805 



ASCETICS. 



ASHLER. 



606 



celebrated from the very first century o the Christian era. 



It 



has been held for ages on the Thursday next but one preceding 

 Whitsunday. (See Brady's 'Clavis Caleudaria,' vol. i. p. 357.) 

 It is also called Holy Thursday, a name by which it has been 

 known in this country at least as far back as the time of King 

 Alfred, in whose laws it occurs, On Jxme haljan Jmnner baej (or the 

 holy Thursday). 



It was on this day, or on one of the three days which immediately 

 preceded it, and which were considered as days of preparation for 

 it, that in ancient times the minister of every parish, accompanied by 

 his churchwardens and parishioners, was accustomed to go round the 

 limits of his district, to deprecate the vengeance of God, to beg a 

 blessing on the fruits of the field, and to preserve the rights and 

 boundaries of the parish. The week in which Ascension Day occurs is 

 usually called Rogation Week, from the Rogations or Litanies which 

 were used in the perambulations. The Anglo-Saxons called the days 

 of this week Kan; *ajar (walking days), from the perambulations 

 which were made. In London such parochial processions are still 

 observed on Ascension Day itself ; and also in some provincial places. 

 In the parish of Lanark, in Scotland, as late as 1845 the ' Statistical 

 Account of Scotland ' states that on " Landmark-day, there are pro- 

 cessions to inspect the marches of the town-lands. As a method of 

 impressing the boundaries upon the memory, all persons attending for 

 the first time are ducked in the river Mouss." The custom is said to 

 be of Saxon origin. 



Pennant, in his ' Tour from Chester to London,' p. 30, tells us that 

 on Ascension Day the old inhabitants of Nantwich piously sang a hymn 

 of thanksgiving for the blessing of the Brine. A very ancient pit, 

 called the Old Brine, was also held in great veneration, and, till within 

 these few years, was annually, on that festival, bedecked with boughs, 

 flowers, and garlands, and was encircled by a jovial band of young 

 people, celebrating the day with song and dance. 



It was upon Ascension Day, too, that the Doge or chief magistrate of 

 Venice was formerly accustomed, by throwing a gold ring into its 

 bosom, annually to espouse the Adriatic Sea ; using the words 

 ' Desponsamus te, Mare, in signum perpetui dotninii." We espouse 

 thee, Sea, in testimony of our perpetual dominion over thee. 

 This practice, which is said to have originated in a grant from Pope 

 Alexander III. to the Venetians, of power over the Adriatic Oceau 

 as a man hag power over hU wife, ceased only with the government of 

 the Doges. 



ASCE'TICS (iamfraSi), a term applied to the pugilists, wrestlers, 

 and other athletic, among the ancient Greeks, who prepared themselves 

 by abstinence for their combats ; subsequently, the term was extended 

 to all those who practised the severity of virtue. The exercise of 

 severe virtue among the Pythagorean and Stoic philosophers was called 

 iffmiais, askesit : it consisted in chastity, poverty, watchings, fasts, and 

 retirement. The ascetics seem to have had an eastern origin. The 

 Brachmans, German! or Sarmani, Samanxi, Uylobii or Allobii, Gymno- 

 sophistas in Asia, and other sects in East- Africa, were ascetics, who 

 like the present Sanyasseans, Talapoins, and Bonzes, in eastern Asia, 

 exercised their ingenuity hi devising new methods of self-torture. For 

 the Jewish ascetics, see the articles NASIREAXS, ESSEXES. According 

 to Eusebius (' Hist. Eccles.' ji. c. 23), James the Just, the brother of 

 Jeeus, was an ascetic at Jerusalem before the destmction of that city. 

 The Christians were in the earlier centuries more distinguished by 

 their purity of morals than by ascetic austerities. In the 2nd 

 century, the Christiana began to distinguish between the commands 

 given to all believers and the evangelical advice which they supposed 

 to be applicable to those only who aimed at the higher sanctity of 

 ascetics, founding then 1 belief more particularly on some passages in 

 St. Paul's epistles, in which he speaks of struggling against the flesh. 

 This double doctrine, as Mosheim calls it, induced many persons to 

 endeavour to attain a higher degree of communion with God, by 

 practising watchings, abstinence, labour, and hunger, hoping thus to 

 raise the soul above all external objects and .ill sensual pleasures. The 

 Christian ascetics were divided into abstinentet, or those who abstained 

 from wine, meat, and agreeable food, and conttnentes, or those who, 

 abstaining from matrimony also, were considered to attain to a higher 

 degree of sanctity. The early ascetics were most numerous in Egypt 

 and Syria. Many laymen as well as ecclesiastics were ascetics hi the 

 first centuries of our era, without retiring on that account from 

 the business and bustle of life. Some of them wore the pallium 

 fihilraophicuin, or the philosophic mantle, and were therefore called 

 Christian philosophers, and formed thus the transition link to the life 

 of hermits and monks, which was regulated in the 4th century. In 

 modern times asceticism is occasionally used to signify any peculiar 

 austerity of life. 



(Mosheim, De Rebut Christ, ante Const. Max. p. 311, &c. ; Neander's 

 Kirchcn-Gachickte. ) 



ASCLEPIADINE. A non-azotised substance of unknown com- 

 position met with in the root of the Asclfpias tince toxicum. It is bitter 

 aifd emetic. 



ASCLEPION (C 40 H M 0,). An inodorous, tasteless, white and neutral 

 substance met with in the juice of the Asclepia* syriaca. It is inso- 

 luble in water and alcohol, but soluble in ether, fuses at 219 Fahr., 

 and at a higher temperature decomposes, emitting an odour like 

 burning caoutchouc. 



ASH ; ECONOMICAL USES. The uses of the ash in the arts are very 

 numerous. The wood is both elastic and tough ; it is used for the 

 ielloes and spokes of wheels, the beams of ploughs, the tops of kitchen 

 tables, milk-pails, oars, blocks and pulleys, handles for spades and 

 ither instruments, hop-poles, hoops, crates, basket-handles, fence- 

 wattles, and numerous other purposes. In the neighbourhood of the 

 Staffordshire potteries the ash is cultivated to a great extent, and cut 

 every five or six years for crate-wood, which is in much demand in the 

 pottery district. The ashes yield good potash ; the bark is used for 

 banning nets and calf-skins ; the leaves and shoots are used for food by 

 cattle ; dishonest traders use ash-leaves for adulterating tea ; the seeds 

 or keys are sometimes pickled as a sort of salad, and they are also used 

 in Siberia to give a flavour to water for drinking. The sap is used for 

 some medicinal purposes. The Flmceriny Ash yields a juice which 

 solidifies into manna. 



ASHES, the remains of anything burned, whether of vegetable or 

 animal origin, and to a certain extent of mineral bodies also. 



Vegetable ashes. Ashes vary in composition according to the nature 

 of the plant, the soil in which it grows, and the manure used upon it. 

 The substances usually contained in the ashes of land plants are 

 potash, soda, lime, magnesia, silica, the oxides of iron and of man- 

 ganese, chlorine, carbonic acid, sulphuric acid, and phosphoric acid. 

 Alumina occurs rarely, and sometimes oxide of copper has been met 

 with. Very frequently more than one-half of the ashes of vegetables 

 consists of carbonate of lime. The quantity of ashes varies, not only 

 according to the soil, age, and aspect of the plant, but also in different 

 parts of the same plant, from 2 to 6 per cent, of its weight, after 

 drying in the air. The soluble part of wood ashes consists of the 

 alkaline sulphates, carbonates, and chlorides ; while the insoluble 

 matter is chiefly composed of carbonate of lime, and probably of 

 magnesia, phosphate of lime, and phosphate of iron. 



The incineration of wood is a most important operation ; from its 

 ashes are obtained the immense quantities of impure potash, and the 

 carbonate called pearlash, imported from America and other countries. 

 The sap of plants contains also other vegetable acids, as the oxalic, 

 citric, tartaric, malic, &c. ; and the salts which these form with potash 

 are decomposed by heat, and yield the carbonate. The ashes of land 

 plants yield principally the salts of potash, such as barilla those of 

 marine plants afford a large quantity of soda salts, and especially the 

 carbonate, such as </;/. 



Coal at/id are extremely various both in then- appearance and com- 

 position. Thus, much of the coal of the north of England, under 

 common circumstances, burns to a cinder, which is a mixture of the 

 ashes of the coal with some carbonaceous matter requiring rather a high 

 temperature to burn it, on account of its being enveloped by incombus- 

 tible matter. The coal of Somersetshire burns to red ashes, evidently 

 coloured by peroxide of iron : those of the Staffordshire coal are nearly 

 white. The quantity of ashes yielded by different kinds of coal varies 

 considerably ; according to Kirwan, Wigan coal contains 1'57 per cent, 

 of ashes; Whitehaven coal 1'7, and Swansea coal 3'33 per cent.; they 

 consist principally of silica and alumina, with small quantities of 

 lime, sometimes magnesia, and also peroxide of iron ; but they 

 do not contain either the chlorides, phosphates, or alkaline salts 

 found in wood-ashes. Peat ashes differ chemically from both the 

 other kinds. 



A nimal ashes resulting from the burning of bones and other animal 

 solids, consist principally of phosphate of lime, with traces of salts of 

 lime, magnesia, and soda. 



Mineral ashes, such as those of Vesuvius, as examined by Vauquelin, 

 were grayish in colour ; they were tasteless, and found to consist of 

 alumina, oxide of iron, muriate of ammonia, sulphate of lime, potash, 

 copper, manganese, lime, and charcoal. Vauqueliu also analysed the 

 ashes ejected in the same year from jEtna ; they were of a gray colour, 

 and in fine powder ; they contained sulphur, sulphates of lime, copper, 

 and alumina, and several other mineral ingredients. 



The adies of domestic economy, comprising not only the coal-ash 

 from the grate, but a quantity of dust and miscellaneous fragments, 

 are a valuable commercial article. The ash-heap of a dust contractor 

 has a large money-value, for much of the waste serves as material for 

 manufactures. 



ASHLAR, rough stones of various sizes. This term is applied to 

 free-stones when they are first taken out of the quarry. 



ASHLER, a facing made of squared stones. In countries where 

 stone is scarce and expensive, ashler principally consists of thin slabs of 

 stone used to face the brick and rubble walls of buildings. These 

 slabs are generally from four to six inches thick. Ashler is of several 

 kinds. Plane ashler is so called when the surface of the stone is made 

 quite smooth. Nearly all the public buildings of London in which 

 stone is used are more or less faced with plane ashler. When the 

 stone shows on its surface a series of narrow parallel flutings, the 

 work is called tooled ashler. This is principally to be met with in the 

 basements of buildings where the stone is set with flutings running 

 perpendicularly. There is also an ornamental kind of ashler, very 

 common in buildings, produced by slightly cutting into the stones, so 

 as to make a depression, along one, two, or more of the sides of the 

 joints. This kind of ashler is called rusticated ashler. The Banqueting 

 Hall at Whitehall, Somerset House, the Bank of England, and St. Paul's 

 Cathedral, may be taken as examples of rusticated ashler in London : 



