Page:Imperial Dictionary of Universal Biography Volume 1.pdf/172

ANA forms and things? Anaximander had no glimpse of the elevation afterwards reached by Anaxagoras. He century not even a conception of a universal vitality. He attempted to solve the problem by means of purely mechanical theories—within which he strove to reduce the phenomena of organization itself. Take as an instance his account of the creation of man and the animals:—"Our earth was originally a mixture of earth and water. The influence of the sun, increasing incessantly, dried the primitive humidity. The more marshy the earth, the greater the formative influence of the sun,—at present even, the power of this luminary is most visible in marshy countries. The sun having put into fermentation the humidity contained within the globe, the water is disengaged in the shape of bubbles. These are the germs of animals;—animals imperfect at first, and which soon perish: at length man appears, the last and crowning effort of solar heat." An entire system of physics was thus constructed by Anaximander, through the whole of which one may discern certain advances in observation. Not a trace, however, of the idea of a physical force; no approximation to any dynamical theory of the universe; infinitely less any gleam of that loftier scheme, whose discovery has conferred imperishable honour on the name of Anaxagoras.—J. P. N.  ANAXIMENES, flourished about 548. A philosopher of the Ionic school. According to Anaximenes, the or substratum is Air. Spiritual and corporeal qualities seem united under this element, but there is not a trace of time theism in any known speculation of Anaximenes. The reader is referred to articles and .—J. P. N.  ANAXIMENES, a native of Lampsacus, the pupil of Diogenes the Cynic, and the grammarian Zoilus, afterwards became one of the preceptors of Alexander the Great. We read that Alexander having resolved on the destruction of Lampsacus, on account of its determined opposition to his former attack, perceiving Anaximenes about to entreat his clemency, swore he would not grant the request he was about to make. Anaximenes instantly replied, "I supplicate, Alexander, that you sack the city, and reduce its inhabitants to slavery." The conqueror kept his promise, and Lampsacus was saved.—F.  ANAXIPPUS, a poet of Athens, who lived about. 308.  ANAYA MALDONADO, was born about the middle of the 14th century at Salamanca. The manner in which he discharged his trust as tutor to the sons of Juan I., king of Castile, procured him the bishopric of his native city. He died about 1440.  ANCANTHERUS,, a learned physician, who was historiographer to the emperors of Germany, and lived at Vienna in the latter half of the sixteenth century. Several learned historical works from his pen have been published; there are some of his inedited MSS. in the library of Vienna.  ANCARANO,, an ecclesiastic of Bassano, in the second half of the 16th century, the author of several hymns.  ANCARANO, ', was an Italian jurist and poet, a native of Reggio in Lombardy, who lived in the middle of the sixteenth century. <section end="172H" /> <section begin="172I" />ANCELL,, an English military writer, author of "A Circumstantial Journal of the Siege of Gibraltar," published in 1784, and received with considerable favour. In 1801, Ancell commenced the publication in Dublin of a periodical called "The Monthly Military Companion," which, however, was interrupted by his death at the close of the following year.—F. <section end="172I" /> <section begin="172J" />ANCELOT,, a dramatic writer, born at Havre, 1794, who produced a number of works evincing no inconsiderable genius and ability. <section end="172J" /> <section begin="172K" />ANCELOT, , wife of the preceding, born at Dijon, 1792, the author of some popular dramatic pieces represented on the French theatre. <section end="172K" /> <section begin="172L" />ANCHARANO, ', a member of the Farnese family, born at Ancharano about the year 1350, dedicated himself to the study of civil and canon law, under the celebrated Baldus, and attained high reputation as a jurist. Died 1417. <section end="172L" /> <section begin="172M" />ANCHERES,, a French poet, born near Verdun in 1586, who enjoyed the patronage of King James I. of England, to whom several of his poems were dedicated. He died about the middle of the seventeenth century. <section end="172M" /> <section begin="172N" />ANCHERSEN,, a learned Dane, born at Ribe in 1700. In 1737 he became professor of elocution at Copenhagen, he was well versed in history, jurisprudence, and antiquities, and was the author of many works displaying accurate scholarship and laborious research. <section end="172N" /> <section begin="172O" />ANCHERSEN or ANSGARIUS,, bishop of Ribe, born at Colding in North Jutland in 1682, was held in high reputation for his skill in languages. He died in 1741.—F. <section end="172O" /> <section begin="172P" />ANCHIETA or ANCHIETTA, ', a celebrated jesuit missionary, born of a noble family at Laguna in Teneriffe in 1533. Having studied at the university of Coimbra, and entered the society of the jesuits, he, with six other ecclesiastics, sailed for Brazil. On arriving at Bahia in 1553, he devoted himself with the utmost zeal to the object of his mission. Before a year had expired, a college was founded at Piratininga, several miles from the coast; here the missionaries were exposed to great privations; but in the course of a few years, Anchieta acquired a great degree of influence over the natives; and it has been affirmed that in 1562, when the Portuguese colonies were threatened with extinction by the warlike tribes around Espiritu Santo, it was by his efforts that the imminent peril was averted. He continued his labours for many years; and having merited, by his unwearied exertions, the title of the Apostle of the New World, died at a village near Espiritu Santo, in 1597.—F. <section end="172P" /> <section begin="172Q" />ANCHIETA,, a Spanish sculptor of the sixteenth century, was a native of Pampeluna, and celebrated for the skill and taste with which he executed the ornamental carving in several of the principal churches of Spain. <section end="172Q" /> <section begin="172R" />ANCHISES, the son of Capys and father of Æneas. When Troy was taken, he was carried through the flames of the burning city on the shoulders of his son, and thus his life was saved. He afterwards accompanied Æneas on his voyage to Italy, but died in Sicily in his eightieth year. <section end="172R" /> <section begin="172S" />ANCILLON,, a French writer, born at Metz in 1659. Having completed his studies, he entered on the profession of an advocate in his native city, in his twentieth year, and eventually became historiographer to the king of Prussia, and superintendent of a French college at Berlin. He was the author of a variety of works, and died in 1715. <section end="172S" /> <section begin="172T" />ANCILLON,, a French protestant divine, born at Metz in Lorraine in 1617. In early life, while at the college of the jesuits, he evinced a great love of study, but firmly resisted every effort made to win him over to the church of Rome; and in 1633 he proceeded to Geneva, and having studied theology under Du Pau, Spanheim, and other learned men, entered on the ministry at Charenton. He suffered severely from the revocation of the edict of Nantes, having lost the noble library he had been collecting, at great expense and trouble, for forty years. Subsequently he became pastor of the French church at Berlin, in which city he died in 1692.—F. <section end="172T" /> <section begin="172Zcontin" />ANCILLON,, born at Berlin in 1766; died in 1837. A very distinguished thinker and writer, whose labours alike in history and philosophy, demand especial notice. Ancillon, at first a protestant clergyman, quickly rose through energy of his scientific genius to a chair in the Military Academy of Prussia; at an early age, he was elected member of the Academy of Sciences, next he became counsellor of State, and his political sagacity obtained for him successively the offices of private secretary to the king, and of minister of foreign affairs. His great political work is undoubtedly the "Tableau des revolutions du system politique de l'Europe depuis le quinzieme siecle," a work which unfolds more clearly and graphically than perhaps any other, the principle and play of the European states-system up to the period when the first French revolution overturned all systems, and inaugurated a new era. As a comprehensive but brief sketch—one through which the working of great principles is clearly traced amid all the apparent confusion of these ages, and in which exposition is not overlaid by accumulation of mere details—this work of Ancillon has few equals. It is beyond question the most intelligent resumé extant of the phenomena of modern European history, and should be read by the student on his closing the grand epos of Gibbon. It is to be regretted that no English translation of these valuable volumes has been undertaken hitherto. Ancillon wrote history as a philosopher—perhaps his own natural bent was towards philosophy in itself. But as his history verges on philosophy, so does his philosophy uniformly betray the tendencies and sympathies of the man of practical affairs. Ancillon's desire was to be the moderator between conflicting extremes. We know that in his efforts to define the virtues, Aristotle adopted the theory of the Mean; something of the same kind was the aim of Ancillon in regard to intellectual speculation. His results were never very wide of the true results; nevertheless, his method cannot have a place <section end="172Zcontin" />