AUGI AS AUGURS. 



335 



where lie took part in the battle of Leipsic. At the 

 entrance of the allies into France, his duty was to 

 cover Lyons. Louis XVIII. named him a peer. 

 After the fall of Napoleon, A. used reproachful lan- 

 guage respecting him in a proclamation to his army. 

 Napoleon, therefore, on his landing in 1815, declared 

 him a traitor. A;, however, expressed himself in 

 his favour, but took no active part in the new order 

 of tilings. After the return of the king, he took his 

 place again in the chamber of peers, sat among 

 Ney's judges, was for a while unoccupied, and diea, 

 June 11, 1816, at his estate La Houssaye, of the 

 Jropsy. 



AUGIAS. See Augeas. 



- AUGITE (pyroxene) ; the name of a species in 

 mineralogy, interesting on account of its wide distri- 

 bution and the numerous varieties of form and colour 

 under which it appears. When crystallized, it as- 

 sumes the form of short, slightly rhombic prisms, with 

 their lateral edges replaced, and terminated at one 

 or both extremities by numerous planes ; and, when 

 massive, is generally capable of mechanical division, 

 in lines parallel to the sides of an oblique rhombic 

 prism of 87" 5' and 92 5', its primitive form. Its 

 specific gravity is from 3'23 to 3'34 ; lustre vitreous ; 

 and hardness sufficient to scratch glass. Different 

 names have been applied to some of its most remark- 

 able varieties ; as, diopside, to greenish-white, trans- 

 parent crystals ; sahlite, when it is in imperfectly 

 prismatic and foliated masses ; and coccolite, when in 

 small, slightly-cohering grains. This species occurs 

 abundantly in black crystals in basalt and lava, and 

 enters into the regular composition of many rocks, 

 besides being found in veins in primitive rocks. It 

 is composed essentially of silex, lime, and magnesia, 

 to which oxyde of iron is sometimes added ; and is 

 one of those few mineral substances, whose composi- 

 tion may be imitated by the artificial mixture of its 

 constituents, and subjecting them to fusion. Its 

 native crystals, likewise, when fused, and suffered 

 to cool slowly, re-assume their original shape and 

 colour. A transparent green variety, found at Ziller- 

 thal, in the Tyrol, is used in jewelry. 



AUGSBURG, the capital city in the Bavarian circle 

 of Upper Danube, formerly a free city of the em- 

 pire, lies between the Wertach and Lech, and is 

 the residence of a bishop. It has 3690 houses, and 

 29,000 inhabitants, of whom 12,000 are Protestants. 

 The curiosities are the bishop's palace, where the 

 confession of Augsburg was signed in 1530; the 

 city house, with the golden hall, esteemed the finest 

 in Germany ; the Fuggerei (106 small houses, built 

 by two brothers, of the name of Fugger, for the 

 residence of the poor inhabitants of the city, a 

 monument of the benevolence of those immensely 

 rich citizens) ; the cathedral church, and the gallery 

 of paintings of the German schools, &c. The city 

 has considerable carrying trade and dealings in bills 

 of exchange, important commercial transactions with 

 Vienna and Italy, and is likewise a mart for the 

 wines of southern Germany and Italy. Whether A. 

 bore the name ofDamasia before the entrance of the 

 Romans into the country is uncertain, but it is well 

 settled that the emperor Augustus, about 12 B. C., 

 after conquering the Vindelici, placed a colony there, 

 which must be considered as.the origin of the present 

 A. After the division of the empire of the Franks, 

 A. came under the dominion of the duke of Suabia, 

 and, becoming rich by its commerce, finally pur- 

 chased its freedom of the duke, whicli was aftenvards 

 confirmed by the emperor. The city now reached 

 the summit of its prosperity, and was, together with 

 Nuremberg, a great mart for the commerce between 

 the north and south of Europe, until, towards the 

 eml of the 15th century, the discoveries of the Portu- 



guese and Spaniards gave a new direction to the 

 whole commerce of the world. In 1368, in conse- 

 quence of the opposition of the lower classes of 

 citizens, the aristocratic government was abolished, 

 and a democratic form substituted, which continued 

 till 160 years later, when the nobles, with the assist- 

 ance of the emperor, Charles V., again obtained the 

 supremacy. A. is still one of the principal manufac- 

 turing places in Germany. 



AUGSBURG CONFESSION, presented by the Protestants, 

 at the diet of Augsburg, 1530, to the emperor and 

 the diet, and, being signed by the Protestant states, 

 was adopted as their creed. Luther made the origi- 

 nal draught at the command of John, elector of 

 Saxony, at Torgau, in seventeen articles; but, as its 

 style appeared to be too violent, it was altered by 

 Melancthon, at the command of the elector, and in 

 compliance with the wishes of the body of Protestant 

 princes and theologians. Thus changed, it was pre- 

 sented and read in the diet, June 25. The original 

 is to be found in the imperial Austrian archives, and 

 the edition of the Augsburg confession, at Wittem- 

 berg, 1531, was printed from this. Aftenvards, 

 Melancthon arbitrarily altered some of the articles, 

 and a new edition, with his changes, appeared in 

 1540. There now arose a division between those 

 who held the original and those who held the altered 

 Augsburg confession. The former is received by the 

 Lutherans, the latter by the German Reformed, who 

 thereby secured to themselves, at the religious peace 

 of 1555, the privileges extended only to the adherents 

 of the Augsburg confession, and kindred sects. 



AUGSBURG GAZETTE. See Allgemeine Zeitung. 



AUGURS ; certain priests among the Romans, who, 

 from the flight and the cries of birds, from lightning, 

 &c., predicted future events, and announced the will 

 of the gods. They were consulted respecting both 

 public and private concerns, and their respectability, 

 as well as their influence in the state, was very great. 

 By merely pronouncing the words Alia die (another 

 day), they could dissolve the assembly of the people, 

 and annul all the decrees which had been passed at 

 the meeting. Their answers, as well as the signs 

 by which they governed themselves, were called 

 auguries. Public auguries were, 1. appearances in 

 the heavens, as thunder and lightning. The augur 

 remarked the place where the flash of lightning 

 originated, and where it disappeared. He stood on 

 an elevated place (arx, templum), where he had a 

 full view of all around him. After the sacrifices had 

 been made, and solemn prayers offered, he took his 

 station, his face towards the east, his head covered, 

 and pointing with his staff (lituus) to that portion of 

 the heavens within the limits of which he proposed 

 to make his observations. On the left were the pro- 

 pitious, on the right the unpropitious omens. 2. The 

 cries and the flight of birds. Predictions founded on 

 the observation of birds were properly called auspices, 

 and were very common even among the Greeks, wl.o 

 took them from the Chaldeans. They aftenvards 

 became so important, that, among the Romans, 

 nothing of consequence in peace or in war was un- 

 dertaken without consulting birds, whose continual 

 flight was supposed to give them universal know- 

 ledge. They were propitious or unpropitious, either 

 from their species or from the circumstances in which 

 they appeared. The birds of a prophetic character 

 were divided into two principal classes those whose 

 flight and those whose cry was indicative of future 

 events. In the latter class were included the raven, 

 the crow, the night-owl, the cock; in the former 

 were the eagle, the crow, the raven, the kite, and 

 the vulture. The two last were always unpropitious ; 

 the eagle, on the contrary, was propitious when he 

 flew from left to right ; tlie crow und the raven were 



