AGE AGINCOURT. 



57 



where applicable. To be chosen president of the 

 U. S., a man must be at least thirty-five years old> 

 a senator must be thirty, and a representative twen- 

 ty-five years old. Every free white male citizen, of 

 eighteen years, is obliged to serve in the militia 

 till he reaches the age of forty-five years, unless ex- 

 empted for some special reason. See age in Criminal 

 Law. 



AGE. We find the ages of the world mentioned 

 by the earliest of the Greek poets. They compared 

 the existence of mankind to the life of an individual, 

 and the earliest period of the world to the tranquil- 

 lity and happiness of youth. Hesiod speaks of five 

 distinct ages : 1. The golden or Satumian age, when 

 Saturn ruled the earth. The people were free from 

 the restraint of laws ; they had neither ships nor 

 "\veapons : wars nor soldiers ; the fertile fields needed 

 no cultivation, and perpetual spring blessed the earth. 

 2. The silver age, which he describes as licentious 

 and wicked. 3. The brazen age ; violent, savage, 

 and warlike. 4. The heroic age, which seemed an 

 approximation to a better state of things. 5. The 

 iron age, when justice and honour had left the earth. 

 The poet supposed this to be the age in which he 

 himself lived. Ovid retained, in his Metamorphoses, 

 the division of Hesiod, with this difference he omit- 

 ted the heroic age, and placed the four ages before, 

 the flood of Deucalion. This idea, first nsed as,a 

 poetical embellishment, was also introduced into phi- 

 losophy. The ages were looked upon as a part of 

 tfie great year of the world, the revolution of which 

 was to bring the heavenly bodies to their first position. 

 Mythology was thus brought into the closest con- 

 nexion with astronomy. The first, or golden age, 

 was under the dominion of Saturn ; the second, of 

 Jupiter; the third, of Neptune ; and the fourth, of 

 Pluto, or, as some say, of Apollo. The time of the 

 completion of the great year of the world, or of the 

 heavens, was fixea by some at 3000 solar years ; by 

 others, at the mysterious number 7777 solar years. 

 Cicero estimated it at 12,954 ; Heraclitus, at 18,000 ; 

 and Orpheus, at twelve months, consisting each of 

 100,000 years. The Sibylline books divided it into 

 ten secular months, or the four seasons of the year. 

 Spring was the golden age ; Summer, the silver ; 

 Autumn the brazen, which was interrupted by Deu- 

 calion's flood ; and Winter, the iron age ; and then 

 the cycle began with Spring again. The idea of 

 ages of the world is so deeply fixed in the nature of 

 man, that it is interwoven with the religious senti- 

 ments of almost every nation on the globe. We find 

 examples of it in the millennial reign of the Apoca- 

 lypse, and in the Yugs of the East Indians. The 

 idea of four ages of the world prevailed among the 

 Brahmins. The first, a kind of golden age, lasted, 

 according to their tradition, 1,728,000 years; the 

 men of this period lived 400 years, and were all 

 giants ; in this period, the god Brahma was born. In 

 the second period, which lasted 1,296,000 years, their 

 rajahs were born; men lived only 300 years, and 

 vice began to creep into the world. During the third 

 Hge, which lasted 8,064,000 years, men lived only 

 200 years, owing to the increase of vice. Of the 

 last age, in which we now live, 4,027,213 years 

 are already gone, and the life of man is sunk to one 

 fourth of its original duration. 



AGE. For the different ages of life, see Life; 

 see also Longevity. 



AGEDA, synod of; an assembly of Jewish doctors, 

 held A. D. 1650, so denominated from a plain, on 

 which they met, about thirty leagues distant from 

 Buda in Hungary. More than 300 rabbies, and 

 many other Jews, of different nations, attended. The 

 object was, to debate the question whether the Mes- 

 siah had appeared. The negative of the question 



was carried, and it was agreed that his coming was 

 delayed on account of their sins and impenitence. 

 They were of opinion that he would be born of a 

 virgin, would come as a great conqueror, would de- 

 liver the Jews from every foreign yoke, and alter 

 nothing in the Mosaic religion. Some ecclesiastics 

 from Rome attended this meeting, but the multitude 

 would not hear them. 



AGEMOGLANS, or AZAMOGLANS, are children pur- 

 chased from the Tartars, or raised every third year, 

 by way of tribute, from the Christians tolerated in 

 the Turkish empire. They are circumcised and in- 

 structed in the religion of then- masters, and in mili- 

 tary exercises. From them the janizaries were re- 

 cruited. See Janizaries. 



AGENDA, among divines, sometimes signifies thfngs 

 which a man is bound to perform, in opposition to 

 credenda, which he is bound to believe. It also de- 

 notes the service or offices of the church. A. is also 

 used to signify church books compiled by public au- 

 thority, prescribing the order to be observed by the 

 ministers and people, in the ceremonies and devotions 

 of the church; e.g. the ritual, liturgy, missal, &c. 

 In Prussia, the new A. (in the last sense), arbitrarily 

 introduced by the king, but rejected by many cler- 

 gymen, and congregations, has occasioned some trou- 

 ble of late years. Honours and promotions induced 

 many of the clergy to adopt it, but others remained 

 firm in their opposition. The city of Berlin and the 

 fomous professor Schleiermacher were very conspi- 

 cuotls in resisting it. In all the churches of which 

 the king was patron, it was introduced. 



AGESILAUS ; a king of Sparta, 390306, B. C. ; 

 elevated to the throne after the death of his brother 

 Agis, by Lysander, who afterwards formed a con- 

 spiracy to depose him ; but the plan was discovered 

 and frustrated. Called by the lonians to their assis- 

 tance against Artaxerxes, he commenced, after Ly- 

 sander's death, his glorious career ; defeated the 

 Persians, but was compelled to stop in his victorious 

 course, and turn his arms against Thebes, Corinth, 

 &c., which had united against Sparta, and, in a sub- 

 sequent war with Thebes, to contend against Pelo- 

 pidas and Epaminondas, the greatest generals of 

 those times. His prudence, however, saved the city, 

 without the hazard of a battle. He delivered it anew, 

 at the age of eighty years, though it was actually in 

 the hands of Epaminondas. On his return from his 

 last campaign in Egypt, loaded with honours and 

 presents, he was overtaken by a storm on the coast 

 of Libya, and perished, being then in his 84th year. 

 In person, he was small and insignificant. He was, 

 nevertheless, a noble prince, and almost adored by 

 his soldiers, though he sometimes violated the virtue 

 of justice, in cases in which he could be useful to his 

 country or friends. 



AGGREGATION, in physics ; a species of union, 

 whereby several things, which have no natural de- 

 pendence or connexion with one another, are col- 

 lected together, so as, in swne sense, to constitute 

 one. Thus, a heap of sand7 or a mass of ruins, are 

 bodies by aggregation. 



AGHRIM, or AUGHRIM ; a village in the county of 

 Galway, in Ireland, memorable for a decisive battle 

 fought in the neighbourhood, July 12, 1691, between 

 the forces of William III., amounting to 20,000 men, 

 commanded by general Ginckel, and those of James 

 II., amounting to 28,000 men, commanded by the 

 French general St Ruth. The forces of William 

 were victorious. 



AGINCOURT, or AZINCOURT; a village in the dis- 

 trict Saint-Pol, in the department Pas de Calai% 

 famous for the battle of Oct. 25, 1415, between the 

 French and English. Henry V., king of England, 

 eager to conquer France, landed at Harfleur, took 



