Title: The Nuttall Encyclopaedia
Being a Concise and Comprehensive Dictionary of General Knowledge
Author: Edited by Rev. James Wood
Release Date: May 14, 2004 [EBook #12342]
Language: English
Produced by Jonathan Ingram and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team.
THE NUTTALL ENCYCLOPÆDIA
BEING
A CONCISE AND COMPREHENSIVE DICTIONARY
OF GENERAL KNOWLEDGE
CONSISTING OF
OVER 16,000 TERSE AND ORIGINAL ARTICLES ON NEARLY ALL SUBJECTS
DISCUSSED IN LARGER ENCYCLOPÆDIAS, AND SPECIALLY DEALING
WITH SUCH AS COME UNDER THE CATEGORIES
OF
HISTORY, BIOGRAPHY, GEOGRAPHY, LITERATURE, PHILOSOPHY, RELIGION,
SCIENCE, AND ART
EDITED BY THE
REV. JAMES WOOD
EDITOR OF "NUTTALL'S STANDARD DICTIONARY" AND COMPILER OF THE
"DICTIONARY OF QUOTATIONS"
_THE SIXTY-FIRST THOUSAND_
1907
PREFACE
"The NUTTALL ENCYCLOPÆDIA" is the fruit of a project to provide, in a
concise and condensed form, and at a cheap rate, an epitome of the kind
of information given in the larger Encyclopædias, such as may prove
sufficient for the ordinary requirements, in that particular, of the
generality of people, and especially of such as have not the means for
purchasing or the leisure for studying the larger.
An Encyclopædia is now recognised to be as indispensable a book of
reference as a dictionary; for while the latter explains and defines the
vehicle of _thought_, the former seeks to define the subject-matter. Now
the rapid increase in the vocabulary of a nation, which makes the
possession of an up-to-date dictionary almost one of the necessaries of
life, is evidently due to the vast increase in the number of _facts_
which the language has to describe or interpret; and if it is difficult
to keep pace with the growth in the language, it is obviously more
difficult to attain even a working knowledge of the array of facts which
in this age come before us for discussion. No man can now peruse even a
daily newspaper without being brought face to face with details about
questions of the deepest interest to _him_; and he is often unable to
grasp the meaning of what he reads for want of additional knowledge or
explanation. In short, it becomes more and more a necessity of modern
life to know something of everything. A little knowledge is not dangerous
to those who recognise it to be little, and it may be sufficient to
enable those who possess it to understand and enjoy intelligently what
would otherwise only weigh as a burdensome reflection upon their
ignorance. Even a comparatively exhaustive treatment of the multitudinous
subjects comprehended under the term universal knowledge would demand a
library of large volumes, hence the extent and heavy cost of the great
Encyclopædias. But it is doubtful whether the mass of information
contained in those admirable and bulky works does not either go beyond,
or, more frequently than not, fall short of the requirements of those who
refer to them. For the special student there is too little, for the
general reader too much. Detailed knowledge of any subject in this age of
specialisation can be acquired only by study of the works specifically
devoted to it. What is wanted in a popular Encyclopædia is succinct
information--the more succinct the better, so long as it gives what is
required by the inquiry, leaving it to the authorities in each subject to
supply the information desired by those intent on pursuing it further.
The value of an Encyclopædia of such small scope must depend, therefore,
upon the careful selection of its materials, and in this respect it is
hoped the one now offered to the public will be found adequate to any
reasonable demands made upon it. If the facts given here are the facts
that the great majority are in search of when they refer to its pages, it
may be claimed for "The Nuttall Encyclopædia" that, in one respect at all
events it is more valuable for instant reference than the best
Encyclopædia in many volumes; for "The Nuttall" can lie on the desk for
ready-to-hand reference, and yields at a glance the information wanted.
Within the necessary limits of a single volume the Editor persuades
himself he has succeeded in including a wide range of subjects, and he
trusts that the information he has given on these will meet in some
measure at least the wants of those for whom the book has been compiled.
To the careful Newspaper Reader; to Heads of Families, with children at
school, whose persistent questions have often to go without an answer; to
the Schoolmaster and Tutor; to the student with a shallow purse; to the
Busy Man and Man of Business, it is believed that this volume will prove
a solid help.
The subjects, as hinted, are various, and these the Editor may be
permitted to classify in a general way under something like the following
rubrics:--
1. Noted people, their nationality, the time when they flourished, and
what they are noted for.
2. Epochs, important movements, and events in history, with the dates and
their historical significance.
3. Countries, provinces, and towns, with descriptions of them, their
sizes, populations, etc., and what they are noted for.
4. Heavenly bodies, especially those connected with the solar system,
their sizes, distances, and revolutions.
5. Races and tribes of mankind, with features that characterise them.
6. Mythologies, and the account they severally give of the divine and
demonic powers, supreme and subordinate, that rule the world.
7. Religions of the world, with their respective credos and objects and
forms of worship.
8. Schools of philosophy, with their theories of things and of the
problems of life and human destiny.
9. Sects and parties, under the different systems of belief or polity,
and the specialities of creed and policy that divide them.
10. Books of the world, especially the sacred ones, and the spiritual
import of them; in particular those of the Bible, on each of which a note
or two is given.
11. Legends and fables, especially such as are more or less of world
significance.
12. Characters in fiction and fable, both mediæval and modern.
13. Fraternities, religious and other, with their symbols and
shibboleths.
14. Families of note, especially such as have developed into dynasties.
15. Institutions for behoof of some special interest, secular or sacred,
including universities.
16. Holidays and festivals, with what they commemorate, and the rites and
ceremonies connected with them.
17. Science, literature, and art in general, but these chiefly in
connection with the names of those distinguished in the cultivation of
them.
Such, in a general way, are some of the subjects contained in the book,
while there is a number of others not reducible to the classification
given, and among these the Editor has included certain subjects of which
he was able to give only a brief definition, just as there are doubtless
others which in so wide an area of research have escaped observation and
are not included in the list. In the selection of subjects the Editor
experienced not a little embarrassment, and he was not unfrequently at a
loss to summarise particulars under several of the heads. Such as it is,
the Editor offers the book to the public, and he hopes that with all its
shortcomings it will not be unfavourably received.
NOTES.
(1) The figures in brackets following Geographical names indicate the
number of _thousands of population_.
(2) The figures in brackets given in Biographical references indicate the
_dates_ of birth and death where both are given.
THE NUTTALL ENCYCLOPÆDIA
A
A'ALI PASHA, an eminent reforming Turkish statesman (1815-1871).
AACHEN. See AIX-LA-CHAPELLE.
AALBORG (19), a trading town on the Liimfiord, in the N. of Jutland.
AAR, a large Swiss river about 200 m. long, which falls into the
Rhine as it leaves Switzerland.
AARGAU, a fertile Swiss canton bordering on the Rhine.
AARHUUS (33), a port on the E. of Jutland, with a considerable
export and import trade, and a fine old Gothic cathedral.
AARON, the elder brother of Moses, and the first high-priest of the
Jews, an office he held for forty years.
ABACA, Manila hemp, or the plant, native to the Philippines, which
yield it in quantities.
ABACUS, a tablet crowning a column and its capital.
ABADDON, the bottomless pit, or the angel thereof.
ABARIM, a mountain chain in Palestine, NE. of the Dead Sea, the
highest point being Mount Nebo.
ABATEMENT, a mark of disgrace in a coat of arms.
ABAUZIT, FIRMIN, a French Protestant theologian and a mathematician,
a friend of Newton, and much esteemed for his learning by Rousseau and
Voltaire (1679-1767).
ABBADIE, two brothers of French descent, Abyssinian travellers in
the years 1837-1848; also a French Protestant divine (1658-1727).
ABBAS, uncle of Mahomet, founder of the dynasty of the Abbasides
(566-652).
ABBAS PASHA, the khedive of Egypt, studied five years in Vienna,
ascended the throne at eighteen, accession hailed with enthusiasm; shows
at times an equivocal attitude to Britain; _b_. 1874.
ABBAS THE GREAT, shah of Persia, of the dynasty of the Sophis, great
alike in conquest and administration (1557-1628).
ABBAS-MIRZA, a Persian prince, a reformer of the Persian army, and a
leader of it, unsuccessfully, however, against Russia (1783-1833).
ABBASIDES, a dynasty of 37 caliphs who ruled as such at Bagdad from
750 to 1258.
AB`BATI, NICCOLO DELL', an Italian fresco-painter (1512-1571).
ABBÉ, name of a class of men who in France prior to the Revolution
prepared themselves by study of theology for preferment in the Church,
and who, failing, gave themselves up to letters or science.
ABBEVILLE (19), a thriving old town on the Somme, 12 m. up, with an
interesting house architecture, and a cathedral, unfinished, in the
Flamboyant style.
ABBOT, head of an abbey. There were two classes of abbots: Abbots
Regular, as being such in fact, and Abbots Commendatory, as guardians and
drawing the revenues.
ABBOT, GEORGE, archbishop of Canterbury in the reigns of James I.
and Charles I., and one of the translators of King James's Bible; an
enemy of Laud's, who succeeded him (1562-1633).
ABBOT OF MISRULE, a person elected to superintend the Christmas
revelries.
ABBOTSFORD, the residence of Sir Walter Scott, on the Tweed, near
Melrose, built by him on the site of a farm called Clarty Hole.
ABBOTT, EDWIN, a learned Broad Church theologian and man of letters;
wrote, besides other works, a volume of sermons "Through Nature to
Christ"; esteemed insistence on miracles injurious to faith; _b_. 1838.
ABDAL`LAH, the father of Mahomet, famed for his beauty (545-570);
also a caliph of Mecca (622-692).
ABDALRAH`MAN, the Moorish governor of Spain, defeated by Charles
Martel at Tours in 732.
ABDALS (lit. servants of Allah), a set of Moslem fanatics in
Persia.
ABD-EL-KA`DIR, an Arab emir, who for fifteen years waged war against
the French in N. Africa, but at length surrendered prisoner to them in
1847. On his release in 1852 he became a faithful friend of France
(1807-1883).
ABDE`RA, a town in ancient Thrace, proverbial for the stupidity of
its inhabitants.
ABDICATIONS, of which the most celebrated are those of the Roman
Dictator Sylla, who in 70 B.C. retired to Puteoli; of Diocletian, who in
A.D. 305 retired to Salone; of Charles V., who in 1556 retired to the
monastery St. Yuste; of Christina of Sweden, who in 1654 retired to Rome,
after passing some time in France; of Napoleon, who in 1814 and 1815
retired first to Elba and then died at St. Helena; of Charles X. in 1830,
who died at Goritz, in Austria; and of Louis Philippe, who in 1848
retired to end his days in England.
ABDIEL, one of the seraphim, who withstood Satan in his revolt
against the Most High.
ABDUL-AZIZ, sultan of Turkey from 1861, in succession to
Abdul-Medjid (1830-1876).
ABDUL-AZIZ, sultan of Morocco, was only fourteen at his accession;
_b_. 1880.
ABDUL-HA`MID II., sultan of Turkey in 1876, brother to Abdul-Aziz,
and his successor; under him Turkey has suffered serious dismemberment,
and the Christian subjects in Armenia and Crete been cruelly massacred;
_b_. 1842.
ABD-UL-MED`JID, sultan, father of the two preceding, in whose
defence against Russia England and France undertook the Crimean war
(1823-1861).
ABDUR-RAH`MAN, the ameer of Afghanistan, subsidised by the English;
_b_. 1830.
À'BECKET, GILBERT, an English humourist, who contributed to _Punch_
and other organs; wrote the "Comic Blackstone" and comic histories of
England and Rome (1811-1856).
À'BECKET, A. W., son of the preceding, a littérateur and journalist;
_b_. 1844.
ABEL, the second son of Adam and Eve; slain by his brother. The
death of Abel is the subject of a poem by Gessner and a tragedy by
Legouvé.
ABEL, SIR F. A., a chemist who has made a special study of
explosives; _b_. 1827.
ABEL, HENRY, an able Norwegian mathematician, who died young
(1802-1828).
AB`ELARD, PETER, a theologian and scholastic philosopher of French
birth, renowned for his dialectic ability, his learning, his passion for
Héloïse, and his misfortunes; made conceivability the test of
credibility, and was a great teacher in his day (1079-1142).
ABELLI, a Dominican monk, the confessor of Catharine de Medici
(1603-1691).
ABENCERRA`GES, a powerful Moorish tribe in Grenada, whose fate in
the 15th century has been the subject of interesting romance.
ABEN-EZ`RA, a learned Spanish Jew and commentator on the Hebrew
scriptures (1090-1168).
ABERA`VON (6), a town and seaport in Glamorganshire, with copper and
iron works.
ABERCROMBIE, SIR RALPH, a distinguished British general of Scottish
birth, who fell in Egypt after defeating the French at Aboukir Bay
(1731-1801).
ABERDEEN (124), the fourth city in Scotland, on the E. coast,
between the mouths of the Dee and Don; built of grey granite, with many
fine public edifices, a flourishing university, a large trade, and
thriving manufactures. Old Aberdeen, on the Don, now incorporated in the
municipality, is the seat of a cathedral church, and of King's College,
founded in 1404, united with the university in the new town.
ABERDEEN, EARL OF, a shrewd English statesman, Prime Minister of
England during the Crimean war (1784-1860).--Grandson of the preceding,
Gov.-Gen. of Canada; _b_. 1847.
ABERDEENSHIRE (281), a large county in NE. of Scotland; mountainous
in SW., lowland N. and E.; famed for its granite quarries, its fisheries,
and its breed of cattle.
ABERNETHY, a small burgh in S. Perthshire, with a Pictish round
tower, and once the capital of the Pictish kingdom.
ABERRATION OF LIGHT, an apparent motion in a star due to the earth's
motion and the progressive motion of light.
ABERYST`WITH (16), a town and seaport in Cardiganshire, Wales, with
a university.
AB`GAR XIV., a king of Edessa, one of a dynasty of the name, a
contemporary of Jesus Christ, and said to have corresponded with Him.
ABHORRERS, the Royalist and High Church party in England under
Charles II., so called from their abhorrence of the principles of their
opponents.
ABIGAIL, the widow of Nabal, espoused by David.
ABICH, W. H., a German mineralogist and traveller (1806-1886).
ABINGDON (6), a borough in Berks, 6 m. S. of Oxford.
ABIOGENESIS, the doctrine of spontaneous generation.
ABIPONES, a once powerful warlike race in La Plata, now nearly all
absorbed.
ABLE MAN, man with "a heart to resolve, a head to contrive, and a
hand to execute" (Gibbon).
ABNER, a Hebrew general under Saul; assassinated by Joab.
ABO, the old capital of Finland and seat of the government, on the
Gulf of Bothnia.
AB`OMEY, the capital of Dahomey, in W. Africa.
ABOU`KIR, village near Alexandria, in Egypt, on the bay near which
Nelson destroyed the French fleet in 1799; where Napoleon beat the Turks,
1799; and where Abercrombie fell, 1801.
ABOUT, EDMOND, spirited French littérateur and journalist
(1828-1885).
ABRAHAM, the Hebrew patriarch, ancestor of the Jews, the very type
of an Eastern pastoral chief at once by his dignified character and
simple faith.
ABRAHAM, THE PLAINS OF, a plain near Quebec.
ABRAHAM-MEN, a class of lunatics allowed out of restraint, at one
time, to roam about and beg; a set of impostors who wandered about the
country affecting lunacy.
ABRAN`TES, a town in Portugal, on the Tagus; taken by Marshal Junot,
1807, and giving the title of Duke to him.
ABRAXAS STONES, stones with cabalistic figures on them used as
talismans.
ABRUZ`ZI, a highland district in the Apennines, with a pop. of
100,000.
ABSALOM, a son of David, who rebelled against his father, and at
whose death David gave vent to a bitter wail of grief. A name given by
Dryden to the Duke of Monmouth, son of Charles II.
ABSOLUTE, THE, the philosophical name for the uncreated Creator, or
creating cause of all things, dependent on nothing external to itself.
ABSYRTUS, a brother of Medea, whom she cut in pieces as she fled
with Jason, pursued by her father, throwing his bones behind her to
detain her father in his pursuit of her by stopping to pick them up.
ABT, FRANZ, a German composer of song-music (1819-1885).
ABU, a mountain (6000 ft.) in Rajputana, with a footprint of Vishnu
on the top, and two marble temples half-way up, held sacred by the Jains.
AB`UBEKR, as the father of Ayesha, the father-in-law of Mahomet, the
first of the caliphs and the founder of the Sunnites; _d_. 634.
AB`U-KLEA, in the Soudan, where the Mahdi's forces were defeated by
Sir H. Stewart in 1885.
A`BUL-FARAJ, a learned Armenian Jew, who became bishop of Aleppo,
and wrote a history of the world from Adam onwards (1226-1286).
ABUL-FAZEL, the vizier of the great Mogul emperor Akbar, and who
wrote an account of his reign and of the Mogul empire; he was
assassinated in 1604.
ABUL-FEDA, a Moslem prince of Hamat in Syria, who in his youth took
part against the Crusaders, and wrote historical works in Arabic
(1273-1331).
ABU-THA`LEB, uncle of Mahomet, and his protector against the plots
of his enemies the Koreish.
ABY`DOS, a town on the Asiatic side of the Hellespont, famous as the
home of Leander, who swam the Hellespont every night to visit Hero in
Sestos, and as the spot where Xerxes built his bridge of boats to cross
into Europe in 480 B.C.; also a place of note in Upper Egypt.
ABYSSIN`IA, a mountainous country SE. of Nubia, with an area of
200,000 sq. m., made up of independent states, and a mixed population of
some four millions, the Abyssinians proper being of the Semite stock. It
is practically under the protectorate of Italy.
ACACIA, a large group of trees with astringent and gum-yielding
properties, natives of tropical Africa and Australia.
ACADEMY, a public shady park or place of groves near Athens, where
Plato taught his philosophy and whence his school derived its name, of
which there are three branches, the _Old_, the _Middle_, and the _New_,
represented respectively by Plato himself, Arcesilaos, and Carneades. The
_French Academy_, of forty members, was founded by Richelieu in 1635,
and is charged with the interests of the French language and literature,
and in particular with the duty of compiling an authoritative dictionary
of the French language. Besides these, there are in France other four
with a like limited membership in the interest of other departments of
science and art, all now associated in the _Institute of France_, which
consists in all of 229 members. There are similar institutions in other
states of Europe, all of greater or less note.
ACADIA, the French name for Nova Scotia and New Brunswick.
ACANTHUS, a leaf-like ornament on the capitals of the columns of
certain orders of architecture.
ACAPUL`CO, a Mexican port in the Pacific, harbour commodious, but
climate unhealthy.
ACARNA`NIA, a province of Greece N. of Gulf of Corinth; its pop.
once addicted to piracy.
ACCA`DIANS, a dark, thick-lipped, short-statured Mongol race in
Central Asia, displaced by the Babylonians and Assyrians, who were
Semitic.
ACCA-LAURENTIA, the wife of Faustulus, shepherd of Numitor, who
saved the lives of Romulus and Remus.
ACCIAIOLI, a Florentine family of 15th century, illustrious in
scholarship and war.
ACCOLADE, a gentle blow with a sword on the shoulder in conferring
knighthood.
ACCOL`TI, a Tuscan family, of 15th century, famous for their
learning.
ACCOR`SO, the name of a Florentine family, of 12th and 13th
centuries, great in jurisprudence.
ACCRA (16), capital and chief port in British Gold Coast colony.
ACCRINGTON (39), a manufacturing town 22 m. N. of Manchester.
ACCUM, FRIEDRICH, a German chemist, the first promoter of
gas-lighting (1769-1838).
ACCUMULATOR, a hydraulic press for storing up water at a high
pressure; also a device for storing up electric energy.
ACERRA (14), an ancient city 9 m. NE. of Naples; is in an unhealthy
district.
ACETIC ACID, the pure acid of vinegar; the salts are called
_acetates_.
ACETONE, a highly inflammable liquid obtained generally by the dry
distillation of acetates.
ACET`YLENE, a malodorous gaseous substance from the incomplete
combustion of hydro-carbons.
ACHÆAN LEAGUE, a confederation of 12 towns in the Peloponnesus,
formed especially against the influence of the Macedonians.
ACHÆ`ANS, the common name of the Greeks in the heroic or Homeric
period.
ACHAI`A, the N. district of the Peloponnesus, eventually the whole
of it.
ACHARD, a Prussian chemist, one of the first to manufacture sugar
from beetroot (1753-1821).
ACHARD`, LOUIS AMÉDÉE, a prolific French novelist (1814-1876).
ACHA`TES, the attendant of Æneas in his wandering after the fall of
Troy, remarkable for, and a perennial type of, fidelity.
ACHELO`ÜS, a river in Greece, which rises in Mt. Pindus, and falls
into the Ionian Sea; also the god of the river, the oldest of the sons of
Oceanus, and the father of the Sirens.
ACHEN, an eminent German painter (1556-1621).
ACHENWALL, a German economist, the founder of statistic science
(1719-1772).
ACH`ERON, a river in the underworld; the name of several rivers in
Greece more or less suggestive of it.
ACH`ERY, a learned French Benedictine of St. Maur (1609-1685).
ACH`ILL, a rocky, boggy island, sparsely inhabited, off W. coast of
Ireland, co. Mayo, with a bold headland 2222 ft. high.
ACHILLE`ID, an unfinished poem of Statius.
ACHIL`LES, the son of Peleus and Thetis, king of the Myrmidons, the
most famous of the Greek heroes in the Trojan war, and whose wrath with
the consequences of it forms the subject of the Iliad of Homer. He was
invulnerable except in the heel, at the point where his mother held him
as she dipt his body in the Styx to render him invulnerable.
ACHILLES OF GERMANY, Albert, third elector of Brandenburg, "fiery,
tough old gentleman, of formidable talent for fighting in his day; a very
blazing, far-seen character," says Carlyle (1414-1486).
ACHILLES TENDON, the great tendon of the heel, where Achilles was
vulnerable.
ACHMED PASHA, a French adventurer, served in French army, condemned
to death, fled, and served Austria; condemned to death a second time,
pardoned, served under the sultan, was banished to the shores of the
Black Sea (1675-1747).
ACH`MET I., sultan of Turkey from 1603 to 1617; A. II., from
1691 to 1695; A. III., from 1703 to 1730, who gave asylum to Charles
XII. of Sweden after his defeat by the Czar at Pultowa.
ACHIT`OPHEL, name given by Dryden to the Earl of Shaftesbury of his
time.
ACHROMATISM, transmission of light, undecomposed and free from
colour, by means of a combination of dissimilar lenses of crown and flint
glass, or by a single glass carefully prepared.
ACIERAGE, coating a copper-plate with steel by voltaic electricity.
A`CI-REA`LË (38), a seaport town in Sicily, at the foot of Mount
Etna, in NE. of Catania, with mineral waters.
A`CIS, a Sicilian shepherd enamoured of Galatea, whom the Cyclops
Polyphemus, out of jealousy, overwhelmed under a rock, from under which
his blood has since flowed as a river.
ACK`ERMANN, R., an enterprising publisher of illustrated works in
the Strand, a native of Saxony (1764-1834).
ACLAND, SIR HENRY, regius professor of medicine in Oxford,
accompanied the Prince of Wales to America in 1860, the author of several
works on medicine and educational subjects, one of Ruskin's old and tried
friends (1815).
ACLINIC LINE, the magnetic equator, along which the needle always
remains horizontal.
ACNE, a skin disease showing hard reddish pimples; ACNE
ROSACEA, a congestion of the skin of the nose and parts adjoining.
ACOEMETÆ, an order of monks in the 5th century who by turns kept up
a divine service day and night.
ACONCA`GUA, the highest peak of the Andes, about 100 m. NE. of
Valparaiso, 22,867 ft. high; recently ascended by a Swiss and a
Scotchman, attendants of Fitzgerald's party.
ACONITE, monk's-hood, a poisonous plant of the ranunculus order with
a tapering root.
ACONITINE, a most virulent poison from aconite, and owing to the
very small quantity sufficient to cause death, is very difficult of
detection when employed in taking away life.
ACORN-SHELLS, a crustacean attached to rocks on the sea-shore,
described by Huxley as "fixed by its head," and "kicking its food into
its mouth with its legs."
ACOUSTICS, the science of sound as it affects the ear, specially of
the laws to be observed in the construction of halls so that people may
distinctly hear in them.
ACRASIA, an impersonation in Spenser's "Faërie Queen," of
intemperance in the guise of a beautiful sorceress.
ACRE, ST. JEAN D' (7), a strong place and seaport in Syria, at the
foot of Mount Carmel, taken, at an enormous sacrifice of life, by Philip
Augustus and Richard Coeur de Lion in 1191, held out against Bonaparte in
1799; its ancient name Ptolemaïs.
ACRES, BOB, a coward in the "Rivals" whose "courage always oozed out
at his finger ends."
ACROAMATICS, esoteric lectures, i. e. lectures to the initiated.
ACROLEIN, a light volatile limpid liquid obtained by the destructive
distillation of fats.
ACROLITHS, statues of which only the extremities are of stone.
ACROP`OLIS, a fortified citadel commanding a city, and generally the
nucleus of it, specially the rocky eminence dominating Athens.
ACROTE`RIA, pedestals placed at the middle and the extremities of a
pediment to support a statue or other ornament, or the statue or ornament
itself.
ACTA DIURNA, a kind of gazette recording in a summary way daily
events, established at Rome in 131 B.C., and rendered official by Cæsar
in 50 B.C.
ACTA SANCTORUM, the lives of the saints in 62 vols. folio, begun in
the 17th century by the Jesuits, and carried on by the Bollandists.
ACTÆON, a hunter changed into a stag for surprising Diana when
bathing, and afterwards devoured by his own dogs.
ACTINIC RAYS, "non-luminous rays of higher frequency than the
luminous rays."
ACTINISM, the chemical action of sunlight.
ACTINOMYCOSIS, a disease of a fungous nature on the mouth and lower
jaw of cows.
ACTIUM, a town and promontory at the entrance of the Ambracian Gulf
(Arta), in Greece, where Augustus gained his naval victory over Antony
and Cleopatra, Sept. 2, 31 B.C.
ACTON, an adventurer of English birth, who became prime minister of
Naples, but was driven from the helm of affairs on account of his
inveterate antipathy to the French (1737-1808).
ACTON, LORD, a descendant of the former, who became a leader of the
Liberal Catholics in England, M.P. for Carlow, and made a peer in 1869;
a man of wide learning, and the projector of a universal history by
experts in different departments of the field; _b_. 1834.
ACTS OF THE APOSTLES, a narrative account in the New Testament of
the founding of the Christian Church chiefly through the ministry of
Peter and Paul, written by Luke, commencing with the year 33, and
concluding with the imprisonment of Paul in Rome in 62.
ACUN`HA, TRISTRAM D', a Portuguese navigator, companion of
Albuquerque; NUNA D', his son, viceroy of the Indies from 1528 to
1539; RODRIQUE D', archbishop of Lisbon, who in 1640 freed Portugal
from the Spanish domination, and established the house of Braganza on the
throne.
ACUPRESSURE, checking hemorrhage in arteries during an operation by
compressing their orifices with a needle.
ACUPUNCTURE, the operation of pricking an affected part with a
needle, and leaving it for a short time in it, sometimes for as long as
an hour.
ADAIR, SIR ROBERT, a distinguished English diplomatist, and
frequently employed on the most important diplomatic missions
(1763-1855).
ADAL, a flat barren region between Abyssinia and the Red Sea.
ADALBE`RON, the archbishop of Rheims, chancellor of Lothaire and
Louis V.; consecrated Hugh Capet; _d_. 998.
ADALBERT, a German ecclesiastic, who did much to extend Christianity
over the North (1000-1072).
ADALBERT, ST., bishop of Prague, who, driven from Bohemia, essayed
to preach the gospel in heathen Prussia, where the priests fell upon him,
and "struck him with a death-stroke on the head," April 27, 997, on the
anniversary of which day a festival is held in his honour.
ADA`LIA (30), a seaport on the coast of Asia Minor, on a bay of the
same name.
ADAM (i. e. man), the first father, according to the Bible, of the
human race.
ADAM, ALEX., a distinguished Latin scholar, rector for 40 years of
the Edinburgh High School, Scott having been one of his pupils
(1741-1809).
ADAM, LAMBERT, a distinguished French sculptor (1700-1759).
ADAM, ROBERT, a distinguished architect, born at Kirkcaldy,
architect of the Register House and the University, Edinburgh
(1728-1792).
ADAM BEDE, George Eliot's first novel, published anonymously in
1859, took at once with both critic and public.
ADAM KADMON, primeval man as he at first emanated from the Creator,
or man in his primeval rudimentary potentiality.
ADAM OF BROMEN, distinguished as a Christian missionary in the 11th
century; author of a celebrated Church history of N. Europe from 788 to
1072, entitled _Gesta Hammenburgensis Ecclesiæ Pontificum_.
ADAMAS`TOR, the giant spirit of storms, which Camoëns, in his
"Luciad," represents as rising up before Vasco de Gama to warn him off
from the Cape of Storms, henceforth called, in consequence of the
resultant success in despite thereof, the Cape of Good Hope.
ADAMAWA, a region in the Lower Soudan with a healthy climate and a
fertile soil, rich in all tropical products.
ADAMITES, visionaries in Africa in the 2nd century, and in Bohemia
in the 14th and 15th, who affected innocence, rejected marriage, and went
naked.
ADAMNAN, ST., abbot of Iona, of Irish birth, who wrote a life of St.
Columba and a work on the Holy Places, of value as the earliest written
(625-704).
ADAMS, DR. F., a zealous student and translator of Greek medical
works (1797-1861).
ADAMS, JOHN, the second president of the United States, and a chief
promoter of their independence (1739-1826).
ADAMS, JOHN QUINCY, his eldest son, the sixth president (1767-1848).
ADAMS, JOHN COUCH, an English astronomer, the discoverer
simultaneously with Leverrier of the planet Neptune (1819-1892).
ADAMS, PARSON, a country curate in Fielding's "Joseph Andrews," with
a head full of learning and a heart full of love to his fellows, but in
absolute ignorance of the world, which in his simplicity he takes for
what it professes to be.
ADAMS, SAMUEL, a zealous promoter of American independence, who
lived and died poor (1722-1803).
ADAM'S BRIDGE, a chain of coral reefs and sandbanks connecting
Ceylon with India.
ADAM'S PEAK, a conical peak in the centre of Ceylon 7420 ft. high,
with a foot-like depression 5 ft. long and 2½ broad atop, ascribed to
Adam by the Mohammedans, and to Buddha by the Buddhists; it was here, the
Arabs say, that Adam alighted on his expulsion from Eden and stood doing
penance on one foot till God forgave him.
ADA`NA (40), a town SE. corner of Asia Minor, 30 m. from the sea.
ADANSON, MICHEL, a French botanist, born in AIX, the first to
attempt a natural classification of plants (1727-1806).
AD`DA, an affluent of the Po, near Cremona; it flows through Lake
Como; on its banks Bonaparte gained several of his famous victories over
Austria.
ADDINGTON, HENRY, Lord Sidmouth, an English statesman was for a
short time Prime Minister, throughout a supporter of Pitt (1757-1844).
ADDISON, JOSEPH, a celebrated English essayist, studied at Oxford,
became Fellow of Magdalen, was a Whig in politics, held a succession of
Government appointments, resigned the last for a large pension; was
pre-eminent among English writers for the purity and elegance of his
style, had an abiding, refining, and elevating influence on the
literature of the country; his name is associated with the _Tatler,
Spectator_, and _Guardian_, as well as with a number of beautiful hymns
(1672-1749).
A`DELAAR, the name of honour given to Cort Sivertsen, a famous Norse
seaman, who rendered distinguished naval services to Denmark and to
Venice against the Turks (1622-1675).
ADELAIDE (133), the capital of S. Australia, on the river Torrens,
which flows through it into St. Vincent Gulf, 7 m. SE. of Port Adelaide;
a handsome city, with a cathedral, fine public buildings, a university,
and an extensive botanical garden; it is the great emporium for S.
Australia; exports wool, wine, wheat, and copper ore.
ADELAIDE, eldest daughter of Louis XV. of France (1732-1806).
ADELAIDE, PORT, the haven of Adelaide, a port of call, with a
commodious harbour.
ADELAIDE, QUEEN, consort of William IV. of England (1792-1849).
ADELAIDE OF ORLEANS, sister of Louis Philippe, his Egeria
(1771-1841).
ADELBERG, a town of Carniola, 22 m. from Trieste, with a large
stalactite cavern, besides numerous caves near it.
ADELUNG, JOHANN CHRISTOPH, a distinguished German philologist and
lexicographer, born in Pomerania (1732-1806).
A`DEN (42), a fortified town on a peninsula in British territory S.
of Arabia, 105 m. E. of Bab-el-Mandeb; a coaling and military station, in
a climate hot, but healthy.
AD`HERBAL, son of Micipsa, king of Numidia, killed by Jugurtha, 249
B.C.
ADI GRANTH, the sacred book of the Sikhs.
ADIAPH`ORISTS, Lutherans who in 16th century maintained that certain
practices of the Romish Church, obnoxious to others of them, were matters
of indifference, such as having pictures, lighting candles, wearing
surplices, and singing certain hymns in worship.
AD`IGE, a river of Italy, which rises in the Rhetian Alps and falls
into the Adriatic after a course of 250 m.; subject to sudden swellings
and overflowings.
ADIPOCERE, a fatty, spermaceti-like substance, produced by the
decomposition of animal matter in moist places.
ADIPOSE TISSUE, a tissue of small vesicles filled with oily matter,
in which there is no sensation, and a layer of which lies under the skin
and gives smoothness and warmth to the body.
ADIRONDACK MOUNTAINS, a high-lying, picturesque, granite range in
the State of New York; source of the Hudson.
ADJUTANT, a gigantic Indian stork with an enormous beak, about 5 ft.
in height, which feeds on carrion and offal, and is useful in this way,
as storks are.
ADLER, HERMANN, son and successor of the following, born in Hanover;
a vigorous defender of his co-religionists and their faith, as well as
their sacred Scriptures; was elected Chief Rabbi in 1891; _b_. 1839.
ADLER, NATHAN MARCUS, chief Rabbi in Britain, born in Hanover
(1803-1890).
ADLERCREUTZ, a Swedish general, the chief promoter of the revolution
of 1808, who told Gustavus IV. to his face that he ought to retire
(1759-1815).
ADME`TUS, king of Pheræ in Thessaly, one of the Argonauts, under
whom Apollo served for a time as neat-herd. _See_ ALCESTIS.
ADMIRABLE DOCTOR, a name given to Roger Bacon.
ADMIRAL, the chief commander of a fleet, of which there are in
Britain three grades--admirals, vice-admirals, and rear-admirals, the
first displaying his flag on the main mast, the second on the fore, and
the third on the mizzen.
ADMIRALTY, BOARD OF, board of commissioners appointed for the
management of naval affairs.
ADMIRALTY ISLAND, an island off the coast of Alaska.
ADMIRALTY ISLANDS, a group NE. of New Guinea, in the Pacific, which
belong to Germany.
ADOLF, FRIEDRICH, king of Sweden, under whose reign the nobles
divided themselves into the two factions of the Caps, or the peace-party,
and the Hats, or the war-party (1710-1771).
ADOLPH, ST., a Spanish martyr: festival, Sept. 27.
ADOLPH OF NASSAU, Kaiser from 1291 to 1298, "a stalwart but
necessitous Herr" Carlyle calls him; seems to have been under the pay of
Edward Longshanks.
ADOLPHUS, JOHN, an able London barrister in criminal cases, and a
voluminous historical writer (1766-1845).
ADONA`I, the name used by the Jews for God instead of Jehovah, too
sacred to be pronounced.
ADONA`IS, Shelley's name for Keats.
ADO`NIS, a beautiful youth beloved by Aphrodité (Venus), but
mortally wounded by a boar and changed by her into a flower the colour of
his blood, by sprinkling nectar on his body.
ADOPTIONISTS, heretics who in the 8th century maintained that Christ
was the son of God, not by birth, but by adoption, and as being one with
Him in character and will.
ADOR`NO, an illustrious plebeian family in Genoa, of the Ghibelline
party, several of whom were Doges of the republic.
ADOUR, a river of France, rising in the Pyrenees and falling into
the Bay of Biscay.
ADOWA`, a highland town in Abyssinia, and chief entrepôt of trade.
ADRAS`TUS, a king of Argos, the one survivor of the first expedition
of the Seven against Thebes, who died of grief when his son fell in the
second.
ADRETS, BARON DES, a Huguenot leader, notorious for his cruelty;
died a Catholic (1513-1587).
A`DRIA, an ancient town between the Po and the Adige; a flourishing
seaport at one time, but now 14 m. from the sea.
A`DRIAN, name of six popes: A. I., from 772 to 795, did much to
embellish Rome; A. II., from 867 to 872, zealous to subject the
sovereigns of Europe to the Popehood; A. III., from 884 to 885;
A. V., from 1054 to 1059, the only Englishman who attained to the
Papal dignity; A. V., in 1276; A. VI., from 1222 to 1223.
See BREAKSPEARE.
ADRIAN, ST., the chief military saint of N. Europe for many ages,
second only to St. George; regarded as the patron of old soldiers, and
protector against the plague.
ADRIANO`PLE (60), a city in European Turkey, the third in
importance, on the high-road between Belgrade and Constantinople.
ADRIA`TIC, THE, a sea 450 m. long separating Italy from Illyria,
Dalmatia, and Albania.
ADULLAM, David's hiding-place (1 Sam. xxii. 1), a royal Canaanitish
city 10 m. NW. of Hebron.
ADULLAMITES, an English political party who in 1866 deserted the
Liberal side in protest against a Liberal Franchise Bill then introduced.
John Bright gave them this name. See 1 Sam. xxii.
ADUMBLA, a cow, in old Norse mythology, that grazes on hoar-frost,
"licking the rime from the rocks--a Hindu cow transported north,"
surmises Carlyle.
ADVOCATE, LORD, chief counsel for the Crown in Scotland, public
prosecutor of crimes, and a member of the administration in power.
ADVOCATES, FACULTY OF, body of lawyers qualified to plead at the
Scottish bar.
ADVOCATES' LIBRARY, a library belonging to the Faculty of Advocates
in Edinburgh, founded in 1632; it alone of Scotch libraries still holds
the privilege of receiving a copy of every book entered at Stationers'
Hall.
ADVOCATUS DIABOLI, the devil's advocate, a functionary in the Roman
Catholic Church appointed to show reason against a proposed canonization.
ÆACUS, a Greek king renowned as an administrator of distributive
justice, after death appointed one of the three judges in Hades. _See_
MINOS and RHADAMANTHUS.
ÆDILES, magistrates of ancient Rome who had charge of the public
buildings and public structures generally.
ÆE`TIS, king of Colchis and father of Medea.
ÆGE`AN SEA, the Archipelago.
ÆGEUS, the father of Theseus, who threw himself into the Ægean Sea,
so called after him, in the mistaken belief that his son, who had been to
slay the Minotaur, had been slain by him.
ÆGI`NA, an island 20 m. SW. of Athens, in a gulf of the same name.
ÆGIR, the god of the sea in the Norse mythology.
ÆGIS (lit. a goat's skin), the shield of Zeus, made of the hide of the
goat AMALTHEA (q. v.), representing originally the storm-cloud in which
the god invested himself when he was angry; it was also the attribute of
Athena, bearing in her case the Gorgon's head.
ÆGIS`THUS. See AGAMEMNON.
ÆL`FRIC, a Saxon writer of the end of the 10th century known as the
"Grammarian."
ÆLIA`NUS, CLAUDIUS, an Italian rhetorician who wrote in Greek, and
whose extant works are valuable for the passages from prior authors which
they have preserved for us.
ÆMI`LIUS PAULUS, the Roman Consul who fell at Cannæ, 216 B.C.; also
his son, surnamed Macedonicus, so called as having defeated Perseus at
Pydna, in Macedonia.
ÆNE`AS, a Trojan, the hero of Virgil's "Æneid," who in his various
wanderings after the fall of Troy settled in Italy, and became, tradition
alleges, the forefather of the Julian Gens in Rome.
ÆNEAS SILVIUS. See PICCOLOMINI.
Æ`NEID, an epic poem by Virgil, of which Æneas is the hero.
ÆNESIDEMUS, a sceptical philosopher, born in Crete, who flourished
shortly after Cicero, and summed up under ten arguments the contention
against dogmatism in philosophy. See "SCHWEGLER," translated by
Dr. Hutchison Stirling.
ÆOLIAN ACTION, action of the wind as causing geologic changes.
ÆOLIAN ISLANDS, the LIPARI ISLANDS (q. v.).
ÆO`LIANS, one of the Greek races who, originating in Thessaly,
spread north and south, and emigrated into Asia Minor, giving rise to the
Æolic dialect of the Greek language.
ÆOLOTROPY, a change in the physical properties of bodies due to a
change of position.
Æ`OLUS, the Greek god of the winds.
ÆON, among the Gnostics, one of a succession of powers conceived as
emanating from God and presiding over successive creations and
transformations of being.
ÆPYOR`NIS, a gigantic fossil bird of Madagascar, of which the egg is
six times larger than that of an ostrich.
Æ`QUI, a tribe on NE. of Latium, troublesome to the Romans until
subdued in 302 B.C.
AERATED BREAD, bread of flour dough charged with carbonic acid gas.
AERATED WATERS, waters aerated with carbonic acid gas.
ÆS`CHINES, a celebrated Athenian orator, rival of Demosthenes, who
in the end prevailed over him by persuading the citizens to believe he
was betraying them to Philip of Macedon, so that he left Athens and
settled in Rhodes, where he founded a school as a rhetorician
(389-314 B.C.).
ÆS`CHYLUS, the father of the Greek tragedy, who distinguished
himself as a soldier both at Marathon and Salamis before he figured as a
poet; wrote, it is said, some seventy dramas, of which only seven are
extant--the "Suppliants," the "Persæ," the "Seven against Thebes," the
"Prometheus Bound," the "Agamemnon," the "Choephori," and the
"Eumenides," his plays being trilogies; born at Eleusis and died in
Sicily (525-456 B.C.).
ÆSCULA`PIUS, a son of Apollo and the nymph Coronis, whom, for
restoring Hippolytus to life, Zeus, at the prayer of Pluto, destroyed
with a thunderbolt, but afterwards admitted among the gods as god of
medicine and the healing art; the cock, the emblem of vigilance, and the
serpent, of prudence, were sacred to him.
AESON, the father of Jason, was restored to youth by Medea.
Æ`SOP, a celebrated Greek fabulist of the 6th century B.C., of
whose history little is known except that he was originally a slave,
manumitted by Iadmon of Samos, and put to death by the Delphians,
probably for some witticism at their expense.
ÆSO`PUS, a celebrated Roman actor, a friend of Pompey and Cicero.
ÆSTHETICS, the science of the beautiful in nature and the fine arts.
AE`TIUS, a Roman general, who withstood the aggressions of the
Barbarians for twenty years, and defeated Attila at Châlons, 451;
assassinated out of jealousy by the Emperor Valentinian III., 454.
ÆTO`LIA, a country of ancient Greece N. of the Gulf of Corinth.
AFFRE, archbishop of Paris, suffered death on the barricades, as,
with a green bough in his hand, he bore a message of peace to the
insurgents (1793-1848).
AFGHAN`ISTAN` (5,000), a country in the centre of Asia, between
India on the east and Persia on the west, its length about 600 m. and its
breadth about 500 m., a plateau of immense mountain masses, and high,
almost inaccessible, valleys, occupying 278,000 sq. m., with extremes of
climate, and a mixed turbulent population, majority Afghans. The country,
though long a bone of contention between England and Russia, is now
wholly under the sphere of British influence.
AF`GHANS, THE, a fine and noble but hot-tempered race of the
Mohammedan faith inhabiting Afghanistan. The Afghans proper are called
PATHANS in India, and call themselves Beni Israel (sons of Israel),
tracing their descent from King Saul.
AFRA`NIUS, a Latin comic poet who flourished 100 B.C.; also a Roman
Consul who played a prominent part in the rivalry between Cæsar and
Pompey, 60 B.C.
AFRICA, one of the five great divisions of the globe, three times
larger than Europe, seven-tenths of it within the torrid zone, and
containing over 200,000,000 inhabitants of more or less dark-skinned
races. It was long a _terra incognita_, but it is now being explored in
all directions, and attempts are everywhere made to bring it within the
circuit of civilisation. It is being parcelled out by European nations,
chiefly Britain, France, and Germany, and with more zeal and appliance of
resource by Britain than any other.
AFRICA`NUS, JULIUS, a Christian historian and chronologist of the
3rd century.
AFRIDIS, a treacherous tribe of eight clans, often at war with each
other, in a mountainous region on the North-Western frontier of India W.
of Peshawar.
AFRIKAN`DER, one born in S. Africa of European parents.
AFRIT`, a powerful evil spirit in the Mohammedan mythology.
AGA`DES, a once important depôt of trade in the S. of the Sahara,
much decayed.
AGAG, a king of the Amalekites, conquered by Saul, and hewn in
pieces by order of Samuel.
AGAMEM`NON, a son of Atreus, king of Mycenæ and general-in-chief of
the Greeks in the Trojan war, represented as a man of stately presence
and a proud spirit. On the advice of the soothsayer Calchas sacrificed
his daughter IPHIGENIA (q. v.) for the success of the enterprise
he conducted. He was assassinated by Ægisthus and Clytæmnestra, his wife,
on his return from the war. His fate and that of his house is the subject
of Æschylus' trilogy "Oresteia."
AGAMOGENESIS, name given to reproduction without sex, by fission,
budding, &c.
AGANIPPE, a fountain in Boeotia, near Helicon, dedicated to the
Muses as a source of poetic inspiration.
AG`APE, love-feasts among the primitive Christians in commemoration
of the Last Supper, and in which they gave each other the kiss of peace
as token of Christian brotherhood.
AGAR-AGAR, a gum extracted from a sea-weed, used in bacteriological
investigations.
AGA`SIAS, a sculptor of Ephesus, famous for his statue of the
"Gladiator."
AGASS`IZ, a celebrated Swiss naturalist, in the department
especially of ichthyology, and in connection with the glaciers; settled
as a professor of zoology and geology in the United States in 1846
(1807-1873).
AG`ATHE, ST., a Sicilian virgin who suffered martyrdom at Palermo
under Decius in 251; represented in art as crowned with a long veil and
bearing a pair of shears, the instruments with which her breast were cut
off. Festival, Feb. 5.
AGA`THIAS, a Byzantine poet and historian (536-582).
AGATH`OCLES, the tyrant of Syracuse, by the massacre of thousands of
the inhabitants, was an enemy of the Carthaginians, and fought against
them; was poisoned in the end (361-289 B.C.).
AG`ATHON, an Athenian tragic poet, a rival of Euripides
(447-400 B.C.).
AG`ATHON, ST., pope from 676 to 682.
AG`DE (6), a French seaport on the Hérault, 3 m. from the
Mediterranean.
A`GEN (21), a town on the Garonne, 84 m. above Bordeaux.
AGES, in the Greek mythology four--the Golden, self-sufficient; the
Silver, self-indulgent; the Brazen, warlike; and the Iron, violent;
together with the Heroic, nobly aspirant, between the third and fourth.
In archeology, three--the Stone Age, the Bronze, and the Iron. In
history, the Middle and Dark, between the Ancient and the Modern. In
Fichte, five--of Instinct, of Law, of Rebellion, of Rationality, of
Conformity to Reason. In Shakespeare, seven--Infancy, Childhood, Boyhood,
Adolescence, Manhood, Age, Old Age.
AGESAN`DER, a sculptor of Rhodes of the first century, who wrought
at the famous group of the Laocoon.
AGESILA`US, a Spartan king, victorious over the Persians in Asia and
over the allied Thebans and Athenians at Coronea, but defeated by
Epaminondas at Mantinea after a campaign in Egypt; _d_. 360 B.C., aged
84.
AGGAS, RALPH, a surveyor and engraver of the 16th century, who first
drew a plan of London as well as of Oxford and Cambridge.
AGGLUTINATE LANGUAGES, languages composed of parts which are words
glued together, so to speak, as cowherd.
AGINCOURT`, a small village in Pas-de-Calais, where Henry V. in a
bloody battle defeated the French, Oct. 25, 1415.
A`GIS, the name of several Spartan kings, of whom the most famous
were Agis III. and IV., the former famous for his resistance to the
Macedonian domination, _d_. 330 B.C.; and the latter for his attempts to
carry a law for the equal division of land, _d_. 240 B.C.
AGLAIA. See GRACES.
AG`NADEL, a Lombard village, near which Louis XII. defeated the
Venetians in 1509, and Vendôme, Prince Eugène in 1705.
AGNA`NO, LAKE OF, a lake near Naples, now drained; occupied the
crater of an extinct volcano, its waters in a state of constant
ebullition.
AGNELLO, COL D', passage by the S. of Monte Viso between France and
Italy.
AGNES, an unsophisticated maiden in Molière's _L'École des Femmes_,
so unsophisticated that she does not know what love means.
AGNES, ST., a virgin who suffered martyrdom, was beheaded because
the flames would not touch her body, under Diocletian in 303; represented
in art as holding a palm-branch in her hand and a lamb at her feet or in
her arms. Festival, Jan. 21.
AGNES DE MÉRANIE, the second wife of Philip Augustus by a marriage
in 1193, declared null by the Church, who, being dismissed in
consequence, died broken-hearted in 1201.
AGNES SOREL, surnamed _Dame de beauté_, mistress of Charles VII. of
France (1409-1450).
AGNE`SI, MARIA GÆTANA, a native of Milan, a woman of extraordinary
ability and attainments, prelected for her father in mathematics in the
University of Bologna under sanction of the Pope; died a nun at her
birthplace (1718-1799).
AG`NI, the god of fire in the Vedic mythology, begets the gods,
organises the world, produces and preserves universal life, and
throughout never ceases to be fire. One of the three terms of the Vedic
trinity, Soma and Indra being the other two.
AGNOLO, a Florentine artist, friend of Michael Angelo and Raphael,
distinguished for his carvings in wood (1460-1543).
AGNOSTICISM, the doctrine which disclaims all knowledge of the
supersensuous, or denies that we know or can know the absolute, the
infinite, or God.
AGNUS DEI, the figure of a lamb bearing a cross as a symbol of
Christ, or a medal with this device; also a prayer in the Mass beginning
with the words, "Lamb of God."
AGONIC LINE, line along which the needle points due north and south.
AGORA, the forum of a Grecian town.
AGOS`TA, a city on east coast of Sicily.
AGOULT, COUNTESS OF, a French authoress under the pseudonym of
Daniel Stern (1805-1876).
AGOUST, CAPT. DE, a "cast-iron" captain of the Swiss Guards, who on
May 4, 1788, by order of the Court of Versailles, marched the Parliament
of Paris out of the Palais de Justice and carried off the key. See
CARLYLE'S "FRENCH REVOLUTION," BK. I. CHAP. VIII.
AGOU`TI, a rodent, native of Brazil, Paraguay, and Guiana; very
destructive to roots and sugar-canes.
A`GRA (168), a handsome city on the Jumna, in NW. Province of India,
famous for, among other monuments, the Taj Mahal, a magnificent mausoleum
erected near it by the Emperor Shah Jehan for himself and his favourite
wife; it is a centre of trade, and seat of manufactures of Indian wares.
AG`RAM, (37), a Hungarian town, the capital of Croatia, with a fine
Gothic cathedral and a university; is subject to earthquakes.
AGRARIAN LAWS, laws among the Romans regulating the division of
lands.
AGRIC`OLA, a Roman general, father-in-law of Tacitus, who conquered
Great Britain in 80, recalled by the Emperor Domitian in 87, and retired
into private life (37-93).
AGRICOLA, JOHANN, a follower and friend of Luther, who became his
antagonist in the matter of the binding obligation of the law on
Christians (1492-1566).
AGRICOLA, RUDOLPHUS, a learned and accomplished Dutchman, much
esteemed by Erasmus, and much in advance of his time; his most important
work, "Dialectics," being an attack on the scholastic system (1442-1485).
AGRIGEN`TUM, an ancient considerable city, now Girgenti, on the S.
of Sicily, of various fortune, and still showing traces of its ancient
grandeur.
AGRIPPA, H. CORNELIUS, a native of Cologne, of noble birth, for some
time in the service of Maximilian, but devoted mainly to the study of the
occult sciences, which exposed him to various persecutions through life
(1486-1535).
AGRIPPA, HEROD. See HEROD.
AGRIP`PA, M. VIPSANIUS, a Roman general, the son-in-law and
favourite of Augustus, who distinguished himself at the battle of Actium,
and built the Pantheon of Rome (63-12 B.C.).
AGRIPPI`NA, the daughter of Vipsanius Agrippa and Julia, and thus
the granddaughter of Augustus; married Germanicus, accompanied him in his
campaigns, and brought his ashes to Rome on his death, but was banished
from Rome by Tiberius, and _d_. in 33.
AGRIPPINA, the daughter of Germanicus and the former, born at
Cologne, and the mother of Nero. Her third husband was her uncle, the
Emperor Claudian, whom she got to adopt her son, and then poisoned him,
in order to place her son on the throne; but the latter, resenting her
intolerable ascendancy, had her put to death in 59.
AGTELEK, a village NE. of Pesth, in Hungary with vast stalactite
caverns, some of them of great height.
AGUA`DO, A. M., an enormously wealthy banker of Spanish-Jewish
descent, born in Seville, and naturalised in France (1784-1842).
AGUAS CALIENTES (31), a high-lying inland trading town in Mexico.
AGUE-CHEEK, SIR ANDREW, a silly squire in "Twelfth Night."
AGUESSEAU`, D', a French magistrate under Louis XIV. and Louis XV.,
of unimpeachable integrity and unselfish devotion, a learned jurist and
law reformer, and held high posts in the administration of justice
(1668-1751).
AGUILAR, GRACE, a Jewess, born at Hackney; authoress of "Magic
Wreath," "Home Influence," "Vale of Cedars"; of a delicate constitution,
died young (1816-1847).
A`GULHAS, CAPE (i. e. the Needles), the most southerly point of
Africa, 100 m. ESE. of the Cape, and along with the bank of the whole
south coast, dangerous to shipping.
A`HAB, a king of Israel fond of splendour, and partial to the
worship of Baal (918-896 B.C.).
AHASUE`RUS, a traditionary figure known as the Wandering Jew; also
the name of several kings of Persia.
AHAZ, a king of Judah who first brought Judea under tribute to
Assyria.
AHLDEN, CASTLE OF, a castle in Lüneburg Heath, the nearly lifelong
prison-house of the wife of George I. and the mother of George II. and of
Sophie Dorothea of Prussia.
AHMADABAD (148), a chief town of Guzerat, in the Bombay Presidency,
a populous city and of great splendour in the last century, of which
gorgeous relics remain.
AHMED, a prince in the "Arabian Nights," noted for a magic tent
which would expand so as to shelter an army, and contract so that it
could go into one's pocket.
AH`MED SHAH, the founder of the Afghan dynasty and the Afghan power
(1724-1773).
AHMEDNUG`AR (41), a considerable Hindu town 122 m. E. of Bombay.
AHOLIBAH, prostitution personified. See EZEK. XXIII.
AHOLIBAMAH, a grand daughter of Cain, beloved by a seraph, who at
the Flood bore her away to another planet.
AH`RIMAN, the Zoroastrian impersonation of the evil principle, to
whom all the evils of the world are ascribed.
AIDAN, ST., the archbishop of Lindisfarne, founder of the monastery,
and the apostle of Northumbria, sent thither from Iona on the invitation
of King Oswald in 635.
AIGNAN, St., the bishop of Orleans, defended it against Attila and
his Huns in 451.
AIGUILLON, DUKE D', corrupt minister of France, previously under
trial for official plunder of money, which was quashed, at the corrupt
court of Louis XV., and the tool of Mme. Du Barry, with whom he rose and
fell (1720-1782).
AIKIN, DR. JOHN, a popular writer, and author, with Mrs. Barbauld,
his sister, of "Evenings at Home" (1747-1822).
AIKMAN, W., an eminent Scotch portrait-painter (1682-1731).
AILLY, PIERRE D', a cardinal of the Romish Church, and eminent as a
theologian, presided at the council of Constance which condemned Huss
(1350-1420).
AILSA CRAIG, a rocky islet of Ayrshire, 10 m. NW. of Girvan, 2 m. in
circumference, which rises abruptly out of the sea at the mouth of the
Firth of Clyde to a height of 1114 ft.
AIMARD, GUSTAVE, a French novelist, born in Paris; died insane
(1818-1883).
AIMÉ, ST., archbishop of Sens, in France; _d_. 690; festival, 13th
Sept.
AIN, a French river, has its source in the Jura Mts., and falls into
the Rhône; also a department of France between the Rhône and Savoy.
AINMILLER, a native of Münich, the reviver of glass-painting in
Germany (1807-1870).
AI`NOS, a primitive thick-set, hairy race, now confined to Yezo and
the islands N. of Japan, aboriginal to that quarter of the globe, and
fast dying out.
AINSWORTH, R., an English Latin lexicographer (1660-1743).
AINSWORTH, W. H., a popular English novelist, the author of
"Rookwood" and "Jack Sheppard," as well as novels of an antiquarian and
historical character (1805-1882).
AIN-TAB (20), a Syrian garrison town 60 m. NE. of Aleppo; trade in
hides, leather, and cotton.
AIRD, THOMAS, a Scottish poet, author of the "Devil's Dream," the
"Old Bachelor," and the "Old Scotch Village"; for nearly 30 years editor
of the _Dumfries Herald_ (1802-1876).
AIRDRIE (19), a town in Lanarkshire, 11 m. E. of Glasgow, in a
district rich in iron and coal; is of rapid growth; has cotton-mills,
foundries, etc.
AIRDS MOSS, a moor in Ayrshire, between the rivers Ayr and Lugar.
AIRE, a Yorkshire river which flows into the Ouse; also a French
river, affluent of the Aisne.
AIRY, SIR G. B., an eminent English astronomer, mathematician, and
man of science, astronomer-royal from 1836 to 1881, retired on a pension;
was the first to enunciate the complete theory of the rainbow.
AISNE, a French river which, after a course of 150 m., falls into
the Oise near Compiègne; also a department in the N. of France.
AÏSSE, MLLE., a Circassienne brought to France about 1700; left
letters on French society in the eighteenth century, sparkling with wit
and full of interest.
AITON, WM., a botanist, born in Lanarkshire, the first director of
the Royal Gardens at Kew (1731-1793).
AITZEMA, LEO, historian of Friesland (1600-1669).
AIX (22), a town, the ancient capital of Provence, 20 m. N. of
Marseilles, the seat of an archbishop and a university; founded by the
Romans 123 B.C.; near it Marius defeated the Teutons.
AIX, ISLE OF, island in the Atlantic, at the mouth of the Charente.
AIX-LA-CHAPELLE` (103), in Rhenish Prussia, one of the oldest cities
in Germany, made capital of the German empire by Charlemagne; derives its
name from its mineral springs; is a centre of manufacturing industries
and an important trade; is celebrated for its octagonal cathedral (in the
middle of which is a stone marking the burial-place of Charlemagne), for
treaties of peace in 1668 and 1748, and for a European congress in 1818.
AIX-LES-BAINS`, a small town near Chambéry, in the dep. of Savoy,
and much frequented by invalids for its waters and baths.
AJAC`CIO (18), the capital of Corsica, the birthplace of the
Bonaparte family, of Cardinal Fesch, and Bacciochi.
AJALON, VALLEY OF, in Palestine, scene of a battle between Joshua
and five Canaanitish kings, during which the sun and moon stood still at
the prayer of Joshua, to enable him to finish his victory.
A`JAN COAST, a district on the E. coast of Africa, from Cape
Guardafui to the mouth of the Juba, under the protectorate of Germany.
A`JAX the name of two Greek heroes in the Trojan war, and the
synonym of a fiery and impetuous warrior: AJAX, the son of Telamon
of Sparta, one of the bravest of the Greeks, who, on the death of
Achilles, contended with Ulysses for his arms, but was defeated, in
consequence of which he lost his reason and put an end to his life; and
AJAX, the son of Oïleus, swift of foot, like Achilles, who suffered
shipwreck on his homeward voyage, as a judgment for an outrage he
perpetrated on the person of Cassandra in the temple of Athena in Troy.
AJMERE` (68), a city in a small territory in the heart of Rajputana,
under the rule of the Viceroy; well built, and contains some famous
edifices.
AJODHYA, an ancient city of Oudh, 77 m. E. of Lucknow, once, on
religious grounds, one of the largest and most magnificent cities of
India, now in ruins; the modern town is an insignificant place, but has
an annual fair, attended by often 600,000 pilgrims.
AK`ABA, a gulf forming the NE. inlet of the Red Sea.
AKAKIA, DOCTOR, a satire of a very biting nature by Voltaire,
directed against pretentious pedants of science in the person of
Maupertuis, the President of the Royal Academy of Sciences at Berlin,
which so excited the anger of Frederick the Great, the patron of the
Academy, that he ordered it to be burnt by the common hangman, after
30,000 copies of it had been sold in Paris!
AKAKIA, MARTIN, physician of Francis I., born at Châlons-sur-Marne,
his real name being Sans-Malice; _d_. 1551.
AK`BAR, the great Mogul emperor of India, who, after a minority of a
few years, assumed the reins of government at the age of eighteen, and in
ten or twelve years, such was his power of conquest, had the whole of
India north of the Vindhya Mts. subject to his rule. He was wise in
government as well as powerful in war, and one of the most large-minded
and largest-hearted rulers recorded in history. He reigned half a century
(1542-1605).
AKENSIDE, MARK, an English physician, who wrote, among other
productions and pieces, the "Hymn to the Naiads," especially a poem
entitled the "Pleasures of Imagination," much quoted from at one time,
and suggested by the study of Addison on the Imagination in the
_Spectator_ (1721-1770).
AKERS, B. P., an able American sculptor (1825-1861).
AKERMAN` (55), a fortified town in Bessarabia, at the mouth of the
Dniester.
AKIBA, BEN JOSEPH, a famous Jewish rabbi of the 2nd century, a great
authority in the matter of Jewish tradition, flayed alive by the Romans
for being concerned in a revolt in 135.
AKKAS, a wandering race of negro dwarfs in Central Africa, with
large heads and slender necks, who live by hunting.
AKRON (27), a town in Ohio, U.S., seat of manufactures and centre
of traffic.
AKSAKOF`, a Russian littérateur and advocate of Panslavism
(1823-1886).
AKSU (20), a trading town in E. Turkestan, 250 m. NE. of Yarkand.
AK`YAB (37), the capital of Aracan, in British Burmah, 90 m. SE. of
Calcutta.
AL RAKIM, the dog that guarded the SEVEN SLEEPERS (q. v.),
and that stood by them all through their long sleep.
ALABA`MA (1,513), one of the United States of N. America, traversed
by a river of the name, a little larger than England, highly fertile and
a great cotton-growing country, and abounding in iron, coal, and marble,
bounded on the W. by the Mississippi, on the N. by Tennessee, and the E.
by Georgia.
ALABAMA, THE, a vessel built in Birkenhead for the Confederates in
the late American Civil War, for the devastation done by which, according
to the decision of a court of arbitration, the English Government had to
pay heavy damages of three millions of money.
ALACOQUE, MARIE, a French nun of a mystic tendency, the founder of
the devotion of the Sacred Heart (1647-1690).
ALAD`DIN, one of the chiefs of the Assassins in the 13th century,
better known by the name of the Old Man of the Mountain.
ALADDIN, a character in the "Arabian Nights," who became possessed
of a wonderful lamp and a wonderful ring, by rubbing which together he
could call two evil genii to do his bidding.
ALADINISTS, free-thinkers among the Mohammedans.
ALAGO`AS (397), a maritime province of Brazil, N. of Pernambuco,
with tropical products as well as fine timber and dye-woods.
ALAIN DE L'ISLE, a professor of theology in the University of Paris,
surnamed the _Doctor universel_ (1114-1203).
ALAINS. See ALANS.
ALAIS` (18), a town at the foot of the Cévennes, in the centre of a
mining district; once the stronghold of French Protestantism.
ALAMAN`NI, LUIGI, an Italian poet and diplomatist, born at Florence
(1495-1556).
ALAND ISLES, a group of 300 small islands in the Gulf of Bothnia, of
which 80 are inhabited; fortified by Russia.
ALANS, a barbarous horde from the East, who invaded W. Europe in the
4th and 5th centuries, but were partly exterminated and partly ousted by
the Visigoths.
ALAR`CON Y MENDO`ZA, JUAN RUIZ DE, a Spanish dramatist born in
Mexico, who, though depreciated by his contemporaries, ranks after 200
years of neglect among the foremost dramatic geniuses of Spain, next even
to Cervantes and Lope de Vega; he was a humpback, had an offensive air of
conceit, and was very unpopular; he wrote at least twenty dramas, some of
which have been translated into French; _d_. in 1639.
AL`ARIC I., the king of the Visigoths, a man of noble birth, who, at
the end of the 4th and beginning of the 5th century, ravaged Greece,
invaded Italy, and took and pillaged Rome; died at Cosenza, in Calabria,
in 412, at the early age of thirty-four.
ALARIC II., king of the Visigoths, whose dominions included all Gaul
and most of Spain; defeated by the Franks at Poitiers, and killed by the
hand of Clovis, their king, in 567.
ALARIC COTIN, Voltaire's nickname for Frederick the Great, the
former in recognition of him as a warrior, the latter as a would-be
littérateur, after an indifferent French poet of the name of Cotin.
ALAS`CO, JOHN, the uncle of Sigismund, king of Poland, and a zealous
promoter in Poland of the Reformation, the friend of Erasmus and
Zwinglius (1499-1560).
ALAS`KA (32), an immense territory belonging to the U.S. by
purchase from Russia, extending from British N. America to Behring
Strait; it is poor in resources, and the inhabitants, who are chiefly
Indians and Eskimos, live by hunting and fishing, and by the export of
salmon; seal fishery valuable, however.
ALASNAM, a hero related of in the "Arabian Nights" as having erected
eight statues of gold, and in quest of a statue for a ninth unoccupied
pedestal, finding what he wanted in the person of a beautiful woman for a
wife.
ALAS`TOR, an avenging spirit, given to torment families whose
history has been stained by some crime.
A`LAVA (97), the southernmost of the three Basque provinces of
Spain, largest, but least populous; rich in minerals, and fertile in
soil.
ALAVA, RICARDO DE, a Spanish general, born in Vittoria, joined the
national party, and was aide-de-camp to the Duke of Wellington, and
became eventually ambassador to London and Paris (1771-1843).
ALBA LONGA, a city of Latium older than Rome.
ALBACETE (229), a province in Spain, with a capital (30) of same
name, 173 m. SE. of Madrid.
ALBAN LAKE, near Alban Mount, 6 m. in circuit, occupying the basin
of an extinct volcano, its surface 961 ft. above the sea-level.
ALBAN MOUNT, a small mountain overlooking Alba Longa.
ALBAN, ST., the first martyr in Britain to the Christian faith in
303; represented in art as carrying his head between his hands, having
been beheaded.
ALBA`NI, an Italian painter, a disciple of Caracci, born at Bologna;
surnamed the Anacreon of painting; his pictures more distinguished for
grace than vigour.
ALBA`NI, an illustrious Roman family, members of which attained the
highest dignities in the Church, one, Clement XI., having been Pope.
ALBANI, MME., _née_ Emma la Jeunesse, a well-known and highly
popular operatic singer of French-Canadian descent; _b_. 1847.
ALBA`NIA, a region in Balkan peninsula, on the Adriatic, extending
from Servia to Greece.
ALBANO, LAKE OF, a small crater-like lake 15 m. SE. of Rome, near
which rises the Castel Gandolfo, where the Pope has a villa.
ALBANY, the old Celtic name for the Scottish highlands.
ALBANY, a town in W. Australia, on King George Sound, 261 m. SE. of
Perth, a port of call for Australian liners; also the capital (94) of the
State of New York, on the Hudson River, a well-appointed city; seat of
justice for the State, with a large trade and numerous manufactures.
ALBANY, COUNTESS OF, wife of English pretender, Prince Charles
Stuart, a dissolute woman (1753-1824).
ALBANY, THE DUKE OF, a title formerly given to a member of the royal
family, and revived in the present reign.
ALBANY, DUCHESS OF, daughter of Prince Waldeck Pyrmont and widow of
Prince Leopold of England; _b_. 1861, widow since 1884.
ALBATEGNI, a distinguished Arabian astronomer, born in Mesopotamia
in the 9th or 10th century of our era; his observations extended over 50
years; he so improved the methods and instruments of observation as to
earn the title of the Ptolemy of the Arabs.
ALBATROSS, the largest and strongest of sea-birds, that ranges over
the southern seas, often seen far from land; it is a superstition among
sailors that it is disastrous to shoot one.
ALBERO`NI, an Italian of humble birth, became a Cardinal of the
Church and Prime Minister to Philip V. of Spain, wrought hard to restore
Spain to its ancient grandeur, was defeated in his project by the
quadruple alliance of England, France, Austria, and Holland, and obliged
to retire (1664-1752).
ALBERT, archbishop of Mainz, a dignity granted him by Pope Leo X. at
the ransom of £15,000, which he was unable to pay, and which, as the
Pope needed it for building St. Peter's, he borrowed, the Pope granting
him the power to sell indulgences in order to repay the loan, in which
traffic Tetzel was his chief salesman, a trade which roused the wrath of
Luther, and provoked the German Reformation (1450-1545).
ALBERT, the last Grandmaster of the Teutonic knights, who being
"religious in an eminent degree and shaken in his belief" took zealously
to Protestantism and came under the influence of Luther, who advised him
to declare himself Duke of Prussia, under the wing of Sigismund of
Poland, in defiance of the Teutonic order as no longer worthy of bed and
board on the earth, and so doing, became founder of the Prussian State
(1490-1568).
ALBERT, markgrave of Brandenburg, defined by Carlyle "a failure of a
Fritz," with "features" of a Frederick the Great in him, "but who burnt
away his splendid qualities as a mere temporary shine for the able
editors, and never came to anything, full of fire, too much of it
wildfire, not in the least like an Alcibiades except in the change of
fortune he underwent" (1522-1557).
ALBERT, PRINCE, second son of Ernest, Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha,
born Aug. 26, 1819, an accomplished man with a handsome presence, who
became the consort of Queen Victoria in 1840, and from his prudence and
tact was held in the highest honour by the whole community, but died at
Windsor of typhoid fever, Dec. 14, 1861, to the unspeakable sorrow of
both Queen and country.
ALBERT, ST., bishop of Liège, was assassinated by the emissaries of
the Emperor Henry VI. in 1195. Festival, Nov. 21.
ALBERT EDWARD. See WALES, PRINCE OF.
ALBERT I., emperor of Germany from 1298 to 1308, eldest son of
Rudolf of Hapsburg, "a most clutching, strong-fisted, dreadfully hungry,
tough, and unbeautiful man, whom his nephew at last had to assassinate,
and did assassinate, as he crossed the river Reuss with him in a boat,
May 1, 1308."
ALBERT II., a successor, "who got three crowns--Hungary, Bohemia,
and the Imperial--in one year, and we hope a fourth," says the old
historian, "which was a heavenly and eternal one," for he died the next
year, 1439.
ALBERT III., elector of Brandenburg. See ACHILLES OF GERMANY.
ALBERT MEDAL, a medal of gold and of bronze, instituted in 1866,
awarded to civilians for acts of heroism by sea or land.
ALBERT THE BEAR, markgrave of Brandenburg, called the Bear, "not
from his looks or qualities, for he was a tall handsome man, but from the
cognisance on his shield, an able man, had a quick eye as well as a
strong hand, and could pick what way was straightest among crooked
things, was the shining figure and the great man of the North in his day,
got much in the North and kept it, got Brandenburg for one there, a
conspicuous country ever since," says Carlyle, "and which grows more so
in our late times" (1100-1175).
ALBERT NYAN`ZA, a lake in Equatorial Africa, in the Nile basin,
discovered by Sir Samuel Baker in 1864, 150 m. long by 40 broad, and 2500
feet above sea-level.
ALBER`TA (26), a fertile region with large forests in British
America, on the E. slope of the Rocky Mountains, the south abounding in
cattle ranches, and the mountainous districts in minerals.
ALBERTI, an illustrious Florentine family, rivals of the Medicis and
the Albrizzi.
ALBER`TUS MAGNUS, one of the greatest of the scholastic philosophers
and theologians of the Middle Ages, teacher of Thomas Aquinas, supreme in
knowledge of the arts and sciences of the time, and regarded by his
contemporaries in consequence as a sorcerer (1190-1280).
ALBI, a town of some antiquity and note in S. of France, 22 m. NE.
of Toulouse.
ALBIGEN`SES, a religious sect, odious, as heretical, to the Church,
which sprung up about Albi, in the S. of France, in the 12th century,
against which Pope Innocent III. proclaimed a crusade, which was carried
on by Simon de Montfort in the 13th century, and by the Inquisition
afterwards, to their utter annihilation.
ALBINOS, persons or animals with preternaturally pale skin and fair
hair, also with pupils of a red or pink colour, and eyes too weak to bear
full light.
ALBINUS, an able professor of anatomy and therapeutics at Leyden
(1696-1770).
ALBION, a white cliff, the ancient name of Great Britain.
ALBOIN, king of the Lombards in the 6th century, from 561 to 573;
invaded Italy as far as the Tiber, and set up his capital in Pavia;
incurred the resentment of his wife, who had him assassinated for forcing
her to drink wine out of the skull of her father.
ALBORAK, a wonderful horse of Mahomet, an impersonation of the
lightning as his steed.
ALBOR`NOZ, a Spanish statesman, archbishop of Toledo, a bold
defender of the faith against the Moor and a plain-spoken man in the
interest of Christianity (1310-1367).
ALBRECHT. See ALBERT.
ALBRIZZI, a powerful Florentine family, rivals of the Medicis and
the Alberti.
ALBUE`RA, a Spanish village 12 m. SE. of Badajoz, scene of a victory
(May 16, 1811) of General Beresford over Marshal Soult.
ALBUFE`RA, a lake on the coast of Spain, 7 m. S. of Valencia, near
which Marshal Suchet gained a victory over the English in 1811.
AL`BULA, Swiss mountain pass in the canton of Grisons, 7595 ft.
high.
ALBUMEN, a glairy substance a constituent of plants and animals, and
found nearly pure in the white of an egg or in the serum of the blood.
ALBUQUERQUE`, ALFONSO D', a celebrated Portuguese patriot and
navigator, the founder of the Portuguese power in India, who, after
securing a footing in India for Portugal that he sought for, settled in
Goa, where his recall at the instance of jealous rivals at home gave him
such a shock that he died of a broken heart just as he was leaving. The
Indians long remembered his benign rule, and used to visit his tomb to
pray him to deliver them from the oppression of his successors
(1453-1513).
ALBYN, ancient Celtic name of Scotland.
ALCÆ`US OF MITYLENE, a Greek lyric poet, an aristocrat by birth, a
contemporary and an alleged lover of Sappho, and much admired by Horace;
flourished about 600 B.C.
ALCA`LA DE HENA`RES (14), a town in Spain, the birthplace of
Cervantes, 21 m. E. of Madrid, long the seat of a famous university
founded by Cardinal Ximenes.
ALCAN`TARA, a town of Spain, on the Tagus, near Portugal, with a
bridge of six arches, 670 ft. long and 210 ft. high, built in honour of
Trajan in 104. The Order of Alcantara, a religious and military order,
was established in 1176 here, for defence against the Moors, and was
suppressed in 1835.
ALCESTE, the chief character in Molière's _Misanthrope_.
ALCES`TIS, the wife of Admetus, who gave herself up to death to save
her husband. Hercules descended to the lower world and brought her back.
She is the subject of one of the tragedies of Euripides.
ALCHEMY, the early analysis of substances which has in modern times
developed into chemistry, and which aimed chiefly at the discovery of the
philosopher's stone, of a universal solvent, and of the elixir of life;
it has been defined to be "an art without art, which has its beginning in
falsehood, its middle in toil, and its end in poverty."
ALCIBI`ADES, an Athenian of high birth, and related to Pericles,
possessed of a handsome person, brilliant abilities, and great wealth,
but was of a wayward temper and depraved, whom Socrates tried hard to win
over to virtue, but failed. He involved his country in a rash expedition
against Sicily, served and betrayed it by turns in the Peloponnesian war,
and died by assassination in exile (450-404 B.C.).
ALCI`DES, the grandson of Alcæus, a patronymic of Hercules.
ALCIN`OUS, a king of the Phæacians, the father of Nausicaa, who
figures in the Odyssey as the host of Ulysses, who had been shipwrecked
on his shore.
ALCI`RA (18), a walled town in Spain, on an island 22 m. SW. of
Valencia.
ALCMAN, an early Greek lyric poet, born at Sardis.
ALCME`NE, the wife of Amphitryon and the mother of Hercules.
ALCMEONIDÆ, a powerful Athenian family, of which Pericles and
Alcibiades were members, who professed to be descended from Alcmæon, the
grandson of Nestor.
ALCOCK, JOHN, an eminent ecclesiastic of the reign of Edward IV.,
distinguished for his love of learning and learned men; _d_. 1500.
ALCOHOL, pure or highly rectified spirit obtained from fermented
saccharine solutions by distillation, and the intoxicating principle of
all spirituous liquors.
ALCOHOLISM, the results, acute or chronic, of the deleterious action
of alcohol on the human system.
ALCORAN`. See KORÂN.
ALCOTT, LOUISA MARY, a popular American authoress, who acted as a
nurse to the wounded during the Civil War; her works mostly addressed to
the young (1832-1888).
ALCOY (30), a town in Spain, N. of Alicanti; staple manufacture,
paper.
AL`CUIN, a learned Englishman, a disciple of Bede; invited by
Charlemagne to introduce scholarly culture into the empire and establish
libraries and schools of learning; was one of those men whose work lies
more in what they influence others to do than in what they do themselves
(735-804).
ALCY`ONE, daughter of Æolus, who threw herself into the sea after
her husband, who had perished in shipwreck, and was changed into the
kingfisher.
ALDE`BARAN, the bull's-eye, a star of the first magnitude in the eye
of the constellation Taurus; it is the sun in the Arabian mythology.
ALDEHYDE, a limpid, very volatile liquid, of a suffocating odour,
obtained from the oxidation of alcohol.
AL`DERNEY (2), one of the Channel Islands, 3 or 4 m. long by 2
broad, celebrated for its breed of cows; separated from Cape de la Hogue
by the dangerous Race of Alderney.
AL`DERSHOT, a permanent camp, established in 1855, for instruction
in military manoeuvres, on a moorland 35 m. SW. of London.
ALDINE EDITIONS, editions, chiefly of the classics, issued from the
press of Aldus Manutius in Venice in the 16th century, and remarkable for
the correctness of the text and the beauty and clearness of the printing.
ALDINGAR, SIR, legendary character, the steward of Eleanor, wife of
Henry II., who accused her of infidelity, and offered to substantiate the
charge by combat, when an angel in the form of a child appeared and
certified her innocence.
ALDOBRANDINI, a Florentine jurisconsult (1500-1558).
AL`DRED, bishop of Worcester in the reign of Edward the Confessor,
made a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, became archbishop of York, and crowned
the last of the Saxon and the first of the Norman kings of England; _d_.
1063.
AL`DRICH, dean of Oxford, an accomplished ecclesiastic; was a
skilful musician, and composed many services for the Church; wrote a
system of logic, long in use in Oxford University (1647-1710).
ALDROVAN`DI, ULYSSES, a famous Italian naturalist of Bologna, who
collected an immense body of interesting facts in natural history,
published partly in his lifetime and partly after his death (1522-1607).
ALDUS MANUTIUS, or ALDO MANUZIO, an Italian printer, born at
Bassano, established a printing-office in Venice in 1488, issued the
celebrated Aldine Editions of the classics, and invented the italic type,
for the exclusive use of which for many years he obtained a patent,
though the honour of the invention is more probably due to his
typefounder, Franciso de Bologna, than to him (1447-1515).
ALEC`TO, one of the three Eumenides or Furies.
ALEMAN`, a Spanish novelist, author of the celebrated romance
_Guzman de Alfarache_, which in 6 years ran through 26 editions, was
translated several times into French; died in Mexico in 1610.
ALEMAN`NI, a confederacy of tribes which appeared on the banks of
the Rhine in the 3rd cent., and for long gave no small trouble to Rome,
but whose incursions were arrested, first by Maximinus, and finally by
Clovis in 496, who made them subject to the Franks, hence the modern
names in French for Germany and the Germans.
ALEMTE`JO (369), a southern province of Portugal; soil fertile to
the east.
ALENÇON (17), a town in the dep. of Orne, 105 m. W. of Paris, once
famous for its lace.
ALENÇON, COUNTS AND DUKES OF, a title borne by several members of
the house of Valois--e. g. CHARLES OF VALOIS, who fell at Crécy
(1346); JEAN IV., who fell at Agincourt (1415).
ALEP`PO (130), a city in Northern Syria, one of the finest in the
East, once one of the greatest trading centres in the world.
ALE`SIA, a strong place in the E. of Gaul, which, as situated on a
hill and garrisoned by 80,000 Gauls, cost Cæsar no small trouble to take.
ALESIUS, or ALANE, a noted Reformer, born in Edinburgh,
converted to Protestantism by Patrick Hamilton; was driven first from
Scotland and then from England, till he settled as a theological
professor in Germany, and took an active part in the Reformation there
(1500-1563).
ALESSANDRIA (78), a strongly fortified and stirring town on the
Tenaro, in Northern Italy, the centre of 8 railways, 55 m. SE. of Turin.
ALESSI, architect, born at Perugia, architect of the monastery and
church of the ESCURIAL, q. v. (1500-1572).
ALETSCH GLACIER, THE, the largest of the glaciers of the Alps, which
descends round the south of the Jungfrau into the valley of the Upper
Rhône.
ALEU`TIAN ISLANDS (2) a chain of volcanic islands, 150 in number,
stretching over the N. Pacific from Alaska in N. America, to Kamchatka,
in Asia.
ALEXANDER THE GREAT, the king of Macedonia, son of Philip by
Olympias, daughter of Neoptolemus, king of Epirus; born at Pella,
356 B.C.; had the philosopher Aristotle for tutor, and being instructed
by him in all kinds of serviceable knowledge, ascended the throne on the
death of his father, at the age of 20; after subduing Greece, had himself
proclaimed generalissimo of the Greeks against the Persians, and in 2
years after his accession crossed the Hellespont, followed by 30,000 foot
and 5000 horse; with these conquered the army of Darius the Persian at
Granicus in 334 and at Issus in 333; subdued the principal cities of
Syria, overran Egypt, and crossing the Euphrates and Tigris, routed the
Persians at Arbela; hurrying on farther, he swept everything before him,
till the Macedonians refusing to advance, he returned to Babylon, when he
suddenly fell ill of fever, and in eleven days died at the early age of
32. He is said to have slept every night with his Homer and his sword
under his pillow, and the inspiring idea of his life, all unconsciously
to himself belike, is defined to have been the right of Greek
intelligence to override and rule the merely glittering barbarity of the
East.
ALEXANDER, ST., patriarch of Alexandria from 311 to 326, contributed
to bring about the condemnation of Arius at the Council of Nice;
festival, Feb 26.
ALEXANDER, SOLOMON, first Protestant bishop of Jerusalem, of Jewish
birth, cut off during a journey to Cairo (1799-1845).
ALEXANDER III., pope, successor to Adrian IV., an able man, whose
election Barbarossa at first opposed, but finally assented to; took the
part of Thomas à Becket against Henry II. and canonised him, as also St.
Bernard. Pope from 1159 to 1181.
ALEXANDER VI., called Borgia from his mother, a Spaniard by birth,
obtained the popehood by bribery in 1492 in succession to Innocent VIII.,
lived a licentious life and had several children, among others the
celebrated Lucretia and the infamous Cæsar Borgia; _d_. in 1503, after a
career of crime, not without suspicion of poison. In addition to
Alexanders III. and VI., six of the name were popes: Alexander I., pope
from 108 to 117; Alexander II., pope from 1061 to 1073; Alexander IV.,
pope from 1254 to 1261; Alexander V., pope from 1409 to 1410; Alexander
VII., pope from 1653 to 1667, who was forced to kiss his hand to Louis
XIV.; Alexander VIII., pope from 1689 to 1691.
ALEXANDER I., king of Scotland, son of Malcolm Canmore and Margaret,
sister of Edgar Atheling, a vigorous prince, surnamed on that account
_The Fierce_; subdued a rising in the North, and stood stoutly in defence
of the independent rights of both Crown and Church against the claim of
supremacy over both on the part of England; _d_. 1124.
ALEXANDER II., of Scotland, successor of William the Lion, his
father, a just and wise ruler, aided the English barons against John, and
married Joan, the sister of Henry III.; _d_. 1249.
ALEXANDER III., son of the preceding, married a daughter of Henry
III., sided with him against the barons, successfully resisted the
invasion of Haco, king of Norway, and on the conclusion of peace gave his
daughter in marriage to Haco's successor Eric; accidentally killed by
falling over a cliff near Kinghorn when hunting in 1285.
ALEXANDER I., emperor of Russia, son and successor of Paul I., took
part in the European strife against the encroachments of Napoleon, was
present at the battle of Austerlitz, fought the French at Pultusk and
Eylau, was defeated at Friedland, had an interview with Napoleon at
Tilsit in 1813, entered into a coalition with the other Powers against
France, which ended in the capture of Paris and the abdication of
Napoleon in 1814. Under his reign Russia rose into political importance
in Europe (1777-1825).
ALEXANDER II., emperor of Russia, son and successor of Nicholas I.,
fell heir to the throne while the siege of Sebastopol was going on; on
the conclusion of a peace applied himself to reforms in the state and the
consolidation and extension of the empire. His reign is distinguished by
a ukase decreeing in 1861 the emancipation of the serfs numbering 23
millions, by the extension of the empire in the Caucasus and Central
Asia, and by the war with Turkey in the interest of the Slavs in 1877-78,
which was ended by the peace of San Stephano, revised by the treaty of
Berlin. His later years were clouded with great anxiety, owing to the
spread of Nihilism, and he was killed by a bomb thrown at him by a
Nihilist (1818-1881).
ALEXANDER III., emperor of Russia, son of the preceding, followed in
the footsteps of his father, and showed a marked disposition to live on
terms of peace with the other Powers; his reign not distinguished by any
very remarkable event. The present Czar is his son and successor
(1845-1894).
ALEXANDER I., king of Servia, _b_. 1876.
ALEXANDER NEVSKY, grand-duke of Russia, conquered the Swedes, the
Danes, and the Teutonic Knights on the banks of the Neva, freed Russia
from tribute to the Mongols, is one of the saints of the Russian Church.
ALEXANDER OF HALES, the _Doctor irrefragabilis_ of the Schools, an
English ecclesiastic, a member of the Franciscan order, who in his "Summa
Universæ Theologiæ" formulated, by severe rigour of Aristotelian logic,
the theological principles and ecclesiastical rites of the Romish Church;
_d_. in 1222.
ALEXANDER OF PARIS, a Norman poet of the 16th century, who wrote a
poem on Alexander the Great in twelve-syllabled lines, called after him
Alexandrines.
ALEXANDER OF THE NORTH, Charles XII. of Sweden.
ALEXANDER SEVE`RUS, a Roman emperor, a wise, virtuous, and pious
prince, conquered Artaxerxes, king of Persia, in an expedition against
him, but setting out against the Germans, who were causing trouble on the
frontiers of the empire, fell a victim, along with his mother, to an
insurrection among his troops not far from Mainz (205-235).
ALEXAN`DRIA (230), a world-famous city, the chief port of Egypt,
founded by Alexander the Great in 332 B.C., at one time a great centre
of learning, and in possession of the largest library of antique
literature in the world, which was burned by the Caliph Omar in 640; at
one time a place of great commerce, but that has very materially decayed
since the opening of the Suez Canal. Alexandria, from its intimate
connection with both East and West, gave birth in early times to a
speculative philosophy which drew its principles from eastern as well as
western sources, which was at its height on the first encounter of these
elements.
ALEXANDRIA (14), a town on the Potomac, 7 m. S. of Washington,
accessible to vessels of the largest size; also a thriving town (7) on
the river Leven, 3 m. N. of Dumbarton.
ALEXANDRIAN CODEX, an MS. on parchment of the Septuagint Scriptures
in Greek in uncial letters, which belonged to the library of the
patriarchs of Alexandra.
ALEXANDRIAN LIBRARY, the library burned by the Caliph Omar in 642,
said to have contained 700,000 volumes.
ALEXANDRI`NA LAKE, a lake in Australia into which the river Murray
flows.
ALEXANDRINE PHILOSOPHY, a Gnostic philosophy, combining eastern with
western forms of thought.
ALEXANDRINES. See ALEXANDER OF PARIS.
ALEXAN`DROPOL (22), the largest town in the Erivan district of
Russian Armenia, and a fortress of great strength.
ALEXIS, ST., the patron saint of beggars and pilgrims, represented
in art with a staff and in a pilgrim's habit; sometimes lying on a mat,
with a letter in his hand, dying.
ALEXIS MICHAELOVITCH, czar of Russia, the father of Peter the Great,
the first czar who acted on the policy of cultivating friendly relations
with other European states (1630-1677).
ALEXIS PETROVITCH, son of Peter the Great, conspired against his
father as he had broken the heart of his mother, was condemned to death;
after his trial by secret judges he was found dead in prison (1695-1718).
ALEXIUS COMNE`NUS, emperor of the East, began life as a soldier, was
a great favourite with the soldiers, who, in a period of anarchy, raised
him to the throne at the period of the first crusade, when the empire was
infested by Turks on the one hand and Normans on the other, while the
crusaders who passed through his territory proved more troublesome than
either. He managed to hold the empire together in spite of these
troubles, and to stave off the doom that impended all through his reign
of thirty-seven years (1048-1118).
ALFA, an esparto grass valuable for making paper.
AL`FADUR, the All-Father or uncreated supreme in the Norse
mythology.
ALFARA`BI, an Arabian philosopher of the 10th century, had Avicenna
for a disciple, wrote on various subjects, and was the first to attempt
an encyclopedic work.
ALFIE`RI, an Italian dramatist, spent his youth in dissipation
before he devoted himself to the dramatic art; on the success of his
first drama "Cleopatra," met at Florence with the Countess of Albany, the
wife of Charles Edward Stuart, on whose death he married her; was at
Paris when the Revolution broke out, and returned to Florence, where he
died and was buried. Tragedy was his _forte_ as a dramatist (1749-1803).
ALFONSINE TABLES, astronomical tables drawn up at Toledo by order of
Alfonso X. in 1252 to correct the anomalies in the Ptolemaic tables; they
divided the year into 365 days, 5 hours, 49 minutes, 16 seconds.
ALFONSO I., the "Conqueror," founder of the kingdom of Portugal, was
the first king, originally only count, as his father before him; in that
capacity took up arms against the Moors, and defeating them had himself
proclaimed king on the field of battle, a title confirmed to him by the
Pope and made good by his practically subjecting all Portugal to his sway
(1110-1185).
ALFONSO X., the Wise, or the Astronomer, king of Castile and Leon,
celebrated as an astronomer and a philosopher; after various successes
over the Moors, first one son and then another rose against him and drove
him from the throne; died of chagrin at Seville two years later. His fame
connects itself with the preparation of the Alfonsine Tables, and the
remark that "the universe seemed a crank machine, and it was a pity the
Creator had not taken advice." It was a saying of his, "old wood to burn,
old books to read, old wine to drink, and old friends to converse with"
(1226-1284).
ALFONSO III., surnamed the Great, king of Asturias, ascended the
throne in 866, fought against and gained numerous victories over the
Moors; the members of his family rose against him and compelled him to
abdicate, but on a fresh incursion of the Moors he came forth from his
retreat and triumphantly beat them back; died in Zamora, 910.
ALFORD, HENRY, vicar of Wymeswold and afterwards Dean of Canterbury;
his works and writings were numerous, and included poems and hymns. His
great work, however, was an edition of the Greek New Testament, with
notes, various readings, and comments (1810-1871).
ALFORD, MICHAEL, a learned English Jesuit, left two great works,
"Britannia Illustrata" and "Annales Ecclesiastici et Civiles
Britannorum."
ALFRED, DUKE OF SAXE-COBURG AND GOTHA, son of Prince Albert and
Queen Victoria; _b_. 1844.
ALFRED THE GREAT, king of the West Saxons, and the most celebrated
and greatest of all the Saxon kings. His troubles were with the Danes,
who at the time of his accession infested the whole country north of the
Thames; with these he fought nine battles with varied success, till after
a lull of some years he was surprised by Gunthrum, then king, in 878, and
driven to seek refuge on the island of Athelney. Not long after this he
left his retreat and engaged Gunthrum at Edington, and after defeating
him formed a treaty with him, which he never showed any disposition to
break. After this Alfred devoted himself to legislation, the
administration of government, and the encouragement of learning, being a
man of letters himself. England owes much to him both as a man and a
ruler, and it was he who in the creation of a fleet laid the first
foundation of her greatness as monarch of the deep. His literary works
were translations of the "General History" of Orosius, the
"Ecclesiastical History" of Bede, Boëthius's "Consolations of
Philosophy," and the "Cura Pastoralis" of Pope Gregory, all executed for
the edification of his subjects (849-901).
ALGÆ, sea-weeds and plants of the same order under fresh water as
well as salt; they are flowerless, stemless, and cellular throughout.
ALGAR`DI, an Italian sculptor of note, born at Bologna; his greatest
work is an alto-relievo, the largest existing, of Pope Leo restraining
Attila from marching on Rome (1602-1654).
ALGARO`TTI, FRANCESCO, a clever Italian author, born at Venice,
whom, for his wit, Frederick the Great was attached to and patronised,
"one of the first _beaux esprits_ of the age," according to Wilhelmina,
Frederick's sister. Except his wit, it does not appear Frederick got much
good out of him, for the want of the due practical faculty, all the
faculty he had having evaporated in talk (1712-1764).
ALGAR`VE (240), the southernmost province of Portugal, hilly, but
traversed with rich valleys, which yield olives, vines, oranges, &c.
ALGEBRA, a universal arithmetic of Arabian origin or Arabian
transmission, in which symbols are employed to denote operations, and
letters to represent number and quantity.
ALGE`RIA, in the N. of Africa, belongs to France, stretches between
Morocco on the W. and Tripoli and Tunis on the E., the country being
divided into the Tell along the sea-coast, which is fertile, the Atlas
Highlands overlooking it on the S., on the southern slopes of which are
marshy lakes called "shotts," on which alfa grows wild, and the Sahara
beyond, rendered habitable here and there by the creation of artesian
wells; its extent nearly equal in area to that of France, and the
population numbers about four millions, of which only a quarter of a
million is French. The country is divided into Departments, of which
Algiers, Oran, and Constantine are the respective capitals. It has been
successively under the sway of the Carthaginians, the Romans, the
Vandals, the Arabs, the Byzantines, and the Berbers, which last were in
the 16th century supplanted by the Turks. At the end of this period it
became a nest of pirates, against whom a succession of expeditions were
sent from several countries of Europe, but it was only with the conquest
of it by the French in 1830 that this state of things was brought to an
end.
ALGESI`RAS (12), a town and port in Spain on the Bay of Gibraltar, 5
m. across the bay; for centuries a stronghold of the Moors, but taken
from them by Alfonso IX. after a siege of twenty months.
ALGIERS` (75), the capital of Algeria, founded by the Arabs in 935,
called the "silver city," from the glistening white of its buildings as
seen sloping up from the sea, presenting a striking appearance, was for
centuries under its Bey the head-quarters of piracy in the Mediterranean,
which only began to cease when Lord Exmouth bombarded the town and
destroyed the fleet in the harbour. Since it fell into the hands of the
French the city has been greatly improved, the fortifications
strengthened, and its neighbourhood has become a frequent resort of
English people in winter.
ALGINE, a viscous gum obtained from certain sea-weeds, used as size
for textile fabrics, and for thickening soups and jellies.
ALGO`A BAY, an inlet at the E. of Cape Colony, 20 m. wide, on which
Port Elizabeth stands, 425 m. E. of the Cape of Good Hope.
AL`GOL, a double star in the constellation Perseus, of changing
brightness.
ALGONQUINS, one of the three aboriginal races of N. American
Indians, originally occupying nearly the whole region from the Churchill
and Hudson Bay southward to N. Carolina, and from the E. of the Rocky
Mts. to Newfoundland; the language they speak has been divided into five
dialects.
ALHAM`BRA (Red Castle), an ancient palace and stronghold of the
Moorish kings of Granada, founded by Muhammed II. in 1213, decorated with
gorgeous arabesques by Usuf I. (1345), erected on the crest of a hill
which overlooks Granada; has suffered from neglect, bad usage, and
earthquake.
A`LI, the cousin of Mahomet, and one of his first followers at the
age of sixteen, "a noble-minded creature, full of affection and fiery
daring. Something chivalrous in him; brave as a lion; yet with a grace, a
truth and affection worthy of Christian knighthood." Became Caliph in
656, died by assassination in the Mosque at Bagdad; the Sheiks yearly
commemorate his death. See Carlyle's "Heroes."
ALI BABA. See BABA, ALI.
A`LI PASHA, pasha of Janina, a bold and crafty Albanian, able man,
and notorious for his cruelty as well as craft; alternately gained the
favour of the Porte and lost it by the alliances he formed with hostile
powers, until the Sultan sentenced him to deposition, and sent Hassan
Pasha to demand his head; he offered violent resistance but being
overpowered at length surrendered, when his head was severed from his
body and sent to Constantinople (1741-1822).
ALICAN`TE (40), the third seaport-town in Spain, with a spacious
harbour and strongly fortified, in a province of the same name on the
Mediterranean.
ALIGARH` (61), a town with a fort between Agra and Delhi, the
garrison of which mutinied in 1857.
ALIGHIE`RI, the family name of Dante.
AL`IMA, an affluent on the right bank of the Congo, in French
territory.
ALIMENTARY CANAL, a passage 5 or 6 times the length of the body,
lined throughout with mucous membrane, extends from the mouth to the
anus, and includes mouth, fauces, pharynx, oesophagus, stomach, and small
and large intestines.
ALISON, ARCHIBALD, an Episcopal clergyman in Edinburgh, of which he
was a native, best known for his "Essay on the Nature and Principles of
Taste" (1757-1839).
ALISON, SIR ARCHIBALD, son of the preceding, a lawyer who held
several prominent legal appointments, and a historian, his great work
being a "Modern History of Europe from the French Revolution to the Fall
of Napoleon," afterwards extended to the "Accession of Louis Napoleon"
(1792-1867).
ALISON, W. PULTENEY, brother of the preceding, professor of medicine
in Edinburgh University, and a philanthropist (1790-1859).
ALIWAL`, a village in the Punjab, on the Sutlej, where Sir Harry
Smith gained a brilliant victory over the Sikhs, who were provided with
forces in superior numbers, in 1846.
AL`KAHEST, the presumed universal solvent of the alchemists.
ALKALIES, bodies which, combining with acids form salts, are soluble
in water, and properly four in number, viz., potash, soda, lithia, and
ammonia.
ALKALINE EARTHS, earths not soluble in water, viz., lime, magnesia,
strontia, and baryta.
ALKALOIDS, bodies of vegetable origin, similar in their properties,
as well as toxicologically, to alkalies; contain as a rule carbon,
hydrogen, oxygen, and nitrogen; many of them are poisonous and invaluable
in medicine.
ALKMAAR` (14), the capital of N. Holland, 25 m. NW. of Amsterdam,
with a large trade in cattle, grain, and cheese.
ALKMER, HENRIK VAN, the reputed author of the first German version
of "Reynard the Fox."
ALL THE TALENTS, ADMINISTRATION OF, a ministry formed by Lord
Grenville on the death of Pitt in 1806.
AL`LAH, the Adorable, the Arab name for God, adopted by the
Mohammedans as the name of the one God.
ALLAHABAD` (175), the City of God, a central city of British India,
on the confluence of the Ganges and the Jumna, 550 m. from Calcutta, and
on the railway between that city and Bombay.
ALLAN, DAVID, a Scottish portrait and historical painter, born at
Alloa; illustrated Ramsay's "Gentle Shepherd"; his greatest work is the
"Origin of Painting," now in the National Gallery at Edinburgh
(1744-1796).
ALLAN, SIR WILLIAM, a distinguished Scottish historical painter,
born at Edinburgh, many of his paintings being on national subjects; he
was a friend of Scott, who patronised his work, and in succession to
Wilkie, president of the Royal Scottish Academy; painted "Circassian
Captives" and "Slave-Market at Constantinople" (1782-1850).
ALLANTOIS, a membrane enveloping the foetus in mammals, birds, and
reptiles.
ALLARD`, a French general, entered the service of Runjeet Singh at
Lahore, trained his troops in European war tactics, and served him
against the Afghans; died at Peshawar (1785-1839).
ALLEGHA`NY (105), a manufacturing city in Pennsylvania, on the Ohio,
opposite Pittsburg, of which it is a kind of suburb.
ALLEGHA`NY MOUNTAINS, a range in the Appalachian system in U.S.,
extending from Pennsylvania to N. Carolina; do not exceed 2400 ft. in
height, run parallel with the Atlantic coast, and form the watershed
between the Atlantic rivers and the Mississippi.
ALLEGORICAL INTERPRETATION, assigning a higher than a literal
interpretation to the Scripture record of things, in particular the Old
Testament story.
ALLEGORY, a figurative mode of representation, in which a subject of
a higher spiritual order is described in terms of that of a lower which
resembles it in properties and circumstances, the principal subject being
so kept out of view that we are left to construe the drift of it from the
resemblance of the secondary to the primary subject.
ALLEGRI, the family name of Correggio; the name of an Italian
composer, born at Rome, the author of a still celebrated _Miserere_
(1580-1652).
AL`LEINE, JOSEPH, a Puritan writer, author of a book once, and to
some extent still, much in favour among religious people, entitled "Alarm
to the Unconverted" (1632-1674).
ALLEN, BOG OF, a dreary expanse of bogs of peat E. of the Shannon,
in King's Co. and Kildare, Ireland; LOUGH OF, an expansion of the
waters of the Shannon.
ALLEN, ETHAN, one of the early champions of American independence,
taken prisoner in a raid into Canada; wrote a defence of deism and
rational belief (1738-1789).
ALLEN, GRANT, man of letters, born in Kingston, Canada, 1848, and a
prolific writer; an able upholder of the evolution doctrine and an
expounder of Darwinism.
ALLEN, JOHN, an M.D. of Scotch birth, and a contributor to the
_Edinburgh Review_ (1771-1843).
ALLEN, WM., a distinguished chemist and philanthropist, son of a
Spitalfields weaver, a member of the Society of Friends, and a devoted
promoter of its principles (1770-1843).
ALLENTOWN (34), a town on the Lehigh River, 50 m. NW. of
Philadelphia, the great centre of the iron trade in the U.S.
ALLE`RION, in heraldry, an eagle with expanded wings, the points
turned downwards, and without beak or feet.
ALLEYN, EDWARD, a celebrated actor in the reigns of Elizabeth and
James I., the founder of Dulwich College, and was voluntarily along with
his wife one of its first beneficiaries and inmates; was a contemporary
of Shakespeare (1566-1626).
AL`LIA, a stream flowing into the Tiber 11 m. from Rome, where the
Romans were defeated by the Gauls under Brennus, 387 B.C.
ALLIANCE, THE TRIPLE, in 1668, between England, Holland, and Sweden
against Louis XIV.; the QUADRUPLE, in 1718, between France, England,
Holland, and the Empire to maintain the treaty of Utrecht; the HOLY,
in 1815, between Russia, Austria, and Prussia against Liberal ideas; the
TRIPLE, in 1872, between Germany, Austria, and Russia, at the
instigation of Bismarck, from which Russia withdrew in 1886, when Italy
stepped into her place. Under it the signatories in 1887 guarantee the
integrity of their respective territories.
ALLIER, a confluent of the river Loire, in France, near Nevers; also
the department through which it flows.
ALLIES, the name generally given to the confederate Powers who in
1814 and 1815 entered France and restored the Bourbons.
ALLIES, THOMAS WILLIAM, an English clergyman who turned Roman
Catholic, and wrote, in defence of the step, among others, the "See of
St. Peter, the Rock of the Church."
ALLIGATOR, a N. American fresh-water crocodile, numerous in the
Mississippi and the lakes and rivers of Louisiana and Carolina; subsists
on fish, and though timid, is dangerous when attacked; is slow in
turning, however, and its attacks can be easily evaded.
ALLINGHAM, WILLIAM, a poet and journalist, born in Ireland, of
English origin; his most celebrated works are "Day and Night Songs" and
"Lawerence Bloomfield in Ireland"; was for a time editor of _Fraser's
Magazine_ (1824-1889).
ALLMAN, GEORGE J., M.D., Emeritus Professor of Natural History in
Edinburgh, an eminent naturalist; born in Ireland (1812-1898).
ALLOA (12), a thriving seaport on north bank of the Forth, in
Clackmannan, 6 m. below Stirling, famous for its ale.
ALLOB`ROGES, a Celtic race troublesome to the Romans, who occupied
the country between the Rhône and the Lake of Geneva, corresponding to
Dauphiné and Savoy.
ALLOPATHY, in opposition to homoeopathy, the treatment of disease by
producing a condition of the system different from or opposite to the
condition essential to the disease to be cured.
ALLOTROPY, the capability which certain compounds show of assuming
different properties and qualities, although composed of identical
elements.
ALLOWAY, the birthplace of Burns, on the Doon, 2 m. from Ayr, the
assumed scene of Tam o' Shanter's adventure.
ALLOWAY KIRK, a ruin S. of Ayr, celebrated as the scene of the
witches' dance in "Tam o' Shanter."
ALL-SAINTS' DAY, the 1st of November, a feast dedicated to all the
Saints.
ALL-SOULS' DAY, a festival on the 2nd November to pray for the souls
of the faithful deceased, such as may be presumed to be still suffering
in Purgatory.
ALLSPICE, the berry of the pimento, or Jamaica pepper.
ALLSTON, WASHINGTON, an American painter and poet, whose genius was
much admired by Coleridge (1779-1843).
ALMA, a river in the Crimea, half-way between Eupatoria and
Sebastopol, where the allied English, French, and Turkish armies defeated
the Russians under Prince Menschikoff, Sept. 20, 1854.
ALMACK'S, a suite of assembly rooms, afterwards known as Willis's
Rooms, where select balls used to be given, admission to which was a
certificate of high social standing.
ALMADEN (9), a town on the northern slope of the Sierra Morena, in
Spain, with rich mines of quicksilver.
ALMA`GRO, DIEGO D', a confederate of Pizzaro in the conquest of
Peru, but a quarrel with the brothers of Pizzaro about the division of
the spoil on the capture of Cuzco, the capital of Chile, led to his
imprisonment and death (1475-1538).--DIEGO D', his son, who avenged
his death by killing Pizzaro, but being conquered by Vaca de Castro, was
himself put to death (1520-1542).
AL-MAMOUN, the son of HAROUN-EL-RASCHID, the 7th Abbaside
caliph, a great promoter of science and learning; _b_. 833.
ALMANACH DE GOTHA, a kind of European peerage, published annually by
Perthes at Gotha; of late years extended so as to include statesmen and
military people, as well as statistical information.
ALMANSUR, ABU GIAFAR, the 2nd Abbaside caliph and the first of the
caliphs to patronise learning; founded Bagdad, and made it the seat of
the caliphate; _d_. 775.
ALMANSUR, ABU MOHAMMED, a great Moorish general in the end of the
10th century, had overrun and nearly made himself master of all Spain,
when he was repulsed and totally defeated by the kings of Leon and
Navarre in 948.
AL`MA-TAD`EMA, LAURENCE, a distinguished artist of Dutch descent,
settled in London; famous for his highly-finished treatment of classic
subjects; _b_. 1836.
ALMAVIVA, a character in Beaumarchais' _Marriage de Figaro_,
representative of one of the old noblesse of France, recalling all their
manners and vices, who is duped by his valet Figaro, a personification of
wit, talent, and intrigue.
ALMEIDA, a strong fortress in the province of Beira, on the Spanish
frontier of Portugal.
ALMEIDA, FRANCESCO, the first Portuguese viceroy of India, a firm
and wise governor, superseded by Albuquerque, and killed on his way home
by the Kaffirs at the Cape in 1510.--LORENZO, his son, acting under
him, distinguished himself in the Indian seas, and made Ceylon tributary
to Portugal.
ALMERIA (37), a chief town and seaport in the S. of Spain, an
important and flourishing place, next to Granada, under the Moors, and at
one time a nest of pirates more formidable than those of Algiers.
ALMIGHTY DOLLAR, the Almighty whom the Americans are charged with
worshipping, first applied to them, it would seem, by Washington Irving.
ALMOHADES, a Moslem dynasty which ruled in N. Africa and Spain from
1129 to 1273.
ALMO`RA, a high-lying town at the foot of the Himalayas, 85 m. N. of
Bareilly.
ALMORAVIDES, a Moslem dynasty which subdued first Fez and Morocco,
and then S. Spain, from 1055 to 1147.
ALNWICK, the county town of Northumberland, on the Aln; at the north
entrance is Alnwick Castle, the seat of the Duke of Northumberland, one
of the most magnificent structures of the kind in England, and during the
Border wars a place of great strength.
ALOE, a genus of succulent plants embracing 200 species, the
majority natives of S. Africa, valuable in medicine, in particular a
purgative from the juice of the leaves of several species.
ALOES WOOD, the heart of certain tropical trees, which yields a
fragrant resinous substance and admits of high polish.
ALOST (25), a Belgian town on the Dender, 19 m. NW. from Brussels,
with a cathedral, one of the grandest in Belgium, which contains a famous
painting by Rubens, "St. Roche beseeching Christ to arrest the Plague at
Alost."
ALOYSIUS, ST., See GONZAGA.
ALOYSIUS, ST., an Italian nobleman, who joined the Society of Jesus;
canonised for his devotion to the sick during the plague in Rome, to
which he himself fell a victim, June 21, 1591.
ALPACA, a gregarious ruminant of the camel family, a native of the
Andes, and particularly the tablelands of Chile and Peru; is covered with
a long soft silky wool, of which textile fabrics are woven; in appearance
resembles a sheep, but is larger in size, and has a long erect neck with
a handsome head.
ALP-ARSLAN (Brave Lion), a sultan of the Seljuk dynasty in Persia,
added Armenia and Georgia to his dominions (1030-1072).
ALPES, three departments in SE. France: the BASSES-A, in NE.
part of Provence, bounded by Hautes-Alpes on the N. and Var on the S.,
sterile in the N., fertile in the S., cap. Digne; HAUTES-A., forming
part of Dauphiné, traversed by the Cottian Alps, climate severe, cap.
Gap; A. MARITIMES, E. of the Basses-A., bordering on Italy and the
Mediterranean, made up of the territory of Nice, ceded by Italy, and of
Monaco and Var; cap. Nice.
ALPHE`US, a river in the Peloponnesus, flowing west, with its source
in Arcadia; also the name of the river-god enamoured of the nymph
Arethusa, and who pursued her under the sea as far as Sicily, where he
overtook her and was wedded to her.
ALPINE CLUB, a club of English gentlemen devoted to mountaineering,
first of all in the Alps, members of which have successfully addressed
themselves to attempts of the kind on loftier mountains.
ALPINE PLANTS, plants whose natural habitat approaches the line of
perpetual snow.
ALPS, THE, the vastest mountain system in Europe; form the boundary
between France, Germany, and Switzerland on the N. and W., and Italy on
the S., their peaks mostly covered with perpetual snow, the highest being
Mont Blanc, within the frontiers of France. According to height, they
have been distributed into _Fore, Middle_, and _High:_ the Fore rising to
the limit of trees; the Middle, to the line of perpetual snow; and the
High, above the snow-line. In respect of range or extent, they have been
distributed into _Western, Middle_, and _Eastern:_ the Western, including
the Maritime, the Cottian, the Dauphiné, and the Graian, extend from the
Mediterranean to Mont Blanc; the Middle, including the Pennine and
Bernese, extend from Mont Blanc to the Brenner Pass; and the Eastern,
including the Dolomite, the Julian, and the Dinaric, extend from the
Brenner and Hungarian plain to the Danube. These giant masses occupy an
area of 90,000 sq. m., and extend from the 44th to the 48th parallel of
latitude.
ALPUJAR`RAS, a rich and lovely valley which stretches S. from the
Sierra Nevada in Spain.
ALRUNA-WIFE, the household goddess of a German family.
ALSACE-LORRAINE` (1,640), a territory originally of the German
empire, ceded to Louis XIV. by the peace of Westphalia in 1648, but
restored to Germany after the Franco-German war in 1870-71, by the peace
of Frankfort; is under a governor general bearing the title of
"Statthalter"; is a great wine-producing country, yields cereals and
tobacco, its cotton manufacture the most important in Germany.
ALSA`TIA, Whitefriars, London, which at one time enjoyed the
privilege of a debtors' sanctuary, and had, till abolished in 1697,
become a haunt of all kinds of nefarious characters.
ALSEN (25), a Danish island adjacent to Sleswig, one of the finest
in the Baltic, now ceded to Germany.
AL-SIRAT, the hair-narrow hell-bridge of the Moslem, which every
Mohammedan must pass to enter Paradise.
ALSTEN, an island off the coast of Northland, Norway, with seven
snow-capped hills, called the Seven Sisters.
ALTAI` MOUNTAINS, in Central Asia, stretching W. from the Desert of
Gobi, and forming the S. boundary of Asiatic Russia, abounding, to the
profit of Russia, in silver and copper, as well as other metals.
ALTDOR`FER, ALBRECHT, a German painter and engraver, a distinguished
pupil of Albert Dürer, and as a painter, inspired with his spirit; his
"Battle of Arbela" adorns the Münich Picture Gallery (1488-1538).
AL`TEN, KARL AUGUST, a distinguished officer, native of Hanover, who
entered the British service, bore arms under Sir John Moore, was chief of
a division, under Wellington, in the Peninsular war, and closed his
military career at the battle of Waterloo (1763-1840).
AL`TENBURG (33), capital of Saxe-Altenburg, and 4 m. S. of Leipsic;
its castle is the scene of the famous "PRINZENRAUB" (q. v.),
related by Carlyle in his "Miscellanies."
ALTHEN, a Persian refugee, who introduced into France the
cultivation of madder, which became one of the most important products of
the S. of France.
ALTON LOCKE, a novel, by Charles Kingsley, written in sympathy with
the Chartist movement, in which Carlyle is introduced as one of the
personages.
ALTO`NA (148), a town and seaport of Sleswig-Holstein, now belonging
to Germany, close to Hamburg, on the right bank of the Elbe, and
healthier, and as good as forming one city with it.
ALTO-RELIEVO, figures carved out of a tablet so as to project at
least one half from its surface.
AL`TORF, an old town in the canton Uri, at the S. end of the Lake of
Lucerne; associated with the story of William Tell; a place of transit
trade.
ALTRUISM, a Comtist doctrine which inculcates sacrifice of self for
the good of others as the rule of human action.
ALUMBRA`DO, a member of a Spanish sect that laid claim to perfect
enlightenment.
ALURED OF BEVERLEY, an English chronicler of the 12th century; his
annals comprise the history of the Britons, Saxons, and Normans up to his
own time; _d_. 1129.
ALVA, DUKE OF, a general of the armies of Charles V. and Philip of
Spain; his career as a general was uniformly successful, but as a
governor his cruelty was merciless, especially as the viceroy of Philip
in the Low Countries, "very busy cutting off high heads in Brabant, and
stirring up the Dutch to such fury as was needful for exploding Spain and
him" (1508-1582).
ALVARA`DO, PEDRO DE, one of the Spanish conquerors of Mexico, and
comrade of Cortez; was appointed Governor of Guatemala by Charles V. as a
reward for his valiant services in the interest of Spain; was a generous
man as well as a brave.
ALVAREZ, FRANCESCO, a Portuguese who, in the 15th century, visited
Abyssinia and wrote an account of it.
ALVAREZ, DON JOSÉ, the most distinguished of Spanish sculptors, born
near Cordova, and patronised by Napoleon, who presented him with a gold
medal, but to whom, for his treatment of his country, he conceived so
great an aversion, that he would never model a bust of him (1768-1827).
ALVIANO, an eminent Venetian general, distinguished himself in the
defence of the republic against the Emperor Maximilian (1455-1515).
AMADEUS, LAKE, a lake in the centre of Australia, subject to an
almost total drying-up at times.
AMADE`US V., count of Savoy, surnamed the Great from his wisdom and
success as a ruler (1249-1323).
AMADEUS VIII., 1st duke of Savoy, increased his dominions, and
retired into a monastery on the death of his wife; he was elected Pope as
Felix V., but was not acknowledged by the Church (1383-1451).
AMADEUS I., of Spain, 2nd son of Victor Emmanuel of Italy, elected
king of Spain in 1870, but abdicated in 1873 (1845-1890).
AM`ADIS DE GAUL, a celebrated romance in prose, written partly in
Spanish and partly in French by different romancers of the 15th century;
the first four books were regarded by Cervantes as a masterpiece. The
hero of the book, Amadis, surnamed the Knight of the Lion, stands for a
type of a constant and deferential lover, as well as a model
knight-errant, of whom Don Quixote is the caricature.
AMADOU, a spongy substance, consisting of slices of certain fungi
beaten together, used as a styptic, and, after being steeped in
saltpetre, used as tinder.
AMAIMON, a devil who could he restrained from working evil from the
third hour till noon and from the ninth till evening.
AMALARIC, king of the Visigoths, married a daughter of Clovis; _d_.
581.
AMALEKITES, a warlike race of the Sinaitic peninsula, which gave
much trouble to the Israelites in the wilderness; were as good as
annihilated by King David.
AMAL`FI, a port on the N. of the Gulf of Salerno, 24 m. SE. of
Naples; of great importance in the Middle Ages, and governed by Doges of
its own.
AMALFIAN LAWS, a code of maritime law compiled at Amalfi.
AMA`LIA, ANNA, the Duchess of Weimar, the mother of the grand-duke;
collected about her court the most illustrious literary men of the time,
headed by Goethe, who was much attached to her (1739-1807).
AMALRIC, one of the leaders in the crusade against the Albigenses,
who, when his followers asked him how they were to distinguish heretics
from Catholics, answered, "Kill them all; God will know His own;" _d_.
1225.
AMALTHE`A, the goat that suckled Zeus, one of whose horns became the
cornucopia--horn of plenty.
AMA`RA SINHA, a Hindu Buddhist, left a valuable thesaurus of
Sanskrit words.
AMA`RI, MICHELE, an Italian patriot, born at Palermo, devoted a
great part of his life to the history of Sicily, and took part in its
emancipation; was an Orientalist as well; he is famous for throwing light
on the true character of the Sicilian Vespers (1806-1889).
AMARYL`LIS, a shepherdess in one of Virgil's pastorals; any young
rustic maiden.
AMA`SIA (25), a town in Asia Minor, once the capital of the kings of
Pontus.
AMA`SIS, king of Egypt, originally a simple soldier, took part in an
insurrection, dethroned the reigning monarch and assumed the crown,
proved an able ruler, and cultivated alliances with Greece; reigned from
570 to 546 B.C.
AMA`TI, a celebrated family of violin-makers; Andrea and Niccolo,
brothers, at Cremona, in the 16th and 17th centuries.
AMATITLAN (10), a town in Guatemala, the inhabitants of which are
mainly engaged in the preparation of cochineal.
AMAUROSIS, a weakness or loss of vision, the cause of which was at
one time unknown.
AMAZON, a river in S. America and the largest on the globe, its
basin nearly equal in extent to the whole of Europe; traverses the
continent at its greatest breadth, rises in the Andes about 50 m. from
the Pacific, and after a course of 4000 m. falls by a delta into the
Atlantic, its waters increased by an immense number of tributaries, 20 of
which are above 1000 m. in length, one 2000 m., its mouth 200 m. wide;
its current affects the ocean 150 m. out; is navigable 3000 m. up, and by
steamers as far as the foot of the Andes.
AMAZONS, a fabulous race of female warriors, who had a queen of
their own, and excluded all men from their community; to perpetuate the
race, they cohabited with men of the neighbouring nations; slew all the
male children they gave birth to, or sent them to their fathers; burnt
off the right breasts of the females, that they might be able to wield
the bow in war.
AMBASSADOR, "an honest man sent to lie abroad for the commonwealth"
(_Wotton_).
AMBER, a fossil resin, generally yellow and semi-transparent,
derived, it is presumed, from certain extinct coniferous trees; becomes
electric by friction, and gives name to electricity, the Greek word for
it being _electron_; has been fished up for centuries in the Baltic, and
is now used in varnishes and for tobacco pipes.
AMBERGER, a painter of Nürnberg in the 16th century, a disciple of
Holbein, his principal work being the history of Joseph in twelve
pictures.
AMBERGRIS, an ashy-coloured odorous substance used in perfumery,
presumed to be a morbid fragment of the intestines of the spermaceti
whale, being often found floating on the ocean which it frequents.
AMBERLEY, LORD, son of Lord John Russell, wrote an "Analysis of
Religious Belief," which, as merely sceptical, his father took steps to
secure the suppression of, without success.
AMBLESIDE, a small market-town near the head of Lake Windermere, in
the Wordsworth or so-called Lake District.
AMBLYOPSIS, a small fish without eyes, found in the Mammoth
Cave, U.S.
AMBOISE (5), a town on the Loire, 14 m. E. of Tours, with a castle,
once the residence of the French kings. The Conspiracy of A., the
conspiracy of Condé and the Huguenots in 1560 against Francis II.,
Catharine de Medici, and the Guises. The Edict of A. (1563) conceded the
free exercise of their worship to the Protestants.
AMBOISE, GEORGE DE, CARDINAL, the popular Prime Minister of Louis
XII., who, as such, reduced the Public burdens, and as the Pope's legate
in France effected a great reform among the religious orders; is said to
have died immensely rich (1460-1510).
AMBOYNA (238), with a chief city of the name, the most important of
the Moluccas, in the Malay Archipelago, and rich before all in spices; it
belongs to the Dutch, who have diligently fostered its capabilities.
AM`BROSE, ST., bishop of Milan, born at Trèves, one of the Fathers
of the Latin Church, and a zealous opponent of the Arian heresy; as a
stern puritan refused to allow Theodosius to enter his church, covered as
his hands were with the blood of an infamous massacre, and only admitted
him to Church privilege after a severe penance of eight months; he
improved the Church service, wrote several hymns, which are reckoned his
most valuable legacy to the Church; his writings fill two vols. folio. He
is the Patron saint of Milan; his attributes are a _scourge_, from his
severity; and a _beehive_, from the tradition that a swarm of bees
settled on his mouth when an Infant without hurting him (340-397).
Festival, Dec. 7.
AMBRO`SIA, the fragrant food of the gods of Olympus, fabled to
preserve in them and confer on others immortal youth and beauty.
AMELIA, a character in one of Fielding's novels, distinguished for
her conjugal affection.
AMENDE HONORABLE, originally a mode of punishment in France which
required the offender, stripped to his shirt, and led into court with a
rope round his neck held by the public executioner, to beg pardon on his
knees of his God, his king, and his country; now used to denote a
satisfactory apology or reparation.
AMERBACH, JOHANN, a celebrated printer in Basel in the 15th century,
the first who used the Roman type instead of Gothic and Italian; spared
no expense in his art, taking, like a true workman, a pride in it; _d_.
1515.
AMERICA, including both North and South, 9000 m. in length, varies
from 3400 m. to 28 m. in breadth, contains 16½ millions of sq. m., is
larger than Europe and Africa together, but is a good deal smaller than
Asia; bounded throughout by the Atlantic on the E. and the Pacific on the
W.
AMERICA, BRITISH N., is bounded on the N. by the Arctic Ocean, on
the E. by the Atlantic, on the S. by the United States, and on the W. by
the Pacific; occupies one-third of the continent, and comprises the
Dominion of Canada and Newfoundland.
AMERICA, CENTRAL, extends from Mexico on the north to Panama on the
south, and is about six times as large as Ireland; is a plateau with
terraces descending to the sea on each side, and rich in all kinds of
tropical vegetation; consists of seven political divisions: Guatemala,
San Salvador, British Honduras, Honduras, Nicaragua, Mosquitia, and Costa
Rica.
AMERICA, NORTH, is 4560 m. in length, contains over 8½ millions sq.
m., is less than half the size of Asia, consists of a plain in the centre
throughout its length, a high range of mountains, the Rocky, on the W.,
and a lower range, the Appalachian, on the E., parallel with the coast,
which is largely indented with gulfs, bays, and seas; has a magnificent
system of rivers, large lakes, the largest in the world, a rich fauna and
flora, and an exhaustless wealth of minerals; was discovered by Columbus
in 1492, and has now a population of 80 millions, of which a fourth are
negroes, aborigines, and half-caste; the divisions are British North
America, United States, Mexico, Central American Republics, British
Honduras, the West Indian Republics, and the Spanish, British, French,
and Dutch West Indies.
AMERICA, RUSSIAN, now called Alaska; belongs by purchase to the
United States.
AMERICA, SOUTH, lies in great part within the Tropics, and consists
of a high mountain range on the west, and a long plain with minor ranges
extending therefrom eastward; the coast is but little indented, but the
Amazon and the Plate Rivers make up for the defect of seaboard; abounds
in extensive plains, which go under the names of Llanos, Selvas, and
Pampas, while the river system is the vastest and most serviceable in the
globe; the vegetable and mineral wealth of the continent is great, and it
can match the world for the rich plumage of its birds and the number and
splendour of its insect tribes.
AMERICA, SPANISH, the islands of Cuba and Puerto Rico, till lately
belonging to Spain, though the designation is often applied to all the
countries in N. America where Spanish is the spoken language.
AMERICAN FABIUS, George Washington.
AMERICAN INDIANS, a race with a red or copper-coloured skin, coarse
black straight hair, high cheek-bones, black deep-set eyes, and tall
erect figure, limited to America, and seems for most part fast dying out;
to be found still as far south as Patagonia, the Patagonians being of the
race.
AMERI`GO-VESPUC`CI, a Florentine navigator, who, under the auspices
first of Spain, and afterwards of Portugal, four times visited the New
World, just discovered by Columbus, which the first cartographers called
America, after his name; these visits were made between 1499 and 1505,
while Columbus's discovery, as is known, was in 1492 (1451-1512).
AMES, JOSEPH, historian of early British typography, in a work which
must have involved him in much labour (1689-1759).
AMHA`RA, the central and largest division of Abyssinia.
AMHERST, LORD, a British officer who distinguished himself both on
the Continent and America, and particularly along with General Wolfe in
securing for England the superiority in Canada (1717-1797).
AMICE, a flowing cloak formerly worn by pilgrims, also a strip of
linen cloth worn over the shoulder of a priest when officiating at mass.
AM`IEL, a professor of æsthetics, and afterwards of ethics at
Geneva, who is known to the outside world solely by the publication of
selections from his Journal in 1882-84, which teems with suggestive
thoughts bearing on the great vital issues of the day, and which has been
translated into English by Mrs. Humphrey Ward.
AMIENS` (88), the old capital of Picardy, on the Somme, with a
cathedral begun in 1220, described as the "Parthenon of Gothic
architecture," and by Ruskin as "Gothic, clear of Roman tradition and of
Arabian taint, Gothic pure, authoritative, unsurpassable, and
unaccusable"; possesses other buildings of interest; was the birthplace
of Peter the Hermit, and is celebrated for a treaty of peace between
France and England concluded in 1802.
AMIRAN`TES, a group of small coral islands NE. of Madagascar,
belonging to Britain; are wooded, are 11 in number, and only a few feet
above the sea-level.
AMMANA`TI, BARTOLOMEO, a Florentine architect and sculptor of note,
was an admirer of Michael Angelo, and executed several works in Rome,
Venice, and Padua (1511-1592).
AMMIA`NUS MARCELLI`NUS, a Greek who served as a soldier in the Roman
army, and wrote a history of the Roman Empire, specially valuable as a
record of contemporary events; _d_. 390.
AMMIRATO, an Italian historian, author of a history of Florence
(1531-1601).
AM`MON, an Egyptian deity, represented with the head of a ram, who
had a temple at Thebes and in the Lybian Desert; was much resorted to as
an oracle of fate; identified in Greece with Zeus, and in Rome with
Jupiter.
AMMONIA, a pungent volatile gas, of nitrogen and hydrogen, obtained
from sal-ammonia.
AMMONIO, ANDREA, a Latin poet born in Lucca, held in high esteem by
Erasmus; sent to England by the Pope, he became Latin secretary to Henry
and a prebendary of Salisbury; _d_. 1517.
AMMONITES, a Semitic race living E. of the Jordan; at continual feud
with the Jews, and a continual trouble to them, till subdued by Judas
Maccabæus.
AMMONITES, a genus of fossil shells curved into a spiral form like
the ram-horn on the head of the image of Ammon.
AMMO`NIUS SACCAS, a philosopher of Alexandria, and founder of
Neo-Platonism; Longinus, Origen, and Plotinus were among his pupils; _d_.
243, at a great age.
AMNION, name given to the innermost membrane investing the foetus in
the womb.
AMOEBA, a minute animalcule of the simplest structure, being a mere
mass of protoplasm; absorbs its food at every point all over its body by
means of processes protruded therefrom at will, with the effect that it
is constantly changing its shape.
AMOMUM, a genus of plants, such as the cardamom and grains of
paradise, remarkable for their pungency and aromatic properties.
AMORITES, a powerful Canaanitish tribe, seemingly of tall stature,
NE. of the Jordan; subdued by Joshua at Gibeon.
AMORY, THOMAS, an eccentric writer of Irish descent, author of the
"Life of John Buncle, Esq.," and other semi-insane productions; he was a
fanatical Unitarian (1691-1789).
AMOS, a poor shepherd of Tekoa, near Bethlehem, in Judah, who in the
8th century B.C. raised his voice in solitary protest against the
iniquity of the northern kingdom of Israel, and denounced the judgment of
God as Lord of Hosts upon one and all for their idolatry, which nothing
could avert.
AMOY` (96), one of the open ports of China, on a small island in the
Strait of Fukien; has one of the finest harbours in the world, and a
large export and import trade; the chief exports are tea, sugar, paper,
gold-leaf, &c.
AMPÈRE`, ANDRÉ MARIE, a French mathematician and physicist, born at
Lyons; distinguished for his discoveries in electro-dynamics and
magnetism, and the influence of these on electro-telegraphy and the
general extension of science (1775-1836).
AMPÈRE, JEAN JACQUES, son of the preceding; eminent as a
littérateur, and a historian and critic of literature; attained to the
rank of a member of the French Academy (1800-1864).
AMPHIC`TYONIC COUNCIL, a council consisting of representatives from
several confederate States of ancient Greece, twelve in number at length,
two from each, that met twice a year, sitting alternately at Thermopylæ
and Delphi, to settle any differences that might arise between them, the
decisions of which were several times enforced by arms, and gave rise to
what were called _sacred wars_, of which there were three; it was
originally instituted for the conservation of religious interests.
AMPHI`ON, a son of Zeus and Antiope, who is said to have invented
the lyre, and built the walls of Thebes by the sound of it, a feat often
alluded to as an instance of the miraculous power of music.
AMPHISBÆNA, a genus of limbless lizards; a serpent fabled to have
two heads and to be able to move backward or forward.
AM`PHITRITE, a daughter of Oceanus or Nereus, the wife of Neptune,
mother of Triton, and goddess of the sea.
AMPHIT`RYON, the king of Tiryns, and husband of Alcmene, who became
by him the mother of Iphicles, and by Zeus the mother of Hercules.
AMPHITRYON THE TRUE, the real host, the man who provides the feast,
as Zeus proved himself to the household to be when he visited Alcmene.
AM`RAN RANGE, pronounced the "scientific frontier" of India towards
Afghanistan.
AMRIT`SAR (136), a sacred city of the Sikhs in the Punjab, and a
great centre of trade, 32 m. E. of Lahore; is second to Delhi in Northern
India; manufactures cashmere shawls.
AM`RU, a Mohammedan general under the Caliph Omar, conquered Egypt
among other military achievements; he is said to have executed the order
of the Caliph Omar for burning the library of Alexandria; _d_. 663.
AMSTERDAM (456), the capital of Holland, a great trading city and
port at the mouth of the Amsel, on the Zuyder Zee, resting on 90 islands
connected by 300 bridges, the houses built on piles of wood driven into
the marshy ground; is a largely manufacturing place, as well as an
emporium of trade, one special industry being the cutting of diamonds and
jewels; birthplace of Spinoza.
AMUR`, a large eastward-flowing river, partly in Siberia and partly
in China, which, after a course of 3060 m., falls into the Sea of
Okhotsk.
AMURNATH, a place of pilgrimage in Cashmere, on account of a cave
believed to be the dwelling-place of Siva.
AMYOT, JACQUES, grand-almoner of France and bishop of Auxerre; was
of humble birth; was tutor of Charles, who appointed him grand-almoner;
he was the translator, among other works, of Plutarch into French, which
remains to-day one of the finest monuments of the old literature of
France, it was much esteemed by Montaigne (1513-1593).
AMYOT, JOSEPH, a French Jesuit missionary to China, and a learned
Orientalist (1713-1794).
ANABAPTISTS, a fanatical sect which arose in Saxony at the time of
the Reformation, and though it spread in various parts of Germany, came
at length to grief by the excesses of its adherents in Münster. See
BAPTISTS.
ANAB`ASIS, an account by Xenophon of the ill-fated expedition of
Cyrus the Younger against his brother Artaxerxes, and of the retreat of
the 10,000 Greeks under Xenophon who accompanied him, after the battle of
Cunaxa in 401 B.C.
ANACHARSIS, a Scythian philosopher of the 6th century B.C., who, in
his roamings in quest of wisdom, arrived at Athens, and became the friend
and disciple of Solon, but was put to death on his return home by his
brother; he stands for a Scythian savant living among a civilised people,
as well as for a wise man living among fools.
ANACHARSIS CLOOTZ. See CLOOTZ.
ANACON`DA, a gigantic serpent of tropical America.
ANAC`REON, a celebrated Greek lyric poet, a native of Teos, in Asia
Minor; lived chiefly at Samos and Athens; his songs are in praise of love
and wine, not many fragments of them are preserved (560-418 B.C.).
ANACREON OF PAINTERS, Francesco Albani; A. OF PERSIA, Häfiz;
A. OF THE GUILLOTINE, Barère.
ANADYOM`ENE, Aphrodité, a name meaning "emerging," given to her in
allusion to her arising out of the sea; the name of a famous painting of
Apelles so representing her.
ANADYR, a river in Siberia, which flows into Behring Sea.
ANAG`NI, a small town 40 m. SE. of Rome, the birthplace of several
Popes.
ANAHUAC`, a plateau in Central Mexico, 7580 ft. of mean elevation;
one of the names of Mexico prior to the conquest of it by the Spaniards.
AN`AKIM, a race of giants that lived in the S. of Palestine, called
also sons of Anak.
ANAM`ALAH MOUNTAINS, a range of the W. Ghâts in Travancore.
ANAMU`DI, the highest point in the Anamalah Mts., 7000 ft.
ANARCHISM, a projected social revolution, the professed aim of which
is that of the emancipation of the individual from the present system of
government which makes him the slave of others, and of the training of
the individual so as to become a law to himself, and in possession,
therefore, of the right to the control of all his vital interests, the
project definable as an insane attempt to realise a social system on the
basis of absolute individual freedom.
ANASTA`SIUS, the name of four popes: A. I., the most eminent,
pope from 398 to 401; A. II., pope from 496 to 498; A. III.,
pope from 911 to 913; A. IV., pope from 1153 to 1154.
ANASTASIUS, ST., a martyr under Nero; festival, April 15.
ANASTASIUS I., emperor of the East, excommunicated for his
severities to the Christians, and the first sovereign to be so treated by
the Pope (430-515).
ANATO`LIA, the Greek name for Asia Minor.
ANATOMY OF MELANCHOLY, a "mosaic" work by Burton, described by
Professor Saintsbury as "a wandering of the soul from Dan to Beersheba,
through all employments, desires, pleasures, and finding them barren
except for study, of which in turn the _tædium_ is not obscurely hinted."
ANAXAG`ORAS, a Greek philosopher of Clazomenæ, in Ionia, removed to
Athens and took philosophy along with him, i. e. transplanted it there,
but being banished thence for impiety to the gods, settled in Lampsacus,
was the first to assign to the _nous_, conceived of "as a purely
immaterial principle, a formative power in the origin and organisation of
things"; _d_. 425 B.C.
ANAXAR`CHUS, a Greek philosopher of the school of Democritus and
friend of Alexander the Great.
ANAXIMANDER, a Greek philosopher of Miletus, derived the universe
from a material basis, indeterminate and eternal (611-547 B.C.).
ANAXIM`ENES, also of Miletus, made air the first principle of
things; _d_. 500 B.C.; A., of Lampsacus, preceptor and biographer
of Alexander the Great.
ANCÆUS, a son of Neptune, who, having left a flagon of wine to
pursue a boar, was killed by it.
ANCELOT, a French dramatic poet, distinguished both in tragedy and
comedy; his wife also a distinguished writer (1792-1875).
ANCENIS (4), a town on the Loire, 23 m. NE. of Nantes.
ANCESTOR-WORSHIP, the worship of ancestors that prevails in
primitive nations, due to a belief in ANIMISM (q. v.).
ANCHIETA, a Portuguese Jesuit, born at Teneriffe, called the Apostle
of the New World (1538-1597).
ANCHI`SES, the father of Æneas, whom his son bore out of the flames
of Troy on his shoulders to the ships; was buried in Sicily.
ANCHITHERIUM, a fossil animal with three hoofs, the presumed
original of the horse.
ANCHOVY, a small fish captured for the flavour of its flesh and made
into sauce.
ANCHOVY PEAR, fruit of a W. Indian plant, of the taste of the mango.
ANCIENT MARINER, a mariner doomed to suffer dreadful penalties for
having shot an albatross, and who, when he reaches land, is haunted by
the recollection of them, and feels compelled to relate the tale of them
as a warning to others; the hero of a poem by Coleridge.
ANCILLON, FREDERICK, a Prussian statesman, philosophic man of
letters, and of French descent (1766-1837).
ANCO`NA (56), a port of Italy in the Adriatic, second to that of
Venice; founded by Syracusans.
ANCRE, MARSHAL, a profligate minister of France during the minority
of Louis XIII.
ANCUS MARCIUS, 4th king of Rome, grandson of Numa, extended the city
and founded Ostia.
ANDALUSIA (3,370), a region in the S. of Spain watered by the
Guadalquivir; fertile in grains, fruits, and vines, and rich in minerals.
ANDAMANS, volcanic islands in the Bay of Bengal, surrounded by coral
reefs; since 1858 used as a penal settlement.
ANDELYS, LES, a small town on the Seine, 20 m. NE. of Evreux,
divided into Great and Little.
ANDERMATT, a central Swiss village in Uri, 18 m. S. of Altorf.
ANDERSEN, HANS CHRISTIAN, a world-famous story-teller of Danish
birth, son of a poor shoemaker, born at Odense; was some time before he
made his mark, was honoured at length by the esteem and friendship of the
royal family, and by a national festival on his seventieth birthday
(1805-1875).
ANDERSON, JAMES, a Scotch lawyer, famous for his learning and his
antiquarian knowledge (1662-1728).
ANDERSON, JAMES, native of Hermiston, near Edinburgh, a writer on
agriculture and promoter of it in Scotland (1739-1808).
ANDERSON, JOHN, a native of Roseneath, professor of physics in
Glasgow University, and the founder of the Andersonian College in Glasgow
(1726-1796).
ANDERSON, LAWRENCE, one of the chief reformers of religion in Sweden
(1480-1552).
ANDERSON, MARY, a celebrated actress, native of California; in 1890
married M. Navarro de Viano of New York; _b_. 1859.
ANDERSON, SIR EDMUND, Lord Chief-Justice of Common Pleas under
Elizabeth, sat as judge at the trial of Mary, Queen of Scots. Anderson's
Reports is still a book of authority; _d_. 1605.
ANDES, an unbroken range of high mountains, 150 of them actively
volcanic, which extend, often in double and triple chains, along the west
of South America from Cape Horn to Panama, a distance of 4500 m., divided
into the Southern or Chilian as far as 23½° S., the Central as far as 10°
S., and the Northern to their termination.
ANDOCIDES, an orator and leader of the oligarchical faction in
Athens; was four times exiled, the first time for profaning the
Eleusinian Mysteries (467-393 B.C.).
ANDOR`RA (6), a small republic in the E. Pyrenees, enclosed by
mountains, under the protection of France and the Bishop of Urgel, in
Catalonia; cattle-rearing is the chief occupation of the inhabitants, who
are a primitive people and of simple habits.
ANDOVER, an old municipal borough and market-town in Hampshire, 66
m. SW. of London; also a town 23 m. from Boston, U.S., famous for its
theological seminary, founded in 1807.
ANDRAL, GABRIEL, a distinguished French pathologist, professor in
Paris University (1797-1876).
AN`DRASSY, COUNT, a Hungarian statesman, was exiled from 1848 to
1851, became Prime Minister in 1867, played a prominent part in
diplomatic affairs on the Continent to the advantage of Austria
(1823-1890).
ANDRE, JOHN, a brave British officer, tried and hanged as a spy in
the American war in 1780; a monument is erected to him in Westminster
Abbey.
ANDRÉ II., king of Hungary from 1205 to 1235, took part in the fifth
crusade.
ANDREA DEL SARTO. See SARTO.
ANDREA PISANO, a sculptor and architect, born at Pisa, contributed
greatly to free modern art from Byzantine influence (1270-1345).
ANDREOSSY, COUNT, an eminent French general and statesman, served
under Napoleon, ambassador at London, Vienna, and Constantinople,
advocated the recall of the Bourbons on the fall of Napoleon.
ANDREOSSY, FRANÇOIS, an eminent French engineer and mathematician
(1633-1688).
ANDREW, ST., one of the Apostles, suffered martyrdom by crucifixion,
became patron saint of Scotland; represented in art as an old man with
long white hair and a beard, holding the Gospel in his right hand, and
leaning on a transverse cross.
ANDREW, ST., RUSSIAN ORDER OF, the highest Order in Russia.
ANDREW, ST., THE CROSS OF, cross like a X, such having, it is
said, been the form of the cross on which St. Andrew suffered.
ANDREWES, LANCELOT, an English prelate, born in Essex, and zealous
High Churchman in the reign of Elizabeth and James I.; eminent as a
scholar, a theologian, and a preacher; in succession bishop of Ely,
Chichester, and Winchester; was one of the Hampton Court Conference, and
of the translators of the Authorised Version of the Bible; he was fervent
in devotion, but of his sermons the criticism of a Scotch nobleman, when
he preached at Holyrood once, was not inappropriate: "He rather plays
with his subject than preaches on it" (1555-1626).
ANDREWS, JOSEPH, a novel by Fielding, and the name of the hero, who
is a footman, and the brother of Richardson's Pamela.
ANDREWS, THOMAS, an eminent physicist, born and professor in Belfast
(1813-1885).
ANDRIEUX, ST., a French littérateur and dramatist, born at
Strassburg, professor in the College of France, and permanent secretary
to the Academy (1759-1822).
ANDRO`CLUS, a Roman slave condemned to the wild beasts, but saved by
a lion, sent into the arena to attack him, out of whose foot he had long
before sucked a thorn that pained him, and who recognised him as his
benefactor.
ANDROM`ACHE, the wife of Hector and the mother of Astyanax, famous
for her conjugal devotion; fell to Pyrrhus, Achilles' son, at the fall of
Troy, but was given up by him to Hector's brother; is the subject of
tragedies by Euripides and Racine respectively.
ANDROM`EDA, a beautiful Ethiopian princess exposed to a sea monster,
which Perseus slew, receiving as his reward the hand of the maiden; she
had been demanded by Neptune as a sacrifice to appease the Nereids for an
insult offered them by her mother.
ANDRONI`CUS, the name of four Byzantine emperors: A. I.,
COMNENUS, killed his ward, Alexis II., usurped the throne, and was
put to death, 1183; A. II., lived to see the empire devastated by
the Turks (1282-1328); A. III., grandson of the preceding, dethroned
him, fought stoutly against the Turks without staying their advances
(1328-1341); A. IV. dethroned his father, Soter V., and was
immediately stripped of his possessions himself (1377-1378).
ANDRONICUS, LIVIUS, the oldest dramatic poet in the Latin language
(240 B.C.).
ANDRONICUS OF RHODES, a disciple of Aristotle in the time of Cicero,
and to whom we owe the preservation of many of Aristotle's works.
ANDROS (22), the most northern of the Cyclades, fertile soil and
productive of wine and silk.
ANDROUET DU CERCEAU`, an eminent French architect who designed the
Pont Neuf at Paris (1530-1600).
ANDUJAR (11), a town of Andalusia, on the Guadalquivir, noted for
the manufacture of porous clay water-cooling vessels.
ANEMOMETER, an instrument for measuring the force, course, and
velocity of the wind.
ANEROID, a barometer, consisting of a small watch-shaped, air-tight,
air-exhausted metallic box, with internal spring-work and an index,
affected by the pressure of the air on plates exposed to its action.
ANEU`RIN, a British bard at the beginning of the 7th century, who
took part in the battle of Cattraeth, and made it the subject of a poem.
ANEURISM, a tumour, containing blood, on the coat of an artery.
ANGARA, a tributary of the Yenisei, which passes through Lake
Baikal.
ANGEL, an old English coin, with the archangel Michael piercing the
dragon on the obverse of it.
ANGEL-FISH, a hideous, voracious fish of the shark family.
ANGELIC DOCTOR, Thomas Aquinas.
ANGEL`ICA, a faithless lady of romance, for whose sake Orlando lost
his heart and his senses.
ANGELICA DRAUGHT, something which completely changes the affection.
ANGELICO, FRA, an Italian painter, born at Mugello, in Tuscany;
became a Dominican monk at Fiesole, whence he removed to Florence, and
finally to Rome, where he died; devoted his life to religious subjects,
which he treated with great delicacy, beauty, and finish, and conceived
in virgin purity and child-like simplicity of soul; his work in the form
of fresco-painting is to be found all over Italy (1387-1455).
AN`GELUS, a devotional service in honour of the Incarnation.
ANGERS` (77), on the Maine, the ancient capital of Anjou, 160 m. SW.
of Paris, with a fine cathedral, a theological seminary, and a medical
school; birthplace of David the sculptor.
ANGERSTEIN, JOHN, born in St. Petersburg, a distinguished patron of
the fine arts, whose collection of paintings, bought by the British
Government, formed the nucleus of the National Gallery (1735-1822).
ANGI`NA PEC`TORIS, an affection of the heart of an intensely
excruciating nature, the pain of which at times extends to the left
shoulder and down the left arm.
ANGLER, a fish with a broad, big-mouthed head and a tapering body,
both covered with appendages having glittering tips, by which, as it
burrows in the sand, it allures other fishes into its maw.
ANGLES, a German tribe from Sleswig who invaded Britain in the 5th
century and gave name to England.
AN`GLESEA (50), i. e. Island of the Angles, an island forming a
county in Wales, separated from the mainland by the Menai Strait, flat,
fertile, and rich in minerals.
ANGLESEY, MARQUIS OF, eldest son of the first Earl of Uxbridge,
famous as a cavalry officer in Flanders, Holland, the Peninsula, and
especially at Waterloo, at which he lost a leg, and for his services at
which he received his title; was some time viceroy in Ireland, where he
was very popular (1768-1854).
ANGLIA, EAST territory in England occupied in the 6th century by the
Angles, corresponding to counties of Norfolk and Suffolk.
ANG`LICAN CHURCH, the body of Episcopal churches all over the
British Empire and Colonies, as well as America, sprung from the Church
of England, though not subject to her jurisdiction, the term
_Anglo-Catholic_ being applied to the High Church section.
ANGLO-SAXON, the name usually assigned to the early inflected form
of the English language.
ANGO`LA (2,400), a district on the W. coast of Africa, between the
Congo and Benguela, subject to Portugal, the capital of which is St. Paul
de Loando.
ANGO`RA (20), a city in the centre of Anatolia, in a district noted
for its silky, long-haired animals, cats and dogs as well as goats.
ANGOSTU`RA, capital of the province of Guayana, in Venezuela, 240 m.
up the Orinoco; also a medicinal bark exported thence.
ANGOULÊME` (31), an old French city on the Charente, 83 m. NE. of
Bordeaux, with a fine cathedral, the birthplace of Marguerite de Valois
and Balzac.
ANGOULÊME, CHARLES DE VALOIS, DUC D', natural son of Charles IX.,
gained great reputation as a military commander, left Memoirs of his life
(1575-1650).
ANGOULÊME, DUC D', the eldest son of Charles X., after the
Revolution of 1830 gave up his rights to the throne and retired to Goritz
(1778-1844).
ANGOULÊME, DUCHESSE D', daughter of Louis XVI. and wife of the
preceding (1778-1851).
AN`GRA, the capital of the Azores, on the island of Terceira, a
fortified place.
AN`GRA PEQUE`NA, a port in SW. Africa, N. of the Orange River, and
the nucleus of the territory belonging to Germany.
ANG`STROM, a Swedish physicist and professor at Upsala,
distinguished for his studies on the solar spectrum; _b_. 1814.
ANGUIL`LA (2), or Snake Island, one of the Lesser Antilles, E. of
Porto Rico, belonging to Britain.
ANGUIER, the name of two famous French sculptors in the 17th
century.
AN`HALT (293), a duchy of Central Germany, surrounded and split up
by Prussian Saxony, and watered by the Elbe and Saale; rich in minerals.
ANHALT-DESSAU, LEOPOLD, PRINCE OF, a Prussian field-marshal, served
and distinguished himself in the war of the Spanish Succession and in
Italy, was wounded at Cassano; defeated Charles XII. at the Isle of
Rügen, and the Saxons and Austrians at Kesseldorf (1676-1747).
ANICHINI, an Italian medallist of the 16th century; executed a medal
representing the interview of Alexander the Great with the High Priest of
the Jews, which Michael Angelo pronounced the perfection of the art.
ANILINE, a colourless transparent oily liquid, obtained chiefly from
coal-tar, and extensively used in the production of dyes.
ANIMAL HEAT, the heat produced by the chemical changes which go on
in the animal system, the intensity depending on the activity of the
process.
ANIMAL MAGNETISM, a name given to the alleged effects on the animal
system, in certain passive states, of certain presumed magnetic
influences acting upon it.
ANIMISM, a belief that there is a psychical body within the physical
body of a living being, correspondent with it in attributes, and that
when the connection between them is dissolved by death the former lives
on in a ghostly form; in other words, a belief of a ghost-soul existing
conjointly with and subsisting apart from the body, its physical
counterpart.
AN`IO, an affluent of the Tiber, 4 m. above Rome; ancient Rome was
supplied with water from it by means of aqueducts.
ANISE, an umbelliferous plant, the seed of which is used as a
carminative and in the preparation of liqueurs.
ANJOU`, an ancient province in the N. of France, annexed to the
crown of France under Louis XI. in 1480; belonged to England till wrested
from King John by Philip Augustus in 1203.
ANKARSTRÖM, the assassin of Gustavus III. of Sweden, at a masked
ball, March 15, 1792, for which he was executed after being publicly
flogged on three successive days.
ANKLAM (12), an old Hanse town in Pomerania, connected by railway
with Stettin.
ANKOBAR, capital of Shoa, in Abyssinia; stands 8200 ft. above the
sea-level.
ANN ARBOR (10), a city of Michigan, on the Huron, with an
observatory and a flourishing university.
ANNA COMNE`NA, a Byzantine princess, who, having failed in a
political conspiracy, retired into a convent and wrote the life of her
father, Alexius I., under the title of the "Alexiad" (1083-1148).
AN`NA IVANOV`NA, niece of Peter the Great, empress of Russia in
succession to Peter II. from 1730 to 1740; her reign was marred by the
evil influence of her paramour Biren over her, which led to the
perpetration of great cruelties; was famed for her big cheek, "which, as
shown in her portraits," Carlyle says, "was comparable to a Westphalian
ham" (1693-1740).
AN`NAM (6,000), an empire, of the size of Sweden, along the east
coast of Indo-China, under a French protectorate since 1885; it has a
rich well-watered soil, which yields tropical products, and is rich in
minerals.
AN`NAN (3), a burgh in Dumfries, on river Annan; birthplace of
Edward Irving, and where Carlyle was a schoolboy, and at length
mathematical schoolmaster.
ANNAP`OLIS (3), seaport of Nova Scotia, on the Bay of Fundy; also
the capital (7) of Maryland, U.S., 28 m. E. of Washington.
ANNE, QUEEN, daughter of James II.; by the union of Scotland with
England during her reign in 1707 became the first sovereign of the United
Kingdom; her reign distinguished by the part England played in the war of
the Spanish succession and the number of notabilities, literary and
scientific, that flourished under it, though without any patronage on the
part of the Queen (1665-1714).
ANNE, ST., wife of St. Joachim, mother of the Virgin Mary, and the
patron saint of carpentry; festival, July 26.
ANNE OF AUSTRIA, the daughter of Philip III. of Spain, wife of Louis
XIII., and mother of Louis XIV., became regent on the death of her
husband, with Cardinal Mazarin for minister; during the minority of her
son, triumphed over the Fronde; retired to a convent on the death of
Mazarin (1610-1666).
ANNE OF BRITTANY, the daughter of Francis II., Duke of Brittany; by
her marriage, first to Charles VIII. then to Louis XII., the duchy was
added to the crown of France (1476-1514).
ANNE OF CLÈVES, daughter of Duke of Clèves, a wife of Henry VIII.,
who fell in love with the portrait of her by Holbein, but being
disappointed, soon divorced her; _d_. 1577.
ANNECY (11), the capital of Haute-Savoie, in France, on a lake of
the name, 22 m. S. of Geneva, at which the Counts of Geneva had their
residence, and where Francis of Sales was bishop.
ANNOBON, a Spanish isle in the Gulf of Guinea.
ANNONAY (14), a town in Ardèche, France; paper the chief
manufacture.
ANNUNCIATION DAY, a festival on the 25th of March in commemoration
of the salutation of the angel to the Virgin Mary on the Incarnation of
Christ.
ANQUETIL`, LOUIS PIERRE, a French historian in holy orders, wrote
"Précis de l'Histoire Universelle" and a "Histoire de France" in 14
vols.; continued by Bouillet in 6 more (1723-1806).
ANQUETIL`-DUPERRON, brother of the preceding, an enthusiastic
Orientalist, to whom we owe the discovery and first translation of the
Zend-Avesta and Schopenhauer his knowledge of Hindu philosophy, and which
influenced his own system so much (1731-1805).
ANSBACH (14), a manufacturing town in Bavaria, 25 m. SW. of
Nürnberg, the capital of the old margraviate of the name, and the
margraves of which were HOHENZOLLERNS (q. v.).
ANSCHAR or ANSGAR, ST., a Frenchman born, the first to preach
Christianity to the pagans of Scandinavia, was by appointment of the Pope
the first archbishop of Hamburg (801-864).
ANSELM, ST., archbishop of Canterbury, a native of Aosta, in
Piedmont, monk and abbot; visited England frequently, gained the favour
of King Rufus, who appointed him to succeed Lanfranc, quarrelled with
Rufus and left the country, but returned at the request of Henry I., a
quarrel with whom about investiture ended in a compromise; an able,
high-principled, God-fearing man, and a calmly resolute upholder of the
teaching and authority of the Church (1033-1109). See CARLYLE'S "PAST
AND PRESENT."
ANSON, LORD, a celebrated British naval commander, sailed round the
world, during war on the part of England with Spain, on a voyage of
adventure with a fleet of three ships, and after three years and nine
months returned to England, his fleet reduced to one vessel, but with
£500,000 of Spanish treasure on board. Anson's "Voyage Round the World"
contains a highly interesting account of this, "written in brief,
perspicuous terms," witnesses Carlyle, "a real poem in its kind, or
romance all fact; one of the pleasantest little books in the world's
library at this time" (1697-1762).
ANSTRUTHER, EAST AND WEST, two contiguous royal burghs on the Fife
coast, the former the birthplace of Tennant the poet, Thomas Chalmers,
and John Goodsir the anatomist.
ANTÆUS, a mythical giant, a _terræ filius_ or son of the earth, who
was strong only when his foot was on the earth, lifted in air he became
weak as water, a weakness which Hercules discovered to his discomfiture
when wrestling with him. The fable has been used as a symbol of the
spiritual strength which accrues when one rests his faith on the
immediate fact of things.
ANTAL`CIDAS, a Spartan general, celebrated for a treaty which he
concluded with Persia whereby the majority of the cities of Asia Minor
passed under the sway of the Persians, to the loss of the fruit of all
the victories gained over them by Athens (387 B.C.).
ANTANANARI`VO (100), the capital of Madagascar, in the centre of the
island, on a well-nigh inaccessible rocky height 5000 ft. above the
sea-level.
ANTAR, an Arab chief of the 6th century, a subject of romance, and
distinguished as a poet.
ANT-EATERS, a family of edentate mammals, have a tubular mouth with
a small aperture, and a long tongue covered with a viscid secretion,
which they thrust into the ant-hills and then withdraw covered with ants.
ANTELOPE, an animal closely allied to the sheep and the goat, very
like the latter in appearance, with a light and elegant figure, slender,
graceful limbs, small cloven hoofs, and generally a very short tail.
ANTEQUE`RA (27), a town in Andalusia, 22 m. N. of Malaga, a
stronghold of the Moors from 712 to 1410.
ANTHE`LIA, luminous rings witnessed in Alpine and Polar regions,
seen round the shadow of one's head in a fog or cloud opposite the sun.
ANTHE`MIUS, the architect of the church of St. Sophia in
Constantinople; _d_. 534.
ANTHON, CHARLES, a well-known American classical scholar and editor
of the Classics (1797-1867).
ANTHRAX, a disease, especially in cattle, due to the invasion of a
living organism which, under certain conditions, breeds rapidly; called
also splenic fever.
ANTHROPOID APES, a class of apes, including the gorilla, chimpanzee,
orang-outang, and gibbon, without tails, with semi-erect figures and long
arms.
ANTHROPOLOGY, the science of man as he exists or has existed under
different physical and social conditions.
ANTHROPOMORPHISM, the ascription of human attributes to the unseen
author of things.
ANTI`BES (5) a seaport and place of ancient date on a peninsula in
the S. of France, near Cannes and opposite Nice.
ANTICHRIST, a name given in the New Testament to various
incarnations of opposition to Christ in usurpation of His authority, but
is by St. John defined to involve that form of opposition which denies
the doctrine of the Incarnation, or that Christ has come in the flesh.
ANTICOSTI, a barren rocky island in the estuary of St Lawrence,
frequented by fishermen, and with hardly a permanent inhabitant.
ANTIG`ONE`, the daughter of Oedipus, king of Thebes, led about her
father when he was blind and in exile, returned to Thebes on his death;
was condemned to be buried alive for covering her brother's exposed body
with earth in defiance of the prohibition of Creon, who had usurped the
throne; Creon's son, out of love for her, killed himself on the spot
where she was buried. She has been immortalised in one of the grandest
tragedies of Sophocles.
ANTIGONE, THE MODERN, the Duchess of Angoulême, daughter of Louis
XV. See THE PARTING SCENE IN CARLYLE'S "FRENCH REVOLUTION."
ANTIG`ONUS, surnamed the Cyclops or One-eyed, one of the generals of
Alexander the Great, made himself master of all Asia Minor, excited the
jealousy of his rivals; was defeated and slain at Ipsus, in Phrygia, 301
B.C.
ANTIGONUS, the last king of the Jews of the Asmonean dynasty; put to
death in 77 B.C.
ANTIGONUS GONATAS, king of Macedonia, grandson of the preceding;
twice deprived of his kingdom, but recovered it; attempted to prevent the
formation of the Achæan League (275-240 B.C.).
ANTIGUA, one of the Leeward Islands, the seat of the government; the
most productive of them belongs to Britain.
ANTILLES, an archipelago curving round from N. America to S.
America, and embracing the Caribbean Sea; the GREATER A., on the N.
of the sea, being Cuba, Hayti, Jamaica, and Porto Rico; and the LESSER
A., on the E., forming the Leeward Islands, the Windward Islands, and
the Venezuelan Islands--the Leeward as far as Dominica, the Windward as
far as Trinidad, and the Venezuelan along the coast of S. America.
ANTIMONY, a brittle white metal, of value both in the arts and
medicine.
ANTINOMIANISM, the doctrine that the law is superseded in some sense
or other by the all-sufficing, all-emancipating free spirit of Christ.
ANTINOMY, in the transcendental philosophy the contradiction which
arises when we carry the categories of the understanding above experience
and apply them to the sphere of that which transcends it.
ANTIN`OUS, a Bithynian youth of extraordinary beauty, a slave of the
Emperor Hadrian; became a great favourite of his and accompanied him on
all his journeys. He was drowned in the Nile, and the grief of the
emperor knew no bounds; he enrolled him among the gods, erected a temple
and founded a city in his honour, while artists vied with each other in
immortalising his beauty.
AN`TIOCH (23), an ancient capital of Syria, on the Orontes, called
the Queen of the East, lying on the high-road between the E. and the W.,
and accordingly a busy centre of trade; once a city of great splendour
and extent, and famous in the early history of the Church as the seat of
several ecclesiastical councils and the birthplace of Chrysostom. There
was an Antioch in Pisidia, afterwards called Cæsarea.
ANTI`OCHUS, name of three Syrian kings of the dynasty of the
Seleucidæ: A. I., SOTER, i. e. Saviour, son of one of Alexander's
generals, fell heir of all Syria; king from 281 to 261 B.C. A. II.,
THEOS, i. e. God, being such to the Milesians in slaying the tyrant
Timarchus; king from 261 to 246. A. III., the Great, extended and
consolidated the empire, gave harbour to Hannibal, declared war against
Rome, was defeated at Thermopylæ and by Scipio at Magnesia, killed in
attempting to pillage the temple at Elymaïs; king from 223 to 187. A.
IV., EPIPHANES, i. e. Illustrious, failed against Egypt, tyrannised
over the Jews, provoked the Maccabæan revolt, and died delirious; king
from 175 to 104. A. V., EUPATOR, king from 164 to 162.
ANTI`OPE, queen of the Amazons and mother of Hippolytus. _The Sleep
of Antiope_, _chef-d'oeuvre_ of Correggio in the Louvre.
ANTIP`AROS (2), one of the Cyclades, W. of Paros, with a stalactite
cavern.
ANTIP`ATER, a Macedonian general, governed Macedonia with great
ability during the absence of Alexander, defeated the confederate Greek
states at Cranon, reigned supreme on the death of Perdiccas
(397-317 B.C.).
ANTIPH`ILUS, a Greek painter, contemporary and rival of Apelles.
AN`TIPHON, an Athenian orator and politician, preceptor of
Thucydides, who speaks of him in terms of honour, was the first to
formulate rules of oratory (479-411 B.C.).
ANTIPOPE, a pope elected by a civil power in opposition to one
elected by the cardinals, or one self-elected and usurped; there were
some 26 of such, first and last.
ANTIPYRETICS, medicines to reduce the temperature in fever, of which
the chief are quinine and salicylate of soda.
ANTIPYRIN, a febrifuge prepared from coal-tar, and used as a
substitute for quinine.
ANTISA`NA, a volcano of the N. Andes, in Ecuador, 19,200 ft. high;
also a village on its flanks, 13,000 ft. high, the highest village in the
world.
ANTISE`MITES, a party in Russia and the E. of Germany opposed to the
Jews on account of the undue influence they exercise in national affairs
to the alleged detriment of the natives.
ANTISEPTICS, substances used, particularly in surgery, to prevent or
arrest putrefaction.
ANTIS`THENES, a Greek philosopher, a disciple of Socrates, the
master of Diogenes, and founder of the Cynic school; affected to disdain
the pride and pomp of the world, and was the first to carry staff and
wallet as the badge of philosophy, but so ostentatiously as to draw from
Socrates the rebuke, "I see your pride looking out through the rent of
your cloak, O Antisthenes."
ANTI-TAURUS, a mountain range running NE. from the Taurus Mts.
ANTIUM, a town of Latium on a promontory jutting into the sea, long
antagonistic to Rome, subdued in 333 B.C.; the beaks of its ships,
captured in a naval engagement, were taken to form a rostrum in the Forum
at Home; it was the birthplace of Caligula and Nero.
ANTIVA`RI, a fortified seaport lately ceded to Montenegro.
ANTOFAGAS`TA (7), a rising port in Chile, taken from Bolivia after
the war of 1879; exports silver ores and nitrate of soda.
ANTOMMAR`CHI, Napoleon's attached physician at St. Helena, wrote
"The Last Moments of Napoleon" (1780-1838).
ANTONELLI, CARDINAL, the chief adviser and Prime Minister of Pope
Pius IX., accompanied the Pope to Gaeta, came back with him to Rome,
acting as his foreign minister there, and offered a determined opposition
to the Revolution; left immense wealth (1806-1876).
ANTONEL`LO, of Messina, Italian painter of the 15th century,
introduced from Holland oil-painting into Italy (1414-1493).
ANTONI`NUS, ITINERARY OF, a valuable geographical work supposed of
date 44 B.C.
ANTONI`NUS, Marcus Aurelius, Roman emperor, successor to the
following, and who surpassed him in virtue, being also of the Stoic
school and one of its most exemplary disciples, was surnamed the
"philosopher," and has left in his "Meditations" a record of his
religious and moral principles (121-180).
ANTONI`NUS PIUS, a Roman emperor, of Stoic principles, who reigned
with justice and moderation from 138 to 161, during which time the Empire
enjoyed unbroken peace.
ANTONI`NUS, WALL OF, an earthen rampart about 36 m. in length, from
the Forth to the Clyde, in Scotland, as a barrier against invasion from
the north, erected in the year 140 A.D.
ANTO`NIUS, MARCUS, a famous Roman orator and consul, slain in the
civil war between Marius and Sulla, having sided with the latter (143-87
B.C.).
ANTO`NIUS, MARCUS (Mark Antony), grandson of the preceding and warm
partisan of Cæsar; after the murder of the latter defeated Brutus and
Cassius at Philippi, formed a triumvirate with Octavius and Lepidus, fell
in love with the famous Cleopatra, was defeated by Octavius in the naval
battle of Actium, and afterwards killed himself (83-30 B.C.).
AN`TONY, ST., a famous anchorite of the Thebaïd, where from the age
of thirty he spent 20 years of his life, in a lonely ruin by himself,
resisting devils without number; left his retreat for a while to
institute monasteries, and so became the founder of monachism, but
returned to die; festival, Jan. 17 (251-351).
ANTONY OF PADUA, a Minorite missionary to the Moors in Africa;
preached to the fishes, who listened to him when no one else would; the
fishes came in myriads to listen, and shamed the pagans into conversion,
says the fable; festival, June 13 (1195-1234)
ANTRAIGUES, COUNT D', one of the firebrands of the French
Revolution; "rose into furor almost Pythic; highest where many were
high," but veered round to royalism, which he at length intrigued on
behalf of--to death by the stiletto (1765-1812).
ANT`RIM (471), a maritime county in the NE. of Ulster, in Ireland;
soil two-thirds arable, linen the chief manufacture, exports butter,
inhabitants mostly Protestant.
ANTWERP (240), a large fortified trading city in Belgium, on the
Scheldt, 50 m. from the sea, with a beautiful Gothic cathedral, the spire
402 ft. high; the burial-place of Rubens; has a large picture-gallery
full of the works of the Dutch and Flemish artists.
ANU`BIS, an Egyptian deity with the body of a man and the head of a
jackal, whose office, like that of Hermes, it was to see to the disposal
of the souls of the dead in the nether world, on quitting the body.
ANWARI, a Persian lyric poet who flourished in the 12th century.
AN`YTUS, the most vehement accuser of Socrates; banished in
consequence from Athens, after Socrates' death.
AOS`TA (5), a town of Italy, N. of Turin, in a fertile Alpine level
valley, but where goitre and cretinism prevail to a great extent; the
birthplace of Anselm.
APA`CHES, a fierce tribe of American Indians on the S. and W. of the
United States; long a source of trouble to the republic.
APEL`LES, the most celebrated painter of antiquity; bred, if not
born, at Ephesus; lived at the court of Alexander the Great; his great
work "APHRODITÉ ANADYOMENE" (q. v.); a man conscious, like
Dürer, of mastery in his art, as comes out in his advice to the
criticising shoemaker to "stick to his last."
AP`ENNINES, a branch of the Alps extending, with spurs at right
angles, nearly through the whole length of Italy, forming about the
middle of the peninsula a double chain which supports the tableland of
Abruzzi.
APES, DEAD SEA, dwellers by the Dead Sea who, according to the
Moslem tradition, were transformed into apes because they turned a deaf
ear to God's message to them by the lips of Moses, fit symbol, thinks
Carlyle, of many in modern time to whom the universe, with all its
serious voices, seems to have become a weariness and a humbug See
"PAST AND PRESENT," BK. III. CHAP. III.
APH`IDES, a family of insects very destructive to plants by feeding
on them in countless numbers.
APHRODI`TE, the Greek goddess of love and beauty, wife of Hephæstos
and mother of Cupid; sprung from sea-foam; as queen of beauty had the
golden apple awarded her by Paris, and possessed the power of conferring
beauty, by means of her magic girdle, the cestus, on others.
API`CIUS, the name of three famous Roman epicures, the first of whom
was contemporary with Sulla, the second with Augustus, and the third with
Trajan.
A`PION, an Alexandrian grammarian of the 1st century, and an enemy
of the Jews, and hostile to the privileges conceded them in Alexandria.
A`PIS, the sacred live bull of the Egyptians, the incarnation of
Osiris; must be black all over the body, have a white triangular spot on
the forehead, the figure of an eagle on the back, and under the tongue
the image of a scarabæus; was at the end of 25 years drowned in a sacred
fountain, had his body embalmed, and his mummy regarded as an object of
worship.
APOCALYPTIC WRITINGS, writings composed among the Jews in the 2nd
century B.C., and ascribed to one and another of the early prophets of
Israel, forecasting the judgments ordained of God to overtake the nation,
and predicting its final deliverance at the hands of the Messiah.
APOCRYPHA, THE, a literature of sixteen books composed by Jews,
after the close of the Hebrew canon, which though without the unction of
the prophetic books of the canon, are instinct, for most part, with the
wisdom which rests on the fear of God and loyalty to His law. The word
Apocrypha means hidden writing, and it was given to it by the Jews to
distinguish it from the books which they accepted as canonical.
APOL`DA (20), a town in Saxe-Weimar with extensive hosiery
manufactures; has mineral springs.
APOLLINA`RIS, bishop of Laodicea, denied the proper humanity of
Christ, by affirming that the Logos in Him took the place of the human
soul, as well as by maintaining that His body was not composed of
ordinary flesh and blood; _d_. 390.
APOLLO, the god _par excellence_ of the Greeks, identified with the
sun and all that we owe to it in the shape of inspiration, art, poetry,
and medicine; son of Zeus and Leto; twin brother of Artemis; born in the
island of DELOS (q. v.), whither Leto had fled from the jealous
Hera; his favourite oracle at Delphi.
APPLLODO`RUS (1), an Athenian painter, the first to paint figures in
light and shade, 408 B.C.; (2) a celebrated architect of Damascus, _d_.
A.D. 129; and (3), an Athenian who wrote a well-arranged account of the
mythology and heroic age of Greece.
APOLLONIUS OF RHODES, a grammarian and poet, flourished in the 3rd
century B.C., author of the "Argonautica," a rather prosaic account of
the adventures of the Argonauts.
APOLLONIUS OF TYANA, a Pythagorean philosopher, who, having become
acquainted with some sort of Brahminism, professed to have a divine
mission, and, it is said, a power to work miracles; was worshipped after
his death, and has been compared to Christ; _d_. 97.
APOL`LOS, a Jew of Alexandria, who became an eloquent preacher of
Christ, and on account of his eloquence rated above St. Paul.
APOLLYON, the destroying angel, the Greek name for the Hebrew
Abaddon.
APOLOGETICS, a defence of the historical verity of the Christian
religion in opposition to the rationalist and mythical theories.
APOSTATE, an epithet applied to the Emperor Julian, from his having,
conscientiously however, abjured the Christian religion established by
Constantine, in favour of paganism.
APOSTLE OF GERMANY, St. Boniface; A. OF IRELAND, St. Patrick; OF THE
ENGLISH, St. Augustine; OF THE FRENCH, St. Denis; OF THE GAULS, Irenæus;
OF THE GENTILES, St. Paul; OF THE GOTHS, Ulfilas; OF THE INDIAN, John
Eliot; OF THE SCOTS, Columba; OF THE NORTH, Ansgar; OF THE PICTS, St.
Ninian; OF THE INDIES, Francis Xavier; OF TEMPERANCE, Father Mathew.
APOSTLES, THE FOUR, picture of St. John, St. Peter, St. Mark, and
St. Paul, in the museum at Münich, painted by Albert Dürer.
APOSTOLIC FATHERS, Fathers of the Church who lived the same time as
the Apostles: Clemens, Barnabas Polycarp, Ignatius, and Hermas.
APOSTOLIC SUCCESSION, the derivation of episcopal power in an
unbroken line from the Apostles, a qualification believed by High
Churchmen to be essential to the discharge of episcopal functions and the
transmission of promised divine grace.
APPALA`CHIANS, a mountainous system of N. America that stretches NE.
from the tablelands of Alabama to the St. Lawrence, and includes the
Alleghanies and the Blue Mountains; their utmost height, under 7000 feet;
do not reach the snow-line; abound in coal and iron.
APPENZELL` (67), a canton in the NE. of Switzerland, enclosed by St.
Gall, divided into Outer Rhoden, which is manufacturing and Protestant,
and Inner Rhoden, which is agricultural and Catholic; also the name of
the capital.
AP`PIAN, an Alexandrian Greek, wrote in 2nd century a history of
Rome in 24 books, of which 11 remain.
AP`PIAN WAY, a magnificent highway begun by Appius Claudius,
312 B.C., and finished by Augustus, from Rome to Brundusium.
APPLE OF DISCORD, a golden apple inscribed with the words, "To the
most Beautiful," thrown in among the gods of Olympus on a particular
occasion, contended for by Hera, Athena, and Aphrodité, and awarded by
Paris of Troy, as referee, to Aphrodité, on promise that he would have
the most beautiful woman of the world for wife.
APPLEBY, the county town of Westmorland, on the Eden; is a health
resort.
APPLEGATH, AUGUSTUS, inventor of the vertical printing-press
(1788-1871).
APPLETON (11), a city of Wisconsin, U.S., on the Fox River.
APPLETON, CH. EDWARD, founder and editor of the _Academy_
(1841-1879).
APPOMATTOX COURTHOUSE, a village in Virginia, U.S., where Gen. Lee
surrendered to Gen. Grant in 1865.
APRAXEN, COUNT, a celebrated naval commander under Peter the Great
and his right-hand man in many enterprises (1671-1728).
APRIL, the fourth month of the year, the month of "opening of the
light in the days, and of the life of the leaves, and of the voices of
the birds, and of the hearts of men."
AP`TERYX, a curious New Zealand bird with rudimentary wings, plumage
like hair, and no tail.
APULE`IUS, a student of Plato, of N. African birth, lived in the 2nd
century; having captivated a rich widow, was charged at one time with
sorcery; his most celebrated work was the "Golden Ass," which contains,
among other stories, the exquisite apologue or romance of PSYCHE
and CUPID (q. v.).
APU`LIA (1,797), an ancient province in SE. of Italy, which extends
as far N. as Monte Gargano, and the scene of the last stages in the
second Punic war.
APU`RE, a river in Venezuela, chief tributary of the Orinoco, into
which it falls by six branches.
AQUA TOFA`NA, Tofana's poison, some solution of arsenic with which a
Sicilian woman called Tofana, in 17th century, poisoned, it is alleged,
600 people.
AQUA`RIUS, the Water-bearer, 11th sign of the Zodiac, which the sun
enters Jan. 21.
AQUAVIVA, a general of the Jesuits of high authority (1543-1615).
A`QUILA (20), capital of the province of Abruzzo Ulteriora, on the
Alterno, founded by Barbarossa; a busy place.
A`QUILA, a Judaised Greek of Sinope, in Pontus, executed a literal
translation of the Old Testament into Greek in the interest of Judaism
versus Christianity in the first half of the 2nd century A.D.
A`QUILA, GASPAR, a friend of Luther who aided him in the translation
of the Bible.
AQUILEIA, an Italian village, 22 m. W. of Trieste, once a place of
great importance, where several councils of the Church were held.
AQUI`NAS, THOMAS, the Angelic Doctor, or Doctor of the Schools, an
Italian of noble birth, studied at Naples, became a Dominican monk
despite the opposition of his parents, sat at the feet of Albertus
Magnus, and went with him to Paris, was known among his pupils as the
"Dumb Ox," from his stubborn silence at study, prelected at his Alma
Mater and elsewhere with distinguished success, and being invited to
assist the Council at Lyons, fell sick and died. His "Summa Theologiæ,"
the greatest of his many works, is a masterly production, and to this day
of standard authority in the Romish Church. His writings, which fill 17
folio vols., along with those of Duns Scotus, his rival, constitute the
high-water mark of scholastic philosophy and the watershed of its
divergence into the PHILOSOPHICO-SPECULATIVE THOUGHT on the one
hand, and the ETHICO-PRACTICAL OR REALISM OF MODERN TIMES on the
other, q. v. (1226-1274).
AQUITAINE`, a division of ancient Gaul between the Garonne and the
Pyrenees, was from the time of Henry II. till 1453 an appanage of the
English crown.
ARABELLA STUART, a cousin of King James I., the victim all her days
of jealousy and state policy, suspected of aspiring to the crown on the
death of Queen Elizabeth, was shut up in the Tower of London, where she
died bereft of reason in 1615 at the age of 38.
ARABESQUE, an ornamentation introduced by the Moors, consisting of
imaginary, often fantastic, mathematical or vegetable forms, but
exclusive of the forms of men and animals.
ARA`BI, AHMED PASHA, leader of an insurrectionary movement in Egypt
in 1882; he claimed descent from the Prophet; banished to Ceylon; _b_.
1839.
ARABIA (12,000), the most westerly peninsula of Asia and the largest
in the world, being one-third the size of the whole of Europe, consisting
of (_a_) a central plateau with pastures for cattle, and fertile valleys;
(_b_) a ring of deserts, the Nefud in the N., stony, the Great Arabian, a
perfect Sahara, in the S., sandy, said sometimes to be 600 ft. deep, and
the Dahna between; and (_c_) stretches of coast land, generally fertile
on the W. and S.; is divided into eight territories; has no lakes or
rivers, only wadies, oftenest dry; the climate being hot and arid, has no
forests, and therefore few wild animals; a trading country with no roads
or railways, only caravan routes, yet the birthland of a race that
threatened at one time to sweep the globe, and of a religion that has
been a life-guidance to wide-scattered millions of human beings for over
twelve centuries of time.
ARABIA FELIX, the W. coast of Arabia, contains YEMEN and EL
HEJAZ (q. v.), and is subject to Turkey.
ARABIAN DESERT. See ARABIA.
ARABIAN NIGHTS, or the Thousand and One Nights, a collection of
tales of various origin and date, traceable in their present form to the
middle of the 15th century, and first translated into French by Galland
in 1704. The thread on which they are strung is this: A Persian monarch
having made a vow that he would marry a fresh bride every night and
sacrifice her in the morning, the vizier's daughter obtained permission
to be the first bride, and began a story which broke off at an
interesting part evening after evening for a thousand and one nights, at
the end of which term the king, it is said, released her and spared her
life.
ARABS, THE, "a noble-gifted people, swift-handed, deep-hearted,
something most agile, active, yet most meditative, enthusiastic in their
character; a people of wild, strong feelings, and iron restraint over
these. In words too, as in action, not a loquacious people, taciturn
rather, but eloquent, gifted when they do speak, an earnest, truthful
kind of men, of Jewish kindred indeed, but with that deadly terrible
earnestness of the Jews they seem to combine something graceful,
brilliant, which is not Jewish." Such is Carlyle's opinion of the race
from whom Mahomet sprang, as given in his "Heroes."
ARACAN. See ARAKAN.
ARACH`NE, a Lydian maiden, who excelled in weaving, and whom Athena
changed into a spider because she had proudly challenged her ability to
weave as artistic a work; she had failed in the competition, and
previously hanged herself in her despair.
ARAD (42), a fortified town in Hungary, seat of a bishop, on the
right bank of the Maros; manufactures tobacco, trades in cattle and corn.
ARAF, the Mohammedan sheol or borderland between heaven and hell for
those who are from incapacity either not morally bad or morally good.
ARAFAT`, a granite hill E. of Mecca, a place of pilgrimage as the
spot where Adam received his wife after 200 years separation from her on
account of their disobedience to the Lord in deference to the suggestion
of Satan.
AR`AGO, FRANÇOIS, an eminent physicist and astronomer, born in the
S. of France, entered the Polytechnic School of Paris when seventeen,
elected a member of the Academy of Sciences at the early age of
twenty-three, nominated Director of the Observatory in 1830, was member
of the Provisional Government in 1848, refused to take the oath to Louis
Napoleon after the _coup d'état_, would rather resign his post at the
Observatory, but was retained, and at his death received a public funeral
(1786-1853).
ARAGO, JACQUES, a brother of the preceding, a littérateur and a
traveller, author of a "Voyage Round the World" (1790-1855).
AR`AGON (925), a territory in the NE. of Spain, traversed by the
Ebro, and divided as you proceed southward into the provinces of Huesca,
Saragossa, and Teruel, mountainous in the N.; with beautiful fertile
valleys, rather barren, in the S; was a kingdom till 1469.
ARAGUAY, an affluent of the Tocantins, in Brazil, which it joins
after a course of 1000 m., augmented by subsidiary streams.
ARAKAN (671), a strip of land in British Burmah, on the E. of the
Bay of Bengal, 400 m. long and from 90 to 15 m. broad, a low, marshy
country; produces and exports large quantities of rice, as well as sugar
and hemp. The natives belong to the Burman stock, and are of the Buddhist
faith, though there is a sprinkling of Mohammedans among them.
ARAL, THE SEA OF, a lake in Turkestan, 265 m. long and 145 broad,
larger than the Irish Sea, 150 m. E. of the Caspian; has no outlet,
shallow, and is said to be drying up.
ARAM, EUGENE, an English school-usher of scholarly attainments,
convicted of murder years after the act and executed 1759, to whose fate
a novel of Bulwer Lytton's and a poem of Hood's have lent a romantic and
somewhat fictitious interest.
ARAMÆA, the territories lying to NE. of Palestine, the inhabitants
of which spoke a Semitic dialect called Aramaic, and improperly Chaldee.
ARAMA`IC, the language of Palestine in the days of Christ, a Semitic
dialect that has now almost entirely died out.
ARAMÆ`ANS, a generic name given to the Semitic tribes that dwelt in
the NE. of Palestine, also to those that dwelt at the mouths of the
Euphrates and the Tigris.
ARAN, VAL D', a Pyrenean valley, source of the Garonne, and one of
the highest of the Pyrenees.
ARAN ISLANDS, three islands with antique relics across the mouth of
Galway Bay, to which they form a breakwater.
ARANDA, COUNT OF, an eminent Spanish statesman, banished the
Jesuits, suppressed brigandage, and curtailed the power of the
Inquisition, was Prime Minister of Charles IV., and was succeeded by
Godoy (1719-1798).
ARANJU`EZ (8), a town 28 m. SE. of Madrid, long the spring resort of
the Spanish Court.
AR`ANY, JANOS, a popular Hungarian poet of peasant origin, attained
to eminence as a man of letters (1819-1882).
AR`ARAT, a mountain in Armenia on which Noah's ark is said to have
rested, 17,000 ft. high, is within Russian territory, and borders on both
Turkey and Persia.
ARA`TUS, native of Sicyon, in Greece, promoter of the Achæan League,
in which he was thwarted by Philip of Macedon, was poisoned, it is said,
by his order (271-213 B.C.); also a Greek poet, author of two didactic
poems, born in Cilicia, quoted by St Paul in Acts xvii. 28.
ARAUCA`NIA (88), the country of the Araucos, in Chile, S. of
Concepcion and N. of Valdivia, the Araucos being an Indian race long
resistant but now subject to Chilian authority, and interesting as the
only one that has proved itself able to govern itself and hold its own in
the presence of the white man.
ARAUCA`RIA, tall conifer trees, natives of and confined to the
southern hemisphere.
ARBE`LA, a town near Mosul, where Alexander the Great finally
defeated Darius, 331 B.C.
ARBROATH (22), a thriving seaport and manufacturing town on the
Forfarshire coast, 17 m. N. of Dundee, with the picturesque ruins of an
extensive old abbey, of which Cardinal Beaton was the last abbot. It is
the "Fairport" of the "Antiquary."
ARBUTHNOT, JOHN, a physician and eminent literary man of the age of
Queen Anne and her two successors, born in Kincardineshire, the friend of
Swift and Pope and other lights of the time, much esteemed by them for
his wit and kind-heartedness, joint-author with Swift, it is thought, of
the "Memoirs of Martinus Scriblerus" and the "History of John Bull"
(1667-1735).
AR`CACHON (7), a popular watering-place, with a fine beach and a
mild climate, favourable for invalids suffering from pulmonary
complaints, 34 m. SW. of Bordeaux.
ARCA`DIA, a mountain-girt pastoral tableland in the heart of the
Morea, 50 m. long by 40 broad, conceived by the poets as a land of
shepherds and shepherdesses, and rustic simplicity and bliss, and was the
seat of the worship of Artemis and Pan.
ARCA`DIUS, the first emperor of the East, born in Spain, a weak,
luxurious prince, leaving the government in other hands (377-405).
ARCESILA`US, a Greek philosopher, a member of the Platonic School
and founder of the New Academy, who held in opposition to the Stoics that
perception was not knowledge, denied that we had any accurate criterion
of truth, and denounced all dogmatism in opinion.
ARCHÆOLOGY, the study or the science of the monuments of antiquity,
as distinct from palæontology, which has to do with extinct organisms or
fossil remains.
ARCHANGEL (19), the oldest seaport of Russia, on the Dvina, near its
mouth, on the White Sea, is accessible to navigation from July to
October, is connected with the interior by river and canal, and has a
large trade in flax, timber, tallow, and tar.
ARCHANGELS, of these, according to the Korân, there are four:
Gabriel, the angel who reveals; Michael, the angel who fights; Azrael,
the angel of death; Azrafil, the angel of the resurrection.
ARCHELA`US, king of Macedonia, and patron of art and literature,
with whom Euripides found refuge in his exile, _d_. 400 B.C.; a general
of Mithridates, conquered by Sulla twice over; also the Ethnarch of
Judea, son of Herod, deposed by Augustus, died at Vienne.
ARCHER, JAMES, portrait-painter, born in Edinburgh, 1824.
ARCHER, WM., dramatic critic, born in Perth, 1856.
AR`CHES, COURT OF, an ecclesiastical court of appeal connected with
the archbishopric of Canterbury, the judge of which is called the dean.
AR`CHIL, a purple dye obtained from lichens.
ARCHIL`OCHUS, a celebrated lyric poet of Greece; of a satiric and
often bitter vein, the inventor of iambic verse (714-676 B.C.).
ARCHIMA`GO, a sorcerer in Spenser's "Faërie Queene," who in the
disguise of a reverend hermit, and by the help of Duessa or Deceit,
seduces the Red-Cross Knight from Una or Truth.
ARCHIME`DES OF SYRACUSE, the greatest mathematician of antiquity, a
man of superlative inventive power, well skilled in all the mechanical
arts and sciences of the day. When Syracuse was taken by the Romans, he
was unconscious of the fact, and slain, while busy on some problem, by a
Roman soldier, notwithstanding the order of the Roman general that his
life should be spared. He is credited with the boast: "Give me a fulcrum,
and I will move the world." He discovered how to determine the specific
weight of bodies while he was taking a bath, and was so excited over the
discovery that, it is said, he darted off stark naked on the instant
through the streets, shouting "_Eureka! Eureka!_ I have found it! I have
found it!" (287-212 B.C.).
ARCHIMED`ES SCREW, in its original form a hollow spiral placed
slantingly to raise water by revolving it.
ARCHIPEL`AGO, originally the Ægean Sea, now the name of any similar
sea interspersed with islands, or the group of islands included in it.
ARCHITRAVE, the lowest part of an entablature, resting immediately
on the capital.
AR`CHON, a chief magistrate of Athens, of which there were nine at a
time, each over a separate department; the tenure of office was first for
life, then for ten years, and finally for one.
ARCHY`TAS OF TARENTUM, famous as a statesman, a soldier, a
geometrician, a philosopher, and a man; a Pythagorean in philosophy, and
influential in that capacity over the minds of Plato, his contemporary,
and Aristotle; was drowned in the Adriatic Sea, 4th century B.C.; his
body lay unburied on the shore till a sailor humanely cast a handful of
sand on it, otherwise he would have had to wander on this side the Styx
for a hundred years, such the virtue of a little dust, _munera pulveris_,
as Horace calls it.
ARCIS`-SUR-AUBE (3), a town 17 m. N. of Troyes, in France,
birthplace of Danton; scene of a defeat of Napoleon, March 1814.
AR`COT, the name of two districts, N. and S., in the Presidency of
Madras; also chief town (11) in the district, 65 m. SW. of Madras;
captured by Clive in 1787; once the capital of the Carnatic.
ARCTIC OCEAN, a circular ocean round the N. Pole, its diameter 40°,
with low, flat shores, covered with ice-fields, including numerous
islands; the Gulf Stream penetrates it, and a current flows out of it
into the Atlantic.
ARCTU`RUS, star of the first magnitude and the chief in the N.
constellation Boötes.
ARDÈCHE, an affluent of the Rhône, source in the Cévennes; gives
name to a department traversed by the Cévennes Mountains.
ARDEN, a large forest at one time in England, E. of the Severn.
ARDEN, ENOCH, hero of a poem by Tennyson, who finds, on his return
from the sea, after long absence, his wife, who believed him dead,
married happily to another; does not disclose himself, and dies
broken-hearted.
ARDENNES, a forest, a tract of rugged woodland on the confines of
France and Belgium; also department of France (325), on the borders of
Belgium.
AR`DOCH, a place in Perthshire, 7 m. from Crieff, with the remains
of a Roman camp, the most complete in Britain.
ARENDS, LEOPOLD, a Russian of literary ability, inventor of a system
of stenography extensively used on the Continent (1817-1882).
AREOPAGITICA, a prose work of Milton's, described by Prof.
Saintsbury as "a magnificent search for the Dead Truth."
AREOP`AGUS, the hill of Ares in Athens, which gave name to the
celebrated council held there, a tribunal of 31 members, charged with
judgment in criminal offences, and whose sentences were uniformly the
awards of strictest justice.
AREQUI`PA (35), a city in Peru, founded by Pizarro in 1536, in a
fruitful valley of the Andes, 8000 ft. above the sea, 30 m. inland; is
much subject to earthquakes, and was almost destroyed by one in 1868.
A`RÉS, the Greek god of war in its sanguinary aspects; was the son
of Zeus and Hera; identified by the Romans with Mars, was fond of war for
its own sake, and had for sister Eris, the goddess of strife, who used to
pander to his passion.
ARETÆ`US, a Greek physician of 1st century; wrote a treatise on
diseases, their causes, symptoms, and cures, still extant.
ARETHU`SA, a celebrated fountain in the island of Ortygia, near
Syracuse, transformed from a Nereid pursued thither from Elis, in Greece,
by the river-god Alphæus, so that the waters of the river henceforth
mingled with those of the fountain.
ARETI`NO, PIETRO, called the "Scourge of Princes," a licentious
satirical writer, born at Arezzo, in Tuscany, alternately attached to
people and repelled from them by his wit, moved from one centre of
attraction to another; settled in Venice, where he died after an
uncontrollable fit of laughter which seized him at the story of the
adventure of a sister (1492-1557).
AREZZO (44), an ancient Tuscan city, 38 m. SE. of Florence, and
eventually subject to it; the birthplace of Mæcenas, Michael Angelo,
Petrarch, Guido, and Vasari.
AR`GALI, a sheep of Siberia, as large as a moderately-sized ox, with
enormous grooved curving horns, strong-limbed, sure-footed, and swift.
ARGAN`, the hypochondriac rich patient in Molière's "Le Malade
Imaginaire."
ARGAND, a Swiss physician and chemist, born at Geneva; inventor of
the argand lamp, which, as invented by him, introduced a circular wick
(1755-1803).
ARGELAN`DER, a distinguished astronomer, born at Memel, professor at
Bonn; he fixed the position of 22,000 stars, and recorded observations to
prove that the solar system was moving through space (1799-1874).
AR`GENS, MARQUIS D', a French soldier who turned to letters, author
of sceptical writings, of which the best known is entitled "Lettres
Juives" (1704-1771).
ARGENSON, RENÉ-LOUIS, MARQUIS D', French statesman, who left
"Memoirs" of value as affecting the early and middle part of Louis XV.'s
reign (1694-1757).
ARGENTINE REPUBLIC, or ARGENTINA (4,000), a confederation like
that of the United States of 14 states and 9 territories, occupying the
eastern slopes of the Andes and the vast level plain extending from them
to the Atlantic, bounded on the N. by Bolivia and Paraguay; its area ten
times that of Great Britain and Ireland; while the population includes
600,000 foreigners, Italians, French, Spaniards, English, and Germans.
AR`GO, the fifty-oared ship of the ARGONAUTS (q. v.).
AR`GOLIS, the north-eastern peninsula of the Morea of Greece, and
one of the 13 provinces of Greece, is 12 m. long by 5 m. broad.
AR`GON, a new element lately discovered to exist in a gaseous form
in the nitrogen of the air.
ARGONAUTICA, the title of a poem on the Argonautic expedition by
Apollonius of Rhodes.
AR`GONAUTS, the Greek heroes, sailors in the _Argo_, who, under the
command of Jason, sailed for Colchis in quest of the golden fleece, which
was guarded by a dragon that never slept, a perilous venture, but it
proved successful with the assistance of Medea, the daughter of the king,
whom, with the fleece, Jason in the end brought away with him to be his
wife.
ARGONNE`, FOREST OF, "a long strip of rocky mountain and wild wood"
in the NE. of France, within the borders of which the Duke of Brunswick
was outwitted by Dumouriez in 1792.
AR`GOS (9), the capital of Argolis, played for long a prominent part
in the history of Greece, but paled before the power of Sparta.
AR`GUS, surnamed the "All-seeing," a fabulous creature with a
hundred eyes, of which one half was always awake, appointed by Hera to
watch over Io, but Hermes killed him after lulling him to sleep by the
sound of his flute, whereupon Hera transferred his eyes to the tail of
the peacock, her favourite bird. Also the dog of Ulysses, immortalised by
Homer; he was the only creature that recognised Ulysses under his rags on
his return to Ithaca after twenty years' absence, under such excitement,
however, that immediately after he dropped down dead.
ARGUS, a pheasant, a beautiful Oriental game-bird, so called from
the eye-like markings on its plumage.
ARGYLL (74), a large county in the W. of Scotland, consisting of
deeply indented mainland and islands, and abounding in mountains,
moorlands, and lochs, with scenery often picturesque as well as wild and
savage.
ARGYLL, a noble family or clan of the name of Campbell, the members
of which have held successively the title of Earl, Marquis, and Duke,
their first patent of nobility dating from 1445, and their earldom from
1453.
ARGYLL, ARCHIBALD CAMPBELL, 1ST MARQUIS OF, sided with the
Covenanters, fought against Montrose, disgusted with the execution of
Charles I., crowned Charles II. at Scone, after the Restoration committed
to the Tower, was tried and condemned, met death nobly (1598-1661).
ARGYLL, ARCHIBALD CAMPBELL, 9TH EARL OF, son of the preceding,
fought for Charles II., was taken prisoner, released at the Restoration
and restored to his estates, proved rebellious at last, and was condemned
to death; escaped to Holland, made a descent on Scotland, was captured
and executed in 1685.
ARGYLL, GEORGE JOHN DOUGLAS CAMPBELL, 8TH DUKE OF, as Marquis of
Lorne took a great interest in the movement which led to the Disruption
of the Church of Scotland in 1843, a Whig in politics, was a member of
the Cabinets of Aberdeen, Palmerston, and Gladstone; of late has shown
more Conservative tendencies; takes a deep interest in the scientific
theories and questions of the time; wrote, among other works, a book in
1866 entitled "The Reign of Law," in vindication of Theism, and another
in the same interest in 1884 entitled "The Unity of Nature"; _b_. 1824.
ARGYLL, JOHN CAMPBELL, 2ND DUKE OF, favoured the Union, was created
an English peer, fought under Marlborough, opposed the return of the
Stuarts, defeated Mar at Sheriffmuir, ruled Scotland under Walpole
(1678-1743).
ARIAD`NE, daughter of Minos, king of Crete, gave to Theseus a clue
by which to escape out of the labyrinth after he had slain the Minotaur,
for which Theseus promised to marry her; took her with him to Naxos and
left her there, where, according to one tradition, Artemis killed her,
and according to another, Dionysos found her and married her, placing her
at her death among the gods, and hanging her wedding wreath as a
constellation in the sky.
ARIANISM, the heresy of ARIUS (q. v.).
ARIA`NO (12), a city with a fine cathedral, 1500 ft. above the
sea-level, NE. of Naples; has a trade in wine and butter.
ARI`CA, a seaport connected with Tacna, S. of Peru, the chief outlet
for the produce of Bolivia; suffers again and again from earthquakes, and
was almost destroyed in 1832.
ARIÈGE, a department of France, at the foot of the northern slopes
of the Pyrenees; has extensive forests and is rich in minerals.
A`RIEL, in Shakespeare's "Tempest," a spirit of the air whom
Prospero finds imprisoned by Sycorax in the cleft of a pine-tree, and
liberates on condition of her serving him for a season, which she
willingly engages to do, and does.
ARIEL, an idol of the Moabites, an outcast angel.
ARIES, the Ram. the first of the signs of the Zodiac, which the sun
enters on March 21, though the constellation itself, owing to the
precession of the equinoxes, is no longer within the limits of the sign.
ARI`ON, a lyrist of Lesbos, lived chiefly at the court of Periander,
Corinth; returning in a ship from a musical contest in Sicily laden with
prizes, the sailors plotted to kill him, when he begged permission to
play one strain on his lute, which being conceded, dolphins crowded round
the ship, whereupon he leapt over the bulwarks, was received on the back
of one of them, and carried to Corinth, arriving there before the
sailors, who, on their landing, were apprehended and punished.
ARIOS`TO, LUDOVICO, an illustrious Italian poet, born at Reggio, in
Lombardy; spent his life chiefly in Ferrara, mostly in poverty; his great
work "ORLANDO FURIOSO" (q. v.), published the first edition, in
40 cantos, in 1516, and the third in 46 cantos, in 1532; the work is so
called from the chief subject of it, the madness of Roland induced by the
loss of his lady-love through her marriage to another (1474-1532).
ARIOVISTUS, a German chief, invaded Gaul, and threatened to overrun
it, but was forced back over the Rhine by Cæsar.
ARISTÆ`US, a son of Apollo, the guardian divinity of the vine and
olive, of hunters and herdsmen; first taught the management of bees, some
of which stung Eurydice to death, whereupon the nymphs, companions of
Orpheus, her husband, set upon his bees and destroyed them. In this
extremity Aristæus applied to Proteus, who advised him to sacrifice four
bullocks to appease the manes of Eurydice; this done, there issued from
the carcasses of the victims a swarm of bees, which reconciled him to the
loss of the first ones.
ARISTAR`CHUS OF SAMOS, a Greek astronomer, who first conceived the
idea of the rotundity of the earth and its revolution both on its own
axis and round the sun, in promulgating which idea he was accused of
impiously disturbing the serenity of the gods (280 B.C.).
ARISTARCHUS OF SAMOTHRACE, a celebrated Greek grammarian and critic,
who devoted his life to the elucidation and correct transmission of the
text of the Greek poets, and especially Homer (158-88 B.C.).
ARISTE`AS, a sort of Wandering Jew of Greek fable, who turns up here
and there in Greek tradition, and was thought to be endowed with a soul
that could at will leave and enter the body.
ARISTI`DES, an Athenian general and statesman, surnamed The Just;
covered himself with glory at the battle of Marathon; was made archon
next year, in the discharge of the duties of which office he received his
surname; was banished by ostracism at the instance of his rival,
Themistocles; recalled three years after the invasion of Xerxes, was
reconciled to Themistocles, fought bravely at Salamis, and distinguished
himself at Platæa; managed the finances of the State with such probity
that he died poor, was buried at the public charges, and left the State
to provide for his children.
ARISTION, a philosopher, tyrant of Athens, put to death by order of
Sylla, 86 B.C.
ARISTIP`PUS OF CYRENE, founder of the Cyrenaic school of philosophy,
a disciple of Socrates; in his teaching laid too much emphasis on one
principle of Socrates, apart from the rest, in insisting too exclusively
upon pleasure as the supreme good and ultimate aim of life.
ARISTOBU`LUS I., son of John Hyrcanus, first of the Asmonæan dynasty
in Judea to assume the name of king, which he did from 104-102 B.C., a
pronounced Helleniser; A. II., twice carried captive to Rome,
assassinated 50 B.C.; A. III., last of Asmonæan dynasty, drowned by
Herod in the Jordan, 34 B.C.
ARISTODE`MUS, king of Messenia, carried on for 20 years a war with
Sparta, till at length finding resistance hopeless he put an end to his
life on the tomb of his daughter, whom he had sacrificed to ensure the
fulfilment of an oracle to the advantage of his house; _d_. 724 B.C.
Also a Greek sculptor, 4th century B.C.
ARISTOM`ENES, a mythical king of Messenia, celebrated for his
struggle with the Spartans, and his resistance to them on Mount Ira for
11 years, which at length fell to the enemy, while he escaped and was
snatched up by the gods; died at Rhodes.
ARISTOPHANES, the great comic dramatist of Athens, lived in the 5th
century B.C.; directed the shafts of his wit, which were very keen,
against all of whatever rank who sought in any way to alter, and, as it
was presumed, amend, the religious, philosophical, social, political, or
literary creed and practice of the country, and held up to ridicule such
men as Socrates and Euripides, as well as Cleon the tanner; wrote 54
plays, of which 11 have come down to us; of these the "Clouds" aim at
Socrates, the "Acharnians" and the "Frogs" at Euripides, and the
"Knights" at Cleon; _d_. 384 B.C.
AR`ISTOTLE, a native of Stagira, in Thrace, and hence named the
Stagirite; deprived of his parents while yet a youth; came in his 17th
year to Athens, remained in Plato's society there for 20 years; after the
death of Plato, at the request of Philip, king of Macedon, who held him
in high honour, became the preceptor of Alexander the Great, then only 13
years old; on Alexander's expedition into Asia, returned to Athens and
began to teach in the Lyceum, where it was his habit to walk up and down
as he taught, from which circumstance his school got the name of
Peripatetic; after 13 years he left the city and went to Chalcis, in
Euboea, where he died. He was the oracle of the scholastic philosophers
and theologians in the Middle Ages; is the author of a great number of
writings which covered a vast field of speculation, of which the progress
of modern science goes to establish the value; is often referred to as
the incarnation of the philosophic spirit (385-322 B.C.).
ARISTOX`ENUS OF TARENTUM, a Greek philosopher, author of the
"Elements of Harmony," the only one of his many works extant, and one of
the oldest writers on music; contemporary of Aristotle.
A`RIUS, a presbyter of Alexandria in the 4th century, and founder of
Arianism, which denied the consubstantiality of the Son with the Father
in the so-called Trinity, a doctrine which hovered for a time between
acceptance and rejection throughout the Catholic Church; was condemned
first by a local synod which met at Alexandria in 321, and then by a
General Council at Nice in 325, which the Emperor Constantine attended in
person; the author was banished to Illyricum, his writings burned, and
the possession of them voted to be a crime; after three years he was
recalled by Constantine, who ordered him to be restored; was about to be
readmitted into the Church when he died suddenly, by poison, alleged his
friends--by the judgment of God, said his enemies (280-336).
ARIZO`NA (59), a territory of the United States N. of Mexico and W.
of New Mexico, nearly four times as large as Scotland, rich in mines of
gold, silver, and copper, fertile in the lowlands; much of the surface a
barren plateau 11,000 ft. high, through which the cañon of the Colorado
passes. See CAÑON.
ARK OF THE COVENANT, a chest of acacia wood overlaid with gold, 2½
cubits long and 1½ in breadth; contained the two tables of stone
inscribed with the Ten Commandments, the gold pot with the manna, and
Aaron's rod; the lid supported the mercy-seat, with a cherub at each end,
and the shekinah radiance between.
ARKANS`AS (1,128), one of the Southern States of America, N. of
Louisiana and W. of the Mississippi, a little larger than England; rich
in metals, grows cotton and corn.
ARKWRIGHT, SIR RICHARD, born at Preston, Lancashire; bred to the
trade of a barber; took interest in the machinery of cotton-spinning;
with the help of a clockmaker, invented the spinning frame; was mobbed
for threatening thereby to shorten labour and curtail wages, and had to
flee; fell in with Mr. Strutt of Derby, who entered into partnership with
him; prospered in business and died worth half a million. "French
Revolutions were a-brewing; to resist the same in any way, Imperial
Cæsars were impotent without the cotton and cloth of England; and it was
this man," says Carlyle, "that had to give to England the power of
cotton" (1732-1792).
ARLBERG, a mountain mass between the Austrian provinces of
Vorarlberg and Tyrol, pierced by a tunnel, one of the three that
penetrate the Alps, and nearly four miles in length.
ARLES (14), a city, one of the oldest in France, on the Rhône, 46 m.
N. of Marseilles, where Constantine built a palace, with ruins of an
amphitheatre and other Roman works; the seat of several Church Councils.
AR`LINCOURT, VISCOUNT D', a French romancer, born near Versailles
(1789-1856).
AR`LINGTON, HENRY BENNET, EARL OF, served under Charles I., and
accompanied Charles II. in his exile; a prominent member of the famous
Cabal; being impeached when in office, lost favour and retired into
private life (1618-1685).
AR`LON (8), a prosperous town in Belgium, capital of Luxemburg.
ARMA`DA, named the Invincible, an armament fitted out in 1588 by
Philip II. of Spain against England, consisting of 130 war-vessels,
mounted with 2430 cannon, and manned by 20,000 soldiers; was defeated in
the Channel on July 20 by Admiral Howard, seconded by Drake, Hawkins, and
Frobisher; completely dispersed and shattered by a storm in retreat on
the coasts of Scotland and Ireland, the English losing only one ship; of
the whole fleet only 53 ships found their way back to Spain, and these
nearly all _hors de combat_.
ARMAGEDDON, a name given in Apocalypse to the final battlefield
between the powers of good and evil, or Christ and Antichrist.
ARMAGH (143), a county in Ulster, Ireland, 32 m. long by 20 m.
broad; and a town (18) in it, 33 m. SW. of Belfast, from the 5th to the
9th century the capital of Ireland, as it is the ecclesiastical still;
the chief manufacture linen-weaving.
ARMAGNAC, a district, part of Gascony, in France, now in dep. of
Gers, celebrated for its wine and brandy.
ARMAGNACS, a faction in France in time of Charles VI. at mortal feud
with the Bourguignons.
ARMATO`LES, warlike marauding tribes in the mountainous districts of
Northern Greece, played a prominent part in the War of Independence in
1820.
ARMED SOLDIER OF DEMOCRACY, Napoleon Bonaparte.
ARME`NIA, a country in Western Asia, W. of the Caspian Sea and N. of
Kurdistan Mts., anciently independent, now divided between Turkey,
Russia, and Persia, occupying a plateau interspersed with fertile
valleys, which culminates in Mt. Ararat, in which the Euphrates and
Tigris have their sources.
ARMENIANS, a people of the Aryan race occupying Armenia, early
converted to Christianity of the Eutychian type; from early times have
emigrated into adjoining, and even remote, countries, and are, like the
Jews, mainly engaged in commercial pursuits, the wealthier of them
especially in banking.
ARMENTIÈRES (27), a manufacturing and trading town in France, 12 m.
N. of Lille.
ARMI`DA, a beautiful enchantress in Tasso's "Jerusalem Delivered,"
who bewitched Rinaldo, one of the Crusaders, by her charms, as Circe did
Ulysses, and who in turn, when the spell was broken, overpowered her by
his love and persuaded her to become a Christian. _The Almida Palace_, in
which she enchanted Rinaldo, has become a synonym for any merely
visionary but enchanting palace of pleasure.
ARMINIANISM. See ARMINIUS.
ARMIN`IUS, or HERMANN, the Deliverer of Germany from the
Romans by the defeat of Varus, the Roman general, in 9 A.D., near
Detmold (where a colossal statue has been erected to his memory); killed
in some family quarrel in his 37th year.
ARMINIUS, JACOBUS, a learned Dutch theologian and founder of
Arminianism, an assertion of the free-will of man in the matter of
salvation against the necessitarianism of Calvin (1560-1609).
ARMOR`ICA, a district of Gaul from the Loire to the Seine.
ARMSTRONG, JOHN, a Scotch doctor and poet, born in Roxburghshire,
practised medicine in London; friend of poet Thomson, as well as of
Wilkes and Smollett, and author of "The Art of Preserving Health"
(1709-1779).
ARMSTRONG, WILLIAM GEORGE, LORD, born at Newcastle, produced the
hydraulic accumulator and the hydraulic crane, established the Elswick
engine works in the suburbs of his native city, devoted his attention to
the improvement of heavy ordnance, invented the Armstrong gun, which he
got the Government to adopt, knighted in 1858, and in 1887 raised to the
peerage; _b_. 1810.
AR`NAUD, HENRI, a pastor of the Vaudois, turned soldier to rescue,
and did rescue, his co-religionists from their dispersion under the
persecution of the Count of Savoy; but when the Vaudois were exiled a
second time, he accompanied them in their exile to Schomberg, and acted
pastor to them till his death (1641-1721).
ARNAULD, ANTOINE, the "great Arnauld," a French theologian, doctor
of the Sorbonne, an inveterate enemy of the Jesuits, defended Jansenism
against the Bull of the Pope, became religious director of the nuns of
Port Royal des Champs, associated here with a circle of kindred spirits,
among others Pascal; expelled from the Sorbonne and banished the country,
died at Brussels (1612-1694).
ARNAULD, MARIE ANGE`LIQUE, _La Mère Angelique_ as she was called,
sister of the preceding and abbess of the Port Royal, a victim of the
persecutions of the Jesuits to very death (1624-1684).
ARNDT, ERNST MORITZ, a German poet and patriot, whose memory is much
revered by the whole German people, one of the first to rouse his
countrymen to shake off the tyranny of Napoleon; his songs and eloquent
appeals went straight to the heart of the nation and contributed
powerfully to its liberation; his "Geist der Zeit" made him flee the
country after the battle of Jena, and his "Was ist des Deutschen
Vaterland?" strikes a chord in the breast of every German all the world
over (1710-1860).
ARNDT, JOHN, a Lutheran theologian, the author of "True
Christianity," a work which, in Germany and elsewhere, has contributed to
infuse a new spirit of life into the profession of the Christian
religion, which seemed withering away under the influence of a lifeless
dogmatism (1553-1621).
ARNE, THOMAS AUGUSTINE, a musical composer of versatile genius,
produced, during over 40 years, a succession of pieces in every style
from songs to sonatas and oratorios, among others the world-famous chorus
"Rule Britannia"; Mrs. Cibber was his sister (1719-1778).
ARN`HEIM (51), the capital of Guelderland, is situated on the right
bank of the Rhine, and has a large transit trade.
ARNIM, BETTINE VON, sister of Clemens Brentano, wife of Ludwig
Arnim, a native of Frankfort; at 22 conceived a passionate love for
Goethe, then in his 60th year, visited him at Weimar, and corresponded
with him afterwards, part of which correspondence appeared subsequently
under the title of "Goethe's Correspondence with a Child" (1785-1859).
ARNIM, COUNT, ambassador of Germany, first at Rome and then at
Paris; accused in the latter capacity of purloining State documents, and
sentenced to imprisonment; died in exile at Nice (1824-1881).
ARNIM, LUDWIG ACHIM VON, a German poet and novelist (1781-1831).
ARNO, a river of Italy, rises in the Apennines, flows westward past
Florence and Pisa into the Mediterranean, subject to destructive
inundations.
ARNOBIUS, an African rhetorician who, in the beginning of the 4th
century, embraced Christianity, and wrote a book in its defence, still
extant, and of great value, entitled "Disputations against the Heathen."
ARNOLD, BENEDICT, an American military general, entered the ranks of
the colonists under Washington during the War of Independence,
distinguished himself in several engagements, promoted to the rank of
general, negotiated with the English general Clinton to surrender an
important post entrusted to him, escaped to the English ranks on the
discovery of the plot, and served in them against his country; _d_. in
England in 1801.
ARNOLD, MATTHEW, poet and critic, eldest son of Thomas Arnold of
Rugby; professor of Poetry in Oxford from 1857 to 1867; inspector of
schools for 35 years from 1851; commissioned twice over to visit France,
Germany, and Holland, to inquire into educational matters there; wrote
two separate reports thereon of great value; author of "Poems," of a
highly finished order and showing a rich poetic gift, "Essays on
Criticism," "Culture and Anarchy," "St. Paul and Protestantism,"
"Literature and Dogma," &c.; a man of culture, and especially literary
culture, of which he is reckoned the apostle; died suddenly at Liverpool.
He was more eminent as a poet than a critic, influential as he was in
that regard. "It is," says Swinburne, "by his verse and not his prose he
must be judged," and is being now judged (1822-1888).
ARNOLD, SIR EDWIN, poet and journalist, familiar with Indian
literature; author of the "Light of Asia," "Light of the World," and
other works in prose and verse; _b_. 1832, at Gravesend.
ARNOLD, THOMAS, head-master of Rugby, and professor of Modern
History at Oxford; by his moral character and governing faculty effected
immense reforms in Rugby School; was liberal in his principles and of a
philanthropic spirit; he wrote a "History of Rome" based on Niebuhr, and
edited Thucydides; his "Life and Correspondence" was edited by Dean
Stanley (1795-1842).
ARNOLD OF BRESCIA, an Italian monk, and disciple of Abelard;
declaimed against the temporal power of the Pope, the corruptions of the
Church, and the avarice of the clergy; headed an insurrection against the
Pope in Rome, which collapsed under the Pope's interdict; at last was
burned alive in 1156, and his ashes thrown into the Tiber.
ARNOLD OF WINKELRIED, the Decius of Switzerland, a peasant of the
canton of Unterwald, who, by the voluntary sacrifice of his life, broke
the lines of the Austrians at Sempach in 1386 and decided the fate of the
battle.
ARNOTT, DR. NEIL, a native of Arbroath, author of the "Elements of
Physics" and of several hygienic inventions (1788-1874).
AROU`ET, the family name of Voltaire; his name formed by an
ingenious transposition he made of the letters of his name, Arouet l. j.
(jeune).
AR`PAD, the national hero of Hungary; established for the Magyars a
firm footing in the country; was founder of the Arpad dynasty, which
became extinct in 1301; _d_. 907.
ARPI`NO (ARPINIUM), an ancient town in Latium, S. of Rome,
birthplace of Cicero and Marius.
ARQUA, a village 12 m. SW. of Padua, where Petrarch died and was
buried.
ARRACK, a spirituous liquor, especially that distilled from the
juice of the cocoa-nut tree and from fermented rice.
AR`RAH, a town in Bengal, 36 m. from Patna; famous for its defence
by a handful of English and Sikhs against thousands during the Mutiny.
ARRAN (4), largest island in the Firth of Clyde, in Buteshire; a
mountainous island, highest summit Goatfell, 2866 ft, with a margin of
lowland round the coast; nearly all the property of the Duke of Hamilton,
whose seat is Brodick Castle.
ARRAS (20), a French town in the dep. of Pas-de-Calais, long
celebrated for its tapestry; the birthplace of Damiens and Robespierre.
AR`RIA, a Roman matron, who, to encourage her husband in meeting
death, to which he had been sentenced, thrust a poniard into her own
breast, and then handed it to him, saying, "It is not painful," whereupon
he followed her example.
AR`RIAN, FLAVIUS, a Bithynian, a friend of Epictetus the Stoic,
edited his "Enchiridion"; wrote a "History of Alexander the Great," and
"Periplus," an account of voyages round the Euxine and round the Red Sea;
_b_. 100, and died at an advanced age.
ARROW-HEADED CHARACTERS, the same as the CUNEIFORM (q. v.).
ARRU ISLANDS (15), a group of 80 coralline islands, belonging to
Holland, W. of New Guinea; export mother-of-pearl, pearls,
tortoise-shell, &c.
AR`SACES I., the founder of the dynasty of the Arsacidæ, by a revolt
which proved successful against the Seleucidæ, 250 B.C.
ARSACIDÆ, a dynasty of 31 Parthian kings, who wrested the throne
from Antiochus II., the last of the Seleucidæ, 250 B.C.
ARSIN`OË, the name of several Egyptian princesses of antiquity; also
a prude in Molière's "Misanthrope."
ARTA, GULF OF, gulf forming the NW. frontier of Greece.
ARTS, THE. There are three classes of these, the Liberal, the Fine,
and the Mechanical: the Liberal, implying scholarship, graduation in
which is granted by universities, entitling the holder to append M.A. to
his name; the Mechanical, implying skill; and the Fine, implying the
possession of a soul, discriminated from the mechanical by the word
spiritual, as holding of the entire, undivided man, heart as well as
brain.
ARTAXER`XES, the name of several Persian monarchs: A. I.,
called the "Long-handed," from his right hand being longer than his left;
son of Xerxes I.; concluded a peace with Greece after a war of 52
years; entertained Themistocles at his court; king from 465 to 424 B.C.
A. II., MNEMON, vanquished and killed his brother Cyrus at Cunaxa in
401, who had revolted against him; imposed in 387 on the Spartans the
shameful treaty of ANTALCIDAS (q. v.); king from 405 to 359
B.C. A. III., OCHUS, son of the preceding, slew all his kindred on
ascending the throne; in Egypt slew the sacred bull Apis and gave the
flesh to his soldiers, for which his eunuch Bagsas poisoned him; king
from 359 to 338 B.C. A. IV., grandson of Sassan, founder of the
dynasty Sassanidæ; restored the old religion of the Magi, amended the
laws, and promoted education; king from A.D. 223 to 232.
ARTE`DI, a Swedish naturalist, assisted Linnæus in his "Systema
Naturæ"; his own great work, "Ichthyologia," published by Linnæus after
his death (1703-1735).
AR`TEGAL, the impersonation and champion of Justice in Spenser's
"Faërie Queene."
AR`TEMIS, in the Greek mythology the daughter of Zeus and Leto, twin
sister of Apollo, born in the Isle of Delos, and one of the great
divinities of the Greeks; a virgin goddess, represented as a huntress
armed with bow and arrows; presided over the birth of animals, was
guardian of flocks, the moon the type of her and the laurel her sacred
tree, was the Diana of the Romans, and got mixed up with deities in other
mythologies.
ARTEMI`SIA, queen of Halicarnassus, joined Xerxes in his invasion of
Greece, and fought with valour at Salamis, 440 B.C. A. II., also
queen, raised a tomb over the grave of her husband Mausolus, regarded as
one of the seven wonders of the world, 355 B.C.
ARTEMI`SIUM, a promontory N. of Euboea, near which Xerxes lost part
of his fleet, 480 B.C.
ARTEMUS WARD. See C. F. BROWNE.
ARTESIAN WELLS, wells made by boring for water where it is lower
than its source, so as to obtain a constant supply of it.
AR`TEVELDE, JACOB VAN, a wealthy brewer of Ghent, chosen chief in a
revolt against Count Louis of Flanders, expelled him, made a treaty with
Edward III. as lord-superior of Flanders, was massacred in a popular
tumult (1300-1345).
ARTEVELDE, PHILIP VAN, son of the preceding, defeated Louis II. and
became king; but with the help of France Louis retaliated and defeated
the Flemings, and slew him in 1382.
ARTFUL DODGER, a young thief, an expert in the profession in
Dickens' "Oliver Twist."
AR`THUR, a British prince of wide-spread fame, who is supposed to
have lived at the time of the Saxon invasion in the 6th century, whose
exploits and those of his court have given birth to the tradition of the
Round Table, to the rendering of which Tennyson devoted so much of his
genius.
ARTHUR, CHESTER ALAN, twenty-first president of the United States, a
lawyer by profession, and a prominent member of the Republican party
(1830-1886).
ARTHUR, PRINCE, DUKE OF BRITTANY, heir to the throne of England by
the death of his uncle Richard I.; supplanted by King John.
ARTHUR SEAT, a lion-shaped hill 822 ft., close to Edinburgh on the
E., from the top of which the prospect is unrivalled; "the blue,
majestic, everlasting ocean, with the Fife hills swelling gradually into
the Grampians behind it on the N.; rough crags and rude precipices at our
feet ('where not a hillock rears its head unsung'), with Edinburgh at
their base, clustering proudly over her rugged foundations, and covering
with a vapoury mantle the jagged, black, venerable masses of stone-work,
that stretch far and wide, and show like a city of fairyland"--such the
view Carlyle had in a clear atmosphere of 1826, whatever it may be now.
ARTICLES, THE THIRTY-NINE, originally Forty-Two, a creed framed in
1562, which every clergyman of the Church of England is bound by law to
subscribe to at his ordination, as the accepted faith of the Church.
ARTIST, according to a definition of Ruskin, which he prints in
small caps., "a person who has submitted to a law which it was painful to
obey, that he may bestow a delight which it is gracious to bestow."
ARTISTS, PRINCE OF, Albert Dürer, so called by his countrymen.
AR`TOIS, an ancient province of France, comprising the dep. of
Pas-de-Calais, and parts of the Somme and the Nord; united to the crown
in 1659.
ARTOIS, MONSEIGNEUR D', famed, as described in Carlyle's "French
Revolution," for "breeches of a new kind in this world"; brother of Louis
XVI., and afterwards CHARLES X. (q. v.).
AR`UNDEL (2), a municipal town in Sussex, on the Arun, 9 m. E. of
Chichester, with a castle of great magnificence, the seat of the Earls of
Arundel.
ARUNDEL, THOMAS, successively bishop of Ely, Lord Chancellor,
archbishop of York, and archbishop of Canterbury; a persecutor of the
Wickliffites, but a munificent benefactor of the Church (1353-1414).
ARUNDEL MARBLES, ancient Grecian marbles collected at Smyrna and
elsewhere by the Earl of Arundel in 1624, now in the possession of the
University of Oxford, the most important of which is one from Paros
inscribed with a chronology of events in Grecian history from 1582 to 264
B.C.; the date of the marbles themselves is 263 B.C.
ARUNS, son of Tarquinus Superbus, who fell in single combat with
Brutus.
ARUWI`MI, an affluent of the Congo on the right bank below the
Stanley Falls.
ARVA`TES, FRATRES, a college of twelve priests in ancient Rome whose
duty it was to make annual offerings to the Lares for the increase of the
fruits of the field.
ARVE, a river that flows through the valley of Chamouni and falls
into the Rhône below Geneva.
ARVEYRON, an affluent of the Arve from the Mer de Glace.
AR`YANS, or Indo-Europeans, a race that is presumed to have had its
primitive seat in Central Asia, E. of the Caspian Sea and N. of the
Hindu-Kush, and to have branched off at different periods north-westward
and westward into Europe, and southward into Persia and the valley of the
Ganges, from which sprung the Greeks, Latins, Celts, Teutons, Slavs, on
the one hand, and the Persians and Hindus on the other, a community of
origin that is attested by the comparative study of their respective
languages.
AR`ZEW, a seaport in Algeria, 22 m. from Oran, with Roman remains;
exports grain and salt.
ASAFOE`TIDA, a fetid inspissated sap from an Indian umbelliferous
tree, used in medicine.
ASAPH, a musician of the temple at Jerusalem.
ASAPH, ST., a town in Flintshire, 20 m. from Chester; seat of a
bishopric.
ASBES`TOS, an incombustible mineral of a flax-like fibrous texture,
which has been manufactured into cloth, paper, lamp-wick, steam-pipes,
gas-stoves, &c.
ASBJÖRN`SEN, a Dane, distinguished as a naturalist, and particularly
as a collector of folk-lore, as well as an author of children's stories
(1812-1885).
AS`BURY, FRANCIS, a zealous, assiduous Methodist preacher and
missionary, sent to America, was consecrated the first bishop of the
newly organised Methodist Church there (1745-1816).
AS`CALON, one of the five cities of the Philistines, much contested
for during the Crusades.
ASCA`NIUS, the son of Æneas, who trotted _non passibus æquis_ ("with
unequal steps") by the side of his father as he escaped from burning
Troy; was founder of Alba Longa.
AS`CAPART, a giant conquered by Bevis of Southampton, though so huge
as to carry Bevis, his wife, and horse under his arm.
ASCENSION, a bare volcanic island in the Atlantic, rising to nearly
3000 ft., belonging to Britain, 500 m. NW. of St. Helena, and 900 m. from
the coast of Africa; a coaling and victualling station for the navy.
ASCHAF`FENBURG (14), an ancient town of Bavaria, on the Main, 20 m.
from Frankfort, with an old castle and cathedral.
ASCHAM, ROGER, a Yorkshireman, Fellow of Cambridge, a good
classical, and particularly Greek, scholar; wrote a book on archery,
deemed a classic, entitled "Toxophilus," for which Henry VIII. settled a
pension on him; was tutor and Latin secretary to Queen Elizabeth, and
much esteemed by her; his chief work, the "Schoolmaster," an admirable
treatise on education, held in high regard by Dr. Johnson, the sum of
which is _docendo discas_, "learn by teaching" (1515-1560).
ASCHERSLE`BEN (22), a manufacturing town in the Magdeburg district
of Prussia.
ASCLEPI`ADES, a Bithynian who practised medicine with repute at Rome
in Cicero's time, and was great in hygiene.
AS`COT, a racecourse in Berks, 6 m. SW. of Windsor, the races at
which, instituted by Queen Anne, take place a fortnight after the Derby.
AS`GARD, the garden or heaven of the Asen or gods in the Norse
mythology, in which each had a separate dwelling, and who held
intercourse with the other spheres of existence by the bridge Bifröst,
i. e. the rainbow.
ASGILL, JOHN, an eccentric Englishman, wrote a book to prove that
death was due to want of faith, and to express his belief that he would
be translated, and translated he was, to spend 30 years, apparently quite
happily, writing pamphlets, and end his days in the debtors' prison.
ASH, JOHN, a dissenting divine, author of an English dictionary,
valuable for the number of obsolete and provincial words contained in it
(1724-1779).
ASH`ANTI, or ASHANTEE, a negro inland kingdom in the Upper
Soudan, N. of Gold Coast territory, wooded, well watered, and well
cultivated; natives intelligent, warlike, and skilful; twice over
provoked a war with Great Britain, and finally the despatch of a military
expedition, which led to the submission of the king and the appointment
of a British Resident.
ASHBURNHAM, JOHN, a member of the Long Parliament, a faithful
adherent and attendant of Charles I., and assistant to him in his
troubles (1603-1671).
ASHBURNHAM, 5TH EARL OF, collected a number of valuable MSS. and
rare books known as the Ashburnham Collection; _d_. 1878.
ASHBURTON, ALEXANDER BARING, LORD, second son of Sir Francis Baring,
a Liberal politician, turned Conservative, member of Peel's
administration in 1834-35, sent special ambassador to the United States
in 1842; concluded the boundary treaty of Washington, known as the
Ashburton Treaty; in his retirement "a really good, solid, most cheery,
sagacious, simple-hearted old man" (1774-1848).
ASHBURTON, WILLIAM BINGHAM BARING, son of the preceding, "a very
worthy man," an admirer, and his wife, Lady Harriet, still more, of
Thomas Carlyle (1797-1844).
ASHBY-DE-LA-ZOUCH, a small market-town 17 m. W. of Leicester,
figures in "Ivanhoe," with the ruins of a castle in which Queen Mary was
immured.
ASHDOD, a maritime Philistine city 20 m. S. of Jaffa, seat of the
Dagon worship.
ASHE`RA, an image of ASTARTE (q. v.), and associated with
the worship of that goddess.
ASH`MOLE, ELIAS, a celebrated antiquary and authority on heraldry;
presented to the University of Oxford a collection of rarities bequeathed
to him, which laid the foundation of the Ashmolean Collection there
(1617-1692).
ASHMUN, JEHUDI, an American philanthropist, founder of the Negro
Republic of Liberia, on the W. coast of Africa (1794-1828).
ASH`TAROTH. See ASTARTE.
ASH`TON-UNDER-LYNE (47), a cotton-manufacturing town near
Manchester.
ASIA, the largest of the four quarters of the globe, and as good as
in touch with the other three; contains one-third of all the land, which,
from a centre of high elevations, extensive plains, and deep depressions,
stretches southward into three large peninsulas separated by three
immense arms of the sea, and eastward into three bulging masses and three
pronounced peninsulas forming seas, protected by groups of islands; with
rivers the largest in the whole world, of which four flow N., two SE.,
and eight S.; with a large continental basin, also the largest in the
world, and with lakes which though they do not match those of America and
Africa, strikingly stand at a higher level as we go E.; with every
variety of climate, with a richly varied flora and fauna, with a
population of 840,000,000, being the half of that of the globe, of
chiefly three races, Caucasian, Mongolian, and Malay, at different stages
of civilisation, and as regards religion, by far the majority professing
the faith of Brahma, Buddha, Mahomet, or Christ.
ASIA MINOR, called also ANATOLE`, a peninsular extension
westward of the Armenian and Kurdistan highlands in Asia, bounded on the
N. by the Black Sea, on the W. by the Archipelago, and on the S. by the
Levant; indented all round, mainland as well as adjoining islands, with
bays and harbours, all more or less busy centres of trade; is as large as
France, and consists of a plateau with slopes all round to the coasts;
has a population of over 28,000,000.
ASKEW, ANNE, a lady of good birth, a victim of persecution in the
time of Henry VIII. for denying transubstantiation, tortured on the rack
and burnt at the stake, 1546.
ASKEW, ANTONY, a physician and classical scholar, a collector of
rare and curious books (1722-1774).
ASMODE`US, a mischievous demon or goblin of the Jewish demonology,
who gloats on the vices and follies of mankind, and figures in Le Sage's
"Le Diable Boiteux," or the "Devil on Two Sticks," as lifting off the
roofs of the houses of Madrid and exposing their inmost interiors and the
secret doings of the inhabitants.
ASMONÆ`ANS, a name given to the Maccabees, from Asmon, the place of
their origin.
ASO`KA, a king of Behar, in India; after his accession in 264 B.C.
became an ardent disciple of Buddha; organised Buddhism, as Constantine
did Christianity, into a State religion; convened the third great council
of the Church of that creed at Patna; made a proclamation of this faith
as far as his influence extended, evidence of which is still extant in
pillars and rocks inscribed with his edicts in wide districts of Northern
India; _d_. 223 B.C.
ASP, a poisonous Egyptian viper of uncertain species.
ASPA`SIA, a woman remarkable for her wit, beauty, and culture, a
native of Miletus; being attracted to Athens, came and settled in it;
became the wife of Pericles, and her home the rendezvous of all the
intellectual and wise people of the city, Socrates included; her
character was often both justly and unjustly assailed.
AS`PERN, a village in Austria, on the Danube, 4 m. NE. of Vienna,
where a charge of the Austrians under the Archduke Charles was defeated
by Napoleon, May 21, 1809, and Marshal Lannes killed.
ASPHALT, a mineral pitch of a black or brownish-black colour,
consisting chiefly of carbon; also a limestone impregnated with bitumen,
and more or less in every quarter of the globe.
ASPHALTIC LAKE, the DEAD SEA (q. v.), so called from the
asphalt on its surface and banks.
AS`PHODEL, a lily plant appraised by the Greeks for its almost
perennial flowering, and with which they, in their imagination, covered
the Elysian fields, called hence the Asphodel Meadow.
ASPHYX`IA, suspended respiration in the physical life; a term
frequently employed by Carlyle to denote a much more recondite, but a no
less real, corresponding phenomenon in the spiritual life.
ASPINWALL, a town founded by an American of the name in 1800, at the
Atlantic extremity of the Panama railway; named Colon, since the Empress
Eugenie presented it with a statue of Columbus.
ASPROMON`TE, a mountain close by Reggio, overlooking the Strait of
Messina, near which Garibaldi was defeated and captured in 1862.
ASQUINI, COUNT, a rural economist who did much to promote silk
culture in Italy (1726-1818).
ASSAB BAY, a coaling-station belonging to Italy, on the W. coast of
the Red Sea.
ASSAM` (5,500), a province E. of Bengal, ceded to Britain after the
Burmese war in 1826; being an alluvial plain, with ranges of hills along
the Brahmapootra, 450 m. long and 50 broad; the low lands extremely
fertile and productive, and the hills covered with tea plantations,
yielding at one time, if not still, three-fourths of the tea raised in
India.
ASSAROTTI, an Italian philanthropist, born at Genoa; the first to
open a school for deaf-mutes in Italy, and devoted zealously his fortune
and time to the task (1753-1821).
AS`SAS, NICOLAS, captain of the French regiment of Auvergne, whose
celebrity depends on a single act of defiance: having entered a wood to
reconnoitre it the night before the battle of Kloster Kampen, was
suddenly surrounded by the enemy's (the English) soldiers, and defied
with bayonets at his breast to utter a cry of alarm; "Ho, Auvergne!" he
exclaimed, and fell dead on the instant, pierced with bayonets, to the
saving of his countrymen.
ASSASSINS, a fanatical Moslem sect organised in the 11th century, at
the time of the Crusades, under a chief called the Old Man of the
Mountain, whose stronghold was a rock fortress at Alamut, in Persia,
devoted to the assassination of all enemies of the Moslem faith, and so
called because they braced their nerves for their deeds of blood by
draughts of an intoxicating liquor distilled from hashish (the
hemp-plant). A Tartar force burst upon the horde in their stronghold in
1256, and put them wholesale to the sword.
ASSAYE`, a small town 46 m. NE. of Aurungabad, where Sir Arthur
Wellesley gained a victory over the Mahrattas in 1803.
ASSEGAI, a spear or javelin of wood tipped with iron, used by
certain S. African tribes with deadly effect in war.
ASSEMBLY, GENERAL, the chief court of the Presbyterian Church, a
representative body, half clergymen and half laymen, which sits in
Edinburgh for ten days in May, disposes of the general business of the
Church, and determines appeals.
ASSEMBLY, NATIONAL, the Commons section of the States-General of
France which met on May 5, 1789, constituted itself into a legislative
assembly, and gave a new constitution to the country.
ASSEMBLY, WESTMINSTER, a body composed of 140 members, of which 117
were clergymen, convened at Westminster to determine questions of
doctrine, worship, and discipline in the National Church, and which held
its sittings, over 1100 of them, from July 1, 1643, to Feb. 22, 1649,
with the result that the members of it were unanimous in regard to
doctrine, but were divided in the matter of government.
ASSEMANI, GIUSEPPE, a learned Syrian Maronite, librarian of the
Vatican, wrote an account of Syrian writers (1687-1768); STEPHANO,
nephew, held the same office, wrote "Acta Sanctorum Martyrum"
(1707-1782).
ASSER, JOHN, monk of St. David's, in Wales, tutor, friend, and
biographer of Alfred the Great; is said to have suggested the founding of
Oxford University; _d_. 909.
ASSIEN`TO, a treaty with Spain to supply negroes for her colonies,
concluded in succession with the Flemings, the Genoese, a French company,
the English, and finally the South Sea Company, who relinquished their
rights in 1750 on compensation by Spain.
AS`SIGNATS, bills or notes, to the number of 45 thousand million,
issued as currency by the revolutionary government of France in 1790, and
based on the security of Church and other lands appropriated by it, and
which in course of time sunk in value, to the ruin of millions.
ASSINIBOI`A, a province in Canada between Saskatchewan and the
United States.
ASSINIBOINES, certain aborigines of Canada; the few of whom that
remain do farming on the banks of the Saskatchewan.
ASSI`SI (3), a town in Central Italy, 12 m. SE. of Perugia, the
birthplace and burial-place of St. Francis, and the birthplace of
Metastasio; it was a celebrated place of resort of pilgrims, who
sometimes came in great numbers.
ASSOCIATION OF IDEAS, a connection in the mind between two ideas,
such that the consciousness of one tends to recall the other, a fact
employed to explain certain recondite psychological phenomena.
ASSOUAN`, the ancient Syene, the southernmost city of Egypt, on the
right bank of the Nile, near the last cataract.
ASSOUCY, D', a French burlesque poet ridiculed by Boileau
(1604-1679).
ASSUMPTION, FEAST OF THE, festival in honour of the translation of
the Virgin Mary to heaven, celebrated on the 15th of August, the alleged
day of the event.
ASSUR, mythical name of the founder of Assyria.
ASSYR`IA, an ancient kingdom, the origin and early history of which
is uncertain, between the Niphates Mountains of Armenia on the N. and
Babylonia on the S., 280 m. long and 150 broad, with a fertile soil and a
population at a high stage of civilisation; became a province of Media,
which lay to the E., in 606 B.C., and afterwards a satrapy of the
Persian empire, and has been under the Turks since 1638, in whose hands
it is now a desert.
ASSYRIOLOGY, the study of the monuments of Assyria, chiefly in a
Biblical interest.
ASTAR`TE, or ASHTORETH, or IST`AR, the female divinity of
the Phoenicians, as Baal was the male, these two being representative
respectively of the conceptive and generative powers of nature, and
symbolised, the latter, like Apollo, by the sun, and the former, like
Artemis or Diana, by the moon; sometimes identified with Urania and
sometimes with Venus; the rites connected with her worship were of a
lascivious nature.
ASTER, of Amphipolis, an archer who offered his services to Philip
of Macedon, boasting of his skill in bringing down birds on the wing, and
to whom Philip had replied he would accept them when he made war on the
birds. Aster, to be revenged, sped an arrow from the wall of a town
Philip was besieging, inscribed, "To the right eye of Philip," which took
effect; whereupon Philip sped back another with the words, "When Philip
takes the town, Aster will hang for it," and he was true to his word.
AS`TEROIDS, or Planetoids, small planets in orbits between those of
Mars and Jupiter, surmised in 1596, all discovered in the present
century, the first on Jan. 1, 1801, and named Ceres; gradually found to
number more than 200.
AS`TI (33), an ancient city in Piedmont, on the Tanaro, 26 m. SE.
from Turin, with a Gothic cathedral; is noted for its wine; birthplace of
Alfieri.
ASTLEY, PHILIP, a famous equestrian and circus manager, along with
Franconi established the Cirque Olympique in Paris (1742-1814).
ASTOLFO, a knight-errant in mediæval legend who generous-heartedly
is always to do greater feats than he can perform; in "Orlando Furioso"
he brings back Orlando's lost wits in a phial from the moon, and
possesses a horn that with a blast can discomfit armies.
ASTON, LUISE, German authoress, championed the rights of women, and
went about in male attire; _b_. 1820.
ASTON MANOR (54), a suburb of Birmingham.
ASTOR, JOHN JACOB, a millionaire, son of a German peasant, who made
a fortune of four millions in America by trading in furs (1763-1848). His
son doubled his fortune; known as the "landlord of New York" (1792-1875).
ASTOR, WILLIAM WALDORF, son of the preceding, devoted to politics;
came to London, 1891; became proprietor of the _Pall Mall Gazette_ and
_Budget_ in 1893; _b_. 1848.
ASTO`RIA, in Oregon, a fur-trading station, with numerous
salmon-tinning establishments.
ASTRÆ`A, the daughter of Zeus and Themis, the goddess of justice;
dwelt among men during the Golden Age, but left the earth on its decline,
and her sister Pudicitia along with her, the withdrawal explained to mean
the vanishing of the ideal from the life of man on the earth; now placed
among the stars under the name of Virgo.
ASTRÆA REDUX, the name given to an era which piques itself on the
return of the reign of justice to the earth.
AS`TRAKHAN (43), a Russian trading town on the Volga, 40 m. from its
mouth in the Caspian Sea, of which it is the chief port.
ASTRAL BODY, an ethereal body believed by the theosophists to invest
the animal, to correspond to it, and to be capable of BILOCATION
(q. v.)
ASTRAL SPIRITS, spirits believed to animate or to people the
heavenly bodies, to whom worship was paid, and to hover unembodied
through space exercising demonic influence on embodied spirits.
ASTROLOGY, a science founded on a presumed connection between the
heavenly bodies and human destiny as more or less affected by them, a
science at one time believed in by men of such intelligence as Tacitus
and Kepler, and few great families at one time but had an astrologer
attached to them to read the horoscope of any new member of the house.
ASTRUC, JEAN, a French physician and professor of medicine in Paris,
now noted as having discovered that the book of Genesis consists of
Elohistic and Jehovistic portions, and who by this discovery founded the
modern school called of the Higher Criticism (1681-1766).
ASTU`RIAS (579), an ancient province in the N. of Spain, gives title
to the heir to the crown, rich in minerals, and with good fisheries; now
named Oviedo, from the principal town.
ASTY`AGES, last king of the Medes; dethroned by Cyrus, 549 B.C.
ASTY`ANAX, the son of Hector and Andromache; was cast down by the
Greeks from the ramparts after the fall of Troy, lest he should live and
restore the city.
ASUN`CION, or ASSUMPTION (18), the capital of Paraguay, on the
left bank of the Paraguay, so called from having been founded by the
Spaniards on the Feast of the Assumption in 1535.
ASURAS, THE, in the Hindu mythology the demons of the darkness of
night, in overcoming whom the gods asserted their sovereignty in the
universe.
ASYMPTOTE, a line always approaching some curve but never meeting
it.
ATACA`MA, an all but rainless desert in the N. of Chile, abounding
in silver and copper mines, as well as gold in considerable quantities.
ATAHUALPA, the last of the Incas of Peru, who fell into Pizarro's
hands through perfidy, and was strangled by his orders in 1533, that is,
little short of a year after the Spaniards landed in Peru.
ATALAN`TA, a beautiful Grecian princess celebrated for her agility,
the prize of any suitor who could outstrip her on the racecourse, failure
being death; at last one suitor, Hippomenes his name, accepted the risk
and started along with her, but as he neared the goal, kept dropping
first one golden apple, then another, provided him by Venus, stooping to
lift which lost her the race, whereupon Hippomenes claimed the prize.
AT`AVISM, name given to the reappearance in progeny of the features,
and even diseases, of ancestors dead generations before.
ATBA`RA, or Black River, from the Highlands of Abyssinia, the lowest
tributary of the Nile, which it joins near Berber.
ATE`, in the Greek mythology the goddess of strife and mischief,
also of vengeance; was banished by her father Zeus, for the annoyance she
gave him, from heaven to earth, where she has not been idle since.
ATHABA`SCA, a province, a river, and a lake in British N. America.
ATHALIA, the queen of Judah, daughter of Ahab and Jezebel,
celebrated for her crimes and impiety, for which she was in the end
massacred by her subjects, 9th century B.C.
ATHANASIAN CREED, a statement, in the form of a confession, of the
orthodox creed of the Church as against the Arians, and damnatory of
every article of the heresy severally; ascribed to Athanasius at one
time, but now believed to be of later date, though embracing his theology
in affirmation of the absolute co-equal divinity of the Father, the Son,
and the Holy Ghost in the Trinity.
ATHANASIUS, Christian theologian, a native of Alexandria, and a
deacon of the Church; took a prominent part against Arius in the Council
at Nice, and was his most uncompromising antagonist; was chosen bishop of
Alexandria; driven forth again and again from his bishopric under
persecution of the Arians; retired into the Thebaïd for a time; spent the
last 10 years of his life as bishop at Alexandria, where he died; his
works consist of treatises and orations bearing on the Arian controversy,
and in vindication of the doctrine of the Trinity viewed in the most
absolute sense (296-373).
ATHEISM, disbelief in the existence of God, which may be either
theoretical, in the intellect, or practical, in the life, the latter the
more common and the more fatal form of it.
ATHEISM, MODERN, ascribed by Ruskin to "the unfortunate persistence
of the clergy in teaching children what they cannot understand, and in
employing young consecrate persons to assert in pulpits what they do not
know."
ATHELNEY, ISLE OF, an island in a marsh near the confluence of the
Tone and Parret, Somerset; Alfred's place of refuge from the Danes.
ATHE`NA, the Greek virgin goddess of wisdom, particularly in the
arts, of war as of peace, happily called by Ruskin the "'Queen of the
Air,' in the heavens, in the earth, and in the heart"; is said to have
been the conception of Metis, to have issued full-armed from the brain of
Zeus, and in this way the child of both wisdom and power; wears a helmet,
and bears on her left arm the ægis with the Medusa's head; the olive
among trees, and the owl among animals, were sacred to her.
ATHENÆUM, a school of learning established in Rome about 133 by
Hadrian.
ATHENÆUS, a Greek writer of the 3rd century, wrote a curious
miscellany of a book entitled "Deipnosophistæ, or the Suppers of the
Learned," extant only in an imperfect state.
ATHENAG`ORAS, an able Christian apologist of the 2nd century, was
Athenian and a pagan by birth, but being converted to Christianity, wrote
an apology in its defence, and a treatise on the resurrection of the
dead.
ATH`ENS, the capital of Attica, and the chief city of ancient
Greece, at once the brain and the heart of it; the resort in ancient
times of all the able and wise men, particularly in the domain of
literature and art, from all parts of the country and lands beyond; while
the monuments of temple and statue that still adorn it give evidence of a
culture among the citizens such as the inhabitants of no other city of
the world have had the genius to surpass, though the name Athens has been
adopted by or applied to several cities, Edinburgh in particular, that
have been considered to rival it in this respect, and is the name of over
twenty places in the United States. The two chief monuments of the
architecture of ancient Athens, both erected on the Acropolis, are the
PARTHENON (q. v.), dedicated to Athena, the finest building on
the finest site in the world, and the Erechtheum, a temple dedicated to
Poseidon close by; is the capital (100) of modern Greece, the seat of the
government, and the residence of the king.
ATHLONE (7), a market-town on the Shannon, which divides it, and a
chief military station.
ATHOLE, a district in the N. of Perthshire, which gives name to a
branch of the Murray family.
ATHOLE-BROSE, oatmeal, honey, and whisky mixed.
ATHOLE, SIR JOHN JAMES HUGH STEWART-MURRAY, 7TH DUKE OF, honourably
distinguished for having devoted years of his life to editing the records
of the family and the related history; _b_. 1840
A`THOS, MOUNT, or MONTE SANTO (6), a mountain 6780 ft. high at
the southern extremity of the most northerly peninsula of Salonica, in
Turkey, covered with monasteries, inhabited exclusively by monks of the
Greek Church, and rich in curious manuscripts; the monks devote
themselves to gardening, bee-culture, and other rural occupations, the
more devout among them at one time celebrated for the edification they
derived from the study of their own navels.
ATLANTA (65), the largest city in Georgia, U.S.; a large
manufacturing and railway centre.
ATLANTES, figures of men used in architecture instead of pillars.
ATLANTIC, THE, the most important, best known, most traversed and
best provided for traffic of all the oceans on the globe, connecting,
rather than separating, the Old World and the New; covers nearly
one-fifth of the surface of the earth; length 9000 m., its average
breadth 2700 m.; its average depth 15,000 ft., or from 3 to 5 m., with
waves in consequence of greater height and volume than those of any other
sea.
ATLAN`TIS, an island alleged by tradition to have existed in the
ocean W. of the Pillars of Hercules; Plato has given a beautiful picture
of this island, and an account of its fabulous history. THE NEW, a
Utopia figured as existing somewhere in the Atlantic, which Lord Bacon
began to outline but never finished.
AT`LAS, a Titan who, for his audacity in attempting to dethrone
Zeus, was doomed to bear the heavens on his shoulders; although another
account makes him a king of Mauritania whom Perseus, for his want of
hospitality, changed into a mountain by exposing to view the head of the
Medusa.
ATLAS MOUNTAINS, a range in N. Africa, the highest 11,000 feet, the
GREATER in Morocco, the LESSER extending besides through
Algeria and Tunis, and the whole system extending from Cape Nun, in
Morocco, to Cape Bon, in Tunis.
ATMAN, THE, in the Hindu philosophy, the divine spirit in man,
conceived of as a small being having its seat in the heart, where it may
be felt stirring, travelling whence along the arteries it peers out as a
small image in the eye, the pupil; it is centred in the heart of the
universe, and appears with dazzling effect in the sun, the heart and eye
of the world, and is the same there as in the heart of man.
AT`OLL, the name, a Polynesian one, given to a coral island
consisting of a ring of coral enclosing a lagoon.
ATOMIC THEORY, the theory that all compound bodies are made up of
elementary in fixed proportions.
ATOMIC WEIGHT, the weight of an atom of any body compared with that
of hydrogen, the unit.
ATRA`TO, a river in Colombia which flows N. into the Gulf of Darien;
is navigable for 200 m., proposed, since the failure of the Panama
scheme, to be converted, along with San Juan River, into a canal to
connect the Atlantic and the Pacific.
A`TREUS, a son of Pelops and king of Mycenæ, who, to avenge a wrong
done him by his brother Thyestes, killed his two sons, and served them up
in a banquet to him, for which act, as tradition shows, his descendants
had to pay heavy penalties.
ATRI`DES, descendants of Atreus, particularly Agamemnon and
Menelaus, a family frequently referred to as capable of and doomed to
perpetrating the most atrocious crimes.
AT`ROPOS, one of the three Fates, the one who cut asunder the thread
of life; one of her sisters, Clotho, appointed to spin the thread, and
the other, Lachesis, to direct it.
AT`TALUS, the name of three kings of Pergamos: A. I., founded
the library of Pergamos and joined the Romans against Philip and the
Achæans (241-197 B.C.); A. II., kept up the league with Rome
(157-137); A. III., bequeathed his wealth to the Roman people
(137-132).
ATTERBURY, FRANCIS, an English prelate, in succession dean of Christ
Church, bishop of Rochester, and dean of Westminster; a zealous Churchman
and Jacobite, which last brought him into trouble on the accession of the
House of Hanover and led to his banishment; died in Paris. He was a
scholarly man, an eloquent preacher, and wrote an eloquent style
(1662-1731).
ATTIC BEE, Sophocles, from the sweetness and beauty of his
productions.
ATTIC FAITH, inviolable faith, opposed to Punic.
ATTIC MUSE, Xenophon, from the simplicity and elegance of his style.
ATTIC SALT, pointed and delicate wit.
ATTIC STYLE, a pure, classical, and elegant style.
AT`TICA, a country in ancient Greece, on the NE. of the
Peloponnesus, within an area not larger than that of Lanarkshire, which
has nevertheless had a history of world-wide fame and importance.
ATTICISM, a pure and refined style of expression in any language,
originally the purest and most refined style of the ancient literature of
Greece.
ATTICUS, TITUS P., a wealthy Roman and a great friend of Cicero's,
devoted to study and the society of friends, took no part in politics,
died of voluntary starvation rather than endure the torture of a painful
and incurable disease (110-33 B.C.).
AT`TILA, or Etzel, the king of the Huns, surnamed "the Scourge of
God," from the terror he everywhere inspired; overran the Roman Empire at
the time of its decline, vanquished the emperors of both East and West,
extorting heavy tribute; led his forces into Germany and Gaul, was
defeated in a great battle near Châlons-sur-Marne by the combined armies
of the Romans under Aëtius and the Goths under Theodoric, retreated
across the Alps and ravaged the N. of Italy; died of hemorrhage, it is
alleged, on the day of his marriage, and was buried in a gold coffin
containing immense treasures in 453, the slaves who dug the grave having,
it is said, been killed, lest they should reveal the spot.
AT`TOCK (4), a town and fortress in the Punjab, on the Indus where
the Kabul joins it--a river beyond which no Hindu must pass; it was built
by Akbar in 1581.
ATTORNEY-GENERAL, the name given the first law officer and legal
adviser of the Crown in England and Ireland.
ATTWOOD, GEORGE, a mathematician, invented a machine for
illustrating the law of uniformly accelerated motion, as in falling
bodies (1745-1807).
ATTWOOD, THOMAS, an eminent English musician and composer, wrote a
few anthems (1767-1836).
A`TYS, a beautiful Phrygian youth, beloved by Cybele, who turned him
into a pine, after she had, by her apparition at his marriage to forbid
the banns, driven him mad.
AUBE (255), a dep. in France, formed of Champagne and a small part
of Burgundy, with Troyes for capital.
AU`BER, a popular French composer of operas, born at Caen; his
operas included "La Muette de Portici," "Le Domino Noir," "Fra Diavolo,"
&c. (1782-1871).
AU`BERT, THE ABBÉ, a French fabulist, born at Paris (1731-1814).
AUB`REY, JOHN, an eminent antiquary, a friend of Anthony Wood's;
inherited estates in Wilts, Hereford, and Wales, all of which he lost by
lawsuits and bad management; was intimate with all the literary men of
the day; left a vast number of MSS.; published one work, "Miscellanies,"
being a collection of popular superstitions; preserved a good deal of the
gossip of the period (1624-1697).
AUB`RIOT, a French statesman, born at Dijon, provost of Paris under
Charles V.: built the famous Bastille; was imprisoned in it for heresy,
but released by a mob; died at Dijon, 1382.
AUBRY DE MONTDIDIER, French knight murdered by ROBERT MACAIRE
(q. v.), the sole witness of the crime and the avenger of it being his
dog.
AUBUSSON, a French town on the Creuse, manufactures carpets and
tapestry.
AUBUSSON, PIERRE D', grand-master of the Knights of St. John of
Jerusalem, of French descent, who in 1480 gallantly defended Rhodes when
besieged by Mahomet II., and drove the assailants back, amounting to no
fewer than 100,000 men (1423-1503).
AUCH (12), capital of the dep. of Gers, France, 14 m. W. of
Toulouse, with a splendid cathedral perched on a hill, and accessible
only by a flight of 200 steps; has a trade in wine and brandy.
AUCHINLECK, a village 15 m. E. of Ayr, with the mansion of the
Boswell family.
AUCHTERAR`DER, a village in Perthshire, where the forcing of a
presentee by a patron on an unwilling congregation awoke a large section
in the Established Church to a sense of the wrong, and the assertion of
the rights of the people and led to the disruption of the community, and
the creation of the Free Church in 1843.
AUCK`LAND (60), the largest town in New Zealand, in the N. island,
with an excellent harbour in the Gulf of Hauraki, and the capital of a
district of the name, 400 m. long, and 200 m. broad, with a fertile soil
and a fine climate, rich in natural products of all kinds; was the
capital of New Zealand till the seat of government was transferred to
Wellington.
AUCKLAND, BISHOP (11), a town on the Wear, 10 m. SW. of Durham and
in the county of Durham, with the palace of the bishop.
AUCKLAND, GEORGE EDEN, LORD, son of the following, a Whig in
politics, First Lord of the Admiralty, Governor-General of India; gave
name to Auckland; returned afterwards to his post in the Admiralty
(1784-1849).
AUCKLAND, WILLIAM EDEN, LORD, diplomatist, and an authority on
criminal law (1744-1814).
AUCKLAND ISLANDS, a group of small islands 180 m. S. of New Zealand,
with some good harbours, and rich in vegetation.
AUDE (317), a maritime dep. in the S. of France, being a portion of
Languedoc; yields cereals, wine, &c., and is rich in minerals.
AUDEBERT, JEAN BAPTISTE, a French artist and naturalist; devoted
himself to the illustration in coloured plates of objects of natural
history, such especially as monkeys and humming-birds, all exquisitely
done (1759-1800).
AUDHUMBLA, the cow, in the Norse mythology, that nourished Hymir,
and lived herself by licking the hoar-frost off the rocks.
AUDLEY, SIR THOMAS, LORD, born in Essex, son of a yeoman; became
Speaker of the House of Commons and Lord Chancellor of England; the
selfish, unscrupulous tool of Henry VIII. (1488-1554).
AU`DOUIN, JEAN VICTOR, an eminent French entomologist; was employed
by the French Government to inquire into and report on the diseases of
the silkworm, and the insects that destroy the vines (1797-1841).
AUDRAN, GERARD, an engraver, the most eminent of a family of
artists, born at Lyons; engraved the works of Lebrun, Mignard, and
Poussin; he did some fine illustrations of the battles of Alexander the
Great (1640-1703).
AU`DUBON, JOHN JAMES, a celebrated American ornithologist of French
Huguenot origin; author of two great works, the "Birds of America" and
the "Quadrupeds of America," drawn and illustrated by himself, the former
characterised by Cuvier as "the most magnificent monument that Art up to
that time had raised to Nature" (1780-1851).
AU`ENBRUGGER, an Austrian physician, discoverer of the method of
investigating diseases of the chest by percussion (1722-1809).
AU`ERBACH, BERTHOLO, a German poet and novelist of Jewish birth,
born in the Black Forest; his novels, which have been widely translated,
are in the main of a somewhat philosophical bent, he having been early
led to the study of Spinoza, and having begun his literary career as
editor of his works; his "Village Tales of the Black Forest" were widely
popular (1812-1882).
AU`ERSPERG, COUNT VON, an Austrian lyrical and satirical poet, of
liberal politics, and a pronounced enemy of the absolutist party headed
by Metternich (1806-1876).
AUF`RECHT, THEODOR, eminent Sanskrit scholar, born in Silesia; was
professor of Sanskrit in Edinburgh University; returning to Germany,
became professor at Bonn; _b_. 1822.
AUFKLÄRUNG, THE, or Illuminationism, a movement, conspicuously of
the present time, the members of which pique themselves on ability to
disperse the darkness of the world, if they could only persuade men to
forego reason, and accept sense, common-sense, as the only test of truth,
and who profess to settle all questions of reason, that is, of faith, by
appeal to private judgment and majorities, or as Dr. Stirling defines it,
"that stripping of us naked of all things in heaven and upon earth, at
the hands of the modern party of unbelief, and under the guidance of
so-called rationalism."
AUGE`AS, a legendary king of Elis, in Greece, and one of the
Argonauts; had a stable with 3000 oxen, that had not been cleaned out for
30 years, but was cleansed by Hercules turning the rivers Peneus and
Alpheus through it; the act a symbol of the worthless lumber a reformer
must sweep away before his work can begin, the work of reformation
proper.
AUGER, a French littérateur, born at Paris, renowned as a critic
(1772-1829).
AU`GEREAU, PIERRE FRANÇOIS CHARLES, marshal of France and duke of
Castiglione, born at Paris; distinguished in the campaigns of the
Republic and Napoleon; executed the _coup d'état_ of the 4th Sept. 1797;
his services were rejected by Napoleon on his return from Elba, on
account of his having supported the Bourbons during his absence. He was
simply a soldier, rude and rough-mannered, and with no great brains for
anything else but military discipline (1757-1816).
AU`GIER, ÉMILE, able French dramatist, produced brilliant comedies
for the French stage through a period of 40 years, all distinctly on the
side of virtue. His only rivals were Dumas _fils_ and M. Sardou
(1820-1889).
AUGS`BURG (75), a busy manufacturing and trading town on the Lech,
in Bavaria, once a city of great importance, where in 1531 the
Protestants presented their Confession to Charles V., and where the peace
of Augsburg was signed in 1555, ensuring religious freedom.
AUGSBURG CONFESSION, a document drawn up by Melanchthon in name of
the Lutheran reformers, headed by the Elector of Saxony in statement of
their own doctrines, and of the doctrines of the Church of Rome, against
which they protested.
AUGURS, a college of priests in Rome appointed to forecast the
future by the behaviour or flight of birds kept for the purpose, and
which were sometimes carried about in a coop to consult on emergencies.
AUGUST, originally called Sextilis, as the sixth month of the Roman
year, which began in March, and named August in honour of Augustus, as
being the month identified with remarkable events in his career.
AUGUSTA (33), a prosperous town in Georgia, U.S., on the Savannah,
231 m. from its mouth; also a town (10) the capital of Maine, U.S.
AUGUSTAN AGE, the time in the history of a nation when its
literature is at its best.
AUGUSTI, a German rationalist theologian of note, born near Gotha
(1771-1841).
AUGUSTIN, or AUSTIN, ST., the apostle of England, sent thither
with a few monks by Pope Gregory in 596 to convert the country to
Christianity; began his labours in Kent; founded the see, or rather
archbishopric, of Canterbury; _d_. 605.
AU`GUSTINE, ST., the bishop of Hippo and the greatest of the Latin
Fathers of the Church; a native of Tagaste, in Numidia; son of a pagan
father and a Christian mother, St. Monica; after a youth of dissipation,
was converted to Christ by a text of St. Paul (Rom. xiii. 13, 14), which
his eyes first lit upon, as on suggestion of a friend he took up the
epistle to read it in answer to an appeal he had made to him to explain a
voice that was ever whispering in his ears, "Take and read"; became
bishop in 396, devoted himself to pastoral duties, and took an active
part in the Church controversies of his age, opposing especially the
Manichæans, the Donatists, and the Pelagians; his principal works are his
"Confessions," his "City of God," and his treatises on Grace and
Free-Will. It is safe to say, no Churchman has ever exercised such
influence as he has done in moulding the creed as well as directing the
destiny of the Christian Church. He was especially imbued with the
theology of St. Paul (354-430).
AUGUSTINIANS, (_a_) Canons, called also Black Cenobites, under a
less severe discipline than monks, had 200 houses in England and Wales at
the Reformation; (_b_) Friars, mendicant, a portion of them barefooted;
(_c_) Nuns, nurses of the sick.
AUGUSTUS, called at first CAIUS OCTAVIUS, ultimately CAIUS
JULIUS CÆSAR OCTAVIANUS, the first of the Roman Emperors or Cæsars,
grand-nephew of Julius Cæsar, and his heir; joined the Republican party
at Cæsar's death, became consul, formed one of a triumvirate with Antony
and Lepidus; along with Antony overthrew the Republican party under
Brutus and Cassius at Philippi; defeated Antony and Cleopatra at Actium,
and became master of the Roman world; was voted the title of "Augustus"
by the Senate in 27 B.C.; proved a wise and beneficent ruler, and
patronised the arts and letters, his reign forming a distinguished epoch
in the history of the ancient literature of Rome (63 B.C.-A.D. 14).
AUGUSTUS, the name of several princes of Saxony and Poland in the
16th and 17th centuries.
AUGUSTUS I., Elector of Saxony, a Lutheran prince, whose reign was
peaceful comparatively, and he was himself both a good man and a good
ruler, a monarch surnamed the "pious" and the "Justinian of Saxony"
(1526-1586).
AUGUSTUS II., Elector of Saxony and King of Poland; forced himself
on Poland; had twice to retire, but was reinstated; is known to history
as "The Strong"; "attained the maximum," says Carlyle, "in several
things,--of physical strength, could break horse-shoes, nay, half-crowns
with finger and thumb; of sumptuosity, no man of his means so regardless
of expense; and of bastards, three hundred and fifty-four of them
(Marshal Saxe one of the lot); baked the biggest bannock on record, a
cake with 5000 eggs and a tun of butter." He was, like many a monarch of
the like loose character, a patron of the fine arts, and founded the
Dresden Picture Gallery (1670-1733).
AUGUSTUS III., son of the preceding; beat Stanislaus Leszcynski in
the struggle for the crown of Poland; proved an incompetent king
(1696-1763).
AULIC COUNCIL, supreme council in the old German Empire, from which
there was no appeal, of date from 1495 to 1654; it had no constitution,
dealt with judicial matters, and lived and died with the emperor.
AULIS, a port in Boeotia, where the fleet of the Greeks assembled
before taking sail for Troy, and where Iphigeneia, to procure a
favourable wind, was sacrificed by her father Agamemnon, an event
commemorated in the "Iphigeneia in Aulis" of Euripides.
AUMALE, DUC D', one of the chiefs of the League, became governor of
Paris, which he held against Henry IV., leagued with the Spaniards, was
convicted of treason, and having escaped, was burned in effigy; died an
exile at Brussels (1556-1631).
AUMALE, DUC D', fourth son of Louis Philippe, distinguished himself
in Algiers, and was governor of Algeria, which he resigned when his
father abdicated; lived in England for twenty years after, acknowledged
the Republic, and left his estate and valuables to the French nation
(1822-1897).
AUNGERVILLE, RICHARD, or RICHARD DE BURY, tutor to Edward III.,
bishop of Durham, sent on embassies to various courts, was a lover and
collector of books, and left a curious work called "Philobiblon"
(1281-1345).
AUNOY, COMTESSE D', a French authoress, known and appreciated for
her fairy tales (1650-1705).
AURELIA`NUS, LUCIUS DOMITIUS, powerful in physique, and an able
Roman emperor; son of a peasant of Pannonia; distinguished as a skilful
and successful general; was elected emperor, 270; drove the barbarians
out of Italy; vanquished Zenobia, queen of Palmyra, carrying her captive
to Rome; subdued a usurper in Gaul, and while on his way to crush a
rebellion in Persia was assassinated by his troops (212-275).
AURE`LIUS, MARCUS. See ANTONI`NUS.
AURE`LIUS, VICTOR SEXTUS, a Roman consul and a Latin historian of
the 4th century.
AUREOLA, a wreath of light represented as encircling the brows of
the saints and martyrs.
AURILLAC (14), capital of the dep. of Cantal, on the Jourdanne,
affluent of the Dordogne, built round the famous abbey of St. Geraud, now
in ruins.
AU`ROCHS, a German wild ox, now extinct.
AURO`RA, the Roman goddess of the dawn, charged with opening for the
sun the gates of the East; had a star on her forehead, and rode in a rosy
chariot drawn by four white horses. See EOS.
AURORA (19), a city in Illinois, U.S., 35 m. SW. of Chicago, said
to have been the first town to light the streets with electricity.
AURORA BOREALIS, or Northern Lights, understood to be an electric
discharge through the atmosphere connected with magnetic disturbance.
AURUN`GABAD` (50), a city in Hyderabad, in the Nizam's dominions;
once the capital, now much decayed, with the ruins of a palace of
Aurungzebe.
AU`RUNGZEBE, Mogul emperor of Hindustan, third son of Shah Jehan;
ascended the throne by the deposition of his father, the murder of two
brothers and of the son of one of these; he governed with skill and
courage; extended his empire by subduing Golconda, the Carnatic, and
Bengal, and though fanatical and intolerant, was a patron of letters; his
rule was far-shining, but the empire was rotten at the core, and when he
died it crumbled to pieces in the hands of his sons, among whom he
beforehand divided it (1615-1707).
AUSCULTATION, discerning by the sound whether there is or is not
disease in the interior organs of the body.
AUSCULTATOR, name in "Sartor Resartus," the hero as a man qualified
for a profession, but as yet only expectant of employment in it.
AUSONIA, an ancient name of Italy.
AUSONIUS, DECIMUS MAGNUS, a Roman poet, a native of Gaul, born in
Bordeaux; tutor to the Emperor Gratian, who, on coming to the throne,
made him prefect of Latium and of Gaul, and consul of Rome. He was a good
versifier and stylist, but no poet (300-394).
AUSTEN, JANE, a gifted English novelist, daughter of a clergyman in
N. Hampshire; member of a quiet family circle, occupied herself in
writing without eye to publication, and only in mature womanhood thought
of writing for the press. Her first novel, "Sense and Sensibility," was
published in 1811, and was followed by "Pride and Prejudice," her
masterpiece, "Persuasion," and others, her interest being throughout in
ordinary quiet cultured life, and the delineation of it, which she
achieved in an inimitably charming manner. "She showed once for all,"
says Professor Saintsbury, "the capabilities of the very commonest and
most ordinary life, if sufficiently observed and selected, and combined
with due art, to furnish forth prose fiction not merely that would pass,
but that should be of the absolutely first quality as literature. She is
the mother of the English 19th-century novel, as Scott is the father of
it" (1775-1816).
AUS`TERLITZ (3), a town in Moravia, near Brünn, where Napoleon
defeated the emperors of Russia and of Austria, at "the battle of the
three emperors," Dec. 2, 1805; one of Napoleon's most brilliant
victories, and thought so by himself.
AUSTIN (14), the capital of Texas, on the Colorado River, named
after Stephen Austin, who was chiefly instrumental in annexing Texas to
the States.
AUSTIN, ALFRED, poet-laureate in succession to Tennyson, born near
Leeds, bred for the bar, but devoted to literature as journalist, writer,
and poet; has written "The Golden Age, a Satire," "Savonarola," "English
Lyrics," and several works in prose; _b_. 1835.
AUSTIN, JOHN, a distinguished English jurist, professor of
Jurisprudence in London University; mastered the science of law by the
study of it in Germany, but being too profound in his philosophy, was
unsuccessful as professor; his great work, "The Province of Jurisprudence
Determined," and his Lectures, were published by his widow after his
death (1790-1859).
AUSTIN, MRS. J., (_née_ Sarah Taylor), wife of the preceding,
executed translations from the German, "Falk's Characteristics of Goethe"
for one; was, like her husband, of the utilitarian school; was introduced
to Carlyle when he first went up to London; he wrote to his wife of her,
"If I 'swear eternal friendship' with any woman here, it will be with
her" (1793-1867)
AUSTIN FRIARS. See AUGUSTINIANS.
AUSTRALASIA (i. e. Southern Asia), a name given to Australia, New
Zealand, and the islands adjoining.
AUSTRALIA, a continent entirely within the Southern Hemisphere,
about one-fourth smaller than Europe, its utmost length from E. to W.
being 2400 m., and breadth 1971; the coast has singularly few inlets,
though many and spacious harbours, only one great gulf, Carpentaria, on
the N., and one bight, the Great Australian Bight, on the S.; the
interior consists of a low desert plateau, depressed in the centre,
bordered with ranges of various elevation, between which and the sea is a
varying breadth of coast-land; the chief mountain range is in the E., and
extends more or less parallel all the way with the E. coast; the rivers
are few, and either in flood or dried up, for the climate is very
parching, only one river, the Murray, 2345 m. long, of any consequence,
while the lakes, which are numerous, are shallow and nearly all salt; the
flora is peculiar, the eucalyptus and the acacia the most characteristic,
grains, fruits, and edible roots being all imported; the fauna is no less
peculiar, including, in the absence of many animals of other countries,
the kangaroo, the dingo, and the duck-bill, the useful animals being
likewise all imported; of birds, the cassowary and the emu, and smaller
ones of great beauty, but songless; minerals abound, both the precious
and the useful; the natives are disappearing, the colonists in 1904
numbering close upon 4,000,000; and the territory divided into Victoria,
New South Wales, Queensland, S. Australia, and W. Australia, which with
Tasmania federated in 1900 and became the Commonwealth.
AUSTRASIA, or the East Kingdom, a kingdom on the E. of the
possessions of the Franks in Gaul, that existed from 511 to 843, capital
of which was Metz; it was celebrated for its rivalry with the kingdom of
Neustria, or the Western Kingdom.
AUSTRIA, or AUSTRO-HUNGARY, is a country of every variety of
surface and scenery; is inhabited by peoples of different races and
nationalities, speaking different languages, as many as 20, and composed
of 50 different states, 5 of them kingdoms; occupies the centre of
Europe, yet has free communication with the seas on all sides of it; is
the third country for size in it; is divided by the Leitha, a tributary
of the Danube, into Cis-Leithan on the W. and Trans-Leithan on the E.;
has next to no coast-line; its chief seaport, Trieste; is watered by
rivers, the Danube in chief, all of which have their mouths in other
countries; has three zones of climate with corresponding zones of
vegetation; is rich in minerals; is largely pastoral and agricultural,
manufacturing chiefly in the W.; the capital Vienna, and the population
over 40,000,000.
AUSTRIAN LIP, a thick under-lip characteristic of the House of
Hapsburg.
AUTEUIL, a village in the dep. of the Seine, now included in Paris.
AUTHORISED VERSION OF THE BIBLE was executed between the years 1604
and 1610 at the instance of James I., so that it is not undeservedly
called King James's Bible, and was the work of 47 men selected with
marked fairness and discretion, divided into three groups of two sections
each, who held their sittings for three years severally at Westminster,
Cambridge, and Oxford, the whole being thereafter revised by a committee
of six, who met for nine months in Stationers' Hall, London, and received
thirty pounds each, the rest being done for nothing. The result was a
translation that at length superseded every other, and that has since
woven itself into the affectionate regard of the whole English-speaking
people. The men who executed it evidently felt something of the
inspiration that breathes in the original, and they have produced a
version that will remain to all time a monument of the simplicity,
dignity, grace, and melody of the English language; its very style has
had a nobly educative effect on the national literature, and has
contributed more than anything else to prevent it from degenerating into
the merely frivolous and formal.
AUTOCHTHONS, Greek for aborigines.
AUTO-DA-FÉ, or Act of Faith, a ceremony held by the court of the
Inquisition in Spain, preliminary to the execution of a heretic, in which
the condemned, dressed in a hideously fantastic robe, called the San
Benito, and a pointed cap, walked in a procession of monks, followed by
carts containing coffins with malefactors' bones, to hear a sermon on the
true faith, prior to being burned alive; the most famous auto-da-fé took
place in Madrid in 1680.
AUTOL`YCUS, in the Greek mythology a son of HERMES (q. v.),
and maternal grandfather of Ulysses by his daughter Anticlea; famed for
his cunning and robberies; synonym for thief.
AUTOM`EDON, the charioteer of Achilles.
AUTONOMY (i. e. Self-law), in the Kantian metaphysics denotes the
sovereign right of the pure reason to be a law to itself.
AUTRAN`, JOSEPH, a French poet and dramatist, born at Marseilles; he
was of the school of Lamartine, and attained distinction by the
production of the tragedy "La Fille d'Eschyle" (1813-1877).
AUTUN` (15), an ancient city in the dep. of Saône-et-Loire, on the
Arroux, 28 m. NW. from Châlons, where Talleyrand was bishop, with a fine
cathedral and rich in antiquities; manufactures serges, carpets, velvet,
&c.
AUVERGNE`, an ancient province of France, united to the crown under
Louis XIII. in 1610, embracing the deps. of Puy-de-Dôme, Cantal, and part
of Haute-Loire, the highlands of which separate the basin of the Loire
from that of the Garonne, and contain a hardy and industrious race of
people descended from the original inhabitants of Gaul; they speak a
strange dialect, and supply all the water-carriers and street-sweepers of
Paris.
AUXERRE` (15), an ancient city, capital of the dep. of Yonne, 90 m.
SE. of Paris; has a fine cathedral in the Flamboyant style; drives a
large trade in wine.
AVA, capital of the Burmese empire from 1364 to 1740 and from 1822
to 1835; now in ruins from an earthquake in 1839.
AV`ALON, in the Celtic mythology an island of faërie in the region
where the sun sinks to rest at eventide, and the final home of the heroes
of chivalry when their day's work was ended on earth.
AVARS, a tribe of Huns who, driven from their home in the Altai Mts.
by the Chinese, invaded the E. of Europe about 553, and committed ravages
in it for about three centuries, till they were subdued by Charlemagne,
and all but exterminated in 827.
AVATAR`, or Descent, the incarnation and incarnated manifestation of
a Hindu deity, a theory both characteristic of Vishnuism and marking a
new epoch in the religious development of India.
AVE MARIA, an invocation to the Virgin, so called as forming the
first two words of the salutation of the angel in Luke i. 28.
AVEBURY, or ABERY, a village in Wiltshire, 6 m. W. of
Marlborough, in the middle of a so-called Druidical structure consisting
of 100 monoliths, surmised to have been erected and arranged in memory of
some great victory.
AVELLI`NO (26), chief town in a province of the name in Campania, 59
m. E. of Naples, famous for its trade in hazel-nuts and chestnuts;
manufactures woollens, paper, macaroni, &c.; has been subject to
earthquakes.
AVENTINE HILL, one of the seven hills of Rome, the mount to which
the plebs sullenly retired on their refusal to submit to the patrician
oligarchy, and from which they were enticed back by Menenius Agrippa by
the well-known fable of the members of the body and the stomach.
AVENTI`NUS, a Bavarian historian, author of the "Chronicon Bavariæ"
(Annals of Bavaria), a valuable record of the early history of Germany
(1477-1534).
AVENZO`AR, an Arabian physician, the teacher of Averroës
(1073-1103).
AVERNUS, a deep lake in Italy, near Naples, 1½ m. in circumference,
occupying the crater of an extinct volcano, at one time surrounded by a
dark wood, and conceived, from its gloomy appearance, as well as from the
mephitic vapours it exhaled, to be the entrance to the infernal world,
and identified with it.
AVER`ROËS, an Arabian physician and philosopher, a Moor by birth and
a native of Cordova; devoted himself to the study and the exposition of
Aristotle, earning for himself the title of the "Commentator," though he
appears to have coupled with the philosophy of Aristotle the Oriental
pantheistic doctrine of emanations (1126-1198).
AVERSA (24), an Italian town 8 m. from Naples, amid vineyards and
orange groves; much resorted to by the Neapolitans.
AVEYRON`, a mountainous dep. in the S. of France, with excellent
pastures, where the Roquefort cheese is produced.
AVICEN`NA, an illustrious Arabian physician, surnamed the prince of
physicians, a man of immense learning and extensive practice in his art;
of authority in philosophy as well as in medicine, his philosophy being
of the school of Aristotle with a mixture of Neoplatonism, his "Canon of
Medicine," being the supreme in medical science for centuries (980-1037).
AVIE`NUS, RUFUS FESTUS, a geographer and Latin poet, or versifier
rather, of the 4th century.
AVIGN`ON (37), capital of the dep. of Vaucluse, France; an ancient
city beautifully situated on the left bank of the Rhône, near the
confluence of the Durance, of various fortune from its foundation by the
Phocæans in 539 B.C.; was the seat of the Papacy from 1305 to 1377,
purchased by Pope Clement VI. at that period, and belonged to the Papacy
from that time till 1797, when it was appropriated to France; it contains
a number of interesting buildings, and carries on a large trade in wine,
oil, and fruits; grows and manufactures silk in large quantities.
A`VILA (10), a town in Spain, in a province of the name, in S. of
Old Castile, 3000 ft. above the sea-level, with a Gothic cathedral and a
Moorish castle; birthplace of St. Theresa.
AVILA, JUAN D', a Spanish priest, surnamed the Apostle of Andalusia,
for his zeal in planting the Gospel in its mountains; _d_. 1569.
AVILA Y ZINUGA, a soldier, diplomatist, and historian under Charles
V.
AVLO`NA (6), or VALONA, a port of Albania, on an inlet of the
Adriatic.
AV`OLA (12), a seaport on the E. coast of Sicily, ruined by an
earthquake in 1693, rebuilt since; place of export of the Hybla honey.
A`VON, the name of several English rivers, such as Shakespeare's in
Warwickshire, of Salisbury in Wiltshire, and of Bristol, rising in
Wiltshire.
AVRANCHES` (7), a town in dep. of Manche, Normandy; the place, the
spot marked by a stone, where Henry II. received absolution for the
murder of Thomas à Becket; lace-making the staple industry, and trade in
agricultural products.
AWE, LOCH, in the centre of Argyllshire, overshadowed by mountains,
25 m. in length, the second in size of Scottish lakes, studded with
islands, one with the ruin of a castle; the scenery gloomily picturesque;
its surface is 100 ft. above the sea-level.
AXEL, archbishop of Lund; born in Zealand; a Danish patriot with
Norse blood; subdued tribes of Wends, and compelled them to adopt
Christianity.
AXHOLME, ISLE OF, a tract of land in NW. Lincolnshire, 17 m. long
and 5 m. broad; once a forest, then a marsh; drained in 1632, and now
fertile, producing hemp, flax, rape, &c.
AXIM, a trading settlement on the Gold Coast, Africa, belonging to
Britain; belonged to Holland till 1871.
AX`OLOTL, a batrachian, numerous in Mexico and the Western States,
believed to be in its preliminary or tadpole state of existence.
AX`UM, capital of an Ethiopian kingdom in Abyssinia, now in ruins,
where Christianity was introduced in the 4th century, and which as the
outpost of Christendom fell early before the Mohammedan power.
AYACU`CHO, a thriving town in Peru, founded by Pizarro in 1539,
where the Peruvians and Colombians achieved their independence of Spain
in 1824, and ended the rule of Spain in the S. American continent.
AYA`LA, PEDRO LOPEZ D', a Spanish soldier, statesman, and
diplomatist, born in Murcia; wrote a "History of the Kings of Castile,"
which was more than a chronicle of wars, being also a review of them; and
a book of poems entitled the "Rhymes of the Court" (1332-1407).
AYE-AYE, a lemur found in the woods of Madagascar.
AYESHA, the daughter of Abubekr, and favourite wife of Mahomet, whom
he married soon after the death of Kadijah; as much devoted to Mahomet as
he was to her, for he died in her arms. "A woman who distinguished
herself by all manner of qualities among the Moslems," who is styled by
them the "Mother of the Faithful" (see KADIJAH). She was, it is
said, the only wife of Mahomet that remained a virgin. On Mahomet's death
she opposed the accession of Ali, who defeated her and took her prisoner,
but released her on condition that she should not again interfere in
State matters (610-677).
AYLES`BURY (9), a borough and market-town in Buckinghamshire, 40 m.
NW. of London, in an agricultural district; supplies the London market
with ducks.
AYLMER, JOHN, tutor to Lady Jane Grey, bishop of London, a highly
arbitrary man, and a friend to neither Papist nor Puritan; he is
satirised by Spenser in the "Shepherd's Calendar" (1521-1594).
AYLOFFE, SIR JOSEPH, English antiquary, born in Sussex (1708-1781).
AYMA`RAS, the chief native race of Peru and Bolivia, from which it
would appear sprang the Quinchuas, the dominant people of Peru at the
time of the Spanish conquest; attained a high degree of civilisation, and
number to-day 500,000.
AYMON, THE COUNT OF DORDOGNE, the father of four sons, Renaud,
Guiscard, Alard, and Richard, renowned in the legends of chivalry, and
particularly as paladins of Charlemagne.
AY`MAR-VER`NAY, a peasant of Dauphiné, who in the 17th century
professed to discover springs and treasures hid in the earth by means of
a divining rod.
AYR (23), the county town of Ayrshire, at the mouth of a river of
the same name, a clean, ancient town, its charter, granted by William the
Lion, dating from 1200; well built, with elegant villas in the suburbs, a
good harbour and docks for shipping; famous in early Scottish history,
and doubly so among Scottish towns as the birthplace near it of Robert
Burns.
AYR`ER, JACOB, a German dramatist in the 16th century, of the style
of HANS SACHS (q. v.).
AYRSHIRE (226), a large and wealthy county in the W. of Scotland,
bordered on the W. by the Firth of Clyde, agricultural and pastoral, with
a large coal-field and thriving manufactures; its divisions, Carrick, to
the S. of the Doon; Kyle, between the Doon and the Irvine, and
Cunningham, on the N.; concerning which there is an old rhyme: "Kyle for
a man, Carrick for a coo, Cunningham for butter and cheese, Galloway for
'oo."
AYTON, SIR ROBERT, a poet of considerable merit, a native of Fife,
born at Kinaldie, who made his fortune by a Latin panegyric to King James
I. on his accession; was on friendly terms with the eminent literary men
of his time, Ben Jonson in particular; his poems are written in pure and
even elegant English, some in Latin, and have only recently been
collected together (1571-1638).
AYTOUN, WILLIAM EDMONDSTOUNE, poet and critic, a native of
Edinburgh, professor of Rhetoric and English Literature in Edinburgh
University, author of the "Lays of the Scottish Cavaliers"; he was also
editor, along with Sir Theodore Martin, of the "Gaultier Ballads," an
admirable collection of light verse (1813-1865).
AZEGLIO, MARCHESE D', an Italian patriot and statesman, native of
Turin; wounded at Vicenza in 1848, fighting for Italian independence;
entered the Piedmontese Parliament, was Victor Emanuel's right-hand man,
retired in favour of Cavour; he was not altogether engrossed with
politics, being an amateur in art (1798-1866).
AZERBIJAN (2,000), prov. of Armenian Persia, S. of the river Aras,
with fertile plains, cattle-breeding, and rich in minerals.
AZORES, i. e. Hawk Islands (250), a group of nine volcanic islands
in the Atlantic, 800 m. W. of Portugal, and forming a province of it; are
in general mountainous; covered with orange groves, of which the chief
are St. Michael's and Fayal; and 900 m. W. of it, in the latitude of
Lisbon; the climate is mild, and good for pulmonary complaints; they were
known to the Carthaginian mariners, but fell out of the map of Europe
till rediscovered in 1431.
AZOV, SEA OF, an opening from the Black Sea, very shallow, and
gradually silting up with mud from the Don.
AZ`RAEL, the angel of death according to Rabbinical tradition.
AZ`TECS, a civilised race of small stature, of reddish-brown skin,
lean, and broad featured, which occupied the Mexican plateau for some
centuries before the Spaniards visited it, and were overthrown by the
Spaniards in 1520.
AZUNI, DOMINICO ALBERTO, an Italian jurist, born in Sardinia;
president of the Court of Appeal at Genoa; made a special study of
maritime law; author of "Droit Maritime de l'Europe" (1729-1827).
AZYMITES, the name given to a party in the Church who insisted that
only unleavened bread should be used in the Eucharist, and the
controversy hinged on the question whether the Lord's Supper was
instituted before the Passover season was finished, or after, as in the
former case the bread must have been unleavened, and in the latter
leavened.
Thursday, June 27, 2019
The Nuttall Encyclopaedia "A"
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