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other; the first Academy of this description was that foundedby Ptolemy Soter , of Alexandria , about 286 B. C. Theo­ dosius , the Younger, also established one at Constantinople .Others again assert, that Charlemaigne is entitled to thehonor of having first founded an Academy of this description,which was composed of the most learned men in his court,the Emperor himself being a member .

Academies, considered as a kind of Collegiate School orSeminary, for the instruction of youth in the liberal sciences,were first established at Rome , in the time of Adrian, andwere erected in various parts of Europe in the thirteenthcentury, under the denomination of Universities, as embrac-ing the whole circle of science.

ACCENTS. Mr. West maintains that accents were origi-nally notes, set over words to direct the several tones andinflexions of the voice requisite to give the whole sentence itsproper harmony and cadence, and that they were inventedby Aristophanes , the Grammarian, a native of Byzantium ,about the time of Ptolemy Philopater, 200 years beforeChrist. Vassius, in his treatise on the Greek accents, en-deavours to prove that accents to syllables are of moderninvention, and that they are not to be found in any manuscriptor inscription, till 170 years after Christ; it is alleged byothers that accentual marks were not in common use tillabout the seventh century, at which time they are firstnoticed in MSS.

ACHROMATIC. (See Telescope.)

ACROSTICS ; according to Cicero, the Sybilline Oracleswere written in a kind of Acrostics; some pretend to findAcrostics in the Psalms, particularly in those called theABCDARIAN Psalms.