The Nuttall Encyclopaedia Part 35

ARGYLL, a n.o.ble family or clan of the name of Campbell, the members of which have held successively the t.i.tle of Earl, Marquis, and Duke, their first patent of n.o.bility dating from 1445, and their earldom from 1453.

ARGYLL, ARCHIBALD CAMPBELL, 1ST MARQUIS OF, sided with the Covenanters, fought against Montrose, disgusted with the execution of Charles I., crowned Charles II. at Scone, after the Restoration committed to the Tower, was tried and condemned, met death n.o.bly (1598-1661).

ARGYLL, ARCHIBALD CAMPBELL, 9TH EARL OF, son of the preceding, fought for Charles II., was taken prisoner, released at the Restoration and restored to his estates, proved rebellious at last, and was condemned to death; escaped to Holland, made a descent on Scotland, was captured and executed in 1685.

ARGYLL, GEORGE JOHN DOUGLAS CAMPBELL, 8TH DUKE OF, as Marquis of Lorne took a great interest in the movement which led to the Disruption of the Church of Scotland in 1843, a Whig in politics, was a member of the Cabinets of Aberdeen, Palmerston, and Gladstone; of late has shown more Conservative tendencies; takes a deep interest in the scientific theories and questions of the time; wrote, among other works, a book in 1866 ent.i.tled "The Reign of Law," in vindication of Theism, and another in the same interest in 1884 ent.i.tled "The Unity of Nature"; _b_. 1824.

ARGYLL, JOHN CAMPBELL, 2ND DUKE OF, favoured the Union, was created an English peer, fought under Marlborough, opposed the return of the Stuarts, defeated Mar at Sheriffmuir, ruled Scotland under Walpole (1678-1743).

ARIAD'NE, daughter of Minos, king of Crete, gave to Theseus a clue by which to escape out of the labyrinth after he had slain the Minotaur, for which Theseus promised to marry her; took her with him to Naxos and left her there, where, according to one tradition, Artemis killed her, and according to another, Dionysos found her and married her, placing her at her death among the G.o.ds, and hanging her wedding wreath as a constellation in the sky.

ARIANISM, the heresy of ARIUS (q. v.).

ARIA'NO (12), a city with a fine cathedral, 1500 ft. above the sea-level, NE. of Naples; has a trade in wine and b.u.t.ter.

ARI'CA, a seaport connected with Tacna, S. of Peru, the chief outlet for the produce of Bolivia; suffers again and again from earthquakes, and was almost destroyed in 1832.

ARIeGE, a department of France, at the foot of the northern slopes of the Pyrenees; has extensive forests and is rich in minerals.

A'RIEL, in Shakespeare's "Tempest," a spirit of the air whom Prospero finds imprisoned by Sycorax in the cleft of a pine-tree, and liberates on condition of her serving him for a season, which she willingly engages to do, and does.

ARIEL, an idol of the Moabites, an outcast angel.

ARIES, the Ram. the first of the signs of the Zodiac, which the sun enters on March 21, though the constellation itself, owing to the precession of the equinoxes, is no longer within the limits of the sign.

ARI'ON, a lyrist of Lesbos, lived chiefly at the court of Periander, Corinth; returning in a s.h.i.+p from a musical contest in Sicily laden with prizes, the sailors plotted to kill him, when he begged permission to play one strain on his lute, which being conceded, dolphins crowded round the s.h.i.+p, whereupon he leapt over the bulwarks, was received on the back of one of them, and carried to Corinth, arriving there before the sailors, who, on their landing, were apprehended and punished.

ARIOS'TO, LUDOVICO, an ill.u.s.trious Italian poet, born at Reggio, in Lombardy; spent his life chiefly in Ferrara, mostly in poverty; his great work "ORLANDO FURIOSO" (q. v.), published the first edition, in 40 cantos, in 1516, and the third in 46 cantos, in 1532; the work is so called from the chief subject of it, the madness of Roland induced by the loss of his lady-love through her marriage to another (1474-1532).

ARIOVISTUS, a German chief, invaded Gaul, and threatened to overrun it, but was forced back over the Rhine by Caesar.

ARISTae'US, a son of Apollo, the guardian divinity of the vine and olive, of hunters and herdsmen; first taught the management of bees, some of which stung Eurydice to death, whereupon the nymphs, companions of Orpheus, her husband, set upon his bees and destroyed them. In this extremity Aristaeus applied to Proteus, who advised him to sacrifice four bullocks to appease the manes of Eurydice; this done, there issued from the carca.s.ses of the victims a swarm of bees, which reconciled him to the loss of the first ones.

ARISTAR'CHUS OF SAMOS, a Greek astronomer, who first conceived the idea of the rotundity of the earth and its revolution both on its own axis and round the sun, in promulgating which idea he was accused of impiously disturbing the serenity of the G.o.ds (280 B.C.).

ARISTARCHUS OF SAMOTHRACE, a celebrated Greek grammarian and critic, who devoted his life to the elucidation and correct transmission of the text of the Greek poets, and especially Homer (158-88 B.C.).

ARISTE'AS, a sort of Wandering Jew of Greek fable, who turns up here and there in Greek tradition, and was thought to be endowed with a soul that could at will leave and enter the body.

ARISTI'DES, an Athenian general and statesman, surnamed The Just; covered himself with glory at the battle of Marathon; was made archon next year, in the discharge of the duties of which office he received his surname; was banished by ostracism at the instance of his rival, Themistocles; recalled three years after the invasion of Xerxes, was reconciled to Themistocles, fought bravely at Salamis, and distinguished himself at Plataea; managed the finances of the State with such probity that he died poor, was buried at the public charges, and left the State to provide for his children.

ARISTION, a philosopher, tyrant of Athens, put to death by order of Sylla, 86 B.C.

ARISTIP'PUS OF CYRENE, founder of the Cyrenaic school of philosophy, a disciple of Socrates; in his teaching laid too much emphasis on one principle of Socrates, apart from the rest, in insisting too exclusively upon pleasure as the supreme good and ultimate aim of life.

ARISTOBU'LUS I., son of John Hyrca.n.u.s, first of the Asmonaean dynasty in Judea to a.s.sume the name of king, which he did from 104-102 B.C., a p.r.o.nounced h.e.l.leniser; A. II., twice carried captive to Rome, a.s.sa.s.sinated 50 B.C.; A. III., last of Asmonaean dynasty, drowned by Herod in the Jordan, 34 B.C.

ARISTODE'MUS, king of Messenia, carried on for 20 years a war with Sparta, till at length finding resistance hopeless he put an end to his life on the tomb of his daughter, whom he had sacrificed to ensure the fulfilment of an oracle to the advantage of his house; _d_. 724 B.C.

Also a Greek sculptor, 4th century B.C.

ARISTOM'ENES, a mythical king of Messenia, celebrated for his struggle with the Spartans, and his resistance to them on Mount Ira for 11 years, which at length fell to the enemy, while he escaped and was s.n.a.t.c.hed up by the G.o.ds; died at Rhodes.

ARISTOPHANES, the great comic dramatist of Athens, lived in the 5th century B.C.; directed the shafts of his wit, which were very keen, against all of whatever rank who sought in any way to alter, and, as it was presumed, amend, the religious, philosophical, social, political, or literary creed and practice of the country, and held up to ridicule such men as Socrates and Euripides, as well as Cleon the tanner; wrote 54 plays, of which 11 have come down to us; of these the "Clouds" aim at Socrates, the "Acharnians" and the "Frogs" at Euripides, and the "Knights" at Cleon; _d_. 384 B.C.

AR'ISTOTLE, a native of Stagira, in Thrace, and hence named the Stagirite; deprived of his parents while yet a youth; came in his 17th year to Athens, remained in Plato's society there for 20 years; after the death of Plato, at the request of Philip, king of Macedon, who held him in high honour, became the preceptor of Alexander the Great, then only 13 years old; on Alexander's expedition into Asia, returned to Athens and began to teach in the Lyceum, where it was his habit to walk up and down as he taught, from which circ.u.mstance his school got the name of Peripatetic; after 13 years he left the city and went to Chalcis, in Euboea, where he died. He was the oracle of the scholastic philosophers and theologians in the Middle Ages; is the author of a great number of writings which covered a vast field of speculation, of which the progress of modern science goes to establish the value; is often referred to as the incarnation of the philosophic spirit (385-322 B.C.).

ARISTOX'ENUS OF TARENTUM, a Greek philosopher, author of the "Elements of Harmony," the only one of his many works extant, and one of the oldest writers on music; contemporary of Aristotle.

A'RIUS, a presbyter of Alexandria in the 4th century, and founder of Arianism, which denied the consubstantiality of the Son with the Father in the so-called Trinity, a doctrine which hovered for a time between acceptance and rejection throughout the Catholic Church; was condemned first by a local synod which met at Alexandria in 321, and then by a General Council at Nice in 325, which the Emperor Constantine attended in person; the author was banished to Illyric.u.m, his writings burned, and the possession of them voted to be a crime; after three years he was recalled by Constantine, who ordered him to be restored; was about to be readmitted into the Church when he died suddenly, by poison, alleged his friends--by the judgment of G.o.d, said his enemies (280-336).

ARIZO'NA (59), a territory of the United States N. of Mexico and W.

of New Mexico, nearly four times as large as Scotland, rich in mines of gold, silver, and copper, fertile in the lowlands; much of the surface a barren plateau 11,000 ft. high, through which the canon of the Colorado pa.s.ses. See CAnON.

ARK OF THE COVENANT, a chest of acacia wood overlaid with gold, 2 cubits long and 1 in breadth; contained the two tables of stone inscribed with the Ten Commandments, the gold pot with the manna, and Aaron's rod; the lid supported the mercy-seat, with a cherub at each end, and the shekinah radiance between.

ARKANS'AS (1,128), one of the Southern States of America, N. of Louisiana and W. of the Mississippi, a little larger than England; rich in metals, grows cotton and corn.