ASTVLAR 





H mar Iw well to mention the ' History of Astronomy,' and t ho ' l.iv. .. 

 I.T.' in th,- Library of r-..f,,l KnowMf*; and the 

 J I'liUophy .' in I JrdnerV Cabinet Cyclopedia. 



ASTV I. Alt. ..n of the numerous compound architectural terms 

 from the Greek *r.W<M (rri*M). column; which, luring the Greek 

 privative prefixed to it. ngnititv without columns. It u a term of 

 recent introductioa, but very convenient and expressive, inasmuch u 

 an. at onoe that the building described by it u without any 

 order of column* or pilasters, however ornate it may be in all other 

 raspecto. Thus, we speak of Astylar Italian in contradistinction from 

 the ~J-"""r class uf building* iii that style, or inch a* are decorated 

 with the orders. Astylar composition U not only susceptible of a very 

 hi-ti ilegum of embellishment, but of a species of grandeur not attain- 

 able (that is, on the same scale) in the Palladian style, or that where 

 an order is raised upon a basement, or even more than a single order 

 is employed for a facade, because in the former the cornice is pro- 

 portioned to the entire elevation; sometimes of greatly increased 

 proportions, and then distinguished by the name of fornirionc. In 

 this country we had no examples of such tutylar clans of design, until 

 H was introduced by Mr. Barry, in the Travellers' and Reform Club- 

 houses. 



A^Y'LUM, the Latin and English form of the Greek "A<mAor, which 

 is generally supposed to be made up of a priralirt and the root of the 

 verb auArfv, ' to plunder,' and therefore to signify, properly a place free 

 from robbery or violence. Some, however, have derived the Greek 

 word from the Hebrew ^yvfa, ' a grove ; ' the earliest asylums, it is 

 said, having been usually groves sacred to certain divinities. It is a 

 pretty, rather than perhaps a very convincing illustration of this ety- 

 mology, which U afforded by Virgil's expression as to the asylum 

 opened by Romulus, 



" nine lucnm inRentem, quern Romulus aoer UTlnm 

 Rrtulit." .Ex. VIII. T. S4J. 



The tradition was, that Romulus made an asylum of the Palatine Hill 

 preparatory to the building of Rome. Plutarch tells us that he dedi- 

 cated the place to the god Asylams. (Plut. ' Komul.' 9.) 



Probably all that is meant by these stories is, that in those ages 

 whoever joined a new community received shelter and protection ; and 

 even if he had committed any crime, wag neither punished by those 

 whose associate he had become, nor surrendered to the vengeance of the 

 laws or customs he had violated. Such an asylum was not an appointed 

 place of refuge established by general consent ; it was merely a con- 

 gregation of outlaws bidding defiance to the institutions of the country 

 in which they had settled, and proclaiming their willingness to receive 

 all who chose to come to them. 



I'.ut l >th in the Grecian states, and in Rome, the temples, or at least 

 some of thorn, were endowed with the privilege of affording protection 

 to all who fled to them, even although they had committed the worst 

 crimes. The practice seems to have been, that they could not be 

 dragged from these sanctuaries ; but that, nevertheless, they might be 

 forced to come out, not only by being prevented from receiving food 

 while they remained, but even by such compulsory measures as the 

 application of fire to the building. (See ' Thucyd.' i. 126, 134 ; ' Herodot.' 

 vi. 80.) Anything appears to have been permitted except the actual 

 dragging forth of the criminal. Eventually, these places of refuge 

 became great nuisances, being, especially among the Greek cities, 

 established in such numbers as sometimes almost to put an end to 

 the administration of justice. After Greece had become a part of the 

 Roman empire, an attempt was made to repress this evil by an order 

 of the senate, directed to all the pretended asylums, to produce legal 

 proofs of the privilege which they claimed. (Tacit. ' Ami.il.' iii. 60, &c.) 

 Many were put down in consequence of not being able to satisfy t)ii 

 demand At last, all the asylums throughout the empire were abo- 

 lished by an edict of the Emperor Tiberius. (Sueton. in ' VitA Tiberii.' 

 cap.37.) 



The term "AovAoi was given as an epithet to certain divinities ; as, 

 for example, to the Ephesiaa Diana. It is also found on medals as an 

 cirithct of certain cities; in which application it probably denote! tli.-it 

 the city or district was under the protection of both of two otherwise 

 belligerent powers, and enjoyed accordingly tin; privilege* of neutral 

 ground. 



After the decline and fall of Paganism, the privilege of serving as 

 asylum* for malefactors was obtained by the Christian temples. The 

 credit of conferring this honour upon churclx ' in attributed 



t" I'ojw Boniface V . in the beginning of the 7th century ; but mure 

 than two hundred years before, certain sacred buildings of the new 

 religion are said to have been declared asylums by the Kni|>eror 

 1 1 -.11 -rim. The asylums thus established eventually grew throughout 

 all < l.n-t. iid-.iii to lie a still more intolerable abuse than those of the 

 ' world hail been. In most countries, not only churches and 

 convent., with their precincts, but even the houses of the bishop*, 

 came to be at length rnd..w,-.l with the privilege of sanctuary. In all 

 these pUces the most atrocious malefactors might be found bid.ling 

 defiance to the civil power. At the same time, there can be no doubt, 

 that while in this way criminals were frequently rescued from 

 protection was also sometimes afforded to the innocent, who would not 

 otherwise have been enabled to escape the oppression or private enmity 

 which |>ursued them under the ]Tverted forms of law. The inntitu- 



tion was one of the many which then cxistod, having the vf 

 throwing the regulating power of *>. ;c hand* of the clergy, 



who certainly were, upon the whole, the class in whose hands such a 

 discretion was by far least likely to be abused. When communities, 

 however, assumed a more settled (tote, and the law became strong 

 with the progress of civilisation, the rights which had at onu time 

 armed the church as a useful champion against tyranny, became not 

 only unnecessary but mischievous. The church maintained a long 

 and hard struggle in defence of its old supremacy ; and in the face of 

 the stand thus made, and in opposition to ancient habits, and the 

 popular superstition by which they were guarded, it was only very 

 cautiously that attempts could be made to mitigate the evil, 

 long time the legal extent of the privilege of sanctuary appears to have 

 been matter of violent dispute between the church and tin- civil 

 In this country, it was not till the year 1487, in the reign of 1 Miry VII., 

 that by a bull of Pope Innocent VIII. it was declared, that if thieves, 

 robbers, and murderers, having taken refuge in sanctuaries, should 

 sally out and commit fresh offences, and then return i tin -ir place of 

 shelter, they might be taken out by the king's officers. It was only 

 by an Act of Parliament passed in 1584, after the Reformation, that 

 persons accused of treason were debarred of the privilege of sanctuary. 

 After the complete establishment of the Reformation, however, in the 

 reign of Elizabeth, neither the churches nor sanctuaries of am 

 description were allowed to become places of refuge for either mur- 

 derers or other criminals. But various buildings and precincts in and 

 near London, continued for a long time after this to afford shelter to 

 debtors. At length, in 1697, all such sanctuaries, or pretended sanctu- 

 aries, were finally suppressed by the Act 8 i l Will. III. chap. 26. 



In Scotland, the precincts of the palace of Holyrood in Edinburgh 

 still remain a sanctuary for debtors. Tbe boundaries of this privileged 

 place are somewhat extensive, comprehending the whole <>f .- 

 called " the King's Park," in which is the remarkable hill called 

 "Arthur's Seat." The debtors find lodgings in a short street, tin- 

 privileged part of which is divided from the remainder by a kennel 

 running across it. Holyrood retains its privilege of sanctuary a* 

 a royal palace ; but it is singular as being now the only palace in this 

 country any part of the precincts of which is the property, or at least 

 in the occupation, of private individuals, and therefore open to the 

 public generally. 



In England, a legal asylum, or privileged place, is called a sanctuary ; 

 and this use of the word sanctuary appears to be peculiar t-> the 

 English language. Both in this country and in America, the n 

 .i-_v linn is commonly given to benevolent institutions intended to 

 shelter neither to criminals nor to debtors, but to some particular 

 description of the merely unfortunate or destitute. 



The Jewish Cities of Refuge, established by Moses and Joshu 

 be quoted as the most remarkable instance on record of a sy.-t 

 asylum founded and protected by the state itself for the shel( 

 persons who had violated the law. These cities, as wo are infornu d in 

 the twentieth chapter of the Book of Joshua, were six in number, 

 on each side of the Jordan. They only, however, protected the 

 person who had killed another unawares. This Institution may In- 

 regarded as an ingenious device for protecting, on the one hand, th.: 

 guiltless author of the homicide from the popular resentment, which 

 his unfortunate act would have been likely to draw upon him : and 

 cherishing, on the other, in the public mind, that natural li- 

 the shedding of human blood, which, in such a state of HOC;. 

 would have been so dangerous to suffer to be weakened. We see the 

 same principle in the deodand formerly awarded by our law in the case 

 of the accidental destruction of life by any inanimate obj- 



One of the most curious instances of the privilege, of sanctuary, is 

 that long enjoyed in Scotland by the descendants of the cell ' 

 Macduff, Thane of Fife, the dethroner of the usurper MaoK-th. It i.- 

 said to have been granted at the request of the thane by Malcolm III. 

 (Canmoi ,-i. on his recovery of the crown of his ancestors soon after the 

 middle of the llth century. By this grant it was declared that any 

 person, being related to the chief of the clan Macduff within the 

 ninth degree, who should have committed homicide without pre- 

 meditation, should have his punishment remitted for a fine, on Hying 

 to MacdufTs Cross, which stood near Lindores, in Fid --!i:i <-. A I 

 this, however, is the account of the old Scottish hi p--- 



bable that the privilege only conferred upon the offender a right of 

 being exempted from all other courts of jurisdiction, except that of the 

 Earl of Fife. Sir Walter Scott (' Minstn 1 -\ <>i the s,-,.tti..h l!,,rd,-r.') 

 has printed a Latin document of A.D. 12'.U. in which the privilege 

 to this latter extent is pleaded. The original d. . d Mill exi-: 

 MacdufTs Cross, only the pedestal now remains, the cross itw-lf h.n ing 

 been destroyed at the Reform at ion. It Imre a metrical inscription, iu 

 a strange half Latin jargon, th pies of which, .still pro 



hare given much occupation to the antiquaries. 



(Sibl. aid's Jl^lnrii j Fife, second ed., 8vo, C'upar -Fife, 1802; Cun- 

 niiighame's Kiaay pon Macdufi Crua ; Comdeli's Uriliiiinin, by 



Qonah), 



A'SYMIToTE (lurfyirruTot), n compound d'r.-.k word signifying 

 ir/n'.V, i/..< i/.rf full trill, : if taken literally will. I wo lines.it 



would mean that they do not meet one another, lint it U used only 

 in speaking of two lines (one of which at least must which 



continually approach each other, but never meet; so that the din- 



