AGE 



AGE 



Tlie word is alfo written agenfriga, and agenfiie. It is 

 derived from the Saxon «^i7;, o'ivn, and /ivv/, lorJ. 



AGENHINE, in our Uld IVrilos, lignillcs a gucft that 

 lias lodged at an inn for three niglits, atier whieh time he is 

 accounted one of the family ; and it he offended the king's 

 peace, his holl was anfwerable for him. It is alfo written 

 hogrnlnnc and hogenhyne, 



AGEN'OIS, in Geography, a country of France, in the 

 late province of Guiennc, (now department of the l,ot and 

 Garonne) comprehending about 120 fquare leagues. It is 

 a very fertile and healthy countiy, and was formerly inha- 

 bited by the Nitriobriges, mentioned by Cxfar. It formed 

 a part of the kingdom of Aquitania, and was aftenvards 

 potTelTed by the counts of Touloufe, and iucceilively by the 

 Englilh and French. See Agen. 



AGENOR, in Fahuloiis Hijlory, was the fon of Neptune 

 and Lybia, and the father of Cadmus. He reigned in 

 PhccniciT and married Thelepaffa, by whom he had three 

 fons, Cadmus, Phosnix and Cilix, and a daughter called 

 Europa. Jupiter carried away the da\ighter, and Agenor 

 ordered his three fons to leek for her, forbidding them to re- 

 turn to his court without her. Their fcarch was fruitlefs, 

 and they were banilhed, and fettled in different countries. 



ActNOR, iu Natural H'ljlory, a fpecics of Papilio 

 Eques, with black wings, fanguineous at their bafe ; the 

 poilerior having a white difc with black fpots. It is found 

 in China. 



AGENORIA, foi-med of aymiii, Jlrong, in Mythology, 

 the goddefs of induilry and courage, as Vaciina was of in- 

 dolence. 



AGENT, Agens, in Phyfics, that whereby a thing is 

 done, or eflcfted ; or that which has a power whereby it 

 afts on another ; or by its aftion induces lome change in it. 

 The word ag^tit is uled promiieuoufly with EmciENT, 

 and in contradilliniition to patient. 



The ichools divide agents mio natural znd free. 

 Agf-Nts, natural or plrjical, are thofe immediately deter- 

 mined by the Author of nature, to produce one fort of 

 effect ; with an incapacity to produce the contrary. 



Agents, natural, are again fubdividcd into vnivocal, 

 which are fuch as produce effefts of the fame kind and 

 denomination with the agents themfelves ; and equivocal, 

 whofe effefts are of a different kind, 5:c. from the agents. 



The fchoolmen reckon the following circumftances ne- 

 ceffary to the being of an agent ; viz. that it be contiguous 

 to the objeft, dillinft from it, have a power over it, a fphere 

 of activity, and a proportion or rate of afting. 



Agent, J'ree or voluntary, is that which may equally do 

 any thing, or its oppofite ; as acting not from any prede- 

 termination, but from choice Such is the mind iv.ppofed 



to be, which has a fpontaneous power of chuiing or rcfuling. 

 It is a celebrated quellion among philofuphers and divines, 

 ■whether man be a free, or a neceffary agent ? It may be 

 thus Rated : man is a necellary agent, if all his actions are 

 fo determined by the caufe preceding each action, that no 

 one palt aftion could poffibly not have come to pafs, or 

 have been otherwife than it was ; nor one future aftion can 

 poffibly not come to pafs, or be otherwife than it Ihall be. 

 On the contraiy, man is a free agent, if he be able at any 

 time, in certain circumltances, to do different things ; or, 

 in other words, if he is not ever unavoidably determined in 

 every point of time, by the circumltances he is in, to do 

 that one thing he does, and not polfibly to do any other. 



Which of thefe two definitions agrees to man, is a 

 queilion of fadl to be determined by what we experience in 

 ourfelves, with regard to the operations of our own minds. 

 See Liberty, NfcCESsiTY, and Will. 

 Vol. I. 



The term agent evidently implies a power of feH"-detf nni- 

 nation ; and the epithet iieajfary, applied to agent, forms 

 a lolccifm both in fenfe and language. Price's Re»iew, &c. 

 p. 315, &c. 



Agent is more particularly ufed for the miniller of a 

 prince, or ftatc, at another court. 



In which fenfe, agents are commonly reputed a fpecies of 

 public miniilers, Or ambassadors: but they differ effen- 

 tially, as agents are not inverted with any reprelentative cha- 

 racter, although eutrurted with the affairs and interelts of 

 their princes. See Envoy. 



Agent is alfo uled for a perfon intiufted with the ma- 

 nagement of aflairs, either of a corporation, or private perfon. 

 In which fenfe the word coincides with deputy, procurator, 

 fyiuric, faflor, &c. 



Among the officers in the excheojilr, there arc four 

 agents for taxes. 



Agents oi liauk and exchange, are p\iblic ofFicei'S, efta- 

 blilhed in the trading cities of France, to negociate matters 

 between merchants relating to bills of exchange, and the 

 buying and felling of goods : the fame whh thofe who, 

 among us, are called i xch ANCr-BROKERS. 



Agents of the viehtaHing ojjice, are officers under the 

 commiffioners, appointed to buy and contraCi for proviliona, 

 &c. Some of thefe are fettled in tlve ports, where they 

 have much the fame ofhce and authority as the commiffioners 

 in Eondon. 



AG-e.-HT-vhlualhr, is ufed in the fame fenfe. 

 Agent and patient, in Common Laiu, is where a perfon 

 does, or gives, ibmcthing to himfelf ; fo that he is at the 

 fame time both the doer and giver, and the receiver or party- 

 it is don« to. — Such is a woman, when (he endows herfclf 

 with pait of her huiband's inheritance. 



Agent, in Chcmijlry. According to the ancient chemifts, 

 fubftances were compofed of aftive and paffive principL. » ; 

 the latter of which received impreffions from and were mo» 

 dified by the foniier, without exerting any reciprocal action. 

 Spirit, oil and fait, were confidered as the attive, and earth 

 and water, as the paffive principles. This diftinc^ion evidently 

 arofe from the phenomena of folution, and the apparent 

 energy which acids and other fluids exhibit in their com- 

 bination with metals and fohds in general. It is now how- 

 ever univerfally allowed, and indeed neceffarilv follows from 

 the doctrine of afhnity, that whenever two fubftances com- 

 bine together, it is in confequence of a mutual attraftion, 

 which belongs as much to one element as to the other of a 

 compound ; this definition therefore^ of chemical agent is no 

 longer adhered to, and though we ilill continue io ufe the 

 expreifion of one body having a powerful a6tion on another, 

 it is by no means intended to deny the equal reciprocity of 

 chemical attraftion. 



The general term agent fignifics, therefore, in ftriftnefs, 

 any fubftance capable of producing chemical aftion ; and 

 when, in explaining a proccfs, the quality of agent is attri- 

 buted to a body, it is only ufed as a defignation of the fub- 

 ftance whofe prefence determines the combination or decom- 

 pofition. In which fenfe it is fomeiimes attributed to men- 

 ttrua, or fuch bodies as in mixture have thegreateft iliaix- of 

 aftivity and motion ; and it is fometimes alfo ufed for what 

 we more ufually call injlrument. Thus fire, water, air, 

 earth, and menftrua, are chemical agents. 



That internal agent in man, whereby all the vital motions 

 ^neceffary to the prefervation and reftoration of the body are 

 managed, is by fome called nature; by others archncus, 

 calUdum innatum, animal foul, vital fpirit, or principle, &c. 



AGENTE, in Mufic, a term which, in the infancy of coun- 

 terpoint, was given, by the Italians, to the note of percuffion, 

 3 E that 



