APOLLO. The god of music, poetry, medicine, and the fine arts, in heathen mythology, and the alleged son of Jupiter and Latona, born in the island Delos, at the same birth with Diana. Details of these absurd heathen gods, are not otherwise valuable than with reference to the understanding of the ancient poets. As Apollo is almost always confounded by the Greeks with the sun, it is no wonder that he should be dignified with so many attributes. It was natural for the most glorious object in nature, whose influence is felt by all creation, and seen by every animated part of it, to be adored as the fountain of light, heat, and life. The power of healing diseases being chiefly given by the ancients to medicinal plants and vegetable productions, it was natural to exalt into a divinity the visible cause of their growth. Hence Apollo was styled the god of medicine; and that external heat which cheers and invigorates all nature, being transferred from the human body to the mind, gave rise to the idea of all mental effervescence coming from this imaginary divinity. Hence, also, poets, prophets, and musicians, are said to be inspired by Apollo.

APOLOGUE. In matters of literature, an ingenious method of conveying instruction by means of a feigned relation called a moral fable. The only difference between a parable and an apologue is, that the former, being drawn from what passes among mankind, requires probability in the narration; whereas the apologue, being taken from the supposed actions of brutes, or even of things inanimate, is not tied down to the strict rules of probability.

APONO, PETER. One of the most famous philosophers and physicians of his age, born in the year 1250, in a village about four miles from Padua. He studied at the university of Paris. His reputation as a physician became so great, that his rivals, envious of his celebrity, gave out that he was aided in his cures by evil spirits, and brought him under the notice of the inquisition, but he died before his process was finished. His body would have been consigned to the flames, but for the attachment of a female domestic, who had it privately disinterred, and secretly re-buried. His memory received honors more than equal to this attempted disgrace, for the duke of Urbino and the senate of Padua afterwards erected a statue to him.

APOPHTHEGM. A short, pithy sentence, or maxim, as for example, the sayings of the seven wise men so called. Julius Caesar wrote a collection of them, but history has not handed them down to us. Several modern writers have written such modern apophthegms, in prose and verse. Some parts of the Bible are entirely composed of apophthegms.

APOPLEXY. This is the name applied to a disease which occurs very suddenly, as if a blow had been inflicted upon the head, and deprives the person of consciousness and voluntary motion, while the respiration and action of the heart continue, although much oppressed. In a complete apoplexy, the person falls suddenly, is unable to move his limbs or to speak, gives no proof of seeing or feeling, and the

breathing is stertorous or snoring, like that of a person in deep sleep. The immediate cause of this disease is some affection or injury of the brain, or of some portion of it; and it is most commonly produced by a fulness of blood in the head, either remaining in the blood vessels, or poured out, in or upon the brain, from their rupture in some part, and in sufficient quantity to exert considerable pressure upon that organ. As the state of the whole body depends much upon the sound condition of the brain and nerves, it is evident that such an unnatural state of these organs cannot continue long without danger to life. The termination and effects of the disease vary with the violence of the attack; and it is either fatal in a few hours, or after a few days, during which a degree of fever is often observed, or the patient recovers, entirely, or with a weakness or lameness of one or more limbs.

The disposition to apoplexy is sometimes hereditary, and is most usually found to accompany a short, full person, a short neck, and a system disposed to a too copious sanguification. It sometimes, also, occurs in people who are exhausted by old age, excessive labor or anxiety, and in these cases, the brain seems too weak to perform its common functions, and the efforts required of it produce an imperious or destructive flow of the blood. Although an attack of this disease comes on, for the most, suddenly and unexpectedly, yet is often preceded by appearances, which give warning of its approach. These are a high color of the whole face, giddiness or vertigo, sparks or flashes of light before the eyes, noises in the ears, bleeding at the nose, and pain in the head.

APOSTASY. A renouncing of religion. The primative Christian Church distinguished several kinds of apostasy. The first, of those who went over entirely from Christianity to Judaism; the second, of those who mingled Judaism and Christianity together; and the third, of those who complied so far with the Jews as to communicate with them in many of their unlawful practices, without making a formal profession of their religion. But the fourth sort was those who, after having been sometime Christians, voluntarily relapsed to paganism.

APOSTLE. Apostle, signifies a messenger, or person sent upon some particular business; hence, by way of eminence, it denotes one of the twelve whom our Lord selected from among his disciples, and invested with a divine commission to preach and propagate his gospel.

The names of the apostles are, Simon, surnamed Peter, Andrew, James the Greater, John, Philip, Bartholomew, Thomas, Matthew, James the Less, Lebbeus, surnamed Thaddeus, who was also called Judas or Jude, Simon the Canaanite, and Judas Iscariot. Of these, Simon, Andrew, James the Greater, and John, were fishermen; Matthew was a publican, or a collector of the public revenues; as to the profession of the rest the scripture history is silent, but it is probable that they were fishermen.

Various reasons have been assigned for our Lord having made choice of twelve apostles. The most probable seems to be, that, from a respect to the Jews, he fixed upon the number twelve in conformity to the twelve patriarchs, as founders of the twelve tribes of Israel; to which he seems to give

countenance, when he afterwards tells his Apostles, that, "when the Son of Man shall sit upon the throne of his glory, they also shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel:" the meaning of which seems to be, that, in his spiritual kingdom, they should exercise a spiritual sovereignty, similar to the power exercised by the heads of the twelve tribes of Israel. That the original number might be kept up, we find that Matthias was chosen by lot to fill the place from which Judas, in consequence of his apostasy, had fallen; but after the Jews in general had rejected the gospel, other two Apostles, Paul and Barnabas, were added, without any regard to the number twelve.

The office of the Apostles consisted in preaching the gospel, in converting men to the faith of Christ, and in governing his church, as his immediate deputies and vicegerents upon earth. It is true, that others might, and did, preach the gospel of Christ; but their authority, even in that respect, was by no means equal to that of the Apostles. To them, particularly, did our Lord commit the care of his church; to them, he gave the power of dispensing his sacraments, of remitting and retaining sins, and of conferring the gift of the Holy Ghost, by the laying on of hands; in short, of exercising all those powers, with which he himself had been invested by his Heavenly Father. That office the Apostles did not exercise in its full extent, during their master's residence upon earth; for it was not, till he was about to leave this world, that he said unto them "As my father hath sent me, even so send 1 you receive ye the Holy Ghost. Whose soever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them; and and whose soever sins ye retain, they are retained." Accordingly after his ascent into heaven, and the descent of the Holy Ghost at Pentecost, the whole government of the Christian church was lodged in the Apostles; and whoever exercised any part of it afterwards received it from that source.

At first, the labors of the Apostles were confined to the country of Judea: "Go not into the way of the Gentiles, and into any city of the Samaritans enter ye not; but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel." But, before the Lord's ascent into Heaven, their commission was enlarged, and embraced all nations, Gentiles as well as Jews. "Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature." To the execution of that most important, and truly arduous office, they were endowed with the requisite qualifications; they had received the gospel from the mouth of Christ himself; by him they had been instructed in "the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven;" and, to secure them from error, they had the promise of the Spirit of truth "to teach them all things, and to bring all things to their remembrance." They had been eye witnesses of the whole of their Master's life, and had been honored with his fullest confidence and friendship; they had seen all his miracles, and observed all his actions; and having been constantly with him, during his forty days' residence upon earth, after his resurrection, they were able to bear undoubted testimony to that most important fact, on the truth of which their credit as Apostles chiefly depended. They were enabled to speak all languages, that they might address every man in his own tongue; and they were endowed with the power of working all miracles, of healing all diseases, of in

flicting temporal judgments upon offenders, of raising the dead, and of casting out devils; nay they were also empowered to communicate these miraculous gifts to others. Thus divinely prepared, and depending for their temporal subsistence on the promise given them by their Master, they set out from Jerusalem, preaching the gospel, first to the Jews, and next to the Gentiles; "God himself bearing them witness with signs and wonders, and with divers miracles and gifts of the Holy Ghost." Astonished at their boldness, and alarmed at their success, the Jews often caused them to be apprehended, scourged, and imprisoned; and strictly charged them to speak no more in the name of Jesus. "But none of these things moved them." They continued daily in the temple, and went from house to house, teaching and preaching the gospel, and holding themselves always ready to seal the truth of it with their blood.

After discharging the duties of their ministry for twelve years in Judea, they agreed to disperse into different parts of the world; and it is said that they determined by lot what country each should take. According to that division, Peter and John went to Galacia, and the provinces of Lesser Asia; Andrew, to the extensive northern countries of Scythia; Philip, to Upper Asia; Bartholomew, to Arabia; Matthew, to Chaldea, Persia, and Parthia; Thomas, to various parts of India; James the Less, continued in Jerusalem, of which church he was bishop; Simon, went to Egypt, Lybia, and Mauritania; Jude, to Syria and Mesopotamia; Matthias, who was chosen in the room of Judas, preached in Cappadocia and Colchis; and Paul tells us "that from Jerusalem, and round about Illyricum, he himself had fully preached the gospel of Christ" We have but very imperfect accounts in scripture of the travels and lives of the Apostles, but we know that, in spite of the bigotry of the Jews, the superstition of the heathens, the learning of philosophers, the ridicule of poets, the eloquence of orators, the power of princes, and the utmost rage of persecution, "the word of God grew and prevailed; and that our Lord's prophecy was fulfilled, that "the gospel of the kingdom should be preached in all the world, for a witness unto all nations, before the end came "--the end of the Jewish state, the destruction of Jerusalem and its temple, and the dispersion of the Jews among the heathen nations.

The Apostles are usually represented with their respective badges or attributes. Peter is painted with the keys; Paul, with a sword; Andrew, with a cross; James the Greater, with a pilgrim's staff, and a gourd bottle; James the Less, with a fuller's pole; John, with a cup and a winged serpent; Philip, with a long staff, shaped like a cross; Bartholomew, with a knife; Thomas, with a lance; Matthew, with a hatchet; Simon, with a saw; Jude, with a club; and Matthias, with a battle-axe.

APOSTOLIC. In the primitive church this was a term applied to all such churches as were founded by the apostles; and even to the bishops of those churches, as being the reputed successors of the apostles. These were confined to four; viz. Rome, Alexandria, Antioch, and Jerusalem. In after times other churches assumed the same quality, on account principally of the conformity of their doctrine with that of the churches which were apostolical by

APOSTROPHE. A figure of speech which received its name from the ancients, because the orator, in using it, turned from the judge to the accuser or the accused, and spoke to him. In a more limited sense, we understand by it, an address to one absent as if he were present, or to things without life and sense as if they had life and sense. The apostrophe, according to its nature, is spoken in an elevated tone. The same term is also used to signify the contraction of a word by the use of a

comma.

APOTHECARY. One who practices the art of pharmacy, or that part of the physic which consists in the preparation and composition of medicines. A youth intended for this profession, should be a pretty good scholar, and have such a knowledge of the Latin tongue, as to be able to read the best writers upon the subject of botany, pharmacy, anatomy, and medicine.

In London, the apothecaries are one of the city companies, and by an act of parliament are exempted from serving upon juries, or in ward and parish offices. They are obliged to make up their medicines according to the formulas prescribed in the College Dispensatory, and are liable to have their shops visited by the censors of the college, who are empowered to destroy such medicines as they think not good. The apothecaries have a hall in Black Friars, where there are two fine laboratories, from which all the surgeons' chests are supplied with medicines for the royal navy.

In China, the apothecaries have a singular mode of dispensing their medicines. In the public squares of their cities there is a very high stone pillar, on which are engraven the names of all sorts of medicine, with the price of each; and when the poor stand in need of any relief from physic, they go to the treasury, where they receive the price each medicine is rated at.

APOTHEOSIS. A ceremony by which the ancient Romans complimented their emperors and great men, after their death, with a place among the gods. The ceremony is described in the following manner. After the body of the deceased had been burnt with the usual solemnities, an image of wax, exactly resembling him, was placed on an ivory couch, where it lay for seven days, attended by the senate and ladies of the highest quality in mourning; and then the young senators and knights bore the bed of state through the via sacra to the old Forum, and from thence to the Campus Martius, where it was deposited upon an edifice built in form of a pyramid. The bed being thus placed, amidst a quantity of spices and other combustibles, and the knights having made a procession in solemn measure round the pile, the new emperor, with a torch in his hand, sets fire to it, while an eagle, let fly from the top of the building, and mounting in the air with a fire brand, was supposed to convey the soul of the deceased to heaven, and thenceforward he was ranked among the gods.

The custom of placing mortals, who had rendered their countrymen important services, among the

coins, most of the founders of cities and colonies are immortalized as gods; and, in subsequent times, living princes assumed this title. For several centuries the Romans deified none but Romulus; but in the course of time the practice of apotheosis became so frequent, as to be an object of contempt. Vespasian, in an attack of sickness, said by way of joke, "I am a god, or, at least, not far from it." According to Eusebius, Tertullian, and Chrysostom, Tiberius proposed to the senate the apotheosis of Jesus Christ, which, however, was refused by that body. Juvenal, satirizing the frequent practice of apotheosis, introduces poor Atlas, complaining that he could not any longer bear the immense and daily increasing mass of gods. That the virtuous, after their death, were raised to the rank of demigods, was a doctrine of Pythagoras, who is supposed to have derived this idea from the East. It has been thought analogous to the Christian principle, which presumes good men to become angels on their death.

The period of the Roman emperors, so rich in crime and folly, offers the most infamous instances of apotheosis. After Cæsar, the greater part of the Roman emperors were deified. The same hand which had murdered a predecessor often placed him among the gods. The savage Nero deified the beautiful Poppaa, his wife, after having killed her with a kick when she was pregnant; and Caracalla, having murdered his brother, Geta, with his own hands, in his mother's arms, granted him divine honors. The first emperors were not adored in their life time; but, with the progress of insanity, temples were built to the living tyrant. Caligula was not satisfied with being a god; he wished to be a priest too, and, taking his horse as a companion in the office, offered sacrifice to himself. Constantius had the double advantage of being deified by the religion which he had persecuted, and canonized by that which he supported. It was quite customary for the Christian emperors to have altars, and be adored by their pagan subjects. Critics are not wanting, who can see, in the canonization of the Catholic Church, nothing but a continuance of this Roman fashion of deifying men, with this difference only, that saints were never canonized during their life time. The apotheosis never degenerated to such a criminal excess among the Greeks as among the Romans.

APPARATUS. A set of instruments or utensils necessary for practising any art, as a surgeon's apparatus, a chemist's apparatus.

APPARITIONS. Apparitions are appearances, which seem to be real, but which exist only in the imagination. There may be apparitions, then, of departed spirits, of angels, of celestial cities, of landscapes, of mountains and precipices, of festivals, triumphs, funeral processions, temples. There may be apparitions of all things, which exist, and of some things which do not exist. We may imagine, that we see such things, as have been mentioned, and others, and firmly believe, that they are before us, or that we are in the midst of them, and all of it be merely a mental deception.

All apparitions, it may be said with safety, are

There is a book entitled CONFESSIONS OF AN ENGLISH OPIUM-EATER; not without merit in point of style, but chiefly valuable for affording some facts in respect to the mind. This person seems to have been naturally of a feeling and imaginative turn, and this intellectual vivacity was greatly increased by an inordinate use of opium; so that in the end his intellect was thrown into an unnatural and disorderly posture. In the middle of eighteen hundred and seventeen, the faculty of forming apparitions, that is, as the terms are to be understood in his case, the power of painting all sorts of phantoms on the darkness, became so frequent and effective, as to be positively distressing to him. At night when he lay awake in bed, vast processions passed along in mournful pomp; friezes of never-ending stories, that to his feelings were sad and solemn, he informs us, as if they were stories drawn from times before Oedipus or Priam, before Tyre, before Memphis. Whenever the night shades had fallen, whatever he happened to think upon, whether it were landscapes, or palaces, or armies in battle array, in a word, whatever was a subject of thought, and was capable of being visually represented, formed themselves into phantoms of the eye and swept before him in order and in distinctness, no less marked and imposing, than if the real objects themselves had been present.

This was a state of mind, without doubt, in many respects, similar to that which framed the spectre of Cæsar, the imaginary sword of Macbeth, and suspended before the bewildered sight of the American captive the bodies of her lifeless children.

Nicolai was an inhabitant of Berlin, a celebrated bookseller, of a naturally very vivid imagination. He was neither ignorant nor superstitious; a fact, which some undoubtedly will esteem it important to know. The following account of the apparitions, which appeared to him, is given in his own words. My wife and another person came into my apartment in the morning, in order to console me, but I was too much agitated by a series of incidents, which had most powerfully affected my moral feeling, to be capable of attending to them. On a sudden, I perceived, at about the distance of ten steps, a form like that of a deceased person. I pointed at it, asking my wife if she did not see it? It was but natural that she should not see any thing; my question, therefore, alarmed her very much, and she immediately sent for a physician. The phantom continued about eight minutes. I grew at length more calm, and being extremely exhausted, fell into a restless sleep, which lasted about half an hour. The physician ascribed the apparition to a violent mental emotion, and hoped there would be no return; but the violent agitation of my mind had in some way disordered my nerves, and produced further consequences which deserve a more minute description.

At four in the afternoon, the form which I had seen in the morning re-appeared. I was by myself when this happened, and being rather uneasy at the incident, went to my wife's apartment, but there likewise I was persecuted by the apparition, which, however, at intervals disappeared, and always presented itself in a standing posture. About six o'clock there appeared also several walking figures, which had no connexion with the first. After the

first day the form of the deceased person no more appeared, but its place was supplied with many other phantasms, sometimes representing acquaintances, but mostly strangers; those whom I knew were composed of living and deceased persons, but the number of the latter was comparatively small. I observed the persons with whom I daily conversed did not appear as phantasms, these representing chiefly persons who lived at some distance from

me.

These phantasms seemed equally clear and distinct at all times, and under all circumstances, both when I was by myself, and when I was in company, and as well in the day as at night, and in my own house as well as abroad; they were, however, less frequent when I was in the house of a friend, and rarely appeared to me in the street. When I shut my eyes, these phantasms would sometimes vanish entirely, though there were instances when I beheld them with my eyes closed, yet, when they disappeared on such occasions, they generally returned when I opened my eyes. I conversed sometimes with my physician and my wife of the phantasms which at the moment surrounded me; they appeared more frequently walking than at rest, nor were they constantly present. They frequently did not come for sometime, but always re-appeared for a longer or shorter period, either singly or in company, the latter, however, being most frequently the case. I generally saw human forms of both sexes, but they usually seemed not to take the smallest notice of each other, moving as in a market-place, where all are eager to press through the crowd; at times, however, they seemed to be transacting business with each other. I also saw several times people on horse-back, dogs and birds. All these phantasms appeared to me in their natural size, and as distinct as if alive, exhibiting different shades of carnation in the uncovered parts, as well as different colors and fashions in their dresses, though the colors seemed somewhat paler than in real nature. None of the figures appeared particularly terrible, comical, or disgusting, most of them being of an indifferent shape, and some presenting a pleasing aspect. The longer these phantoms continued to visit me, the more frequently did they return, while, at the same time, they increased in number about four weeks after they had first appeared. I also began to hear them talk; these phantoms sometimes conversed among themselves, but more frequently addressed their discourse to me; their speeches were commonly short, and never of an unpleasant turn. At different times there appeared to me both dear and sensible friends of both sexes, whose addresses tended to appease my grief, which had not yet wholly subsided: their consolatory speeches were in general addressed to me when I was alone. Sometimes, however, I was accosted by these consoling friends while I was engaged in company, and not unfrequently while real persons were speaking to me. These consolatory addresses consisted sometimes of abrupt phrases, and at other times they were regularly executed.

As Nicolai was a person of information and of a philosophic spirit, he was able to detect and to assign the true cause of his mental malady.

He was, it is to be remembered, in the first place, a person of a very vivid fancy, and, hence, his mind