Chapter LXVIII: Act 1835: all marriages of this kind not disputed before the (13)

AGGTELEK, a village of Hungary, in the county of Gomor, situated to the south of Rozsnyo, on the road from Budapest to Dobsina. Pop. (1900) 557. In the neighbourhood is the celebrated Aggtelek or Baradla cavern, one of the largest and most remarkable stalactite grottos in Europe. It has a length, together with its ramifications, of over 5 miles, and is formed of two caverns--one known for several centuries, and another discovered by the naturalist Adolf Schmidl in 1856. Two entrances give access to the grotto, an old one extremely narrow, and a new one, made in 1890, through which the exploration of the cavern can be made in about 8 hours, half the time it took before. The cavern is composed of a labyrinth of passages and large and small halls, and is traversed by a stream. In these caverns there are numerous stalactite structures, which, from their curious and fantastic shapes, have received such names as the Image of the Virgin, the Mosaic Altar, &c. The principal parts are the Paradies with the finest stalactites, the Astronomical Tower and the Beinhaus. Rats, frogs and bats form actually the only animal life in the caves, but a great number of antediluvian animal bones have been found here, as well as human bones and numerous remains of prehistoric human settlements.

AGINCOURT (AZINCOURT), a village of northern France in the department of Pas de Calais, 14 m. N.W. of St Pol by road, famous on account of the victory, on the 25th of October 1415, of Henry V. of England over the French. The battle was fought in the defile formed by the wood of Agincourt and that of Tramecourt, at the northern exit of which the army under d'Albret, constable of France, had placed itself so as to bar the way to Calais against the English forces which had been campaigning on the Somme. The night of the 24th of October was spent by the two armies on the ground, and the English had but little shelter from the heavy rain which fell. Early on the 25th, St Crispin's day, Henry arrayed his little army (about 1000 men-at-arms, 6000 archers, and a few thousands of other foot). It is probable that the usual three ``battles'' were drawn up in line, each with its archers on the flanks and the dismounted men-at-arms in the centre; the archers being thrown forward in wedge-shaped salients, almost exactly as at Crecy (q.v..) The French, on the other hand, were drawn up in three lines, each line formed in deep masses. They were at least four times more numerous than the English, but restricted by the nature of the ground to the same extent of front, they were unable to use their full weight (cf. Bannockburn); further, the deep mud prevented their artillery from taking part, and the crossbowmen were as usual relegated to the rear of the knights and men-at-arms. All were dismounted save a few knights and men-at-arms on the flanks, who were intended to charge the archers of the enemy. For three hours after sunrise there was no fighting; then Henry, finding that the French would not advance, moved his army farther into the defile. The archers fixed the pointed stakes, which they carried to ward off cavalry charges, and opened the engagement with flights of arrows. The chivalry of France, undisciplined and careless of the lesson of Crecy and Poitiers, was quickly stung into action, and the French mounted men charged, only to be driven back in confusion. The constable himself headed the leading line of dismounted men-at-arms; weighted with their armour, and sinking deep into the mud with every step, they yet reached and engaged the English men-at-arms; for a time the fighting was severe. The thin line of the defenders was borne back and King Henry was almost beaten to the ground. But at this moment the archers, taking their hatchets, swords or other weapons, penetrated the gaps in the now disordered French, who could not move to cope with their unarmoured assailants, and were slaughtered or taken prisoners to a man. The second line of the French came on, only to be engulfed in the melee; its leaders, like those of the first line, were killed or taken, and the commanders of the third sought and found their death in the battle, while their men rode off to safety. The closing scene of the battle was a half-hearted attack made by a body of fugitives, which led merely to the slaughter of the French prisoners, which was ordered by Henry because he had not enough men both to guard them and to meet the attack. The slaughter ceased when the assailants drew off. The total loss of the English is stated at thirteen men-at-arms (including the duke of York, grandson of Edward III.) and about 100 of the foot. The French lost 5000 of noble birth killed, including the constable, 3 dukes, 5 counts and 90 barons; 1000 more were taken prisoners, amongst them the duke of Orleans (the Charles d'Orleans of literature).

See Sir Harris Nicolas, Battle of Agincourt; Fortescue, History of the British Army, vol. i.; and H. B. George, Battles of English History.

AGIO (Ital. aggio, exchange, discount, premium), a term used in commerce in three slightly different connexions. (a) The variations from fixed pars or rates of exchange in the currencies of different countries. For example, in most of the gold-standard countries, the standard coin is kept up to a uniform point of fineness, so that an English sovereign fresh from the mini will bear the following constant relation to coins of other countries in a similar condition:--L. 1 =frcs. 25.221 =mks. 2O.429=$4.867, &c. This is what is known as the mint par of exchange. But the mint par of exchange, say, between France and England is not necessarily the market value of French currency in England, or English currency in France. The balance of trade between the various countries is the factor determining the rate of exchange. Should the balance of trade (q.v.) be against England, money must be remitted to France in payment of the indebtedness, but owing to the cost for,the transmission of specie there will be a demand for bills drawn on Paris as a cheaper and more expeditious method of sending money, and it therefore will be necessary, in order to procure the one of the higher current value, to pay a premium for it, called the agio. (b) The term is also used to denote the difference in exchange between two currencies in the same country; where silver coinage is the legal tender, agio is sometimes allowed for payment in the more convenient form of gold, or where the paper currency of a country is reduced below the bullion which it professes to represent, an agio is payable on the appreciated currency. (c) Lastly, in some states the coinage is so debased, owing to the wear of circulation, that the real is greatly reduced below the nominal value. Supposing that this reduction amounts to 5%, then if 100 sovereigns were offered as payment of a debt in England while such sovereigns were current there at their nominal value, they would be received as just payment; but if they were offered as payment of the same amount of debt in a foreign state, they would be received only at their intrinsic value of L. 95, the additional L. 5 constituting the agio. Where the state keeps its coinage up to a standard value no agio is required.

AGIRA (formerly SAN FILIPPO D'ARGIRO), a town of the province of Catania, Sicily, with a railway station 4 1/2 m. to the south of the town, 35 m. W. of Catania. Pop. (1901) 17,738. It occupies the site of Agyrion, an ancient Sicel city which was ruled by tyrants, one of whom, Agyris, was the most powerful ruler in the centre of Sicily. He was a contemporary of Dionysius I., and with him successfully resisted the Carthaginians when they invaded the territory of Agyrium in 392 B.C. Agira was not colonized by the Greeks until Timoleon drove out the last tyrant in 339 B.C. and erected various splendid buildings of which no traces remain. Agyrion was the birthplace of the historian Diodorus Siculus.

AGIS, the name of four Spartan kings:--

(1) Son of Eurysthenes, founder of the royal house of the Agiadae (Pausanias iii. 2.1). His genealogy was traced through Aristodemus, Aristomachus, Cleodaeus and Hyllus to Heracles (Herodotus vii. 204), and he belongs rather to mythology than to history. Tradition ascribed to him the capture of the maritime town of Helos, which resisted his attempt to curtail its guaranteed rights, and the institution of the class of serfs called Helots (q.v..)

Ephorus ap. Strabo, viii. p. 365.

(2) Son of Archidamus II., Eurypontid, commonly called Agis I. He succeeded his father, probably in 427 B.C., and from his first invasion of Attica in 425 down to the close of the Peloponnesian war was the chief leader of the Spartan operations on land. After the conclusion of the peace of Nicias (421 B.C.) he marched against the Argives in defence of Epidaurus, and after skilful manoeuvring surrounded the Argive army, and seemed to have victory within his grasp when he unaccountably concluded a four months' truce and withdrew his forces. The Spartans were indignant, and when the Argives and their allies, in flagrant disregard of the truce, took Arcadian Orchomenus and prepared to march on Tegea, their fury knew no bounds, and Agis escaped having his house razed and a fine of 100,000 drachmae imposed only by promising to atone for his error by a signal victory. This promise he brilliantly fulfilled by routing the forces of the Argive confederacy at the battle of Mantinea (418), the moral effect of which was out of all proportion to the losses inflicted on the enemy. In the winter 417-416 a further expedition to Argos resulted in the destruction of the half-finished Long Walls and the capture of Hysiae. In 413, on the suggestion of Alcibiades, he fortified Decelea in Attica, where he remained directing operations until, after the battle of Aegospotami (405), he took the leading part in the blockade of Athens, which was ended in spring 404 by the surrender of the city. Subsequently he invaded and ravaged Elis, forcing the Eleans to acknowledge the freedom of their perioeci and to allow Spartans to take part in the Olympic games and sacrifices. He fell ill on his return from Delphi, where he had gone to dedicate a tithe of the spoils, and, probably in 401, died at Sparta, where he was buried with unparalleled solemnity and pomp.

Thuc. iii. 89, iv. 2. 6, v., vii. 19. 27, viii.; Xenophon, Hellenica, i 1. ii. 2. 3, iii. 2. 3; Diodorus xii. 35, xiii. 72, 73, 107; Pausanias iii. 8. 3-8; Plutarch, Lysander ix. 14. 22, Alcibiades 23-25, Lycurgus 12, Agesilaus i. 3, de Tranquill. Anim. 6. (See PELOPONNESIAN WAR.)

(3) Son of Archidamus III., of the Eurypontid line, commonly called Agis II. He succeeded his father in 338 B.C., on the very day of the battle of Chaeronea. During Alexander's Asiatic campaign he revolted against Macedonia (333 B.C.) and, with the aid of Persian money and ships and a force of 8000 Greek mercenaries, gained considerable successes in Crete. In the Peloponnese he routed a force under Corragus and, although Athens held aloof, he was joined by Elis, Achaea (except Pellene) and Arcadia, with the exception of Megalopolis, which the allies besieged. Antipater marched rapidly to its relief at the head of a large army, and the allied force was defeated after a desperate struggle (331) and Agis was slain.

Pausanias iii. 10. 5; Diodorus xvii. 48, 62, 63; Justin xii. 1; Quintus Curtius iv. 1, 39, vi. 1; Arrian, Anabasis, ii. 13.

(4) Son of Eudamidas II., of the Eurypontid family, commonly called Agis III. He succeeded his father probably in 245 B.C., in his twentieth year. At this time the state had been brought to the brink of ruin by the growth of avarice and luxury; there was a glaring inequality in the distribution of land and wealth, and the number of full citizens had sunk to 700, of whom about 100 practically monopolized the land. Though reared in the height of luxury he at once determined to restore the traditional institutions of Lycurgus, with the aid of Lysander, a descendant of the victor of Aegospotami, and Mandrocleidas, a man of noted prudence and courage; even his mother, the wealthy Agesistrata, threw herself heartily into the cause. A powerful but not disinterested ally was found in the king's uncle, Agesilaus, who hoped to rid himself of his debts without losing his vast estates. Lysander as ephor proposed on behalf of Agis that all debts should be cancelled and that Laconia should be divided into 19,500 lots, of which 4500 should be given to Spartiates, whose number was to be recruited from the best of the perioeci and foreigners, and the remaining 15,000 to perioeci who could bear arms. The Agiad king Leonidas having prevailed on the council to reject this measure, though by a majority of only one, was deposed in favour of his son-in-law Cleombrotus, who assisted Agis in bearing down opposition by the threat of force. The abolition of debts was carried into effect, but the land distribution was put off by Agesilaus on various pretexts. At this point Aratus appealed to Sparta to help the Achaeans in repelling an expected Aetolian attack, and Agis was sent to the Isthmus at the head of an army. In his absence the open violence and extortion of Agesilaus, combined with the popular disappointment at the failure of the agrarian scheme, brought about the restoration of Leonidas and the deposition of Cleombrotus, who took refuge at the temple of Apollo at Taenarum and escaped death only at the entreaty of his wife, Leonidas's daughter Chilonis. On his return Agis fled to the temple of Athene Chalcioecus at Sparta, but soon afterwards he was treacherously induced to leave his asylum and, after a mockery of a trial, was strangled in prison, his mother and grandmother sharing the same fate (241). Though too weak and good-natured to cope with the problem which confronted him, Agis was characterized by a sincerity of purpose and a blend of youthful modesty with royal dignity, which render him perhaps the most attractive figure in the whole of Spartan history.

See Plutarch's biography. Pausanias' accounts (ii. 8. 5, vii. 7. 3, viii. 10. 5-8, 27. 13) of his attack on Megalopolis, his seizure of Pellene and his death at Mantinea fighting against the Arcadians, Achaeans and Sicyonians are without foundation (J. C. F. Manso, Sparta, iii. 2. 123-127). See also Manso, op. cit. iii. 1. 276-302; B. Niese, Geschichte der griechischen und makedonischcn Staaten, ii. 299-303. (M. N. T.)

AGISTMENT. To ``agist'' (from O. Fr. agister, derived from gesir--Lat. jacere--to lie) is, in law, to take cattle to graze, for a renumeration. ``Agistment,'' in the first instance, referred more particularly to the proceeds of pasturage in the king's forests, but now means either (a) the contract for taking in and feeding horses or other cattle on pasture land, for the consideration of a weekly payment of money, or (b) the profit derived from such pasturing. Agistment is a contract of bailment, and the bailer is bound to take reasonable care of the animals entrusted to him; he is responsible for damages and injury which result from ordinary casualties, if it be proved that such might have been prevented by the exercise of great care. There is no lien on the cattle for the price of the agistment, unless by express agreement. Under the Agricultural Holdings Act 1883, agisted cattle cannot be distrained on for rent if there be other sufficient distress to be found, and if such other distress be not found, and the cattle be distrained, the owner may redeem them on paying the price of their agistment. The tithe of agistment or ``tithe of cattle and other produce of grass lands,'' was formally abolished by the act of union in 1707, on a motion submitted with a view to defeat that measure.

AGITATORS, or ADJUTATORS, the name given to representatives elected in 1647 by the different regiments of the English Parliamentary army. The word really means an agent, but it was confused with ``adjutant,'' often called ``agitant,'' a title familiar to the soldiers, and thus the form ``adjutator'' came into use. Early in 1647 the Long Parliament wished either to disband many of the regiments or to send them to Ireland. The soldiers, whose pay was largely in arrear, refused to accept either alternative, and eight of the cavalry regiments elected agitators, called at first commissioners, who laid their grievances before the three generals, and whose letter was read in the House of Commons on the 30th of April 1647. The other regiments followed the example of the cavalry, and the agitators, who belonged to the lower ranks of the army, were supported by many of the officers, who showed their sympathy by signing the Declaration of the army. Cromwell and other generals succeeded to some extent in pacifying the troops by promising the payment of arrears for eight weeks at once; but before the return of the generals to London parliament had again decided to disband the army, and soon afterwards fixed the 1st of June as the date on which this process was to begin. Again alarmed, the agitators decided to resist; a mutiny occurred in one regiment and the attempt at disbandment failed. Then followed the seizure of the king by Cornet Joyce, Cromwell's definite adherence to the policy of the army, the signing of the manifestoes, a Humble Representation and a Solemn Engagement, and the establishment of the army council composed of officers and agitators. Having, at an assembly on Thriplow Heath, near Royston, virtually refused the offers made by parliament, the agitators demanded a march towards London and the ``purging'' of the House of Commons. Subsequent events are part of the general history of England. Gradually the agitators ceased to exist, but many of their ideas were adopted by the Levellers (q.v.), who may perhaps be regarded as their successors. Gardiner says of them, ``Little as it was intended at the time, nothing was more calculated than the existence of this elected body of agitators to give to the army that distinctive political and religious character which it ultimately bore.''

See S. R. Gardiner, History of the Great Civil War, vols. iii. and iv. (London, 1905).

AGLIARDI, ANTONIO (1832- ), papal diplomatist, was born at Cologno (Bergamo), Italy, on the 4th of September 1832. He studied theology and canon law, and, after acting as parish priest in his native diocese for twelve years, was sent by the pope to Canada as a bishop's chaplain. On his return he was appointed secretary to the Propaganda. In 1884 he was created by Leo XIII. archbishop of Caesarea in partibus and sent to India to report on the establishment of the hierarchy there. In 1887 he again visited India, to carry out the terms of the concordat arranged with Portugal. The same year he was appointed secretary to the Congregation super negotiis ecclesiae extraordinariis, in 1889 became papal nuncio at Munich and in 1892 at Vienna. Allowing himself to be involved in the ecclesiastical disputes by which Hungary was divided in 1895, he was made the subject of formal complaint by the Hungarian government and in 1896 was recalled. His services were rewarded by a Cardinalate and the archbishopric of Ferrara. In 1903 he was named vice-chancellor of the Roman Church.

AGNANO, LAGO DI, a circular lake, 5 m. W. of Naples, Italy. It was apparently not formed until the middle ages, as it is not mentioned by ancient writers; it was drained in 1870. It occupied the crater of an extinct volcano, 4 m. in circumference. On the south bank are the Stufe di S. Germano, natural sulphureous vapour baths, and close by is the Grotta del Cane, from the floor of which warm carbonic acid gas constantly rises to a height of 18 in., the fumes of which render a dog insensible in a few seconds. It is mentioned by Pliny (Nat. Hist. ii. 93). Remains of an extensive Roman building and some statues have been discovered close by.

AGNATES (Agnati), in Roman law, persons related through males only, as opposed to cognates. Agnation was founded on the idea of the family held together by the patria potestas; cognatio involves simply the modern idea of kindred.

AGNES, SAINT, a virgin martyr of the Catholic Church. The legend of St Agnes is that she was a Roman maid, by birth a Christian, who suffered martyrdom when but thirteen during the reign of the emperor Diocletian, on the 21st of January 304. The prefect Sempronius wished her to marry his son, and on her refusal condemned her to be outraged before her execution, but her honour was miraculously preserved. When led out to die she was tied to a stake, but the faggots would not burn, whereupon the officer in charge of the troops drew his sword and struck off her head. St Agnes is the patron saint of young girls, who, in rural districts, formerly indulged in all sorts of quaint country magic on St Agnes' Eve (20th-21st January) with a view to discovering their future husbands. This superstition has been immortalized in Keats's poem, ``The Eve of St Agnes.'' St Agnes's bones are supposed to rest in the church of her name at Rome, originally built by Constantine and repaired by Pope Honorius in the 7th century. Here on her festival (21st of January) two lambs are specially blessed after pontifical high mass, and their wool is later woven into pallia (see PALLIUM.)

AGNES OF MERAN (d. 1201), queen of France, was the daughter of Bertold IV., duke of Meran in Tirol. She is called Marie by some of the chroniclers. In June 1196 she married Philip II., king of France, who had repudiated Ingeborg of Denmark in 1193. The pope espoused the cause of Ingeborg; but Philip did not submit until 1200, when, interdict having been added to excommunication, he consented to a separation from Agnes. She died in July of the next year, at the castle of Poissy, and was buried in the church of St Corentin, near Nantes. Her two children by Philip II., Philip, count of Clermont (d. 1234), and Mary, who married Philip, count of Namur, were legitimized by Innocent III. in 1201 on the demand of the king. Little is known of the personality of Agnes, beyond the remarkable influence which she exercised over Philip II. She has been made the heroine of a tragedy by Francois Ponsard, Agnes de Meranie.

See the notes of Robert Davidsohn in Philipp II. August von Frankreich und Ingeborg (Stuttgart, 1888). A genealogical notice is furnished by the Chronicon of the monk Alberic (Aubry) of Fontaines, (Albericus Trium Fontium) in Pertz, Scriptores, vol. xxiii. pp. 872 f., and by the Genealogia Wettinensis, ibid. p. 229.

AGNESI, MARIA GAETANA (1718-1799), Italian mathematician, linguist and philosopher, was born at Milan on the 16th of May 1718, her father being professor of mathematics in the university of Bologna. When only nine years old she had such command of Latin as to be able to publish an elaborate address in that language, maintaining that the pursuit of liberal studies was not improper for her sex. By her thirteenth year she had acquired Greek, Hebrew, French, Spanish, German and other languages. Two years later her father began to assemble in his house at stated intervals a circle of the most learned men in Bologna, before whom she read and maintained a series of theses on the most abstruse philosophical questions. Records of these meetings are given in de Brosse's Lettres sur l'Italie and in the Propositiones Philosophicae, which her father caused to be published in 1738. These displays, being probably not altogether congenial to Maria, who was of a retiring disposition, ceased in her twentieth year, and it is even said that she had at that age a strong desire to enter a convent. Though the wish was not gratified, she lived from that time in a retirement almost conventual, avoiding all society and devoting herself entirely to the study of mathematics. The most valuable result of her labours was the Instituzioni analitiche ad uso della gioventu italiana, a work of great merit, which was published at Milan in 1748. The first volume treats of the analysis of finite quantities. and the second of the analysis of infinitesimals. A French translation of the second volume by P. T. d'Antelmy, with additions by Charles Bossut (1730-1814), appeared at Paris in 1775; and an English translation of the whole work by John Colson (1680-1760), the Lucasian professor of mathematics at Cambridge, was published in 1801 at the expense of Baron Maseres. Madame Agnesi also wrote a commentary on the Traite analytique des sections coniques of the marquis de l'Hopital, which, though highly praised by those who saw it in manuscript, was never published. She invented and discussed the curve known as the ``witch of Agnesi'' (q.v.) or versiera. In 1750, on the illness of her father, she was appointed by Pope Benedict XIV. to the chair of mathematics and natural Philosophy at Bologna. After the death of her father in 1752 she carried out a long-cherished purpose by giving herself to the study of theology, and especially of the Fathers. After holding for some years the office of directress of the Hospice Trivulzio for Blue Nuns at Milan, she herself joined the sisterhood, and in this austere order ended her days on the 9th of January 1799.

Her sister, MARIA TERESA AGNESI (1724-1780), a well-known Italian pianist and composer, was born at Milan in 1724. She composed several cantatas, two pianoforte concertos and five operas, Sofenisbe, Ciro in Armenia, Nitocri, Il Re Pastore and Insubria consolata.

See Antonio Francesco Frisi, Eloge historique de Mademoiselle Agnesi, translated by Boulard (Paris, 1807); Milesi-Mojon, Vita di M. G. Agnesi (Milan, 1836); J. Boyer, ``La Mathematicienne Agnesi'' in the Revue Catholique des revues francaises et etrangeres (Paris, 1897).

AGNEW, DAVID HAYES (1818-1892), American surgeon, was born in Lancaster county, Pennsylvania, on the 24th of November 1818. He graduated from the medical department of the university of Pennsylvania in 1838, and a few years later set up in practice at Philadelphia and became a lecturer at the Philadelphia School of Anatomy. He was appointed surgeon at the Philadelphia Hospital in 1854 and was the founder of its pathological museum. For twenty-six years (1863-1889) he was connected with the medical faculty of the university of Pennsylvania, being elected professor of operative surgery in 1870 and professor of the principles and practice of surgery in the following year. From 1865 to 1884--except for a brief interval --he was a surgeon at the Pennsylvania Hospital. During the American Civil War he was consulting surgeon in the Mower Army Hospital, near Philadelphia, and acquired considerable reputation for his operations in cases of gun-shot wounds. He attended as operating surgeon when President Garfield was fatally wounded by the bullet of an assassin in 1881. He was the author of several works, the most important being The Principles and Practice of Surgery (1878-1883). He died at Philadelphia on the 22nd of March 1892.

AGNI, the Hindu God of Fire, second only to Indra in the power and importance attributed to him in Vedic mythology. His name is the first word of the first hymn of the Rig-veda: ``Agni, I entreat, divine appointed priest of sacrifice.'' The sacrifices made to Agni pass to the gods, for Agni is a messenger from and to the gods; but, at the same time, he is more than a mere messenger, he is an immortal, for another hymn runs: ``No god indeed, no mortal is beyond the might of thee, the mighty One. . . .'' He is a god who lives among men, miraculously reborn each day by the fire-drill, by the friction of the two sticks which are regarded as his parents; he is the supreme director of religious ceremonies and duties,and even has the power of influencing the lot of man in the future world. He is worshipped under a threefold form, fire on earth, lightning and the sun. His cult survived the metamorphosis of the ancient Vedic nature-worship into modern Hinduism, and there still are in India fire-priests (agnihotri) whose duty is to superintend his worship. The sacred fire-drill for procuring the temple-fire by friction--symbolic of Agni's daily miraculous birth--is still used. In pictorial art Agni is always represented as red, two-faced, suggesting his destructive and beneficent qualities, and with three legs and seven arms.

See W. J. Wilkins, Hindu Mythology (London, 1900); A. A. Macdonell, Vedic Mythology (Strassburg, 1897).

AGNOETAE (Gr. agnoeo, to be ignorant of), a monophysite sect who maintained that Christ's human nature was like other men's in all respects, including limited knowledge. Its founder was Themistius, a deacon in Alexandria in the 6th century. The sect was anathematized by Gregory the Great.

AGNOIOLOGY (from Gr. agnoi-a, ignorance), the science or study of ignorance, which determines its quality and conditions.

AGNOSTICISM. The term ``agnostic'' was invented by Huxley in 1869 to describe the philosophical and religious attitude of those who hold that we can have scientific or real knowledge of phenomena only, and that so far as what may lie behind phenomena is concerned--God, immortality, &c.--there is no evidence which entitles us either to deny or aflirm anything. The attitude itself is as old as Scepticism (q.v.); but the expressions ``agnostic'' and ``agnosticism'' were applied by Huxley to sum up his deductions from those contemporary developments of metaphysics with which the names of Hamilton (``the Unconditioned'') and Herbert Spencer (``the Unknowable'') were associated; and it is important, therefore, to fix precisely his own intellectual standpoint in the matter. Though Huxley only began to use the term ``agnostic'' in 1869, his opinions had taken shape some time before that date. In a letter to Charles Kingsley (September 23, 1860) he wrote very fully concerning his beliefs:--

``I neither affirm nor deny the immortality of man. I see no reason for believing it, but, on the other hand, I have no means of disproving it. I have no a priori objections to the doctrine. No man who has to deal daily and hourly with nature can trouble himself about a priori difficulties. Give me such evidence as would justify me in believing in anything else, and I will believe that. Why should I not? It is not half so wonderful as the conservation of force or the indestructibility of matter. . . .

``It is no use to talk to me of analogies and probabilities. I know what I mean when I say I believe in the law of the inverse squares, and I will not rest my life and my hopes upon weaker convictions. . . .

``That my personality is the surest thing I know may be true. But the attempt to conceive what it is leads me into mere verbal subtleties. I have champed up all that chaff about the ego and the non-ego, noumena and phenomena, and all the rest of it, too often not to know that in attempting even to think of these questions, the human intellect flounders at once out of its depth.''

And again, to the same correspondent, the 5th of May 1863:--

``I have never had the least sympathy with the a priori reasons against orthodoxy, and I have by nature and disposition the greatest possible antipathy to all the atheistic and infidel school. Nevertheless I know that I am, in spite of myself, exactly what the Christian would call, and, so far as I can see, is justified in calling, atheist and infidel. l cannot see one shadow or tittle of evidence that the great unknown underlying the phenomenon of the universe stands to us in the relation of a Father--loves us and cares for us as Christianity asserts. So with regard to the other great Christian dogmas, immortality of soul and future state of rewards and punishments, what possible objection can I--who am compelled perforce to believe in the immortality of what we call Matter and Force, and in a very unmistakable present state of rewards and punishments for our deeds--have to these doctrines? Give me a scintilla of evidence, and I am ready to jump at them.''

Of the origin of the name ``agnostic'' to cover this attitude, Huxley gave (Coll. Ess. v. pp. 237-239) the following account:--

``When I reached intellectual maturity, and began to ask myself whether I was an atheist, a theist or a pantheist, a materialist or an idealist, a Christian or a freethinker, I found that the more I learned and reflected, the less ready was the answer. The one thing on which most of these good people were agreed was the one thing in which I differed from them. They were quite sure they had attained a certain `gnosis'--had more or less successfully solved the problem of existence; while I was quite sure that I had not, and had a pretty strong conviction that the problem was insoluble. This was my situation when I had the good fortune to find a place among the members of that remarkable confraternity of antagonists, the Metaphysical Society. Every variety of philosophical and theological opinion was represented there; most of my colleagues were -ists of one sort or another; and I, the man without a rag of a belief to cover himself with, could not fail to have some of the uneasy feelings which must have beset the historical fox when, after leaving the trap in which his tail remained, he presented himself to his normally elongated companions. So I took thought, and invented what I conceived to be the appropriate title of `agnostic.' It came into my head as suggestively antithetic to the `gnostic' of Church history, who professed to know so much about the very things of which I was ignorant. To my great satisfaction the term took.''

This account is confirmed by R. H. Hutton, who in 1881 wrote that the word ``was suggested by Huxley at a meeting held previous to the formation of the now defunct Metaphysical Society at Mr Knowles's house on Clapham Common in 1869, in my hearing. He took it from St Paul's mention of the altar to the Unknown God.'' Hutton here gives a variant etymology for the word, which may be therefore taken as partly derived from agnostos (the ``unknown'' God), and partly from an antithesis to ``gnostic''; but the meaning remains the same in either case. The name, as Huxley said, ``took''; it was constantly used by Hutton in the Spectator and became a fashionable label for contemporary unbelief in Christian dogma. Hutton himself frequently misrepresented the doctrine by describing it as ``belief in an unknown and unknowable God''; but agnosticism as defined by Huxley meant not belief, but absence of belief, as much distinct from belief on the one hand as from disbelief on the other; it was the half-way house between the two, where all questions were ``open.'' All that Huxley asked for was evidence, either for or against; but this he believed it impossible to get. Occasionally he too mis-stated the meaning of the word he had invented, and described agnosticism as meaning ``that a man shall not say he knows or believes what he has no scientific ground for professing to know or believe.'' But as the late Rev. A. W. Momerie remarked, this would merely be ``a definition of honesty; in that sense we ought all to be agnostics.''

Agnosticism really rests on the doctrine of the Unknowable, the assertion that concerning certain objects--among them the Deity--we never can have any ``scientific'' ground for belief. This way of solving, or passing over, the ultimate problems of thought has had many followers in cultured circles imbued with the new physical science of the day, and with disgust for the dogmatic creeds of contemporary orthodoxy; and its outspoken and even aggressive vindication by physicists of the eminence of Huxley had a potent influence upon the attitude taken towards metaphysics, and upon the form which subsequent Christian apologetics adopted. As a nickname the term ``agnostic'' was soon misused to cover any and every variation of scepticism, and just as popular preachers confused it with atheism (q.v.) in their denunciations, so the callow freethinker--following Tennyson's path of ``honest doubt''--classed himself with the agnostics, even while he combined an instinctively Christian theism with a facile rejection of the historical evidences for Christianity.

The term is now less fashionable, though the state of mind persists. Huxley's agnosticism was a natural consequence of the intellectual and philosophical conditions of the 'sixties, when clerical intolerance was trying to excommunicate scientific discovery because it appeared to clash with the book of Genesis. But as the theory of evolution was accepted, a new spirit was gradually introduced into Christian theology, which has turned the controversies between religion and science into other channels and removed the temptation to flaunt a disagreement. A similar effect has been produced by the philosophical reaction against Herbert Spencer, and by the perception that the canons of evidence required in physical science must not be exalted into universal rules of thought. It does not follow that justification by faith must be eliminated in spiritual matters where sight cannot follow, because the physicist's duty and success lie in pinning belief solely on verification by physical phenomena, when they alone are in question; and for mankind generally, though possibly not for an exceptional man like Huxley, an impotent suspension of judgment on such issues as a future life or the Being of God is both unsatisfying and demoralizing.

It is impossible here to do more than indicate the path out of the difficulties raised by Huxley in the letter to Kingsley quoted above. They involve an elaborate discussion, not only of Christian evidences, but of the entire subject-matter alike of Ethics and Metaphysics, of Philosophy as a whole, and of the philosophies of individual writers who have dealt in their different ways with the problems of existence and epistemology. It is, however, permissible to point out that, as has been exhaustively argued by Professor J. Ward in his Gifford lectures for 1896-1898 (Naturalism and Agnosticism, 1899), Huxley's challenge ( ``I know what I mean when I say I believe in the law of the inverse squares, and I will not rest my life and my hopes upon weaker convictions'') is one which a spiritualistic philosophy need not shrink from accepting at the hands of naturalistic agnosticism. If, as Huxley admits, even putting it with unnecessary force against himself,``the immortality of man is not half so wonderful as the conservation of force or the indestructibility of matter,'' the question then is, how far a critical analysis of our belief in the last-named doctrines will leave us in a position to regard them as the last stage in systematic thinking. It is the pitfall of physical science, immersed as its students are apt to be in problems dealing with tangible facts in the world of experience, that there is a tendency among them to claim a superior status of objective reality and finality for the laws to which their data are found to conform. But these generalizations are not ultimate truths, when we have to consider the nature of experience itself. ``Because reference to the Deity will not serve for a physical explanation in physics, or a chemical explanation in chemistry, it does not therefore follow,'' as Professor Ward says (op. cit. vol. i. p. 24), ``that the sum total of scientific knowledge is equally intelligible whether we accept the theistic hypothesis or not. It is true that every item of scientific knowledge is concerned with some definite relation of definite phenomena, and with nothing else; but, for all that, the systematic organization of such items may quite well yield further knowledge, which transcends the special relations of definite phenomena.''

At the opening of the era of modern scientific discovery, with all its fruitful new generalizations, the still more highly generalized laws of epistemology and of the spiritual constitution of man might well baffle the physicist and lead his intellect to ``flounder.'' It is fundamentally necessary, in order to avoid such floundering, that the ``knowledge'' of things sensible should be kept distinct from the ``knowledge'' of things spiritual; yet in practice they are constantly confused. When the physicist limits the term ``knowledge', to the conclusions from physical apprehensions, his refusal to extend it to conclusions from moral and spiritual apprehensions is merely the consequence of an illegitimate definition. He relies on the validity of his perceptions of physical facts; but the saint and the theologian are no less entitled to rely on the validity of their moral and spiritual experiences. In each case the data rest on an ultimate basis, undemonstrable, indeed to any one who denies them (even if he be called mad for doing so), except by the continuous process of working out their own proofs, and showing their consistency with, or necessity in, the scheme of things terrestrial on the one hand, or the mind and happiness of man on the other. The tests in each case differ; and it is as irrelevant for the theologian to dispute the ``knowledge'' of the physicist, by arguments from faith and religion, as it is for the physicist to deny the ``knowledge'' of the theologian from the point of view of one who ignores the possibility of spiritual apprehension altogether. On the ground of secular history and secular evidence both might reasonably meet, as regards the facts, though not perhaps as to their interpretation; but the reason why they ultimately differ is to be found simply in the difference of their mental attitude towards the nature of ``knowledge,'-itself a difference of opinion as to the nature of man.

In addition to the literature cited above, see L. Stephen, An Agnostic's Apology (1893); R. Flint, Agnosticism (1903); T. Bailey Saunders, The Quest of Faith, chap. ii. (1899); A. W. Benn, English Rationalism in the XIXth Century (London, 1906). (H. CH.)

AGNUS DEI, the figure of a lamb bearing a cross, symbolical of the Saviour as the ``Lamb of God.'' The device is common in ecclesiastical art, but the name is especially given in the Church of Rome to a small cake made of the wax of the Easter candles and impressed with this figure. Since the 9th century it has been customary for the popes to bless these cakes, and distribute them on the Sunday after Easter among the faithful, by whom they are highly prized as having the power to avert evil. In modern times the distribution has been limited to persons of distinction, and is made by the pope on his accession and every seven years thereafter.

Agnus Dei is also the popular name for the anthem beginning with these words, which is said to have been introduced into the missal by Pope Sergius I. (687-701). Based upon John i. 29, the Latin form is Agnus Dei, qui tollis peccata mundi, miserere nobis. In the celebration of the mass it is repeated three times before the communion, and it is also appended to many of the litanies. By the judgment in the case of ``Read and others v. The Bishop of Lincoln'' it was decided in 1890 that the singing of the Agnus Dei in English by the choir during the administration of the Holy Communion, provided that the reception of the elements be not delayed till its conclusion, is not illegal in the Church of England.

For the various ceremonies in the blessing of the Agnus Dei see A. Vacant, Dict. de theologie (cols. 605-613).

AGOBARD (c. 779-840), Carolingian prelate and reformer, became coadjutor to Leidrad, archbishop of Lyons, in 813, and on the death of the latter succeeded him in the see (816). We know nothing of his early life nor of his descent. He pursued the same vigorous policy as his predecessor, who had been one of Charlemagne's most active agents in the reformation of the Church. He was strongly opposed to the schemes of the empress Judith for a redivision of the empire in favour of her son Charles the Bald, Which he regarded as the cause of all the subsequent evils, and supported Lothair and Pippin against their father the emperor Louis I. Deposed in 835 by the council of Thionville, he made his peace with the emperor and was reinstated in 837. Agobard occupies an important place in the Carolingian renaissance. He wrote extensively not only theological works but also political pamphlets and dissertations directed against popular superstitions. These last works are unique in the literature of the time. He denounced the trial by ordeal of fire and water, the belief in witchcraft, and the ascription of tempests to magic, maintained the Carolingian opposition to image-worship, but carried his logic farther and opposed the adoration of the saints. The basis for this crusade was theological, not scientific; but it reveals a clear intellect and independent judgment In his purely theological works Agobard was strictly orthodox, except that he denied the verbal inspiration of the Scriptures. Agobard was reverenced as a saint in Lyons, and although his canonization is disputed his life is given by the Bollandists, Acta Sanctorum, Jun. ii. 748.

BIBLIOGRAPHY.--Agobard's works were lost until 1605, when a manuscript was discovered in Lyons and published by Papirius Masson, again by Baluze in 1666. For later editions see Potthast, Bibliotheca Historica Medii Aevi. The life of Agobard in Ebert's Geschichte der Litteratur des Mittelalters (1880), Band ii., is still one the best to consult. For further indications see A. Molinier, Sources de l'histoire de France, i. p. 235.

AGONALIA, in ancient Rome, festivals celebrated on the 9th of January, 17th of March, 21st of May, and 11th of December in each year in honour of various divinities (Ovid, Fasti, i. 319-332). The word is derived either from agonia, ``a victim,'' or from agonium, ``a festival.''

AGONIC LINES (from Gr. a-, privative, and gonia, an angle), the term given to the imaginary lines on the earth's surface connecting points at which the magnetic needle points to the geographical north and south. (See MAGNETISM, TERRESTRIAL.)

AGONOTHETES, in ancient Greece, the president or superintendent of the sacred games. At first the person who instituted the games and defrayed the expenses was the Agonothetes; but in the great public games, such as the Olympic and Pythian, these presidents were the representatives of different states, or were chosen from the people in whose country the games were celebrated; thus at the Panathenaic festival at Athens ten athlothetae were elected for four years to superintend the various contests. They were variously called aisumnetai, brabeutai, agonarchai, agonodikai, athlothetai (at Athens), eabdouchoi or eabdonomoi (from the rod or sceptre emblematic of their authority), but their functions were generally the same.

AGORA, originally, in primitive times, the assembly of the Greek people, convoked by the king or one of his nobles. The right of speech and vote was restricted to the nobles, the people being permitted to express their opinion only by signs of applause or disapproval. The word then came to be used for the place where assemblies were held, and thus from its convenience as a meeting-place the agora became in most of the cities of Greece the general resort for public and especially commercial intercourse, corresponding in general with the Roman forum. At Athens, with the increase of commerce and political interest, it was found advisable to call public meetings at the Pnyx or the temple of Dionysus; but the important assemblies, such as meetings for ostracism, were held in the agora. In the best days of Greece the agora was the place where nearly all public traffic was conducted. It was most frequented in the forenoon, and then only by men. Slaves did the greater part of the purchasing, though even the noblest citizens of Athens did not scruple to buy and sell there. Citizens were allowed a free market; foreigners and metics had to pay a toll. Public festivals also were celebrated in the open area of the agora. At Athens the agora of classical times was adorned with trees planted by Cimon; around it numerous public buildings were erected, such as the council chamber and the law courts (for its topography, see ATHENS.) Pausanias (especially vi. 24) is the great architectural authority on the agorae of various Greek cities, and details are also given by Vitruvius (v. 1).

AGORACRITUS, a Parian and Athenian sculptor of the age of Phidias, and said to have been his favourite pupil. His most noted work was the statue at Rhamnus of Nemesis, by some attributed to Phidias himself. Of this statue part of the head is in the British Museum; some fragments of the reliefs which adorned the pedestal are in the museum at Athens.

AGORANOMI, magistrates in the republics of Greece, whose position and duties were in many respects similar to those of the aediles of Rome. In Athens there were ten, chosen annually by lot, five of whom took charge of the city and five of the Peiraeus. They maintained order in the markets, settled disputes, examined the quality of the articles exposed for sale, tested weights and measures, collected the harbour dues and enforced the shipping regulations.

AGORDAT, a town of Eritrea, N.E. Africa, on the route between Massawa and Kassala. At Agordat on the 21st of December 1893 the Italian troops under Colonel Arimondi inflicted a severe defeat on the followers of the khalifa. Agordat is protected by a strong fort. (See ERITREA and SUDAN, History.)

AGOSTINI, LEONARDO, Italian antiquary of the 17th century, was born at Siena. After being employed for some time to collect works of art for the Barberini palace, he was appointed by Pope Alexander VII. superintendent of antiquities in the Roman states. He issued a new edition of Paruta's Sicilian Medals, with engravings of 400 additional specimens; and in conjunction with Giovanni Bellori (1615-1696) he also published a work on antique sculptured gems, which was translated into Latin by Jakob Gronovius (Amsterdam, 1685).

AGOSTINO, or AGOSTINI [AUGUSTINUS], PAOLO (1593-1629), Italian musician, was born at Valerano, and studied under G. B. Nanini, as we learn from the dedication in the third and fourth books of his masses, subsequently becoming the son-in-law of his master. He succeeded Ugolini as conductor of the pope's orchestra in St. Peter's. His musical compositions are numerous and of great merit, an Agnus Dei for eight voices being specially admired.

AGOSTINO and AGNOLO (or ANGELO) DA SIENA, Italian architects and sculptors in the first half of the 14th century. Della Valle and other commentators deny that they were brothers. They certainly studied together under Giovanni Pisano, and in 1317 were jointly appointed architects of their native town, for which they designed the Porto Romana, the church and convent of St Francis, and other buildings. On the recommendation of the celebrated Giotto, who styled them the best sculptors of the time, they executed in 1330 the tomb of Bishop Guido Tarlati in the cathedral of Arezzo, which Giotto had designed. It was esteemed one of the finest artistic works of the 14th century, but unfortunately was destroyed by the French under the duke of Anjou.

AGOULT, MARIE CATHERINE SOPHIE DE FLAVIGNY, COMTESSE D' (1805-1876), French author, whose nom de plume was ``Daniel Stern,'' was born at Frankfort-on-Main on the 31st of December 1805. Her father was a French officer who had served in the army of the emigrant princes, and her mother was the daughter of a Frankfort banker. She was married in 1827 to the comte Charles d'Agoult. In Paris she gathered round her a brilliant society which included Alfred de Vigny, Sainte-Beuve, Ingres, Chopin, Meyerbeer, Heine and others. She was separated from her husband, and became the mistress of Franz Liszt. During her frequent travels in Switzerland, France and Italy she made the acquaintance of George Sand, and figures in the Lettres d'un voyageur as'`Arabella.'' By Liszt she had three children--a son who died young; Blandine, who married M. Emile Ollivier; and Cosima, who married first Hans von Bulow and later Richard Wagner. The story of her breach with Liszt is told under a very slight disguise in her novel Nelida (1845). On her return to Paris in 1841 she began to write art criticisms for the Presse, and in 1844 she contributed to the Revue des deux Mondes articles on Bettina von Arnim and on Heinrich Heine, but her views were not acceptable to the editor, and Daniel Stern withdrew to become a contributor to the Revue independante. Mme. d'Agoult was an ardent apostle of the ideas of' 48, and from this date her salon, which had been literary and artistic, took on a more political tone; revolutionists of various nationalities were welcomed by her, and she had an especial friendship and sympathy for Daniele Manin. In 1857 she produced a national drama, Jeanne Darc, which was translated into Italian and presented with brilliant success at Turin. The most important section of Daniel Stern's work is her political and historical essays: Lettres republicaines (1848), Esquisses morales et politiques (1849), Histoire de la Revolution de 1848 (3 vols., 1850-1853), Histoire des commencements de la Republique aux Pays-Bas (1872). Mme. d'Agoult died in Paris on the 5th of March 1876. Her daughter Claire Christine (b. 1830), who married Guy de Charnace, is known as a writer.