[Ar`istotle], a native of Stagira, in Thrace, and hence named the Stagirite; deprived of his parents while yet a youth; came in his 17th year to Athens, remained in Plato's society there for 20 years; after the death of Plato, at the request of Philip, king of Macedon, who held him in high honour, became the preceptor of Alexander the Great, then only 13 years old; on Alexander's expedition into Asia, returned to Athens and began to teach in the Lyceum, where it was his habit to walk up and down as he taught, from which circumstance his school got the name of Peripatetic; after 13 years he left the city and went to Chalcis, in Euboea, where he died. He was the oracle of the scholastic philosophers and theologians in the Middle Ages; is the author of a great number of writings which covered a vast field of speculation, of which the progress of modern science goes to establish the value; is often referred to as the incarnation of the philosophic spirit (385-322 B.C.).
[Aristox`enus of Tarentum], a Greek philosopher, author of the "Elements of Harmony," the only one of his many works extant, and one of the oldest writers on music; contemporary of Aristotle.
[A`rius], a presbyter of Alexandria in the 4th century, and founder of Arianism, which denied the consubstantiality of the Son with the Father in the so-called Trinity, a doctrine which hovered for a time between acceptance and rejection throughout the Catholic Church; was condemned first by a local synod which met at Alexandria in 321, and then by a General Council at Nice in 325, which the Emperor Constantine attended in person; the author was banished to Illyricum, his writings burned, and the possession of them voted to be a crime; after three years he was recalled by Constantine, who ordered him to be restored; was about to be readmitted into the Church when he died suddenly, by poison, alleged his friends—by the judgment of God, said his enemies (280-336).
[Arizo`na] (59), a territory of the United States N. of Mexico and W. of New Mexico, nearly four times as large as Scotland, rich in mines of gold, silver, and copper, fertile in the lowlands; much of the surface a barren plateau 11,000 ft. high, through which the cañon of the Colorado passes. See [Cañon].
[Ark of the Covenant], a chest of acacia wood overlaid with gold, 2½ cubits long and 1½ in breadth; contained the two tables of stone inscribed with the Ten Commandments, the gold pot with the manna, and Aaron's rod; the lid supported the mercy-seat, with a cherub at each end, and the shekinah radiance between.
[Arkans`as] (1,128), one of the Southern States of America, N. of Louisiana and W. of the Mississippi, a little larger than England; rich in metals, grows cotton and corn.
[Arkwright, Sir Richard], born at Preston, Lancashire; bred to the trade of a barber; took interest in the machinery of cotton-spinning; with the help of a clockmaker, invented the spinning frame; was mobbed for threatening thereby to shorten labour and curtail wages, and had to flee; fell in with Mr. Strutt of Derby, who entered into partnership with him; prospered in business and died worth half a million. "French Revolutions were a-brewing; to resist the same in any way, Imperial Cæsars were impotent without the cotton and cloth of England; and it was this man," says Carlyle, "that had to give to England the power of cotton" (1732-1792).
[Arlberg], a mountain mass between the Austrian provinces of Vorarlberg and Tyrol, pierced by a tunnel, one of the three that penetrate the Alps, and nearly four miles in length.
[Arles] (14), a city, one of the oldest in France, on the Rhône, 46 m. N. of Marseilles, where Constantine built a palace, with ruins of an amphitheatre and other Roman works; the seat of several Church Councils.
[Ar`lincourt, Viscount d'], a French romancer, born near Versailles (1789-1856).