duties are to maintain the forts and garrisons in good order; and any British subject may be admitted into it on the payment of 40 shillings.

AFRICAN INSTITUTION; a society in England, the first meeting of which was held April 14, 1807. Its principal object is the abolition of the slave trade, and the promotion of civilization among the African nations. With this view, it labors to collect the most complete accounts of the agricultural and commercial relations of the country, and of the physical, intellectual and political condition of its inhabitants; to form connexions with them; to introduce valuable plants; to found schools; to make the natives acquainted with the useful arts of Europe, &c. The institution is governed by a president, vice-president and 36 directors. But its funds have not been sufficient to accomplish much. It has, however, supported teachers in Sierra Leone, and exerted itself with zeal for the abolition of the slave trade, as may be seen from its excellent annual reports.

AFT; a sea term, signifying near the stern of the ship.

AGA; among the Turks, the commander of a body of infantry; likewise a title of politeness. The A. of the janizaries, their commander-in-chief, had nearly as much authority as the grand vizier, and was the only person allowed to appear before the grand seignior, without his arms crossed on his breast, in the attitude of a slave. The word aga is often used, as a complimentary title in Turkey, much in the same way as captain is in some parts of the United States. The chief officers under the khan of Tartary are also called A. The A. of Algiers is the president of the divan, or senate.

AGADES (Audagost of Edrissi); a flourishing town of Central Africa. It appears to be the centre of the trade of the eastern part of the interior of Africa. It is 47 days' journey from Mourzouk, and many of the merchants from that quarter stop at A. to change their commodities for those of Soudan, and the countries to the south of the Niger. Hornemann reports it to be the capital of an independent kingdom called Asben.

AGALMATOLITE; a soft mineral substance, capable of being cut with the knife, of a dull greenish, reddish or yellowish-white color, and consisting of silex and alumine, with a little potash. It is chiefly found in China, where it is wrought into figures and various ornaments. It has lately been recommended

as a substitute for the bricks made of Cornish porcelain clay, to measure high heats in the pyrometer of Wedgewood; it being capable of standing a great heat, and of contracting its dimensions very considerably and equably.

AGAMEMNON; king of Mycene and Argos, son of Plisthenes, nephew of Atreus, and brother of Menelaus and Anaxibja. His mother is said by some to have been Eriphyle, by others, Aërope. Common opinion, and the authority of Homer, make him the son of Atreus. At least, the two brothers are denominated Atrides by Homer. From Tantalus, the founder of the race, down to Agamemnon and his children, the members of this family of heroes were constantly persecuted by fate. (See Tantalus, Pelops, Atreus and Thyestes.) The children of A. and Clytemnestra were Iphigenia, Electra, Chrysothemis and Orestes. When the Trojan war broke out, A. was appointed leader of the united army of Greeks, and manned alone 100 ships. The army assembled in the bay of Aulis in Boeotia. Here they were long detained by a calm, occasioned by the anger of Diana (see Iphigenia), but finally arrived before Troy. During the protracted siege of the city, A. appears superior to the other chiefs in battle and in councils, and maintains, under all circumstances, the dignity of a commander. His quarrel with Achilles is described under Achilles. Returning home, after a 10 years' siege, he was treacherously assassinated. Ægisthus, whom, at his departure, he had pardoned for the murder of Atreus, and intrusted with the care of his wife and children, joined with Clytemnestra, and slew him at a banquet, together with Cassandra, the daughter of Priam (who had fallen to his share in the division of the captives), and their children. Thus says Homer; others say that Clytemnestra murdered him in the bath, having entangled him in a tunic. The cause of his murder is alleged by some to have been her adulterous connexion with Ægisthus; by others, her jealousy of Cassandra.

AGAMIC PLANTS. (See Cryptogamic.) AGANIPPE, likewise called Hippocrene; a fountain which, according to the Grecian poets, sprung out of the summit of Helicon, the seat of the muses, when struck by the hoof of Pegasus. This fountain had the property of inspiring with poetic fire whoever drank of it. Solinus distinguishes A. from Hippocrene as a different fountain.

AGAPE, in ecclesiastical history (from

ayann, Gr. love); the love-feast, or feast of charity, in use among the primitive Christians, when a liberal contribution was made by the rich to feed the poor. St. Chrysostom gives the following account of this feast, which he derives from the apostolical practice. He says, "The first Christians had all things in common, as we read in the Acts of the Apostles; but when that equality of possession ceased, as it did even in the apostles' time, the agape or love-feast was substituted in the room of it. Upon certain days, after partaking of the Lord's supper, they met at a common feast, the rich bringing provisions, and the poor, who had nothing, being invited." These love-feasts, during the three first centuries, were held in the churches without scandal, but in after times the heathen began to tax them with impurity. This gave occasion to a reformation. The kiss of charity, with which the ceremony used to end, was no longer given between different sexes, and it was expressly forbidden to have any beds or couches for the convenience of those who wished to eat at their ease. The abuses, however, became so notorious, that the holding of the A., in churches at least, was solemnly condemned at the council of Carthage, in the year 397. Some modern sects, as the Wesleyans, Sandemanians, Moravians, &c. have attempted to revive this feast.

AGAR; Abraham's concubine. (See Hagar.)

AGAR, Jean Antoine Michel, count of Mosbourg, born in the department du Lot, was an advocate and professor at Cahors. He accompanied Murat to Tuscany, which he organized before it was given up to the king of Etruria, and was engaged in the proceedings of the consulta at Lyons and Milan. Murat made him his prime minister in the grand duchy of Berg, where he gained universal respect. On the occasion of his marriage with one of the nieces of Murat, he received from him the county of Mosbourg. The Prussian government at first sequestrated it, but restored it in 1816. During Murat's government in Naples, he was his minister of finance, and drew up the constitution ratified by him, which was proclaimed the very day that Murat was forced to fly from Naples.

AGARIC, AGARICUM, AGARICUS; the mushroom, a genus of the order of fungi, belonging to the class of cryptogamia, Linnæus. The generic character is a pileus, or cap, with gills underneath, which differ in substance from the rest of the plant,

being composed of two lamine; the seeds are in the gills.-Some have enumerated no less than 634 species of this fungus, others 400. Of all these, only one species, A. campestris, common mushroom, or champignon, has been selected for cultivation in England. It is considered the most savory of the genus, and is much in request for the table. It is eaten fresh, either stewed or boiled and preserved, either as a pickle or in powder; and it furnishes the sauce called ketchup. The field plants are better for eating, inasmuch as they are more tender than those raised on artificial beds. The wild mushrooms are found in parks and pastures, where the turf has not been ploughed up for many years, and the best time for gathering them is August and September.

AGATE; a fossil compounded of various substances, as chalcedony, cornelian, jasper, hornstone, quartz, &c. These different fossils do not all occur in every A., commonly only two or three of them. There are different kinds of A., as the fortification, the landscape, the ribbon, the moss, the tube, the clouded, the zoned, the star, the fragment, the punctuated, the petrifaction, the coral and the jasper A. No country affords finer A., or in greater abundance, than Germany. It is found in great quantities at Oberstein, in that country. It is also found in France, England, Scotland, Ireland, Sicily, Siberia, and very beautiful in the East Indies, where, however, it is confounded with onyx. It is cut into vases, mortars, snuffboxes, cups, rings, seals, handles for knives and forks, hilts for swords, beads, smelling-boxes, &c. It was highly valued by the ancients, who executed many fine works with it. The collections of Brunswick and Dresden are remarkable for beautiful specimens of this kind. Great medicinal virtues were formerly attributed to the agate, but it is now rejected from medical practice. Agate sometimes contains figures bearing a striking resemblance to some regularly-shaped object, either natural or artificial, e. g. a man, a circle, an animal, &c. This kind is the most prized. These figures may, however, be produced by artificially staining the stone, so that stories of wonderful figures found on agates are not to be implicitly believed.

AGATHO; an Athenian, distinguished both as a tragic and a comic writer. We know only the names of some of his pieces. He is said to have been too partial to antithesis. As a tragic poet, he was once crowned at the Olympic games.

years are required for a member of the legislature, 30 for a judge, juror or elector, and 22 to discharge any office in the courts. To contract marriage, it requires that the man should be at least 18 years old, and the woman 15. But marriage is not valid without the consent of parents (or, in case of their death, of the other relations in the ascending line, who take their place), until the man is 25, and the woman 21 years old, and even then it is necessary to give the parents or other relations notice. A person adopting must be as much as 50 years old, and at least 15 years older than the person adopted, unless the latter has saved the life of the former, in which case it is only necessary that the person adopting should be of full age, and older than the person adopted. (See Adoption.) Full age is fixed at 21 years for both sexes. At 16 years, a minor can make a will. Witnesses, in a strict sense, must be of full age. Under 15 years of age, a person can only affirm, without an oath. An innocent debtor of 70 years and upwards cannot be deprived of his personal liberty. If a criminal is under 16 years, and the jury find that he has acted without a proper sense of his guilt, he is acquitted, except that he may be confined, for a limited time, in a house of correction. These are the provisions of the French code.-In the U.S. of America, the rules of the English law respecting age have, in most cases, been adopted where applicable. To be chosen president of the U. S., a man must be at least 35 years old, a senator must be 30, and a representative 25 years old. Every free white male citizen, of 18 years, is obliged to serve in the militia till he reaches the age of 45 years, unless exempted for some special reason. (See age in Criminal Law.) AGE. We find the ages of the world mentioned by the earliest of the Greek poets. They compared the existence of mankind to the life of an individual, and the earliest period of the world to the tranquillity and happiness of youth. Hesiod speaks of five distinct ages: 1. The golden or Saturnian age, when Saturn ruled the earth. The people were free from the restraint of laws; they had neither ships nor weapons, wars nor soldiers; the fertile fields needed no cultivation, and perpetual spring blessed the earth. 2. The silver age, which he describes as licentious and wicked. 3. The brazen age; violent, savage and warlike. 4. The heroic age, which seemed an approximation to a better state of things. 5. The iron age, when justice and honor had left the earth. The poet

supposed this to be the age in which he himself lived. Ovid retained, in his Metamorphoses, the division of Hesiod, with this difference-he omitted the heroic age, and placed the four ages before the flood of Deucalion.-This idea, first used as a poetical embellishment, was also introduced into philosophy. The ages were looked upon as a part of the great year of the world, the revolution of which was to bring the heavenly bodies to their first position. Mythology was thus brought into the closest connexion with astronomy. The first, or golden age, was under the dominion of Saturn; the second, of Jupiter; the third, of Neptune; and the fourth, of Pluto, or, as some say, of Apollo. The time of the completion of the great year of the world, or of the heavens, was fixed by some at 3000 solar years; by others, at the mysterious number 7777 solar years. Cicero estimated it at 12,954 ; Heraclitus, at 18,000; and Orpheus, at 12 months, consisting each of 100,000 years. The Sibylline books divided it into ten secular months, or the four seasons of the year. Spring was the golden age; Summer, the silver; Autumn, the brazen, which was interrupted by Deucalion's flood; and Winter, the iron age; and then the cycle began with Spring again.-The idea of ages of the world is so deeply fixed in the nature of man, that it is interwoven with the religious sentiments of almost every nation on the globe. We find examples of it in the millennial reign of the Apocalypse, and in the Yugs of the East Indians. The idea of four ages of the world prevailed among the Brahmins. The first, a kind of golden age, lasted, according to their tradition, 1,728,000 years; the men of this period lived 400 years, and were all giants; in this period, the god Brahma was born. In the second period, which lasted 1,296,000 years, their rajahs were born; men lived only 300 years, and vice began to creep into the world. During the third age, which lasted 8,064,000 years, men lived only 200 years, owing to the increase of vice. Of the last age, in which we now live, 4,027,213 years are already gone, and the life of man is sunk to one fourth of its original duration.

AGE. For the different ages of life, see Life; see also Longevity.

AGEDA, Synod of; an assembly of Jewish doctors, held A. D. 1650, so denominated from a plain, on which they met, about thirty leagues distant from Buda in Hungary. More than 300 rabbies, and many other Jews, of different nations, attended. The object was, to debate the

question whether the Messiah had appeared. The negative of the question was carried, and it was agreed that his coming was delayed on account of their sins and impenitence. They were of opinion that he would be born of a virgin, would come as a great conqueror, would deliver the Jews from every foreign yoke, and alter nothing in the Mosaic religion. Some ecclesiastics from Rome attended this meeting, but the multitude would not hear them.

AGEMOGLANS, or AZAMOGLANS, are children purchased from the Tartars, or raised every third year, by way of tribute, from the Christians tolerated in the Turkish empire. They are circumcised and instructed in the religion of their masters, and in military exercises. From them the janizaries were recruited. (See Janizaries.)

AGENDA, among divines, sometimes signifies things which a man is bound to perform, in opposition to credenda, which he is bound to believe. It also denotes the service or offices of the church. A. is also used to signify church books compiled by public authority, prescribing the order to be observed by the ministers and people, in the ceremonies and devotions of the church; e. g. the ritual, liturgy, missal, &c. In Prussia, the new A. (in the last sense), arbitrarily introduced by the king, but rejected by many clergymen and congregations, has occasioned some trouble of late years. Honors and promotions induced many of the clergy to adopt it, but others remained firm in their opposition. The city of Berlin and the famous professor Schleiermacher were very conspicuous in resisting it. In all the churches of which the king was patron, it was introduced.

AGESILAUS; a king of Sparta, 390—306, B. C.; elevated to the throne after the death of his brother Agis, by Lysander, who afterwards formed a conspiracy to depose him; but the plan was discovered and frustrated. Called by the Ionians to their assistance against Artaxerxes, he commenced, after Lysander's death, his glorious career; defeated the Persians, but was compelled to stop in his victorious course, and turn his arms against Thebes, Corinth, &c., which had united against Sparta, and, in a subsequent war with Thebes, to contend against Pelopidas and Epaminondas, the greatest generals of those times. His prudence, however, saved the city, without the hazard of a battle. He delivered it anew, at the age of eighty years, though it was actually in the hands

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of Epaminondas. On his return from his last campaign in Egypt, loaded with honors and presents, he was overtaken by a storm on the coast of Libya, and perished, being then in his 84th year. In person, he was small and insignificant. He was, nevertheless, a noble prince, and almost adored by his soldiers, though he sometimes violated the virtue of justice, in cases in which he could be useful to his country or friends.

AGGREGATION, in physics; a species of union, whereby several things, which have no natural dependence or connexion with one another, are collected together, so as, in some sense, to constitute one. Thus, a heap of sand, or a mass of ruins, are bodies by aggregation.

AGHRIM, OF AUGHRIM; a village in the county of Galway, in Ireland, memorable for a decisive battle fought in the neighborhood, July 12, 1691, between the forces of William III, amounting to 20,000 men, commanded by general Ginckel, and those of James II, amounting to 28,000 men, commanded by the French general St. Ruth. The forces of William were victorious.

AGINCOURT, or AZINCOURT; a village in the district Saint-Pol, in the department Pas de Calais, famous for the battle of Oct. 25, 1415, between the French and English. Henry V, king of England, eager to conquer France, landed at Harfleur, took the place by storm, and wished to march through Picardy to Calais, in order to fix his winter-quarters in its neighborhood. With a powerful force, the dauphin advanced against him. The numerical superiority of the French was great, and the confidence of the leader and the nobles such, that they refused the proffered aid of the duke of Burgundy and the city of Paris. Henry V retreated to the Somme. The French followed to harass his retreat, and to defend the passage from Abbeville to St. Quentin, which he gained only through the inattention of the enemy. The English, however, being destitute of every thing, and reduced by sickness, Henry asked for peace on disadvantageous terms. The French refused his proposals, and succeeded in throwing themselves between Calais and the English. These latter consisted of 2000 men at arms and 12,000 archers, and were ranged in order of battle between two hills, with the archers on the wings. Stakes, of which every man carried one, were fixed in front of them. The French, commanded by the constable d'Albret, numbered 100,000 troops,