ACAI 



ACAllKMY. 



washing and fumigating the body with incense : while the bearers are 

 putting it in the ground, the pne*ta recite a form of prayer. Other 

 Ktrange ceremonies, that follow are deecribed by Salt 



(Ludolfit Uuiay of ElUopia ; Bruce, voL ii. p. 422 ; Salt's Abmtinia ; 

 Ruppell ; Gobat, Journal of a Tlirrr Yeart RtaHrrt in Abytrinia ; and 

 Profeeor Lee'* Brirf ffitlory of Ikt C'JUrrA of Abymitia, prefixed to 

 that work.) 



ACADEMY. A house and garden in ono of the suburljs of Ath- n-. 

 incloeed by a wall, and baring the grounds laid out in walks shaded by 

 trees, wan the original Academy. It is commonly Rtated to have been 

 so called from its original poasesaor Acadeimu, or Kcademus, who is 

 said to have established here a school of gymnastic exercises. Other 

 etymologies of the term, however, have also been given. About the 

 middle of the 5th century before the commencement of our era, the 

 groves of Acndemus fell into the possession of Cimon, the Athenian 

 general ; and it wag he who first adorned the place with st.itues and 

 fountains, and added other improvement, so as to convert it into a 

 retreat uniting to the charms of natural scenery many of the luxuries 

 of art. At his death he left the garden to the public ; and it became 

 a favourite resort of the lovers of philosophy and solitary meditation. 

 Hither Socrates was wont occasionally to repair to converse with his 

 disciples. But it was his illustrious pupil, Plato, who first gave 

 celebrity to the Academy as the seat of philosophy, by establishing 

 here the school over which he presided for nearly half a century. 

 Hence the Platonic philosophy is frequently called Academism, or the 

 philosophy of the Academy ; and its followers. Academics, or Academista. 

 Plato died about the year 348 before the Christian era. About tin- 

 year B. c. 296, one of his successors,' Arcesilaus, introduced certain 

 change* into the original doctrines of the school ; and he is on this 

 account considered the founder of a second, or Middle, as distinguished 

 fit 'in the Old academy. There was also in this sense a third academy, 

 called the New, of which the founder was Cai modes, who flourished 

 about a century after Arcesilaus. Some writers even reckon a fourth 

 Platonic academy, founded soon after the time of Carneades, by Philo 

 (not the celebrated Platonic Jew), and Channidas or Charmadas ; and 

 a fifth, designated the Antiocluan, from iU founder, AntiochiiK. who 

 had been a disciple of Philo. With regard to the academy of I'lato. 

 we may further notice that it wag situated in the suburb, lying N.W. 

 of Athens, called Ceraraicus, that is, literally, the Place of Tiles ; and 

 it has been remarked, as a curious coincidence, that the principal public 

 garden of that city should thus have apparently had the same origin 

 with the Tuileries of the modern capital of France, a name which also 

 indicates that the site was anciently that of a tile-work. Cicero had 

 a country seat on the Neapolitan coast, to which, as one of his favourite 

 retreats for philosophical study and converse, he gave, in memory of 

 thf famous Athenian school, the name of Academia. It wag here he 

 wrote his Academic Questions. Its remains are still pointed out near 

 Pozzuoli, under the name of the Bagni de' Tritoli. 



After the restoration of letters in the 15th century, the term 

 Academy was revived in Italy, but with a signification somewhat 

 different from what it had borne in .ancient times. It was used to 

 imply, not a school in which philosophy was taught by a master to his 

 pupils, but an association of individuals formed for the cultivation of 

 learning and science, and usually constituted and endowed by the head of 

 the state in which it was established. What was now called an academy, 

 in fact, more nearly resembled what was anciently denominated a 

 Museum, the name given, for example, to the famous association of 

 the learned, founded by the first Ptolemy, at Alexandria, which so 

 long subsisted in that city. The Emperor Charlemagne is also recorded, 

 towards the close of the 8th century, to have established in his 

 palace at Paris a society of this description. Charlemagne was also the 

 founder of the University of Paris, and several other schools and 

 wminarieK of instruction ; but although the (Ireek term Academia has 

 often, at least in more recent times, been applied to such institutions. 

 they are altogether distinct in their nature from what is properly 

 called an acadcim . 



On the other hand, many of those associations of the learned, which, 

 in all material respects, resemble the academies that arose in Italy with 

 the revival of letters, are, nevertheless, not known by that name. 

 They are called not academics, but Societies, Association*, Museum*. 

 I -yea-urns, Athemcums, Institutes, 4c. Of such associations, British 

 and foreign, which have issued, and many of which continue to issue 

 their printed Transactions, Journal*, or various works, the Catalogue 

 of the British Museum contains a list of about 1250. Among the 

 more celebrated, and one of the earliest, was the Academy 'delta 

 ('musi.' that is, literally, nf ll,f In-un. or rhnff. in allusion to the object 

 of iu institution, the purifying of the national tongue, and the sifting, 

 an it were, of it flour from the bran. It wan established at Florence 

 in 1582, principally by the exertions of the poet Antonio Francesco 

 :iii, who is much celebrated for the purity of his style. The 

 Dictionary of the Academia dclla Crimea, first published under the title 

 of ' Vocabolario degli Academic! dclla Crimea, 1 at Venice, in 1 vol. fol, 

 in 1612 ; but augmented, in 1720-1788, to vols. fol., is considered as 

 the standard authority for the Italian language ; and the writers from 

 whom works it ha* been collected, or whom it recognises as (-lassies, 

 nch a* Boccaccio, Machiavel, Ac., are hence frequently d, -n 

 A vtnri CntcanH. The Academia della Crimea is now incorporated ith 

 two still older societies, the Academia degli AjMtiei (o r Arndrtati f 



Iht Imuartialt), and the Acade .;uui, originally tl 



degli Umidi, founded in 1549 by Coamo I. The united institu- 

 tions bear the name of the Royal Florentine Aculcmy. Another 

 very famous old Florentine academy is that entit 

 that is, the Antdtmy of rperime*t. It was instituted for the 

 cultivation of physical science, by the Cardinal Leopold d. ' ' 

 brother of the Grand Duke Ferdinand II., in 1657. Among it' 

 first members were Borelli, Viviani, Ac. A collection of experi- 

 on the pressure of the air, the compressibility of water, on heat, 

 .-.iiuiil, projectiles, light, and other subjects belonging to i, 

 I'liilos.iphy, was published in Italian by the Academy del Chnci 

 l''"'>7. "i which M uschenbroeck afterwards gave to the world ,-i 

 translation, with valuable notes. Many of the Italian academies are 

 remarkable for the fantastic names by which they are designated ; :.n,l 

 in 1725 there were nearly 600 of them. Tin- I: my "I 



Sciences and Belles Lettres of Naples wag founded in 177!'; it. h.i- 

 publinhed its Transactions, which contain many valuable pa)- 

 mathematical subjects, since 1788. Tin- Heivulancan Academy of N 

 was founded in 1755; the first volume of its Transactions appeared 

 iu 1 77">. under the title of ' Antichitu di Ercolano,' and it has been 

 followed by several others. The Academy of Etruscan Antiquitie: 

 at Cortona, founded in 1726, and that at Florence, ftnuideil in 

 1807, have both published valuable Transactions. There are also 

 academies at Padua, Milan, Siena, Verona, and Genoa, by all of whii -h 

 some volumes of Transactions have been printed. The Academy of 

 Bologna was originally founded in 1690, by the afterwards distinguished 

 astronomer Eustachio Manfrcdi, then only sixteen. T! 

 called their institution the Academia degli Inquieti, and took for their 

 motto the words Mfiu ai/ilat. In 1714 this academy w.i- united to the 

 University or Institute of Bologna, since which event it h.i 

 called the Academy of the Institute, or the Clementine Aeademy (from 

 Clement XI., the then Pope). Its Transactions l, : ivc U-en published 

 under the title of 'Comtuentarii,' since 1731. To this list we m. 

 the Royal Academy of Turin, in Piedmont, which was originally ,-, 

 private association founded about the middle of the last i-enti 

 the young Lagrange, then, although not yet twenty years of age, 1 

 the office of Professor of Mathematics in the Royal Artillery School of 

 that city. The first volume of its Transactions w;i* published in 

 Latin, in 1759, and surprised the scientific world by some \n\ 

 great originality, to which the name of Lagrange was appended. The 

 Turin Transactions, which continued for some years to be enriched by 

 the contributions of this eminent inathemat ician, were published in 

 Latin, till 1784, since which time they have appeared in French. 



The Academic Francaise was instituted in 1635 by Cardinal 

 Itieh.-licu, for an object of the same nature with that p 

 the Academia della Crusca, the purification, regulation, and general 

 improvement of the national tongue. This society, in imitation of 

 its Italian model, published in 1694 the first edition of a French 

 Dictionary, known by the name of the Dictionary of the Academy, to 

 which it afterwards made many additions in successive reprints, 

 work however hag scarcely perhaps attained the same authority with 

 that of the Della Cruscan academicians ; partly owing, no doubt, t 

 the comparative Immaturity of the French language when it was 

 thus attempted to restrain its further growth. The original number 

 of the members of the Acaddmie Francaise was forty, from whom were 

 elected a director and a chancellor every three month.-, .is well as a 

 secretary, who held his office for life, this constitution it continued 

 to retain till the year 1 7!> !. when it was abolished, with most of the 

 other establishments which had subsisted under tin- tad 

 ment. Two years after it was restored as ]rt of tl. 

 The next of the French academies, in point of antiquity, i- the 

 ' Academic Royaledes Inscriptions at Belles Lettres.' It wa-cst.ii 

 in 1663, in the reign of Louis XIV., by Colbert, ami consisted originally 

 of a few members selected from the Academic Krain;ai-e. h 

 this academy was placed, by an edict of the king. u|*>n 

 more extended foundation : and from this date it published 

 year a volume of memoirs, many of great value, till it was suppressed 

 at the Revolution. It consisted, at the jierioil of it- suppres 

 ten honorary members, ten pensionaries, and twenty associates, cxclu 

 she of several corresponding members. The 'Acaddmie lioyalc de- 

 Sciences' was originally established by Colbert in 1686, but w .1 

 entirely remodelled iu 1699. By the new constitution it research. 

 were confined to the department of the physical sciences. The 

 Acaddmie des Sciences first began to publish its Tran -actions in li'.iiu. 

 and from 1699 a volume apj- lyen i.\ year till the a. 



was mippr<-s-cd iu 17!'.'!. The*- three together with the 



Acaddmie Itoyale de I'cintun- et dc Sculpture, which had been rather 

 a school of painting than an a--c-iation of cultivators of the art. were 

 restored by the Directory in 1705, and united into what was called the 

 National Institute. The French Institute has, since its establishment, 

 ranked as the very first of the scientific associations of Europe, the 

 most illustrious of whose philosophers have usually been comprehended 

 in the list of its members. 



The Royal Academy of Spain, founded at Madrid, in 1714. princi- 

 pally by the exertion- of the Duke . was constituted on tin- 

 model of the Academia della Crusca and the Acaddmie Fi 

 has for its object the improvement and purification of the Spanish 

 language, of which it has published a Dictionary, under the title of 



