ANT 



>y manners and languages, are yet of the 

 same species, and that the same institu- 

 tions may originate amongst twenty differ- 

 ent people. The wonder would be, that 

 they should not shew a resemblance. We 

 find these mounds in every part of the 

 globe ; in the north of Europe, and in 

 Great Britain, they are numerous, and 

 much resemble ours, but less considerable. 

 The pyramids of Egypt are perhaps the 

 oldest monuments of human labour in that 

 country, so favourable to the production 

 of a numerous population. The pyramids 

 of Mexico, which are but little known, 

 and yet scarcely less considerable, like 

 those of Egypt, have their origin hid in 

 the night of oblivion. 



" Who will assign, as the age of Ame- 

 rica, a period of years different from that 

 allowed to, what has been denominated, 

 the old world ? The multiplicity of proofs 

 contradict the recency of her origin ; 

 deeply imbedded stories of carbonated 

 wood, the traces of ancient volcanoes! We 

 could appeal to her time-worn cataracts, 

 and channels of mighty rivers, and to her 

 venerable mountains. Grant, then, that 

 America may have existed a few thousand 

 years ; the same causes prevailing-, like 

 effects will be produced ; the same revo- 

 lutions as have been known in the old 

 world may have taken place here."* See 

 Views of Louisiana, by H. M. Brecken- 

 ridge, Esq. 



ANTIRRHINUM, snapdragon, toad, 

 fax, in botany, a genus of the Didynamia 

 Angiospermia. Calyx five-parted ; corol 

 with a nectariferous prominence at its 

 base, pointing downwards ; the orifice 

 closed and furnished with a cloven convex 

 palate ; capsule two-celled. This genus 

 is separated into five divisions, viz. A. 

 leaves angular ; capsules many valved. B. 

 leaves opposite ; capsules many valved. 



C. leaves alternate ; capsules many valved. 



D. corols without spur ; capsules perfora- 

 ted with three pores. E. leaves pinnati- 

 fid. There are 12 species of the first di- 

 vision ; nearly 40 of the second division ; 

 11 of the third; 7 of the fourth; and 2 of 

 the last. 



ANTISTROPHE, in grammar, a figure, 

 by which two things mutually dependent 

 on one another are reciprocally convert- 

 ed. As the servant of the master, and the 

 master of the servant. 



ANTISTROPHE, among lyric poets, 

 that part of a song and dance in use 

 among the ancients, which was performed 



AOR 



before the altar, in returning from west to 

 east, in opposition to strophe. See the 

 articles STROPHE and ODE. 



ANTITHESIS, in rhetoric, a contrast 

 drawn between two things, which thereby 

 serve as shades to set oil' the opposite 

 qualities of each other. 



The poets, historians, and orators, im- 

 prove their subject, and greatly heighten 

 the pleasure of the reader, by the pleasing 

 opposition of their characters and de- 

 scriptions. 



The beautiful antithesis of Cicero, in 

 his second Cartilinarian, may serve for an 

 example : " On the one side stands mo- 

 desty, on the other impudence ; on the 

 one fidelity, on the other deceit ; here 

 piety, there sacrilege ; here continency, 

 there lust, &c." And Virgil, in his admi- 

 rable description of Dido's despair, the 

 night before her death, represents all the 

 rest of the creation enjoying profound 

 tranquillity, to render the disquietude of 

 that miserable queen the more affecting. 



ANTOECI, in geography, an appella- 

 tion given to those inhabitants of the earth 

 who live under the same meridian, but on 

 different sides of the equator, and at equal 

 distances from it. 



These have noon, and midnight, and all 

 hours at the same time, but contrary sea- 

 sens of the year ; that is, when it is 

 spring with the one, it is autumn with the 

 other : when summer with the one, win- 

 ter with the other. And the days of the 

 one are equal to the nights of the other, 

 and vice versa. 



ANTONOM ASIA, in rhetoric, a figure, 

 by which the proper name of one thing is 

 applied to several others ; or, on the con- 

 trary, the name of several things to one. 

 Thus we call a cruel person, a Nero : and 

 we say the philosopher, to denote Aristo- 

 tle. 



ANTS, acid of. See FORMIC ACID. 

 ANVIL, an iron instrument, on which 

 smiths hammer or forge their work, and 

 usually mounted on a firm wooden block. 

 A forged anvil is reckoned better than one 

 of cast work. 



ANUS, in anatomy, the extremity of 

 the intestinum rectum, or orifice of the 

 fundament. See ANATOMY. 



AOR1ST, among grammarians, a tense 

 peculiar to the Greek language, compre- 

 hending all the tenses ; or rather express- 

 ing an action in an indeterminate manner, 

 without any regard to past, present, or 

 future. 



* Many of the curiosities found in the weitcrn country are deposited in the museum of the Philosophical 

 Society of Philadelphia. 



