ANTITHESIS ANTOINETTE. 



197 



throe kingdoms of nature, to which an antisyphilitic 

 power has not been ascribed. The most efficacious 

 are preparations of mercury, which is administered ir 

 a great variety of ways ; sudorific vegetables, the 

 combinations of which are also extremely numerous ; 

 and preparations of gold, particularly of the muriate 

 of this metal. 



ANTITHESIS (opposition); a figure of speech, by 

 which two things are attempted to be made more 

 striking, by being set hi opposition to each other. 

 Tliis figure often produces a great effect, yet, by too 

 frequent use, becomes disgusting. Lessing affords 

 an instance of a happy antithesis, when, in the re- 

 view of a book, he says, " This book contains much 

 that is good, and much that is new ; only it is a pity 

 that the good is not new, and the new is not good." 

 The following is an example in poetical composition. 



" Though deep, yet clear ; though gentle, yet not dull ; 

 Strong, without rage; without o'erflowing, full." 



Some use antithesis only to express the connexion 

 of things exactly opposite. 



ANTITRINITARIANS ; all who do not receive the doc- 

 trine of the divine Trinity, as it is represented by the 

 Nicene and Athanasian creeds, and either put the 

 Son and the Holy Spirit in the Godhead below the 

 Father, or consider Christ merely a man, and the 

 Holy Spirit an arbitrary personification of the divine 

 mind. In the early period of the Christian church, 

 parties maintaining these sentiments were very nu- 

 merous ; especially the Arians, Sabellians, and Pneu- 

 matomachists. The name Antitrinitarian first arose 

 in the 16th century, and was applied to Socinians, or 

 Unitarians, who remonstrated against the system of 

 Episcopius, who died in 1643, and to a great number 

 of theologians, who ventured, in their writings, to 

 maintain the preceding opinion. Many were unwill. 

 Ing to acknowledge Antitrinitarians as Christians, 

 esteeming them enemies to the fundamental doctrines 

 of Christianity, or even to tolerate them hi Christian 

 states. The Spanish Protestant, Michael Servetus, 

 was burnt at Geneva, in 1553, at the instigation of 

 Calvin, on account of this heresy, and the severest 

 edicts were once issued against them in England. An 

 English clergyman, however, Theophilus Lindsey, 

 at London, in 1774, and a merchant, Wm. Christie, 

 at Montrose, in Scotland, formed Unitarian congre- 

 cations, who separated themselves from the estab- 

 lished church, since which time they have become 

 numerous, both in Britain and America. See Uni- 

 tarians. 



ANTIUM ; an ancient city of the Volsci, situated on 

 the Tuscan sea. In the neighbourhood, the Romans 

 jriined their first naval reputation, in an engagement 

 with the Antiates. It was entirely destroyed by the 

 Saracens ; but vestiges of it still remain in Capo d' 

 A nzo, or Antio. 



ANTOINETTE (Marie Antoinette Josephe Jeanne) 

 t,f Lorraine, archduchess of Austria and queen of 

 France, born at Vienna, Nov. 2, 1755, was daughter 

 of the emperor Francis I., and Maria Theresa. She 

 received a careful education, and obtained an ac- 

 quaintance with various branches of knowledge. 

 Nature had bestowed upon her an uncommon share 

 of grace and beauty. In a letter of Maria Theresa 

 to her future husband, she says, among other things, 

 " Your bride, dear dauphin, is separated from me. 

 As she has ever been my delight, so will she be your 

 happiness. For this purpose have I educated her ; 

 for I have long been aware that she was to be the 

 companion of your life. I have enjoined upon her, 

 as among her highest duties, the most tender attach- 

 ment to your person, the greatest attention to every 

 thing tliat can please or make you happy. Above all, 

 I have recommended to her humility towards God, 

 because I am convinced that it is impossible for us to 



contribute to the happiness of the subjects confided 

 to us, without love to Him who breaks the sceptres 

 and crushes the thrones of kings according to his 

 own will." The departure of "Marie Antoinette from 

 Vienna filled the capital with sorrow. Her arrival 

 at Strasburg, and her journey to Compeigne, where 

 Louis -XV., and the dauphin received her, and to 

 Versailles, where her marriage took place, May 16, 

 1770, had the appearance of a triumph. It was sub- 

 sequently remarked, that, immediately after the 

 marriage ceremony, a fearful thunder-storm, such as 

 had scarcely ever before been witnessed, threw Ver- 

 sailles and all the surrounding country into the 

 greatest terror. Anxious minds indulged in yet 

 more fearful forebodings, when, at the festivity 

 which the city of Paris prepared, May 30, for the 

 celebration of the dauphin's marriage, through the 

 want of judicious arrangements, a great number of 

 people, in the rue Royale, were pressed or trodden 

 to death in the crowd, fifty-three persons were found 

 dead, and about three-hundred dangerously wound- 

 ed. When Marie Antoinette, after the death of 

 Louis XV., became queen, she imitated the example 

 of Louis XII. An officer of the gardes dw corps, 

 who had formerly displeased her, and now was about 

 to resign, she ordered to remain at his post, and for- 

 get the past " Heaven forbid that the queen should 

 avenge the injuries of the dauphiness !" Thus she 

 continued to win the hearts of the people by mild- 

 ness and generosity ; in particular, she took the most 

 energetic measures to relieve the sufferers in the 

 dreadful winter of 1788. But, about this time, she 

 drew upon herself the hatred of the court party, who 

 used every means to make her odious to the nation. 

 She was accused, in pamphlets, of continually con- 

 triving plots, and though none of the accusations 

 could De proved, and many of them were wholly im- 

 probable, yet it must be confessed that the young and 

 inexperienced queen gave cause for them. Her 

 lively imagination often gave her the appearance of 

 levity, and sometimes of dissimulation. A natural 

 restlessness led her to change, to new fashions, to a 

 continual varying of her diversions. Great sums of 

 money were, by this means, taken from more impor- 

 tant objects. It was still more to her disadvantage, 

 that she injured her dignity by neglecting the strict 

 formality of court manners. Besides, she expressed 

 herself with pettishness, in reply to the censures that 

 were passed upon her. Her enemies now spread 

 abroad a report that she was still an Austrian at 

 heart, and a natural enemy to the French, to whose 

 happiness she could no longer contribute. An extra- 

 ordinary occurrence added fuel to the flame of ca- 

 lumny, while it subjected the name of the queen to a 

 disgraceful law-suit. Two jewellers demanded the 

 Dayment of an immense price for a necklace, which 

 lad been purchased in the name of the queen. At 

 the examination which she demanded, it was proved 

 hat she had never ordered the purchase. A lady of 

 ler size and complexion had impudently passed her- 

 self off for the queen, and at midnight had a meeting 

 ivith a cardinal in the park of Versailles. (See La- 

 mothe and Rohan.) Notwithstanding this, the ene- 

 mies of the queen succeeded in throwing a dark 

 hade over her conduct. When Calonne had reported 

 i great deficiency in the finances, the cause was 

 Blindly attributed to the queen's extravagance. At 

 .ength it became necessary to summon a meeting of 

 the states-general. The queen was present at th;- 

 opening ot the first session ; but from that moment 

 ler tranquillity was gone. Events soon followed, 

 which put her courage to the test. She appeared 

 with her husband at the banquet, which the gardes 

 du corps gave at Versailles, October 1, to the officers 

 of the troops of the line, where, soon after the de- 



