Page:Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable.djvu/18

Rh  Abste'mious'', according to Fabius and Aulus Gellius, is compounded of abs and teme'tum. "Teme'tum" was a strong, intoxicating drink, allied to the Greek methu (strong drink). "Vinum prisca liagos teme'tum appellabant."- Aulus Gellius, x. 13.   Abstract Numbers are numbers considered abstractly—1, 2, 3; but if we say 1 year, 2 feet, 3 men, etc., the numbers are no longer abstract, but concrete.

Taken in the abstract. Things are said to be taken in the abstract when they are considered absolutely, that is, without reference to other matters or persons. Thus, in the abstract, one man is as good as another, but not so socially and politically.   Abstraction. An empty Abstraction, a mere ideality, of no practical use. Every noun is an abstraction, but the narrower genera may be raised to higher ones, till the common thread is so fine that hardly anything is left. These high abstractions, from which everything but one common cord is taken, are called empty abstractions,

For example, man is a genus, but may be raised to the genus animal, thence to organised being, thence to created being, thence to matter in the abstract, and so on, till everything but one is emptied out.   Absurd means strictly, quite deaf. (Latin, ab, intensive, and surdus, deaf.)

Reductio ad absurdum. Proving a proposition to be right by showing that every supposable deviation from it would involve an absurdity.   Abu'dah. A merchant of Bagdad, haunted every night by an old hag; he finds at last that the way to rid himself of this torment is to "fear God, and keep his commandments."—Tales of the Genii.

"Like Abudah, he is always looking out for the Fury, and knows that the night will come with the inevitable ling with it."-Thackeray. 

 Abundant Number (An). A number such that the sum of all its divisors (except itself) is greater than the number itself. Thus 12 is an abundant number, because its divisors, 1, 2, 3, 4, 6 =16, which is greater than 12.

A-Deficient number is one of which the sum of all its divisors is less than itself, as 10, the divisors of which are 1, 2, 5, 8, which is less than 10.

A Perfect number is one of which the sam of all its divisors exactly measures itself, as 6, the divisors of which are 1, 2, 3 = 6.   Abus, the river Humber.

And Drayton, in his Polyolbion, 28,says:

See Geoffrey's Chronicles, Bk. ii. 2.   Ab'yla. A mountain in Africa, opposite Gibraltar. This, with Calpe în Spain, 16 m, distant, forms the pillars of Hercules.

<section end="Abyla"/> <section begin="Abyssinans"> Abyssinians. A sect of Christians in Abyssinia, who admit only one nature in Jesus Christ, and reject the Council of Chalco'don. <section end="Abyssinans"> <section begin="Acacetus"> Acacetus. Que who does nothing badly. It was a name given to Mercury or Hermès for his eloquence. (Greek, a, not; kakos, bad.) <section end="Acacetus"> <section begin="Academics"> Academics The followers of Plato were so called, because they attended his lectures in the Academy, a garden planted by Acade'mos. {ppoem|1={smaller} "Bee there the olive grove of Academus, Plato's retreat." >>> Milton: Paradise Lost, Book iv. <section end="Academics"> <section begin="Academy"> Acad'emy. Divided into-Old, the philosophic teaching of Plato and his immediate followers; Middle, a modification of the Platonic system, taught by Arcesila'os; New, the half-sceptical school of Carneades.

Plato taught that matter is eternal and infinite, but without form or order; and that there is an intelligent cause, the author of everything. He maintained that we could grasp truth only so far as we had elevated our mind by thought to its divine essence.

Arcesila'os was the great antagonist of the Stoica, and wholly denied man's ca- pacity for grasping truth.

Car'neadēs maintained that neither our senses nor our understanding could sup- ply us with a sure criterion of truth.

'The talent of the Academy, so Plato called Aristotle (B.O. 384-322). <section end="Academy"> <section begin="Academy Figures"> Academy Figures. Drawings in black and white chalk, on tinted paper, from living models, used by artists. So called from the Royal Academy of Artists. <section end="Academy Figures"> <section begin="Acaddis"> Aca'dis-i.e., Nova Scotia, so called by the French from the river Shubenacadie. The name was changed in 1621. <section end="Acaddis">