i$6 AGE 
golden age. When cities and Hates were founded, the 
fiver age commenced; and, fince arts and fciences, navi¬ 
gation and commerce, have been cultivated, the golden age 
has taken place. 
In fome ancient northern monuments, the rocky or Jlony 
age correfponds to the brazen age of the Greeks. It is 
called rocky, on account of Noah’s ark, which refted on 
mount Ararat; whence men were faid to be defeendedor 
fprung from mountains : or from Deucalion and Pyrrha 
reftoring the race of mankind, by throwing Hones' over 
their heads. The northern poets alfo ftyle the fourth age 
of the world the ajhen age, from a Gothic king Madenis, 
or Mannus, who on account of his great ftrength was faid 
to be made of afh, or becaufe in his time people began to 
make uie of weapons made of that wood. 
Among the Jew's, the duration of the world is alfo di¬ 
vided into three ages. i. The feculum inane, or void age, 
was the fpace of time.from the creation to Moles. 2. 
Th t prefent age, denotes all the fpace of time from Mofes 
to the Coming of Meffiah. 3. The age to come, denotes the 
time from the coming of the Mefiiah to the end of the 
world. 
Various other divilions of the-duration of the world in¬ 
to ages have been made by hiftorians. The Sibylline 
Oracles, written, according to fome, by Jews acquainted 
with the prophecies of the Old Teftament, divide the du¬ 
ration of the world into ten ages; and, according to Jofe- 
phus, each age contained lix hundred years. It appears, 
by Virgil’s fourth eclogue, and other teftimonies, that the 
age of Auguftus was reputed the end of thofe ten ages, 
confeqnently as the period of the world’s duration. 
By fome, the fpace of time commencing-from Conftan- 
tine, and ending with the taking of Conftantinople by the 
Turks, in the fifteenth century, is called the middle age. 
But others choofe rather to date the middle age from the 
divifion of the empire made by Theodolius at the dole of 
the fourth century, and extend it to the time of the em¬ 
peror Maximilian I. in the beginning of the fixteenth cen¬ 
tury, when the empire was firfi divided into circles. The 
middle is by fome denoted the barbarous age, and the latter 
part of it the lowejl age. 'Some divide it into the non-aca- 
demical and academical ages. The firft includes the fpace 
of time from the lixth to the ninth centuries, during 
which fchools or academies tvere loll in Europe. The 
fecond from the ninth century, when fchools w'ere refto- 
red, and univerlities eltablilhed, chiefly by the care of 
Charlemagne. 
The feveral ages of the world may be reduced to three 
grand epochas, viz. the age of the lazo of nature, called by 
the Jews the void age, from Adam to Mofes; the age of 
the Jezvifh law, from Mofes to Chrilt; and the age of grace, 
from Chrilt to the prefent year. 
Age is alfo frequently ufed in the fame fenfe with cen¬ 
tury, to denominate a duration of 100 years. 
Age likewife lignifies a certain period of the duration 
of human life; by fome divided into four llages, viz. in¬ 
fancy, youth, manhood, and old age; the firft extending 
to the 14th year, the fecond to the 25th, the third to the 
50th, and the fourth to the end of life: by others divi¬ 
ded into infancy, childhood, youth, manhood, and old age. 
Age, in law, is particularly ufed for thofe fpecial times 
which enable perfons of both fexes to do certain a£ts, 
which before, through want of years and judgment, they 
are .prohibited to do. As for example, a man at twelve 
years of age ought to take the oath of allegiance to the 
king; at fourteen, which is his age of diferetion, he may 
conient to marriage, and chufe his guardian; and at twen¬ 
ty -one he may alienate his lands. A woman at nine years 
of age is dowable, at twelve Ihe may confent to marriage, 
at fourteen (lie is of years of diferetion and may chufe a 
guardian, and at twenty-one Ihe may alienate her lands. 
The age of twenty-one is the full age of man or woman; 
which enables them to contract and manage for thent- 
felves, in refpeft of their eftates: until which time they 
AGE 
cannot a£l with fecurity to thofe that deal with them, fof 
their a£ts are in rnoft cafes either void or voidable. 
Age of a Horse. See Horse. 
Age of Trees. Thefe after a certain age wafte. An 
oak, at an hundred years old, it is faid, ceafes to grow. 
The ufual rule forjudging of the age of wood, is by the 
number of circles which appear in the fubffance of a trunk 
or ftock cut perpendicularly, each circle being fuppofed 
the growth of a year; though fome reject this method as 
precarious, alleging, that a Ample circle is fometimes the 
produce of feveral years; befides that, after a certain 
age, no new circles are formed. 
AGED , adj. Old; ftricken in years; generally applied 
to animate beings : 
Kindnefs itfelf too weak a charm will prove, 
To raife the feeble fires of aged love. Prior. 
Old; applied to inanimate things. This life is rare, and 
commonly with fome tendency to the profopopceia —The 
people did not more worfhip the images of gold and ivo¬ 
ry, than they did the groves; and the fame Quintilian 
faith of the aged oaks. Stillingjlcct. 
AGEDLY, adv. After the manner of an aged perfon. 
AGELNOTII, Egelnoth, or ^Ethf.lnoth, in La¬ 
tin Achelnotus, archbifhop of Canterbury, in the reign of 
Canute the Great, fucceeded Livingus in that fee in the 
year 1020. This prelate, furnamed the Good , was fon of 
earl Agi-lmer, and, at the time of his election, dean of 
Canterbury. After his promotion he went to Rome, and 
received his pall from pope Benedict VIII. In his way 
thither, as he palled through Pavia, he purchafed, for an 
hundred talents of lilver and one of gold, St. Auguftin’s 
arm, which was kept there as a relic; and fent it over to 
England as a prefent J:o Leofric earl of Coventry. Upon 
his return, he is faid to have raifed the fee of Canterbury 
to its former luftre. He fat feventeen years in the fee of 
Canterbury, and departed this life the 29th of October, 
1038. 
A GEM A, in Macedonian antiquity, was a body of 
foldiery, not unlike the Roman legion. 
AGEMOGLANS, Agiamoglans, or Azamo- 
glands, in the Turkilh polity, are children purchafed 
from the Tartars, or raifed every third year by way of 
tribute from the Chriftians tolerated in the Turkilh em¬ 
pire. Thefe, after being cireumcifed and inftruCted in the 
religion and language of their tyrannical matters, are 
taught the exercifes of war, till they are of a proper age 
for carrying arms; and from this corps the janiffaries are 
recruited. With regard to thofe who are thought unfit 
for the army, they are employed in the loweft offices of 
the feraglio. 
A fimilar cuftom feems to have prevailed at Seringapa- 
tam, under Ilyder Ali, and Tippoo Saib, who fingled out 
from their Englifh priloners the belt favoured young men, 
whom they caufed to be cireumcifed, and incorporated in 
their army, or appointed to menial offices. 
AGEN , adv. [agen, Sax.] Again; in return. This 
word is now only written in this manner, though it be in 
reality the true orthography, for the fake of rhime: 
Thus Venus : Thus her fon reply’d agen ; 
None of your filters have we heard or feen. Dryden. 
Agen, a city of France, on the river Garonne, the ca¬ 
pital of Agenois in Guienne, and the fee of a bifhop. 
Though the fituation of this place is very convenient for 
trade and commerce, the inhabitants are fo very indolent 
that there is very little; of which the neighbouring cities 
take the advantage. It is feated in a pleafant country; 
but is itfelf a very mean and difagreeable place, the hou- 
fes being ill-built, and the ftreets narrow, crooked, and 
dirty. Lat. 44. 12. N. lon.0.30. E. 
AGENCY,/, [from agent. ] The quality of aCting; 
the ftate of being in action; a6tion. The office of an 
agent or factor for another; bufinefs performed by an agent. 
‘ ’ AGENDA, 
