AMAL'FI, a seaport of Naples built on the steep slope of a mountain overlooking the Gulf of Salerno, on the south-west coast of Italy. In the early part of the Christian era, Amalfi was of considerable importance both in the political and commercial world. It then formed, with a small territory around it, a kind of republic, and commanded a large trade with different parts of the world. It is now much reduced, and of little note. Population 3500.

AMIAN'THUS (from Amiantos Gr. pure, undefiled), so named from the pure and silky appearance of its fibres. It is a variety of the mineral Asbestos.

AMPHIB'IA, or AMPHIBIOUS (from amphi Gr. on both sides, and bios, Gr. life). A name given to animals and plants that can live both in and out of water; but especially applied to animals.

AMYC'LÆ, a city of Greece, near Sparta, built by Amyc'las, son of Lacedæmon and Sparta.

ANAC'REON, a celebrated Greek poet, born at Teos, a city of Ionia, in Asia Minor, but came to Athens in a fifty-oared vessel, sent for him by Hippar'chus, tyrant of Athens, about the year 525 B.C. He was of a lewd and intemperate disposition; and after spending a long life in debauchery and drink, choked himself, it is said, with a grape stone, and expired at the age of eightyfive. His great talents as a poet, like those of our own Burns, were prostituted to the cause of love and wine, which are the chief themes of his odes that have come down to our day.

ANDES or CORDIL'LERAS, a gigantic range of mountains, in South America. They run parallel with the west coast nearly the whole length of the continent, extending about 4000 miles, being the largest unbroken range in the world. The highest peak, Sorata, in

Bolivia, is 25,250 feet above the sea.

ANJOU (Awngzhoo), a central province of France. ANTHER, Gr., producing flowers, or of the nature of flowers.

ANTIP'ODES (from anti Gr. against, and pous, podos Gr. a foot). The people on the other side of the earth whose feet are against, or turned to our feet.

ANTONY, or, in Latin, Marcus Anto'nius, one of the Triumvirate or Three, who governed the Roman Empire from 43 to 33 B.C., viz., Antony, Cæsar Octa'vius, and Lep'idus. On a second division of the empire amongst the Triumvirs, the eastern portion, including Judea, was assigned to Antony. After assisting Cæsar Octavius to undermine the power and influence of Lepidus, he himself was made the victim of Cæsar's ambition. In 31 в c. they met in combat, in the Gulf of Arta, near Cape Actium, on the north of Greece, and after a severe sea-battle Antony was completely defeated. He retreated to Egypt, and shut himself up in Alexandria. In August, next year, Cæsar appeared with a fleet and army before the city, and the greater portion of Antony's remaining forces deserting him, he took his life with his own sword rather than fall into the hands of his rival; thus leaving Cæsar Octavius now sole master of the Empire. Antony was four or five times married; his last wife being Octavia, half-sister to Octavius, whom he deserted for the lewd Cle'opatra, Queen of Egypt, who proved the chief cause of his ruin. Cleopatra was with him at the battle of Actium, and fled with him to Egypt. When she heard of Antony's death she also committed suicide. Thus "their sin found them out."

ANTI-LIB'ANUS; Lebanon or Libanus is the general name given to a range of mountains on the north-east of the Holy Land. They consist of two principal parallel chains about 90 miles long, running N.E. and S.W. The western chain is called Libanus, and the

eastern, Antilibanus. Makmel, the loftiest peak, is fully 12,000 feet high, and is covered with perpetual The Lebanon mountains were famous for their wood, especially cedar, their fertility and their magnificent scenery.

snow.

APIS, the name given to an ox which the Egyptians worshipped as a god.

AP'ODAL (from a, Gr., without, and pous, podos, Gr. of a foot), without feet, or ventral fins. A class of fishes. APOLLO, one of the chief heathen deities. Four persons of this name are mentioned by ancient writers, but the one generally referred to is Apollo, the reputed son of Jupiter and Lato'na. He and Dia'na his sister were born at one birth, near the foot of Cyn'thius, a mountain in Delos, an island of Greece, in the Archipelago; hence he is sometimes called Cyn'thius and Delius. He also gets a number of other names from imaginary occurrences connected with his fabulous history. Apollo was worshipped as the god of medicine, music, eloquence, and all the fine arts, but especi ally as the god of poetry; hence the frequent reference made to him by poets.

AP'TERA (from a, Gr., without, and pteron Gr., a wing. Insects without wings, such as the spider. APU'LIA, a name given in the time of the ancient Romans to a district in the south-east of Italy.

ARABS, the inhabitants of Arabia.

ARCTIC, from arktos, Gr. the north. Antarctic, opposite or against the north, i. e., south.

ARGOSIES, an ancient name for large ships, from Argo, the name of the ship which conveyed Jason and his fellow Greek heroes in their expedition against the king of Colchis, a State in the N. of Asia, in 1263 B.C.

ARKWRIGHT, SIR RICHARD, so famed for his inventions of machinery for spinning cotton, was born

at Preston, in Lancashire, in 1732. His parents were in humble circumstances, and as he was the youngest of thirteen children, we may conclude that he received but a very small amount of education. He was bred to the trade of a barber, which he practised for some time at Bolton. It may be readily conceived that there would be little in the common-place monotony of this occupation congenial to such a mind as Arkwright's. Hence we find him leaving this business in 1760, and becoming a dealer in hair, which he collected up and down the country, and sold in a prepared state to wigmakers. By discovering a particular way of dyeing this article, he was enabled to make a little wealth by the business. His first effort in mechanics was an attempt to make a perpetual movement, which failed like all others of the same kind. His taste and circumstances, however, led him to prosecute such studies until, by force of genius, he produced the spinning frame, an invention which has wrought such wonders in our cotton manufactures. Arkwright commenced to construct his first machine in Preston, in 1768; but being afraid of the people, who were then very much opposed to the introduction of machinery, he removed, in the same year, to Nottingham. Here his plans were much hampered for some time by want of capital. Succeeding, however, in getting Messrs Need & Strutt, wealthy manufacturers, to join him as partners, and obtaining a patent for his invention, he commenced next year to spin with rollers, which was the chief peculiarity of his discovery. The mill at Nottingham was worked by horses, but, in 1771, he erected a far larger one at Cromford, in Derbyshire, which was propelled by water. Various attempts were made to deprive Arkwright of the benefits of his patent, which at last, in 1785, were successful. Notwithstanding of this, he amassed an immense amount of wealth.

Mr. Arkwright was appointed high sheriff of the county of Derby, in 1786; and in the same year he was knighted by George III. He died at Cromford, in 1792, in the sixtieth year of his age. Arkwright was so poor when in Preston, in 1768, that he had to borrow a decent suit of clothes to attend a funeral; yet he left, it is said, at his death, nearly half a million of money.

ARNOTT, NEIL, M.D., and Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians, an eminent physician, still living in London. Dr. Arnott is the author of a valuable work on physics, in two volumes. The first, from the preface of which the extract at page 263 of The Course is taken, was published in 1828, and the second volume in the following year.

ARTHUR'S SEAT, a prominent hill in the southeast vicinity of Edinburgh, rising to the hight of 822 feet above the level of the sea. It is named in honour of Arthur, one of the earliest British kings, who is supposed to have sat on the top of it.

ASBES'TOS, Gr. indestructible. A class of horny fibrous minerals of a greenish-white pearly lustre, so named from their being indestructible by common fire.

ASMON'EAN, a Jewish family which produced a royal dynasty or line of Jewish sovereigns, and took its designation from Asamoneus, a priest and citizen of Jerusalem. The dynasty is also called Maccabee, from Judas Maccabæus, the third son of Mattathías, who was the son of John, who was the son of Simeon, who was the son of Asmoneus.

ATHENS, the metropolis of modern Greece, but celebrated in ancient history as the capital of Attica, a State which held a chief place amongst the republics of Greece.

ATLAS, an immense range of majestic mountains, intersecting nearly the whole of Barbary or north-west