered him to
be tried and condemned to death. B.
was beheaded in 1517, at the age of 42
years. Pizarro, who afterwards complet-
ed the discovery of Peru, had served under
him.
BALCAN. (See Balkan.)
BALDE, Jacob, born at Ensisheim, in
Alsace, in 1603, died, in 1668, at Neuburg,
on the Danube. He was a Jesuit, a
preacher at the court of the elector of
Bavaria, and one of the most distinguish-
ed Latin poets among the moderns. He
witnessed the melancholy scenes of the
30 years' war with a wounded heart. He
relieved such as were expelled from their
homes, and, at the same time, endeavor-
ed to awaken a better spirit among the
Germans, and to excite them to valor,
virtue and unanimity. An extensive and
profound knowledge of the world, with a
truly philosophical dignity of inind, are
every where displayed in his poems.
He will be admired in Germany in all
BALDE-BALES.
ages. Augustus William Schlegel says
of him, "A deep, strong feeling, often
combined with an ardent enthusiasm; an
imagination from which strong and won-
derful images spring forth in boundless
profusion; an inventive fancy, always
striking out original comparisons, in sur-
prising forms; a penetrating judgment,
which, when not blinded by partiality or
early prejudices, catches the human char-
acter with a quick and piercing glance;
great moral energy and independence; a
bold security of genius, always choosing its
own path, and not fearing even the most
untrodden;-all these qualities are so
strongly displayed in the works of Balde,
that we are constrained to declare him an
uncommon and richly-gifted poet."-His
poems in the German language are in-
significant. A collection of his poeti-
cal writings, consisting of lyric, elegiac,
didactic, satirical and other poems, ap-
peared, in 1660, at Cologne, in 4 vols.,
12mo.; and at Munich, in 1729, 8 vols.; a
selection, by I. C. Orell, Zurich, 1805,
second edition, 1818.
BALDWIN III, king of Jerusalem, from
1143 to 1162; a model of that chivalry
which grew up in the period of the cru-
sades, from the sentiments of honor, jus-
tice, devotion and love. The crusaders
had established counts of Tripoli and
Edessa, and princes of Antioch. The
feudal dominions of the Christians ex-
tended as far as Tarsus and Cilicia; but
the vassals of B. were always in rebellion
against him, or engaged in conflicts with
each other. Against them and the new
hosts of crusaders, against the knights of
St. Mary, the Templars and the Hospi-
tallers, the Saracen heroes, Saladin,
Noureddin, Zenghi and Seifeddin, fought
with equal fanaticism and equal dissen-
sions among themselves, but with better
fortune. In the army of B. were some-
times seen Saracens, valiantly fighting
under the banner of the cross.
happy reign was the last struggle to es-
tablish the Christian chivalry, the tourna-
ments and the knightly orders in the
East. With it fell the feudal constitution
in that quarter, both civil and ecclesiasti-
cal. B. died not long before the total
ruin of his kingdom; and when his great
adversary, Noureddin, was advised to at-
tack the dominions of the deceased during
his funeral, he answered, "Let us respect
their affliction; it is just; for they have
lost a king such as is rarely to be found."
BÂLE, BASIL, or BASLE. (See Basle.)
BALE, COUNCIL OF. (See Basle, Coun-
cil of.)
His un-
531
The
BALEARES; the name of the two îsl-
ands in the Mediterranean, situated near
the coast of Valencia, in Spain, Majorca
(in Spanish, Mallorca) and Minorca (q. v.),
which, together with the Pithyusian isl-
ands, Ivica and Formentera, formed the
Spanish kingdom of Majorca, containing
1758 square miles, and 275,000 inhabit-
ants. The Grecian name B. was given
them because the inhabitants were fa-
mous for their skill in slinging.
Balearic slingers distinguished themselves
in the army of Hannibal. In later times,
the Romans took possession of both the
islands; afterwards, the Vandals, under
the
Genseric, and, in the 8th century,
Moors, from whom they were taken by
James I, king of Arragon, 1220-1234.
They then constituted a kingdom, which,
in 1375, was united to Spain. The Eng-
lish conquered Minorca in 1708, lost it
again in 1782, and relinquished it to
Spain by the treaty of 1783.-Under the
Romans, the B. belonged to the conventus
juridicus in Carthagine nova.
BALEN, Hendrick van, and Jacob van;
father and son; historical painters; the
former born in 1560, the latter in 1611,
both at Antwerp. The former died in
1632. Pictures by each are still extant,
and considered valuable.
BALES, Peter, famous for his skill in
penmanship, lived in the 16th century.
Holingshed, in his chronicle, mentions
the wonderful skill of B. in what may be
termed micrography; and Evelyn more
particularly states, that he wrote the
Lord's prayer, creed, decalogue, two
short Latin prayers, his own name, mot-
to, day of the month, year of our Lord
and of the reign of queen Elizabeth, to
whom he presented it at Hampton court,
all within the circle of a silver penny,
enchased in a ring and border of gold,
and covered with a crystal, so accurately
done as to be plainly legible, to the
great admiration of her majesty, the
whole privy-council, and several ambas-
sadors then at court. He was very dex-
terous in imitating the hand-writing of
others, on which account he was em-
ployed by sir Francis Walsingham, the
queen's secretary of state; but, by involv-
ing himself in the conspiracy of the earl
of Essex, he suffered imprisonment. He
died about 1610. From a book which
he published in 1590, entitled the "Writ-
ing Schoolmaster, in three Parts; the
first teaching Swift Writing, the second
True Writing, the third Fair Writing,” it
appears that he was acquainted with ste-
nography. His talents were celebrated
532
BALES-BALL.
by learned men in verse. We shall have
a more just idea of his merits, if we con-
sider the low state of penmanship at that
time. All the manuscripts of that period
extant are either miserably written, or
have the appearance of drawings rather
than writings.
BALESSAN; the Eastern name for that
species of the amyris which produces the
celebrated balsam of Mecca, the ancient
balm of Gilead. This plant grows to the
height of 14 feet, on a stony, barren soil.
The balsam is a resinous matter, exuding,
like ordinary resin, from incisions in the
bark, in July, August and September.
The balsam is used for many medicinal
purposes, and the ladies in the East em-
ploy it as a means of beautifying the skin.
Lady Montague tried it, and relates that
she suffered for three days from its ap-
plication, but that her complexion was
greatly improved. The balsam of Gilead
was renowned among the early He-
brews.
BALESTRA, Antonio; a historical paint-
er of much reputation; born at Verona, in
1666; died, according to some, in 1720;
according to others, in 1740.
BALIOL, BALLIOL, or BAILLIOL, John;
king of Scotland. On the death of queen
Margaret, being at the head of the Eng-
lish interest in Scotland, he claimed the
vacant throne by virtue of his descent
from David, earl of Huntingdon, brother
to William the Lion, king of Scotland.
Robert Bruce opposed Baliol; but, having
submitted to the arbitration of Edward I,
the decision was in favor of Baliol, who did
homage to him for the kingdom, Nov. 12,
1292. Baliol, however, did not long en-
joy the crown, for, having remonstrated
against the power which Edward assumed
over Scotland, he was summoned to his
tribunal as a vassal. Irritated at this, Ba-
liol concluded a treaty with France, on
which a war with England immediately
commenced; and, after the battle of Dun-
bar, he surrendered his crown into the
hands of the English monarch, who sent
him and his son to London, to be impris-
oned in the Tower. The pope interceded
for them, and they were liberated, and
committed to his legate, in 1297. Baliol
retired to his estate in France, where he
died in 1314.
BALISTE, OF BALLISTE; a kind of ma-
chines for besieging, or attacking the be-
siegers, in use among the ancients, by
which heavy stones, also arrows and
other weapons, were thrown; and even
burning substances and dead bodies, by
the besiegers. Many of the ancient wri-
ters confound the balista with the cata-
pulta, but Polybius makes a difference,
using the latter word only for those ma-
chines which threw stones. The mech-
anism of these machines is not quite
clear. There is a third name for a kind
of these machines-onager. The weight
of the stones thrown was from 10 to 300
pounds. Sometimes a large quantity of
stones was thrown at once. A clear idea
of these instruments cannot be formed
without the study of treatises on the arms.
and warfare of the ancients.
BALIZE; a sea-port of Mexico, in Yu-
catan, at the mouth of the river Balize.
Vessels of burden cannot come near the
town, on account of a bar in the river.
It is the only settlement of consequence,
belonging to the British, on the coast,
and consists of about 200 houses, built of
wood. The chief trade is in logwood
and mahogany.
BALK; the ancient Bactria. (See Aƒ-
ghanistan.)
BALKAN (anciently called Hamus); a
lofty and rugged chain of mountains, ex-
tending froni cape Emineh Burum, on
the Black sea, in European Turkey, to
cape San Stefano, in the Adriatic sea,
from 23° to 27° E. lon. Near Sulu Der-
bent (Porta Trajani), this mountain, called,
by the Turks, Emineh Slag, separates
from Rhodope, and divides the valley of
the Danube, which constitutes Bulgaria,
(inhabited mostly by wandering tribes),
from Romania, or Rumelia. A branch
extends from north to south (mount
Athos); another runs through ancient
Greece, and comprehends the mountains
Olympus, Eta, Pindus, Parnassus, Heli-
con. The highest peak, Orbelus, rises
9000 feet above the surface of the sea.
After the overthrow of the empire in
Constantinople, only the Greeks of the
plains and the sea-coast submitted to the
Mussulmans. The warriors, and those
who had no landed property, fled into
the mountains, into the armatolics, and
have, in general, maintained a continual
contest with the pachas of the plain :
some have paid a small tribute to the
Turkish pacha, and some have become
Mohanimedans. The districts where the
Catholic is the prevailing church, contain
the wildest inhabitants, and have never
been subjected to the emperors of Con-
stantinople for any length of time.
BALL. Ball-playing was practised by
the ancients, and old and young amused
themselves with it, particularly in the
therma. The Greeks and Romans had
four kinds of balls. One was of leather,
BALL-BALLAD.
filled with air, and consequently similar
to our foot-ball; the second, a leathern
ball, which was thrown on the earth, and
after which many ran at once; the third,
a small ball, similar to our shuttlecock,
which three persons, placed in a triangle,
struck towards each other; the fourth
was thickly stuffed with feathers, and
used particularly in the country. In a
Roman villa, a sphæristerium (a place ap-
propriated for playing ball) was always to
be found. In the middle ages, there were
houses appropriated to ball-playing. In
these, certain persons were employed to
pick up the balls of the players, who, in
France, were called nanquets, and, in later
times, marqueurs. In Italy, there are still
public places, where people play with
large balls, which they strike with a kind
of wooden cylinder, fastened round their
wrists, to an immense height. The spec-
tators often pay for admission to the
spectacle, and, in some cities, the players
form a company. From what we have
seen in different countries, we think the
national German ball-play the most inter-
esting, and the one which affords the best
exercise.
BALLAD; a short epic song, (from the
Italian ballata, an old kind of song), of an
entirely lyric nature. Ballata
Ballata is derived
from ballare, to dance, probably from
the German wallen (pronounced vallen),
which signifies a waving motion. Though
the name is Italian, the species of poetry
which we now understand under the
word ballad, belonging to England and
the other northern nations of Europe, is
of Teutonic origin, at least Percy and
Bouterweck agree in this, and Frederic
Schlegel, in his History of Ancient and
Modern Literature (Vienna, 1815), seems
to be of the same opinion. The word
ballata passed from the Italians to the
Provençales, from whom the Normans took
it, and carried it to England, where it was
applied to short songs, particularly to the
most popular ones, which were short tales
in verse, describing the deeds of heroes,
the adventures of lovers, &c. If we wish
to trace the English and Scottish ballad
to its origin, we must have recourse to
those songs which existed among the in-
habitants of the island before the Norman
conquest, and were of a kind common to
all the Teutonic nations. It is related of
king Alfred, that he sung in the camp of
the Danes. All the Scandinavian nations
delighted in songs celebrating the deeds
of heroes, or describing the passions and
adventures of lovers; and the three
great divisions or cycles of the Teu-
45*
533
tonic poetry of the middle ages, the sto-
ries of the Nibelungen, those of Charle-
magne (particularly such as relate to his
war against the Arabians and the battle
of Roncesvalles), and the tales of king
Arthur's round table,-consist of what, at
a later period, were called ballads. The
true home of the English ballad is the
northern part of England (the North
Country) and the southern part of Scot-
land, where the influence of the Normans
was less than in the south of England.
Those Normans who settled in these
parts despised the native poetry, which
they did not understand; and thus it was
left entirely to the people, and retained,
for that reason, its simple and popular
character, even after it grew into esteem
among the descendants of the Norman
conquerors. The feudal wars of the Nor-
man knights, and their highly chivalric
spirit, which flourished in England as
long, and in as much purity, as in the
southern countries of Europe, afforded
new subjects to the ballad, and contrib-
uted to modify its character. The min-
strels were accustomed to sing the deeds
of their ancestors, with all the additions
which a lively imagination dictated. They
soon commemorated, in the same way,
the achievements of their contemporaries,
and now the ballad, properly so called,
originated. The former bards became
minstrels, who, in connexion with the jon-
gleurs, or jougleurs (resembling the mod-
ern jugglers, who have derived their name
from them), waited upon the barons, like
the French menetriers, devoting them-
selves to their amusement, and receiving,
in return, pecuniary rewards and hospita-
ble entertainment. (Minstrel and mene-
trier are both derived from the Latin
ministerialis.) As the popular poetry of
the first centuries after the Norman con-
quest did not acquire a literary reputa-
tion, and probably was never committed
to writing, it is not to be wondered at,
that the oldest poems of a mixed Norman
and Anglo-Saxon character, which are
preserved in MSS., are either imitations
of French poetry, or religious songs, such
as were found among other nations of
Europe in the middle ages. A little poem
on spring is almost the only one of genu-
ine Saxon origin, which has, as yet, been
printed from MS. Warton has publish-
ed it in the additions and emendations
which belong to vol. 1 of his History of
English Poetry. It begins, Sumer is cumen.
The earliest of the English ballads which
have been preserved cannot be considered
antecedent to the 14th century; and we
534
BALLAD-BALLET.
cannot speak with certainty of the origin
of many which appeared before the 15th.
We have said that the ballad above de-
scribed is properly of Teutonic origin; we
ought to mention, however, that the Span-
iards, and they only, among the southern
nations of Europe, have songs of equal
age and merit with the English ballads.
The principal difference between them
is, that the Spanish romance is in tro-
chaic, the English ballad in iambic, metre.
The different character of the nations has
also produced some diversity in the tone
of sentiment and feeling. At the time
when this kind of poetry flourished in the
two nations, they had very little inter-
course with each other, and the similarity
of the forms which it assumed can be
explained only by an accidental similarity
of causes. (For further information on
the history of the English ballad, we must
refer the reader to Percy's Reliques of
Ancient English Poetry; Warton's His-
tory of English Poetry; Dr. Burney's His-
tory of Music, and vol. vii. of Bouter-
weck's History of Poetry and Eloquence
since the End of the 13th Century. For
information respecting the Spanish ballad,
or romance, as it is called by the Span-
iards, see the article Romance.) The
French poetry of this kind never reached
any high degree of perfection, because
their fabliaux, legends, &c., soon degen-
erated into interminable metrical and
prose romances of chivalry. In Italy, the
ballad never flourished: the poetry of
that country has always retained a cer-
tain antique spirit, and the Italians, never
partook, to any great extent, in the cru-
sades, being fully occupied at home in
the wars of the free cities. The Portu-
guese never cultivated the ballad much.
Almost all their poetry of this kind is to
be traced to a Spanish origin. The Ger-
man ballad never became so popular as
the English, nor was so much cultivated
as the Spanish. The Russians have lyrico-
epic poems, of which some, in old Rus-
sian, are excellent. Of the ballads of
modern times, the German are the best.
Many of these are the productions of the
first writers of the country-Göthe, Schil-
ler, Bürger, &c. The best observations
within our knowledge, on the character
of the ballad, and what it requires, is to be
found in Frederic von Schlegel's Kritische
Schriften (on Bürger).
BALLAST (from the Danish baglast) is a
load of sand or stones, deposited in ships,
which have not freight enough to sink
them to their proper depth in the water,
so as to resist the wind and waves. In
storms, if the vessel leaks, part of the hal-
last must often be thrown out, to make
the vessel lighter. By the English navi-
gation act, and by the laws of other com-
inercial nations, formed by way of retali-
ation, vessels are often obliged to take
ballast, either on their departure or return,
instead of transporting, even at little profit,
heavy and cheap goods of the country, to
foreign countries.
BALLET (from bal; hence the French
baller, and the Italian ballare, to dance);
in its widest sense, the representation of
a series of passionate actions and feelings,
by means of gestures and dancing. Ac-
cording to this signification, we compre-
hend, under ballets, even representations
of mental emotions, not connected with a
regular train of action. In a more con-
fined sense, we call ballets musical pie-
ces, the object of which is to repre-
sent, by mimic movements and dances,
actions, characters, sentiments, passions
and feelings, in which several dancers
perform together. According to the anal-
ogy of lyrical poetry, those which rather
represent feelings may be called lyrical
ballets; those which imitate actions, dra-
matic ballets. The lyrical and drainatic
ballets, together, constitute the higher art
of dancing, in opposition to the lower,
the aim of which is only social pleasure.
The dramatic ballets are divided into
historical, the subject of which is a real
event; the mythological, in which the
subject is some fabulous action; and the
poetical, which are founded on poetical
fiction, to which belong, also, the allegor-
ical, necessarily the most imperfect. A
ballet is usually divided into several acts,
each of which has several entrées. An
entrée, in a ballet, consists of one or sev-
eral quadrilles of dancers, who, by their
steps, gestures and attitudes, represent a
certain part of the action. In criticising a
ballet, we must consider, first, the choice
of the subject, which must have unity of
action or of passion, and must be capable
of being represented in an intelligible
manner by means of mimic movements
and dancing; secondly, the plan and ex-
ecution of the single parts, which must
have a due proportion to each other; and,
finally, the music and decorations, which
must supply whatever dancing cannot
bring before the eye. The ballet is an
invention of modern times (the ingenious
artist Baltazarini, director of music to the
princess Catharine de' Medici, probably
gave its form to the regular ballet), though
pantomimic dances were not unknown to
the ancients. (See Mimic and Panto-
BALLET-BALTIC SEA.
mime.) The ballet owes much to the
French, and particularly to Noverre. (q. v.)
The dances, which are frequently intro-
duced into operas, seldom deserve the
name ballet, as they usually do not repre-
sent any action, but are designed only to
give the dancers an opportunity of show-
ing their skill.
BALLHORN, John; printer at Lübeck,
who, between 1531 and 1599, published
a spelling-book, on the last page of which
he altered the usual picture of a cock
with spurs, into that of a cock without
spurs, having a couple of eggs at his side.
As he printed in the title-page, on ac-
count of this trivial alteration, "Improved
by John Ballhorn," the word Ballhornize
is proverbially used, in Germany, to sig-
nify stupid and useless alterations, or the
making a thing worse instead of better.
BALLISTE. (See Balista.)
BALLOON. (See Aeronautics.)
BALLSTON-SPA; a village of New York,
7 miles S. W. of Saratoga springs, 26 N. of
Albany. This place is noted for its min-
eral waters, which are similar, though
inferior, to those of Saratoga springs. It
is situated in a deep vale, on a branch of
the Kayaderosseras creek, and contains
about 100 houses, a court-house, an Epis-
copal church, a Baptist meeting-house,
and a number of large boarding-houses
and inns, for the accommodation of vis-
itors.
Balm of Gilead is the dried juice of
a low tree or shrub (amyris gileadensis),
which grows in several parts of Abyssinia
and Syria. This tree has spreading,
crooked branches; small, bright-green
leaves, growing in threes; and small,
white flowers on separate footstalks.
The petals are four in number, and the
fruit is a small, egg-shaped berry, con-
taining a smooth nut.-By the inhabit-
ants of Syria and Egypt, this balsam, as
appears from the Scriptures, was in great
esteem from the highest periods of an-
tiquity. We are informed by Josephus,
the Jewish historian, that the balsam of
Gilead was one of the trees which was
given by the queen of Sheba to king Sol-
omon. The Ishmaelitish merchants, who
were the purchasers of Joseph, are said
to have been travelling from Gilead, on
the eastern side of Canaan, to Egypt, and
to have had their camels laden with "spi-
cery, balm and myrrh." It was then, and is
still, considered one of the most valuable
medicines that the inhabitants of those
countries possess. The virtues, however,
which have been ascribed to it exceed all
rational bounds of credibility. The mode
535
in which it is obtained is described by
Mr. Bruce. The bark of the trees is cut
with an axe, at a time when its juices are
in their strongest circulation. These, as
they ooze through the wound, are re-
ceived into small earthen bottles; and
every day's produce is gathered, and
poured into a larger bottle, which is
closely corked. When the juice first
issues from the wound, it is of a light-
yellow color, and a somewhat turbid ap-
pearance; but, as it settles, it becomes
clear, has the color of honey, and appears
more fixed and heavy than at first. Its
smell, when fresh, is exquisitely fragrant,
strongly pungent, not much unlike that of
volatile salts; but if the bottle be left un-
corked, it soon loses this quality. Its taste
is bitter, acrid, aromatic and astringent.
The quantity of balsam yielded by one
tree never exceeds 60 drops in a day.
Hence its scarcity is such, that the genu-
ine balsam is seldom exported as an arti-
cle of commerce. Even at Constantino-
ple, the centre of trade of those countries,
it cannot, without great difficulty, be pro-
cured. In Turkey, it is in high esteem
as a medicine, an odoriferous unguent
and a cosmetic. But its stimulating
properties upon the skin are such, that
the face of a person unaccustomed to use
it becomes red and swollen after its ap-
plication, and continues so for some days.
The Turks also take it in small quantities,
in water, to fortify the stomach, and ex-
cite the animal faculties.
BALOOCHISTAN. (See Beloochistan.)
BALSAM. The term balsam was for-
merly applied to any strong-scented, nat-
ural, vegetable resin, of about the fluidity
of treacle, inflammable, not miscible with
water without addition, and supposed to
be possessed of many medical virtues.
All the turpentines, the Peruvian balsam,
copaiba, &c., are examples of natural bal-
sams. Many medicines, also, compound-
ed of various resins or oils, have obtained
the name of balsams; as Locatelli balsam,
&c. Lately, the term has been restricted
to those resins which contain benzoic
acid. The most important balsams are
those of Tolu and Peru-storax and ben-
zoin, as they are named: the latter is
concrete, the former fluid, though be-
coming solid with age. They are odor-
ous and pungent, and useful only as arti-
cles of the materia medica. The benzoic
acid is extracted from them either by ap-
plying a gentle beat, when it is volatilized,
or by maceration in water, when it is dis-
solved.
BALTIC SEA, or the EAST SEA; a large
I
536
BALTIC SEA-BALTIMORE.
gulf, connected with the North sea. It
washes the coasts of Denmark, Germany
and Prussia, of Courland, Livonia and
other parts of Russia and of Sweden;
extends to 65° 30′ N. lat.; is above 600
miles long, from 75 to 150 broad, and its
superficial extent, together with the con-
tents of the gulfs of Bothnia and Finland,
amounts to 120,000 square miles. Its
small breadth, its depth amounting, on
an average, to from 15 to 20 fathoms, but
in many places to hardly half so much,
the shallowness of the Prussian shore, and
the rugged nature of the Swedish coasts,
but, above all, the sudden and frequent
changes of the wind, accompanied by vi-
olent storms, render this sea dangerous
for navigators, although its waves are less
terrible than those of the North sea. A
chain of islands separates the southern
part of this sea from the northern, or the
gulf of Bothnia. In the north-east, the
gulf of Finland stretches far into Finland,
and separates that province from Estho-
nia. Â third gulf is that of Riga or Livo-
nia. The Curische Haff and the Frische
Haff are inlets on the Prussian coast.
The water of the Baltic is colder and
clearer than that of the ocean: it contains
a smaller proportion of salt, and the ice
obstructs the navigation three or four
inonths in the year. The ebb and flow
of the tide are inconsiderable, as is the
case in other inland seas, whose outlets
are toward the west; yet the water rises
and falls from time to time, although from
other causes, particularly on account of
the violent current, through the Sound
and both the Belts, into the Cattegat. In
stormy weather, amber is found on the
coasts of Prussia and Courland, which the
waves wash upon the shore. 40 streams
empty into the Baltic: among them are
the Neva, Dwina, Warnow, Trave, Peene,
Oder, Persante, Wipper, Vistula, Pregel,
Niemen (or Memel), and the generally
insignificant Swedish rivers. Besides
Zealand and Fuhnen, may be noticed
the following islands: Samsoe, Mön,
Bornholm, Langeland, Laaland, which
belong to Denmark; the Swedish islands
Gothland and Oeland, likewise Hween
in the Sound, with the ruins of Oranien-
burg, the observatory built by Tycho
Brahe; Rügen, now belonging to Prus-
sia; lastly, the islands of Aland, at the
entrance of the gulf of Bothnia, and
Dagoe, together with Oesel, on the coast
of Livonia, which belong to the Russian
empire. Three passages lead from the
Cattegat into the Baltic sea-the Sound,
the Great and the Little Belt. At all three
a toll is paid, often amounting to 500,000
or 600,000 rix dollars yearly. From 4000
to 6000 ships enter yearly from the North
sea into the Baltic.
BALTIMORE; a city and port of entry,
in Baltimore county, Maryland, on the
north side of the Patapsco, 14 miles above
its entrance into Chesapeake bay; 37 N.
E. Washington, 100 S. W. Philadelphia.
Lon. 762 36 W.; lat. 39° 17' N. Pop. in
1790, 13,758; in 1800, 23,971; in 1810,
46,556, of whom 10,343 were blacks; in
1820, 62,738.-B. has had a remarkably
rapid growth. It was first laid out as a
town in 1729; and, in 1765, it contained
only about 50 houses. It was first erected
into a city in 1797, and is now the third
in size in the U. States. It is admirably
situated for commerce, and is a place of
great wealth and trade. It possesses most
of the trade of Maryland, about half of
that of Pennsylvania, and a portion of
that of the Western States. B. is the best
market for tobacco in the U. States, and
it is the greatest flour market in the
world. Its vicinity affords great water
privileges, and there are now in operation
numerous flour-mills, cotton manufacto-
ries, and other water-works. The ship-
ping owned here in 1790 amounted to
only 13,564 tons; in 1816, to 101,960
tons.-B., as laid out, is 4 miles square,
and it is divided into 12 wards. It is
built around a basin, which affords a
spacious, secure and commodious harbor,
having, at common tides, eight or nine
feet of water. The principal part of the
city is divided from the portions styled
Old Town and Fell's point by a small
river, called Jones' falls, over which are
erected three elegant stone bridges, and
four wooden ones. Vessels of 500 or 600
tons can lie at the wharves at the point
in perfect safety; but those of only 200
tons can come up to the town. The
mouth of the harbor is a narrow strait,
and is effectually commanded by fort
M'Henry, which secures the city against
a naval force. The situation of a part of
the town is low, and it was formerly ac-
counted unhealthy; but the various im-
provements which have been made, par-
ticularly the filling up of low and marshy
grounds, have rendered it healthy. It is
supplied with excellent water from four
public fountains, which are fitted up in
an ornamental style.-B. contains a court-
house, a penitentiary, a jail, an alms-
house, an hospital, two theatres, a circus,
an exchange, a museum and gallery of
paintings, 5 market-houses, and about
40 houses of public worship.-The ex-
•
BALTIMORE-BALTIMORE BIRD.
change is a very large edifice, 366 feet by
140, somewhat resembling an H, having
four wings-one for the United States
branch bank, one for the custom-house,
and one for a coffee-house. The Roman
Catholic cathedral and the Unitarian
church are very conspicuous and hand-
some edifices.
St. Paul's church, the
court-house and the Union bank are
spacious and elegant. Several of the
other public buildings are large and ele-
gant. The Washington monument, a
lofty structure of stone, is situated on
an elevation just above the compact part
of the city. The base is 50 feet square
and 23 high, on which is placed another
square of about half the extent and eleva-
tion. On this is a column 20 feet in di-
ameter at the base, and 14 at the top.
The statue of Washington is to be placed
on the summit, 163 feet from the ground.
The city is generally well built, mostly
of brick. Many of the houses, particular-
ly of those recently erected, display much
elegance and taste. The streets are well
paved, and many of them are spacious.
The principal street, called Baltimore or
Market street, is about a mile long, and
about 80 feet wide, runs nearly east
and west, parallel with the water, and is
intersected at right angles, like those in
Philadelphia. North and east of the city,
the land rises to a considerable elevation,
and affords a fine and variegated prospect.
The town, the point, the shipping, both
in the bay and at Fell's point, the bay as
far as the eye can reach, rising ground on
the right and left of the harbor, a fine
grove of trees on the declivity at the right,
and a stream of water breaking over the
rocks at the hill on the left, make a scene
of much beauty. The two principal lit-
erary institutions of B. are St. Mary's
college and a medical college. The former,
which was incorporated in 1806, is a
Catholic institution, well endowed, and
has a library containing about 10,000
volumes. The medical college was
founded in 1807, and, in 1812, it received
a new charter with the title of university.
-A formidable attack was made on this
city during the late war, on the 13th and
14th of Sept. 1814, by the British, under
general Ross. On the 13th, the battle at
North point was fought; and, on the
14th, fort M'Henry was bombarded. The
enemy was repulsed, and general Ross
slain. An elegant structure of marble,
about 35 feet high, called the battle
monument, has been erected to commem-
orate this event, On the column are
inscribed the names of those who fell in
537
defence of the city. (For the Baltimore
and Ohio railroad, see Railroad.)
BALTIMORE BIRD (icterus Baltimore;
oriolus Baltimore, Wilson; called, also,
hang-nest, golden robin, fire-bird, hanging-
nest). The Baltimore bird is a beautiful
visitor from the south, which arrives in
Pennsylvania about the beginning of May,
and departs towards the last of August or
first of September. It is most generally
known by the name of Baltimore bird, so
called, according to Catesby, from its
black and orange plumage, these colors
being those of Calvert lord Baltimore,
proprietary of the province of Mary-
land. The bird is seven inches long, and
has a nearly straight, strong, black bill,
tapering to a point. The head, throat and
upper part of the back and wings are
black; the inferior part of the back, rump
and whole of the body beneath are of a
brilliant orange hue. The tail is slightly
forked; the legs are of a lead color, and
the irides hazel. The colors of the fe-
male are far less brilliant than those of the
male. Beautiful figures of both sexes are
given in Wilson's American Ornithology,
whence this account is sketched.-The
nest of the Baltimore bird is formed by
fastening strong strings of hemp or flax
round two forked twigs, corresponding to
the intended width of the nest, on the high
bending extremities of apple, willow or
tulip-tree branches, near farm-houses.
With similar materials, together with
loose tow, a strong sort of cloth is inter-
woven, resembling raw felt, forming a
pouch six or seven inches deep. This
is well lined with soft substances, which
are worked into the outward netting, and,
finally, with a layer of horse-hair; the
whole being protected from sun and rain by
the overhanging leaves. The nests, how-
ever, are not uniformly of the same shape,
and some are more perfect than others.-
While making their nests, these birds will
carry off any thread or strings left within
their reach; they will even attempt to
pull off the strings with which grafts are
secured. All such materials are inter-
woven in the fabric with great ingenuity,
and the strongest and best materials are
uniformly found in parts by which the
whole nest is supported.-The Baltimore
bird feeds on bugs, caterpillars, beetles,
&c. His song is a clear, mellow whistle,
repeated at short intervals: when alarm-
ed, a rapid chirping is uttered, but always
followed by his peculiar mellow notes.
The species inhabits North America, from
Canada to Mexico, and is found even as
far south as Brazil.

538
BALZAC-BAMBOUK.
BALZAC, Jean Louis Guez de, a mem-
ber of the French academy, born at An-
goulême, in 1594, lived in Rome as agent
of the cardinal de Lavalette, after two
years established himself in Paris, and, by
his talents, attracted the favorable notice
of the cardinal Richelieu, who conferred
upon him a salary of 2000 livres, with the
title of a counsellor of state. He was
considered as one of the greatest scholars
and most eloquent men of his age in
France; yet his numerous writings found
severe critics. Among these, Goulu, gen-
eral of the Feuillans (a monastic order,
under the rule of St. Bernard), pushed
his criticisms even to insult and abuse.
This induced B. to leave Paris. He died
in Angoulême, in 1654, in the 60th year
of his age. Aiming at dignity of style, he
fell into bombast, affectation and exag-
geration, so that his works have gradually
lost their reputation as taste has improved
in purity. Nevertheless, we must do jus-
tice to the harmony of his periods, and
acknowledge that he has done much to-
wards the improvement of the French
prose. He had studied the ancients, and
his Latin poems, although without re-
markable poetical merit, are pure, and
free from the faults of his French writ-
ings. The most perfect of his works is,
without doubt, a treatise upon Latin
verse. The assertion of Voltaire and
Laharpe, that he occupied himself more
with words than with ideas, is too severe.
A complete edition of his works appeared
at Paris, in 1665, in two volumes, folio.
BAMBARRA; one of the largest and most
powerful kingdoms of Central Africa;
bounded N. by the Great Desert, W. by
Kaarta, Mandingo and Ladamar, E. by
Timbuctoo, and S. by Kong. It is trav-
ersed from W. to E. by the Niger, and is
generally very fertile. The inhabitants
are a mixture of Moors and Negroes.
Among the towns are Sego, the capital,
Jenne and Sansanding.
BAMBERG. This town, formerly the cap-
ital and place of residence of a bishop,
whose see contained 1375 square miles
and 200,000 inhabitants, now the seat of
the provincial authorities of the Bavarian
circle of the Upper Maine, and of an arch-
bishop, has about 20,000 inhabitants. The
prince of Neufchatel, Berthier, the son-in-
law of duke William of Bavaria, here
threw himself from a window, in the pal-
ace of the latter, in 1815, on account of
the new revolution in France. The
cathedral church was built as early as
1110. The university there is also very
ancient.
BAMBOO CAne. The bamboo cane
(bambusa arundinacea) has a hollow,
round, straight and shining stem, and
sometimes grows to the length of 40 feet
and upwards; has knots at the distance
of 10 or 12 inches from each other, with
thick, rough and hairy sheaths, alternate
branches, and small, entire and spear-
shaped leaves. There is scarcely any
plant so common in hot climates as this,
and few are more extensively useful. It
occurs within the tropical regions, both of
the eastern and western hemispheres,
throughout the East Indies and the
greater part of China, in the West Indies
and America. In temperate climates, it
can only be cultivated in a hot-house; and
its growth is so rapid, even there, that a
strong shoot has been known to spring
from the ground and attain the height of
20 feet in 6 weeks. The inhabitants of
many parts of India build their houses
almost wholly of bamboo, and make all
sorts of furniture with it in a very inge-
nious manner. They likewise form with
it several kinds of utensils for their kitch-
ens and tables; and from two pieces of
bamboo, rubbed hard together, they pro-
duce fire.-The masts of boats, boxes,
baskets, and innumerable other articles,
are made of bamboo. After having been
bruised, steeped in water, and formed into
a pulp, paper is manufactured from the
sheaths and leaves. The stems are fre-
quently bored, and used as pipes for con-
veying water; and the strongest serve to
make the sticks or poles with which the
slaves or servants carry those litters, so
common in the East, called palanquins.
The stems of the bamboo serve as the
usual fence for gardens and other enclo-
sures; and the leaves are generally put
round the tea exported from China to Eu-
rope and America. Some of the Malays
preserve the small and tender shoots in
vinegar and pepper, to be eaten with their
food. Many of the walking canes used
in Europe and the U. States are formed of
young bamboo shoots. The Chinese
make a kind of frame-work of bamboo, by
which they are enabled to float in water;
and the Chinese merchants, when going
on a voyage, always provide themselves
with this simple apparatus to save their
lives in case of shipwreck. It is formed
by placing four bamboos horizontally
across each other, so as to leave a squaro
place in the middle for the body, and,
when used, is slipped over the head, and
secured by being tied to the waist.
BAMBOUK, or BAMBUC; a town in Afri-
ca, and capital of a kingdom of the same
BAMBOUK-BANDA ISLANDS.
name, between the Faleme and Senegal
rivers; lon. 9° 30′ W.; lat. 13° 25 N.
The country is situated between 12' 30
and 14° 15′ N. lat.; about 36 leagues from
N. to S., and 28 in breadth, and said to
contain about 60,000 inhabitants. It is
composed chiefly of lofty, naked and bar-
ren mountains, and its wealth consists en-
tirely in its mineral productions. These
are gold (which is abundant), silver, iron,
tin, lead and loadstone. The most re-
markable animals are a species of asses,
extremely white (which the inhabitants will
not allow to be sent out of the country),
white foxes and the giraffe. The little
which is known of this state is derived
from a Frenchman named Compagnon,
who resided there a year and a half, in
the beginning of the last century. (Labat,
Afrique Occidentale, iv. 5.)
BAN, in ancient jurisprudence; a dec-
laration of outlawry, of which we have
recently had an instance in the proclama-
tion issued against Napoleon after his re-
turn from Elba.-Ban, in political law, is
equivalent to excommunication in ecclesi-
astical. The emperor of Germany had the
right to declare a member of the empire
under the ban, and to dispose of his feud.
The ban, like the excommunication, forbids
every one to have intercourse with the
person proscribed, or to give him food or
shelter. Very often, however, the sen-
tence was repealed, and the party restored
to all his rights and privileges.-Ban, in
military affairs, is an order, given by beat-
ing the drum or sounding the trumpet,
requiring the strict observance of disci-
pline, or announcing the appointment of
an officer, &c.
BAN (bannus). This name is given to
the governors of Dalmatia, Sclavonia,
Croatia, placed at the head of civil and
military affairs in these countries. Ban
signifies, in the Sclavonian tongue, a
master. A province, over which a ban-
nus was placed, is called bannat. At
present, the only ban is that of Croatia, who
has the third place among the secular
nobles of Hungary. Before him come the
palatinus regni and the judex curiæ.
BANANA. The banana is a valuable
plant (musa sapientium) which grows in
the West Indies and other tropical coun-
tries, and has leaves about six feet in
length and a foot broad in the middle,
and fruit four or five inches long, and
about the shape of the cucumber. When
ripe, the banana is a very agreeable fruit,
with a soft and luscious pulp, and is fre-
quently introduced in desserts in the West
Indies, but never eaten green, like the
539
plantain. The Spaniards have a super-
stitious dislike to cut this fruit across;
they always slice it from end to end, be-
cause, in the former case, the section pre-
sents an imaginary resemblance to the
instrument of our Savior's crucifixion.
The banana is sometimes fried in slices
as fritters. If the pulp of this fruit be
squeezed through a fine sieve, it may be
formed into small loaves, which, after
having been properly dried, may be kept
for a great length of time.
BANCA, an island belonging to the
Netherlands, near Sumatra, one of the
vassal states of Palembang, containing
60,000 inhabitants, among them 25,000
Chinese, is known on account of its tin
mines, worked by the Dutch East India
company (the annual profit of which, to
the Dutch, is estimated at 150,000£), and
its pearl fishery, which is also productive
on the shores of the group of Solo islands,
north-east from Borneo. The tin of Banca
is pure and easily obtained. The south-
easterly part of Banca has not yet been
examined. The Banca islands, in 2° 22/
S. lat., and 105° 41' E. lon., afford shelter
from S. W. by S. to N. W., with a good
supply of water and fuel.
BANDA ISLANDS; a group of islands be-
longing to the Netherlands, in the Eastern
ocean, lying E. of the Celebes; so called
from Banda, the principal of them; lon.
130° 37′ E.; lat. 4° 12 S. They contain
but 5763 inhabitants, though they are said
formerly to have contained 15,000. Their
chief produce is nutinegs, of which they
are competent to supply the want to the
rest of the world. The whole quantity
produced on these islands cannot be ac
curately stated. The annual sales are said
formerly to have amounted to 350,000
pounds of nutinegs and 100,000 pounds
of mace. When, however, they were
taken by the English, in 1796, the half
year's crop was found to be little more
than 80,000 pounds of nutmegs and about
24,000 pounds of mace. The trees in all
the other islands were carefully extirpated
by command of the Dutch; and the whole
trade of those where the growth is cher-
ished is a complete monopoly.-The
names of the islands are Banda, or Lan-
tor; Puloway, or Poolaway; Pulo Ruu,
or Poolaron; Neira, Gunong Assi, or
Guanapee Rosyngen; Pulo Prampon,
Pulo Suanjée Capal, and Nylacky. The
inhabitants are in alliance with the Dutch
East India company. These islands can
never be expected to yield any advantage
beside that derived from the spice trade.
Entirely cut off from the other parts of
.
540
BANDA ISLANDS-BANDA ORIENTAL.
India, and deprived of all commerce, save
a trifling bartering with the indigent na-
tives of the south-eastern and south-west-
ern islands, they are even destitute of the
means of subsistence for their own inhab-
itants, and must be supplied with every
necessary from abroad, as nature, which
has lavishly bestowed upon them articles
of luxury, has denied them those of im-
mediate necessity. Banda is likewise
accounted a most unhealthy place, espe-
cially at the chief settlement of Neira.
Some attribute this circumstance to the
neighborhood of the volcano, in the island
of Gunong Api, and others to a deleteri-
ous quality in the water.
BANDA ORIENTAL. This tract of coun-
try has fixed public attention, as the sub-
ject of an obstinate war between Brazil
and the United Provinces of La Plata, and
seems destined, by its geographical posi-
tion, to possess much importance hereaf-
ter. It is situated between the eastern
bank of the river Uruguay and the ocean,
and between the river La Plata on the
south and the Sierra do Topas on the
north (which separates it from Brazil), and
receives its name from its position with
respect to the Uruguay. It is fertile and
healthy, and, although checked in its pros-
perity by political misfortunes, had gained
a white population of 80,000 souls. Hav-
ing been originally settled by a Spanish
colony from Buenos Ayres, it fell under
the authority of Spain, but came, at
length, to be the occasion of contention
with Portugal. Both nations prized it;
Spain, as giving her the control of both
sides of the river La Plata; Portugal, as
necessary to the free and secure naviga-
tion of the immense interior of Brazil;
and each nation asserted a claim to a ter-
ritory of so much consequence. During
the long wars between Portugal and
Spain, relative to the various boundaries
of their vast possessions in South Ameri-
ca, the Banda Oriental was overrun and
wasted, sometimes by one and sometimes
by the other, and their respective preten-
sions were differently regulated by suc-
cessive treaties. In 1777, Portugal was
forced to consent to the line of the Sierra
do Topas, but afterwards seized on the
district of the Missions, which she con-
sented to restore, in 1804, as the price of
the Portuguese fortress of Olivenza, held
by Spain. When the revolution com-
menced, the Orientalists naturally sided
with the government of Buenos Ayres;
but whether they merely acted in concert
with the latter, or acknowledged a de-
pendance, does not appear. Certain it is
that they soon made themselves in-
dependent of Buenos Ayres, under the
guidance of Artigas, in consequence of a
victory gained by him over the Buenos
Ayreans, in 1815, at Gaubiju. But, soon
afterwards, the Brazilians, pretending to
fear that Artigas would propagate his
revolutionary doctrines in Brazil, attack-
ed him, broke up his forces, and com-
pelled him to fly into Paraguay.-Brazil
continued to hold nilitary possession of
the country, although resisted by the in-
habitants, until 1822, when they were in-
duced, ostensibly by persuasion, but really
by intimidation, to send delegates to a
convention at their capital, Monte Video,
and to consent to be annexed to Brazil, by
the name of the Cis-Platine province,
which don Pedro claims as a voluntary
union of the people with the empire of
Brazil. When Brazil separated from
Portugal, in 1822, the Orientalists joined
a party of the army which declared for
Portugal, and, on the submission of these
troops, called upon Buenos Ayres for aid.
Assistance was given them in arms, mon-
ey and men, but not ostensibly by the
congress, until their leaders, Lavalleja
and Fructuoso Rivera, had shut up the
Brazilians in Monte Video, and a pro-
visional government, organized in the
town of Florida, formally declared the
Banda Oriental to be reunited to Buenos
Ayres. The standard of independence
was raised by Fructuoso Rivera, April
27th, 1826; and, as he was immediately
aided, by Lavalleja, with forces organized
in Buenos Ayres, this may be considered
as the actual commencement of the war.
Oct. 12, Làvalleja gained the victory of
Sarandi, and the republic no longer hesi-
tated to assume a quarrel, which began
to wear a prosperous aspect. But no
formal declaration of war was issued
until that of Pedro, dated Dec. 30th, 1826,
which entered into an elaborate exposition
of the alleged rights of Brazil. The war
has been alike prejudicial to both coun-
tries. While Pedro blockaded Buenos
Ayres, the cruisers of the latter cut up
the commerce of Brazil; and while both
parties contributed to waste the Banda
Oriental, the Orientalists carried similar
devastation into the Brazilian province of
Rio Grande. But neither party possessed
adequate resources to strike a decisive
blow; and the solicitations of Great
Britain, who, like other neutral nations,
suffered by the war, at length brought
about a peace, which was signed at Rio,
Aug. 28th, 1828, and, in substance, pro-
vided that the Banda Oriental should
BANDA ORIENTAL-BANDETTINI.
become an independent state, under the
rnutual guarantee of the two contracting
parties. Thus the war, after completely
exhausting both Brazil and Buenos Ayres,
ended in a drawn game as to the subject
of the contest.
BANDELLO, Matteo, a novelist, born,
about 1480, at Castelnuovo di Scrivia,
studied at Rome and Naples, and applied
himself almost exclusively to polite litera-
ture. He was, in his youth, a Dominican
monk at Castelnuovo. He seems to have
lived some years in Mantua, where Pirro
Gonzaga and Camilla, Bentivoglio intrust-
ed to him the education of their daughter.
He afterwards resided at Milan, until, af-
ter the battle of Pavia, the Spaniards ban-
ished him thence as a partisan of France.
Upon this he went first to Ludovico Gon-
zaga, then to Cesare Fregoso, who had
left the Venetian for the French service,
and lived with the latter, in Piedmont, till
the conclusion of the truce between the
belligerent powers, and then followed him
to France. After the death of his protec-
tor, he resided at Agen, with the family of
the deceased, and, in 1550, was appointed
bishop of that city. He left the adminis-
tration of his diocese to the bishop of
Grasse, and employed himself, at the ad-
vanced age of 70, in the completion of
his novels, of which he published three
volumes in 1554; a fourth was published
in 1573, after his death. Camillo Fran-
ceschini also published his novels at
Venice, in 1566, 4to. B. published, at
Agen, in 1545, Canti XI delle Lodi della
S. Lucrezia Gonzaga di Ganzuela e del
Vero Amore, col Tempio di Pudicitia, and
also two other poems; altogether of but
little value. Other poems of his, found
in manuscript at Turin, were printed by
Costa, in 1816, under the title of Rime di
Matteo Bandello. The novels of B. are
distinguished by a natural simplicity, a
rapid narration, and periods at once short
and harmonious; but their contents are
frequently impure. This reproach ap-
plies more to him than to Boccaccio, that
he loves to dwell on wanton scenes, and
to paint them in lively colors to the im-
agination.
BANDE NOIRE. When the revolution
in France had rendered superfluous
much ecclesiastical property, also many
castles and residences of the emigrant
and resident nobility, by the abolition of
trusts and entails, and by the equal divis-
ion of property among the children of
these families, nothing was more natural
than that, with the increase of population,
societies should be formed to purchase
46
VOL. I.
541
the edifices which had thus become use-
less (churches, chapels, abbeys, monas-
teries, bishops' residences, parsonages,
Gothic castles, with their prisons and
other appurtenances, hunting lodges,
watch-towers, &c.), and pull them down,
just as the merchants of Amsterdam, on
the decline of their prosperity, allowed the
villas about that commercial city to be
pulled down, or sold in order to be pulled
down, by the slopers, so called. To many
this seems a barbarous custom. In Ger-
many, also, after the great secularization
of cathedrals and monasteries, associa-
tions were formed, particularly of the
Jews, who, with profit to themselves,
bought the buildings which had become
unnecessary, pulled them down, and sold
the materials, as well as the state's do-
mains, which had been alienated in large
lots, and were now disposed of by them in
small portions. The bande noire, enrich-
ed itself from the sale of the materials for
building, from the felling of wood in the
parks, and from the disposal of land for
gardens, meadows and fields. The pub-
hic, too, were benefited at the same time.
In places where this has frequently hap-
pened, the countryman dwells more com-
fortably, and is richer, than in many other
quarters; for example, in the Pyrenees,
and particularly in the southerly part of
France.
En-
BANDETTINI, Theresa, an improvisa-
trice, born at Lucca, about 1756, received
a careful education, but was obliged (her
family having lost their property) to go
upon the stage. She made her first ap-
pearance in Florence, and was unsuccess-
ful. This, united to her love for polite
literature, led her to the most assiduous
study of the poets. As she was one day
listening to an improvisatore of Verona,
her own genius broke forth in a splendid
poetical panegyric on the poet.
couraged by him, she devoted herself en-
tirely to this beautiful art. ller originali-
ty, her fervid imagination, and the truth
and harmony of her expression, soon
gained for her a distinguished celebrity.
She was enabled to abandon the stage, and
travel through Italy; and she enjoyed the
honor of being chosen a member of sev-
eral academies. One of her most cele-
brated poems was that which she deliv-
ered, in 1794, impromptu, before the prince
Lambertini, at Bologna, on the death of
Marie Antoinette of France.
In 1813,
wearied with travelling, she returned to
her native city, where she lived retired on
her small property. She published Ode
tre (Lucca, 4), of which the first celebrates
542
BANDETTINI-BANGOR.
Nelson's victory at Aboukir, the second
Suwaroff's victories in Italy, and the third
the victories of the archduke Charles in
Germany. She also gave to the world,
under the name of Amarilli Etrusca, Sag-
gio di Versi Estemporanei (published, in
Pisa, by Bodoni), among which the poem
on Petrarch's interview with Laura, in
the church, is particularly distinguished,
and places her by the side of Rossi.
BANDIT (Ital. bandito); originally an
exile, then a hired murderer. This name
was given to the assassins (see Ishmaelites)
of Italy. At the present time, in Italy,
bandit and robber are almost synonymous.
They form a kind of society of them-
selves, which is subjected to strict laws,
and lives in open or secret war with the
civil authorities, and are a disgraceful
proof of its weakness, no Italian govern-
ment having succeeded in extirpating
them. The strict measures which the
papal government adopted, in 1820,
against persons who should harbor ban-
dits and robbers, have indeed destroyed
their lurking-places; but the villains who
were formerly settled are now become
vagabonds. Those, however, who infest
the environs of Naples, are the peasants
of the country, who, besides being en-
gaged in agriculture, employ themselves
in robbery and murder. The fear of
capital punishment is ineffectual to de-
ter them from these crimes. Peter the
Calabrian, the most terrible among these
robbers, in 1812, named himself, in imita-
tion of the titles of Napoleon, "emperor
of the mountains," "king of the woods,"
"protector of the conscribed," and "medi-
ator of the highways from Florence to
Naples." The government of Ferdinand I
was compelled to make a compact with
this bandit. One of the robbers entered
the royal service, as a captain, in 1818,
and engaged to take captive his former
comrades. More lately, adventurers of all
kinds have joined them. These ban-
dits are to be distinguished from other
robbers, who are called malviventi; and
the Austrian troops, which occupied Na-
ples, were obliged to send large detach-
ments to repress them. It is remarkable,
in these robbers, that they only attack
travellers on the highways. This also is
true of those who exact from strangers
and natives a sum of money for protec-
tion, and give them in return a letter of
security; which, a short time ago, was the
case in Sicily, where the bandits dwell in
the greatest numbers in the Val Demone.
Here the prince of Villa Franca declared
himself, from political and other views,
their protector: he gave them a livery,
and treated them with much confidence,
which they never abused; for even
among them there is a certain romantic
sense of honor derived from the middle
ages. They keep their promises invio-
late, and often take better care of the se-
curity of a place intrusted to them than
the public authorities.
BANER, also BANNIER, John (in English,
always written Baner), a Swedish general
in the thirty years' war, descended from
an old noble family of Sweden, was born
in 1596. When a child, he fell from the
castle of Hörnings-holm, four stories high,
without being injured. Gustavus Adol-
phus, who valued him very much, early
prophesied that he was destined for great-
ness. He made his first campaigns in
Poland and Russia, and accompanied his
king to Germany. After the death of
Gustavus, in 1632, he had the chief com-
mand over 16,000 men, and was the ter-
ror of the enemy. He obtained the great-
est glory by his victory at Wittstock, in
1636, over the imperial and Saxon troops;
and it was also owing to his activity, that,
after the battle of Nordlingen, the affairs
of Sweden gradually improved. He died
at Halberstadt, in 1641, under 45 years of
age, and was suspected to have been poi-
soned. In him Sweden lost her ablest
general, and the imperial troops their
most dangerous enemy. B. was careful
to engage in no enterprise without a rea-
sonable probability of success. He knew
how to avoid danger with dexterity, and
to escape from a superior force. During
his command, 30,000 of the enemy were
killed, and 600 standards taken, on differ-
ent occasions. He was always found at
the head of his men, and maintained good
discipline. He wanted patience for sieges.
He has been accused of pride and severi-
ty. The pleasures of the table and of
love occupied all the leisure time which
his employments allowed him, and proba-
bly immoderate indulgence in thein was
the real poison which brought on his
death. He was three times married.
BANGOR; a post-town and capital of
the county of Penobscot, in Maine, on
the W. side of Penobscot river, at the
head of the tide and of navigation; 52
miles N. of Owl's-head, at the mouth of
Penobscot bay; 68 miles N. E. of Augus-
ta; lat. 44° 45′ N.; lon. 68° 45′ W.: pop-
ulation, in 1820, 1221; in 1825, 2002.
Its situation is pleasant, and very advan-
tageous for commerce. It is a flourishing
town, and contains a theological semina-
ry with two professors, a court-house,
BANGOR-BANK.
and other public buildings. The river is
navigable, as far as this town, for vessels
of 300 or 400 tons.
BANGUE; a kind of opiate, much used
throughout the East as a means of intoxi-
cation. The Persians call it beng. It is
made of the leaf of a kind of wild hemp,
in different ways.
BANIANS; a name formerly given by
Europeans to almost all the Hindoos, be-
cause baniyà, the term whence it is de-
rived, signifies a banker, the class with
which Europeans had most frequent in-
tercourse. It is one of the mixed classes,
sprung from a father of the medical and
a mother of the commercial class. The
English sailors call banian days those
days on which they have no flesh meat.
Probably the name is taken from the word
at the head of this article, because, before
people were acquainted with the absti-
nence of all the Hindoos, it was thought
to be confined to the Banians.
BANISHMENT. (See Exile.)
BANK. The term bank, in reference to
commerce, implies a place of deposit of
money. Banks, like most commercial
institutions, originated in Italy, where, in
the infancy of European commerce, the
Jews were wont to assemble in the mar-
ket-places of the principal towns, seated
on benches, ready to lend money; and
the term bank is derived from the Italian
word banco (bench). Banks are of three
kinds, viz., of deposit, of discount, and of
circulation. In some cases, all these
functions are exercised by the same estab-
lishment; sometimes two of them; and,
in other instances, only one.-1. A bank
of deposit receives money to keep for the
depositor, until he draws it out. This is
the first and most obvious purpose of
these institutions. The goldsmiths of
London were formerly bankers of this
description: they took the money, bullion,
plate, &c. of depositors, merely for safe
keeping.-2. Another branch of bank-
ing business is the discounting of prom-
issory notes and bills of exchange, or
loaning money upon mortgage, pawn,
or other security.-3. A bank of circula-
tion issues bills or notes of its own, in-
tended to be the circulating currency or
medium of exchanges, instead of gold and
silver. Banks are also divided into public
and private; but what is a public bank, is
not very definitely settled. Where the
government of a nation, or the municipal
authorities of a place, as in Amsterdam,
has the direct management or control of
a bank, it is a public one; and those insti-
tutions of this class, the credit of which is
543
connected with that of the government, or
which are used as instruments in collect-
ing and distributing the public revenues,
or in which the government is a proprie-
tor, are public banks; and so are also
those usually considered to be, which are
carried on under a charter from the gov-
ernment; whereas a private bank is usu-
ally understood to be one that is carried
on by one or more individuals, without
any particular connexion with the gov-
ernment, or any special authority or char-
ter. There is, for instance, in England,
but one public bank, namely, the bank
of England; whereas, in the U. States,
most of the banks are public, and, in some
of the states, private banks of circulation
are prohibited by law. The general
character and the different kinds of these
institutions being thus explained, the
reader will be enabled the more easily to
understand our account of some of the
banking institutions of the greatest histor-
ical notoriety.
The Bank of Venice was established as
early as 1171, during the crusades, and
for the purpose of rendering assistance to
those expeditions. It was a bank of deposit
only, and strictly a public bank, as the
government became responsible for the
deposits, and the whole capital was, in
effect, a public loan, the funds of the bank
being made use of by the government;
and, in the early periods of the operations
of this bank, they were not withdrawn,
when once deposited, but the depositor
had a credit at the bank to the amount
deposited; and he used the money so
deposited by transferring this credit to
another person, instead of paying money.
Subsequently, however, the deposits were
allowed to be withdrawn; for, though the
bank credits answered all the purposes of
money at Venice, a specie currency was
wanted by persons going abroad, or hav-
ing payments to make in distant places.
This bank continued in operation until
the dissolution of this republic, in 1798.
The Bank of Amsterdam was established
in 1609, and owed its origin to the clipped
and worn eurrency, which, being of un-
certain and fluctuating value, subjected
the exchange to a corresponding fluctua-
tion and uncertainty. The object of the
institution was, to give a certain and un-
questionable value to a bill on Amster-
dam; and, for this purpose, the various
coins were received in deposit at the
bank at a certain value, according to their
weight and fineness, a small deduction of
seigniorage being made, equivalent to the
supposed expense of coinage into money
544
•
BANK.
of the proper weight and fineness, and
the depositor was also required to pay a
small amount for the privilege of having
an account at the bank. As the money
received is not, in fact, recoined, these
charges, with a distinct charge for depos-
its of bullion, and a fee for every new
deposit, and five stivers for every transfer,
constitute the income of the establishment,
and, being more than sufficient to defray
the expenses, a net revenue accrues to the
city, though the acquisition of revenue
was not contemplated in forming the
institution. A profit has also occasionally
been made by purchasing the current
coin whenever it could be converted into
bank money at an expense less than the
agio. The deposits made and credited
are denominated bank money, which is at
a certain premium or agio above current
money, according to the fineness and
weight of the current coin; and, since the
currency has been well regulated, this
agio is steady and inconsiderable, never
exceeding five per cent. In order to pro-
duce the intended effect on the exchange,
it was provided, by law, that all payments
of 600 guilders, or about $233, and up-
wards, should be made in bank money;
and payments are made by transfers of
credits in the books of the bank, as for-
merly at Venice. In one respect, this
bank differs from that of Venice, as the
deposits are not taken out and used by
the government, but remain in the vaults.
The direction of this bank is placed in
the hands of four burgomasters or alder-
men for the time being, who count and
receipt for the money on coming into
office, at the commencement of each year.
During the whole period since the estab-
lishment of the bank, no peculation, or
breach of trust, on the part of these direct-
ors, has ever happened. This is a bank
merely of deposit and transfer: it neither
makes loans nor circulates bills.
The Bank of Hamburg was establish-
ed in 1619, 10 years after that of Am-
sterdam, and, like this latter, is a mere
bank of deposit and transfer, the deposits
being made in coin or bullion, at a certain
fixed rate, and liable to be withdrawn by
the depositors: any one having a credit
at the bank may draw out the amount of
his credit. The bank has not properly,
therefore, any capital of its own, the
whole funds being liable to be withdrawn
at any moment. The expenses of the in-
stitution are defrayed by a charge of a
certain rate per page of transfers in the
bank book to every depositor. The
amount of deposits varies from 10 to 15
million dollars. This bank was plundered
by Davoust, when he was in possession
of Hamburg, in 1813; but many of the
depositors, anticipating this event, had
withdrawn their deposits, and remitted
them to Copenhagen or England; and, to
those who remitted to England, it proved
quite a fortunate event, for, by the subse-
quent rise of exchange, they nearly doub-
led their capital. The depositors who
were thus plundered of their property
have received a partial indemnity of 36
per cent. from the French government,
since the restoration of the Bourbons.
The directors of this bank, five in number,
are chosen annually by the whole body
of the citizens of Hamburg, having a right
to vote for municipal officers. They
receive no salary.
The Bank of England is one of de-
posit, discount and circulation. It was
chartered in the reign of William and
Mary, 1693, seventy or eighty years
after those of Amsterdam and Hamburg,
by an act which, among other things,
secured certain recompenses and advan-
tages to such persons as should advance
the sum of £1,500,000 towards carrying on
the war against France. The sum of
£1,200,000 was subscribed before the ex-
piration of the year, and the subscribers
became, under the act, stockholders, to
the amount of their respective subscrip-
tions, in the capital stock of a corporation,
denominated the Governor and Company
of the Bank of England. This charter
was granted for 11 years, and the com-
pany advanced to the government
£1,200,000, at an interest of eight per
cent.; and the government made an addi-
tional bonus, or allowance to the bank, of
£4000 annually, for the management of
this loan (which, in fact, constituted the
capital of the bank), and for settling the
interest and making transfers, &c. among
the various stockholders. This bank, like
that of Venice, and unlike those of Am-
sterdam and Hamburg, was originally an
engine of the government, and not a
mere commercial establishment. The
management of the institution is in the
hands of a governor, lieutenant-governor,
and 24 directors, elected by stockholders
who have held £500 of stock for six
months previous to the election. A di-
rector is required to hold £2000, a deputy-
governor £3000, and a governor £4000,
of the capital stock. Its capital has been
increased, from time to time, so as to stand
at different periods as follows:
BANK.
545
1694, the original capital, £1,200,000 aging the finances and public debt, col-
1697,
1708,
· 1709,
1710,
1722,
1742,
1746,
1781,
From 1694
to 1696, 3 yrs.,
"1707, 11 66
1729, 22" estimated,
"1746, 17" actual,
(C
1752, 6 "
❝ 1753, 1 yr.
"1763, 10 yrs.,
"1766, 3 "
"1780, 14 "
"1787, 7"
“1806, 19 "6
" 1823, 17"
“1826, 3 "
•
•
•
8 per cent.
9
(C
9 to 5 “
6 & 5½"
5
(6
5 & 44 “
((
•
4
5
55
<<
6
7
10
8
((
(6
The bank has, besides, at different times,
made dividends under the name of bo-
nuses, viz.:
June, 1799,
May, 1801,
(6
10 per cent.
5 66
23
216
•
2,201,171 lecting taxes, and paying interest and
4,402,343 annuities, this institution is, in its charac-
5,058,547 ter of a bank of deposit, discount and cir-
5,559,996 culation, a powerful auxiliary to com-
8,959,996 merce and industry. As a bank of deposit,
9,800,000 it offers the advantages of those of Ham-
10,780,000 burg and Amsterdam. Transfers or as-
· 11,642,400 signments of deposits, being made by
The rates of dividends have been as fol- means of checks, are attended with less
lows:
trouble than the writing off and transfer-
ring of credits at Amsterdam and Ham-
burg. Besides permanent loans to the
government, the bank makes extensive
discounts of paper, or, in other words,
loans a great amount on promissory notes
and bills of exchange. It is apparent,
from the statement already made, that, if
the actual capital is not greater than
its estimated nominal amount, namely,
£11,642,400, it had, in 1787, but a com-
paratively small amount of capital to loan
to individuals; for, £10,672,490 of its
capital being loaned permanently to the
public, only the sum of £969,910 of the
capital remained for private loans. This
amount might then have been loaned, if
the institution were merely a loaning or
discounting one, and received no deposits,
and circulated no bills. But all the means
of additional loans must have been de-
rived from deposits and circulation; and
the means derived from these sources, for
this purpose, must obviously be very
ample; for the payment of the revenue
of the kingdom through the bank, if we
suppose the money to remain in the bank,
on an average, one day, will give a fund
of £166,666. The deposits by individu-
als and companies will add immensely to
this fund. It is true, that the bank is liable
to be called upon at any moment for these
deposits, and, where no interest is allowed
upon them by the bank, the depositors
will generally withdraw them as soon as
they can make an investment; but, still,
experienced bankers will estimate, with
some precision, the average of deposits
on which they may venture to discount.
Besides this fund for discount or loan, the
bank has the additional one of the amount
of the excess of the circulation over that
of the specie necessary to be kept in the
vaults of the bank, to redeem the bills
presented for payment. To a bank with
the resources and advantages of that of
England for collecting specie, it is quite
an ample provision for its circulating
notes and bills, to keep on hand 20 or 25
per cent. of the amount of such circula-
tion, where its discounts are for short
periods of two or three months. The
Nov., 1802,
Oct., 1804,
(C
1805,
3
(C
5 CC
(6
(6
[C
CC 1806,
The amount of loans to the government
has increased with the capital of the bank.
In 1787, the permanent loan to government
was £8,688,570; in 1797, £10,672,490
an amount approaching very near to that
of the whole capital. In 1817, the loan to
government arose to £28,300,209, and, in
1825, it was £18,261,100. Ever since its
establishment, the bank has been closely
allied with the government, the fate of
the institution having always been directly
involved in that of the government; and,
for 26 years, from 1797 to 1823, as we
shall see, the existence of the government,
and fate of the kingdom, seemed to depend
upon maintaining the credit of the bank,
and the circulation of its paper. Besides
being a creditor of the government to the
immense amount already mentioned, the
institution is an important agent in the
management of the public debt, and the
collection of the revenue, the whole of
which, amounting to about £50,000,000
per annum, passes through the bank.-Be-
sides its importance to the government as
a public creditor, and as an agent in man-
+
46*
546
BANK.
circulation of this bank has varied at
different times, but, on the whole, grad-
ually increased. From 1792 to 1800, it
arose from about £11,000,000 to about
£12,000,000; from 1800 to 1810, it in-
creased to above £18,000,000; from 1810
to 1820, it was at the maximum, being, in
Aug., 1817, as high as £30,099,908, and,
generally, during this period, ranging from
£25,000,000 to £28,000,000; from 1820
to 1826, it ranged from £18,000,000 to
£23,000,000, and, on the 26th of Februa-
ry, 1826, was £23,673,737. It thus ap-
pears that the circulation of notes gives
the bank an effective loaning capital of
from £15,000,000 to £20,000,000. It ap-
pears, further, that the actual capital of the
institution is greater than its nominal
stock, or the amount on which dividends
are made. In March, 1819, the act-
ual capital exceeded the nominal by
£4,261,280; but this excess must vary
with the periods of making dividends, and
also with the good or ill success of the
business of the institution. From all these
sources the bank has an available loaning
capital of over £20,000,000, besides the
loan of £10,672,490 to the government.
Thus, on a capital stock of 11 millions, the
bank receives interest on between 30 and
40 millions, including the interest on the
government loan, besides the bonus annu-
ally paid to the bank, for its agency in the
financial concerns. This accounts for the
high rate of dividends made on the capital
stock, as above stated, being between two
and three times the current rate of inter-
est in Great Britain. It has not, at the
time of this article going to press, been
ascertained what effect the law of 1826,
which went into operation Feb. 5, 1829,
prohibiting the circulation of notes under
£5, will have upon the amount of the
circulation. This regulation, instead of
diminishing, seems to be likely to increase,
the amount of circulation of bank of
England notes; for, though the bank-note
circulation will be, on the whole, dimin-
ished, throughout the kingdom, by substi-
tuting specie, in part, for the small notes,
yet the same measure will, most probably,
give a greater country circulation to its
notes of £5 and upwards. Since 1800,
the circulation of the notes of this bank
under £5 has varied exceedingly, being,
in 1800, £1,406,708; in 1816, £9,036,374;
in 1824, as low as £491,370; and, in 1826,
when this law was enacted, standing at
£1,559,756.—The most important event
in the history of this institution we have
reserved for a distinct consideration, viz.,
the stopping of specie payment, in 1797.
On the 26th of February of that year,
being Sunday, an order of the privy coun-
cil was transmitted to the bank towards
evening, prohibiting the further payment
of specie until the pleasure of parliament
should be made known. The parliament
took the subject into consideration the
next day, Feb. 27, and approved of the
order of the privy council. The suspen-
sion of specie payment was originally in-
tended to be only a temporary measure,
and the strongest assurances were given
to this effect on the part of the bank and
the government. It was, however, con-
tinued, from time to time, but always as a
temporary measure, until, in 1819, 22
years after the suspension of payment,
steps began seriously to be taken for
resuming specie payments, which were,
in fact, resumed, on the 1st of May, 1823.
The bank thus presents the singular ex-
ample of a virtual insolvency for 26 years,
and eventual redemption of its paper and
its credit; and this return to specie pay-
ments was not attended by any sudden
revulsion or commercial shock: prepara-
tions were made for it long beforehand.
The amount of the notes of the bank
in circulation was reduced from about
£24,000,000 to about £18,000,000. In the
mean time, a new coinage of gold had
been issued, in 1821-1822, to the amount
of £14,877,547, which supplied the chasin
made in the circulation of the country by
the reduction of the amount of bank of
England notes, and also went to replenish
the vaults of the bank, in preparation for
the run that might be made on the re-
sumption of payment; but the danger was
passed with the greatest facility. The
bank-notes had depreciated, or, as the
phrase was at the time, the price of bull-
ion had gradually risen, so as to be, at one
period, at the rate of 14 or 15 per cent.;
and, if the bank had then stopped sud-
denly, and, if we may imagine it possible,
had redeemed the whole of its paper,
£25,000,000 or more, with specie, it would
have been a gain to the then holders of
the notes, in the whole, of £3,500,000, and
a loss to the then debtors to the bank of
the same amount, assuming the deprecia-
tion to be 14 per cent.; while the bank
itself would have lost only the amount of
bad debts, which would have been made
by such a sudden and tremendous revul-
sion; for, the moment of the bank's resum-
ing to pay specie itself, by this very oper-
ation, it reduced the payments to the bank,
by its debtors, to specie; for the bank had
a right to demand payment of notes and
bills discounted in specie, or, what would
·
BANK.
have been equivalent, its own notes. Such
a measure would evidently have shaken
the kingdom to its foundations, and prob-
ably have brought down its commercial,
financial and economical systems in ruins.
Instead of such a catastrophe, either in
discontinuing or renewing payments of
specie, each of which was equally diffi-
cult and hazardous, the transition in the
depreciation of the paper was gradual, and
almost imperceptible, and, after the over-
throw of Napoleon, its rise in value was
again, for the most part, as gradual, until
it arrived to a par with gold, before the
resumption of specie payments. In a po-
litical, financial and commercial view,
this institution, from the suspension to
the resumption of specie payments, pre-
sents a stupendous phenomenon, unpar-
alleled in history. The suspension of
payment, in 1797, was one of those bold
measures, which are justified only by ex-
treme cases, and which, in such cases, are,
in fact, the only prudent measures. The
whole system of financial administration,
and all the commercial combinations and
connexions of the kingdom, were involved
in the affairs of the institution at the time
of its stopping, in 1797. The holders of
the notes, and the depositors, were press-
ing to the bank for specie, of which there
remained in the vaults only £1,272,000,
while the notes and claims outstanding,
and which might be demanded, were
£8,640,250, and the demands were pour-
ing in with a still increasing tide. It
seemed probable that the bank must stop
payment after paying out this specie; the
shock, whatever it might be, must be en-
countered, and it was very justly suppos-
ed that it would be, in a measure, broken,
by anticipating the necessity, and stopping
with more than a million in its vaults, in
stead of waiting until they should have
been emptied. The reasons given in par-
liament in favor of this suspension of pay-
ment, and of its continuance from time to
time, were, 1. that the bank could not
continue its discounts, and its payments in
specie; and, if its discounts were stopped,
or greatly reduced, the commerce of the
country would be destroyed: 2. that the
credit of the government would be lost if
the bank should cease to make advances
upon its taxes: 3. that specie payments
were of no benefit to England, as the spe-
cie, on being drawn from the bank, went
abroad: 4. that it was more important
that the bank should exist, than that it
should meet its payments at the expense
of its existence: 5. that the commercial
arrangements, combinations and relations,
existing in the kingdom, would be broken
547
up by the dissolution of this institution,
and, being once broken up, could never
be renewed; and, 6. that it was better to
stop specie payments while some specie
and bullion could be kept in the country
by that means. Such were the reasons
given in favor of the measure, and though
it has been censured by some, who have
pretended to discover in it the cause of
much financial and commercial derange-
meut, yet they do not show by what other
course Great Britain could have struggled
through the terrible conflicts of that period.
Bank of France. The bank of France
was established, in 1803, by the union of
three private banking institutions of Paris,
with a capital of 45,000,000 francs, with
the exclusive privilege of issuing bills pay-
able to the bearer for 15 years. In 1808,
the bank was invested with the right to
establish provincial branches, some of
which have been established in the com-
mercial towns of the kingdom. This,
like the bank of England, is a bank of
deposit, discount and circulation. It dis-
counts paper on which there are three re-
sponsible names. Like the bank of Stock-
holm, it makes loans upon pawns; and,
like that of England, it discounts, or, in
other words, makes advances upon, the
public taxes. It is strictly a public insti-
tution, as the government appoints the
governor, with a salary of 60,000 francs,
who is required to be a stockholder to the
amount of 50,000 francs, and the 2 dep-
uty-governors, with a salary of 30,000
francs each, who must each own stock to
the amount of 25,000 francs. These offi-
cers appoint the inferior officers of the
institution. In 1807, the capital was
doubled, being then raised to 90,000,000
francs, and the charter extended to 40
years. The original charter provided for
à reserved fund of all the surplus profits
for the year over 8 per cent. on the capi-
tal, and there remained, after the expira-
tion of the first year of its operation, a
surplus of 4,185,937, making, with the 8
per cent. dividend to the stockholders, a
profit of about 12 per cent.
The excess
over 8 per cent., the second year, was a
little larger still. This bank is, like that
of England, closely allied to the govern-
ment, to which it made immense ad-
vances in 1806, for the prosecution of the
war against Austria, and was thereby
reduced to embarrassment, which spread
temporary distrust, and occasioned nu-
merous bankruptcies. But, on the fortu-
nate termination of that war, the resources
of the bank were replenished, and its
credit reestablished. Its affairs were now
administered with great success, and with
548
BANK.
a powerful influence upon the industry
of the kingdom, until, in 1814, the large
advances again required by the govern-
ment brought the institution anew into
temporary difficulty, and occasioned an
order of the government, limiting its specie
payments to 500,000 francs per day, and
prohibiting the payment of more than
1,000 francs in specie to any one person.
But, as small notes are not put into circu-
lation, and a great part of the currency of
the kingdom is specie, the bank was soon
enabled to resume specie payments in
full, and its affairs have, since that time,
been conducted with uninterrupted suc-
cess. It appears, from an account of this
institution, published in the Moniteur, that,
in 1828, the discounts were 407,226,391
francs, yielding an interest of 2,519,492
francs, being about 947,200 francs less
than those of the preceding year. The
loans on pledge of bullion produced an in-
terest of about 94,720 francs. The bank
has coined, from 1820 to 1828, about
118,400,000 francs. The greatest amount
of bank-notes out at any one time was
210,000,000 francs. The amount of bull-
ion and coin in the coffers of the bank, at
the same time, was 240,000,000 francs. The
number of shares was 69,000, on each of
which 1000 francs were originally paid into
the bank; but, in 1828, their value in the
market was 1810 francs. The number
of shareholders, Jan. 1, 1827, was 3536.
The reserved profits were, in 1828,
8,480,598.-Of the other banks of Europe,
that of Genoa was formerly one of the
most important. Among the principal
banks of the present time, not previously
mentioned, are the following; those of
Altona, Berlin, Copenhagen, Madrid, Na-
ples, Christiania, Rome, Rotterdam, Stock-
holm, Stuttgart, Vienna, and the imperial
banks of Russia.
Bank of the United States. The old
bank of the U. States was incorporated by
an act of congress, approved February,
1791. By the limitation of the charter, it
was to expire on the 4th of March, 1811.
This, like the banks of England, France
and Sweden, was a bank of deposit, dis-
count and circulation, with a capital of
$10,000,000. Those European writers,
both British and French, who have
eulogized this institution as being purely
commercial, and distinguished from those
of England and France by not being
connected with the government, or an
engine of finance, cannot have read the
charter, the preamble to which begins
thus: "Whereas the establishment of a
bank will be very conducive to the con-
ducting of the national finances, will
tend to give facility to the obtaining of
loans for the use of the government in
sudden emergencies, and will be produc-
tive of considerable advantages to trade
and industry in general," &c. Instead
of being a merely commercial establish-
ment, therefore,.
ment, therefore, it was, essentially and
mainly, of a financial and political char-
acter, and it was on this ground that its
constitutionality was defended; the right
of congress to grant such a charter being
claimed mostly upon the strength of that
clause of the constitution, which gives to
congress the power necessary for carry-
ing into execution the powers enumerated,
and expressly vested in that body. The
origin of this establishment was, therefore,
similar to that of the bank of England,
and the resemblance is not limited to
general purposes of its institution, for, as
the bank of England originated in a loan
to the British government, so the act by
which the old bank of the U. States was
chartered, provided that the sums sub-
scribed by individuals and corporations
should be "payable, one fourth in gold
and silver, and three fourths in the public
debt" certificates. The president of the
U. States was authorized to subscribe for
two millions of the stock in behalf of the
U. States. The directors, being 25, were
chosen by the stockholders, without any
interference, on the part of the govern-
ment, in the election; but the government
reserved the right of inspecting the af
fairs of the bank, and, for this purpose, the
secretary of the treasury was authorized
to demand of the president and directors
a statement of its concerns as often as he
might see fit. The corporation was au-
thorized to establish branches in any part
of the U. States. The only restriction, as
to circulation, was, that the amount of
debts due from the corporation, by bond,
bill, note, or otherwise, besides the debts
due for deposits, should never exceed
$10,000,000; and, in case of excess, the
directors, by whose agency such debt
should be incurred, were made personally
answerable. This bank went into opera-
tion, and had a most powerful agency in
establishing the credit of the government,
facilitating its financial operations, and
promoting the interests of industry and
commerce. Congress having refused to
renew the charter, it expired, by its own
limitation, in 1811. But, during the war
which ensued, the want of a national
bank was severely felt, not only as an
agent for collecting the revenues, but
more especially for transmitting funds
from one part of the country to another;
and then it might have been a useful aux-
BANK.
iliary to the public credit, by supplying
temporary loans in cases of emergency.
So thoroughly convinced were the public
of the necessity of such an institution,
that the members of the same political
party from which the constitutional ob-
jections had been made to the old bank,
and which had refused to renew its char-
ter, passed an act of congress, which was
approved by the president April 10, 1816,
chartering the present bank of the U.
States, with a capital of $35,000,000,
upon principles, and with provisions, very
similar to those contained in the former
charter. For this charter the govern-
ment demanded and received a bonus of
$1,500,000 from the stockholders. The
government became a stockholder in
the same proportion as in the former
bank, taking one fifth, or $7,000,000 of
the stock. The direction of the institu-
tion was left to the stockholders, as in the
old bank, except that the government
reserved the right of appointment and
removal at pleasure, by the president, of
5 directors out of the 25, the other 20
being elected by the stockholders. The
government also reserved the right to de-
mand a statement of the concerns of the
institution by committees of either branch
of the legislature. One quarter of the
subscriptions to the stock were payable
either in gold and silver, or U. States
stock, at the option of subscribers. The
7 millions to be subscribed by the govern-
ment was payable either in gold and sil-
ver, or public stock at an interest of 5
per cent., at the option of the government.
The transactions of the corporation were
limited to making loans and trading in the
precious metals, and the sale of such
goods or proceeds of such lands as should
be pledged. Branches may be establish-
ed in any parts of the U. States or their
territories. No other similar corporations
are to be chartered by the government,
except banks in the district of Columbia,
with a capital, in the whole, not exceed
ing $6,000,000, during the period for
which the charter was granted, namely,
to the 3d of March, 1836. The bank is
prohibited from purchasing any part of
the public debt, taking interest over 6
per cent., or loaning to the government
over $500,000, or to any state over
$50,000. And the debts of the institu-
tion are in no case to exceed the amount
of deposits by more than $35,000,000.
And, in case of refusing payment of its
notes or deposits in specie, the bank is
made liable to pay interest at the rate of
12 per cent. per annum. The bank is
549
also obliged, by its charter, to give the
government the necessary facilities for
transferring the public funds from place
to place within the U. States, without
charging commissions, or claiming any
allowance on account of the difference of
exchange, and to transact all the business
of commissioners of loans whenever re-
quired so to do. The bank is prohibited
from issuing bills under the denomination
of 5 dollars.—It is an object proposed by
the charter, as appears from some of the
provisions already noticed, to make the
institution independent of the fortunes,
and place it beyond the exigencies, of the
government, by limiting the amount of
loans that may be made to the govern-
ment, and prohibiting the purchase of the
public debt. It is not in the power of
congress to exonerate the bank from the
liability to pay, in specie, its deposits
made, or notes put into circulation, previ-
ously to the passing of any act for that
purpose; so that the depositors and hold-
ers of its notes are entirely secure from
any interposition of the government be-
tween themselves and the bank, in viola-
tion of the contract held by them. The
institution is thus essentially commercial
in its character, being directly auxiliary to
the government, and subject to its control
only as a financial engine. It has had an
important influence upon the industry
and commerce of the country, and the
credit of the government, and has been of
immense utility in the management of its
finances. But its greatest and most bene-
ficial influence has been felt in the resto-
ration of the currency to a sound state;
for, at the time of its going into operation,
many of the state banks had an immense
amount of unredeemable paper in circu-
lation, purporting, it is true, to be payable
to the bearer, in specie, on presentment
for that purpose, but which was not, in
fact, so paid. Immediately on the bank
of the U. States going into operation, with
its various branches in the principal com-
mercial cities, it became necessary for all
the other banks, within the circle of its
influence, to resume specie payments, or
discontinue their operations. Those which
had not resources to resume specie pay-
ments necessarily stopped; and the con-
sequence of the influence of this institu-
tion is, a complete restoration of the
currency to specie or its equivalent. In
fine, whether we consider the extent of
the capital of the institution, that of its
operation, or its commercial and financial
utility and influence, it may justly be con-
sidered the second institution of the kind
550
BANK-BANKRUPT.
in the world, ranking, in all these respects,
next after that of England. The stock was
made the subject of speculation soon after
its establishment, and rose, at one time, to
the enormous advance of 56 per cent.
upon the original subscription; but the
great losses incurred by some of the
branches, especially those of the new
states, and other causes, subsequently re-
duced it to 10 per cent. discount on its
original subscription value. It has since
risen to à more steady market value of
about 20 to 25 per cent. advance. The
amount of the circulation for 1828 was,
on an average, between $12,000,000 and
$13,000,000. The deposits for the same
year averaged from $13,000,000 to
$14,000,000. The dividends have varied
from 5 to 6 per cent. In January, 1829,
there were 21 offices of discount, besides
the bank at Philadelphia; namely, at Port-
land, Portsmouth, Boston, Providence,
Hartford, New York, Baltimore, Wash-
ington, Richmond, Norfolk, Fayetteville,
Charleston, Savannah, Mobile, New Or-
leans, Nashville,. Louisville, Lexington,
Cincinnati, Pittsburg, Chilicothe.-Be-
sides the bank of the U. States, there are,
in the U. States, more than 350 banking
companies, incorporated by the several
states, in active operation, and in good
credit, besides 50 or 60 of doubtful
standing. The amounts of capital vary
from $50,000 to $3,000,000. The whole
banking capital of the country was stated,
in 1804, to be $26,707,000, and, in 1813,
$77,158,000. It must have increased
greatly since that time, but the amount is
not easily ascertained with precision.
BANKRUPT is derived, generally, from
bancus, a bench, and ruptus, broken, in
allusion to the benches formerly used by
the money-lenders in Italy, which were
broken in case of their failure. This word
signifies, in its most general sense, an in-
solvent person, but, more strictly, an insol-
vent merchant. There is, perhaps, no
branch of legislation more difficult, and
at the same time more important, than
that which defines the relations of debt-
ors and creditors. One of the first objects
of all laws, after the protection of the per-
son, is, the enforcement of the obligation
of contracts, and, among all the contracts
made in a community, those imposing the
obligation to pay money constitute the
most numerous class. Some of the first
questions in legislation are,-By what
measures shall this obligation be en-
forced? and by what penalties shall the
breach of it be punished? In many
communities, especially in the earlier
stages of civilization, the breach of such
a contract or obligation is regarded as a
crime, and the insolvent debtor treated as
a criminal. The ancient laws upon this
subject, in England, regard the insolvent
trader in this light. The early laws of
the Romans and Athenians authorized the
most rigorous measures for procuring sat-
isfaction of a debt, even permitting the
sale of the debtor into slavery for this pur-
pose. And the Battas of Sumatra are
said to sell, not only the debtor, but also
his family, for the benefit of the cred-
itor. But as civilization advances, the
laws put a more mild construction upon
the debtor's failure to fulfil his contract,
and, with certain qualifications, and under
certain restrictions, attribute it to misfor-
tune, and, on his giving up his property
to be divided among his creditors, dis-
charge him from all further liability.
Both by the French code and the Eng-
lish statutes, the persons capable of be-
coming bankrupts are such as fall under
the general description of merchants: the
French code describes them as commer-
cants; the English statute of 6 Geo. IV,
c. 16, s. 2., imbodying the previous acts
and judicial decisions on this subject, enu-
merates particularly the descriptions of
persons who are to be considered mer-
chants, and capable of becoming bank-
rupts; and the statute of 33 Geo. III, re-
lating to bankrupts in Scotland, describes
a person capable of becoming such to be
one who, "either for himself, or as agent
for others, seeks his living by buying and.
selling, or by the workmanship of goods
or commodities."
The power of making bankrupt laws,
in the U. States, is, by the constitution,
conferred on congress, and was generally
understood to be exclusively vested in
that body. The question how far the
several states may legislate upon this sub-
ject, has been discussed in the supreme
court of the U. States, in a number of
cases arising under the state insolvent
laws. In the case of Ogden v. Saunders,
it was settled that a state insolvent law,
whereby it is provided that a debtor, on
giving up his property to his creditors, is
absolutely discharged from further liabili-
ty, will, as long as there is no act of con-
gress on bankruptcy, be valid, in respect
to creditors residing in such state, and to
contracts made in the state subsequently
to the passing of such law. According to
this decision, an insolvent law of a state,
however general in its provisions, can
have only a partial operation as a bank-
rupt law; but, in the cases completely
BANKRUPT.
within the jurisdiction of the states, may
have all the essential operation of such a
law, not being limited to a mere discharge
of the person of the debtor on his surren-
dering his effects. This decision recog-
nised in the states larger powers than had
previously been supposed to have been
retained by them. But congress alone
has the power to make a bankrupt law,
which shall be applicable to, and binding
upon, all creditors in the U. States, and all
descriptions of debts. This power was
exercised by congress, in 1800, by the
enactment of a bankrupt law, limited to
five years, and which expired by its own
limitation. This act was modelled upon
the English statutes of bankruptcy exist-
ing at the time, and, like them, was ap-
plicable to no debtors except merchants.
-By the French mercantile law, a bank-
rupt merchant must, within three days
after stopping payment, give notice of it
to the tribunal of commerce, which, even
if the notice is not given immediately,
proceeds, at the request of the creditors,
or by virtue of its own authority without
any petition, or on motion of the king's
procureur, to put the debtor's store-house,
counting-house, effects, books and papers
under seal, also to appoint a commission-
er from its own body, and several sworn
agents, who give security for the faithful
discharge of their trust, and to put the
bankrupt in prison or under arrest and
surveillance, from which, however, after
an investigation of his affairs, he may be
released, either unconditionally, or on
giving bail. From the day of his failure,
the bankrupt is divested of all his interest
and title in his property, and, during the
ten days preceding, no one can acquire
any right in it, by pledge or mortgage;
and any gratuitous transfer by him during
that time is void, and any transfer made
for consideration may be annulled, if
attended with circumstances indicating
fraud. And all acts done or contracts
made by him, in fraud of his creditors,
are void. An advertisement of the bank-
ruptcy must be posted up in public places,
and inserted in the gazette. The agents
above-mentioned continue to manage the
affairs of the bankrupt only 14 days, or
until the appointment of the provisional
syndics (trustees). The commissioner,
within three days after the bankrupt's
leger has been put into his hands, makes
a catalogue of the creditors, and convenes
them by means of letters and the public
papers. The creditors assemble at the
fixed time and place, in the presence of
the commissioner, to whom they deliver
551
a list containing three times as many
names, as, in their opinion, there should
be persons appointed provisional trustees
(syndics provisoires) of the property.
From this list the requisite number is ap-
pointed by the tribunal of commerce.
Within 24 hours after the appointment of
trustees, the functions of the agents cease,
and they render their account to the
trustees, who, under the superintendence
of the commissioner, now have the man-
agement of all the affairs of the bankrupt.
They immediately remove the seals, and
take an inventory of the bankrupt's effects,
in the presence of a justice of the peace,
with the aid of the bankrupt. Within
eight days from entering upon office, they
render to the king's procureur a report of
the state of the bankrupt's affairs, and
take charge of, and administer upon, his
estate. The moneys received are placed
in a chest with a double lock, of which
the oldest trustee has one key, and the
other is given to a creditor, selected by
the commissioner. Every week, the
commissioner is furnished with the cash
account of the trustees, and may, upon
their suggestion and that of the creditors,
if he thinks it advisable, put the money
already received at interest. It is the
duty of the trustees to call in the debts of
the bankrupt, and to have any mortgages
made to him recorded, if he has not had
it done himself; likewise to summon,
without delay, all the creditors, by letter
or the public papers, to appear before
them within 40 days, personally or by at-
torney, to prove their claims, present their
vouchers, or deposit them with the tribu-
nal of commerce. The examination of
claims is made within 14 days after the
expiration of the 40 days, and every cred-
itor, whose claims have been allowed, is
at liberty to be present at the discussion
of others' claims, and offer objections.
After the claims have been discussed,
each creditor must deliver, within eight
days, an affidavit to the commissioner,
that his demands are true. Whether a
process shall be allowed, to establish the
contested claims, rests on the decision of
the tribunal of commerce. After the ex-
piration of the time fixed for allowing
claims, it is the duty of the trustees to
take note of the creditors who do not ap-
pear; the commissioner gives information
of them to the tribunal of commerce,
which now assigns an additional period
for their appearance, which, in respect to
inhabitants of the kingdom, is regulated
by the distance of their residence, one
day being allowed for every three myria-
552
BANKRUPT.
metres, about 183 English miles. In cases
of foreign creditors, longer delays are al-
lowed. After the expiration of this peri-
od, those who do not appear are exclud-
ed from a future dividend. Within three
days after the period assigned for making
affidavit, the creditors whose claims are
allowed, are convened, and the state of
the bankrupt's property is laid before
them in the presence of the commissioner
and the bankrupt. This is the time for
the accord, which may take place if ac-
ceded to by the majority of the creditors,
the sum of whose claims constitutes at
least three fourths of the amount of debts
to be liquidated. Creditors who hold col-
lateral security for their debts have no
voice in the decision. In case of pre-
sumption of fraud, from an examination
of the bankrupt's books and papers, no
accord is valid. If an accord is made, it
must be signed during this sitting. Who-
ever is against it, is allowed a space of
eight days to exhibit his objections. The
accord, when legally ratified, restores the
bankrupt to his former situation. If no
accord is effected, the assembled creditors
have to appoint definitive trustees (syndics
definitifs), and a cashier to receive the
moneys arising from the income or sale
of the bankrupt's property. The duties
of these definitive trustees are the same
with those of the provisional trustees and
the agents whom they succeeded; and the
provisional trustees account and transfer
the affairs over to the definitive, in the
same manner as the agents had done to
them. Monthly reports are made to the
commissioner, who now has to fix the
dividends. Prior to the final division, the
creditors are convened, under the super-
intendence of the commissioner, and the
final account is submitted by the trustees.
The commissioner, on the suggestion of
the syndics, assigns to the bankrupt's
family their apparel and household furni-
ture. Wives, married with a stipulation
for separate property, or for community
of goods accompanied with a separate in-
terest in immovable property, retain the
estate to which they are thus entitled, and
also such as may have accrued to them
by succession or donation. They are
also entitled to retain personal property
acquired by them, if it is the proceeds of
such estate, and the right to employ such
estate has been secured to them at the
time when it came into their possession.
Except in such cases, the presumption of
law is, that property acquired by the wife
has been paid for from the estate of the
husband, and it is to be considered as
belonging to him, unless she can substan-
tiate her claim to it. She has a right,
however, to articles of dress and furniture
proved to belong to her by the marriage
contract, or to have fallen to her by inher-
itance. Goods sold to the bankrupt may
be reclaimed by the vender, if they are
still in transitu, and not yet delivered at
the store-house of the bankrupt, and have
not been sold by him on authority of the
bill of lading, or other sufficient authority.
But all the bankrupt's advances for freight,
charges, &c., on account of the goods,
must first be refunded.
must first be refunded. And so the price,
for which the goods consigned to the
bankrupt for sale, on account and risk of
the consignor, have been sold by him to
third persons, may be claimed by the con-
signor, if it has not been paid to the bank-
rupt, or passed into the accounts between
him and the consignor. The simple
bankrupt (that is, he who is convicted of
mere negligence) is liable to imprison-
ment for a time not less than one month,
nor more than two years. The fraudu-
lent bankrupt is condemned to hard labor
(travaux forcés) for a definite time.-By
the English statute of 6 Geo. IV, it is
made an act of bankruptcy for a debtor to
depart the realm, remain abroad, leave
his house, shut himself up in his house,
suffer himself to be arrested for a debt not
due, yield himself up to be put in prison,
suffer himself to be outlawed, procure
himself to be arrested, or his goods to be
attached, or make transfers of his lands
or goods, with intent to defraud his creditors.
So it is an act of bankruptcy in a debtor,
on commitment for debt, to lie in prison
20 days, or escape from prison. A man
may become a bankrupt, also, by declar-
ing himself such at the bankrupt office.
Where the debtor does not so declare him-
self bankrupt, proceedings are commenced
against him as such, on petition to the
chancellor, by one creditor to the amount
of £100, or two or more to the amount of
£150. And in case the petitioners do not
establish the bankruptcy, they are liable
for the costs of the proceedings, and dam-
ages to the party petitioned against. The
act extends to aliens, denizens and women.
On a petition being made, the lord chan-
cellor appoints commissioners, to take
charge of the body, lands and effects of
the party petitioned against. These com-
missioners proceed to take testimony that
the petitioners are creditors, that the debt-
or is a merchant or trader within the
meaning of the statute, and that he has
committed an act of bankruptcy. These
facts being established, they adjudge that
10
in
BANKRUPT.
he is a bankrupt, and give notice thereof
in the London Gazette. The commis-
sioners are invested with ample powers
for getting possession of the bankrupt's
person and effects. They assign all his
property, real and personal, to assignees
appointed by themselves, and these as-
signees subsequently assign it over to
other assignees, appointed at the second
meeting of the creditors, in case of such
other assignees being so appointed, and
approved by the commissioners. Cred-
itors, whose debts are not due, are allow-
ed to prove them, discounting interest.
Sureties and bail for the bankrupt, when
they pay the whole debt for which they
are bound, may represent their claims un-
der the commission, and receive the divi-
dends that would otherwise have been
assigned to the party to whom they pay
the debt, even if it is not paid until after
the commission issues. Persons holding
policies of insurance signed by the bank-
rupt, may also present their claims, and
if the contingency, whereby they would
be entitled to a loss, happens before the
commission is closed, their claims will be
allowed. An annuity creditor is also ad-
mitted to prove; likewise sureties on an
annuity bond, and any creditor whose
debt depends on a contingency, if the
contingency take effect pending the com-
mission. The conveyance made to the as-
signees will transfer to them, for the ben-
efit of the creditors, all goods of any other
person in the possession of the bankrupt at
the time of the failure, and, by permission
of the owner, reputed to belong to the
bankrupt. Conveyances and transfers
made by the bankrupt after he shall have
been insolvent, except upon consideration
of marriage, or other good consideration,
are void, and the property so transferred
is disposed of by the assignees for the
benefit of the creditors. The assignees
may, at their election, assume any sub-
sisting lease held by the bankrupt, or any
agreement by him to purchase lands.
The bankruptcy dissolves articles of ap-
prenticeship entered into with the bank-
rupt, and if he has received any ap-
prentice's fee, on account of taking an
apprentice, a part or the whole of it is
returned by the commissioners. The as-
signees may execute any powers vested
in the bankrupt, which he might have
executed for his own benefit. If the
bankrupt was trustee of property, the
chancellor appoints others in his stead.
Conveyances by, and contracts and trans-
actions by and with, the bankrupt, bona
fide, and executions levied more than two
VOL. 1.
47
553
months before the issuing of the commis-
sion, though after the act of bankruptcy,
are valid if the other party had no notice
of the previous act of bankruptcy. Pay-
ments made at any time before the bank-
ruptcy are also valid. The creditors ap-
point a receiver of the meaty, the proceeds
of the bankrupt's property. The money
must be vested in exchequer bills on in-
terest, if so directed by the commission-
ers. The first dividend is made at the
end of 12, and the final one at the end of
18 months. In case the bankrupt does
not surrender himself within 42 days after
notice, or appear, as required, from time
to time, to be examined on oath before
the commissioners, or does not discover
all his property, or deliver up all his
books and papers relating thereto, or con-
ceals and embezzles property to the value
of £10, or papers relating thereto, he is
deemed guilty of felony, and liable to be
transported for life, or for a term not less
than seven years. During his examina-
tion, an allowance is made to him for the
support of his family. The bankrupt is
absolutely discharged from all his debts
and liabilities subsisting at the time of his
becoming bankrupt, in case of his obtain-
ing, and the lord chancellor's allowing, a
certificate of four fifths in number and
value of creditors to the amount of £20
each, or, after six months from the time
of his last examination, of three fifths in
number and value of such ereditors, or
nine tenths in number, that he has duly
surrendered, and in all things conformed
to the requisitions of the act.
All con-
tracts to induce creditors to sign the cer-
tificate are void. But, if it be a second
case of the debtor's bankruptcy, his cer-
tificate will not exempt his future prop-
erty and earnings from liability to his
creditors, unless the dividends amount to
15s. in the pound. A bankrupt who ob-
tains his certificate, if the dividends
amount to 10s. in the pound, is allowed 5
per cent. on the amount, not exceeding
€400; and if the dividends amount to
12s. 6d. in the pound, he is allowed 7½ per
cent., not exceeding £500; and if the
dividends amount to 15s. in the pound,
he is allowed 10 per cent., not exceeding
£600: but if they are less than 10s. in
the pound, he is only allowed such sum
as the assignees and commissioners may
think fit, not over 3 per cent., nor exceed-
ing £300. But the bankrupt is not enti-
tled to a certificate, if he has lost, in
gambling, within 12 months, £200, or £20
in any one day in that time; or if he has lost
£200 in stockjobbing, or has caused false
554
BANKRUPT-BANKS.
entries in his books, and mutilated or fal-
sified papers to defraud his creditors, or
connived at any person's proving a ficti-
tious debt under the commission. If the
bankrupt or his friends propose a compo-
sition which is accepted by nine tenths
of his creditors in number and value, the
commission of bankruptcy will be super-
seded. In Holland, there has existed,
since 1643, in Amsterdam and other com-
mercial cities, a court (Kamer van deso-
lade Boedels), consisting of an equal
number of lawyers and merchants, who
assemble twice a week, to take cogni-
zance of the bankruptcies that may occur.
When a person becomes insolvent, this
court appoints two commissioners (a mer-
chant and a lawyer), to take charge of his
affairs, who, with a secretary, immediate-
ly repair to the bankrupt's, seal up and
make an inventory of his property, take
possession of his books, &c. The follow-
ing day, they assemble the creditors living
in the place, and make a report; at the same
time assigning certain days for the future
meetings of the creditors. Two or three
creditors are now appointed to take pos-
session of the property of the bankrupt
and administer it, and attend to the sub-
stantiation of claims. From this time the
bankrupt has a month to propose an ac-
cord to his creditors, which the commis-
sioners make known to creditors, abroad
and at home, by public advertisements.
If a creditor has any objections to it, he
must urge them strenuously. To have
any respect paid them, they must be
made by a principal creditor, whose
claims amount to one fifth or one sixth,
or by two or more, whose joint claims
amount to one twenty-fifth. If no accord
is effected, the bankrupt is declared insol-
vent by the commissioners, his property
is put in trust, and the former sequestra-
tors are changed into trustecs, who, with
the aid of a book-keeper, proceed to the
examination of claims. The insolvency
is now reckoned from the sequestration,
and all transfers, &c., made. in the four
weeks previous, are regarded as null and
void. These trustees now ascertain the
amount of property and debts, and make
a dividend, though the last dividend must
be made 18 months after the assignment.
The allowance made the bankrupt is from
3 to 10 per cent., in proportion to the
dividend; but it can never exceed 10,000
florins. If the bankrupt is not found
chargeable with fraud, he may obtain a
certificate, which must be signed by the
trustees, and the creditors, at least one
half in number and five eighths in value,
+
or five eighths in number and one half in
value, and which not only restores him to
his former standing, but secures him from
all subsequent demands of former cred-
itors.-Denmark, also, has a distinct court
of distribution (Skifteret), which appoints
trustees, who divide the estate of the
bankrupt among the creditors, under the
approbation of the court. No creditor can
be appointed a trustee.-In Sweden, the
debtor, from the time of giving notice
of his insolvency, must keep his house.
The creditors of the place and neighbor-
hood are forthwith called together; the
bankrupt makes oath of his property; and
the estate is given, in provisional trust, to
two or more men. All the creditors are now
publicly invited to prove their demands at
the end of six months. The creditors must
appear, before 12 o'clock, on the fixed
day; their information is read, and, if pos-
sible, on the same day, oath is made of the
justice of their claims.
Two trustees,
chosen by the creditors, now take charge
of the estate. Three weeks after the first
meeting of the creditors, a second takes
place, and, 14 days afterwards, they are
again assembled, and receive a dividend.
All these laws are niore judicious than
the common German law on the same
subject, which is, indeed, in commercial
cities, frequently superseded by special
law. The delays and expenses of the
German bankrupt system are carried to a
great extent, and even the most equitable
judge is often unable to prevent fraud and
abuse. The tedious public citations; the
various processes of liquidation; the ad-
mission of legal measures, involving delay
the frequent disputes respecting right of
priority;-all these have the effect of in-
spiring merchants, foreigners especially,
with a dislike of the system, and inducing
them, if possible, to come to a voluntary
composition. More than half the estate of
the bankrupt is often exhausted by the
costs, or by the unavoidable delay of its
conversion into money, and there are in-
stances of 100 years having elapsed before
a final settlement. The punishment of
negligent and fraudulent bankrupts is
usually confinement in prison or the
workhouse.
BANKRUPTCY, NATIONAL. (See Na-
tional Bankruptcy.
BANKS, Sir Joseph, baronet, born in
Lincolnshire, 1743, a naturalist, sprung
from a family of Swedish origin, which
had settled in England a century before,
and from which the attorney and tragic
poet John Banks was also descended.
He studied at Eton and Oxford till 1761.
BANKS-BANS OF MATRIMONY.
He then visited Hudson's bay, for the pur-
pose of making researches in natural his-
tory, and, together with his friend doctor
Solander, accompanied Cook on his voy-
age of discovery. In an expedition into
the interior of the desolate Terra del
Fuego, for the purpose of examining the
country, the two naturalists narrowly
escaped perishing with cold. B. intro-
duced the bread-tree into the American
islands, and he wrote the botanical obser-
vations in the account of Cook's voyages.
In 1771, the university of Oxford confer-
red on him the degree of doctor of laws.
In 1772, he visited Iceland, in order to make
himself acquainted with its natural produc-
tions. After the resignation of sir John
Pringle, in 1778, B. was chosen president of
the royal society; but, in 1784, he was vi-
olently assailed by some of the most dis-
tinguished members, on account of his
behavior towards doctor Hutton, and his
disregard to the mathematical part of the
society. In 1781, he was made a baronet.
The French chose him a member of the
national institute, in 1801, because to his
intercession they owed the recovery of
the papers of La Peyrouse, relating to his
voyage, which had fallen into the hands
of the English. His library, and his col-
lections in natural history, are unequal-
led. Besides some essays, periodical pub-
lications, and some contributions to the
transactions of learned societies, he wrote
nothing but a Short Account of the
Causes of the Blight, the Mildew, and the
Rust in Corn, 1805. He died June 19,
1820. After the death of Mr. Brown, his
librarian, his collections will be added to
the British museum.
BANKS, Thomas, an English sculptor,
was born in 1735. He studied sculpture,
with great success, in the royal academy,
and was elected to be sent, as one of its
students, to Italy. Here he executed
several excellent pieces, particularly a
basso relievo representing Caractacus
brought prisoner to Rome, in the posses-
sion of the duke of Buckingham; and a
Cupid catching a butterfly, which was af-
terwards purchased by the empress Cath-
arine. From Italy he repaired to Russia,
where he staid for two years without
meeting with any adequate encourage-
ment, when he returned to his own coun-
try. Among other works executed by
him, was a colossal statue, exhibiting
Achilles mourning the loss of Briseis,
now in the hall of the British institution.
He is also the sculptor of the admired
monument of sir Eyre Coote in Westmin-
ster abbey. Mr. Banks was elected a
555
member of the royal academy not long
after his return from Russia, and finished
a life of arduous exertion in Feb., 1805.
BANN. (See Ban.)
BANNEC; an island in the English
channel, near the coast of France. Lon.
4° 55 W.; lat. 48° 25′ N.
BANNER; a word found in all the mod-
ern languages of western Europe, the
origin of which, however, is given in
many very different ways. It signifies
the colors, or standard. Among the an-
cient Germans, if a knight was able to
lead 10 helmets, i. e. 10 other knights,
against the enemy, the duke (herzog) gave
him a banner, and he was called a ban-
neret (bannerherr). In some republics,
banneret or standard-bearer was the title
of one of the highest officers, as the gon-
faloniere of Florence and other Italian re-
publics, and the bannerherr in the Swiss
republics. Banneret, in England, was a
knight made in the field, with the cere-
mony of cutting off the point of his stan-
dard, and making it a banner-a custom
which has long since ceased. Several
banners are famous in history, as the
Danish banner, taken from the Danes by
Alfred the Great, the oriflamme (q. v.),
&c. Catholic churches generally have
their banners.
BANNOCKBURN; a village of Scotland,
in Stirlingshire, seated on the Bannock,
famous for the decisive battle fought near
it between king Robert Bruce of Scotland
and Edward II of England, 1314 A. C., in
which the English were defeated.
BANQUETTE, in fortification; the eleva-
tion of earth behind a parapet, on which
the garrison of a fortress may stand, on
the approach of an enemy, in order to
fire upon them. The height of the para-
pet above the banquette (the height of
defence), is usually about four feet six
inches; the breadth of the banquette,
when it is occupied by one rank, two and
a half to three feet; when it is occupied
by two ranks, four to six feet. It is fre-
quently made double, that is, a second is
made still lower.
BANQUO, or BANCHO; thane of Locha-
ber, the grandfather of Walter, the first
lord high steward of Scotland, and the
progenitor of the royal house of Stewart.
He gained several great victories over the
Highlanders and Danes, in the reign of
Donald VII, but tarnished his glory by
joining Macbeth in the conspiracy against
that monarch. He was murdered by
Macbeth, about 1046.
BANS OF MATRIMONY is the giving public
notice, or making proclamation, of a mat-
556
BANS OF MATRIMONY-BAPHOMET.
rimonial contract, and the intended cele-
bration of the marriage of the parties in
pursuance of such contract, to the end
that persons objecting, either on account
of kindred, precontract, or for other just
cause, may have opportunity to declare
such objections before the marriage is
solemnized. The notice is given either
by proclamation, viva voce, by a minister
or some public officer thereto authorized,
in some religious or other public assem-
bly, or by posting up written notice in
some public place.
BAOBAB, or BAHоBAB; a tree (adan-
sonia digitata, Wild.). It is the largest pro-
duction of the whole vegetable kingdom.
The trunk is not above 12 feet high, but
it is from 60 to 85 feet round; the weight
of the lower branches bends them to the
ground, so that they form a hemispheri-
cal mass of verdure about 120, sometimes
150, feet in diameter. The flowers are in
proportion to the size of the tree, and
followed by a fruit, about 10 inches long.
When dry, the pulp, by which the seeds
are surrounded, is powdered, and brought
to Europe from the Levant, under the
name of terra sigillata lemnia; the seeds
are called goui.
BAOUR-LORMIAN, Louis Pierre Marie
François, born, in 1771, in Toulouse, was
appointed a member of the French acade-
my, during the "hundred days," in Bouf-
fler's place, and this appointment was
confirmed after the second restoration of
the king. His reputation as a poet com-
menced with his translation of Tasso's
Jerusalem Delivered. Still earlier, his
quarrels with the poet Lebrun excited
curiosity. Several epigrams, which were
exchanged between them, have been pre-
served. Baour said—
Lebrun de gloire se nourrit,
Aussi voyez comme il maigrit.
Lebrun replied, pretty severely—
Sottise entretient l'embonpoint,
Aussi Baour ne maigrit point.
He wrote, with Etienne, in order to excite
the enthusiasm of the French, the opera
Oriflamme, in Feb., 1814, which was very
humorously parodied by Rehfues (Die Ori-
flamme, Leipsic). In 1824, he published a
translation of Dante's Divina Commedia.
He has since lived in the country, and first
broke a long silence by a poem on the coro-
nation of Charles X, for which he received
a jewel and a letter of nobility.
BAPHOMET. Joseph von Hammer, the
renowned Orientalist in Vienna, has dis-
cussed this subject in his essay (in the
Fundgruben des Orients, 6 vols. 1 numb.)
Mysterium Baphometis revelatum, seu Fra-
tres Militia Templi, qua Gnostici et quidem
Ophiani, Apostasia, Idoloduliæ et Impuri-
tatis convicti, per ipsa eorum Monumenta
(Discovery of the Mystery of Baphomet,
by which the Knights Templars, like the
Gnostics and Ophites, are convicted of
Apostasy, of Idolatry and of moral Impu-
rity, by their own Monuments). At the
same time appeared a work of his, in
which he endeavored to show the con-
nexion of the Templars with the Assas-
sins. He intended to prove, by this, that
the order had been justly condemned and
abolished, and that its corruption had not
originated from intercourse with the Sar-
acens, nor crept in as a particular doctrine
and corruption of single chapters, but was
common to the whole order, and pro-
ceeded from the statutes of their institu-
tion. At the same time, von Hammer
extends his investigations to the origin of
the Freemasons, and to the pretended sim-
ilarity of their symbols with those of the
Templars and Ophites. His chief sub-
ject is the images which are called Baph-
omet. They are to be found in several
museums and collections of antiquities,
as in Weimar (see the drawings in the
Curiositäten, 2d vol.), and in the imperial
cabinet in Vienna. These little images
are of stone, partly hermaphrodites, hav-
ing, generally, two heads or two faces,
with a beard, but, in other respects, fe-
male figures, most of them accompanied
by serpents, the sun and moon, and other
strange emblems, and bearing many in-
scriptions, mostly in Arabic. The author
explains 24 of them, partly by means of
drawings, and takes them for idols of the
Templars. The inscriptions he reduces
almost all to Mele. This Mete is, accord-
ing to him, not the Maris of the Greeks,
but the Sophia, Achamot Prunikos of the
Ophites, which was represented half man,
half woman, as the symbol of wisdom,
unnatural voluptuousness and the princi-
ple of sensuality. As every thing which
is reported of this Metis of the Gnostic
Ophites, and all that is known of the
worship of images, and of the heads of
Baphomet in the chapters, from the accu-
sations and statements on the trial of the
Templars, agrees with the figure and the
inscriptions of these idols, the true signi-
fication of them cannot be doubted. He
asserts that those small figures are such
as the Templars, according to the state-
ment of a witness, carried with them in
their coffers. Baphomet signifies Ban
Mnreos, baptism of Metis, baptism of fire, or
the Gnostic baptism, an enlightening of
BAPHOMET-BAPTISM.
the mind, which, however, was interpret
ed by the Ophites, in an obscene sense,
as fleshly union. This baptism was per-
formed by cups or chalices, accompanied
by the symbols of generation and of the
mystical meal of the Gnostics, three of
which are in the cabinet of antiquities at
Vienna, and are represented in the trea-
tise. These vessels are said to have been
fixed at the feet of certain images, and to
have been filled with fire, by which the
initiation in their shameful mysteries was
completed in the secret chapters of the
Templars. The image of Baphomet was
girded with serpents, as a symbol of un-
natural sins. In several is to be seen also
the T, the truncated cross, the character
of Baphomet, which, being put as a part
for the whole, was used to signify the
instrument of life, the creating wisdom,
the key of life; and was also called, by
the Ophites, the tree of life, and the key
of the Gnosis. On some images, the
serpent is also to be seen, entwined
round this cross. Finally, the images of
Baphomet exhibit also the sun and moon,
which, in the mysteries of the ancients,
were of different signification. Von Ham-
mer refers all the signs and images, which
are said to be found on the buildings and
coins of the Templars, to that infamous
mystery. Such bold speculations, in a mat-
ter so much investigated, have met with
great opposition: in particular, the funda-
mental assertion, that those idols and cups
came from the Templars, has been consid-
ered as unfounded, especially as the images
known to have existed among the Tem-
plars seem rather to be images of saints.
Some deny that the word Mete is to be
found upon these images or any other
relics at all, or that it means an Ophitic
Eon, and assert, that the Ophitic sects were
not in existence in the 11th century.
See Raynouard, the defender of the
Templars (in the Journal des Savants),
and de Sacy. Von Nell, also, has written
Baphometische Actenstücke zu dem, durch
des Herrn von Hammer Mysterium Bapho-
metis revelatum_wieder angeregten, Pro-
cesse gegen die Tempelherren, zur Ehren-
rettung des Christlichen Ordens (Vienna,
1819). In reply, von Hammer, in No. 50
of the Archives of Geogr., History, Poli-
ties and Tactics, 1819, pointed out, in the
engravings of Nell, not less than eight
places containing misrepresentations. In
a more recent treatise of Nell-Essay on
a cosmological Interpretation of the Pho-
nician Worship of the Cabiri (in the
above work, No. 69-75)—the author as-
serts, that, after a close examination, he
557
thinks the mysterious monuments, in the
imperial cabinet of antiquities, which von
Hammer explained as symbols of the
Templars, to be alchemico-theosophical
symbols, and that even the figure, which
was believed to be a Mete, was found
among the alchemists. We may observe,
also, that Nicolai considered the word
Baphomet as a sign of an abstract notion,
as a pentagon drawn round the head of
the image; but that von Hammer calls
the head of the image, and the image it-
self, which is to designate the baptism of
fire, Baphomet.
BAPTISM. As most symbolical cere-
monies originate from customs or events
of common life, which are afterwards
chosen to represent something higher,
baptism originated from the bathings
and ablutions so frequently practised in
Asia, and which, among all the sects of
that part of the world, whether heathens,
Jews or Mohammedans, have obtained a
religious character. Baptism (that is,
dipping, immersing, from the Greek
Banri(w) was usual with the Jews even be-
fore Christ, and every converted heathen
was not only circumcised, but also washed,
as a symbol of his entrance into the new
religion purified from the stains of his
former life. From this baptism of prose-
lytes, however, that of St. John differs,
because he baptized Jews, also, as a sym-
bol of the necessity of perfect purification
from sin. Jesus himself was baptized by
John, as were probably several of his
apostles, who had been the disciples of
St. John. Christ himself never baptized,
but directed his disciples to administer
this rite to the converts, using the follow-
ing words: "Go ye, therefore, and teach
all nations, baptizing them in the name
of the Father, and of the Son, and of the
Holy Ghost" (Matt. xxviii. 19). Baptism,
therefore, became a religious ceremony
among Christians, and is considered as a
sacrament by all sects which acknowledge
sacraments. In the time of the apostles,
the form of baptism was very simple.
The person to be baptized was dipped in
a river or vessel, with the words which
Christ had ordered, and, to express more
fully his change of character, generally
adopted a new name. The immersion
of the whole body was omitted only in
the case of the sick, who could not leave
their beds. In this case, sprinkling was
substituted, which was called clinic bap-
tism. The Greek church, as well as the
schismatics in the East, retained the cus-
tom of immersing the whole body; but
the Western church adopted, in the 13th
47 *
558
BAPTISM.
century, the mode of baptisin by sprin-
kling, which has been continued by the
Protestants, the Baptists (q. v.) only ex-
cepted. The introduction of this mode
of baptism was owing to the great incon-
venience which arose from the immersion
of the whole body in the northern climates
of Europe. The custom of sprinkling
thrice, in the administration of the rite,
spread with the diffusion of the doctrine
of the Trinity. In the first centuries of the
Christian era, when, generally speaking,
adults only joined the new sect, the con-
verted (catechumens, q. v.) were diligent-
ly instructed; the power of this sacrament
to procure perfect remission of sins was
taught, and, while some converts delayed
their baptism from a feeling of sinfulness
not yet removed, others did the same
from the wish to gratify corrupt desires a
little longer, and to have their sins for-
given all at once. But the doctrine of
St. Augustine, that the unbaptized were
irrevocably damned, changed this delay
into haste, and made the baptism of chil-
dren general. The death of a martyr,
however, who perished while yet a cate-
chumen, was accounted equally effectual
for salvation with baptism. This was
called baptisma sanguinis (baptism of
blood, q. v.). When, in the 5th century,
Christianity became more firmly estab-
lished, and the fear of the relapse of
Christain proselytes into their former
faith, which had so often occurred in the
period of persecution, diminished, the
baptism of children became still more
general, and is now the common custom
of Christians, with the exception of the
Baptists. In America, however, it is not
so universally practised as in Europe.
The abuse of this rite by the Montanists,
in Africa, who baptized even the dead,
could be abolished only by severe punish-
ments; but, in Roman Catholic countries,
the practice of baptizing church-bells con-
tinues to this day-a custom which first
came into use in the 10th century. This is
done froin the belief that the ringing of
such bells during a thunder-storm serves
to protect the neighborhood. As baptism
is a sacrament, and considered by the
Catholics so very efficacious, the Roman
church has strictly prohibited the re-bap-
tism of baptized heretics, on their conver-
sion to Catholicism. Anti-trinitarians, only,
are to be baptized again. Protestants, of
course, acknowledge the validity of the
baptism of other Protestant sects, as well
as of that of the Catholic church. The
Roman and Greek Catholics consecrate
the water of baptism, but Protestants do
not. The exorcism (q. v.) is not abolished
in all Protestant countries. The act of
baptism is accompanied only with the
formula, that the person is baptized in the
name of the Father, Son and Holy Ghost;
but this act, among most Christians, is
preceded by a confession of faith, made, by
the sponsors, in the name of the person
to be baptized, if a child. Even in the
ancient church, every person, when bap-
tized, was attended by a Christian friend
of the same sex, who became responsible
for the faith of the new Christian, and
promised to take care of his spiritual
welfare. The form still remains, though
the promise is not very strictly complied
with in most cases. After baptism in the
Catholic church, the baptized person re-
ceives inilk and honey, as a symbol of his
spiritual youth; and the spiritual privi-
leges which he acquires as a Christian
are all indicated by symbols; thus the salt
of wisdom is given, the garment of inno-
cence is put on, &c. The Catholic church
acknowledges three kinds of baptism, that
of water, fire and blood (baptisma fluminis,
flaminis, sanguinis). The first
The first is the
common one; the second is perfect love
of God, connected with a sincere and ar-
dent desire to be baptized; the third is
the martyrdom of a catechumen for the
Christian faith. All three are equal in
their effect. The Roman church ac-
knowledges, that all persons not baptized
are damned, even infants; but it does not
state what they are to suffer; for even
St. Augustin, the sternest and severest
preacher of this doctrine, deemed it hard
that those who had not yet sinned should
be damned for eternity in consequence of
the sin of Adam; and he thinks that their
suffering will be slight. Some scholastic
theologians have thought that the pain
they were to endure would consist in sep-
aration from God. The Jansenists believe
in the total dannation of infants not bap-
tized. Dante, who so strictly adhered to
the dogmas of his church, but always re-
tained his sensibility to the feelings of hu-
manity, gives, in the 4th canto of his Infer-
no, a place to all virtuous heathens, and in-
fants not baptized, separate from the other
part of hell; and it is easily seen with what
reluctance he placed them there. (See
Calvin.)
BAPTISM OF BLOOD. Tertullian gave
this name to martyrdom before baptism,
and to the death of martyrs in general,
which he, and, after him, other Christian
fathers, considered as another and more
effectual baptism for purification from sins,
and urgently recommended to believers.
MU
BAPTISTS—BAR.
BAPTISTS; a Protestant sect, distin-
guished by their opinions respecting the
mode and subjects of baptism. With re-
gard to the former, they maintain the ne-
cessity of immersion, from the significa-
tion of the word Barrigw, to dip, used by
the sacred writers; from the performance
of the rite in rivers in the primitive ages,
and from the phraseology used in describ-
ing the ceremony. With regard to the
subjects, they consider that baptism ought
not to be administered to children nor in-
fants at all, nor to adults in general, but
to those only who profess repentance and
faith. This they defend from the lan-
guage of scripture, "Repent, and be bap-
tized," &c., and from the existence of
catechumens in the ancient churches,
who were instructed before they were
baptized. They are sometimes called
Anti-pædobaptists, to express their variance
from those who defend infant baptism,
and who are called Padobaptists. The
peculiar sentiments of this denomination
have spread so much among other sects,
that we find Baptists equally among Cal-
vinists and Arminians, Trinitarians and
Unitarians.—The Baptists, of all descrip-
tions, adopt the Independent or Congre-
gational form of church government, and
all their ecclesiastical assemblies disclaim
any right to interfere with the concerns
of individual churches. The meetings
of the members of different congregations
are held for the purpose of mutual advice,
and not for the general government of the
whole body.-The Particular Baptists of
England, the Baptists of Scotland and
Ireland, the Associated Baptists of Amer-
ica, and some of the Seventh-day Bap-
tists, are Calvinistic. The other classes
are Arminian, or at least not Calvinistic.
All, except some of the Christian Society,
are Trinitarians. The Free-will Baptists,
the Christian Society, and some of the
General Baptists of England, admit of
open communion: the other bodies de-
cline communion with any Christians but
Baptists. Some of the principal divisions
are the Particular Baptists, who adopt the
doctrine of particular election; the Gen-
eral Baptists, who profess the doctrine
of universal redemption. Some of the
churches of the latter have three orders,
separately ordained-messengers, elders
and deacons. The Associated or Cal-
vinistic Baptists of America are the
most numerous denomination in the U.
States. They had, in 1824, about 150
associations, in which are more than
3000 churches, about 2500 preachers, and
250,000 communicants.-The Seventh-
559
day Baptists, or Sabbatarians, observe the
seventh day of the week. The Free-will
Baptists profess the doctrine of free sal-
vation. The first church of this order was
gathered in New Hampshire (U. States)
in 1780; and there were, in 1824, 10,000
communicants in the U. States. The
Christian Society is Anti-Calvinistic and
Anti-trinitarian. The first church was
founded, in 1803, in Portsmouth, N. H.;
the number of communicants, in 1824,
was about 20,000. Their churches have
organized the General Christian Confer-
ence. They profess to reject useless
forms and ceremonies, to use scriptural
expressions, and disclaim all creeds and
articles of faith.-The Tunkers are dis-
tinguished for their simplicity of dress
and manners, and for wearing beards.
At an early period of the reformation,
the subject of infant baptism was dis-
cussed. The Anabaptists (q. v.) are not,
however, to be confounded with the Bap-
tists, by whom their principles were ex-
pressly disclaimed. The persecution of
dissenters, in the reign of Elizabeth, gave
rise to the foundation of the first regular
church of this sect, though their principles
had prevailed much earlier. We may
date the first public acknowledgment of
the Baptists as distinct from the Anabap-
tists from their petition to parliament in
1620. In 1623, they are described as car-
rying an external appearance of holiness,
as denying the doctrines of predestination,
reprobation, &c. It is therefore probable
that the Baptists of that time were General
Baptists. The year 1633 provides us
with the earliest records remaining of the
formation of a Particular Baptist church
in London. Between these two denom-
inations, there never has been much in-
tercourse. Both of them have repeatedly
and publicly disclaimed anabaptism. The
Particular Baptists have never had any
material dispute amongst their members,
except upon a point agitated also amongst
the General Baptists-that of mixed com-
munion: the question is, whether persons
baptized in infancy, and not re-baptized
at full age, may be admitted to partake
the sacrament in their congregation.-
The whole number of Baptist churches
in the U. States was, in 1824, about
5600; that of the communicants about
407,684. (For information on the pecu-
liar tenets
liar tenets of the Baptists, see the
works of Drs. Gill and Gale, Abra-
ham Booth, and Wall's History of In-
fant Baptism. See, also, Anabaptist and
Mission.)
BAR; the partition which separates the
1
560
BAR-BARBARIAN.
members of a court from those who have
to report or to hear. The English parlia-
ment, also, has at its entrance such bars;
and the national convention of France
adopted this arrangement, and the custom
of summoning before their bar all from
whom it desired information. This en-
croachment on the executive and judicia-
ry branches of government, by a body
whose proper business was deliberation
and discussion, was the cause of many
of the horrors of the revolution. At the
time when 50 lives were daily sacrificed,
in Paris, under Robespierre, when the
monster Carrier, at Nantes, caused 300
innocent children to be drowned in one
night, the national convention had not the
courage to expel the wretches who in-
terrupted their labors by singing patriotic
songs at the bar. However, on the 16th
March, 1794, they issued a decree-que
dorénavant on n'entendra plus à la barre
de la Convention que la raison en prose.
BARATARIA; a bay and island of Lou-
isiana, on the north side of the gulf of
Mexico; 55 miles N. W. of the Balize;
lon. 90° W.; lat. 29° N. The bay is
about 18 miles in length, and at its en-
trance is the island, which is a strong
military position, and affords a safe and
capacious harbor for merchant vessels,
and light ships of war. This island was
the noted resort of La Fitte's piratical
squadron, by whom it was fortified at
both ends, in 1811. The adjacent coun-
try is an open, level region, and to the
north is a fine tract, well adapted to the
cultivation of sugar.
BARB. (See Horse.)
BARBADOES, one of the Caribbees, and
the most eastern of the West India islands,
supposed to have been discovered by the
Portuguese, but belonging to the English,
was settled by the latter in 1605. It lies
20 leagues E. of St. Vincent, 28 S. E.
Martinique; lon. 59° W.; lat. 13° 10′ N.
It is 21 miles long, and 14 broad, contain-
ing 106,470 acres, most of which is under
cultivation. It is divided into 11 parishes,
and contains 4 towns, viz. Bridgetown,
the capital, Speight's Town, Austin's
Town, and Jamestown. Pop., in 1786,
16,167 whites, 838 free people of color,
and 62,115 slaves: in 1811, 16,289 whites,
3,392 free people of color, and 62,258
slaves; total, 81,939. Slaves in 1817,
77,273. According to Humboldt's tables,
prepared in 1823-24, B. contained 21,000
free persons and 79,000 slaves; total,
100,000.—The climate is very hot, but the
air is pure, and moderated by the constant
trade winds; but it is subject to dreadful
hurricanes. The soil in the low lands is
black, somewhat reddish in the shallow
parts, on the hills of a chalky marl, and
near the sea generally sandy. Of this
variety of soil, the black mould is best
suited to the cultivation of the cane, and,
with the aid of manure, has given as
great returns of sugar, in favorable seasons,
as any in the West Indies, the prime
lands of St. Christopher's excepted. The
houses of the planters are very numerous
all along the country, which, with the
luxuriant productions of the soil, and the
gently-swelling hills, form a delightful
scene. The average annual exports for
eight years, from 1740 to 1748, were
13,948 hogsheads of sugar, of 13 cwt. each,
12,884 puncheons of rum, of 100 gallons
each, 60 hogsheads of molasses, 4,667 bags
of ginger, 600 bags of cotton, and 327
gourds of aloes. The exports, on an
average, in 1784, 1785 and 1786, had
fallen to 9,554 hogsheads of sugar, 5,448
puncheons of rum, 6,320 bags of ginger,
8,331 bags of cotton, exclusive of some
smaller articles. Value of exports in 1809,
£450,760; in 1810, £271,597. Imports in
1809, £288,412; in 1810, £311,400.-The
Moravians have two missionaries, and the
Methodist society one, on this island.
(See West Indies.) Much information on
this island is to be found in Mr. Wilber-
force's report to parliament. It is thought
that Barbadoes reached its summit of
prosperity a hundred years ago.
BARBARELLI. (See Giorgione.)
BARBARIAN. The Greeks gave the
name ẞápßapos to every one who spoke
their language badly. The term was af-
terwards applied to all foreign nations;
and, as the civilization of Greece was
really much higher than that of the sur-
rounding nations, the idea of rude, illite-
rate, uncivilized, soon connected itself
with the word. The Romans, in this, as
in many other cases, imitated the Greeks,
and applied the term barbarus to all na-
tions except themselves and the Greeks—
the two most civilized states of antiquity.
This word, however, did not always con-
vey the idea of something odious; thus
Plautus calls Nævius barbarum poetam,
because he had not written in Greek.
Cicero (ad Div. ix. 3.) uses the word barbari
in reference to illiterate persons, without
taste; and we still apply the term barbarism
to an expression which offends the rules of
a language. The signification of cruelty,
implied in the word, is of modern origin.
Arrogant as it may appear to us, to apply
a term of contempt to every foreigner, a
similar usage has existed, and still exists
BARBARIAN-BARBARY STATES.
to a certain degree, among the European
races. These, for a long time, applied
the term savage, or some corresponding
word, to all nations who had not received
the Christian faith; and, even at the present
time, Christian nations generally seem
to consider themselves released from the
ordinary rules of morality, when they
have to deal with nations of another re-
ligion. If the ancients appear to us arro-
gant in this respect, we must not forget,
that they never looked upon the barbarians
in the light of inferior beings; never spoke
of them, nor conducted towards them, in
the style which the Spaniards have used
towards the barbarians of America, and
many other nations besides them towards
the barbarians of Africa.
BARBARINO, Francesco da; one of the
earliest Italian poets. He was born at
Barbarino, in Tuscany, in 1264, and studi-
ed jurisprudence at Padua and Bologna.
He was employed as an ecclesiastical
lawyer, and had the degree of doctor of
laws conferred on him by pope Clement
V. He is reckoned among the founders
of Italian literature, on account of his
poem entitled Documenti d'Amore, which
relates to moral philosophy. It was first
printed at Rome, in 1640, by Ubaldini.
The greater part of his works are lost.
Barbarino died of the plague, at Florence,
in 1348.
BARBAROSSA; emperor of Germany.
(See Frederic I.)
BARBAROSSA, Aruch or Horuc; the son
of a renegado of Lemnos, and a noted
pirate. Having, by his success in piracy
on the coast of Barbary, made himself
master of 12 galleys stoutly manned with
Turks, he rendered himself so formidable,
that Selim Eutemi, ruler of the country
about Algiers, called in his assistance
against the Spaniards. Being admitted
into Algiers with his men, he caused
Selim to be strangled in a bath, and him-
self to be proclaimed king. He acted
with the greatest tyranny, which pro-
duced a revolt among the Arabs, who
sought the aid of the king of Tunis.
This confederacy was defeated, and Tunis
itself taken, of which B. also declared
himself the sovereign. He then marched
to Tremecen, the prince of which he also
defeated, and was admitted into their
capital by the people, who first beheaded
their fugitive king. The next heir of
Tremecen then applied for aid to Go-
mares, governor of Oran for Charles V,
who marched with a powerful army to-
wards Tremecen. B. leaving the town,
with his Turks, to meet this new enemy,
561
the people shut the gates; on which he
endeavored to fly, but, being overtaken,
fought like a lion in the toils, and was cut
to pieces, with all his Turks, in. the 44th
year of his age, A. D. 1518.
BARBAROSSA, Hayradin or Khayr Ed-
din; younger brother of the preceding.
He was left by Aruch to secure Algiers,
when he marched against Tunis, and, on
his death, was proclaimed king in his
place. Finding his authority insecure,
he made application to the Ottoman sul-
tan Soliman, offering to recognise his su-
periority, and become tributary, provided
a force was sent to him sufficient to
maintain him in his usurpation. Soliman
agreed to his proposals, and, ordering him
a reënforcement of janizaries, invested
him with the dignity of viceroy or pacha
over the kingdom of Algiers. Thus reen-
forced, Hayradin built a wall for the im-
provement of the harbor, strengthened it
with fortifications, and may be deemed
the founder of that mischievous seat of
piracy, as it has ever since existed. Such
was his reputation for naval and military
talents, that Soliman II made him his
capitan pacha. In this capacity, he sig-
nalized himself by a long course of ex-
ploits against the Venetians and Genoese;
and, in 1543, when Francis I made a
league with Soliman, B. left Constantino-
ple, and, with a powerful fleet, having
the French ambassador on board, took
Reggio, and sacked the coast of Italy.
In conjunction with the French, he also
besieged and took Nice, and, refitting,
during the winter, at Toulon, again ravaged
the coasts and islands of Italy in the en-
suing spring, and returned with many
prisoners and much spoil to Constanti-
nople. From this time he seems to have
declined active service, and to have given
himself up to a voluptuous life among
his female captives, until the age of 80,
when he died, and his successor Hassan
became possessed of his authority and
riches. With the ferocity of a Turk and
a corsair, he possessed some generous
sentiments, and obtained a character for
honor and fidelity in his engagements.
BARBARY STATES. The states of Bar-
bary lie on the northern coast of Africa,
westerly from Egypt, as far as the Atlan-
tic ocean. They are, Tripoli (including
Barca), Tunis, Algiers, Fez and Morocco
They are, with the exception of some
little republics in Barca, all seats of the
military despotism of the Turks and
Moors. This tract of land, of 741,650
square miles, is intersected by the Atlas
mountains, whose highest summits are
1
562
BARBARY STATES.
constantly covered with snow. The lofti-
est among them, not far from the city of
Morocco, is 12,000 feet high. On the
coast, a mild, healthy, spring-like breeze
prevails the whole year, except in July
and August, when the suffocating south
wind blows. The plague is never gen-
erated here, but is brought from Constan-
tinople. The ground is fruitful in those
places where it is watered by rivers
running from the Atlas mountains into
the Mediterranean. From July till Oc-
tober, when all other plants are scorched
up by the sun, the oleander still survives
to enliven the landscape. In winter, the
ground is watered by frequent and vio-
lent showers. In January, the meadows
are already adorned with verdure. In
April and May, the whole country is
covered with flowers. The moisture and
warmth impart to the productions of the
soil an uncommon vigor and an exuberant
growth. Barley is the most important
production. Wheat, maize, millet, rice,
and a kind of pulse (in Spanish, garban-
ços), which are eaten roasted, in large
quantities, are generally cultivated. The
Indian fig-tree, which takes root easily,
forms impenetrable hedges for gardens
and vineyards. The vine stretches itself,
in beautiful windings, from one tree to
another. Its trunk is often as large as
that of a common-sized tree. Every-
where are seen well-cultivated olive-gar-
dens. The pomegranates are three times
as large as in Italy. Excellent oranges
ripen in great quantities. Melons, cu-
cumbers, cabbages, lettuce, abound. The
artichoke grows wild. The henna is
raised in the gardens. The acorns of the
quercus ballota, with a high trunk, an ar-
ticle of food of the inhabitants, taste like
wild chestnuts. The tall, tapering cypress,
the cedar, the almond-tree, the white
mulberry-tree, the indigofera glauca
(which is important for dyeing), the cine-
raria of the meadows (which is efficacious
against the stone), the fragrant cistus, the
splendid cactus, grow every where. The
hills are covered with thyme and rose-
mary, which purify the air, and serve for
fire-wood. In all directions are seen
bushes of white roses, from which is ex-
tracted the purest essence. The sugar-
cane flourishes excellently. An inferior
variety of this, called soliman, reaches a
considerable height, and is more juicy
than any other in the world. The lotus
and the palm-tree are of the greatest ad-
vantage to the inhabitants. The fan-
palm grows on the whole coast; the
date-palm, in the parts which lie nearer
to the desert of Sahara. There are, along
the coast, woods of the cork-tree. Gum
is obtained from the acacia-tree.-Among
the useful animals, the camel holds the
highest place. Greater care might be
bestowed on the breeding of horses and
buffaloes. Sheep with fat tails are com-
mon. Wild boars and many other spe-
cies of game are abundant. In the interior
of the country are apes, jackals, hyenas,
lions, panthers, ounces, and the gentle
gazelles. Ostriches live in the desert.
Birds are numerous, as are, also, locusts,
gnats, flies, bugs, toads and serpents, the
latter from 9 to 12 feet long; river and
sea-fish and turtles in abundance. The
bees deposit excellent honey in the rocks
and trees. The art of mining is neglect-
ed; but there is much iron, copper, lead,
tin, sulphur, many mineral-springs, much
gypsum, lime-stone, good clays, &c., to-
gether with salt from springs and the sea,
in abundance. This extensive and beau-
tiful country, separated from Europe only
by a sea of no great width, has often been
the centre of an advanced civilization.
It was distinguished for prosperity, popu-
lation and industry, under the Cartha-
ginians, Romans, Vandals and Arabians.
Its commercial advantages are very great.
Its intercourse with the coasts of Europe
is far more easy and quick than the in-
tercourse of those coasts with their own
capital cities, and the transportation of
goods is less expensive from Marseilles
and Genoa to Tunis and Algiers than to
Paris, or even to Turin and Milan. Cato
showed to the Roman senate fresh figs,
which were gathered under the walls of
Carthage; yet this fruit, except in its dried
state, is not edible after three days from
the time of gathering. The whole coun-
try can support 60 millions of inhabitants,
and now hardly contains 10 millions and
a half. Next to Egypt, it was the richest
and most productive Roman province,
and one of the granaries of the mistress
of the world. The Roman writers called
it the soul of the republic, the jewel of the
empire, speciositas totius terræ florentis,
and the wealthy citizens considered the
possession of palaces and country-houses
on this beautiful coast as the highest
happiness. The little Arabian courts,
too, of Fez, Tetuan, Tremecen, Garbo,
Constantine, sedulously encouraged the
arts and agriculture. Amalfi, Naples,
Messina, Pisa, Genoa and Florence, en-
riched themselves by their commercial
intercourse with this fine country, and the
Venetian ships visited all the cities of the
African coast. Three centuries ago, an
BARBARY STATES.
end was put to all this prosperity. The
land became the abode of crime and
misery, the prey of 13-14000 adventur-
ers, collected together from another part
of the world, and detested by the native
inhabitants. The inhabitants of the coun-
try are divided into Cabyles, Moors and
Arabs, Negroes, Jews and Turks. First,
the original inhabitants, called, also, Ba-
rabra or Berbers (hence Barbary), dwell
in the mountains in small villages. The
Guanches, in the Canaries, were also Ber-
bers. These are wild, athletic, well-
formed men, of great muscular strength,
who bear with ease hunger, and hard-
ships of all kinds. All the branches of
this race are distinguished by thin beards.
They are, for the most part, robbers, in-
human and faithless; yet they practise
hospitality, and travellers are secure un-
der their protection. Jealous of their
liberty, they are subject to their sovereign
only in name, and usually carry on war
with the troops employed in collecting
the taxes. They prepare their fire-arms
themselves, and are good marksmen.
The shepherds, on the high mountains,
dwell in caves, like the ancient Troglo-
dytes. The Schilluh-Berbers, in Moroc-
co, are the most implacable and vindic-
tive. The most numerous people of
Northern Africa are the Arabs. Those
who dwell in cities are particularly
called Moors; those who wander over
the country, and live in tents, are called
Bedouins. The last are descended from
the Saracens, the first conquerors of the
country. They are large, muscular, with
spirited, handsome countenances, large,
black, piercing eyes, noses somewhat
aquiline, regular teeth, white as ivory, a
full, strong beard, and black hair. The
complexion of the people, in the northern
parts, is light brown, and, toward the
south, becomes darker, till at last it is en-
tirely black, but without the Negro physi-
ognomy, which first shows itself in Sou-
dan. The Arab natives are, for the most
part, a wandering race, dwelling in tents,
in bodies of from 10 or 12 to 100 fami-
lies, in the patriarchal manner, every
family under a sheik, who explains the
Koran, administers justice, and adjusts
quarrels. They carry on a constant war,
in the most savage manner, either with
the Berbers, or with the collectors of
tribute, sent by their sovereign. Their
business is war; their income, plunder.
When they are not engaged in war with
their neighbors, they enter, as auxiliaries,
the service of the deys. They universal-
ly hate the Christians, yet they are less
563
dissembling and deceitful than the Moors
and Berbers. The right of hospitality is
of avail only within their little camps.-
The Moors are a mixture of all the na-
tions which have settled in Northern Af-
rica, but, in their principal characteristics,
are Arabs. They call themselves Mos-
lems (that is, believers), or Medains (that is,
inhabitants of cities)." As zealous profes-
sors of Mohammed's doctrine, they despise
and hate Christians and Jews. They are
jealous, suspicious, unsociable, dissem-
bling, cruel, incapable of love and friend-
ship; moreover, so idle and inactive, that
they sit whole days with their legs crossed
under them, leaning against the wall, and,
without uttering a word, gaze at the
passers by. There is no longer any trace
of the intellectual cultivation which they
had attained in the middle ages, under a
better government, in Spain. They are
in the highest degree superstitious, and,
in their eyes, it is a crime merely to pos-
sess a printed book. The Moor never
laughs: serious, and, to all appearance,
absorbed in thought, he gives no sign
of a desire of knowledge, or of intellec-
tual action. His greatest pleasure is, to
go into the bath, to drink coffee, and to
hear stories. The usual food of this peo-
ple is cuscosoo, a kind of maccaroni.
The inhabitants of Morocco drink also
much tea. The belief prevails universal-
ly among the Moors, that, at some future
time, on a festival day, at the hour of
prayer, they will be attacked and sub-
dued by a people clothed in red. In
their blind fatalism, they bear with indif-
ference every change of condition, and die
quietly under the severest pain, if they can
only lie with their faces turned towards
Mecca.-Free Negroes have settled among
the Moors, and, in Morocco, even fill the
offices of state, and serve in the army.
Jews are scattered over the whole of Bar-
bary. They carry on the foreign trade.
They are descended from the first colony
of Israelites from Phoenicia, increased by
the hundreds of thousands who were
banished from Spain and Portugal. Not-
withstanding the contempt in which they
live, separated, in a narrow district, from
the rest of the inhabitants of the cities,
insulted by the common people, and op-
pressed by the rich, yet all business is
done by them. The ignorant Moorish
rulers farm out to Jews their revenues,
and choose from among them their meu
of business, tax-gatherers, secretaries, in-
terpreters, &c. They coin the money,
and manufacture ornaments of all kinds.
Heavy taxes are imposed on them, ac-
564
BARBARY STATES.
cording to their age. Seldom is a murder
punished which a Moor commits upon a
Jew. The Jews are not allowed to wear
any thing but black, a color hated by the
Moors. They, therefore, adorn them-
selves so much the more in their houses.
-The ruling class is the Turks. Since
Turkish and other pirates settled here,
300 years ago, through the perfidy of the
first Horuc or Aruch Barbarossa (see
Barbarossa), the arts, sciences, agriculture
and commerce, which formerly distin-
guished the Arabian states, here, as in
Grenada, have perished. The political
privileges of the Turks, and their riches,
gained by piracy and traffic in slaves,
have enabled them to tyrannise over the
other inhabitants. The continual wars
which the knights of Malta of the order
of St. John carried on with the unbeliev-
ers, gave these military states of Northern
Africa the occasion for their piratical
policy. The knights destroyed the Moor-
ish commerce. Selim and Soliman, there-
fore, called upon their subjects to commit
robberies on the Christians. Excellent
sailors were soon formed under the flag
of the crescent. Among them, the two
brother's Horuc and Hayradin (or Khair
Eddin, who died in 1546), both sur-
named Barbarossa, distinguished them-
selves. They founded, about 1518, the
piratical republic of Algiers, where re-
ligious fanaticism has given to piracy a
sacred character. As the Moorish com-
merce declined whilst that of the Chris-
tians increased, the Maltese, consequently,
gained little, the Algerines, on the con-
trary, much booty, and Tunis, Tripoli
and Morocco were induced to follow the
example but Algiers constantly distin-
guished itself above the rest of the Bar-
bary states by courage and crime. Here,
as in Malta, the sovereignty was the ex-
clusive possession of foreign warriors.
The reigning soldiery was supported by
voluntary enlistments in all countries of
the same belief, excepting that in which
it governed. This militia reserved to it-
self the right of choosing their chief, and
the dey was the first among his equals,
for the soldiers a general, and for the na-
tive races an unlimited ruler. The Al-
gerine government also prohibited the
marriage of the soldiers, and jealously
excluded their children from all partici-
pation in the government, the Turks
reserving the important places for them-
selves. For this reason, the government
sends ships every other year to the Le-
vant, to obtain new enlistments. They
take recruits even among the criminals
in Constantinople. Here despised, in Al-
giers they immediately become, effendis
(Turkish lawyers), with all the haughti-
ness of upstarts and adventurers. There
are not more than 12-13000 of them, and
yet they rule over several millions.
History of the Barbary States. Since the
subjection of Northern Africa by Omar
(A.D. 647) and other generals of the Arabi-
an caliphs, several small states have arisen
on the coast. Zeiri, a distinguished Arab,
built Algiers (Aschir) in 944, and extend-
ed the dominion of his countrymen. One
of the Fatinite caliphs conferred on the
family of this able man (who died in 970)
hereditary power. It governed, under
the name of the Zeirites, till 1148, when
Roger, king of Sicily, took from Hassan
Ben Ali, the last of this dynasty, Tripoli
and a great portion of his territory. The
Moravides, the rulers of Morocco, made
themselves masters of the rest.
The dy-
nasty of the Moravides governed the
whole coast till 1269, in which year the
Negro princes Abouhafs founded a king-
dom at Tunis. St. Louis (q. v.) died of
the plague, at the siege of the city of this
name, in 1270. After this, the Beni Zian
becanie masters of the greatest part of the
Algerine state, but could not prevent the
most important cities (Oran, Algiers, Tu-
nis and Tripoli) from raising themselves
to independent sovereignties, which, by
the expulsion of the Moors and Jews
from Spain, in and after 1492, became
very populous. About 1494, they began
to revenge themselves for their expulsion
from Spain by piracy. Ferdinand the
Catholic, therefore, fitted out a powerful
expedition against them. He conquered,
in 1506, Oran and other cities, made the
rulers of Tunis and Tremecen tributary
to him; in 1509, took Tripoli, subdued
Algiers, and built, on an island before the
harbor of the city, a castle, which he pro-
vided with a strong garrison, and thereby
commanded the commerce of the place.
But, after Ferdinand's death, the Alge-
rines called to their assistance a Turkish
pirate, the above-named Horuc or Aruch
Barbarossa, who, with his brother, Khayr
Eddin or Hayradin, appeared with a
squadron before Algiers. He was re-
ceived with joy by the inhabitants; bu,
soon after his arrival, he caused the cmir
Selim Eutemi (who till this time had de-
fended Algiers) to be strangled, and him-
self to be proclaimed king, in 1518, by the
Turks, who now exercised such intolera-
ble tyranny, murdering and plundering at
pleasure, that the natives were even com-
pelled to call upon the Spaniards for as-
·
BARBARY STATES.
sistance; but a storm destroyed the Span-
ish fleet. Horuc Barbarossa afterwards
defeated the Arabs, and conquered Tunis
and Tremecen. But he was vanquished
before Oran by the Spanish governor, the
marquis de Gomarez, and, with 1500
Turks, remained dead upon the field.
His brother and successor, Hayradin, see-
ing no possibility of being able to maintain
himself against the Christians and the dis-
contented Algerines, placed the kingdom,
in 1519, under the protection of the sultan
Soliman, who appointed him pacha, and
supplied him with 10,000 janizaries.
With these troops he expelled the Span-
iards from the fortified island, which, in
1529, he connected with the main land
by a mole, so as to render Algiers an ex-
cellent harbor. He took Tunis by strata-
gem, but was obliged, in 1535, to aban-
don it to Charles V, who again placed
upon the throne the banished king, set at
liberty 20,000 Christian slaves, and kept
possession of the citadel of Goletta.
Against Hassan (a renegade from Sardin-
ia), Hayradin's successor in the office of
pacha, Charles V, contrary to the advice
of the experienced Doria, undertook the
siege of Algiers, with a fleet of 200 sail
and 30,000 men, in the latter part of 1541.
The Spaniards wished to settle here per-
manently; and merchants, mechanics,
and women, even ladies of the court, had
embarked on board the fleet. But a ter-
rible storm, accompanied with earth-
quakes and violent rains, destroyed the
greater part of the ships and the camp,
Oct. 28. Charles was obliged to abandon
his cannon and baggage, and a great part
of his scattered forces. He lost, by the
storm, 15 ships of war, 140 transports
and 8000 men. Cid-Utica, say the Moors,
a pious Maraboot, beat the sea so long
with his stick, that it lost patience, and
destroyed the ships of the unbelievers.
A monument was erected to the holy man
after his death; and, even now, the people
believe that it is only necessary to strike
the sea with his bones, in order to raise a
storm which will repel a Christian fleet.
This success encouraged the barbarians.
The pacha of Egypt, in 1544, conquered
Tremecen; in 1555, Bugia; and, in 1569,
Tunis, which, however, regained its inde-
pendence in 1628, in 1694 became tribu-
tary, and, in 1754, was conquered a second
time. Since then, it has always remained
more or less dependent upon Algiers.
The Spaniards, in 1703, renewed, without
success, their attacks upon Algiers: they
also lost Oran, in 1708. Equally unsuc-
cessful were the attacks of the English,
VOL. I.
48
565
the Dutch and the French. In 1662,
the English, for the first time, made a
treaty with Algiers, and, in 1816, in con-
nexion with the Dutch, finally humbled
the pride of this piratical state. (See
Slave-trade and Slavery of the Whites).-
But the insufficiency of the means em-
ployed for the restraint of the fanatics, the
jealousy of the European states, and other
causes, contributed to render the humilia-
tion of the Algerines only momentary. The
northern coast of Africa can only be sav-
ed, after the complete extirpation of the
Turkish soldiery, by a judicious colonial
system. The haughtiness of the Barbary
states is greater than ever. In 1817, the
Algerine pirates ventured even into the
North sea, and captured all the ships
which did not belong to tributary pow-
ers, such as Sweden, Denmark, Portugal,
or to those with which they have made
treaties, as England, the United States,
the Netherlands, Sardinia, Naples and
France. The governments of Morocco,
Algiers, Tunis and Tripoli have indeed
promised not to treat the Christian pris-
oners any longer as slaves, but more like
prisoners of war (see Slave-trade); but
the lot of the unfortunate men who fall
into their hands has not become better;
on the contrary, their treatment is much
more cruel than before. The flags of the
less powerful states, notwithstanding the
treaties, are seldom respected; and, in
1826, piratical fleets sailed from Algiers
to capture vessels belonging to Spaniards
and the subjects of the pope, &c. Against
the German navigation, also, their fury
has often been directed. On this account,
an antipiratical confederacy has been form-
ed in Hamburg, and, at the meeting of the
diet, a committee was appointed to pro-
pose measures for the security of German
ships. Most of the powers scemed to de-
sire the protection of England, but Baden
considered it a national concern of the
German confederation. For two years
past, the French and Algerines have been
in a state of hostility: the dispute is not
yet settled. Great Britain and France,
in 1819, called upon the Barbary states,
in the name of all the European powers,
to regard as binding the European law of
nations. But the crusade, which sir Sid-
ney Smith, as president of the antipirati-
cal association in Paris (now dissolved),
proposed to the powers of Christendom,
did not take place. Of the three piratical
states, Algiers, Tunis and Tripoli, Algiers
is the seat of the most ferocious soldiery.
The arbitrary extortions of the former
pachas made their government so much
566
BARBARY STATES.
hated, that, in 1628, the inhabitants sent
deputies to Constantinople, who persuad-
ed Achmed I to consent to the limitation
of the power of the pacha. They chose
their own dey, therefore, to take charge
of the finances, and left to the pacha only
his salary and his rank. The pachas af-
terward attempting to recover their former
authority, the dey Babu Ali, in 1710,
caused the one then in office to be thrown
into a ship, and sent to Constantinople,
with the declaration, that the Algerines
would no longer receive a pacha from
the Porte, but would be governed by deys
chosen by themselves. Achmed III ap-
pointed the then ruling dey his pacha, and
thereby renounced all influence in the
government of this military republic.
Since that time, the grand seignior only
sends occasionally a chiaux, or plenipo-
tentiary, to Algiers, who is received with
great respect, entertained, guarded, and
very soon sent back again. But the per-
sonal condition of the deys is not more
secure than that of their predecessors.
Seldom is one so fortunate as Moham-
med III, who died in 1791, after a reign
of 23 years, at the age of 93. The dey
Omar Pacha, who made so determined a
resistance to lord Exmouth, and who was
as prudent and active as he was brave,
was murdered by his soldiers, in 1817.
On this account, his successor, Ali Hodya,
a Turk by birth, with his family, his treas-
ures and ministers, went by night, Nov.
2, 1817, into the strong castle of Kiaska,
or Charba (which was the residence of
his predecessors till the middle of the 16th
century), and, by means of the garrison,
on which he could entirely rely, and his
50 cannon, held the city and the disor-
derly Turkish soldiery in awe. He treat-
ed the European consuls and the foreign
merchants with shocking caprice and cru-
elty. His successor, Hussein, who seems
Hussein, who seems
more peacefully disposed, has also, for the
sake of security, chosen this castle for
his residence. The dey of Algiers has
unlimited power, though assisted by a di-
van composed of the first ministers and
officers of state. The choice of the dey
depends wholly on the common soldiers.
It must be unanimous; one party, there-
fore, generally compel the other to a con-
currence with them. The individual
chosen must take the office. The new
dey, to reward his adherents with places,
frequently causes all the officers of his
predecessor to be put to death. The
dey commands in every thing except in
religious affairs. He holds a court of jus-
tice every day except Thursday and Fri-
day, at which all the officers are present.
Every case is quickly decided, and the
sentences are executed on the spot. The
former dey armed the natives of the
country, Moors and Negroes, against his
own countrymen, the Turkish soldiery,
and purchased their adherence by means
of the sacred treasure in the old castle, of
which he had made himself master.-The
British government is more feared by
these barbarians than any other. They
observe the treaties entered into with
England; and, since the treaty of 1721,
the British consul has been held in great
respect in Morocco. The condition of
slaves, also, in Morocco and Tripoli, has
constantly been tolerable, and their ran-
som easy; but, since the slavery of Chris-
tians has been abolished in Morocco,
Europeans, who have fallen into the hands
of Arabian and Turkish freebooters, by
shipwreck or in other ways, are said to
have been often murdered, if they could
not be transported into the interior of Af-
rica. Most of the Christian slaves are
Italians; but the Italian states also treat
the captive Moors as slaves.-The state
of Algiers lies between Tunis and Fez;
it contains 89,300 square miles, with
2,500,000 inhabitants. By the peace of
1816, Naples pays yearly to Algiers
24,000 dollars, and ransoms Neapolitan
captives at the rate of 1000 dollars cach.
The ships of the U. States of America
captured an Algerine frigate and brig of
war in 1815, and the dey was obliged to
make a treaty with the States, in which he
renounced all tribute, and even gave
60,000 dollars as a compensation for the
American ships which had been plunder-
ed. (See Lyman's Diplomacy. With
regard to the relation of Algiers to Eng-
land, see Slave-trade). 10,000 men, for
the most part Turkish militia, form the
army: on an emergency, 100,000 men
can be brought together. The princi-
pal city, Algiers, with 80,000 inhabitants,
including 10,000 Jews, lics on the sea
coast, and is strongly fortified. In the
provinces, the principal city is Constan-
tina, bordering on Tunis. It is the most
populous city, next to Algiers, and con-
tains many ancient monuments. The
provinces are under the despotic rule of
beys: the villages have their own sheiks:
if a sheik has authority over several vil-
lages, he is called an emir. Respecting
Tunis, Tripoli, the kingdom of Fez and
Morocco, the provinces of Biledulgerid
and Barca, see these articles.-The naval
power of all the states of Northern Africa,
taken together, has always been insignifi-
BARBARY STÁTES-BARBEYRAC.
cant, in comparison with the European
fleets. For further information, see Bla-
quiere's Letters from the Mediterranean,
containing a Civil and Political Account
of Sicily, Tripoli, Tunis and Malta
(London, 1813;) the Narrative of a ten
Years' Residence at Tripoli; An Account
of the Domestic Manners of the Moors,
Arabs and Turks (London, 1816, 4to.;
written by Richard Tully, British con-
sul); Keating's Travels in Europe and
Africa, with a particular Account of Mo-
rocco (London, 1816, 4to.); Macgill's Ac-
count of Tunis (Glasgow, 1811) and Sha-
ler's Sketches of Algiers (Boston, 1826).
BARBAULD, Anna Letitia; daughter of
the reverend John Aikin; born at Kib-
worth, in Leicestershire, June 20, 1743.
She received from him a classical educa-
tion, and early showed a disposition for
poetry. Her earliest production was a
small volume of miscellaneous poems,
printed in 1772, which, in the year fol-
lowing, was succeeded by a collection of
pieces in prose, published in conjunction
with her brother, doctor John Aikin, of
Stoke Newington. In 1774, she accepted
the hand of the reverend Rochemont Bar-
bauld. Her Early Lessons and Hymns
for Children, and various essays and po-
ems, have secured for her a permanent
reputation. In 1785, she accompanied
her husband on a tour to the continent.
In 1812, appeared the last of her separate
publications, entitled, Eighteen Hundred
and Eleven, a poem of considerable merit
previous to which she had amused herself
by selecting and editing a collection of
English novels with critical and biograph-
ical notices. A similar selection followed
from the best British essayists of the reign
of Anne, and another from Richardson's
manuscript correspondence, with a me-
moir and critical essay on his life and
writings. Mrs. B. died at Stoke Newing-
ton, March 9, 1825, in her 82d year, leav-
ing behind her many unpublished manu-
scripts, both in prose and verse.
;
BARBAZAN, Etienne; a French author
and antiquary; born, 1696, at St. Fargeau.
He edited several scarce books relating to
the manners and customs of the feudal ages.
Among these are, L'Ordene de Chivalrie,
1759; Le Castoicment, ou Instructions d'un
Pere a son Fils; and Tales and Fables of
the Twelfth and Thirteenth Centuries, in
three vols., 1760; all in 12mo. Another
edition of these works was printed at
Paris, in four vols. 8vo., in 1808. These
are interesting to the student who wishes
to trace the progress of the modern lan-
guages. B. died in 1770.
567
BARBERRIES. Barberries are a beauti-
ful red and oblong-shaped fruit, produced
in small bunches by a shrub (berberris
vulgaris), with somewhat oval, serrated
and pointed leaves; thorns, three togeth-
er, upon the branches, and hanging clus-
ters of yellow flowers. So great is the
acidity of this beautiful fruit, that even
birds refuse to eat it. In this respect, it
nearly approaches the tamarind. When
boiled with sugar, it makes an agreeable
preserve, rob or jelly, according to the
different modes of preparing it. Barber-
ries are also used as a dry sweetmeat, and
in sugar-plums or comfits; are pickled
with vinegar, and are used for the garnish-
ing of dishes. They are well calculated
to allay heat and thirst in persons afflicted
with fevers. The bark of the barberry
shrub is said to have been administered
with effect in cases of jaundice, and in
some other complaints; and the inner
bark, with the assistance of alum, dyes
linen a fine yellow color. The roots, par-
ticularly their bark, are employed, in Po-
land, in the dyeing of leather. A very
singular circumstance has been stated re-
specting the barberry shrub, that grain,
sown near it, proves abortive, the ears
being, in general, destitute of grain, and
that this influence is sometimes extended
to a distance of three or four hundred
yards across a field. This opinion pre-
vails not only in England, but also in
France and the U. States.
BARBETTE; an elevation of earth be-
hind the breastwork of a fortification or
an intrenchment, from which the artil-
lery may be fired over the parapet. The
height of the breasting (the part of the
parapet which covers the cannon) is gen-
erally 3 feet; the length of the barbette,
14-16 feet; the breadth for every can-
non, 16-18 feet. An ascent leads from
the interior of the intrenchment to the
barbette. When the garrison has much
heavy ordnance, or the enemy has opened
his trenches, or when it is determined to
cannonade the intrenchments of a given
point, as, for example, a bridge or pass,
and the direction of the cannon is not to
be materially changed, it is usual, instead
of making a barbette, to cut embrasures
in the parapet: on the contrary, firing
from the barbette is expedient when one
expects to be attacked only by infantry,
or wishes to cannonade the whole sur-
rounding country.
BARBEYRAC, John, was born at Beziers,
in 1674, and went with his father to Lau-
sanne, in 1686. He afterwards taught
belles-lettres in the French college at
568
BARBEYRAC-BARBOUR.
Berlin, but, in 1710, accepted the invita-
tion to fill the new professorship of law
and history founded at Berne, whence, in
1717, he removed to the chair of public
and private law, at Groningen. B. has
distinguished himself by many learned
works, which show a high degree of eru-
dition and a liberal spirit. His French
translation of the Law of Nature and Na-
tions, by Puffendorff, as also of the
Rights of War and Peace, by Grotius, to
both of which he added learned notes, are
well known and much esteemed. He
has likewise translated several works of
the most distinguished civilians, including
Cumberland's Latin treatise On Natural
Law, his notes appended to which are
highly valued. He died in 1747.
BARBIE-DU-BOCAGE, J. D.; geographer
of the French department of foreign af-
fairs, and, since 1806, member of the
academy of inscriptions; born at Paris,
1760;
died Dec. 28, 1825. He was a pu-
pil of d'Anville. In 1785, he was ap-
pointed to assist in the care of the cabinet
of medals, in the royal library. In 1793,
when the arrest of all the officers of the
libraries was decreed, he lost his small in-
come. In 1797, he was appointed geog-
rapher to the ministry of the home de-
partment, and, in 1803, to that of foreign
affairs; in 1809, professor, and, in 1815,
dean of the academy of sciences at Paris.
B. furnished the plans and maps to Choi-
seul-Gouffier's Voyage pittoresque en
Grèce. In 1788, he furnished an atlas
for Barthélemy's Travels of Anacharsis
the Younger; second edition in 1799.
In 1805, he published an essay and a
map illustrative of the retreat of the
10,000 Greeks. He published, with de
Sainte-Croix, in 1797, Mémoires histori-
ques et géographiques sur les Pays situés
entre la Mer Noire et la Mer Caspienne, in
4to. Among many other works, he has
prepared an atlas in 54 sheets, 4to., for the
illustration of ancient history, published
in 1816.
BARBIER, Antoine Alexandre, bibliog-
rapher, was born at Coulommiers, in 1765,
and, at the beginning of the revolution,
was a vicar. In the year 1794, he went
to Paris, where he was chosen a member
of the committee appointed to collect
works of literature and art existing in
the monasteries, which were then sup-
pressed. This was the cause of his being
appointed, in 1798, keeper of the library
of the conseil d'état, collected by himself,
and, when it was transported to Fontaine-
bleau, in 1807, Napoleon appointed him
his librarian. At the return of the king,
he had the care of his private library.
He died in 1825. His excellent Cata-
logue de la Bibliothèque du Conseil d'État
(Paris, 1801-3, two vols. folio) is now
very rare. His Dictionnaire des Ouvrages
anonymes et pseudonymes (Paris, 1806
-9, four vols., third edit. 1824), is, on
account of its plan, its accuracy and its
fulness (at least in respect to French lit-
erature), one of the best works which we
have at present in this branch of bibliog-
raphy. He did not succeed so well with
his Examen critique et Complément des
Dictionnaires historiques (one vol., Paris,
1820) since the narrow circle of his
studies and researches was not sufficient
for such an extensive plan.
BARBIERI (Gianfrancesco Barbieri da
Cento). (See Guercino.)
BARBOU; a celebrated family of print-
ers, known since the 16th century. The
works of their press are distinguished for
correctness and neatness. In the begin-
ning of the 18th century, this family set-
tled in Paris. Here Joseph Gerard Bar-
bou continued the collection of Latin
classics in 12mo., which Coustelier had
begun. Coustelier had published Catul-
lus, Tibullus, Propertius, Lucretius, Sal-
lust, Virgil, Nepos, Lucan, Phædrus,
Horace, Velleius, Eutropius, Juvenal and
Persius, Martial and Terence. Barbou,
from whom the whole collection generally
takes its name, published Cæsar, Curtius,
Plautus, Tacitus, Seneca, Ovid, Cicero,
Justin, both the Plinies and Livy, and
also some of the later Latin authors in
the same form. The present owner of
the whole publication, Auguste Delalain,
has added to the collection four volumes,
and sells the whole set of 77 volumes, in
pasteboard, at 350 francs; bound, at 500
francs.
BARBOUR, John; an ancient Scottish
poet, of whose personal history but few
particulars are recorded. He appears to
have been born about 1316, and educated
for the church, being styled, in the year
1357, archdeacon of Aberdeen. In that
year, he was appointed, by the bishop of
his diocese, a commissioner to treat for
the ransom of the captive king David II.
About 1375, he was engaged in compos-
ing his celebrated poem of The Bruce, or
the History of Robert I, King of Scotland,
which was first published in 1616, and of
which the most valuable of many editions
is that of 1790, three vols. 12mo, edited
by Pinkerton, from a MS. in the advocates'
library, dated 1489. It is a work of con-
siderable merit; and it is remarkable that
B., who was contemporary with Gower
BARBOUR-BARCELONA.
and Chaucer, is more intelligible to mod-
ern readers than either of them. He died,
at an advanced age, in 1396.
BARBUDA, OF BARBOUTHOS; one of the
Caribbee islands, about 21 miles long, and
12 wide; lon. 61° 50′ W.; lat. 17° 44′ N.;
population, 1500. The land lies low, but
it is fertile, and the inhabitants are chiefly
employed in breeding cattle, sheep, kids,
fowls, &c., which they dispose of in the
neighboring islands; they likewise culti-
vate citrons, pomegranates, oranges, rai-
sins, Indian figs, maize, cocoa-nuts, pine-
apples, pepper, indigo, &c. The island
has no harbor, but a well sheltered road
on the west side. This island is the
property of the Codrington family, who
have done what few slaveholders can
boast of-they have caused their slaves to
be instructed in Christianity.
BARCA; a desert, containing only a few
fertile spots, on the northern coast of Af-
rica, between Tripoli and Egypt (88,000
square miles, with 300,000 inhabitants).
Its soil is limestone, covered with quick-
sand. The mountain Harutsch, towards
the west and the south, is probably of
volcanic origin. This country is a Turkish
province, under a sandgiak, in the town
of Barca. Here is also Tolometa (Ptole-
mais), with Greek ruins. The remains
of Cyrene (q. v.) are now called Cunen.
The mountains of Derne, with the town
of the same name, are under a bey, ap-
pointed by the bey of Tripoli. The
bey of Bingazi (ancient Berenice), with
the ports on the gulf of Sydra, and the
small commercial republic Augila, in the
interior, are also under the bey of Tripoli.
In the desert, four days' journey westward
from the Nile, are some inhabited oases.
Such is the watered part of the republic
Siwah, which acknowledges the protec-
tion of the Porte, and pays tribute to the
pacha of Egypt. The capital, Siwah (the
ancient Ammonium, see Ammon), has 6000
inhabitants, and a trade in dates. Fredi
ani speaks of having found, in March,
1820, in the oasis of Jupiter Aminon, the
ruins of the ancient temple. The Ger-
man architect Gau, and the French con-
sul Drovetti, in Egypt, have contradicted
his account. The inhabitants are mostly
of Arabian descent, Mohammedans, and
partly robbers.
BARCAROLLA; a kind of song of the
gondoliers at Venice, often composed by
themselves, but of a very agreeable char-
acter. The most of these gondoliers
know by heart a great deal of Tasso's
Jerusalem Delivered, some of them even
the whole, somewhat corrupted, it is true.
569
They sing stanzas of it, during the sum-
mer nights, from oue gondola to another.
Tasso is probably the only epic poet, be-
sides Homer, whose writings have been
so generally preserved in the memories
of his countrymen. The custom above
described, however, is going out of use.
BARCELONA, one of the largest cities
of Spain, the capital of the province of
Catalonia, is handsomely built, in the
shape of a half-moon, on the coast of the
Mediterranean, in lon. 2° 10" E., and 41º
21' 44" N. lat. It was, even in the middle
ages, one of the principal commercial
places on this sea; is well fortified, and
has, on the east side, a strong citadel,
built in 1715, having a secret connexion
with the fort San Carlos, near the sea.
On the west side of the city lies the hill
of Montjouy, with a fort, which protects
the harbor. B. is divided into the upper
and lower town, and contains, including
the adjoining Barcelonetta, 140,000 inhab-
itants. It has 150 cotton and many silk
manufactories. Linen and laces, articles
of iron and copper, particularly excellent
guns, pistols and swords for the Spanish
army, formerly sent, also, to Naples and
the American colonies, are manufactured
in great quantities. The harbor is spa-
cious, but of difficult access, and has not
sufficient depth for men-of-war. It is pro-
tected by a large mole, at the end of
which are a lighthouse and a bulwark.
The exports consist, besides the above-
mentioned articles, of wine and brandy;
the imports, of French and Italian manu-
factures, grain, rice, timber from the Bal-
tic, yellow wax from Barbary, Swedish
iron, steel from Stiria, hemp from Riga
and Petersburg, linen, copper and iron
wire from Germany. An important ar-
ticle of import is stockfish, brought by
the English from Newfoundland.
amount of the imports and exports, which
employ nearly 1500 ships (among them
120 belonging to B.), is computed to be
more than 7,000,000 dollars.
The city
contains 82 churches, a university, sev-
cral public libraries, a public collection
of natural curiosities, a school for engi-
neers and artillery, an academy of belles-
lettres, a foundling hospital, a general
hospital, large enough to contain 3000 sick
persons, a large arsenal, a cannon foundery,
&c. The tribunal of the inquisition is
suppressed.-B. was, until the 12th cen-
tury, governed by its own counts; but,
afterwards, by the marriage of Raymond
V with the daughter of Ramiro II, king
of Arragon, it was united with that king-
dom. In 1640, it withdrew, with all Cat-
The
570
BARCELONA-BARCLAY.
alonia, from the Spanish government, and
submitted to the French crown; in 1652,
submitted again to the Spanish govern-
ment: in 1697, it was taken by the French,
but restored to Spain at the peace of Rys-
wick. In the war of the Spanish suc-
cession, B. took the part of the archduke
Charles; but, in 1714, it was besieged by
the troops of Philip V, under the com-
mand of the duke of Berwick, and taken
after an obstinate resistance. The strong
citadel on the east side of the city was
then erected, to overawe the inhabitants.
Feb. 16, 1809, B. was taken, by surprise,
by the French troops under general Du-
hesme, and remained in the power of the
French, until, in 1814, all their troops were
recalled from Catalonia to defend their
own country. In 1821, B. was desolated
by the yellow fever.
BARCLAY, Alexander; an English poet
of the 16th century. Very little is known
concerning him, except what we learn
from his writings, which inform us, that
he was a priest and chaplain of St. Mary
Ottery, in Devonshire, and afterwards a
Benedictine monk of Ely. He survived
the reformation, and obtained preferment
in the church. His death took place in
1552, a short time after he had been pre-
sented to the living of All-Hallows, in
London. The principal work of this
poet is a satire, entitled The Ship of Fools,
a translation or imitation of a German
composition. (See Brandt, Sebastian.)
B. also wrote Eclogues, which, accord-
ing to Warton, the historian of English
poetry, are the earliest compositions of
the kind in our language. They are cu-
rious and interesting for the descriptions
they afford of the character and manners
of the age in which they were written.
BARCLAY, John, was born at Pont-à-
Mousson, and educated in the Jesuits'
college at that place. He accompanied
his father to England, where he was
much noticed by James I, to whom he
dedicated one of his principal works, a
politico-satirical romance, entitled Eu-
phormio, in Latin, chiefly intended to ex-
pose the Jesuits, against whom the author
adduces some very serious accusations.
He wrote, also, several other works,
among which is a singular romance, in
elegant Latin, entitled Argenis, which
first appeared at Paris, in 1621. It is a
political allegory, of a character similar to
that of Euphormio, and alludes to the
political state of Europe, and especially
France, during the league. Like the Eu-
phormio, it has been several times reprint-
ed, and has also been translated into sev-
eral of the modern languages, including
English. (See Reeve, Clara.) A singu-
lar story of romantic chivalry has been
quoted from the Euphormio by sir Walter
Scott, in the notes to his Marmion.
BARCLAY, Robert, the celebrated apolo-
gist of the Quakers, was born, in the year
1648, at Gordonstown, in the shire of
Moray, of an ancient and honorable fam-
ily. The troubles of the country induced
his father, colonel B., to send him to
Paris, to be educated under the care of
his uncle, who was principal of the Scots'
college in that capital. Under this influ-
ence, he was easily induced to become a
convert to the Roman Catholic religion,
upon which his father sent for him to re-
turn home; and, colonel B. soon after
becoming a Quaker, his son followed his
example. Uniting all the advantages of
a learned education to great natural abili-
ties, he soon distinguished himself by his
talents and zeal in the support of his new
opinions. His first treatise in support of
his adopted principles, was published, at
Aberdeen, in the year 1670, under the
title of Truth cleared of Calumnies, &c.,
being an answer to an attack on the
Quakers by a Scotch minister of the
name of Mitchell. It is written with great
vigor, and, with his subsequent writings
against the same opponent, tended mate-
rially to rectify public sentiment in regard
to the Quakers, as also to procure them
greater indulgence from government. To
propagate the doctrines, as well as to
maintain the credit he had gained for his
sect, he published, in 1675, a regular
treatise, in order to explain and defend
the system of the Quakers, which pro-
duction was also very favorably received.
These and similar labors involved him in
controversies with the leading members
of the university of Aberdeen, and others;
but, notwithstanding so much engross-
ment, his mind was, at the same time,
busy with his great work, in Latin, An
Apology for the true Christian Divinity, as
the Same is preached and held forth by the
People in scorn called Quakers. It was
soon reprinted at Amsterdam, and quick-
ly translated into the German, Dutch,.
French and Spanish languages, and, by
the author himself, into English. It met,
of course, with many answers; but, al-
though several of them were from able
and learned pens, they attracted, compar-
atively, very little notice. His fame was
now widely diffused; and, in his travels
with the famous William Penn through
the greater part of England, Holland and
Germany, to spread the opinions of the
BARCLAY-BARD.
Quakers, he was received every where
with the highest marks of respect. The
strength of his understanding rendered
this extraordinary man equally adequate
to what is considered most important in
the business of the world, as appears from
an excellent letter addressed by him, on
public affairs, to the assembled ministers
of the various powers of Europe at Ni-
meguen. The last of his productions, in
defence of the theory of the Quakers,
was a long Latin letter, addressed, in 1676,
to Adrian de Paets, On the Possibility of
an Inward and Immediate Revelation.
It was not published in England until
1686; from which time B., who had en-
dured his share of persecution, and been
more than once imprisoned, spent the re-
maining part of his life, in the bosom of
a large family, in quiet and peace. He
died, after a short illness, at his own
house, in Uri, 1690, in the 42d year of his
age. With few exceptions, both partisans
and opponents unite in the profession of
great respect for the character and talents
of B. Besides the works already men-
tioned or alluded to, he wrote a treatise
On Universal Love, and various replies to
the most able opponents of his Apology.
He left seven children, all of whom were
living fifty years after the death of their
father.
BARD. This name, of uncertain ety-
mology, is applied to the poets of the
Celtic tribes, who, in battle, raised the
war-cry, and, in peace, sang the exploits
of their heroes, celebrated the attri-
butes of their gods, and chronicled the
history of their nation. Originally spread
over the greater part of western Europe,
they seem to have been the heralds, the
priests and the lawgivers of the free
barbarians, who first occupied its ancient
forests, until, by the gradual progress of
southern civilization and despotism, they
were driven back into the fastnesses of
Wales, Ireland and Scotland, where the
last echoes of their harps have long since
died away. Their early history is uncer-
tain. Diodorus (lib. v. 31.) tells us, that
the Celts had bards, who sang to mu-
sical instruments; and Strabo (lib. iv.)
testifies that they were treated with re-
spect approaching to veneration. The
passage of Tacitus (Germ. 7.) is a doubt-
ful reading. Heyne does not venture to
decide whether it is barditus, as some,
who explain it to mean bard's song,
maintain, or baritus, which, according to
Adelung, is the true reading, and signifies
merely war-cry. The first Welsh bards,
of whom any thing is extant, are Taliesin,
571
The
Aneurin and Llywarch, of the 6th cen-
tury; but their language is imperfectly
understood. From the days of these
monarchs of the bards, we have nothing
further till the middle of the 10th century,
when the reputation of the order was
increased under the auspices of Howel
Dhu. A code of laws was framed, by
that prince, to regulate their duties and
fix their privileges. They were distrib-
uted into three classes, with a fixed al-
lowance; degrees of rank were establish-
ed, and prize-contests instituted. Their
order was frequently honored by the ad-
mission of princes, among whom was
Llewellyn, last king of Wales.
Welsh, kept in awe as they were by the
Romans, harassed by the Saxons, and
eternally jealous of the attacks, the en-
croachments and the neighborhood of
aliens, were, on this account, attached to
their Celtic manners. This situation and
these circumstances inspired them with
a proud and obstinate determination to
maintain a national distinction, and pre-
serve their ancient usages, among which
the bardic profession is so eminent. Sen-
sible of the influence of their traditional
poetry in keeping alive the ideas of mili-
tary valor and of ancient glory among
the people, Edward I is said to have col-
lected all the Welsh bards, and caused
them to be hanged, by martial law, as
stirrers up of sedition. On this incident
is founded Gray's well-known ode "The
Bard." We, however, find them existing
at a much later period, but confining
themselves to the humble task of com-
piling private genealogies. But little is
known of the music and measures of the
bards: their prosody depended much on
alliteration: their instruments were the
harp, the pipe and the crwth. Some at-
tempts have lately been made, in Wales,
for the revival of bardism, and the Cam-
brian society was formed, in 1818, for the
preservation of the remains of this an-
cient literature, and for the encouragement
of the national muse. The bardic insti-
tution of the Irish bears a strong affinity
to that of the Welsh. The genealogical
sonnets of the Irish bards are still the
chief foundations of the ancient history
of Ireland. Their songs are strongly
marked with the traces of Scaldic imag-
ination, which still appears among the
"tale-tellers,” a sort of poetical histori-
ans, supposed to be the descendants of
the bards. There was, also, evidently a
connexion of the Welsh with Armorica.
Hence, in the early French romances, we
often find the scene laid in Wales; and,
"
572
BARD-BARETTI.
on the other hand, many fictions have
passed from the Troubadours into the
tales of the Welsh. In the Highlands of
Scotland, there are considerable remains
of many of the compositions of their old
bards still preserved. The most wonder-
ful of these are the poems of Ossian,
collected and translated by Macpherson.
Their genuineness has been doubted;
but the report of a committee of the
Highland society, published in 1805, of
which Mackenzie was editor, proves, as
they contend, that a part of them is au-
thentic, and that the greater portion of the
remainder was really obtained from tradi-
tionary sources. "These poems," says
Warton (History of English Poetry, diss.
1.), "notwithstanding the difference be-
tween the Gothic and the Celtic rituals,
contain many visible vestiges of Scandi-
navian superstition. The allusions, in the
songs of Ossian, to spirits who preside
over the different parts, and direct the
various operations of nature; who send
storms over the deep, and rejoice in the
shrieks of the shipwrecked mariner; who
call down lightning to blast the forest or
cleave the rock, and diffuse irresistible
pestilence among the people, beautifully
conducted and heightened under the
skilful hand of a master bard, entirely
correspond with the Runic systein, and
breathe the spirit of its poetry."
""
BARDESANES the Gnostic, a Syrian
who lived, in the latter half of the second
century, in Edessa, and was a favorite of
the king Abgar Bar Maanu, is memorable
for the peculiarity of his doctrines. He
considered the evil in the world only as
an accidental reaction of matter, and all
life as the offspring of male and female
ons. From God, the inscrutable Prin-
ciple of all substances, and from the con-
sort of this first Principle, proceeded
Christ, the Son of the Living, and a female
Holy Ghost; from these, the spirits or cre-
ative powers of the four elements; thus
forming the holy eight, or the godlike
fulness, whose visible copies he found in
the sun, the moon and the stars, and
therefore attributed to these all the
changes of nature, and of human destiny.
The female Holy Ghost, impregnated by
the Son of the Living, was, according to
him, the Creator of the world. The hu-
man soul, originally of the nature of the
Æons, was confined in the material body
only as a punishment of its fall, but not
subjected to the dominion of the stars.
He considered Jesus, the Eon destined
for the salvation of souls, only a feigned
man, and his death only a feigned death,
but his doctrine the sure means to fill
the souls of men with ardent desires for
their celestial home, and to lead them
back to God, to whom they go immedi-
ately after death, and without a resurrec-
tion of the earthly body. B. propagated
this doctrine in Syrian hymns, and is the
first writer of hymns in this language.
His son Harmonius studied in Athens,
and strove, also, by means of hymns, to
procure the reception of his doctrine.
Yet the Bardesanists did not formally
separate themselves from the orthodox
Christian church. They maintained
themselves until the 5th century. Val-
entinus the Gnostic approached the near-
est to B., without being his follower.
A fragment of the work of B. upon des-
tiny is preserved in the Greek language,
by Eusebius (Præpar. Evangel. lib. 6, cap.
10). He led an irreproachable life. Frag-
ments of his Syrian hymns, which dis-
play a rich and ardent fancy, are to be
found in those hymns which the Syrian
patriarch Ephraini composed against his
doctrine.
BAREFOOTED FRIARS; monks who do
not use shoes, but merely sandals, or go
entirely barefoot. In several orders of
mendicant friars, e. g., among the Carmel-
ites, Franciscans, Augustins, there are
congregations of barefooted monks and
barefooted nuns, but nowhere a separate
order of this kind.
In
BARETTI, Joseph, an Italian writer, was
the son of an architect of Turin, where
he was born in the year 1716. He re-
ceived a good education and some pater-
nal property, which, according to his own
confession, he soon gamed away.
1748, he repaired to England. In 1753,
he published, in English, a Defence of
the Poetry of Italy against the Censures
of M. Voltaire. About this time, he was
introduced to doctor Johnson, then enga-
ged in the compilation of his Dictionary,
of which B. availed himself to compile
an Italian and English Dictionary, in 1760,
much more complete than any which had
before appeared. In this year, he revis-
ited his native country, and published, at
Venice, a journal under the title of Frrista
Literaria, which met with great success,
but, owing to the severity of its criti-
cisins, subjected the author to unpleasant
if not dangerous consequences. After an
absence of six years, he therefore return-
ed, through Spain and Portugal, to Eng-
land, and, in 1768, published an Account
of the Manners and Customs of Italy.
Doctor Johnson, whose friendship to him
was always warm and cordial, soon after
BARETTI-BARILLA.
introduced him to the Thrale family.
Not long after his return from Italy, an
incident occurred to him of the most dis-
tressing nature. Accosted in the Hay-
market by a woman of the town, he re-
pulsed her with a degree of roughness
which produced an attack from some of
her male confederates, and, in the scuffle,
he struck one of the assailants with a
French pocket dessert-knife. On this, the
imran pursued and collared him; when
B., still more alarmed, stabbed him re-
peatedly with the knife, and he died of
the wounds on the following day. He
was immediately taken into custody, and
was tried for murder at the Old Bailey,
but acquitted. On this occasion, Johnson,
Burke, Goldsmith, Garrick, Reynolds and
Beauclerk gave testimony to his good
character; and, although he did not es-
cape censure for his too ready resort to
a knife, his acquittal was generally ap-
proved. In 1770, he published his Jour-
ney from London to Genoa, through Eng-
land, Portugal, Spain and France-a work
replete with information and entertain-
ment. He also continued to publish in-
troductory works, for the use of students
in the Italian and other modern lan-
guages, and superintended a complete
edition of the works of Machiavel. The
latter part of his life was harassed with
pecuniary difficulties, which were very
little alleviated by his honorary post of
foreign secretary to the royal academy,
and an ill-paid pension of £80 per annum
under the North administration. In 1786,
he published a work with the singular
title of "Tolendron: Speeches to John
Bowles about his Edition of Don Quix-
ote, together with some Account of Span-
ish Literature." He died in May, 1789.
B., although rough and cynical in his ap-
pearance, was a pleasant companion; and
of his powers in conversation doctor John-
son thought highly. He was deemed a
latitudinarian in respect to religion; but
his integrity was unimpeached, his morals
pure, and his manners correct. He had,
also, a high sense of the value of inde-
pendence, and often refused pecuniary
assistance when he most needed it.
BAREZZI, Stefano, painter in Milan, has
made himself known by the mode which
he invented of taking old fresco paintings
from walls, by fixing upon them a piece
of linen, covered with a certain cement,
which loosens the colors; they are then
transferred upon a board prepared for the
purpose, upon which, after removing the
linen, they remain perfectly firm. In the
hall of exhibition of the palace Brera is to
573
be seen a painting of Aurelio Luino, rep-
resenting the torture of St. Vincent, which
he has safely transferred to a board in
this manner.
BARFLEUR; a sea-port of France, in
the department of the Channel; 12 miles
east of Cherburg. Lon. 1° 15′ W.; lat.
49° 40′ N. Pop. 900. It was, at one
time, the best port on the coast of Nor-
mandy; but, in the year 1346, it was taken
and pillaged by Edward III, king of Eng-
land, and the harbor destroyed. William
the Conqueror fitted out at B. the expe-
dition which effected the conquest of
England.
BARGAIN AND SALE, INSTRUMENT OF,
is an indenture whereby lands and tene-
ments are granted.
ments are granted. By the stat. 27 Hen.
VIII, c. 16, it was enacted that an estate
of freehold should not pass by bargain
and sale, unless by indenture enrolled in
one of the courts of Westminster, or in
the county where the lands lie. This
statute would have introduced the gen-
eral practice of enrolment of deeds in
England, had it extended to leasehold
estates. To remedy this defect in some
measure, the statute of 29 Charles II, c.
3, was enacted; which provides against
conveying lands or hereditaments for
more than three years, or declaring
trusts otherwise than in writing. The
conveyance by bargain and sale, in Eng-
land, is very similar to the conveyances
by deed, most generally in use in the U.
States.
BARILLA; the term applied, in com-
merce, to a product obtained from the
combustion of certain marine vegetables.
This word is the Spanish name of a plant
(salsola soda), from the ashes of which is
produced the above substance, which af-
fords the alkali (soda). This is also pro-
cured from the ashes of prickly saltwort,
shrubby saltwort (salsola fruticosa) and
numerous plants of other tribes. The
plants made use of for burning differ in
different countries; and the residue of
their incineration contains the soda in va-
rious states of purity. The barilla derived
from the abesembryanthemum nodiflorum
of Spain, and the M. copticum of Africa,
contains from 25 to 40 per cent. of car-
bonate of soda; whereas that from the
salsola and the salicornia of other dis-
tricts affords about half this quantity;
and the particular variety known under
the name of kelp, procured by burning
various sea-weeds, is a still coarser arti-
cle, not yielding above 2 or 3 per cent.
of real soda. To obtain the carbonate of
soda, it is only requisite to lixiviate the
574
BARILLA-PERUVIAN BARK.
barilla in boiling water, and evaporate the
solution.-On the shores of the Mediter-
ranean, where the preparation of soda is
pursued to a considerable extent, the seeds
of the plants from which it is obtained
are regularly sown in places near the sea.
These, when at a sufficient state of matu-
rity, are pulled up by the roots, dried, and
afterwards tied in bundles to be burnt.
This, in some places, is done in ovens
constructed for the purpose, and, in oth-
ers, in trenches dug near the sea. The
ashes, whilst they are hot, are continually
stirred with long poles, and the saline
matter they contain forms, when cold, a
solid mass, almost as hard as stone. This
is afterwards broken into pieces of con-
venient size for exportation. The best
sort of Spanish soda is in dark-colored
masses of a bluish tinge, very heavy, so-
norous, dry to the touch, and externally
abounding in small cavities. Its taste is
very sharp, corrosive, and strongly saline.
The important uses of soda in the arts,
and especially the constant consumption
of it in the manufacture of all kinds of
fine and hard soaps, are well known.
The greater part of the barillas or crude
sodas of commerce are now obtained
from the ashes of various sea-weeds,
which manufacture is extensively prose-
cuted upon the western shores of Scot-
land. (For an account of this, see Kelp.)
BARING, Alexander, a banker in Lon-
don, and member of parliament, one of
the directors of the East India company
and the bank of England, is the second
son of the late merchant and baronet, sir
Francis Baring. He belongs to the whig
party, like his father and the whole fam-
ily, but he is opposed to the radical re-
formers. His house is known to the
merchants of the whole civilized world,
and attracted much notice from the pub-
lic in general, when he placed himself at
the head of the great French loan, and
appeared, on this occasion, at the congress
of Aix-la-Chapelle, in 1818. The condi-
tions of this loan were, as we know from
the French papers, extremely advantage-
ous, and made his house one of the first
in Europe. B., like Necker, can use his
pen well, and obtained a respectable place
among writers on political economy by
his Inquiry into the Causes and Conse-
quences of the Orders in Council (Lon-
don, 1808). He and his brother Henry
married two sisters, the heiresses of an
American gentleman named Bingham,
each of whom received a dowry of
£100,000. His late father, sir Francis,
was descended from an old family in
Devonshire, and was often consulted by
Pitt in relation to commercial affairs.
BARITON; a male voice, the compass
of which partakes of those of the com-
mon bass and the tenor, but does not ex-
tend so far downwards as the one, nor to
an equal height with the other.
BARJAPOOR. (See Beejapoor.)
BARK, PERUVIAN, is the produce of a
tree, the various species of cinchona,
which is the spontaneous growth of many
parts of South America, but more partic-
ularly of Peru. The tree is said some-
what to resemble a cherry-tree in appear-
ance, and bears clusters of red flowers.-
This valuable medicine was formerly
called Jesuit's bark, from its having been
introduced into Europe by the members
of that religious order, who were settled
in South America. They were instructed
in the use of it by the natives of Peru, to
whom it had been long known; and it
continued, for many years, a source of
profit to the order. Its botanical name
was derived from that of the countess del
Cinchon, the lady of a Spanish_viceroy,
who had been cured by it.
The tree
from which it is obtained grows abun-
dantly in the forests of Quito and Peru,
and the bark is cut by the natives in the
months of September, October and No-
vember, during which, alone, the weather
is free from rain. The bark is of three
kinds-the red, the yellow and the pale.
The first has now become scarce, but has
also lost the exclusive reputation which
it once had, the yellow and pale barks
having been found to be stronger in their
febrifuge properties. The crown-bark, as
the highest-priced is termed, is of a pale,
yellowish-red.-The uses of the bark, in
medicine, are too well known to need
description; but the chemical discoveries
in relation to it are deserving of more
particular mention. Its medicinal prop-
erties were found, a few years since, to
depend upon the presence of a substance
called quinine. This exists, more or less,
in all kinds of Peruvian bark, but in
quantities very unequal in the various
kinds. It was discovered by Messrs. Pel-
letier and Caventou, who also ascertained
that the most useful and permanent form
of the substance was that of a neutral
salt, in which it was combined with sul-
phuric acid, constituting the celebrated
sulphate of quinine. This extract is so
powerful, that one grain of it is a dose;
and thus does this little powder, which is
almost imperceptible, supply the place of
the nauseous mouthfuls of bark, which
were absolutely eaten by the unfortunate
PERUVIAN BARK-JOEL BARLOW.
beings who were afflicted with ague, be-
fore this invaluable article was discovered.
Next to the bleaching liquor and the gas-
lights, this may be regarded as the most
interesting and valuable of the gifts of
chemistry to her sister arts. So extensive
has the manufacture of this most impor-
tant article become, that, in 1826, no less
than 1593 cwt. of bark were used by four
chemists concerned in the production of
it in Paris; and 90,000 ounces of sulphate
of quinine were produced in France
during the same year, being enough for
the curing, at a fair calculation, of near
2,000,000 of sick, who have, by this most
happy discovery, been spared the swal-
lowing of at least 10,000,000 ounces of
crude bark. This one fact should entitle
the name of Pelletier to the gratitude of
all posterity.
BARKER, Edmund Henry, one of the
most famous living English philologers,
born Dec. 22, 1788, at Hollym, in York-
shire, where his father was a preacher,
received his first education at some pri-
vate institutions in London, and Louth, in
Lincolnshire. At the university of Cam-
bridge, where he was a member of Trinity
college, he lived, according to the rule of
Horace, day and night with the Grecks.
In 1809, he wrote a Latin and Greek epi-
gram, which obtained him Browne's gold
medal. He also published editions of
Cicero De Senectute, and De Amicitia,
which were twice reprinted, and of Taci-
tus's Germania and Agricola, which have
been also printed again. He has written,
also, a work called Classical Recreations,
one vol.; several pieces in the Classical
Journal, since the third number; an arti-
cle in the second number of the Retro-
spective Review, and some reviews in
the British Critic. His participation in
the new edition of Henr. Stephani Thesau-
rus, Gr. L. made him generally known.
This work was intrusted to him by Valpy,
and procured him the acquaintance of
the well-known English philologist Parr.
The objections which learned men have
made against the too great extension of
the plan and the arrangement of the ma-
terials, are well founded; but Barker has
been the subject, also, of envious attacks.
He was obliged to defend himself in a
pamphlet, in order to secure the undis-
turbed progress of his own and Valpy's
undertaking. Some German philologists
of the first order, as Hermann and Wolf,
have spoken of him in high terms. His
edition of Arcadius De Accentibus, with
an Epistola Critica on Boissonade, is a
work of merit. On many occasions, B.
575
has afforded assistance to the works of
learned Germans, by valuable communi-
cations of materials and observations.
Since 1814, he has lived at Thetford, in
Norfolk, devoting himself entirely to phi-
lology. In 1828, he published memoirs
of his friend doctor Parr, under the title
of Parriana.
BARLEY (in Latin, hordeum); a grain
which has been known, like most other
kinds of grain, from time inmemorial.
It has a thick spike; the calyx, husk, awn
and flower are like those of wheat or rye,
but the awns are rough; the seed is
swelling in the middle, and, for the most
part, ends in a sharp point, to which the
husks are closely united. The species
are, 1. common long-eared barley ;
2.
winter or square barley, by some called
big; 3. sprat barley, or battle-door bar-
ley. All these sorts of barley are sown
in the spring of the year, in a dry time.
The square barley, or big, is chiefly cul-
tivated in the north of England and in
Scotland, and is hardier than the other
sorts. Earley is emollient, moistening,
and productive of expectoration: this grain
was chosen by Hippocrates as a proper
food in inflammatory distempers. The
principal use of barley, in England and
America, is for making beer; in some
parts of the European continent, horses
are fed with it, and in other parts, poor
people make bread of it. In Scotland,
barley is a common ingredient for broths.
Pearl barley and French barley are bar-
ley freed from the husk by means of a
till; the distinction between the two be-
ing, that pearl barley is reduced to the
size of small shot, all but the heart of
the grain being ground away.
BARLOW, Joel, a poet and diplomatist,
was the youngest of 10 children of a
respectable farmer in moderate circum-
stances. He was born at Reading, a
village in Connecticut, about 1755. His
father died while he was yet a lad at
school, leaving him little more than suffi-
cient to defray, cconomically, the expenses
of a liberal education. In 1774, he was
placed at Dartmouth college, New Hamp-
shire, then in its infancy, and, after a very
short residence there, entered Yale col-
lege, New Haven, where he displayed a
talent for versification, which gained him
reputation among his fellow-students, and
introduced him to the particular notice
and friendship of doctor Dwight, then a
tutor in that college. These circum-
stances contributed to excite his poetical
ambition still more strongly, and thus fix-
ed the character of his future life.
The
576
JOEL BARLOW.
militia of Connecticut, in the beginning
of the war of the revolution, formed a
considerable part of general Washington's
army; and young Barlow, more than once,
during the vacations of the college, served
as a volunteer in the camp, where four of
his brothers were on duty, and is said to
have been present at the battle of White
plains. Having passed through the usual
course of study with reputation, he re-
ceived, in 1778, the degree of bachelor
of arts, on which occasion he appeared,
for the first time, before the public in his
poetical character, by reciting an original
poem. It was printed at Litchfield, with
some other of his minor pieces, in a collec-
tion entitled American Poems. Upon leav-
ing college, he applied himself assidu-
ously to the study of the law. But he
continued this pursuit only a few months.
The Massachusetts line of the American
army was, at this time, deficient in chap-
lains, and Barlow was strongly urged, by
some influential friends, to qualify himself
for that station. It was, at the same time,
intimated to him, that every indulgence
should be shown him in his theological
examination. Under this assurance, being
well grounded in general literature, and
having passed his whole life among a
people, with whom almost every inan has
some knowledge of speculative divinity
and religious controversy, he applied him-
self strenuously to theological studies, and,
at the end of six weeks, was licensed to
preach as a Congregational minister, and
repaired immediately to the army. Here
he is said to have been regular in the dis-
charge of his clerical duties, and much
respected as a preacher. In the camp, he
preserved his fondness for the muses.
The spirit of the American soldiery is
supposed to have been not a little sup-
ported, through their many hardships, by
numerous patriotic songs and occasional
addresses, written by Mr. Barlow, doctor
Dwight and colonel Humphreys. B.
remained in the army until the close of
the war, and, during the whole of this
period, was engaged in planning, and, in
part, composing the poem which he first
published under the title of the Vision of
Columbus, and afterwards expanded into
his great work, the Columbiad. When
the independence of the U. States was
acknowledged, and the American forces
disbanded, in 1783, Barlow was again
thrown upon the world. He had never
manifested much fondness for the clerical
profession, and the habits of a military
life contributed to unfit him still more for
the regular labors and the humble duties
of a parish minister. In New England,
if the clerical character has been worn
without disgrace, it may easily be thrown
off without dishonor. Mr. Barlow, there-
fore, without hesitation, reverted to his
original plan of pursuing the profession
of the law. With this view, he removed
to Hartford, where he settled himself, as
he imagined, for the rest of his life. Here,
as a means of temporary support, he
established a weekly newspaper. He was
also, at this time, engaged in preparing for
the press his Vision of Columbus. The
extensive acquaintance which he had
formed in the army, and the zeal of his
personal friends, enabled him to obtain a
very large subscription for this work,
which was published in 1787. Its success
was very flattering. Within a few months
after its publication in America, it was
reprinted in London, and has since gone
through a second edition in America, and
one in Paris. The first edition was in-
scribed, in an elegant and courtly dedica-
tion, to Louis XVI. Having been em-
ployed by the clergy of Connecticut to
adapt Watts's version of the Psalms to the
state of the New England churches, Bar-
low gave up his weekly paper, and became
a bookseller at Hartford. This he did
chiefly with a view of aiding the sale of
his poem, and of the new edition of the
Psalms; and, as soon as these objects were
effected, he quitted the business, and en-
gaged in the practice of the law. During
his residence at Hartford, he was con-
cerned in several occasional publications,
which issued from a club of wits and young
politicians in that city and its vicinity. His
various publications continued to increase
and extend his reputation; but, in the
meanwhile, his success at the bar was by
no means flattering. He was unfortunate
in an embarrassed elocution; his habits of
life were grave and retired, and his man-
ners and address were not of that familiar
and conciliating cast which so often sup-
plies the want of professional merit. Un-
der these circumstances, he accepted an
offer to engage in another employment.
Some members of a land company, called
the Ohio company, in connexion with a
few other persons, then supposed to be
men of property, by a manœuvre not then
understood, but which has since been de-
tected, appropriated to their own use a
very considerable part of the funds of that
company, and, under the title of the Scioto
company, offered vast tracts of land for
sale in Europe, to few of which they had
any legal claim. As the agent of this com-
pany, but with perfect ignorance of their
JOEL BARLOW.
577
it unsafe to return to England, and fixed
his residence, for a time, in France. In
the latter part of this year, he accompa-
nied his friend Gregoire, and a deputation
of the national convention, who were sent
to organize the newly-acquired territory
of Savoy, as a department of the republic.
He passed the winter at Chamberry, the
capital of Savoy, where, at the request
of his legislative friends, he wrote au
address to the people of Piedmont, jurit-
ing them to throw off their allegiance “to
the man of Turin, who called himself
their king." This was immediately trans-
lated into French and Italian, and circu-
lated widely through the whole of Pied-
real plan, Barlow embarked for England,
in 1788, and, soon after, crossed the chan-
nel to France, where he disposed of some
of these lands under the title of the Sci-
oto company. While in France, he took
a warm interest in the revolution then in
progress, and became intimately acquaint-
ed with many leaders of the republican
party, particularly with that section after-
wards denominated the Girondists, or mod
crates, entered into all their plans, and was
soon conspicuous as one of their most
zealous partisans. He returned to Eng-
land, in 1791, with the intention of em-
barking for America, after having resided
for a year or two longer in London.
About the end of the year 1791, he pub-mont, but without producing much pop-
lished, in London, the first part of his
Advice to the Privileged Orders. This
he afterwards completed by the addition
of a second part; and the whole has been
several times reprinted in the U. States.
This publication was followed, in Febru-
ary, 1792, by the Conspiracy of Kings, a
poem of about 400 lines. The subject
was the first coalition of the continental
sovereigns against France. It has little
of poetical ornament, and the poet often
descends into the common-place topics
of the day, but many of his lines are vig-
orons. In the autumn of the same year,
he published a Letter to the National
Convention, in which he urges them to
abolish the royal power, render elections
more frequent and popular, and dissolve
the connexion between the government
and the national church. All these pub-
lications procured him some profit and
much notoriety. Though France was
the theme, they were doubtless intended
to have their chief effect on England.
Barlow consequently became acquainted
with all the English politicians who were,
like him, engaged in the cause of reform
or revolution, and with most of the repub-
lican men of letters and science, who,
about that period, were so numerous in
London as almost to form a distinct class.
Towards the end of 1792, the London
constitutional society, of which he was a
member, voted an address to the French
convention, and Mr. Barlow and another
member were deputed to present it. They
immediately undertook and executed their
cominission Barlow was received in
France with great respect, and the con-
vention soon after conferred upon him
the rights of a French citizen. As the
revolutionary symptoms in England had
attracted the attention of government, and
an official inquiry had been set on foot
respecting Barlow's mission, he deemed
49
VOL. I.
ular effect. The rest of the winter was
passed in the more peaceable employment
of composing a moek heroic poem in
three cantos, entitled Hasty Pudding, one
of the happiest and most popular of his
productious. From Savoy he returned to
Paris, where he continued to reside for
about three years. During this, as well as
his subsequent residence in Paris, with
the exception of a translation of Volney's
Ruins, his literary labors appear to have
been nearly suspended, and he engaged
in several plans of commercial speculation.
His connexion with public men, and
knowledge of political affairs, together
with the great advantages of credit and
of personal safety, which he derived from
his character of a friendly neutral, enabled
him to profit by those great and sudden
fluctuations in the value of every species
of property, which arose from the dis-
jointed state of public affairs, the rapid
depreciation of the assignats, and the fre-
quent sales of confiscated estates. About
the year 1795, Barlow was sent as an
agent on private legal and commercial
business to the north of Europe, and,
soon after his return, was appointed Amer-
ican consul at Algiers, with powers to
negotiate a treaty of peace with the dey,
and to redeem all American citizens held
in slavery on the coast of Barbary. He
immediately proceeded on this mission,
through Spain, to Algiers. Here he soon
concluded a treaty with the dey, in
spite of numerous obstacles thrown in his
way by the agents of several of the Euro-
pean powers. In the beginning of the
next year, he negotiated a similar treaty
with Tripoli, and redeemed and sent
home all the American prisoners whom
he could discover among the captives of
the Barbary powers. These humane ex-
ertions were made with great hazard and
danger, sometimes, it is said, even at the
578
JOEL BARLOW.
risk of his life. In 1797, he resigned his
consulship, and returned to Paris, where
he engaged in some very successful com-
mercial speculations, and acquired a con-
siderable fortune. As long as France
retained the forms of a free constitution,
he regarded it as his adopted country, and
invested a large portion of his property in
landed estates. Among other purchases
which he made was that of the splendid
hotel of the count Clermont de Tonnere,
in Paris, in which he lived for some years,
in an elegant and even sumptuous man-
ner. On the rupture between his native
country and France, occasioned by the
maritime spoliations of the latter, Barlow
exerted all his influence and abilities to
bring about an adjustment of differences.
To assist in attaining this end, he pub-
lished a Letter to the people of the U.
States, on the measures of Mr. Adams's
administration. At the same period, he
drew up and presented a memoir to the
French government, in which he boldly
denounces the whole system of privateer-
ing as mere sea robbery.-After an ab-
sence of nearly 17 years, Barlow returned
to his native country in the spring of 1805.
After visiting several parts of the U. States,
he purchased a beautiful situation in the
neighborhood of Georgetown, but within
the limits of the city of Washington,
where he built a handsome house, and
lived in an elegant and hospitable man-
ner. Early in 1806, he drew up a pros-
pectus of a great national academy, to be
established under the immediate protec-
tion of the government, printed it at his
own expense, and circulated it widely.
In March of the same year, the plan was
laid before congress, and referred to a
committee, who never reported, and the
project failed. In 1808, the Columbiad,
which had been the labor of half his life,
and had been gradually expanded from
the Vision of Columbus to the bulk of a
quarto, made its appearance in the most
magnificent volume which had ever issued
from the American press, adorned by a
number of fine engravings, executed
in London, by the first artists. It was
inscribed, in an elegant and affectionate
dedication, to Robert Fulton, the celebra-
ted engineer. The high price at which
the Columbiad was sold was by no means
suited to the condition of the literary
market in the U. States. Only a few cop-
ies were purchased. It was reprinted in
1809, in 2 vols., 12mo. In the same year,
it was republished in London, by Philips,
in an elegant royal 8vo. In spite of these
aids, the Columbiad never acquired the
popularity which the Vision of Columbus
enjoyed. It aspires to the dignity of a
philosophical poem, and the narrative
part is nearly overwhelmed by political
declamation and philosophical discus-
sions, and is deformed by pedantic and
uncouth words of the author's own coin-
age. There are, besides, other faults,
both of plan and execution, of a more
serious character. After the appearance
of the Columbiad, Barlow employed him-
self in making large collections of histori-
cal documents, and preparing the plan of
a general history of the U. States, a work
which he had long meditated. In the
midst of these pursuits, he was, in 1811,
nominated by the president minister plen-
ipotentiary to the French government, and
soon after sailed for France. He applied
himself with great diligence to the duties
of his new station, and to negotiating a
treaty of commerce and indemnification
for former spoliations. In October, 1812,
he was invited, by the duke de Bassano, to
a conference with the emperor Napoleon,
at Wilna. He immediately set off on his
mission, travelling day and night. The
weather was unusually severe, and the
whole country through which he passed,
after leaving France, was so wasted by
contending armies as scarcely to afford
him a comfortable meal. In a state of
exhaustion, from want of food and sleep,
the sudden changes from extreme cold to
the excessive heat of the small and crowd-
ed cottages of the Jews, the only taverns
in Poland, produced a violent inflamina-
tion in the lungs. He rapidly sunk into a
state of extreme debility and torpor, from
which he never recovered. He died, Dec.
22d, 1812, at Zarnawica, an obscure village
of Poland, in the neighborhood of Cra-
cow.-Mr. Bar ow was of an amiable dis-
position: his manners were grave and
dignified. In mixed company, he was
generally silent, and often absent. He
had no facility or sprightliness of general
conversation; but on subjects which hap-
pened to excite him, he talked with inter-
est and animation, and, among his inti-
mate acquaintance, is said to have some-
times displayed a talent for pleasantry and
humor.All of his prose writings bear the
stamp of an active, acute and nervous
mind, confident in its own strength, and
accustomed to great intrepidity of opin-
ion. His political and moral speculations
are often original, always ingenious, but
deficient in those comprehensive views
and that ripeness of judgment which are
required by the complex nature of the
subjects he examines.
BARMEN-BARNAVE.
BARMEN; a town on the Wupper, in
the Prussian duchy of Cleve-Berg, with
19,472 inhabitants. B. contains the prin-
cipal ribbon manufactories on the conti-
nent, comprising linen, woollen, cotton
and silk ribbons of every quality. They
are sent into all parts of the world.
BARNABITES; regular priests of the con-
gregation of St. Paul, thus called from
the church of St. Barnabas, which was
granted to them. They were established
in Milan, in 1536, and are dressed in
black, like the secular clergy. They de-
voted themselves to missions, preaching,
and the instruction of youth, and had, in
Italy, where they taught theology in the
academies of Milan and Pavia, in France,
Austria and Spain, houses which they
called colleges. In France and Austria,
this order was employed in the conver-
sion of the Protestants. It only exists, at
present, in Spain and some places in Italy.
BARNACLE; a multivalve, molluscous,
hermaphrodite and viviparous animal, be-
longing to Cuvier's sixth class-mollusca
cirrhopoda (lepas, L.)-The various spe-
cies of barnacle resemble each other in
being enveloped by a mantle and shell,
composed of five principal valves, and
several smaller pieces, joined together by
a membrane attached to their circumfer-
ence. The mouth, which is oval, has
lateral jaws, and along the belly, arranged
in pairs, are 12 articulated and fringed
cirri or tentacula. The heart is situated
under the dorsal part of the animal, and
the nervous system is composed of a
series of small knots, or ganglia, under
the belly the gills are on the sides. The
head of the barnacle is placed downwards
in the shell, and the tentacula towards
the superior part or orifice. Between the
last pair of tentacula is a long, fleshy tube,
sometimes mistaken for a trunk, at the
base of which, towards the bark, the anus
opens. The stomach has a number of
small cavities, formed by its wall, which
appear to perform the functions of a liver.
The intestine is simple: the ovary is
double, and there is a double serpentine
canal through which the ova must pass;
the surfaces of this canal secrete the fe-
cundating fluid, and they are prolonged
into the fleshy tube, and open at its ex-
tremity. Cuvier was the first to give an
accurate account of the curious structure
of these animals. The barnacles are al-
ways found attached to solid bodies, and
especially to rocks, timber, &c., exposed
to the dashing of the waves. They feed
on small marine animals, brought within
their reach by the motion of the waters,
579
and secure them by their tentacula, which
are expanded and rolled up again with
great celerity. They attain a very con-
siderable size, in situations where they
are left unmolested, and are occasionally
used as food by men. They are, in some
countries, supposed to possess aphrodisiac
qualities; perhaps on account of their her-
maphrodite nature.-We have no knowl-
edge of the cause that originated the fable
of barnacles being changed into geese;
though such a fable is still in existence,
and naturalists have perpetuated it by
bestowing the name of anas bernicla on a
goose, and of anseriferus on a species of
barnacle.
BARNAVE, Antoine Pierre Joseph Marie,
deputy to the states general of France, a
distinguished orator, and a zealous ad-
herent and early victim of the revolution,
was born at Grenoble, 1761. He was the
son of a rich procureur. He was of the
Protestant religion, became a lawyer, was
chosen a deputy of the tiers-état to the
assembly of the states general, and showed
himself an open enemy to the court.
The constituent assembly appointed him
their secretary, member of the committee
for the colonies, also of the diplomatic
committee, and, in January, 1791, their
president. After the flight of the king,
he was almost the only one who remain-
ed calm. He defended Lafayette against
the charge of being privy to this step,
and, after the arrest of the royal family,
was sent, with Petion and Latour-Mau-
bourg, to meet them, and to conduct them
to Paris. The sight of their misfortunes,
and the profanation of the royal dignity,
seemed to have made a profound impres-
sion on his mind. He treated his cap-
tives with the respect due to their rank
and misfortunes, and his reports were
unaccompanied with remarks. From
this moment a visible change in his prin-
ciples was observed. He defended the
inviolability of the royal person, and
painted the fatal disasters which threat-
ened the state. He opposed the ordi-
nance which enjoined strong measures
against the refractory priests; and suc-
ceeded, though with difficulty, in obtain-
ing the repeal of the severe decree relat-
ing to the colonies. His influence con-
tinually declined, and he was entirely
given up by the revolutionary party.
When the correspondence of the court
fell into the hands of the victorious party,
Aug. 10, 1792, they pretended to have
found documents which showed him to
have been secretly connected with it, and
he was guillotined Nov. 29, 1793.
580
BARNEVELDT-JOSHUA BARNEY,
BARNEVELDT, John van Olden; grand
pensionary of Holland; a man of emi-
nent talents and the simplest manners; a
martyr to duty and republican principle;
an example of virtue, such as history sel-
dom presents us. He was born in 1549,
and early showed himself zealous for the
independence of the United Provinces,
which had thrown off the yoke of Spain.
As advocate-general of the province of
Holland, he displayed profound views
and great skill in business. The services
of 30 years established his high reputa-
tion. He preserved his country against
the ambition of Leicester; penetrated the
secret plans of Maurice of Nassau, whoin
his fellow-citizens had elevated to the
post of stadtholder; and his marked dis-
trust of this prince placed him at the
head of the republican party, which ain-
ed to make the stadtholder subordinate
to the legislative power. Spain, at that
time, made proposals for peace through
the archduke, governor of the Nether-
lands. B. was appointed plenipotentiary
on this occasion, and evinced alike the
skill of a statesman and the firmness of a
republican. Maurice of Nassau, whose
interest led him to prefer war, labored to
prevent the establishment of peace; and
B., perceiving this, was induced only by
the most urgent solicitations of the states,
to retain the office which had been as-
signed to him, and at last concluded, in
1609, an armistice with Spain for the
term of 12 years, in which the independ-
ence of Holland was acknowledged. His
influence now became still greater, and
he was more and more an object of jeal-
ousy to the house of Nassau. The hos-
tile spirit of the opposite parties in the
state was further increased by theological
difficulties. In order to prevent a civil
war, B. proposed an ecclesiastical coun-
cil, which resolved upon a general tolera-
tion in respect to the points in question.
The states acceded, at first, to this wise
measure; but, at a later period, the mach-
inations of the Nassau party persuaded
them to adopt other views. This party
represented the Arminians (q. v.) as se-
cret friends of Spain. B. was now at-
tacked in pamphlets, and, even in the
assembly of the states, was insulted by
the people, of whom Maurice had be-
come the idol. As he could not hope
any longer to stay the torrent, and fore-
saw the fate which awaited him, he again
determined to resign his office; but the
solicitations of his friends, and his love
for his country, prevailed anew over all
other considerations. Maurice insisted
upon a general synod, with a view, as he
pretended, of putting an end to all reli-
gious quarrels; but B. persuaded the
states to oppose this measure, the conse-
quences of which were evident. Troops
were now levied, without the consent of
Maurice, to reestablish order in the cities
where the Gomarists (see Arminians) had
excited disturbances. On the other side,
the Nassau party redoubled its attacks
upon B., who, in answer to them, pub-
lished that celebrated memorial, in which
he warns the United Provinces of the
danger which threatened them from the
other party. Maurice, however, procured
the assembling of a synod at Dort, in
1618, to which almost all the Calvinistic
churches of Europe sent deputies. They
condemned the Arminians with the most
unjust severity, and Maurice was encour-
aged by their sentence to adopt violent
measures. Against the wishes of the
states, he caused B., and other leading
men of the Arminians, to be arrested; and
26 bribed judges condemned to death, as
a traitor, the man to whom his country
owed its political existence, and who dis-
dained to implore mercy. Vain were the
remonstrances of the widowed princess
of Orange and of the French ambassa-
dor; in vain did the friends and relations
of the patriot exclaim against the sen-
tence; Maurice remained firm in his evil
purpose. On the 13th of May, 1619, the
old man of 72 ascended the scaffold, with
the words of Horace, iii. 3,-
Justum ac tenacem propositi virum,
Non vultus instantis tyranni,
Non civium ardor práva jubentium
Mente quatit solida,-
and suffered death with the same firm-
ness which he had evinced under all the
circumstances of his life. His two sons
formed a conspiracy against the tyrant.
William, the principal agitator, escaped;
but Reinier was taken and executed.
His mother, after his condemnation,
threw herself at the feet of Maurice to
beg for mercy, and to his question, why
she humbled herself thus for the sake of
her son, when she had not done it for her
husband, made this memorable reply:
"I did not ask pardon for my husband,
because he was innocent: I ask it for my
son, because he is guilty."
BARNEY, Joshua, a distinguished naval
commander in the service of the U. States,
was born in Baltimore, Maryland, July 6,
1759. His parents lived on a farm be-
tween the town and North point, where
he was sent to school until 10 years of
age. He was then put into a retail shop
JOSHUA BARNEY.
at Alexandria, but, soon becoming tired
of that occupation, returned to Baltimore
In 1771, and insisted on going to sea. He
first went out in a pilot-boat with a friend
of his father, and afterwards made several
voyages to different places in Ireland and
the continent of Europe. In the last of
them, the care of the ship devolved upon
him, though but 16 years of age, in con-
sequence of the illness of the captain and
the discharge of the mate. He remained
in the command eight months, and final-
ly returned to Baltimore, after passing
through some difficult scenes. At that
period, the war having commenced be-
tween Great Britain and the colonies, B.
offered his services to the latter, and ob-
tained the situation of master's mate in
the sloop of war Hornet, commanded by
captain William Stone. He carried the
first flag of the U. States seen in the state
of Maryland, whilst beating up for volun-
teers for the vessel. In 1775, the Hornet
joined the fleet of commodore Hopkins,
which sailed to New Providence, one of
the Bahama islands, captured the town
and fort, and the vessels in the harbor,
and returned to the Delaware, having
given the island up again, after securing
the cannon, powder, shells, inortars, &c.
-In 1776, when not yet 17 years of age,
he was presented with a lieutenant's com-
nission by Robert Morris, president of
the marine committee, on account of his
conduct whilst serving in the schooner
Wasp, in the Delaware bay, during an
action between the English brig Tender
and that vessel, which resulted in the
capture of the former under the very
guns of two of the enemy's ships. Soon
after that affair, he sailed in the Sachem,
captain Isaiah Robinson, in the capacity
of lieutenant, and brought into port an
English brig, taken after a severe action
of two hours.-On returning from the
West Indies, the Sachem, Andrew Doria
and Lexington, made two prizes, on
board of one of which B. was placed as
prize-master. But, after beating about
several days in a heavy gale of wind, he
was captured by the Perseus, of 20 guns.
The captain of the British vessel ex-
changed his prisoners at Charleston,
South Carolina. In the spring of 1777,
B. again joined the Andrew Doria, and
took part in the defence of the Delaware.
He was afterwards ordered to Baltimore,
to join the Virginia frigate, captain Nich-
olson, but, in attempting to get her to sea,
the pilot ran her on shore, and she was
captured by the British. In August,
1778, he was exchanged, but was soon
581
again taken in the Chesapeake bay, by a
privateer of 4 guns and 60 men, whilst
commanding a schooner of 2 guns and
8 men. The U. States having no vessels,
at this time, out of the Middle States, B.
accepted the offer of his old friend and
commander, captain Robinson, in No-
vember, 1778, to go with him from Alex-
andria, in a ship, with a letter of marque.
After a severe action with the privateer
Rosebud, they arrived at Bordeaux, took
a cargo of brandy, mounted 18 guns, and
shipped 70 men. On their return, they
made a valuable prize, after a running
fight of nearly two days. B. took com-
mand of the prize, and arrived safe in
Philadelphia, in October, 1779.-In 1780,
he married the daughter of alderman
Bedford; and, in the following month,
whilst going to Baltimore, was robbed of
all his fortune, which he had with him in
paper money. He returned to Philadel-
phia, without mentioning his loss, and
soon after went into service on board the
U. States' ship Saratoga, of 16 guns, com-
manded by captain James Young. The
same year, he was taken prisoner by the
English, and sent to Plymouth, in Eng-
land, where he was confined in the Mill
prison for some time, when he escaped
in a British officer's undress uniform.
He was retaken, but escaped again, and
arrived in Philadelphia in March, 1782.
A few days afterwards, the state of Penn-
sylvania gave him the command of the
Hyder Ally, a small ship of 16 guns, in
which he proceeded down the bay with
a convoy. Whilst lying in cape May
road, waiting for a favorable wind, three
vessels were discovered standing in from
sea, one of which, the ship General Monk,
captain Rogers, of 20 guns, the Hyder
Ally engaged, and captured after a brisk
fire of 26 minutes. 30 of the crew of
the General Monk were killed, and 53
wounded, besides 15 out of 16 officers on
board, killed or wounded. On board the
Hyder Ally, there were 4 killed and 11
wounded. For this gallant exploit, the
legislature of Pennsylvania voted B. a
sword, which was presented to him by
the governor. The General Monk was
sold, and bought by Mr. Morris for the
U. States, and the command given to B.,
who sailed, with sealed orders, in No-
vember, 1782, with despatches to doctor
Franklin, in Paris. He was well received
at the French court, and returned to Phil-
adelphia with a valuable loan from the
French king-a large sum of money in
chests of gold and barrels of silver-and
brought with him a passport signed by
49*
582
JOSHUA BARNEY-BAROMETER.
the king of England, and the information
that the preliminaries of peace were sign-
ed.—In 1795, B. received the commission
of captain in the French service, and
commanded a French squadron, but, in
1800, resigned his command, and returned
to America. In 1812, when war was
declared against Great Britain, he offered
his services to the general government,
and, in 1813, was appointed to the com-
mand of the flotilla for the defence of the
Chesapeake. During the summer of
1814, whilst in that situation, he kept up
an active warfare with the enemy, until
the 1st of July, when he was ordered to
Washington, to consult about the expect-
ed invasion, and the means of defending
the capital. He returned to the flotilla
on the 3d.
On the 16th, the enemy en-
tered the Patuxent; and, on the 21st, the
commodore landed most of his men, and
joined general Winder, at the Woodyard,
where he found captain Miller and his
marines, with 5 pieces of artillery, which
were placed under his command. He
proceeded with his force to the city, and
was ordered to protect the bridge; but,
the next day, with the permission of the
president, he set out for Bladensburg,
with his guns and men, to join the army.
He had scarcely reached the field of bat-
tle, when he perceived the Americans in
full retreat, and the enemy advancing
He, however, kept up a brisk fire upon
the British for some time, but was at
length obliged to order a retreat, when in
great danger of being surrounded by the
enemy, and having himself received a
wound in the thigh. In withdrawing, he
fell, from weakness caused by loss of
blood, and was found in this situation by
the enemy, by whom he was treated with
kindness, and carried in a litter to the
town of Bladensburg. His wife, one of
his sons and his surgeon came to him on
the 27th of August, and, after a night's
rest, carried hini home. The wound had
been probed by the English surgeons, but
without finding the ball. His surgeon
was equally unsuccessful, and it was
never extracted. The corporation of
Washington voted him a sword, and the
legislature of Georgia passed a vote of
thanks to him for his conduct. The
following May, he was sent on a mission
to Europe, and returned, in October, to
Baltimore, where he found himself crip-
pled by his wound. After remaining at
his farm on Elkridge until his strength
was restored, he removed to Baltimore,
but, in the course of a few months, came to
the determination of emigrating, with his
family, to Kentucky. He set out in con-
sequence, having made every necessary
preparation, but, at Pittsburg, was taken
ill, and died, Dec. 1, 1818, in the 60th
year of his age. Every honor was paid
to his memory. Commodore Barney was
a remarkably handsome man, an able,
thorough seaman, and a most acute and
spirited officer.
BAROCCIO, or BAROZZI, Frederic, a fa-
mous painter of the Roman school, born
at Urbino, lived from 1528 to 1612. He
studied at Venice, and copied much after
Titian. When he went to Rome, Raphael
exerted the same influence over him
which Titian had done before. He after-
wards endeavored to adopt the style of
Correggio, but not with equal success. His
coloring remained monotonous. Mengs
censures him for always representing
objects as if they were seen in the air,
between transparent clouds, and for en-
deavoring to make the most opposite col-
ors harmonize merely by means of the
light. He is not free from mannerism.
Among his best works are the Flight of
Eneas, or the Conflagration of Troy, en-
graved by Agostino Carracci, and to be
found in the former gallery Borghese;
the Descent from the Cross, at Perugia, and
a burying piece, engraved by Sideler.
BAROMETER; an instrument to measure
the pressure of the air and its changes. It
ordinarily consists of a tube of glass,
containing mercury, closed at top, and
exhausted of air. The mercury ascends
under a greater and descends under a less
pressure of air.
pressure of air. Evangelista Torricelli, a
pupil of Galileo, and his successor as
inathematical teacher at Florence, was
the inventor of the barometer, about the
middle of the 17th century. He thought
that the same cause which raises wa-
ter but 33 or 34 feet high (see Atmos-
phere), a discovery of Galileo, ought to
raise mercury, which is nearly 14 times
heavier, only 29 or 30 inches high. He
therefore closed a tube of glass, several
feet long, hermetically at one end, then
filled it with mercury through the orifice
at the other end, and inverted it in a ves-
sel of mercury. He was not deceived in
his expectations: the mercury descended
from the upper part of the tube, and re-
mained in a column, 29 or 30 inches high.
The upper part of the tube, which, in this
experiment, became empty, was thence
called the Torricellian vacuum. Further
experiments of Torricelli proved the cor-
rectness of his idea that the column of
mercury was supported by the pressure
of a column of air resting upon the col-
BAROMETER-BARON.
umn of mercury in the tube, and extend-
ing to the limits of the atmosphere.
Whilst Torricelli was still occupied with
this object, death overtook him, in 1647.
The above-described preparation, which
is the barometer itself, is called, after him,
the Torricellian tube. Pascal adopted his
opinions, and performed many experi-
ments in confirmation of them. He re-
quested one of his relations, Perrier, at
Clermont, in Auvergne, to make a trial of
the pressure of the air on the mountain
Puy-de-Dome. Perrier found that the
quicksilver in the Torricellian tube, upon
the summit of this mountain, 5000 feet
high, stood more than three Parisian
inches lower than at the foot of the moun-
tain; and thus demonstrated that it was
not the horror of a vacuum (horror vacui),
as had been previously supposed, but the
pressure of the column of air (the height
and the weight of which were less on the
mountain), that supported the column of
mercury in the tube. The gradual fall of
the mercury, in ascending the mountain,
was also observed. It could not escape
the notice of the first inventors of the
barometer, that the situation of the mer-
cury in the Torricellian tube was almost
daily changing. They concluded that the
pressure of the atmosphere must be sub-
ject to continual changes, and that, on
this account, this instrument would be
useful for pointing out and measuring
these changes. Otto von Guericke and
others paid particular attention to this
subject. They soon gave the instrument
the name of barometer, that is, a measurer
of the weight of the air, and began to fore-
tell, by the ascent and fall of the mercury,
the changes of the weather, which pro-
cured it, among the people, the name of
weather-glass. These changes are indi-
cated by this instrument, because fair
weather is usually united with dry air, and
foul weather with moist air; and the
weight of the air changes according to its
dryness or humidity. Although the sim-
ple tube of Torricelli was sufficient to in-
dicate these changes, yet many improve-
ments have been made in it. Among
others, the tube is beut at the bottom, and
on the end, thus turned upwards, is fixed
a round or oblong vessel, open at the top,
into which the mercury is poured, upon
which the pressure of the air operates.
The whole tube is further fastened, with
the above-mentioned cup attached to it,
to a wooden frame, upon which a scale
of degrees is marked, which indicates
accurately the ascent and fall of the
mercury. This is the present construc-
583
tion of the barometer. Since the fall of
the mercury is in a certain proportion to
the height ascended, the barometer may
be used for the measurement of heights.
For this purpose, however, the common
arrangement is not sufficient. De Luc
found the siphon barometer, which takes
its name from its shape, the most useful
in making such measurements. In this
barometer, the columns of mercury, in
both legs of the tube, are of an equal diam-
eter; a scale is also marked on both legs.
That a barometer may be accurate, it is
necessary, 1st, that the exterior air only
should operate upon it; for which pur-
pose the air must be entirely expelled
from the tube; for, if the air is admitted,
the column of mercury will not ascend to
its proper elevation. In the manufacture
of the barometer, the mercury is boiled in
the tube, to expel all the air. 2d. The
scale must be accurate; and, 3d, the ba-
rometer should hang perfectly perpen-
dicular. In observing the barometer, the
eye must be kept in an exact level with
the upper surface of the mercury, which
must be measured at the highest point of
its convexity. The optician Alexander
Adir has invented a barometer, the mova-
ble column of which is of oil, which en-
closes in a tube a certain quantity of nitric
acid, whose diameter is diminished accord-
ing to the density of the atmosphere. He
gave it the name of sympiesometer. (For
further information, see Biot's Traité Gén-
éral de Physique, and Farrar's Treatise on
Mechanics, Cambridge, Mass., 1825).
BARON (originally, also, varo); a word
derived from the Latin, which signifies a
man, and, sometimes, a servant. In the
feudal system of the middle ages, at first,
the immediate tenant of any superior was
called his baron. In old records, the citi-
zens of London are so styled, and the 16
members of the house of commons, elected
by the cinque-ports, are still called barons.
The family of Montmorency called them-
selves, in France, premiers barons de la
chrétienté. This name was introduced by
William the Conqueror from Norinandy
to England, and used to signify an imme-
diate vassal of the crown, who had a seat
and vote in the royal court and tribunals,
and, subsequently, in the house of peers.
It was the second rank of nobility, until
dukes and marquises were introduced,
and placed above the earls, and viscounts
also set above the barons. In Germany,
the ancient barons of the empire were the
immediate vassals of the crown. They
appeared in the imperial court and diet,
and belonged to the high nobility. But
584
BARON-BARQUISIMETO.
these ancient feudatories were early ele-
vated to the rank of counts or princes.
The modern barons only form a rank of
lower nobility after the counts.-Barons
of the exchequer; four judges in England
and five in Scotland, to whom the admin-
istration of justice is committed, in causes
between the king and his subjects, relating
to the revenue. They were formerly barons
of the realm, but, of late, are, generally,
persons learned in the laws.
BARON, Michael; a celebrated French
actor, born at Paris in 1652; equally suc-
cessful in tragedy and comedy. Preachers
are said to have attended in a grated box
to study his action. Such was his vanity,
that he said, every century produced a
Cæsar, but it required 2000 years to pro-
duce a Baron. He died in 1729.
BARON and FEME. (See Husband and
Wife.)
BARONETS; a hereditary dignity in
Great Britain and Ireland, next in rank to
the peerage, originally instituted by James
I, May 22, 1661. It is said that lord chan-
cellor Bacon suggested the idea, and the
first baronet was sir Nicholas Bacon of
Redgrave. Baronets are created by patent,
under the great seal, and the honor is
generally given to the grantee and the
heirs male of his body lawfully begotten,
though sometimes it is entailed on collat-
erals. From the preamble of the original
patent, it appears that the order was cre-
ated to get money for the support of sol-
diers in Ireland, each baronet, on his
creation, being obliged to pay into the
treasury a sum little less than £1100. In
1823, there were 661 baronets in England.
Precedency is given to baronets before all
knights, except those of the garter, ban-
nerets created on the field, and privy
counsellors.
Baronets of Ireland; an order instituted
by James I, for the same purpose, and
with the same privileges, as the baronets
of England. Since the union, in 1801,
none have been created otherwise than as
baronets of the United Kingdom. Ahered-
itary dignity, somewhat similar to knight-
hood, appears to have been conferred, in
this country, even in very ancient times.
Baronets of Nova Scotia, and Baronets
of Scotland. Charles I instituted this order
in 1621, for the purpose of advancing the
plantation of Nova Scotia, in which the
king granted a certain portion of land to
each member of the order. Since the
union, the power of the king to create
new baronets within Scotland is held to
held to
have ceased.
BARONIUS, OF BARONIO, Cæsar; born at
Sora, in the kingdom of Naples, Oct. 30,
1538; received his early education in Na-
ples; in 1557, went to Rome; was one of
the first pupils of St. Philip of Neri, and
member of the congregation of priests of
the oratorio founded by him; afterwards
cardinal and librarian of the Vatican libra-
ry. He owed these dignities to the ser-
vices which he rendered the Catholic
church by his Ecclesiastical Annals, on
which he labored, with indefatigable assi-
duity, from the year 1580 until his death,
June 30, 1607. They comprise a rich
collection of genuine documents from the
papal archives, and are, therefore, of great
use to the student of ecclesiastical history,
but contain many false statements and
unauthentic documents; and the air of
sincerity, which prevails throughout, is
calculated to give very erroneous ideas of
the papal administration of the church.
They are principally written to confute
the Centuries of Magdeburg, and to prove
that the doctrine and the constitution of
the church had remained the same from
the beginning. These Annales Ecclesias-
tici a Christo nato ad A. 1198, a C. Baro-
nio (Rome, 1588-1607, 12 vols., folio),
were often reprinted, with the corrections
of the author. At Mentz, an edition was
commenced, in 1601, in 12 vols., folio.
The Antwerp edition, however, begun in
1589, in 10 vols., folio, is handsomer, but
does not contain the treatise De Monar-
chia Sicilia, which contests the ecclesias-
tical privileges of the king of Sicily,
known by the above name, and, there-
fore, was forbidden by the Spanish court.
Many errors, particularly chronological,
were corrected by the Franciscan Antho-
ny Pagi, in his excellent criticism on the
work (" Critica Historico-chronologica in
Ann. Baron. Antverp"; Geneva, 1705, 4
vols., folio). Other Catholic writers have
also mentioned his errors, against which
the censures of the Protestants have been
more particularly directed. Among the
continuations of the Annals, none of which
is equal to the work of B., Raynaldi
has furnished the most copious (ab a.
1198–1565, Rome, 1646, 8 vols., folio;
continued until 1671 by Laderchi, Rome,
1728, 3 vols., folio).
BARQUISIMETO; a city in Venezuela, 110´
miles W. S. W. Caraccas, 440 N. Ń. E.
Santa Fé de Bogota; lat. 9° 45′ N.; pop.,
11,300. It is situated on an elevated plain,
and is regularly laid out, and well built.
The surrounding country is fertile. Cacao
grows abundantly there. Coffee has been
planted recently. B. was founded by the
Spaniards, in 1552.
BARRA-BARRATRY.
BARRA, or Bar; a kingdom in Africa,
near the mouth of the Gambia, on the
borders of which it extends about 60
miles. The Mandingoes form a consider-
able part of the inhabitants. They are
Mohammedans, have public schools, and
are the most civilized people on the
Gambia. The population is estimated at
200,000.-Barra, or Barra Inding, the
capital, is a populous town, near the point
of B., on the north side of the Gambia.
Lon. 16° 45′ W; lat. 13° 25′ N.
BARRAS, Paul François Jean Nicholas,
comte de, member of the national con-
vention, afterwards of the executive direc-
tory, born at Fox, in Provence, June 30,
1755, of the family of Barras, whose anti-
quity in this quarter had become a prov-
erb, served as second lieutenant in the reg-
iment of Languedoc until 1775. He made,
about this time, a voyage to the Isle-de-
France, the governor of which was one
of his relations, and entered into the gar-
rison of Pondicherry. He afterwards
served in Suffren's squadron, and at the
cape of Good Hope. At his return, he
gave himself up to gambling and women,
and dissipated his fortune. The revolu-
tion broke out. He immediately showed
himself an opponent of the court, and had
a seat in the tiers-état, whilst his brother
was sitting in that of the nobility. July
14, 1789, he took part in the attack upon
the Bastile, and, Aug. 10, 1792, upon the
Tuileries. He was afterwards elected a
juryman at the tribunal of Orleans, and,
in September, a member of the national
convention, where he voted for the death
of Louis XVI. In October, he was sent
with Fréron into the southern provinces,
and showed himself at Marseilles less
violent than the latter. Although he had
established his reputation as a patriot, yet
he displeased Robespierre. B.'s threat to
repel force by force alone restrained him.
Robespierre resolved to involve him in
the great proscription, which he then
meditated. On this account, B. joined
the members of the committee, who also
foresaw the danger which awaited them,
and were determined to strike an effect-
ual blow, and overthrow their oppressor.
He therefore took an important part in
the events of the 9th Thermidor (July 27,
1794). He was intrusted with the chief
command of the forces of his party, repel-
led the troops of Henriot, and made him-
self master of Robespierre. Feb. 4, 1795,
he was elected president of the conven-
tion. The 13th Vendemiaire (Oct. 5,
1795), when the troops of the sections,
which favored the royal cause, approached
585
the convention, Barras, for a second time,
received the chief command of the troops
of the convention, and the battalion of the
patriots, who hastened to their assistance.
On this occasion, he employed general
Bonaparte, whose services were of the
highest importance to him. In his report,
he attributed the victory to this young
general, and, a few days after, procured
for him the chief command of the army
of the interior. His important services
promoted him to the directory. It is said
that Bonaparte owed to him the command
of the army of Italy. However this may
be, Barras soon perceived that Bonaparte
would give a decisive superiority to him
who should obtain an influence over him;
and, therefore, he displaced Carnot from
the war department, and took possession
of it himself. This separated them, and
Carnot, for some time, took part with the
council, where a party had been formed
to restrain the power of the directory, and
particularly that of Barras. The rupture
could only terminate with the ruin of one
of the parties: that of the council fell by
the events of the 18th Fructidor (Sept. 4,
1797), in which Barras took a leading part.
From this period, he governed absolutely
until the 13th June, 1799, when Sieyes en-
tered the directory. Nevertheless, Barras
succeeded in preserving his seat, whilst
Merlin de Douay, Treilhard and La Réveil-
lère-Lepeaux were compelled to give in
their resignation. He himself became a
victim of the 18th Brumaire (Nov. 9, 1799).
In a badly-composed letter, which he sent
to St. Cloud, he resigned his office, and
received, upon his request, from the first
consul, a passport to his estate. He after-
wards retired to Brussels, where he lived
for several years; but, finally, received
permission to repair to the south of France.
He died in January, 1829. His memoirs
are expected soon to appear.
BARRATOR, COMMON. (See Barratry,
common.)
BARRATRY, in commerce, is usually con-
sidered to be any fraud or knavery com-
mitted by the master or mariners of a
ship, whereby the owners or freighters
are injured. It has been held, in one case,
that barratry may be committed on land,
and by other persons than the master and
mariners of a ship. Some goods insured
from London, by land carriage, to Har-
wich, and thence to Gothenburg, sustained
damage by the misconduct of the carriers.
Lord Ellenborough held that this damage
was insured against, in a policy against
barratry. The following are among the
acts which have been considered barra-
586
BARRATRY-BARRIER TREATY.
trous, viz., evading foreign port-duties;
deviation from the usual course of the
voyage, by the captain, for his own pri-
vate purposes; or dropping anchor, to go
ashore on his own affairs; cruising against
an enemy contrary to instructions; trading
with an enemy, whereby the ship is ex-
posed to seizure; wilful violation of a
blockade; a wilful resistance of search
by a belligerent vessel, where the right of
search is legally exercised; and even
negligence, when so gross as to bear a
fraudulent character, is barratry; and,
more especially, embezzlement of any
part of the cargo; and the shipper re-
covers against the underwriters for such
an act of barratry, even though it is con-
sented to by the owners of the ship. Un-
der insurance against barratry, the under-
writers are liable for any barratrous act
of the mariners, which could not have
been prevented by ordinary diligence and
care on the part of the captain. And as
far as the circumstance of barratry de-
pends upon its being an act against the
owners, it is sufficient that it be preju-
dicial to the chartercrs, who are, for this
purpose, considered the owners.-It is
obviously of great importance to protect
the owners of ships and cargoes against
the fraud and knavery of those to whose
care they are intrusted; and, because prop-
erty at sea is commonly beyond the care
and superintendence of the owner, and is
necessarily intrusted to the master and
mariners, the laws usually punish any
embezzlement, or wilful destruction of it
by them, with great severity. By an act
of congress, March 26, 1804, it is enacted,
that "
any person, not being an owner,
who shall, on the high-seas, wilfully and
corruptly cast away, burn or otherwise
destroy any vessel unto which he be-
longeth, being the property of any citizen,
or citizens, of the United States, or pro-
cure the same to be done, shall suffer
death." And the same penalty is enacted
against any owner, or part-owner, for the
same act done with intent to prejudice
an underwriter on a policy of insurance,
or a shipper, or any other part-owner.
The British statutes are of the same im-
port.
Barratry, common, is the stirring up of
suits and quarrels between other persons,
and the party guilty of this offence is in-
dictable as a common barrator, or barretor.
But more than one instance is necessary
to constitute the offence; and any number
of suits brought in the party's own name,
if there be any color for them, do not con-
stitute this offence. The commencing of
suits in the name of a fictitious plaintiff
is common barratry.
BARRERE, Bertrand, de Vieuzac, born
at Tarbes, Sept. 10, 1755, of a respectable
family, was advocate of the parliament at
Toulouse, and attracted attention by his
easy and elegant delivery. In 1789,. he
was chosen deputy to the states general,
where he openly expressed his republican
principles. He was afterwards a member
of the convention, and, Nov. 29, 1792,
elected their president. Louis XVI was
examined, for the first time, Dec. 11, under
the presidency of B., who voted for his
death. He became one of the most active
members of the committee of safety.
From Sept. 21, 1792, when the conven-
tion was opened, until July 27, 1794 (9th
Thermidor), few sessions took place at
which B. did not occupy the tribune. As
he spoke on all the measures of the reign
of terror in flowery and poetical language,
he was called l'Anacréon de la guillotine!
On the day previous to Robespierre's fall,
B. pronounced his eulogy; but, when he
saw that the convention declared itself
against him, he deserted him, took part in
the proceedings of the 9th Thermidor,
and preserved, by this means, some influ-
ence. In March, 1795, he was condemn-
ed to deportation, but escaped by flight.
The first consul revoked his banishinent
after the revolution of the 18th Brumaire.
He afterwards edited a journal, Mémorial
Anti-Britannique. He appeared, on all
occasions, a zealous defender of Napoleon,
yet without playing any important part
during his reign. In 1815, he was ban-
ished, like all the regicides, who had en-
tered into the service of Napoleon after
his return from Elba.
BARRICADE, or BARRICADO; those ob-
jects which are hastily collected, to defend
a narrow passage (for instance, the street
of a village, a defile, a bridge, &c.), the
removing of which retards the enemy,
and gives to the sharpshooters, posted
behind or in its neighborhood, an oppor-
tunity of firing upon them with effect.
Wagons, harrows, casks, chests, branches
of trees, beams,-in short, every thing
which is at hand is used for this purpose;
and, if it is necessary that the enemy,
when consisting principally of cavalry,
should be checked in the pursuit, though
it be but for a moment, the ammunition
and baggage-wagons may be employed
with effect.
BARRIER TREATY. When, by the peace
of Utrecht, the Spanish Netherlands were
ceded to Austria, 1715, this cession was
agreed to by the Dutch, who had conquer-
BARRIER TREATY-BARROW.
ed these provinces in alliance with Eng-
land, only on condition that they should
have the right (in order to secure their
borders against their powerful neighbor)
to garrison several fortresses of the coun-
try, viz., Namur, Tournay, Menin, Furnes,
Warneton, Ypres, and the fort of Kenock,
and to maintain, in common with Austria,
a garrison in Dendermonde; and that
Austria should engage to pay yearly to
Holland 350,000 dollars for the support
of these garrisons. The treaty which was
concluded between these two powers, in
1718, was called the Barrier treaty. In
1781, the emperor Joseph II declared it
void, notwithstanding all the remonstran-
ces of the states general.
BARRINGTON, Daines; fourth son of the
first viscount Barrington; distinguished as
a lawyer, antiquary and naturalist. He
was born in 1727, and, after preparatory
studies at Oxford and the Inner Temple,
was called to the bar. He held several
offices previous to his being appointed a
Welsh judge in 1757; and was subse-
quently second justice of Chester till 1785,
when he resigned that post, and, thence-
forward, lived in retirement, chiefly at his
chambers in the Inner Temple, where he
died, March, 1800. His works are numer-
ous; among them is Tracts on the Probabil-
ity of reaching the North Pole, 1775, 4to.
Barrister; in England, an advocate
or counsellor, who has been admitted by
one of the inns of court, viz., the Inner
Temple, Middle Temple, Lincoln's Inn,
or Gray's Inn, to plead at the bar. Before
a student can be admitted to the bar, he
must have been a member of one of those
societies, and have kept terms there for
five, or, if he be a master of arts of either
of the universities of Cambridge, Oxford
or Dublin, for three years. Twelve pub-
lic disputations, or legal theses, were for-
merly required; but these have now dwin-
dled into mere forms. Barristers are also
called utter or outer barristers, to distin-
guish them from serjeants and king's
counsel, who sit within the bar in the
courts. They are also styled, in the old
books, apprenticii ad legem, as being still
but apprenticed to the profession, to the
highest grade of which (that of serjeant,
or serviens ad legem) they could not be
admitted until they had sat without the
bar, through the apprenticeship of 16
years. The duties of a counsel are hon-
orary, and he can maintain no action for
his fees, which are considered as a gratu-
ity, and not as hire. In the U. States, the
degree of barrister, though not formally
abolished, has fallen into disuse.
587
BARROS, Joan de, the most illustrious
of the Portuguese historians, born at
Viseu, 1496, was descended from an an-
cient noble family. At first one of the
pages of the king Emanuel, he distin-
guished himself so much by his talents
and address, that the king selected him,
at the age of 17, for the companion of the
prince royal. He employed all his leisure
time in reading Sallust, Livy and Virgil.
He wrote his first work, in the midst of
the distractions of the court, in the anti-
chamber. It was a historical romance,
entitled the Emperor Clarimond, distin-
guished for beauty of language. It ap-
peared in 1520, the author being but 24
years old. B. presented it to the king, who
urged him to undertake the history of the
Portuguese in India. The king died a
few months after, but his orders were
executed, and this historical work appear-
ed 32 years later. King John III ap-
pointed B. governor of the Portuguese
settlements in Guinea, and, afterwards,
general agent for these colonies. He per-
formed the duties of this office with under-
standing and honesty. The king present-
ed him, in 1530, with the province of
Maranham in Brazil, for the purpose of
colonization. B. lost a great part of his
fortune by the enterprise, and returned
the province to the king, who indemnified
him for his losses. At the age of 72 years,
he retired to his estate Alitem, where he
died after three years. His work L'Azia
Portugueza, upon the doings of the Por-
tuguese in India, consists of 40 books,
and probably will always remain a stand-
ard work in this department of literature.
He wrote, besides, a moral dialogue, Rho-
picancuma, in which he shows the perni-
cious consequences of accommodating
principles to circumstances; but this work
was prohibited by the inquisition. He has
written also a dialogue on false modesty,
and a Portuguese grammar, the first ever
published.
BARROW, Isaac, an eminent mathema-
tician and divine, was the son of Mr.
Thomas Barrow, a respectable citizen and
linen-draper of London, in which city he
was born in 1630. His childhood gave
no presage of his future celebrity; for, at
the Charter-house, where he was educa-
ted, he was chiefly remarkable for fight-
ing and neglect of study. Being removed
to a school at Felsted, in Essex, he began
to show some earnest of his future great
reputation. He was subsequently entered
a pensioner of Trinity college, Cambridge,
of which he was chosen a scholar, in 1647.
The ejection of his uncle, the bishop of
588
BARROW.
St. Asaph, from his fellowship of Peter-
house, in consequence of his adherence
to the royal party, and the great losses sus-
tained by his father in the same cause, left
him in a very unprovided condition. His
good disposition and great attainments,
however, so won upon his superiors, that,
although he refused to subscribe to the
covenant, he was very highly regarded. In
1649, he was elected fellow of his college,
and, finding that opinions in church and
state opposite to his own now prevailed,
proceeded some length in the study of
anatomy, botany and chemistry, with a
view to the medical profession. He how-
ever changed his mind, and to the study
of divinity joined that of mathematics and
astronomy, unbending his mind by the
cultivation of poetry, to which he was
always much attached. In 1652, he grad-
uated M. A. at Oxford, and, being disap-
pointed in his endeavor to obtain the
Greek professorship at Cambridge, enga-
ged in a scheme of foreign travel. He
set out in 1655; and, during his absence,
his first work, an edition of Euclid's Ele-
ments, was published at Cambridge. He
visited France and Italy, where he em-
barked for Smyrna; and, the ship in
which he sailed being attacked by an Al-
gerine corsair, he stood manfully to the
guns until the enemy was beaten off.
From Smyrna he proceeded to Constan-
tinople, returned, in 1659, by way of Ger-
many and Holland, and was soon after
episcopally ordained by bishop Brown-
rigg. In 1660, he was elected Greek pro-
fessor at the university of Cambridge,
without a competitor. At the recom-
mendation of doctor Wilkins, afterwards
bishop of Chester, he was, in 1662, chosen
professor of geometry in Gresham college,
and, in 1663, the royal society elected
him a member of that body, in the first
choice after their incorporation. The
same year, he was appointed the first Lu-
casian professor of mathematics at Cam-
bridge, on which occasion he delivered
an excellent prefatory lecture on the util-
ity of mathematical science. In 1669, on
a conscientious principle of duty, he de-
termined to give up mathematics, and
adhere exclusively to divinity. Accord-
ingly, after publishing his celebrated Lec-
tiones Optica, he resigned his chair to a
successor worthy of him-the great New-
ton. In 1670, he was created D. D. by
mandate, and, in 1672, the king nominated
him to the mastership of Trinity college,
observing that he had bestowed it on the
best scholar in England. He had, before
this, refused a living, given him with a
view to secure his services as a tutor to
the son of the gentleman who had it to
bestow, because he deemed such a con-
tract simoniacal; and he now, with simi-
lar conscientiousness, had a clause in his
patent of master, allowing him to marry,
erased, because incompatible with the
intentions of the founder. In 1675, he
was chosen vice-chancellor of the univer-
sity of Cambridge; but the credit and
utility expected from his labors were frus-
trated by his untimely death, from a vio-
lent fever, in May, 1677, in the 47th year
of his age. The works of doctor Barrow,
both mathematical and theological, are of
the highest class. Of the former, the fol-
lowing are the principal:-Euclidis Ele-
menta, Cantab., 1655, 8vo.; Euclidis Data,
Cantab., 1657, 8vo.; Lectiones Optica,
Lond., 1669, 4to.; Lectiones Geometrica,
Lond., 1670, 4to.; Archimedis Opera, Apol-
lonii Conicorum, lib. iv; Theodosii Spher-
icorum, lib. iii, novo methodo illustrata et
succincte demonstrata, Lond., 1675, 4to.;
Lectio in qua Theoremata Archimedis de
Sphera et Cylindro per Methodum indivis-
ibilium investigata, &c., Lond., 1678,
12mo.; Mathematica Lectiones, Lond.,
1683. The two last works were not pub-
lished till after his death. All his Eng-
lish works are theological: they were left
in MS., and published by doctor Tillot-
son, in 3 vols., folio, Lond., 1685. Isaaci
Barrow Opuscula, appeared in 1697,
Lond., folio. As a mathematician, espe-
cially in the higher geometry, Barrow
was deemed inferior only to Newton: as
a divine, he was singularly distinguished
for depth and copiousness of thought; and
he so exhausted the subjects which he
treated in his sermons, that Charles II
used to call him an unfair preacher, for
´
leaving nothing to be said after him. Le
Clerc speaks of his sermons as exact dis-
sertations, rather than addresses to the
people; and, although unusually long, they
so abound in matter, that his language
sometimes labors in the expression of it;
whence his style is occasionally involved
and parenthetical. Passages of sublime
and simple eloquence, however, frequently
occur; and, although his divinity is less
read now than formerly, it is not unfre-
quently resorted to as a mine of excellent
thoughts and arguments. A fine speci-
men of his characteristic copiousness is
quoted, by Addison, from his sermon on
Vain and Idle Talking, in which the vari-
ous forms and guises of wit are enumer-
ated with a felicity of expression which it
would be difficult to parallel. Doctor
Barrow was himself celebrated for wit,
BARROW-BARRY.
and still more for his personal courage,
which was always remarkable. In exter-
nal appearance, he exhibited more of the
scholar than the man of the world; being
short in his person, meager in his counte-
nance, and slovenly in his habits. These,
however, were but small defects in a man
otherwise so highly gifted, and so mod-
est, conscientious and amiable. Charitable
even in bounded circumstances, alto-
gether disinterested in prosperity, and
serene and contented in all fortunes, he
was at once the divine and philosopher,
leaving little property other than his books,
and the reputation of being one of the
greatest ornaments to his country.
BARROWS. (See Tumuli.)
BARRY, James T., a painter, and wri-
ter on his art, was born at Cork, in Ireland,
in 1741, and died in 1806. His father
was employed in the coasting trade be-
tween England and Ireland, and had
destined him for the same business; but
his irresistible inclination for drawing and
painting prevailed. By one of his first
paintings in oil, representing the Landing
of St. Patrick in Ireland, he attracted the
attention of the famous Burke, who carried
him, in his 23d year, to London, and
recommended him to the Athenian Stuart,
so called, by whom he was employed in
copying old paintings in oil. The broth-
ers Burke provided him with the neces-
sary means for visiting Paris and Rome,
from whence he went to Florence, Bo-
logna and Naples. He remained three
years in Italy, formed his genius by the
study of the great masterpieces, and wrote
able criticisms upon them. Among
his productions, Adam and Eve, Venus,
Jupiter and Juno upon Mount Ida, and
the Death of General Wolfe, are the most
celebrated. After his return, he was
chosen member of the royal academy,
and professor of painting. He worked
seven years on the paintings which adorn
the great hall of the society for the en-
couragement of the arts. In 1773, he pub-
lished his well-known work, Inquiry into
the real and imaginary Obstructions to
the Increase of the Arts in England. He
traces these causes to the Protestant re-
ligion, to the political spirit of the English,
and to their preference of the useful to the
beautiful. While we value his criticism
on the beautiful, and his theory of the
arts, we must blame the irregularity of
his drawings, and his unsociable manners.
He died in 1806.
BARRY, John, a distinguished naval
officer in the service of the U. States,
was born in the county of Wexford, Ire-
VOL 1.
50
589
land, in 1745. His father, a very re-
spectable farmer, having perceived a
strong inclination in him for the sea,
placed him on board a merchantman,
where he continued for several years.
He arrived in America, which he adopted
as his country, when only 14 or 15 years
old, having previously acquired a good
practical education by industrious effort,
in conjunction with a strong and active
mind. In America, he was not long with-
out occupation, being employed by some
of the most respectable merchants of the
day, who always spoke of him in terms
of high approbation. He continued thus
engaged until the rupture between the
colonies and the mother country, when
he embraced the cause of the forner.
The reputation which he had acquired
for skill and experience procured for him
one of the first naval commissions from
congress. In February, 1776, he was ap-
pointed commander of the brig Lexington,
of 16 guns, the first continental vessel of
war which sailed from the port of Phila-
delphia. After a successful cruise in her,
he was transferred, in the latter part of
the same year, to the Effingham, one of
the three large frigates built in Philadel-
phia. Being prevented, in the winter of
that year, from pursuing his naval opera-
tions, by the ice which impeded the navi-
gation of the Delaware, he would not
remain inactive, but volunteered his ser-
vices in the army, where he served, with
great honor to himself, as aide-de-camp to
general Cadwalader, in the important
occurrences near Trenton. When the
American vessels of war were lying near
Whitehill, whither they had been sent
when the city, and the forts of the river,
had fallen into the power of the British,
commodore Barry conceived the daring
plan of annoying the enemy by means of
small boats, properly armed, which, being
stationed down the river and bay, might
intercept supplies, and, in case of danger,
take refuge in the creeks. He, according-
ly, manned the boats of the frigates, de-
scended the river with muffled oars,
under cover of the night, and appeared
unexpectedly before the city. He effect-
ed his object by intercepting a large stock
of provisions, and capturing several ves-
sels laden with military munitions and
valuable stores for the British officers.
The commodore and his assistants re-
ceived a public expression of thanks from
Washington, on account of his
terprise. After the destruction of his
frigate, he was appointed to the command
of the Raleigh, of 32 guns, which he was
en-
590
JOHN BARRY-BARTHELEMY.
obliged to run on shore, being chased by
a large squadron of British vessels of
war. He was afterwards named com-
mander of a 74 building in New Hamp-
shire; but, this vessel having been present-
ed by congress to the king of France, he
was transferred to the Alliance, a frigate
of 36 guns, which was placed under his
orders. In February, 1781, he sailed from
Boston, where the frigate had been lying,
for L'Orient, having on board colonel
Laurens and suite, who was sent on an
important embassy to the French court.
He then proceeded on a cruise, in which
he took several valuable prizes, and cap-
tured his Britannic majesty's ship of
war Atalanta, and her consort, the brig
Trepasa, after an engagement of several
hours, in which he displayed great gal-
lantry, and was dangerously wounded.
December 25, 1781, the Alliance sailed
from Boston, with the marquis de La Fa-
yette and count de Noailles on board, who
were proceeding to France on public
business. After landing them, she left
L'Orient on a cruise, and, besides making
many prizes, overcame a frigate of equal
size with herself, which was rescued,
however, by the timely arrival of her two
consorts, which had been watching the
motions of a large French ship during the
action. During the rest of the war, B.
served with credit to himself, and benefit
to his country, and, after the cessation of
hostilities, was appointed to superintend
the building of the frigate United States in
Philadelphia, which was designed for his
command. During the partial maritime
war with France, he was actively and
constantly employed at sea, and did great
service to the commercial interests of the
country by protecting its flag from the
depredations of the French privateers,
which infested the ocean. He retained
the command of the United States until
she was laid up in ordinary. After a life
of usefulness and honor, B. fell a victim
to an asthmatic affection, at Philadelphia,
September 13, 1803.-This estimable man
was above the ordinary stature; his per-
son was graceful and commanding; his
whole deportment was marked by dig-
nity, unmixed with ostentation; and his
strongly-marked countenance expressed
the qualities of his mind and the virtues
of his heart.
BARRY (Marie Jeanne Gomart de Vau-
bernier) countess du, the famous mistress
of Louis XV, king of France, daughter
of a commissioner of the customs at Vau-
conleurs, by the name of Gomart de Vau-
bernier, was born in 1744, and, after the
death of her father, entered the service
of a milliner at Paris, afterwards belonged
to the establishment of the notorious
Gourdan, where she was known by the
name of Mlle. Lange, and became the
mistress of the count du Barry, who built
high hopes upon her charms. He managed
to make her known to the king (dont les
sens étaient blasés par la débauche, says
an author: le vieux monarque, accou-
tumé à rencontrer le respect jusque dans les
bras de ses maîtresses, retrouva des jouis-
sances et des désirs près d'une femme d'une
espèce nouvelle pour lui. Il l'aima de toute
safaiblesse, et l'empire d'une vile prostituée
sur le souverain le plus majestueux et le
plus imposant fut fondé par la lubricité).
She soon took the place of the marchion-
ess de Pompadour. The king deemed
it necessary to find her a husband, and
she fell to the lot of the count du Barry,
a brother of the one above mentioned.
The countess du Barry was now publicly
introduced at court. She soon governed
all France; caused the ruin of the duke
de Choiseul, whose haughty spirit would
not bend before her; promoted the duke
d'Aiguillon, and assisted him to take re-
venge on the parliament, which was, in
1771, driven from Paris, and afterwards
entirely suppressed. Yet we ought not
to ascribe to her the evils of which she
was only the instrument in the hands of
intriguing counsellors. She herself loved
pleasure more than intrigue. After the
death of the king, she was banished to an
abbey near Meaux. She afterwards re-
ceived permission to reside in her beau-
tiful pavilion near Marly. She lived
quietly, during the revolution, until Robes-
pierre's dominion. But her riches, and
her connexion with the Brissotists, caused
her ruin. She was placed at the bar of
the revolutionary tribunal, condemned to
death, and executed, December 6, 1793.
On her way to the scaffold, her prayers
for mercy were incessant; her eyes were
bathed in tears; she uttered loud shrieks,
and implored the compassion of the peo-
ple. Her cry was still heard at the mo-
inent of her execution:-Monsieur le
bourreau, encore un moment. It has been
observed, that, among all the women con-
demned to death by the revolutionary tri-
bunal, she was the only one who showed
excessive fear in her last moments.
BARTHÉLEMY, Jean Jacques, born, Jan-
uary 20, 1716, at Cassis, near Marseilles,
in what was formerly Provence, received
a good education from the fathers of the
oratory at Marseilles, and was about to
prepare himself, under the Jesuits, for
BARTHELEMY-BARTHOLOMEW.
holy orders; but, becoming disgusted with
his teachers, he declined all offers of
clerical promotion, and only accepted the
title of abbé, in order to show that he be-
longed to this class. From his youth, he
loved the study of the ancient languages,
even the most ancient Oriental tongues,
and antiquities more particularly. His
indefatigable industry and acuteness soon
enabled him to communicate to the learn-
ed new discoveries in this branch of
study, among which the Alphabet of
Palmyra, published by him in 1754, holds
a principal place. In 1747, he was chosen
member of the academy of inscriptions
at Paris, after having been associated, on
his arrival in Paris (1744), with the inspec-
tor of the royal cabinet of medals. About
this time, he became acquainted with the
count Stainville (afterward the minister
Choiseul), who was on the point of de-
parting as ambassador for Rome, and
invited B. to accompany him thither.
Having been, since 1753, chief inspector
of the cabinet of medals, he accepted the
offer, and went, in 1764, to Rome. He
travelled through Italy, collected antiqui-
ties, and occupied himself, after his return,
with learned works, and with the arrange-
ment of the cabinet, which had been in-
trusted to his care, and to which he added
a great number of costly and rare med-
als. Among his works, none are so dis-
tinguished for learning and beauty of
description as the Travels of the Younger
Anacharsis in Greece, on which he had
labored 30 years. He himself was modest
enough to call this an unwieldy compila-
tion, whilst all the learned men of France
and foreign countries received it with the
greatest applause. B., in his advanced
age, resolved to compose a complete cata-
logue of the royal cabinet of medals, but
was interrupted, in 1788, by the storms
of the revolution; during which he re-
mained tranquil, taking no part in the
public disturbances. In 1789, he received
a place in the académie Française. The
revolution deprived him of the greatest
part of his income; but he bore this loss
with calmness. August 20, 1793, he was
accused, by a clerk of the national library,
of aristocracy, and, September 2, arrested;
but he was soon after set at liberty, and
readmitted among the number of librari-
ans. This event had the most injurious
effects upon his weak health. When the
chief librarian of the national library, the
notorious Carra, was executed, October
31, 1793, B. received the offer of his place;
but he refused it, with the hope of pass-
ing his few remaining days in tranquillity.
591
He died, April 30, 1795, with the reputa-
tion of an honest man, and a highly learn-
ed and distinguished author. His nephew,
François B., born 1750, is a peer of France
and an ultra.
BARTHEZ, Paul Joseph, one of the
most learned physicians of France in the
18th century, born at Montpellier, De-
cember 11, 1734, was admired as a preco-
cious child. After the termination of his
studies in 1754, he came to Paris, where
the cure of the count of Perigord intro-
duced him to notice. He was received
into the society of Barthélemy, Caylus,
Henault, Mairan and d'Alembert. Two
memoirs, which he presented to the
académie des inscriptions et des belles-let-
tres, obtained the first prizes. He took
part in the Journal des Savans, and in the
Encyclopédie. Recalled to Montpellier,
he founded there a medical school, which
acquired a reputation throughout all Eu-
rope. He also published there his Nou-
veaux Élémens de la Science de l'Homme
(Montpellier, 1778, 2d augm. edit.; Paris,
1806, 2 vols.), which were translated into
most of the European languages. But
his ambition did not find sufficient food
at Montpellier; he therefore returned, in
1780, to Paris, where he was appointed
by the king médecin consultant, and by
the duke of Orleans his first physician.
He was a member of almost every learned
society. His advice upon important cases
was sought for from every quarter. The
revolution deprived bim of the greatest
part of his fortune and places. Napoleon,
who understood how to discover merit,
brought him forth again, and loaded him,
in his advanced age, with dignities. He
died October 15, 1806. His name will be
remembered, in and out of France, with
the same respect as those of Boerhaave,
Hoffmann, Sydenham, Cullen and Brown.
Among his numerous writings is the one
entitled Nouvelle Mécanique des Moure-
mens de l'Homme et des Animaux. B. was
a doctor of laws, and counsellor of the cour
des aides.
BARTHOLOMEW (son of Tolmai), the
apostle, is probably the same person as
Nathanael, mentioned, in the Gospel of St.
John, as an upright Israelite, and one
of the first disciples of Jesus. The deri-
vation of his name and descent from the
family of the Ptolemies, is fabulous. He
is said to have taught Christianity in the
south of Arabia, and to have carried there
the Gospel of St. Matthew, in the Hebrew
language, according to Eusebius. Chrys-
ostom mentions, that he preached in Ar-
menia and Natolia, and a later writer of
592
BARTHOLOMEW-BARTHOLOMEW'S DAY.
legends says, that he suffered crucifixion
at Albania pyla (now Derbent, in Persia).
The ancient church had an apocryphal
gospel bearing his name, of which noth-
ing has been preserved.
BARTHOLOMEW's HOSPITAL (ST.); one
of the greatest hospitals of London; for-
merly the priory of St. Bartholomew, and
made a hospital by Henry VIII. It can
contain 820 patients.
BARTHOLOMEW, St.; one of the Carib-
bee islands, in the West Indies, belonging
to Sweden, about 24 miles in circum-
ference; lon. 63° 0′ W.; lat. 17° 34′ N.;
pop. about 8,000. It produces tobacco,
sugar, cotton, indigo and cassava, with
some excellent woods and limestone. All
the fresh water which they can procure
is saved in cisterns. The island is en-
compassed by formidable rocks, which
render it dangerous of access to ship-
ping. Its chief products for exporta-
tion are drugs and lignum-vitæ. The
only town is called Gustavia, or St. Bar-
tholomew, and contains about 4000 in-
habitants; and the only harbor is La
Carenage, near Gustavia.-There are two
other islands of the same name in the
South Pacific ocean. One lies in lon. 167°
23′ E., lat. 15° 41' S.; the other in lon.
221° 25′ W., lat. 8° 13′ S.
BARTHOLOMEW'S DAY (ST.); a feast of
the church, celebrated, August 24, in
honor of St. Bartholomew. The horrid
slaughter of the Huguenots, in France,
took place on St. Bartholomew's day,
under the reign of Charles IX, in 1572.
The causes which produced it may be
found in the articles Huguenots, Guise,
and Condé. After the death of Francis
II, Catharine of Medicis (q. v.) became
regent in the place of her son, Charles IX,
then only 10 years old, and was compelled,
in spite of the opposition of the Guises,
to issue an edict of toleration in favor of
the Protestants. The party of the Guises
now persuaded the nation, that the Cath-
olic religion was in the greatest danger.
The Huguenots were treated in the most
cruel manuer; prince Condé took up
arms; the Guises had recourse to the
Spaniards, Condé to the English, for assist-
ance. Both parties were guilty of the
most atrocious cruelties, but finally con-
cluded peace. The queen-mother caused
the king, who had entered his 14th year,
to be declared of age, that she might
govern more absolutely under his name.
Duke Francis de Guise had been assas-
sinated, by a Huguenot, at the siege of Or-
leans; but his spirit continued in his
family, which considered the admiral
Coligny as the author of his murder. The
Huguenots soon found, that the queen-
mother still hated them; and Condé and
Coligny, therefore, kept themselves on
their guard. The king (see Charles IX)
had been persuaded, that the Huguenots
had designs on his life, and had conceived
an implacable hatred against them. Mean-
while the court endeavored to gain time,
in order to seize the persons of the prince
and the admiral by stratagem, but was
disappointed, and hostilities were renewed
with more violence than ever. In the
battle of Jarnac, 1569, Condé was made
prisoner, and shot by the captain de Mon-
tesquieu. Coligny collected the remains
of the routed army; the young prince
Henry de Bearn (afterwards Henry IV,
king of Navarre and France), the head of
the Protestant party after the death of
Condé, was appointed commander-in-
chief, and Coligny commanded in the
name of the prince Henry de Condé, who
swore to revenge the murder of his father.
But he was destitute of means, and was
unsuccessful. The advantageous offers
of peace at St. Germain-en-Laye (August
8, 1570) blinded the chiefs of the Hugue-
nots, particularly the admiral Coligny,
who was wearied with civil war. The
king appeared to have entirely disengage
himself from the influence of the Guises
and his mother: he invited the old Colig-
ny, the support of the Huguenots, to his
court, and honored him as a father. The
most artful means were employed to in-
crease this delusion. The sister of the
king was married to the prince de Bearn
(Aug. 18, 1572), in order to allure the
most distinguished Huguenots to Paris.
Some of his friends endeavored to dis-
suade the admiral from this visit; but he
could not be convinced that the king
would command an assassination of the
Protestants throughout his kingdom.
Aug. 22, a shot from a window wounded
the admiral. The king hastened to visit.
him, and swore to punish the author of
the villany; but, on the same day, he
was induced, by his mother, to believe
that the admiral had designs on his life.
"God's death!" he exclaimed; "kill the
admiral; and not only him, but all the
Huguenots; let none remain to disturb
us!"
The following night, Catharine
held the bloody council, which fixed the
execution for the night of St. Bartholo-
mew, Aug. 24, 1572. After the assassi-
nation of Coligny (q. v.), a bell from the
tower of the royal palace, at midnight,
gave to the assembled companies of
burghers the signal for the general mas-
BARTHOLOMEW'S DAY-BARTOLOZZL
sacre of the Huguenots. The prince of
Condé and the king of Navarre saved
their lives by going to mass, and pretend-
ing to embrace the Catholic religion. By
the king's orders, the massacre was ex-
tended through the whole kingdom; and
if, in some provinces, the officers had
honor and humanity enough to disobey
the orders to butcher their innocent fel-
low-citizens, yet instruments were always
found to continue the massacre. This
horrible slaughter continued for 30 days,
in almost all the provinces: the victims
are calculated at 30,000. At Rome, the
cannons were discharged, the pope or-
dered a jubilee and a procession to the
church of St. Louis, and caused Te Deum
to be chanted. Those of the Huguenots
who escaped fled into the mountains and
to Rochelle. The duke of Anjou laid
siege to that city, but, during the siege,
received the news, that the Poles had
elected him their king. He concluded a
treaty, July 6, 1573, and the king granted
to the Huguenots the exercise of their
religion in certain towns. The court
gained nothing by the massacre of St.
Bartholomew (called, in French ultra pa-
pers, in 1824, une rigueur salutaire). The
Huguenots were afterwards more on their
guard, and armed themselves against new
attacks. (See Hist. de la Ste. Barthélémi
d'après les Chroniques, les Mémoires et les
Manuscrits du Tems, Paris, 1826. The
massacre of St. Bartholomew is, in this
work, attributed to Catharine of Medicis.
See, also, Schiller's History of the Troubles
in France, until the Death of Charles IX,
complete works, vol. xvi.)
BARTLETT, Josiah, M. D., governor of
New Hampshire, was born in Amesbury,
Massachusetts, in 1729. He early made
considerable proficiency in the Latin and
Greek languages, and, at the age of 16,
commenced the study of medicine. He
commenced the practice of his profession
in 1750, at Kingston, in New Hampshire,
at the age of 21. Two years afterwards,
he was near losing his life by a fever, in
consequence of the injudicious manage-
ment of his physician, who, at the ap-
proach of a crisis, had almost exhausted
his strength by a warm and stimulating
regimen, and seclusion from the air. But
the patient procured, during the night, a
quart of cider, which he took by half a
teacup-full at a time: in the morning, a
copious perspiration ensued, and the fever
was effectually checked. Ever after this
event, B. was a strict observer of nature
in all diseases, rejecting all arbitrary med-
ical rules. He soon acquired popularity,
593
and an extensive practice. B. established
his fame by his manner of treating the
throat distemper (angina maligna), which
had originated in Kingston, and carried
off great numbers, principally children.
The physicians, considering it to be of an
inflammatory nature, had adopted the de-
pleting and antiphlogistic course of prac-
tice, which had been almost invariably
followed by death. When the distemper
made its appearance again, in 1754, B.
believed it to be of a highly putrid char-
acter, and, in consequence, determined to
employ antiseptic remedies, and pursued
this treatment with general success.-He
was appointed, by governor John Went-
worth, to the command of a regiment of
militia; and, in 1765, was chosen repre-
sentative of the town of Kingston, in the
provincial legislature, where he united
with a small minority in opposition to
what they thought unjust violations of
right. In 1774, he was elected a dele-
gate to the general congress, who were to
meet at Philadelphia, but declined the
office on account of the recent loss of his
house by fire. In 1775, the governor
deprived him of his commission in the
army, and also of that of justice of the
peace, which he had formerly conferred
on him with the hope of procuring his
support; but, some months after, B. re-
ceived command of a regiment from the
provincial congress. Being soon chosen
again a delegate to the continental con-
gress, he was the first who voted for, and
the first, after the president, who signed,
the declaration of independence, his name
being first called, as representative of the
most easterly province. He performed
his duties, which were extremely ardu-
ous and fatiguing, whilst in Congress,
with zeal and fidelity.-In 1780, he was
appointed a judge of the superior
court of New Hampshire, in which office
he continued until his elevation to the
chief-justiceship, in 1790. He was an
active member of the convention for
adopting the confederation, in 1788. In
1790, he became president of New Hamp-
shire, and, in 1793, was chosen the first
governor of the state under the new form
of government. In all these offices, his
duties were ably and faithfully discharged.
In 1794, he retired from the chief magis-
tracy of the state, and from all public em-
ployment. He died May 19, 1795, leav-
ing the reputation of ability and integrity.
BARTOLOZZI, Francesco; a distinguish-
ed engraver, born at Florence, in 1730,
where he learned the art of drawing from
Hugfort, Feretti and others. In Venice,
50*
594
BARTOLOZZI-BARTON.
in Florence and Milan, he etched several
pieces on sacred subjects, and then went
to London, where he received great en-
couragement, and accommodated himself
entirely to the national taste, so as even
to work in the popular red dotted manner.
His pieces were so universally sought for,
that a complete collection of them was
valued at £1000. He was elected a mem-
He was elected a mem-
ber of the royal academy of arts, in Lon-
don. After 40 years' residence in London,
he went to Lisbon, to engrave, on copper,
the portrait of the regent, where he re-
ceived, in 1807, the order of Christ. He
died there in April, 1815.-With accuracy
of design, he united great delicacy of ex-
ecution. One of his most exquisite en-
gravings is the Death of Lord Chatham,
after Copley; a good copy of which was,
many years ago, sold for $112. One of
his most charming pieces is the Lady and
Child. His works, among which are imi-
tations in etching of drawings of the great
masters, amount to more than 2000. An
English gentleman, Mark Sykes, was in
possession of all of B.'s engravings, in-
luding the rough sketches and proofs.
They cost him 5000 louis-d'ors, and were
sold, with his library and collection of
manuscripts, in London, 1824.
BARTON, Benjamin S., M. D., professor
in the university of Pennsylvania, was
born at Lancaster, Pennsylvania, 1766.
His mother was the sister of the cele-
brated Rittenhouse. The death of his
parents occasioned his removal, in 1782,
to the family of a brother in Philadelphia,
where he spent several years in the study
of literature, the sciences, and inedicine.
In 1786, he went to Great Britain, and
prosecuted his medical studies at Edin-
burgh and London. He afterwards visit-
ed Göttingen, and there obtained the de-
gree of doctor in medicine. On returning
to Philadelphia, in 1789, he established
himself as a physician in that city, and
his superior talents and education soon
procured him extensive employment.
Shortly after, he was elected a member
of the American philosophical society, in
that city, and contributed to their transac-
tions many papers on various subjects in
natural science. He was also, in 1789,
appointed professor of natural history and
botany in the college of Philadelphia, and
continued in the office on the incorpora-
tion of the college with the university, in
1791. He was appointed professor of
materia medica, in 1795, on the resigna-
tion of doctor Griffiths, and, on the death
of doctor Rush, succeeded him in the de-
partment of the theory and practice of
medicine. He died Dec. 19, 1815.-B.
was highly distinguished by his talents
and professional attainments, and contrib-
uted much, by his lectures and writings,
to the progress of natural science in the
U. States. His chief publication is
Elements of Zoology and Botany. In
1805, he commenced the Medical and
Physical Journal, to which he contributed
many valuable articles.
BARTON, Elizabeth; a country girl of Al-
dington, in Kent (therefore called the holy
maid of Kent), of whom English Protes-
tants give this account: She was used
as an instrument, by the Catholics and
adherents of queen Catharine, to excite
the English nation against the proposed
divorce of Henry VIII from his first wife,
and the apprehended separation of the
English church from Rome, with which
the king then threatened the pope. Her
delirium, in a violent nervous illness, was
made use of by the parson of Aldington,
Richard Masters, and by a canon of Can-
terbury named Bocking, to persuade her
that she was a prophetess inspired by
God, and destined to prevent this under-
taking of the king. During her parox-
ysms, she cried out against this divorce,
and against the prevailing sins and here-
sies, and brought the image of the Virgin
at Aldington, where she was cured, ac-
cording to her own prophecy, into great
respect, much to the profit of the parson.
Bocking, already suspected of an illicit
intercourse with her, persuaded her to
become a nun; and the approbation of
archbishop Warham of Canterbury and
bishop Fisher of Rochester encouraged
her to continue her revelations, which she
pretended were communicated to her by
à letter froin heaven. By the prophecy,
that Henry, if he persisted in his purpose
of divorce and second marriage, would
not be king for one month longer, and
would die a shameful death, she excited
many monks and nuns to violence against
the king. Her revelations, published and
distributed by the monk Deering, pro-
duced such a fermentation among the
people, that Henry ordered the apprehen-
sion and examination of Elizabeth and
her accomplices before the star-chamber.
After they had there confessed the im-
posture, they were condemned to make a
public confession and to imprisonment ;
and, when it was found that the party of
the queen were laboring to make them
retract their confession, they were ad-
judged guilty of high treason, for a con-
spiracy against the king, and executed,
April 30, 1534. Warham was already
BARTON-BARYTES.
dead; Fisher was imprisoned, and the
former chancellor, sir Thomas Moore,
being suspected of participation in the
scheme, underwent an examination, but
was soon released.
BARTRAM, John, one of the most distin-
guished of American botanists, was born
in Chester county, Pennsylvania, in 1701.
His grandfather, of the same name, ac-
companied William Penn to this country,
in 1682.-B. was a simple farmer. He
cultivated the ground for subsistence,
while he indulged an insatiable appetite
for botany. He was self-taught in that
science, and in the rudiments of the
learned languages, and medicine and sur-
gery. So great, in the end, was his pro-
ficiency in his favorite pursuit, that Lin-
næus pronounced him "the greatest nat-
ural botanist in the world." He made
excursions, in the intervals of agricultural
Jabor, to Florida and Canada, herborizing
with intense zeal and delight. At the
age of 70, he performed a journey to East
Florida, to explore its natural produc-
tions; at a period, too, when the toils
and dangers of such an expedition far
exceeded those of any similar one which
could be undertaken, at the present time,
within the limits of the U. States. He
first formed a botanic garden in America,
for the cultivation of American plants,
as well as exotics. This garden, which
is situated on the banks of the Schuylkill,
a few miles from Philadelphia, still bears
his narne. He contributed much to the
gardens of Europe, and corresponded
with the most distinguished naturalists of
that quarter of the globe. Several foreign
societies and academies bestowed their
honors upon him, and published commu-
nications from him in their transactions.
B. died in 1777, in the 76th year of his age.
At the time of his death, he held the office.
of American botanist to George III of
England. He was amiable and charitable,
and of the strictest probity and temperance.
BARTRAM, William, fourth son of John
B., was born, 1739, at the botanic garden,
Kingsessing, Pennsylvania. At the age of
16 years, he was placed with a respectable
merchant of Philadelphia, with whom he
continued six years; after which he went
to North Carolina, with a view of doing
business there as a merchant; but, being
ardently attached to the study of botany,
he relinquished his mercantile pursuits,
and accompanied his father in a journey in-
to East Florida, to explore the natural pro-
ductions of that country; after which, he
settled on the river St. John's, in this re-
gion, and finally returned, about the your
595
1771, to his father's residence. In 1773,
at the request of doctor Fothergill, of
London, he embarked for Charleston, to
examine the natural productions of the
Floridas, and the western parts of Caro-
lina and Georgia, chiefly in the vegetable
kingdom. In this eruployment he was
engaged nearly five years, and made nu-
merous contributions to the natural his-
tory of the country through which he
travelled. His collections and drawings
were forwarded to doctor Fothergill; and,
about the year 1790, he published an ac-
count of his travels and discoveries, in I
vol. 8vo., with an account of the manners
and customs of the Creeks, Cherokees
and Choctaws. This work soon acquired
extensive popularity, and is still frequent-
ly consulted.-After his return from his
travels, he devoted himself to science, and,
in 1782, was elected professor of botany
in the university of Pennsylvania, which
post he declined, in consequence of the
state of his health. In 1786, he was
elected a member of the American philo-
sophical society, and was a member of sev-
eral other learned societies in Europe and
America. We are indebted to him for
the knowledge of many curious and beau-
tiful plants peculiar to North America,
and for the most complete and correct
table of American ornithology, before the
work of Wilson, who was assisted by him
in the commencement of his American
Ornithology. He wrote an article on the
natural history of a plant a few minutes
before his death, which happened sud-
denly, by the rupture of a blood-vessel in
the lungs, July 22, 1823, in the 85th year
of his age.
BARYTES; the name of one of the
earths; from Báovs, heavy, on account of
the great weight of its acid combinations.
It is procured either from the native sul-
phate of barytes, by exposing its powder
to a red heat with charcoal, and by form-
ing from the resulting sulphuret a nitrate,
which is decomposed by heat; or from
the native carbonate, by dissolving it in
nitric acid, and, in like manner, subjecting
it to heat. Thus obtained, barytes has a
specific gravity of 4, is of a gray color,
has a caustic taste, and slakes on exposure
to the air, like lime, falling to powder from
the absorption of water. It is soluble in
25 parts at 60°, and in the proportion of
nearly half its weight at 212. The solu-
tion, on cooling, affords prismatic crystals.
Its watery solution possesses, distinctly,
alkaline properties, changing the vegeta-
ble blues to green, and acquiring a fila
upon its surface, when exposed to the ait,
596
BARYTES-BASE.
from the absorption of carbonic acid. It
operates as a virulent poison when taken
into the stomach. To the flame of alco-
hol it imparts a yellow color, which, to-
gether with its great solubility in water,
serves to distinguish it from the other
earths. It is useful in chemical analysis,
in consequence of its property of uniting
by fusion with several of the earths and
metallic oxydes, and rendering them solu-
ble in acids or water.-Barytes has been
decomposed by the agency of galvanism,
and ascertained to be the oxyde of a pe-
culiar metal, to which sir Humphrey
Davy has given the name of barium. It
has a white color, with a metallic lustre,
resembling that of silver. Exposed to the
air, or thrown into water, it absorbs oxy-
gen, and is converted into barytes.-Ba-
rytes combines with the acids, and forms
a variety of salts, two of which, the car-
bonate and the sulphate, are found abun-
dantly in nature. The first of these is
called, in mineralogy, Witherite, from Dr.
Withering, its discoverer. It is common-
ly fibrous or bladed in its structure, occa-
sionally including small cavities lined with
minute crystals. It is whitish, translu-
cent, and glistening. Specific gravity,
4.3. It is composed of barytes, 78, and
carbonic acid, 22. Like all the other salts
of barytes (with one exception), the car-
bonate is a virulent poison, and has often
proved fatal to domestic fowls and ani-
mals who have accidentally swallowed it,
about the mines where it occurs. Its
principal localities are in the north of Eng-
land, where it is found in lead mines: it
also occurs in Stiria, Salzburg and Siberia.
It is used to obtain the pure barytes, and
those salts of this earth which are em-
ployed as chemical tests, and for the pur-
poses of scientific illustration.-The sul-
phate of barytes, called, in mineralogy,
heavy-spar, is found abundantly in almost
every country, usually accompanying ga-
lena, or common lead ore, of which it
frequently forms the gangue. It is often
beautifully crystallized under a variety of
forms, derived from a right rhombic
prism of 101° 42', and 78° 18′, but is more
generally lamellar or compact. It pre-
sents numerous colors, of which white is
the most frequent. It is translucent, and
sometimes transparent, capable of being
scratched by the knife, and of a specific
gravity of 4.7. Like the artificial sulphate
of barytes, it is insoluble, and is the only
salt of this earth which is not poisonous.
It consists of 67 parts barytes and 33 sul-
phuric acid. It is employed, though less
extensively, for the same purposes as the
·
carbonate, and was formerly used, by Mr.
Wedgewood, in the manufacture of his
beautiful jasper ware.-A fibrous variety
of heavy-spar, called Bolognian stone, and
which occurs, imbedded in small nodular
masses, in a marl near Bologna, has the
remarkable property of becoming phos-
phorescent by calcination.-The artificial
sulphate of barytes, formed by adding
sulphuric acid to the carbonate of barytes,
is employed for the purpose of painting
in water-colors, and is the most beautiful
white now in use. It is known by the
name of permanent white. The same sub,
stance is much valued for marking bottles
in chemical laboratories, where the acid
vapors destroy common ink, and for la-
belling articles kept in cellars and moist
places. In order to be applied, it is mixed
up with spirits of turpentine and linseed
oil, to the consistence of common paint,
when it is laid on with a brush. If a
black marking material is preferred, this
may be rendered so by the addition of a
little lampblack.—The nitrate of barytes is
formed by dissolving the native carbonate
in diluted nitric acid, and crystallizes on
evaporation. It is soluble in 10 or 12
parts of water, at 60°, and in 3 or 4 parts
at 212.-The muriate of barytes, in like
manner, is produced by submitting the
carbonate to the action of dilute muriatic
acid. It is much more soluble than the
nitrate. Solutions of both these salts are
of great importance in analytical pro-
cesses, for the detection of sulphuric acid :
the barytes forming, with that acid, an in-
soluble precipitate, while the nitric or
muriatic acid neutralizes the base. The
muriate of barytes is employed with ad-
vantage, as a medicine, in the treatment
of scrofulous diseases, though, from its
poisonous nature, great caution is requi-
site in its administration.
BASALT. (See Trap-Rocks.)
BASCULE SYSTEM; the wavering sys-
tem (an expression applied to the conduct
of the French ministers since the restora-
tion of the Bourbons); the opposite of a
consistent system of administration, that
regards only the general welfare. The
ministers of France, until the year 1822,
were often censured by the liberal repre-
sentatives and writers, on account of their
indecision, and underwent the same re-
proaches from the party of ultra-royalists.
In December, 1821, the ultras of both
parties united, in the chamber of deputies,
against the wavering ministers.
BASE, in architecture, see Architecture ;
in chemistry, see Chemistry.
Base, or Basis; a term in tactics, first
BASE-BASEDOW.
introduced into military language by Hen-
ry von Bülow, who labored to reduce
war to mathematical principles, and to
give more certain rules to the commander.
By basis, he understands a tract of coun-
try well protected by fortresses, and from
which the operations of the army pro-
cecd. The line upon which these opera-
tions are executed he calls line of opera-
tion; the fortresses from which the ope-
rations begin, the subject; the point to be
first carried, the object. Thus, in an of-
fensive war of France against the south
of Germany, supposing Prussia and Swit-
zerland to be neutral, the Rhine, from
Basle to Carlsruhe, would be the basis;
Strasburg, the subject; Ulm or Ratisbon,
the object; and the road from Strasburg
to these places, the line of operation. As
Bülow thought magazines indispensable,
the security of the line of operation against
all attacks from the side seemed to him
likewise indispensable, and he laid down
the principle, that both the lines, drawn
from the ends of the basis to the object,
ought to meet there in a right or an ob-
tuse angle, the last being preferable. The
novelty and importance of the subject,
and the severity with which Bülow criti-
cised his opponents, gave rise to a violent
dispute. In 1814, the subject was dis-
cussed in the Fragmente aus den Grund-
sázen der Strategie, erläutert durch die
Darstellung des Feldzugs in Deutschland,
1796; a most valuable work, composed by
the archduke Charles of Austria. He adopts
many of the ideas of Bülow, and rejects
others; and, on the whole, establishes the
theory of the basis on such grounds, that
every unprejudiced military man will be
disposed to admit it. He also maintains,
that the basis (according to his definition,
a straight line, which unites several points
at which the stores of the army are col-
lected) must be covered. It ought, since
the operation on one road would be dan-
gerous, to include, if possible, several for-
tified places, connected by easy commu-
nications, and to run parallel with the
basis of the enemy. If the troops have
moved too far from the basis, a new one
should be formed. The archduke ex-
plains his principles on a supposed thea-
tre of war in the south of Germany, and
by the war which actually took place in
that country in 1796, in which he distin-
guished himself so much. The last wars
in Europe have shown the correctness
of this theory, which has been acted on,
more or less, by generals in all ages, and
the neglect of which has generally been
attended with suffering and defeat. Thus
597
the Prussians, in 1792, advanced, without
paying regard to the fortresses of Metz,
Thionville, Landau, &c., on one line of
operation, and were nearly destroyed at
Valmy; and, for the same reason, the army
of Jourdan, in 1796, was almost entirely
ruined, after some unfortunate engage-
ments. So the ariny of Napoleon perish-
ed in Russia, because he had not formed,
before advancing to Moscow, a new basis
on the Dnieper. The war in Spain, also,
westward of Madrid, consisted only of
detached movements of large columns,
which were ineffectual, on account of the
want of a proper communication. The
allies also were enabled to march from all
sides against Napoleon, at Leipsie, in
consequence of his having neglected to
form a basis at Dresden; and they them-
selves were several times exposed to the
greatest danger in France, from a simi-
lar neglect, when nothing but the bold-
ness of Blücher, and the spirit of the
troops, saved them. It may be objected,
that Napoleon owed his greatest glory
to campaigns in which he entirely disre-
garded the basis; as those of 1805 and
1809, against Austria, and his previous
campaigns in Italy; but one single great
and decisive battle lost would have pun-
ished severely his neglect of this princi-
ple. And, moreover, there is one rule still
more important than those of tactics-
to act according to the circumstances and
the character of the enemy, and to bring
on decisive results by energetic measures,
rather than to moulder away in inaction.
We may remark, also, that the conquest
of the capital of a large state is always a
most important object, and should be
aimed at as speedily as the rules of tactics
will allow.
BASEDOW, John Bernard; often called,
by himself, Bernard of Northalbingen ;
born Sept. 11, 1723, died July 25, 1790;
one of the most famous of the German
teachers, who, in the latter half of the last
century, wrote so much on education.
He had in Dessau an institution for edu-
cation, called Philanthropinon, which the
prince of this territory favored. The
chief features of B.'s system are the cos
mopolitan character, which he endeavored
to instil into his pupils, and the full de-
velopement of the faculties of the young,
at which he aspired, in pursuance of the
notions of Locke and Rousseau. With
Salzmann, Campe, &c, he established
some good institutions, and particularly
deserves credit on account of his efforts
for the education of the lower classes.
He has written much.
598
BASHAW-BASILISK.
BASHAW, BASHA. (See Pacha.)
BASHEE ISLANDS; seven islands in the
Chinese sea.
Three of them are large,
and four of them inhabited. The produc-
tions are plantains, bananas, pine-apples,
sugar-cane, potatoes, yams, and cotton.
Their quadrupeds are goats and hogs.
The five principal ones are Orange,
Grafton, Monmouth, isle of Goats, and
Bashee or Bachi. They are S. of Formosa.
Their situation is in lon. 122° E., lat. 20
28′ to 20° 55′ N. Two rocks, towards the
N., ought, according to Perouse, to be
called islets; the least of them being half
a league in circumference, and, though
not woody, covered with grass. These
are situated in lat. 21° 9′ N.
BASHKIRS, OF BASIIKEERS, are probably
of Nogay origin, and sprung from a tribe
whom the Bulgarians admitted among
themselves; at least, their country is a
part of the ancient Bulgaria. They for
merly roamed about, under their own
princes, in Southern Siberia. To avoid
the Siberian khans, they settled in their
present territory, extended themselves
along the Wolga and the Ural, and sub-
mitted to the khan of Kasan. At the time
when this state was overthrown by Ivan
II, they voluntarily took refuge under the
Russian sceptre; but their frequent re-
volts have prevented their increase, and
kept them in a weak condition. In 1770,
they consisted of 27,000 families, residing
in the governments of Ufa and Perm.
They are Mohammedans, mostly armed
with bows and arrows, and lances, and
live by hunting, breeding of cattle, and
keeping of bees. They prepare, from fer-
mented mare's and camel's milk, an in-
toxicating beverage, kumiss, which is their
favorite drink. They are little civilized.
BASIL, St., called the Great, to distin-
guish him from other patriarchs of the
same name, was born in 329, and made,
in 370, bishop of Cæsarea, in Cappadocia,
where he died, in 379. He is the most
distinguished ecclesiastic among the Gre-
cian patriarchs. His efforts for the regu-
lation of clerical discipline, of the divine
service, and of the standing of the clergy;
the number of his sermons; the success
of his mild treatment of the Arians; and,
above all, his endeavors for the promotion
of monastic life, for which he prepared
vows and rules, observed by himself, and
still remaining in force, prove the merits
of this holy man. The Greek church
honors him as one of its most illustrious
patron saints, and celebrates his festival
Jan. 1. His followers are widely extend-
ed; there are even some in America.
They lead an ascetic life. The vows of
obedience, chastity and poverty, framed
by St. Basil, are the rules of all the orders
of Christendom, although he is particu-
larly the father of the eastern, as St. Ben-
edict is the patriarch of the western
orders.
BASIL, town of. (See Basle.)
BASILICA; a royal abode. In the first
centuries of Rome, the basilica were
splendid public buildings, of an oblong
shape, and four-cornered, commonly
adorned with Corinthian columns and
statues, where the citizens collected to
consult for their common welfare, the
merchants exposed their wares, the young
orators exercised themselves in declama-
tion, &c. Constantine the Great gave
some basilica to the Christians, in Rome,
for their worship. Thence it happened,
that the first Christian churches obtained
the name of basilica, and afterwards,
when new churches were built, they pre-
served the shape of the ancient basilica.
BASILIDES. (See Gnosis.)
BASILISK. The basilisk of the ancients,
according to Pliny (lib. 8, cap. 21), was a
kind of serpent, found in the African des-
erts, named Basidiokos, or little king, be-
cause its body was marked with bright
spots, and those on the head had the ap-
pearance of a crown or diadem. It had
a very pointed head, with fiery eyes, and
was of a dark color, verging to blackness.
All other snakes were said to fly from the
sound of its hissing; and, instead of trail-
ing along like other serpents, the basilisk
raised its body nearly erect, and, as it
passed along, killed the herbs and fruits
by its touch, and even by its breath! Yet
this monster was destroyed by weasels.
If these fables had reference to any real
animal, it is probable that it was a species
somewhat similar to the cobra da capello, or
the asp viper. The cobra da capello has a
mark on the back of its head, though more
like a pair of spectacles than a crown: both
it and the asp are accustomed to erect a
very considerable part of the body, though
not to move forward in this way. It is
highly probable that the animal was
merely a creature of fiction.-The name
of basilisk was arbitrarily applied, by
Seba, Linné and subsequent naturalists,
to a genus of saurian or lizard-like rep-
tiles, distinguished by trenchant crests,
supported by long, spinous processes of
the vertebræ, extending along the back,
or at least upon a part of the tail. These
crests are scaly, like the rest of the skin.
Two species of basilisk are known-the
hooded and the Amboyna basilisks. These
BASILISK-BASLE.
animals live in or near fresh water, and
feed on leaves, grain, insects, &c. The
last-named species is found four feet long.
Its flesh is edible.
BASKERVILLE, John; an English artist,
deserving of notice for his improvements
in printing and type-founding. He was
born at Wolverley, in Worcestershire, in
1706, and, inheriting a small estate, was
brought up to no profession. He, how-
ever, acquired a particular skill in pen-
manship and carving letters on stone;
and, at the age of 20, he settled at Bir-
mingham as a writing-master. He sub-
sequently engaged in the manufacture
of japanned works; and, in 1750, com-
menced his labors in the branch of art
which acquired for him so much celeb-
rity. His first great performance, as a
printer, was an edition of Virgil, in royal
4to., 1756, which was followed by many
of the Latin classics, and some English
ones, in 4to. and smaller sizes. The
beauty of his typographical productions
was superior to any thing which had pre-
viously appeared from an English press;
and when it is considered that the paper
and ink, as well as the types and work-
manship, were the fruits of one man's
skill and ingenuity, it must be admitted
that he possessed great merit. He died
in 1775; and his types and matrices were
afterwards sold at Paris, for £3700, to
Beaumarchais, who printed with them,
at Kehl, a superb edition of Voltaire.
B. was an enemy of all outward forms of
divine service, which he declared to be
mere superstition. He ordered, in his
will, that his body should not be buried
in a burying-ground. He was a kind and
honest man, though of a stern exterior.
BASLE, BALE, or BASIL; the largest
city of Switzerland, capital of the canton
of the same name, which contains 47,500
inhabitants of the reformed religion, on
275 square miles, and furnishes 409 troops
to the Swiss confederacy. The city lies
in a beautiful country, in lon. 7° 31′ E.,
and lat. 47° 40′ N.; is, in general, well
built; has 2119 houses, and 16,400 inhab-
itants, and is divided by the Rhine into
the greater and lesser towns, which are
united by a bridge 730 feet long. From
the remotest times, an enmity has existed
between the inhabitants of the two parts,
which is not yet entirely eradicated. B.
was formerly a free imperial city, but
joined the Swiss confederacy in 1501.
Ecolompadius, Grynæus, Buxtorf, Wet-
stein, Hermann, the Bernouillis and Euler
were born in B. Erasmus also lived there
several years, and lies buried in the cathe-
*
599
dral. Among the institutions of the city
are, the university, founded in 1459, with
an excellent library; a cabinet of medals;
15 collections of paintings; a seminary for
missionaries; the German Bible society,
which prints stereotype Bibles, and distri-
butes several hundred copies of every edi-
tion to the poor; several other remarkable
institutions, and flourishing manufactories.
It was formerly a peculiarity of B. that the
clocks were an hour in advance of those of
other places; and the streets of the city were
not lighted until March, 1826. The admin-
istration of the city is in the hands of a
large council of 280 members, from which
the smaller council is chosen, consisting
of 60 persons. The trade of B. is exten-
sive, principally in silk ribbons; also silk
stuffs, cotton, paper, linen, and gloves.
The bleacheries and the dye-houses are
also very important. In recent times, the
university of B. has excited particular at-
tention, since several famous professors,
who were proscribed in Germany on ac-
count of their political opinions, as de
Wette, Snell, Oken and others, found a
reception there. (Concerning the battle
at St. James, 1444, see Switzerland.)
Basle, treaties of peace at, April 5
and July 22, 1795. The former was
signed by the Prussian ambassador, af-
terwards chancellor of state, baron Har-
denberg (q. v.); the latter by the Span-
ish ambassador, marquis D. Domingo
d'Yriarte; and both by the minister
plenipotentiary of the French republic
in Switzerland, the citizen Barthélemy.
By these treaties, Prussia and Spain sep-
arated themselves from the coalition
against France, and acknowledged the
republic. The republic retained the
Prussian provinces on the left bank of the
Rhine until the general peace, and ac-
cepted the mediation of Prussia when any
German princes wished to conclude sep-
arate treaties of peace with it. The
secret articles of this peace are not yet
made known; we are only acquainted
with the treaty of B., May 17, 1795, which
confirmed the neutrality of northern Ger-
many. The landgrave of Hesse-Cassel
afterwards concluded a treaty with the
French republic, at B., Aug. 28, 1795, by
which the latter retained possession of the
territories of Hesse-Cassel on the left bank
of the Rhine until the general peace. By
the peace of B., all the conquests of the re-
publican army beyond the Pyrences were
restored to Spain, in exchange for which it
ceded to France the Spanish part of the
island of St. Domingo. The Spanish
prime minister, D. Eman. Godoy, duke
600
BASLE.
of Alcudia, received, as a reward for this
treaty of peace, the title of prince of
peace.
Basle, council of
This council was
announced at the council of Constance,
and convoked by pope Martin V, and his
successor, Eugenius IV. It commenced
its sittings, Dec. 14, 1431, under the pres-
idency of the cardinal legate Juliano Ca-
sarini of St. Angelo. The objects of its
deliberations were to extirpate heresies
(that of the Hussites in particular), to
unite all Christian nations under the
Catholic church, to put a stop to wars
between Christian princes, and to re-
form the church. But its first steps to
wards a peaceable reconciliation with the
Hussites, against whom Juliano had un-
successfully published a crusade, were
displeasing to the pope, who authorized
the cardinal legate to dissolve the council.
That body opposed the pretensions of the
pope, with severe animadversions on his
deceitful conduct, and his neglect of the
welfare of the church, and, notwithstand-
ing his repeated orders to remove to Italy,
continued its deliberations under the pro-
tection of the emperor Sigismund, of the
German princes, and of France. In order
to secure itself against the attacks of Eu-
genius IV, it re-enacted the decrees of the
council of Constance concerning the
power of a general council (in matters of
faith, of schism, and of reformation) to
command the pope, as well as all Chris-
tendom, and to punish the disobedience
of the clergy, and even of the pope, by
virtue of its judicial character as the rep-
resentative of the universal church. It
likewise pronounced all the doings and.
remonstrances of the pope against its
proceedings of no force, and began a
formal process against him, after he had
issued a bull for its dissolution; appointed
him, term after term, to appear before its
tribunal, and exercised, as much as pos-
sible, the papal prerogatives in France
and Germany. Meanwhile, it concluded,
in the name of the church, a peace with
the Hussites (whose deputies appeared,
Jan. 6, 1433, with 300 horse, in Basle), by
which the use of the cup in the com-
munion was granted to them. This
peace was ratified, Nov. 20, 1433, by the
Calixtines, the most powerful, and finally
prevailing party of the Hussites. The
council deviated on this point, indeed,
from the decrees of the council of Con-
stance, but was obliged so to do, in order
to assist its most faithful protector, the
emperor Sigismund, to the acquisition of
Bohemia by this compromise with the
Hussites, who were not to be subdued by
force. The emperor, in return, effected
the reconciliation of the council with Eu-
genius IV, who, urged by an insurrection
in the papal territory, and by the fear of
losing all authority in Germany and
France, solemnly confirmed its decrees
in a bull, dictated by the council, and ac-
cepted at the 16th session (Feb. 5, 1434.).
Proud of this victory over the pope, it at-
tempted to interfere in the quarrels of the
German princes; but was reminded by
Sigismund, who protested against its in-
termeddling in the affairs of the crown,
of its proper point--the reformation of the
church. Towards the limitation of the
power of the pope, in concordance with
the ancient constitution of the church, it
had already made an important step in
the 12th session (July 14, 1434), by de-
priving him of the disposal of the preb-
ends of cathedral and collegiate churches,
which had been obtained by his prede-
cessors; by restoring to the chapters the
free election of their officers, and by
obliging the pope to confirm them gra-
tuitously. It proceeded to the reforma-
tion of the clergy, by ordaining that the
clergymen who maintained concubines,
and the prelates who received money for
permitting it, should be punished; that
the excommunicated should not incur the
penalties of their sentence before its pub-
lication; that interdicts should never be
granted at the request of single individu-
als, and that repeated appeals should not
be allowed on account of their complaints
(20th session, Jan. 22, 1436); that the
annates, the sums paid for the pallia, &c.
should be regarded as simoniacal, and
should not, under any pretext, be de-
manded or paid in future; that the divine
service, the mass and the canonical hours
should be regularly observed by the cler-
gy of each class; that disturbances of
public worship should be prevented by a
good ecclesiastical police; that the feast
of fools, and all irreverent celebrations
customary in the church about Christmas,
should be abolished (21st session, June 9,
1435). In the 23d session (March 25,
1436), the form of election, the confession
of faith, and the official oath of each pope,
by which he bound himself to obey the
decrees of the council, and the annual
repetition of the same, were provided for;
all preferment of the relations of a pope
was forbidden, and the college of cardi-
nals was limited to 24 prelates and doc-
tors of all nations, who should be elected
by the free votes of the college, should
be entitled to half of the revenues of the
BASLE.
states of the church, should watch over
the pope, and always sign his bulls.
They granted him only the right to dis-
pose of the prebends belonging to the
diocese of Rome, and abolished the in-
vestiture of church preferments in rever-
sion. The French clergy in vain en-
deavored to accomplish these salutary
measures, to which the pope was con-
stantly opposed. General councils had
always been an object of aversion to the
popes, and often been prevented by them
from assembling, on account of their lim-
itations of the papal power; and the pro-
ceedings of the council of Basle must
have exasperated, to the highest degree,
an obstinate man, like Eugenius IV. He
continually remonstrated with the sove-
reigns against the decrees of the council,
and made active preparations for uniting
the oppressed Greeks with the Roman
church, in order to effect its dissolution.
The Greeks, not being acquainted with
this dispute, had addressed the pope and
the council at the same time. Each en-
deavored to snatch the glory of effecting
this union from the hands of the other;
both sent galleys to bring the deputies of
the Greeks to the place of negotiation,
and each appointed different places for
this purpose, according to the different
interests of each. But the galleys of the
council, detained through the intrigues
of the papal agents, did not succeed; and
the papal vessels conveyed the Greeks to
Ferrara. The papal legate at Basle, the
archbishop of Tarentum, published an
order in the name of the council, to
which he had clandestinely attached its
seal. By this order, in compliance with
the wish of Eugenius, Udina or Florence
was appointed for the place of negotia-
tion. This fraud broke all the ties which
had hitherto restrained the council from
further attacks upon the pope. In the
26th session (Jan. 31, 1437), it again sum-
moned him to appear, on account of his
disobedience of its decrees, declared him
guilty of contumacy, and, after Eugenius
had opened his counter-synod at Ferrara,
decreed his suspension from the papal
chair, in the 31st session (Jan. 24, 1438).
In the same session, it forbade appeal to
Rome, without resort to the intermediate
jurisdictions, left to the papal disposition
but 1 out of 10 and 2 out of 50 prebends
of a church, and destined the third part
of all canonries which might become va-
cant to men who had taken regular de-
grees. The removal of Eugenius, how-
ever, seemed, on account of the strength
of his party, so impracticable, that some
51
VOL. I.
601
prelates, who, till then, had been the
boldest and most influential speakers in
the council (e. g., the cardinal legate Juli-
ano, and the great canon Nicolaus of Cusa,
archdeacon of Liege, with the most of
the Italians), left Basle, and went over to
the party of Eugenius. The archbishop
of Arles, cardinal Louis Allemand, a man
of superior spirit, courage and eloquence,
was now made first president of the
council, and directed its proceedings with
much vigor. Although its number was
diminished, its nost powerful protector,
the emperor Sigismund, deceased, and its
authority doubted by several princes and
nations, on account of its open rupture
with the pope; yet, in the 33d session
(May 16, 1439), after violent debates, in
which the archbishop of Palermo, Nic.
Tudeschi (known, under the name of
Panormitanus, as the greatest canon of
his time), who was the delegate of the
king of Arragon and Sicily, took the part
of the pope, it declared Eugenius, on ac-
count of his obstinate disobedience of its
decrees, a heretic, and formally deposed
hini, in the following session, as guilty of
simony, perjury, violation of the laws of
the church, and bad administration in his
office. At this session (the 34th, June
25, 1439), only two of the Spanish and
Italian members were present; but the
president adopted a spirited and effectual
method for obtaining the decree.
ordered the holy relics, which existed in
Basle, to be placed in the seats of the ab-
sent bishops, and produced such a strong
excitement in the council, which still
consisted of 400, for the most part French
and German prelates, priests and doctors,
that it unanimously consented to the dep-
osition of Eugenius. Notwithstanding
the plague, then raging in Basle, which
continually diminished its number, it pro-
ceeded, in a regular conclave (Nov, 17 of
the same year), to elect the duke Ama-
deus of Savoy to the papal chair. This
prince then lived in retirement at Ri-
paglia, on the lake of Geneva, and seemed
particularly qualified for the office, on ac-
count of his piety, his riches and his con-
nexions. Felix V-this was the name he
adopted-was acknowledged by only a
few princes, cities and universities. The
chief powers, France and Germany, as-
sented to the decrees of the council for
the reformation of the church, but they
chose to remain neutral in the contest
with Eugenius. Meanwhile he acquired
new credit by the union concluded with
the Greek deputies at Florence (but after-
wards rejected by the Greek church) and
He
602
BASLE-BASS.
the friendship of the emperor Frederic
III. The council, on the other hand,
denounced by Eugenius, and deserted by
its protectors, gradually declined under
its feeble pope, and, consulting only ap-
pearances and the personal safety of its
members, held its 45th and last session
May 16, 1443, after an inaction of three
years, interrupted only by a few insignifi-
cant decrees. At this session, the place
of meeting was changed to Lausanne.
Here some prelates remained together
under the cardinal Louis Allemand, un-
til 1449, when, after the death of Euge-
nius and the resignation of Felix V, they
gladly accepted the amnesty offered by
the new pope, Nicholas V, and pronounced
the council closed. The decrees of the
council of Basle are admitted into none
of the Roman collections, and are con-
sidered of no authority by the Roman
lawyers. They are regarded, however,
as of authority in points of canon law,
in France and Germany, as their regula-
tions for the reformation of the church
have been adopted in the pragmatic sanc-
tions of both countries, and, as far as they
regard clerical discipline, have been ac-
tually enforced. Some later concordats
have modified the application of them, but
never formally and entirely annulled them.
(See Germany, and Gallican Church.) No
general council has ever issued more just
and suitable decrees for the reformation
of the papal government, and of cleri-
cal discipline; none has done more to
restore the authority of the bishops, which
the imperious pretensions of the popes
had almost annihilated, and, consequent-
ly, the ancient apostolical constitution of
the church; but the canonists, who al-
most entirely conducted it, could not dis-
engage themselves from the idea of the
universality of the episcopal character of
the pope; and, proceeding on these prem-
ises, their strongest measures for restrict-
ing his power were incomplete, and all
their attempts at reformation consequent-
ly useless. If this council had accom-
plished its chief object-the conversion of
the papal monarchy into a hierarchical
aristocracy-many sources of complaint
against the papal despotism would, indeed,
have been removed, but the reformation
of Luther, in the 16th century, would not
have been prevented.
BASQUES, BASKS, VASCONES (vasc, from
vassoc, that is, man), BISCAYANS; the name
of the Cantabri (Gascons), a people in
Spain, near the Pyrenees. They are
probably descendants of the ancient Iberi,
who occupied Spain before the Celts.
(See W. von Humboldt's Etymol. histor.
geogr. Inquiries respecting the first Inbabit-
ants of Spain.) They settled, at the end
of the 6th century, on the north side of
the Pyrenees, between those mountains
and the Garonne. After long struggles,
they submitted to the kings of the Franks.
Under the Carlovingian race, they elected
their own dukes; but, after the extinction
of that family, they fell under the domin-
ion of Aquitania, in the 11th century, and
with it under that of France, in 1453.
They preserve their ancient language and
former manners, their national dances,
&c. They are very good seamen, and
were the first Europeans who engaged in
the whale-fishery, which they have, how-
ever, long since relinquished. They oc-
cupy, in Spain, the provinces of Biscay,
Guipuzcoa and Alava, (3000 square miles,
188,000 inhabitants); in France, the de-
partments of the Upper and Lower Pyre-
nees, Arriège and Upper Garonne (about
70,000 inhabitants). See the Alphabet of
the Primitive Language of Spain, &c.,
extracted from de Erro, by George W.
Erving, Boston, 1829.
BASS (from the Italian basso, deep,
low); the lowest part in the harmony of
a musical composition.
a musical composition. It is the most
important of all the parts, the foundation
of the harmony, and the support of the
whole composition.-Figured bass is a
bass which, while a certain chord or
harmony is continued by the parts above,
moves in notes of the same harmony.
For example, if the upper parts consist
of C, E, G (the common chord or har-
mony of C), and, while they are continued,
the bass moves from C, the fundamental
note of that harmony, to E, another note
of the same harmony, that bass is called
a figured bass.-Fundamental bass is that
bass which forms the tone or natural
foundation of the harmony, and from
which that harmony is derived. To ex-
plain this by an example:-if the harmony
consist of the common chord of C, C will
be its fundamental bass, because from
that note the harmony is deduced; and
if, while that harmony is continued, the
bass be changed to any other note, it
ceases to be fundamental, because it is no
longer the note from which that harmony
results, and is calculated.-Ground bass is
a bass which starts with some subject of
its own, and continues to be repeated
throughout the movement, while the up-
per part or parts pursue a separate air,
and supply the harmony. This kind of
bass was greatly in fashion half a century
ago, but has long since been rejected as

*
BASS-BASSET-HORN.
an unnatural restraint upon the inagina-
tion, and productive of a monotonous
melody.-Thorough bass. (See Thorough
bass.)-Bass cliff is the character put at
the beginning of the stave, in which the
bass, or lower notes of the composition,
are placed, and serving to determine the
pitch and names of those notes.-Basso
concertante (Ital.) is the bass of the little
chorus; the bass which accompanies
the softer parts of a composition, as well
as those which employ the whole power
of the band. This part is generally taken
by the violoncellos.-Bass-counter or con-
tra-bass; the under-bass; that part
which, when there are two basses in a
composition, is performed by the double
basses, the violoncellos taking the upper
bass or basso concertante.-Basso recitan-
te (Ital.); the bass of the little chorus.
(See Basso concertante.)-Basso repieno
(Ital.); the bass of the grand chorus;
that bass which joins in the full parts of
a composition, and, by its depth of tone
and energy of stroke, affords a powerful
contrast to the lighter and softer passages
or movements.
BASS-RELIEF (Ital. basso relievo); sy-
nonymous with relief; figures, more or less
elevated, in stone, plaster, clay or metal,
upon a flat surface. Bass-relief properly
signifies the least elevation; haut-relief, or
alto relievo, the highest, in which the fig-
ures project half of their apparent cir-
cumference from the back-ground. The
ancient artists, and the modern who have
followed their principles, generally used,
in their reliefs, only a single ground: but
Bernini, Algardi, Angelo, Rossi, and ser-
eral other modern artists, worked in
several;
that is, their objects appear on
several back-grounds. Among the an-
cients, we find bass-reliefs in the pediments
and friezes of temples and houses, on al-
tars, triumphal arches, monuments (e. g.,
sarcophagi), on shields, vases, and other
implements composed of hard and strong
materials. The bass-reliefs found by von
Brőndstedt, Cockerel, &c., in the temple
of Apollo at Phigalia, and sold to the
British museum for £15,000 sterling, are
celebrated, as are also those on the column
of Trajan. Among the famous modern
bass-reliefs are those of Bandurli, Ghiberti
and Lucca della Robbia, at Florence.
Some of the finest bass-reliefs existing
are by Canova and Thorwaldsen.
BASS'S STRAITS; a channel, which sepa-
rates N. Holland from Van Diemen's Land;
120 miles broad; lon. 147°30′ E.; lat. 40°S.
BASSA; a country on the west coast of
Africa, about 400 miles south of Sierra
603
Leone. It came into notice by a grant
of land, which the American colonization
society recently obtained there from the
king. The Bassas are described as with-
out civilization, like so many other Negro
tribes of the west coast of that part of the
world. (See Liberia.)
BASSAN (whose real name was Giacomo
de Ponte); a painter; born in 1510. He
was surnamed Bassan from the place,
Bassano, where his father lived. His pic-
tures are scattered all over Europe. He
painted historical pieces, landscapes, flow-
ers, &c., and also portraits; among others,
that of the doge of Venice, of Ariosto,
Tasso, and other persons of eminence.
He lived to the age of 82, dying in 1592.
Several of his best works are in the
churches of Bassano, Venice, Vicenza,
and other towns of Italy. He left four
sons, who all became painters. Frances-
co_was the most distinguished of them.
BASSANO, a commercial city in the Ve-
netian delegation Vicenza, on the Brenta
(lon. 11° 43″ E.; lat. 45° 46′ N.), has spa-
cious suburbs, and 9600 inhabitants. Its
30 churches contain beautiful paintings.
A stone bridge, 182 feet long, unites the
town with the large village Vicantino.
The climate is very favorable to the cul-
tivation of the vine and olive. The trade
in silk, cloth and leather is active, and
Remontini's printing-house furnishes
beautiful printed works and engravings.
Napoleon made B. a duchy, with 11,000
dollars yearly income, and granted it, in
1809, to his minister of foreign affairs,
Maret. (q. v.) Near B., Sept. 8, 1796,
Bonaparte defeated the Austrian general
Quosdanowich. This town must not be
confounded with Bassanelle, on the lake
Bassano, in the papal territory, capital of
a duchy of the house of Colonna.
BASSANO, duke of. (See Maret.)
BASSET; the name of a game at cards,
formerly much played, especially in
France. It is very similar to the modern
faro. Severe edicts were issued against
it by Louis XIV, and it was afterwards
played under the name of pour et contre.
De Moivre, in his Doctrine of Chances,
has calculated many problems connected
with this game.
BASSET-HORN, the richest of all wind-
instruments (called also cornet, by reason
of its curvature), is believed to have been
invented in Passau, in 1770. It was af-
terwards perfected by Theodore Lotz, in
Presburg. It is, properly considered, an
enlarged clarionet; and, notwithstanding
the difference of its form, it resembles
that, not only in its qualities and tone, but
604
BASSET-HORN-BASSORA.
also as regards its intonation, the mode
of holding it, and fingering; so that every
clarionet-player can perform on it with-
out practice. Besides the mouth-piece,
by which the intonation is given, it is
formed of 5 pieces-the head-piece (call-
ed the barrel), 2 middle pieces, the trunk
and the bell, which is usually of brass.
It has 15 ventages, of which 4 are pro-
vided with open, 4 with closed keys. Its
compass is 3 octaves, from lower F in
the bass, to double C of the treble. It is
seldom used in the orchestra; however,
it is found in Mozart's requiem and some
other pieces. The basset-horn may also
be used as a bass-instrument.
BASSOMPIERRE, François de, marshal
of France, one of the most distinguished
and most amiable men of the courts of
Henry IV and Louis XIII, was born in
1579, in Lorraine, and descended from a
branch of the family of Cleve. After
travelling through Italy, he appeared at
the court of Henry IV, where his taste
for splendor, play and gallantry made
him conspicuous in the feasts and sports
of the capital. In 1602, he made his first
campaign against the duke of Savoy, and
fought with equal distinction, in the fol-
lowing year, in the imperial army, against
the Turks. His love of France soon
called him back; he aspired to the hand
of the daughter of the connetable de
Montmorency, whose charms had excited
the most violent passion in Henry IV.
B. yielded to the solicitations of his king,
and renounced his intended union with
her. In 1622, Louis XIII appointed him
marshal of France, and became so much
attached to him, that Luynes, the de-
clared favorite, alarmed at his growing
influence, insisted upon his removal from
the court, leaving him the option to ac-
cept either an embassy, or the chief com-
mand of an army, or the office of a gov-
ernor. B. decided upon an embassy, and
occupied this post successively in Spain,
Switzerland and England. After his re-
turn, he entered again into the military
service, and was present at the siege of
Rochelle and Montauban. The cardinal
Richelieu, who soon after obtained entire
control of the king and the country, feared
the boldness of B. and his secret connex-
jon with the house of Lorraine; whose
machinations served him as a pretext for
sending B., in 1631, to the Bastille, from
which he was not released till 1643, after
the death of the cardinal. He died in 1646.
B. studied, in his youth, philosophy, juris-
prudence, medicine, and the military art.
During his detention, he occupied him-
self with his memoirs, and the history of
his embassies in Spain, Switzerland and
England, which sheds much light on the
events of that time.
•
BASSOON (Fr. bas son, low sound); an
instrument which forms the natural bass
to the hautboy. It is played, like that
instrument, with a reed, and forms a con-
tinuation of its scale downwards. The
reed is fixed to a crooked mouth-piece,
issuing from the side of the bassoon.
There, keys communicate to the ventages,
which otherwise are too remote for fin-
gering. It was formerly used as an ac-
companiment to the hautboy, from which
it was termed basson de hautbois. But it
is now so far improved with keys as to
be susceptible of being played solo. Its
compass is three octaves, from double
A in the bass to a in the second space
of the treble; and its designation gener-
ally is the F or bass-clef; yet, in the
higher passages, for the more convenient
arrangement of the notes, the alto, or
tenor-clef, is often used. Ít consists of
four tubes, bound together like a fagot.
Hence the Italians term it fagotto, and
from them the Germans fagott. In musie
designed for wind-instruments, it usually
forms the bass. There is a modification
of this instrument, much lower and
stronger in its tones, the bass-horn,-
which, in field music, has of late been
substituted for the serpent.
BASSORA, or BASRAH; a city in the
Arabian Irak, situated on an arm of the
Shat-ul-Arab, about half way between
the junction of the Tigris with the Eu-
phrates and the Persian gulf; 210 miles
S. W. Ispahan, 600 S. E. Aleppo; lon.
47° 30′ E.; lat. 30° 31' N.: pop. estimated
by Heude, in 1817, at 80,000; by others
at 40, 50 and 60,000. The Shat-ul-Arab
is formed by the junction of the Tigris
and Euphrates, and is navigable for ves-
sels of 500 tons to Bassora, 70 miles.
Merchants from Arabia, Turkey, Arme-
nia and Greece, also Jews and Indians,
reside here. The English and Dutch
have consuls here, and their ships come
from India loaded with merchandise.
The Arabs have more power than the
Turks, and the language of the former is
chiefly spoken. The prince pays but lit-
tle respect to the Ottoman court.-The
city is surrounded by a wall about 10
miles in circuit, from 20 to 25 feet thick.
The houses are generally mean, being
constructed of clay, with a small propor-
tion of bricks; and the bazars, though
containing the richest products of the
East, are but miserable edifices. Almost
BASSORA-BASTARD.
all the inhabitants of the city are con-
nected with trade, and its commerce is
extensive, as it is the grand emporium for
all the produce of India sent to the Turk-
ish empire. The trade of the interior is
conducted by means of caravans to Alep-
po and Bagdad. The town is unhealthy,
the environs fertile. As to the religion
of the inhabitants, besides Mohamme-
dans, there are Syrian Jacobites and Nes-
torians, and monks from Europe, besides
some modern Sabeans, called disciples of
John.
BASSO RELIEVO. (See Bass-Relief)
BASS-VIOL; a stringed instrument, re-
sembling, in form, the violin, but much
larger. It has four strings and eight
stops, which are subdivided into semi-
stops, and is played with a bow.
BASTARD. The Romans distinguished
two kinds of natural children-nothi, the
issue of concubinage, and spurii, the chil-
dren of prostitutes; the former could in-
herit from the mother, and were entitled
to support from the father; the latter had
no claims whatever to support. Is non
habet patrem, cui pater est populus. The
Athenians treated all bastards with ex-
treme rigor. By the laws of Solon, they
were denied the rights of citizenship. A
law of Pericles ordered the sale of 5000
bastards as slaves. What rendered these
regulations more severe was, that not
only the issue of concubinage and adul-
tery, but all children whose parents were
not both Athenians, were considered bas-
tards at Athens. Thus Themistocles,
whose mother was a native of Halicar-
nassus, was deemed a bastard. The law,
as might be expected, was often set aside
by the influence of powerful citizens.
Pericles himself had it repealed in favor
of his child by Aspasia, after he had lost
his legitimate children by the plague.
The condition of bastards has been dit-
ferent in different periods of modern his-
tory. Among the Goths and Franks,
they were permitted to inherit from the
father. Thiery, the natural son of Clovis,
inherited a share of his father's conquests.
William the Conqueror, natural son of
Robert I, duke of Normandy, and of Ar-
lette, daughter of a furrier of Falaise, in-
herited his father's dominions. He called
himself Willelmus, cognomento Batardus.
The celebrated Dunois styled himself, in
his letters, the bastard of Orleans. In
Spain, bastards have always been capable
of inheriting. The bastardy of Henry of
Transtamare did not prevent his acces-
sion to the throne of Castile. In France,
the condition of bastards was formerly
605
very different in the different provinces.
Since the revolution, it has been regu-
lated in a uniform manner by the general
law of the kingdom. The Code civil thus
fixes their rights: If the father or mother
leave legitimate descendants, the bastard
is entitled to one third of the portion he
would have inherited had he been a law-
ful child; if the father or mother die
without descendants, but leave ascend-
ants, or brothers or sisters, then he is en-
titled to one half of such a portion; if the
father or mother leave no ascendants nor
descendants, nor brothers nor sisters, he
is entitled to three quarters of such a
portion; and if the father or mother leave
no relations within the degrees of suc-
cession, he is entitled to the whole prop-
erty. These regulations do not apply to
the issue of an incestuous or adulterous
connexion. The law allows no civil
privileges to individuals who owe their
existence to the violation of human and
divine laws; it grants them only support.
According to the ancient customs, the
bastards of kings, acknowledged by their
fathers, were princes; those of princes
were gentlemen. Several distinguished
men, and fabulous heroes, have been
bastards-William, who conquered Eng-
land; Dunois, who delivered France;
the duke of Vendôme, the duke of Ber-
wick, the marshal Saxe; Bacchus, Her-
cules and Romulus.-By the common
law of England, a child born after mar-
riage, however soon, is legitimate, or at
least he is presumed to be so; for one
born in wedlock, and long enough after
the marriage to admit of the period of
gestation, may still be proved illegitimate,
in case of absence and non-access of the
husband, and under some other circum-
stances. According to the common law,
a bastard is not the heir of any one; and,
on the other hand, his only heirs are his
children born in wedlock, and their de-
scendants. According to the Roman law,
one born out of wedlock might be legiti-
mated by subsequent marriage and ac-
knowledgment of his parents. In 1236,
the English prelates proposed the intro-
duction of the Roman law, in this respect,
into England, to which the nobility made
the celebrated reply, Nolumus leges An-
gliæ mutare (We are unwilling to change
the laws of England). This rule of the
civil law has been adopted in many of
the U. States. In Louisiana, it was natu-
rally adopted as a part of the civil law,
which is the basis of their code.
rule, that an ante-nuptial child is legiti-
mated by the subsequent marriage of his
The
51 *
606
BASTARD-BASTION.
parents, and by being acknowledged by
liis father, has been engrafted into the
laws of Vermont, Ohio, Georgia, Indiana,
Alabama, Missouri, Mississippi, Maryland,
Kentucky and Tennessee. In Tennessee,
application is made to a court for a de-
"ree of legitimation, or to the legislature
for an act to the same effect. Many of
the states, as North Carolina, Virginia,
Ohio, Indiana, Massachusetts, Missouri,
Kentucky, Tennessee and Louisiana, pro-
vide that illegitimate children shall be the
heirs of the mother, with the limitation,
however, in some of the states, to the case
of her having no legitimate children.
The laws of some of these states also
provide that the illegitimate children of
the same mother shall be heirs to cach
other.
BASTIA; the former capital of the isl-
and of Corsica (lon. 9° 26′ 30″ E.; lat.
42° 41′ 36″ N.), upon a hill in the north-
east part of the island, in the shape of an
amphitheatre. It is badly built, has nar-
row streets, a strong citadel near the sea,
a spacious, but not very commodious har-
bor. The inhabitants (11,400) carry on
a considerable trade in hides, wine, oil,
figs and pulse. The stilettoes manufac-
tured here are held in great esteem by
the Italians. In 1745, B. was taken by
the English, but restored in the following
year to the Genoese. In 1748, it was
unsuccessfully besieged by the Austrians
and Piedmontese; in 1768, it was united
with France. It afterwards fell, for a
short time, into the power of the English.
On the new division of the French terri-
tories (1791), B. was made the capital of
the department of Corsica, of which, at
present, Ajaccio is the capital.
BASTILE; formerly a famous castle in
Paris, in which state-prisoners and other
persons arrested by lettres de cachet were
confined. These letters of arrest were
issued in the name of the king, but the
names of the individuals were inserted by
the ministers, who were the depositaries
of these letters. Of the origin of this
custom, we may perhaps find the expla-
nation in Montesquieu's Esprit des Loir,
where it is said, "Honor is the virtue of
monarchies, and often supplies its place."
A nobleman was unwilling to be dishon-
ored by a member of his family. Filial
disobedience and unworthy conduct were
not uncommon among the over-refined
nobility of France. In such cases, fathers
and relations often requested the con-
finement of the offender, until the head
of the family should express a wish for
his release. At first, this privilege was
>
limited to the first families in the country.
The next step was, that the ministers of
government considered themselves enti-
fled to the same privileges as heads of
families among the nobility. If an of-
fence was committed in their offices or
households, which, if known, would have
cast a shadow upon the ministers them-
selves, they arrested, motu proprio, the
obnoxious individuals, and often made
use of their privilege to put out of sight
persons whose honest discharge of duty
had excited their displeasure, or who
were acquainted with facts disgraceful to
the ministers themselves. It sometimes
happened that no further examination of
the prisoners was had, and the cause of
their detention no where recorded.' In
such cases, an individual remained in
prison sometimes 30 or 40 years, or even
till his death, because succeeding officers
took it for granted that he had been
properly confined, or that his imprison-
inent was required for reasons of state.
The invention of the lettres de cachet im-
mediately opened the door to the tyranny
of ministers and the intrigues of favorites,
who supplied themselves with these or-
ders, in order to confine individuals who
had become obnoxious to them. These
arrests became continually more arbitrary
(see Cachet, Lettres de), and men of the
greatest merit were liable to be thrown
into prison, whenever they happened to
displease a minister, a favorite, or a mis-
tress. When, in the beginning of the rev-
olution, the people destroyed the Bastile
(the prison of individuals of rank, or of
those whom individuals of rank would
not, for good reasons, bring to trial in a
lawful manner), they found but few pris-
oners, but enough to prove to the nation
the danger of the continuance of despot-
ism in civilized France. It also became
known, that the kings of France had
never obliged their ministers to give an
account of the use of their lettres de ca-
chet. Alas for the good old times! (See
Iron Mask.) The story which Mercier
tells of a prisoner, who had been confined
in the Bastile for 47 years, and, when he
received his liberty, on the accession of
Louis XVI, wished to be carried back to
confinement, is very interesting.
BASTINADO, or BASTONADO; a punish-
ment used among the Turks, which con-
sists of blows upon the back, or soles of
the feet, applied with a light wooden
stick, or with a knotted string.
BASTION (bulwark). In order to de-
fend a place which is surrounded by a
rampart and a ditch, it is necessary that
BASTION-BAT.
every point at the foot of the rampart, in
the ditch and before the citadel, should
be, as much as possible, commanded by
the cannon of the works. This is effect-
ed by breaking the line of fortification, so
that a defence sideways may be attained.
Before, and for some time after the inven-
tion of gunpowder, it was thought that
towers, standing out from the wall, would
answer this purpose; but these soon gave
place to the spacious and projecting bas-
tions or bulwarks, which consist of two
flanks, that serve principally for the defence
of the neighboring bastions, and of two
faces, which command the outworks and
the ground before them. The wall be-
tween two bastions is called the curtain.
These bastions are built in very different
ways. Some are entirely filled with
earth; some have a void space inside;
some, are straight, soine curved, some
double, some have even three or four
flanks, one over the other; some have,
and some have not, fausse-brays (see For-
tification); sometimes they have case-
inates, destined for the retreat of the gar-
rison, or for batteries; sometimes cavaliers
(q. v.) or orillons (q. v.), &c. In modern
times, among the fortifications built ac-
cording to the system of bastions, those
on the plan of Cormontaigne and the
modern French works, are considered
best adapted for defence. They are spa-
cious; the flank of the side bulwark,
which is perpendicular to the prolonga-
tion of the face of the principal bulwark,
is not farther distant than a gunshot (300
paces) from its point; it is also straight,
and orillons, and other artificial contri-
vances, are banished.
BAT; an order of mammiferous quad-
rupeds, characterized by having the tegu-
mentary membrane extended over the
bones of the extremities in such a man-
ner as to constitute wings capable of
sustaining and conveying them through
the air. The name of cheiroptera, or hand-
winged, has therefore been bestowed on
this order. It comprises a great number
of genera, species and varieties; among
which are to be found some most singu-
lar modifications of structure, in the form
of the wing membranes, the figure and
expanse of the ears, and the reinarkable
membranous appendages to the noses of
various species. All the bats are either
purely insectivorous, or insecti-frugivor-
ous, having exceedingly sharp cutting,
and acutely tuberculated jaw teeth, and
the whole race is nocturnal. They vary
in size from that of the smallest common
mouse up to that of the gigantic ternate
607
bat, whose body is as large as that of
squirrel. The smaller species are abun-
dantly distributed over the face of the
globe; the larger appear to be confined
to warm and hot regions, where they ex-
ist in great numbers, and are very de-
structive to the fruits. The purely in-
sectivorous species render great service
to mankind by the destruction of vast
numbers of insects, which they pursue
with great eagerness in the morning and
evening twilight. During the day-time.
they remain suspended by their hooked
hinder claws, in the lofts of barns, in hol-
low or thickly-leaved trees, &c. As win-
ter approaches, in cold climates, they seek
shelter in caverns, vaults, ruinous and
deserted buildings, and similar retreats,
where they cling together in large clus-
ters, and remain in a torpid condition
until the returning spring recalls them to
active exertions. We here observe the
admirable arrangement of the great Au-
thor of nature, who has rendered it neces-
sary that these animals should be torpid
during all the time that their appropriate
food is not to be obtained. In warm cli-
mates, where a constant succession of
insects occurs, the same species of bat,
which, in a cold region, would become
torpid, continue in activity throughout the
year.-Bats enjoy the senses of sight and
hearing to a considerable degree of per-
fection, but the acuteness of their sense
of touch is perhaps unequalled through-
out the whole extent of animal organiza-
tion. In consequence of the great ex-
pansion of integument forming the ex-
ceedingly delicate membrane of the
wings, ears and nasal appendages, bats
are able, even when deprived of their
eyes, to fly in such a manner as to avoid
every obstacle. Silk threads, small sticks,
or obstructions placed across the course
of flight of a bat purposely blinded by
taking out its eyes, are avoided with the
most surprising dexterity, and advantage
is taken of any space to pass between
without touching them. Every inequal-
ity in the ceiling of a hall or chamber is
avoided in the same way. The reaction
of the air against the membranes is suffi-
cient to warn them of any obstacle, how-
ever sight, and enables them to turu,
lower themselves, or draw in their wings,
so as to clear the body, without the least
appearance of effort. These soft, velvet-
like wings also enable them to fly without
noise, and, although their motion is un-
steady and wavering, they advance with
exceeding swiftness. From a flat or level
surface, it is very difficult, though not
t
608
BAT-BATAVIAN REPUBLIC.
entirely impossible, for them to rise into
the air. They always suspend themselves
by the hooks on their hind feet, whence
they readily take wing by relinquishing
their hold. The hook at the extremity
and anterior edge of the fore-arm corre-
sponds in situation to the human thumb,
and the bats use it with peculiar advan-
tage in changing their position, to perform
their evacuations, &c. We have observ-
ed the smaller species of bat, especially the
young of the vespertilio arcuatus (Say), to
be exceedingly infested by the common
bed-bug (cimex lectularius), and have
thence been led to conclude, that bats
may be the means of conveying these
noisome insects into houses, as they fre-
quently take up their lodgings in chim-
neys belonging to bed-chambers, to which
the bugs thus obtain easy access. Bed-
bugs are often observed in entirely new
houses, into which furniture altogether
new has been introduced. On a single
bat, obtained in the open air from a large
occidental plane or button-wood tree, we
have seen a profusion of bugs sufficient
to have furnished a stock capable of soon
infesting a whole neighborhood. It may
be well, occasionally, to smoke such lodg-
ers out of chamber chimneys during sum-
mer, to prevent the introduction of their
annoying and disgusting companions.-
Bats generally bring forth two young, and
suckle them until old enough to purvey
for themselves. While suckling, they re-
main closely attached to the mother's
teats, which are two, situated upon the
chest. The parent shows a strong de-
gree of attachment for her offspring, and,
when they are captured, will follow them,
and even submit to captivity herself, rath-
er than forsake her charge.-The voice
of the small bats, when irritated, is a sharp,
chattering sort of squeak. They bite with
much force, and those of considerable
age and size can inflict a very severe in-
jury, as their teeth are pointed and keen.
BATALHA; a village, 52 niles from
Lisbon, with a convent of Dominicans,
founded by king John I, in commemora-
commemora-
tion of a victory over the king of Castile,
near Aljubarota, in the year 1385. This
convent is one of the most splendid build-
ings in Europe, erected, in the Gothic
style, by an Irishman, named Hacket.
The decorations are partly mystical and
hieroglyphical, and not yet deciphered.
The most difficult of them are on the
mausoleum of the founder. Foreign
monarchs have also enriched and adorn-
ed this convent. The royal sepulchre of
The royal sepulchre of
the family of Braganza is now at Belem.
·
BATAVIA; a city and seaport of Java,
on the north coast of the island, near the
west end; capital of all the Dutch_or
Netherland East Indies; lon. 106° 54′ E.;
lat. 6° 12′ S.: population, about 1780, es-
timated at 160,000; in 1795, including a
circuit of 10 miles, 116,000. In 1816, the
population of the city was reduced to
47,217; of whom 14,239 were slaves,
11,854 Chinese, 7720 Balinese, 4115 na-
tives of Celebes, 3331 Javanese, 3155
Malays, 2028 Europeans and their de-
scendants. It was founded by the Dutch
in 1619, taken by the British in 1811, but
restored to the Dutch in 1816. It is situ-
ated on a wide, deep bay, in which are
interspersed many low, green islets, with-
in which ships find safe anchorage. It is
rather a roadstead than a harbor, but, from
its westerly situation and easy access, is
the best and most convenient port in the
island. The greatest inconvenience is
the bar at the mouth, which, at low wa-
ter, is almost dry, and seldom has six feet
water. The town is situated in a low,
marshy plain, at the union of small rivers,
which are navigable for boats and in
many of the streets are canals filled with
water almost stagnant. The miasmata,
generated in the putrid mud-banks and
canals, render the town exceedingly un-
healthy, and subject to an intermittent
fever, very mortal to strangers. B., on
account of the beauty of its buildings and
immense trade, has been styled the Queen
of the East. But, within a few years, the
town has lost a great part of its splendor.
Streets have been pulled down, canals
half filled up, forts demolished, and pal-
aces levelled with the dust. The cam-
pongs, or quarters of the native popula-
tion, are of mean appearance. In the
part inhabited by Europeans, the streets
are more regular, and the houses spacious,
but not elegant. The public edifices are
neither numerous nor splendid.
principal are the stadt-house, a Calvin-
istic, a Lutheran and a Portuguese church,
several Mohammedan mosques, and some
Chinese temples.
Chinese temples. There are also some
charitable institutions. (See Java.)
The
BATAVIAN REPUBLIC; the name adopt-
ed by the Seven United States, soon after
the French revolution, and acknowledged
by the powers of Europe. The whole
republic was declared one and indivisible ;
all members of society were declared
equal in the eye of the law, without re-
spect to rank or birth; all religious socie-
ties, acknowledging a Supreme Being,
equally protected by law. Feudality was
abolished, all fiefs declared allodial, and
BATAVIAN REPUBLIC-BATH.
possessors of lordships to be indemnified.
In 1806, the form of government was
changed into a kingdom, under the name
of Holland; and, in 1815, these provinces
were united with Belgium to form the
kingdom of the Netherlands. (See Neth-
erlands.)
BATAVIANS; an old German nation,
which inhabited a part of the present
Holland, especially the island called Ba-
tavia, formed by that branch of the Rhine
which empties into the sea near Leyden,
together with the Waal and the Meuse.
Their territories, however, extended much
beyond the Waal. Tacitus commends
their bravery. According to him, they
were, originally, the same as the Catti, a
German tribe, which had emigrated from
their country on account of domestic
troubles. This must have happened be-
fore the time of Cæsar. When Germani-
cus was about to invade Germany from
the sea, he made their island the rendez-
vous of his fleet. Being subjected by the
Romans, they served them with such
courage and fidelity as to obtain the title
of their friends and brethren. They were
exempted from tributes and taxes, and
permitted to choose their leaders among
themselves. Their cavalry was particu-
larly excellent. During the reign of Ves-
pasian, they revolted, under the command
of Civilis, from the Romans, and extorted
from them favorable terms of peace.
Trajan and Adrian subjected them again.
At the end of the third century, the Salian
Franks obtained possession of the island
of Batavia. After the constitution of the
United Provinces was changed by the
French, in 1798, they formed the Batavi-
an republic, until Louis Bonaparte be-
came king of Holland (1806).
BATH; a city, in Somersetshire, Eng.,
12 miles E. Bristol, 67 S. W. Oxford, 107
W. London; lon. 2° 22′ W.; lat. 51° 23′ N.:
population, in 1823, including the suburbs,
38,434; 15,275 males, and 23,159 females.
It is beautifully situated on the Avon, in
a narrow valley, bounded on the N. E.
and S. W. by hills, and widening on the
N. W. into rich and extensive meadows.
The Avon is navigable from Bath to Bris-
tol. It has borne various names in dif-
ferent ages, all having allusion to its cele-
brated waters. The Romans called it
Aqua Solis, Fontes Calidi, Therma, Bodo-
nia, and Bathonia; the Britons, Caer
Badun, or Bladon; the Saxons, Hat
Bathun, and Achamannum. The vestiges
of the Romans here are still exceedingly
numerous, and show the high value which
they placed upon the waters.-B. is re-
609
It
markable for medicinal waters, for its va-
rious sources of amusement, for the ele-
gance of its streets, and the magnificence
of its public buildings. It is accounted
the most elegant city in England. The
houses are of superior construction, built
of freestone, obtained from the hills about
the town. The cathedral is in the form
of a cross, and is the purest specimen
of Gothic architecture in the kingdom.
There are three churches and one chapel
within the city, and, without the bounda-
ries, three churches and seven chapels;
also places of public worship for Metho-
dists, Independents, Baptists, Moravians.
Catholics, Unitarians and Quakers.
contains the general hospital for the re-
ception of invalids, who desire the bencfit
of the waters, from all parts of the world;
several other hospitals and charitable in-
stitutions; the Bath and West of England
society; the philosophical society, public
graminar school, &c.-There are five pub-
lic baths, viz. King's and Queen's bath,
Cross bath, Hot bath and New Private
bath. The temperature of the different
springs varies from 93° to 117° Fahren-
heit. That of the King's bath is 116°, that
of the Hot bath 117°, and that of the Cross
bath 111°. They contain carbonic acid,
azotic gas, muriate and sulphate of soda,
carbonate and sulphate of lime, with a very
small quantity of silex and oxycarbonate
of iron. They are found of great efficacy
in cases of gout, rheumatism, indigestion,
palsy, and biliary obstructions. The popu-
lation of Bath varies greatly at different
seasons. It affords a great variety of amuse-
ments, and is equally the resort of valetu-
dinarians and votaries of pleasure.
BATH; a post-town and port of entry
in Lincoln county, Maine, on W. side of
the Kennebeck, 12 miles from the sea;
13 S. W. Wiscasset, 35 N. E. Portland;
lon. 69° 49′ W.; lat. 43° 55′ N. : popula-
tion, in 1810, 2491; in 1820, 3026. B. is
pleasantly situated, and has great advan-
tages for commerce, being at the head of
winter navigation. The river here is sel-
dom frozen over. It is one of the most
commercial towns in Maine, and consid-
erably engaged in ship-building. It con-
tains an academy, two banks, and three
houses of public worship.
BATH. Bathing undoubtedly took place
first in rivers and in the sea, but men soon
learned to enjoy this pleasure in their own
houses. Even Homer mentions the use
of the bath as an old custom. When
Ulysses enters the palace of Circe, a bath
is prepared for him, after which he is
anointed with costly perfumes, and dress-
610
BATH.
ed in rich garments. The bath, at this
period, was the first refreshment offered
to the guest. In later times, rooms, both
public and private, were built expressly
for the purpose of bathing. The public
baths of the Greeks were mostly connect-
ed with the gymnasia, because they were
taken immediately after the athletic exer-
cises. The Romans, in the period of
their luxury, imitated the Greeks in this
point, and built magnificent baths. The
following description applies both to the
Greek and Roman baths:-The building
which contained them was oblong, and
had two divisions, the one for males, the
other for females. In both, warm or cold
baths could be taken. The warm baths,
in both divisions, were adjacent to each
other, for the sake of being easily heated.
In the midst of the building, on the
ground-floor, was the heating-room, by
which not only the water for bathing, but
sometimes also the floors of the adjacent
rooms, were warmed. Above the heating-
room was an apartment in which three
copper kettles were walled in, one above
another, so that the lowest was immedi-
ately over the fire, the second over the
first, and the third over the second. In
this way, either boiling, lukewarm or cold
water could be obtained. The water was
carried, by separate pipes, provided with
cocks, from these kettles into the bathing-
rooms, and a fresh supply was immediate-
ly poured into the kettles from a reservoir.
Close to the heating-room were three
separate rooms on each side, for the hot,
the lukewarm and the cold bath. The
bathing-rooms had, in the floor, a basin
of mason-work, in which there were seats,
and round it a gallery, where the bathers
remained before they descended into the
bath, and where, also, the attendants
were. There was also a sweating-room,
which was heated by means of flues, and
was called laconicum. This room had an
opening in the ceiling, through which the
light fell, and from which was suspend-
ed a brazen plate, that could be raised
and let down at pleasure, to increase or
lessen the heat. For undressing, for re-
ceiving the garments, and for anointing
after bathing, there were different rooms;
and connected with the bath were walks,
covered race-grounds, tennis-courts and
gardens. These buildings, together with a
number of bathing-rooms, were necessary
for a public bath, which was adorned with
splendid furniture, and all the requisites
for recreation, and resembled, in its exte-
rior appearance, an extensive palace. Ro-
man luxury, always in search of means
for rendering sensual enjoyments more
exquisite, in later times, built particular
conduits for conducting sea-water to the
baths, used mountain snow, and enlarged
these establishments in such a way that
even their ruins excite admiration. (See
Wichelhausen, On the Baths of the An-
cients, Mannheim, 1807.)-Among the
Europeans, the Russians have peculiar
establishments for bathing, which are
visited by all classes of the people during
the whole year. The Russian bath con-
sists of a single hall, built of wood. In the
midst of it is a powerful metal oven, cov-
ered with heated stones. Round about
there are broad benches. In entering
this hall, you encounter such a heat, that
one who is not accustomed to it can bear
it but a few moments. Those, however,
who can endure it for some time, undress,
and stretch themselves on a mattress upon
one of the benches. Cold water is theu
poured on the heated stones; a thick, hot
steam rises, which envelopes the bather,
and heats him to such a degree, that the
sweat issues from his whole body. The
thermometer, in this steam, usually rises
to 40° or 50° Réaumur (122º-142° Fahr-
enheit). After the Russian has enjoyed
his bath in this way, he is gently whipped
with wet birch rods, rubbed with soap, in
order to lessen the perspiration, and, af-
terwards, washed with lukewarm and cold
water; of the latter some pails-full are
poured over his head; or else he leaps,
immediately after this sweating-bath, into
a river or pond, or rolls in the snow.
The Russian of higher rank takes, after
his bath, a draught of English ale, white
wine, toasted bread, sugar and citrons,
and rests upon a bed. The common Rus-
sian, after having cooled himself in the
snow, drinks some brandy, and goes
again to his work. The people regard
these baths as a necessary of life, and
they are to be found in every village.
They are also met with in Finland.-
Among the Asiatics, baths are in general
use. The Turks, by their religion, are
obliged to make repeated ablutions daily:
besides these, men and women must bathe
in particular circumstances and at certain
times. For this purpose, there is, in every
city, a public bath connected with a
mosque; and rich private persons possess
private bath-houses, adorned with all the
objects of Asiatic luxury. Besides these
baths, the Turks have also the dry-bath
of the ancients. The buildings, which
they use for this purpose, are built of
stone, and usually contain several rooms,
the floors of which are of marble. These
•
BATH-BATHURST.
rooms are heated by means of pipes,
which pass through the walls, and con-
duct the heated air to every part. After
undressing, they wrap themselves up in a
cotton coverlet, put on wooden slippers,
in order to defend the feet against the
heat of the floor, and then enter the bath-
room. The hot air soon produces a pro-
fuse perspiration; upon which they are
washed, wiped dry, combed, and rubbed
with a woollen cloth. At last, the whole
body is covered with soap, or some other
application, which improves the skin.
After this bath, they rest upon a bed, and
drink coffee, sherbet or lemonade. The
Turkish ladies daily bathe in this manner;
the men not so frequently. A peculiar
kind of baths are used in the East Indies,
of which Anquetil gives the following
account:-An attendant stretches the
bather upon a table, pours over him
warm water, and begins, afterwards, with
admirable skill, to press and to bend his
whole body. All the limbs are extended,
and the joints made to crack. After he has
done with one side, he goes on with the
other; now kneels upon the bather; now
takes hold of his shoulders; now causes
his spine to crack, by moving the verte-
bræ; now applies gentle blows to the
fleshy and muscular parts. After this,
he takes a cloth of hair, and rubs the
whole body, removes the hard skin from
the feet with pumice-stone, anoints the
bather with soap and perfumes, and fin-
ishes by shaving and cutting his hair.
This treatment lasts about three quarters
of an hour, and produces the greatest re-
freshment. An agreeable feeling per-
vades the whole body, and ends with a
sweet slumber of several hours.-Public
baths are common in Europe, and there
are, at present, few cities without them.
Medicine has endeavored to increase the
wholesome effects of baths by various
compositions and methods of applica-
tion. Baths are distinguished by the
nature of the fluid, by the degree of heat,
and by their influence upon the body.
They are prepared with water, milk,
wine, &c.; are of different temperatures;
and herbs, iron, soap, and other substances
are mixed with them, as the purpose re-
quires. There are, also, baths of earth,
sand, air, vapor, and electric baths. They
are applied either to the whole body, or
only to a single part. The shower bath
affords an agreeable and healthful mode
of bathing, and much use is made of it in
medicine. Mineral baths are those, the
water of which naturally contains min-
eral ingredients. (See Mineral Wells,
611
Vapor Baths, Salt Baths and Sea Bath-
ing.)
BATH, KNIGHTS OF THE; a military
order of England, concerning the origin
of which antiquaries differ. It is certain
that Henry IV, on the day of his corona-
tion, conferred the degree upon 46 knights.
From that time, the kings of England
have bestowed this dignity previous to
coronations, after births and marriages
of the royal issue, &c. Charles II cre-
ated several knights of the Bath, but, after
his time, the order fell into neglect, till
1725, when George I revived it. By the
book of statutes then prepared, the num-
ber of knights was fixed at 38, viz. the
sovereign and 37 knights-companions.
The king allowed the chapel of king
Henry VII, in Westminster abbey, to be
the chapel of the order. The dean of
Westminster is dean of the order. An
esquire of the order is allowed to hunt
and fish in the king's royalty, and is ex-
empted from serving in the office of high
sheriff, and every parochial office. K. B.
is the abbreviation for knight of the Bath.
BATHOS (Greek) signifies depth. We
now use this word to signify a low, tame
and creeping style. This application of
the word was introduced by Swift, who,
in his Art of Sinking in Poetry, opposes
the bathos to the sublime.
BATHURST, Allen, earl, the son of sir
Benjamin Bathurst, was born in London,
in 1684. He was educated at Oxford,
and represented the borough of Cirences-
ter, in two parliaments, during the reign
of Anne, whose tory administration he
strongly supported; and, in return, was
raised to the peerage, in 1711. He was a
warm opponent to sir Robert Walpole,
and, in 1757, was appointed treasurer to
prince George, then prince of Wales, on
whose accession to the throne he obtain-
ed a pension of £2000 per annum. He
received an earldom in 1772. Lord
Bathurst is distinguished as the intimate
friend of Bolingbroke, Addison, Pope,
Swift, Gay, and all the celebrated wits of
the age, and was himself a man of bright
parts and convivial disposition. He died
in 1775, at the advanced age of 91.
BATHURST, Henry, earl, an English
nobleman, was, in 1795, appointed one of
the commissioners for India, and, in 1809,
one of the principal secretaries of state.
On the appointment of Canning as prime
minister, 12th April, 1827, he was one of
the six Anti-Catholic members of the cab-
inet who sent in their resignations. Lord
Goderich succeeded him as secretary of
state for the colonies in the new ministry.
612
BATHURST-BATTA.
He defended his resignation on the plea
that the loss of Wellington, Peel and El-
don left a blank which could not be filled
in such a manner as to allow him to re-
main in the cabinet. Jan. 1828, on the
formation of the present cabinet, he was
made president of the council.
BATHURST; a settlement on the west
coast of Africa, formed by the English,
within a few years, on the island of St.
Mary's, near the mouth of the Gambia;
lat. 13° 25 N. It was formed in connex-
ion with the colony of Sierra Leone; the
object being to establish an equitable
commerce, instead of the slave-trade.
Population, in 1819, exclusive of the gar-
rison, upwards of 1000. The settlement
has been prosperous. The exports con-
sist of wax, ivory, gold, hides, gum, &c.
The duties on the amount exported to
England, in 1819, were upwards of
£11,000.-There is a town of the same
name in New Holland, in the region of
Botany Bay, 140 miles from Sydney, with
which it is connected by a fine road.
BATHYLLUS; a native of Alexandria,
rival of Pylades as a pantomime, particu-
larly distinguished in lively and voluptu-
ous representations. He was a slave of
Maecenas, who gave him his liberty, and,
according to the testimony of Tacitus,
the object of a licentious attachment on
his part.-In Anacreon's odes, a hand-
some boy is mentioned under the name
of B. Also, a poet of this name lived in
the reign of Augustus.
BATISTE; cambric; a very fine, thick,
white, linen cloth. It is made of the best
white flax, called rame, which is cultivat-
ed in the French Hainault. In the 13th
century, this manufacture is said to have
been brought into vogue by Baptista
Chambrai, in Flanders, and the linen af-
terwards received from him the name of
batiste, or cambric (toile de Chambrai).
Others think that the first appellation is
derived from the fine linen which we re-
ceive from India, where it is called bastas.
Different kinds of batiste are called linons,
claires, cambrics, &c., and manufactured
not only in France and the Netherlands,
but also in Switzerland, in Bohemia and
Silesia. The best come from India. (See
Cambric.)
BATMAN; a kind of weight, used at
Smyrna, consisting of six okes. 40 bat-
mans make a camel's load, and amount
to about 720 pounds in English weight.
There are four different kinds of this
weight-a small and large Turkish one,
and a small and large Persian one.
BATON ROUGE; a post-town and capi-
tal of East Baton Rouge parish, Louisi-
ana, on the east bank of the Mississippi,
15 miles above Iberville, 150 above New
Orleans by the river, 80 W. N. W. in a
straight line from New Orleans; lon. 91°
15 W.; lat. 30° 32′ N. It contains a
court-house, a jail, a market-house, a
Catholic church, a printing office, and
upwards of 200 houses. It is pleasantly
situated on the first eminence that is seen
on the Mississippi, in ascending it from
its mouth. The elevation above high-
water mark is 25 or 30 feet. On the
north side of the town is a piece of
ground belonging to the U. States, on
which are the remains of the old Spanish
fort. Baton Rouge is situated in a district
exceedingly fertile, producing abundant
crops of cotton, sugar, maize, sweet pota-
toes, &c.
BATONI, Pompeo Girolamo; born at
Lucca, in 1708; died at Rome, in 1787.
This famous restorer of the modern Ro-
man school had no rival but Mengs. All
his pieces are taken from nature. The
manner in which he executed his paint-
ings was peculiar. He covered his sketch
with a cloth, and began to paint the upper
part on the left hand, and proceeded grad-
ually towards the right, never uncovering
a new place before the first was entirely
finished. Boni, who compares in with
Mengs, calls the latter the painter of phi-
losophy; the former, the painter of na-
ture. B. painted many altar-pieces and
numerous portraits; for instance, that of
the emperor Joseph and the empress
Maria Theresa, in the imperial gallery.
His Magdalen, in Dresden, and his Return
of the Prodigal Son, in Vienna, are cele-
brated.
BATRACHOMYOMACHIA (Greek; Bárpayos,
a frog, us, a mouse, and μáx", a battle);
the battle of the frogs and the mice-a
mock heroic poem, falsely ascribed to
Homer, and, apparently, the Iliad traves-
tied, probably composed by an Alexan-
drian, in which a war between the frogs
and the mice is described with much
humor.
BATTA; a country of Sumatra, which
stretches along the south-western shore,
between Sinkell and Tabuyong, across the
island. The whole population is estima-
ted at a million, 2 or 300,000 of whom
can read. The soil is fertile, and pro-
duces chiefly camphor, gum, benzoin, cas-
sia, cotton and indigo. The language of
the Battas is a settled one, and extensively
written. They have many neatly-printed
books.-There is another Batta, a prov-
ince in Africa, formerly an independent
BATTA-BATTERY.
state, now subject to Congo. The princi-
pal towns are Batta, Cangon and Agy-
simba.
BATTALION; a division of infantry, com-
monly 600-800 men strong, in the armies
of the European continent. The battal-
ion forms an independent body, under the
orders of a staff-officer, commonly a ma-
jor; has its own standard, a musical band,
and consists not, like the regiments, of
unequal companies, but of equal divisions.
Therefore the strength of infantry is al-
ways given in battalions. In the Eng-
lish army, the strength of a battalion
varies from 600 to 1000, or even 1200
men. Each of their battalions consists of
four divisions, each division of two sub-
divisions, which are again divided into
sections. Each regiment of Napoleon's
army had a battalion of light troops, volti-
geurs. This is also the case in the Prus-
sian army, where they are called Füseliere.
Battalions form the most convenient and
manageable columns; and the columns of
battalions are those which most frequently
occur in modern battles. Squares of
companies are only formed in cases of
urgent necessity, and columns of regi-
ments form very heavy and awkward
bodies.
BATTERING RAM. The ancients em-
ployed two different machines of this
kind-the one suspended, and vibrating
after the manner of a pendulum, and the
other movable, on rollers. These were
denominated the swinging and rolling
ram, and, when worked under a cover or
shed, to protect the assailants, they were
denominated tortoise rams, from the shed
being assimilated to a tortoise-shell. The
swinging ram resembled, in magnitude
and form, the mast of a large vessel, sus-
pended horizontally at its centre of grav-
ity, by chains or cords, from a movable
frame. Ligatures of waxed cord sur-
rounded the beam at short intervals, and
cords at the extremity, opposite to the
head, served for the purpose of applying
human force to give the oscillatory mo-
tion. Other cords, at intermediate dis-
tances, were also sometimes employed.
The rolling ram was much the same as
the above in its general construction,
except that, instead of a pendulous mo-
tion, it received only a motion of simple
alternation, produced by the strength of
men applied to cords passing over pul-
leys. This construction seems to have
been first employed at the siege of Byzan-
tium. These machines were often ex-
tremely ponderous. Appian declares that,
at the siege of Carthage, he saw two rams
52
VOL. I.
613
so colossal that 100 men were employed
in working each. Vitruvius affirms that
the beam was often from 100 to 120 feet
in length; and Justus Lipsius describes
some as 180 feet long, and two feet four
inches in diameter, with an iron head
weighing at least a ton and a half. In
contrasting the effects of the battering
ram with those of the modern artillery,
we must not judge of them merely by the
measure of their respective momenta.
Such a ram as one of those described by
Lipsius would weigh more than 45,000
lbs., and its momentum, supposing its
velocity be about two yards per second,
would be nearly quadruple the momen-
tum of a 40-lb. ball moving with a ve-
locity of 1600 feet per second. But the
operation of the two upon a wall would
be very different. The ball would pene-
trate the opposing substance, and pursue
its way almost undisturbed; but the effi-
cacy of the ram would depend almost
entirely upon duly apportioning its inter-
vals of oscillation. At first, it would pro-
duce no obvious effect upon the wall; but
the judicious repetition of its blows would,
in a short time, give motion to the wall
itself. First, there would be a just per-
ceptible tremor, then more extensive vi-
brations; these being evident, the assailants
would adjust the oscillations of the ram
to that of the wall, till, at length, a large
portion of it, partaking of the vibratory
impulse, would, by a well-timed blow,
fall to the earth at once. This recorded
effect of the ram has nothing analogous
in the results of modern machinery.
BATTERY, in the military art; 1. any
raised place in which cannon are plant-
ed; 2. all the lines of a fortress, behind
the parapets of which are cannon. They
are erected in the open field, in citadels,
on a lake or the sea, before a place which
is to be besieged, &c. With regard to
the kind of artillery, they are distinguished
into cannon, howitzer, mortar, &c. With
regard to their object, they are divided
into breach batteries, used to attack the
faces or salient angles of the bastion or
ravelin, in order to make an accessible
breach; batteries en echarpe, or oblique
batteries, which are erected beside the
breach batteries, under an angle of 20–30
degrees, in order to batter a breach
obliquely; ricochet batteries, which com-
mand the enemy's lines, so that the balls
roll along the whole length of the_ram-
part, and render it insecure, &c. Their
position is perpendicular to the line which
is to be enfiladed. Mortar batteries have
the parapets inwards, and no embrasures.
614
BATTERY-BATTLE..
In respect to their position, they are divi-
ded into horizontal, raised and sunk bat-
teries. The disposition of floating bat-
teries may be various. Such a battery
commonly consists of a raft, in the middle
line of which cannon are placed, having
before them breastworks niade of bags of
wool. The raft is fastened, by a strong
cable, to a beam or anchor, round which
it is to be moved, and brought, by the aid
of oars or rudders, to the proper place.
(For an account of the floating batteries
invented by d'Arçon, which were used, in
1782, against Gibraltar, see Elliot.)-In
experimental physics, battery is a combi-
nation of several jars or metallic plates, to
increase the effect of electricity and gal-
vanism. (See Leyden Jar, and Galvan-
ism.)
BATTERY. (See Assault.)
BATTEUX, Charles; honorary canon
of Rheims, born, May 7, 1713, at Allend'-
huy, a village near Rheims. He display-
ed his gratitude to this city, in which he
received his education, by the ode In Civ-
itatem Remensem, 1739, which was much
admired. In 1750, he was invited to Paris,
where he taught rhetoric in the colleges
of Lisieux and Navarre. He was after-
wards appointed professor of Latin and
Greek philosophy at the royal college. In
1754, he becaine a member of the acade-
my of inscriptions, and, in 1761, of the
French academy. Ilis constitution, nat-
urally strong, sunk under his exertions,
and he died July 14, 1780. His eulogy
was pronounced by M. Delille, then direc-
tor of this society. B. left a large number
of valuable works. He has done much
service to literature and the fine arts, by
introducing unity and system into the
numerous canons of taste, which had
gained a standing among the French by
the example of many eminent men, par-
ticularly in regard to poetry, and must be
regarded as a valuable writer on asthetics,
notwithstanding the higher point of view
from which this science is now consider-
ed. Some of his most valuable works are
Les Beaux-Arts réduits à un même Prin-
cipe, Paris, 1747; and Cours de Belles-
Lettres ou Principes de la Littérature, Paris,
1774, and several times afterwards. These
works have been translated into many
other languages. (See Philosophy.)
BATTLE. The object of a war may be
obtained in two different ways: either
one party forces the enemy, by skilful
manœuvres, marches, demonstrations, the
occupation of advantageous positions, &c.,
to quit the field (which belongs to the
province of strategy); or the hostile
masses approach each other (by design
or by chance), so that a battle becomes
necessary to determine which shall keep
the field. The rules for insuring a suc-
cessful issue, whether they respect the
preparations for the conflict, or the direc-
tion of the forces when actually engaged,
belong to tactics, in the narrower sense
of the word. Strategy also shows the
causes which bring armies together, and
produce battles without any agreement
between the parties. It belongs not to
this article to explain this point. It may
be sufficient to say, in general, that ar-
mies, in their marches (and consequently
in their meeting), are chiefly determined
by the course of the mountains and riv-
ers of a country. In ancient times and the
middle ages, the battle-ground was often
chosen by agreement, and then the battle
was a incre trial of strength, a duel en
gros; but, in our time, such trifling is
done away. War is now carried on for
the real or pretended interest of a nation,
or a ruler who thinks or pretends that his
interest is that of the nation. Wars are
not undertaken for the purpose of fighting,
and battles are merely the consequence
of pursuing the purpose of the war.
They arise from one party's striving to
prevent the other from gaining his object.
Every means, therefore, of winning the
battle is resorted to, and an agreement
can hardly be thought of. In this respect,
a land battle is entirely different from
a naval battle.
a naval battle. The former is intended
merely to remove an obstacle in the way
of gaining the object of the war; the de-
struction of the enemy, therefore, is not
the first thing sought for. The views of
one party can often be carried into effect
with very little effusion of blood; and if
a general can obtain the same end by
manoeuvring as by a battle, he certainly
prefers the former. But the object of a
naval engagement is, almost always, the
destruction of the enemy; those cases
only excepted, in which a fleet intends to
bring supplies or reenforcements to a
blockaded port, and is obliged to fight to
accomplish its purpose.-As the armies
of the ancients were not so well organ-
ized as those of the moderns, and the
combatants fought very little at a dis-
tance, after the battle had begun, ma-
nœuvres were much more difficult, and
troops, when actually engaged, were al-
most entirely beyond the control of the
general. With them, therefore, the battle
depended almost wholly upon the previ-
ous arrangements, and the valor of the
troops. Not so in modern times. The
BATTLE.
fincst combinations, the most ingenious
manœuvres, are rendered possible by the
better organization of the armies, which
thus, generally at least, remain under the
control of the general. The battle of the
ancients was the rude beginning of an art
now much developed. It is the skill of
the general, rather than the courage of
the soldier, that now determines the event
of a battle. There is, probably, no situa-
tion, which requires the simultaneous ex-
ertion of all the powers of the mind more
than that of a general at the decisive mo-
ment of a battle. While the soldier can
yield himself entirely to the impulse of
his courage, the general must coolly cal-
culate the most various combinations;
while the soldier retreats, the general
must endeavor to turn the tide of battle
by his ardor or his genius. Daring
courage, undaunted firmness, the most
active and ingenious invention, cool cal-
culation and thorough self-possession,
amid scenes of tremendous agitation, and
under the consciousness that the fate of
a whole nation may depend on him alone
in the trying moment, these are the qual-
ities which a good general cannot dis-
pense with for a moment. If it is the
character of genius to conceive great
ideas instantaneously, military genius
is, in this respect, the greatest. Great
generals have therefore been, in all ages,
the objects of admiration; and as a great
artist may be no example, in a moral
point of view, although we admire the
genius displayed in his productions, so
we cannot but bestow the same kind
of admiration on the high intellectual
gifts of a great general. Few situations,
therefore, enable શ man to acquire
higher glory, than that of a great com-
mander in a good cause.-If troops
meet accidentally, and are thus obliged to
fight, it is called a rencontre. Further,
battles are distinguished into offensive and
defensive. Of course, a battle which is
offensive for one side is defensive for the
other. Tacticians divide a battle into three
periods-that of the disposition, that of
the combat, and the decisive moment.
The general examines the strength, re-
connoitres the position, and endeavors to
learn the intention of the enemy. If the
enemy conceals his plan and position,
skirmishes and partial assaults are often
advisable, in order to disturb him, to ob-
tain a view of his movements, to induce
him to advance, or with the view of ma-
king prisoners, who may be questioned,
&c. Since the general cannot direct all
these operations in person, officers of the
615
staff and aids assist him; single scouts or
small bodies are sent out, and spies are
employed. Any person or thing (min-
isters, peasants, shepherds, maps, &c.),
which can afford information of the en-
emy, or the ground on which the battle
is likely to take place, is made use of for
obtaining intelligence, by force or other-
wise. According to the knowledge thus
acquired, and the state of the troops, the
plan of the battle, or the disposition, is
made; and here military genius has an
opportunity to display itself. There is an
immense difference between the quick,
clear and ingenious disposition of a great
general, which shows the leading features
of the plan to every commander under
him, and provides for all cases, favor-
able or unfavorable, with a few distinct
touches, without depriving the different
commanders of freedom of action, and
the slow, indistinct, minute, and, after all,
inaccurate dispositions of a feeble com-
mander. Napoleon's dispositions are real
masterpieces. Like a great artist, he
delineates, with a few strokes, the whole
character of the battle; and as the disci-
ples of Raphael assisted in the painting
of his pictures, but necessarily worked in
the great style of their master, which his
first lines gave to the picture, so all the
skilful generals under Napoleon labored
for the accomplishment of one great end,
sometimes disclosed to them, sometimes
concealed in the breast of the commander.
To the disposition also belongs the de-
taching of large bodies which are to co-
operate in the battle, but not under the
immediate command of the chief. The
plan of the battle itself, the position of the
troops, &c., is called the order of battle
(ordre de bataille). This is either the par-
allel, or the enclosing (if the enemy can-
not develope his forces, or you are strong
enough to outflank him), or the oblique.
(See Attack.)* When each division of
troops has taken its position, and received
its orders, and the weaker points have
been fortified (if time allows it), the artille-
ry placed on the most favorable points,
all chasms connected by bridges; villages,
woods, &c., taken possession of, and all
impediments removed as far as possible
(which very often cannot be done, except
by fighting), then comes the second pe-
riod-that of the engagement. The
combat begins, either on several points at
a given signal, as is the case when the ar-
mies are very large, and a general attack is
* On the oblique order of battle, see Mélanges
I, îîì. dicte au comte de Montholon; aud Précis des
Guerres de Frederic II.
616
BATTLE.
intended, as, for instance, at Leipsic, where
three fire-balls gave the signal for battle
on the side of the allies; or by skirmishes
of the light troops, which is the most com-
mon case. The artillery endeavors to
dismount the batteries of the enemy, to
destroy his columns, and, in general, to
break a passage, if possible, for the other
troops. The forces, at the present day, are
brought into action mostly in columns, and
not, as formerly, in long but weak lines.
Here the skill of the commanders of bat-
talions is exerted. Upon them rests the
principal execution of the actual combat.
The plans and orders of a general reach
only to a certain point; the chiefs of bat-
talions must do the great work of the battle.
Before the battle, the general places him-
self upon a point, from which he can see
the conflict, and where he can easily re-
ceive reports-upon a hill, in a windmill,
&c. Sometimes, if there is no such favor-
able point, a staging is crected. Napo-
leon stood upon such a one in the battle
of Waterloo. A few men are near him,
as his body-guard; others take charge of
the plans and maps; telescopes are indis-
pensable. He often sends one of his aids
to take instant command of the nearest
body of cavalry, in order to execute an
order which must be carried into effect
quickly. He receives the reports of the
generals under him, and gives new or-
ders; disposes of the troops not yet in
action; strengthens weak points; throws
his force upon the cnemy, where he sees
them waver; or changes, if necessary,
with a bold and ingenious thought, the
whole order of battle. The general now
uses every means to bring on the third
period of the battle-the decisive moment.
This cannot always be the result of com-
binations. It often takes place much
sooner than was expected; it is often
protracted by accidents, want of energy
on the part of the commanders, &c.
Sometimes all the operations are drawing
to the end, which the general aimed at,
when an unforeseen accident suddenly
gives a new impulse to the enemy. Vic-
tory or defeat depend now upon one mo-
ment, one happy idea. Perhaps it is all-
important to break, at once, the enemy's
centre; perhaps to concentrate the de-
structive power of the artillery, and,
sweeping away some obstacle, to send,
as Napoleon often did, a torrent of cav-
alry upon a certain point. Any thing
which can carry disorder into the ranks
of the enemy is of great use.
If he be-
gins to waver, or to retreat in order, or to
fee in disorder, it is always necessary to
follow up the victory with all possible
vigor and celerity. This is as important
as victory itself. Napoleon was, till the
last war in Germany, a master in this
particular. There are three maxims as
important for the general as they are sim-
ple:-1. Know your enemy, his strength
and intentions; 2. make all the opera-
tions and manoeuvres of the parts coincide,
as much as possible, with the great plan
of the battle; 3. pursue victory to the
utmost. It is also a maxim, in regard to
battles, as well as to the conduct of war
generally, to make the enemy conform to
your plans, and to avoid the necessity of
accommodating yourself to his. Strata-
gems often are of the greatest advantage.
After a battle, care must be taken of the
wounded. Soldiers are often appointed
to take care of their unfortunate com-
rades during the battle. It ought to be
always done, though it never can do good
to any great extent.
to any great extent. At night, if cold, fires
arc lighted, that the wounded may creep to
them. Peasants are sent out to bring in the
living, and to bury the dead in large pits;
but, if possible, soldiers should always be
sent with them, because the peasants, if of
the enemy's nation, often plunder half-dead
soldiers, and bury them alive. They are
generally very rapacious, and think they
have a right to indemnify themselves for
their severe losses. The editor himself
was once in such hazard, and was saved
only by an extraordinary circumstance.—
Several games have been invented, to
explain the manner of conducting war
and battles, in which the effect of can-
non, &c., is represented by dice; pieces
of lead, differently colored, represent the
different troops. One of the most inge-
nious contrivances of this kind was in-
vented by Mr. von Reisswitz, of Berlin.

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