14

ANTIOCH....ANTIPODES.

found in different parts of Europe, as Bohemia, Saxony, Transylvania, Hungary, France, and England. Antimony is the stibiam of the ancients, and was used by them in paint; with this Jezebel blackened her eyebrows, as the women of Georgia, in Asia, do at the present time. It is not only used medicinally in the diseases of animals, and for fattening horses and swine; but it is a common ingredient in specula or burning glasses, serving to give the composition a finer texture. It also makes a part in bell-metal, and renders the sound more clear. It is mingled with tin, to make it more hard, white, and sounding, and with lead, in the casting of printers' letters, to render them more smooth and firm. It is used also in the casting of cannon balls, and for purifying and heightening the colour of gold..... Encyclopædia.

ANTIOCH, a port town of Syria, once esteemed the third city of the world, but is now in ruins. This is the place where the disciples of our Saviour were first called Christians: it belongs to the Turkish empire. In the time of Trajan the Roman emperor, the city of Antioch, together with a great part of the adjacent country, was overwhelmed by an earthquake. About three hundred years after, in the time of the emperor Justinian, it was once more destroyed, together with forty thousand inhabitants; and, after an interval of sixty years, the same ill-fated city was a third time overturned, with the loss of not less than sixty thousand persons....Goldsmith.

ANTIPODES, in geography, those who live so diametrically opposite to each other, that if a right line were continued through the earth, each of its extremities would touch the feet of one of the parties. Long after the learned in Europe were convinced of the globular form of the earth, there were many of them who doubted the practicability of sailing round it. Accordingly some of the most learned men in Spain, to whose consideration the projected voyage of Columbus was submitted, objected to it: that if a ship should sail westward on a round globe, she would necessarily go down, on the opposite side, and then it would be impossible

ANTWERP....APE....APIS.

15

to return; because it would be like climbing up a hill, which no ship could do with the strongest wind....Belknap.

ANTWERP, a capital city in Brabant, situated on each side of the river Scheld. From two to three centuries ago, the wealth and commerce of this Dutch city were prodigious; two thousand and five hundred merchant vessels arriving in its port in one year; and the value of the merchandise imported in the single year, 1550, amounting to one hundred and thirty-three millions of gold. During the long and bloody struggles of Philip II. of Spain, to subjugate the Dutch, Antwerp was besieged by a powerful army; and after a very gallant defence, was obliged, in 1585, to acknowledge the sovereignty of Philip. This was owing to a most shameful cause. The Hollanders, and particularly the citizens of Amsterdam, obstructed every measure proposed for the relief of Antwerp, hoping to profit by its reduction. The protestants, it was concluded, would forsake it, as soon as it fell into the hands of Philip.The conjecture proved just; Antwerp went hourly to decay; and Amsterdam, enriched by the ruin of her sister, became the greatest commercial city in the Netherlands....Russell.

APE, an animal of the monkey kind, and nearly resembling the human form. The female has but a single young one at a time, which she carries on her back; and when she suckles it, she takes it in her arms and gives it the breast, in the same manner as a woman does to her child. They are remarkable for mimicking the actions of human beings. Among the ancients the ape was in demand (doubtless from mere curiosity) as a commercial commodity; and it made a part of the lading of Solomon's ships from the east.....Fenning.

APIS, an ox, or bull, venerated as a divinity by the ancient Egyptians, and fed and worshipped, at Memphis. This ox must be distinguished by certain extraordinary marks; particularly, its whole body was to be black, except a white square spot on the forehead.When a calf was found, with these and other necessary

16 APPLE TREE..APOLLO's STATUE..ARABIA.

marks, it was carried in triumph to the temple of Osiris, at Memphis; where it was kept and worshipped as the representative of that deity. Whenever the apis died, great grief spread over the land of Egypt, and continued till another proper calf was found. It was in imitation of this idolatry, that the Israelites who had emigrated from Egypt, worshipped the golden calf in the wilderness.

APPLE TREE, one of the most valuable fruit trees in the world: this excellent tree is said to have been brought into Italy from Syria and Africa, a very few years before the nativity of our Saviour. Apple trees should be kept from their first growth pruned in such a manner as to spread very much, rather than to run up tall; they should be cleared from limbs which stop and choak out the free circulation of the air. From May to November, manure enough to smother and kill the grass, should be put about the stems of the young trees; but after the beginning of November, it should be carefully removed, as the field mice would otherwise gnaw the bark, and spoil the trees.

APOLLO's STATUE, a brazen statue, of a prodigious size, dedicated to the god Apollo. It had formerly stood in the city of Gela in Sicily. The Carthagenians having taken it, about four hundred and twelve years before the nativity of Christ, had given it by way of present to the city of Tyre, which was the mother of Carthage; and the Tyrians had set it up in their city, and worship was paid to it. During Alexander's siege of Tyre, on a dream which one of the citizens had, the Tyrians imagined that Apollo was determined to leave them, and go over to Alexander; and immediately they fastened, with a golden chain, his statue to the altar of Hercules, the tutelar god of the city, to prevent Apollo from making his escape. Such strange ideas did some of the wisest among the pagan nations entertain of their divinities !.... Rollin.

ARABIA, a country of Asia, situated between twelve and thirty degrees north latitude; extending fourteen hundred and thirty miles in length, and twelve hundred

in breadth; bounded by the Red Sea and the isthmus of Suez, by the river Euphrates, by the Persian Gulph, and by the Indian Ocean. It was through the deserts or wilderness of Arabia, that the children of Israel passed in their memorable journey from Egypt to the promised land; and in this country is the mount Sinai where God gave the law to Moses. The Arabs are the descendants of Ishmael, a "wild man" himself, and his posterity, for almost four thousand years, equally untameable. This wonderful people, through a long succession of ages, have suffered no change in their manners. At all times they have been distinguished for the same rapacity and ferociousness; for their robberies and piracies; for their hospitality to the man that is under their roof, and their readiness to rob and murder him when they find him abroad; and for their invincible love of liberty, and bravery in its defence; having made extensive conquests over other nations, but never been conquered themselves. The Arabic is probably the most extensive living language in the world. It is the language of several hundred millions of people.Besides Arabia, it is spoken in Syria, Persia, part of India, and of China, half of Africa, in Turkey, and in all the sea-coasts of the Mediterranean to which the Turkish empire extends. This e.traordinary extensiveness of the Arabic, is owing to its being the language in which the Alcoran of Mahomet was written.

ARBELA, an ancient city of Asia, near the river Tigris; famous for the battle, called the battle of Arbela fought in its neighborhood, between Darius, king of Persia, and Alexander the Great, king of Macedon. The army of Darius consisted at least of six hundred thousand foot, and forty thousand horse; while that of Alexander was no more than forty thousand foot, and seven or eight thousand horse. The Persians were defeated with the loss of three hundred thousand men, besides those who were taken prisoners. This decisive battle subdued Persia, and threw its immense treasures into the hands of Alexander. The invaluable provinces of Babylonia, Susiana, and Persis, with their respective capitals of Babylon, Susa, and Persepolis, were the prize of this victory. The gold and silver

18 ARCHIPELAGO...AREOPAGUS....ARGAL's LAWS.

found in those cities amounted to thirty millions sterling; the jewels and other precious spoil, belonging to Darius, sufficed, according to Plutarch, to load twenty thousand mules, and five thousand camels.....Rollin, Encyclopædia.

ARCHIPELAGO, a part of the Mediterranean sea. The numerous islands in the Archipelago, several of which were famous for wealth and power as well as science, were possessed by the ancient Greeks; the most celebrated of these islands was Crete, (now called Candia) which had more than a thousand cities, towns and villages. These islands are now in the possession of the Turks, who have withered the beauty of every country over which their power has extended.

AREOPAGUS, a celebrated Athenian tribunal: it was in the city of Athens, on the summit of a rock or hill opposite to the citadel; the word Areopagus signifying literally rock of Mars. The judges of this court voted with pieces of flint, held between the thumb and fingers; putting their votes into two urns, the one called the urn of death, and the other the urn of compassion. In the primitive condition of the Areopagus, the judges were remarkable for their integrity and impartiality; but in process of time they degenerated: they condemned the wise and virtuous Socrates; three hundred and sixty-one of them, on that occasion, casting their votes. into the urn of death. St. Paul was brought before this high and ancient court; where he delivered that powerful address recorded in the 17th of Acts; and Dyonisius, one of his judges, was converted by him to the Christian faith.

ARGAL'S LAWS. In 1617, captain Samuel Argal was appointed deputy-governor of the colony of Virginia, under lord Delaware, and admiral of the adjacent seas. To counteract the ill effects of the indulgent government of Yeardley, his predecessor, Argal, exercised a military despotism, which hardly has a parallel in the history of the colonies. A specimen of his severe discipline may be seen in the following edicts, recorded in the ingenious and learned Dr. Belknap's American