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General cc,rolla uniform; partial one lias five petals unequal, intlexo-cordated; fruit oblong, striated; seeds two, plane-convex, oval. Ithas 10 species, European plants.

ATIiANASIA, Goldilocks: A genus of the polygamiaa'qualis order, and syngenesia class of plants ; and in the naturalol der, Composita: discoides. Receptacle chaffy ; pappus chaffy,vcrv short; calvx imbricated. There are 20 species.

ATT vS'ASlAN Creed ; a formulary, or confession of faith,drawn up by Athanasius, bishop of Alexandria, in the 4th cen-tury, to justify lihnself against the calumnies of his Arian ene-mies. Dr. AVaterland, however, ascribes it to Hilary, bishopof Arles .

ATHANASIUS , St. bishop of Alexandria, where he was bom.lie followed St. Alexander to the council of Nice, in 325, wherehe disputed against Arius , and the following year was made bishopOf Alexandria ; but, in 335, was deposed by the council ot Tyre,and banished by Constantine to Treves. The emperor, twoyears after, ordered him to be restored to his bishopric ; but, onliis return to Alexandria, his enemies brought fresh accu-at onsagainst him, and chose Gregory of Cappadocia to his see ; whichobliged Athanasius to go to Rome , to reclaim it of pope Julius.He was there declared innocent, in a council held in 342, and inthat of Sardica, in 347, and two years after, was restored to his seeby order of the emperor Constans , but after the death of that prince,he was again banished by Constantins, on which he retired intothe desarts. The Arians then elected one George in his room ;who being killed, in a popular sedition under Julian, in 3t)0, St.Athanasius returned to Alexandria, but was banished under Julian,and restored to his see under Jovian. He addressed to that em-peror a letter, in which he proposed, that the Nicean creed shouldbe the standard of the orthodox faith, and condemned those w hodenied the divinity of the Holy Ghost. He was also banished byValens in 367, and afterwards recalled. He died on the 2d ofMay, 373. His works principally contain a defence of the mysteryof the Trinity, and of the incarnation and divinity of the Word and Holy Spirit. —There are three editions of his works which areesteemed; that of Commelin, printed in 1600 ; that of I’eterNannius, in 1627; and that of father Montiaucon, 3 vol. iol.1698.

ATHANATI, [». e. immortals, from a, privative, and .Twiroqdeath,] a body of cavalry, among the ancient Persians , consistingof 10,000 men, always complete, because, when any one of themdied, another was immediately put into his place.

ATHANOR, [from ; or, as some think, *rtjn.] A

digesting furnace to keep heat for some time; so that it may heaugmented or diminished at pleasure, by opening or shuttingsome apertures made on purpose with slides over them, calledregisters. The lamp furnace, which is a true athanor, may hesuccessfully employed in operations which do not require muchbeat. See Plate V.

ATIIARER, in astrology, a term used when the moon is inthe same degree and minute with the sun.

ATHBOY, a town of Meath, in Leinster , three miles S. 4V.of Trim, and 28 N. \V. of Dublin. I.on. 7. 2. \V. Eat. 53. 20. N.

ATHEIST, [aTige, without God, ] one that denies the ex-istence of God, —a person w ho does not believe in any being supe-rior to tlie material world. Many people, both ancient and mo-dern, have pretended to be, or have been reckoned atheists bythe world ; but it is justly questioned, whether any man everseriously adopted such a principle. These pretensions, are often,indeed, founded on pride and affectation. We have many ex-cellent works which prove the gross absurdity of atheism, but notone in its defence, neither indeed does it admit of any. Gieero,however, represents it as a probable opinion, that they, who applythemselves to philosophy, believe there are no gods. 'Phis must,doubtless, be meant of the academic philosophy, to which Cicero himself was attached, and which taught to doubt of every thing.On the contrary, the New tonian philosophers continually recur toa Deity , whom they always find at the head of their chain ofnatural causes. Among the modern philosophers, w ho have beenthe principal advocates for the existence of a Deity, are Sir IsaacNewton, Boyle, C'heync, Nieuwentyt , See. To whom may beadded many others, who, though of the clergy, yet have dis-tinguished themselves by their philosophical pieces in behalf ofthe existence of a God ;' e. g. Derliam, Bentley, Whiston, Ray,Samuel and John Clarke, Eenelon, Palev, &rc. So true is that

saying of Lord Bacon , that though a smattering of philosophymay lead a man into atheism, a deep draught will certainly bringhim back again to the belief of a God and Providence: agreeablyto what the poet observes of learning in general:

“ A little learning is a dangerous thing:

“ Drink deep, or taste not the Pierian spring.”

ATHEL, Al DELING, ADEL, and /ETHEL, [from add,noble, Germ.] So .'Ethelred is noble for council; JEthelard, anoble genius ; A.theibert, eminently noble.

ATHELING, A DELING, EDGING, ETIILING, orETHEL1NG, [from cethcl, noble, Sax.] a title among the Anglo-Saxons , properly belonging to the heir apparent to the crow'll.

ATIIEN-'GA, a feast of the ancient Greeks, held in honour ofMinerva, whom they called a9-iw. They were afterwards calledPanathena'a.

ATHENiEUM, in antiquity, a public place wherein the pro-fessors of the liberal arts held their assemblies, the rhetoriciansdeclaimed, and the poets rehearsed their performances.

ATIIENiEUS, a Greek grammarian, born at Naucratis inEgypt in the 3d century, one of the most learned men of histime. Of all his works we have none extant but his Deipnoso-phis, i. e. the sophists at table ; there is a great fund of facts andquotations in this work, which render it very agreeable to ad-mirers of antiquity, as they are no where else to be met with. Thebest editions are those of Isaac Casaubon , 1598, 1612, and 1657,and that of Schweighhseustr, 1801. See Monthly Magazine forJanuary, 1803.

Athenjeus, a mathematician, who wrote a treatise on mecha-nics, which is inserted in the works of the ancient mathematicians,printed at Paris In 1693, in folio, in Greek and Latin .

Athenjeus, a physician, born in Cilicia , contemporary withPliny , and founder of the pneumatic sect. lie taught thatfire, air, water, and earth, are not the true elements, but thattheir qualities are, viz. heat, cold, moisture, and dryness ; andto these he added a tilth element which he called spirit, whencehis sect had their name, Pneumatics .

ATHENAGORAS, an Athenian philosopher , who flourishedabout the middle of the 2d century; and was equally remarkablefor his zeal for Christianity , and his great learning; as appeal'sfrom the Apology which he addressed to the emperors MarcusAurelius Antoninus , and Lucius Conunodus ; as well as from ano-ther work still extant, upon the Resurrection. They are bothwritten in a style truly Attic.

ATHENE, [ABm, Gr.] an epithet of Minerva.

ATHENIANS, the inhabitants of Athens , but applied in amore extensive sense, to the whole people of Attica.

ATHENII’PUM, in the ancient pe.ysir, a collyrium , com-mended against divers diseases of the eyes; thus denominated fromits inventor Athenippus.

ATIIENRGG, or ATHENRY, a town of Ireland in Gal-way, 91 miles W. of Dublin . It is governed by a portreive, andlias a barrack for three companies of foot. I.on. 8. 48. W. Lat,53. 14. N.

A THENS, a celebrated city of ancient Greece , the capital ofthe kingdom of Attica, situated 100 miles N. E. of Laced.'emon,and 320 S. by \V. of Constantinople. It is now called Setine, thecapital of Givadia and is seated on the gulf of Engia. Lon. 23.57. E. Eat. 38. 5. N. In early limes it was named Ceeropia,from its founder C'ecrops, whom the Athenians affirmed to havebeen the first builder of cities, and called this therefore by way ofeminence Polis, or the city. In the reign of Erichthonius it ac-quired the name of Athens , from a9»i»ij, the Greek name of thegoddess Minerva, who was esteemed its protectress. 'The citadelwas adorned with innumerable edifices. 'The most remarkable ofthese were, 1. 'The magnificent temple of Minerva, styled Par-thenion, because that goddess was a virgin. 2. The iemple ofNeptune and Minerva. The lower city comprehended all thebuildings surrounding the citadel, "the tort Munychia, and thehavens PIlalerum and Pira’us, the latter of w hich was joined to thecilv by walls five miles in length ; that on the N. was built byPericles , but that on the S. by Thcmistocles ; hut by degrees theturrets which were at first erected on those walls were turned intodwelling-houses for the accommodation of the Athenians , whoselarge city was now become too small for them. r l he lowr city had13 great gates. Among the principal i dilices which adorned it,we may reckon, 1. The temple ot Theseus, erected by Conon ,