AMMON.....AMSTERDAM.

of the globe. Only a small proportion of America is under cultivation. It has been thought to contain a population of one hundred and fifty millions; but some late writers, with the appearance of truth, compute its whole number of inhabitants as not exceeding fifty millions, which is scarcely a sixth part of the supposed population of China.

AMMON, one of the titles of the heathen god Jupiter. The Greeks called him Jupiter, and the Egyptians Ammon; and in process of time these two names were united, and he was called Jupiter-Ammon. From Noah's son Ham (whence came the name Ammon) Egypt and Lybia were first peopled after the flood; and when idolatry began to prevail in the world, Ham, their progenitor, became the deity of the people of these countries, and a temple was built to his honor in the midst of the Lybian deserts, about eighty leagues from Memphis in Egypt. Alexander, after his conquest of Persia, undertook an arduous journey through deep and burning sands, from Memphis to the temple of JupiterAmmon, for the purpose of being declared by the Oracle to be the son of the god; and having gained his point by bribing the priests, he thenceforward in all his letters, orders, and decrees, wrote in the style following: Alexander, king, son of Jupiter-Ammon. In allusion to Alexander's claim to godship, is the appellation that Pope gives him in the following line:

"Or turns young Ammon loose to scourge mankind.”

AMSTERDAM, a very rich commercial city in Holland, computed to contain about a hundred and fifty thousand inhabitants. The ground upon which it is built being originally a morass, the foundation of the city is laid upon piles driven deep into the miry bottom; and most of the streets have canals, with rows of trees on each side. Its public buildings are numerous and splendid; its air is bad, and its waters unwholesome. The two circumstances which chiefly contributed to the rapid growth and prosperity of this city, were the fall of Antwerp, and a general toleration in matters of religion, at a time when persecution raged in England

10

ANCIENT EMPIRES.

and on the continent of Europe. No people ever carried commercial avarice to a greater length than the citizens of Amsterdam, especially during the seventeenth century. In 1638, one Beiland, a merchant of that city, having carried on a contraband trade, and being taken and examined by the prince of Orange, he profanely replied, that he was free to own, if to get any thing by trade it were necessary to pass through hell, he was ready to burn his sails. See ANTWERP.

ANCIENT EMPIRES. The most celebrated ancient empires were the Assyrian, the Chaldean, the Median, the Persian, the Macedonian, and the Roman empire. The first empire, after the flood, was the Assyrian, whose capital was Nineveh, which was founded by Ashur, the grandson of Noah. The ambitious wars of the Assyrians during five hundred years, threw Asia into confusion. At length Babylon of the Chaldees, from being the vassal of Nineveh, became her rival, and the seat of a new empire; and the Medes, some time after shook off their yoke, and dispossessed the Assyrians their former masters; whose last king was Sardanapulus, the most effeminate and debauched among human beings. The transfer of empire from the Assyrians to the Medes happened about nine hundred years before the nativity of our Saviour. The famous Cyrus, whose father was a Persian, and his mother the daughter of Astyages, king of Media and sovereign over Assyria, put an end to the Chaldean empire by the conquest of Babylon; and afterwards driving Astyages, his grandfather, from his throne and kingdoms, he united Media, Assyria and Chaldea, to Persia, and thus raised the Persian empire to a prodigious greatness. The Persians, under Cyrus, within the space of thirty years, extended their conquests from the river Indus to the Mediterranean sea. About three hundred and thirty years before our Saviour's birth, Persia was conquered by Alexander the great; and the Macedonian empire arose to a vast height of power and splendor. This empire, which was spread in Asia, Europe and Africa, was crumbled to pieces, and brought into subjection by the Romans; who extended their dominion, for a long time, over almost all parts of the known world. In the

ANDES....ANGORA GOAT.

11

fifth century, the western Roman empire was overrun and subdued by innumerable hordes of wandering shepherds, called Goths, Vandals, and Huns, from the forests of Germany, north of the Danube. Each of these empires had been a mighty oppressor and scourge to the human race; and each, in its turn, (only the Persian excepted) has by the overruling hand of Providence, been utterly wiped off from the face of the earth.

ANDES, a vast chain of mountains in South America. They stretch along the Pacific Ocean from the straits of Magellan to the isthmus of Darien, upwards of four thousand miles; thence they run through the extensive kingdom of New Spain, till they lose themselves in the unexplored countries of the north. M. Boquer found the highest part of this chain to be twenty thousand five hundred and seventy feet in height; this is the highest mountain, by above five thousand feet, of any in the known world. The Andes have sixteen volcanoes, which break out in various places, and by melting the snow, occasion such torrents, that numbers of men and cattle have perished. They are passable only in summer, and require three or four days to reach the top of any one of the highest. Some of the largest rivers on the globe have their origin in this ̈ prodigious range of mountains.....Moore, Williams.

ANGORA GOAT, a species of goat, so called, because found in its highest excellence, in the neighborhood of Angora, a city of ancient Syria. They are of a dazzling white colour, and, in all, the hair is very long, thick, fine, and glossy; which is indeed the case with almost all the animals of Syria. There is a great number of these animals about Angora, where the inhabitants drive a trade with their hair, which is sold either raw or manufactured, into all the parts of Europe. Nothing can exceed the beauty of the stuffs which are made from the hair of almost all the animals of that country. These are well known by the name of camlet. The great antiquity of this kind of manufacture is evident; as we are told in sacred scripture, that

12 ANIMALCULES....ANJOU CABBAGE...ANT.

the curtains of Moses's tabernacle were made of goat's hair, probably of that of the Angora goat.

ANIMALCULES, extremely small animals, generally applied to such as are not visible to the naked eye. All parts of the terraqueous globe, the air, earth, and water, swarm with living creatures, which are so small as to be seen only by the help of glasses. Lewenhoek reckoned up some thousands of animalcules, furnished with fins, in a single drop of water. Others have been found, whose feet are armed with claws, on the body of the fly, and even on that of the flea. It is credible from analogy, that there are animals, or animalcules, feeding on the leaves of plants, like cattle in our meadows; which repose under the shade of a down imperceptible to the naked eye.....St. Pierre.

ANJOU CABBAGE, a very useful vegetable, which till very lately, was unknown in England. The seed was supplied by a French emigrant, and it has recently been brought to perfection, near Bristol. It is so tender, that it is dressed in three or four minutes' boiling. It affords excellent food for cattle, and they feed upon it very greedily; it occasions cows to yield abundance of milk, and at the same time keeps them in flesh. In bulk, rapidity of growth, and for the little culture it requires, it exceeds all other of the cabbage species. The stalk acquires the thickness of a man's leg, and is used when dry for fuel.

ANT, a well known insect, remarkable for a wonderful degree of industry and economy: of this little animal there is a variety of species. According to Goldsmith, in that part of Africa, called the Golden Coast, there is a species of ants which raise a pile several feet high for their dwelling. They are so numerous, large, and voracious, that no animal can withstand their united attack; and when they seize their prey in great numbers, they will eat off every particle of flesh from the body. The voyagers to New Holland, or New South Wales, have found there innumerable swarms of green ants, which build their nests upon trees, by bending down the leaves, and gluing them together so as to

ANTHONY'S FALLS....ANTILOPE....ANTIMONY. 13

form a purse. Though these leaves are as broad as a man's hand, they perform this feat by main strength, thousands of them being employed in holding down the leaves, while multitudes of others apply the glutinous matter. If they are disturbed in their work by meddling people, they instantly throw themselves by thousands upon the intruders, and revenge themselves by their bite or sting, which is little less painful at first than the sting of a bee, but the pain is momentary..... Cooke's Voyage.

ANTHONY'S FALLS. The falls of St. Anthony are in the river Missisippi, in 44° 50′ north latitude; and to this point the river is navigable. Here the whole river, about fifty rods in width, falls perpendicularly above thirty feet, and forms a most pleasing cataract. At a little distance below the falls is a small island, about an acre and a quarter, on which grow a great number of oak trees; all the branches whereof, able to bear the weight, are, in the proper season of the year, loaded with eagles' nests. Their instinctive wisdom has taught them to choose this place, as it is secure on account of the rapids above, from the attacks either of man or beast.....Morse.

ANTILOPE, a beautiful little animal, from which is taken the bezoar-stone. The Arabs have a very handsome sort of antilopes which they rear in their houses. They become domestic, and are models of agility and gracefulness. They are so familiar as to be troublesome. They leap in general by three springs, of which the second is the longest, and all their feet rise and come to the ground together. They are in height from thirteen to fifteen inches, and can leap six or seven feet. Their coat is grey, with a silver belly; and their horns, which are straight, are of a shining black, and never longer than two inches. These animals are remarkable for requiring but very little nourishment; a quality which the barrenness of the country where they breed renders necessary..... Grandpre.

ANTIMONY, a blackish mineral substance, staining the hands, hard, brittle, and considerably heavy. It is

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