ATII 
tion. 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 be- 
half. Those who wish to see Atheism con- 
futed, may be referred to the sermons 
preached at Boyle’s Lectures ; to Aberne- 
thy’s Discourses on the Attributes ; and 
above all to Paley’s Natural Theology. 
Newton, Boyle, Maclaurin, and others, 
among the most distinguished mathemati- 
cians 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 co- 
loured, 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 brandling shrub ; 
stem four or five inches in diameter, cover- 
ed with a wrinkled grey bark. The flowers 
came out in bundles from the axils ; their 
calyx is white ; capsule green, with a tinge 
of violet. The seeds are covered 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 neighbouring continent of Guiana, 
a mile from the shore, in a sandy soil, flow- 
ering and bearing fruit in September. 
ATHEN7EUM, in antiquity, a public 
place wherein the professors of the liberal 
arts held their assemblies, the rhetoricians 
declaimed, and the poets rehearsed their 
performances. 
ATHER1NA, in natural history, a genus 
of fishes of the order Abdominales. Head 
somewhat flattened over the upper-jaw ; 
gill-membrane six-rayed ; body marked by 
a silver lateral stripe. There are five spe- 
cies : A hespetus has an anal fin with about 
twelve rays ; it inhabits the Mediterranean, 
European, and Red seas ; about three or 
four inches long ; body varied with a few 
black spots, and nearly pellucid. This spe- 
cies, which is named Athernos by the mo- 
dern 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 
ATM 
drawn into some deep cavity formed by 
the rocks, when they are readily secured by 
means of a net, and may be taken at plea- 
sure. At Southampton 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 discovered 
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 beat 
against, or at a small distance from each 
other : the transverse position being princi- 
pally understood. 
ATLAS, in matters of literature, denotes 
a book of universal geography, contain- 
ing maps of all the known parts of the 
world. 
Atlas, in commerce, a silk-satin, ma- 
nufactured in the East Indies. There aie 
some plain, some striped, and some flow- 
ered; the flowers of which are eitliei gold 
or silk. There are atlases of all colours, 
but most of them false, especially the 1 ed 
and the crimson. The manufacture of them 
is admirable, the gold and silk being worked 
together after such a manner, as no work- 
man in Europe can imitate ; yet they are 
very far from haying that fine gloss and 
lustre which the French know how to give 
their silk stuffs. In the Chinese manufac- 
tures 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 
turned 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 tire earth to an un- 
known height, and encloses it on all sides. 
This fluid is essential to the existence of all 
animal and vegetable life, and even to the 
constitution of all kinds of matter whatever, 
without which they would not be what they 
are : for by it we literally may be said to 
live, move, and have our being: by insinuat- 
ing itself into all the pores of bodies, it be- 
comes the great spring of almost all the mu- 
tations to which the chemist and philosopher 
are witnesses in the changes of bodies. With- 
out the atmosphere no animal could exist ; 
vegetation would cease, and there would be 
neither rain nor refreshing dews to moisten 
the face of the ground ; and though the sun 
and stars might be seen as bright specks, 
yet there would be little enjoyment of light, 
