336 



AUGUST AUGUSTINE. 



l>ru|iitious oil the left, and unpropitious on the right. 

 :i. The willingness or unwillingness of chicklVM to 

 eat WHS aKo ominous. The former was interpreted 

 as a good oineii, tlie lulu-rasa bad one. Cliickrns 

 wt-n- made use of particularly in war ; therefore a 

 pontifex, some augurs and haruspiccs (see Aruspex), 

 together with a ptitlariits with a hen-coop, were 

 attached to Ihe army, Bi '.sides these Ihree principal 

 classes, certain onu-ns were drawn from quadrupeds ; 

 e. g., if a beast crossed one's path, or was seen in an 

 unusual place, and from many occurrences more or 

 less uncommon, e. g., biiddea melancholy, sneezing, 

 spilling the salt on tin- table, c. The augurs ex- 

 plained such signs, and taught how the gods were to 

 lie appeased. The right ot taking the auspices, that 

 is, lite right to inquire of the gods, by certain signs, 

 how the war would terminate, belonged only to the 

 comiuander-in-chief. The inferior officers fought 

 only under his auspices ; that is, the declaration 

 which he issued was binding upon them, and the 

 fortunate or the unfortunate issue of the war was 

 attributed to him alone. 



AUGUST; the name of the eighlh month from 

 January, inclusive, and the sixth of Ihe Roman year, 

 which began with March. It was called Sea;(ilis, till 

 the emperor Augustus, in consideration of the many 

 instances of good fortune which had happened to him 

 in Ihis mom li. affixed to it his own name. 



AUGUSTA ; the name of a very great number of 

 ancienl places ; as, Augusta Treverorum, now Treves; 

 Augusta Ausciorum, now Auch; Augusta Taurin- 

 orum, now Turin , Augusta Suessonum, now Soissons, 

 &c. Augusta also is Ihe name of many modern 

 places and rivers in South America. 



AUGUSTA ; a posl-lown of Maine, in the United 

 States, on Ihe river Kennebec, 168 miles N. E. of 

 Boston; population, in 1810, 1805 ; in 1820, 2457. 

 It is a pleasant and flourishing town, and has, by an 

 act of the state legislature, been constituted the seat 

 of the state government after January 1, 1832. Here 

 is an elegant bridge across the Kennebec, consisting 

 of two arches, each 180 feel long. The river is 

 navigable to A. for vessels of 100 tons. 



AUGUSTA ; a city of Georgia, opposite to Hamburg, 

 in South Carolina, wilh which il is connected by a 

 bridge; population, in 1810, 2476; and in 1827, 

 aboul 5000. It is situated on an elevated plain. 

 The slreets are wide, intersecting each other al 

 right angles, and are ornamented with trees. The 

 houses are mostly of brick, and many of them are 

 spacious and elegant. Among the public buildings 

 are a city- hall, an academy, a court-house, a theatre, 

 an hospital, two markets, and six houses of public 

 worship. A. is favourably situated for trade, and has 

 a very flourishing commerce. More than 100,000 

 bags of cotton are annually deposited here, and 

 hence conveyed down the river to Savannah and 

 Charleston, for northern and European markets. 



AUGUSTIN, or AUSTIN, Saint, called the apostle of 

 the English, flourished at the close of the sixth cen- 

 tury. He was sent, wilh forty monks, by Gregory, 

 lo introduce Chrislianily into Ihe Saxon kingdoms. 

 He was kindly received by Elhelbert, king of Kent, 

 whom he soon converted ; and such was his success 

 wilh his subjects, thai he is said to have baptized 

 10,000 in one day. This success may be attributed 

 to his reputation of miraculous power in the restora- 

 tion of sight and life, more probably than to any 

 other cause. He has Ihe meril of allowing no coer- 

 cive measures to be used in Ihe propagation of Ihe 

 gospel. Elated by the rapid progress he had made, 

 A. became ambitious of possessing the supreme 

 authority .over the English churches as archbishop of 

 Canterbury, and received the archiepiscopal pall 

 from the pope, with instructions to establish twelve 



sees in his province. The British bishops in Wales, 

 successors of the British converts of the second cen- 

 tury, had never submitted to the jurisdiction of the 

 church of Rome, and A. endeavoured to persuade 

 them to unite with the new English church. They 

 asserted their independence, and 1200 Welsh monks 

 were soon after put to the sword, as is thought, at 

 the instigation of A. He died in (iO-l, or u'08, or 

 614, ana his relics have been carefully preserved in 

 Ihe cathedral of Canterbury. 



AUGUSTINE, Saint, one of the most renowned fathers 

 of Ihe Christian church, was born at Tagasle, a small 

 cily in Africa, Nov. 13, 354, during Ihe reign of the 

 emperor Constantine. He lias related his own life 

 in the work to which he gave the tille of Confessions. 

 His parents sent him to Carthage to complete his 

 education, but he disappointed their expectations by 

 his neglect of serious study and his devotion to plea- 

 sure. In his sixteenth year, be became very fond of 

 women. For fifteen years, he was connected witli 

 one, by whom he had a son. He left her only when 

 he changed his whole course of life. A book of 

 Cicero's, called Hortensiu*, which has not come down 

 lo our limes, led him to Ihe sludy of philosophy ; 

 and, when he found Ihis did nol satisfy his feelings, 

 he went over to the seel of Ihe Manichseans. He 

 was one of their disciples for nine years ; but, after 

 having obtained a correct knowledge of their doc- 

 trine, he left them, and departed from Africa to 

 Rome, and thence to Milan, where he announced 

 himself as a teacher of rhetoric. Saint Ambrose was 

 bishop of this city, and his discourses converted A. 

 to the orthodox faith. The reading of Paul's Epis- 

 tles wrought an entire change in his life and charac- 

 ter. The Catholic church has a feast (May 3) in 

 commemoration of this event. He retired into soli- 

 tude, wrote there many books, and prepared himself 

 for baptism, which he received in the thirty-third 

 year of his life, together with his son Adeodatus, 

 from Ihe liands of Ambrose. He returned to Africa, 

 sold his estate, and gave the proceeds to the poor, 

 retaining only enough to support him in a moderate 

 manner. As he was once present in the church at 

 Hippo, the bishop, who was a very old man, signified 

 a desire to consecrate a priest to assist and succeed 

 him. At Ihe desire of Ihe people, A. entered upon 

 the holy office, preached with extraordinary success, 

 and, in 395, became bishop of Hippo. He entered 

 into a warm controversy with Pelagius (see Pelagi- 

 ans) concerning Ihe doctrines of free will, of grace, 

 and of predestination, and wrote a book concerning 

 them. A. maintained that men were justified merely 

 through grace, and not through good works. His 

 views are substantially those called Calvinistic, and 

 his authority has been at all times unbounded in the 

 Catholic church, insomuch that, according to Pela- 

 vius, il is considered a sufficienl proof of the truUi of 

 any dogma that Augustine taught it. He died, Aug. 

 28, 403, while Hippo was besieged by Ihe Vandals. 

 There have been falhers of Ihe church more learned, 

 masters of a belter language and a purer lasle ; but 

 none have ever more powerfully touched the human 

 heart, and warmed it towards religion. Painters 

 have therefore given him for a symbol a flaming 

 heart. Augustus Neander published, in Berlin, 182 

 Sancti Augiistini Confessionum Libri XIII. A. left 

 a monument of his zeal for the monastic life by 

 founding some monasteries for monks and nuns in 

 Africa, which were shortly after destroyed by the 

 Vandals. This order was governed by stricl rules, 

 but was very differenl from Ihe one called, after him, 

 Augustine. The different branches of the Augustine 

 order were first established in Ihe lllh anil 12th 

 centuries, and their rules were the work of the popes 

 and priors. They did not constitute a regular order, 



