ATH 



ATM 



snd order, and of the natural order of 

 compound flowers. The essential cha- 

 racter is, calyx imbricate ; down chaffy, 

 very short ; receptacle chaffy. There are 

 20 species. 



ATHEIST, is one who does not believe 

 in the existence of a God. He attributes 

 every thing to a fortuitous concourse of 

 atoms. Plato distinguishes three sorts of 

 Atheists. 1. Such as deny,absolutely that 

 there are any gods. 2. Others who allow 

 their existence, but deny that they have 

 aiiy concern with human affairs ; and, 

 Jastly, such as believe in gods and a pro- 

 vidence, but think they are easily ap- 

 peased, and remit the greatest of crimes 

 for the smallest supplication. The first 

 of these are the only true Atheists, and it 

 has been doubted whether such persons 

 really exist; yet it must be confessed, 

 that, in the year 1619, Spinosa was burnt 

 to death for having avowed his adherence 

 to the opinion. We have many excellent 

 works in opposition to Atheism, but not 

 a single treatise written in its behalf. 

 Those who wish to see Atheism confuted, 

 may be referred to the sermons preached 

 at Boyle's Lectures ; to Abernelhy's Dis- 

 courses on the Attributes ; and, above all, 

 to Paley's Natural Theology. Newton, 

 Boyle, Maclaurin, and others, among the 

 most distinguished mathematicians and 

 philosophers, have been among the ablest 

 advocates for the existence of a God. 



ATHENJEA, in botany, a genus of 

 plants of the Octandria Monogynia class 

 and order. Essential character : calyx 

 coloured, five-parted ; no corolla ; bristles 

 eight-feathered between the filaments ; 

 stigma five-parted ; capsule globose, one- 

 celled, three-valved ; seeds three to five. 

 There is one species, a branching shrub ; 

 stem four or five inches in diameter, co- 

 vered with a wrinkled grey bark. The 

 flowers come out in bundles from the 

 axils ; their calyx is white ; capsule green, 

 with a tinge of violet. The seeds are co- 

 vered with a pulpy viscid membrane, of 

 a scarlet colour; the bark, leaves, and 

 fruits, are sharp and aromatic. The last 

 are called by the Creoles caffe-diable. It 

 is a native of Cayenne and the neighbour- 

 ing continent of Guiana, a mile from the 

 shore, in a sandy soil, flowering and bear- 

 ing fruit in September. 



ATHENJEUM, in antiquity, a public 

 place wherein the professors of the liberal 

 arts held their assemblies, the rhetoricians 

 declaimed, and the poets rehearsed their 

 performances. 



ATHERINA, silver-side, in natural his- 

 tory, a genus of fishes of the order Abdo- 

 minales. Head somewhat flattened over 



the upper-jaw ; gill membrane six-rayed ; 

 body marked by a silver lateral stripe. 

 There are five species : A. hespetus has 

 an anal fin with about twelve rays ; it in- 

 habits the Mediterranean, European, anJ 

 lied seas ; about three or four inches 

 long; body varied with a few bkck spots, 

 and nearly" pellucid. This species, which 

 is named Athernos by the modern 

 Greeks, is seen in vast shoals about the 

 coasts of the islands in the Archipelago, 

 and is easily taken in great quantities, by 

 the simple device of trailing in the water 

 a horse's tail or a piece of black-cloth 

 fastened to the end of a pole, the fishes 

 following all its motions, and suffering 

 themselves to be drawn into some deep 

 cavity formed by the rocks, when they 

 are readily secured by means of a net, 

 and may be taken at pleasure. At South- 

 ampton, England, they are to be had at 

 almost all seasons, where they go by the 

 name of Smelts. See Plate Pisces, fig. 4. 



ATHWART, in naval affairs, across the 

 line of the ship's course, as " We disco- 

 vered a fleet standing athwart us," i. e. 

 steering across our way. 



ATHWART hawse, the situation of a ship 

 when she is driven by any accident across 

 the stem of another, whether they bear 

 against, or at small distance from, each 

 other : the transverse position being prin- 

 cipally understood. 



ATLAS, in matters of literature, de- 

 notes a book of universal geography, con- 

 taining maps of all the known parts of the 

 world. 



ATLAS, in commerce, a silk-satin, ma- 

 nufactured in the East Indies. There are 

 some plain, some striped, and some flow- 

 ered ; the flowers of which are either 

 gold or silk. There are atlasses of all co- 

 lours, but most of them false, especially 

 the red and the crimson. The manufac- 

 ture of them is admirable, the gold and 

 silk being worked together after such a 

 manner as no workmen in Europe can 

 imitate ; yet they are very far from hav- 

 ing that fine gloss and lustre which the 

 French know how to give their silk stuffs. 

 In the Chinese manufactures of this sort, 

 they gild paper on one side with leaf- 

 gold, then cut it in long slips, and weave 

 it into their silks, which makes them, 

 with very little cost, look very rich and 

 fine. The same slips are twisted or turn- 

 ed about silk threads so artificially, as to 

 look finer than gold thread, though it be 

 of no greater value. 



ATMOSPHERE is that invisible elastic 

 fluid which surrounds the earth to an un- 

 known height, and encloses it on all sides. 

 This fluid is essential to the existence of 



