A T H 
ATHEIS'TIC, adj. Given to atheifm.—-This argument 
■demonllrated the exigence of a Deity, and convinced all 
Atheiflic gainfayers. Ray. 
ATHEIS'TIC AL, odj. Given to atheifm ; impious.—• 
Men are atheijlical, becaufe they are fil'd vicious; and 
•queftion the truth of Chridianity, becaufe they hate the 
practice. South. 
ATHEIS'TICALLY, adv. In an atheifiical manner.— 
Is it not enormous, that a divine, hearing a great [inner 
talk alhcifiically and feoff profanely at religion, (hould, in- 
fiead of vindicating the truth, tacitly approve the [coffer? 
South. —I entreat fuch as are atheijlically inclined to confider 
thefe things. Tillotfon. 
ATHEIS'TICALNESS,y'. The quality of being athe- 
idical.—Lord, purge out of all hearts profanenefs and 
atheijlicalncfs. Hammond. 
A'THEL, Atheling, Adel, and /Ethei., [from 
add, noble, Germ.] So ALthelred is ‘noble for counfel’ ; 
yEthelard , ‘a noble genius’; JElhelhcrt, ‘eminently noble’; 
JEthelward, ‘ a noble protestor. Gibfon. 
A'THELIN, [perhaps from ath, an oath, and helm, Sax. 
i. e. a keeper of his oath.] An archbifhop of Canterbury. 
A'THELING,y. [from atheling. Sax. i. e. noble.] A 
title given in the Saxo'n times to the king’s elded fon. 
ATHELNEY, (Hie of,) isa riling fpot of ground in the 
county of Somerfet in England, furrounded by the river 
Thone, over which is a bridge, now called Athelney 
bridge. This fpot, which was anciently environed with 
impaffable marflies and moraffes, will be ever memorable 
for the retreat of king Alfred, from the fury of the Danes, 
■who in tumultous numbers had overrun the eadern part 
of his dominions. The regifter of Athelney lets forth, 
that Alfred, after having bravely encountered his enemies 
for nine fucceffive years, was at length reduced to the ne- 
cedity of fleeing from them, and taking refuge in the Hie 
of Athelney. The place that lodged him was a frnall cot¬ 
tage belonging to St. Athelwine, formerly an hermit here, 
the fon of king Kynegilfus, After his emerfion from this 
retirement, and the total defeat of his enemies, he founded 
a monadery for Benedictine monks on the fpot which had 
given him dielter, endowing the edablifliment with the 
whole Ifle of Athelney, exempt from all taxes and bur¬ 
dens : one mile ead-north-eaft of Taunton. 
A'THELSTAN, a Saxon king of England, natural fon 
of Edward the elder, and grandfon of the great Alfred. 
He fucceeded to the crown in 915, and reigned fixteen 
years. There was a remarkable law paffed by this prince, 
which fhews his juft fentiments of the advantages of com¬ 
merce, as w ell as the early attention to it in this country : 
it declared, that any merchant who made three voyages 
on his own account beyond the Britifli channel or narrow 
Teas, (hould be intitled to the privilege of a thane, or gen¬ 
tleman. 
A'THELSTAN FORD, [i. e. Atheldan’s Ford.] A 
place in Scotland, where Atheldan king of the Ead Sax¬ 
ons ferried over his army againd the Scots. 
ATHELX'IS,y. [from 1, to fuck out.] Suc¬ 
tion, or attraction. 
ATHE'NA, a name of Minerva among the Greeks, 
becaufe (he never fucked the bread of a mother or nurfe ; 
or, as Plato thinks, from her (kill in divine affairs. 
ATHEN/E'A,yi [probably fo named from Alhenaus 
the deipnofophid. j Inbotony, a genus of the clafs oc- 
tandria, order monogynia. The generic characters are 
—Calyx : perianthium one-leafed, coloured, five-part¬ 
ed ; parts oblong, acute, ereCt, fpreading at top. Co¬ 
rolla: none. Stamina: filaments eight, filiform, erett; 
of which five are of the length of the calyx, the three 
alternate ones a little (horter ; anther* fagittate ; eight 
plumofe bridles, (horter than the filaments, growing to¬ 
gether with the filaments, to a gland furrounding the germ. 
Piftillum : germ fuperior, ovate, furrounded at the bafe 
by an annular gland. Style fetaceous, longer than the 
damens. Stigma depreffed, five-parted. Pericarpium : 
capfule globofe, one-celled, three-valved : valves fome- 
Vol. II. No. 83. 
A T H 465 
what flefhy. Seeds three to five, rounded, covered with 
a pulpy coloured membrane, affixed to the receptacle in 
the bottom of the capfule. EJfential Charadler .—Calyx 
coloured, five-parted ; corolla, none ; bridles eight, fea¬ 
thered between the filaments; flamina, five-parted ; cap¬ 
fule globofe, one-celled, three-valved ; feeds, three to five. 
There is but one fpeceis, called athenasa guianerifis. It 
is a branching ffirub. Stem four or five inches in djame- 
ter, covered with a wrinkled grey bark. Leaves alternate, 
ovate, fmooth, toothed, deciduous, four inches long, and 
about two broad. Petioles very ffiort, having a frnall iharp 
fiipule on each fide of the bafe. The flowers come out 
in bundles from the axils, and upon the tubercles of the 
■ftem and branches, each on a fmall peduncle : their calyx 
is white, and there is no corolla. Capfule green with a 
tinge of violet. The feeds are covered with a pulpy vif- 
cid membrane of a fcarlet colour. The bark, leaves, and 
fruit, are fliarp and aromatic. The lad are called cajfe 
diabk by the Creoles. Native of the ifland of Cayenne 
and the neighbouring continent of Guiana, a quarter of a 
league from the fea-lhore, in a Candy foil, flowering and 
bearing fruit in September. 
ATHEN^EA,y. In antiquity, a fead celebrated by the an¬ 
cient Greeks in honour of Minerva, who was called Athene. 
ATHENTL'UM,/'. In antiquity, a public place wherein 
the profeffors of the liberal arts held their affemblies, the 
rhetoricians declaimed, and the poets rehearfed their per¬ 
formances. Thefe places, of which there was a great 
number at Athens, were built in the manner of amphi¬ 
theatres, encompalfed with feats, called cunei. The three 
mod celebrated Athenrea were thole at Athens, at Rome, 
and at Lyons, the lecond of which was built by the em¬ 
peror Adrian. 
ATHEN/E'US, aphylician, born in Cilicia, cotemporary 
with Pliny, and founder of the pneumatic feet. He taught 
that the fire, air, water, and earth, are not the true ele¬ 
ments, but that their qualities ate, viz. heat, cold, moif- 
ture, and drynefs ; and to thefe he added a fifth element, 
which he called fpirit , whence his feci had its name. 
Athen.'eus, a Greek grammarian, born at Naucratis i* 
Egypt in the third century, one of the mod learned men of 
his time. Of all his works we have none extant but his 
Deipnofophis, i. e. the fophids at table ; there is an infi¬ 
nity of facts and quotations in this work which render it 
very agreeable to admirers of antiquity. There is alio.* 
mathematician of this name, who wrote a treatife on me¬ 
chanics, which is inferted in the works of the ancient ma¬ 
thematicians, printed at Paris in 1693. 
ATHEN A'GOR AS, an Athenian phjlofopher.flourifiied 
about the middle of the fecond century ; and was remark¬ 
able for his zeal for Chridianity, and his great learning, 
as appears from the apology which he addreffed to the em¬ 
peror Marcus Aurelius Antoninus and Lucius Commodus. 
ATHENATO'RIUM, /. In chymidry, a thick glafs 
cover, fixed to the cucurbit in fome kind of fublimations. 
ATHE'NE, a town of Italy, in the kingdom of Naples, 
and province of Principato Citra : eighteen miles N. of 
Policadro. 
ATHENODO'RUS, a famous doic philofopher, born at 
Tarfus, went to the court of Augudus, and was made tu¬ 
tor to Tiberius. Augudus had a great edeem for him, 
and found him by experience a man of virtue and probity. 
He ufed to fpeak very freely to the emperor. Before he 
left the court to return home, he warned the emperor not 
to give himfelf up to anger, but, whenever he (hould be 
in a paflion, to rehearfe the twenty-four letters of the al¬ 
phabet before he refolved to fay or do any thing. He did 
not live to fee his bad fuccefs in the education of Tiberius. 
ATHENO'POLIS, a town of the Maffilienfes, an an¬ 
cient nation of Gaul. It is conjectured by Harduin to be 
the fame with Telo Marti as, now Toulon ; by others to 
be the fame with Antipolis or Antibes. 
ATHE'RY, a town of Ireland in the county of Gal¬ 
way. It is governed by a portrieve, and has been a place 
of conftderable (Irength ; but, like the numerous churches. 
6 C and 
