Part 33 (1/2)

ARANDA, COUNT OF, an eminent Spanish statesman, banished the Jesuits, suppressed brigandage, and curtailed the power of the Inquisition, was Prime Minister of Charles IV., and was succeeded by G.o.doy (1719-1798).

ARANJU'EZ (8), a town 28 m. SE. of Madrid, long the spring resort of the Spanish Court.

AR'ANY, JANOS, a popular Hungarian poet of peasant origin, attained to eminence as a man of letters (1819-1882).

AR'ARAT, a mountain in Armenia on which Noah's ark is said to have rested, 17,000 ft. high, is within Russian territory, and borders on both Turkey and Persia.

ARA'TUS, native of Sicyon, in Greece, promoter of the Achaean League, in which he was thwarted by Philip of Macedon, was poisoned, it is said, by his order (271-213 B.C.); also a Greek poet, author of two didactic poems, born in Cilicia, quoted by St Paul in Acts xvii. 28.

ARAUCA'NIA (88), the country of the Araucos, in Chile, S. of Concepcion and N. of Valdivia, the Araucos being an Indian race long resistant but now subject to Chilian authority, and interesting as the only one that has proved itself able to govern itself and hold its own in the presence of the white man.

ARAUCA'RIA, tall conifer trees, natives of and confined to the southern hemisphere.

ARBE'LA, a town near Mosul, where Alexander the Great finally defeated Darius, 331 B.C.

ARBROATH (22), a thriving seaport and manufacturing town on the Forfars.h.i.+re coast, 17 m. N. of Dundee, with the picturesque ruins of an extensive old abbey, of which Cardinal Beaton was the last abbot. It is the ”Fairport” of the ”Antiquary.”

ARBUTHNOT, JOHN, a physician and eminent literary man of the age of Queen Anne and her two successors, born in Kincardines.h.i.+re, the friend of Swift and Pope and other lights of the time, much esteemed by them for his wit and kind-heartedness, joint-author with Swift, it is thought, of the ”Memoirs of Martinus Scriblerus” and the ”History of John Bull”

(1667-1735).

AR'CACHON (7), a popular watering-place, with a fine beach and a mild climate, favourable for invalids suffering from pulmonary complaints, 34 m. SW. of Bordeaux.

ARCA'DIA, a mountain-girt pastoral tableland in the heart of the Morea, 50 m. long by 40 broad, conceived by the poets as a land of shepherds and shepherdesses, and rustic simplicity and bliss, and was the seat of the wors.h.i.+p of Artemis and Pan.

ARCA'DIUS, the first emperor of the East, born in Spain, a weak, luxurious prince, leaving the government in other hands (377-405).

ARCESILA'US, a Greek philosopher, a member of the Platonic School and founder of the New Academy, who held in opposition to the Stoics that perception was not knowledge, denied that we had any accurate criterion of truth, and denounced all dogmatism in opinion.

ARCHaeOLOGY, the study or the science of the monuments of antiquity, as distinct from palaeontology, which has to do with extinct organisms or fossil remains.

ARCHANGEL (19), the oldest seaport of Russia, on the Dvina, near its mouth, on the White Sea, is accessible to navigation from July to October, is connected with the interior by river and ca.n.a.l, and has a large trade in flax, timber, tallow, and tar.

ARCHANGELS, of these, according to the Koran, there are four: Gabriel, the angel who reveals; Michael, the angel who fights; Azrael, the angel of death; Azrafil, the angel of the resurrection.