44

AERIAL POISONS-AEROLITES.

ened; and A. magnesia-water is a very agreeable mode of giving in Alsace; part of it is still to be seen in the village church. An a patient a dose of magnesia. The well-known effervescing extraordinary shower of stones fell near L'Aigle, in Normandy, draughts called soda-powders, and seullitz-powders, are two other on the 26th April, 1803. The celebrated French philospher, M. kinds of A. drinks, In the former, bicarbonate of soda and tar- Biot, was deputed by government to repair to the spot and collect taric acid are added to water in a tumbler, and a refreshing the authentic facts; and since the date of his report, the reality of draught instantaneously prepared. Seidlitz-powders contain tar- such occurrences has no longer been questioned. Nearly all the trate of soda and bicarbonate of soda in one paper, and tartaric inhabitants of a large district had seen the cloud, heard the noises, acid in the other; and when both are added to water, efferves- and observed the stones fall. Within an elliptical area of seven cence ensues, and the liquid is then partaken of. miles by three, the number of stones that had fallen could not be A. W. likewise occur naturally. Water, as it is drawn from less than two or three thousand; the largest were 17 lbs. in weight. a spring, tastes differently from the same water after being boiled These are only a few out of hundreds of instances on record. and cooled; and this is due to the unboiled water containing the As was natural with objects of such mysterious origin, meteoric gases oxygen, nitrogen, and carbonic acid-especially the latter stones have always been regarded with religious veneration. At -dissolved in it. Spring-water is therefore a natural Á. beverage. Emesa, in Syria, the sun was worshiped under the form of a Rain-water has a mawkish, insipid taste, mainly because of the black stone, reported to have fallen from heaven. The Holy minute quantity of gas therein dissolved; but when that rain-Kaaba of Mecca, and the great stone of the pyramid of Cholula, water trickles down the mountain-side, and is dashed from ledge in Mexico, have all the same history. to ledge of rock, it absorbs and dissolves the gases from the air, and is thus naturally aërated. Many waters are aërated in a natural but peculiar way, which confers upon them important medicinal properties; and these will come before us under their more popular title of Mineral Waters.

AË'RIAL POISONS. See MIASMA.

AERODYNA'MICS is that branch of science which treats of air and other gases in motion. It examines first the phenomena of air issuing from a vessel, which correspond in many respects with those of water. See HYDRODYNAMICS. Much depends, as in the case of water, upon the nature of the orifice, whether a mere hole in the side of the vessel, or a tube or adjutage. Another subject of A. is the motion of air in long tubes, where the resistance of friction, &c., has to be ascertained. That resistance is found to be nearly in porportion to the square of the velocity, to the length of the tube, and inversely to its width. A. examines also the velocity of air rushing into a vacuum, of wind, &c. The instrument used for the latter purpose is called an anemometer. See WINDS. Air is found to rush into a void space at the rate of from 1300 to 1400 feet per second. One of the most important inquiries in A. is the resistance offered to a body moving in air, or-which is the same thing-the pressure exerted by air in motion upon a body at rest. The law may be stated, with suflicient accuracy for practical purposes, as follows: The resistance or pressure is proportional to the square of the velocity. We might conclude from reason, without experiment, that such would be the case; for if one body is moving through the air four times faster than another of the same size, not only will it encounter four times as many particles of air, but it will give each of them four times as great an impulse or shock, and thus encounter 4 x 4,

or sixteen times as much resistance.

This resistance is greatly increased by another circumstance, especially with great velocities. The air in front of the moving body becomes accumulated or condensed, and a partial or even entire vacuum is formed behind it. With a velocity of 1700 feet per second, for instance, the resistance is found to be about three times as great as the simple law of the square of the velocity would give. By the operation of these laws of resistance, a heavy body let fall with a parachute attached to it, comes, after a certain time, to move with a velocity approaching more and more nearly to a

uniform motion.

The existence of such bodies once admitted, led to assigning a meteoric character to strange ferruginous masses found in different countries, and which had no history, or were only adverted to in vague tradition. Of this kind is the immense mass seen by Pallas in Siberia, now in the Imperial Museum at St. Petersburg. The largest known is one in Brazil, estimated at 14,000 lbs.

One constant characteristic of meteoric stones is the fused black crust, like varnish, with which the surface is coated. From the circumstance of this coat being very thin, and separated from the inner mass by a sharply defined line, it is thought to indicate some rapid action of heat, which has not had time to penetrate into the substance of the stone. This view is favored by the fact that the stones are found in a strongly heated, but not incandescent state, when they fall. Their specific gravity ranges from two to seven or even eight times that of water.-As to their chemical composition, the predominating element is iron, in a native or metallic state, generally combined with a small proportion of nickel. According to Humboldt, the aerolites that fell in the neighborhood of Agram, in Croatia, in 1751, the Siberian stone, and specimens brought by that philosopher from Mexico, contain 96 per cent. of iron; while in those of Sienna the iron scarcely amounts to 2 per cent., and, in some rare instances, metallic iron is altogether wanting. the result of all the chemical analyses hitherto made: We find the A writer in the Quarterly Review, No. CLXXXIII., thus sums up actual number of recognized elements discovered in aerolites to be nineteen or twenty-that is, about one-third of the whole number of elementary substances (or what we are yet forced to regard as such) discovered on the earth. Further, all these aerolitic elements No new substance has hitherto come to us from without; and the actually exist in the earth, though never similarly combined there. largely predominant in acrolites, forming frequently, as in some most abundant of our terrestrial metals, iron, is that which is of the instances just mentioned, upwards of 90 parts in 100 of the mass. Seven other metals-copper, tin, nickel, cobalt, chrome, manganese, and molybdena-enter variously into the composition of these stones. Cobalt and nickel are the most invariably present; but the proportion of all is trifling compared with that of iron. Further, there have been found in different acrolites, six alkalies and earths-namely, soda, potash, magnesia, lime, silica, and alumina; and in addition to these carbon, sulphur, phosphorus, and hydrogen. Finally, oxygen must also be named as a constit uent of many aerolites, entering into the composition of several of the substances just mentioned. As respects the manner of conjunction of these elements, it is exceedingly various in different aërolites. A few there are, especially examined by Berzelius and Rose, containing olivine, augite, hornblende, and other earthy minerals; and closely resembling certain crystalline compounds which we find on the surface of the earth.'

Besides those solid masses of considerable size, numerous instances are on record of showers of dust over large tracts of land; and it is remarkable that such dust has generally been found to contain small hard angular grains resembling augite. Stories of the fall of gelatinous masses from the sky are ranked by Humboldt among the mythical fables of meteorology. It has been supposed that such fables may have originated in the very rapid growth of gelatinous algæ, as Nostoc (q. v.).

A ́ËROLITES (Gr. aer, air, and lithos, stone), or METEORIC STONES, FIREBALLS, and SHOOTING-STARS, are now classed together as being merely varieties of the same phenomenon. Aerolites that fall during the day, are observed to be projected from a small dark cloud, accompanied by a noise like thunder, or the firing of a cannon; at night, they proceed from a fireball, which splits into fragments with a similar sound. It is believed that the dark cloud that accompanies the fall of acrolites by day, would be luminous at night; and smoking, exploding fireballs have sometimes been seen luminous even in the brightness of tropical daylight. The connection between aerolites and fireballs is thus established. Fireballs, again, cannot be separated from shootingstars, the two phenomena being sometimes blended, and also being found to merge into one another, both with respect to the size of their their disks, the emanation of sparks, and the velocities of motion. There are numerous records and stories in all ages and countries of the fall of stones from the sky; but until recent times, they were treated by philosophers as instances or popular credulity and superstition. It was not till the beginning of the 19th c. that the factors, a train of light many miles in length is left behind. One or was established beyond a doubt.-According to Livy, a shower of stones fell on the Alban Mount, not far from Rome, about 654 B.C. The fall of a great stone at Agospotami, on the Hellespont, about 467 B.C. is recorded in the Parian Chronicle (q. v.), and nentioned by Plutarch and Pliny. It was still shown in the days of Pliny (d. 79 A.D.), who describes it as of the size of a wagon, and of a burned color. In the year 1492 A.D., a ponderous stone, weighing 260 lbs, fell from the sky near the village of Ensisheim,

Fireballs and Shooting-stars. From the height and apparent diameter, the actual diameter of the largest fireballs is estimated by Humboldt to vary from 500 to 2800 feet; others allow a diameter of about a mile. Shooting-stars are much smaller, their weight varying from 30 grains to 7 lbs. In most cases of luminous mètetwo instances are on record where the train of the fireball continued shining for an hour after the body disappeared. The heights of shooting-stars are found to range from 15 to 150 miles, at the points at which they begin and cease to be visible. Their velocities vary from 18 to 36 miles in a second. When it is remembered that the velocity of Mercury in its orbit is 26.4 miles in a second, of Venus 19-2, and of the Earth 16-4, we have in this fact a strong confirmation of the planetary nature of meteorites.

AERONAUTICS-AEROSTATICS.

One of the most remarkable facts connected with shooting-stars during ten or twelve years the geometricians Laplace, Biot, is, that certain appearances of them are periodic. On most occa- Brandes, and Poisson. It was calculated that, setting aside the sions they are sporadic-that is, they appear singly, and traverse resistance of air, an initial velocity of about 8000 feet in a second, the sky in all directions. At other times, they appear in swarms which is about five or six times that of a cannon-ball, would sufof thousands, moving parallel; and these swarms are periodic, or recur on the same days of the year. Attention was first directed to this fact on occasion of the prodigious swarm which appeared in North America between the 12th and 13th of November, 1833, described by Professor Olmsted of New Haven. The stars fell on

46

AEROSTATIC PRESS-ÆSTHETICS.

AËROSTATIC PRESS. This is a machine used for extract- in his temple, recording the name, the disease, and the manner of ing the coloring-matter from dye-woods and such like. A vessel cure. Many of those votive tablets are still extant. The statue of is divided by a horizontal partition pierced with small holes. the god at Epidaurus, formed of gold and ivory by Thrasymedes, Upon this the substance containing the color is laid, and a cover, represented . as seated on a throne, and holding in one hand a also perforated, is placed upon it. The extracting liquid is then staff with a snake coiled around it, the other hand resting on the poured on the top, and the air being drawn from the under part head of a snake; a dog, as emblem of watchfulness, at the foot of the of the vessel by a pump, the liquid is forced through the sub- deity. Praxiteles and other sculptors represented the god as an tauce by the pressure of the atmosphere. ideal of manly beauty, and closely resembling Jupiter; with hair Æ'SCHINES, an Athenian orator, second only to Demosthenes, thrown up from the brow, and falling in curls on each side. The whose contemporary and rival he was. Philip of Macedon was upper part of the body was naked, and the lower was covered by then pursuing his designs for the subjugation of the several Greek a mantle falling in folds from the shoulders. He had sometimes a states to his own sway; and while Demosthenes advocated the laurel-wreath on his head, and a cock or owl at his feet; or was policy of opposing him before it was too late, E. was the head attended by a dwarf-figure named Telesphorus.-ASCLEPIADES, of the peace-party. E. was a member of more than one embassy the followers of E., who inherited and kept the secrets of the sent by the Athenians to deal with Philip; and Demosthenes healing art; or, assuming that . was merely a divine symbol, accused him of receiving bribes from the Madeconian monarch, the Asclepiades must be regarded as a medical, priestly caste who and of betraying the cause of Athens and of her allies. There is preserved as mysteries the doctrines of medicine. The members no proof that this was the case; and perhaps E. was deceived by of the caste or medical order, were bound by an oath-the Hippothe wily Philip into believing that he meant no harm to the liber- cratis jusjurandum—not to divulge the secrets of their profession. ties of Athens, and that peace was the best policy for his country-In Rome, 292 B.C., when a fatal pestilence prevailed, the Sibylline The result justified the sagacious fears of Demosthenes, books commanded that Esculapius must be brought from and condemned the selfish, isolating policy of E. When it was Epidaurus. Accordingly, an embassy was sent to this place, and, proposed to reward Demosthenes with a golden crown, for his when they had made their request, a snake crept out of the temple patriotic exertions in defence of his country, E. brought an acinto their ship. Regarding this as the god E., they sailed for cusation of illegality against the proposer, Ctesiphon. Demos- Italy, and, as they entered the Tiber, the snake sprang out upon thenes replied, and Eschines being vanquished, and having thus an island, where, afterwards, a temple was erected to E., and a incurred the penalty attached to an unfounded accusation, was company of priests appointed to take charge of the service and obliged to retire from Athens. He finally established a school of practice the art of medicine. Hippocrates is said to have descended eloquence in Rhodes, which enjoyed a high reputation. On one from the Asclepiades of Cos, who traced their descent, on their occasion, he read to his audience in Rhodes his oration against mother's side, from Hercules. Ctesiphon; and some of them expressing their astonishment that he should have been defeated in spite of such a powerful display, he replied: You would cease to be astonished if you had heard Demosthenes. The oration against Ctesiphon and two others are the only authentic productions of . that have come down to us. He was born 389 B.C., and died at Samos 314 B.C.

men.

ESCHYLUS, the father of Greek tragedy, was born at Eleusis, in Attica, 525 B.C. We have but scanty notices of his life. He fought in the battles of Marathon, Salamis, and Platea, witnessed the fall of Darius and Xerxes, and shared in the exulting sentiments which afterwards pervaded liberated Greece. Of the seventy or ninety tragedies ascribed to E., only seven have been preserved - Prometheus Bound, the Seven against Thebes, the Persians, Agamemnon, the Choëphori, Eumenides, and the Suppliants. These are sufficient to prove that E. was the creator of the Greek drama in its higher form. He introduced action in place of the perpetual chorus, and dramatic dialogue to supersede the long narrations of his predecessors Thespis and Choerilus. Scenic effects, masks, and dresses, were other improvements introduced in the plays of E. The plots of his pieces are very simple, and display no ingenuity of construction or solution. His general tone is elevated and earnest, and shows a preference of strong for gentle emotions. Destiny is represented in its sternest aspect; gigantic heroes, Titans, and gods, rather than men, appear on the scene, and the lofty grandiloquence of the language is in accordance with the characters. In the choruses, the language is often turgid and obscure. For some reason, not well known, E. left his native city, and went to Sicily, where he was honorably received by King Hiero. Here he died at Gela, 456 B.C., and the inhabitants of the city raised a monument to his memory. In the poetical translation by Blackie, the non-classical reader may get a very tolerable notion of the grandeur and fire of this greatest of all ancient dramatists.

ÆSOP, an ancient Greek writer, whose name is attached to the most popular of the existing collections of Fables. His history is very uncertain, and some critics have even denied his existence. First among these is Luther, in his preface to the German Esop, 1530. We are told, however, on the authority of Herodotus (ii. 134.), Diog. Laertius (i. 72), and Plutarch (Sept. Sap. Conviv., and De Sera Num. Vind.), that Esop lived in the latter half of the 6th century B.C.; that he was a slave at Samos; that, on receiving his freedom, he visited Croesus and Pisistratus, by the former of whom he was commissioned to distribute some money among the citizens of Delphi, and that, on his refusal to pay it, in consequence of a dispute, he was thrown over a precipice by the infuriated mob. We are further informed that the Athenians erected a statue to him from the chisel of Lysippus. Whether this person was the author of the existing Esopean collection or not, we know, from Aristophanes, and other authorities, that fables bearing his name were popular in the most brilliant period of Athenian literature. The conjecture of Bentley, however, seems well founded, that these fables were transmitted entirely through oral tradition. Socrates (Phado, p. 61) turned such of them as he could remember into verse, of which Diog. Laertius has preserved a specimen; and the same was done by Demetrius Phalereus, 320 B.C. The only Greek version, however, of which any entire fables remain, and which, as shown by Bentley, has furnished materials to subsequent collections, is that of Babrius (q.v.), a writer of some mark, who is supposed to have lived in the age before Augustus. Of the fables now bearing the name of sop, there are three sets, the first from a MS. of the 13th c., published at Florence in 1809; the second, a collection by Maximus Planudes, a monk of the 14th c., containing a life (supposed to have been the work of Planudes, till it was found in the earlier MS.) of Æsop, full of fabulous particulars; and the third a collection published in 1610, from MSS. found at Heidelberg. All these are contained in the edition of Schneider, Breslau, 1810. The resemblance between some of the fables, and the personal peculiarities attributed in common to Æsop and to the Arabian fabulist Lokman, have led some persons to conclude, that the two men were identical; and others, that the fables attributed to them in common belong to the same eastern source. See PHAÆDRUS.-A Roman actor of this name, CLAUDIUS ESOPUS, a contemporary and friend of Cicero, was as eminent in tragedy as Roscius was in comedy.

ESCULAPIUS appears in Homer as an excellent physician, of human origin; in the later legends, he becomes the god of the healing art. The accounts given of his genealogy are various. According to one story, he was the son of Coronis and the Arcadian Ischys. Apollo, enraged by the infidelity of Coronis, caused her to be put to death by Diana, but spared the boy, who was afterwards educated by Chiron. In the healing art, E. soon surpassed his teacher, and succeeded so far as to restore the dead to life. This offended Pluto, who began to fear that his realm would not be sufficiently peopled; he therefore complained to Jove of the innovation, and Jove slew E. by a flash of lightning. After this he was raised to the ranks of the gods by the gratitude of mankind, and was especially worshiped at Epidaurus, on the coast of Laconica, where a temple and grove were consecrated to him. Here oriental elements, especially serpent-worship, seem to have been mingled with the rites and ceremonies. From Epidaurus the worship of the healing god extended itself over the whole of Greece, and even to Rome. According to Homer, Æ. left two The Beautiful (Gr. to kalon) was a favorite subject of contemplasons, Machaon and Podalirios, who, as physicians, attended the tion amongst the ancients. The name of Plato is inseparably assoGreek army. From them the race of the Asclepiades descended. ciated with it, but in his philosophizings, he nowhere separated Hygieia, Panaceia, and Egle are represented as his daughters. the Beautiful from the Good. Aristotle, again, from the immense His temples usually stood without the cities in healthy situations, acquaintance which he possessed with objects of art, deduced the on hillsides, and near fountains. Patients that were cured of their most admirable laws and rules (Canons of Criticism), so that his ailments, offered a cock or a goat to the god, and hung up a tablet | Poetics, according to Schiller, constitute a true Rhadamanthine

ESTHETICS, a term invented about the middle of last century by Baumgarten, a professor of philosophy in the university of Frankfort-on-the-Oder, to denote the science of the Beautiful. particularly of Art, as the most perfect manifestation of the Beautiful. It has the merit of being at once comprehensive and clear, and has therefore been pretty widely adopted, of late years, by critics both in France and England.

It

tribunal for poets. But the results he arrived at are regarded by Architecture, Sculpture, Painting-are silent, heavy, still partly the a priori school of æstheticians as empiricism rather than science. material. Music is an advance on these. It breathes in a higher Baumgarten they hold to be the first who considered the subject region. The materialism of Sound becomes all but ideal. Poetry from the true scientific point of view, and therefore entitled to be is a further advance. It is the pathway of the intellect to pure called the founder of the philosophy of art. All sensuous appre- thought. Esthetics, in this point of view, is a science, based on hension, not in one form or manifestation only, but in every pos- a knowledge of the historic development of the Beautiful. sible form or manifestation, was included in his view of the sub- wanders through its whole kingdom, of which Art is only a provject, and this conception he expressed by the word Esthetics, from ince, though, as has been seen, the richest and most valuable. the Greek aisthanomai, I feel, indicating not absolute or objective Such was the aspect in which Hegel regarded the new science. knowledge of things, but such as is conditioned subjectively by He fused it into his historico-transcendental metaphysic, and so the play of our sensibilities. The term is thus not confined to the stirred up regarding it the old quarrel which had agitated the latlimits of the Beautiful, though in point of fact we employ it in ter. Realists made their appearance, who vigorously assailed the this partial signification. Beauty was, with Baumgarten, the result principles of Fichte, Schelling, and Hegel, in their various appliof the highest and purest æsthetic perception, to the realization of cations to Philosophy, Theology, and Esthetics. The reaction which the finer portion of our nature aspires; and to trace which was and is most conspicuous in the second of these, but has as through the whole sphere of art, was the work of æsthetic philos- certainly manifested itself in the others also. It is denied that the ophy (Sinnenerkenntniss). Kant subsequently, from his point of Ideal conceived by man is superior to the Real, as it is in itself. view, carried out this theory of the aesthetic faculty in his critical It is man who lowers it by his inadequate apprehension of its treatise on the power of the Judgment. Everything he conceived harmony and perfection. The greatest artist does not strive to may be regarded æsthetically as well as absolutely, in reference to outshine or even to reach the beauty of nature, but to surpass ourselves as well as in reference to nature. An object may be in himself in it. The whole historic theory of Hegel is likewise reharmony with our sensibilities, as well as in harmony with the jected, after severe and searching criticism, from a rationalistic totality of material phenomena; or it may not be in harmony with point of view. Hegel conceives the first effort of art to have arisen the former, and yet truly accord with the latter. So, too, with from a longing on the part of the human spirit to emancipate the judgment. It may choose to apprehend things in their adapta- itself from the thraldom of matter. This is the idealistic view of tion to man, or in what is called the teleological point of view that its beginning. Kugler, on the other hand, affirms that it arises is, their final end or objective adaptation to each other. Hence from the necessity which man is under to bind his thoughts to the æsthetical judgment considers objects as beautiful, agreeable, one firm spot, and to give to this memorial a form which may be or useful; while the teleological judgment strives to reach their expressive of the thought.' The origin of Art is thus made retroabsolute design, and remains indifferent to personal predilections. spective, not prospective. This may be considered the realistic view Why certain objects excite in us a purely selfish interest, and of its beginning. So the question stands at present in Germany. others a purely unselfish pleasure, Kant does not venture to determine, for he never investigates the objective quality of the Beau- Victor Cousin, has eloquently expounded the Platonic view of E. In France, the founder of the Eclectic School of Philosophy, tiful, but confines himself strictly to its influence upon the feelings In the second part of his treatise Du Vrai, du Beau, et du Bien and desires. Schelling was the first to undertake this inquiry after (On the True, the Beautiful, and the Good), he has a chapter on Schiller had paved the way for him in his treatise on Esthetics.the Beautiful in Objects,' in which, after discussing the principal The latter, perhaps the most lucid and intelligible of German theories of the materialists and geometricians, and pointing out æstheticians, in a note to his twentieth letter on Esthetic Culture, what he conceives to be the errors and limitations of such theories, explains his conception of the new science as follows: All things he proceeds to a consideration of physical, intellectual, and moral that can ever be objects of perception may be considered under beauty, endeavors to discover the quality or qualities in which four different relationships: A fact can relate directly to our they agree, from this rises to the apprehension of an ideal beauty sensuous condition-that is its physical quality; or to the under- whose realization he finds in God. 'God,' says Cousin, 'in standing that is its logical quality; or to the will-that is its whom is combined absolute unity with infinite variety, is necessamoral quality; or to the entirety of our different powers, rather rily the realized ideal of all beauty.' than to any particular manifestation of these-that is its aesthetic quality. There is a culture for the health, for the understanding, for morality, and for taste or beauty; the last of which has for its design to bring out the totality of our sensuous and spiritual powers in their greatest possible harmony. Schiller's idea of the Beautiful is necessarily as comprehensive as his conception of the sphere of Esthetics. He will not admit that it is the result of a mere limited experience, taught us through the operation of phenomena, animate and inanimate, on our senses, but of pure abstract reflection. It is, therefore, a transcendental idea. It originates in the perfect union of matter and spirit. From this it follows, that Beauty can be exclusively neither mere life, as some ingenious observers have maintained, nor mere form, as has been decided by some speculative philosophers and philosophizing artists' (for instance, Burke and Raphael Mengs).

to the Beautiful in form and color.
Speculations on this subject in Britain have been mostly limited
We have not in general
sought, like the Germans, to discover the idea of the Beautiful,
but the Beautiful itself. Our criticism may, and indeed does seem
meagre and unphilosophical to them, but it is at least clear, and its
there, or are there not, constant qualities in certain objects which
purpose obvious. We have put to ourselves this question: Are
make them what we call Beautiful? Does Beauty arise from any-
thing inherent in these, or does it depend upon accidents in us,
such, for instance, as the complex and numberless phenomena of
Association? Is it objective or subjective?

except Lord Shaftesbury's Characteristics, in which there is set
The first publication on this subject of any consequence-if we
forth a rapturous Platonic doctrine' impossible to criticise, be-
cause unintelligible-was Dr. Hutcheson's Inquiry (1725). In this
work, the existence of an internal sense,' through which we·
either obtain a perception of the Beautiful or are made in some
sixth sense has been very severely criticised by Jeffrey in his cele-
brated article on Beauty.

Certain explanations and modifications of this theory were made by the followers of Hutcheson, but nothing really new was brought out till Edmund Burke published his Treatise on the Sublime and the Beautiful (1756). There is no work upon the subject so popular or so worthless. Every one has heard of it, large numbers have read it, and yet the fundamental principle is weak and absurd. He confounds the beautiful with the luxurious. 'All objects appear beautiful which have the power of producing a peculiar relaxation of our nerves and fibres, and thus inducing a certain degree of bodily languor and sinking!'

Passing over Schelling's transcendental speculations, which are couched in a style not very intelligible to the English mind, we come to the theory of Hegel. Like that of Schelling, it also pro-way conscious of its presence, was maintained. The notion of a ceeds from the so-called metaphysics of the Beautiful. It is the absolute ideal realizing itself. Nothing is truly beautiful except this. Nothing, therefore, which exists can be termed such. Out of the sphere of the pure reason we have only an eternal aspiration. In the finite mind, the absolute ideal is always striving to realize itself, but never completely succeeds. There is only a ceaseless approximation. Hegel then traces the growth and development of the Beautiful, the first form of whose existence is natural Beauty, and, as Vischer justly adds, the Beauty unfolded in history. But this Beauty, whether of nature or history, is rare, accidental, fugitive, and tarnished by intermixture with the not-beautiful. This deficiency or limitation arises from its being unconscious of itself. The Beautiful is, so to speak, as yet in its infancy. Sir Joshua Reynolds, a contemporary of Burke, maintained a It does not know either that it is or what it is. very remarkable theory of the Beautiful, which he borrowed from It first passes into self-recognition in the dawn of human intel- the celebrated Père Buffier, and illustrated at great length. Beauty ligence, and its conscious realization of itself increases in pro- was conceived to be the mean between two extremes. This docportion to the culture of the race or the individual. The high-trine is open to the fatal objection that the most ordinary is thereest finite realization of it is Art; for though the form of art be fore the most beautiful, and that, consequently, the greatest poem material, it is matter shaped according to an idea. The artist or the finest landscape must be that which is the most commonlooks on the form simply as the ojective embodiment of the idea place. Nevertheless, Sir Joshua does not hesitate to push his every remnant of rude nature being stripped off. Form, though theory to extremities, declaring that if what we term the deformed springing out of matter, is thus a deliverance from matter, and the or monstrous were only more common than what we call the particular Arts may consequently be regarded as the gradual beautiful, they would exchange names and sensations a stateworking of the mind out of materialism. The formative Arts-ment which may safely be left to refute itself.

48

AFFIDAVIT-AFGHANISTAN.

The strength of chemical A. is different between different substances. Sulphuric acid combines with lime, and forms gypsum; but if potash is added, the sulphuric acid leaves the lime, and combines with the potash. As a sort of choice is here manifested, it is called a case of elective A. These elective affinities, however, are often altered by a change of temperature, or other accompanying circumstances.

The next work on this subject that excited any measure of are related by A. stand in all respects in the same position as repopular attention was Alison's Essays on the Nature and Princi- gards marriage with those connected by blood, is one on which ples of Taste (1790). The theory propounded by this writer is much difference of opinion at present prevails. Marriage between generally known as the theory of Association. The most power- a man and the sister of his deceased wife is at present forbidden ful exposition of the Association theory is that given by Jeffrey, by statute (5 and 6 Will. IV. c. 64); but an attempt is annually in his famous article in the Encyclopædia Britannica, and in his made in parliament to obtain its repeal. See MARRIAGE. critique on Alison in the Edinburgh Review (1811). According to AFFINITY. Chemical A., or chemical attraction, is the force Jeffrey: These emotions (that is, those excited by the contempla- which produces all chemical phenomena. It differs from the attion of certain objects) are not original emotions, nor produced traction of gravitation in acting, not between masses, but between directly by any qualities in the objects which excite them; but are atoms, and only when the atoms are at insensible distances. It reflections or images of the more radical and familiar emotions to differs also from cohesion, which unites the particles of the same which we have already alluded, and are occasioned not by any in- substance, while A. unites atoms of different substances. The herent virtue in the objects before us, but by the accidents, if we compounds thus formed are new bodies, often bearing no resemmay so express ourselves, by which these may have been enabled blance in appearance or other properties to the elements which to suggest or recall to us our own past sensations or sympathies.' combine to produce them. Thus, water results from the combinaIn his defence of this theory, Jeffrey is obliged to consider those tion of two gases. of Stewart and Payne Knight, the former of which is partly, and the latter entirely, opposed to his own. His argument in connection with landscapes, is quite conclusive; but when he assails Knight's doctrine as to the intrinsic beauty of colors, it ceases to be satisfactory. This writer maintains that colors possess an original and primitive beauty; Jeffrey denies this, and attempts to prove that our perception of the beauty of color, arises from association alone. He also refuses to believe that there is any. intrinsic beauty in form, and accepts Slison's analysis of beauty with reference to Greek architecture. It arises, 1st, from the association of utility; 2d, of security; 3d, of the skill of the architect; 4th, of magnificence; 5th, of antiquity; 6th, of Grecian greatness. This theory of association, however, is no longer held by any who think on the subject. It may be ingenious, but it is not satisfactory. Ruskin, Blackie, and others have nearly destroyed its popularity. Prof. Blackie is a Platonist in theory, but his elaboration of that theory is entirely original. Beauty, he says, 'does not consist in one element, but in many elements.' The late Sir William Hamilton distinguishes Beauty into Absolute and Relative. In the former case,' he says, it is not neces-lege to all persons who refuse to be sworn from conscientious mosary to have a notion of what the object ought to be before we pronounce it beautiful; in the latter case such a notion is required.' He defines the beautiful to be that whose form occupies the imagination and the understanding in a free, full, and consequently an agreeable activity.

AFFIDA'VIT, an oath in writing, or a written declaration made before a magistrate, or other person legally authorized to administer an oath, the truth of which is confirmed either by an oath sworn, or a solemn affirmation emitted in terms of 18 Viet. c. 25, and the other statutes referred to under AFFIRMATION. Where evidence is required in England to be laid before a court or a judge, it is usually reduced to the form of an A., in place of being delivered orally, as in jury trial. An A. ought to set forth the matter of fact only, and not to declare the merits of the cause, of which the court is to judge (21 Car. I. B. R.). The name and designation of the party making the A. are written at length, and he signs it at the foot. When the paper is shown to him, he is required to swear or affirm that its contents are true, and that the naine and handwriting are his. Affidavits in all the English courts must be taken and expressed in the first person of the deponent. The Jurat, with which the A. closes, specifies the officer before whom, the place where, and the time when it was sworn, and this is signed by the officer or magistrate. When an A. is sworn in open court, that circumstance is mentioned, and no officer is named. In Scotland, voluntary affidavits are not generally received as evidence, because they are ex parte statements, no opportunity being afforded for cross-examination. To this rule, however, there are exceptions. Claimants are required by the Bankrupt Statute to lodge their claims with A. or oaths of verity; and there are other similar statutory provisions. An A. is sometimes required also at common law, as in applications for warrants in meditatione fuga. By 5 and 6 Will. IV. c. 62, various unnecessary oaths and affirmations were abolished, and declarations substituted in lieu thereof, and voluntary and extra-judicial oaths and affidavits were suppressed. The oath of allegiance, and all oaths in courts of justice, were expressly exempted from the operation of the statute; and by 6 and 7 Viet. c. 43, this exemp; tion was extended to ratifications by married women. The Lord Chancellor of England is empowered by 6 and 7 Vict. c. 82, to grant commissions for taking affidavits, affirmations, and declarations in Scotland. See AFFIDAVIT in AM. SUPP.

AFFINITY (Lat. affinitas), the relationship created by marriage between the husband and the blood-relations of the wife, and between the wife and the blood-relations of the husband. The relations of the wife stand to the husband in the same degree of A. in which they stand to the wife by blood or consanguinity, and vice versa. But between the relations of the two parties by A. there is no A. Thus, there is no A. between the husband's brother and the wife's sister; and by our law, there is no impediment to their marriage. The question as to whether those who

AFFIRMA'TION a solemn declaration, which, in the case of members of certain religious persuasions, is admitted in lieu of an oath. By 3 and 4 Will. IV. c. 49, 3 and 4 Will. IV. c. 82, and 1 and 2 Vict. c. 77, it is provided that Quakers, Moravians, and Separatists (q. v.) who, from conscientious scruples, refuse to take an oath in courts of justice, may, both in civil and criminal cases, make a solemn A., according to a prescribed formula. For Quakers and Moravians the formula is: I do solemnly, sincerely, and truly declare and affirm.' In the case of Separatists, this A further bears to be emitted in the presence of Almighty God.' The penalties of perjury are imposed on those who shall be proved to have affirmed falsely. The statute of 1855 extended the privitives; and that of 1869 extended the right of making an A. in a court of justice to all on whose conscience an oath would not be binding. See OATH. See also AFFIRMATION in AM. SUPP.

AFFRE, DENIS AUGUSTUS, Archbishop of Paris, who fell in the insurrection of June, 1848 (b. 1793). At the time of the Restoration, he was professor of theology at the seminary of St. Sulpice; and on account of his prudent and temperate character, was made Archbishop of Paris by the government of Louis Philippe in 1840. Though not yielding a blind submission to all the measures of the government, he abstained from all offensive opposition. Wheu Louis Philippe became an exile, and a republic was proclaimed, the archbishop kept aloof from political strife, but displayed earnest care for the public welfare. During the insurrection in Paris, 1848, he climbed upon a barricade in the Place de Bastille, carrying a green bough in his hand, as a messenger of peace, and wished to persuade the insurgents to lay down their arms. He had scarcely uttered a few words, when the insurgents and the troops commenced firing again, and he fell, mortally wounded by a musket-ball, coming apparently from a window above. He was carried by the insurgents into the house of a priest, and the next day was removed to his palace, where he died June 27, 1848. He was the author of several theological writings, and of a work on Egyptian hieroglyphics.

AFGHANISTA'N, the land of the Afghans, formerly known by the names of Drangiana and Ariana, lies between lat. 28° and 380 N., and in long. from 62° to 73° E. Afghan is a Persian name; the inhabitants style themselves Pushtaneh (plural of Pushtu). Their country is bounded on the N. by Turkestan; on the E. by Peshawur and Sinde; on the S., by Beloochistan; and on the W., The population is vaby the Persian highlands of Khorassan. riously estimated on at from four to nine millions. In the N. E., the alpine region of the Hindu Kush, a wild mountain isthmus cleft by numerous ravines, and towering up into the clime of perpetual ice, unites the highest masses of land in Eastern with those in Western Asia, and presents formidable obstructions to communication between the territory Oxus and that of the Indus. In the E., the Soliman Mountains abruptly divide the country from There are only two passes leading through the highlands of A. to the flat regions of the Punjab, and the plains of the lower Indus. the Indus: that in the north, formed by the deep valley of the Cabul River, has strong positions of defence at Jelalabad and Peshawur, not far from the Khyber Pass; while that in the south, the Bolan Pass, forms a way of communication with Sinde. The Hindu Kush and Ghor Mountains, which continue the range westward, forming the Paropamisus of the Greeks, have been little explored. The elevated terraces of Cabul and Ghiznee slope gently down towards the south-west. Though the climate has generally a continental character, yet the differences of elevation, and unequal distribution of water, render it various. The date-palm ornaments the oases in the sandy desert to the south-west, and in