A T II i 



manta to have existed a century before the Troian war, and 

 . to have preserved their name ami ( the days 



of Alexander. It is said that thi rt WW I foil 



""^ in their territories, the waters of whieh becar: 



sulphureous during the last quarter of the moon, that 

 they burned wood. See Strnhc, lib. vii. ; P 

 lib. ii. cap. 103. ; Pompon, Mela. lib. ii. cap. 

 and Ovid Mttamorph. xr. \. .'HI. (j) 



AT11AMANTA, a genus of plants' of thi 

 Pentandria, and order Digynia. , (') 



ATHAMAS, king of Thebes. See Apoliodo- 

 rus, lib. i. cap. 7. and 9. ; 1'aitsun. lib. ix. cap. :il. ; 

 llygin. Fab. 1, 2, 5. | and Lempriere's ( 

 Dictionary. ( /) 



ATHANASIA, a genus of plants of the class 

 Syngenesia, and order Polygamia ^Cqualis. See 

 Botany, (w) 



ATHANASIUS, Saint, flourished in the fourth 

 eentury, and was the renowned champion of ortho- 

 doxy against the Arians. We have no certain ac- 

 counts of his parentage ; and all that we know of 

 his younger years, is, that he was a native of Egypt, 

 and lied by his proficiency in theo- 



logical learning. He accompanied the bishop of 

 Alexandria to the council of Nice, in the capacity of 

 secretary ; and though then only a deacon, distinguish- 

 ed himself greatly by his zeal and his eloquence against 

 Arius, and his party. He recommended himself so 

 much te his patron and employer, that, in the year 

 326, he succeeded him in the see of Alexandria, by 

 his special nomination. He immediately devoted his 

 time and his talents to a zealous support of the ca- 

 tholic doctrine of the Trinity, against the innovations 

 of Arius ; and never had any cause a more intrepid 

 advocate. He was live times driven into exile, or 

 forced to abdicate his episcopal see, by the intrigues 

 of his enemies ; but his zeal was never diminished by 

 his misfortunes, and he at last triumphed over all his 

 opponents, dying in quiet possession of his see in the 

 vcar 373. He was first banished by the Emperor 

 Constantine, on the unfounded accusation of detain- 

 ing at Alexandria the ships which supplied Constan- 

 tinople with corn. The place of his exile was Treves, 

 in Gaul, where he remained about eighteen mouths, 

 when he was honourably restored to his see by an 

 edict of Constantius. A cod-ncil of Arian bishops, 

 held at Antioeh, represented this restoration of Atha- 

 nasius as an encroachment on synodical authority, 

 and confirmed his former deposition. Upon this he 

 fled to Julius, bishop of Rome, and was patronized 

 by the Emperor Constans, who threatened to make 

 war on his brother Constantius if Athanasius was not 

 restored. The eastern emperor complied with this 

 demand ; but Athanasius was soon assailed by the 

 violence of his adversaries, and, being again deprived 

 of his episcopal authority, was forced to seek an asy- 

 lum in the desert of Thebais, where he remained un- 

 heard of for the space of six years. He was again 

 restored to his see under Julian, and afterwards ba- 

 nished by the same emperor, to whom he was parti- 

 cularly obnoxious. He was afterwards restored by 

 Jovian, and again banished by Valcns ; he was finally 

 restored under the latttr emperor, and ended his days 

 in tranquillity. 



The character of Athanasius is thus drawn by 



A T II 



Gibbon, who cannot be supposed partial to his te- 

 nets : " Amidst the storms of tion, he was 

 patient of labour ; jealous of fame ; careless of safety : 

 and though his mind was tainted by the contagion of 

 fanaticism, Athanasius displayed a superiority of cha- 

 racter and abilities, whieh would have qualified him, 

 much better than the degenerate soul of Constantine, 

 for the government of a great empire. His learning 

 was much less profound and extensive than that of 

 Euteoiua of Ocsaria, and his rude eloquence could 

 not be compared with the polished oratory of Gre- 

 gory, or Basil ; but whenever the primate of Egypt 

 was called upon to justify his sentiments, or his eon- 

 duct, his unpremeditated style, either of speaking or 

 writing, was clear, forcible, and persuasive." 



Eusebius Renaudotus, in his history of the Pa- 

 triarchs of Alexandria, has collected all the accounts 

 which oriental writers gi\e of Athanasius; and the 

 celebrated Bernard MontfaucOfl has published a 

 did edition of his works, in three volumes folio. His 

 works consist chiefly of apologies for himself, or in- 

 vectives against his enemies. The most valuable are, 

 his first book " Against the Gentiles ;" " Apolo- 

 gies ;" " Letter to tin ad a Monastic Life ;" 

 " Letters to Serapion ;" " Conference with the 

 Arians," &e. &c. Dupin and Cave have en 

 ted both the genuine and the spurious works of 

 Athanasius. For an account of what is commonlv 

 called the Athanasian Creed, see Cheer. See G;l>- 

 boir s Hist. vols. hi. and iv. Lardner's Works, vol. iv. 



() 



ATHANOR, or AcANOK, a species of furnace 



used by the alchemists in the tedious processes, by 

 means of which they expected to produce the pre- 

 cious from the baser metals. It is derived from 

 aiWaTos, immortal, denoting.its property of maintain- 

 ing a long continued heat without attendance, by 

 means of a magazine of fuel connected with it. This 

 instrument is now superseded by furnaces of a more 

 useful kind. ( /) 



ATHAPUSCOW, or Slave Lake, the name 

 of a large lake in North America, about 120 leagues 

 long, and 20 wide. It is variegated with a number 

 of islands covered with trees, and abounds in various 

 kinds of fish. It is connected by rivers with a great 

 number of smaller lakes to the east and north of it, 

 and with the North Sea by Mackenzie's River. Ac- 

 cording to some maps, it is separate from Slave Lake, 

 and lies to the south of it. N. Lat. 61, and be- 

 tween the parallel* of 112 and 120 west, (re) 



ATHEISM, (from x priv. and eo?, God,) may- 

 be defined to be, the total want of religious principle. 



The word is generally employed by modern wri- 

 ters to signify, the absolute denial of an Intelligent 

 First Cause. This has been called pure atheism. 

 But we conceive, that those who habitually doubt 

 this fundamental doctrine, or who object to all the 

 proofs which have ever been offered in its support, 

 must be considered as subjecting themselves to the 

 same charge, although they may not have arrived at 

 such a degree of hardiness, as formally to avow their 

 unqualified disbelief. Lord Shaftesbury thinks it 

 hard that any man should be pronounced an atheist, 

 whose whole thoughts are not steadily and invariably 

 bent, at all times, and in all circumstances, against 



