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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.