A L C 



Iwing at L-aft cnli^jhtencd by lii» doftrine and cxamplo, and 

 ... v.-J by ihe bcndUs he piucurid lor them tVoni Cliarlc- 

 . A German poet, cited by Camden, thus extols the 

 iiA-.i. ot" Alcuin in introducing literature into France : 



" Quid non Alcuino, facunda I.utctia, debes ! 

 Inffaumre bonas ibi qui feliciter artes, 

 15;u-bariemque procul lolus depellere, cxpit." 



•' Let Gallia's fons, nuitur'd in ancient lore. 

 To Aleul-i's name a grateful tribute pay ; 

 'Twas his, the light of fciencc to rcftore, 

 'And bid Barbaric darknefs flee away." 



Dr. Warton, however, (Hift. of Englidi Poetry, vol. i. 

 difT. 2.) cautions us againft forming " too magnificent ideas 

 of thofe celebrated mailers of fcience, who were thus in- 

 vited into foreign countries to conduft the education of 

 mighty monarclis, and to plan the rudiments of the molt 

 ilhiilri'ous academies. Their merits are in a great meafure 

 relative. Their circle of reading was contrafted, their 

 fyflems of philofophy jejune ; and their leftures rather 

 fcrved to ilnp the growth of ignorance than to produce any 

 pofitive or important improvements in knowledge." After 

 Alcuin had fpent many years in the moll intimate familiarity 

 with the grcatell prince of his age, he obtained, at length, 

 with great difficulty, in 80 1, leave to retire from court to 

 his abi5ey of St. Martin's, at Tours. Here he kept up a 

 conftant coirefpondence by letters with Charlemagne ; from 

 which it appearsjthat both the emperor and his learned friend 

 were animated widi the moil ardent love to learning and re- 

 ligion, and conftantly employed m contriving and executing 

 the nobleft defigns for their advancement. The emperor of- 

 ten and earnellly folicited him to return to court, but no 

 argument.s could induce him to quit this honourable retreat 

 where he was employed in the education of the youth of 

 the fchool which he had founded in this city ; and where 

 he died on Wliitfunday, in the year 804. He was a perfon 

 of diftinguidied piety and learning, and reckoned by William 

 of Malmlbury the beit Englilh divine after Bede and Aid- 

 helm. He compofed many treatifes on a great variety of 

 fubjedls, in a ftyle much fuperior with refpett to purity and 

 elegance to that of the generahty of writers in the age in 

 whicii he flouridied. Befides his poem, " De pontificibus 

 et Sanclis Ecclefise Eboracenfis," firft difeovered by Ma- 

 Vjillon, and publilhed by Dr. Gale among his " Qiiindecem 

 Scnptores ;" his other writings arc extremely voluminous. 

 They confiil of commentaries on the Bible, homilies, lives 

 of faints, theological and metaphyfical difcufiions, epiftles, 

 verfes, and treatifes on orthography, grammar, rhetoric, 

 and niufic ; they are recited in the Biog. Brit, and by Cave, 

 (iil'i fiipra) and amount in number to 53 ; and an edition of 

 them waspublidied by Duchefne, at Paris, in folio, in 1617, 

 and at Ratidjon in 1777. Some additional pieces are enu- 

 merated by Dupin. It has been faid that Alcuin advifed 

 Bede to publiHi his ecclefiaflical hiiloi7, and furnidied ma- 

 terials for it; but the aflertion is contradifted by chronology ; 

 this work having been publidied in 731. There was another 

 Alcuinus, or Albinus, abbot of St. Auftin's church at 

 Canterbury, the cotemporary of Bede, who died three vears 

 before him. By this Alcuin Bede was urged to publidi his 

 hiilory, and afiilled with communications. Biocr. Brit. 

 Henry's Hift. vol. iv. p. 33 — 40. 8vo. Modieim"'s Ecd. 

 Hill. vol. iv. p. 254, &c. 8vo. 



ALCYON. See Halcyon. 



Alcyon, or Alcyonium, in Ornithology, a name given 

 by the ancients to the ifpida orking-fidicr, and alfo a fpecies 

 of the Alcedo. 



A L C 



Alcyon, a name given by Brown to the rELECANUs 

 aquiltis. 



ALCYONE, in Entomology, a fpecies of the Pa pi no 

 NfrnphiJis, with dentated brown wings, with yellow bands, 

 the anterior having two ocelli on both fides, and the pofterior 

 marbled below ; found in the mountains of the fouthern 

 parts of RulFia. 



ALCYONIUM, in the Linnaean fyftem of Zoology, a 

 genus of Zoophftes ; the charafters of which are, that the 

 animal grows in the form of a plant ; the ilem or root is 

 fixed, flcdiy, gelatinous, fpongy, or coriaceous, with a 

 cellular epidermis, penetrated with ftellated pores, and 

 fliooting out tentaculated oviparous hydrx. The number of 

 fpecies, mentioned and characterized by Gmelin, is 28 ; 

 •VIZ. I. A. arboreum, with woody ilem, obtufe branches, 

 and pores in the form of pimples, found in Norway, White 

 and Indian feas, fometimes of the human height. 2. A. 

 i.voj-, with Ilem arborelcent, coriaceous, crmiloa-coloured, 

 above ramous, and with ilellated papillae, called by feveral 

 authors the fea-hand, and found at the bottom of the Me- 

 diterranean fea. 3. A. epipiitrum, with ftem, cavated, flediy, 

 and reddidi : the linger-ihaped fea-pen of Ellis, and fea 

 mad-apple of Rondeletius, found in the Mediterranean, 

 about four inches long, and of the thicknefs of the finger. 

 4. A. agaricum, with flem filiform, and reniform pileus, 

 kidney-fliaped purple fea-pen of Ellis, found in the fea, 

 wadiing the coall of Carohna. 5. A. dig'itatum, ftemlefs, 

 oblong, coriaceous, and rugofe, dead-man's hand, or dead- 

 man's toes of ElUs ; the tethya of Rumphius, and fucus 

 palma marinus of C. Bauhin, found in the European fea, 

 encruiling teilaceous fidi and ftones. 6. A. fchlofferi, 

 roundidi and llupofe, penetrated with ray-like flars, the 

 alcyonium ramofum lividum. Sec. of Solanderand Ellis, the 

 uva marina of Gefner, the botryllus llellatus of Gaertner, 

 found on the coall of Cornwall, brown or adiy, and covering 

 other bodies. 7. A. lyncunum, globofe, fibrous, yellow 

 and warty, the tethya fphasrica of Donat, found in the Me- 

 diterranean, and at the Cape of Good Hope, about the fize 

 of an orange and cartilaginous. 8. A. burju, fub-globole, 

 pulpous and green, the lea-orange of MarfiUi, found in the 

 Englidi and Mediterranean feas, about the fize of a middling 

 apple, and coriaceous. 9. A. cydonlum, roundidi, fpongy, 

 yellow and fmootli, found in the African, Mediterranean, 

 and Northern feas, affixed to rocks and corals, and fometimes 

 loofened by the agitation of the waves, 10. A.. Jlciis, obo- 

 vated, pulpous and livid, the fea-fig of Ellis, and fea-lungs 

 of Ray, the alcyonium tuberofum of J. Bauhin, found in 

 the Mediterranean and Englidi feas, very rarely among foflils, 

 of an olive colour, and within granulofe. 1 1. A.. gelatlnofum, 

 polymorphous and gelatinous, the alcyonium luteum gclati- 

 noium pulymorphum of Solander and Ellis, fpongia ramofa, 

 &c. of Parkinfon, fucus gelatinofus of Hudion, and fucus 

 nodofus and fpongiofus of Ray, found in the European 

 ocean and the Icy fea, adhering to the algte, ftones, diell- 

 fidi, &c. 12. A. manus dlaloli, polymorphous, perforated 

 with obtufe protuberances, found in Iceland. 13. A. maffa, 

 yellow, fpongy, patulous, with five radiated fmallftars, and 

 black center, found in the fea of Norway. 14. A. cranium, 

 tuberifonn, white and briilly, found in the Norway fea. 

 15. A. riiLrum, cruilaceous, foft, fprinkled with reddilh 

 fcattered fpots, found in the Norway fea. 16. A. mammil- 

 lijjum, whitidi, coriaceous, with convex mammilla, and the 

 center hollow and fubftellated, found in the American fea. 

 17. A. ocellaium, ferruginous, coriaceous, with rugofe 

 fubcylindric cellules, and radiated ocellated apices, found 

 adhering to rocks, with twelve rays of ilars, 'in the ifland 



of 



