The Nuttall Encyclopaedia Part 41

AS'TEROIDS, or Planetoids, small planets in orbits between those of Mars and Jupiter, surmised in 1596, all discovered in the present century, the first on Jan. 1, 1801, and named Ceres; gradually found to number more than 200.

AS'TI (33), an ancient city in Piedmont, on the Tanaro, 26 m. SE.

from Turin, with a Gothic cathedral; is noted for its wine; birthplace of Alfieri.

ASTLEY, PHILIP, a famous equestrian and circus manager, along with Franconi established the Cirque Olympique in Paris (1742-1814).

ASTOLFO, a knight-errant in mediaeval legend who generous-heartedly is always to do greater feats than he can perform; in "Orlando Furioso"

he brings back Orlando's lost wits in a phial from the moon, and possesses a horn that with a blast can discomfit armies.

ASTON, LUISE, German auth.o.r.ess, championed the rights of women, and went about in male attire; _b_. 1820.

ASTON MANOR (54), a suburb of Birmingham.

ASTOR, JOHN JACOB, a millionaire, son of a German peasant, who made a fortune of four millions in America by trading in furs (1763-1848). His son doubled his fortune; known as the "landlord of New York" (1792-1875).

ASTOR, WILLIAM WALDORF, son of the preceding, devoted to politics; came to London, 1891; became proprietor of the _Pall Mall Gazette_ and _Budget_ in 1893; _b_. 1848.

ASTO'RIA, in Oregon, a fur-trading station, with numerous salmon-tinning establishments.

ASTRae'A, the daughter of Zeus and Themis, the G.o.ddess of justice; dwelt among men during the Golden Age, but left the earth on its decline, and her sister Pudicitia along with her, the withdrawal explained to mean the vanis.h.i.+ng of the ideal from the life of man on the earth; now placed among the stars under the name of Virgo.

ASTRaeA REDUX, the name given to an era which piques itself on the return of the reign of justice to the earth.

AS'TRAKHAN (43), a Russian trading town on the Volga, 40 m. from its mouth in the Caspian Sea, of which it is the chief port.

ASTRAL BODY, an ethereal body believed by the theosophists to invest the animal, to correspond to it, and to be capable of BILOCATION (q. v.)

ASTRAL SPIRITS, spirits believed to animate or to people the heavenly bodies, to whom wors.h.i.+p was paid, and to hover unembodied through s.p.a.ce exercising demonic influence on embodied spirits.

ASTROLOGY, a science founded on a presumed connection between the heavenly bodies and human destiny as more or less affected by them, a science at one time believed in by men of such intelligence as Tacitus and Kepler, and few great families at one time but had an astrologer attached to them to read the horoscope of any new member of the house.

ASTRUC, JEAN, a French physician and professor of medicine in Paris, now noted as having discovered that the book of Genesis consists of Elohistic and Jehovistic portions, and who by this discovery founded the modern school called of the Higher Criticism (1681-1766).

ASTU'RIAS (579), an ancient province in the N. of Spain, gives t.i.tle to the heir to the crown, rich in minerals, and with good fisheries; now named Oviedo, from the princ.i.p.al town.

ASTY'AGES, last king of the Medes; dethroned by Cyrus, 549 B.C.

ASTY'ANAX, the son of Hector and Andromache; was cast down by the Greeks from the ramparts after the fall of Troy, lest he should live and restore the city.

ASUN'CION, or a.s.sUMPTION (18), the capital of Paraguay, on the left bank of the Paraguay, so called from having been founded by the Spaniards on the Feast of the a.s.sumption in 1535.

ASURAS, THE, in the Hindu mythology the demons of the darkness of night, in overcoming whom the G.o.ds a.s.serted their sovereignty in the universe.

ASYMPTOTE, a line always approaching some curve but never meeting it.

ATACA'MA, an all but rainless desert in the N. of Chile, abounding in silver and copper mines, as well as gold in considerable quant.i.ties.

ATAHUALPA, the last of the Incas of Peru, who fell into Pizarro's hands through perfidy, and was strangled by his orders in 1533, that is, little short of a year after the Spaniards landed in Peru.

ATALAN'TA, a beautiful Grecian princess celebrated for her agility, the prize of any suitor who could outstrip her on the racecourse, failure being death; at last one suitor, Hippomenes his name, accepted the risk and started along with her, but as he neared the goal, kept dropping first one golden apple, then another, provided him by Venus, stooping to lift which lost her the race, whereupon Hippomenes claimed the prize.

AT'AVISM, name given to the reappearance in progeny of the features, and even diseases, of ancestors dead generations before.

ATBA'RA, or Black River, from the Highlands of Abyssinia, the lowest tributary of the Nile, which it joins near Berber.

ATE', in the Greek mythology the G.o.ddess of strife and mischief, also of vengeance; was banished by her father Zeus, for the annoyance she gave him, from heaven to earth, where she has not been idle since.

ATHABA'SCA, a province, a river, and a lake in British N. America.

ATHALIA, the queen of Judah, daughter of Ahab and Jezebel, celebrated for her crimes and impiety, for which she was in the end ma.s.sacred by her subjects, 9th century B.C.

ATHANASIAN CREED, a statement, in the form of a confession, of the orthodox creed of the Church as against the Arians, and d.a.m.natory of every article of the heresy severally; ascribed to Athanasius at one time, but now believed to be of later date, though embracing his theology in affirmation of the absolute co-equal divinity of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost in the Trinity.

ATHANASIUS, Christian theologian, a native of Alexandria, and a deacon of the Church; took a prominent part against Arius in the Council at Nice, and was his most uncompromising antagonist; was chosen bishop of Alexandria; driven forth again and again from his bishopric under persecution of the Arians; retired into the Thebad for a time; spent the last 10 years of his life as bishop at Alexandria, where he died; his works consist of treatises and orations bearing on the Arian controversy, and in vindication of the doctrine of the Trinity viewed in the most absolute sense (296-373).

ATHEISM, disbelief in the existence of G.o.d, which may be either theoretical, in the intellect, or practical, in the life, the latter the more common and the more fatal form of it.