14 



ACACIA AC AW:MY 



with soldiers and priests, arrived in A., and after 

 the Turks and Gallas (a warlike, mountain people, 

 in the south and west of A.) had hem repulsed, dy 

 the assistance of the Portuguese, towards ilie end of 

 the 16th century, the zealous catholics obtained a 

 footing, of which the pope knew how to take ad- 

 vantage. He sent Jesuits to convert the inhabi- 

 tants to the I Ionian catholic religion, and a Por- 

 tuguese colony supported their enterprise. In the 

 beginning of the 17th century, the Roman catholic 

 ritual was introduced ; the Jesuit, Alphonso Men- 

 dez was elected patriarch of A., in ItiVfi, the cele- 

 bration of the 7th day as the Sabbath abolished, 

 and the whole religious system accommodated to the 

 catholic model. But this favourable tuni of af- 

 fairs was of short duration. The negus Basil idas 

 began his administration in 1632, by yielding to the 

 wishes of the majority of the people, who were op- 

 posed to the Roman catholic faith. He banished 

 the monks with the patriarch, and ordered the Jesu- 

 its who remained to be hanged. Almost all the 

 catholic missionaries have since suffered death, and 

 all the attempts of the Roman propaganda to es- 

 tablish the catholic faith in A. , until the end of the 

 last century, have proved fruitless. In the western 

 part of this country, an independent government of 

 Jews has long existed. They call themselves 

 Faiaahas, that is, exiles ; the state is called Falas- 

 jan. They have their own government, which is 

 allowed by the negus, on consideration of their 

 paying a certain tribute. Bruce found there a Jew- 

 ish king, Gideon, and a queen, Judith. The cus- 

 toms ofthe Abyssinians are described by Bruce and 

 Salt as exceedingly savage. They eat the raw and 

 still quivering flesh of cattle, whose roaring is to be 

 heard at their feasts. A perpetual state ofcivil war 

 seems the main cause of their peculiar brutality and 

 barbarism. Dead bodies are seen lying in the 

 streets, and serve as food to dogs ana hyaenas. 

 Marriage is there a very slight connexion, formed 

 and dissolved at pleasure ; conjugal fidelity is but 

 little regarded. The rulers are unlimited despots 

 in ecclesiastical and civil affairs, disposing of the 

 lives of their subjects at pleasure. A. is full of high 

 ranges of mountains, in which the Nile takes its 

 rise. The climate, on the whole, is fine, and the 

 soil exceedingly fertile. The vegetable and animal 

 kingdoms are very rich, and afford many species 

 peculiar to this country. One of the most important 

 natural productions of A. is salt, covering a great 

 plain, which occupies part of the tract between Am- 

 philia and Massuah. The plain of salt is about 

 four days' journey across. For about half a mile 

 the salt is soft, but afterwards becomes hard, like 

 snow which has been partially thawed, and consoli- 

 dated. It is perfectly pure : it is cut with an adze, 

 and carried off by caravans. The country is rich in 

 gold, iron, grain, and fruits. Commerce is in the 

 hands of the Jews, Armenians, and Turks. 



ACACIA, Egyptian Thorn, or Binding Bean-tree ; 

 in the Linnaean system, a species of mimosa. The 

 flowers of this plant are used by the Chinese to pro- 

 duce that yellow colour which we see in their silks 

 and stufls. They make a decoction of the dried 

 flowers, and add alum and calcined oyster-shells. In 

 the materia medica, acacia is the inspissated juice 

 of the pods of the mimosa Nilotica of Linnaeus. 



ACADEMY ; an association of scholars or artists, 

 for the promotion of the sciences or arts, sometimes 

 established by government, sometimes voluntary 

 unions of private individuals. The academies at 

 Paris, Stockholm, and Berlin, are in part institu- 

 tions for the purpose of instruction ; but at first their 

 only object was the one above-mentioned. The mem- 

 bers of an- academy either select their own branches 



of study or pursue those which the government ft* 

 sipis to them. The results of their labours are 

 read in the regular meelin>, and printed among 

 their proceedings. The name is derived from the 



Athenian academy, belonging to a certain Acade- 



mus, a famous school for gymnastic cxercNes, and 

 the place where I'lalo taught. The appellation, 

 academy, is aUo used to denote the \arions philoso- 

 phical sects, whose doctrines were taii^iit in that in- 

 stitution. In this sense we speak of the firM, second, 

 and third academies ; the founders of which were 

 Plato, Arcesilaus, and Lacydasor ('arneadcs. The 

 first institution of antiquity, which merits the name 

 of academy, in the modern sense of llie tenn,\\as at 

 Alexandria. Attracted by the generosity of the 

 Ptolemies, a numerous association of scholars was 

 collected here, who were to have laboured for the. 

 extension and perfection of human knowledge, but 

 soon fell into idleness, or the exercise of grammati- 

 cal subtleties. From Alexandria the .lews lior 

 rowed the custom of founding academies, which 

 were established, after the close of the first century, 

 in the cities on the Euphrates, Sorn, Neharda, On 

 Punebidita. From them the Nestorians learned, in 

 the sixth century, to value science, and imparted 

 the same spirit to the Arabs, whose excellent 

 caliphs, Almansor, Hanm al Raschid, and Alma- 

 mun, founded a number of academies, which were 

 extended from Cordova to Bochara in the farthest 

 east, with the greatest success. At the court, too, 

 of Cliarlemagne, we find an academy, founded by 

 the emperor, at the suggestion of his instructor, 

 Alcuin, of which he was himself a member. This 

 useful institution was dissolved after the death of 

 Alcuin, and we afterwards find no academies, pro- 

 perly so called, till the time *f the conquest of Con- 

 stantinople by the Turks, when several Grecian 

 scholars were compelled to fly ta Italy. Lorenzo de- 

 Medici then founded, at Florence, the first Grecian 

 academy, under the care of Argyropylus, Theodore 

 Gaza, and Chalcondylas. C<mo afterwards esta- 

 blished the Platonic academy, the object of which 

 was the study of the writings of Plato, and the re- 

 storation of his philosophy. These establishments 

 did not subsist long, but their places were filled by 

 others of a more general character, which spread 

 themselves over all the cities of Europe. We will 

 arrange the most important older ones, that still 

 exist, according to the subjects to which they are 

 devoted. 



General scientific Academies. The Academia Se- 

 cretorum Naturae, founded at Naples in 1660, for 

 the promotion of the mathematical and physical 

 sciences, was abolished by the papal interdict. It 

 was followed by the Accademia del Lincei, founded 

 at Rome, by prince Cesi, about the end of the same 

 century ; of which Gallileo was a member. The 

 Accademia del Cimento arose in the beginning of 

 the 17th century, under the patronage of prince Leo- 

 pold, afterwards, cardinal de Medici, and numbered 

 among its members Paolo di Buono, Borelli, Vivia- 

 ni, Redi, Magalotti, and other distinguished men. 

 The Accademia degl' Inquieti, at Bologna, after- 

 wards incorporated with the Accademia della Trao 

 cia, published several excellent treatises under the 

 title Pensieri Fisico-Matematici, 1667. In 1714, it 

 was united with the Institute at Bologna, and has 

 since been called the Academy of the institute, or 

 the Clementine Academy, (from Clement X I.) It 

 possesses a large collection of natural curiosities and 

 a numerous library. The Academy of Sciences at 

 Bologna, or the Institute of Bologna, was estali- 

 lished in 1712, by count Marsigli. (See Bologna.) 

 In 1540, an academy was established at Rossano, in 

 the territory of Naples, under the name Sociei/ 



