AST, George Anthony Frederick, a German philosopher and philologist of considerable distinction, was born at Gotha in 1778. He was educated at the gymnasium of that town, and afterwards at the university of Jena. He distinguished himself as a student, and in 1802 he became a privat-doceut in his alma mater. Three years later he was appointed professor of classical literature in the university of Landshut, where he remained until 1826. when that institution was transferred to Munich. In this latter city he spent the rest of his life. In recognition of his services as a teacher and author he was made an aulic councillor, and a member of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences. He died on the 30th of December 1841. Ast was an independent although not an original thinker. He was more of a scholar and critic than a philosopher. He belonged to the school of Schelling, but was ready to welcome truths from the most diverse quarters. His writings on aesthetics, System der Kunstlehre (1805) and Grundriss der jEsthetiJc (1807), although containing no distinctively new thoughts, had the merit not only of combining and elaborating the principles of Schelling on beauty and art, but of supplementing them to some extent by the views of Winckelmann, Lessing, Kant, Herder, Schiller, Jean Paul, and others, on these subjects. His Grundlinien der Philosophic, published in 1807, was republished in 1809, but soon after sank into oblivion. His Grundriss einer Geschichte der Philosophic, also pub lished in 1807, was longer lived, and deservedly. It was the best book of the kind which the Schelling school could show, at least until the publication of Rixner s Manual, fifteen years later. It is among the earliest of the works pervaded by the thought, so familiar now but so fresh then, that the history of philosophy is not a history of opinions, but the history of reason, the several philo sophies being only stages in the development of the one true philosophy, the gradually self-revealing absolute reason. It is also among the earliest attempts to " con strue " the history of philosophy and to formulate its law of movement. The author published a second edition of it iu 1825, and Hauptmomenle der Geschichte der Philosophic in 1820. In two works, both published in 1808, he sought to determine and expound the principles of the chief divisions of the study in which he was strongest. They are his Grundlinien der Philologie and Grundlinien der Grammatik, Itermeneutik, und Kritik. Both have been commended by competent judges. His reputation as a philologist, however, rests mainly on the vast and toilsome labours on Plato, which occupied the last twenty-five years of his life. His Platan s Leben und Schriften, published iu 181G, is the earliest of those elaborate critical inquiries regarding the life of Plato, the authenticity of the works which have come down to us under his name, the order of their composition, their purpose, plan, &c., which may be regarded as having had their proximate cause in the celebrated Introductions of Schleiermacher, and their prim ary cause in the historical scepticism of Niebuhr and Wolf. He allows scarcely any weight to the ancient biographies and traditions ; but, taking a few of the finest dialogues as standards, he draws from them the criteria in virtue of which he accepts or rejects the others. He pronounces spurious not only those compositions which are generally admitted to be so, the Epinomis, Minos, Theages, Erastce, ClitopJio, Ifipparchus, Eryxias, the Letters and Definitions, but also the Meno, Euthydemus, Charmides, Lysis, Laches, the First and Second Alcibiades, Hippias Major and Minor, the Ion, Euthyphron, Apology, Crito, and even, in defiance of the explicit testimony of Aristotle, the Laws. He arranges the dialogues, which he admits to be genuine, into three series ; the group which he regards as the earliest in date of composition, and which he describes as characterised by the predominance of the poetical and dramatical element, consists of the Protagoras, Pheedrus, Gorgias, and Phcedo ; the second, distinguished by the marked prominence of dialectic keenness and sub- tility, comprises the Thed tctux, Sophist, Statesman, Par- menides, and Cratylus ; while the third, displaying the dialectical and poetical qualities of Plato s mind in inter- penetration and harmony, includes the Philebus. Banquet, Republic, Timceus, and Critias. This book was followed by a complete edition of Plato s works (1819-32) in 11 vols., with a Latin translation, and a learned commentary, which occupies the last two volumes. Professor Ast crowned these labours by his Lexicon Platonicum (1834-9), in 3 vols., one of the most comprehensive and valuable of special dictionaries. He wrote various other works of less import ance than those which have been mentioned.
ASTARTE [Ashtaroth] was the chief goddess of the Phoenicians in Zidon, where was a temple in her honour. In Tyre also she had a temple, and from thence her worship was transplanted to Carthage. At what time it may have been introduced among the Jews is not known, but its power of attracting them may be seen by reference to 2 Kings xxiii. 13; 1 Kings xi. 5 ; Judges ii. 1 3. Among classical writers the usual epithet of Astarte was Ccelestis or Urania, but while that distinguishes her only as a goddess of the heavens, it would seem that her name itself signifies " star." Her symbol in her temple at Tyre was a star. Lucian (De Dea Syria, 4) expressly identifies her with Selene, the goddess of the moon ; others, again, with the planet Venus. With the goddess Venus (Aphro dite], as worshipped at Paphos in Cyprus, Astarte had in common the character of a deity of the sky (Urania), and perhaps, also the patronage of immorality (" Ashtaroth, the abomination of the Zidonians," 2 Kings xxiii. 13). The Romans, in calling her Juno Ccelestis, appear to have been guided by her connection with Baal, and her position as queen of heaven. At the time of the 19th Egyptian dynasty Ashtaroth was introduced, with other Asiatic deities, into the religious system of the Egyptians, and had a temple at Memphis. But no representation of her occurs on the Egyptian monuments. The Assyrian goddess Ishtar seems to have been the same as Astarte (Movers, Die Phdnizier, p. 601).
ASTELL, Mary, an English authoress, born at Newcastle-upon-Tyne in 1668. She was instructed by her uncle, a clergyman, in Latin and French, logic, mathematics, and natural philosophy. In her twentieth year she went to London, where she continued her studies. Her efforts were especially directed to the mental improvement of her sex, and she published, in 1697, a work entitled A Serious Proposal to the Ladies, ivherein a Method is offered for the Improvement of their Minds. With the same end in view she elaborated a scheme for a ladies college, which was favourably entertained by Queen Anne, and would have been carried out had not Bishop Burnet interfered. The most important of her other works was The Christian Religion, as professed by a Daughter of the Church of England, published in 1705. She died in 1731.
largely in North America, and scattered sparingly over Asia, Europe, and South America. They are usually perennial, and their flowers are arranged in numerous heads (capitula). Asters receive the name of Michaelmas and Christmas daisies, because they have heads like daisies, and, when the weather is mild, they flower up to these periods of the year. They are, consequently, valuable plants in a garden. The only British species is Aster Tripoli-urn, found abundantly in saline marshes near the sea. One of the species (Aster alpinus} grows at a
considerable height on the mountains of Europe. Some
