AGENT 



01 



AGRA 



is the Victorian Age, during which great pro- 

 gress was made in art, literature and science, 

 and the tone and morality of social life were 

 greatly elevated. 



AGENT, in law, one who is employed to 

 represent another individual, or company, 

 called the principal, the relation between them 

 being called agency. An agent may be general 

 or special, the latter acting by authority for his 

 principal in a special business only. The posi- 

 tion of agent is one of trust, calling for faithful 

 performance of specified duties. The com- 

 pensation varies according to the responsibility 

 incurred and the work done. A definite salary 

 may be agreed upon, or the agent may receive 

 a commission figured at a certain per cent of 

 the value of the business resulting from his 

 labor. 



The agent is personally liable to third per- 

 sons when he does not disclose the principal 

 for whom he is acting, but not otherwise, unless 

 he exceed his authority. The employer is not 

 responsible for acts of the agent which are 

 unauthorized. The principal is generally liable 

 to third persons for civil offenses committed 

 by the agent when acting within the scope of 

 his agency; but this does not relieve the agent 

 of personal liability himself. As a means of 

 enforcing payment for his services, the law 

 gives the agent a lien upon the property of 

 the principal which may be in his hands. See 

 CONTRACT; LIEN. 



AGINCOURT or AZINCOURT, ah zhan koor' , 

 a village of Northern France, in the depart- 

 ment Pas de Calais, where was fought, in 1415, 

 a famous battle of the Hundred Years' War 

 (which see). In this battle the heavily-armed 

 ich, numbering about 60,000, were totally 

 routed by the English archers of Henry V, 

 whose force numbered only 15,000. The French 

 nobility was almost destroyed in this conflict. 



AGNOS'TIC, a word of Greek origin, mean- 

 ing unknowable. It refers to a person who 

 ves that no one can really prove that a 

 God exists, or that he does not exist. He 

 takes the position of one who says, "I do not 

 know." The belief of the agnostic is based on 

 theory that the human mind can offer 

 >f only for the things that are known 

 thn.imh Tin- senses; that is, that can be 

 i'l, or seen, or heard, etc. Likewise, he 

 argues, man cannot prove many things that 

 seem to be real, not even his own existence, 

 agnostic is not an atheist, for the latter 

 is a God. An old school of 

 Greek philosophers called Sophists held the 



same theory, but the word agnostic was first 

 used in 1869 by Thomas H. Huxley. Agnosti- 

 cism is the name given the principles of the 

 agnostics. See SOPHISTS. 



AGOUTI, ah goo' te, the name of several 

 rodents, or gnawing animals, related to the 

 porcupines. There are eight or nine species, 

 all belonging to South America and the West 

 Indies. The common agouti, or yellow-rumped 



AGOUTI 



cavy, is of the size of a rabbit. It burrows in 

 the ground or in hollow trees, lives on vege- 

 tables and fruit, though eating meat whenever 

 it can be obtained. The agouti grunts like a 

 pig, and is as greedy, so where it is common 

 it does much injury to crops. Its flesh is 

 white and palatable. It is readily domesti- 

 cated, but is too destructive to make a desir- 

 able pet. 



AGRA, ah' gra, a city of India, in the United 

 Provinces of Agra and Oudh, 841 miles north- 

 west of Calcutta and 110 miles southeast of 

 Delhi. It was the capital of the former prov- 

 ince of Agra, and has interesting structures, 

 among which are the imperial palace, the Moti 

 Masjid, or Pearl Mosque; the mosque called 

 the Jama Masjid, or Great Mosque, and the 

 Taj Mahal, a mausoleum, or tomb, of the 

 seventeenth century, built by the emperor 

 Shah Jehan to his favorite queen (see TAJ 

 MAHAL). Agra has an important trade in 

 grain, sugar, tobacco and cotton, and the in- 

 habitants have acquired a worldwide reputa- 

 tion for the manufacture of gold lace and deli- 

 cate inlaid mosaics. 



The city is one of the oldest in India and 

 has been prominent since the first part of the 

 sixteenth century. During the Sepoy Rebel- 

 lion of 1857 it was a place of refuge for 

 Europeans, being captured by the British after 

 a siege lasting several months. At present 

 Agra is an important railway center and also 

 a commercial and financial center of northwest 

 India. Population in 1911, 185,449. 



