passage till he thought he perfectly comprehended it. Having accurately perused all the Latin classics, both historians and poets, he went through the Greek Testament, and then applied to Hesiod, Homer, Theocritus, Herodotus, Thucydides, and all the Greek tragedians. In the midst of these literary pursuits, he went, in 1734, on the invitation of William Norton, esq. to Knaresborough, where he became much esteemed; and here, with indefatigable diligence, he acquired the knowledge of the Hebrew tongue. In April 1744 he came again to London, and taught both Latin and writing, at Mr. Painblanc's, in Piccadilly, above two years. He next went, in the capacity of writingmaster, to a boarding-school at Hayes, in Middlesex, kept by the Rev. Anthony Hinton. He at length succeeded to several other places in the south of England, making use of every opportunity for improvement. He was afterwards employed in transcribing the acts of parliament to be registered in Chancery, and about the beginning of December 1757, went down to the free-school at Lynn. From his leaving Knaresborough to this period, which was a long interval, he had attained the knowledge of history and antiquities, and also of heraldry and botany. Few plants, either domestic or exotic, were unknown to him. Amidst all this, he ventured upon the Chaldee and Arabic, but had not time to obtain any great knowledge of the latter. He found the Chaldee easy enough, on account of its connection with the Hebrew. He then investigated the Celtic, as far as possible, in all its dialects; began collections, and made comparisons between that, the English, the Latin, the Greek, and even the Hebrew. He had made notes, and compared above three thousand words together, and found such a surprising affinity, that he was determined to proceed through the whole of all these languages, and form a comparative lexicon. He was also far from being a contemptible poet.

With this immense stock of learning, acquired without the assistance of a master, and the most extraordinary talents, which might have made him shine in any station of life, it is to be lamented that he was guilty of an action inconsistent with every principle of humanity; for, in 1758, he was taken up at Lynn, in Norfolk, for the murder of Daniel Clark, a shoe-maker of Knaresborough, who had been missing upwards of 13 years, and removed to York castle, where being brought to his trial, on the third of

August 1759, he read a most admirable defence, in which he displayed equal modesty, good sense, and learning; but was found guilty, and the next morning confessed the justness of his sentence, acknowledging to a clergyman, that his motive for committing the murder was his suspect-. ing Clark of having unlawful commerce with his wife. When he was called from bed to have his irons taken off, he refused to rise, alleging that he was very weak. On examination it was found that he had attempted to take away his own life, by cutting his arm in two places with a razor. Though weak, he was conducted to the gallows of York, and there executed, and hung in chrains in Knaresborough forest.1

ARANTIUS (JULIUS CÆSAR), a celebrated Italian anatomist, was born at Bologna, about the year 1530. He studied under Vesalius and his uncle Bartholomew Maggius, took his doctor's degree at Bologna, and was soon after appointed professor of surgery and anatomy, which office he held for thirty-two years, and until his death, April 7, 1589. He studied with most attention the anatomy of the muscles, and arrived at some knowledge of the doctrine of the circulation of the blood. He wrote, 1. "De humano fætu liber," Venice, 1571, 8vo, Basil, 1579, and Leyden, 1664. In this work he explains at great length the structure of the uterus, the placenta, &c. The Venice editions of 1587 and 1595, 4to, have the addition of some anatomical observations, and an essay on tumours by Arantius. 2. "In Hippocratis librum de vulneribus capitis commentarius brevis, ex ejus lectionibus collectus," Lyons, 1580, Leyden, 1639, 1641, 12mo.

2

ARATOR, the secretary and intendant of finances to Athalaric, and afterwards subdeacon of the Romish church, flourished in the sixth century, and, according to some accounts, was born in the year 490, but the place of his birth has been contested. He certainly was of Liguria, but in his time Liguria comprehended a great part of Lombardy, and Milan was the chief city. He was educated under Laurentius, archbishop of Milan, who died in the year 504. Arator is said to have died in the year 556. At first he employed his poetical talents on profane subjects, but afterwards on those which were of a more serious kind. In the year 544, he presented Pope Vigilius with the Acts of the

1 Biog. Britannica,

? Biog, Universelle.-Haller.-Manget.

Apostles in Latin verse, with which the pontiff was so much pleased that he ordered the work to be read in the church of St. Peter ad Vincula, and it met with universal approbation. We find in it many of the allegories which the venerable Bede introduced in his commentary on the Acts. It was printed with other poetry of the same description, at Venice, 1502, 4to, Strasburgh, 1507, 8vo, Leipsic, 1515, 4to, and in the Bibliotheca Patrum, Paris, 1575, 1589, &c. Father Sirmond published at the end of his edition of Ennodius, a letter in elegiac verse, which Arator wrote to Parthenius.

1

ARATUS, a Greek poet, celebrated for his poem entitled the Phenomena, flourished about the 127th olympiad, or near 300 years before Christ, while Ptolemy Philadelphus reigned in Egypt. Being educated under Dionysius Heracleotes, a Stoic philosopher, he espoused the principles of that sect, and became physician to Antigonus Gonatus, the son of Demetrius Poliorcetes, king of Macedon. The Phenomena of Aratus gives him a title to the character of an astronomer, as well as a poet. In this work he describes the nature and motion of the stars, and shews their various dispositions and relations; he describes the figures of the constellations, their situations in the sphere, the origin of the names which they bear in Greece and in Egypt, the fables which have given rise to them, the rising and setting of the stars, and he indicates the manner of knowing the constellations by their respective situations.

The poem of Aratus was commented upon and translated by many authors: of whom, among the ancients, were Cicero, Germanicus Cæsar, and Festus Avienus, who made Latin translations of it; a part of the former of which is still extant. Aratus must have been much esteemed by the ancients, since we find so great a number of scholiasts and commentators upon him; among whom are Aristarchus of Samos, the Arystylli the geometricians, Apollonius, the Evæneti, Crates, Numenius the grammarian, Pyrrhus of Magnesia, Thales, Zeno, and many others, as may be seen in Vossius, p. 156. Suidas ascribes several other works to Aratus. Virgil, in his Georgics, has translated or imitated many passages from this author: Ovid speaks of him with admiration, as well as many others of the poets: And St. Paul has quoted a passage from him; which is in his

1 Moreri.-Cave.-Biog. Universelle.-Lardner's Works.

speech to the Athenians (Acts xvii. 28.) where he tells them that some of their own poets have said, "For we are also his offspring," these words being the beginning of the 5th line of the Phenomena of Aratus.

His modern editors are Henry Stephens, who published his poem at Paris in 1566, in his collection of the poets, in folio, and Grotius, who published an edition of the Phenomena at Leyden in 4to, 1600, in Greek and Latin, with the fragments of Cicero's version, and the translations of Germanicus and Avienus; all which the editor has illustrated with curious notes. The edition of Aratus published at Oxford by Fell, 1672, 8vo, with the scholia, is much esteemed; but the best is that recently published by J. Th. Buhle, at Leipsic, 1793-1801, 2 vols. 8vo, which is enriched by additions from manuscripts.1

ARBAUD (FRANCIS), Sieur de Porcheres, one of the first members of the French academy in the seventeenth century, was born in Provence, and was descended from the ancient family of Porchéres. He was the scholar and follower of Malherbe, and imitated him in the turn of his verse, and was also tutor to the son of Mr. de Chenoise, and afterwards to the son of the count Saint-Heran. The abbé Bois-Robert, who was particularly eminent for the generous use which he made of his interest with cardinal Richelieu, procured him a pension of six hundred livres from that great man. On March 10, 1636, he spoke an oration in the French academy upon the "Love of the Sciences." He retired at last into Burgundy, where he married, and died in 1640. He wrote a great number of verses, which were never printed. But there are others, which were published, as particularly his "Paraphrase upon the Psalms of Degrees," to which are added his "Poems upon divers subjects," Paris, 1633, 8vo. He had a brother, John, who had likewise a talent for poetry, and translated several of the Psalms into French verse, two editions of which have been published, the former at Grenoble in 1651, and the latter more complete at Marseilles in 1684.2

ARBUCKLE (JAMES, A. M.), was born in Glasgow, 1700, and educated in the university of that city, where he took his degrees, and afterwards kept an academy in the north of Ireland. He wrote several poems, which have been

Gen. Dict.Vossius.-Fabr. Bibl. Græc.

2 Gen. Dict,

published in one vol. 12mo; and undertook a translation of Virgil, but did not live to finish it. He was a person of fine taste, and much esteemed by the learned in general. He died 1734, aged 34.1

ARBUTHNOT (ALEXANDER), principal of the university of Aberdeen, was the son of the baron of Arbuthnot, and was born in the year 1538. He studied philosophy and the classics in the university of Aberdeen, and civil law in France, where he was five years under the care of the famous Cujacius. Having taken the degree of licentiate, he returned home in 1563, and appeared very warmly in support of the reformed religion. At this time queen Mary was resident in her kingdom; but the earl of Murray having the supreme direction of all things, the reformed church of Scotland was in a very flourishing condition. The friends of Mr. Arbuthnot prevailed upon him to take orders, but whether he received them from a bishop or from presbyters is uncertain. In 1568, he assisted as a member of the general assembly, which was held in the month of July at Edinburgh. By this assembly he was intrusted with the care of revising a book which had given offence, entitled "The Fall of the Roman Church," printed by one Thomas Bassenden, in Edinburgh. The exception taken to it was, that the king had the style of the supreme head of the church: at the same time there was another complaint against this Bassenden, for printing a lewd song at the end of the Psalm book. On these mat

ters an order was made, forbidding the printer to vend any more of his books till the offensive title was altered, and the lewd song omitted. The assembly also made an order, that no book should be published for the future, till licensed by commissioners of their appointment.

A little after, he was appointed minister of Arbuthnot and Logy-Buchan. The year following, viz. 1569, on a visitation of the King's College at Aberdeen, Mr. Alexander Anderson, principal, Mr. Andrew Galloway, sub-principal, and three regents, were deprived. Their sentence was published on the third of July, and immediately Mr. Arbuthnot was made principal of that college. He was a member also of the general assembly which sat at St. Andrew's in 1572, when a certain scheme of church-govern

1 Introduced in the last edition of this Dictionary, we know not on what aus thority.