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, a famous Sorbonnic doctor, flourished in the 12th century. This author, who is well known as a monkish writer, and a voluminous author of biography, was born in Scotland, and educated in the monastery of Lindisferne, now called Holy Island, a few miles south of Berwick on Tweed, at that time one of the most famous seminaries of learning in the north of England. He went afterwards to Paris, where he settled several years, and taught school divinity, in the Sorbonne. In his latter years he returned to his native country, and became a monk in the abbey of Melrose, and afterwards in that of Durham, where he wrote the life of St. Columbanus, and the lives of 'some other monks of the 6th century. He likewise wrote the life of David I. king of Scotland, who died 1153. He died in 1195. His works were printed at Antwerp in fol. 1659.

, a Greek physician and sophist of the fifth century, was originally a Jew, and lived at Alexandria. He then went to Constantinople, and became a Christian. He dedicated to the emperor Constantine a work in two books on Physiognomy, which has descended to our days, and has often been reprinted, particularly in Sylburgius’s edition of Aristotle, and among the “Physiognomonire veteres, Gr. Lat. cura J. G. Franzii,” Altenburgh, 1780, 8vo, a work of great accuracy.

, or Adamnanus, abbot of the monastery of Hey, or Icolmkil, was born in 624, but whether in Scotland or Ireland is uncertain. He appears to have been a man of considerable learning, and, according to Bede, of a peaceable disposition; yet he enforced the discipline of the church with much severity, and partook of the credulity of the times. He died Oct. 23, 704, in the eightieth year of his age. Having hospitably entertained a French bishop, the latter, who had been in Palestine, communicated such particulars to him, as enabled him to write a description of that country, “De locis Terras Sanctse, lib. tres.” This was first published by Serrarius, at Ingoldstadt, 1619, and afterwards by Mabillon, “Saec. Benedict.” He wrote also a life of St. Columba, published by Canisius and Surius.

, an ingenious classical scholar, was born Aug. 12, 1690, at Bolsema in Tuscany. When an infant, he was sent to Rome, to his uncle the abbe Andrea Adami, an excellent musician, in the service of cardinal Ottoboni. At eleven years of age, he was placed by the cardinal in a school at Rome, where he made surprising progress in his studies; but, having taken an active part in some disturbances in that school, he fled to Leghorn to escape punishment, and went on board a French privateer. Having experienced numerous vicissitudes in this service, he became tired of a wandering life, and, after an absence of twenty-six months, was forgiven and received by his uncle. He now resumed his studies, applied to the Hebrew, Arabic, and Syriac, but particularly the Greek, of which he acquired a critical knowledge. Such was his reputation, that cardinal Imperiali made him his librarian in 1717; but he did not enjoy the situation long, as he died of a pulmonary complaint, brought on by incessant study, Jan. 9, 1719. His principal work, “Arcadicorum,” vol. I. was published at Rome, 1716, 4to, dedicated to cardinal Ottoboni, who defrayed the whole expence. This work contains, in four books, the history of Arcadia, from the earliest times to the reign of Aristocrates, the last king; and is replete with valuable quotations from ancient authors, and learned digressions; which occasioned his friend Facciolati to say, that it was like a city in which there were more foreigners than natives. His untimely death prevented the continuation of it. Among his manuscripts, which he bequeathed to cardinal Imperiali, were a history of Peloponnesus: the works of Libanius, with many additions; a collection of inscriptions, for the most part unpublished, &c.

, D. D. a man of learning, and benefactor to the university of Oxford, was born in 1651, and educated at Lincoln College, where he took his master’s degree, June 4, 1675; that of bachelor of divinity, Jan. 23; and doctor of divinity, July 3, 1685. He was inducted to the rectory of Waddington, Sept. 29, 1683; and elected rector of Lincoln College, May 2, 1685. The same year he was installed a prebendary of the sixth stall, Durham, was removed to the tenth in 1695, and from that to the eleventh, in 1711. He served the office of vice-chancellor in 1695, and died June 17, 1719. As rector of Lincoln, he held the living of Twiford; and having received £.1500 for renewing the lease, he laid out the whole in beautifying the chapel of his college, and the rector’s lodgings. He bequeathed his library also to the college, and was a benefactor to All Saints church, Oxford, where he lies buried, contributing £.200 to purchase a parsonage house. He deserves yet more praise for his activity in promoting discipline and learning during the long time he presided over Lincoln College, and for the excellence of his life, and the urbanity of his manners.

, D. D. Provost of King’s College, Cambridge, was born in London, and educated at Cambridge, where he was admitted of King’s College in 1678; took the degree of A. B. 1682, and A. M. 1686. He afterwards travelled into Spain, Italy, France, and Ireland; and in 1687 was presented by the lord chancellor Jeffries to the living of Hickam in Leicestershire. In London, he was lecturer of St. Clement’s; rector of St. Alban’s Woodstreet, in the gift of Eton College; and Rector of St. Bartholomew, presented by Lord Harcourt, the chancellor. He was also a prebendary of Canterbury, chaplain in ordinary to Queen Anne, and in 1708, canon of Windsor. In 1711 he was presented to the living of Hornsey, by Compton, bishop of London; and in the following year elected provost of King’s College, which he held until his death in 1719. He was considered as an eloquent preacher, and often employed on public occasions. Fifteen of his sermons were printed from 1695 to 1712.

, late president of the United States of America, and a political writer of considerable reputation, was descended from one of the families who founded the colony of Massachusets, and was born at Braintree, in that colony, Oct. 19,1735. Before the revolution which separated America from Great Britain, he had acquired much reputation in the profession of the law; and on the eve of that event, he published “An essay on canon and feudal Law.” He afterwards employed his pen in the American papers, and contributed essentially to widen the breach between the mother country and her colonies. He was still, however, a friend to loyal measures; and when captain Preston was tried for his life, for ordering the soldiers to fire upon a mob, pleaded his cause with spirit and eloquence, and Preston was acquitted. This in some measure injured Mr. Adams’s character with the more violent party, but had so little effect on the more judicious, that he was elected a member of Congress in 1774, and re-elected in 1775. He was one of the first to perceive that a cordial reconciliation, with Great Britain was impossible; and was therefore one of the chief promoters of the resolution, passed July 4, 1776, declaring the American States free, sovereign, and independent. When, in the course of the war, the States entertained hopes of assistance from the courts of Europe, Mr. Adams was sent, with Dr. Franklin, to that of Versailles, to negociate a treaty of alliance and commerce. On their return, he assisted in forming a constitution for the state of Massachusets. He was then employed by America as her plenipotentiary to the States General of Holland; and contributed not a little to bring on the war between those States and Great Britain. He afterwards went to Paris, and assisted in concluding the general peace. His temperate advice, On this occasion, respecting the loyalists, again alarmed the republican party, who began to consider him as a partizan of England. He was the first ambassador America sent to this country, where, with true republican simplicity, and in a manner suitable to the embarrassed finances of his country, he resided in the first floor of a bookseller in Piccadilly, and afterwards as a lodger in the same street.

Although America had obtained independence, she still required a form of government or constitution adapted to her rank among other nations, and calculated to concentrate the powers of sovereignty. Mr. Adams was among the first who proposed the present form, and was seconded by Washington, Hamilton, and others, who were termed federalists; and the change took place in 1787. Washington was elected president, and Mr. Adams vice-president. But the party in opposition to this measure were not silenced; and when the French revolution took place, they in general were found to attach themselves to the interests of France, in opposition to those of Great Britain. Mr. Adams, however, pursued his even course, and vindicated his principles and theory in an able publication, entitled, “A defence of the Constitution of Government of the United States of America,” 1787 88, 3 vols. 8vo, which he afterwards republished under the title of “History of the principal Republics,” 3 vols. 8vo, 1794. The leading idea which runs through this work is, that a mixture of the three powers, the regal, the aristocratical, and the democratical, properly balanced, composes the most perfect form of government, and secures the greatest degree of happiness to the greatest number of individuals.

When Mr. Washington was a second time chosen president, Mr. Adams was again chosen vice-president; and when the former intimated his intention to retire, Mr. Adams was elected his successor, in preference to Mr. Jefferson, who was the idol of the republican or anti-federalist party. At the conclusion of his term of president, Mr. Adams, now advanced in years, retired from public affairs, and died at New York Oct. 2, 1803, aged 68, if our date of his birth be correct, but most of the journals fixed his age at 82. His vigour and independence of mind, firmness and moderation, have placed him in the first rank of American statesmen; and his death was justly considered as a public loss.

, M. A. an English Non-conformist, of a Cheshire family, was originally educated at Cambridge, where he was admitted M. A. in 1644. He afterwards went to Oxford, then in the power of the Parliament army, and was admitted a student at Brasen-nose college in 1646, when about 20 years of age; and soon after obtained a fellowship. In 1655, he left his fellowship, and was presented to the living of St. Mildred’s, Bread-street, London, where he continued until he was ejected for nonconformity, in 1662. He afterwards preached, as he had opportunity, to a small congregation in Southwark, and died in 1684, at Hoxton. His only original works are, some Sermons in the collection called the Morning Elxercise at Cripplegate, and a Sermon at the funeral of Henry Hurst; but he assisted in the publication of some of his brother’s, Mr. T. Adams, works, and those of Mr. Charnock; and he compiled the commentary on Philippians end Colossians in Poole’s bible. He appears to have been an able scholar, a pious and indefatigable preacher, and a man of moderate sentiments in public affairs. There was another of both his names ejected from the living of Humberstone, in Leicestershire, afterwards an Anabaptist teacher in London.

, brother to the above, became also a student of Brasen-nose college, Oxford, in July 1649, and was made fellow in June 1652. He performed alt his college exercises with approbation, and was much esteemed for his learning, piety, diligence, and good-humour, and very much employed as a tutor. He was ejected in 1662 from the university, and resided for a considerable time in the family of sir Samuel Jones, and afterwards was chaplain to the countess dowager of Clare. He wrote a few practical tracts on the “Principles of Religion,” and one on the controversy between the Church and the Dissenters. He died Dec. 11, 1670.

, citizen and lord mayor of London, was a man highly esteemed fbr his prudence and piety, his loyalty and sufferings, and his acts of munificence: he was born in 1586, at Wem, in Shropshire, educated in the university of Cambridge, and (Fuller says) bred a draper in London. In 1609, he was chosen sheriff, when he gave a striking proof of his public spirit, by immediately giving up his business, and applying himself wholly to public affairs. He made himself complete master of the customs and usages, rights and privileges of the city of London, and succeeded to every honour his fellow-citizens had in their power to bestow. He was chosen master of the drapers’ company, alderman, and president of St. Thomas’s hospital, which institution he probably saved from ruin, by discovering the frauds of a dishonest steward. He was often returned member of parliament; but the violent politics of the times would not permit him to sit there. In 1645 he was elected lord mayor of London, in which office he gave a shining example of disinterestedness, by declining the advantages usually made by the sale of places which become vacant. His loyalty to Charles I. was so well known, that his house was searched by the republican party, to find the king there; and he was the next year committed to the Tower by the same party, and detained there some time. However, at length he became the oldest alderman upon the bench, and was consequently dignified with the honourable title of father of the city. His affection for his prince was so great, that during the exile of Charles II. he remitted him 10,000l.

When the restoration of the king was agreed on, Mr. Adams, then 74 years of age, was deputed by the city to accompany General Monk to Breda in Holland, to congratulate and accompany the king home. For his signal services the king knighted him at the Hague; and soon after the restoration advanced him to the dignity of a baronet, on the 13th of June, 1661.

His merit, as a benefactor to the public, is highly conspicuous: he gave the house of his nativity, at Wem, as a free-school to the town, and liberally endowed it; he founded an Arabic professorship at Cambridge; both which took place before his death. By desire of his friend, Mr. Wheelock, fellow of Clare-hall, he was at the expence of printing the gospels in Persian, and sending them into the east. He was equally benevolent in private as in public life; and, although he suffered great losses in his estate, he gave liberally in legacies to the poor of many parishes, to hospitals, and ministers’ widows. He was particularly distinguished for his Christian patience and fortitude in adversity.

In his latter years he was much afflicted with the stone, which hastened his end; he died Feb. 24, 1667, at 81 years of age. The stone was taken from the body, and was of such extraordinary magnitude as to weigh 25 ounces, and is preserved in the laboratory at Cambridge. He felt no reluctance at the approach of his dissolution, and seemed perfectly prepared for death, often saying “Solum mild superest sepulchrum,” All my business is to fit me for the grave. His funeral sermon was preached by Dr. Hardy, at St. Catharine Cree Church, before his children and many of his relations. His descendants enjoyed the title down to the late sir Thomas Adams, who died a captain in the royal navy.

, D. D. master of Pembroke College, Oxford, was born at Shrewsbury in 1707, of a Shropshire family, and at the early age of thirteen was entered of Pembroke college, where he took his master’s degree, April 18, 1727, and obtained a fellowship. It has generally been reported, that he was afterwards tutor to the celebrated Dr. Samuel Johnson; but Dr. Adams very handsomely contradicted this report, by saying, that had Johnson returned to College after Jordan’s (his tutor’s) death, he might have been his tutor: “I was his nominal tutor, but he was above my mark.” A friendship, however, commenced between them, which lasted during the life of Dr. Johnson, to whose memory Dr. Adams did ample justice.

In 1732, he was presented to the curacy? or, as usually called, the vicarage of St. Chad’s in Shrewsbury, and on this occasion quitted the college. In 1756 he visited Oxford, and took his degrees of B. D, and D. D. and then went back to Shrewsbury, where he discharged the duties of his ministry with exemplary assiduity, patience, and affection; and contributed a very active part in the foundation of the Salop infirmary, and in promoting its success. The year before he went last to Oxford, he was presented to the rectory of Counde in Shropshire, by Mrs. Elizabeth Cressett of that place, and retained it during his life. In 1775, about 43 years after he left college, Dr. Ratcliffe, master of Pembroke college, died; and although Dr. Adams had outlived almost all his contemporaries, the gentlemen of the college came to a determination to elect him, a mark of respect due to his public character, and highly creditable to their discernment. He accordingly became master of Pembroke, July 26, 1775, and in consequence obtained a prebend of Gloucester, which is attached to that office. He now resigned the living of St. Chad, to the lasting regret of his hearers, as well as of the inhabitants at large, to whom he had long been endeared by his amiable character, and pious attention to the spiritual welfare of his flock. He was soon after made archdeacon of Llandaff. Over the college he presided with universal approbation, and engaged the affections of the students by his courteous demeanour and affability, mixed with the firmness necessary for the preservation of discipline. In his apartments here, he frequently cheered the latter days of his old friend Dr. Johnson, whom he survived but a few years; dying at his prebendal house at Gloucester, Jan. 13, 1789, aged 82. He was interred in Gloucester cathedral, where a monument was erected. with an inscription, which celebrates his ingenuity, learning, eloquence, piety, and benevolence. Dr. Adams married Miss Sarah Hunt, by whom he left a daughter, married, in 1788, to B. Hyatt, esq. of Painswick, in Gloucestershire, who died July 1810.

Dr. Adams’s first publications were three occasional sermons, printed 1741, 1742, 1749', but his principal work was an “Essay on Hume’s Essay on Miracles,” 8vo, 1752, which was long considered as one of the ablest answers that appeared to Mr. Hume’s sophistry, and was distinguished for acuteness, elegance, and urbanity of style. Hume, whom he once met in London, acknowledged that he had treated him much better than he deserved. This work was followed by other occasional sermons, which the author collected into a volume, and published in 1777. One only of these sermons involved him in a controversy. It was entitled “On true and false Doctrine,” preached at St. Chad’s Sept. 4, 1769, and touched upon some of the principles of the Methodists, in consequence of Dr. Adams having lent his pulpit to the Rev. William Romaine, who had there preached a sermon, the tendency of which our author thought it his duty to counteract. This produced a, series of pamphlets between the friends of the respective parties; but it is somewhat singular that neither our author nor Mr. Romaine took any part in the controversy, nor did Mr. Romaine publish the sermon which had occasioned it. The dispute turned principally on the degreeof Calvinism to be found in the Articles, &c. of the Church of England.

, a Scottish prelate, archbishop of St. Andrew’s. He was born 1543, in the town of Perth, where he received the rudiments of his education, and afterwards studied philosophy, and took his degree of M. A. at the university of St. Andrew’s. In the year 1566 he set out for Paris, as tutor to a young gentleman. In the month of June in the same year, Mary queen of Scots being delivered of a son, afterwards James VI. of Scotland, and first of England, Mr. Adamson wrote a Latin poem on the occasion, in which he styled him king of England and France. This proof of his loyalty involved him in some difficulties, causing him to be arrested in France, and confined for six months; but he escaped by the intercession, of queen Mary, and some of the principal nobility. As soon as he recovered his liberty, he retired with his pupil to Bourges. He was in this city during the massacre at Paris; and, the same bloody persecuting spirit prevailing amongst the Catholics at Bourges as at the metropolis, he lived concealed for seven months at a public-house, the master of which, upwards of 70 years of age, was thrown from the top of the building, and had his brains dashed out, for his charity to heretics. Whilst Mr. Adamson lay thus in his sepulchre, as he called it, he wrote his Latin poetical version of the book of Job, and his tragedy of Herod, in the same language. In 1573, he returned to Scotland; and, having entered into holy orders, became minister of Paisley. In 1575, he was appointed one of the commissioners, by the general assembly, to settle the jurisdiction and policy of the church; and the following year he was named, with Mr. David Lindsay, to report their proceedings to the earl of Moreton, then regent. About this time, the earl made him one of his chaplains, and, on the death of bishop Douglas, promoted him to the archiepiscopal see of St. Andrew’s, a dignity which brought upon him great trouble and uneasiness; for he was extremely obnoxious to the Presbyterian party, and many inconsistent absurd stories were propagated about him. Soon after his promotion, he published his Catechism in Latin verse, a work highly approved, even by his enemies; who, nevertheless, continued to persecute him with great violence. In 1578, he submitted himself to the general assembly, which procured him peace but for a very little time; for, the year following, they brought fresh accusations against him. In the year 1582, being attacked with a grievous disease, in which the physicians could give him no relief, he happened to take a simple medicine from an old woman, which did him service. The woman, whose name was Alison Pearsone, was immediately charged with witchcraft, and committed to prison, but escaped out of her confinement: however, about four years afterwards, she was again found, and burnt for a witch. In 1583, king James came to St. Andrew’s; and the archbishop, being much recovered, preached before him, and disputed with Mr. Andrew Melvil, in presence of his Majesty, with great reputation, which drew upon him fresh calumny and persecution. The king, however, was so well pleased with him, that he sent him ambassador to queen Elizabeth, at whose court he resided for some years. His conduct, during his embassy, has been variously reported by different authofsV Two things he principally laboured, viz. the recommending the king, his master, to the nobility and gentry of England, and the procuring some support for the episcopal party in Scotland. By his eloquent preaching he drew after him such crowds of people, and raised in their minds Such a high idea of the young king, his master, that queen Elizabeth forbade him to enter the pulpit during his stay in her dominions. In 1584 he was recalled, and sat in the parliament held in August at Edinburgh. The Presbyterian party were still very violent against the archbishop. A provincial synod was held at St. Andrew’s in April 1586; where the archbishop was accused and excommunicated: he appealed to the king and the states, but this availed him but little; for the mob being excited against him, it became dangerous to appear in public in the city of St. Andrew’s. At the next general assembly, a paper being produced, containing the archbishop’s submission, he was absolved from the excommunication. In 1588, fresh accusations were brought against him. The year following, he published the Lamentations of the prophet Jeremiah, in Latin verse, which he dedicated to the king, complaining of his hard usage. In the latter end of the same year, he published a translation of the Apocalypse in Latin verse, and a copy of Latin verses, addressed also to his Majesty, when he was in great distress. The king, however, was so far from giving him assistance, that he granted the revenue of his see to the duke of Lenox so that the remaining part of this prelate’s life was very wretched — he having hardly subsistence for his family, notwithstanding his necessities compelled him to deliver to the assembly a formal recantation of all his opinions concerning church government. He died in 1591. His works were printed in a 4to volume in London in 1619, with his Life by Thomas Volusenus, or Wilson. Besides the contents of this volume, our author wrote many things which were never published: such as, six books on the Hebrew republick, various translations of the prophets into Latin verse, Praelections on St. Paul’s Epistles to Timothy, various apologetical and funeral orations; and, what deserves most to be regretted, a very candid history of his own times. His character has. been variously represented, as may be seen in Calderwood and Spotiswood’s Histories, Mackenzie’s Lives of Scottish Authors, and the last edition of the Biographia Britannica. He appears to have been one of those men of whom no just estimate can be formed, without taking into the account the distraction of the times in which he lived.

, an eminent French naturalist, was born at Aix in Provence, April 7, 1727. His father, of Scotch origin, appears to have been in the service of Vintimille, then archbishop of that city. When the latter was translated to the see of Paris, Adanson was brought thither at three years of age, educated with great care, and soon gave proofs of uncommon application. As he was small of stature, he appeared much younger than he was; and, when he carried off the university prizes, many jokes were passed upon him. Needham, however, the celebrated naturalist, known by his microscopical disc-jveries, happening to be a witness of his success, presented him with a microscope; adding, that one who knew the works of men so well ought to study those of nature. This circumstance first induced him to study natural history, but without neglecting the usual course pursued in the university of Paris. In natural history, Reaumur and Bernard de Jussieu, were his guides, and he divided his time between the royal gardens and the museums of these learned men; and, when the system of Linnæus began to be published, it afforded him new matter for speculation. His parents had intended him for the church, and had procured him a prebend; but such was his thirst for general science, that he resigned it, and determined to travel into some country not usually visited or described. Senegal was the first object of his choice, thinking that its unhealthy climate had prevented its being visited by any other naturalist. Accordingly, he set out in 1748, in the 21st year of his age; and, after visiting the Azores and the Canaries, landed on the island of Goree, on the coast of Senegal; where he made a vast collection of specimens, animal, vegetable, and mineral, which he classified and described in a manner which he thought an improvement on the systems of Tournefort and Linnæus. He extended his researches also to the climate, geography, and manners of the people. He was engaged in this employment for five years, entirely at his own expence; and, in 1757, published the result in his “Histoire naturelle de Senegal,” 4to; an abridged translation of which, very ill executed, was published in London, 1759, 8vo. His classification of the Testacea, in this work, is universally allowed to be and ingenious. In 1756, soon after his return, having been elected a corresponding member of the Academy of Sciences, he read a paper on the Baobab, or calabash tree, an enormous vegetable, that had almost been accounted fabulous; and afterwards, a history of the tree which produces Gum Arabic. He would not, however, perhaps, have proceeded in these studies, had it not been for the generous encouragement afforded him by M. de Bombarde, a zealous patron of science. This induced him to publish his “Families des Plantes,” 2 vols. 8vo, 1763, a work of vast information, and which would have created a new revolution in the botanical world, had not the genius of Linnæus been predominant. But, although this work was neglected at the time, discoveries have since been advanced as new, which are to be found in it. About five years after, he determined to give a new edition, and had made the necessary corrections, and many additions; but, while employed on this, he coneived the more extensive plan of a complete Encyclopaedia, and he was persuaded that Lewis XV. would encourage such an undertaking. Flattered by this hope, he devoted his whole time to the collection of materials. In 1775, having got together an immense quantity, he submitted them to the Academy, under the title of an account of his manuscripts and plates, from 1771 to 1775, arranged according to the method he discovered when at Senegal, in 1749. These consisted of, 1. The universal order of Nature, in 27 vols. 8vo. 2. The natural history of Senegal, 8 vols. 8vo. 3. A course of natural history. 4. An universal vocabulary of natural history, one vol. fol. of 1000 pages. 5. A dictionary of natural history. 6. Forty thousand figures, and as many specimens of objects already known. 7. A collection of thirty-four thousand specimens of his own collection. It may easily be conceived that the academicians were astonished at this proposal; but the committee, appointed to examine his labours, did not find the collection equally valuable in all its branches, and, therefore, he did not meet with the encouragement he expected. His intention was to have published the entire work at once; but it was thought that, if he had published it in parts, he might probably have been successful. He published, however, a second edition of his “Families of the Plants,” which is, in fact, an encyclopaedia of botany. After this, he published no considerable work, but furnished some papers for the Academy, which have not been printed, and wrote the articles on exotics in the Supplement to the Encyclopaedia. In 1753, he laid before the French East India Company the plan of forming on the coast of Africa a colony, where all sorts of colonial produce might be cultivated, without enslaving the Negroes. This first effort, however, to procure the abolition of the slave-trade was not then attended to. In 1760, indeed, when the English were in possession of Senegal, they made him very liberal offers to communicate his plan, which he refused, from a love for his own country. He was equally disinterested in. refusing the princely offers made, in 1760, by the emperor of Germany, and, in 1766, by Catherine of Russia, and, lastly, by the king of Spain, if he would reside in their dominions. In France, however, he frequently travelled into various parts, in pursuit of his favourite science.

In 1759, he was appointed royal censor; and the emoluments of this place, that of academician, and the pensions successively conferred upon him, might have rendered him easy in his circumstances, had he not expended the whole in collecting materials for the vast plan abovementioned. At length, the Revolution stripped him of all; and, what Imrt him more, his garden, on which he had bestowed so much pains, was pillaged. When the Institute was formed, he was invited to become a member; but he answered that he could not accept the invitation, “as he had no shoes.” The minister of the interior, however, procured him a pension, on which he subsisted until his death, August 3, 1806, after an illness of six months, which confined him to his bed. He left behind him an immense number of manuscripts, and a new edition of his Families of the Plants is now preparing for the press by M. Du-Petit Thouars, whose account of his life is here abridged. According to M. Thouars, Adanson was a man of many excellent qualities, an indefatigable student and collector, but careless of dress and manners, and not a little conceited. Although in his seventy-ninth year, when on his death bed, he amused himself with the hopes of recovery, and of publishing his grand encyclopaedia. In his opinions, and particularly where he differed with Linnæus, he was most obstinately tenacious; and gave a curious proof in his own case. Bernard de Jussieu, pleased with his account of the Baobab, would have named that genus the Adansona; but Adanson would not allow it, because Linnæus honoured botanists with such names; whereas his plan was to give to new plants the name of the country which produced them in preference to every other. Stoever informs us that Linnæus said of Adanson, “he is either mad or intoxicated;” but Haller thought him a “rival worthy of Linnæus.”

, D. D. a dissenting clergyman, of considerable learning, was born at Northampton, June 9, 1729, and was educated under Dr. Doddridge, whose manner in the pulpit he closely followed for many years. After being admitted to preach, he removed in 1750, to Spaldwick in Huntingdonshire; where, in 1752, he married miss Reymes of Norwich, a lady who died in 1811, at a very advanced age. A few weeks after his marriage, he was called to be minister of a congregation of dissenters at Market Harborough, Leicestershire. His receiving this appointment was owing to a singular occurrence in the history of popular elections. Two candidates had appeared who divided the congregation so equally that a compromise was impossible, unless by each party giving up their favourite, and electing a third candidate, if one could be found agreeable to all. At this crisis Mr. Addington was recommended, and unanimously chosen. In this place he remained about thirty years, and became highly popular to his increasing congregation by the pious discharge of his pastoral duties, and by his conciliatory manners. In, 1758 he opened his house for the reception of pupils to fill up a vacancy in the neighbourhood of Harborough, occasioned by the rev. Mr. Aikin’s removal to Warrington. This scheme succeeded; and for many years he devoted nine hours each day to the instruction of his pupils, and compiled several books for their improvement; as, 1. “A system of Arithmetic,” 2 vols. 8vo. 2. “The Rudiments of the Greek tongue,” 1761, 12mo. 3. “Eusebes to Philetus; or Letters from a Father to his Son, on a devout temper and life,” 1761, 12mo. 4. “Maxims religious and prudential, with a Sermon to young People,” 12mo. 5. “The Youth’s Geographical Grammar,” 1770, 8vo. 6. “Dissertation on the religious knowledge of the ancient Jews and Patriarchs; to which is annexed a specimen of a Greek and English Concordance,” 1757, 4to; which he had a design of completing, if his health and time had perrnitted. He published also, partly in the country, and partly in London, some occasional funeral and other sermons; two tracts on infant baptism; a collection of psalm tunes, and another of anthems; and his most popular work, “The Life of St. Paul the Apostle,” 1784, 8vo. At length, in 1781 he received an invitation to become pastor of the congregation in Miles’s-lane, Cannon-street; and soon after his removal thither was chosen tutor of a new dissenting academy at Mile-end, where he resided until his growing infirmities, occasioned by several paralytic strokes, obliged him to relinquish the charge. He continued, however, in the care of his congregation till within a few months of his decease, when, from the same cause, he was compelled to discontinue his public services. He died Feb. 6, 1796, at his house in the Minories. In London he was neither so successful or popular as in the country; and his quitting Harborough after so long a residence appears to have displeased his friends, without adding to his usefulness among his new connections.

, son of Lancelot Addison a. clergyman, born at Mauldismeaburne in the parish of Crosby Ravens worth in Westmoreland, in 1632, was educated at the grammar school of Appleby, and afterwards sent to Queen’s college, Oxford, upon the foundation. He was admitted B. A. Jan. 25, 1654, and M. A. July 4, 1657. As he now had greatly distinguished himself in the univer? sity, he was chosen one of the terras filii for the act celebrated in 1658; but, his oration abounding in personal satire against the ignorance, hypocrisy, and avarice of those then in power, he was compelled to make a recantation, and to akk pardon on his knees. Soon after he left Oxford, and retired to Petworth in Sussex, where he resided till the restoration. The gentlemen of Sussex having recommended him to Dr. King, bishop of Chester, as a man who had suffered for his loyalty and attachment to th.e constitution of church and state; the bishop received him kindly, and in all probability would have preferred him, had he not, contrary to his lordship’s approbation, accepted of the chaplainship at Dunkirk; where he continued till 1662, when, the place being delivered up to the French, he returned to England. The year following he went chaplain to the garrison at Tangier, where he resided some years; and came back to England in 1670, with a resolution to return to Tangier. He was appointed chaplain in ordinary to his majesty soon after his coming over; but had no thoughts, however, of quitting his chaplamship at Tangier, until it was conferred upon another, by which Mr. Addison became poor in his circumstances. In this situation of his affairs, a gentleman in Wiltshire bestowed on him the rectory of Milston, in Wilts, worth about 120l. per annum. Soon after he was also made prebendary of Minor pars altaris, in the cathedral of Sarum; and took the degrees of B. and D. D. at Oxford, July 6, 1675. His preferments, though not very considerable, enabled him to live in the country with great decency and hospitality; and he discharged his duty with a most conscientious diligence. In 1683 the commissioners for ecclesiastical affairs, in consideration of his former service at Tangier, conferred upon him the deanry of Lichfield, in which he was installed July 3; was collated to the archdeaconry of Coventry Dec. 8, 1684, and held it with his deanry in commendam. In the convocation, which met Dec. 4, 1689, dean Addison was one of the committee appointed by the lower house to acquaint the lords, that they had consented to a conference on the subject of an address to the king. He died April 20, 1703, and was buried in the church-yard of Lichfield, at the entrance of the west door, with the following epitaph “Hie jacet Lancelotus Addison, S. T. P. hujus ecclesiae decanus, necnon archidiaconus Coventrise, qui obiit 20 die Aprilis, ann. Dom. 1703, aetatis suae 71.” He was twice married; first to Jane, daughter of Nathaniel Gulston, esq., and sister to Dr. William Gulston, bishop of Bristol, by whom he had, Jane, who died in her infancy; Joseph, or whom in thenext article; Gulston, who died governor of Fort St. George in the East Indies; Dorothy, married first to Dr. Sartre, prebendary of Westminster, secondly to Daniel Combes, esq.; Anne, who died young; and Lancelot, fellow of Magdalen college, Oxford, an able classical scholar.

Dean Addison published, 1. “West Barbary, or a short narrative of the revolutions of Fez and Morocco,” 1671, 8vo. 2. “The present State of the Jews (more particularly relating to those in Barbary), wherein is contained an exact account of their customs secular and religious, &c.” 1675, 8vo. 3. “The primitive Institution, or a seasonable discourse of Catechizing.” 4. “A modest plea for the Clergy,” 1677, 8vo. 5. “The first state of Mahometism, or an account of the Author and doctrine of that imposture,” 1678, 8vo-, reprinted afterwards under the title of “The Life and Death of Mahomet.” 6. “An introduction to the Sacrament,” 1681; reprinted in 1686 with the addition of “The Communicant’s Assistant.” 7. “A discourse of Tangier, under the government of the earl of Tiviot,” 4to, 1685, second edition. 8. “Χριστοσ Αυτοθεοσ, or an historical account of the heresy denying the Godhead of Christ;” one of the best books that had then appeared on the subject. 9. “The Christian’s daily Sacrifice, on Prayer,” 1698, 12mo. 10. “An account of the Millenium, the genuine use of the two Sacraments, &c.” And some have attributed to him “The Catechumen; or an account given by a young Person to a Minister of his knowledge in Religion, &c.” 1690, 12mo; but this appears to have been only recommended by him and Dr. Scot.

, son of Dr. Addison mentioned in the last article, and one of the most illustrious ornaments of his time, was born May 1, 1672, at Milston near Ambrosbury, Wiltshire, where his father was rector. Appearing weak and unlikely to live, he was christened the same day. Mr. Tyers says, that he was laid out for dead as soon as he was born. He received the first rudiments of his education at the place of his nativity, under the rev. Mr. Naish; but was soon removed to Salisbury, under the care of Mr. Taylor; and thence to Lichfield, where his father placed him for some time, probably not long, under Mr. Shaw, then master of the school there. From Lichfield he was sent to the Charter-house, where he pursued his juvenile studies under the care of Dr. Ellis, and contracted that intimacy with sir Rich. Steele, which their joint labours have so effectually recorded. In 1687 he was entered of Queen’s college in Oxford; where, in 1689, the accidental perusal of some Latin verses gained him the patronage of Dr. Lancaster, by whose recommendation he was elected into Magdalen college as demy. Here he took the degree of M. A. Feb. 14, 1693; continued to cultivate poetry and criticism, and grew first eminent by his Latin compositions, which are entitled to particular praise, and seem to have had much of his fondness; for he collected a second volume of the Musæ Anglicanæ, perhaps for a convenient receptacle; in which all his Latin pieces are inserted, and where his poem on the Peace has the first place. He afterwards presented the collection to Boileau, who from that time conceived an opinion of the English genius for poetry. In his 22d year he first shewed his power of English poetry, by some verses addressed to Dryden; and soon afterwards published a translation of the greater part of the fourth Georgic upon Bees. About the same time he composed the arguments prefixed to the several books of Dry den’s Virgil; and produced an essay on the Georgics, juvenile, superficial, and uninstructive, without much either of the scholar’s learning or the critic’s penetration. His next paper of verses contained a character of the principal English poets, inscribed to Henry Sacheverell, who was then, if not a poet, a writer of verses; as is shewn by his version of a small part of Virgil’s Georgics, published in the Miscellanies, and a Latin encomium on queen Mary, in the Musae Anglicana?. At this time he was paying his addresses to SacheverelPs sister. These verses exhibit all the fondness of friendship; but, on one side or the other, friendship was too weak for the malignity of faction. In this poem is a very confident and discriminative character of Spenser, whose work he had then never read. It is necessary to inform the reader, that about this time he was introduced by Congreve to Montague, then chancellor of the exchequer: Addison was now learning the trade of a courtier, and subjoined Montague as a poetical name to those of Cowley and of Dryden. By the influence of Mr. Montague, concurring with his natural modesty, he was diverted from his original design of entering into holy orders. Montague alleged the corruption of men who engaged in civil employments without liberal education; and declared, that, though he was represented as an enemy to the church, he would never do it any injury but by withholding Addison from it. Soon after, in 1695, he wrote a poem to king William, with a kind of rhyming introduction addressed to lord Somers. King William had no regard to elegance or literature; his study was only war; yet by a choice of ministers whose disposition was very different from his own, he procured, without intention, a very liberal patronage to poetry. Addison was caressed both by Somers and Montague. In 1697 he wrote his poem on the peace of Ryswick, which he dedicated to Montague, and which was afterwards called by Smith “the best Latin poem since the Æneid.” Having yet no public employment, he obtained in 1699 a pension of 300l. a year, that he might be enabled to travel. He staid a year at Blois, probably to learn the French language; and then proceeded in his journey to Italy, which he surveyed with the eyes of a poet. While he was travelling at leisure, he was far from being idle; for he not only collected his observations on the country, but found time to write his Dialogues on Medals, and four acts of Cato. Such is the relation of Tickell. Perhaps he only collected his materials, and formed his plan. Whatever were his other employments in Italy, he there wrota the letter to lord Halifax, which is justly considered as the most elegant, if not the most sublime, of his poetical productions. But in about two years he found it necessary to hasten home; being, as Swift informs us, “distressed by indigence, and compelled to become the tutor of a travelling squire.” At his return he published his travels, with a dedication to lord Somers. This book, though a while neglected, is said in time to have become so much the favourite of the publick, that before it was reprinted it rose to five times its price. When he returned to England in 1702, with a meanness of appearance which gave testimony to the difficulties to which tie had been reduced, he found his old patrons out of power; but he remained not long neglected or useless. The victory at Blenheim 1704 spread triumph and confidence over the nation; and lord Godolphin, lamenting to lord Halifax that it had not been celebrated in a manner equal to the subject, desired him to propose it to some better poet. Halifax named Addison; who, having undertaken the work, communicated it to the treasurer, while it was yet advanced no further than the simile of the angel, and was immediately rewarded by succeeding Mr. Locke in the place of commissioner of appeals. In the following year he was at Hanover with lord Halifax; and the year after was made under-secretary of state, first to sir Charles Hedges, and in a few months more to the earl of Sunderland. About this time the prevalent taste for Italian operas inclining him to try what would be the effect of a musical drama in our own language; he wrote the opera of Rosajnond, which, when exhibited on the stage, was either hissed or neglected; but, trusting that the readers would do him more justice, he published it, with an inscription to the duchess of Marlborough. His reputation had been somewhat advanced by The Tender Husband, a comedy, which Steele dedicated to him, with a confession that he owed to him several of the most successful scenes. To this play Addison supplied a prologue. When the marquis of Wharton was appointed lord lieutenant of Ireland, Addison attended him as his secretary; and was made keeper of the records in Bermingham’s tower, with a salary of 300l. a year. The office was little more than nominal, and the salary was augmented for his accommodation. When he was in office, he made a law to himself, as Swift has recorded, never to remit his regular fees in civility to his friends “I may have a hundred friends; and if my fee be two guineas, I shall by relinquishing my right lose 200 guineas, and no friend gain more than two.” He was in Ireland when Steele, without any communication of his design, began the publication of the Tatler; but he was not long concealed: by inserting a remark on Virgil, which Addison had given him, he discovered himself. Steele’s first Tatler was published April 22, 1709, and Addison’s contribution appeared May 26. Tickell observes, that the Tatler began and was concluded without his concurrence. This is doubtless literally true; but the work did not suffer much by his unconsciousness of its commencement, or his absence at its cessation; for he continued his assistance to Dec. 23, and the paper stopped on Jan. 2. He did not distinguish his pieces by any signature.

To the Tatler, in about two months, succeeded the Spectator; a series of essays of the same kind, but written with less levity, upon a more regular plan, and published daily. Dr. Johnson’s account of these essays, and of the rise of periodical papers is too valuable to be omitted here. “To teach the minuter decencies and inferior duties, to regulate the practice of daily conversation, to correct those depravities which are rather ridiculous than criminal, and remove those grievances which, if they produce no lasting calamities, impress hourly vexation, was first attempted in Italy by Casa in his Book of Manners, and Castiglione in, his Courtier, two books yet celebrated in Italy for purity and elegance.

“This species of instruction was continued, and perhaps advanced, by the French; among whom La Bruyere’s Manners of the Age, though written without connection, deserves great praise. Before the Tatler and Spectator, if the writers for the theatre are excepted, England had no masters of common life. No writers had yet undertaken to reform either the savageness of neglect, or the impertinence of civility; to teach when to speak, or to be silent; how to refuse, or how to comply. We wanted not books to teach us more important duties, and to settle opinions m philosophy or politics; but an arbiter elegant iarum, a judge of propriety, was yet wanting, who should survey the track of daily conversation, and free it from thorns and prickles, which tease die passer, though they do not wound him. For this purpose nothing is so proper as the frequent publication of short papers, which we read not as study but amusement. If the subject be slight, the treatise likewise is short. The busy may find time, and the idle may find patience.

“The Tatler and Spectator reduced, like Casa, the unsettled practice of daily intercourse to propriety and politeness; and, like La Bruyere, exhibited the characters and manners of the age.

“But to say that they united the plans of two or three eminent writers, is to give them but a small part of their due praise; they superadded literature and criticism, and sometimes towered far above their predecessors, and taught, with great justness of argument and dignity of language, the most important duties and sublime truths.”

The year 1713, in which Cato came upon the stage, was the grand climacteric of Addison’s reputation. Upon the death of Cato, he had, as is said, planned a tragedy in the time of his travels, and had for several years the four first acts finished, which were shewn to such as were likely to spread their admiration. By a request, which perhaps he wished to be denied, he desired Mr. Hughes to add a fifth act. Hughes supposed him serious; and, undertaking the supplement, brought in a few days some scenes for his examination; but he had in the mean time gone to work himself, and produced half an act, which he afterwards completed, but with brevity irregularly disproportionate to the foregoing parts. The great, the important day came on, when Addison was to stand the hazard of the theatre. That there might, however, be left as little to hazard as was possible, on the first night Steele, as himself relates, undertook to pack an audience. The danger was soon over. The whole nation was at that time on fire with faction. The whigs applauded every line in which liberty was mentioned, as a satire on the tories; and the tories echoed every clap, to shew that the satire was unfelt. When it was printed, notice was given that the queen would be pleased if it was dedicated to her; “but as he had designed that compliment elsewhere, he found himself obliged,” says Tickell, “by his duty on the one hand, and his honour on the other, to send it into the world without any dedication.”

At the publication the wits seemed proud to pay their attendance with encomiastic verses. The best are from an unknown hand, which will perhaps lose somewhat of their praise when the author is known to be Jeffreys. Cato had yet other honours. It was censured as a party play by a scholar of Oxford, and defended in a favourable examination by Dr. Sewel. It was translated by Salvini into Italian, and acted at Florence; and by the Jesuits of St. Omer’s into Latin, and played by their pupils. While Cato was upon the stage, another daily paper, called the Guardian, was published by Steele; to which Addison gave great assistance. Of this paper nothing is necessary to be said but that it found many contributors, and that it was a continuation of the Spectator, with the same elegance, and the same variety, till some unlucky spark from a tory paper set Steele’s politics on fire, and wit at once blazed into faction. He was soon too hot for neutral topics, and quitted the Guardian to write the Englishman. The papers of Addison are marked in the Spectator by one of the letters in the name of Clio, and in the Guardian by a hand. Many of these papers were written with powers truly comic, with nice discrimination of characters, an accurate observation of natural or accidental deviations from propriety but it was not supposed that he tried a comedy on the stage, till Steele, after his death, declared him the author of “The Drummer;” this however he did not know to be true by any cogent testimony; for when Addison put the play into his hands, he only told him it was the work of a gentleman in the company; and when it was received, as is confessed, with cold disapprobation, he was probably less willing to claim it. Tickell omitted it in his collection; but the testimony of Steele, and the total silence of any other claimant, have determined the public to assign it to Addison, and it is now printed with his other poetry. Steele carried “The Drummer” to the playhouse, and afterwards to the press, and sold the copy for 50 guineas. To the opinion of Steele may be added the proof supplied by the play itself, of which the characters are such as Addison would have delineated, and the tendency such as Addison would have promoted. He was not all this time an indifferent spectator of public affairs. He wrote, as different exigencies required, in 1707, “The present state of the War, and the necessity of an augmentation;” which, however judicious, being written on temporary topics, and exhibiting no peculiar powers, has naturally sunk by its own weight into neglect. This cannot be said of the few papers intituled “The Whig Examiner,” in which isexhibited all the force of gay malevolence and humorous satire. Of this paper, which just appeared and expired, Swift remarks, with exultation, that “it is now down among the dead men.” His “Trial of count Tariff,” written to expose the treaty of commerce with France, lived no longer than the question that produced it.

Not long afterwards an attempt was made to revive the Spectator, at a time indeed by no means favourable to literature, when the succession of a new family to the throne filled the nation with anxiety, discord, and confusion; and either the turbulence of the times or the satiety of the readers put a stop to the publication, after an experiment of 80 numbers, which were afterwards collected into an eighth volume, perhaps more valuable than any one of those that went before it: Addison produced more than a fourth part, and the other contributors are by no means unworthy of appearing as his associates. The time that had passed during the suspension of the Spectator, though it had not lessened his power of humour, seems to have increased his disposition to seriousness: the proportion of his religious to his comic papers is greater than in the former series. The Spectator, from its recommencement, was published only three times a week, and no discriminative marks were added to the papers. To Addison Tickell has ascribed 23. The Spectator had many contributors; and Steele, whose negligence kept him always in a hurry, when it was his turn to furnish a paper, called loudly for the letters, of which Addison, whose materials were more, made little use; having recourse to sketches and hints, the product of his former studies, which he now reviewed and completed among these are named by Tickell the “Essays on Wit,” those on the “Pleasures of the Imagination,” and the “Criticism on Milton.”

When the house of Hanover took possession of the throne, it was reasonable to expect that the zeal of Addisoti would be suitably rewarded. Before the arrival of king George he was made secretary to the regency, and was required by his office to send notice to Hanover that the queen was dead, and that the throne was vacant. To do this would not have been difficult to any man but Addison, who was so overwhelmed with the greatness of the event, and so distracted by choice of expression, that the lords, who could not wait for the niceties of criticism, called Mr. Southwell, a clerk in the house, and ordered him to dispatch the message. Southwell readily told what was necessary, in the common style of business, and valued himself upon having done what was too hard for Addison. He was better qualified for the Freeholder, a paper which he published twice a week, from Dec. 23, 1715, to the middle of the next year. This was undertaken in defence of the established government, sometimes with argument, sometimes with mirth. In argument he had many equals; but his humour was singular and matchless.

On the 2d of August 1716, he married the countess dowager of Warwick, whom he had solicited by a very long and anxious courtship. 'He is said to have first known her by becoming tutor to her son. The marriage, if uncontradieted report can be credited, made no addition to his happiness; it neither found them nor made them equal. She always remembered her own rank, and thought herself intitled to treat with very little ceremony the tutor of her son. It is certain that Addison has left behind him no encouragement for ambitious love. The year after, 1717, he rose to his highest elevation being made secretary of state but it is universally confessed that he was unequal to the duties of his place. In the House of Commons he could not speak, and therefore was useless to the defence of the government. In the office he could not issue an orjler without losing his time in quest of fine expressions. What he gained in rank he lost in credit; and finding, by experience, his own inability, was forced to solicit his dismission, with a pension of 1500l. a year. His friends palliated this relinquishment, of which both friends and enemies knew the true reason, with an account of declining health, and the necessity of recess and quiet. He now returned to his vocation, and began to plan literary occupations for his future life. He proposed a tragedy on the death of Socrates; a story of which, as Tickell remarks, the basis is narrow, and to which love perhaps could not easily have been appended. He engaged in a noble work, a defence of the Christian religion, of which part was published after his death; and he designed to have made a new poetical version of the Psalms. It is related that he had once a design to make an English dictionary, and that he considered Dr. Tillotson as the writer of highest authority. Addison, however, did not conclude his life in peaceful studies; but relapsed, when he was near his end, to a political question. It happened that, in 1719, a controversy was agitated, with great vehemence, between, those friends of long continuance, Addison and Steele. The subject of their dispute was the earl of Sunderland’s memorable act, called “The Peerage bill,” by which the number of peers should be fixed, and the king restrained from any new creation of nobility, unless when an old family should be extinct. Steele endeavoured to alarm the ration by a pamphlet called “The Plebeian:” to this an Answer was published by Addison under the title of “The Old Whig.” Steele was respectful to his old friend, though he was Mow his political adversary; but Addison could not avoid discovering a contempt of his opponent, to whom he gave the appellation of “Little Dicky.” The bill was laid aside during that session, and Addison died before the next, in which its commitment was rejected. Every reader surely must regret that these two illustrious friends, after so many years passed in confidence and endearment, in unity of interest, conformity of opinion, and fellowship of study, should finally part in acrimonious opposition. The end of this useful life was now approaching. Addison had for some time been oppressed by shortness of breath, which was now aggravated by a dropsy; and finding his danger pressing, he prepared to die conformably to his own precepts and professions. During this lingering decay, he sent, as Pope relates, a message by the earl of Warwick to Mr. Gay, desiring to see him. Gay, who had not visited him for some time before, obeyed the summons, and found himself received with great kindness. The purpose for which the interview had been solicited was theti discovered: Addison told him, that he had injured him; but that, if he recovered, he would recompense him. What the injury was he did not explain, nor did Gay ever know; but supposed that some preferment designed for him had by Addison' s intervention been withheld. Lord Warwick was a young man of very irregular life, and perhaps of loose opinions. Addison, for whom he did not want respect, had very diligently endeavoured to reclaim him; but his arguments and expostulations had no effect; one experiment, however, remained to be tried. When he found his life near its end, he directed the young lord to be called; and, when he desired, with great tenderness, to hear his last injunctions, told him, “I have sent for you that you may see how a Christian can die.” What effect this awful scene had on the earl’s behaviour is not known: he died himself in a short time. Having given directions to Mr. Tickell for the publication of his works, and dedicated them on his death-bed to his friend Mr. Craggs, he died June 17, 1719, at Holland-house, leaving no child but a daughter, who died in 1797, at Bilton, near Rugby, in Warwickshire.

Of the course of Addison‘ s familiar day, before his marriage, Pope has given a detail. He had in the house with him Budgell, and perhaps Philips. His chief companions were Steele, Budgell, ’Philips, Carey, Davenant, and col. Brett. With one or other of these he always breakfasted. He studied all morning; then dined at a tavern, and went afterwards to Button’s. From the coffee-house he went again to the tavern, where he often sat late, and drank too much wine. Dr. Johnson’s delineation of the character of Addison concludes by observing with Tickell, that he employed wit on the side of virtue and religion. He not only made the proper use of wit himself, but taught it to others; and from his time it has been generally subservient to the cause of reason and truth. He has dissipated the prejudice that had long connecte'd gaiety with vice, and easiness of manners with laxity of principles. He has restored virtue to its dignity, and taught innocence not to be ashamed. This is an elevation of literary character, “above all Greek, above all Roman fame.” No greater felicity can genius attain than that of having purified intellectual pleasure, separated mirth from indecency, and wit from licentiousness; of having taught a succession of writers to bring elegance and gaiety to the aid of goodness; and, to use expressions yet more awful, of having “turned many to righteousness.” As a describer of life and manners, he must be allowed to stand perhaps the first of the foremost rank. His humour, which, as Steele observes, is peculiar to himself, is so happily diffused as to give the grace of novelty to domestic scenes and daily occurrences. He never “outsteps the modesty of nature,” norraises merriment or wonder by the violation of truth. His figures neither divert by distortion, nor amaze by aggravation. He copies life with so much fidelity, that he can be hardly said to invent: yet his exhibitions have an air so much original, that it is difficult to suppose them not merely the product of imagination. As a teacher of wisdom he may be confidently followed. His religion has nothing in it enthusiastic or superstitious; he appears neither weakly credulous nor wantonly sceptical; his morality is neither dangerously lax, nor impracticably rigid. All the enchantment of fancy and all the cogency of argument are employed to recommend to the reader his real interest, the care of pleasing the Author of his being. Truth is shewn sometimes as the phantom of a vision, sometimes appears half-veiled in an allegory; sometimes attracts regard in the robes of fancy, and sometimes steps forth in the confidence of reason. She wears a thousand dresses, and in all is pleasing——“Mille habet ornatus, mille decenter habet.”

His prose is the model of the middle style; on grave subjects not formal, on light occasions not grovelling; pure without scrupulosity, and exact without apparent elaboration; always equable, and always easy, without glowing words or pointed sentences. Addison never deviates from his track to snatch a grace; he seeks no ambitious ornaments, and tries no hazardous innovations. His page is always luminous, but never blazes in unexpected splendour. It seems to have been his principal endeavour to avoid all harshness and severity of diction; he is therefore sometimes verbose in his transitions and connections, and sometimes descends too much to the language of conversation; yet if his language had been less idiomatical, it might have lost somewhat of its genuine Anglicism. What he attempted, he performed; he is never feeble, he did not wish to be energetic; he is never rapid, and he never stagnates. His sentences have neither studied amplitude, nor affected brevity: his periods, though not diligently rounded, are voluble and ea?y. Whoever wisnes to attain an English style, familiar but not coarse, and elegant but not ostentatious, must give his days and nights to the volumes of Addison.

, bishop of Utrecht, was born about the end of the tenth century, of a noble family in the bishoprick of Liege, where, and at Rheims, he was educated, and acquired so much reputation, that Henry II. of Germany invited him to his court, admitted him in his council, made him chancellor, and at last bishop of Utrecht. These promotions appear to have inspired him with an ambition unbecoming his office, and some of his years were spent in a kind of plundering war on account of certain possessions which he claimed as his right. His latter days were more honourably employed in promoting learning, and in founding churches in his diocese. He erected the cathedral of Utrecht, of which a part still remains, and dedicated it in the presence of the Emperor. His activity in advancing the prosperity of the bishoprick ended only with his life, Nov. 27, 1027. His chief literary work was a life of his benefactor Henry II. with a judicious preface on the qualifications of an historian; and from his fidelity and exactness, it has been regretted that a part only of this work was completed. It was published first in the “Lives of the Saints of Bamberg,” by Gretser, 1611, and afterwards by Leibnitz in “Script, rer. Brunswic.” He wrote also a treatise “de ratione inveniendi crassitudinem Spherae,” printed by B. Fez, in the third volume of his “Thesaurus Anecdotoram.” His life of St. Walburgh, and some other works, are still in manuscript. His style is clear, easy, and even elegant, and entitles him to rank among the best writers of his age.

, a mathematician and physician, was born at Nuremberg, in 1702. He was at first intended for his father’s business, that of a bookseller, but appears to have gone through a regular course of study at Altdorf. In 1735, he published his “Commercium literarinm ad Astronomiae incrementum inter hujus scientiæ amatores communi consilio institutum,” Nuremberg, 8vo; which procured him the honour, of being admitted a member of the royal academy of Prussia. In 1743 he was invited to Altdorf to teach mathematics, and three years after was made professor of logic. He died in 1779. He published also a monthly work on. Celestial Phenomena, in German.

, bishop of Brescia, whose name has been handed down with much honour by Roman catholic writers, flourished in the 11th century. He was at first clerk of the chu rch of Liege; and then president of the schools. He had studied at Chartres under the celebrated Fulbert, and had for his schoolfellow the no less celebrated Berenger, to whom he wrote a letter endeavouring to reconcile laim to the doctrine of transubstantiation. This appears to have been about 1047. In 1048 he was appointed bishop of Brescia, where he died, according to some, in 1057, or according to others, in 1061. His letter to Berenger was printed for the first time at Louvairi, with other pieces on the same subject, in 1551; and reprinted ia 1561, 8vo. It has also appeared in the different editions of the Biblioth. Patrum. The canon Gagliardi printed a corrected edition, with notes, at the end of the sermons of Sl Gaudentius, Padua, 1720, 4to. The last edition was by C. A. Schmid, Brunswicj 1770, 8vo, with Bereriger’s answer, and other pieces respecting Adelman. Adelman likewise wrote a poem “De Viris illustribus sui tern peris,” which Mabillon printed in the first volume of his Analecta.

, a learned German grammarian, and miscellaneous writer, was born Aug. 30, 1734, at Spantekow, in Pomerania; and after studying some time at Anclam and Closterbergen, finished his education at the university of Halle. In 1759 he was appointed professor of the academy of Erfurt, which he relinquished about two years after, and settled at Leipsic, where, in, 1787, he was made librarian to the elector of Dresden; and here he died of a hemorrhoidal complaint, Sept. 10, 1806, aged 72, aocording to our authority; but the Diet. Hist, fixes his birth in 1732, which makes him two years older. Adelung performed for the German language what the French academy, and that of De la Crusca, have done for the French and Italian. His “Grammatical and Critical Dictionary,” Leipsic, 1774 1786, 5 vols. 4to, a work of acknowledged merit and vast labour, has been alternately praised and censured by men of learning in Germany; some say that it excels Dr. Johnson’s dictionary of the English language in its definitions and etymologies, but falls short of it in the value of his authorities. This latter defect has been attributed either to the want of good authors in the language at the time he was preparing his work, or to his predilection for the writers of Upper Saxony. He considered the dialect of the margraviate of Misnia as the standard of good German, and rejected every thing that was contrury to the language of the better classes of society, and the authors of that district. It was also his opinion that languages are the work of nations, and not of individuals, however distinguished; forgetting that the language of books must be that of men of learning. Voss and Campe in particular reproached him for the omissions in his work, and his partiality in the choice of authorities. In 1793—1801, a new edition appeared in 4 vols. 4to, Leipsic, with additions, but which bore no proportion to the improvements that had been made in the language during the interval that elapsed from the publication of the first.

Adelung’s other works are: 1. “Glossarium manuale ad scriptores medii et infimae Latinitatis,” FJalle, 1772 84, 6 vols. 8vo, an abridgement of Du Cange and Charpentier. 2. Three “German Grammars:” the first is a treatise on the origin, changes, structure, &c. of the language, Leipsic, 1782, 2 vols. 8vo; the two others are school-books, and have been often reprinted. 3. “A treatise on the German Style,” Berlin, 1785, 1788, 1790, 2 vols.; esteemed one of the best books, in any language, on the philosophy of rhetoric. 4. “Supplements to Jcecher’s Dictionary of Literary Men,” 1784 and 1787, 2 vols. 4to; this goes no farther than letter I. 5. “History of Human Folly, or he Lives of the most celebrated Necromancers, Alchymists, Exorcists, Diviners, &c.” in seven parts, Leipsic, 1785 to 1789. 6. “A species of Cyclopedia of all the Sciences, Arts, and Manufactures, which contribute to the comforts of human life,” four parts, Leipsic, 1778, 1781, 1788; a work of great accuracy, and very comprehensive. 7. “Essay on the history of the Civilization of Mankind,” Leipsic, 1782, 1788. 8. “The history of Philosophy,” 3 vols. ibid. 1786, 1787, 8vo. 9. “Treatise on German Orthography,” 8vo, 1787. Many of the best German writers, and Wieland among the rest, have adopted his principles in this work; and their example, in the opinion of his biographer, may supply the want of the decisions of an academy, or national centre for improvements in language. 10. “The history of the Teutones, their language and literature before the general migration,” Leipsic, 1806, 8vo. 11. “Mithridate, or a universal table of Languages, with the Lord’s Prayer in one hundred languages,” Berlin, 1806, 8vo. The first volume of this work, which contains the Asiatic languages, was printed immediately before his death; the second, comprizing the languages of Europe, was completed and published in 1809, by an eminent philologist, M. John Severin Vater, then professor at Halle, now at Konigsberg, who has also promised a third volume. These two last works are inferior to those published by Adelung in his younger days; but his Mithridate is thought superior to the work which Conrad Gessner published under the same title about two centuries before. It must be observed, however, that this does not detract from that Author’s merit, as Adelung had not only Gessner’s work before him, but the improvements of two centuries on the subject.

Until near his death, he devoted 14 hours every day to study and composition, so that his life affords little variety of event. He was never married; and it was said of him that his writing-desk was his wife; and his children, 70 volumes, great and small; all the produce of his pen. He loved the pleasures of the table, and wines were the only article in which he was expensive. His cellar, which he used to call his Bibliotheca selectissima, contained 40 kinds of wine; yet, amidst this plenty, his strength of constitution, and gaiety of spirit, enabled him to sustain his literary labours without injury to his health. He appears, upon the whole, to have been one of the most laborious and useful of the modern German writers, and justly deserves the character he has received from his contemporaries.

, or Aymar, a monk of St. Martial, born in the year 988, rendered himself famous by the active part he took in the dispute respecting the pretended apostleship of St. Martial, but is now known chiefly by his “Chronicle of France” from the origin of the monarchy to 1029. This, although neither exact in chronology, or in proper arrangement of the events, is said to be very useful to French historians in what follows the time of Charles Martel. It was published by Labbe in his “Nouvelle Bibliotheque des Manuscripts,” and in other collections of French history. Mabillon, in his “Analecta,” has given the famous letter of Ademar’s on the apostleship of St. Martial, and some verses or acrostics.

, a writer of romance in the 13th, century, and probably so called from often wearing the laurel crown, was minstrel to Henry III. duke of Brabant and Flanders. In La Valliere’s collection of Mss. are several metrical romances by this author: 1. “The romance of William of Orange,” surnamed Short-nose, constable of France. There are some extracts from this in Catel’s history of Languedoc. 2. “The romance of the Infancy of Ogier the Dane,” written in rhyme by order of Guy earl of Flanders. Of this are several translations published in the 16th century. 3. “The romance of Cleomades,” written by order of Maria of Brabant, daughter of his patron. This, translated into prose by Philip Camus, has been several times printed; at first, without date, at Paris and Troyes; and at Lyons, 1488, 4to. 4. “The romance of Aymeri of Narbonne.” 5. “The romance of Pepin and Bertha his wife;” the facts taken from the chronicles in the abbey of St. Denis. A sequel to this was written by Girardin of Amiens, as the “Romance of Charlemagne, son of Bertha.” 6. “The romance of Buenon of Commarchis,” the least esteemed of all his productions, perhaps from the insignificance of his hero. The time of the death of Adenez is not known.

, a physician of Toulouse, author of a treatise printed under the title “De aegrotis & morbis in Evangelic,” Tolosae, 1620, and 1623, 4to. In this piece he examines, whether the maladies which Our Saviour removed could have been healed by medicine, and decides in the negative; maintaining that the infirmities healed by the Messiah were incurable by the physician’s art. We are told by Vigneul Marville that Ader was said to have composed this book merely to efface the remembrance of another in which he had maintained the contrary. He published also “De Pestis cognitione, praevisione, et remediis,” ibid. 1628, 8vo; and a macaronic poem in four books in honour of Henry IV. under the title “Lou Gentilhomme Gascoun, 1610,” 8vo; and another “Lou Catounet Gascoun,” 1612, 8vo. He lived at the beginning of the 17th century. He was a man of profound erudition.

, a heretical writer, who probably flourished about the latter end of the third century, was a zealous promoter of the Manichsean doctrine. He wrote a book against the authority of the Old Testament, which was much valued by the Manichees, and was answered by Augustine. The work is lost, but the atfswer remains. He appears to have been sometimes called Addas, although most writers suppose Addas to have been a different person. Additional information respecting him may be found in Lardner’s Works, vol. Ill, pp. 3s?3, 395, 430.

, an Italian poet, a descendant from the ancient family of Adimari, at Florence; was born in 1579. Between 1637 and 1640 he published six collections of fifty sonnets each, under the names of six of the muses: Terpsichore, Clio, Melpomene, Calliope, Urania, and Polyhymnia, which partake of the bad taste of his age, in forced sentiments and imagery; but he was an accomplished scholar in the Greek and Latin languages. His translation of Pindar, “Ode di Pindaro, tradotte da Alessandro Adimari,” Pisa, 1631, 4to, is principally valued for the notes, as the author has been very unfortunate in transfusing the spirit of the original. In the synopsis, he appears indebted to the Latin translation of Erasmus Schmidt. Of his private history we only know that he lived poor and unhappy, and died in 1649.

, a satirical poet of the same family with the preceding, was born at Naples, Sept. 3, 1644, and educated at the university of Pisa, where the celebrated Luca Terenzi was his tutor. He visited, when young, the different courts of Italy, and was beloved for his talents and accomplishments. He received from the duke Ferdinand Charles of Mantua, the title of marquis, and gentleman of his chamber. He was also member of the academy of Florence, of De la Crnsca, and many other learned societies. He succeeded the famous Redi as professor of the Tuscan language in the academy of Florence, and was likewise professor of chivalry in that of the nobles, in which science his lectures, which he illustrated with apposite passages from ancient and modern history, were highly esteemed. These were never printed, but manuscript copies are preserved in several of the libraries of Florence. His only prose work, a collection of religious pieces, was published at Florence, 1706, small 4to, under the title “Prose sacre.” His poetry consists of: 1. “Sonnets and other lyric pieces,” and among them, a collection of Odes or Canzoni, dedicated to Louis XIV, and magnificently printed at Florence, 1693. 2. Some “Dramas,” one of which “Le Gare dell' Amore etdelP Amicitia,” Florence, 1679, 12mo, is so rare as to be unnoticed by any historian of Italian literature. 3. “Five Satires,” on which his fame chiefly rests; very prolix, but written in an elegant style; and as to satire, just and temperate, except where he treats of the fair sex. He died at Florence, after a tedious illness, June 22, 1708.

, an engraver of the 16th century, was a German, but we have no account of his life, nor is it known from whom he learned the art of engraving, or rather etching, for he made but little use of the graver in his works. At a time when etching was hardly discovered, and carried to no perfection by the greatest artists, he produced such plates as not only far excelled all that went before him, but laid the foundation of a style, which his imitators have, even to the present time, scarcely improved. His point is firm and determined, and the shadows broad and perfect. Although his drawing is incorrect, and his draperies stiff, yet he appears to have founded a school to which we owe the Hopfers, and even Hollar himself. Mr. Strutt notices only two plates now known by him, both dated 1518. In one of them he is styled Philipus Adler Patricias.

, born near Stockholm in 1671, studied with great applause in the university of Upsal, and then made the tour of Holland, England, and France. On his return Charles XII. gave him the place of a gentleman of his chamber. Adlerfeldt accompanied this prince both in his victories and his defeats, and profited by the access he had to this monarch, in the compilation of his history. It is written with all the exactitude that might be expected from an eye-witness. This Swedish officer was killed by a cannon ball at the battle of Pulto.va, in 1709. It is on this famous day that his memoirs conclude. A French translation of them was made by his son, and printed in 4 vols. 12mo, at Amsterdam in 1740. The continuation, giving an account of the fatal battle, was written by a Swedish officer.

, of Tottenweiss, chancellor to the elector of Bavaria, was born at Rosenheim, 1596, studied at Munich and Ingolstadt, and served the house of Bavaria on many important occasions. He is now chiefly known by his “Annales Boicse gentis.” This work, drawn from authentic sources, contains the history of Bavaria from the earliest period to the year 1662, when it was published at Munich. Leibnitz republished it in 1710. The author died about the time his work first appeared, in 1662.

, St. archbishop of Vienne, in Dauphiny, was born in Gastinois, about the year 800, of an ancient family. He was educated in the abbey of Ferrieres, where he embraced a monastic life, and afterwards passed some time in the monastery of Pruni, but meeting with some unpleasant circumstances there, he went to Rome, where he spent five years in amassing materials for the works which he afterwards wrote. On his return he was employed by Remi, archbishop of Lyons, in his diocese, and was elected archbishop of Vienne in the year 860. His vigilance over his clergy, his care in the instruction of his flock, his frequent visitations throughout his province, and the humility and purity of his private life, distinguished him in an age not remarkable for these virtues. He appears to have been consulted also in affairs of state, when, he gave his opinion, and urged his remonstrances with firmness and independence. He died Dec. 16, 875. He is the author of, 1. “An Universal Chronicle,” from the creation of the world, which has been often cited as authority for the early history of France. It was printed at Paris, 1512, 1522, fol. 156], 8vo; and at Rome, 1745, fol. 2. “A Martyrology,” better arranged than any preceding, and enriched by the lives of the saints. It was printed by Rosweide, Antwerp, 1613; and Paris, 1645, fol.; and is inserted in the Bibliotheque des Peres. He also wrote the life of St. Didier, which is in Canisius; and that of St. Theudier, which is in the “Acta Sanctorum.”

, of an ancient family in Dauphiny, and a bold and enterprising spirit, was born in 1513. After having served in the army with great distinction, he espoused the cause of the Huguenots from resentment to the duke of Guise in 1562. He took Valence, Vienne, Grenoble, and Lyons, but signalized himself less by his prowess and his activity than by his atrocious acts of vengeance. The Catholic writers say, that in regard to persons of their communion he was what Nero had been of old to the primitive Christians. He put his invention to the rack to find out the most fantastic punishments, and enjoyed the barbarous satisfaction of inflicting them on all that fell into his hands. At Montbrison and at Mornas, the soldiers that were made prisoners were obliged to throw themselves from the battlements upon the pikes of his people. Having reproached one of these wretches with having retreated twice from the leap without daring to take it: “Mons. le baron,” said the soldier, “with all your bravery, I defy you to take it in three.” The composed humour of the man saved his life. His conduct was far from being approved even by the most violent of Ins party; admiral Coligny and the prince of Conde were so shocked at his cruelties, that the government of Lyons was taken from him; and piqued at this, Des Adrets was upon the point of turning Catholic; but he was seized at Romans, and would have been brought to the scaffold, if the peace, just then concluded, had not saved him. He afterwards put his design in execution, and died despised and detested by both parties, Feb. 2, 1587. He left two sons and a daughter, who had no issue, gome time before his death, Des Adrets, being at Grenoble, where the duke de Mayenne then was, he wanted to revenge the affronts and threats that Pardaillan had given him on account of the murder of his father. He repeated several times, that he had quitted his solitude to convince all such as might complain of him, that his sword was not grown so rusty but that it could always right him. Pardaillan did not think himself obliged to take any notice of this bravado of a swordsman then in his 74th year: and Des Adrets went back again content with his rhodomontade. The ambassador of Savoy once meeting him on the high road alone, with only a stick in his hand, was surprised at seeing an old man, notorious for his barbarous executions, walking without a companion and quite defenceless, and asked him of his welfare. “I have nothing to say to you,” answered Des Adrets coldly, “unless it be to desire you to acquaint your master, that you met the baron des Adrets, his very humble servant, on the high road, with a white stick in his hand and without a sword, and that nobody said any thing to him.” One of the sons of the baron des Adrets was engaged in the massacre of St. Bartholomew. He had been page to the king, who ordered him one day to go and call his chancellor. The magistrate, who was then at table, having answered him, that as soon as he had dined he would go and receive the commands of his majesty “What!” said the page, “dare you delay a moment when the king commands Rise, and instantly be gone” Whereupon he took hold of the table-cloth by one corner, and drew the whole of the dinner down upon the floor. M. de la Place relates this anecdote (rather improbable it must be confessed) in his “Pieces interessantes,” torn. IV; and adds, that the story being told to Charles IX. by the chancellor, the monarch only laughed, and said “that the son would be as violent as the father.” To this day the name of Adrets is never pronounced in Dauphiny without horror. Such the story usually reported of this extraordinary character; but it is said that Maimbourg, Brantome, Moreri, and Daniel have given some exaggerated accounts of his cruelties. Thnanus has justified him from some of the accusations, and particularly in affair of Mornas, where he was not present.

, the historian of Mazara in Sicily, and a very eminent physician, who studied Latin at Mazara, rhetoric at Panorma, and philosophy and medicine at Naples, under the celebrated Augustine Niphus. He took his doctor’s degree at Salernum in 1510. He afterwards practised physic with great success at Palermo, and was made a burgess of that city. Charles V. afterwards appointed him to be his physician, and physician-general of Sicily. He died in 1560. His history is entitled “Topographia inclytae civitatis Mazariae,” Panorm. 1515, 4to. He wrote also some medical treatises on the plague, on bleeding, on the baths of Sicily; and “Epistola ad Conjugem,” a Latin poem, Panorm. 1516.

, an ingenious and learned Carthusian monk, is the author of a treatise entitled “De remediis utriusque fortunze,”' the first edition of which, published at Cologn, 1467, 4to, is the most scarce and valuable; the second bears date 1471, 4to; the third was printed at Cremona, 1492, fol. In order to avoid confounding this treatise with that of Petrarch on the same subject, it is necessary to know that the title says: “per quendam Adrianum poetam prsestantem, necnon S. Th. professorem eximium.” No particulars are known of his birth or death.

, the Roman emperor, was born at Rome Jan. 24, in the year of Christ 76. His father left him an orphan, at ten years of age, tinder the guardianship of Trajan, and Caelius Tatianus, a Roman knight. He began to serve very early in the armies, having been tribune of a legion before the death of Domitian. He was the person chosen by the army of Lower Mcesia, to carry the news of Nerva’s death to Trajan, successor to the empire. The extravagances of his youth deprived him of this emperor’s favour; but having recovered it by reforming his behaviour, he was married to Sabina, a grand niece of Trajan, and the empress Plotina became his great friend and patroness. When he was quaestor, he delivered an oration in the senate; but his language was then so rough and unpolished, that he was hissed: this obliged him to apply to the study of the Latin tongue, in which he afterwards became a great proficient, and made a considerable figure for his eloquence. He accompanied Trajan in most of his expeditions, and particularly distinguished himself in the second war against the Daci; and having before been quaestor, as well as tribune of the people, he was now successively praetor, governor of Pannonia, and consul. After the siege of Atra in Arabia was raised, Trajan, who had already given him the government of Syria, left him the command of the army; and at length, when he found death approaching, it is said he adopted him. The reality of this adoption is by some disputed, and is thought to have been a contrivance of Plotina; however, Adrian, who was then in Antiochia, as soon as he received the news of that, and of Trajan’s death, declared himself emperor on the llth of August, 117. He then immediately made peace with the Persians, to whom he yielded up great part of the conquests of his predecessors; and from generosity, or policy, he remitted the debts of the Roman people, which, according to the calculation of those who have reduced them to modern money, amounted to 22,500,000 golden crowns; and he caused to be burnt all the bonds and obligations relating to those debts, that the people might be under no apprehension of being called to an account for them afterwards. He went to visit all the provinces, and did not return to Rome till the year 118, when the senate decreed him a triumph, and honoured him with the title of Father of his country; but he refused both, and desired that Trajan’s image might triumph. The following year he went to Mcesia to oppose the Sarmatce. In his absence several persons of great worth were put to death; and though he protested he had given no orders for that purpose, yet the odium fell chiefly upon him. No prince travelled more than Adrian; there being hardly one province in the empire which be did not visit. In 120 he went into Gaul, and thence to Britain, where he caused a wall or rampart to be built, as a defence against the Caledonians who would not submit to the Iloman government. In 121 he returned into France, and thence to Spain, to Mauritania, and at length into the East, where he quieted the commotions raised by the Parthians. After having visited all the provinces of Asia, he returned to Athens in 125, where he passed the winter, and was initiated in the mysteries of Eleusinian Ceres. He went from thence, to Sicily, and saw mount Ætna. He returned to Rome the beginning of the year 129; and, according to some, he went again the same year to Africa; and after his return from thence, to the east. He was in Egypt in the year 132, revisited Syria the year following, returned to Athens in 134, and to Rome in 135. The persecution against the Christians was very violent under his reign; but it was at length suspended, in consequence of the remonstrances of Quadratus bishop of Athens, and Aristides, two Christian philosophers, who presented the emperor with some books in favour of their religion. He was more severe against the Jews; and, by way of insult, erected a temple to Jupiter on mount Calvary, and placed a statue of Adonis in the manger of Bethlehem he caused also the images of swine to be engraved on the gates of Jerusalem.

Adrian reigned 21 years, and died at Baiae in 139, in the 63d year of his age. The Latin verses he addressed to his soul on his death-bed, shew his uncertainty and doubts in regard to the other world. He was a prince adorned with great virtues, but they were mingled with great vices. He xvas generous, industrious, polite, and exact; he maintained order and discipline; he administered justice with indefatigable application, and punished rigorously all those who did not faithfully execute the offices with which they were entrusted: he had a great share of wit, and a surprising memory; he was well versed in most of the polite arts and sciences, and is said to have written several works. On the other hand, he was cruel, envious, lascivious, superstitious, and so weak as to give himself up to the study of magic.

Adrian having no children by Sabina, adopted Lucius Aurelius Annius Ceionius Commodus Verus; but Lucius dying the 1st of January 138, he then adopted Titus Antoninus, on condition that he should adopt Marcus Annius Verus, and the son of Lucius Verus.

, the only Englishman who ever had the honour of sitting in the papal chair. His name was Nicholas Brekespere; and he was born about the end of the 11th century, at Langley, near St. Alban’s, in Hertfordshire. His father having left his family, and taken the habit of the monastery of St. Alban’s, Nicholas was obliged to submit to the lowest offices in that house for daily support. After some time he desired to take the habit in that monastery, but was rejected by the abbot Richard: “He was examined,” says Matthew Paris, “and being found insufficient, the abbot said to him, Wait, my son, and go to school a little longer, till you are better qualified.” But if the character given of young Brekespere by Pitts be a just one, the abbot was certainly to be blamed for rejecting a person who would have done great honour to his house. He was, according to that author, a handsome and comely youth, of a sharp wit and ready utterance; circumspect in all his words and actions, polite in his behaviour, neat and elegant; full of zeal for the glory of God, and that according to some degree of knowledge; so possessed of all the most valuable endowments of mind and body, that in him the gifts of heaven exceeded nature: his piety exceeded his education; and the ripeness of his judgment and his other qualifications exceeded his age. Having met however with the above repulse, he resolved to try his fortune in another country, and went to Paris; where, though in very poor circumstances, he applied himself to his studies with great assiduity, and made a wonderful proficiency. But having still a strong inclination to a religious life, he left Paris, and removed to Provence, where he became a regular clerk in the monastery of St. Rufus. He was not immediately allowed to take the habit, but passed some time by way of trial, in recommending himself to the monks by a strict attention to all their commands. This behaviour, together with the beauty of his person, and prudent conversation, rendered him so acceptable to those religious, that after some time they entreated him to take the habit of the canonical order. Here he distinguished himself so much by his learning and strict observance of the monastic discipline, that, upon the death of the abbot, he was chosen superior of that house; and we are told that he rebuilt that convent. He did not long enjoy this abbacy: for the monks, being tired of the government of a foreigner, brought accusations against him before pope Eugenius III. who, after having examined their complaint, and heard the defence of Nicholas, declared him innocent; his holiness, however, gave the monks leave to choose another superior, and, being sensible of the great merit of Nicholas, and thinking he might be serviceable to the church in a higher station, created him cardinal-bishop of Alba, in 1146.

In 1148 Eugenius sent him legate to Denmark and Norway; where, by his fervent preaching and diligent instructions, he converted those barbarous nations to the Christian faith; and we are told, that he erected the church of Upsal into an archiepiscopal see. On his return to Rome, he was received by the pope and cardinals with great marks of honour: and pope Anastatius, who succeeded Eugenius, happening to die at this time, Nicholas was unanimously chosen to the holy see, in November, 1154, and took the name of Adrian. When the news of his promotion reached England, Henry II. sent Robert, abbot of St. Alban’s, and three bishops, to Rome, to congratulate him on his election; upon which occasion Adrian granted to the monastery of St. Alban’s, the privilege of being exempt front all episcopal jurisdiction except that of Rome. Next year, king Henry having solicited the pope’s consent that he might undertake the conquest of Ireland, Adrian very readily complied, and sent him a bull for that purpose, of which the following is a translation: “Adrian, bishop, servant of the servants of God, to his most dear son in Christ, the illustrious king of England, sendeth greeting and apostolical benediction. Your magnificence is very careful to spread your glorious name in the world, and to merit an immortal crown in heaven, whilst, as a good catholic prince, you form a design of extending the bounds of the church, of instructing ignorant and barbarous people in the Christian faith, and of reforming the licentious and immoral; and the more effectually to put this design in execution, you desire the advice and assistance of the holy see. We are confident, that, by the blessing of God, the success will answer the wisdom and discretion of the undertaking. You have advertised us, dear son, of your intended expedition into Ireland, to reduce that people to the obedience of the Christian faith; and that you are willing to pay for every house a yearly acknowledgment of one penny to St. Peter, promising to maintain the rights of those churches in the fullest manner. We therefore, being willing to assist you in this pious and laudable design, and consenting to your petition, do grant you full liberty to make a descent upon that island, in order to enlarge the borders of the church, to check the progress of immorality, and to promote the spiritual happiness of the natives: and we command the people of that country to receire and acknowledge you as their sovereign lord; provided the rights of the churches be inviolably preserved, and the Peter pence duly paid: for indeed it is certain (and your highness acknowledges it) that all the islands, which are enlightened by Christ, the sun of righteousness, and have embraced the doctrines of Christianity, are unquestionably St. Peter’s right, and belong to the holy Roman church. If, therefore, you resolve to put your designs in execution, be careful to reform the manners of that people; and commit the government of the churches to able and virtuous persons, that the Christian religion may grow and flourish, and the honour of God and the preservation of souls be effectually promoted; so shall you deserve an everlasting reward in heaven, and leave a glorious name to all posterity.” His indulgence to this prince was so great, that he even consented to absolve him from the oath he had taken not to set aside any part of his father’s will. The reason of this was, that Geoffry Plantagenet, earl of Anjou, had by the empress Maud, three sons, Henry, Geoffry, and William. This prince, being sensible that his ovrn dominions would of course descend to his eldest son Henry, and that the kingdom of England and duchy of Normandy would likewise fall to him in right of his mother, thought fit to devise the earldom of Anjou to his second son Geoffry; and to render this the more valid, he exacted an oath of the bishops and nobility, not to suffer his corpse to be buried till his son Henry had sworn to fulfil every part of his will. When Henry came to attend his father’s funeral, the oath was tendered to him; but for some time he refused to swear to a writing, with the contents of which he was unacquainted. Howerer, being reproached with the scandal of letting his father lie unburied, he at last took the oath with great reluctance. But after his accession to the throne, upon a complaint to pope Adrian that the oath was forced upon him, he procured a dispensation from his holiness, absolving him from the obligation he had laid himself under: and in consequence thereof, he dispossessed his brother Geoffry of the dominions of Anjou, allowing him only a yearly pension for his maintenance.

Adrian, in the beginning of his pontificate, boldly withstood the attempts of the Roman people to recover their ancient liberty under the consuls, and obliged those magistrates to abdicate their authority, and leave the government of the city to the pope. In 1155, he drove Arnold of Bresse and his followers out of Rome. The same year he excommunicated William king of Sicily, who ravaged the territories of the church, and absolved that prince’s subjects from their allegiance. About the same time, Frederic, king of the Romans, having entered Italy with a powerful army, Adrian met him near Sutrium, and concluded a peace with him. At this interview, Frederic consented to hold the pope’s stirrup whilst he mounted on horseback. After which his holiness conducted that prince to Rome, and in St. Peter’s church placed the imperial crown on his head, to the great mortification of the Roman people, who assembled in a tumultuous manner, and killed several of the imperialists. The next year a reconciliation was brought about between the pope and the Sicilian king, that prince taking an oath to do nothing farther to the prejudice of the church, and Adrian granting him the title of king of the two Sicilies. He built and fortified several castles, and left the papal dominions in a more flourishing condition than he found them. But notwithstanding all his success, he was extremely sensible of the disquietudes attending so high a station, and complained of them to his countryman John of Salisbury. He died Sept. 1, 1159, in the fourth year and tenth month of his pontificate, and was buried in St. Peter’s church, near the tomb of his predecessor Eugenius. Besides some writings attributed to this ambitious pope, not yet printed, there are, in Labbe’s Concilia, forty-two letters; and Martene, Balusius, Usher, Marca, &c. have brought others to light, as may be seen in Fabric. Biblioth. Lat. med. setat. and Cave. The most remarkable of those letters are what contain the word beneficium. In Aventini Annal. Bajor. are letters between the emperor and the pope, the authenticity of which is still disputed; and those betwixt the bishops of Germany and the pope, and the letter of licence to Henry II. to conquer Ireland, are in Wilkins’s Concil. Britan. The famous peace with king William, which so nearly concerns the Sicilian monarchy, is in Baronius’s Annals.

, pope, who deserves some notice on account of his personal merit, was born in Utrecht, 1459, of parents reputed mean, who procured him a place among the poor scholars in the college of Louvain, where his application was such as to induce Margaret of England, the sister of Edward IV. and widow of Charles duke of Burgundy, to bear the expences of his advancement to the degree of doctor. He became successively a canon of St. Peter, professor of divinity, dean of the church of Louvain, and fastly, vice-chancellor of the university. Recollecting his own condition, he generously founded a college at Louvain, which bears his name, for the education of poor students. Afterwards Maximilian I. appointed him preceptor to his grandson Charles V. and sent him as ambassador to Ferdinand king of Spain, who gave him the bishoprick of Tortosa. In 1517 he was made cardinal, and during the infancy of Charles V. became regent; but the duties of the office were engrossed by cardinal Ximenes. On the death of Leo X. Charles V. had so much influence with the cardinals as to procure him to be chosen to the papal chair, in 1522. He was not, however, very acceptable to the college, as he had an aversion to pomp, expence, and pleasure. He refused to resent, by fire and sword, the complaints urged by Luther; but endeavoured to reform such abuses in the church as could neither be concealed or denied. To this conduct he owed the many satires written against him during his life, and the unfavourable representations made by the most learned of the Roman Catholic historians. Perhaps his partiality to the emperor Charles might increase their dislike, and occasion the suspicion that his death, which took place Sept. 24, 1523, was a violent one. For this, however, we know no other foundation, than a pasquinade stuck upon the house of his physician “To the deliverer of his country.” He is said to have composed an epitaph for himself, expressing, that the greatest misfortune of his life was his being called to govern. He has left some writings, as, 1. “Questiones et Expositiones in IV. Sententiarum,” Paris, 1512 and 1516, fol.; 1527, 8vo. In this he advanced some bold sentiments against papal infallibility. Although he wrote the work before he was pope, he reprinted it without any alteration. 2. “Questiones Quodlibeticae,” Louvain, 1515, 8vo; Paris, 1516, fol. Foppen gives a large list of his other writings. His life was written by Paulus Jovius, Onuphrius Panviuius, Gerard Moringus, a divine of Louvain, and lastly by Caspar Burman, under the title “Analecta Historica de Adriano VI. Trajectino, Papa Romano,” Utrecht, 1727, 4to.

, bishop of Bath and Wells in the reigns of Henry VII. and VIII. was descended of an obscure family at Cornetto, a small town in Tuscany; but soon distinguished himself by his learning and abilities, and procured several employments at the court of Rome. In 1448 he was appointed nuncio extraordinary to Scotland, by pope Innocent VIII. to quiet the troubles in that kingdom; but, upon his arrival in England, being informed that his presence was not necessary in Scotland, the contests there having been ended by a battle, he applied himself to execute some other commissions with which he was charged, particularly to collect the pope’s tribute, or Peter-pence, his holiness having appointed him his treasurer for that purpose. He continued some months in England, during which time he got so far into the good graces of Morton, archbishop of Canterbury, that he recommended him to the king; who appointed him his agent for English affairs at Rome; and, as a recompense for his faithful services, promoted him first to the bishoprick of Hereford, and afterwards to that of Bath and Wells. He was enthroned at Wells by his proxy Polydore Vergil, at that time the pope’s sub-collector in England, and afterwards appointed by Adrian archdeacon of Wells. Adrian let out his bishoprick to farmers, and afterwards to cardinal Wolsey, himself residing at Rome, where he built a magnificent palace, on the front of which he had the name of his benefactor Henry VII. inscribed: he left it after his decease to that prince and his successors. Alexander VI, who succeeded Innocent VIII, appointed Adrian his principal secretary, and vicar-general in spirituals and temporals; and the same pope created him a cardinal-priest, with the title of St. Chrysogonus, the 31st of May, 1503. Soon after his creation, he narrowly escaped being poisoned at a feast, to which he was invited with some other cardinals, by the pope and his son Caesar Borgia.

In the pontificate of Julius II. who succeeded Alexander, Adrian retired from Rome, having taken some disgust, or perhaps distrusting this pope, who was a declared enemy of his predecessor: nor did he return till there was a conclave held for the election of a new pope, where he probably gave his voice for Leo X. Soon after he was unfortunately privy to a conspiracy against Leo. His embarking in the plot is said to have been chiefly owing to his crediting and applying to himself the prediction of a fortune-teller, who had assured him, “that Leo would be cut off by an unnatural death, and be succeeded by an elderly man named Adrian, of obscure birth, but fa-­mous for his learning, and whose virtue and merit alone had raised him to the highest honours of the church.” Th conspiracy being discovered, Adrian was condemned to pay 12,500 ducats, and to give a solemn promise that he would not stir out of Rome. But being either unable to pay this fine, or apprehending still farther severities, he privately withdrew from Rome; and in a consistory held the 6th of July 1518, he was declared excommunicated, and deprived of all his benefices, as well as his ecclesiastical orders. About four years before, he had been removed from his office of the pope’s collector in England, at the request of king Henry VIII, and through the instigation of cardinal Wolsey. The heads of his accusation, drawn up at Rome, were, “That he had absented himself from that city in the time of Julius II. without the pope’s leave; that he had never resided, as he ought to have done^ at the church of St. Chrysogonus, from which he had his title; that he had again withdrawn himself from Rome, and had not appeared to a legal citation; and that he had engaged in the conspiracy of cardinal Petrucci, and had signed the league of Francis Maria, duke of Urbino, against the pope.” He was at Venice when he received the news of his condemnation: what becarme of him afterwards is uncertain. Aubery says, he took refuge among the Turks in Asia; but the most common opinion is, that he was murdered by one of his servants for the sake of his wealth. Polydore Vergil tells us, there is to be seen at Riva, a village in the diocese of Trent, a Latin inscription on one Polydorus Casamicus, the pope’s janitor, written by cardinal Adrian; in which he laments his own wretched condition, extolling the happiness of his friend, whose death had put an end to his miseries. Polydore Vergil gives Adrian a high character for his uncommon learning, his exquisite^ judgment in the choice of the properest words, and the truly classical style of his writings; in which he was the first, says that author, since the age of Cicero, who revived the purity of the Latin language, and taught men to draw their knowlege from the sources of the best and most learned authors. The only works of his that are published are, 1. “De Vera Philosophia;” 2. “De Sermone Latino et de Modis Latine loquendi,” 1515, Rome, fol.

, a Flemish Jesuit, and a native of Antwerp, entered into the society of the Jesuits at Louvain, in 1544, and was principal for many years before they had a college. In 1551, he made solemn profession of the four vows. After the death of St. Ignatius, he was called to Rome to assist in a general congregation for the election of a second general of the society. But, finding himself here involved in disputes and intrigues not suited to his disposition, he retired to Flanders, where he appears to have led a studious and useful life. He died at Louvain, October 18, 1580, after having published, in German, several works of the ascetic kind, one of which, “De Divinis Inspirationibus et de Confessione,” was translated into Latin by Gerard Brunelius, and printed at Cologn, 1601, 12mo.

, professor of the belles lettres, and chancellor of the republic of Florence, was born in 1464, He was a very accomplished scholar in the Greek and Latin languages. Varchi, in one of his lectures, pronounces him the most eloquent man of his time. He died in 1521, in consequence of a fall from his horse. In 1518, he published a Latin translation of Dioscorides “De Materia Medica,” with a commentary. About the end of it he mentions a treatise, “De mensuris, ponderibus, et coloribus,” which he had prepared for publication, but which has not yet appeared. Mazzuchelli speaks largely of him in his “Italian Writers;” and more copious notice is taken of him by the canon Baudini, in his. “Collectio Vetcrum Monumentorum.” The translation of Dioscorides, which he dedicated to pope Leo X. procured him so much reputation, that he was called the Dioscorides of Florence.

, the son of the preceding, was born in 1513, or, as some say, 1511, and died at Florence in 1579. In his youth, he carried arms in defence of the liberties of his country, and afterwards devoted his time to study. For thirty years he taught rhetoric in the university of Florence, and enjoyed the friendship of the most celebrated of his contemporaries, Annibal Caro, Varchi, Flaminio, and the cardinals Bembo and Contarini. His chief work, which forms a continuation of Guicciardini, is the history of his own time, entitled “Deir Istoria de' suoi tempi,” from 1536 to 1574. Florence, 1583, fol. This is a most scarce edition, and more valued than that of Venice, 1587, 3 vols. 4to. The abbé Lenglet du Fresnoy, Bayle, and particularly Thuanus, who has derived much assistance from this work, speak highly of his correctness as a historian. He had the best materials, and among others, some memoirs furnished by the grand duke of Tuscany, Cosmo I. who advised him to the undertaking. He is said to have written funeral orations on the grand duke, on Charles V. and the emperor Ferdinand; but we know only of his oration on the grand duchess, Jane of Austria, which was translated from Latin into Italian, and published at Florence in 1579, 4to. In 1567 he published “Lettera a Giorgio Vasari sopra gli antichi Pittori nominati da Plinio,” 4to. This letter, oa the ancient painters mentioned by Pliny, which is rather a treatise on painting, is inserted by Vasari in the second volume of his lives of the painters. Vasari speaks of him as an enlightened amateur of the fine arts, and one whose advice was of much importance to him when he was employed at Florence in the palace of the grand duke.

, son of the preceding, born in 1533, was so distinguished for his studies, as to obtain, when very young, the professorship of rhetoric which his father held in the university of Florence. So our authority; but there seems to be some mistake in this date, as he could not be very young when he succeeded his father as professor of rhetoric, if his father filled that chair for the space of thirty years. He was, however, a member of the academy of Florence, and published his father’s history. His own works are, 1. An Italian translation of “Demetrius Phalereus” on eloquence, which he left in manuscript, and which was not published until 1738, by Antony Francis Gori, who prefixed a long account of the life and writings of the translator; 2. Two Lectures on the “Education of the Florentine Nobility,” printed in the “Prose Fiorentine,” vol. IV. He also translated Plutarch’s Morals, not yet published, but much commended by Ammirato and others. There are two copies in the Laurentian library; Adrian died in 1604.

, a Spanish painter, born at Cordova, was a lay friar of the order of the bare-footed Carmelites. Of his works, which are not numerous, and are to be seen only at the place of his birth, the most remarkable is a Crucifixion, in the manner of Sadeler, whose style was much admired by him. He was so diffident of his own talents that he frequently destroyed his pictures as soon as he had executed them, and some were preserved by his friends, who begged them from him in the name of the souls in purgatory, for whom he constantly put op his prayers. He died at Cordova in 1650.

, a geographer of considerable note, was born at Delft in Holland, February 14, 1533, After applying to his studies with much assiduity, he was ordained priest in 1561, and was director of the nuns of St. Barbara until the civil wars obliged him to take refuge first at Mecklin, then at Maestricht, and lastly at Cologne, where he died, June 20, 1585. He published “Vita Jesu Christi, ex quatuor evangelistis breviter contexta,” Antwerp, 1578, 12mo; but the work for which he is best known is his “Theatrum Terra; Sanctse,” or, history of the Holy Land, illustrated with maps, and printed in 1590, 1595, 1600, 1628, and 1682, foL; a proof of the esteem in which it was long held, although his authorities are thought to be sometimes exceptionable. The second part, which contains a description of Jerusalem, was printed by the author in 1584, and was reprinted after his death in 1588, and 1592, 8vo. He sometimes took the name of Christianus Crucius, in allusion to his banishment and sufferings.

was born in the beginning of the tenth century, in the environs of Condat, now St. Claude. He studied at the abbey of Luxeuil, which had then a very famous school, under the direction cf the Benedictines. Being charmed with their mode of life and doctrines, he entered into the order, and became abbot. His principal writings are the lives of some saints, which arc not free from the superstitions of the times. Calmet has printed his life of St. Mansuetus; and Mabillon, his life of St. Valbert, or Wandalbert. Cave mentions other works of his, but he deserves more credit as one of those who laboured in diffusing learning. Such was his reputation, that many bishops applied to him to establish schools in their dioceses, and he was even consulted by crowned heads on these and other subjects of importance. He died in Champagne in the year 992.

, of Cappadocia, an eclectic philosopher of the fourth century, was of a family originally noble, but reduced to poverty. His parents sent him into Greece to learn some means of subsistence, but he returned with only a love of philosophy. On this his father turned him out of doors; but at length was prevailed upon to forgive him, and even to let him pursue his studies, in which he soon surpassed the ablest masters of his country. In order to increase his knowledge, he went to Syria, and became the disciple of Jamblicus, and after the dispersion of that school by Constantine the Great, he settled at Pergamos, where he had a-very flourishing school. What he taught, however, was a composition of mysticism and imposture, and he even pretended to immediate communication with the deities, and to obtain the revelation of future events. The time of his birth or death is not ascertained.

, a Nestorian priest, lived, according to Vossius, under the emperor Zeno, about the year 483; but Cave is of opinion that he lived some years later, as he continued his history five books after the deposing of Peter the Fuller. This was an Ecclesiastical History, beginning with the reign of Theodosius the younger, when Nestorius published his opinions, and ending with the reign of Zeno, and the deposition of Peter the Fuller, who had usurped the see of Antioch. He wrote likewise a treatise against the council of Chalcedon. Photius praises his style, but censures his principles. There is only a fragment extant of his history in the Concilia, vol. VII. and in the collections of Theodoras Lector.

, a Grecian physician and philosopher, who flourished in the eighth century, under the emperor Tiberius II. He turned Benedictine at last, and left a great many tracts behind, some of which have been in so much credit as to be read in the schools. The principal are “De Pulsibus,” and “De Venenis.” Some think there is another of tnis name and profession, a Benedictine also, and physician to Philip Augustus king of France, to whom they attribute a work in Latin hexameters, on the same subject, Paris, 1528, in 4to; but this is perhaps only another version. Being accidentally wounded with an arrow, he would not suffer the wound to be dressed, that he might have an opportunity of exercising his fortitude in pain.

, one of the most learned divines of the thirteenth century, entered into the Augustine order, and studied at Paris under Thomas Aquinas, where he became so eminent as to acquire the title of the Profound Doctor. He was preceptor to the son of Philip III. of France, and composed for the use of his pupil his treatise “De regimine Principum,” Rome, 1492, fol. The Venetian edition of 1498 is still in some esteem. He also taught philosophy and theology with high reputation at Paris. He was preferred by Boniface VIII. to the episcopal see of Berri, and, according to some writers was, by the same pope, created a cardinal. He was, however, elected general of his order in 1292, and assisted at the general council of Vienna in 1311. He died Dec. 22, 1316, at Avignon, leaving various works, enumerated by Cave; which afford, in our times, no very favourable opinion of his talents, although they were in high reputation during his life, and long after. One only it may be necessary to notice as a very great rarity. The title is “Tractatus brevis et utilis de Originali Peccato,” 4to, printed at Oxford, 1479, and is supposed to be the third, or second, or, as some think, the first book printed there. Dr. Clarke has described it.

, a learned Englishman of the thirteenth century, was born at St. Alban’s, and as Fuller conjectures, in the parish of St. Giles’s in that town, now destroyed. He was educated at Paris, where he became eminent in logic and philosophy. He then turned his studies to medicine, and became not only professor of that faculty in the university, but a celebrated practitioner in the city, and was employed about the person of Philip the French king. From Paris he removed to Montpellier, where he studied the diseases of the mind; and on his return to Paris, confined himself entirely to the study of divinity, and soon became a doctor in that faculty, and a professor in the schools. In 1223 he joined the Dominicans, and was the first Englishman of that order. This occasioned his removal to Oxford, where the Dominicans had two schools, in which he became a professor and lecturer both in the arts and in divinity, and was of great service to the Dominicans by his personal credit and reputation. A close intimacy took place between him and the celebrated Grossetete, bishop of Lincoln, who obtained leave of the general of the Dominicans that Ægidius might reside with him as an assistant in his diocese, at that time the largest in England. Leland, Bale, and Pitts ascribe some writings to him, but they seem to be all of doubtful authority.

, a lawyer, was born at Antwerp in 1486. He was educated under the care of the celebrated Erasmus, with whom he lived afterwards in close friendship, as he did with the illustrious sir Thomas More, and other eminent scholars of that age. More introduces him in the prologue to his Utopi with high praise, as “a man there in his country of honest reputation, and also preferred to high promotions, worthy truly of the highest. For it is hard to say whether the young man be in learning or in honesty more excellent. For he is both of wonderful virtuous conditions, and also singularly well learned, and towards all sorts of people exceeding gentle.” Sir Thomas adds, that “the charms of his conversation abated the fervent desire he had to see his native country, from which sir Thomas had been absent more than four months.” He occurs also with high praise in the life and writings of Erasmus. In 1510, on the death of Adrian Blict, first notary at Antwerp, he was unanimously elected into his place. He died Nov. 29, 1533. His works are, 1. “Threnodiain funus Maximiliani Caesaris, cum Epitaphiis aliquot et Epigrammatum libello,” Antwerp, 1519, 4to. 2. “Hypotheses, sive Spectacula Carolo V. Caesari ab S. P. Q. Antver.” ib. 4to. 3. “Enchiridion Principis ac Magistratus Christiani,” Colon. 1541. He edited also “Titulos Legum ex Codice Theodosiario,” Louvain, 1517, folio.

, successively bishop of Wilton and archbishop of Canterbury, and one of the greatest luminaries of his dark era, was the son of an earl of Kent, and after receiving a few scanty instructions from an ignorant secular priest, assumed the habit of the Benedictine order of monks in the monastery at Abingdon, over which Athelwold then presided, having been appointed abbot in the year 955. Athelwold, being created bishop of Winchester in the year 693, settled several of the Abingdon monks in his cathedral. Among these was Ælfric; who, in return for the benefit which he had formerly derived from the instructions of Alhelwold, was now eager to show his gratitude, by forwarding the wishes of his benefactor to instruct the youth of his diocese. With this view he drew tip his “Latin-Saxon Vocabulary,” and some “Latin Colloquies.” The former of these works was published by Somner, under the title of a Glossary, Oxon. 1659 (See Somner). During his residence in this city, Ælfric translated, from the Latin into the Saxon language, most of the historical books of the Old Testament: the greatest part of which translations has reached our time, having been printed at Oxford in 1698. Here, likewise, at the request of Wulfsine, bishop of Sherborn, he drew up what has been called his “Canons,” but might more properly be styled, a charge to be delivered by the bishops to their clergy. They are preserved in the first volume of Spelman’s Councils, and were composed, between the years 980 and 987. Some time about this last year, Ælfric was removed to Cerne Abbey, to instruct the monks, and regulate the affairs of that monastery. Here it was that he translated, from the Latin fathers, the first volume of his “Homilies.” After remaining in this place about a year, he was made abbot of St. Alban’s in the year 988, and composed a liturgy for the service of his abbey, which continued to be used there till Leland’s time. In the year 989 he was created Lishop of Wilton, and during his continuance in that see, translated, about the latter end of the year 991, a second volume of “Homilies.” These are the volumes of which Mrs. Elstob issued proposals for a translation, in 1713, accompanied with the original, but did not live to publish the work. Here also Ælfric wrote his “Grammar,” a supplement to his Homilies, and, probably, a tract dedicated to Sigeward or Sigeferth, containing two epistles oil the Old and New Testament, which his biographer concludes to have been written between the years 987 and 991. In 994, he was translated to Canterbury, where, after exerting himself for some years, with equal spirit and prudence, in defending his diocese against the incursions of the Danes, he died Nov. 16, 1005. He was buried at Abingdon, the place where he first embraced the profession of a monk, whence his remains were afterwards transferred to Canterbury, in the reign of Canute.

, an historian and rhetorician, born at Praeueste in Italy, about the year 160, taught rhetoric at Rome, according to Perizonius, under the emperor Alexander Severus. He was surnamed MEXryXaxro--, Honeytongue, on account of the sweetness of his style. He was likewise honoured with the title of sophist, an appellation in his days given only to men of learning and wisdom. He loved retirement, and devoted himself to study; and his works shew him to have been a man of excellent principles and strict integrity. He greatly admired and studied Plato, Aristotle, Isocrates, Plutarch, Homer, Anacreon, Archilochus, &c.; and, though a Roman, gives the preference to the writers of the Greek nation. His two most celebrated works are his “Various History,” and that “Of Animals.” He wrote also an invective against Heliogabalus, or, as some think, Domitian; but this is not certain, for he gives the tyrant, whom he lashes, the fictitious name of Gynnis. He composed likewise a book “Of Providence,” mentioned by Eustathius; and another on divine appearances, or the declarations of providence. Some ascribe to him also the work entitled “Tactica, or De re Militari;” but Perizonius is of opinion, that this piece belonged to another author of the same name, a native of Greece. There have been several editions of his “Varipus History.” The Greek text was published at Rome in 1545, by Camillas Peruscus. Justus Vulteius gave a Latin translation, which was printed separately in 1548; and joined to the Greek text in a new edition, by HenricusPetrus, at Basil, 1555. It contains likewise the works of several other authors, who have treated on such subjects as ^lian. John Tornaesius published three several editions at Lyons, in 1587, 1610, and 1625. All these were eclipsed by that of John Schefferus, in 1647 and 1662: he rectified the text in many places, and illustrated the whole with very learned notes and animadversions. Perizonius gave a new edition in two volumes, 8vo, at Leyden, 1701. He followed the translation of Vulteius, which he rectified in many places, together with the Greek text, illustrating the most intricate passages with learned notes. The nextand best edition of this work is that of Abraham Gronovius, who has given the Greek text and version of Vulteius, as corrected by Perizonius, together with the notes of Conrad Gessner, John Schefferus, Tanaquil Faber, Joachim Kuhnius, and Jac. Perizonius; to which he has added short notes of his own, and the fragments of Ælian, which Kuhnius collected from Snidas, Stobaeus, and Eustathius. His treatise on animals is in many respects a curious and important work, but, like that of Pliny, often disgraced with ridiculous and fabulous accounts.

, a physician of the second century, under the reign of Adrian, was the first who employed the Theriaca, both as a remedy and preservative, in the plague. Galen in his treatise on the subject, considers him as one of the first of his masters, and praises him also for his great knowledge and success.

, a celebrated Roman lawyer, and author of the oldest work on jurisprudence, flourished in the sixth century after the building of Rome. He was successively aedile, consul, and censor. When Cnaeus Flavius divulged his formula, the patricians, who considered themselves as the depositories of the law, composed novels, and endeavoured to conceal them with the utmost care. But Ælius, when scdile, got access to them, and published them. These last obtained the name of theÆlian law, as what Flavius had published were called the Flavian law. It appears also, that notwithstanding what Grotius and Bertrand have advanced, he was the author of a work entitled the “Tripartite,” by far the oldest work on the subject. It was so called as containing, 1. The text of the Law; 2. Its interpretation; and 3. The forms of procedure. He was appointed consul in A. U. C. 556, at the end of the second Punic war; and was distinguished for his homely diet, and simple manners, and his rejecting of presents.

, a Dutch painter, born at Delft in 1602, acquired a great reputation by his delicate manner of painting fruit, still life, and dead game. He was exact in copying every thing after nature, disposing them with elegance, and finishing his pictures with neatness, and transparency of colour. Whether he painted dead game, fruit, helmets with plumes of feathers, or vases of gold and silver, to each he gave a true and striking resemblance of nature, and an extraordinary lustre to the gold, silver, and steel. He died in 1658.

, was the nephew and disciple of the preceding, born at Delft in 1620, and arrived at a much higher degree of perfection than his instructor. In his youth he went to France, and exercised his art there for four years, and afterwards to Rome, where he resided for seven years; and in both places was encouraged by the patronage of persons of the first distinction. In 1656, he returned to his own country, and settled at Amsterdam, where his pictures were highly valued, and sold at a very great price. Some of them are still in the collections of the amateurs of that city. Van Aelst knew his own merit, and would not submit to disrespect. On one occasion when a burgomaster of Amsterdam gave him a very haughty answer in a matter of some importance to him, he opened his breast and shewed him a gold chain and medal which the grand duke of Tuscany had given him, adding, “You came into the world with a sack of money, that is all your merit as to mine, it is in my talents.” Like his uncle he employed himself chiefly on still life, and his pencil was so light, and his touch so delicate, that the objects he painted seemed real. He died in 1679.

, a nobleman, born at Venice in 1481, carried arms in his youth, and was taken prisoner. On his release he made a vow to dedicate his life to the care of orphans, and accordingly collected a considerable number of them in a house, where they were educated in virtue and industry. This laid the foundation of the regular clerks of St. Maieul, who are also called the fathers of Somasquo, from the place where he first established their community. They were afterwards successively confirmed by the popes Paul III. and Pius IV. Their chief occupation was to instruct young persons in the principles of the Christian religion, and particularly orphans. He appears to have been a man of a most humane disposition; and in 1528, when plague and famine raged in Italy, he sold even his furniture to assist the poor. He died in 1537, and was admitted into the number of saints by Benedict XIV. Andreas Stella, the general of the Somasques, wrote his life.

, professor of history in the university of Utrecht, was born Dec. 20, 1589, at Aix-laChapelle, whither his father John Meles (Latinized by his son into Æmilius) had fled on account of his attachment to the Protestant religion. He studied first at Aix-la-Chapelle, and afterwards at Juliers under Kunius, and at Dort under Adrian Marcellus, and Gerard Vossius. At Leyden, he attended the lectures of Baudius, and spent four years in visiting the foreign universities. On his return, in 1615, he succeeded Vossius as rector of the college at Dort. At Utrecht he was, some years after, appointed professor of history; the subjects of the lectures which he gave for above twenty-six years, were taken from Tacitus. He was a firm supporter of the Cartesian philosophy, and refused to have any hand in the proceedings of the university of Utrecht against Des Cartes. He died Nov. 10, 1660. His only publication was a “Collection of Latin Orations and Poems,” 1651, 12mo.

, or Ængus, an Irish abbot, or bishop, and historian, of the eighth century, called Hagiographus, from his having written the lives of the saints, descended from the kings of Ulster; and was reputed one of the Colidei, or Culdees, worshippers of God, on account of his great piety. The accounts we have of him are rather confused; but it appears that he took extraordinary pains in compiling ecclesiastical history and biography, under the names of martyrology, fastology, &c. Sir James Ware says, that his martyrology was extant in his time. Moreri gives an account of it, or of a different book under the title “De Sanctis Hiberniae,” which shews the vast labour? bestowed on it, or the fertility of his invention in bringing together such a mass of biographical legends. It consists of five books: The first comprehends three hundred and forty-five bishops, two hundred and ninety-nine priests or abbots, and seventy-eight deacons, all men of eminence for their piety. The second book, entitled the Book of homonomies, is a wonderful piece of labour, and comprehends all the saints who have borne the same name. The third and fourth gives an account of their families, particularly the maternal pedigree of two hundred and ten Irish saints. The fifth book contains litanies and invocations of saints, &c. He is said also to have written the history of the Old Testament in very elegant verse, and a psalter called Na-rann, which is a collection, in prose and verse, Latin and Irish, concerning the affairs of Ireland. He is thought to have died either in the year 819, 824, or 830.

, a Platonic philosopher in the fifth century, embraced Christianity, and wrote a dialogue entitled “Theophrastus,” from the principal speaker, in which he treats of the immortality of the soul and the resurrection of the body. He appears to have been extremely credulous in miracles. This was printed, with a Latin translation, and the notes of Gaspard Barthius, by Bower, Leipsic, 1655, 4to. John George Justiniani published another edition at Genoa, 164-5, “cum variorum epistolis Andreolo Justiniano scriptis.” A translation, with other pieces, was published by Wolfius, Basle, 1558, 2 vols. 8vo, and 1561, fol. It is also printed in Gesner’s “Libri Græci Theologorum Græcorum,” Zurich, 1559 1560,fol. Cave says, that the first Latin translation was published at Basle in 1516, by Ambrosius Camaldulensis.

, probably, according to Casaubon, a native of Stymphalus, an ancient city of the Peloponnesus, is one of the oldest authors on the art of war: he is supposed to have lived in the time of Aristotle, or about the year 361 B.'C.; and to have been emperor of Arcadia, and commander at the battle of Mantinea. Casaubon published his work, with a Latin translation, along with his edition of Polybius, fol. Paris, 1609. It was republished by Scriverius, Leyden, 1633, 12mo, with Vegetius and others on military affairs; and the Count de Beausobre published a French translation, with other pieces on the same subject, and a learned commentary, Paris, 1757, 2 vols. 4to.

, a German physician of considerable eminence, was born at Rostock, Dec. 13, 1724, and died at Dorpt, in Livonia, Aug. 1802. He is best known to the learned world by his “Tentamen theoriæ Electricitatis et Magnetismi,” Petersburgh, 4to; of which M. Haüy published an abridgement and analysis, Paris, 1787, 8vo. In 1762 he also published “Reflections on the distribution of Heat on the surface of the Earth,” translated afterwards into French by Raoult de Rouen, and wrote several papers in the memoirs of the academy of Petersburgh. He was likewise among the first who made correct experiments on the electricity of the tourmalin, and published the result in a small volume, 8vo, Petersburgh, 1762. His reputation has been much greater on the continent, than among the philosophers of our country; probably owing to the very slight and almost unintelligible account which Dr. Priestley has given of his “Tentamen,” in his history of Electricity. The hon. Mr. Cavendish has done it more justice in the Philosophical Transactions, vol. LXI, where his own excellent dissertation is an extensive and accurate explanation of JEpinus’s theory. But a more elaborate analysis has since appeared in Dr. Gleig’s supplement to the Encyclopaedia Britannica, to which we refer our readers.

, a fellow-labourer with Luther in promoting the Reformation, was born 1499, in the Marche of Brandenburgh. His family name was Huch, or Hsech, which he changed to Æpinus, a custom very common with the learned men of his time. He was originally a Franciscan friar, and entered that society when in England; but on his return to Germany he studied under Luther, whose religious principles he adopted, and propagated with zeal, first at Stralsund, and afterwards at Hamburgh, where, as pastor of the church of St. Peter, and ecclesiastical inspector, he obtained great influence. In 1547, when Charles V. endeavoured to obtrude the Interim on the Protestants, after he had defeated their forces, and after the death of Luther, he opposed this species of formulary, or confession of faith, so called because it was only to take place in the interim, until a general council should decide all the points in question between the Protestants and Catholics. It indeed satisfied neither party, and the Lutheran preachers refused to subscribe to it. Those who did subscribe got the name of adiaphorists, or indifferent or lukewarm persons, against whom Æpinus contended, both in the pulpit and press. He died May 13, 1553, leaving several works, of which Melchior Adam has given the subjects, but no notice of the dates, or proper titles. In learning, zeal, and intrepid spirit, he was equal to most of his contemporaries who opposed the church of Rome.

, an Arian presbyter, or monk, of the fourth century, had a contest with Eustathius for the bishoprick of Sebastia and Armenia; and being disappointed, endeavoured to lessen the power and dignity of the episcopal order, by maintaining that bishops were not distinguished from presbyters by any divine right, but that according to the institution of the New Testament, their offices and authority were absolutely the same.As about this time there were some bishops who had given offence by their arrogance, these opinions of Ærius became highly popular, and he was enabled to form a considerable sect, named Brians. He also condemned prayers for the dead, stated fasts, and the celebration of Easter; but whether these were constituent principles with his followers, does not appear. Both they and he, however, were opposed by the Arians; and by the church at large, excluded from churches and cities, and obliged to associate in private places and deserts, as long as they continued a party. It is perhaps unnecessary to add, that their opinion respecting the equality of bishops and presbyters has been since adopted by the modern presbyterians, and has been ably combated by writers in favour of the established church.

, or Aartgen, a painter of merit, was the son of a wool-comber, and born at Leyden in 1498. He worked at his father’s trade till he was eighteen, and then, having discovered a genius for designing, he was placed with Cornelius Engelhechtz, under whom he made a considerable progress in painting. He became so distinguished, that the celebrated Francis Floris went to Leyden, out of mere curiosity, to see him, and being. directed to a very mean apartment, when Aertgen was absent, he drew a St. Luke on the wall; which Aertgen had no sooner seen, than he exclaimed, that Floris only could have done it, and went immediately in search of him. Floris solicited him to go to Antwerp, promising him wealth and rank suitable to his merit; but Aertgen refused, declaring that he found more sweets in his poverty than others did in their riches. It was a custom with this painter never to work on Mondays, but to devote that day with his disciples to the bottle. He used to stroll about the streets in the night, playing on the German flute; and in one of those frolics he was drowned, in 1564.

, called by the Italians PietroLongo, from his tallness, was a celebrated painter, and born at Amsterdam in 1519. His father, who was a stocking-maker, had intended to train him in his own way; but-the mother, finding in him an inclination towards painting, was resolved that her son should pursue his genius, even though she always were forced to spin for her livelihood: and to this her husband at length consented. His first master was Alart Claessen, an eminent painter in Amsterdam, under whom he so distinguished himself, that he soon engaged the attention of the great. When he was about eighteen, he went to Bossu in Hainault, to view the pieces of several masters; thence to Antwerp, where he married and entered into the company of painters. He excelled very particularly in representing a kitchen; and generally, upon all kinds of subjects. An altar-piece of his, viz. a crucifix, setting forth an executioner breaking with an iron bar the legs of the thieves, &c. was much admired. This noble piece was destroyed by the rabble in the time of the insurrection, 1566, although the lady of Sonneveldt, in Alckmaer, offered 200 crowns for its redemption, as the furious peasants were bringing it out of the church: but they tore it to pieces, and trod it under foot. This he afterwards complained of to the populace in terms of such severity, that more than once they were going to murder him. Pilkington, however, speaks of a fine altar-piece of his at Amsterdam, representing the death of the Virgin, as still existing; and of a Nativity and the Wise Men’s Offering at Delft, both excellent performances. He was well skilled in perspective and architecture, and enriched his grounds with elegant ornaments and animals. His figures were well disposed; their attitudes had abundance of variety, and their draperies were well chosen and well cast. He died in 1585, leaving three sons, who succeeded in his profession. He had a mean aspect, which he did not amend by any attention to the exterior; for he always appeared very meanly dressed.

, a Socratic philosopher, in the fourth century B. C. was an Athenian of mean birth, but discovered an early thirst after knowledge, and, though oppressed by poverty, devoted himself to the pursuit of wisdom, under the tuition of Socrates. When he first became his disciple, he told Socrates, that the only thing which it was in his power to present him, in acknowledgment of his kind instructions, was himself. Socrates replied, that he accepted and valued the present, but that he hoped to render it more valuable by culture. Æschines adhered to this master with unalterable fidelity and perseverance, and enjoyed his particular friendship. Having spent many years in Athens, without being able to rise above the poverty of his birth, he determined, after the example of Plato and others, to visit the court of Dionysius, the tyrant of Sicily, who at this time had the reputation of being a general patron of philosophers. On his arrival at Syracuse, though slighted on account of his poverty by Plato, he was introduced to the prince by Aristippus, and was liberally rewarded for his Socratic dialogues. He remained in Sicily till the expulsion of the tyrant, and then returned to Athens. Here, not daring to become a public rival of Plato or Aristippus, he taught philosophy in private, and received payment for his instructions. Afterwards, in order to provide himself with a more plentiful subsistence, he appeared as a public orator; and Demosthenes, probably because he was jealous of his abilities (for he excelled in eloquence), became his opponent. The time when he died is not known. He wrote seven Socratic dialogues, in the true spirit of his master, on temperance, moderation, humanity, integrity, and other virtues, under the titles, Miltiades, Callias, Rhinon, Aspasia, Alcis, Axiochus, and Telauges. Of these only three are extant, the best edition of which is by Le Clerc, Amsterdam, 1711, 8vo. There is another valuable edition, with the notes of Horneus, Leovard. 1788, 8vo.

, a celebrated Greek orator, contemporary with Demosthenes, to whom he was little inferior, was born at Athens 327 years B. C. He is said to have been of distinguished birth, although Demosthenes reports that he was the son of a courtezan: but whatever his birth may have been, his talents were very considerable. His declamations against Philip king of Macedon, first brought him into notice. Demosthenes and he were rivals; but Demosthenes having vanquished him in a solemn debate, he went to Rhodes, and opened a school there, beginning his lectures by reading the two orations which occasioned his removal thither. When they excessively applauded that of Demosthenes, he was generous enough to say, “What would you have thought if you had heard him thunder out the words himself” He afterwards removed to Samos, where he died at the age of 75. There are only three of his orations extant, which however are so very beautiful, that Fabricius compares them to the three graces. One is against Timarchus his accuser, whom he treated so severely, as to make him weary of life; and some have said, that he did actually lay violent hands upon himself. Another is an “Apology” for himself against Demosthenes, who had accused him of perfidy in an “Embassy” to Philip. The third “against Ctesiphon,” who had decreed the golden crown to Demosthenes. This excellent, oration, together with that of Demosthenes against it, was translated by Cicero into Latin, as St. Jerome and Sidonius inform us. The three orations were published by Aldus 1513, and by Henry Stephens among other orators, 1575, in Greek. They are, as might have been necessarily expected, inserted in Reiske’s valuable edition of the Grecian orators. There are also attributed to Æschines twelve epistles, which Taylor has added to his edition of the orations of Demosthenes and Æschines. They have also been published, with various readings, by I. Samuel Sammet, Leipsic, 1772, 8vo. Wolfius has given them in his edition of Demosthenes, with a Latin version and notes, 1604; and this edition is most esteemed. The abbe Auger published a French translation of Æschines and Demosthenes, in 6 vols. 8vo, Paris, 1789 and 1804. Of his contest with Demosthenes, Dr. Blair gives this opinion Demosthenes appears to great advantage, when contrasted with JEschines, in the celebrated oration pro Corona. Æschines was his rival in business, and his personal enemy; and one of the most distinguished orators of that age. But when we read the two orations, Æschines is feeble in comparison of Demosthenes, and makes much less impression on the mind. His reasonings concerning the law that was in question, are indeed very subtile; but his invective against Demosthenes is general, and ill supported; whereas Demosthenes is a torrent, that nothing can resist. He bears down his antagonist with violence; he draws his character in the strongest colours; and the particular merit of that oration is, that all the descriptions in it are highly picturesque.

, one of the most eminent tragic poets of ancient times, was born at Athens. Authors differ in regard to the time of his birth, some placing it in the 65th, others in the 70th olympiad; but according to Stanley, who relies on the Arundelian marbles, he was born in the 63d olympiad, or about 400 years B. C. He was the son of Euphorion, and brother to Cynegirus and Aminias, who distinguished themselves in the battle of Marathon, and the sea-fight of Salamis; at which engagement Æschylus was likewise present. In this last action, according to Diodorus Siculus, Aminias, the younger of the three brothers, commanded a squadron of ships, and behaved with so much conduct and bravery, that he sunk the admiral of the Persian fleet, and signalized himself above all the Athenians. To this brother our poet was, upon a particular occasion, obliged for saving his life. Ælian relates, that Æschylus, being charged by the Athenians with certain blasphemous expressions in some of his pieces, was accused of impiety, and condemned to be stoned to death. They were just going to put the sentence in execution, when Aminias, with a happy presence of mind, throwing aside his cloak, shewed his arm without a hand, which he had lost at the battle of Salamis, in defence of his country. This sight made such an impression on the judges, that, touched with the remembrance of his valour, and the friendship he shewed for his brother, they pardoned Æschylus. Our poet however resented the indignity of this prosecution, and resolved to leave a place where his life had been in danger. He became more determined in this resolution, when he found his pieces less pleasing to the Athenians than those of Sophocie’s, though a much younger writer. Simonides had likewise won the prize from him, in an elegy upon the battle of Marathon. Suidas having said that uÆschylus retired into Sicily, because the seats broke down during the representation of one of x his tragedies, some have taken this literally, without considering that in this sense such an accident did great honour to ^schylus; but, according to Joseph Scaliger, it was a phrase amongst the comedians; and he was said to break down the seats, whose piece could not stand, but fell to the ground. Some affirm, that Æschylus never sat down to compose but when he had drunk liberally. This perhaps was in allusion to his excessive imagination, which was apparent in an abrupt, impetuous, and energetic style. They who co.uld not relish the sublimer beauties of language, might perhaps have ascribed his rapid and desultory manner, rather to the fumes of wine than to the result of reason. He wrote a great number of tragedies, of which there are but seven remaining; viz. Prometheus, the Seven Champions before Thebes, the Persae, the Agamemnon, the Choephorae, the Eumenides, and the Suppliant Virgins; and in these it is evident, that if he was not the father, he was the great improver of the Grecian stage. In the time of Thespis there was no public theatre to act upon; the strollers drove about from place to place in a cart. Æschylus furnished his actors with masks, and dressed them suitably to their characters. He likewise introduced the buskin, to make them appear more like heroes; and the ancients give Æschyius the praise of having been the first who removed murders and shocking sights from the eyes of the spectators. He is said likewise to have lessened the number of the chorus; but perhaps this reformation was owing to an accident; in his Eumenides, the chorus, which consisted of fifty persons, appearing on the stage with frightful habits, had such an effect on the spectators, that the women with child miscarried, and the children fell into fits; which occasioned a law to be made to reduce the chorus to fifteen. Mr. Le Fevre has observed, that Æschylus never represented women in love, in his tragedies, which, he says, was not suited to his genius; but in representing a woman transported with fury, he was incomparable. Longinus says, that Æschylus has a noble boldness of expression; and that his imagination is lofty and heroic. It must be owned, however, that he affected pompous words, and that his sense is too often obscured by figures. But, notwithstanding these imperfections, this poet was held in great veneration by the Athenians, who made a public decree that his tragedies should be played after his death. When Æschylus retired to the court of Hiero king of Sicily, this prince was then building the city of Ætna, and our poet celebrated the new city by a tragedy of the same name. After having lived some years at Gela, we are told that he died of a fracture of his skull, caused by an eagle letting fall a tortoise on his head; and that this death is said to have been predicted by an oracle, which had foretold that he should die by somewhat from the heavens. He died, however, by whatever means, according to Mr. Stanley, in the 69th year of his age. He had the honour of a pompous funeral from the Sicilians, who buried him near the river Gela; and the tragedians of the country performedplays and theatrical exercises at his tomb; upon which was inscribed an epitaph, celebrating him only for his valour at the battle of Marathon.

He has been justly compared to Shakspeare for energy of style and sentiment, for expression of character and passion, often by the happiest use of trivial circumstances. His merits have been skilfully analysed by the author of the Observer, No. 132, 133, and 134, who, it is nowknown, derived his materials from the unpublished writings of Dr. Bentley and perhaps yet better by the abbé Barthelemy, in his Anacharsis.

The editions of Æschylus are very numerous. The best are those of Robertellus, Venet. 1552, 8vo; Victorius, Paris, 1557, 4to; Canterus, Antwerp, 1530, 12mo; Stanley, London, 1663 1664, fol. from the text of Canter, a magnificent book, containing the scholia, fragments, the notes and prefaces of preceding editors, and the annotations of the very learned editor himself. Another magnificent edition of Glasgow, 1795, fol. from the text of the late professor Person, is said to be incorrect. The learned professor’s genuine edition was published in 1806, 2 vols. 8vo, and contains many admirable improvements of the text. It is much to be regretted, that the notes have not appeared. The English reader has been introduced to the beauties of Æschylus by the elegant poetical translation of Mr. Potter, published in 1777.

, the fabulist. Of this man, the reputed author of many fables, it is very doubtful whether we are in possession of any authentic biography. The life by Planudes, a monk of the fourteenth century, is universally considered as a series of fictions; and the notices of him in writers of better authority, are not sufficiently consistent to form a narrative. The particulars usually given, however, are as follow. He was born at Amorium, a small town in Phrygia, in the beginning of the sixth century before the Christian aera, and was a slave to two philosophers, Xanthus and Idmon, the latter of whom gave him his liberty, on account of his good behaviour and pleasantry. The philosophers of Greece gained a name by their lofty sentences, clothed in lofty words; Æop assumed a more simple and familiar style, and became not less celeb rated. He taught virtue and ridiculed vice, by giving a language to animals and inanimate things; and composed those fables, which under the mask of allegory, and with all the interest of fable, convey the most useful lessons in morality. The fame of his wisdom spreading over Greece and the adjoining countries, Croesus, the king of Lydia, sent for him, and was his generous benefactor. There he found Solon, whom he soon equalled in favour, however different his mode of conducting himself. Solon preserved his austerity in the midst of a corrupt court, was a philosopher among courtiers, and often offended Croesus by obtruding his advice, who at last dismissed him. “Solon,” said Æsop, “let us not address kings, or let us say what is agreeable.” “By no means,” replied the philosopher, “let us either say nothing, or tell them what is profitable.” Æsop made frequent excursions from the court of Lydia into Greece. When Pisistratus assumed the chief power at Athens, Æsop, who witnessed the dissatisfaction of the people, repeated to them his fable of the frogs petitioning Jupiter for a king. He afterwards travelled through Persia and Egypt, everywhere inculcating morality by his fables. The kings of Babylon and Memphis received him with distinguished honour; and on his return to Lydia, Croesus sent him with a sum of money to Delphi, where he was to offer a magnificent sacrifice to the god of the place, and distribute a certain sum of money to each of the inhabitants. But being offended by the people, he offered his sacrifice, and sent the rest of the money to Sardis, representing the Delphians as unworthy of his master’s bounty. In revenge, they threw him from the top of a rock. All Greece was interested in his fate, and at Athens a statue was erected to his memory. Lurcher, in his notes on Herodotus, fixes his death in the 560th year before the Christian aera, under the reign of Pisistratus. Planudes, who, as already observed, wrote his life, represents him as exceedingly deformed in person, and defective in his speech, for which there seems no authority. It is to this monk, however, that we owe the first collection of Æsop’s Fables, such as we now have them, mixed with many by other writers, some older, and some more modern than the time of Æsop. He wrote in prose; and Socrates, when in prison, is said to have amused himself by turning some of them into verse. Plato, who banished Homer and the other poets from his republic, as the corruptors of mankind, retained Æsop as being their preceptor. Some are of opinion, that Lockman, so famous among the orientals, and Pilpay among the Indians, were one and the same with Æsop. Whatever may be in this, or in the many other conjectures and reports, to be found in the authorities cited below, the fables of Æsop may surely be considered as the best models of a species of instructive composition, that has been since attempted by certain men of learning and fancy in all nations, and particularly our own; nor will it be easy to invent a mode of arresting and engaging the attention of the young to moral truths, more pleasant or more successful. The best editions of Æsop are those of Plantin, Antwerp, 1565, 16mo; of Aldus, with other fabulists, Venice, 1505, fol. and Franckfort, 1610; that called Barlow’s, or “Æsopi Fabularum, cum Vita,” London, 1666, fol. in Latin, French, and English; the French and Latin by Rob. Codrington, with plates by Barlow, now very rare, as a great part of the edition was burnt in the fire of London; Hudson’s, published under the name of Marianus (a member of St. Mary Hall), Oxford, 1718, 8vo. They have been translated into all modern languages; and CroxalPs and Dodsley’s editions deserve praise, on account of the life of Æsop prefixed to each.

, a Greek historian, wrote a romantic history of Alexander the Great but it is not known at what time he lived. His work was translated into Latin by one Julius Valerius, who is not better known than Æsop. Freinshemius has the following passage concerning this work: “Julius Valerius wrote a fabulous Latin history of Alexander, which by some is ascribed to Æsop, by others to Callisthenes. Hence Antoninus, Vincentius, Uspargensis, and others, have taken their romantic tales.” Barthius, in his Adversaria, says: “There are many such things in the learned monk, who some years ago published a life of Alexander the Great, full of the most extravagant fictions; yet this romance had formerly so much credit, that it is quoted as an authority even by the best writers. Whether this extraordinary history was ever published I know not; I have it in manuscript, but I hardly think it worthy of a place in my library.” It is the same author that Franciscus Juretus mentions under the name of Æsop. The work was published in German at Strasburgh, 1486.

, a celebrated actor, who flourished about the 670th year of Rome. He and Roscius were contemporaries, and the best performers who ever appeared upon the Roman stage; the former excelling in tragedy, the latter in comedy. Cicero put himself under their direction to perfect his action. Æsop lived in a most expensive manner, and at one entertainment is said to have had a dish which cost above 800l.; this dish we are told was filled with singing and speaking birds, some of which cost near 50l. Pliny (according to Mr. Bayle) seems to refine too much, when he supposes that JEsop found no other delight in eating those birds but as they were imitators of mankind; and says that Æsop himself being an actor was but a copier of man; and therefore he should not have been lavish in destroying those birds, which, like himself, copied mankind. The delight which Æsop took in this sort of birds proceeded, as Mr. Bayle observes, from the expence. He did not make a dish of them because they could speak, but because of their extraordinary price. JEsop’s son was no less luxurious than his father, for he dissolved pearls for his guests to swallow. Some speak of this as a common practice of his, but others mention his falling into this excess only on a particular day, when he was treating his friends. Horace speaks only of one pearl of great value, which he dissolved in vinegar, and drank.

Æsop, notwithstanding his expences, is said to have died worth above 160,000l. When he was upon the stage, he entered into his part to such a degree, as sometimes to be seized with a perfect ecstacy. Plutarch mentions it as reported of him, that whilst he was representing Atreus deliberating how he should revenge himself on Thyestes, he was so transported beyond himself in the heat of action, that with his truncheon he smote one of the servants crossing the stage, and laid him dead on the place.

, was an architect of the 6th century, under the reign of Anastasius I. emperor of the east, who stowed many honours upon him, and admitted him into his council. He is said to have built the great wall, ordered by Anastasius, to preserve Constantinople from the inroads of the Huns, Goths, and Bulgarians. It was eighteen leagues in length, and twenty feet in breadth. He built also several edifices in Constantinople, particularly the Cbalcis in the grand palace.

, a Greek painter, highly praised by Cicero and Lucian, painted a picture, which he exhibited at the Olympic games, the subject of which was the nuptials of Alexander the Great and Roxana. It was so much applauded, that Proxenidas, who was one of the judges appointed to decide on the merits of the artists, enchanted with the talents of Ætion, bestowed on him his daughter in marriage. Lucian says that he saw this picture in Italy, and gives a very accurate description of it, from which Raphael sketched one of his richest compositions.

, a heretic of the fourth century, and by some surnamed The Atheist, as being tme of the first opposers of the doctrine of the Trinity, was born at Antioch, the son of a person reduced in his circumstances, and was consequently obliged to work at the trade of goldsmith for a livelihood. He afterwards studied, and with considerable success, at Alexandria, whence he returned to Antiech, and was ordained deacon by Leontius, then bishop of that city. What his principles were is not very clear. Theodoret says, he improved upon the bJasphemies of Arius; and for that reason was banished by the emperor Constantius into a remote part of Phrygia. The emperor Julian recalled him, and enriched him with an estate Others insinuate that he was a defender of faith in opposition to works, and leaned to the Antinomian extreme. The displeasure of the orthodox, however, was such that he had the surname of Atheist. Athanasius gives him the same appellation, and Cave says, justly. Epiphanius has preserved a small book, containing forty-seven erroneous propositions of Ætius, which he answered. His followers were called, from his name, ætians. Their distinguishing principle was, that the Son and the Holy Ghost are in all things unlike the Father.

, a physician of Armicla, a town of Mesopotamia, lived about the end of the 5th or the beginning of the 6th century. The work for which he is now known is his­“Tetrabiblos,” a compilation from all the physicians who preceded him, particularly Galen, Archigenes, Dioscorides, &c. He describes also some new disorders, and throws out some opinions, not known before his time, respecting the diseases of the eye, and the use of outward applications. Partaking of the credulity of his time, he describes all the pretended specifics, charms, and amulets in vogue among the Egyptians, which forms a curious part of his writings. What he says on surgical topics is thought most valuable. The work, by the various transcribers, has been divided into four Tetrabiblons, and each into four discourses; and originally appears to have consisted of sixteen books. The first eight only were printed in Greek, at Venice, by the heirs of Aldus Manutius, 1534, fol. The others remain in manuscript in the libraries of Vienna and Paris. There have been many editions in Latin, of the translation of Janus Cornarius, under the title of “Contractse ex veteribus Medicinae Tetrabiblos,” Venice, 1543, 8vo; Basle, 1542, 1549, fol.; another at Basle, 1535, fol. translated by J. B. Montanus; two at Lyons, 1549, fol. and 1560, 4 vols. 12mo, with the notes of Hugo de Soleriis; and one at Paris, 1567, fol. among the “Medicae artis principes.” Dr. Freind has adverted to Mtius, in his history, more than to almost any ancient writer, but has not the same opinion of his surgical labours as is expressed above. Some writers have confounded this JEtius with the subject of the preceding article.

, a famous orator, born at Nismes, fifteen or sixteen years B. C. and flourished under Caligula, Claudius, and Nero. He was elected to the prsetorship; but, not being afterwards promoted according to his ambitious expectations, and desirous at any rate to advance himself, he turned informer against Claudia Pulchra, cousin of Agrippina, and pleaded himself in that affair. Having gained this cause, he was ranked amongst the first orators, and got into favour with Tiberius, who hated Agrippina: but this princess not thinking Domitius the author of this process, did not entertain the least resentment against him. The encomiums passed by the emperor on the eloquence of Domitius, made him now eagerly pursue the profession of an orator; so that he was seldom without some accusation or defence, by which he acquired a greater reputation for his eloquence than his probity. In the 779th year of Rome, he carried on an accusation against Claudia Pulchra; and the year following, Quintilius Varus her son was impeached by him and Publius Dolabella. It was not surprising that Afer, who had been poor for many years, and squandered the money got by former impeachments, should return to this practice; but it was matter of great surprise that one who was a relation of Varus, and of such an illustrious family as that of Publius Dolabella, should associate with this informer. Afer had a high reputation as an orator for a considerable time, but this he lost by continuing to plead when age had impaired the faculties of his mind.

Quintilian, in his youth, cultivated the friendship of Domitius very assiduously. He tells us that his pleadings abounded with pleasant stories, and that there were public collections of his witty sayings, some of which he quotes. He also mentions two books of his, “On Witnesses.” Domitius was once in great danger from an inscription he put upon a statue erected by him in honour of Caligula, wherein he declared, that this prince was a second time consul at the age of 27. This he intended as an encomium; but Caligula, taking it as a sarcasm upon his youth, and his infringement of the laws, raised a process against him, and pleaded himself in person. Domitius, instead of making a defence, repeated part of the emperor’s speech, with the highest marks of admiration; after which he fell upon his knees, and begging pardon, declared, that he dreaded more the eloquence of Caligula than his imperial power. This piece of flattery succeeded so well, that the emperor not only pardoned, but also raised him to the consulship. Afer died in the reign of Nero, A. D. 59.

, an eminent lawyer, the grandson of Matthew Afflitto, counsellor-royal in 1409 under Ladislaus, was born at Naples about 1430. Being attached to the study of law from his youth, he made great progress, and acquired so much reputation, that he was promoted to the council of state by king Ferdinand I. and shared the confidence of that prince and of his son, afterwards Alphonsus II. He was afterwards appointed president of the royal chamber, and was employed in public transactions of the greatest importance under five successive kings of Naples. To the knowledge displayed in his works, he joined the strictest probity and most amiable manners. Camerario, lieutenant of the royal chamber, and an eminent feudal lawyer, gives him the character of the most learned and excellent man of his own or the preceding age; nor are Ferron and Fontanella more sparing of their praises. Pancirollus only considers him as rather laborious than acute in his writings. Notwithstanding the distractions of the times in which he lived, and his numerous labours, he reached the age of eighty, and died in 1510. He was interred in the conventual church of Monte-Vergine in Naples, under a monument representing St. Eustachius, from whom his family derived their origin. He was twice married, and from his second wife, Diana Carmignana, are descended the Afflittos, barons of Rocca-Gloriosa.

Afflitto’s works are: 1. “Commentarius in Constitutiones Siciliae et Neapolis,” Francfort, 1603, fol. 2. “Commentarius-buper tres libros Feudorum,” Venice, 1534, fol.; Lyons, 1548, and 1560 4 Francfort, 1598, 1608, 1629. 3. “Decisiones Neapolitans antiquse et novae,” Venice, 1564, 1600, and 1635, fol.; and Francfort, 1616, and 1635, fol. 4. “Lecturæ super consuetudinibus Neapolitani Siciliaeque regni,” Leyden, 1535, fol.; reprinted under different titles, and with the additions of other writers on the subject. 5. “De Jure Protomiseos cum Baldo et Marantha, Tr. Tr. xviii.” Francfort, 1571, and 1588; reprinted at Spires, 1603, 8vo. 6. “Enumeratio u fisci,” Basle, 1550, fol. 7. “Lecturse super 7 Codicis Justiniani,” 1560. 8. “De consiliariis principum et officialibus eligendis, ad justitiam regendam,” Naples; a very scarce work. The frequent editions of these voluminous works sufficiently prove the high estimation in which they were held. The family of Afflito has produced other celebrated men, as 1. John Afflito, an eminent mathematician, particularly skilled in the art of fortification, and employed as an engineer by John of Austria in some of his wars. He published, in Spanish, a treatise on the subject, 2 vols. 4to, and a volume of “Theological and Philosophical Miscellanies.” He died at Naples, 1673. 2. Gaetan-Andre D‘Afflitto, advocate-general, who published law-pleadings and decisions at Naples, 1655. And lastly, Cæsar D’Afflitto, who left a work on the feudal laws.

, a native of Bussetto, a small town in the duchy of Piacenza, was appointed in 1768 by the Infant don Ferdinand to be professor of philosophy at Guastalla, where he wrote his “Historia di Guastalla,” 4 vols. 4to. It commences with the reign of Charlemagne; comprizes the three dynasties who governed that state: viz. the Torelli’s, the Gonzago’s, and the Bourbons, dukes of Parma; and finishes in 1776. On account of this work, he was appointed superintendant of the valuable library of Parma. He is a diffuse writer, as he allows in his preface, but his researches are valuable and correct. Writing under a prince so particular as the last Infant, he was obliged to suppress some things of a delicate kind. He wrote also “Historia di Parma,” printed there 2 vols. 4to, and other works respecting the antiquities and the lives of the sovereigns of these states. He left a manuscript history of Peter Louis Farnese, which the Infant would not suffer to be published. He died at the age of sixty, about the beginning of the present century.

, a Latin poet, who wrote several comedies in imitation of Menander. He was a man of wit and sense. Quintilian blames him for the licentious amours in his plays. He lived about 100 years before the vulgar sera, according to Vqssius. Only some fragments of this poet are come down to our times, which are inserted in the “Corpus Poetarum” of Maittaire, London, 1713, folio.

, a Christian historian, was born at Nicopolis in Palestine, in the third century. He composed a chronology, to convince the heathens of the antiquity of the true religion, and the novelty of the fables of Paganism. This work was divided into five books, and is a sort of universal history, from the creation of Adam, to the reign of the emperor Macrinus. No more, however, is extant than what we find of it in the Chronicon of Eusebius. He wrote a letter to Origen concerning the history of Susannah, which he deemed to be spurious, and another to Aristides, to reconcile the genealogical tables of St. Matthew and St. Luke. It was in consequence of his entreaties, that the emperor Heliogabalus rebuilt the city of Nicopolis, which he founded on the spot where the village of Emmaus stood. A mathematical work, entitled “Cæstus,” has been attributed to him. The fragments which remain of this author were printed among the “Mathematici Veteres,” at Paris, in 1693, fol. and were translated into French by M. Guiscard, in his “Mernoires Militaires des Grecs et des Remains,” Paris, 1774, 3 vols. 8vo. It is supposed that the ancient part of the work of Julius Africanus, was an abridgment of the famous work of Manetho, an Egyptian priest, who flourished about 300 years before Christ. (See Manetho). A great part of Africanus’s Chronography is extant in Georg. Syncellus, edit. Paris, 1652, from whence, not being then published, it was borrowed by Scaliger in his edition of Eusebius’s Chronicon in Greek. Africanus is placed by Cave at the year 220, who likewise supposes that he died in an advanced age, about the year 232. But Dr. Lardner does not think that he was then in an advanced age, or died so soon. Of his character, he says, that we may glory in Africanus as a Christian. For it cannot but be a pleasure to observe, that in those early days there were some within the inclosure of the church of Christ, whose shining abilities rendered them the ornament of the age in which they lived; when they appear also to have been men of unspotted characters, and give evident proofs of honesty and integrity.

, a Spanish missionary of the 17th century, who lived under the reigns of Philip III. and Philip IV. was a barefooted Augustin, and celebrated for his apostolic zeal. These religious had a principal hand in the rapid, but for the most part short-lived, progress of the Catholic faith in Japan; and converted the populous nation of the Tagalians, or Tagaleze, Malayans by descent, who inhabited Lucon, one of the Philippine islands, and who remain Christians to this day. In 1640, Aganduru was appointed by his brethren, and with the authority of Philip IV. to go to Rome and offer to the pope, Urban VIII. the homage and obedience of these new converts. He wrote a “History of Conversions in Japan and the Philippine islands, with a detail of his religious embassy:” and a “General History of the Moluccas and the Philippines,” 2 vols. from the discovery of them, to the middle of the seventeenth century.

, deacon of the church of Constantinople, in the sixth century, or about 527, presented the emperor Justinian, on his accession to the throne, with a work in seventy-two chapters, which has been called “Charta Regia,” and contains excellent advice on the duties of a Christian prince. This work was long esteemed, and procured the author a place among the best writers of his age. It was first printed, Gr. et Lat. at Venice, 1509, 8vo; and is often printed in the same volume with various editions of Æsop’s fables. The most correct edition is that of Banduri, in a collection entitled “Imperium Orientale,” Paris, 1711, 2 vols. fol. The last edition was published at Leipsic, 1733, 8vo, Gr. et Lat by Graebelius, with notes; but those not of much importance. Louis XIII. in his youth translated it into French, and this was printed in, 1612, 8vo, and often since.

, a learned and industrious English antiquary, and one of the members of the first society of antiquaries, was the son of Clement Agard, of Foston (not Toston, as in the Biog. Brit.) in Derbyshire, by Eleanor, the daughter of Thomas Middleborough, of Egbaston in Warwickshire. He was born 1540, and originally studied law; but it does not appear that he was at either university. He afterwards became a clerk in the Exchequer office; and in 1570 was made deputy chamberlain of the Exchequer, which he held forty-five years. During this time, he had leisure and industry to accumulate large collections of matters pertaining to the antiquities of his country; and his rseal in these researches procured him the acquaintance of that eminent benefactor to English literature and antiquities, sir Robert Cotton, with whom he enjoyed the strictest friendship as long as he lived. Wood, in his Athenae, has made a strange mistake here in ascribing Agard’s proficiency in antiquary knowledge to Sir Robert, who was but just born the year Agard came into office. There can be no doubt, however, that they improved and assisted each other in their pursuits. Agard also could number the most eminent and learned men of the age among his friends and coadjutors. It was in his days, about 1572, that the society of antiquaries was formed by archbishop Parker; and among the names of its original members, we find Agard, Andrews, Bouchier, Camden, Carew, Cotton, Dodderidge, Ley, Spelman, Stow, Dethicke, Lambart, and others. In this society, Agard read these essays, which have since been published by Hearne, in his “Collection of Curious Discourses,” 1720 and 1775, 2. vols. Agard’s discourses are: 1. Opinion touching the antiquity, power, order, state, manner, persons, and proceedings of the high court of parliament in England. 2. On this question, Of what antiquity shires were in England In this essay various ancient manuscripts are cited; and Mr. Agard seems to think king Alfred was the author of this division: it was delivered before the society in Easter term, 33 Eliz. 1591. 3. On the dimensions of the lands in England. In this he settles the meaning of these words, solin, hida, carucata, jngum, virgata, ferlingata, ferlinges, from ancient manuscripts and authentic records in the exchequer. 4. The authority, office, and privileges of heraults [heralds] in England. He is of opinion, that this office is of the same antiquity with the institution of the garter. 5. Of the antiquity or privileges of the houses or inns of court, and of chancery. In this he observes, that in more ancient times, before the making of Magna Charta, our lawyers were of the clergy: that in the time of J^dward I. the law came to receive its proper form; and that in an old record, the exchequer was styled the mothercourt of all courts of record. He supposes that at this time lawyers began to have settled places of abode, but affirms he knew of no privileges. 6. Of the diversity of names of this island. In this we find that the first Saxons, residing in this island, came here under the command of ne Aelle and his three sons, in 43.5; and that the reason, why it was called England rather than Saxon land, was because the Angles, after this part of the island was totally suhdued, were more numerous than the Saxons. He likewise observes, that after this conquest, the name of Briton grew into distaste, and all valued themselves on being Englishmen. This was read, June 29, 1604, and is the last discourse of Agard in the collection. The society was dissolved soon after, and did not revive until the last century.

Agard made the Doomsday book his particular study, and endeayoured to explain it in a treatise, “De usu et obscurioribus verbis,” on the use and true meaning of the obscure words in the Doomsday book. This is preserved in the Cotton library, under Vitellius, N 9. He likewise compiled for the benefit of his successors, “A Catalogue of all such records as were in the four treasuries belonging to his Majesty; and an account of all leagues, and treaties of peace, intercourses, and marriages, with foreign nations.” This he deposited with the officers of his Majesty’s receipt; and by his will he directed that, on a small reward being paid to his executor, eleven other ms treatises, relating to exchequer affairs, should be delivered up to the office. All the rest of his collections, consisting of at least twenty volumes, he bequeathed to sir Robert Cotton, in whose library they were deposited. Previous to his death, he caused a monument to be erected for himself and his wife, near the chapter door in the cloister of Westminster-abbey. He died Aug. 22, 1615. Camden, Selden, and other antiquaries, bear ample testimony to his merit.

, a sculptor of Ephesus, the scholar or son of Dositheos. Mr. Fuseli observes, that the name of Agasias does not occur in ancient record; and whether he be the Egesias of Quintilian and Pliny, or these the same, cannot be ascertained; though the style qf sculpture, and the form of the letters in the inscription, are not much at variance with the character which the former gives to the age of Calon and Egesias. There are, therefore, no particulars of his life; but he is well known in the history of the arts, for his admired statue, usually called the Gladiator; formerly in the villa Borghese, and now in the museum at Paris. It was found, with the Apollo Belvidere, at Nettuno, formerly Antium, the birth-place of Nero; where he had collected a great number of the best works brought from Greece by his freed-man Acratus. The form of the letters on the inscription mark the high antiquity of this statue, which is less ideal than the Apollo, but not less admirable. Winkelman calls it an assemblage of the beauties of nature in a perfect age, without any addition from imagination. Fuseli terms it “A figure, whose tremendous energy embodies every element of motion, whilst its pathetic dignity of character enforces sympathy.” It is in perfect preservation, with exception of the right arm, which was restored by Algardi. It is now, however, agreed that it is not the statue of a Gladiator, but apparently one of a groupe. The attention and action of the figure is upwards to some higher object, as a person on horseback; and it is thought to be of a date prior to the introduction of the gladiatorial sports into Greece.

, an Armenian'historian, was secretary to Tiridates, the first Christian king of that country, and lived in the beginning of the fourth century, probably about the year 320. Moyses Chorenensis, Barpezius, and other Armenian writers speak highly in his praise, particularly in respect to the purity of his style. He wrote a “History of the introduction of Christianity into Armenia,” with a life of king Tiridates. It has been translated into Greek; but the original was published at Constantinople, 1709, 4to. The imperial library at Paris has a copy of this book, and a manuscript much more complete.

, a voluminous geographer and historian, was a native of Gnidus; and in his youth reader to the historian Heraclides, and afterwards tutor to Ptolomy Alexander, who reigned in Egypt about the year 104 B. C. according to Dodwell. Agatharchides was attached to the doctrine of the Peripatetics. Among the numerous works he wrote on history and geography, the ancients mention the following: 1. “On the Red Sea,” in five books, which is a kind of periplus of the gulph of Arabia; with many curious particulars of the Sabeans, and other nations of Arabia Felix. The fragments of this work preserved by Diodorus and Photius, were printed by Henry Stephens, 1557, 8vo; and collected more fully by Hudson in his “Geographi minores,” vol. I. M. Gosselin also has dommerited on them in his “Recherches sur la Geographic.” 2. “On Asia,” a work of the historical kind, in ten books; quoted by Diodorus, Phlegon, Lucian, Athenaeus, Phothis, and Pliny. 3. “Of Europe;” a large work, of which Athenasus quotes the 28th, 34th, and 38th books. As the name of Agatharchides occurs in many authors of reputation, it is to be regretted that so many of his works have perished. It is uncertain whether he was the same with Agatharchides of Samos, who wrote on the Phrygian history, and on that of Persia, quoted by Diodorus, Josephus, and Photius.

, an ancient painter, the son of Eudemus, was borti at Samos, and practised his art at Athens. He painted with great facility, and was distinguished for his skill in animals, ornaments, and decorations. Alcibiades employed him to decorate his magnificent house; and, according to Demosthenes (in his oration against Midias), while thus employed, he contrived to seduce the mistress of Alcibiades, who having discovered the intrigue, punished him no otherwise than by close imprisonment until he completed his work; and then dismissed him with many rich presents. Plutarch in his lives of Alcibiades and Pelopidas, speaks only of the imprisonment, which he imputes solely to Alcibiades’ impatience to have his house finished. From his connexion with Zeuxis and Alcibiades, it is probable that he lived about the ninety-fifth olympiad, or 400 years B. C.; but this does not accord with Vitruvius’s account, who informs us that Agatharcus was the first who painted scenes for the theatre; and wrote a treatise on the subject, under the direction of Æschylus, who died 480 B. C. This anachronism has given rise to the conjecture that there may have been two painters of the name.

, a Greek geographer. It is not certain at what time he lived; but he was posterior to Ptolomy, and placed by Saxius and others in the third century. The only work of his now known is an abridgement of geography, entitled “Hypotyposes Geographies?;” the first edition of which is that of Tennulius, Gr. Lat. Amsterdam, 1671, 8vo. It is also inserted among the ancient geographers in Gronovius’s edition, Leyden, 4to, 1697 and 1700; and lastly, in Hudson’s “Geographi minores,” vol. II. This little work, which contains several particulars which have escaped Strabo and other celebrated geographers, is nevertheless in a very imperfect state. It is a series of lessons dictated to one Philo; but what is taught in the first book is repeated in the second, with so many contradictions and obscurities, that one can scarcely suppose this second part to be the production of the same author. Even the first part seems composed of two fragments not very accurately placed together.

, a Greek historian, who lived in the 6th century, under the emperor Justinian, was born at Myrina in Asia Minor. Some have concluded from Suidas, that he was an advocate at Smyrna; but Fabricius thinks that he was in general an advocate, or scholasticus, as he is called, from having studied the law in the schools appointed for that purpose. In his youth he was strongly inclined to poetry, and published some small pieces of the gay and amatory kind, under the title of “Daphniaca:” he tells us likewise, that he was author of a “Collection of epigrams” written by divers hands, a great part of which are presumed to be extant in the Greek Anthologia, where, however, he calls himself Agathius. These are also in Brunck’s Analecta. There have been doubts about his religion: Vossius and others have supposed him a pagan; and they have concluded this chiefly from a passage in the third book of his history; where, giving a reason why the fortress of Onogoris in Colchis was called, in his time, St. Stephen’s fort, he says, that this first Christian martyr was stoned there, but uses the word φασὶ, they say; as if he did not himself believe what he might think it necessary to relate. But this is by no means conclusive; and Fabricius supposes him, upon much better grounds, to have been a Christian, because he more than once gives very explicitly the preference to the doctrines of Christians: and in the first book he speaks plainly of the Christians as embracing the most reasonable system of opinions.

He wrote an “History of Justinian’s reign” in five books, at the desire of Eutychianus, secretary of state, who was his intimate friend, and probably furnished hinty with many important materials for the purpose. It begins at the 26th year of Justinian’s reign, where Procopius ends; and, as Evagrius says, was carried down to the flight of Cosroes the younger to the Romans, and his restoration by Mauritius: but the same Evagrius adds, that the work was not then published. It was printed in Greek, with Bonaventure Vulcanius’s Latin version and notes, at Leyden, 1594, in 4to; and at Paris in the king’s printinghouse, 1660, in folio, to accompany the other Byzantine historians. His manner is prolix, and his style too much interspersed with poetical flights; but his facts are said to be accurate.

, or Agathon, a Greek poet, of Athens, and not of Samos as Gyraldi asserts, wrote several tragedies and comedies, of which only some fragments remain. Aristotle speaks of one, “The Flower,” with great praise. His first tragedy received the prize at the Olympic games. He was a man of expensive manners, and kept a magnificent table; at which the wits of his days used to assemble. Grotius has collected the fragments left of his dramas from Aristotle and Athenseus, in his collection of the fragments of Greek tragedies and comedies. He was the first who hazarded invented subjects. His comedies were written with elegance, but his tragedies abounded in antitheses and symmetrical ornaments. He lived about 735 B. C; but Barthelemi places him much earlier.

, or Agelas, an. eminent Greek sculptor, flourished in the eighty-seventh olympiade, or 432 B. C. according to Pliny and Pausanias. His statues were once well known and admired in Greece, particularly two, in brass, of an infant Jupiter, and a young Hercules, and the female captives.

, a native of Sorrento, in the kingdom of Naples, was celebrated in the sixteenth century for his general learning, and acquaintance with the learned languages, and for his writings on the Holy Scriptures. He was one of the inspectors of the Vatican press, where he bestowed great care in examining new editions by the best manuscripts. When he was promoted to the bishoprick of Acerno or Acerre, in the kingdom of Naples, in 1595, the learned Peter Morin complained of this transaction, in a letter addressed to cardinal Cajetan, as depriving the Vatican press of an editor of the first ability and accuracy; and begged that the cardinal would induce him, before he took possession of his bishopric, to instruct his successors in the library and press of the Vatican, and superintend such works as he had begun. What effect this had, we are not told; but he was employed by pope Gregory XIII. on the Greek edition of the Bible, Rome, 1587, fol. His original works consist of Commentaries: 1. On the “Psalms and Canticles,” fol. Rome, 1606; Cologne, 1607; and Paris, 1611. 2. “On the Lamentations,” compiled from, the Greek fathers, Rome, 1589; 4to. 3. “On the Proverbs of Solomon,” and, 4. “On the prophet Habakkuk,” Antwerp, 1697, 8vo. Le Long mentions other works of Agelius in manuscript; but his Commentary on the Psalms procured him most reputation, and has been frequently reprinted. He died at Acerno in 1608.

, or Egelnoth, or Æthelnoth, in Latin Achelnotus, archbishop of Canterbury in the reign of Canute the Great, succeeded to that see in the year 1020. This prelate, surnamed the Good, was son of earl Agilmer, and, at the time of his election, dean of Canterbury. After his promotion he went to Rome, and received his pall from pope Benedict VIII. In his way thither, as he passed through Pavia, he purchased, for an hundred talents of silver and one of gold, St. Augustine’s arm, which was kept there as a relic; and sent it over to England, as a present to Leofric, earl of Coventry. Upon his return, he is said to have raised the see of Coventry to its former lustre. He was much in favour with king Canute, and employed his interest with that monarch to good purposes. It was by his advice the king sent over large sums of money for the support of the foreign churches: and Malmsbury observes, that this prince was prompted to acts of piety, and restrained from excesses, by the regard he had for the archbishop. King Canute being dead, Agelnoth refused to crown his son Harold, alleging that the late king had enjoined him to set the crown upon none but the issue of queen Emma; that he had given the king a promise upon this head, and that he was resolved to be true to his engagement. Having declared himself with this freedom, he iaid the crown upon the altar, with an imprecation against those bishops who should venture to perform the ceremony. Harold, who was greatly chagrined at this disappointment, endeavoured, both by menaces and large offers, to prevail upon the archbishop, but in vain: and whether he was afterwards crowned by any other person is uncertain. Agelnoth, after he had held the see of Canterbury seventeen years, died Oct. 29, 1038. Three works have been attributed to him “A panegyric on the blessed Virgin Mary;” “A letter to Earl Leofric, concerning St, Augustine;” and “Letters to several persons.”

, professor of medicine and botany at Strasbourg, in the seventeenth century, was the contemporary and friend of the two learned brothers, John and Caspar Bauhin, to whom he communicated several new plants which he had discovered. In honour of him, a species of the genus Psederota, which he first. made known, was named Ageria. He was likewise eminent for his knowledge of natural philosophy and natural history in all its branches. He published “Disputatio de Zoophytis;” Strasburgh, 1625, 4to. and “De Anima Vegetativa,” ibid. 1629, 4to. Manget attributes to him a thesis “De Homine sano et de Dysenteria,” 1593, 4to.

, a sculptor of Rhodes, who flourished probably in the fifth century B. C. is renowned for having executed, in concert with his son Athenodorus and Polydoros, that stupendous monument of Grecian art, the Laocoon.' It is supposed that this is the same groupe which decorated the baths of Titus in the time of Pliny, to whom we owe our knowledge of the names of the artists. It has been astonishingly preserved ever since to exhibit the perfection of the Greek artists in the imitation of nature and passion. It was discovered in the sixteenth century, in the baths of Titus, and in the very spot where, according to Pliny, it had attracted admiration in his time. The only circumstance which suggests a doubt on this subject is, that Pliny represents the groupe to have been formed of one solid block, whereas the present is evidently composed of several; but it is probable that time has rendered the fissures between the pieces more visible than when Pliny saw it. Julius II. bestowed a very liberal reward on Felix de Fredis who discovered the Laocoon, and it remained in Rome until the arrival of the French army, when that and other celebrated monuments of art were removed to the museum at Paris. Borghini and Winkelraan place the Laocoon and its sculptors in the most brilliant sera of the art in Greece; but of this some doubts have been entertained. Lessing, in his ingenious dissertation on poetry and painting, of which the Laocoon is both the title and the subject, endeavours to prove that the statue was made after the sublime passage in Virgil, in which Laocoon’s story is given; and from a consideration of the exquisite finishing of this groupe, compared with the works of the Grecian artists, he is of opinion that it was executed under the Caesars. Be this as it may, the Laocoon has immortalised the names of Agesander, Athenodorus, and Polydorus.

, a surveyor and engraver in the sixteenth century, whose original plates are now extremely rare. He first drew a plan of London, which, though referred to the time of Henry VIII. and Edward VI. appears from several circumstances to have been made early in Elizabeth’s reign, about 1560, on wood. It was republished in 1618, with alterations, in six sheets, cut in wood, and re-engraved by Vertue in 1748. The plates were bought by the Society of Antiquaries, and published in 1776. His next performances were plans of Oxford and Cambridge, about 1578. The former is the oldest plan of the city of Oxford extant. It was engraved at the expence of the university in 1728, with ancient views, on the borders, of the colleges and schools as they originally stood. This plate was unfortunately destroyed at the fire which consumed so much literary property belonging to Mr. Nichols, in 1808. The only other plan of Aggas’s workmanship, now known, is one of Dumvich in SulVolk, dated March, 1589, on vellum, and not engraved. Ames attributes to him a work entitled “A Preparative to platting of Landes and Tenements for suweigh, &c.” 1596. He is supposed to have been related to Edward Aggas, the son of Robert Aggas, of Stoke-nayland in Suffolk, who was a bookseller of some note from 1576 to 1594; and from one or ether probably descended Robert Aggas, or Angus, a landscape painter and scene painter, whose best work extant is a landscape now in Painter-stainers hall. He died in London, 1679, aged about sixty.

, educated at Eton, and in 1536 elected to King’s College, Cambridge, of which he afterwards became a fellow and M. A. was esteemed a very good Grecian and Latin poet. He was afterwards a justice of peace in Warwickshire. He wrote the genealogy of Queen Elizabeth, for which she gave him an animal pension of live pounds and a Latin poem “in obitum duorum Suffolciensium fratrum,” which is printed in Wilson’s “Epigrammata,” 1552, 4to.

, an eminent divine of a very ancient family in Cumberland (whose name was de Aguilon, corruptly Aglionby), the son of Edward Aglionby, esq. and Elizabeth Musgrave of Crookdayke, was admitted a student of Queen’s College, Oxford, in 1583. Being elected fellow, he went into orders, and became an eloquent and learned preacher. Afterwards he travelled abroad, and was introduced to the acquaintance of the famous cardinal Bellarmin. On his return he was made chaplain in ordinary to Queen Elizabeth, and in 1600 took the degree of D. D. About that time he obtained the rectory of Islip, near Oxford, and in 1601 was elected principal of St. Edmund’s hall. He was likewise chaplain in ordinary to king James I. and, according to Wood, had a considerable share in the translation of the New Testament ordered by the king in 1604. The Biog. Brit, says, that Wood mentions no authority for this assertion; but Wood, in his Annals, gives his name among the other Oxford divines who were to translate the Gospels, Acts, and Apocalypse. Dr. Aglionby died at Islip, Feb. 6, 1609-10, aged fortythree, and was buried in the chancel of the parish church. He was eminent for his learning, deeply read in the Fathers, and a distinguished critic in the languages. His son George Aglionby was eighth dean of Canterbury, byappointment of Charles I. but was never installed, nor reaped any advantage by it, as the parliament had then (1642) seized on the profits of those capitular bodies, which were within the power of their arms, and he survived his nomination but a few months, dying at Oxford Nov. 1643, aged forty. From this family probably descended William Aglionby, a gentleman of polite learning, who was envoy from Queen Anne to the Swiss Cantons, and author of a book entitled “Painting illustrated, in three dialogues, with the lives of the most eminent painters from Cimabue to Raphael,” Lond. 1685, 4to. In Macky’s Characters (really written by Mr. Davis, an officer in the customs) he is thus spoken of “He has abundance of wit, and understands most of the languages well knows how to tell a story to the best advantage; but has an affected manner of conversation is thin, splenetic, and tawny complexioned, turned of sixty years old;” to which Swift added in manuscript, “He had been a Papist.” In a collection of letters published some years ago, there are several from Dr. William Aglionby, F. R. S. dated from 1685 to 1691, principally written from different parts of the continent, and probably by the same person, who is styled Doctor in Swift’s Works.

, a learned Jesuit, born at Naples in 1621, and for many years teacher of divinity, and governor of the colleges of Monte-Pulciano, Macerata, and Ancona. He passed the last thirty years of his life among the society of Jesuits at Rome, where he wrote many works, and died Oct. 8, 1706. Of these works, the most celebrated is “Il parrochiano instruttore,” Rome, 1677, 2 vols. 4to; reprinted at the same place, 1704, in 6 vols. 8vo.

, archbishop of Ravenna in the ninth century, wrote the history of his predecessors in that see, in a bold style, and with little respect for the interests or character of the court of Rome, by which his grandfather or great-grandfather had been put to death. There are many curious facts in this collection of lives, but also several mistakes in dates. It was published by father Bacchini, in 1708, with notes, under the title “Agnelli qui et Andreas, abbatis S. Marias ad Blachernas, liber pontificalis, sive vituc Pontificum Ravennatum, &c.” 2-vols. 4to. Muratori reprinted it in his collection of Italian historians. Spreti, who wrote on the history of Ravenna, Vossius, and Moreri, have confounded Agnelli with, one of the same name who lived in the sixth century, and is supposed to have written a letter in the Bibliothec. Patrum, “De ratione Fidei ad Armenium.”

, an Italian lady of great learning, was born at Milan, March 16, 1718. Her inclinations from her earliest youth led her to the study of science, and at an age when young persons of her sex attend only to frivolous pursuits, she had made such astonishing progress in mathematics, that when in 1750 her father, professor in the university at Bologna, was unable to continue his lectures from infirm health, she obtained permission from the pope, Benedict XIV. to fill his chair. Before this, at the early age of nineteen, she had supported one hundred and ninety-one theses, which were published, in 1738, under the title “Propositiones Philosophicæ.” She was also mistress of Latin, Greek, Hebrew, French, German, and Spanish. At length she gave up her studies, and went into the monastery of the Blue Nuns, at Milan, where she died Jan. 9, 1799. In 1740 she published a discourse tending to prove “that the study of the liberal arts is not incompatible with the understandings of women,” This she had written when scarcely nine years old. Her “Instituzioni analitiche,” 1748, 2 vols. 4to, were translated in part by Antelmy, with the notes of M. Bossut, under the title of “Traites elementaires du Calcul differentiel et du Calcul integral,” 1775, 8vo: but more completely into English by that eminent judge of mathematical learning, the late rev. John Colson, M. A. F. R. S. and Lucasian professor of mathematics in the university of Cambridge. This learned and ingenious man, who had translated sir Isaac Newton’s Fluxions, with a comment, in 1736, and was well acquainted with what appeared on the same subject, in the course of fourteen years afterward, in the writings of Emerson, Maclaurin, and Simpson, found, after all, the analytical institutions of Agnesi to be so excellent, that he learned the Italian language, at an advanced age, for the sole purpose of translating that work into English, and at his death left the manuscript nearly prepared for the press. In this state it remained for some years, until Mr. Baron Maseres, with his usual liberal and active spirit, resolved to defray the whole expence of printing a handsome edition, 2 vols. 4to, 1801, which was superintended in the press by the rev. John Hellins, B. D. F. R. S. vicar of Potter’s-pury, in Northamptonshire. Her eloge was pronounced by Frisi, and translated into French by Boulard.

, a sculptor and architect of Florence, was born in 1460, and was first distinguished for the beauty of his inlaid work, which he applied to articles of furniture, and with which he ornamented the stalls in the choir of the church of St. Maria-Novelle. He also executed the carved wooden work on the organ of the same church, and on the altar of de la Nunziata. Having been led to the study of architecture, he came to Rome to devote his attention to it, but did not give up the practice of carving, and soon had a favourable opportunity to exercise both. When Leo X. travelled in Italy, all the cities through which he passed wished to receive him with honour, and Baccio gave designs for many of the triumphal arches ordered to be erected. On his return to his country, his workshop became a sort of academy to which amateurs, artists, and strangers resorted. Raphael, then very young, and Michael Angelo are said to have been of these parties. By this means Baccio acquired great reputation, and was employed on many splendid buildings in Florence. Conjointly with Cronaca, he executed the decorations of the grand saloon of the palace, and the beautiful staircase leading to it. But his best work is to be seen in the Bartolini palace and garden. Here he shewed the first specimen of square windows surmounted by pediments, and doors ornamented by columns, a mode which although followed generally since, was much ridiculed by his countrymen as an innovation. In other palaces he executed some beautiful ornaments in wood. He preserved his vigour and reputation to a great age, dying in 1543, in his eightythird year. He left three sons, one of whom, Giuliano, inherited his skill in architecture, but designed more than he executed.

, archbishop of Lyons, was one of the most celebrated and learned prelates of the ninth century. Dr. Cave and Olearius tell us he was a Frenchman, but Du Pin says there is no absolute proof of this. He was born in the year 779, as father Mabillon deduced from a short martyrology, upon which Agobard seems to have written some notes with his own hand. In the year 782 he came from Spain to France. Leidrade, archbishop of Lyons, ordained him priest in the year 804, and nine years after he was appointed coadjutor, or corepiscopus to that prelate, and when, in the year 816, Leidrade returned to a monastery at Soissons, Agobard was substituted in his room with the consent of the emperor, and the whole synod of the French bishops, who highly approved of the choice which Leidrade had made of a successor. This ordination, however, was objected to, as it is contrary to the canons, that a bishop should choose his successor himself. Agobard notwithstanding enjoyed the see quietly till he was expelled from it by the emperor Louis le Debormaire, because he had espoused the party of his sou Lothaire, and been one of the chief authors of deposing him in the assembly of bishops at Compiegne in the year 833. For Lewis, having secured himself against the injustice and violence which had been offered by Lothaire and the bishops of his party, prosecuted the latter in the council of Thionville in the year 835. Agobard, who had retired to Italy, with the other bishops of his party, was summoned three times before the council, and refusing to appear, was deposed, but no person was substituted in his room. His cause was again examined in the year 836, at an assembly held at Stramiac near Lyons: but it continued still undetermined, on account of the absence of the bishops, whose sole right it was to depose their brother. At length, the sons of the emperor having made their peace with him, they found means to restore Agobard, who was present in the year 838, at an assembly held at Paris; and he died in the service of his sovereign, in Xaintonge, June 5, in the year 840. This church honoured him with the title of saint. He had no less share in the affairs of the church, than those of the empire; and he shewed by his writings that he was a much abler divine than a politician. He was a strenuous defender of ecclesiastical discipline, very tenacious of the opinions he had once espoused, and very vigorous in asserting and defending them. Dupin, however, acknowledges that he was unfriendly to the worship of images, and it appears that he held notions on that subject which would have done honour to more enlightened times. He wrote a treatise entitled “Adversus dogma Faslicis ad Ludovicum Imp.” against Felix Orgelitanus, to shew that Christ is the true son of God, and not merely by adoption and grace. He wrote likewise several tracts against the Jews, a list of which may be seen in the General Dictionary, 10 vols. fol. from whence our account of him is principally taken. His style is simple, intelligible, and natural, but without elevation or ornament. He reasons with much acuteness, confirming his arguments, as was the custom then, by the authority of the fathers, whom he has largely quoted. His works were buried in obscurity for several ages, Until Papirius Masso found a manuscript of them by chance at a bookseller’s shop at Lyons, who was just going to cut it to pieces to bind his books with. Masso published this manuscript at Paris in 1603 in 8vo, and the original was after his death deposited in the king of France’s library. But Masso having suffered many errors to escape him in his edition, M. Baluze published a more correct edition at Paris, 1666, 2 vols. 8vo, from the same manuscript, and illustrated it with notes. He likewise added to it a treatise of Agobard entitled “Contra quatuor libros Amalarii liber,” which he copied from an old manuscript of Peter Marnæsius, and collated with another manuscript of Chifflet. This edition has been likewise reprinted in the “Bibliotheca Patrum.”

, an eminent antiquary, lived in the seventeenth century. Under the pontificate of Urban VIII. he resided in the court of cardinal Barberini; and afterwards pope Alexander VII. who had a great esteem for him, gave him the appointment of examiner of antiquities in the Roman territory. He published the two following works, which are now scarce, and much valued. 1. “La Sicilia di Filippo Paruta descritta con Medaglie, con la giunta di Lionardo Agostini,” Rome, 1649, folio. This isa new edition of Paruta’s Sicilian medals, which was originally published at Palermo, 1612, folio, under the title “Delia Sicilia di Filippo Paruta descritta con Medaglie, parte prima.” This first part, which has become very rare, contains only engravings of the medals, to which a description was promised, in a second. part, which never appeared. Agostini used the same plates as Paruta, and added about four hundred medals to those in Paruta’s edition, but still without explanations. After his death, Paruta’s plates having fallen into the hands of Marco Maier, a bookseller, he published at Lyons, in 1697, anew edition, in folio, entitled, “La Sicilia di Filippo Paruta descritta con Medaglie, e ristampata con aggiunta di Lionardo Agostini, hora in miglior ordine disposta da Marco Maier, arrichita d'una descrittione compendiosa di quella famosa isola.” But notwithstanding the explanations and historical additions of this editor, this edition is less valued than those of Paruta and Agostini. The best and most complete is that which Havercamp published in Latin, at Leyden, 1723, 3 vols. folio, with a commentary; these form the sixth, seventh, and eighth volumes of Grsevius’s Thesaurus. The other work of Agostini is, 2. “Le Gemme antiche figurate di Lionardo Agostini, con le annotazioni del sig. Gio. Pietro Bellori,” part I. Rome, 1636 and 1657, 4to; part II. Rome, 1670; reprinted 1686, 2 vols. 4to. In 1702, Dominique de Rossi published an enlarged edition at Rome, 2 vols. 4to; and in 1707, a fourth edition was published at the same place in four large vols. 4to, with a vast number of additions by Maflfei. The first, however, is still in highest esteem on account of the beauty of the plates, which were executed by Galestruzzi; and the editors of the Orleans gems in 1780 seem to undervalue the labours of Maffei and Gronovius, who translated this work into Latin, Amsterdam, 1685, 4to, reprinted at Franeker, 1694. Joecher, in his Dictionary of learned Men, attributes to Agostini a work entitled “Consiglier di pace,” which was written by Lionardo Agosti.

, of Valerano, an eminent musician, was born in 1593, and was the scholar of Bernardo Nanini, and successor to Soriano in the pontifical chapel. Antinio Liberati speaks of him as one of the most scientific and ingenious composers of his time, in every species of music then cultivated; and adds, that when he was master of the chapel of St. Peter’s church at Rome, he astonished the musical world with his productions for four, six, and eight choirs or choruses; some of which might be sung in four or six parts only, without diminishing or enervating the harmony. Father Martini, who bears testimony to the truth of this eulogium, has inserted an Agnus Dei, in eight parts, of this composer, which is truly a curious production, three different canons being carried on at the same time, in so clear and natural a manner, both as to melody and harmony, that this learned father, who had been long exercised in such arduous enterprizes, speaks of it as one of the greatest efforts of genius and learning in this most difficult kind of composition. Agostino died in 1629, in the prime of life.

, a Provencal gentleman and poet, of the twelfth century, died in 1181, leaving behind him the character of a man, learned, amiable, witty, and elegant in person and manners. He married Jausserande de Lunel, in praise of whom he wrote many verses, dedicated to Ildefonso, the first of the name, king of Arragon, prince of Provence, and count of Barcelona, in whose court he held the rank of first gentleman. He complained that in his time the passion of love was not properly understood, and therefore wrote a treatise or poem, entitled “La maniera d'Amar del temps passat.” In this he maintains, in a chain of reasoning, that no one can be happy unless he is a good man; that no one can be a good man unless he is in love; and that no man knows how to love who is not careful of his mistress’s honour. None of his writings have been published. The family of Agoult still exists in Dauphiny and Provence.

, a singular impostor and enthusiast, the daughter of Francis Coronel, was born at Agreda in 1602. Her father made his house a convent of female Cordeliers, under the name of The Immaculate Conception, and his wife and daughters made profession. Maria was elected superior of the convent, and died there in 1665, after having written “The Mystical City of God,” which contains a life of the blessed Virgin, full of absurdity and impiety. Yet it was printed at Lisbon, at Madrid, at Perpignan, and at Antwerp, and at last translated into French by father Crozet, and printed at Brussels, 3 vols. 4to, and 8 vols. 8vo. The doctors of the Sorbonne condemned it; but their sentence was not allowed to be promulgated in Spain, where this work was highly popular.

was born at the colony of Forum-Julii, or Frejus in Provence, A. D. 40, in the reign of Caligula. His father’s name was Julius Græcinus, a man of senatorian rank, and famous for his eloquence. He was put to death by Caligula for refusing to accuse Marcus Silanus. His mother’s name was Julia Procilla, a lady of exemplary virtue. He studied philosophy and civil law at Marseilles, as far as was suitable to his character as a Roman and a senator. His first service in war was under Suetonius Paulinus in Britain; and upon his return to Rome he married Domitia Decidiana, with whom he lived in the utmost harmony and tranquillity. He was chosen questor: in Asia at the same time that Salvius Titianus was pro-consul there; and he preserved his integrity, though that province was extremely rich, and Titianus, who was very avaricious, would have readily countenanced his extortions in order to screen his own. He was afterwards chosen tribune of the people, and then praetor, under the emperor Nero. In Vespasian’s time he was made legate to Vettius Bolanus in Britain, and upon his return was ranked among the patricians by that emperor, and afterwards appointed governor of Aquitania; which post he held for three years, and upon his return was chosen consul, and then governor of Britain, where he distinguished himself by his courage and conduct in several campaigns. He subdued the Ordovices, or people of North Wales, and the island Mona, or Anglesey; and then reformed the abuses occasioned by the avarice or carelessness of the former governors, putting a stop to all manner of extortions, and causing justice to be impartially administered.

Vespasian dying about this time, Titus his son, knowing Agricola’s great merit, continued him in the government. In the spring he marched towards the north, where he made some new conquests, and ordered forts to be built for the Romans to winter in. He spent the following winter in endeavouring to bring the Britons to conform to the Romish eustoms. He thought the best way of diverting them from rising and taking arms, was to soften their rough manners by the more refined amusements of Rome; and soon after, the country was adorned with magnificent temples, porticoes, baths, and other fine public and private edifices. The British nobles had their sons educated in learning, and they who before had the utmost aversion to the Roman language, now made it their study. They wore likewise the Roman habit; and, as Tacitus observes, they were brought to consider those things as signs of politeness, which were only so many badges of slavery. In his third campaign he advanced as far as the river Tweed; and in his fourth he subdued the nations between the Tweed and the firths of Edinburgh and Dumbarton, into which the Clyde and the Tay discharge themselves. Here he built castles and fortresses, in order to shut up the nations which were yet unconquered. In his fifth campaign he marched beyond the firths, where he subdued some nations, and fixed garrisons along the western coasts over-against Ireland, designing to make a descent upon that island, having had perfect information of its state from a chief who had been banished from thence. In his sixth campaign he passed the firth of Forth, ordering his fleet, the first which the Romans ever had upon those seas, to row along the coasts, and take a view of the northern parts. He was advancing farther northwards, when he was informed that the northern nations were marching against him with a formidable army, which he routed. In the following spring the Britons raised an army of thirty thousand men, commanded by Galgacus, who endeavoured to rouse their patriotism by an admirable speech which may be seen in Tacitus, and which seems adapted to the case of every nation about to lose its liberties by the invasion of a powerful enemy. Agricola on this occasion likewise addressed his soldiers in a very eloquent harangue, which was so prevailing, that the Britons were routed, with the loss of ten thousand killed; whereas but three hundred and forty of the Romans were killed. Domitian, being informed of this victory, grew jealous of the conqueror, and recalled him under pretence of making him governor of Syria. His death was suspected to have been occasioned by poison given him by that emperor; and, as Tacitus remarks, happened very seasonably for him, as he did not live to witness the calamities brought upon his country by the cruelty of Domitian. He died Aug. 23, A. D. 93, in the fifty-fourth year of his age. It is scarcely needful to remind our readers that his life was affectionately written by his son-in-law Tacitus, who gives him a very high character, but not more than is warranted by contemporary authority; at least we are acquainted with no documents that can detract from it.

, a German physician, eminent for his knowledge of metallurgy, was born at Glaucha in Misnia, March 24, 1494. The discoveries which he made in the mountains of Bohemia after his return from Italy, whither he went to pursue his studies, gave him such a taste for examining every thing that related to metals, that when engaged in the practice of physic at Joachimstal in Misnia, he employed all the time he could possibly spare in the study of fossils; and at length removed to Chemintz, that he might wholly devote himself to this pursuit. He is said to have applied to it with such disinterested zeal, that he riotonly spent the pension procured for him from Maurice, duke of Saxony, but a considerable part of his own estate; and when duke Maurice and duke Augustus went to join the army of Charles V. in Bohemia, Agricola attended them, in order to demonstrate his attachment, although this obliged him to quit the care of his family and estate. He died at Chemiutz, Nov. 21, 1555. He was a zealous Roman Catholic, but was considered by the Lutherans as in some respects an apostate from the reformed, religion, and they carried their rancour against him so far as to refuse his body the rites of burial. It was therefore obliged to be removed from Chemintz to Zeits, where it was interred in the principal church. Bayle thinks that he must have irritated the Lutherans by some instances of excessive aversion to them, and Peter Albinus represents him as an intolerant bigot. His works are “De ortu et causis Subterraneorum. De natura eorum, quae effluunt ex terra. De natura Fossilium. De Medicatis Fontibus. De Subterraneis Animantibus. De veteribus et novis Metallis. De re Metallica.” This last has been printed at Basil four times, in folio, 1546, 1556, 1558, and 1561, which shews the very high esteem in which it was held. His work “De ortu et causis Subterraneorum” was printed at Basil, 1583, fol. Bayle mentions a political work of his, “De bello Turcis inferendo,” Basil, 1538, and a controversial treatise, “De Traditionibus Apostolicis.” His principal medical work, “De Peste,” was printed at Basil, 1554. He wrote also “De Ponderibus et Mensuris” against Budeus, Leonard Portius, and Alciati, which the latter endeavoured to answer, but without success. His life is written by Melchior Adam.

, a Saxon divine, born at Isleben, April 20, 1492, was an eminent doctor of the Lutheran church, though chargeable with vanity, presumption, and artifice. Bayle gives rather a confused account of his life, from which, however, it appears that he made himself distinguished in 1538, upon the following occasion. Luther, in the course of his ministry, was insisting upon the necessity of imprinting deeply in the minds of the people, that doctrine of the gospel, which represents Christ’s merits as the source of man’s salvation; and while he was eagerly employed in censuring and refuting the popish doctors, who mixed the law and the gospel together, and represented eternal happiness as die-fruit of legal obedience, Agricola took an opportunity to declaim against the law, maintaining that it was neither fit to be proposed to the people as a rule of manners, nor to be used in the church as a means of instruction; and that the gospel alone was to be inculcated and explained both in the churches and in the schools of learning. This was the foundation of the sect of Antinomians, who appeared in England during the usurpation of Cromwell, and carried their extravagant doctrines to a higher pitch than this Agricola. But the fortitude, vigilance, and credit of Luther suppressed the followers of Agricola for the present; and Agricola himself, intimidated by the opposition of so powerful an adversary, acknowledged and renounced his system. His recantation, however, does not seem to have been sincere, since we are told that, when his fears were dispelled by the death of Luther, he returned to his errors, and gained many proselytes. Still it has been pleaded on the part of Agricola, by Mosheim, that the full extravagance of Antinomianisra is not to be attributed to him, and that his principal fault lay in some harsh and inaccurate expressions, that were susceptible of dangerous and pernicious interpretations. If therefore, we follow the intention of Agricola, without interpreting, in a rigorous manner, the uncouth phrases and improper expressions he so frequently and so injudiciously employed, his doctrine, Mosheim thinks, will plainly amount to this; “That the ten commandments, published during the ministry of Moses, were chiefly designed for the Jews, and on that account might be lawfully neglected and laid aside by Christians; and that it was sufficient to explain with perspicuity, and to enforce with zeal, what Christ and his apostles had taught in the New Testament, both with respect to the means of grace and salvation, and the obligations of repentance and virtue.” He died at Berlin in 1566.

Agricola wrote but few books. The first was “An explanation of three hundred German Proverbs;” and in a second edition he added another hundred. He wrote also “Commentaries upon St. Luke,” 8vo, and confuted the explication of the nineteenth Psalm, published in High Dutch, by Thomas Muncer. He was likewise concerned with Julius Pelugius, bishop of Naumburg, and Michael Sidonius, or Heldingus, by desire of the emperor Charles V. in drawing up a formulary, which might serve as a rule of faith and worship to the contending parties of Protestants and Papists, until a council should be summoned: this is well known in ecclesiastical history by the name of the Interim, and was opposed by many of the reformers.

, a native of Finland, and a Lutheran divine of considerable eminence in the sixteenth century, studied divinity and medicine in the university of Wittemberg. Having become acquainted with Luther, that reformer recommended him to Gustavus I.; and on his return to Sweden, he was made rector of Abo, in 1539. Gustavus afterwards sent him to Lapland to preach Christianity to the benighted Laplanders. In 1554, he was appointed bishop of Abo, and then went into Russia, with the archbishop of Upsal, Laurentius Petri, in order to have a conference with the clergy of that country. He died in 1557. He translated the New Testament into the Finland language, which was printed at Stockholm, 1548; and is said also to have translated into the same language a work entitled “Rituale Ecclesise ab erroribus pontificiorum rep.urgatus.”

, one of the most learned men of the fifteenth century, was born in 1442, in the village of Bafflon, or Bafteln, near Groningen, in Friseland. Melchior Adam says, his parents were of one of the most considerable families in Friseland; but Ubo Emmius, in his history of that country, represents him as of mean extraction; and Bayle, who appears to have examined the matter with his usual precision, inclines to the latter opinion. He was, however, sent to school, where he made an uncommon progress, and had scarcely taken his degree of M. A. at Louvain, when he was offered a professorship, which he did not accept, as it would have prevented his travelling for farther improvement, a course usually taken by the learned men of those times. He went from Louvain to Paris, and from thence to Italy, residing two years at Ferrara, where he learned Greek and taught Latin, and disputed in prose and verse with Guarinus and the Strozzas, and where the duke honoured him with particular attention. He read lectures likewise on philosophy in this city, and his auditors were so well pleased as to wish he had been an Italian. At his return to his own country, he had the offer of many considerable employments; and at last accepted of a post at Groningen, and attended the court of Maximilian I. for six months, upon the affairs of that city. After this, which the gratitude of his masters did not render a very profitable employment, he resumed his travels for many years, in the course of which he refused the presidentship of a college at Antwerp, and fixed at length in the Palatinate, influenced by the persuasions of the bishop of Worms, whom he had instructed in the Greek language. He came to reside here in 1482, and passed the rest of his life, sometimes at Heidelberg, and sometimes at Worms. The Elector Palatine was pleased to hear him discourse concerning antiquity, and desired him to compose an “Abridgement of Ancient History,” which he performed with great accuracy. He also read public lectures at Worms; but his auditors being more accustomed to the subleties of logic than to polite literature, he was not so popular as he deserved. About the fortieth year of his age, he began to study divinity; and having no hope to succeed in it without a knowledge of Hebrew, he applied himself to that language, in which he had made considerable pro-­gress, when he was seized with an illness, which put an end. to his life and labours, on the 28th of October, 1485. He died in a very devout manner, and was buried in the church of the minor friars at Heidelberg. He is thought to have inclined a little to the principles of the reformers. He was accomplished in music and poetry, although he used these talents only for his amusement. There are but two works of his extant: “De Inventione Dialectica,” printed at Louvain, 1516; and at Cologne in 1539, along with his “Abridgement of Ancient History,” under the title “R. Agricolffi lucubrationes,” 2 vols. 4to. Erasmus gives a very exalted character of his learning and abilities; and by some of his admirers he was compared to Virgil in verse, and to Politian in prose.

, a celebrated architect of Milan, of the sixteenth century. He was a successful student of mathematics, physics, and philosophy. Under the pontificate of Gregory XIII. there was a design at Rome to remove a vast obelisk to St. Peter’s square, and Agrippa was one of those employed in this undertaking, hitherto thought so difficult. He published the result of his plan under the title of “Trattato di trasportar la guglia in su la piazza, &i San Pietro,” Rome, 1583, 4to. His other works are, 1. “Trattato di scientia d'Arme, con un Dialogo di Filoofia,” Rome, 1553; Venice, 1568, 1604, 4to. 2. “Dialogo sopra la generatione de Venti, &c.” Rome, 1584, 4to. 3. “Dialogo del modo di mettere in Battaglia,” Rome, 1585, 4to. 4. “Nuove Invenzioni sopra il modo di Navigare,” Rome, 159$, 4to. All his works are very scarce.

, a man of considerable learning, and even a great magician, according to report, in the 16th century, was born at Cologn, the 14th of September, 1486, of the noble family of Nettesheim. He was very early in the service of the emperor Maximilian: acted at first as his secretary; but afterwards took to the profession of arms, and served that emperor seven years in Italy, where he distinguished himself in several engagements, and received the honour of knighthood for his gallant behaviour. To his military honours he was desirous likewise to add those of the universities, and accordingly took the degrees of doctor of laws and physic. He was a man of an extensive genius, and well skilled in many parts of knowledge, and master of a variety of languages; but his insatiable curiosity, the freedom of his pen, and the inconstancy of his temper, involved him in so many vicissitudes, that his life became a series of adventures. He was continually changing his situation; always engaging himself in some difficulty or other; and, to complete his troubles, he drew upon himself the hatred of the ecclesiastics oy his writings. According to his letters, he was in France before the year 1507, in Spain in 1508, and at Dole in 1509. At this last place he read public lectures on the work of Reuchlin, “De Verbo mirifico,” which engaged him in a dispute with Catilinet, a Franciscan. These lectures, though they drew upon him the resentment of the monks, yet gained him general applause, and the counsellors of the parliament went themselves to hear them. In order to ingratiate himself into the favour of Margaret of Austria, governess of the Low Countries, he composed a treatise “On the excellence of Women;” but the persecution he met with from the monks prevented him from publishing it, and obliged him to go over to England, where he wrote a “Commentary upon St. Paul’s Epistles.” Upon his return to Cologn, he read public lectures upon those questions in divinity which are called Quodlibitales. He afterwards went to Italy, to join the army of the emperor Maximilian, and staid there till he was invited to Pisa by the cardinal de St. Croix.

In the year 1515 he read lectures upon Mercurius Trismegistus at Pavia. He left this city the same year, or the year following; but his departure was rather a flight than a retreat. By his second book of letters we find, that his friends endeavoured to procure him some honourable settlement at Grenoble, Geneva, Avignon, or Metz: he chose the last of these places; and in 1518 was employed as syndic, advocate, and counsellor for that city. The persecutions raised against him by the monks, because he had refuted a vulgar notion about St. Anne’s three husbands, and because he protected a countrywoman who was accused of witchcraft, obliged him to leave the city of Metz. The abuse which his friend Jacobus Faber Satulensis, or Jacques Faber d'Estaples, had received from the clergy of Metz, for affirming that St. Anne had but one husband, had raised his indignation, and incited him to maintain the same opinion. Agrippa retired to Cologn in the year 1520, leaving without regret a city, which those turbulent inquisitors had rendered hostile to all polite literature and real merit. He^eft his own country in 1521, and went to Geneva: here his income must have been inconsiderable, for he complains of not having enough to defray his expences to Chamber!, in order to solicit a pension from the duke of Savoy. In this, however, his hopes were disappointed; and in 1523 he removed to Fribourg in Switzerland. The year following he went to Lyons, and obtained a pension from Francis I. He was appointed physician to the king’s mother; but this was not much to his advantage; nor did he attend her at her departure from Lyons, in August 1525, when she went to conduct her daughter to the borders of Spain. He was left behind at Lyons, and was obliged to implore the assistance of his friends in order to obtain his salary; and before he received it, had the mortification of being informed that he was struck off the list. The cause of his disgrace was, that, having received orders from his mistress to examine by the rules of astrology, what success would attend the affairs of France, he too freely expressed his dislike that she should employ him in such idle curiosities, instead of things of consequence: at which she was highly offended; and became yet more irritated against him, when she understood that his astrological calculations promised new successes to the constable of Bourbon. Agrippa finding himself thus abandoned, gave way to the utmost rage and impetuosity of temper: he wrote several menacing letters, and threatened to publish some books, in which he would expose the secret history of those courtiers who had worked his ruin: nay, he proceeded so far as to say, that he would for the future account that princess, to whom he had been counsellor and physician, as a firuel and perfidious Jezebel.

He now resolved to remove to the Low Countries; this he could not do without a passport, which he at length obtained, after many tedious delays, and arrived at Antwerp in July 1528. The duke de Vendome was the principal cause of these delays; for he, instead of signing the passport, tore it in pieces in a passion, protesting he would never sign a passport for a conjuror. In 1529, Agrippa had invitations from Henry VIII. king of England, from the chancellor of the emperor, from an Italian marquis, and from Margaret of Austria, governess of the Low Countries: he preferred the last, and accepted of being historiographer to the emperor, which was offered him by that princess. He published, by way of introduction, the “History of the Coronation of Charles V.” Soon after, Margaret of Austria died, and he spoke her funeral oration. Her death is said in some measure to have been the life of Agrippa, for great prejudices had been infused into that princess against him: “I have nothing to write you (says he in one of his letters) but that I am likely to starve here, bein entirely forsaken by the deities of the court; what the great Jupiter himself (meaning Charles V.) intends, I know not. I now understand what great danger I was in here: the monks so far influenced the princess, who was of a superstitious turn, as women generally are, that, had not her sudden death prevented it, I should undoubtedly have been tried for offences against the majesty of the cowl and the sacred honour of the monks; crimes for which I should have been accounted no less guilty, and no less punished; than if I had blasphemed the Christian religion.” His treatise, “Of the Vanity of the Sciences,” which he published in 1530, greatly enraged his enemies; and that which he soon after printed at Antwerp, “Of the Occult Philosophy,” afforded them fresh pretexts for defaming his reputation. Cardinal Campej us, the pope’s legate, however, and the cardinal de la Mark, bishop of Liege, spoke in his favour; but could not procure him his pension as historiographer, nor prevent him from being thrown into prison at Brussels, in the year 1531. When he regained his liberty, he paid a visit to the archbishop of Cologn, to whom he had dedicated his Occult Philosophy, and from whom he had received a very obliging letter in return. The inquisitors endeavoured to hinder the impression of his Occult Philosophy, when he was about to print a second edition with emendations and additions; however, notwithstanding all their opposition, he finished it in 1533. He staid at Bonne till 1535; and when he returned to Lyons, he was imprisoned for what he had written against the mother of Francis I.; but he was soon released from his confinement, at the desire of several persons, and went to Grenoble, where he died the same year. Some authors say, that he died in the hospital; but Gabriel Naude affirms, it was at the house of the receiver-general of the province of Dauphiny.

Agrippa had been twice married. Speaking of his first wife, lib. II. ep. 19. “I have (says he), the greatest reason to return thanks to Almighty God, who has given me a wife after my own heart, a virgin of a noble family, well behaved, young, beautiful, and so conformable to my disposition, that we never have a harsh word with each other; and what completes my happiness is, that in whatever situation my affairs are, whether prosperous or adverse, she still continues the same, equally kind, affable, constant, sincere, and prudent, always easy, and mistress of herself.” This wife died in 1521. He married his second wife at Geneva, in 1522. The latter surpassed the former very much in fruitfulness; he had but one son by the former, whereas the latter was brought to bed thrice in two years, and a fourth time the year following. The third son by this marriage had the cardinal Lorrain for his godfather. She was delivered of her fifth son at Antwerp, in March 1529, and died there in August following. Some say that he married a third time, and that he divorced his last wife; but he mentions nothing thereof in his letters. Mr. Bayle saysj that Agrippa lived and died in the Romish communion; but Sextus Senensis asserts, that he was a Lutheran. Agrippa, in some passages of his letters, does indeed treat Luther with harsh epithets; however, in the 19th chapter of his Apology, he speaks in so favourable a manner of him, and with such contempt of his chief adversaries, that it is likely Sextus Senensis’s assertion was founded upon that passage. Bishop Burnet, in his History of the Reformation, speaks of Agrippa as if he had been an advocate for the divorce of Henry VIII. Mr. Bayle refutes this, and says that the ambassador of the emperor at London wrote to Agrippa, desiring him to support the interest of the queen: Agrippa replied, that he would readily engage, if the emperor would give him orders for that purpose; and declares that he detested the base compliance of those divines who approved of the divorce: and with regard to the Sorbonne, “I am not ignorant (says he), by what arts this affair was carried on in the Sorbonne at Paris, who by their rashness have given sanction to an example of such wickedness. When I consider it, I can scarce contain myself from exclaiming, in imitation of Perseus, Say, ye Sorbonnists, what has gold to do with divinity What piety and faith shall we imagine to be in their breasts, whose consciences are more venal than sincere, and who have sold their judgments and decisions, which ought to be revered by all the Christian world, and have now sullied the reputation they had established for faith and sincerity, by infamous avarice.” Agrippa was accused of having been a magician and sorcerer, and in. compact with the devil; but it is unnecessary to clear him, from this imputation. Bayle justly says, that if he was a conjuror, his art availed him little, as he was often in want of bread.

From the whole history of Agrippa, says Brucker, it appears that he was a man of eccentric genius and restless spirit. In the midst of such numerous changes of situation, and fortune, it is surprising that he was able to acquire such extensive erudition, and to leave behind him so many proofs of literary industry. There can be no doubt that he possessed a vigorous understanding, which rose superior to vulgar superstitions, and which prompted him to maintain a constant warfare with the monks. Though he did not chuse to offend those princes to whom he looked up for patronage, by deserting the church of Rome, he saw. with great satisfaction the bold attack made upon its corruptions by Martin Luther: and he himself, like Erasmus, Faber, and others, perpetually harrassed the monks by satirical writings. His cynical severity, and above all the disposition which he discovered to make his fortune by practising upon vulgar credulity, must not pass without censure. His occult philosophy is rather a sketch of the Alexandrian, mixed with the Cabbalistic theology, than a treatise on magic. It explains the harmony of nature, and the connection of the elementary, celestial, and intellectual worlds, on the principles of the emanative system. His treatise on the Vanity of the Sciences is not so much intended to traduce science itself, as to ridicule the follies of the learned, and expose the numerous absurdities of the established modes of education.

His attention to magical studies began early, according to Meiners; in youth he joined a secret society at Paris which was defended against the profane by peculiar rites of admission. The separation of this cabbalistical brotherhood did not occasion the dissolution of their lodge; on the contrary, each of the members endeavoured to found in his own neighbourhood corresponding societies for similar purposes. In 1510 Agrippa was sent to England on some commission, relative, probably, to the treaty between Henry VIII. and the French king; and on this occasion, as appears by his published letters, he founded in London one of these secret societies for magical pursuits. The same biographer remarks, that a strange mixture of active and passive dupery characterises Agrippa; an alternation of sceptical contempt, and of superstitious credulity respecting the occult arts. If his assertions may be credited, he had attained that intercourse with demoniacal natures, which was the boast of Plotinus and Jamblicus; and his magical pretensions found so much credit with his contemporaries, that they describe him as carrying about, with him a devil in the form of a black dog.

The two principal works of Agrippa, already mentioned, were printed under the following titles: 1. “De incertitudiueetvanitate Scientiarum, declamatio invectiva,” without date, 8vo; Cologn, 1527, 12mo; Paris, 1531, 8vo; 1531, 8vo; 1532, 8vo; 1537, 8vo; and 1539, 8vo. These seven editions are complete, but what were published afterwards were castrated. The French translation by Louis de Mayenne Turquet, 1582, 8vo, is complete; but that by Gueudeville, Leyden, 1726, 3 vols. 12mo, with the essay on Women, is mutilated. This work has also been published in Italian, English, (by James Sandford, 1569) German, and Dutch. Mr. Granger thinks it has been greatly improved upon by Mr. Thomas Baker, in his admirable “Reflections upon Learning.” 2. “De Occulta philosophia, libri tres,” Antwerp and Paris, 1531; Mechlin, Basle, Lyons, and an edition without place, 1533, foi. Lyons, 8vo, translated into French by Le VasBeur; Hague, 1727, 2 vols. 8vo. 3. “De nobilitate et ppaecelleutia fccmineisexus,declamatio,” Antwerp, 1529, 8vo. 4. “Commentariain arteni brevem Raymundi Lulli,” Cologne, 1533, Selingstadt, 1538, 8vo. 5. “Orationes deceni: de dplici coronatione Carol! V. apud Bononiam; Ejusd. Epigram, &c.” Cologne, 1535, 8vo. His entire works hare been often published. The edition of Lyons by the Berings, Leyden, 1550, 8vo, 2 vols. contains a fourth book of the Occult philosophy, on magical ceremonies, which is not by Agrippa, and has perhaps contributed most to the opinion of his being a magician.

, a Spanish Jesuit, and voluminous writer, was born 1566, at Torrejon, a village near Madrid, and entered the society of Jesuits at Alcale, in 1588, being then M.A. He was governor of several houses of the order in Spain, twice presided over the province of Toledo, and was twice sent as deputy to the congregations at Rome. The king, Philip IV. chose him for his preacher, and the count Olivarez, Philip’s prime minister, appointed him his confessor. He died at Madrid, Jan. 15, 1654. His works consist of six folios, in Spanish, printed at Madrid in 1629, 1638, 1640, 1641, 1643, 1646, 1653, on various religious topics; and a life of father Goudin, the Jesuit, 8vo, 1643. He left also many treatises which have not been published.

, archbishop of Amasia m Natolia, was born at Bologna, Nov. 20, 1570. He had the advantage of being educated under tfee care of Philip Sega, his uncle, who was raised on account of his distinguished merits to the rank of cardinal, by pope Innocent IX; and of Jerom Agucchio, his brother, who was made cardinal by pope Clement VIII. in 1604. His application to study mis early, rapid, and assiduous, but particularly in. the study of polite literature. This recommended him so much to cardinal Sega, that he carried him with him te France, when he went thither as legate from the pope. After the death of Sega, Agucchio was appointed secretary to cardinal Aldobrandini, nephew to pope Clement VIII. and attended him when he went legate to Henry IV. of France, of which journey he wrote a very elegant account. The cardinal, after his return, committed the management of his house to Agucchio, which province he executed till the death of pope Clement VIII. and of his brother the cardinal Agucchio, when want of health obliged him to retire from the court. But after he had recovered, and had passed some time at Rome in learned retirement, cardinal Aldobrandini brought him again into his former employment, in which he continued till the cardinal’s death. He then became secretary to Gregory XV. which place he held until the death of that pontiff. In 1624, Urban VIII. sent him as nuncio to Venice, where he became generally esteemed, although he maintained the rights of the see of Rome with the utmost rigour. The contagious distemper which ravaged Italy in 1630, obliged him to retire to Friuli, where he died in 1632. He was a man of very extensive learning, but appears in his private character to have been somewhat austere and narrow. His works are: “A treatise upon Comets and Meteors,” “The Life of Cardinal Sega, and that of Jerom Agucchio his brother,” and a letter to the canon Barthelemi Dolcini on the origin of the city of Bologna, “L'Antica fondazione e dominio della citta di Bologna,” Bologna, 1638, 4to. He left also various letters and moral treatises, not published.

, a French statesman of great worth and talents, was born at Limoges, Nov. 7, 1668, the son of Henry d'Aguesseau, then intendant of the Limoisin, and afterwards counsellor of state. The family was distinguished for having produced many able magistrates, among whom was Anthony, the grandfather of the chancellor, who was first president of the parliament of Bourdeaux. Henry-Francis, the subject of the present article, was educated under his father in every species of knowledge which promised to qualify him for the office of magistrate. After being admitted, in 1690, an advocate, he became, a few months after, advocate-general of the parliament of Paris, at the age of only twenty-two years. The king, in appointing one so young to an office of very great consequence, was guided solely by the recommendation of his father. “I know him,” said his majesty, “to be incapable of deceiving me, even in the case of his own son;” and the young advocate completely justified the confidence reposed in him. The celebrated Denis Talon, who had obtained great reputation in the same office, declared that he should have been willing to conclude his career as that young man had begun his. After having performed the functions of his office with reputation equal to his commencement, he became procurator-general; and the nature of his new office furnished him with occasion to display new talents in the public service. In particular, he introduced a complete system of reformation in the management of the hospitals, by which abuses were prevented or corrected; and he restored order and discipline in the tribunals, by which the criminal code was greatly improved. In questions respecting estates, he discovered much acuteness and knowledge of antiquities.

In 1709, the war and famine, ^nd public distress rendered his place of much importance, and called forth the qualities of the heart as well as the head. At this critical period, Desmarets, the comptroller-general, appointed a committee of the principal magistrates, among whom was D‘Aguessean, whose zeal and knowledge animated the whole. He contrived to discover the forestallers of provisions; punished the most guilty; and re-established credit and confidence; and from this time, a sense of the value of his public services made him be often consulted on the most difficult points of administration, and employed to draw up memorials for the king. Towards the end of the reign, however, of Louis XIV. he was threatened withdisgrace for having refused to register the famous bull TJnigenitus. On this occasion it was that madame D’Aguesseau, when her husband was about to set out for Versailles, said, “Go, and before the king, forget your wife and children, and lose every thing but your honour.” D'Aguesseau, without perhaps understanding the whole of the doctrines condemned by that bull, thought he perceived, in part of its regulations, something that threatened the rights of monarchy, which he therefore had the courage to defend against the monarch himself. It was this sense of the matter which produced the spirited answer he gave to Quirini, the pope’s nuncio “Is it thus,” said Quirini, “that you manufacture arms against Rome” “No, Monsieur,” replied D'Aguesseau, “these are not arms, but shields.”

Louis XIV. however, died, and for some time during the regency, D‘Aguesseau enjoyed all the credit which his character and virtues merited. In 1717, he succeeded Voisin as chancellor; but before a year expired, the regent took the seals from him, and ordered him into exile for having opposed the establishment of the royal bank, and the other projects contrived by Mr. Law. It was in Vain that he endeavoured to expose the danger of issuing a quantity of notes, the value of which was merely imaginary; but the public were struck with the novelty of the scheme, and charmed with its delusive plausibility, and D’Aguesseau watsordered to retire to his estate at Fresnes, while the seals were given to D'Argenson.

The issue of Law’s project is well known. For two years, it amused the French public, and then the bubble burst. Government was now so embarrassed, and the people so dissatisfied, that in 1720, the regent thought proper to recall the discarded chancellor, and restore the seals to him. Mr. Law himself, and the chevalier de Conflans, first gentleman of the chamber to the regent, were dispatched to D‘Aguesseau at Fresnes, while Dubois was ordered to demand the seals from D’Argenson. D'Aguesseau’s return was blamed by a party composed of members of the parliament, and of some men of letters. They did not relish his accepting a favour conveyed through the hands of Mr. Law; but, says his biographer, he would have been more to blame, had he refused what had less tke appearance of a favour, than of amends for injury tendered by the chief minister of state.

Aguesseau himself considered it as an honour to be recalled in a time of danger, and immediately began to repair the mischief done in his absence, by ordering the payment of the notes issued by the bank, as far as was possible; and although the loss to individuals was great, this measure was less odious than a total bankruptcy, which had been proposed. But a new storm burst forth in this corrupt court, which he was unable to oppose with his usual firmness. The regent, who had cajoled the parliament to nullify the will of Louis XIV. now solicited him to register the declaration of the king in favour of the bull Unigenitus. This was done in compliance with Dubois, now become archbishop of Cambray, and wfro, expecting a cardinal’s hat, had flattered the court of Rome with hopes of hayiug the bull registered. D‘Aguesseau had refused this, as we have seen, in the reign of Louis XIV. without being influenced by any spirit of party, but purely from his attachment to the rights of the crown. But now, when chancellor, he seemed to view the matter in another light; he thought it his duty to negociate with the parliament; and the parliament rejected his propositions, and was banished to Pontoise. The regent then imagiued he might register the declaration in the grand council. In this solemn assembly D’Aguesseau met with a repartee which he no doubt felt. Perelle, one of the members, having opposed the registration with much spirit, D'Aguesseau asked him where he had found all his arguments against it “In the pleadings of the deceased M. chancellor D'Aguesseau,” answered Perelle, very coolly; nor was this the only instance in which he was treated with ridicule on this change in his sentiments and conduct. In the mean time the court having threatened to send the parliament to Blois, the chancellor offered to resign the seals; but the regent requested him to retain them: and at length the parliament consented to register the disputed declaration with certain modifications. D‘Aguesseau, however, did not enjoy his honours long. In 1722, he refused to yield precedence to cardinal Dubois, the first minister; and this statesman, who wished to keep at a distance from court every man of virtue and dignity of character, procured the chancellor to be again banished, and he was not recalled until 1727, but without having the seals restored to him. In the mean time the court and parliament were still at variance on ecclesiastical affairs, and the cardinal Fleuri wished to engage D’Aguesseau’s influence in favour of the court; but the latter had unfortunately lost his credit in a great measure, and was considered as a deserter from the cause which he Jiad once defended with so much spirit.

In 1737, the seals were again restored to him, but sick jof court affairs and intrigues, he determined to confine himself to his duties as a minister of justice, and in this capacity he performed essential service to his country by restoring the true spirit of the laws, and rendering the execution of them uniform throughout France. In 1730, having attained his eighty-second year, he felt for the first time that his infirmities interrupted his labours, and did not wish to retain a situation of which he could no longer perform the duties. The king, in accepting his resignation, continued to him the honours of the office of chancellor, and bestowed on him a pension of 100,000 franks, which he did not long enjoy, as he died Feb. 9, 1751.

In 1694, he married Anne le Fevre d‘Ormesson, a lady worthy of him, and with whom he lived happily until her death at the village of Anteuil in 1735, when she was interred, agreeably to her own orders, in the common burial place of the parish; and there her husband desired also to be interred, and for some time a simple cross only pointed out the remains of the chancellor D’ Aguesseau. Louis XV. however, caused a magnificent monument, in the form of an obelisk, to be erected, which remained until destroyed by the revolutionary rabble. It has since been repaired at the public expense; and in 1810 the statue of D‘ Aguesseau was placed before the peristyle of the legislative, palace, parallel to that of the famous L’Hopital.

D' Aguesseau, it is universally acknowledged, was an excellent and upright magistrate, and of sentiments more liberal than could be tolerated in a corrupt court. His memory was surprising, his apprehension quick, and his knowledge of the law extensive and profound. He understood radically, not only his mother tongue, but also English, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Latin, Greek, and the oriental languages. Studying languages he called an amusement; and reading the ancient poets, the only passion of his youth. He made verses, which were approved by Racine and Boileau, who were almost the only companions of his leisure. His talents he exercised in offices of virtue, but never to shew his superiority; and he himself appeared to be the last man who was acquainted with the advantages he conferred on society. His countrymen fondly compare him to our illustrious Bacon; but although we are not disposed to rank him so high, it may be allowed that his imagination was fertile, his ideas clear, his images striking, his arguments strong, and his Janguage elegant. He was indeed a prodigy of science and virtue, and a model of true elegance and taste; and the sweetness of his temper, with the gentleness and modesty of his deportment and manners, cast a most attractive lustre over his great intellectual acquirements. He was a stranger to no human science, and made them all subservient to the improvement of those religious and moral principles that ennoble human nature. He wasone of the first men of his age, and that was the age of Louis XIV. Another important part of his character we shall give in the words of one of his editors: “The enemies,” says he, “of revealed religion, are perpetually telling us, that it renders man abject and pusillanimous; contracts and shackles the understanding; retards the progress of science, and is only fit for weak and vulgar minds. If there were not a multitude of examples, adapted to confound the abettors of such an extravagant notion, that of the chancellor D'Aguesseau would alone be sufficient for that purpose. This illustrious magistrate, whose sublime genius, and universal knowledge, his country, and indeed the learned world in general, beheld with admiration; who was one of the brightest ornaments of the present age; and who, with unremitting activity, consecrated his talents, and his whole life, to the service of his country, was an humble and zealous disciple of the Christian religion, which he considered as the true philosophy; because it was, according to him, the only guide which could shew man what he was, what he is, and can render him what he ought to be.”

, was a Jesuit of Brussels, and professor of philosophy at Doway, and of theology at Antwerp. He was one of the first that introduced mathematical studies at Antwerp. He wrote a book entitled “Opticorum lib. VI. Philosophicis juxta ac Mathematicis utiles,” printed at Antwerp by Plantin in 1613, in fol.; and a treatise “Of Projections of the Sphere.” He was employed in finishing his “Catoptrics and Dioptrics,” at the time of his death, which happened at Seville, in 1617. He appears to have been a man of great learning, and of great piety.

, a very learned man of the 17th century, was born at Logrogno, a city of Spain, March 24, 1630, and took the degree of D. D. in the university of Salamanca in 1668, and read lectures in that faculty for many years. He was censor and secretary of the supreme council of the inquisition in Spain, chief interpreter of the scriptures in the university of Salamanca, and had been more than once abbot of the college of St. Vincent, when he was honoured with a cardinal’s hat by Innocent XI. in 1686. He died at Rome Aug. 19, 1699. His life was very exemplary; and the dignity to which he was raised was so far from making any change in him, that he shewed an instance very uncommon, by retracting in an express piece the doctrine of probability, which he had before maintained, as soon as he found it was inconsistent with the purity of the Christian morality. His first work was entitled “Ludi Salmanticenses sive Theologia Florulenta,” printed in 1668, fol. These are dissertations which he wrote, according to the custom of the university of Salamanca, before he received his degree of D. D. there; an-d there are some things in them to which he objected in his more mature years. In 1671 he published three volumes in folio upon philosophy, and in 1673 “A commentary upon Aristotle’s ten books of Ethics.” In 1677 he published “A treatise upon Virtues and Vices, or Disputations on Aristotle’s Moral Philosophy.” He then appfied himself to the study of St. Anselm’s works, upon whose principles in divinity he published “The Theology of St. Anselm,” 3 vols. fol. 1690. In 1683 he published a large work against the declaration of the assembly of the French clergy made in 1682, concerning the ecclesiastical and civil power, under the title of “A defence of the see of St. Peter.” The work for which he is chiefly celebrated is his “Collection of the Councils of Spain” with an introductory history. This was published in 1693-4, in 4 vols. fol.; and in 1753 in 6 vols. fol. He published a Prodromus of this work in 1686, 8vo. It is variously spoken of; Du Pin is inclined to depreciate its merit. Abstracts from it may be seen in the Acta Eruditorum of Leipsic, far the month of February, 1688, and some farther particulars in the General Dictionary.

, an eminent lawyer and law writer, the son of Anthony Agylæus, originally of an Italian family, was born at Bois-le-duc, about 1533, where he was educated, and became a distinguished Greek scholar. lu his youth he carried arms against the king of Spain, was appointed a deputy to the States Genera], a member of the supreme council, and advocate fiscal. But he is less known by his share in the defence of his country, than by his learning and writings. He published: 1. “Novellae Justiniani Imp. Constitutiones,” with Holoander’s translation corrected, Paris, 1560, 4to. 2. “Justiniani edicta: Justini, Tiberii, Leonis philosophi constitutiones, et Zenonis nna,” Paris, 1560, 8vo. 3. A Latin translation of the Nomo-Canon of Photius, with Balsamon’s commentary, a better translation, and from a more complete copy than that of Gentian Hervet, Basil, 1561, fol. It bas been reprinted by Christopher Justel, with the Greek, in 1615, and in 1661 by Henry Justel in his Collection of the ancient canon law, 4. “Inauguratio Philippi II. Hisp. regis, qua se juraraento ducatui Brabantige, &c. obligavit,” Utrecht, 1620, 8vo. He died April 1595.

, professor of logic and metaphysics at GreifewaJd, was born in that town, Feb. 19, 1710, and died there, March 1, 1791, after having enjoyed considerable fame, from his learning, zeal, benevolence, and love of truth. His father was a poor shoe-maker, but by extreme ceconomy his son was enabled to pursue his studies at Greifswald, and afterwards at the university of Jena. He became the founder of the society or order of the Abelites, the object of which was the promotion of candour and sincerity. His favourite maxim was, “Give every thing on which you are immediately engaged, be it ever so trifling, all the attention of which you are capable.” He thought he had discovered that want of attention is the source of lukewarmness in the cause of virtue, and the great promoter of vice; and imputed his attachment to the duties of his office and of religion, to his constant observance of the above rule. His principal works are: 1. “Brontotheologie,” or pious meditations on the phenomena of thunder and lightning, Greifswald, 1745, 8vo; translated into Dutch 1747. 2. “Reflexions on the Augsburgh Confession,” eight parts in Z vols. 1742 50, 4to, which may be considered as a continuation of Reinbeck’s large work on the same subject. 3. Some “Sermons” and “Philosophical Dissertations.” In those which he published in 1734 and 1740, on the immortality of the soul, and the freedom of God, he introduced some opinions, which on more mature consideration he thought inconsistent with the truth, and published a confutation of them.

, surnamed El-Razy, an Arabian lexicographer and lawyer, was the contemporary of the celebrated Djewhary. Besides some works on the vnbject of jurisprudence, he is the author of an “Arabic Dictionary,” entitled “Moudjimi-Alloghat,” of which there is a manuscript copy in the Leyden library, and another in the Bodleian. Golius, who made use of it in his Arabic dictionary, thinks that it was prior to that. of Djewhary. Ahmed died in Hamdan, about the year 999 of the Christian æra.

, a benedictine father, was professor of grammar, poetry, rhetoric, and lastly of history, at Salzburgh, where he died Jan. 17, 1705. He wrote commentaries on Tacitus, the Philippics of Cicero, and the first ten books of Livy; several treatises on the legislation, history, and manners of the early part of the Roman republic, and dissertations on various other subjects. The titles of his principal works, all printed at Salzburgh, are: I. “Theatrum Funebre, exhibens epitaphia nova, antiqua, seria, jocosa,” 1675, 4 vols. 4to. 2. “Hortus variarum Inacriptionum veterum et novarum,” 1676, 8vo. 3. “De Comitiis veterurn Romanorum,” 1678, 8vo. 4. “Iter oratorium,” 1675. 5. “Iter Poeticum,” 1674. 6. “Deprincipiis Cosmographiæ” 1678. 7. “Ephemerides ab anno 1687 usque ad 1699.”

, bishop of Lindisfarne, or Holy island, in the 7th century, was originally a monk in the monastery of Iona, one of the islands called Hebrides. In the year 634, he came into England, at the request of Oswald king of Northumberland, to instruct that prince’s subjects in the knowledge of the Christian religion. At his first coming to Oswald’s court, he prevailed upon the king to remove the episcopal see from York, where it had been settled by Gregory the great, to Lindisfarne, or Holy island; a peninsula joined to the coast of Northumberland by a very narrow neck of land, and called Holy island from its being inhabited chiefly by monks; the beautiful ruins of its monastery are still extant. In this place Aidan was very successful in his preaching, in which he was not a little assisted by the pious zeal of the king; who, having lived a considerable time in Scotland, and acquired a sufficient knowledge of the language, was himself Aidan’s interpreter 9 and explained his discourses to the nobility, and the rest of his court. After the death of Oswald, who was killed in battle, Aidan continued to govern the church of Northumberland, under his successors Oswin and Oswi, who reigned jointly; the former in the province of Deira, the latter in that of Bernicia; but having foretold the untimely death of Oswin, he was so afflicted for his loss, that he survived him hut twelve days, and died in August 6^1, after having sat sixteen years. Bede gives him an extraordinary character; but at the same time takes notice that he was not altogether orthodox in keeping of Easter, in which he followed the custom of the Scots, Picts, and Britons. The same historian ascribes three miracles to bishop Aidan; two of them performed in his lifetime, and the other after his death. He was buried in his church of Lindisfarne; and part of his relics were carried into Scotlaud by his successor Colman in 664.

With respect to the miracles ascribed to Aidan, they will not now bear a serious discussion. It is said that he prescribed oil to calm a turbulent sea; and Dr. Kippis, in the new edition of the Biographia Britannica, supposes from this that the good bishop might have some acquaintance with the property (lately brought to light by Dr. Franklin) which oil has of stilling waves. But in the bishop’s case, we must have a miracle or nothing; for the quantity he prescribed was contained in a phial, which could not have calmed the sea; and Dr. Franklin’s discovery has never been of the smallest use in any respect. Of the excellence of his character, as an ecclesiastic, much may be believed. His speech to a priest who employed harsh measures in converting the English, is a great proof of his good sense. “Your want of success, brother,” said he, “seems to me to be owing to your want of condescension to the weakness of your unlearned hearers; whom, according to the apostolic rule, you should first have fed with the milk of a milder and less rigid doctrine, till, being nourished by degrees with the word of God, they were become capable of relishing the more perfect and sublime precepts of the Gospel.” The reason he gave for foretelling Oswin’s death is also very striking. “I forsaw that Oswin’s life was but short; for in my life, I never saw so humble a prince before. His temper is too heavenly to dwell long among us; and indeed the nation does not deserve the blessing of snch a governor.”

, two brothers, whose history cannot be separated, as they were connected in all their pursuits, and shared alike in their success. They were born at Vire, in Normandy, about the middle of the sixteenth century; and were among the number of those who were encouraged bj the patronage of Francis I. to cultivate polite learning. After having studied law and medicine for some time at Paris and Poitiers, they retired to Normandy, and dedicated themselves to poetry only. Long and painful sickness, however, interrupted their joint labours, and shortened both their lives. Robert died at the age of fortynine, and Anthony two or three years after. Their reputation rests principally on their translations of Virgil and Horace into French verse. The former, which is most praised by French critics, was published in 1582, 4to; and reprinted the following year in 8vo, with the Latin; and a translation of the More turn and some other pieces attributed to Virgil. In their translation of Horace, which appeared in 1588, they failed totally in conveying the spirit, grace, and elegance of the favourite of Maecenas. There is also some original poetry of theirs at the conclusion of a collection of verses in their praise, published by their countryman, Pierre Lucas Salliere, under the title of “Le Tombeau de Robert et Antoine le chevalier, freres, sieurs d'Aigneaux,” Caen, 12 mo, 1591.

, a French antiquary, and canon of the cathedral of Montpelier, lived in the middle of the eighteenth century; but we have no particulars of his birth or death. The family of Aigrefeuille in Languedoc, has produced many distinguished ecclesiastics and magistrates. Our author published “Histoire de la ville de Montpellier, depuis son origine,” 1737, foL a valuable work, although little known except in the place it describes; and a second volume also in fol. “Histoire Ecclesiastique de Montpellier,” 1739; in which are contained, accounts of the bishops, the history of the churches, monasteries, hospitals, colleges, and university.

, a Scotch painter of considerable eminence, was the son of William 8 Aiktnan, of Cairney, esq. and born Oct. 24, 1682. His father intended that he should follow the law, and gave him an education suitable to these views; but the strong predilection of the son to the fine arts induced him to attach himself to painting alone. Poetry, painting, and music have, with justice, been called sister arts. Mr. Aikman was fond of poetry; and was particularly delighted with those unforced strains which, proceeding from the heart, are calculated to touch the congenial feelings of sympathetic minds. It was this propensity which attached him so warmly to Allan Ramsay, the Doric bard of Scotland. Though younger than Ramsay, Mr. Aikman, while at college, formed an intimate acquaintance with him, which constituted a principal part of his happiness at that time, and of which he always bore the tenderest recollection. It was the same delicate bias of mind which at a future period of his life attached him so warmly to Thomson, who then unknown, and unprotected, stood in need of, and obtained the warmest patronage of Aikman; who perhaps considered it as one of the most fortunate occurrences in his life that he had it in his power to introduce this young poet of nature to sir Robert Walpole, who wished to be reckoned the patron of genius, and to Arbuthnot, Swift, Pope, Gay, and the other beaux esprits of that brilliant period. Thomson could never forget this kindness; and when he had the misfortune, too soon, to lose this warm friend and kind protector, he bewailed the loss in strains distinguished by justness of thought, and genuine pathos of expression.

Mr. Aikman, having prosecuted his studies for somt time in Britain, found that to complete them it would be necessary to go into Italy, to form his taste on the fine models of antiquity, which there alone can be found in abundance. And as he perceived that the profession he was to follow, could not permit him to manage properly his paternal estate, situated in a remote place near Arbroath in the county of For far in Scotland, he thought proper to sell it, and settle all family claims upon him, that he might be at full liberty to pursue his studies. In the year 1707 he went to Italy, and having resided chiefly at Rome for three years, and taken instructions from, and formed an acquaintance with the principal artists of that period, he chose to gratify his curiosity by travelling into Turkey. He went first to Constantinople, and from thence to Smyrna. There he became acquainted with all the British gentlemen of the factory; who wished him to forsake the pencil, and to join them in the Turkey trade: but, that scheme not tuking place, he went once more to Rome, and pursued his former studies there, till the year 1712, when he returned to his native country: he now followed his profession of painting for some time, applauded by the discerning few; though the public, too poor at that period to be able to purchase valuable pictures, were unable to give adequate encouragement to his superior merit. John duke of Argyll, who equally admired the artist and esteemed the man, regretting that such talents should be lost, at length prevailed on Mr. Aikman to move with all his family to London, in the year 1723, thinking this the only theatre in Britain where his talents could be properly displayed. Under the auspices of this nobleman, he formed habits of intimacy with the first artists, particularly with sir Godfrey Kneller, whose studies and dispositions of mind were very congenial to his own.

In this society he soon became known to and patronized by people of the first rank, and was in habits of intimacy with many of them; particularly the earl of Burlington, so well known for his taste in the fine arts, especially architecture. For him he painted, among others, a large picture of the royal family of England: in the middle compartment are all the younger branches of the family on a very large canvas, and on one hand above the door a half length of her majesty queen Caroline; the picture of the king was intended to fill the niche opposite to it, but Mr. Aikman’s death happening before it was begun, the place for it is left blank. This picture came into the possession of the duke of Devonshire, whose father married lady Mary Boyle, daughter and only child to the earl of Burlington. Towards the close of his life he painted many other piclures of people of the first rank and fashion in England. At Blickling in Norfolk, the seat of Hobart earl of Buckinghamshire, are a great many full length pictures by Mr. Aikman, of noblemen, gentlemen, and ladies, relations and friends of the earl. These, with the royal family above named, were his last works; and but a few of the number he painted in London. He died June 7, 1731.

In his style of painting Mr. Aikman seems to have aimed at imitating nature in her pleasing simplicity: his lights are soft, his shades mellow, and his colouring mild and harmonious. His touches have neither the force nor harshness of Rubens; nor does he seem, like Reynolds, ever to have aimed at adorning his portraits with the elegance of adventitious graces. His mind, tranquil and serene, delighted rather to wander with Thomson in the enchanting fields of Tempe, than to burst, with Michael Angelo, into the ruder scenes of the terrible and the sublime. His compositions are distinguished by a placid tranquillity and ease rather than a striking brilliancy of effect: and his portraits may be more readily mistaken for those of Kneller than any other eminent artist; not only because of the general resemblance in the dresses, which were those of the times, they being contemporaries, but also for the manner of working, and the similarity and bland mellowness of their tints.

There are several portraits painted by Mr. Aikman in Scotland in the possession of the duke of Argyll, the duke of Hamilton, and others. There is also a portrait of Aikman in the gallery of the grand duke of Tuscany, painted by himself; and another of the same in the possession of his daughter, Mrs. Forbes, in Edinburgh, whose only son now represents the family of Aikman.

, or Alliacus, an eminent Romish ecclesiastic, and cardinal, was born at Compiegnein 1350, of an obscure family. He eame very young to study at P.aris, and was admitted into the college of Navarre in 1372. From this time he began to distinguish himself by his writings in philosophy, in which he fol lowed the principles of Occham, and the Nominalists; and his reputation made him be chosen to assist at the synod of Amiens, in which he made a, discourse to the priest, although he was then only a subdeacon. He received the doctor’s degree at Paris, April 11, 1380, and next year he made a discourse in the presence of the duke of Anjou, in the name of the university, to show that it was necessary to assemble a general council in order to put an end to schism. That same year he was made canon of Noyon, and continued there to the year 1384, when he was recalled to Paris, to be superior of the college of Navarre. Here he taught divinity, and acquired increased reputation by his lectures and sermons. From his school came Gerson, Clemangis, and Giles D‘Eschamps, the most famous divines of that time. The university of Paris could not find any person more capable of maintaining her cause against Monteson, at pope Clement VIL’s tribunal, than this learned doctor. She accordingly deputed him to Avignon, where he pleaded the cause of the university with so much force, that the pope and cardinals confirmed the judgment passed by that seminary. Having returned from this mission, he was honoured, in 1389, with three considerable dignities, that of chancellor of the church and university, and almoner and confessor to king Charles VI. In 1394 he was appointed treasurer of the holy chapel at Paris, and was sent by the king to Benedict XIII. to treat with him about the peace of the church. He was afterwards successively elected to two bishoprics: that of Puy, in Velay, in 1395, and that of Cam bray next year. He took possession of the latter, and laid down his charge of chancellor of the university in favour of John Gerson. After this he employed his time in extinguishing schism, as it was called, and assisted at the council of Pisa. At length pope John XXIII. made him cardinal of Chrysogonus in 1411. He assisted in that quality at the general council of Constance, and was one of those who took the greatest share in its transactions, and composed several sermons upon subjects handled there. He then returned to Cambray, where he died in 1425. He wrote many works, some of which were published after the invention of printing; as his “Commentaries on the Master of Sentences,” which are inserted in the appendix to the “Fasciculus rertim expetendarum,” 1490; a volume “of Tracts and Sermons,” about the same time. He wrote also on Astrology, in which he was a believer. His principal works, however, confirm the opinion which the Roman Catholic writers give of his learning and talents; and learning so extraordinary is to be venerated in an age of comparative darkness: but it is a great deduction from, his character that, although he possessed superior understanding and liberality to many of his contemporaries, and even is supposed to have leaned a little towards freedom of opinion, he was an implacable persecutor of schism, that is, the first beginnings of the Reformation; and was a principal agent in bringing John Huss to the stake, and in disturbing the ashes of Wickliffe.

, Ethelred, Ælred, or Ealred, abbot of Revesby in Lincolnshire in the reigns of king Stephen and king Henry II. was born of nobie parents, in 1109, and educated in Scotland, together with Henry, son of David, king of Scots. Upon his return into England, he took the habit in the Cistertian monastery of Revesby, where his extraordinary piety and learning soon raised him to the dignity of abbot. Leland says he outshone his brethren as the sun eclipses the brightness of the inferior luminaries: and endeared himself no less to the great men of the kingdom than to the monks of his own house. His great love of retirement, and a life of contemplation and study, induced him to decline all offers of ecclesiastical preferment, and even to refuse a bishopric. He was particularly attached to St. Austin’s works, especially his “Confessions;” and was a strict imitator of St. Bernard in his writings, words, and actions. He left behind him several monuments of his learning; in the composition of which he was assisted by Walter Daniel, a monk of the same convent. This abbot died January 12, 1166, aged fifty-seven years, and was buried in the monastery of Revesby, under a tomb adorned with gold and silver; and, we are told, he was canonized on account of some miracles said to have been wrought by him after his death.

Of his works, the following have been printed in the “Collection of ten English Writers” by Roger Twisden, Lond. 1652: “De Bello Standardii tempore Stephani regis, anno 1138;” “Genealogia Regum Anglorum;” “Historra de Vita et Miraculis S. Edwardi Regis et Confessoris;” “Historia de Sanctimoniali de Watthun.” Ailred wrote another “Life of St. Edward” in elegiac verse, which is extant in manuscript in the library of Gonvil and Caius college in Cambridge. The following were published by Richard Gibbons, a Jesuit, at Doway, in 1631, and afterwards in the “Bibliotheca Cistertiensis,” and in the “Bibliotheca Patrum;” namely, “Sermones de Tempore etde Sanctis;” “In~Isaiam Prophetam Sermones XXXI;” “Speculum Charitatis libris III.” “Tractatus de puero Jesu duodecenni in illud Luc. ii. cum factus esset Jesus, &c.” “De spirituali Amicitia.” He wrote also “Regulse ad Inclusas, seu Moniales,” which is erroneously ascribed to St. Augustin, and usually printed with his works; and among the works of St. Bernard is “Tractatus de Dominica infra octavas Epiphaniae, et Sermones XI. de oneribus Isaiae,” which was written by Ailred. Leland, Bale, and Pits, have enumerated his unpublished writings, as has Tanner under the article Ealredus.

, an eminent English nonconformist divine, who flourished in the latter end of the sixteenth, and beginning of the seventeenth centary, but it is not known when or where he was born. In 1590 he joined the Brownists, and by his adherence to that sect shared in their persecutions. He was well versed in the Hebrew language, and wrote many excellent commentaries on the holy scriptures which gained him great reputation. The Brownists having fallen into great discredit in England, they were involved in many fresh troubles and difficulties; so that Ainsworth at length quitted his country, and fled to Holland, whither most of the nonconformists, who had incurred the displeasure of queen Elizabeth’s government, had taken refuge. At Amsterdam Mr. Johnson and he erected a church, of which Ainsworth was the minister. In conjunction with Johnson he published, in 1602, “A confession of faith of the people called Brownists;” but being men of violent spirits, they split into parties about certain points of discipline, and Johnson excommunicated his own father and brother: the presbytery of Amsterdam offered their mediation, but he refused it. This divided the congregation, half of which joining Ainsworth, they excommunicated Johnson, who made the like return to that party. The contest grew at length so violent, that Johnson and his followers removed to Embden, where he died soon after, and his congregation dissolved. Nor did Mr. Ainsworth and his adherents live long in harmony, for in a short time he left them, and retired to Ireland; but when the heat and violence of his party subsided, he returned to Amsterdam, and continued with them until his death. Dr. Heylyn’s account of their contentions at Amsterdam, sufficiently shows what implicit obedience some men expect who are not much inclined to pay it, either to the church or the state.

Ainsworth’s learned writings, however, were esteemed even by his adversaries, who, while they refuted his extravagant tenets, yet paid a proper deference to his abilities; particularly Dr. Hall, bisbop of Exeter, who wrote with great strength of argument against the Brownists. But nothing could have effect upon him, or make him return home so he died in exile. His death was sudden, and not without suspicion of violence for it is reported, that having found a diamond of great value, he advertised it; and when the owner, who was a Jew, came to demand it, he offered him any gratuity he would desire. Ainsworth, though poor, requested only of the Jew, that he would procure him a conference with some of his rabbis, upon the prophecies of the Old Testament relating to the Messiah, which the Jew promised; but not having interest to obtain such a conference, it was thought that he contrived to get Ainsworth poisoned. This is said to have happened in 1622. He was undoubtedly a person of profound learning, and deeply read in the works of the rabbis. He had a strong understanding, quick penetration, and wonderful diligence.

His most esteemed works are his annotations on some books of the Bible. Those on the Psalms were printed 1612, 4to; on the Pentateuch, 2 vols. 4to, 1621, and again in 1627, fol. and 1639; which last edition Wendler and Vogt have inserted among scarce books. The Song of Solomon, which makes part of this volume, was printed separately in 1623, 4to. He published also several treatises of the controversial kind, as, 1. “A Counter-poison against Bernard and Crashaw,” 1608, 4to, and 1612, which Anthony Wood improperly attributes to Henry Jacob. Bishop Hall answered this tract; yet, whenever he mentions Ainsworth, it is with the highest praise as a man of learning. 2. “An Animadversion on Mr. Richard Clyfton’s Advertisement, who, under pretence of answering Charles Lawne’s book, hath published another man’s private letter, with Mr, Francis Johnson’s answer thereto; which letter is here justified, the answer hereto refuted, and the true causes of the lamentable breach that has lately fallen out in the English exiled church at Amsterdam, manifested: printed at Amsterdam, by Giles Thorp, Aid. 1613,” 4to; 3. “A treatise of the Communion of Saints;” 4. “A treatise of the Fellowship that the Faithful have with God, his Angels, and one with another, in this present life, 1615,” 8vo; 5. “The trying out of the Truth between John Ainsworth and Henry Ainsworth, the one pleading for, and the other against popery,” 4to; 6. “An Arrow against Idolatry;” 7. “Certain Notes of Mr. Ainsworth’s last Sermon on 1 Pet. ii. 4, 5, printed in 1630,” 8vo.

, an eminent Grammarian and lexicographer, was born at Woodyale, in the parish of Eccles, in Lancashire, four miles from Manchester, in September 1660, and was educated at Bolton in that county, where he afterwards taught school. On coming to London, he opened a considerable boarding-school at Bethnal-green, and in 1698 published a short treatise on grammatical instil tution, inscribed to sir William Hustler, and reprinted in 1736, 8vo, under the title of “The most natural and easy way of Institution, &c.” He soon after removed to Hackney, and successively to other villages near London, where he taught with good reputation many years, and at length having acquired a moderate fortune, he left off teaching and lived privately. He had a turn both for Latin and English poetry, some single poems of his having been printed in each of these languages, but are not now known. He was remarkably near-sighted, but wrote a beautiful hand. In the latter part of his life, he employed himself in searching the shops of obscure brokers in every quarter of the town, by which means he often recovered old coius. and other valuable curiosities at a small expence, and became possessed of a very fine collection of English coins, which he sold singly to several gentlemen a short time before his death. This happened at London, April 4, 1743, at the age of eighty-three. He was buried, according to his own desire, in the cemetery of Poplar, under the following monumental inscription, composed by himself:

Be wise and meditate thy end.” Of his private life, little else is known, except that in 1721 or 1724, he was elected a fellow of the society of Antiquaries; and honourable notice is taken of him in the history of the society prefixed to the first volume of the Archæologia. He published, 1. “Monumenta Vetustatis Kempiana, &c.” 1720, 8vo. The greatest part of this collection was originally made by Mr. John Gailhard, who had been governor to George, first lord Carteret, and sold to his lordship for an annuity of 200l. After lord Carteret’s death in 1695, Mr. John Kemp bought a considerable part of the collection duriug the minority of John lord Carteret, afterwards earl Granville, and more after his death. Some years after Kemp’s death, the collection was sold by auction. 2. “Irtiov, sive ex veteris monumenti Isiaci descriptione Isidis Delubrum reseratum,” 1729, 4to. 3. “De Clypeo Carnilli antique,” 1734, which had before appeared at the end of “Museum Woodwardianum,” the latter part of which was drawn up by Ainsworth, though Dr. Woodward himself had described most of the statues, tables, and vases, and written large notes upon most of them. But the work which has contributed most to Mr. Ainsworth’s name is his well-known Latin Dictionary. About the year 1714, it having been suggested to some principal booksellers, that a new compendious English and Latin Dictionary, upon a plan somewhat similar to Faber’s Thesaurus, was much wanted, Mr. Ainsworth was considered as a proper person to execute what proved to be a long and troublesome undertaking: and how well he completed it has been sufficiently shewn by the approbation bestowed on it by a succession of the ablest teachers and scholars. The first edition appeared in 1736, 4to, in which Dr. Patrick appears to have assisted Ainsworth; and the second edition in 1746 was entirely entrusted to Patrick’s care, who introduced many additions and improvements. Dr. Ward also contributed to this edition. The third edition irt 1751 was superintended by Mr.Kimber, but with little or no variation. In 1752 another appeared, greatly improved by Mr. William Young (the parson Adams of Fielding), and an editor far superior to either of the preceding. An abridgment in 2 vols. 8vo, 1758, by Mr. Nathanael Thomas, is chiefly valuable for the clearness of the print, and the facility of reference. In 1773, Dr. Morell corrected, for the third time, the quarto edition, and continued to improve it as far as the edition of 1780; the last edition of 1808 was revised by a gentleman, whose name we are not at liberty to mention, amply qualified for the task. By a curious list of the sums given to the various editors of this work, published by Mr. Nichols, we learn that Ainsworth received for the first edition, 66 6l. 17s. 6d., and-for what he had contributed to the second, his executors were paid 2501.

Mr. Watson, in his history of Halifax, notices a William Ainsworth, curate of Lightcliffe, and some time lecturer of St. Peter’s, Chester, who, in 1650 published “Triplex memoriale, or the Substance of three commemoration Sermons, preached at Halifax in remembrance of Mr. Nathanael Wattehouse deceased.” This gentleman taught school in aid of his maintenance, which appears to have been very scanty, but whether related to our Lexicographer, cannot now be ascertained.

, vicar of Milford in Hampshire, was born at Clifton in Westmoreland, and admitted a student in Queen’s college, Oxford, in 1621; where having passed the servile offices, and taken the degree of M. A. Jie was elected a fellow. Soon after he went into holy orders, and in 1642 took the degree of B. D. He wrote “Fasciculus prseceptorum logicalium in gratiam Juventutis Academicse compositus;” besides a few other small pieces, the titles of which Wood has not recovered. He died the 18th of October, 1670, aged 69, and was buried in the chancel of his church of Milford, with an epitaph, which praises him as a vigilant vicar of that church, a gentleman of the greatest integrity, judgment, and learning, and who in the most difficult and troublesome times, adhered faithfully to his principles. Wood speaks of a Christopher Airay, nephew to Dr. Adam Airay, principal of Edmund hall, who ia 1660 contributed to enlarge the buildings of old Queen’s college. They were probably both related to the subject of the following article.

, provost of Queen’s college, Oxford, was born in Westmoreland in 1559, educated in grammatical learning under the care of Bernard Gilpin, usually called the Northern Apostle, and by him sent to St. Edmund’s hall, Oxford, in 1579. He was then 19 years of age, and was maintained at the university by Gilpin, who afterwards left him a handsome legacy by his last will. Mr. Airay soon removed from St. Edmund’s hall to Queen’s college, and in 1583, took his bachelor’s degree, was made tabarder, and in 1586 he commenced master of arts and was chosen fellow. About this time he went into orders, and became a constant preacher in the university, particularly in the church of St. Peter in the east. In 1594, he took the degree of B. D. and March 9, 1598-9, was elected provost of his college; and in 1606 he was appointed vice-chancellor. He wrote the following pieces: 1. “Lectures upon the whole Epistle of St. Paul to the Philippians,” London, 1618, 4to. 2. “The just and necessary Apology touching his Suit in Law, for the Rector of Charlton on Otmore, in Oxfordshire,” London, 1621, 8vo. 3. “A Treatise against bowing at the Name of Jesus.” The lectures were preached in the church of St. Peter in the east, and were published by Christopher Potter, fellow, and afterwards provost of Queen’s college, with an epistle of his own composition prefixed to them. Airay ranks among the zealous Puritans, who were mostly Calvinists, and was a great supporter of his party in the university, where he was considered as a man of sincere piety, integrity, and learning. In 1602 when Dr. Howson, then vice-chancellor, wished to repress the practice of some Puritan divines of Oxford who preached against the ceremonies and discipline of the church, Dr. Airay and one or two otherlj were ordered to make submission by the queen’s commissioners who had investigated the matter; and this the others did, but Dr. Airay, according to Ant. Wood, appears to have been excused. In 1604, when king James, in commemoration of his escape from the Gowrie conspiracy, not only appointed an anniversary, but that there should always be a sermon and service on Tuesdays throughout the year, Dr. Airay introduced this last custom into Oxford, first at All Saints church, and then at St. Mary’s, with a rule that the sermons should be preached by the divines of the colleges in their respective turns. In 1606, when vice-chancellor, he was one of the first to call Mr. Laud, afterwards the celebrated archbishop, to task for preaching sentiments which were supposed to favour popery. He died in Queen’s college, Oct. 10, 1616, aged fiftyseven, and was buried in the chapel. He bequeathed to the college some lands lying in Garsington, near Oxford.

, an eminent botanist, was born m 1731, at a small village near Hamilton, in Lanarkshire. He had been early initiated in horticulture; and in 1754, coming for employment to the southern parts of the kingdom, he attracted, in the following year, the notice of Mr. Philip Miller, author of the Gardener’s Dictionary, who was at that time superintendant of the botanical garden at Chelsea. The instructions which he received from that eminent gardener, it is said, laid the foundation of his futnre fortune. His attention to his profession procured for him a recommendation to the late princess dowager of Wales, and his present majesty. In 1759, he consequently was appointed to superintend the botanical garden at Kew, an opportunity for the exertion of his talents which was not neglected. The most curious plants were collected from every part of the world, and his skill in the cultivation of them was evinced by his attention to the various soils and degrees of warmth or cold which were necessary for their growth. The borders in the garden were enlarged for the more free circulation of the air where it was required, and the stoves were improved for the reception of plants, and, as near as it was thought possible, adapted to the climates from which they were produced. His professional abilities were not unnoticed by the most eminent botanists of the time; and in 1764 he became acquainted with sir Joseph Banks, when, equally honourable to both, a friendship commenced which subsisted for life. In 1783, Mr. Haverfield, having been advanced to a higher station, was succeeded by Mr. Aiton, in the more lucrative office of superintending the pleasure and kitchen gardens at Kew, with which he was permitted to retain his former post. His labours proved that his majesty’s favours were not injudiciously bestowed; forin 1789 he published an ample catalogue of the plants at Kew, with the title of “Hortus Kewensis,” 3 vols. 8vo. In this catalogue was given an account of the several foreign plants which had been introduced into the English gardens at different times. The whole impression of this elaborate performance was sold within two years, and a second and improved edition was published by his son William Townsend Aiton in 1810. Though active and temperate, Mr. Aiton had for some time been afflicted with a complaint which is thought by the faculty to be incurable. It was that of a scirrhous liver, nor was it to be surmounted by the aid of medicine, though every possible assistance was liberally bestowed. He died on February 1st, 1793, in the 63d year of his age, having left behind him a wife, two sons, and three daughters. He had been distinguished by the friendship of those who were most celebrated for their botanical science. The late earl of Bute, sir Joseph Banks, the late Dr. Solander, and Mr. Dryander, were the friends to whom he always was inclined to declare his acknowledgements for their kindness, and to the three latter for the assistance which they afforded hint in completing the “Hortus Kewensis.” He was assiduous in his employment, easy in his temper, and faithful to his duty. As a friend, a husband, and a father, his character was exemplary. On his burial in the church-yard at Kew, his pall was supported by those who knew and esteemed him; by sir Joseph Banks, the Rev. Dr. Goodenough, Mr. Dryander, Dr. Pitcairn, Mr. Dundas of Richmond, and Mr. Zoffany. The king, attentive to his faithful servants, demonstrated his kindness to Mr. Aiton, by appointing his eldest son to his father’s places. There is a portrait of our author in the library at sir Joseph Banks’ s, Soho square, which is thought a good likeness. He holds in his hand a plant called, in compliment to him, Aitonia, by the celebrated Thunberg.

, a gentleman of Frizeland, was born at Doccum in 1600, of a considerable family. His father, Menard Aitzema, was burgomaster and secretary to the admiralty, and his uncle Foppius was resident for the states-general at Hamburgh, and often employed in negociations of the first importance. Leo had scarcely reached his sixteenth year, before he published his Poemuta Juvenilia, but was soon engaged in more serious studies, his uncle having procured him to be appointed counsellor of the Hanse towns, and their resident at the Hague. He is likewise said to have been twice in England on public affairs. The work for which he is best known is a compilation on the history of the United Provinces, written in Dutch, under the title of “Zaken van Staat en Oorlog.” Of this there have been two editions, the first in 16 vols. 4to, 1657 1671, including the period between 1621 and 1668. The second edition is in 7 vols. fol. 1669 1671, with an account of the peace of Munster, and a treatise entitled the “Lion restored,” or an account of Dutch affairs in 1650 and 1651, which had been separately published in 1652, 4to. The first edition is most esteemed by collectors of history, as in the second there were several omissions, although not of great importance; on the other hand this second is more correct, and the articles better arranged. It consists of an immense collection of original acts, instructions, memorials, letters, correspondence of crowned heads, &c. taken from the most authentic and often most secret sources. He is said to have employed much address in procuring the documents which he wanted. His connection with men in office gave him considerable advantages, but he often used means not quite so ingenuous and delicate. The Dutch reproach him with having divulged their secret correspondence with foreign courts, and particularly with England, and he is also accused of irreligious principles. Wicquefort, in his Ambassador, speaks slightingly of the original part of this great work, in which Bayle says he cannot agree with him. Voluminous, however, as it is, and in many parts uninteresting, it throws great light on the history of the times, and from it the “Histoire des Provinces Unies,” 8 vols. 4to, Paris, 1757 1771, is principally taken. A continuation of it, extending to the year 1697, was published by Lambert Bos, 4 vols. fol. Aitzema died in 1669 at the Hague, his usual residence.

, professor of medicine in the university of Paris, and created doctor in 1526, was a native of Chalons in Champagne, and according to the custom of the time, changed his name from “SansMalicc” or Harmless, to that of Akakia, a Greek word of the same import. He translated Galen “De rat ion e Curandi,” and “Ar Medica quae est ars parva.” He also published “Consilia Medica,” and two volumes on Female Diseases. He was a man of high reputation in his time, physician to Francis I. and one of the principal deputies from the university to the council of Trent, in 1545. He died in 1541.

, an English poet and physician, was born at Newcastle-upon-Tyne, Nov. 9, 1721. His father was a reputable butcher of that place. Of this circumstance, which he is said to have concealed from his friends, he had a perpetual remembrance in a halt in his gait, occasioned by the falling of a cleaver from his father’s stall. He received the first rudiments of his education at the grammar-school of Newcastle, and was afterwards placed under the tuition of Mr. Wilson, who kept a private academy. At the age of eighteen be went to Edinburgh to qualify himself for the office of a dissenting minister, and obtained some assistance from the fund of the dissenters, which is established for such purposes. Having, however, relinquished his original intention, he resolved to study physic, and honourably repaid that contribution, which, being intended for the promotion of the ministry, he could not conscientiously retain.

In 1741 he went to Levden, to complete his medical studies; and May 16, 1744, he took his doctor’s degree in physic. On this occasion, he, according to the custom of the university, published a dissertation on the Origin and Growth of the Human Foetus. In this his first medical production he is said to have displayed much sagacity and judgment, by attacking some opinions which were then generally adopted, and by proposing others, which have been since confirmed and received.

Akenside gave early indications of genius. Several of his poems were the produce of his youth. His capital performance, The Pleasures of Imagination, was first published in 1744; and, like most extraordinary productions, it was not properly appreciated till time had matured the public judgment. I have, savs our late eminent biographer, heard Dodsley, by whom it was published, say, that when the copy was offered him, the price demanded for it being such as he was not inclined to give precipitately, he carried the work to Pope, who having looked over it, advised him not to make a niggardly offer, for this was no every-day writer.

Upon the publication of his “Pleasures of Imagination,” he gave offence to Warburton, by a note in the third book, in which he revived and maintained the notion of Shaftesbury, that ridicule is the test of truth. Warburton attacked him with severity in a preface; and Akenside was warmly defended in “An Epistle to the rev. Mr. Warburton.” Though the pamphlet was anonymous, it was known to be the production of his friend Jeremiah Dyson. In the revisal of his poems, which he left unfinished, he omitted the lines and the note to which Warburton had objected. In 1745 he published a collection of his Odes; and wrote a vehement invective against Pulteney, earl of Bath, whom he stigmatizes, under the name of Curio, as the betrayer of his country. He seems to have afterwards been dissatisfied with his epistle to Curio; for he expunged about half the lines, and changed it to the form of an ode. At different and long intervals some other poems of his appeared, which were, together with the rest, published after his decease.