Page:Cyclopaedia, Chambers - Supplement, Volume 1.djvu/67

 AGE

AGE

AGATHOD^EMON, a beneficent genius, or daemon. See D.ffiMON and Genius, Cycl.

The woid is Greek, compounded of ayafl©', good, and 9totpm 9 dasmon.

Among antient writers, Agathodtemon is a denomination given to a kind of ferpents, bred up and revered by the Egyptians, from an opinion of fome fanctity reliding in them. They are alfo called dragons, dracones, or dracunculi, and fabuloufly defcribed as having wings.— They appear to be the fame with thofe otherwife called Jirenes, Vid. Lamprid. in Heliogab. c. 28. Cafaub. Not. ad Sueton^ Ed. 2. Bocbart, Hierof. P. 2. 1. 3. c. 14 .Hoffm. Lex. Univ. T. 1. p. 106. AGE (Cycl.) — Dr. Woodward holds, that the ages to which men arrive, are proportional to the number of their la&eals. Mem. de Trev. 1725. p. 983. , Age is alfo ufed for the duration of vegetable matters. In which fenfe, we fay the Age of roots, of leaves, of corn, of wine, &c. V. Grew, Anat. Plant 1. 2. p. 91. Id. ibid. 1. 4. c. 5. p 56. Mem. Acad. Scienc. 1708. p. 95. Hilt. Cm. Rep. Lett. T. 1. p. 236. *..,■.

Trees after a certain Age wafte. An oak at a hundred years old ceafes _ to grow. The ufual rule for judging of the Age of wood, is by the number of circles which appear in the fub- fiance of a trunk, or frock, cut perpendicularly, each circle being fuppofed the growth of a year a ; though fome reject this method as precarious, alledging, that a fimplc circle is fome- times the produce of fevcral years ; befkies that, after a certain Age, no new circles are formed b :7 — [■» Philof. Tranf. N .^. p. 8^7- Bibl. Univ. T. 13. p. 197. & T. 1. p. 474. Mem. deTrcv. 171 1. p. 700. b Act. Erud. Lipf. 1713. p. 146.] Age is alfo ufed for the duration of things inanimate, and even factitious. -

In which fenfe we fay, the Age of a- houfe, of a country *,' a ftate, b a commonwealth, or the like. A late author pro- pofes a method of difcovering the Age of the fea, by the number of layers of incruftated fediment wherewith its bottom is lined c. — [■* Rudbeek, Atlant. ap. Nouv. Rep. Lett. T. 3. p. 66. b Bodin, de Repub. 1. 4. c. 1. c Mem. Acad. Scien. 1710 p- 32].

Some have laid it down as a rule with regard to the Age of ftates, that none furvive thirteen hundred years s. Civilians eftimate the Age of houfes, by the materials of which they are formed. Thus a ftone houfe was reckoned the day it was built, as if it were to ftand eighty years ; fo that, if it had coft, e. gr. an hundred crowns, and were burnt down after ftanding forty years, the value of it was diminifhed one half e. A houfe built of burnt bricks was reputed immortal ; whence Piiny calls the walls made of this (tuff pdrietes csternos K — [ d Nouv. Rep. Lett. T. 12. p. 196. c Bodin, ubi fupra, 1. 4. c. 2. p. 633. / Plin. Hift. Nat. I. 35. c. 14.] Age of the ivorld denotes the time elapfed fince the creation. There are infinite difputes among chronologers concerning the Age of the world, which fome extend, others contract, beyond the ordinary term v The followers of Herodotus, and the Hebrew, make it much lefs than thofe who adhere to Ctefias and the Septuagint b . Sir Ifuac Newton has taken upwards of three hundred years from the world's Age c ; for which, however, he has made a retribution elfewhere. F. Pezron has added above two thoufand years to it d . — [ a Vid. Vojf. Caftig. ad Script. Horn, de iEtate Mundi, Hag.'^to. 1659. Mem. de Trev. 1729. p. 1567. Straucb. Brev. Chron. 1, 4. 1. p. 150., Bodin, de la Repub. 1. 4. c. 2. p. 654. r Brown, Vulg. Err. 1. 6. c. 1. p. 233. A£t. Erud. Lipf. fup. T. 7. p. 416. Jr. an. 1704. p. 141. Giorn, de Letter, d'ltal. T. 31. p. 52. , >> Kujler, Bib!. Nov. Liter. 1699. p. 466. c V. Chronol'. p. 204.' Bibl. Franc. T. 14.' p. 56. d L'Antiq. des Terns -Retablie. It. Defenfc de l'An- tiq. des Terns. Jour, des Scav. T. 15, p. 109. Nouv.' Rep. Lett. T. 10. p. 648. Du Pin, Bibl. Ecclef. T. 19. p. 156. feq. Le Cterc; Bibl. Univ. T. 24. p. 105.']'. Divers methods have been ufed for computing the world's Age; as by the invention of letters % the origin and pro- grefs of fciences f, and the like.. Some late, writers, have propofed other methods; as by the growth of the foil of a country s j the increafe of faltnefs of the fea h ; the flow mo- tion of the fun's apogee '.— [« Hift. Crit. Repub. Lett. T. 9. p. r. f Nouv. Repub. Lett. T. 40. p. 292; * Rudbeek, Atlant, Ap. Hook, Phil. Collcft. N°. 4. p. ng; * Bailey, in Phil. Tranf. N°. 344. p. 296. ; Power, Exp. Phil. p. 188. J Golden Age, the firft ftate of the world, according to the an- tient poets ; fuppofed to be the time when Saturn reigned, and during which the ground produced plenty of every thing, without labour or tillage. Aftrjea, /. e. jufficc, then refided on earth ; men held all things in common, and lived in per- fect friendfhip. This period is fuppofed to have Jafted till Saturn was expelled from; his kingdom. V. Ovid$ Metamur. 1. 1. v. 88- feq. Hefod, Opp. & Dies, v. ic8. feq. Tbo- niajfin, Meth. Etud. Poet. P. 1. 1, 2. c. 16. p. 517. feq. Nquv. Rep. Lett. T. 4. p. 749.

This, and the three remaining poetic Ages, the Si 'her y the Brazen, and the Irdn Ages, are too well known to need any ctefcription- Dr. Hook has given us a phyfical explication of the four Ages. Vid. Fofth. Works, p. 379. feq. See alfo Burnet, Archsol. c. 5. p. 88. Merri* de Trev. 1724.

A late author, reflecting on the barbarifm of the firft Ages, will have the order which the poets affign to the four Ages inverted ; the firft being a time of rudenefs and ignorance, more properly denominated an Iron, than a Golden Age. When cities and. ftates were founded, the Silver Age. com- menced j and fince arts and fciences, navigation, commerce, &c. have been cultivated, the Golden Age has taken place. Rocky or Jlony Age, in fome antient northern monuments, cor- responds to the Brazen Age of Hefiod, and the Greeks ; being called Rocky, on account of Noah's Ark, which relied on mount Arrarat. Whence men were faid to be defcendtd, or fprung, from mountains, or from Deucalion and Pyrrha, reftor- ing the race o( mankind, by throwing ftones oyer their heads. AJkeH Age, the fourth Age of the northern poets;, fo called from a Gothic king, Madenis, or Mannus, who," on account of his great ftrength, was faid to be made of afh ; or, becaufe in his time people began to make ufe of weapons made of that wood., Vid. .Rudbeek^ Atlant. P. 3. c. 4 — g. Philofi

■ Tranf. N°. 301. p. 207.

Hijhrica I Age, that which commenced from the firft Olym- piad, in the year of the world 32° 8, and ftill continues. This divifion, it is to be obferved, only holds good with re- gard to the Greeks and Romans, who had no hiftories earlier than the firft Olympiad. The Jews, Egyptians, Phoenicians, Chaldees, not to fay the Indians and Chinefe, who pretend to much earlier monuments, will not be concluded by it. Bibl. Univ. T. 1. p. 246. ■ j ..... ,. - .>

Age before the law, among the jews," called alfo the Void Age,, Saeulum inane, was the fpace of time from the creation to Mofes. . The length of this is differently computed, accord- ing to the tradition attributed to Ellas ; this, as well as the two following ones, confift each of two thoufand. years.; The ufual Jewifh computation, as alfo thofe of Scaliger and Ufher, are mentioned in the Cyclopedia ; as are alfo fome opinions about the duration of the Age of the law,' and of the Age of grace. t V. Straucb. Brev. Chron. §.' 13. p. 5. . 1 he Sibylline oracles, which, according to fome, were alfo written by Jews, acquainted with the prophecies of the. Old Teftarhent, divide the duration of the world into ten Ages ; and, .according to Jofephus, each Age comprehended fix hundred years., It appears, by Virgil's fourth eclogue, and other teftimonies, that the Age of Auguftus was reputed the end of thefe ten Ages, confequently as the period of the world's duration. Pezron, Defenfe de l'Antiq. des Terns, p. 505. feq. Bibl. Univ. T. 24. p. 145. feq. , Prefent Age, among Jewifh writers, frequently denotes all the. fpace of time before the Meffiah, in contradift inction from future - Age, or Agetocome', the time after the coming of the Mefliah. Middle Age denotes the fpace of time commencing from Con- ftantine, and ending at the taking of Conftanfinople by the. Turks, in the fifteenth century,. Martin. Dial. Geogr. in Prcf. Mem.' de Trev.: an. 1729. p. 1359. See alfo Bibl. Univ. T. 12. p. 393. feq. , . . j

A late author chufes rather to date the middle Age from the divifion of the empire made by Theodofius, at the clofe oi the fourth century, and extend it to the time, of the emperor Maximilian I. at the beginning of the 16th century, when the empire was firft divided into circles. But this feems more- accommodated to the ftate of Germany in particular, than of Europe in general.' ,.;.„...■ -, , ,■ ■ , : - .< ( ,

We fay, a medal of the middle Age a ; the philofophy of the middle Age b. Junker has published a geography of the. middle Age, in High-Dutch c, which 'tis a pity were not to be had in fome more popular language. Cellarius d has given a hiftory of the middle Age; .Eccard c a body. of the hifto- rians of the middle Age ; Du Cange a glofiary of the Latin of the" middle Age,, and another of the Greek.' — [ a Bibl. Univ. T. 24. p. 405. ■ b Reinhard. Hift. Philof. p,' 125. feq. c See extracts of it in Act. Erud. Lipf. 17 12. p. 371. feq. & Mem.' of Liter. T. 6 : p. 296. ; d Hift, Medii'/Evi. See an extradt of it in Act. Erud. Lipf. 1688. p. 272. feq. & Giorn. de Letter, de Parm.' an, 1688. p. 176. c Corp. Hift. Mcdii ^Evi, T. 2. fol. See Jour, des Scav. T. 75. p. 86. & Act. Erud. Lipf. an. 1723. p. 377. & 438.] .. The middle is by fome denominated the barbarous Age, and • the latter part of it, the loweft Age. Some divide it into Non Academical Age, the fpace of time from the Vlth to the IXth centuries, during which fchools or academies were loft


 * in Europe., »

Academical Age, from the IXth century, when fchools were feftored and unlverfities eftabliflied, chiefly by the care of . Charlem'aign.Obferv. Halcns. T.6. Obf. 18. §. 4. p- 144. Military or Millenary Age, feeculum milliariuw, or millenarium, on medals denotes the laft year of a Millennium or thou- fand year. , .:

Several medals of the emperors Philip, (truck in the thoufandth' year from the building of Rome, have, this legend. Age is alfo ufed among antient poets for the fpace of thirty years. Averan. Diff. in Ahthol. Ep. 2. Giorn. de Letter, d'ltal. T. 24. p. 423. . ,

In- which fenfe, Age amounts to much the fame with genera- tion.

Neftor is faid to have lived three Ages, at the time when? he was ninety.

5 Nev?