The Nuttall Encyclopaedia Part 31

APOCRYPHA, THE, a literature of sixteen books composed by Jews, after the close of the Hebrew canon, which though without the unction of the prophetic books of the canon, are instinct, for most part, with the wisdom which rests on the fear of G.o.d and loyalty to His law. The word Apocrypha means hidden writing, and it was given to it by the Jews to distinguish it from the books which they accepted as canonical.

APOL'DA (20), a town in Saxe-Weimar with extensive hosiery manufactures; has mineral springs.

APOLLINA'RIS, bishop of Laodicea, denied the proper humanity of Christ, by affirming that the Logos in Him took the place of the human soul, as well as by maintaining that His body was not composed of ordinary flesh and blood; _d_. 390.

APOLLO, the G.o.d _par excellence_ of the Greeks, identified with the sun and all that we owe to it in the shape of inspiration, art, poetry, and medicine; son of Zeus and Leto; twin brother of Artemis; born in the island of DELOS (q. v.), whither Leto had fled from the jealous Hera; his favourite oracle at Delphi.

APPLLODO'RUS (1), an Athenian painter, the first to paint figures in light and shade, 408 B.C.; (2) a celebrated architect of Damascus, _d_.

A.D. 129; and (3), an Athenian who wrote a well-arranged account of the mythology and heroic age of Greece.

APOLLONIUS OF RHODES, a grammarian and poet, flourished in the 3rd century B.C., author of the "Argonautica," a rather prosaic account of the adventures of the Argonauts.

APOLLONIUS OF TYANA, a Pythagorean philosopher, who, having become acquainted with some sort of Brahminism, professed to have a divine mission, and, it is said, a power to work miracles; was wors.h.i.+pped after his death, and has been compared to Christ; _d_. 97.

APOL'LOS, a Jew of Alexandria, who became an eloquent preacher of Christ, and on account of his eloquence rated above St. Paul.

APOLLYON, the destroying angel, the Greek name for the Hebrew Abaddon.

APOLOGETICS, a defence of the historical verity of the Christian religion in opposition to the rationalist and mythical theories.

APOSTATE, an epithet applied to the Emperor Julian, from his having, conscientiously however, abjured the Christian religion established by Constantine, in favour of paganism.

APOSTLE OF GERMANY, St. Boniface; A. OF IRELAND, St. Patrick; OF THE ENGLISH, St. Augustine; OF THE FRENCH, St. Denis; OF THE GAULS, Irenaeus; OF THE GENTILES, St. Paul; OF THE GOTHS, Ulfilas; OF THE INDIAN, John Eliot; OF THE SCOTS, Columba; OF THE NORTH, Ansgar; OF THE PICTS, St.

Ninian; OF THE INDIES, Francis Xavier; OF TEMPERANCE, Father Mathew.

APOSTLES, THE FOUR, picture of St. John, St. Peter, St. Mark, and St. Paul, in the museum at Munich, painted by Albert Durer.

APOSTOLIC FATHERS, Fathers of the Church who lived the same time as the Apostles: Clemens, Barnabas Polycarp, Ignatius, and Hermas.

APOSTOLIC SUCCESSION, the derivation of episcopal power in an unbroken line from the Apostles, a qualification believed by High Churchmen to be essential to the discharge of episcopal functions and the transmission of promised divine grace.

APPALA'CHIANS, a mountainous system of N. America that stretches NE.

from the tablelands of Alabama to the St. Lawrence, and includes the Alleghanies and the Blue Mountains; their utmost height, under 7000 feet; do not reach the snow-line; abound in coal and iron.

APPENZELL' (67), a canton in the NE. of Switzerland, enclosed by St.

Gall, divided into Outer Rhoden, which is manufacturing and Protestant, and Inner Rhoden, which is agricultural and Catholic; also the name of the capital.

AP'PIAN, an Alexandrian Greek, wrote in 2nd century a history of Rome in 24 books, of which 11 remain.

AP'PIAN WAY, a magnificent highway begun by Appius Claudius, 312 B.C., and finished by Augustus, from Rome to Brundusium.

APPLE OF DISCORD, a golden apple inscribed with the words, "To the most Beautiful," thrown in among the G.o.ds of Olympus on a particular occasion, contended for by Hera, Athena, and Aphrodite, and awarded by Paris of Troy, as referee, to Aphrodite, on promise that he would have the most beautiful woman of the world for wife.

APPLEBY, the county town of Westmorland, on the Eden; is a health resort.

APPLEGATH, AUGUSTUS, inventor of the vertical printing-press (1788-1871).

APPLETON (11), a city of Wisconsin, U.S., on the Fox River.

APPLETON, CH. EDWARD, founder and editor of the _Academy_ (1841-1879).

APPOMATTOX COURTHOUSE, a village in Virginia, U.S., where Gen. Lee surrendered to Gen. Grant in 1865.

APRAXEN, COUNT, a celebrated naval commander under Peter the Great and his right-hand man in many enterprises (1671-1728).

APRIL, the fourth month of the year, the month of "opening of the light in the days, and of the life of the leaves, and of the voices of the birds, and of the hearts of men."

AP'TERYX, a curious New Zealand bird with rudimentary wings, plumage like hair, and no tail.

APULE'IUS, a student of Plato, of N. African birth, lived in the 2nd century; having captivated a rich widow, was charged at one time with sorcery; his most celebrated work was the "Golden a.s.s," which contains, among other stories, the exquisite apologue or romance of PSYCHE and CUPID (q. v.).

APU'LIA (1,797), an ancient province in SE. of Italy, which extends as far N. as Monte Gargano, and the scene of the last stages in the second Punic war.

APU'RE, a river in Venezuela, chief tributary of the Orinoco, into which it falls by six branches.

AQUA TOFA'NA, Tofana's poison, some solution of a.r.s.enic with which a Sicilian woman called Tofana, in 17th century, poisoned, it is alleged, 600 people.