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ABYSSINIAN CHURCH could to prevent arms and ammunition reaching them through his territory.

Menelek died in December, 1913, and was succeeded by his grandson, Lij Yassu. On Sept. 27, 1916, the Emperor was deposed during his absence from the capital by a faction headed by the Metropolitan Abuna Mathaeos. Waizeru Zauditu, daughter of Menelek, was chosen as ruler in his stead. During the World War, Abyssinian troops were allied with the British in the East African campaign. On July 14, 1919, an Abyssinian delegation arrived in Washington and was received by President Wilson. They brought gifts and letters from the Empress and the Heir Apparent, Ras Taffari, congratulating America on the victorious outcome of the war.

ABYSSINIAN CHURCH, the name of a sect of the Christian Church established \n Abyssinia. The forms and ritual of the Abyssinian Church are a strange compound of paganism, Judaism, and Christianity. It is governed by a bishop, who is styled abuna.

ACACIA, a genus of plants belonging to the mimosæ, one of the leading divisions of the great leguminous order of plants. They abound in Australia, in India, in Africa, tropical America and generally in the hotter regions of the world. Nearly 300 species are known from Australia alone. They are easily cultivated in greenhouses, where they flower, for the most part, in winter or early spring. The type is perhaps the Acacia Arabica, or gum arable tree, common in India and Arabia. It looks very beautiful with its graceful, doubly pinnate leaves and its heads of flowers like little velvety pellets, of bright gamboge hue. Other species than the A. Arabica produce gum arabic. That of the shops is mostly derived from the A. vera, a stunted species growing in the Atlas mountains and other parts of Africa.

ACADEMICS, a name given to a series of philosophers who taught in the Athenian Academy, the scene of Plato's discourses.

ACADEMY, the gymnasium in the suburbs of Athens in which Plato taught, and so called after a hero, by name Academus, to whom it was said to have originally belonged. The word is also applied to a high school designed for the technical or other instruction of those who have already acquired the rudiments of knowledge; also a university.

Anciently, there were two public academies: one at Rome, founded by Adrian, in which all the sciences were taught, but especially jurisprudence; the other at Berytus, in Phoenicia, in which jurists were principally educated. Academy is the name, also, of a society or an association of artists, linked together for the promotion of art, or of scientific men, similarly united for the advancement of science, or of persons united for any more or less analogous object.

ACADEMY, FRENCH, an institution founded in 1635 by Cardinal Richelieu for the purpose of refining the French language and style. It became in time the most influential of all literary societies in Europe. Together with the Academy of Inscriptions and Belles Lettres, the Academy of Moral and Political Sciences and the Academy of Sciences, it composes the National Institute of France. It published in 1694 the first edition of a dictionary. The French Academy originated in a simple meeting of friends who met at the house of Conrart, one of their number. These reunions were held informally for many years. At last they attracted the attention of Richelieu, who, in 1634, proposed to form an Academy, and, from the 13th of March in that year, a record was kept of their transactions and a director or chancellor and a perpetual secretary were appointed. The Academy was definitely formed by letters patent of Louis XIII., in January, 1635; they were registered by Parliament July 10, 1637. At first the number was 30. Ordinary members receive 1,500 francs a year. In 1880 the discussion of the qualifications of candidates which had been in vogue for more than 10 years was abolished, but restored in 1896. In 1671 the sessions of the Academy became public. See INSTITUTE OF FRANCE.

ACADEMY OF ARTS AND LETTERS, AMERICAN, an organization established in 1898. The qualification for membership is notable achievement in arts, music, or literature. The membership is limited to 250. The first seven members were chosen in 1917. They were William Dean Howells, Augustus Saint Gaudens, Edmund Clarence Stedman, John La Farge, Samuel Langhorn Clemens, John Hay, and Edward A. MacDowell. The Academy holds annually a series of public meetings in different cities of the United States. William Dean Howells, until his death in 1920, was president of the Academy. Robert Underwood Johnson was permanent secretary.

In 1920 the membership list was as follows: John Singer Sargent. Daniel Chester French, John Burroughs, James Ford Rhodes, Horatio William Parker, Robert Underwood Johnson. George Washington Cable, Henry Van Dyke,