A V I 



ready too large. " Upon tlie whole," fays the biographer 

 above cited, " if not entitled to rank among the greatell 

 and beft of mankind, he will be ever refpected as one of 

 thofe foverei;Tns whofe pcrfonal qualities had a great in- 

 fluence in promoting the happincfi of the people he go- 

 verned." 



A popnlar hirtorian (fee Gibbon's Hid. vol. i. p. 114.) 

 has given the following iketch of the char cler and hillary 

 of Augnllus. " The tender refptft of Aiiguilus for a free 

 conrtitiition which lie had deflroycd, can only be explained 

 by an attentive confideration of the charafter of that fnbtle 

 tyrant. A cool head, an unfeeling heart, and a cov.-ardly 

 difpolition, prompted hun, at the age of nineteen, to affume 

 the maik of hypocrify, which he never afterwards !?.:d afide. 

 With the fame hand, and probably with the fame temper, 

 he fi-.rned the profcriptiou of Cicero, and the pardon of 

 Cinna. Hisviitnes, and even his vices, were artificial, and 

 according to the various dilates of his intercft, he was at 

 firft the enemy, and at laft tiie father of the Roman world. 

 When he framed the artful fyftem of the imperial authority, 

 his moderation was infpired by his fears. He wished to de- 

 ceive the people by an image of civil liberty, and the armies 

 by an image of civil government." .Among the ancients, 

 tlie principal writers who have pourtrayed the characler and 

 reign of Augnftus, are Suetonius, Dio Caffius, VcUeius 

 Paterculus, and Tacitus. Julian (Cosfars, p. 309.) fays of 

 him, that as OAavianus advanced to the banquet ot the 

 Caefars, his colour changed hke that of the cameleon ; pale 

 at tirl'i, tiien red, afterwards black, he at lall affumed the 

 mild livery of Venus and the graces. Horace, in the intro- 

 duction to the firil epiftle of the fecond book, gives the fol- 

 lowing fober and judicious fummary of the emperor's cha- 

 ■rafteriftic merits : 



" Cum tot fuftineas, et tanta negotia, fohis : 

 Res Italas armis tuteris, moribus ornes, 

 Legibus emendes ; in publica commoda peccem, 

 Si longo fermone morer tua tempora, Casfar." 



See alfo Odes v. and xiv. Anc. Un. Hid. vol. xii. 

 -p. I — 115. Crevier's Hiil. Emperors, vol. i. pafilm. vol. ii. 

 p. 1 — 14. 



Augustus, Fort, in Geography, a fmall fortrefs feated on 

 a plain at the head of Loch Nefs, in Scotland, between the 

 rivers Tarff and Oich, juft where ther dilcharge themfelves 

 into the lake. The fortrefs confills of four fmall baftions ; 

 and now exhibits tokens of decay, tlwugh a governor con- 

 ilantly refidcs in it, and all the regulations of a garrilon are 

 obferved in it. It was taken by the rebels in 1746, who, 

 after doing it all the injury in their power, deferted it. Its 

 diftance from the fea prevents its being of any further fcr- 

 vice, in a tranquil Aate of the country, than tliat of afford- 

 ing a retreat for a few invalid officers and loldiers. A fmall 

 village lies behind the fort, and it ferves as a kind of reillng 

 place in the way to the ifle of Sky, dUlunt from it about 

 52 miles. 



AUGUSTUSBURG, a town of Germany, in Upper 

 Saxony, and circle of Erzgebirg, feven miles eait of Chen- 

 nitz. 



AU-GUY-L'AN-NEUF, or Augillanneuf. See 



MiSLETO. 



AUHAFF, in Geography, a town of Germany, in the 

 archduchy of Auftria, fix miles fouth-fouth-weft of Ips. 



AVIA, in Ancient Geography, a town cf Hifpania Tar- 

 ragonenfis, in the country of the Vaccaeans — Alfo, a town 

 of Italy, in the territory of the Veftini. Ptolemy. 



AVTANO, in Geography, a town of Italy, belonging to 

 the ftate of Venice, in the province of Friuli, tu enty-eight 

 nr.ileG weft of Udina, and fifteen E..S. E. of Belluno. 



6 



A V I 



AVIARY, formed of avis, lird, a hoiife or apartment 

 kept for the keeping, feeding, and propagating of birds. 



AVICENNA, or Abu Aly Hassein Ebn Abdul- 

 lah, or Ebu Sina, in Biography,\\\t fon of Hall of Bocha- 

 ra, in Chorafan, a celebrated philofopher and phyfician, born 

 about the year of the Hegira 370, A. D. 980, became early 

 d-lii:igui(heJ for his proficiency in literature. He had a rea- 

 dy genius, and extraordinary memory, fo that at the age of 

 ten he could repeat the whole Koran by heart. Serfamus, 

 or Giuzgiani, his difclple, fays, he was mailer of Euclid at 

 the ao-e of fixteen. Having completed Ills lludles under 

 Abdallah, a private tutor, w-ho taught him logic and phllo- 

 fophy, and in the ichool of Bagdat, he was made dodor in 

 medicine, and began to praclife at the age of eighteen. He 

 is faid to have difcovered by the pulfe, the dillemper which 

 Cabous, nephew to the emperor, laboured under. The ftory 

 as related by the Arabic writers, is fo like. Friend obferves, 

 what is told by Applan of the fagacity of Erifillratus, in 

 d'fcovering the difeafe of Antiochus, fon of Scleucus, that 

 it feems to have been borrowed thence, to raife the charac- 

 ter of this phyiician. However this may be, Avicenna was 

 in high repute, and attained to great wealth and honour in 

 the court of the caliph. During the latter part of his life, 

 after having fpent fevcral years in travelling, he refided at 

 Ifpahan, where by his irregularities he fo impaired his con- 

 llitution, that it was obferved of him, that he had totally 

 loil his labour, his phllofophy neither enabling him to go- 

 vern his paffions, nor his knowledge of medicine to pieferve 

 him from difeafe. He died of a dyfentery, owing in forvfc 

 mealnre to his intemperance, at Hamadan, in the year 1036 

 of the Hegira, A.D. 428, in the 58th year of his age. 

 The works of Avicenna were numerous, but whatever m.ay 

 have been faid of his genius and learning, they have contri- 

 buted little to the improvement of phllofophy, being for the 

 moft part imperfetl; and obfcure reprefentations of the doc- 

 trines of Ariftotle ; they confill of " Twenty Books on the 

 Utility of the Sciences ;" " The Heads of Logic ;" and 

 treatifes on metaphylics and morals. The principal of 

 them, the Canon, or " Canon P.ledicina:," though almoft 

 entirely borrowed from Galen, Dlofcorides, and other 

 Greek writers, acquired fuch reputation, that it was taught 

 at all the European colleges, and retained its popularity until 

 near the middle of the 17th century. Haller fills fcveral pages 

 cf his Bib. Med. Praft. and of his Bib. Botan. with the ti- 

 tles of his books, their different editions, and of the com- 

 mentators upon them. The earlieft edition was publifhed 

 at Padua, in follu, 1473. 



" One would naturally cxpeft, Friend fays (Hift. of Phvlic, 

 vol.ii. p. 73.), to find in this author fomething anfwerable to 

 the fame he acquired, but though I have very often looked 

 int.o his writings upon feveral occailons, I could meet with 

 little or nothing there, but what is taken from Galen, or 

 what at leafl, occurs, with a vei-v Imall variation, in Rliazes, 

 or Haly Abbas ;" and Haller lays (Bib. Med. Praft. vol. 1. 

 p. 384.) " Mlhl, fupra omnem patientiam, loquax, tt dlffufus 

 videtur ;" and adds, though you fnould fpend whole months 

 in poring over his works, you would fcarce meet a fingle 

 original obfervatlon. He had, however, before (Bib. Botan. 

 vol. 1. p. 187.) bellowed fome commendations on his indullry 

 in inveftigating the properties of plants, and acknowleptd 

 he had enriched that pait of medicine, by the introdudti&a 

 of feveral vegetables unknown to Dlofcorides. The works 

 of this phyfician and philofopher were printed in th-e original 

 Arabic, at Rome, in 1503. A Latin tranflation of them, 

 by Gerard of Cremona and others, was pubhflied in folio at 

 Venice, in 1595, and 1658 ; and Vopifcus Fprtunatus pub- 

 lifhed a new tranflation, with notes by various authors, in 



folio. 



