360 



AXIS AYR. 



Jme of f lelvetius. (q. v.) It has always been a great 

 i|iicstion in philosophy, whether these axioms are in- 

 nate or drawn from experience. Bacon calls axiom 

 a general principle, obtained by experiment and ob- 

 servation, from which we may safely proceed to 

 reason in all other instances ; and Newton gives the 

 name of u.vium to the laws of motion, which, of 

 course, are ascertained by the investigation of na- 

 ture ; he also terms axioms those general, experimen- 

 tal truths, or facts, which form the ground-work of 

 the science of optics. Dugald Stewart thinks that, 

 in this, and other instances, Newton followed Bacon's 

 phraseology " too implicitly." 



Axis, in geometry ; the straight line which divides 

 the area of a curved figure (e. g., of a circle, ellipse, 

 &c.) into two parts, similar and similarly situated, on 

 Iwtli sides of the line. Further, a straight line drawn 

 from a point in the periphery through the centre 

 of a sphere is its axis ; and a straight line drawn 

 from the vertex of a cone through the centre of its 

 base, is the axis of the cone. The axis of the world 

 is the imaginary line drawn through its two poles 

 und its centre. 



AXC.M, AXOMA, AXOMIS, or AKSUM ; a city in Tigre, 

 a province of Abyssinia. Neither Herodotus nor 

 Strabo mentions A., though, in the first century after 

 Christ, it was repeatedly spoken of, and particularly 

 after the time of Ptolemy, as the chief city of an im- 

 portant kingdom, which, through Adulis, was con- 

 nected with Arabia and Ethiopia. At the tune of 

 \heperiplus of the Red sea, A. was the great depot 

 of the ivory trade. The importance of this city and 

 its kings was first made known to us by a stone 

 (Axvmitic marble) with a Greek inscription, first ex- 

 plained by Salt, who discovered it, and afterwards 

 by Buttmann and Niebuhr (Museum der Alterthum- 

 rurittenschaften, . ffolf itnd Ituttmann, 2d vol., sec. 

 575). This inscription, like similar ones that have 

 since come to us from that quarter, contains an ac- 

 count of the clemency of one Aizanas (a boasting 

 king, who called himself a son of Mars) towards 

 several inferior kings, whom he conquered. The 

 interest in this inscription was increased by the ex- 

 planation which it afforded of the second half of the 

 Adulian marble, (q. v.) A., the place where it was 

 found, still exhibits many remains of its former great- 

 ness. Among its ruins are shown the royal throne, 

 and groups of obelisks, originally 55 in number, one 

 of which Salt declared to be the most beautiful that 

 he had seen. Cotton goods, and the finest paixii- 

 iiient, are still manufactured here. 



AVACUCHO, BATTLE OF. This engagement is one of 

 the most celebrated in the history ot South America, ' 

 having been decisive of the independence of Upper 

 and Lower Peru. For several months before this 

 event, the Colombian auxiliary army, under general 

 Sucre, and the royalist army, under the viceroy La 

 Serna, liad been moving in face of each other with va- 

 rious success, but, on the whole, to the disadvantage of 

 the Colombians. Sucre and his men were anxious for 

 battle ; and at length La Serna determined to engage 

 them on the plain of Ayacucho, Dec. 9, 1825. The 

 royalist force consisted of 9,310 men, that of the pa- 

 triots of 5,780 men. Generals Sucre (the commander- 

 in-chief), La Mar, Cordova, and Miller distinguished 

 themselves on this occasion, and the battle termi- 

 nated in the total defeat of La Serna, who was taken 

 prisoner, with the loss of 1800 men in killed and 

 wounded, and in the capitulation of Canterac, the 

 second in command. Of the*patriots, only 370 were 

 killed. The intelligence ot this splendid victory 

 filled all Spanish America with rejoicings, as it effec- 

 tually accomplished the delivery of Peru from the 

 Spaniards. See Pent, hvlivia, Sucre. 



AVESIIA ; daughter of Abubeker, the favourite 



wife of Mahomet, the Arabian prophet, though she 

 bore him no child. After his death, she opposed the 

 succession of Ali, raised an army against him, and 

 was taken prisoner, but dismissed with that spirit of 

 chivalry which had already arisen among the Arabi- 

 ans, and communicated itself afterwards to the Chris- 

 lians. She died in 677, it is said, sixty-seven years 

 old. 



AYR; a river of Ayrshire, which runs a course 

 westward eighteen miles, intersect-, the district of 

 Kyle, and finally loses itself in the frith of Clyde, 

 below the town of Ayr. 



AYR; a royal burgh, and capital of Ayrshire, is 

 situated on the southern Ixuik of the river Ayr, near 

 its confluence with the frith of Clyde. It is distant 

 seventy-six miles W. S. W. of Edinburgh, and thirty- 

 four S. S. W. of Glasgow. The place lias been in- 

 habited from a remote antiquity. It was the site of 

 a Roman station, and it is generally understood that 

 a hamlet remained here up to the reign of William 

 the Lion, in 1197, when that monarch engrafted a 

 new town upon the older settlement. About the 

 year 1202, William constituted the town a royal 

 burgh. The celebrated Wallace here performed 

 some of his patriotic exploits, and a strong garrison 

 was placed in the town by Edward I. The tower of 

 the ancient church of St John, where a parliament 

 sat and confirmed Robert Bruce's title to the 

 crown, and which Cromwell converted into a cita- 

 del, still remains, but there are no traces of the 

 old castle, except the mount whereon it stood. 

 The principal streets of modern Ayr are spacious, 

 and many of the buildings handsome. Here are two 

 churches, and a few other places of worship, belong- 

 ing to sectarians, a general post-office, a theatre, a 

 library, a reading-room, a public academy, a savings'- 

 bank, a dispensary, jail, and court-house. The 

 government of the town, by charter of William the 

 Lion, is vested in a provost, two baillies, a dean of 

 guild, a treasurer, and twelve councillors. Its trade 

 is chiefly with Ireland ; the exports consisting of 

 cottons, woollens, iron, coal, whetstones, paint, c., 

 and the imports of grain, spirits, timber, slates, 

 bricks, and lime. At the mouth of the harbour 

 are two reflecting lights; its channel, however, is 

 too shallow to admit vessels drawing more than 

 twelve feet water ; besides which, the navigation 

 is much impeded by a shifting liar of sand. About 

 6000 tons of shipping, from 200 tons downwards, 

 and 500 seamen, belong to this port. Ship-building 

 is carried on to some extent, also tanning, boot, and 

 shoe-making, and the manufacture of soap. Compa- 

 nies are established here for catching and curing 

 white fish, which abound in great variety in the flats 

 and sand-banks along the shore ; the salmon fishery 

 is also prosecuted with success. This is a considera- 

 ble resort of the gentry, particularly at the seasons 

 for holding the Caledonian hunt and the races, which 

 are numerously attended. The population of the 

 parish and burgh of Ayr in 1831 was 7,606. 



AYR ; a parish of Ayrshire, to which is annexed 

 the ancient parish of Alloway, in the district of Kyle. 

 It includes also the town of Ayr, and is watered on 

 the north by the Ayr, on the south by the Doon, 

 both rivers falling into the frith of Clyde, which 

 bounds it on the west. The soil is well cultivated, 

 and adorned with fine seats and plantations. The 

 frith and rivers abound with fish, the trade in which 

 is carried on with success. Here are coals in plenty, 

 and a noted chalybeate spring, found to be efficacious 

 in scorbutic and scrofulous disorders. Johannes 

 Scotus Erigena, the celebrated schoolman, the Che- 

 valier Ramsey, and the poet Burns, were natives ol 

 this parish. The house in which the latter was 

 born stands within a mile and a half of Ayr, between 



