SCIENCE, EDUCATION, RELIGION 



687 



tion, and the elevation and adoration of the 

 the thirty-first rejects the sacrifice of 

 the mass as blasphemous; the thirty-second 

 permits the marriage of the clergy; the thirty- 

 third maintains the efficacy of excommuni- 

 cation. The remaining articles relate to the 

 supremacy of the king, the condemnation of 

 Anabaptists, etc. They were ratified anew in 



;nd 1628. 



Asteroids, or Planetoids. A numerous 



:iall planets revolving round the 



sun between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter, 



remarkable for the eccentricity of their orbits 



and the large size of their angle of inclination to 



iiptic. The diameter of the largest is not 



suppose, l to exceed 450 miles, while most of the 



others are very much smaller. They number 



-JO, and new members are being constantly 



'red. Ceres, the first of them, was dis- 



1 January 1, 1801, and within three years 

 more Pallas, Juno, and Vesta were seen. The 

 Extraordinary smallness of these bodies, and 

 their nearness to each other, gave rise to the 

 opinion that they were but the fragments of a 

 planet that had formerly existed and had been 

 Drought to an end by some catastrophe. For 

 nearly forty years investigations were carried 

 on. but no more planets were discovered till 



il>er 8, 1845, when a fifth planet in the 

 same region was discovered. The rapid succes- 

 sion of discoveries that followed was for a time 

 taken as a corroboration of the disruptive theory, 

 but the breadth of the zone occupied makes the 

 hypothesis of a shattered planet more than 



il. Their mean distances from the sun 



vary between 200,000,000 and 300,000,000 miles ; 



the periods of revolution between 1,191 days 



Flora) and 2,868 (Hilda). Their eccentricities 



and inclinations are on the average greater than 



>f the earth, but their total mass does not 

 >d one-fourth that of the earth. 

 Athanasian Creed. A formulary or 



ion of faith, said to have been drawn up 



nanasius, Bishop of Alexandria, in the 

 Fourth Century, to justify himself against the 

 calumnies of his Arian enemies. That it was 

 really composed by this father seems more than 

 doubtful; and modern divines generally concur 

 in the opinion of Dr. Wuterland, that it was 

 written by Hilary. Hi shop of Aries, in the Fifth 

 I-ertainly very ancient; for it 

 had become so famous in the Sixth Century as to 

 he commented upon, together with the Lord's 

 Prayer and Apostles' Creed, by Venantius For- 

 tunatUB, Bishop of Poitiers. It was not, h<>w- 



:hen styled tin- Athaiia-ian I'm-d. but 



the Catholic Faith. It is supposed to 

 he name of Athana>ius on ac- 

 count of its agreeing with his doctrines, and 



in excellent summary of the subjects of 

 controversy between him and the Arians. The 

 true key to the Athanasian Creed lies in the 

 knowledge of the errors to which it was opposed. 



ibellians considered the Father, Son. and 

 Holy Spirit as one in person; this \va 



MI: the |MT-'iis": the Arians con 

 them a> litTering in essenc. < "dividing 



Stance"; and against these two errors 

 was the creed originally in me. I. This creed 

 was used in France about the year v~><); was 



received in Spain about 100 years later, and in 

 Germany about the same time. It was both 

 said and sung in England in the Tenth Century; 

 commonly used in Italy at the expiration 

 of that century, and at Rome a little later. 

 This creed is appointed to be read in the Church 

 of England. 



Atom. A part so small as not to be divis- 

 I ible. An ultimate particle of matter. Two 

 | opinions, directly opposed to each other, have 

 long hacj currency with regard to the constitu- 

 ent particles of material things; the one, that 

 matter is composed of an assemblage of minute 

 particles, or atoms, incapable of further division ; 

 the other, that there is no limit to its divisibility, 

 the smallest conceivable particle still consisting 

 of an infinity of parts. The first of these the- 

 ories, which is commonly distinguished by the 

 name of Atomic Philosophy, was originated in 

 Greece by Leucippus; it was supported by 

 Democritus, and subsequently improved by 

 Epicurus and his disciples. The Epicureans 

 professed to account for the origin and forma- 

 tion of all things by supposing that these atoms 

 were endued with gravity and motion, and thus 

 came together into the different organized bodies 

 we now see. 



Atomic Theory. A theory as to the 

 existence and properties of atoms (see Atom); 

 especially, in cnemistry, the theory accounting 

 for the fact that in compound bodies the ele- 

 ments combine in certain constant proportions, 

 by assuming that all bodies are composed of 

 ultimate atoms, the weight of which is different 

 in different kinds of matter. It is associated 

 with the name of Dalton, who systematized and 

 extended the imperfect results of his predeces- 

 sors. On its practical side the atomic theory 

 asserts three Lows of Combining Proportions: 

 I (1) the Law of Constant or Definite Proportions, 

 | teaching that in every chemical compound the 

 nature and proportion of the constituent ele- 

 ments are definite and invariable; thus water 

 invariably consists of eight parts by weight of 

 oxygen to one part by weight of hydrogen; 

 (2) the Law of Combination in Multiple Propor- 

 tions, according to which the several proportions 

 in which one element unites with another in- 

 variably bear towards each other a simple rela- 

 tion; thus one part by weight of hydrogen 

 unites with eight parts by weight of oxygen to 

 form water, and with M\u-en part^ ( j". g. f 8x2) 

 of oxygen to form |x>ro\ide of hydrogen; (8) 

 the LAW of Combination in Reciprocal Pn>|>or- 

 tions. that the proportions in which two elements 

 combine with a thinl aU<> represent the propor- 

 tions in which, or in some simple multiple of 

 which, they will themselves combine; thus in 

 oleliant iras hydrogen is present with carbon in 

 the proportion of one to M\. an.i in carbonic 

 i is present with carbon in the pro- 

 portion of eight to .i\. one to eight being also 

 the proportions in which hydrogen and oxygen 

 combine with each ml.. v that the-e 



1 nnal nnmltcrx are, in fact, nothing else 

 but the relative weights of at< accounts 



for the phenomena that tin of the?e 



laws might have been predicted by the aid of 

 the atomic hy|x. thesis long before they were 

 illy discovered by analysis. In themselves. 



