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.

B

BAADER, FRANZ XAVIER VON, a German philosopher, born at Münich; was

patronised by the king of Bavaria, and became professor in Münich, who,

revolting alike from the materialism of Hume, which he studied in

England, and the transcendentalism of Kant, with its self-sufficiency of

the reason, fell back upon the mysticism of Jacob Boehme, and taught in

16 vols. what might rather be called a theosophy than a philosophy, which

regarded God in Himself, and God even in life, as incomprehensible

realities. He, however, identified himself with the liberal movement in

politics, and offended the king (1765-1841).

BA`AL (meaning Lord), _PL_. BAALIM, the principal male divinity

of the Canaanites and Phoenicians, identified with the sun as the great

quickening and life-sustaining power in nature, the god who presided over

the labours of the husbandman and granted the increase; his crowning

attribute, strength; worshipped on hill-tops with sacrifices, incense,

and dancing. Baal-worship, being that of the Canaanites, was for a time

mixed up with the worship of Jehovah in Israel, and at one time

threatened to swamp it, but under the zealous preaching of the prophets

it was eventually stamped out.

BAAL`BEK (i. e. City of Baal, or the Sun), an ancient city of

Syria, 35 m. NW. of Damascus; called by the Greeks, Heliopolis; once a

place of great size, wealth, and splendour; now in ruins, the most

conspicuous of which is the Great Temple to Baal, one of the most

magnificent ruins of the East, covering an area of four acres.

BAALISM, the name given to the worship of natural causes, tending to

the obscuration and denial of the worship of God as Spirit.

BABA, ALI, the character in the "Arabian Nights" who discovers and

enters the den of the Forty Thieves by the magic password "SESAMË"

(q. v.), a word which he accidentally overheard.

BABA, CAPE, in Asia Minor, the most western point in Asia, in

Anatolia, with a town of the name.

BABBAGE, CHARLES, a mathematician, born in Devonshire; studied at

Cambridge, and professor there; spent much time and money over the

invention of a calculating machine; wrote on "The Economy of Manufactures

and Machinery," and an autobiography entitled "Passages from the Life of

a Philosopher"; in his later years was famous for his hostility to street

organ-grinders (1791-1871).

BABBINGTON, ANTONY, an English Catholic gentleman; conspired against

Elizabeth on behalf of Mary, Queen of Scots, confessed his guilt, and was

executed at Tyburn in 1586.

BAB-EL-MANDEB (i. e. the Gate of Tears), a strait between Asia and

Africa forming the entrance to the Red Sea, so called from the strong

currents which rush through it, and often cause wreckage to vessels

attempting to pass it.

BABER, the founder of the Mogul empire in Hindustan, a descendant of

Tamerlane; thrice invaded India, and became at length master of it in

1526; left memoirs; his dynasty lasted for three centuries.

BABES IN THE WOOD, Irish banditti who infested the Wicklow Mountains

in the 18th century, and were guilty of the greatest atrocities. See

CHILDREN.

BÂBIS, a modern Persian sect founded in 1843, their doctrines a

mixture of pantheistic with Gnostic and Buddhist beliefs; adverse to

polygamy, concubinage, and divorce; insisted on the emancipation of

women; have suffered from persecution, but are increasing in numbers.

BABOEUF, FRANÇOIS NOEL, a violent revolutionary in France,

self-styled Gracchus; headed an insurrection against the Directory,

"which died in the birth, stifled by the soldiery"; convicted of

conspiracy, was guillotined, after attempting to commit suicide

(1764-1797).

BABOO, or BABU, name applied to a native Hindu gentleman who

has some knowledge of English.

BABOON, LEWIS, the name Arbuthnot gives to Louis XIV. in his

"History of John Bull."

BA`BRIUS, or GABRIUS, a Greek poet of uncertain date; turned

the fables of Æsop and of others into verse, with alterations.

BABY-FARMING, a system of nursing new-born infants whose parents may

wish them out of sight.

BABYLON, the capital city of Babylonia, one of the richest and most

magnificent cities of the East, the gigantic walls and hanging gardens of

which were classed among the seven wonders of the world; was taken,

according to tradition, by Cyrus in 538 B.C., by diverting out of their

channel the waters of the Euphrates, which flowed through it and by

Darius in 519 B.C., through the self-sacrifice of Zophyrus. The name was

often metaphorically applied to Rome by the early Christians, and is

to-day to great centres of population, such as London, where the

overcrowding, the accumulation of material wealth, and the so-called

refinements of civilisation, are conceived to have a corrupting effect on

the religion and morals of the inhabitants.

BABYLO`NIA, the name given by the Greeks to that country called in

the Old Testament, Shinar, Babel, and "the land of the Chaldees"; it

occupied the rich, fertile plain through which the lower waters of the

Euphrates and the Tigris flow, now the Turkish province of Irak-Arabi or

Bagdad. From very early times it was the seat of a highly developed

civilisation introduced by the Sumero-Accadians, who descended on the

plain from the mountains in the NW. Semitic tribes subsequently settled

among the Accadians and impressed their characteristics on the language

and institutions of the country. The 8th century B.C. was marked by a

fierce struggle with the northern empire of Assyria, in which Babylonia

eventually succumbed and became an Assyrian province. But Nabopolassar in

625 B.C. asserted his independence, and under his son Nebuchadnezzar,

Babylonia rose to the zenith of its power. Judah was captive in the

country from 599 to 538 B.C. In that year Cyrus conquered it for Persia,

and its history became merged in that of Persia.

BABYLONISH CAPTIVITY, the name given to the deportation of Jews from

Judea to Babylon after the capture of Jerusalem by the king of Babylon,

and which continued for 70 years, till they were allowed to return to

their own land by Cyrus, who had conquered Babylon; those who returned

were solely of the tribes of Judah, Benjamin, and Levi.

BACCHANALIA, a festival, originally of a loose and riotous

character, in honour of Bacchus.

BACCHANTES, those who took part in the festival of Bacchus, confined

originally to women, and were called by a number of names, such as

Mænads, Thyads, &c.; they wore their hair dishevelled and thrown back,

and had loose flowing garments.

BAC`CHUS, son of Zeus and Semele, the god of the vine, and promoter

of its culture as well as the civilisation which accompanied it;

represented as riding in a car drawn by tame tigers, and carrying a

THYRSUS (q. v.); he rendered signal service to Zeus in the war

of the gods with the GIANTS (q. v.). See DIONYSUS.

BACCHYL`IDES, a Greek lyric poet, 5th century B.C., nephew of

Simonides and uncle of Eschylus, a rival of Pindar; only a few fragments

of his poems extant.

BACCIO DELLA PORTO. See BARTOLOMEO, FRA.

BACCIO`CHI, a Corsican officer, who married Maria Bonaparte, and was

created by Napoleon Prince of Lucca (1762-1841).

BACH, JOHANN SEBASTIAN, one of the greatest of musical composers,

born in Eisenach, of a family of Hungarian origin, noted--sixty of

them--for musical genius; was in succession a chorister, an organist, a

director of concerts, and finally director of music at the School of St.

Thomas, Leipzig; his works, from their originality and scientific rigour,

difficult of execution (1685-1750).

BACHE, A. DALLAS, an American physicist, born at Philadelphia,

superintended the coast survey (1806-1867).

BACHELOR, a name given to one who has achieved the first grade in

any discipline.

BACIL`LUS (lit. a little rod), a bacterium, distinguished as being

twice as long as it is broad, others being more or less rounded. See

BACTERIA.

BACK, SIR GEORGE, a devoted Arctic explorer, born at Stockport,

entered the navy, was a French captive for five years, associated with

Franklin in three polar expeditions, went in search of Sir John Ross,

discovered instead and traced the Great Fish River in 1839, was knighted

in 1837, and in 1857 made admiral (1796-1878).

BACKHUY`SEN, LUDOLPH, a Dutch painter, famous for his sea-pieces and

skill in depicting sea-waves; was an etcher as well as painter

(1631-1708).

BACON, DELIA, an American authoress, who first broached, though she

did not originate, the theory of the Baconian authorship of Shakespeare's

works, a theory in favour of which she has received small support

(1811-1859).

BACON, FRANCIS, LORD VERULAM, the father of the inductive method of

scientific inquiry; born in the Strand, London; son of Sir Nicholas

Bacon; educated at Cambridge; called to the bar when 21, after study at

Gray's Inn; represented successively Taunton, Liverpool, and Ipswich in

Parliament; was a favourite with the queen; attached himself to Essex,

but witnessed against him at his trial, which served him little; became

at last in succession Attorney-General, Privy Councillor, Lord Keeper,

and Lord Chancellor; was convicted of venality as a judge, deposed, fined

and imprisoned, but pardoned and released; spent his retirement in his

favourite studies; his great works were his "Advancement of Learning,"

"Novum Organum," and "De Augmentis Scientiarum," but is seen to best

advantage by the generality in his "Essays," which are full of practical

wisdom and keen observation of life; indeed, these show such shrewdness

of wit as to embolden some (see _SUPRA_) to maintain that the

plays named of Shakespeare were written by him (1561-1626).

BACON, ROGER, a Franciscan monk, born at Ilchester, Somerset; a

fearless truth-seeker of great scientific attainments; accused of magic,

convicted and condemned to imprisonment, from which he was released only

to die; suggested several scientific inventions, such as the telescope,

the air-pump, the diving-bell, the camera obscura, and gunpowder, and

wrote some eighty treatises (1214-1294).

BACON, SIR NICHOLAS, the father of Francis, Lord Bacon, Privy

Councillor and Keeper of the Great Seal under Queen Elizabeth; a prudent

and honourable man and minister, and much honoured and trusted by the

queen (1510-1579).

BACSANYI, JANOS, a Hungarian poet; he suffered from his liberal

political opinions, like many of his countrymen (1763-1845).

BACTE`RIA, exceedingly minute organisms of the simplest structure,

being merely cells of varied forms, in the shape of spheres, rods, or

intermediate shapes, which develop in infusions of organic matter, and

multiply by fission with great rapidity, fraught, as happens, with life

or death to the higher forms of being; conspicuous by the part they play

in the process of fermentation and in the origin and progress of disease,

and to the knowledge of which, and the purpose they serve in nature, so

much has been contributed by the labours of M. Pasteur.

BAC`TRIA, a province of ancient Persia, now BALKH (q. v.),

the presumed fatherland of the Aryans and the birthplace of the

Zoroastrian religion.

BACTRIAN SAGE, a name given to Zoroaster as a native of Bactria.

BACUP (23), a manufacturing town in Lancashire, about 20 m. NE. of

Manchester.

BADAJOZ` (28), capital of a Spanish province of the name, on the

Guadiana, near the frontier of Portugal; a place of great strength;

surrendered to Soult in 1811, and taken after a violent and bloody

struggle by Wellington in 1812; the scene of fearful outrages after its

capture.

BADAKANS, a Dravidian people of small stature, living on the

Nilghiri Mountains, in S. India.

BADAKHSHAN` (100), a Mohammedan territory NE. of Afghanistan, a

picturesque hill country, rich in minerals; it is 200 m. from E. to W.

and 150 from N. to S.; it has been often visited by travellers, from

Marco Polo onwards; the inhabitants, called Badakhshans, are of the Aryan

family and speak Persian.

BADALO`NA (15), a seaport 5 m. NE. of Barcelona.

BA`DEN (4), a town in the canton of Aargau, Switzerland, 14 m. NW.

of Zurich, long a fashionable resort for its mineral springs; also a town

near Vienna.

BAD`EN, THE GRAND-DUCHY OF (1,725), a German duchy, extends along

the left bank of the Rhine from Constance to Mannheim; consists of

valley, mountain, and plain; includes the Black Forest; is rich in

timber, minerals, and mineral springs; cotton fabrics, wood-carving, and

jewellery employ a great proportion of the inhabitants; there are two

university seats, Heidelberg and Freiburg.

BADEN-BADEN (13), a town in the duchy of Baden, 18 m. from Carlsruhe

and 22 from Strassburg, noted for its hot mineral springs, which were

known to the Romans, and is a popular summer resort.

BAD`ENOCH, a forest-covered district of the Highlands of Scotland,

45 m. long by 19 broad, traversed by the Spey, in the SE. of

Inverness-shire; belonged originally to the Comyns, but was forfeited by

them, was bestowed by Bruce on his nephew; became finally the property of

the Earl of Huntly.

BADI`A-Y-LABLICH, a Spaniard, born at Barcelona; travelled in the

East; having acquired a knowledge of Arabic and Arab customs, disguised

himself as a Mohammedan under the name of Ali-Bei; his disguise was so

complete that he passed for a Mussulman, even in Mecca itself; is

believed to be the first Christian admitted to the shrine of Mecca; after

a time settled in Paris, and wrote an account of his travels (1766-1818).

BADRINATH, a shrine of Vishnu, in N.W. India, 10,000 ft. high; much

frequented by pilgrims for the sacred waters near it, which are believed

to be potent to cleanse from all pollution.

BAEDEKER, KARL, a German printer in Coblenz, famed for the

guide-books to almost every country of Europe that he published

(1801-1859).

BAER, KARL ERNST VON, a native of Esthonia; professor of zoology,

first in Königsberg and then in St. Petersburg; the greatest of modern

embryologists, styled the "father of comparative embryology"; the

discoverer of the law, known by his name, that the embryo when developing

resembles those of successively higher types (1792-1876).

BAFFIN, WILLIAM, an early English Arctic explorer, who, when acting

as pilot to an expedition in quest of the N.W. Passage, discovered

Baffin Bay (1584-1622).

BAFFIN BAY, a strait stretching northward between N. America and

Greenland, open four months in summer to whale and seal fishing;

discovered in 1615 by William Baffin.

BAGDAD (185), on the Tigris, 500 m. from its mouth, and connected

with the Euphrates by canal; is the capital of a province, and one of the

most flourishing cities of Asiatic Turkey; dates, wool, grain, and horses

are exported; red and yellow leather, cotton, and silk are manufactured;

and the transit trade, though less than formerly, is still considerable.

It is a station on the Anglo-Indian telegraph route, and is served by a

British-owned fleet of river steamers plying to Basra. Formerly a centre

of Arabic culture, it has belonged to Turkey since 1638. An imposing city

to look at, it suffers from visitations of cholera and famine.

BAGEHOT, WALTER, an English political economist, born in Somerset, a

banker by profession, and an authority on banking and finance; a disciple

of Ricardo; wrote, besides other publications, an important work, "The

English Constitution"; was editor of the _Economist_; wrote in a vigorous

style (1826-1877).

BAGGE`SEN, JENS EMMANUEL, a Danish poet, travelled a good deal,

wrote mostly in German, in which he was quite at home; his chief works, a

pastoral epic, "Parthenais oder die Alpenreise," and a mock epic, "Adam

and Eve"; his minor pieces are numerous and popular, though from his

egotism and irritability he was personally unpopular (1764-1826).

BAGHELKAND, name of five native states in Central India, Rewah the

most prosperous.

BAGHE`RIA, a town in Sicily, 8 m. from Palermo, where citizens of

the latter have more or less stylish villas.

BAGIR`MI, a Mohammedan kingdom in Central Africa, SE. of Lake Tehad,

240 m. from N. to S. and 150 m. from E. to W.

BAGLIO`NI, an Italian fresco-painter of note (1573-1641).

BAGLI`VI, GIORGIO, an illustrious Italian physician, wrote "De Fibra

Motrice" in defence of the "solidist" theory, as it is called, which

traced all diseases to alterations in the solid parts of the body

(1667-1706).

BAGNÈRES, two French towns on the Pyrenees, well-known

watering-places.

BAGNES, name given to convict prisons in France since the abolition

of the galleys.

BAGRA`TION, PRINCE, Russian general, distinguished in many

engagements; commanded the vanguard at Austerlitz, Eylau, and Friedland,

and in 1812, against Napoleon; achieved a brilliant success at Smolensk;

fell at Borodino (1765-1812).

BAGSTOCK, JOE, a "self-absorbed" talking character in "Dombey &

Son."

BAHA`MAS, THE (47), a group of over 500 low, flat coral islands in

the W. Indies, and thousands of rocks, belonging to Britain, of which 20

are inhabited, and on one of which Columbus landed when he discovered

America; yield tropical fruits, sponges, turtle, &c.; Nassau the capital.

BAHAR (263), a town on the Ganges, 34 m. SE. of Patna; after falling

into decay, is again rising in importance.

BAHAWALPUR (650), a feudatory state in the NW. of India, with a

capital of the name; is connected administratively with the Punjab.

BAHI`A, or San Salvador (200), a fine city, one of the chief

seaports of Brazil, in the Bay of All Saints, and originally the capital

in a province of the name stretching along the middle of the coast.

BAHR, an Arabic word meaning "river," prefixed to the name of many

places occupied by Arabs.

BÄHR, FELIX, classical scholar, burn at Darmstadt; wrote a "History

of Roman Literature," in high repute (1798-1872).

BAHREIN` ISLANDS (70), a group of islands in the Persian Gulf, under

the protection of Britain, belonging to Muscat, the largest 27 m. long

and 10 broad, cap. Manamah (20); long famous for their pearl-fisheries,

the richest in the world.

BAHR-EL-GHAZAL, an old Egyptian prov. including the district watered

by the tributaries of the Bahr-el-Arab and the Bahr-el-Ghazal; it was

wrested from Egypt by the Mahdi, 1884; a district of French Congo lies W.

of it, and it was through it Marchand made his way to Fashoda.

BAIÆ, a small town near Naples, now in ruins and nearly all

submerged; famous as a resort of the old Roman nobility, for its climate

and its baths.

BAÏF, a French poet one of a group of seven known in French

literature as the "Pléiade," whose aim was to accommodate the French

language and literature to the models of Greek and Latin.

BAIKAL, a clear fresh-water lake, in S. of Siberia, 397 m. long and

from 13 to 54 wide, in some parts 4500 ft. deep, and at its surface 1560

ft. above the sea-level, the third largest in Asia; on which sledges ply

for six or eight months in winter, and steamboats in summer; it abounds

in fish, especially sturgeon and salmon; it contains several islands, the

largest Olkhin, 32 m. by 10 m.

BAIKIE, W. BALFOUR, an Orcadian, born at Kirkwall, surgeon in the

Royal Navy; was attached to the Niger Expedition in 1854, and ultimately

commanded it, opening the region up and letting light in upon it at the

sacrifice of his life; died at Sierra Leone (1825-1864).

BAILEY, NATHAN, an early English lexicographer, whose dictionary,

very popular in its day, was the basis of Johnson's; _d_. 1742.

BAILEY, PHILIP JAMES, English poet, born in Nottingham; author of

"Festus," a work that on its appearance in 1839 was received with

enthusiasm, passed through 11 editions in England and 30 in America, was

succeeded by "The Angel World," "The Mystic," "The Universal Hymn," and

"The Age"; he has been rated by some extravagantly high; _b_. 1816.

BAILEY, SAMUEL, an English author, born in Sheffield, a

liberal-minded man, a utilitarian in philosophy, who wrote on psychology,

ethics, and political economy, and left a fortune, acquired in business,

to his native town (1787-1870).

BAILLIE, JOANNA, a poetess, born at Bothwell, child of the

Presbyterian manse there; joined a brother in London, stayed afterwards

with a sister at Hampstead; produced a series of dramas entitled "Plays

of the Passions," besides many others, both comedies and tragedies, one

of which, the "Family Legend," was acted in the Theatre Royal, Edinburgh,

under the auspices of Sir Walter Scott; she does not stand high either as

a dramatist or a writer (1762-1851).

BAILLIE, LADY GRIZEL, an heroic Scotch lady, famous for her songs,

"And werena my heart licht I wad dee" is well known (1665-1740).

BAILLIE, MATTHEW, physician, brother of Joanna, wrote on Morbid

Anatomy (1761-1823).

BAILLIE, ROBERT, a Scotch Presbyterian divine, born in Glasgow;

resisted Laud's attempt to thrust Episcopacy on the Scotch nation, and

became a zealous advocate of the national cause, which he was delegated

to represent twice over in London; he was a royalist all the same, and

was made principal of Glasgow University; "His Letters and Journals" were

published by the Bannatyne Club, and are commended by Carlyle as

"veracious," forming, as they do, the subject of one of his critical

essays (1599-1662).

BAILLIE, ROBERT, a zealous Scotch Presbyterian, tried for complicity

in the Rye House Plot, and unfairly condemned to death, and barbarously

executed the same day (in 1683) for fear he should die afterwards and

cheat the gallows of its victim.

BAILLY, JEAN SYLVAIN, an astronomer, born at Paris; wrote the

"History of Astronomy, Ancient and Modern," in five volumes; was

distracted from further study of the science by the occurrence of the

Revolution; elected president of the National Assembly; installed mayor

of Paris; lost favour with the people; was imprisoned as an enemy of the

popular cause and cruelly guillotined. Exposed beforehand "for hours

long, amid curses and bitter frost-rain, 'Bailly, thou tremblest,' said

one; 'Mon ami,' said he meekly, 'it is for cold.' Crueller end," says

Carlyle, "had no mortal."

BAILY, E. H., a sculptor, born in Bristol, studied under Flaxman;

his most popular works were, "Eve Listening to the Voice," "The Sleeping

Girl," and the "Graces Seated" (1788-1867).

BAIN, ALEXANDER, born at Aberdeen, professor of Logic in the

university, and twice Lord Rector, where he was much esteemed by and

exercised a great influence over his pupils; his chief works, "The Senses

and the Intellect," "The Emotions and the Will," and "Mental and Moral

Science"; has written on composition in a very uninteresting style; his

psychology, which he connected with physiology, was based on empiricism

and the inductive method, to the utter exclusion of all _a priori_ or

transcendental speculation, such as hails from Kant and his school; he is

of the school of John Stuart Mill, who endorsed his philosophy; _b_.

1818.

BAIRAM, a Mohammedan festival of three days at the conclusion of the

Ramadan, followed by another of four days, seventy days later, called the

Second Bairam, in commemoration of the offering up of Isaac, and

accompanied with sacrifices.

BAIRD, JAMES, ironmaster, founder of the Baird Lectureship, in

vindication of Scotch orthodoxy; bequeathed £500,000 to support churches

(1802-1876).

BAIRD, SIR DAVID, a distinguished English general of Scotch descent,

born at Newbyth, Aberdeenshire; entered the army at 15; served in India,

Egypt, and at the Cape; was present at the taking of Seringapatam, and

the siege of Pondicherry; in command when the Cape of Good Hope was

wrested from the Dutch, and on the fall of Sir John Moore at Corunna,

wounded; he afterwards retired (1757-1829).

BAIRD, S. FULLERTON, an American naturalist, wrote, along with

others, on the birds and mammals of N. America, as well as contributed to

fish-culture and fisheries (1823-1887).

BAI`REUTH (24), the capital of Upper Franconia, in Bavaria, with a

large theatre erected by the king for the performance of Wagner's musical

compositions, and with a monument, simple but massive, as was fit, to the

memory of Jean Paul, who died there.

BAIREUTH, WILHELMINA, MARGRAVINE OF, sister of Frederick the Great,

left "Memoirs" of her time (1709-1758).

BAJAZET` I., sultan of the Ottoman Turks, surnamed ILDERIM, _i. e_.

Lightning, from the energy and rapidity of his movements; aimed at

Constantinople, pushed everything before him in his advance on Europe,

but was met and defeated on the plain of Angora by Tamerlane, who is said

to have shut him in a cage and carried him about with him in his train

till the day of his death (1347-1403).

BA`JUS, MICHAEL, deputy from the University of Louvain to the

Council of Trent, where he incurred much obloquy at the hands of the

Jesuits by his insistence of the doctrines of Augustine, as the

Jansenists did after him (1513-1580).

BAKER, MOUNT, a volcano in the Cascade range, 11,000 ft.; still

subject to eruptions.

BAKER, SIR RICHARD, a country gentleman, born in Kent, often

referred to by Sir Roger de Coverley; author of "The Chronicle of the

Kings of England," which he wrote in the Fleet prison, where he died

(1603-1645).

BAKER, SIR SAMUEL WHITE, a man of enterprise and travel, born in

London; discovered the Albert Nyanza; commanded an expedition under the

Khedive into the Soudan; wrote an account of it in a book, "Ismailia";

visited Cyprus and travelled over India; left a record of his travels in

five volumes with different titles (1821-1893).

BAKSHISH, a word used all over the East to denote a small fee for

some small service rendered.

BAKU (107), a Russian port on the Caspian Sea, in a district so

impregnated and saturated in parts with petroleum that by digging in the

soil wells are formed, in some cases so gushing as to overflow in

streams, which wells, reckoned by hundreds, are connected by pipes with

refineries in the town; a district which, from the spontaneous ignition

of the petroleum, was long ago a centre of attraction to the Parsees or

fire-worshippers of the East, and resorted to by them as holy ground.

BAKU`NIN, MICHAEL, an extreme and violent anarchist, and a leader of

the movement; native of Moscow; was banished to Siberia, but escaped;

joined the International, but was expelled (1814-1876).

BALA, the county town of Merioneth, in Wales. Bala Lake, the largest

lake in Wales, 4 m. long, and with a depth of 100 ft.

BA`LAAM, a Midianitish soothsayer; for the account of him see Num.

xxii.-xxiv., and Carlyle's essay on the "Corn-Law Rhymes" for its

application to modern State councillors of the same time-serving type,

and their probable fate.

BALACLA`VA, a small port 6 m. SE. of Sebastopol, with a large

land-locked basin; the head-quarters of the British during the Crimean

war, and famous in the war, among other events, for the "Charge of the

Six Hundred."

BALANCE OF POWER, preservation of the equilibrium existing among the

States of Europe as a security of peace, for long an important

consideration with European statesmen.

BALANCE OF TRADE, the difference in value between the exports and

the imports of a country, and said to be in favour of the country whose

exports exceed in value the imports in that respect.

BALANOGLOS`SUS, a worm-like marine animal, regarded by the zoologist

as a possible connecting link between invertebrates and vertebrates.

BALATA, a vegetable gum used as a substitute for gutta-percha, being

at once ductile and elastic; goes under the name of bully.

BAL`ATON, LAKE, the largest lake in Hungary, 48 m. long, and 10 m.

broad, 56 m. SW. of Pesth; slightly saline, and abounds in fish.

BALBI, ADRIANO, a geographer of Italian descent, born at Venice, who

composed in French a number of works bearing on geography (1782-1848).

BALBO, CÆSARE, an Italian statesmen and publicist, born at Turin;

devoted his later years to literature; wrote a life of Dante; works in

advocacy of Italian independence (1789-1853).

BALBO`A. VASCO NUÑEZ DE, a Castilian noble, established a settlement

at Darien; discovered the Pacific; took possession of territory in the

name of Spain; put to death by a new governor, from jealousy of the glory

he had acquired and the consequent influence in the State (1475-1517).

BALDACHINO, a tent-like covering or canopy over portals, altars, or

thrones, either supported on columns, suspended from the roof, or

projecting from the wall.

BALD`ER, the sun-god of the Norse mythology, "the beautiful, the

wise, the benignant," who is fated to die, and dies, in spite of, and to

the grief of, all the gods of the pantheon, a pathetic symbol conceived

in the Norse imagination of how all things in heaven, as on earth, are

subject in the long-run to mortality.

BALDERSTONE, CALEB, the faithful old domestic in Scott's "Bride of

Lammermoor," the family he serves his pride.

BALDRICK, an ornamental belt worn hanging over the shoulder, across

the body diagonally, with a sword, dagger, or horn suspended from it.

BALDUNG, HANS, or HANS GRÜN, a German artist, born in Suabia; a

friend of Dürer's; his greatest work, a masterpiece, a painting of the

"Crucifixion," now in Freiburg Cathedral (1300-1347).

BALDWIN, archbishop of Canterbury; crowned Richard Coeur de Lion;

accompanied him on the crusade; died at Acre in 1191.

BALDWIN, the name of several counts of Flanders, eight in all.

BALDWIN I., king of Jerusalem; succeeded his brother Godfrey de

Bouillon; assuming said title, made himself master of most of the towns

on the coast of Syria; contracted a disease in Egypt; returned to

Jerusalem, and was buried on Mount Calvary; there were five of this name

and title, the last of whom, a child of some eight years old, died in

1186 (1058-1118).

BALDWIN I., the first Latin emperor of Constantinople; by birth,

count of Hainault and Flanders; joined the fourth crusade, led the van in

the capture of Constantinople, and was made emperor; was defeated and

taken prisoner by the Bulgarians (1171-1206). B. II., nephew of

Baldwin I., last king of the Latin dynasty, which lasted only 57 years

(1217-1273).

BALE, JOHN, bishop of Ossory, in Ireland; born in Suffolk; a convert

from Popery, and supported by Cromwell; was made bishop by Edward VI.;

persecuted out of the country as an apostate from Popery; author of a

valuable account of early British writers (1495-1563).

BALEARIC ISLES (312), a group of five islands off the coast of

Valencia, in Spain, Majorca the largest; inhabitants in ancient times

famous as expert slingers, having been one and all systematically trained

to the use of the sling from early childhood; cap. Palma (58).

BALFE, MICHAEL WILLIAM, a musical composer, of Irish birth, born

near Wexford; author of "The Bohemian Girl," his masterpiece, and

world-famous (1808-1870).

BALFOUR, A. J., of Whittinghame, East Lothian; educated at Eton and

Cambridge; nephew of Lord Salisbury, and First Lord of the Treasury and

leader of the House of Commons in Lord Salisbury's ministry; author of a

"Defence of Philosophic Doubt" and a volume of "Essays and Addresses";

_b_. 1848.

BALFOUR, FRANCIS MAITLAND, brother of the preceding; a promising

biologist; career was cut short by death in attempting to ascend the

Wetterhorn (1851-1882).

BALFOUR, SIR JAMES, Lord President of the Court of Session; native

of Fife; an unprincipled man, sided now with this party, now with the

opposite, to his own advantage, and that at the most critical period in

Scottish history; _d_. 1583.

BALFOUR OF BURLEY, leader of the Covenanters in Scott's "Old

Mortality."

BALI, one of the Samoa Islands, 75 m. long by 40 m. broad; produces

cotton, coffee, and tobacco.

BALIOL, EDWARD, son of the following, invaded Scotland; was crowned

king at Scone, supported by Edward III.; was driven from the kingdom, and

obliged to renounce all claim to the crown, on receipt of a pension; died

at Doncaster, 1369.

BALIOL, JOHN DE, son of the following; laid claim to the Scottish

crown on the death of the Maid of Norway in 1290; was supported by Edward

I., and did homage to him for his kingdom, but rebelled, and was forced

publicly to resign the crown; died in 1314 in Normandy, after spending

some three years in the Tower; satirised by the Scotch, in their stinging

humorous style, as King Toom Tabard, i. e. Empty King Cloak.

BALIOL, SIR JOHN DE, of Norman descent; a guardian to the heir to

the Scottish crown on the death of Alexander III.; founder of Baliol

College, Oxford; _d_. 1269.

BALIZE, or BELIZE, the capital of British Honduras, in Central

America; trade in mahogany, rosewood, &c.

BALKAN PENINSULA, the territory between the Adriatic and the Ægean

Sea, bounded on the N. by the Save and the Lower Danube, and on the S. by

Greece.

BALKANS, THE, a mountain range extending from the Adriatic to the

Black Sea; properly the range dividing Bulgaria from Roumania; mean

height, 6500 ft.

BALKASH, LAKE, a lake in Siberia, 780 ft. above sea-level, the

waters clear, but intensely salt, 150 m. long and 73 m. broad.

BALKH, anciently called Bactria, a district of Afghan Turkestan

lying between the Oxus and the Hindu-Kush, 250 m. long and 120 m. broad,

with a capital of the same name, reduced now to a village; birthplace of

Zoroaster.

BALL, JOHN, a priest who had been excommunicated for denouncing the

abuses of the Church; a ringleader in the Wat Tyler rebellion; captured

and executed.

BALL, SIR R. S., mathematician and astronomer, born in Dublin;

Astronomer-Royal for Ireland; author of works on astronomy and mechanics,

the best known of a popular kind on the former science being "The Story

of the Heavens"; _b_. 1840.

BALLAD, a story in verse, composed with spirit, generally of

patriotic interest, and sung originally to the harp.

BALLANCHE, PIERRE SIMON, a mystic writer, born at Lyons, his chief

work "la Palingénésie Sociale," his aim being the regeneration of society

(1814-1847).

BALLANTINE, JAMES, glass-stainer and poet, born in Edinburgh

(1808-1877).

BALLANTINE, SERJEANT, distinguished counsel in celebrated criminal

cases (1812-1887).

BALL`ANTYNE, JAMES, a native of Kelso, became a printer in

Edinburgh, printed all Sir Walter Scott's works; failed in business, a

failure in which Scott was seriously implicated (1772-1833).

BALLANTYNE, JOHN, brother of preceding, a confidant of Sir Walter's

in the matter of the anonymity of the Waverley Novels; an inimitable

story-teller and mimic, very much to the delight of Sir Walter

(1774-1821).

BALLARAT` (40), a town in Victoria, and since 1851 the second city

in the province, about 100 m. NW. of Melbourne; the centre of the chief

gold-fields in the colony, the precious metal being at first washed out

of the soil, and now crushed out of the quartz rocks and dug out of deep

mines; it is the seat of both a Roman Catholic and a Church of England

bishopric.

BALL`ATER, a clean Aberdeenshire village on the Dee, a favourite

summer resort, stands 668 ft. above sea-level.

BALMAT, JACQUES, of Chamounix, a celebrated Alpine guide

(1796-1834).