Oldalképek
PDF
ePub

thought analogous to it, which, in the essays "On the Pleasures of the Imagination," Addison prosecuted, not, indeed, with much of philosophical depth, but with a sagacity and comprehensiveness which we shall undervalue much unless we remember how little of philosophy was to be found in any critical views previously propounded in England. To Addison, further, belong those essays which (most frequently introduced in regular alternation in the papers of Saturday) rise into the region of moral and religious meditation, and tread the elevated ground with a step so graceful as to allure the reader irresistibly to follow; sometimes, as in the "Walk through Westminster Abbey," enlivening solemn thought by gentle sportiveness; sometimes flowing on with an uninterrupted sedateness of didactic eloquence; and sometimes shrouding sacred truths in the veil of ingenious allegory, as in the majestic "Vision of Mirza." While, in a word, the Spectator, if Addison had not taken part in it, would probably have been as lively and humorous as it was, and not less popular in its own day, it would have wanted some of its strongest claims on the respect of posterity, by being at once lower in its moral tone, far less abundant in literary knowledge, and much less vigorous and expanded in thinking. In point of style, again, the two friends resemble each other so closely as to be hardly distinguishable, when both are dealing with familiar objects, and writing in a key not rising above that of conversation. But in the higher tones of thought and composition, Addison showed a mastery of language raising him very decisively, not above Steele only, but above all his contemporaries. Indeed, it may safely be said, that no one, in any age of our literature, has united, so strikingly as he did, the colloquial grace and ease which mark the style of an accomplished gentleman, with the power of soaring into a strain of expression nobly and eloquently dignified.

On the cessation of the Spectator, Steele set on foot the Guardian, which, started in March 1713, came to an end in October, with its 175th number. To this series Addison gave 53 papers, being a very frequent writer during the latter half of its progress. None of his essays here aim so high as the best of those in the Spectator; but he often exhibits both his cheerful and well-balanced humour, and his earnest desire to inculcate sound principles of literary judgment. In the last six months of the year 1714, the Spectator received its eighth and last volume; for which Steele appears not to have written at all, and Addison to have contributed 24 of the 80 papers. Most of these form, in the unbroken seriousness both of their topics and of their manner, a contrast to the majority of his essays in the earlier volumes; but several of them, both in this vein and in one less lofty, are among the best known, if not the finest, of all his essays. Such are the "Mountain of Miseries;" the antediluvian novel of "Shallum and Hilpa;" the "Reflections by Moonlight on the Divine Perfections." In April 1713 Addison brought on the stage, very reluctantly, as we are assured, and can easily believe, his tragedy of Cato. Its success was dazzling; but this issue was mainly owing to the concern which the politicians took in the exhibition. The Whigs hailed it as a brilliant manifesto in favour of constitutional freedom. The Tories echoed the applause, to show themselves enemies of despotism, and professed to find in Julius Cæsar a parallel to the formidable Marlborough. Even with such extrinsic aids, and the advantage derived from the established fame of the author, Cato could never have been esteemed a good dramatic work, unless in an age in which dramatic power and insight were almost extinct. It is poor even in its poetical elements, and is redeemed only by the finely solemn tone of its moral reflections, and the singular refinement and equable smoothness of its diction.

The literary career of Addison might almost be held as

[ocr errors]

closed soon after the death of Queen Anne, which occurred in August 1714, when he had lately completed his 42d year. His own life extended only five years longer; and this closing portion of it offers little that is pleasing or instructive. We see him attaining the summit of his ambition, only to totter for a little and sink into an early grave. We are reminded of his more vigorous days by nothing but a few happy inventions interspersed in political pamphlets, and the gay fancy of a trifling poem on Kneller's portrait of George I.

The lord justices who, previously chosen secretly by the Elector of Hanover, assumed the government on the Queen's demise, were, as a matter of course, the leading Whigs. They appointed Addison to act as their secretary. He next held, for a very short time, his former office under the Irish lord-lieutenant; and, early in 1715, he was made one of the lords of trade. In the course of the same year occurred the first of the only two quarrels with friends, into which the prudent, good-tempered, and modest Addison is said to have ever been betrayed. His adversary on this occasion was Pope, who, only three years before, had received, with an appearance of humble thankfulness, Addison's friendly remarks on his Essay on Criticism; but who, though still very young, was already very famous, and beginning to show incessantly his literary jealousies, and his personal and party hatreds. Several little misunderstandings had paved the way for a breach, when, at the same time with the first volume of Pope's Iliad, there appeared a translation of the first book of the poem, bearing the name of Thomas Tickell. Tickell, in his preface, disclaimed all rivalry with Pope, and declared that he wished only to bespeak favourable attention for his contemplated version of the Odyssey. But the simultaneous publication was awkward; and Tickell, though not so good a versifier as Pope, was a dangerous rival, as being a good Greek scholar. Further, he was Addison's under-secretary and confidential friend; and Addison, cautious though he was, does appear to have said (quite truly) that Tickell's translation was more faithful than the other. Pope's anger could not be restrained. He wrote those famous lines in which he describes Addison under the name of Atticus; and, as if to make reconciliation impossible, he not only circulated these among his friends, but sent a copy to Addison himself. Afterwards, he went so far as to profess a belief that the rival translation was really Addison's own. It is pleasant to observe that, after the insult had been perpetrated, Addison was at the pains, in his Freeholder, to express hearty approbation of the Iliad of Pope; who, on the contrary, after Addison's death, deliberately printed the striking but malignant lines in the Epistle to Dr Arbuthnot. In 1715 there was acted, with little success, the comedy of The Drummer, or the Haunted House, which, though it appeared under the name of Steele, was certainly not his, and was probably written in whole or chiefly by Addison. It contributes very little to his fame. From September 1715 to June 1716, he defended the Hanoverian succession, and the proceedings of the Government in regard to the rebellion, in a paper called the Freeholder, which he wrote entirely himself, dropping it with the fiftyfifth number. It is much better tempered, not less spirited, and much more able in thinking, than his Examiner. The finical man of taste does indeed show himself to be sometimes weary of discussing constitutional questions; but he aims many enlivening thrusts at weak points of social life and manners; and the character of the Fox-hunting Squire, who is introduced as the representative of the Jacobites, is drawn with so much humour and force that we regret not being allowed to see more of him.

In August 1716, when he had completed his 44th year, Addison married the Countess-Dowager of Warwick, a

widow of fifteen years' standing. She seems to have forfeited her jointure by the marriage, and to have brought her husband nothing but the occupancy of Holland House at Kensington. We know hardly anything positively in regard to the affair, or as to the origin or duration of his acquaintance with the lady or her family. But the current assertion that the courtship was a long one is very probably erroneous. There are better grounds for believing the assertion, transmitted from Addison's own time, that the marriage was unhappy. The countess is said to have been proud as well as violent, and to have supposed that, in contracting the alliance, she conferred honour instead of receiving it. To the uneasiness caused by domestic discomfort, the most friendly critics of Addison's character have attributed those habits of intemperance, which are said to have grown on him in his later years to such an extent as to have broken his health and accelerated his death. His biographer, Miss Aikin, who disbelieves his alleged want of matrimonial quiet, has called in question, with much ingenuity, the whole story of his sottishness; and it must at any rate be allowed that all the assertions which tend to fix such charges on him in the earlier parts of his life, rest on no evidence that is worthy of credit, and are in themselves highly improbable. Sobriety was not the virtue of the day; and the constant frequenting of coffee-houses, which figures so often in the Spectator and elsewhere, and which was really practised among literary men as well as others, cannot have had good effects. Addison, however, really appears to have had no genuine relish for this mode of life; and there are curious notices, especially in Steele's correspondence, of his having lodgings out of town, to which he retired for study and composition. But, whatever the cause may have been, his health was shattered before he took that which was the last, and certainly the most unwise step, in his ascent to political power.

For a considerable time dissensions had existed in the ministry; and these came to a crisis in April 1717, when those who had been the real chiefs passed into the ranks of the opposition. Townshend was dismissed, and Walpole anticipated dismissal by resignation. There was now formed, under the leadership of General Stanhope and Lord Sunderland, an administration which, as resting on courtinfluence, was nicknamed the "German ministry." Sunderland, Addison's former superior, became one of the two principal secretaries of state; and Addison himself was appointed as the other. His elevation to such a post had been contemplated on the accession of George I., and prevented, we are told, by his own refusal; and it is asserted, on the authority of Pope, that his acceptance now was owing only to the influence of his wife. Even if there is no ground, as there probably is not, for the allegation of Addison's inefficiency in the details of business, his unfitness for such an office in such circumstances was undeniable and glaring. It was impossible that a Government, whose secretary of state could not open his lips in debate, should long face an opposition headed by Robert Walpole. The decay of Addison's health, too, was going on rapidly, being, we may readily conjecture, precipitated by anxiety, if no worse causes were at work. Ill health was the reason assigned for retirement, in the letter of resignation which he laid before the king in March 1718, eleven months after his appointment. He received a pension of £1500 a year.

Not long afterwards the divisions in the Whig party alienated him from his oldest friend. The Peerage Bill, introduced in February 1719, was attacked, on behalf of the opposition, in a weekly paper, which was called the Plebeian, and written by Steele. Addison answered it temperately enough in the Old Whig; provocation from. the Plebeian brought forth angry retort from the Whig;

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

Stcele charged Addison with being so old a Whig as to have forgotten his principles; and Addison sneered at Grub Street, and called his friend "Little Dicky." How Addison felt after this painful quarrel we are not told directly; but the Old Whig was excluded from that posthumous collection of his works for which his executor Tickell had received from him authority and directions. In that collection was inserted a treatise on the evidences of the faith, entitled Of the Christian Religion. Its theological value is very small; but it is pleasant to regard it as the last effort of one who, amidst all weaknesses, was a man of real good. ness as well as of eminent genius.

The disease under which Addison laboured appears to have been asthma. It became more violent after his retirement from office, and was now accompanied by dropsy. His deathbed was placid and resigned, and comforted by those religious hopes which he had so often suggested to others, and the value of which he is said, in an anecdote of doubtful authority, to have now inculcated in a parting interview with his stepson. He died at Holland House on the 17th day of June 1719, six weeks after having completed his 47th year. His body, after lying in state, was interred in the Poets' Corner of Westminster Abbey.

The Biographia Britannica gives an elaborate memoir of him; particulars are well collected in the article under his name in the Biographical Dictionary of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge; and a good many new materials, especially letters, will be found in The Life of Joseph Addison, by Lucy Aikin, 1843. (w. s.)

An edition of Addison's works, in four volumes quarto, was pub lished by Baskerville at Birmingham in 1761. Dibdin characterises this as a "glorious performance." A complete edition in six volumes, with notes, by Richard Hurd, appeared in 1811. An American edition (New York, 1854), in six volumes, with notes, by G. W. Greene, contains several pieces collected for the first time. tion of the Spectator, with valuable notes by Henry Morley, appeared

in 1871.

An edi

ADEL or SOMAULI, an extensive tract of country, stretching eastward from the neighbourhood of Tajurrah to Cape Guardafui, between 43° and 51° E. long., with a breadth not accurately ascertained. Zeila and Berbera are the chief ports on the coast, and have some trade with the opposite shores of Arabia, exporting spices, ivory, gold dust, cattle, and horses, and receiving Indian commodities in exchange. The country, which is marshy and unhealthy, is inhabited by the Somauli, who are governed by an Iman, and are Mahometans.

ADELAAR, CORT SIVARTSEN, surnamed the Eagle, a famous naval commander, was born at Brevig in Norway in 1622. At the age of fifteen he became a cadet in the Dutch fleet under Van Tromp, and after a few years entered the service of the Venetian Republic, which was engaged at the time in a war with Turkey. In 1645 he had risen to the rank of captain; and after sharing in various victories as commander of a squadron, he achieved his most brilliant success at the Dardanelles, on the 13th May 1654, when, with his own vessel alone, he broke through a line of 37 Turkish ships, sank 15 of them, and burned others, causing a loss to the enemy of 5000 men. The following day he entered Tenedos, and compelled the complete surrender of the Turks. On returning to Venice he was crowned with honours, and became admiral-lieutenant in 1660. Numerous tempting offers were made to him by other naval powers, and in 1661 he left Venice to return to the Netherlands. Next year he was induced, by the offer of a title and an enormous salary, to accept the command of the Danish fleet from Frederick III. Christian V. he took the command of the combined Danish fleets against Sweden, but died suddenly (5th November 1 On this point, however, see Macaulay's Essay on The Life and Writings of Addison.

Under

1675) at Copenhagen, before the expedition set out. When in the Venetian service, Adelaar was known by the name of Curzio Suffrido Adelborst.

ADELAIDE, the capital of the British colony of South Australia and of the county of the same name, situated on the Torrens, seven miles from Port Adelaide, with which it is connected by railway. The river, which is spanned at this point by several bridges, divides the city into two parts -North Adelaide, the smaller of the two, but containing the chief private houses, occupying a gentle slope on the right bank; and South Adelaide, the commercial centre of the town, lying on a very level plain on the left. The streets of Adelaide are broad, and regularly laid out. Among its public buildings are the Government offices and the governor's house, the post office, the jail, five banks, the railway station, and a theatre. It is the seat of a Protestant Episcopal and also of a Roman Catholic bishop, and contains places of worship belonging to these bodies, as well as to the Presbyterians, the Methodists, the Unitarians, the Baptists, and other denominations. Adelaide possesses a botanical garden, and is surrounded by extensive public grounds, known as the "Park Lands," containing over 1900 acres. It is lighted with gas, and is supplied with water from a reservoir some miles up the Torrens. The corporation consists of a mayor and eight councillors, two from each of the four wards; and there are also two auditors, a town clerk, and other officials. The chief manufactures are woollen, starch, soap, beer, flour, leather, earthenware, and iron goods. There is a good retail trade in European produce; and in the vicinity are iron and copper mines. Adelaide was founded in 1836, and incorporated in 1842. It received its name in honour of Queen Adelaide. Population, 27,208. Lat. 34° 55' S., long. 138° 38′ E. PORT ADELAIDE is situated in a low marshy position, on a small inlet of the Gulf of St Vincent. Its harbour is safe and commodious; but a bar at the mouth, where the depth of water varies with the tide from 8 to 16 feet, prevents large vessels from entering. It is a free port, and has good wharfs and warehouse accommodation. In 1867, 364 vessels of 119,654 tons arrived at, and 376 of 125,559 tons departed from, Port Adelaide. The chief imports were drapery, iron goods and machinery, beer, wine, spirits, and paper; and the exports, grain, copper and lead ores, wool, tallow, and other native products. Population, 2482. ADELSBERG, a market town of Austria, in the province of Carniola, 26 miles SW. of Laibach, and about the same distance E. of Trieste. About a mile from the town is the entrance to the famous stalactite cavern of Adelsberg, the largest and most magnificent in Europe. The cavern is divided into four grottoes, with two lateral ramifications which reach to the distance of about a mile and a half from the entrance. The river Poik enters the cavern 60 feet below its mouth, and is heard murmuring in its recesses. In the Kaiser-Ferdinand grotto, the third of the chain, a great ball is annually held on Whitmonday, when the chamber is brilliantly illuminated. The Franz-JosephElisabeth grotto, the largest of the four, and the farthest from the entrance, is 665 feet in length, 640 feet in breadth, and more than 100 feet high. Besides the imposing proportions of its chambers, the cavern is remarkable for the variegated beauty of its stalactite formations, some resembling transparent drapery, others waterfalls, trees, animals, or human beings, the more grotesque being called by various fanciful appellations. These subterranean wonders were known in the Middle Ages, but the cavern remained undiscovered in modern times until 1816, and it is only in still more recent times that its vast extent has been fully ascertained and explored.

ADELUNG, FRIEDRICH VON, a distinguished philologist, nephew of John Christoph Adelung, was born at

[ocr errors]

Stettin on the 25th February 1768. After studying philosophy and jurisprudence at Leipsic he accompanied a family to Italy, where he remained for several years. At Rome he obtained access to the Vatican library, a privilege which he utilised by collating and editing some valuable old German MSS. that had been taken from Heidelberg. On his return he became private secretary to Count Pahlen, whom he accompanied from Riga to St Petersburg. In 1803 he became instructor to the younger brothers of the Czar, the arch-dukes Nicholas and Michael, and gave such satisfaction to the empress-mother that she entrusted him with the care of her private library. In 1824 he became director of the Oriental Institute in connection with the foreign office, and in the year following president of the Academy of Sciences. He died on the 30th January 1843. Adelung's chief literary works were-a Biography of Baron Herberstein (St Petersburg, 1817), a Biography of Baron de Meyerberg (1827), a treatise on the Relations between the Sanscrit and the Russian Languages (1815), and an Essay on Sanscrit Literature (1830), a second edition of which appeared in 1837, under the title Bibliotheca Sanscrita. ADELUNG, JOHANN CHRISTOPH, a very eminent German grammarian, philologist, and general scholar, was born at Spantekow, in Pomerania, on the 8th August 1732, and educated at the public schools of Anclam and Closterbergen, and the university of Halle. In the year 1759 he was appointed professor at the gymnasium of Erfurt, but relinquished this situation two years after, and went to reside in a private capacity at Leipsic, where he continued to devote himself for a long period to the cultivation of letters, and particularly to those extensive and laborious philological researches which proved so useful to the language and literature of his native country. In 1787 he received the appointment of principal librarian to the elector of Saxony at Dresden, with the honorary title of Aulic Counsellor. Here he continued to reside during the remainder of his life, discharging with diligence and integrity the duties of his situation, and prosecuting his laborious studies to the last with indefatigable industry and unabated zeal. Possessing a naturally robust constitution, he was able to devote, it has been said, fourteen hours daily to literary toil, down even to the period of his death. He died at Dresden on the 10th of September 1806. The life of a mere scholar is generally destitute of interest; and that of Adelung, which was spent entirely in literary seclusion, presents no variety of incident to the pen of the biographer. Of his private character and habits few memorials have been preserved, but in these few he is represented as the man of an amiable disposition. He was a lover of good cheer, and spared neither pains nor expense in procuring a variety of foreign wines, of which his cellar, which he facetiously denominated his Bibliotheca Selectissima, is said to have contained no less than forty different kinds. His manners were easy and affable, and the habitual cheerfulness of his disposition rendered his society most acceptable to a numerous circle of friends. The writings of Adelung are very voluminous, and there is not one of them, perhaps, which does not exhibit some proofs of the genius, industry, and crudition of the author. But although his pen was usefully employed upon a variety of subjects in different departments of literature and science, it is to his philological labours that he is principally indebted for his great reputation; and no man ever devoted himself with more zeal and assiduity, or with greater success, to the improvement of his native language. In a country subdivided into so many distinct sovereign states, possessing no common political centre, and no national institution whose authority could command deference in matters of taste,-in a country whose indigenous literature was but of recent growth, and where the dialect

of the people was held in contempt at the several courts, it was no easy task for a single writer to undertake to fix the standard of a language which had branched out into a variety of idioms, depending in a great measure upon principles altogether arbitrary. Adelung effected as much in this respect as could well be accomplished by the persevering labours of an individual. By means of his excellent grammars, dictionary, and various works on German style, he contributed greatly towards rectifying the orthography, refining the idiom, and fixing the standard of his native tongue. Of all the different dialects he gave a decided preference to that of the margraviate of Misnia, in Upper Saxony, and positively rejected everything that was contrary to the phraseology in use among the best society of that province, and in the writings of those authors whom it had produced. In adopting this narrow principle he is generally thought to have been too fastidious. The dialect of Misnia was undoubtedly the richest, as it was the earliest cultivated of any in Germany; but Adelung probably went too far in restraining the language within the limits of this single idiom, to the exclusion of others from which it might have, and really has, acquired additional richness, flexibility, and force. His German dictionary has been generally regarded as superior to the English one of Johnson, and certainly far surpasses it in etymology. Indeed, the patient spirit of investigation which Adelung possessed in so remarkable a degree, together with his intimate knowledge of the ancient history and progressive revolutions of the different dialects on which the modern German is based, peculiarly qualified him for the duties of a lexicographer. No man before Jacob Grimm did so much for the language of Germany. Shortly before his death he issued the very learned work, at which he had been labouring quietly for years, entitled Mithridates; or, a General History of Languages, with the Lord's Prayer, as a specimen, in nearly five hundred languages and dialects. The hint of this work appears to have been taken from a publication, with a similar title, published by the celebrated Conrad Gesner in 1555; but the plan of Adelung is much more extensive. Unfortunately he did not live to finish what he had undertaken. The first volume, which contains the Asiatic languages, was published immediately after his death; the other three were issued under the superintendence of Professor Vater (1809-17). Of the very numerous works by Adelung, in addition to translations, the following are of greatest importance :-

Geschichte der Streitigkeiten zwischen Dänemark und den Herzogen von Holstein-Gottorp. Frankf., Leipsic, 1762, 4to.-Pragmatische Staatsgeschichte Europens von dem Ableben Kaiser Karls des 6ten an. Vols. i.-ix. Gotha, 1762-9, 4to.-Mineralogische Belustigungen. Vols. i.-vi. Copenhagen and Leipsic, 1767-71, 8vo.-Glossarium Manuale ad Scriptores media et infima Latinitatis, ex magnis Glossariis Caroli du Fresne Domini Ducange et Carpentarii, in compendium redactum. Tomi vi. Halle, 1772-84.-Versuch eines vollständigen grammatisch-kritischen Wörterbuchs der Hoch Toutschen Mundart. 1774-86, 5 vols. 4to.-Ueber die Geschichte der Teutschen Sprache, über Teutsche Mundarten und Teutsche Sprachlehre. Leipsic, 1781, 8vo.--Ueber den Ursprung der Sprache und den Bau der Wörter. Ibid. 1781, 8vo.-Teutsche Sprachlehre, zum Gebrauch der Schulen in den Königl. Preuss. Landen. Berlin, 1781. -Lehrgebäude der Teutschen Sprache.-Versuch einer Geschichte

der Cultur des Menschlichen Geschlechts. 1782, 8vo.-Beyträge zur Bürgerlichen Geschichte, zur Geschichte der Cultur, zur Naturgeschichte, Naturlehre, und dem Feldbaue. Leipsic, 1783, 8vo.Fortsetzung und Ergänzungen zu Christ. Gottl. Jöchers allgemeinem Gelehrten Lexico. Leipsic, 1784, 2 vols. 4to.-Ueber den Teutschen Styl. Berlin, 1785, 3 vols. 8vo.-Vollständige Anweisung zur Teutschen Orthographic. Leipsic, 1786, 2 vols.-Auszug aus dem Grammatisch-kritischen Wörterbuch der Hohen Teutschen Mundart. Leipsic, 1793, 1 vol.; 1795, 2 vols. 8vo.-Mithridates, oder Allgemeine Sprachenkunde. 3 vols. Berlin, 1806-1812.

1 The period in which High German as a written language approached nearest perfection is, according to him, the short interval between 1740 and 1760.

ADEN, a town and seaport of Yemen in Arabia, belonging to Britain, situated on a peninsula of the same name, 100 miles east of the strait of Bab-el-Mandeb. The peninsula of Aden consists chiefly of a mass of barren and desolate volcanic rocks, extending five miles from east to west, and three from its northern shore to Ras Sanailah or Cape Aden, its most southerly point; it is connected with the mainland by a neck of flat sandy ground only a few feet high; and its greatest elevation is Jebel Shamshan, 1776 feet above the level of the sea. The town is built on the eastern coast, in what is probably the crater of an extinct volcano, and is surrounded by precipitous rocks that form an admirable natural defence. There are two harbours, an outer, facing the town, protected by the island of Sirah, but now partially choked with mud; and an inner, called Aden Back-bay, or, by the Arabs, Bander Tuwayyi, on the western side of the peninsula, which, at all periods of the year, admits vessels drawing less than 20 feet. On the whole, Aden is a healthy place, although it suffers considerably from the want of good water, and the heat is often very intense. From its admirable commercial and military position, Aden early became the chief entrepôt of the trade between Europe and Asia. It was known to the Romans as Arabia Felix and Attanæ, and was captured by them, probably in the year 24 B.C. At the commencement of the 16th century it fell into the hands of the Portuguese, who, however, were expelled by the Turks in 1538. In the following century the Turks themselves relinquished their conquests in Yemen, and the Sultan of Senna established a supremacy over Aden, which was maintained until the year 1730, when the Sheik of Lahej, throwing off his allegiance, founded a line of independent sultans. In 1837 a ship under British colours was wrecked near Aden, and the crew and passengers grievously maltreated by the Arabs. An explanation of the outrage being demanded by the Bombay Government, the Sultan undertook to make compensation for the plunder of the vessel, and also agreed to sell his town and port to the English. Captain Haines of the Indian navy was sent to complete these arrangements, but the Sultan's son, who now exercised the powers of government, refused to fulfil the promises that his father had made. A combined naval and military force was thereupon despatched, and the place was captured on the 16th January 1839. It became an outlying portion of the Presidency of Bombay. The withdrawal of the trade between Europe and the East, caused by the discovery of the passage round the Cape of Good Hope, and the misgovernment of the native rulers, had gradually reduced Aden to a state of comparative insignificance; but about the time of its capture by the British, the Red Sea route to India was re-opened, and commerce soon began to flow in its former channel. Aden was made a free port, and was chosen as one of the coaling stations of the Peninsular and Oriental Steamship Company; and at present its most valuable import is coal for the use of the steamers. It has, however, a considerable trade in the products of Arabia-coffee, gum, feathers, dyes, pearls, and ivory; and in return receives silk and cotton goods, grain, and provisions. In 1871-72 the value of its imports was £1,404,169; and of its exports, £885,919. In the same year 535 steamers (643,982 tons), 94 sailing vessels (90,516 tons), and 898 native craft visited the port. The town has been fortified and garrisoned by the British; and its magnificent water-tanks, which had been permitted to fall into ruins, have been partially restored. It contains nearly 30,000 inhabitants, as compared with less than 1000 in 1839. Lat. 12° 46' N.; long. 45° 10′ E.

ADERNO, a city of Sicily, in the province of Catania, near the foot of Mount Etna, 17 miles N.W. of Catania. It is built on the site of the ancient Adranum, portions of the massive walls of which are still visible, and numerous

1

ADE

Roman sepulchres have been found in the vicinity. The modern city has a clean appearance, but the situation is unhealthy. It is remarkable for the number of its convents and nunneries, and has several churches, the chief of which is supported by beautiful pillars of polished lava. On the river Simeto, near the town, there is a series of beautiful cascades. Population, 12,999.

ADERSBACH ROCKS, a remarkable group of isolated columnar rocks in a valley of the Riesengebirge, on the frontier of Bohemia and Prussian Silesia, 9 miles W.N.W. of Braunau. The mountain, for several miles, appears divided into detached masses by perpendicular gaps, varying in These masses are from a depth from 600 to 1200 feet. few feet to several hundred yards in diameter. The part called the labyrinth consists of smaller masses of columnar form, confusedly piled on one another, and rising to heights of from 100 to 200 feet. From their fantastic shapes the rocks have received various fanciful appellations. Some geologists have supposed that their remarkable structure is the result of subterranean commotion; but the generallyreceived opinion is, that the whole area had once been a tabular mass of sandstone of unequal hardness, and that the soft parts, which formed perpendicular seams, have been worn away by water and atmospheric changes, leaving the harder portions in their natural position. The recesses of this wild region frequently afforded a place of refuge to the distressed inhabitants of the district during the Thirty Years' War.

ADHESION, a term used to denote the physical force in virtue of which one body or substance remains attached to the surface of another with which it has been brought into contact. It is to be distinguished from cohesion, which is the mutual attraction that the particles of the same body exert on each other; and it differs from chemical attraction or affinity, since the properties of the substances it affects remain unchanged after it takes place. It is a force that the molecules of the adhering bodies exert on each other, and must not be confounded with a contact which is due to mere mechanical pressure, such as that which a piece of caoutchouc tubing exerts by its elasticity on a body that distends it. A very familiar instance of It often, adhesion occurs in the wetting of solid bodies. indeed generally, happens that, when a solid and a liquid touch each other, a film of the latter adheres to the This former, and neither falls nor can be shaken off. arises from the adhesion of the liquid to the solid being a stronger force than the cohesion of the particles of the liquid. It is also stronger than the force of gravitation; and the liquid can only be removed by being forcibly rubbed off, or by the process of evaporation. The force of adhesion may be determined by poising a plate of metal on a balance, and afterwards ascertaining what additional force will be required to detach it from the surface of a liquid. But this can only be done in the few cases in which the liquid does not wet the solid (otherwise the measurement would be that of the cohesive force of the liquid), and does not act on it chemically. The phenomena of CAPILLARY ATTRACTION (q.v.) depend on adhesion. Sometimes, when a solid and a liquid are brought into contact, the adhesive force overcomes the cohesion of the particles of the solid, so that it loses its solid form, and is dissolved or held in solution. Solid bodies, too, as well as liquids, adhere to solids. Smooth surfaces (of lead, for instance, or of dissimilar metals) will adhere; and if two plates of polished glass be laid together, it will scarcely be possible to separate them without breaking them. If the solids are pressed together, the adhesive force is generally greater; but it has been shown to be dependent to a very slight extent only on the pressure of the atmosphere. To a looser kind of adhesion, whereby one body is prevented

A DI

153

The force of this increases with from moving smoothly on the surface of another, we give the name of friction. pressure, which may be the effect of gravitation or the If it be desired that result of mechanical appliances. solids should adhere permanently, this is commonly effected by the intervention of other substances the cements, mortars, and solders-in a liquid or viscid state, which, The principle of the when they "set" or become solid, adhere closely to the The bodies united by means of them. processes of plating, gilding, &c., is similar to this. paper into adhesive force of cements, &c., is sometimes very great. The common experiment of splitting a thin sheet of two is an illustration of it. The paper is pasted carefully between two pieces of cloth, which are pulled asunder after the paste has dried. The adhesion of the paste to the paper and to the cloth is so strong that the paper is Again, air and other thus separated into two sheets, which can easily be detached from the cloth by wetting it. gases adhere to solids. A dry needle, placed carefully on the surface of still water, will float, resting on a cushion of air; and when thermometers are filled with mercury, the liquid has to be boiled in them to expel the air that adheres to the glass.

ADIAPHORISTS (ádiárpopos, indifferent), a name applied to Melancthon and his supporters in a controversy which arose out of the so-called Leipsic Interim (1548), and raged until 1555. In 1547 Charles V. had drawn up the Augsburg Interim, with a view to provide for the temporary government of the Church until a general council could be called. This gave great dissatisfaction both to the more advanced and to the more moderate reformers; and the object of Melancthon's Leipsic Interim was to reconcile all parties, if possible, by declaring that certain rites and observances of the Roman Catholic Church and the jurisdiction of the Roman Catholic bishops being adiaphora (things indifferent), might be lawfully recognised. On the other hand, the Catholics were required to accept the Protestant formula of the doctrine of justification, leaving out the words sola fide, which, it was said, might belong to the adiaphora. In the controversy that followed, Melancthon's chief opponent was his former colleague, Matth. Flacius, on whose removal from Wittenburg to Magdeburg the latter place became the head-quarters of the extreme Lutherans.

ADIGE (German, Etsch), the ancient Athesis, a large river of Italy, formed by several rivulets which rise in the After flowing Rhætian Alps, and unite near Glarus. It then turns to the eastward to the neighbourhood of Botzen, it receives the Eisach, and becomes navigable. south, and leaving the Tyrol, enters Lombardy 13 miles S. After traversing Northern Italy in a course of Roveredo. first southerly, but then easterly, it falls into the Adriatic at Porto-Fossone, a few miles N. of the Po. The most considerable towns on its banks are Trent and Roveredo in the Tyrol, and Verona and Legnago in Italy. It is navigable from the heart of the Tyrol to the sea, and has in Lombardy a breadth of 200 yards and a depth of from 10 to 16 feet, but the strength of the current renders its navigation very difficult, and lessens its value as a means of transit between Germany and Northern Italy. The Adige has a course of about 220 miles.

ADIPOCERE (from adeps, fat, and cera, wax), a substance into which animal matter is sometimes converted, deriving its name from the resemblance it bears to both fat When the Cemetery of the Innocents at Paris and wax. was removed in 1786-87, great masses of this substance were found where the coffins containing the dead bodies had been placed very closely together. At the bottom of the coffin, in these cases, there appeared, loosely enveloped in linen, a shapeless mass, of a dingy white colour,

I.

20

« ElőzőTovább »