This word, in relation to manuscripts, is used in opposition to an apograph, or copy. Collections of autographs, as the handwritings of individual persons, had their origin about the middle of the 16th century in Germany, where the gentry, and especially persons who travelled, carried about with them white-paper books, to obtain and preserve in them the signatures of persons of eminence, or new acquaintance; when such a book received most generally the name of Album; though it was sometimes called 'Hortus,' or 'Thesaurus Amicorum.' Persons who travelled, it is to be observed, showed, by such means, what sort of company they had kept. (See the facts mentioned in Izaak Walton's Life of Sir Henry Wotton,' Reliq. Wotton. edit. 1651; and Wanley's 'Account of the Harleian Manuscript 933, in his Catalogue.') These albums are frequently found in the manuscript libraries of Europe. Several are preserved in the British Museum, and some are adorned with splendid illuminations, one, which is now exhibited to the public, is the Album Amicorum' of Christopher Arnold of Nuremberg, containing a collection of German and English autographs, among which is one of John Milton, with a sentence in Greek, dated London, November 19, 1651. The oldest (MS. Sloan. 851) bears a date as early as 1578, and appears to have belonged to a lady: others will be found in the MSS., Sloan. 2035, 2360, 2597, 3415, 3416. There is one also in the same repository, preserved in the library which belonged to George III., evidently made for Charles I., with whose and his queen's mottoes and signatures it opens. "1626. Si vis omnia subjicere, subjice te rationi, Carolus, R." "En Dieu est mon espérance, Henriette Marie, R." The other signatures with short sentences, English and foreign, are numerous, all upon paper, but with alternate leaves of vellum, bearing rich illuminations of the arms of the respective parties inserted. Amongst them are the signature and arms of Charlotte de Trémouille, countess of Derby, afterwards the celebrated defendress of Latham House. The earliest royal autograph of England, now known, is the small figure of a cross, made by the hand of king William Rufus, in the centre of a charter, by which the manor of Lambeth was granted to the church of Rochester. This charter is preserved amongst those which were bequeathed some years ago to the British Museum by Lord Frederick Campbell. The next royal autograph known is Le Roy R. E., the signature of Richard II., affixed to two documents, one preserved in the archives of the Tower of London, the other relating to the surrender of Brest, among the Cottonian manuscripts. From his time the royal signatures of England continue in uninterrupted succession. We sometimes read of the signing of Magna Charta, which really means the sealing; a signature at that period was not the authentic attestation of an instrument, or even of a letter. Autographs possess some interest, but not in themselves as historical documents; such an interest is independent of the autograph; but the handwriting of an eminent person, as the production of his mental and bodily powers, is the most peculiarly his own, and therefore, perhaps, the most interesting relic of his former life. Lavater, and others since his time, have believed that the character of an individual was shown by his writing. It may be true to some extent; and there is a general character in the writing of different nations and of different periods. The vivacity and variableness of the Frenchman, and the delicacy and suppleness of the Italian, are perceptibly distinct from the slowness and strength of pen discoverable in the writing of the German, Dane, and Swede; and it may be that when we are in grief we do not write as we do in joy. But numerous causes must always counteract or obstruct that analogy which many think the handwriting of an individual bears to his character; and none more than that close imitation which the hand of an assiduous scholar is likely to bear to that of his instructor. The form and fashion of Roger Ascham's handwriting is clearly perceptible in the autographs of Edward VI. and Queen Elizabeth. In later times, collections of autographs have been formed far more extensive than those which the Germans made in the 16th and 17th centuries. There is a very numerous assemblage of them in the British Museum, where many of the most interesting are exhibited under glass to the general public in the large saloon known as the King's Library; among them are not only letters and signatures, but MS. volumes, such as the Iliad and Odyssey of Pope, written chiefly on the backs of letters, and the original draft of Dr. Johnson's 'Irene.' There are also many extensive private collections of autographs in England. The interest attached to autographs and the desire to possess them, has much increased in modern times. The autograph of Shakspere, now in the British Museum cost 100%, and that in the Library of the City of London, 1581. In general the value set upon an autograph, and the price it brings when sold by auction, depends on the eminence of the individual and the scarcity of specimens of his handwriting. To furnish individuals desirous of possessing such, but the rarity of which precluded the chance of obtaining them, the Autograph Miscellany was begun in 1855, and continued for some time. The work consisted of a collection of autograph signatures, letters, and documents, lithographed in folio, by F. Netherclift. The first English work in which a series of fac-similes of autographs appeared, was Sir John Fenn's Original Letters from the Archives of the Paston Family,' published in 1787; followed by 'British Auto | graphy,' a collection of fac-similes of the handwriting of royal and illustrious personages, with their authentic portraits, by John Thane, 3 vols. 4to, 1789-1791. Another work, more extensive and more correct, will be found in 'Autographs of Royal, Noble, Learned, and Remarkable Personages, conspicuous in English History, from the Reign of Richard II., to that of Charles II.,' by John Gough Nichols, fol. Lond. 1829; from the preface to which some of the preceding particulars have been derived. See also Fontaine's Manuel de l'Amateur d'Autographes,' Paris, 1836; the Essay on 'Die Autographensammlungen,' in the Deutschen Vierteljahrsschrift' for 1842; and Paignot, Recherches sur les Autographes.' AUTO'MATON, derived from two Greek words, meaning self-moved, is a name generally applied to all machines which are so constructed as to imitate any actions of men or animals. We may pass over the pigeon of Archytas, the clock of Charlemagne, the automaton made by Albertus Magnus to open his door when any one knocked, the speaking head of Roger Bacon, the fly of Regiomontanus, and several others, not knowing whether their performances may not have been exaggerated. They serve to show, however, that the idea of applying machinery to imitate life is of very ancient date, and that considerable success was not deemed impossible. In the Memoirs of the Academy of Sciences' for 1729, a description is given of a set of actors representing a pantomime in five acts. But previously to this, M. Camus had described an automaton group which he had constructed for the amusement of Louis XIV., consisting of a coach and horses, &c. The coachman smacked his whip, and the horses immediately set off, moving their legs after the manner of real horses. The carriage turned at the edge of the table on which it was placed, and when opposite to the king it stopped, a page got down and opened the door, on which a lady alighted, presented a petition with a curtsey, and re-entered the carriage. The page then shut the door, the carriage proceeded, and the servant, running after it, jumped up behind it. (Hutton, Mathematical Recreations,' vol. ii. p. 95.) This is nearly inconceivable, and requires strong corroborative testimony. The flute-player of Vaucanson is fully described in the 'Enc. Meth.,' article 'Androide.' It was exhibited at Paris, in 1788, where it was seen by M. D'Alembert, who wrote the above article. It really played on the flute, that is, projected the air with its lips against the embouchure, producing the different octaves by expanding and contracting their opening; forcing more or less air, in the manner of living performers, and regulating the tones by its fingers. It commanded three octaves, the fullest scale of the instrument, containing several notes of great difficulty to most performers. It articulated the notes with the lips. Its height was nearly six feet, with a pedestal, in which some of the machinery was contained. Two automaton flute-players were exhibited in this country some years ago, as perfect as the preceding, except in the articulation. They were of the size of life, and performed ten or twelve duets. That they really played the flute, any bystander could prove, by placing the finger on any hole which for the moment was unstopped by the automaton. The automaton trumpeter of Maelzel, the inventor of the metronome, exhibited at Vienna, is thus described in the Journal des Modes' for 1809. From a tent M. Maelzel led out a martial figure, in the uniform of a trumpeter of the Austrian dragoon regiment Albert, his trumpet being at his mouth. After having pressed the figure on the left shoulder, it played not only the Austrian cavalry march, and all the signals of that army, but also a march and an allegro by Weigl, which was accompanied by the whole orchestra. After this, the dress of the figure was completely changed into that of a French trumpeter of the guard; it then began to play the French cavalry march, all the signals, and lastly, a march of Dussek, and an allegro of Pleyel, accompanied again by the full orchestra. The sound of this trumpet is pure, and more agreeable than that which the ablest musician could produce from that instrument, because the breath of the man gives the inside of the trumpet a moisture which is prejudicial to the purity of the tone. Maelzel publicly wound up his instrument only twice, and this was on the left hip." In 1741, M. Vaucanson produced a flageolet-player who beat a tambourine with one hand. The flageolet had only three holes, and some notes were made by half-stopping these. The force of wind required to produce the lowest note was one ounce; the highest, fifty-six pounds (French). Its construction was altogether different from that of the flute-player. The same year, M. Vaucanson produced a duck, which has been considered as the most ingenious of his performances. It dabbled in the water, swam, drank, and quacked like a real duck; and the peculiar motions of the animal were very successfully imitated. It raised and moved its wings, and dressed its feathers with its bill. It extended its neck, took barley from the hand and swallowed it; during which the natural motion of the muscles of the neck was perfectly perceptible. It digested the food it had swallowed by means of materials provided for its solution in the stomach. The inventor made no secret of the machinery, which excited great admiration at the time. Several other automata are described by Hutton; in particular one constructed by M. Droz, which drew several likenesses of public characters. A machine which wrote and drew, and another which performed on the pianoforte, were also exhibited some years ago in London. The celebrated chess-player, once regarded as an automaton, is now a solved mystery. A boy was concealed inside the figure. The great difficulty existed only so long as it was imagined that the player was outside the figure; nevertheless, the machinery by which the hands were regulated must have been ingenious. The passion for making automata has not yet quite passed away. A recent example was Mr. Faber's Euphonia. It consisted of a draped bust and waxen-faced figure, which articulated language with a certain degree of intelligibility. The sounds were produced by pressing on sixteen keys. A small pair of bellows was worked with the nozzle in the back part of the head of the figure; and in the head were various arrangements of India-rubber and other materials, calculated to yield a particular sound in each part or section. When the exhibitor wished to produce a sentence or word, he first mentally divided it into as many parts as there are actually distinct sounds-not necessarily coinciding with the syllables or the single letters; since the various phonographic systems far more correctly represent distinct sounds. Having determined the first word, the operator pressed his finger on a particular key, which admitted a blast of air to a particular compartment, in which the mechanism was of the kind to produce the sound required. Other keys were similarly pressed, until all the required sounds of the word or sentence were produced. The sounds were sufficiently analogous to those of the human voice to convey the meaning intended, but they had an unpleasant effect on the ear. By a modification of the action, whispering was imitated. A remarkable machine was the Automaton Latin Versifier, introduced in 1845, by Mr. John Clark, of Bridgewater, after a labour of thirteen years. At the first thought such an invention seems inexplicable, owing to the mental character of the process; but a little inquiry shows that it is only a system of permutations, such as a machine can easily be made to produce. The specimens given in the 'Athenæum' and other public journals at the time are all Latin hexameters, and moreover have all the same grammatical formula and scansion, in respect to dactyls and spondees. The following nine specimens were given, each complete in itself as an hexametric line, but having no connection with the others: 1. Horrida sponsa reis promittunt tempora densa. 2. Sontia tela bonis causabunt agmina crebra. 3. Bellica vota modis promulgant crimina fusca. 4. Aspera pila patet depromunt prælia quædam. 5. Effera sponsa fere confirmant vincula nequam. 6. Barbara tela reis præmonstrant nubila dura. 7. Horrida vota bonis progignunt jurgia crebra. 8. Sontia castra modis prositant somnia fusca. 9. Trucida regna quidem conquirunt opera cara. The exterior of the machine which composed these lines resembled in size and shape a small bureau bookcase; in the frontispiece of which, through an aperture, the verses appeared in succession as they were composed. Mr. Clark, in a communication to the Athenæum' (No. 923) made the following observations on his machine :-"The machine is neither more nor less than a practical illustration of the law of evolution. . The machine contains letters in alphabetical arrangement; out of these, through the medium of numbers, rendered tangible by being expressed by indentures on wheel-work, the instrument selects such as are requisite to form the verse conceived: the components of words suited to form hexameters being alone previously calculated, the harmonious combination of which will be found to be practically interminable." AUXILIARY VERBS are distinguished from other verbs in the following way. Verbs express the notions of action: auxiliary verbe, though they originally expressed notions of action, only express relations of action when considered as auxiliary verbs, and are accordingly employed, in connection with other verbs, to give to them certain relations called by grammarians tense, mood, and voice. The modern languages of Europe, and our own more particularly, abound in such forms; but they are likewise found in the languages of Greece and Rome, sometimes altogether undisguised, more commonly so completely blended with the main verb as to pass for a mere arbitrary suffix, which the grammarian does not attempt to explain. It is in the very nature of a particle which plays a secondary part, that it should not occupy too large a share of the attention; and thus those verbs which in course of time are used as auxiliaries, though originally as significant as any other verbs, lose something of their distinctive character; 80 that if the fuller form happen to disappear from a language, the corrupted auxiliary presents anomalies which it is not easy for the philologist to explain. This difficulty is increased by the circumstance, that verbs used as auxiliaries generally throw off much of the distinctive meaning which they originally possessed. Mr. A. J. Cooley, in the same journal, pointed out the existence of a forgotten pamphlet, a century and a-half old, in which the author showed how, from a table given, a person might produce millions of hexameter lines. But these were produced by accumulations of words; whereas Mr. Clark's machine, if we rightly understand his description,s actually builds up the lines letter by letter. In 1856 a strange automatic group was exhibited in London. A figure representing a monkey held a violin, moved a bow across the strings, pressed the fingers alternately on them, and clapped its jaws together in token of satisfaction. A hare browsed, or seemed to browse, at a cabbage. A goat uttered an audible cry. A doll-child, that had been quietly reposing in its cradle, woke up uneasily, and screamed aloud for its "Pa" and "Ma." The doll was a failure, in | regard of resemblance to a living child; but the monkey, hare, and goat were cleverly constructed, the internal machinery being covered with the real skin of the animals; the form of each animal being well imitated by padding within the skin; and the slight movements of each animal, such as the twinkle of the eye and the twitch of the tail, being reproduced with great exactness. It affords matter for regret that so much ingenuity should be expended on the production of automata leading to no useful results. There are, however, many machines for calculating, numbering, registering, stamping, pageing, &c.--which illustrate the application of automatic action to useful purposes. Some of these will be noticed under CALCULATING MACHINES. AUTOPHON, a kind of barrel-organ, the tunes of which are produced by means of perforated sheets of mill-board, instead of pins or studs, as in the ordinary barrel-organs. Among the auxiliaries, the most important is the substantive verb signifying to be; and, as might be expected, no word has passed through more variations of form. Grimm and other grammarians, indeed, have laid down, that there are three, or even more, distinct roots combined in the conjugation of this verb. But when allowance is made for the known changes that take place in the letters of the alphabet, there will appear, we think, some reason for supposing that all the varying forms of this verb are derived from a common origin. As the ultimate form from which all the rest appear to us to have flowed, we will propose the root wes; and we are inclined to assign to this root, as its primary meaning, the notion of eating. Such a form appears in the Latin vescor (pronounced wescor), I eat, and in the German wes-en, to be. The initial w, it is well known, sometimes assumes the form of g, and hence we have ge-gess-en, eaten. Again, as the German verb lesen to read forms a past tense, er las he read, so wesen accounts for the form was, common, as the past tense, to English and German. Still more commonly the w is altogether dropped, and then we have the root es, which is the basis of the Greek substantive verb es-mi (the original form), es-si, es-ti (still existing in this form in the Lithuanian language), of the old Latin verb es-um, es, es-t, es-umus, es-tis, es-unt, es-to, es-se, and with a slight variation of the Sanskrit as-mi, &c. With the same form of the Latin we may connect es-t, he eats, es-se, to eat, es-ca, es-culentus, &c., and the German ess-en, to After the word has thus been stripped of its initial consonant, the short vowel also was apt to disappear, at least in the longer forms. Thus from the old Latin forms esum, esunt, esim, &c., there arose the shorter forms sum, sunt, sim, &c.; prae-es-ens, ab-es-sens, were reduced to praesens, absens; and in German we find sein, to be, sind, they are, in place of es-ein, es-ind. eat. In the second place, the consonant s interchanges with the letter r, so that were exists by the side of was, and art, are, with is. Thus in the Latin too we have er-am, er-o. where more regular forms would have been es-am, es-o. Again, the same letter s is interchangeable with the dentals t, d. Hence, while the Germans have es-en, ich ass, the English express the same notions by to eat, I ate; and the Latin tongue uses indifferently ed-it or es-t, he eats, ed-ere or es-se, to eat, The form be is evidently the parent of the German bin, I am, bist, thou art, and of the English be-ing and be-en. With the short vowel changed, it appears in the Lithuanian bu, as bu-ti, to be, buwau, I have been; and asb in English generally corresponds to fin Latin, we must claim the Latin fu-vi or fu-i, fu-am, fu-turus, &c. That these forins are all related among themselves is generally allowed; but the question now proposed is, whether they are not also radically connected with the root wes. If it could be shown that the root be ever existed with an at the end, it would no longer be thought a violent step to suppose a connection between bes and wes, more especially when we find the 6 already half way towards a w in fui. Now, a strong presumption that the root be had a sibilant, arises from the old German form bir-umes, we are, compared with war-umes, we were, in the same language (see Grimm's Deutsche Grammatik '). In these words the suffix, which denotes the plural pronoun, cannot claim more than four letters uma, thus agreeing very precisely with the Doric Greek suffix omes, the Latin umus, and the Lithuanian ame of the same power. The radical parts then are bir and war; and as we know the latter to be connected with the form was, there is no slight suspicion that bir implies an early form, bis. If the Greeks lost the s in many of their forms derived from the short root es, as they did, and if we ourselves have dropped it from am, we can scarcely be surprised at its disappearance from the longer form bes or bis. The notion that the roots bes and wes are connected, is confirmed again by the other forms in these languages, which represent the idea of eating. In Greek, we find bo-sco, bo-tos, bo-ra, in Latin pasco, pascor, as well as vescor. The use of this auxiliary in the passive, both in ancient and modern languages, is familiar to all; but it has been less carefully observed, that it is likewise employed in the perfect tenses of the active voice, at least in the Latin language. Amav-erum, amav-ero, amar-issem, amar-iss evidently contain the forms eram, ero, essem, esse; and in the perfect subjunctive, an older form, amavesim, may be inferred from the three existing forms amassim, amaverim, amarim; and in amavesim we see the full form esim which preceded sim. We have left out amari from the series, solely because it would require some space to demonstrate what is yet undoubted, that here too the verb es, be, entered. Indeed, in the form amavistis we have all we need desire. Probably we ought to have divided the Latin forms just quoted so as to give the v to the suffix, ama-veram, in which case the Latin perhaps exhibits what is virtually the w of wesen and was. After the verb to be, the next in importance among the auxiliaries is the verb habe-re, Latin, to have; in German, hab-en. Like the preceding verb, this also has undergone great corruptions. In the English hast, has, had, the main consonant has already disappeared. While in the Italian ho, from the Latin habeo, we find nothing of the root but the aspirate, and even that is often omitted, so that we should doubt the connection between the words, but for the first and second persons plural. But as we shall have further occasion for the forms of this verb in the Roman languages of Europe, we will place here the present tenses : habeo, habes, habet; habemus, habetis, habent. ertress. Latin, as, abbiamo, avete, hanno. a; avons, The use of the verb to have in the formation of the perfects, so universal in the modern languages derived from Latin, may be occasionally seen in the parent language also, where such phrases as furem constrictum habeo, fures constrictos habeo, differ but slightly in meaning from furem constrinxi, &c.; and there was the greater necessity for adopting a new formation, as the Latin perfect unites two tenses in itself, namely, the aorist and the present-perfect. It will be seen too from the examples which we have given, why, in the derived tongues, the participle in some cases agrees with the accusative; as je les ai tués. But the use of habeo as an auxiliary is not confined to the perfect tenses. In connection with the infinitive it forms a convenient periphrasis for a future. From the Italian infinitive sentir, we have a future sentir-o, -ai, -a, -emo, -ete, -anno, the first and second persons plural, now they are used as suffixes, being reduced as completely as the rest. In the Spanish verb hablar the future is hablar-e, -as, á, -émos, -éis, -án ; and in the French from sentir there is formed sentir-ai, -as, -a, -ons, -ez, -ont. In the tense called generally the conditional, the infinitive is again employed. The Italians unite with it their perfect tense of to have, derived from habui, namely, ebbi, avesti, ebbe, aremmo, aveste, ebbero; and their conditional is sentir-ei, -esti, -ebbe, -emmo, este, -ebbero. On the other hand, the French employ avois, which may be proved to have been derived from the Latin imperfect habebam; but as avons, avez, of the present dropped their radical letters av, when attached as suffixes to the future, so also avois, &c., throughout lose the same letters in forming the conditional, thus, sentirois, -ois, -oit, -ions, -iez, -oient. The Spanish language, in like manner, employs the imperfect había, habías, había, habíamos, habíais, habían, derived also from habebam, &c.; and thus, with the same suppression of the first two letters, the conditional of hablar is hablar-ía, -ías, -ia, -íamos, tais, -ian. This view of the formation of the futures is of service in explaining the apparent irregularities so often found in those tenses, which moreover generally extend to the infinitive. This explanation of the futures and conditionals in these three languages we take from the writings of the French philologist Raynouard. when used alone, are notional verbs, or verbs expressing a distinct Four different kinds of avalanches may be distinguished: drift avalanches, rolling avalanches, sliding avalanches, and glacier or ice avalanches, of which the first commonly take place in the early part of winter, the second and third at the end of winter and in spring, and the last only in summer. The drift or loose snow avalanches (called, in Switzerland, staublauinen) take place when heavy snow has fallen in the upper region of the mountains during a still calm, and this accumulated mass, before it acquires consistency, is put in motion by a strong wind. The snow is driven from one acclivity to another, and so enormously increased in its progress, that it brings down an incredible volume of loose snow, which often covers great part of a valley. The damage caused by these avalanches is, however, generally not very great, because most of the objects covered by them may be freed from the snow without having sustained great damage; but they are said often to produce such a compression of the air that houses are overturned, and men and cattle suffocated. This latter effect, if rightly attributable to such a cause, has not yet been explained. The rolling avalanches are much more dangerous and destructive. These take place when, after a thaw, the snow becomes clammy, and the single grains or flocks stick to one another, so as to unite-by the process of regelation, first recognized by Faraday and since investigated by Tyndall [ICE,]—into large hard pieces which commonly take the form of balls. Such a ball, moved by its own weight, begins to descend the inclined plane, and all the snow it meets in its course downwards sticks firmly to it. This snow-mass, increasing rapidly in its progress, and descending with great velocity, covers, destroys, or carries away everything that opposes its course-trees, forests, houses, and rocks. This is the most destructive of avalanches, and causes great loss of life and property. In the year 1749, the whole village of Rueras, in tho valley of Tawich, in the canton of the Grisons, was covered, and at the same time removed from its site, by an avalanche of this description; but this change, which happened in the night time, was effected without the least noise, so that the inhabitants were not aware of it, and on awaking in the morning could not conceive why it did not grow day. A hundred persons were dug out of the snow, sixty of whom were still alive, the interstices between the snow containing sufficient air to support life. In the spring of 1755, after a very low barometer, and enormous falls of rain in the plains and snow in the mountains of Piedmont, many destructive avalanches took place, by which two hundred persons were killed. One of them, on the 19th of March. overwhelmed the village of Bergemoletto, in a manner fatal to many of the inhabitants; but two women and a girl, who had taken shelter from the rigour of the weather in a stable, after remaining under the mass of snow for thirty-seven days, were dug out alive, and eventually recovered from the effects of their confinement and privations. The avalanches of the Savoy Alps, and the circumstances of this event, are described in a somewhat celebrated Italian work by Ignazio Somis, Professor of Medicine in the University of Turin, and physician to Charles Emanuel III. king of Sardinia, published at Turin in 1758, and of which an English translation appeared in 1765. He enters into a physiological and experimental investigation of the case, and of the condition of the sufferers, both during and after their misfortune, ascribing their infini-preservation to the continual disengagement of fresh air from the melting snow; and as it has been proved that the air in melted snow and in rain water contains much more oxygen than that of the atmosphere, it is probable that this assisted to counteract the effects of want of ventilation, and that therefore Somis was right in his conclusion, though the state of pneumatic chemistry at the time precluded his knowing all the facts of the case. In 1806, an avalanche descended into Val Calanca, likewise in the canton of the Grisons, transplanted a forest from one side of the valley to the other, and placed a fir tree on the roof of a parsonage-house. În 1820, sixty-four persons were killed in Fettan, in the high valley of Engadin, in the country of the Grisons; and, in the same year, eighty-four persons and four hundred head of cattle, in Obergestelen, and twenty-three persons at Brieg, both Many other verbs of the Latin language have become auxiliaries in the derived languages: 1. Vado, Lat. I go, is employed thus by the Italians, as io vo faciendo, I am doing; and in French for a future, je vais parler, I am going to speak. 2. Venio, Lat. I come, in Italian as an equivalent for the verb to be, egli vien riputato, he is considered; in French to denote an action just passed, il vient de trouver, he has just found. 3. Ambula-re, Lat. to walk (corrupted into the Italian andare and the French aller), is used in the former language thus, andra rovinato, he will be ruined; and in the French, il alloit dîner, he was going to dine. 4. Sta-re, Lat. to stand, in Italian sono stato, I have been, sta scrivendo, he is writing; and the French étois or étais (formerly estois) is a corruption from stabam, precisely as aimois from amabam. The Spaniards, besides several of the auxiliaries here mentioned, use tener, derived from the Latin tene-re, to hold, but not exactly as an auxiliary verb: and besides ser, to be, they have estár, to be, from the Latin stare. In the Teutonic languages the auxiliary verbs are very numerous, and our own language contains nearly the whole of them: 1. may, might, are the present and perfect of the same defective verb. In the German we find an tive of this verb mög-en, as well as the forms mag, and mochte; 2. can and could correspond to the German kann and konnte from the infinitive könn-en; 3. will and would to the German will and wollte from woll-en; 4. shall and should to soll and sollte from sollen, originally meaning But though the German auxiliaries correspond with the English as to their having a common origin, they have a use which is not quite the same. "In general, possibility is expressed by können, dürfen (the English dare, durst), mögen, and necessity by müssen (the English must), sollen, wollen; lassen (the English let) implies necessity as well as possibility." (Becker's German Grammar,' p. 65.) The German word haben, like the corresponding English have, and the German werden, to owe. situated in the canton of Valais. In the same country, the village of Briel was almost entirely covered by an avalanche in 1827. deep, was completely filled by balls of snow of various dimensions, which continued to flow past for several minutes. The snow-slip Many thousands of strong trees are destroyed by these avalanches, terminated in the river, which was speedily blocked up for two-thirds either by being broken off near the ground, or by being rooted up, of its width with an immense accumulation of snow. The narrow shivered to pieces, and thus precipitated into the valley. Where the rocky gorge of the river, further to the south, after the 16th of April, avalanches are of common occurrence, the inhabitants of the valleys was in many places still blocked up with snow, which had descended in know the places where they come down, and by observing the changes avalanches down the ravines, and had accumulated in the bed of the of the weather, they are able to foretell the time of their descent.stream; the travellers having three times to cross the river on these They also endeavour to protect themselves by preserving the forests in the paths of the avalanches, and by erecting massive edifices of a particular construction, placed against projecting rocks. The sliding avalanches (rutsch lauinen, also called suoggi (pron. suggy) lauinen in Switzerland) originate on the lower and less steep declivities, when, after a long thaw in spring, those layers of the snowy covering which are nearest the ground are dissolved into water, and thus the bond is loosened which unites the mass to its base. The whole snowy covering of a declivity then begins to move slowly down the slippery slope, and to carry before it everything which is too weak to withstand its pressure. When an object does not directly give way to the mass, it is either borne down by the snow accumulating behind it, or the whole mass divides, and proceeds in its course on each side of it. The ice or glacier avalanches are nothing but pieces of ice which formerly constituted a part of a glacier, but, loosened by the summer heat, are detached from the principal mass, and precipitated down with a noise like thunder. They are commonly broken into small pieces by the rocks which they meet in their progress. When seen from a distance, they resemble the cataracts of a powerful stream. In the valley of Grindelwald, in the canton of Berne, they may be often seen; and at the base of the Jungfrau, the noise which accompanies their fall is almost continually heard. They are less destructive than the other avalanches, because they descend only upon places which are not inhabited. Occasionally the avalanches change their character in their progress. When the declivity is not too great, and the ground under it not too slippery, the mass of snow begins to slide; but arriving at a precipitous descent, its velocity and its mass are greatly increased, and it begins to roll. If, at this stage of its course, it meets a strong, craggy rock, the mass is instantly divided into innumerable small pieces, and thus it appears at the end of its progress like a drift avalanche. In the spring season, travellers in the Alps take every precaution to avoid being overwhelmed by these falls of masses of snow. The guides urge them to refrain from causing noise, lest the agitation of the air should occasion an avalanche. In Switzerland, for the same reason, the mule-bells are made silent, and in dangerous localities, before descending into the valleys, it is usual, by the discharge of firearms, to determine the fall of the snow which a concussion of the atmosphere may bring down. Avalanches is the common French expression for these natural phenomena; but in those districts of France which are situated between the ranges of the Alps, they have other names: as avalanges, lavanches, lavanges, lavanzes, lids, lits, lydts. The drift avalanches are also termed lauvines venteuses, and the rolling, lauvines joncières. In Italian they are called lavina, lavine, labine, and valanca; and in the Rhetic dialect of the Grisons, lavina and lavigna. Among the German inhabitants of Switzerland, they are named lauinen, lauwinen, lauwen, leuen, lowen, and lähnen. In the Pyrenees they are sometimes called congeres; and in Norway, snee-shred and snee-fond. (Kasthofer's 'Observations on a Journey through the Alps,' &c.) The avalanches or snow-slips of northern India have been noticed by Dr. Thomas Thomson, F.R.S., in his 'Western Himalaya and Thibet.' In Rondu, on the Indus, in February 1848, the progress of the thaw, he states, occasioned constant avalanches, the snow slipping from the steep sides of the ravines, and when once in motion, advancing with constantly increasing momentum, till it reached the lowest level. All day long," he relates, "the mountains echoed with the sound of falling snow; the avalanches were not often visible, as they took place in the ravines, but now and then (where the ravines terminated in precipices) they were seen pouring in cataracts of snow over the face of the cliffs. In each large ravine which joined the Indus I found one of these gigantic avalanches, and was enabled to see that they were composed of a congeries of balls of snow, varying in diameter from one to six feet, and often containing fragments of rock in their centre. Many of these snow-streams were not less than forty or fifty feet thick. At the level of the Indus they were now very soft, and evidently thawing rapidly." or At Kharbu, in the Dras valley, early in April, the fallen avalanches, universal in the ravines, were cut off abruptly by the river (a tributary of the Indus), forming cliffs of snow fifteen or twenty feet high, in which the structure and developinent of the mass by successive slips, alternating with falls of snow, could be distinctly made out. One two of them still crossed the river, which flowed below the bridge of ice thus formed. In the northernmost valley of Cashmere, that of the river Sind, another affluent of the Indus, in one of the ravines which furrow the mountain slopes, Dr. Thomson witnessed the descent of one of these avalanches, having been warned by the sound that it was approaching, and had time to attain a place of safety before it came near. When it came into sight, the ravine, which was narrow and snow beds. In the Himalaya, therefore, as in Europe, the agency of the process of regelation is evident; the partially melted snow, from the time of its beginning to slip, gradually resuming its frozen condition, as it accumulates into balls, and finally into masses. AVANTURINE GLASS. [GLASS MANUFACTURE.] AVATA'RA is a Sanskrit word, which properly signifies "a descent, or the act of descending"-for example, from a boat or other vehicle,— but is particularly applied to the incarnations of the Hindoo deities, or their appearance in some manifest shape upon earth. Our information regarding the successive development of religious and mythological ideas among the Hindoos, is not yet perfect. It appears, however, that the doctrine of the Avataras belongs to a comparatively recent period, and are chronicled with considerable variations in different Puranas. Those portions of the Vedas or sacred writings of the Hindoos to which, from the style and structure of their language, the highest antiquity may with safety be attributed, inculcate the worship of elements and deified natural powers, but do not allude to those apparently more spiritualised deities that require to be invested with a bodily frame to operate in the material world. The number of the Avatâras mentioned in the Puranas, or legendary poems of the Hindoos, is very great. Those of Vishnu alone, who is distinguished by the character of Preserver' in the Trimûrti, or triad of the principal Hindoo deities, are stated to be endless. They are variously enumerated; but all accounts seem to agree in selecting the following ten as the most conspicuous :— 1. Matsya, the Fish, under which form Vishnu preserved Manu, the ancestor of the present human race, during a universal deluge. 2. Karma, the Tortoise, which incarnation Vishnu underwent in order to support the entire earth, when the celestial gods and their opponents the Asuras, or Daityas, were churning the sea (using Mount Mandara as a churnstaff) for the beverage of immortality (amrita). 3. Varaha, the Boar. Vishnu, with the head of a monstrous boar, is represented as slaying Hiranyâksha, the chief of the Asuras, who had taken possession of the celestial regions, and as uplifting the earth, which had been sunk to the bottom of the sea. 4. In his incarnation as Narasinha, a being half man and half lion, Vishnu killed Hiranyakasipu, the brother of Hiranyâksha. 5. The form of Vamana, the Dwarf, was assumed by Vishnu te humble the pride of King Bali. He went to a sacrifice which the king was performing, and supplicated for as much ground as he could measure with three steps, which request being granted, the dwarf suddenly grew to an immense size, and with his steps comprised earth, mid-air, and heaven. 6. Vishnu appeared in a human form, as Parasuráma, the son of Jamadagni and Renukâ, in order to preserve mankind, and especially the Brahmans, from the tyranny of the military tribe of the Kshatriyas. 7. Vishnu was born as the four sons of King Dasaratha, and, under the names of Rama, Lakshmana, Bharata, and Satrughna, in order to destroy Rávana, the Daitya sovereign of Ceylon, and other demons who were then infesting the earth. The actions of Rama, who was the chief hero, form the subject of a celebrated epic poem in Sanskrit, called the Râmâyana, and attributed to the ancient sage Valmiki. One of the most remarkable of his exploits is, that he is said to have "humbled the pride of Parasurama," who, as just mentioned, was an incarnation of Vishnu also; and the cause of the humbling is stated to have been the slaughter of the Kshatriyas. 8. The most celebrated of the Avatáras of Vishnu is his appearance in the human form of Krishna, in which he is supposed to have been wholly and completely incarnate, whereas the other Avataras are only considered as emanations from his being. Krishna assisted the family of the Pandavas in their war with the Kurus, and through them relieved the earth from the Daityas and the wicked men who oppressed it. The history of this conflict is told at length in the Mahabharata, another great epic poem in Sanskrit. He also slew Kansa, the king of Mathura, after a number of adventures. 9. Buddha is, by the followers of the Brahmanical religion, considered as a delusive incarnation of Vishnu, assumed by him in order to induce the Asuras to abandon the sacred ordinances of the Vedas, by which they lost their strength and supremacy. 10. Kalki is the name of an Avatara in which Vishnu will appear st the end of the Kaliyuga, or present age of the world, to destroy all vice and wickedness, and to restore the world to virtue and purity. We cannot enumerate the Avatâras of the inferior deities, in which the mythology of the Hindoos abounds. There is no mention of any Avatar of Brahmâ and of Siva, the two supreme deities who, with Vishnu, constitute the Trimûrti; they are only repeated births, always in the form of a youth, but of various colours. In the seventh volume of the Asiatic Researches' (Calcutta, 1801) may be seen an account given by Captain Edward Moor of an incarnation of Ganesa, Ave Maria is also in Italy the name of a particular time of the day, about half an hour after sunset, when the church bells ring, and pious persons leave off for a moment their occupations or pastimes and ejaculate the Ave Maria. It is also called the Angelus in other catholic countries. To this custom Byron alludes in these fine lines, Ave Maria! blessed be the hour! The time, the clime, the spot where I so oft Sink o'er the earth so beautiful and soft, And yet the forest leaves seem'd stirr'd with prayer. In many churches, and especially convents, the bells are also rung at the first dawn of day, and this is called in Italy the morning Ave Maria, l'Ave Maria del giorno. ordinary sacrifices of part of the ship or part of the cargo, purposely and reasonably made in order to save the whole adventure from perishing. 2. Those which arise out of extraordinary expenses incurred for the joint benefit of both ship and cargo. Losses of the first class, and those limited to jetsam of cargo, are alone mentioned in the text of that Rhodian law which is generally regarded as the foundation of the whole doctrine of general average; jactus factus levandæ vadis patiă. A general average loss may be defined to be, a loss arising out of extraordinary sacrifices made, or extraordinary expenses incurred, for the joint benefit of ship and cargo." A general average contribution may be defined to be "a contribution by all parties in a sea adventure, to make good the loss which has been sustained by one or more of their co-adventurers, from sacrifices made or expenses incurred for the general benefit." This contribution is assessed upon each adventurer in proportion to the value of his whole property actually at risk as, or as though, finally saved by the sacrifice, or at the time it was benefited by the expenditure. This contribution is ordinarily insured against; and when ascertained by adjustment of general average, is settled by the underwriters. Particular Average loss differs from general average loss, both as to its cause and the mode of its compensation. It is a partial loss arising from damage accidentally and proximately caused by the perils insured against, or from extraordinary expenditure necessarily incurred for the sole benefit of some particular interest, as of the ship alone, or the cargo alone. This damage or expenditure, instead of being contributed for by the general body of adventurers, falls entirely upon the particular owner of the property deteriorated by the damage, or benefited by the expenditure; and such owner, if insured, has a claim against his underwriter in proportion:-1st., to the degree by which the damage sustained, or the expenditure to be refunded, may have diminished the value to him of the property as insured; and 2nd, to the sum insured. It may further be observed, that certain charges called Petty Averages, being the ordinary charges at the places of loading and unloading, and during the voyage, and formerly borne one-third by the ship, and two-thirds by the cargo, are now usually compounded for in bills of lading by provision for the payment of 5 per cent. calculated AVERAGE is a quantity intermediate to a number of other quanti- on freight, and 5 per cent. more for primage charged on the captainties, so that the sum total of its excesses above those which are less, primage and average accustomed.' A good deal of difficulty and is equal to the sum total of its defects from those which are greater. complication often arises upon the adjustment of averages, and Or, the average is the quantity which will remain in each of a numberAverages Staters' now carry on a distinct business in commercial of lots, if we take from one and add to another till all have the same; countries. (Arnould on Marine Insurance and Average,' 2nd edit., it being supposed that there is no fund to increase any one lot, except p. 894, et seq.) what comes from the reduction of others. Thus, 7 is the average of 2, 3, 4, 6, 13, and 14; for the sum of the excesses of 7 above 2, 3, 4, and 6-that is, the sum of 5, 4, 3, and 1-is 13; and the sum of the defects of 7 from 13 and 14-that is, the sum of 6 and 7-is also 13. Similarly, the average of 6 and 7 is 64. To find the average of any number of quantities, add them all together, and divide by the number of quantities. Thus, in the preceding question, add together 2, 3, 4, 6, 13, and 14, which gives 42; divide by the number of them, or 6, which gives 7, the average. It must be remembered that the average of a set of averages is not the average of the whole, unless there are equal numbers of quantities in each set averaged. This will be seen by taking the average of the whole, without having recourse to the partial averages. For instance, if 10 men have on the average 100l., and 50 other men have on the average 3007., the average sum possessed by each individual is not the average of 100l. and 3001.; for the 10 men have among them 1000l., and the 50 men have among them 15,000l., being 16,000l. in all. This, divided into 60 parts, gives 2667. 138. 4d. to each. A neglect of this remark might lead to erroneous estimates; as, for instance, if a harvest were called good because an average bushel of its corn was better than that of another, without taking into account the number of bushels of the two. The average quantity is a valuable common sense test of the good ness or badness of any particular lot, but only when there is a perfect similarity of circumstances in the things compared. For instance, no one would think of calling a tree well grown because it gave more timber than the average of all trees; but if any particular tree, say an oak, yielded more timber than the average of all oaks of the same age, it would be called good, because if every oak gave the same, the quantity of oak timber would be greater than it is. It must also be remembered that the value of the average, in the information which it gives, diminishes as the quantities averaged vary more from each other; but this and other points connected with averages will be mentioned more fully in the article MEAN, this being the mathematical word which is used in the same sense as average in common life. AVERAGE. In Marine Insurance this term is applied to the mode and ratio of compensation for losses, not being total losses of both ship and cargo. Average is of two kinds, 'General' and 'Particular.' General Average is a term used indiscriminately, sometimes to denote the kind of loss which gives a claim to general average contribution, and sometimes to denote such contribution itself. To avoid confusion it is better to use the term general average loss when speaking of the former, and general average contribution when speaking of the latter. All losses which give a claim to general average contribution may be divided into great classes:-1. Those which arise from extra AVOCA'T, a French word, derived from the Latin advocatus, and corresponding to the English counsellor at law. [ADVOCATE.] In French law language the avocats are distinguished into avocats plaidans, who answer to our barristers, and avocats consultans, called also jurisconsultes, a kind of chamber counsel, who do not plead in court, but give their opinion on intricate points of law. Under the old monarchy the avocats were classed, with regard to professional rank, into various categories, such as avocats au conseil, who conducted and pleaded causes brought before the king's council; they were seventy in number, and were appointed by the chancellor; they were considered as attached to the king's court: and avocats généraux, who pleaded before the parliaments and other superior courts, in all causes in which the king, the church, communities, and minors were interested. At first the avocats généraux were styled avocats du roi, and the other barristers who pleaded in private causes were called avocats généraux, but towards the end of the 17th, or the beginning of the 18th century, these appellations were changed, the avocats du roi were styled avocats généraux, and three of them were appointed to each superior court, while the counsel who filled the same office before the inferior courts assumed the name of avocats du roi. (Répertoire Universel de Jurisprudence,' and 'Dictionnaire de l'Académie.') Avocat fiscal was a law-officer in a ducal or other seignorial court of justice, answering to the avocat du roi in a royal court. At present there are in France avocats au conseil d'état; avocats généraux, of whom there are five at the Court of Cassation or Supreme Court, four at the Cour Impériale of Paris, besides substitutes, and two or three at each Cour Impériale in the departments. The practising barristers are classed into avocats à la Cour de Cassation, who are fifty in number, and who conduct exclusively all causes before that court; and avocats à la Cour Impériale, who plead before the various imperial courts. All avocats must be licentiates in Law, take the oath before a court of appeal (Cour Impériale), and show that they have a domicile in Paris. There is a roll of the advocates practising in each court. Candidates are admitted by the Council of Discipline after a probationary term. The members of the council are elected by ballot, by the advocates inscribed on the roll, and their functions last for the judicial year. The avoués (attorneys), are public ministerial officers, whose business it is to represent the parties before the court and before the tribunals, although their duty, strictly speaking, is to place the judges in a position to come to a decision (postuler), and to present to them in the form of abridged propositions the claims of the parties (conclure) yet they may in some cases undertake the defence orally, as, for example, when the number of advocates is not sufficient for the despatch of business (R. Jones's History of the French Bar'). The word avoué, in canon |